Overview
Inhuman (人外) refers to 'something that is not a human being'.
To be precise, "Inhuman" is not an appropriate translation of the Japanese word for "人外" ('non-human'), but this article has been redirected from the Japanese article somehow, so this term is used here solely for convenience.
Merely referring to "non-human" has a wide range of meanings, so the term is roughly divided into a narrow and a broad sense.
In addition, within the narrow sense, a narrowest sense was formulated to summarise those that are generally supported by the public.
Narrow Sense
Something that is not a human being, but is close to a human being. It is also considered to be able to communicate with people to a certain extent.
(Narrowest Sense)
In the mainstream perception, this refers to characters who are not human but are close to humans, such as demi-humans, robots (humanoid machines) and synthetic humans that have been created. There are many cases in which they have intelligence equivalent to that of humans.
In some cases, the scope of 'non-human' is not a difference in appearance, but merely a difference in setting (e.g. a human looking but mixed race of yokai).
Broad Sense
Non-human beings that are far from being human. In the broad sense, the term refers to animal species outside of primates, plants and micro-organisms, etc. in living beings, and to machines that do not take humanoid form and buildings, etc. in non-living beings.
