Due to the nature of Nazo no Eizou - CM Channel and Analog Horror in general, all spoilers are unmarked, as it would make discussion impossible. Please watch the webseries HERE
before continuing.

Nazo no Eizou - CM Channel
(謎の映像・CMチャンネル, lit. "Mysterious Video & Advert Channel") is a Japanese Analog Horror YouTube channel created by a fellow named Maki Kanaho. The videos are presented as VHS recordings of Public Service Announcements and Emergency Broadcasts from an alternate Japan's Government Public Relations Office aired at an unnamed, government-owned TV station and brought to our world.
The recordings form a story about the decadent state of this alternate Japan after a Buddhist-Shinto cult influenced the government into imposing a totalitarian regime under the leadership of artificial Buddhas. As the story progresses, the PSAs and notices become stranger and more ominous, bordering on Religious Horror as the sect's influence starts seeping into Japanese society and driving the country to ruin. A playlist of all PSAs and commercials can be watched here
. Another playlist that tells the story of how the channel came to be can be watched here
.
It has a sub-channel named Maki Kanaho Ishou Denmou
(蒔迦な穂意匠电网, "Maki Kanaho's Design Network"), which is a silent manga focusing on the story of a three-faced boy named Yuta and his stepbrother Susumu, both born in one of the cult's monasteries and going out to discover the secrets of their births. This story provides extra context for the strange commercials and segments in the main channel and how the cult took over Japan. A third channel simply called Maki Kanaho
also exists and serves as a platform for QnAs about the series and its lore.
Moreover, Kanaho also has a Pixiv account
, where they post the strange symbols and pictures used in the main channel's commercials, as well as updates on their secondary channel's story.
Nazo no Eizou - CM Channel provides examples of the following tropes:
- Abandoned Playground: "Unknown Advert at Late Night"
shows an empty swingset in which one of the empty swings moves. Shortly into the video, it's revealed to be an ad from the Tokyo Child-Recycling Center directed to parents, asking them if their child is asleep before cutting to the TCRC's logo with the legend, "We'll be there to pick them up in one hour" above it. - Alternate Calendar: While the alternate Japan still uses the Gregorian calendar, they strictly use national eras to determine the year, with the latest videos taking place in Year C (100) of the Kōbun era, which coincides with 2025. Therefore, this not only implies that Daitenfu overthrew Emperor Taishō and ended his era one year earlier, but the fact that a Japanese era managed to last that long is an alarming sign that Daitenfu used supernatural means to stay in power.
- Alternate History:
- The alternate Japan's current era is named Kōbun (光文, lit. "light style"), whose current year is 100 (rendered in this video
as the Roman numeral C) and coincides with 2025 in our world. In other words, it starts in 1925. Therefore, this could mean that Daitenfu overthrew Emperor Taishō one year before our world's end date for said era. - The Japanese script reforms never happened in this universe, as evidenced by the use of archaic kanji in every single one of the channel's videos. However, they use liberal amounts of random symbols (be these foreign or hentaigana
) either in replacement for proper hiragana, or simply getting in the way of reading. Later on, the videos start using Simplified Chinese versions of kanji mixed in, or even just the radicals. - It's also implied that Japan is even more tectonically active than it is in real life, with earthquakes being so destructive that some of Japan's prefectures (Yamanashi, Gunma, and Saitama, to be specific) were completely destroyed and absorbed by forest regrowth.
- The alternate Japan's current era is named Kōbun (光文, lit. "light style"), whose current year is 100 (rendered in this video
- Amusement Park of Doom:
- "Tokyo Kids' Land"
, an ad for the titular amusement park, seems innocuous at first, but the context, the ominous wording ("once you enter you won't come back", "good meat comes from good experiences", "make final memories for your kids"), and the creepy logo suggest otherwise. - "Information on New Attractions"
, another ad from TKL, showcases an "attraction" called the "Dream Box", which has a capacity for 13 people and a honorarium of 350,000 yen (and 410,000 in exorcism fees), shilling it as a "warp to another world". However, the notice reveals the machine has a failure rate of 42%, with the complications being: body merging, loss of body parts, behavior alteration, and deformities. Therefore, it recommends using twins or siblings to improve the survival rate.
- "Tokyo Kids' Land"
- And I Must Scream: "I Will Clear You of Your Grudge"
lists "vegetative state" among the ways the store can kill a target of the customer's hatred. Furthermore, it's also the cheapest curse at 90,000 yen. - Animal Gender-Bender: The pregnant, birthing cow at the start of "Reincarnation"
is revealed to have been an 89-year-old man named Yuji Hanawamoto in its past life. - Apocalyptic Underground Refuge: "A New Way of Living"
proper starts with a notice advising people to not only live in buildings of no more than two floors (or at least seek evacuation shelters) at first, then advises to live in basements if possible, refrain from approaching windows which people could pass through, avoid iron towers and chimneys while stopping those who try to climb, and stay away from Tokyo. However, this only applies to the alter-Japanese citizens; foreigners are allowed to use airports and ships for leaving the country. - Arc Symbol: Government Public Relations' logo is a modified version
of the Government Seal of Japan (specifically, the go-shichi no kiri
emblem). Later on, as the story unfolds with each segment, it's revealed the symbol belongs to Daitenfu, a Buddhist cult running the Japanese government, promoting Human Sacrifice and experimenting with deformed babies to recreate Buddhas and extend the cult members' lifespans. - Armor-Piercing Question: "Let's Try Answering"
starts off as a question competition asking the viewer: why they work, what they do when making a mistake, and what should they be at work. After the questionee selected all "A" answers, which are selfless, the ad cuts to black with the caption: "How long will you remain a child?" before fading into another caption reading, "Don't underestimate society". - Auction of Evil: The Government Public Relations Office of this universe holds human and human-organ auctions, airing notices about them to invite people into such events.
- "To All Bidders"
is a notice from GPR that shows the winning bids of a past auction, showing a list of body organs, the number of bidders, and their price in yen. - "We'll Keep You Updated in the Progress"
is about a human auction held by the GPR, showing pictures of babies and kids, the number of visitors, and their price in yen, along with a countdown showing the remaining time for the bidders, all set to cheerful music.
- "To All Bidders"
- Baby Factory: As expected of the hardline-misogynistic dystopia that is the alternate Japan, the only role viable for girls is to become mothers and bear as many children as possible, and nothing else; even the only job available for them is related to this purpose as it means working as a Breeding Slave at a literal baby factory, complete with chimneys, live-in rooms, and all.
- Bad People Abuse Animals: "Animal A**se Eradication Campaign"
from the Tokyo Special Ward shows three people who abused animals as the narrator explains their motives before voicing their intentions to punish them. - Bait-and-Switch: "Every six minutes a person will..."
seems to be a PSA from the Public Relations Office, but it turns out to be a trailer for the secondary channel before cutting to the GPR/Daitenfu logo. - Barefoot Suicide: Implied in "Paradise is Just Around the Corner"
, when the PSA cuts to the train station's platform and a pair of shoes suddenly appear on it, implying that someone took their own life in there before the titular caption fades in. - Bestiality Is Depraved: "Y"
starts off with a wedding on the way, complete with shots of the bride... and then the PSA reveals the groom is a chimpanzee, with the ad cutting to black with the caption, "If we keep up like this, we may as well marry and have kids with chimpanzees." As hinted by the title, the ad's actual message is in support of the tenuous theory that the human Y chromosome is disappearing over time. - Big Brother Is Watching: "I always watching you"
[sic] is a sequence of ominous pictures of things and animals looking at the viewer, culminating with a drawing reminiscent of a daruma doll's design. - Bizarre Alien Biology:
- "The Wonders of Living Things"
, a commercial that shills a freakshow on conjoined animals, not only shows the anatomical drawing of a pig with an upside-down human skull where its pelvic bone should be, but it ends with the drawing of a deer that's revealed to have an upside-down human face in its rear end. - "June is the Month for the Abolition of Death Penalty"
shows the anatomical, (thankfully) simplified drawing of a defecating giraffe/Kirin with an upside-down human head whose jaws are open around its rectum.
