uhhhhhhh

These guys, to me, always have the vibe of “We are a reference to a specific fairy tale or folk cryptid that the original audience would definitely get and that you have NO goddamn clue about” and sometimes I think about trying to Google them but then I think it’s more fun to be absolutely mystified by them. Identical stacking disembodied heads of uncertain provenance keep one humble, you know?

[image is a screen shot from Spirited Away showing the protagonist amongst three green floating heads, called Kashuri in the US dub]

There’s a whole host of creatures in Japanese folklore called nukekibi (floating heads) which are a subset of rokuokubi (heads on a long stretchy neck). From the Edo period there is a particular type that were adopted from Chinese tails that are barbarians representing foreigners that are very far from their sleeping bodies, somnambulism. The floating or bouncing disembodied head is a repeating motif in East Asian folklore and includes what is interpreted as Vampires (tangent— some in China trail their guts as they go through windows to feed and that’s why you plant rose bushes outside windows because the guts catch on the thorns)

Good Lord.

(adjusts monocle)

Extraordinary.

(GUTS ‘N’ ROSES)