Welcome back to show Joe the intro to show Joe podcast that you and every person you
talk to needs to watch. So, you know, tell everyone about it. I'm Sarah, your host and
show Joe, you know, avid fan and Joe here who I'm showing show Joe to is our newbie
to this genre. And we're here to continue our discussion of Kimi need to doke the most
doki doki cute, just happy show. And yeah, so guy thing.
Oh, this is my time for the intro.
Apparently the best episode ever of the show so far.
You should watch our podcast with your eyes. Go to YouTube right now and type in show Joe
and watch it. No, you said watch.
We are going to. Oh, shit. Did I say watch?
Yeah.
Damn it. Yeah.
You can listen or watch because we're doing it all, which you're already doing. You must
already be doing if you're hearing this. Yeah.
The only one you need to watch if you're going to watch any podcast of ours, you should watch
the Angelic Layer bonus episode because I did a lot of editing pictures in there and
I need somebody to watch that.
I watched it.
I watched it. Yeah.
Although I was the full screen image of our cover art. So it's not just square.
God outlier on our YouTube channel.
What have you been up to Joe apparently a lot?
Yeah, my second is going to be long. Do you want to do yours first?
Okay.
Yours is going to be long.
Yeah.
What am I ever doing that much? Let's see.
I don't know.
I stayed up till four in the morning playing Horizon Forbidden West still.
Are you beat it yet?
No, I'm like 65 hours in and I'm like driving over. I don't want it to be over ever.
You don't want it to be over after 65 hours.
What am I going to do in my free time once I beat it?
I have given plenty of video game recommendations on this podcast.
Yeah, but they're so brief.
Oh dear. Okay. Let's see. I dogged that for a coworker who's out town in Vegas because
we went to the licensing expo and announced that we're doing a Viva Las Elvis course.
So that's like a work thing that happened this week.
And oh, also fun news. So I'm moving and I live in a or I've been leasing a house with
my brother and our landlady is having people come and tour it while we're still living
here.
So basically I have at least two hours notice when it's like, okay, someone's going to
come look at the house.
So I had to be out, but also I had to hide all my animals that I don't tell them I have.
So.
Oh my God.
So I had to like, okay, quick.
First get all the critters in carriers and in my car and then hide the ferret cage and
make sure it doesn't smell like a ferret in here so I can bounce and you know, at a moment's
notice.
So that's my new reality of just being like needing to spirit away my secret life set.
And you know, so much.
Oh man. Yeah.
That's all I've been up to you for the most part. How about you?
So I've been watching, I've been watching some anime as one does. So I watched, I guess
two major things I watched.
I finished Macross last time. I talked about that.
And then I watched the, I'm going to look up the name, make sure I'm getting it right
with all the subtitles and stuff.
I watched the super dimensional Fortress Macross.
Do you remember love like movie version of the show?
Like they do the thing where they make like a film version of like a show like Gundam
does this. This is a thing they used to do a lot.
I don't think they do it so much anymore.
I guess they do kind of the opposite now, which like with Demon Slayer, it's like, oh,
you have the train movie, but then we're going to break it up and it's going to be season
two. So they kind of do it in reverse.
Anyway, I watched that.
And it was, it looked really pretty and it was bad.
So unfortunately, when you shove a like 28 episode series into two hours, you have to
cut away a lot of the like details in nuance and stuff.
And it turns out the details of nuance and stuff is what makes the show work.
So yeah, unfortunately, not that good.
It's like interesting to watch this because you can see how like things that are like
how important some of these like pieces are that get cut out where you're like, oh, this
completely changed the entire like mood of this series.
Yeah.
I guess so like in this, it's interesting to compare at least like, OK, now I can see
what makes the show work versus trying to shove it into film format.
Yeah, it does. It's also weird because it's like the same people made this as the show.
And so when you see them cutting out stuff, it's like, do you not do you not know what
made your show good? Like, I don't know.
Maybe they did money grabbing this.
Well, like, I don't know because it seems like it looks really good.
Well, the animation is really good.
I don't know.
A fancy ad for the show and toys that they probably sell.
Well, but it also tells the story of like you wouldn't need to watch the show if you
watch the movie, right?
Because it's the same ish stuff like the same major plot beats are the same.
When the context comes out, this came out like not even like a year after the show came
out like it was really nearby.
Like they must have been developing it around the same time.
Oh, it came out in 1984.
Oh, damn. OK, so well, I don't know, merch, merch sales.
I mean, like it's great because like it looks good.
So it's like, oh, the Macross, the giant battleship looks awesome with like a movie
budget compared to the TV show, which like had some production woes in terms of like
the quality of some of the images, right?
Well, like there are times when like the framerate was so low, it's kind of just like a slide
show. But then there were also parts of the TV show that looked incredible and they did
some really cool stuff, but it's like inconsistent.
Anyway, I watched that.
It was not that good, but I guess I'm done with that part of Macross.
There is Macross 2, which is literally just called Macross 2.
Oh, no. That's like Dragon Beasts 2.
Which I'll probably watch.
It's an OVA. It's only six episodes.
It should be pretty easy to get through.
I'll probably be through it by next time.
So that should be good.
Yeah, that's called.
Macross 2 Lovers Again.
So there we go.
Oh, dear.
Well, we'll see how that is.
The other thing I watched is I revisited.
I'm back in I'm back in Vodem's, baby.
I watched a Vodem's OVA called Brilliantly Shining Heresy, which is a five episode OVA
that takes place after the like original story of Armored Trooper Vodems.
And it's incredible.
It's really good.
It's like the best Vodem's thing easily so far, I feel like, because like the main
show is good, but it's kind of meandering.
Like there's a lot of stuff.
Like there's a lot of arcs that lag that are like a couple of episodes too long.
The ending of that show is wild, just in terms of like the stuff that goes down
and like how the plot takes a turn in a way that's really interesting.
But it just takes way too long to get there.
It's like a 50 episode anime, right?
So but this is five episodes.
It's really cool.
It's all about like, like, wow, I kind of have to spoil parts of Vodem's talk about it.
