TMK
is a Kirby Super Star Analog Horror series made by pixel-art animator Maple Riot.
Taking place around Kirby Super Star's US release in 1996, TMK tells the story of an outbreak of an extremely mortal disease, the titular "TMK", that is caused by a mysterious entity hidden within the files of the game, afflicting some of those who play it. As the videos progress, the story of burdened programmer Donny and his uncaring alcoholic boss - both represented by sprites from the SNES original, begins to unfold as well.
Tropes:
- The Alcoholic: Donny's boss seems to be this, as one of the subtitles of the videos has Donny ask himself if he's drinking again, and in "The truth will come out", Donny asks him if he's drunk when he makes a surprise visit to his house. It's implied that he started drinking heavily because his son got infected with TMK.
- Allegorical Character: Donny and his boss are represented in the story by the Super Star sprites of Parasol Waddle Dee and King Dedede, while a police officer (who has only made one non-trailer appearance) is represented by Meta Knight. It turns out that thanks to TMK, this is how Donny sees the world.
- Anachronism Stew: Certain episodes use material from Kirby Super Star Ultra, the remake for the Nintendo DS.
- Animation Bump: The creator's animation style uses fluid squash-and-stretch animation, juxtaposed against Kirby Super Star's solid spritework.
- Arc Symbol: Eyes and empty faces are frequently seen.
- Call-Back: The first episode has a brief flash of Marx in the title screen. He is eventually revealed as an usurper, with a scene of him replacing Kirby on the Kirby Super Star logo. Then season 3 has a second episode titled "Kirby.MP4" where he violently hijacks the game's opening sequence.
- Chekhov's Gunman: Marx is seen for a split second right after the first glimpse of TMK in the first episode, implying he's significant to the story. It's only much later that he and Noddy are established to represent Beta Tester #1, who was assassinated by Nintendo for knowing too much.
- Digital Abomination: The entity that causes TMK is this, being a sentient bug that infects people with TMK because it can't find a meaning to its existence. An instructional video for Nintendo employees suggests this trope is actually inherent to their softwares and that TMK is an entity that went out of control due to multiple people such as Donny and Beta Tester #1 interacting with it and modifying its code.
- Driven to Suicide: The son of Donny's boss, Brent Cole, hung himself because of matters relating to TMK, as well as some other children infected with it.
- Foreshadowing: The death of Beta Tester #1 is comically followed by the "Milky Way Wishes" ending jingle, spelling out that he's supposed to be Marx in the story.
- Freeze-Frame Bonus: The series is full of single-frame scares. The first one involves the screen turning black and white for a single frame while a realistic eye is overlaid over Kirby's warp star. The next frame involves a garbled, glitchy version of the title screen, with Marx's sprite overlaid in silhouette.
- Fun with Subtitles: The optional subtitles not only include additional dialogue (and lore), but hard-to-read dialogue in-video is made clearer... Sometimes.
- He Knows Too Much:
- In one of Donny's hallucinations, he recalls an instructional video from Nintendo where Mario lists the company's rules. First is that "what happens in the studio stays in the studio" and second is that the games' entities "can't hurt you". A voice keeps calling out to Donny while showing a man's face until Mario freaks out trying to hide it...
- Beta Tester #1, who's represented as a Noddy, gets run over and shot to death by a Nintendo hitman for violating "Rule #3" right after he left while ranting about their creation of TMK. Said hitman is seemingly represented by a Stone Kirby statue... which is seen already hounding Donny in the following episode...
- An episode reveals what Rule #3 is: to not tamper with the code, "even if it asks you". The video is framed as something the viewer themself is watching, with the narrator outright threatening death upon them should that rule be broken."The test requires you to not mess with *indiscernible* of the code, no matter what it says to you. We will catch you if you do."(The presentation displays a slide which shows a set of bodies inside coffins)"And nobody would ever know."
- Ignored Expert: Donny's boss ignores his warnings about TMK, viewing a bug that has a 1 in a million chance of occurring less important than the other bugs he’s paying Donny to look for. He changes his tune once his son becomes of the one in a million who experience TMK.
- Ominous Visual Glitch: Frequent and common with the analog horror genre. The "Bug Report Reupload" video in particular is packed full with these.
- Madness Mantra: From the "Gourmet Race" trailer:I didn't kill my son I didn't kill my son I didn't kill my son
- Mythology Gag: TMK's name and vague concept (a disease gained by playing Kirby Super Star) is a reference to a bizarre Kirby Super Star commercial about a kid that contracts T.M.K. (which stands for Too Much Kirby), which causes the infected to turn pink and swell up like a balloon, but has decidedly worse effects in this series' universe.
- Soundtrack Dissonance: The cheerful ending jingle from Milky Way Wishes plays as a hitman hits his car onto Beta Tester #1, executes him and leaves to Nintendo's HQ. This does fit in the story, as he's soon revealed to represent Marx, the final boss of that scenario.
- There Is Another: Nintendo's instructional videos imply all their projects contain dangerous living data. Beta Tester #1 confirms this when he mentions other non-Nintendo bugs he witnessed while working at TFC, including an eyeless Mickey Mouse from Castle of Illusion and a copy of Sonic CD showing Sonic being shocked at Amy somehow destroying Metal Sonic during her kidnapping scene.
- Wham Line: The words that Donny said after his boss asked him about what it's the virus making him see. His answer is "I see King Dedede..."
- Wham Shot: The "Kirby SuperStar guide rooms" episode ends on an ominous shot of Donny in the tutorial room from Kirby Super Star. The source game has Kirby destroying a Waddle Dee in this room, and that character is Donny's Kirby counterpart.
