Oni Masks

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The Oni Masks are a magical collection of masks originating from Japan. They were originally created by ancient Good Chi Wizards to imprison the spirits of Tarakudo and his nine Oni Generals. Each mask grants its wearer the ability to summon the Shadowkhan of its respective Oni General, albeit at the cost of turning the wearer evil as the spirit of the Oni takes control of them. Conjoining the nine masks to one location was the key to releasing the imprisoned Oni Generals. As such, the Oni Masks were scattered to the four corners of the globe. The hunt to retrieve them centuries later serves as the central story arc for Season 4 of Jackie Chan Adventures.

History[]

Ancient Times[]

Origin[]

Forged in ancient Japan by Good Chi Wizards, the Oni Masks were created with the intention of imprisoning the spirits of Tarakudo and his nine Oni Generals (along with their respective tribes of Shadowkhan) within them. The spells used to imprison the Oni required a specific key ingredient for each of their intended victims in order to work. Unwilling to suffer the same fate as his generals, Tarakudo successfully managed to confiscate the tenth and final Oni Mask before concealing it in the Shadow Realm, citing it as the one place no mortal would dare enter. Conjoining the remaining nine Oni Masks to one location was the only way to release the imprisoned Oni Generals. As such, the masks were scattered to the four corners of the globe to prevent the Oni and their Shadowkhan from ever again rising to power with the tenth mask being lost.

At least 900 years ago[]

The First Oni Mask[]

The first of the nine Oni Masks was discovered in neighboring China where it was eventually claimed by Shendu, the Demon Sorcerer of Fire. Upon unlocking its power, Shendu gained control of the mask's respective tribe of Shadowkhan. The Fire Demon employed a method of drawing power from the mask without having to wear it, effectively allowing him to summon his Shadowkhan without being corrupted by the mask itself. After eventually being turned to stone at the hands of his own subjects, the Demon Sorcerer came to rely heavily on the Shadowkhan's services, particularly during his quest to reclaim the Talismans. In the nine centuries following his imprisonment, the mask itself remained hidden within the ruins of Shendu's Palace outside of Hong Kong.

Modern Times[]

The Oni Mask Hunt[]

When the disenchanted Dark Chi Master Daolon Wong conjured a spell to summon the Shadowkhan in a bid to escape captivity, he unwittingly managed to summon the spirit of Tarakudo himself. Intent on returning to power, the King of the Shadowkhan sought to release his imprisoned Oni Generals by obtaining each of their respective Oni Masks with the ultimate idea of summoning enough Shadowkhan to engulf the Earth in eternal darkness. Requiring their assistance, Tarakudo recruited Wong's former Dark Chi Warriors (Finn, Ratso, Chow and Hak Foo) before leading them to the ruins of Shendu's Palace and presenting them with the first Oni Mask. When Jackie, Jade, Uncle and Tohru arrived to confront them, a fight ensued until the mask was mistakenly placed upon Chow's face, partially transforming him into one of Tarakudo's Oni Generals with the ability to summon its respective tribe of Shadowkhan. After researching a set of Japanese inscriptions detailing the defeat of the Oni in ancient times, the Chans were able to determine the necessary ingredient to perform a mask removal spell, effectively allowing them to remove the Oni Mask from Chow's face.

After claiming the first of the nine Oni Masks, Jackie and the others ventured to Japan in the hope of discovering a lead to the location of the next mask at a museum in Tokyo. By chance, the mask happened to be housed within the museum itself. When Tarakudo and his enforcers arrived to collect the mask, the resulting scuffle caused it to land on Ratso's face, partially transforming him into another of Tarakudo's Oni Generals with the ability to summon an entirely new tribe of Shadowkhan. Upon learning that each mask required its own unique removal ingredient, the Chans set out to acquire the Hana Fuda Cards, a magical deck of cards intended to reveal the location of each mask whilst also identifying its respective removal ingredient. After securing the cards from the site of an ancient shrine, the Chans finally managed to determine the correct ingredient before removing the Oni Mask from Ratso's face.

With the help of the Hana Fuda Cards, Jackie and the others were successfully able to locate and obtain each of the remaining Oni Masks until finally possessing all nine. Whilst attempting to secure them in the vault at Section 13, however, the Chans unknowingly conjoined them together in one location, resulting in the destruction of the masks and the release of all nine Oni Generals imprisoned from within. Upon taking control of Section 13, the Oni began summoning their respective tribes of Shadowkhan to engulf the Earth in eternal darkness. Forced to abandon Section 13, the Chans retreated back to Uncle's shop where they were joined by the rest of the J-Team. When Jackie suggested deploying the same spells used to defeat the Oni in ancient times, Uncle clarified that they would no longer work because the masks which were originally used to imprison them no longer existed, inferring instead that their only hope to defeating the Oni was by targeting Tarakudo directly. After launching a futile counter-attack, the Hana Fuda Cards unexpectedly revealed the existence of a tenth and final Oni Mask originally intended to imprison Tarakudo himself. Upon successfully retrieving Tarakudo's Mask from the Shadow Realm, Uncle devised a spell to imprison all ten Oni within the same mask. Amidst the ensuing showdown against Tarakudo, Jackie managed to keep the Lord of all Oni distracted long enough for Jade to sneak up on him and attach the mask to his face, effectively defeating Tarakudo and his Oni Generals once and for all.

