Kagerou Project

[Nosebleed]

Warning: For those of you watching the Mekakucity Actors anime or reading the Kagerou Days manga this will spoil the story. Though parts of the anime will be original there are a lot of elements, including the backstory that will be similar. Proceed at your own risk.

Though I personally am still loving the anime despite already knowing the original source material so I'd encourage you regardless.

 

So I've seen a lot of people enjoying Mekakucity Actors and its intricacy and mystery. But I figured some might not know or not have seen the original work it's adapted from which is a series of music videos created by Jin. I decided to make this thread to share with you all the orignal story and maybe get some new fans of it.

 

Below is every original music video with a summary underneath explaining what is going on in it. There are 22 songs in total.

Note that every music video is linked and as a whole they form a story. Make sure to pay attention to the lyrics and the images so you can get the most out of it and hopefully you enjoy it as much as I did.

Click on the title and you'll be taken to the respective video. It's impossible to embed more than 3 videos in 1 post so there was no other way around it.

 

Let the adventure begin~

 

1 Children Record (チルドレンレコード)

 

This is the opening song for the Kagerou Project so there's no big story behind it aside from the fact it's the OP.

 

In this video you can preview some of the upcoming scenes and events as well as get a glimpse on all of the main cast

 

2 Jinzou Enemy (人造エネミー lit: Artificial Enemy)

 

In this story we are introduced to Ene, a cybergirl who is living inside the computer of the NEET Kisaragi Shintaro, who is spending his life inside his room, doing nothing but sitting on the computer.

 

She watches him repeating his daily life over and over again, not wanting to have any change. He averts his eyes from the real life and hides from the world even if he can't forget his own past.

 

She reminds him that he should know that fleeing from reality isn't the best solution, but if he would have to he could also spend his time to only look at her and live with her in a world created by humans.

 

At the end of the song Shintaro tells Ene that he got already bored of her as a "toy that can only talk". The song describes the happenings in Route XX before he kills Ene and himself.

 

3 Mekakushi Code (メカクシコード lit: Blindfold Code)

 

In this story we are introduced to the Mekakushi Dan

 

The Mekakushi Dan is a group is led by a girl named Tsubomi Kido. She has an eye ability that can erase the perception towards objects and even people within a certain distance of herself and/or her surroundings, making them invisible.  

 

Anyone can join the group, even in the middle of missions; there's no limit to the number of members or particular requirement to join. You get into the hideout with a password.

 

The group completes missions, some of which are dangerous, and recruits new members. Most of the current members have an eye ability, but one can join without any special ability.

 

4 Kagerou Days (カゲロウデイズ lit: Heat-daze days)

 

The official name is Days not Daze. Some people make this mistake often.

 

The story now revolves around a boy named Amamiya Hibiya, and a girl named Asahina Hiyori.

 

On August 15th, Hibiya witnesses Hiyori running out into the street to retrieve a black cat and getting hit by a truck. The heat apparently mocks him in his daze, and he blacks out only to wake up on August 14th.

 

He tells Hiyori about his strange dream that took place in the park they were walking in. They decide to go home and just as she steps in front of him, a pole falls from the sky and pierces through her. The heat once again laughs at him, and, before he blacks out, he notices Hiyori seeming to be smiling as she dies.

 

This process repeats for decades, the same two days happening over and over.

 

Finally, Hibiya decides to take action and pushes Hiyori out of the way of the truck and is killed himself.

 

In the end, it shows Hiyori was also caught in the loop. It turns out that she had been trying to save Hibiya from death, so the cycle still continues on.

 

5 Headphone Actor (ヘッドフォンアクター)

 

This is the story of Takane Enomoto (Ene when she was human) who was very bored on this average day. She turns on the radio to hear a country's president in tears announce that the world is ending today.

 

She had a half finished game with no save and a textbook. She was scared and to stop her body from trembling she put her headphones on. Listening to an unknown song, by an unknown artist, a voice from her headphones suddenly asks her, if she wanted to survive.

 

She claims the voice is her own. It told her to go 20 minutes ahead and cross the hill and she would find out what it meant.

 

On her way to the hill she crosses a crowded intersection and sees a sobbing girl.

Her voice tells her that 12 minutes are left. She says if everything was going to vanish, she had no other choice but to listen to the voice from the headphones. 

 

Many minutes pass as she runs with tears in her eyes, having only one minute left. Takane claims she can no longer hear the voice because the hill that she is supposed to cross is right in front of her.

 

When she gets to her destination, scientists congratulate her. She finds out her town was an experiment that was no longer needed. One scientist calmly detonates a bomb. She is told she was living her whole entire life in a box.

 

In the end she looks at her town, now a burnt wreckage.

From her headphones she hears a faint "Sorry". At the end of the song you can see an outline of Ene.

 

6 Kuusou Forest (空想フォレスト lit: Fantasy Forest)

 

Was originally titled Souzou Forest (Imagination Forest) but Jin later changed it although many people still know it by the title of Souzou Forest.

