Japan has lots of little quirks like these. Like how the aliens are also often octopus-like creatures instead of little grey men. Or how poison and acid is often green in western media, but purple in Japan because people is "a bad guy color" (which fun fact, is why Rayman's shirt was changed to blue in Japan). Characters with thick glasses often have concentric circles on them (which I think are supposed to be reminiscent of bifocals), except at some point they became swirls. And I remember there being some common differences among mythological creatures, and probably in the way some animals are drawn, but I can't recall any just off the top of my head. Random fact: the aliens in Majora's Mask are based off the Flatwoods monster.
@@ChristianLegoFan1 Snowmen always being two balls with a bucket hat is another one. And blue penguins. It might say something about the conformist nature of Japanese society that there are so many "rules" about how to "correctly" depict this-or-that in cartoons.
This immediately brings to mind the Mario & Luigi games. Cackletta, the Shroobs and Antasma: all purple. Oddly enough, perhaps because of the perspective, I don't think the Shroob UFOs have the three orbs at the bottom. The Mothership has one dome-looking thing at the bottom that opens up to allow people to enter. Just thought of the Access Ark in Kirby Planet Robobot as well which doesn't fit the usual pattern. But now I'm going to be looking for these UFOs everywhere.
I was born and raised in Japan, and generally in Japan, they see UFOs not as scary invaders who want to kill humans, but as a quirky, curious, and friendly entity. So as you guys mentioned in the video, people gravitated to Adamski’s UFO with the friendly aliens and positive encounters. Since the overall vibe regarding UFOs is positive, the Japanese people did what Japanese people do best - create adorable mascot-like characters and illustrations of them. Not only are Adamski’s UFOs friendly, but they have rounder, kettle-like shapes, which look more friendly and cute, which led a lot of designers to base their UFOs on Adamski’s descriptions. With many representations of cute Adamski UFOs, especially in the 80s when I was a kid, that design got cemented in people’s minds as the default basic UFO. We were aware of other types of UFOs, as I read mangas for kids explaining various types of flying saucers, but when I drew UFOs, they were always the ever optimistic Adamski UFOs. (Heck, I still draw UFOs that way.)
I remember the Utsuro-Bune from a friend of mine while strolling on Ueno Park. I say to her my knowledge of Saigo Takamori's popularity internationally and she traded my info with a local legend of the Utsuro-Bune...a very ancient Japanese urban legend
Yeah even the character Mikitaka from Jojo's Bizarre Adventure, by Hirohiko Araki, was depicted as one of these "nordic" aliens that Adamski wrote about.
I have no idea whether English is your native language or if you learned it when you were young, but if it's a language you learned you speak it freaking good.
Yeah! It’s cool to see someone who’s genuinely interested in studying the paranormal and urban legends but doesn’t just jump to “aliens built the pyramids”.
Most likely! These flying saucers with protrusions are known as Adamusukī‐gata UFOs (アダムスキー型ユーフォー) and this term is rather common in Japan. Incidentally this “-sukī” suffix sounds similar to “suki” (fond), so in character names it often makes puns implying “(something)‐lover.”
With 8 interviews with experts, at least 3 times he "stops dead with heart racing" at the magnitude of the revolution, and between 5 and 7 times the thinks he has reached the end of his journey before a new peice of evidence arrises... The magnum opus
Nah, won't be a video entirely dedicated to it. It'll be a video that started as a dedicated video to the trip, but ends up uncovering the epic mystery of the 3 remaining proprietary thumb drives that contain the Mickey Mouse firmware update for the 2009 concept Samsung smart toaster that not only reskins the toaster's OS to be Disney themed, but also contains a hidden easter egg micky mouse platformer that you control using the temperature dial.
@@babylonian Nugget's asking the real questions here how IS life on Mars Nick... and is it apart of your constant quest to not find out what time it is?
"So, after months of planning, I finally went to Area 51. Everything was ready, there was no way my plan could fail. ... ... ... ...Except, it did. Very few people actually came to the Area 51 raid, despite the millions of signs."
@@godsclown4419 actually the UFO in Majora’s Mask used neither of these designs. The inspiration behind the aliens “them” and the UFO comes from the popular West Virginian legend of the “Flatwoods Monster”. The sighting of this creature (now believed to have merely been a barn owl) was accompanied by what onlookers describe as a large ball of light. Nintendo used this story as the basis for the aliens in Majora’s Mask, and they were also recently used in Fallout 76.
I think because it was originally a mobile game and is only like 8 dollars it was probably made by a smaller team within HAL as a side project. So... technically it’s indie?
HAL originally did start as more of an indie company that was lead by people doing passion projects, and ended up bought by Nintendo by 2000 So, even if they've got way bigger clout they still came from Indie roots I find that really neat
@@kirbyofthestarsfan technically every game is an indie game because at Nintendo for example, different smaller sections of Nintendo make the games instead of some giant corporate machine that people think make it.
@@TheGameChallenger "AAA" and "indie" games are separated by amount of budget, so if they are part of larger company they have a lot of budget and probably kinda big team. So most of Nintendo games cannot be called indie
It’s weird to see a Nick Robinson video that’s this mellow. With most of his videos, he’s uncovering a giant mystery and discovering the secrets inside of some obscure interest of his, but this is so calm compared to that.
