“Oboro Muramasa” by  219 (click for a larger image). I’ve gone old-school on this Sunday afternoon, returning to my longtime Muramasa fanart obsession. This artwork is almost worth turning your monitor sideways, so you could use it as a desktop.

The reason I’ve thought to post more Muramasa fanart is that I’ve recently started the game up again, for the first time since I bought a new TV a few months ago (sorry if that comes off as bragging, I don’t want to be that guy!) It’s absolutely the most impressive-looking thing I’ve seen on my TV, despite not being in HD or anything.

Buy: Muramasa: The Demon Blade ($31.99)

See also: More Muramasa stuff

tags / muramasa / Muramasa: The Demon Blade / ignition / 219 / marvelous / jc / fanart / pixiv

Muramasa: The Demon Blade’s Momohime in bento form, by “Obento no Hito” (The Bento Person). A game as lovely as Muramasa seems to demand a lovely lunch made in its image.

See also: More Muramasa (NSFW towards the top of the page), more bento

tags / muramasa: the demon blade / muramasa / bento / vanillaware

Act: 11, Scene 1 print by Utagawa Kuniyoshi, based on kabuki play Kanadehon Chūshingura, the inspiration behind Muramasa: The Demon Blade’s hero Kisuke.

Kanadehon Chūshingura is a fictional account of the historical revenge by the Forty-seven Ronin, also known as the Akō vendetta. Wikipedia has a decent summary:

“The story tells of a group of samurai who were left leaderless (became ronin) after their daimyo (feudal lord) was forced to commit seppuku (ritual suicide) for assaulting a court official named Kira Yoshinaka, whose title was Kōzukeno suke. The ronin avenged their master’s honor after patiently waiting and planning for over a year to kill Kira. In turn, the ronin were themselves forced to commit seppuku — as they had known they would be — for committing the crime of murder.”

It’s totally badass, right? Unfortunately, Kisuke’s plot has hardly anything to do with the Forty-seven Ronin.

Momohime, Muramasa’s princess heroine, is based on another kabuki production, Sakurahime Azuma Bunsho, a “riches-to-rags tale of obsessive love, reincarnation and revenge.” The story is much too complex to cover here, so please read this review at The Japan Times Online.

As you’ve likely seen already, Momohime is featured on the cover of this month’s issue of Play magazine:

Vanillaware founder/president/artist George Kamitani supplied the artwork, obviously inspired by Katsushika Hokusai’s tentacle-filled and very NSFW ukiyo-e woodcut “The Dream of the Fisherman’s Wife”.

1UP alum Shane Bettenhausen, representing Muramasa’s publisher Ignition Entertainment, posted an illuminating article on the cover’s conception. Play’s feature on the game is nuts — 18-pages long (13 of which is an interview with Kamitani), 25 percent of the entire issue.

On a related note, Eegra, the premier website in making you feel bad about liking games, has an apt parody/critique of Play’s Muramasa cover.

Preorder: Muramasa: The Demon Blade

See also: More Muramasa media

tags / kanadehon chushingura / kabuki / utagawa kuniyoshi / forty-seven ronin / sakurahime azuma bunsho / play / ignition entertainment / vanillaware / ec / muramasa: the demon blade

“Up in a Tree” by Heimen.

I felt guilty sharing those bawdy shots of Momohime from Muramasa: The Demon Blade two weeks ago, as it seemed like a free pass for tons of traffic (90 percent of the time anyone notices our little site, it’s for NSFW junk), but I put it up anyway because JC and I loved the art.

Maybe this classy piece will make up for that cheap post.

Preorder: Muramasa: The Demon Blade

See also: More Muramasa media

[Via Naga’s Clips]

tags / oboro muramasa / vanillaware / muramasa: the demon blade / up in a tree / heimen / fanart / ec

NSFW: “Shura Momohime” by Muuten.

This fan art reveals much more of Muramasa: The Demon Blade’s heroine Momohime than Vanillaware has so far shown off! The artist also has a version without the Yakuza-style tattoos (why would she have these anyway?), which makes her bottom look less oddly shaped.

“Musou Momohime”:

Note that Shura and Musou are two of the game’s three modes, the former focused more on action gameplay while the latter places more emphasis on character leveling.

Preorder: Muramasa: The Demon Blade

See also: More Muramasa media

[Via Muuten]

tags / muuten / oboro muramasa / fanart / muramasa / vanillaware / ec / Muramasa: The Demon Blade