2025-06-03

Rain World Animation Analysis: Go Go Ghost Ship

You can watch it here

So, I really like Rain World. I stumbled onto this animation on youtube, and I wanted to make a post about all the different details the animator put in it.

I’ll try to link to everything that has a wiki page the first time I mention it.

This is not an extensive list of everything in the animation, just going through some things that are small enough for some people to miss.

General

  • The song that plays during the video (and generally inspires it) is Go Go Ghost Ship by Kenshi Yonezu
  • The lyrics in display are a slightly edited version of the original song.

0:00

  • The unique “known” karma symbols from top to bottom.

0:10

  • 3 “yes!”s referencing the triple affirmative
  • This is followed by the 10-Karma Symbol, typically associated with ascension, which the triple affirmative aims to communicate.

0:12

  • The screen displays each of the local group’s Iterators, along with some Overseers and a in-game screen.
Iterator Map Overseer Extra
Looks to the Moon Garbage Wastes Moon’s Yellow Overseer  
Seven Red Suns Underhang SRS’ Red Overseer We can also see Spearmaster next to them
No Significant Harassment Five Pebbles’ Superstructure Green Overseer*  
Five Pebbles Five Pebbles’ puppet’s room.    

We don't really know if Green Overseers are in fact from No Significant Harassment. Tho it is pretty likely to be the case.

0:23

  • First referance to pearls, which overseers use to store information.
  • Here the lyrics talk about Five Pebbles’ annoyance over his “endless wasted efforts”. This is very resonant with Five Pebbles’ entire theme of having a deep fear of being irrelevant / unnoticed.

0:34

  • Lyrics mention “android atop spinning strings” while the art represents the iterator (android) on top of strings. The entire theme of “strings” on the Iterator’s bodies is very appropriate, as their bodies are also often called their “puppets”.

0:41

  • Background shows an art of the Communication’s Array while Five Pebbles talks to Seven Red Suns (lyrics, again, mentioning how Pebbles wants to be noticed and appreciated)

  • for a split second at 0:44 we see Seven Red Suns sending the Spearmaster to Five Pebbles, and a gold pearl (back before everything went to shit. The pearl contained information on how to circunvent the self destruction taboo - the part of the iterators that impedes them from destroying themselves)

0:55

  • Five Pebbles explaining to other iterators his plan (and how he thinks he found the triple affirmative)
  • They rebuke him, saying it is too dangerous and a lie
  • He gets angry (again, displaying his rejection complex)

0:58

  • While most of the Iterators appear worried (covering their mouth with their hand, nervously reaching out),
  • The bottom right iterator, who appears to be No Significant Harassment, is unworried and smug.

1:07

  • Here Sliver of Straw is depicted as serene, calm, and dancing around. She is the only one to ever transmit the triple affirmative, which is relevant because:
  • On the next few seconds we see Five Pebbles (who is desperately searching for it as well) on the same screen as her, when suddenly the maximum karma symbol snaps into screen behind him. He reaches for it, but can’t quite touch it - representing how he feels so close to actually solving The Problem, how he just needs a bit more.

1:09

  • For a split second, an image of Five Pebbles looking at the Gold Pearl appears. The black background and just entire situation Five Pebbles is in can suggest that he is comtemplating ending himself, as the Gold Pearl has information on how they can self destruct.

1:11

  • A frame showing lots of other iterators in what appear to be a maze (although they honestly look a lot like cubicles to me), all doing their diligent work (trying to solve The Problem) with no success, and Five Pebbles looking up at the solution (represented by the max karma symbol), reaching for it.
  • The lyrics also talk about “A Miracle” suddenly appearing, and how everything, good and bad, will disappear (as he thinks he will solve The Problem, and thus ascend everything)
  • The symbol between him and the solution is the same symbol as when you encounter a specific Karma Gate that you are not allowed to cross for lack of a certain item. This might be representing how Five Pebbles feels “blocked” from reaching the solution (maybe by lack of resources).

1:20

  • Countless screens and pearls showing him relentlessly studying The Problem and the solution he’s devised.
  • We can also notice art of different “topics” Pebbles is studding. The rot (before turning into rot), DNA.

1:29

  • The symbols that appear on the background often represent “danger” in game.

1:32

  • No Significant Harassment, who is generally regarded as a bit of an ass, is depicted as being extremely mad: “Stop, right this instant!”.
  • Seven Red Suns, on the other hand, is depicted as worried: “Please calm down”.
  • We can also see, for the second time (and now depicting what lead to the Spearmaster campaign), Seven Red Suns sending the Spearmaster to Five Pebbles.

1:37

  • Looks To The Moon, extremely weakened, “interrupting” Five Pebbles’ research.

1:42

  • We are now presented a re-framing of 0:12’s screens after the disaster that created the rot occured.
Changes on the Map Changes on the Iterator
The Water is now green and weird Looks To The Moon is weak, on the ground
The Underhang has Spearmaster running through it (the poor guy looks anxious), and the red overseer following him Seven Red Suns is watching, worried *
Five Pebble’s superstructure is now filled with rot No Significant Harassment is creating the Hunter
Five Pebbles sad ;-;  

Seven Red Suns has admited to having an atachment to Spearmaster, which would also explain why they are looking at the map worried, not just worried in general.

1:58

  • Depicts the part of Spearmaster’s campaign when he goes talk to Five Pebbles.

2:07

  • Depicts the part of Hunter’s campaign when he goes talk to Five Pebbles.
  • We can see Five Pebbles analyzing the green neuron (that will later restore Looks To The Moon back to functionality).

2:18

  • The lyrics talk about “An eye-boggling unfortunateness” while the rot is expanding, referencing the name of that section of Five Pebbles’ superstructure in the game (Unfortunate Development)

2:27

  • WAWAWAWA a sound associated with slugcats.

2:48

2:50

This entire section represents the events of every rain world campaign in quick sucsession. Each of the campaigns sections is exactly 8 frames long, and each frame changes when the song changes number.

The singer going "1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8" matches with the frames "1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8" depicting each campaign.

2:51

  • For one frame we can see Five Pebbles targeting and destroying the red overseer.
  • A few frames later he seems distraught.

2:53

  • The Artificer gives Pebbles a pearl, probably representing the fact that it is the only campaign that Five Pebbles actually reads the pearls to the slugcat.
  • The specific pearl that Artificer gives him, in this clip, is the Music Pearl.
  • A small explosion on the background as Artificer leaves, probably referencing her in game double jump.

2:55

  • The Hunter is on pretty late stages of his illness, but Five Pebbles gives him a bit more time (the slight “rot” that was growing from out of the Hunter’s body vanishes)

2:57

  • The Gourmand SLAMS! the ground, something he does in game as well.
  • Five Pebbles opens the gates for the Gourmand, and chases him out of the superstructure.
  • Gourmand rolls out of screen, something he also does in game.

3:00

  • Five Pebbles points Survivor and Monk towards the Depths, where they can Ascend.

3:06

  • After Rivulet leaves, Pebbles grabs his Music Pearl and listens to it.

3:10

  • Together with the song’s bridge into chorus, we can hear Saint’s Ascension attack sound effect.

3:22

  • It’s theorized that what creatures see before they ascend is whatever they desired most. In that case, this scene suggests that what Five Pebbles desired most while living was the acceptance of his local group (friends).

3:35

  • Spearmaster, Hunter and Rivulet are sleeping on their respective owner’s laps.
  • Gourmand has slugpups on top of him, and they are pretty rotund themselves.
  • Artificer has not only her kids, but also an explosive spear behind her.
  • With very few frames, the entire video replays on the blurred background.

Last Frames

  • On the last two frames of the video, Saint appears to be putting the Music Pearl (which must have fallen a on the ground nearby) on Five Pebbles’ hand.