How Anime Portrays Collective Anxiety

Anime is a source of media that I rarely talk about. But one thing that has always struck me as strangely unique about it is how emotions manifest. We’ve all seen a character be sad in movies and television, we’ve all seen characters affect each other through grand acts of love, hatred, jealousy, desperation, etc. But in most cases, only anime has those emotions, whether they be positive or negative, physically manifest in the real world. Today on Psych of Pl… Psych of ANIME, we’ll be discussing the Conversion Disorder, the ideas of Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung and Japanese psychologist Hayao Kawai in a video that frankly… I’ve been both deeply longing to make yet afraid to make for quite some time now. So… thanks for being here for it :)
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Twitter ▶ / daryltalksgames
Twitch ▶ / daryltalksgames
▶Games/Anime/Manga Shown
Persona 5: Royal (2019) - Atlus, P Studio
Control (2019) - Remedy Entertainment
Fire Emblem: Three Houses (2019) - Intelligent Systems
Guilty Gear Strive (2021) - Arc System Works
Deltarune Chapter 2 (2021) - Toby Fox
Hollow Knight (2017) - Team Cherry
Demon Slayer (2019)
Naruto: Shippuuden (2007)
Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood (2009)
Komi Can't Communicate (2021)
Kaguya-sama: Love is War (2019)
JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Diamond is Unbreakable (2016)
JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders (2015)
JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Stone Ocean (2022)
Jujutsu Kaisen (2021)
Jujutsu Kaisen 0 (2022)
Ranking of Kings (2021)
Chainsaw Man (2022)
Vivy: Fluorite Eye's Song (2021)
Cowboy Bebop (1998)
Your Lie in April (2014)
ERASED (2016)
My Hero Academia (2016)
Gurren Lagann (2007)
True Detective (2014)
House (2004)
Good Will Hunting (1997)
Sherlock (2010)
Captain America: Civil War (2016)
Bakemonogatari (2009)
Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai (2018)
Darling in the FranXX (2018)
Friday Night Lights (2004)
Princess Mononoke (1997)
Dune (2021)
Game of Thrones (2011)
Thor (2011)
The Blind Side (2009)
Tarzan (1999)
Dragon Ball Z (1989)
Tower of God (2020)
Inception (2010)
Dandadan (2021)
Weathering with You (2019)
Bleach (2004)
Neon Genesis Evangelion (1995)
Neon Genesis Evangelion: The End of Evangelion (1997)
My Dress-Up Darling (2022)
▶Media/Clips/Considerations:
• Anime PoP
▶Music Sources (in Order):
Shades of Dread - Midnight
Still Free - Haven OST
Negotiator - Kizumonogatari OST
The Days When My Mother Was There - Persona 5 OST
tokyo rose - Yakuza (feat. Alex & Ultraboss) ( / tokyoroseofficial )
Pyrite Building - Pokemon Colosseum OST
VANITAS命死 - Mithra's Spectra ( / vanitas567 )
Tsukimorino Toki - Melty Blood Actress Again OST
Kusa Makura - Haven OST
Ondosa - Tsukimonogatari OST
Expansion of Blockade by Shiro Sagisu - End of Evangelion OST
cafe.wav - Reminisce ( / prodbycafe )
Shoby - Fly Me To The Moon ( • Shoby - Fly Me To The ... )
▶Research Articles Cited
docs.google.com/document/d/1p...
#PsychofPlay #PsychofAnime

[@DarylTalksGames]

This video is sponsored by... *you* :) The only way this was possible is thanks to the delightful people supporting the show on Patreon. We have pledge milestone rewards that we try to hit over time and a Psych of Play on anime is the first one we hit! Our next milestone is a Psych of Play on Dating sims, so if that sounds fun and you'd like to contribute to the NEXT outlandish video topic, head on over to my Patreon and consider supporting the show - www.patreon.com/daryltalksgames There is only one tier, it is $1 per month. You'll also get bonus content like lofi video editing streams, live commentaries on previous episodes, weekly behind the scenes updates, input on future topics, your name in the end credits, and so much more. Thanks again to everyone who made this possible. I am extremely happy with this one, so truly, thank you for letting me do this.

[@elio6361]

How did you post a comment 2 days ago ? How did some comment like 10h ago when the video was posted not more than an hour ago ?

[@gabek5760]

@@elio6361 Patreon! I'm sure all supports get early access to videos! www.patreon.com/daryltalksgames

[@n0o01]

@@elio6361 Daryl can upload early, keep it private, and add comments. As for other commenters, maybe early access for patrons.

[@crossant1234]

This is a top contendor to a hug by you! I would love a heart on this comment.

[@helloguy8934]

Lets goooo. Anime video.

[@DED_C]

Some things are predictable in life: -The sun rising each morning -Dogs barking and birds chirping -No new BotW 2 or Silksong info that day -Daryl putting Makima in the Psych of Anime thumbnail

[@DarylTalksGames]

My man 😈

[@soccerandtrack10]

@DED_C and some1 insecure hurting some1,either municipaliting 1000 people to believe in aleins and that the insecure person MAGICALLY knows more aleins or supernatural thing only THEY CAN SEE, or a crowd of insecure kretens of humanity are either trying to take away rights, or 1 decides it can magically survive bullets and decides to go to church or to a fun place... with a gun... or rich insecure people are making conspiracies to get MORE money and control. in saints row its called having fun and shooting any1 or anything you see for 5 or 10 minutes useing specific weopons. the only difference is you see the massacre or genocide in the video game, if you want to see it in real life,you need to have 70 decades of waiting and alot of cameras looking everywhere at once all on 1 big tv.

[@Aflay1]

"I'm a closet weeb" Nah, you just like anime. Oh....you like manga? That's fine. Sometimes you read the manga after watching the anime, y'know? ....You read manga that haven't been adapted to anime? Woof.... *There is no saving him. He is WEEB weeb.*

[@ShuckleII]

Dogs barking? I hope not, they're the sole reason my life is going to end soon.

[@Vocaloid_Cevirmeni]

@@Aflay1 dont let him know about light novels

[@thebigmystery7841]

Ive always joked about "winning with the power of love and friendship" being very anime. And a lot of people can take that as cringey, but I wholeheartedly appreciate it. I think people as a whole wish we could manifest our desires for a better world to defeat the evil in it. Its absolutely magical to me. Edit: didnt have notifications on but good to see theres still people who live on that hard Edge that they cant have a little optimisim in their life. Its sad really.

[@user-hl7lr8ld2i]

This nigga 3 years old

[@devandismuke8355]

Helps to have a gun or two just in case

[@ordinarytree4678]

Its magical because it doesnt happen irl. What wins irl is violence and greed and survival instinct.

[@neaosmt1562]

I think that might be why it's such a common truth because in real life not a lot if any of your problems can be solved through things like friendship or love and I think some like you and indulge themselves in a in media were such things can happen

[@Viking102938]

It's not just a matter of love and friendship, it's a matter of rejecting the selfish desires of this world, not just for ourselves, but for the longevity or our environment, the sound demeanor of our own minds, and the security of our own nature (i.e., "the soul"). It's not just about saying "yes" to each other, it's about saying "no" to ignorance, and eliminating it not through violence, but through education, through understanding, through compassion, through the deterioration of entitlement and expectations, by relieving the burdens we place on the martyrs in our society, and building each other towards a more estimable (sustainable) future. You don't need to believe in love, friendship, or magic to believe in the power of humanity. You can't behold the maw of a species that horrifying and not believe in its capacity for carnal cooporation.

[@nightbrand8016]

Dude. The nonself idea fits super well with "self insert" characters like the MCs of Persona. Empty (often silent), always has compassion and selflessness (you're often doing quests for others), and understands the meaning of being alive (often the moral center of the group). That's such a fascinating look into the eastern style of making video games

[@thomasffrench3639]

That’s just a thing with most RPGs.

[@jellymatsuryuka6853]

@@thomasffrench3639 but Persona has that as it's main themes, for example, 3 focus on death and dealing with it, 4 on acceptance and being yourself, 5 focuses on freedom and rebellion against corruption

[@AngDevigne]

That's profound, OP.

