Welcome to Show Joe the podcast where I, Sarah, introduce my friend Joe to show Joe anime,
which is a genre of anime targeting adolescent girls and mostly featuring magical girl stuff
or romance, you know, cheesy, fluffy things. And Joe is a newcomer to the genre. So as the
veteran show Joe enthusiast, I'm introducing him hence the name show Joe, because I'm
introducing my friend Joe to show Joe Joe. Why don't you say hi?
Hello, I'm Joe of the show Joe podcast. I've watched anime. I haven't watched that much
show Joe. I have watched some. I'm not like a total newcomer. Like I have seen Sailor Moon
a million years ago. I mean, that's the image of show Joe that most people think of. That's
true. I've also watched Revolutionary Girl, Lieutenant. Does that count? That's old school.
Yeah. But yes, very much so. That show owns. So I'm probably going to mention it a lot as like
my only culture, like my reference point is like, well, this kind of happens in the antenna. But,
you know, some of this stuff also happens in that show. So. So today, the series that we're going to
kick off with is called Angelic Layer. And I do have a disclaimer that this is this will be Joe's
first time hearing that I googled it and it turns out Angelic Layer may technically be a shonen
anime in the show. My bad guys, but it's it's Clamps first kind of foray into shonen and it's
been referred to as kind of a gateway shonen. And honestly, I watched it as a 12 year old girl. My
sister did with it feels intended for young girls still just with action elements. This makes so
much more sense. I have all these notes that are like, man, these like battle outfits, these dolls
are wearing are kind of horny. Like it's kind of weird. I don't know. Why is it like this? Well,
as we just discussed, it would seem show bits, which is another Clamp series is within the same
universe. Oh my God. Angelic Layer. So that tracks. The show bits is so horny. I think Clamp Clamp is
a group of female manga artists. But you know, who doesn't like a little lady eye candy just all
around. There's there's some stuff. We'll talk about it. We'll talk about it. The interesting
card. They also make card capture soccer. The card capture soccer is not like this, is it? Not at
all. Am I going to look at card character soccer and it's a show? No, there's like no sexual
elements at all in that show. And no, it's very much show Joe, the best one in fact, in my opinion.
This was published in shonen ace. Shonen was in the name of the magazine. That's my bad.
You're like soft introducing me to show. Yes, yes. Because you're just such a manly man. He's
going to have a hard time. Yeah. Transitioning into the female target of this show that we got
it easy into it. That was totally my intention. If nobody's throwing a punch, I just can't. This
is why I watched Utena because they sword fight in that. And I'm like, no sword, no fighting.
What is that? I can't believe I can't imagine. That's right. All according to plan. Not a mistake
on my part at all. But yeah, so I've been watching anime since I was 12. Unless Pokemon,
I mean, Pokemon does count technically by watching that since I was a kid, but really
getting into it was when I was 12, I found like manga at my middle school library. Started reading
that. And then it, you know, just it's been a land slide since then of just all the stuff.
First manga series I collected was full moon, which we'll cover at some point. But now I have
like over 500 volumes of manga because I am not into saving money for a house or anything.
Who cares about that? Let's just collect books that you have nightmares about them catching on
fire. Yeah, that's kind of my experience with anime. You're like not, you're not selling the
like collecting manga is such a fun hobby thing where you're like, yeah, I just make my house
a huge fire hazard all the time. No, I just, I used to have nightmares that because when I was in
college, I didn't bring them with me because there's so many that I left them at home and I was
afraid something terrible would happen to them. Maybe that's because my sister would read them
while I was away and she told me that she dropped one of them in a bathtub and I was like, oh my
god, what's happening to them when I'm not there to protect them? But I mean, I like collecting
manga and personally I think Shoja is more suited for a print media like that because the level of
detail is much better versus anime, which I would say lends itself to a more action genre and because
it makes sense that there's less detail on fast moving scenes. Whereas a lot of Shoja anime don't
get that same level of detail that is in the manga in their anime counterpart. Because of like a budget
thing? I don't know if it's like, add dumb girls, they don't care. I don't know. I don't think that's
it probably. Yeah, maybe. I don't, I'm not sure. The parts where it's like something momentous happens,
they do a good job animating it, where you know, they're like doing the 360 camera on them,
kissing and it's all sparkly and blah, blah, blah. Where are you off the rails? This is where
you're introducing yourself. Okay. Well, do I need to introduce myself and be like, I watch this?
Go ahead. Nobody wants to. I did the normal US team thing where I watched Toonami and that's where I
saw anime in like middle school and high school only on Saturday nights. So Inuyasha. Yep. So I
watched Inuyasha. I watched like, how would bebop would come on like almost at the end? Sometimes
they play Evangelion. It's a lot of Naruto. It's a lot of they play Bleach sometimes, I think. I saw
like Fully Coolie and like some weird stuff that they would just play a lot for some reason. Yep.
And then I would watch more stuff like actually on purpose later. It's like in high school in
college. And it kind of runs the gambit. I've been like very recently watching a lot of older stuff,
like I'm watching a bunch of Gundam, like original Gundam. I watched like Dirty Pear. I've watched
like some older like stuff from the 80s and 90s. And I like the way they used to draw them. I think
the way I think newer stuff coming out doesn't look as good. I'm one of those people. Good thing
we're starting with the older one then. Well, that's just why I'm excited. Yeah. I mean, we should
watch some newer ones also. Yes. Like as a comparison point, but I find the older charming.