But basically they have to deal with the space church.
This is about the space church that takes place in the future.
It takes place like 36 years after the original show.
Kira Ko is brought out of Space Sleep for reasons that are all about a power grab
within the church and they introduce this new character, Titania, who is a another
perfect soldier, but like developed in a different way.
And it's all about like becoming disillusioned with things that you're supposed to believe
in as you learn that the people in power structures don't actually care about those
things and are only involved in their own personal power.
It's cool.
There's a lot of cool stuff that happens.
Basically, the first episode is like, what if Kira Ko woke up and then had to fight the Terminator?
Oh, damn, which is awesome.
It looks really good.
It's it's good.
Unfortunately, you have to watch all the Vodems first for it to kind of make sense.
But if you do, definitely stick around for brilliantly shining heresy.
I'm sure all the the shojo lovers are super into 80s mech genre as well.
There's probably some overlap.
Maybe.
I mean, not with you.
That's because we haven't gotten you watching it yet.
We'll get you there.
I don't want to be there.
I'm going to have to I'm going to have to carve a vector through Darling and the
Franks, which is going to make me insane, but we will get you into into mech content.
Macross is the best chance since there's romance in that seems to be the whole thing
that they're shoving into the subtitles or the subheader of their shows.
Let's confess the next show about romance.
Yeah. Well, OK, what else?
Have you had anything non-mech related in your life?
In my life, I got my car serviced the other day.
So it is mech related.
Check engine light came on, but it turns out it was nothing.
So OK, look at you actually getting that checked.
I don't really want to be my car is just like I'm done all the time.
So I don't trust it.
It's own diagnosis of itself.
I'm still watching other stuff, but I'm not.
I'm not.
I'm watching other stuff, but I'm not through it yet.
So I don't really want to like comment on it yet.
Like I finished or I got through Green Island and Hunter, Hunter.
Uh-huh.
And I'm now on Chimera, the Chimera arc, which is the one everybody loves
and says is good. So we will see how this is done.
I'm out. It's like this.
What episode I was like, what the hell is this? I'm out.
My friend, Elvin was talking it up because he like loves this arc.
And then we get to it and Elvin's like, I think you're going to hate it.
No, I'm like, why did you make me watch this show?
It's a big arc you think I'm going to hate.
I mean, to be fair, I haven't liked the other arcs very much.
Like York knew is the best one so far
because it's like a big revenge story. That one rules.
Green Island was OK.
I just like if you got the girl with the hair, I hate it.
A biscuit.
Yeah. Well, name Dom, hair Dom.
If you're in there's like been no good, like recurring female characters.
And then there are no women in Hunter, Hunter.
I point this out all the time.
It upsets me.
I was really hoping Kroppy Co actually was a girl.
I like I had a bit running run just like how long until we passed
the back to test with Hunter, Hunter, and it takes like 30 episodes or something.
The what test? The back to test.
What the hell is that?
You've never heard the back to test?
No, actually, I'm not culture.
That's OK.
The back to test comes from a comic.
Let me look it up to make sure that I'm saying stuff that's correct.
Yes. So the back to test is so the test is whether a work features
two women characters who have a conversation about something that isn't a guy.
Oh, my God.
This comes from this comes from the
this is a comic strip in the book, Dyches to Watch Out for by.
Oh, OK.
Bechtel and it's called the Bechtel test.
It's like an extremely low bar for like, hey, are women considered
like it are 3D characters in this?
And the answer is it takes a long time for Hunter, Hunter to even pass
that extremely low bar.
And even when it does it, I don't think it's very good, but it technically does.
So I guess it gets a check mark.
That's wild. OK.
Well, that's going to be a thing I think about now.
Wow. OK. Back to test.
That's the kind of shit you're watching.
Hunter, Hunter. No. Well, you like the show.
I know. I like this show more than I do. I know.
I just I think I like the character.
I don't I don't know.
I like it. I mean, I'm also watching Victory Gundam.
That's I'm almost done with that.
I'll probably have a thing to say about that later.
I was watching Delicious in the Dungeon Dungeon Meshie, which is very good.
But I'm still not the name. You don't like the name.
The name's good. No, it's goofy.
I don't like Dungeon anything. OK.
I mean, it's like a take on like D&D adventure.
So you're not into that. You won't be into it.
So I want you to watch the Sacred Blacksmith and tell me if it's trash.
I like the Sacred Blacksmith.
I don't think I've heard of this.
The say you need me to tell you if it's trash.
Because it's got elements where it's like, OK, this is like the law.
But yeah, I'm looking at this this poster.
She does the pose.
She does the like I'm a woman, my butts out and my boobs out
because I'm like twisting my torso in a way that feels impossible.
Yeah. OK. Well, I like this.
Sure, I'll watch it.
I feel like the key to you is like, is there woman protagonists?
And if there is, we're OK.
No, that's not necessarily true.
I'm not freaking watching it.
That's not that's for video games.
That's the case. If I can play as a girl 100 percent.
Uh-huh. Not anime, though, because a lot of anime
female protagonists are depicted in a way I don't relate to.
But speaking of anime girls, I can relate to
Sawako, the awkward, the adorable, the fumbling.
We love Sawako just to put that out there.
Now when you give her an introduction like that.
No, I'll I'll.
Sawako, the bumbling.
Adorable, adorable.
OK, yeah. Well, the show we're here to discuss.
Can we need to doke episode seven?
Let's get started.
Can we need to doke episode seven is called Saturday Night?
It's Saturday night.
And Sawako is making food.
Her mom is excited because Sawako cooks on Saturdays.
And that's fun.
Sawako tells us the audience that her plans to get ramen with
Chizu and Ayane yesterday were bust because the shop they were going to was closed.
Then Sawako gets a call from her friend on the landline.
And it's Chizu and Ayane.
They're asking her if she wants to get ramen tonight instead.
She asks her parents if she could go and her parents are very supportive of her going.
They're all scrambling like, like this is never happening before everyone.
This is what we do.
Yeah, yeah. Her parents are like, oh, you have friends.
