Welcome to Shojo, the podcast where me, Sarah, and my friend, Joe, us two wacky folks get
together talking about Shojo, a genre of anime that is typically for girls, kind of young
teens stuff, romance, all that good jazz.
And I'm more familiar with it being the targeted demographic.
And then we have Joe here.
Mr. I watch obscure anime.
Okay.
It's not that obscure.
These are people know what these are.
All ass anime.
It is old, but it's not obscure.
Okay.
It's, it's tasteful.
It's good.
So that's Joe.
I'm Sarah.
Also, we're getting some romance.
This time the teen romance has shown up in Angelic Layer a little bit in these episodes.
So get ready for that.
Yes.
It's already delivering more of the most shonen because if you haven't already caught on,
which you should listen to our other things far, obviously.
I think you should start with this episode.
I think you should start with the smoke.
Absolutely.
No, it's it.
Well, we're halfway now.
We're halfway through Angelic Layer.
This is it.
The halfway point.
We'll kind of go into what each of us has been up to in the last week.
I don't have very much interesting things.
Someone's been working at their company.
Someone's been doing their job.
I know, right?
Watching shows and too busy working.
Yeah.
Well, it's like, I, OK, I guess I'll start.
I'll work and then immediately take a nap for like three hours.
And then it's already like nine at night or something.
And then I don't have that much time before it's bedtime again.
So I've just had limited time to work with this week.
But when I was a little adult, I know what a drag.
Imagine having children.
No, I will not imagine.
No, I don't want to.
Yeah. Oh, I do.
OK, I just remember before I get into what I've been doing.
I did have a nightmare.
I did have a nightmare that I have brought like a bunch of manga with me to,
I don't know, it's like a bookstore or something.
And I had my manga from home with me.
And at first, I thought these people were just checking out my sweet collection.
But then I realized they had stolen some of my volumes.
So I like reported them.
I was like, I will seek revenge.
I will get my manga back and all this stuff.
So even in my dreams, my my anxiety about my collection.
This is like your prize possession.
I feel like you're having all these nightmares about them all going up in flames
or people coming and stealing them.
Yes, yes.
You're like collection of books.
This is from the age of 13 to 19.
All money went to manga and it's a lot of money.
And I mean, I took the break for college and I've slowed down.
So I'm only currently collecting norgani and skip beats.
I am like, I had to buy a second bookcase.
So I'm reading books now, just like in general.
Oh, real books and not have some comic books.
Manga. I have some comic books.
I have some I about all the Akira manga and I haven't read it yet.
That's I haven't even seen that movie.
It looks creepy, but I know it's like a classic.
It's cool. Well, the animation is super cool.
But I've heard that the like manga is really good because like the
paneling is in the arts really good also.
But I had to buy a second bookcase.
That's where I'm at.
But I can't imagine how many bookcases you must have.
Well, right now I have five.
Five. Five.
Yeah. And I've had a double stack.
And there are I mean, because Ikea just has really cheap little shitty ones
or or Target, Target has cheap ones you can get that are like 20 or 30 bucks.
So I just get those and they just look so good together.
Yeah. So many, many books.
And then let's see, Playing More Horizons Here at Dawn.
And I was reading this web comic called I Shall Master This Family,
which is pretty cute.
I know it's like the name is like, oh, God, no, more reincarnation crap.
Is it a reincarnation thing?
I wasn't even thinking that from the title.
It's I started it, took a break and back.
So I don't like super remember the beginning of it.
But I guess it's like this Korean lady who is then, you know,
woke up as this young noble girl and then she lives that life
and then she gets killed and then she's re.
But wait, there goes back in time as that person,
but not the first person she was.
She's the kid again.
And so this time she's doing things differently
because now she has the knowledge of the future.
So she got reincarnated once as a fantasy person and yes, died the whole life.
And now she's doing it a second.
Yes, it's weird.
I know, like just cut out the first bit makes no sense.
But anyways, it's like pretty nice.
I mean, at first I was like, damn, where's the romantic lead?
Like, come on.
Is it a drama?
I don't know what's happening. Is it like, yeah.
But so she has like her family and then like her dad's with her son.
So she's not really in the running to be considered a future heir.
She's a girl, blah, blah, blah.
But it's like kind of starts when she's eight and then she grows up.
But so you get a lot of time with just her and her family.
So like you really like the relationship of her and her dad and her and her grandpa
and then her dad like almost died and I like to shut it to her and everything.
I was like, nah.
But is she acting normal?
Like if I was, if I, if me as an adult went back to when I was eight,
I would be like a super disaffected eight year old.
Like I wouldn't want to go to elementary school.
I'd be out.
Well, I mean, I'd be like, I know calculus.
I'm leaving.
The yeah.
So she's kind of, you know, she is a kid, but she's trying to find subtle ways
to like turn things in her favor by inter, uh, like interrupting things
or changing the direction because basically she wants to set her dad up for success
and prevent him because he like gets this illness.
So she like ahead of time has this lady start developing a cure for it.
And like she takes a lot of preemptive measurements.
Um, so she's very ambitious to pretend to be eight.
I know a whole year.
I know that would suck.
And then having to pretend to be nine as if you weren't like 45 or whatever.
Yeah, that'd be tough.
Um, there was an awful nightmare world.
Yeah.
Oh, well, speaking of which, there's another web, uh, comic called my reason to die,
which is a very dramatic one.
Oh, well, actually this is a huge spoiler alert.
So if you're reading that, just skip like 30 seconds, but it turns out that it's this girl
in the sky that she's into and he's been living the same life over and over again.
Uh, like his whole life, he has to keep living over and over again.
If they nightmare.
Yeah.
So like so long, like how much life of the same life you have to live is just exhausting
to think of, you know, like, oh, I got to do this all over again.
It's like Groundhog Day, but it's your whole life.
Yeah.
I guess you could, you could do things different.
So maybe that's like a little bit better than just like one day.
Well, essentially it's like he's trying to figure out the thing he needs to do.
So that the stops happen.
Uh, but yeah, that'd be awful.
And that's all I've really been up to of notes.
So what have you been up to, Joe?
What have you been watching playing?
I'm watching Original Macross.
I'm watching an old, I'm watching an anime from the 80s.
Yep.
As I'm sure you're surprised to learn.
Yeah.
So Macross is like it was original Macross was supposed to be comedy spoof of Gundam or something.
But really just became its own show.
And also if you watch it, like this is clearly a thing that's like, oh, in the like pitch for the show,
that was the pitch for the show.
And then when they started writing it, that's not at all what's happening.
Yeah.
Once they got the green light.
They changed it.
Yeah.
Because basically the premise is at like the end of the 90s, a giant alien spaceship hit Earth
that had all this future technology.
And it's like this big battle station.
It's the Macross and all of like the world governments have like, oh, they're aliens.
We got to got to combine into one human unit and refurbish this battle station and have something to
defend ourselves with from all these weird alien tech or whatever.
So they have this big war and then that works itself out and they refurbish this battleship.
And it's like the show starts on like the day of the like, finally, the battleship's going to set sail
and they get attacked by a bunch of weird aliens.
It's crazy.
It's like pretty good though.
So in terms of what is happening like with the lead characters.
How so?
One of the problems Gundam has is that it writes women pretty bad.
Oh dear.
Normally they just don't get stuff to do or like whatever they try to do a romance thing.
It's not very good because most people are just like shouting the themes of like what their character
represents all the time.
Essentially, they're just there to like send off and receive as they come and go from battle,
probably.
Yeah.
Well, like I know you've talked about before how like, oh shonen stuff doesn't do romance very well.
And I'm like the reason for that, I think, and that what this show actually does a pretty good job of
or has, I'm like five episodes in so far or six episodes is they take the time to put the two like
romantic leads or whatever in the same place for a while and let them just hang out for two episodes
or like an episode and a half and you really get an understanding of why they like each other.
Yeah.
Of like, oh, they play off each other really well and they make each other laugh and they like,
this is one thing that she admires about him and this stuff that he admires about her.
Like they set all that up.
They spend the episode three doing that and like three and four is like that.
And so they set it up up front so that everything subsequent makes sense because I already have
that understanding of why these characters like each other.
Instead of just because they're the opposite genders, they automatically like each other.
Yeah.
It's not just like, well, this is the girl who clearly got character designed pretty well.
So we know she's going to be important.
And it's just interesting to see how like if you set the stuff up right, it pays off later down the line.
Like it's not, you know, it's not that hard to make this stuff work.
They just kind of don't do it.
I know you should just start making your own anime Joe shown how it's done.
Well, I already think like, I feel like the real problem with a lot because I was thinking about
like different romance and shonen stuff.
And usually I think they do one side like one half of it pretty well.
Like I was thinking about like a Naruto, right?
It's like pretty convincing to me why Hinata likes Naruto.
Like I think they do a pretty good job of what she likes about him.
And they do a really bad job laying out what he likes about her.
Well, because he doesn't.
Because he doesn't really until like later on.
And then it's just like, oh, this works out.
And now we can all get buried in heterosexuality rules.
And then Boruto starts with.
Boruto is a stupid name.
And I'll never watch it because of that.
It's so funny.
I'm sorry. I get it because I was going to say because his name is Minato and the Naruto.
So it's like the toe, but come on, there's gotta be something better than Boruto.
It's a crime against the anime.
Yeah, it's pretty bad.
But like a lot of the shonen stuff I always imagine being like they do a pretty good job
of like setting up like the woman's motivation for liking the guy and they do a terrible job
of like selling up the guys of motivation because I, you know, I don't know if they can imagine that
med would like women or other for anything other than how they look, I guess.
I don't know.
I think it's because like, you know, the chick, all her whole purpose for being there is to like
him, whereas he's got other stuff to do and she's just like, you know, there on the side,
you know, like make the women very simple, like no other interests except the dude.
And then the dude's like has all this epic things going on that he's involved with typically.
Yeah, they should let the men have emotions.
Yeah.
Like I still can't believe that in bleach each you go in a roof, you don't get together.
They so clearly get along better.
Yeah.
Yep.
It's so good.
They're so good together.
Anyway, that is one nice thing.
