StaticEvolution
We always talk about things and evaluate them. Let's take something that at the least on the surface level could be called trivial: A movie.
We give our opinion on that movie for example by saying: "I didn't like that movie." If we go deeper, as to why: "Because the movie had [...]." or "The movie did [...]." and we might end our point by saying "... and I didn't like that." or "... that wasn't so good in my opinion."
Now, why do I find this problematic? Because I feel like the focus is wrong. And I'm stating up front that I don't believe we need to change the way we talk about things, just that it would be productive to change our perspective on how we consume other peoples opinions.
Now, back to the topic at hand, why do I believe standards to be so important? Because if we view opinions as being a set of standards, the nuances of how we look at opinions and possibly also our perspective on them changes. If you know my set of standards when I talk about a work of art (a movie), you will understand why I talk about it like I do. In fact if you were to use that same set of standards, you will see the movie exactly as I do. Just like in the theory of special relativity (shout-out to my main man Einstein!), it's all relative. Everybody will see a movie the exact same way when using the exact same set of standards (or in physics jargon, the same reference frame).
A YouTuber called Digibro made a video titled "How To Make A Successful Sword Art Online Video" on his Digibro After Dark channel about Sword Art Online (SAO), an anime series that is divisive to say the least, being almost universally hated in the community of people who review Japanese animated shows. Because of that, in his video he claims that if he really wanted to make an outrageously successful SAO video, he would make one where he would do nothing but praise it by only looking at the good points of that show. And he could very well do that. By adopting a set of standards that is mostly indifferent to the 'bad points' of the show but focuses on the 'good points', he could make a compelling case on why this show is actually good. And everybody who has a similar set of standards and probably liked the show already, would agree. However, everyone who had a contrasting set of standards would not be too happy with an opinion piece like that. Why? Mostly because on a video like this Digibro (or anybody else) would not explicitly state his set of standards beforehand. He would use phrasing roughly analogous to the way of talking I described in this article's introduction.
Even on the basis of opinion, a huge amount of people would disagree with him. That's because in our modern society we regard opinion to be too close to how something really is. In a video where he praises SAO if everybody was aware of Digibro's set of standards beforehand - or even understood his opinions as a set of standards - they could not disagree with his description of SAO, only his set of standards. You may not have realized, but the last sentence was incredibly important. It implies the difference in the nuances of opinions and standards. In the case of opinions, we really describe our opinions through the lens of the art that we talk about. We say that a work of art does this and that and therefore is bad. That's more a description of our view on that work of art than the work of art itself. In the case of standards, we view a work of art through the lens of a set of standards. And anybody who understands (not necessarily agrees with) that set of standards will understand the view on that work of art as well.
As I said, this article really doesn't imply that we need to change the way we talk about things. After all, standards and opinions are at their core the same thing. But I do believe that if we understand that our opinions are not derived of the things we talk about, but instead that how we talk about things is derived from our opinion, we could in all aspects of life and in all communities have a much more productive dialogue. And a productive dialogue is really desirable in my opinion.
Art Guides by Monika Zagrobelna
I felt like sharing these articles and Monika Zagrobelna's homepage with whoever happens to pass by my profile page. I encourage everyone who is unsure about their expertise in the fundamentals (particularly in drawing and painting) to give some of these articles a read. She also has other tutorials covering, among other, more advanced Photoshop techniques and how to draw certain animals/creatures.
Monika Zagrobelna's Envato Tuts+ Profile
Color Fundamentals 3-parter: Pt.1 Seeing Light and Shadow / Pt.2 Shading / Advanced Coloring
Value in Realistic Painting
Drawing from Imagination 3-parter (with exercises)
Also check out the author's homepage. Obviously a lot of work went into these articles, not to mention the time spent to understand these topics herself before she could even write about them, and all of these are for free!
monikazagrobelna.com/
The legal battles of Peter S. Beagle
Still Peter is apparently dirt poor and lives in obscurity.
It seems that all his life he was abused by people that were supposed to help him in the financial aspects of his art. The "newest" dirtbag who is making a buck off of Peter's achievements is a fella called Connor Cochran. He has been organizing screening tours of the movie around the world without ever giving Peter any kind of money he deserves.
