Why Kemonomimi?

One thing i interestingly get asked a lot, at least every time I talk with someone about my favorite fictional characters, is, why my top three all have animal traits and if I am someone with a fetish (this makes it even harder to deny when they know my OC ^^)

To be honest, this really is just pure coincidence, but against what everyone might think, this isn’t why I love these characters this much.

So, what is it what fascinates me so with the characters:

Holo/Horo from Spice and Wolf – created by Isuna Hasekura
Caster (Tamamo no Mae) from Fate/Extra – created by Nasu Kinoko/Kazuya Niinō
Ada from Replay – created by NotImportant

Let’s begin with the first of these three: Holo/Horo one of the main characters from the light novel series “Spice and Wolf”.
 
At first, when you hear about her, you might think she is like every other deity out there that has problems to fit into the world, is a little bit dimwitted or something that normally writers use when they try to write a god character into a story. But when we meet this wolf goddess we are very surprised how she is introduced. Her first thing she askes for is alcohol and also hates to be seen as a goddess, she just wants to be seen for who she is. And during this conversation, we see that what we have here is a deep and very interesting character to come. And Isuna Hasekura doesn’t disappoint. We see that she only puts a facade and how she really feels but doesn’t show it very often (at least at the start), she has her flaws (loves alcohol and is addicted to apples), she is intelligent and understands quick and uses her wits. It’s a lot of fun watching/reading her dialogues with Lawrence or when she talks with other characters. The best thing about her is, that she never feels fake, ever reaction from her is believable. You have the feeling this is a real person – except that she has the tail and ears of a wolf, which she takes a lot of care for.

If you love complex characters, have no problem with a slow but steading working story or just love road trip stories with a bigger story behind it but without big action then do yourself a favor and check out “Spice and Wolf” light novels – The manga and anime versions aren’t bad, but there are a lot of parts missing or changed – but if you see them check them out, especially the anime. And do this in the English dub (yes, I am serious) – Brina Palencia does such an amazing job voicing Holo, she nailed her character nearly perfect.

If you want to know a little bit more from me, check out my small look at Spice and Wolf (this is a very early video, I was still in the finding phase ^^)

Caster from the Fate/Extra series was also a more accidental run in.

I admit I love the stories of Type-Moon and yes, I am a fan of the different interpretations of Saber – this was the reason I checked out the PSP games. I was interested how they added this virtual world aspect to a game where people fight to the death for the holy grail. The first time I really saw her was on the box, and this was the first time she peaked my interest – I must admit I really loved her design (beginning from her clothes to her fox traits) and I got curious again, how the hell does such a unique character come into a story that tried to not go too over the top with the designs (I know, the series is over the top).

So, after the first playthrough with Saber, I wanted to play this game again and try out Caster, and this was the point I was blindsided. Caster was such a bubbly character and it was a very big change to what I was used to from the other characters to this point. At first, I wasn’t sure if I could stand her, but the more and longer the story went and the more dialogues this character had, the more she grew on me.

Again, the happy and bubbly persona is partly a facade and the more you find out about her in your private room you see that she is holding a lot back. Sadly, most of her backstory and history you must read outside the game, but after that, you understand why she is how she is and she gets even more interesting. Also, her happy, bubbly and sometimes jealous persona is bringing a lot of fun during the story dialogues she has with other characters. She is a very hard character to describe without really experiencing her in some way – if you want to know what I mean without playing the game or watching let’s pay from a farming dungeon crawler you can check out the manga Fate/Extra- Foxtails.

If you want to know a little bit more, again I did a small video, but this time more about some figures I have here in my display case…

This brings us to the last of this trio: Ada from Replay.

Ah, Ada, a character that from the first page shows us she is the more no-nonsense and sometimes insecure character. She might haven’t reached the amount of character like the other two, but NotImportant already shows us, that she isn’t just someone who is only written as a character to an apocalypse story but has a lot more behind her, even if we are only scratching at the surface.

She gets angry very quick, can become very impatient while training others, she has a caring side (at least for the people who don’t annoy or disgust her), she can’t remember names (seen in the prequel comics), she needs Robert as an anchor, she is able to use magic and uses a very big sword – so better stay out of her way.

Really hope we see more of her in the future because we have here another cult character in the making.

And yes also there is a small video about this story, but again a very early one, so please be gentle with critique ^^

Ok, and at the end the big elephant in the room – why is my OC also seen with these traits, when I don’t have a fetish?

Easy: She wasn’t designed this way – when I started the idea was to have a Lycanthrope, more a werewolf. But over time this changed a little bit and in the end, after NotImportant created her interpretation of Crystal, I decided the character herself loved these traits and stayed with them (and yes I liked this design a lot ^^)

I know this still doesn't explain all the favorites in my gallery... ok over time i somehow got a soft spot for good created Kemonomimi, it just happened and so i admit i like these kinds of characters Also i really started enjoying all these myths about Kitsune and on... so yes it got somehow a favorite of me, but not in the negative way, like some of you might think...

Thanks for reading this long ramble, I know a lot makes no sense, but I just love to write stupid overlong writings – like I make my videos XD

See you soon!