#gif poast

[joepelling]

me opening up the dhmis ao3 tag because i had the tab open on my computer and being blindsided by the most recent entry

#poast

[tanagran]

#poast

[xochy]

imagine ur divorced faves in the center

#poast #gif #fast gif #flashing #lmk if this needs more tags

[westmeath]

the interesting thing about this very aggressive tag on my poll post asking whether you have a custom theme or not is i went on this person's blog and they literally have a custom theme

#poast

[neorattz]

#featuring Mr papercutie #virtual world diary #gif #roblox #poast

[legenders]

using bumblr normally for the first time in like over half a decade feels so unnatural

but... i am frea..

#poast

[chiatechpasswordsecurity]

holy fuck

#poast #usul #warf #buzzer #angelpuss

[basstech-deck]

Kikuri Stop! no booze in the Blue Thangification Lab! CRASH

uh oh... not again

#poast

[pikaclone]

i've always liked shaymin, but i think lately I've REALLY started to appreciate it. it's kind of a cringe little critter

#poast

[jibunbosh]

Mesmerizer is a satire of TikTok, YouTube Shorts, and the rest of the modern short-form vertical video format

A brief thematic analysis.

I'm sure there are countless people already interpreting the imagery and details in this wonderful song & MV, like here and here, so I won't spend too much time retreading that ground. Miku and Teto are dancing. Miku gets hypnotized. Teto signals for help, but gets hypnotized at the end as well.

That part is obvious enough, but that's still pretty surface-level. What is this seemingly hyperspatial horror scenario supposed to mean to us?

While checking to see if anyone before me's already come to the same conclusions as I did and if I should bother not writing this text post at all (lol), I came across udin's great analysis video. She comes to the conclusion that the song tackles themes of disillusionment with reality and the ways we indulge in escapism to relieve ourselves of the pains of the world.

I agree with that reading! From practically the very beginning, we have Miku call to us - the viewer - to push away our true feelings. Teto comes in to peddle a solution, inviting us to surrender and empty our minds - in her words, "pretending to know nothing."

You, the viewer, are a critical character in this masquerade. For nearly the entire video, Miku and Teto's eyes are unfailingly trained on you. Or, well... perhaps they can't actually see you, but they can see a camera, or whatever other aperture the point of view is supposed to be from. And they know they're being watched. (Who else would Teto be sending distress signals to?)

Let's put a pin on that for later.

udin notes very early on that Miku and Teto are, conspicuously, kept in vertical frames - very similar to the video formats of TikTok (and Instagram Reels, and YouTube Shorts, and whatever other clones of the format exist.) You know, just like the animator Caststation's Rabbit Hole fan MV that went viral some months ago.

Hey wouldn't it be crazy if the song's producer, 32ki, released Mesmerizer shorts too haha. Wouldn't that be crazy.

Wow, wild.

These short-term vertical videos are captivating & alluring. If you're reading this, it's more likely than not that you've also found yourself caught up in them at least once, scrolling through the infinite algorithmic slurry and forgetting about the real-life issues you have at hand. Would you say, then, that you felt hypnotized? Mesmerized, even?

And so these two invite us to join their world and focus on the... uh... rectangle.

Their dances are repetitive, following the same loop. Their outfits are distinct, but their choreography isn't. They're copying the same formula, repeating it ad nauseam to the best of their ability.

They're doing a fucking TikTok dance.

Back to the pin I told you about earlier, with Miku and Teto looking at a camera.

Miku sways with the camera, eyes looking directly at it like a swinging pocket watch. She's been looking at it the entire time, after all. We've been seeing her via our screen this entire time, but, again, she doesn't necessarily see us. She's beholden to the camera, which she dances for day after day, caught up in its spell. She's hypnotized by it. Eventually, she breaks.

Teto, on the other hand, resists. For a while, anyway.

Despite her being the one jumping to us with the "solution" at the beginning of the MV, there's very quickly good reason to question how much agency she has in this. She dances for the camera as well, but she doesn't want to. She's signalling for help. She wants out.

Many content creators (as much as I personally loathe the non-specificity and soullessness of the term) have struggled with the adaptation to the short-form video format, and the preference the algorithm has had for these captivating, bite-sized videos. They're catchy, and easily drive up metrics. Practically anyone who's publishing their work via video format online needs to learn to adapt or fall behind, even if that means whittling their content down to fit the frame, the time, and people's shortening attention spans. Sometimes, that means compromising on specificity and completeness... or, in other words, the true representation of a full work.