While Peter has been battling him in court for quite some time, Connor is using the money to pay for his own lawyers. He is using every kind of scheme for misdirection to keep the justice he deserves at bay and to continue milking Peter's art.
He has scammed fans all over the world with merchandise he sells over Conlan Press that will never get to their buyers. Nor will any kind of refund.
Anyone who's thinking of going to one of the The Last Unicorn Tour screenings and is reading this: Don't. You'll be supporting evil.
Anyone who's ever bought something from Conlan Press: Get in contact with Peter S. Beagle's lawyer to help the battle against Connor Cochran. Keep bugging Conlan Press about a refund. Do not let go. After writing a mail every month on average for about a year, becoming "continually angrier", I finally got my money back, for books that I've bought over a year prior.
You can read up on everything over here:
fansagainstfraud.com/
I urge every fan of Peter's work to not just stand by watching. Simply spreading the word will help. Anyone who calls himself an artist should feel compelled to let other people know that another (great) artist is being severely wronged! Make Connor Cochran finally pay for his actions!
ME!ME!ME! an analysis
I'm not a redditer. If I were I'd post it there. Since I'm not I just leave it here. - This is a script for a video, not an analysis in written form. So it might be weird to go through at certain parts. - Please keep in mind that some "scenes" may not be included in the script, because I knew what I wanted to do. In the end this script was meant for me, not an audience. Everything important about the analysis is included though. - Square brackets indicate things like stage/editing directions for me etc. and are mostly written in German. - Most importantly: Not the whole script was supposed to be used. I had color coded the passages I wanted to leave out, because the video would have turned out too long. I leave them in because I don't believe there are majorly incorrect passages among them, but the chance that there are still exists. They have not been revised for the final video. Round brackets indicate that before them came a part I wanted to leave out but had to shorten by rephrasing.
It was supposed to be a video so it would have went along with visuals. Since those are not given anymore, it's advisable that you watch the video before reading the analysis: [Not Safe For Work!!] ME!ME!ME! [Not Safe For Work!!]
Please enjoy!)
About three months ago on November 21st a Japanese animated music video was released as part of the Japan Anima(tor)’s Expo and it became quite infamous on the internet. That video is ME!ME!ME!.
Intro
Disclaimer
From what I’ve heard, the usual reaction to watching that video was [angewiderte Grimasse]. I guess that stands in connection to why it became so infamous. As for my reaction when I watched it for the first time, it looked something like this [enthusiastisches Gesicht]. Now you might think that I must’ve seen a completely different video. Nah. My reaction and the reaction of the usual watcher were about the exact same thing: Boobies. Jumblies. Titties. And holy wow, a lot of them! But please don’t get the wrong idea about me. As the highly analytical and therefore completely asexual person that I am, of course I wasn’t happy just because I’ve seen a holy wow amount of boobs. Not one bit [schmieriges Lächeln]. Like many other people, I have seen that there is more behind this six and a half minute long video, than a feast of shameless nakedness and presentation of the female body. More as in the kind of “things that where there but not explicitly said or shown”. This video [dramatische Pause] was deep.
ME!ME!ME! is the third- [Busenbild verscheuchen] …the third animated video of the short film project 日本アニメ（ーター）見本市, or the “Japan Anima(tor)’s Exhibition” presented by Studio Khara and Dwango. It features, quote “original projects, spin-off projects, promotional films, Music PV – s – [“s”] and VJ Films etc…” [Pause] What does VJ stand for…? [VJ (media personality) Wiki page] Oh…! The video ME!ME!ME! is backed up by the song of the same name by Japanese DJ TeddyLoid featuring daoko as the singer.
