So it's super fun to theorize about Aika Village, so I wanted to share my theory with you guys, and for you to share them with everyone else in the thread!
My theory -
OUTSIDE THE FIRST HOUSE
There are flowers everywhere, perfect peach trees, and a cute, happy looking little house. This represents how Aika's life is going. So far, wonderful, and near perfect.
FIRST HOUSE
When you enter, there is what appears to be a birthday party, with the likeness of Aika with a mannequin on either side, probably symbolizing her parents. There's nothing really noteworthy about the party itself, but in the back, there is a room covered up by a dresser. This symbolizes that someone is hiding something.
Aika's room is a bit more noteworthy than downstairs.
It's a regular looking child's room, with toys and cute wallpaper. There are three pictures, one that appears to be the mother, one that appears to be Aika and her parents, and what is clearly a dog. Next to the paintings is a dolly. Keep that in the back of your minds too. Finally, though a bit less important, is the dollhouse. It is turned so we see the inside of the house, and suprisingly enough, it looks eerily similar to Aika's house. You know how little girls will play with their Barbie Dream Houses (or whatever they are) and give their dolls perfect, happy lives? I personally think that's how Aika feels, living a perfect life, nothing could go wrong, stuff like that. It has a pink roof. Keep that in the back of your mind.
THE MAZE AND SURROUNDING AREA
When we get to the area containing the maze, you can see that there are less flowers, and the peaches are no longer perfect. It's still a decent town, but you can tell it's not the paradise we entered. This once again shows how Aika's life is. Some things have happened to worry her a bit.
The maze is made of bushes, with candy and pitfalls scattered around. This can be easily interpreted as a lure. This represents Aika's mother beginning to manipulate her, or sweet talk her into doing things. See? Candy, pitfalls, makes sense to me! Once you get out of the maze, if you go to Re-Tail, there's a megaphone. This represents that Aika is seeking help. (In ACNL, you seek for people with the megaphone.) The holes, which are impassable without kicking them, represent that she can't find anyone that will listen to her. She's just a child, after all.
THE SECOND HOUSE
I like to think that this house has a chronological order that you're supposed to enter the rooms in, first being the upper level. (I think that this room actually shows what happened before we entered the first house, and explains the dresser.) A scene with Adam and Eve is clearly portrayed, forbidden fruit and all. However, this particular story does not go the way we know it. The statue representing Eve is fake. The hair is long instead of short. The statue representing Adam is in a thinking pose, looking at his significant other. He is not thinking, "boy, is she beautiful," but, "Is she really my true love?" This would later lead to a divorce.
The second room in chronological order is downstairs. This takes place after the divorce. There is what looks like a dolly tea party, and one red doll in particular has an axe behind her back. This doll represents Aika, and her anger, frustration, and all of her negative emotions towards what's happening. She had heard her parents fight, feels like she's being treated unfairly by her mother, and all of those things, despite all the other seemingly happy things around her.
The next room is the main room, the maze. Aika is trying to sort out everything, the divorce, the unfairness, it's really hard for her to handle.
Finally, the back room. All of the toys are facing the wall, and if you rotate your camera, there are eyes watching them. This represents Aika being afraid to talk to her mother about what's happening, in fear that she might disappoint her mother, or lose her love. At this point, Aika just wants her mother to love her.
OUTSIDE THE THIRD HOUSE
We now proceed into a less decent part of town. There are dead trees, multiple weeds, and not a flower in sight. We can tell that Aika's life isn't even decent anymore. It's pretty bad, but it's not at it's worst yet. Another thing to note is that in Japan, bamboo is symbolic of longevity, luck, health, wealth and peace and harmony in the home. The bamboo that is clearly not fully grown, and maybe even struggling to grow, may symbolize that the family, now consisting of only Aika and her mother, is having problems with all of these. There are also rotten turnips strewn everywhere. That's bad if you're trying to make a profit off of those veggies! (Badum ching)
There's a graveyard, with doghouses buried there. As for me, I don't really have a clue what that's supposed to mean. It's possibly just a detail that possibly a pet she loved died, only making her current state worse.
There's also the police station, filled with beehives. This could represent how she feels towards her mother. Angry. When you shake trees and bees come down, they're angry at you.
THE THIRD HOUSE
Before talking about the inside, let's talk about the outside. It's run down, with a pink roof.
At this point, Aika probably feels like a doll, but not the perfect little girl playing with a barbie kind.
I personally don't think that these rooms are supposed to be explored in a particular order, we'll just start with the book maze.
