A list of fictional works centered around werebeasts: people that can turn into an animal/partially-animal humanoid and vice-versa, whether voluntarily or not. To qualify the werebeasts must have a central role in the plot, such as being the main protagonists or the main threat, rather than just simply being there.
Werewolves are common enough to get their own index over at Werewolf Works and should be listed there, though there can be overlap if stories with werewolves also prominently feature other types of werebeast.
Expect Werebeast Tropes to show up a lot. See also Vampire Fiction and Witch Works.
Works:
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Anime & Manga
- BNA: Brand New Animal is about an alternate version of Earth where werebeasts, known as Beast Men, live alongside humans.
- Bungo Stray Dogs: The main protagonist is referred to as a weretiger and can transform into a half-tiger, half-human creature.
- Dino Girl Gauko is about a girl who turns into a dinosaur whenever she gets angry.
- One Piece: The superpowers in this setting are divided into three categories, and one of those categories is Zoanthropy, aka the ability to turn into animals and in-between forms. One of the protagonists is also a werebeast... a human werebeast (in that the original creature is a reindeer who obtained the ability to transform into a human). This category also comes with several subcategories: Ancient Zoans (who can transform into extinct animals) and Mythical Zoans (who can transform into mythical creatures, including humanoids with supernatural powers like Buddha or a god). Chapter 1044 reveals that even the main protagonist Luffy is a Zoan user, who also has a human werebeast ability that turns him into a sun god. Several arcs focus on characters with these powers (typically as the main antagonists), and the strongest creature in the world is not only a werebeast, but leads an entire army of werebeasts.
- Purple Eyes in the Dark revolves around humans who can turn into beasts, who are distinguished by a birthmark and purple eyes. The protagonist is one of them, and can turn into a leopard.
- Tokyo Mew Mew: Focuses on a group of Magical Girls who have the DNA of animals (including a cat, bird, porpoise, monkey and wolf) and can transform into a partially-animal form and use abilities related to their specific animal.
Art
- Beast Fables is set in a fantasy world populated by werebeasts instead of humans.
Comic Books
- Angel Catbird: The main antagonist is a wererat who is plotting to create an army of Rat People. The main protagonist gains the ability to turn into a human-owl-cat hybrid (essentially a humanoid cat with feathery wings).
- Gold Digger: Features a lot of were-creatures, starting with one of the main characters, Cheetah, an adopted member of the Diggers family who was found by Gina's father after her clan were wiped out.
- West Coast Avengers: One of the main heroes is Tigra, a woman who can transform into a weretiger.
Fan Works
- The Heart Trilogy: The main character Smaug gains the ability to change from dragon to human and vice versa; as does Kathryn, the other main character.
- The Shiloh series
(an Emergency! fic series) has John and Chet as werecats.
- Why and were deals with Howondalandian were-leopards arriving in Ankh-Morpork. Sure enough, on encountering werewolves, they do indeed fight like cats and dogs.
Film - Animation
- Barbie of Swan Lake: Based on the Swan Lake ballet. The protagonist is turned into a swan via a curse and can only become human at night; the villains can turn into large birds at will.
- The Curse of the Were-Rabbit: The plot revolves around a wererabbit terrorising a vegetable competition.
- Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island: The main antagonists are revealed to be werecats, or more specifically "cat creatures" as they're called here.
- Scooby-Doo: Return to Zombie Island: Features cat creature antagonists. Most of these cat creatures are fakes, although one is implied to be the real thing.
- Song of the Sea: One of the main characters, Saoirse, is a selkie and it's revealed her mother is a selkie too.
- The Swan Princess: Loosely based upon the ballet Swan Lake. The titular protagonist gets turned into a swan and can only turn back if she's on a lake when the moon appears; the villain of the first movie can voluntarily turn into a monstrous chimera.
- Turning Red: The main protagonist finds herself under a Hereditary Curse that has her shift into a large, bipedal red panda when experiencing strong emotions.
Film - Live Action
- Beauty and the Beast (2014): In this version, it's revealed that the Beast's first wife was a fairy who could take the form of a golden doe; he unwittingly killed her in this form and thus was cursed, kicking off the whole plot.
- Black Sheep (2007): Features weresheep as major threats alongside carnivorous sheep.
- The Blood Beast Terror: A weremoth is the main antagonist.
- Captive Wild Woman: A gorilla is turned into a human with science, gradually changes back, and then is set for another dose of science.
- Jungle Woman: The gorilla can now change into a human at will and back.
- Jungle Captive: After being brought back from death, the gorilla is stuck in a transitional state, but gets made human again with science. She reverts back before the result can be made permanent.
- Cat People: Both the 1942 and 1982 versions revolve around werepanthers.
- Gods of Egypt: The eponymous gods from Egyptian Mythology have both a human form and a humanoid-with-animal-head form.
- Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban: The Film of the Book; the plot heavily features wizards who can take an animal form.
- Howling III: The Marsupials: Revolves around werethylacines - thylacines, also known as Tasmanian tigers, are an extinct species of marsupial.
- Ladyhawke: One of the main characters has been cursed to turn into a hawk when the sun rises, turning human again at sunset; while the other is cursed to turn into a wolf during the night, so they can never be human at the same time.
