It’s so cool when a classic American cartoon incorporates Japanese artistry in innovative ways:

Adventure Time invited Fukuoka native, Masaaki Yuasa, to write, storyboard, and direct the episode “Food Chain,” and he really did his thing with it. I didn’t know that Yuasa was the guy behind this episode when I chose to review it. I chose this episode, mostly, because I take great comfort in the concept of the food chain, and I remember loving the way it’s portrayed here. But, writing this up, I realized I’ve seen some of Yuasa’s stuff—The Night is Short Walk on Girl and Inu-oh—both of which I liked a lot. But they only really last in my memory as chaotic, freakish, psychedelic messes of exaggerated faces and way-too-long limbs. It’s kind of like how I remember the cartoons on MTV’s Liquid Television. What I really like about Yuasa’s style is that, while the specifics blur out of focus in my mind’s eye, the feeling remains.

One of the feelings that sticks from Yuasa’s work is a feeling of constant movement. The “camera” (is that what it’s called in a cartoon?) zooms around so much. Here it is in The Night is Short Walk on Girl: 

 And here it is in “Food Chain”:

So, ok, here’s what happens in the episode. Finn and Jake are on a field trip with some little candy kids at the Museum of Natural History, and Finn admits he doesn’t know why he’d want to know about this whole “food chain” biz. Enter Magic Man, who, rather than telling Finn why he should care, shows him why he should care—in that very on-brand way that, of course, involves a good amount of fear:

suffering:

joy:

death:

and rebirth:

Not necessarily in that order. 

Finn and Jake experience the food chain from the perspective of birds, caterpillars, bacteria, and flowers. They consume and they are consumed. Finn, interestingly, is married to his second wife, Erin the caterpillar, in his second alternate Finn-life. And, as any good bit of education should do, this lesson transforms Finn:

The metaphor of a chain is a powerful one because, as it relates to time, it connects the past and present in a continuum. One version of this chain that has had a huge impact on me has to do with language and communication. Mikhail Bakhtin (who I’ve brought up several times in these reviews), theorized a “dialogic chain” of communication where every meaningful utterance a person makes is a link in an extensive chain of meaning-making that draws from the near and distant past of human communication, and feeds into the near and distant future by anticipating responses (that will also become links in the chain of meaning). This chain forms an almost metaphysical, infinite dialogue that puts all of humanity in conversation with all of humanity. I love that shit.

So, similarly, I love the food chain because it evokes the idea of a cosmic web of connection between living creatures that spans time scales and organismic scales. Thinking about it gives me this kind of feeling:

And I guess that’s why Masaaki Yuasa is the perfect artist for this kind of episode. He makes it so you really feel the food chain.

And that feeling of having your eyes opened and mind blown by a new idea makes you feel like a child in the world again. Which is another great thing about this episode: “Food Chain” isn’t just about the food chain; it’s about learning about the food chain. It’s about how simultaneously humbling and empowering learning can be when it really happens. This is a feeling I remember getting a lot when I was a child, and then not quite as often as I grew older and less curious about the world. I think this episode is geared mostly toward adolescents who–like Finn is (and adolescent Ralph was)–are on the verge of becoming locked into their own perspective and closed off to the wonders of the world. But Yusua also wants to hold the attention of littler kids. He said in an interview that he carefully considers audiences for his work, and he particularly tailors his art around the age of his audience. Here’s what he said:

Yes, that’s right. I always try to think of the audience, but it doesn’t always work. For example, Night is Short was already a story for adults, so it was easier to adapt. Lu [Over the Wall] was originally for high school kids, but I also wanted younger kids to see it, so I tried to adapt it for them too. It’s true that sometimes I realize when working at certain moments that I have the vision of an adult. I try, but it doesn’t always work.

It worked so well this time, Mr. Yuasa! I came across this Reddit post where someone asks where they can get the Adventure Time version of the song they chirp out when they first become birds—which is a version of Mozart’s Queen of the Night aria, “Der Holle Rache kocht in meinem herzen” (“Hell’s vengeance boils in my heart”), from The Magic Flute—because their four-year-old ”is obsessed with it.” I kind of love the thought of a four year old bopping around the house to a song that includes the lyrics, “May all bonds of nature be shattered forever / abandoned, abandoned and shattered.”