The first thing you see is the dolly representing Aika, and the axe representing her anger. This time, it's in front of the dolly, and no longer hidden. Aika, though we don't know in which way she's doing it, is clearly showing her anger now. If you walk through the maze, there are pictures of Aika and her mother (And eggs, but I'll explain that later.). Beside one of those pictures is a beehive. She's clearly angry. Oh, yeah. The theremin. Shut up theremin! The theremin could possibly represent her anxiety. Things had only gotten worse, so they're probably gonna get worse. That's what goes through her mind, and it's why she's anxious.
When you go to the back room, it looks like paradise. For an insane person. Papers are strewn around the room in a checkerboard fashion, and there are two books. An album and a four leaf clover. These could be albums, or journals/diaries from her parents or her, and she's looking back at the memories, desperate for the good old days. The fact that they're behind glass shows that it will never be the same for poor little Aika.
The side room, often reffered to as the egg room, baffles many people. However, I have a theory with evidence to back it up. There is an idiom "walking on eggshells." It basically means to be careful. You can play a beautiful song on the piano, and I think this represents Aika's mother wanting her to be perfect, like a doll. If Aika steps out of line, and breaks an eggshell, her mother might get mad, might be disappointed in her, might abandon her. This could also explain the eggs in the maze room, and the theremin even further.
Upstairs, there is a room with Aika's mother plastered on every. single. freaking. surface.
This represents another side of Aika, the one that isn't angry, the one that desperately wants her mother's love. This also explains the town flag. Aika is trying to impress her mother, to get her attention, to earn her love.
As for the dolly representing Aika watching the blurry TV, Aika has gone blank, all she can think about is her mother, her mother, and her mother. She's not paying attention to anything else, just her mother. She's that desperate.
Downstairs is a fancy looking room. It could very well be the mother's room, but it also has furniture to tell us about Aika as well.
We'll talk about the mother furniture first.
There is a fancy doll on the fireplace, representing how she treats Aika. Like abarbie doll. There's a typewriter and a telescope as well. She's sending out letters, trying to seek out the father, and not paying attention to what Aika really needs. In fact, the divorce is probably what started this tragic mess in the first place!
There's a bed with the outline of a body, representing that Aika has died inside. The caged bird and sheet music is thought to be another depiction of how Aika's mother controls her. I personally think that the dolly sitting in front of the baby bed is Aika wishing she could just start over, and live a happy life.
As for the hourglass, that's foreshadowing.
Foreshadowing that Aika's time is about to run out.
OUTSIDE THE FINAL HOUSE
It carries over the traits of the preceding area, but even grosser. Trash! Trash everywhere! Aika's life is trashed. It's not going to get any better, and it might even be impossible for it to get worse.
THE FINAL HOUSE
Now, a carbon copy of Aika's house stands in front of us, the only differences being the lack of lights turned on, and the lack of perfect peaches and flowers.
Inside is the kitchen, but lacking any life, and empty of happy birthday parties for girls wearing red. All sorts of things are strewn around the place, and the dresser is no longer fully covering the door. Once again, the only thing in the kitchen with any significance is the dresser. The secret is out, and it can't be hidden any more. But we'll get to that later.
Upstairs is Aika's room. Once again, we have the angry Aika representation, and all the toys are turned around to face the wall. The teddy bear also has a red shirt... pretty ominous if you ask me!
Now, the back room. There are mystic statues watching Aika and Representation-Aika. The two sides of Aika (The love wanting Aika and the angry Aika) are now no longer two sides, but one. The suicidal side. Aika has been driven to near insanity now. It's interesting to note that the only real mystic statues are the ones behind Aika. I think that these could be her parents, the only people who could have saved her, and the fake ones are everything else that caused this mess. The divorce, the ignorance of everyone else, everything.
THE BEACH
Now, we've reached are final destination. The beach. If you walk for a bit, you'll notice some red shoes. It's typical for Japanese people to remove their shoes before comitting suicide.
This town is Japanese...
So...
If you dug up the hidden wetsuit, you can reach a small island. It's clearly Aika's grave, represented by the dolly and skeleton that were buried. It's not really symbolic of anything, but further proof of her death.
OTHER DETAILS
As we progress through the town, if you think to enter the villager's houses, there are dollies inside, represeting Aika trying to tell them about her situation. This number increases to two when the problem gets more serious, and when Aika has lost hope, the villager's homes are free of dollies.
The lucky clovers may or may not be representing the number four, which is commonly associated with death in Japan.
