Kagerou Daze

This article is about the world of the Kagerou Daze. For other uses, see Kagerou Daze (disambiguation). 

The Kagerou Daze (カゲロウデイズ Kagerō Deizu, lit. "Heat Haze Daze"), also known as simply the Kagerou or the Daze, is a never-ending repeating world created by Azami that swallows up anybody who ends up dying on August 15. It is a central element of the Kagerou Project series.

Background

 * The Kagerou Daze was created when Azami, an immortal being, realized she was going to outlive her human husband Tsukihiko and their daughter Shion. This sparked into her the wish to stay with her family forever out of despair over the possibility of losing them, which the Snake of Clearing Eyes answered to by suggesting to her that she created an eternal world where "no pain, suffering and hopelessness existed", in which she and her family could move to. She did so by harnessing the combined power of her ten Eye Abilities.  She came to name that world the Kagerou Daze, and it was from Azami that Kido learned of that term and "named" the world herself a long time later.


 * What happened next varies across the Routes. In the Music Route, it is implied that Tsukihiko and Shion waited for Azami to return while she created the Kagerou Daze, and that Tsukihiko died before she had finished it. As a result, she ended up moving to the Daze alone out of heartbreak. Manga Route 2 and Mekakucity Actors show that her family accepted the idea of moving to the Daze, but Tsukihiko wanted them to have a traditional wedding before entering the Kagerou Daze, so he went back to his village to get a wedding dress. However, the villagers that lived there used that time frame to attack Azami and Shion at their cottage. In the manga, Tsukihiko is seen returning to the cottage with the wedding dress in his arms, as Azami was about to unleash her powers against the assaulters. The exact moment where she enters the Kagerou Daze and the reason why her family does not come with her are not shown. In the anime, Azami used her Eye Abilities to kill all the villagers but one, whom she used Stealing Eyes on to see what happened to Tsukihiko. Through that, she learned that the villagers detained and tortured him to question him about Azami. Afterwards, she decided to enter into the Kagerou Daze alone to not cause any more suffering to her family. Unfortunately, that world was revealed to be terrible, as Azami had been tricked by the Snake of Clearing Eyes.


 * Centuries later, Azami's daughter, Shion, as well as her granddaughter, Marry, were murdered by humans.   Azami ordered the Kagerou Daze to bring them in. There, the Snake of Clearing Eyes told her that she could return one of them to the real world by giving them her "Queen Snake", the Snake of Combining Eyes,  which is also the snake that is ultimately responsible for controlling the Kagerou Daze and all of Azami's other snakes,  besides being the only snake that both Shion and Marry were compatible with to receive.  At Shion's insistence, Azami gave Combining Eyes to Marry, allowing the latter to return to the real world    while Shion remained there.   After that, the Kagerou Daze was now no longer under Azami's control and would continue to carry out her last command to swallow anyone who died on that day, which was August 15th.

Description

 * The Kagerou Daze is a world where time does not pass in the same fashion as in the real world, and instead it repeats itself endlessly. Several hours, days or even decades may pass in the Kagerou Daze, while only a second passes in the real world.


 * The Daze will physically take anyone who dies on August 15th near the area where Shion and Marry had originally died, which encompasses the forest they lived at, Kashiwa City, a beach   and an archeological site.  It is possible for people to enter the Kagerou Daze alone,    but because Azami's order specifically mentioned bringing two people who died together to the Kagerou Daze, when that condition is present, the pair will enter the same "area" of the Kagerou Daze and experience the same settings together.    It is common for those who return from the Daze not to remember their experience while there,  and those who remember it are deeply traumatized by it, usually referring to what they went through as "nightmares".


 * The entrance to the Kagerou Daze is depicted as and referred to as a "mouth" that "swallows" its victims and "spits out" those who return.  It has a tangible range in the real world when it opens up, visible even to those who do not enter the Daze,  which might be related to the amount of people that can enter the Daze at once, in events with multiple deaths.    The amount of time passed in the real world between one being swallowed by the Daze and being spat out seems to vary. Some accounts suggest that hours may pass in the real world before a returning victim reappears in the real world, while others suggest that only a few seconds pass at most.