- "The Wonders of Living Things"
- Bleak Abyss Retirement Home: In "Such an Era is Coming Soon"
, one of the consequences of dementia's inevitability in the alternate Japan is that even retirement-home caregivers have it, which compounded with the horrid conditions caused by Daitenfu's tyranny, makes all alter-Japanese retirement homes into miserable hellholes. - Brainwashed and Crazy: "I Will Clear You of Your Grudge"
lists "murder" as one of the ways the store can curse a target of the customer's hatred, and it's the most expensive curse at 729,000 yen. That said, the curse may be implied to compel anyone nearby to the victim into murdering them. - Bread, Eggs, Milk, Squick: At the end of "Election Count Report"
, after Maruhi Ohtsu is selected to be a "Human Pillar", it cuts to an announcement for her gift-giving party, in which there will be a karaoke competition, a farewell party, and soul removal. - Breather Episode: "This Month's ***"
seems to be an innocent ad advertising a chicken restaurant located near the Shin-Akasaka station, but it's subverted when the female narrator talks about how it's great for old-time celebrations, New Year's parties, and end-of-abstinence periods, with the overall context of the setting revealing a sinister implication behind this restaurant. - Breeding Cult: Apart from professing a twisted syncretism of Buddhism and Shinto, promoting Human Sacrifice, and running the Japanese government, Daitenfu is implied to be this with their demands for people to have kids as much as possible. While the PSAs they air via Government Public Relations claim it's to counter the imminent population decline for 2050, the cult's real intentions is to increase chances of deformed/conjoined births and thus make artificial Buddhas out of them, going as far as subjecting women to screwed-up fertility treatments so their babies will be eligible as Buddhas.
- Breeding Slave: Implied in "Long-Term Part-Time Job Application"
which is presented as an announcement from Government Public Relations supposedly directed at aspiring mothers to work at a factory. The applicants are required to be between 18 and 25 years old, able to birth healthy and lots of children, and be fine with disappearing for more than one year. While it also shills private rooms and all meals provided, there's a caveat that warns that the applicant cannot choose her partner while showing the dorms, which look like prison cells. Moreover, the notes near the end not only warn that the applicants will have their faces blurred in photographs for privacy, but the amount of money will vary depending on the baby's gender, and that they cannot cancel. - Brown Note: The "Nature of Tokyo (Island City, Former Yamanashi Prefecture)" video CD shown in "Apology and Request for Product Recall"
from the Tokyo Special Ward is implied to be this, with the flashing messages warning that those who viewed it already died and imploring viewers to not watch the video. After the caption issuing apology fades, another warns that they waive responsibility for any repost of the video in file-sharing sites. - Cargo Cult: The Daitenfu cult invokes this trope by creating a nuclear bomb named Jinkou Dainichi Nyorai (人工大日如来, lit. "Artificial Vairocana"), which they portray as a Buddha watching over people's actions. This serves as a ploy to cow the Japanese people into submission, especially when one ad
reveals it has a half-life of 4.5 billion years.note - Childless Dystopia: Some ads aggressively call people to have as much children as possible to counter the population decline for 2050, with the Government Public Relations Office launching PSAs in an attempt to defy this trope.
- "Enjoy this Limited Life"
is set to soothing music, with a caption congratulating humanity before displaying another caption that announces all live births have come to an end, and therefore tells viewers to enjoy this limited life while they still can. - "It's Your Fault"
displays shots of a city, empty parks, empty houses, all while bragging that in Japan there's no kidnapping, noise pollution, nor child abuse. The real kicker comes when the ad fades into the shot of an empty classroom, with the caption revealing there are no children living in Japan, blaming the viewer for it.There are no children living here. This is your fault. - "Children are an endangered species"
displays shots of endangered species against a red background, such as the Iriomote cat, the Japanese crested ibis, the polar bear, the pacific bluefin tuna, all set to a rendition of "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star". However, the music stops when the PSA displays the last image, which is of a little girl. The music resumes after a while as the last caption warns that children will be an "endangered species" by year 2050. - "Let's Do It A Lot"
is a notice from the Statistics Bureau and the Home Ministry (whose name in Japanese, 内務省, is censored) that announces it's baby-making month, exhorting viewers to have lots of babies while displaying the org's logo.
- "Enjoy this Limited Life"
- Commercial Switcheroo: "Born"
is one of the most harrowing examples In-Universe. The video starts off as an innocent PSA on the miracle of life, but everything goes to hell when it mentions the baby has two faces. The PSA cuts to a caption in white text against a blue background declaring, "The living Buddha is coming" before cutting to an empty maternity ward before said baby lets out distorted, double baby cries offscreen as the title fades in. - Conjoined Twins:
- "Brothers"
is a sequence of shots showing: a plate with two straws and three pairs of chopsticks, three face masks, four finger-caps with two at the center and one on each side, and three pairs of glasses joined at the side. When it cuts to the last shot, three toothbrushes in a single glass, a caption reveals, "His two (younger) brothers are behind his ears," before showing the GPR end card. - "Tomorrow's Earthquake Information"
, as the title says, reports the intensity, the time, and the place where earthquakes will occur. However, it also shows pictograms of conjoined twins while bringing the information before a caption reveals that only seven pairs survived to Japan, with the oldest being one year and seven months. - "Pictogram"
, a revamped version of the above ad made by Government Public Relations in collaboration with the Artificial Vairocana sect shows us pictograms representing conjoined twins, each pair's names, and their ages, until we're presented with the last kid, who is joined at the head with only his brother's head, implying the latter is dead. Then it shows a caption that all of them are going to share the same fate until they die, and then ominously declare, "Artificial Vairocana is watching over you." - "Your Town's TV Bulletin Board 5"
proper starts with a notice announcing a field trip to Nakabiwachi First Elementary School, which shows children's drawings of conjoined twins being experimented on, with their ages, the number of heads and limbs they were born with, as well as their civilian and sokuson (instant Buddha) names. - "For New Mothers"
is a notice from Government Public Relations congratulating mothers for giving birth to babies worthy of sokuson privileges, announcing that the babies listed will be moved to the temple. Then it tells the viewers to check the notice that will be sent, fill out a form, and read the instructions. After the ad displays each baby's civilian and sokuson names, the hospital they were delivered at, and the number of limbs and heads, it closes with a future earthquake and tidal wave warning. - "SOS"
and "Information on New Attractions"
both center on a machine or small booth inside a Shinto shrine, which the context implies is used to fuse children's bodies to create conjoined twins, whether they're actual twins or not. Moreover, it's also implied that the machine has a failure rate, which can kill or deform any kid stuffed inside it.
- "Brothers"
- Continuity Nod: Due to the nature of the series, later videos referencing earlier ones reveal more details about the alternate-Japanese folk's situation worsening over time or revealing details left unknown in earlier videos.
- The "Recycling Center Daruma" shown in "Speed-Eating Contest Notice"
, reported stolen by a 42-year-old unemployed man named Masahiro Yasuda, is the same Daruma doll shown in "Catalog"
, fashioned from a six-year-old boy named Hiroki Yasuda. Therefore, this implies that the thief was Hiroki's father and tried to steal him back out of regret for selling him to the Tokyo Child-Recycling Center earlier on. - "Your Town's TV Bulletin Board 1"
is a bulletin from the Tokyo Special Ward about Mr. Kamiki's letter to Kōbe-kun's mother gloating about how he bullied the poor kid into suicide since childhood and rubs in that he's Happily Married with a kid. However, it also ties to "Mysterious Prints Posted in Arakawa Ward"
, which concerns posters with hateful messages under the picture of a man with a wife and child. In other words, Kamiki's sordid bullying of Kōbe-kun was already known and made him a pariah among his community, but his life is still decent enough to write the accursed letter in the first place. - "Petting Festival"
references three earlier videos:- One drawing shows a crying mouse being eaten alive by maggots, titled "I Won't Forgive You for Breaking my Amulet" and drawn by Hayasumi Nosoka note , the victimized girl from "Bullying Report of the Month"
. This in turn reveals that the girl's bully, Nebata Harume, was executed and reincarnated into the mouse in question as penalty for the earlier incident. - Another drawing shows what's implied to be a couple and their son being hanged and disemboweled, titled "Serves You Right" and drawn by Tonokawa Yuuki. It references both "Mysterious Prints Posted in Arakawa Ward" and "Your Town's TV Bulletin Board 1", implying Mr. Kamiki finally got what's coming to him for driving Kōbe-kun to suicide.
- One drawing shows a crying mouse being eaten alive by maggots, titled "I Won't Forgive You for Breaking my Amulet" and drawn by Hayasumi Nosoka note , the victimized girl from "Bullying Report of the Month"
- "Surnames that Disappeared Today"
is a notice from the Tokyo Special Ward about Japanese surnames that became defunct after the death of their last holder. Among them, there are surnames that belong to characters from previous videos, such as "Towada"note , "Sakuma"note , "Yomota"note , "Iwabuchi"note , "Kōbe"note , "Konomi"note "Kagaki"note , "Ohtsu"note , "Yanagisawa"note before cutting to the factory, giving the sinister implication that they were the only children and the last members of their families, or killed their own offspring. - "Aliens are Coming!"
and "Please Call Immediately"
both reference "To All Participants"
, a notice directed to participants on a Deadly Game. The former starts with an announcement of the game's winner, a little girl named Shioe Masamoto, while the latter is a notice from the Tokyo Child-Recycling Center that requests viewers to call the authorities on the man targeted in the called-back ad for uploading videos that "disrupted daily life". - "Long-Term Part-Time Job Application"
and "Safety Confirmations for Senzoku Girls' High School on a Learning Trip"
both revolve around the same breeding factory. The latter implies that the factory dropped its requirement of fertile young women aged 18-25 and started to take in high-school girls. - "Closing Notice"
starts with a PSA from the Tokyo Special Ward warning not to litter babies on toilets or lockers, making a reference to both "toilet"
and "cradle"
. The notice namedrops Senzoku Girls' High proper while reporting the "Baby Factory" has been closed, telling the girls victimized by the factory to deal with the problem themselves since "they're adults now". - "Login Successful"
has the user enter the Metropolitan Citrus Center's website and orders the organs of a little girl named Maruhi Ohtsu, who was the sacrificed girl from "Election Count Report"
. Knowing the latter ad has an announcement from the MCC in which they announce Ohtsu's farewell gift-giving party that culminates in "soul removal", it gives the sinister implication that the Citrus Center tampered with the sacrifice ballot to make sure Ohtsu won and they could extract her organs.
- The "Recycling Center Daruma" shown in "Speed-Eating Contest Notice"
- Cradle-to-Grave Character:
- Downplayed in "Jinsei Game Commentary"
, an ad that reframes the life of an average Japanese person as a Jinsei Game
match, with the player as a stand-in for the viewer. First, their father vanished as soon as they were born, but then grew up to be fourteen years old with a "happy letter". Then they meet their half-brother and when the ad goes to the third-to-last space, the final shot is of a person's stages in a red circle, with the caption telling the viewers that the red line connects everyone. - "Invincible Hero"
does the same as the above ad but reframes life as a videogame instead. It starts with the titular "Hero" being born, bullied at school into dropping out, failing their admission exams, and eventually becoming homeless. This takes a toll on the "Hero" to the point they decide to become a Joker and kill someone. The ad then ends with Government Public Relations' logo and a sound of a door and a creaking rope, with the words "GAME OVER" shining onscreen, implying that the "Hero" died of suicide.
- Downplayed in "Jinsei Game Commentary"
- Crapsack World: Among PSAs glorifying overwork under threat of execution if they leave on time, demands for people to have children to counter the slow population decline in Japan for 2050, human auctions, dementia becoming an inevitability for old age, and the fact there's a recycling center that "recycles" unwanted children into trinkets and souvenirs, on top it all being run by a cult preaching a twisted syncretism of Shinto and Zen Buddhism, it's safe to say this alternate universe's Japan is a hellhole. And it goes downhill from there...
- Creepy Doll:
- "Gone to Hell"
features shots of Hina dolls and captions displaying the names of their respective owners. After a while, another caption says that the kids who owned these dolls went down to Hell. - "Catalog"
features an ichimatsu doll fashioned from a 9-year-old girl named Kanaho Iwabuchi, sold at 470,000 yen. In the end, the doll starts moving its mouth to speak at the audience, implying it's the girl's spirit possessing it.
- "Gone to Hell"
- Cult: Daitenfu is a cult that preaches a twisted syncretic form of Zen Buddhism and Shinto, practices Human Sacrifice to avoid disasters, and is implied to have been running the Japanese government, not only because of the congratulative attitude towards sacrifices (referred to as "Human Pillars"), but also because Daitenfu has the same logo as the Government Public Relations Office. Moreover, the organization is revealed to have other front groups, such as the Tokyo's Child-Recycling Center, Metropolitan Citrus Center, Tokyo Special Ward, Utopia Group, Tokyo Kids' Land, and DualHappy, Inc.
- Currency Cuisine: "Speed-Eating Contest Notice"
, the first criminal introduced as a challenger for the contest, Mamoru Hikimoto, an 18-year-old cleaner, is forced to eat the banknotes and coins he stole from the Yobitsume house. Moreover, the total value of said bills amounts to 324,984 yen. - Defacement Insult: At the start of "Invincible Hero"
, the video cuts to what's implied to be the "Hero's" school desk filled with insults and threats, among them "trash" and "disappear". - Deliberate VHS Quality: The "commercials" are windowboxed with grainy flickers to make them look like VHS tapes, helped by the use of archaic kanji and obsolete hiragana symbols.
- Deliberately Monochrome: The titular People from "People Encountered This Week"
all have their portraits in grayscale with the contrast all the way up, which makes it scarier as their faces sport predatory, deranged expressions. - Designer Babies: Played with. Daitenfu's modus operandi is to use deformed babies as material for recreating Buddha, going as far as to screwing up mothers' birth control so their babies would suffer deformities and thus provide more Buddhas for the cult.
- "From an Era of Being to an Era of Creating"
presents a straighter example as it lists desirable traits on babies based on Eurocentric standards (blond hair, blue eyes, an IQ of 65 or higher, height of 170cm or more) and their price in yen.
- "From an Era of Being to an Era of Creating"
- Deadly Game: "To All Participants"
starts with a message in red congratulating participants for surviving set to a polka rendition of the "If You're Happy and You Know It" nursery rhyme. Then the notice gives information on the next target, a 32-year-old man. As the ad informs the deadline to kill the poor sod is in three days, it cuts to the Government Public Relations' logo. - Deadly Road Trip: Utopia Group, a front group of Daitenfu posing as a travel agency, is in charge of sending people on trips to either be sacrificed, forcibly impregnated, or have their organs harvested.
