Fun fact: a few months ago I was riding a bike in my city (Buenos Aires) near a railroad crossing; the crossing was empty but as soon as I was about to cross the rail signals started to sound and the lights to blink. The noise was very strong since I was on the far-right of the road, right next to the signal. All that led me to theorize that the memory of Hitogata might just originate from the trauma of being too close to a rail signal and hearing it's very strong noise; maybe the memory of the figures is just a conflation of the memory a of a rail signal with the memory of a traffic light for pedestrians?
@@GamesAndWeirdStuff also yes. Communicating important messages is about associating it with the viewer at multiple levels of liminality and familiarity if you want to say that people die you can show them blinking out; it's poignant and somber if you want to say they die to trains, you can show them blinking out in time to a familiar sight, a train signal; the deaths are now associated with the source of danger
This is one of those lost medias that I really hope is found. It sounds so creepy, but the creepier lost medias always end up being fairly normal when they are found, like Clockman or Cracks
Honestly since it’s (Likely) a psa, it would still be fairly creepy. To the extent of what people say it is? Probably not, but it would still be creepy
9:08 As someone from Japan, I would like to point out that we don't really distinguish between commercials and PSAs. We just call them CM. The 2004 comment just says CM, which does not necessarily mean it was a commercial.
Same here as an English-speaking north american. I would absolutely group PSAs under the larger "commercial" umbrella. Especially if it's something you only have a vague memory of from years and years ago, the likelihood of remembering the exact purpose of a short TV clip (if you even knew in the first place) seems low.
This is exactly why people making documentaries about other countries need to collaborate with locals to make sure they're not making easily avoidable mistakes by not understanding the culture. It's really arrogant to assume you can completely understand something happening in a different country just by using Google Translate.
Is it possible that Hitogata is neither a PSA or an advert but an art piece? I remember, during a commercial break in the 70's, there was an art piece shown during an advertising break of a tap that was turned on and filling a tank of water but made to look like it was actually filling the screen. It kept going until the tank and tap were submerged. It turned out an artist had bought an advertising slot to show a piece of his work.
Sakura Stardust made this exact same suspicion, as there is an AC Japan CM that wasn't made by AC Japan, but by art students instead. So maybe Hitogata was an art piece made by someone and had it advertised as an official PSA.
@@misseselise3864 Indeed. But I think the phrase at the end is not about su:cide, but about death in general. The blinking can signify life and death and the unpredictable.
my favorite thing about lost media is when they never actually find what they’re looking for, but in the process they end up preserving many other pieces of obscure media.
The human memory is VERY imperfect. Especially a child's memory. I can recall at least two, or three times I've been talking to my mom about something that happened when I was a kid, and she has to correct my recollection. Even as an adult, I still have a vivid memory of listening to a specific song in a house that I moved out of before the song was released, making my vivid memory an impossible one. We can be so sure of something, yet be absolutely wrong. Humaning is tough.
@@Peannlui Ha, I mean one of the times my Nana (her mom) was involved and she corroborated my moms version of events. This is a good comment that proves my point, as she could ALSO be wrong and what actually happened isn't remembered correctly by either of us 😂
@skrounst Yeah, my mother tends to misremember a lot of things too, like claiming a childhood friend of mine was really into the Obama Barbie dolls despite Obama not becoming president until long after we moved away and never saw her again. But I know that especially as a child, I too mixed up a lot of things and cartoons I saw and remembered their events as Frankensteined mishmashs.
@@rainpooper7088 yeah the original hitigata poster could be mis-remembering, and combining a couple different psa's.. Some of those ads in the yearbook looked pretty similar, then the text about someone dying every 2 seconds could be from something else. I believe whole heartedly he is so sure in his head of what he saw, but he could just simply be wrong like we all are about memories sometimes.
I had a girlfriend once and we broke up pretty badly. She was having a pretty rough time, so she latched onto the first person that came along who I'll call person B, which happened to be a really manipulative person who was very upset at me over a political feud. Slowly, she closed herself off from the world. In a few months, the cops came to my house over a false report the two had made together. B kept sending me weird messages about how my life was over or something, so I showed them to the cops and they went away. I never pressed charges because I felt bad for her. A few months later, I passed her on the street, to which she started shouting that she was gonna kill me and chased after me, throwing punches. I was fine because she was pretty small, but its crazy how someone was able to completely fabricate memories that were able to cause so much distress. It only really happens to such an extent when people are extremely emotionally volatile and there's direct manipulation, but memories are very unreliable regardless. Even imaginary events can turn real in one's memory. Memories are rewritten every time you bring them up, thus they're contaminated by whatever you feel at the time or even just things you're being told. I too had a vivid memory, one that I'm pretty sure was actually a dream from when I was 5.
I am absolutely convinced this is one of those cases like the Evil Farming game. I think people are misremembering something or mixing things up with an older ad. Or perhaps this was a part of some forgotten TV movie or whatnot.
That, or it's like saki sanobashi where it was a troll to begin with but it's close enough to real things that exist for people to believe it's a thing
@@ErectusEnormous Yeah tecnhically Thinks the game "Body Harvest" sounds like Harvest Moon but like the evil farming game instead. I checked the game itself out and it's more like an alien invasion but cool ig
I think what's really striking to me about hitogata is the sheer amount of other media that was airing at the time that had strikingly similar imagery to the original description of the video. It's some sort of really bizarre coincidence that a bunch of Japanese commercials from the time featured two white monochrome figures on a plain featureless background. It's no wonder so many people swore they really saw it.
yeah I think that's how this got traction. Someone is like "did you see this" and makes a vague description, and people think back to fuzzy hazy memories from decades past... and aren't really SURE, but remember things that are kinda similar. There's no way to know what ACTUALLY inspired this... only what people found while searching.
One of the greatest discoveries for me that came out of this video is the knowledge that "commercial yearbooks" are a thing, which is a really good idea.
One thing to note is that we, the Japanese, usually call any ads shown on TV "commercials". It applies to non-profit PSAs too. So "commercial" videos do not have to advertise a product from a company, in a Japanese sense.
I always thought ''Hitogata'' was a Mandela Effect. There is no proof that AD/PSA have ever existed. I believe people just mixed stuff up. I have no doubts that ''Hitogata'' is just a compilation of vague memories that are all super similar. There's A LOT AD/PSA from Japan that are similiar to each other.
Or it could be something similar to the one evil farming game mystery from Reddit. It was solved, but to make it short, it was a livestream the op was watching while falling asleep. This could be another explanation, but we usually see how people’s description of what they saw turn out to be different or slightly different.
@@4.1. if you mean by the farming one, you can search up “evil farming game Joel” and I’m sure you’ll see a live stream by the guy that described a “plot” for some farming game. But if you meant the hitogata one, I just said it could possibly be the explanation (added this incase I got the first one wrong)
5:40 I would note that Hokkaido is not a very populated part of Japan. Especially when compared to Kyushu and Western Honshu. So the trend of sightings doesn’t directly correlate to sheer population. Especially since the area of Nagoya by itself out populates all of Hokkaido yet has less sightings.
That popped out to me as well. I do wonder if it wasn’t something that originated as a PSA there by a private railway company? That’d be obscure enough to either be lost or not survive, and everything else would be misremembered. The real question is: where was OP from?
Hey, a Japanese/American from Tokyo here! As a Japanese person, JUNGLE is infamous in Japanese internet for more than a decade now. I doubt that the OP is mentioning about JUNGLE. However, when I heard about Hitogata, JUNGLE popped out of my mind immediately so it kinda makes sense…
now that i've seen this video, i'm wondering if Hitogata is the Devil Child episode mixed with a completely different PSA that used the every 2 seconds line, like how you sometimes forget what order a sequence of memories happened. that, or a dream in which the two connected somehow - like how sometimes memories of dreams are so strong that they feel like they happened in real life. very interesting.
I honestly find it so completely unbelievable that if Hitogata is a collection of memories that it's Ultra Q, that's kinda like saying a piece of lost media is actually someone misremembering the MCU or something Ultra Q was massive at the time and still has a hugely important legacy today It could very well be just someone remembering things wrong, but I don't think it's Ultra Q specifically
Lost media searches are 2020s version of 2010s creepypastas. Makes you wonder what will be the trend in the 2030s. Whatever they will be, I’m sure it will be something scary someone remembers it was late at night when they were kids, most likely while they were sick or alone.
i can imagine in the 2030s kids that grew up in the 2010s are gonna be looking for lost youtube videos they saw as a kid but youtube is so over saturated with content that it will be so difficult to even find.