Now, this is an analysis of the deeper meaning of this video and its song, so I won’t go all that much into detail about my opinion of it. But if you haven’t guessed it from this picture yet [enthusiastisches Gesicht], I LOVE it. After the first time, I watched it immediately again. There are just so many aspects of it I like so much and it all comes together in an explosion of enthusiasm which ultimately led me to creating this video. But one thing is that I was genuinely happy to see nekid girls. Nekid girls, actually used in a form of artistic expression. I am a person who frequents deviantArt on a daily basis and boy, oh boy let me tell you there are a lot of pictures grouped under the generalization “Artistic Nude”. Now, I don’t want to start a discussion about what art actually is, or what defines artistic value. I’m sure the majority of these pictures took a lot of effort and expertise. But I was so happy to see female nudity not just used for the sake of “aesthetics”, but also for the sake of “meaning”. There is actually a higher reason to why there is so much nudity in the video.
I watched the video for the first time around the beginning of February – yeah, yeah, I know I’m late. I’m sorry, I don’t have such an elaborate internet life! [Pause] On the other hand I don’t have such an elaborate real life life either… [hoher Seufzer] So, of course, there were already a lot of people who discussed the deeper meaning before I had even watched the video. I haven’t deliberately looked up any kind of threads or videos discussing the meaning of ME!ME!ME!, but the consensus seemed pretty clear. Every YouTube or reddit comment or video which included opinions on the meaning of the video can basically be summed up under the following: The video is about the otaku lifestyle. It shows us, that you can get obsessed and addicted to anime and not only you, but also the people who are close to you will suffer from it. Some people even went so far to say, that it’s a stab against otaku culture itself. For those of you who don’t know, otaku is a Japanese term for people who have obsessive interests which can be about pretty much anything, but most of the time are about anime or manga. Now, if this was just another video about ME!ME!ME!, it could just end here. But since the video isn’t even close to its end yet, of course I have something different to say. Just one thing before we actually start though: This video is MY interpretation of ME!ME!ME!. That’s why it’s called “an analysis” and not something along the line of “ME!ME!ME! Explained”. The only person who could actually explain the video to you is the creator – Hibiki Yoshizaki. Everything you hear from any other person is just assumption and this video isn’t any different. But for the sake of simplicity you will hear me saying things like “this is that” or “this means that”. Please keep in mind that all of this is just what I believe to be true. And with that we come to my analysis of ME!ME!ME!.
Okay, first of all, in my opinion there isn’t actually a message or statement or even a special moral the creators wanted to convey in the video. I guess most people who saw that there’s a deeper meaning – or possibly wished for one, because let’s face it, who wants to admit that they loved a video like this, when there isn’t more to it, than duplicates of the same girl dancing naked to an electronica beat? Especially since it’s animated [Seufzer]. Though to be fair, the video is already pretty damn cool itself. The animation is as crisp as this chicken wing [Hühnerflügel hervorholen, reinbeißen, schlecht eingefügter Knusper-SFX] [„Obviously a chicken wing and NOT something I mistook for a chicken wing!“]! Mhm… So crisp! I guess most people who saw that there’s a deeper meaning behind it grabbed the first impression that stuck out the most and forcibly tried to explain it with what they saw. There are in fact many aspects of the video, which are in favor of the theory mentioned, which from here on out I’ll just call Theory 1. Anime obsession does have an undismissible significance. But it seems that the people who followed this theory only took the aspects of the video into account which worked for it, but disregarded those which in my opinion not only are in contrast to the theory but rule it out completely. I guess it’s kind of important to note, that those aspects have to be connected with each other before they stand in opposition to Theory 1. If you look at them one by one they actually work for it quite well. But I’ll talk more about that when we get to the point in the video. Also, I feel like this theory is just… really lame. I mean, is there anyone out there who doesn’t know that you can become obsessed with… pretty much anything?! Putting this much time and effort into something like this just to get across a fact that everybody knows about already just seems really off to me.
Now one word about the music: Of course one can’t just assume that music and video stand in close relation to each other. The topic sung about in a song can be quite off from what the corresponding music video is about. In the case of ME!ME!ME! though, we can make some assumptions. First off it’s unlikely, that the song was created before the music video. That’s because the cover of the single features the characters from the video. Also, since the music fits the video so perfectly in case of rhythm etc. the song was not produced after the video was already done (which is very unlikely to begin with). So we can say that either the music video and the song where both part of the project, or that at least the video’s concept was already finished when the song was “commissioned”. So it’s not surprising that melody, rhythm and genre changes as well as the lyrics of the song support the video extremely well. (The music undeniably is an important part of the video and the experience of watching. Not only does the music support the video extremely well, but it also gives us very important insight that the video actually does not.) That’s why I’m going to analyze the song at certain points, too, though the focus will lie on the video.
