Thank god you talked about Kare Kano. I'm 6 episodes in and I think it's one of my favorite animes of all time. Anno is such a sensitive writer-director, and even with limited animation, Shiro Sagisu's score elevates the entire thing to godhood.
Interesting video. As an autistic person, discarding my "fantasies" are not really possible for me. I live in my inner world as much as the real world and discover a healthy balance and not feeling shame for it having fantasies in the first place was something that took quite a bit of time for me to do. BTW you ever watch Night is Short Walk on Girl? I think it would be up your alley. Anyways, you got yourself a new subscriber.
watched Masaki Yuasa’s The Night Is Short, Walk On Girl tonight and had to return to the this video because of how much it reminded me of Undetectable Box. Both are stories that are so invested in the connections between people and romanticizing what life hands you rather than engineering a perfect version in your mind, not to mention the stylistic similarities. Still a lovely video
16:07 i want you to know just how much of a gutpunch this song was, the mix of insanely good electric guitar and amen break was something i was NOT prepared for but now i simply must hear more. anyways walter mitty (the new one) was a movie i saw snippets of when i was a kid, just walking through the living room while my parents watched it on the tv, and the surreal shifts between scenarios always really stuck with me. i still havent watched it all the way through but watching this video has made me want to go and give it a watch update: ive now watched the rest of the video, as well as undetectable box, and like. MAN. THAT WAS SO GOOD WHAT THE HELL ..... the visuals REALLY portray exactly what it feels like to curl up into a ball inside your mind and what it takes to get over those feelings, it was simply transcendent. amazing video, amazing short film
i REALLY love stuff that plays with narratives and makes you feel like you really are The Person This Story Is About, and undetectable box does that in a way i’ll be thinking about for a while. thanks for putting it on my radar and great video :)!!
Cannot wait to see your channel blow up, man. I've watched the Wario Land 4 video a couple times and this is just as good as that video, if not better. Also nice to see somebody mention The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, I had no idea that the original adaptation came out in the 1930s. I watched the 2nd adaptation of it on Christmas in 2013 and it's lived in my head since, so I'll have to check out the original.
I was following along and piecing together all of your points while watching, and then, once you got into the final chapter of it all, it just clicked perfectly. It’s about how it truly feels. Well made, Geno!
Great and fun video! Some comments have mentioned some of Yuasa's works, and I'll be leaving out one about it as well. Mind Game (2004) might not be fully perfect in all regards, but after watching it earlier this year it became one of my favorite mishmash fantarealism medias that i have seen. Some of the animated sequences stay rent free in my head, and I'll probably consider the "bone-breaking" moment to be one of the best setup/punchline visual jokes of all time. It's one of those movies that really go the extra mile to try to visually represent topics on Life and what-not.
Well damn, this was one great video! thank you for introducing me two of my new favorite short films I guess? I watched them both before finishing this video and was blown away by how much of an impact they had. I love this type of media, I fell in love with FLCL exactly because of how basically nonexistent the line between fantasy and reality is. My own adhd brain is quite the opposite, I adore dense stuff with flashy visuals, those things make me feel like a cat laserfocused, butt-wiggling about to pounce on my prey. It might not exactly fall in the same vein as the other pieces of media you listed here, but I think you would GREATLY enjoy Sonny Boy. If you haven't already seen it of course. Magnificent use of animation, stylisation, music and silence, and above all colours. I've seen people refer to Sonny Boy (the anime, to be clear) as "this generation's FLCL" and while I won't completely agree with that I see where that comparison comes from. Again, great video! Hope you have a wonderful day!
I’m impressed with how everything you talked about in this video was either right up my alley or something I already loved. Definitely gonna keep all these recommendations in mind, and keep making stuff! I love the vision that you have for your channel/music a lot
Funny, I've long lost the fear of "taking that first step" towards reaching to someone distant in a desire to connect in some way out of the amount of times I've done so. But I've NEVER been successful in any way, shape or form..