Probably lost shorts from the (most likely) banned TikTok app, showing gruesome scenes from war-torn nations and deadly protests, honestly. The sheer volume of shorts means they are unlikely to be fully archived. But even a short with a mere 10k views was still seen by thousands of people who may suddenly be reminded of it a decade from now. And what is more horrific than a PSA about potential suffering? Raw footage of real suffering.
Hitogata is such a hauntingly beautiful mystery. It saddens me that even after all these years it remains between the realm of relative plausibility to bleeding false memories. However, seeing the Jungle ads definitely evoked the same feeling the 2004 recreation gave me when I first saw it, so that was a treat. Hopefully one day Hitogata can be laid to rest.
honestly, i believe it could be real. PSAs about safety, especially for kids + teens, can be VERY unsettling at times. the people who make these sorts of PSAs *want* kids to be freaked out by them, because that way they'll remember the warnings. something like this completely tracks with that. even the idea that its promoting railway safety makes sense -- a lot of people use public transport every day in japan, meaning there are many opportunities for someone to get hurt. especially a child, who may get confused in a hectic commuter crowd.
Mentioning that it was more of a comercial than a PSA, is it possible they were selling something like life insurance? I'm not sure if Japan has anything like that, but that idea popped into my head when asked "What could they be selling?"
maybe not insurance but ... afterlife products? such as funeral services. ( though I think in Japan that's really taboo.) the tag line could be a warning to be prepared for the loss of a loved one. ( if it is a taboo subject then I could defiantly see it being cryptic about it's services. )
It really sounds like a railroad PSA. As others have mentioned, the pon-pon sound and alternate blinking are both associated with railroad crossings. This really seems like the most likely explanation, assuming that the reports are not almost entirely misremembered. It might even be something that was part of a show or movie.
This reminds me of that mysterious German heavy metal song that was aired on the radio in the 1980s where only one known tape recording of it exists, made by someone who recorded it off the radio. Under German law, all songs broadcast on the radio have to have basic information about them archived (band, singer, author, etc.) along with the time, date, and station that aired it, but the records are missing for this particular song. From what I know, the name of the song was never found and no information about the band is known. You can hear the song on UA-cam if you do a search for it. It's actually not a bad song, but nobody can figure out anything about it.
Yes, however I remember there was a time when he uploaded some really "meh" stuff. And his channel was even better when he made Tops and cartoon-related content
@@kayosensei That somehow doesn't make sense, But may I ask (if you don't mind) why do you need to hear about an ad (PSA, Commercial, ?) Which probably didn't exist in the first place? And if it did, what good does it do to you? In another word: What's the benefit you get from it? I don't get the topic of "LOST MEDIA" at all! It's just a waste of time to look for something that isn't "Digitalized" and Uploaded on the Internet. Or it was so pointless that even it's creators, just... Like played it once or twice then threw it away. Sorry for the broken English, but i think I made my point.
@@delsinrowe521 It's sought out because of curiosity, and the same can be said for those who watch content covering Lost Media. It makes people wonder. sometimes it's creepy too, which just makes people even more desperate to find the original. It's essentially a hobby. Sure, it can be considered a waste of time too, but at least the people participating in searches are having fun. (Also, why are you asking someone "Why do you need to hear about an ad/PSA" when you yourself confirmed watching this video, which covers an Ad/PSA? Wouldn't you have at least somewhat of a good idea why? I mean, you chose to watch this too, so surely there is a reason why. What benefit do YOU get from this..?) And finally, for the "You yourself confirmed watching this" part, my evidence is a comment you posted in the past stating "This is 24 minutes of my life I cannot get back." Video is 24 minutes long, comment is on that exact video, so it is safe to say you did watch this video, based on context.
Everything about the description of Hitogata makes me think of digital pedestrian signals. There are ones with stick figure men side by side, one walking & one not walking. It blinks back & forth between the two. They also come with a variety of crosswalk sounds beyond the usual chirping bird, & are present at railroads as well.
I think it's possible that the Ultra Q ep was involved in the Hitogata mystery somehow. Like maybe a late rerun of that episode aired directly before a PSA about trains, which might have caused people to collate the two in their minds. Ultra Q is a very popular series, its association with Ultraman meaning that it has been rebroadcast many times. It's not out of the question for it to be showing on tv in the late 90s/mid-2000s.
I'm new to this, but based on what I've seen here, the "Jungle" bumper seems like a very plausible source for a garbled memory. Additionally, as a late night thing, it would have aired when people are tired, and for the younger viewers, there would have been the added element of "forbidden" viewing (past their bedtime, adult content, etc.)
I remember when you first mentioned hitogata in a lost media episode. I'm so happy that you made a full video on it focusing on only it and adding more information!
it'd be cool if teams came together to make those lost media search topics that turned out to not exist, like that evil farming game and saki sanobashi. the fact that so many people have dedicated so much time into trying to find them proves that people want to experience them
I feel like the issue with Japanese lost media is there's a larger ratio of people wanting it to exist than can actually effectively search for it, leading to people getting high on hopium that it's simply a matter of lack of access to sources to information or contacts because of the language barrier than the much more likely possibility that it simply doesn't exist. Hitogata is at least a lot more believable than Saki Sanobashi, but I feel like both have communities that are more trying to will it into existence (hence the large amount of recreations) than actually are looking for it. I feel like if either were western in origin then neither would still have people looking for it since people would be more willing to accept it's either misremembered or didn't exist in the first place.
there's generally a much smaller community of people who strive to preserve media in japan than america/eng-speaking countries, especially due to stricter copyright laws. 2ch/5ch dwellers are seen as societal rejects/losers and they're often somewhat chuuni anyways so their accounts aren't super reliable compared to other lost media accounts from eng-speakers. i don't typically write things off as fake but this definitely seems to be the case (at least that's how i feel, as someone who is japanese)
Saki Sanobashi was a troll. However, I would not be surprised if anime like that existed. Saki was already debunked to be a troll on 4chan who wanted to psyche people out because they were on the big, bad, dark web. In this case, it is possible that Hitogata exists, but many in Japan said it reminds them of something else by something that might have been created by JUNGLE. They also state that compared to the West, they call these things CM meaning commercialized message which now provides the issue of if it was truly a PSA or a commercial based on others from Japan. Some argue maybe it was a life insurance ad, an art piece, etc. I feel it's more plausible than Saki because there are endless road safety psas existing that were disturbing.
@@cirokumaI recommend just translating search terms in google translate to Japanese and then searching it up in Japanese, I watched this episode of a Japanese game show on UA-cam that was fansubbed where they tricked 2 guys into hitchhiking from china to London, but then it got deleted, probably copyright striked, and then I translated the name of the show to Japanese and searched on UA-cam, and I found it in a playlist that had every episode
The scene at 17:20 almost certainly has to be it. I think I can even propose an idea as to why the original poster seems to remember it just as two formless blobs like in the recreations. Aphantasia. I personally find it hard to vividly imagine visual things in my head - they're often dark/faded/formless in color/shape.
Even though Jorge mentions that Ultra Q aired in the 60s, It should be noted that Ultra Q is a very significant TV show. So, re-runs were common in the time period Hitogata was allegedly aired
I mean I have total aphantasia, There is vivid memories I have but they’re not visual, sometimes I can pick every detail as if it’s a image but that really burns my brain and tends to not linger, I’d say they’re more childhood memories that are like that to me. For people with weak aphantasia I’d say it’s entirely possible for it to be a black and white recreation, as that usually tends to be the go to for people with their brains and what they’re comfortable with processing and recalling. Like aphantasia is the inability to recall memories in a certain way by choice, that doesn’t mean your brain is incapable of creating images, smells, sounds, it’s just you can’t get your brain to by choice. I have had vivid dreams, full colour, body, e.t.c. But I can count those with my hands over my 21 years of life and I can’t recall those by choice even if I try to after having it flash by in my brain. Plus, a lot of people don’t realise they have aphantasia thus they don’t really think too in depth and think the way their brain works is the default, as with the psychology of trying to appear normal. The messages in this chat is a little off from actual definitions from aphantasia and how it works.
In Serial Experiments Lain there is a scene where a girl is hit by a train and her face flashes between two emotions. I wonder if that is listed as one possible wrongly remembered Hitogata?
Saki sanobashi was pure bs. This story has infinitely more credibility because it originated on the Japanese internet, like one would expect from a piece of Japanese media.
