Heart of Darkness
Heart of Darkness (1899) is a novella by Polish-English novelist Joseph Conrad about a narrated voyage up the Congo River into the Congo Free State in the so-called "heart of Africa". Charles Marlow, the narrator, tells his story to friends aboard a boat anchored on the River Thames. This setting provides the frame for Marlow's story of his obsession with the ivory trader Kurtz, which enables Conrad to create a parallel between what Conrad calls "the greatest town on earth", London, and Africa as places of darkness.
Shadow Hearts (video game)
Yuri was directly inspired by "Devilman" protagonist Akira Fudo, and was meant to directly contrast with the standard JRPG protagonist of the time; he struck a balance between the androgynous norm of Japan and the more muscular builds found in Western games, and his silly and sometimes stupid attitude both represented his purity and set his personality apart from other genre protagonists. A key scene used by Machida to demonstrate his abnormal elements was the opening movie, where Yuri has his arm severed then reattaches it. Simons was modelled on the character of Hannibal Lecter as portrayed in the movie "The Silence of the Lambs". The character designs were created by Miyako Kato, who was guided by Machida's scenario draft. Her design direction for Simons was "an elegant English gentleman". The monsters drew inspiration from monsters of the Cthulhu Mythos, putting them in contrast with the enemies of anime and movies of the time which were described by Machida as generic animal or prehistoric designs.