Youkai or Yokai are supernatural spirits and monsters whose objective is to harm or hurt mortals. They are the main antagonistic characters of the Ushio & Tora anime series.
Description[]
Yokai are spiritual monsters which usually live in remote areas such as forests and fields, some live in cities and towns. Although most of them are spirits of nature and the underworld, others are souls of deceased people full of negative feelings who refused to go to the afterlife and became yokais upon returning to the world of the living.
Being spirits, youkai are immortal or extremely long-lived since many of them have a youthful appearance despite having lived hundreds and thousands of years, they possess supernatural powers and can only die from sacred weapons. Some youkai interact openly with humans, even falling in love and mating with them, having offspring. The children that are born possess some power from their youkai parents.
Youkai have the ability to use elemental powers (Fire, Lightning, Wind, Water), others are capable of using magic and casting spells.
It is implied that not all youkai come from Japan, since other types of monsters and spirits have been seen which come from other continents and countries such as China and Europe.
Youkai Types[]
- Oni:The Onis are souls of deceased people who died loaded with negative feelings, turning into red monsters with horns and possessing only in their minds a twisted obsession with their loved ones.
- Kamaitachi:Weasel-shaped forest spirits who secretly take care of nature and humans.
- Akayashi:It is a marine Yokai which is composed of the souls of those who died at sea, they are violent monsters that only seek to satisfy their infinite hunger.
- Kappa: They are river spirits which have a humanoid appearance with turtle features.
- Kitsune:The kitsune are extremely powerful and dangerous fox spirits. The kitsune are characterized by having a variety of tails. The more tails the kitsune has symbolizes how powerful and ancient it is, with nine tails being the maximum number they reach.