The small black wing nubs are sooo terrifying.
The Japanese version of
The Grim Reaper. Contrary to popular belief, they
aren't part of traditional Japanese mythology, but got imported from Europe in the 19th century. Originally used to refer to a single entity featured in the play "Shinigami" (usually translated as "death god," but literally "spirit of dying"), the term has since evolved to refer to an entire race of
Psychopomps in Japanese culture. Or evil demonic soul eaters. Or those assigned to kill evil demonic soul eaters.
Each tale tells it differently.
Japanese religion and spiritualism being highly syncretic, features of pre-existing Taoist, Buddhist, and Shinto death entities appear to varying extents in different depictions of Shinigami. For instance, the idea of a highly stratified and bureaucratic society of psychopomps and divine judges seen in series like
Bleach,
Yami No Matsuei,
Yu Yu Hakusho, and
Death Note originated in Chinese Buddhism, on the model of the massive Han bureaucracy in the living world.
Since being with
every human who ever dies would require omniscience to a story-breaking degree, it's often explained that Shinigami are only related to special cases of death, and hopefully whatever universal mechanism in place applies to non-special cases.
Shinigami are sometimes depicted as goblin or skeletal creatures who cause death and accidents, but some popular and more recent depictions of Shinigami are closer to
western vampires, with them being portrayed as immortal, attractive hip young people who wield a
variety of superpowers. They will usually either cause death to sustain themselves, peacefully escort souls to the afterlife (see
Psychopomps), slay demons and poltergeists who cause unnatural deaths, or be the result of unnatural deaths themselves (interestingly similar to the
first definition of Shinigami, though this is almost never brought up). Or various combinations of the above.
In a few instances, their counterparts are "
Angels". Only superficially the Judeo-Christian variety, as they tend to be ex-humans too. A mix of Japanese Mythology and
Fluffy Cloud Heaven.
Compare
The Grim Reaper,
Psychopomps. Also, try not to confuse these with
Shikigami.
Examples:
- Bleach is an anime and manga about an entire society of shinigami who seemingly spend more time fighting The Heartless than actually acting as psychopomps.
- In the English dub, Shinigamis are known as Soul Reapers
- Death Note features Shinigami who are, for want of a better word, gothic skeletal bird monsters who sustain themselves by causing the deaths of humans, and think little of dropping their equipment (their death notes, minds out of gutters please) into the human world when they're bored.
- In Soul Eater, the Shinigami is a near Physical God-like being who lives in Death City and has apparently made it his life's mission to keep humanity free from the yoke of witches, malign supernatural beings and corrupted humans. For this purpose, he formed a Extranormal Institute for humans who are sent out into the world to hunt down and eradicate such beings before they can become a threat to humanity. Shinigami-sama (as he is called) also has a son, called Death the Kid; both of them are referred to as Shinigami, implying that they're also a class of supernatural being.
- The World Ends With You - Shinigami are trendy young dead people resurrected with amazing powers who exist to test human souls to let them live again or become Reapers themselves.
- Furthermore, they look like what would happen if Bleach and Death Note shinigami ever mated. Likely intentional as those two anime/manga tend to be most closely associated with shinigami.
- (Unconscious shudder) let us all hope this one is the exception to Rule 34.
- Sesshoumaru's Tenseiga in Inu Yasha actually works by slaying goblin-like shinigami near recently deceased corpses.
- Murder Princess features a shinigami which is goblin-like, but still hip and young; the fact that he works for the titular character speaks on how Bad Ass she is. At the start of the series when she sees her own body, she assumes that she's dead and tells him to show her the way to Hell.
- In Risky Safety, Risky is a shinigami in training (basically a mini-Grim Reaper) whose job is talking people into commiting suicide.
- By the way, she's also six inches tall, adorable, and on a body time-share with a cute little angel who tries to undo her work. It's a comedy series, despite the dark sounding subject matter.
- Ballad Of A Shinigami.
- The shinigami in Yami No Matsuei (sometimes known as Descendants of Darkness) are of the attractive, angsty, superpower-wielding kind. They are most often seen fighting
crime vampires, demons and evil doctors, but their overall function is to make sure fate is carried out and souls die when they are supposed to.
- Full Moon O Sagashite has two cute spiffily dressed shinigami giving age inducing Idol Singer powers to a charge who will die within a year to throat cancer. (It's actually a lot more complicated than it sounds.)
