Produced in 2005, Kakurenbo is an atmospheric horror take on a murder bet.
For many anime fans, Adult Swim serves as a gateway to the world of Japanese animation. Introduced Western audiences to anime such as Inuyasha, Outlaw Star, and Yu Yu Hakusho, offering a more mature selection of anime as opposed to Toonami and 4Kids’ lighthearted romance anime. Occasionally, they even show movies or OVAs. One of these OVAs is titled Kakurenbo: Hide & Seek.
Debuted in 2005 as part of the Tokyo International Anime Fair and aired on Halloween that year on Adult Swim, Kakurenbo is a 25-minute horror OVA that focuses on a group of children playing the Hide and Seek game the group calls “Otokoyo” in a run-down city believed to be inhabited by demons. The leader of the group, Hikora, is playing in hopes of finding his lost sister Sorincha. One by one, the children were hunted down by the inhabitants of the abandoned town, eventually leaving Hikora as the last one left. Five demons are featured, with four chasing the kids and one acting as “it”. The anime’s ending is pretty bleak for a kid-centric movie with demons gathering kids to play as Otokoyo to power their city,
The film has won several awards at various film festivals, such as the Notable Entry Award for General Category at the Tokyo International Anime Fair and Best Picture at the Fantasia Festival in Montreal. The series was written, directed, and produced by Shuhei Morita, who would later go on to direct the Tokyo Ghoul anime. Kakurenbo was released through YamatoWorks and stars Junko Takeuchi (Cure Rouge of Yes! Precure 5) and Akiko Kobayashi (Nyanmi from Onegai My Melody). In the English dub, Dan Green, Michael Sinterniklaas and Veronica Taylor voiced the characters.
According to Morita, the story is based on the idea that Tokyo children had to give up the playful nature of games like Hide and Seek so that the city could expand and develop in an industrial direction, essentially nurturing. the fun that these games bring to previous generations. The ever-expanding city continues to grow each year, and there are few natural areas where children can run around and play outside in the park. Even these little havens don’t have much in the way of hiding and large areas for kids to really run around, with people walking their dogs and relaxing on benches often proving to be obstacles. There are some places with designated sports parks, but they are open areas with no hiding places. It seems that in larger cities it is harder for children to play games like Hide and Seek than it is for children living in other places.
For the duration of the story, Kakurenbo features a dark, dingy cityscape with neon lights and towering skyscrapers. There are specific rules in place for the version, such as every kid must wear a fox mask, and the game won’t start until seven kids have reached the starting point. The way to find a starting point is to follow the neon signs that spell O-To-Ko-Yo. Once the game has started, four demons will begin to pursue the player: Kimotori, the Livermaker; Chitori, the Bloodthirsty One; Aburatori, Oil Miner; and Kotori, the Child Thief. When there is one player left, the last demon to reveal is the eighth player, Oshira-sama, the great White Lord, a kitsune leading the demon group. Oshira-Sama owns the other after they win. It is assumed that the previous winner will continue to help power the city with the remaining children, who are trapped in a machine that sucks their life force and converts it into electricity. The game then proceeds in a continuous cycle, with a new set of players plus the previous winner.
Although it doesn’t have an overly horror character, Kakurenbo focuses more on the horror atmosphere, focusing on the cramped feeling that the dark alleys of the city give. It creates a suffocating feeling for the viewer, with the only real open space being around the battery tower. Witnessing the children try to escape the creatures that hunt them further adds to the tension, with the final reveal revealing that there is no true winner for Otokoyo. Only victims.
