Fairy Tale Media Fix: Oz cartoons.

I know I’ve said before that I was sticking with proper fairy tales for Fairy Tale Media Fix but I’m afraid I can’t quite keep that promise.  For one thing, reviewing versions of Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood and Jack and the Beanstalk repeatedly gets kind of boring.  So, I’m going to have to loosen things up and include some children’s literature.

Now, I know I’ve talked about the Oz books before.  They’re an interesting subject.  Partially because they’re part of what was a common endeavor among writers for a couple of centuries to create the “American fairy tale”.  And partially because it’s a case where a sprawling, popular series of 43 books (including 14 by original author L. Frank Baum) has largely been forgotten by the general public to be almost replaced by a movie adaptation of the first book made in 1939 (it’s a good movie, but come on).  It makes you wonder if other landmark works of children's literature will fade into semi-obscurity someday.  Someday, will people only remember the Harry Potter books for their Warner Bros. film adaptations?

The MGM film isn’t the only legacy of Oz, though.  There are Oz cartoons too.  Not a lot of them, but probably more than you’d think.  Just like the books now do, they tend to slip under the radar.  There was a short in 1933.  There was Tales of the Wizard of Oz in 1961 from Rankin Bass (the same people who made Pinocchio’s Christmas).  There was a DiC Wizard of Oz series from 1990 based on the 1939 movie.  There was even a second generation show called Oz Kids.  That's just counting TV shows too and not animated movies.  Even right now, there are a couple of options.  Options that I, luckily, have had the chance to view.

Dorothy and the Wizard of Oz

Dorothy and the Wizard of Oz  is an animated show made by Warner Bros. Animation that airs on Cartoon Network’s streaming service Boomerang.  Boomerang, incidentally, is a streaming service I do not subscribe to because I am not made of money.  So, I thought I wouldn’t be able to see this show.  Luckily, there was a DVD release.  Now, Dorothy and the Wizard of Oz is based on the 1939 movie.  So, a lot of that actually makes it into this show.  The Scarecrow, Tin Man and Cowardly Lion all have voices that sound a lot like the voices of the actors in the movie.  The ruby slippers are still around and Dorothy uses them as a teleportation device.  The Wicked Witch of the West is still around in all her green, cackling glory.  Though, the witch is just a spirit living in a crystal ball at this point.  However, even beyond all the movie influences, they still draw a lot from Baum’s books.  From the episodes I was able to watch, other Oz characters from the books that appear in the show include: Ozma, the Woozy, the Hungry Tiger, Ojo the Unlucky, the Nome King, H.M. Wogglebug T.E., the Patchwork Girl, Tik Tok and the Crooked  Magician.  None of them are exactly like their literary counterparts.  Ozma comes across as a little more ditzy.  The Patchwork Girl is less crazy poetry girl and more of a highly skilled royal dressmaker.  Strangely, from the episodes I’ve seen, one of the few Oz characters not in the show seems to be the Wizard himself, despite his name being in the title.  The one major new addition that’s not from either the books or the movie is a new character named Wilhemina.  Wilhemina is a young witch and the Wicked Witch of the West’s niece and she’s set up as a rival of sorts for Dorothy.  While her aunt’s spirit is constantly trying to get Wilhemina to retrieve the ruby slippers, Wilhemina usually wants to mess with Dorothy out of pure jealousy and spite.  In this endeavor, she’s helped by her two flying monkey henchmen, Lyman and Frank (I see what you did there).  And you know, the show’s not half bad.  It’s a very episodic show aimed at pretty young children, so you take what you can get.  The art’s expressive.  The animation’s fluid.  The actors put in a bang up job.  I particularly like the show’s new take on Dorothy.  Despite being so influenced by the 1939 movie, this Dorothy isn’t the “damsel-in-distress” she often seemed to be in that film.  The TV show’s Dorothy is a plucky country tomboy who eagerly rushes off to help others with a click of her heels when she finds out someone needs help.  So, if you get the chance, give it a look.  It may not be appointment viewing unless maybe you’re watching it with one of the small children in your life, but it’s at least worth a casual watch.

Lost in Oz

Lost in Oz on the other hand is on Amazon Instant Video, a streaming service that I am subscribed to.  Now, first of all, I should make the point that this is in no relation to another show called Lost in Oz from 2000 that was produced by Tim Burton never got past the pilot phase.  This Lost in Oz is a daytime Emmy winning computer animated kids’ show that premiered last year.  The story follows an inventive twelve-year-old girl named Dorothy Gale and her dog Toto as a magical journal whisks them off to Oz.  This Oz is very different, just as this Dorothy is different.  This modern day Dorothy lands in a bustling, modern Emerald City.  The magic of Oz is now channeled into the technology that runs the city.  In fact, their knowledge of magic seems to have advanced as well.  Magic is now defined as “the art and science of transformation” and it’s controlled by magical elements that all appear on their own complex periodic table.  Essentially, magic is the physics of Oz.  Anyway, Dorothy finds out that she needs one of each magical element to get home.  Along the way, she meets some new friends like an oversized Munchkin boy named Ojo (which I’m guessing is a common Munchkin name now), a sarcastic young witch named West and a paranoid conspiracy theorist lion named Reigh.  She also gets embroiled in a mystery and runs afoul of some villains.  We also find out that this Dorothy isn’t the first Gale to visit Oz or even the first Dorothy for that matter.  Lost in Oz is a STEM-infused, techno-fantasy mystery adventure show inspired by a turn of the century children’s fantasy book series and it is very good.  I think the characters are great.  This Dorothy is a bright, brave young heroine with a knack for inventing devices and experimentation.  Reigh’s paranoid conspiracy theorist personality is a unique twist on the Cowardly Lion.  Sarcastic and streetwise West is probably my favorite new take on the Wicked Witch of the West ever (that’s right, Wicked fans.  Come at me).  Ojo, while maybe not as big a character as the others, is useful as a slightly more down-to-Earth presence.  And I just love the more scientific and technological approach to magic.  It’s rare I say that.  When books, movies or TV shows try to go into the “science of magic” it usually results in the magic being diminished in some way.  That doesn’t happen here.  Probably because this approach is used to develop a system of magic for Oz, not to explain it away.  It’s something that makes sense for Oz too.  Oz grew out of the environment of a rapidly industrializing and scientifically growing United States.  L. Frank Baum even made use of some of this new technology, the motion picture camera, to make some of the first Oz movies (though, there were also a couple made without his input).  Heck, some of the fantasy devices in the Oz books seemed to predict the future.  In the book Tik Tok of Oz, Baum has it so the Scarecrow carries a special two-way transceiver that he can use to communicate with the Emerald City.  That’s right.  The Scarecrow may have had the first cell phone in literary history.  I will heartily recommend Lost in Oz.  People keep looking for ways to put new twists on public domain properties, but this is one of the few that really feels different.  It’s not another dark, dystopian take like Emerald City or Tin Man or that Tim Burton Lost in Oz project, while still skewing a bit older than stuff like Dorothy and the Wizard of Oz.  This modern, science fantasy Oz just feels like no take on Oz I’ve seen before.  Really, check it out if you get the chance.

That ends this particular Oz-themed installation of Fairy Tale Media Fix.  I’m not sure where the next post will take me, but until then I think I’ll just head down this Yellow Brick Road a little farther. 

Until next time.

Once Upon a Pixel: Okami pt. 2

Still there?  Cool!  Time for more Japanese fairy tale references in Okami.

Why don’t we start this edition with possibly the most well-known fairy tale in Japan.  One that’s known by every school child in that country:

Momotaro

This is a story I’ve covered on here before as well.  It’s the tale of a boy born from the center of a peach who goes off to fight the oni that have been ravaging his country with the help of a dog, pheasant and monkey.  It’s a story that’s so popular it gets referenced in anime and tokusatsu fairly frequently.  The characters have been made into a statue in Okayama, there’s been a Momotaro brand of blue jeans and the characters were even used in Japanese propaganda films during World War II.  Which makes how small Momotaro’s role in the game is a little bit puzzling.