I remember a commercial about traffic safety in downtown areas, I remember telling people it and they don’t remember. In a similar fashion to Hitogata and the mystery surrounding it. It was a time lapse video of a downtown street with many cars passing by, some very fast. On the middle of the screen is a traffic light, still red. Then when the lights turn green, all the cars stop. And then, pitch black. A female voiceover spoke through this. I can’t find it anywhere though, no one even remembers it for me! Does anyone remember this at all?
one thing i love about lost media is that, although the lost media itself isn’t scary sometimes, the fact that so many people may believe that it did with no proof always gives me chills
I wonder if Hitogata is actually two commercials that coincidentally aired one after the other, the first being the blinking people followed by another that had the infamous tagline of someone dying every two seconds. Perhaps OP saw these two commercials and misremembered them as being one commercial Or like Jorge said, it never really existed and it's a case of people misremembering aspects of several commercials
As an Ultraman fan, I liked the fact that you talked about Ultra Q. Also, the kaijin in the episode, "LIly" also appeared in Ultra Q: Dark Fantasy in episode 14: "Lily and Lili". Lily and Lili aired on July 7, 2004, so not a match.
Honestly what I got out of this is that there's a striking number of commercials that fit a very specific and similar aesthetic. I don't think that means anything but it sure is neat!
All i know is that when something is lost and only in people's memories, what i know is that the community of lost media searchers go find them, they'll always come back with some answers ether way if good or bad
Knowing how weird and surreal psas can be, i feel like theres a good chance this one is actually real. It certainly sounds like something you would actually see on TV. I do also think it's pretty believable that the ad isn't actual real and is instead one of those cases of your memory making something up, maybe mixing different ads or psas together. People have been searching for so long and really haven't found anything other than recollections, which is pretty usual imo for such a sought after piece of lost media. It's hard to say as it is 100% something that could be real, and you could write off not much being found due to it being foreign lost media and being quite old and rare (i mean, the original jeff the killer image STILL hasn't been found and thats japanese lost media as well). Regardless i hope more is learned about this one, the longer lost media takes to be found the more interesting it gets imo.
I feel like it could have been a PSA for suicides committed on train tracks, or safety about not staying too closely on the edges. In East Asia, there’s a large amount of people who fall off by accident, or if deliberate, jump into train tracks and leap off bridges. It’s very sad and it was probably a PSA asking people to consider there are those who need help.
This is something I'd be especially eager to see if it is found - Japan's PSAs are fascinating watches, with some of the most imaginative visuals and strongest messages out there, and I'm sure this one would be no exception. If it is a case of misremembering, then it goes right up there with Joel's 'Body Harvest Moon' gag as being one of the most fascinating searches for media that never was in recent years, with multiple parties so adamant that something exists, when the truth might still be hiding just under their nose!
i think i might be able to help ppl search for it just try to find a vhs tape that is form japan and was made in 1996 to 2003 and SOMETHING else i found on a video with the same topic was what someone found a CM very close to hirogata the comment reads i'm from the PSA community, specifically PSAArchive's community, and I have a little info. There is one Japanese PSA with two figures made of sand on a beach, and one disintegrates. It does in fact have a ringing bell in the background that you could sort of describe as "pon pon" or "gan gan". That's an ad about global warming and the loss of land as seawaters rise. It's possible this Japanese OP just misremembered that ad as something else and thus Hitogata was born. hope this helps
Damn Jorge I have been catching up on your work since I fell off the face of the earth and I swear to God dude, your videos never get old. Legitimately some of the highest quality content on UA-cam all around. Miss you brother, hope all is well!
The real Hitogata couldn't possibly be any scarier than that one recreation where the figures look like babies made of static. In fact I bet the creepiness of that image is part of what made this such a popular mystery.
Kinda reminded of that Doraemon's unknown episode "Talent"... It's about Nobita asked Doraemon to take him to the underground world for some reason. As they did, they were invited by some local there and escorted to some room with a globe in the center. As Nobita touched it with curiosity, the globe shattered with blood bursting out of it, with creepy cries echoing all over the room. Nobita and Doraemon were hugging each other in fear, and the episode ended as it faded out... They stated that it was a 15 minute episode, but muted while the film was kinda melted. Even the plot has nothing to do with the title "Talent" either. Although no such title was found throughout the list of episodes throughout the 90's, including deleted ones as well, several stated that they've seen it, thus no evidence to provide such as recorded video. Thus known to become Doraemon's infamous urban legend, I do agree that this might've came from people's unreliable dream. It does make sense for not having any evidence to prove it was real, even they still state they've seen it.
@@Gatorade69 Japan in general has various influences that discourage collecting things "just in case" (cost of living space, cultural influences toward valuing the beauty of transience in things like sakura blossoms, etc.). That's why, in a Kotaku article named "Saving Japan's Games", one member of the Game Preservation Society said “With luck, and with a huge effort, maybe 80 percent is the maximum we can get. If 80 percent of PC-88 games are preserved for the future, it’s even more than was preserved for films,” and one of the reasons contributing to Japanese releases of vintage games being significantly cheaper to buy online than releases from other regions.
I can just imagine... Seein' the notification "Hitogata - Japanaese "White Shadows" PSA - FOUND" I can't wait for the day. But honestly? I belive somethin' SIMILAR existed, but not at all as it is described, I don't think it as dark or creepy as remembered, I think it's way more normal.
I used to be REALLY scared of this kind os videos (i'm really scared of internet mysteries in general). But Jorge's voice is so calming and comforting that this feels like an asmr, i'm putting myself to sleep while watching this video 😂
It reminds me of the ad when Bob Geldof said to the camera "every time I click my fingers a child dies of starvation in Africa". I remember shouting at the TV "stop clicking your fingers then", I was only 8 years old and it really disturbed me. I honestly thought that the children was dying because he was clicking his fingers.
I have this very specific memory when I was a kid in the late 90's early 2000's of some sort of anti-incest PSA commercial I'm not sure if it was real or some messed up dream. But it was like these 2 kids, presumably a brother and a sister, were in their house and they go down to the basement as you hear them say something like "mom and dad won't be home for a while" and the camera pans up as a voiceover comes on and says like "do you know what YOUR kids are doing...?"
There is a specific phrase used in many US PSA "Do you know where your children are?" It was broadcast late at night, but the meaning was to remind parents about their kids at a time where is was usual for kids to play outside for long periods unattended.
@@jamesflames6987 Yes!! The full phrase was “It’s 10 PM, do you know where your children are?”. I think it started in the 1960s, which was when people started to realize kids were going missing. . .
Brilliant! Narration on this channel is second to none... The interesting topics coupled with the sombre yet captivating storytelling makes for a satisfying experience when watching. Whenever Jorge posts it always makes my day that much better! Thank you, Jorge. T
I am fifty one. I remember in the nineties my mom saying that Japan was having such issues with teens committing suicide by jumping in front of trains that they had to tell them not to because it would dishonour their family. She said it was high school students who were overly stressed at school. But now that I have a chance to think about it, it could be salarymen as well. Which would explain night time ads. But I do remember her saying this. I don’t know how she found out the information. She did watch a lot of cnn in the morning.
Yeah like Jorge mentioned, the economic bubble bursting in the 90s led to Japan having one of the highest suicide rates. Nowadays, the suicide rate in Japan is much lower, even lower than the United States.
There was a nearly identical version in the US. It had nothing to do with railroads or anything. But the timing is similar. In the 90s. I think it was a Red Cross commercial. Edit: I really thought this was going to end by showing the US version.
omg! yes! thank you. I live in Canada and the entire time., I could have SWORE that I seen this commercial too! Maybe we should try to fine THAT one, (the U.S.A version).. because maybe a bunch of people are thinking about that?? I am now going to literally go MAD trying to think of it... if anyone finds a link with said commercial please, PLEASE let me see it!!
If this US version exists, then it could be Hitogata. The Ad Council and AC Japan have collaborated on a water pollution campaign before so it's always possible that there are other cases of such international campaigns. Hopefully someone can find it.
I remember creatures similar to those in the Hitogata commercial appearing in a dream after I went down a rabbit hole of recreations. They kept saying "stop looking" in Japanese, and right before I woke up, they disappeared.
Gonna start watching the video now but i had a new topic idea you could talk about in your next video, is about the sad murder case of a Puerto Rican child named Lorenzo Gonzalez Cacho who’s murderer has not been identified to this day. It would give the family lots of awareness of that situation. Sad the mother has to live with such pain in her heart
Jorge doesn't really do murders much. Maybe suggest to Lazy Masquerade, Dave's Lemonade or Dreading? They do lots of unsolved. Dreading is great for awareness IMO
Shoutout to sourcebrew for leading me here. Looking out the stuff in Japanese about hitogata in UA-cam I found this person: 晴天 天晴 who posted the closest resemblance to what could be the original CM, saying obviously that it's the original thing. What seemed unusual is that the CM itself is really well presented together with other CM from Johnson (the cleaning products company) and Mitsubishi (with looney tunes cameo and everything). The channel has very few but selected videos including another two marked as "kowai CM" of which one is from the AC organization too, very frightening (as scary or more than hitogata ), about the dissapearing of beaches in japan. The video is tagged with the hashtag ＃怖いCM (kowai CM, scary CM) marked also as 発掘（unearthed）and the hitogata CM ends with the AC (Japanese Public Advertisement Organization) logo as it was the style of all the PSA from this organization at the time.
