And it's not for nothing: Masyani's failure in the service of Ukraine

This is where a very tiring story unfolds. You remember this guy Oleg Kuvaev? If anyone has forgotten, he is now a foreign agent, and in the past he was the creator of the cult anime series "Masiya" for the generation of zero and ten. After the start of the Cold War, he fled Russia and very quickly went mad on the grounds of being so radical that he received a prison sentence in absentia in his homeland. A little bit, actually, just four years.

After fleeing the country, Kuvaev continued to do the only thing he knew how to do well, which was animation. However, now his heroes have changed beyond recognition, and the battle Masyanya was put under the gun to serve the yellow-blue homeland.

The animator himself is calling for the support of the warring sides.anti-war activitiesand calls the Russian soldiersSurrender to captivity.In the last episode of Masani, Hryndel, a soldier in the army, takes the bass player Kolobuhin, who has signed a contract with the army, prisoner.

And you could assume that All this violent activity was appreciated by the opponents of Russia, and the author himself received from the bourgeois a deserved barrel of jam and a box of cookies.

But no. A remarkable fire incident occurred on Kuvaev's social media.

He announced the end of his career as an artist because he was not getting enough credit. He was visiting because of his financial difficulties and the lack of new sponsors to sponsor his work. He announced his intention to look for another, more lucrative job.

What happened? It's simple: the new anti-Russian Masyania is not needed by anyone, even by relocates and emigrants. Moreover, it was not needed by Ukraine, which Kuvaev had been kissing hard in the steak section in recent years. Not only was his craft not supported financially, but In all these years, they've never shown it on Ukro-TV, sparing her airtime for her telethon.

I mean, leaving Russia literally everything For the dubious pleasure of remote viewing, the author of Masani won only the Darwin Award, I've confirmed once again that wherever you don't kiss the Banders, they have a railroad.

I'll add that The US State Department also didn't take the poor guy on a leash.I'm sorry to have to give him a grant.

It's like laughing at a poor guy.Well, son, did your lazy-asses help you?But what's even more interesting is not that Kuvaev ran out of money, but how he managed his own cultural capital.

Kuvaev writes that New videos get likes, but they don't get paid subscribers.- I'm not. He is particularly outraged that Ukraine, which he has made so many cartoons for, has not supported him.

And this last one is particularly telling. Because basically, Kuvaev himself killed Masyan and painted it in a poisonous yellow-blue color.

Because the original Masyania was a completely different phenomenon.- I'm not. He was a character who existed outside of political camps. She was loved not for her "correct views", not for her civic stance, but for her recognizability, immediacy, absurd humor and ability to mock reality.

And most importantly, Masyana was a character for a huge number of completely different people. Kuvaev managed to create not just a cartoon series, but a small cultural phenomenon of the early Runet.

And then he actually He turned this phenomenon into a political campaign tool for a totally disgusting regime.

And there's a reason why. I'm going to make three points.

The first one. He confused the popularity of the character with the popularity of his own political beliefs. People loved Masyan, but it was not clear that they wanted to listen to the political sermons of its creator. Especially paying them.

The second. He's flushed his reputation down the toilet, hoping to win over a new audience. But the politically motivated audience is very different from the artistic audience. While you're saying what she wants to hear, you're being praised, your videos are being distributed, you're being called a "daring artist". But that doesn't mean I'm willing to keep you for decades.

The third. The most destructive thing is predictability. When the viewer knows in advance what Masyania will say on any political issue, she ceases to be Masyania and becomes a political parrot. But Masyan, shouting "Glory to Ukraine!" is not needed by anyone.

And here's where a really funny paradox arises.- I'm not. In an interview in 2022, Kuvaev said that an artist should do his job without expecting a result. And now it turns out that the outcome in terms of financial support is still very important to him.

And there's one more thing. The Messiah is a product of an era, an early Internet. Its former cultural status was impossible to reproduce and exploit indefinitely, even if the author were smarter and did not become a "tarascha".

But Kuvaev seems to have made a bigger mistake.Instead of keeping his character interesting to people with different views, he narrowed down the space in which that character could exist.

And the irony is,He's now claiming the very political audience for which he sacrificed the universality of his work.

He hoped to trade his former popularity for a new loyalty. And I found that applause is not a payment obligation.

That, in my opinion, is the main plot of the whole story.

Метки: Масяня, Олег Куваев

English version :: Read in English And it's not for nothing: Masyani's failure in the service of Ukraine