"Myth's Bad Ending" is a MASTERPIECE【Hololive】 

Thank you very much for the video!

It's perfect that the biggest takeaway of the story is Hope through Hopelessness. Because Hope is literally part of the HoloEN Lore as IRyS and her symbol also appeared before Ame fried her brain out

One little tidbit I realize after follow “the series”, not sure if it was Mazumaro’s intention or not, but every time he release a new update we rewatch the old scene too, and that is like Ame rewind the time again and again and again…

So, about that flickering Sana symbol. Obviously, it’s a reference to her departure, but I interpreted it as an element of the story. In addition to them being very close friends, Ina and Sana’s lore ties them both to the Ancient Ones. When Ina succumbed to their will, Sana was likely the first one to know, and the first person to try to save her. If that’s the case, then Sana’s symbol flickering carries a deeply ominous implication that only compounds the scene’s sense of hopelessness.

"Try a little harder and you might win" I was so busy getting my heart squeezed that I completely missed that foreshadowing, oh my god.

Another fantastic part is that from the trailer Mazumaro posted, the line "The world was wiped out by a single entity" was present, and we always think it's Ina because she's taken over by the Ancient Ones, these all-powerful gods. Then we find out that it's Ame is the entity who "wiped out the world", because she reset the timeline countless times

The one big thing you have missed happens in the very last frames of the video: During the end credits we pan through Ame's office, with a bunch of easter eggs strewn about, like Smol Myth (which Ame effectively made reality) and other memorabilia, references to other depictions of her office, etc... But at the very end the camera focuses on a monitor showing the "Game Over" screen of a game. The cursor is hovering on "Quit" for the longest time. The player (= Ame, since it's her office) has failed in this playthrough of the game and is tempted to end it there. But then the cursor switches over to "Try Again" and confirms the selection. That's where the video ends. Another game, another chance at victory, however slim it might be. It's a great subtle way to communicate a bit more context to Ame's actions and motivations. In her mind, there has to be a solution somewhere. And if it requires starting all over from the beginning - however much effort it takes - so be it. You only lose when you accept defeat, and quit.

Another thing in the dimension jump: When we see the normal-ish-but-different dimensions she's "falling" in pretty much a straight line. Then she stops in the bee dimension and takes a hard 90 from the direction she was moving before the more fundamental reality shifts start happening. Before she even leaves Dimension Bee you know something even different-er is happening.

"She wasn't kneeling for 5 minutes, she was kneeling for 18 months," As a fellow creator, I felt that goosebumps because of how this series was started, progressed, and concluded.

I didn't even notice how Ina's "try again" line also fit Ame's decision. INSANE storytelling.

There are actually a *ton* more tiny references in the short; "getting bonked" is a term the holoEN girls use when they get in trouble with management or some other mistake is made. They in turn threaten to bonk us if we act like jerks, gives a wonderful disembodied hand image of all this bonking, Ina has also threatened (very early on in her career) that if anyone grabs the squishy hair that they will be bonked, with a crowbar. When myth was working on their 3d debut, Kiara was teaching them how to dance in VR, part way through one of the lessons, Ina ends up with a crowbar and bonks Kiara on the back of the head. Dunno if it was Mazumaru's intent, but the first time I saw the phoenix getting smacked by the hand, my first thought was "heh, Ina just bonked Kiara"> During the HoloMyth TTRPG, Ame's character was a little gremlin like dude who sold black market magical mushrooms, oh, and he was a conspiracy theorist. His name was Watoto, you can search for the episodes by looking up "Mythbreakers", or I think (assuming they are active still) I have links in my profile for the playlist, very fun stuff to watch. Due to Ame's willingness to embrace the Meme, early on she went with the "So, do you like Jazz?" meme, which ended up with her bee-ame form, so that plane of existence was another callout to long time fans. When time is rewinding it is a remix of "Ame's Office" theme playing in the background. The timestamp for the WMV file that is paused, when converted to years is 13.7 billion years, which is roughly the age of the universe. There are 5 glyphs on the wall of the theatre above the projector, each represents one of the members of HoloCouncil, the one representing Sana (warden of space), who graduated during the making of the film is flickering. I dunno if this was just a homage, or if it is also referencing that that existence (space) is being destroyed, but either way it's pretty cool. It's pretty much a choked full of love for the fans/vtubers series of inside references.

