The Ice Guy’s Snow Woman Heritage – And What It Means for Himuro
Himuro claimed that he was a descendant of the snow lady, a chilly figure from contemporary Japanese mythology.
New romantic comedy anime The Ice Guy and His Cool Female Colleague will premiere in the Winter 2023 anime season. This sweet workplace romance has magical undertones, mostly because Himuro can create ice and snow when he feels strongly. If he’s in the mood, he may even cause a snowfall to cover his whole workplace.
Himuro is open about his paranormal “Quirk” as well, telling his new coworker Fuyutsuki that he is a descendant of the yuki-onna, or snow lady, from traditional Japanese mythology. Folklore depicts this yokai as often fatal, but other of its depictions show the snow lady as more kind or even neutral, which is ideal for a romantic comedy like The Ice Guy.
The Varying Legends of Japan’s Snow Woman, the Yuki-Onna
The specific nature of the yuki-onna varies significantly from one narrative or local legend to another, as with many folklore monsters, but there are a few universal motifs that run across most of the tales. True to her name, the yuki-onna takes the form of an adult human lady who manifests during the winter or even during blizzards. She may also possess frosty abilities. The yuki-onna may release strong ice breath assaults and use them to blast down doors to people’s houses depending on the source. In other instances, the yuki-onna preys on males in particular and drains their life power via a kiss or sexual contact, much like a vampire or even a frigid succubus. Other times, the yuki-onna may mislead a loving parent into carrying their kid about, possibly to make people let their guard down. She might even seduce people into being lost and dying from exposure.
Although more contemporary folklore tales have slightly softened the yuki-onna, older myths in Japan’s past almost invariably presented her as a malicious monster hellbent on preying on or just killing individuals who stumble across her in blizzards. According to some stories, the yuki-onna is less of a monster and more like the ghost of a human woman; she may even find love with human men and have a family with them. In one tale, the yuki-onna saved the life of a handsome young boy in exchange for his promise to keep her a secret. The boy married the yuki-onna when he was an adult, though he was unaware of her identity at the time. The folktale’s version varies, but the yuki-onna spares her human husband either out of care for their children or because she isn’t human, therefore she can spare him on a technicality. He finds out her secret later in the marriage.
How Modern Anime Series Sanitize Folklore’s Scariest Monsters
For the sake of shocks and violent action sequences, horror anime may depict well-known monsters or folklore spirits as they originally were. However, many other anime prefer to sanitise these creatures and turn them into charming novelty items rather than anything frightening. To give anime viewers a chance to learn more about these monsters and villain archetypes and, for once, experience the world from their perspective, it’s almost like a mild parody of them. Witches are a popular example, who are often lovely magical females who also happen to have brooms and boiling cauldrons, as opposed to being horrible, child-eating, hex-slinging creatures. Even demons are often sanitised in this way; they are alluring humanoids of any sex or gender with light demonic traits like little horns or claw-like fingernails. Instead of being terrifying creatures who transport people’s souls to Hell, these demons are often lighthearted troublemakers or comic relief figures.
Other anime shows go farther into legend to uncover well-known or rather obscure creatures and create stars out of them, either directly or indirectly. The most recent example is The Ice Guy and His Cool Female Colleague, which portrays Himuro the kuudere’s yuki-onna background as humorous and just somewhat bothersome rather than threatening. Himuro doesn’t even seem to consider his abilities a curse, and he doesn’t seem embarrassed to have yuki-onna ancestry.
It’s obvious that this is a gentler variation of that cold monster—one that would choose to have a family with human males than to seduce them into a terrible storm. The yuki-onna, who is almost a kuudere herself, undoubtedly left her chilly abilities and demeanour to her offspring, including Himuro the office worker. This enables anime viewers to experience a whole different side of the yuki-onna and Himuro, who sometimes struggles to make friends because of his magical abilities. The inscrutable ice exteriors of kuuderes do make them often misunderstood, but anybody who can get through that will be rewarded with a deep and devoted relationship or romance.
The Ice Guy’s Snow Woman Heritage – And What It Means for Himuro
- Reference Sites:
- https://animesee.com/
- https://www.crunchyroll.com/
- https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/
- https://www.cbr.com/