Found your channel through hazel and thorhighheels. Your quality of production and absolute passion for this video was excellent and I found out many things to look up later too. Thanks a bunch and hope to see you continue making great videos :)
YOOOOO FALSE MEMORY AND UNDETECTABLE BOX MENTION WOOOOO Im so happy i found this video in my recommendations. False Memory has been like, one of my favorite things for the past few years. And this video finally got me to sit down and watch all of Undetectable Box, too. (Which before, I kinda just saw as that thing they made before False Memory, and I couldn’t get all the way through it cause of its lower production quality.) It was interesting hearing that the subs of FM felt a bit sub-par and that Fang Tang’s explanation on the mechanics of Bug Men were confusing to you! I speak some mandarin, so maybe this is the kinda thing where people who are only reading the subtitles can feel something “off” and fully fluent speakers can easily hear when what’s being said doesn’t match what’s being spoken, while people who are like me and only partially understand the language don’t notice anything lol. Another thing is that, in my opinion, False Memory doesn’t necessarily NEED any follow-up, for the most part. It would be nice to see more of Fang Tang and Bai Zhong and maybe the rest of the memory processing bureau, (or whatever it’s called), but FM itself feels complete to me. I think literally the only thing that would feel weird to not get any further elaboration on is that bit where it’s implied that Bai Zhong was a Bug Source (I think?) before she arrived at the recycling place. And yes, the ET dub is SO GOOD! Literally the only complaints I have with it are that it butchers the names sometimes (eh, pinyin’s not that helpful of a pronunciation guide for english speakers, i get it…) and sometimes the timing feels a little off (common problem in dubs, often pretty hard to work around). Sometimes I think I might prefer Bai Zhong’s english voice? Although I do love both. So yeah, this has been a lot of words lmaoo, but great video! Having now watched Undetectable Box, I can now say I agree with you, that shit’s awesome
*and by elaborate on Bai Zhong’s deal, I don’t even necessarily mean a whole Bai Zhong backstory, more like elaboration on Bug Men/Bug Sources and the workings on the memory processors in general, ok addendum over
The little introduction at 16:26 with the music and stuff felt very Demolition D+ Which is good Good video Edit: the avgn moment was very funny Great video
prolly my fav vid that you've* put out thus far (and i prom'ss that's stuff and nonsense to do with the cameos of two out of my three favorite bands. in fact, i say personally the cardiacs tune was, maybe, a widdabit, distracting. mmm-anyways), as an aspiring artistboy, while i consider my primary trade to be tunemaking, storytelling is a really neat area of creative interest that, though i've dabbled in it before in the humble mediums of powerpoint visual novel and 100%-OC fanfiction, upon reflecting on said dabblings it occurred to me very recently that a real sense of weight to the individual actions of the characters was fairly lacking in them. this video kinda gets me thinkin'a'bout just what exactly it means to incorporate the human psychological element of storytelling in a natural & powerful way, and how to really create a deeper sense of connection to otherwise cold & unfeeling rgb values on a screen or ink atoms on a page and such and whatnot incomplete spaced ellipses .. *geno7, not the comment reader, unless you are geno7 of ofc'ing course
Given the audience, this probably aint new, but like... the entirety of Millennium Actress feels kind of related. The dense blurring of reality, film, AND fantasy (where the interviewer inserts himself into scenes) - like, just because it appears grounded and set in a time period that makes sense doesn't even give the audience a break, since it could be another movie. I think its also an interesting contrast, considering that it definitely isn't a coming of age story. I can't think of an eloquent way to put it, but like. The fallibility of memory. The way that it might not even matter, cos we can remember how things feel more strongly than they actually were. Kon's other stuff, like Paprika and Paranoia Agent and Perfect Blue also do similar stuff with combining real and unreal for some incredible dramatic moments, but I think Millennium Actress is the most interesting and does the most with the editing style in a thematic sense. It's tied into the whole package. Couldn't tell the story the same way without the fantasy sequences.
Loved the vid!!! It's always so nice to see how you're able to fit so many unique properties under 1 cohesive idea! I think you're discrediting Brazil's portrayal of Sam's weird pursuing of Jill throughout the movie a bit tho. SPOILERS FOR THE MOVIE FROM THIS LINE ON WARDS. Like, it's only ever seen as heroic in his fantasies and at the point of the movie where she starts returning those feelings is when his perception of the world is starting to get distorted to the point where he can't tell dream from reality. It's the tipping off point showing the audience that how he's seeing the world in the following moments is going to be unreliable and disoriented, and that turns out to be the case! That's the feeling I got whenever I saw how he treated her in the dream sequences vs in reality at least. It was showing how Sam was a participant in this society, and even an abuser of the system he acted like he was fighting against. To me the movie is advocating for people in these types of positions to have accountability with their actions which is a thing that's constantly being shirked around by the characters. I really dislike how the marketing of the Criterion Collection release painted him as this 'every man' hero. That's definitely not helping my case here lolol. Thank god we don't have to deal with the ending that the Studio forced Gilliam to make for the US release back when it premiered, where there's no twist and he just lives with Jill happily in the countryside at least.