 

This is the story of Marry Kozakura, a girl living in a house in the forest.

 

She says that this world is simple, but that she's strange and doesn't fit in, and nobody understands her. She tries to convince herself that her house, which isn't easily noticed, is the reason no one comes to visit. So- with a hard heart -she resigns to loneliness.

 

Since she's isolated from society, everything Marry knows comes from the books that she reads. She longs for the real world and asks forgiveness for doing so. Knowing there is life somewhere inside of her, she imagines a wild future, and wishes for said future to knock on her door.

Lost in her daydream about experiencing the world, she suddenly hears a voice. In a panic, she spills her tea and doesn't know what to do.

 

In the next scene, Marry's past is shown again, where her mother tells her not to look into anyone's eyes or they'll turn to stone. This brings light to the fact that she is a Medusa, of which she is only 1/4.  Wanting to know more about what she is, she looks into her books and reads a story about Medusa, realizing that people like her are feared. She is upset that she was born this way and throws both the book and the mirror to the floor.

 

Back to the present, Marry hears the owner of the previously mentioned voice knocking at the door, which has never happened before. She continues to panic and tries to pretend she didn't hear the knock, then trips over a book, and the person opens the door.

 

Another flashback shows a five-year-old Marry, playing outside and making flower crowns, while her mother, Shion, is inside the house organizing books. Unfortunately, two human boys come and bully Marry. Shion goes to help her, but one of the boys grabs her leg and trips her. To protect her daughter, Shion turns both boys into stone. Consequently, the stress on Shion's body is too much, and she dies, leaving Marry alone.

 

Back to the present, Marry hides under a table and covers her eyes. The person is surprised by her actions. Marry tells him that if he looks into her eyes he'll turn to stone, and the person, not knowing that she is a Medusa, takes it the wrong way.

 

Her warning didn't specify that he would be turned to stone, so he thinks Marry is talking about herself. He infers that she's afraid of other people and tells her that he was scared too, then asks if she thinks the world would be better without that fear. The boy puts headphones into Marry's ears and plays music from his phone, which sparks her imagination.

 

As it turns out, Marry's mother died before telling her that she could control her power. The boy puts his hood over her head and gives it to her as a gift.

 

In the last scene Marry is seen looking up at her house as the wind blows against her hood, which is now decorated by simple red roses along the edges. She turns around and smiles at Kido and the boy, of whom is revealed to be Seto.

 

7 Toumei Answer (透明アンサ lit: Transparent Answer)

 

This story about how Shintaro became a hikikomori (recluse/shut-in).

 

Shintaro was a student with straight A's when he met Ayano in school, who he didn't want to get close to, but ended up doing so anyway. Ayano had bad grades and called herself stupid.

 

They then enter their first year in high school together. Although she always managed to cheer him up and seemed happy, one day Shintaro finds Ayano crying, but he doesn't know what to do and retreats.

 

The next day he finds out she died, when people bring in flowers for her. It is revealed she committed suicide for an unknown reason.

 

Shintaro goes up to the roof of the school and finds one of the paper cranes that she made. The paper crane was the test paper Shintaro got 100 on, which he tore apart.

 

Her death put him in so much shock that he wanted to escape reality and enclose himself in a digital world which he did by locking himself in his room and becoming a NEET, which led him to later meet Ene.

 

8 Ene no Dennou Kikou (エネの電脳紀行 lit: Ene's Cyber Journey)

 

This short story happens right after Headphone Actor.

 

It shows Ene who now lost her human body and now lives in the Cyber World.

 

9 Konoha no Sekai Jijou (コノハの世界事情 lit: Konoha's State of The World)

 

In this story we're introduced to Konoha

 

At first we see Konoha as he seems to be experimented on after he lost his human body.

 

Then we are taken back to Kagerou Days, now from Konoha's prespective.

 

The rest of the story revolves around Konoha trying to save Hibiya and Hiyori, but can never make it in time.

 

Many theories have been made for this song but the real truth is unknown. Konoha's eye ability is also unknown. 

 

10 Kisaragi Attention (如月アテンション)

 

This story introduces Kisaragi Momo, a young girl who is also a pretty popular idol

 

She is going out for a walk, but tries to not gather too much attention today, therefore she wears a hoodie to hide her face from the public. Though she makes her way through back alleys and stays careful, she still gets spotted and her hood blows off as a strong wind comes by, making people notice her immediately.

 

As the crowd starts to take photos she runs away, as she is sick of her idol life by now. She jumps over a fence and sees several posters of herself. She gets nervous, stating she would like to tell everyone to not stare at her anymore, but she keeps it for herself and continues to run.

 

Finally knowing she's safe she drinks a soda and thinks about when it started that she got so much attention from people. As she can't really remember, and continues her walking, but hides behind a wall as she notices everyone is in panic, making her want to quit her idol job. The video then shows a short scene of how she signed the contract to become an idol and switches back to present. 

