Top row (1-4): Satoshi, Kenichi, Mitsue, Ryoko
Middle row (5-8): Shinjiro, Meiko, Anri, Takahiro
Bottom row (9-12): Nobuo, Seigo, Mai, Yuki
Middle row (5-8): Shinjiro, Meiko, Anri, Takahiro
Bottom row (9-12): Nobuo, Seigo, Mai, Yuki
12 Suicidal Teens (十二人の死にたい子どもたち)note is a Japanese drama/mystery film released in 2019. The film is an adaptation of a novel by Tow Ubukata.
In an abandoned hospital, 12 teenagers from different backgrounds have gathered for the purpose of euthanizing themselves together. As they arrive one-by-one at the hospital basement room they are to commit suicide in, however, the participants are surprised to discover that a 13th person is already inside the room, presumably having died before them. In order to confirm their resolve to die, as well as to figure out how an additional person managed to join them, the assembly organizer asks the participants to talk with each other before proceeding. As they investigate the origins of the 13th person, they get to know each other better and understand their respective reasons for choosing suicide.
The film contains examples of the following tropes:
- Abusive Parents:
- Seigo's mother took out a life-insurance policy on her own son. Seigo wants to kill himself because it's the only way his mother won't get any money, and even if he outlives the policy's expiration after one year, her mother's boyfriends would just finish him off anyway.
- Meiko's father is a ruthless lawyer who has divorced and remarried several times over. Though it's more likely a case of being neglectful, his behavior somehow convinces Meiko that her death would make him happy, considering that his law firm is in financial trouble and she just took out an insurance policy on herself for this reason.
- Takahiro's mother resorted to medicines in an attempt to curb his supposedly unruly behavior as a child. Instead of curing him, it gave him a stutter and a host of other mental issues, leaving him without any hope of getting better.
- Adults Are Useless: Mostly implied by the teenagers' suicidal ideations.
- Anachronic Order: The movie uses flashbacks to explain events that happened before all 12 of them had assembled at noon. The scenes in greyscale are revealed in the end to be from Satoshi's earlier assemblies.
- The Atoner: Nobuo becomes this after Meiko pushes him down a stairway, exactly how he killed a bully in the past.
- Better to Die than Be Killed: Seigo's reason for joining the potential suicides.
- Character Development: Ten out of the 12 participants change their minds about dying, and walk out with a renewed purpose. Meanwhile, Satoshi intends to continue assembling people who want to die, and Anri decides to join him as a voice of dissent.
- Clueless Mystery: Although Shinjiro's deductions all come from information that the audience also receives, it's still not enough to piece the whole story together.
- Credits Gag: The end credits plays with this in the case of one particular character. The credit for the role of Ryoko first shows the name of her in-universe celebrity persona, Riko Akikawa, before switching to the name of the real-life actress, Kanna Hashimoto.
- Dark and Troubled Past: Naturally, none of them sought suicide merely on a whim.
- Satoshi is a member of a family plagued by suicide, with his mother and brother both having attempted, and his father succumbing to it.
- Anri's baby brother died in a fire when she was four, leaving her scarred and angry at her mother for causing the fire.
- Mai contracted incurable herpes from a man she met online. It's also implied that she may have gotten pregnant as well, though she never clarifies this.
- Nobuo was a victim of bullying because of being too talented. He pushed the leader of the bullies down a stairway to his death, and the incident was written off as an accident. However, Nobuo winds up plagued with guilt and sees suicide as his only escape.
- Death Seeker: It's literally in the title that all 12 characters are this.
- Door-Closes Ending: The credits ends with Yuki closing the hospital basement door as the final participant (chronologically before Satoshi enters and officially begins the assembly at noon).
- Dramatic Thunder: As their discussions last into the nighttime, a thunderstorm starts up around the time that Shinjiro begins his summation of the mystery.
- Dysfunction Junction: It's a gathering of suicidal people.
- Early-Bird Cameo: The girl in the magazine Kenichi finds in the hospital lobby is actually one of the participants, Ryoko.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: After the mystery of the 13th person is revealed, all 12 participants unanimously vote to cancel their suicide attempt. We never actually learn what becomes of the rest of their respective lives, but the sight of them walking out of the hospital smiling and laughing together is enough to show that they do intend to live on.
- Easily Forgiven: Nobuo actually thanks Meiko for pushing him down the stairs, as he feels that he deserved it after what he did in the past.
- Elegant Gothic Lolita: Mitsue, inspired by a male Visual Kei celebrity she admired who committed suicide.