As I said ME!ME!ME! is not a visualization of a certain message. But it’s actually the telling of a story. Though, just because it’s a story it doesn’t mean, that there is no depth to the video. Quite the contrary. Another aspect why I like the video so much is that it doesn’t treat its viewers like kids with the inability to think for themselves like so many movies, TV series and especially anime do it nowadays. Instead of feeding it to the viewer, the video gives you contextual hints and expects you to reconstruct its meaning on your own. Every person who has his brain turned on while watching ME!ME!ME! can understand the video and its story the first time watching it. Not necessarily every detail of it, but certainly the framework. Though I can understand that it’s pretty hard to do so, when the video itself is constantly trying to turn it off again. And even then the video is deep enough that you cannot say with absolute certainty what the story looks like in all its particulars. It all stays on the level of speculation. Before I said that there is no special moral in this video. That also doesn’t mean that there is no moral to be found here. Since it’s a story of course there can be one. But it might be different from individual to individual what you take from this story. It’s just that I don’t believe that there is an explicit moral the creators wanted to show to the viewers.
So let’s finally take a look at the video. The protagonist – whose name according to the website is “しゅうちゃん” – lies motionless and with a dead stare on the bed in his room. The room’s interior – the posters, the figurines, the tools with which he works on the figurines, the gun next to his desk – immediately gives us the image of an otaku. If we were to go one step farther, and take a look at the chaos and trash, he even might be a hikkikomori, a person who shuts himself away from society for varying reasons (for example fear) and barely leaves his home if at all. It shows us what kind of person our protagonist is: Someone who invests a lot of time and money in his hobby – particularly anime.
On his desk is a small TV with a freeze frame of two girls in it. Here I’m going to refer to something a YouTuber called “DouchebagChocolat” said. I’ve randomly seen ME!ME!ME! for the first time in one of his videos and he made the important point, that the only reason we know that Shūchan is an otaku, is because we see his room’s interior before the music video starts. The whole video is animated so the picture in the TV might as well be a life action video and we just don’t see it as one. But, we can also say that the video itself is actually animated, or about animation. That is because we can see the girl in the TV on a poster which hangs on the left wall above Shūchan’s bed. It’s not proof but keep in mind that the only impression of the protagonist we have is, that he’s an anime and games otaku. So you can certainly say that the poster, which obviously he put on the wall, and therefore the video is animation related. Though what really excludes any kind of doubt is the name of the girl: メメ量産A型, which can be translated to “Meme, mass production Model A”. We are also going to see two other actual human beings, and while Shūchan and these other persons have a natural color palette, Meme is different, featuring bright neon colors – even her skin has a purple tone to it. Either way it’s obvious that Meme is part of Shūchan’s obsession.
Welcomed by Meme we now enter the TV and the music video starts. Here, delving into the TV means delving into the protagonist’s mind. Well, the music video is fairly surreal with shifting shapes and flashy colors, but that’s not necessarily untypical for a music video. If we remember our protagonist, though, it’s easier to see this relation: First of all he was lying motionless on his bed staring at a freeze frame on a TV screen. Pretty much the ideal situation to inadvertently doze off. What is more important though comes later in the video. If we divide the video into three parts matching the music [Website] the first part goes from the beginning to about 1:49. Then from there till the 3:45 mark is part two and the rest is part three. We see Shūchan seemingly wake up two times in the video. Once right after the first part and again at the end. The first time hints at the music video in fact not being reality, the second time at him – and with him us – actually not having left his mind up till the end either.