[@dydx_]

Sadly, for this to be the case you would have to neglect the understanding of non-self and instead only go of off the name alone. Non-self does not mean empty, it means impermanence. The self is every changing, ever regressing and ever growing as such there can not be a true self as for a self there needs to be a state of permanence. Self-insert characters have no self and thus they can have no non-self for they are hollow, husks without humanity meant to give access to yourself. The video has completely butchered the actual meaning of achieving a state of nirvana. He had said that it's about extinguishing desire (which is true), and then fill it with love and compassion (wrong) to find true happiness (very wrong). The extinguishing of desire speaks about accepting ones desire, it's about allowing yourself to feel what you feel when you feel it and then to work towards eradicating it to find relief from existence. What is as wrong as it gets is the part about filling it will love. The goal isn't to fill it with love, it's to transcend emotions. Love & compassion, hate and jealousy, they are both one and the same, of the same origin. You can not have one without the other, and as one can not be without the other you can not replace one with the other without the concepts ceasing to exit. In life, love might sometimes feel more present and sometimes disgust will take it's place. There will always be emotions that feel postive as there will always be emotions that feel negative, sometimes in balance and sometimes one overweighs the other but always together. And as they are the same, they too get marked by what is knon as the three marks of existence. Those are (1) Impermanence, (2) unease/suffering, (3), non-self aka no lasting essence. Your goal is not to achieve happiness, it's to find salvation from the cause that is behind your so called happiness/dissatisfaction. It's a return to nature; a cessation of consciousness (extinguishing of desire), and thus an escape of the cycle of rebirth, no longer animal, human, hell, or god but beyond. This doesn't have much in common with self-insert characters at all, even within the games of Persona. I'm sorry to say that since it's probably a bummer to have you be corrected haha But your connection does have a cute sentiment to it though, although it's entirely made by rhetoric and not by process. Hope this helped to understand the concept.

[@vectormanforever]

Conversion Disorder?! I finally have a name for it! One of my best friends has been experiencing temporary blindness in one eye lately due to her work forcing her to work 90 hour work weeks. She kept calling it hysterical blindness, but I think she thought it was more brain damage from lack of sleep. I'll let her know asap, thank you so much!~

[@thebiggesthatersinworld]

@@vectormanforever that scam bot

[@vectormanforever]

@@thebiggesthatersinworld I'm well aware, but I still appreciate the concern~

[@luckyblockyoshi]

How’s it been?

[@vectormanforever]

@@luckyblockyoshi As long as she controls her stress levels she can see out of both eyes again! Plus apparently it was so severe for her that her colourblindness was also an effect of conversion disorder. She still works a bad job with horrible coworkers, but she's finally getting therapy and things are looking up~

[@luckyblockyoshi]

@@vectormanforever Oh, good to hear!

[@typemasters2871]

I think Anime’s trend of manifesting emotions into physical or metaphysical manifestations is because of how Yokai and Kami play an important roll in Japanese culture, and most Yokai and Kami are representations of emotions/habits/phenomena. I.E. can’t sleep well at night? That’s a Yokai’s fault. Stopped raining shortly before you had to go out somewhere? That’s thanks to a Kami. You get the urge to dance whenever you hear your favourite song? Well that’s either a Yokai or Kami depending on if you see it as a blessing or a curse.

[@BlaxeFrost-X]

I agree, and if you ask me, it's very cathartic to see when you relate to the specific emotion being incarnated

[@mihailmilev9909]

@@BlaxeFrost-X wym lol

[@BlaxeFrost-X]

@@mihailmilev9909 I mean that you can feel relief or advancement when an emotion you feel is portrayed in anime in a physical or metaphysical form, specially if you originally don't ubderstand it and is resolved in the anime or game by teying to solve the psychological origin of that manifestation

[@SpaghettiMaker]

It could also be a case of how symbolic things are a favorable thing in Japanese culture, because symbolism appears in a lot of things if you look close. So it makes sense that appears in anime where you have situations that relate to a person's emotion, a person's thoughts or feelings that are put into the environment around them or clothing or colors.

[@Pikachu-kw4fv]

You feel like someone is following you? Thats a yokai. Please step aside and kindly ask the yokai to continue walking and it will follow the road and leave you alone

[@reenchanted]

Two weird thoughts about the “this thing gains more power the more you believe in it” trope: - The stock market and currency itself seems to pretty much work this way. Terrifying. - Final Fantasy Tactics had this mechanic in its unique “Faith” system. High Faith value = high effectiveness using magic and high damage taken from magic. Low Faith value (or no Faith in the case of the robot unit Worker 8) means that magic has no effect on you for good or ill.

[@BlaxeFrost-X]

The entire system of magic in the nasuverse (Fate/Stay Night, Kara no Kyokai, Tsukihime, etc.) is based on that trope. Everything works as much as people have enough doubt to believe in something. Explained as: 'Even if someone says that they don't believe in ghosts, when they are alone at home and hear a noise somewhere in their brain will believe that it *may* be, that's what makes magic (thaumaturgy) possible and more powerful the more people *may* think that it *may* be possible'

[@sisyphus_strives5463]

The concept of faith giving ideas power permeates practically every aspect of society.

[@thisrandomdude_]

Stock Market no Akuma when, Fujimoto. Also, that "Faith" system you mentioned is so interesting!! I wanna get into Final Fantasy now.

[@draghettis6524]

Noragami's world is another one based on this, it is one where gods must have enough people believing in them to exist.

[@Halfbad-bf1lt]

The idea of power from status in general could be considered a concept that only exists because people believe in it too; For example there could be a king of a country; if every one of his subjects decided they no longer wanted to obey his rule he would have no power. If the people who governed the parts of the country that have him power, law, military and economy, stopped listening to him, he would have no way to exercise power and his power would cease to exist. The king would be reduced to nothing more than a single man with no way to influence or control anyone in the country

[@adamweinberg2532]

This video really struck a chord with me as someone who only started watching anime a couple years ago but completely fell in love with the medium. I always had a lot of trouble explaining why anime resonated with me in a different way than western TV and film, but this video explained a lot. I started watching anime during the pandemic, a time when I felt at my most isolated and was really disillusioned with individualism because of the selfish way so many of my neighbors and even family were acting. The nihilistic, "you're on your own" attitude of most western media (especially social media) really weighed down on me. So I too, I found a lot of solace in seeing the interconnected nature of anime and Japanese culture. The sense of community between the characters as they strive for their goals together, the way they lean on each other both consciously and unconsciously, and especially the way they confront their fears and anxieties head-on, all fill me with happiness and make me feel a lot better about my own place in the world. P.S. The intro and outro with the rapid cuts of different anime set to music was absolutely badass! I actually felt a little choked up on the outro.

[@betula2137]

And...super irrelevant and I'm barging in... the collective action problem of taking the 'orange pill' What'd I jus say

[@McDudes]

Ye we in the west has an almost toxic problem with over coming our problems and struggles alone by our self. But in anime it's almost always a team effort where the characters help eachother in the friend group with eachother problems. And it's always way clearer then some vague inner struggle, unless it's some anime like Evangelion or Lain...

[@SpectreMkTwo]

Better late than never, glad you picked up anime and appreciate its interconnectedness with Japanese culture and a source of story telling. Been watching anime for years and i truly love the medium, manga and anime, and how it helps me learn about Japanese culture by being a compass of sorts. Now I'm a fan of Japanese culture and it's history as a whole

[@katarinacarrico7887]

I think our Westernized minds tend to distance ourselves from anime and its themes of friendship and connection. It's "cringy" and "cliche." But I think everyone could use a story of people coming together to defeat a common enemy, while yelling about how much they love each other. ("Don't you ever mess with friends!! Magnum Punch!!!") It's cool to see an individual overcoming their own inner demons along their journey, but it's a journey for the viewer seeing two or more people finally defeating their worst enemy through each other after so much growth.

