#eirikrjs

[sorenblr]

I hope Eirikjrs is okay! I hope the RIP is just about Kaneko in that pic!

didn't know what the fuck this was about at first but I found it

and yeah it's about kaneko, if either of us die we probably won't announce that fact with a bleeding red halloween r.i.p in our banners lol

#ask #eirikrjs #kazuma kaneko

[purseowner4thequalityanimation]

Jorougumo in MegaTen has a strange history; while her debut was in Raidou Kuzunoha Vs. King Abaddon, she had art seemingly made for Shin Megami Tensei with a design repurposed for Amaterasu in the PC-Engine release of Shin Megami Tensei. 

An ask that @eirikrjs answered in 2021 goes into it in more detail.

#Jorougumo #Devil Summoner #Raidou Kuzunoha #Vs. The Soulless Army #MegaTen #Shin Megami Tensei #eirikrjs

[dijeh]

Kaneko Kazuma talks about Rastaman in Shin Megami Tensei Devil Summoner World Guidance

Christmas present for eirikrjs because nothing says Christmas miracle like Rastaman.

Rastaman

A smiling zombie that approaches people and cuts off their heads. Its body releases a strange odour.

Rastaman, based on the reggae moves of the Carribean… whose image got altered and turned into a homeless man. Those people have to face all kinds of abuse, so the design came as a sort of retaliation. I’m not sure why the bag ended up looking like a Tokyo souvenir. I actually intended to make the demon look like a monochrome James Dean, but there’s no chance of that now. (Kaneko)

(also here)

#shin megami tensei devil summoner #kaneko kazuma #kazuma kaneko #Megaten #translation #my stuff

[craneo87me]

Demiurge Nazo

huh, that sure looks familiar @eirikrjs​

#ougon bat #golden bat #the golden bat #doctor nazo #dr. nazo #shin megami tensei #megami tensei #smt #megaten #demiurge #devil summoner #also yaldabaoth has a lion's head #which is just a big cat #with mane

[eirikrjs]

do you know of a post or article that talked about kaneko's sprite art process? i cant seem to remember if you covered it or someone else did

Pepsiman's original scanlation from the SMT1 OST liner notes is here, if that's what you mean:

#smt #kazuma kaneko

[elendsessor]

hi welcome back to me talking about megaten demon designs and if you follow me or have went through the megaten tags you probably noticed i’ve been on a dsrk kick, specifically with the lone marebito since i unintentionally gave it a reread. i’m sorry if you’ve seen nothing but that shit from me i swear i’m almost done rambling about it.

first time i read it was before i finished dsrk2 so i held off on talking about different designs of reappearing demons since i thought maybe they’d appear in 2 but. nah they didn’t.

a lot of these designs are really cool, redesigns or otherwise.

BRW THIS POST IS LONG I’M SORRY-

i’m gonna toss out a spoiler warning since it’s not likely many people in the megaten community has given the lone marebito a read. there’s an english fan translation here if you’re interested!

quick shoutout to @/eirikrjs since they and @/yamayuandadu made a couple of posts a few years back about the origins of jatou ouhanshin aka this badass motherfucker.

i love giant reptiles in any media and goddamn i love this and yes i want ouhanshin to be included in a future megaten game :D

of course there’s likely some demons i missed/forgot to include so don’t expect every instance.

first up are some redesigns since they mostly appear at the beginning.

now with gremlins! they’re definitely a lot different than any of the previous variations, being a lot more goblin-like + a fat fuck one for good measure. it does more closely represent the pre-soul hackers gremlin design (which is a lot better in my opinion). as silly goofy as they are they do much better fit the general idea of what a gremlin is. this was likely a choice based on the overall tone of the manga, which gets really fucking depressing and a bit more body horror-y/gory than most megaten material, but the smaller gremlins should’ve been the silly goofy with the big boi being the gross monstrosity. idk gremlins are popular enough that having such a vast deviation used in this way doesn’t work.

i think the manticore is actually a complete upgrade from the og designs and is a prime example of the more horror part of tlm improving the original.

idk man i really do not like the og manticore designs. given how the beast itself’s name means man-eater and the fact that it has the body of a lion, the thinner body doesn’t really give that same fear (and the sickly green kinda worsens it). nor does the head??? yeah it’s supposed to be ugly but it looks like a last minute decision and not part of the beast itself. the second one is a bit better but neither of them look that good or scary. (i think they’re more heavily based around a certain latin bestiary depiction but that one sucks too sorry 13th century latin guy.)

