After Hello Kitty goes home for the day, some decidedly less cute characters will be taking over Sanrio Puroland.
June is the rainy season in Japan, so if you’re going to be traveling in the Tokyo area around that time, it’s probably best to have a few indoor ideas as part of your itinerary. For example, Sanrio Puroland is a Tokyo theme park dedicated to Hello Kitty and company, and it’s entirely indoors, meaning you can enjoy it to your heart’s content regardless of how wet or humid the weather is outside.
As you might expect, in addition to its regularly scheduled attractions and shows, Puroland often has limited-time events that put the spotlight on certain characters, and if you visit on one of two special nights in June 6 and 13, you’ll be able to play the Obaken Psycho Game with the Psykers.
If you’re having trouble recalling the Psykers from the last time you browsed through the plushies at a Sanrio store, that’s because they’re the creation of Obakeyashiki Obaken, a Tokyo-based haunted house design company. In one of the stranger partnerships in the theme park industry, Obaken and Sanrio team up on an annual basis to hold horror events at Puroland. These aren’t silly, gently spooky productions, either – children younger than middle school-age are barred from entry, and the regular Puroland crowd is cleared out in the evening before the event starts, to ensure no little tykes are traumatized.
As for traumatizing adults, though? That scenario is definitely on the table, as the above preview video shows. While previous Obaken Puroland events have had zombies, ghosts, and other supernatural entities stalking guests, for this year’s Psycho Game your adversaries will be the criminal organization Psykers, in keeping with the designers’ shift of theme to “human madness.”
The framing device for Psycho Game is that the Psykers, without making any explicit demands, have sealed the exits from Puroland and forcing those inside to play a series of seven “games,” set up in different areas of the facility. Play them well, and you’ll accumulate points towards your release (and some sort of commemorative merch for those who play exceptionally well). Play poorly, though, and you’ll be subjected to “terrifying penalty games.”
The Psykers will also be roaming the halls of Puroland, ambushing you as you attempt to make your way from one game to the next.
Obaken Psycho Game in Sanrio Puroland will be taking place from 7 to 10 p.m. on June 6 and 13, with a total of 1,000 tickets available for each date. Reserved tickets, available now through the event’s official website here, are priced at 7,480 yen (US$48), while at-the-door tickets, if any are left, will be 8,480 yen.
Related: Sanrio Puroland official website, Obaken Psycho Game in Sanrio Puroland official website
Source, images: PR Times
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[ Read in Japanese ]