Yokai Attack!: The Japanese Monster Survival Guide
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15
Ratings3
Average rating4
Yokai Attack! is a nightmare-inducing one-stop guide to Japan's traditional monsters and creepy-crawlies. Yokai are ethereal sorts of beings, like ghosts, nearly always encountered at night; everyone has their own take on how they might look in real life and what sorts of specific characteristics and abilities they might have. This book is the result of long hours spent poring over data and descriptions from a variety of sources, including microfilms of eighteenth-century illustrations from the national Diet Library in Tokyo, in order to bring you detailed information on almost 50 of these amazing creatures for the first time in English. Illustrations, created by the talented Tatsuya Morino, detail the potential appearance of each yokai. Alongside each illustration is a series of "data points," with each yokai's important features at a glance--especially handy for any potential close encounters. Yokai Attack! will surely convince you that Japan's tradition of fascinating monsters is a long one--yet far from being history. Book 1 of 3 in the Yokai Attack! series. Others include Ninja Attack! and Yurei Attack!.
Featured Series
3 primary booksAttack! is a 3-book series with 3 primary works first released in 2008 with contributions by Hiroko Yoda and Matt Alt.
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This is a fun little guide to various kinds of Japanese ‘monster' (yokai) from myth and urban legend. Many of the creatures described here will likely be unfamiliar to western audiences - I was only previously aware of four of them, out of 45 entries.
After a short general introduction, the book is divided into five chapters, grouping the yokai into the broad categories of ‘dangerous', ‘annoying', ‘hungry', ‘seductive' and ‘harmless'. For example, Tengu and Kappa both fit in the first category, while Kitsune belong in the fourth. Each yokai gets three or four pages, although some entries are for groups of closely related entities, rather than individual types. In a light, jokey style, we discover the creature's description, method of attack (if any), and popular methods of defence against them. Each is accompanied by multiple illustrations, mostly in modern Japanese style, but, in some cases, reproductions of traditional drawings.
This edition is styled like a notebook, with semi-random sections highlighted in yellow or with hand-written notes alongside them to elucidate additional points. At times, this is a little distracting, but I suppose it's all part of the intended look.
The main bonus though, is the introduction to such a weird array of varied beings. Some have parallels with western monsters, but most do not, and some are really quite strange to our eyes. It's a great little book to dip into, if not especially deep, but a particular treat for fans of monsters and mythic legends.
