Aokigahara in popular culture

Aokigahara is frequently featured in popular culture due to its historic association with "yūrei" or ghosts of the dead in Japanese mythology and is a notoriously common suicide site (wherein 54 took place in 2010).^[1] The forest is said to be the world’s second most popular suicide spot, the first being the Golden Gate Bridge.^[2]

The rate of suicide has led officials to place a sign at the forest's entry, written in Japanese, urging suicidal visitors to seek help and not take their own lives. Annual body searches have been conducted by police, volunteers, and attendant journalists since 1970.^[3]

This page lists Aokigahara in popular culture from both within Japan and abroad. It is not an exhaustive list of the many games, films, manga and other cultural products that mention Aokigahara.

Anime and manga

• In the anime series Mazinger Z, Professor Juzo Kabuto's laboratory is set right next to Aokigahara, and he lives not too far from there with his grandsons Koji and Shiro.
• In the anime series Tokyo Ghoul, the cafe Anteiku uses bodies from Aokigahara to feed ghouls to avoid actively killing humans for nourishment.^[4]
• In the anime series Transformers: Super-God Masterforce, the location of the Cybertrons' main base is in Aokigahara.
• In the second season of Yowamushi Pedal, the first half of Day 3 of the 41st Inter High takes place on Route 139, and passes through the Fuji Five Lakes and Aokigahara
• In the anime and manga series The Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service, the central characters meet and discover their various supernatural talents while taking part in a Buddhist voluntary project to find and remove the bodies of people who have killed themselves in the forest.
• In the anime series Samurai Deeper Kyo, Demon-eyes Kyo's former body is hidden in Aokigahara, referred to as the "Sea of Trees" in the anime.
• In the manga series I Am a Hero, the protagonist Hideo Suzuki spends a feverish night in the Sea of Trees after surviving the first day of the outbreak, and therein meets Hayakari Hiromi.

Films

• In the Japanese film Legend of Dinosaurs & Monster Birds (1977), a young woman stumbles upon an icy cave full of large eggs that are later revealed to be dinosaur eggs.
• In the Japanese film Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack (2001), a man who had intended to kill himself at Aokigahara witnesses the miraculous sight of guardian beast King Ghidorah, who had been hibernating under the forest for centuries.
• Forest of the Living Dead (2010), also known outside of the United States as The Forest, depicts the enacted vengeance of a jilted covergirl who supernaturally transforms into a demonic spirit when she kills herself in Aokigahara Jukai.
• In the American film Grave Halloween (2013), a young woman journeys to Aokigahara with friends to find the body of her mother (who committed suicide there). A found footage camera documents paranormal events in the forest.
• In the American film 47 Ronin (2013), a half-breed servant named Kai (played by Keanu Reeves), servant to a provincial lord, was left as a child by his mother to die in the Aokigahara forest, where he is found by a race of demons. They raise him to manhood and teach him their supernatural ways of killing.
• In the American film The Sea of Trees (2015), directed by Gus Van Sant, an American man (played by Matthew McConaughey) travels to Aokigahara to kill himself and meets a Japanese man (played by Ken Watanabe) who has the same thoughts.
• In the American film The Forest (2016), a woman (played by Natalie Dormer) travels to a ghost-filled Aokigahara to save her twin sister (also played by Dormer).^[5]
• In the Canadian film The People Garden (2016), directed by Nadia Litz, a Canadian woman travels to Japan and discovers her boyfriend has gone missing in the forest and is presumed dead.
• In the Portuguese film The Forest of Lost Souls (2017), directed by José Pedro Lopes, two strangers meet in a suicide forest similar to Aokigahara. A lot of mentions to Aokigahara take place in the film.

Games

• In the fighting game Akatsuki Blitzkampf, the protagonist Akatsuki's stage is set in the bank of Lake Sai and the beginning of Aokigahara.^[6]
• Mount Hikami, the setting of the Wii U video game Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water, is based on Aokigahara.
• Aokigahara, referred to as the Sea of Trees in the Japanese version and Fuji Forest in English, appears in Inazuma Eleven 2 as the location of Aliea Academy's secret laboratory.
• Aokigahara plays an important role in the video game Tokyo Dark.
• In Fatal Fury 2 and its update Fatal Fury Special, Mai Shiranui's stage is on a raft in one of the lakes near Aokigahara.