Oh shit I just remembered!! Definitely check out the guildedguy story animations!! They're seriously incredible and hit upon this exact idea of figuration and abstraction through the lens of insane stick figure anime battles synced up to music. Incredibly well animated all the way throughout too. Watch them in release order if you can and be hyped for Story 3 and 4 because they're mind meltingly sick. I cant really tell you all the stick figure lore that goes with them but they're an incredible set of videos that hit upon something special.
I think another coming-of-age movie that does a great job at conveying how immense small things like vulnerability and connection feel like, though it doesn't necessarily use surreal imagery to do so (more subtle stuff like music and cinematography) is 8th Grade. I was like 23 or something when I watched that but I was still going "She's just like me fr" when the music was thundering as the MC went to a friggin pool party
this video was great what a boon to my already massive watchlist... would highly recommend you check out at the very least the episode 'Pickle Trip' from the adult swim show Dream Corp LLC, while it has some outside context from other episodes it's maybe one of the most powerful episodes of television non-sequiter I've seen, and it feel like the perfect addition to this list even if it's merging of reality and fantasy are a little more distinguished!
If you haven’t, you should check out Mishima a life in four chapters. The movie is utterly obsessed with fantasies, imagination, storytelling, and the way they feed into reality and warp our lives. It’s one of my favourite movies.
I'm not sure if they're exactly the same as the kind of story you describe in this video, but I recommend checking out the manga works of Taiyo Matsumoto, I think you'd like them.
I do think you oversold Box a little bit, but it was still quite enjoyable and the animation was undeniable incredible for an amateur production. I will say tho I think you gave it too much credit in how self-aware it was being. I don't think the female lead was being used as a meta-analysis of idealised love interest in media, I just think it was an example of what a crush is. It's liking someone without knowing anything about them, and pushing everything you want to be true about them, fantasy and all, onto them. He had a crush on a girl, thought she was really cool, and yeah, was afraid to talk to her. Overall it was great though, and you should hold onto how much you like it since clearly it meant more to you than the sum of it's parts.
Before I talk about our shared passion on undetectable box, I wanna touch on false memory. The entire exposition dump sequence of the short is completely negligible and avoidable. Sure, it explains stuff in thorough detail, but its mainly acting as a setup for "soon-to-come" episodes of it (and lord knows I'm waiting till those inevitably get released). On that same note, the two characters who act as "memory collectors" are also negligible characters in the scheme of the story. They, again, would act as tying pieces to the rest of the story, if there were many more episodes out currently. If you have seen the anime Mononoke, it follows a very similar format. The people involved with the job are only there to pull the important pieces of story out of the main characters of these sequences. All you have to know is that there is someone or something in this guys brain that is "helping" him fight bullies, and its the collectors job to get them out. That being said, false memory is a seriously emotionally impressive short, I definetly hold it and undetectable box on the same level. The idea it follows is pretty simple, similar to undetectable box, but is so well executed it still blows my mind that some full anime couldn't even scrape it. Its really a story about overcoming your fears in a useful way. The "bugman" acts as a mental blocker for the main character, only showing him what he wants him to see. As the short reveals that every memory prior was changed to function as positive. But the emotional crux of this story comes at the end, where the bugman pushes and forces his hand to break through the "glass" of the main characters mind. The rock he throws being both symbolic in its portrayal of overcoming the fears and anxiety he faces in day to day life, and being literal, as he throws the same rock at the bullies in the last shot. Beyond that, the executtion of these ideas being so over-the-top and bombastic, and a primary portion of its story being told through actions and not dialouge just makes it such a monumentous thing. It really takes the trope of "everything didnt actually happen and was just a schizophrenic's delusion" and makes it completely practical and meaningful. Onto undetectable box, I feel like both of these stories are heavy exaggerations of real life events the writer wants to overcome. This resonates with me because 1, I am in the exact same position and 2. I am an animator myself. I feel like a lot of these massively over-the-top exaggerations of real life are just what the animators see. A literal version of the dreamscape trope. I even feel myself drifting off into a space where I break apart the world around me in animation form, then it snaps back together. Normal daydream stuff, but with much more visual pungency. Which makes me think that the steps the character is taking being seen as so bombastic could actually be literal. As the author is most likely imaging themselves doing all of this while just trying to take a step foreword. Some other stuff like how her hands being hurt is blown massively out of proportion with his daydream sequences, even though its made clear through one of the first scenes we see of her that she scraped them by eating shit while skateboarding. Just showcasing how someone can completely alter their world exclusively through their thoughts, and how that can be detrimental to their view of things. Or how he constantly tries to avoid the moment by thinking about something completely different to distract him, with these thoughts becoming their own visual alteration. It honestly just makes me happy to see someone who completely gets the resonation of this short film as much as I do. I was gonna write a lot more in this section (even though this is a massive wall of text you most likely weren't expecting to see) but you kind of already said everything I wanted to. I really just wanted to give respect to the fact that we BOTH get it completely. As well, false memory and undetectable box both represent very similar points and portrayals of those points, As False memory is about taking action in your own life, and undetectable box takes the same approach, but only focuses on the first step.