Even if this doesn’t get millions of views like your most popular stuff, I’m so glad you made it. Having a slower, in-depth interview with someone so knowledgeable, connected to an esoteric cultural trend in video games that you happened to notice is really neat.
It's interesting to note that the opening to MOTHER 2/Earthbound does NOT use the 3-balled UFO in the opening even though it's a Japanese game. This may be due to it being set in a western-themed location?
I was honestly just expecting a video about ooo spooky UFOs but this video actually taught me a little bit more about japanese culture and how different cultures will lean into other theories more Nick, you’re a genius!
I love this video, it's really just so heartwarming and instead of being scared and worried about if ufo's exist now I really just think "huh, Guess it's more people to make friends with". And I think we should apply this to society more, if you meet a random person there's a much higher chance there a regular, nice person like you are who don't have any bad intentions and should be given a chance. I'm not saying trust everyone all the time I'm just saying we should all assume people are nice and normal people but we don't know them and shouldn't fully trust them
But then again... I don't want to burst your bubble, but civilizations meeting up for the first time has often resulted in violence. Think of colonialism and the still ongoing difficulties to make contact with the people on North Sentinel Island.
@@Thoomas2001 yes but what I like about this is it shows how if they exist what if they think that same thing? And are thinking "I hope the humans will be friendly when we go to earth"
@@Thoomas2001 If we already think they're and enemy it's not going to help the situation. In the case of the native americans they were mostly friendly but us europeans were greedy and once we saw that they had gold we were the ones who were bad, if we weren't so greedy at that point in time it would probably not have ended up as bad, so don't have a negative attitude against new people but don't be naive either.
I have to point out Nick's ability (and also Proffessor Bader) to be able to make such an interesting and entertaining video based on just interviews. So many people done it wrong and make it very boring. Nick's editing skill and the interesting conversation turns what could be a boring or plain interview, into a well packed and paced 10 minutes of entertainment, well done Nick. Also when it comes to Japanese depiction of UFO, I think we need to also consider Japanese entertainment (especially TV in general). If you watch Abroad In Japan's "Why I DON'T Watch JAPANESE TV", he explains that Japanese TV is full of shows that is way to optimistic, so optimistic and it feels unsettling. While in the west, most shows are full of dramatic moments, this might explain the two different depiction of UFO. Simply one culture that is the Japanese culture prefers an optimistic image of the alien's ship while the western culture prefer a more darker dramatic one.
Nick Robinson: To get to the bottom of why this is the Japanese’s most widely accepted depiction of a ufo, I flew to japan to talk with an expert on a zoom call.
Predictions before premiere: -He flies to Japan -He discovers some secret never before documented -He spends way too much time stalking people to find someone for an interview -The Japan thing again
I live in Italy, and for me (and 90% of the people i asked), "our" ufo is domed (and has a glass dome/cockpit) like the japanese one, but it doesn't have the balls underneath, it's just smooth and with a circular abduction opening valve, and sometimes 3 landing legs. Usually has a lot lights underneath. It's probably the European Ufo, a mix of both, basically has the under part of an US one, and the top part of a japanese ufo.
Nick makes me appreciate the small things in life like Mario's hair or Japanese UFOs. I love how he can make a whole documentary about cute little UFOs with orbs on the bottom
Japan has human aliens being the norm. Many shonen characters, but especially the Saiyans from Dragon Ball, are individuals of these kinds. Similar for certain parts of Europe, but especially the Germanic world, which also have human aliens.
"So, after not getting any answer that i wanted, i almost gave up... But then i realized there's one thing i still need to do to confirm this story, so i booked a ticket to Japan"
The work of Dr. Bader seems so fascinating. I was always really curious what the dynamics behind paranormal believes were, it is such a big part influence on our world after all. I guess I'll buy his book sooner or later
There's also the idea that Japanese folk tales mixed into ufo depictions, especially the stories of princesses from foreign lands arriving in some "ufo" shaped woven ships from I believe the 1300s.
@@nik021298 most likely, the second story was inspired by the first one. Interestingly, in the first one the girl was adopted by a farmer while in the later one the girl was sent back to the sea. The second one first arose around the 1900s when Japan was becoming very isolationist and xenophobic. Trey the explainer has a video going in depth on it.
So interesting! Just recently my japanese professor started reading us children's books, and there was this interesting pattern where whenever there was this cute story featuring a series of different classic animals like elephant, bear, rabbit, etc, there was also obake, or ghost! And the depiction of a cartoony ghost is also consistently different. Here in the US, you generally have maybe a floating white bedsheet with holes cut out, but in japan it has a little tail and is overall more "tear drop" shaped. My professor explained this saying that in japan, ghosts are very common in children's stories, possibly with the original intention to scare kids so they go to sleep sooner, but this manifests in the long term as a general fondness for ghosts, even if they still tell scary stories about them in school and such.
I've noticed that Japanese culture has more respect and friendliness even to the point it's baked into their language, that's probably the reason why a more friendlier ufo story was so popular there... Very interesting how much cultures and the stuff that is going on in a country can impact so much.
