Altergozo Elbucky Munuda - [UMA | Alien]

• About this UMA: 

Official Full name is "Altergozo Elbucky Munuda" - JP: "アルターゴゾ・エルバッキー・ムニューダー" (or just "Elbucky" for short.) an mysterious 'Cat-like' 'Superior Space Animal' with strange shining eyes and a tail larger than its body, met by Mrs & Mr Mitsumoto in Yokohama, Kanagawa Prefecture, July 22nd 1981. Allegedly It came from a star in the Andromeda constellation, to monitor earth's use of nuclear weapons. (Just a cat ...right?)

• Encounter: On July 22, 1981, during a severe thunderstorm "Elisabeth*" (Fumiko Mitsumoto) "went into a trance" drew a picture of a mysterious creature with a large tail using a ballpoint pen:

[The original sketch.]

Near midnight, she went for a drive with her husband: To their surprise, In a vacant lot, she met a creature which was similar to the one she had drawn, The creature had reddish-brown bushy fur, extremely short legs, strange glowing eyes, and a tail longer & larger than its body length. – (Otherwise, it resembled a typical earth cat.) – it had just crossed the road in front of her car, She took a couple pictures of it...

[Elbucky as it appears in "'Message from an Alien' -- Reveal yourself, Elbucky" by Elisabeth (Fumiko Mitsumoto) and Ryuichi Oishi. (1982) - [img source.] - *at some point, the negatives where torn up by their pet dog, making it impossible to verify the full appearance of its characteristic tail, (so when the book came out, they drew it in with a dotted line.)

Less than a month later: (August 12th) around midnight, Elizabeth claimed to have made contact with aliens that were in charge of Elbucky: the leader introduced itself as "Naganda Mu" of "Peiga Pagouira" an Alpha star in the Andromeda constellation, in charge of the elbucky mission: The aliens spoke into her mind using telepathy (ESP!)

"We are sending you a message from our base on Shinmoe-dake (Miyazaki Prefecture, Kyushu) Friend, the animal you saw is the superior space creature 'Aldergozo Elbucky Mnuder' that we sent to the Earth. Your behavior and lifestyle are constantly changing & continues to be observed! We came from the constellation of Andromeda to investigate where the earth's nuclear weapons, poison gas, and bromine gas are buried. - Elbucky uses his “laser rays” to weaken the destructive material and check its concentration. Elbucky has 3 siblings that were sent to Japan, The remaining two are hiding in Mt. Takahara in Nikko and Yuzawadai in Akita City..."

A different alien spoke into her mind: "Elbucky is mild-mannered with some understanding of human speech, and is not visible to everyone: Only those souls who have come down from outer space as messengers of peace! Our main mission was to detect and monitor the toxic substances emitted by weapons (nuclear weapons?) that are responsible for the destruction of the earth. "

...less than 1 year later (1982) they would publish their encounter in a book [...The couple would have subsequent encounters with the aliens as well. - but I won't get too much into detail about the book's other contents, it seems to mostly be ESP talk, DoomsDay Conspiracies, (*The name "Elisabeth" is also the name of her cosmic spirit, later given to her by the aliens.) ...uh, you get the idea.]

[Photo of the Book.]

• Aftermath/Criticism: The years Following the incident & publication of the book, "Elisabeth" seems to have starred in a number of doccumentaries about ESP & UFO encounters (I cannot figure out how to watch them, so I'll just link the archive, I wont write about them here.) -Elisabeths whereabouts today are seemingly unknown (or at least undocumented from what i could find!) –

The interaction between the UMA & Aliens became a hot topic at the time, But the case Itself became popular knowledge after being ridiculed in "Tondemo hon no sekai" (The World of Outrageous Books. (1995) by the "Japan Society for the Promotion of Science" stating that there was “No actual evidence of alien contact.” - Today: The usual reaction to seeing the image of Elbucky is: "Uh, isn't that just a cat?"  - Elbucky is treated closely to how we in the west treat chupacabra. (its more than likely a case of mistaken identity vs an actual alien, but the case is still enjoyed by enthusiasts (perhaps somewhat ironically) 

• Pop culture: Despite the decrying of it as an actual "UMA/Alien" - Elbucky seems to be quite popular in pop culture, in part it caught on because the idea of trying to pass off a normal cat as an alien was so outrageous (and funny) that it became slightly memetic: it is referenced quite a few games, manga & even music, all the way up to present day:

[Kenji Ohtsuki's Parody: "Dolbakky" appears in the (1992) Muscle Shoujo Band's music videos for their songs: "Reveal yourself, Dolbakky" and "Wild Animal Dolbakky" (it seems he still sings this song at concerts in 2022!!)]

- "Elbacky" appears as a photo-realistic cat enemy in "Wild Arms 3" (2002)The bestiary says its a "space creature from another nebula, its eyes shine strangely when illuminated" & later on as "Elbucky" in "Wild arms 5" (2006) as a boss fight (different spelling & appearance, its beam attack can turns people into cats!!)

-"Elbacky" is named in Disguia: the hour of darkness (2003) as a variant of nekomata. (fitting!)

- "Elbucky" appears as a humanoid(gajinka) appears in the anime/manga "MISS KUROITSU" (2019) (shes a bit of a perv to say the least, but at least she keeps the laser eyes.)

• My Observations/UFO Case Parallels: The fact that the witnesses decided to self-published their encounter in a book (& later mocked by the general community) Reminds me a bit of the Andreasson affair [1979. published in 1980.] (these boith happened around the same time frame, towards the end of the 'alien boom' of the 70's.) - The aliens message of nuclear destruction = bad is seemingly a regular trope/message delivered in many, many alien encounters. (which regardless if they're 'true encounters' or not, shows it was on everyone's mind at the time.) - I'm sure there are a few other "Normal Animal is suspicious/secretly an alien/cryptid' cases to compare it to as well ('cats are actually aliens' is quite obviously also a trope globally!)

Even if its a case that was not taken seriously as a legit "UFO encounter" back then (& likely in future.) - The very fact that the case is still somewhat infamous 40 years after the fact & being continuously referenced in pop culture, makes it a pretty great example of "Obscure-alien-becomes-folklore" in-action!!!

–anyway, as far as I can tell, in English there hasn't been any mention of Elbucky before this post! So, remember, you read it here first folks!!

Sticker Art & Bio by @samkalensky (yo, thats me!) part of my Aliens & Ufology sticker collection! check my shop for many more!! :)