Yes, for sure. I mean, I do appreciate, I don't know if you watch Splietes, Thousand Year Blood
War or whatever. I hate, I did. Yeah. I hate the, I hate the new characters. They're stupid, but it
is nice to see a show that you watch in an older, less detailed animation style be brought into the
present where everything's so polished. It's cool to see. I guess that's why they've been
redoing so many shows like Hunter Hunter. They did like Card Capture, Sakura Clear Card, and
lots of other kind of just remastering or I guess reboot Tokyo Mew Mew New. So all sorts of stuff
like that. I guess what's happening in cinema is reflected in anime where we don't come up with new
things. Yeah, I feel like this is more of just like nostalgia loops get smaller and everyone's
just trying to cash in. I don't really know if it's like finally we can remake this with more
money. Yeah, maybe. I guess the people who are consuming this are now the ones working in the
industry. So maybe they just want to work on the thing that they grew up watching. That's kind
of sad. That bums me out, actually. Maybe that's better than the sequel series that we're getting
for stuff. Like if you watched any of those like the Inuyasha sequel series where it's about their
kid or Borto where it's about his kid. Yasha Hime. I think I watched the first season of Yasha Hime.
I don't love that they turn Shishon Ruin to kind of like Pito situation because he's so
gorgeous and I have a lovely poster of him. It's devastating. It's so bad. But I will say the
opening to that the first one is really good. It's so catchy. Like that the concept of it is nice.
But in that show in particular, we don't really see any of the original characters much at all.
And it's just these new characters and I'm not going to really care to watch it unless I see the
beloved characters interacting with these new characters side by side. Also, it's like I can't
watch this. This isn't canon, is it? You know, this is just new filler. Oh, do you care about what
is and isn't canon? I mean, I guess not necessarily like Disney made a lot of Star Wars stuff and
all of the way. But those are the ones that I liked, the ones that aren't acknowledged, I guess.
I am. But big old Disney. We're going to need to have like a side thing where we just talk about
all this other stuff. I'm like, I'm playing coach or what? How do you talk about it? Oh, yeah. Yes,
I'm so glad you're playing that. Anyways, okay, for realsies, Angelic Lair. I'll give you guys kind
of a basic rundown of the overall synopsis and then Joe's going to take us through episodes one
and two that we both watch and recap it and then we'll discuss from there. So Angelic Lair, which
is by Clamp, which we discussed their first as we also discussed Shonen, but we're going to pretend
it's Shoujo anime. It's about this 12 year old girl named Misaki and she is an aspiring player
of Angelic Lair, which is this fighting game where you play with dolls that you use like these kind
of VR headsets to control. That's kind of like the gist of it. So Joe, if you want to start the journey.
Let me see. I guess a couple other things to add. This show is from the 2000, it's 2001. It ran in
2001 and it's by Studio Bones. It looks pretty good. I like it. But it's also, I guess I'll like
point out some stuff when we're in it about like how Google Maps doesn't exist because this is old.
And I'll start with the summary. Episode one is titled How Do You Do My Very Own Angel? We open
on a weird egg and we're told that it's an egg with a dream. A narrator tells us that if you
raise the egg with wisdom, love and courage, it becomes an angel and then the opening plays. At
the end of the opening, we are introduced to our main character. She's a little girl who has come
to Tokyo alone to live with her aunt while trying to find her way in the Tokyo train station, a
mysterious man in a lab coat sees her and starts to follow her. Eventually she makes her way out
of the station and sees a giant TV attached to the side of a building showing a combat sport
between two women. One wearing a smaller white outfit or a smaller woman wearing a white outfit
and a larger woman wearing a black outfit. And while she's watching this two kindergarteners
come to her and tell her that this sport is called angelic layer. As the smaller fighter
starts losing, our main character starts feeling bad about being small. Then the smaller fighter
stages a big comeback which involves like flying in the air and growing giant angel wings and then
throwing a big green energy ball at her opponent which eventually wins her the match. Our main
main character is excited that the smaller one won and while celebrating she meets the mysterious
lab coat man who starts talking to her. He explains that the fighters are actually high tech dolls
called angels that you can buy from the store. So she runs off and buys one. Lab coat guy then
explains that angels start off in little eggs and you have to buy stuff to customize them. We then
get the introduction of the main character and we learn that her name is Misaki Suzuharu and she's
12 years old. Lab coat guy starts introducing himself with one name and then switches to a
different one midway through so he ends up introducing himself as Ichan. Ichan tells her picks out a
bunch of stuff for Misaki to buy and then gets arrested for being creepy. Misaki spends all of
her money on angelic layer stuff leaving her no money for the train ride home. She finally walks
to her aunt's place and shows her all the stuff she bought. Her aunt is shocked to see that Misaki
only bought angelic layer things and we learn that her aunt is named Shoko and is a news broadcaster.
Shoko asks Misaki when the last time she saw her mom was and Misaki tells her that she hasn't seen
her since kindergarten and doesn't remember her very well but she does send her money it is now
sending her to school in Tokyo which is why she's here in the first place. Then she runs off to take
a bath and brings the angel egg with her because apparently you're supposed to open it in the
bath even though that doesn't actually matter when it happens. Shoko cryptically comments that
angelic layer runs in her blood. We then cut to a bunch of angel dolls in different fighting game
looking outfits showing up on screens next to a bunch of stats. We pan to some facility where a
guy watches the screens and he comments that the next big angelic layer games are gonna start soon.
Ichon comes into this facility where he clearly works and tells and the guy tells him that he's
late. He tells the guy that he was late because he got arrested. The guy then accuses him of being a
pervert and then Ichon puts an octopus in this guy's pants that's the thing that actually happens.
Afterwards he pulls out a picture of Misaki with her grandparents indicating that he already knew
who she was. We cut back to Shoko who's on the phone with somebody who is clearly Misaki's mom.
Shoko asks her if she's gonna visit Misaki now that they're both in Tokyo but her mom seems to
say no for some reason. Misaki comes in while she's on the phone and asks her for some scissors
and her mom overhears her voice and starts to feel sad. Misaki assembles her angel which includes
giving it a wig and a haircut setting its stats like a big RPG character creator screen and then
giving it a name. She models the angel after herself and she names her Hikaru. Hikaru having
been complete opens her eyes and Misaki is very happy. In the other room a melancholy aunt Shoko
thinks about angelic layer and knocks back like a huge swig of a drink and then we cut to Ichon
who's looking like he's in the first episode of an anime and then to a mysterious woman in a
wheelchair as we cut to credits. Nice nice. And that's the end of episode one. Okay you want to
discuss from here episode one or shall we? Yeah there's a couple things. I mean I think we'll have
some things say when I talk about the second one too that took overall. Okay let's hear it.