- Implied in "Go to West Fair has Started"
, which is an Utopia Group commercial that lures viewers in with getting paid for boarding a trip "to the West", targeted to people under 40 years old (even children) and requires the participants to submit medical checkup results, prescriptions, and a pledge. Moreover, it also states that if they have no heirs, then the money will be sent to the treasury while the exorcism fees are collected by force. - "Recommended Spots for Summer Vacation"
is an ad showing spots where viewers can enjoy summer vacation. However, the ad turns out to be an invitation to suicide via euphemistic wording, presenting a waterfall, the Yokohama Bay Bridge, the Tojinbo cliff, the Takashimadaira Danchi housing complex, and the Nishi-Hachioji Station. The last one is more harrowing, as the ad recommends "taking" the passing express train before the caption changes to "Goodbye" at the very last second. - "Safety Confirmations for Senzoku Girls' High School on a Learning Trip"
is a Utopia Group notice that shows three groups of students listed only by number, with Mars, Venus, or even "X" symbols next to each number, which imply these girls are being used as breeding slaves. Not helping matters is the final caption, which tells parents that they will broadcast the experience live. - "Suspicious Footage Shown in School Trip pre-show Video"
is a school-trip informational movie on a trip to Hawaii and the hotel the students will be staying in, but it's suddenly interrupted by an auction notice from the Tokyo Special Ward. When the notice ends, the video closes with the caption "Let's enjoy the school trip" in red letters with black contour as the voiceover turns demonic.
- Implied in "Go to West Fair has Started"
- Death of a Child:
- "Election Count Report"
is, as its name says, a report by the Tokyo Special Ward on what child will be elected as a Human Pillar. The winner is a little girl named Maruhi Ohtsu, whose sacrifice is scheduled May 29. After the announcement ends, it cuts to black before another one by the Metropolitan Citrus Center announces a farewell gift-giving party for Ohtsu that same day before removing her soul. - Implied in "Reincarnation"
. The newborn calf at the start of the PSA is revealed to have been a 7-year-old little boy named Yuto Kagaki in a past life.
- "Election Count Report"
- Devil in Plain Sight: The titular People from "People Encountered This Week"
are all depicted in high-contrast monochrome, sporting predatory faces and having equally predatory descriptions for their ideal partners. However, the ad closes with the caption, "Let's build a happy family" as if nothing's wrong before cutting to an upside-down Government Public Relations logo. - Dirty Old Man: The last two people shown in "People Encountered This Week"
are both creeps judging by the information regarding their ideal partner. The former is a 44-year-old man who wants a 18 or 20-year-old woman who could birth cute girls, while the latter is a 57-year-old who seeks someone of any age to marry him in one week. - Disturbing Deer: As an Analog Horror channel, deer are a prominent motif for the channel's videos, especially in its manga sub-channel.
- "I always watching you
" [sic] shows among Daruma-like faces watching the viewer, images of deer doing the same to evoke the feeling of surveillance. - "To All 200 Human Pillars
" shows, among pictures of women having their eyes and ID cards obscured out, and pregnant life-size dolls next to each other, images of two deer joined at the head and the illustration of a blurred human face on a deer's head. - "Spring Visit Announcement
", an announcement for Daitenfu's visit to Japan after their "Living Buddha" was born, shows images of deer near the end, with words like "traitor" or "Your Majesty" juxtaposed on them.
- "I always watching you
- Driven to Suicide:
- Implied at the end of "Invincible Hero"
, as the PSA cuts to black after showing the GPR logo followed by the sounds of an opening door and a creaking rope before the words "GAME OVER" appear in the screen, implying the titular hero hanged themselves. - The letter in "Your Town's TV Bulletin Board 1"
reveals that Mr. Kamiki was the kid who bullied Mrs. Kobe's son into taking his own life when they were in sixth grade. Mr. Kamiki even complained that Kobe-kun "took away the fun" of their school days with his suicide and asked the dying Mrs. Kobe to scold the poor kid in the afterlife. - Episode 1
of the channel's origin story starts with the protagonist looking up suicide-related keywords in the Tor Browser before cutting to a panning shot of his necktie hanging from the ceiling. However, a sudden tone plays when it cuts to black, interrupting him as the sound was a sign of a new email. The contents of said email, all written in garbled kanji and kana, tell him to upload the mystery sender's videos to his world and gather a number of hitobashira (Human Pillars) before he could pass on to the other side.
- Implied at the end of "Invincible Hero"
- Eating Contest: "Speed-Eating Contest Notice"
, a continuation of "Amendment to Ordinances Regarding Stolen Goods Notice"
from the Tokyo Special Ward, announces one where the government will gather criminals (specifically, robbers and burglars) and force them into one... where they will have to eat whatever they stole, no matter if it's inedible (banknotes and coins, a motor scooter, a Daruma doll), edible but dangerous (a lemon from the Metropolitan Citrus Center) or a living being (a baby chick, a human infant taken from a factory). - Elder Abandonment: Invoked in "Information on Free Ubasuteyama"
note , which is a notice from Government Public Relations announcing that due to the increasing numbers of elderly people at the end of their lives in the alternate Japan, they opened up free spots located in mountains on which to drop them off. - Emergency Broadcast: The Public Relations Office launches these from time to time, with most of them concerning supernatural activity.
- "About the Recent Earthquake"
is a notice from GPR that brings up eight sacrifices performed for the last earthquake, warning that 10,846 people would be needed in case of a major one occuring in the Nankai Trough, all set to an eerie moan and earthquake sounds. After the video closes with a call to cooperation, the picture turns monochrome with the contrast all the way up. - "That's All for Today's Earthquakes"
starts with a wait screen until it cuts to the titular caption, which comes out corrupted and after thanking the viewer, it cuts to a red background with the Public Relations Office's logo and several symbols all over the place. - "How to Spend Obon Properly"
is a notice that orders people not to leave temples from August 14 in the night until August 15 in the morning. Moreover, it also orders the viewers at home to wrap themselves in a blanket and wail ceaselessly until the Sun comes out, without sleeping. However, it also advises to give up and go outside if they hear a child's voice, with the caveat to not involve others. Then the final caption reveals to the viewers that the visiting spirits in the upcoming Obon day aren't actually their ancestors. - "Notice"
opens up with a temple bell ringing in the background, announcing they're forbidding entry to temples and shrines from March 16 to 17, and warns viewers not to come closer no matter what they're hearing. Afterwards, a caption informs that the government waives responsibility in case a problem occurs before the voiceover announces the arrival of a new world. - "Mysterious Telop"
starts off with a video titled "Nature in Tokyo (Former Saitama Prefecture - Former Gunma Prefecture)" in which a breaking news report interrupts by reporting about something, advising viewers to take shelter indoors, close all windows, turn off all lights, and keep quiet at all times (even advising to stuff their children's mouths to keep them quiet). Moreover, it also advises that once someone makes eye contact with the threat in question, they mustn't look away. - "A New Way of Living"
ends with an emergency notice consisting on white captions against a plain black background set to a long tone, advising the viewer to hold their breath if they hear the sound in their area.
- "About the Recent Earthquake"
- Every Episode Ending: As expected of an Analog Horror series, every PSA is concluded with the SMPTE color bars, but some of them have the ending interrupted by the thing dealt with in the video.
- Everyone Knows Morse: In "No Time"
, the only background sounds three short beeps, three long ones, and other three short ones in quick succession and on repeat, which is Morse for "SOS". - Evil Versus Evil: While the Daitenfu cult has turned Japan into a dystopia judging by the ads implying they impregnate women to make them birth their Buddhas, practice Human Sacrifice to deal with earthquakes, and force office workers to slave away in overtime under threat of execution, some of their Emergency Broadcasts dealing with supernatural activity imply that the threats in question are just as bad or worse than Daitenfu.