[@houraisheperd9721]

This video did a lot for my understanding as well. I really tend to not like western media and love eastern stuff, and it explained why. I'm...kinda cripplingly disabled and outright cannot work, so the whole "you're on your own" thing that pervades most of western works and that I constantly hear from people reads to me as "you aren't wanted here if you can't contribute the same way everyone else does." Which, being disabled as I am, means I read it as "please just die already so someone can take your place." Even people who I need to rely on tend to spew that very same thing, which as you can guess only makes it worse because now I'm disabled *and* trapped with people who, on an unconscious level, view me as worthless, and I can't leave because the support system for people like me is genuinely so bad I often consider killing myself because I'm not getting enough help. Eastern media does away with that. It tells me that I have value even if I can't do a lot of things everyone else can, because there are still things I can do. It's nice.

[@evo2542]

Paranoia Agent is the biggest example I can think of of this as far as anime is concerned. Little Slugger becomes more powerful thruout the series and started as one person's paranoia and becomes everyone's with the help of media and the news talking about it all the time.

[@kylespevak6781]

Sounds like police brutality and racism in the current media landscape. Morgan Freeman said it best, "It'll go away when we stop talking about it. I'm not a black man, I'm Morgan Freeman"

[@Kisher02]

Wow this was a blast to watch and a painful reminder that I need to go back and watch some of these anime. I'm also incredibly hyped to see that Psych of Anime will return again! Also that psychology on Dating Sims seems absolutely ridiculous and I hope that we can see that some time. Banger video as always Daryl!

[@DarylTalksGames]

Thanks so much Kishan!

[@IOTewks]

@@DarylTalksGames Tokimeki Memorial 👀

[@BlaxeFrost-X]

As a psychology student who really likes Jung's Ideas, I really dislike how much people are reluctant to talk about jung at all, and it's all because Freud discredited him. THE Freud canceled Jung before "cancel culture" was a thing and it's for that that there is little to no research on those Ideas today. The thing about Psychology are it's ties to Philosophy and imposibility to proof without any doubt. It's in the edge of science and we are taught so in college. Proving that a symptom is not feigned and it is in fact a psychological issue manifested in the body (Conversion Disorder) is not as hard as to prove that a runny nose and fever are in fact a virus even though we can't easily see the virus either. Psychology is loaded with skepticism, and as such will always be in a "schrodinger's cat" status between provable hard researchable science and purely imaginative philosophy of a metaphysical entity called "the mind". For that, I'm willing to at least try with Jung. Your channel may benefit from this more "purely imaginative philosophy of a metaphysical entity called 'the mind'" as a "Yin" to the "Yang" you promised to go back to in this video. I really liked it, thanks.

[@Heru_Iluvatar]

People are reluctant to study Jung coz his work's too honest for their repressed parts to handle.

[@BlaxeFrost-X]

@@Heru_Iluvatar a very honest comment XD

[@tenshiharuno1184]

Can you recommend some books about Jung, please? I remember I was really drawn to his understanding of psychology and archetypes, but when I tried to read his work (iirc I tried "Psychology of the unconscious"), I just couldn't. Maybe my attention span wasn't enough to sit through all the terms, or maybe I wasn't prepared enough - either way, it was extremely hard for me to read. Maybe there are books that conveyed Jung's ideas in a more digestible way?

[@tenshiharuno1184]

@@Heru_Iluvatar thank you very much! 💜 Jung with collaborators sounds exciting, I'll definitely check it out!

[@jbark678]

I guess the question is, are Jung's ideas falsifiable? If so, are they testable? If not, then it's more of a way of seeing than a way of describing.

[@xanderluu3876]

Paranoia agent is propably the best example of an anime about collective anxiety

[@agrocreepers7710]

i like how anime itself could be viewed as a metaphysical representation of our collective consciousness

[@RGC_animation]

Yeah, you can find at least one trope or idea that is shared between pretty much every anime.

[@errorx_x1063]

Isn't art in general a way to express unexplainable emotions in a physical way?

[@LokheeNyx]

Ahh it's here!! Daryl, I just wanted to say that was such an entertaining and fun video, and being a little bit of a weeb myself seeing my fav works in little clips made me smile. Keep being yourself cause no matter who many views this gets, know this community will forever be interested and love your work! :)

[@DarylTalksGames]

Thank you so very much!

[@RedheadButNotReally]

Happy to hear you're doing alright my guy. 👍🏻

[@thisrandomdude_]

+1 for this comment! It makes me so happy when I recognize a show or clip hahaha

[@4idenn]

I can't believe Daryl just EVA-rolled me As a non-closet weeb I just want to say: amazing video, hope to see more psych of anime in the future! The only thing I disagree with is (and this is really something I disagree with almost everyone on the internet it seems) EoE is not a feverish nightmare as it seems, it's really a hopeful ending but I feel people gets too engrossed on the visuals

[@soccerandtrack10]

I have the same name,I have an a,not e.

[@soccerandtrack10]

go look the legion of night in warhammer 40,000,that's literally what my family is like.

[@soccerandtrack10]

I'm pretty sure I know why I got my name,it's dark and unsurprising as the army.

[@axserwz5022]

I agree, All of Shinji's problems aren't fixed but he now has the right mindset to move forward and live in the world. He isn't suddenly fine now because of what he learned but he's going to try to be

[@ahmedgasim509]

I've written probably only like 2-3 KZbin comments in my life but i immediately felt the need to convey just how amazing this video was and how much i relate to it. It's like hearing the doubtful and lonely observations i keep locked up while growing an awareness of my own emotional world and seeing it being expressed and connected to in anime. You wrote this beautifully and would love more content like this.

[@God-gy7lb]

"My AT field strong as hell dawg" Deepest introspective realization in western ideology of self.

[@reitaylor5523]

The connections of conversion disorder and anime are hella intriguing, and you went in a far different (and awesome!) direction than I thought you were headed. Japanese culture, especially in comparison to many western cultures has a habit of making internal/emotional/psychological worries or anxieties either invisible or dismissing them due to their lack of external manifestation. Purely from what friends have told me, it's a bit like the idea that if you are incapable of assisting the collective, unless it is a physical malady (and even then, disabled peoples are treated with utmost prejudice), it is seen as 'laziness' rather than anything actually debilitating. I wondered when you first introduced Darius' case if you were going to make the connections to things like Menhera-chan and the culture around suicide, depression and mental anguish that too often connects to the 'Otaku' or 'NEET' circles in Japan. Many cases of disturbed abusers/terrorists/murderers are often associated with the Otaku sub-culture, and the image of otakus' even within anime/manga are usually stereotypical outcasts or creeps. Perhaps as a physical manifestation, mangaka feel as though their anguish will finally be taken seriously? Or maybe in a way to reach out to readers and say 'hey, this happens to me too, it's real, and it's threatening, but it'll be okay'. That's what manga always has been for me. PS. Check out Wonder Egg Priority if you want almost a literal example of this, it's such a wonderful show!

[@zorro......]

as someone who studied psychology in uni in southeast asia, we are taught about culturally different manifestations of mental illnesses. i think it isnt just that they feel emotional anguish will be taken more seriously but also that in east asian cultures like japan, mental illness actually often manifests as physical aches and pains. older, depressed japanese people will report that they feel fatigue and like theyre aching all over but show no signs of physical disability or illness. i think part of it might be that, as someone who is entrenched in a lot of the overarching asian beliefs and socialization, we dont learn to identify or label our feelings. a lot of people around me dont know what they feel when they're feeling it. it is difficult to ask for help when you cant even identify that youre struggling. and so i feel like the body ends up relying on psychosomatic pains to make people take notice and actually take care of themselves, like what happened with Darius.

[@reitaylor5523]

@@zorro...... Great to hear from that perspective! I’ve experiences from European/North Am perspectives and whilst we touch on cultural differences, it’s definitely rarely a main focus unfortunately. It makes sense then that expressing unknowable/undefined emotions might be easier in art forms like anime and manga. Might even be a healthy way of processing emotions to help psychosomatic symptoms as you’ve mentioned. A super interesting research prospect, ‘might otakus cope better?’. Thank you for your input, was super thought provoking!

