Summary
Women and cats: together at last. For one reason or another, the combination of feminine and feline has been a potent one for a very long time. For example,DC Comicsmade two feline supervillains in Catman and Catwoman. One of these has become one of the most iconic characters in comic book history. The other is Catman.
Anime loves catgirls, too. Whether it’s a shōnen series, a sci-fi comedy, a magical girl show, or more, chances are there will beone woman with a kitty theme going on. But which ones stand out the most over the rest? Here are some of the most popular examples from anime past and present.
Updated July 29, 2025 by David Heath:If there’s any blowback against the catgirl trope, it’s minuscule compared to their popularity. If anything, manga and anime creators have branched the archetype out. Some characters live up to it directly, with a tweak here and there (e.g. Re:Zero’s Felix Argyle hit nearly every classic catgirl trope without actually being a girl). Others focus more on them as characters, with either a heavy backstory or making them the opposite of a feline fantasy.
Either way, there’s no shortage of popular catgirls in anime to cover, so this list has been updated with a few more popular examples. From pioneers in cutesy catgirl designs to villains from classic shojo series to rising stars in popular shows that added to the feline femme subcategory.
The titular Ranma ofRanma ½has a mess of issues. After falling into a cursed spring, he becomes a woman (‘Ranko’) when hit with cold water and can only turn back if doused in hot water. Aside from having to deal with the problems of either sex, people react to him differently when he’s in one form or another. When he beatsShampoo, champion of a tribe of Chinese Amazons, as Ranko, he learns the tribe will hunt down any female outsider (i.e. her) to the ends of the earth to kill them.
But when Shampoo tracks him down, fights his male self, and loses again, she reveals male outsiders that beat an Amazon (i.e. him) and end up betrothed to them. Eventually, she heads back to China to train…where she falls into a cursed spring that gives her the ability to turn into a cat. In a way, she’s the Yoruichi before Yoruichi, only she doesn’t have a catgirl form. She’s either a cat or a woman. However, she does end up gaining feline habits in human form, hissing at rivals while purring and nuzzling against Ranma. It’s a shamehe has a fear of cats.
Neferpitoutechnically shouldn’t qualify. Not because they’re actually an insect, as Chimera Ants inherit traits from what their queen has eaten. The issue is that theyaren’t really a girl. Not usually, anyway. Sometimes they’re described as “female”, like in theHunter X Hunter Battle Collectiongame. Other times, they and others use male pronouns to refer to themselves. This could also be due to a lack of gender-neutral terms in Japanese.
Still, they did gradually present themselves as more feminine across the series. So, they’re more of an honorary mention here as an iconic cat-femme, being one ofHunter X Hunter’sstand-out villains. They were one of the first Chimera Ants to master Nen, the series' magical power source, which they use to manipulate the living and the dead. If that wasn’t freaky enough, they use their surgical skills to manipulate their subjects' brains directly for interrogations.
Faris NyanNyanis also an honorable mention as, while definitely female, she’s also all woman. She doesn’t have any cat features or powers like Milliana or Yoruichi. Under her real name, Rumiho Akiha, she’s a student at a private academy and comes from a wealthy family in Akihabara, but she always dreamed of opening her maid café. Following her father’s unfortunate death in a plane crash, she managed to get her wish by opening MayQueen+Nyan².
She still misses her father and regrets that the last thing they did was argue over her café dreams. She’s able to bury her regrets behind her role as Faris, where she puts on kitty ears, makes kitty noises while speaking to appear more cutesy, and uses her ‘Cheshire Break’ (i.e. looking deep into a person’s eyes) to see what lies in others' hearts. She’s a tough cookie, but with one parent deceased and the other mostly absent, she’s very lonely. That might be why she goes along with Okabe’s delusions, as it keeps him around.
1Neko-Musume
Likely The First, Original Catgirl In Anime, But With A Horror Edge
The idea of cat-people in general in anime may originate in Japanese folklore. It’s full of animal spirits who take on other forms to mess with people, from kitsune (foxes) to tanuki (raccoon dogs). The same goes for cats, as there are tales of them becoming bakeneko (monster cats) if they’re raised by people for too long. According to lore, bakeneko could speak, manipulate the living and dead, and shape-shift into humans.