Okay do you have anything? Yeah I yes I do. You have some big okay I just talked a lot you go.
Okay so the first thing I noted is that yes the subways the stations are overwhelming. Is that
true? I mean thank god my sister was there and somehow she was able to navigate it because I
would have just been lost forever. Okay. And because as you said Google Maps is a thing because
when I was in Japan I was able to Google Maps where we're going and it would tell us what stops
to take on the train which is very helpful so okay I imagine it'd be difficult. Because like I've
yeah I've never been to Japan I've never been to Tokyo obviously but I have played the Persona
games and they always put like the train sections in the Persona games and they're always the most
confusing thing and I'm like is this like on purpose or are you guys just designing this weird
so I guess it is just that complicated huh? Yeah I mean it works and I envy them for having that
just ready to go. Oh yeah nice to have trains. It was so convenient. Okay the other thing is like
when she's in the subway or the train station she only has like a tiny backpack that's all her
luggage is like one tiny backpack. Yeah. This poor child. That's a good point. Has no possessions.
I guess she's she's from uh it's gonna look up what place she was from is called. Oh yeah I had
that note she says it later on she does in the second episode it's um uh where is it in my notes.
It's south of Osaka. Okay. Wakayama which is like on the coast south of Osaka. Okay but I guess it's
some kind of rural area that in Tokyo is a huge culture shock for her coming in. Yeah she says
some stuff next episode which is very funny. Okay so for Ichon I made a lot of notes first one dude
looks like a stalker uh like concerning. It's because he's like he's like crawling around like
he's like a cartoon character in a world of regular people right. Yes yeah uh also the music that
they play in the background of the angelic fight that she's watching is pretty sweet like I think
the music is pretty good. Okay I think we did a thought I said this part where she's watching
yes the fight on the screen that's just like on the side of a building like it's being projected on.
What's with these angel outfits? Uh I don't know I think it speaks to the person who made the angel
about their taste. These are like sexy outfits I mean both the players we see are women because we
get like a shortcut of the like players after the match ends and one of them is clearly like the same
woman that's on the phone like it's clearly her mom her mom is one of them I'm probably the one
controlling the white fighter I think the tiny one. Mm-hmm. That one okay the one that's wearing
white is dressed like like a white knight. Athena. Yeah her name is Athena. That's the doll's name.
Yeah it's like she's dressed like like an RPG white knight and the other one is like wearing a black
leotard with like spikes on the shoulder blades and stuff like she's in Mad Max like it's all over
the place. Yes exactly. In terms of the like what we're going for here. I mean as we see later it's
just kind of the whoever I guess the angel owner. Oh yeah when we see like the montage of all of them.
It's up to them yes making determining how they look. They all look like fighting characters like
kind of sexy fighting characters like in the second episode she's gonna fight a like cat girl doll
with like a boob window. A keyhole in her outfit. Yeah I don't know I guess clamp artists or a bunch
of herbs or something. Oh well we get some stuff well we'll talk about that next episode. Let me see.
She gets depressed about being small specifically which is like kind of interesting in that like
is that a concern that little girls have? No. Like being small because I associate that more with
like a dude problem. Honestly or at least here in the US I feel like chicks who are small they like
to talk about how tiny they are just because they're like oh I'm so tiny and I can't do anything by
myself because I'm so tiny and cute and then other chicks are like oh my god we get it you're tiny
whereas she seems to be viewed as a negative thing. Yeah. Like I guess a physical disadvantage but
it's not like she's scrapping in school or something where that would even matter. Yeah I mean she is
also kind of timid like later on when she goes to buy the angel and like for some reason she goes to
like the dishware department of a store like she's just hanging she's like in the like kitchen section.
Oh okay so at least in my experience a lot of stores or department where each floor is a different
you know kind of how there's sections but each floor has its own thing so also she doesn't know
where the heck she's going so she's just that makes it. Well she's like she's like I'm gonna go buy
this angelic layer doll and then like we cut to her in like a dishware section and I'm like why are
you girl you're in the wrong place what is happening. Yeah no it's just all kind of in the same building
and she's really awkward with the assistant there but she's not awkward with Ichan who she's like
normal with. That's because he's not normal so she feels normal about herself for once. It's like
every all the other characters hate Ichan except for her who thinks she's like she just treats him
like he's normal. She doesn't have stranger danger awareness I guess. But he's but he isn't actually
like if you look at what he's doing he's not actually doing anything dangerous he's just like a
weird guy. Yeah I thought you're gonna I thought you're gonna be like who the hell is this guy
like why is he following this little girl and blah blah blah. Your team Ichan. Well I like we know
that he knows her by the end of this like he has a picture of her with her grandparents so it's like
oh this is like clearly like a family friend or something this is just some random guy. I guess.
Also freaking I can you imagine how expensive it would be to get one of these dolls. I can't imagine
a 12 year old having enough to buy any of that. He handed her like 10 boxes of stuff
and none of them were clothes. Like she doesn't have any clothes at the end for the doll at the
end of the at the end of the first episode. It's like a plot point of the second one. There's so
many like what did she buy? I know because all we see is the little like just the basic computer
that connects to the little kind of stand that she then puts the dolls which is a separate purchase.
So like three items is all. Oh yeah I guess the wig and that's all we saw as far as what the heck
she bought. But yeah so that seems I mean freaking. I mean this technology is crazy. Yeah it's gotta be
extremely expensive. Yes let's see and then he gets he gets arrested or he gets dragged up.
