I didn't know about Ongezellig connection to image board culture until finding out about it on this site. I always thought Ongezellig was just funny meme cartoon that was slipping in references to VOC-mentaliteit, WW2 East Indies internment camps, Boer plaasmoorde, and other Dutch ethnocentric redpills.
I like the fan art that the series generates too. The depictions of Coco as a Boer burgher and Mymy as some sort of Dutch ethno-nationalist/revanchist are pretty funny.
To try and salvage this absolute GRIMSTONE opening of a thread, I'm going to present a more peer-reviewed, fact-checked, science approved, record setting, slow burn, bone-chilling, spine-tingling OP by taking a few pages off the soyjak wiki + some second hand information from what I've remembered.
Ongezellig (Dutch word that literally translates to 'Unsociable' or 'Asociable/Asocialite') is a Dutch Slice-of-life web animation by a guy named Studio Massa (powerword: Sam) that had 6 "deels" (Du: "parts") spanning across 4 years starting in 2018 and ended in October 2022.
THE CHARACTERS Maya
The show follows our protagonist Maya: a shy, introverted, autistic ADD, Indonesian NEET hailing from Brabant, Belgium who plays The Sims 4 and schlicks to hentai like the degenerate little fuck she is. She has no friends and only relies on her two adoptive sisters as company: Coco and Mymy.
----------------- Coco
Coco is a outgoing, social, bit of an airhead, kind and sweet PURE WHITE ARYAN white South African who is pretty much the polar opposite of what Maya is. So much so she's literally too retarded to use modern tech like a computer so she can't search up how to initiate TND find anything. Throughout the deels she's seen trying to get close to Maya to try and help her become more social and become a better person because she knows Maya is a disgusting, lonely little fuck who needs to stop spilling her spaghetti and talk to more people.
It's implied that before the events in the show something happened to her parents that caused them to die when she was young and that's how she got adopted, though what caused her parents' death is unclear. 'eens and Discoal users say they died in a car crash, others say they died from a raid attack in South Africa. Whichever's the case, reminder this 4 year long, multi-part web animation is just 1 pilot episode to a show that if it does manage to get picked up and produced, means that whatever we do know about the lore and background of these characters will probably change in the (hypothetical) "final" release of this show.
----------------- Mymy
And then there's Mymy, the one that most soyteens//qa/ users favor out of the three. She is an eccentric, wacky, comedic relief Japsterdam Japanese girl originating from Nagasaki who LARPs as a true and honest Dutch woman from the Netherlands and acts as a bleeding-heart nationalist for the country. So much so she detests her own race by dying her hair orange and wears blue contacts to try and hide the more obvious features of her background and claims she is 100% Dutch (she's not, and never will be). As well, she wishes to become the Ubermensch and stomp out those who are weak and oppose her. This is mostly why a lot of 'eens latch onto her since she reminds them they will never be a woman of a certain Austrian painter following a similar path to power and race cleansing/saving that ends up making her more appealing to soyteens' sensibilities.
THE STORY
The entire 6 deels together is about 22 minutes of runtime of an average TV episode, and in that time the whole synopsis of those parts together can best be described as "Maya and her sisters have a school presentation to do and they all completely fuck up in their own unique ways, so now they inevitably have to work together to not fail again. And between this conflict is some drama, funny moments, and whatever else that ends with Maya going back to the status quo of living the NEET lifestyle. even DOE this is just ONE EPISODE, HOW CAN IT BE STATUS QUO IF THERE ISN'T MORE DEELS??" That's it really. For a pilot, I'd say it does a good enough job introducing the characters, who they are and the setting that they're in. And on its own it's a charming little web animation. But at the end of the day if it wasn't for the Sharty, I probably wouldn't have known/cared about this cartoon as much if it wasn't associated with schizophrenic, genre-redefining, bone-shattering, spine-tingling, breath taking, heart-palpitating soyjaks and 'eens posting this cartoon everywhere.
STUDIO MASSA AND THE SHARTY
Okay so everything that I've just said above is shit that most of you probably don't care about so I'm just gonna skip to some more juicy stuff that maybe interests one of you. There's been some talk in spaces like /co/ and the Sharty that Massa actually hates internationals (specifically soyteens) and that he outright stopped working on the series because he didn't want to garner a following that, for all intents and purposes, is pretty insane and neurotic to the core. This all mainly stems from an interview earlier this year he did with someone: (I can't find the original version in Dutch in case the English translation happens to have some mistranslations in it, so I'll add it later or in a separate post if I or someone else manages to find it then)
EDIT: FOUND IT
Transcripted Text:
Studio Mass
Interview by Celine Kon - IAS 1C
Many aspiring animators dream of creating and publishing their own animated series. But can you do this all by yourself? And what are the risks of that? I talked to Sam in the following interview, Sam is a graduate animator at ArtEZ in Zwolle who works for the public broadcaster. He provides animations for television programs.
