"Ningen": a bizarre Japanese cryptid
Behold the “Ningen“. Meaning literally “Human“, it’s allegedly a very large unknown animal sighted by Japanese fishers, which bares an uncanny resemblance to us. Not only a face, but other reports include even arms and hands.
Continue reading for more pictures and even videos. All artistic illustrations, but being Japanese, they are extremely nice, and as imagined sea monsters, they sure are terrifying.
One could speculate that a sea creature, even a known one, could be mistaken for a “Ningen”. Skates and rays, for instance, have nostrils and mouths that look like a face. In fact, they look so “human” that they are often mistaken or sold as devils or extraterrestrials — and Japanese fishers know that for centuries.
But the Ningen is allegedly 20 to 30 meters in length. And we may not even have to bother considering it very seriously, because this cryptid seems to be nothing more than a modern Internet legend.
There are no verifiable names for the alleged sightings. In fact, there are no names nor actual sightings, only vague reports that the creature was seen near the Antarctic Ocean. From the artistic interpretations in this page, you can also see that its appearance is pretty much up to the artist’s imagination.
Acknowledging that, though, we can appreciate what’s surely a nice modern version of the old sea monsters legends. Here are some more illustrations:
And the videos. Not very impressive, but interesting nevertheless:
Maybe Loren Coleman over at Cryptomundo could tell if such descriptions of sea monsters resembling humans is actually old, and this is just a repackaging. I suspect it is, afterall, mermaids are in a way related cryptids. Maybe the size detail is the only difference.
Almost all the graphics on this post were taken from this Japanese page.
All your Ningen needs may be supplied by searching on Google. In Japanese, of course: look for “????“.
UPDATE: Some more creepy pics. In case it’s not clear yet, this is little more than pure imagination (the “little more” part is that some people claim it’s real, which doesn’t make it any less unreal).
44 Comments so far
Leave a reply
Live Comment Preview
Subscribe to the RSS feed
Wonderful. Something new for the Japanese to kill besides dolphins.
I can already tell they’re fake. The pictures are just edited.
[...] “Ningen”: a bizarre Japanese cryptid – Forgetomori.com [...]
funny!
Every picture there looks so obviously shopped. It’s fake.
guys, didn’t you read what it said? The detailed pictures are artist’s depictions and the out of focus ones may be what it’s talking about, they may be stingrays. The point is, you idiots that say “it’s so obviously shopped” are, like I said, idiots, of course it’s shopped, it’s an artist’s depiction.
Too true…
He’s right, you know.
Who else is thinking of Neon Genesis Evangelion ?
If they were real the Japanese would breed them and use them as sex toys or something.
Yes!, the first thing that came up to my mind. The End of Evangelion!!.
For some reason I’m reminded of those cool Japanese crabs, whose shells are often seen shaped like classical samurai
faces. Sometimes, we breed our own mer-people.
[...] of cryptids, I wish the Internet had more to say about Ningen. Maybe next time I visit home I’ll see if anyone can point me to anyone who has a story to [...]
well really i mean what are the odds some were just beleiving in sasquatch but this is a major possibility only god knows the truth check google to look for more cryptid facts then you might start to beilive were not the only things on this planet
is this the monster – of aladygma????
The first picture looks like a really big guitar fish.
The last two pictures make it look something like the creature from Cloverfield…
Neon Genesis Evangelion is obviously shopped. The whole show is fake.
Now the Japenese will need to run from godzilla and this thing.
Rotflol
[...] you thought the fictional Ningen was bizarre, behold the Helicoprion. And this horrifying sea creature is, or actually, was very [...]
omg that looks FREAKY! is it real? cuz if it is im never going in the sea again!
ive seen many things, but not like this…………….`
this is sooo creepy.. =|
Anyone see Adam from Neon Genesis Evangelion? The first picture reminds me of Rei’s collapsed head.
aham sure :-@
Definitely Neon Genesis. I was thinking the same thing. But it would be Eve, not Adam. Either way, I think it looks more like the automatic Evas.
[...] I wonder how eerie the sighting of a giant stingray may be at night. Something like a Ningen. Fortunately – at least for the faint-hearted – as far as is known, they only survive in [...]
The coordinates point to africa not Japan
Wonderful,another thing for the japanese to kill besides killing whales and dolphins.
I think the same Conor, they kill everything on the earth, ocean, sky.
it would be pretty cool if it was real and all but….anyway very interesting.
This creature shows real possibility sense we only explore 1% of the sea. If it was real it would be a great discovery. The only problem is that :what did it envole from?
Looks like something out of Digimon. And Eureka 7. So awesome.
looks like the first angel of the evangelion series when he casues the 2nd impact
I totally agree! Evangelion was the first thing i thought when i saw it! And the second impact happened in Antarctica in 2012 xD! We are screwed!
Yeah I looked up that last pic on google earth and that area is full of masses that are white, and they’re all different shapes. And that was off the coast of Namibia not Japan, plus why do they all look different? Some have arms, some don’t, some are smiling, and some look menacing….. FAKE!!
creepy!
to Diana (first comment)
that is so un-consedarate i know that they are killing the dolphins and wales but thats not every single japanease person and the ningen isn’t even real you can tell that the photos are edited its really obvious.
it makes me think of evangelion so much it makes me laugh but thats kinda creepy. the videos were very real in my opinion. i wonder what else kind of freaky thing is out there?
I believe this creature to be the Tektotroplasis Lucithridat It is in fact composed of human parts due to it’s replication ability. Cross reference is often made to the Salamander family in which body parts can be reproduced from new tissue growth. In this instance the newly grown limbs can mimic the objects surrounding them, this creature probably just replicated the body parts remaining from it’s human prey.
Is this for real, im doing a paper on this and it doesn’t seem for real
It’s NOT real.
it’s like Adam, in neon genesis evangelion serie!!!!!
this makes for a good legend although,no ones ever got a pic of them