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Message: <blockquote data-quote="gamerprinter" data-source="post: 5688746" data-attributes="member: 50895">Honestly, lots of concepts that the Japanese find scary when compared to western thought is odd, not scary. But having a different background and a differing point of view some of the concepts of the east, goes counter to the west - based on different morals (of some things.) So in the exploration of eastern horror concepts, I generally put the really odd stuff aside and focus on what is common in horror in both east and west, so it can be appreciated by the largest common denominator. However, the more I look at Japanese movies, television and books that are translated to English, many of those 'odd' concepts are presented in such a way, that I think it could frighten a westerner as well. So I'm slowly bringing those concepts into my Kaidan setting. I was curious to see just how the perceptions of eastern horror go with horror in general - that's why I started this thread. Edit: just to touch upon the Japanese horror concepts I find odd, rather than scary. In Japan it is believed that anything crafted has an expected lifespan of normal durability. However, when something is discarded, not due to being too worn (as in not reaching its full lifespan), there are 'ghostly' or 'vengeful spirit' versions of those discarded objects. The karakasa-obake, for example, is the vengeful ghostly spirit of a discarded umbrella (?!) I can't imagine any instance where an animated umbrella could be perceived as an object of horror to the west, as it is truly an odd concept. Here's an artist's inception of the karakasa-obake created by Mark Hyzer (my primary monster illustrator). Although I didn't ask him to specifically create this illustration. After having created a dozen or so monsters, I gave Mark the freedom to find Japanese monsters he wanted to see illustrated and possibly brought to game format. This is one of those monsters he created without my direction...  <img src="http://www.gamer-printshop.com/kaidan/karakasa-obake-thumb.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" /> Briefly looking at sex and horror, one has to understand that while prostitution, for example, is considered unseemly to the general public both east and west, prostitution isn't viewed the same. In old Japan, your wife is the mother of your children, the keeper of your household, yet was not considered the primary focus of sex in a given man's life. Sex was believed to be a necessary function to maintain a man's health, thus prostitution was the outlet to maintain this form of 'health'. Homosexuality does not have the same negative connotations that the 'Christianized west' has. Not that that is bad thing, but the east views sex in a completely different light then the west - at least in regards to sex outside of marriage. Some things don't conceptually translate well.</blockquote>

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