Fallen London

Produced by Failbetter Games

Gothic, Romance, Gothic Romance

Wallpaper from Fallen London

The date is 1899, December 31st. You lie back in a armchair sewn of ratskins sipping a warm cup of coffee brewed of the purple fungi dotting your windowsill as you listen to the mutterings of bats soaring above the town of London. Down on the street a carriage driver screams as up on the rooftops a gang of urchins pelt the poor fellow with pebbles. In the distance are the spires of the Bazaar, black and twisted, carved with letters of languages so ancient that even the dead don't dare dream of their meaning. The thrashing of the waves, whose color holds a pitch so black and a blue so deep that the finest satins and silks couldn't compare to their nauseating ripples, like quaking skin rolling against the blow of a baton. Down the road you hear a duke of some sorts crying out in celebration for the turn of the century, proclaiming the streets will fill with wine, while books swallow the heads of nestled academics who are too studious or disinclined to celebrate the new year. Someone shouts "Rain!", and you catch a few folks looking up at a sky without clouds or sun, merely the shadows above to show the silent stone around you. You hear the ticking of the clock as the seconds grow nearer, the calendar pages turning for the height of a new century, breaths coiled in throats, and then - then it is 1899. It has always been 1899. Again. As you expected. Groans and cries of dismay swell within the street; "New ban" is shouted above the smokestacks. Of course, this is nothing to be surprised by. Every year is 1899, because every year is the year London was claimed by bats.

London has sunk into the Earth. Hell is real, Death now isn't, and the bats now rule.

What is Fallen London? Where is it? Why is it "Fallen"?

Welcome to Fallen London, a browser game made by Failbetter Games set inside of the Fallen London series. Made in 2009, the game has been routinely updated for almost two decades, and is available for free online. According to Wikipedia under the Development section, Fallen London was originally written by Alexis Kennedy to test out an open source engine called StoryNexus, with art drawn by his friend Paul Arendt. StoryNexus eventually flopped, but the setting of Fallen London persisted in numerous other works.

The story of Fallen London is hard to identify as the majority of the plot, lore, and major characters are revealed passively. Item descriptions, storylets (which are what you can consider to be "quests" or "goals that your character wants to complete"), and vague tantalizing hints are used to portray the actual setting of Fallen London and how London ended up underground. This means in-between the cryptic interpretations and alludes of betrayal, I don't actually have a complete picture of what the entire setting is about. But I can make a reasoned guess. I won't cover EVERYTHING (some things are best left unsaid, such as the name of Mr. Eaten), but I can cover what I know from my own personal playthrough of the game.  So forgive me for my incomplete ramblings; here is the story of Fallen London.

 Fallen London takes place in the 19th century (as far as I know, given that every year is 1899) where after a terrible incident the entire city of London fell underground and lies in a gigantic cavern beneath the rest of the Earth. The reasoning for this is that one day the Empress of London's husband grew gravely ill. In a desperate bid for a cure the Empress made a deal with a group of figures only known as the "Bazaar", who only asked for London in exchange. Upon making this deal a huge sinkhole opened up beneath London, which went crashing down into an underground sea and crushing a previous city and its inhabitants who were already living peacefully in the cavern below. Except for the Bazaar, I suppose. That part of the previous city remained untouched, untroubled, and undisturbed by the former city becoming thoroughly extinct via London divebombing it. 

Screenshot of Fallen London's Map

Along with the surprise move-in underground, London finds itself amidst a vast sea of various cultures, concepts, and creatures that would seem utterly alien up above.

