Tag Archives: yokai

Stay Out of the Deep End

Posted on June 23, 2022 by Nathan

I’m going to guess you want more fish-people, but I’ll admit I’m very bad at predicting what other people want. So let’s just say I want to write more about fish-people. I often go to TV Tropes to see examples … Continue reading →

Posted in Animals, Art, Australian, Babylonian, Breath of Fire, Cartoons, Dragon Quest, Final Fantasy, Games, Greek Mythology, Health, Humor, Japanese, Language, Magic, Mana/Seiken Densetsu, Mario, Monsters, Mythology, Pacific, Relationships, Sexuality, Television, Video Games, Zelda | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

A Thousand Thousand Slimy Things Lived On

Posted on January 8, 2022 by Nathan

I wrote about Slimes in the Dragon Quest series eleven years ago, and mentioned the fact that they were inspired by Creeping Cruds from Wizardry, but Akira Toriyama drew them as cute. There was also a mention of Slimes in … Continue reading →

Posted in Board Games, Cartoons, Dragon Quest, Final Fantasy, Focus on the Foes, Food, Games, Gender, Japanese, Magic, Monsters, Mythology, Video Games | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Nobody Ever Suspects the Butterfly

Posted on March 21, 2021 by Nathan

Picture by Carsten Witte In this post about a Chinese drama, there’s a mention of butterfly demons, and some possibilities as to how this links to mythology. Butterflies are apparently considered manifestations of the soul in Greek, Chinese, and Japanese culture. … Continue reading →

Posted in Animals, Aztec, Chinese, Dragon Quest, Greek Mythology, Japanese, Magic, Monsters, Mythology, Native American, Roman, Urban Legends, Video Games, Zelda | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Where There’s a Will, There’s a Wisp

Posted on March 25, 2020 by Nathan

The term “Will o’ the Wisp” refers to a sort of light that appears over swamps and marshes, caused by photon emissions from gases. Or at least that’s the scientific explanation. There’s a lot of folklore devoted to these weird … Continue reading →

Posted in Animal Crossing, Animals, Authors, British, Christianity, Dragon Quest, Etymology, Fairy Tales, Final Fantasy, German, J.R.R. Tolkien, Japanese, Lewis Carroll, Magic, Monsters, Mythology, Plays, Poetry, Religion, Science, Scottish, South American, Video Games, William Shakespeare | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Something Old, Something Nue

Posted on October 5, 2019 by Nathan

I was looking at the Wikipedia page listing flying mythological creatures. There were many I’d either already written about or didn’t appear to have much information, but I did take some interest in the Nue, a kind of yokai from … Continue reading →

Posted in Animals, Breath of Fire, Japanese, Monsters, Mythology, Video Games | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Weasels on the Wind

Posted on July 6, 2019 by Nathan

Another mythical Japanese creature, or yokai, that came up in the Pokémon videos I talked about last week is the kamaitachi, the probable inspiration for the Sneasel. The name kamaitachi literally means “sickle weasel,” and that’s basically what they are, … Continue reading →

Posted in Animals, Chinese, Dragon Quest, Final Fantasy, Humor, Japanese, Language, Monsters, Mythology, Pokémon, Video Games | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Sinking the Stinking One

Posted on November 20, 2018 by Nathan

The Storm Runner, by J.C. Cervantes – This is another book from the Rick Riordan Presents label, and there’s a definite pattern to most of these. A kid who has trouble fitting in with their peers finds out they’re the … Continue reading →

Posted in Authors, Aztec, Book Reviews, Catholicism, Christianity, Greek Mythology, incryptid, Japanese, Magic, Mayan, Monsters, Music, Mythology, Native American, Philosophy, Prejudice, Religion, Rick Riordan, seanan mcguire | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Toilet Terrors

Posted on October 27, 2018 by Nathan

There was a link on Twitter to this article on ghosts that haunt Japanese bathrooms, and I thought that might be a topic worth addressing myself. Bathrooms can be pretty scary places anyway, but usually the fear is more that … Continue reading →

Posted in Arabian, Chinese, Christianity, Islam, Japanese, Korean, Monsters, Mythology, Religion, Roman, Semitic, Urban Legends | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Hair Club for Warriors

Posted on July 8, 2016 by Nathan

I recently heard about both Bayonetta and Shantae being video game characters who fight with their hair. I don’t know much about these games, but from some brief research I found that Bayonetta doesn’t directly use it as a weapon … Continue reading →

Posted in Cartoons, Characters, Comics, Fairy Tales, Japanese, Magic, Monsters, Mythology, Oz, Oz Authors, Ruth Plumly Thompson, Video Games | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Hell on Wheels

Posted on February 28, 2015 by Nathan

Ixion, King of the Lapiths in Thessaly, was a pretty thoroughly bad guy. He married Dia, the daughter of Deioneus, who is sometimes called Eionenus. He refused to pay the customary bride-price, however, so Deioneus took some of his horses … Continue reading →

Posted in Christianity, Final Fantasy, Greek Mythology, Japanese, Mythology, Religion, Video Games | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment