Hell teacher Nube Yokai

check out this kickass theme song.

Hell Teacher Nube, or Jigoku sensei nube, is a manga and anime about an elementary school teacher with a demon sealed in his right hand. Throughout the many chapters of the original run and sequel mangas, he protects his students from all manner of nasty yokai and supernatural phenomenon. Of course with a series like this there's bound to be tons of different spooks to be found, and in this post I'm gonna go over a few of my favorites. 

99 Legged Bug

The very first yokai of the series is described as a small parasitic worm that causes young children to be testy and irritable. This particularly strong one has been possessing one of the main kids, Hiroshi. What a cool design though! This fella brings to mind many types of parasitic worm like hookworms or tapeworms, but with a mouth full of sharp fangs, and a big eye socket full of deranged bloodshot eyes of varying size. Somewhat reminds me of a scuba mask oddly enough. 

99 legs though? It does have tons of tiny little tendrils lining its body, I personally wouldn't count those as legs, but whatever floats your boat 99 Legged bug. 

Hanako-san

If you're at all familiar with Japanese horror, you oughta know who this is! Toire no Hanako-san, or just Hanako-san is a ghost of an elementary school girl that haunts the 3rd stall of the 3rd floor girls bathroom. I admittedly don't have a lot to say about Nube's take on Hanako besides her hilariously terrifying expression. 

Hatamonba

Hatamonba is the spirit of a sword used to behead thieves. A very strange case of a sword monster too, usually sword related ghosts are portrayed as a knight or warrior of some kind, but Hatamonba takes a delightfully gruesome form. The sword itself is transformed into a double-handled wheel that the Yokai rolls around in. the creature handling the sword is a sorta ape-like demon with its scalp split open revealing its skull, and its belly split open with guts dangling out. The original anime actually toned hatamonba down quite a bit, with no organs to be seen whatsoever. Lame! Thankfully the newer reboot rectifies this. 

Jariki

Jariki is a Yokai that apperantly attaches itself to broken old vehicles that have been in accidents. It's a pretty lovable design with a glassy eyed bugman face, and  a speckled reptile-like body half fused to a car. The car itself, mutated by the Yokai,is pretty rad itself. The wheels replaced with crab legs, and a beetle-like face on the front. There also seems to be little teeth at the bottom of the windshield. You can also spot the skeleton of the previous driver behind the wheel. Funny. 

Curse spirit

This is the spirit summoned by a woman gone power hungry after doing the Ushi no koku mairi curse. The spirit actually going around fulfilling these curses is an unsettling little guy, a stringy haired ghoul with big eyes fixed in a permanent squint, and a wide open mouth with nasty little fangs. The rest of its is a frail little torso that ends in a tapering bony tail. 

No exactly an impressive looking beasty, but exactly the kind of little bastard you'd expect to do the dirty work of people petty enough to go through with cursing people just because.

Demon of the infinite mirror 

Another one taking from school urban legend, based on how two mirrors seem to reflect endlessly when placed in front of eachother. Sometimes it's said you'll catch a little demon alongside your many reflections if you look close enough. This little fiend is a very fun design for something so simple.  A big potato shaped head with many eyes and little droopy antenna are a pretty fun inclusion on what would normally be a pretty standard little imp. 

Onbu Obake

I don't usually find rock monsters all that interesting, but this take on Onbu Obake, the piggyback monster, is again more fun than usual. Spending most of its time in the form of a mysterious human faced rock, until we see it's true form. Almost entirely just face, but with little limbs made of many smaller rocks. The face doesn't change at all, but now creepy little staring eyes are visible. The big blank expression is made even more eerie with this yokai's baby-like mannerisms. 

Red Chanchanko

The red Chanchanko, or red vest, is another real urban legend. One of many cases of a disembodied voice asking if you'd like an oddly colored item, in this case a red vest. Say yes, and You're skinned, blood covering you like a vest. In Hell teacher nube this yokai is a creepy snaggletooth little girl with a devilish squinty eyed face that I enjoy so much.

Jinmenso

A surprising staple of many supernatural manga for how unknown it is elsewhere, Jinmenso are nasty little human faced tumors. This Jinmenso is incredibly unpleasant, having infested Nube, make half of his body a nasty mess of ghoulish faces. Pretty unnerving too as despite the name, these Jinmenso don't look very human, instead nasty little ogre faces with luminous pupils. And they're always giggling. 

