Bullet Screen, Bullet Screen, Bullet Screen – Episode 1: Almost GG’ed[1] Yesterday｜3 min｜moving image｜2015
By adding subjective and random discussions and thoughts to the narrative of the original video, the bullet-screen culture overlaps the world in the video with the real world like parallel universes; the two worlds are seemingly unrelated, but they both progress on the same timeline. This concept of parallel universes is consistent with the contemporary Internet generation’s method of accessing and viewing videos online. “Parallel” and “destruction” become the only language of the Internet culture (the Folks Culture)[2]. This parallel destruction, like the arrival of Armageddon, has resulted in much extremely absurd fun. “Yesterday was Armageddon”, this is a logical absurdity. Armageddon, supposedly, denotes “The End”, and thus people have no chance of discussing this issue, unless “a parallel universe exists.” On a certain day in 20XX, users of a website discuss this issue, turning one topic that originally represents the end into an ordinary subject of discussion. Just like the relation between “bullet screen” and “video”, bullet screen does not exist in the original narrative of the video but shares the same timeline with the video. The Internet phenomenon of bullet screen, thus, indirectly proves the rationality of parallel universes. If the video carries a certain narrative time-space, bullet screen is then a kind of meta-text that watches and discusses all the things going on in that world like God, and therefore it talks about how the world nearly GG’ed yesterday.
Bullet screen is an Internet cultural phenomenon and first originated from Japanese animation portals such as NICONICO. It is an onscreen comment technology developed on the idea of viewers chatting about the video. The way the onscreen technology overlaps viewers’ comments onto the video creates more misinterpretations in the interpretation of the video’s contents; combined with the Japanese cyberculture of “Chuu”[3], the technology has thus given rise to bullet screen. Through the destruction of the video, massive texts are added onto the screen, disrupting the interpretation of the video. When there is a crisis or an exciting segment in the video, such as a kiss between two characters or an important scene, the bullet screen will then start to destroy the video (cover-up).
[1]GG: Abbreviation of “Good Game”. Usually used at the end of a round of a game, elaborated to mean game over or the end.
[2]Anonymous Internet users are generally referred to as “Village Folks” in Taiwan. Folks Culture may thus be understood as an Internet sub-culture.
[3]“Chuu” is a Japanese cultural slang similar to Taiwan’s “Haters Culture”. It refers to a certain cynical nature manifested through parody and destruction.
彈幕彈幕彈幕 – 第一集：昨天差點GG了｜3 min｜moving image｜2015
彈幕文化，透過在原本影片的敘事中，加上直觀、亂入的討論與感想，讓影片中的世界，與現實世界如平行世界疊合，看似沒有交集，確又依據同一時間軸運行著，這個平行宇宙的觀念，符合當下網路世代的影片取得管道與觀看方式，「平行」與「破壞」變成網路文化(鄉民文化)唯一的語言，這個平行破壞，也如同世界末日的到來般，產生很非常多荒謬的趣味。「昨天是世界末日」，這是一個邏輯上的謬論，末日通常代表著「結束」，而人是無法討論這個問題，除非「平行世界是存在的」。20XX年某月某日知名鄉民網站廣泛的討論此事，讓一個原本應該是結束的事情，如家常便飯的被大家討論著?如同「彈幕」與「影片」之間的關係，彈幕並不存在與原本影片的敘事中，但卻與原本影片使用同一個時間軸，彈幕的網路現象，間接證明了平行宇宙的合理性，影片若記載著某一個敘事時空，彈幕就是一種後社的文本，如同上帝般欣賞與討論著這個世界的一切，所以聽說昨天差點GG了。
彈幕是一種網路文化現象，最早源於2007年的日本影音網站NICONICO動畫，用影片聊天的概念，所建構的視頻聊天功能，其在影像上疊上聊天字幕的方式，讓影像的閱讀多了更多的誤讀，加上網路文化中的「廚」特性，彈幕也因此而生，透過對於影像畫面的破壞，讓大量文字疊在影像上，破壞其閱讀，因此只要在影片中有刺點或爆點時，彈幕就會進行畫面上的破壞(遮蓋)，如影像中男女主角接吻，或關健畫面等。
注一:「廚」是日本的文化名詞，類似台灣的酸民文化，以一個惡搞破壞的出發導向，含有某重見不得人好的概念。