Similarities Between Yokai and Aliens

summary

• Weapons and charms designed to fight yokai also work on aliens, hinting at a connection between the two.
• Some yōkai may be mistaken for aliens due to their similarity in appearance and abilities.
• Yokai are unwittingly preventing aliens from invading Earth due to their supernatural powers.

Warning: Dandadan follows, Episode 10, “Have You Ever Seen Cattle Mutilation?” Contains spoilers for , now streaming on Crunchyroll.

Aside from being a strange, unusual phenomenon, yokai (evil spirits) and aliens don't really have much in common, but punishmentthey do. And it's not just their shared interest in human genitalia, as these two types of creatures appear to be more connected than the show currently lets on. But despite their similarities, yokai and aliens are different creatures, and it's important to know what they have in common before trying to figure out what they have in common.

First, yokai are evil spirits from Japanese folklore that have appeared in the world. punishment Seeking to steal life force from the living to be able to rejoin them. Each yokai has a different origin, but they were all once humans who died with deep regrets or were wronged by someone and did not move on properly in the afterlife. In the first yokai punishment Turbo is Granny, a spirit based on a Japanese urban legend of an old woman who follows people near highways. In the show, she merged with another yokai, the Earthbound Spirit Crab, and lived in a tunnel comforting the spirits of young girls who had been violently murdered.

Aliens, on the other hand, are…exactly what they are. They are beings or creatures that come from different planets far away from Earth. Most, if not all, of the aliens in the show are technologically advanced, they have the technology to move between star systems, and they have special abilities depending on their species. The first exotic species in punishment The Serpoians are; Aliens who are unable to reproduce naturally and wish to receive human reproductive organs to do so.

Similarities between them

Weapons and charms designed to fight yokai also work on aliens

The first example of an alien-yōkai connection is in Flatwoods Monster punishment Episode 2, “That's a Space Alien, Isn't It?!”. In the real world, the Flatwoods Monster is a cryptid or unidentified mysterious animal (UMA); But for the purposes of the show, it's aliens working for the Serpoians instead. Now, the Ayase house and temple are protected by a talisman that will burn any yokai that tries to enter. And yet, for some reason, that charm also worked against the Flatwoods Monster, as Momo and Okarun finally managed to defeat it.

“There are studies that say that people who see spiritual phenomena often also see UFOs! In other words, there may be something in common between ghosts and aliens!” – Okarun during the fight with the Flatwoods monster

Additionally, it seems that when the aliens generate voids, humans with yokai in them can still exist on the same plane as the aliens. This indicates that there is something within both aliens and yokai that is fundamentally the same, allowing weapons and equipment to specifically affect one of them to affect the other.

Some yokai may just be misidentified aliens

If you base it on their appearance and abilities, it's hard to tell a yokai and an alien apart. Unless you specifically know their origin, it's not easy to figure out which is which. This is why Momo's grandmother, Seiko Ayase, refuses to believe in aliens because she believes that the “aliens” they are facing are just yokai. For example, after meeting the alien Mr. Mantis Shrimp punishment In episode 10, “Have You Ever Seen the Mutilation of Cattle?”, Seiko speculates that he must be a Kappa, a yokai that looks like a cross between a frog, a turtle, and a human.

Yokai and aliens aren't the only misidentified creatures on the show. It seems that many cryptids may also be aliens. As mentioned above, the Flatwoods Monster, believed to be a cryptid, was an alien. As Okarun himself noted, Mr. Mantis Shrimp also resembles a cryptid: the Dover Demon, a cryptid originating from Dover, Massachusetts. The only cryptid in the anime that has not yet been confirmed to be fully alien is Nessie, the same species of cryptid as Scotland's Loch Ness Monster.

Yokai keep the aliens in check

They are the accidental guardians of the earth

It is not really a similarity between the two and is only a connection, and one that happened on its own. in punishment In episode 10, Okarun proposes a theory as to why aliens haven't invaded Earth, even though they are clearly more advanced and don't care much for human life. He said that Yokai and other sightings across the planet may have inadvertently kept the aliens at bay. Yokai have supernatural powers that are beyond the understanding of alien science, so invading Earth is risky for them. This is why the Serpoins took such great interest in Okarun after seeing her Turbo Granny powers. They want to capture and study him so they can better understand yokai and eventually build countermeasures against them, or use their powers for themselves.

Dandadan is now available to stream on Crunchyroll, Netflix, Muse Asia, and many other streaming platforms.