Yokai: Japanese folklore monsters and spirits. Kind of like the British fairy folk.
I just joined this group at Google+ about yokai:
I was trying to find a community to discuss multicultural folklore creatures, but I wasn't able to find one.
I've always been into mythical or folklore creatures, so when I got into anime and manga, it was natural that I became a fan of yokai series. Oddly enough, when going through my collection, I found that many of my occult genre series had actually less to do with yokai and more to do with exorcists (priests, monks, miko, onmyoji) or ghosts. Series about demon-hunters are always fun, because they tend to have a lot of action. And maybe they had one or a few reoccurring yokai friends, but series like Her Majesty's Dog, Summoner Girl, and Devil Hunter Yohko, actually were not really about the yokai themselves, nor did a great variety of yokai make appearances throughout the series. Not when compared to the series pictured above (top-left to bottom-right):
Yokai Doctor
Natsume's Book of Friends
Tactics
By the Sword
Kami-chuu
Inuyasha
Moeyo Ken
Ushio and Tora.
Going through my collection made me realize how little I have about Western demonology. Sure, I have scholastic books about faery folk and mythological creatures, but I realized how odd it was that I barely collect series about Western folklore creatures. I watched Buffy the Vampire Slayer and I occasionally catch an episode of Lost Girl, but why aren't I watching Supernatural? Why haven't I seen a single episode of Grimm? Sad. Even if I am more partial towards animation, versus live action, I shouldn't get my Western cryptozoology fix solely from Night Warriors. #^^#;
But like I said, I was originally looking for an international folklore forum. I want to learn about the mythic creatures from India, Africa, South America, the Philippines, etc. Not just Japan or Europe. Looks like I've got a lot of research ahead. So much for joining a Google+ community and letting the info come to me. Ah, well.
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