Orochi
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You are currently reading a thread in /a/ - Anime & Manga
You are currently reading a thread in /a/ - Anime & Manga
Does Japan have any other famous monsters that aren't Orochi?
Because he (or thematic allusions to him) seems to show up in animes and other bits of japanese media a lot despite his story boiling down to: Got Drunk, Got Decapitated
And did Susano-O do anything impressive besides killing this guy while he was passed out?
>>115254483
The thing people tend to focus on with yamato no orochi is the 8 heads, the "giant" snake/dragon thing, and the sword in the belly thing. What I always thought was cooler was the fact that the thing is supposed to be the size of a landscape, with moss and trees growing on its back, valleys and rivers being the trails left by its 8 heads and 8 tails, and its underside being constantly bleeding and inflamed from being dragged across and crushing the landscape underneath itself. most anime things the "giant" aspect as it being the size of maybe a modern building at most, but it's supposed to be the size of a full natural disaster.
>>115255836
That description is hardcore.
The only thing I know that fits that description is the Black Beast from Blazblue, which is treated more like a calamity than a monster.
They have the 4 mythical beasts that always appear in video games; giant turtle, phoenix, kirin, and dragon king. I think that's just some shit they copied from China though.
>>115256163
Yeah, that's China. Also, its not phoenix, its King of Birds. The Suzaku is more analogous to a fire bird, but the Chinese King of Birds (FengHuang) is based on the extinct Chinese Ostritch.
Kirin/Qilin are likewise based on Giraffes (from a time where ancient China was large and powerful enough they could import Giraffes straight from Africa).
>>115254483
Nine-tailed fox
Tanuki
>>115254483
Japanese Giant Salamander
Toads
Slugs
Snakes
>>115256484
The nine-tailed fox is Chinese in origin (~400 BCE).
Iirc it's first appearance in Japanese literature isn't until the Edo period with Tamamo no Mae.
>>115256334
Actually I'm pretty certain the giraffe bit is backwards. They called the first giraffes they saw Kirin because they vaguely matched descriptions of the Quilin/Kirin, not he other way around.
Ama no Jyaku
Nue
A lot of 2hu.
We have minimal Korean stuffbut who cares about us gooks
>>115256163
I'm sure the Suzaku and phoenix were a bit different. As for the four it's the
Genbu- Snake/Turtle hybrid
Byakko- White Tiger
Seiryu- Dragon
Suzaku- Bird/phoenix but there's a distinction that forgets me.
Of course there's the Yatagarasu that us gooks love too
There's always the Umibozu, lit "sea monk" so named for the shape of a monk's shaved head. Probably just whales doing that majestic thing where they come surging straight out of the water. Whatever they were based on, the Japanese interpret them as enormous humanoids that come rising out of the deep sea and capsize ships. It doesn't show up in pop culture too often though, and there's not really much more to the lore other than "they wreck shit"
>>115256855
This. The Kirin was more like a dragon/unicorn hybrid IIRC. The gave the name to Giraffes because of their horns.
>>115254483
Susanoo (sea and storms) also had a rivalry with his sister Amaterasu (sun). He trolled her in a contest of god birthing. Later he lost his shit and started wrecking her stuff. She freaked out and hid in a cave for a while. Susanoo got b& by Izanagi.
>>115257022
I believe they thought they were the spirits of monks that died at sea, but obviously the look is where the monk idea comes from.
Wasn't there an episode of Mononoke that was about one? Or the bait and switch was that it actually wasn't because the monk that SHOULD have died switched places with someone.
>>115257132
Susanoo, Amaterasu and Izanagi-Izanami aren't monsters. They're simply gods.
>>115257132
Pathetically, I know this story because of that Zynga game Ayakashi.
>>115257097
to be fair the yellow color, the fact that giraffe are weirdly horselike, monsterous in size, and the fact that they have horn nub things, and their patterning being sort of scale-like is a substantial number of weird little coincidences with the general lore. But yeah the mythical Qilin is basically just a big scaly horse with a dragon's head, whiskers horns/antlers and all.
>>115257221
>Ayakashi
Oh god, I was younger back then and had no idea that some fucking cell phone game was going to cause sleepless nights during events and burn a hole through my pocket.
Luckily I was able to quit thoughfor Kancollesend help
![3327487_f520[1].jpg](https://i.imgur.com/XjYSMz5.jpg "3327487_f520[1].jpg")
>>115257195
Izanami is pretty debatable considering she's pretty much a living corpse.
