Soval: What is their fixation with our ears?
T'Pol: I believe they are envious.
T'Pol: I believe they are envious.
In Speculative Fiction and Mythology, it is not surprising to see characters with non-standard ears. Having non-human ears is a common way of indicating that a character that otherwise looks mostly human is Not Quite Human, whether it be an alien, supernatural creature or human significantly modified through magical or pseudo-scientific means. Unusual Ears are particularly popular in Speculative Fiction television and film, where they are used as a relatively cheap way of making Rubber-Forehead Aliens. Pointy Ears are by far the most common type, having been associated with everything from demons and magical faeries to Vulcans. In Japan, the ability to hear extremely well is called jigokumimi, which translates to "hell ears".
In Japanese Manga and Anime, cat ears (nekomimi, which is sometimes used to mean Cat Girl.) and other types of animal ears (Little Bit Beastly) are particularly popular. Expect some Furry Ear Dissonance. Another common anime ear type is "antenna ears", which can be seen primarily on Robot Girls.
Sub-tropes:
- Animal-Eared Headband: Fake animal ears worn as a costume.
- Cat Girl: A cat-eared person.
- Ear Fins: Fins on the sides of the head where ears would be.
- Ears as Hair: Ears used in place of hair.
- Ear Wings: Wing-like ears.
- Expressive Ears: Ears used to signify mood.
- Furry Ear Dissonance: Disconnect between artistic portrayal of animal ears and actual animal ears.
- Little Bit Beastly: People who look mostly human but have actual animal ears (other than cat ears or costume ears).
- Pointy Ears: Pointed ears.
- Robot Antennae: Otherwise-lifelike androids with metal fins on the sides of their head in place of ears.
- Sprouting Ears: Unusual Ears that appear temporarily, often for comedic effect and intended to be symbolic of personality traits rather than indicating actual ears.
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- In .hack//Legend of the Twilight, an event prize is a set of Moe fetish items, including cat ears; Shugo begins to idolize the programmer, while the girls are mortified.
- Romulus from the 1 + 1/2 Nekutai doujinshi sports a pair of wolf ears, hidden under his hat. It holds true for basically all the werewolves after their first transformation, including Remus.
- Chii and the other persocons in Chobits have "ears" that open up and contain electrical connectors.
- Destiny of the Shrine Maiden: Nekoko has cat ears (and a tail) due to experimentation by unscrupulous scientists/doctors.
- Dejiko and Puchiko from Di Gi Charat.
- Everyone in Dog Days has these or dog ears (with a few other animals thrown into the mix) except Shinku.
- While not actually ears, the Diclonius in Elfen Lied have horns that look like nekomimi.
- Ropponmatsu 2 from Excel♡Saga has cat ears, and their unusualness is immediately noted by Iwata in the anime in the most spectacular fashion: "They're just offensive. If you have the energy to wiggle those nasty things, why don't you chew peanuts with your eyes and eat spaghetti through your nose, you offense to God?"
- In FLCL, the main character, Naota, sprouts nekomimi for an episode. Of course, they prove to be nothing but part of a monster slowly emerging from Naota's head.
- Mint from Galaxy Angel has goat-like ears. In the video game continuity, it's revealed that they're symbiotic organisms native to her planet which attach to people and give them the ability to read minds.
- Catherine from Gintama. She's neither cute nor sexy, though.
- In the "extra chapter" of Hayate the Combat Butler, Hinagiku gains donkey ears (though they look much more like kyuubi ears).
- Schroedinger from Hellsing is a catboy with feline ears.
- Inuyasha: Kagome Higurashi's first act upon seeing Inuyasha, sealed and stuck to a tree? Messing with his ears.
The first thing Kagome's mother says when a dog-eared boy busts into Kagome's house to drag her back to the feudal era is not "Who are you?" or "Where are you taking my daughter?" or even "Why are you dressed like that?" — it's "Your ears; are they real?", whilst reaching up and touching them. As does Kagome's little brother; it appears to be something of a family thing.
- Several characters in Kamisama Kiss qualify. For starters, Tomoe has fox ears, and a lot of gods and demons also seem to have elven-looking ears.
- Hayama Akito from Kodocha occasionally sprouts leopard ears (and tail) for comedic effect.
- In Last Exile, some members of the Guild (Dio and Luciola are most prominent) have slightly pointed ears. They're normal-sized, just... pointed at the top.
- Everyone in Loveless is born with nekomimi and a tail, and loses them once they lose their virginity.
- Lyrical Nanoha: A quick indication of someone being a familiar is the existence of furry animal ears where human ears would usually be found.
