KANEKO’S CRIB NOTES LXV: SEVEN SEAS OF CRIBS

Halloween is on the approach, and what could this mean? Tricks, treats? Skeletons, witches, draculae? A child's laughter sounding lightly through the autumn leaves? No, it doesn't mean any of that GARBAGE- it's time for the annual outing of KANEKO'S CRIB NOTES! Please enjoy this smattering of delirious cribs that will make you think "damn, that's the thing that the other thing is based on".

Cool to see Kaneko referencing one of my other favorite illustrators, JC Leyendecker.

Persona Sketches by Kazuma Kaneko

Long post today. I recently picked up Megami Ibunroku Persona Club, a fan book that includes 12 of Kaneko’s rough sketches for the game’s original Persona designs. Here’s scans of them that I did over a couple of days, they were printed tiny so these were the best that I could get (there are also textless versions in the link).

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1waKTLvlDJb3DJAHWOUSgYVUEyXYiBiUO?usp=share_link

I’ll provide translated commentary too… translated by me, so it might not be that great. I’ll give my own input underneath as well, but I won’t be translating the handwriting on the art. It’s hard to read, for one, and it just outlines basic features and colours, likely for sprite artists to use as reference.

‘Vesta, the goddess of hearths in Roman mythology. The shape of her hat is somewhat reminiscent of a jester’s, and her lack of legs is a distinguishing characteristic. Her entire body is covered in leather’.

Vesta also reappears in P2 EP, and is Yukino Mayuzumi’s initial Persona in both games. You can also spot Vesta behind some text in the Persona Original Soundtrack booklet here.

‘Gozu-Tennō, deity of the Gion Shrine in Kyoto. According to some legends, he his sometimes equated with Susanō. The horns extending from his mask and intertwining with each-other are quite impactful’.

The cape is meant to be coloured red… definitely inspired by Spawn. Also in the  Persona Original Soundtrack booklet, here.

‘Aizen-Myōō, the love deity of Esoteric Buddhism. She can transform sentient beings’ lustful desires and troubles into spiritual enlightenment. Buddhist statues often depict Aizen-Myōō with the face of a scary-looking man, but the female image used here is perhaps the most human-like’.

Kei Nanjo’s initial Persona in P1. Also in P2 EP, with a couple of additions to her design. Aside from her heels and long, black coverings, it’s essentially P1′s design replicated underneath.

“Lakshmi, the goddess of beauty in Hindu mythology. The protruding back of the head looks a bit like an alien. The rubber material used in these designs comes from Kaneko-san’s favourite clothes”.

Not in P2 IS, but she does reappear as a sprite in P2 EP, with different colours. The head was definitely inspired by the Xenomorph from Alien.

“Kali, the goddess of war in Hindu mythology. The protruding design of her breasts is quite striking, but their bellow-like shapes are less noticeable in-game”.

Also seen controlling Maki in the ‘Dolls’ artwork.

“Shiva, the god of destruction in Hindu mythology. Both Shiva and Kali had different rough designs than the versions shown on page 4”.

The art on page 4 is just the finalised art of Shiva and Kali. The designs are the same as they are in the sketches, I think they just meant the art is different.

“Garuda, the bird god of Hindu mythology. The cape, pose and mask are reminiscent of old-fashioned anime”.

The anime in question seems to be ‘Science Ninja Team Gatchaman’ from 1972. Thanks to @RustyVanBurace on Twitter for pointing this out. Notice the G on their belts, which I suppose stands for Gatchaman (I haven’t watched it). Garuda also has the G on his stomach, but in this case, I guess it just stands for Garuda, lol.

“Vishnu, the main deity and god of creation in Hindu mythology. He has appeared in commercials and other media, so you might recognise his face, but few people actually identify him as Vishnu”.

Here’s a link to the commercials in question. He probably has the most art of any Persona in the game, which might be why the only text in the art is his name. There might have already been public material that the sprite artists could have used for reference, or maybe this art was done earlier on, and Kaneko didn’t think about outlining colours just yet.

“Durga, an incarnation of Kali. Her hat-like mask and the design of her clothes, which seem to be made of a rubber material, make for one of the most daring outfits in the series”. 

Yukino Mayuzumi’s ultimate persona in both P1 and P2 IS. If anything, it got even more daring in IS, with robo-hands cupping her boobies and being used as high heels.

“Shōmen-Kongō is prominent god in the Kōshin cult. Kōshin-tō monuments can often be found along roadsides. He is the initial persona of the protagonist, who you will see many times during awakening scenes. He has somewhat of a Tokusatsu design”.

Better known as Seimen-Kongō. The name means ‘Blue-Faced Vajra-Yakṣa’. I know next to little about any Kōshin stuff, so don’t trust my translation for this one particularly. Sometimes he’s depicted with three monkeys, as seen below. The monkeys are the origin of the phrase “see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil”, which is why one has a mask over their eyes, another has a mask over their mouth, and the last one has… headphones, lol. Shōmen-Kongō has a tail in the art below, but not in the rough art.

On the Tokusatsu note from that last sentence - I don’t know enough about Tokusatsu to guess what it’s from, but the face, including the lack of mouth, looks like a mask in particular. The yellow lines going down his body also look like something from Ultraman.

“Urvashi is a prominent Apsara (celestial nymph) in Hindu mythology. Her design strongly expresses the dancing aspect of the Apsaras”.

Cool design, but she’s not all that notable in-game. She’s meant to be the ‘main’ Apsara, so it’s surprising that the only other game she appeared in was Majin Tensei II.

"Hanuman, the heroic god of Hindu mythology and the original form of Qitian Dasheng. The only motif remaining from the monkey figure is his tail. The shape of his head is quite familiar…”

Last one! AKA Sun Wukong, Seiten Taisei, Son Gokū, etc., you know the drill. The shape of his head is quite familiar indeed, since it comes from Ultraman. Ultraseven, in particular. Also notice the similar plated design on the neck and shoulders. Thank you AtmaFlare for finding this dude (or on Twitter, @atmaflare).

^ Is this Kaneko’s magnum opus?

I haven't seen these before, they're great! Thanks for scanning!

KAZUMA KANEKO PANDEMONIUM SCANS (Eirikr’s Picks #15)

A Devil Summoner special presentation! Some of these are overdue for a return, like Bogle and Suiko.

Previous Pandemonium galleries:

The character designs by Kazuma Kaneko

Kazuma Kaneko : EL-115 Club Owner's Alpha & Beta's (AKA Reticulan) design

illus. Kazuma Kaneko

Persona Art by Kazuma Kaneko

kazuma kaneko, concept art for angel from shin megami tensei ii (1994 sfc, dir. kazuma kaneko & cozy okada, atlus)

Kazuma Kaneko from the magazine Color Kingdom 2 (色彩 王国2), July 1998. 

DEMONIC SPONSOR ARTWORK From Shin Megami Tensei Nocturne by Kazuma Kaneko

High quality images of SJ’s Space marine and Jimenez (lol you could see commander Gore’s silhouette on Jimenez’s page)

courtesy of 2019umihorse from twitter

just wanna share because I love em’ so much

BONUS :

if you’re curious of Jimenez’s tattoos (the one on his tummy and tat)

Satanael has been on the brain lately so I re-scanned the Pandemonium art in higher res, though mostly to get his profile translated. And boy is that profile revealing about… things. Will get into it soon.

(the scan is a one-off, btw)

Interesting