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Infinity's End
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Hey all, first post here! This is Infinity's End, you may or may not know me from another site I help run called the Metroid Database. I would have made this thread on my own forum, but I figured I'd probably find way more people to see and respond at this one.
I wanted to bring up and discuss the concept of Demise, and specifically focus on the way he looks.
I've noticed people have already made the comparison to Street Fighter's Akuma.
(In case you weren't already aware, Akuma is Japanese for "devil")
Well, contrary to popular belief no, Nintendo was not inspired by Akuma when they designed Demise. But in my eyes, Demise's design could have very well been inspired by a character from a manga/anime called Berserk. The character is named Nosferatu Zodd, and he looks like this:
(Berserk is an absolutely fantastic manga/anime and they're actually making 3 new anime movies of it! But I digress.) This "style" which is occurs so often you could probably call it a meme among Japanese artists, is a very common recurrence in depictions of Japanese demons, or "oni." Onis are usually depicted as being very strong, muscular and powerful. In historical depictions they also usually have horns and carry big long spiked clubs and many are depicted with red skin. The Wikipedia page for oni can be found here, but it's unfortunately very short and unsatisfying. 
In historical depictions in Japanese art, they seem to be more inclined to giving evil and demonic characters very specific characteristics: removing eyebrows to accentuate their wide forehead and brow, widening the dorsum (also known as the bridge) of their nose to more beast-sized proportions, or giving them extremely large nostrils. In Kabuki theater, the actors adorn masks when they take on the role of the oni. Here's an image japanese demon mask I found through google image searching:
See? No eyebrows, big, defined brows, wide nose, and this guy even has the big spiky lower teeth jutting out from his lower lip.
Here's another oni drawing, albeit more modern: http://www.pantheon.org/areas/gallery/mythology/asia/japanese/oni.jpg They also like to give these characters very large, pronounced and masculine lower jaws or beards. The beard that aligns the lower jaw, like what Ganondorf from TP has, just accentuates his lower jaw even more.
He was also given a much wider nose in TP.
Basically, what I'm trying to say here is Demise's character design is definitely nothing new or "fresh" when you consider Japanese art history. He's even wearing what appears to be some kind of Japanese-inspired garment around his waist and legs (I don't know what those are called) which is similar to that drawing that I linked to above.
That's my little history lesson for y'all. If you're curious knowing about the idea of Ridley and cicadas, feel free to hop on over to this thread.
I wanted to bring up and discuss the concept of Demise, and specifically focus on the way he looks.
I've noticed people have already made the comparison to Street Fighter's Akuma.
(In case you weren't already aware, Akuma is Japanese for "devil")Well, contrary to popular belief no, Nintendo was not inspired by Akuma when they designed Demise. But in my eyes, Demise's design could have very well been inspired by a character from a manga/anime called Berserk. The character is named Nosferatu Zodd, and he looks like this:
(Berserk is an absolutely fantastic manga/anime and they're actually making 3 new anime movies of it! But I digress.) This "style" which is occurs so often you could probably call it a meme among Japanese artists, is a very common recurrence in depictions of Japanese demons, or "oni." Onis are usually depicted as being very strong, muscular and powerful. In historical depictions they also usually have horns and carry big long spiked clubs and many are depicted with red skin. The Wikipedia page for oni can be found here, but it's unfortunately very short and unsatisfying. In historical depictions in Japanese art, they seem to be more inclined to giving evil and demonic characters very specific characteristics: removing eyebrows to accentuate their wide forehead and brow, widening the dorsum (also known as the bridge) of their nose to more beast-sized proportions, or giving them extremely large nostrils. In Kabuki theater, the actors adorn masks when they take on the role of the oni. Here's an image japanese demon mask I found through google image searching:
See? No eyebrows, big, defined brows, wide nose, and this guy even has the big spiky lower teeth jutting out from his lower lip.Here's another oni drawing, albeit more modern: http://www.pantheon.org/areas/gallery/mythology/asia/japanese/oni.jpg They also like to give these characters very large, pronounced and masculine lower jaws or beards. The beard that aligns the lower jaw, like what Ganondorf from TP has, just accentuates his lower jaw even more.
He was also given a much wider nose in TP. Basically, what I'm trying to say here is Demise's character design is definitely nothing new or "fresh" when you consider Japanese art history. He's even wearing what appears to be some kind of Japanese-inspired garment around his waist and legs (I don't know what those are called) which is similar to that drawing that I linked to above.
That's my little history lesson for y'all. If you're curious knowing about the idea of Ridley and cicadas, feel free to hop on over to this thread.
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(But I think Demise's resemblance to Zodd is quite uncanny)