even if the manga manticore’s body wasn’t buffer the face is fucking amazing. first it has an actual mane like a couple other depictions do, but turning the normally “ugly” face into a skull is sick as hell. oh and the teeth help it a lot. fantastic demon design all around.

this one is less of a total redesign since it’s character specific. there have been minor alterations made to demons throughout the devil summoner franchise especially with dsrk in order to fit that imperial japan vibe, such as high pixie basically being a pixie wearing a kimono. shiragiku’s design is more based in the soul hackers nekomata design though without being a calico. i wanted to give her a bit of attention on the design part for at least one thing because it’s pretty interesting to me and that’s having a normal cat form. yes because of shiragiku’s backstory it makes sense that she regained her pre-furryfication body. however, when it comes to looking at it from a folklore angle it’s pretty interesting.

all nekomata start off as bakeneko, aka monster cats. they can shape-shift to look either more house cat-like, human-like, and everything in-between. they can also mimic voices. nekomata are basically just stronger bakeneko, symbolized by the split tail (which is how they get their name). in megaten, we don’t really see that often, some of which is understandable. what i find so interesting is that it’s kinda defied in some ways? as in, normal bakeneko are glossed over, unless morgana counts since he pretty much is one. the most commonly used nekomata design in smt is the one from nocturne who only has one tail despite being in a non normal cat state. i’m guessing for the sake of simplicity both bakeneko and nekomata are one in the same due to the heavy similarities. idk it’s pretty confusing but basically this was all an excuse to include cat girls and shiragiku is the closest we’re getting to a truly accurate nekomata.

what if i told you though that behemoth is technically original.

gonna be quick about this since basically aside from devil children behemoth has no original design. it’s mostly just recolors of other demons, mainly elephant/hippo/rhino-like ones. in fairness, behemoth is a warped shouten but it’s so different it’s basically its own demon that goes bye bye before getting any real action. still looks cool af but i’m sorry behemoth.

here’s a weird one. despite maintaining the horn, yato no kami is completely different from the game counterpart and is another much better design (wasted on a character that was pretty underutilized despite the potential). in actual japanese folklore, yato no kami are snake deities (and also some hot anime dude from a game i never heard of thanks google). pointing that out because, while cool on its own, yeah looks too much like a parasite and not what it’s supposed to be.

now for a side note on a couple more demons exclusive to the manga

clarion is interesting to me for one reason and one reason only: it heavily resembles the great will aka the universal will aka existence itself.

this one’s a bit of a stretch but i still find it interesting.

this guy was only in last bible, specifically the game gear version, but is referenced and named dropped a ton. every yhvh avatar is something this thing popped into existence. an equivalent exists in the 4 duology aka the axiom but since both games were a bit of a soft reboot of the traditional mainline style plus is pretty much the exact same thing this counts the axiom. it’s important to note that, as it’s technically a concept and not a physical being, it relies on avatars to get shit done. aside from that, there’s not much info on the great will but it’s considered either equal to or potentially the creator of yhvh.

most of the big time avatars that relate to the great will and yhvh, including yhvh himself, are either a big human face or a circle. while it’s stated in the manga that clarion is a goddamn alien the fact that it keeps so many of the design motifs of the great will, yhvh, and all their ocs, i honestly think it just might be another avatar. i mean it also knows shit like god’s wrath so that has to count for something. it’s just so fucking interesting i love it.

on a final, simpler note, touda is cool. i’m 99% sure it just morphs into ouhanshin but still i love snakes. there are so many serpents n noodly things in tlm it’s cool they’re attached to badass imagery even if they’ll likely never show up in any other official material ever again.

#I DIDNT THINK THIS POST WOULD BE AS LONG AS IT WAS #I’M SORRY #all cool and interesting demon shit tho #to me anyway #shantien rambles #devil summoner #megaten #i’ll shut up about the raidou manga now probably

[yamayuandadu]

A fantastic vid about the background of SMT Strange Journey got released today, you may know the author from the equally good one on the depiction of angels in megaten from a few months ago. Highly recommended!

