ONI-HIME pretending to be human

By PAP Magazine Editorial

The ONI-HIME—demon princess of Japanese folklore—has slipped into the mortal realm wearing an uneasy disguise. Her face is webbed with intricate vein-like prosthetic makeup that branches from brow to cheekbone, while metallic sculptural nails extend from each fingertip like ritual armour, all bathed in a volatile wash of violet and burnt orange gels. Credits include PURE.D, ARISAK, Masami Okita, Megumi Kuji, and Katherine Jin, whose collaboration transforms banal interiors—fluorescent-lit corridors, a white-walled room scrawled with aggressive black calligraphy—into stages for the uncanny. The styling pivots on a hot-pink suit layered beneath a holographic peplum vest that catches the light in mercurial flashes, evoking futuristic club culture filtered through the lens of an entity trying, and almost failing, to pass as human. As the colour temperature shifts from warm amber to cold cyan, the subject's gaze remains the only constant, locked onto the viewer with preternatural intensity.