[@inactive_ina]

(spoilers for wep ig) WEP is a really good show! ..until it basically blames all the inner turmoil and reasons for why the girls were even pushed to suicide in the first place on some random robot, not because of the issues with how society and important figures in their lives treated said girls :/

[@novelle.27]

@@inactive_ina yeah...

[@bloodykun4443]

missed opportunity for Paranoia Agent...but anyway, great video. I feel like a lot of this trope can be hit or miss for me, depending on the tone and how these stories are told in general, but it's always interesting to think about how it tends to manifest in the first place.

[@tylerfoster2814]

Want to second this opinion in regards to Paranoia Agent. The plot echoes a lot of what you mentioned about True Detective season 1, while exploring the ideas of the manifestation of unhealthy aspects of the collective subconscious. It's a great piece of social commentary that opens with Japanese yodeling and manic laughter. As a fan of Satoshi Kon, I love the series, and it's a short watch, so I think it's worth your time.

[@watashiwamosura]

I was waiting for Paranoia Agent the whole video!

[@daephx]

Could be wrong but I wouldn't be surprised if he just hasn't watched it and thus can't draw parallels.

[@Suppaichu]

@@daephx It'd be a great recomendation for him then. By how perfect it fits in this video it's very likely he didn't watch it too.

[@Euryptus]

Yup, Paranoia Agent immediately sprung to mind. Let me join the chorus of those recommending it, it's very much worth your time.

[@whenisdinner2137]

When you were talking about the metaphysical manifestation of your inner demons in Persona it reminded me of Steins Gate where there is literally not a singular villain that is physically visible besides whatever vague organization is running CERN and the "villain" is literally an abstract concept that nobody can see or interact with. I wish I could say more without spoilers because this show hit me in a way that no other show has.

[@cowgba]

This might be my new favorite video essay about anime, genuinely. This feels like a really fresh and unique perspective in the ocean of anime content online and I'm excited to see more! Also, discussing Bunny Girl Senpai in the video and putting Vivy in the intro is more than enough for me to trust your taste in anime implicitly, so now I'm off to read DanDaDan. 👍

[@mistythemischievous2013]

I think it also helps to know the concept of Kami in Shinto. Kami are the literal spiritual personhoods of physical things. It's a very animistic concept. So emotions, which have physical processes related to them are also given these Kami, these spirits, these personhoods. It's a very interesting concept because a trauma or mental disorder can be a very literal personable thing, and I honestly think that can help people approach these things within themselves.

[@ShugoKnightFairy]

This was far more entertaining than I expected. This for sure was very motivated. I know that Mushi-shi was one the animes I fall back to that had a big impact on me, as mundane as Mushi-shi is. Honestly, how they explain their world and why things happen it's very pretty. How the main character tries to find that balance go live with the mushi rather than destroy the scary, the unknown. It changed my view on how to go about things and people. I grew up watching anime and there's so much that they teach you beyond the goofy character interactions and the action as you said. It was very, mmm for lack of a better word, heart warming to watch this video that touched the concept of anime bringing forth emotions as a physical depicetion for the characters to grow and/or defeat. Thank you for the video!

[@Exoflu.]

Have you read Oshi no Ko?, if not I feel like you'd love it. It covers the dark side of the Japanese entertainment Industry and the characters are very well written. Its being made by the Author of Love is War and Illustrated by the Author of Scum's wish. It currently has 90 chapters out but the release date of the physical volumes have yet to be announced. Edit: Physical volumes are releasing on january 17th

[@mego7389]

Oshi no Ko enjoyer detected Opinion accepted

[@NiSE_Rafter]

"Share the anime that had a deep effect on you" From the New World and Welcome to the N.H.K. are probably my top picks when it comes to the commentary and exploration of the psyche. I've finally started reading the Monster manga and it's also been fantastic. Of course there's also Ergo Proxy, ID:Invaded, Ghost in the Shell, Mardock Scramble, and plenty more that imo were quite good.

[@Blizzic]

Another example of the collective unconscious manifesting physically is in Code Geass, where an entity likened to being God is literally referred to as the Collective Unconscious.

[@PsychoPatYT]

Not a lot of creators can make a change in subject matter feel seamless like this.

[@BlaxeFrost-X]

what change of subject? ... ... no, seriously, i didn't notice it

[@soccerandtrack10]

In practice,it's called=a matter eco logical shift.

[@AI-mu8he]

As a major anime fan and a big fan of you, I was really worried you weren't going to do justice to explaining anime the same way you do with games but you haven't dissapointed me, you've even made me realise things about why I like anime so much

[@ethanosgood8159]

It's finally here! This might be my favorite video yet (alongside the deltarune, inscription, and internet checkpoint videos from off the top of my head). To go on a little bit of a rant, this is why I LOVE psychology and storytelling. Psychology is ways to understand people and stories are ways to Invision things and communicate to people. Stories have helped me so incredibly much to develop myself into the person I am, and I love the idea of fictional people growing and developing to teach people (and not just kids) how things can be in life. I also love animation for being a medium to create and show so many things. Some things can't be described with words, and animation can do as this video said and turn those things into something real that can be understood. When you look into stories for something deeper you can find beautiful things. You can learn and grow without intense hardship. You can find real people in fictional characters. And that's special.

[@melanietakac107]

This was really fascinating, I am autistic and have found i always connect more deeply to anime style characters than I do with other types of story telling, I wonder whether the physical manifestation of emotion, conflict etc you talk about might explain part of why that is. Being autistic often feels like many conflicts or emotions get stuck inside because the way i would express them would not be considered appropriate. Anime therefore expresses situations or feelings in a way that i can resonate with but could not do myself. I used to be a dancer and I think I loved it for similar reasons - it was a physical expression of inward emotion, not like in the crime series you talked about, but like my sadness literally became a leap or an external villain for example. Not sure if this is interesting to anyone, do with it what you will, but wanted to say thanks for this video, it has helped me to understand myself a little better actually, even if I can't quite express it coherently here.

[@sabreman8546]

Fellow autistic person here. I can totally empathize with how you feel, and it honestly is such a relief to lose myself in a fantasy where complex emotions can be released in a way that doesnt involve clumsy, fumbled words. Emotions feel impossible to explain, and anime creates a fantasy where you dont need to explain them, because theyre plain to see

[@user-fo4su9nf1u]

I really like this anime called ×××HOLiC. It is about a mysterious store that grants wishes to people. Kind of lighthearted but also dark and karmic at times, because people's whishes often come from their flaws that they have and refuse to get rid of. And then there is also this whole part about a boy that is pursued by ghosts and a witch that really loves sake and the whole spiritual world filled with a ton of different characters. It's great. And I really like how it can visualize an invisible struggle.

[@cantaca2255]

I was honestly surprised by you going into detail about Kawai Hayao's ideas. He was certainly not obscure at the time in Japan, but definitely not someone I'd expect to have international recognition. Most of the Japanese translations of Jung were done by him, and his application of Jung's theories to Japanese culture and psyche is quite insightful and interesting. Chainsaw Man was also one of my best reads in the past few years. The breadth at which the manga's author explores fear and its manifestation is probably what really sold me. One particular scene sparked a memory of something Kawai Hayao said, that the Shinto gods were the "fear" that the Japanese felt towards nature (he used the word 畏れ as opposed to the general term for fear, 恐れ). As with everything in nature, the gods may assume roles that benefit people, but they weren't ever conceived as truly benevolent beings. Their overwhelming presence humbled the ancients and whatever mercy imparted became a blessing. Fear bred reverence. Thinking about it, there is another noteworthy parallel between Chainsaw Man and the broader shintoist ideology. In Chainsaw Man, most anything that's feared can become a devil. In Shinto, most anything that's conceived can become a god. Which leads me to guess that the older gods can manifest in the world of Chainsaw Man, but their power is not nearly what they used to be. As Kawai once quoted: in modernity, a growing number of people have lost the ability to "fear". On another note, are you considering exploring the shadow archetype and how it's been dealt differently between cultures? How there's a prevalence of thwarting one's enemy for justice in western media, while anime so often likes to resort to talk-no-jutsu and vegetafication? I think there's a lot to talk about when it comes to conflict(shadows) in stories. There's also a whole other topic of how the projection of one's shadow can lead to conflict. If by any chance you get around to it, that'll be awesome. Great vid. Love your work. Hope to see more.

