Historically, the ‘Malleus Maleficarum’, or ‘The Hammer of Witches’, was a book written in 1486 by a pair of ornery witch hunters, during the height of the persecution of these perceived ‘witches’. The invention of the printing press around this time allowed the book to spread far and wide, despite being banned by the Catholic Church as ‘unethical’. It’s a very interesting read, with entire chapters dedicated to things like “What do you do if you’ve been physically emasculated by a witch?”, which seemed to be a fairly major concern. That, and witchcraft being an affront to God, of course - but mostly, there was a lot of terror about strange vanishings in trouser town, all written in an anecdotal style akin to ‘one time I heard about this guy and this thing TOTALLY happened to him.’

The book also addresses the fact that witches can turn men into beasts, though they rarely seem to turn other females into lesser forms. By extension, these witches also had the power to make themselves ridiculously seductive, so that barely any magic was needed against whichever male they sought to ruin - just purely biological sex appeal. This is the complicated premise of the eleventh and latest set of Demons Chronicle gashapon, created by Yanoman in Japan.

I’ve always loved this ongoing collection for just how bizarre and obscure the premises for each set of surreal creatures has been. Because everything is written in Japanese, I know very little about the origins of each specific, diverse figure, but every time I obtain a new set (always ordered directly from Japan, as there’s no real market for them in the US), it’s always a fun game of detection and discovery, trying to glean the purpose of everything - looking up Japanese mythology, piecing together hiragana phrases, and eventually coming up with not a lot, but learning interesting things nonetheless. The creatures inspire new paintings from me, and it’s worth the nervous wait as a box of these things makes its untrackable way from overseas.

This eleventh series is composed entirely of female figures in mythical animal forms. They’re about 2 inches tall, with an additional heavy base for each figure, and they all come disassembled into about six or seven pieces each, which must be put together very delicately. Every figure comes in two different color schemes - a painted, full-color version, and a beige, statuesque version. New to this series is the option to display each figure with a human head, or an alternate scary animal head - revealing the duality of the nature of these shapely witches. Don’t be fooled, guys - it’s no fun to make out with a bird skull.

Since these do come from overseas, where the attitude towards the nude human form is more relaxed, many of the Demons Chronicle figures might be considered risqué. Still, it isn’t without reason. A witch in a baggy sweater isn’t going to be quite as effective as a naked one. Combining female forms with animal forms is also nothing new for Japanese toys - but most of the examples of this also wouldn’t be appropriate for a PG blog.

The most bizarre figure in the series is the rotund Elephant Woman, who comes with a pachyderm head, and clutching a giant fork and knife - which strikes me as a strangely malicious depiction of the overweight. I can always enjoy a good succubus hanging off of a church steeple, a frog faerie, and an Egyptian-themed depiction of a female Grim Reaper with an alternate skull head. I enjoy them because they’re such a large step away from what we usually see in figural form in our own mass toy market. I can only take so many iterations of Spider-Man before I stop being interested and need a break.

There are ten different witches in the series, with a rare eleventh mystery figure. You can see nine of them in our Community Section, at the end of my Demons Chronicle collection.

I couldn’t help myself when I spotted this game at a rummage sale, so I dug deep and spent a whole $3. Eager to play, I pulled Destiny, our 11 year old daughter, over to the table to play.

“OK, first I have to tell you that this game may be a little weird. And it may not even be fun,” I warned. “But I’d like your help reviewing it and we’ll have fun anyway.”

She was, as expected, happy to play a game with me but a bit confused about my disclaimers. “Why would it be weird?” she asked.

“Well, it’s an older game — like almost as old as your dad — and it’s sort of an educational game,” I said. “Not like a math game or anything, but well, you’ll see once we get started.”

So we went about the process of counting all the pieces and game tiles to make sure it was complete. Satisfied it was, we endeavored to start.

The play is simple; roll the dice and move forward either the total shown on both dice or the number shown on either of them, collecting cards as you do.

The cards are:

School cards, with illustrations representing girls in school studying to enter a specific field, with the following choices: Medical School (Surgeon), Riding Academy (Jockey), Flight Training School (Astronaut), College (Commentator), Drama School (Director), and Law School (Lawyer).

Subject cards are round mod-orange cards like report cards. They are either the proof of success at school, or one of the barriers to entering the career of your choice. Examples include, “Diction; Good for: Director and Lawyer” and “You Failed Sociology; Bad for Commentator and Lawyer”.

Heart-shaped personality cards cover the traits girls need to be successful in the six specific careers, such as “You are a slow thinker. Bad for: Commentator, Jockey, Lawyer and Astronaut,” and “You get too excited. Bad for Surgeon, Lawyer and Astronaut.”

The goal of the game is to be the first to collect four school cards of one profession as well as two subject cards and two personality cards that are good for that profession.

