Nightmare City

Nightmare City (ナイトメアシティ) is an action-packed duology that borrows 2channel's AA characters. The two Flash animations were authored by “Mi~ya” (み～や), under “Clairvoyance”, who had initially published them in 2004 and 2005.¹⁾ In 2024, a remaster was released.²⁾³⁾

Summary

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

Most of the original story can be inferred from the initial animation's bonus cutscene, where it's explained that the protagonists are stuck inside a virtual world that could connect their 'dreams' or 'minds', but the machine malfunctions because the AIs started to rebel and nobody has been able to wake up, and we're left with a brief hint that one must realize they're dreaming from within a dream but this part is obvious.

As the story goes, the protagonists are trying to escape a virtual 'city of lies',⁴⁾ and most of the characters are implied to be humans using AA characters as mere avatars. However, Shii can't actually escape with “Giko” because she was an AI herself, the 'Monolith-C' (Monolith-Shii) machine.⁵⁾ In the end, they defeat the machine, which does free everyone, yet it comes at the cost of deleting Shii.

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

Transcript

Toggle transcript and literal translation.

	Japanese text	English translation
Nightmare City
`00:25`	真実を照らすヒカリを求め	Seeking the light that illuminates the truth.
`00:28`	このイツワリの街を出よう	Let's leave this city of lies.
`00:31`	必ずキミを護るから	I'll always protect you.
`01:47`	それが望んだ結末なのか	Was this the ending you wanted?
`02:14`	「さぁ早く行こう」	“Come on, let's go.”
`02:16`	「ありがとう…」	“Thank you…”
`02:17`	「…でも私は一緒に行けない」	“…but I can't go with you.”
`02:20`	「何を…」	“What…”
`02:21`	「こないで！！」	“Stay back!!”
`02:34`	「早く…　行きなさい」	“Hurry up… go on.”
`02:37`	「すぐ戻るから」	“I'll be right back.”
`02:39`	「待ってろ」	“Wait for me.”
`02:40`	「きっとキミを救い出してやる」	“I promised that I'd free you.”
Nightmare City (Bonus Scene)
`02:55`	プロジェクトは失敗だ	The project is a failure.
`02:55`	コンピュータが仮想空間で反乱	The computers are rebelling in a virtual space.
`02:56`	未だ誰も覚醒しません	Nobody has woken up yet.
`02:57`	死の幻影が現実にその命を奪う	The illusion of death takes away life in reality.
`02:57`	<仮想空間管理AIシステム>	Virtual Space Management AI System
`02:59`	まさかこんな大惨事になるなんて	I never expected it to be a catastrophe this big.
`03:00`	夢を夢と見抜ける人でないと生き残るのは難しいでしょうね	It'll be difficult to survive unless somebody recognizes that it's a dream within a dream.
Nightmare City: Catastrophe
`02:09`	たとえ全てが噓だったどしても俺は構わない	Even if everything was a lie, I wouldn't mind.
`02:12`	君が俺を愛してくれる限り、永遠にー	As long as you love me, forever…
Nightmare City: Requiem
`00:01`	真実を照らすヒカリを求め	Seeking the light that illuminates the truth.
`00:03`	イツワリの街を出るキミへ	To leave the city of lies for you.
`00:06`	いつか離れるサダメの中で	Until the day we do part.
`00:09`	ソレデモワタシハー	But still, I…

