Computer graphics and motion graphics designer Optie is well known in doujin music circles for his visual collaborations with musicians who often work in BMS (the file format for rhythm games originally developed for Beatmania by KONAMI). Many of his videos are for music inspired by the Touhou Project, but some of them are independent.

One of these, a music video for a song called Mope Mope 「もぺもぺ」composed by frequent collaborator LeaF and submitted to the BMS of Fighters music event (BOFU 2017), has now been gaining attention on social media nearly two and a half years after it was posted to Optie's YouTube channel. Apparently, on May 28th, YouTube suddenly changed his video to "made for kids" even though the text "//!--- This movie is NOT for children. ---!//" is displayed on the first line of the video's description.

Don't be fooled by the screenshot at the top of this article. Although the video starts out like something made with small children in mind, everything bright and happy and cute, Optie's words of caution are absolutely warranted:

In a forest, a smiling flower sways and bounces from side to side in tune to upbeat, kid-friendly music...

Smiling balls bounce happily along a yellow road...

...more flowers flank the road as the bouncing balls make their way towards the camera...So far so good. "Why is Optie worried about YouTube designating his video as 'made for kids'? It seems completely appropriate," you may think.

But then things suddenly take on a horrific tone... (scroll down at your own risk)

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You can watch the video and see for yourself:

Naturally, Optie could not believe why YouTube would decide that his video was in any way appropriate for children, especially not the age group which the video may appear to be targeting at first glance.

Not only did the move potentially expose his video to inappropriate audiences, but as Optie later Tweeted, it also had the effect of hiding the thousands of comments the video had already attracted, comments which would be irretrievably lost if the status was not changed back within 30 days.

Some of the comments from surprised fans were:

• "It's 'Made for kids'? You mean it's (...) made to traumatize them lol"
• "Make kids cry and leave a permanent scar on their psyche, is that how they run YouTube?"
• "I'm sure they based their decision on the thumbnail and the first few seconds of the video lol"

It is quite probable that a human was not involved in the decision to change the status of the video, especially during this pandemic when AI moderation at YouTube has increased. Whatever the reason may have been, however, Optie's request was successful. As of yesterday, the video was removed from the "made for kids" category and the comments made visible once more.

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If you would like to view more of Optie's work, please visit his YouTube channel here and follow him on Twitter.

In case you're wondering, his videos aren't all scary like this one is. For example, here is Aleph-0, which was submitted to the previous year's BOFU: