Home Forums Off Topic Meaning of 'oni'

This topic contains 3 replies, has 3 voices, and was last updated by  Luke 13 years, 1 month ago.

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  • #20779

    Z-man
    Member

    Hello all,

    I just got to the point in season 2 where I met ぼぼさん the おに. My question is, what is the Japanese concept of おに? I know it translates roughly as demon, but what is the definition of a Japanese demon? In Christianity, a demon is commonly thought of as a fallen angel. More accurately, they are the ‘leftover’ spirits of deceased fallen angel/human hybrids (that’s why they seek to posses a body, they no longer have one). Would the Japanese concept be closer to ‘chaos monster’ or something like that? I know you see the term おに show up in fantasy video games fairly frequently.

    Z-man

    #20780

    1: ogre; demon;
    2: spirit of a deceased person;
    3: ogre-like person (i.e. fierce, relentless, merciless, etc.);
    4: it (i.e. in a game of tag)

    http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E9%AC%BC
    http://jisho.org/words?jap=%E3%81%8A%E3%81%AB&eng=&dict=edict

    #20783

    Z-man
    Member

    Thank you =)

    #20805

    Luke
    Member

    Haha, this word was so easy to remember for me because I hate playing against the character Oni (who is all demon like) on Street Fighter IV. >:)

    • This reply was modified 13 years, 1 month ago by  Luke.
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