How one becomes an oni is… difficult to explain. Some oni were always oni, while others were originally human, then became oni. The main emphasis is that night and day are two very different worlds, with spirits and inhuman beings called “oni” prowling in the dark. The universe that Akai Ito takes place in is rich, expansive, colorful, and full of depth. Kei has recurring nightmares throughout the game, including some really disturbing ones about a child’s hand sticking through the chest of an adult man, covered in blood. As Kei progresses through the game, she begins to realize she has many holes in her memory, and in extreme cases, cannot differentiate if something is simply a nightmare brought on by oni and her inner fear, or repressed memories. While the game never got scary, it can get very creepy, in my opinion (especially anything involving the oni twins, Milkage and Nozomi). As noted above, it’s also considered to be part of the horror and mystery genre. As you can tell, it has more in common with a Greek tragedy than your average romance visual novel. It also deals with themes such as patricide, the Oedipus complex (the yuri version, so don’t worry), suicide, inner corruption, and more.

Taking aspects from the deepest and most obscure parts of Japanese mythology, the game’s writer must have majored in the subject. One phrase from Kei’s dream keeps her from falling into darkness, “Someone important to me has vanished.”.Īkai Ito’s story is a mouthful to talk about. In the land of Hemizuka, guided by the pale light of the moon, Kei discovers an ancient conspiracy wrapped in her own blood through meetings with a raven-haired demon hunter, the best friend of her late mother, a young girl who’s always accompanied by a white fox, a pair of vampires who appear to be children, and even the sad-looking girl from her dreams. In the twilight, Kei dreams about a mysterious tree and a young woman seemingly consumed in sadness. During summer vacation, she boards a train and heads to her father’s birth place of Hemizuka, a small town in the countryside, to see if her father has left behind anything for her.

She’s informed by her lawyer that her father, who died in an horrible accident years ago, actually owns property, and that the property now belongs to her, due to her mother’s death. The protagonist in question’s name is Hatou Kei, a perfectly normal high school student. Akai Ito’s plot starts several months after the tragic death of the protagonist’s mother.

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