So almost the whole video – if not even the entirety of it – happens in the protagonist’s mind. (Pretty imaginative guy I must say.) We are looking at his psyche, what kind of person he is, what moves him! The erotic undertones don’t leave us waiting for long [Herz]. Remind you of something [Hintern]? Shūchan is hanging around, with a content smile while looking at the scenery. The music is pretty much stereotypical J-pop: Bright melody with generic text about a love relationship. The music video fits the mood where we can see a couple duplicates of Meme dancing and doing funny faces. In the first 45 seconds of the video there isn’t much more happening except that the sexual undertones become more apparent. We can put that into relation with Shūchan’s obsession: You get interested in anime and watch it for a while until you start buying merchandise and come to like the more sexualized part of the medium. It’s all, more or less in a sexual sense, for his satisfaction. And Meme adapts to the needs of the viewer. By the way, when Meme loses her dress? That’s where she turns into “Model B”.
At the 1:10 mark the music video changes: The Colors turn darker and menacing. The music changes from happy pop to an electronica-esque beat [zur Musik tanzen (Handrolle)]. IN THE DARK we meet our antagonist for the first time: A lightish red-haired [Donut, 1 Frame] woman wearing a mask with four red eyes. If you don’t want to believe me that she’s our antagonist, have you ever looked at how she’s sitting on that chair? She’s like every villain ever! [Boa Hancock] See any resemblance? The lyrics become darker as well. She sings about how she was screamed at that she was the other person’s inner sadness and hatred. This is the point where the video is sexualized so much [Modell C Untertitel] that it’d basically be pornography if it wasn’t missing the most important ingredient: An actual erotic scene. Ladies and gentlemen! Gaze in awe at the new state of the art borderline porn! Only here at the Japan Anima(tor)’s Expo! The genital piercing is totally sexy though! Hm. This scene obviously is a cut in the video. When its purpose before was giving enjoyment, it was completely disturbed by the antagonist entering. The stimulations on the concrete level as well on the abstract level spike. Shūchan’s expression shows surprise and terror when the woman walks towards him. We can connect the cut in the video directly to her. She is the specific reason why Shūchan isn’t in the world of enjoyment and carefreeness anymore. She also abuses his obsession which is personified in Meme. The string from her piercing to the woman’s hand will become more important later. For the fraction of a second we can see a girl’s picture flash up. Everything turns totally chaotic before (Theeen…) Shūchan is squashed between the woman’s breasts [“There are worse ways to die”].
And seems to wake up. Now we come to the second part of ME!ME!ME!. After the lightish red-haired [Donut 1 Frame] woman jumps out of the TV she drives Shūchan into a corner. The figurines coming to life are another hint at how the woman is warping the comfortable world Shūchan finds in anime. She takes off her mask and- [Pause] Hey…! She’s… a pretty girl. A girl which can scramble around the ceiling [Bild von Hana an der Decke], but, I mean… Doesn’t she look kinda familiar? And what’s that picture on the TV [Bild auf dem Fernseher]? Eh… I have an analysis to do. Anyway, then she- [Erbrechen Szene] OH MY GOD! Eugh! What is thi- what’s she doing?! I don’t- just- How did this hap-?! WHAT IS THAT?! [Pause] This is kind of like… That reminds me of, like, you know, behing hit by a train or something. I mean, everybody who’d watch somebody puke into somebody else’s mouth would be disgusted. Well, nearly everybody. There are people out there who are kind of into this kinda… To each his one, man. [Clip “This genital piercing is totally sexy though”] [“puke / on / Boobies / is totally sexy though”] HEY! Well, for Shūchan it’s basically the same. (something like this
It’s vomit which he is swallowing against his will. An oncoming train that’s about to hit him, but he cannot step aside. He is forcibly confronted with something, that is the most unpleasant to him. That the girl came out of the TV kind of made it obvious that we are still in the realm of his mind, but now the surroundings change again as well. What… You expectin’ a drug joke or something? [Pause, Seufzer] [“I couldn’t shoot the footage for my drug joke…” “So here’s me snorting scouring powder instead:”; Kirby Death Jingle] [Scheuerpulver-Szene] [1 Frame “lol”]
