History Main / Gashadokuro

Because of their typical status as DumbMuscle, gashadokuro have a tendency to cameo as servants of high-ranking youkai and {{Evil Sorcerer}}s, who use them either as [[TheBrute siege engines]] or [[DominanceThroughFurniture walking thrones]] (in either case to [[AuthorityEqualsAsskicking hype up their master's status for being able to control such a dangerous being]]).

%%* ''Manga/{{Bleach}}'' The Kushanāda of Hell are monsters that resemble giant skeletons with massive, muscular arms. They punish the souls of the damned by devouring them over and over, and are incredibly durable, capable of becoming intangible, and can seemingly teleport.

** ''Series/NinjaSentaiKakuranger'': Gashadokuro is TheDragon to his father [[BigBad Daimaou]], appearing as a skeletal creature with a modern military helmet and one side of his body covered in camo patterns. Fans of ''Franchise/PowerRangers'', however, will probably recognize him better as Rita Repulsa's [[{{pun}} boneheaded]] brother Rito Revolto.

* The first boss in ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaAriaOfSorrow'', Creaking Skull, is a gigantic skeleton without legs (as its body has collapsed under its own weight) and a [[BadWithTheBone bone club.]] It's encountered again in the Dance Hall, where Soma can get its "Guardian Big Bone" soul ability, which creates its club hand. [[DegradedBoss It can also later be encountered as the "Giant Skeleton", now lime-green and without the fire breath.]] Killing the Giant Skeleton grants the ability to lob big skulls.

->The ''Gashadokuro'' are a race of malevolent yokai, native to the whole of Imperial Japan. They will appear at night, out of the darkness, and seek the blood of men... Gashadokuro are created by mass death, by the concentrated suffering of hundreds. While the Gashadokuro will eventually fade, they remain for centuries after their creation, lingering until their sorrow has diffused and faded. There is no way to hasten this process.

[[folder:Tabletop Games]]

* ''TabletopGame/YuGiOh'': Gashadokuro, the Skeletal Mayakashi is a Level 11 Zombie Synchro monster from the [[{{Youkai}} Mayakashi]] Archetype, manifesting as a giant skeleton decked-out in Samurai armor.

SubTrope of {{Youkai}} and DemBones.

* ''Wiki/SCPFoundation'': [[http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-2863 SCP-2863]] are 30m tall skeletons and in this case caused by human suffering; the three newest instances were caused by the Nanjing massacre, the atomic bombing of Nagasaki, and the 2011 Tohoku Earthquake and Tsunami. At least 206 examples of [=SCP=]-2863 are known to exist, and though they will eventually fade away, their lifespans are centuries-long, and cannot be destroyed by any means. Instead, they can only be temporarily banished by the light of the morning sun, or by intense artificial light.

-->-- ''Wiki/SCPFoundation'', from IJAMEA's entity summary for [[http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-2863 SCP-2863]]

* Karuta Roromiya from ''Manga/InuXBokuSS'' usually looks like a young girl, but her youkai form is a giant skeleton. She is also a BigEater who is always seen carrying food, referencing how Gashadokuro are believed to be created from the bones of groups of people who died of starvation.

* The second phase of the Phantom Express (and the titular ghost train's conductor) in ''VideoGame/{{Cuphead}}'' is T-Bone, a giant skeleton. He sticks his head and two hands out from his car, and attacks by trying to crush you with his hands.

* ''Wiki/SCPFoundation'': [[http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-2863 SCP-2863]] are 30m tall skeletons and in this case caused by human suffering; the three newest instances were caused by the Nanjing massacre, the atomic bombing of Nagasaki, and the 2011 Tohoku Earthquake and Tsunami (including the events of the meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant).

* ''Wiki/SCPFoundation'': [[http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-2863 SCP-2863]] are 30m tall skeletons and in this case caused by human suffering; the three newest instances were caused by the Nanjing massacre, the atomic bombing of Nagasaki, and the Fukushima Daiichi disaster.

Soldiers whose bodies rot in the fields and victims of famine who die in the wilderness rarely receive proper funerary rites. Unable to pass on, their souls are reborn as ghosts, wandering in ennui and longing for their lost lives. That anger and pain remains long after their flesh has rotted from their bones. As their bodies decay, their anger spoils into a grudge, a grudge that twists them into a supernatural presence on the Earth. When [[BodyOfBodies the bones of hundreds of victims gather together into one mass]], they form the [[UndeadAbomination humongous, skeletal monster]] known as the Gashadokuro.

* The second phase of the Phantom Express (and the titular ghost train's conductor) in ''VideoGame/{{Cuphead}}'' is T-Bone, a gashadokuro-based monster who sticks his head and two hands out from his car. He attacks by slamming his hands down.

* Faust from ''Manga/ShamanKing'' has the ability to conglomerate the many skeletons he can reanimate with [[TheNecromancer his family's craft]] into a gigantic skeleton reminiscent of this trope.