I did some brainstorming with Miss_Tisa and looked at other websites to create my theory. What are your theories? Feel free to point out any flaws or anything I missed in my theory! Just don't be a huge jerk about it.
My theory -
OUTSIDE THE FIRST HOUSE
There are flowers everywhere, perfect peach trees, and a cute, happy looking little house. This represents how Aika's life is going. So far, wonderful, and near perfect.
FIRST HOUSE
When you enter, there is what appears to be a birthday party, with the likeness of Aika with a mannequin on either side, probably symbolizing her parents. There's nothing really noteworthy about the party itself, but in the back, there is a room covered up by a dresser. This symbolizes that someone is hiding something.
Aika's room is a bit more noteworthy than downstairs.
It's a regular looking child's room, with toys and cute wallpaper. There are three pictures, one that appears to be the mother, one that appears to be Aika and her parents, and what is clearly a dog. Next to the paintings is a dolly. Keep that in the back of your minds too. Finally, though a bit less important, is the dollhouse. It is turned so we see the inside of the house, and suprisingly enough, it looks eerily similar to Aika's house. You know how little girls will play with their Barbie Dream Houses (or whatever they are) and give their dolls perfect, happy lives? I personally think that's how Aika feels, living a perfect life, nothing could go wrong, stuff like that. It has a pink roof. Keep that in the back of your mind.
THE MAZE AND SURROUNDING AREA
When we get to the area containing the maze, you can see that there are less flowers, and the peaches are no longer perfect. It's still a decent town, but you can tell it's not the paradise we entered. This once again shows how Aika's life is. Some things have happened to worry her a bit.
The maze is made of bushes, with candy and pitfalls scattered around. This can be easily interpreted as a lure. This represents Aika's mother beginning to manipulate her, or sweet talk her into doing things. See? Candy, pitfalls, makes sense to me! Once you get out of the maze, if you go to Re-Tail, there's a megaphone. This represents that Aika is seeking help. (In ACNL, you seek for people with the megaphone.) The holes, which are impassable without kicking them, represent that she can't find anyone that will listen to her. She's just a child, after all.
THE SECOND HOUSE
I like to think that this house has a chronological order that you're supposed to enter the rooms in, first being the upper level. (I think that this room actually shows what happened before we entered the first house, and explains the dresser.) A scene with Adam and Eve is clearly portrayed, forbidden fruit and all. However, this particular story does not go the way we know it. The statue representing Eve is fake. The hair is long instead of short. The statue representing Adam is in a thinking pose, looking at his significant other. He is not thinking, "boy, is she beautiful," but, "Is she really my true love?" This would later lead to a divorce.
The second room in chronological order is downstairs. This takes place after the divorce. There is what looks like a dolly tea party, and one red doll in particular has an axe behind her back. This doll represents Aika, and her anger, frustration, and all of her negative emotions towards what's happening. She had heard her parents fight, feels like she's being treated unfairly by her mother, and all of those things, despite all the other seemingly happy things around her.
The next room is the main room, the maze. Aika is trying to sort out everything, the divorce, the unfairness, it's really hard for her to handle.
Finally, the back room. All of the toys are facing the wall, and if you rotate your camera, there are eyes watching them. This represents Aika being afraid to talk to her mother about what's happening, in fear that she might disappoint her mother, or lose her love. At this point, Aika just wants her mother to love her.
OUTSIDE THE THIRD HOUSE
We now proceed into a less decent part of town. There are dead trees, multiple weeds, and not a flower in sight. We can tell that Aika's life isn't even decent anymore. It's pretty bad, but it's not at it's worst yet. Another thing to note is that in Japan, bamboo is symbolic of longevity, luck, health, wealth and peace and harmony in the home. The bamboo that is clearly not fully grown, and maybe even struggling to grow, may symbolize that the family, now consisting of only Aika and her mother, is having problems with all of these. There are also rotten turnips strewn everywhere. That's bad if you're trying to make a profit off of those veggies! (Badum ching)
There's a graveyard, with doghouses buried there. As for me, I don't really have a clue what that's supposed to mean. It's possibly just a detail that possibly a pet she loved died, only making her current state worse.
There's also the police station, filled with beehives. This could represent how she feels towards her mother. Angry. When you shake trees and bees come down, they're angry at you.
THE THIRD HOUSE
Before talking about the inside, let's talk about the outside. It's run down, with a pink roof.
At this point, Aika probably feels like a doll, but not the perfect little girl playing with a barbie kind.
I personally don't think that these rooms are supposed to be explored in a particular order, we'll just start with the book maze.