Momotaro is seen in Sei-An City, the capital of Nippon.  He’s a little boy who’s playing hero and pretending to go off to Oni Island to fight monsters.  He also asks you to help get back his kibi dango (millet dumplings) that were taken by a pickpocket that’s lurking around the city.  And that’s about it, really.  There are other elements of his story there.  Oni Island is a place in the game.  It’s the stronghold of a kitsune boss named Ninetails.  There are also a couple of situations in which you’ll see giant peaches and have to open them up to get at prizes inside.  However, that may have to do with other associations related to the peach in Japanese culture (click HERE for a Gaijin Goombah video about Okami that touches on the peach thing).  There are monkeys and dogs among the animals in the game which you can win over with food, but no pheasants.  But really, that’s it.  The actual character of Momotaro doesn’t do much.  He’s an NPC (non-player character) who asks you to do a side quest (one that two other characters ask you to do) and that’s all.  He doesn’t have nearly as big a role as either Kaguya or the sparrows at Sasa Sanctuary.  Still, maybe that’s for the best.  After all, he’s already a big star in the world of Japanese fairy tales.  His design definitely calls back to his origins in the folk tale.  His costuming suggests the peach (especially his pants for some reason).  Also, he has a slightly animal-like face that recalls both the monkey and the dog a little bit (still no pheasant, though).  Like I said before, he’s just a kid in this game, but that got me thinking though.  Momotaro is drawn like a little kid in a lot of art.  A lot of the written versions of his tale say he’s 15 though.  I wonder why he’s not drawn more like a teenager.  Maybe it’s because little kids identify so strongly with this story that they chose to play into that.

Urashima Taro

The story of “Urashima Taro” or “Urashima the Fisherman” is kind of a sad, bittersweet tale (like many Japanese fairy tales) about a humble fisherman who saves a turtle from a gang of mean kids and is then rewarded by being brought to Rin Gin Palace where he falls in love with the daughter of the Dragon King of the Sea, Princess Otohime.  He stays there for a while until he gets homesick and asks to go home for a while.  He goes and is given a jeweled box that he is instructed never to open.  He goes only to find that everything is different than he remembered and for good reason.  Over 100 years had passed since he left.  He then opens the box and all the years he didn’t age start rushing back and he ages and dies on the spot.  Or . . . he catches Otohime in the form of a sea turtle and lets her go and she instead welcomes her to her home in the heavens.  There are actually a couple of variants of this one.  But still, the hundred year stay is the same as well as opening the jeweled box with the additional aging.  Those remain the same.

Now, if you thought the fairy tale Urashima was sad, the Okami version is too.  He’s just sad in a pathetic way instead of sad in a wistful/touching kind of way.  When we first encounter Urashima, he’s being bullied by a group of little kids.  Apparently, they don’t believe him when he said an emissary from the Dragon King’s court named Orca (notably an orca whale as the name suggests, rather than a turtle) brought him down to Rin Gin Palace.  When Amaterasu and Issun do meet with Orca, Urashima tries to get Orca to take him back to the palace only to be firmly rejected.  When you do inevitably meet Otohime, she is not a young princess but the undisputed queen of the oceans and the bride of the Water Dragon besides.  There are a few other touches that reference the fairy tale.  The kids who are beating on Urashima all wear hats that are patterned to look like turtle shells.  Also, Urashima’s design references not just the fact that he’s a fisherman but also the treasure box he was told not to open.  Though, it looks like more of a barrel here.  I do feel kind of bad for this Urashima, but he also got to live a subjectively longer life than the fairy tale version.  So, it’s hard to feel too bad for him.

The Story of the Old Man Who Made Withered Trees to Flower

This is another one that’s kind of sad.  At least, if you’re a dog lover.  It concerns an old man who is very nice and his neighbor who was mean and greedy.  The good old man had a beloved dog named Shiro who one day points him to a buried treasure of gold coins in his yard.  Seeing this, his jealous neighbor asks to borrow the dog with the thought that it will point him to a similar treasure.  Shiro instead leads him to a refuse pile that was buried.  The nasty neighbor, out of anger, kills the dog and buries him under a tree.  This is basically the start of a cycle in which the kind neighbor repeatedly tries to take away something to remember his poor dog and ends up getting a miraculous result only for the nasty neighbor to try and replicate the result only for it to turn out horrible and destroy the momento out of anger.  The old man asks for the tree the dog is buried under and makes a mortar out of it.  The mortar turns out to be able to make a magical amount of mochi.  The neighbor borrows it and all he gets is some kind of foul-smelling gunk.  So, he burns the mortar.  The good neighbor takes away the ashes and finds that spreading the ashes on trees will get them to flower even in winter.  The whole thing basically ends when the nasty neighbor can’t replicate that result in front of the local feudal lord.