First most, Hell is real. Yup, Hell is real, they live in a giant pit over yonder, and are London's neighbors. Yes, there was a war where London tried to extinguish Hell. No, this did not end well. No, the plot twist isn't that London is ruled by devils. Yes, the devils do like collecting souls. Yes, they only collect souls through contracts and legal obligations. No, they don't coerce (at least not physically) contracts. No, you don't actually feel anything wrong with you when you lose your soul; you feel exactly the same. Yes, there IS a very interesting theological and philosophical implication from the idea of a "soul trade" as people have begun assigning monetary values to souls (precisely 0.04 pence to buy one) and some even advocate for it as there is no apparent downside. The afterlife? Well, that brings us to our second point:

Death does not exist in London. It is a foreign concept. Die, and you wake back up a few days later with a sore head and bruised back. Of course, more permanent and severe injuries remain. Immortality does not entail the ideality of regeneration. The more severely disfigured and injured citizens of London are banished to a place called the Tomb-Colonies; abandoned cities where people spend centuries mourning, covering their mauled skin with rags as they drift throughout the streets. They are also quite bland and find everything terribly exciting, as having nothing to do all day would make even the sight of a cat swooning. There are very few ways to permanently die in London. Drowning doesn't actually kill you, but when you come back you do think you are dead and prefer to spend the rest of your days drifting in the sea. Decapitation, incineration, being eaten, anything where there is no body remaining, all is permanent. This also includes getting crushed by a falling city, which brings us to the next point:

You are not the first civilization here. Remember that city that was crushed when London first went underground? Well, there was a city before that one, which also mysteriously is no longer around. And another one. And presumably one before that. You arrived here at the behest of the Masters of the Bazaar. And when you did, your city crushed another. Make no mistake, you laugh because you think you're invincible. Death has no stay here, you claim. You are wrong. Your stay here is temporary. It may be centuries, it may even be millennia, but one day, on a distant shore there will be another Empress. There will be another deal. And a new city will crush the remnants of yours. Why, I'll just leave London then. Maybe head up to the surface. Good luck with that, truly, because that ties into our final point.

You cannot return to the surface. Ever. Once you die in London, you are bound to it beneath the crust of the world. If you ever come into contact with sunlight at all, all those seemingly innocuous fatal injuries catch back up with you, with the scent of your mortality begging you to wither and rot and die. Once you are down here, you stay. Hope you like the taste of mushrooms, sight of the dark, and scent of sea salt. 

What is the Fallen London Series?

Logo of FailBetter Games

The Fallen London series are a collection of games, visual novels, and web browser games all made by Failbetter Games set in the Fallen London universe. All of the games follow a certain aesthetic of gothic Victorian romance coupled with cosmic horror; think Dorian Gray, Dracula, and Lovecraft all mixed together in an amalgamation of tragedy, suffering, and romance.

 These games include, at the moment:

Sunless Sea - where you are a sea captain on the ocean beneath Fallen London, and try not to drown. Also, don't ask about the sun.

Sunless Skies - where you are now in the sky. I haven't played this one, so I cannot say much about it except that its in the sky. 

The Mask of the Rose - a dating game, surprisingly, set in the backdrop of a murder.

The Fallen London Roleplaying Game - a tabletop RPG set in the world of Fallen London (as of writing unreleased)

They have also made numerous comics and books, apparently, and while I have not read any of them and thus cannot judge their content, I will leave the link here for you to explore.

What is the Gameplay?

Fallen London is, at its core, a narrative game that is also about resource management. The gameplay loop is fairly straightforward. At the start of the game you choose an Ambition; a goal you will spend the game pursuing (although you can keep playing even after completing these Ambitions). These can include winning a card game that offers anything to the winner, stealing a giant diamond, hunting a mythological creature, or chasing a nemesis who killed your loved one.

You are not given a predefined character in the game. The central "draw" of Fallen London is that as you play, you are asked to define your character, their past, and their opinions about the world around them. This lets you not only create a character that lets you play as the person you wish, it actively encourages roleplaying to progress through the game.

Every few minutes, you get a resource called an Action, up to a maximum of 20. This means you will frequently have to wait for your actions to refresh before you can proceed with some of the stories.

