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Japanese ghosts and those they possess are traditionally depicted as surrounded by floating blue flames known as hitodama. The victims of possession traditionally tend to keep their free will, but are plagued with fatal bad luck.

The possession part is rarely played straight in anime. People dressing as a ghost will usually tie burning candles to their heads to simulate the light. Being surrounded by ghost lights are a visual indicator of someone who is already a ghost. (Usually three, because Japanese tradition assigns humans three 'higher souls' and seven 'base souls' and the latter stay with the body after death.) Some ghosts can use this form as Ball of Light Transformation.

Sometimes, when a character is "possessed" by mortification or depression about something, they will be portrayed as squatting in a (possibly nonexistent) corner, back turned to the main cast, with a black halo and ghost lights.

Interestingly, hitodama (or kitsunebi or onibi) are created by rotting compounds of a body. Although these lights give a ghostly/comical atmosphere on TV, it's perfectly possible to witness them in real life by this explanation, and who knows what they mean then...

Subtrope to Faux Flame for "flames" that aren't actually fire. See also Spark Fairy (fairies or magical insects depicted as a point of light) and Will-o'-the-Wisp (a light that leads unwary travelers into danger). Can be considered a type of Magic Fire.


Examples:

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    Anime and Manga 
  • .hack//SIGN: A blue flame symbolically appears in the background when Bear explains to Mimiru that their enemy is not an entity that can be simply attacked but is both nowhere and everywhere.
  • Cardcaptor Sakura: Played for Laughs when Kero dons hitodama and a Creepy Monotone when he is particularly annoyed at Sakura - because she got to eat a delicious cake and he didn't. Then Tomoyo appears behind Sakura and reveals she got him a slice anyway.
  • Case Closed: In an early case, the detective boys think a house is possessed by a ghost when they see a light in the window. (It turns out to just be from a candle.)
  • Fairy Tail: 100 Years Quest: The Spirit Dragon Slayer Reiss can conjure hitodama flames to attack (which he refers to as souls, prompting Natsu to chew him up for using souls as weapons), as well as reap souls, making them appear as hitodama flames.
  • Hayate the Combat Butler: A priest only has lights around him after it is revealed that he's actually a ghost.
  • Hell Teacher Nube:
    • Nube-sensei likes to introduce himself to his new class by strapping candles to his head to mimic this effect... and then swinging, Tarzan-like, into the classroom, or try to play-exorcise a doll. The irony is that Nube is such a tremendously powerful spiritualist and exorcist that he can summon the real thing at will, but will only do so when he actually needs to.
    • Many of the Obake that Nube encounters are naturally surrounded by hitodama.
  • Inuyasha: Kikyo is surrounded by the blue spheres of human souls at many times to sustain her resurrected body.
  • Joran: The Princess of Snow and Blood: The blue flames that consume Sawa's face in her changeling form are evocative of Hitodama, particularly since her body is partially skeletal in this state.
  • Junji Ito Kyoufu Manga Collection: In "Bog of Living Spirits", ghostly flames are seen around the bog where someone may have recently died. It turns out that these are the spirits of two obsessive girls hoping that the deceased, their fellow classmate, is still alive, and waiting for him to surface again.
  • The Kindaichi Case Files: There was an urban legend of a woman who turned into a demon in a snowstorm who is accompanied by hitodama light. This freaks Hajime out as the cabin owner tells him he saw a hitodama earlier. It's revealed to be a fire caused by the suspect to destroy an improvised ice bridge.
  • My Lovely Ghost Kana:
    • The titular Kana naturally sports several balls of flames surrounding them. They are a good indication of her mood, since there are more of them and they make little "pop" sounds when she is especially happy.
    • Also used amusingly when Daikichi finds an old "dead" cellphone and discovers that Kana can use it to keep in touch with him. A stylized hitodama is her chat icon and takes place of the signal meter on her phone.
  • Negima! Magister Negi Magi: Ghost Aisaka Sayo usually isn't wreathed in hitodama, but can produce them if needed.
  • Psyren: Mithra manifests and controls hitodama-like flames called "kagaribi" (Bonfires) as her Psi power. She can apparently use them to forsee events and communicate from afar. Coincidentally or not, her body is almost rotting and she's actually "possessed", only by an Eldritch Abomination from outer space who wants to devour the Earth to restore its youth.
  • Ranma ½:
    • The ghost girl Kogane Musashi manifests ghost lights when she's trying to be scary and when she arrives/departs.
    • Gosunkugi fakes the hitodama in the traditional way with candles tied to his head.
  • Sgt. Frog:
    • The ghost girl is often accompanied by hitodama.
    • Dororo tends to sulk in the corner with hitodama around him when his "Trauma Switch" turns on.
  • Shaman King has shamans who travel with at least one spirit, who is usually in the form of a wandering ball of fire. They can also force their ghost-pals into weapons, empowering them with their spirit ally, and wreathing the weapons in the flame. In this case, the hitodama have faces, mouths, and usually part of the original spirit's clothes/hair. The stronger the connection, the more of the original spirit can be seen.
  • To Love Ru: Oshizu has her "pure" ghost form, with floating flames around her, the same purple tint as her ghost body. These lights are not visible while she's in her artificial body.
  • Toilet-Bound Hanako-kun: Hanako has two of these that constantly float around him, which are a clear indication that he's a ghost. His twin brother Tsukasa Yugi has these as well since he's also a ghost, though his are black instead of white.

