Were you an "Angel Hare" child?
Angel Hare is a 2D animated Analog Horror series by The East Patch. You can watch it Here
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The story follows a young man named Jonah, who one day walks into a thrift store and discovers an official VHS copy of an old children's show he used to love: Angel Hare, a 6-episode Christian educational cartoon about the adventures of Francis the Badger and his friend Angel Gabby, the titular angelic hare.
Overcome by nostalgia and an old sense of comfort, he buys the tape, despite already having all the episodes of the original airing of the show recorded back home, and decides to watch it, but he immediately notices that something is...off.
The show as presented on the tape is completely different from the one he remembers. Fortunately, he does have his own recording of the show to compare it to, so he starts uploading comparison videos of the two versions of the show onto YouTube.
From there he finds himself going down the rabbit hole of childhood memories as he slowly starts to realize exactly how strange his old recording actually is, and that Angel Gabby is definitely way more than she seems.
Jonah may have forgotten Angel Hare, but Angel Hare sure hasn't forgotten him.
As part of the 2023 Spooktober Visual Novel Jam, a game based on the series, Angel Hare's Learning Adventure, was released. The game can be downloaded freely here.
This show provides examples of:
- Abusive Parents: Jonah's father. It becomes clear by episode 2 that Angel Gabby was trying to the best of her ability to protect young Jonah from him and give Jonah the strength to endure the abuse. She might have even found some way to get rid of him.
- Ambiguous Situation: When it starts to become clear to Jonah that Angel Gabby and him had planned to do something to his dad, he attempted to look up any incident reports from his hometown around that time. A flood had destroyed all of the records at the municipal building. But regardless, it's implied that whatever happened to his father, Jonah wasn't the one to do it...
- And the Adventure Continues: Season 2 ends with Jonah working with the characters to create a new Angel Hare series to help more children like him.
- Angelic Abomination: While Gabby and Zag take the forms of adorable talking rabbits in the cartoon, it's pretty strongly implied that this is just A Form You Are Comfortable With and their real appearance is more… biblically accurate.
- April Fools' Day: A short uploaded on April 1st featured Jonah possessing a piece of Angel Gabby Lost Media, which turns out to be a magical girl anime featuring Gabby and Zag as humans. Jonah gets roughly three seconds into the opening before exiting out and dropping the file into the recycle bin.
- As the Good Book Says...: Gabby often cites Bible verses to support her lessons. At one point in the VCR recordings, Gabby substitutes a much darker passage from Revelation for the original citation from the scripted episode.
- Bad "Bad Acting": Zag doesn't even try to act while standing in for Gabby, mumbling out his lines in a monotone that wavers between inappropriately stern and totally bored.
- Beneath the Earth: Francis' home is an underground burrow (or sett) in the middle of the forest.
- Benevolent Abomination: It isn't clear exactly what Angel Gabby actually is, but she's a genuinely kind and sweet being who has Jonah's best interests at heart. She's also adorable.
- Black Comedy: Sometimes edges into this, with things like Gabby's treatment of Francis and attempts to coach Jonah through constructing an alibi or hiding a gun while maintaining her cheery "mother hen" persona.
- Breaking the Fourth Wall:
- Angel Gabby does this constantly, especially in Jonah's recording of the show. While in the official VHS copy she only does it in the way most children's show hosts do to address the kids watching at home, in Jonah's copy, she addresses Jonah directly and even seems capable of seeing and hearing what's going on on his side of the TV. It appears she's only capable of doing this when the show is being broadcast.
- This becomes the most blatant in Jonah's third tape, where, as Jonah describes, Gabby breaks character mid-show:Gabby: But remember, Francis, the real Sword of the Spirit isn't a weapon. Ephesians says it's the sharp wit and powerful depth of His word.
Francis: (relieved) Oh, good. (Gabby looks to the camera, before nervously looking to the side) I'm no good at fighting actual battles. Not with these little arms-
Gabby: (talking over Francis) Nod once if he's not coming back for awhile.