The Okami version of this tale is a bit sillier.  The version here is an old man named Mr. Flower who lives in Sei-an City.  And before you ask: Yes, he does appear to have a tree growing from his head.  You even have to bloom it using your Celestial Brush.  As silly as he may look, this character does have a two-part dedicated side quest, unlike Momotaro.  In the first part, you have to bloom all the trees in Sei-an City that aren’t possessed with evil spirits.  After that, you have to chase after Mr. Flower to all the trees that are possessed as he does a special dance that drives away the evil spirits.  At the point the spirit leaves, you bloom the tree with your brush.  And if you can’t keep up, you have to start the whole thing over again (trust me, I had to a couple of times).  It’s a strange take on the tale, but it’s still nice to see it acknowledged.  I also like how Amaterasu as the white wolf kind of reflects the role of the white dog Shiro in the tale.

Benkei

In addition to fairy tale characters, there are also historical and legendary figures represented in the characters of Okami.  Now, I’m not so informed on the legendary figures, but I do recognize a few.  Like Benkei, for instance.  Saito Musashibo Benkei, more commonly referred to as just “Benkei”, was a Japanese warrior monk who died in 1189.  He’s mentioned about twice in historical records, but is more famous for the legends attached to him.  Benkei supposedly lived in a monastery until he was about seventeen at which point he left to become a mountain ascetic.  Somewhere around this point he developed a personal ambition to duel and defeat 1000 samurai, who he believed were arrogant and unworthy warriors, and take their swords from them as trophies.  He supposedly managed to collect 999 swords until he was defeated at Gojo Bridge by Minamoto no Yoshitsune (note: another Okami character named Waka is supposedly based on Minamoto no Yoshitsune).  After that, Benkei wanted revenge and fought Minamoto no Yoshitsune again, only to lose again.  After that he became a retainer for Minamoto no Yoshitsune and helped him fight in the Genpei War against the Taira Clan.  Yoshitsune and Benkei would end up turning outlaw when Yoshitsune’s older brother turned against them.  When they were finally surrounded, Yoshitsune raced into the castle they were at to commit seppuku (ritual suicide) while Benkei stood out on the bridge to fend off the army chasing them.  The army was so afraid of taking on Benkei directly that they ended up riddling him with arrows and Benkei supposedly died standing on his feet without falling over.  In folklore and media, Benkei is commonly depicted as a monk carrying seven weapons on his back: an axe, rake, sickle, wooden mallet, saw, iron staff and half-moon spear.

Benkei is another character that you encounter in Sei-an City.  Specifically on the bridge between the commoners’ and aristocratic quarters.  This seems kind of fitting considering how bridges factored into his life in two very major situations.  However, this Benkei isn’t looking to duel any samurai though.  He’s still on a quest to collect swords, but this version of Benkei has heard that there is a shining living sword lurking in the depths of the Sei-an City lake and he wants your help to defeat it.  That’s right, he’s there for fishing.  It’s a fishing minigame.  It’s also a very important fishing minigame because until you finish it, you can’t pass into the Aristocratic Quarter (though, why Benkei has a fishing minigame while Urashima the Fisherman doesn’t is a bit beyond me).  Anyway, at the end of all this after he’s caught a giant cutlass fish, he decides to give up his quest to collect 1000 swords and devote himself to fishing instead.  On the one hand, it doesn’t exemplify his steadfast loyalty like the legendary Benkei’s actions did.  On the other, growing old while fishing probably beats getting riddled with arrows and dying on your feet.

That’s about all I’ve got for this.

It’s interesting, though.  Just the idea of what stories and tales make up someone’s frame of reference based on where they live and what culture they live in.  All these tales and even more that I didn’t mention would probably be recognized almost immediately by people in Japan.  That’s why Capcom included them.  However, if the anime, manga and tokusatsu I partake in is any proof, they also know a whole lot of Western tales too.  They know “Cinderella” and “Snow White” and “Jack and the Beanstalk” and “Hansel and Gretel” and “The Little Match Girl” and a whole mess of others.  Probably because the West has been a lot keener on exporting certain tales as a way of spreading their culture all over the place.  Other places hold their cultures a lot tighter.  The fact that I personally know so many of these Japanese tales is kind of strange.  I mainly know them because of tokusatsu, manga and anime.  I’d like to say that my knowledge of Grimm tales is because I have German roots, but it’s actually also because of anime to an extent.  So, being a geek made me more aware of global folk tales.

It also makes me think what other culture’s tales might be good worked into a video game.  Maybe something Russian with characters like Baba Yaga, Grandfather Frost and Vasilisa.  Or maybe something less European?  A game set in West African lore featuring Anansi, maybe.