That's what I was watching.
I was thinking about this this morning, but just Angelic Blair, even though a lot of the characters
are dolls, they're self female.
So it's really cool seeing all these cool, like, you know, so much variety in these female leads
and characters because I feel like if there is a female character, normally there's like the token,
there's the dude, the friends, and then the love interest, and then the chick who's a friend.
But that that character is always either kind of bumbling and unaware and, you know, overly
endowed and then or they're super aware of that fact and they're super like hyper sexualized and
stuff like they're never normal.
They're always like ditzy or seductress.
What are you thinking of specifically?
Well, I was thinking of Rungeeku from Bleach, right?
Cause like she could be interesting.
Well, she does have interesting things, but like she's like a super side character though.
I know, I know.
I'm trying to think of something more like Orihime is the one in Bleach.
That's like a main character and like Rukia.
And I feel like their boat.
I mean, Orihime is very like a ditzy and has big boobs.
Yeah.
But she's like nice, but like Rukia is normal.
Yeah.
Well, Rukia, just hang out with Renge.
Okay.
Like, no, I don't like that.
Fix your stupid hair.
Get it out of your face, girl.
I hate it.
I mean, it's not as bad as that one girl with like the make tongue.
You're talking shit about her.
Yeah, she's the best.
Yeah, she's great.
She sucks.
Her freaking.
She sucks at drawing.
It's great.
Right. Her entire idea of what the Soul Society is is just completely incorrect.
She's whatever.
I need to have a conversation sometime about how the listen, the Soul Society arc of Bleach,
you know, the part where they go to get season two and three is probably the best arc of any
shonen thing ever.
Oh, yeah.
I have like recently, like in the last like two years, I read the manga for it and I like
rewatched part of the show for it and I'm like, this is maybe the best stuff that's ever happened.
And then the rest of the show just like tanks immediately from there.
Yeah.
Well, because it's a shonen that has like world buildings.
We don't know these things and there's all these cool characters and it's kind of tournament
style, which is like essential for the shonen with like a clear objective and stuff.
Yeah, but it's like, it not just has world building, but it has perspective.
Like I feel like a lot of the stuff that more modern shows are missing is like any perspective
on stuff.
Like this is the main problem I have with Jijitsu Kaizen, which is like, yeah, it has
world building, but none of the characters have opinions on what that world is.
Like everyone just kind of takes everything at face value and there's no like ideology
really in there at all.
And it's kind of, it just doesn't feel realistic at all that none of these characters would have
like opinions about the way things are run or who is running them or how the world should change
or like what the world should be.
And Bleach has that.
And that's what makes it good.
I got fine.
I definitely are.
And unless I for some reason sold them, I have the first three seasons on box set.
I can't remember where those are.
But yeah, I mean, yeah.
And then that's the thing, right?
A good thing, it'll go bad if it goes on long enough.
So it's like just be short.
Like Demon Slayer is very popular right now.
I've read that I have the manga in its entirety.
So it's like fairly short compared to a lot of shonen.
Like just end it on a high note, you know?
It's kind of just a high note.
Well, not a terrible note.
Like, you know, seasons and seasons of it just declining and then ending.
It's fine.
The first opening is freaking amazing.
But yeah, sorry, we were talking about women characters.
I dragged us talking about how cool this is.
But yeah, whatever.
It's because you're like, oh, this is just like wrong geek here.
I'm like, she's like the super.
Well, I just think right.
She's barely in the show.
Essentially her and Orkeame, they're both redheads with big boobs.
One's the ditzy one and one's the super like self aware that everyone's like staring at her boobs all the time.
Like those are just two typical things I see.
What about Yorichi?
Yorichi is freaking cool.
Oh, she's so cool.
See, because she's like one, it's nice.
Look, that's an interesting looking character.
She's diverse.
And the soul society makes sense.
In Japan, it makes sense that it's everyone's Japanese, right?
Because that's like the how it is from the most part.
That, you know, they're not as welcoming to foreigners living there.
But in the soul society, in theory, everyone should be from around the world in the soul society and not just Japan.
So there is a bit more variety in the characters.
Yeah, I mean, but like they are imagining that the afterlife is basically just like feudal Japan.
Yeah, that's true.
Which is crazy.
Oh, I need to talk about bleach sometime, but I don't think we should do it now.
But yeah, I think there is, I mean, I think you're right about like the broad archetype of like how women are portrayed.
Yeah.
Yeah, it's pretty bad.
Mostly they just don't get stuff to do.
Yeah.
They just like don't get a character arc, which sucks.
Yeah.
Or like they aren't a thing at all until at some point they just conveniently make them cool for the sake of like a surprise like Mary Jane from Fairy Tale.
What does that happen?
Who?
I think it's Mary Jane from Fairy Tale.
I've read the manga.
I haven't really watched much of the anime, but I feel like she seems pretty laid back.
It's a little bit awful hair cut.
Uh, whoa, with the stupid hair ponytail thing sticking up.
It's like straight up, yeah.
Yeah, her, but then she like has this cool power, but it's a while to see that.
I don't remember that show at all.
Uh, it's the same person who made Rave Master, right?
I don't know what Rave Master is.
You don't know what Rave Master is?
Yeah.
When I was in sixth grade reading Tokyo Mew Mew, all the boys, all the nerd boys were reading
Rave Master.
Yeah, I didn't read in middle school.
Thank you.
Okay.
Let's see who's going to be playing Halo and being cool.
Dear, okay.
Okay.
Anything else you wanted to discuss before we get into episode 11?
I have other things I'm watching.
I think we'll talk about them next week.
Okay.
Yeah, gotta save it.
And I'll go on like a long thing about how Star Wars Rebels is really good.
Rebels.
For that.
Okay.
But yeah, so now we'll have Joe Alredo's lovely script that he agonized over.
Let's go.
Yep.
Let's go.
Halfway, halfway through the show.
I think, yes.
Yes.
I can do math.
All right.
I can do math.
I can do it.
Okay.
Angelic Layer, episode 11 is called The Match.
Hikaru and Mal's real fight.
If you don't remember last time, you know, they were having that fight and it was a cliff
hanger, picks up right off of it.
We open on a flashback of Alice creating an angel.
Monika comes in and sees how it's going and Alice explains that she's no good at controlling
angels, but she does get mad when her angels lose.
Then we transition to a fight between Suzuka and Monika's angels from last year's tournament.
So this isn't Mao.
This is a different one.
I think it does have a name.
I just didn't write it down in this summary.
Suzuka wins that match and Monika and Alice are dumbstruck that they lost to a four year
old because, uh, I don't know, four at the time.
They resolved to defeat Suzuka next year.
Then the credits play.
After the opening credits, we jump back to the present where Hikaru's movements are being
delayed by the device Alice planted on her last episode.
Hikaru is really struggling as Mao is beating the crap out of her.
Back in the control room, an angry Ichon decides that he is going to stop the match.
When Fuji Mori asks why, he explains that Hikaru is being inhibited by a special coordinate marker
which has been causing quantum interference.
But before he leaves, Ojiro shows up and we learn that he and Ichon are brothers.
Ojiro tells Ichon that he can take care of the problem for him.
We return to the match where Hikaru can only block at this point while Alice keeps causing
interference.
Annoyed that the match won't end, Monika explains to Misaki that she must beat Hadoko to regain
her lost pride.
Misaki tells her that that's weird and they should just be playing for fun.
Then she says that age doesn't matter in Angelic Layer because anybody can play it,
which is what makes the game so fun.
Mao ready's a knockout kick while Hikaru is lagged out.
But Misaki regains connection just in time for Hikaru to land a quick punch right into
Mao's chest which does a lot of damage.
Alice panics and starts activating her device more and more but it's stopped when Ojiro
shows up and calls her out on it.
Mao and Hikaru continue to fight while Ojiro explains to Alice that he loves Angelic Layer
and that nobody should be able to win outside of Pure Skill.
Monika starts wondering why Alice isn't lagging Hikaru anymore so she turns and sees
Ojiro near Alice and wonders why she isn't ejected from the game for cheating.
While Monika is thinking, Mao is stopped moving.
Misaki asks Monoko what's up and waits for Monika to regain her composure.
The match continues and Hikaru is using Suzuka's moves which is kind of bad news because Monoko's
whole deal is beating Suzuka so she starts to counter them really effectively.
This causes Misaki to panic so she starts changing it up a little bit and lands a good hit on Mao.
Elsewhere Shuko is impressed.
Then Hikaru kicks her out of the layer winning the match.
Back in the cafeteria, Hikaru and Shoko are watching the end of the match.
Hikaru apologizes to Shoko for delaying the interview but Shoko quietly states that if
Misaki and her mom are going to run into each other whether they want to or not.
Which really confuses Hikaru who doesn't understand the context of that sentence.
After the match, Misaki asks Monika if Mao is alright.
Monika removes the device from Hikaru claiming that she just had some lint in her hair and then
leaves.
Ichan talks on the phone with Shuko and tells her that she's reckless and she should take care
of herself.
On a park bench, Monika and Alice lament their loss.
Monika says that she's gonna try to make her own angel and that Alice should try playing with Mao
because Angelic Layer is after all about having fun.
Back in the waiting room, Misaki thinks about how crazy it is that she's in the semi-finals
when she can't even do simple vaults in gym class.
Honoka comes in and we learn that they're not matched up against each other in the next fight.
And then Kaede and Sai both enter and introduce themselves because we have our top four.
A receptionist calls them in and Misaki gets nervous to go out on stage to present the top
four.
And Sai holds her hand and tells her that she's only gotta take the first step and then it's easy.
They walk onto the stage to a cheering crowd.
Misaki thinks Sai and Sai tells her that she hopes Misaki will overcome Hikaru's weakness
before facing her in the final if she wins her match against Kaede.
Misaki is shocked because she didn't even realize that Hikaru had a weak point.
Elsewhere, Ichan and Ojira wonder if Misaki will be able to figure out the weak point
that was mentioned.
Once a dently at the same time.
Everybody knows this now.
And Ojira says he'd like to battle Misaki one day.
