Line #17 Anime/Kakurenbo


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/kakurenbo01.jpg]]
2
3	-> ''In the game of O-To-Ko-Yo, kids will disappear.''
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5	A 25-minute short about a game of Hide and Seek? That has to be fun for the kids, right? [[GoneHorriblyWrong Wrong]].
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7	Children wearing [[CoolMask fox masks]] gather in an [[GhostCity abandoned city]] after dark to participate in a ritualistic game of [[DeadlyGame Hide and Seek]]. One boy has come looking for his younger sister, and a silent player in this round sure looks a lot like her. The rules are simple -- if you lose, demons will take you away. And, as the night wears on and the streets [[LightIsNotGood light up]], it becomes clear that the chilling rumours are not exaggerated...
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9	----
10	!!This film provides examples of:
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12	* AllMythsAreTrue: Despite the characters' skepticism, all the rumors about the city being haunted by demons who play hide and seek with groups of eight people are completely true. [[spoiler:It makes sense; the leader of the demons was spreading the rumor to attract more kids to come and investigate it.]]
13	* AllThereInTheManual: The official website is the only place where you'll learn ''everyone's'' names-- only four (Hikora, Yaimao, Sorincha and Suku) are revealed in-movie.
14	* AndThenJohnWasAZombie: [[spoiler:Hikkora]] becomes the [[spoiler: host of the Nine-Tailed Fox]] and starts the next game of Hide and Seek.
15	* AsianLionDogs: The poster naming the demons depicts the Blood-Taker as one of these. In actuality, it only vaguely resembles one, being mostly covered in cloth and lanterns and having a uncannily human-like face despite its animalistic features.
16	* BackToBackBadasses: The twins grab improvised weapons and stand back-to-back when they're about to throw down [[spoiler:during their LastStand against the demons.]]
17	* BeastInTheMaze: The five demons hunt the group of children through a maze-like GhostCity in a twisted game of Hide and Seek until only one child is left. Four are straightforwardly monsterous in appearance and methods of hunting; their leader, the fifth, is far more subtle and horrifying.
18	* BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor: Yaimao wants to find out what happened to the kids who disappeared in the city. Hikkora wants to find his sister. They find out in the worst way possible, [[spoiler:by suffering the same fates. Yaimao and the others are turned into batteries to power the city, while the fifth demon possesses Hikkora]].
19	* BecomingTheMask: A slightly [[FateWorseThanDeath more literal case here]]; when [[spoiler: the host]] of the fifth demon takes off its mask (which it only does when it reveals its true nature to its victim), you see that there's nothing remotely human underneath anymore.
20	* BigBad: [[spoiler:The fifth demon, the Nine-Tailed Fox.]]
21	* BigBrotherMentor: Yaimao seems like the oldest or at least the most mature of the participants, and makes sure to keep an eye out for Sorincha and protect Hikkora, who clearly looks up to him.
22	* BreakTheHaughty: The most obnoxious player who acts all high and mighty? Reduced to a blubbering, terrified baby who actually ''faints'' [[spoiler:in his final scene alive.]]
23	** [[spoiler: Also KilledOffForReal since he's the only one explicitly shown drained of his LifeEnergy.]]
24	* CoolMask: The fox masks that the kids need to wear to play count, as well as the complex (though frightening) masks worn by the demons.
25	* CreepyChild: A few of the players ([[CoughSnarkCough cough cough the twins, cough cough]]), including [[spoiler:the Sorincha-imposter, and Hikkora]] at the end.
26	* CreepyTwins: Subverted. Despite their creepy silence and [[RedEyesTakeWarning glowing eyes]], they never do anything evil at all.
27	* CuteMute: It's hard to say if she can really be called "cute," since her face is covered by a fox-mask, but the lone female player doesn't speak, and her mask/costume is pretty cute...[[spoiler:Neither the muteness nor the cuteness lasts.]]
28	* DemonicPossession: What [[spoiler:the Fifth Demon]] is doing to the player who survived the longest. Which happens to have been [[spoiler: Sorincha]].
29	* DirtyCoward: Noshiga, who abandons his friends to certain death in order to try and save his own skin when the Blood-Taker demon attacks them.
30	* DownerEnding: [[spoiler:Not only does (nearly) everyone die, but TheBadGuyWins and the cycle continues.]]
31	* EvilMask: [[spoiler:The fifth demon]] is a mask that possesses the SoleSurvivor of each game. [[spoiler:Sorincha was actually the last "lucky" winner.]]