It probably also has to do with how they weren’t colonized, they only benefited from western technology, so the advanced stranger is a friendly thing instead of an evil thing, like in cultures where colonization was prominent.
@@davidace5864 I mean.... didn't the US bomb the shit outta them and then forced them to be more democratic and less isolated? I mean that helped them in the end, but still.
Adamski's depiction of aliens remind me of Jojo's Diamond is unbreakable alien. -Blonde - friendly - mysterious Yep Adamski's influence extends further than just design.
This is honestly one of the coolest youtube channels I've ever seen. I don't even play video games very much, but these videos make me feel nostalgic for them.
I appreciate TH-cam videos that go into way too much detail about topics I would never otherwise care about. It makes me feel like I learned and accomplished something.
This is why the Japanese name for the Transformers character Cosmos is Adams. Oddly, he completely lacks the orbs on the bottom but has the same done top.
Whoa! A sponsor at the end of the video. I feel like that’s so rare now. So often it’s put in the middle now a days to make it harder to skip. Weird respect for it being at the end.
As soon as nick pointed out the three orbs under UFOs, I immediately thought of how weird Samus' ship looked in Metroid Prime 2 (after playing Prime Hunters and Prime 1 so much). Absolutely wild.
@@babylonian in retrospect it makes sense and would be the “normal” ship design since it was used all the way back in Super Metroid but I’ve not played the old Metroid games (pre-Prime) before so I was unaware of this 🙃
from my own perspective as a japanese person, I think it's a modernized carry over of the concept of supernatural things. Japanese folklore has entire compendiums dedicated to spirits and the likes. Something like aliens are a modern inception of paranormal folklore for modern times, and we still know so little about space that it's easy to wonder about.
This was a great video and this video actually made me notice the countless old & new "alien/ufo" anime and manga I have read have friendly aliens but in more recent anime and manga it is depicted more like the western but some still retain the friendly nature.
The Pokemon Elgyem and Beheeyem also our great examples of this as well since their hands are similarly given three orbs. That and their design looks to be spaceship-esque.
i can never relate to the titles but my interest is always peaked and i always feel this intense need to watch ur vids, like you feed this weird thing in me that hungers for odd and niche topics
And cute things, unlike in the west, aren't considered primarily feminine or childish. In fact, "tough" male characters disliking cute things is used as a sign of immaturity, like a complete 180 compared to America.
oml as a kid it took me so long to realize some of these were ufos, especially in these squishy art styles, i never even questioned what they actually were lol
Whoa... I’m Japanese and even I didn’t realize the difference until you pointed it out. I didn’t even know about Adamski. But his vision of aliens is super wholesome.
I also noticed that the alien Mikitaka in Jojo's Bizarre Adventure (manga/anime series ofc) is also a friendly human-looking figure with long blond hair like in Adamski's story.
Touhou UFO, inspired by the 30th anniversary of Space Invaders features a scoring system based on collecting mini ufos of the same color or of each three color to spawn a bigger ufo. Red gives more 1-ups, green gives bombs, Blue gives more points, and Rainbow (collect one of each color) switches the type of items absorbed from it
Now I’m curious whether the Adamski portrayal becoming popular in Japan coincides with the depiction of Kaguyahime and the Moon People with blonde hair, or if that came before. Either way, I’m sure the idea of benevolent but mysterious aliens appealed to them due to things like Kaguyahime.
I'm Japanese and my English is bad, so I use translation Kaguyahime (The Tale of the Bamboo-Cutter) is said to be the oldest Japanese story, written around the 9th or 10th century. Unless Adamski knew the story, any similarity to his portrayal would be coincidental. Nevertheless, the impression of the princess coming from the moon, who is mysterious, beautiful and brings wealth, may be the reason why Adamski's portrayal was widely accepted in Japan.
oh fun fact: in the Transformers franchise, there's an Autobot named Cosmos who turns into a UFO and he turns into *specifically* an Adamski-style UFO. (Actually iirc, Cosmos' name in the Japanese version of G1 is Adams). His personality fits in with the japanese version of alien stories featuring aliens that are more friendly as well.
Since I am currently in a sociology class, this video 1000% has me invested and wanting to show it to my professor, maybe during our online discussions, as I'm interested in seeing other's takes on this. Great video as always, Nick!
Keen attention to detail! I’d say it’s probably due to Earthbound being very America-inspired in its visuals, so that’s probably why the UFO resembles ‘Murica’s idea of one.
Japan has lots of little quirks like these. Like how the aliens are also
often octopus-like creatures instead of little grey men. Or how poison
and acid is often green in western media, but purple in Japan because
people is "a bad guy color" (which fun fact, is why Rayman's shirt was
changed to blue in Japan). Characters with thick glasses often have
concentric circles on them (which I think are supposed to be reminiscent
of bifocals), except at some point they became swirls. And I remember
there being some common differences among mythological creatures, and
probably in the way some animals are drawn, but I can't recall any just
off the top of my head.
Random fact: the aliens in Majora's Mask are based off the Flatwoods monster.
