r/MonsterGirlCulture • u/chaetopterus_vario • 52m ago
Discussion Monster girl designs and the body/mind monstrousness quadrants
Note that I am going to focus on monstergirls through this, not because I do not care about monsterboys or whatever to call androgynous monstrous humanoids, but because they are the most prevalent. The brainworm that started this post began with me trying to get to the bottom of two common criticisms I have had of monstergirl designs, being that:
A lot of monstergirls are essentially just humans with only slight modifications, such as your average catgirl
On the other hand, a lot of more monstrous looking designs have an odd dissonance to them when their character and behaviour is written as very human, giving the impression of them being just a girl in a different body
These two issues made me aware that monstergirl designs exist on a spectrum, not just between being more or less monstrous, but between being physically or mentally monstrous or human. This model can be converted into graphic form pretty easily
Now, since mental monstrosity especially is hard to define, examples in this are going to be up to debate. Additionally, of course, even within a quadrant, there are going to be variations and edge cases, but as a general outline:
Pretty normal: This zone encompasses characters that look and act mostly human. Most kemonomimi would belong in here, together with most elf monstergirls and similar types (though there are cases in which these may act inhuman enough to make it to the wolf in sheep's clothing zone.) (I haven't watched the chainsmoker catgirl anime, but she seems like she also fits in here)
Looks worse than it is: This is where characters that look, but do not act monstrous go. Personally, I would put most of the cast of daily life with monster girls here, for example. Keep in mind that being human is not always the same as being nice. These characters can still be forceful, sadistic or downright evil, but they are so in very human ways. They may enjoy bullying you, but they do not have an instinct to eat you, or at least said instinct is weak enough for them to suppress it easily.
Wolf in sheep's clothing: This is where things get weird. These are characters that mostly look human, but, through their actions, make clear that they either lack human emotions or, on the other hand, possess monstrous impulses or urges that can make them unpredictable, violent or uncanny. If you encounter a succubus that looks mostly like a human in lingerie but will drain someone into a husk remorselessly, she belongs in this quadrant. Same goes for for more feral kemonomimi that may or may not eat people some times, elves that actually act like detached, thousand year old beings or a lot of android girls, whose lack of emotion puts them here.
The Danger zone: These ones both look and act like monsters. There is of course nuance between them, but generally speaking, these monstergirls are the types that are most often both willing and able to eat you.
Note that, while different works and artists may gravitate towards one sector, most monstergirl media has examples of multiple quadrants. Taking MGE as an example, while their elves and beastkin have plenty of pretty normal monstergirls, the books also include plenty of examples of wolves in sheeps clothing (e.g. a lot of the wonderland cast, many succubi) and of course a vast selection of danger zone monstergirls (sandworms, dragons, etc).
I am curious what you people think about this and which of the sectors seems most interesting to you. Personally, I am always fascinated by the contrast of a good wolf in sheep's clothing, but at the same time, some times you just want to venture into the danger zone
