This is a weird theory but I might argue that most anthro animals are highly symbolic - their forms are specifically neither animal nor human as an IDEALIZATION.
I think that's part of how ferals were a lot more popular in 90s fandom - ferals are more recognition and representation of human AS animal (or in the case of therians, a quadruped animal self image is very intentionally NOT an idealization), less very derived animal traits as a shorthand for idealized humans. If that one makes sense?
@Leucrotta Well, that and The Lion King and Balto
@Kusimanse And Spirit, then if you go further the Americanized Godzilla/cartoon and Jurassic Park's dinosaurs. The 90s really had a lot of animal characters beyond just obvious cartoons.
Why this is I'm not sure, but I think someone smarter than me could probably relate imagery *within* furry fandom to mainstream animal imagery to the larger sense of what's going on (in the 90s "our planet is dying" is a big revelation, in 2024, "our planet is dying" is pretty accepted "common sense").
@Leucrotta Oh yeah, there's certainly studies to be made about how and why Ferals, anthros, OCs become popular. Media influence does happen (MLP:FIM, Sonic, TLk) but also social/cultureal trends.
@Kusimanse Now what I really wonder is whether there's a gestalt of "stuff that makes potential furries and just people in media think about producing quasi-furry content, such that the potential fan is thinking about this stuff ANYWAY and then gets hit by quasi-furry media and goes, oh hey yeah I like this.
@Leucrotta It could be a trend, could be marketing hype (Kung Fu Panda made money, let's do Karate Penguin!).. there are trends for sure.