9:51 some people do just use “commercial” to refer to whatever happens to come on between shows. Maybe the OP didn’t know about the term PSA, or the difference between a PSA and a commercial.
Jorge is the kind of youtuber that causes negative psychological side effects after too much exposure. I just watched a video about a train ad and now I'm too scared to leave my room to pee.
I swear, every time I'm going back and rewatching jorge's videos, a new comes out This time was actually the lost media case files volume 3 How strange is that
In my language, for instance, there is no such term as PSA, "social ad" or "social commercial" is how they are officially called, most people just call them commercials. So when OP called it a commercial they probably meant PSA.
Thanks for your coverage on this - it's a mystery that would have passed me by, being that I'm in the UK. But I do hope that Hitogata is found & that we discover what it really is.
Certainly seems that the key details of "Hitogata" are actually fairly frequent tropes in Japanese advertising, so it does make it difficult to dismiss or accept wholly.
I like that you talked about the false memories we have as kids a lot in this video. I’ve had my fair share of memories I thought happened one way, come to find out I was completely wrong. My favorite is one I discovered recently: when I was around 5 years old, there was a commercial that played for one of those “now that’s what I call music” CDs that had a song in it I was OBSESSED WITH. It only played a little bit of the song, but I thought it sounded so amazing, so I would hum that part repeatedly without knowing what it was. I remembered that part of the commercial having a little green character with completely black eyes (you probably see where I’m going with this) that was animated in a graveyard. I remembered him looking like Salad Fingers…so anyways the song was just Feel Good Inc by Gorillaz. I was right about the character with black eyes I guess LOL. I discovered this when I was 23, I’ve also been a Gorillaz fan and somehow never noticed until I found the original commercial.
The "Evil Farm Game" was a dream a user had while watching Vargskelethor, not Vinesauce. Related channels, but not the same people. Joel is part of Vinesauce, but Vinesauce on it's own is usually associated with Vinny. By not saying specifically Vinesauce Joel, aka Vargskelethor, it's like referencing a video on Machinama, but not who actually made it.
I'm still searching for a post-war Croatian PSA that featured a group of kids that went urban exploring in a destroyed building, among a rumble one kid stepped on a land mine, next scene all kids are sitting at a park bench, their faces somber, one kid is missing a leg, it is cut off clean (probably because of lack of visual effect for that age). I had nightmares from that, I still remember it vividly even tho I saw it more than 20 years ago.
Perhaps the Hitogatas are the friends we made along the way
A topic-relevant youtuber appears!
aren't all the odd humanoid commercials that were found along the way technically Hitogatas? They're all friendos
The real Hitogata was inside of us all along
I love your content and HUH YOU AREN'T VERIFIED? THIS IS SOME BS!
Love you Sakura your channel rules
It makes sense that the figures blink alternately left and right. The lights on a railroad crossing blink in exactly the same pattern.
fr
I saw it was one person dieing each second, then another and repeat
Fun fact: a few months ago I was riding a bike in my city (Buenos Aires) near a railroad crossing; the crossing was empty but as soon as I was about to cross the rail signals started to sound and the lights to blink. The noise was very strong since I was on the far-right of the road, right next to the signal.
All that led me to theorize that the memory of Hitogata might just originate from the trauma of being too close to a rail signal and hearing it's very strong noise; maybe the memory of the figures is just a conflation of the memory a of a rail signal with the memory of a traffic light for pedestrians?
@@GamesAndWeirdStuff
also yes. Communicating important messages is about associating it with the viewer at multiple levels of liminality and familiarity
if you want to say that people die you can show them blinking out; it's poignant and somber
if you want to say they die to trains, you can show them blinking out in time to a familiar sight, a train signal; the deaths are now associated with the source of danger
How do we know we didn't start the video late and it's actually flashing right and then left?????
This is one of those lost medias that I really hope is found. It sounds so creepy, but the creepier lost medias always end up being fairly normal when they are found, like Clockman or Cracks
Clockman stays creepy 😭
It'll probably be found since Jorge is covering it
@@soulreaver6546 He already covered it.
Honestly since it’s (Likely) a psa, it would still be fairly creepy.
To the extent of what people say it is? Probably not, but it would still be creepy
@@soulreaver6546 If they could find the full Wicked Witch episode and the Christine Chubbuck audio. I have a feeling it'll resurface again one day
9:08 As someone from Japan, I would like to point out that we don't really distinguish between commercials and PSAs. We just call them CM. The 2004 comment just says CM, which does not necessarily mean it was a commercial.
Not from Japan but we do the same in my country. Because they called it a commercial doesn't mean it is
Same here as an English-speaking north american. I would absolutely group PSAs under the larger "commercial" umbrella. Especially if it's something you only have a vague memory of from years and years ago, the likelihood of remembering the exact purpose of a short TV clip (if you even knew in the first place) seems low.
In Philippines we also called in commercial or ads
Was about to comment this. It’s those little moments that make westerners videos on “mystery asian media” sound ridiculous
This is exactly why people making documentaries about other countries need to collaborate with locals to make sure they're not making easily avoidable mistakes by not understanding the culture. It's really arrogant to assume you can completely understand something happening in a different country just by using Google Translate.
Is it possible that Hitogata is neither a PSA or an advert but an art piece? I remember, during a commercial break in the 70's, there was an art piece shown during an advertising break of a tap that was turned on and filling a tank of water but made to look like it was actually filling the screen. It kept going until the tank and tap were submerged. It turned out an artist had bought an advertising slot to show a piece of his work.
I wouldn't mind commercial breaks if there were more art pieces in em!
Man..... wished we have more of these types of ads
@SuperNostalgia.Take that comment somewhere else
Sakura Stardust made this exact same suspicion, as there is an AC Japan CM that wasn't made by AC Japan, but by art students instead. So maybe Hitogata was an art piece made by someone and had it advertised as an official PSA.
Basically Adult Swim stuff
if this was a commercial and not like, a PSA i can only imagine it was a life insurance commercial
yeah that’s what i thought but suicides usually aren’t covered by life insurance policies
I remember some sort of celebrity thing.
They snap their fingers everytime a child in Africa dies of hunger or something.
@@misseselise3864 Indeed. But I think the phrase at the end is not about su:cide, but about death in general. The blinking can signify life and death and the unpredictable.
@@misseselise3864 That's what I 'remember' it being for though? I feel like a deep dive youtuber has told me this before??
What were they thinking
my favorite thing about lost media is when they never actually find what they’re looking for, but in the process they end up preserving many other pieces of obscure media.
Man the Hitogata Station lost media is so cool, I wish Japan was real
yea man i hope it was real too
I think it was real, after all, there is a tale of a lost empire in an island just off the coast of asia that had similar culture to korea and china
@@bimo4icpb309 grow up. Japan isn't real 🤦🤦🤦
are you crazy?! if japan was real, anime would be too. the disastrous effects anime would have on our society would be too scary to think about.
@@fluffymyato3334 whats anime? a combination of korean animation and chinese animation?
musician nerd here. The video music and the rail sounds at 18:15 are in a near perfect 3:4 polyrhythm.
DAMNNN YESSSS
SO SATISFYINGGGG
lol I meant you at toa bank couple months ago funny seeing you comment here
The human memory is VERY imperfect. Especially a child's memory. I can recall at least two, or three times I've been talking to my mom about something that happened when I was a kid, and she has to correct my recollection. Even as an adult, I still have a vivid memory of listening to a specific song in a house that I moved out of before the song was released, making my vivid memory an impossible one. We can be so sure of something, yet be absolutely wrong. Humaning is tough.
You sure your mother isn't gaslighting you in some examples?
@@Peannlui Ha, I mean one of the times my Nana (her mom) was involved and she corroborated my moms version of events. This is a good comment that proves my point, as she could ALSO be wrong and what actually happened isn't remembered correctly by either of us 😂
@skrounst
Yeah, my mother tends to misremember a lot of things too, like claiming a childhood friend of mine was really into the Obama Barbie dolls despite Obama not becoming president until long after we moved away and never saw her again. But I know that especially as a child, I too mixed up a lot of things and cartoons I saw and remembered their events as Frankensteined mishmashs.
