Welcome to the most expansive of the sub-articles! Please note that each artist's spreadsheet includes helpful charts and graphs at the bottom. Each spreadsheet also follows the same format as the one made for Doi in the main article:
- Given gender: By “given,” we mean “stated by the game.” As these are mythological entities, discrepancies or variations are possible in the source material. For example, the demon Gemori looks like a woman but the Goetia still describes Gemori as “he,”; however, SMT always portrays Gemori as female.
- Body type: Whether the demon’s body is majority organic or inorganic.
- Form/archetype: Where the demon falls along a spectrum of design paradigms and tropes.
- Source conformity: The design’s adherence to source material, whether visual or descriptive, according to four types (wholly original creations are marked as “Not Applicable”); please note that these types are NOT necessarily holistic appraisals of a design’s effectiveness:
- Type I (High Conformity): The main form of the design (i.e., the demon’s body) is faithful to source material with few or no major stylistic embellishments. Kaneko examples for this type: Abraxas, Belphegor.
- Type II (Source Form + Embellishment): The main form of the design is is faithful to source material but contains major stylistic embellishments that are thematically appropriate for the demon (or otherwise). Kaneko examples for this type: Baldur, Metatron.
- Type III (Original Form + Thematics): The main form of the design is not faithful to source material but is itself a thematically appropriate embellishment for the demon OR the design contains major thematically appropriate supporting features. Kaneko examples for this type: Mara, Kanbari.
- Type IV (Nonconformity): The main form of the design is not faithful to source material and lacks major, defining thematic features of the demon. Kaneko examples for this type: Pabilsag, Seth.
- Origin: The demon’s provenance. If a demon could have more than one origin, form may be used to determine it, such as with Doi’s Satan. Generally, priority is given to major religions (Christianity, Buddhism, etc.) and their related subgroups (like Occult), then to local myth systems, followed by general regions, and finally local regions (if applicable/warranted). Original demons are just marked "Shin Megami Tensei."
I. Masayuki Doi's demons
Doi's demons are the subject of the main article, so it's only fair to list his first. Check it out below!
DOI'S CURRENTLY CONTAINS SMT5 SPOILERS!! TREAD LIGHTLY!
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| CLICK/TAP HERE FOR DOI'S SPREADSHEET! |
II. The Shin Megami Tensei IV guest artist demons
Everyone's favorites! The banner below will take you to the spreadsheet.
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| CLICK/TAP HERE FOR THE GUEST ARTISTS' SPREADSHEET! |
Some observations:
- Expired equine, extra tenderized.
III. Kazuma Kaneko's demons
The big one. Your journey awaits:
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| CLICK/TAP HERE FOR KANEKO'S SPREADSHEET! |
First, a word about our demon count here. 1,187 is a lot of demons and we include in that count some games or categories you might want to exclude, each of their names marked by symbols. Let's explain them:
- Demons marked "#" exist only in sprite form from Shin Megami Tensei if..., 52 in total. However, some of these sprites, like Incubus and Troll, would receive full-fledged art in subsequent games, thus fully "validating" them. Note that the Troll design is exactly as it would appear later in Soul Hackers, so it is not listed under that game for that reason.
- Demons marked "@" are palette swaps or remasters of previous demons with designs unchanged and total 99. To continue with the Incubus example, his first illustration for Devil Summoner is nonetheless a palette swap of the colors used for the if... sprite. Also note that certain demons in Soul Hackers that were completely unchanged from Devil Summoner, like Metatron, are not listed in its respective section.
- Demons marked "*" are 3 alternate Heavenly King designs from Persona 3 that we don't know the provenance of other than Bishamonten's palette swap of the SMT1 Indra design.
Subtract these and you still have 1,033 demons.
Some observations about Kaneko's demons:
- Kaneko's demons are overwhelmingly organic. However, by Soul Hackers he began experimenting with inorganic body types and parts in earnest. Gods like Norn, Tlaloc, Apsu, and Alilat become like objects. Even our adored Rune Odin had to be considered as such because, well, his physical body was replaced by runes! Then there are border cases like Fortune and Pele who have inorganic torsos but organic everything else; they may still be majority organic but we decided to be nice and throw the inorganics a bone.
- The pandering female demons consist of the usual suspects. Now, there are a lot of naked female demons in SMT, but not all of them would be considered pandering by the usual metrics (for being monsters, appropriate for their mythological origins, etc.). One we debated was Succubus, who, given her "profession," should perhaps be a little on the sexy side but compared to her male counterpart who is literally a cartoonish little prick, we think that makes the intent behind the comparatively "normal" Succubus clearer. Cybele is also among the pandering even if other nude goddesses aren't because we are still perplexed by the intent of her design. You might not consider Pixie (particularly the SMT1 version) a typical pandering type, but, historically, this was likely the case: she and SMT2 Nekomata were the cover models of the two period official fanbooks, respectively. Also note Kaneko's own comments about Pixie porn in the DDA interview.
- The pandering designs lead us to discover the pattern behind Kaneko's own sexual dimorphism: nipples. SMT1 especially is chock full of bald nipples, most with full areolae, and pokers but almost exclusively for female demons. But the guys? Generally, they have no nips--that is, except for the fat guys. In SMT1, the squat Oumononushi and Hitokotonushi as well as Beelzebub, Hobgoblin, and Arioch all wear theirs proudly.
- Female nipples return for SMT2 but with most sans areolae, with two exceptions that are both sea monsters, Tiamat and Scylla. SMT2 has a perfect opportunity to keep the fat guy nipple streak going, but Butcher swings and misses. But right behind him is the ultimate clean-up hitter, Satan, whose six breasts all have the full spread. Quite an interesting exception there, though. Really, SMT2 has the best examples of this nipple sexual dichotomy as its pair of androgynous demons, Ardha and Janus, both have their female sides with nipples but the male sides are featureless.
- Nipples are still around in the 32-bit era but here begin to disappear. The final areolae are seen in Devil Summoner on Amazon (with properly cauterized right breast) Erzulie, Waxwork, and just barely visible on Todomeki; for Soul Hackers, Tiamat's are quite unnatural but they still count, Harpy's blend in with her skin tone, and, oh yeah, there's Queen of the Nipples Diana herself--but note that she's very clearly wearing breast-shaped accessories (unlike her Kyuuyaku counterpart Artemis, whom we forgot to mention). The rest are of the nipple-only variety. But the real story is the blossoming of the male nipple, on more than just fat guys, even. They are to be found on Oliver, Take-mikazuchi, Thor, Tyr, Naga, Nyalmot, and naturally on the fat Yaksa.
- Natural nipples are completely absent in the post-Saturn Kaneko era; compare the SMT1 Kugutsu with the one from the SMT1 remake. However, beginning in SMT2 Kaneko showed his love for adding nipples to chest plates and protectives. There are no gender boundaries here and they can be found from High Pixie to Victor to one of his very last demons, Baldur.
- Nipple patterns were also how we were able to determine the gender of SMT2's Inferno, which has the faint outline of nipples on the chest. These are even still visible on the adapted bust seen in SMT4 (same for the mannequin Dominion lives in). Nipples rule!
That's probably enough nipples for now. Back to the main article!
tiddies
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