GeGeGe no Kitarōis all about these folklorish figuresand urban legends, including the bakeneko, which inspired the half-demon, half-humanNeko-Musume. She spends most of her time as an ordinary-looking girl. But when she gets angry, her sharp claws and teeth come out. She has a crush on Kitarō, but he doesn’t feel the same way toward her. He’s got to find a way to let her down gently, or she’ll use him as a new scratching post.
2Chibi Neko
Little Kitten Has Big Dreams of Becoming Human
Technically,Chibi Nekoisn’t strictly a catgirl. She’s actually a literal kitten who was rescued from abandonment by a man called Tokio. Chibi Neko just imagines herself as a tiny human girl with cat ears because she thinks that’s how all humans started, and she hopes to become one herself so she can be with Tokio as more than just a pet. When she meets a neighborhood cat called Raphael, he tells her that if they can find the fabled paradise of Cottonland, they can make that dream come true.
However, viewers rarely see Chibi Neko in a literal feline form. She otherwise spends the whole movie as a little human girl with kitty features, and can speak to others. It’s only Tokio and the other humans in the movie who see and hear her as just another kitten, driving her need to become human too. As such, she became one of, if not the first, ‘neko-mimi’ (cat-ears) type of catgirls, inspiring the likes of Nozomi inMayoi Neko Overrun,Di Gi Charat’s Dejiko, and likelySoul Eater’s Blair too.
3Bagi
Osamu Tezuka’s Take on Feline Femmes Gets Dark
Catgirls feel like they’ve been part of anime since the beginning, yet pinning down who the first catgirls in the medium are can be tricky, as they come in many forms. Neko-Musume resembles the more horror-inspired ones like Shizuka inRosario+Vampire. Chibi Neko is one of the first nekomimi, cutesy types, a laMayoi Neko Overrun’s Nozomi. Then, Osamu Tezuka, alongside pioneering shōnen manga and anime, gave Hecate an alluring half-cat, half-woman form in the vein of Yoruichi, Haineko, and many more.
But that was just a temporary form. Tezuka developed the concept further forBagiinBagi, the Monster of Mighty Nature, who was a kitten at birth but grew into an increasingly more human form. She was made as an experiment combining human DNA with that of a mountain lion, which left her caught between trying to join human society or giving in to her feral side, which only grows stronger as the movie goes on. It was made in response to the Japanese government funding recombinant DNA research, only to become one of the earliest catgirl progenitors.
4The Puma Sisters
Old-School Catgirl Icons Designed By Famous Mangaka Shirow Masamune
Annapuma and Unipuma,the Puma Sisters, don’t get mentioned much among the collection of kitties nowadays. Maybe it’s because Shirow Masamune made anothermanga that combined cops and tanksthat became popular, or maybe it’s because the originalDominion Tank PoliceOVAs were made in the late 1980s/early 1990s and are hard to find on streaming services nowadays. Still, the series became a cult classic during the rise of anime’s popularity.
If its catchy intro theme didn’t stick in viewers' heads, the sisters’ scantily clad forms on the DVD cover did. Despite the fan service, they’re a duo of strong and cunning androids who get into one mishap or another. They broke their ‘love doll’ programming to become criminals, becoming a regular pain in the proverbial for the Tank Police. Even though they’re not the main villains, their wiles and chemistry make them an unforgettable team.
The original localization ofSailor Moonstopped before Season 5, so fans never got to see howSailor Tin Nyankoplayed into the plot. Well, not until they checked out the manga or its DVD/Blu-ray release in 2019. She was one of the Sailor Animamates, 5 women nabbed from 5 planets by the season’s main antagonist, Sailor Galaxia. They were then given Galactica Bracelets, which gave them their powers but would kill them if they were removed.
Their mission was to grab the Star Seeds from Usagi and Co. via one scheme or another. Tin Nyanko just happened to be the only member who was actually a Sailor Guardian before her enthrallment, and she came from Mau, the same planet as Usagi and Minako’s feline confidantes, Artemis and Luna. She was cruel, vindictive, and fought dirty by bringing her Cat Paw Gun to battle. But the show hinted she used to be a hero, as after Usagi broke one of her bracelets, she was partially healed, with her good side fighting her evil side, until Galaxia finished her off.