@@rainpooper7088 yeah the original hitigata poster could be mis-remembering, and combining a couple different psa's.. Some of those ads in the yearbook looked pretty similar, then the text about someone dying every 2 seconds could be from something else. I believe whole heartedly he is so sure in his head of what he saw, but he could just simply be wrong like we all are about memories sometimes.
I had a girlfriend once and we broke up pretty badly. She was having a pretty rough time, so she latched onto the first person that came along who I'll call person B, which happened to be a really manipulative person who was very upset at me over a political feud. Slowly, she closed herself off from the world. In a few months, the cops came to my house over a false report the two had made together. B kept sending me weird messages about how my life was over or something, so I showed them to the cops and they went away. I never pressed charges because I felt bad for her. A few months later, I passed her on the street, to which she started shouting that she was gonna kill me and chased after me, throwing punches. I was fine because she was pretty small, but its crazy how someone was able to completely fabricate memories that were able to cause so much distress. It only really happens to such an extent when people are extremely emotionally volatile and there's direct manipulation, but memories are very unreliable regardless. Even imaginary events can turn real in one's memory. Memories are rewritten every time you bring them up, thus they're contaminated by whatever you feel at the time or even just things you're being told. I too had a vivid memory, one that I'm pretty sure was actually a dream from when I was 5.
I am absolutely convinced this is one of those cases like the Evil Farming game.
I think people are misremembering something or mixing things up with an older ad. Or perhaps this was a part of some forgotten TV movie or whatnot.
That, or it's like saki sanobashi where it was a troll to begin with but it's close enough to real things that exist for people to believe it's a thing
Isn't Vinesauce the one who responsible for that?
If a 13-14 year old Joel Vinesauce is responsible for this mystery it would be the funniest thing in the universe and in character
@@ErectusEnormous Yeah tecnhically
Thinks the game "Body Harvest" sounds like Harvest Moon but like the evil farming game instead.
I checked the game itself out and it's more like an alien invasion but cool ig
@@bettyscoke3 dude that would be fuckin comedy
Hitogata proves that no matter who you are and where you came from, we will all strive to find what is lost in the world.
If only the world would come together to find my dad. He left to go get milk one day and never came back...
@@Gatorade69 haha, good one
I always do that for songs from my childhood. Unfortunately the lyrics are scrambled in my brain so I can't find it.
@@Gatorade69 Can't tell you how many Juicy Memes has that phrase plastered on someone's meme post once every few days or so.
I think what's really striking to me about hitogata is the sheer amount of other media that was airing at the time that had strikingly similar imagery to the original description of the video. It's some sort of really bizarre coincidence that a bunch of Japanese commercials from the time featured two white monochrome figures on a plain featureless background. It's no wonder so many people swore they really saw it.
Ngl the other commercials are so creepy. I would be scared if I watch them at night as a child
yeah I think that's how this got traction. Someone is like "did you see this" and makes a vague description, and people think back to fuzzy hazy memories from decades past... and aren't really SURE, but remember things that are kinda similar. There's no way to know what ACTUALLY inspired this... only what people found while searching.
@@redpanda4706 I must say, I love your pfp.
One of the greatest discoveries for me that came out of this video is the knowledge that "commercial yearbooks" are a thing, which is a really good idea.
Japan is the only place that would have to do this so someone can find something again when stuff like this happens
One thing to note is that we, the Japanese, usually call any ads shown on TV "commercials". It applies to non-profit PSAs too. So "commercial" videos do not have to advertise a product from a company, in a Japanese sense.
I always thought ''Hitogata'' was a Mandela Effect. There is no proof that AD/PSA have ever existed. I believe people just mixed stuff up. I have no doubts that ''Hitogata'' is just a compilation of vague memories that are all super similar. There's A LOT AD/PSA from Japan that are similiar to each other.
Or it could be something similar to the one evil farming game mystery from Reddit.
It was solved, but to make it short, it was a livestream the op was watching while falling asleep. This could be another explanation, but we usually see how people’s description of what they saw turn out to be different or slightly different.
I hit the comment section looking for this. That's the first thing that came to my mind, Mandela Effect.
@@MonkeMan2.0 IT WAS SOLVED?! Do you have a video or a link?
@@4.1. if you mean by the farming one, you can search up “evil farming game Joel” and I’m sure you’ll see a live stream by the guy that described a “plot” for some farming game.
But if you meant the hitogata one, I just said it could possibly be the explanation (added this incase I got the first one wrong)
@@4.1. bro he explains that in this video
Y'all know the drill:
"lost Hitogata PSA found minutes after upload"
I hope so
Nah it won’t happen this time.
It’s been 4 weeks
@@klizzardgaming3865 yeah new video when 😈
It's been a year
5:40 I would note that Hokkaido is not a very populated part of Japan. Especially when compared to Kyushu and Western Honshu. So the trend of sightings doesn’t directly correlate to sheer population. Especially since the area of Nagoya by itself out populates all of Hokkaido yet has less sightings.
Hokkaido is Japan’s Alaska, essentially. Wonderful area with stunning nature and culture
That popped out to me as well. I do wonder if it wasn’t something that originated as a PSA there by a private railway company? That’d be obscure enough to either be lost or not survive, and everything else would be misremembered. The real question is: where was OP from?
The most haunting PSA for me was the one that goes "every 60 seconds in Africa, a minute passes." chills
It's even scarier when you realize that every minute, sixty seconds pass
@@FriendKevin I never even realized that, that seriously sent a chill down my spine.
@@FriendKevin Until you realize that people live in Africa 😶
i was born at a very young age, i couldn't even walk
Together we can stop this!
Hey, a Japanese/American from Tokyo here! As a Japanese person, JUNGLE is infamous in Japanese internet for more than a decade now. I doubt that the OP is mentioning about JUNGLE. However, when I heard about Hitogata, JUNGLE popped out of my mind immediately so it kinda makes sense…
Sorry..I was one who gave you the 70th like..I may not mean anything to you, I can only hope so 😂
@@darianstarfrog thanks for informing me tho…I wasn’t expecting to get a decent amount of thumbs up so I’m happy abt it haha
Is there anywhere I can find videos of these JUNGLE bumpers online?
@@tapehead3832 yeah! Here ya go!
ua-cam.com/video/cwBlXWTzBbg/v-deo.html
@@tapehead3832 ua-cam.com/video/cwBlXWTzBbg/v-deo.html
now that i've seen this video, i'm wondering if Hitogata is the Devil Child episode mixed with a completely different PSA that used the every 2 seconds line, like how you sometimes forget what order a sequence of memories happened. that, or a dream in which the two connected somehow - like how sometimes memories of dreams are so strong that they feel like they happened in real life. very interesting.
I think you’re right
I honestly find it so completely unbelievable that if Hitogata is a collection of memories that it's Ultra Q, that's kinda like saying a piece of lost media is actually someone misremembering the MCU or something Ultra Q was massive at the time and still has a hugely important legacy today
It could very well be just someone remembering things wrong, but I don't think it's Ultra Q specifically
@indigo thats literally in the video
Nah it's a PSA for suicide prevention. I don't understand how people aren't getting this.
@@dawniebug784 seems like you got it in your possession
Lost media searches are 2020s version of 2010s creepypastas. Makes you wonder what will be the trend in the 2030s. Whatever they will be, I’m sure it will be something scary someone remembers it was late at night when they were kids, most likely while they were sick or alone.
Probably looking for the sub-videos that are embedded around the main video in an average Tiktok. /jk
i can imagine in the 2030s kids that grew up in the 2010s are gonna be looking for lost youtube videos they saw as a kid but youtube is so over saturated with content that it will be so difficult to even find.
Probably lost shorts from the (most likely) banned TikTok app, showing gruesome scenes from war-torn nations and deadly protests, honestly. The sheer volume of shorts means they are unlikely to be fully archived. But even a short with a mere 10k views was still seen by thousands of people who may suddenly be reminded of it a decade from now. And what is more horrific than a PSA about potential suffering? Raw footage of real suffering.
Hitogata is such a hauntingly beautiful mystery. It saddens me that even after all these years it remains between the realm of relative plausibility to bleeding false memories. However, seeing the Jungle ads definitely evoked the same feeling the 2004 recreation gave me when I first saw it, so that was a treat. Hopefully one day Hitogata can be laid to rest.
honestly, i believe it could be real. PSAs about safety, especially for kids + teens, can be VERY unsettling at times. the people who make these sorts of PSAs *want* kids to be freaked out by them, because that way they'll remember the warnings. something like this completely tracks with that. even the idea that its promoting railway safety makes sense -- a lot of people use public transport every day in japan, meaning there are many opportunities for someone to get hurt. especially a child, who may get confused in a hectic commuter crowd.