What do you guys think?  On any of the subjects brought up above.

Anyway, until next time!

Once Upon a Pixel: Okami pt. 1

Hey, everybody!  If anyone’s been paying attention to my social media presence, you may know that I have been absolutely hooked on playing a game called Okami.  Now, this game came out years ago for the Wii and other systems of the day.  However, it was just recently rereleased on the Nintendo Switch virtual console as Okami HD.  It’s a great adventure game with fun gameplay, a unique art style and an interesting game mechanic involving a “celestial brush”.  You want to know the best part, though?  This game is absolutely filled with references to Japanese history, art and culture.  And of course that includes Japanese folk and fairy tales. 

I thought I’d go over a few of the tales referenced and how they manifest themselves in Okami.  The title of each will be a link connecting you to the actual story.  First though, we should start with the story that starts things off, one that’s more myth than folk tale.

“Susano-o and Yamato-no-Orochi”

In Shinto myth, the god Susano-o was kicked out of the dwelling place of the gods, Takamagahara, by his sister the great sun goddess Amaterasu.  When he ended up on Earth, he was near a river where he saw some chopsticks floating downstream.  Figuring that meant someone lived upstream, he followed the river until he found an elderly couple and their daughter Kushinada-hime who were very distraught.  They explained that Kushinada-hime was to be sacrificed to a monstrous serpent with eight heads and eight tails named Yamato-no-Orochi.  The couple had eight daughters and every year Yamata-no-Orochi came for one until Kushinada-hime was the only one left.  Susano-o tells the couple that if they’ll grant him Kushinada-hime’s hand in marriage, he will save her.  They agree.  Susano-o’s plan is a bit unique, involving Kushinada-hime being transformed into a comb and lots of very strong sake.  But it ends with Susano-o finding one of the Three Imperial Treasures of Japan (what?  I’m not giving the whole story away.  Like I said, click the link above).

The whole first part of Okami is based on this myth.  There are some differences, though.  In this case, Orochi was an evil that had been defeated before and been sealed away.  Generations ago, Orochi plagued the land, firing an arrow into the home of any woman he wanted sacrificed to him.  He was eventually defeated by a warrior named Nagi and a white wolf named Shiranui.  Now, the creature is released from the place where it was held so it may terrorize the countryside again.  There’s still a Susano-o figure though.  Susano is a descendant of Nagi in this game.  He’s also a bit of a stubborn buffoon, albeit an earnest one.  Kushi is the Kushinada-hime character, a young woman who brews sake in Kamiki Village (if you see her design, you’ll notice that her hair is distinctly comb-shaped).  As for Amaterasu?  That’s the player character.  Yeah, that’s right.  The main character in this game is the goddess of the sun, mother of all, in the form of a wolf.

“Issun-Boshi”

“Issun-Boshi” is a story I’ve covered before on the blog here.  It’s sort of like a Japanese “Tom Thumb”.  A childless couple pray for a child only to have one born to them that is incredibly small.  The child grows older but not much bigger, and decides to go off and earn his fortune.  Taking a sewing needle as a sword, Issun-Boshi sails a rice bowl down to the city and gets a position as the personal attendant of a rich man’s daughter.  One day on the way to the temple, the daughter and Issun-Boshi are ambushed by an oni who swallows Issun-Boshi.  Issun-Boshi causes so much trouble in the monster’s guts that he throws him up and takes off, leaving his magic mallet behind.  The rich man’s daughter then uses the mallet to enlarge Issun-Boshi to full human size.

That actually is pretty much the whole story, but I needed to lay it all out to talk about all the references in the game.  From pretty much the beginning of the game, Amaterasu is given a companion to act as a dialogue proxy and also comic relief.  A tiny little guy referred to as “Wandering Artist Issun”.  And Issun is . . . well . . . kind of a pain in the ass, actually.  He’s loud and opinionated.  He’s boastful.  He scolds you if you screw up a challenge.  He also hits on pretty much every woman you meet in the course of the adventure.  But he does have a few uses.  At one point you have to sneak into the Emperor’s palace.  The only way to do that is to use a magic mallet to do the opposite of what it does in the story.  You shrink down to about Issun’s size and creep into the courtyard through a chink in the wall.  At that point, Issun becomes the expert on how to survive at bug size.  In another reference, Issun and Amaterasu do end up having to go into someone’s body.  The difference is that it’s not an oni this time, it’s the emperor.