>>115257221
Oh god, that game was shit. Main girl was waifu material, though.
>>115254483
Well basically all the nine beats from tale of the tailed beasts/demons.
The number of tails of those things actually represents a form of power level as the top ones fuck over the gods as if it is nothing.
>>115256773
BS
Abe no Seimei and his mother Kuzonoha predate the edo periode by I dunno how many centuries.
>>115254483
>What is youkai
>>115254483
There are hundreds of different youkai species.
>>115257532
>Mira
>she is a mirror
This took me weeks to get because of how boring the actual story text is to go through.
I managed to kick the game finally by just removing it from my home screen, thankfully. I knew someone who had four devices and abused the shit out of referral and guild/friend stuff with it, but goddamn they stuck to it so much. Sunk money into it, too.
>>115257642
>Abe no Seimei
Heian period, so c. 1000. He was a real person, so legends about him didn't get too wild until much later.
>Kuzunoha
I think this was mostly popularized in Edo, when people began to move into cities and swelled the urban population. Her story was a much later addition to Seimei's legacy in setsuwa.
Oh Shit it's an Okami thre...
What the Fuck is this History Lesson!?
No one's mentioned Kappas? Those turtle things with little water bowl heads.
>>115257780
Edo was something 1600-1850.
Even wikipedia says that it was more around 11th century that Kitsune came up.
Normaly I do not use wikipedia as source but goddamn they won't be wrong by half a fucking millenium.
>>115257894
Show more respect when talking about the chief's people!
>>115257943
I'm not >>115256773 if that's what you're thinking
>it was more around 11th century that Kitsune came up
They were always around, they first appeared as a few passing mentions in Kojiki. Although technically they weren't really "kitsune" as we know them today.
>>115258010
Bow to you Kappa-san.
>>115254483
oh i dont know, maybe...GODZILLA
>>115257780
>legends about him didn't get too wild until much later
He's a swell guy though. There's a story where some monks gather around him, bring him a live frog and ask him to show his powers by killing and reviving it. At hearing this, Seimei goes batshit fucking nuts, who are you to fuck around with the natural order of things, do you want me to murder a living creature for a fucking magic trick, what about I kill you and not revive you afterwards, this is why I can throw fireballs and you can't even fling your shit, blah blah blah blah. He lectures the monks until they start crying. Then he kills the frog and revives it anyway, because nature ain't shit when you're Seimei.
There's also another time when he beats a rival sorcerer to death with his own familiar.
>>115254483
There tons such as the Oni, Ibaraki Douji & Shuten Douji or Tengu, Kurama Tengu.
Yamata-no-Orochi is the most famous probably because it took a god to beat it and Kusanagi is Japanese equivalent of Excalibur.
>>115258061
What was this originally from, I must know for laughs
>>115258088
>Seimei goes batshit fucking nuts
I thought he just coldly called them out on their bullshit and killed the frog, I don't remember the part where he revived it.
>rival sorcerer with his own familiar
Oh yeah, that story is my favorite. I think there was an origins story where Seimei was just a young kid and walking at night beside a covered carriage with an old onmyoji dude sleeping inside. Suddenly the clouds part and he sees a crowd of oni approaching from the distance, he wakes up the onmyoji and the badass old man chants some spell that makes them pass by harmlessly. I think that's when the teacher praised Seimei for being able to see the oni and offered to teach him onmyoji skills. Can't remember what text it was from
>>115258225
The Hero Yoshihiko
Basically a very low budget parody of Dragon Quest.
Yet they somehow managed to afford the VA of Frieza as the final boss of the first season. It's only got two seasons because, iirc, the blonde dude was arrested for cp or something.
>>115254483
Most other Japanese monsters are small fry. You're not gonna get too far if your big bad is a haunted umbrella.
>>115258061
This show was perfect.
>>115258225
It's from Yusha Yoshihiko.
>Oh yeah, that story is my favorite.
I always visualized that one as a yuri story. Seimei as the fox-eared onee-sama, protecting the innocent archivist girl by praying next to her bed all night. It's got just the right plot for it.
>>115258431
But the blonde dude was Yamaga from Aoi Honoo.
fujin raijin nio guardians
>tfw really like the yatagarasu and the white hare of Inaba
>All I've really got for those are touhou and IItachi from Naruto
>Okuu's pretty lame too
At least I'll have the rabbit loli
>>115258440
>You're not gonna get too far if your big bad is a haunted umbrella.
