Death Battle Analysis: Sadako Yamamura

Ah, it feels good to get back to Horror, and ya know what I haven't done before? Delved into some good old fashioned Japanese Horror for a blog! Japanese Horror has a lot of differences to Western Horror, and sometimes different is a super refreshing thing. One thing the two subgenres have in common however? Making Fantastic villains that are fun to analyze in VS, and boy do we have a treat today! So bust out your old VHS player and turn out the lights, because we’re doing Sadako.

To briefly Address canon, the Novel’s will not be used as, despite being the original source, it presents a completely different version of the character than the iconic one everyone knows. As Far as Films are concerned, Initially in a vain similar to my Dracula Blog I was going to Talk about the Japanese, American and Korean film canons and composite together in the end, but then realized there was no point in doing that as the Japanese one has all the best feats and every power the other 2 have plus more. So this is Strictly the Sadako from the Japanese Film Canon.

Background

Sadako Yamamura was born after a woman with low level psychic powers named Shizuko Yamamura conceived with a powerful Ocean Onryō, a type of Japanese Spirit. Shortly after her birth, Sadako’s mother Shizuko was discovered as a Seer, or possessor of Psychic abilities by a man named Dr. Ikuma, who decided to prove the existence of Psychic abilities with her aid.

The two gained notoriety when she managed to correctly predict the eruption of the Mt. Minara Volcano, and eventually lead to them becoming romantically involved. Before long Dr. Ikuma had organized a whole public display of Shizuko’s psychic abilities to members of the press. They would each draw symbols in sealed envelopes, and she would draw the exact same symbol live on stage only for it to be correct each time.

Eventually However, one of the press members accused her of being a fake, using cheap tricks to give the illusion she had powers. This caused the rest of the crowd to rally behind him and cause a massive scene.

Overwhelmed with frustration and distress from behind the curtain, Sadako accidentally unlocked her own psychic abilities and caused the accuser to suffer a fatal heart attack.

Naturally the press release was a disaster, tabloids speculated Shizuko was the cause of this, calling her an evil witch, eventually driving her to throw herself into the very volcano she predicted would erupt. Afterward, Sadako and her adoptive father Dr. Ikuma moved to a secluded area outside of Izu. Devastated by the death of her mother she felt she had caused, Sadako used a great deal of her psychic power to separate herself from the vast majority of her power.

This created 2 Sadako’s, The Light Side, or Sadako’s human half, which contained all her memories, reason and personality, and The Dark Side, or her Onryō half, which contained all her raw power, instinct and aggression. Due to being Extremely Dangerous, Dr. Ikuma locked the dark side away, drugging it to inhibit its own power, while the light side of Sadako was allowed to go to school and have a normal life.

In school Sadako was a quiet and kind girl, who wanted to make friends and had a particular affinity for the arts, and so joined her schools Drama Club, trying out for the play. Unfortunately unbeknownst to her, Sadako’s Dark Side had an innate desire to protect the Light one, and without a moral compass, would occasionally escape and remove anyone who was an obstacle to Sadako getting the starring role.

Eventually, the deaths caused pandemonium and lead to Sadako being blamed and soon she was beaten to death by an angry mob while wearing her dress for the play. Right after this, the mob learned of Sadako’s Dark Side and Drove to Dr. Ikuma’s house intending to destroy that too.

They made the mistake however, of bringing the good Sadako’s body with them. Sadako’s dark half resurrected the light half and forcibly merged back together with her becoming whole again.

With her power now unrestricted, Sadako quickly slew the entire attacking mob in self defense before breaking down in tears at the horror.

Unable to bare the horror she causes, Dr. Ikuma poisoned Sadako and attacked her with a knife, throwing her body down the well in their backyard before sealing it shut, deeming her a tragic sacrifice so that no one else had to die. There was one giant problem with plan however…

Sadako wasn’t dead. It was here Sadako reminded for decades, kept alive by her own Onryō powers, she tried to climb out of the well hundreds of thousands of times, breaking off every one of her fingernails in her futile attempts of escape. She wanted desperately for someone, somewhere to come and save her, but no one ever did.

Left with no other option, Sadako gave into her Onryō side and separated her soul from her dying body, sealing it in an alternate dimension. This made Sadako into a full Onryō but different from conventional ones. Sadako’s soul is still living and exists in her own dimension, rather than being a dead spirit residing and drawing power from the Demonic Abyss. This essentially made Sadako a Living Onryō, who had a very unique powerset to other Onryō of her series.

Anyway as an Onryō Sadako is a much more malevolent force and decided to take her vengeance on the world. One day when a boy left a VHS tape recording on a TV stuck on a station playing only static, Sadako sent visuals into the tape, creating her infamous Cursed Video.

The videos contents are a series of cryptic images that tell Sadako’s tragic life story in a artistic and disturbing manor. Upon watching this video, it’s viewer becomes marked by Sadako curse, and exactly 7 days later...

