The Ningen (1990 Sighting)

The Ningen (1990 Sighting) is the first episode in The Ningen (1990-1992) series. Inspired by the Japanese creepypasta, it is about a mysterious humanoid figure that was encountered by expeditioner Keizo Funatsu during the 1990 International Trans-Antarctica Expedition.

## Synopsis

The video starts of with a logo for the Japanese Office of Human Studies before we are introduced to Keizo Funatsu and the 1990 International Trans-Antarctica Expedition. It then transitions to footage of the Antarctic Peninsula, in which a mysterious creature can be seen. It appears to have two legs and a large head. It then shows a serious of overlaid messages consisting of;

ARE WE THEIR WARM CHILDREN?

and;

HELL IS REAL AND IT'S COLD

before the following appears;

WHAT WILL HAPPEN WHEN IT'S WARM?

The text then fades away revealing more footage of Keizo Funatsu, revealing that he named the mysterious creatures 'humans' (or in Japanese, 'ningens'), before showing a map of the route of the 1990 International Trans-Antarctic Expedition.

We are then shown footage of Keizo's son Hugo Funatsu reading his father's journal entry from March 1990. The entry tells a story from Keizo's point of view about an encounter with the Ningen. He went outside to feed the sleigh dogs a few miles from their destination, which was a Soviet base. When Keizo finishes feeding the dogs, he turned back for camp, but he wasn't able to see it. The dogs behind him disappeared too, and he realised that a blizzard had arrived, and everything had turned white.

The wind is too strong to walk straight ahead, eventually knocking him down. Keizo crawled on his stomach to where the camp should've been, but nothing came closer. He was carrying pliers to unfreeze dog collars and fix broken ones, so he used them to dig a hole in the ice. The ground was almost impossible to dent, but he dug for hours and managed to create a little ditch which barely kept the wind away and climbed inside. He thought that very few people had the experience to settle down in the blizzard and try to enjoy it. He allowed himself to feel Antarctica and let the snow cover him like a mother's womb.

Then, he heard someone yell his name. Keizo yelled back, announcing his location, and the voice replies, saying that it sees him. Keizo kept yelling to allow them to find his location. Slowly, a man stepped out from the white, but it wasn't any man, not even any of his team members. He was... just human, which was the best he could describe him. Keizo ran as fast as he could away from him. Keizo then saw the team leader Will Steger, followed by the rest of the team, and they are reunited. The scene ends, and a collection of photos of Keizo's rescue is shown.

Then, Keizo's recording device is introduced, and audio of the encounter is shown. The video then ends with the definition of 'ningen' being shown, accompanied with audio describing the 1990 International Trans-Antarctica Expedition.

## Description

Videotape from the Japanese Office for Human Studies.

(Tags: 1990 International Trans-Antarctic Expedition, Keizo Funatsu)

## Trivia

* This video, and the series it started, was inspired by the Japanese creepypasta which originated from the Japanese online forum website, 2Channel, also known as 2Chan, which tells the story about members of a whale research ship witnessing a creature as it surfaced near their ship off the Antarctica coast. Originally thinking it was a submarine, the crew went to take a closer look, but the 'submarine' vanished into the waves.
* Hugo Funatsu reads Keizo's journal from right to left, the way the language Kanji is written.
* During the part where Hugo reads about Keizo going out to feed the sleigh dogs and how far they were from the Soviet base, a brief message appears on screen, saying 'THE FUNATSU FAMILY IS PREY'.
* During the sequence where the crew rescue Keizo, which has been spelt in Kanji (敬三) until this point, is suddenly spelt in Katakana (ケイゾウ) when it says 'Team searches for Keizo' and 'Keizo is found' before reverting to Kanji again when he is eventually rescued. Katakana spellings are usually used for foreign words or the names of animals.