[@jessieperez2030]

Love ur comment!

[@Elchansan]

With regards to how Persona has to do with people's literal personas (masks) you may want to read about the Japanese concepts of "honne" and "tatemae"

[@andrek6920]

The thing is though about the idea of a collective unconcious is that it is factually correct in a certain sense. Many fears, phobias and such things ARE passed down genetically in some fashion, you dont learn to fear snakes or bugs from being taught or experience, your ancestors learned it and the fear they learned is still passed down to modern humans. The same is true for social recognition aswell. You could recognize a social situation or a kind of behaviour in another person and be anxious or afraid of it without ever experiencing anything like it. You can be afraid of snakes and so on aswell instinctively without ever seeing one before in your life. So you could absolutely recognize certain archetypes of people at birth the same way you can be afraid of certain things at birth.

[@errorx_x1063]

What's crazy is that every successful generation of humans will be more keen to this. What's inconceivable is what is the apex to this evolution?

[@tylanger7615]

Oh wow that intro from 2:27 to 3:27 goes hard. The combination of the very beautiful and visually striking scenes into some of the most emotionally charged moments from my favourite shows just gave me chills. Like microdosing the heaviest parts of all those shows at once. Oh man, I wasn't ready for that.

[@Supercohboy]

5:40 Holy fuck that's good scriptwriting, I just had to comment, the perfect use of every word in this sentence, that's a chef's kiss moment my dude.

[@HawaiianHercules]

Bro that entire section building back up to discussing Eva was FANTASTIC, you are making some of the highest quality content on the platform right now!

[@benjaminleinonen2153]

Very interesting! As I was watching, I realize that I do this a lot myself- envisioning things or feelings as something physical, rather than just "abstract motivation". But, talking to someone close to me, it's interesting that they do not do this at all. For me, the physical representation serves as a "conduit" for the emotion. Sort of in the same way that some people feel inspired to dance when they feel very happy (or sad). It's like a means of expression. The eastern vs western philosophies give an interesting background to this conversation.

[@soccerandtrack10]

What does infamous have to do with this?

[@KonkaBass]

This actually might be one of my favorite summerzations as to WHY I like anime. I've always just had the "they're different than western stories" answer. But this, THIS, has so much more depth and actually equips me to with the real reason I like it so much.

[@anthonydavis5826]

Now I understand why Xenoblade Chronicles 3 ends the way it does. The final villain is literally the manifestation of the collective anxiety of two whole worlds.

[@Dark_Peace]

I'm surprised you haven't talked about "Egregores". It's basically what you talk about : concept representing a non-physical entity arising from the collective thoughts of a group of people. The more we think about them, the more they gain importance. Gods, feelings, idéologies, archétypes,... All Egregores. Most of the info on the internet is in french tho.

[@makojuicer]

This is awesome! Along with Jungian psychology and buddhism, gnosticism seems to be a weirdly common idea within anime/JRPGs, with bits of Jewish mysticism thrown in

[@shinigamimiroku3723]

Gnosticism takes a fair bit of Greek philosophy and mixes in bits and pieces of Christian terminology and, like you said, Jewish mysticism. The reason for this is because "the Gospel is foolish to the Greek," so as a result this (and result in pseudo-Gospel accounts such as the Infancy Gospel of Thomas) was developed by fake teachers to stroke the human ego without having to face the utter helplessness of humanity to not desire to do evil (whether it be basic selfish thoughts or... more extreme examples), all while allowing them to take advantage of their adherents and grow their power.

[@anname7373]

Not just that, but it is extremely common for them to use ancient hebrew and refer to it just as hebrew (which is incorrect)

[@Sygnit]

I really appreciate the start and conclusion of your journey through this rabbit hole because it kind of helped me contextualize my own views of this amazing genre. I’ve always known (well for as long as I’ve watched anime) that it’s made me feel a totally different kind of way, a way that western storytelling and media never quiet touched. But I guess I never really looked past the “it just expresses feelings better” part of the discussion and touched on the far FAR deeper points that you did. But as soon as you started talking about how in western society we use the action of a story to relate back to the emotional side of our characters arc and how in eastern storytelling the emotional/psychological arc IS the action just put into physical form for my dumby brain to understand (obviously I’m joking just look at Eva and all the analysis it breeds) it gives this weird sort of…release that I don’t feel very often to almost never that I have a very hard time pulling from the metaphorical abstract version we in the west put forward. Maybe I’m just really bad at connecting strings from physical plot to mental plot and that leads to having a little piece of tape that helps connect them for me helps more than I realized? Or maybe I need to sit down and seriously think about what I watch more than I do. Anyway this was a very VERY long comment but thank you so much for your awesome videos and helping me with self realization

[@DotTiuri]

This has put my mind in its deep thought working state like its not been for a while. Thank you for the horrifying and intensely gratifying situation I find myself in.

[@phillywoody]

Everytime Daryl uploads I think: "This is my new favorite Daryl video" but this is now my all time favorite. Thank you for all you do Daryl. This was a nice experimental(?) way of doing a video that was highly requested.

[@KomodoCondo]

I fell out of anime a while back simply because I got tired of the common narrative of “the power of friendship” or “forcefully befriending enemies” or “punching their way through your problems”, but your video essay lends such a deeper insights to the schemas and underlying structures to these story beats. There’s something fascinating to see the cultural context behind it, even if it isn’t as overt. I’m so glad I’m not the only one who notices this difference between western and eastern storytelling. They have different aims and effectively solve their narratives through different approaches. This video essay is amazing and you should be proud. PS: I let out a /good/ laugh at the “I had it backwards” part.

[@felixgrange4413]

As an aspiring writer, I have been studying different styles of writing and eastern writing styles have always been my favorite. They are always so different and interesting from what I have read in school. It has always affected me the more emotionally than anything else. The ideas that the writers for anime and manga have implemented into characters and events is really creative.

[@hiho9149]

Great video, as always! I half-expected Serial Experiments Lain to pop up when you mentioned "we're all connected" and I found it a bit odd you didn't mention it in this video, considering how popular and closely related to the Collective Unconscious theme it is. If you didn't watch it, I think you might really dig it.

[@yakumorisuke9403]

As a lifelong lover of mythology, I also really enjoy anime for its use of youkai/creatures as manifestations of cultural fears and beliefs. It really is a fascinating idea. This was a great episode! I really enjoyed it:) I was waiting for Kyouko Suiri to come up in that part of the discussion - if you haven't seen/read it it, I can recommend it.

[@KelsieJG__they-them]

I've always appreciated this sort of thing in anime and other storytelling simply because I'm a very metaphorically-minded person. I make heavy use of metaphors when trying to understand and communicate with people and process things, and having a well-thought-out visual metaphor helps me massively when I'm trying to understand something I'm watching, playing, or reading too. It's just very intuitive for me.

[@soccerandtrack10]

Try that,but some1 is useing passive aggressive hate speech and telling you're wrong=for LITTERLY ANYTHING YOU SAY OR DO,while still trying to figure it out.

[@soccerandtrack10]

I litterly just try to walk away now,because it's just hate speech and I can notice it now.

[@Heru_Iluvatar]

Have you read 'Man and His Symbols' by Carl Jung or '12 Rules for Life' by Jordan Peterson? Books to read if you excel at metaphorical thinking.

[@hazzy5275]

Didn't really know what I was getting into with this video but I was enthralled from start to finish

[@CFlandre]

If you like this kind of dialogue about the collective unconscious in anime, highly recommend anything by Satoshi Kon (Paranoia Agent, Millenium Actress, Paprika, etc). He was a master at bringing out the strangeness of people's anxieties onto animation/film. I think he was my favorite anime director before he passed.

