Eastern Demons: Oni's

a reply to: stormbringer1701
Man those are some blocky graphics.

As I said earlier in the post, there are many depictions of how the Oni were believed to be like. Where they where explained to cause natural disasters ,originally ghostly spirits working for the Devil in the belief system, to be giants that eat people.

If anything Bigfoot probably bears more of a resemblance to an Oni, since they are both big, probably very strong, bi-pedal, and bigfoots almost invisible in some cases.

Although I think big foot would beat the crap of human prey, then eating people, like how the giant versions of Oni were believed.

originally posted by: Specimen
a reply to: stormbringer1701
Man those are some blocky graphics.

As I said earlier in the post, there are many depictions of how the Oni were believed to be like. Where they where explained to cause natural disasters ,originally ghostly spirits working for the Devil in the belief system, to be giants that eat people.

If anything Bigfoot probably bears more of a resemblance to an Oni, since they are both big, probably very strong, bi-pedal, and bigfoots almost invisible in some cases.

Although I think big foot would beat the crap of human prey, then eating people, like how the giant versions of Oni were believed.

Yeah. MMD is an freeware animation program. not exactly Maya or something like that. but they hold yearly contests for the best animation using it. They are pretty popular in Asia and in nich fandoms like Touhou, Vocaloid, Hetalia, Homestruck and things of that nature. Consequently; there are a lot of free vids made with it. a lot of crappy ones and some very good ones. The Oni in it is also a character in the Touhou Game series. Nearly all the Touhou NPCs are some form of Oriental spirit creature or other creature from lore.

a reply to: Specimen

Well, I don't know if you touched on this but what do you think of the idea that Hercules was one of the 'men of renown' in the Bible, I mean Hercules is supposed to be the son of Zeus and a human woman, making him a demigod, kind of sounds like the renegade angels taking human wives for themselves. Pretty similar though the Nephilim are supposed to be antideluvian so I don't know where that leaves that correlation.

Trying to track down and correlate ancient gods, angels, demons and spirits is a lot like trying to find a needle in a haystack, too many variables, and that's before you even get into the Eastern religions.

a reply to: Specimen

Ya if it weren't for the fact that there is a version of heracles in almost all ancient cultures, so really who's counting. Its kind of the constant reinterpretations of various comic book charters in all mediums out there, or even in the comics as time passes. I suppose its all just different flavors for different peoples and ages.

a reply to: UNIT76

OK dude! To tell the truth I dont even remember you from any other thread before, really I dont know what it is your talking about. But you know to each there own.

a reply to: TheLaughingGod

Samson is in the old testament. Which is were the Christian bible is based of, and is very similar to Hercules. Both have superhuman strength and use blunt instruments. Hercules strangled the Nemean Lion, while Samson rips apart the Asiatic Lion, although both were born an die differently.

As for the Nephilim, I was making a correlation with the more recent depiction of the Oni Demon, due to the fact they were considered giants and eventually ate humans or so they say. Although I have heard of no Oni mating with humans, other then something about a proverb/expression about kids who do not take on or after their biological parents, are called child of an Oni. Although there are variants of the proverb, and is meant to chastise the child for misbehavior. No different then if someone else gave an expression of kids being off spring of the Devil, or "Antichrist" if someone ever baby sitted one.

Also, I was relating Hercules to the Oni due to the fact they are usually portrayed with club, however Hercules uses a gnarled club(I guess a part of a tree, or a tree), and Oni use Iron clubs. Both are giants, with Hercules being a giant of a man, and the Oni are much bigger compared to that of a human. The Oni, more or less are comparable to Orges, like the Greek Cyclops.

Also, there are no such things as Angels in Japanese mythos, just God like Dragons and humans, various types of Orges, and...Watever else.