 

Looking at a poster of herself she wonders if she really deserves all this attention and doesn't understand it at all. She starts to cry and continues to do so until she suddenly notices a girl with green hair in front of her. The girl brings her to the hideout of the Mekakushi Dan where she gets introduced to Kido, Kano and Marry (later Seto as well).

 

After some trouble with a misunderstanding they ask her to join the group and she agrees, when suddenly Marry trips and spills tea over Momo. She takes it with humor and they become friends.

 

The next scene skips to a concert of Momo, showing how she looks at a photo of her new friends on her cell phone with a smile. Being encouraged by the help of her friends she faces her idol life with positive thinking and accepts her eye power, which she now uses to attract even more attention during her performance. Knowing the others of the Mekakushi Dan are watching, she takes her hoodie and puts it on her shoulders.

 

The last scene shows how Momo is out again and shows her brother Shintaro for a short moment, referencing to the following scenes in the manga.

 

11 Dead and Seek (デッドアンドシーク)

 

Not much is known about this song other than it tells Kenjirou Tateyama's story

 

Kenjirou is a high school teacher and Momo's homeroom teacher. He provides both stern and kind guidance to Momo, who can't come to school often due to idol activities.

 

He lost his family in the past, but still continues to do his best in educating students. He possesses the power of "making eyes clear".

 

12 Shinigami Record (シニガミレコード lit: Death God Record)

 

This is the story of Azami, a monster who is living all alone in the woods.

 

Azami starts to think about the meaning of existence. As she watches the people coming by now and then, she notices that they age and therefore die very quickly compared to her as a medusa.

 

As she is out, one day she meets a young soldier who isn't afraid of her and gets to know him after some hesitations. The two eventually fall in love and become a couple. They decide to spend their life together.

 

A time later Azami gets pregnant and then bears a child, Shion (Marry's mother), that makes her value her life with her family more than ever.

 

As her child grows, she starts to notice that her husband had grown older very fast too and would die soon, while her and Shion are still young. Not able to stand the thought, she decides to create a never-ending world by harnessing the power of her snakes and wishes for that place to be a new home for her family, where no one would have to grow older anymore. She leaves her family for this reason, wanting them to wait for her return.

 

After she has done it, she continues to wait in front of the door of it, wishing her husband and daughter to come to her to embrace their new life. After a while, as no one seemed to come, she starts to realize that her husband had died by now and that a long time must have passed. Realizing this, she loses interest in the never-ending world for which she has no use anymore.

 

Though she has no reason for going there anymore, she thinks about living into the real world alone but the thought of having lost her husband forces her to break down and she starts to cry. In the end she lives into the new world on her own.

 

13 Gunjou Rain (群青レイン lit: Ultramarine Rain)

 

This is the story of Marry and her mother. It is set prior to Kuusou Forest and is linked to Shinigami Record.

 

Shion is reading her daughter a storybook as she has trouble falling asleep, but eventually manages to get her to.

 

Shion is then watching the rain and wishes that it could rain forever so it would stop Marry from going outside. She tells her not to get out of the house and look at the world, that she wouldn't need to "meet their eyes yet", while she is asleep.

 

Knowing that there is a world outside that never stops spinning, she knows that Marry would one day make her own experiences there and maybe one day would find her happiness.

 

Remembering her own past, she realizes how much she used to hate the world, but had now grown to love every single day. She remembers how she always waited with her father for her mother to return, but she never did.

 

As Shion then dies due to the events in Kuusou Forest, she feels sorry that she couldn't tell Marry how much she loved her and that the world is about to open.

 

At the end of the song, it shows Marry on another rainy day, reading a diary her mother wrote for her, starting to cry because she saw the words her mother wrote: "I love you".

 

14 Yobanashi Deceive (夜咄ディセイブ lit: Night Tales Deceive)

 

In this video we are told a story about Kano by Kano himself.

 

He begins telling a story of a boy who became a monster who always lied, being able to even shapeshift into other people like Kido and Seto. He then lost sight of his true heart after being buried under so many lies and didn't know what else to do as he was drowned in all those lies.

 

In the end however he claims this all to be a made-up story. 

 

15 Shounen Brave (少年ブレイヴ lit: Brave Boy)

 

Shounen Brave tells the story of Kousuke Seto's past.

 

Seto was very frail as a kid and as a result he was bullied. So much that his only friend was a dog.

 

He then received his eye power "Stealing Eyes" that allows him to read other people's minds. After he failed to save his dog he ran away into a secluded place.

 

That's when he met Marry and the scenes from Kuusou Forest happen.

 

All of this is told through eyes of his older self and now revealing that he, by accident, read the medusa's mind when they first met. 

 

16 Yuukei Yesterday (夕景イエスタデイ lit: Yesterday Evening)

 

Yuukei Yesterday is set prior to Headphone Actor

 

It tells the story of Takane Enomoto (Ene when she was human) and how she came to know Haruka Kokonose (Konoha when he was human) and fall in love with him.

 

It also briefly shows some scenes with her and Shintarou and Ayano.

 

17 Otsukimi Recital (オツキミリサイタル lit: Moon Viewing Recital)

 

This story takes place after the events described in Kagerou Days.

