フェイクドキュメンタリーQ / Fake Documentary Q 短編集 Book Club (Advanced Beginner to Intermediate)

[mummyvhs]

時間だよ。

Welcome to the home thread for the short story collection フェイクドキュメンタリーQ, based on the YouTube series of the same name!

What is フェイクドキュメンタリーQ?

For more information about the YouTube series, see this topic.

What is this book?

Carrying the ominous subtitles of この人、行方不明 and 読むと死にます, the フェイクドキュメンタリーQ book is a collection of short stories, all of them novelizations of existing Q episodes, but with newly added information such as interviews or transcriptions of tape recordings. Entirely new “side stories” are also present. The book features many screenshots from the episodes and uses QR codes to link to the relevant YouTube episodes (as well as some bonus material), so having an app handy that can read those is recommended.

Check out the book on natively and on the publisher’s website.

Chapters

• Episode I 封印されたフェイクドキュメンタリー ～続報～

• Episode II BASEMENT ～branch～

• Episode III SANCTUARY ～ある少年の自由研究～

• Episode IV ノーフィクション ～岡崎範子の謎～

• Episode V キムラヒサコ ～厄災～

• Episode VI オレンジロビンソンの奇妙なブログ ～ハッピーマザーズダイアリー～

• Episode VII フィルムインフェルノ ～いくつかのピース～

• Episode VIII 池澤葉子失踪事件 ～母の印影～

Where to buy?

Physical:

• Amazon JP

• Rakuten

• CD Japan

Digital:

• Amazon

• Rakuten

• Bookwalker

Check out the natively page for more purchase options.

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Difficulty

Even if you have never seen an episode of Q, it’s very easy to jump into the book due to its simplistic writing style and narration (note, however, that there are almost no furigana). If you’re familiar with any kind of 怪談 or 体験談 texts, you will feel right at home here.

It can not only be helpful for understanding the stories but also enrich your experience if you watch Q alongside the book. Episodes are generally between 10 and 15 minutes long (with a couple outliers) and often feature minimal dialogue. All of them have English subtitles and for the Japanese subtitles the on-screen texts (テロップ) are also often copied in the subtitles (useful for lookup extensions).

Rules

Since people will have vastly different reading speeds and paces, all major spoilers should be marked. If you have difficulty to decide what constitutes as a major spoiler, think of what the オチ would be. What makes that chapter horrific or puts a new spin on the narrative? In addition, anytime the book goes “But that wasn’t all” (this occurs in every chapter), you can be very sure the following will be a major spoiler, as it also is new information for people who have watched the YouTube series. Obviously, if you’re ahead, anything is a spoiler and should be marked as such.

Aside from that, questions, discussions and speculations are extremely welcome. Share your thoughts and doubts and don’t be afraid to ask about vocabulary and grammar as well! I’m a veteran of horror and have studied Japanese for decades, so I will try my best to help others out

Read, speculate and go missing in the wonderful world of フェイクドキュメンタリーQ

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Participation

The book club officially starts on August 19th! Running until August 26th, we will be reading the first chapter, “Episode I 封印されたフェイクドキュメンタリー ～続報～”.

The schedule will be

Week	Start Date	Reading	Page Numbers	Page Count
#1	Aug 19th	[ Episode I 封印されたフェイクドキュメンタリー ～続報～]	17 - 60	43
#2	Aug 26th	[ Episode II BASEMENT ～branch～]	61 - 85	24
#3	Sep 2nd	[Episode III SANCTUARY ～ある少年の自由研究～]	86 - 123	37
#4	Sep 9th	[Episode IV ノーフィクション ～岡崎範子の謎～]	124 - 158	34
#5	Sep 16th	[Episode V キムラヒサコ ～厄災～]	159 - 165	6
#6	Sep 23rd	[Episode VI オレンジロビンソンの奇妙なブログ ～ハッピーマザーズダイアリー～]	166 - 204	38
#7	Sep 30th	[Episode VII フィルムインフェルノ ～いくつかのピース～]	205 - 256	51
#8	Oct 7th	[Episode VIII 池澤葉子失踪事件 ～母の印影～]	257 - 308	51

Will you join the book club?

