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A review by kalira
The Japanese Yokai Handbook A Guide to the Spookiest Ghosts, Demons, Monsters and Evil Creatures from Japanese Folklore by 木下昌美
funny
lighthearted
3.5
It's cute and a bit silly, which is exactly as it aims to be. Aimed at children (children in Japan specifically), it's lighthearted and arranged with each youkai having a trading card illustration, noting scariness, rarity, danger, speed, immortality, and intelligence. (Though scariness especially seems to be rather randomly assigned!) The card illustration is accompanied by a handful of short sentences talking about the history or origin stories; a handful of the youkai have a second page with a few features highlighted.
Some of the divisions as to which youkai belong in which section also feel a little random (sections for scary, mysterious, powerful, weird, cute, simple, sad, kind, evil, and stupid), but for the most part they're vaguely themed together.
The shrine visits (with photos!) to a handful of shrines around Japan shown between some of the section were neat and interesting; the questions between others were funny (and well-aimed at kids, in my opinion, including both what if I want to meet a youkai and sensible reassurance for what if I never want to meet a youkai). The book was a quick read but entertaining.
There are a few spelling/translation hiccups (youkai names spelled multiple ways on one page, unintentionally; Japanese words romanised incorrectly; words missing or added in sentences, or replaced by the wrong word entirely) but not enough to make it difficult to read sensibly.
Some of the divisions as to which youkai belong in which section also feel a little random (sections for scary, mysterious, powerful, weird, cute, simple, sad, kind, evil, and stupid), but for the most part they're vaguely themed together.
The shrine visits (with photos!) to a handful of shrines around Japan shown between some of the section were neat and interesting; the questions between others were funny (and well-aimed at kids, in my opinion, including both what if I want to meet a youkai and sensible reassurance for what if I never want to meet a youkai). The book was a quick read but entertaining.
There are a few spelling/translation hiccups (youkai names spelled multiple ways on one page, unintentionally; Japanese words romanised incorrectly; words missing or added in sentences, or replaced by the wrong word entirely) but not enough to make it difficult to read sensibly.