nekomimi 猫耳 (Cat Ears in Anime)

In Japanese, nekomimi 猫耳 means "cat ears," and can refer to an actual cat's ears, to the cat ears of a cat girl or cat boy character, to cat ear headbands used to cosplay as a cat girl or cat boy character, or to other things that resemble cat ears, but technically are not. It's also spelled without kanji, as nekomimi ネコミミ.

Source: various.

• Meaning
• Types
  • Natural
  • Transformation
  • Cosplay
  • Pseudo
    • Hair
  • Robotic
  • Double

Meaning

The word nekomimi 猫耳 is a compound noun formed by the animal word neko 猫, "cat," and the body part mimi 耳, "ear." The word is seldom used to refer to an actual cat's ears, since it's obvious a cat's ears would be cat ears, as they're the ears of a cat.

• neko no nekomimi
  猫の猫耳
  A cat's cat-ears. (nobody says this.)
• neko no mimi
  猫の耳
  A cat's ears. Cat ears.
  (see: no-adjectives.)

Girl: Hakase はかせ
Cat: Sakamoto 阪本
Anime: Nichijou 日常 (Episode 5)

Similarly, it wouldn't be used to refer to the ears of an anthropomorphized cat character.

Anime: Beastars (Episode 6)

• Context: a kemono character who is a cat.
• mimei no shokusatsu jiken, han'nin tousouchuu
  未明の喰殺事件、犯人逃走中
  Early morning [devouring] incident, perpetrator on the run.
  • shokusatsu
    喰殺
    To kill by eating. To devour.

The nekomimi is a type of kemonomimi 獣耳, "animal ears." Like other kemonomimi words, nekomimi means only the cat ears, but characters that have cat eats normally also have other cat features.

• nekome
  猫目
  Cat eyes. （ ⓛ ᴗ ⓛ ）
• nekoguchi
  猫口
  Cat mouth. （・ ω ・ ）
• neko-shippo
  猫しっぽ
  Cat tail.
• kubiwa
  首輪
  Collar.
• suzu
  鈴
  Bell. As in a cat bell.
• nyaa
  にゃー
  Meow.

For reference, how to say "cat girl" in Japanese:

• neko-musume
  猫娘
  Cat girl.
  • This term normally refers to a character from Gegege no Kitarou ゲゲゲの鬼太郎.
  • musume 娘
    Daughter.
    Girl. (because every girl is somebody's daughter.)
• nekomimi musume
  猫耳娘
  Cat-ears girl. Cat-eared girl.

And how to say "cat boy" in Japanese:

• neko-danshi
  猫男子
  Cat boy.
  • Warning: neko 凹 is also a gay slang for "bottom" in a homosexual relationship.
• nekomimi-danshi
  猫耳男子
  Cat-ears boy. Cat-eared boy.

And lastly, gender-neutral terms:

• nekomimi-kyara
  猫耳キャラ
  Cat-ears character. Cat-eared character.
  • nekomimi-kyarakutaa
    猫耳キャラクター
    (same meaning.)
• neko-kyara
  猫キャラ
  Cat character.
  • This is an actual cat that is a character, not someone wearing cat ears.
• nekobito
  猫人
  Cat people.
  • If you see this word, it's probably referring to a race of demi-human characters in a fantasy world, isekai 異世界, or something, not to actual cat-eared characters.

The word is sometimes spelled with katakana, as nekomimi ネコミミ, to avoid ambiguity with real "cat ears." Similarly, "bunny ears," usagimimi 兎耳, are abbreviated to usamimi うさみみ, and kemonomimi is abbreviated to kemomimi ケモミミ.

You can attach nekomimi to other words, too. For example:

Anime: K-On!, Keion! けいおん！ (Episode 9)

• nekomimi-heabando
  猫耳ヘアバンド
  Cat-ears "hairband." (wasei-eigo 和製英語)
  Cat-ears headband.
• nekomimi-kachuusha
  猫耳カチューシャ
  Cat-ears "katyusha."
  Cat-ears headband.
• nekomimi boushi
  猫耳帽子
  Cat-ears hat.
  Cat-ears cap.
• nekomimi huudo
  猫耳フード
  Cat-ears hood.

Left: Nike ニケ
Right: Kukuri ククリ
Anime: Mahoujin Guruguru 魔法陣グルグル (2017) (Episode 14)

• nekomimi paakaa
  猫耳パーカー
  Car-ears hoodie.

Types

For reference, some examples of nekomimi 猫耳 and their different types.

Natural

Cat girl characters normally have cat ears attached to their bodies. Since they're cat ears, they're nekomimi.

Character: Eris エリス
Anime: Asobi ni Iku yo! あそびにいくヨ！ (Episode 1)

• Context: an alien race of cat girls.