- Famous, Famous, Fictional: In a rare example where the fictional thing is listed first, "Recommended Spots for Summer Vacation"
shows a waterfall named "Kazari Falls" as the first vacationing spot, before the Yokohama Bay Bridge, the Tojinbo cliff, the Takashimadaira Danchi housing complex, and the Nishi-Hachioji station. - For Doom the Bell Tolls: At the end of "Video Played in a Passenger Ship that Shut Down"
the TV screen cuts to the entrance of a Daitenfu temple as the foreboding sound of temple bells chimes. - Forced Overwork: The alternate Japan's workforce is far more oppressive and unforgiving than that of the one in our world, as shown in the channel's PSAs:
- "Wanna Quit Work and Leave On Time? Wanna Stop Being Human?"
starts innocuous with the beginning of a new work day, complete with Westminster Chimes and phones ringing. It then lingers on the shot of a laptop in an office until an offscreen worker says, "Thank you for your hard work" before leaving, to which it cuts to a hand shooting a gun, splattering blood on the opposite side, causing the other offscreen workers to scream in terror before cutting to a water cooler next to a sign condemning the executed worker's behavior:"IF YOU'RE NOT WORKING OVERTIME, YOU'RE NOT A HUMAN. LEAVING WORK ON TIME IS PUNISHABLE BY DEATH." - "Hell... is in This World"
is a minimalistic PSA that displays shots of office buildings while an inhuman wail plays in the background, illustrating the plight of workers being forced to work overtime. Then the wail grows louder and more miserable when the ad displays a shot of a pen and calculator before cutting to the shot of an alley at late night.
- "Wanna Quit Work and Leave On Time? Wanna Stop Being Human?"
- Found Footage Films:
- "Videos Stored on a Used HDD"
is presented as a confiscated video from a hard disk drive in which a spirit has been allegedly recorded. - "Footage from a Video Found in the Ruins"
shows footage of someone strolling through a place that's implied to be one of Daitenfu's shrines. After three minutes of walking through pillars and a hallway filled with miniature temples and Torii gates, it cuts to red with a caption before cutting back to the footage, which starts suffering from static as the man tries to run out of the temple, implied to be chased by a ghost. When it seems like he escaped, it ends with another caption in a red background that reads, "Apparently, he had taken a wrong turn". - "Video Shelved from Over-The-Air TV"
shows footage of a man walking through a mountain, only to realize something is in there and tries to hightail it out of there, but the footage turns grainy as the threat is cathing up with him until it spins out of control and only records the sky and ending with the man's noises, implying he's being taken away.
- "Videos Stored on a Used HDD"
- The Fourth Wall Will Not Protect You:
- "People Encountered This Week"
shows grayscale, high-contrast pictures of the four titular People, who post predatory descriptions of their ideal partners. After the video presents all four and cuts with a caption reading, "Let's build a happy family", it flashes a split-second shot of one of the People directing their gaze at the viewer before cutting to an upside-down Government Public Relations logo. - "Catalog"
is a notice from the Tokyo Child-Recycling Center selling souvenirs fashioned from the kids they received: an ichimatsu doll (Kanaho Iwabuchi), a wooden two-faced deer head (Yuki and Kaito Watanabe), and a strange Daruma doll (Hiroki Yasuda). Near the end of the video, the Hiroki doll's mouth suddenly becomes human-like before cutting back to the Kanaho doll, which follows suit as it says, "We're looking forward to seeing you all!" in a distorted voice.
- "People Encountered This Week"
- Good Girls Avoid Abortion: The channel also has videos presented as anti-abortion PSAs from Government Public Relations, which can be just as terrifying as real ones.
- "Have a Bright Family Plan"
uses innuendo to teach this, with a caption that reads, "A child who dies before it's born will never come back" against a picture of red spider lilies, with the title shown as a caption at the end against a picture of a family grave in the background, implying that women should ditch abortion and instead plan ahead for their family. - "I Wanted to be Born"
displays pregnancy and gestation-related imagery with disturbing captions like, "crushed, smashed, gouged out, scraped out, dragged out", before cutting to a caption against a dark-teal background reading, "More than 150,000 people a year are killed inside their mothers' bodies." However, it also features a Jump Scare near the end."It hurts, help me."
- "Have a Bright Family Plan"
- Green Aesop:
- Some of their notices, such as "You will Fish at Tokyo Station"
, "Coming Soon"
, "Disappeared"
, and "river"
[sic] are presented as PSAs to raise awareness of the rising sea levels for year 2050. - "Is it Delicious?"
is presented as a PSA on throwing plastics into the sea, referencing that the fish and other forms of wildlife eat the trash and therefore, anyone catching the fish would end up eating plastic as well.
- Some of their notices, such as "You will Fish at Tokyo Station"
- Growing Up Sucks: While alternate-Japanese children have it tough given the horrid situation they're braving, this is relatively mild compared to when they grow up, at which point they will become either a tortured office drone if male, or a Baby Factory housewife if female, and that's if they're lucky in the latter case.
- Happy Birthday to You!: "Your Town's TV Bulletin Board 4"
is an announcement dedicated to the Human Pillar victims, titled "From the Memories of Tomorrow" which consist on footage of a man travelling from the city, all set to a slow, creepy rendition of the song. The kicker comes when the man leaves a paper cutout of a family on what seems to be an altar. - Holy Water: "Children are in danger"
first displays the name Karen Yomota, age 6, whom the PSA mentions she died a week after drinking a cup of "sacred" water. Then it warns that 127 children a year die from malicious exorcism, implying the water was actually cursed. - Human Resources:
- "Catalog"
, an ad from the Tokyo Child-Recycling Center showcases the various objects made from the children they "recycled" and their price in yen. The ad becomes scarier when the first and last recycled kids, Kanaho Iwabuchi and Hiroki Yasuda, start moving their mouths. - "Your Help is Needed"
is a notice from an organization named Daitenfu, requesting families to offer them a deformed baby to recreate Buddha, set to ominous distorted music. Such an organization later on becomes important, as we learn Daitenfu is a cult that has been running the Japanese government since the late Taishō era. This also implies that the sect has been already trying to create artificial Buddhas out of deformed babies. - "Living On"
seems like a PSA about people losing their youth by abuse or similar, but then it's revealed that the elderly people are "youngsters" because they have parts of youngsters in their bodies.
- "Catalog"
- Human Sacrifice:
- The alternate Japan still promotes the practice of "human pillars" to prevent catastrophes from happening and protect buildings. As the story unfolds, it's revealed the government is in cahoots with a sect named Daitenfu, which practices it as one of their main tenets. Hence some of PSAs and Emergency Broadcasts from Government Public Relations promote such a horrid practice. Even after Daitenfu's downfall later on, the Tokyo Special Ward has taken over the sacrificial duty.
- "Please Cooperate on Voting the Sacrifice"
is an ad for Daitenfu's official website which showcases the function to vote for whoever will be sacrificed, complete with photos of the would-be victims (which includes babies and children). - "Around July, the Law Will Change"
declares to the viewers that the titular changes will be that staff will come to pick them up. If they dared to flee, they would not only be fined, but have their relatives taken away and their name and address leaked to the public. This notice is made more ominous when the only background sound from there on is an incessant doorbell ringing. - "Your Town's TV Bulletin Board 5"
starts with a notice announcing the sacrifice of two high-school girls named Ayane and Yoshie, congratulating them like Daitenfu does before proper starting the bulletin board.