- Breather Episode: The viewer mail episodes tend break up more eerie or plot-heavy episodes. Also, the Easter special between season one and two, which eschews the mystery in favor of a comedic episode of Gabby trying (with mixed results) to teach Jonah about egg-painting.
- Butt-Monkey: Francis. He's a Nervous Wreck who in the show is always involved in some disaster or crisis of faith, in the letters segments he seems to be all too aware of the strange things about the show but unable to explain (perhaps for fear of Gabby's anger), and even in the soundtrack video he's trapped in a hot air balloon trying to get Gabby to help (though to be fair to Gabby, she has headphones on and her eyes are closed so she probably doesn't notice his predicament). In the VCR copy of the show, he doesn't come to life when Gabby does and continues to follow the script oblivious to Gabby's deviations from it. In a previously missing episode of the in-universe show - the Easter special - he finally deviates from the script by painting ominous symbols on his Easter eggs, clearly trying to communicate misgivings about the whole arrangement - but even then, he fails.
- By the Lights of Their Eyes: Occurs in Tape 2 when Gabby is demonstrating to Jonah how to hide in the closet.
- The Comically Serious: Although initially worrying, in retrospect, Angel Zag has shades of this. He has the demeanor of a hardboiled detective having no choice but to go undercover as a children's TV show host, and completely phoning it in.
- Cool Big Sis: Based on what is shown of Jonah’s recording of the show, Gabby was this for Jonah as a child.
- Dark and Troubled Past: Jonah was an abused child, growing up in a broken home where he lived in constant fear of his father's beatings. Also implied with Francis; when asked by a letter how he met Gabby, he claims that he was trapped in a terrible situation until he cried out for answers and she appeared to him.
- Deadpan Snarker: Angel Zaggy when he says his last line in "Case 2 - Last Resorts", when Jonah threatens to stop the livestream for the episode he is in.
- Devil, but No God: Inverted. Angel Gabby is present and regularly references Bible verses, as later does Angel Zag, but while Francis states "demon hares" to exist, we haven't seen one. Not even in the game, where one of the minigames is supposed to be demon hare whack-a-mole.
- Disappeared Dad: Jonah's mother raised him alone and he never knew his dad. Or rather, he no longer remembers his dad…
- Disguised Horror Story: Arguably inverted. Beneath the eerie vibe and the tragic terror of Jonah's backstory, the show is ultimately less a horror story and more a gentle character drama about a man dealing with childhood trauma, reconnecting with his sister-figure, and finding strength and hope in his faith.
- Dull Surprise: Zag doesn't much care for having to act out a children's edutainment show. His performance in Angel Hare while standing in for Gabby is thus totally phoned in, with him going through his lines in a dull monotone and visibly rolling his eyes or idly looking around while Francis speaks.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: Throughout the first arc, Francis seems to be simply a cartoon character with no agency of his own, never reacting to Gabby addressing Jonah. Even the fan mail shorts could be justified in-universe as being broadcast back when the show was airing (apart from the use of usernames instead of real names in many cases, or the question asking about Jonah himself). Then come the Easter Episode, he starts painting ominous eggs that would never have flown with the show's target audience, and when Zagzagel shows up, he finally goes completely off script like Gabby had before, even responding to Jonah and noticing how much he's grown since the show was broadcast.
- Easter Episode: "The Easter Tape - Cracked Shells" focuses on Gabby and Francis not only painting eggs for Easter but Francis showing hidden messages through his painted eggs.
- Fake Interactivity: The VHS copy of the show has this, with Gabby pausing for audience response. The VCR copy is more... personalized.
- Fluffy Cloud Heaven: Angel Gabby lives in a house in the clouds, clearly evoking this idea of heaven.
- Formula-Breaking Episode: Out of the first season episodes, Tape 5 is the only one that doesn't involve watching an episode of the Angel Hare series, instead focusing on Jonah visiting his mother.
