here are some video essays you HAVEN'T already seen a hundred times
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- Опубліковано 26 лип 2023
- MAIN CHANNEL: / tbskyen
TikTok: / tbskyen
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#shorts - Ігри
I’m not sure it counts as a video essay or not but “My hunt for a nearly lost 90s anime” by hazel is really interesting, I love the way she narrates her videos
I love hazel's stuff!! It has to be the right mood but her examinations are great and always very literature class style reflections in inspirations used and other historical media presedents.
hazel’s videos tend to have more views than the ones skyen mentioned but I really love her video on Eiken “Who Was Responsible for This Anime?” and for her style of content discussing older anime-style Japanese media, I’d recommend Amelie Doree who usually talks about obscure visual novels and eroge (she does seem to have one video essay called “Memories and Grief in Kanon (1999)” and ThorHighHeels, who talks about largely obscure video games. ThorHighHeels’ video “The Games That I HATE” and “FromSoftware’s Weird Old Games” which is one of their most popular videos. There’s a lot of talk of aesthetics and vibes and atmosphere from ThorHighHeels especially which is definitely a big thing hazel discusses in her analyses.
Hazel is literally the best
I was about to recommend Hazel's pokemon essay, her videos have so much passion
Hazel vids slap, they have such good vibes
First off Skyen you are a sweetheart thank you, secondly all of those reccomendations I have seen and can confirm that they are excellent.
I came here to comment that
I know some other people already mentioned Patricia Taxcon, but I do wanna shout out her video “Art, Furries, God”. It’s basically an eclectic sample of some of her favorite “joke” media, and why she likes it, and it’s both a great exploration of why openly unserious things can leave a lasting impact on people, AND a great rec list of other stuff to watch.
YES
I adore cjthex and their video on "The 7 Deadly Art Sins" didn't just speak to me, it sat me down, lectured at me, did stand-up, yelled in my face, spoke gently in my ear, and sang to me. If you do any kind of art at all (visual, auditory, writing, ANYthing) it's well, WELL worth a watch.
I LOVE cjthex's videos they are soo obscure but are sooo entertaining
CJ is truly phenomenal and I’m so glad I subbed to their patreon.
I've watched their Bo Burnham vs. Jeff Bezos essay at least 3 times. It's incredible
fr these people are basically going, "Hey guys, did you ever try out this cool obscure drink called water?" I get wanting to let people know about something you like, but come on, sis, these videos have like 3-10 million views a pop. Anyone who's even remotely into this stuff has already seen it😭
edit: Cool recommendations btw. My to-watch list was looking a bit empty as of late, thank you.
It's so funny because for people who aren't already into it, they do make for good introduction videos to this side of UA-cam. I've met exactly one irl person who has even heard of channels like Contrapoints
I have this gripe about UA-cam videos that replicate/showcase Studio Ghibli food, and one of the recipes is "bacon and eggs from 'Howl's Moving Castle'"
It's just bacon and eggs
A very talented yet small channel that focused on video essays that I got lowkey obsessed with is one called Honey Bat.
She delves into core themes of various games such as the "visceral femininity" of Bloodborne, the hope inherent to the post-apocalypse genre as a whole and the humanity of the android-centric Nier games.
Very good watches. Might not be a large catalogue with only 10(?) videos on the channel and no recent uploads but its absolutely quality over quanitty.
I love the bloodborne video, and I haven't played a single soulsborne game ever, they just make it sound so interesting
If you haven't seen them, BREADSWORD does amazing essays that slowly evolve into analysis about himself as much as the art he's critiquing. And the editing feels like a fever dream only a 2000's boy could have concocted.
The video he did on the adventures of tintin was a master piece. It definitely got me to go back and watch that movie right away
The way that he speaks is enthralling, it invites you to fully embrace passion and romance for media. He does his research, and the wildest part for me, he often ends on a low note
He's definitely in my top three essayfolks on UA-cam
I'd recommand Izzyzz's videos, she dives deep into obscure fanbases or weird internet dramas, I just love her content. (+ her make up is always incredible)
I think it'd be nice to list more unknown video essayists, so I personally suggest: *The Whale: Hope or Obsessive Delusion* by Failure on Command, *MarbleBlast: a Retrospective* by Patrician Taxxon, *Why George RR Martin Will Never Finish Game of Thrones* by The Selador, *Happy Sugar Life: a Study of Sympathy* by Explanation Point, and *What Happened to Vince from Shamwow?* by Anomoly Documentaries, and *The Cosmic Horror of Everyone's Gone To The Rapture* by MertKayKay. Many of these guys have 1 or 2 big hit videos that got them on my feeds, but I tried to pick the great ones with less views.
