Evil Goddess MOCCOS

About

Evil Goddess MOCCOS (Japanese: 邪神モッコス, Jashin Mokkosu) is a nickname given to a figurine which was bundled with the limited edition package of a J-RPGXenosaga Episode II^[1] released by NAMCO in 2004. This infamous figure is the progenitor of an online parody faith to “Evil God” among the Japanese and the Chinese/Taiwanese otaku people.

Origin

The special limited edition of the video game, Xenosaga Episode 2 Premium Box Set, was released on June 24th, 2004. Its price 17,800 Yen (About $166 at the rate at that time) was 3 times as expensive as that of the normal edition, and what made almost $100 difference between these editions was the figures of KOS-MOS^[2], an android lady and the key character in this trilogy (shown below, left). However, the figures revealed at the release date were quite clumsy and its painting was awfully rough (shown below, center & right). It’s known that Namco outsourced the figures production to a Japanese media company Enterbrain.

On the same day as the releasing date, a Japanese figure freak posted a quite acrimonious review for the figures to his website.^[3] That review said “It’s terribly bad, sucks, nothing more than industrial junk.”, “No movements or facial emotions.”, “Is this a horror figure?” and “Enterbrain, Do not move into figure productions again!”.

This severe review for the poorly-made figure was soon shared on the web via Futaba Channel (2chan), 2channel and several popular otaku hub sites. Shortly after, the figure’s sinister look was likened to Evil God, and people began to poke fun at the figurine with the nickname “Evil Goddess MOCCOS”. “MOCCOS” comes from an anagram for the android’s name, “MOCKOS”, and it sounds quite stupid to Japanese sensibilities.

Spread

The fame of MOCCOS spread from Futaba along with many of its parody photos and gif animations made by Futaba users. 2channel users made horrific Shift-JIS arts and flash movies for MOCCOS as well. Those creative works were archived in a web page specializing for the phenomenon launched in the following month.^[4] By the help of internet users creativity and playful mind, the figure didn’t fall into a mere subject of online mockery but instead it succeed to establish the “Evil God” personality as subject for awe.

MOCCOS Shift-JIS arts by 2channel users

The online fame of MOCCOS is not only described in joke encyclopedias such as Nico Nico Pedia^[5] and Uncyclopedia^[6] in several languages but also mentioned in Wikipedia articles.^[7]^[8]

Evil God as Title

By the huge impact of MOCCOS, it became to a manner of otaku people to give the title of “Evil God” to extremely poorly-made figures. The famous subsequent Evil God figures are “Evil Goddess Inphyy” (邪神Inphyy) from the Taiwanese limited edition of XBOX360 title Ninety-Nine Nights^[9] released on May 24th, 2006 and “Evil Goddess Silmeria” (邪神シルメリア) from the Japanese limited edition of PlayStation2 title Valkyrie Profile 2: Silmeria^[10] released on May 24th, 2006 and “Evil Goddess Saber” (邪神Saber).

Left: Evil Goddess Inphyy | Center: Evil Goddess Silmeria | Right: Evil Goddess Saber

Particularly, this “Evil God” manner became familiar to Chinese/Taiwanese otaku people because 2 of these Evil Goddess were born in the Chinese-speaking area. Parody ceremony videos for praying over the “Evil God” figurines were shot by Taiwanese otaku people in those days (shown below). Additionally, another name for Balancing Sasuke figure “Evil God Sasuke” comes from this naming manner, too.

Official MOCCOS Parodies

Evil Goddess MOCCOS owns the official parodies by the developer Monolith Soft and Namco Bandai Games (NBGI). A secret boss monster “Arma Prototype M” in Monolith Soft’s 2006 title for GameCube Baten Kaitos Origins^[11] is known as a homage to MOCCOS. Though its looks is completely different, it has the same special attack with KOS-MOS, and it’s named “Evil X-Bluster” (十字邪光線, Jūji Jakousen) in the Japanese edition. And the in-game field guide describes that the monster’s power is infused from the “wicked” god.^[12] In addition, several characters in NBGI’s 2008 Nintendo DS title Super Robot Taisen OG Saga: Endless Frontier^[13], where KOS-MOS made a guest appearance, order her to “curse” the enemies or call the android lady as “Evil God” openly in some scenes.