[@Dark_Peace]

One of your best videos! I love turning feelings & concepts into something physical in all of my games and stories so, very interesting. :) I've been writing for 2 years a graphic novel where scientists basically turned the collective inconscious into a metaverse/internet. Of course, Jung inspired me greatly, and so did animes. :D

[@lilypaddington1797]

I never considered the concept of a consciousness or awareness without an ego... god, that sounds like something I need to understand, now. I want to know what it feels like to understand that concept.

[@hosh7150]

I really love the concept of archetypes, I did a lots of researches and I wanted to bring justice to this concept that is not defined exactly how Jung does in this video : An archetype is basically the image and the emotion that are seen by the individual when an instinct is "activated". Also, the archetypes of the collective uncouncious are not really an inherited memory, but more a structural way of seeing things and behave to the things happening in the outside world. The instincts actually produce spontaneously an image that can born in every psyche, even if the representation of the archetype will certainly be quite different from an individual to an other. The representation of the archetype (the image that born within the activation of the instinct) will always have a similar pattern, but can take many forms. One of the best example is God, as an achetypic idea that born spontaneously in the psyche, that can take many forms as we see in many various religions. But remember that the image that born is not the archetype but the representation of the archetype. The archetype is more like a tendancy to make a particular image, with particular caracteristic, born in the psyche.

[@Vox_Popul1]

that's just describing the basics of evolutionary psychology, just vary vaguely and much more mystified, as was the norm of Jung.

[@TheStorytellerWolf]

That concluding bit of the video hit hard. I think doing these videos and searching for these answers about humanity is in itself an expression of empathy on your part. At the very least I feel that you care deeply about humanity from this and your other videos, and it makes me and I’m sure others feel less alone and less insane in this crazy world we live in. Much love to you, Daryl, and thank you for everything.

[@RPGgrenade]

Wow this was fun! I really dislike the jungian psychological school because of various reasons that one may or may not agree with, but how it relates to collectivist cultures and their warped perspective of the psyche seems to make a lot of sense for the sake of inspiration in anime. Also in retrospect, jungian psychology isn't really psychology, it's a philosophical spiritual mindset when you observe how its applied and what it claims exists, almost at a religiuos level, and that having strong ties to buddhism is something that I never linked before, and frankly really makes a lot of sense. I have been watching anime for decades now, so seein this video has been very fun and eye opening for me in several ways. Thank you!

[@TheSuperRatt]

I wouldn't go so far as to state collectivist cultures have a warped perspective of the psyche, in so much as individualist do the same. Why is one "warped", when the other isn't? When individualism itself is a new phenomenon that's proven just as disastrous?

[@BlaxeFrost-X]

Think about this, if the religious nature of people (what makes them believe in such things) it's not psychological, where does religions come from? ← Food for thought People of science in this age are unwilling to accept religion as something remotely real or needed for human kind and as such, they can't accept religion being included in a theory as part of human nature. ← This may be very very biased

[@Hawkenwhacker]

If one has an aversion to religion, then it's logical to see why one would not like the "spiritual" aspect of life as they are considered one and the same. On a societal level, this is true as religion and societies have been shown to be linked in many different cultures. However, it is possible to separate religion from spirituality. Although I was raised to be a protestant christian, I could never identify with it. Instead, I would go out on walks and appreciate just being outside. Walking around the places where I lived, observing the people who were around or just watching something as simple as watching the rays being cast by the sun as it lowers was a joy. Even now, I take the time to go out and just enjoy the outdoors for this reason. We've had a full moon lately. Even that is enough to make me enjoy my life. Now, this doesn't mean that I don't find enjoyment from time to time when I can just mess with people, especially if you're not taking life all that seriously as we all have a need to play. Obviously, we all come from different backgrounds and have different life experiences because of this. Even so, we are all people looking for answers within a world we have little knowledge about, aside from the fact that we come to understand the world through how we see it. EDIT: If I repeated what was said in the video, I apologize as I had not started watching the video until after I was done typing. Who knows. :P

[@soccerandtrack10]

Why did you put sake?,I don't see any1 drinking or a cup?

[@soccerandtrack10]

he said warped! 8 L. . 8 L. 3 L. 16 L. =88. 88=8 AND the thirsty god. 88=hail horis. The alpha legion uses it to talk to each other before the cultists decide to show how insane they are and invade d.c. shouting uncomprehendible prayers to their gods and hitting their heads against stuff from being in the warp too long and living in complete phycosis,or yelling paradoxes and made up facts because beings from the unseen realm whispered in their heads for too long, others who worship 8 go out and shoot people,the god cares for death, but the thirsting 1 fights with the 8,for the thirsting 1 is the REAL REASON why the deaths happened. You can't put guns or smoke bombs on their transports,uuuuuuuuuh... group of insecure moving machines?... I think they call them goimm not TRANSports,they need to copy 1984 then blame everyone for trying to take away freedom of speech. Like saying trans. Gives them mortal wounds... Or calling them cowards or saying they did something wrong. this is probably why space marines use them to surround themselves in battle,you can always find more and will listen to any1 saying their give them power. the only demon prince they have is a Korn 1 that screams and cries at the universe.

[@justsomeguywithahandlebarm2456]

The fly me to the moon Eva edit at the end was mwah

[@gotcopper42]

Banger episode man, I think this explains a lot of why I tend to feel more attached to anime characters then characters from most other forms of media. I do tend to enjoy learning and understanding about the more collective culture in the west and having met people who believe western philosophies it is quite interesting to see how anime heavily romanticize them. I can't speak the Shintoism, but Buddhism and especially Hinduism are incredibly brutal religions when fully and properly carries out. My time in Nepal has shown me a lot of the darker side of some religions that the east romanticized to the moon and back.

[@gknucklez]

The idea, that the believe or fear in something/someone will manifest them or grant them power is not isolated to anime, far from it I would say. Small Gods from Pratchett immidiately comes to my mind, where he explores it with his usual smart and funny style. Check out the trope "Gods Need Prayers Badly"

[@ringsystemmusic]

Wasn’t that also the entire shtick of American Gods by Neil Gaimann?

[@divelostmind]

dude I LOVED THIS, so glad to see a retrospective psychological analysis of anime, gaming is great and all but I'm at a stage in my life where I don't game any more at all, but have so many cherished memories of anime and watching this just felt like such a full circle moment. pls do more ill watch em all ;) I think the anime that had the biggest effect on me was Eva, definitely got way to into that (Trice was such a trip after all those years of anticipation) Some honourable mentions: Hajime no Ippo, Chuunibyou demo koi ga shitai, Bunny girl, Welcome to the NHK, FMA: Brotherhood, YOUR LIE IN APRIL, hero aca, soul eater, naruto, one piece, i guess SAO since it was such a formative time in my life, death note, bebop, attack on titan first season, psycho-pass, lovely complex (so underrated), shokugeki no souma first season, ghibli in general, and loving demon slayer so far sorry im gushing i just miss anime so much

[@AZ-tx5yd]

I've never been more glad to have randomly clicked on an essay video, let alone an anime one, and shed a tear. Awesome work dude

[@fungisrock8955]

This is great, one of my favorite channels suddenly started talking about some of my favorite anime, THANK YOU, both Daryl and the Patreons.

[@chrissyyyy901]

This was AMAZING. All of my favorite things in one- psychology, anime, persona 5, true detective, etc etc. I loved it. I hope you do more like this.

[@ms.negative7568]

The concept of negative emotions manifesting as monsters or physical symptoms is my favorite thing in media. You explained how well the persona series does it. There’s also the game LiEat that does it as well. I love this concept so much that I made a dnd character for it. I’m glad you made this video cuz now I have something to reference when talking to people about this.

[@tofuninja5489]

That ending crescendo gave me chills. Love your stuff and all that you do. Thanks!

