Meet the Japanese Yokai That Will Save us From the Coronavirus blog.gaijinpot.com

By Kirsty Kawano May 20, 2020 3 min readOne Japanese yokai (goblin) character has a long history of helping the nation deal with plagues, and the outbreak of COVID-19 has made it into something of a social media star.
The creature emerged from the water and introduced itself as Amabie before prophesizing six years of abundant harvest following an epidemic.
Taking the Amabie challengeTwitter users are using the #アマビエチャレンジ (#amabiechallenge) and #Amabie tags to share a variety of drawing styles depicting the strange sea creature.
In her debut episode, titled “Yokai idol Amabie,” she was portrayed as self-centered.
Amabie’s story has been a welcome distraction from stressful daily news about the coronavirus, and sharing her drawings has connected social media users, even as they stay home.