Ashley Norton's *Why We Cared About Tiger Woods' Affairs* spawned in my memory the moment I hit send so pls see this lovely look into of sports racism most of all.
The happy sugar life essay was really good. I was a bit sad they didn't have more videos for me to binge but I enjoyed going through their channel especially their weird anime series videos.
It is honestly criminal that none of Leon Massey's videos haven't cracked 1 million views yet. He does super interesting analysis on video games and video game mechanics you dont really think about it. He made a video about jump arcs in video games amd their effect on gameplay and all of his videos are high quality especially his recent ones wheres he incorporated animations to express his ideas
Seconded. The power weapons video is one of the best I’ve seen in my life and it has less than 60k views. (I also wanted to say that his video on twelve HAS cracked 1million views, but just barely.)
I might watch these, but only AFTER my second rewatch of the monuments mythos part 2 by wendigoon, but before my bi weekly rewatch of fat cry 3
For league fans: "Schnee" did a really great video about why Ekko is the perfect side character in "Arcane".
I can attest to that! All of his Arcane videos are worth a watch. He makes great analysis’ and theories of things that didn’t make sense or people didn’t understand in the show. And he has great advice for aspiring writers!
These are in a totally different ballpark in terms of topics discussed but I just wanted to share some video essayists I watch!
Foreign Man in a Foreign Land - discusses racism, homophobia, fetishization in some media but largely on social media and in society as a whole in a very intersectional way and actively talks about dismantling biases he grew up with. I recommend “Tourism is the New Slavery” and “The Caribbean Commodification of Flesh”
Shanspeare - Absolutely amazing framing. They discuss the way we interact with pop culture, media, social media, and changes in the ways we live our lives. Very much delves into facts and statistics but has one of the most calming voices ever. I recommend “We’re Chained to Our Phones and It’s Scarier Than We Think”
Unpoetic Justice - Soecifically critiques the way we interact with social media and provides a deeper look than many other channels I’ve seen. I recommend “Colleen Ballinger: When the Mask Slips”
Tee Noir - Discusses hyper sexualization, misogyny, homophobia, and misogynoir. I recommend “When the Black Gaze Expires: A Kardashian Commentary”
Yesss I love to see the cornbread tube recs. To add to this:
- Khadija Mbowe - Their series “You can always change your mind” dives into numerous sociopolitical issues through a lens of understanding and critical thought. Their content is especially great for those who want to expand on or even challenge their beliefs. They always uses plenty of sources and have some amazing book reccs with each essay
I imagine you would probably like Khadijah Mbowe and FD Signifier.
Even though I knew it wouldn't happen, I was half hoping Skyen would mention Bess' channel. She focuses mainly in the When They Cry series (visual novel, anime, manga, and more), but she has some shorter-ish video essays on other animes as well which are pretty good. Of course, the When They Cry ones are the best, but all the others are worth checking out
The downside of her When They Cry videos is that you have to have played the VNs, watched the anime and/or read the mangas, which takes quite a bit of time, but are so damn worth it
these are amazing recommendations and all right up my alley!! tysm skyen
Shoutouts to B-Mask! A one of a kind video essayist that covers all entertainment in a series called Beyond Pictures. He seriously examines every aspect of a work, from the art direction, to theming, to the time period, all while making you laugh every once in a while! Seriously, if you asked me to pick one video essayist to watch forever it would be him. Particular shout outs to his don bluth essay, which is one of the best musical theatre video essays on the whole damn platform.
oh my god yes the fantastic four video essay was amazing
CJ the X has an amazing video essay, "Subjectivity in Art."
Dj peach cobbler provides the most hilarious long form essays I recommend it so so soooo much
Seconding this. My personal favorites are his videos on Death Stranding and Unbiased Katie
Thank you, TB ❤
Haven't watched the Last Unicorn Essay , but I might check it out- the film is a decent chunk of my childhood and plus the line of "Why must your speak in Riddles?" Just prompts in answer in my head "Cuz no cat anywhere ever gave anyone a straight answer."
Absolutely Same here, but the video in question seems to have been either deleted or unlisted, becaus I can't find it anywhere sadly. Have you been able to find it?
For me personally, the late TotalBiscuit's video essay on review embargos "The Big Bad Embargo: Just What Is It Anyway?" is still one of his most nuanced works that really goes into what are review embargos, how can they be helpful and how they can be abused. His ability to break down industry practices in a non-dogmatic manner really was second to none.
What a great short! Love the comments with peoples recomendarion.