- All of the cat-people in Mahou Shoujo Neko Taruto (they also have tails).
- The Cheshire Cat from Miyuki-chan in Wonderland.
- The Medicine Peddler of Mononoke has pointed ears, in a setting where no normal human character does. This is only one of many unusual things about him that people just don't seem to notice.
- Monster Musume: Most of the Cute Monster Girls of the cast have odd ears. Miia's are pointy and scaly, Centorea has horse ears, Mero's ears look like fins, and it's ambiguous whether Suu even has ears at all.
- My Hero Academia: Kyoka Jiro's Quirk gives her elongated earlobes, ending in jack plugs. She can extend and plug them into objects to catch extremely faint sounds or channel the sound of her own heartbeat into them in the form of powerful vibrations. She can also use them as regular earbuds.
- Negima! Magister Negi Magi:
- Kotaro, being half-inugami, has a pair of pointed ears sprouting from his head which he can somehow fold beneath his hair.
- In the Magic World arc, a large part of Magic World population has some unusual ears: jigokumimi, cat ears, sheep ears... Wearing fake cat ears becomes an effective disguise, not a decoration.
- Niea and the other aliens from Niea_7.
- Enel of One Piece has earlobes that hang down to his chest with heavy earrings. This is to invoke the appearance of a hindu deity.
- All the girls in Otome Youkai Zakuro have these ears, being fox spirits.
- Aisha Clanclan and all of the other Ctarl-Ctarl in Outlaw Star, though the shape and position have jigokumimi aspects too, perhaps intentionally.
- Koma in Shrine of the Morning Mist.
- Ikuto from Shugo Chara! gets cat ears and tail when transforming with Yoru.
- Solty from SoltyRei has long, pointy ears/antennae that are the same color as her hair.
- A Tamagotchi manga story depicts Yumemitchi with abnormally stretchy ears that she uses to catch a ball and as wings to fly with. This is the only time in the franchise that she demonstrates this (makes sense, as this specific manga story is All Just a Dream).
- Four of the five heroines from Tokyo Mew Mew: Ichigo/Mew Ichigo (cat), Bu-ling/Mew Pudding (monkey), Zakuro/Mew Zakuro (wolf) and Berii/Mew Berry (rabbit).
- UFO Princess Valkyrie: While not exactly ears, the princesses of Valhalla all have wings on their heads that they can apparently control. Additionally, the various alien races seen throughout the series often have their own ear types.
- Welcome to Demon School! Iruma-kun: The Many-Ears are a species of demons with Super-Hearing thanks to having three pairs of ears: usually they have one resembling human ears, one resembling cat ears, and one resembling rabbit ears, but occasionally have two pairs of cat ears along with regular ears. They have to relay on their hearing to be useful to higher ranking demons because they naturally have weak mana that makes it difficult to use magic.
- However, there's an extremely rare congenital condition known as "Black Ears"; a Fictional Disability that gives them black ears that severely dampens their hearing to an average demon. While they can live normal lives, they're considered deaf by Many-Ears standards and are either trained to be another Many-Ears assistant or are treated like fragile beings needing protection. Nova has Black Ears and wants to prove to everyone Many-Ears are worth more than their hearing so future Black Ear kids won't feel worthless.
- The Harpie Ladies in Yu-Gi-Oh! usually have jigokumimi-type ears. However, when Harpie's Feather Duster is played, they sprout extra wings and get winglike ears.
- Yomi of YuYu Hakusho has six long, almost goat-like ears. It is revealed in a flashback that he once had only two ears like this, but after losing his sight, he grew another four ears in compensation; he is a demon, after all. His son Shura also has similar ears (though only two).
Comic Books
- Wonder Woman (1987): The kreel have Pointy Ears with large, incised helixes.
Fan Works
- In the Hetalia: Axis Powers fanfics Hakkōna and Kaitō Kokoro, when Kiku is in his true nekomataneko form, he has pointy cat ears in addition to having human ears.
- Hybridized!: After getting hybridized, Dev mysteriously sprouted a second pair of cat-like ears above his head that grant him Super-Hearing. His hearing is so acute now, he can tell when someone is lying to him though subtle changes in their voice.
- Neko Waffers: Shinji and Asuka are modified genetically into becoming feline people, with pointy, furry cat ears replacing their human ones.
Film — Animation
- The title character of Shrek, along with other ogres, has trumpet-shaped ears that point 45 degrees up. They're considered iconic enough to be included in the logo.
