Forbidden SIREN Kyoya Suda – Kyoya’s Room on Promo Site

The Content of the Promotional Site

This continues from the previous article, ‘Forbidden SIREN Akira Shimura – Akira’s Living Room on Promo Site‘.

I wrote the details about this in the article about Naoko Mihama, but this promotional site was interactive, and when you clicked on an item, some sort of event would occur. (Kind of like point-and-click computer games in the early 2000s.)

The site featured four characters, Kyoya, Akira, Harumi, and Naoko, and when you clicked on an item in each character’s room, an event would occur, and you could learn about their backgrounds and side stories.

I’m currently examining each of the four featured characters on this site one by one in this blog.

This is the first page. The four names are written on a small wooden board called “ema” (votive tablet) – from the right, Naoko Mihama, Harumi Yomoda, Akira Shimura, and Kyoya Suda. There is a bowl of incense sticks above each ema. When the incenses are lit, you can click on the character’s ema and go to their room.

Now that I’ve finished exploring Naoko Mihama’s bathroom, Harumi Yomoda’s room, and Akira Shimura’s living room, let’s look at Kyoya’s room today.

Kyoya Suda

Kyoya’s Room

This is the protagonist Kyoya’s room. It’s a fairly typical high school student’s room.

In the original Japanese version, Kyoya is set as a 16-year-old high school student, but for some reason, in the English version, he’s set as an 18-year-old student. Perhaps because there are violent scenes, being 16 might seem too young, so his age might have been raised in the overseas version.

It would have been nice to have a TV in the room. I envied those who had one back then since I didn’t have a TV in my room. Young people nowadays might not understand because they have smartphones and don’t watch TV, but before social media and YouTube became popular, TV was the primary form of entertainment.

So, let’s start by checking out the TV first.

TV

“Bloody Devil”

This promotional website is very well done, but occasionally there are mistakes or missing translations, so I’ll write the correct ones here.

Computer

Note: Since this section ended up being so lengthy, if you want to move on to the next item “Train Tickets,” please click here.

Kyoya originally visited Hanuda Village because he stumbled upon an urban legend about the “×× Village 33-Person Massacre” posted on an occult-themed internet bulletin board called “Occult Land” and became intrigued.

While he mentions the landslide disaster from 27 years ago (caused by the failed ritual) in this movie, what caught Kyoya’s interest first was not that landslide disaster, but rather this urban legend where it’s believed 33 villagers were killed.

This is also mentioned in the Occult Land bulletin board where Kyoya posted under the handle name “SDK”.

This is the post of SDK (Kyoya Suda). He sounds super excited about the story of this village.

Now, let’s see what’s written on the website on Kyoya’s computer because it’s quite interesting. It looks like a website/post by someone who was investigating the legend of “The XX Village 33-Person Massacre”.

Here is the English translation.

Um… “The boy is holding what appears to be a Japanese sword and a gun”? Isn’t that this boy? 😂

Kyoya battles Shibito in the game’s ending.

The answer is yes. In other words, this urban legend of the “33-Person Massacre” is actually caused by Kyoya, who attempted to eradicate the Shibito. What does it mean??? Let me explain.

The ghost mentioned in the site is not the ghost of the deceased Kyoya. Because Hanuda Village exists in a distorted spacetime, someone glimpsed the scene of Kyoya’s Shibito extermination from a dimensional gap, and that became the basis for the rumor of the “33-Person Massacre”.

Keiichiro Toyama, the director of this game also said, “Hanuda Village exists in an ambiguous spacetime, so this ’33-Person Massacre’ may not necessarily be an event from the past. In other words, the incident only happened once.”

The posting about this “33-Person Massacre” on Occult Land is from July 2003, before Kyoya headed to Hanuda Village in August 2003.

So, chronologically, it’s strange that it was already being discussed as an urban legend in July 2003. But as I mentioned earlier, Hanuda Village exists in a distorted spacetime, so the person who saw the “boy holding what appears to be a Japanese sword and a gun” probably witnessed events from the future.

Moreover, the first person to post on the Occult Land bulletin board said he saw an old woman crawling on all fours in the abandoned house, looking for something. This must be Dog Shibito.

Perhaps the spacetime there is also distorted, causing this person to see things from another world.

“Ingaritsu” and “Loops” in SIREN

The game SIREN revolves around the themes of “Ingaritsu” and “loops.” It’s a bit lengthy to explain, so I’ll write about it in another article later, but “Ingaritsu” is a Buddhist term that refers to the idea or law that there is always a relationship of cause and effect between events or actions. “In” signifies a cause, and “ga” signifies an effect.

In the world of Siren, the loop repeats over and over until that causality is established.

A good example of “Ingaritsu” is, that if Kyoya didn’t exterminate the Shibito, rumors of the “33-Person Massacre” wouldn’t arise in the current world. If rumors of the “33-Person Massacre” didn’t arise, Kyoya wouldn’t be interested in coming to Hanuda Village.

Which came first: the chicken or the egg?

Another example is the decapitation of Datatsushi. After Kyoya decapitates Datasushi, Hisako falls into the abyss of Innsmouth while holding the head, then transcends spacetime to the past. She then hands the head to the past Hisako as the sacred object. Thanks to that head, the ritual will succeed, and Datasushi can be revived.