One of my recent faves are the videos of ray mona about saban moon (talks about lost media and the lost pilot of the americanized version of sailor moon) and li speaks who specialices about nostalgia content and mainly girly content of the 2000, i recommend the polly pocket the ultimate nepo baby, is great
To add another to the pile - One I haven't seen going around nearly often is Moon Channel, he's a professional attorney who makes videos discussing both gaming analysis such as "Why Do You Always Kill Gods in JRPGS?" or "Undertale, Deltarune, and Existential Nihilism", but also - and what I find most interesting - _legal_ analysis of various gaming companies such as in his "Why is Nintendo so Overprotective of its Intellectual Property?" and "The Legal Reasons Why Mother 3 Will Never Be Localized"
If you're interested in not just analysis of games but a thorough deconstruction of the histories and cultures of corporations and nations alike - and how that affects their mindsets, decision making, and design choices. I recommend checking him out.
I respect your analsys (mostly watch your OP pieces) so I'm always happy when ppl expose lesser known or obscured channels/stories/anylses. I really feel like this should be more common place, you enjoy something you share.
I’d also recommend any video essays from Rhystic Studies. He talks about the history and impact of Magic the Gathering cards, arts, flavor text, all things like that.
as someone who’s recently had their recommendations feed killed because I had watch history off for so long this is really useful to give me stuff to watch thank you
Thank you. I'm already subbed to 3 of them so I put the rest on my offline playlist to listen to at work and see if I like them. I adore Laura Crone - I found her Repo the genetic opera video first and was blown away by the quality.
Does she still drink and eat on er vids? :/
"Ableism in Cars 2" is not a video essay i would have imagined existed but you should check it out
Thank you so much for the shout out!! It means a ton 🙏unbelievable list of youtubers im honoured to be put beside
Might I add to the pile FilmJoy / Movies With Mikey. They're wonderful, often very personal investigations into the heart of film, where he loves to bring to the fore the empowering message of "No one knows what they're doing", and saying that's okay.
The swan lake princess essay was so good! The turn into the breakdown of the evangelical influence really caught me off guard but was excellent and a perspective I don't think I hear from often. I watched some of her other video essays after that and they're all pretty solid.
Unethico's "Bloodborne = Evangelion" video changed me and how I view certain aspects in Bloodborne thematically and lore wise. As well as their other BB lore videos. Those videos SERIOUSLY need more views even if they are older. (Ik they are more theory videos but I think they still count as video essays)
Awesome recommendations! One of my favorite video essays that I’ve seen recently is Fighting in the Age of Loneliness by Secret Base. I’m normally no sports watcher, but the way it translates the nature of MMA to match economic and social issues is wonderful. Highly recommend it!
Oh that one is AMAZING, I rewatch it regularly
yesssss laura crone's "The Fantabulous Emancipation of One Erica Albright" is my favorite video essay, period. lola sebastian is also great (my favorite of hers that i've watched is "Anthony Bourdain: A Love Song") & also features+plugs other videssayists in her vidyas a lot as well
This is a fantastic idea! Thanks always for the incredible content Skyen
Taking the time out to say that while I know that plenty of people have watched Noah Caldwell-Gervais' impressively dedicated retrospective on the Resident Evil Franchise, pretty much all of his other stuff is amazing too! Not just the video essays where he analyses games but his travelogues showing not just the familiar places of America but its obscure natural corners, darker histories and the fundamental beauty and humanity to be found in such a deeply flawed and contradictory place.
For his video essays, my personal faves are 'Home, Home on the Console' (looking at the evolution of the Western genre in video games through the three Red Dead games and GUN) and 'Judicial Opinions: What Makes Disco Elysium a Modern Classic?' (exactly what it says on the tin with a hefty side offering of deep emotional vulnerability) and as cruel as it is to recommend an eight hour travelogue video, few things will ever top 'The Lincoln Highway: Across America on the First Motor Route' in terms of sheer historical density and the new perspectives it kept offering me over and over and over again.
if i may recommend a channel, i really love Patricia Taxxon's video essays! "The Autistic Horror of Don't Hug Me I'm Scared" is fantastic, as are her other works :)
Absolutely, what an amazing recommendation! Her name comes up way too rarely when it comes to outstanding essayists!
Oh man I need to watch these and I appreciate you listing smaller videos. We smaller essayists need this!
OMG AN ESSAY ON TEAR AWAY, I LOVED THAT GAME this made me so happy
Thanks for the list! It's better than my method of typing "video essay" and only finding ones I've seen or subjects I'm not into. I'm about to watch the last unicorn one
First of THANK YOU for linking all of those in the description for our convenience. Secondly, thank you for the recommendations.