And Sableye is based off the Hopkinsville Goblin
If purple is considered a "bad guy" color in Japan that explains why the Decepticon symbol is purple
@@ChristianLegoFan1 Snowmen always being two balls with a bucket hat is another one. And blue penguins. It might say something about the conformist nature of Japanese society that there are so many "rules" about how to "correctly" depict this-or-that in cartoons.
This immediately brings to mind the Mario & Luigi games. Cackletta, the Shroobs and Antasma: all purple. Oddly enough, perhaps because of the perspective, I don't think the Shroob UFOs have the three orbs at the bottom. The Mothership has one dome-looking thing at the bottom that opens up to allow people to enter.
Just thought of the Access Ark in Kirby Planet Robobot as well which doesn't fit the usual pattern. But now I'm going to be looking for these UFOs everywhere.
Now I get the feeling of Splatoon.
I was born and raised in Japan, and generally in Japan, they see UFOs not as scary invaders who want to kill humans, but as a quirky, curious, and friendly entity. So as you guys mentioned in the video, people gravitated to Adamski’s UFO with the friendly aliens and positive encounters.
Since the overall vibe regarding UFOs is positive, the Japanese people did what Japanese people do best - create adorable mascot-like characters and illustrations of them. Not only are Adamski’s UFOs friendly, but they have rounder, kettle-like shapes, which look more friendly and cute, which led a lot of designers to base their UFOs on Adamski’s descriptions. With many representations of cute Adamski UFOs, especially in the 80s when I was a kid, that design got cemented in people’s minds as the default basic UFO. We were aware of other types of UFOs, as I read mangas for kids explaining various types of flying saucers, but when I drew UFOs, they were always the ever optimistic Adamski UFOs. (Heck, I still draw UFOs that way.)
great response
I remember the Utsuro-Bune from a friend of mine while strolling on Ueno Park. I say to her my knowledge of Saigo Takamori's popularity internationally and she traded my info with a local legend of the Utsuro-Bune...a very ancient Japanese urban legend
Yeah even the character Mikitaka from Jojo's Bizarre Adventure, by Hirohiko Araki, was depicted as one of these "nordic" aliens that Adamski wrote about.
Adamski was a liar, so, his UFO is actually non existent.
I have no idea whether English is your native language or if you learned it when you were young, but if it's a language you learned you speak it freaking good.
I really appreciate that you got a Professor who studies the paranormal, but not one who's like, crazy. Professor Bader was extremely cool!
Yeah! It’s cool to see someone who’s genuinely interested in studying the paranormal and urban legends but doesn’t just jump to “aliens built the pyramids”.
I agree.
He’s a sociologist..
Yeah he's actually a sociologist professor who studies the cultural impact of paranormal beliefs instead of being a crazy reality TV stereotype.
Lol that profile picture “all new”
Wait, the dude's name was Adamski? I wonder if that's why the Part Time UFO protagonist's name is Jobski.
yoooo holy SHIT
Most likely! These flying saucers with protrusions are known as Adamusukī‐gata UFOs (アダムスキー型ユーフォー) and this term is rather common in Japan.
Incidentally this “-sukī” suffix sounds similar to “suki” (fond), so in character names it often makes puns implying “(something)‐lover.”
Broski
Broski
Broski
It will be a monumental occasion whenever Nick's able to go back to Japan. In fact, I expect a video entirely dedicated to it.
I expect a 50 minutes documentary
@@malikfaisal416 yes
@@malikfaisal416 I expect a full 24-hour stream.
With 8 interviews with experts, at least 3 times he "stops dead with heart racing" at the magnitude of the revolution, and between 5 and 7 times the thinks he has reached the end of his journey before a new peice of evidence arrises...
The magnum opus
Nah, won't be a video entirely dedicated to it. It'll be a video that started as a dedicated video to the trip, but ends up uncovering the epic mystery of the 3 remaining proprietary thumb drives that contain the Mickey Mouse firmware update for the 2009 concept Samsung smart toaster that not only reskins the toaster's OS to be Disney themed, but also contains a hidden easter egg micky mouse platformer that you control using the temperature dial.
I can't believe Nick booked a ticket to Mars...
what a man.
remember the Perseverence rover? that was me
That's only natural for him, if he didn't book a ticket though -- that's where I would get worried for Nick.
@@babylonian how is it on Mars
@@babylonian Nugget's asking the real questions here how IS life on Mars Nick...
and is it apart of your constant quest to not find out what time it is?
But now he came back again
In search of answers, I booked a ticket and went to Area 51
"So, after months of planning, I finally went to Area 51. Everything was ready, there was no way my plan could fail.
...
...
...
...Except, it did. Very few people actually came to the Area 51 raid, despite the millions of signs."
Nick Robinson was never seen again
He Naruto ran out alive.
Due to pandemic, Area 51 has been closed indefinitely. But you can buy their merchs at Area 52 gift shop.
I’m the 1000 like
Dang, I didn't realize the difference in the UFOs in Japanese media until now. Now I am going to see it everywhere, too.
Now I wanna replay Legend of Zelda Majoras Mask to see if it's in there too because of the abduction thing.
@@godsclown4419 Yeah! Good thinking.
