World War II was waged over six years on every continent apart from South America and Antarctica. 70-some years later, the everyday shifts of the European Theater's front lines can be tracked in below seven minutes, thanks to a mysterious, map-loving animator also known as Emperor Tigerstar or Kaiser Tigerstar.
The power-shifting colors (red for Axis, blue for Allies) are astonishing, as is a relentless timer ticking off the days between Germany's invasion in Poland on September 1st, 1939 and VE Day, May 8th, 1945. Royalty-free music by Kevin MacLeod as well as audio samples varying from Mussolini and Hitler's declarations of war to Franklin Roosevelt's Day of Infamy speech add to it.
We felt like throwing some ticker tape around when blue triumphed. However, we're mostly curious about this Emperor Tigerstar, that relied on disparate sources like Chris Bishop's Military Atlas of World War II as well as Wikipedia to create the extraordinary record in Windows Paint.
According to Open Culture, a careful reading of his blog reveals a die hard history buff with a weakness for metal music, wholesome CGI movies, and statistics.
He is also a workaholic. His YouTube channel boasts an astounding assortment of map animations, along with to an alternate YouTube channel where he remaps history responding to his own "what if" type prompts. He somehow finds the time to preside over The Blank Atlas, a website whose members contribute unlabeled, non-copyrighted maps that are available for free public download. He might well be a brony, as evidenced by the video he was recently working on, World War II: As Told by Ponies.
Meanwhile, let's hope that he makes good on his threat to create a universal World War II map animation. Could that be the secret project he is aiming to launch on January 1, 2014? We can't wait to find out.
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