A genre of anime and manga that has become quite popular lately is monster girls. These are animes where the characters are part human and part monsters, yokai, animals, aliens, robots, or have some non-human half.
It is common for most animes to have some character that is not 100% human; sometimes they have tails and cat ears, horns, or robotic parts. The name of this genre in Japanese is Gijinka [擬人化], which means anthropomorphic.
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Gijinka – Anthropomorphic Characters
Gijinka can refer to any character that mixes with non-human individuals, including inanimate objects, brands, or concepts. A small example is the moe characters created to represent Mac or Windows.
Anthropomorphism has been present since prehistory and has strong ties to ancient religions and mythologies, including Shintoism in Japan. On the internet, one of the first Moe Gijinka characters that appeared was the iMac Girl in 1998.
Even characters that are 100% human but undergo some transformation, like Cristo-chan, Ebola-chan, Starbucks-chan, Ipo-chan, Terra-chan, and Clorox-chan, classify as Gijinka.
The pokemons were pioneers in becoming Moe Gijinka characters. A recent case was also written about on our blog, the famous character Bowsette. The most popular animals for anthropomorphism in animes are cats and foxes.
In ancient cultures, non-human characters were also sensual and seduced young men. Even in Japan, there is a legend of a spider that transforms into a seductive woman and marries a samurai.
Characters that are part robotic, aliens, with cat parts and other animals are common, but there are cases of slime girls, snake girls, centaurs, dragons, flowers, zombies, vampires, and the cliché of mermaids.
The image above is from animes that appeared in our article "Strange things that Japan turned into moe girls". Gorilla girl, soda can girl, and dragon girl.
The Main Monster Girls Animes
Thousands of animes feature characters with monsters; if we were to list them all, it would take a century. But since I’m stubborn, I will talk a bit about the most popular ones and then list as many animes with monster girls that I know. I will also try to make a list of popular monster girl characters separated by categories.
Below, I will briefly summarize each anime that I consider popular and where the main focus is on monster girls. They need to appear in most episodes, and their strange appearance should be the highlight of the anime.
Let’s start by talking about the most popular monster girl animes of all time:
Monster Musume no iru nichijou
This anime features a mermaid girl, a snake girl, a spider girl, and even a centaur girl. As the name suggests, monster musume means monster girls, and the rest of the name refers to the protagonist’s daily life with the characters, where most of the time the protagonist ends up getting hurt.
Cube x Cursed x Curious
The anime, from the images, does not seem as sinister as the others, but it tells the story of a protagonist who finds in his basement a loli who is actually a medieval torture device, a sword girl, and a girl with a magical garter belt.
Kobayashi-san Chi no Maid Dragon
This anime is quite popular and tells the story of a dragon girl who becomes the maid of a woman who works in an office named Kobayashi. The anime is very popular and very funny, becoming one of the most popular in the genre; fortunately, this is not a harem.
Houseki no Kuni
This anime tells the story of girls who are precious stones living in a peaceful place and fighting against beings that try to take them to the moon. It is a masterpiece that resembles the tale of the famous Kaguya-Hime.
Rosario + Vampire
This work is quite popular and tells the story of a boy who goes to study at a school for monsters and meets a vampire girl and several other characters like a succubus. It is said that the manga is a thousand times better than the anime, which ended up becoming a generic harem adaptation, but it still managed to entertain me and became popular.
Demi-chan wa Kataritai
In this anime, you find a snow girl, a vampire, a succubus, and a headless woman. The biology teacher who likes non-human girls tries to understand the lives of these monster girls. The anime is not in second place for nothing; it is quite popular in the genre.
Omamori Himari
This ecchi and comedy anime tells the story of a boy who finds a half-cat girl, a slime girl, and a cup girl. What level have we reached?
Monogatari
A confusing and very popular series that is divided into several different animes; we even need to make a guide to watch Monogatari. Among the characters, we have a half-crab girl, a cat, a medusa, a vampire, and some other not-so-normal ones.
Centaur no Nayami
The concerns of a centaur, the name already suggests a centaur protagonist, but many other monster girl characters appear in the work. The anime deals with the social life in the school of monster girls.
Below is a list of more popular animes and the types of Monster Girls, Gijinka, or anthropomorphic characters that appear:
- High School DxD – Demon girls;
- Sekirei – Aliens;
- Kore wa Zombie Desu ka?