Same
@@godsclown4419 actually the UFO in Majora’s Mask used neither of these designs. The inspiration behind the aliens “them” and the UFO comes from the popular West Virginian legend of the “Flatwoods Monster”. The sighting of this creature (now believed to have merely been a barn owl) was accompanied by what onlookers describe as a large ball of light. Nintendo used this story as the basis for the aliens in Majora’s Mask, and they were also recently used in Fallout 76.
@@jakespeer7221 That is a lot of good information, Jake.
This is a cute little game, even though it's made by a big company, it gives off that indie game feel.
honestly old kirby games would probably feel indie now
I think because it was originally a mobile game and is only like 8 dollars
it was probably made by a smaller team within HAL as a side project.
So... technically it’s indie?
HAL originally did start as more of an indie company that was lead by people doing passion projects, and ended up bought by Nintendo by 2000
So, even if they've got way bigger clout they still came from Indie roots
I find that really neat
@@kirbyofthestarsfan technically every game is an indie game because at Nintendo for example, different smaller sections of Nintendo make the games instead of some giant corporate machine that people think make it.
@@TheGameChallenger "AAA" and "indie" games are separated by amount of budget, so if they are part of larger company they have a lot of budget and probably kinda big team. So most of Nintendo games cannot be called indie
-Rusty's Real Deal Baseball ✅
-Japan ✅
Yep, classic Nick Robinson
Only thing missing is Driver: San Francisco
@@sweeflyboy and Monkey Ball
Rhythm heaven too
Nintendo
@@MaruIsAlone and a gay VN
It’s weird to see a Nick Robinson video that’s this mellow. With most of his videos, he’s uncovering a giant mystery and discovering the secrets inside of some obscure interest of his, but this is so calm compared to that.
Almost as mellow as Adamski's conception of aliens
Is the music, I would kill for the name of the track that starts at 1:30
Edit: found it, Satellites by Ebb & Flod.
Shit did not expect a professor from my school would show up here. I was history though, so never took him.
Lmao
Neat.
lmfaoooo dude thats awesome
that professor looks like one president we had in my country (argentina),his name was:mauricio macri,many people hated him
I've driven past Chapman I couple times. It's a really nice area near my home town
"Ive heard about Alien sightings in Japan so I booked a flight to space world 2000 in Japan"
"imma go back in time"
Lol
Even if this doesn’t get millions of views like your most popular stuff, I’m so glad you made it. Having a slower, in-depth interview with someone so knowledgeable, connected to an esoteric cultural trend in video games that you happened to notice is really neat.
thank u ghostie 😌
I didn’t know where to buy this game, so I *flew to Japan*
-Nick Robinson, 2021 (probably)
Thats how I feel every video of nicks
Dedication tho
To bad there's not a website called "play asia" to buy games from japan.
@@mikekazz5353 yeah i really wish i could go onto a website specifically named "play asia" to game a japanese video game
The arcade shooter "Eschatos" has the most epic depiction of Japanese UFOS in the whole of video gaming. It's jaw dropping!
hahahah, i just looked it up and watched the first boss battle - you're exactly right. that rules
@@babylonian Now on the Nintendo Switch! 😃
Holy shit, now I understad what influenced Araki while creating Mikitaki from Diamond is Unbreakable. Same friendly character, same appearance
Also answering the question of "How does he look like a blond human when that is an extremely unlikely scenario?"
OH MY GOD I did realize that until now, HOLY SHIT
It's interesting to note that the opening to MOTHER 2/Earthbound does NOT use the 3-balled UFO in the opening even though it's a Japanese game. This may be due to it being set in a western-themed location?
@Master Shifu yeah, which means that Itoi made a conscious effort not to use the traditional UFO normally used within Japanese culture.
@@Verdancy and that’s really satisfying.
Agreed, it just shows the detail that Itoi went to
Also worth noting that the Li'l Saucer enemy from Mother 1/Earthbound Beginnings DOES use the 3-balled UFO.
earthbound was always western themed
Could Adamski's popularity overseas, be the reason why this UFO's name is _Jobski?_
Holy shit broskii
I was just thinking that
Probably, In Japan the UFO from Transformers was called "Adams" as a reference.
Yes, it is.
I was honestly just expecting a video about ooo spooky UFOs but this video actually taught me a little bit more about japanese culture and how different cultures will lean into other theories more
Nick, you’re a genius!
This is another thing I can't unsee and I will always notice it.
I love this video, it's really just so heartwarming and instead of being scared and worried about if ufo's exist now I really just think "huh, Guess it's more people to make friends with". And I think we should apply this to society more, if you meet a random person there's a much higher chance there a regular, nice person like you are who don't have any bad intentions and should be given a chance. I'm not saying trust everyone all the time I'm just saying we should all assume people are nice and normal people but we don't know them and shouldn't fully trust them
But then again... I don't want to burst your bubble, but civilizations meeting up for the first time has often resulted in violence. Think of colonialism and the still ongoing difficulties to make contact with the people on North Sentinel Island.
@@Thoomas2001 yes but what I like about this is it shows how if they exist what if they think that same thing? And are thinking "I hope the humans will be friendly when we go to earth"
@@RotCrot Maybe they would. Would be cool.
