The KALIMBA are a group of Paracas-like characters that appear during the KALIMBA TV Channel event.
Overview
The KALIMBA resemble armless humanoid entities, each having a color scheme composed of yellow, red, and carmine. They have a slightly hunched position and appear to be vomiting with tilted heads as they dance together in a straight line. They appear to be one of the many instances of Mesoamerican-inspired artwork found throughout the game. When the television in Madotsuki's Dream Room is turned on, there is a 1/8 chance that a KALIMBA face will appear on the television instead of an eye, and the screen will fade to black before showing the two rows of KALIMBA dancing together to a tribal beat.
Their name comes from their picture file and soundtrack, both of which are simply titled "KALIMBA", seemingly named after the instrument used in the song.
Trivia
- KIKIYAMA, the creator of Yume Nikki, also made a full-length version of the song before they started working on the game, being the only one other than the FC House theme to be a complete song, although this one isn't heard in-game.
Interpretation
One of the most apparent visual themes in Yume Nikki is Mesoamerican-style art, more specifically, creatures that resemble those of the ancient Paracas civilization that lived more than 2,000 years ago. In this ancient Peruvian culture, "ritual vomiting" was a practice where a person vomiting could be seen as them releasing toxins out of their system, both physically and spiritually. In Paracas art, this is depicted as the manifestation of a snake to symbolize this leaving the body, which can be seen with the KALIMBA. It's possible that Madotsuki feels very connected with their culture, as she even has a rug with an ancient pattern in the real world. The Bloody Touching Monster and the parallax background in Eyeball World are other examples of vomiting in the game.