• Yes

• Yes, but I will be reading at my own pace

• I’m reading this book after the club has finished

[mummyvhs]

The first week has started! Feel free to keep us posted about your progress and thoughts (remember the spoiler rules in the main topic above)

[fallynleaf]

Finally had the time/energy to dive into this! I was intimidated by the first few pages not being Yomitan-able and was putting off getting started, haha

I actually did have a grammar question from page two of the 独白. I had a bit of trouble with the second sentence here and wasn't sure I exactly understood it:

もしあなたが、「宝くじで１億円当たった！」と噓をつくなら、「たまたま宝くじ買ったら１億円当たっちゃった～！」と言うセリフでは、誰も信用してくれません。リアルなフェイク（噓・偽物）を描くには、本当の事を交えないと偽物にさえならずに、ただのホラ話（妄想）になってしまいます。

Here was my best attempt:

If you were to lie and say, “I won 100 million yen in the lottery!”, if you said it like, “I just so happened to buy a lottery ticket and won 100 million yen~!”, no one would believe you. In order to depict a real fake (a lie, a sham), you need to mix in true things without it just being a spurious article, or it’ll just be a horror story (a ridiculous fantasy).

I’m only a few pages into the actual book so far haha so I don’t have many other comments just yet, but I was a bit surprised it opened with Terauchi! It’s interesting that we’re getting a bit more info about why he went for the 死ぬビデオ despite normally finding that to be such a tired trope…

[mummyvhs]

You got it mostly right! ホラ話 is “tall tale” though, no ー here. For clarity I would say:

If you lied about winning 100 million yen in the lottery by just saying something along the lines of “I just so happened to buy a lottery ticket and I won 100 million yen!”, then no one would believe you. In order to depict a realistic fake (a lie, a sham), you need to mix in the truth, or it won’t even be a sham, just a tall tale (a ridiculous fantasy).

[Magyarapointe]

I find it very interesting to read extra material that complement the videos. Especially the part about the portrait and the “offerings” made to it at the end. That was spooky.

I’m really looking forward to the next chapter, as the Youtube video is… mysterious, let’s say !

[fallynleaf]

Just a few comments for now and not questions, haha. I’m about halfway through the first chapter, I think.

Not really spoilers, just some thoughts that reading this sparked about horror as a genre:

One thing that strikes me in this first chapter is I guess the sense of certain technologies passing out of fashion, like the message board that was last updated in 2009 (too real…), and the video rental store switching to DVDs. Even that feels obsolete to me as an American, because most DVD rental services went out of business here years ago.

It’s interesting because I feel like there’s kind of a sadness of loss and change with the relentless march of technology, but it’s also a rich vein for horror to dig into because those gaps between old abandoned technologies and newer more modern ones become unknown spaces where unsettling things can exist and be unearthed.

It’s just fascinating to me how horror continues to evolve alongside the natural march of time. Often the eras that it covers are like 10-20 years ago where it has been just long enough for the old technologies to have those unknown spaces.

…And I guess that means I’m reaching that age where things I remember pretty vividly from my childhood/teenage years are becoming sites of horror, haha.

One lore observation/theory:

I noticed that the outside of the video was labeled “不思議体験ゾーン・下巻”, but when they actually started it up, it said “不思議体験ゾーン” and “第一話” and there was no mention of it being a last volume in the actual contents of the video… I wonder why there’s a discrepancy there? Maybe the VHS tape got mixed up with another one and put in the wrong case, and the actual 見たら死ぬビデオ is actually another video in the series?

[mummyvhs]

@fallynleaf

…And I guess that means I’m reaching that age where things I remember pretty vividly from my childhood/teenage years are becoming sites of horror, haha.

Same. It’s too real

And agreed about all of those observations about horror that comes from the passage of time. Q plays heavily with technology I feel like, more than some other contemporary works (a lot of which focus on 廃墟 or scary taxi rides or whatever). Minaguchi has even touched on one day DVDs becoming the “scary” medium in an interview, so it’s really interesting to see how the wheel keeps turning, so to speak.

[mummyvhs]

Also it’s the 2nd week now! The chapter for this week is Episode II BASEMENT ～branch～

[Magyarapointe]

I’ve finished reading chapter II. And I felt the same thing I did with chapter I : the written companion to the video was nice, but somehow made it more mundane (I saw the video before reading the chapter), but the additional story was way creepier !

So far, I’m really enjoying the book !

[mummyvhs]

I felt the same way with most of the chapters, yeah. It brings a bit more humanity into some videos, which can be a boon or a bane. The less you know for some of the episodes, the scarier, after all.

I’m glad you’re enjoying it! I think overall it enriched the experience for me, minus some gripes cough MOTHER cough.