 

Hibiya, who is depressed after losing his friend and crush Hiyori, is trying to live with it but is unable to do so.

 

Momo tries her best to cheer him up by showing him stuff in life that are worth to move on for. By doing this he slowly lightens up, but as soon as Momo steps on a cat's tail, Hibiya is haunted by the memories of Hiyori, who liked to pet cats as well, falling back into depression.

 

After several attempts to cheer Hibiya up with food and fun, they eventually end up in the park together. Walking by a playground he once again remembers Hiyori's death by getting pierced by iron piles and can no longer hold back his tears, crying out that he misses her.

 

Desperate as she is, Momo grabs the boy and activates her power to show him he is not alone and encouraging him to accept his eye power and past and no longer hold onto his grief.

 

As she later wakes up on Kido's lap from exhaustion, she notices Hibiya shouting at the moon that he will give his happiness another chance. Seeing Momo that happy over his emotional chance he holds out his hand to hold hers, but hesitates. Seeing this Momo grabs his hand and pulls him along with her. This event is watched by the eyes of Shintarou.

 

18 Ayano no Koufuku Riron (アヤノの幸福理論 lit: Ayano's Theory of Happiness)

 

This song tells the story of Tateyama Ayano's past as well as the origin of the Mekakushi Dan

 

It starts off, when Kido, Seto, and Kano are introduced by Ayano's mother after being adopted into her family. They believe that they are monsters due to their red eyes, but Ayano cheers them up by saying that red is the color of heroes. She shows them a picture book of a hero story while wearing a red scarf after that.

 

It was around this time when Ayano created the Mekakushi Dan in order to cheer the kids up so they wouldn't feel sad about their powers.

 

Soon Ayano's mother dies due to an accident. Ayano tells herself that she has to be a good big sister and cheer her siblings up.

 

One day she sees her dad (Tateyama Kenjirou) planning an experiment on her friends, Takane and Haruka. These experiments were what led to them losing their human bodies as well.

 

Devastated by this, she tries to save them by committing suicide, and thus enters the Heat Haze in hopes of getting an eye ability to help them, which she does. 

 

She obtains the "Favouring eyes" which allow her to see outside of the Heat Haze through the eyes of anyone with red eyes.

 

This also means that Ayano is not dead, she is inside the Heat Haze, the never ending world created by the Medusa Azami.

 

19 Lost Time Memory (ロスタイムメモリー)

 

In this story it is revealed that Ayano's death opened two paths for the Dan: Route 1 and Route XX

 

In Route 1, Shintarou meets the Dan and saves Dark Konoha from committing suicide, instead dying for him and meeting Ayano, who gives him the "Favoring Eyes" and eventually leads to Summertime Record. 

 

In Route XX, Shintarou continues to grieve over Ayano, eventually killing Ene and committing suicide, and failing to reach Ayano, which leads to Outer Science. 

 

In Route 1, after Ayano gives Shintarou the Favoring Eyes, she is seen disappearing and giving him her red scarf, implying she finally passed away after completing her mission  which was saving everyone.

 

20 Outer Science (アウターサイエンス)

 

The bad end of the story.

It is the conclusion to Route XX

 

The trauma of "opening" his eyes caused Konoha to become Dark Konoha (also known as Kuroha), he steals Marry's "ombining Eyes ability and kills everyone.

 

Through unknown means, Marry turns back time to try to save everyone at the end.

 

21 Marry no Kakuu Sekai (マリーの架空世界 lit: Marry's Fictional World)

 

The song tells us about Marry's feelings when creating the never-ending world. After Dark Konoha kills everyone, Marry turns back time in order to try to protect everyone until she eventually reaches Route 1.

 

22 Summertime Record (サマータイムレコード)

 

The song is the official ending and last song Kagerou Project. 

It is the conclusion to Route 1

 

It tells what happens with Mekakushi Dan and with the characters after the end of the story in the good end.

 

If you watched and read everything. Congratulations.

I hope you enjoyed the adventures of the Mekakushi Dan as well as the stories behind them.

 

There are many theories about some of the events and not everything is crystal clear, but that's also part of its charm and I'm up for discussing anything with any of you.

 

I might do some character summaries as well as a FAQ but I'm too tired now after making this. Regardless I hope you liked the story as much as I did. Cheers~

 

[Kaguya]

Pretty nice thread, just look at all the time value you'll get by looking at the whole thing in one place instead of having to search for every single song and interpret it. Nice job, nii-chan.

[Yukiru]

Great thread, but I'll look at the spoilers after finishing the anime, having my own interpretation sounds funnier to me, but by a small glance at it, those seems pretty good.

[Nosebleed]

Not going to add this to the main post or it'll become too long but I felt like it's a nice thing to have so I'm putting it here.

 

Character Summaries

 

Mekakushi Dan members

---

 

Tsubomi Kido

 

About:

Kido is member number 1 of the Mekakushi Dan.

