♪ (dramatic chord) ♪

♪ (dramatic chord) ♪

♪ (dramatic chord) ♪

- Oh, Japanese shit. Yes.

- We got some kind of anime?

- It's another anime thing that's gonna blow my mind.

- This is gonna get weird. I already know it.

- Aw, she's lonely.

- I'm already invested.

- Her DMs are not poppin'.

♪ (calm electronic music) ♪

- This is becoming a music video.

- Wait, is this the music video to "Shelter,"

or is this fan-made? 'Cause I love the song.

♪ (beats pick up) ♪ - Ooh, this looks fun.

- Animation's dope.

- This is dope.

- She's doing some Photoshop on her tablet.

And it's... it's turning into Minecraft.

- She's, uh, creating her own world.

- So she's creating a world around her.

- ♪ ...trust in me ♪

♪ I'll give them shelter, like you've done for me ♪

♪ And I know... ♪ - Wow, this is gorgeous.

- ♪ ...alone ♪ - This is so pretty!

- ♪ Until you're gone ♪ - Hmm.

♪ (electronic chorus resumes) ♪

- She's having flashbacks. I'm concerned.

- This is so cute but sad.

- Very upbeat song but kinda sad.

- ♪ It's a long way forward ♪

- You can't have technology in the bathtub like that.

It's dangerous.

- With her art, she is able to escape to these incredible worlds

where marshmallows are impaled on trees.

- ♪ You'll be watching over us ♪

♪ Until you're gone ♪ - Is she dead or something?

Like, what's going on?

- Mm, still no messages.

- Someone text her. Please.

♪ (music swells again) ♪

- ♪ (vocalizing along) ♪

- Oh, now it's creepy. That's her dad?

- Her dad's kinda hot.

- Is she flashing back to her younger self?

- "Current conditions in Tokyo"?

- She's dead, isn't she?

No, she's not dead.

- Aw.

- Aw.

- ♪ Oh, it's a long way forward ♪ - Her dad's dead.

- ♪ Trust in me ♪

♪ I'll give them shelter, like you've done for me ♪

♪ And I know... ♪ - Are we about to get apocalyptic?

- ♪ You'll be watching over us ♪ - Yep.

- ♪ Until... ♪ - He's gonna send her off so she can live.

- So the apocalypse happened, but her dad cared about her

and provided her with shelter.

♪ (music calms, somber tone) ♪ - This is sad.

Could somebody hug her? No.

Oh wait, she has a message now?

- (gasps) A message.

- Oh, she has a message.

- Who sent her the message?

'Cause he was like, Earth was destroyed.

- Aw.

- Don't lose hope, boo. I'll DM you.

- Her tablet memories make her stronger. She doesn't feel alone.

- Outer space. Alternate reality?

- Who the [bleep] is this?

- Wait. Wait, what?

- She's still in space.

- So she's on the spaceship, just thinking about all that stuff.

- Wait, was it all a simulation? Is it all a lie?

- I'm confused. I'm not 100% sure what happened.

But there's some sort of father-daughter relationship

that is in digital turmoil.

There's lots of questions.

♪ (dramatic chord) ♪

- (FBE) What are your overall thoughts about the video?

- Gorgeous and beautiful and just what I needed. Thank you.

- It's a nice song, dope visuals.

- Dope video. Dope song.

- I thought it was cool. I would've thought it was even cooler

if I knew what was going on.

- It was cool. It was thought-provoking.

- I got to just say,

like I always say when I see these anime videos,

just not my thing, man.

I mean, I only watch them when I'm reacting to them on this show.

- It's really interesting.

It's one of those things where you understand it--

or at least I understood it enough

that I kept paying attention to try and figure it out completely.

There's this weird beauty to it, but it is so confusing.

- (FBE) So this was a music video for a song

by the American and French DJs Porter Robinson and Madeon.

It got over 6 million views in less than a month.

- Wow.

- (FBE) Much of the popularity

comes from a lot of people sharing it

and talking about the meaning behind the story here.

So can you describe what you think the story is?

- Well, it looks like there was some apocalyptic collision

between Earth and some other celestial body.

And a dad took it into his own hands

to build some sort of spaceship-type deal

to put his daughter on, a.k.a. the shelter.

- He designed the shuttle that took him to the planet,

and he left her.

- A dad seeing that the end of the world is happening.

And so to protect his daughter, he uploads all of her memories

and files and life and stuff into some sort of apparatus device

and then puts her body in a spaceship.