We end on a concerned Misaki wondering what the heck her weak point is that everybody
seems to know as we cut to credits.
Oh yeah, okay.
Oh boy.
So yeah, because a lot of this was just fighting so there wasn't as much like combos happening.
But in the flashback, it's at the third nationals.
So there's been three nationals, which I assume it took at least a couple years for it to gain
momentum to even warrant having nationals in the first place.
So maybe Angelic later has been around for five-ish years perhaps.
Hey, I have a question.
Yes.
When did Shuko leave Misaki?
Was it five years ago?
Was it more than that?
I don't remember how long she'd say that.
She's said since kindergarten, which would be like five.
So and she's 12 now.
And yeah, getting friggin Madoka.
I could see it being hard to swallow that you get demolished by a four-year-old.
I was watching that flashback.
Who's barely pie-trained probably.
Yeah, before you hear like she's like, oh, she's got it out for Suzuka.
And it's like she has a vendetta against a five-year-old.
It sounds ridiculous.
But then when you see this flashback, it's like, yeah, it must be pretty devastating to lose to
an actual four-year-old.
Yeah, jeez.
Like I would also feel like a loser.
Yeah, I mean, technically that's like a mentality that go against the thing you're playing,
which is that everyone's equal.
I guess that just because that's kind of how it is, that doesn't mean that the people doing it like that part of it.
Well, it just yeah.
I mean, that's that's Misaki's whole thing.
And like it makes sense, but also it must be very jarring, especially for like a sport that's only been around for like three years to be like,
it's so equal that you can lose to literally anybody, even a four-year-old, which you would like never lose to anything else in a competition.
Against a four-year-old, you know, like you can you can beat a four-year-old at anything.
I can be a four-year-old at anything, except for maybe Angelic Fire.
I don't know.
My one of my kid brothers, he's like a boy genius and he probably was better than math.
And I am now as a four-year-old.
Okay.
That's how bad I am at math.
I have some notes about the the doll that Alice is making in the flashback.
It's now.
Not now.
Oh, is it?
Oh, no.
It's it's it's the previous version of now.
Okay.
Yeah.
It's the similar aesthetics.
Eunpio Eunpio.
Yeah, something like that.
That's that's the doll's name is Eunpio.
I think I saw it on like the display when she was fighting Suzakone the flashback.
Also, like I think Alice just always makes cat girls.
Yeah, I guess.
Because also has popular thing we see in the anime.
Very funny.
I also have some like it show when she's making it, it shows that staff screen that we saw.
So I can do a comparison between stats and Hikaru.
So I have it written down here.
And the biggest thing is like, okay, so Eunpio is height 70% weight 65% and Hikaru is 40%
height and 30% weight.
So she is like taking all the points out of height and weight and put them into the other stuff.
Offensive power for Hikaru is 80% and Eunpio is 70.
Defensive power for Hikaru is 50 and Eunpio is 30%.
And then quickness for Hikaru is 100 and for Eunpio it's 50 and then physical strength is
they're both 70.
So basically what Misaki has done is taken all of the points out of height and weight
and put them into offensive and defensive power, which makes a little bit more sense as to why
like Hikaru can tank more hits and also dish out better hits.
Well, you would think I'd like to see what the tallest and shortest possible versions of these
angels are side by side.
But you would think that I don't always my points in height.
I'll just make them a little shrimp and then I'll be super strong because they'll have the
you know points for height go into something more productive.
Well, it's interesting the height one would be the weight.
Yeah, because I think it like weight makes sense because so many matches end with somebody
getting pushed out of the layer.
So like even if you had higher points, if your person gets knocked out, you're just out.
You just lose.
So weight actually does feel like something that matters.
A hefty little chunk around the player.
Like if you I'm assuming if you're like max weight, you basically have to lose on points.
If this was Pikmin, then the best would be the purple ones, the big fatties.
They never get pushed out of the layer.
Yeah, but that was my that was my notes on that is like interesting.
We actually see some mechanics of how the dolls are specced.
And they OK, so they are Alison Madoka or sisters, but they don't seem very close.
Like they're both scheming together, but they don't seem to share any like sisterly bond.
I don't know, love or something like they're just you know, they're like.
Why do you say that?
Well, I just it's weird like some of the system like the younger one makes a thing and then
the other one just takes it.
It's like a relay.
It just it seems bizarre.
And freaking if you're going to be scheming, don't yell your plans.
And also OK, if one person one of the day is talks, the other can hear it, right?
Are they mic'd up?
Can everyone hear what you're saying?
Because I feel like people would be able to connect the dots if you're yelling like,
you can't blah, blah, blah.
You know, I don't think there was.
Were they talking to each other?
I don't think they were.
Well, they weren't talking to each other, but they were both kind of saying,
well, they have like the scene where Madoka starts a sentence and Alice kind of finishes it
from the crowd, but they're both kind of like angrily shouting like,
will it be the ones to defeat Sizuka or something like that?
Because they're in sync.
See, I feel like they're so in sync.
They don't need it.
OK, because they're such a good system.
OK, the title of the last episode was mean sisters.
Yeah, they're mean together.
OK, that's bonding.
Jesus.
They form a girl gang.
They don't seem to enjoy like they're not having fun.
And that's like a plot point like, oh my god, OK, I have a hard time suspending disbelief
that they can like learn it just in that moment and like change their mind and how they feel
about everything just by like two sentences from Masaki.
Oh, geez.
Well, I mean, I feel like it's a little bit more than that.
Like it's not just like that.
I feel like that's the tipping point stuff.
It's like, hey, even your opponent is saying that this is like they're cheating at this tournament.
Right.
Like they're trying.
They want to beat Suzuka outright.
Well, I wonder.
Right.
OK, so like they don't even think they can beat Masaki.
They have to cheat against her.
Like it's like they're really in a desperate situation.
Like they don't seem well.
It's not subtle.
It's kind of like with the bully chick who with the whips because she knew Masaki wouldn't know
about it.
But these people don't necessarily know how much she knows the banjale player.
So you think they went cheap with something that's so obvious.
They're cheating that she would just call them out and then it all be null and void.
Wait, I mean, they got caught.
It's not like they got away.
I mean, I know why do they think they could?
But because they're desperate.
This is what I'm saying.
Like this is a bad plan.
They say something.
Oh, is it the quantum interference?
I haven't gotten over Ojiro's expletive or not Ojiro's.
Ushan's explanation of what's happening.
Yeah.
What is happening?
I was like thought transmission.
That's how I guess it works.
Quantum interference.
I don't know.
Are they quantum entangling the neurons in your brain with whatever
activates the doll and what's happening?
It's like it's one to one.
That's why your thoughts can like your neurons firing to move your arms,
moves their arms because quantum entanglement is happening.
Is that the interference?
Did Ichan make the most advanced piece of technology that's ever been made
to design a children's game?
Yeah.
What?
I can only comprehend so much of what you've just said.
And the other thing happens immediately after he says that,
which is that Ichan and Ojiro are brothers?
OK.
I was like I hinted at it last week like, oh, there's a reason why I keep kind of
referring to him as being creepy too because he's the creepy guy's brother.
So maybe it's just the two of them together.
A little weirdo's.
OK.
But he is not creepy.
And also Ichan isn't really that creepy either.
He's a whack job.
He's just doing jokes.
He's just doing weird bits.
Insane.
But they don't look anything alike.
How surprised were you by that?
I was pretty surprised just because there's like nothing that would make me think that.
Yeah.
Other than he like hangs around.
Yeah.
OK.
And then freaking Ichan gets up like, I'm going to go shut this game down.
And Ojiro is like, let me handle it.
And I'm like, you're wasting time.
She could be losing in the time you're spending like not doing something immediately.
Because she keeps getting hit a bajillion times.
And isn't out somehow.
That's because she got defense.
She put it in defense.
I guess.
As long as she just gets kicked out of the way or she's good.
I mean, also like 10 minutes, this seems to be going longer than other ones.
Like do they extend the time and the health point so it's more entertaining because there's
less contestants in these finals?
It's just two times.
You think?
OK.
Yeah.
At one point, Monika calls Misaki tiny or Hikaru tiny.
So like hitting her where it hurts.
Oh, yeah.
Misaki is like a response from Monika is like, we have to we have to defeat
Hanoko to regain our pride.
And Misaki is like, what?
I know.
We're all just playing a game.
What are you talking about?
Yeah.
I mean, everyone just speaks so cryptically that she goes again.
So she has no idea what they're referring to.
Yeah.
Well, it's just like weird because she is not tapped into like she's competitive in terms of
it's like she wants to play good games.
I have a note here that's like Misaki is just like Goku because she just wants to have good fights.
But she's not competitive in terms of like she's doing it for fun and not because yeah.
She's like scoring the righty or like, you know, becoming like they talk about being like, oh,
shining in the layer.
That's how an idol would do it.
But she doesn't like really want to be an idol.
She just wants to play good games.
So the idea that people care about like the status, I guess it's more than winning.
She wants the vote, the reason she wants to win is because then she can continue playing
at Jellic Layer.
It's not about being someone but the continuation of this thing that she's found that she loves
so much.
It's like the it's like the positive form of competitiveness and none of the negative
aspects of being competitive.
I thought it was cool that Misaki is like trying to copy all of Suzuka's moves,
but because she's fighting the person who specializes in fighting Suzuka, they all
backfire.
Yeah, good.
That's cool.
Stop doing that.
Stop using someone else.
Like you're just an imitation, a pale imitation of Suzuka.
Well, that's probably her weakness, right?
Because like when she changes it up, the thing she does is she jumps super high in the air
in the same way that like Athena does.
But instead of shooting energy ball, she just kicks her because she can't shoot an energy ball,
which is pretty funny.
What is the speed at which these dolls are falling?
You would think that's enough time to dodge like from going up high to falling down and
kicking.
I feel like you could dodge it.
Yeah, but I think Matt was also in the air and you can't dodge when you're in the air.
OK, I guess.
Wait, there's a part where Shuko is watching from outside on the big screen and she's like
cheering for Misaki.
And I just made a note like if you don't want to see your daughter, don't cheer for her to
win because that's just going to be the inevitable outcome.
