Kaijuu Jieitai - Vol. 16 Ch. 50 - The Great Cold Wave

[BG9]

She must be stinky...

Wife

 

[tenhut]

You work so hard for our enjoyment. I'm proud of you.

to readers, here is an interesting thought: "nue" does in fact exist as a monster in Japanese mythology, but it's one of those really obscure ones. Not umi-nue, just nue. Described as a monkey with the tail of a snake (alternatively, a snake FOR a tail), it is a yokai only mentioned once in past times.

Nue has appeared in popular culture, with two examples coming to my mind. The first is Bleach's Renji Abarai, and the personification of his sword Zabimaru, which is a nue (monkey with a snake for a tail). The second is the gacha game Arknights and the character of Utage. Her race is listed as unknown, but she is based on nue, particularly from the legends of Minamoto no Yorimasa. I'm certain other manga also have nue in them, but I haven't read those.

I don't think nue qualify as obscure. Its show up rather often in modern media. Not as common as say, nekotama or tengu, but often enough that Japanese media fan of several years experience would have seen them.

Even beyond modern popular media, the nue page on wikipedia list several pre-modern reference and even geographical landmarks. Come to think of it, being included in popular story such as Heike Monogotarai is in itself qualify out from being obscure since Heike Monogatari is a really well known works