Bankai: Baffling Japanese Internet Mysteries: Volume One

Bankai #1

by Tara A. Devlin

What secrets lie in the dark, twisted depths?An anonymous money hunt organised online with a terrifying ending that nobody saw coming.

A house, free to the first taker who could abide by a few simple rules. As long as you didn’t mind the thing that came down from the woods at night…

A video remembered by all, yet nobody could agree on the details. Did it ever really exist, or was something else going on?

Baffling Japanese Internet Mysteries delves into 26 horrifying, mind-bending, and often downright befuddling mysteries that sprang to life on the Japanese internet. From terrifying real-time experiences to long lost memories, urban legends in the making to real life crimes, these mysteries have confused, amused, and terrified for years. Think you’ve heard it all? You haven’t seen anything yet.

Hit that Buy Now button and dig into a brand new set of mysteries you’ve never seen before.

Genres: Horror, Nonfiction

240 pages, Kindle Edition

Published August 7, 2020

About the author

Tara A. Devlin studied Japanese at the University of Queensland before moving to Japan in 2005. She lived in Matsue, the birthplace of Japanese ghost stories, for 10 years, where her love for Japanese horror really grew. And with Izumo, the birthplace of Japanese mythology, just a stone’s throw away, she was never too far from the mysterious. You can find her collection of horror and fantasy writings at taraadevlin.com and translations of Japanese horror at kowabana.net.

Reviews

[Glen · Rating 3 out of 5]

An investigation of various internet mysteries from Japan's 2chan messageboards. Some of them are creepy, a couple just kind of lame.

Still, an interesting view into the cyberworld of Japan.

[D · Rating 4 out of 5]

(You know the drill, this would be shelved non-fiction not because the contents of the stories are real but because the stories have been translated and explained/contextualised by the author.)

I've been listening to the Kowabana podcast a lot during the holidays so I'm in the mood to read a new ebook from Tara A Devlin. This one was $0.99 on amazon at the time of writing so it's honestly a steal.

Just like it says on the tin, Bankai collects 'baffling internet mysteries', not necessarily of occult origins so while the bulk of it comes from 2ch and seem to be well known (to Japanese 2ch users) to have reached urban legend status, they don't really belong to the other collections Devlin had already released. I like these little mysteries (sometimes creepy, usually very suggestive, but also very telling of internet culture) so I hope there'd be more.

[Isabelle Tranner]

still regularly talk about the pikachu that kills people

[Stephanie · Rating 4 out of 5]

On a couple occasions the author would include an excerpt from the mysterious post, and then one paragraph later summarize it... even though it was functionally exactly the same as the previous paragraph. This was a little aggravating. Also pretty much every section ends with "we don't know if this was real or a troll/coincidence, but this mystery lives on in 2chan infamy." That's probably the only conclusion that can be made about any of these mysteries, but it does get repetitive.

Otherwise, I really enjoyed this book! I love internet mysteries and general oddities. These were very reminiscent of some mysteries I've read about on reddit, and it's kind of funny to me that the same sort of things happen everywhere. It runs the gamut to discussions about lost media, creepy pictures on real estate sites, stories about being stalked, and possible confessions from murderers. Even if it's relayed in a very calm manner the creepy stories in this book (as well as Toshiden) had a way of getting under my skin. There's something about creepy stories online that hit especially hard. I also really appreciate getting to hear these because these are what this one youtube channel calls "region locked mysteries." i.e. mysteries that go viral in one location of the internet but are unknown in other parts that does speak the language in question (in this case Japanese.)

[Rebo · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this book! I read it in essentially a day. It was so interesting and definitely will be inspiring for some of my own scary stories that I write for fun. (The free house one being my absolute favorite).

The only reason I couldn’t give it 5 stars was because there were no pictures, and I can’t imagine that they couldn’t have been included at least for some of the stories. They really would have enhanced the experience, especially as many are so spooky precisely *because* of the pictures/videos posted.

But I will definitely buy an other volumes of this series and recommend it if you like spooky/creepy stories that may or may not be true, with the added element of seeing how modern mythology kind of works with an online forum.

[Dustin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this collection!!

This was such a fun collection to read through. Each mystery felt unique, and posed just enough doubt for you to say, "...maybe this DID happen." I've been a sucker for urban legends all my life, and I'm also a fan of horror stories from Japan, so if those thing interest you as well, check this out!! It was quick read, but 1000% worth it.

[Roxanne · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this.

I’m a sucker for a good internet mystery and I very much enjoyed this! It explores interesting encounters on 2chan boards. As someone that is terminally online, I found it fascinating.

[KarenMichelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

More!!

I love each and every one of these book series by Tara A Devlin and this new one does not disappoint!

[Lelon Thomas Messick · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing mysteries

Online tales, urban legends, the stories get interesting!!! The curiosity in these tales are awesome!!! Great book!!! All star ratings!!!

[Katie · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good mix of Internet mysteries from Japan. Most have been covered on the author’s YouTube channel.