If she keeps winning is you're going to see her.
Yeah, that's what Shuko says out loud.
Yeah, Shuko, you make your weird.
Yeah, I understand less of Shuko's role now than I did at the beginning of the show.
And like I don't understand like what's that conversation she has with Ichon where Ichon's
like, oh, you're so reckless.
Go rest up.
Like how is she reckless?
Like why are you I don't understand what these people's motivations are.
I don't understand what's going on.
I mean, OK, she's going to die.
Well, here's the thing.
She OK, you don't want to exert herself so much.
Why is she the only person you're using to test these things?
Like, because if you have alternatives that could, you know, they could take turns doing
this strenuous thing rather than one person only.
Yeah, well, apparently Ojiro can't his own brother.
Apparently he can't.
Yeah, what is that?
Is this in the play?
I don't know.
It should be able to.
I don't understand.
So yeah, OK, Misaki, I'm getting tired of you doing the cringy like, oh, is your doll OK?
I hope I did.
That's what she does.
That's what she is.
And that's how you know she's nice because she asked if the doll is OK after the match.
It's a doll.
Oh, God.
Obviously, I did not form special bonds with dolls as a small child.
Yeah, but this is like her whole deal also.
I guess this is like what makes her good angelic layers that she bonds with her.
I realized that she had like nothing.
What she do with her time before.
She moved to Tokyo by herself where she knew nobody.
Oh, that's a first-interesting thing to do in her life.
She's in middle school.
What do you want?
I don't.
Interests.
Have interests.
You're still an individual even if you're a kid.
You still have things you like.
She does.
She likes angelic layer.
Now, by just saying 12 years of no.
She lived in the countryside.
She never did anything to do.
She lived with her grandparents.
I don't know.
Hospice care.
She loves hospice care.
Yeah.
Do you think Misaki realizes that the device was there?
Because like, not a good like pulls it off and it's like, oh, there was some lint and it's like the biggest no cell ever.
And she just walks away.
But like Misaki knows that there's something delaying that thing.
She's just never going to question again that there's something wrong.
I was going to say if she doesn't know, then is she going to be worried that that's going to keep happening?
He car is defective?
No, it doesn't get.
She doesn't think that deeply. I don't think.
I mean, it doesn't get commented on, but I feel like she has to know something was weird because then it resolves.
Well, they should get in trouble.
They should be banned from competing for several years.
Suspended.
This is why Ojira wouldn't handled it.
It's like, you can resolve this peacefully.
I mean, Misaki wouldn't want that.
You can't care? There's rules.
There's rules.
You must be punished for breaking.
She should be able to make quantum interference devices.
Yeah, that's true. What up with that?
How does she have access to that technology? What's going on?
See, if this is the longer running show, there'd be some mysterious character who had given them that thing
and that they were pulling the evil strings from behind them.
That would suck.
Like Naraki from Inuyashita or something.
There's evil all on their own.
Let's see. My next note is when Misaki is in the...
They're getting introduced as the semi-finalists.
Finally, the peanut gallery has met her.
Yeah, they're all here. It's very funny.
Misaki, Kaede and Sai walk up and Misaki is like,
Oh, you're whatever is Angel's Day.
She remembers the Angel's names and doesn't remember the day's names, which is very funny.
I mean, easier to remember, I guess.
That's true. I always refer to Athena by Athena and not Shuko.
I refer to Athena before Shuko.
Yeah, Sai, I already gushed about how cool she is, but I said she's too cool for school.
Like, take that school uniform off. You're too cool for it. You're too cool for a school uniform.
My note is that Sai can be Misaki's mom.
She can. She's being nicer than Misaki's actual mom is to her.
You think she'd be like icy, abrasive, put up a wall, but she's not.
She's like holding hands. She's so freaking cool.
She does turn to her after Misaki's like, Thanks for helping me out.
Thanks for helping me get on my nerves for coming out here.
And she's like, Yeah, I hope to face you when you figured out your one true weakness.
Sabotage.
That does not elaborate.
Sabotage.
Misaki's like, What the heck are you talking about?
Oh boy.
Yeah, and then, yeah, and then I can't remember because, you know, I have seen the show, but I can't remember what it is.
I feel like it's just more of a broad thing than a super specific thing.
I don't know.
Well, because Misaki next episode is going to be very like, Oh, it's because I'm small.
Yeah.
Because I'm tiny, obviously.
I mean, it's we're talking about he cars weakness, not yours.
You've already proven that size doesn't matter.
I don't, I mean, we'll see.
I don't remember.
God, I can't wait.
Well, we'll get into it after episode 12.
I'm like, I am ready for more action.
You can get so intense and awesome from here.
Well, bad news about next episode because.
I know.
Get that out of normal.
I'm like, Yeah, I wrote me a thing.
No, get that out of here.
Back to the fighting.
All right.
Maybe I should go on this on the summary.
Yeah.
Angelic layer episode 12 is titled Misaki and Kataru.
The two is exciting date.
Ooh.
What a transition.
We're getting here.
It's the morning and Misaki gets out of bed.
Choco left early today.
So Misaki starts vacuuming alone with the oldest looking vacuum cleaner I've ever seen.
I have a vacuum like that.
I have one.
You do?
Yeah.
My grandma gave it to me.
On TV and ad for angelic layer comes on featuring the angel Athena.
Misaki is hyped because she hasn't seen anything from Athena in a while.
And then she realizes she's going to be late to school on the OP plays after we cut to
Choco and Athena trying out the prototype headgear again.
Athena is jumping on some polygons while Ichon and the team watch.
Ogata is impressed that Choco is able to keep testing day after day, which annoys Ichon.
And he demands that Ogata get some tea and cushions for them to sit on while they take
a break.
And if he doesn't, he'll have to wear a kimono and Ichon will be his arms as a punishment.
Choco asserts that she doesn't need to take a break.
And if they don't hurry the testing, they won't be able to roll out the prototype in
time for the finals.
But before she can finish making her case, she passes out from the stress.
Incredible work Choco.
Not backing up your words.
I'm fine.
Passes out.
Immediately goes back on that.
In the hospital, Ichon complains to a bed ridden Choco that she shouldn't push herself
like that in front of him.
She apologizes but says she wants to do as much as she can for angelic layer.
And Misaki, which doesn't make sense.
And also Ichon does not reply to this.
Back in the control room, Ogata is doing his punishment with his co-worker Inada.
But Ogata gets to be the arms and everybody has a fun time.
Back in school, the girls are playing volleyball and Misaki accidentally nails Tameo in the
face with it.
After the game, Misaki tells Tameo that about what Sai said about her weakness, but Tameo
says that she's probably just messing with her.
We cut to an angelic layer practice arena where Misaki is running tests with Ikaru.
Her test results are good and she's bummed she can't figure out what her weakness is.
She runs into Kataru and Hotoko.
Kataru explains that he's taking Hotoko shopping and Misaki says that's very kind of him.
Hotoko comments that sometimes the kind one will only ever just be a friend because
she's stone cold.
And then she decides that she wants to run some tests too.
Hotoko aces all of her tests and Misaki wonders how she can be in the semi-files with somebody
so talented.
Hotoko says that Misaki and Ikaru have something that can't be measured in numbers, so it's
all good.
Misaki realizes the time and rushes home.
Hotoko tells Kataru that maybe Misaki looked kind of down and maybe it's a good idea to
go ask her on a date, which makes him blush.
While rushing home, Misaki buys some sake and food for Shoko.
The store clerk asks her if she's in elementary school which bums Misaki out.
She wonders if maybe Hikaru's weakness is being small, just like how Misaki is small
in real life.
While she's thinking this over, Kataru runs up and asks her if she's feeling down.
We cut to Misaki and Kataru at the park, and Misaki tells him about Hikaru's mysterious
weak point.
Kataru doesn't have an answer for her, but he offers to show her some of his karate
moves tomorrow, and maybe she can use some of those moves in her next match.
Misaki thanks him by grabbing his hands and they get all blushy.
The scene ends and we cut to the next morning where Misaki is making a ton of food.
Shoko walks in and Misaki tells her about her date with Kataru, and Shoko teases her about it.
We meet up with Kataru at the park and they eat, like, three box lunches that Misaki made.
Afterward, Kataru brings Misaki to the karate dojo he goes to, which turns out is also the
dojo that his family owns.
It's closed today so they have it all to themselves.
Kataru goes to change and Misaki thinks about how she really needs to watch him very closely
so she can remember the moves.
Then we get, like, a montage of him doing a bunch of, like, judo moves.
Misaki is very impressed.
Kataru explains that he can improve by maximizing his effect while minimizing his movement.
Misaki asks if even small people can learn to fight like that, and he says yes.
Misaki is feeling a lot better and Kataru decides that now is the time to ask her out for real.
But before he can, Tamio randomly shows up and knocks him out.
Misaki is very impressed with Tamio's knockout move and asks to see it again.
Time passes and it starts raining.
Misaki panics because she's left her laundry outside to dry and rushes home, but she actually leaves her lunchbox at the dojo.
Tamio offers to bring it back, but Kataru stops her because he wants to do it, because this is supposed to be his date.
This leads to them getting into some kind of, like, awkward embrace slash grapple,
and Tamio starts, like, stoically talking about how Misaki is cute and straightforward and good at cooking
as if she's, like, secretly very jealous, which surprises Kataru,
but then she turns this into a goofy takedown saying that he'll have to get through her to get to Misaki, so...
Hmm.
Misaki gets caught in the downpour and has to shelter at the park.
While waiting, Ojiro shows up with an umbrella.
He says it's a nice day and the rain stops and the sun comes out.
Then he tells her that he heard about a new system for Angelic Layer that's going to be revealed at the finals.
That might change the game.
Then he says he's looking forward to her next match and walks away,
and it's revealed as he walks away that he was carrying two umbrellas,
one in his hand and one behind his back, as we cut to credits.
Well, there's a lot that happened.
This episode has a, like, despite...
The episodes where there isn't just a big fight montage and I can't just be like, the match continues.
There's a lot of stuff I gotta talk about.