[fallynleaf]

Finished the first chapter!

Some thoughts:

Admittedly, this isn’t my favorite episode of Q, so I was less interested in reading this chapter, haha, (I’m looking forward to Basement much more), but this turned out more interesting than I was expecting! I think reading it enhanced my enjoyment of the video because I understand the significance of the 遺影 increasing, which I think I had glossed over upon viewing the episode initially. I also liked the 続報 because they gave the concept a little more meat.

Still no explanation for why the tape was labeled “不思議体験ゾーン・下巻” on the outside but not indicated as such in the actual video. Though I suppose maybe it could just be referring to the fact that it’s the “last volume” because it kills you, haha. (I even checked for the 下巻 in the actual episode, and did not see it onscreen there either).

Also, this is a great time to have just learned the word 行方不明, haha. Though I feel like after 行方不明展 正体不明, every other horror story involving 行方不明 just can’t measure up…

I also rewatched the Cursed Video episode with Japanese subs for the first time! It went really well! Youtube’s transcript feature was really convenient for Yomitan-ing over the words I had forgotten, but I actually did pretty okay with remembering most of the unfamiliar vocabulary after reading the chapter in the book.

It was kind of a strange experience where rewatching in Japanese, despite understanding Japanese less than I understand English, I feel like I understood what was happening a lot better than I had before.

I do feel like for me at least, the book really enhanced this episode specifically. Though yeah, I totally get the argument that adding more explanation takes away from some of the scares.

[mummyvhs]

@fallynleaf

Still no explanation for why the tape was labeled “不思議体験ゾーン・下巻” on the outside but not indicated as such in the actual video.

Maybe, since it’s a real tape, the people who made it just didn’t bother lol. It seems to be extremely sleazy and low-budget, although I kind of want to watch it (last time I checked (years ago atp) there was like, one copy of volume 2 on sale, and now I can only find volume 1 or the bundle).

@fallynleaf

Though I feel like after 行方不明展 正体不明, every other horror story involving 行方不明 just can’t measure up…

The various barriers this video is behind are really such a bummer, otherwise I feel like the whole world would be screaming about it

[fallynleaf]

Finished the second chapter! Also rewatched Basement afterward with no subtitles, though there’s not exactly much Japanese in this one . I didn’t really get any new insights out of rewatching, though this one has always been one of my favorites in the series, so I remembered the original episode pretty well.

Thoughts on the chapter in the book:

(Digression about 行方不明展 正体不明, with full spoilers for that)

I was actually super familiar with the elevator to another world instructions after spending so much time thinking about 行方不明展 正体不明, wherein the characters try the same exact method described on 2chan that is in this book. Actually, 正体不明 probably changed my perspective on this episode more than anything in the book, because I felt actually a kind of fondness toward the concept of an elevator to another world rather than fear.

Since some of the same people worked on 行方不明展, of course I couldn’t help but look for connections between that work and Q, haha. I noticed that this incident takes place on November 17, 2015, which is almost nine years before 行方不明展… . (Though the timeline doesn’t quite match up because Tsunaka and Kashima tried the elevator to another world before summer vacation, which would’ve been earlier in 2015). Neither of the dates in this chapter matched up with any of the dates of disappearances listed midway through 正体不明.

One thing I really, really liked was the contrast in tone between how Q used the エレベーターで異世界へ向かう方法 and how 正体不明 used it. In 正体不明, there’s a sort of exploratory earnestness to it, this pair of middle school boys desperate to leave this world somehow but also tentatively afraid of actually doing it. But the will is still there, that desire to disappear. In Q, people are subjected to it unwillingly. At any moment, you could be going about your day and hop in the elevator to leave for work and get taken to hell instead.

But in both, the elevator is this unknown in-between place, a space where this world and another world can overlap, a bridge between this world and the next. It’s a space where you can maybe receive a phone call from an alternate universe version of yourself.

In 正体不明, there’s the question of whether or not the other world you reach is actually a place you want to be or if it’s essentially a kind of hell. Tsunaka finds that one out the hard way (though not via the elevator method). And actually, (it’s strongly implied that) the elevator is what saves him and gets him back home to the world he came from. So there’s a pretty sharp contrast between 正体不明 and Q there.