While not a short film, I recently watched 'The Triplets of Belleville', and I found it incredibly interesting how it used the animated medium to make the whole world seem like a caricature fantasy version of reality. Both with character designs, which pushed every trait from a conventional human form to it's extreme, leading to visual distinction and clarity of character within every frame. But also how (at least in my opinion), it deliberately subverts the expectations on the kind of film it is. As the plot quickly spirals out of control, from a hero's journey of dedicating your life to one singular goal in an ever changing world, to an inter-continental secret society mystery, you expect the characters to develop or change with their world becoming flipped, but much like the characters designs, all that we need to know, and all we'll ever know is placed immediately in front of us. It also used Fantasy sequences, to mark key turning points in the film, which are short but poignant with the repeated motif of trains. Vehicles which are stuck on rails, and thier journeys predestined by factors both known and unknown to them, despite the aggravation against them. Though I will admit, I've always liked visual motifs which change meaning over the course of a piece of media, then constantly changing visuals to meet the writing motif (if that makes sense). Finally, I found it a breath of fresh air to see a story (even if it is a simple one) told almost entirely through silent characters. It's a testament to the strength of the animation, and the use of strong narrative archetypes, that I could easily understand everything within the tale, as it strayed further away from reality and into fantasy, with only the rarest of words being said (and even when spoken, the subtext is never told). Sorry if this felt like a bit of a ramble, but aster watching the film a week and a bit ago, it's stayed with me in ways I'm not entirely sure I can properly explain, though I wanted to say them anyways. I love fantasy, and dream sequences in films, and the entire thing felt like a strange unhinged dream entering reality. Overall I highly recommend people seek out 'The Triplets of Belleville'. It might just be the film for you. The video itself is fantastic, and it shows your skills in editing, and a very strong script which makes the most out of every paragraph. I can't wait to see what other interesting topics you cover, keep up the incredible work, and have a lovely day.
this is just another excuse for me to watch brazil i read some article about the indie artist "final fantasy" and how they were inspired by game music, they were asked if a track was inspired by a mario 3 track n he replied "i think mario 3 is just riffing off the brazil theme" and so i went to listen To the brazil theme and the song alongside visuals from the movie hasn't left my mind since (personally didnt hear its influence on mario though) tldr im gonna watch brazil now
I really appreciate your use of Signs by Cardiacs. It's one of my favorites of theirs and it adds to the hype factor your trying to convey with that short. Bravo 10/10.
Great video, thank you for highlighting such an underrated studio and animated short! Since you mentioned Masaaki Yuasa in the video, and it is related to these playings of dream and reality, I highly recommend his newest film "Inu-oh" to check out. It plays a lot with reality and fiction blending together within the plot and also with how some scenes are depicted.
Thank god you talked about Kare Kano. I'm 6 episodes in and I think it's one of my favorite animes of all time. Anno is such a sensitive writer-director, and even with limited animation, Shiro Sagisu's score elevates the entire thing to godhood.
Interesting video. As an autistic person, discarding my "fantasies" are not really possible for me. I live in my inner world as much as the real world and discover a healthy balance and not feeling shame for it having fantasies in the first place was something that took quite a bit of time for me to do. BTW you ever watch Night is Short Walk on Girl? I think it would be up your alley. Anyways, you got yourself a new subscriber.
How did you drop a video WHILE I’m discovering your channel
I can’t believe you brought up Pepper Ann without mention Kids Next Door, and come to think of it, a lot of cartoons.
watched Masaki Yuasa’s The Night Is Short, Walk On Girl tonight and had to return to the this video because of how much it reminded me of Undetectable Box. Both are stories that are so invested in the connections between people and romanticizing what life hands you rather than engineering a perfect version in your mind, not to mention the stylistic similarities. Still a lovely video
16:07 i want you to know just how much of a gutpunch this song was, the mix of insanely good electric guitar and amen break was something i was NOT prepared for but now i simply must hear more.
anyways walter mitty (the new one) was a movie i saw snippets of when i was a kid, just walking through the living room while my parents watched it on the tv, and the surreal shifts between scenarios always really stuck with me. i still havent watched it all the way through but watching this video has made me want to go and give it a watch
update: ive now watched the rest of the video, as well as undetectable box, and like. MAN. THAT WAS SO GOOD WHAT THE HELL ..... the visuals REALLY portray exactly what it feels like to curl up into a ball inside your mind and what it takes to get over those feelings, it was simply transcendent. amazing video, amazing short film
This video had me misty-eyed by the end. Thank you!!
i REALLY love stuff that plays with narratives and makes you feel like you really are The Person This Story Is About, and undetectable box does that in a way i’ll be thinking about for a while. thanks for putting it on my radar and great video :)!!