You can use these Actions to pursue Storylets, small narratives that give you resources and rewards as you play. Resources are needed to improve your character and progress with some of the storylets.

Some decisions in the game are barred by stat checks. 

You have four Stats - Watchful, Persuasiveness, Dangerous, and Shadowy. When you select a decision with a stat check, it will show a percentage of your likelihood of success. You can improve your stats by partaking in relevant stat checks, completing storylets, or by wearing certain articles of clothing. Outfits are significant in Fallen London, as switching between outfits are the main way to increase your stats suddenly. 

When your stats move over 100, you get the opportunity to become a Person of Significant Interest. This makes the game slightly harder, but also unlocks previously inaccessible areas of the game. Unfortunately, I have not reached this endeavor so I cannot elude to the changes it brings beyond new Storylets, some Menace reduction items being weaker, and presumably new areas.

Menaces! What ARE Menaces? Whenever you fail a skillcheck, or perform certain actions, you have the risk of raising a Menace. A Menace is an attribute that represents overall risk and harm your character is subjected to throughout your playthrough. When a Menace hits 8, something unfortunate befalls you; exile, night terrors, imprisonment... 

When this occurs you are locked out of your traditional Storylets and are instead sequestered away in an isolated Storylet. Here you must spend several actions reducing the Menace until it reaches 0, upon which you return to the initial Fallen London.

There are 4 primary Menaces in the game.

Nightmares - which reflect your deteriorating state of mind as you witness terrible truths - too high, and you get sent to the fun nightmare realm of mirrors and wells!

Suspicion - for all the illicit activities you will be committing - too high, and you get sent to prison. Go to prison TOO often, and you may get a permanent record.

Wounds - how long you have left to live - failure temporarily kills you (haven't actually died yet personally)

Scandal - how controversial you've been in London's high society - failure means exile to the Tomb-Colonies

One detail I did not initially notice was that each Menace also corresponds to one of the characters stats. Credit goes to the Fallen London Wiki for finding this out, because I had no idea initially.

Key Selling Points

There are a few main selling points for Fallen London

1. The setting. Its the main one; great worldbuilding, factions of anarchists, urchins, squid-men, and high society all duking it out in a giant kerfuffle a thousand miles beneath the Earth.

2. The setting again. Not everything in Fallen London is mentioned in other games, and vice versa. For example, the Iron Republic is a province where everyone got fed up with laws and decided to dissolve them; including physics. There is a gate in the North Pole that leads to space? death?, Santa Claus is canonically alive and steals from you, and rats are sentient. 

3. Roleplaying; play as you like, build a character as you like, be as you like.

4. Discover the mysteries and piece together the world of Fallen London in a mismatched puzzle of notes, gossip, and hearsay.

5. Tiny time commitment; only takes a minute to fully use your actions each day

6. Lots of reading

 

The Magnus Archives

Written by Jonathan Sims

Directed by Alexander J. Newall

Distributed by Rusty Quill

Horror, Audio Podcast

The Magnus Archives is a horror audiodrama "podcast", similar to old-timey radio dramas, that was posted on Youtube and Spotify from 2016 to 2021. The show has run for five seasons (with 4/5 being my personal favorites, but they're all good), and comes in a "novel"-like format as well for those who do not enjoy audiobooks. I initially found this series online, and proceeded to spend the next 6 months listening to it as I drifted off to bed or at work filling out monotonous paperwork on every tittering Monday, mundane Tuesday, and the occasional freaky Friday. I thoroughly enjoyed the series, and I would recommend listening to it if you ever need something to fill the silent void or repetition of repetition, the typing of typing of typing as your eyes glaze over from the white screen to the black grazing pavement of the road. If you like radio dramas, the Nightvale series (while I haven't listened to it all, I have been told its similar), or are interested in Lovecraft (particularly the slow-burn gradual reveal of a horrible truth of reality), then give it a look! 

