For once I’m on time with these announcements (but for anyone participating or looking to read this book, don’t worry if you are not! It’s a worthwhile read either way) so it’s time for week 6 and 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～! Happy blogging 
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Finished Episode V キムラヒサコ ～厄災～! This one doesn’t correspond to any existing episode, does it? It didn’t ring any bells for me, and when I looked back through the list, it didn’t seem to be on there. I suppose at the start they say that they’re examining the case and considering making a video about it, so presumably it hasn’t made it into the actual episodes yet, unless there are some easter eggs I’m unaware of, haha.
Thoughts:
The audio at the end was cool! Very appreciative of the transcript, haha, because there’s no way on earth I would have gotten any of the words out of that. What surprised me when actually listening to it was how slowly and calmly it was delivered. When I read the transcript, the urgency of the message paired with the description of the people fleeing lead me to expect a more urgent delivery, but it was so calm. Was the person speaking basically resigned to her fate? Or was she just exhausted/sick/dying and couldn’t muster up the energy for a more spirited warning?
I wonder what was up with キムラヒサコさん… I suppose 逆に we’ll have to wait for an episode to come out about it to find out more, haha, instead of waiting for a book chapter to find out more about an episode.
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Okay, after mummyvhs pointed out that there’s an easter egg in Hidden Link, I went and rewatched that one (with Japanese subtitles)!
This episode is… not my favorite, admittedly, so I was a bit surprised that anything had gotten me intrigued to revisit it, haha.
Here are some thoughts (spoilers for both the キムラヒサコ chapter and Hidden Link):
First of all, I never would’ve even thought to look here for connections because Hidden Link and the story in this chapter had such totally different vibes! The timelines also don’t quite match up: the photo in Hidden Link is dated 1993/07/26, which is well after the events in the video, which occurred in the 50s. So the photo had to have been hidden in this website long after the events in question occurred, which begs the question of… why?
I wonder what kind of 厄災 happened here, and if Kimura Hisoko is, uh, still around in some fashion (despite her body being found). Either she was a victim of something they’re trying to warn about, or she’s the thing they’re being warned against…
In any case, it’s a bit odd for her to be associated with a missing person case if there is concrete evidence that “キムラヒサコさんの遺体があがりました.”…
A question:
mummyvhs, I went back and looked at your Fake Documentary Q document to see if there were any fan theories or anything tying stuff together that I’d missed, and I noticed your notes said this:
The story in the Kimura chapter concerns a mysterious film that had been dubbed over an older silent-era movie (Pathe-Baby, 1922), showing a car with a megaphone attached and a large group of people seemingly fleeing from something or someone.
I’m a bit confused because I thought it was referring to a specific film format and not a movie?
Here’s the section in question for reference:
一九四四年生まれの新井さんは、取材当時（二〇二三年十二月）で七九歳。もう六十年前なのに、若い頃に観た「パテベビーフィルム」の映像が忘れられないという。
パテベビー（Ｐａｔｈｅ－Ｂａｂｙ）とは「小型のパテ」を意味しており、フランスのパテ社が開発し、一九二二年（大正十一年）に発売された９・５ミリフィルムである。後に８ミリフィルムが登場するまでは、小型映画の主流をなし、個人撮影や家庭内上映向けとしても広く活躍した。
I had a bit of a hard time understanding the specifics when I was reading this haha because it’s been a loooong time since I’ve done anything with physical film and projectors, so I googled “Pathe Baby” and found more info in English, hahaha. Here’s a wikipedia page with a little more info, and a video of someone restoring a 1924 Pathé Baby projector (there’s more info in the description as well).
It’s a neat device! Cool how it made amateur filmmaking more accessible. I didn’t realize that people were able to get access to home cinema technology this early. I wonder how long it took for it to make its way over to Japan?
Wait, I thought to look at the Japanese wikipedia page for 9.5mm film and answered that question myself, hahaha. Looks like it first arrived in 1924! And was on its way out by 1945, which means that it was already obsolete by the time this video would’ve happened. Interesting…
I already messaged you about this earlier, but just in case anyone else is reading this in the future, the chapter corresponds to the Hidden Link episode. At the very end there is a file with her name, and the picture shows what she (supposedly?) looks like.
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For the question (sorry forgot to add this to the message)
Thanks for looking this up! It’s indeed a type of projector. I will amend the document because I legit thought it was talking about a movie or a genre of movies of some kind (hi I’m Jared, I’m 19 and I never learned how to read).
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Also (once again I’m late OTL) it’s officially the week of the second to last chapter now, Episode VII フィルムインフェルノ ～いくつかのピース～!
This one was another one of my favs from the book. It’s quite creepy, and there is one word in particular in it that (it’s just a small tease but come back here later) I think, when taken to its extreme, could have a lot of underlying lore consequences for the work. It’s quite creepy, thinking about it. Anyway, have fun 
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