History Main / WhatMeasureIsAHumanoid

!Examples:

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]

* Averted for the most part in ''Manga/TheLegendOfZeldaTwilightPrincess2016''. While Midna does have a more human form she returns to in the end, Link falls for her well before he even knows she's under a BalefulPolymorph and has no problem kissing or cuddling half-naked with a tiny, bobble-headed imp. Midna likewise suggests she's pretty into Link's (very much not anthropomorphic) wolf form.

* Happens many times in ''Manga/DragonHalf''. Vina's mother (a slime) fell in love with the king (since his dumpy head sort of looked like a slime) and used a potion to turn human... except their daughter was born as a slime too, and then has to use magic to (temporarily) maintain a human form. Rouche the knight meanwhile fell in love with the dragon he was sent to slay, Mana, and eloped with her. (Humorously, although she can turn almost-human, he appears to have fallen for her in her ''dragon'' form...) Mink wants to become human too, even though she's almost completely human except her wings, tail and horns (and super-strength), but this is mainly because her love interest is an overzealous dragon slayer.

* ''Manga/RanmaOneHalf'': The Musk Dynasty turned animals into women using the [[TransformationRay Cursed Springs]] so they would [[LamarckWasRight bear children with]] [[AnimalThemedSuperbeing animal superpowers]]. Disturbingly, the two animals turned human by the curse on-screen don't even show any signs of having become sapient.
* All the relationships between owners and their persocoms in ''Manga/{{Chobits}}''.

* ''ComicBook/{{Supergirl}}'':
** Pre-Crisis Supergirl owned a super-powered, intelligent horse named Comet. Comet was really a centaur called Biron who'd been cursed so that at any one time he had to be all horse or all man. And he had a crush on Kara.
** Lesbian Comet is the ComicBook/PostCrisis version, who was a lesbian comedienne who'd combined with a male superhero with horse-DNA to form an [[OurAngelsAreDifferent Earth Angel]] in the same way as Matrix Supergirl combined with Linda Danvers. (S)he could alternate between the two forms. Supergirl was attracted to Comet, but somewhat taken aback by Andi.

[[folder:Oral Tradition]]
* Fox maidens, usually malicious (CunningLikeAFox) are common in Chinese, Japanese, and Korean mythology. Several examples are found in ''Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio'' ("Liao Zhai Zhi Yi") by Pu Songling.

* Also celebrated is ''The Legend of the White Snake'': a snake spirit falls in love with the student Xu-Xian. A KnightTemplar type monk called Fa-Hai intervenes, not because she is evil, but simply because she is non-human. Fa-Hai's meddling did more harm than good.
* In South America there is the legend of the Encantados, pink river dolphins that change into men so they can seduce and/or abduct human women. Unexplained pregnancies? Hey, blame the dolphins. Who ''else'' could be responsible?
* OlderThanFeudalism: Zeus in the Greek Myths, often changed into animals and seduced women. These relationships often produced children who were harassed or even killed by his wife, Hera. Helen of Troy -- the most beautiful woman in the world -- is likely half-swan, since that was the form Zeus took when he raped her mother. Some versions of her birth involve her ''hatching from an egg.''
* Selkies? Swan-maidens?

* A {{Filler}} episode of ''LightNovel/{{Slayers}}'' has a man fall in love with a fish person. They want to find a potion that will 'allow them to live together', thinking this means that it will turn the fish-woman into a human woman. While this is true, it also turns the man into a fish-man. They are perfectly happy with this.

* ''WesternAnimation/AdventureTime'': Finn is the only for-sure human in the world at the moment and lusted after by a whole harem of weird princesses. However, the only ones for whom serious romantic interest have been brought up are Bubblegum (a candy person), Marceline (a half-demon vampire), and Flame Princess (a fire person).

* ''WesternAnimation/TheLastUnicorn'' is fully sapient in her original form, so it may not fully count. But in a poignant scene there's still a slight moment of {{squick}}/hilarity when Lir, who's in love with her as a human finds out who she really is and says "Unicorn, mermaid, sorceress, no name you could give her would surprise or frighten me. I love whom I love." Schmendrick says "Well, that's a very nice sentiment, but when I turn her back into her proper shape..." and Lir just repeats stonily: "I LOVE WHOM I LOVE."

* {{Inverted|Trope}} in ''WesternAnimation/BeautyAndTheBeast'', although that one still gets lots of d'awwww...

[[folder:Real Life]]
* While it remains a point of contention within the scientific community whether [[OriginalMan archaic humans such as Neanderthals and Denisovans]] should be considered [[HumanSubspecies subspecies of Homo sapiens]] or different species altogether, there are definite physiological differences between us to the point of it nearing the UncannyValley. In spite of this, one of the [[ClashOfEvolutionaryLevels several reasons for their extinction]] is that they were partially [[HalfHumanHybrid assimilated into our genome through crossbreeding]], with Europeans and Asians carrying around 2% Neanderthal DNA on average.
[[/folder]]