Mentioning that it was more of a comercial than a PSA, is it possible they were selling something like life insurance? I'm not sure if Japan has anything like that, but that idea popped into my head when asked "What could they be selling?"
Japan has some insane insurance ads so I wouldn't be shocked.
I have to agree. Hitogata was likely an ad for an insurance company. It makes the most sense to me.
@@Zackattackplayspokemon "Japan has some insane ads"
There fixed that for you.
maybe not insurance but ... afterlife products? such as funeral services. ( though I think in Japan that's really taboo.) the tag line could be a warning to be prepared for the loss of a loved one. ( if it is a taboo subject then I could defiantly see it being cryptic about it's services. )
@@rookeealding2803 That could be it as well. I was just thinking life insurance if possible because of the mention of death.
Jorge coming back after a month is a blessing, the commentary and storytelling is always on point
Dude I swear I see you in so many comment sections
how are you _everywhere_
@@p00p_eaterthere is a network of these men that work together. It is a deep rabbit hole if you get into it. No one is sure what their plan is.
@@Donny_Double_Dipwe are the walter white multiverse.
@@mistuhwhite69 I have been tracking your groups movements for years. I will stop you before your plan is complete.
You know it's a good day when Jorge uploads a new documentary.
He already made a video on this
And the day gets better if it's a lost media video
@@Ryan-wr8fx who pissed in your cereal lol
@@Nate_Animates I did, you won't believe the nutritional benefit it provides.
@@Ryan-wr8fx you just seemed so pissed off in your comment lol
It really sounds like a railroad PSA. As others have mentioned, the pon-pon sound and alternate blinking are both associated with railroad crossings. This really seems like the most likely explanation, assuming that the reports are not almost entirely misremembered. It might even be something that was part of a show or movie.
This reminds me of that mysterious German heavy metal song that was aired on the radio in the 1980s where only one known tape recording of it exists, made by someone who recorded it off the radio. Under German law, all songs broadcast on the radio have to have basic information about them archived (band, singer, author, etc.) along with the time, date, and station that aired it, but the records are missing for this particular song. From what I know, the name of the song was never found and no information about the band is known. You can hear the song on UA-cam if you do a search for it. It's actually not a bad song, but nobody can figure out anything about it.
Do a UA-cam search for "THE MOST MYSTERIOUS SONG ON THE INTERNET - FULL VERSION"
are you talking about ‘Like The Wind’?
@@saisen2 Going by that description? Definitely "Blind The Wind".
If we ever truly needed the Jorge effect of a piece of lost media being found right after the video about it goes up, THIS IS THE TIME
Jorge is a great example of quality over quantity
Yes, however I remember there was a time when he uploaded some really "meh" stuff.
And his channel was even better when he made Tops and cartoon-related content
Orrrrrrrr.... Maybe he has a Life?
btw, this was an actual 24Minutes of my life that I can't get back.
Sometimes i just want quantity and he's just say what i need to hear
@@kayosensei That somehow doesn't make sense,
But may I ask (if you don't mind) why do you need to hear about an ad (PSA, Commercial, ?) Which probably didn't exist in the first place? And if it did, what good does it do to you? In another word: What's the benefit you get from it?
I don't get the topic of "LOST MEDIA" at all! It's just a waste of time to look for something that isn't "Digitalized" and Uploaded on the Internet.
Or it was so pointless that even it's creators, just... Like played it once or twice then threw it away.
Sorry for the broken English, but i think I made my point.
@@delsinrowe521 It's sought out because of curiosity, and the same can be said for those who watch content covering Lost Media. It makes people wonder. sometimes it's creepy too, which just makes people even more desperate to find the original. It's essentially a hobby.
Sure, it can be considered a waste of time too, but at least the people participating in searches are having fun.
(Also, why are you asking someone "Why do you need to hear about an ad/PSA" when you yourself confirmed watching this video, which covers an Ad/PSA? Wouldn't you have at least somewhat of a good idea why? I mean, you chose to watch this too, so surely there is a reason why. What benefit do YOU get from this..?)
And finally, for the "You yourself confirmed watching this" part, my evidence is a comment you posted in the past stating "This is 24 minutes of my life I cannot get back." Video is 24 minutes long, comment is on that exact video, so it is safe to say you did watch this video, based on context.
Everything about the description of Hitogata makes me think of digital pedestrian signals.
There are ones with stick figure men side by side, one walking & one not walking. It blinks back & forth between the two.
They also come with a variety of crosswalk sounds beyond the usual chirping bird, & are present at railroads as well.
I think it's possible that the Ultra Q ep was involved in the Hitogata mystery somehow. Like maybe a late rerun of that episode aired directly before a PSA about trains, which might have caused people to collate the two in their minds.
Ultra Q is a very popular series, its association with Ultraman meaning that it has been rebroadcast many times. It's not out of the question for it to be showing on tv in the late 90s/mid-2000s.
That's what I was thinking, "do they not have reruns in Japan?"
Hi Jorge!! It's great to see you again, super excited to watch all the way through!
I'm new to this, but based on what I've seen here, the "Jungle" bumper seems like a very plausible source for a garbled memory. Additionally, as a late night thing, it would have aired when people are tired, and for the younger viewers, there would have been the added element of "forbidden" viewing (past their bedtime, adult content, etc.)
this is one of my favorite pieces of lost media. i cant wait to see where this goes
I remember when you first mentioned hitogata in a lost media episode. I'm so happy that you made a full video on it focusing on only it and adding more information!
hypothesis: the PSA / ad caused seizures, and was pulled from air quickly, covered up, and denied as an embarrassment
it'd be cool if teams came together to make those lost media search topics that turned out to not exist, like that evil farming game and saki sanobashi. the fact that so many people have dedicated so much time into trying to find them proves that people want to experience them
I feel like the issue with Japanese lost media is there's a larger ratio of people wanting it to exist than can actually effectively search for it, leading to people getting high on hopium that it's simply a matter of lack of access to sources to information or contacts because of the language barrier than the much more likely possibility that it simply doesn't exist. Hitogata is at least a lot more believable than Saki Sanobashi, but I feel like both have communities that are more trying to will it into existence (hence the large amount of recreations) than actually are looking for it. I feel like if either were western in origin then neither would still have people looking for it since people would be more willing to accept it's either misremembered or didn't exist in the first place.
hopium is the best way to describe it
there's generally a much smaller community of people who strive to preserve media in japan than america/eng-speaking countries, especially due to stricter copyright laws. 2ch/5ch dwellers are seen as societal rejects/losers and they're often somewhat chuuni anyways so their accounts aren't super reliable compared to other lost media accounts from eng-speakers. i don't typically write things off as fake but this definitely seems to be the case (at least that's how i feel, as someone who is japanese)
Saki Sanobashi was a troll. However, I would not be surprised if anime like that existed. Saki was already debunked to be a troll on 4chan who wanted to psyche people out because they were on the big, bad, dark web. In this case, it is possible that Hitogata exists, but many in Japan said it reminds them of something else by something that might have been created by JUNGLE. They also state that compared to the West, they call these things CM meaning commercialized message which now provides the issue of if it was truly a PSA or a commercial based on others from Japan. Some argue maybe it was a life insurance ad, an art piece, etc. I feel it's more plausible than Saki because there are endless road safety psas existing that were disturbing.
@@cirokumaI recommend just translating search terms in google translate to Japanese and then searching it up in Japanese, I watched this episode of a Japanese game show on UA-cam that was fansubbed where they tricked 2 guys into hitchhiking from china to London, but then it got deleted, probably copyright striked, and then I translated the name of the show to Japanese and searched on UA-cam, and I found it in a playlist that had every episode
Something about mysteries/alleged lost media growing into such a vast search network always fascinates me.
The scene at 17:20 almost certainly has to be it. I think I can even propose an idea as to why the original poster seems to remember it just as two formless blobs like in the recreations. Aphantasia. I personally find it hard to vividly imagine visual things in my head - they're often dark/faded/formless in color/shape.
That could be a factor!
Aphantasia is where you don't have a mind's eye at all. They'd still have a descriptive memory, but no visual memory. Not even blobs.
Even though Jorge mentions that Ultra Q aired in the 60s, It should be noted that Ultra Q is a very significant TV show. So, re-runs were common in the time period Hitogata was allegedly aired
Especially with how dark the image's lighting is
I mean I have total aphantasia,
There is vivid memories I have but they’re not visual, sometimes I can pick every detail as if it’s a image but that really burns my brain and tends to not linger, I’d say they’re more childhood memories that are like that to me.
