#rant OVER. I just really love ghosts n spirits n all that jazz

[aura-bug]

What is your favorite yokai(Both from Yo-kai Watch and real mythology) ?

YIPPEE TIME TO RANT

My favorite yokai from YKW are Unfairy, Wobblewok, and Arachnia, and they all have one thing in common: gremlin behavior

unfairy is a stupid little rat thing that took down two war generals and then got defeated by a hose. wobblewok is a fucking Thang sealed inside a giant kamameshi rice cooker who lurks the deepest pits of hell and has killed hundreds. and arachnia is arachnia

as for my favorite MYTHOLOGICAL yokai, it'd probably be any of the creechers originating from buddhist lore. tbh that hardly narrows it down but I'm specifically talking about dragons/any of the 8 legions, since a majority of my OCs revolve around those yokai in particular and I think theyre really cool aaaaaaaaa.

the 8 legions (hachibushuu) are a group of 8 different celestial species that reside in the Buddhist version of heaven (<- using that term VERYYYYY loosely, also technically one of the legions don't live in Tendo, they got kicked out, it was a whole thing). They're super cool and powerful and they serve Buddhas/Bodhisattvas and whateva.

The 8 legions are made up of the Ten/Devas (buddhist equivalent of angels but not really), the Ryu/Nagas (dragons), the Karura/Garuda (bird people that eat dragons), the Magorakas (half-snake people), the Kinnara (half-bird musicians), the Yasha (heavenly warrior demon guys), the Kendatsuba (artistic spirits that eat scents), and the Ashura (scary demigod guys that are angry and violent and aren't allowed in Tendo anymore boohoo).

The 8 legions are actually Hindu in origin, but then the Buddha told them all to join his cool kids club (buddhism) and then they did

I could talk at length abt each of these guys but then this would be like 500 paragraphs longer than it already is. so I wont but I WILL do so if prompted

If we're talking about yokai that are SPECIFICALLY japanese in origin, there's a lot of ones that are extremely silly that I love a lot so I'll list them off rapid fire

-ghost that tells you to kill yourself (itsuki)

-rat that fucking explodes (kodama nezuki)

-water behemoth (umi bozu)

-eyeball ass jumpscare (shirime)

-literally any of the women (all the yokai ending in "onna")

-big spider (tsuchigumo)

-tamamo no mae (tamamo no mae)

-any of the several ridiculous prophet yokai that appear once and tell you your crops are gonna die unless you like their image and share it with the rest of the village. it was like the origin of those superstitious chain emails (this includes yokai like Amabiko, Arie, Kudan, Jinja Hime, etc etc, but my personal favorite is Amabie, SIMPLY because it originated from a misspelling)

-any chimera yokai (kotobuki, nue, baku, rokugyo, etc. I just think theyre neat)

but my FAVORITE yokai of ALL TIME

IS THIS THING. NANJAKA.

ITS NAME LITERALLY MEANS "WHAT"

IT ORIGINATES FROM THE BAKEMONO TSUKUSHI EMAKI (1820) AND IT HAS NO DESCRIPTION. NO STORY. NO EXPLANATION. NOTHING. IT DOESN'T EVEN HAVE AN UPPER HALF. THERE'S ABSOLUTELY NO WAY TO EVEN GUESS WHAT THE ARTIST WAS THINKING WHEN MAKING THIS GUY. I DON'T EVEN THINK THE AUTHOR THEMSELVES KNEW WHAT THE FUCK THEY WERE DOING BECAUSE ITS NAME IS JUST "WHAT." ITS LIKE THE AUTHOR WOKE UP AFTER BEING BLACKOUT DRUNK, SAW THIS DRAWING, AND WAS LIKE "ok what the fuck is this"

I ADORE IT. PEAK YOKAI WEIRDNESS AT ITS FINEST

#rant OVER. I just really love ghosts n spirits n all that jazz #yo kai watch #japanese folklore #long post