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In a basement somewhere in the world, a legion of captive artists and animators work frenziedly on producing music videos for Japanese singer-songwriter Eve. Condemned to a perpetual regimen of storyboarding, illustrating and animating, they slave away night and day in order to maintain the endless stream of eye-popping MVs that Eve has become well known for.

A broken exhaust fan sputters. Water drips from a rusted pipe, each droplet a debased snow globe with discoloured particles suspended within. Having long since resigned themselves to their grisly fate, they eternally await their next task in a detached stupor…


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As a member of the exclusive club of former Vocaloid producers that have subsequently broken into the mainstream, Japanese singer-songwriter Eve has traversed a path to fame that is nothing short of remarkable. When it comes to nailing down how exactly he has managed to achieve this, it’s tempting to chalk it up to his songwriting. However, while Eve clearly knows how to make certified bangers, the extreme subjectivity behind the enjoyment of music means that making “good” songs often isn’t the most reliable way of getting fame. You can probably tell what I’m getting at here: it’s my strong belief that Eve’s popularity is closely tied with the intricate MVs that are now associated with his name.

But I’m getting off-topic. If you’re reading this review, I’m assuming you’ve already seen the MV for “As You Like It”. I’m also assuming that, upon watching, you concluded that – even when compared to Eve’s other music videos – “As You Like It” is quite unique, for better or for worse. The MV is a whirlwind of pretty colours, frantic cuts from one shot to another, and general all-around craziness. There’s a boy who seems to be in love with a girl, and a mildly creepy character with a hand for a head that we can only assume to be some kind of antagonist. In fact, it’s even reasonable to surmise that a story doesn’t exist at all, and that the entire MV is the result of an animator’s fever dream.

The MV for “As You Like It” is my favourite music video ever made. I’ll go one step further and say that it’s one of my favourite pieces of media ever produced in general. Explaining (and attempting to justify) just why I think it’s so good is going to be the main focus of this review. Just to be clear, this is not the part where I start analysing the supposed super deep symbolism and imagery, NGE-style. There is, however, a lot of cool stuff that’s hidden just beneath the surface. In fact, I would argue that this MV is one of the best examples of organised chaos that you’ll find out there. I’m getting ahead of myself, though – let’s start from the top.

In order to make heads or tails of anything, we first need to answer a very important question: just how much of what we saw was “real”? This may seem like a silly thing to ask at first, considering the almost surrealist approach the MV takes. But if a plot does exist, then it would be reasonable to assume that its contents would be discernible from the moments rooted in reality. Is there even a way to determine which shots are real and which ones aren’t? Well, in essence, a story is a sequence of events, usually told in chronological order. This gives us a good starting point: identifying which shots have continuity with each other.

Once this directive is set, we can suddenly notice a handful of shots that really stand out among the others. This isn’t as difficult as it may seem, since the vast majority of shots are automatically disqualified due to either including some kind of fantastical element, or just being tangential in nature without much connection to anything else in the MV. This leaves us with a small but revealing collection of shots, which are listed below:

1:02 – The boy closes a curtain
1:03 – The boy locks a window
1:38 – The boy sits on a couch (next to the locked window) looking at a photo album
2:46 – An alarm clock (that seems to be situated on the edge of the very same couch) rings
2:49 – The boy opens a curtain
3:52 – A shot of the couch, now empty, with the sun shining in

From these shots, we can stitch together a very rudimentary plotline. The boy locks a window, confining himself to his room, and sits on a couch while looking at a photo album. He falls asleep somewhere along the line and wakes up the next morning from the alarm. Finally, he exits the apartment, leaving the couch empty by the afternoon.

In addition to this, there’s a scene that really stands out, despite not being directly connected to any of the aforementioned shots. Starting at 2:32, we see a long, uninterrupted sequence – the only one of its kind in the entire MV – where the boy witnesses the hand-mask guy about to kiss his love interest. Combined with the fact that the alarm clock shot happens right afterwards, we can conclude that this is most likely the boy’s dream. Now we have a way of seeing the boy’s internalized thoughts: his fear of losing his love interest to the hand character. But what if the same goes for the rest of the MV? All those crazy, seemingly random shots – what if they’re a representation of the boy’s thoughts and emotions in real-time, mirroring the timeline of the story?

