can someone explain to me who these people are? are they the hip self-hating anime crowd or why are so many of them pretending to shit on anime with anime avatar?

Of course she is.

I'm having a hard time deciding between Hiromi and Ponite. Maybe Hiromi; Ponite has an awesome name, but the preggo-fetish scene spoils the mood. Juri looks like she might be the hot tomboy of the group, but due to lack of character development, and therefore direct evidence, I am not willing to mark for her. Hatsune has the best hair, but the glasses ruin it for me, and Yoshiっch, while having superb hair, the funniest name ("Yo Shit"???!), and an interesting personality, is currently too busy being creeped on by Pharrel Williams. Honda is just sort of there.

I like Honda. But what's the controversy here? Normally girl anime has at least one less-endowed girl, and unless you add wrinkles, or in a lot of cases, glasses, most of the time they look somewhere between 10 and 20 anyway. Hell, I was seeing a girl who was about Yoshi's build (and similar hair) who is nearing her mid-30s.

I haven't watched this yet, but this was co-directed by Mr., one of Takashi Murakami's Superflat stable and creator of some *insanely* creepy pedo-y shit.

I didn't see anything too weird, but I didn't do an exhaustive search ('Superflat' and the like mostly bring up Minecraft images for me.) The only thing I saw was a schoolgirl flipping up another schoolgirl's skirt revealing an erect penis, which is a little weird, but nothing terribly surprising. But you're right; Wikipedia mentions a Lolita complex as his main inspiration, which, I guess is fine for art as long as you don't act on it, but probably not for a music video for one of the world's most popular artists.

On the other hand, Mr. Williams gets the SD treatment into what looks pretty much like a kid So even if she is a kid, is it really that far away from Biggie's 'Sky's the Limit'?

Yeah, I know Takashi Murakami. I got to see "My Lonesome Cowboy" at a Pop Art show a few years ago. I kind of wish that I'd have snapped a selfie of myself standing with the statue, but I was a good boy and obeyed the "No Photography" sign.

If you don't know what "My Lonesome Cowboy" is, it's a statue of a naked Final Fantasy-esque bishounen (cute male) brandishing a lasso that's not made out of rope.

Haha I found some pics. That's.. uhh.. a surprisingly low semen count compared to most Hentai. :)

I didn't mean to tar Murakami with the same brush- I think Lonesome Cowboy is fucking hilarious, honestly, and as far as other Superflat-affiliated artists go, I love Aya Takano's work. It's just that Mr. gives off this whole Uncle Badtouch vibe that, even if it's part of his public persona or whatever, is FUCKING CREEPY.

Yeah, I don't think there's any ambiguity as far as Yo Shit's intended age. I agree that there's nothing wrong, or should be nothing wrong, criminally speaking, with lolicon from an art perspective, but it's really funny seeing a major mainstream musician involved in such a blatant (and rapey!) example of it.

I wonder if this signals a new phase in the entertainment industry's attempts to normalize pedophilia?

(for the folks who missed it: the bizarre looking ending to the name, Yoshiっ[ch], is actually a romanization of

っ[t͡ɕ]

In simple cases, っ[t͡ɕ] is pronounced "t". Ergo, Yoshit, or "Yo Shit", as the hep young people like to say.)

'15 minutes' made my skin crawl

so, you don't find this creepy?

I noticed that, too.

Well, maybe if this music video becomes popular enough, people will want to find out more about each and every anime that inspired it, and FUNimation will have to license rescue STRAWBERRY MARSHMALLOW and then we'd finally, finally have the 5 OVA episodes on DVD in North America.

Not too bloody likely, but I can wish.

should have saved my FAAAAART for you

She reminds me of Mikazuki from Kissxsis.

Oh, probably. There are a bunch of different moé anime styles in this video; the face in the preview image riffs on STRAWBERRY MARSHMALLOW, but S.M. never used the >< eyes you see a few times in the video itself.

i think people are looking a little to far into banal pop lyrics and a video that was made by someone completely different than whoever wrote the lyrics, and it's clearly just a bukkake of anime references... nothing more creepy than totally normal anime from what i can tell

this seems to be an official music video...so pharrell must have ordered it, or at the very least signed off on it.

I don't think you need to qualify it with "seems to be". If it's on Vevo, it's an official music video (or some other official music act-related footage).

"I want your video to be a pastiche of anime imagery and old videogames, for a kind of cutesy retro style. Look, this is some other stuff that I've done."

"Looks cool, ok, here's the check"

I'm pretty confident that was the extent of Pharrell's "artistic involvement" in this thing.

AN said what i meant a lot more eloquently.

except you're both wrong.

I think the tune has a pleasant melody and I don't hate the guy's voice, but it seems to be lacking a memorable hook. At least compared to ABBA, masters of memorable hooks. Yes, ABBA is the standard by which I compare all pop music, don't judge me!

I think the video is trying to capture the same anime-aware and retro-game-loving audience that made the SCOTT PILGRIM movie such a box office bonanza 4 years ago... oh wait. (Though, yeah, Edgar Wright's SCOTT PILGRIM film eventually found a wider audience on video/cable/streaming/whatever.)

Woah! It's the Lapdance Song guy!

Whoops wasn't meant as a reply. I really liked the last 2 minutes or so. That's not to say I don't like his voice (it's not anything new but fits just fine,) but I just got really hypnotized there at the end, something that rarely happens to me with pop songs.

Target audience is guys who hide behind palm trees and stare at little girls at the beach.

Also guys who when given a choice between dating six women chooses the one who most closely resembles a kindergartner.

In short, the Welsh.

That's bullshit racism, Xenocide. There are no palm trees in Wales.

I was, however, underestimating how well know OPN is now, according to his web site he's touring with Nine Inch Nails and Soundgarden.

No.

Pharrell worked on an art project with some of the guys on the animation side before.

Ooh! I'd never heard of them but I listened to a little OPN and at least the song I heard was very Boards of Canada and KLF had a baby? I hate comparing artists to other artists but that was sort of the vibe I got from that song. Any particular album I should start with that you'd recommend?

No doubt. But who gave MadThad a record deal?