>>The bad idea should be puffing at anything else.
puffing up is not a bad idea. It's a perfectly natural defensive mechanism against predators of a similar size it will generally convince them to leave the animal alone. Against larger animals there is still a small chance of convince the larger animal that killing and eating the suddenly larger creature is simply not worth it's time when there might easier thing to catch and digest.
Going out of your way to puff at something bigger then you though... that is pure stupidity.
that might be because people don't understand that it does work in real life, and?or don't really want to draw stuff where the yukkuri's puffing up is viable. there's also the fact that most time we see them using it against humans who have both the size and intelligence advantage making it useless. (unless they find it funny or cute and spare it because of that.)
People do understand that it works in real life, but there are more viable reasons of why it works, Aka, you know, fooling the victim about their increased mass and stuff.
It's a well known fact that Yukkuris are even dumber than small animals, so they don't fool anybody, reason why the only way animals feel threatened by them is when they proactively act agressive and are really big, not the puff up kind of big, but you know, the kind of big that still let them move around, instead of remaining in one spot since puff up doesn't allow them to move around.
And considering what they usually say while puffing up, i don't think people would find them that cute or funny, when a manjuu threatens you and insult you while making a failed attempt of puff up intimidation.
Tool users are not dumber animals (there have been some comics where they can move while puffed) most animals that do puff also do not move while doing it.
Tool users are also aware of their weaknesses, but for some reason yukkuris aren't, and their so called "tool using" is even more crude than the Chimpanzee's way of using tools.
But seriously coker, this are yukkuris, they many times defy logic, biology and such.
for example being able to talk, yet not having a serious developed intelligence.
Or being able to use to some degree tools, but being easily outclassed in intelligence and counter measure by other animals.
Or having a territorial nature knowhing that their easy place is theirs, yet they won't awknowledge other's properties or easy places, and act like it were a lie or a non existant concept that, GASP, other living beings also own easy places and can get angry if you take them over.
yukkuris are really some weird ass and dumb thing, no wonder why they are magical constructions, they defy way to many biological and natural rules, and it adds way to many contradictions to their existence.
Anyway, by moving I mean by jumping around, crawl and stuff, not jump upward, flail braids, etc.
I had never seen a puffed up yukkuri chasing anything or something.
Which may actually raise the effectiveness of puff up against smaller animals.
Nope, considering you aim for the wrong things to praise or defend in yukkuris, i'll not agree with your points.
In my opinion puff up is something that if yukkuris become better creatures, they should ditch, it only makes them bothersome in general and just make things worse for them, as much some sort of "cute" version of it, should remain, but the overall thing should go in their evolution. that and so many things that are more counterproductive >_>....
I'm just saying it's a perfectly natural evolutionary trait and that it's not useless If artist and writers want to be Fandumb and see it that then they can.
It's not Fandumb when there are good reason for it not working.
Specially in the yukkuri context.
There is a reason why Yukkuris even with the many Darwin Awards they got can only be thankful for their population growth only because of their cockroach level of breeding.
It's not because of them very effective beings, but growing up to be many, to the point that even killing 10 may mean nothing for the overall race.
The only kind of yukkuri that usually is a threat to other animals, when they aren't some rare type ala Utsuho, are the Dosus, since, even in their glass cannon nature, their Dosu Spark is a highly effective countermeasure against animals.
It is fandumb because there is no reason for it to not work. It's Isn't meant to be a physical defense it's meant to SCARE THINGS and or make them rethink the situation which is exactly what it should do the fact that it doesn't is an indication that artist doesn't understand how animals minds work.
Does it still work if the puffing effect is barely noticable? They don't seem to grow very much...
I think we love it because the whole "puffing up" thing seems so silly. Especially when they're using the exact same instinctual tactics on each other and it's still working.
for the most part the original puffing depectied by artists was quite noticeable recently we mostly see only little ones or KOs doing it so no it would not be as noticeable with them. Honestly it's not the best defense mechanism for a creature that often dies before it reach it point were it would be useful. That doesn't mean it's a bad on though.
Yes, but to scare something through puff up, you need to fool them, you know, make them think that you can really grow and become stronger, aka to hulk up.
Yukkuris don't hide too well the true nature of their puff up, specially when they go puff, and remain static on a place, or barely move some body parts or jump upward.