"I work 32 hours a week as an animator for public broadcasting, Each week I receive about two minutes of audio and I am given carte blanche to visualize this with animations. I work alone, at home and mainly with software from Adobe. I studied animation at ArtEZ Zwolle from 2012 to 2017. In 2018 I saw a vacancy for an animator at the public broadcaster on Indeed, I had to animate a test in a few days and I was hired based on the end result."
However, public broadcasting is not the only thing Sam works for. Sam has built up quite a reputation on YouTube for years under the name Studio Massa.
"For YouTube I work on labour-intensive Dutch-language animations and music, often about history."
Sam's non-animated videos reach millions of views and he is nationally known as the founder of many Dutch memes that also gained international acclaim, His latest project to date, however, takes a completely different direction, Sam wanted to create something on YouTube that no one in the Netherlands has done before. He therefore created the animated series Ungezellig. A series about the lives of three Dutch girls, 2 of whom are adopted. For the first episode they have to make a history presentation for school, but that doesn't go as smoothly as expected. He spent five years working on this for 20+ minutes of animation and finished the pilot with the sixth installment last year. But what did Sam run into when he started this?
"I was never supposed to work on the pilot for five years, but then I unexpectedly got a job that actually meant I had two jobs at the same time for four years out of five, As a result, I couldn't give my 100% to both jobs, which led to a lot of stress from both sides. If I had known this in advance I would never have started Ungezellig, In five years you gain a lot of experience, and I could devote a whole page to what would have done differently in hindsight, what I've learned is to pay as much attention to the audio as to the video."
After Sam released part two of his six-part pilot, he ran into a major problem, Financially he could not work full-time on Ongezellig, but his job as an animator meant he did not have enough time to further develop Ongezellig. So Sam needed help in the form of auxiliary animators and interns. To pay for this, he decided to crowdtund via the Petje.af platform.
"For a monthly fee of €2.50, €5 or €10, enthusiasts could become a member of my petje.af page. In return, they received exclusive rewards such as live streams and illustrations, I gave all income off to animators who do it speed up the animation process. I opted for one Dutch platform instead of an English alternative,
because petje.af has iDeal and Patreon does not. My target audience is
The Dutch, and here the credit card plays a much smaller role than abroad, Thanks to iDeal, all my
Dutch members could easily pay."
Ongezellig quickly caught on with both the Dutch and the international audience. For example, the videos on YouTube have hundreds of thousands of views and there are 245 petje af members who have supported the entire process.
"Whether Ongezellig is a success depends on what you compare this success to. Compared to an average YouTube video, Ongezellig scores well, but compared to the viewing figures of many other pilots, it is not much. Five years of work is a high prize for twenty minutes of film, and then you need very impressive viewing figures to convince producers. Concerning foreign viewers, I did not have high expectations because I assumed that the language and culture barrier would be too great. But just after With the publication of the first part, my work came to the attention of foreign viewers for the first time, and hopefully for the last time."
After five years, Sam has managed to complete the sixth part of the pilot and thus took a break from Ongezellig, But what happens next with Sam and Studio Massa? is this the end as an independent animator? is Sam tied to his current job forever? if it's up to Sam, he will continue with both his YouTube channel and his job.
"Whether I ever hope to continue Ongezellig? Only if I can work on it full-time, for example if I lose my job and can't find a new one. in that case, I would continue to continue it independently on YouTube with the help of petje.af. There was a lot of stress behind Ungeezellig and if it is never continued I don't mind. At the moment I am working in my spare time on an educational project about Dutch history, and I will see what comes next. My job at the public broadcasting will remain the prionity for the foreseeable future."
But just after With the publication of the first part, my work came to the attention of foreign viewers for the first time, and hopefully for the last time."
As said before, this lead many to believe Sam resented his audience of internationals to the point that he outright stopped working on it altogether since he didn't want to cultivate an audience of soyteens, even doe the TL;DR of the text above talks about his upbringing as an animator and having to juggle two jobs on top of managing 'zellig & the only way for him to continue was if he lost his only current job and decided to work on it full time.
Come some months later, Discoal user 'Foenkie' from Massa's Discord server makes a statement on Massa's behalf in regards to his stance on internationals, their funding and the Sharty.
The TL;DR for these messages (in chronical order) is:
1. Dutch fanbase for the show is larger than international and makes up most of the funding. Even if international funding was allowed, he claims it would've been 100-150 euros extra.
2. Massa doesn't want to make a show for non-dutch people, but doesn't mind if non-dutch people watch it.
3. soyjaks are allowed on the server, but NO HECKKIN RACISM OR TRANSPHOBIA YOU FUCKING BIGOT CHUD.
4. They've had problems with users posting 'p and beheadings on there claiming they're from the party (very obviously fucked up, almost all soyteens would detest doing this kind of behavior for raids. well maybe except the beheadings.)