The first thing you see is the dolly representing Aika, and the axe representing her anger. This time, it's in front of the dolly, and no longer hidden. Aika, though we don't know in which way she's doing it, is clearly showing her anger now. If you walk through the maze, there are pictures of Aika and her mother (And eggs, but I'll explain that later.). Beside one of those pictures is a beehive. She's clearly angry. Oh, yeah. The theremin. Shut up theremin! The theremin could possibly represent her anxiety. Things had only gotten worse, so they're probably gonna get worse. That's what goes through her mind, and it's why she's anxious.
When you go to the back room, it looks like paradise. For an insane person. Papers are strewn around the room in a checkerboard fashion, and there are two books. An album and a four leaf clover. These could be albums, or journals/diaries from her parents or her, and she's looking back at the memories, desperate for the good old days. The fact that they're behind glass shows that it will never be the same for poor little Aika.
The side room, often reffered to as the egg room, baffles many people. However, I have a theory with evidence to back it up. There is an idiom "walking on eggshells." It basically means to be careful. You can play a beautiful song on the piano, and I think this represents Aika's mother wanting her to be perfect, like a doll. If Aika steps out of line, and breaks an eggshell, her mother might get mad, might be disappointed in her, might abandon her. This could also explain the eggs in the maze room, and the theremin even further.
Upstairs, there is a room with Aika's mother plastered on every. single. freaking. surface.
This represents another side of Aika, the one that isn't angry, the one that desperately wants her mother's love. This also explains the town flag. Aika is trying to impress her mother, to get her attention, to earn her love.
As for the dolly representing Aika watching the blurry TV, Aika has gone blank, all she can think about is her mother, her mother, and her mother. She's not paying attention to anything else, just her mother. She's that desperate.
Downstairs is a fancy looking room. It could very well be the mother's room, but it also has furniture to tell us about Aika as well.
We'll talk about the mother furniture first.
There is a fancy doll on the fireplace, representing how she treats Aika. Like a
There's a bed with the outline of a body, representing that Aika has died inside. The caged bird and sheet music is thought to be another depiction of how Aika's mother controls her. I personally think that the dolly sitting in front of the baby bed is Aika wishing she could just start over, and live a happy life.
As for the hourglass, that's foreshadowing.
Foreshadowing that Aika's time is about to run out.
OUTSIDE THE FINAL HOUSE
It carries over the traits of the preceding area, but even grosser. Trash! Trash everywhere! Aika's life is trashed. It's not going to get any better, and it might even be impossible for it to get worse.
THE FINAL HOUSE
Now, a carbon copy of Aika's house stands in front of us, the only differences being the lack of lights turned on, and the lack of perfect peaches and flowers.
Inside is the kitchen, but lacking any life, and empty of happy birthday parties for girls wearing red. All sorts of things are strewn around the place, and the dresser is no longer fully covering the door. Once again, the only thing in the kitchen with any significance is the dresser. The secret is out, and it can't be hidden any more. But we'll get to that later.
Upstairs is Aika's room. Once again, we have the angry Aika representation, and all the toys are turned around to face the wall. The teddy bear also has a red shirt... pretty ominous if you ask me!
Now, the back room. There are mystic statues watching Aika and Representation-Aika. The two sides of Aika (The love wanting Aika and the angry Aika) are now no longer two sides, but one. The suicidal side. Aika has been driven to near insanity now. It's interesting to note that the only real mystic statues are the ones behind Aika. I think that these could be her parents, the only people who could have saved her, and the fake ones are everything else that caused this mess. The divorce, the ignorance of everyone else, everything.
THE BEACH
Now, we've reached are final destination. The beach. If you walk for a bit, you'll notice some red shoes. It's typical for Japanese people to remove their shoes before comitting suicide.
This town is Japanese...
So...
If you dug up the hidden wetsuit, you can reach a small island. It's clearly Aika's grave, represented by the dolly and skeleton that were buried. It's not really symbolic of anything, but further proof of her death.
OTHER DETAILS
As we progress through the town, if you think to enter the villager's houses, there are dollies inside, represeting Aika trying to tell them about her situation. This number increases to two when the problem gets more serious, and when Aika has lost hope, the villager's homes are free of dollies.
The lucky clovers may or may not be representing the number four, which is commonly associated with death in Japan.
I did some brainstorming with Miss_Tisa and looked at other websites to create my theory. What are your theories? Feel free to point out any flaws or anything I missed in my theory! Just don't be a huge jerk about it.
Last edited:
