The Tsuki Project (Premium E278)
Added 2025-02-20 03:23:13 +0000 UTC“The Tsuki Project” was a once-active community of likeminded 4chan anons who longed to be transported into a better world. And they believed that by participating in this community formed around the promises and lore of someone named Tsuki, they could enter into this better world after they died.
This is a community that first formed in 2017 and has since dissipated into the online ether. It’s hard to say what the Tsuki Project was exactly. It has been described as anime suicide cult, a digital version of Heaven’s Gate, a hoax, a piece of interactive fiction, an Alternate Reality Game, or just a group of lonely, depressed people who were sucked into one person’s maladative daydreams. It was probably a swirl of all of those things.
What exactly happened has to be pieced together from archived imageboard posts, websites that only survive as zip files, anime Wikis, and leaked screenshots from Discord servers.
This is the story of the Tsuki project based on the surviving records.
Thanks for subscribing to QAA on patreon.
Editing by Corey Klotz. Theme by Nick Sena. Additional music by Pontus Berghe, Jake Rockatansky, and Corey Klotz. Theme Vocals by THEY/LIVE (https://instagram.com/theyylivve / https://sptfy.com/QrDm). Cover Art by Pedro Correa: (https://pedrocorrea.com)
QAA was known as the QAnon Anonymous podcast.
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SOURCES
https://lain.wiki/wiki/TSUKI_Project#:~:text=TSUKI%20Project%20,
https://sel.fandom.com/wiki/The_TSUKI_Project
https://www.vice.com/en/article/the-obscure-4chan-religion-that-promises-a-cyberpunk-afterlife/
https://web.archive.org/web/20190411024707/https://wiki.systemspace.link/wiki/Main_Page
https://web.archive.org/web/20170728080109/https://bc.missing.report/jake-fehr-kelowna/
Comments
i’m pretty sure tsuki is charlie fang/miya creator of kaliacc/ remilia and milady maker and is super far right and worked for palantir
Beth Schroeder
2025-02-24 18:57:43 +0000 UTCThat's EVERY day, in Jake world 🌎
Cormac
2025-02-24 03:37:38 +0000 UTC(1) sound track is like heaven place in SNES Zelda and (2) this sounds like if you read any employer provided life insurance product.
Claire
2025-02-24 01:38:43 +0000 UTCWhile I too would like to believe like Liv that there was a Golden Age of the internet before the real sickos arrived, I think not only were the sickos already there from the beginning, they are responsible for much of the modern internet’s infrastructure (like how the porn sites were the pioneers of e-commerce). TL;DR it’s this comic https://xkcd.com/2347/ except the internet is held up by a guy who fucks toasters
Cat Mara
2025-02-23 12:05:29 +0000 UTCFinally, Jake gets to be the one with all the insights.
Last Years Man
2025-02-23 06:34:55 +0000 UTCI mean all of this is just a cope response to dealing with the bullshit of our modern capitalist hellscape. Everyone's doing it, not just you, and there are worse ways to cope, as long as you didn't get into the scarier aspects of it. So don't be too down on yourself. (and it's good that you're interrogating what got you there by listening to this podcast)
Last Years Man
2025-02-23 06:19:50 +0000 UTCLuigi's gripe with maid cafes was by far the most jarring thing in his manifesto, lol.
Last Years Man
2025-02-23 06:16:28 +0000 UTCI'm pretty sure that music is the bgm from Lain too. I remember when that show came out and it was like nothing else out there. The story was convoluted, I don't think I ever actually finished it, but it's no coincidence someone chose it for a good vibe.
Last Years Man
2025-02-23 06:13:51 +0000 UTCLFE is Life without I, who ever thought of that saw themselves as very deep
Zoran Basic
2025-02-22 20:27:23 +0000 UTCRewrite got an anime. And this just moved it up my to-watch list. Bananas.
Jimmie Hammel
2025-02-22 19:07:32 +0000 UTCI feel compelled to mention this cosmology is wholesale stolen from isekai light novels that exploded in popularity at that time.