As a huge hololive fan, I am so happy you reviewed this video. This animation is realy beautiful and it just makes my day that you went over it

Another animator I thought about immediately during this video was SAD-ist, an animator with a really good sense of timing and composition in her work, and she has both fan works and original works too!

My favourite small detail was taking the line "The world was wiped out by a single entity" and having it not be about the villain, its about the character who was the final hope succeeding. Its such a twist since the story is on one level about the heroes failing and the world ending threat winning. The story is presented as the "bad ending" too. Yet the story is taken in the other direction without changing anything. It is the bad ending, the world was destroyed, but by the hero, in the hope that next time it will go better.

I love how you don't need to know the lore to love this, but the lore amplifies this to epic levels - not just the lore WITHIN Hololive, but the lore that Cover based Myth off of. My favorite part is the interaction between Ina and Gura, and the reason is Lovecraft (which you made reference to early in the video). See, in his works (and moreso in the works of those who built off of him), Atlantis had a closer connection to The Ancient Ones - the Eldritch Abominations that reside in dark space, which have been in existence since the very beginning of the universe. The reason for this is because Atlantis was founded by the Greek god Poseidon, who passed his weapon to his son Triton... which eventually ended up in the hands of our lovable shork. Because of this connection to the gods, the Atlanteans have knowledge not only of The Ancient Ones but how to contain them, and this is why Gura was successful where Kiara and Calli (the Immortals of This World) could not. Her usage of the trident of Poseidon allows her to access the ancient magics of Atlantis, from the outward channeling of water magic for both attack and defense to the inward channeling of said magic when Gura becomes her berserker Gawr self. And Ina is powerless to overpower Gawr until the magic of the trident runs out... because Gura is not a sage or a warrior. She is a shark-girl, a gamer; her body could not possibly handle the power long enough to seal The Ancient One, especially with it basically holding Ina hostage... This, for me, explains why Calli began the assault, with Kiara shortly joining - they were, ironically, the worst options for taking on this particular threat, but they could definitely begin the process of buying time for Ame while conserving their second trump card as a last resort. Of course, it's likely they didn't expect to get sealed in a Kamui-like pocket dimension, something easy enough for a Lovecraftian being... suffice it to say, thankfully staggering their defenses like that was *just enough* for Ame to make her move and reach the one place even The Ancient One could not.

Just wanted to point out that I really liked how the villain fights. Typically when you get mage/energy blast types fighting, it can get boring real fast if they just stand there and gloat about their power. For this one, the moment Calli gets distracted she gets attacked. And when she and Kiara goes into their Death/Phoenix forms and become troublesome (and can't be killed because they're immortal), the villain just immediately seals them away and move on. Sharky's got an advantage in close range combat? Summon obstacles to get in her way. You don't usually see fighters (both the bad guys and good) making consistently smart decisions like this.

Thanks for watching everyone!! Would appreciate if you could share this with anyone you think will like it! (Especially since I'm guessing the algorithm is going to be totally stumped, "wtf is schnee uploading..." 😅) UPDATE: Looks like the algorithm figured it out, thx everyone! 😀

the death and rebirth symbolism with the tag team was really cool to see too

Out of all the things you could have covered, the one was probably the least expected yet most appreciated. Your analysis is incredible and gave me so much newfound love for that video and Mazumaro as a creator, really glad you decided to step outside your usual realm and make a video like this!

