‘Neo Yokio’ Is The Most Insane Show on Netflix

When I first read about Neo Yokio, I knew we were all in for a crazy treat. Netflix’s latest anime was created by Ezra Koenig, known as the lead vocalist and guitarist for Vampire Weekend, and comes with Jaden Smith as its lead character. It’s also a series that combines critiques of capitalism, demon fighting, and bachelor rankings against a bougie New York-parody backdrop. There’s always a lot going on in Neo Yokio, and I love it.

The series follows Kaz (Jaden Smith), pink-haired member of high society who also happens to hail from a long line of demon slayers. In theory, Kaz is supposed to protect the city of Neo Yokio from sneaky, evil demons, but he’s much more concerned with wallowing in his own misery, picking out elaborate suits for his next gala, and panicking about whether or not he’s the most eligible bachelor in the city. To normal people, there is very little realism in Neo Yokio, and it has little to do with the show’s love of robot butlers and underwater cities. However, this show isn’t about average, working class people. It’s a series fully obsessed with the wealthy class, and in that regard, it skewers the concerning non-problems of the very rich fairly well.

It’s unclear what Neo Yokio is actually supposed to be. Traditional (read: absurd) elements of anime are often used, from epic lightning battles to surprise gender swaps. However, with the exception of the show’s constant push for diversity, anime as a whole is rarely mocked by the series. Likewise, though capitalism and materialism are themes throughout Neo Yokio, the show loves its wealth far too much for any criticisms to be taken too seriously. For me, Neo Yokio only works as a never-ending outpouring of pretentious-sounding nonsense, which is indisputably my favorite kind of nonsense.

I love it when people say very dumb, very confusing things in an intellectually superior tone. It’s a big reason why GuyInYourMFA is one of my all-time favorite Twitter accounts. There’s just something deeply cathartic about seemingly smart people being stupid with no self-awareness. It reminds me that no one really knows what they’re doing. We’re all making everything up, and we’re all failing. And no one fails at being a relatable human more than Kaz, a character so self-involved and spoiled, one of his main traumas in life is buying a midnight blue tuxedos instead of a black one. He’s terrible, and every line of dialogue out of his mouth reads like a Jaden Smith tweet.

Quick quiz: Which of these is a Smith tweet and which is a serious line of dialogue from a demon-fighting anime set in a New York / Tokyo hybrid?

“Who Cares What Time It Is When The Future Is An Interminable Abyss Of Wackness?”

“I Only Skate When I Have Emotional Trauma”

Hard to tell, right? That’s the chaotic beauty of Neo Yokio. It’s all sad, intellectual-sounding whining about non-relatable problems, and then the next minute The Kid Mero’s character can say “Yo, we gotta teach these old-money f*ckboys a lesson” with a cup of tea in hand. It bounces from faux high-brow musings to curse-filled lows without skipping a beat and without acknowledging its tonal discrepancy. (For the record, the first quote was from Neo Yokio and the second is a Jaden Smith tweet.)

Whatever joy I felt from Neo Yokio can be largely accredited to its impressive cast. Some reviewers claimed that the allure of the show’s high-level talent quickly wore off. Nope, not the case for me. In one scene, a robot butler version of Jude Law reads to Jaden Smith’s Kaz in bed. Susan Sarandon’s Aunt Agatha steals the series in every scene she’s in, delivering a fiery performance and proving between this and her marvelous appearance on Rick and Morty, that the actress can be just as incredible behind a cartoon as she is on screen. Every scene that Desus Nice’s Gottlieb and The Kid Mero’s Lexy were in felt like watching a weirder-than-normal clip from Desus & Mero. Jason Schwartzman plays another spoiled prep school kid, reminding me of my undying love for Rushmore. At one point Richard Ayoade literally yells “I love sports.” It’s delightful.

Based on online reactions, I’m certainly in the minority for liking Neo Yokio. The show has been criticized both by critics and anime fans for its voice-acting, non-expressive animation, odd dialogue, unrelatable protagonist, and pointless plot. I don’t care. For me, it’s like the anime version of a Real Housewives and Gossip Girl hybrid. There are no actual stakes, and there is never character growth. It’s a show entirely comprised of the petty digs everyone would make about Dan Humphries living in — ugh — Brooklyn. I love how ridiculously important these small details are and how petty this worlds can be.

There’s no clear meaning or substance in Neo Yokio, there are some clear problems with the series, and Kaz is consistently one of the most frustrating characters ever imagined. I honestly don’t care. Sometimes it’s nice to watch the TV version of cotton candy, and I love watching rich people complain about being rich. This certainly alludes to something dark, selfish, and cruel about me, but on the other hand this show has a Taylor Swift parody that’s actually a diamond-covered skull demon. Why? Why not, Neo Yokio asks back.

So if it’s not entirely for anime fans and if it’s certainly too weird for mainstream audiences, who is Neo Yokio for? My best guess is it’s for Ezra Koenig. There are really only three jokes in the whole series, but they’re my favorite three jokes, so I’m not complaining. Do I unironically like Neo Yokio? I honestly can’t say. I laughed and smiled a lot, but I could never tell if I was laughing with the series or at it. However, I will say this. In the midst of the never-ending bleakness that is 2017, Neo Yokio, aka Jaden Smith Tweets But As An Anime, brought me some genuine happiness. It feels selfish to ask for much more than that.

Stream Neo Yokio on Netflix