Even though I’ve owned the game for over a year now, I still haven’t started it. I haven’t even booted it up. After watching this opening episode, maybe I should. But going in blind for now is okay, I think, because the anime seems to be its own thing. Well, not exactly. It obviously has callbacks to the game — callbacks I can neither recognize nor appreciate — but I think I can still enjoy the adaptation without some of the context. And boy is the opening episode an information overload — an overdose, even. Blink and you’ll miss out. Is there a story? Not in the traditional sense. Instead, we bounce around like the terminally bored, clicking through various sites, looking and hoping for something to catch our attention.

There’s a concert to celebrate KAngel’s hitting 10 million subscribers. I know the game is about a streamer’s climb to the top, so maybe the adaptation is a sequel. Maybe it takes place after one of the endings. There are empty pill bottles as a girl screams in anguish. @kache, one of KAngel’s viewers, seemingly gets harassed everywhere she goes. On the train, on the streets, at her workplace that is an overt reference to A Clockwork Orange, and even in her own home. Worse than that, actually. Despite her clear and obvious objections, her boyfriend sexually assaults her. Classical music drowns out the sounds of the nightmare. There’s a black eye beneath the illusion. Again, blink and you’ll miss it.

So-called experts speak out against KAngel. Someone has edited together interviews of people on the streets voicing similar concerns. A bunch of busybodies scapegoating someone rather than dealing with the root of the problem. If you think about it, there’s no way they couldn’t find at least one person who supports the streamer, but the program has an agenda to sell. So KAngel hits back in her own interview. She — or rather the author — opens up about her own bleak view of humanity. They don’t care about you when you’re a nobody, but it’s all your fault when you make it big. If there’s no such thing as bad publicity, then the same can be said about going viral. It doesn’t matter what you go viral for as long as you go viral period. Thumbs up or thumbs down, it’s all engagement in the end. There’s a creepy clown. There’s a talking head utilizing real life footage of a voice actress. There are scars on KAngel’s arm. Throw in some vaporwave aesthetic for good measure. Are we yearning for the past before our all-too-digital society?

We’ve seen plenty of shows that will take you on a trip down the internet rabbit hole. The difference here is that we’ve updated the same descent into electronic madness for the social media age. The consequences are the same, though. The people who “stan” KAngel are really no different from her detractors. Medicine and poison are two sides of the same coin, after all. We’re trying to put everything — our hopes and our moral culpability — onto one person, but that makes little sense in our interconnected world. With several taps on a keyboard or a smartphone, anyone can affect someone on the other side of the globe, big or small. You can even goad people into taking their own life. No one is out of reach. No one can hide. KAngel can’t solve your unhappiness by herself, but she isn’t the sole reason why you’re disappointed in your children either. There should be a shared sense of moral responsibility for what ails us — a major theme in The Brothers Karamazov, I might add — but social media demands that we each become our own rock star, entrepreneur, influencer, etc. We are each responsible for selling ourselves, ignoring the fact that algorithms are essentially black boxes. Whether it’s Youtube’s, Tiktok’s, Twitter’s, or Instagram’s, we don’t know how they truly work and yet they pretty much get to decide our fate.

A trio of rival streamers sit in front of a Mondrian backdrop. What defines them? What distinguishes them from KAngel? Are they less complicated? Are they trying to break streaming down to its most basic elements? Are they somehow purer than their rival? KAngel claims to not know them; she lies as easily as she breathes. One of the Karamazov streamers isn’t happy. Back to @kache. What do moths symbolize again? Death? Transformation through death? Well, she does say she wants to die. We don’t even get to know these characters’ real names. Only their internet handle.