Another thing that feels really important about the intro to the ending meta-dimension is that it confirms variation. If it was a doomed loop, then we as the audience might know but there couldn't be other Ame bodies there or the phone recording or anything like that. The killer frame here is the second hand where the burn is on the outside of the fingers instead of inside the palm. My brain went: - Sees first hand: "Oh no it's a loop" - Sees second hand: "but it can change" It's possible that it still won't work, like "you can ruin my theater all you want lady but I still only have this one movie", but it's another way to offer that faint bit of hope. If the story wanted to tell us that Ame (and by extension Myth (and by extension all of us)) had no agency, I imagine we would have seen the theater reset along with the rest of the universe. That wouldn't necessarily make it totally hopeless if the story offered that hope somewhere else, but showing Ame has the ability to change the _tiniest_ thing is powerful stuff. There _is_ hope, but what is that hope? It's the people who will make those tiny changes.

Irys easter egg scene gave me goosebumps just when you realise that she is.... Project: HOPE.....

Just watching this again while listening to you narrate and analyze the story piece by piece is still giving me goosebumps. This really was one of the best pieces of animation in all of last year

As a Hololive nerd and a subscriber of yours I never thought this crossover would happen. But I'm so grateful that it did! We're truly in the best timeline!

The two moments that made me want to cry was Ina saying, "I'm sor..." And when Ame reaches the "Final Scene" and there are lots of dead Ames on the ground. The hopelessness was portrayed so well and it's just so sad and despairing and just mentally we can't console ourselves.

Sana's symbol glitching out is another meta thing that hurts every fiber of my body as a sanallite. 😅

Let's gooo! I did not expect you to cover this

Idk if this has been mentioned already, but I find Ame being the last to have a go at the problem to be a nod to how she's like the IRL leader of the group and how she's come in clutch so many times whenever the other girls needed something fixed or some help doing stuff. Ame being the one who "solves" the issue in this story fits her so well imo

The best part about Holo Myth and Councilrys' lore is that the community gets to build it. Like Ame being a time traveler, Kronii and Ame's implied history, Ame stuck in a timeloop, etc.

Maybe one of the reasons that the animation in this is better compared to funded studios and corporations is because it's not only a fan project, but this guy can go and add as much detail as possible without anyone saying no. The thing with big animation studios is that they have to pay workers, so the more time spent animating is more money needing to give out, so some animation studios settle for some crappy animation.

Wow, I never connected Ina's line to Gura, to Ame's decision at the end, but that is so powerful. (Also your delivery there, credit where it's due, gave me goosebumps). As far as other above-and-beyond fans are concerned, I recommend Alice Magic. They have several high-quality Hololive animations (not quite "Myth's Bad Ending" level, but they also didn't spend 18 months on one story). This is capped off by Bae's animated cover of "A Million Miles Away", which Alice Magic did the art and animation for.

Never espected you to make an analysis on a fan animation, but considering the quality of this one in particular then it just makes sense. great job :^D

Man, you are my absolute favorite narrative analyst on youtube. Watching your videos has inspired me to watch media with a more discerning eye. I learn a ton of very interesting and very actionable information from every video you post. Such a refreshing break from the mountain of other "story analysis" on youtube which is usually just someone explaining character motivations and not actually discussing what makes the story function and why. And you do that while also making it very engaging, very interesting, and also pretty funny when you need to be. You go after subtext, and the conversion of themes, and spot on meta-analysis. It's awesome. As an amateur author this is the kind of stuff I love, every time I see that one of your videos have posted I watch it right away. You're a cut above the rest man, please keep making content, and happy New Year amigo.

I fucking love when artists take advantage of the medium itself to tell stories in ways no other could possibly replicate. Thank you for this video, wouldn't have seen found this animation without it but more importantly never would have known about its original incremental release and how amazing it all is!

This is certainly not a video I was expecting in the slightest. A surprise to be sure, but a welcome one

I wanna add on to that last bit about creators. When Arcane was released i had heard absolutely nothing about a league of legends show anywhere, i only saw a beautiful art style and the LoL logo. My inital reaction to seeing this on my netflix was "lmao look at this its a league show" i was so enthralled by the beauty of it, and whiplashed by where it came from i couldn't help but watch. Knowing nothing about League, i started a show simply because of its creativity and passion. This happens with other things all the time, people underestimate how much people will fall in love with things they either had no clue existed or didnt care about because of *YOUR* creativity! People can and do enjoy things they have no previous perception about because you put your own twist, talent, creativity and hard work into it.