Now we were each ready to answer the perplexing question, “What shall I be?”

We took our turns moving about the board, myself in pursuit of becoming a surgeon, so I can, as I told her, perform surgery on her brain when the game ends. That probably wasn’t the right thing to say because not long after, she drew the “You are not gentle. Bad for: Jockey and Surgeon” personality card, which not only works against her goal of becoming a jockey, but made her feel bad about herself.

“I’m gentle!” she exclaimed, “I’m nice with our pets!”

“Of course you are, this is just a game,” I reminded her. “Do you really think I should or even can do brain surgery even if that’s what I would win the game with?”

She laughed and sad, “No!” But then again, when she landed on the space where she had the opportunity to get a second College (Commentator) card she said, “No way. I don’t want those huge glasses.”

:sigh:

So much for pretending,or taking work more seriously than how you might look. But I bit my tongue and said nothing.

We continued to move our game pieces about the board — and I have to say, the game can be sort of boring as there are lots of rolls when nothing happens. At one point I landed on the same space as Destiny and I said, “I wonder if I can bump you off or something,” as I went to look at the instructions for game play.

Now you might think I’m a little too blood-lusty, looking for a way to bump another player (let alone a kid), but if this game is supposed to teach girls what it’s like to be a “career girl” then there should be some sort of pitfalls from competitors. Which is why I think the cards pertaining to assertiveness, competitiveness, and aggressiveness, should fit any and all professions. But maybe I’m expecting too much from a game.

Or maybe I’m just meant to be a Commentator or a Jockey.

The less-than-hyper activity of the game does allow for questions and discussions during game play though, which could be what the makers of the game envisioned. I figured I could play with that too.

“Des, can you think about why I called this an educational game?”

“Because it’s about school and stuff?”

“Well, yes, but really — and this may seem really strange to you — there was a time, not that long ago really, when girls didn’t think they could grow up and be anything they wanted to,” I said.

“People only thought they could be moms,” she asserted. I was impressed that she knew that much. But still… What did she really know about it?

“Exactly,” I began, “See even in my lifetime, there have been lots of women who couldn’t get into college or, if they got their degree, couldn’t get a job in their field because they were a woman. It made lots of women very angry. Can you imagine if you couldn’t become a counselor or police dog trainer just because you’re a girl?”

The idea of not being able to reach her career-goals-of-the-week affected her a bit. Her eyes widened and she said, “That’s not fair.”

“No, it’s not,” I agreed.

She nodded and then asked, “Do they make games like this for boys?”

“No. Boys don’t need games like this because little boys have pretty much always known or felt they could be anything they wanted to be. But girls haven’t. Some women who did get the jobs they wanted have been treated badly by the men they work with…” I trailed off, realizing at this point I needed to be mindful not to turn a bit of history and empowerment into a ranting episode — I could easily turn left and start talking about pink cars!

“So games like this were made to get girls interested in or at least thinking about other sorts of work besides being a mom and a wife… So that girls knew they could do it, even if they didn’t know anyone who had.”

Des nodded. And I really do think she was giving this all some serious thought. Cool beaners!

Eventually the game ended and I was the victorious winner — a surgeon after all! (But no, I didn’t crack her melon open.) Destiny was disappointed she didn’t end up a jockey; but there’s always next time.

Will there be a next time? I asked Destiny if the game was fun.

She said, “Yes.”

“Was it fun just because you and I played a game? Or because the game itself was fun?” I pressed.

“Um, both,” she said.

Game postscript:

The version of the game Destiny & I played was What Shall I Be? The Exciting Game of Career Girls, Edition Two, © 1976 by Selchow & Righter Co., game #33.

Selchow & Righter Co. (S & R Games) also made an earlier version of this game in 1966. This game is far more insidious than the version we played.

It’s not just the more female centric career options (Teacher, Airline Hostess, Actress, Nurse, Model, or Ballet Dancer), but much more nasty personality cards. As Claire Mysko wrote:

You are overweight. Bad for: Airline Hostess, Ballet Dancer, and Model (Better stick to Reading, Writing and Arithmetic, fatties!)

You are pretty. Good for: Model and Actress (Help Wanted. Ugly nurses inquire within.)

Your make-up is too sloppy. Bad for: Airline Hostess and Model (What’s up with all the ballerinas and their caked on foundation and clumpy mascara? Eeeew.)

You are a slow thinker. Bad for: Airline Hostess and Nurse. (So that’s why I can’t read good. It’s okay, cuz I’m purty y’all. Slow teachers rule!!!)

At least the 1976 version was less sexist — and didn’t have a pink game board.

Also, it turns out they did make a What Shall I Be? The Exciting Career Game For Boys. I guess the 60’s were so confusing, everybody needed those gender stereotypes reinforced.
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