A melancholic melody starts playing and we (now) enter the depths of Shūchan’s mind. The picture which was on the TV before comes up and we can now see it clearly. It’s a photograph of Shūchan and a girl happily together. A moment that he experienced with her. From the website we know that the girl’s name is はなちゃん. But his memories with her aren’t only happy ones. That the next scene’s a memory is visualized by the black and white effect, while Shūchan is still in color next to it. Hanachan is down on the ground, crying, but Shūchan turns away. Seeing this is unsettling to Shūchan. It is obviously something that he was suppressing and didn’t want to remember. He tries to reach out to Hanachan as if he is trying to undo what happened, but of course he cannot intervene in a memory. That line in the lyrics though… 思い出すは 君の におい can be translated to „what I remember is your scent“. That’s one of the saddest lines I’ve ever heard. We see Shūchan lying apparently dead on the ground and Hanachan rips out his intestines like an animal. What’s important here is Hanachan’s appearance. She wears her hair in a ponytail while before we saw her with her hair down. Of course this might look like it doesn’t make a difference, but it sure does. Let’s talk real here, the resemblance between Hanachan and the antagonist from the first part is obvious to everyone who turned their eyes up a couple inches for just one second [Busen > Gesicht]. It goes without saying that they are the same person. Especially if you know the name of the antagonist. Take a guess. Yeah, that’s right! Her name is ハナ 変身! Oh, you thought it was Hanachan? Well, Hana Henshin means „Hana transformation“. Something that Hanachan turned into. Now, Hanachan and transformed Hana share a difference in one little detail. Transformed Hana is naked and her heels are basically part of her feet. Also she wears a creepy mask. Okay, maybe more than “one little detail”, but that’s not what I was getting at. Hanachan’s hair is always down, while transformed Hana’s hair is always put up to a ponytail. The person, or better the character, who digs into Shūchan’s guts is transformed Hana. Something Hanachan turned into brutally killed him in a proverbial sense. We are in Shūchan’s mind, so it tore something inside of him to pieces. Something that hints at their intimate relationship is the beginning of the song: いつだって いつだって 君とふたりでいたよね. “We have always been together, haven’t we? I have always been thinking about you.” But not only that, their names – Hanachan and Shūchan – hint at it as well. For those who don’t understand: -chan is a Japanese honorific used after names. It is normally used for children or girls, for example when they call each other by their nicknames. In the case of Shūchan, Shū is the nickname and –chan is the honorific which (especially when used towards a guy) implies intimacy. Hanachan and Shūchan are probably the names they called each other.
If we go back to the scene before that we can say that Shūchan was probably the one to end his relationship with Hanachan, since Hanachan is sitting on the ground crying, while Shūchan unable to say anything turns around and leaves. Hanachan kissing Shūchan after transformed Hanachan runs away underlines this assumption as well as part two and three of the song: “I’m much more of a crybaby than you think I am / I’m waiting here” and “Even though I waited for you, even though I loved you”. Transformed Hana eating away at Shūchan is symbolic for the reason why he can’t go back and undo his breakup. Because he had a reason to: Her. That part of Hanachan that in his mind is transformed Hana. Shūchan remembers all the good memories he had with her but what happened between the two soiled them and is now what transformed Hana represents.
This starts the third and last part of the video. Shūchan cries out, a power suit forms around his body and he gets a pulse rifle. From his frustration he gains the strength to fight his negative feelings. He fights through a group of Meme, Model Cs which attack him. [“MLG PRO!”; “T-T-TRIPLE KILL!!”; “HEADSHOT”; “ORIGINAL JOKES!!”; “I MENTIONED “ORIGINAL JOKE” SO IT’S OKAY THAT I DID AN UNORIGINAL JOKE!!”] Them (The Meme, Model Cs) acting hostile and attacking him is another step farther from his wonderland.
