Poor Image:: Shinigami

Alright. I tried this thread once before. Unfortunately, activity slackened, and the thing was locked due to inactivity without a consensus being reached. I'm remaking the thread because, while we didn't reach a true consensus, we did come to the conclusion that the image is poor.

So, once again. While I like The World Ends With You, I think we would do much better with a more contemporary illustration of what a Shinigami looks like, as opposed to TWEWY's very specific, more modern look.

So why is this thread titled "Copyrighted"?

What?

Aw man, I screwed up the drop down menu.

I meant to hit "Poor Image"

Why don't you holler for a mod to change it for you?

Presto-chango. Fix-ed.

Thank you, Madrugada. Alright, so, to return to the topic; I think we could use a more traditional rendering of a Shinigami, to give the idea of what the trope is generally thought to be, as opposed to the contemporary and rather unique look used by The World Ends With You.

Well, this is about as traditional as they come: It's from from the Ehon Hyaku monogatari, made in 1841, so it's Public Domain

edited 3rd Nov '12 5:37:19 AM by Madrugada

I don't see it.

Unfortunately, it just kinda looks like a really ugly delivery guy.

I'd like to see a few more options first.

You know, I think a collage would be a good idea, simply because Our Shinigami Are Different, after all.

The modern-ness is a major part of the trope that sets it apart from its western counterpart, but it's by no means necessary to the trope.

edited 11th Nov '12 1:04:17 PM by TropeEater

Perhaps we would want to use one of TWEWY's Reapers in a collage, but not as the only image.

Ok, I've got:

• Bleach◊ (which is basically shinigami as samurai)
• Death Note◊
• Naruto◊
• Ballad of a shinigami◊ (if you get a 403, just remove the [animepaper.net] from the URL)

I like the Naruto one. Looks sufficiently "death-y"

The Naruto one has a Deviant Art address in the lower left corner. I can't get the "ballad" one to load even with taking that piece out of the URL.

edited 7th Nov '12 5:37:26 PM by Willbyr

The Naruto one is not fanart—the only thing the artist may have done is colour it, as the panel exists in the manga. Let me find a different version without any DA stuff...

[1]◊

[2]◊ (We may have to crop the bottom off this one, as who uses it is kinda spoiler-ish)

[3]◊

[4]◊

[5]◊

That second one's giving a "no hotlinking" error.

When it redirects like that, just copy the URL from the actual post and upload that onto Imgur. Here◊'s her suggestion.

The second and fourth of those are the clearest, but none are particularly great to me; seeing where the dead person is is tricky because there are other people around.

I'd also nominate Lenneth Valkyrie as part of the collage, since she is referred as a Death Goddess (shinigami in the Japanese scripts) while donning the traditional valkyrie job.

Not really a good idea, since despite her role, Lenneth's appearance does not say "traditional Japanese death god". Despite it being made in Japan, and other than a case of Wutai Valkyrie Profile is too "western" in both style and inspiration.

Oh the sequels definitely don't go by the Shinigami aspect, but I am specifically going only for the first game and how mortals perceive her. It's wrong the more you play the game of course, but still...

I don't think valkyrie says shinigami, though.

II'm going to improve it to Maddy's pick, which works better than the others offered so far.

See, the problem with Maddy's pic is that it could just be a generic stalker Youkai. I really think a collage would be the best way to go, with at least one wester-inspired-but-still-Japanese-made picture to get the point across that this is derived from the European Grim Reaper.