Talk:Nutcracker/@comment-29018859-20161110072827

Worth mentioning: there are two even better references to youkai in this character t     han the ohaguro-bettari.

http://yokai.com/kuchisakeonna/ This is the one that hit me upon her first appearance. The kuchisake-onna ("slit-mouthed woman") typically wears a face mask, is obsessed with beauty, and, in some versions (like Carved - this is also a J-Horror reference), has strange eyes very similar to Mayu's. The signature scissors aren't there, but n.b. she ate a pretty girl's face off. That's a different form of face mutilation.

The second, oh my...warning, Japanese folklore can be NSFW.

http://yokai.com/sazaeoni/

For those of you who don't want to read/just want me to get to the chase, there's a story in which a female snail youkai seduces a bunch of pirates, then takes their testicles in the night. In order to get their balls back, they had to give her all their treasure. This is a linguistic pun lost in translation; in Japan, balls are called "kintama" - lit. "golden balls." (There's a parallel in English: "family jewels.") The joke is that they had to pay gold for gold.

At first, I thought the "eating testicles" thing was just a gentle reference to this myth, or an added  fear factor. Then, while Googling possible references, I realized that Nutcracker's spiraling tail looked uncannily like a brown turban snail shell.

"Oh. OHHHH. Um, yeah, I don't think this snail demon plans on giving your golden balls back for any money in the world, sorry."

I'll shut up, now, but hopefully this was a welcome distraction from...certain events. Plus, if I start talking about female monsters, it's hard for me to stop.