Matthew Lester
2025-02-22 17:28:55 +0000 UTCSerial Experiments Lain was actually way more cracked than that summary makes it sound. I owned it on VHS. The experience of watching it was like being stuck in a nightmare while on an acid trip. And it's interesting that he chose an image from that show, because his cult ideology sounds much more like an isekai, and Lain wasn't an isekai. Though it did have a whole Majestic 12, psychic experimentation on children plotline, so it did have some conspiracy theories baked into the show lore.
Jimmie Hammel
2025-02-22 08:24:37 +0000 UTCliv signed up for bg3 beta but we still never got another gandalf the green stream 😞
ev
2025-02-21 20:31:39 +0000 UTCTsuki’s visions remind me of Joan of Arc being visited by St Micheal w the really good idea of France taking on the English - join me on things not working out and lots of people dying ... visits from Lacan’s “Big Other” … Tsuki knowing what the Big Other wants plus the internet …
Joan Guenther
2025-02-21 17:07:57 +0000 UTCLiv pulling out an impeccable Musk impression this ep
Tad Dolphay
2025-02-21 16:41:39 +0000 UTCHad to interrupt my listening to this episode to hear this again https://youtu.be/Uoox9fpmDP0?si=JWhBhsufhkoz6iGp
Ashley Clay
2025-02-21 13:08:28 +0000 UTCAnd the theme song is ridiculously good.
Ashley Clay
2025-02-21 13:06:25 +0000 UTCFinal Fantasy house! That was an internet ride.
Ashley Clay
2025-02-21 13:06:00 +0000 UTC💔
hhhhhm
2025-02-21 09:35:02 +0000 UTCLiv Agar
Fuzzy Dunlop
2025-02-21 08:19:58 +0000 UTCOh it's like medcal talk that been weaponized, roleplaying and adapting concepts like Tulpas as extensions/manifestations of aspect of themselves that they can pick and choose what is play and what is/isn't real. Early livejournal had a lot to answer for later tumblr/twitter/tickitytock manias
Harrison Sanchez
2025-02-21 08:18:15 +0000 UTCWell… that’s kind of what Liv was providing today.
Mac-something
2025-02-21 06:44:40 +0000 UTCAlso reminds me of the ‘two brains’ thing the Zizians were apparently into.
Mac-something
2025-02-21 06:42:02 +0000 UTCWow what a cringe reinvention of good ol’ ‘multiple personality disorder’.
Mac-something
2025-02-21 06:39:44 +0000 UTCLiv Agar
Queeriam
2025-02-21 06:19:48 +0000 UTCLiv Agar arriving in heaven: getting a lot of boss baby vibes from this…….
claire
2025-02-21 03:06:07 +0000 UTCjake movie ref corrections: • LUKE PERRY • diagonally
Syd Coty
2025-02-21 02:12:53 +0000 UTCOh man the "relationships with" thing on the end really put a spin on it that I wasn't expecting, damn
Katana King
2025-02-20 23:15:58 +0000 UTCSympathetic oof. At least you got loose, and know better now?
Madeline Hunter
2025-02-20 23:03:16 +0000 UTCDefinitely not 'great' in that case lol I was coy in my comment, but it's a show that has some of the same hallmarks from media I consumed morbidly because of the bad emotions it made me feel. Never from SEL itself, funnily enough. Thanks for being real and hope you're able to look back on it OK
MacGregorr
2025-02-20 22:10:08 +0000 UTCWoah a classic era Qaa episode. I really liked this one. Thank you all!
TodoMal
2025-02-20 21:58:13 +0000 UTCFor those needing context one of the messages of the show Lain is to not lose yourself on the internet, this group missed that part.
