Sekiro Environments - Ashina Depths & Mibu Village [Japanese in Sekiro]

Discussing original Japanese names of Sekiro areas and environmental details.
I am a curious linguist, English and Japanese are my second and third languages respectively.
Orginal blogpost - shetanislair.c...
Other The World of Sekiro videos - • The World of Sekiro
Other The World of Sekiro blogposts - shetanislair.c...
Discord - / discord
Twitter - / shetanislair
Sources:
Sekiro Shadows Die Twice Official Artworks
English wiki - sekiro-shadows...
Read more:
Sotoba and Gorinto
www.japanesewi...
en.wikipedia.o...
www.japanesewi...
Kannon
www.japanesewi...
www.japanesewi...
en.wikipedia.o...)
Buddhism in Japan
ja.wikipedia.o...
en.wikipedia.o...
en.wikipedia.o...
en.wikipedia.o...
en.wikipedia.o...
en.wikipedia.o...
en.wikipedia.o...
Mibu clan
ja.wikipedia.o...
ja.wikipedia.o...
www.japanesewi...
Meat-eating in Buddhism and Shinto
web-japan.org/...
en.wikipedia.o...
O'Rin
en.wikipedia.o...
en.wikipedia.o...
en.wikipedia.o...
en.wikipedia.o...
ja.wikipedia.o...
en.wikipedia.o...
Other curious things
en.wikipedia.o...
en.wikipedia.o...
en.wikipedia.o...)
Timestamps:
0:00 - Intro
0:47 - Disclaimers
1:29 - Tiny Transcription Legend
1:38 - Sources
1:51 - Follow-up on Sunken Valley
5:25 - Ashina Depths & Poison Pool
6:43 - Snake Eyes Shirahagi
7:37 - Guardian Ape's Burrow
9:13 - Valley Apparitions Memo
10:41 - Hidden Forest
19:58 - Mibu Village
31:38 - Water Mill
38:03 - Corrupted Monk
39:47 - Underwater
40:39 - Wedding Cave Door
42:24 - Conclusion

[@shetanislair]

Edit: the ghosts in the Hidden Forest are not Ashina soldiers but bandits. Oops!

[@GIANT_______]

This channel is criminally underrated. RUclips algorithm needs to work some magic!

[@griglog]

29:48 Actually "Innsmouth" refers to Fountainhead Palace, since in param files palace nobles are called "innsmouth japanese", fountainhead dogs - "innsmouth dogs" and so on. And mibu village is always referred to as "sick village".
This is what google translator says.

[@shira_yone]

Something that fairly recently happened, is known to spread stagnation (thus disease), and practically sets everything into motion, is Sekiro.
Every little semblance of normalcy in Ashina is reduced to chaos after Sekiro received the dragon heir's blessing. He practically wiped out any relevant Ashina defense force, his resurrections propagates suffering throughout the lands, and the Mibu village (to an extension, the Fountainhead Palace) is just one from several casualties. The water and the dragon stagnated (rotting) which makes ascending impossible, though it's just a matter of time, Sekiro accelerated the inevitable.

[@nettaraxy8815]

Shetani i just want to echo what everyone else is saying, but i love these videos and literally get so excited when i see a new upload! video game translations is one of my favourite topics and im fascinated by differences and changes that get made when games are localised. thank you so much for all your amazing work!!

[@Aceius]

This channel is so insightful, Sekiro in particular really benefits from seeing the original intention behind the language used. The western audience can't quite see the same implications of some of the subjects like stagnation and purity at first because of cultural differences. These videos will really blow up when Sekiro gets a resurgence of interest like Bloodborne has recently gotten. Both Sekiro's lore and this channel are surprisingly undervalued.

[@the_prado]

It makes sense O’Rin is an Ashina elite since her fighting style is so similar to Emma’s, just more chaotic

[@OrigamiPhoenix]

The Mibu Village worshipping an undead sakura tree tainted by the same water as them is incredibly cool.
Again, it goes without saying, this series is so insightful and so well put together! I love the mix of being academic enough to be testable but approachable for anyone to understand.

[@shetanislair]

Thank you (っ˘ω˘ς )

[@TaylorEarlWest]

Yessss more Sekiro

[@mooshugaipan]

7:25 When talking about Shirahagi, I think it's funny how you bring up her poison immunity because that's actually what I exploited to off her lmao. I jumped up the cliff with the canonneer and baited her to strafe back and forth in the pools until she got inflicted then waited out the her health so she could be one shot deathblown, fun times

[@rafboum8014]

it's a good day when shetani uploads

[@traceursebas]

Finally all the puzzle pieces fall into place, thx!

[@maxono1465]

new shetani vid just dropped 😩😩😩😩

[@lukelavigne5474]

I literally wait for each of these updates with so much excitement! A few questions, could you give some resources on where to find more information on O’rin’s clothing? Google search doesn’t like or can’t find some of those terms.
I don’t know if you’re already going to talk about this, but the small shrine in Kuro’s room in the castle, looks a lot like it belongs to a set of similar shrines in the palace. In fact, if I recall, there’s at least one space missing where it could fit. I don’t recall that being discussed in the previous video but I’d love to hear your thoughts.

