Web Animation / Nightmare City

Destiny is calling you...
“Obey me, or defy me”

Nightmare City is a series of two Flash animations created by Clairvoyance that feature anthropomorphic feline meme characters from the Japanese textboard 2channel. In a nutshell, the animations are about these cats (and one human girl) fighting to protect a virtual world from Morala, an Ax-Crazy blue cat who wants to trap them in the world forever. The animations are both music videos and feature no sound apart from the song and very little dialogue - most of the story is told through the visual.

The first movie, Nightmare City, features Giko, an orange male cat fighting against Morala while protecting his love interest Shii, a pink cat. The two of them conspire to leave the virtual world together, but Shii remains behind at the end of the video to confront Morala, while Giko promises to return soon. A hidden scene accessible through an Easter Egg in the Flash version shows a boy (who looks vaguely similar to Giko) waking up in some kind of machine, confirming that the city is a virtual reality. The song used is "Southern Cross" by Japanese band 403 Forbiddena.

The second movie, Nightmare City: Catastrophe, picks up where the first movie left off. We see that Morala had survived Shii's attack on him at the end of the first video (or possibly was resurrected somehow), and has now recruited a team of minions. A small resistance group battles said minions, Giko returns to face off and ultimately defeat Morala, though not without cost... The song used is "Northern Lights" by 403 Forbiddena.

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This series provides examples of:

• Adaptational Nice Guy: In 2channel Memes, Giko is a misanthropic Unsympathetic Comedy Protagonist. In Nightmare City, he's The Hero.
• Adaptational Protagonist: Giko. Giko was one of the more popular memes to come from 2channel, but if any character could really be described as "the protagonist of 2channel" it would be Mona.
• Adaptational Villainy: In 2channel memes, Morala is a Foil to Mona; his name is a combination of "Moral" and "Mona". In Nightmare City, Morala is an Ax-Crazy computer program.
  • Mona and the Hattoushins are this as well due to being Morala's henchmen.
  • Some 2channel users found Morala's smile creepy and portrayed Morala as Ax-Crazy due to this, so Morala's Adaptational Villainy is likely a reference to this.
• A.I. Is a Crapshoot: Morala, the Big Bad and his cronies. Subverted with Shii.
• Ambiguous Gender: Downplayed. In 2channel memes, Tsuu doesn't have a consistent gender, although they're usually depicted as female.
• Awful Truth: As delivered by Fusagiko: Shii isn't a person, she's a part of system controlling Nightmare City.
• Ax-Crazy: Morala. Might be a bit of a Blood Knight too, given how much he seems to enjoy fighting Giko.
  • Tsuu, a Perpetual Smiler Psycho Knife Nut who seems to enjoy hurting people with their energy blades, also counts.
• Bilingual Bonus: Translating the Japanese on the screen provides more information about the plot, including referencing the fact that the city is virtual and hinting that Shii is part of the program and not real. An English version of the video, made by Clairvoyance, exists for those who don't speak Japanese.
• Bittersweet Ending: Giko successfully destroys the all-controlling system of Nightmare City and defeats Morala, freeing the people trapped in the system, but at great cost as deleting the system means deleting Shii, too.
• Crapsack World: Nightmare City itself, especially in Catastrophe.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Morala handily defeats or at least holds off Giko multiple times. Giko stomps him back after absorbing Shii's soul energy.
• Declaration of Protection: Giko to Shii at the start of Nightmare City.
  "I will guard you from all!"
• Demoted to Extra: Mona. Mona was the most well-known meme to come from 2channel, but in Nightmare City he is one of Morala's henchmen.
• Destination Defenestration: An unfortunate Hattoushin after taking a lunging gut-punch from Fusagiko is sent flying through a pane of glass and off the roof to his death.
• 11th-Hour Superpower: Giko. Twice. Both times involving him manifesting a sword.
• Energy Bow: Shii's special power, giving away that she's part of the program, just like Morala.
• Eyes Always Shut: A common design feature, thanks to simplistic faces. The Hattoushins in particular never open their eyes.
• Foreshadowing: "Thank you... but I can't go with you."
  • Note also that Shii stops just before the border to Nightmare City, on the inside.
  • She is also able to summon glowing weapons. Only the NPCs can summon those types of weapons.
• Good Scars, Evil Scars: Inverted, the normally heroic X-on-cheek scar is instead found on the homicidal and sadistic Tsuu.
• Guys Smash, Girls Shoot: Most of the male characters are melee warriors (Morala, Giko, Fusagiko, Mona, the Hattoushins) while the two notably female characters (Shii, Pistol Girl) use ranged weapons.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Shii sacrifices herself to save Giko's life. Giko then apparently absorbs her soul, causing him to be able to turn into his human form (though still with cat ears) and defeat Morala.
• Hope Crusher: Morala, after he successfully kills Shii. There's a shot of him gloating while a mother and children are visibly terrified and dismayed at this outcome.
• Kiss Me, I'm Virtual: The end to Nightmare City: Catastrophe shows that Shii was actually just a program in the virtual world, which explains why she couldn't leave at the end of the first video.
• La Résistance: There seem to be a few disorganized ones opposing Morala and his minions.
• Light Is Not Good: The villains' summoned weapons are made of light. Subverted with Shii's bow and Giko's ultimate sword.
• Lotus-Eater Machine: Nightmare City itself seems to be this, as an Easter egg shows humans placed into pods that then transmit their minds into the city. This doesn't seem to be by choice, as Giko suggests to 'get out of this fake city.'
• Mooks: The Hattoushin, a band of minor enemies who serve Morala and only do two things—harass less important (non-combat) characters and get their butts kicked by the martial arts specialists in the resistance.
• No Name Given: Downplayed, No one in the series is given any explicit names during the videos, but they have names on 2channel.
• Oh, Crap!:
  • Giko seeing Morala about to jump down on them at the bridge.
  • The Hattoushins about to get their asses kicked by the martial arts resistance group.
  • Tsuu realizing they didn't actually disarm Pistol Girl, who shoots him in the face.
  • Morala after Giko's final transformation.
• Parrying Bullets: Or energy arrows, rather, as Morala uses his cleaver to parry Shii's attacks.
• Psycho Knife Nut: Tsuu, in spades. Their primary weapons are energy knives, which they use to terrorize and maim people. Judging by the constant Slasher Smile, they seems to be doing it just for fun, rather than they intend to obey Morala or achieve whatever goals he might have in mind. This ends up being their downfall: Tsuu gets so preoccupied with hurting people as much as possible that they fail to actually incapacitate Pistol Girl, who puts them down a surprise bullet to the skull.
• Red Sky, Take Warning: After Morala kills Shii, the sky goes from a starry nightscape to ominous red with swirling clouds.
• Sadist: Tsuu. Sure, Morala might be out to get Shii, but Tsuu is the one who's always smiling and seems to be actually having fun drawing blood and terrorizing the resistance.
• Shaping Your Attacks: Characters who are part of the system itself seem to have the the ability to do this, forming weapons out of nothingness. This is one of the giveaways that Shii is also part of the program.
• Silence Is Golden: Most of Nightmare City and all of Catastrophe do not have the characters dialogue subtitled.
• Take It to the Bridge: The climax of Nightmare City occurs on top of a large suspension bridge, where Morala overpowers Giko and seemingly dispatches him.
• Taking the Bullet: Shii for Giko, when Morala throws his cleaver in Catastrophe.
• Throwing Your Sword Always Works: Morala throws his giant energy cleaver at Giko but Shii takes the blow, dying in the process.
  • Tsuu likes to throw their energy knives as an attack since it's good for injuring a group of people.
• Traintop Battle: Fusagiko and Mona have one in Nightmare City. Fusagiko loses, but survives.
• Was Once a Man: Potentially Shii, who showed her human form at the end of the series, which might have meant that she used to be a human at some point.

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I don't mind that everything is a lie,
as long as you love me forever...