And of course there’s the basic contrast of up being the direction to get to the other world in the 2chan instructions, whereas in Q, the elevator only goes down (until it offloads its poor unfortunate victim). I feel like that’s playing on people’s rather mundane fear of an elevator breaking suddenly and going into freefall, but then with the twist of the alternate world/possibly hell being what awaits you rather than death.

In 正体不明, the first time they try the elevator, the elevator going down results in a feeling of relief and return to the comfortable familiar world (Tsunaka’s “おかえり！” to the very frightened Kashima). If it had gone up instead after he pressed the button, that would’ve been the scary feeling, because he’d be on his way to somewhere unknown. Though I suppose for Tsunaka at the very end, maybe the elevator going up would’ve brought relief, because at bare minimum he’d be leaving the hellish world he’d found himself in.

I dunno if I have any real point to all of this haha, I just found it fascinating how that one 2chan elevator post could spark such radically different works and how the trope itself could be used to tell such different horror stories that play on totally different emotions and fears.

Getting more back on topic, I wanted to comment something about the part in the book where 緒玉 was talking to the woman on the elevator and heard a child laughing and people talking and asked if there was anyone else in the elevator, and the woman responds (emphasis mine):

女性「居ないのよ！ 他には誰も！ ねえ……それなのに、なんで人の声がするの!? あと、扉のガラスに……人の顔が見えて……外は黒い壁しかないのに、顔が……いろんな顔が……時々見えて……もうヤダぁ……ウッ……ウッ……（最後は泣き声）」

When I read that, I remembered something that mummyvhs had pointed out to me the first time I saw this video. At around 5:30, if you pause at the exact right moment, you can see a person’s face in the right window:

Screencap

My theory about the voices that 緒玉 was hearing is that it’s the voices of other people on the elevator in the apparent overlapping timelines that are visible in the video distortion. I’m not sure about the faces, though, hahaha. I feel like the obvious explanation is they’re either people who died in this elevator, or people from another world gazing into this one as the elevator occupant descends to hell.

All in all, really enjoyed that one!

[mummyvhs]

About basement, I had that exact same theory!

It’s week 3 and we are reading Episode III SANCTUARY ～ある少年の自由研究～ now!

I can tell you, this one is a blast Much to discover here. It might be my favorite or close second in the entire book.

[fallynleaf]

Finally finished a chapter actually within the week!

Thoughts on Sanctuary:

I really like this episode and think it’s one of the scarier ones, and so I’m kinda of two minds about the book chapter. On the one hand, I think the additional lore is pretty interesting, but on the other hand, I think it does compromise what was scary about the episode to me, which was for me the feeling of unsuspecting people suddenly getting in way over their heads with a totally unknown group of individuals who have total power in a dark and isolated forest.

Like, if T-san is 武則, I think it’s less scary knowing that he deliberately sought out this place for the occult connections… Whereas if they were just up there like camping or whatever and ended up getting involved in something they had no idea about and then had to flee very suddenly, I think that’s scarier.

So I guess I’m torn . I think I’d prefer it if the lore in the book was separate from the episode, because it did have a lot of really interesting stuff going for it, so I enjoyed reading it, but it made the episode less scary to me. I sort of feel that if you go investigating an occult thing and get an occult thing, you sort of got what you asked for, so I don’t have to feel sorry for you or scared for myself .

I rewatched the episode afterward with Japanese subs, though it wasn’t much of a listening comprehension exercise, haha, because the audio was so distorted, so I was basically entirely reading the subtitles.

Didn’t really get any new insights from rewatching, but I still think that this was one of the best episodes in terms of execution of its concept.

[mummyvhs]

Week four is underway! It’s time to read Episode IV ノーフィクション ～岡崎範子の謎～ If you know the episode, you know some cool things to expect The QR code associated with this chapter is probably my fav in the entire book.

[mummyvhs]

Time flies! Time for week 5! The current chapter is Episode V キムラヒサコ ～厄災～. As you can see it’s the shortest one by a mile, but I still think it’s quite creepy. If you’re up for the challenge, feel free to continue with Episode VI オレンジロビンソンの奇妙なブログ ～ハッピーマザーズダイアリー～!

[fallynleaf]

Had another rough week and did not manage to catch up, but I did start reading the No Fiction chapter!

Spoilers through the 取材映像⑤ section

This one was unexpectedly a tough read emotionally for me. Neither of the two directors, 福沢 and 田口, seemed to have Noriko’s best interests at heart… It creeped me out reading about 福沢 snooping around her house and photographing things that he didn’t have permission to be viewing. That aspect didn’t come across as strongly in the video as it did in the book.

