About the OkamiNow.org Ōkami Fansite

This unofficial Ōkami fansite was made to show the beautiful, interesting and even funny fan-creations the remarkable video game has inspired, after worldwide fans had taken part in Ammy’s Adventure. The fansite also supports the making of an Ōkami sequel, by many/most of Ōkami’s original creators.

The OkamiNow.org blog will showcase my favourite beautiful fanart, crafts and other creative works made in the last 14 years, since Ōkami’s release on the PlayStation 2 in 2006.

The forum will have a “Tree of Art” section, where Ōkami fans can post their own fanart and other creative goodies.

To respect the privacy of this fansite’s visitors and not “interfere” with the beautiful fan-creations, there are no third-party ads, affiliate links, analytics, scripts or fonts. The fansite is not designed to earn money for its creator, or for those who created the game (although it would be nice to see a sequel). It’s an independent fansite, made by a fan who isn’t associated with the game’s creators or intellectual property holders!

This fansite won’t feature subject matters any more graphic than those in the Ōkami video game.

Why was this fansite created?

Simply put, I’m a fan of the Ōkami video game who wants more people to enjoy it like I have, and also see the beautiful creative works that inspired fans had created. Also being a web developer and online producer, the decision to finally create a worthy (normally very expensive) fansite was made easier for me. Instead of paying web/graphic designers/developers and copywriters thousands of dollars, I was able to make this fansite and enjoy the process as well.

After considering for a long time creating a fansite, I was finally spurred on by Hideki Kamiya (Ōkami’s lead designer, director and writer) and Ikumi Nakamura’s (Ōkami environment artist) anouncement on Twitter (October 2019), stating they still want to create a sequel to Ōkami.
A few weeks before this announcement, I had actually started playing Ōkami again, after having completed the game almost ten years earlier.

The renewed enjoyment of playing this beautiful video game again, combined with Hideki’s announcement shortly afterwards, inspired me to invest my spare time into creating this interesting fansite. OkamiNow.org adds my own positive fan-support for a true sequel to Ōkami.

While one doesn’t need to be a dog (or wolf) person to enjoy this game, my family and I are very much dog (and animal)-people.

For over 25 years, we have spent well over a million dollars of our own money (excluding home/property purchases), to give a forever-home to dogs and cats, who would otherwise have lost their lives prematurely.

My doggie Axel’s story started out in the backyard of a struggling family’s country town home. He grew up more or less on his own, and dug a hole underneath the family’s rainwater tank for shelter from the elements and to sleep at night.
The family simply couldn’t handle him anymore and were minutes away from sending him on a one-way trip out of desperation, when he forever-became my much-loved dog and family member.

He had very low confidence and wasn’t easy to train, but with our care and patience he quickly grew into a strong, confident and highly intelligent and very (eternal-puppy) playful doggie.
Axel’s story is just one of many:

We had 25 dogs and 13 cats at one point, and needed to move to another state (we live in Australia), to purchase a suitable home and property with licensed kennels on acreage. Our many decisions to put our animals before our own comforts over the years, have certainly turned our lives upside-down at times.

However, we have succeeded in our mission to give our animals their secure forever-home, and we have also learned many valuable lessons about life, nature and true (doggy) friendship along the way.

The Ōkami video game’s story is very much about life, nature and true friendship as well. Ōkami is a positive story and adventure, which doesn’t pretend that true beauty and one’s contribution to life and the world will come easily – however, that it is still attainable with good intentions and hard work.

In a growing vacuum of worthless diversions and resulting hopelessness and selfishness, Ōkami’s story is an artistic reminder of mankind’s capacity for doing great good, when a glimmer of hope still allows it.

Personally, I’m not much of a video-gamer, and have only learned of this remarkable (and very big) video game around 10 years ago after noticing its impressive fanart.

Back then, the fan artists and creatives have enthusiastically stated that they “love” Ōkami and find it beautiful. Over 13 years after its first release, this hasn’t changed.

This is a video game, with a story much deeper and personal to people – it’s not a simple and shallow fighting-type game to button-mash as a temporary distraction, and then forget about. However with plenty of foul demons to vanquish, this is a part of Ōkami that one can still prefer and focus on, depending on his or her own mood.
Ōkami can be fun and exciting for many reasons – being such a rich and varied video game, there is something to enjoy for many types of gamers.

To move forward, the question came up; how do I not only express my own admiration for this beautiful, rich and exciting video game, but also show other potential fans what it’s all about?

Because I only learned of Ōkami 10 years ago after seeing peoples’ impressive fan-creations and genuine praise, I have decided to create a fansite that brings these positive things together.

The fansite’s name “Ōkami Now!” has several meanings:

Firstly, the name represents an advancement towards the future from Ōkami’s beginnings to “Ōkami Now/today”, by collecting everything positive from the past, in order to prepare for the positive journey and adventure ahead!
From the Ōkami back then (in 2006) to the Ōkami Now!

Secondly, it represents fans’ desire for a sequel of the original Ōkami video game.

I believe and also hope this fansite’s name does a good job of summing up the positive sentiments of very many Ōkami fans around the world!

While Hideki Kamiya expressing his desire to create a sequel to Ōkami won’t necessarily mean that we’ll ever see one (since there are business politics and money matters involved), the journey up to this point is worth documenting regardless.

This fansite is a contribution of my own feelings, like those of very many other Ōkami fans.

Even if we never see a sequel in the future, “Ōkami Now!” can still remain as a beautiful place of reflection for those who already took part in “Ammy’s adventure”, and also invite newcomers to join in.

I’m pretty sure you’ll enjoy your stay!

Your fellow Ōkami fan Ben!
(Fansite’s founder/owner, December 2019)