List of Characters

Character(s)		Color	Appearance	Weapon(s)
Protagonists
(,,ﾟДﾟ)	Giko ギコ	Orange	Both	Water Sword → Green Laser Blade
ミ,,ﾟДﾟ彡	Fusagiko フサギコ	Brown	Both	Sword
(*ﾟーﾟ)	Shii しぃ	Pink	Both	Light Blue Laser Bow
（　´_ゝ`）	Anija 兄者	Green	Both	Gun
（´<_｀　）	Otoja 弟者	Blue	Both	Gun
〈ﾉﾘ ))ヾ从∀･从	Imoja 妹者	Human	Both	Gun
（（（　）））（　´Д｀）	>>1-san >>1さん	Human	Both
／ ■＼（　´∀｀）	Onigiri おにぎり	White	Both
(-＿-)	Hikki ヒッキー	White	Both
('A`)	Dokuo ドクオ	Purple	Both
（　｀ー´）	Neno ネーノ	Lime	Both	Bazooka
Ｘノﾊﾍ X \|ﾟﾉ＾∀＾）	Remona レモナ	Human	Both	Martial Arts
（´・ω・｀）	Shobon ショボーン	Light Blue	Both
（・∀・）	Jisaku Jien ジサクジエン	White	Original	Martial Arts
<丶｀∀´>	Nida ニダー	Red Orange	Catastrophe	Martial Arts
（　・３・）	Borujoa ぼるじょあ	Teal	Catastrophe	Martial Arts
Antagonists
（　・∀・）	Morala モララー	Dark Blue	Both	Red Laser Sword
（　´∀｀）	Mona モナー	White	Both	Green Laser Stick
(*ﾟ∀ﾟ)	Tsuu つー	Red	Both	Red Laser Knife
（　´Д｀）	Hattoushin Mona 八頭身モナー	White	Both	Yellow Laser Whip

Development

The original Nightmare City was submitted to the 'Third Red-White Flash Contest' on December 25, 2004 and subsequently won first place.⁶⁾ In the following year, Miyasuke was a special guest for 'FLASH★BOMB '05', which is where he unveiled the sequel and conclusion, Nightmare City: Catastrophe, on October 29, 2005. For its 20th anniversary, a remake, Nightmare City: Requiem, was unveiled on December 25, 2024.

Music

All animations borrow music from the indie Japanese metal band, 403 (Yonmarusan), who originally released “Southern Cross” and “Northern Lights” into the public domain, but eventually organized these tracks in the 2007 album, N.E.W.S., and remastered them below. For the 20th anniversary remaster, the animation would instead use “Raise Your Souls!” from the 2021 album Heroes Part 2.

Album		Southern Cross (2003)	Northern Lights (2002)
N.E.W.S.	2007	"Southern Cross" (MV, 2020) "Southern Cross -Guitar arrange-"	"Northern Lights" (MV, 2020)
Heart	2009		"Northern Lights (revisited) "Northern Lights (revisited vocalless)"
		"Southern Cross 2011"
Heroes Part 2	2021	"Southern Cross (revisited)"

Notes

The original Nightmare City takes heavy inspiration from Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children, which caused some controversy amongst people who didn't think that it was deserving of first place.
In the past, the band name '403' was mistaken written as '403 Forbiddena', due to the fact that their old website was named "Laboratory Room 403 -Forbiddena-" (研究室403号室 -Forbiddena-).
Giko's actual human name was planned to be 'Kōsuke Kusanagi' (草薙コウスケ, Kusanagi Kōsuke).⁷⁾
~~Miyasuke did “Monosugoi Ikioi de Keine ga Monosugoi Uta”~~ (物凄い勢いでけーねが物凄いうた).⁸⁾⁹⁾
For April Fools Day 2021, Miyasuke unveiled a VR sequel to Nightmare City as a joke,¹⁰⁾ but later made this world available to the public on VRChat for a brief period following its 20th anniversary.¹¹⁾

External links

Nightmare City → Catastrophe + Requiem on Niconico Douga - The official uploads.
- Nightmare City → Catastrophe + Requiem on YouTube - The official uploads.
miyasuke.net - The front page of Miya's website. Hasn't been updated in years. Mostly retired.
- @miyasuke1 on Twitter
Laboratory 403 - The front page of 403's website.
- @kazuki403 on Twitter
Nightmare City on Pixiv Encyclopedia
Nightmare City on Niconico Encyclopedia