What the hell is a "catgirl"

Castle · 06-22-2009 02:02 PM

I have played a Catgirl as a lark, but never got past level 5 or so.

I played a character named "Catman" in a champions game about 12 years ago. He was inspired by Vincent from Beauty and the Beast and Sabre from Aaron Allstons "The Blood" group from The Blood and Dr. McQuark

I also played a male Vah'shir Warrior in Everquest (among many, many alts.)

YuriFoxfirega · 06-22-2009 02:04 PM

Feels almost obligatory to bring up my one and only catgirl.

I have no regrets. I play her for the lulz.

Muon_Neutrino · 06-22-2009 02:17 PM

I have one catgirl character, mostly as a joke. I just couldn't pass up such an awesome name.

There are some catgirl characters whose players really do fit the stereotype of giggly little girls, or creepy cosplayers, but there are also some players who have one just because they think the whole idea is funny, like myself and yuri.

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High Beam · 06-22-2009 02:28 PM

[ QUOTE ]
This video will explain all.

(no, it's not a Rick Roll)
(yes, you may wish it was...)

[/ QUOTE ]

Zoinks man. I am so glad i spent my time in Japan drinking. That was . . . distressing.

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Bandeeto · 06-22-2009 02:36 PM

Amusingly, I rolled a stalker catgirl solely because I was able to get the name Schrodinja !

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Eva Destruction · 06-22-2009 03:23 PM

I have one catgirl. Claws/Invul scrapper. She belongs to my solo SG called the Ancient and Mystic Order of No Catgirls (like the Ancient and Mystic Order of No Homers, they're allowed to have one.) And she's on Virtue too.

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Fleeting Whisper · 06-22-2009 03:35 PM

[ QUOTE ]
And she's on Virtue too.

[/ QUOTE ]All catgirls are on Virtue. Some just don't know it yet.

http://www.fimfiction.net/story/36641/My-Little-Exalt

og_ninja · 06-22-2009 03:46 PM

according to anime, don't they all lack virtue. Seems an odd place for a catgirl to hang out...

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YuriFoxfirega · 06-22-2009 03:48 PM

Irony.

Do you has?

EDIT: Or would it just be an amusing coincedence? I often get the two confused.

Fleeting Whisper · 06-22-2009 05:14 PM

[ QUOTE ]
according to anime, don't they all lack virtue. Seems an odd place for a catgirl to hang out...

[/ QUOTE ]They don't have virtue, they're on virtue. Y'know... on...

http://www.fimfiction.net/story/36641/My-Little-Exalt

gameboy1234 · 06-22-2009 05:49 PM

Spay Your Catgirl

Miuramir · 06-22-2009 05:54 PM

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Although the origin of this could probably be traced back to Catwoman.

[/ QUOTE ]Actually, catgirls are rooted in Japanese bakeneko legends.

[/ QUOTE ]

True, although the American interest in them is probably due to different influences.

An archetype is an archetype, though. You could go all the way back to Bast in ancient Egypt.

[/ QUOTE ]

Both anthropomorphic alien races that share significant traits with animals, and what we would now call genetically-engineered human/animal hybrids, have been a mainstay of English-language science fiction for rather longer than "anime" has been a phenomena. To pull one major serious classic out, I'm surprised no one has mentioned The Ballad of Lost C'Mell (1962) yet. Another widely-read case would be many of the works of Andre Norton, featuring a full spectrum of normal but skilled cats, telepathic cats, cat-like aliens, cat/human hybrids, and so on.

For various reasons, probably including many influential SF writers being of a disposition that prefers cats to dogs, cat-people of various sorts have been unusually prominent. The vast majority of settings that have animal/human hybrids have cat-people as one of the major types, and there are uncounted numbers of alien species that "just happen" to be rather like anthropomorphic cats.

When comic books latched onto the "person with the proportional abilities of an animal" meme, cats were immediately obvious. Catwoman appeared in Batman #1 (1940), and was particularly memorable in the TV series. Not all adaptations of cat-metahumans are great, admittedly; the infamous Pumaman comes to mind quickly. But that sort of thing is to be expected in such a large sample, even if you're not being as pessimistic as Sturgeon's Law would indicate.

On yet another angle, computer games have picked up on cat-aliens and cat-people since the graphics were good enough to show them. The Kilrathi from the groundbreaking and award-winning Wing Commander (1990) come to mind as one of the early examples with both good graphical design and reasonable plotting. They are, of course, strongly influenced by Larry Niven's Kzin (1968), and in turn have been the basis or inspiration for many others.

In short, cat-people and cat-aliens have been a major part of science fiction, comics, and computer gaming pretty much as long as they've been around.

Recently, the Japanese have been combining these trends with their own mythological heritage (with a significant borrowing from fox-stories), and more recently yet there's been a strong trend toward making them cuter and/or sexier (and generally, less competent individuals; AnnaPuma and UniPuma would be disgusted with most of these). This, of course, seems to be the sort of thing that younger fans gravitate to, so it's probably not surprising that some (many?) kids don't know much about their history or take them seriously.

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gameboy1234 · 06-22-2009 06:15 PM

Why Masterminds need catgirl minions.

LordLundar · 06-22-2009 08:13 PM

Doh! You beat me to it!

Fleeting Whisper · 06-22-2009 08:48 PM

[ QUOTE ]
To pull one major serious classic out, I'm surprised no one has mentioned The Ballad of Lost C'Mell (1962) yet.
...
When comic books latched onto the "person with the proportional abilities of an animal" meme, cats were immediately obvious. Catwoman appeared in Batman #1 (1940)

[/ QUOTE ]Neko Musume appeared in GeGeGe no Kitaro, which was first printed in 1959

I believe Astro Boy had a catgirl in it, and that was 1952. I don't know of any catgirls (as we mean them) before Osamu Tezuka's work; for females with physical characteristics of a cat, there's Bastet (Egyptian mythology), Bakenekos (Japanese mythology), and then the modern catgirl from the 1950s onward.