- In Naruto the Shinigami is a powerful summon spirit that looks a lot like the ones in Death Note: a giant ghost/goblin with long white hair and several arms. It is able to eat the soul of the user and its target, forcing them to fight against each other endlessly in its stomach.
- Clamp's manga Wish depicts Demons as Shinigami, eating human souls for sustenance. They're Punchclock Villains in this regard, though.
- In Kyouran Kazoku Nikki, "Shinigami" is the title given to Blood Knight, skull-mask-wearing monster-exterminators.
- Botan from Yu Yu Hakusho is a Shinigami with character details (such as the oar she rides on and her blue hair) referencing the Japanese Buddhist myth of the Sanzu River, analogous to the Western River Styx. Her primary function is as a psychopomp, although that appears less and less as the series focuses more on Yusuke's battles with demons.
- Gundam just loves the Shinigami trope. To wit:
- The most famous example is Duo from Gundam Wing, who calls himself "Shinigami" in the original Japanese, a fairly direct reference to The Grim Reaper considering that he's a Westerner and his mecha is Deathscythe. This was given an overly literal translation in the English version as "God of Death", leading to not only some weird religious overtones (not that there aren't a whole LOT of those with his character already) but also to flailing from censors about broadcasting this on a "kids'" channel in the afternoon. This lead to the EVEN MORE wildly inaccurate "Great Destroyer" being used in the edited version.
- In MS IGLOO 2: The Gravity Front, the Feddie soldiers referred to the Zakus as Shinigami. This was before the Federation produced Mobile Suits and the only methods they had of anti-MS combat at the time were tanks and guided missiles, both of which usually failed, so fearing the Zaku was quite understandable.
- Lieutenant Ben Barberry, the protagonist of the first episode was also referred to as a Shinigami, because the men with him in the Anti-Mobile Suit Unit usually died and because he held the highest MS kill count at the time.
- Also, that Shinigami with a familiar voice described herself similarly to a Zaku with an "I have landed on this planet" reference, showing that she may be Lieutenant Barberry's delusions of a Shinigami.
- G Gundam had Kyral Mekirel, Nepal's pilot, who was called "Shinigami" because he kills his opponents outside the ring before their scheduled fight (due to the Flexible Tourney Rules, this doesn't end in his expulsion or arrest). After Domon beats him up, he undergoes a Heel Face Turn and joins the heroes.
- Terry Sanders Jr. from The 08th MS Team was given the "Shinigami" nickname as an insult, because both of his previous units were wiped out on their third mission, leaving Sanders the Sole Survivor. He actually attempts to get transferred out of the 08th Team after their second mission, but Shiro convinces him that it's all just superstition and to believe in his teammates. It turns out the third time IS the charm for Sanders, at least this time around.
- Kuroshitsuji uses these pretty standardly, as supposed-to-be-neutral beings who review the lives of people destined to die, deciding whether or not they should live. They and demons seem to dislike one another...
- although they don't seem too fond of angels, either
- RIN-NE has the eponymous hero act as a 'sort of Shinigami'. His grandmother Tamako is a full Shinigami who has fallen behind on her quota and he has to help working off her debt.
- Komachi Onozuka of Touhou Project is the laziest shinigami on this page. Unfortunately for her, her boss can see ANYWHERE, so there's very little chance for her to do so.
- In Yu Gi Oh, the card Shinigami is represented as pretty much the Western conception of the Grim Reaper (though hovering).
- Even though they're not called by the name perse, the player characters in Geist The Sin Eaters in many ways seem to be the Shinigami trope re-exported back into the US based on the "cool dead people with ghost superpowers who act as psychomps" version popularized through modern anime.
- The protagonist of the upcoming Ushiro
, whose powers include possessing the suicidal and thoroughly creeping the player out.
- The Korean version, Jeoseung Saja or "Messenger of the Other Side", shows up once in a while in manhwa. They tend to be much creepier than their Japanese counterparts, possibly because Saja, with their traditional jerkassness, are an integral part of Shamanic funerals, which are still practiced in most rural areas. They're traditionally portrayed as corrupt government agents, who threaten to abuse the departed soul in their custody unless bribed with offerings. An anthropologist studying Korean shamans reported that when the shaman was playing Saja, it scared the hell out of her.