@@Thoomas2001 If we already think they're and enemy it's not going to help the situation. In the case of the native americans they were mostly friendly but us europeans were greedy and once we saw that they had gold we were the ones who were bad, if we weren't so greedy at that point in time it would probably not have ended up as bad, so don't have a negative attitude against new people but don't be naive either.
@@Starlightbooper We see similar situations happen on North Sentinel Island, as well as in a lot of animal species, so it's not too weird a reaction.
The answer was Kirby all along. It’s shaped like a friend
Kirby kirby kirby that's the name you should know ~
First you draw a circle
@Dont look at my channel banner Draw a great big smile
The professor you interviewed seems so chill, seems like a really interesting subject he researches
I wish there were more people interested in modern mythology, instead of nutters using it to spook people into some world view.
I have to point out Nick's ability (and also Proffessor Bader) to be able to make such an interesting and entertaining video based on just interviews. So many people done it wrong and make it very boring. Nick's editing skill and the interesting conversation turns what could be a boring or plain interview, into a well packed and paced 10 minutes of entertainment, well done Nick.
Also when it comes to Japanese depiction of UFO, I think we need to also consider Japanese entertainment (especially TV in general). If you watch Abroad In Japan's "Why I DON'T Watch JAPANESE TV", he explains that Japanese TV is full of shows that is way to optimistic, so optimistic and it feels unsettling. While in the west, most shows are full of dramatic moments, this might explain the two different depiction of UFO. Simply one culture that is the Japanese culture prefers an optimistic image of the alien's ship while the western culture prefer a more darker dramatic one.
Geez, thanks for the info!
So basically, the virgin US hollywood dramas vs the chad japanese cute optimism
Nick Robinson: To get to the bottom of why this is the Japanese’s most widely accepted depiction of a ufo, I flew to japan to talk with an expert on a zoom call.
Predictions before premiere:
-He flies to Japan
-He discovers some secret never before documented
-He spends way too much time stalking people to find someone for an interview
-The Japan thing again
he said in the live hqngout that he wanted to visit japan after the pandemic
Wrong
@@nataliexists in all fairness, you have no idea if he had to e-stalk this professor to get this interview. lol
I live in Italy, and for me (and 90% of the people i asked), "our" ufo is domed (and has a glass dome/cockpit) like the japanese one, but it doesn't have the balls underneath, it's just smooth and with a circular abduction opening valve, and sometimes 3 landing legs. Usually has a lot lights underneath. It's probably the European Ufo, a mix of both, basically has the under part of an US one, and the top part of a japanese ufo.
I'm from Pakistan and that's also what comes to mind when I think of a flying saucer.
Nick makes me appreciate the small things in life like Mario's hair or Japanese UFOs. I love how he can make a whole documentary about cute little UFOs with orbs on the bottom
“...so I booked a ticket to space to ask an alien why this happens”
drink a beer and watchin so much nick youtube video on the computer. The ideal
j
If this isn't about Hello Kitty Island Adventures, I'm going be upset.
It’s not, the game is in the description
@@ipapermc smh gotta spoil it huh🙄🙄 (this is a joke)
oof
Nooooooooo
I love how all around the world aliens are the smart creatures that will destroy earth and then japan just has blonde guys in jumpsuits
Japan has human aliens being the norm. Many shonen characters, but especially the Saiyans from Dragon Ball, are individuals of these kinds. Similar for certain parts of Europe, but especially the Germanic world, which also have human aliens.
@@SlapstickGenius23 I wouldn't say especially dragon ball since saiyans are the only real aliens who look like humans
@@SlapstickGenius23 What have I missed in my country?
@@SlapstickGenius23 it's the same wich Uchuu Senkan Yamato, the aliens are just purple guys lol, still the series rock
@@TheAtomicT Russo-Japanese War stories, perhaps?
"So, after not getting any answer that i wanted, i almost gave up... But then i realized there's one thing i still need to do to confirm this story, so i booked a ticket to Japan"
The work of Dr. Bader seems so fascinating. I was always really curious what the dynamics behind paranormal believes were, it is such a big part influence on our world after all. I guess I'll buy his book sooner or later
There's also the idea that Japanese folk tales mixed into ufo depictions, especially the stories of princesses from foreign lands arriving in some "ufo" shaped woven ships from I believe the 1300s.
I heard of another version of that story set in the 1800s. Instead of a princess it was an American adventurer.
@@Messier__ I think those might be different stories rather than different versions
@@nik021298 when I read this I laughed a bit lol
Like kaguya?
@@nik021298 most likely, the second story was inspired by the first one. Interestingly, in the first one the girl was adopted by a farmer while in the later one the girl was sent back to the sea. The second one first arose around the 1900s when Japan was becoming very isolationist and xenophobic. Trey the explainer has a video going in depth on it.