- I'm a Humanitarian: "Speed-Eating Contest Notice"
, one of the criminals forced into the contest, a 22-year-old unemployed woman named Souko Sakuma, has stolen a baby from a factory. Given the contest is meant to enforce a law passed by the Tokyo Special Ward that punishes thieves by making them eat whatever they stole, no point on guessing what happens next. - Ironic Episode Title: "Invincible Hero"
is about a Japanese average person's life crumbling apart because of bullying, dropping out of school, failing exams, and homelessness, only becoming "invincible" when they snap from the pent-up trauma and become a "joker" before ending their own lives. - Life Drinker: "Lifespan Conversion Service"
shows a picture of an old man, named Fumio Yanagisawa, who uses the titular service to extend his remaining lifespan, which is 29 days. Then a prompt with pictures of babies appears, asking to choose a "long-lasting converter". After three out of the eight babies' pictures are chosen, we're treated to a "conversion in progress" screen before cutting back to Mr. Yanagisawa's portrait, which shows he now has 47 days left to live. Then it cuts to the GPR logo with a caption, "Thanks for using our service" above it. - Lohengrin and Mendelssohn: "Y"
starts off set to a pitched-down version of the Mendelssohn march setting the wedding-themed mood for the PSA. However, it suddenly stops when the groom is revealed to be a chimpanzee. - Mercy Kill: "Tokyo Euthanasia Service"
is presented as an ad for the titular service, shilling itself as a way to help the viewer (or their loved ones) die in peace, complete with legal assistance and visitation rooms. Moreover, they also have two options for euthanasia, the painless Premium one costs 746,000 yen, while the painful, dragged-out Standard procedure costs 505,000 yen. - Merging Mistake: Daitenfu's experiments on pregnant mothers and their babies to recreate the Buddha are one of the few examples where this is a desirable outcome. Any woman unfortunate enough to be targeted by the cult to birth their artificial Buddhas will be put through screwed-up fertility treatments so that their babies will suffer deformities and become Buddhas upon delivery. Moreover, they don't limit themselves to just that; one of their shrines has a machine designed to merge kids' bodies into conjoined messes, with the survivors being hailed as Buddhas just as well.
- Murder by Suicide: "I Will Clear You of Your Grudge"
lists "suicide" among the ways the store can kill a target of the customer's hatred, at 450,000 yen. - Mystical Plague: "I Will Clear You of Your Grudge"
lists "death by sickness" among the ways the store can kill a target of the customer's hatred, at 236,000 yen. - New Era Speech: "Notice"
concludes with the voiceover forbidding the entry to temples and shrines from March 16 to 17 saying this:Now, to a new world together! - Nightmare Face: "People Encountered This Week"
starts innocuous with images of people in relationships. However, the kicker comes when the ad shows the titular People, whose portraits are rendered in grayscale and have their faces twisted into predatory, deranged expressions. Not helping matters is their descriptions for an ideal partner are equally predatory, especially the last two, which border on pedophilic (the 44-year-old who wants a 18-20-year-old woman who could birth cute girls, and the 57-year-old who sought someone of any age to marry him in one week). - Nightmare Fuel Coloring Book:
- "This is Citrus Center"
starts off innocuous with shots of a school's places until it cuts to drawings depicting people being operated or having their organs harvested, all pinned to a chalkboard with "Congratulations on your graduation!", implying the kids who drew those pictures became victims. - "Your Town's TV Bulletin Board 5"
proper starts with a notice announcing Nakabiwachi First Elementary School's field trip to a Daitenfu temple, which opens up with a slideshow of children's drawings of sokuson babies and toddlers being hooked up to life support, in vats, or laid down in altars while receiving gifts from other, abled kids next to them. - "Petting Festival"
, an announcement for the titular holiday in Nakabiwachi Ward, starts with a slideshow of children's drawings of what looks like a zoo's attractions, but then escalate to show humans (either live or reincarnated into animals) being victimized in cruel ways, and then ends with a disturbing drawing of a ghost next to a normal baby and a conjoined one right before cutting to the SMPTE screen.
- "This is Citrus Center"
- Nightmarish Factory: "Long-Term Part-Time Job Application"
and "Safety Confirmations for Senzoku Girls' High School on a Learning Trip"
are centered on the same factory, which has prison cell-like dorms for whoever applies for work there, and it suspiciously only accepts fertile young women. Judging by the former ad's caveats that the workers cannot choose their partners and that the money they earn will depend on the baby's gender, which is the exact same thing said in "Tokyo's Child-Recycling Center"
, the factory is implied to be TCRC property. - Nightmarish Nursery:
- "A Gift from Heaven"
is implied to record what happens in a nursery owned by Daitenfu, with the kids saying things about Buddha, while those who dissent with the cult's treatment of them (with upside-down captions written in Simplified Chinese) have their sayings replaced with a red caption reading, "Time for medicine" (おくすりたいむ, okusuritaimu), implying the staff is drugging those kids into compliance. - "Decoy"
is another recording of a Daitenfu-owned nursery called the "Yao Muyuan Daycare #17", showing only a screen that reads, "To the Star Troupe, Don't make any noise, from Harumi-sensei". Then a knocking sound is heard prompting one of the babies in there to cry before the video cuts to a blue screen. Then it cuts back to the daycare's announcement screen, changing its caption to "It's okay now, all those who heard our friend's voice are evacuating to the outside," implying something is invading the nursery.
- "A Gift from Heaven"
- Nothing Is Scarier:
- "SOS"
starts with two pictograms of people and a Dharma wheel symbol above them, set to ominous chanting. After lingering on it for too long, the ad cuts to black before resuming and showing a two-headed pictogram under the wheel. The only caption, which appears in the end, reports that "thirteen people a day die", before displaying the titular message. - "Have You Tried Being Happy?"
starts with a sorrowful cry and the shot of a facility that's implied to be a gas chamber before cutting to an SMPTE screen and cutting back again to a Bodhisattva statue. - "toilet"
[sic] is set inside a bathroom and set to the wailing of a baby. As the ad progresses, the wailing gets louder until it cuts to the bathroom sign, which has a little "man" figure (representing the baby boy) below the "woman" figure, disappearing right as the crying stops, implying the baby died. - "cradle"
[sic] is set in a locker room, where the only noises heard is the sound of babies crying at the same time. However, as the camera pans away, a black cross appears over each of the lockers at random as the cries die down, implying the babies locked inside are dying one by one, lingering on them before the GPR's ending card appears. - "Hell is in This World"
is set to an inhuman wail during its entirety, as the PSA doesn't outright show what's exactly happening, but hints at it, judging by the wail growing more distressed at the shot of work implements. - "Forgot Something?"
starts off with shots of cars. It seems innocuous at first, but when it cuts to a blue car, captions appear with the names of children, their ages, and the time they have left until they die of asphyxia, implying there are children (3 years old at the oldest) inside those cars. While the only background sounds are cicada noises, the PSA is nothing short of unnerving.
- "SOS"
- No Woman's Land: From what's taken from the channel's PSAs, the alternate Japan is implied to have become a misogynistic hellhole under Daitenfu's rule — women are treated as baby factories, barred from seeking education or a job at all; even the only job afforded to women is that of a breeding slave at a factory with ties to a center that targets children for recycling.
- Nuclear Weapons Taboo: "We never forget that day"
is a monochrome PSA about "Artificial Vairocana", with a caption on the screen revealing it has a half-life of 4.5 billion years. Knowing the Vairocana Buddha represents the Sun, it's very likely that the bomb was created by Daitenfu to threaten the Japanese populace into compliance. - Ominous Music Box Tune: The creepy background music in "Your Help is Needed"
is actually Swedish Rhapsody, a creepy Numbers Stations tune from The Cold War, played backwards. - Ominous Visual Glitch: The videos occassionally will suffer these, especially those from Government Public Relations. Moreover, the captions in most of these videos are peppered with random symbols that either substitute hiragana symbols or simply get in the way of reading.
- Organ Theft: "Login Successful"
is presented as footage of someone going to the Metropolitan Citrus Center's website and entering the donor's gender and four of their organs (lungs, heart, ears, and eyes). Afterward, the viewer is presented with a prompt with ten pictures of little girls until the protagonist clicks on the picture of a girl named Maruhi Ohtsu, with a prompt appearing once they confirm their request, implying the organs will come in five months. - Origins Episode: More like, a ten-episode story about the channel's origins, starting with a suicidal protagonist receiving a strange email from an unknown sender hailing from an alternate Japan. Said email instructs him to upload the videos they attached and gather a number of Human Pillars in our world before he dies.
- Overly Long Name: Babies who become sokuson upon birth not only are given shorter civilian names, but also long names that convey their unwilling status as religious figures in Daitenfu.
