(silence)
(mouse clicks)
♪ (dramatic chord) ♪
(silence)
- Why is there no volume? Hello?
- No audio. Oh, soft audio.
♪ (electronic melody fading in) ♪
- I feel like this is gonna be another one
of your trippy music videos.
- ♪ (singing in Japanese) ♪ - Oh no. (laughs)
- You guys are gonna weird us out again.
- Yes! Some sort of anime. I don't know what this is, but I live.
- Yes!! (sighs deeply)
I love when you guys how me Japanese things.
♪ (vivacious instrumental) ♪
- ♪ (singing in Japanese) ♪
- This is bringing back all my Sailor Moon memories right now.
- (intrigued) Ooh, magical.
- It's all kinda cute so far, but I know it's gonna get crazy.
- What? Did she just pee out of her... - Arm?
- She peed out of her arm. - Yeah, her sleeve.
- (caught off-guard) Ok-okay. Okay. Okay.
- Oh my. It's getting a little racy here.
- ♪ (singing in Japanese) ♪
- Oh my god, I just want to dance to it.
♪ (music continues) ♪
- Girl, what are you doing?
- Okay, she's building a snowman out of purple goop.
- Okay. There's a message here.
♪ (music builds) ♪ - Oh, a unicorn.
- There's a unicorn in the flames.
She's sad.
- Why are you so sad? You just made a boyfriend and a unicorn.
♪ (light music) ♪ - Okay. (snickers)
Oh...oh...oh!
- (sensually) She's taking her clothes off for her man.
(shrilly) Oh!! Girl!!
- Oh my-- this is not appropriate.
♪ (tranquil music) ♪ (water splashes lightly)
- Is that her vagina?
♪ (percussion joins in) ♪ - ♪ (singing in Japanese) ♪
- Okay, she's in another universe.
- ♪ (singing in Japanese) ♪
- Again with the vagina.
- A lot of closeups of her...
personality, heh.
- ♪ (singing in Japanese softly) ♪
- See, this is the regular world and their digital devices.
♪ (music pauses) ♪ (character inhales)
♪ (music and Japanese singing resumes) ♪
- Whoooa.
- Okay, everyone is sad and black,
but she's making them explode into colors.
I'm trying to understand the story line here.
- She made her face turn into a flower.
- I'm just taking it all in.
Oh my gosh. What's happening?
♪ (compelling interlude) ♪
- Oh. Doesn't have his phone.
He freaks out. Doesn't know what to do.
- That was actually the creepiest thing that's happened
in the whole video so far.
- Don't eat that. - Oh gosh.
- That's gonna-- I told you not to eat it.
- ♪ (singing in Japanese) ♪
- Everyone's turning into flowers now.
- ♪ (singing in Japanese) ♪
- (giggling) I don't know what's going on at all.
♪ (music calms) ♪
- This is-- I don't understand. Who's that?
- Uh-oh. Someone stole her man.
(character gasping) - What's happening?
- Uh-oh.
♪ (harrowing music) ♪ - (gasping) What?
What is-- I'm horrified of this actually.
- (sadly) Oh, I feel bad for her.
♪ (music calms) ♪ - And now she has to be naked, of course.
- She's naked, which means she's, like, vulnerable.
Oh, and then a strange man.
- Is this the unicorn boy?
- ♪ (singing in Japanese softly) ♪
- (cracking up) I hate you.
- I have no idea what just happened.
- I'm trying to process it, but it makes my brain hurt.
♪ (dramatic chord) ♪
- (Finebros) All right, so did you enjoy what we just showed you?
- I did not enjoy what you just showed me.
- I didn't dislike it.
- Yes, actually. I think I did.
- I loved this.
I've been a huge anime fan for 29 years. I'm only 24.
- I liked elements of it.
But it was confusing overall, as my general feeling.
- (Finebros) Does it remind you of something you've seen before?
- It reminds me of porn.
- Of the other ones you guys showed me. (chuckling)
- (Finebros) Well, this is a music video
that is made by the same people
who created another popular animated video called ME!ME!ME!
that we showed you in a previous episode.
- Yes, I've completely wiped that from my memory.
- I don't remember anything that happened in that video, darling.
- (Finbros) ME!ME!ME! was about a guy who gets sucked too deep
into the internet and sexual depictions of women
that it ruins his actual life and relationships.
- Okay.
