okay follow my logic here
i got super drunk last night to work on A GIVDCON and i ended up listening to and watching Grimes videos for most of it. at some point going from Kiezsa (someone you should watch) to Grimes I ended up on this video: World Princess II. Let’s start at the title.
World Princess II sounds like the name of a god damn Japanese Videogame circa the mid 90’s. this started me thinking: is Grimes one of the best Insert Credit Famous People that have never actually posted here? i poured over the video and the rest of her musical output to figure out if this could somehow be true.
the opening shot of that video is basically a shot from Persona 4 (or even 3 or a lot of games) with a dude announcing “oh my god this shot” being the only thing that ruins it.
at numerous points in that video (seriously: watch it but only after reading this) Grimes herself exhibits motions that could only be described with the words Canned Animation that perfectly match the kinds of things that a JRPG heroine/love interest does in overwrought shounen cutscenes .
at 2:09 there’s a tracking shot over some kind of desolate, almost noclip mode architecture with the rest of the video being played behind. and then you ntoice the uniform she’s wearing brings to mind british schools, or does it bring to mind Shin Megami Tensai…If?
3:59 is where she does a trot across a ruined bridge out of a late ps2 era JRPG that nobody really played. it is where she’s telling the protagonist that she loves being outside of the crumbling walls of the city and the player is starting to relate to her.
3:28 , another tracking shot that brings to mind the slow circle of the camera of a PS1 RPG or action game. Grimes does some kind of bumpy, springy trot towards a ruined fountain. cohort only feet away.
this video is almost too much to process. the heavy beat and the fantastic dress bring to mind only one thing (couples with grimes incredibly cute voice):
Suda 51
wearing dress straight out of a No More Heroes games, Grimes dominates the aural space of the song with her voice. occasionally breaking down into outright screaming. the constant use of a subway brings to mind the repetitive visual space used in No More Heroes wii-remote conversations between the protagonist and Syliva.
the constant hand-drawn interludes over the reality of the video and the fashion of the way the characters in it are dressed bring make me refer back to the grasshopper manufacturer idiom:
GRASSHOPPER MANUFACTURE: PUNK’S NOT DEAD
VIDEOGAME BAND
the usage of punk as aesthetic but the refusal of punk as a genre or a real way of living ones life. i have watched this video a thousand times. one time, it brings to mind this song (released wayyyy before this video)
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different musical genre but the same installation of silence beforehand; the difference is that it’s much longer in grimes video.
once i sent an ex girlfriend this as a joke but only now do i realize how serious it was:
you can pour over this as much as i do but they work incredibly well together, especially if you can get the heavy beats of Bad Girls theme to sync with the disjointed movements of the dancers (not sure if i did this time)
here’s even more Proof (?): a song introduction by David Hayter, chosen specifically for his role in the metal gear solid series
turns out she’s also a huge fan of the Metal Gear Solid series, has a bunch of twitter posts relating to MGSV
i think i’m onto something here!!
