It’s been five days since Neo Yokio, the new anime from Vampire Weekend frontman Ezra Koenig, premiered on Netflix, and the show has been dragged by some reviewers — which is crazy, because it’s delightful.
Neo Yokio is set in an alternate future where a fictional metropolis that resembles New York City is under constant threat from demons who target the rich. The subway has been replaced by a system of aerial and submarine gondolas, most of downtown is underwater, Chanel is a nation-state, and Damien Hirst’s “For the Love of God” diamond-covered skull is considered the greatest piece of art in the Met.
For all of the show’s more fantastical flourishes, Neo Yokio feels relevant to the real world. The show has a cast of rising masters of the cultural universe, including Jaden Smith and Tavi Gevinson, who essentially play themselves as fashion-obsessed young socialites Kaz Kaan and Helena St. Tessero. The social commentary is smart but not heavy-handed; when the show sends up its targets, it does so gently. (“Almost everything in Neo Yokio is a loving tribute. Outside of maybe free-market capitalism, we’re not trying to drag anything,” Koenig told Pitchfork.) The jokes range from sight gags (Kaz’s go-to diplomatic move is to bring an oversize bar of Toblerone to whoever he’s trying to cheer up or apologize to) to absurdism (Kaz’s friends start a drink/bar/lifestyle brand around a cocktail called the Caprese) to cerebral (Kaz’s mecha-butler, who he and the viewer assume is just a robot, turns out to be piloted by a mechanical turk).
Jaden Smith in particular is uncanny as the moody prince type who likes to visit his own grave and falls into crisis when he realizes his tuxedo is midnight blue instead of black. The show’s other characters are equally compelling. His domineering Aunt Agatha, voiced by Susan Sarandon, is a no-nonsense class warrior. His nemesis, the blond, long-haired Arcangelo smarmily voiced by Jason Schwartzman, is the old riche to Kaz’s new riche in the show’s ongoing narrative of class struggle. Kaz’s best friends Lexy and Gottlieb are voiced by comedians The Kid Mero and Desus Nice, respectively, whose late night show on Viceland is the best thing the network has produced. (The pair’s New York schtick is at moments confounding, like Gottlieb’s over-reliance on the New York verbal tick, “B,” but enjoyable nonetheless.) They land some subtle commentary ahead of the Black & White Ball when they opt to wear gaudy “tuxedo masks,” both a comment on class division and one of the show’s multiple references to the anime Sailor Moon. “West Side gentlemen need a little flash,” Lexy argues, “Yeah, we earned the right to stunt,” Gottlieb adds. Smaller characters, like the cynical music teacher from Kaz’s high school and the band of rebellious “Helenists” who refuse to wear their school uniforms out of worship for Gevinson’s fashion blogger character, fit perfectly in the unique universe of the show.
We talked about Neo Yokio on our daily podcast, The Outline World Dispatch. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen.
In that universe Kaz is a “magistocrat,” descendant of exorcists from the “old world” who were enlisted by the city in the 18th century to purge Neo Yokio of demons in exchange for citizenship. Many magistocrats managed to turn their skills into business, pushing their way into high society. Kaz’s character reveres the trappings of his social status to a fault, and it serves as a cover for his own insecurity. He recoils at the phrase “Rat Catcher,” a pejorative for exorcists, and spends most of the series obsessing over fabrics and defending his ranking on the “bachelor board,” a public list of the city’s most eligible single guys. Everything in Neo Yokio is a joy to look at, thanks to storyboarding from the legendary anime director Kazuhiro Furuhashi as well as animation from the the well-regarded Japanese studios Production IG and Studio Deen.
In the casting of Smith, Neo Yokio succeeds at making art that imitates life. Smith's Title Case Tweets, in which he presents himself as both detached from the world, “Seeing Me Trying To Act Normal In Public Is So Funny,” and deeply interested in it, “I'm Designing Hotels," perfectly suit the tempestuous Kaz Kaan, who relishes in existential conversations with his robotic butler Charles, voiced by Jude Law. “Just as this calm pool of water sits at the center of a chaotic metropolis, you too have an inner reservoir of peace and tranquility," Charles assures Kaz as he laments his changing opinions on Neo Yokio. He responds with what could very well be a Jaden Smith tweet: “More vibes, please.”
Helena St. Tessero, the fashion blogger who Kaz exorcises in the first episode, emerges at the end of the season as the show’s true central character. After the exorcism awakens her to the moral failings of late capitalism, St. Tessero becomes the biggest opponent of the excesses of Neo Yokio, abandoning fashion and embracing the violence that lurks beneath the surface of the city. In an act of defiance, she bombs the bachelor board that dictates the lives of many of Neo Yokio's elites, ushering a brief detente between East Side old money and West Side neo riche. In the season finale, as he attempts to help Helena escape the city during the Grand Prix, an opulent and death-defying annual race, Kaz’s facade of a perfect city is fractured. He encounters heavy policing that makes traveling simple distances impossible, he’s followed by a mysterious governmental figure called The Rememberencer, and he races into the slums of Neo Yokio, where he’s pelted with rocks, the first time the show reveals how the other side of the city lives. By the end of the series’ two hour run, it’s hard not to think maybe the demons have a point.
The show seems to have divided critics. Its Rotten Tomatoes rating is based on just seven reviews; only one critic, Mike Hale of the New York Times, liked it, leaving it with a 14 percent. Complex called it “perfectly absurd” while The Mary Sue found it transphobic. Clio Chang at The New Republic, one of the few to take a middle ground, wrote that it “feels like an introduction to what could be a really groundbreaking show.”
Neo Yokio is unlike anything else on television, streaming or otherwise, and at the very least succeeds at creating a rich universe full of diverse and interesting characters. It’s a well executed comedy that deserves a second season — and a lot less hate.
