Anthropomorphic Animals commonly called Anthros, Furries, or sometimes Funny Animals, are a type of character seen in all various types of media, going back as far as ancient times and civilizations. Though in modern times the function of Anthropomorphic Animals may seem to be relegated mainly to children's entertainment, traditionally they have been fixtures of philosophy, religion, and allegorical literature. Spectral Shadows uses such characters with a mixture of both the modern and traditional aspects. Meaning that they are intended to be entertaining, but also provide food for the mind.
"Anthropomorphic" means "Of man." For an animal character to be anthropomorphic it needs to have some sort of human element attached to it, such as being able to speak, understand complex emotions and concepts, and even walk and operate complex machinery. This can also be reflectied in whether the character walks upright on two legs, or if it has facial features that are artistically adapted t convey human emotions.
From Funny Animals To Furries[]
Funny Animals refers to cartoon animals, specifically those that gained popularity in the late 1800's with the advent of newspaper comic strips and later comic books and animation. These we typically animal characters given a human shape and human expressions for the purpose of allegorically expressing human ideas. The term "Funny Animals" literally translates to "Those animals that are seen in The Funnies." or The Funny Pages, as they were called back in the day.
By the 1970's, the term Funny Animals had been relegated to a means of differentiating animal based humor comics from superhero comics. It was, and perhaps never had been a term that was commonly recognized by people not in some way involved with comics. However, with the advent of the 1970's a renewed interest in talking animals gave rise to a need for a different name, one that didn't imply the animal characters were humorous or aimed directly at children. The term that was eventually settled on by pop culture was "Furries."
The resulting Furry Fandom has been a source of controversy throughout its existence. It is divided into many factions. Those that include the long history of anthropomorphism as part of the interest vs. those who reject everything prior to the establishment of the term "Furry." Those who would include only humanoid looking animal characters vs. those who include four legged animals with human personalities. And, perhaps most controversial of all, those who see the anthropomorphic arts as a venerated historical institution with many awards and accolades to its credit, vs those who see it primarily as a venue of porn.
In the modern age it is not uncommon for fandoms to denigrate the object of their interest. But none have accomplished this as thoroughly as Furry Fandom has. They have actually hurt the anthropomorphic arts to such an extent that even a successful movie like Zootopia, which should be easily recognized as a prime example of what Furry Fandom is all about, must play down its connection to avoid negative controversy.
This is an equally awkward situation for Spectral Shadows, in that it was conceived in the 1970's when philosophy oriented talking animal novels commonly populated the best seller lists, but is now forced to offer itself to a Furry Fandom that commonly doesn't make a place for it.
Humanimals[]
The most popular type of Furry character is the humanoid variety. Basically a human with animal ears, a tail, animal feet, and fur is actually optional. You see this in everything from the mascot on your cereal box to the bunny eared V-tuber you watch on the internet. Everywhere you look, someone is making a human character more expressive and appealing by adding animal attributes.
An example of a "Humanoid Animal"
In cartoon theory it is not necessary to define how this mixture of attributes came about at all. In science fiction, however, you will be expected to explain this. And Spectral Shadows is serious enough with its science fiction that it actually has to come up with several different plausible ways this mixture could occur.
In Serial 11 "The Planet of Genetic Misadventure it's a mixture of animal and human DNA resulting from genetic warfare. In Serial 2 it's something of a virtual game environment where one can design their own character. We actually see that choice often plays a role in such mixtures, demonstrating a lack of interest in being human and a desire to become something more exotic, which is very reflective of the Furry Fandom, and the author as well. An obsessive interest in Furry characters may indeed reflect a boredom with the sameness of human features. And this figures into the allegories expressed in some Spectral Shadows stories. Indeed, in Serial 11 we attempt to view this from the reverse angle by having anthropomorphic animal characters idolizing the pure human form.
Feral Animals[]
Main Article: Feral Animal
A Feral Animal is the name the Furry Fandom has given to animal characters that have the bodies of realistic animals, but have expressive faces, the ability to talk, and an ability to reason in a human fashion.
An example of a Feral Animal. Note that it still is counted as "Feral" despite its fantastic elements.
Feral Furries most commonly appear in modern fables, like Jonathan Livingston Seagull, Watership Down, The Last Unicorn, The Rats Of NIMH, etc.. Indeed, Spectral Shadows was initially conceived to be part of that genre. Which can be seen in the first serial. It is, in fact, one of only a handful of Furry projects that regularly mixes Humanials with Ferals in a serious setting.
This is commonly anticipated to cause the uncomfortable feeling one gets from seeing Pluto and Goofy on the screen at the same time. How are they both dogs in the same world, yet one is humanoid and the other is feral? Thus the one dog is able to own the other. The humanoid cow eating a hamburger, as is sometimes seen in The Furry Arts, also tends to be an uncanny valley moment. There is an art to making these things work.