In other words, Kyoya decapitating Datasushi is an event necessary for causality to occur, and without decapitation, various events from the past would not have occurred.

It’s quite a complex story. I believe it’s interesting for those who enjoy stories with loops.

Since it’s gotten a bit long, let’s leave it at that and move on to the next item.

Train Tickets

The fly is moving subtly…

Train Ticket

The ticket for the bullet train reads “Nagano to Tokyo.” Since the date is October 16th, it seems to have nothing to do with the trip to Hanuda Village (since Kyoya visited the village on August 2nd).

He must have been a traveler at heart. At the time of reserving this ticket to Hanuda on the phone, he probably never imagined that Hanuda Village would be the last trip of his life.

(Ah, back then, booking tickets or hotels was mainly done through phone calls. Now everything can be done online. What a convenient era it has become.)

By the way, what caught my eye is the JAPAN RAIL PASS. I don’t believe Japanese residents can buy the JAPAN RAIL PASS because it’s for foreign travelers coming from overseas. I wonder how Kyoya obtained this pass lol.

Actual JAPAN RAIL PASS

Image source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:JR_Rail_Pass_Inside.jpg

Floppy Disk

Have you ever seen a floppy disk? It was widely used in Japan, but it wasn’t as popular in the rest of the world, so some people might not have seen it. (I wonder if floppy disks have become extinct as I never see them anymore.)

This floppy disk is clickable, but unfortunately, when I clicked on it on the backup site, it gave me an error, so I couldn’t see what was inside. I believe I looked inside when the official site was still accessible, but that was about 20 years ago, so I don’t remember the contents anymore.

Books

The English translations are a bit off, and some parts are missing again. (The English subtitles on this promotional site are occasionally incorrect…)

I’ll include the correct English translation here:

The trigger for Kyoya to go to Hanuda Village, as mentioned earlier, was because he became interested in “The ×× Village 33-Person Massacre” written in Occult Land. So, I don’t know why Kyoya knows about the legend of Hanuda and even has the book “Redwater Otherworld” (the one with the blue cover) in his room lol.

Maybe he obtained this book out of interest in Hanuda Village after seeing the posts on Occult Land 🙂

The blue-covered book and the brown-covered book are clickable, and they allow you to turn through their pages. Let’s explore what’s inside.

“Redwater Otherworld”

Page 1

Page 2 “Shibito”

Page 3 “Red Sea”

Page 4 – “Other World”

Page 1 – Ad Maiorem Cthulhi Gloriam

Page 2

Page 3

Page 4

Page 5

Changes in The Room

There should be some changes happening every time you look at an item in the room, but I couldn’t figure out what changes occur in his room.

I was unable to detect any change in Akira’s room either…, and it’s frustrating. Perhaps the flickering light could be the change in this room? I don’t know. I may be wrong.

(But then later, I’ve noticed the flickering light effect in other rooms as well, so it’s probably not it… Hmm, I wonder what was changing.)

The Actor of Kyoya

The actor who played the role of Kyoya is Mitsuyoshi Shinoda.

Mitsuyoshi Shinoda (Adult version of Kyoya)

Kyoya is Officially a Missing Person

This missing-person poster featuring Kyoto is an image from a file folder released in 2019. The file folder was so popular that they apparently sold out immediately. I wanted one too!

Last year, a big commemorative event was held in Tokyo as SIREN celebrated its 20th anniversary since its release. Even in 2024, there are still many enthusiastic fans, including myself, who are still writing articles about the game.

The weathered atmosphere of this poster perfectly represents the world of SIREN.

What’s funny is that the year Kyoto went missing is listed as “Showa 78”.

“On Saturday, August 2nd, Showa 78”, he departed from his residence on a folding mountain bike and went missing.

Showa is the Japanese imperial era, and Showa 78 is 2003 in the Western year. Those familiar with Japanese-era names may know that Showa only goes up to Showa 64 (1989) because Emperor Showa passed away in the year, so there is no Showa 78 in real life😂

“Nakano Sakae Police Station Community Safety Division Contact Information 03-“

Nakano-Sakae is an actual place in Nakano Ward, Tokyo. While SIREN often uses real-sounding but fictional place names and terms, this place is real and does exist.

Mitsuyoshi also tweeted this image with a popular hashtag in Japan, “＃ThatWasActuallyMe”

It’s a bit sad to think that Kyoya is still wandering in the otherworld, even though our world here has already moved past the Showa and Heisei eras and entered the Reiwa many years ago.

Final Thoughts

I’ve finished looking through Kyoto’s room, the last of the four characters featured on the promotional site.

If you haven’t had the chance to read the articles covering Naoko Mihama’s bathroom, Harumi Yomoda’s room, and Akira Shimura’s living room, please do take a look.

SIREN, along with this promotional site, used to host various online platforms such as the Occult Land bulletin board, the Hanuda Village official website, The Hanuda Incident website, and more!

These resources offered fans the opportunity to immerse themselves fully in the world of SIREN even beyond the confines of the game.

Most of the sites have now been closed, but each one was very well done, making the village and the characters feel like they truly existed.

From a slightly different perspective than when I was hooked on this game 20 years ago, I now enjoy discovering backgrounds and cultural references in the game.

I plan to continue writing articles about SIREN in the future, so if you’re interested, please give them a read.

Thank you for reading.