[nulla-senzanome]

About SMT Nocturne’s Italian localization

(This post was initially meant to be a submission for @eirikrjs, then I realized that making my own post would give me less of an headache with the added pictures, so here it is. This might very well just be my first and last post on Tumblr)

Yesterday some SMT III previews dropped, and since the only thing I care about regarding that game is its localization, mostly the Italian one, I immediately looked at that. There's some interesting stuff, I swear.

First of all, about MegaTen and Italian: if we aren't counting Catherine, Persona 5 Royal was the first game in the series that got translated. French and Germans got "Lucifer's Call" (which afaik didn't have a great translation either), but we weren't so lucky, so the only translations we got are P5R and P5S'. Both of them are definitely based on the English script, even if I wouldn't rule out the chance they actually checked the Japanese script for some minor stuff.

About P5R's translation... it's mostly fine. It's got some typos and whatnot, but for a game that massive it's nothing unusual. As for the "mythological department", it doesn't look like they did much research on their own. The two most interesting things are Alilat which got changed to Allat (and the translated description has an added "also known as Alilat", which is nice) and Thunderbird which got changed to Wakinyan, probably because "Uccello del tuono" didn't fit. One thing I will never get about P5R though is what happened to エル・ジハード, the Electricity skill. It was Narukami in Persona 4, then Jihad in Persona 4 Golden, then Wild Thunder in Persona 5 and Royal... but in Italian it's "Dio del tuono" (God of Thunder). Really, that's still a mystery to me. Plus, Izanagi-no-Okami’s Myriad Truths became Verità letali (Lethal Truths) and the “ARM PC” DLC accessory became DECK. Don’t ask me what that means.

There really isn't much to say about P5S. Since the game is smaller the translation got better, there's just some typos here and there and some minor slip-ups but nothing major. It didn't add much mythologically-wise, so, moving on.

Now, Nocturne is the first mainline SMT game that gets the treatment, so I was pretty interested in how they would change the demon races (or species, as they're called in Italian apparently). I was pretty sure they'd just get the English->Italian treatment and that's exactly what happened, but there's still interesting stuff that happened, such as...

Brute: Orco (Ogre). I'm not sure how I feel about this one yet. It sure is... interesting. It kinda fits, since the onis are "japanese ogres", but at the same time I don't feel like it's "generic" enough to be the name of a whole race of demons. It's basically the reason I'm making this post. Plus, "Orco" is also Orcus’ italian name.

Fiend: Diavolo (Devil). Just like the English term, it's used both for the Devil and, well, devils, mostly of the christian kind.

Night: Oscuro (Dark). This one just missed the point, since they're supposed to be "night demons". Oh well. I guess night is dark.

Yoma: Yoma (Yoma). Yeah.

Wilder: Selvaggio (Wild). Not much to say. I like it better than the English one.

Fallen: Caduto (Fallen). It's the same term we use for "fallen angel" (angelo caduto), so it was pretty much the obvious and obviously correct choice.

Fairy: Fata (Fairy). It's pretty much only used for female entities, personally I think Folletto would've been more fitting. It refers to (mostly) mischievious little creatures (mostly) from european folklore.

Haunt: Spettro (Specter). Works fine.

That's all the races I could find. Orco definitely steals the spotlight for how interesting it is, but there's some more food for thought in there. I didn’t even consider the original Japanese names since the translation is based on the English script and we all know (?) how different the English names for races are from their Japanese counterparts.

Here's some more stuff unrelated to races:

Reason: Visione (Vision). I know it's not kotowari, but it works better than a more literal translation like Ragione would have. It's meant to be Vision as "an idea for the future". If I had to choose a term, I think I'd go with Principio, which means "beginning" and is also used for "moral principles". I really like Visione though.

Will o' Wisp: Will o' Wisp (Will o' Wisp). Dunno why they didn't change its name to "Fuoco fatuo", which is literally "Ignis fatuus" and is commonly used. Pretty weird. Plus, Jack-o'-Lantern has dashes. Will o' Wisp does not. I am going mad.

Demi-fiend: Mezzo-diavolo (lit. Half-devil). Obviously, they thought that the "Fiend" in Demi-fiend is the same as the Fiend race, and who wouldn't, just by looking at the English script? As for the "Mezzo": the "demi" in Demi-fiend comes from demigod, demi+god, which in Italian is semidio, semi+dio. Our "semi", however, is much more commonly used than the English "demi", so Semi-diavolo, Semi-demone or whatever would be nowhere near as "special" as Demi-fiend is. Mezzo-diavolo, on the other hand, loses that mythological appeal, but that "zz" makes it sound kinda derogatory, which I think is pretty fitting. It reminds me of mezzosangue (half-blood). I've seen some Italian fans hating this term with burning passion, but most of them would've probably hated every other choice as well.