That's great. You should definitely go.
Forget that you're cooking right now.
We'll just figure it out. Whatever.
Go, go, go.
Supportive parents.
Also, there's some really good camera work going on in this part where they do
like a cool zooming animation when like I think her dad answers.
No, her mom answers the phone.
Yeah, her mom was like little dot eyeballs.
They like bother to animate that she has actual normal eyes for the show.
And this thing. Yeah, it does like a dramatic zoom.
It's very good.
Sawako meets up with Ayane and Chizu.
They ask her for her cell number as they walk to the restaurant
and she reveals that she doesn't have a cell phone.
And I had to note this.
So this series takes place in like the early 2000s.
So yeah, I got a little flip phone.
Yeah, I think Ayane has a flip phone.
They go to the ramen place.
Chizu is a regular there and like knows the owner while they're like sitting there.
They run out of water and more is brought out by another than Ryu.
He's our boy. He our boy.
He's in the episode.
And we learned that Ryu's family like runs this restaurant after they eat.
She says she's going to go up first
and then just starts like walking past the like restaurant part
into Ryu's family's house because it's connected by like a staircase.
They go into a bedroom and they hang out there and Chizu gets on the bed.
Well, Saoko and Ayane sit on the floor.
Ayane gets a phone call on her cell and Saoko is amazed
how popular Ayane is getting a phone call on her cell.
We learned that Ayane has a boyfriend, I guess, and he's in college.
And then she doesn't expand on that at all.
But she does have to tell her boyfriend that she's only hanging out with girls
and not guys. Red flag.
Toxic red flag.
The fact that he's in college is also a red flag.
That's true.
But yeah, they doesn't trust her.
But Chizu does say, oh, your current boyfriend,
a, as in since the time that they've known each other, she's had several.
I guess so.
Saoko is amazed that she has a boyfriend.
And Ayane says that Chizu and Saoko will join the adult world soon enough.
Chizu complains that she's an adult because she's already beat up 99 guys.
And Ayane is like only 99.
What happened to the 100s?
Did you lose to somebody?
And Chizu's like, yeah, I actually lost to Ryu.
Right as he walks in and we learned that this is his room.
Yeah, poor dude can't get any privacy.
No, he doesn't seem to mind.
Saoko asks, or asks, yeah, were you and Chizu if they're dating?
And Ryu gives like a weird smirk.
And Saoko thinks that she guessed it right.
But then Chizu's like, no.
And Ryu says that they're more like brothers.
And then Chizu asks, which one of them is the older brother?
This makes Saoko envious because she's an only child.
It doesn't have a brother.
Single child.
Wow.
We hate brothers here.
I wanted to be a single child.
So bad.
I am the brother, so I don't know what it's like to have one.
They're just a lost cause, like, oh, wow.
Or at least in my family, it's like, wow, they're emotionally detached.
Like, don't expect much from them.
OK, well, that sounds like indicative of something else.
Anyways, the girls eat snacks and talk while Ryu reads a book.
Chizu suggests inviting Kazahaya.
They make Saoko call him using Ryu's phone.
We switched to Kazahaya's perspective
and we learned that he has a little brother.
So it's really about this episode.
Yeah, he's like a little mini him.
Yeah, it's like a kindergarten or something or like an elementary school kid.
She invites him over and he says that he'll get over right away.
They're eager. Yeah.
While waiting for Kazahaya, they look at a middle school yearbook.
We learned that Kazahaya used to be on the baseball team
but quit when he started high school.
Saoko says she wishes she could have known him then
so she could see him play baseball.
And Chizu tells him that there will be a sports festival at school soon.
So she can watch him play softball then because he's going to have to do that.
Then Saoko flips the page and we see the blonde chick
and we learn that her name is Kurumi.
And Chizu doesn't like her very much but doesn't elaborate on that.
Ayane teases Ryu asking if he thinks Kurumi is hot.
And he says that she's not his type and they're like, oh, you have a type.
What is it? Is it Saoko?
Do you think she's hot?
And he pauses before saying, yeah, he likes Saoko.
And Saoko is very touched and says that she likes Ryu too.
And he's like, cool.
His T.B. I think I guess it's just the style where they have like just a perfectly round head.
But his little T.B. vervement is funny because it just has like essentially
he looks like he's asleep when he's in his little doodle form.
Yeah.
Just so zoned out.
He's just like whatever.
Yeah.
Then Ayane and Chizu ask Saoko or ask Saoko what she thinks about Kazehaya.
She turns red and she meekly says that she really likes him.
And then Ayane and Chizu sidebar to discuss if they should tell her
that she likes him romantically and maybe they should tell her that
because she doesn't seem that aware of it.
But Ayane decides that she should just ease into it instead.
Yeah.
I mean, I know it like blame Ayane for you having to like wait for this to play out
rather than them just telling her.
Yeah.
I mean, maybe it's the right call.
I don't know.
Uh huh.
We get a lot of Ayane oscillating between being a cool friend and being a little shit.
So it's going to be hard to know.
She's a little troll.
What what what parallel she's running on.
Let's see.
Kazehaya gets to the Riyu residence but narrowly dodges pin who has come to eat ramen.
He walks in on Chizu and Ayane like trash talking him like teasing him somewhat
and announces loudly that he is a normal guy and they should stop saying weird stuff about him.
Then Kazehaya teases Saoko and they share a smile.
Ayane decides to start being a little shit until Saoko to sit next to her.
Don't call that.
To sit in between her and Chizu.
We love it.
And they start cuddling her like she's a cat.
They're teasing because it's like oh look how we get to touch her.
Not you mister.
Right in front of you.
Yeah which makes Kazehaya jealous.
It's ridiculous.
I love it.
The pin hears them from downstairs and barges in and starts joking around with everybody.
Saoko is like why is a teacher here and they explain that pin used to coach their little
league games and is like a regular so they've known him for a long time.
Blaine's like so familiar and unprofessional with Kazehaya.
Pin is amazed that everybody is okay with Saoko being around because she made him
hallucinate that one time and Ayane tricks him into thinking he has a sixth sense.