So interesting! Just recently my japanese professor started reading us children's books, and there was this interesting pattern where whenever there was this cute story featuring a series of different classic animals like elephant, bear, rabbit, etc, there was also obake, or ghost! And the depiction of a cartoony ghost is also consistently different. Here in the US, you generally have maybe a floating white bedsheet with holes cut out, but in japan it has a little tail and is overall more "tear drop" shaped. My professor explained this saying that in japan, ghosts are very common in children's stories, possibly with the original intention to scare kids so they go to sleep sooner, but this manifests in the long term as a general fondness for ghosts, even if they still tell scary stories about them in school and such.
The little UFO in animal crossing wild world is in this style and it is adorable 🥺 also the UFOs in the duck hunt game in wii play
hahah, great examples! good catch
also the plot of the animated movie based on Wild World has a similar "benevolent watcher from beyond the stars" conceit.
I love this channel it gives the most in depth answers to questions nobody asked
I've noticed that Japanese culture has more respect and friendliness even to the point it's baked into their language, that's probably the reason why a more friendlier ufo story was so popular there... Very interesting how much cultures and the stuff that is going on in a country can impact so much.
It probably also has to do with how they weren’t colonized, they only benefited from western technology, so the advanced stranger is a friendly thing instead of an evil thing, like in cultures where colonization was prominent.
Ye they have everything cute so no wonder ufo is too.
@@davidace5864 I mean.... didn't the US bomb the shit outta them and then forced them to be more democratic and less isolated?
I mean that helped them in the end, but still.
Adamski's depiction of aliens remind me of Jojo's Diamond is unbreakable alien.
-Blonde
- friendly
- mysterious
Yep Adamski's influence extends further than just design.
drink a beer and watchin so much nick youtube video on the computer. The ideal
Can he turn into shoes though?
I half expected you to go
“So I did the only thing that I could. I booked a flight to space to ask the aliens themselves.”
This is honestly one of the coolest youtube channels I've ever seen. I don't even play video games very much, but these videos make me feel nostalgic for them.
Kinda like how Japanese Kirby is cute, and western Kirby is angry and hostile.
I’m curious if the shroobs have the balls on their ufos, because um, they are far from friendly.
They don’t.
I appreciate TH-cam videos that go into way too much detail about topics I would never otherwise care about. It makes me feel like I learned and accomplished something.
This is why the Japanese name for the Transformers character Cosmos is Adams. Oddly, he completely lacks the orbs on the bottom but has the same done top.
“I had no other options, so I had to fly to mars, the hometown of the aliens and ask them a few questions.”
Watching Nicks videos with a bottle of sprite chillin with my dog this the ideal
Whoa! A sponsor at the end of the video. I feel like that’s so rare now. So often it’s put in the middle now a days to make it harder to skip. Weird respect for it being at the end.
As soon as nick pointed out the three orbs under UFOs, I immediately thought of how weird Samus' ship looked in Metroid Prime 2 (after playing Prime Hunters and Prime 1 so much). Absolutely wild.
hahaha, nice! that's a very interesting example of an unconventional use of this trope
@@babylonian in retrospect it makes sense and would be the “normal” ship design since it was used all the way back in Super Metroid but I’ve not played the old Metroid games (pre-Prime) before so I was unaware of this 🙃
@Javier_YT I did mention that yeah
from my own perspective as a japanese person, I think it's a modernized carry over of the concept of supernatural things. Japanese folklore has entire compendiums dedicated to spirits and the likes. Something like aliens are a modern inception of paranormal folklore for modern times, and we still know so little about space that it's easy to wonder about.
This was a great video and this video actually made me notice the countless old & new "alien/ufo" anime and manga I have read have friendly aliens but in more recent anime and manga it is depicted more like the western but some still retain the friendly nature.
Another factor may be that Japanese mythology has friendly aliens that would be right at home with the 50s stories of friendly aliens.
Aww. Cute.
The Pokemon Elgyem and Beheeyem also our great examples of this as well since their hands are similarly given three orbs. That and their design looks to be spaceship-esque.
i can never relate to the titles but my interest is always peaked and i always feel this intense need to watch ur vids, like you feed this weird thing in me that hungers for odd and niche topics
Great video, Nick. I had a lot of fun watching this. I sadly wasn’t able to see the premiere.
Nick is amazing. He makes me interested in random Sh!t, that I wouldn't bat an eye at
I think it might have something to do with Japanese media's tendency to "cutify" things wherever possible
And cute things, unlike in the west, aren't considered primarily feminine or childish. In fact, "tough" male characters disliking cute things is used as a sign of immaturity, like a complete 180 compared to America.
@@OtakuUnitedStudio wow that's surprising
Moeify is the term I believe?
This was not the mystery of the Morshu voice actor video I was hoping for but I still loved it.
Your storytelling is so damn satisfying I just don't know how you can make every topic work so well
🥺 that’s so kind of you to say! thank u max
oml as a kid it took me so long to realize some of these were ufos, especially in these squishy art styles, i never even questioned what they actually were lol
Whoa... I’m Japanese and even I didn’t realize the difference until you pointed it out. I didn’t even know about Adamski. But his vision of aliens is super wholesome.