I was like good job lady attendant. Some rando dude drags a kid away. Yeah you know know by
standard issue here she just went straight to reporting it. I don't know I think he's fine.
What do you think about her mom so far? Okay hold on before I have a note before that. Okay.
Which is about Shoko her apartment. She has terrible wall art. I need you next time you're in
the episode I want you to look at the wall art because they're like behind the main couch there's
just like this huge painting that's just like a white canvas with like three colored lines on it
and that's it and I'm like Shoko why did you buy this? I don't know she's essentially what you
would imagine being the single dude with all the money spent on stupid stuff but it's her.
But it's her just buying garbage wall art? That and then booze. Yeah because I wrote auntie's
alcoholic when she was. Dude she's kicking back. She's kicking back some brandy at the end of this
episode it's great. Yeah but about her mom her mom fucking sucks. Yeah she does. She hasn't seen her
since she was like five. Yeah Shoko's like what was the last time you saw my sister and she's like
oh I haven't seen her since I was a kindergartner. I don't remember what she looks like. Terrible.
Like dude what? Oh my god. But she sends her money so that's something I guess. I mean I guess
by law maybe like child support not by choice. Yeah later on like Shoko's like hey you're in
Tokyo your daughter's in Tokyo you're gonna visit her and her mom's basically just like no I'm not
gonna do that. Like incredible. She's an oopsy baby. I guess I don't know I don't understand what's
going on here but like yikes Athena. Do you want to talk about the octopus on the pan? Yeah it looks
like it must go straight up the butt with how he's acting. This is that's not what I was thinking about.
Okay well I guess you would think about something maybe else more vital. That was interesting. Yeah
that's gonna be like a bit now the penalty things like a righty. It's just weird because like everybody
hates this guy. Everybody hates Ichan but he isn't really that weird particularly like he's weird
in that he's like a cartoon man. Yeah but like when you understand that he already knows who Miharu
is and also that he works for the company that makes these things the fact that he's like
showing her how to buy this stuff is a lot less weird to me now. I mean but what about when you
first watched where you like what the? Yeah he was definitely weird when I first saw him but like the
way everybody else treats him is like really weird even though he's like not particularly that weird.
I think I think it's because he's wearing a lab coat. I think people hate lab coats. Suspicious.
They don't like it when you strike cool poses. They want you to be boring. This is my theory.
So okay also I had another thing. Oh yep go in. This just like appeared a lot. Everything has like
a big crown logo. Yeah I think it must. Like your school uniform in next episode is going to the like
department store lady had it on her clothes. Yeah I wrote down the name of it. Oh it has a name?
Piffle Princess I think was the name of the store. She goes in the second episode.
Because I thought maybe the crown I see in clamp stuff a lot but that little Piffle Princess logo
I don't recognize from any of the other clamps I've watched. I think there's a lot of subtle
references to other clamp series. Okay. Did it bother you? Maybe this is just me. Freakin every
time she's holding that damn doll is like right onto the boobies. The thumbs are just right on
them boobs at the doll just. It just like looks weird. Are you talking about when she opened it
in the bath? Yeah. Okay that was weird. And when she finishes making it. So the first thing she opens
it in the bath which means she's just in a bath and she opens it. The egg is already full of fluid?
Like it's like water or something? Why is it full of liquid? I don't know. Also the doll comes out
and it's like a blue color but then when she like provisions it it turns into like a skin tone. Yeah
I guess. A normal human would have. She must have selected skin tone and eye color when she was you
know with her five button computer making her hikaru. I didn't know that she always grabs it by the
boob. Well okay sorry baby I'm just more aware of that but yes you just I mean because I'm trying
to think of how I would hold the I guess she holds it with two hands. I guess if I was holding. If
you were a giant. If I was holding a Barbie. You were picking up a woman. If you were king karn
and you had to pick up a woman how would you do it? Would you do it with one hand or would you do
with two hands? I mean one hand's more than enough and I don't know the pressure of crushing them with
both your hands maybe is the thing to be concerned about. I guess so. Okay I think that about covers
it for episode one if you want to. Wait hold on I have a karu stats there's one section that lays out
all of the stats she gets to pick when she's provisioning it and then there's like a there's
like a brief shot where you can see how many points she puts in each one of these. Okay so tell me tell
me everything. So there's six stats in angelic layer there is height weight offensive power defensive
power but it's spelled with two Fs for some reason quickness and physical strength so the stats she
assigns she gets it's out of nine so each stat has a maximum of nine and I guess you get like 31
points or something total so she makes the height a three out of nine she makes the weight a two out
of nine so it's really light the offensive power is a seven out of nine the defensive power is a
four out of nine the quickness is a nine out of nine so we're being real quick and then the physical
strength is a six out of nine so she basically is making like a glass cannon build here where it's
like the offensive power is pretty high you're pretty fast your defense is not very good and you're
like tiny and you're like a wave better not get touched or you screw right which doesn't happen
when she has the fight next time I guess well I guess I should just do the episode yeah yeah take us
through episode two now I read a lot for these this entire document with these recaps is a hundred
and it's 1300 words okay by the way you did a really good job with the last one very professional
oh thanks come on I gotta do it again okay episode two is called do your best hikaru it's your first
fight misaki wakes up the next morning and greets hikaru she puts on her school uniform which looks
like I say here it looks like a blue kingdom hearts themed sailor uniform because it has the crowns on
it but I guess that's something that is clamped there stuff yeah and then she makes a huge breakfast
for her and shoko misaki gets lost on the way to school and runs into another girl wearing a red
uniform the red uniform girl comments on hikaru and starts talking about her stats and build
she asks why hikaru doesn't have any clothes and misaki says that she hasn't bought any yet
girl feels bad and then wraps a handkerchief around hikaru and fastens it into like a little dress
we learned that this little girl is a kindergartner named haruko kobayashi from her brother who's run
after her he chastised her for running ahead we learned that his name is kotaru kobayashi and
is in the same class as misaki kataru is excited to have a new classmate and haruko asks if they're