One of my favourite shots in the MV happens at 0:46. We can see the boy lying on a bed, presumably in his apartment, staring at the ceiling which then dissolves into blue sky. To me, this shot perfectly encapsulates the MV from an interpretive sense: the idea that, for much of the video, we’re essentially peeking into the boy’s mind as he sits in his room, thinking about stuff. Once we view the rest of the MV from this angle, a lot of the random chaos that unfolds suddenly doesn’t seem so random after all.

I’m not going to start going through all the shots one-by-one, because well, frankly, it’s not that deep. Instead, let’s direct our focus to understanding the central conflict of the story. This can be done by examining two key mysteries: 1) the relationship between the boy and the hand-mask guy, and 2) the hand-mask guy’s identity. To answer the first question, we can create an index of all the shots that involve some kind of interaction between boy and hand-mask guy, which should give us a clue towards their relationship:

1:18 – the boy and hand-mask guy sit apart on a set of chairs
1:29 – the boy pulls off a dance move, and points to hand-mask guy who pulls off a fancier dance move
1:33 – hand-mask guy stands menacingly, and a short fight sequence ensues where hand-mask guy stops the boy’s kick easily
1:45 – the boy and hand-mask guy point to one another, gesturing at the girl to choose
1:58 – hand-mask guy sits between the boy and his love interest
1:59 – hand-mask guy is about to put a similar-looking mask over the boy’s head
2:01 – hand-mask guy engages in a handshake with the boy
2:28 – the boy and hand-mask guy sit apart on the same set of chairs, but this time one seat closer
2:32 – the dream sequence where hand-mask guy leans in to kiss the girl, with the boy watching on in horror
2:51 – the boy glances at the hand-mask guy, who is sitting next to him
3:15 – hand-mask guy tries to put a mask over the boy’s head again, but the boy glares at him, stopping the act
3:20 – the boy laughs with his arm around the shoulder hand-mask guy, who looks quite miffed
( I’ll refer back to some of these timestamps later in the review)

This seems… pretty complicated. On one hand, the fight sequence would suggest that the two seem to be actively antagonistic with one another. But on the other hand, the two appear to be on almost friendly terms from the over-the-shoulder embrace. So, what’s going on here?

As it turns out, the mystery of their relationship can be solved if we look to answer the question of hand-mask guy’s identity. Two closely connected shots provide a major clue – at 1:08, we see the boy sing while appearing to wear the hand-mask, and at 3:24 (following the dream sequence), we see the boy holding the hand-mask in his hands, presumably discarding it. I think the implication couldn’t be clearer here: hand-mask guy and the boy are the same person.

With this in mind, re-examining their relationship reveals a lot more information this time. The boy sees his hand-mask self and feels somewhat intimidated, evidenced from the fight scene (1:33). Furthermore, the boy can’t help but measure himself with his hand-mask self (1:29, 1:45), to the point where he even feels that the girl prefers his hand-mask self over his true self (1:58). Things reach a point where the boy becomes tempted to discard his original personality in favour of this idealized version of himself (1:59, 2:01, 2:28). But then, the dream sequence occurs, and he realises just how much he desires the girl to love his true self.

In reality, all of this happens within the span of a day, starting from when the boy confines himself in his room, and ending at the next morning when the alarm rings and wakes him from his dream. We see him come to his realisation and run outdoors to profess his true thoughts to the girl (3:02). From 3:20, we see the boy laughing with hand-mask guy, showing that he’s accepted himself for who he is. And finally, we see the split-second shot of the boy with the mask in his hand at 3:24, signifying that he has no further use for his former persona. What happens next is up to interpretation, but I see it as him slipping and falling as he approaches the girl, and seeing her smile brightly despite him doing something “uncool”. And all is well.