    Literature 
  • INVADERS of the ROKUJYOUMA!?: Sanae, the ghost, has weaponized the lights floating around her.
  • I've Been Killing Slimes for 300 Years and Maxed Out My Level: Beyond the near-constant floating, Rosalie looks so much like a normal non-ghost girl that the main signifiers for her status as a spirit are the two blue Faux Flames constantly floating near her head.
  • Nansō Satomi Hakkenden: After Daisuke's father commits seppuku, Lord Satomi spots a flame next to him which briefly takes the shape of a woman and embraces him, implied to be the soul of his dead mother.
  • Spellsinger: Gneechees are floating flames which appear whenever Jon-Tom's spellsinging is on track and particularly powerful. They aren't the cause of magic, exactly, but their presence facilitates or enhances it. They normally cannot be seen because they actively dodge away whenever you try to look at them directly. When Jon-Tom is in M'nemaxa's plane, he discovers each is actually the soul of a deceased person. Because of this spoiler, gneechees have different interests and affinities, and so Couvier Coulb must summon particular musically-inclined ones when returning the broken duar in Time of the Transference.

    Live-Action TV 
  • Return of Ultraman has Hitodama Kaiju Femigon, an alien entity made of fire that possesses women (and only women). When possessing humans, they gain pyrokinetic abilities and will transform into a rooster-like monster that feeds on fire.

