It's me again! I just wanted to ask you something... How do you come up with such amazing OCs? I have OCs too, but yours are so cool they make me a little jealous.
Honestly, I want to get inside your head to see what other characters, designs, and color combinations you're capable of creating! Seriously, I love all your OCs, so much.
Have a good timezone! And I hope I haven't bothered you with this message!
Honestly, I just have fun with them, lol. It helps to pull from actual yokai lore when designing demon characters, though- Rumiko actually does that a lot for her series, and she doesn’t really stick TO their lore all that much either. She takes a lot of creative liberties, which is honestly the way to go when coming up with characters.
Naraku, for instance, was based off a Tsuchigumo! And Mistress Centipede from the first episode? I think she was based off an Okiku mushi, which is a woman with the lower body of a caterpillar. She just changed the caterpillar bit to a centipede for extra creepy factor. Also, in Mao (I binged all the available episodes with the sibling yesterday out of curiosity and because Nanoka looks so much like Irene) they actually have a Jorōgumo as an early enemy!
She leaned more into the actual lore there, since Jorōgumo can hide in bustling cities for a very long time, but something interesting I found is that we see a lady with a super long neck often visiting Mao for medical help. This was def based off the Rokurokubi yokai, but I think Rumiko took creative liberties with it since Rokurokubi are usually SLEEPING women. These women tend to be cursed because of some crime their father/brother/husband did as a means of punishing that relative, and while they sleep their necks stretch and their heads roam around causing mischief. The woman is totally unaware of this since she’s back to normal in the daytime. But in Mao, the lady appears wide awake- so either she’s sleep walking, or the yokai curse is in full control of the woman’s body even during the day.
So really you just gotta have fun with them, lol.
But as for kimono designs, I actually talked about them a bit here:
💬 0 🔁 2 ❤️ 8 · Do you have any tips on designing kimonos? The ones you make for Irene and everyone look absolutely gorgeous! Awwww, thank
And thank you!!! :3 Have a good time timezone, as well! Also, it’s not a bother, lol. So no worries.
@etsuko-99 I saw your asks since I'm mutuals with Avion, and if you wanna make yokai OCs, here's some references for you to consider. I got permission from @avionvadion to share my references with you (Yokai are a hardcore hyper fixation of mine).
Yokai.com | The Illustrated Database of Japanese Folklore This is a website I've shared with Avion, so this should be really helpful.
Gaijin Goombah on YouTube is a really helpful source as well. This is a link to a video on what yokai are, but he does go over a bunch of different kinds of yokai in anime and games: https://youtu.be/5IK_OORCK80?si=fOV1ZrhhifOPPRJc
You can also look up the several Yokai Emaki (Yokai Picture scrolls) because sometimes a yokai doesn't have myths attached to it, but are just drawn in one of the many emaki that have been done.
Some games off the top of my head that can help are like the mobile game Onmyoji, Nioh and Nioh 2, Pokemon is very inspired by Onmyodo and yokai, looking up the Japanese names of Yokai in Yokai Watch will give you ideas on what to be looking for. But seriously, yokai are in a TON of games. These few were just what was off the top of my head.
A really good anime series would be the Bakeneko story of the Ayakashi: Samurai Horror Tales, the spin off Mononoke series and movies (The Mononoke series and movies are on Netflix but I would not suggest the dub of Mononoke series, but the dub of the movies is VERY good. Crispin Freeman as Kusuriuri is really good). Heads up though, these are horror. I just really like these because Mononoke is exceedingly creative with how the yokai are depicted, but also it is very VERY dark.
If you don't want the horror aspect, there's so many anime to look over for yokai, ayakashi, bakemono, tsukumogami, etc. Obviously, Avion mentioned Inuyasha and Mao, but there's like Yu Yu Hakusho, GeGeGe no Kitaro, In/Spectre, Inu X Boku SS, and so many others. You just need to find what works for you.
I think that's a good starting point if you want some to look up some yokai inspiration for your own OCs. Hopefully, this helps you out!