 * Thanks to the loss of the "Queen Snake", the rest of Azami's snakes began to leave the Kagerou Daze by acting as surrogate lives for humans who enter it.  If someone who enters the Kagerou Daze has a strong wish that can be fulfilled by a snake's Eye Abilities, then the snake can enter their body and become a new surrogate life for them, allowing them to return to the real world.  This grants an Eye Ability to those who leave the Kagerou Daze, but because of how rare it is for a snake to find a compatible host, many people who were swallowed by the Kagerou Daze are unable to escape and are trapped there.   A primary goal of the Mekakushi Dan is to learn more about the Kagerou Daze "phenomenon" for the sake of finding a way to free the people trapped in it,   although so far nobody without a snake has been able to leave that world. One can choose to stay in the Kagerou Daze despite having a snake in their possession.   It is implied that, as long as one has a snake, they can leave the Kagerou Daze no matter how many years passed after their entrance, as long as it is August 15th in the real world, even if it is not their first time being trapped there.


 * Marry can use the Snake of Combining Eyes to open a portal to the Kagerou Daze and have it swallow people on the brink of death outside of August 15th with at least two of Azami's snakes, including Combining Eyes itself, in her possession. She does so by shouting "Bring it on, Kagerou Daze!". With at least five snakes, she can assume control of the Kagerou Daze and change its very nature, allowing her to have the Daze swallow living people, such as the Snake of Clearing Eyes in Konoha's body  and the Mekakushi Dan.

Locations and Events

 * The Kagerou Daze has different "areas" that, according to Haruka, are reflections of what is in the hearts and minds of those swallowed by it. People in the Kagerou Daze are able to travel freely between these areas and visit other people who are also trapped there. Haruka also notes that the Kagerou Daze tends to depict people as they picture themselves, no matter how they actually look.


 * The description of known Daze areas is shown below. Seto and Momo never had their areas in the Daze depicted in any media, despite having been there.

Azami
TBA

Tsubomi and Rin Kido
TBA

Shuuya Kano
Kano's Daze is a nighttime city. The sky is described as inky black, with only the moon standing out.

Marry and Shion Kozakura
TBA

Takane Enomoto
Takane's Daze is a collapsing city that she has to escape from.

Shintaro Kisaragi
Shintaro's Daze is the road he took to and from high school.

Hibiya Amamiya and Hiyori Asahina
TBA

Haruka Kokonose
Haruka's Daze is an operating room. In the room, there are a vast, almost uncountable number of IV drips, strewn all across a pure white space. The IV drips are each linked to a separate bag filled with a colorless liquid. The other ends are all connected to a single bed with white sheets. The smell of a hospital seems to hang around in this room.

Kenjirou and Ayaka Tateyama
TBA

Ayano Tateyama
Ayano's Daze is a wooden school classroom drenched in the light of the sunset. It's filled like any old classroom with things like desks, seats, windows to the side with curtains, etc. On the other side of the windows, one can see a darkened city.

Other shown areas in the Daze
TBA

Trivia

 * The locations where each character is shown for the first time in the anime are the locations of their individual deaths, excluding Marry.
 * There are discrepancies regarding the informed dates for when some characters got into contact with the Kagerou Daze.
 * In Manga Route 2, Shintaro says that Momo's drowning incident happened five years before present time. However, when a flashback sequence to the incident is shown later in the same Route, someone remarks that Shintaro had just entered elementary school. In Japan, children enter elementary school in the April after they turn 6. Since Shintaro's birthday is on April 30th and he is 18 years old, he would be 7 years old by August 15th of the year he entered elementary school, which would set Momo's drowning incident as having happened eleven years in the past. This is a discrepancy of six years.
 * Also in Manga Route 2, Ayano says that the landslide incident that killed her and her parents happened three years before present time. However, it is later shown that Ayano got to attend high school before said incident. All other Routes show that Ayano only entered high school two years before present time,   so if Manga Route 2 Ayano has the same age as her counterparts, then the landslide incident would only have happened two years before present time. This is a discrepancy of one year.