WMG / The Lost Village

If there will be a proper antagonist in the story, it's going to be Dahara

• In a story about personal secrets and "past lives" where everyone is at least double-faced (or implied to be) we have a person that doesn't seem to have any trait or do any action that won't fit his showman persona. In other words, he's portrayed as a straight-faced person in a crew of double-faced characters, and that means he's the only one person that completely stands out.
  • Jossed on episode 10, as it seems that this role is actually Koharun's.

Masaki is evil or likes to play victim

Whether she is covertly evil or she likes being treated with care due to provoked victimhood, Masaki is going to cause trouble during the series. The opening is intentionally misleading (her prominence is not due to her goodness, but due to her antagonism), and her cutesy behavior is all an act. Speedstar (Hayato) sees through it, as does everyone else in the group, except for Mitsumune, who is oblivious.

• Episode 1: She faked being distressed by the song and being sick, even provoking herself to vomit on the driver. The reason could be to try to delay the group or to cause an accident, to make herself a pitiful victim everyone should treat with care.
• Episode 2: She whispers strangely before entering Nanakimura, hinting that she knows more than she lets on. Considering the village has been abandoned for a year, that's very damning. She might even have been an inhabitant before she joined the tour, she could have sent the anonymous email to Koharun...
  • She whispers her cousin's name.
• Episode 3: She says Yottsun left her behind, that she noticed nothing wrong, but is found in the forest crying. Yottsun wanted to take advantage of her as well, but she denies it (so they will blame her and call her a liar). She gets extremely angry at Mitsumune for defending her, because she enjoyed the way they were ostraticing her. She possibly didn't kill Yottsun herself, but her survival against his killer (hinted to be a monster) can be seen to imply she knows how things in Nanakimura really work.
• Episode 4: She says they should stay in the village, hinting that it is safer and she knows more than she's telling, but passing it as a "feeling" she has, so nobody believes her and more than half of the group leaves.
• Episode 5: She lights a fire expertly so it is contained when she goes to rescue Mitsumune; that's a mighty suspicious skill to have if she's innocent. Koharun indicates she suspects her of something...
• Episode 6: She doesn't seem to perceive anything odd in the forest. Everyone else does. Koharun suspects her based on records of a disappeared girl named Masaki, as well as the town's favourite but creepy lullaby.
• Episode 7: She can't see the Tokimune monster, she claims the tunnel will lead out and back to their old lives, and she acts nice to Mitsumune when she had acted so cold before. The rest of the group captures her and believes her to be an apparition, she demands the attention Mitsumune drew to himself defending her back to herself, and she declares she will tell them the truth.
• Episode 8: She doesn't tell a coherent truth, but she gets kidnapped by the bus driver before she can try to make sense of all of it, lies or not. However, she has been in Nanakimura before, or a similar place with the same symbols and emptiness. She's still hiding stuff and making excuses for it as she goes.
• Opening: By the end of the opening (funny), Masaki can be seen running back into Nanakimura. It could hint she's coming back to her real home. Nobody else can be seen even at the distance, she could be the Final Girl by the end of the series, go back to the outside world, and bring more people to her hometown.

Basically, I believe she's playing the Wounded Gazelle Gambit game, but her motives are unclear: evil/knowledgeable or wants attention.

• Her evilness is jossed, but the circumstances as of episode 11 leave the attention grab motive up in the air, until we find out why Reiji is her Nanaki monster and she seems unaware.

Masaki is a story scapegoat

The opposite of all of the above. I don't like Masaki, but she might actually be good, and I might be biased because she felt so fake in the first episode.

• Confirmed, she isn't responsible for anything, and is just looking for Reiji.

The bus driver is dead

After they left him in his bus alone with all their wallets, he was found by the "bear" and died shortly after. The "bear" took his identity, as it is actually a shapeshifter.

• Jossed.

Valkana, Lion and/or Jack are the real protagonists

And Mitsumune the Bland is just a bystander in the end, a point of view Decoy Protagonist. Notice how episode 3 went in depth with Valkana, some hints for Jack included; both had major involvements in the whole episode's plot. Lion, according to the episode 4 preview, will be focused on next, but has already been highlighted in the previous episodes a lot more than other members of the cast.

• Episode 4 turns out to be a case of Never Trust a Trailer.

Hayato doesn't exist

And he's Mitsumune's Imaginary Friend. So far the only people aside from Mitsumune to actually mention him have been Lion and Dahara. Hayato pulling Mitsumune aside to tell him to "Do what I say" was pretty conspicuous.

Granted this theory pretty much goes belly-up if anyone else actually interacts with him over the course of the series.