The Magnus Archives revolves around Jonathan Sims, the head archivist of the Magnus Institute. The Institute is dedicated to the documentation of paranormal and supernatural activity witnessed by the public. Recently its previous head archivist, Gertrude Robinson, vanished, leaving her backlog of undocumented supernatural incidents being left to Jonathan Sims to sort through as the new head archivist. 

The general narration of each episode falls into one of three sections:

a. A member of the public visit the institute to give "statements" about their personal experience with the supernatural.

b. Jonathan Sims records a previously given statement in audio format for posterity, and to aid in the Institutes organization.

c. A statement is given surrounding the Institute itself; Jonathan Sims, his coworkers, strange happenings and concerns that crop up, their uncertanties.

For context, "statements" are stories that are discussed in each episode regarding one supernatural experience. Think of them as short horror stories that lie outside (and sometimes inside!) the stories of the Institutes office life. Despite these statements appearing to be random, short stories about terrible troubles and twisting terrors, they are all actually connected. In fact, all of these stories can be pieced together into a loose, linear plot; of course, the stories are not presented in order, but patterns do begin to form over time with reoccurring characters and monsters.

The series, in this sense, has two "plots". One is the assortment of past horror stories offered up by members of the public in the prior decades that Jonathan Sims sorts through, while the other is the progressing story of the present day Institute's workers and realization surrounding the mysteries of the archive.

Because of this, it is recommended to watch the series in order. Especially since the plot lines set in the present day slowly shift to take priority as the series progresses.

There isn't TOO too much to say about the overarching themes of the book without spoiling most of the series (also the series doesn't exclusively focus on a singular theme or aspect of human experience that can be singled out, such as abuse, love, the changing of morality under duress, or how the series highlights the conflict of our ambitions and the "right" decision however much harm we may perceive that decision to bring. Or actually, it does touch on all of those. Nevermind then). One thing that the series is based on the concept of fear. In fact, every story is based on the idea of fear, and what makes us afraid. Not in a "horror story must be scary" from a narrative view, but a "fear is ingrained into all of us, what becomes of it" on an instinctual level sort of view. And thats as much as I will ever say about the themes because... well... its a five season audio drama I can't go TOO much into it.

The Cast (as far as you know) of the Magnus Institute

Jonathan Sims - Head Archivist of the Magnus Institute; cynical, a skeptic of the supernatural, abrasive

Martin - Archivist Assistant; upbeat, energetic, gentle, genuinely cares about everyone and lets it be known

Tim - Archivist Assistant (Actually everyone but two characters are assistants); its Tim, his enthusiasim is thin, he has a chin, and he hates clowns (doesn't rhyme but you live with it)

Sasha - SASHA!!!! The reasonable of the bunch

Elias - The Head of the Magnus Institute - what a sly little fellow he is, I dare say. Jonathans boss.

Gertrude Robinson - former Head Archivist; doesn't take any insult from anyone, shrewd, currently missing

Now, you may wonder:

What if I am afraid of some things in particular, like spiders or falling or the dark or finding out that I bought a carton full of cracked eggs?

Not to fear, the transcript versions of the series have warnings listed at the top that warn you of any major fears, tricks, and terrors that will be present throughout the story. If you're fine with 99% of horror, but REALLY don't want to listen to a story that talks about fish, the water, or fish IN the water (the thoughts, how they make me shudder), then you can just listen or read the warning at the beginning of each episode to see if you should skip it.

What if I'm not good at piecing together a set of disconnected stories and statements into one cohesive narrative story?

Do not worry, I am not good with names and dates either. If you do not want to scrounge together a giant bulletin board with lists of dates, names, and scribbles of who-did-what-when, then you can always refer to the ever helpful wiki. The Magnus Archives already has a preexisting community of fans that have written down everything that happens story wise in chronological order. Also some of the characters will bluntly tell you, "Oh, Mr. X, from the Statement about Y and Z". I wouldn't recommend looking up the chronological timeline until you are at least most of the way through the story, or until they become fully relevant with the characters repeatedly reappearing and speaking in multiple back-to-back episodes; otherwise you might see something spoiled that you rather wouldn't have seen.

