From Kisaragi Station to the Elevator Game: The Reconfiguration of the Otherworld in Japanese Internet Narratives

Abstract

This article explores a shifting perception of the ontological structure of the world in contemporary Japanese Internet kaidan (scary stories), focusing on the evolution of digital technologies that enabled two influential isekai (otherworld) narratives: “Kisaragi Station” (2004) and “Isekai ni Iku Hoho” (“The Elevator Game” in English, 2008). “Kisaragi Station” involves a narrative in which a woman posts real-time updates via mobile phone from a station in the otherworld. This narrative builds on the early 2000s trend of live reporting from haunted places or abandoned villages, but extends the situation into the isekai, a location entirely disconnected from our world. On the other hand, “The Elevator Game” describes a method of accessing an otherworld through meaningless, repetitive moves, using an elevator. By examining these two stories, this article suggests two salient features in contemporary conceptualizations of the otherworld in Japan. First, these realms have reconfigured from traditional ones such as heaven and hell into parallel worlds akin to our own. Second, there is what this article termed “the ontological gamification,” which is the idea that reality may be perceived as a computer simulation like a digital game, and that glitches are used to make sense of strange occurrences in our ordinary lives.