The Anime Arc

"Mario and friends pay the ultimate price in a war waged against anime."

The Anime Arc is a story arc on SMG4's channel. It is the third major story arc on SMG4's channel after The Waluigi Arc and The Rapper Bob Arc. It is a series of videos by SMG4 that are part of a story involving the Anime Crisis, which serves as the main storyline of the arc. The crisis involved two major events: Firstly, Peach's banning of all anime and, secondly, a wide-scale kidnapping of inklings orchestrated by Francis and the Anime Cartel.

The Arc is divided into two chapters. Some episodes of the arc also share some of its plots with what's unofficially known as "The Splatfest Arc" or "The Missing Meggy Arc", which serves as the Arc's subplot. It even features the death of Desti. This arc is the darkest among all other arcs, as it features the death of a major character.

It is the first major story arc in Season 9 and 2019. Spanning 12 episodes across 3 months, it is the longest story arc that the series has ever made, and the first arc to have two plots with two viewpoints, as well as the first arc to have two major antagonists. It is preceded by The Rapper Bob Arc.

Synopsis
The first chapter has Peach declare a ban on anime after one of Mario and friends' shenanigans destroyed her castle and form the Anime Secret Service (A.S.S.) to crack down on weeb-related activities, therefore initiating the aforementioned Anime Crisis. SMG4 and his friends go to Japan and team up with manga artist, Axol, to lift the anime ban.

The second chapter is Meggy, along with thousands of other Inklings, getting kidnapped by Francis, the Anime Cartel and Axol's anime creations, who also held Axol hostage. A battle was then started, and as a result, Desti was killed.

Plot
In the first part of the story, Princess Peach gets anime banned after the events of SMG4: Mario and the Anime Challenge. Mario, Saiko, Bob, SMG4, Fishy Boopkins, Axol, and Francis have to work together and team up to get it back, but there is Chris, Swagmaster, and the entire A.S.S. agency (Anime Secret Service) against them. Meggy wasn't really helping at first, due to her hatred of anime and the fact that she’s too busy training for the Splatfest, but after learning that Saiko couldn't stay during the ban, she decides to help them.

After the anime ban is lifted and the A.S.S. are disbanded, the second part of the story begins, where SMG4 and the gang can now focus on their training for the Splatfest, but things go south when they discover that Meggy was kidnapped. To make matters worse, every other Inkling as well as Axol has been kidnapped as well. All the while, the kidnapper is revealed to be Francis and his Anime Cartel in which their main goal is for Francis to use the Inklings' ink to supercharge the Inkweaver to create a waifu paradise for himself. The SMG4 crew, knowing they were going to need help if they wanted to rescue Meggy from Anime Island, convinces Chris Gordman and Swagmaster69696969696 to order the last members of the A.S.S. to form a coalitionary force to storm Anime Island.

As a result, the Battle of Anime Island was initiated by A.S.S. agents opening fire on the shores of Anime Island and had caused many agents (and anime characters) to lose their lives in the fighting. Meanwhile, Meggy and Axol were saved by the allied forces, but Desti was fatally killed due to being impaled by False Sephiroth's Masamune. Despite the SMG4 team's best efforts, they couldn't stop Francis from unleashing Super Saiyan God Goku. Seeing that her friends were overpowered and helpless, Meggy ordered Axol to re-activate The Ink Zuccer 2000 to drain all her ink to power the Inkweaver, despite Saiko's protests. With this, Axol summoned Ultra-Instinct Shaggy to destroy Super Saiyan God Goku while Saiko threw Francis in a mini ink zuccer and zucced him to his presumed death. Shaggy saved the SMG4 team and the inklings from Super Saiyan God Goku exploding, destroying Anime Island and killing the rest of the Anime Cartel, before recovering Meggy, who was transformed into an anime-esque human by The Ink Zuccer 2000.

With the Anime Crisis over, the SMG4 team, among other characters, visited Desti's funeral. As the attendees saluted to her, Meggy promised that she would win the Splatfest for her.

