Okamiden Diary Day 4

To look at Montmorency you would imagine that he was an angel sent upon the earth, for some reason withheld from mankind, in the shape of a small fox-terrier.  There is a sort of Oh-what-a-wicked-world-this-is-and-how-I-wish-I-could-do-something-to-make-it-better-and-nobler expression about Montmorency that has been known to bring the tears into the eyes of pious old ladies and gentlemen.

Jerome K. Jerome, Three Men In A Boat

The little girl on Chibiterasu's back is Kagu. The blue monkey with the paper mask over his face is a demon. But he's not an evil demon; he's just a merchant who will sell you things like bones (which replenish the dog's health) or ink (which will replenish the ink for the celestial brushes). But I don't really want to talk about the demon, who gets one line, but about Kagu, Chibi's partner for a decent chunk of the game.

Kagu, who calls Chibi "Pooch" is a child actress. It's gone to her head just a little bit; she's bossy and rather vain. But she's not a total brat; she wants to help people.

I feel bad for her for two reasons. One, her hair seems pretty tough to manage. I know it's hard to tell from a photo of a DS screen. but it's got an elaborate braid, with a very long, thin strand on the back that's interwoven with pink flowers. (It's in the upper right of the shot.) Also, she mistakenly thinks she's in a different game than she actually is.

(As I said yesterday, potential spoilers ahead. But you should continue reading anyway, for such great phrases as "toilet demon" and "giant kabuki puppets.")

Kagu has magic powers. She can create lightning, lift heavy objects with her mind, and use this power to drive out demons. Unfortunately, she thinks she's in an X-Men game, where everyone will treat her as some sort of mutant pariah if they find out. However, she actually lives in a fantasy medieval Japan, where people love the idea of little girls with the power to exorcise demons, especially when demons have taken over her parent's theater. Fortunately, after using her powers to save them, and getting the approval of a priestess, she realizes that the ability to shoot lightning at monsters is a very, very cool ability.

Kagu and Pooch meet several interesting demons while going through the possessed theater. My favorite, who I was unable to get a good photo of was the Toilet Demon. He wasn't a living latrine, just an ordinary demon who locked his prisoners in a toilet stall. (Did they have toilet stalls in ancient Japan? This one was on the second floor, which implies decent plumbing, or a garderobe.)

Another cool demon is the prop spirit. You don't need to fight him, just help him fix his broken props so his bosses won't be made at him. Here he is revising his opinion of humans after being helped by Chibi's magic brush.

His bosses are a turtle and a crane who think they are wonderful actors, and possess giant kabuki statues to fight you. The fight was a little tough for me because I misunderstood the mechanics and wound up wasting ink and time, but I defeated them.

After they've been beaten, Kagu goes out to correct the ills, great and small, in the rest of the city, armed with a new dress a priestess gave her. At the moment, my quest has gone from fighting demons who possess giant puppets to making cherry trees blossom.

I notice this entry is mainly about Chibi's partner and not the wolf himself. Though he does one or two interesting things, and saves her a few times. I don't know if the scenes are Kagu-centric or she's just got one of those personalities that takes over the screen, like so many child actors do.