Yeah, well, all the different scenes, right?
Because we have the Misaki perspective.
We've got the Hitoko and Kotaro perspective and the, you know, the camera room,
like, monitor room with Ichon and them, and then, like, Mom, Shuko.
There's a bunch of different characters that we're kind of seeing their perspective of what's happening that we have to cut.
We check in with a lot of people.
Yes.
So you said the co-worker, Ogata and Inata, is that right?
I believe so.
That's gotta be confusing.
It's just like Shuko Shoko.
Inata, it's Inata and Ogata.
Hinata or Inata.
Like, I, Inata and Ogata.
Okay, gotcha.
Lots of hands.
Yes.
Tamayo getting, you know, knocked with the ball and then Kotaro immediately also getting hit with the ball, maybe.
Oh, yeah.
That was pretty funny.
Yeah, because Misaki hits the volleyball directly into Tamayo's face and then Kotaro's like, oh my god, are you okay?
And then he gets, you know, the same, like, treatment with the soccer ball.
It's how we like, it's nailing the face so hard.
Where are you for yourself, my dude?
How are you just nailing so hard on the cheek?
Ass is out, yeah.
Yeah.
Are we?
Okay, so the part where they're testing the system of the new system, like Shoko's testing it and like, you can just jump in got a bunch of polygons.
Is the whole system like projecting a landscape?
Is that what it is?
It has to do with the landscape.
Because that's what it looks like.
Yes.
Because normally when they fight in the layer, it's just like a flat ground.
But Athena was jumping on like some video game-ass polygon map.
So I guess they're adding like terrain.
Yeah.
Well, yeah, I could see it.
Well, although with terrain comes, how are you going to get all the angles if there's, you know, like everyone's not going to be able to see something if they're behind a big rock or something.
Oh yeah, the perspective matters, right?
Yeah.
It has to be like symmetrical.
Something, yeah.
I'm like, we don't see cameras, but they've got to be there somewhere.
Yeah, well at the tournament, they're like elevated.
Yeah.
Like the chairs are lifted up.
Like in the, when they're practicing, they're all at like the same level, but in the tournament, they're like above everything.
So maybe they look down into it.
She, okay.
So what after she's at Pistole Princess and, you know, she takes off.
She does some tests.
Yeah.
And then she's like, a toko, but, you know, wing woman, she's, she's there for you.
She just like, Saki.
Well, she's like, go get her, bro.
I'm like, okay.
At first she's like, Oh, you're going to get friend zones so hard.
She's like, Oh, she called you nice.
Your friend zone so bad, my dude.
And that same kind of progression of plot.
Misaki is running and as she's running, she's like, what should I get for dinner?
It should be something that goes well with Saki.
Cause that's what you like.
So I'm like, you're 12.
He's like, yeah, my hands going to drink a lot.
So, oh my God.
You shouldn't know what goes well with that.
Like what the heck.
But I have another note for Shoko.
It's really, I was going to say, I guess it's just the Japanese of culture.
Like they're very much more widely common drinking, you know, cause they don't have to drive themselves home.
So most people like grab a drink after work.
Yeah.
I guess just.
Listen, Shoko drinks.
We know this.
This is what we love about her.
She's cracking open a beer.
It's great.
Yeah.
That's why she's great.
I have a comment that hot.
Oh, like we get casual outfits for everybody.
Yeah.
Which we haven't gotten for a while.
Yeah.
Although I really feel like hot.
I go needs a hat.
Yes, I know it's weird.
She's here without it.
Yeah, she just has.
She just doesn't have a hat.
And I'm like, you need a hat.
Throw on a hat.
Oh, how hot I could she wear a cowboy hat.
That would be good.
Well, aviators and I agree with more of a bad.
Oh my God.
We're aviators.
Oh, she could be like the freaking sergeant apocalypse now or whatever.
Yeah.
Oh, that'd be great.
Um, okay.
Misaki, I guess.
Well, now I've answered my own question before she was obsessed with
and Jocelyn, she was just obsessed with how tiny she is.
All she can think about is how small she is.
The guy selling her sashimi is like, oh, what are you like a third grade?
And she's like, oh, she just runs away.
She doesn't buy it.
She just leaves.
Oh man.
Hit her where it hurts.
Um, she's pretty forward with the, let's see.
I feel like when they're having lunch, her and Kotaro, she's pretty forward.
Um, she like puts her hands on his hands and stuff when passing the lunchbox.
And okay, she's forward, but this seems like an accident.
She's like, she's like not trying to do this on purpose.
No, but she's also delayed awareness of things.
Yeah.
Okay.
I have a note like when they first talk in the park before they set up the date.
Um, Kotaro stands up and he's like, yeah, I don't know what the car is weaknesses,
but like maybe you can see my judo sometimes and he like walks over to some birds and then
Misaki walks up to some birds and she like kneels down and she's going to pet the birds
and they fly away.
Are you going to pet those birds Misaki?
What are you doing?
Yeah, that's probably not advisable.
Why was she going to try to pet those birds?
Oh no, I don't know.
Um, I used to just want to stare at them.
Okay.
But then they set up a date and then, and then it's the next morning and I have the most
unhinged note.
Okay.
You, you referenced this.
I think Shoko says, I sent you a message about this.
Okay.
So in the morning, like Misaki's making like a shit ton of food to like bring on her like
they call it a date.
It's not really a date.
Meetup.
Yeah.
The meetup and Shoko is like, or she's like, oh yeah, I'm going to like meet up with Katara
at the park and Shoko is like, oh Katara.
Oh, that boy who was given a gyaku evi by the girl in the layer.
Right.
But look to some, because Misaki makes a joke.
Misaki's like, oh, what is that?
Isn't that like a, like a way to fry shrimp or something?
And then Shoko like hugs her and is like, oh, that, there it is innocent.
Misaki, we love that.
Oh God.
What is it?
It's two things.
First, a gyaku evi is like some kind of judo move.
Like it's called like a shrimp move.
Right.
I was going to say evi that is shrimp.
Yeah.
It's a like a judo move to break out of a hold, I guess.
And it was kind of hard to look this up.
That's one thing that it is.
The other thing that it is is a like specific pattern in Shibari.
Like the rope bondage.
Oh dear.
Yep.
Oh.
Where you like tie people's arms behind their back.
And it kind of feels to me like maybe that's the thing Shoko's talking about.
Oh dear.
That's probably it.
Shoko's going to know like this weird judo break out of a hold move.
And I'm like Shoko, why are you talking about bonding?
Why do you know a specific bondage pattern?
Oh, she's freaky.
She's not a parent.
Oh man.
The thing is.
Hell yeah.
Get it Shoko.
Get an age Shoko.
Well.
Talk to your niece about this.
Yeah.
She doesn't know what it is.
And you're like, oh, how cute, how innocent you are.
Shoko, what are you up to?
Yeah.
Of course you shouldn't know what that is at the age of 12.
Yeah.
When in Western stuff, there's jokes that go over kids heads,
but not that explicitly referring to it as more vague in new
endos, but that's just straight to now.
That just makes you think of that documentary about army hammer
because he was into that.
Shabari thing.
It's just, I looked, I'm like, I have to look this up.
And then I, the first thing I got was like the bondage thing.
And I'm like, whoa.
But then I got like some YouTube video for like judo exercises.
I'm like, okay, maybe it's this.
I don't know.
I have no idea.
You didn't know what you're getting yourself into.
Google will now remember that you look that up.
It seems more likely to me that Shoko knows about Shabari than
about judo.
Just based on what we know about.
100%.
It's Shoko's wild.
See, that's why I'm saying she's got this 12 year old at her
bachelor pad now.
So maybe that's what the extra bedroom she had was for.
This was my rope room.
Oh God.
Yeah.
What?
What a wild joke.
Wild.
Oh God.
Anyway, Masaki goes on this date and she's like, oh, we should like
eat at the park and she just sits there and watches Katara eat.
She doesn't eat anything.
What's happening?
What's up with that?
What is it?
Oh my God.
I'm sure she eats at, but she's like trying to like gauge his
opinion of it.
But it just literally, she's just sitting there watching him eat
for like a minute.
Yeah.
She's very intently watching him.
Like when he's doing his little judo stuff, she's staring at him.
So I feel so self conscious if I was him.
Like I feel stupid.
Like I'm just punching in the air at nothing.
It's so funny to me that like his version of having a date is like, hey,
want to go see my cool judo moves?
It turns out Masaki is like super into it.
Yeah, she is.
It's like a subtle way for him to be like, look at this giant place
my family owns.
I'm rich.
Like, look at me.
I'm a big deal.
They have a huge property.
And this is probably where Hotoko gets all her fighting knowledge
from her family runs a jupe suit.
That's probably that's probably true.
But she's not doing judo.
Like Susaka is not doing judo moves.
She does like throwing and stuff.
Yeah.
Oh God.
Susaka is so cool.
I feel like I feel like Hotoko is just watching like martial arts
movies or something.
Yeah.
Or anime and she's just recreating all the same things that can't be
in real life, but she now can with.
She did make it like a sexy ninja doll as a four year old.
That's true.
She's been influenced by adult media.
Yeah.
I bet she's like a cinephile.
That's my head cannon for Hotoko.
She's just like watching like AFI's top 100 movies.
She's like watching all the Kirikura Sawa movies.
She's like hell yeah.
Samurai movies rule.
I'm four.
So what did you think of the Tamayo thing?
Okay.
What's going on here?
Okay.
First off, it's very funny when she shows up and then she knocks
Katara out and then Misaki is immediately like, oh, that's a
good takedown.
Can you show me that takedown a couple more times?
Like she doesn't care at all.
That Misaki like that the date is over.
I don't.
This is why I'm saying that like I don't know if she really
did a date.
No.
Misaki.
Okay.
She just doesn't care that Tamayo shows up.
I think maybe Katara likes her, but she's only nervous because
it's her, you know, like talking with a boy who's not family is a
thing to be embarrassed about not because it's him in particular.
Yeah.
She's just kind of nervous to talk to everyone, even like
signing stuff.
Well, I mean, she's still this.