 

Kido grew up in the same orphanage as Seto and Kano. She is often listening to music through her earphones. Although she is naturally kind and has the most common sense within the group, she is short-tempered and has difficulty keeping other members, especially Kano and Seto, in line. 

 

She may appear scary at first glance, due to her dark expression and "glare-like gaze," as stated by Kano. Kido is also very motherly, as stated by Shintaro.

 

During the past, she was relatively normal, but because of her ability, her presence was weak and people often unintentionally ignored her. Over time, she started to become arrogant, developing "chuunibyou" ("8th grader syndrome").

 

Ability: Concealment

Kido's ability is the "Hiding One's Eyes" ability. 

She can divert perception towards objects and even people within 2 meters of herself and/or her surroundings, rendering them invisible. Conversation while being hidden also won't be heard by outsiders. 

 

Physical contact, however, breaks the effect, so it isn't useful in very crowded places. Along with this vulnerability, if a person outside the 2 meter bubble is familiar with someone being concealed, her power will not be as strong.

 

Kido's ability works more when preventing people from recognizing those being hidden, rather than making them unable to be seen. She has practiced to control her ability perfectly and to not disappear all of a sudden.

 

Kousuke Seto

 

About:

Seto is member number 2 of the Mekakushi Dan

 

Seto is a kind-hearted person, something first visible through his behavior while befriending Marry and inviting her to join the Mekakushi Dan, while everyone else in Marry's life had bullied her.

 

As a result of his kindness, he also makes friends easily, like the first time he met Shintaro. He is also good friends with Kido and Kano, as they all came from the same orphanage, and lives with them together in an apartment. 

 

He often wanders off to explore new places. To gain money for living he works as a florist at a shopping center, and also in various other jobs, such as traffic control and delivering newspapers.

 

He dislikes his Eye Ability, because he sees it as a power where one "steals" with glances, without needing communication, so he rarely uses it on anyone.

 

Ability: Analysis

Seto has a power known as "eye-stealing" ability, which allows him to read information from the target. Kind of like mind reading.

 

He is also able to communicate with animals using his eye ability

 

Shuuya Kano

 

About:

Kano is member number 3 of the Mekakushi Dan

 

Kano is a young man who is part of the Mekakushi Dan. Has an unfocused, aloof personality and always has a smile on his face. 

 

Because he teases Marry, Momo and Kido a lot, he's often considered to be a flirt, but when it counts, he's worth relying on.

 

In the song Yobanashi Deceive Kano tells a story about a boy who became lost in lies, and although he denies it, it is implied this boy is in fact Kano himself. In the present time however he doesn't have issues with his powers.

 

Ability: Illusion

 Kano possesses a power known to "deceive one's eyes". 

 

It can change what people around him see and show them something different, but he can only use it on himself, meaning he cannot change appearances of others.

 

Kozakura Marry

 

About:

Marry is a 1/4-Medusa and 3/4-human girl. She is member number 4 of the Mekakushi Dan

 

She is extremely shy around different people and can barely stay calm around new acquaintances. Similar to Shintaro, Marry is an extreme hikkikomori, which means she stays at home at all times and therefore has little to no stamina. Because of that, Marry tends to be very clumsy, as shown when she spilled all the tea and rag at Momo, and identically flung the handheld massager towards the terrorist leader during the incident in the shopping centre.

 

Due to the fact that she had to spend most of her life all by herself, she treasures her friends from the bottom of her heart and could not live without them being around anymore. This strong affection is the main source for the use of her powers during the story, as she uses them to prevent the loss of her friends by death.

 

Ability: Paralysys & Combine

Marry has a power known as the "Eye Contact" ability, which she inherited from her mother Shion. It allows her to temporarily stop the movement of whoever meets her gaze. It is not as complete as her mother's or grandmother's power as she is not able to turn people into stone, but to more "freeze" them.

 

Marry also has the ability to "Combine Eyes" with the others snakes. It was given to her by Azami as she entered the Heat Haze.

 

Kisaragi Momo

 

About:

Momo is member number 5 of the Mekakushi Dan

 

She's a very popular idol, but encountered quite a number of difficulties. She's a first year in high school. Ever since a childhood accident at the beach with her father, she has the "eye-captivating" power.

 

Because of her power, she was often alienated from people and had no friends, but once meeting the Mekakushi Dan, she regained her original, bright character.

 

She has a peculiar sense in taste and fashion; it's common for her opinions to disagree with people. Unlike her brother, Shintaro, Momo doesn't do well at school and is always scolded by Kenjirou due to it. She is shown to only score 2 marks for a biology paper despite having attended two whole weeks of supplementary lessons.

 

Ability: Captivation

Momo's ability, known as "Eye Attention", can draw peoples' attention, regardless of their preferences in tastes or interests.

 

Enomoto Takane (Ene)

 

About:

Ene is member number 6 of the Mekakushi Dan

 

She is a naive, often cheeky, cyber girl who started living inside of Shintaro's computer as a virus, after she arrived in a mail of an unknown sender. She can invade anything that uses electricity, and goes out of her way to annoy Shintaro - but is also reflective when her pranks go out of hand. 

