So there’s this interesting phenomenon that happens when a content creator you’re a fan of starts to become genuinely successful. According to one of my current favorite Youtubers, the best advice he ever got was that when one of your videos blows up, the very next thing you should do is make the same video five more times. It’s not uncommon for media personalities to use this method to figure out what direction they should take their career... Some may call it selling out, but hey, sometimes selling out is just the right move.

I, however, often find myself becoming far more fascinated with the opposite side of this coin. Rather than looking at the content that made someone famous, it’s way more interesting to experience all of the weird shit they threw at the wall before then that didn’t stick. Content they may be embarrassed by, or that maybe hasn’t aged well, or my personal favorite, the weird, experimental content that’s no longer on brand for them, but that they had the freedom to create, once upon a time, in what feels like another life.

How does all of this relate to Takena Nagao? Well, Takena is mostly known for creating horror anime shorts using the medium of claymation, but while he ultimately hasn’t put out that much official content, some of the earlier stuff is way outside of his current range. Sure, you could classify Shitcom as a type of horror... His secret agent action serials and Girl X are at least horror adjacent... But he’s also dabbled in a handful of videos featuring clay figures just beating the shit out of each other, and to my endless joy in particular, one of them is a gorram clay professional wrestling match.

The video I am reviewing today is called CCW, which stands for Crazy Clay Wrestling. Takena released it way back in 2007, long before he had built up any real notoriety in his career, and while I can’t find any conclusive commentary from the man himself explaining where it came from, it’s hard to not imagine him as a young man, having only been exploring his passion for a few years, experimenting with the different possibilities of claymation.

I know how demanding this art form can be, having to move these models a centimeter at a time, taking pictures in between, probably having to follow your own meticulously drawn storyboards for each and every shot, but working with these two simplistic characters against an empty background had to be a lot easier, and probably even a lot more fun, than having to pay special attention to the gore effects of a cast of comparatively realistic characters, and as such, this short does have a much more loose, fun vibe than most of his other works.

Speaking of that empty background, though, I guess I should comment on the bare bones production values here. Again, there are two sides to this issue, and I do like how the simplistic nature of this piece affects its aura, but you might find it disappointing that the setting is so bare bones... There’s no audience, no referee, no flair from the presumed promotion, and worst of all, there are no ropes or ring posts. The entire focus of this piece is on the match itself, and while I personally find this fault to be mostly forgivable, it may bother you a lot more than me.

What I can’t forgive is the audio, which is just awful. With a few exceptions, all you really hear are the sound effects of the in ring action(which is impeccable, to be fair) some reactionary noises from the crowd(sure) and the crowd constantly, constantly, chanting “CCW,” except for the few odd moments where they say “She she W.” Now, chants like that aren’t unheard of, at least not in every promotion(basically just AEW, ECW and TNA), but they’re usually only used to react to something really impressive that you would presumably only see in that promotion. You don’t have to put up with that shit all match.

Yes, there is a silent version available if you want to track it down, but I would prefer if Takena had written and recorded a commentary track, which I don’t think would have been that hard. All you would need to do is have the serious commentator describe what’s happening in the ring and praising the face, while a color commentator cracks jokes and blows smoke up the heel’s ass. Varying up the crowd chants would also be a good decision overall.

All of that being said, the highlight of this piece is the actual wrestling. This is clearly all Takena cared about regarding this production, and it shows, because while the match itself may feel kind of generic in real life, the fact that he was able to replicate a very believable professional wrestling match in stop motion couldn’t possibly be more impressive.This isn’t just aimless fighting, there’s a surprising amount of in-ring psychology on display here, and the body language of both combatants communicates so much story-telling and background information to the viewer.

The combatants don’t have a ton of personality, but what they do have is enough to make them distinct from one another. The yellow guy feels like an older technician, the underdog journeyman who’s been around a long time but has yet to earn his due. The orange guy feels like the much younger musclehead who’s been systematically working his way through the promotion, using ultra aggressive and dirty tactics to leave countless bodies in his wake. Their clash was inevitable, but nobody really believed Yellow could put an end to Orange’s undefeated streak... Nobody but Yellow, who believed in himself to the point that you just couldn’t help believing along with him!

Honestly, having a title belt involved would have elevated this dramatic contest, but it is intense, it is suspenseful, it’s very well paced, and it blows my mind just how well planned it was, you can feel the inspiration that Takena poured into it... Unfortunately, he was only able to capture one element of a multi-faceted form of entertainment. Wrestling isn’t about just the wrestling, it’s about the pageantry, the production, the personalities involved... It’s about crowds that can be damn near impossible to predict, and who definitely have more than one chant they can pull out. The actual fight choreography and animation is amazing, and I stand in awe of the amount of work that went into it, but the essential elements that it lacks are unmistakable, and tragically hold it back from the much higher score I wish I could give it.

I give CCW, Crazy Clay Wrestling, a 6/10