© ぬじま・小学館／ 「怪異と乙女と神隠し」製作委員会
It's easy to think of social media and the internet as evils that attract unfortunate people, but the reality of doing so ignores history as well. The same thing people say about video games today is what people said about reading novels in the 18th century, and if you want to be really angry, read about the whole Failure seducing innocent people in the 1950s. But my point is not to argue about Vtuber or Internet apocalyptic games, but to point out that what Nodoka is doing in 2024 is not much different from what Nodoka is doing in 2024. What the D&D kids were doing in 1983: she was looking for a place to belong where people could pay to care about her and understand her.
Her desire to become an idol isn't about wanting to be famous, it's about wanting positive attention – the poor girl can't even talk to her father without going through his receptionist and The only adult we encountered at home was a tutor who forced a middle school student to do college science problems at the request of her parents. She receives praise for being who her parents want her to be, not who she really is. It's important that the person who fulfills her personal dream be a digital mermaid—not just a stranger, but one who doesn't even show her true self to the world. . She's more of a collective imaginary friend, making her a perfect example of what Adashino and Sumireko were considering last week: a digital tsukumogami.
Is she really a personally fueled Vtuber? Maybe, but that doesn't really matter. It is significant that after she announced her retirement—her retirement was very sudden, as it seemed to happen the day after she encouraged Nodoka—she continued to broadcast. And the people who stayed up four nights watching her strange new world suddenly collapsed. Now, you might be thinking, Of course they're going to collapse after staying awake for four days, and yeah, to be fair. But perhaps tsukumogami knows that too, and it's not a supernatural phenomenon, just classic manipulation. Adashino refers to an old story about vengeful tsukumogami seeking to punish those who threw them away when they were objects, and that may be what's happening here. Like Nodoka, her fear is no longer visible and she has amassed enough strength to live on her own…and if humans are the ones who took her virtual body, then they are the ones who must punished—all of them.
It's a bit pretentious but fits the social media angle of being a V/Youtuber; Social media tends to exaggerate and embellish influence. More importantly, it fits Nodoka's desperate desire to be seen and appreciated; Her hurt upon realizing that Oto was ordering food during her karaoke performance was brief but clear as if even her friends couldn't be trusted to notice the real her. How this fits with the Nodoka family's hospital name is a bit more oblique; The hospital is called Takamagahara, which in Shinto mythology is the kingdom of the gods, often depicted in the sky. (Older manga readers may also remember it as the setting for Megumi Tachikawa's Dream Saga Takamagahara manga, my favorite of her works.) Does this symbolize that Nodoka's parents believe they better than normal people? Does it show loyalty to older ways of viewing the world and parenting? It could be both; However, the repeated images of tall buildings attached to the family lead me to believe that the purpose was to show that they thought they were in the clouds, an old term to describe royalty or Noble.
Because the digital tsukumogami plot is so strong, the final scene of a cat dancing with a group of bipedal cats feels very awkward and out of place. I'm sure she's another Vtuber or digital tsukumogami, or maybe she's related to the whole Takamagahara thing and is a god, but even for this show, the whole thing feels strange. I'm sure we'll get answers soon since Adashino is involved in the case, even if we don't know what's going on with that truly terrible mermaid design.
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Mysterious Disappearance is now streaming on Crunchyroll.
Disclosure: Kadokawa World Entertainment (KWE), a wholly owned subsidiary of Kadokawa Corporation, is the majority owner of Anime News Network, LLC. One or more companies mentioned in this article are members of the Kadokawa Group.