Then Saoko gives him some advice about like taking a bath or salt in it and he starts
to believe that she's actually an exorcist.
They decide to call it a night and I'll leave.
Kazehaya offers to walk Saoko home giving some really obvious excuse and Ayane and Chizu
tease him.
Ayane then starts walking home but pin tags along because quote walking home alone is
scary unquote.
Chizu asks Ryu what his type actually was and he says he likes somebody who's dull
and simple.
And we get a scene where Chizu is like hmm who do I know that's dull and simple.
I guess Saoko is kind of like that.
Can't think of anyone else though.
Ryu says that this was fun but she didn't need to do all of that because he already
knew and she's like what do you mean already knew what.
And he says oh I already knew that the three of you made up of course and then she gets
all embarrassed.
We get a scene where Kazehaya and Saoko walk home and it's cute the end.
Is this the episode that you're saying was the best episode?
Yeah this episode is great because this is the signposting episode of like here's what
the like the next arc is going to be about.
We learned stuff about Ayane and her weird boyfriend who probably sucks because he's
in college and dating a I guess freshman in high school.
Bizarre and also was like like jealous or something.
I don't know.
Loser behavior.
I mean this episode just sets up like what the dynamics are going to be for the group
going forward.
I just got myself smiling and being like oh happy happy watching it.
You know.
You were just saying that you were like happy happy as you were watching it right.
Yeah no no I was saying it but how I felt.
I was like smiling to myself as I was writing my little notes.
It's just such a doesn't it aren't you just like let you watch it.
Sure.
You're just dead stone cold as you're watching it.
No like this is the best episode.
This is the best episode of the show so far.
Everybody gets to hang out.
Yeah we get all the signposting we know that Ryu and Jizu have a thing kind of a whether
or not she really understands it or not.
No culture signposting.
You're planting flags for stuff that's going to be discussed later on.
Okay okay.
You're posting signs for a thing that's for the turn you're about to tell.
Just for any listeners who aren't familiar with that.
This is just going to be the future stuff basically.
Which brings me to a couple things.
Number one Ayane is great.
She's my favorite.
I love her.
Aside from Ryu who's also great.
She's a little Gremlin.
It's great.
I love that she's a little Gremlin.
She would get along with her toko.
So much.
Yes for sure.
Well she loves well Kazaihaya so easy to tease and then she can use Sawako as a vessel
to tease him because Sawako is just so unaware.
It's such a good little dynamic.
Well it's also interesting in the way that like how Kazaihaya handles teasing versus
how Ryu does.
Because Ryu like plays into it a little bit right but he doesn't really like detach kind
of coolish way like he's very used to this.
Yeah.
Unaffected.
Whereas Kazaihaya gets reactions out of.
Yes.
Reactionary.
Yes boy.
Ayane calls Ryu by his first name as well so I guess they're somewhat close or just
by being close.
Yeah they're brothers.
No.
Ayane next to Ryu.
Ayane.
Ayane sorry.
So like they're casually calling each other.
Well that comes up in next episode.
So we'll talk about that when we get to the first name arc.
Let's see.
Oh something that I'm not excited about.
Oh let's hear it.
Ayane and Pin go home at the same time.
They need to not be a thing.
You're so perceptive.
I am burning down the establishment.
Oh god.
Gross.
You're so smart.
I mean we've had a lot of we've had a lot of episodes like on a lot of moments where
like Pin walks up to Ayane and he's like hey go home brat and she's like fuck you.
This is pretty good but I don't want that to be a romantic thing.
Not every thing needs to be romance in this.
Thank you.
Well maybe she has like a thing for older dudes.
If Pin does this directly to jail do not pass go do not collect $200.
This better not happen.
I say as like I'm manifesting it happening.
I notice it does seem to be a thing like it's a common trope in Shoujo that there's like
a teacher situation sometimes especially in the older ones I feel like.
But she's a freshman in high school.
Like it's just it's crazy.
Like if she was a senior and he was like a like first year aide I'm like my second year
of college or whatever like doing a thing that would be I would be okay with that.
I bet he's still her teacher.
I don't know.
Like you know what I mean.
This is where like the age gap actually matters a lot.
You know what I mean.
Like if she was a college freshman and he was like a grad student that would be different.
I'd be fine with that but like this is she's like 15.
Yeah.
Bad.
Well you're a sharp sharp one Joe.
We'll see how insane this makes me.
I like that everyone I just it seems nice to like live.
I mean this is kind of how it was where you live but like truly being in a town so like
self contained that you can just walk to everything that in your life like you can just walk seems
nice.
That was not how I lived.
Well I just mean the place you live now like there's lots of little areas you can walk
to like a big giant place.
Yeah.
This is like a small town where everything you need for day to day life is all in walking
distance.
It's pleasant.
Oh you mean walkable city design if we didn't live in carscape hell.
Yeah.
Unfortunately American culture sucks and we live in car hell.
Okay.
Because we got to make sure that GM like makes a quarterly profit or whatever.
Is our episode title car hell.
Car hell yes.
Okay.
Not related to the content of the show.
Yeah.
Let's see.
The beginning of the episode where she's at home and she like walks out and her parents
see her off it's just funny because she like has a gloom effect on her but then her like
being happy gives out little flowers on top of the gloom effect.
Oh yeah.
Funny and contrast.
That's pretty good.
So it's interesting I have a note here how Sawako both has trouble identifying romance
well she doesn't have trouble she's just uncertain about identifying romantic feelings
between other people so this is like the Chizu and Ryu thing which she guesses probably
correctly.
Oh my god I love it.
Yeah.
Because essentially it's clear Chizu is oblivious that Ryu may be interested in her at all and
he's just playing into the childhood friends thing to sustain the relationship but I'm
like he's holding in there look at him he's like okay if other people can guess that then
there must be something.
Oh Ryu our patient king just well letting Chizu do her own thing.
Ryu is really good at reading people like this is a difference that I'm going to talk
about more in like the next couple episodes with like the difference between him and Kazehaya.