Added: Although Oni could be interpreted as western Demons, but more like Imps, Gargoyles, or lesser demons. As I stated earlier in the thread, Demon in japanese is "Akuma", so it really has no literary connection to the word "Oni". This possibly change some time, and became interchangeable in modern japan.

a reply to: Specimen

Added: Although Oni could be interpreted as western Demons, but more like Imps, Gargoyles, or lesser demons. As I stated earlier in the thread, Demon in japanese is "Akuma", so it really has no literary connection to the word "Oni". This possibly change some time, and became interchangeable in modern japan.

I am not so sure, that could be purely a lapse in interpretation between Japanese culture and English or western cultures. That is to say, only to us here, who are trying to translate things, is there a interchangeable link between Oni and Akuma and generally no difference between the two.

While in Japanese culture especially ancient Japanese culture other could literally be two different animals to sort of say and have little to anything to do with eachother. Were merely translating things from our pretext. I do not think it became so interchangeable in modern japan or much as you think it did. But it possibly did become interchangeable to those of us looking at it through a different filter and outlook ie western culture with its biblical outlook on things and especially our views on such esoteric things as demons or ogres or evil spirits.

Even in the interpretation and renaming of that popular street fighter character from Gouki to Akuma I do believe it was a western localization selling point that they interchanged the two, purely based on looks or maybe translations and a selling point to a western audience.

a reply to: Specimen

I look at how western society, has been either wrongly
coaxed, or correctly taught that Oni's, Jinn, demons,
evil spirits etc. Are just myth and we're all way to smart
to believe in such things today.

Then I look at the multitude of eastern people today and how
in the past the cultures all around the world did concur in slight
variations, about the existence, of these so called myths. And I
see the non believing, scientific, highly intellectual, western society
of today, is very miniscual and quite naive to say the least. In other
words, only very recently, have a few people been taught, that the rest
of todays world is bonkers. And also led to believe, the same about every
culture the world over, apart from the last two hundred years. The trade off
is just ridiculous when you think about it.

Nice thread
SnF

a reply to: galadofwarthethird

True, the interpretation would be no different connecting a Japanese Oni to the Greek Cyclops, and through the western filter too. The word Akuma just meant Demon, while the Oni would of been view as a type of demon. I know they are completely different, and stay more to secular culture they were made from.

It like comparing Bigfoot to the Yeti(abominal snowman), are they both the same? Bigfoot seems to be invisible most of
the time, and so does the Yeti. I'm also aware of the Bear theory for the Yeti, which sounds like a good one.

Although, I'm not going to go to deep about the translations, just more or less the interpretations and comparisons.

a reply to: Specimen
Well since you bring it up what is the difference between a yeti and a bigfoot? Really the only thing I can think of is the weather regions there in, yeti being in the colder regions in some far mountainous region of Nepal or the alps generally seen by the locals or some mountaineer, and bigfoot in the more woody regions generally seen by some guys camping who only have a old outdated camera from the 30's with them, or a hippie who for some reason wonders into the woods to get more in touch with nature.

Maybe there cousins or offshoots of the same animal which evolved for different climates, the yetis could be what the polar bear is to bears, merely a bear with white fur and a bit different body to fat ratio, so who knows eh? But for all intensive purposes I classify them up there with fairies, after all there both as hard to spot, and they do have a habit of disappearing as if by magic, which off course leads to the only logical conclusion being that there some sort of big hairy magical creatures possibly being not even from this dimension. You know you would think that a 8 to 12 feet tall 500 to 700 so pound giant hairy upright walking manlike apecreature would not be that hard to spot, or if spotted would not be that hard to track, the impressions into the dirt of a creature that size and girth would show something. But that does not seem to be the case. Which can only mean that yetis and bigfoots are also ninjas or have ninja like skills to remain so undetected.

Ah messing on the last part, but I am sure that if bigfoot does exist, it would probably be classified as some sort of fairy. Which only just means that people have been classifying all kinds of things into whatever suited there mood for a very long time. And so we go from Asuras to Onis merely a different take on the same thing.