Esper (fiction)

From Infogalactic: the planetary knowledge core
Jump to: navigation, search

Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

In fiction, an esper (stylized as ESPer) is an individual capable of telepathy and other similar paranormal abilities. The term was apparently coined in this sense by Alfred Bester in his 1950 short story "Oddy and Id"[1] and is derived from the abbreviation ESP for extrasensory perception.

Esper in science fiction

In Alfred Bester's novel The Demolished Man, a significant portion of human population are espers, including many of the main characters.[2]

In Ridley Scott's Blade Runner, there is a scene featuring a device called an "ESPER" that is used to manipulate photographs.

The comic book series Espers, by writer James D. Hudnall and other artists, debuted in 1986 and has been since published by Eclipse Comics, Marvel Epic and Image Comics. The Espers are a team of people with psychic powers who fight a global conspiracy.

Pow!, a British comic magazine, featured the Esper Commandos, a group of powerful psychics secretly working for the British government, in their 1971 annual.[3]

In Simon R. Green's Deathstalker series, espers are a strain of humans with psychic powers.

In Katsuhiro Otomo's science fiction manga Akira, three espers are being kept at the military headquarters of Neo-Tokyo. Although they appear physically to be children, they have signs of age such as wrinkles and wizened features.

In the second Star Trek pilot episode "Where No Man Has Gone Before", the term "esper" is used twice: first by Dr. Dehner to describe human beings that had displayed "flashes of insight," a dismissive description of anecdotal evidence of extrasensory perception abilities; the second by the mutated Gary Mitchell to describe himself and others like him who suddenly develop powerful paranormal abilities. In this case, he used the term to imply that his abilities made him superior to humans who lacked those abilities.[citation needed]

Esper in games

Esper is a playable class in the MMORPG WildStar developed by Carbine Studios. Espers in WildStar revolve around summoning illusory weapons, animals, or other inanimate objects to either inflict harm on their enemies or support their allies. Carbine Studios describes Espers as "Masters of psionic illusion, Espers use the power of their minds to conjure deadly apparitions and extrasensory weaponry! When it comes to mass butchery, it's the thought that counts!"[citation needed]

Esper appears in Magic: The Gathering, as one of the five Shards of Alara. The Esper plane uses white, blue and black cards. It also focuses heavily on artifacts, including colored artifacts (which were a rare occurrence prior to the Shards of Alara block).[citation needed]

Espers have appeared sporadically in science fiction games from fairly early on, more often given its actual name in these than in most other sci-fi sources. One especially remarkable case is the Avalon Hill board game Star Command (later adapted into a computer game), in which characters formally called Espers are available as support troops in infantry squads, and have abilities more or less matching the parapsychological theories of what an esper would be capable of.[citation needed]

Since the first installment in 1987, Espers have been a recurring group in Sega's Phantasy Star series; the first, second and fourth games in the series all featured important, sometimes playable Esper characters, the most notable being the character Lutz.

The term is used differently in the English release of the video game Final Fantasy VI (released as Final Fantasy III in North America), in which beings called "espers" are essentially demigods who wield magical abilities, and can be killed to allow these abilities to be transferred to humans. In the original Japanese version of the game, these creatures were known as genjū (幻獣?, lit. "phantom beast"). The English translator of the game, Ted Woolsey, sought to find a word which he felt conveyed the same meaning with as few letters as possible; the English text files for the game were essentially expanded versions of the Japanese text files, taking up far more memory space than was available. In the end, he chose the word Esper.[citation needed] Espers also appear in Final Fantasy XII as disgraced deities and seraphs, banished from the heavens due to acts of rebellion, corruption and the desire to destroy life. There are a total of thirteen Espers appearing in the game: one for each sign of the astrological zodiac, and the thirteenth, Serpentarius.[citation needed]

Although both The Final Fantasy Legend and Final Fantasy Legend II featured a character class known as "Mutant", in the original Japanese versions of the games (Makai Toushi Sa·Ga and Sa・Ga2: Hihō Densetsu, respectively), the character class was Esper. In both games, the class amounts to spellcasters.[citation needed]

