Tengu - Modern Fiction

Modern Fiction

Profoundly entrenched in the Japanese imagination for centuries, tengu continue to be popular subjects in modern fiction, both in Japan and increasingly in other countries. They often appear among the many characters and creatures featured in Japanese cinema, animation, comics, and video games. One of the most famous modern fictional Tengu is the Tengu named Haruka, from the Japanese animation/manga comic Tactics. Haruka takes the form of a tall young man with crow-like wings and an unusually large nose for a manga. It also has been a creature long-found in the computer games NetHack and Angband (which is primarily based on the works of J. R. R. Tolkien, but has borrowed creatures from many different genres). In the game it is an evil demon capable of teleporting itself next to your character or teleporting your character next to it. In Super Mario Bros. 2, there is an enemy named Tweeter based on a Tengu. In the Pokemon series, there is an evolutionary family based on the tengu: Seedot, Nuzleaf and Shiftry; they are known for cruel pranks and long noses. The games Mega Man 8 and Mega Man and Bass also feature the boss character Tengu Man as one of Dr. Wily's creations. He is a very cocky and overconfident Robot Master, wielding the Tornado Hold (Mega Man 8) and the Tengu Blade (Mega Man and Bass). His appearance is based on the traditional red-faced mask with a long nose. Digimon has their own version of Karasu-tengu, which is the Karatenmon. Dan Hibiki's father, Gou Hibiki in the Street Fighter series is red faced and has a long nose. Also, in the SNES game EarthBound, there is an enemy called Tangoo, named Sir Tengu in Japan. Gekikro is the monsters which based on Tengu from the Spectrobes series.

Graham Masterton's horror novel Tengu tells of a conspiracy by a secret Japanese society to avenge the American bombing of Hiroshima by producing invincible warriors possessed by the Tengu. It includes details of some of the mythology and rituals surrounding the Tengu.

In the 2009 movie RoboGeisha the higher-ranking Geisha soldiers are called "Tengun" and wear red long-nosed masks modeled after the human form of the tengu. "Tengu Milk" is one of their attacks.

Many video games reference Tengu in some way. In Eve Online, the Tengu is the name of the Caldari strategic cruiser, and in Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, in the Plant chapter of Arsenal Gear, you fight soldiers called "Tengus". In the dōjin soft game series Touhou Project, Inubashiri Momiji, Hatate Himekaidou, and Shameimaru Aya are stated to be tengu, although with their cute appearances and lack of typical Tengu features (such as long noses), they are primarily based on mythical tengu in behavior and function. A boss character in Dead or Alive 2 is named Tengu, and in SNK vs. Capcom: SVC Chaos, the boss character "Serious Mr. Karate" wears a Tengu mask. This is a reference to how Mr. Karate, real name Takuma Sakazaki, was the final boss in the original Art of Fighting, in which he wore the Tengu mask.

In Ninja Sentai Kakuranger, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers season 3, and Mighty Morphin Alien Rangers the tengu appears as a monster of the day/week (Kakuranger and Alien Rangers "adapted into Professor Long Nose"), a queen tengu monster which was a cut monster from the movie but appears in its Game Boy adaption as a boss, and as minions in the movie, season 3 of MMPR & the 10 episode Alien Ranger arc. In the movie they are called the "Tengu Warriors" the suits for the Tengu Warriors are reused in the show and called the "Tenga Warriors". An enemy based after the Tengu can be found in the 2006 game Okami. However this version is actually a bird or similar creature, which sports the Tengu-based mask.

In Red Alert 3 and Red Alert 3 Uprising, there is a unit called Mecha Tengu, a robot aircraft technology that can decimate infantry by its dual cannons in their robot form, or turning enemy aircraft into scrap metal during the original jet form.