going to kiss misaki and kotaru get embarrassed as haruko runs away misaki and kotaru go to school
together misaki is scandalized by the big city and how a kindergartner like haruko talks about
kissing we learned that misaki and kotaru are in the same class but before they can enter kotaru
is put into a headlock by his childhood friend tamayo kizaki tamayo introduces herself to
misaki while choking out kotaru we cut back to the facility where ichan is um we learned that he's
the chief that works there and his actual name is mihara we also learned that the guy we saw last
episode who got an octopus put in his pants his name ogata and ogata is looking for ichan but he's
not there we cut back to misaki kotaru tamaya walking home from school misaki tells them about
herself and how she cooks meals because she used to live in the country tamayo jokes that she should
be her wife and misaki says that girls can't be another girl's wife uh clearly the big city is
not scandalized her enough she's gonna have a lot to learn kotaru and tamayo leave misaki to pick
up hodoko from kindergarten as they leave we pan to ichan who's standing in a cherry blossom
dream laughing at himself like an evil villain he comedy bit jumps in front of misaki and then
hurts himself misaki thanks him for teaching her about angelic lair and he starts talking to her
about mihikaru's stats and build ichan creepily starts examining kakaru and misaki starts getting
uncomfortable each one tells her that angels can't wear normal fabric and gives her some special
fabric to make hikaru an outfit misaki handsows hikaru an outfit while ichan plays with some
cats in a tree the outfit she makes is like a red body suit with like a big screw on the front
like a screw head that you would use like a like a flathead screwdriver on each one tells her that
it's the perfect outfit for playing angelic lair and they should go do so right now misaki and
ichan go to an angelic lair club or facility where you can actually play the game uh each one explains
that the dolls can move when they're on a special computer table called a lair and tells misaki to
go rent one he then gets a phone call from ogata who gets mad at him for missing a meeting with the
chairman and for taking the samples with him which are clearly the fabric samples he gave to misaki
so that she could make her outfit misaki comes back and it turns out instead of renting a table
she accidentally entered a battle instead uh misaki is embarrassed but ends up playing her
match we learned that to play angelic lair what you do is you wear this like a r headset uh that
like shows up a heads up display while you could also see the lair field um and you control your
angel with your mind by like visualizing what you want them to do misaki successfully gets hikaru
to stand up in the lair and it's like a very it's like a very sweet moment where she's able to connect
with her doll and then the fight starts um while all of this is happening kataro and tamayo have
arrived to find hodoko who's wandered off they see misaki in the tournament and they start cheering
her on and hodoko is also there like watching the match in the fight all misaki can do is get hikaru
to dodge she eventually starts losing so she gathers the courage to counterattack and wins by
doing a big running clothesline that we saw uh tamayo do to kataro earlier in the episode when
she put him in a headlock misaki thinks hikaru as the episode ends and the credits roll and that's
the end of episode two yeah so much stuff happens how do you feel about it so far because it's hard
for me to just watch an anime but stop like okay you can't watch anymore until next week uh because
it was it was cool right seeing the fight and imagining what's gonna come from there yeah I
mean I think we have all of the pieces for like the setup freaking wins she does yeah she wins in
a way that I would be ashamed if I was her competition I feel like she probably should have
lost that because she basically just like one hit ko's her opponent like her opponent was like
beating her ass earlier like a lot uh but she must have a really bad build that's my she must have
done even more of a glass cannon build where it's like if you got hit once you're just dead yeah
but I feel like yeah everything's in place I feel like I understand where the show's
generally going so I guess we'll see how it goes yeah so my first note is auntie must be loaded
because their place is huge just like a whole freaking house that 120 something-year-old lady's
living in uh she's a news broadcaster famous for making bank yes that's how it would seem
yeah she's a really big apartment she's like a whole guest room that she doesn't use
yep my first note is that the breakfast that musiki makes is like enormous there's like 10
dishes I think a lot of Japanese breakfasts are like that it's a lot of little dishes that she was
like cooking with like four pots it was insane so much work never in my life um yeah what do you
think of the uniform because it's very distinct they really like the high high leggings in this show
yeah there's like I mean this is where I'm like this is a this is the shonen stuff where it's like
oh she has like absolute territory right it's like the the skirt that like fans out and like ends
like mid-thigh and then there are thigh highs I mean like I think the outfit's cute mostly yeah
it's fine I guess we haven't really talked about the designs do you want to tell us go through a
quick rundown of how you think her hair looks I hate her hair it's just stupid like too limp oh my
god okay so if you didn't watch this show her haircut is how would you describe her haircut
she basically has a short not quite pixie cut but a short haircut but the there's just two long
strands kind of at her temples like from her temple you know in front of her ears just two long
strips of hair that just hang out and everything else is short and it looks dumb I hate it yeah it
goes like past her shoulders like she doesn't I mean it's such an anime haircut or just doesn't
make sense and it looked terrible in real life you know what she looks like though I kind of like
it she kind of looks like a squidling from oh yeah totally that's what I think of I'm like oh she's
got a little tentacle okay that makes yeah that's totally tracks yeah that makes sense uh as far as
like normal haircut I don't like it that was she just snip snip that I like it I think it's you
know you gotta be interested you gotta look different enough that you're distinct and people
remember you that's right you need main character energy yeah normal hair color so there is
that yeah there is that yeah she's very but the outfits are fine yeah she she seems to wear a lot of
Chinese style shirts or where it has like the little collar line oh it has like the the stiff
up collar yeah like a curve yeah yeah yeah she seems to wear a lot of that yeah I did want to make a
note and this is the one reference that I really recognize is that their school is called aerial
academy and aerial is a character in car captor soccer yeah so I was like oh that's gotta be
in relation to that uh watching it in subtitles is how I thought that I probably wouldn't have
otherwise so after she makes breakfast this is the first time we get a joke where someone's like oh
you're so good at cooking you should be my wife this is gonna happen a couple times her aunt says
that right because it's you know women be cooking um then we run into and she gets lost again she's
