Media is well worth obsessing over. It is, without exaggeration, the lens through which we interpret and interact with the world. Anything that helps us examine and understand it better is a worthy pursuit.
Still, it is important to remember that you have to stay in touch with reality at the end of the day! Media obsession is like diving -- fun and exercising in its way and excitingly otherwordly, but you belong to earth, and your oxygen drains away. Return back with newfound experiences, let them seep through and change you, then dive again for new experiences when you're ready. Otherwise you lose touch not only with the world and society and all that, but with yourself. Man becomes his best when he bounces off of what life has to offer.
I think my "obsession" comes from chasing that feeling of absolute immersion i get from reading a vn... with no voice acting, where the music is the snow globe keeping you willingly trapped in the fake world you constantly want to observe. Tv shows can do this too, but i feel it more fun to fill in the animation/voice gaps on your own as you go. Then when you finally set it down (or even worse, finish it), the snow globe breaks and you get washed out onto the floor back into uh.... life. Then you have to go tell your friends about it until it becomes an identifiable part of your personality 😅. The ones who stick around are true friends!!! Anyway thanks again for the great content!
"The single-greatest musical performance in the history of this medium." Me: **cries in Revue Starlight, The IDOLM@STER, Inu-Oh, BanG Dream!, and Ongaku** But seriously though, that scene is pretty damn sweet! @10:23 "There a bit of an expectation for a truly great anime that doesn't really exist for other pieces of media." I surmise that it's because since we've picked anime as the medium of choice, and because it's still rather niche compared to other things like movies, TV, and books, we want to find that special diamond in the rough that makes our connection to this niche media so personal. I suppose a way to think about it is like this - "Anyone can relate to live-action movies, but not everyone can relate to anime."
I hear that. I wonder if there are any other niche medias out there that are like that. Like I know people get their lives affected by fiction all the time but not to the point of it being expected as I can recall
@@Totaraum I can't say for sure, but some of that might also be a reaction to the still-very-prevalent ideology that animation is for children only, and that as a result, it CANNOT have that life-affecting quality. ^ this might be a discussion point in my next video, just saying ;)
Imah go out on a limb and say you have watched toradora if not do it it gave me the same feeling as k-on with making me laugh to to making me cry 2 episodes later it’s just so beautiful
I went from " wow this guts guy is so badass" to " this man needs a hug" real quick. Berserk gets alot of hype so i was skeptical but so far its incredible, those panels are unreal, i end up reading it so slowly just to take the visuals in. The only things that come close are monster and goodnight punpun Also haruhi is the goat it will always be the best post modern anime and film ever made. I fuggin love it
I just verbalized this context of my obsessions yesterday. Like quite literally. I'm happy you were able to put this in a context that can be understood to other people. I really do appreciate the work you do. Please try to have a good day. 😁
another vid from the goat himself, its always sweet to hear other people's connections with media and how it helped them though something, i feel once you find that one anime that does it for you , you never look back interms of finding new shows
For sure. I doubt anything will come close to being as important to me as clannad or haruhi or berserk in terms of anime, but I sure as hell can try to find it lol
Another great video from my favorite video essay youtuber. I was totally gonna drop my steam user and discord in a PM on patreon or something so we could play Stardew Valley together when you mentioned it. Then you finished the rest of your sentence. I think more people are obsessed with media than they realize - thus making it normal. Anything from a 50-episode anime drama about love, heartbreak, and family to a book series about pre-teens with a magic treehouse that can time travel or whatever to your favorite song is media. Even those shitty, cancerous npc tiktoks, or whatever you kids watch this week, is media and we all know how popular _those_ are for a lot of people. At the end of the day; what is 'media' other than a channel through which a story is told? And what's more human than telling stories and being enraptured by them when they're told to us? That's, like, as human of an experience as it gets, man.
I'm sorry my average stardew gameplay was disappointing lol. I completely agree about stories too. Being human is something that's hard to define but stories are just intrinsically tied to what we are and always has been
Man, the more I watch your videos the more I see myself in you. Just a young adult with a passion and obsession to their favorite pieces of media. We want to share that passion with others because of how much it means to us and had an impact on us, regardless of it being fiction. Thanks for sharing your thoughts man, I really enjoyed the video.
Just finished watching, and I actually really loved this vid! I was here for all the clannad vids, and clannad is definitely my obsession. I mean, over a year after watching and now I'm playing the vn. Probably the most influential piece of fiction ever, but everyone just thinks I'm just a weeb lmao. I definitely suggest GTO, or great teacher onizuka, besides clannad, that's my current obsession. Both are peak fiction
I'm finding it hard to believe that you're only 3 years older than me. When I first came across your videos, I thought you were at least 25 if not older. Pretty insane that you are able to make such high quality arguments and deep dives into media at such a young age. Another great video as always.
Dont really know what to really say so this os gonna be disconnected as all hell. My favorite movie is koe no katachi(a silent voice), despite its tone, despite its nearly 2 and half hour long run time its a movie i still think about and come back to regularly and is the only movie iv actually recommended to others online, friends and family alike to watch yet i dont really know why. I saw it at 12am one morning and caught myself feeling in the first half an hour over a sinple gesture, when the movie finished i went to sleep then woke up to watch ot 2 times over the next day. By now ive seen it 9 times and i still see or think of something new each time i watch it. Others thoughts about it have also intrigued me because of this movies structure so many things are left to interpretation, a level of freedom you dont usually get from a piece of media. Its really easy to have long conversations with others whove seen it due to its level of interpretation. In fact such loose ended but well tied story has become not only memorable but a desired trait when looking at any other piece of media. The ability to leave dozens of different interpretations yet remain coherent with any possibility to be thought of os just so enamoring as a concept and done so well here. The way it also presents itself on a character/emotional level and less of a plot level really allows you to understand each characters perspective thoroughly and Yamada's influence here is on full display, the entire team kinda spoiled me with its animation and created a standard thats rarely ever met after I've seen it. Thats all for this ramble or whatever, feel free to tell any of your stories or memories if you so please. Its nice hearing others perspectives and relations.