- To Love Ru – Aliens;
- Omamori Himari – Demon cat;
- Jashin-chan Dropkick – Demons and snakes;
- Kaiju Girls;
- Petopeto-san – yokai;
- Dragon Crisis – Dragon girl and vampire girl;
- Asobi ni Iku yo! – Cat aliens;
- Spice & Wolf – Fox Goddess;
- Outbreak Company – Elf, dog;
- Jitsu wa Watashi wa – Vampire;
- Durarara – Dullahan, headless knight;
- Knights of Sidonia – Half-alien girl;
- Elfen Lied – Alien;
Another List of Monster Girls
We have already mentioned many animes with monster girls that are quite popular, but there are many other characters that are monster girls appearing in various animes, games, and mangas. Below we will try to make another list of these characters and their animes, games, and mangas.
You might also want to see animes about animals, some may have talking or anthropomorphic animals.
Unfortunately, I will not identify the original work, but I will leave it in bold when it is the name of an anime.
- Hyperdimension Neptunia – Video game girls;
- Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance – Sword girls;
- Kantai Collection – Girls with combat weapons;
- Habanero-tan – Pepper girl;
- Kemono Friends;
- Shinka no Mi;
- Akikan;
- Gokicha;
- Kumatanchi
- K.R.T. Girls;
- Jewelpet:
- Magical Change;
- Robot Girls Z;
- Ryo-Ohki
- S Sega;
- Hard Girls;
- Uma Musume Pretty Derby;
- The World of Narue;
- Milk-san – Milk girl;
- Jalapeño-san – Jalapeño pepper girl;
OS-Tan are characters from operating systems, among them we have Hikaru Aizawa from Microsoft and Inori Aizawa from Internet Explorer.
Kemonomimi and Nekomimi
Another super popular way to represent monster girls in animes and mangas is using animal ears. These ears are generally called Kemonomimi. The most popular are cat ears called nekomimi.
Generally, the Japanese represent these creatures using only ears, tails, and paws, without removing human characteristics. They are easy to spread because the characteristics of the animal can be easily conveyed simply by drawing the ears.
Pointed ears are by far the most common type, having been associated with everything from demons, elves, magical fairies, and even vulcans. In Japan, the ability to hear very well is called jigokumimi, which translates as “ears of hell.”
Some examples of characters with cat ears are:
| Name of Neko | Name of Anime |
| Holo | Space and Wolf |
| Inuyasha | InuYasha |
| Tomoe | Kamisama Kiss |
| Jibril | No Game No Life |
| Raphtalia | The Rising of the Shield Hero |
| Black Rabbit | Problem Children Are Coming From Another World, Aren’t They? |
| Izuna Hatsune | No Game No Life |
| Tsugumi | Guilty Crown |
| Himari Noihara | Omamori Himari |
| Millianna | Fairy Tail |
The Encyclopedia of Monster Girls
There are 2 very popular books called Monster Girls Encyclopedia that tell the story of over 100 different monster girls. This book/manga was written by Kenkou Cross and contains various sensual illustrations of monster girls and their stories. If you want to acquire the books, I will leave them below:
Some of the monster girls found in these books are: Succubus, Lesser Succubus, Slime, Red Slime, Queen Slime, Goblin, Hobgoblin, Werewolf, Werecat, Wererabbit, Weresheep, Alraune, Mandragora, Matango, Dryad, Honey Bee, Hornet, Grizzly, Harpy, Black Harpy, Cockatrice, Orc, Ogre, Arachne, Lamia, Medusa, Echidna, Lizardman, Salamander, Werebat, Centaur, Unicorn, Minotaur, Holstaur, Giant Ant, Ant Arachne, Mantis, Fairy, Pixie, Leanan Sidhe, Kesaran Pasaran, Elf, Dark Elf, Dwarf, Amazoness, Alice, Alp, Cyclops, Mermaid, Merrow, Sea Bishop, Nereid, Scylla, Charybdis, Sea Slime, Siren, Sahuagin, Bubble Slime, Large Mouse, Giant Slug, Devil Bug, Roper, Golem, Gargoyle, Mimic, Pot Devil, Mummy, Sphinx, Anubis, Girtablilu, Zombie, Ghoul, Ghost, Skeleton, Nightmare, Doppelganger, Dullahan, Vampire, Imp, Dark Slime, Beelzebub, Baphomet, Witch, Youko, Yuki-Onna, Red Oni, Crow Tengu, Kappa, Jurougumo, Inari, Angel, Dark Angel, Dark Priest, Dragon, Undine, Ignis, Sylph, Gnome, Dark Matter, and Lilim.
Monster Girls Products
Monster Girls are perfect characters for cosplay. Or maybe you want to follow some story of monster girls in mangas, or simply want some accessory like cat ears. See what Amazon Brazil has for you:
I hope you enjoyed this article; if you did, share it and leave your comments. Thank you, and see you next time!
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