Your responses and writings have been suspiciously vague (as it is a 5 season show and I don't want to ruin/spoil 4 of those 5 seasons by saying too much). What CAN you spoil about the show (just a little spoiler as a treat, surely?)

The show features:

A well-written romance, drama, and relationships between the characters

A incessantly elaborate timeline which you can puzzle together like a massive Who-dunnit

An examination into the idea of fears, their origins, and impact on our personal and societal lives

A rom-com. Technically a rom-com. There's romance and I found some of the dialogue funny.

C4 in a box. The explosive.

An irrational hatred of a table that is completely reasonable given the impact it has on everything no I am not mad I am heartbroken

An abandoned tunnel complex AND an institute. I know. Fabulous news.

A lot of eyes, and a lot of audio tapes.

You know, there could be a parallel drawn between Jonathan Sims and the viewer in regards to their obsession of knowledge despite the implications wrought from their curiousity.

A supernatural skeptic arguing with a paranormal-hunting Youtuber

But what if I want MORE Magnus Archives?

Firstly, CALM DOWN. Thank you. 

There is a sequel to the Magnus Archives called the Magnus Protocol. I cannot give a review on this one because it's currently still in Season 1, and I don't want to judge an entire series based off of a single season. Also I've only seen a few episodes...

 

Black Paradox

Written by Junji Ito

Horror, Manga

Warning: The core theme of this book is suicide. 

Black Paradox is a manga written and drawn by famous horror artist Junji Ito. It is about four people who meet up online through a suicide website called Black Paradox to commit group suicide.

Now I will say I was initially swindled by the book's presence. I flipped through a couple pages and saw a man being pulled out of what looked like water and being resuscitated. On the back of the book it says that the four try to find a way to achieve a "perfect death". Through my folly I had mistakenly misinterpreted this book as four individuals obsessed with thanatology reaching what they believe to be a perfect, absolute death within their philosophical confines.  

Macabre, off-putting, surreal - that was the mindset I was initially entering the book with. Instead I got four people who fight over each other to collect a bundle of rare gemstones that offer unlimited energy that emerge from the dead while remaining pursued by their unresolved pasts.

The difference between my expectations and what I received does not mean that this is not a good book. In fact, I reread this book for 

my review. As with most books, you are not going to get exactly what's written on the back. 

So with that in mind, take the review with a pinch of salt and a dash of pepper. Read the first few bits of the review and see for yourself if the plot sounds like your cup of tea.

The Cast of Our Misfortunes

Who are the central characters of the story, and why are they here?

(These are not spoilers, by the way. All of this is stated in the first ten pages of the book)

Maruso - a girl suffering from a foreboding dread which she fears predicts a series of disasters lying in her near future. She worries that this sensation is a premonition of misfortune to come, and wishes to avoid an unpleasant fate. She is anxious, reserved, and skittish of what is to come.

Taburo - a boy who claims to have seen his doppelganger. One common folktale is that if you see your doppelganger, it means you are going to die soon. Taburo wishes to expedite the process instead of slowly waiting for his own death. He is flippant, arrogant, and apathetic.

Pi-tan - a man who invented a robot designed after himself. As the robot was "better" in every way and universally celebrated by his peers, Pi-tan felt that his own existence is threatened by the "other him" and wishes to die before a public press announcement of the robot's existence is made. He is melancholic, academic, and reserved.

Barrachi - a woman who was born with half of her face scarred. She cannot bear the given perception of herself, and as a result joined the group primarily from self-loathing. She is cynical, shrewd, and adamant.