I mean, she's she's the shelter girl who's like, oh, Hotoko
referenced kissing how scandalous and it was like, what?
She's over here watching all these, all these samurai movies, dude.
That's right.
She's watching Kill Bill over there.
She's watching Kill Bill.
Gonna hear Misaki's hot or not.
I didn't hear Hotoko's hot takes about pulp fiction or whatever.
Oh dear.
Okay.
But yeah, Tamayo, what do you think?
What is this implying?
It's well, obviously it's I mean, it's implying that she likes him,
right?
That Tamayo likes Katara.
Yeah.
Which feels it's kind of the opposite where like typically a boy
picks on a girl as kids is the sign of liking them.
But Tamayo just being a shit of Katara is her way of flirting.
This is what you said you did earlier, right?
Well, I don't know.
Well, it's more like embarrassment.
Like some boy, I think I had like a grungy gym shirt that had a hole in
the armpit and he's like, oh, I like that.
And then I like kicked him in the shin.
I was like, got to talk to me about stuff like that.
That's not flirting.
All right.
I don't know.
One boy tried to play footsie with me at driving or yeah, driving
and I just stomped on his foot.
Okay.
So you're like 16.
This is like you're in like late teams.
Okay.
Yeah.
So someone tried to play footsie.
I just stomped on their foot.
That's my how I respond to physical initiation.
This is not like this.
All right.
Yeah.
So yeah, I actually, but the thing is like she transitioned it so quickly into like
a joke.
Yes.
Well, that's what their relationship is.
Right.
And it's like, oh, he's going to get weirded out if I'm all serious all of a sudden.
Well, but this, this gets like a, this is like a pretty good gambit by the show.
I feel like, because the show leaves it kind of ambiguous, right?
Because Tommy was like such a bit character, like such a comic relief that it's like, this
could just be like a one-off bit she's doing, or this could be like, oh, she's finally like
showing her emotions about a thing and then backs off of it because she feels awkward
about it.
Yeah.
Well, cause she's in the past said like, oh, Masaki should be my wife, but I guess she's
just essentially in her mind building Masaki up to be this, you know, ultra feminine, like
what you expect a girl to be, which is so different from her.
And of course that's why Katara likes her because she's so different.
Well, but I mean, like she, like Masaki is the kind of like ideal feminine wife.
I mean, this is like Shoko's even like, oh, you're, you'd be like, why don't you be
my wife?
Because like, yeah, she cooks, she cleans, she wakes up in the morning and immediately
starts vacuuming.
I was like, maybe and Shoko woke up and was like, ooh, is this food for me?
And Masaki having to be like, keep your hands off it.
Yeah.
But like she, she is doing this.
I mean, this is like, I mean, she's even like shy, intimidated.
It does kind of like feminine, ideally kind of outspoken.
Yeah.
At least like in Japan, I know that that's kind of a demure passive.
Yeah.
Like she is all that stuff.
She kind of is the ideal like passive girlfriend a little bit.
Yeah.
That Tamiya was not like a Tamiya was like the opposite of that where she's like big
and loud and assertive and physical and funny.
I don't know.
Yeah.
She's been very enjoyable.
This has been very different than any other mode because she's never been serious like
ever in the show up to this point.
Right.
Yeah.
And I think it's like, it's actually some pretty good ambiguity in terms of like, is
this the real thing or is this part of a bigger joke that she's kind of doing?
Well, I could see it being like, okay, if I just like automatically ship them together
and make it super awkward, then maybe it won't ever come to full fruition.
Like they will just, that'll just be the running joke.
And then they'll probably eventually eventually eventually actually be together because that's
just things like joke up their group.
All to Tamiya's plans.
That's good.
This also feels like the shojo stuff.
Yeah.
Like this drama layout where it's like, oh, like this guy likes the main girl, but like
her friend likes him.
So there's kind of this weird thing going on.
That feels a little bit more like a romance drama that you would see more in shojo stuff
than shonen stuff.
It's just that.
Yeah.
I mean, this is the most blushes.
We need like a blush counter on this episode.
So much blushy, blushy action.
See, I, okay.
It's when she's staring at him doing the judo, I made a note like she's using that
shine gun memorized those movements to pull out later.
Okay.
And then freaking Ojiro at the end.
Oh, it's so stupid.
Tokyo.
What are the chances you're going to, he's following her.
There's no way they ran.
Cause you said he had a second umbrella.
So like, he does have a second umbrella.
I don't know what to make of that.
There's no way they organically ran into each other.
Tokyo is huge.
It is weird.
It's weird that that happens.
It's weird that he has two umbrellas, but when he meets her, he's like, oh, it's a nice
day.
Isn't it?
And then like the sun comes out, like he summoned the end of the rain.
Like he's magic, but then it turns out that's like, he didn't give her an umbrella when
he had one.
Like what's happening?
I'm not sure what's happening here.
This is like, he missed his chance to have a romantic moment with her.
Yeah.
This is like the romance, right?
So maybe.
Because it also seems like he summoned the sun.
So maybe he sabotaged himself.
It rains when you're with Kataru, but when I come, it's shiny and bright.
Yeah.
Well, it's like Kataru got his, he was going to shoot his shot, but got interrupted by
Tamiya, right?
Yeah.
Like he was sabotaged by somebody else because he is, he exists to get dunked on.
Well, I think if he hadn't been interrupted, she just would have been like, oh, I don't,
I don't know, blah, blah, blah, run away and.
Yeah.
Then be like, you know, flighty.
She is not there mentally to have that conversation.
No, she's not.
She can't, I can't.
What are you going to talk about?
All it's going to be is her cooking you food and then playing angelic layer.
That's your relationship.
This is what I said.
She's the ideal girlfriend.
Is that right?
What if a person makes you food and then doesn't do anything?
No.
I don't know.
I'm just saying that like in the like imaginary of like a middle school boy probably.
I guess.
I don't know.
I didn't have any relationships.
I don't know.
Middle school.
I feel like you just only see each other at school and that's the relationship.
Maybe you eat lunch together and that's it.
Well, like she doesn't have any like actual deep relationships with anyone like any guy
is particularly right.
Like Ojiro is a guy who shows up, says some cryptic shit and then leaves, which is extremely
funny when he's like, Hey, I heard they're making a new battle system.
Yeah, she doesn't question how he knows that or yeah.
Super.
But like that's all he does.
Right.
He shows up.
He says some like kind of cryptic stuff and then leaves.
It was really weird.
It was weird that he was there.
But like this is, you know, this is the thing I was saying, like in Macross, you understand
why these characters like each other.
So it's set to know.
I don't understand why anybody likes anybody else.
I do.
I the only one I feel like I kind of get is Tommy.
Oh, like I get why she would like guitar because they've been friends for so long.
They like hang out a lot.
They have a lot of things in common.
Yeah.
They like mess around.
I get that.
So again, I, I, I understand that one.
So I feel like that, I feel like that one should happen.
I hope things go well for Tom.
Yeah.
I feel like that's a common trope and shojo that may you will see later, but like oftentimes
a girl will have like this crush on maybe a slightly older boy that you grow up being
close with.
And he's just the boy you're closest to.
So you just assume that you have feelings for him.
But then it's just turns out it's more like familial and then like that opens the door
for the actual male lead kind of stuff.
That's a typical plot of a shojo.
Yeah.
But I feel like that is the most relatable to like people.
Yeah.
Right.
In terms of like, oh, if you ever had like a friend, you like turned out you thought you
might be closer to and you're like not sure if you want to pursue that or like how they
feel about it.
Like that's a pretty, I think it's a thing a lot of people deal with in their life at
some point, or they're on the receiving end of that.
Like this is familiar with it.
Like it's much more sympathetic than whatever the heck Katara and Misaki have, which is
just like, what if there is a cute girl and you hung out a couple of times and then I
guess you're going to ask her out and then she's kind of only into this weird hobby she
has.
I mean, I guess it's kind of the way they go about things, right?
Like in a lot of anime, it's like one person totally oblivious to the other person's existence
until they get confessed to.
And then it's like, sure, I'll give it a try dating you.
Let's get to know each other as we date, not we know each other and then we date.
It's like kind of a different culture there.
Like you just immediately just based off of like one person's feelings.
That's enough to consider being relationships if you're slightly or remotely interested
in each other.
Right.
But like as an audience member, I feel like the Tommy O's thing is much more sympathetic.
Yeah.
Well, then you feel bad because like Katara can only think about Misaki.
Everyone in the show is just very narrow minded.
Like everyone has blinders on.
Like they can't focus on anything but one thing in their life.
Well, but this is.
Except each time he can do it all.
Each time.
Well, this is yeah, right.
Because angelic layer is the thing that's like opens up to everything, right?
It's like, okay, yeah, age and size don't matter.
Like all these things that you think are important in regular society, like it turns out aren't
actually a big deal in the constructed world of angelic layer.
Like this is your access to more freedom in a wider like variety of way of thinking about
how the world could be.
But is that like, are they taking those lessons outside of angelic layer and applying them
to the real world or are they just like using it as an escape, but they're still like thinking
about their lives as constrained in the real world that they don't in angelic layer.
Right.
Like I think this works out pretty well in terms of why people like this game so much
because it is an escape, right?
Because that stuff doesn't actually matter.
Like gender norms just like kind of don't exist when you're playing this game.
And now there does like age or any of that other stuff.
Like this is truly a place where you can just be your authentic self and play this game.
And you don't have to worry so much about like how you're perceived by everybody else.
Yeah, because it's like everyone focuses on the angel.
So whatever you want to be on the focus of everyone's attention, like if you want your
angel to be cool or cute, then like that's what people are going to focus on.
And it's like by proxy, it feels like they're acknowledging you because they're acknowledging
your angel.
Right.
So I feel like the tension is going to be like, Hey, are you bringing those ideas out
into your real life?
Right.
Like is Misaki going to use angelic layer as a way to like get over her insecurities
of being small in real life and like understanding that those are not a reflection of her, you
know, self worth or like her true self or any of that other kind of thing.
Just because that's how other people may like perceive her as.
Yeah.
And you were halfway and it's already got you thinking.
