new illustration of baihu (byakko) by kazuma kaneko and megumi shiraishi

early art and finished version (background is AI, the art itself is not)

aya nishitani and megami tensei (part 3)

among his inspirations, nishitani would mention two authors, that influenced him the most: hanmura ryou* and h.p. lovecraft; allusions to fictional city of arkham, demons from the works of lovecraft, such as, cthulhu, nyarlathotep would appear in megami tensei franchise later;
another point of interest would be the decision of nishitani using demons, or to be precise, gods of norse (loki) and egyptian (set) mythologies instead of more well-known ones from christianity in "digital devil story: megami tensei"; he'd explain it that in northern europe, norse gods would be seen as demons, after converting to a christianity; as for set, writing him as a snake god was inspired by r.e. howard's conan and also he had an idea that egypt and izumo** had some sort of connections and izumo is associated with snakes;

* japanese sci-fi, fantasy and horror author; won izumi kyoka prize for literature; the series of rpg "the legend of heroes" is loosely based on his novel;

** izumo is a city in japan, where one of the most important and ancient shinto shrine, izumo-taisha or izumo-oyashira, is located;

screenshots from "digital devil story: megami tensei" (OVA) (1987)

kamo_pasta