 

She usually renames the folders on his computer, changes his passwords, and lots of other similar things. Although she can be deleted from his computer, she will reappear as soon as he connects to the Internet again. She also has some familiarity with the sister of Shintaro, Momo. 

 

Momo does not seem to dislike her, since Ene does not live in her own computer, but she became kind of mad at her for suggesting something about yuri between Momo and Marry.

 

When she was still human, Takane used to be frustrated about her illness which would frequently cause her to fall asleep, hence why she was always crabby. Around her classmate Haruka she tended to act cool and angry about a lot of things he did, however, deep inside she struggled against her desire to be with him seeing as she loved him deeply, but wouldn't admit it. 

 

After losing her human body and becoming data, she became much more cheerful and extremely noisy instead.

 

Ability: Immortality

Ene's eye ability is known as the "Opening Eyes", which allow her to be immortal and also be able to transform. 

She received it from her snake after vanishing in an unknown place.

 

Kisaragi Shintarou

 

About:

Shintarou is member number 7 of the Mekakushi Dan

 

He is a hikkikomori NEET and a young man with an IQ of 168. Since everything in the world seemed to have obvious answers, Shintarou had an apathetic personality.

 

After Ayano's death, he began to regret losing her, trying to understand her true feelings of why she leaped off of the building.

Later on, after two years had passed, he became hopelessly addicted to the Internet and even states that he would die without it. 

 

He forces himself to remember Ayano and is afraid of forgetting her, because of this he purposely avoids contact with people and refused to move forward.

 

Although he was arrogant and selfish during middle school, he changed drastically after becoming a hikkikomori. Since he is actually very weak, Ene's presence was so overwhelming that he could not do anything but accept her.

 

Ability: Favoring Eyes

Shintarou's eye ability allows him to see through the eyes of people outside the Heat Haze. However; this is only possible if the other person also possesses Red Eyes.

 

In Route 1, after Shintaro meets Ayano in the Heat Haze, she passes her eye ability to him before finally passing away.

 

Amamiya Hibiya

 

About:

Hibiya is member number 8 of the Mekakushi Dan

 

Hibiya is mature for his age, but - at least before the time loop - he was shown to be very brash. 

 

After escaping the time loop and joining the Mekakushi Dan, Hibiya fell into a deep depression over the loss of his love, Hiyori.

 

Momo managed to pull him out of his depression after considerable effort on her part.

 

Ability: Focusing

Hibiya's eye ability is "Eye Focusing". It has the power to perceive objects and details that are far away from an aerial point of view.

 

Kokonose Haruka (Konoha)

 

About:

Konoha is the 9th and final member of the Mekakushi Dan

 

Konoha is a gentle and quiet boy with amnesia. Therefore he is known to possess a strong curiosity for the unknown.

 

He currently resides at Hiyori's sister's house as a foster child. Not knowing about the normal world, he's rather air-headed, thus easily forgets some things, for example, quickly forgetting who Hibiya and Hiyori were, despite them giving him long introductions at their first meeting. 

 

In his spare time, he plays baseball with the neighborhood children. He seems like a brother to Hiyori and Hibiya and is always with them. He also has a strong appetite and especially enjoys Hibiya's cooking.

 

As Haruka, he did not care much about what people thought; he did not even seem to care when he was in nothing but his underwear in front of Takane. Haruka is often drawing and not paying attention in class. He was known to have a serious illness or disease that made him a weak physical and often sickly.

 

Ability: Awakening

Konoha's ability, "Awakening Eyes", gives him the ability to remake his body into one that he finds to be his "ideal". As Haruka was physically weak and sickly, this meant for him to become supernaturally strong. 

 

However, using this ability puts a large strain on his mind, and causes him to lose part of his memory.

 

---

 

Side Characters

 

---

 

Tateyama Ayano

 

About:

The daughter of a teacher, Kenjirou and an archaeologist, Ayaka, as well as the founder and first leader of the Mekakushi Dan. Her member number at the time was "0".

 

She was a cheerful girl who was Shintaro's classmate during middle and high school. Although always staying at Shintaro's side, she did not believe in her abilities to put him out of his apathy. It is presumed that she got rather low grades, as she was seen with only a 56 as a test score once. Even though she called herself stupid, she was always smiling and seemed to be having fun.

 

Ayano commited suicide in order to save her siblings by jumping off the rooftop of her school in order to enter the Heat Haze and gain an eye ability

 

Ability: Favoring Eyes

Her eye ability allows her to see through the eyes of people outside the Heat Haze. However; this is only possible if the other person also possesses Red Eyes.

 

In Route 1, after Shintaro meets her in the Heat Haze, she passes her eye ability to him and is assumed to have finally passed away.

 

Azami

 

About:

She is a full Medusa. Her hair grows as snakes and each snake possesses an unique ability. 

 

Because she has an immortal body, she thinks of humans as "dull creatures, that die easily". However, at one time, she fell in love with a young soldier named Tsukihiko, who was the first human to not fear her, and started a family with him.

