Naoki (直樹 Naoki) is one of Hiroshi's friends in the Ao Oni series. He only makes an appearance in Hiroshi's dream where he "pretends" to be the Oni as a surprise for Hiroshi planned by Takeshi. In the novel, he is a mysterious student. He does not appear much till the later series of the Ao Oni novel.
Naoki only appears in Ao Oni Version 3.0. He has also appeared in the novel series, albeit appeared only a few times in the film, he is mostly seen from the lower half of his face or sometimes mentioned by name a few times.
Appearance[]
Naoki in the Oni costume.
Naoki has black hair and gray eyes. He has been interpreted to wear a white suit, since you can only see his head when he takes off the Oni mask. In the novel, his appearance differs greatly; his hair is navy blue/green and in a bowl cut, he wears a green jacket with a black hood and matching pants. In the second novel, his back is turned, showing only his backside. His hair is darker and so is his jacket. In later debuts, his face was recently shown in official art by the illustrator, Karin Suzuragi on Twitter (Japanese only, account is Japanese).
Personality[]
Not much is known of Naoki's personality, except he seems to be Hiroshi's friend. Though in the novel, he might have been one of those students that were always "quiet" most of the time. From his facial expression, he looks meek and very lonesome. His actual personality has not been described in the novel yet.
He is in in a paranormal activities club and has accidentally activated Messiah’s ritual, attracting the Oni to his location while trying to get evil powers.
Roles[]
Ao Oni (Version 3.0)[]
Naoki only appears in a scene in the bedroom where Hiroshi dreams of the Oni entering this room and scares him. The Oni says a few words before it then takes its mask off, revealing that Naoki was pretending to be the Oni all along. Then the other protagonists come out, revealing it was an elaborate joke to celebrate Hiroshi's birthday. This was his only game debut, as Naoki is never mentioned in the game series and his status and purpose, both prior to and during his four friends' visit to the mansion, are unknown.
Ao Oni (Novel)[]
Naoki is a former classmate who was killed in an incident right before Shun changed schools. It is rumored that he died inside the jailhouse of the mansion due to the monster's curse. Naoki makes later debuts in the novel series, for more about him is still to be revealed. Unlike the movie his last name in the novel is Ohashi
Naoki before his death got his front bangs pulled out by Takuro. He went to the alleyway where Takuro and Takeshi were punching a cat and he threw it on the busy road therefor he tried to save it but failed miserably as he saw a hallucination of Honoka sister’s twisted face ((it’s really scary trust me)), possibly due to the effect he actives Messiah’s ritual before he went back in time. In that other timeline, was that Naoki activated Messiahs Ritual by trying to get evil powers (stabbing a doll in the heart, it potentially attracts something, the Oni) Naoki didn’t avoid Takuro hitting him so he was forced to go to the Jailhouse, but before he went it’s really important that he stepped on the parasitic bug, you know the one where it absorbs into your skin and turns you into an Oni but for some reason didn’t activate in this timeline or at all actually, then his task given by Takuro was to scare Hiroshi so he locks him in the mansion. Coincidentally Honoka is injured by Takuro (because he pulled on her hair and her thigh is bruised) and Naoki was too because he had a bruise on his arm. The next bit worth mentioning is that after Honoka’s older sister’s death, he tried to kill Hiroshi which fails. So everything runs it’s course and Naoki prays to go back before this all happened and it did so he went with Hiroshi to find the evil ghost book and like before he dodged Takuro’s punches and died by a truck, which covered him in blue fluids.
Ao Oni (Movie)[]
At the start of the movie we see Anna running through the jailhouse, then she enters a bedroom and hears the voice of someone revealed to be her brother Naoki asking for help, it then cuts to Naoki listening to a local teen play in the streets. As the teen sings, Naoki suddenly takes off running into the road causing a collision and ending his life. Later on in the film when Takeshi becomes paranoid and hides in a closet and is found by Mika and Hiroshi, he mumbles about Naoki's death and is cut off by Mika saying Takuro will kill him if he talks about it again. After Anna and Shun find the mutilated remains of Mika and outran the Oni, they sit down and calm themselves, so Anna talks about Naoki, which reveals that he is the same boy who was killed in a traffic accident as shown at the beginning of the film. The accident was called suicide with the assumption of his inability to withstand bullying. Anna refers to how Shun is similar to her brother.
Trivia[]
- Naoki's head sprites are reused for one of the unnamed students in Version 5.2.
- In the novel, he died while running on to the road to kill himself, a truck hitting him.
- in the manga, it reveals he died while trying to save a cat, Takeshi and Takuro beat up and threw on the road.
- Naoki's character profile was shown with Takeshi and Takuro's for a while, before it was later removed from the first novel's site for an unknown reason. Though a beta design of him is shown in the first novel's bonus page.
- It was theorized by some that Naoki's ghost was the Oni in the novel, this was revealed in a way not to be true.
- In the "3rd" novel, Naoki appears with a new female character named Saya, who used to take care of Honoka and her sis before she became ill and died.
- Naoki is Anna's younger brother, since she mentions him a few times and puts flowers by his grave.
- Since Naoki's face is never fully shown in the movie, only a small part is seen. This could be due to the fact of hiding what he looks like or who he was.
- In the movie, Naoki commits suicide while running from Takuro to the road leading him to get hit by a car. The novel series portrays his death in a very different way instead getting hit by a truck.
- Naoki does not die in the game series since he only appeared in Version 3.0 in Hiroshi's dream. His fate in the novel series and movie however, only reveals to have killed him off.
- There is a manga series based on him . It reveals how he died and the rest of his back story, along with the original four characters (Shun and Anna are not included in the Naoki series because it took place before Shun’s transfer).
- Naoki (in fragments) is a good swimmer as his swimming coach didn’t have to stop him once alongside Takuro.
- His last name in the novel is “Ohashi” and not "Oobashi."
- Notice his face is a darker shade of gray in his beta than everyone else. So supposedly he might've been a darker skinned character.
Gallery[]
