Kakurenbo


Kakurenbo: Hide & Seek is a Japanese cel-shaded anime short film written and directed by Shuhei Morita.
The film entails a game of "Otokoyo", a version of hide and seek played by children, wearing fox masks, near the ruins of an abandoned old Kowloon-inspired city. The children who play this disappear, believed to be spirited away by demons. Kakurenbo follows Hikora, a boy who joins the game with hopes of finding his missing sister, Sorincha. The storyline is built on the idea that Tokyo is losing its natural aesthetic, which includes child's games such as hide and seek in order for industrial progress to ensue i.e. lighting the city of Tokyo costing innocence of childhood games.

Characters

;Hikora
;Sorincha
;Yaimao
;Noshiga
;Tachiji
;Suku
;Inmu and Yanku

Demons

Once the seven children pass through the gates to enter the abandoned streets, they are pursued by four different demons and then finally by the one demon who is "it". They guard the battery tower within the center of the city, where every child they catch is taken to be used as power cells for the city. The tower has socket rows that go on to the very first children who played.
;Kimotori
;Chitori
;Aburatori
;Kotori
;Oshira-sama

Reception

Kakurenbo premiered in March 2005 at the Tokyo International Anime Fair, where it won the award for Notable Entry in the General Category. In Korea, it received a Best Film Nomination at the Seoul Comics and Animation Festival. It then went on to win Best Short film at the Fantasia Festival in Montreal.
It was shown on Adult Swim on Halloween 2005.