- Fourth-Wall Mail Slot: Twice per season, Francis (filling in for Gabby, who is apparently supposed to be the one reading them, but is always unavailable whenever it comes up) reads questions from the Youtube comments section as if they’re letters being sent to the show by fans. In the second such episode of season 2, the spot was instead filled by Zag's secretary Francine.
- The Fourth Wall Will Not Protect You: In addition to being able to communicate with the real world, Gabby seems to have the power to affect things in reality to some degree, including erasing traumatic memories, causing floods, and... whatever it is that happened to Jonah's abusive father.
- Foreshadowing: In the first video he talks about how the Angel Hare show was an "escape" for him as a child.
- Freeze-Frame Bonus: The twist behind where Gabby had gone in Season Two can be discerned up to The Reveal by piecing together certain frames of all of the prior episodes that have certain line glitches, letting you composite her scattered image just like Jonah does at the end of Episode 5.
- Gender Flip: Traditionally, Gabriel is male and Zagzagel is female. In this series, it is the other way around.
- Genre Deconstruction: For Analog Horror itself. Unlike many of it's fellows, in Angel Hare, the supernatural elements interacting with the world through analog media are totally benevolent, with the horror coming instead from the horrible but mundane living situation Jonah had in his childhood. Further, the series subverts the Mind Screw endemic to a lot of Analog Horror — starting out strange only to gradually explain things in a coherent manner — and also shows the aforementioned supernatural beings struggling to adapt to more modern, non-analog types of media.
- Genre Savvy: Zaggy assures Francis while they’re in Wylde Hare that the single newspaper article will contain a clue to Gabby’s whereabouts, because "that’s how it works here."
- Good Is Not Nice: VHS Gabby is a standard kind Christian kids' show character extolling the virtues of optimism, friendship and kindness. VCR Gabby, on the other hand, is apathetic towards forgiveness (though she was really only telling Jonah he shouldn't have to forgive someone who wronged him if he doesn't want to, which isn't a bad lesson to teach, but certainly not what one would normally expect from a character like her) and endorses creating an alibi for crimes (although she does it in a way that technically doesn't contradict the "lying is wrong" message of the episode she was in by suggesting one where he wouldn't have to lie about where he was), as well as implicit murder, destruction of evidence and memory wiping, but still seems to be caring and supportive.
- Gray Rain of Depression: This is the general theme of the second episode of the in-universe Angel Hare series. Gabby has to help Francis to cheer up after the rain falls, and again later when the same rain turns out to have flooded the path to his home.
- Guardian Angel: Gabby declares herself to be Jonah's Guardian Angel at one point. How true this is is left up to interpretation.
- Hardboiled Detective: Zag is revealed to be one of these in his original show, fitting his more serious and logical nature.
- Hard Truth Aesop: When Gabby finally loses her patience with Jonah's abusive father and clearly resolves to kill him if that's what Jonah wants, she bluntly tells Jonah that it's fine to not forgive someone who genuinely doesn't deserve it and it'd be more painful to try.
- Hello, [Insert Name Here]: A subversion: Angel Hare's Learning Adventure lets you enter your name at the beginning, but this is immediately ignored, and the player is instead referred to as Jonah.
- Humans Are the Real Monsters: The real twist and horror of the series isn't the eldritch force that's communicating through being secretly malevolent like most Analog Horror, but that they are a wholly benevolent Guardian Angel that was sincerely trying to help Jonah through their situation in dealing with the real monster that was tormenting them in the past: Jonah's own abusive father who is as frighteningly mundane threat as they come compared to the supernatural scope of the series.
- Inconsistent Spelling: The name of the publishing company that got the rights to produce the VHS tapes, as well as its CEO (both previously featured in The West Patch) is alternately spelled as "Keith" or "Kieth" in various sources. (Tape 5, which first references the company by its full name within this series, includes one letter spelling it "Kieth" and another one spelling it "Keith".)
- In-Series Nickname: Angel Zag is nicknamed "Angel Zaggy" by Francis, which annoys the angel.