So, really, the message of this music video is the classic “be who you are”. But it’s the way this message is delivered in “As You Like It” that I just find to be so wholesome and well-executed. The wildly imaginative and creative representations of the boy’s inner turmoil, surprisingly heartfelt characterization, and the general eye candy all work together to form something truly special. Despite the chaos, everything is meticulously placed and planned; it really feels like the stream of consciousness literary technique in video format. And it achieves all this in just 4 minutes and 18 seconds! Just truly unbelievable stuff.

Well, there you have it. I know I said earlier that this review wouldn’t turn into NGE analysis territory, and while I maintain that my analysis is pretty grounded, the MV is still something highly subject to interpretation. I understand if you don’t agree with me or think that I’m stretching things a bit, but I hope I at least convinced you of the sheer amount of thought and ingenuity that was put into the amazing piece of media that is the MV of “As You Like It”.

Thanks so much for reading!

Chinese animation is on the rise.

With anime enjoying an explosive surge of popularity in China over the past decade, it’s a bit of a surprise as to why higher budget, domestically produced works tailored to an older audience have taken so long to appear. Nevertheless, donghua has finally begun to make its mark on the wider anime community, most notably with The King’s Avatar in 2017 and Mo Dao Zu Shi in 2018.

Tian Guan Ci Fu is the first donghua that I’ve watched in its entirety - like many others, I was intrigued by its placement in the top airing list, alongside the eager ... recommendations of novel readers. Unfortunately, thanks to a horrifically executed second arc, almost non-existent character development, and some of the worst editing I’ve ever seen, Tian Guan Ci Fu is a resounding disappointment.

Two major arcs occur throughout the course of this series. The first, taking place over the course of a brisk three episodes, is the better of the two. In order to pay off a massive debt caused by his third ascension to Heaven, our main character Xie Lien travels to the mortal world as a Heavenly Official to solve the mystery of the ghost groom at Mount Yujun, accompanied by the hot-headed Nan Feng and Fu Yao. On most accounts, Tian Guan Ci Fu actually does really well with this first arc. The mystery is well crafted – the suspense is built just right, and with some nice action sequences sprinkled into the mix, it does a good job with drawing in the viewer.

Much of this introductory arc’s success hinges on a couple of key points. Hardly any of the world’s mechanics are explained: the ascension/banishment process, magic formations, and what actually goes on in Heaven are some of the many details that are barely elaborated on. Character development takes place - mostly on Xie Lien - but is minimal, although this is pretty forgivable since most of the focus is on the mystery. And the resolution of the mystery itself is lacklustre – the rationale behind the apparition’s actions had more or less been deduced by Xie Lien, but for some reason the writers decided it was necessary to have a convoluted flashback backstory written out, something that added little to the overall experience for the amount of screen time it took (kind of difficult to make a character morally ambiguous after they’ve murdered seventeen innocent brides). Addressing these issues was key if any initial momentum was to be kept.

Tian Guan Ci Fu doesn’t just ignore the issues, but flat out magnifies them to the point where later episodes are legitimately painful to go through. Recurring characters get ZERO development, and I’m not exaggerating when I say this. Apart from basic character traits established by superficial interactions, we really don’t learn anything about the personalities of any of the characters. The biggest offenders of this would be Nan Feng and Fu Yao. Their sole defining traits are that they have temper problems and that they dislike each other. As a result, they’re also the main source of comic relief, but their antics get old very quickly, and the constant yelling does not help. The world building is awful, with constantly shifting, unconnected settings that largely remain unexplored – a real shame, because the world itself is really intriguing. There’s a critical lack of cohesion here, and everything feels more like an arbitrary chain of incidents stringed together than a natural progression of events.