- Parody Commercial: The channel's whole raison d'etre, albeit Played for Horror as most of these commercials are PSAs and the fact they're deliberately made to look like VHS tapes enhances the scare factor.
- Race Against the Clock: "No Time"
starts with a four-day countdown while a marquee at the top announces that there's no time left, needing human sacrifices to stop the impending earthquake and calling the viewers for cooperation. - Rapid Aging: "I Will Clear You of Your Grudge"
lists "senile decay" as one of the ways they can kill a target of their customers' hatred, at 275,000 yen. Judging by the supernatural nature of the store, such a curse implies it will make the target age quickly until they die of old age. - Red Spider Lilies of Mourning:
- "Have a Bright Family Plan"
, an anti-abortion PSA, starts with shots of spider lilies to drive home the message that a child that dies before birth will never come back. - "As if They Were Being Swallowed Up"
, implied to be an anti-suicide PSA, ends with a shot of spider lilies accompanied by the caption, "Cherish your life" appearing before the Government Public Relations logo. - "forbidden characters"
[sic], a notice that showcases Chinese characters that have been banned by the alter-Japanese government, has the image of a spider lily on the lower-right corner of the video.
- "Have a Bright Family Plan"
- Red String of Fate: In "Y"
, one of the ad's starting images are a red string of yarn and an engagement ring over a dictionary opened in the pages showing the word, "love", serving as additional symbolism for marriage. - Reincarnated as a Non-Humanoid: "Reincarnation"
displays several animals, accompanied with captions revealing they're reincarnated humans, complete with names, death dates, and the age they were before dying, set to a deep, demonic voice chanting in the background.They can't be reborn as humans ever again. No one can defy reincarnation. - Religious Horror: This one is centered in Buddhist motifs, with cults sacrificing people to avoid natural disasters running the government, who worship an infant with two faces as the "living Buddha", the works.
- Reunion Vow: "Someday, We'll Soon Meet Again"
is a notice from Government Public Relations vowing to reunite with the people of Japan after an impending nuclear war, set to a calming, solemn music-box tune while religious imagery and nuclear explosions are juxtaposed. Moreover, the context implies that the spring the government talks about will never come due to a nuclear winter. More poignant is the caption, "We'll take a break from broadcasting for a while". - Ridiculous Future Inflation: "Just for Being Born"
is a PSA on how inflation has affected childcare to the point that even maintaining a pregnancy costs 8.5 million yen, implying the debt increases by the fives every second after birth. Eventually the final shot is of the cost of simply being born, which is of a quadrillion yen. - Scatterbrained Senior:
- "Soon 1 in 5 People will have Dementia"
shows shots of food intercut with captions depicting time, implying whoever is eating is not being consistent with their routine. Then it cuts to a caption reading, "Shortly" before cutting to another with the title, but then the "5" starts counting down until it reaches 2, cutting to Government Public Relations' logo. - "Such an Era is Coming Soon"
is nothing but captions about people's lives in a world where dementia is an inevitability for old age (living in a dark room with parents' corpses, caregivers with dementia, people throwing away food). It's even more poignant as the final caption, a Title Drop, changes to "Such an era has already come." - Implied in "Information on Free Ubasuteyama"
note . It's presented as a notice from GPR informing that due to the increasing number of elderly people at the end of their lives, they opened up free mountain spots for people to leave them.
- "Soon 1 in 5 People will have Dementia"
- Scream Discretion Shot: Played for Horror. "Hell is in This World"
is set to an inhuman wail throughout its thirty seconds, growing louder at the shot of a pen and work implements. Moreover, the ad doesn't show exactly what's happening and only hints at it. - Secret Shop: "I Will Clear You of Your Grudge"
shills a shop that can inflict deaths on people you hate, such as by accident, suicide, illness, starvation, heart attacks, homicide, old-age decay, and even by vegetative state in exchange for money. However, the shop can only be accessible by going to Shinjuku's "East Gate Park" and calling their phone number from there to receive directions for the shop's location. - Serial Escalation: "Coming Soon"
starts with a mention of the Sarajevo incident in 1912 claiming 12 million lives, set to the sound of an air raid siren. Then it fades to the Invasion of Poland in 1939 and its 85 million death toll. In the end however, the ad cuts to images of bottled water, showing an unknown, but six-digit death toll, making a clear reference to the rising sea levels. - Shout-Out:
- The title of "I Will Clear You of Your Grudge"
, an ad for a store that can inflict deaths on people you hate the most, is a reference to Hell Girl. However, the store requires the viewer to call them from Shinjuku's "East Gate Park" and receive instructions from there to enter and access its services. - "Disappeared"
, an anti-global warming PSA, is a reference to "Beach"
, a real PSA from Ad Council Japan showing a pair of sand sculptures collapsing as the sea hits them.Remember this place? By year 2050, the beach where the sand sculptures were located will have disappeared. - The title of "Wanna Quit Work and Leave On Time? Wanna Stop Being Human?"
, a pro-overwork PSA from Government Public Relations, is most likely a reference to this real PSA
from the Ishikawa Stimulant Expulsion Campaign.
- The title of "I Will Clear You of Your Grudge"
- Silly Rabbit, Idealism Is for Kids!: "Let's Try Answering"
ends with a threatening caption that implies that those who work with high spirits and seek growth are just naïve children who underestimate the dog-eat-dog world that is the alternate Japan. - Soundtrack Dissonance:
- "Starting Tomorrow, We'll Stop Rationing"
has the Government Public Relations interrupt the program to alert that Japan is running out of food and will stop rationing, all set to serene, soothing music, ending with the Sun rising on Mt. Fuji. - "To All Participants"
plays a polka-melody rendition of "If You're Happy and You Know It" nursery rhyme over what's basically a notice for participants of a Deadly Game, and it keeps playing as the notice gives the viewer information on the next target.
- "Starting Tomorrow, We'll Stop Rationing"
- Station Ident: "Upcoming Programming Schedule"
is played out as an ident from TV station JQDK-TV that shows the next programs to be aired (actually the channel's upcoming videos) from June 24 to July 1, Kōbun 98 (2023 in our world). - Stock Shoujo Bullying Tactics: "Bullying Report of the Month"
informs on a girl named Harume Nebata, who bullied another girl named Nosoka by stealing her belongings, destroying her lucky charm, and ignoring her, and that the staff and teachers are dealing with this issue. Harume's mother, Sae, is reported to have suffered deep trauma from the discovery and is currently recovering in the hospital. - Suicide Dare: "Recommended Spots for Summer Vacation"
is an insidious example of one, as it's disguised as an ad for summer vacation spots before revealing its true colors. Moreover, the voiceover is worded euphemistically as if it was a regular tourism ad despite the implication that the spots are suicide destinations In-Universe. - Super Breeding Program: Daitenfu practices a twisted, horrifying version of this to create artificial Buddhas, which unlike most examples in this list, is for purely religious purposes. They targeted women they deemed as potential candidates for breeding their Buddhas, subjecting them to screwed-up fertility treatments so that they will birth conjoined twins whom the cult will make into sokuson (instant Buddhas) upon delivery.
- Synchro-Vox: This technique is occasionally used to enhance the scare factor, especially when combined with voice distortion to animate haunted portraits or objects with faces, as shown in "100 Human Pillars"
and "Catalog"
. - Then Let Me Be Evil: Later on in the story, Government Public Relations started to launch PSAs about "Jokers", people who become serial killers after experiencing one bad event after another. The reason for such a term is that they hold Joker cards, which in games like babanuki/old maid is enough for a player to lose.