A petal from the flower Hanachan was wearing falls onto his (Shūchan’s) face. Transformed Hana’s and Hanchan’s face flash up, Shūchan (He) gets injured and falls together with Hanachan. He tries to grab out for her hand but can’t reach it and she falls down into the darkness. This scene gives us important insight about Shūchan’s feelings. It becomes apparent, that Shūchan just like Hanachan never wanted to see the relationship end. He wishes to create more happy memories with her, but whatever happened between them made it impossible for him to go on. What he wished for and what was best for him were contradicting each other. That doesn’t mean that what happened between them is something per se evil. Him reaching out to her shows us that he is still longing for the happy days he had with her. But relationships don’t always work out that way. Even when you know that your partner isn’t at fault, being together can be like deliberately swallowing poison. And a relationship like that probably was what drove Shūchan to end it. The song hints at his ambivalent feelings: “She’s nice, looks like a fun girl” And right after that “I really hate her”.
Shūchan finds himself at the climax. Before him floats the 音響戦艦, the sound battleship. In it waits transformed Hana with an army of Meme, Model Cs. In front of her is a constrained Hanachan. Here the strings I was talking about earlier, signify transformed Hana’s control over them (the Memes). She is the explicit reason, why they are acting hostile towards him. But Shūchan is prepared to fight his obsession as well as his negative feelings towards Hanachan. Scenery and music imply that this is the final battle. By the way, this is my favorite part of the song [Liedstelle singen]. I know that part two is totally awesome as well, but… this here, just makes me feel stuff! I think part two will probably outdo it over time though. Hanachan is swallowed by transformed Hana. She now became one with his negative feelings towards her. This is the point where we can say, why Theory 1 – you remember from the beginning? – doesn’t work:
Theory 1 states that there is a message behind the video: That an obsession for pop culture will destroy your life. Now, we know that Shūchan is struggling in the video. So we can narrow down the scenarios to pretty much two and their derivatives. One were he’s trying to break free from his obsession and one where he wants to delve deeper into it, embrace it, but a girlfriend or thoughts of her keep him from it. Now we just need to play out the scenarios and apply the theory to what we see. Please keep in mind that I’m trying to disprove Theory 1 in the sense of it being THE POINT of the video. In the end there will be something of Theory 1 left in my interpretation, since obsession still plays a fairly big role. But I say that this video tells a story so all of it falls more under the category of a moral you might gain from this. To say that it’s THE message the creators intended goes way too far in my opinion and also misses critical points of the story. Okay, let’s go first with the scenario in which he is supposedly trying to break free from his obsession. It doesn’t add up because of the following: Why is transformed Hana the antagonist? Following that theory we assume that his relationships, especially the one with his girlfriend he obviously cherished, suffered from his obsession as well and defeating his obsession means saving at the very least either the chance for a relationship or… a life! So it makes no sense that the personification of his obsession is transformed Hana. If we go with Theory 1 where it’s all about defeating his addiction, she would definitely be this, because she is the final boss. But we have too much imagery [Verwandlung in Hana etc…] (and her name), that tells us that transformed Hana is actually (a part) of Hanachan. Not just a concept that’s alike, like a personification of one of Shūchan’s obsessions – for example his girlfriend on one and pop culture on the other side – but the same person. In that case it would have also made much more sense to go with Meme or some look-alike as the personification of his pop culture obsession (which she actually is), instead of his girlfriend. Now let’s look at the scenario where he wants to fall deeper into his addiction and get rid of his girlfriend or his feelings for her. He obviously isn’t trying to. He’s fighting Memes all around, THE THING that embodies his obsession. You might say, that he is fighting back since he is attacked by them. But if his obsession is only something positive for him, there would be no reason why they turn hostile since we assume that delving deeper into anime is a conscious decision he makes- not only makes, but MADE already. It would only make sense if transformed Hana was personifying the negativity of his obsession so her coming up would mean that all that is positive, all that he loves about his obsession turns bad. But I already explained a second ago, that she obviously isn’t. Even if you were to say that transformed Hana is depicting his guilt for breaking up with Hanachan for his obsession, then why is he trying to reach out for her? And transformed Hana assimilating Hanachan then feels like he is trying to get Hanachan back and at that point we pretty much left this scenario already. So that doesn’t work out either. As far as I see it, Theory 1 contradicts with what we actually see in the video on both ends.