Toastie
2025-02-20 21:35:03 +0000 UTCReminds me of the Final Fantasy sharehouse cult story where a bunch of cosplayers and roleplayers started recruiting with actual pamphlets randos on the streets. They have enough steam to recruit other unwashed, greasy children but normal people were not biting, the non cult members of that house were unamused by their rituals and lack of rent paying. Tumblr and Livejournal was a hive of little versions of these charismatic personality cults who pour all their energy into fandom frameworks and 'multiples' systems which is a weird offshoot of discourse about D.I.D/Multiple personality manifestations. No one is acountable for what they did because at the time they were Sherlock Holmes (the version that lives in your head that's you and is exactly like that fan fiction where he's exactly like you so important and powerful right!?) and Sonic is there too usually.
Harrison Sanchez
2025-02-20 21:27:13 +0000 UTCLove that book. Darnielle should have won a Pulitzer.
Jehovah’s Witness Protection Program
2025-02-20 21:09:02 +0000 UTCVice has a pretty good article from 2017, also the Lain subreddit has some ancient posts and some people who remember signing up.
Round the world
2025-02-20 20:26:53 +0000 UTCI read the blurb and thought, “This sounds like Lain”
Alexis Murphy
2025-02-20 19:38:10 +0000 UTCFor me, posting comments is like shouting at the TV.
batlock666
2025-02-20 18:04:43 +0000 UTCJust a thought, the next time you guys cover one of these heavily anime inspired cults and such, it might be nice to bring in a guest host who has more experience with the medium. Some of us old nerds know what Lain is but an expert could have helped explained it better to you guys and give more context to the listeners about this cult.
Dan sulin
2025-02-20 17:45:08 +0000 UTClol. I wonder how many people understand what this comment is referring to. I thought the same thing
Dan sulin
2025-02-20 17:40:25 +0000 UTCThat was my exact thought. Lain is not a clear story and it’s designed to be what you interrupt it to be. But it’s 100% not this cult.
Dan sulin
2025-02-20 17:39:42 +0000 UTCturns out its a bad anime to get into if you have schizophrenia despite it kinda being about that lol
Lain of the Wired
2025-02-20 17:36:52 +0000 UTCyeah i wasnt really connected to the rest of the community but i beleived in that cosmology for years and still kinda have it in the back of my head, its real weird
Lain of the Wired
2025-02-20 17:34:11 +0000 UTCI like how these people completely misunderstood Serial Experiments Lain
Daniel Rodriguez
2025-02-20 17:27:05 +0000 UTCJake's right, the server is a better place with you in it. You're presence makes this sithole a little more more tolerable.
Fuzzert
2025-02-20 17:10:20 +0000 UTCI wasn't in this exact cult, but a few years earlier I was part of a very small group with a similar concept. Fortunately there was no grifter at the head of it and we all eventually realized that we were just a bunch of sad, lonely people that didn't fit in where we lived trying to find purpose and community. I'm still friends with some of them today actually.
Athena Chalcioecus
2025-02-20 15:08:30 +0000 UTCHope u r doing well bro
Nicklas
2025-02-20 15:04:58 +0000 UTCI knew someone back then who got into it by posting on Lainchan, he was a heavy drug user and I don‘t know what happened to him. Hope he‘s well (and alive). Maybe he‘s in the maidcafé universe now (Luigi does not approve)
Nicklas
2025-02-20 15:01:22 +0000 UTCSame, but only ironically, it was boring and larpy as expected, though the website was incredibly well designed.
Max
2025-02-20 14:15:03 +0000 UTCRobot Liv sounds like Elon Musk
Louise Duke
2025-02-20 13:42:23 +0000 UTCOk Jake brought up Prodigy. I think he’s cool now.
Kranium Kracka
2025-02-20 13:25:53 +0000 UTCThis sounds like a ship show
Ruth Kiszka
2025-02-20 13:25:35 +0000 UTCL I V A G A R
Louise Duke
2025-02-20 13:25:11 +0000 UTCNo! That was Luke Perry!
batlock666
2025-02-20 09:21:46 +0000 UTCI’d love the QAA take on the Zizians. For anyone who’s impatient True Anon has done a solid two parter on them.