like going to school for the first time and she like her aunt has written her directions like on
a card that's like oh turn left at this like flower shop um and then she's like oh no there's two
flower shops I don't know which one to turn on which again pre-google maps show right like this is a
kind of plot point that could just never really happen again that's pretty fun then she runs into
uh Hanako who's wearing a cool beret her outfit is like so Misaki's like her she's in what she's in
middle school high yeah they call it she's well so she's a middle school but yeah she's in I think
at seventh grade she's in sixth grade now because their elementary goes I think K through sixth yeah
sixth grade so she'd be in seventh but hers is like a blue and white like that's the colors they
yeah um Hanako's a kindergartner and hers is like a red it's like red and black which is way better
yeah I think it's just different she's a beret I'm assuming it's a whole campus one elementary
middle and high school so each one probably has like a distinct color for which okay but like her
opponent like when she plays against her opponent who's like also clear like probably like a high
schooler she's wearing like a normal very normal looking one yeah but do we know what like anything
else about this school I guess we don't at this point that's like is this like a private school
like what's going on they said that most people who go there stay within it because most schools
you know you try to get into the best ones not necessarily whatever's closest to where you live
so I'm assuming it must be pretty prestigious uh yeah especially with if they have all three
and on one single campus I'm assuming it's some kind of fancy thing like that and I guess yeah her
auntie's loaded and her mom the only thing she does to support her is financially I guess that's
the only way she's able to afford an angelic layer okay yeah I mean if her mom is truly the Athena
that we saw earlier um she's like she's like number one she had like 79 consecutive wins
it was like crazy so she's probably making pretty good money anyway uh Hotaco owns Hotaco's great
I love Hotaco yeah she's so cool also I don't know why it's like the small children in Japan all
their uniforms have the hats but then there's no hats for the older ones I love hats I would want
a hat like a beret for all through school grow out of hats right it's cool it's a good outfit
I love a good hat it's like a force to grow out of hats no hats are there
you don't have to wash your hair so if you have like weird bed head you just hide it under the hat
oh god I think they have to take their hat off for class though so then it'd be revealed that your
hair would be looking wack you are supposed to take your hat off indoors but yeah she's funny
she like when she introduces her brother she's like oh yeah this guy is technically my brother
it's just like why did you say that but do you see the implied romantic interest possibly
between the two of them you mean like when they're both on screen together and Hotaco's like you
guys gonna kiss or what yeah yes and it's just scandalized that a five-year-old no kissing she's
so funny oh my god freaking the sake it's like such a country bump didn't mean like oh man kids
know about kissing out here the big the big city is so advanced it's like she hasn't lost a disney
movie yeah it's like she's never hung out with someone she's never been cool yeah that's because
if she had any good friends they would have told her to cut her hair so obviously she hasn't had
any friends her whole life oh my god yeah the introduction of Tom Leo's great she's got nuts
I kind of relate to her I feel like I have had a lot of moments growing up where interacting with
boys was just being violent towards them you got me post that era of my life lucky for you
okay I met you when you were nice I didn't kick you in the shin or something yeah she just like
runs up in clothes lines the shit out of Katoa and then just chokes him out like during her
conversation it's a sock it's very fun although if I was him I'd be so annoyed if that happened
to me every single day dude he should just tap out he didn't tap out he needs to tap out yeah I
mean he seems to know a bit about fighting since he uh at the when she was at the place doing her
first fight he's kind of commentating with some knowledge seemingly yeah well like his sister
like Hanako is clearly big into it like she when she meets Misaki she's like examining
you're so perceptive yeah Hikaru like she's like she does the thing that Ichon's gonna do later
but everyone thinks it's creepy when he does it where she's like looking at Hikaru's joints and
being like oh you did this kind of build oh you're like your weight is probably two out of nine
right like it's that kind of thing in her defense the doll is already naked so she could just
blatantly see it whereas that's true each on he's like peeking up the skirt and it looks so creepy
when he's doing it and Misaki's so uncomfortable as he's doing it he does not do himself any
favors no he does not what do you say at some point they they say his goal in life is to surprise
people yeah I have that written that down too he's just like a weird guy bizarro his goal in life
is to be weird and bombastic that's pretty good he's succeeding in that regard for sure he is
succeeding oh I did have a note of course freaking angels can't use normal fabric because you have
to be able to buy the fabric from them specifically so that they make money and you're just saving
money by making your own clothes with your own materials the business model is stronger
that's a little bit later so let's see this is her walking back and she's like oh yeah like I
cook a lot because I live with my grandmother and we would just take turns cooking and then
and Tom we owe is like oh you know how to cook you should be my wife it's like the second time
so it's been like she can someone should be my wife because she could cook and that's when
Misaki is like I don't think girls can marry other girls scandal canceled she doesn't understand
Saki's cancels don't worry the next the next decade and a half is going to be a big learning
experience for you Misaki oh yeah she's in for whirlwind it's really funny because like after
she says that Katara is like yeah don't worry Misaki she's always like that which is so funny
to be like and don't worry she's like always gay like this just don't worry about it I kind of
identify with her aunt and Tamoyo on um saying that because I don't want to cook it'd be nice to
just have someone who naturally does it and takes care of you what I want to do for someone making
food for me without having to pay them okay it's you know all right or I could learn the food isn't
that hard we could do it we could take a cookie I made some sausage gravy with biscuits the other
day at least you know just like freaking that sounds good pills berry biscuits and but look I did
something they required some effort yeah there you go that's the same thing yeah you're just like
Misaki that's me yeah I'm so good um they give Misaki a nickname which is just Misaki Chee which
is just a longer name like it's not shorter it's longer which I don't think you're supposed to do
I feel like here or at least in western culture it seems to be the nickname is shorter so it's just
easier to say there it just seems to be like let me come up with a nickname so that it indicates to