- Now she's got this weird digital existence,

but she has memories of being with him in the real world.

- And we see this whole movement,

this whole moment that we think is her remembering it.

But then at the end, we kinda get that little twist,

where it's like, "Oh, maybe she's just in stasis

in the middle of nowhere,

and this is her mind thinking what's happening."

But it's not. It's not real. She's just all alone.

- (FBE) So, many people have said they believe the girl

starts remembering events that occurred in a time

before being in the simulation,

when the world was about to be destroyed.

And her father built a pod to send her into space,

where she could live in the simulated world.

- Yeah. Oh, okay. So she has this world all to herself.

- (FBE) Her memories of her and her father make her lonely.

But then in the end, these memories give her strength

to move forward. - That's beautiful.

- (FBE) What do you think this video is trying to say?

- I mean, I think the overarching message,

no matter what happened,

people die or people leave. And you can have these memories.

And they can either really make you sad,

or you can use them for strength.

- Life is super unpredictable.

You never know when tragedy might strike

or something bad might happen.

But that doesn't mean you shouldn't

be hopeful towards the future.

- You might have some tough times, and memories might hit hard.

But it's good to reflect but maybe not dwell,

and it'll give you the strength to carry on.

- You can feel so connected digitally and online

but still wildly feel alone at the same time.

It's kind of the weird beauty of the internet.

- It's a story. I'm not sure--

I'm not too hung up on trying to find out

what stories mean exactly

as much as if they're told in an interesting, compelling way.

And that one obviously did, and it did bring a lot of people

to converse about it and talk about it.

- (FBE) So according to the video's description,

"Shelter" tells the story of Rin, a 17-year-old girl

who lives her life inside of a futuristic simulation

completely by herself in infinite, beautiful loneliness.

Each day, Rin awakens in virtual reality

and uses a tablet which controls the simulation

to create a new, different, beautiful world for herself;

until one day, everything changes,

and Rin comes to learn the true origins

behind her life in a simulation. - Oh, I see.

- (FBE) The rest of the plot is left

for everyone to figure out on their own.

So what do you think about this

being such a mysterious and open-ended plot?

- I think it's cool, 'cause it gives you--

you know, it lets you interpret it how you want it to afterwards.

- I like that it's not the regular-degular, cookie-cutter,

"All right, let's just throw something random out there

for the sake of it being random."

I like that it has deep-rooted meanings

and little sprinkles and stuff like that in here.

- It's open to interpretation,

which I think is one of the wonderful things about,

if we're gonna get heady about it, about art.

It depends on what you're feeling at the moment.

So this could be optimistic for someone,

or it could be very lonely and sad for someone else.

It's all whatever their current mood is,

which I think is wonderful,

'cause you internalize it, and you make it your own.

- That's where art is so awesome,

is that it creates conversations.

So you can have infinite, as many virtual realities as she has.

You can have ideas about

what could happen in that virtual reality for her.

I hope she finds happiness.

- (FBE) So finally, this project comes as a collaboration

between an American and a French music artist

teaming up with a Japanese animation studio...

- (impressed) Really?

- (FBE) ...which is something that's pretty rare.

- I was gonna say, yeah, that's interesting.

This is very, very a melting pot.

- (FBE) Do you think there should be more projects like this,

mixing styles and cultures in this way? - Yeah.

That was absolutely amazing.

- I do think this should be done more often.

- It brings unique pieces of their own cultures to the table.

- This is just like a step into making

all of our cultures collide in a good way.

- This is something that YouTube has helped create, I think,

is a global audience.

To be like, "No, let's actually collaborate

across cultures and across countries purposefully..."

- Is super cool. - Yeah.

- That's the best thing about the internet,

is that the global reach and the ability to collaborate

on so many different levels,

you can't do that anywhere else but on the internet.

- That's what it's all about, you know,

collaboration, art.

Bringing different contrasting things together

and making something beautiful.

- The only way I think to grow as a creator

is to experiment and try different things and to learn new things

and see how they work with whatever creative process you have.

So I think that's really important,

'cause you're just gonna live within your own simulated world

if you can't experience someone else's.

(clang!) - (FBE) Truth!

- Thanks for watching another episode of YouTubers React.

- Subscribe to everyone below, or not.

If this is a simulation, it doesn't really matter either way.

- Well, I'm gonna go float alone in space

for the rest of my life. So goodbye.

♪ (end music) ♪