Literature
- Cat Planet Cuties: The Catians have both kitty ears like the picture at the top of the page as well as normal human ears. This adds to the in-universe perception of how much they just look like humans who are cosplaying.
- Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon?: Liliruca Arde's head has a pair of fur-covered ears (and she has a tail behind her back).
- "The Six Servants": One of the servants has large ears that can hear even the smallest sounds.
- Spice and Wolf: Holo's human form is that of a teenage girl with wolf ears, the color of which matches her hair and reflects her true form's fur coloring.
Live-Action TV
- In the Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode "Hell's Bells", we see visions of Xander's supposed future. In these visions, his vision-daughter is sporting a pair of clearly non-human floppy ears, indicating that she's part-demon.
- In one episode of Merlin (2008), Arthur temporarily gains donkey ears.
- Star Trek, with its Rubber-Forehead Aliens, has many.
- Vulcans and Romulans, of course, go under Pointy Ears.
- Ferengi ears are a major part of their identity. They are hugenote and roughly equivalent to Brass Balls (men have bigger lobes than women, and good businessmen are complimented on their lobes), as well as erogenous zones.
- The Vorta from Deep Space Nine have long, thin ears from their chin to their crown.
- Neelix and other Talaxians in Voyager have larger and thinner ears than humans.
- Phlox, from Enterprise, has ridgey ears. This is the least unusual feature of his anatomy.
- Played for Laughs in Picard when Narek mocks his sister, a Romulan Deep Cover Agent disguised as a human with Magic Plastic Surgery.
"That ridiculous disguise. Round ears. You look like a plucked wakak."
Tabletop Games
- In the LARP campaign set "Isole Del Cielo" ("Island of the Sky"), some races have Unusual Ears. Dremmach have furry ears, while Arno have big, pointed ears, with big earrings. Those are needed to calibrate the magic perception sense, so that Arno can feel a single kind of magic, instead of every kind at the same time (that would be uncomfortable). Underworld LARP has Savar and Wolven (cat and dog/wolf people respectively) who wear unusual ears as part of their costume.
Video Games
- Bunny Must Die: Bunny has both bunny ears and cat ears as a result of a catular power plant explosion. She's less than happy about it, too.
- In City of Heroes/Villains, antenna ears, cat ears, floppy pig and bear ears, and most other things you can staple to the side of your head are available. The normal human ears only "go away" if you hide them.
- Felicia from Darkstalkers.
- March and Salsa in Eternal Sonata both have pointy ears, and this is really the only thing that indicates that they are Not Quite Human, other than that March mentions that she's "never known the agogos to approach a human before."
- Fran from Final Fantasy XII (and all viera in the various Ivalice Alliance games) has rabbit ears.
- Apparent in some later Fire Emblem games:
- Cat, tiger, lion, and wolf Laguz in Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance/Radiant Dawn have ears like the animals they can turn into.
- Taguel in Fire Emblem: Awakening sport rabbit ears. Fittingly, they can turn into rabbits to fight.
- Fire Emblem Fates has kitsune, who sport fox ears and can turn into foxes, as well as Wolfskin, who sport wolf ears and become werewolves.
- True to form, Gaia Online has a tremendous variety of ear accessories for your avatar to wear.
- Klonoa has long, rabbit-like ears that add a gameplay element — they let him hover briefly, just enough to reach that next ledge.
- Beastmen of the Lunar series have these. The women of the species do, too, but usually they tend towards daintier Pointy Ears.
- Mega Man: All of the Reploids in Mega Man Zero and cyborgs in Mega Man ZX seem to have these strange white headphone-like things instead of human ears, which is strange, considering that the Classic series had proper ears, despite being much less advanced. Certain Robot Masters tend to have these ears, such as Metal Man and Turbo Man.
- Cute Monster Girls Nei and Rika from the Phantasy Star series.
- One of the most unusual sets of ears in fiction is the Roggenrola line from Pokémon. You see those indentations that look like eyes? They're ears.
- Serilly from Puyo Puyo is a mermaid with little fins on the sides of her head where ears would be.
- The members of the Lesser Fellpool race in the Star Ocean series have ears like this.
- Touhou Project:
- Animal youkai often have ears reflecting their animal nature:
- Ran has fox ears, which she wears a hat over.
- Chen and Orin both have cat ears, Orin in addition to a pair of human ears.
- Nazrin has mouse ears.
- Tewi, the fairies in Eientei, Reisen, Rei'sen, and the moon rabbit army all have rabbit ears.
- Mystia, oddly enough, has feathered Pointy Ears that look like wings. She's a sparrow and wouldn't normally have external ears.