others that we have a close connection because I have this nickname I made for you uh rather than
it just being convenient my next note okay do you have the episode pulled up no okay so the next
time you get the chance there is a if you go to 929 the part where Kataro is you know she they're
like oh your nickname could be Misachi and he's like you know like if you're not fine with that
nickname don't worry about it and Misaki's like oh no like I like it when my friends give me nick
names and he's like oh well you can call me uh Kataro he's just like you can call me with my
first name well yeah but which is a big deal it is a big deal but it cuts to Misaki and Tamiyo
and Tamiyo just has the biggest shit eating grin on her face yes like oh oh you want this girl to
call you just Matt your first name huh I'm a real one this girl you know yeah it's so funny Misaki's
like I'll call you Kotaro Koon which I guess I mean I assume that most people listening to this other
than like my mom are listening to it of their own interest in anime and already know honorifics and
stuff but Koon is like what you call a male peer Chan is normally for like younger kids that goes
to boys and girls no I guess girls mostly young kids and girls because even in high school I think
you call like a girl whatever Chan yeah I think it's like a familiar feminine honor whatever
designation yeah so Tamiyo's still calling him Taro Chan which he does not like because he's
freaking in seventh grade now big man can't be called that anymore it's very funny their dynamic
is very fun yes I put a note how on earth can he each on expect her to have money to rent a layer
when she's already blowing all that money on the damn doll to begin with he probably knows her mom
but he's like oh your mom's super fucking rich you can afford this right right that's true maybe
you can't I actually don't know because he doesn't because like she goes off to rent it um okay I mean
like I have a couple of notes where she like makes the outfit or whatever um legendary seems to us
just like sits there and makes a whole ass outfit in like an eye I have a note that says good at
sewing like Joe I like just took a sewing class for the first time like last month you're pro with
a machine she's doing this all by hand that's crazy tiny like how are you doing these stitches
insane tiny she has dexterous hands unreal talent this is the this is the secret of being tiny you
can use small needles and it's not a big deal yeah she's she's got to recognize being small hazards
advantages I guess that's like a whole freaking themes but just because you're little doesn't mean
you can't overcome things with her tiny doll I also noted that like she has this she does this
like yeah like cat yell a lot when she's surprised yeah notice this yes he's like yeah it's something
all the time and but she's not cat themed at all yeah yes like I guess I'm I've been told I sound
like a parrot when I'm surprised I'm like on stream when I'm streaming and I get startled I make a
sound that some of my viewers have said sounds like a parrot squawk oh you you're over there
squawking just so squawking on stream yeah so you can't control the sounds that come out when
you're startled or sometimes like in her parrot is released sometimes they squawk with my reptile
brain my bird brain I like the part where she's getting introduced and ladies talking to the
mic and she's like so shy and bashful and then she goes to bow and knocks her head on the mic
I thought that was really cute she's she's so awkward yes I can relate okay I made a note that
freaking dear listeners I work at a VR game developer so I have VR on the mind a lot and I
was thinking freaking need to make angelic layer into a VR game man or AR you know it is AR I
didn't know that would be so cool you can still see the stuff in front of you yes yeah AR so augmented
reality versus virtual okay but this is like so I have a couple notes about the fight number one
you start the fight by throwing your angel onto the table like it's a football which is like the
funniest thing ever and you throw it like you know what the lady say was her angel panther or
something was cool panther is that the name of her uh I think her thing is like okay the enemy
fighter is like dressed in a cat suit and is wearing like a futuristic visor like a star trek
and also has a big huge boob window and she also has these giant shoulder pads like the
cuba leaf from Gundam like it's the weirdest design I think it's kind of cool it's like kind of horny
kind of tech weird future I mean it's distinct for like a nobody character you know because we saw
some other dolls just as we're panning across the whole store that were so boring looking fighting
each other so at least yeah memorable you remember freaking boob window as you call it the cut out I
do it is a boot we're supposed to call it cut out although here if you watch love island like me
you would know that for some reason people think the more skin you can show the better but just
because there's cutouts doesn't mean it looks good it has to be tastefully done you're watching love
island yeah this is clearly like a cut out for cleavage just like calling it a boob window yeah
because that's fine that's one it's one like the damn all the sides are cut out and stuff what are
you gonna send me what okay are you sending me a picture oh god no but love island outfit you
were like look at this and I'm like what did I say that it's just imagine I'm gonna I'm gonna look up
love I love my god it's it's so not doesn't bring substance at all but I love it so much love island
outfits I'm not finding anything these people are all just tiny they would all lose out angelic
plate I don't think any of these people love it it doesn't matter if you're small who do you think
on love island would do the best job at angelic layer so you think can visualize our love island
angelic layer crossover yeah I've never even heard of a show okay well we haven't been talking enough
because it's like all I talk about I think someone funny would be ecco so she's this lady who's
insanely dramatic and just iconic I'd love to see what her doll looks like and what her a little
because they kind of have well back to angelic layer it's similar to how like in bleach they have
roar honey co or whatever they have like a battle shout out phrase for their zonpato and they do
something similar when they chuck their dolls into the layer I'd say you know it's a shonen yeah I
know it's a stupid okay this is just we're just easing into it you know the next series will for
sure be a full blown show Joe okay we're gonna just say this is in the middle about the thing you
were saying with it being like a like you need to make this so the way that it works is you put on
this this AR headset and it like shows some stats you can kind of like keep track of what's happening
but you can still like see the field and the way you're supposed to get the doll to move is by
visualizing it in your mind yeah how does that work technologically well like that's kind of like
the most pure version of a video game controller right because if you ever like played a game and
you go into like you get really into it and you go into like a flow state right you're not thinking
about like the buttons you're pressing you're just like making the actions happen yeah and this is
just like a direct way of doing that like the way you control this is by imagining it so this is
