From left to right: Mymy, Maya, and Coco.
Ongezellig is a Dutch six-part YouTube cartoon created by Studio Massa, detailing a few days in the life of a high school student.
Maya (Robin Barten) is a friendless introvert suffering from social anxiety who spends her days socially withdrawn and isolated. On the advent of having to do a major presentation for History class, she finds herself having to work with her adopted sisters, the air-headed but good-natured Coco (Merel Does) and the aggressive Dutch nationalist Mymy (Joyce Ter Stege). Hijinks ensue.
May we list tropes gezelligly?:
- The Alcoholic: Vera, the apathetic history teacher, carries around bottles of Jip en Janneke wine. This is a joke, because while Vera acts the part of an alcohol-dependent snarker, Jip en Janneke wine contains 0% alcohol because Jip en Janneke is a brand aimed at young children.
- Apathetic Teacher: Vera couldn't care less about her students and is shown to be utterly dejected at the presentations.
- Beware the Nice Ones: Coco is the nicest of the 3 sisters by far, but she also threatens to drop Maya out a window after Maya insults her over being an orphan. All while keeping a smile on her face.
- Bittersweet Ending: Maya remains as reclusive as ever, but the three sisters all pass their history class and have grown closer together by the end.
- Brick Joke: That monitor being thrown out of the roof in the first part? It lands in front of the school in Part 2.
- Bland-Name Product: A bag on Maya's table in the room after she furiously closes her tabs that's reminiscent to Kruidnoten. (gingerbread biscuits)
- Comically Missing the Point: After reading Mymy's research about Belgium, Coco tells her that it is incredibly racist. The only retort Mymy has is pointing out that Belgians aren't a race, apparently not focusing on the racism part.
- The Ditz: Coco's not very bright. She not only mistook Maya's hentai-laden browsing history as a library of actual Dutch history, but also saw no issue in showing one the Naughty Tentacles videos to her entire class.
- Company Cross References:
- In the scene Mymy pretending to be a Dutch colonizer and Maya, all tied, as the indigenous person is a reference to Studio Massa's de VOC video.
- After Mymy bloats about the history presentation day, she goes overboard in fashion similar to "Gerts bloodbad", edit of a gameshot.
- In the scene with snapping back to reality from Mymy's roleplay, one painting references a person from "Stille Willem - Specerijn"
- A background character sitting in the classroom after Mymy's "presentation" and Coco clapping, is from "'t Histaurant"
- Mymy being knocked out by Vera's bottle after her attempted shooting with her nerf gun, is reference to the same "de VOC" video
- The scene after Mymy falling, a painting referencing with Stille Willem series of "Spreekbeurt" can be seen.
- A painting in Vera's office has a character from "Cornelis Flabbergast"
- Cultural Posturing: When Coco suggests reading a book on Belgian history for information, Mymy, resentful for having her presentation rejected for being extremely racist, retorts.Coco: According to this book, Belgium was, in the Burgundian era, well known for its beautiful paintings.
Mymy: Ours were prettier...
Coco: In the Habsburgian era, they engaged in lots of trading.
Mymy: We traded more....
Coco: And in the colonial era...(sudden Afrikaan accent) What the fuck?
Mymy: ...yeah, okay, they can have that one. - Expy: Maya is a pretty obvious one of Tomoko Kuroki, although unlike her she has a somewhat working relationship with her family.
- Imagine Spot: Several from Maya, usually depicting her being tormented by her insecurities. It even includes one instance of suicidal ideation.
- Immigrant Patriotism: Despite hailing from Nagasaki, Mymy is a fervent Dutch nationalist to the point of extreme racism. She even dyed her black hair orange and wears coloured contact lenses to look, one one hand, more like an ethnically Dutch person, and on the other, her orange hair combined with her blue and white clothes evoke the Prince's Flag. This is a Dutch flag that goes back to the 16th century, but in modern day has fallen out of favor because Nazi-sympathizers and other far right activists have made it one of their symbols.
- Establishing Character Moment: The opening shot of the series is Maya, in total darkness, having a good time watching Naughty Tentacles Hentai. That tells you almost everything you know about her.
- Hammerspace: After Vera uses a bottle to smack Mymy off, and Coco having to present, she "pulls" one from her scarf.
- Homage:
- The style of the hentai being of 70/80s anime.
- Lost in Translation:
- "Ongezellig" does not have an English equivalent. "Gezellig" an adjective based on word "gezel", which means as much as "companion", and it refers to a state of being in an easygoing atmosphere with a small group of close friends or family (although even alone it can be "gezellig", and just because it's easygoing doesn't mean it's low-energy). Think six people in a warm kitchen on a winter evening playing a tabletop game while gourmetting. Usually, it's translated as "convivial" or "cozy", which does cover most of the bases, but some activities a Dutchman may describe as "gezellig" aren't covered by it. "Ongezellig" means "not gezellig", and contains something of a reproach towards whoever causes it to be "ongezellig". In the case of the webanimation, that refers to Maya's antisocial tendencies.
- The name "Mymy" may not look recognizable, but it's the same name that normally would be rendered "Meimei". In Dutch, you have the short "ei" and the long "ij", which are pronounced the same way, and the long "ij" is sometimes mutually interchangeable with the "y", which normally is pronounced "i" or "ie".
- Coco speaks (Dutch influenced by) Afrikaans, which sounds childish or innocent to Dutch speakers not familiar with it. This mostly shows up when she says a negative sentence, because in Afrikaans, a second "not" is added at the end of such a sentence. Imagine that rather than someone saying "I won't do that," they say "I won't do that not." The association fits Coco as a well-meaning but naïve young lady, and it gets strangely intimidating when she pushes Maya out of the window saying "I'm not hearing any apologies not, Maya."
- In Part 4, Mymy mockingly imitates a Belgian accent when she answers Coco's question if ADD is curable.
- Nice, Mean, and In-Between: Broadly, Coco is the Nice (just don't push her too far), Maya is the In-Between, and ultranationalist Mymy is the Mean.
- Occidental Otaku: Maya is a big one, being stated to enjoy anime and having a lot of anime-related merch in her room. Ironically, Mymy, who's actually Japanese, condemns anime as "decadent Oriental animated films".
- Shout-Out:
- Maya's computer wallpaper is XP's "Bliss".
- Mymy's anti-anime propaganda contains a promotional image from Boku no Pico.
- In Part 6, the photo in the back of Coco's room depicts the sisters at the Efteling with the theme park's mascot Pardoes.
- The student file of Mymy is a 5th Edition character sheet.
- Smash Cut: Coco's presentation starts with an introduction about some sexual traditions had long ago, very obviously pointing out that she took Maya's hentai folder as real research. Coco says she even has a video to show the class, she presses play, and we immediately cut to their teacher's office giving a death glare to the camera.
- Teacher's Unfavorite Student: Miss Vera doesn't like any of the sisters, but at least Coco and Maya keep to themselves. It's the extrovert, self-centered, racist, and demanding Mymy that she truly despises. The one note that can be discerned on Vera's student file on Mymy in Part 3 reads "Ik haat dit kind zo erg." ("I hate this child so badly.")
- Theme Naming: All three sisters' names are four letters long and pronounced in two vowels.
- Walking Techbane: Coco struggles to use technology of any kind. Her solution to her computer crashing? Throw the monitor out of the roof.
- Wrap Around: When Mymy starts complaining that Coco tasked her with doing animations for a presentation, Coco crumples a piece of paper and throws it away from them offscreen, and then it appears on the other side, hitting Mymy on the head.