They would Die. The only way to avoid Death after watching the video would be to assist Sadako by showing the video to more people, who then in turn would have to do the same thing, and it would continue in a never ending….Ring.

Over the years since then Sadako has grown much, Much more powerful to the point that now in her world Onryō’s are a common knowledge fact and scientific study that is taught in school. And Characters have used both anti Onryō weaponry and even other Onryō’s to fight her, but Sadako always emerged victorious in the end.

One time she chased characters into the Demonic Abyss thanks to our main characters using technology to get there, where Sadako was sealed there by the Bunshinsaba. This however turned out to be a very stupid plan as she then ended up absorbing the essence of the Demonic Abyss and gaining access to base Onryō powers she didn't previously possess.

But even that pales in comparison to the time she defeated Bunshin’s Yokai form by absorbing the soul of a previous Emperor to become part Demon. Sadako is a very interesting horror villain, but when one comes to understand what she truly is, you see just how terrifying she can be.

Personality

In Life, Sadako was a very gentle, compassionate and intelligent girl. She enjoyed swimming, spirituality, and numerous artistic pursuits, especially acting. She was often very shy or scared around people, given how her equal but opposite other half had all the abrasiveness. But she was quick to trust and form attachments with people when they did approach her. After being persecuted and trapped down a well for decades, leaving her forgotten with no one coming to save her however, she became much more angry and cynical at the world's cruelty. She made her cursed tape partly to take vengeance on the world that forgot her, but that actually isn’t her main goal. Sadako simply wants her story to be known, for the world to know her story and what it did to her, for her never to be forgotten again. This is why the only way to avoid death after seeing her story is to help her show it to More people, and also why she will often assist those marked in solving that riddle. This makes Sadako a lawful evil type of villain, as she has a strict code that everyone has a choice to spread her story or die, you can even argue if this was taken to the logical extreme and the last people to see her story don’t have anyone to show it too, that in her eyes they deserve to die, as they were the last to know so must have cared least. Sadako also will not tolerate those that would use her for their own benefit. One time some people used her Cursed Video to show to people they hate so she would kill them, Outraged by this Sadako went after the murderer’s herself.

Intellect & Skills

Sadako is an extremely talented and skilled Nensha user who is very highly adaptable and quick at learning. When faced with numerous new problems like entering into the Demonic Abyss or encountering anti Onryō weaponry, they generally only worked against her a single time and she’d already have figured out a way to combat it by the time it was tried again. Sadako likes to perform very intricate and artistic forms of Death on her opponents when she is able. When up against someone on equal footing to her however, she tends to put that aside and go all out, attacking seemingly like a savage animal, but actually being really strategic, attacking from numerous unexpected angles and taking great advantage of her esoteric abilities. Outside of Tactics such as those, Sadako is raw intelligent enough to be able to completely rewrite both technological and even genetic code, and outwit even the smartest telepaths of the series.

Powers

Sadako draws the vast majority of her powers from a natural Psychic Energy called Nensha. She inherited Nensha from her parents and it allows her to do all sorts of powerful things with merely her mind. After being trapped in the well, Nensha also allowed Sadako to separate her soul from her dying body to become a Living Onryō, and while this denied her access to a lot of normal Onryō powers, after spending time in the Demonic Abyss she eventually gained access to several spiritual and demonic powers as well. Sadako’s current powers include:

• Image Burning:

Her most famous ability is her ability to mentally burn images into people’s minds. Sadako uses this to create all the images on her cursed videotape, but also can make people experience illusions, hallucinations and even enter into their very dreams. She can use this to create projections of herself, or place someone's mind in visions of the past.

She can also Mimic the appearance and voice of her previous victims, in order to lure more people into viewing her film.

• Mental Plane Attacks:

Sadako is also able to Directly attack people's mental bodies in visions and flashbacks. Attacking someone's Mental body does damage to their physical body, disregarding their own durability. Through this Sadako was able to grab someones arm in a flashback and leave a burn mark on their actual person.

• Imprintment:

Sadako can Imprint small samples of her power on to the living when it suits her, those she imprints these upon are often not able to control it however.

• Dimensional Creation:

When Sadako’s physical body Died, she actually created her own Dimension for her Disembodied, yet still living, Soul to reside in. Sadako can pull people into this dimension which houses her true self, and within this plain of existence she is far more powerful.

• Immortality:

As a disembodied soul living in another dimension, Sadako has transcendental immortality. She can not die naturally and would need specific hax in order to be slain. Sadako even from this alternate dimension can still affect the physical world with her powers, as well as create physical avatars of herself to interact with it. These Avatars are full extensions of Sadako, and thus possess all of her abilities, and share a connection to Sadako. Should an Avatar absorb more power from a foe, Sadako’s actual power will rise in tandem through this, however should an Avatar be destroyed, Sadako’s true self will Not be affected, you will actually need to find a way to reach and destroy her soul in another dimension in order to kill her.