I mean, me when I first watched this, definitely not thinking that deeply about it.
But like almost 30.
So yeah, yeah, wait till you join the club 30, 30 and thriving.
Better at thinking about stuff as it's a lot easier to think about themes and stuff as
an adult that it is when you're watching stuff as like a TV.
Yeah, I'm still pretty shallow and narrow or simple minded when not consuming things.
I'm still banging on my desk saying, where's the fighting?
I don't want to see this thing.
But just in a like a spiritual way, not a like actual what they're intending to do with
the character development.
I guess as a whole, how are you feeling now that we hit the halfway mark on this show
and any more predictions heading into the next half, one opening, sadly.
I mean, that was how we did like every 20, no, every 26 episodes is how it used to be.
Now it's like 12 episodes and you get a new which is way more work.
I would try to like write off the first one.
Probably one's.
Yeah, I think it's I think it's good so far.
Like I'm pretty like I'm looking forward to the stuff that's coming next.
I'll see I'll be like interested to see like what her matches are like against some people
that are more veteran in terms of like what is Masaki going to learn or like take away from these fights.
As opposed to like what she's been doing recently, which is like kind of dishing out wisdom.
Now I think she's going to be on the receiving end of that and it's going to be interesting to see what other people have to say to her.
Yeah, because now she'll be actively talking with the peanut gallery.
They're not the peanut gallery anymore.
They're they're in the main spotlight.
They have names.
So it's going to be Masaki versus Kayate and then a toko versus sigh.
Oh, no.
He's going to play out.
Oh, no.
It's going to be the fight between the coolest angels ever.
It's going to be so sad.
I would be so sad when that happens.
You don't know.
I don't know, but I do know because I know drama.
I know how to write a show.
I actually don't.
But I've seen the show before.
I know how to write script for a podcast.
I know.
I know how scripts work.
I know how drama.
I know how you make drama.
You don't make drama by having the same person fight the same person twice.
Yeah, maybe if this is a longer running show, but there's no time for that.
She would hold her hand if she was going to lose.
Let's be real.
Oh, no.
It'll be good.
I think I think hot okay will bounce back.
Blanche is cute.
Nurse Blanche isn't blanching when you like freeze vegetables or something.
I mean, isn't that a golden girl?
Blanche.
Is that like pale?
Let's see here.
How to blanch vegetables before freezing.
Blanching is the process in which you boil or steam vegetables briefly until they are
partially cooked.
It is the essential step before freezing many vegetables, including broccoli, leafy greens,
string beans, okra and asparagus.
It makes sense.
I don't know what it has to do with cooking.
Do we think Kaia is going to do that on stage?
Going to blanch some vegetables?
No.
Well, I look up blanched.
Well, as far as like name, feminine name of French origin, that means white or pure,
which makes sense.
The angels stick down and white stuff.
But what I was thinking of is what does blanched mean to become white or pale as from shock
or fear?
That's what I had in mind, like becoming pale from something.
Yeah.
So what kind of fighting style?
I mean, because right there are both lightweight angels.
So there are similar builds.
Well, I guess we'll see that new terrain stuff.
That'll change it up.
It's interesting to me that so far the only angel that she's fought that has like a special
kind of ability was Ranga that like shoots the air blast.
Like nobody else had a gimmick.
Like Mao didn't have a gimmick.
I mean, there was like five.
She was like five.
I mean, that wasn't like the ability.
There was the ice skating.
But that was like a...
But like there wasn't like an attack.
It wasn't like a puzzle fight, you know, where you had to like figure out what's happening.
Hopefully we'll get some more puzzle fights.
I like puzzle fights.
Yeah.
We got to use that brain.
We got to like figure out what's going on.
I don't think Misaki can handle that many.
Her poor little brain can't process too much information.
You keep saying she's dumb.
She's not dumb.
I don't know.
Let me see that report card.
Then we'll see.
Wow.
Oh, yes.
Wow.
I'm not that smart.
I'm just saying I'm more perceptive of like, oh, I just saw that lady in the bathroom.
Now she's on screen.
Okay.
I can comprehend that that's the same person and that she's a performer and not be shocked.
More be like boasting to Aunt Shoko.
I'm at that girl.
Listen, I'm at that idol.
You've ever been to a concert?
Like twice.
You ever, you ever stand like had a standing area in a concert before?
No.
If everybody's standing, people in front of you are tall and Misaki notoriously short.
So maybe she didn't see any.
Yeah.
Like her whole show.
Maybe she was just in a crowd and just like heard the music.
Well, yeah, cause there was no seating.
It was just people standing around.
Maybe she just, maybe she just couldn't see Ringo because she's so short.
Katara should have put her on her shoulders, but he didn't because he's a wuss.
Also, she already gets treated like a child.
They'll just make her more self-conscious of looking like a.
You should neg her.
That's how that's how you get a girlfriend.
Yeah.
I guess you, you're the ladies man.
So yeah.
That's how I always refer to myself.
Smooth operator.
I also invite like, that's my number one hit on him.
Like, Hey, you want to use to me do some judo moves?
You want to see me do a judo form?
Is that doing anything for you?
No, I feel like would you, would you, would that work on you?
No, I'm like, oh, are you weirdo?
I just imagine it's like the typical like, ooh, let me show you how to do this thing.
No, you're not doing it right.
Let me show you by touching you.
That's what I would imagine would be the proposition if someone came up to me saying, Hey, let me
just show you this.
It is that not, not that far removed from being like, Hey, you want to come watch me play video
games?
Like, I play games and I wouldn't want that.
It looks, it looks bad.
And like, it's like a cool one.
This is what I say.
Like, Tamiya would have a better date.
He should just date Tamiya.
I feel like if you were dating her, if he was dating her, I would just be flinching.
Expecting her to attack me at any moment, never able to relax.
That's great.
That's the foundation of a good relationship.
Get that heart racing.
That's right.
Yeah, we'll see.
I am not excited about the guitar relationship with Misaki because I don't think it's that
good.
Well, luckily it's a shonen so, so it won't be fully realized.
I do like the Tamiya drama.
Oh, you don't know that.
It could happen.
I do know actually.
Listen, I can, I can interpret anything in my mind if I try hard enough.
Yeah, I can make realities in my head.
You wouldn't believe.
I am now questioning the order that I put things.
Now I don't remember.
Do we do recommendations first or reviews first?
We just discussed episode 12.
I know, I can't remember.
Well, we've done up to this point.
Okay.
It does how we've done it.
Hey, Sarah, what do you have to recommend the people?
What's something they should watch while they're also watching the next two episodes of Angelica?
Well, should we only be doing Anna?
I was gonna say, I'm going to the game.
So right now, folks, you got to act on this.
Okay.
The steam spring sales going on and I think it and what page is that ends?
Yeah, so it's a limited time that Mass Effect Legendary Edition is only $9.
That's like hundreds of hours.
Well, possibly at least 100 hours of content for $9 of one of the best video game series ever.
I am a huge Mass Effect fan.
I have like a freaking custom license plate that's Mass Effect related and big dweeb and it's so good.
Life changed.
Like I remember my kid brother's birthday because it was like the day before or he was born the day before Mass Effect 2 came out.
That's how I remember his birthday.
Oh, it's so good.
Third person shooter.
It's like super good, you know, like in-depth story of big epic, you know, space thing and female shepherds voiced by Jennifer Hale.
There's Romeo.
It's so good.
I love it.
Mass Effect 2 is one of my favorite games ever, if not the favorite.
All of Barge Gate 3 has become a contender.
Yeah, that's my recommendation because it refines.
Because I know a lot of people just skip the first Mass Effect because it's, you know, it was first, yeah, first it's all freaking out.
It was BioWare's first shooter game.
So maybe they didn't know what they were doing as well.
So they like revamp the gameplay so it's consistent through all the games for the most part.
And so the first one is much, there's not the never ending elevator loading scenes anymore.
So it's vastly improved, although the make-go is still a thing.
So that's a bummer, yeah, drive that damn thing on all these rain of planets other than that.
But yeah, $9.
I played through Mass Effect the first one.
I was an engineer or whatever, which means I could only use a pistol.
Oh yeah, yeah.
Yeah, I think I was a-
I think when I was probably 13 when I first played it is my first HD game.
I picked a Biotic and then never used my Biotic abilities.
Oh man.
I didn't know romance was a thing.
Like a lot of things went over my head.
The first time I played, which is probably for the best, I would have been scandalized by the sex box.
You can't, like the scene where it's like, oh, we're so in love and they like can't send a cus to black that.
Did you scandalize by that?
Well, cus there's like kind of a sex scene, Shepard or Liara with-
Not really.
Kind of scandalized Fox News and they like lost their minds about it, labeled it sex box.
Fox News loses its mind about anything because they're dumb.
Yeah, well, just say, yeah.
Fox News makes up stuff to get upset about.
But that's another reason to get Mass Effect, which I would always be like nervous when I was playing it,
cus I'd have to play at my dad's house when I went to visit him, so I'd be like, no, it's around, right?
Like, oh god, something's about to happen.
I don't want to watch it.
Five second scene, I don't understand how you're like nervous about this for hours.
Oh god.
Great series, get it.
Okay, that's my recommendation.
How about you, Joe?
Well, so early in this episode, I'm like, next week I'll talk about Star Wars Rebels,
but I'm just gonna recommend it here.
Hey, do you like Star Wars?
Do you like Star Wars stuff?
But you've noticed that maybe the most recent live action stuff, isn't that great?
Particularly?
Star Wars, like maybe it's really obvious they made it in like a sound room or like a green screen and looks kind of flat.
Looks like they're cutting corners.
Well, you should watch Star Wars Rebels, the animated, the 3D animated show from whenever it came out.
Oh, is this old?
14.
Oh, okay.
This is different from the Clone Wars or Bad Bad.
Yeah, you should also watch the Clone Wars.
Okay, I think, yeah, so Star Wars Rebels 2014 to 2018.
I have watched the first season and I just started the second season, I'm watching it along with a more civilized age podcast.
So I'm just seeing it now.
But it is very high quality.
It does the stuff you want Star Wars to do, like have payoffs for character arcs and like development and all this other stuff.