“The Tongue-Cut Sparrow”

“The Tongue-Cut Sparrow” is a story about a kind old woodcutter and his pet sparrow.  The woodcutter is married to an old woman who is greedy and cruel who hates the sparrow.  One day, after the sparrow ate the rice paste that she was going to use to starch her clothes, the old woman gets angry and cuts the tongue out of the sparrow’s beak (cruel as it is, I’m amazed at the old woman’s precision in doing that).  The sparrow flies away.  Later, the woodcutter finds the sparrow again in the woods and finds out that not only is the sparrow well with a newly restored tongue but that she’s actually a magical creature.  The woodcutter is welcomed into the sparrow’s home where he is entertained all evening.  He leaves the next morning with a choice of two boxes to take away as gifts, one big and small.  He chooses the smaller one.  When the woodcutter’s wife discovers he left behind the bigger box, she goes to the sparrow’s home to get it.  She later discovers that may not have been such a good idea.

During the first part of the game, you may discover two different places.  One is a cottage with a palpable aura of evil around it and a rather creepy and dangerous old lady out front.  The other is a place called Sasa Sanctuary, an inn and hot spring resort run by giant sparrows.  You find out in short order that the youngest daughter of the Sparrow Clan is being held by the old woman and her husband.  Using a certain set of circumstances, Amaterasu is able to enter the house and reveal the old couple’s true forms as a pair of Crow Tengu.  After defeating them, the young sparrow is freed and you get access to all of Sasa Sanctuary which is very helpful in game.  So, it’s a little different.  This time, not only is the old woman awful, she’s an actual monster.  As is her husband, who is not the kind woodcutter of the tale.  However, there is a guest at the Sasa Sanctuary inn who comments that he helped a sparrow once and that he felt their hospitality was him being repaid for it.  And that word is probably the biggest connection for the sparrows themselves: hospitality.  It may not be a simple home in the woods, but the inn at Sasa Sanctuary is an amped up expression of the hospitality that the sparrow showed the woodcutter in the folk tale.

“The Bamboo Cutter”

The story of “The Bamboo Cutter” is a rather magical and touching story about a bamboo cutter who finds a tiny little girl inside a stalk of bamboo and raises her as his own.  As the girl, Kaguya,  grew older and became more beautiful, suitors pursued her but she wanted nothing to do with them.  Until the time came when she had to leave and go back to the Moon Kingdom where she was originally from.  If you’ve seen the Studio Ghibli film The Tale of the Princess Kaguya, then you know what story I’m talking about.  Also, the Australian Fairy Tale Society had been focusing on this tale just recently.

Through the first part of the game, you’ll run into a man named Mr. Bamboo frequently.  Mr. Bamboo is a craftsman who makes things out of, you guessed it, bamboo.  In many of your encounters with Mr. Bamboo, you’ll be in situations in which you’ll have to cut open a glowing stalk of bamboo.  This is a direct callback to how the Bamboo Cutter found Kaguya and the treasures sent down by the Moon Kingdom.  A little while later you meet the in-game version of Kaguya, who is Mr. Bamboo’s adoptive granddaughter, in the emperor’s palace where she’s being held against her will.  This is another callback, this time to the part in the tale when the emperor tried to marry Kaguya himself.  Amaterasu and Issun free her only to assist her later in the bamboo grove behind Sasa Sanctuary to dig up . . . a giant bamboo-shaped rocket.  Hey, I didn’t say these were completely serious takes on these tales.  It is a rather unique take on the tale’s Kaguya-hime and her origins on the moon.  Another interesting thing you might notice is Kaguya’s design.  The bamboo part is obvious, but did you notice the little “rabbit ear” like protrusions on her head.  This also alludes to her origins on the moon.  In China and Japan, rabbits are associated with the moon because of a pareidolia (the psychological phenomenon of interpreting a pattern where none exists) that sees the shape of a rabbit using a mortar and pestle on the moon’s surface.  Where Americans see the face of “the man in the moon”, the Japanese see a rabbit (see also Sailor Moon aka Usagi, whose long pigtails make her look kind of like a lop-eared rabbit).

Wow.

I’m not even done yet.  This one’s going to have to be a two-parter.  Keep an eye out for the second half where I highlight four more stories that make cameo appearances in Okami.