For people with weak aphantasia I’d say it’s entirely possible for it to be a black and white recreation, as that usually tends to be the go to for people with their brains and what they’re comfortable with processing and recalling.
Like aphantasia is the inability to recall memories in a certain way by choice, that doesn’t mean your brain is incapable of creating images, smells, sounds, it’s just you can’t get your brain to by choice.
I have had vivid dreams, full colour, body, e.t.c. But I can count those with my hands over my 21 years of life and I can’t recall those by choice even if I try to after having it flash by in my brain.
Plus, a lot of people don’t realise they have aphantasia thus they don’t really think too in depth and think the way their brain works is the default, as with the psychology of trying to appear normal.
The messages in this chat is a little off from actual definitions from aphantasia and how it works.
Glad to see my contribution to search being shown on the same place where I found about it on the first place.
Cheers, Jorge. - Luli/C69
In Serial Experiments Lain there is a scene where a girl is hit by a train and her face flashes between two emotions. I wonder if that is listed as one possible wrongly remembered Hitogata?
Crazy to see how much Jorge’s editing has evolved, this video looks and sounds so good
It hasn't evolved, it's still awesome as always
@@agentepolaris4914 What are you on about? This is way better than the last time they covered Hitogata.
First Saki Sanobashi now Hitogata, Japan certainly has mysterious lost media where we’re unsure exists!
Hitogata sounds plausible enough to be real, Saki Sanobashi is absolutely not real given how much it reads like creepypasta.
sakura stardust makes japan specific mystery videos and i highly recommend their channel
I thought it was basically confirmed Saki Sanobashi was fake ?
Saki sanobashi was pure bs. This story has infinitely more credibility because it originated on the Japanese internet, like one would expect from a piece of Japanese media.
tbh whoever came up with saki sanobashi had no damn clue how lengthy and arduous a process like animation really is
I remember a commercial about traffic safety in downtown areas, I remember telling people it and they don’t remember. In a similar fashion to Hitogata and the mystery surrounding it. It was a time lapse video of a downtown street with many cars passing by, some very fast. On the middle of the screen is a traffic light, still red. Then when the lights turn green, all the cars stop. And then, pitch black. A female voiceover spoke through this. I can’t find it anywhere though, no one even remembers it for me! Does anyone remember this at all?
Have you tried going on r/tipofmytounge
@@Judgeangels I have. Someone showed me a list of PSA descriptions on TV Tropes. None were a match.
@@matthewthescienceguy7627 oh
Where are you from?
@@streemerz1 Manitoba, Canada, where I saw it. I remember it airing on the CTV station.
one thing i love about lost media is that, although the lost media itself isn’t scary sometimes, the fact that so many people may believe that it did with no proof always gives me chills
I wonder if Hitogata is actually two commercials that coincidentally aired one after the other, the first being the blinking people followed by another that had the infamous tagline of someone dying every two seconds. Perhaps OP saw these two commercials and misremembered them as being one commercial
Or like Jorge said, it never really existed and it's a case of people misremembering aspects of several commercials
As an Ultraman fan, I liked the fact that you talked about Ultra Q. Also, the kaijin in the episode, "LIly" also appeared in Ultra Q: Dark Fantasy in episode 14: "Lily and Lili". Lily and Lili aired on July 7, 2004, so not a match.
Honestly what I got out of this is that there's a striking number of commercials that fit a very specific and similar aesthetic. I don't think that means anything but it sure is neat!
All i know is that when something is lost and only in people's memories, what i know is that the community of lost media searchers go find them, they'll always come back with some answers ether way if good or bad
Knowing how weird and surreal psas can be, i feel like theres a good chance this one is actually real. It certainly sounds like something you would actually see on TV.
I do also think it's pretty believable that the ad isn't actual real and is instead one of those cases of your memory making something up, maybe mixing different ads or psas together. People have been searching for so long and really haven't found anything other than recollections, which is pretty usual imo for such a sought after piece of lost media. It's hard to say as it is 100% something that could be real, and you could write off not much being found due to it being foreign lost media and being quite old and rare (i mean, the original jeff the killer image STILL hasn't been found and thats japanese lost media as well). Regardless i hope more is learned about this one, the longer lost media takes to be found the more interesting it gets imo.
I feel like it could have been a PSA for suicides committed on train tracks, or safety about not staying too closely on the edges. In East Asia, there’s a large amount of people who fall off by accident, or if deliberate, jump into train tracks and leap off bridges. It’s very sad and it was probably a PSA asking people to consider there are those who need help.
This is something I'd be especially eager to see if it is found - Japan's PSAs are fascinating watches, with some of the most imaginative visuals and strongest messages out there, and I'm sure this one would be no exception. If it is a case of misremembering, then it goes right up there with Joel's 'Body Harvest Moon' gag as being one of the most fascinating searches for media that never was in recent years, with multiple parties so adamant that something exists, when the truth might still be hiding just under their nose!
BABE, WAKE UP, JORGE UPLOADED!!!!
REAL
Stole the words right out of my mouth
Sir, yes, sir!
They hit the FUCKING PENTAGON!
Babe, get your boyfriend! Blameitonjorge uploaded!
i think i might be able to help ppl search for it just try to find a vhs tape that is form japan and was made in 1996 to 2003 and SOMETHING else i found on a video with the same topic was what someone found a CM very close to hirogata the comment reads i'm from the PSA community, specifically PSAArchive's community, and I have a little info. There is one Japanese PSA with two figures made of sand on a beach, and one disintegrates. It does in fact have a ringing bell in the background that you could sort of describe as "pon pon" or "gan gan". That's an ad about global warming and the loss of land as seawaters rise. It's possible this Japanese OP just misremembered that ad as something else and thus Hitogata was born. hope this helps
Damn Jorge I have been catching up on your work since I fell off the face of the earth and I swear to God dude, your videos never get old. Legitimately some of the highest quality content on UA-cam all around. Miss you brother, hope all is well!
The real Hitogata couldn't possibly be any scarier than that one recreation where the figures look like babies made of static. In fact I bet the creepiness of that image is part of what made this such a popular mystery.
Kinda reminded of that Doraemon's unknown episode "Talent"...
It's about Nobita asked Doraemon to take him to the underground world for some reason. As they did, they were invited by some local there and escorted to some room with a globe in the center. As Nobita touched it with curiosity, the globe shattered with blood bursting out of it, with creepy cries echoing all over the room. Nobita and Doraemon were hugging each other in fear, and the episode ended as it faded out...
They stated that it was a 15 minute episode, but muted while the film was kinda melted. Even the plot has nothing to do with the title "Talent" either. Although no such title was found throughout the list of episodes throughout the 90's, including deleted ones as well, several stated that they've seen it, thus no evidence to provide such as recorded video. Thus known to become Doraemon's infamous urban legend, I do agree that this might've came from people's unreliable dream. It does make sense for not having any evidence to prove it was real, even they still state they've seen it.
What sucks about not being able to find this.. is that old TV broadcasts were less recorded in Japan than in the US.
Why is that I wonder ? Were prices a lot higher for blank tapes/VCR players ?
@@Gatorade69 Japan in general has various influences that discourage collecting things "just in case" (cost of living space, cultural influences toward valuing the beauty of transience in things like sakura blossoms, etc.). That's why, in a Kotaku article named "Saving Japan's Games", one member of the Game Preservation Society said “With luck, and with a huge effort, maybe 80 percent is the maximum we can get. If 80 percent of PC-88 games are preserved for the future, it’s even more than was preserved for films,” and one of the reasons contributing to Japanese releases of vintage games being significantly cheaper to buy online than releases from other regions.
@@ssokolow Thank you for the answer. I'll look up that article.
i remember seeing a recreation of hitogata with an actual train accident in the background
that was fun
I can just imagine...
Seein' the notification "Hitogata - Japanaese "White Shadows" PSA - FOUND"
I can't wait for the day.
But honestly?
I belive somethin' SIMILAR existed, but not at all as it is described, I don't think it as dark or creepy as remembered, I think it's way more normal.
I used to be REALLY scared of this kind os videos (i'm really scared of internet mysteries in general). But Jorge's voice is so calming and comforting that this feels like an asmr, i'm putting myself to sleep while watching this video 😂
It’s always a great day when Jorge posts!
It reminds me of the ad when Bob Geldof said to the camera "every time I click my fingers a child dies of starvation in Africa". I remember shouting at the TV "stop clicking your fingers then", I was only 8 years old and it really disturbed me. I honestly thought that the children was dying because he was clicking his fingers.
