Agitated Screams of Maggots

Let me get this point clear. {In my opinion...} "Agitated Screams of Maggots" is NOT an anime. It is an animated music video. I don't believe that since it's "animated" it should be counted as an anime. There's a thick line between the two... Notice this: those who haven't been through the ever-changing DIR EN GREY timeline (especially during their earlier stages) will be highly disturbed by the art, message, and song.

This video was released in 2006 and during that time DIR EN GREY was still in its "ero-guro" days where they mostly sang and portrayed sexually grotesque themes. Judging from the lyrics, this ... song is most definitely about rape, violence, and revenge. i.e.: "I'll rape your daughter on your grave" and "I'm gonna slash your wound just like mine". (A majority of the lyrics are repeated throughout the song).

The lyrics, music, and animation were all in sync. I couldn't expect less and I wasn't disappointed. When I first watched it in 2009 (and even now), I absolutely loved the feral themes DIR EN GREY portrayed in such a fragile country. Who would've been brave enough to spit acid through the mic and release a CD about it and be prepared for the harsh criticism from the rock and music scene. The animation was absolutely unique by it's intensity from the shape shifting man, maggots, gore, and creatures to the subtlety of the girl who later becomes intense with rage and revenge. (If you look closely all the members are also shown in the music video... Their heads float rapidly around the vegetables on the table).

THIS SONG IS THE SHIT. PEOPLE CAN HAVE THEIR SAY, BUT I R8 THIS 10/10. ALL THESE WEABOO LISA, AOI EIR, CLARIS FANBOYS ARE ALWAYS QUICK TO JUDGE ECCENTRIC MUSIC, YET NONE OF THOSE ARTISTS COMPOSE OR EVEN WRITE THEIR OWN MUSIC. SAD...

In all seriousness though, the animation is okay and the music is acceptable depending on how open minded you are. It's similar to a lot of Dir En Grey MVs as it revolves around many dark themes. The lead vocalist, Kyo, is notorious for never writing a happy song, which you could probably guess by the lyrics of Agitated Screams of Maggots.

Overall, ... it's not that bad. Considering how shit recent years' anime are, and the number of people that still watch, I wouldn't be surprised if people acquired a taste for this stuff.

Before you watch this, ask yourself a couple of questions:

-Do I like really, really disturbing imagery with no context?
-Do I like screamo/metalcore/whatever the hell you classify Dir en grey as?
- Am I okay with the fact that this is a music video?

If you said no to any of these questions, you're going to hate this "anime".

Anyway, on to my thoughts, there's not much to say. I like Dir en grey. I liked this song even before I saw the video. I like disturbing crap. Therefore I liked this "anime". But for the sake of structure:

... Story (1):
What story?

Art(6):
The gore is relatively well drawn and uniquely stylized. That's about all I can say about it.

Sound(9):
I like Dir en grey's music, this song especially.

Character(1):
There was a little girl who did things...

Enjoyment(8):
As stated earlier, I like disturbing crap and I like this song.

Overall(8):
It's not really fair to criticize this as an "anime", as it really isn't one, but if I had to give it a score, that's what I would give it.

Note: Character marked as one simply because there isn't much to base the characters off. Character: no opinion
Watched for the music type genre in the anime watching challenge 2019

So, this isn't an anime for sure; it's animated not anime but I used this for my AWC19 challenge as a new Dir En Grey fan as something that interested me in the music side of things. As a new fan, I didn't know much about Dir En Grey's past in music past what a friend of mine had told me so Agitating Screams was a bit of a what the hell moment for me. After rewatching ... it, it's somewhat obvious this is ero-guro style, so of course, not everyone is going to enjoy this unless you have a liking towards body horror artwork and a general liking for rock music or Dir En Grey.

Overall, this is an angry disturbed music video with a lot of strange and disturbing lyrics (most notably: "I'll rape your daughter on your grave"). It is disturbing and my repetition in using the adjective is because there isn't much else to describe it. For me, it's somewhat classic angry-rock with a style in a medium that I very much enjoy reading and watching in anime and manga. I think if you're not keen on ero-guro, this might be very unsettling and even maybe hard to stomach even with the animated style taking it away from a realistic look.

I did enjoy this more as a DEG fan. It's a nice look into their background as a band and to see the stuff they did as they started but honestly; if you're not an ero-guro fan and/or fan of the band, it's probably best if you stay away from it.

A painting can be pretty but not artistic at the same time. Yes, it can still be considered as an art since the way the painter draw a line or the scenery or something presented in the canvas is already an art. But the concept of the thing inside the painting itself is an art or not depends on the massage it tries to convey. If the painting doesn't have any meaning behind it then, as a concept, it's not artistic. And the same way also works for something ugly.

What makes something considered as artistic doesn't depend on how pretty it is, but how ... beautiful the way the concept presented. While about the concept is pretty or ugly is not important.

Agitated Screams of Maggots is about hatred and revenge delivered in an unconventional way through a 3 min short animation with a song by Dir en Grey that has such a strong and vulgar lyric. The short animation adds a dark atmosphere and ugliness by its ugly characters and eroguro scenes that will make the audience wondering what was wrong with someone who made this video. Not mention the music is so noisy as it's metal one and the singer just screams from the start to the end.

'I'll rape your daughter in the grave' is shouted out by the singer over and over through this short animation as the video shows the exact presentation of the lyric. That's said, this short animation is full of uncomfortable scenes with genital vulgarism, attempt to rape a child.

Despite how negative this short animation is sounded. It also contains a positive massage behind it. From the start, the raper is shown dominating the situation and (maybe) successful in taking revenge but brutally finished later. This can be interpret as the author knows what revenge does to a person. It's a presentation of the cycle of revenge. You can take revenge to someone, but someone precious to them will come to yo to take revenge. Therefore, revenge doesn't only hurt its victim but also hurts the one who gets revenge.

Agitated Screams of Maggots is a hatred and frustration of someone that delivered indirectly and beautifully through unconventional way. It's an expression.

If a painter delivers his frustration through his painting. A singer delivers his frustration through his song.

It's artistic, and definitely a piece of art.

I'm a Visual Kei fan first and foremost and Dir en Grey is one of my favourite bands. I used to hate them back when I was younger, believe it or not! I hated them for the same reasons why other non-VK fans hate them; Diru plays loud, aggressive screechy music with lyrics that went too far. However, my opinion changed when exposed to their other works, and as I grew older. I have the utmost respect for their continuous boundary-pushing, ever since they went off the rails in their debut full-length album Gauze (Missa, while a satisfying Kote romp, is far from novel). At ... every turn, their music and PVs suffered censorship (why do you think egnirys cimredopyh is spelled like that? They literally had to reverse the title to AVOID JAIL TIME!) but they never lost heart and continue to push the envelope and experiment, even to this very day. Agitated Screams of Maggots continues along these lines, with horrific imagery of an Eroguro nature. It pairs with Kyo's lyrics, which are rather fittingly about critiques of shocking material and groups like Diru. It's more of a critique of mainstream celebs (and normies, to an extent) who try to co-opt lukewarm shock material (inverted crosses and black lipstick OMG!!!) for attention and money, yet bemoan those who genuinely make their art and very lives center around it. I relate to it, on that level...

Anyway, I only recommend it to Diru and Deathcore fans, and maybe showing it to your little sibling as revenge as we all did with OBSCURE as kids (ahhh, the memories!)