• Dimensional Portals:

Sadako is able to create massive portals to her own dimension through screens, water, mirrors, paintings, photos and more. She Can send Physical Avatars of herself out of these portals to attack her foes, and while these physical avatars can appear much larger than herself when going through a large screen, she's also shown the ability to send full sized Avatars out of screens as small as cell phones.

• Duplication:

Speaking of Sadako’s avatars, she is able to create entire armies of these things simultaneously and even send them into multiple different places at once.

Meaning Sadako effectively has some ridiculous self duplication powers and can effectively make herself Omnipresent around technology, water, mirrors, photos and other reflective surfaces.

• Technopathy:

Another thing that Sadako is famous for is her ability to control technology. This is partially how she was able to create her cursed tape, by sending images through Television Static. This Videotape can call to people, tempting them to watch it, and can also rewind, play and inject itself all on its own. But Sadako’s technological powers go far beyond that, as she is now able to make her video pop up on any screen in order to target those she is after.

Sadako can also control and manipulate video, radio, phones and even photographs at will as well as control electricity and machinery with mere thoughts. She can make these things explode or electrocute people, placing them in constant danger and even hack into a person's computer and upload herself right to them.

• Heart Attack Inducement:

Sadako can remotely kill people with her curse by making them suffer massive Heart Attacks even when they are not around technology.

• Death Hax:

Sadako is also able to inflict a horrific instant death to her victims by simply staring into their eyes, this causes their face to contort in horrifying agony as their soul is forced out. This ability however does not work on other undead.

• Self Sustenance:

Sadako is able to use Nensha alone to sustain her body for long periods of time, this gives her insane stamina able to stay awake unmoving for days on end and even allowed her to keep herself alive at the bottom of a well for 30 years with no food.

• Hydrokinesis:

Sadako can control water with her mind, use it as an access point, move it around telekinetically, poor tons of energy into it and even make it freeze or boil.

• Weather Manipulation:

Sadako can quickly create and control weather, ranging from manipulating gusts of wind to creating A Massive Typhoon big enough to cover the entire 35 square mile island of Oshima for over a day, and intense enough to cancel all Ferries and Planes in the whole area.

• Entomopathy:

Sadako can also control massive amounts of insects including moths, cicadas, and locusts and can use them to create constructs and access points.

• Telepathy:

Sadako can directly talk to others and send messages into their mind telepathically.

• Clairvoyance:

Sadako inherited all of her mother's same psychic abilities for herself. This Gives Sadako numerous extra sensory abilities including total awareness of the environment, sensing other spirits and yokai, reading people's minds and even seeing the future. In short it is basically impossible to take her by surprise.

• Insanity Inducement:

With The mere presence of her ghostly avatar, Sadako can drive those that witness her to complete and utter madness, even if they are not her target.

• Mind Control:

Sadako has powerful Mind Control abilities, able to remotely take over peoples minds even from her alternate dimension and force them to kill themselves and others with beyond human strength. Her mental control can affect high level psychics and multiple people at once.

• Possession:

Sadako can also take over the bodies of people, temporarily transforming them into an extension of her.

• Telekinesis:

Sadako has powerful telekinesis that allows her to manipulate objects and people with her mind.

She can Redirect attacks, throw things massive distances, lift heavy objects, make things explode with her mind and even straight up force choke people.

• Virus Manipulation:

Sadako was able to create multiple types of Viruses collectively known as The Ring Virus. These Viruses base themselves off diseases like smallpox and tuberculosis and are extremely fatal. The Ring Virus could initially infect anyone who viewed Sadako’s tape, but could later mutate itself to do things like infect people who merely read or know about her, infect people through physical contact, or even infect animals.

• DNA Manipulation:

Her Biological power isn’t just limited to viruses however, she can also do all sorts of things to mess with someone's DNA and genetic code. Mutating someone's body, imprinting her own genetic code into her videos and even causing people to become pregnant.

This also gives her somewhat of a reincarnation ability as so long as she has access to someone's DNA, she can recreate them from the dead complete with all their memories and personality, herself included.

• Flight:

Sadako’s Avatar is able to levitate and fly around at incredibly high velocities and silently through the air like a gust of wind.

• Teleportation:

The Avatar can also Teleport around wide distances, Other Onryō were capable of teleporting to the other side of the planet, and logically as the most powerful Onryō she can do this as well.

• Invisibility:

Sadako can also be completely invisible, only able to be detected when viewed through a lense of some kind.

• Regeneration:

Sadako’s extensions also come with a powerful regeneration ability that can let them heal from being impaled, beaten down or even shattered to pieces.