Massive MASSIVE fucking respect for shouting out Flip Flappers. Amazing video
Cannot wait to see your channel blow up, man. I've watched the Wario Land 4 video a couple times and this is just as good as that video, if not better.
Also nice to see somebody mention The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, I had no idea that the original adaptation came out in the 1930s. I watched the 2nd adaptation of it on Christmas in 2013 and it's lived in my head since, so I'll have to check out the original.
I was following along and piecing together all of your points while watching, and then, once you got into the final chapter of it all, it just clicked perfectly. It’s about how it truly feels. Well made, Geno!
Frank Zappa, the frontman for Sparks, is an absolute legend
Going to actually kill you
@@geno7_ Can't say that on the TH-cams, don't wanna get demonetized in real life, you know👆
@@G33X going to make you unalive
wait HE'S part of sparks????? THAT frank zappa???
@@stoic_rose yeah dude 😎
Great and fun video! Some comments have mentioned some of Yuasa's works, and I'll be leaving out one about it as well. Mind Game (2004) might not be fully perfect in all regards, but after watching it earlier this year it became one of my favorite mishmash fantarealism medias that i have seen. Some of the animated sequences stay rent free in my head, and I'll probably consider the "bone-breaking" moment to be one of the best setup/punchline visual jokes of all time. It's one of those movies that really go the extra mile to try to visually represent topics on Life and what-not.
Well damn, this was one great video! thank you for introducing me two of my new favorite short films I guess? I watched them both before finishing this video and was blown away by how much of an impact they had.
I love this type of media, I fell in love with FLCL exactly because of how basically nonexistent the line between fantasy and reality is. My own adhd brain is quite the opposite, I adore dense stuff with flashy visuals, those things make me feel like a cat laserfocused, butt-wiggling about to pounce on my prey.
It might not exactly fall in the same vein as the other pieces of media you listed here, but I think you would GREATLY enjoy Sonny Boy. If you haven't already seen it of course.
Magnificent use of animation, stylisation, music and silence, and above all colours. I've seen people refer to Sonny Boy (the anime, to be clear) as "this generation's FLCL" and while I won't completely agree with that I see where that comparison comes from.
Again, great video! Hope you have a wonderful day!
I’m impressed with how everything you talked about in this video was either right up my alley or something I already loved. Definitely gonna keep all these recommendations in mind, and keep making stuff! I love the vision that you have for your channel/music a lot
This is the coolest video ever. Thank you for making it.
i really appreciate the effort put in pronouncing the chinese names correctly! i've always struggled with pronouncing chinese
hell yeah dude
Funny, I've long lost the fear of "taking that first step" towards reaching to someone distant in a desire to connect in some way out of the amount of times I've done so.
But I've NEVER been successful in any way, shape or form..
This dude....
Really knows his shit badass video brother cheers from Iraq
Found your channel through hazel and thorhighheels. Your quality of production and absolute passion for this video was excellent and I found out many things to look up later too. Thanks a bunch and hope to see you continue making great videos :)
Your Truly one of the most underrated TH-camr
I'm kind of surprised you didn't mention Scrubs!
Thanks to this video I have now seen Undetectable Box and I am now crying.
YOOOOO FALSE MEMORY AND UNDETECTABLE BOX MENTION WOOOOO
Im so happy i found this video in my recommendations. False Memory has been like, one of my favorite things for the past few years. And this video finally got me to sit down and watch all of Undetectable Box, too. (Which before, I kinda just saw as that thing they made before False Memory, and I couldn’t get all the way through it cause of its lower production quality.)
It was interesting hearing that the subs of FM felt a bit sub-par and that Fang Tang’s explanation on the mechanics of Bug Men were confusing to you! I speak some mandarin, so maybe this is the kinda thing where people who are only reading the subtitles can feel something “off” and fully fluent speakers can easily hear when what’s being said doesn’t match what’s being spoken, while people who are like me and only partially understand the language don’t notice anything lol.
Another thing is that, in my opinion, False Memory doesn’t necessarily NEED any follow-up, for the most part. It would be nice to see more of Fang Tang and Bai Zhong and maybe the rest of the memory processing bureau, (or whatever it’s called), but FM itself feels complete to me. I think literally the only thing that would feel weird to not get any further elaboration on is that bit where it’s implied that Bai Zhong was a Bug Source (I think?) before she arrived at the recycling place.
