Fumikiri Anime

I have never been outspoken when it comes to my love for public transport, especially trains. I have rambled to friends both about my satisfaction and frustration with the train network where I used to live, but it was always brought up within context. I don't really go around randomly talking about my love of trains nor do I try to do too much research because frankly I find my own passion embarrassing whenever it shows.

Even though I have no business being overly self conscious, I have always tried to avoid the "ASD stereotype" since I was aware I was different. I had been made aware of that fact very early on to say the least. (In fact, when I was in primary school I had asked my mother if she thought I could have autism; her response was extremely noncommittal. I discovered later in life that she did not take me to a specialist when I was young out of fear of my teachers labeling me "the autist"—little did she know they already had.)

This isn't to say I've ever been successful trying to fix it! I struggle with limited interests, social problems, an immature mental state, and so on. But I have still tried, and of course, one of the biggest stereotypes out there is that autists like trains. We really do, or at least I do. As of the past year or so I've actually been trying to indulge that and let myself get excited for upcoming changes to the local train lines.

The important thing about me, though, is that I was particularly fascinated by railroad crossings as a young boy; thanks to living right near a train station, there were a few I would have to cross with my family if we wanted to go certain places no matter if we were travelling by foot or by car. The nearby stations were reworked thanks to extreme traffic congestion and was replaced with overhead rail back in 2017, which did improve traffic tenfold, but I still fondly remember the black and white signal posts: bright white signs in an X shape reading RAILWAY CROSSING in bold black letters—the little me thought it was magnificent and that the signs being crossed was extremely clever—just how loud the bells were to my child ears, and the huge striped gate that swung down to guard the train and stop idiots from thinking they can "make it". I was particularly obsessed with the gates themselves. Those signal posts were mighty machines which could even tell the cars what to do! I was amazed.

This is just to say I like trains and rail infrastructure, which is why I started this page in the first place. There is a part of me which never changed since I was little; I am, in certain ways, still very childish and always at least a little bit entertained by soulless algorithm slop as long as there's something to actually follow along with. So when I discovered a whole genre of repetitive animated video for children hiding in a corner of YouTube with railroad crossing signals as the main characters and focus, with up to multiple millions of views on individual videos no less, would you imagine how I felt? It's a bizarre genre tailor made for the child me.

Japanese railroad crossing signals are really cute: they're yellow and black with stripes all over, including the gate which takes the form of a long pole. Unlike where I lived, the X-shaped panels on top have no words on them at all! There is usually a sign somewhere though. The lights on the crossings themselves don't seem to be standardised: in some photos there's one on each side of the pole, in some there are two on the same side, in some they're in all sorts of crazy positions. I guess it depends on the location.

With rail being so prominent in Japan, most people must become acquainted with these at one point or another. I suppose they stick in some people's minds, and I understand why. If I didn't understand I probably wouldn't have gone on about the ones from my childhood and I certainly wouldn't be making this page at all. What baffles me, though, is the fact that somebody sat down and thought:

"Hey, I should make animations of these. For kids! And they should be walking. ...And I won't forget to make them all ring out of time with each other too, that will be great."

This has resulted in the following:

It's weird stuff, right? This is one of the most basic videos. These things aren't walking on two thin stripey legs in all of them like they are here, but they sure are doing so in a lot of them. The genre seems to proudly be called Fumikiri Anime; fumikiri is the word for the signal posts themselves and anime means, of course, animation. You can find hundreds of these, with absurdly high view counts, with one simple search.

It caught me off guard when I first discovered it. Not only has the YouTube channel behind the above video (titled Thepentamax) uploaded animation upon animation with such a strange focus, they get more and more surreal the more time goes on. This was an extremely early example, when that channel had switched focus from real footage of fumikiri to computer animations of them, but check a recent upload in the Shorts tab and you may be horrified: signposts are themed after various objects, skulls with sunglasses and bright pink mohawks take the place of the X-sign, and they are walking and running and falling into all sorts of predicaments, all while their signal bells clang in odd and unsettling polyrhythms.

How did we get here? My first thought was that this user must be similarly neurodivergent—although I hate using that word—and trying to express themself via animation rather than scoping out unique railroad crossings, which seems to be the channel's original focus. This makes sense when applied to the one channel, I guess, but then I discovered something ghastly: it's not the only one.

There may be, no exaggeration, hundreds of them, some churning out low-effort animations of railroad crossing signposts on the daily, some producing well-produced animations of fumikiri samurai fighting trains, some even posting AI-generated slop. So why are there so many of these, some with millions of views each?

The idea stuck in my mind for a long time. First I was entertained by the absurdity, then I imagined what it would be like to become one of these sentient signposts. I sat down and spent an absurd amount of time deliberating over what my life would be like if I were transformed into one and how I would cope with it, as well as which one I would most want to become. (This piano freak if you're curious.) After I had reached my conclusion in a day, I decided I had to get to the bottom of it. Of all subject matter, why fumikiri?

I had been sent an article (in Japanese) about the animations; the person behind fumikiri channel mentioned that their son was really excited whenever he saw real-life railroad crossing signposts, so they made animations of them and the child was overjoyed. They started posting them to YouTube for fun. Okay, that's cute and it makes sense, but so many views is absurd!

They go on to mention how they think the popularity comes from the consistent clanging, the striking colours and pattern, and the anticipation of what kind of train will show up. (There are some very unique fumikiri-train duos on that channel.) A psychologist adds his thoughts on the matter, which I found really funny: small children develop a desire for strength and showing off that strength, and that they like trains for being strong role models, so the fact that the crossing gates can herd such beasts is admirable. I can't even argue with that. After all, I was obsessed with their power as a mouseling.

It's still strange. Extremely so. But I think that being strange is not a bad thing! If my own interests were not strange, I would not be the person I am, and I would have nothing to spend my days digging into and sharing with loved ones, and my friends would not use me as their go-to for information regarding certain bandmen. I think that everybody needs an off-centre interest or two or ten to go with their regular ones. If people are putting their energy into making animations of level crossings, I really do believe that's a good thing. The fact that children enjoy them is a great bonus, although in my opinion it's best that they watch the ones with actual storylines.

I've grown fond of these little guys to the point of drawing them when I'm extremely bored or pulling up a few videos just to stare. It's silly and that's harmless. Again, maybe it's just my ASD which attaches itself to trains, but that's fine. I think it's alright to give in every once in a while.

The fact that I immediately fell in love with something so hyper-specific should be embarrassing but I don't feel as ashamed as I should. I think, I love railroad crossings too! Someone else gets it!, and that makes me feel joy. My point is that fumikiri anime is loads of fun and I won't act afraid of that. I'll gladly share a page dedicated to it.

...even if it makes the autism obvious.

• Graphic in headings from here (edited)
• Background from Flower & Clover