Kinda surprised the professor wasn't wearing a tin foil hat. He actually had a really interesting and educated perspective.
you gotta love how the live chat was just spamming “@“ because of a typo
What was the typo? I looked away for 1 sec and then came back to all the @'s.
what was the typo
A = @ on Place
7:00 "That alien it's-ahh that's interesting I'd forgotten it had 3 balls"
Great double entendre. They truly are more advanced
Now I want a game where good aliens in Japanese UFOs help humans defend from and invasion of evil aliens using American UFOs
I do really like the longer videos but it’s nice to have a short, simple, and concise Nick Robinson video.
God I always love how these videos are always a deep dive into the most random topics sometimes.
I'm happy that I always learn something new when I watch you, thanks ❤
George Adamski's UFO design is awesome; no other design can top it.
did not think i'd come out of this video understanding mikitaka, but you learn something new every day.
this is the most nick robinson thing i ve seen this week
I've seen UFO's like these in a few games and never once questioned it, enlightening and thought provoking video as always Nick
If I haven't played the game yet, I hope there are no spoilers.
@ESparda A.K.A.悪魔の死神 Got a kick out of this. I still want to be surprised by the game. Just looking for some light-hearted discussion about UFOs
Nick out here asking the REAL QUESTIONS
Dr. Bader has been waiting for this question for his entire life
I also noticed that the alien Mikitaka in Jojo's Bizarre Adventure (manga/anime series ofc) is also a friendly human-looking figure with long blond hair like in Adamski's story.
what if UFO's are like... the intergalactic equivalent of cars?
they all have Roughly the same overall shape but are differently shaped in features?
I love your way of commentating; your videos are always so informative, but entertaining at the same time!
Rad video, picked up Part Time UFO during the e3 sale, holy hell some of the extra objectives are difficult
Touhou UFO, inspired by the 30th anniversary of Space Invaders features a scoring system based on collecting mini ufos of the same color or of each three color to spawn a bigger ufo. Red gives more 1-ups, green gives bombs, Blue gives more points, and Rainbow (collect one of each color) switches the type of items absorbed from it
In search for answers, I flew to *space*
Video Games being my main media source as a child I just thought this is how ufo's looked since most of the games I played originated in japan
Yes. Because we know what ufos look like and that they are real.
I can't wait for the tic tac ufo era
Wow I've always drawn my ufos like that and I've never known why
"Out of options, and in search of answers, I booked a ticket and went to *S P A C E* and got abducted by aliens."
Freakin wicked video ,amazing feature one my faves so detailed an creative
Brilliant observation, that's crazy man. Not even a guy who studies this stuff really noticed that
It's all a hoax perpetrated on the video game world by Dr. Wily.
There's something so nice about how he just answers Nick's questions and just has a conversation
"I wanted to know if the UFOs really looked like this, so I booked a flight to space"
1:52. This drawing looks a lot like ancient alien cave paintings. Not a coincidence!
Now I’m curious whether the Adamski portrayal becoming popular in Japan coincides with the depiction of Kaguyahime and the Moon People with blonde hair, or if that came before. Either way, I’m sure the idea of benevolent but mysterious aliens appealed to them due to things like Kaguyahime.
I'm Japanese and my English is bad, so I use translation
Kaguyahime (The Tale of the Bamboo-Cutter) is said to be the oldest Japanese story, written around the 9th or 10th century. Unless Adamski knew the story, any similarity to his portrayal would be coincidental. Nevertheless, the impression of the princess coming from the moon, who is mysterious, beautiful and brings wealth, may be the reason why Adamski's portrayal was widely accepted in Japan.
oh fun fact: in the Transformers franchise, there's an Autobot named Cosmos who turns into a UFO and he turns into *specifically* an Adamski-style UFO. (Actually iirc, Cosmos' name in the Japanese version of G1 is Adams). His personality fits in with the japanese version of alien stories featuring aliens that are more friendly as well.
5:29 Holup... there’s a Dr. Luigi!??!?
Since I am currently in a sociology class, this video 1000% has me invested and wanting to show it to my professor, maybe during our online discussions, as I'm interested in seeing other's takes on this. Great video as always, Nick!
EarthBound's UFO is the only japanese UFO that looks like the US one.
And by that I mean the one that shows up on the intro before the title screen.
Keen attention to detail! I’d say it’s probably due to Earthbound being very America-inspired in its visuals, so that’s probably why the UFO resembles ‘Murica’s idea of one.
I guess it's because Earthbound's whole aesthetic is based of the US, so it would make sense to have the most common american version of an UFO.
And in Earthbound, the alien force is antagonistic instead of friendly. It goes hand in hand with the later american depiction of UFOs.
I think alpha dream is japanese so the shroob ufos is also one of the japanese UFOs that looks like the US one
That's true for Earthbound, but Earthbound Beginnings uses the 3 spheres design
Ah man, I love your interviews man, really nice subject that I hadn’t given much thought, quality vid :).
Adamski alien looks like JoJo's Part 4 Alien
Maybe thats why Mikitaka looks that way :0 based on the blonde, long haired human like aliens from Adamskis books, thats so interesting ♡
That's the first thing I thought when I saw it haha, now I 100% believe he was actually an alien
Guys I know this sounds crazy but this _may_ be a Jojo reference
Dagnab my notifications for not telling me you uploaded