I have to admit, it takes a serious set of stones for a video’s creators to give its audience advance warning, especially on Newgrounds, where most warning comes in the form of “there are boobies in this”.  And the creators of Voyage Episode One: Departure gave us a doozy of a warning–this is the content of said warning: What you’re about to watch is not a comedy,  so don’t attack it in voting because it’s not funny.   This is experimental in nature, so expect strange things.  Download the free music because it’s awesome.

So assuming you’re still interested in seeing this, you’ve already had two major hopes dashed.  It will not be funny, nor will it make sense.  It’s experimental in nature.  It’s organized around a song called “Unconsciousness”.  What’s next, someone’s going to cover an entire McDonald’s in cooking lard and declare it the enemy of the state’s arteries?  Seriously, folks, my Pomposity Meter is just PEGGING right now and I haven’t even started the video.

But starting the video revealed something interesting–the warnings largely were unnecessary.  Yes, it wasn’t funny, but what it was instead was an intriguing and poignant vision of an abused boy who’s given a rare and unusual offer–leave the oppressive “care” of the horrible old man watching him for something else.  Just what, we don’t know.  And hopefully by the end, we WILL know.  But for right now, I find myself ready for more.  Unconsciousness made a surprisingly good background track for this, and the story is surprisingly engrossing.

Looking very much forward to episode two.