- Scary or Die: One segment features a wereclown.
- Sleepwalkers: Vampire-like werecats are the main villains.
- The Wasp Woman: A woman finds herself occasionally turning into a bloodthirsty humanoid wasp due to a side-effect of an experimental anti-aging serum.
Literature
- Anita Blake Vampire Hunter: All sorts of werebeasts - including leopards, tigers and hyenas - show up and sometimes have important roles in the books.
- Lora Leigh's The Breeds series focuses on werecats.
- The Bright Falls Mysteries: The main character is a weredeer.
- Darkest Powers: Maya, the protagonist of the second trilogy, is revealed to be a skinwalker, depicted here as a person who can transform into an animal (in Maya's case a cougar). Several other characters are skinwalkers too.
- Den of Shadows: Shapeshifters (people who can turn into a specific animal) show up throughout the series, though they're particularly important in The Persistence of Memory; the heroine's close friend and eventual love interest is a hyena shapeshifter and after he helps save her she's turned into a hyena shapeshifter as well.
- Fire & Rescue Shifters: The protagonists are "mythic" shifters that transform into inherently magical animals (pegasus, dragon, phoenix, etc).
- Ghosts of Fear Street: Specifically book twelve Night of the Werecat, in which the main character accidentally turns herself into a werecat.
- Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban: Animagi - wizards who can turn into a specific animal - show up throughout the series, but they are central to the plot of the third book.
- Howl of the Werewolf: A Fighting Fantasy book; whilst (as the title suggests) it focuses on werewolves and the player character's transformation into one, it also features multiple encounters with humans afflicted with other wereforms, including the Werebat, Werebear, Wererat and the Werebeast (described as "part wolf, part bear"). It also features Were-Wargs (lycanthropes who died in their wolf form and were resurrected as undead, "trapped in a decaying semi-lupine form").
- Into the Bloodred Woods is set in a land of were beasts. The primary protagonist is a were bear.
- Kiesha'ra: The prequel series to Den of Shadows, which revolves around conflict and the quest for peace between serpent shapeshifters and avian shapeshifters; other types of shapeshifter show up as well.
- Kitty Norville: While Kitty and her husband Ben are both werewolves, there are several other species of were in the series, including were-jaguars, were-seals, and werelions (in particular, Kitty's love interest in book 2 is a were-jaguar). One caller to Kitty's radio show believes he might be a were-alpaca, but Kitty has her doubts.
- "Lusus Naturae": A short story by Margaret Atwood in which the protagonist is a werecat (or possibly just has the medical disorder porphyria, believed to be the basis of some vampire and werebeast legends).
- Mercy Thompson: The titular main protagonist is a "walker", a shapeshifter who can turn into a coyote.
- Night World: One of the main types of Night People are shapeshifters, depicted here as creatures who look human and can turn into a specific animal.
- Black Dawn has shapeshifter antagonists (including a werebear, werefalcon and werehound) and reveals the heroine's missing brother is now a falcon shapeshifter.
- Two of the main protagonists and the main antagonist of Witchlight are shapeshifters.
- Owl in Love: A young adult novel that centers on a girl who's an owl shifter.
- Shifters Series: Revolves around werecats.
- Twisted (2010): The main characters are wererides, the protagonist being a werecoaster.
- Wereworld: The setting includes many varieties of werecreatures; the main antagonists are werecats.
- Woodwalkers
Live-Action TV
Tabletop Games
- Dungeons & Dragons features multiple types of werebeasts. As of 5th edition, The connecting factors being that they have the ability to assume hybrid or animal forms, come with a massive stat boost of some sort and usually shift the alignment of the cursed character. The more common types include wererats, werebears, and werewolves.
Theatre
- Swan Lake: The heroine has been cursed to turn into a swan by day and human by night.
Video Games
- Altered Beast (1988) has the main goal of each stage being to collect a set of spirit orbs to power up the player's centurion, the final power up being the transformation into a werebeast. The four beasts that appear in the game are a werewolf (stage 1 and 5), weredragon (stage 2), werebear (stage 3), and weretiger (stage 4).
- Bloody Roar: The game revolves around people called zoanthropes who have the ability to transform into humanoid animals.
- Sonic Unleashed: Dr. Eggman's plan to awaken Dark Gaia results in Sonic getting stuck with some of the being's energy, causing him to transform into the "Werehog" when the sun goes down. Unleashed's gameplay is split between the standard fast platforming day stages and the slower-paced beat 'em up style night stages.
Visual Novels
- Dark Nights: Kurato is cursed to transform into a rabbit-like creature from time to time.
Webcomics
- Clan of the Cats: Main protagonist Chelsea discovers she's a werecat, which is hereditary amongst the women in her family.
Web Video
- Oxventure: Prudence becomes a werebear after an encounter with one in "Fast and the Furious". After several adventures of this being alluded to by her demonstrating the massive strength boost it brings, she finally transforms in "High Moon", helpfully after meeting a community of other werebears.
Western Animation
- Supernatural Academy: Shifters (who can turn into different animals) are one of many prominently featured supernatural beings; an evil dragon-shifter is one of the main villains, one of the protagonists is a dragon-shifter and a wolf-shifter protagonist discovers she can turn into a dragon too.