Ryu is good at reading people like the thing he does where they're like oh it's Sawako
your type and he's immediately able to deflate that to being like oh yeah I like Sawako and
Sawako immediately picks it up and is like oh I like you too and they have like a nice
friendship moment that isn't like that isn't like the weird oh do you think this girl is
hot just like the Chizu kind of thing.
Yeah.
Like Ryu can get away with that in a way that Kazehaya never could even if he wasn't like
into Sawako you know what I mean like he cannot deflate it in that way.
Well he's also not as close to Chizuru and Nayani.
Kazehaya is only talking to him because he likes Sawako so it's not like he hasn't established
rapport necessarily with those two girls.
Yeah but again like I don't even think if he did he could like I don't think like in
a season he'd be able to pull that off either because he's not he cannot read people that
well like in that way.
Like Ryu is a vibes based guy you know he can like tell like even when he was comforting
Chizu during the gossip arc right he's very much like yeah there's no way it's Sawako
I mean come on think about it.
She didn't even have any other friends who she could gossip to herself you know instantly
reads it and it's just like this is ridiculous.
Yeah.
Because he is that guy.
Just threw the bullshit.
It's so cute how awkward Sawako is when she's with the phone.
I just I look ah she's so cute she's nervous.
I have bigger Sawako thoughts I'll get to later.
Okay when they're going through the yearbook and stuff and I made a note because right
it's always that boys in baseball have to have their hair buzzed and Ryu just keeps
his that way but we learned that Kazai Haya did at some point but I was like why is that
a thing why did I have to have their hair cut.
I looked into it a little bit and it seems like originally it was like a like give it
a sense of unity that you're all the same hair as a part of the same team but I guess
it was also a thing they did for like military stuff you know like having to wear helmets
and what not.
Yeah.
I just thought that was interesting.
Yeah it's like part of a uniform.
I had to like look up as well because there's this show I mean I guess it is it's not dubbed
so and it's never been dubbed so I'm interested to see what they would say and these intises
that are very Japanese based references and because later my Kazai Haya joins them at
Ryu's room they're talking about how fast his hair is growing right after he got or
it was growing it out after baseball and saying oh he must be a pervert so there's some like
apparently old wives tale about people with fast hair or fast growing hair perverts like
if you having any kind of like salacious thoughts make your hair grow faster in that moment
so if your hair grows fast and you're thinking that way a lot being the.
Okay that's where I came from.
Yeah.
I didn't I didn't include that in my notes because I didn't know what to make of it.
Yeah I tried to like learn I guess the that's the only time I picked up on that being referenced
that the baseball thing is a thing that I have noticed in other shows.
Penn being freaking he's just gonna be the cock block of this show he's just gonna diffuse
moments because like everyone's having a nice time and he comes to crash the party and Kazai
Haya's pissed he's like damn it I just got here I just.
He hates that guy.
So funny.
Yeah.
Oh that's pretty good.
Okay should I get an episode eight now?
Yes let's do it.
Episode eight is called practicing on my own.
It's before school and some girls talk about the Sawakawa note which is the notes that
Sawakawa wrote for the midterms that helped everybody else in her class.
Karumi hears this and is displeased then some of her friends meet up with her and they gossip
about how Sawako and Kazai Haya hang out a lot and Karumi is like oh yeah Kazai Haya
probably likes her and her friends are like what that's in no way why would she like her
or like why would he like her that's impossible it's way more likely that he's into you Karumi
because you guys are so close and Karumi is just like oh that's only because we were middle
school friends.
Sawako is walking to school thinking about how her classmates keep doing weird stuff to
her like making a face at her or like tickling her or something.
The two plot device delivery girls tell her that there's a rumor going around.
Hey hey hey right we said they're gonna be a thing father to remember their names.
Yeah we get them later.
What are their names Joe?
They're in I have them later in a bullet point.
Okay.
I do a little joke here.
Okay.
Uh huh I got it I wrote it down.
No you weren't.
Okay.
They say that there's a rumor going around that if you make Sawako laugh you'll have
good luck and Sawako is like oh that's great a positive rumor about me I'll start laughing
at everything but then she tries to force a laugh and it's super creepy.
Ayane and Chizu come in and tell her to stop force laughing because it's creeping everybody
out.
Then they tell her or then they tell us the plot girls names which are Echo and Tomo
and that they're friends with Sawako now so she's up to five friends so good for her.
Then they all get on a first name basis real quick and Sawako does her best to call everybody
by their first names because that's a bigger deal in Japan than it is here clearly.
Well typically although she seems to be struggling with it where they're all I guess modern day
it's probably more casual or laid back with that kind of stuff but yeah it's like she's
like Chizu stutters out their names.
Yeah because it's customary to call people by their last name if you don't know them
right and like if you do know them you can call them by their first name.
I mean but like a much more extreme example of like what we have here but also like your
peers like this is a it shows closeness by calling somebody by their first name which
is a weird thing.
This is always the weird thing where I'm like it's so weird because here in the US I call
my boss by their first name I call my boss's boss by their first name I call the CIO by
their first name it's just like nobody cares.
Essentially just kids.
Kids call people Mr. Miss whatever.
Well I'll call people by their last name or like this is Mr. whatever if I've never
met them before but as soon as you meet somebody they're just like oh yeah call me this you
know that's like a very normal thing here.
Anyway Ayane says that Sawako should be less formal and hey look it's the perfect practice
partner with Kasehaya.
Hey Sawako go call him by his first name without an honorific and she tries to do that
but ends up only calling him by his last name without an honorific which is a lot less
impressive.
And then she still like leaks out a little.
Yeah she's super quiet about it.
If you're wondering what an honorific is it's like San which is like Mr. whatever or
we've talked about it a little bit but like Sama that's like the highest respect honorific
you could use on someone.
San is like a typical respect and then there's like Chan is typically used for kids or girls.
Koon is for boys.
There are other endings for like your position like you call someone blank sensei if they're
your teacher like there's and then like if you're in the military there's like captain
like there's a lot of like denoting your rank or whatever which reminds me you should always
be calling me Dr. Joe so maybe you should start me yeah because I do have a doctorate.
