japanese baby ogre kleenex commercial

I’ve been obsessed with this Japanese Kleenex commercial from the 80’s

There’s a baby painted red who’s supposed to be some kind of Shinto ogre thing and a woman who’s kissing the baby and sending Kleenex tissues into the air and there’s this song that’s like

“It’s a fine night tonight it’s going to be a fine day tomorrow” in a flat minor key

I know they didn’t intend for this commercial to be as unsettling as it is. They probably thought it was pretty cute actually. But still it’s like David Lynch pooped it out during his sleep

“It’s a fine day, people open windows They leave the houses just for a short while They walk by the grass and they look at the grass They look up at the sky It’s going to be a night tonight It’s going to be a fine day tomorrow”

A myth exists that this Kleenex commercial is cursed. The video above depicts a woman and an baby oni (A Japanese demon or ogre), she’s singing a lullaby to the oni as she plays around with a tissue with the baby. So what’s so scary and cursed about such a peaceful, beautiful commercial? Let’s start off with the backstory. It’s said that the crew who worked on this commercial died (or in other variations was plagued with bad luck), the baby died from the poisoning from the paint (Or in other variations died of organ failure), and the woman died (Or in some variations became pregnant and gave birth to an oni)(Another goes that she was put into a mental institution). It’s said that viewers became cursed themselves after watching it, too.

It was pulled off air in Japan for the reason that it was found to be too creepy.

Another part of the rumor exists that if you’re brave enough, you can see the curse for yourself. If you watch the video once at 11:59 PM, then again at 12:00 AM, you’ll see the video start to distort. It plays off like usual, but then during the third line of the lullaby the audio starts to distort, as if the woman is in hell. Then the video starts getting pixalated, distorted, and severely glitched, until a pair of eyes open from the video and stare back at you.

Of course, this isn’t real. None of it is. The woman in the commercial is still alive today. Her name is Keiko Matsuzaka, she’s an actor with her most recent appearance being in “The Legend of the Cat Demon” and will be in the television show “Segodon” There’s not much known about the rest of the crew/cast, but no records say that they died. At least not from the commercial. And watching it at 12:00 AM won’t actually change the video at all. Any video you see of it changing is cleverly edited/staged.

You’ll be just fine with the commercial. Although it’s a little creepy, you’re safe. Everyone is safe.