 

Human lifespans are short, and fearing that she might end up alone again, Azami used the powers of the snakes to create a never ending world known as the Heat Haze.

 

Ability: Paralysis & Snakes

Azami has a power known as "Eye Contact" ability, it allows her to temporarily stop the movement of whoever meets her gaze. Shion inherited this power from her. She is also able to turn people into stone, yet she didn't use this power in the plot yet, so it's unknown if she could use it more than once.

 

Each one of her snakes has a special ability that gave each member of the Mekakushi Dan their abilities current powers.

 

Kozakura Shion

 

About:

Shion seemed to be a loving mother who doted on her daughter Marry. She lived with Marry in the forest and did not allow Marry to go outside, always reminding her not to look into anyone's eyes, or they would be turned into stone. Out of love for Marry, she sacrificed her life to save her daughter from two boys who were bullying her.

 

Abilit: Paralysis

 Shion has a power known as "Eye Contact" ability, which allows her to temporarily stop the movement of whoever meets her gaze. Marry also inherited this power from her. Unlike her daughter, she was able to turn people into stone, but it would cause too much of a strain to her body and killed her when she used it.

 

Tateyama Kenjirou

 

 About:

Kenjirou is a high school teacher and Momo's homeroom teacher. He provides both stern and kind guidance to Momo, who can't come to school often due to idol activities.

 

He lost his family in the past (Ayano and Ayaka), but still continues to do his best in educating students. 

It is believed he is involved in the Heat Haze and he is also responsible for turning Takane into an artificial being and giving Haruka his ability.

 

Ability: Clarity

Kenjirou has the power to "make eyes clear"

 

Hiyori Azahina

 

About:

Hiyori is a young girl who admires the big city. She's incredibly active and stubborn, and was the person who dragged Hibiya to the city with her. She's popular among her classmates, but not interested in such things, and even Hibiya is only considered a "convenient classmate who listens to what she says."

 

In the anime, she is shown to be a messy and careless girl, as she leaves trash all over her brother-in-law's house and has a mean attitude towards Hibiya, often ordering him to do various errands for her.

[Yukiru]

Dammit, I don't know where to take my hype anymore!  Everything is starting to make sense now! I never thought I would understand.

[Nosebleed]

After I watched all the music videos and kind of read about them too I understood the general concept. Then came the anime and things got much more linked and the hype returned. And then there's the manga and the novels with a completely different storyline to fry your brain, but honestly I believe the manga is more its own thing than the anime.

 

If you want to hear a theory, it is said by some that the manga storyline follows the events after Outer Science (the music video).

So basically the manga starts when the route is reset so it is actually a sequel to the music videos and not a direct adaptation of them 

Though this was just something I read, you can take it any way you want.

[Guest]

I have to admit.

 

The Kagerou project is totally awesome.

 

I'm suprised at how many of these songs I had already listened to before even knowing about it.

 

Shuuya best girl.

[babiker]

dam is it just me or are there too much characters... but anyway, cool show. hope i can get around to finishing it.

[KritzKingVoid]

After watching all the PVs and waiting for the mangas. Similarity they both have he same story i wonder if the manga has a different ending or will it stick with "Summertime Record" Ending or "Outer Science"

[Nosebleed]

dam is it just me or are there too much characters... but anyway, cool show. hope i can get around to finishing it.

There's only 9 main characters. The rest are side ones.

After watching all the PVs and waiting for the mangas. Similarity they both have he same story i wonder if the manga has a different ending or will it stick with "Summertime Record" Ending or "Outer Science"

I believe the manga storyline will have differences. I think it is set directly after Outer Science so it's probably going to stick with Summertime Record.

[Yukiru]

The manga is not set directly after outer science, it has similarities, but after re-watching outer science- I can find enough of a difference. It does indeed follow an completely different story, though- the beginning being similar but with different approaches.

 

The manga is really worth it.

[OriginalRen]

Just finished this and man, the Kagerou Project is just awesome.  Thought I've still got questions about things myself, I have put together what I got out of the ending starting at Video 18- Ayano's Theory of Happiness. This is my interpretation and there are a lot of questions mixed in with it. Please feel free to reply back to this about any answers you may have to my questions, questions of your own, etc. Though I won't blame anyone who TL:DRs this

 

Ayano's Theory of Happiness: Ayano finds out that her dad was experimenting on Takane and Haruka. Ayane then decides to kill herself to gain an eye ability to "help the others." Why would killing herself and getting an eye ability let her help them? Did she think she would come back to life like the others did when they got their ability and do something then? If that's what she was thinking it doesn't make much sense. So she ends up in the heat haze with the ability to see through other red eyes. Does this include the ability to communicate with them? I'm just so confused on why she would kill herself because even if her ability allowed her to talk with them, she could have just done that while she was alive!!! WTF

on to the next one

Lost Time Memory: Ok. Ayano killed herself for whatever reason. So Route 1- Shintarou, with I'm assuming the help of Ene and the others, is able to at least move on from Ayano's death. Konoha's power manifests and he becomes Kuroha(maybe? need confirmation on this). Shintarou saves him, but at the cost of his own life.