Back to the video, the fact that what was left of his love for Hanachan was destroyed by transformed Hana assimilating her is again shown by the photo of his memory bursting into pieces. Shūchan’s struggle turns out to be in vain. He is defeated by the Memes and then perishes to transformed Hana. The remains of his head softly fall to the ground.
And he wakes up.
Here, the video jumps back to the beginning, but I know that more often than not it fails to actually do so. However it’s easy to imagine since the video does end exactly how it starts. [abrupter Szenenwechsel] Noticed something? No? Well, I just cut the video from the end back to the beginning.
So, what does my interpretation look like? Well, I already explained a lot while looking at the video, but let me put it into perspective: I think Shūchan was in a happy relationship with Hanachan. But this relationship didn’t stay unconditionally happy for long. A part of their relationship made Shūchan break up with her. The lyrics hint at it as well: [„直接的バッサリ一刀両断される毎日“] means „the straight in two dividing everyday“. Apart from that part three of the song tells us the most about what happened to their relationship: “Eternal love is indeed nowhere, not anymore”. The title of the video and song might aim at what the reason actually was: ME!ME!ME!, words of a self-centered person. If we were to apply the lyrics to the characters in the video, the one singing would definitely be Hanachan. Hanachan was broken but the same goes for Shūchan. There still was something about Hanachan he deeply loved and he couldn’t stop thinking about her, how happy they were. That’s probably why he turned to watching anime and lost himself in it. He needed something to direct his attention at. We can assume that Shūchan wasn’t an anime fanatic before his break-up. None of his memories show us any clue that he was. Instead he hung out outside a lot with his girlfriend. The lyrics at part 1’s end fit this assumption: 創りだすのは偶像 君が 作った幻は 本当 なんかじゃない 過去の きみの 思い出の パッチワーク. “What you form is an idol / The illusion you created isn’t really anything / A fitting patchwork of your past self’s memories”. Part three might hint at it as well: “I’ve been trying my best myself, but what have you been doing?” sounds like she’s criticizing him for what has become of him. Now he barely left his room and indulged in his obsession. He stimulated his mind until he became numb so he wouldn’t think about Hanachan anymore. But he wasn’t able to run from his thoughts [Hanachans Bild am Ende von Teil 2]. They came back and tortured him. His negative feelings changed his obsession, in which he tried to find peace, to suffering. That’s why transformed Hana entering warps his wonderland and she controls the Memes. He could find the resolve to give up his obsession and overcome his negative feelings towards Hanachan but never succeeded. The end of the video, or its eternal loop, shows that Shūchan is caught in a cycle of killing off his feelings, the wish to overcome them and the vanity of his struggle.
And this is pretty much it. My analysis of the short film and song ME!ME!ME!. Man, that was a long video. Thank you so much for sticking with me! And as I said before, it’s all just MY theory. So if you have something that I forgot that makes Theory 1 stand, you thought of something to add to mine or possibly even make it topple over, or maybe you think the video is about something different altogether, please tell me in the comments. I’m super interested in what your opinions are on this. In the end I want you guys to think for yourself and see what you get out of this video.
And with that I take my leave. Cya!
Credits
[Kotzszene; Gib mir deinen Saft; „GERMAN JOKE“]
(Edit: I forgot to mention this: There is something that's not in the script but I wanted to tell the people in the comments. If you bought the single via iTunes you may have come across something interesting. If you open the tracks' song info and go to the Sorting tab you will see that all the songs are sorted under a different name than their actual title. ME!ME!ME! is replaced by メメメ. Those are katakana for mememe. They are not read like the English "me" though but like mehmehmeh. The Meme character from the PV is pronounced that way as well. This may have significant impact on the interpretation of what the title actually means or if there is a connection to the title and the Meme character but I didn't grant it too much importance. That's why it's also not included in the script. I personally believe that Meme is called Meme, because she has a mascot status for the PV. And I also believe that the title is actually supposed to be at least connected to the English word "me" because of the exclamation marks in the title. As I said I didn't think it's too important so I won't go into detail about what my thoughts are on this.)