kemonomimi

In Japanese, kemonomimi 獣耳, meaning "beast ears," refers to animal ears worn as accessory by anime characters, or characters that have animal ears as part of their bodies. It's also spelled kemonomimi ケモノ耳, and can be abbreviated to kemomimi ケモミミ.

Anime: Kemono Friends けものフレンズ (Episode 6)

• Meaning
• Types
  • Cat Ears
  • Bunny Ears
    • Bunny Ear Hands
  • Dog Ears
    • Fox Ears
    • Wolf Ears
  • Cow Ears
  • Feather Ears
• Pointy Ears
• Two Pairs of Ears

Meaning

The term kemonomimi ケモノ耳 is a noun compound from kemono ケモノ, "beast," "animal," and mimi 耳, "ear." Consequently, it refers to the ears of the characters, as a feature, and not to the characters themselves.

To refer to the character, you'd say something like:

• kemomimi-musume
  ケモミミ娘
  Animal-ears girl.
  • musume
    娘
    Daughter. (literally.)
• kemonomimi-musume
  獣耳娘
  (same meaning.)
• kemomimi-joshi
  ケモミミ女子
  Animal-ears girl.
• kemonomimi-joshi
  獣耳女子
  (same meaning.)
• kemomimi-danshi
  ケモミミ男子
  Animal-ears boy.
• kemonomimi-danshi
  獣耳男子
  (same meaning.)

Anime: No Game No Life, ノーゲーム・ノーライフ (Episode 5)

• kemomimi meganekko
  ケモ耳メガネっ娘
  Furry-ears glasses-girl.
• megane
  眼鏡
  Glasses. (that you wear.)

Types

The term kemonomimi is generic: it applies to any kind sort of animal ears. You can replace kemono by the name of an animal to be more specific.

Note that some animals have features besides the ears, like:

• shippo
  しっぽ
  Tail.
• tsuno
  角
  Horns.
• tsubasa
  翼
  Wings.
  • hane
    羽
    Insect wings.

Cat Ears

The most common type of kemonomimi are "cat ears," nekomimi 猫耳.

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

• nekomimi-musume
  猫耳娘
  Cat-ears girl. Cat girl.
• nekomimi-danshi
  猫耳男子
  Cat-ears boy. Cat boy.

Since most kemonomimi characters end up being cat girls, the term kemonomimi tends to be avoided with them. That is, if a character has cat ears, they're said to have nekomimi, and if they have animal ears of any other sort, they're said to have kemonomimi.

Bunny Ears

To say "bunny ears" in Japanese, the term is usagimimi 兎耳, but it's normally abbreviated to usamimi うさみみ.

Left: Shirogane Miyuki 白銀御行
Middle: Fujiwara Chika 藤原千花
Right: Shinomiya Kaguya 四宮かぐや
Anime: Kaguya-sama wa Kokurasetai? ~Tensai-Tachi no Ren'ai Zunousen~ かぐや様は告らせたい？～天才たちの恋愛頭脳戦～ (Season 2) (Episode 3)

• usamimi-musume
  うさみみ娘
  Bunny-ears girl. Bunny girl.
• usagimimi-musume
  兎耳娘
  (same meaning.)

The classic bunny suit costume cosplay has its own term:

Left: Suzumiya Haruhi 涼宮ハルヒ
Right: Asahina Mikuru 朝比奈みくる
Anime: Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuuutsu 涼宮ハルヒの憂鬱 (Episode 2)

• baani-gaaru
  バニーガール
  Bunny girl.
  (katakanization.)

Bunny Ear Hands

Sometimes a character makes bunny ears with their hands.

Character: Maeda Kanon 前田果音
Anime: Photokano, フォトカノ (Episode 1)

• Context: a girl makes bunny ears using peace signs.
• usa-piisu!
  うさピース！
  Bunny peace!

Dog Ears

The term for "dog ears" in Japanese is inumimi 犬耳.

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

• inumimi-musume
  犬耳女子
  Dog-ears girl. Dog girl.

Character: Stephanie Dola ステファニー・ドーラ
Anime: No Game No Life, ノーゲーム・ノーライフ (Episode 5)

• kubiwa
  首輪
  Collar. (literally "neck ring.")
• riido
  リード
  Leash. (literally "lead.")

Fox Ears

The term for "fox ears" in Japanese is kitsunemimi 狐耳. Such characters tend to be relatively common due to the fox spirits and deities being part of the Japanese culture.

Character: Holo, ホロ
Anime: Spice and Wolf, Ookami to Koushinryou 狼と香辛料 (Episode 5)

• Context: a fox girl getting a head pat.

Character: Howan ほわん
Anime: SHOW BY ROCK!! Mashumairesh!!, ましゅまいれっしゅ！！ (Episode 1)

• Context: a fox girl with fox ears making fox hand signs.

Character: Senko-san 仙狐さん
Anime: Sewayaki Kitsune no Senko-san 世話やきキツネの仙狐さん (Episode 2)

• Context: a fox girl using a washing board.

Character: Miketsukami Soushi 御狐神双熾
Anime: Inu x Boku SS, 妖狐×僕ＳＳ (OVA, Stitch)

• Context: a multi-tailed fox boy with heterochromia.

Character: Urushibara Ruka 漆原るか
Anime: Steins;Gate 0 (Special, Stitch)

• Context: Ruka crossdressing as a fox girl.
• onnanoko-zuwari
  女の子座り
  Girl's sitting. A term for W sitting.

Wolf Ears

The term for "wolf ears" in Japanese is ookamimimi 狼耳.

Left: Shigure シグレ
Right: "Village Girl," Mura-musume 村娘
Manga: Kemono Michi けものみち (Episode 8)

• Context: Shigure makes a money gesture.

Cow Ears

The term for "cow ears" in Japanese is ushimimi 牛耳.

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

• ushimimi-musume
  牛耳娘
  Cow-ears girl. Cow girl.

Feather Ears

Albeit rare, some bird-like characters have feathery ears. The term for this would be hanemimi 羽耳, "feather ears."

Character: Harpy, ハーピィ
Anime: Maoujou de Oyasumi 魔王城でおやすみ (Episode 5)

• Context: Harpy has feathery ears, wings, and talons that she hides using overly long sleeves (moe-sode 萌え袖).

Pointy Ears

Pointy, human-like ears aren't called kemonomimi, they have their own terms:

Elves: unnamed
Slime: Rimuru リムル
Anime: Tensei shitara Slime Datta Ken, 転生したらスライムだった件 (Episode 4)

• Context: elves.
• erufu-mimi
  エルフ耳
  Elf ears.

Character: Henry Marker ヘンリー・マーカー
Background: Carrera Marker カレラ・マーカー
Anime: Karin かりん (Episode 5)

• Context: "vampires," kyuuketsuki 吸血鬼.
• akuma-mimi
  悪魔耳
  Demon ears.

Two Pairs of Ears

Some characters have two pairs of ears, one pair of human, or human-like ears, and one pair of kemomimi, and that kemomimi isn't a headband, but actually part of their bodies. See yotsumimi 四つ耳, "four ears," for more information.

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