    Tabletop Games 

    Video Games 
  • Animal Crossing:
    • Villagers will have these when they are sad or sick. (With the exception of the American GameCube version, where they sport Personal Raincloud, instead)
    • Late at night in the original game, you can sometimes come across Wisp, the wandering ghost. He explains that he needs your help to retrieve five spirits resembling hitodama lights, which slowly float around the town. If you bring all five spirits to him before sunrise, he'll do you a favor.
    • Wisp returns in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, where he gives you a similar task. If you attempt to speak with him, he will mistake the player for a ghost, causing him to become startled and his spirit to split into five pieces — once again resembling hitodama lights — that scatter around the island. As before, Wisp will reward you for gathering all five.
  • Blank Dream: The living awareness of the Mirror World appears to Mishiro as a floating blue flame.
  • Cloé's Requiem: Two of the five maids' ghosts appear as floating flames, one blue and one orange.
  • Corpse Party has souls take on this appearance. They glow blue when friendly, but turn red when becoming aggressive.
  • Darkstalkers: The demonic samurai Bishamon is accompanied by balls of flames; not only do they symbolize his own possession by cursed armor, he can dispatch them as an attack to temporarily "possess" (paralyze) an opponent.
  • Demon's World have floating blue hitodama as a recurring enemy in Japan, where every foe is a yokai. Interestingly enough they're the only yokai enemies to appear in later stages set in China and Europe.
  • EarthBound (1994): The Zombie Possessor inflicts hitodama as a status ailment.
  • EXTRAPOWER: Star Resistance: The latter half of Stage 3 is populated by the ghosts of the Shakun Star's violent past. Some of these take the form of warriors with Fog Feet who hover, use attacks similar to Sharkungo, and sometimes possess battle tanks. The rest are composed of floating, flame-like wisps who float aimlessly from one side of the screen to the other. The Hitodama Light type is especially prone to filling the screen and saturating it in single-shot bullets.
  • Final Fantasy X: The Pyreflies are fragments of souls who haven't been "sent". If they are not sent to the other side by a summoner, they'll turn into one of the monsters you battle.
  • Final Fantasy XII: A few late-game undead enemies, like the Shadonirs, Dragon Liches, and Forbiddens, have a pair of white wisps of light floating near them.
  • Fire Emblem Fates: In the Birthright and Conquest routes, Lilith will appear on the My Castle battle map as a blue flame after her Heroic Sacrifice.
  • Ghost Trick: The default form for a ghost is a little blue wisp of flame. After the spirit remembers what they look like (or what they think they look like), they can take on the shape of their original body. When Sissel realizes that he can't hold on to the image of himself as the blond-haired man anymore, he reverts to a blue flame with sunglasses.
  • Gotcha Force: The demonic samurai borg has two floating skull ghost lights that can be used for attack.
  • Guardian Heroes: Hitodama appear in a single stage where they don't attack, can't be hit, but they also possess killed enemies and reanimate them.
  • Illusion of Gaia: The dead people that Will talks to take the form of tongues of spectral fire.
  • Kingdom Hearts II: Small balls of bluish-white flames float aimlessly and harmlessly through the underworld. Sora can smash them for money and health. Think about what this means.
  • The Legend of Zelda:
    • An uncaptured Poe usually looks like your typical sheet-ghost, but, from far away or in bottles, they're bluish-white and balls of flame. They can usually be captured in bottles and traded for money, plot coupons or upgrades.
    • Bubbles are directly referred to as hitodama in the Japanese manual of the first game. When Link touches one, he generally loses the ability to draw his sword for a few seconds.
    • The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker: The Ghost Ship has blue flames floating around it.
    • The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess: When Link enters the Twilight Realm, normal humans become like spirits and appear as floating flames. Their real forms are only visible by using the animal senses of Link's wolf form.
    • The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild: The spirits of the four champions and the King are surrounded by an aura of teal light and by multiple floating flames of the same color. In addition, their champion abilities show both the Hitodama and their spectral forms while in use.
    • In The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom Poes (which are roughly the series's stand-in for ghosts, along with Ghinis) are depicted as floating blue flames.
  • Monster Hunter: Rise:
    • Magnamalo evokes the image of a cursed samurai armor, with its tail being engulfed in its signature purple "Hellfire" giving the impression of a hitodama floating around it.
    • When traveling through dark areas like caverns or at night, a hitodama appears around you to serve as a light source.
  • Muramasa: The Demon Blade uses hitodama in two ways:
    • Green ghost lights represent souls that can be gathered for crafting the Demon Blades (or learning skills in DLC chapters). They're found either floating in stages or released by dead enemies.
    • Ghost NPCs usually have a couple lights floating nearby and hostile ones use them as an attack.
  • Musya has ghostly hitodama flames as weak enemies, who can be extinguished with a quick swish with your spear.
  • Ōkami: Hitodama are visible around some cursed zones and around several ghosts you encounter. When you find the corpse of the real Priestess Rao, there's a single one floating around her too.
  • Onmyōji (2016): Units of mana are depicted as balls of blue onibi.
  • Phasmophobia: One of the ways of identifying ghosts is to watch video cameras for "ghost orbs". If you see a mysterious light flitting by, then you're dealing with a Yurei, Poltergeist, Jinn, Mare, or Phantom.
  • Phantom Fighter: Some levels feature a cemetery haunted by a spectral flame that will abduct the assistant if you linger too long. In that case you have to go in and eventually fight a ghost to rescue him.
  • Pokémon:
    • Introduced in Pokémon Black and White, the Litwick family of Pokémon possess a flame powered by draining the life energy of the creatures around them. Their purplish flames increase as they lead living creatures to the ghost world.
    • Pokémon Legends: Arceus introduced Basculegion, a water and ghost type evolution of Basculin. Basculegion's tail is shrouded in a swirling haze of red energy that fades into white meant to represent the souls possessing it.
  • Quest for Glory IV hitodama are the souls of dead children and appear as colored lights above the swamp at night.
  • Samurai Shodown: As a restless spirit, Basara can summon a hitodama called "Soul of Nue" that he uses as an attack, as well as transform in and out of a hitodama himself.
  • Shining Force: When a playable character is seen while dead, they have a large flame as their sprite until they're revived.
  • Spiritual Assassin Taromaru have floating, blue hitodama as enemies, who can be killed in one hit but appears in large numbers trying to burn you up. There's even a giant-sized King Mook hitodama as one of the bosses who dispenses smaller versions of itself throughout the battle.
  • Street Fighter EX: Garuda is surrounded by floating flames in his intro when faced as a boss in EX2 (Plus) because he is a demon dressed in samurai-like armor. His Soukondan super technique allows him to weaponize these flames.
  • Super Mario Bros.:
  • Super Metroid: Phantoon, the boss of the Wrecked Ship, is a mostly intangible being who appears surrounded by hitodama, and uses them as weapons against Samus.
  • Sweet Home (1989): Random hitodama will bounce around and if the player makes contact, they will be randomly teleported. Dead party members are also represented by hitodama should the player finish with 3 or 2 survivors.
  • Tomodachi Life: The sick/sad animations in the Japanese games show the ghostly embers of possession forming next to the character instead of the Personal Raincloud seen in the US and EU versions.
  • Touhou Project:
    • Touhou Youyoumu ~ Perfect Cherry Blossom:
      • Youmu Konpaku has a phantom half always present and independently visible around her. There's an Asian belief that human souls actually have two parts (Kon and Paku, hence her name). There's the immortal "higher" soul (Kon) that either becomes a ghost, like Yuyuko, or enters the cycle of reincarnation, and the transient "lower" soul (Paku) that animates the body and houses the earthly passions and which could, after death, become an unintelligent evil spirit, such as those seen in Subterranean Animism. Youmu's phantom-half is apparently her higher soul, while her lower soul remains in her human body, giving it life.
      • Yuyuko Saigyouji is the princess of a ghost palace (and a ghost herself), and is continuously surrounded by hitodama. She can use them as an Attack Drone in combat.
    • Touhou Chireiden ~ Subterranean Animism: Rin Kaenbyou is surrounded by what appears to be small balls of flaming skulls — appropriate, since her job is to carry off corpses into the underworld. In some spell cards, she is accompanied by zombie fairies, which look pretty similar (though a later guidebook claims that they're just normal fairies who like to dress up). The Wild and Horned Hermit manga reveals the skulls are "evil spirits", which are what souls carried off by kasha turn into.
  • World of Warcraft: Night elf characters will turn into small glowing blue balls (with, if you zoom in close enough, a face) as they return to their body.
  • Yodanji: The Hitodama is a "character class" that can become available. Difficult, but Awesome to use since they're One-Hit-Point Wonder outside of a possessed body.

