That's the Oni! But don't mind him, he's just here to watch you get freaked out.
Ao Oni has many versions, each rife with potential nightmares.
As a Moments subpage, all spoilers are unmarked. You have been warned.
- The Oni's face is straight out of the Uncanny Valley, easily becoming a Nightmare Face that the game loves exploiting.
- The music
when the Oni is chasing you, which is a looping build-up of "Psycho" Strings and Drone of Dread mixed with a Heartbeat Soundtrack. And the way it abruptly stops once it catches you... - Hiding in a closet or cabinet can help shake the monster off your trail... but also forces you to sit in complete darkness, listening to its heavy breathing as it stands right outside. If you're lucky, you'll eventually hear it open the door and leave... Sometimes, though, in Version 5, it likes to wait, just to see if it can't fake you out. Getting into a wardrobe while it's in the room? Bad idea.
- Even better is that in one version, sometimes while you're hiding in the closet, it sounds the door while still in the room. Better hope it actually left when you poke your head out...
- And then there is a time when the Oni bursts out of a closet to ambush you.
- The jail cutscenes. Sure, the Oni can't get through a locked door... but it can stare you down while shaking the bars. Oh, by the way? Not all jail cells lock. So you might close a barred door and think you're safe, only to have the monster push on through...
- The final cutscene of the first version. Hiroshi, Kazuya and Megumi escape up the well, then go to untie the rope so that the Oni can't follow. The Oni tries to follow by clawing its way up barehanded.
- The Oni's special ways of Leaning on the Fourth Wall. Mainly, its tendency to hide behind text boxes. In version 6, it manages to invade the inventory screen, too.
- Version 5 includes what appears at first to be a Flashback explaining how Takeshi ended up hiding in the wardrobe at the start. It's not. And the Oni's grinning when it busts the door open, exposing a mouth full of jagged teeth...
- In Version 6's ending, a mysterious storekeeper (revealed to be Mika's father in the mobile version) tries to escape the mansion through the front door, but the Oni appears behind him as seen in his own Impending Doom P.O.V., then it switches to the man's POV as the Oni EATS HIM WHOLE while he screams.
- Ao Oni is, like Yume Nikki, a Japanese RPG made by a non-professional. It's a horror game where the hero, Hiroshi and three of his friends gets into an abandoned manor, only to be hunted down by the monster who lives here. With the classical horror-game scenario and the amateurish look of the game, it may not sound and look so creepy. Then you start playing the game... and quickly learn to lock the door every time you enter in a room because the monster (or "Blue Demon" as the title says) can enter in and well... Game Over screen. At the end, Hiroshi runs successfully out of the house... AND IT STILL FOLLOWS YOU OUTSIDE TO GET YOU.
- Moreover, when being chased by the titular monster there is a reason that the screen blacks out when hiding in the closet and if you fail to lock the door, leaving the closet may get you spotted by the monster and hiding back in the closet is a bad move because the monster would open the closet and it's Game Over. The overall silence is very unsettling after a few encounters. You can tell when you encountered the monster and you never know what to expect; not only does one encounter happen inside a closet, the Oni can also hide behind the chat boxes.
- One appeared inside your pause menu. Whoever said that was the ONLY Oni? There is one doing Hindu Squats? At least, until you realize that the mat there is Mika.
- In version 6 getting killed by the Oni turns you into an Oni as well. This results in some horrifying moments as your friends turn out to be monstrosities in disguise.
- Oni Mika is the first one, just standing around and waiting for Hiroshi to approach before she grotesquely transforms.
- Oni Takeshi appears as soon as Hiroshi exits the room that Takeshi hanged himself in. Which means not even dying by the Oni's hand spares you from this fate.
- Oni Takuro is easily the most terrifying reveal, as Takuro seemingly joins your party for a bit, but after solving a puzzle, checking the status screen shows Takuro transformed into an Oni. You have less than a second to run like hell before he gets Hiroshi.
- The Blockman Oni that appears late in the game. Not only does it come completely out of nowhere, but it also likes to charge forward, forcing you to move to the side of it to avoid it. And if you think that you can just go back into the house to avoid it, one of the other Onis appears from the house, cutting you off.
- The Oni's design in the movie. It looks seriously scarred and deformed.
- While it can be Narmy to some, the oni himself in the films can be quite frightening to others, if not only because it's made very apparent that he deeply enjoys hunting and killing. In the first, he uses Voice Changeling twice in the film, both in a mocking sense - especially the first. He pretends to be Mika as he claws through a door, before deciding to mock and laugh at Shun in his own voice. In the sequel, he says not a word, but his glee is made apparent by the numerous Slasher Smiles he makes throughout the film.
- Very late in Version 6, you will enter a large room, only to be greeted by a very large group of very deformed Onis, all horrifying in their own way (ranging from a blue mass covered in eyes, to the aforementioned blockman). Oh, and they leave the jail cell they're in and come after you. And the door locks itself behind you, only unlocking once one of the Onis gets VERY close to killing you. When you do eventually leave, re-entering will reveal that they've all gone.
- In the anime, while almost completely Played for Laughs, none of the characters notice that they're being brutally murdered one by one. Although it's obviously Arbitrary Skepticism up to eleven, if one were to take it straight then it seems as though Ao Oni has the power to be completely unnoticeable... Even as he's brutally murdering his victims.