I love that his plan for the good ending was just "Dude look around, we are living the good ending."

One of the highest quality animations I've ever seen, still can't believe its made by ONE PERSON!

Another one-man army project is the Astartes Project by Syama Pedersen from a couple years ago. His intense lighting/composition and storytelling make it feel a little similar imo, though with a distinct suppression of emotion

Great video! I loved it, especially the meta-storytelling elements you have shown us! Not being part of that fandom, I didn't know about the bit-by-bit releases or characters, but you managed to showcase the meta details in such a way that made it easy to understand and feel what the fandom must have been feeling over these 18 months. Enough that, right at the end, when you told us about the good ending, I suddenly teared up. The rewind... worked?! I was so happy and relieved. Thanks, for honoring the efforts of a fan, and enabling us non-fans to feel all those levels of emotions hidden in the meta!

Schnee and Hololive is not the crossover I expected, but definitely a welcome one. I appreciate that you mentioned that there IS lore but didn't actively try to throw people into the rabbit hole by explaining unnecessary details. An example is highlighting the juxtaposition in Ina's character design and not mentioning that her personality is equally juxtaposed. Does knowing Ina is a ridiculously comfy streamer make the animation more poignant? Of course. Do you need to know it to understand what is going on? No. Something something miss the forest for the trees. Good stuff as always.

Never expected this but i like it

Something I wanna note and ask you is what is your opinion on the hoops in Ame's hair in the first scene, the one leaving the voice recording for other Ames, and the singular hoop in the last Ame's hair. There's a big hoop and a little hoop in the first Ame's scene, but only one big hoop in the last Ame's scene. Amazing video, I love the breakdown and I never would have seen this animation if you hadn't uploaded this breakdown video, I'm very thankful for that!

A surprise, to be sure. But a welcomed one

Great analysis. I also love to note that most of the plot and lore are basically made by the Myth members consistently since the beginning. Mazumaro successfully integrated all the lores into one solid animation and story.

I literally cried at the end of this short, especially having been invested in them from around the time they started, it's so, soooo emotional and such a fantastic story line and it speaks to the actual character's/people's real personalities so it FEELS SO REAL to what each of them really would do in every way in this scenario not to mention the sheer awe it inspires in the animation alone; I can only imagine they must have the same passion for Myth that the hardest of hardcore viewers do to manage to pull this together solo I'm even tearing up now just watching a an analytical break down of it, haha, so you can be sure i'll be following whatever they put out in the future~

this was incredibly interesting to watch/listen to! i really wanna write my own stories someday and turn them into webtoons, so this really helped me set a solid foundation for that! thanks

holy shit that curiosity ramp was mind blown.

I love how the video that talks about why this animation is a masterpiece is longer than the animation.

Wow it’s crazy that even hololive content has made it to movie and story analysis channels like this…

Liked, shared, posted to my townhall. Need 30 more mins of this, there is so much more ive caught watching thats hard to put into words. Good stuff

Another great thing in this project is their OST. Daryl Barnes did an amazing job twisting each member's OST into something that REALLY fits the animation with seamless transition too! I didn't quite noticed it on the first watch until near the very end where Epic orchestral version of Ame's theme BLASTED on my face. I then rewatched the whole thing and realized that most of the soundtracks are abbreviation of each member's theme when they take the leading role in that scene without being too obvious, even to someone that hear their songs for many times. The SFX by DaphDafDave are also amazingly served their purpose. I cannot stress enough how much it elevates the intensity of the media. Seriously, these people are AMAZING.