- Intrepid Fictioneer: In season 2, it's eventually discovered that Zag wasn't originally a character from Angel Hare, but rather the protagonist of Wylde Hare, a noir detective cartoon that predates Angel Hare. After tracking down a film reel of the older show, Jonah is able to let Zag and Francis travel between shows. Characters and objects that travel between shows are altered to suit whichever world they're in, so while Zag and Francis are cartoon animals in the Angel Hare world, they become humans in the Wylde Hare world. Francis' drawing also converts into a newspaper.
- Jesus Taboo: Averted, Angel Gabby is explicitly the Archangel Gabriel, the bible is quoted multiple times, a portrait of Jesus can be seen in Case 4, and so on.
- Laser-Guided Amnesia: At first his lack of real memories about the show is attributed to Jonah only having been a child at the time he first watched it, but then we find out that he doesn't even remember that he had a father.
- Limited Animation: The show runs on this, with its low-budget, UPA sort of feel. Notably, her "flying" cycle moves only her wings and not much moves beyond her mouth when she's explaining things. She breaks out of it with a visible glitch into lifelike motion at the very end of season 1 to talk to Jonah.
- Logging onto the Fourth Wall: The Angel Hare Haven message board was briefly shown on screen at one point. It's mostly used by fans to post reminiscences about Angel Hare as if it were a real TV show from the past.
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Mandela Effect: Averted. The protagonist finds tapes of his favorite childhood show as an adult, and upon rewatching them, finds them to be very different than he remembers. Comparing them side by side makes it clear that this trope is not in effect; The tapes really are different, and his own are custom-made. - Mama Bear: Angel Gabby grows increasingly protective of Jonah as the series goes on. It's strongly implied she has something to do with the disappearance of Jonah's abusive father. Though it's never explained what she did or how.
- The Masquerade: Gabby apparently treats the show as this alone while it's live, as she abruptly goes off script the moment the adults leave the room. When she realizes she's being watched on livestream she nervously tries to follow the script while glancing at the fourth wall before recognizing Jonah.
- Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: Subverted. Tape 5 initially seems to imply that Gabby may or may not even be alive beyond Jonah's imagination at the time and current hallucinations, stimulated by watching other violent media, and that he was the one responsible for what happened to his own father… and then in Tape 6, Jonah films himself livestreaming the first episode of the show to see if he can talk to Angel Gabby again, and it works, confirming her to be real. After that the subversion is repeated again, as while Gabby is undeniably a supernatural entity, it's unclear if she truly is a servant of the Christian God, or if it's simply A Form You Are Comfortable With for a Christian child like Jonah, until later episodes (as well as the creators confirming their devout Christian faith) make it clear that Gabby really is a divine warrior of Christ.
- Melting-Film Effect: This occurs at the end of Season 2's second Bonus Case (which takes place in Wylde Hare, a show which is being played on a film projector).
- Mind Screwdriver: The Mandela Catalogue/Angel Hare Gabriel alignment swap short, of all things, does this for anyone uncertain about Season 1. It makes it clear that Gabriel's actions, while dark, had pure intentions, unlike her Mandela Catalogue counterpart, who would have gotten Jonah to do it all himself... and practice on a child.
- Minimalist Cast: In-universe, Gabby and Francis seem to be the only characters in the show. Francis insists there are other woodland creatures around in the letters, but can't find any when he looks. Tape 6 includes a butterfly, but it seems to be just that, not a speaking role. The only real-world characters ever shown are Jonah and his mother (since his dad mysteriously vanished).
- Eventually in "Case 1 - Do You Know This Rabbit?", there is a new angel hare, named Angel Zag. But even then, it's later revealed that he doesn't originate as an Angel Hare character, but as a detective from a different cartoon altogether.
- Mood Dissonance: Gabby tends to keep up her gentle, loving tone even when getting into very dark subject matter like encouraging Jonah to hide from his abusive father or secure a weapon to defend himself with.
