- Which Yokai did you pick? Why?
I picked the tanuki because they’re most known in video game culture. In a game that I play called Genshin Impact the main character I play is named sayu who is a tanuki. Also in animal crossing, the first animal you meet is a tanuki named tom nook.
- Name some characteristics and provide a background history/summary on your Yokai.
The tanuki lives in the forest and rainforests of Japan. The diets of this tanuki are small wild animals, whereas the actual raccoon dog’s diet is berries, insects’ fish, and nuts. The tanuki is a shy, quiet animal that is well-known in popular decorations. The main power of this yokai is their ability to transform into different objects. The tanuki also has another power which is their testicles. Their testicles can become very helpful as a shield and weapon in need of assistance.
- Do you think Japanese Yokai differ from Western monsters and mythical creatures? Explain.
I think they’re arguably different. The yokai has a bigger background with more information while in your classic western monsters have mostly movies that gives the information. Personally, I think the Japanese yokai have a bigger variety of characters compared to the classic western ones. In my culture, we also have some Filipino legends mostly around the night to scare the children.
- Do you believe in Yokai, monsters, ghosts, or mythical creatures? Why or why not?
As a kid, I think we are most vulnerable to believing in those types of things. As we start getting older we collect more fears with personal matters or with “real life” occurrences. Recently a new movie came out called a smile. This movie is meant to scare others with the possibility of it being true, and that’s how I perceive this question. It has the possibility of being true but when we think of multiple real-life things such as drowning, getting hurt, etc those are the things that scare a human more in my opinion.
