This is discussion archived from a time before the current discussion method was installed.
Working Title: Shinigami: From YKTTW
Tanto: Shinigami are a complete ripoff of western grim reapers. They don't need their own entry — it's basically "The Grim Reaper, but Japanese", and we don't need that.
I had actually made shinigami into a redirect to The Grim Reaper pre-crash, but the Crash evidently undid it...
Puck: Complete ripoff? Did shinigami not exist in traditional Japanese folklore? I assumed that shinigami and "reapers" were just one of those concepts that developed independently in more than one culture... Which is not to say that it isn't lumpable, but "ripoff" may not be quite the word you are looking for.
Tanto: No, in fact. The Japanese concept of shinigami is directly descended from the western concept of The Grim Reaper. (Note that it doesn't show up until the late 1800s, after contact with the west.) This isn't some western dragons / eastern "dragons" thing where one culture's concept get called by another culture's name; it's literally the same concept.
Doesn't need its own entry.
Ninjacrat: And yet, the articles do seem to describe very different things.
Citizen: I don't care about who ripped off who, the articles are different enough to justify this page's continued existence. Shinigami are Shinigami, while The Grim Reaper is The Grim Reaper. I was all set to trim the shinigami examples out of The Grim Reaper until I noticed this discussion...
arromdee: You're both right. Shinigami are not part of traditional Japanese folklore, but Shinigami are different enough that it may make sense to have a separate page about them anyway.
We should, however, make it very clear in this page that they aren't traditional Japanese folklore, since this isn't a well-known fact and the casual anime viewer would assume the opposite.
(The page describes shinigami in Inuyasha. Is this really correct? Inuyasha is almost entirely based around traditional Japanese folklore.)
Puck: Yes, the demon-like creatures that Sesshomaru kills when he uses healing Tenseiga are referred to as shinigami.
Pavlov: The biggest difference between Shinigami and The Grim Reaper seems to be one of number. There's generally just one Reaper but these days you can't shake a tree without a half-dozen Shinigami falling out. We really should be spraying for them.
- AlsoSprachOdin: By that definition, Discworld has both The Grim Reaper and Shinigami. Problem here is that they are never called shinigami and basically Death's little psychopomp helpers, lesser demons and such if I remember correctly. How do we tell if they're shinigami or not in this case?
- I agree ther's no point of theis page. For exampke the very page image proves how pointless this trope is. In all localizations of TWEWY the " Shinigami " are refered to as Reapers. They are exactly the same thing and Square Enix knows it.
