Bankotsuko is the owner of the ramen shop in Buraza Town.
Appearance[]
Bankotsuko looks like an ordinary young woman.
She has midnight black eyes and straight, fluffy waist-length black hair. She has neat, slightly curled bangs with a few strands curling under her eyes. She has fair skin and black eyes.
She is always dressed in a traditional Japanese kimono. However, this Kimono has a special detail, which shows her Kimono worn right over left, which is exclusively used for dressing the deceased person at a funeral.[1] Her Kimono is colored in exclusively dark colors, with a dark grey base, and a gradient of muted moss green beginning at the middle of the baggy sleeves. Starting at the obidome, there is a plant pattern in dull green, which pops out of the light gradient of the kimono. She has a copper rust-red obi wrapped around her waist. The obi has a dark gold button to the slight left, two brown grey strings on top of the obi, and silver grey clothing underneath the obi.
In game, she uses the Sweet idle animation, and has a less detailed model in Buraza Town.
In her official website illustration, her obi is a darkish dull red with a small faded gold button. The green in the kimono is now a bright, yet dull finch yellow appearing a bit transparent at her wrists and ankles, which are slightly highlighted. The tree design on the skirt of her kimono has thin drab yellow branches with solid leaves of the same color. Her white socks appear to be fingerless ones, since her toes are quietly highlighted. Her shoes are lotus red getas with thin straps. Getas are a type of shoes paired with a Kimono.
In the same illustration that was later changed, Bankotsuko's kimono appeared tighter at her uterus, which is an improper way to wear a Kimono, since they are not supposed to be tight at the pelvic area.
In her previous illustration, Bankotsuko had eyelashes and a very light coating of pink lipstick. Her hair appeared flatter. The Kimono design had a different plant design, which appeared to be a few branches with a couple of leaves attached in dirt brown. Her gradient color was woodland yellow, and her obi was a dark copper red with a bigger button. She wore white finger socks and Persian plum red getas.
Description[]
There is no shortage of books in the world that seek to enthrall the reader with fantastical stories of supernatural beings. These books are widely regarded as fairy tales for the entertainment of small children. But, on rare occasion, one might discover a book which emphatically insists that the beings from these stories are not inventions of human imagination, but truly did exist.
This type of book - often at the cost of the author's credibility and reputation - makes the outlandish claim that mankind once shared the world with a wide variety of supernatural creatures who existed in significant numbers. However, these creatures could only subsist on human flesh, making co-existence impossible. Thus, the creatures were hunted down, nearly to complete extinction.
Because these supernatural creatures disintegrated upon death, no credible physical evidence of their existence remains, aside from a small number of contemporary paintings that allegedly depict these creatures, and written accounts of supposed encounters with these creatures - all of which have long been debunked and discredited by academic communities.
And yet, despite the dubious nature of these claims, there are those who choose to believe them. "Occult Researchers" - existing in small numbers, shunned by the rest of society - dedicate their lives to seeking empirical evidence of demons, ghosts, succubi, vampires, zombies, and any other type of supernatural being that is regarded as fictional by the rest of society.
According to the legends that these researchers believe, these supernatural beings posed such a threat to mankind that grand academies were built to teach young men and women the skills they would need to slay monsters - including, by some accounts, actual magic spells. As usual, there is no physical evidence to support the notion that these "monster slayer academies" truly existed.
Supposedly, Japan was once terrorized by paranormal beasts known as "Oni" until the 1800s, when a pair of elite monster slayers from the west arrived in Japan through supernatural means, and became almost single-handedly responsible for wiping out the entire monster population. This claim is not taken seriously by the Occult Research community, who have found countless holes in the story.
Regardless of what is true or untrue, there is a portion of the population - however small - who remains convinced that supernatural creatures not only exist, but sometimes walk among us, masquerading as humans. Succubi and vampires - the most humanoid of all supernatural beings - have the highest chance of escaping notice...if one chooses to believe in such things in the first place.
It is said that the only way to identify a non-human is to examine their pupils for unusual shapes...but, with the rising popularity of Saikou-brand cosmetic contact lenses, it is increasingly common for people to display unusually shaped pupils, thus making it unconventional to attempt to "identify a supernatural being" by simply pointing out the shape of a person's pupils.
Supernatural beings do not show signs of aging after reaching maturity. If a person does not appear to age a day over the course of multiple decades, this could be seen as strong evidence that they are not human. Consequently, any supernatural being that is living in human society while masquerading as a human usually does not stay in one place for an extended period of time.
However, there are exceptions. Occasionally, a supernatural being will find a place in the world where they feel so comfortable that they don't want to leave, despite the risk of eventually being identified as a non-human. These beings are usually benign; capable of subsisting without taking human life or causing harm to humans, and thus able to survive in human society without issue.
And then, of course, there are even rarer exceptions - beings who possess the ability to use magic to charm humans into thinking, "There's absolutely nothing weird about the fact that the lady who runs the ramen restaurant has remained the same age for the past 40 years. Nothing weird at all. She probably just dyes her hair and has an excellent skincare routine."
Even rarer still are the beings who openly demonstrate their magic to humans, and yet are never identified as non-human. After all, can you really prove - beyond a reasonable doubt - that the ramen you got from that mysterious lady is what gave you a dream where you saw the memories of your ancestors? No, you can't; there isn't any empirical evidence...
...and that's why Bankotsuko has managed to live for 1,525 years without being identified as a non-human.
Trivia[]
- Her name means "thousand lives" (万骨, bankotsu) and "child" (子, ko).
- Her weakness on the official website is stated to be "enchanted weaponry", which likely refers to the Heartrender.
- According to Ajia Ashitomi's task dialogue, she mentions a rumor of Bankotsuko not aging "a single day in decades".
- She is likely the demon Sakyu Basu mentioned running a restaurant in Buraza in a scrapped dialogue between her and Ayano Aishi.[2]
- YandereDev first mentioned adding her to the official website on November 1st, 2024.[3]
- She is the only shopkeeper who is seen with a 3D model.
- She, alongside Kocho Shuyona and Hairdresser are the only the people who appear in both 1980s and 202X Mode.
- -79,572 would mean November 5, 495 to November 5, 499, depending if YandereDev decides an official year for 202X Mode.
- As of November 17, 2024, her illustration is not on the official website anymore. As it has been replaced with a question mark.
- On November 26, 2024, she was given a new illustration.
- Even though she is a demon, she does not eat human meat.[4]
Gallery & Quotes[]
Gallery
Illustrations
Quotes
Welcome to Dream Ramen!
Yes, the rumors are true. After you eat our ramen, you will have splendid dreams...
Enjoy your meal...and the dream that you will have tonight!
I'm so sorry, dear customer. You don't have enough money.
Nice eyes.
Haven't seen a pair like that since...oh, I'd say about 1815.
Oh yeah, that one was a real pain.
Nope, can't say I have.
Interested in buying some ramen?
Hope it wasn't anyone I knew.
All right, then. Take care.