[@shetanislair]

Added more resources to the O'Rin's section of the video's description, the last two links are probably what you're looking for.
I mentioned the shrine in Kuro's room in the Ashina Castle video, I plan to circle back to this it as we explore the Fountainhead (￣ω￣)

[@Duv1995]

5:42 With over 3000 hours on this game (no joke) I never ever found the way connecting the white serpent shrine to the poison pool... I KNEEL...

[@shetanislair]

Did you use Homeward Buddha to get out of the shrine?

[@Duv1995]

@@shetanislair I thought it was the only way to get out of there for all this time .__ .

[@shetanislair]

Oh, I see. Well, now you know! ٩(◕‿◕)۶

[@the_shadow_realm5110]

This is deep!!
Subbed

[@VarjoPira]

This is an amazing channel.

[@tokuchi914]

im in love with your channel

[@scaramouche9518]

I always found Minu Village so mysterious and hard to navigate with so many enemies. Even after a deep inspection that you did, you cleared so much of the lore behind it, but still it has things that makes it so weird, like the upside down buried bodies. As always, thank you very much for the video!

[@jimzenn]

I ran through mibu village in every play through hahahaha cuz the vibe there is creepy!!! Even with the music off!!

[@retryhikaru184]

25:42 oh these were slugs? I thought those were fish the villagers caught and were sticking on sticky goo planks 😂

[@MRK5152video]

Great video as always!
What do you think rejuvenating waters actually are? The villagers were clearly mutated by those waters; they are the same as the experiments in the dungeon, and they fear fire like the red eyes that drank the rejuvenating sediment.
What are the differences between rejuvenating waters and the fountainhead waters used in the Mibu ballon or the sakes?
We know the source of the rejuvenating waters is the divine dragon, but they seem to be a more recent phenomenon. The dragon has been in Ashina for centuries, and if the water from his spring could turn people into monsters, I think someone would have noticed sooner.
The fear of fire is also an interesting phenomenon; it seems like the water itself is almost sentient and acting as a parasite; it's afraid to evaporate and also makes its victims ever more thirsty, so they drink even more water.

[@shetanislair]

Thank you! I think, the water situation is meant to be obscure and contradictory to be more unsettling. There are multiple water sources that stem from the Fountainhead but their state is not the same so it's hard to unite them under one theory. Mibu Waters are tainted but what about Dragonspring near Hirata Estate? We'll never know because we can only see Dragonspring in the past, there is no way to look at it now. There is, however, some certainty regarding the timeline; as you said, the rejuvenating sediment is a recent occurrence: the Dragon has been in the Ashina lands for centuries, and everything was fine before. I think, the rejuvenating waters are the result of all the stagnation and imbalance caused by the Dragon spilling over. Maybe we'll find something more specific in the Palace, or maybe we won't o( ❛ᴗ❛ )o

[@MRK5152video]

​@@shetanislair Thank you for the answer :)
Good point with the Hirata estate! I didn't think about that.
Takeru's note mentions the rejuvenating waters, and Dogen studied them too, so they can't be that recent.
The whole timeline is very confusing and sometimes frustrating, but it makes it fun to theorycraft.
Good luck with the palace video!

[@Duv1995]

Just caught up with the video, congrats as always!
I have a question regarding O'Rin: I remember reading somewhere that the 'O' part in the name can sometimes be translated as an onorific, and her name could be 'Lady Rin of Mibu'.
What do you think sensei? could this be the case?

[@shetanislair]

Thanks! Yes, generally お [o] is an honorific but not all its uses are made equal since honorific speech in Japanese is such a vast system. For example, for addressing Lady Butterfly, Wolf uses both an honorific prefix お [o] and another honorific 殿 [dono]: お蝶殿 [ocho: dono] because he is very respectful. お [o] in general is not used with given names, however at one point it WAS commonly used with only female names and its usage influenced the form of that given name: usually the most common name suffixes were dropped. For example, Hanako would become O-hana, Harumi would become O-haru. Other names would stay as they are, like Yumi -> O-yumi. Parts were usually dropped off of longer names.
As for whether or not お [o] denoted any high social status or expressed particular respect when attached to female given names in the olden days, sources known to me differ. Some say that in that context it didn't denote any high social status and also wasn't particularly polite. In fact, it had less politeness than -san; female servants would be referred to as O-name and not name-san.
Surely, I need to invest more time into studying Japanese honorific speech o( ❛ᴗ❛ )o Personally, I am hesitant to treat "O'Rin" as "Lady Rin" [of high social status], it doesn't really fit with her komuso/goze-san characteristics. Maybe, her being a female servant or just of lower social status makes even more sense considering her connections with Lord Sakuza and Jinzaemon.
Sorry I can't be of more help with your question (´-ω-`)

[@Duv1995]

@@shetanislair Quite the opposite, that was really interesting to read through!
Thank you for the reply and the time you put in researching all of this juicy notions :>

[@jai249]

heall yeah Inugami Family mentioned🦵🦵

[@atmaximum]

2:39 Wait, in the halls of illusion, that's just the Invisible Monkey you're hitting, is it not?

[@shetanislair]

Can't be, all the monkeys were returned back to the folding screen, including the invisible one.

[@gabrielfehlau8626]

Wasn't the water contaminated by the dragon?

[@owliria_sage]

Are you from Russia? ( П.С. очень хороший английский, акцент ели слышен, анализы игр топ)

[@stoniestACE]

🙂

[@wilbertwalters5927]

'PromoSM' 🤭