It does sort of make you feel like he got what he deserved, though . Since he died after sneaking into the room with what looks like a body underneath the futon (still one of the absolute worst to look about/think about things in any of these Q videos) and then tampering with the shrine.

It also makes you wonder about what his original intentions were… Like, what specifically was he after with the series of interviews with Noriko, if the real reason wasn’t telling a story about a 大人のひきこもり?

田口 is far from being in the clear himself, though. Despite seeming to stick to the actual program a lot closer, I can’t shake the feeling that they’re still taking advantage of Noriko in some way, even if it’s “just” the mundane horror of a mentally ill person being forcibly institutionalized and not any sort of ghost curse.

My favorite part of the No Fiction episode is actually the quiet storytelling that happens with her sweater, which makes an appearance in a later Q episode, strongly implying that something pretty bad happens to her between now and then. I’m paying extra close attention to see if that gets addressed in any way in this chapter.

There’s a part in here where it talks about Noriko retrieving clothing and other necessities for daily life from the house before it gets demolished, so I suppose there’s a possibility the sweater ended up with the items she no longer wanted and thus got discarded that way, but this feels unlikely, since she was wearing it on her person when she left.

Hoping to finish this chapter (and maybe speed-read the next?) soon!

[fallynleaf]

Finished the No Fiction chapter!

Some thoughts:

So Noriko is still alive in 2024?? That was a twist I wasn’t expecting, haha. I wonder how her sweater ended up getting collected in the September 23, 2023 Live Streaming episode, then…

The stuff with Yumi Suzuki is interesting. I was really not impressed with how Yuko’s classmate and the other girls treated Yuko… You can see here, too, the fear of appearing different, and how that informed all of the classmate’s actions toward Yuko both during her life and after she had disappeared. I wonder, too, if the parents suppressed the investigation concerning Yuko’s disappearance by being fairly prominent figures in their hometown, which meant that they had to have some power.

Rewatching the video with new eyes, I noticed how it talked about Noriko getting raised by well-off parents and she lacked for nothing as a child, but suddenly became a recluse at age 15 (when her sister disappeared, as we learned from the supplemental interview in the book). The book had talked about how her parents were not blessed with children and had their daughter at a relatively old age.

With the information in the QR code (if I’m reading the pencil marks correctly, I believe it says “鈴木友美の件について岡崎夫妻は取材拒否”), that seems to imply that her parents knew about Yumi and were afraid to have her case associated with them. Which brings me to wonder if Yuko was actually not their child, and did they acquire her by kidnapping Yumi??

With the body-like-thing in Noriko’s house, I feel like there’s no way it could be her sister’s body just because it wouldn’t be so… wet… forty years after her original disappearance/death. Then again, maybe she remained alive for a lot longer but was trapped in the house by her parents. And then Noriko ended up trapped by the ghosts of her parents who wouldn’t let her leave…

I feel like the お札 were maybe an attempt of Noriko’s to protect herself from her parents’ spirits and sort of bind them to the house so that she could be free of it, and free of them?

And maybe their spirits murdered the previous director for discovering Yuko’s remains?

Lots of questions without answers, hahaha.

A language/culture question:

I remembered when watching this episode the first time that Noriko’s parents’ remains were only half-cremated. I found that so massively creepy… I’m not sure exactly what that meant, though? When rewatching the video, I grabbed the exact translation they gave for the text. At 2:52:

納骨はまだ出来ていない
Their cineration isn’t finished yet.

My assumption from the English subs when watching initially was that this meant that the actual process of cremation hadn’t been completed (like, some of their remains were unburned), but looking at 納骨 and having the context from the book, it looks like it’s referring to the placement of the ashes within a tomb or grave. So the actual incineration part was completed, haha. Just not the proper burial part.

Here I was, thinking she had unburned parts of her parents left in her house . Then again, that would still be less creepy than the dead-body-like thing she’s got in there…

[mummyvhs]

For the language question

Your interpretation of 納骨 is correct! It’s another wonky/wrong subtitle translation. Their remains have been cremated, but the ashes (and everything else that wasn’t cremated that a relative may wish to keep) have not been enshrined or entombed yet, which so long after their deaths is still massively creepy. It almost makes it feel like they aren’t dead yet, and with the entities forbidding Noriko to go outside (questionable at this point whether that’s really her sister), they might as well not be.