So I finished watching Neo Yokio.
Honestly, I don't know how to rate it.
It’s bad. It is objectively incredibly bad from every single standpoint you can muster, especially because it is not intended to be satire. If it was, it’d be an easy 9 out of 10 because then it would have accomplished what it set out to do, but it doesn’t. It’s 100% serious. The creators are 100% serious. There’s sociopolitical commentary strewn throughout its entire shallow superficial 6 episode run, but it’s not supposed to be a jab or a drag at anything, according to interviews with Koenig (1, 2, 3).
But I enjoyed it. It’s stupid and shallow, awfully unrelatable, there’s no character development, and the plot is threadbare for its run. But it’s fun. There’s a semblance of a bigger picture and world building, but none of it makes any goddamn sense.
I’ve described it on my facebook before as, “One man's trash may be another man's treasure, but holy shit, sometimes you just don't want someone else's garbage. But at other times you gotta wonder why they throw out such quality garbage”, and “...it is akin to anime the way that modern art is to fine art: created because it is thought because it IS, it is GOOD; objectively trash, but subjectively entertaining.”
Not every piece of art is good. Just because it is art, does not make it good art. But being bad won’t stop some people from finding joy and entertainment in it.
I’m not saying to go and watch it. You have better uses of your time, probably. For what it’s worth, it’s definitely not worth watching. But it’s fun and it’s dumb, and I liked it.