It is hard to come up with descriptors for Junji Ito's characters. Usually characters in Junji Ito's works are purposely designed to be bland without personality, or resemble a generic "everyday person" trope. The reasoning for this is that the less details a protagonist or character has, the easier it feels to project onto them. Furthermore it's hard to condense character development in a graphic-based novel with limited space and words. Also, if the characters had complex personalities, we would feel bad when a character we personally relate to or enjoy suffers or experiences hardship. Vice versa, when a character we hate experiences misfortune we experience catharsis.

In this book however we have the four same characters throughout the entire book. Their lives are not completely laid out for us but their motivations and rationalizations are; a stark difference from other Junji Ito anthologies. 

The general plot of the book is that one of the characters starts throwing up never-before-seen gemstones called Paradonite. These gemstones are astonishingly beautiful and release a tremendous amount of energy when struck. The group believes these gemstones are from some form of spirit world and are split being those who believe the gemstones should be left alone and those who wish to monopolize them for their own profit. The book is a fairly short read and only takes about two hours to finish. Overall, the book is divided between chapters where the group initially meets up to die, the discovery and monopolization of the gemstones, and the investigation into how to acquire more of them by travelling to this spirit world. 

The narrative flow of the book is smooth. The only significant portion of the book that is significantly crunched together is the ending which gives exposition towards what the spirit world is, what the gemstones are, and a predictive epilogue for what will happen to the characters. However I'd say the ending is still enjoyable, one of the most enjoyable factors of the book in fact, despite it being 90% exposition. This could be that I personally liked the ideas introduced in the ending and their implications, as well as being given details and answers to some of the more significant questions proposed in the book. It also ties up some themes from the beginning of the book, which I will discuss later on. I don't want to spoil the entire plot, if you are still planning on reading it.

I don't know how every one of these circles is perfectly handdrawn - still impressive even if a Shape Tool was used.

Recommendations:

I would not say that this was my absolute favorite book by Junji Ito (Tomie and Hellstar Remina), but just because it's not my favorite does not mean I disliked it. I enjoyed the book, more so the second-time rereading it than the first; it does not have an extensive amount of body horror compared to Junji Ito's other works and instead shifts its focus more towards the plot and characters.

Note: Spoilers ahead for the first chapter, ending, and other random plot points in the book. If you want to read the book, do so first.

There are several themes in the book that reoccur throughout the beginning and end. I will go through each one that I personally noticed, and what I think they mean in the story itself.

Double or Nothing: The Doubles of Our Characters

You may have noticed from the character's descriptions (and the first chapter) that three of our four characters have a "double" in some shape or form that initially presses them into suicide. Barrachi has her reflection, Pi-tan has a robot designed to look like him, and Taburo has his doppelganger. 

In the first chapter, Maruso accidentally enters a car with these doubles who plan to kill themselves and the originals - this is done from a plot-standpoint to prevent our cast from committing suicide and drive home the idea of the doubles existing in the novel. While all three of the doubles "die" in this first chapter, they do reappear and play what I believe to be a significant role throughout the remainder of the book.

Towards the latter half of the book the main cast are slowly recruited to travel to the spirit world through their respective portals. As a rule each character can only travel through a portal made from their own designated portal or they will die. During these scenes of the characters gradually travelling to and from the spirit world, there is something of particular interest. That being that every time a character decides to travel to the spirit world, they reflect their double.

For example: 

The Pi-tan that goes into the spirit world is actually the Pi-tan robot being piloted by his soul

The Barrachi that goes into the spirit world has had surgery to fix the birthmark on the left side of her face. At the beginning of the novel we see that Barrachis double, her reflection, has her birthmark on her right side. It is mentioned in the second chapter that the reflection could just change what side of her face has the birthmark if the reflection was two mirrors facing each other. Therefore it could be argued that Barrachi is therefore an extension of her reflection by the end of a novel, her reflection and herself overlapping.

Taburo just gets visited by his doppelganger, fears that his shadow is also his doppelganger, then the next time we see him is him walking out of his own shadow. We could view all of these as their doubles becoming "one" with the cast and characters.