kind of like the most pure form that what I'm saying is that they perfected gaming this is the
perfect game yeah sure sure which is very impressive and also feels like it should cost a bajillion
dollars this is probably the most high-tech table that exists in the world real it'd be so cool though
well because we haven't seen any male angels but there are male ones you just I guess it's just
oh there are male-predominated uh sport angelic layer but there are so if you made a angel do you
think you'd make a boy or girl or what kind of angels do you think what's you're not making the
glass cannon I think no I want to make like a like a tank build like one that doesn't do that much
damage it's just about like tiring you out because I've imagined you know having to visualize all
this stuff gets pretty like taxing yeah if you do it for too long dummy you can't succeed in uh I
don't think it's about being done like how do you train how much are you focusing your imagination
is too strong it's I don't know how you get you got to watch a lot of cartoons you got to watch
a show show anime yeah I don't know we've only seen like the only we've only seen angels that are
women and we've only seen players that are women also yeah I'm excited for you to watch the rest
of it I guess overall thoughts on the show so far um I think it's good so far I think we have like a
lot of stuff that's flag-pulled I think it's a pretty good job of being like hey this show is
gonna be about like her weird feelings with her mom and like using this angelic layer game as like a
way of overcoming her like shyness or like feeling small yeah she doesn't seem like the personality
that would want to partake in something that's based off violence which is interesting yeah but
also well it's like yeah doesn't seem like she'd want to do like a big flashy thing right she's
just the scrappy relatable character just a lot of the angels are pretty cool that will meet along
the way so I'm excited for those I mean because you kind of saw a glimpse at them in the tech room
that oh like they have special powers because we saw Athena with her fancy magic energy ball
like okay that's crazy like they were having a normal combat fight you know what I mean like
just running and punching each other and then freaking Athena just jumps in the air grows
giant angel wings and then throws an energy ball I'm like okay we're doing magic over here like
does she have a special doll or just whatever you imagine can happen like the the rules of
law of reality don't apply anything can happen I guess yeah so I think this is pretty good I mean
I think it's pretty good so far I like everybody I think the characters that we got into are very
fun we haven't gotten like the rival like I don't know if we're gonna get like the rival or whatever
or she's gonna have a foil but maybe we don't need that because those characters are also sometimes
very annoying so that's true I I have a prediction yeah let's hear it yeah let's hear she's eventually
gonna get to the she's gonna get to a match where she fights her mom and her mom's gonna recognize her
but she's not gonna recognize her mom and it's gonna be like oh tragic this you just gonna
is her mom gonna demolish her go easy on her her mom's gonna she's gonna lose because she's gonna
be like oh this is my daughter and then she's gonna win she's like wow can't believe I beat
Athena the number 180 consecutive wins yeah because she just like froze and that'll be good go talk to
your daughter come on yeah for real go talk to your daughter I'd be so pissed if I was shoko I'd
be like you kidding me I'm like housing your daughter and you won't even come see her what's
wrong with you this is your kid lady not mine I'm I'm young and what if I want to bring a dude home
then I got my freaking niece oh boy yeah okay so that's our recap of episodes one and two of
angelic layer our semi show joe series that we're starting with because I picked that intentionally
we're sliding into it not by accident yeah that's right use joe into show joe as a genre so maybe
we'll do a poll on socials or something about what the next series should be which is still a long
ways off because we're doing two episodes of the show per our podcast episode and there's 26 episodes
total so it'll be a hot second before we're doing anything else so next next time it'll be
episodes three and four we'd love to hear your guys's thoughts on the show if you've seen it before
or if this is the only way that you're consuming the story of angelic layer luckily joe is doing a
very good job at walking us through the episodes with clarity and precision if they want to watch
this where where can you watch this um that's a good question because it's I mean I originally
watched it in dub but we're watching it in sub now uh for what I remember it's a pretty accurate
translation from sub to dub yeah I don't know where the official place to watch it doesn't look
like I'm on just watch.com and I don't see it in the US so I'm gonna you all you all are anime fans
I'm sure you have methods of finding anime yeah not as easy as it used to be but they've cracked
down it's still pretty easy listen I'm just I'm just surely crunchy roll has it I don't know it
doesn't seem like it's on there I don't think it's hopefully you guys are able to find it listen I'm
just saying you know maybe there's a subreddit that has a mega list I'm gonna say my anime list
we have a forum called free legal streaming of angelic layer uh okay so hi dive is a hi dive
has it I think so at least well how old is this post just kidding that's from three years ago I
used to watch high q dubbed I'm using it to watch bottoms it's it's the worst streaming I mean I
don't know crunchy rolls now the one they sucked in funimation yeah yeah back in my day uh crunchy
roll was like the anime social platform where we're posting on each other's walls I can still find
my old profile uh neither of them have angelic layer well well my summary might be the only way
you'll ever learn about this right this is the definitive must watch or listen if you want to
know about one of clamps first try is that shonen blast show joe if your friends ever like I want
to watch angelic layer but I can't find it anywhere just like oh well listen to the recaps on show joe
episode one through 13 yeah yeah yeah so yeah uh thanks for listening you'll hear from us next week
on episode three and four where the action really gets started right as five stars I'm excited for
joe to experience yeah oh yeah that I gotta do that I gotta set us up on everything right as five
stars on whatever your podcast platform you're listening to this on read the good word about
show joe if you do that maybe we'll maybe we'll read one yeah we'll read your reviews if they're good
yeah and funny and also five stars honestly I mean I just say rate it how you want it because
I feel bad just saying only five stars just give us your answer no no no I'll say it if you're gonna
rate us anything else just put your actual feelings in the comment and then give us five stars okay
yeah and I'll read the comment so I'll know if you're like joe talks too loud or I don't like
that you're watching a shonen on show I'll read that and I'll incorporate that feel better that
feedback in my heart of hearts but we need five stars my mom is on it okay till next time do we
have a sign off god I have my work cut out for me editing this