Part 35: Okami Artbook 1
Enemies
Blue Cyclops
Blue Cyclops Chaos Form
"Enormously huge and imposing, the Blue Cyclops is bald and has blue skin. He flies around with a tobacco pipe in his mouth, and if you dare extinguish his pipe, he will fly into a rage and call down bolts of lightning upon you."
Great Tengu
Great Tengu Chaos Form
"Formerly a monk who isolated himself in the mountains for training, he lost his sense of selfnafter being alone for so long, and became a demon. His spiritual powers are phenomenal, and no average spiritualist stands a chance against him. Splashing him with water causes him to remember his former training and forces him to hesitate for a moment."
Silver Demon Nechku
"This demon is one of the two that appeared on Ezofuji, in the far northern region of Kamui.
He is so reviled within the Oina tribe, that saying his name is forbidden."
Gold Demon Lechku
"Nechku's other half is named after his golden body. Many have attempted to decipher their names, convinced that their true meaning will become clear once they are properly combined. 'One counts time, one offers death', and 'Gears of the Moon' are two of the more commonly accepted meanings."
Concept Art
Blue Cyclops
Artist's Notes posted:
A demon that can change his form in battle.
(Transformed)
Artist's Notes posted:
This is what the Blue Cyclops looks like when he transforms to face Amaterasu. He has an awesomely scary face, but I would never want a face like that.
Great Tengu
Artist's Notes posted:
I designed this goblin first. The source materials had these two as the highest-ranking flying demons, and I though it would be neat if we could combine them to do various things.
The Great Tengus in the image scroll came together very well, and I'm very proud of them.
(Transformed)
Artist's Notes posted:
Great Tengu has such a simplistic name; I really like him. I remember getting shivers from seeing him remove his nose and have it turn into a kind of 'peacock-fan-lightsaber'. That's just too cool.
Twin Owl Demons
Artist's Notes posted:
The boss demon for the Kamui area was to be designed with heavy influences from the Ainu Peoples. I looked through various sources of Ainu mythology, but unfortuantely for me, the Ainu held a very unique concept of God, and the appearance of evil beings in their mythology proved to be rare at best.
When I found a demon that I could use as an important villain, 'Moshilechikukotanechiku*', the physical description was vague, and the explanation of the being itself was practically non-existant...so I made the personal decision to split the name in half, and set them up as "twin demons" to act as boss enemies.
I designed them with the Meiji** era in mind, and gave them a distinctive, gentlemanly posture.
* Sources on this come up with way too many things to list. From what little I've gleamed, there was an Owl god for the Ainu people, who served as the protector of the land (fitting into the fact that the twin demons are merely possessing the statues of two owl gods sacred to Kamui village). There is a poem, 'Song Sung by the Owl God: Silver Drops Fall, Fall, All Around', about him crying tears of silver and gold.
It should be noted that Tuskle, the tribe Shamen, has owls on her head also, a clear reference to the previously sacred nature of owls. One appears to be a type of (horned) Scops Owl, and the other a Barn Owl.
As for their more earthly nature, clockwork automata have existed in Japan since the 17th century, seemingly having been adopted by European creations.
** The Meiji period marked the begining of the modernisation of Japan, from 1860- 1912.
A Meiji era woodcut from the turn of the century. Note the more Western style of dress.
Misc
Map of Nippon