And yes, the ET dub is SO GOOD! Literally the only complaints I have with it are that it butchers the names sometimes (eh, pinyin’s not that helpful of a pronunciation guide for english speakers, i get it…) and sometimes the timing feels a little off (common problem in dubs, often pretty hard to work around). Sometimes I think I might prefer Bai Zhong’s english voice? Although I do love both.
So yeah, this has been a lot of words lmaoo, but great video! Having now watched Undetectable Box, I can now say I agree with you, that shit’s awesome
*and by elaborate on Bai Zhong’s deal, I don’t even necessarily mean a whole Bai Zhong backstory, more like elaboration on Bug Men/Bug Sources and the workings on the memory processors in general, ok addendum over
2:30 hey, that why I love musicals
The little introduction at 16:26 with the music and stuff felt very Demolition D+
Which is good
Good video
Edit: the avgn moment was very funny
Great video
Love your videos, hope you doing well ❤
prolly my fav vid that you've* put out thus far (and i prom'ss that's stuff and nonsense to do with the cameos of two out of my three favorite bands. in fact, i say personally the cardiacs tune was, maybe, a widdabit, distracting. mmm-anyways), as an aspiring artistboy, while i consider my primary trade to be tunemaking, storytelling is a really neat area of creative interest that, though i've dabbled in it before in the humble mediums of powerpoint visual novel and 100%-OC fanfiction, upon reflecting on said dabblings it occurred to me very recently that a real sense of weight to the individual actions of the characters was fairly lacking in them. this video kinda gets me thinkin'a'bout just what exactly it means to incorporate the human psychological element of storytelling in a natural & powerful way, and how to really create a deeper sense of connection to otherwise cold & unfeeling rgb values on a screen or ink atoms on a page and such and whatnot incomplete spaced ellipses ..
*geno7, not the comment reader, unless you are geno7 of ofc'ing course
Hey sick vid dog! As articulate and full of perspective as any of the big great essayists.
Night is short, Walk on Girl by Maasaki Yuasa is also a great fantasy + reality mish-mash
Kee yo the good work, your videos are always so on point ❤
Great vid, I need to check out the scott pilgrim movie again
Given the audience, this probably aint new, but like... the entirety of Millennium Actress feels kind of related. The dense blurring of reality, film, AND fantasy (where the interviewer inserts himself into scenes) - like, just because it appears grounded and set in a time period that makes sense doesn't even give the audience a break, since it could be another movie.
I think its also an interesting contrast, considering that it definitely isn't a coming of age story.
I can't think of an eloquent way to put it, but like. The fallibility of memory. The way that it might not even matter, cos we can remember how things feel more strongly than they actually were.
Kon's other stuff, like Paprika and Paranoia Agent and Perfect Blue also do similar stuff with combining real and unreal for some incredible dramatic moments, but I think Millennium Actress is the most interesting and does the most with the editing style in a thematic sense. It's tied into the whole package. Couldn't tell the story the same way without the fantasy sequences.
it was actually so cool hearing kill bill in the background of the flcl section! i only found out about and watched it because he sampled it on ramona
FLCL, Scott Pilgrim, and Kill Bill makes this video rule. Good work
Loved the vid!!! It's always so nice to see how you're able to fit so many unique properties under 1 cohesive idea!
I think you're discrediting Brazil's portrayal of Sam's weird pursuing of Jill throughout the movie a bit tho.
SPOILERS FOR THE MOVIE FROM THIS LINE ON WARDS.
Like, it's only ever seen as heroic in his fantasies and at the point of the movie where she starts returning those feelings is when his perception of the world is starting to get distorted to the point where he can't tell dream from reality. It's the tipping off point showing the audience that how he's seeing the world in the following moments is going to be unreliable and disoriented, and that turns out to be the case! That's the feeling I got whenever I saw how he treated her in the dream sequences vs in reality at least. It was showing how Sam was a participant in this society, and even an abuser of the system he acted like he was fighting against. To me the movie is advocating for people in these types of positions to have accountability with their actions which is a thing that's constantly being shirked around by the characters.
I really dislike how the marketing of the Criterion Collection release painted him as this 'every man' hero. That's definitely not helping my case here lolol. Thank god we don't have to deal with the ending that the Studio forced Gilliam to make for the US release back when it premiered, where there's no twist and he just lives with Jill happily in the countryside at least.
I think Nichijo also deserves a mention. Cool video
I love the nostalgia critic
Meanwhile suckerpunch just chilling in the corner...