And I just have to talk about the music in this episode. Because I think, musically, it’s my favorite episode. From the Mozart:

to the gorgeous, droney, synthed-out flower song:

to the educational show-tune about the food chain:

I know I’m just listing a bunch of things in this review, but it’s just so perfect from start to finish that I don’t know how to add any value to it. I liked it so much when I first watched it. And, revisiting it for this review, I freaking love it. I’m so glad it exists.

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Sorry everyone I’m sick and fell asleep in my chair while working on this last night. Well to be honest I barely got to work on it. I will update my review for Furniture & Meat later tonight but for now enjoy these images/gifs.

And heeeeeere it is!

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Meat and furniture– two beautiful things that exist on this earth that go together like peanut butter and pickles.

“But hippenbobber64, what could these two things possibly have in common?” one might ask in a nerdy annoying voice. Plenty I say! You can build your own furniture just as you could build your own meat; you can flaunt your status with fancy furniture and meat from endangered animals; you can rub both for luck (or misfortune); they can both be eaten if your furniture happens to be made out of meat; you can sleep in a tub of meat (as demonstrated by Wildberry Princess); but also shaddap you nerd and let me cook (this pulled pork and futon sandwich).

Most importantly both items can be bought with money. Honestly two of the best things a person can buy. And see this is where our boys Finn and Jake went wrong. They could have been happy and satisfied with their extravagant purchases in Wildberry Kingdom but they (mostly Jake) got greedy and had to turn everyone into their dancing monkey.

The episode begins with BMO and NEPTR playing “Robbing Hood”. This is actually a development since BMO had previously held a lot of contempt for NEPTR. They are not playing “Robin Hood” and neither are Finn and Jake in this episode.

The treehouse breaks down from some aggressive play from the robutts and the treasure F&J amassed over their adventures comes spilling out including the Ancient Psychic Tandem War Elephant. The boys are not unlike dragons, hoarding all the treasure but not actually having a plan for it. Well maybe that’s unfair since dragons hoarding gold is actually a sign of their greed, whereas F&J just don’t really care about it. It’s only when the treasure is an inconvenience that they decide to rid themselves of it

F&J make their way over to the wealthy(?) Wildberry Kingdom and quickly learn that they don’t have to follow any rules when they hold this much gold. The first request is of course what everyone would expect, all the meat and furniture. Seems reasonable enough and as seen in the setting everyberry here absolutely loves meat.

Not satisfied with just meat and furniture, Jake proceeds to make outlandish requests from the citizens of Wildberry Kingdom. This includes making people dance, sleeping on the wrong side of the bed, eating gold and licking dust off dusty crap. Finn starts to get uncomfortable with what Jake is doing and tries to find other ways to spend the money. It’s not very heroic of Finn that it took this long for him to figure out you could use money to help others but it ends up backfiring on him anyway when he beats up the very berries he was trying to help. Maybe there’s a lesson for him there that he can’t simply throw money to fix the problems of capitalism and greed– but really he’s just trying to prove to Jake there’s other ways to spend money besides watching people do weird things.

Finn eventually relents and just want to get rid of the money in the quickest way possible. Jake leads the way to Wildberry Princess’ decompression room where he makes the offer of all their remaining treasure in exchange for a quick sit on Wildberry Princess’ head. Wildberry Princess is not having it and because F&J interrupted her decompression time she without hesitation calls for their executions.

It is okay though since Robbing Hood arrives to save the day while also killing one of the guards for good measure. They manage to escape with really the only consequence being that they have to write an apology letter if they ever return to Wildberry Kingdom.

Did the boys end up learning anything? I dunno. They do seem to have a sense of satisfaction knowing their treasure hoard is now empty. They just seem better off without any concept of money in their minds. Its also pretty funny that Jake despite having a history of thieving never even knew how to spend it. Oh if only they could have unlocked the true potential of meat and furniture as Wildberry Princess has.