Hi!Japanese here.
A video called "Jungle," which aired on Fuji TV from 1993 to 1995, may be the source of the rumor.
He mentioned it
dude can you believe how much vaporwave material were found during this search?
I have this very specific memory when I was a kid in the late 90's early 2000's of some sort of anti-incest PSA commercial I'm not sure if it was real or some messed up dream. But it was like these 2 kids, presumably a brother and a sister, were in their house and they go down to the basement as you hear them say something like "mom and dad won't be home for a while" and the camera pans up as a voiceover comes on and says like "do you know what YOUR kids are doing...?"
Wow. Really?
There is a specific phrase used in many US PSA "Do you know where your children are?" It was broadcast late at night, but the meaning was to remind parents about their kids at a time where is was usual for kids to play outside for long periods unattended.
@@jamesflames6987 Yes!! The full phrase was “It’s 10 PM, do you know where your children are?”. I think it started in the 1960s, which was when people started to realize kids were going missing. . .
Huge Ultraman fan here. Love to see that Ultra Q got a mention. I’d kinda love to think that Hitogata is actually part of Ultraman history
Well when a piece of lost media is so rare or so special as this topic, you know it'll get a video topic of its own eventually
Brilliant! Narration on this channel is second to none... The interesting topics coupled with the sombre yet captivating storytelling makes for a satisfying experience when watching. Whenever Jorge posts it always makes my day that much better! Thank you, Jorge.
T
New Jorge video is always a W
I am fifty one. I remember in the nineties my mom saying that Japan was having such issues with teens committing suicide by jumping in front of trains that they had to tell them not to because it would dishonour their family. She said it was high school students who were overly stressed at school. But now that I have a chance to think about it, it could be salarymen as well. Which would explain night time ads. But I do remember her saying this. I don’t know how she found out the information. She did watch a lot of cnn in the morning.
Yeah like Jorge mentioned, the economic bubble bursting in the 90s led to Japan having one of the highest suicide rates. Nowadays, the suicide rate in Japan is much lower, even lower than the United States.
The choice of music of this video is more than fitting and exquisite!!
There was a nearly identical version in the US. It had nothing to do with railroads or anything. But the timing is similar. In the 90s.
I think it was a Red Cross commercial.
Edit: I really thought this was going to end by showing the US version.
I've seen this as well.
omg! yes! thank you. I live in Canada and the entire time., I could have SWORE that I seen this commercial too! Maybe we should try to fine THAT one, (the U.S.A version).. because maybe a bunch of people are thinking about that?? I am now going to literally go MAD trying to think of it... if anyone finds a link with said commercial please, PLEASE let me see it!!
If this US version exists, then it could be Hitogata. The Ad Council and AC Japan have collaborated on a water pollution campaign before so it's always possible that there are other cases of such international campaigns.
Hopefully someone can find it.
Was the commercial completely identical to hitogata?
Do you have a link or smt?
I remember creatures similar to those in the Hitogata commercial appearing in a dream after I went down a rabbit hole of recreations. They kept saying "stop looking" in Japanese, and right before I woke up, they disappeared.
Mfers really just wanted you to not waste your time huh
@@horricule451 Weird part is, I had the dream multiple times. I'm not 100% sure I believe in dreams with messages, but I'm sure that one did.
I get dreams like that too, exept the figures keep tell me to wake them up before I go-go. I don't know what that means but it really stays with me.
@@markiedesade1051you must do the jitterbug
@@Shinyarc and let them hear that high
Gonna start watching the video now but i had a new topic idea you could talk about in your next video, is about the sad murder case of a Puerto Rican child named Lorenzo Gonzalez Cacho who’s murderer has not been identified to this day. It would give the family lots of awareness of that situation. Sad the mother has to live with such pain in her heart
I don't think identifying the murderer of a cold case is gonna be as easy as finding an old japanese PSA
@@Meleedroit just a mystery that can be covered.
at least give the kid's full name
Jorge doesn't really do murders much. Maybe suggest to Lazy Masquerade, Dave's Lemonade or Dreading? They do lots of unsolved. Dreading is great for awareness IMO
@@poiwytlee " Jorge doesn't really do murders that much." I can name 5 on the top of my head.
Shoutout to sourcebrew for leading me here. Looking out the stuff in Japanese about hitogata in UA-cam I found this person: 晴天 天晴 who posted the closest resemblance to what could be the original CM, saying obviously that it's the original thing. What seemed unusual is that the CM itself is really well presented together with other CM from Johnson (the cleaning products company) and Mitsubishi (with looney tunes cameo and everything). The channel has very few but selected videos including another two marked as "kowai CM" of which one is from the AC organization too, very frightening (as scary or more than hitogata ), about the dissapearing of beaches in japan.
The video is tagged with the hashtag ＃怖いCM (kowai CM, scary CM) marked also as 発掘（unearthed）and the hitogata CM ends with the AC (Japanese Public Advertisement Organization) logo as it was the style of all the PSA from this organization at the time.
It’s always hilarious to think that for certain lost media, these nebulous scary childhood memories were part of someone’s day job
9:51 some people do just use “commercial” to refer to whatever happens to come on between shows. Maybe the OP didn’t know about the term PSA, or the difference between a PSA and a commercial.
Yeah, someone from Japan commented that commercials and PSAs are both called “CM” in japanese slang
Jorge is the kind of youtuber that causes negative psychological side effects after too much exposure. I just watched a video about a train ad and now I'm too scared to leave my room to pee.
Yeah ikr
I thought I was the only one that had this happen T.T
"Every time I clap my hands, a child in Africa dies."
"THEN STOP CLAPPING YOUR HANDS!"
The discussion of/search for lost media is truly fascinating for some reason. & the excellent work here really helps further that
Gawd dammmittt I own like 30 Betamax tapes recorded from Japanese tv in the late 80s and early 90s. Now I have to watch them all.
have fun XDD
I swear, every time I'm going back and rewatching jorge's videos, a new comes out
This time was actually the lost media case files volume 3
How strange is that
In my language, for instance, there is no such term as PSA, "social ad" or "social commercial" is how they are officially called, most people just call them commercials. So when OP called it a commercial they probably meant PSA.
Thanks for your coverage on this - it's a mystery that would have passed me by, being that I'm in the UK. But I do hope that Hitogata is found & that we discover what it really is.
Yeah Hitogata may be just a mix of various other adverts psas and tv bumpers
Certainly seems that the key details of "Hitogata" are actually fairly frequent tropes in Japanese advertising, so it does make it difficult to dismiss or accept wholly.
It's strange how in the search for a lost piece of media, we find records of all sorts of other lost media in the process.
I like that you talked about the false memories we have as kids a lot in this video. I’ve had my fair share of memories I thought happened one way, come to find out I was completely wrong. My favorite is one I discovered recently: when I was around 5 years old, there was a commercial that played for one of those “now that’s what I call music” CDs that had a song in it I was OBSESSED WITH. It only played a little bit of the song, but I thought it sounded so amazing, so I would hum that part repeatedly without knowing what it was. I remembered that part of the commercial having a little green character with completely black eyes (you probably see where I’m going with this) that was animated in a graveyard. I remembered him looking like Salad Fingers…so anyways the song was just Feel Good Inc by Gorillaz. I was right about the character with black eyes I guess LOL. I discovered this when I was 23, I’ve also been a Gorillaz fan and somehow never noticed until I found the original commercial.
I feel like hitogata is just a people mixing up multiple different commercials/scenes into one memory
How fascinating there are so many commercials that used the motif of 2 silhouettes
The "Evil Farm Game" was a dream a user had while watching Vargskelethor, not Vinesauce. Related channels, but not the same people. Joel is part of Vinesauce, but Vinesauce on it's own is usually associated with Vinny. By not saying specifically Vinesauce Joel, aka Vargskelethor, it's like referencing a video on Machinama, but not who actually made it.
Every time I go on a blameitonjorge videos binge he uploads a video so after lol
Real or fake, Hitogata will always be my favorite case of lost media
I'm still searching for a post-war Croatian PSA that featured a group of kids that went urban exploring in a destroyed building, among a rumble one kid stepped on a land mine, next scene all kids are sitting at a park bench, their faces somber, one kid is missing a leg, it is cut off clean (probably because of lack of visual effect for that age). I had nightmares from that, I still remember it vividly even tho I saw it more than 20 years ago.
Is this it? ua-cam.com/video/kSPnXY2p0lM/v-deo.html
This video's production reminds me a lot of Ahoy in the best ways. Best video on this topic I have seen for sure!
I personally think that we have found hitogata, We just haven't figured out which commercial it is yet.