Appearance[]

Each Oni Mask was crafted in the likeness of the Oni it was intended to imprison. Like the Oni themselves, the masks resemble fierce demonic creatures from Japanese folklore. The Oni Masks are typically horned and often feature a wide-open mouth displaying a set of teeth with a prominent pair of curved fangs.

Powers and Abilities[]

When attached to a host's face, the Oni Mask partially transforms its wearer into an Oni themselves. Unlike regular Oni, however, wearers are not effected by onions, which otherwise act as a powerful repellent. If worn for too long, an Oni Mask will corrupt its wearer until they are consumed by the demon psyche of the respective Oni General. The only way to remove an Oni Mask from its wearer is by performing a mask removal spell. Each mask requires its own unique key ingredient for the removal spell to properly work. The Hana Fuda Cards could be used to identify these respective ingredients. As standard ingredients, the removal spell also requires a lizard scale, wolfsbane, sulfur root, and the left eye of a newt.

In addition to superhuman strength (equal to usage of the Ox Talisman), immense agility and enhanced reflexes, the Oni Masks grant their wearers the ability to summon Shadowkhan. The variety of Shadowkhan the wearer is able to summon can be determined by the specific Oni Mask they are wearing, as each Oni General holds command of its own tribe of Shadowkhan. Depending on how much of the mask is worn by the host, the Shadowkhan will only have that much of them summoned.

Donning an Oni Mask seems to project the malevolent essence it contains onto the wearer, slowly causing them to succumb to their more evil impulses, along with the Oni spirit's own dark desires. This process occurs more naturally if the wearer already exhibits evil or selfish traits, but inevitably happens to anyone who continues to wear the mask for too long. Creatures of lesser intelligence, such as dogs, will succumb to the mask's evil nature much quicker, but seem to retain their more primal instincts.

Individuals who inherently possess extreme goodness (such as Captain Black) seem to be more resistant to the dark essence contained within the masks, allowing them to fight its corruptive nature for a time. However, this resistance will weaken if one should employ the mask's powers to summon Shadowkhan or if the wearer has selfish intentions in donning the mask in the first place. This resistance seems to be less potent for children (as both Jade and Paco succumbed to the mask's influence much quicker than Captain Black). Donning only part of a mask will also reduce the corruptive influence, with the added effect of allowing the wearer to maintain their inherent self on any part of their face not covered by the mask (as both Jade and Valmont remained partially in control when wearing the separate halves of Kuro's Oni Mask).

Wearing an Oni Mask anywhere besides on the user's face would still cause it to activate and stick onto that specific part of the body, as shown when Finn accidentally sat on one. Since it is not directly worn on the wearer's face, the wearer's personality will not be corrupted. However, since Ikazuki's Oni Mask had been animated by the Rat Talisman prior to attachment, it is not known whether an Oni Mask would typically have this effect.

It is possible to harness the power of an Oni Mask without having to physically wear it (effectively allowing one to summon the Shadowkhan without being corrupted by the mask itself), as demonstrated by Shendu and Daolon Wong. The same ability is also granted through the Mark of Tarakudo, albeit at the cost of turning its wearer into a blue-skinned Shadowkhan-esque demon, as demonstrated by Jade and Tohru.

List[]

