The Titans of Okami

Capcom's Okami is a game steeped in Japanese folklore and mythology. There are dozens of stories to speak of as players venture through the game, some of which are tied to a particular character like Benkei, and many of which are tied to the core story. Today, we're going to speak about those main story bosses that tie back to significant figures in Japanese folklore: Orochi and Ninetails.

We'll begin with the first major boss, the lingering threat about which stories are told from the very beginning of the game: Orochi. In the game, Orochi is an ancient evil that devoured women from Kamiki Village. When a woman named Nami became his chosen victim, a brave warrior named Nagi disguised himself in her dress and got the monster drunk with the legendary 8 Purification Sake. With the help of the white wolf Shiranui, the two vanquished Orochi with the power of the sacred sword Tsukuyomi, sealing it within the Moon Cave. Years later, after the foolish Susano, descendant of the hero Nagi, pulled the sword from the Moon Cave, Orochi was free to wreak havoc again. Only with the help of Amaterasu, the reincarnated Shiranui, was Susano able to right his wrong and free Kushi, the creature's chosen sacrifice.

Surprisingly, this is an almost entirely accurate retelling of the story of the real world mythological creature Yamata-no-Orochi. The only real differences are the names of the characters involved. Nagi and Nami are clear parallels to the Shinto gods Izanagi and Izanami, but they do not play a role in the tale of Orochi. Instead, the story involves Susano'o, god of storms and son of Izanagi, and a woman named Kushinadahime. As the story goes, each year, a family in the village was forced to sacrifice one of their daughters to Yamata-no-Orochi, and this year they were to send their eighth and final daughter. Susano'o transforms the girl into a comb (kushi in the Japanese, funnily enough) which he places in his hair for safekeeping. Susano'o tricks Orochi into drinking eight barrels of sake, getting the beast drunk, and slays it in its stupor. Upon slicing the tail, Susano'o discovers a legendary sword named Kusanagi no Tsurugi or "Grass Cutter."

As for the missing figures of Amaterasu and Tsukuyomi, while they don't play a specific role in the story, they are tangentially related: Amaterasu is the Shinto goddess of the sun and sister to Susano'o and Tsukuyomi, the moon god. Prior legends tell that Yamata-no-Orochi was cast out of heaven by Susano'o for tricking Amaterasu, and Susano'o himself was later banished for a similar squabble with his sister.

In truth, there is little more to analyze here; Okami does a phenomenal job of adapting the mythological story of Susano'o and Yamata-no-Orochi into the narrative of the game. The only confusing element is the addition of Shiranui/Amaterasu, but considering the significance of Amaterasu as a figure in Shinto culture (and the significance of the sun in every culture), can account for the importance the titular white wolf plays in the various stories of the game.

The second act of the game features an antagonist known as Ninetails. Immediately, players can recognize a connection to the kitsune, one of the most popular and widespread spirits in Japanese culture. The nine-tailed fox spirit appears in global phenomenon franchises such as Pokemon and Naruto. Unlike Yamata-no-Orochi, the kitsune is not a singular entity, rather more like a species not dissimilar to a traditional fox. That said, there is one particular named kitsune by which Ninetails is most likely inspired: Tamamo-no-Mae.

Tamamo-no-Mae was a legendary kitsune most famous for possessing concubines of kings in order to influence their rule. The tale of the fox spirit that would become Tamamo-no-Mae begins with her possession of Daji, concubine of King Zhou of the Shang dynasty in China. The legend tells of her seducing the king and causing a reign of terror that brought an end to he Shang dynasty. After this, she fled to India, becoming Lady Kayo, concubine of the crown prince Banzoku, and causing the death of a thousand men by beheading. She would later return to China and possess Bao Si, a concubine of King You of the Zhou dynasty.

Finally, the spirit would appear in Japan, impersonating a concubine of Emperor Konoe. Here, she caused a great illness within the emperor before she is discovered by an astrologer called to diagnose the emperor. After being found out, it is said that Tamamo-no-Mae sealed herself within a stone called the Sessho-seki or "Killing Stone" which would spew out poisonous gas, killing everything that touched the stone or breathed the gas. Some tales tell of a Buddhist monk who exorcised the spirit and destroyed the stone, but a stone purported to be the Sessho-seki was discovered to have split in two as recently as 2022. Perhaps the spirit of Tamamo has returned to sow more discord among the leaders of the world.

