Review of the Japanese Call of Cthulhu scenario Cartoon Reanimation, written by Nanamine Kizashi, from the scenario anthology Bibliothek 13.
In-Short: A lovely and bizarre mashup of cartoony slapstick, noir, and a classic CoC investigation structure that’s equal parts silly and grotesque.
Spoiler-lite for Players and Keepers
Cartoon Reanimation is the last scenario in Bibliothek 13, and the only one not set in modern day Japan, instead being set in 1920s Burbank, California. The text estimates a 3 to 4 hour playtime, and my run did take close to 4 hours, though the scenario’s freeform investigation style and open conclusion could allow for quite a bit longer or much shorter sessions. Many of the Bibliothek 13 scenarios are made to fit tighter time frames, either by using more linear progressions or aggressive ticking clocks, but Cartoon Reanimation is an open investigation without an immediate time pressure.
It’s also super weird, in a very fun way. Without getting overly into spoiler territory, it deals with cartoons in a Roger Rabbit-esque manner. Combined with Call of Cthulhu nastiness, and a classic 1920s noir vibe, Cartoon Reanimation comes out with a unique vibe of silliness and some pretty awful body horror that you won’t find in any other Call of Cthulhu scenario.
Structurally it’s a freeform investigation, though with a bit of a bumpy start that gets by mostly by being so weird most players will go along with it. It does suffer the same issue as all the Bibliothek 13, and Cthulhu 2020 scenarios have, with a lack of pregenerated investigators or solid advice for how to properly introduce a party into the scenario with some good roleplaying hooks. The scenario opens with the investigators attending a demo screening for an animated film, but without much of a reason why those specific characters would be invited to the screening. Running this at a convention, I had the investigators all be in film, and specifically animation, related careers – so an animator, an investor/producer, a journalist, and an actor. If playing with existing investigators, some changes would probably be needed to have things make sense. More on this in the spoiler section.
The scenario takes up thirteen pages. There are quite a few text handouts, along with one illustration handout and map, a bunch of very nice (and occasionally horrific) black and white illustrations and character portraits, and a simple flowchart. As with all the other Bibliothek 13 and Cthulhu 2020 scenarios, Cartoon Reanimation is nicely laid out with plenty of section breaks and boxed out text, and along with succinct summaries and the flowchart, make getting a overall visual of the scenario easy with a quick skim reading. (Sidenote: actual scenario contents aside, while not as glossy, colourful, or lengthy as many Chaosium-made 7e scenarios, I do find the Bibliothek 13 and Cthulhu 2020 scenarios much more legible and consistently well presented. Definitely something to be said here in favour of simplicity.)
Cartoon Reanimation does require a bit more Keeper elbow grease than many of its sibling scenarios, with a potentially awkward introduction and an ending that gives the players some unusual, though very interesting, options. The extra work to run the scenario is worth it though, as there’s nothing else quite like it, and it gives Three Requests, my other favourite scenario in Bibliothek 13, a run for its money.
Cartoon Reanimation can be found in Bibliothek 13, unfortunately currently only available in Japanese and in physical book form only. If you do get a hold of it from a bookstore, Amazon, or the publisher, Kadokawa, I would be happy to share my translation notes if you want them.
Before you go, maybe you would be interested in some of the below reviews or replays?
MJRRPG scenarios, Chaosium-released scenarios, Miskatonic Repository scenarios, Japanese scenarios
Cartoon Reanimation has two potential tripping up points – a somewhat stilted opening, and an ending that could come too soon. The ending isn’t all that much of a problem, it just requires a Keeper to be a bit prepared or ready to improvise, or okay with the scenario coming to a potentially abrupt end. The opening though requires players to go with the flow for a bit, and if they don’t some rewriting might be in order.
The scenario opens with the investigators going to the Turtles production company to view a screening of an upcoming animated feature film (this is coming about a year after Walt Disney released Steam Boat Willy – or the Major Animation Studio, as the text unsubtly refers to). As mentioned before, Bibliothek 13 scenarios do not come with any pregen investigators. For the most of the scenarios that isn’t much of a problem, with any regular person fitting in, but Cartoon Reanimation could have really benefited from some specific investigators or more detailed suggestions on working the investigators into the scenario. For a one shot, I thought having animation-industry investigators would work best, and so used a young, talented animator looking for a job, a film journalist interested in the booming animation industry, a stumbling investor/producer looking for a big break, and an actor with stage fright curious about the possibility of voice acting.
At Turtles they meet the president, the unfortunately but fabulously named Famous Seamen (I considered changing the name for an English, but really, why would you?), then head for the screening. And then a cute cartoon rabbit jumps out of the screen and starts killing people. Hey, we’re off to races! The rabbit kills people in silly cartoon ways, such as smacking the projector operator with a baseball bat, causing his eyes to bulge out like a cartoon, but the body then remains real with the exaggerated cartoon twist. The rabbit inevitably escapes (by placing a zipper on a wall, opening it up, and jumping through it – fantastic), and they soon meet their police contact, the hard-boiled detective Howard Ryan, complete with permanent cigarette, fedora, tight shirt, and bulging muscles. I love this guy. I love Famous Seamen. I love the rabbit’s entrance. Just a wonderful rapid fire of goofiness with a dash of brutality.
