Not demon form

[Haku no Fuyu]

His name is SHUKAKU. Not "Gaara in demon form", K?
Give the Badger the proper respect.
He'll eat you as you sleep.

[Winged Dancer]

Well, while this should be in the anime forums (I think), I like to call half-transformed Gaara "The Thing".

[Neji-Aniki-sama]

It's not *badger*. It's tanuki. The closest word in English would be raccoon-dog. It's animal native only to China and Japan. If you want to use the proper terms... you're on the net, do some research...

[Haku no Fuyu]

I'm from Japan. I've only seen a Tanuki ONCE. You're right. NOT a badger. Tanuki are like raccoons. I like short setences...

[Neji-Aniki-sama]

Nihon-jin des? Hajimemashite i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif Never saw a tanuki, myself, except for Hachi in Inuyasha. That's the only thing I don't like in Naruto. Both the tanuki and the kitsune are evil. In Inu, thou, they're both nice and kawai...

[Haku no Fuyu]

Dozoyoroshiku, Neji-Aniki-Sama. Yeah, I like Hachi too. But I have to say, they never said that ALL the Kitsune and Tanuki are evil. Maybe the good ones are off gettin drunk or sumpthin.

[AKFUGEN]

I just call him bakemono(monster), SHUKAKU sounds like some African tribe chant, no offence taken i hope, just remembering the movie Ace Ventura 2 where there was a white bat that the african tribes though was holy, It's name was Shukaku I believe...

[Neji-Aniki-sama]

LOL... what brand of sake is good, btw?i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif
I just thought about it the other day, kitsune are known to henge into pretty women, aren't they? It totally makes sense for Naruto to do his sexy-no-jutsu. They kyuubi acts in mysterious ways...
Japanese folklore is really cool. Gotta save some money to buy this one book about shamanism and such.

[Death BOO Z]

in that case, you should defintaly try 100 stories, it takes jappanese folklore to the extreme.
13 episodes that deal with unique stories through exeptional graphics and mind buggling story lines (espically the one involving the tanuki... that gave me the creeps!)
Ani-Kraze did it, and the anime is worth every second of it in gold..

[Neji-Aniki-sama]

Does the name Shukako have any specific meaning? There's a great site Paradise in Winter, where there are lots of explanations on the meaning of names and Japanese cultural traits, but nothing for Shukaku.
Are those 100 stories an anime, manga or what? Where I could get it, kudasai?
I guess I shouldn't have watched Spirited Away, in the first place...Miyazaki is a drug-dealer, and I got addicted to that stuff. I used to hate anime, for starters...Now, I am learning kyudo and drinking green tea...Sad... LOL

[Neji-Aniki-sama]

Hey Boo, Arigatou gozaimasu... I found it on AK ...DUH.....
I am sure I will enjoy a lot. Thanks again.

[Winged Dancer]

A Tanuki is, as far as I know, not a real animal... its a mythologic animal that was said to be able to transform in to whatever he wanted, but he wasn't very powerful... Inuyasha's portrayal is accurate, actually ^^;
(most of Inuyasha is, I think...)

And I'll keep calling Gaara "the Thing", thank you. I also agree with Neji-Aniki-sama, Miyazaki is the animation equivalent of a drug dealer. I myself started with Mononoke Hime.

[Haku no Fuyu]

As for Sake, try kiku-masamune. It's pretty good. (as in SO GOOD, I'll actually pay extra for it). Because of my asian heritage I get drunk REALLY fast, but I takes a while with Kiku-Masamune. It tastes good to boot ^.^

[Neji-Aniki-sama]

Arigatou Haku-sama i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif Willl keep that in mind.
Btw, your name is really cool. I love both Hakus, from Spirited away and from Naruto, though Naruto's has such a saaaaad story...I also like Kohaku from Inuyasha, but he's sorta baby Sasuke without the atittude...
And, Tanukis and Kitusunes are real animals, but in mythology they have those powers, just like coyotes and rabbits and such among Indians... huh, like the B'rer rabbit...
http://www.canismajor.demon.co.uk/tanukigarden/tanuki.htm check them out... they're kawai ...

[samsonlonghair]

That's a good comparison Neji-Aniki-sama. As the resident mythology know-it-all though let me ccorrect one thing. B'rer rabbit is not part of Indian mythology. The B'rer rabbit folklore was invented by a southern black guy named Uncle Remus. Uncle Remus didn't know how to read or write, so all the stories would have been lost had it not been for a guy named Joel Chandler Harris. The word "B'rer" is Harris's imitation of the souther muttered speech for the word Brother. The stories have lost popularity in recent decades as some have claimed that the B'rer rabbit stories encourage racist steriotypes about uneducated blacks.

Sorry to get so off topic. In any case I don't like that Tanuki is so often translated to raccoon or badger in english. It's just a sign of our own ignorance. I keep on expecting some translator to call it a wolverine.

[Everon]

Thats not really a a good site for tanuki's (since the picture is of a raccoon), just google it and look at the images you'll see a real tanuki.

[Haku no Fuyu]

Maybe not. It's hard to tell with Tanuki. They look just like raccoons, minus the stripe-y tail. When railroad was constructed in rural mountain town of Takamori, Yamaguchi, people heard the sound of steam locomotive at midnight and wondered since there was no train planned at midnight. One day people found a batch of Tanuki were dead in a tunnel. You see, Tanuki was playing pretending a train, but unfortunately bumped into a real train...
The Tanuki are more humorous then the Kitsune, tending to rather play tricks then bewitch people. It's the difference between a normal djinn and Afrit. (go anthropology classes!)

[Neji-Aniki-sama]

Ahhhh, kawai sou Tanuki-ra!!!!!
Keep the tanuki stories coming i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif

[Mgslee]

Tanuki as in the Tanuki suit from Super Mario 3? sounds good to me i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif

[sangai]

you mean what they call here in the us i think its called a red panda fox or something like that, i think its the same as a tanuki

[Arctyc]

I continue to ponder, though: Some of the Tanuki stories I have come across attribute part of the creature's mischievous ways to its (ew) creative use of its scrotum (ew).

Did this perhaps have anything to do with that scene about the exploding tag below his tail?

[Goobermeister]

Originally posted by: Arctyc
I continue to ponder, though: Some of the Tanuki stories I have come across attribute part of the creature's mischievous ways to its (ew) creative use of its scrotum (ew).

Did this perhaps have anything to do with that scene about the exploding tag below his tail?

lmao!!!! i dont nkow much about tanuki or anything but gaara is most DEF not a badger! he looks like a......badger or roids????? well anyway about the mario 3 suit thingy, its not a tanuki suit..... its a teddy bear suit!!! lmao

[Gai]

Hey, anybody else remember Tanuki Mario from Super Mario Brothers 3? He could turn into a statue, and looked kind of like a badger/raccoon.

Dang, beaten to the punch... any way I can just trash the whole thing?

[Neji-Aniki-sama]

I just realized that the marks around Gaara's eyes come from the Tanuki and not from the fact that he doesn't sleep...

[Haku no Fuyu]

Yeah, I noticed that too. *Hugs big book of Japanese legends and myths*

[Neji-Aniki-sama]

Besides being born on the wrong country, it's darn too late for me to convert to Shintoi/expressions/face-icon-small-sad.gif
Check out Hundred Stories... really great series as Death Boo said, besides being bukimi to kakkoi. Too bad it's too short...

[Haku no Fuyu]

Yeah. The book I have is fuul of Tengu and Kitsune stories.