Hello Kitty is a Cat, Right? Wrong, Says Her Creator

[Neverhoodian]

"Hello Kitty is not a cat. She's a cartoon character. She is a little girl. She is a friend. But she is not a cat. She's never depicted on all fours. She walks and sits like a two-legged creature. She does have a pet cat of her own, however, and it's called Charmmy Kitty."

Not buying it. If that fat orange bipedal thing that wolfs down lasagna is a cat, then Ms. White is most certainly a cat. An anthropomorphized and unusually proportioned cat compared to real world felines, but a cat nonetheless. The alternatives are too potentially horrifying to contemplate (Furry wearing a suit? Victim of alien abduction and experimentation? A really botched plastic surgery job?).

As for her pet, it's not the first time a cartoon has explored anthro and non-anthro variants of the same species. Goofy and Pluto are both considered dogs, and the former even went duck hunting once. Donald would be seriously pissed if he ever found out...or would he...?

Okay, cartoons are fucked up.

 

[Saulkar]

That's still a cat. I don't care what the creator says, that's a cat.

Well, judging by the creator's description, isn't Hello Kitty actually a furry?

Actually the correct term is anthromorph, but due to semantics anthromorph can be used for pretty much anything we instill our thoughts and values onto. Contextually however, anthromorph would be the best term used outside of the Furry/Scaly fandom.

 

[rosac]

the creator right now-

Spoiler

The internet as a whole cannot comprehend that hello kitty is not a cat.

what a monster.

Also, 15/10 for trolling.

 

[Queen Michael]

Of course that's not a cat. There exists no cat that looks like her anywhere on Earth, nor has there ever. Plus, she's shown human-level intelligence. Cats don't. So either we need to redefine the noun "cat" to include whatever the heck Kitty is, or we need to find photographic evidence that there exists a bipedal cat, or we just accept that she's not really a cat.

 

[Hazy992]

Just because she's anthropomorphic doesn't mean she's not a cat. If you design a character to look like a cat and call it Hello fucking Kitty then it's a goddamn cat.

I suppose Mickey Mouse isn't a Mouse now either?

 

[Kameburger]

I think Kotaku just debunked this... so um... yeah apparently there was a misunderstanding of some kind. Apparently she is a personified cat.

 

[UberPubert]

Actually the correct term is anthromorph, but due to semantics anthromorph can be used for pretty much anything we instill our thoughts and values onto. Contextually however, anthromorph would be the best term used outside of the Furry/Scaly fandom.

Not trying to be judgmental or anything, but I feel like I've officially spent too much time on the internet just from reading this.

 

[Callate]

Yeah. Much as I dislike linking Kotaku:

[link=http://kotaku.com/dont-be-silly-hello-kitty-is-a-cat-1627820750]

I mean, c'mon. I grew up with Peanuts, but that white-skinned creature with pointy ears on the top of her head and whiskers is not a human child.

 

[[Kira Must Die]]

Well, maybe it's like Goodnight Punpun and she's a little girl who's represented and drawn as a cute cat.

 

[beastro]

So Sonic the Hedgehog isn't really a hedgehog?

 

[Ten Foot Bunny]

My world has been shattered. Next, Disney is going to come out and tell us Mickey isn't a mouse.

Actually, Mickey wasn't always a mouse!

Mickey started life as Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. After getting the short end of the stick from Universal, Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks reworked Oswald into Mickey, who made his debut in Plane Crazy in 1928/29.

Walter Lantz took over the Oswald cartoons for Universal after Disney and Iwerks bailed, and after several failed shorts, Lantz got the blessing to mold Oswald into a new character with the goal of differentiating his looks from the famous mouse. Working with up-and-coming animator Tex Avery, Lantz and Tex morphed Oswald into another animation icon: Bugs Bunny.

So there you have it - Mickey and Bugs were once one and the same.

-----------------------

And BTW, a few years later, Walter Lantz went on to create Woody Woodpecker. How's that for another link?

 

[Apl_J]

What is Semantics, Alex.

 

[Not Lord Atkin]

yeah, no. I'm willing to give you an anthropomorphic cat if you so please but no. That's a cat. Or a human with a hideous deformity. I'd prefer to go with the cat.

 

[Kyber]

Actually, if we're being honest, that is not a cat, nor is it a human, it's a concept, a drawing, an image. What that image displays however is up to the observer.

 

[Shiftygiant]

(Reads title) Oh what is she, a Lovecraftian monster in a form we are most comfortable with?
(Reads article) But she's a fucking cat. She has fucking whiskers and ears and a fucking tail. What kind of child would look like this?

 

[V4Viewtiful]

If it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck, then it's a cat! XD

 

[BoogieManFL]

I'm going to toss my hat in with that is a freaking cat crowd. You don't draw a picture of a rock and call it a tree.

 

[Scarim Coral]

Since when do human girl have ears above the head, yellow nose and have whisker? Also it took him this long to tell us?

 

[Grabehn]

Ok yeah... no, I just don't care how much they want to make people say "it's a human" it looks like a cat, has whiskers, ears and a tail, so it's at most an antropomorphic cat.

And also "it's a cartoon, it's a gilr, it's a friend" it sounds like a fanboy saying "but it's just that you don't understand it".