Thanks for these recommendations and for linking their channels! Will definitely be listening to them
quite pleased i have already watched all these recommendations, so i will drop my own recommendation. Patricia Taxxon is a musician/video essayist and her video on marble blast series is a fantastic deep dive on a small game series with an amazingly personal song to end it. While her video on examining Don't Hug me im scared is hugely personal and always strikes a new nerve within me, and also media analysis not from a typical space of literalism
Michael Saba's video on Kill La Kill is hands down my favourite video essay ever, it so perfectly captures and explains the radical, overwhelming acceptance, not just of others, but of the self, that humanity will need to over come the greatest challenges it's ever known and revealed to me my own deepest political philosophy, that love is the only thing that will save us. It makes me cry every single time I watch it! 😭
Right as I needed more essays to watch. Thank you!
I love this video, both for the suggestions and the suggestion that were in the tik toks at the start. I haven't seen some of those
Gonna throw in a couple of recommendations of my own.
First up; Andrew Bluett's Final Fantasy retrospectives, thoroughly researched and very insightful. He's done the first five games so far, and it's a shame they don't have more views.
Second, someone else mentioned BREADSWORD and they were absolutely right to do so. My personal favorites of his work are his video on Disney's Robin Hood (bring tissues, and possibly a pitchfork for certain Hollywood directors) and his one on Treasure Planet. Good stuff all around.
they have some videos on the "super popular side" but Soup Emporium is one of my favorite video essayists, the only downside i can definitively say is that they dont have an entire catalog of videos to pour through, but the upside is that you can watch their entire collection in a lazy afternoon
That's kinda how I feel with eliquorice, exactly 3 videos and all 3 have over a million views.
Incredible short, I’m gonna go check a few of these out
A relatively obscure essayist I love is CJ the X, if anyone craves some mazing absurd humor with some really really deep analysis into media we love I highly recommend them. Their videos are long but feel like they fly by because of their amazing delivery
I can't thank you enough for this because I need to hear something while I draw and I love this kind of video essays
I will check all of these when I get off work!! ty for introducing these channels
I was expecting "even I watch them despite them being swedish and I'm danish" 😂 thank you Skyen! Will need to watch these, book marking this list!
Great recommendations. Love me some video essays on film so here are a couple channels that are small but have made me see the films they talk about in a different way:
- Antiheroine's essay on Secretary (2002)
- Final Girl Studio's essay on Helter Skelter (2012)
- Zuttoshow's essay on Pearl and X (2022)
- Hizzy Hay's essay on Succession (2018)
- Jenna Stoeber's essay on The Wicker Man (1973)
Thanks for the recommendations, I'll check them out!
I absolutely love Sophie already thank you for the recommendations
Pseudiom is my smaller video essay channel recommendation. They usually make great videos on topics I've barely even heard of or considered, from the Blue Oyster Cult, to some obscure anime OVA (they sold me on The Angel's Egg), to that one "S" thing every elementary school kid has drawn in their notebook or desk, to Antarctica. Good stuff.
Dunno if it counts as an underground one but MelonTeee is def a good watch. They have a whole mess of videos on one piece and its characters that I think can make the story that much more special. Their most recent video talks about Brook and how he ironically is linked more closely with life than with death. They are all very good watches and I definitely recommend checking them out if you haven't already
great recommendations! thank you!
I can highly recommend Alexander Avila's video "How Spotify manufactures gay culture" for an interesting on the different perspectives on how to organize queer communities and how it intersects with things like class.
Wow this was great! I enjoy video essays!! I’ve been looking for good new content!! Skyen best boi ❤
Thanks for all of these recommendations too
I was looking for something to listen and this came at a really good time, thanks, i'll be checking it out!
This is literally what I needed for a long weekend of travelling, ty
Thanks for content!
The swan princess sequel essay is amazing
these are awesome recommendations! I'm gonna go watch em all
Thanks I needed some more multi-hour long essays! /s My watch later list already has over 60 videos in it and I am still watching them. But seriously these essays do look interesting.
Oh my Gosh. Thank you so much. I've been trying to find new video essayists for months, but I have so much trouble finding anything new
now this is the recoomendations i need. More of people I love sharing other people they love.
I might watch these, thanks for the recommendation 😉👍
Glad you meanglad you mentioned Pim’s crypt their videos are super cool
I like Aperture he's philosophical videos and general chill vibe, also kurzgesagt i mean who wouldn't like birds? and permadeath scenarios? Horses has that simple video format and dead voice! Explaining about witchcraft and paganism, Funke is so stylish and animates his own avatar. Damn, Fleekazoid is downright insane and chaotic i like that.
thanks for the recommandation!