• Size Manipulation:

Sadako can increase her size to giant proportions, vastly increasing her strength and allowing her to unleash numerous smaller avatars of herself from her body.

• Hair manipulation:

When Sadako needs to get physical, her hair is her primary weapon. She is able to grow and extend her hair in a large variety of manners and control it like tentacles. Her hair can manifest itself around her victims, pull things into her television dimension, physically grab intangible ghosts, and even drain things of their energy.

• Soul Manipulation:

Sadako has the ability to grab and destroy or even absorb souls. Absorbing Souls makes Sadako even stronger, how much so depends on the age and authority of the person it was from. When Sadako absorbed the soul of a long dead Emperor, she gained a massive boost in power and became part Demon.

• Absorption/Exuding:

Souls are not the only thing Sadako can mess around with, she can also interact with, absorb and exude things on more abstract plains as well. She was able to interact with the Spiritual plain, absorbing the power of fellow Onryō Kayako and the Yokai Bunshin, as well as absorbing the energy of the spiritual Demonic Abyss Dimension. Sadako can also absorb functions of Consciousness such as emotion or experiences. She was able to copy the subconscious of numerous people, and lower level psychics have feats like taking in all of someone's fear.

• Energy Manipulation:

On top of that, Sadako has some really potent feats of Energy manipulation. In the above picture Sadako gets shot by a gun designed to separate her from her demonic abyss energy and weaken her, this worked earlier in the movie but after she learned to immediately pull it back in. Sadako has been Sealed and trapped in a machine that drains away a spirits energy until it ceases to be, she overloaded and burned through it to escape. Sadako was combated with an energy draining Melee weapon and immediately broke it with a simple snap.

• Necromorphs:

Sadako can summon Necromorphs to fight on her behalf, Necromorphs are the bodies of previous victims, mutated into inhuman undead monsters. These creatures have Keen senses and superhuman athleticism and can turn into swarms of insects

• Demonic Abyss:

After spending time in the Demonic Abyss, Sadako gained the ability to use it to trap her foes forever in the terrifying limbo world from which they will never escape.

Feats

Strength:

• In her own world, where which all Onryō movies are real, Sadako was considered the most powerful Onryō of all, even before gaining base Onryō powers.
• Ms. Hoyru, a powerful medium, described Sadako as an absolute darkness that continues forever and the most powerful and terrifying spirit she had ever encountered.
• Is strong enough to physically tear people apart, flatten skulls and break necks in horrendous ways.
• Ripped Kayako appart.
• Can lift full grown men into the air with one arm.
• Can shake entire buildings with her strikes.
• Impaled a girl through a chandelier on the ceiling.

Speed:

• Ran a good 10 feet faster than the eye could track.
• Kept Pace with Kayako.
• Was fast enough to disappear from Bunshin’s sight.
• Her and other Onryō are fast enough to fight without humans being able to see them.
• When she pulled Bunshin into a painting, the two were depicted quickly fighting across an entire mountain range.

Durability:

• Tanked attacks from Kayako.
• Can endure Bunshin’s powerful telekinetic attacks.
• Has been Blasted through walls.
• Had dozens of tons of rubble fall on top of her.

General:

• Escaped being sealed and trapped in a device that would drain off her spiritual energy until she died.
• Is Easily the most Powerful Onryō in her entire series.
• Quickly Slew an entire squad of people armed with guns while she was still alive.
• Slayed an Absorbed Kayako, the main villain of The Grudge.
• Has routinely bested the best spiritual psychics in the world.

Summary

Advantages

• City Level DC Via Storm Creation feats
• Building Level Strength/Durability
• Hypersonic
• Extremely intelligent and adaptable
• True Body is an intangible disembodied soul sealed in an alternate dimension
• Near Omnipresent on Earth
• High End Mental Manipulation
• Soul Hax
• Consciousness Absorption
• Spiritual Absorption
• Large Variety of ways to inflict Death upon someone disregarding durability
• Dimensional Manipulation
• Self Duplication
• Precog
• Flight
• Teleportation
• Mind Reading
• Invisibility
• Low Godly Regen
• Can manipulate Objects, Technology, Energy, Water, Size, Hair, DNA, Insects and the Weather
• Can hit intangibles
• Reincarnation

Disadvantages

• Relies on her Hax to cover her lacking physical stats
• Has been bested by humans in the past
• Really needs a damn Manicure

Recommended Opponent:

Anthrax

I did Not expect to have to go to BASTARD!! To get an opponent for this one but here we are. Anthrax is similar to Sadako in that she used to be a good natured angel but was overtime made into being a malevolent demon, as well as a heavy affiliation with technology. As far as the fight goes both of them rely on their hax to stay competitive despite their somewhat lacking stats. Both need specific hax to harm, which their opponent just might be able to pull off, and they have really interesting powersets would make for an imaginative and truly amazing battle of wits and esoteric power.

Next Time