A major reason for all of these problems stems from Tian Guan Ci Fu’s boring and flat-out wasteful dialogue. The second arc is extremely heavy on dialogue, but it’s dialogue of the worst kind: sloppy exposition dumping. So much of the show is spent on a character explaining really minor plot points in intricate detail, usually accompanied by a flashback of some sort. Any time there’s a “twist” or a character feels the need to explain their actions? Flashback. Not only does this feel clunky and unsubtle at times, but it also eats up runtime that would have benefited way more on character or setting development, and it’s also just a mind-numbingly tedious thing to go through. So it’s a double blow of sorts: lazy, boring exposition that has no right to take as much time as it does. The second arc in general is a bizarre change in direction and I’m struggling to understand why this decision was made.

Because there’s so much exposition, not much actually takes place over the course of the second arc, and everything moves at a snail’s pace. The majority of the exposition is delivered by San Lang, a mysterious young man who seemingly knows about everything. Well-written dialogue can convey both information and the personality of whoever’s delivering it in a concise manner, but the laziness of the script means that San Lang joins the list of flavourless characters. Apparently there’s supposed to be some romance going on between San Lang and Xie Lien, but when characters with the personalities of wet flannels flirt with each other for no clearly established reason, it’s hard to get invested.

Good editing can often save scenes that would otherwise be a slog to get through. But Tian Guan Ci Fu’s editing is just horrible. The editor has this really weird obsession with fade to black transitions when switching between scenes. Due to taking significantly longer than something like a cut, fade transitions have a major slowing effect on pacing. This isn’t the greatest choice, because if an episode spends half of its runtime on information dumping, the last thing you need is something that makes things even more slow paced than they already are. Some conversations and interactions awkward too, with characters regularly reacting in unnatural time intervals.

Then there’s the completely inexplicable errors: in episode 6, there’s a shot involving a botched looped animation of Xie Lien walking that has a frame with his mouth open, which cycles for about ten whole seconds. In the same shot, Xie Lien’s mouth movements stop prematurely, and then San Lang’s mouth starts moving while the audio of Xie Lien talking still plays! Speaking of which, the show has a consistent issue in lip flap and audio sync problems, but this segment is the worst offender by far. I also need to mention how this shot happens to involve one of San Lang’s many exposition dumps, so the fact that the shot lasts over ten seconds in the first place is another big no-no. In episode 10, there’s a shot involving a girl dancing to the beat of Xie Lien’s clapping and a person playing the tambourine… except that Xie Lien's clapping very clearly does not match up with the tambourine player. And in certain episodes, the VAs for Nan Feng and Fu Yao stand way too close to the mic, because whenever they yell (which happens a lot), you can hear this annoying distortion effect on their voices. These are really basic errors and the fact that all of them went unnoticed by the editor is mind-boggling. At times the result can be funny, but more crucially it's distracting to a fault. I honestly don’t remember the last time I got this distracted by bad editing. I raise these examples at the risk of coming off as nitpicky, but these are just the ones I can think of from the top of my head. I don’t mind the occasional mistake, but when it happens consistently like this, it just completely takes you out of it.

That being said, it’s not like Tian Guan Ci Fu does everything wrong. It has a decent, well-produced soundtrack. The voice actors do a serviceable performance. And, as mentioned earlier, the first arc was great. In fact, earlier episodes in general were fairly enjoyable, benefiting greatly from gorgeous backdrops, fluid animation and well-choreographed fight scenes – qualities that degraded as the episodes progressed but nonetheless remained at a reasonable level. It’s clear that some serious time, money and effort was put into producing this, which makes it all the more confusing why they couldn’t hire a better editor, or director for that matter.

Tian Guan Ci Fu’s novel is widely lauded by readers for its masterful storytelling. This quality does not seem to have translated to its donghua adaptation. It really is quite frustrating because it had all of the tools needed for something special: a possible fate hinted by an encouraging introductory arc. Unfortunately, the show fails to maintain its initial high and spirals lower and lower into the abyss as the episodes go on, before crashing in a heap by the end. Because of how uninteresting I found the second arc to be, I have to say that Tian Guan Ci Fu has overall been an unenjoyable experience. Unless watching beautiful men flirt with each other is your thing, stay clear from this one.