Mac-something
2025-02-20 08:39:09 +0000 UTCThe 'franchise' is this messy mixed-media project at the best of times (even sticking to the TV series, it's more harping on a set of themes than strictly following any linear plot), but it's full of esotherica, conspiracism, hacker power fantasies and plenty of suicide talk that's... can you call something death-affirming ? Great stuff for an artisan, pop culture obsessed baker. Aside from this one, I'm pretty sure there were other barely functional Lain ARGs doing the rounds in anime dweeb circles around the same time.
MacGregorr
2025-02-20 08:24:55 +0000 UTCJohn Darnielle from the Mountain Goats wrote a really good novel called Wolf in White Van about a game designer whose fantasy world leads to the deaths of some teens. It came out long before this cult but I just had a really strong flashback. Future episode on the Zizians? They’re an effective altruist murder cult that have been in the news recently.
Jacob King
2025-02-20 08:20:33 +0000 UTCGreat ep, I had no idea about this one. 2010s 4chan, especially a/, was charmingly unironic in it's overrating of Serial Experiments Lain. It's a good show, but I'm not surprised at all that sensitive or alternatively minded Anons got baking with it.
MacGregorr
2025-02-20 08:12:27 +0000 UTCSome people never accepted the Disney purchase.
Mac-something
2025-02-20 08:10:40 +0000 UTCProphet ev
Bobby Dubs
2025-02-20 08:10:25 +0000 UTCHey Travis if you’re interested in another religion-adjacent fandom imbroglio check out the ‘EU Movement’ and ‘Star Wars Supernatural Encounters: The Trial & Transformation of Arhul Hextrophon’.
Mac-something
2025-02-20 08:10:19 +0000 UTCPermanent escape to another world is also basically a staple in all Abrahamic religions ever. Human brains just really like it.
Carrie Leigh
2025-02-20 07:23:07 +0000 UTCWhat’s the source for the outro?
Mac-something
2025-02-20 07:22:19 +0000 UTCIs Liv calling out the newfags
Jacob Wise
2025-02-20 07:00:27 +0000 UTCliv agar
ev
2025-02-20 06:46:52 +0000 UTCSounds like hikikomori and reincarnation anime.
Eric
2025-02-20 05:52:00 +0000 UTCIt may feel embarrassing in retrospect but don’t be too hard on yourself. The isekai ‘permanent escape to another world’ has become one of THE staples of modern anime. We all have times we want to believe something bigger and better is around the corner.
Mac-something
2025-02-20 05:35:47 +0000 UTCLiv Agar
Bananas Foster
2025-02-20 05:01:48 +0000 UTCI should have known an online isekai cult was something that had ALREADY happened.
Mac-something
2025-02-20 04:51:52 +0000 UTCin my defense i joined like a year after getting brain damage lol
Lain of the Wired
2025-02-20 04:12:31 +0000 UTCI remember hearing/looking into this in my chan days, crazy it’s getting coverage like this.
Pravda
2025-02-20 04:03:16 +0000 UTCit was a nice ride for a bit
Lain of the Wired
2025-02-20 04:02:42 +0000 UTCyeah i cant do this one
Lain of the Wired
2025-02-20 04:01:25 +0000 UTCi was in this cult ><
Lain of the Wired
2025-02-20 04:00:52 +0000 UTClet's all love lain
RodediahK
2025-02-20 03:52:06 +0000 UTCOnly started to listen to the episode but basing your cult on serial experiments lain sounds like one of the dumbest things you could do and yet totally appropriate to the themes of the show
Vessue
2025-02-20 03:51:29 +0000 UTCLiv Agar
#1 Train Enthusiast
2025-02-20 03:40:49 +0000 UTCdeep dish me
Brendan Luster
2025-02-20 03:38:14 +0000 UTCLiv... Agar?
Drakkalen
2025-02-20 03:36:22 +0000 UTCLiv agar
Alex Anderson
2025-02-20 03:32:57 +0000 UTCHell yeah this sounds extra melted grilled cheese.
Kingfisher
2025-02-20 03:25:47 +0000 UTC