Oh shit I just remembered!! Definitely check out the guildedguy story animations!! They're seriously incredible and hit upon this exact idea of figuration and abstraction through the lens of insane stick figure anime battles synced up to music. Incredibly well animated all the way throughout too. Watch them in release order if you can and be hyped for Story 3 and 4 because they're mind meltingly sick. I cant really tell you all the stick figure lore that goes with them but they're an incredible set of videos that hit upon something special.
13:24 Was so unbelievably unexpected 😂
Your videos are so damn good
I think another coming-of-age movie that does a great job at conveying how immense small things like vulnerability and connection feel like, though it doesn't necessarily use surreal imagery to do so (more subtle stuff like music and cinematography) is 8th Grade. I was like 23 or something when I watched that but I was still going "She's just like me fr" when the music was thundering as the MC went to a friggin pool party
I love Cardiacs.
crazy good
this video was great what a boon to my already massive watchlist... would highly recommend you check out at the very least the episode 'Pickle Trip' from the adult swim show Dream Corp LLC, while it has some outside context from other episodes it's maybe one of the most powerful episodes of television non-sequiter I've seen, and it feel like the perfect addition to this list even if it's merging of reality and fantasy are a little more distinguished!
Baller
If you haven’t, you should check out Mishima a life in four chapters. The movie is utterly obsessed with fantasies, imagination, storytelling, and the way they feed into reality and warp our lives. It’s one of my favourite movies.
19:17 HELL YEAH WILD ZERO YEAH BABY AWOOOOOOOOO
Holy crap good shit dude
Welp, I'm sold, guess 22:20 is where we depart for now until I watch it with my bro lel
i see you're getting mileage outta that lola bunny closet photo
I'm not sure if they're exactly the same as the kind of story you describe in this video, but I recommend checking out the manga works of Taiyo Matsumoto, I think you'd like them.
Flip Flappers hell yeah
I do think you oversold Box a little bit, but it was still quite enjoyable and the animation was undeniable incredible for an amateur production. I will say tho I think you gave it too much credit in how self-aware it was being. I don't think the female lead was being used as a meta-analysis of idealised love interest in media, I just think it was an example of what a crush is. It's liking someone without knowing anything about them, and pushing everything you want to be true about them, fantasy and all, onto them. He had a crush on a girl, thought she was really cool, and yeah, was afraid to talk to her. Overall it was great though, and you should hold onto how much you like it since clearly it meant more to you than the sum of it's parts.
goddammit what a video
THE AVGN WAS SO FUNNY
Before I talk about our shared passion on undetectable box, I wanna touch on false memory. The entire exposition dump sequence of the short is completely negligible and avoidable. Sure, it explains stuff in thorough detail, but its mainly acting as a setup for "soon-to-come" episodes of it (and lord knows I'm waiting till those inevitably get released). On that same note, the two characters who act as "memory collectors" are also negligible characters in the scheme of the story. They, again, would act as tying pieces to the rest of the story, if there were many more episodes out currently. If you have seen the anime Mononoke, it follows a very similar format. The people involved with the job are only there to pull the important pieces of story out of the main characters of these sequences. All you have to know is that there is someone or something in this guys brain that is "helping" him fight bullies, and its the collectors job to get them out.
That being said, false memory is a seriously emotionally impressive short, I definetly hold it and undetectable box on the same level. The idea it follows is pretty simple, similar to undetectable box, but is so well executed it still blows my mind that some full anime couldn't even scrape it. Its really a story about overcoming your fears in a useful way. The "bugman" acts as a mental blocker for the main character, only showing him what he wants him to see. As the short reveals that every memory prior was changed to function as positive. But the emotional crux of this story comes at the end, where the bugman pushes and forces his hand to break through the "glass" of the main characters mind. The rock he throws being both symbolic in its portrayal of overcoming the fears and anxiety he faces in day to day life, and being literal, as he throws the same rock at the bullies in the last shot. Beyond that, the executtion of these ideas being so over-the-top and bombastic, and a primary portion of its story being told through actions and not dialouge just makes it such a monumentous thing. It really takes the trope of "everything didnt actually happen and was just a schizophrenic's delusion" and makes it completely practical and meaningful.
