As is the standard. Look, I would make a youtube playlist for these things, but that's too easy. I like a good challenge and I want to add more friction to this process. I don't want o simply add any video essya I happen to have a passing interest in. I want to list the S-Tier, "good shit in my book". In this collection, you'll find my favorite video essays that compel mein one capacity or another. I'll elaborate accordingly. This list will never be comprehensive, nor will it have the best stuff. It's my favorites, remember?
"Video essay" is used liberally here. In reality, I'm including "essays", "documentaries", and other Youtube videos that are otherwise inteded as
As a weirdo on the internet, I happen to know a thing or two about what it means to live a double life. I can recall that in my early days of my undergraduate education, I was so excited to reinvent myself to new people. I was excited to present to be someone I wasn't. I was excited to hide my "power level". In doing so, I found that my "power level" started to fall, though this is only something I realized with the power of externally motivated hindsight. While I was able to break down the brick wall of "Masking" before watching this video, I find that this video presented a parallel experience to my own. Lilian presents a story that aligns much with my own personal sentiments. This video is perfect for people who need to hear the words "it is okay to be yourself" in a way that isn't from an "industry plant" (you know what I mean). I like Lilian's videos a bunch, but this is easily my favorite.
Low hanging fruit. Just a really excellent video through and through. It's a video that makes me want to write better. It's a video that makes me want to learn Japanese. It's a video that makes me recognize that researching the context in which a piece of media is made is just as interesting as the media itself. It's a piece that shows how these two factors, when studied in tandem, can elevate our understanding of the media to a compelling study of human nature.