#teito monogatari

KANEKO’S CRIB NOTES XLVI: JAPANESE “POP”

Kaneko is no stranger to swinging wide when it comes to contemporary popular culture, and while the man shares a particular fondness for the western variety, it should come as no surprise that some targets skew closer to home. Here are a few of the more relevant cases, in honor of the holiday season, or something.

1. TATTOOED MAN: Even when you have a roster of 400+ demons in an SMT game, fellows like Tattooed Man make you question if his spot couldn’t have been better represented. But you can’t say he’s not inspired: Kaneko admitted as much in a 1999 interview when he said he loves the image of Japanese actor Ken Takakura in yazuka flicks. Sure enough, Tattooed Man and his slick crew cut are a match for Takakura in the movie Brutal Tales of Chivalry 2: The Chinese Lion and Peony Tattoo, with or without a certain cool customer on his back.
   
2. GHOST Q: Not-so-subtle hints in artbooks confirm that SMTII’s Ghost Q is based on the incorporeal Q-tarō from the manga series Obake no Q-tarō, but, other than the comically large kissers, the only other clue is in the name itself. 
   
3. OKAMOTO: Aleph’s one-time trainer is pulling inspiration in both character and design from Danpei of Tomorrow’s Joe fame, another bummy but driven fight coach in the grand tradition of underdog boxing narratives. In fact, his design is practically just a sleek, nominally futuristic take on Tetsuya Chiba’s more beleaguered original - a Kaneko trademark!
4. RAIDOU KUZUNOHA XIV: Raidou is channeling a no less appropriate source for his iconic design: Yasunori Kato of Teito Monogatari, one of the more notable pieces of occult pulp to influence the series. Kaneko manages to bend Kato’s Lieutenant attire into that of a Taishou era school uniform, and with his cloak down he’s a dead ringer for Amano’s original design.

KANEKO’S CRIB NOTES XXX: ARACHNE 

Well, Halloween is fast approaching, and we’ve finally arrived at our super special, super lascivious triple-X crib, so what better way to celebrate the occasion than with a cocktail of spooky spiders and vagina dentata? And anime, oooooooooo!

1987, the very year of the original release of Megami Tensei, also saw the debut of occult-noir/trashy 80′s OVA extraordinaire Wicked City (not to be confused with the upcoming ABC procedural of the same name, which is airing tomorrow, hilariously), whose story I’m not especially eager to summarize but which you can watch in full here*. Given the time-frame, could this film’s very specific blend of occult mysticism encroaching on the borders of modern existence have influenced the development of the later series, in much the same way as the likes of Teito Monogatari and Dark Myth? Hopefully today’s crib will shed some light on the matter.

Pictured on the left is the film’s unnamed arachnid antagonist, a demon seductress from the occult realm and a questionable mixture of spider and lady-bits. Spider Lady, as she’ll be referred to from here on, spends much of the film acting as a sort of demonic honeypot for the protagonist and the film’s contractually obligated perverted old man character. 

On the right, a bare-ass face I’m sure you’re all familiar with, is Arachne as she appears in Shin Megami Tensei. The similarities between the two, while not exact, are difficult to overlook, from the hair, pose, clawed hands, and, uh, web spinner. Kaneko crops the hair a bit and nixes the garter-belt and stockings, but otherwise we’re looking at a close match. Arachne’s largely unused 3D model also allows us a glimpse at her walking posture, which, unsurprisingly, is very much in line with Spider Lady’s disconcerting strut. Her original sprite likewise provides a peak at a longer-haired variant. 

That’ll be it for today, but catch us again on the 31st for another Halloween Spooktacular!

*Warning: Maybe just skim the plot summary, as the OVA itself is, let’s say, ferociously bawdy and border-line pornographic. The dub is only mildly funny, too.