Literature

(Alphabetical by author's surname)

• Suicide Forest (World's Scariest Places) by Jeremy Bates is a 2015 horror novel that takes place inside the forest.^[7]
• The Three: A Novel by Sarah Lotz is a 2014 novel that features Aokigahara as a place where several characters perished, either in plane crashes or by choice.^[8]
• Kuroi Jukai (Black Sea of Trees) by Seichō Matsumoto is a 1960 novel that refers to the popularity of the forest as a suicide spot.^[9]
• The Sea of Trees by Yannick Murphy is a 1997 novel about a young girl detained in an isolation camp during World War II.^[10]
• In the Karl Vincent: Vampire Hunter comic book Dracula Rising kunoichi Kate Bryant has to face Dracula's daughter, Dominica, for possession of an equality crystal.

Music

• The album The Sea of Trees (2015) by Secret Grief is named after the forest and includes a track called "Aokigahara".
• The 2016 EP Grey Sheep II by New Orleans rap duo Suicideboys contains a track called "Aokigahara".^[11]
• Japanese metal band Dir En Grey includes an artist rendering of the forest on the cover of its album Dum Spiro Spero.
• The album Aokigahara (2014) by Austrian black metal band Harakiri for the Sky was named after the forest.
• The song "Kuroi Ledge" (2013) by post-hardcore outfit A Lot Like Birds makes reference to the book named after the forest
• The song "Scorned (Aokigahara)" by Greek black/death metal band Burial Hordes directly references the forest.
• The album Aokigahara Online (2015) by Floridian vaporwave artist of the same name, in a play on words between America Online and Aokigahara
• The Japanese noise collective Shroud of Vapour recorded three sessions in the forest, two of which appear on the album Suicide Forest Sessions (2015).
• In a song by the Vocaloid producer Neru, "Yasashii Hito ni Naritai" (優しい人になりたい, lit. "I Want to Become a Kind Person"), one of the lines translates to online games, the famous sea of trees, bullying, aphorism.
• The song "Sea of Trees" (2013) by American black metal band Esoteric Burial depicts a psychometric paranormal event taking place in the forest and deals with the concept of internal struggle relative to the human experience.
• The idol group Bis romped around nude in the forest in a controversial video for their single "My Ixxx" (2011).^[12]
• The album Floor to Sky (2013) by Durham, NC band Prypyat (now Beauty World) features a song entitled "Jukai". Lyrics refer to the sea of trees and death.
• Austin, TX hardcore band Cutting Losses have a track called "Jukai" on their album Endless (2011).
• The song "The Law of Power" by South Floridian rapper Anonymuz on his album Vice City (2016).
• "Aokigahara" (2015) by dark ambient musician Flowers for Bodysnatchers was inspired by and named after the forest.^[13]
• Jhené Aiko released a song in 2017 called "Jukai" from her album Trip in which she references the Aokigahara forest.
• Swedish black metal band Shining made a song titled "Mot Aokigahara" for their 2018 album X - Varg Utan Flock.
• The forest is referenced in the song "Tokyo" by Thundercat, off the album Drunk.
• Coralies, an Argentina metalcore band, entitled a song after the forest on their third LP "C".
• The song "Sea of Trees" by Australian psychedelic garage rock band King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard, was named after the forest and features lyricism alluding to suicide. According to the band, this was also the band's original name, and was used in a couple of early shows.

Other media

• Popular YouTuber Logan Paul and his companions vlogged an escapade into the forest with the intention to camp there overnight on December 31, 2017. While in the forest, the group encountered a dead body hanging from a tree, the film of which was included in their video with the body's face blurred out. The video was met with considerable backlash from individuals outside Paul's fan base, stating that the video showed poor taste in regards to the deceased and was disrespectful to Japanese culture. Paul has since taken down the video and issued an apology.^[14]

References