Japanese Cat Girls

Japanese Cat Girls (also Nekomimi or Neko)
As the name implies, Japanese cat girls originate from Japan, to be more precise from manga popular culture. They are not to be confused with furry characters and mixing these two up can result in quite hard feelings as these communities seem to be radically different.The alternative term 'nekomimi' literally means 'cat ear(s)' and is often abbreviated in non-Japanese discussions to 'neko', which would just mean 'cat'. In Japan, the term 'nekomusume' (cat girl) or 'nekomimimusume' (cat ear girl) would normally be used.
The concept of the Japanese cat girl can be traced back to a non-adult manga featuring a cat who turns into a human girl and explores human society, being totally ignorant about most of the human nature, especially its vices.
Thus, the concept of the cat girl is one of a childish, innocent character, usually very playful. In other words, a combination of the traits associated with idealized (as opposed to real) children and domesticated cats and kittens.
As a physical features, they look like normal human girls, usually underaged, although there are occasional adult versions. All of them have cat's ears instead of their human ears. Beyond that, there are some variations: many, but not all, feature also a cat's tail and some also have paw-like gloves or real cat's claws.
The differentiation from the furry community can be seen in the following aspects:
* Japanese cat girls are normally not sensual and ferral but childishly innocent. The tendency towards sexual explicitness common to the furry community is absent.
* Japanese cat girls are usually cast in a human setting; there are occasionally cat girl only settings, but they are not as common as in the furry community.
* Admirers of Japanese cat girls usually see the cat girl as the potential erotic partner. An identification as is usually found among furries along the lines that the admirer wants to be or identifies with the non-human is rare. Thus, cross-race scenarios are fairly common where a human avatar has intercourse with the Japanese cat girl.
In Europe, Japanese cat girls seem to have a bad reputation because of rather superficial fandom.
In Japan, where furries are a negligable minority, the other related community is that of Japanese monster girls. While it would be theoretically possible to place Japanese cat girls as a sub group of the Japanese monster girls, such a contextualization is usually frowned upon. Japanese cat girl artwork is usually not welcome at Japanese monster girl sites.