For females wearing cat-like clothing rather than being part cat themselves, I'd say Catwoman is one of, if not the, first, in 1940.

http://www.fimfiction.net/story/36641/My-Little-Exalt

Alteisen · 06-23-2009 03:49 AM

I wanted to make an /SR scrapper to solo AVs with, and having already tried out Martial Arts and Broadsword, wanted another thematic pairing with /SR. I settled on claws as "feeling fast like someone with super reflexes might be", and then decided that a cat-theme would be a good concept for Claws/SR.

Only later did I find out about the reputation of catgirls, and even though I wasn't on Virtue or even RPing at all, I'm too embarrassed to play lvl 50 Claws/SR on teams anymore, even if she can solo pretty much any AV that's not hugely lethal resistant or has auto-hitting attacks. *sigh* I should just stick with cyborgs and wizards and such.

cybrstorm · 06-23-2009 05:43 AM

Wow, that is a hell of a lot of replies from a simple question of curiosity...pretty funny stuff.

A day without sunshine is like...you know...night time.

GlaziusF · 06-23-2009 08:25 AM

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
To pull one major serious classic out, I'm surprised no one has mentioned The Ballad of Lost C'Mell (1962) yet.
...
When comic books latched onto the "person with the proportional abilities of an animal" meme, cats were immediately obvious. Catwoman appeared in Batman #1 (1940)

[/ QUOTE ]Neko Musume appeared in GeGeGe no Kitaro, which was first printed in 1959

[/ QUOTE ]

They're just a bit older than that.

Stonedrake · 06-23-2009 08:31 AM

I have many toons with cat-themed costumes, none of which are built to look like, or act like, a Japanese catgirl. The exception being one costume Agent Wildkatze has, because a friend was joking about how she should... so I made a cat-schoolgirl costume for her. Her "brother" Madcat lacks any cat features beyond the claws, as sticking ears and tails on costumes does seem to be something I reserve for female toons....that and "Madcat" wasn't supposed to be the name, "Badger" was, but was taken... so cat features didn't fit that concept. Firey Tiger version I,II,III,IV don't have that issue, nor does Quick Kitty, or Agent Wildkatze, or...

Ad Astra · 06-23-2009 08:38 AM

<----- Egyptian Catgrl with funerary half-mask.

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_Laxx_ · 06-23-2009 09:11 AM

[ QUOTE ]
I wanted to make an /SR scrapper to solo AVs with, and having already tried out Martial Arts and Broadsword, wanted another thematic pairing with /SR. I settled on claws as "feeling fast like someone with super reflexes might be", and then decided that a cat-theme would be a good concept for Claws/SR.

Only later did I find out about the reputation of catgirls, and even though I wasn't on Virtue or even RPing at all, I'm too embarrassed to play lvl 50 Claws/SR on teams anymore, even if she can solo pretty much any AV that's not hugely lethal resistant or has auto-hitting attacks. *sigh* I should just stick with cyborgs and wizards and such.

[/ QUOTE ]

It's unfortunate that you let other peoples' misconceptions about "catgirls" get in the way of a character you clearly had fun playing.

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Xalaqia · 06-23-2009 02:59 PM

Had a catgirl on my team who either started or ended every sentence with "meow" and pawed incessently at my dark fairy buff pet.

Started as slightly annoying, became amusing.

That's the worst I've experienced.

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Raptor707 · 06-23-2009 04:20 PM

I made a wererat Stalker to help control the catgirl population. Claws/SR, of course. Two problems, though:

1: Very few catgirls attend the Guardian PvP zones anyways.
2: Everyone thought I was a furry, even though he was above the 10% rule. (Grey hair and long ears only) I guess cats get a pass due to certain comic book characters.

He's still one of my favorite characters to play, public perception be danged.

[ QUOTE ]
Wow, that is a hell of a lot of replies from a simple question of curiosity...pretty funny stuff.

[/ QUOTE ]

It's an indirect pandora's box of people's fears and perceptions. I think the best part was reading through people's reactions: "Okay, this guy's in denial....."

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Twisted Toon · 06-23-2009 08:22 PM

Hey Katze. o/

I only have 3 Cat-peoples. CatgirlAlex, a scrapper who just wears fake cat ears, Faux Kitty, a Stalker who also wears fake cat ears, and Kat-tastrophy, a scrapper with stripes, non-fake ears, and a tail.

There I was between a rock and a hard place. Then I thought, "What am I doing on this side of the rock?"

Fireheart · 06-23-2009 08:31 PM

[ QUOTE ]
Both anthropomorphic alien races that share significant traits with animals, and what we would now call genetically-engineered human/animal hybrids, have been a mainstay of English-language science fiction for rather longer than "anime" has been a phenomena. To pull one major serious classic out, I'm surprised no one has mentioned The Ballad of Lost C'Mell (1962) yet. Another widely-read case would be many of the works of Andre Norton, featuring a full spectrum of normal but skilled cats, telepathic cats, cat-like aliens, cat/human hybrids, and so on.

[/ QUOTE ]

I salute you, for mentioning C'Mell! Unfortunately, you missed a detail. Cordwainer Smith, the author, is a pseudonym for Paul Linebarger, who was an expert on Oriental culture. In fact all of the stories in his Instrumentality of Man books draw heavily from Oriental culture and mythology, and the society of the Instrumentality is very... Japanese.

Not that I dispute your analysis, the 'Cat-like Girl-like Cat' is not exclusive to eastern cultures.

Be Well!
Fireheart