The Japanese version of
The Grim Reaper, imported to Japan from Europe. Originally refered to a single entity featured in the play "Shinigami" (literally "death god"), the term has since evolved to refer to an entire race of
psychopomps
in Japanese culture. Or demonic soul eaters. Each tale tells it differently.
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, and hopefully whatever universal mechanic applies to non-special cases.
Contrary to popular belief, shinigami
aren't actually a part of traditional Japanese mythology. They were imported from the West in the 19th century as
The Grim Reaper and Japan took the idea and ran with it. 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.
Shinigami are sometimes depicted as goblin or skeletal creatures who cause death and accidents. Some popular and 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 and either cause death to sustain themselves, peacefully escort souls to the afterlife (this concept is known as
Psychopomp), slay demons and poltergeists who cause unnatural deaths or are the result of unnatural deaths (Interestingly similar to the
first definition of Shinigami, however this is 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.
Examples:
- Bleach is an anime about an entire society of shinigami who seemingly spend more time fighting The Heartless than actually acting as psychopomps. They are seen doing both tasks, but which would you think that teenaged boys would rather watch?
- In the English dub, Shinigamis are known as Soul Reapers; Tite Kubo himself has said that "Soul Reaper" is a more accurate translation of his intent.
- 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.
- Soul Eater is about a Extranormal Institute for humans who take up the job of the Shinigami, although there is a distinction with actual ones.
- 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.
- 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.
- Risky/Safety is about shinigami which are basically mini-Grim Reapers whose job it is to talk people into commiting suicide.
- 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 Magic Idol 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.
- Duo from Gundam Wing 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.
