Slitterhead Is Anime Gold Taking Inspiration From Manga And A Brain-Eating Chinese Monster

Highlights

Slitterhead is a horror action-adventure game from Keiichiro Toyama and Bokeh Game Studio, set in a fictional Asian city with a premise similar to Jujutsu Kaisen and Parasyte.
The game draws inspiration from manga like Gantz, Parasyte, and Tokyo Ghoul, as well as Chinese folklore monster Yegouzi, and incorporates elements from previous titles like Siren and Gravity Rush.
Slitterhead promises a unique blend of horror, anime, and Chinese folklore in its gameplay, aiming to be approachable for a wider audience and offering a treat for manga and anime fans.

This year’s Summer Game Fest gave us an extended look at Slitterhead, the upcoming horror action-adventure title from Bokeh Game Studio, and the original Silent Hill creator, Keiichiro Toyama. Set in the neon-filled streets of a fictional Asian city, a boundless entity is tasked with destroying the titular monsters that disguise themselves as humans. It’s a premise that anime fans will resonate with, sharing a thematic space with the likes of Jujutsu Kaisen and Parasyte, and the creator recently confirmed a lot of the game’s inspiration hailed from manga.

Having previously helmed Siren and Gravity Rush, Toyama has also incorporated several components from these titles into Slitterhead’s gameplay, in addition to harboring a few atmospheric Silent Hill elements in the blueprint, like hiring composer Akira Yamaoka to work his magic on the score. Combining manga, Silent Hill, and even the design of a brain-eating Chinese monster within the studio’s influence pool, Slitterhead is shaping up to be an amalgamation of rich material that’s already beloved by anime fans.

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Early Slitterhead footage shows off the kinda moves that James Sunderland could only restlessly dream of.

Slitterhead Draws Inspiration From The Anime Greats

Still from Slitterhead of a boy with glowing red eyes and blood splattered on his face.

During an interview with IGN, Toyama noted that he was “especially inspired” by manga like Gantz, Parasyte, and Tokyo Ghoul. The “essence of horror” and the “battle action” that takes place in these particular creations made the material “more accessible” in the creator’s eyes, and he wanted Slitterhead to be “approachable for a wider audience” too. Combining veteran anime fans’ concern about a character’s death with a casual watcher’s entertainment from high-octane battles is an “approach unique to Japanese manga”, says Toyama, and he wanted this essence to also exist in Slitterhead.

There’s a clear visual similarity between the monstrous, mutated creatures in Slitterhead and the organisms from Hitoshi Iwaaki’s manga series Parasyte, which was also adapted into an anime. Faces opening up like orchids once infected and the parasites hiding in plain sight under the cover of human skin will be the main threat in Bokeh’s game also. Additionally, Sui Ishida’s Tokyo Ghoul has a slew of creatures devouring human flesh, and the game’s protagonist, Hyoki, has the appearance of the leading half-ghoul, Ken Kaneki. Ishida’s manga also found success in an anime adaptation, and fans of both body horror projects will likely find a lot to admire in Slitterhead.

Despite not being mentioned as a source of inspiration for Toyama, JJK’s last arc took place in the heart of Japan’s busy city center behind the Cursed Spirits’ curtain, creating a pocket of chaos on Halloween, and Slitterhead’s description also mentions a “mysterious incident” taking place in a bustling Asian city, which is sure to remind fans of the anime’s event.

Another manga-turned-anime that the community will be all too familiar with is Jujutsu Kaisen. Created by Gege Akutami, fans have barely recovered from the brutal Shibuya Incident Arc that claimed the lives of popular characters, and its setting is something akin to Slitterhead. Despite not being mentioned as a source of inspiration for Toyama, JJK’s last arc took place in the heart of Japan’s busy city center behind the Cursed Spirits’ curtain, creating a pocket of chaos on Halloween, and Slitterhead’s description also mentions a “mysterious incident” taking place in a bustling Asian city, which is sure to remind fans of the anime’s event. The Cursed Spirits facing Yuji Itadori and the sorcerers also carry a parasitic design and this is yet another link to connect anime fans to Slitterhead’s expanse.

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Slitterhead director Junya Okura adds that it “works in your advantage” to sacrifice humans as you play.

Yegouzi From Chinese Folklore Is Slitterhead’s Main Attraction

If the prolific trio of Parasyte, Tokyo Ghoul, and JJK wasn’t enough bait to hook anime fans, Toyama also found stimuli in Japanese comics where “monsters that eat humans” would appear frequently. This led the creator to dive into Chinese folklore and discover Yegouzi, a monster from the classic novel “Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio” known for preying on corpses and sucking out their brains. Toyama thought Yegouzi was the perfect monster to match the game’s Asian city setting, and the studio ended up using the “very rich and complex” design of the monster as a base for all Slitterhead’s enemy types, sporting the body of a human with the head of a dog. The skeletal structure of the monster seen in the game’s trailer will also remind the initiated of Eren Jaeger’s final form in Attack on Titan, further proving this game is a gold mine for anime fans.

Toyama thought Yegouzi was the perfect monster to match the game’s Asian city setting, and the studio ended up using the “very rich and complex” design of the monster as a base for all Slitterhead’s enemy types, sporting the body of a human with the head of a dog.

Slitterhead is set to offer a unique adventure for manga and anime lovers in a gameplay format, which will be another treat in a similar vein to Tango Gameworks’ Ghostwire: Tokyo. The 2022 title saw the titular city being haunted by a supernatural presence, and Toyama and his team had their eyes on it while developing Slitterhead. Instead of being a first-person shooter, however, Slitterhead promises melee combat within a stylish Chinese setting infused with folklore to create distance between the two, and echoes of Toyama’s inspirations promise a deliciously horrific experience for anime fans to sink their teeth into.

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