Tokimeki Bakudan (2024)

The heartbeat carries both life and death within itself

Perhaps it was the fact that, at just eleven years old, I saw 'The Shining', the British adaptation of Stephen King's novel of the same name, that immunized me against terror. Stanley Kubrick's 1980 classic, which tells the story of a man who loses control in an isolated hotel and serves as a terrifying exploration of madness and isolation, led me to enjoy and passionately follow psychological horror films and series, even though they almost never achieve the state of dread that is their goal and essence.
However, the unconventional Japanese series 'Tokimeki Bakudan', which blends survival game, thriller, comedy, BL drama, and friendship, brought me closer to something similar to fear: an enjoyable fear, generated in a way as simple as it is precise. In the unknown abandoned warehouse where the plot takes place, six men locked with mysterious collars around their necks that respond to certain electrical signals from the brain must live together for several days while the AI measures their emotional levels.
In the unknown abandoned warehouse where the plot takes place, six men locked with mysterious collars around their necks that respond to certain electrical signals from the brain must participate in a 72-hour death game, while the AI ​​measures their emotional levels, the splendor of their heartbeats, the energy of their heartbeats, where their heartbeat comes from...
The confusion they live upon waking up in the warehouse is experienced by former soccer player Kadotani Soya (Kobayashi Ryota - 'Zettai BL ni Naru Sekai VS Zettai BL ni Naritakunai Otoko'), the president of an IT company Tachibana Hirokazu (Nishikawa Shunsuke - ('Kare ga Boku ni Koishita Wake'), college student Maruno Gakuto (Kusachi Ryono - #ZettaiBL), former Yankee Goda Takenori (Takeshi Naoki), game streamer Sugiura Tomoki (played by Hozumi Yuya) and otaku office worker Ohara Shigenori (voiced by Maeda Souta), is in for a surprise when a stuffed dog named Masao (voiced by Shimono Hiro), who claims to be an AI, announces their mission: to study the incomprehensible human emotion of tokimeki (racing heartbeat). Bakudan means "bomb".
One can enter this warehouse (the Hell?), but it will be difficult to get out. Little by little, through informational hooks, so that viewers can weave multiple conjectures, the series clarifies the reason why the horror is unleashed: if the measured values exceed a certain limit, the person will be eliminated through a chemical substance that will enter their bodies. They cannot remove the collar by force, nor can they leave the place with it around their neck.
If there is no clear winner after the 72-hour death game has elapsed, a self-destruct system will be activated.
Yes, of course, 'Tokimeki Bakudan' has a bit of the first 'Alice in Borderland' game and Sartre's "Huis clos," in that everyone expects to be tortured, but no "executioner" appears. Instead, the characters discover they are there to torture each other, inducing their hearts to beat so fast that they die.
It's impossible to be completely original at this point, although the series doesn't focus as much on the substance as on how the mystery, tension, and unease are presented and developed during the stay of the six men who, chosen at random, must live together in the warehouse.
The premise that heartbeats (and the mystery surrounding them) produce true terror is novel.
During their stay in the warehouse, each character is an enemy of the other. They cannot leave the warehouse with the other, but in turn, they must take care of and protect each other. There will be only one survivor. Personal independence has become demonic. Since it's impossible for everyone to leave, they are condemned to live provoking alien emotions in their companions. However, there is a possibility of salvation in redemption, friendship, and love that help create bonds between people. The series explores the concept that the heartbeat can be a very mysterious feeling or emotion, connected to love, friendship, and admiration. Although it is part of the individual from birth, it changes and tends to disappear as a person ages.
The characters in the series are their own executioners. They keep their gaze fixed and constant on their companions; and they seek to provoke emotions in each other: To survive, the experiment must be successful. To be successful, the six men must be moved. Emotion is synonymous with death.
Would the solution be to withdraw into themselves, try to act normally, avoid emotions by fleeing from the gaze of others, from the words of others, from the touch of others...? This doesn't save them. They are condemned to listen to each other's thoughts, to be looked at by others, to be touched by others... whose presence becomes evident and can become unbearable and even fatal.
How can you avoid getting emotional when the look on someone's face, a simple touch, the air moving that piece of cropped hair that falls over your forehead like a fringe and is known in Latin America as bangs, crossing your arms, shaking your hair, giving the impression of showing off your body after assuming a meditative pose, lying on the cold floor, a tickle, saying a name, rubbing your leg with your hand, the sound of a body hitting the floor—in other words, the slightest reaction—can provoke emotions?
And while Sugiura Tomoki, with his experience participating in this macabre game, is the type of person who manipulates the situation to his advantage, what will happen to the hearts of two participants when they beat strongly in love with each other? If anything good comes from this crazy and perverse experiment, it's that two destined people will meet.
Even though all the participants should have the same conditions (perfect strangers who met just a few hours ago in this place, and with completely opposite ways of thinking), and yet the hearts of Kadotani Soya and Maruno Gakuto beat for each other, it can only become a weakness. However, these two characters have survived until the end, loving each other in secret, their hearts beating for each other.
"Which of the two will survive if, as the 72-hour deadline approaches, there is no clear winner in the game of death? Who will surrender with their heart beating fast, and who will continue to live with the sorrow of having lost someone?" Masao will ask.
"Can love generate a non-standard emotion that makes the heart race and allows us to overcome the barrier between life and death?" Kadotani and Maruno will ask. And I add: Will the two lovers be able to make it out alive?
'Tokimeki Bakudan' reminds me that psychological horror isn't just about jump scares or gore; it explores the human mind and our deepest fears, creating an atmosphere of tension that stays with us long after watching the series.
For Kumamoto Hiromu, the series' screenwriter and creator, the heartbeat carries within itself both life and death. Without a heartbeat, there is no life. Love, self-preservation, and the protection of a loved one accelerate the heartbeat. Hope dies with the last beat. But at the same time, the heartbeat can move us, and emotions can even cause death.
If you're a fan of intense emotions and stories of suspense and psychological horror, and you can enjoy a BL narrative, you'll enjoy it.

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