Hi! :). I’m making a character/avatar for some youtube videos.
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The basic premise is that they’re a living shadow sealed into a human-ish body. There is a seal on them that has the kanji 魔 on it by itself. Does this work for the implication of having sealed either a perceived evil spirit or magical/powerful entity?
Or does it not feel correct in this context?
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Any help would be apreciated!
3 comments
魔 is a demon.
魔 consists of two main elements. 鬼 stands for oni, which is an ogre-like demon in Japanese culture. And 麻 stands for… Uh, hemp. So it’s not just an oni, but a particular kind of oni you may only meet after consuming illicit substances.
Sorry, but someone had to spell it out.
On a more serious note, 魔 just means magic and it has a somewhat negative association to it, so more like witchcraft. For example 魔法少女 stands for mahou shojo as in the magical girl anime genre.
A single kanji wouldn’t work, but if you put 魔 and 人 together to create 魔人, that might work.
魔人s appear in Chainsaw Man with the meaning of an 悪魔’s spirit inhabiting a person’s body. 魔人 was also used in Dragon Ball (Majin Buu, for instance) as a symbol of possession if I remember correctly.