Hell yeah. Thanks for the reccomends!
Welp I have a new watch list, thanks for the recs Skyen!
I absolutely have not seen any of these, good work
Ohhh, thank you so much, Skyen!!
Thank you so much for the vid!!! My main source for video essays is recs by creators I like cause the algorithm and search engine is a mess😂 Here are my own recs of small channels:
- Oakwyrm (Has a main focus on disabled and/or queer media)
- Cheyenne Lin (Mostly media analysis with a focus on themes of coming of age stories, but she does explore multiple stuff)
- ladyknightthebrave (Probably one of the best essayists on the platform. All her videos are masterpieces but I especially love her video on Shakespeare, Andor and Pacific Rim) (She also regularly shoutouts newer channels with amazing essays!!)
- Jose Maria Luna: (criminally underrated, his video on ancient storytelling and ove the garden wall is a fav)
-Alex Avila: (His recent essays are in another level, someone mentioned the spotify vid and I agree, but I also have to shoutout his "I was a transgender kid" vid; That video is a whole experience, you just gotta watch it.)
-OSP (is not that small but still deserves all the love, red and blue are some of the best content creators❤)
Extremely good and promising list, thank you. These have all gone on my To-Watch list.
Thank you tb in have videos I must have downloaded for work
Definitely gonna watch the Heavy Eyed video at least, always love me some good Yakuza video essays. The Knives Out analysis too, though that ones gonna require some time being an hour and a half.long with both parts
Ty for the recommendation
There’s this channel I found recently called ‘Zarinthel’, they’ve made quite a few videos on anime, and more recently ffxiv which I loved, their video ‘what’s wrong with Stormblood’ broke down a lot of the problems in that expansion that I found to be very satisfying, especially as probably the only person on the planet who doesn’t really like ffxiv anymore lol
Don't know what the cutoff for unknown is, but the fact that Noah Caldwell Gervais isn't in the millions of views per video is maddening to me.
The man has a way of digging into the details of a work while connecting them over the entire franchise.
The only writer from this list that I recognize is Aranock and I loved her Matrix video essay and all the stuff she's done on Jessie Gender's channel. Can't wait to watch through each of these creators.
I tried to watch the Swan Princess sequels and literally quit 1 hour into all but the first one. I dont think I've ever outright quit watching a movie before unless it was a horror movie and I was scared. And yet I'm suddenly very curious about them. I'm going to have to watch that one, and probably all the others too.
It's a really good video and she clearly cares a lot about the topic she gets into. It's also a perspective that I don't think we get a lot of in the video essay niche so it was interesting to hear.
@@bishielurfer I've watched half of the recommendations in the past few hours, and going to do the other half later. They've all been great so far.
Some actual stuff I haven’t seen yet. Sweet!
Even though some of them i already watched, they are great recommendations!
oh huh, sophie from mars' name is green, is that the shinigami eyes extension?? if so, thats really cool
I recommend warching Summoning Salt if you want to watch history of different games' speedruns!
Big vouch for Sophie, her videos are so well done! For any recommendations, Caelyn Conrad (I think that's spelt right) has some really good essays and investigations into Facebook transphobic groups. Highest viewed video is around 200k views, but many good ones hover around 60k
He's pretty well known, but literally anything by Jacob Geller is a good watch. Art, video games, literature, performance, cinema, religion, politics, and more.
Dang now I have to subscribe to your patreon, you got me
I've recently stumbled upon Lextorias who makes both anime and game essays with deadpan humor, he dabbles in film as well. tangomushi is another person who talks about old horror games which I really love. someone already recommended izzyzz but i can't recommend her enough. she talks about obscure ps era games and defunct teen websites and has an obsession with garfield that can only be on par with her unique makeup looks.
I fellow Sophie from Mars enjoyer, I see. Her Monster Men series is also really interesting, especially the episode on Kaiju.
Other essayists worth looking into for politics are Renegade Cut, Caelan Conrad, Hoots, The Leftist Cooks.
And for media: StrucciMovies, Acolytes of Horror, A Praise In Shadows.
And for the vibes Atun-Shei Films.
Looks like my weekend is booked now.
Love to see people talking about Sophie from mars she is a real gem and I’ve been watching her stuff since she was curio almost all of her stuff is just amazing quality
Edit: a lot of her old pre transition videos have been taken down, which totally makes sense, but there were a lot of good videos from that era. Still 100% worth watching
Definitely had me at The Last Unicorn
You know what, I will increase their sub counts since I'm almost certain that I will enjoy their videos. Thanks for recommendation Skyen. I hope I didn't came out sarcastic here.