Onto undetectable box, I feel like both of these stories are heavy exaggerations of real life events the writer wants to overcome. This resonates with me because 1, I am in the exact same position and 2. I am an animator myself. I feel like a lot of these massively over-the-top exaggerations of real life are just what the animators see. A literal version of the dreamscape trope. I even feel myself drifting off into a space where I break apart the world around me in animation form, then it snaps back together. Normal daydream stuff, but with much more visual pungency. Which makes me think that the steps the character is taking being seen as so bombastic could actually be literal. As the author is most likely imaging themselves doing all of this while just trying to take a step foreword. Some other stuff like how her hands being hurt is blown massively out of proportion with his daydream sequences, even though its made clear through one of the first scenes we see of her that she scraped them by eating shit while skateboarding. Just showcasing how someone can completely alter their world exclusively through their thoughts, and how that can be detrimental to their view of things. Or how he constantly tries to avoid the moment by thinking about something completely different to distract him, with these thoughts becoming their own visual alteration.
It honestly just makes me happy to see someone who completely gets the resonation of this short film as much as I do. I was gonna write a lot more in this section (even though this is a massive wall of text you most likely weren't expecting to see) but you kind of already said everything I wanted to. I really just wanted to give respect to the fact that we BOTH get it completely. As well, false memory and undetectable box both represent very similar points and portrayals of those points, As False memory is about taking action in your own life, and undetectable box takes the same approach, but only focuses on the first step.
new geno letsa go
God this is the one.
Wow…it’s kinda weird seeing a band I found on rym the other day be projected out into my inbox…I thought they sounded like abba
You'd love Satoshi Kon and David Lynch two of my favourite surrealist artists
SUCH A GOOD!!!! YES!!
Wild Zero listed as Gainax copium : )
I like ben stiller's walter mitty,its a good watch
Also is that a fucking Sammy Classic Sonic Fan quote in the chapter titles lmfao
While not a short film, I recently watched 'The Triplets of Belleville', and I found it incredibly interesting how it used the animated medium to make the whole world seem like a caricature fantasy version of reality.
Both with character designs, which pushed every trait from a conventional human form to it's extreme, leading to visual distinction and clarity of character within every frame. But also how (at least in my opinion), it deliberately subverts the expectations on the kind of film it is.
As the plot quickly spirals out of control, from a hero's journey of dedicating your life to one singular goal in an ever changing world, to an inter-continental secret society mystery, you expect the characters to develop or change with their world becoming flipped, but much like the characters designs, all that we need to know, and all we'll ever know is placed immediately in front of us.
It also used Fantasy sequences, to mark key turning points in the film, which are short but poignant with the repeated motif of trains. Vehicles which are stuck on rails, and thier journeys predestined by factors both known and unknown to them, despite the aggravation against them.
Though I will admit, I've always liked visual motifs which change meaning over the course of a piece of media, then constantly changing visuals to meet the writing motif (if that makes sense).
Finally, I found it a breath of fresh air to see a story (even if it is a simple one) told almost entirely through silent characters.
It's a testament to the strength of the animation, and the use of strong narrative archetypes, that I could easily understand everything within the tale, as it strayed further away from reality and into fantasy, with only the rarest of words being said (and even when spoken, the subtext is never told).
Sorry if this felt like a bit of a ramble, but aster watching the film a week and a bit ago, it's stayed with me in ways I'm not entirely sure I can properly explain, though I wanted to say them anyways.
I love fantasy, and dream sequences in films, and the entire thing felt like a strange unhinged dream entering reality. Overall I highly recommend people seek out 'The Triplets of Belleville'. It might just be the film for you.
The video itself is fantastic, and it shows your skills in editing, and a very strong script which makes the most out of every paragraph. I can't wait to see what other interesting topics you cover, keep up the incredible work, and have a lovely day.
this is just another excuse for me to watch brazil
i read some article about the indie artist "final fantasy" and how they were inspired by game music, they were asked if a track was inspired by a mario 3 track n he replied "i think mario 3 is just riffing off the brazil theme" and so i went to listen To the brazil theme and the song alongside visuals from the movie hasn't left my mind since (personally didnt hear its influence on mario though)
tldr im gonna watch brazil now
Heya geno7
God space oddity is so pretty
So...did you all settle on a name for this genre
I really appreciate your use of Signs by Cardiacs. It's one of my favorites of theirs and it adds to the hype factor your trying to convey with that short. Bravo 10/10.
HONESTLY!! the song choice adds SO much hype
Brazil 1985
It's good stuff
Great video, thank you for highlighting such an underrated studio and animated short! Since you mentioned Masaaki Yuasa in the video, and it is related to these playings of dream and reality, I highly recommend his newest film "Inu-oh" to check out. It plays a lot with reality and fiction blending together within the plot and also with how some scenes are depicted.
Why whould you upload this now it's 11 pm I have work tomorrow why would you do this to me
God bless
obligatory nichijou comment
yup, im think hes based
5th. Hi I guess
🤩 *promosm*