The song's writer, 32ki, has been releasing songs on YouTube for several years. Their first YouTube Short, however, was posted only a year ago: a short, whittled-down segment of their previous song, CIRCUS PANIC!!!, hoping for it to win the ProsekaNEXT song contest. It was their first song to achieve widespread popularity and hit a million views.

The shorts, however, aren't the "true" versions of the song. The full song just won't fit.

We're being mesmerized as consumers of this endless stream of content, rather than appreciators of music and art. However, that relationship isn't completely symmetrical across the plane that is the 4th wall. Miku and Teto are trapped not by their attention spans, but by a compulsion to project their "truthful acting" and peddle that window into a colorful, problem-free world.

We, as the collective audience, need not dwell on any one thing for too long - we need only swipe, and move on to the next video. However, Miku and Teto are trapped behind the screen for eternity, day after day.

They're the only characters we get to see, of course. There's no evil 3rd voice synth character that's plotting to keep them trapped in there. We can't put a face to whatever force is hypnotizing them and trapping them behind the screen. It's faceless - like the inscrutable algorithms of YouTube recommendations or the TikTok For You page, or the impersonal corporations that develop & maintain those aforementioned apps. Miku and Teto's likenesses, on the other hand, are being exploited and extracted from for their entertainment value, being strung along by that metaphorical hypnotizing force like puppets on a string.

Many people, represented by Miku, enjoy their success on such platforms. It's freeing and liberating to throw oneself wholeheartedly into such an endeavor, of course! Others, represented by Teto, harbor their doubts of the emotional veracity of such a medium, but know they have little choice lest they face destruction... perhaps not literally as a person, but as an idea.

Wouldn't it be easier just to let oneself be swept away by it and give in?

#mesmerizer #analysis #kasane teto #hatsune miku #vocaloid #rambles #text poast

[joepelling]

me waking up on the morning of july 23rd 2024 to an email from becky sloan’s lawyer demanding a cease and desist (i posted about how her friend and coworker would make a great bisexual too many times)

#poast

[tanagran]

#poast

[xochy]

Moodbort for when

#poast #gif #repetition #(screaming into my hands) so anyways

[westmeath]

tag 10 ppl you want to get to know better :] tagged by @kingslayerstew THANK YOU!!!!

relationship status: god i wish i could just copy yours but for the sake of not plagiarising i'll just say I'm married to de sea......

favorite color: seafoam green but big fan of oranges and browns also

favorite foods: bacon&cabbage soups stews pies puddings frys (also includes puddings) general stodge foods. supermacs also

song stuck in head: if you'd caught me 10 minutes ago it would've been fill my little world by the feeling but it's the mars volta's new single now LOL

last thing i googled: an post.... needed to check tracking on anime merch. i have an ugly little adachi figure and a yamato kewpie coming that i got for dirt cheap

current time: 14:26 (as of typing this at least)

dream trip: GUH there's a billion places i want to go and discover but mainly right now i'm longing to see kerry before i leave ireland cus i've never been before.. hopefully will get to see donegal again too... i wanna go on a big road trip around every corner of not just wales but all of britain while i'm there if i somehow find the time around college LOL i long for the scottish highlands and the cornwall uh. lowlands. can i be That Guy also and say i would loveeee to go to hokkaido and that's Not just because of golden kamuy i've been in love with the place since i was 13 JKNDFBKJ

something i want: a terry's chocolate orange which is right beside me i just need to open the box. also a fine pint of beamish and a burger in spoons later tonight #LetsGo

THANK U AGAIN i love doing these cus im boots mcfoolish. i will tag @mifhortunach @brimstone-cowboy @ocularose @peripatidae @justlikejohn @matchlocks @woodwool @decamarks @crisqy @samarqqand though naturally don't feel obliged to do it if you simply couldnt be arsed LOL

#poast

[neorattz]

everyone i know considers this color green but i view it as teal/blue... i think i have to accept i am wrong, NOBODY agrees with me on this

#poast #miku is also this color i always call her blue

[shiokara2]

happy tuesday wednesday everyone!

#kingohger #ohsama sentai kingohger #shiokara #my poast