32	* EvilIsNotWellLit: In [[GhostCity the city]] the game is played in, the darkness is a constant backdrop to the events that take place. Of course, [[LightIsNotGood light isn't exactly any better...]]
33	* EvilSoundsDeep: The reason why [[spoiler: the girl doesn't speak until the end of the game.]]
34	** She [[CassandraTruth speaks plenty]] (though only in the opening voiceover); it's just not with [[spoiler: the VoiceOfTheLegion]] until the endgame.
35	* ExactWords: Yaimao told Hikkora to find Sorincha. Well, he did end up finding her. [[FromBadToWorse Just not the way he expected to]].
36	* TheFairFolk: The demons have shades of this in their reason for the game: it's to keep the city lit, because it doesn't last for long without it.
37	* GhostCity: Where the game takes place; despite being well maintained (even the electric signs work!), there are no human inhabitants.
38	* GlowingEyesOfDoom: [[SubvertedTrope Subverted]] with the [[CreepyTwins twins]], who look evil but aren't. Played straight with the demons.
39	* HuntingTheMostDangerousGame: The five demons hunt down the human children in the city.
40	* IronicNurseryTune: Well, it's not a nursery rhyme, but it's a common children's phrase said in a creepy sing-song voice.
41	-->''"Reeeaady or noooot...''''Here I come."''
42	** And right before [[spoiler:poor Yaimao is skewered!]]
43	-->“Who will play hide and seek with me?”
44	* LastStand: The twins make one against the demon pursuing them, choosing to go down fighting when they're cornered.
45	** DyingMomentOfAwesome: As the only ones to make a strong effort to kill the demons.
46	* LivingBattery: The machines use [[spoiler:the children]] that they captured for this.
47	* {{Mecha}}: The demons' designs are partly based on this, looking like living wooden machines.
48	* OhCrap: When Hikkora realizes that [[spoiler: Sorincha is the fifth demon]].
49	* OminousFog: Appears at the end, [[spoiler:at the start of the ''next'' game of hide and seek.]]
50	* ParentalAbandonment: Seriously, do any of the kids' parents know where their kids are going, what they're doing? Do they even ''have'' parents?
51	* PoweredByAForsakenChild: What happens to the children who play the game and lose? [[spoiler:Their bodies are taken to the center of the town and are plugged into strange machines- their LifeEnergy is used to light up the town.]]
52	* RedEyesTakeWarning: [[SubvertedTrope Subverted]] with the [[CreepyTwins twins]]; despite looking evil, they never doing anything remotely harmful. Played straight with the demons, whose eye are also a glowing red.
53	* SceneryPorn: To the point where [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kakurenbo the other wiki's article]] postulates that the theme of the work has something to do with the urbanization of Tokyo. Also, the city seems to be based off Kowloon Walled city that used to be in Hong Kong.
54	* SchmuckBait: The children at the start of the movie are told exactly how to reach the arena and all about how the demons kill the children who go in there. [[CassandraTruth The kids naturally don't listen]] and go there to play the game anyway.
55	* SenselessSacrifice: Yaimao attempts to buy time for Hikkora near the end as they flee. Senseless in that Hikkora then chooses ''not'' to run.
56	* SiblingTeam: The twins, plus Sorincha and Hikkora... kinda. [[spoiler:He doesn't ''know'' it's her when they team up (since her face is hidden and she doesn't talk), though he realizes there's something familiar about her.]]
57	* TheSpeechless: It's left unknown whether the twins can actually speak at all.
58	* ThereAreNoAdults: No adults are seen or even referred to in this short-- no, no one even mentions having parents. (Early concept art shows that originally, there ''were'' going to be adults in the town, but any adult who came in to find their children was turned into a featureless, mindless zombie.)
59	* TooDumbToLive: All the kids, but especially Noshiga and co. for not listening when [[spoiler: the Nine-Tailed fox tells them explicitly about all the dangers, which they promptly disregard as fairy tales until it's too late.]]
60	* ViciousCycle:
61	** The losing children are [[spoiler:used to light up the city. The light is used to attract ''new'' children to the town to play the game.]]
62	** The "winner" of the game [[spoiler: - basically, the last one standing - is possessed by the final demon, is made "it", and]] is used to lure in more children, as we see with [[spoiler: Hikkora]] in the end.
63	* VoiceOfTheLegion: What [[DemonicPossession the Fifth Demon]] sounds like.
64	* {{Youkai}}: The demons' designs are based on traditional youkai, for instance the Fifth is meant to be a [[AsianFoxSpirit Kitsune]].
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Context Anime / Kakurenbo