Akira
| ||
| "Let's play... Let's play..." | ||
| Japanese | あきら | |
| Alias | Masked Boy (仮面の少年) Akira Hanabusa (Europe version) Koji (US version) | |
| Games | Spirit Camera: The Cursed Memoir | |
| Other Appearances | Another Story | |
| Notes | The Torn Piece of Paper The Lost Boy's Invitation Akira's Cry Akira's Memory | |
Akira, called Koji in the US version and Akira Hanabusa in the European version, is the masked ghost of a boy who appears in Spirit Camera: The Cursed Memoir. He became trapped within the Purple Diary and was spirited away. Now he appears to those who investigate the legend of the diary, inviting them to play a game, and anyone who loses the game is spirited away like he was.
Spirit Camera: The Cursed Memoir
When Akira found the Purple Diary, he was initially happy to have found someone to play with, and thought of the Woman in Black as an elder sister. However, he was aware that the consequence for running away was losing your face, which was what had happened to all the other people inside the house. He started wearing a mask in the hope that it would protect him.
During his time in the house, he found the Woman in Black's Brooch, with a picture of a woman in white inside. He realised that the Woman in Black was waiting for somebody in particular, not him, and he resolved to leave and find the "bright lady" in the hope that she would play with him and be his new big sister. He remained hidden inside the house, so that the Woman in Black would not be able to find him and take his face.
In Spirit Camera, Maya and the player start to investigate Akira by using the Camera Obscura to study his diary pages. Akira appears and invites them to play games of riddles and hide-and-seek with him in exchange for information. He gives them the Brooch, but before he can tell them anything, the Woman in Black tracks him through the diary's link to the camera, and carries him back to the house, where she takes his face. Akira appears one last time to attack in his dark form before disappearing for good. His ultimate fate is unknown.
Another Story
In Another Story, the story involving the masked boy is said to be the most famous incident involving the diary. The boy is said to have gone missing long ago, and there are many versions of the story. One version tells that he was the youngest child of an affluent family, and was highly doted upon, but one day he left the rest of his family and began living alone in a rural village. No one knew exactly why, though there are many theories. The boy had no friends in the small village and would spend each day crying, lonely.
One day, he went out to a festival in the village and returned wearing a strange mask, which he said had been bought for him by a lady in black clothes he had never met before. From that day onwards he stopped crying and wore the mask constantly, and finally began to open up to the other children of the village, with whom he would often play hide and seek. Some days later, they were playing one such game when all of the children went missing. The villagers launched a desperate search for the children and their bodies were found, one by one, outside of the village, their corpses with cut-up faces. Only the masked boy's body was never found. Then, the villagers realized that not one of them could remember the boy's face.
Some other versions of the story give the boy a completely smooth face, devoid of any features. One alternative ending to the story is that all of the children except the masked boy returned from playing hide and seek. His relatives and the villagers searched for him, but realized that none of them could remember his face. Since no one could remember him he ceased to exist, and continues to play hide and seek to this day.
At some point, the photo of him inside the diary had its face scribbled out in black. Urban legends say that those who play hide and seek with the boy and lose see his face, and are then spirited away by him.
Misc. Info
- He appears in a photo holding the mask he usually wears in one hand, his face covered with a black scribble. On the same page is the photo of an old Japanese house. The writing on page 7, presumably his, reads: "I played hide and seek in the white manor in the hills behind my house." A drawing that seems to be of the house is on the opposite page, in which he holds a purple, diary-like object.
- In the US version his name is changed to Koji. In the EU version, he is given a surname, Hanabusa.
- Several of the pictures in the Purple Diary were drawn by Akira.
| Characters |
| Major Characters/Ghosts |
| Maya - Kaito Hasebe - Woman in Black |
| Minor Characters/Ghosts |
| Seamstress - Akira - Shiori Hasebe - White Hand |
| Terms |
| Camera Obscura - Spirited Aways - Tokoyomi Ritual - Vessel |
| Locations |
| Old House - The Village |
| Gameplay |
| Camera Obscura - Purple Diary - Voices of the Dead |
| More Pages |
| Items - Notes - Costumes - Mini Drama - Japanese Mini Drama - Another Story |