Pre-Arc

 * SMG4: If Mario Was In... Splatoon
 * SMG4: Mario waits for pizza
 * SMG4: If Mario Was In... Splatoon 2
 * SMG4: The Mario Carnival
 * SMG4: Mario Goes to the Fridge to Get a Glass Of Milk
 * SMG4: Mario's Prison Escape

Part 1: The Anime Ban

 * SMG4: Mario and the Anime Challenge (Beginning of Part 1)
 * SMG4: Mario's Illegal Operation
 * SMG4: Mario's Lemonade Stand
 * SMG4: The Japan Trip
 * SMG4: Meggy's Bootcamp
 * SMG4: The Mario Showdown
 * SMG4: Mario Saves Anime (End of Part 1)

Part 2: The Missing Inklings and the Battle of Anime Island

 * SMG4: The Splatfest Incident (Beginning of Part 2)
 * SMG4: The Inkling Disappearances
 * SMG4: Mario and the Experiment
 * SMG4: World War Mario
 * SMG4: Final Hours (End of Part 2)

Post-Arc

 * SMG4: Mario Does The Chores
 * SMG4: Mario Works at McDonalds
 * SMG4: Stupid Mario Maker 2
 * SMG4: There's Something Up With Meggy...
 * SMG4: A Day In The Life Of Everyone
 * SMG4: Treasure Hunt With The Bois
 * SMG4: Mario and The Lost City...
 * SMG4: The Day SMG4 Posted Cringe
 * SMG4: The Minecraft Plague

Related

 * A genuine message to our fans
 * SMG4: 3 MILLION SUB FAN COLLABORATION!
 * About the Anime Arc

Trivia

 * This is the first arc on SMG4's channel not to have a character's name in the title.
 * This is the first arc on SMG4's channel to follow two different points of view, until SMG4: The Mario Showdown.
 * This is the first arc on SMG4's channel to have two plots (the first about un-banning anime and the second about rescuing Meggy, Axol, Desti, and the Inklings from the Anime Cartel).
 * Hideo Kojima appeared in almost every single episode, usually briefly, most likely as a reference to him being born in Japan where anime is popular.
 * This is the first arc in which Bowser, Toad, and Wario do not play a role. However, Bowser is present at Desti's funeral in SMG4: Final Hours, albeit without a speaking role.
 * It is also the only arc in which Waluigi does not play a major role, though he does have a brief minor appearance in SMG4: Mario's Lemonade Stand.
 * This is the first arc in the series to have a character or multiple characters officially killed, those being Desti, who was impaled to death by False Sephiroth's Masamune and Francis who was, at the end of the arc, in that same episode, absorbed by the Ink Zuccer 2000 and exploded from Super Saiyan God Goku's self-destruct which destroyed Anime Island along with everyone who was still on the island.
 * This arc did not have an episode on May 18 as this is due to the fact that SMG4 released his SMG4: 3 MILLION SUB FAN COLLABORATION! special on May 18 to commemorate his channel having 3 million subscribers.
 * The anime ban in the arc is probably inspired by the, or the European Union's meme ban, which has tech firms responsible to take down any content posted without permission.
 * After the events of SMG4: The Splatfest Incident, the channel banner had a hole where Meggy's face is.
 * After the events of SMG4: Final Hours, the channel banner was changed again to feature only Mario and SMG4.
 * Later, before the release of SMG4: A Day In The Life Of Everyone, the channel was renovated to be renamed SMG4 // Glitch Productions and the channel banner was updated yet again to feature the main cast on the left side (with Meta Runner characters on the right side and Luke Lerdwichagul, Kevin and the Glitch Productions logo in the center), including Human Meggy and Axol.
 * This is by far the darkest arc on the channel yet, especially in the Part 2 episodes, with The Waluigi Arc being a close second.
 * This is also currently the longest arc on the channel, with the foundations of it being set up in much earlier videos.
 * Much like The Waluigi Arc, it deals with a character being permanently altered from what they were before as a lasting consequence, with Waluigi retaining his new powers even after his reformation, and Meggy being drained completely of her ink, becoming an anime-esque human girl as a result.
 * According to SMG4 and Kevin in the video About the Anime Arc, the arc was originally supposed to be focused on Fishy Boopkins. He was also supposed to be part of the Anime Cartel.
 * This is the first arc on SMG4's channel to end on a bittersweet note, considering the fact that, while Francis and the Anime Cartel were defeated and all the inklings were saved, everyone attended Desti's funeral.