"A giant crab spirit with a human face. It lurks arounda special location..."
Human Faced Crabs are crab-like Spirits that lurk in the Sewers in Yomawari: Midnight Shadows.
Appearance[]
As the name implies they are giant crabs with a human face. Besides the size they have a regular crab body. Most of it is brown with their pincers being lighter than the rest, having a golden color.
On the bottom of their bodies they have a giant blueish face. This face has completely red eyes and a slightly open mouth. Its expression looks like it's in agony.
Behaviour[]
They are found in 2 directional narrow paths and they will only move horizontally along that path. They go all the way to one end of the path they are in, and then return to the other end in a cycle.
They move very quickly, so to get past them, the player must start running as soon as the Human Faced Crab passes by them in the opposite direction.
Mythology and Theories[]
A possible basis for the Human-Faced Crab may be the Heikegani. The Heikegani is a species of crab that are native to Japan. These crabs are known for having shells with patterns that resemble a human face.
Many believed that the face on the crab's shell is that of an angry samurai, which led to the crab being nicknamed the "Samurai Crab". It is locally believed that these crabs are supposed to be the reincarnations of the Heike warriors who were defeated at the Battle of Dan-no-ura, as told in "The Tale of the Heike".
"The Tale of the Heike" focuses on the struggle between the Taira Clain (also known as the Heike) and the Minamoto Clan for control of Japan at the end of the 12th Century in the Genpai War (in the year 1180-1185).
During the Battle of Dan-no-ura (the bay of Japan's Inland Sea), those two samurai clans fought to the death. At the time, the currently ruling group, the Taira clan (Heike), was led by a child-emperor named Antoku and his grandmother, Tokiko Taira. The Heike had ruled Japan for many decades, but now they faced defeat by the hands of the Minamoto due to being outnumbered.
During the battle, Tokiko took her grandchild, Emperor Antoku, and leaped with him into the water in the Shimonoseki Straits. She drowned herself and the child emperor because the former didn't want her grandchild to be captured by the opposing forces. This action caused most of the members and generals of the Taira Clan to follow in death, committing suicide out of despair.
Many of the Taira Clan would either be killed in action during this battle or commit suicide after losing their emperor. The deceased Emperor Antoku would later be worshipped as Mizu-no-kami ("God of Water" in Japanese).
The name "Heikegani" even came from the Heike (otherwise known as the Taira Clan).
Gallery[]