Actually, there's a story where an entire diner got in on that tsukumogami business. It poses as a regular family place and suddenly pops up in the neighborhood, and its food is pretty dang good, but late at night, when it's got only one or two patrons around, the restaurant's doors lock themselves and a bunch of demons (the real customers of the place) come out to carry them off for dinner. In some variants, even the food it serves is drugged, so you could be enjoying lunch one moment and wake up to find yourself being enjoyed as lunch the next. Once the number of missing persons becomes too high for comfort, the restaurant waits for a quiet night, extends its legs and walks over to the next town.
So say, you're some mid-ranking official in ancient Japan, and an entire fucking building is out to eat you. How would you survive that? You wouldn't.
Don't fuck around with tsukumogami.
I don't really know, but what about Byakko? Isn't that a big white tiger?
I think the wealth of JP monster mythology derives not from giant guardian monsters, but more from the multitude of more relatively mundane monsters.
I'm not going to pretend to be particularly knowledgeable, but wouldn't the multitude of youkai be more culturally relevant, considering the nature of Shinto?
>>115258972
Genbu, Suzaku, Byakko, and Seiryu are 4 mythical beasts and guardian deities.
>>115256163
Dont forget the nine tailed fox
>>115256773
>The nine-tailed fox is Chinese in origin (~400 BCE).
The legend went from China to Korea to Japan.
The amusing thing is modern fantasy likes to link Daji to the Fox, saying it is all the same one unique monster, and claim that she went on a journey and ended up in Japan.
>>115257007
>Genbu- Snake/Turtle hybrid
Flipfag here.
Funny thing about Genbu is that we south-east asians have several myths about snake-turtle friendships. One famous myth has a sea serpent Bakunawa go on a killing spree because his brother a sea turtle was eaten by humans, and he proceeded to eat 7 of the 8 moons in revenge. This is a lunar eclipse myth, so he was repelled from eating the 8th moon by loud noises.
>>115259315
>repelled from eating the 8th moon by loud noises.
Pussy. Probably didn't even really love his friend.
>>115259058
Rather than that, the "big monsters" of their myth are fewer in number, while youkai are their equivalent of fairies and household spirits, so their stories are much more widespread. So there are stories where a hero squares off against something big (there's that nue story, the itsumade story, Yorimitsu killing demons and spiders and whatnot, Orochi, these folks who beat up local gods and so on) but these are rare compared to the "so I was going to the grocer's yesterday and something spooky happened" stories.
My favorite of the latter kind is about some farmer who repeatedly gets his crops ruined because his land overlaps with the territory of a local god who likes partying around there. The guy gets fed up with the god's shit, draws a big line across the field, goes out to his field at night (this is a snake/underworld/death god so it comes out at night) and shouts "okay, you stay on your side and I'll worship you, you pass to my side and I'll fucking end you". Then he makes a small shrine and leaves offerings whenever the snake god behaves, and goes over and beats the shit out of him whenever it tries to ruin the crops again. Soon enough, the god and the farmer are best buds (snake god gets worship and recognition, farmer gets good crops because god is helping him instead of trampling his field) and their story spreads around until they're both enshrined.
Successful partnership right there, folks.
I remember that butt monster, what that thing called again?
>>115259540
You're waifu
>>115259540
Got you covered.
>>115259565
Yeah that guy
>>115259540
Shirime.
It's not as bad as the afterbirth monster that kills its "mother" by trying to crawl back into her womb. The worst part is that the poor thing isn't even a grudge spirit like all them other ghosts, it's just a placenta that misses its mother's warmth.
They have a metric shit ton of mythical beasts and youkai, but I can't really think of "famous" ones.
Does Nobunaga count?
>>115254483
I remember that time when i go to Tokyo, there a lot of urban legend stuff there
>>115259658
But he's a great guy.
He's Chinese and not really a monster, but Sun Wukong is all over the place.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_media_adaptations_of_Journey_to_the_West
I quite like him.
>>115257007
>Genbu- Snake/Turtle hybrid
>Byakko- White Tiger
>Seiryu- Dragon
>Suzaku- Bird/phoenix but there's a distinction that forgets me.
Wow, it's like Fushigi Yuugi
>>115259875
They're a widely used group
>>115257022
Oh fuck that's spoopy