    Visual Novels 
  • Ace Attorney:
    • When the spirit of Dahlia Hawthorne is driven from Maya's body in Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney (specifically, the third entry, "Trials and Tribulations"), it turns into nine blue flames forming the outline of a magatama before disappearing.
    • In Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Spirit of Justice, during trials that take place in the Kingdom of Khura'in, fitting with the spiritual nature of the kingdom, the player's number of remaining lives are represented by icons of greenish hitodama flames.
  • When appearing to Akira in the underpass, the spirit Kakuya from Spirit Hunter: NG is followed by two small, flickering orbs of flame. One of the game's trailers has her on a dark street, lit only by the light of her hitodamas.

    Webcomics 

    Web Video 
  • Joueur du Grenier: In "JdG answers your questions", when seen through the "specs that reveals souls", JdG has a black shirt and is surrounded by blue flames, as a result of testing the Spirou game.

 
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Alternative Title(s): Hitodama

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Magnamalo

"A monster with a carapace like tempered steel armor. The vapor around it is actually the expelling of trapped gases from the hordes of monsters Magnamalo has consumed. This has earned it the moniker "Wyvern of Malice." Its shrouded swings can inflict hellfireblight, which causes one to combust either spontaneously or when hit. Use a Deodorant or a Wirebug to rid yourself of hellfire."

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