Character: Coconut ココナツ
Anime: Nekopara ネコぱら (Episode 1)

• kin-me gin-me
  金目銀目
  Gold eye, silver eye. A term for this type of heterochromia.

Left: Edgar エドガー
Right: Misha ミーシャ
Anime: Hataage! Kemono Michi 旗揚!！けものみち (Episode 10, Stitch)

• Context: Misha getting a head patted.

Character: Felicia フェリシア
Anime: Vampire Hunter (1997, OVA) (Episode 3, OVA)

• Context: despite this monster girl clearly having a physical body with cat features, her cat ears look like a headband for some reason.

Naturally, the same applies to cat boys.

Character: Okamoto Tama 岡本タマ
Anime: Uchi Tama?! Uchi no Tama Shirimasen ka? うちタマ？！～うちのタマ知りませんか？～ (Episode 1, OP)

• Context: a gijinka 擬人化, "anthropomorphization," of a kitty.

Transformation

Some cat ears are gained when a character transforms into a cat girl.

Character: Momomiya Ichigo 桃宮いちご
Anime: Tokyo Mew Mew, 東京ミュウミュウ (Episode 2)

• Context: a magical girl whose transformation is a cat girl.

Cosplay

Even if you weren't born a cat girl, that doesn't mean you can't dress up as one. Cosplay featuring cat ears also counts as nekomimi.

Character: Suzukaze Aoba 涼風青葉
Anime: New Game!! (Season 2) (Episode 2)

Manga: K-On!, Keion! けいおん！ (Volume 2, Page 31)

• Context: Nakano Azusa 中野梓, a new club member, puts on cat ears.
• nyaa tte itte-mite, nyaa tte
  ニャーッて言ってみて　ニャーッて
  Try saying "meow," [say] "meow."
• ni... nya~~...?
  に･･･にゃ～～･･･？
  M... meow~~...?
• ha'! tsui!!
  はっ！！つい！！
  Ah!! [I did it without thinking]!! (in the sense of not intending to say it, but getting carried away.)
• ada-na wa Azunyan de kettei da ne!!
  あだ名はあずにゃんで決定だね！！
  [It] is decided: [your] nickname will be Azunyan!! (Azusa plus "meow.")

Character: Ayasaki Hayate 綾崎ハヤテ
Anime: Hayate no Gotoku! ハヤテのごとく！ (Episode 8, Stitch)

• Context: Hayate W-sitting crossdressing as a cat girl

Character: Konoe Subaru 近衛スバル
Anime: Mayo Chiki! まよチキ！ (Episode 4)

• Context: Subaru crossdressing as a cat boy.

Pseudo

Sometimes characters have cat ears that aren't actually cat ears, they just look like cat ears, but, in reality, they're something else.

Character: Ibaraki-douji 茨木童子
Anime: Onigiri 鬼斬 (Episode 3)

• Those two things that look exactly like cat ears on top of her head are, canonically, her horns, because she's half oni 鬼.

Character: Tamaki Kotatsu 環古達
Anime: En'en no Shouboutai 炎炎ノ消防隊 (Episode 10, Stitch)

• Context: Tamaki wearing a naked apron, with cat ears made out of fire.

Hair

One sub-type of pseudo-nekomimi is hair. The hair of the character just stands up in such way that it looks like the character has cat ears, or animal ears in general.

Character: Rokudou Rin 六堂鈴
Anime: Keijo!!!!!!!! 競女！！！！！！！！ (Episode 3)

Left: Tsukimiya Utsugi 月宮ウツギ
Right: Koyuki Seri 小雪芹
Anime: Boku no Tonari ni Ankoku Hakaishin ga Imasu. ぼくのとなりに暗黒破壊神がいます。 (Episode 1)

• Context: ⓛ ω ⓛ.

Robotic

Sometimes, characters from futuristic settings wear robotic nekomimi. These cyber cat ears may or may not have a practical purpose. Maybe they're functional, and just happen to look like cat ears, but maybe they're useless, and the character is just cosplaying as an android cat girl or something.

Character: Tsugumi ツグミ
Anime: Guilty Crown (Episode 5)

Double

Some characters have two sets of ears: cat ears and human ears, i.e. they have yotsumimi 四つ耳, "four ears."

Naturally, characters who are cosplaying or wearing cat ear headbands look like they have two set of ears, their real human ears and the fake cat ones. However, here we're talking specifically about characters who appear to have two sets of real ears, attached to their bodies somehow.

Left: Aoyagi Ritsuka 青柳立夏
Right: Soubi Agatsuma 我妻草灯
Anime: Loveless (Episode 1)

• Context: In Loveless, only virgin characters have cat ears.

Character: Opera オペラ
Anime: Mairimashita! Iruma-kun 魔入りました！入間くん (Episode 10)

• Q: "Do you like cat ears or elf ears?"
• A: "Yes."