In conclusion, I'm really glad we're finally getting translations, and so far they've been pretty good imho. I'd like them better if they were translated from the Japanese script, but that wouldn't really be an issue if the English translations were closer to the source material. In a post like this I'm obviously focusing on the "bad stuff", but all things considered, even if I wish we got something better, I'm pretty satisfied with the end result.

#eirikr #shin megami tensei #persona #nocturne #italian #localisation #how does tumblr even work

[b-reis]

Took too long and now the meme's dead. But that's thematically appropriate for the series anyway. So, how deep can you go in the SMT iceberg?

Huge thanks to @eirikrjs for the help and for providing a lot of this trivia in the first place.

#smt #Shin Megami Tensei #iceberg #hooligan is actually scarier than anything in this series

[punishmentxsin]

The #DDHeehoFanbook is finally here!! A fanbook that reunited a huge ammount of fans around to world to congratulate ATLUS in their 30th anniversary. I would love if you could help us spread the word @eirikrjs @dijeh

You can read it online at issuu.com and you can download your own copy for free visiting our blog post. 

Thanks to all those artist that contribute their art and to all the fans the help us spread the word, this is our love letter to ATLUS and our christmas present to finish the year on a positive and awesome note. 

#Digital Devil Hee-ho Fanbook #DDHeeHoFanbook #ATLUS #30th anniversary

[sorenblr]

I'm sure this question has been answered before, but why is Es a plant? Ik he's based on Freud's Id and all but why the heck did Kaneko make him a plant? You got any clue?

(Side note: I this Es' design is pretty cool, i'm just confused by the whole plant thing is all)

Yeah, looks like Eirikr took a stab at this one back in 2015, only three years after Kony 2012 rocked the nation.

#ask #eirikrjs #smt #megaten #devil summoner #es #freud

[purseowner4thequalityanimation]

SHIN MEGAMI RISING VENGEANCE WHEEEE

Here are all the new Kaneko models I could see; Cai-zhi, Dis, Pellaide, Cherub, Karasu Tengu, Efreet, Unicorn and Gogmagog.

And here are the returning SH2 models; Halphas, Vritra, Turbo Granny, Nezha, Armaiti, Kudlak, Fenrir, Vouivre, Zun Tun She, Halphas again just for @eirikrjs, Dormarth, Gremlin and Tzitzimitl! EDIT: I FUCKING FORGOT KINMAMON

And Then There's This Motherfucker

I don't give a fuck about the rest!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

#shin megami tensei v #shin megami tensei #megaten #demons

[antichthons]

smt blogs are so scarce on tumblr omg

@artemis-maia @eirikrjs @wakai-dracula @duckpasta-kamonabe @ebirdwatching @decwess @serphup @digital-devil-arts25 @n-logbook

these are some smt blogs/artists/mutuals i remember off the top of my head but pls reply or rb w other blogs

[eirikrjs]

I was watching to know Japanese science fiction movies, and I found a call: Uchūjin Tōkyō-ni Arawaru, this is Decarabia origin?

Yes!

https://kanekocribs.tumblr.com/post/93999150911/eirikrjs-kanekos-crib-notes-part-iv

#smt #decarabia #kaneko's crib notes

[super-saiyan-rose]

I keep stopping at the download screen for smtiv/smtiva but can't bring myself to get them.

Can I please get 1 last push into giving atlus another chance @eirikrjs ? Or any smt fan who wants to chime in(preferably someone who isn't a persona fan).

#i dont want tag this cause I still think it's not a good idea to ask random atlus fans who I don't remember anything

[yamayuandadu]

Oh yeah no, the Fate franchise literally seems to use Wlaker's Woman's Encyclopedia as a primary source. Other glaring examples of this include them equating Kama with Mara and Scathach with Skadi.

That's... bizarre to say the least. What's so appealing about that book, it's borderline illegible and arguably removes most excitement and mystery from mythology... @eirikrjs were you aware that the influence of this tome on japanese popculture seemingly goes beyond megaten?