- Mood Whiplash: The ending of Angel Hare's Learning Adventure. Most of the game has the atmosphere of a Disguised Horror Story; a Hello, [Insert Name Here] opening ignores the player's input, a minigame immediately goes Off the Rails, a scrambled word game appears to have the answer of "TEACHER" but turns out to be "CHEATER", and so on. It all builds up to Gabby deciding to punish Francis, standing over him with a mallet in her hands, her shadow cast upon his fearful face...and then Gabby just lightly taps him with the mallet while a comedic "bonk" sound effect plays, with a completely fine Francis promising to stop running from his inner demons.
- New Media Are Evil: Tape 5 indicates that Jonah's mother had been looking into the effects of TV on children, apparently in the belief that Angel Hare had somehow caused him to become violent. However, overall the series does not present this view, and by the end of season 2 Jonah has started utilizing the internet to help Gabby become an even greater force for good than she was as a TV show.
- Nostalgia Filter: The deconstruction of this trope, as well as the necessities of moving on from the past, is one of the main themes of the series, as the first season explores the good (from Angel Gabby) and the bad (from HIM) of Jonah's childhood, which makes him realize that his experience with the show wasn't as peachy as he remembered it to be. The second season has Jonah realize that his need to see Gabby again had inadvertently put her in danger.
- Off the Rails:
- The first major clue for Jonah about the show's true nature comes in his recorded copy of the second episode, when Gabby abandons a scene with Francis to return to her house, in order to teach Jonah how to make his room feel safe.
- At first, the VCR recording of the third episode seems to have broken the trend of the previous two, as it's just Gabby teaching Francis about the Sword of the Spirit. Then, right as Francis is in the middle of talking, Gabby directly says to Jonah "Nod once if he's not coming back for awhile."
- Ominous Visual Glitch: A non-indicative one. Gabby is often accompanied by glitches and static, which usually indicates the bad guy in Analog Horror properties. Here, it's just an indication of her supernatural properties, and no actual malice.
- Only Known by Their Nickname: VHS Gabby is only ever called that and even refers to herself that way when introducing herself to the viewers. She only reveals her full name to be Gabriel in the VCR copy when introducing herself to Jonah for the first time. Similarly, Zag is only referred to by his fuller names, Zag Wylde and Zagzagel, later on in season 2.
- Our Angels Are Different: Mainly in that they are (usually) anthropomorphic hares, who can only interact with the world through cartoons. One of the fan letters asks if there are other angel animals, but Francis avoids answering.
- Promoted Fanboy: An In-Universe example. At the end of season 2, Jonah apparently either works for, or re-founded from scratch, Wreath of Life, the company that originally produced the Angel Hare show. Instead of just being a fan, he's now in charge of broadcasting the show online to the world so that Gabby can help people.
- Pun-Based Title: Gabby is, indeed, an angel who is a hare. "Angel hair", besides a type of pasta, is another term for tinsel, probably the in-universe pun on the name. However, it's also an alleged sticky substance often seen around sightings of the Virgin Mary...or UFO encounters.
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Real Song Theme Tune: The ending song of Case 1 is 80’s group Masquerade’s "Guardian Angel." - Record Needle Scratch:
- Happens during Case 2, cutting off the background music, after Jonah threatens to end the livestream, which finally gets Zag to realize Jonah's running the broadcast and engage with him.
- The background music in "Bonus Case - First Files" suddenly goes silent when Francis states what he does for a living (he's an actuary), and comes back on immediately after.
- Religious Horror: Subverted. While the series does occasionally give Gabby and Zag some unsettling moments, they're both genuinely benevolent, and while the existence of demons is alluded to, they never make an appearance. The only evils present in the series come from mundane humans.
- Rewatch Bonus:
- This is basically the series' key trope; noticing something was off with the copies of "Angel Hare" he bought at the thrift store, Jonah decided to compare them against the copies he had recorded as a kid. It soon becomes clear to Jonah that not only was Gabby explicitly talking to him during those recordings, but the two of them eventually came up with a plan to do something to his dad (who he forgot he had).