The investigators are then awkwardly asked to return to the Turtle office the next day so Ryan can basically give them the actual scenario-starting information. This is setup to have another Turtle staff killed in a gross way (they get turned into a mailbox!), and turn Seamen indefinitely insane so he can’t give away the whole plot, but it’s a very odd break in what is otherwise a continuous scene. The investigators start out talking to Ryan at Turtles, then go to sleep just to return to Turtle and talk to Ryan again. If the players go along with it, all good, just a bit of a pacing hiccup that gets covered over by the mailbox-stuffed-guy.
If the players want to do the player thing though, and immediately investigate and interrogate without taking no for an answer, then the scene might need to be tweaked a bit. One idea could be to have the mailbox victim present in the lobby throughout the opening scene, then leave when the police arrive. When the investigators start asking excessive questions and refuse to leave, a beat cop leaves the office, but then runs back in, screaming about something outside. Cue mailbox-guy, Seamen goes insane, and Ryan tasks the investigators with searching out the rabbit.
The opening would also likely need a bit of tweaking if playing with an existing group of investigators. Instead of being invited to the screening, the investigators could have been tipped off in advance by Ryan that something was going on with disappearing animators, and Turtles was at the centre of the mystery. The investigators then show up at Turtles just as the screening starts for a wealthy producer, then plays out as normal.
After getting through the opening, the bulk of the scenario plays out without any major difficulties. The open investigation lets players go to a number of locations to meet with NPCs and collect handouts, with most of the handouts being the sort that could be moved between locations if needed. Simple, easy, and feels good to run and play. Throw in some fun NPCs (kid at Disney – I mean Major Animation Studio – with a comically giant fedora) and the occasional rabbit attack (dressing up as a judge and smashing someone into a slinky with a giant gavel) to break up the paper hunting and you have a nicely paced detective scenario. There are a few minor NPCs without much detail, your librarians, firefighters, town hall civil servants, etc., but there’s also one more prominent NPC that doesn’t even get a name (this is the poor gavel-smashed fellow). To fit in with all the other colourful NPCs, its probably worth at least giving them a name and one over exaggerated trait so they don’t stand out too much.
The other spot that might give Keepers some trouble is the ending, though there’s no inherent issue with it like the opening. The backstory of the scenario is that Famous Seamen stole a film from an up and coming animator, burning down his studio and killing him in the process. Unfortunately for Seamen and the other Turtle employees, through some vague sorcery the star of the animator’s film, the rabbit, came to life. Now the rabbit is kidnapping animators (while also murdering the Turtles staff it sees responsible for its master’s death) and stuffing them away in a hidden basement under the ruins of the burned down studio, forcing them to complete a new film featuring the master, so as to resurrect the master as a cartoon. The prisoners are also semi-cartoonified in horrible ways, giving a fun little bit of body horror to make the dark basement all the creepier. In a neat twist, if the investigators simply allow the rabbit to complete the film, or even assist it (via being kidnapped and forced to work on the film), then the rabbit returns to the cartoon world, reunited with its master, and all the prisoners are released. A happy ending! If the investigators try to destroy the film or free the prisoners, though, the rabbit transforms from a cute cartoon into a giant man eating rabbit-beast with some very investigator-unfriendly stats. Less happy ending.
It’s a pretty great ending in my books, with the only potential hang-up being if the investigators go to the burned out ruins early and find the cellar door. It is hidden, but between Luck spending and Pushed rolls, investigators are very likely to find it the first time they visit the ruins. If you’re lucky they’ll visit other places first, but going to the scene of the crime is a fairly obvious first step. The text’s suggestion is to have a cartoon bar drawn across the trap door with a goofy ‘be back soon!’ message on it, rendering the door unopenable until whenever the Keeper deems it appropriate. Cute, though it would probably lead to players being hyper-fixated on opening the door rather than exploring around more.
In my run the party split to explore around, luckily not heading directly to the house, but still one pair did reach it first. I put the cartoon bar on, and one of the players had the idea of trying to erase it off. I thought that was brilliant and allowed it to happen. This led into an early ending with some of the other locations unvisited and clues unfound, but the ending was a bloody fun time anyways and the pacing would have been hampered if I’d just not allowed the players to enter the cellar. If you’re wanting to ensure the investigators look around other locations first, the ruins could be considered dangerous and still being worked on by the fire department for a day, barring entry to any others. Then after a day passes the site is deemed safe enough for the investigators to poke through. Problem more or less solved.
Cartoon Reanimation isn’t a particularly beginner-Keeper-friendly scenario, with the possibility of an abrupt ending, a bit of a rocky start, as well as possibly kidnapped and unavailable investigators, but the rest of the scenario more than makes up for the rougher parts. I love the NPCs, the general structure is solid, the tone is a wonderful clash of cartoon silliness and bizarre body horror, and the ending can be weirdly sweet or an absolute bloodbath (my group had four players, but we managed to end with five dead investigators and one survivor). I highly recommend it, and it’s one that I really wish was more easily obtained.
As it stands now, Cartoon Reanimation can only be found physically in Bibliothek 13 in Japanese. Again, if you do get a hold of it from a bookstore, Amazon, or the publisher, Kadokawa, I would be happy to share my translation notes.
Before you go, maybe you would be interested in some of the below reviews or replays?
MJRRPG scenarios, Chaosium-released scenarios, Miskatonic Repository scenarios, Japanese scenarios