'Neo Yokio'

Alright, let’s talk Neo Yokio: For those unfamiliar, it’s a Netflix original anime about a demon-slaying aristocrat, starring none other than Jaden Smith and produced by Vampire Weekend frontman, Ezra Koenig. Some people hate it, some people love it. I for one, belong to the latter group of people. Now I understand it’s not everyone’s cup of tea — the voice acting and animation style seem to be a big turn off for critics. But while it might not have been what viewers initially expected, I think this show takes some big risks in framing its not-so-subtle message. And if you take a closer look, (passed all the demons and robot butlers), Neo Yokio is a satirical, but somewhat plausible outlook on the near-future of our hyper-commodified culture.

Look no further than the world-building itself to see what I’m talking about here. First off, within the first thirty seconds of the show, there’s a shot of Battery Park completely submerged. Though slightly exaggerated, this is a real-life concern for a lot of waterfront property around the country, with sea levels continuing to rise at a rate of 1/8th in. per year (National Ocean Service). This first episode is even titled “The Sea Beneath 14th Street” — One of the recurring characters of this show actually lives down there. But we’ll talk about Helena more in a bit.

A few minutes later into the episode, we’re introduced to one of the main symbols of success in this society: The Bachelor Board. It’s a public ranking of Neo Yokio’s most eligible bachelors, displayed on a massive screen attached to the city’s tallest building. Basically, it’s the city’s elite flexing their wealth and influence. Now while parallels could certainly be drawn between the Bachelor Board and social media platforms like Instagram and Twitter, I think there’s a stranger real-life connection to this technology. There’s a pretty interesting NPR podcast all about it:

“China’s government is piloting something known as the social credit system. Like the credit scoring system we have in the U.S., China’s scores use financial information. But China’s system also considers information like what you buy and how you treat your neighbors. If you fail to pay your debts, you might find yourself on a sort of blacklist.” (NPR)

Apparently, one of the consequences of being on this blacklist, outside of being barred from luxuries like speed trains and airfare, is that you also have your face shown on giant electronic screens around the city you live in. Creepy right? But I think one could argue that the Bachelor Board is an example of a similar social credit system at work in Neo Yokio; only this one celebrates wealth instead of de-incentivizing debt and poverty.

One final note about the world-building; there seems to be this recurring theme of brand synergy and corporate style mergers between entities. Later on in the show, Archangelo, Kaaz’s nemesis-turned-homie, suggests a team up, arguing that both he and Kaaz could expand their influence by doing so. In the final two episodes, Kaaz goes up against his ex’s new boyfriend and fellow racecar driver, who seems to be representing the conglomerate of Italy and Japan. But that’s not all, we also see corporate entities teaming up with social influencers: i.e. pop star and undercover demon, Sailor Pellegrino. I think this is interesting, considering how often we see corporations do this in real life: Amazon took over Whole Foods, big brands lean on influencers for ham-fisted advertising, and let’s not forget, Disney owns damn near everything. Moral of the story is, the best defense against a scarce market is a wider reach. In this aspect, I think Neo Yokio operates more like a business than a city. I have to admit, this sentiment feels extremely timely.

Class and social status seem to be at the center of all conflict in this show. The more we get to know the world and its characters, the clearer the social hierarchy becomes. We soon come to understand that battles we see on screen are not ones of good versus evil, but rather struggles centered around class warfare. InNeo Yokio — there’s a drastic division between the haves and have-nots, evidenced by a shrinking middle class. We even see a certain type of classism represented between the old money and the newly rich or neo riche. This element always reminds me of The Great Gatsby and the West Egg/East Egg debate. So you have the old money, the neo riche, and a disappearing middle class. But that’s not it: what’s really striking about this show is the manner in which its marginalized communities are represented. It’s only for a brief moment in the last episode of season one, but during the Grand Prix, we get a glimpse of what life is like outside of the city. It’s not pretty. The impoverished are crammed into an over-populated (and we can assume unpoliced) housing development referred to as the Walled City. To be honest, I didn’t expect such a stark juxtaposition when watching this show. It’s a wonderfully self-deprecating moment, and it really puts all of Kaaz’s problems into perspective. I love his line here: “I’m starting to think Neo Yokio’s not the greatest city in the world” — something we as the audience have been quite aware of for some time. What I wasn’t aware of though, is that there was a real walled city in Kowloon, Hong Kong for over 40 years.

“From the 1950s until 1994, over 33,000 people lived and worked in Kowloon Walled City, a massive complex of 300 interconnected buildings that took up a city block.” (Business Insider)

But Kowloon didn’t exist in a vacuum. We see this sort of slumlord mentality all across America today, only on a smaller scale. Especially in industrious cities like New York, public zoning policies displace communities of color and prevent the poor and working classes from moving into certain neighborhoods. If the wealth gap in this country continues to grow, the issue of housing density is only going to get more extreme. That being said, it stuck out to me that a show that started with such a light-hearted and whimsical tone uses its final moments to show us how naive and close-minded the protagonist has been.

This is where Helena comes in, as she provides the PERFECT foil for Kaaz’s dimwitted bachelor. Fashion-blogger turned Marxist radical — Helena rejects the materialistic standards of the society she lives in. After being possessed by a demon, then getting exorcised by Kaaz, Helena soon wakes up to the atrocities being committed around her. Spoiler alert if you haven’t seen the show: but Helena actually destroys the bachelor board, hoping to free citizens from the all-consuming ideology it represents.

Now, if a fashion blogger blowing stuff up seems far-fetched to you, consider that a lot of evidence shows a majority of terrorists often come from middle-class and college educated backgrounds. So one could argue then that demons, instead of just being a group of bad guys with ill-defined motivations, actually represent the final economic class in Neo Yokio. Their presence in this story reveals a disenfranchised sect of society that has turned to violence and radical ideologies. Helena is radicalized after being possessed, and soon becomes a champion of the lower classes. This transition is solidified by her ultimately turning her back on fashion and donning something entirely utilitarian: mecha-servant armor.

At this point, it should come as no surprise that most of the characters in this show are concerned with little more than material objects and entrepreneurial pursuits. What more can you expect from a city whose cultural ambassador is a pop star? They rock nothing but big name brands, launch startup after startup, and gift each other with giant Toblerones. No question about it, these people love excess, and often to a fault. Multiple times throughout the first season, otherwise valuable items become vessels for demons and dark magic: Helena’s first possessed by a demon in a Chanel suit, and Kaaz’s friends are cursed by jumping into an infinity pool. Not to mention the tie-in of real-life artist Damien Hirst’s For the Love of God, which becomes the target of a demon attack at the Met Gala. The writers of this show actually seem to have a lot of fun with these references to the real world, namely the Domino’s/Rolex collaboration seen in the Christmas Special, Pink Christmas, which I totally thought was made up before looking into it. But beyond offering the audience some tongue-in-cheek humor, I think these references serve to clue us into the fact that we’re actually laughing at ourselves here. What we see is not totally fantasy; on the contrary, some of the wackiest moments in this show are inspired by our own world.

Speaking of which, I definitely think that all of the elements I mentioned are best exemplified in Pink Christmas. While a lot of fans were expecting a season two, what we got was a holiday special that condensed the themes and conflict of the first season into something that was surprisingly more poignant. For those of you who know anything about TV, it’s kinda rare that a one-off Christmas episode could achieve something like that. Now in the end, yes, Ezra and Jaden are Kaaz Kan’s in their own right, so we should take their quasi-Marxist critiques of the system with a grain of salt. But I do think Neo Yokio is a step in the right direction for a type of entertainment I would like to see more of.