[@JesseIsBetterThanYou]

I don't know if I experienced conversion disorder, but I definitely experienced something very similar. Nearly 5 years ago, back in highschool, my parents and I had learnt about some bad things I had done and some online friends on discord I made that were pretty shitty people. I regretted a lot of the things I did and wished that some of those friends would change, but I cherished those friends and memories because they saved my life. Before I met them, I was lonely, depressed, apathetic, and suicidal, but they showed me there was more to life and inspired me to grow. I chose to cut ties with many of them while sticking close to a select few, and I tried to distance myself from my mistakes, but it was too late. My parents were extremely upset at what I had done that it was hard for them to trust that I really wanted to change. It was only the night before when I had sent my best friend a message saying that I would take a break from discord for a while in an effort to change. They overreacted and took away everything. All of my accounts were deleted so that I would never be able to talk to any of those friends again, including my best friend who had the biggest positive impact on my life. My parents forced me to sit with them and read all of the bad things me and my friends had said out loud every day for a week before finally deleting the account. They learned about my prior experiences with depression and suicide and they hid things like medicine and knives that I needed for normal, daily things because they couldn't trust me, and it felt so insulting. Many other things happened that I won't go into, but that week traumatized me. All of my efforts to grow, the important connections I had made, the willpower I had to muster to decide to change were all for nothing. In the following weeks, I had severe stomach pains, and they got worse and worse every day. Before that point I had weighed 185 lbs., and I was healthy and athletic, but it hurt so much to eat that I dropped to 135 lbs. and was chronically fatigued. There were nights when the pain was so bad that I would literally cry myself to sleep, and I would typically only be able to sleep for 2 hours before going to school the next day. This problem persisted for a full year before my parents finally realized the severity of the pain and took action. After some food sensitivity tests, I had made some extreme changes to my diet that cut out almost everything and made it immensely difficult to find anything I could eat. Wheat, eggs, dairy, common fruits and vegetables, many meats like pork and various fish, all of it was cut out of my diet. The pain still persisted, but the diet did help to alleviate it a little bit. After beginning this diet, it took 2 full years to fully reintroduce something like eggs, and nearly 3 and a half to reintroduce wheat. This week I had actually just began working on reintroducing dairy, and things have been mostly ok so far. The symptoms have gradually lightened as I reconciled with my parents and graduated from highschool and no longer needed to maintain perfect grades. Throughout all of this though, anime began to heavily resonate with me, and I think this video helped me to make sense of it. In recent months, we took much more thorough (and intense, lol) tests, but all of the results showed that I never should have had a sensitivity to things like gluten, dairy, and many other foods that I cut out. For nearly half a decade, my physical health was closely tied to my mental health. The pain would peak along with stress, and it's taken years to work past the trauma of losing some of those friends. Nobody knows why I was so sensitive to these foods and had such frequent pains, but every for every step that my mental health improves, so does my physical health. I feel more confident and less physically weak. While I know people who have gone through far worse than I ever have and likely ever will, I am now much more mentally mature and resilient, and I accept everything that has happened because it has made me who I am now. I am happy with my life and the kind of person I am. I love my parents and friends and appreciate everything that they've done. I'm glad that despite everything, I'm still alive, and that I've been able to help others and find happiness myself. In the past, I lost hope that things would ever improve, that I would always have persisting pain and would never be able to truly fix my life, but I'm so grateful that I was wrong.

[@laurasimutyte1382]

Reading this made me tear up a bit. I'm really glad you are doing well now, and I really hope for the best for you!!

[@IwhowasdatXD960]

I really don’t know what to say but that this really resonated with me…thank you for sharing this.

[@enderponydragon6317]

I am so happy. Also, you are one of the gentlest, down to earth people on this platform buddy. Don't be so hard on yourself.

[@JaredC.]

I never really thought abojt how much emotional manifestation was a theme in anime until you said it out loud daryl, this was a more heartwarming/enlightening video than I expected based on the title and I really enjoyed it. Monogatari series is some of my fav media and along with your other based examples Im glad you showed how profound anime/manga can be in psychology

[@exodmaster2702]

After watching this video for what feels like my 100th time and now showing it to everyone I know (including my parents who neither play games nor watch anime) I can confidently say that this is my favorite video of yours ever!

[@pinkiepone3299]

This is one of the most impactful videos for me that you've released. I'm so happy to hear you talk about anime, I truly, truly am so happy to hear you address these themes I've never been able to express. Thank you so much, Daryl!

[@Yuuchiemi]

I just started on my bachelor in psychology and without you repeatedly showing me how interesting and fun it can be, idk if i would have chosen this major. So thank you!

[@AskTorin]

Thanks for prefacing this video, this helps everyone. Much love from a recent discoverer of your channel!!!

[@UntangledKnots]

For me it’s undeniable that there is something spiritual about many many anime and games. It can be heavily influenced by Buddhism or Shintoism yes, but spirituality being a mostly personal part of life in Japan, there is a far less dogmatic approach. While most people are indifferent, the storytellers make use of all kinds of spiritual concepts freely because they don’t have the intention of indoctrinating, merely exploring. And we love it because that kind of exploration can be really beautiful and can even bleed over into self exploration

[@issaoldboi]

man this was way more wholesome than expected, loved it!

[@Whoomstest]

Buddhist here! First and foremost Japan and Japanese media is influenced very heavily by Buddhism and Buddhists values. The more you learn about Buddhism the more anime and the way people act in anime will make sense to simplify things. Its similar to how America is heavily influenced by Christian values and you'll see it in media as well. As for your video I was waiting for the moment you were going to bring up Buddhism because I'd say it's the main reason for this trope. So in Buddhism though there are prominently light beings such as the different Buddhas and dark beings such as Demons. That concept is very rare. A person is not an inherently "good" or "bad" person. They are what they choose to be in this lifetime. You are the actions you choose to make that effect you and other people. And when you choose your actions you have to think and realize they never just effect only you, other topic that is forgin to the west. Also something I think that was slightly glossed over in the video but not on purpose. It's very common in western media for a character to be a lone wolf and leave people that need them or care about them behind because they dont want their whatever call to justice to effect them but it does effect their love ones. As an American in many things leaving a wife with 3 children to fight a war you may never come back from is seen as the most noble thing you can do. In the east there is a whole Buddhist holiday to bless your parents that you may be able to take care for them as long as you can. This non-belief of your either good or bad has Buddhist look inward and focus on growth of self and emotions and how you as person effect other people. Which is why in a lot of anime you see a power up after a reach inside yourself for strength that you had inside you all along kind of thing. As for the physical manifestation of negative emotions is something also seen in Buddhism. People will often go to temples asking masters for blessings to remove "ghosts" or negative energy to demons off of people who have been sick lately after something happened. It's very common to believe that these dark energies and spirits can cause physical problems. I dont live on Japan but in larger temples you can bring home wards to keep bad spirits out of your house from keeping you sick or hurt. So when they use it in anime I believe it's an exaggeration of myths and things your grandmother says. Such as when someone dies a "ghost" can attach to someone grieving very deeply for them and cause them to become ill. So my theory is if they sort already kinda believe negative emotions can cause physical harm anime pushes it to "ok okay everyone knows you can get a headache but WHAT IF YOU GOT CUTS ON YOUR SKIN WHEN YOU GOT BULLIED wouldn't that be wild!?!?" And it puts things into perspective because someone could've gotten bullied and gotten a headache before but then they watch that anime and it's like "oh wow that is what it feels like" so it's just as impactful of anime but not for the same reasons. There are some beautiful concepts in Buddhism and putting that in the creativity of anime you will find a lot of out comes. If that makes sense? That last part is a theory tho so dont quote me on that 😅

[@thatguy779]

I appreciate how you went about this one and I really hope you keep pushing the directions you can go with these videos

[@kartxlol8023]

i was bored by quite a few of your recent videos, this one invigorated me, i could feel your passion

[@jesser1070]

"Memes: the DNA of the soul. They shape our will. They are our culture -- they are everything we pass on. (...) All memes. All passed along" -Monsoon from Metal Gear Rising Revengeance

[@TailsShadow7]

Holy sh** it's here! Amazing video Daryl! Super happy that you had a great time writing it because damn it was super fun to watch. This also serves as a reminder for me to go and re-watch some of the mentioned animes and even pick up some new ones. Thank you for making such banger content, regardless of what the topic is. Be it gaming, wrestling or anime - you always make it fun, interesting and entertaining. Here's to hoping that we soon hit the next milestone for a Psych of Play on Dating Sims! Stay awesome.