Route XX- Shintarou is unable to overcome the loss of Ayano(I don't blame him, Ayanoooo! Nooo! y u do dis ;_;..) Anyways. He then kills Ene and himself because he is in so much despair. Is part of his despair coming from the fact that he was so cold to Ayano at times? I think so. This leads to..

 

Outer Science: With Shintarou dead, there is no one to stop Konoha from becoming Kuroha, thus he kills everyone(except Marry I think?). Marry then uses her powers to reverse time(I didn't catch this part in the video) until she gets to route 1.

 

Marry's Fictional world: Basically just how Marry feels and how she keeps trying to turn back time until route 1 is reached.

 

Summertime Record: This is route 1 and the "good end". Marry somehow goes back to a point in time where everyone(Including Shintarou) is alive. Konoha does not become Kuroha( right?). I have no idea how this is possible because if she got to a point where Kuroha does not kill everyone and Shintarou is alive, did Marry really bring back time at all? Or is Outer Science just a what could have happened. Which would make Route 1 the TRUE end NO MATTER WHAT. The group disbands and hopes to meet each other again ;_;

 

Now for a question about the ending of Summertime Record:

Did they lose their powers? If so, how did they lose them? If not, why did they disband?

Did Marry retain her memories of the events of Route XX? This goes back to my point of did time really go back at all?

 

And now for the most important question of all- MARRY, Y U NO GO BACK IN TIME AND SAVE AYANO. ARGHH

 

All in all the Kagerou Project is very cool. I enjoyed watching every video and I think my favorite songs in this order are: Night Tales Deceive, Fantasy Forest, and Ayano's Theory of Happiness. Every song was great though!

 

http://haiiro-no-suiyoubi.tumblr.com/post/69928272958/a-giant-giant-guide-to-kagerou-project-for-beginners

 

Read that post, follow the order of things to do (AKA read the manga and the light novels when it says to), and you'll understand a little more about the actual world. Still many unanswered questions though.

 

To give an answer regarding the Ayano theory, here is an excerpt from that page:

 

Ayano’s mother died during a landslide in one of their investigations about Azami’s world, on a certain August 15th. Did you notice who her dad was? He’s Kenjirou, the teacher who killed Haruka and Takane to get to the other world. As Ayano describes, his tears “turned black, noticed by no one.” Kenjirou killed Haruka and Takane to try to get his dead wife back. Since she’s in the Daze, yes that does mean Kenjirou was the second person to die, and has an eye power of his own. His power is only known as the title of “clarifying eyes.” You may remember that name from the 4th novel and the discussion of the powers…

Ayano found Kenjirou’s notes about his murders of Haruka and Takane, Azami, and the Heat Haze World. It’s unclear if this was before or after Haruka and Takane were actually killed, but Ayano realized that her dad had lost it, and she needed to protect the happiness of the people she cared about from him. “If I had those red eyes myself, could I save someone’s future?” Ayano learns from her father’s notes how to get an eye power, the way to do that being to die on August 15th. Ayano jumps to her death to enter Azami’s world and get an (unknown) eye power, but because she went alone, can not come back.

[Nosebleed]

I'm on mobile so don't expect too elaborate answers.

This is also as far as my knowledge goes, i, by no means, know every little detail about the story because the story leaves a lot up to the viewers, including creating theories.

Now onto answering your questions:

Regarding Ayano's death, Ayano was desperate to save her siblings but she was out of kenjirou's league as she did not possess eye abilities so she couldn't do much to stop him, hence why she set herself to gain an ability to help them, it was her "solo mission". She just wanted to be a good Onee-chan (Ayanoo y u do dis </3)

When she gives the favouring eyes to Shintarou he becomes aware of Konoha's state and is able to stop him from turning into Kuroha, preventing Outer Science.

This is my personal theory at least.

Also she can not come back as Ren explained since she went alone because probably didn't want anyone else involved.

Next, Shintarou does not die in Route 1.

In route XX he ends up commiting suicide in front of Konoha. This is the trauma that causes Kuroha to appear. And this event is shown in Lost Time Memory.

Now this is what i believe happened in outer science, this is purely made by me so you don't have to agree, but Marry turned time back after outer science, not in hopes of saving everyone per say, but to be able to be with them once more and be able to have some more happiness even if for a short time, and because she says that in her song i truly believe she is basically repeating the same time over and over until eventually reaches route 1 and she doesn't care as long as she can be with them. This is very similar to what happens in higurashi if you've ever seen it.

The Mekakushi Dan never disbanded (blasphemy!) They're just waiting for the next adventure as they are after all a group that performs missions. That is the good end, everyone is alive. Not too original but yeah. I don't know if they losr their powers though.

And yes Marry does retain her memories whe she goes back in time although how she turns back in time is still unknown.

Hope this might help, again the details of turning back in time are still very unclear so most of it is still fan based, hopefully they explain it in the anime.