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| Abe no Seimei
87th Post
 
Occasional Customer
  
|  "Re(2):Why do they SvC bosses look like that?"
, posted Sat 30 Aug 13:52
quote:
Shin Gouki and Mr. Karate look like some old, beer drinking, pot belly havin', retired fighters.
That's not a good look for them.
 MESSATSU
We covered this in a thread a little bit further down on the main BBS page. Apparently it's a take-off on a pair of famous Japanese statues, but none of us really know THAT much about it beyond the obvious physical similarities and the fact that the statues have appeared in at least one other game (a Shinobi game, according to Black_Hayato). That would be the reason for the statuesque skin tone and the bizarre musculature, or so we're assuming, at least.
Yes, you're right about the statues thing. I think it's time for a little cultural chitchat (please don't fall a sleep): These statues that looks like old pro-wrestlers are called Ni-ô and they usally keep the main gate of buddhist temples. As buddhist deities, they come of course from India, where they were called Vadjradhara (Basara-un in japanese) and Râkshasa (Rasetsu-ten in japanese). they also have other name and are related to some other deities of esoteric buddhism like aizen-myôô or Fudô myôô. In short, they are the big tough buddies who protect the law of the Buddha against evil forces.
It always fun to see that japanese people, who are not that religious at all, still pull up lots of buddhist references in videogames.
NAMU AMIDA BUTSU
悪霊退散！悪霊退散！
怨霊、ものの怪、困った時は
ドーマン！セーマン！ドーマン！セーマン！
直ぐに呼びましょ陰陽師 レッツゴー！
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| DarkZero
243th Post
Frequent Customer
 
| "Re(3):Why do they SvC bosses look like that?" , posted Sun 31 Aug 00:56
quote:
Yes, you're right about the statues thing. I think it's time for a little cultural chitchat (please don't fall a sleep): These statues that looks like old pro-wrestlers are called Ni-ô and they usally keep the main gate of buddhist temples. As buddhist deities, they come of course from India, where they were called Vadjradhara (Basara-un in japanese) and Râkshasa (Rasetsu-ten in japanese). they also have other name and are related to some other deities of esoteric buddhism like aizen-myôô or Fudô myôô. In short, they are the big tough buddies who protect the law of the Buddha against evil forces.
It always fun to see that japanese people, who are not that religious at all, still pull up lots of buddhist references in videogames.
Thanks for the info. I was hoping that if this discussion kept cropping up, someone would eventually fill me in on what those statues were all about. It was kind of hard to search for them in Google. "two warrior statues"? "two warrior statue stomach"? There weren't many keywords that I could use based on those images.
And I'm guessing that there's some sort of vague significance to the fact that you fight these two Buddhist guardians right before you enter Heaven or Hell. Someone must have had a lot of fun with the design for this game. Throw a little Buddhism in here, a little Christianity over there, add a dash of the Orochi legend... it's quite possibly the most ridiculous pile of myths/religions that I've seen, and I've watched Eva!
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"Re(3):I'll tell you why!" 
flakier crust!"