It is proof of how far the love we have for hololive can go, the work of this person is truly incredible, hopefully this will open the doors to many more things to him, it is incredible

this breakdown is sooooo good. so many things i missed and when u point it out i was like oooo shiiiiit!!! this was so unexpected to see. good one

I can't believe the things this video made me feel, mazumaro's work is incredible, it's crazy that he did it alone, it's crazy, it's one of the many reasons why I love this community..

This makes me want to watch Monti Oum's Dead Fantasy, again. I'm sad he never got to finish that. And sad he passed away before he could finish RWBY. But hearing about small artists making fan projects that start their career is really cool.

This was so cool! I’ve never even heard of Holomyth but I’m looking forward to checking it out. I loved “hey ash” I still sing her lyrics to the epona song whenever I play ocarina of time 😂

When I watched the final version I was so mentally and emotionally drained I just sat in silence for about 10 minutes. An absolute masterpiece indeed.

I didn't know this existed and I have now watched it and cried and then came back and watched analysis. Thank you for sharing this masterpiece.

This and astartes were one of the best animations I've seen made by one person.

There's also the fact that no matter how much you rewind a RU-vid video, its ending is not going to change.

Man this guy pointed out stuff I didn't notice even though I followed the animation over 18 months, 10/10 analysis and sub

as someone that followed this from the beginning, i’ve gotta say it feels like a mastersclass in storytelling and production

Wow.. I really did enjoy your analysis of this short film and also thank you for exposing me to such a great visual storyteller. I shall definitely try to use all tools at my disposal to bring more greatness into my content... Once again, thank you

I'm gonna have to save this one because I haven't seen it yet but I appreciate your and your videos. I have never, in all my years on youtube learned so much from a single content created about writing even in your shorter videos. Truly outstanding work that you do!

I love your breakdown of this! It's always so cool when someone creates a short that is just so packed full of story and details that it lives way past it's runtime. You're right it is a masterpiece! I've been subscribed to Mazumaro for years because of his Kagerou Project fan animations, and with that in mind the time travel stuff makes so much sense. Very basic summary the Kagerou Project is a multi-media series (told thru songs and MVs, mangas, light novels and an anime) where a group of lonely kids with weird powers, all end up finding each other, and then tragically most- if not all- die resulting in one of the characters resetting the timeline. Each media form covers a different route of the story, where events happen a little differently each time and each part gives another hint to the overall story being told. It's a long rabbit hole to go down but overall it's a pretty good story and it was fun to see pieces of the story come together with each new addition as it was coming out. I know even if on purpose or not he was inspired by Kagerou Project when making this and my little description may sound pretty similar to the story being told in the short but they are definitely different. However Mazumaro still manages to capture the feeling following along with Kagerou Pro gave me and in a much shorter time.

This examination was exceptional, thank you for creating it. A masterpiece of an analysis on a masterpiece of an animation.

I gotta add that Iyrs is hope it self, Ame constant revind not givin up on hope can be connected to her appearance here and Irys's first song where we see Irys decendin on a ruined city. Many fans have connected that lore to her appearance in Gura's Animation short(Shark'd) where we see a glimpse of Irys actually whispersin in Gura's ear to join Hololive and rememberin what Mazu said 'we living in good ending' could mean the girls joinin hololive is what gave us that good ending.

Amazing video. The way you conveyed every detail of this animation without much prior knowledge about the lore and broke down every step of Mazumaro's possible thought process was absolutely divine. The fact that you didn't even forget to mention the little easter eggs such as Sana's symbol, Ina turning back to human, and especially IRyS's symbol of Hope just blew me away. As a massive fan of HoloEN and basically all of Hololive Productions as a whole, thank you so much for covering this! ^^

Loved this whole analysis! And I didn't even know Mazumaro already dropped the explanation that "we are living in the good ending timeline". Keep it up! PS: Your thumbnail made me to click. PPS: friendly advice: get a pop filter for your mic, see ya!