Outlaw Starusually gets brought up alongsideCowboy Bebop, as they’re both space westerns produced by the same studio that was broadcast on Toonami. Usually, it’s brought up as the lesser show, but it’s pretty good in its own right. If viewers wanted something dark and introspective, they’d go forBebop. But if they wanted an adventurous sci-fi romp with an alien catgirl, they’d go forStar. Though strictly speaking,Aisha Clan-clanisn’t any ordinary feline femme, but rather a Ctarl-Ctarl.
They’re a race of cat-like aliens known for their strength as warriors across the galaxy. They can even change into giant tigers based on the phase of a planet’s moon. Not that they often need to, as, if they’re like Aisha, they can survive gunshots and explosions and bathe in lava pools like they were hot springs. As little as she looks, she isn’t taken lightly. This is probably why the series' lead, Gene, preferred to avoid her rather than confront her directly before she joined his crew.
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Di Gi Charatlooks more like an anime show or manga within another anime show or manga, like a parody of a cutesy, kiddy series than an actual legitimate series in its own right.Dejikoand her co-stars are so teeny that they could look like something fromKamichama Karin.However, this old-school show from 1998 does have a little spice to offset its sugary tone.
Princess Di Gi Charat, from the planet Di Gi Charat - or Dejiko for short - makes it to Earth to take the world by storm as a singer. Unfortunately, she learns the hard way that she needs money to become a pop star, and she has zilch in that regard. So, she ends up in a dull retail job with her sidekick, Puchiko, and her retainer, Gema. That doesn’t mean she’ll give into mundanity, as she uses her powers to handle customers, coworkers, and more.
8Ichigo Momomiya
The Definitive Magical Catgirl
Tokyo Mew Mewis suchan obvious inclusionfor a list like this that it can’t be ignored. It was a magical girl show where its five heroes took on ‘Mew-Mew’ forms to save the world from aliens. Early 2000s kids may remember it popping up on 4Kids withSonic XandYu-Gi-Oh!While they all had ‘Mew-Mew’ forms, only one of them was based on a cat: their leader,Ichigo Momomiya.
Like the other Mew-Mews, she was bathed in a strange light that merged her DNA with that of an endangered animal. In her case, it was the Iriomote Cat, which gave her a bundle of new, kitty-based features. She makes cat puns, gets cat ears and a tail when she’s excited, and turns into a cat when she gets kissed or kisses someone. Compared to her, Spider-Man got off lucky.
The former commander of the Onmitsukidō,Yoruichi Shihōin,actually made her debut inBleachas a full-on cat. Not that it was apparent she was female, as her cat form spoke with an intimidating man’s voice. So, it was a surprise when she revealed herself to be a young woman. Especially to Ichigo, as Yoruichi often forgets she ends up naked when she switches back to human form, which accidentally gives him an eyeful in the process.
While it is essentially a fanservice scene, it also shows how comfortable Yoruichi is with her cat form. She had gotten so used to having fur as a cat that she didn’t need to worry about clothes. Still, she largely spends her time in the series as either a cat or a girl, rather than a mix of both. Not until she breaks outher Felicia-esqueThunder Beast form, anyway. On top of being electric, she gains cat-like features and a testy personality that only her friend Kisuke can handle.
10Haineko
When One Samurai Catgirl Just Isn’t Enough
In the originalBleachmanga,Hainekowas just the name of Rangiku Matsumoto’s katana. Aside from having a guard that looks like a cat’s head, it channels the power of a living spirit to aid Rangiku in battle. These spirit-infused weapons, or zanpakutō, are common to the series' shinigami. But are these spirits happy to do the bidding of these soul reapers? One zanpakutō spirit, Muramasa, wasn’t, and he used his powers to make the zanpakutō spirits manifest and turn on their owners and the Soul Society at large.
Thus, the zanpakutō of one of the series' most fanservice-friendly characters became an equally fanservice-friendly catgirl. She’s impatient, impetuous, flirty, and conceited to a fault. In other words, she’s a combination of female stereotypes and feline habits. At least, she does until she breaks free from Muramasa’s brainwashing. Then she chills out a bit and even gets to fall in love in a brief, doomed romance with the sword beast Narunosuke. So, there was a heart beneath that vain and voluptuous exterior.
