Okami Research

Ōkami is a game for the playstation 2 that came out in the years 2006 and 2007. This game is heavily influenced by japanese culture with the landscape and character drawn in a woodcut, watercolor style, cel-shaded style, which looks like an animated Japanese ink-illustration known as ink wash painting, or sumi-e mixed with some other style of art. Much of Ōkamis' plot centers on characters from Japanese Shintospirituality and legendary historical figures from Japanese culture. A major plot parallels the slaying of the eight-headed serpent,Yamata no Orochi by the Shinto godSusanoo, recreated as the characters of Orochi and Susano, respectively, within the game. The main character is the Japanese goddess of the sun amaterasu drawn in the style of a wolf. This was done due to the fact that when written in kanji the word wolf and the goddesess name are very similar. The title of the game is actualy a play on words when read in kanji for the word okami means wolf but the way it is pronounced in game means deity.

The lead designer of the game was a man named Naoki Katakai who has developed games in the likes of Bayonetta, Resident evil and Evil within. All of these games have a much darker setting and art style making Okami unique among his work for it is alot brighter and has a much more cartoon like aspect to it. When reading about some of the inspirations for the art style the designer stated that he looked at different watercoloured and sumi-e paintings I feel that the artist would have taken inspiration from the painter Josetsu who is one of the first artists to use the sumi-e style. Another artist I feel could have been used as a reference is Katsushika Hokusai for his use of bright colours and the setting of the enviroments he draws.

References

Art, Okami. "Okami Art". Artofokami.com. N.p., 2016. Web. 25 Feb. 2016.

College, Kenyon, and Asian 4. "Asian Art Test 4 - Art And Art History 146 With Blick At Kenyon College - Studyblue". StudyBlue. N.p., 2016. Web. 25 Feb. 2016.

Gamefaqs.com,. "Okami Credit Information - Gamefaqs". N.p., 2016. Web. 25 Feb. 2016.

GameSpot,. "Okami Update - The Art Style". N.p., 2016. Web. 25 Feb. 2016.

Wikipedia,. "ÅŒkami". N.p., 2016. Web. 25 Feb. 2016.

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