Franchise / Kagerou Project

The Mekakushi Dan.

The Kagerou Project is a series of Vocaloid songs by producer Jin (Shizen no teki-P), with character designs by artists Sidu and Wannyanpuu. Each song in the series is connected to each other to tell a story centering on a group of people with special abilities that are born from their eyes.

There is also a novel series written by the producer himself, which comes together with the songs and information released by Jin to tell the complex plot behind a town that seems to be hiding more than it appears.

Mekakucity Records, the second album for the series, was released on May 29, 2013. It was considered the last album in the series until another album, Mekakucity Reload, was released in 2018.

A 13 volume manga was also serialized on Monthly Comic Gene illustrated by Mahiro Sato, and as per the announcement in the Children Record booklet, an anime produced by Studio SHAFT under the title Mekakucity Actors began airing on April 12, 2014. A short anime movie for the franchise premiered in theaters in winter of 2016, titled X4D Kagerou Daze -in a days-. Another animation project, titled Mekakucity Reload, was announced in 2017.

In 2019, Jin announced a sequel multimedia project, Kagerou Daze No.9, taking place several years after the main story.

If you're interested, there are more in-depth guides to the series here and here.

Now has a character page.

Seeing as the series is spread across different media, there are separate pages for the music, anime and the novel. Please put tropes specifically referring to those under their respective pages.

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Kagerou Project contains examples of:

• Ambiguously Human: Konoha.
• All There in the Manual: Some of the information about the characters are only mentioned in the accompanying booklets for the music CDs.
• Be Careful What You Wish For: The Mekakushi Dan's eye powers tend to be connected to things they wished for prior to their deaths. There are exceptions to this rule, but virtually all the characters who do have powers relating to these wishes have experienced a lot of emotional turmoil because of them.
  • Takane was narcoleptic and wished she had a body that didn't need things like food or sleep to function.
  • Haruka was frail from his congenital illness and wanted a stronger body.
  • Momo wanted people to notice her and not just her genius big brother.
  • Seto wanted to be able to understand people's feelings without having to talk to them.
  • Kano wanted to hide the evidence of his mother's abuse.
  • Kido was neglected by her family so bad she wanted to disappear.
  • Perhaps the biggest one - Azami wanted her human partner and family to live forever.
• Color-Coded for Your Convenience: All members of the Mekakushi Dan have a color associated with them.
  • Kido - Violet
  • Seto - Green
  • Kano - Black
  • Marry - Pink
  • Momo - Orange
  • Ene - Dark Blue
  • Shintaro and Ayano - Red
  • Hibiya - Light Blue
  • Konoha - Chartreuse
  • Other characters are also associated with colors; Hiyori is also associated with pink, Kenjirou is associated with a rusty orange, and Shion is associated with lavender.
• Contrived Coincidence: The circumstances that led to Shintaro's hostage situation is pretty much one coincidence after another. First, he happens to ruin his keyboard on August 14th, which means no online deliveries due to a holiday, then he decides to go to the same department store the terrorists were planning to rob on that day, and when he arrives to the electronics floor, they just happened to have decided to use that floor to carry out their plan, with him arriving just a few minutes before it all starts going down. Shintaro has the worst luck in the world.
• Dead All Along: Most of the cast died at some point point in the story. Their snakes are the only things keeping them alive, so if they were to lose them..

• Dwindling Party: In contrast to the other routes, the manga's second route sees the Gang slowly get picked off one-by-one. Kido is the first casualty, then Momo is thrown off a building. Hibiya gets thrown in front of a truck and Konoha gets his conscience overwritten by the Snake of Clearing Eyes. A few days later, Ene is erased from existence when her wish is fulfilled, then Kano gets his neck snapped and finally Seto gets punched through his back by a Clearing Eyes gone One-Winged Angel, leaving Shintaro, Ayano, Hiyori, and Marry as the only survivors.