Animals would be prompt to be more scared if the yukkuris actually chased them out while puffing up, since they may be fooled with the idea "hey! that thing may had actually gone bigger! she's trying to attack me! i better RUN!" instead of "why isn't it moving?, it's ony a bit bigger, but no claws, no hissing, no fangs.....something isn't right here", of course animals don't think words, but they do have a degree of mental processing about the situations they face, they aren't mindless.
In fact, Puff up seems to only work with fellow yukkuris because they do fool each other about becoming bigger and scarrier.
By the way, animals do move to make the "puff up" look menacing, sometimes getting a bit closer and all, and do typical menacing moves, something that braid flailing, shacking or jump upward won't be.
the thing is that most if not all animals that do puff don't move around afterward. Also if it were to be aggressive afterwards that is once again going retriger the flight or fight response. Which a yukkuri doesn't want because a lot of animals are gonna pick fight in hopes of driving of the new larger animal by once again convincing them that they are not worth the effort need to bring them down. By not showing aggression the animals is give the option to make it's self scares.
My point was to chase out, not to chase them while puffing, you know act all threatening ala "i'll get you!"
We already know that puffing up is blatlantly useless in a scenario of 1 yukkuri vs group, so no doubt there.
But in a 1 vs 1, yukkuri puffing up and chasing out an opponent by acting like they'll attack have better chances of scaring off a single enemy that remaining put without the proper threatening factors, and let's face it, the only way yukkuris can be threatening is by coming foward toward you, no braid flailing, shaking or in place bouncing is threatening in animal standars, only claws, fang showing, hissing, growling and some getting closer faint work.
And without such move Puff up becomes ineffective, same way how crying moe only makes things worse.
Remember that even ants attack yukkuris in group, no matter the puff up, and the only reason they may run away is when they are alone because of the already obvious size difference.
Yukkuris have better chances with smaller animals only being agressive and having the proper size against them, puff up is worthless since they don't fool anybody.
Actually, there's a lot of instances of "puffing" in nature that do work. Puffer-fish, those lizards that can inflate their necks to look bigger, and the umbrella-lizard thing.... hell, even lion manes are supposed to make them look bigger.
So in this case, coker is actually right. The point is not to win by "puffing up", but to discourage natural predators from attacking them by appearing to be more troublesome than they're worth. Even if they're weak like lizards and frogs, bloating themselves will intimidate some predators. Obviously not all. (watch discovery channel!)
For a yukkuri, puffing up might scare away things like birds or other random small predators. Or better yet, other yukkuris.
Obviously for a dog, when the size difference is so big, it's impossible for them to be scared. So again, puffing up is a natural defensive mechanism that seems silly, like a puffer fish bloating up when we poke it with a knife. Is it stupid? Is it dumb?
Right. I don't want to get into a big argument about it, but the things yukkuris usually puff up at are the things/animals it wouldn't work on. Big dogs, ravenous scavengers, and people. But like you said, Yukkuris lack that certain extra tidbit to make it work. No hissing, no growling, flapping their braids with annoying voices sure as hell ain't gonna work. But on the other hand it could work for other yukkuris and small predators.
and I don't think most insects have enough awareness to recognize something is "puffing up".
Insects usually run away of anything that is many times bigger than them by default they barely trust anything that is that big, unless they are in big groups and get confidence through team work, specially if they are hiveminded or hive based like bee's, ants, termintes, etc.
Those hive based, may directly work in group to overwhelm and kill the bigger creature, and we had at least 1 case of that happenign to a yukkuri.
Birds somehow aren't show to be that scared of them, or dealing with them alone to begin with. So i wonder if puf up would work on them, clearly not against a flock since we had seen how mercilessly flocks peck to death yukkuris.
We still have to see if snakes and similar creatures may be affected, since the closest thing we say was a snake attacking an averagely big Ko and killing it.
And we also had seen a wild boar of the size of an adult yukkuri attacking an adult without fear or hesitation.
So i really have to wonder if Puff up really works with anything non yukkuri to begin with, it does work well in other animals, but yukkuris rarely seem to make it work well, either they are overwhelmed by numbers, they use it on the wrong animals, or between their fellows.
Hmmm
Actually i have a theory.
What if Puff Up is a failed attemp of "Anti Bigger Animal" defense mechanismn? like how Crying Moe was supposed to be? We had never seen yukkuris puffing up to anything smaller than them, without counting fellow yukkuris, they had always being shown puffing up at bigger creatures.
Maybe that's what really makes them fail? that they actually don't use it on the creatures that have better probabilities of being affected in theory?