[@lu6754]

Dude, this video is so good. It's given me a ton of fascinating things to think about in terms of how culture shapes media and my own love of anime/manga. I think the "physical representations of mental/emotional states" trope gives this medium the power to be uniquely cathartic.

[@cyborg2147]

This video was awesome! I’ve been writing a novel and haven’t had much success explaining scenes that change based on the unconsciousness of those in the scene itself. Watching your video opened up so much insight. Like you mentioned, growing up with strong individualist tendencies make explaining collective communal manifestations in fantasy or sci-fi hard to explain. Thank you for this!

[@Janokins]

Very cool video. I like the idea of a cultural subconsciousness, but I think its origins are very much cultural and not genetic. I don't think what's "built in" is that complex, maybe a built in fear of scary animals, and disgust at bitter things that may be poisonous, and a liking for sweet high energy density foods. But that said, humans are very social creatures, so you never know :) I also think that to be a true altruist you need to remove the ego. Even by leaving a comment I have failed at that. It's a very subtle existence. Difficult to do, and difficult to want, but there is something noble in it. Perhaps it would come more naturally if I grew up in a collectivist society.

[@zorro......]

study in rats show that if grandparent rat is taught to fear a certain cue (eg: scent that is always accompanied by physical pain), its grandchild will also have the same fear of that cue (rat's grandchild will react in fear when exposed to the scent despite never being exposed to it or the accompanied physical pain like grandparent rat). we also know from evolutionary psychology that a lot of common fears are fears due to having evolutionary purpose. eg trypophobia being due to the way dots and spots are often associated with decay/gross things/fungi/rot, and those are things that would poison us if ingested. or the common fear of snakes in spite of some people never even seeing a snake. so some things arent necessarily built in, but have likely caused genetic changes due to epigenetics and thats passed down. edit to say that psych believes most fears stem from either biological fears (fear of things that have been a threat to humans for thousands of years) or are learnt (either from bad exps or social learning where children see adults react in fear to certain things and then learn to fear those things too!) so it is true that we do internalize fears from the society around us, but also there is an evolutionary factor which makes certain fears more likely than others. the rat study shows that there is also an epigenetic factor to fear where you can inherit the fears of some of your ancestors without ever knowing why they feared those otherwise neutral stimuli in the first place.

[@dayelu2679]

Do you know the word "meme"? Also, by removing ego, if taken seriously, you would reach the door of enlightenment, so no, it's not something you can easily do as your wording implies, and it's definitely not much easier if you live in a collective society, even though deep down you would feel attracted by it in some way, as reverence from general public for Buddhism teachings shows.

[@vaclavjebavy5118]

It doesn't matter if it's genetic, the cultural patterns in history are plain to see. In fact, if there is little genetic transfer at play, that just means the world itself as it pertains to us is such that it facilitates these ideas.

[@Dxnis1512]

Your use of music in these videos is amazing. Always reminds me how powerful music can be when used properly in a video. Especially at 2:30. Literally gave me goosebumps

[@LarsxLeia]

Yeah the Haven Soundtrack is incredibly powerful

[@AleydisZeta]

Omg yes. Thanks for this video. I love that I have a dialog that speaks to much of my fascination with anime... because yea! Anime depicts so much metaphysical and psychological phenomenons and manifestations in ways that live-action movies/TV just can't express the same way. Even like the expressions right? The way emotions are conveyed on all anime characters faces so exaggerated or so defined in ways that again live-action media just cannot capture. It's powerful art that speaks to the soul and that's why I just love it and gravitate to it more than the regular stuff.

[@AmirAli-bl4fp]

awesome video, it’s people who make content like this that make me think my ability to comprehend and analyze is inferior to most other people since I just can’t ever imagine myself not just noticing a trope like this but also connecting it all of it to such a deep and complicated story of culture and history.

[@FreelanceGenie]

These ideas of spirits gaining power from belief exist in Western media too, but typically these types of spirits are good rather than evil. In the classic Peter Pan play Tinkerbell and other fairies gained power from the belief of children. It also shows up in "The Guardians" movie for both positive and negative with Jack Frost and the others gaining power from belief while "Pitch" gains power from fear. Assassin's Creed also plays with the idea a bit. Changing enough people's minds is enough to physically change reality. On another note, I'd like to mention how similar the ending of Splatoon 2's DLC is to Evangelion's ending.

[@xBlackSunset]

As always it was great. Ive gotten chills at least thrice in this video. Amazing work!

[@RomanoFrancine]

Hands down, the best anime analysis video I've seen on youtube! Added a lot to some ideas I've been gathering for a study about orietal vs ccidental storytelling and human psyche. 🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼 Much appreciated!

[@peytonchenault4005]

I’m pretty certain this is my favorite video on KZbin. I watched this at least five times. It just perfectly wraps up the worldview that I try to hold and why life itself is worth living. Thanks so much for making this!

[@Thelostrune]

"Maps of Meaning" is a book that talks about Freud and Jung's ideas quite a bit. A bit long, but has an audiobook as well. That aside, looking forward to more anime where people turn into goo for some reason. At least now, perhaps I know why.

[@RadicalZombieV]

Daryl, that was so good! I felt some feelings afterwards and really want to start watching anime again 💙🤩

[@otavioalves5363]

This. This video is SO important to me. If not answered, you have pointed out and debated over questions that I haven't been able to fully form up until now. I've been an anime/manga fan for some time and have always found impressive the creativity of the artists, but couldn't quite understand why their stories are written the way they are. The characters, the worlds, conflicts and resolutions; some people simply state them as "weird", but I have always found that there's probably more to them, even if I couldn't understand yet. At least for some stories. Thank you for making this video. My perspective of the media might have changed for good (for the better).

[@yanpan724]

the more you put out, the more convinced I am that you are genuinely one of the best content creators I've ever followed. I'm consistently impressed by your work, thank you for all your hard work!

[@regamae]

And if Daryl makes a Psych of Play on Movies, he could call it “Psych of Screenplay” ;D

[@UliTroyo]

This was a lot of fun! I'm Buddhist, and a weeb, so a lot of these ideas are natural to me, to the point where I often don't notice them just because they're so familiar. I forget not everyone has been exposed to Buddhism beyond having a shaky grasp of what "karma" is, so it's interesting to hear people's introduction to these concepts.

[@kylespevak6781]

Right? I used to be an anime nerd, but now I just speak Japanese and have been there a few times. Definitely deep in their culture that's not anime and video games now. It's annoying that people always think that's why I like Japan. For me, it's their way of being and their beautiful architecture. Learning about their culture and mythology is extremely fun too since I love hearing how different people interpret the world

[@paaperman]

Your ending monologue hit me hard man. I've had a similar realization of how anime contributed to the ability to look at myself outside of the cultural norms I've grown up knowing. Anime made me think about myself and the world, emotions of myself and of others, in a way that so few do. Anime is a great medium to have that effect. Stay weird my guy. Love your work.

[@vlakace]

I can relate to the beginin,the sheer panic upon discovering i couldnt see in my left eye after waking up,and doctors first couldnt figure out at first, and then discoverin i have keratoconus,that really sucks and feels hopeless

[@starman2995]

I really enjoyed this video! Idc if it's different from your regular stuff, it was still quality and really enjoyable. Also I'm happy to hear another person talk about how good Bunny Girl Senpai is, despite the title.

[@MysteryCorgi_VN]

I am reminded of the trends of fiction relating to societal anxieties, resulting in "survival fiction" and "death game" series (Battle Royale, Mirai Nikki) which were fed into by Apocalypticism. Pause and Select has a few great videos on it. Recently I've noticed a lot of series are about being eaten (Attack on Titan, Promised Neverland) or replaced by dopplegangers (Shadow's House, Summertime Rendering) and I'd love to see that explored more in depth.