Ningen (folklore)
In modern Japanese folklore since the mid-2000s, the Ningen is an aquatic humanoid whale-like and mermaid-like creature supposedly inhabiting the subantarctic oceans. It was invented by Japanese internet users.
History
The story of the Ningen began in 2007 on a post on the Japanese online forum, 2channel, which claimed that the crew of a whale research ship witnessed the creature as it surfaced near their ship off the Antarctic coast. Originally thinking it was a submarine, they went to take a closer look, but the "submarine" vanished into the waves.In 2005, Google Earth captured what some people believed to be a Ningen near the Southern Ocean. Skeptics suggest that the "Ningen" was actually an iceberg or beluga whale that coincidentally looked like the sea monster.
In 2010, the Japanese Enoshima Aquarium published a YouTube video showing the ocean life that they observed. Near the end of the video, a large object appearing to have small eyes and a large, slit-like mouth can be spotted lying on the ocean floor. It was claimed that the video shows the Ningen. However, the aquarium identifies the object as an unusual rock formation in the shape of a frog, with two sponges forming its "eyes". Sometime around the 2010s, an unknown user posted underwater footage depicting a large humanoid sea creature which some believe to be the Ningen.
Description
The Ningen is described in two forms; one has it as a large, aquatic, whale-like creature with anatomical similarities to humans, such as a distinct, humanoid face; sometimes it is given extremely large limbs and/or arms and hands, about long. The second, less common, description portrays it as a considerably smaller, terrestrial organism that consists of little more than a large head on humanoid legs, with which it wanders Antarctica. The pigmentation of this creature is said to be pale blue. The creature has a large, slit-like mouth and either small or large gaping eyes.Pop culture
The Ningen was the subject of the analog horror series The Ningen, created by THE MANTICORE.In Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, a 2-stage evolution line called Cetoddle and Cetitan are both based on the Ningen.