(擬人化; Western term Humanization) is the Japanese meaning of “humanoid”, “personification”, or “anthropomorphic”[1]. Rather than referring to just any animal with human characteristics, a gijinka is most often a fan re-design of an animal-like character in a human or humanoid form. The characters often seem to wear a cosplay of the base character rather than having real animal features, which can also be found back in real life cosplay of those characters.
Probably one of the most popular fads for gijinka originates from Pokémon. The fad for Pokémon gijinka traces back to a Japanese website where one artist posted gijinka versions the original 150 Pokémon. Since then the artist has expanded to have the database include everything up to 4th generation Pokémon. The images likely gained a lot of popularity on 4chan’s /cgl/ and /vp/ boards, but were also fairly popular on cosplay sites. A lot of the current cosplays and fanart for Pokémon gijinka are based on the designs from these works.
Now, onto the gijinkas I've made so far!
Sakura Pegacorn Fluff
Lucky the Cat
Wealthy Nyaruma
Stagony
Skulverine
Grunny
Spring Kokeshi