The Clone Wars also does this to a certain extent.
It's just older and it's like a little bit more, it starts off a little bit more like Saturday morning cartoon show for kids show.
But then like after like season two and three, it like really picks up a lot.
And you get a lot of like really good stuff of like the Clone Wars and like from the characters of like Anakin and Obi-Wan and all that other stuff.
So that's really good.
In Rebels, you know, it starts to take place in between the prequel series and like a mainline Star Wars stuff.
And it introduces a bunch of new characters, but it's really fun.
They do a lot of really interesting stuff there.
I would say like the things I feel like people like from the Mandalorian in terms of like kind of building out the universe and like some of the ideas of like what other people were doing in the galaxy at this time.
This show does that same exact stuff, but like really well executed and it looks really great in animation.
Like you can just do pacing better.
You could just do special effects better.
So what you can do. Yeah.
Right. And like the space battles look incredible.
It's just a really good way of experiencing Star Wars.
So if you haven't, if you like Star Wars and you haven't watched that stuff because you know, it was on Cartoon Network when you were you were like an adult or something.
I would go check that out because it's actually pretty solid stuff.
It's also pretty anime. There's a lot of anime shit in it. It's good.
Yeah. Well, because I mean Star Wars, right?
Most people think of the movies, but I like just the concept of the universe more than the movies itself.
Like my favorite piece of Star Wars stuff is Kotor, which we will get into and eventually make this bonus episode for realties.
It's not we're not just talking. We've half recorded it.
So it's coming at some point.
But like the potential for all the different stories.
Like I haven't read any of the books. I know there's like a bajillion Star Wars books.
But yeah, that's what there's room to make so many different things outside of the movies.
Yeah, it adds a lot of nuance and flavor to the worlds around it. It's good.
I guess I was before Disney acquired LucasArts.
Rebels is like the first thing they made after Disney acquired them.
So they stopped making the Clone Wars show and then they made Rebels.
Were people mad about that?
Yeah, well, they went back later and added a seventh season to the Clone Wars, which is like the thing about the Clone Wars is that you can watch the animation quality get better.
Like you can watch them like really figure out like how to make things look good, how to do lighting, how to do particle effects and like the writing gets better.
Like everything just gets way better. And then in Rebels, they start off already with all those skills.
And then they play that show out and then they go back to the Clone Wars and that season is incredible.
It's like peak Star Wars stuff.
That didn't just immediately turn to shit when the big company got their hands on it.
I know they did that like Tales of the Jedi thing, which is also that 3D animation.
I haven't seen that yet, but I'm expecting it to be really good.
Like I heard the bad batch is really good. It's that same thing like that style.
Yeah, I've heard good things about that.
That team is really good is what I've heard.
Really carrying Star Wars on its back for me.
Yeah, I think I saw a Clone War movie where there's like a baby hut, like Java the hut.
Yeah, that was like the very first thing they did.
Yeah, it's a cute little dude.
It's fun.
Listen, if you watched Obi-Wan, the show Obi-Wan and thought it was terrible, it's because you're right.
It is terrible and there's all that stuff way better.
I watched a bit of Ashoka.
I've not seen that, but I just don't think the live action stuff has it.
Like the first two seasons of The Mandalorian were pretty good.
The first season was really good and the second one was okay.
And then I've heard it's meandering.
I watched a few episodes, but I was like, this is boring.
Baby Yoda's carrying this whole show on his tiny back.
Yeah.
So I didn't.
I haven't the animated shows got it.
They have it.
They move at a pace.
Like they have a really, they have cartoon pacing, right?
Which is like, you can do a lot of stuff.
The biggest takeaway from the like live action avatar thing is that like cartoons can just do pacing faster.
Yeah, because you're already in the minds like it's yeah.
Yeah, cartoons.
I mean, just animated stuff, I think is great.
It's, you know, easier to be successful.
It seems like just have beautiful art and a decent story and likeable characters.
Like you and me, we freaking love.
Well, maybe I'm just speaking for you, but we like to young justice a lot.
That's the animated series like heroes that that superheroes works better in animation than live action.
Oh yeah.
And it's so much cheaper.
Like, so why not like hand drawn?
I don't like the 3d stuff live actions really good or like character work, right?
Like character drama.
I feel like live action works really well.
You know, I don't think I'm a little animated, like animated, breaking bad or like mad men or like, I don't think that would be very good.
Just because those like thrive on long scenes between characters that are like having complex emotions and like the, you know, voice acting could do a lot, but it can't do like the face and all that stuff.
Like it's just harder to do that in the animation.
I don't know.
Has the anime never made you upset or cry or anything?
I mean, it has, but it has to do more.
Like the setting of like the conflict than like any particular performance.
Clannad.
Because like you just can't, you can't animate a face that detailed.
It would just take a budget to do that.
Whereas like an actor can really express a lot with their face.
I was like, oh, we finished early.
What section are we in now, Sarah?
Shut up.
What's the section title?
Listener reviews from Apple.
If you enjoy this show and you should rate it five stars on whatever podcasting platform you're listening to this on.
Even if you don't enjoy it, give us five stars.
Even if you don't enjoy it, just give us five.
Please.
Before listening to the episode, give us five stars.
Hey, what do you do at the back end at least?
So you can just like, I'm out.
If you rate us five stars and leave a comment on Apple podcasts, I will read it out.
We have a comment from Denene.
That is five stars.
Denene says, show Joe is the show.
If you told me 10 to 15 years ago that I'd listened to a podcast about show Joe anime, I would have never believed you.
This podcast is the real deal.
You can tell that Joe and Sarah have so much fun discussing the anime they watch.
I enjoy the conversations they have together, bringing their real lives into the anime topics.
I feel like I need to watch more show Joe anime and it's all thanks to them.
Five stars.
Thank you, Denene.
Oh, Denene.
Thanks.
If you have something you want me to read out, leave it as a comment because I think that was the last one.
So it will get read next time.
Okay, that's a friend of mine.
I was going to say from now on, I'll pretend I don't know who anyone is.
So it seems like people are genuinely interested in our podcast and not just doing it for the sake of supporting us.
I think you should do it.
I think, listen, you like us.
You just listen to us talk for some number of hours about some shit.
Leave a comment.
We're undeniably entertaining.
Leave a tongue twister.
I'll have to say it.
Just wait five stars.
One day we'll pick a show that's actually on a streaming service and then it'll be a lot easier for them to watch it.
Until then.
It will be popular by proxy and off our own merit.
What's going to happen is that we're going to watch something popular and then we're going to hate it while everybody else is in love with it.
And then they hate that we hate it.
We're going to have to be like, listen, I know everybody likes this thing, but have you really considered what's going on here?
I mean, I like podcasts because then it does make me think of different things that maybe didn't come to mind.
And then I can just consider if I agree with what's being said or not.
Yeah, I know, but you know what, like online perspectives.
Oh, I don't know.
Anime fandom is like, they don't think about anything.
You never, I've ever looked at a my anime list about like anything that like objectively sucks.
No, I've never really dwelled into conversation.
Shield hero rated on my hero or on my anime list right now.
But like when I read a web tune at the end, there will be comments and that and some.
Okay, guys, sometimes I read smite and so I like there's always really funny comments at the end.
Scandal.
I know.
You're going to scandalize with a Mass Effect sex scene, but you're really smite.
I'm dirty now.
I can take it now.
Just not when I was 13.
Shield hero has an 8 and 7.96 score on my anime list.
Anime fans are trash.
Is that shield hero?
I've never heard of it.
Yeah, rising of shield hero, the one where he like grooms a child's slave and then she like becomes his girlfriend.
It's terrible.
What?
Jail.
He should be in jail.
I should be able to shoot him from space.
Good to know.
Steer clear.
Hey, I will say.
At least as far as smite manga is concerned, people reading it are very good about calling out bullshit like, hey, that's not content.
This is troubling.
This is trash.
Like the they she's done.
He's the worst.
Like I'm not going to read this garbage manga.
Maybe people have more standards than anime.
What's the next part of it?
What's the next one schedule?
I'm not making fun of you.
I'm just trying to keep the subject.
I can't tell if you're joking or not.
Your voice is so misleading.
Because you're so like, oh, is he making fun of me?
I can't tell.
Oh, no way.
Of course not.
Why do they make fun of you?
See, now you guys are casting even more than you imagine.
The schedule you posted with Jim Carter forgot about.
Just, just don't sass me, boy.
All right, go ahead and give us our ending sign off.
Oh, no.
That's agreed on.
We're halfway there.
Oh, we're going to get copyright struck.
Watching Angelic Lay here.
How many more episodes?
Five?
Five more episodes of the show?
That's going to be okay to say, right?
Do I need to cut that out?
No, you don't need to cut that out.
You're singing it.
Okay, well.
Bear you, so it's a parody.
I apologize for the singing.
How many more episodes are there?
24?
There's still more?
26 episodes.
We watched.
Wait, hold on.
We got 14 more.
We're not halfway.
I suck at math.
We're one step away from halfway.
Oh, dear.
I can't believe this.
That's embarrassing.
We have 14 more episodes of Angelic Lay,
which means we have seven more episodes of show Joe.
You divide 14 by two.
I was talking to me.
I hate math.
I refuse.
Well, anyway, so we're going to be watching episodes 13 and 14 next week,
and then we will be past the halfway point.
So that's good.
False promises were made last time.
It wasn't really.
That's my bad.
It's an odd number.
So there's no exact halfway point.
Line off.
I don't know what to say.
Until then, hold on.
I'm going to do this for real this time.
Don't let your five-year-old sister call you a spineless coward for not taking your friend out on a date.
It doesn't matter how many movies she watches.
So many people stop chiming in on your love life.
I'm so happy we've decided that Hotter Care just watches a bunch of movies.
Yeah, we're going to keep an eye on Aunt Shoko as well.
What else is she up to?
Aunt Shoko!
In her bondage room.
It's okay.
We still love her.
Oh yeah, no, it's good.
This makes it better.
Oh boy.
Okay.
That's that, you guys.
My god.
Fare thee well.
Until next time.