- (Finebros) And although this one stands on its own,
some think this is a prequel or potentially a sequel to ME!ME!ME!
because the main character in this video is in the other video
as the representative of the sexualized girl inside the internet.
And at the end, the couple that she sees--
that's the couple from the other video.
- (dramatically) Oh my goodness. Cool!
- (Finebros) So what is maybe the meaning then behind this,
if anything?
- You know, I guess the internet's just a shrunk society.
- I keep going back to everyone on their electronics
and just living a life that wasn't real.
- When she got into this kind of normalized,
gray city society thing, she didn't thrive.
So she inserted change.
- All these people are sad. It was black and white.
And they were just looking at their phones and their technology,
and they were all dark inside.
- This one I was really trying.
I was like, "What the [bleep] does this mean?"
And I thought I was getting it,
but I was like, "Mm, I don't know."
- (Finebros) So some theories about this video
range a lot of different ways.
Some people think that this girl
is this online creation that seduces men.
Other people think that she is someone who is wishing and failing
again and again to have a Prince Charming in her life.
- I did see some elements of that,
like when she was trying to build someone.
- (Finebros) Other people think this is a criticism
of an aspect of Japanese culture called "compensated dating,"
where older men will pay money
just to hang out with younger girls.
- That's a thing? You pay money just to hang out with someone?
- (Finebros) What do you think about how people
are diving into this in so many different ways?
- I think it's great.
The people that created it obviously created it
with intention of people-- of it affecting people.
- The creators have succeeded when everyone's talking about it.
- But they should seek therapy.
- I like when there's something that sparks a discussion.
That's, like, art, you know?
It's like, not everything has to be so cut and dry.
- Now that you're saying all of these things,
if I were to watch that again, I think I definitely would
have an eye toward trying to de-decode
and unpack all of that stuff.
- (Finebros) Now, about the end of the video,
some theories are that she freaked out
because it is a prequel to that first video,
and she's jealous seeing that same couple
from that video in love and is gonna now break them up.
- (pondering) Oh. Yeah.
- (Finebros) Some say she's excited at the very end,
because the guy from the couple
has arrived as her Prince Charming,
while others think it's a new person,
and she gets hopeful as the cycle just continues anew.
- Okay, I'm gonna need ten minutes to process all that.
I'll be out there eating some snacks.
- Oh my god. I think I want to re-watch it now.
I like the idea that maybe the end is something about
a cycle repeating itself or starting from the beginning,
because the imagery does suggest that.
- It could totally represent just the struggles of dating
and having this idealized idea of what you think love should be,
and then you get hit with the reality of it
that it's gonna suck a lot and you're gonna get hurt.
But then at the end of the day, it's all worth it.
- This was some poor girl
who was just living a life that wasn't hers
trying to find who she was.
She fell in love with this man, but he was clearly taken.
And she was so devastated. That's why she was naked at the end,
'cause she was like, "This is all I have. This is me."
- I have no idea. I think that's the point of this creator,
whoever's doing it. I think that's what they want.
Maybe they have no idea where they're going with it.
They want people to talk about it and discuss it like this.
- (Finebros) Videos like this become popular
with these over-the-top visuals and sexuality to make a point.
Why do you think this medium is being used
to tell these types of stories? - Well, the first thing is,
any time you show a little T&A, guys are gonna watch.
There's also something else going on. There's a narrative,
and we're sitting here trying to figure it out.
- The best stories are always told in ways that aren't so direct.
"We're gonna use cartoon and animation
to send a deep message about something."
- The cool thing about an animated Japanese way
to get your piece of art across is that, yeah,
you can draw whatever your mind thinks up.
So you can tell these very kind of layered, you know,
packed with meaning sort of visual stories.
- (Finebros) So finally, seeing that this team
is now making multiple videos like this,
do you hope to see more from them in the future?
- I hope to not see anything else these people have made.
- I think I'm hooked at this point.
- I don't hope to see more,
but I hope they make more for the people who love it.
- Now that you explained the previous video and this video,
I would love to, because then I'll actually be prompted
to think about it a bit more.
- When there's pretty colors
and I can get a cool meaning out of it too
and some debate, I'm down.
- Thank you guys so much for watching another episode
of YouTubers React.
- In the comments, let us know what we should react to next.
- And hey, while you're at it, make sure you subscribe
to everyone that was in this video,
because they're awesomesauce.
- Bye, guys. Woo!
- Bye, guys! Love ya! Mwah!
♪ (end music) ♪