- "Is There Someone Like This Around You?"
starts with the titular question before cutting to shots of people, in which a hand holding a Joker card appears. However, it takes a dark turn when the person holding the card is in the train before the ad cuts to black and a stabbing sound is heard. After being treated to low-pitched screams of the other passengers, the ad fades into the question again, this time rephrased as, "Is there a JOKER around you?" - "Invincible Hero"
displays a shot of a hand holding a Joker, after the titular hero's failures and suffering piled up enough to drive them over the edge. Like the ad mentioned above, it cuts to black and a stab sound, complete with screams before declaring the hero as "invincible". However, it's implied they died of suicide after the Government Public Relations' ending card is shown, complete with the sounds of a door and a creaking noose as the words "GAME OVER" shine in red.
- "Is There Someone Like This Around You?"
- Tick Tock Terror: "Happiness Will Not Last Long"
shows a ticking clock as a caption fades in, asking the viewer if they have been happy past year. However, it takes a dark turn when ominous captions fade in, telling the viewer they won't escape fear of losing and therefore will lose something dear to them. After the final caption fades out for GPR's title card, it cuts to a countdown in red numbers against a black background. - Trash of the Titans: "Such an Era is Coming Soon"
starts with the shot of a filthy, clutter-filled room as the first caption mentions people living with their parents' corpses in dark rooms as one of the results of a society where everyone will have dementia at old age. - Trauma Conga Line: "Invincible Hero"
, despite its title, is actually about an average Japanese person (the "Hero" in question) being bullied into dropping out, failing their entrance exams, becoming unable to find a job, running out of money and eventually becoming homeless with nothing to lose. As a result of this, the "Hero" snaps, becomes a Joker, and murders someone offscreen, with the ad declaring them "invincible" afterward. However, the ad ends with an implication that they died of suicide, likely due to guilt from having committed murder. - Two-Faced: The infant from "Born"
sports two faces, which the PSA hails as a sign of it being the returning Buddha. - Universe Bible: Maki Kanaho's universe has an entry in the Pixiv Dictionary
, which explains in detail the organizations, concepts, and characters of both this channel and the secondary channel. - The Unintelligible: This video
, which is presented as an emergency broadcast from the GPR, only to show a humanoid thing talking, has a garbled title with archaic, obscure kanji and random kana symbols that makes it untranslatable. Moreover, most of the artwork in Maki Kanaho's Pixiv gallery has untranslatable titles, especially on the symbols used for this channel. - Voice of the Legion:
- "Born"
ends with the two-faced baby letting out chilling, ungodly double cries upon being delivered, before cutting to the GPR logo. - "100 Human Pillars"
starts with a mirrored picture of what looks like Hotei, but when it closes up to the one in the left side, he addresses the Human Pillars and then lets out inhuman, double-pitched cries.
- "Born"
- Voiceover Letter: "Your Town's TV Bulletin Board 1"
starts with a letter from Mr. Kamiki to Kobe-kun's mother. A deep, demonic voice reads the letter aloud, revealing that Kamiki and Kobe-kun were classmates since sixth grade. Then it takes a dark turn when Kamiki reveals he wrote the letter upon learning Mrs. Kobe was dying just to rub it in that he's Happily Married. Moreover, the letter reveals, through euphemistic wording, that Kamiki and his classmates bullied her son to the point of suicide, ending the narration by telling the poor woman to scold Kobe-kun in the afterlife. - Workaholic: This PSA
advocates this behavior, with visuals of an empty office until a hand holding a pistol shoots an offscreen person after someone says, "Thank you for your hard work."note , complete with a blood splatter. Finally, it cuts to a poster next to a water cooler that reads, "Not working overtime means you're not human; those who leave work on time are sentenced to death."Would you quit and leave your work on time? Would you quit being human? - We Interrupt This Program: Some videos start with a sign-off only to be interrupted by breaking-news reports of confirmed human pillars (spelled 从柱), with the TV Station congratulating them.
- "Mysterious Breaking News Broadcast on TV After Sign-off"
starts with a TV sign-off card, with calming piano music and all, but it's interrupted with an alert sound to announce, "We have surpassed 10 human pillars. Congratulations!". - "20 Human Pillars Confirmed"
starts with a nighttime sign-off card, but then it starts to glitch out and cut to the Government Public Relations reporting 20 confirmed human sacrifices, presenting blurred-out photos of the victims while congratulating them as well as a demonic deep voice recites their names. Eventually, a caption reads, "We'll welcome them tomorrow morning. Enjoy your final night!" before signing off with a SMPTE screen... only to display an upside-down caption reading, "Not enough human pillars!" against a red background.
- "Mysterious Breaking News Broadcast on TV After Sign-off"
- Wham Line:
- "Born"
is played off as a PSA on the miracle of life or somesuch, but when it shows the baby has two faces, the lullaby music stops before cutting to a blue background and showing captions that announce the "living Buddha" has come, before displaying the titular caption against the backdrop of a maternity ward, followed by distorted double baby cries.The living Buddha is already here.JP - "Give Me Back My Hometown"
starts off like a PSA on tourism or somesuch, claiming that several Japanese cities have a Tokyo each. However, the context changes when a caption appears, warning that prefectures will collapse by year 2050, implying that Tokyo will take over the country if nothing is done.¨By 2050, prefectures have already collapsed.JP - "I Wanted to be Born"
starts off displaying pregnancy and gestation-related imagery set to a music-box lullaby with disturbing captions like "crush it, smash it, gouge it out, scrape it out, drag it out". Then it cuts to a before cutting to a caption against a dark-teal background reading that more than 150,000 people are killed, before revealing the missing caption:"More than 150,000 people a year are killed inside their mothers' bodies."JP - "Let's Try Answering"
starts off innocent as it's played out as a pseudo-game show about a person's first year in the Japanese workforce. However, when the contestant fails as they keep picking the answer "A", which has optimistic wording yet is derided as wrong, the ad ends with a threatening caption that implies that people who love their jobs are as naïve as children."How long will you remain a child? Don't underestimate society."JP - "Such an Era is Coming Soon"
is tragic enough as it showcases the consequences of every person having dementia in the alternate Japan, but when it gets to its titular caption, it fades into an even more heartwrenching one."Such an era has already come."JP - "It's Your Fault"
starts off as a PSA bragging on how there's no kidnapping, noise pollution, nor child abuse in the alternate Japan. While it may seem like an advert for the country as a good place to live, the context changes when it cuts to an empty classroom, before showing a caption that there's no children, all while blaming the viewers for the country's situation."There are no children living in this country. This is your fault."JP - "How to Spend Obon Properly"
is a GPR notice for Obon, ordering viewers not to leave temples from night to morning if outside, or to wrap themselves in blankets and wail ceaselessly until sunrise without sleeping if at home, unless they hear a child's voice, which is their cue to go outside as long as others aren't involved. However, the notice ends with this chilling line:"Those are not your ancestors."JP
- "Born"
- Would Hurt a Child:
- The Daitenfu cult not only uses deformed babies to recreate artificial Buddhas and thus keep control over Japan through religious means, but also targets women to birth them, putting them through screwed-up fertility treatments against their will so that their babies will suffer deformities and thus provide more resources for the cult. Moreover, one of their shrines has a machine designed to fuse kids' bodies into artificially-conjoined twins, with most of the cases ending in failure and the victims' deaths.
- "Tokyo's Child-Recycling Center"
shows this is the titular center's entire purpose; parents go there to deposit their unwanted children for money. Moreover, the TCRC shows a sexist double standard concerning the gender of the children they receive; girls are dumped in exchange for 88,000 yen while boys are exchanged for a whopping 1,026,000 yen. Later on, "Catalog"
shows that TCRC "recycles" the kids they're given into objects and souvenirs. However, it's implied the dead kids' spirits still live on in those objects and have the possibility to haunt whoever buys them.
- Younger Than They Look: "Living On"
displays shots of elderly people only to reveal they're actually teenagers, with seventeen at the oldest. Then the ad cuts to black while a caption fades in and reveals a far more sinister context...行方不明の若者は彼らの身体の中で生きています。(The missing youths are living on in these people's bodies.)