Dr. Joe what else you got.
Let's see Sawako decides she's going to stop being or she's going to keep being formal
with boys but is going to try to loosen up with girls.
A pin makes Kazehaya join the sports festival planning committee.
The students are assigned to the following sports.
Kazehaya is playing softball and soccer.
Chizu is playing volleyball and soccer.
Ryu is playing softball.
Sawako is playing soccer and Ayane is playing volleyball.
Chizu is pumped for the sports event.
Sawako vows to not be a burden and Kazehaya suggests that the class take the afternoon
to practice.
Let's see if we get a cut away and in a bathroom Karumi learns that Kazehaya is on the sports
festival committee and she suddenly gets her friends to nominate her to be on the committee
too but she doesn't in that like oh I don't want to be this.
Calculated.
Yeah it's calculated she subtly does it.
She read Machiavelli she's like oh I know how to maneuver in a way that is unnecessary
but she can't let her know she can't let anybody know that she's into him because she's got
to play coy.
Sawako practices soccer and she has her hair in twin braids which looks pretty good.
As expected she has.
Lots of hairstyles.
We get more about her hair later.
Let's see.
As expected she has no athletic ability.
Sawako thinks about how she's going to be a burden and that she should train on her
own.
The girls watch the guys play and Sawako is excited to see Kazehaya play for real.
He notices her in braids and he's like braids he says.
And then she starts blushing real hard and zones out staring at Kazehaya.
She wonders why she couldn't take her eyes off of him.
What could this mean?
After class, Chizu and Ayana decide to go shopping and invite Sawako but Sawako says
she has to water plants and can't today.
But some other day she would go with them but it turns out she was lying and she's actually
going to go practice soccer by herself and doesn't want to bother anybody.
She sees Kazehaya in the hallway and starts staring at him again.
She wonders what's wrong with herself.
Why does she keep staring at Kazehaya?
Sawako tries to get a soccer ball from the TE teacher but he says no so she just waters
the flowers which is what she's supposed to do and wonders if she's going to actually
have to buy a soccer ball.
She kind of doesn't want to do that.
She thinks about how she first met Kazehaya in that exact spot at the flower beds near
the window and she thinks about that.
In the sports committee meeting, Karumi walks up and is like, oh you're here too Kazehaya?
I had no idea.
And he's like, oh hey Karumi, thanks for loaning me that CD by the way.
And they talk about how I guess they exchange music with one another.
Kazehaya sees Sawako watering the plants outside the window and zones out while Karumi is talking
to him.
Sawako starts playing soccer with a rock and Kazehaya laughs.
As Karumi watches on, watching Kazehaya watch Sawako play with a rock.
This is incredible.
Sawako has been practicing with a rock so long she lost track of time.
As she's wondering what she's going to do now, a soccer ball rolls up to her and she
turns to see that Kazehaya has passed it to her.
She picks it up with her hands which she's not supposed to be doing and he tells her
to come with him.
Sawako wonders to herself why she can't smile as she practices with Kazehaya and that the
atmosphere between her and him feels a little different.
She decides that if she can't smile or her smile can't reach him, maybe this ball can
and she passes the ball to him as we cut to credits.
Oh, look at that.
Look at that.
Soccer ball of feelings.
First names.
I just love Ayane teasing.
It's like my new favorite thing of the show.
Yeah.
I thought it was great.
And then they're like, well, they asked for you.
Can you please demonstrate to Kazehaya how it's gotten?
Talking, you know, saying Sawako's name and then he totally butchers her name like he
can't remember what her actual name is.
That is next episode.
Ah, fuck.
Damn it.
I'll cut that.
I mean, do you want me just to roll in the next episode?
I don't have that much to say about this one.
I have like bigger thoughts after the next one.
Yeah, that's true.
She has a savings account apparently.
She's socializing.
She seems to have her shit together.
Like she's just crushing life as far as school and cooking and saving money.
Yeah, I mean, she doesn't have any other hobbies, though.
She doesn't like have a phone.
That's true.
Yeah.
She doesn't like watch TV.
Okay.
Yep.
We can roll into episode nine.
All right.
Episode nine is called New Friends.
The girls are at soccer practice and Sawako does a good kick and everybody is impressed.
We get a flashback of last episode where Kazehaya teaches Sawako to kick the ball properly.
Sawako returns to the classroom but runs into Karumi, who asks if Kazehaya is around.
Sawako says the boys are still practicing, but thanks her for helping her pick up her
stuff like a few episodes ago.
Karumi says it's no big deal.
Sawako thinks about how Karumi is really kind, like Kazehaya is, and that she's basically
the type of girl that Sawako wants to be.
Then she thinks that she is pretty just like a doll.
Just as Karumi says out loud that Sawako is pretty just like a doll.
Sawako is like, wait, did I just say that out loud?
Oh yeah.
Sawako is like, that was my thought.
Did I say that thought?
But no, she did not.
Sawako takes, it says the ultimate compliment.
But as Karumi walks away, we get an internal monologue that says she looks like a cursed
doll.
I guess to clarify, she says that you look like a doll, which I'm saying like pretty
like a doll, which I think is the implication.
But that's not literally what she says, what she literally says is you look like a doll,
which I had bigger thoughts on.
But Kazehaya comes in without a vest on and asks Chizu how practice is.
Chizu talks up Sawako's skills and Kazehaya is impressed.
Sawako remembers.
Karumi was asking for him and tells Kazehaya that somebody was looking for him.
And Chizu was like, oh, you met Karumi, huh?
But then doesn't say very much.
And then they chastise Sawako for not using everybody's first names, like she's supposed
to.
Chizu asks Ryu if he's remembered Sawako's name and he has not.
Ioni gets Kazehaya to say her full name as a demonstration.
And then he does and then he demands that he call her by her first name only.
And it's very dramatic.
And he ultimately chickens out and isn't able to do it.
Sawako notices that that entire time she was been nervous around him more and more.
Sawako sees Kazehaya and Karumi talking to each other in the hallway as some nearby
students gossip about how good of a couple they make.