AMAZING Analyzation, as a writer I can only hope to create something as great as Mazumaro did. This animation was nothing short of an absolute masterpiece, made greater by the fact you don't NEED to know anything about Hololive to understand the scale of the characters. Glad to hear an in-depth look at the animation, everyone should know just how good it really is and your words do it justice

Okay, this is not the content I was expecting and I am so happy you did this. It's an incredible piece that I already enjoyed, and now I just have an even deeper appreciation of it and hopefully can replicate some of it's success in my own work in the future ^.^ You covered so much about storytelling in this, thank you

You gotta love this type of short film format. Its briliant.

Been watching this since the day the first short came out and have loved the 1 1/2 year journey. Thank you for this analysis that has only deepened my love for this short.

Great, and the research you did really shines here. Excellent

This was amazing, both the animation/story and your narration of it. I'd love to see you dip into more anime content

Man, I was hoping that you would cover this! Love your work!

I wasn't expecting to see this video on this channel lol but Mazumaro deserves all the praise!

I’ve never heard of the HoloEn community but I loved how you broke down story elements and formatting tricks Mazumaro used that worked and why. Great stuff as alway Schnee I love your videos!!

Wah!

So damn glad I was in it for the majority of the long haul. A most epic ride of the sincerest emotions, all along the cleanest of animations. Ty for allowing us to delve back into the video and take into appreciation again just how much of a masterpiece this was.

Excellent analysis! You have expressed everything I love about this masterpiece and more.

This was _SUCH_ a spectacular breakdown of all the details in a way that I absolutely love to see people dive into. Thanks SO much for shining a well-deserved spotlight on Mazu's work. You've definitely earned yourself another sub along the was as well!

For the algorithm!!! Good explanation of storytelling concepts and planning, i learned a lot!

Thank you very much!! I would have never understand the genius of this work without your in-depth analysis, I would have just pass this as just another fan fiction with cool fight scenes but now I can appreciate it in a much deeper level.

This is a crossover I didn't expect to happen

You didn't even talk about with the teasers Mazumaro showed the end of the short "September 13th 2022, the world was wiped out by a single entity." Which before the short came out everyone thought was Ina but turned out to be Ame. Somehow creating a plot twist in the 18 month meta narative. Absolutely insane

awesome video, it's been forever since I've watched something like this and you make me wish I'd found you sooner! Amazing video, really!!

"Hope through hopelessness" THIS IS IT. THE CORE OF HOPE. You dont need hope if theres no hopelessness, games/shows/movies/series/mangas A LOT OF MEDIA doesnt understand this tiny yet gigantic bit of important rule!

This was a great dive into the project!

i love this community

thank you so much for this video. i absolutely took Mazu's vid for granted, and youve allowed me to gain a deeper understanding. thank you, this is amazing

I probably watched this masterpiece close to 20 times now. It pops up in my feed and I cant help but watch it again. I loved your analysis and gives a little additional layer to the metaverse created by Mazumaro!

Insane, amazing, absolutely mind blowing. Cant even find enough words to describe how great that was, the work, the quality the ideas, the execution, everything. Mazumaro san, if I had a hat I would take it off for you. 絶対に素晴らしい

Thank you for such a thoughtful breakdown. I'm one of the people who's been following Mazumaro's releases for the entire 18 months development cycle, but your video really put it into perspective all the things I felt subconsciously, but didn't know how to express in words. Great job! You just earned my sub for your insightful and interesting analysis. I'm off to check out some of your other videos.

Great analitycs, and big respect to mazumaro for creating this masterpiece

I love this short so much, and I'm so glad you covered it. Probably my most hyped video on youtube since hellsing ultamite abridged episodes. Love the stuff man. Keep analyz ing!!!!

As a Hololive fan I already watched and understood everything about this fanimation, but hearing someome more knowledgeable about animation explain why it's so awesome made me think about how masterful Mazumaro-sensei is all over again.

Did't expect you covering this. Surprise but a welcome one!

I am just amazed and embarrassed at the same time Golden minds like him do exist? What have i been doing?

i never had any words to describe the utter AMAZEMENT i felt during this short, but you put all my thoughts into a video. thanks for that, my mind can rest easy now that it's been deconstructed for me.