Yōkai in popular culture

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The following is a list of appearances made by yōkai (Japanese monster-spirits) in various works of popular fiction. For information on yōkai in traditional Japanese culture, please see the main article.

1 Yōkai in film, live-action television, and literature
2 Yōkai in animation and comics
3 Yōkai in role-playing, computer and video games
4 Yōkai in other media
5 See also

[edit] Yōkai in film, live-action television, and literature

The Yokai Daisenso movie series of the 1960s and 1970s, as well as the 2005 remake all center around an assortment of yōkai characters.
In the Super Sentai series Ninja Sentai Kakuranger, various yōkai are presented as the "Monsters of the Week" which the rangers have to fight.
The Great Yokai War, a film by Takashi Miike which depicts many yokai.

[edit] Yōkai in animation and comics

The Studio Ghibli animated film Pom Poko features a cast of tanuki, which during the movie's climax transform themselves into a large number of yōkai inspired by classic Japanese art. The same studio released Princess Mononoke, which includes many forest spirits named after traditional yōkai, and Spirited Away which features a bathhouse patronized by yōkai-like spirits.
The InuYasha manga and anime series stars a canine hanyō (half-yōkai) as well as many yōkai characters.
In a Hellboy comic book story, Hellboy encounters a group of bloodthirsty nukekubi while in Japan.
The manga Hell Teacher Nube includes many yōkai characters.
The manga and anime Naruto features several yōkai that go under the fictional classification "tailed beasts" (尾獣, bijū), because of their varying amount of tails.
The manga and anime Yu Yu Hakusho features yōkai characters such as Kurama and Hiei, as well as many battles with other yōkai.
In the anime and manga Saiyuki, yōkai are a species that co-exists with the human race.
In the anime Tactics the main character is an exorcist fighting oni and other wicked yōkai, and who employs a shapeshifting fox and a tengu.
Various yōkai play key roles in the anime Karas.
The manga series Dragon Knights includes yokai demons.

[edit] Yōkai in role-playing, computer and video games

okami: in this Japanese culture themed game the main charater (Amaterasu in the body of a wolf) battles multitudes of yokai which have polluted the land.

Super Mario Bros. 3: Mario upon touching a leaf transforms into a flying racoon. later in the game he can assume a full racoon form. While in America this was translated as "racoon" the full suit form can transform into a statue to avoid enemies, a power of the Tanuki.