• And as of Episode 4, it seems it has.
  • In other words, Jossed

Manbe, Piitan or both will die shortly after they got split up

As soon as Manbe and Piitan get split up it won’t take very long before one of them disappears/dies. It’s not very uncommon to see the couple be one of the first victims. It can lead to nice plottwists as it influenced the surviving one a lot.

• Jossed, they do seem to split up, but don't kill each other.

Whatever happens, Valkana is innocent

He’s aggressive, brute and would be very easily mistaken for a bad guy. Also, he seems like a person that wouldn’t share information he discovered through his own investigation immediately. He’s the kind of character that becomes suspicious by knowing something others don’t or by refusing to work together with the other people. However, I believe he has a strong sense of justice. Unless the creators use him as a paradoxal trope (= it’s that predictable that he’d do something wrong, that nobody expect him to), I highly doubt he’ll develop some antagonist role.

• He reminded me a little bit of Marco Owen too.
• From episode 1, even if he's agressive and the tour people don't like that, I have felt that he's like one of the few good characters present, broken by things not caused by himself and just honestly disappointed by society. However, he may be innocent, but feel guilty on his own; see his reaction to Yottsun.
• Confirmed.

It'd be very likely to see Hayato developing an antagonist role

• At the end he had a very vague reason for joining (the village interested him) and we know little to nothing about his motives even though he’s the best friend of the main character. Yes, I know, Mitsumune is vague as well, but it’s very unlikely to have a mc developing an antagonist role. It happens though, but on very, very rare occasions.
  • As of Episode 7, this has been confirmed, but he does a Heel–Face Turn in the end.

Manbe and Piitan will kill each other

• Follow up for the above troper that says they might die after they split up: they will be the direct cause of each other's deaths, their supposed "forbidden love" being just lust or a silly young crush with no substance, easily broken by the stress of the situation.
  • Jossed

Everything after the bridge is an illusion

• The title's kanji read as "illusion house", and actual confirmed illusions have started showing up as of episode 4 (the bus driver seeing his dead daughter; the cliff, the circling forest, the train tracks and tunnel... the giant Mitsumune). It's also possible everything between the bridge and the village is affected supernaturally, since no incidents have happened at the town and everything has been at the edge of the forest or within.
• Jossed, The village is the only place where the monsters can take physical form.

The Town is a place where everybody is forced to face themselves

• The village was meant to be a trial to the ones that go to it. Whatever force is behind it forces people to face themselves and their past so as to overcome then and to come back to their lifes and face their past. The fact that everybody hears and sees different things in the tunnel might mean that they were going through different things and had to deal with them.
  • Confirmed in episode 8 and explained in episode 10.

No one is actually dead

They weren't able to recover Yottsun's body, and we haven't even seen Judgeness's body.

• Confirmed, Judgeness reappears in episode 8 and Yottsun in episode 10.

Maimai and Mitsumune will be a couple

Whether during the series, or a hint during the ending/resolution. The series is already so cliche, as is their relationship, so it has to happen.

• Jossed, Maimai and Mitsumune not even talk later on and Mitsumune seem to be crushing on Masaki.

Jack has successfully fled

He no longer is in the mountain area or anywhere near Nanaki. He can be the only survivor in the end, or join other escapees if there are any, or the one who calls for help if he cares. But he's definitely already out and safe. He also was not there when the group trying to leave were lost in the forest, that was just an illusion.

• Jossed as of Episode 9.

The cause of the illusions is some sort of disease or parasite the characters contracted when they entered the village.

The situation here seems pretty similar to Hinamizawa Syndrome in Higurashi: When They Cry with the paranoia and mental instability.

• Most likely Jossed in episode 10. Mitsumune encounters a man outside who'd been inside and it is implied from his experience that the village is supernatural. Symptoms only occur within the village and those that depart the village have either conquered or lost various past traumas responsible for their behavior.

Mitsumune will end up like "Kamisama"

He did not accept his Nanaki, just like the professor, and Nanaki Village denied him direct entry on episode 11. If his Nanaki is still around, he might save himself, but...

• Jossed, he accepted his Nanaki.

Koharun's Nanaki monster

It's "benign" like what happened to Masaki and the bus driver, which is why she can just stroll around growing people's own traumas left and right. As long as she doesn't accept it or reduce it, she can stay until whatever end conclusion she's looking for arrives. She also can't grow it due to its nature, so she can't be her own lab rat like "Kamisama" was for his own visit... that's why she got 30 people to come along, knowing at least a couple should be vulnerable enough.

• Jossed, she is just as human as the others.

Epileptic tree version of the Koharun's Nanaki monster WMG

Her Nanaki is divided in two, Masaki and Reiji. Also she's the real Masaki, because why not? And her Reiji was "Kamisama", to increase the WMG's Jossability.