• Everyone Went to School Together: Shintaro, Ayano, Takane/Ene, and Haruka/Konoha. Before all the incidents happened. The latter two were in a special section of the school but still interacted with the former two.
• Extremely Short Timespan: The anime and the first route of the manga both unfold in just a single day. The second route of the manga occurs over two days.
• Friendless Background: All of the main characters to some degree. Shintaro was an Insufferable Genius and apathetic at best, driving all others except Ayano away. Momo's ability alienated her peers as well as making her hate going out in public. Kido's power made her invisible to everyone. Kano was kept at home by his abusive mother. Seto was bullied until he met Kano and Kido in the orphanage. Marry lived alone for 137 years because she was afraid of hurting people. Ene and Konoha actually did become friends with Shintaro and Ayano, but prior to that, they were mostly isolated from all of their peers except for each other due to their respective health conditions. Hibiya's ultra-conservative parents stunted his social skills, and his fixation on Hiyori made him unable to get along with other boys. Hiyori herself seems to like him... but only when he's a convenience to her. Luckily, they all become True Companions.
• "Groundhog Day" Loop: Hibiya and Hiyori, and on a larger scale, all of the characters due to Marry resetting the timeline when the Clearing Eyes Snake kills them. Implied with the rest of the main cast as well.
• Half-Human Hybrid: Shion, Marry's mother, was actually half-human. Thus, Marry is only one-fourth gorgon and three-quarters human.
• Insecurity System: The mall boasts one of the most advanced electronic security systems ever. Yet it's easily hacked and hijacked by the terrorists, and later Ene. In all fairness, however, Ene is essentially a living computer program, there's almost nothing she couldn't hack as long as she has a contact point.
• Inside a Computer System: Ene happens to be living in Shintaro's computer, though she can also inhabit phones and TVs.

• "Not So Different" Remark: Takane to Shintaro. When she lists his negative traits (egotistical, secretive, ill-tempered, and never focused on anything) she realizes that they're exactly the same.
• Ouroboros: The series's plot is based around Ouroboros. This is the reason why snakes are a reaccuring theme, as well as why it's about everyone being "destroyed" and "rebirthed" over, and over, and over again.
  • The Children Record single cover◊ features Ouroboros in the center of a CD.
• Plot-Triggering Death:
  • Ayano's suicide.
  • Even before that, Ayaka's (Ayano's mother) death could be considered one, as Kenjirou's wish to see her again is the only reason the Big Bad of the series can exist in our world.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: Many, if not all, of the characters have this in common.
• Save Scumming: Though what's left of the Gang succeeds in banishing the Snake of Clearing Eyes to the Kagerou Daze at the end of the manga, everyone but Shintaro, Ayano, and Marry are dead. Even though it's what Clearing Eyes wants, Marry resets time anyway, desiring a future where Everybody Lives.
• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: Mental illness is portrayed very realistically in this franchise. To note:
  • Losing all of his friends and then having his crush/best friend (apparently) rise from the dead to blame him for her death naturally drove Shintaro into one hell of a depression, and with no proper therapy, he kept himself locked up in his room for two whole years until he even started to make a recovery.
  • While Seto was able to get Marry to open herself back up to the world to a certain extent, she's still extremely nervous and distrustful around strangers. The rest of the Gang have pretty much accepted that, after 137 years of isolation and being left alone with her own thoughts, there's no curing Marry of her social anxiety.
  • As Ayano and Kano prove, depression has multiple faces and can be incredibly difficult to notice unless one really pays attention. The ones who smile the most might also be the ones closest to breaking down.
• Wham Episode:
  • Lost Time Memory, with its reveal that Ayano had an eye power.
  • Ayano's Happiness Theory's reveal that Ayano was the sister figure to Kido, Seto, and Kano, and the original creator of the Mekakushi-dan.
  • The MekakuCity Records booklet, since it reveals that everyone actually came Back from the Dead because of their eye powers.
  • Mekakucity Actors episode 11. Not only is Shintaro's ability revealed to be the "Recording Eyes" ability, but he's been with it since the end of the first timeline, when Marry bestowed it to him.
• You Can't Fight Fate: Even though the several timelines, that the story consists of, differ from one another; There are some events that will always occur. Haruka/Takane will always turn into Konoha/Ene, Seto will always find Marry (Albeit sometimes before Ayano's death, and sometimes after), Hibiya and Hiyori will be involved in the loop and more.

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