Kagerou Daze

The Heat Haze (カゲロウデイズ Kagerou Deizu), also known as Kagerou Daze, is a never ending world, created by Azami.

Description

 * The Heat Haze is a never ending world, created by Azami, who originally intended to live in this world with her family, due to the fact that humans age much faster than gorgons and would mean that her husband Tsukihiko, who was a human, would have to die long before her time. However, their home was attacked by the villagers immediately upon creating it, so she came to believe that unhappiness comes when she is involved with humans. She ultimately decided to enter the heat haze alone and live there in eternal solitude.


 * However, time passed and her daughter Shion, as well as her grand-daughter Marry were murdered by humans and swallowed by the Heat Haze. Wishing for at least her grand-daughter to live, Azami gave her the queen of the snakes, also know as the "Snake of Combining Eyes", which would serve as a surrogate life for Marry, while Shion lost hers.


 * Azami lost her ability to unite the snakes, so she became unable to undo the order she gave to the Heat Haze: "Bring in the people who died on August 15 (the day of Marry's death)". To enter the heat haze, a living creature must die on that date. It is possible that one of the snakes possesses them, acting as a surrogate life and making them receive an eye ability, which makes it possible for them to leave the heat haze again, while in some cases they do not receive a snake and remain inside the Heat Haze.

Snakes

 * Countless black snakes with deep red eyes grow from Azami's head as her hair, which is a typical feature of a gorgon. These snakes, however, are intelligent creatures on their own, the most intelligent one being the Snake of Clearing Eyes, which is the snake that gave Azami the idea of the Heat Haze in a dream she had. As Shion and Marry were murdered by humans and swallowed by the Heat Haze, Azami gave Marry the Queen Snake, which is able to control all the other snakes, so she would be able to make it out again. The loss of their queen snake enraged the snakes enough to make them overthrow Azami under the lead of the Snake of Clearing Eyes, as she was no longer able to control the never ending world without it. Since the Queen Snake would now live in the real world, the snakes planned to possess the bodies of humans who entered the Heat Haze, in order to follow their queen and create a new medusa/gorgon in the outside world.


 * There are several named snakes in the series, who possessed the bodies of humans:
 * Queen Snake / Snake of Combining Eyes: Marry Kozakura
 * Snake of Concealing Eyes: Tsubomi Kido
 * Snake of Stealing Eyes: Kousuke Seto
 * Snake of Deceiving Eyes: Shuuya Kano
 * Snake of Captivating Eyes: Momo Kisaragi
 * Snake of Opening Eyes: Takane "Ene" Enomoto
 * Snake of Focusing Eyes: Hibiya Amamiya
 * Snake of Awakening Eyes: Haruka "Konoha" Kokonose
 * Snake of Clearing Eyes: Kenjirou Tateyama, Dark Konoha, Hiyori Asahina
 * Snake of Favoring Eyes: Ayano Tateyama
 * Snake of Retaining Eyes: Shintaro Kisaragi


 * Although the Snake of Staring Eyes has been shown to give Azami the ability to turn people into stone, it did not possess Shion nor Marry to make it possible for them to use similar abilities, as Shion could turn people into stone (although requiring too much energy for her to handle) and Marry can temporarily paralyze anyone who looks into her eyes.

Trivia

 * The locations where each character is shown for the first time in the anime are the locations of their individual death, excluding Marry.