The repeated possession of women in order to manipulate the leaders of countries is quite the pattern for Tamamo to have made for herself. Ninetails in Okami is no different--the plot of the game revealing the priestess Rao (a notably beautiful and buxom woman, not dissimilar to the attractive concubines in the legends) as having been replaced by the shapeshifting spirit. The Blight boss, battled within the body of the emperor, is a direct reference to the illness that struck Emperor Konoe, placed within him in order that Ninetails could further her evil plans. The defeat of both of these bosses sets the stage for the final third of the game

Despite not appearing in the final boss rush of the game, Lechku and Nechku, the twin owl demons, are responsible for the unending blizzard that plagues Kamui, the final portion of the game. Much about the lands of Kamui are inspired by the Japanese island of Hokkaido, which we have discussed in an earlier article here. Lechku and Nechku's boss fight is one of the more spectacular ones in the game, yet their origins in real-world mythology can get a bit murky due to creative liberties taken with their designs.

In Ainu culture, there was once a hero named Ae-oyna-kamuy, sometimes called Ainurakkur (father of the Ainu), who was effectively a demigod of the Ainu people. When humanity first began to evolve from cave-dwellers (with the help of the benevolent kamuy), Ainurakkur grew up among the Ainu children and developed many useful tools and concepts that allowed the Ainu people to sustain themselves as a tribal culture. When one day a demon named Moserecik-Kotanecik kidnapped Tokapcup-kamuy, the goddess of the sun, Ainurakkur set out to save her. After slaying the demon, Ainurakkur was lauded as one of the greatest heroes of the Ainu people.

There are many more tales about Ainurakkur, but from this short description, it wouldn't seem he has much to do with Lechku and Nechku. That's because the twin demons are actually based on the villain of the story, Moserecik-Kotanecik. Very few descriptions of the malevolent creature exist, but one line from the story states that it has one eye "as big as the moon" and another "as small as a seed" which can be seen reflected in Lechku and Nechku's design. As for why they take the shape of owls, that could be due to another Ainu deity, Cikap-kamuy, the owl-god of the land and brother-in-law to Ainurakkur, in some stories. It is said that Cikap-kamuy cried tears of gold and silver, which may account for the twin demons' complimentary colors. Many creative liberties were taken with the design, such as the splitting of the singular demon into two bodies, and their Meiji-era inspired outfits. In my personal opinion, this boss is certainly the weakest in terms of relation to real-world myth, despite it's exciting gameplay involving Amaterasu and Oki teaming up to battle the duo.

The final boss of Okami, Yami, is probably the strangest creature of all. After defeating many of the bosses seen throughout the game, resurrected by the Ark of Yamato, Amaterasu is faced with her greatest challenge yet: a porpoise. Despite it's underwhelming nature, the final boss pilots a futuristic sphere-shaped mech that can transform to counter Amaterasu's moves. Much like Lechku and Nechku, the inspiration for this boss is not immediately obvious, but its design does seem more strongly related to a Shinto god.

When Izanagi and Izanami created the island Onogoroshima, they erected a pillar around which they would perform a marriage ceremony. They circled the pillar, and Izanami greeted Izanagi, sealing the union. Izanagi was concerned, believing that he should have been the one to greet Izanami first. His worries were proven true, when their first child, Hiruko, was born without bones. Ashamed, they set the child adrift in a boat of reeds, and tried again. Whilst the two gods continued to create the greater Shinto pantheon, Hiruko survived his journey, overcoming many obstacles and eventually growing into a god named Ebisu. Ebisu is still crippled, but his bones work well enough to become a patron god of fishermen, and his well-spirited nature despite all his setbacks earned him the title "the laughing god."

Yami's true form may reflect a darker, more vengeful form of Ebisu. Even the name Yami means "darkness" and is associated with gloom and malice. The porpoise-like, aquatic form of the boss may be a nod to Ebisu's association with the sea, but it may also reflect the disabled Hiruko, as it lacks arms or legs and needs to use the large spherical mech to move around. Yami also resembles a fetus, probably referencing the god Ebisu's childlike nature, becoming a deity at the ripe age of three.

The bosses of Okami are varied in scope and design. There are a pair of bosses we did not discuss in this article, as their mythological references are either direct and not particularly elaborate (Spider Queen being a Jorogumo, a spider yokai) or barely there at all (as in the case of Crimson Helm). The bosses are merely one facet of the story of Okami that offer a sterling adaptation of Japanese culture and mythology to a broader audience around the world. In particular, the bosses Orochi and Ninetails call back to timeless, foundational stories in Japanese culture. This is just one of the many ways that Okami uses existing mythology to make for creative storytelling. This game is truly a work of art both in visual scope and cultural significance, and I take great joy in writing about it!