5. Even though Massa doesn't dislike internationals, he does dislike how people dox, raid, lie and stir up drama around himself, his friends and his property; problems which, as Foenkie claims, still persists and is most present from internationals.
6. "Maybe instead of believing le heckkin rumors you should ask Massa yourself on his thoughts on things instead of believing le heckkin baseless schizo theories CHUD"
Now Foenkie claims to be a very close friend to Massa/Sam, his right hand man if you will. So whether or not you believe what he has to say is FACTUAL or not is up to you. Tho I do find it odd that Massa (supposedly) had to get his friend to make a statement about rumors and shit and not, yknow, say it himself on the server.
Oh and speaking of funding,
DUTCH PATREON AND MASSA SELF-SABOTAGING(?)
Before Deel 3, Massa made an announcement saying he is setting up a payment system to donate to his animations, though not through Patreon but "petjeaf.com," a site I'm guaranteed none of you have heard before.
It really is just "Dutch Patreon," and the reason I bring this up is another point of contention that fans of the show and sharty users argue over the fact that Sam intentionally shot himself in the foot by sticking with some obscure donation website for Dutch people that ruined his shot of funding and bringing this show to light. Now he says he did this because it supported "iDEAL" which upon googling it states that "iDEAL is an online payment system that circumvents the need for the Dutch to have credit cards. Instead of inputting your card information, paying with iDEAL takes you directly to your personal online banking website where you transfer the money directly to the business owner."
Now it's nice that Sam offered that option for his own people, but why the hell would he offer this as the ONLY option to give him money? Even more baffling as he apparently has TWO petjeaf pages setup (one for ongezellig and another for his animation channel), so it's not like he couldn't setup a patreon simultaneously for more funds.
Not to mention he has a merch store setup and yet he has ZERO ongezellig related merch, only monthly bonus art given out by him to his supporters on petjeaf.
Even if what Foenkie says is true and that internationals wouldn't make that big of a difference in funding, it literally would not hurt to open up to more people outside of Holland.
This is why some people also speculate that Sam is just tired of 'zellig and got major burnout by the end of it which is why he seems so obtuse when it comes to opportunities to make it big.
MASSA LORE + SOCIALS AND OTHER SHIT
Sam has a bit of history as an artist and left a bit of an internet footprint. Before 'zellig, he has some videos up on his animation channel of random shit he's made + he has two more channels filled with some ytp and meme edits that have garnered millions of views (This is what that interview was talking about when they said he's generated a lot of views from the Dutch people). But something of interest is that he used to make these comic strips called "Mayo En Curry" on the (now dead) art site "Stripster", which probably served as the inspiration/prototype for 'zellig.
You can find a download to I think all of his Stripster comics from archive.org here: https://archive.org/details/stripster-archief
Now I remember a teen linking to an old deviantart account of his that showed he spoke english from archive.org, but I can't find it at the moment.
The reason I bring this up is because former Sharty admin Kuz tried to fund Ongezellig for Studio Massa, but Kuz claims it didn't work out because he wasn't very fluent in Dutch and neither was his translator (Though he later claims it was "kind of a joke actually".)
Bonus
In /qa/ on the sharty, there's been a couple 'zellig AI threads set up that's mostly filled with the girls saying or singing shit because a fellow 'teen managed to clone the girls' voices.
And lo and behold, someone made and posted a full English dub of all the parts using AI.
Wild times we're living in where this is a possibility now. It's a pretty good dub for the most part, though you can tell the AI kinda faulters a bit at certain points either because of the limitations of what's available or the dude maybe needing a retake or two (especially the outro which could use some improvements if possible). Bit of a novelty thing if you want to give it a watch.
---------------------------------
If you ended up not reading allat,
tl;dr Ongezellig is Dutch Watamote
Wow, that AI dub is a really impressive proof of concept for what AI can do. I can definitely see AI putting those anime dubbing voice actors out of work one day. Though I guess Dutch-to-English is much less of a linguistic jump compared to Jap-to-English, so Dutch phonemes and intonation slot much more neatly into the English equivalents and would be easier for the AI to more naturally render.
Though I guess Dutch-to-English is much less of a linguistic jump compared to Jap-to-English, so Dutch phonemes and intonation slot much more neatly into the English equivalents and would be easier for the AI to more naturally render
There was this one YouTuber that I used to watch (forget his name, he would play a lot of WW2 games) and I assumed he was American because that’s what he sounded like, but in one of his videos he mentioned that he is Dutch. I suppose Dutch Kiwis will have to tell me if this is a thing.
There was this one YouTuber that I used to watch (forget his name, he would play a lot of WW2 games) and I assumed he was American because that’s what he sounded like, but in one of his videos he mentioned that he is Dutch. I suppose Dutch Kiwis will have to tell me if this is a thing.
Dutch people who speak English well enough to not have the shitty regular accent often get mistaken for Michigan/Iowa/that region, probably because those states, next to New York, have had a decent amount of Dutch immigrants way back.