Kosodate Yurei

A more traditional yokai, Kosodate Yurei, or child rearing ghosts, are mothers that resolve to take care of their babies even after death, using asking for candy to help soothe their child. This portrayal wouldn't be too notable, if not for scarf suddenly being pulled off, which results in her falling apart. And then..

Very eerie! I've seen ghosts with their body in multiple parts before, but this one is especially nasty, with everything but her head, limbs and breasts rotten away to just bones. 

Umikuma

Cute! What at first appears to a student as a big plesiosaur, in line with Scotland's loch ness Monster, of course turns out to be a Yokai. Spending most of the chapter as big lump of flesh,like a Globster, until it's threatened with being blown up,the Yokai reveals its true form as a big plesiosaur shaped slug of some sort! Adorable, and too bring up Nessie again, there are theories that it too may be a giant gastropod. 

Agyo San

Traditionally, Agyo San is described as an unpleasant old woman who utters a strange riddle, and if you can't answer it in time she starts to lick your neck before finally biting down. Very, very icky. 

Nube's agyo San is instead a "dual faced" old man head that can appear either happy or angry. It can also determine truth and lies, or manipulate the truth perhaps? It's not exactly clear, but when someone says agyo San is harmless, he proves how wrong they are by revealing a badass multi eyed worm body (that only kinda looks like a penis.) with mole claws and an exposed brain where agyo's "true" face is nestled in. 

Akaname

Filth lickers! Although usually akaname are red skinned humanoids with long tongues, Here they're portrayed as tsukumogami (object spirits) born from old brushes. A very original take on the Yokai, with a very cute design to boot. These adorable shaggy cyclopes are always one of the Yokai I remember first from this series. 

Spider Yokai 

This yokai isn't ever named, but it's contacted through an old phone that allegedly allows people to talk to the dead. When the kids are trapped in a room and need help escaping they use said phone. Their "rescuer" takes the form of a huge stubby tarantula with a grinning human face. Admittedly I think it's strangely cute. Something about the sleazy deep set eyes and kinda goofy face on a big round spider is oddly endearing to me. 

Polluted River Spirit 

Poor Guy. This awesome rotting gillman has a twisted spine and missing eye from pollutants in its river home. Even in its unfortunate state it's an incredibly cool gillman. Shame the poor guy is done in so quickly by a more threatening human antagonist. 

Remugyo

You best bet I was blown away when in a relatively early chapter of the manga I was greeted by a Yokai gulper eel. One of my very favorite fish since I learned about it at like age 12! Always a great time whenever deep sea fauna is in anything. Name one thing that has been ruined by the presence of a deep sea creature of any kind. That's right you can't. 

Remugyo is a giant three eyed black gulper eel that's always accompanied by a thick fog. Awesome. But Remugyo didn't come to feed. 

Instead Remugyo came to lay her eggs! When hatched, the baby remugyos will feed on the host that was (un)lucky enough to get caught by the yokais egg spray. It's a surprisingly tense situation with this giant flying gulper eel shooting eggs onto hapless elementary school students. Which.. isn't a sentence I thought I'd say in any context really. 

Teke-Teke

We'll end on a pretty special one. Teke-Teke has always been one of my favorite yokai from urban legend. A Vengeful ghost girl split clean in half in a train accident, now she crawls around on her hands or elbows, hunting down people to take a good pair of legs from. In the manga and anime, Teke-Teke will show up within 3 days of her victim hearing the story, unless you chant a specific spell. Despite Nube telling a scared student that there's no such thing, they can't quite shake the image of this bisected beastie. Eventually she does show up for him, and nube arrives just in time. Not to kill Teke-Teke, but to show the student that Teke-Teke really does just wanna rest, but can't because of people dragging her story to get a rise out of folks. 

Poor girl :( 

The original anime chickened out from including her, but the reboot thankfully didn't. It even gives her a nice decrepit design with bits of skin falling off. She even gets revenge in both the manga, and reboot anime. It was just a nasty kid in the manga, but in the anime it's a scummy YouTuber who locked access to hearing the spell to ward her off (something he entirely made up too!) behind a payed subscription. Hell yeah Teke-Teke!