And Sawako can't help but agree.
She wonders if Karumi should be her role model and thinks about if she should get a hair perm
or not because like Karumi's hair is like very lightly colored.
Like she's not blonde.
It's just like really light brown and it's like permed, I guess.
It's like very bouncy, wavy.
She asks Chizu and Ioni if she should get a perm and they think it's a terrible idea
after visualizing what it might look like.
A little creature.
Yeah.
Ioni asks why she has her current hairstyle, which is just like straight, long black hair.
Sawako says this because she figured straight, long hair would make her seem more feminine.
And then Ioni and Chizu speculate on different haircut Sawako would look good in.
They ultimately can't think of any and sysbat her hair is great the way it is.
And every single one of them is the rest of her life.
Yeah, which is interesting because we see her in some better styles.
They ask her why she considered changing it and Sawako says that she wants to look cuter.
Chizu, Ioni and Sawako decide to practice soccer after school.
Sawako is waiting at the entrance while Chizu and Ioni ask Finn for a ball.
Ekko and Tomo come up and talk to Sawako as they're going home.
Sawako thinks about how great it is to have friends.
She overhears Kazehaya talking to some guy and she thinks about how great he is for being social.
While talking to his friend, he calls Kirumi by her first name being like, oh yeah, Kirumi's
in this class or in the committee.
And Sawako thinks about how he had trouble saying her first name.
So I guess their relationships are different.
She starts to feel a feeling she's unfamiliar with as she wonders if Kazehaya has someone
special in his heart.
While she's thinking this, Kazehaya spots her and tries to strike up a conversation.
Sawako's heart is aching so much that she can barely get a word out.
Kazehaya tries calling her again by her first name, but before he can get it out fully,
Kirumi shows up.
Kirumi's like, what's up, you two?
Sawako thinks to herself that she's been overthinking things and also thinking about
Kazehaya too much.
Kirumi comments that she's sweating and then pats her down with a handkerchief.
Sawako thanks her and thinks about how she's a Kirumi fan now.
Kazehaya is pleasantly surprised to find that his middle school friend and his new friend
are friends with each other.
That's great.
Kirumi says that she wants to hang out with Sawako because they're friends now, right?
And Sawako is like beside herself as she realizes that she has made a new friend.
Question mark, question mark, question mark, end of episode.
And Shizu and Ayame see this happening and are skeptical.
They show up and they're like girls know what's up.
Do they?
Do you, Joe?
Do I?
What's happening?
She thinks she's a horror doll.
Well, she's going to do the thing I said before, right?
Where she's like, she's going to pretend to be her friend and then scheme.
Yeah.
Scim for the inside.
Well, she is trying to give off this like, oh, I don't care.
You know, me and Kazehaya are just friends, blah, blah, blah, but also manipulate people
into making things happen for her.
It's all very obvious.
If you got all of those asides and scenes where she was by herself thinking her thoughts,
this would be very obvious.
Yeah.
All right.
I have some big thoughts about keeping me to this point.
Oh, OK.
Let's hear it.
Tell me.
All right.
So I have been thinking a lot about.
So like one of the things I want to get out of this podcast is thinking about the differences
between show Joe and Shonen.
Like what is the actual difference here?
Is it just like cynical marketing?
Is it just like, oh, women like romance and boys like fighting?
Or is there something else like actually going on here?
So I'm comparing.
Do you want to study Dr. Joe?
Maybe.
I could.
I know.
That would be so I'd have to read so much stuff.
Yeah.
There's no way.
So there are Shonen shows that are kind of like this about like, oh, you're in high school.
You kind of don't have a lot of friends.
You're like trying to fit in plus romance aspects of the the text I'm comparing this
to are like my teen romance comedy, snafu, which I think I've mentioned before that has
a male lead.
And also a book to the rock is kind of like this, the one where she like joins a band.
That's a female lead, but it's still like a Shonen.
One of the key differences I've noticed between those two series and this one is that in those,
the like loner character is their problem is that they are ignored, right?
People around them are not aware of them.
They're kind of like invisible.
Whereas Sawako's problem is that she isn't invisible because all of her like classmates
are very aware of her, just not as a like they just don't engage with her as a person.
Like she's being objectified by like being called like a legend or like a ghost or whatever,
right?
Not in the way that like you would normally say someone's being objectified, which is
like sexually objectified.
She's being objectified in terms of like, you are a thing we like make jokes about, but
you are not like a person.
Like people are not engaging with her as a person, which I mean, there's the whole reason
why Kazehai is great because he is engaging with her as a person.
So he is not objectifying her in that way.
But that is a like key difference, I think between these two things where like the experience
of I think boys and men to some extent in like society thinking about like you can be
ignored.
Like people were not going to be viewing you all the time.
People are not like hyper aware of everything you're doing or what you're wearing or all
that other stuff in the way that they are for women.
And so like this is a story about somebody who is like being objectified and not being
treated as a human or like a person with feelings and he needs to do okay, which is kind of
the difference I see in the genre of like being a shojo as opposed to being shown in.
This comes because I also randomly was watching an episode of John Burgers way of ways of
seeing, which was talking about I watched episode two of that.
It's like a four part series.
I've never heard of it.
Yeah, I don't know why I ended up watching it.
It's one of these weird things where like I just stumble upon because like somebody was
saying something about like the male gaze and then like this is basically a series talking
about that.
But what he's talking about in this and this is from like the 70s, right?
So this is, you know, older and doesn't comment on like social media or anything.
It was talking about like the way women are depicted in like European classical art, especially
when they like are shown nude and like talking about like the way the women are posed the
way that they are looking at the camera or not the camera looking at the artist peeping
on them, right?
Like they're not aware or like they are they're like doing a face that you would do for somebody
viewing you like it's all in service of the viewer, which is like assumed to be a man.
And this is kind of like where the concept of like male gaze kind of comes in.
It's like this is a painting depicting something that is supposed to be like not explicitly
sexual, but it is very much in terms of like the way it's framed, who has power in the situation,
whether or not the woman is positioned such that they are just like a naked person that's
being comfortable by themselves or like inviting in like a sexual way.
