Neo Yokio | Not the Toblerone we deserve but the Toblerone we need

 Neo Yokio… there’s two ways you can react to this show, 1. you’re a basic b who thinks this whole show is a mess and curse it with every breath you take or 2. you live in an entirely different plane of existence where everything can and will be considered comedic + absurdist and this show is a cakewalk for you to understand and enjoy.

I obviously fall into the second category, as much as I could get off on criticizing Neo Yokio as a product of nepotism and poor writing and well rich people fucking with us, I can’t bring myself to do that, Neo Yokio is one of my favorite pieces of animated media plus, I honest to god enjoyed how annoying Kaz was and I also have a thing for Helena being a total emo chic terrorist and I like quirky Russian characters who very questionably indulge in capitalism so here I am… I decided instead of adding to the pile of almost well said nonsense about this show being bad, I want to shine light on how this show is an absurdist commentary.

A woman of taste will always recognize overarching themes

Neo Yokio is one of those shows where you have no idea what the hell is going on but you’re sort of glad to be in the mess it is. I think it’s fine that this show makes absolutely no sense and the plot lines are literally just rich people doing weird stuff and getting into rich people messes because of how rich and unbothered they are. 

The show in many ways acts as a meta commentary to Jaden Smith [Kaz Kaan] and his actual life, the show literally just looks like a parody of his twitter account.

That’s partly why it’s genius, because the show itself doesn’t take itself seriously, it’s a very taxing meme that Ezra Koenig probably came up with after waking up with a hangover as he was about to take Advil, it’s us the audience who take it seriously and try to compare to actual animes, that’s why it works even more.

Neo Yokio is just drawing attention to the absurdism of living an extremely lavish life through the eyes of a person who lives an extremely lavish life. We the audience sort of prove it’s point by trying so hard to understand it. The show is meant to be experienced, it’s very truly looking and the high society of Neo Yokio and saying really, this is the kind of stuff they’re bothered about? That’s hilarious.

Kaz in his ever loving glory is at the epicenter of this meta commentary/humor, I mean come on, the show opens with him sulking about his girlfriend moving to san fransico and then immediately proceeding to buy stuff with his mecha butler to get over it. His problems are literally, my aunt is making me work for my living and it’s getting in the way of my social life, my arche-nemisis keeps taking over me on the Bachelor board [how is that even a thing lol] and he solves way too many of his problems with the help of a trusty huge Toblerone. 

Speaking of Toblerone, let’s try and unpack some of the layers of absurdism in this show.

Life, Toblerones and Absurdism

Neo Yokio in the most absurdist fashion [yes that is a reference to the show] touches upon some pretty existential themes, for example the meaninglessness of consumerism, the repetitive and unholy nature of capitalism and how there’s no out from it, the failings of high society, the toxicity of idol and fan culture etc.

Like I’ve mentioned before Neo Yokio is about rich people, the adventures of high society members, we get different flavors of how different people of high society use and view their status, and through all of this, one thing is evident, eventually their lives can be boiled down to the same few things, parties, shopping and keeping up with trends, being better than other members of the high society [i.e the bachelor board], sports or other events and more parties. 

Throughout all of this there’s one character that really stands out and outright challenges this lifestyle, Helena. She’s the living embodiment of someone so sick of their life, that they go out of their way to make sure everyone knows about it. Helena on multiple occasions goes head to head with the general infrastructure of Neo Yokio, may it be in person or in spirit. She blows up the bachelor board, the Helenists are so obsessed with her that they try to get possessed by demons just because she did. She brings to light how Kaz’s lifestyle isn’t viable and is nothing more than foolish delusions and vanity. In many senses she’s Kaz’s direct opposite.

This is where the Toblerone comes in, in so so so many situations people bring up this huge Toblerone bar that at this point most of us aren’t sure if it’s product placement or just symbolism, honestly I don’t care because it’s pretty good symbolism.

The Toblerone is a physical manifestation of how vain and consumerist dictated a capitalist lifestyle is, it is also just a Toblerone. Kaz tries to solve way too many of his problems with the Toblerone [using it as gifts to try and fix relationships, eating it to get over his emotions, carrying it around way too much], Helena is able to save Kaz from the Helenists because of a dream with a Toblerone where Kaz is the Toblerone and the fact that she uses an actual Toblerone bar to stop the Helenists. All-in-all it’s a symbolistic stand-in for the lavish lifestyle and how people try to use money to try and solve any and every problem, also it’s just a Toblerone, just some fun swiss chocolate.

Aunt Agatha is the perfect example for this, the lady is way too obsessed with money and has absolutely no regard for Kaz or his feelings or anyone else really. Then there’s Mila, she is literally a soviet defect. There’s not much else there but yes they really brought in a whole character just to prove that consumerist capitalism wins the hearts of humans and people really like their Ralph Lauren pastries, that and she adds to Kaz’s character development, but theme wise its to say that people like cars and clothes. 

Now that I’ve said all of this you might be thinking, what’s the absurdism here? [Ignoring the fact that the Helenists are a thing and most of the episodes just feel like a fever dream in a fever dream] It just seems like social commentary. What’s the point?

The point is the presentation, the way we realize what the show is actually doing. Everything is shown to us in such an unhinged manner that you sort of just accept it. Kaz’s cousin can do water magic and has turned people into butterflies, a raccoon, a panda and a woman respectively. Archangelo just making friends with Kaz the moment the bachelor board is destroyed so he can have a fun partying buddy. Charles as a character is the most interesting + weird concept ever, I just ate up the fact that he’s piloted by a random lady named Sadie who pilots him using brainwaves. I could just keep going and going and going about how weird this show is. Before we proceed I have to bring up Sailor, like her as a character is literal perfection, I love the idea that this city goes nuts over the most random things but they don’t do any research before bringing in a new ambassador, it’s partially hard to believe the lady is actually from a place called North Crackalaca but y’know what I will trust her even if she is just a demon spirit who steals a diamond encrusted skull.

Caprese Boy forever

The reason this show works is because it feels like a fever dream where you have a random epiphany about the universe. There’s just so many elements in your life that can be on a very weird scale compared to the absurdness of the Neo Yokio world. It’s set up that way, it’s just supposed to be a fun show where you realize we as a race are probably doomed but it’s okay because we have Caprese Martinis.

As much as people realize these things what can we do about it? Helena in the end did almost nothing to actually change things, she just blew up a national asset and became a terror suspect. Kaz despite being so close to figuring things out doesn’t actually do anything much to change and just went back to partying.

In the end all the layers were in itself humor. It’s absolutely hilarious when you think about how they set everything up and then realized they can’t solve capitalism and just rolled with it.

We got some really fun stuff out of it so who’s complaining?

By the end of it all only one thing is clear, capitalist or not, consumerist or not, life’s really weird. Especially when you have money, it’s just weird.

All Kaz really gets out of it is some nice suits and a chance to dress up as a soviet F1 driver and race against world class drivers and that’s enough stuff to think about for like a couple years.

Epilogue

Okayy, this blog might not entirely make sense but I’ve written it like that, sometimes you just get bits of swiss chocolate and you have to just eat it and get on with your life. Don’t go full hikkikomori. 

This was Lux everyone, thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed it. Until next time.

Stay Sunny.