- Toyosatomimi no Miko from Ten Desires has her hair shaped like animal ears.
- Narumi has oversize ears, reflecting her origin as a jizo statue. Interestingly, fellow uplifted jizo statue Shiki Eiki doesn't have noticeably unusual ears, possibly due to differences in the way the two came to life (Narumi became a youkai thanks to the magic of the Forest of Magic, while Shiki received enough faith to become a god).
- Animal youkai often have ears reflecting their animal nature:
- A few characters in Trinity Universe: Kanata (dog), Tsubaki (fox) and Miyu (cat).
- Almost everyone in Utawarerumono has animal or demon ears of some description, including cat, lion, wolf, rabbit and some rather strange wing-ears.
- Mariel and her Expies in the Wild ARMs games have long, floppy, furry ears.
- The Rehda in Ys VI: The Ark of Napishtim have long, outward-pointing ears and fox-like tails. Some of them dismissively call humans "Small-ears", as well.
Visual Novels
- Kuon of Triangle Heart 3: Sweet Songs Forever naturally has fox ears, being a kitsune.
- Len in Tsukihime as well as a handful of other non-human characters such as Seven/Nanako.
- The Chiesters in Umineko: When They Cry have bunny ears for some reason.
- Meirin and Tamamo no Mae in Yami to Boushi to Hon no Tabibito have fox (kitsune) ears and tails.
- Yumeria: Neneko either has nekomimi or wears a hat designed to look like nekomimi; we never see her head without that hat, so it's impossible to tell.
Webcomics
- In 9th Elsewhere, the Muse people have feathered-wings ears.
- Faith from Alone in a Crowd is a Cat Girl.
- In El Goonish Shive, Grace's squirrely form has pointy, fuzzy ears. Catalina also gets the ability to become a catgirl, with the requisite kitty ears.
- Homestuck: In the End of Act 5 flash, upon ascending to God Tier, Jade gains a snazzy pair of dog ears to go with near omnipotence and immortality.
- The cast of Karin-dou 4koma are primarily youkai, so there are plenty of characters with ears to match their type, be it animal ears or some variant of Pointy Ears.
- Osborne from Monster Pulse has a left ear that can detach and transform into a monster.
- My Roommate Is an Elf: Jacinda and her mother have cat-like ears. Sebastian has droopy ears that resemble a dog's.
- All characters in Ruby Quest have these, corresponding to the characters' Animal Crossing counterparts. It's often the only way they can be told apart, due to the simplistic art style.
- In Terinu, instead of ears, every Galen has four to seven thin tines of bone like piano keys on either side of their skull.
- Nya Nia from Tower of God.
Western Animation
- Odd of Code Lyoko gets cat ears added to his Lyoko avatar in Season 4.
- Star Trek: Lower Decks: The Galardonians have tube-like ears.
- Stella from ToddWorld would have ordinary human ears if not for how one is blue, the other red. The episode "Stella's Different Ears" is about her realizing this and feeling bad about it when a kid on a merry-go-round points it out, leading to a lesson that everyone is different.
- A minor one in Total Drama, but the way Izzy's ears are drawn is upside-down compared to the other characters.
Antennae:
Anime & Manga
- Nuku Nuku from All-Purpose Cultural Cat Girl Nuku Nuku.
- Rag from Astro Boy.
- Chachamaru and Chachazero from Negima! Magister Negi Magi. In Chachamaru's case, most people don't seem to take enough notice of it to figure out that she's a robot.
Live-Action TV
- In the Beetleborgs episode "Buggin' Out", Flabber sprouts these when he goes through stage 2 of turning into kombat gnat.
- The blue Andorians from Star Trek have some expressive antennae in addition to regular ears. According to Star Trek: Enterprise, their function is to help with balance, suggesting they're the Andorian equivalent of the human vestibular system (the "inner ear"). In the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Relaunch novels, they also detect electrical fields.
Video Games
- The protagonist Quote and Curly Brace from Cave Story. However, they're very hard to see, and so it comes as a surprise when you find out that your character, Quote, and Curly Brace are robots from the surface.
Visual Novels
- Multi from To Heart.
Webcomics
- Averted in MegaTokyo: the android Ping has normal-looking ears with big plastic earrings that contain connectors and LCDs.
- In Nixvir, in addition to having rabbit ears, the Vokkun have antennae on their heads, which they can press down and use as the counterpart of a telephone. The dwarves also have antennae as well, but these are more of a visual indicator for the reader that the dwarves aren't entirely humanoid.