The Psychic type of the Pokémon franchise is referred to as the "Esper type" in Japanese versions. The psychic form of Eevee is called Espeon, another reference to ESP. The Pokémon Espurr's name is a combination of the words esper and purr.[citation needed] The Psychic type gym leader Sabrina of Saffron City and Elite Four member Will are known to be espers.[citation needed]

The Xbox game Phantom Dust has a group of individuals (including the protagonist) known as Espers, individuals that have lost their memories but in return gain control over psychic powers (which include moving objects at will and manipulating/producing fire, ice, telekinetic blades, wind, and so on).[citation needed]

Espers feature prominently in the EarthBound series. In Mother and Mother 3, two characters who use these abilities are playable, while in EarthBound, there are three.[dubious ]

Espers play a major role in the Nintendo DS game 999: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors and in the sequel Zero Escape: Virtue's Last Reward. Espers have the potential to spread knowledge or move through parallel timelines without physical transfer.

A class in an Korean MMORPG game called Elsword developed by KOG Games and KillerCombo features a class called Diabolic Esper capable of manipulating time and space.

Esper in manga, anime and tokusatsu

Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

  • In Toaru Majutsu no Index & Toaru Kagaku no Railgun most of the students in Academy City are espers or are studying to become espers. They are divided into a category of level 0 to level 5 depending on how strong their esper abilities are.
  • The Narumi twins from Cage of Eden have a reputation for being espers.
  • Reino from Skip Beat! is referred to as an esper.
  • In The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, Itsuki Koizumi and Kyouko Tachibana are both espers. Itsuki's abilities only manifest in distorted areas known as "closed spaces", where the common laws of physics do not apply; Kyouko is an esper from a different organization.
  • In Witch Hunter Robin, espers are labeled as witches and hunted down by a secret organization.
  • The Kasuga family in Kimagure Orange Road is a family of secret espers who must keep others from learning of their powers.
  • Tetsuo, Akira and other test subjects in the Akira manga and its film adaptation.
  • Almost all the characters of Ghost Hunt like Taniyama Mai, Kazuya Shibuya and all the members of the SPR.
  • The race of evolved human called "The Mu" in Toward the Terra.
  • Kamui Shirō of the popular manga and TV anime and OAV X/1999 is an esper.
  • Chojin Locke from Locke the Superman is an immortal esper; there are also soldier espers raised at a school led by Lady Kahn.
  • Main characters from the anime/manga Zettai Karen Children and most of the characters are in fact, espers.
  • Main characters from the animated movie series Towa no Quon and most of the characters are in fact espers but are mostly referred to as Attractors or Larva.
  • In Miracle Girls, the main characters, Toni and Mika, are Espers.
  • Ellis in El Cazador de la Bruja is referred to as an esper along with Nastarsha and L.A. L.A. and Ellis were artificially created however.
  • Psychics in E's Otherwise are also called espers.
  • In Esper Mami, the titular character is an esper.
  • Tokusou Sentai Dekaranger features a number of espers, including Jasmine.
  • In Katekyo Hitman Reborn, Mammon, mainly known as an illusionist, is said by Reborn to be a first class ESPer long before learning how to use illusions.
  • In Kämpfer Natsuru Senō thinks Nishino Masumi from the Newspaper Club is an esper.
  • Miura Kento in Kimi Ni Todoke claims to be an esper.
  • Mentioned in the Mobile Suit Gundam series, in which newtypes were originally feared to be espers.
  • The main characters in the Kenji Taguchi manga Diamond Cut Diamond are espers.[citation needed]
  • Hoshimiya Yashiro from the anime Denpa Onna to Seishun Otoko refers to herself as an esper.
  • The rank 2, S-Class Hero, Tornado of Terror and her sister the rank 1, B-Class Hero, Blizzard Of Hell from the manga One-Punch Man are both espers.
  • Haruka Kotoura in Kotoura-san becomes a social outcast because of her unique ability to read minds.
  • Maizono Sayaka in Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc claims to be an esper.
  • Kenzo Sakata and Hiroto Sakurai in the manga Gantz are both espers.
  • Kageyama Shigeo (aka Mob) from Mob Psycho 100 is an esper.
  • Tatsumaki, from One Punch Man

References

  1. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  2. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  3. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

it:Esper