Maruso's double isn't really a double, it's just her anxiety and fears for the future which disappear later on in the book and instead coalesce as an acceptance of the future, no matter how horrible it appears.

 This comes into the idea that all of the characters, despite being initially pushed to suicide due to the appearance of their "doubles" or sources of conflict, eventually loop back around towards embodying or embracing some aspect of their double by the end of the story. 

It is also insinuated that the doubles have some form of connection with the spirit world and why the characters act as gateways. Barrachi has spirit stones fall out of her birthmark, Taburo has spirit stones fall out of his shadow (the only thing that resembles him to the closest extent, like a doppelganger), and Maruso has her gateway in the part of the brain that controls fear (which initially drove her to suicide in the first place).

The Cost of Eternity

This comparison is short and sweet. It is revealed at the ending of the book that Paradonite isn't just a gem that contains the souls of those who go to the afterlife. Instead, it is a soul for everything and anything that is living; the soul, personality, and spirit of a person are stored inside of the gemstone while they physically exist on Earth, and when they die they presumably reincarnate with their spirit entering a new body. To put it in simpler terms, imagine your brain was in a jar but it could still move your body even though your body itself may not be aware of the brains existence or its influence.

  It is speculated that as Paradonite is harvested and consumed for energy, people on Earth will "vanish" as their soul's are consumed. It draws parallels with modern day climate change with discussion whether humanity will still use Paradonite once they realize the cost of its energy and that the immediate benefits and resources are impacting their lives and safety long-term.

The Afterlife and Back

Another theme that is mentioned at the end of the book is the reason this all happened in the first place. At the beginning of the book, all of the characters want to die. In the ending of the book the characters technically achieve this by travelling to and from the afterlife to collect Paradonite, thus fulfilling their goal at the beginning of the book without reaching finality. The only exception to this is Pi-tan, who DOES end up dying at the beginning, but possesses Pi-tan's robot. The characters also end up subverting the reason they wanted to die in the first place; Maruso no longer experiences dread about the future, Pi-tan now IS his robot, Barrachi had her birthmark removed... 

In all instances the characters achieved not only their initial goal of dying, but also in removing the cause that incited their death in the first place.

I thought this was a neat detail, even if it is told directly to us in the book.

The Paradox in Black Paradox

So what is the paradox in Black Paradox. I am not sure. I am guessing for this. This is a sleep-deprived, one-off guess that I cooked up in a primordial stew of neurons and tap water. My guess is that the paradox in Black Paradox (asides from it being merely a name) is that the source of the entire story (the doubles, and Maruso's foreboding for the future) would not have even occurred without the doubles appearing. Maruso wouldn't have had any foreboding about the future, so she wouldn't be there. Many of the doubles seem to share the same goal of dying at the beginning of the film; indeed, Pi-tans robot expresses the wish to die even before Pi-tan's soul begins possessing it. It is likely, given that some of the doubles like Tashuro's doppelganger keep coming back, that these doubles are either a manifestation of the cast's trauma, personal self-loathing, or a representation of their deaths. I don't really know though. These doubles existences are unexplained. However, they do end up subverting the characters deaths multiple times - thus removing any reason for their existence in the first place. The doppelganger doesn't show up after Tashuro begins journeying into the afterlife, nor does anyone else's double once they visit the spirit world (Pi-tan's robot doesn't count because it IS Pi-tan.). Where am I going with this? I don't know. It's been a long day and I am 1400 words into this review and frankly not awake enough to solve a paradox which may or may not exist. It could be that there IS no paradox and Black Paradox is a name that was only picked out. Gyo (another of Junji Ito's works) wasn't about climate change or the devastating drawbacks that meddling with nature can bring, it solely written to be about fish with legs.

That is all for the review. If you have ANY theories, or sources of what the paradox in Black Paradox is, post it in the comments please. I may be confuddling myself in the shadow of Occam's Razor.