Cuddly Pokemon and the Demons That Spawned Them

[themilo504]

I prefer shin megami tensei over pokemon it features youkai without disneyfication and did the concept of
A game in which you fight using monsters earlier and better.

well to be honest they don?t have that many youkai Besides also featuring some of their gods most of their mons tends to be from other mythology even lovecraft.

Japanese myths aren?t any weirder than most myths they like all myths are the terrifying result of superstitions and bored people with lots of creativity that drink a lot really the only really weird part of most Japanese myths is that everything becomes sentient.

Your cat dog rabbit or whatever pet you have becomes a youkai when he gets old enough and presumably kills you if you treated him badly same for most animals tools and other objects would come to live after a 100 year meaning you could be killed by the old umbrella you threw away.

I?m also starting to think people had a lot of bizarre fetishes back then considering the amount of shapeshifting youkai that fall in love with people.


Also I know it has been mentioned but the pokedex entries can be pretty disturbing.

 

[ZexionSephiroth]

I only took a brief glance at some of the other comments, and some of them seem to have brought up the issue of whether "Taming" the original legends by making them cute is okay.

Personally, I'm fine with a more family friendly version of critters, provided it helps them fit in with the theme and tone of the narrative in question.

However, what I'd really like to see, is a game that treats the Youkai or their in universe equivalent as if they were equal in rights, status, and personality to humans.

I want to see a Kitsune with ambitions to become a musician, a Kappa that wants to open their own store, and a Nekomata that wants to be an author.

Why? Well, think about it, ancient Youkai would probably work out as having similar states of social development as humans would have had: dark, primitive, anti-social, and violent.

But in a modern day, they would probably have reached a similar state of social progression. And with that, comes all the mundane concerns of modern life.

Once you've got all that, try balancing that familiarity with their historical personality (besides the primitive parts), their powers, their traditions.

...and at that point, you can start stretching them back out to encompass the wider scale of tendency to make them extremely relate-able to humans; starting with the "regular Joe" Youkai working 9 to five, and moving to the extremes of a Saintly one fighting a complete monster of one... And they could all be the same kind of Youkai.

I guess what I'm trying to say is... I'd like to be able to see the Youkai treated as a "living" being with its own thoughts and desires, instead of just being some creature that does it "cause it can", or some other excuse not to give them a personalty by forcing them into a role.

 

[NeutralDrow]

All right, Pokémon don't actually do that,

What? Hell yes, they do. You brought up drowning children and I immediately thought of Frillish (though they drown anyone).

 

[AbstractStream]

The seemingly innocent one is the one that scared me the most. Lombre, I knew I couldn't trust you.

This article was a great read though!

 

[Rakor]

Japanese culture is fun. >

Also, regardless of backstory...

Still the creepiest pokemon.

WHAT THE...? It looks like Hurricane Sandy hit Wonka's Factory.

It evolves from the trash bag pokemon.

It rather frightened me when I first saw it. Reminds me more of Micky Mouse...which makes it creepier.

 

[Excludos]

Electrabuzz derives from the man-eating oni, Shiftry's long nose and single-tooth geta mark him as a tengu, and various Pokémon fit the description of tsukumogami

Electabuzz, not ElectRabuzz. Comon, think you'd know better by now!

jk, great article. I think its great that they involve a bit of history and old stories into their pokemons, even if its unknown to most.

 

[Redlin5_v1legacy]

That's... that's soooo cool!

Bookmarking this article, I need to do some research on a slow day.

 

[ZehMadScientist]

Very interesting article. Japanese folklore has always interested me, if not for its weirdness among other things.

I knew about some of these already, but I never knew about Espeon and Electabuzz for example. Though they toned that particular case down a lot,they sure haven't with a lot of the other critters.

I mean, they have a Grim Reaper, a spiteful doll hellbent on getting revenge for being abandoned, a balloon that kidnaps children, a creature of the night that locks people in eternal nightmares... hell, any ghost type Pokemon is most likely evil.

 

[Saxnot]

cool article. it shows how all cultures keep adapting their boogeymen.
In the west we totally do the same thing: fairies were not helpful, nice, friendly baing in their original version.

also, we have our analogue to the kuchisake-onna in the west: slenderman

 

[ryo02]

Cool stuff. I like that I actually knew a few of these.

Also, I remember that attack of Lombre's being used in Doomsday Arcade.
>_> It's always super effective.

Spoiler: Always.

if I recall correctly Absol can see disaster coming and tries to warn people before it happens its reputation is people getting the wrong end of the stick.

 

[Shadowstar38]

I'd like to see them pull off a pokemon of the woman that has an eyeball in her anus.

 

[Fractral]

I'm fairly sure that Giratina is based off of satan, having 6 spikes, 6 wings and 6 claws in ints origin forme. It was banished by Arceus (who is stated to be the god of all pokemon) because of its sins. So its not just japanese folklore they take these ideas from, not anymore.

 

[iAmNothing]

A very interesting article and very well written.

I'm sure I won't be the only one who's going to be researching this when I find some spare time

 

[Imp_Emissary]

Cool stuff. I like that I actually knew a few of these.

Also, I remember that attack of Lombre's being used in Doomsday Arcade.
>_> It's always super effective.

Spoiler: Always.

if I recall correctly Absol can see disaster coming and tries to warn people before it happens its reputation is people getting the wrong end of the stick.

I think you have the wrong person friend.

But for what it's worth, I do agree with you.

 

[Robert Rath]

That's... that's soooo cool!

Bookmarking this article, I need to do some research on a slow day.

A very interesting article and very well written.

I'm sure I won't be the only one who's going to be researching this when I find some spare time

Reliable sources on Yokai are a little difficult to find in English. I highly suggest you look at the website hyakumonogatari.com - the owner is named Zack Davisson and his MA thesis was on Yurei, which are the ghostly counterparts to Yokai.

If you want to read about how Japanese folklore has been transplanted in the United States, I highly recommend any of Glen Grant's books: Obake: Ghost Stories in Hawaii, Obake Files: Ghostly Encounters in Supernatural Hawaii, and the decidedly darker The Secret Obake Casebook. The first one has a great essay on Japanese-style ghost sightings in Hawaii, including kappa sightings, but all of them have discussions of Japanese spirits.

Though antiquated, you can still get a lot of Lafcadio Hearn's books on Japanese folklore very cheap or even for free online. (Most of them were written around 1900-1904 so they're public domain.) Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things is the classic.

 

[Dr.Susse]

This is a bad joke but;

Does that make Ginko from Mushi-shi a pokemon trainer?

 

[Zack Davisson]

I'm Zack Davisson, the yokai researcher referenced in the article. Robert did a great job with the article, and I can confirm what he is saying. Most of the references are deliberate--you can see it even more in some of the Japanese names the Pokemon. And the yokai/pokemon connection is well known in Japan. There are lots and lots of yokai--thousands of them--and they provide a rich source when coming up with new pokemon.

If you want to know more, like Robert said check out my site (http://hyakumonogatari.com/) or you can email me a question!

 

[LadyRhian]

Not all Pokémon are based on monsters or Yokai. FarFetch'd is based on a popular Japanese dish- duck with spring onions/greens.

 

[Ljs1121]

Very well-researched and interesting. I'm starting to really love this series.

Also, Espeon is still the best Pokemon ever.