- Ensemble Cast: A story with 12 protagonists, each with their own stories.
- Facial Dialogue: Occurs when Meiko and Anri are the only participants left who haven't cast their vote on canceling the suicide. Anri walks closer to Meiko and gives her a look, after which Meiko tearfully raises her hand, with Anri following suit to make the vote unanimous.
- Foil: After the rest of the participants have left the hospital, Anri realizes that Satoshi actually intended for the assembly to be canceled. Seeing it as unfair that the assembly is biased towards the desire to live, Anri volunteers to join him in the next one and be the devil's advocate for suicide.
- Freudian Excuse: Anri openly despises her own existence, and considers her suicide a deliberate choice in opposition to living aimlessly. She's been questioning her life since surviving a fire that her mother accidentally started, resulting in the death of her baby brother. Her conclusion is that the pain of being alive is the result of neglectful adults with no regard for their own lives or anyone else's, and she wants her death to send a message and make them reconsider.
- Gender-Equal Ensemble: The suicidal teens are comprised of exactly 6 men (Satoshi, Kenichi, Shinjiro, Takahiro, Nobuo, Seigo) and 6 women (Mitsue, Ryoko, Meiko, Anri, Mai, Yuki).
- Good Feels Good: Satoshi says he gets a good feeling whenever the assemblies end with all 12 people living on.
- Good Smoking, Evil Smoking: Three of the 12 participants are smokers, and Anri is mildly annoyed at realizing this. A stray cigarette caused the fire that killed her brother and scarred her for life.
- Heroic Suicide: Anri wants this for herself, and left a message to this effect, targeting adults who regard human life so lightly and neglect others in the process.
- In-Series Nickname: The participants take to calling the mysterious 13th person "Number Zero", since all of them were properly numbered from 1-12, and the person appears to have died first.
- Informed Attractiveness: Nobuo comments on Ryoko's true appearance, calling her "surprisingly pretty".
- It Runs in the Family: Shinjiro's parents are both police officers, and he has all the makings of a detective. However, he claims that he only indulges in mystery-solving as a distraction from his sickness.
- Laser-Guided Karma: From Nobuo's perspective, Meiko pushing him down a stairway was exactly what he deserved after he did the same thing and killed one of his past bullies.
- Locked Room Mystery: Technically more "hospital grounds" mystery, but it still aptly describes the question of how a 13th person managed to be in the assembly room.
- Münchausen Syndrome: Takahiro is a victim of Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy through his mother.
- Once More, with Clarity: The end credits shows the proper chronology of everything that happened before the noontime assembly, including the arrivals as well as the placement of Number Zero in the assembly room.
- Red Herring: Number Zero is initially presumed to be a murder victim, with the perpetrator being one of the 12 participants. It's revealed to be Yuki's brother, who was reduced to a vegetative state (but still alive) after the two of them got hit by a car.
- The Reveal: Ryoko, the girl in a mask and hat, is actually a famous celebrity known as Riko. She had grown sick of her fame, as it took all control of her own life away.
- Speech Impediment: Takahiro has a stutter. He claims to be taking medicine for it, but Anri observes that it's more likely the medicine that's actually inducing it in the first place.
- Suicide Pact: The 12 teens' gathering is basically this as long as they're all in agreement of beginning the process.
- Summation Gathering: The summation begins in earnest after Nobuo survives having been pushed down the stairs by Meiko and returns to the hospital basement room.
- Survivor Guilt: When Yuki reveals the truth about Number Zero being her brother, she states that her reason for wanting to die was because she felt guilty and believed she caused the accident. Her brother didn't die, but was left in a vegetative state, and she wanted to set both herself and her brother free.
- Talking Down the Suicidal: All 12 of them are suicidal, and don't really intend to talk one another down so much as they just want everybody to be in agreement on what to do. However, after Shinjiro solves the mystery of the 13th person and how he came to be in the same room as them, he begins to plead for all of their lives.
- There Are No Therapists: If there were therapists, there might have been fewer of them gathered.
- Thinking Tic: Shinjiro puts his thumbnail to his lips whenever he's mulling over something.
- The Topic of Cancer: Shinjiro has cancer and doesn't know how long he has left to live. He views suicide as him dying on his own terms while he can still make decisions for himself.
- Worth Living For: After Anri explains why she wants to die, Shinjiro comes to realize that their decision to die could just as easily be a resolve to live. As Anri wants her death to send a message for people to value their lives more, Shinjiro believes that the same message is better conveyed by them living on in spite of the circumstances that make them want to die.