- Throughout the second season, including the bonus episodes, there are brief frames of black lines covering the screen. The end of Case 5 reveals that putting them all together reassembles Gabby, who had fractured herself while trying to help the thousands upon thousands of troubled kids she could now reach through the internet.
- Stylistic Suck: The unaltered VHS Angel Hare show is a very accurate depiction of a low-budget, saccharine preschool Christian edutainment show, with simplistic plots, awkwardly done Fake Interactivity, rough animation, and constant quoting of Bible verses to convey lessons. Wylde Hare similarly imitates old action cartoons with very stiff animation. Zag's own performance in Angel Hare while filling in for Gabby leaves much to be desired.
- Subverted Kids' Show: Played with. The version of the show on the VHS Jonah bought at the thrift store is a completely normal Christian themed children's show à la VeggieTales. The version he recorded on TV as a kid is much more surreal and unnerving, but not in the way one would normally expect. The horror doesn’t come from the show itself, but from what it reveals about Jonah’s past.
- Suddenly Voiced: After all of his narration had been represented as text-only throughout the series, we finally hear Jonah speak during the livestream at the end of season 1.
- Summoning Ritual: Jonah attempts one just by livestreaming the show and calling out to Gabby. It works, to both parties' surprise.
- Superdickery: The thumbnails and video titles paint a far more sinister picture of Gabby and the episode's contents than what actually transpires in them.
- The Stinger: Case 6, the season 2 finale, ends with the Angel Hare opening title sequence running over the end credits, followed by Jonah (now wearing a Wreath of Life hat), Zag, and Gabby being surprised by the appearance of a loading screen on a separate TV.
- The Television Talks Back: This is the primary form of supernatural occurrence in the series. Jonah's VCR recordings indicate that, while he watched Angel Hare as a child, Angel Gabby was able to interact with him and perceive happenings on his side of the screen. Eventually, Jonah realizes that the effect only works during live broadcasts, so if he livestreams the show online, he can talk to Gabby again. In season 2, Francis (who could only follow the show's script during season 1), as well as Zag, also have this ability.
- The Unreveal: Francis' viewer mail segments have a tendency to answer little to no questions, certainly not in a satisfactory manner.
- The 'Verse: The series shares the real-world part of its setting with the creators' previous work, The West Patch; this includes Kieth Publishing being a distributor of the Angel Hare TV series, and Jonah being the son of Dr. Whitman, who appeared interviewing Giles Kieth in the earlier series. Both series also include similar elements of anomalous behavior occurring in nostalgic cartoons.
- Welcome to Corneria: While Gabby breaks character in the VCR recordings to talk with Jonah, Francis doesn't and just keeps delivering his lines like nothing is happening, something that visibly annoys Gabby at points and often requires her to talk over him.
- Whack-a-Monster: The first minigame in Angel Hare's Learning Adventure tasks the player with using a mallet to help Francis deal with an infestation of demon hares. The real plot of the game kicks off when no demon hares show up, but Francis decides to give you the reward for winning anyway.
- Wham Episode: "Case 1 - Do You Know This Rabbit?" reveals that Angel Gabby disappeared, and hadn't returned despite Jonah keeping the stream going for six days straight waiting for her. After that, a new angel hare appears to Francis, who seems to be much larger than Gabby, is a male, has gray fur, dark wings, and wears a red robe. Jonah seems to show his dislike for the new angel hare, but feels the need to keep watching to find out what happened to Gabby.
- In the following episode, the new Angel Hare, Zag, confronts Jonah after he threatens to end the livestream. Apparently, he's been looking for Gabby too...
- Wham Line: "Tape 2 - Angel Hare's Cursed Lessons uncut" contains a two-layered one in the form of Gabby telling Jonah he doesn't have to feel afraid hiding in his closet, "even if he finds you". The line on its own counts for this trope, but then we have Jonah's reaction:
- "Case 2 - Last Resorts":Zag: "I came to find her, genius. What are you doing?"
- "Case 2 - Last Resorts":
When I'm in danger, visit my home.
Precious Defender, please visit my home!
Precious Defender, please visit my home!