Mask	Oni General	Shadowkhan	Key Ingredient	Wearer	Discovered	First Appearance
Rairakku's Mask	Rairakku	Ninja Khan	Japanese Steel Specifically Forged for Samurai Swords	Chow	Inside a chest within Shendu's Palace near Hong Kong, China	The Masks of the Shadowkhan
Murasaki's Mask	Murasaki	Razor Khan	Japanese Silk	Ratso	On a wall at a museum in Tokyo, Japan	Samurai Ratso
Kiiro's Mask	Kiiro	Bat Khan	Japanese Rice	Scruffy	In a prehistoric exhibit at the Museum of Natural History in San Francisco, California	The Amazing T-Troop
Midori's Mask	Midori	Sumo Khan	Rare Japanese Seaweed	Captain Black	On a totem pole situated along the Cascade Range of the Pacific Northwest	Black Magic
Ikazuki's Mask	Ikazuki	Samurai Khan	Unknown	Finn's backside	In the net of a fishing boat somewhere in the Pacific Ocean	The Demon Behind
Orenji's Mask	Orenji	Squid Khan	Tentacle of Japanese Octopus	Paco	On the side of a towering rock formation	Fright Fight Night
Kuro's Mask	Kuro	Crab Khan	Tears of Japanese Monkey	Valmont (left half) Jade Chan (right half)	At an antique dealership somewhere in the United States	Half a Mask of Kung-Fu
Mosugurīn's Mask	Mosugurīn	Mini Khan	Fish	Hak Foo	Within Miss Kimber's Psychic Shack in the Bayou Country of the American South[1]	The Shadow Eaters
Aka's Mask	Aka	Mantis Khan	Unknown	Nobody	On the figurehead of a sunken shipwreck beneath the ocean	Ninja Twilight
Tarakudo's Mask	All	All	Hair of a Japanese Samurai (or the descendant of one as substitute)	Tarakudo	Within the Shadow Realm	Ninja Twilight

Oni Mask Wearers[]

Chow wearing Rairakku's Mask

Ratso wearing Murasaki's Mask

Scruffy wearing Kiiro's Mask

Captain Black wearing Midori's Mask

Finn "wearing" Ikazuki's Mask

Paco wearing Orenji's Mask

Valmont and Jade wearing Kuro's Mask

Hak Foo wearing Mosugurīn's Mask

Tarakudo wearing his own Mask

Hana Fuda Cards[]

The Hana Fuda Cards are a magical deck of cards intended to reveal the location of each Oni Mask whilst also identifying its respective removal ingredient. Forged around the same time as the masks, the cards were created by Good Chi Wizards. The cards operate in groups of three and activate when correctly grouped together. The first card reveals the identity of the Oni Mask, the second its location and the third its removal ingredient. The Hana Fuda Cards can only be used once per mask.

Main article: Hana Fuda Cards

Trivia[]

• Most wearers will only have their faces changed to resemble those of the Oni possessing them. However, when Paco and Scruffy wore masks, their whole bodies changed to look more demonic. While this could simply be due to aesthetic for the sake of the circumstances (Scruffy being non-human and Paco doing so to look scary for Halloween), it is possible the mask takes over more when the wearer is unaware of what the mask is as all other mask wearers at least knew that the masks would allow them to summon Shadowkhan.
• The Oni Mask discovered at the beginning of Ninja Twilight is the only mask not to be worn by anyone in the show.
• Finn was the only mask wearer who was unaffected by his Oni (Ikazuki) beyond controlling his body movements at times due to their unusual situation (Ikazuki being a Rat Talisman-animated mask that was accidentally fused to Finn's rear end when he sat on it).
• Of the eight masks worn, half were removed by Jackie while the other half were removed by the wearers themselves, albeit in unique ways (Tiger Talisman-split Captain Black from his other half, Finn from himself, Paco from himself, and Jade and Valmont from each other).
• The respective designs for the Murasaki Mask, Kiiro Mask, and Mosugurīn Mask all seem to be at least partially inspired by the individuals that end up wearing them (The Murasaki Mask partially resembles Ratso, The Mosugurīn Mask partially resembles Hak Foo, and The Kiiro Mask partially resembles a dog).
• With the exception of Kuro's and Mosugurīn's, the Season 4 intro segment displays each of the nine Oni Masks in the opposite order in which they were chronologically discovered. Additionally, the "previously on..." segment shown at the beginning of Ninja Twilight depicts Mosugurīn's Mask being removed before Kuro's. Furthermore, the Oni Masks in the vault are displayed in the following order: Rairakku, Murasaki, Kiiro, Midori, Ikazuki, Orenji, Mosugurīn, Kuro and Aka. This suggests that, despite being listed first in the official episode order, Half a Mask of Kung-Fu actually takes place after the events of The Shadow Eaters, rather than before them.
• All former members of the Dark Hand wear an Oni Mask except for Tohru, who instead wore the Mark of Tarakudo.
• Ikazuki and Aka, were the only masks, whom did not reveal the spell ingredients to remove them from their wearers.
• Save for Tarukudo and Ikazuki, the remaining Oni Generals all have names relating to the color of their respective masks:
  • Rairakku (ライラック) = Lilac (despite being crimson/dark red in color)
  • Murasaki (紫) = Purple
  • Kiiro (黄色) = Yellow (literally "yellow color")
  • Midori (緑) = Green
  • Orenji (オレンジ) = Orange
  • Kuro (黒) = Black
  • Mosugurīn (モスグリーン) = Moss Green
  • Aka (赤) = Red