So you need to be a teacher, I think, or because I read I watched a show and I summarized
it.
These are not my ideas.
But like this is so good at conveying them.
Yeah, well, it's just like, I don't know, like I happen to watch this and then I happen
to watch this episodes where like, you know, they're complimenting each other by saying
they look like a doll, which like, I understand that this is a reference to like the Japanese
dolls.
I don't remember what they're called that are like the porcelain, like I guess like
platonic ideal of what you would want to look like as a woman in like traditional Japanese
culture sense.
I mean, obviously like Ayane is going for a different look and stuff like that.
But that is like a that is a beauty standard to be compared to.
But also it's a doll, which has all of the context of like being objectified, like in
a literal sense of like you are literally an object if you look like a doll, because
people are gonna reflect like think of you as like an object.
And so I don't know, I was just thinking about that because one of the quotes from this
TV series, the episode is like men look at women and women look at men looking at them.
And so this is kind of like that in like a not as you know, it's not so much focus on
men in this, but it is like Sawako knows people are looking at her.
She doesn't understand what they are necessarily what they are seeing or why and that creates
problems for her.
She's not really able to change it, but she is thinking about it, right?
Like she wears her hair straight down because she wants to look more feminine, but she doesn't
realize that that's like not necessarily working in her favor because nobody will tell her
because nobody interacts with her as like a human being.
And that's just I think distinctly different than like the Shonen style where it's mostly
just like, oh, you are ignored.
And like the arcs of those is like you start hanging out with some people and they get
to know you and they think you're cool and you like have to deal with the fact that you
are not invisible anymore and you are now being visible in front of other people as like a
character arc is like you are known to other people whereas Sawako is already known to
other people.
It's just not in a personal sense.
That's a big difference.
And the other big thing I had to say, oh, I guess this kind of dovetails into that, which
is the difference between Rune and Kazehaya.
I think that is like most unnoticeable here is Kazehaya does not objectify Sawako in
that way.
Like he always like addresses her as a person and like they have conversations and like
even when he didn't know her, he was still like saying hi to her and stuff like treating
her like everybody else, which is what she liked about him.
But the thing Kazehaya clearly is not that great at is like understanding people's true
nature, which is like everybody is.
Yes, he's not very good at intentions.
Also about Sawako is to the extent that she may be on the autism spectrum in terms of
like one big part of that is like, at least this is my understanding.
I'm not an expert in this, but like being literal and what she is very literal.
Like I mentioned before about how like she talks in very precise languages and says exactly
what she thinks, which causes problems because other people read the implication of that.
And Kazehaya reads the implication of that in the episode where she like talks about
how great he is and he's like, oh, well, she likes me, but she doesn't.
She's she was saying those words specifically to convey what she felt about you, which is
that she admired you, which is not the same thing.
And she also is very bad at like, or she's unsure of herself.
She isn't actually that bad at reading things.
Like when she asks Chizun Ryu if they're dating, that's actually a pretty good read.
She just does her own assessment.
Yeah. And so she always needs confirmation of other people's intentions.
And so that is that's why I'm saying to a certain extent, I think she might be on the
autism spectrum a little bit in terms of like not able to pick up social cues in the way
that somebody growing up at this point probably is already able to or like normally would
have been able to.
Yeah, I don't know if there's any anime that feature such a protagonist or address it.
Like they may have the characteristics, but I don't know if there's an anime that addresses
the character as autistic or not.
Yeah. I mean, not explicitly.
Like I don't think this is going to explicitly say that.
No, no. This is the thing I'm thinking about Saoko like in relation to.
I don't think she's like they're ever going to be like, oh, you might be on the spectrum
because first off this came out in like the early 2000s.
Yeah. That was the thing.
I don't know where the conversation on autism even is in Japan.
Interesting. Yeah.
But like this is what I am thinking about in terms of like what is being portrayed
because it does make sense.
Yeah. Well, also, I think for what I am aware of, it like goes
unnoticed in women more than men because women are traditionally expected to be more reserved
and quiet like that.
And then, but if a dude is like that when they're supposed to be more like they're supposed
to be more bravado in how they behave, then they'll more likely assess them as autistic
because it like differs from how society expects a male to act.
But because it displays as like reserved nature in women, which is what we want in our women,
we don't identify that as much.
Yeah. I think that's right.
I do think there's like a higher diagnosis rate for men than there is for women.
And that makes that explanation makes sense.
Yeah. Look at this.
Dive in deep.
But I do think that is a difference between Kazehai and Sawako, which is why like,
guess what was I saying?
Oh, yeah. Like the fact that Kazehai is not grasping like Karumi's true intention
after being friends with her for years is like a difference between him and Ryu,
which I feel like Ryu could clock that pretty quickly because he is a vibes based guy.
It could be because Ryu is so uninvolved in everything that he can see with clarity,
whereas Kazehai is involved with everyone.
So he I mean, it could be taxing on him if he was like trying to take everyone at face value as more than that.
Because so many people are coming to him to have to like interpret so many things
and so many people could be stressful.
Well, also, I feel like Ryu's Ryu's more observant.
Yeah.
Like he pays more attention to people specifically, even though he's not being friendly, right?
He's not going out and remembering people's names.
He is observing people pretty closely when he does.
In a way that Kazehai just kind of like, you know, he does jump to conclusions.
He's not paying attention to the exactness of Sawako's words in the same way that Ryu might be able to.
Also, by not being bothered by like who they are or have certain image of a relationship with people,
Ryu can just see things as they are and not be, you know, his perception changed by like feelings or associated things with that person.
Yeah. He seems to enter conversations with less baggage, at least, or like fires.
But we'll see how that plays out as we get to know him more.
Yeah.
I feel like I'm doing a lot of like speculating.
Well, we'll see because we love Ryu and want to see more of Ryu.
Yeah. Yeah. We love everyone.
Except Karumi.
Except Karumi and maybe Penn.
We'll see. Yeah, no.
He's kind of walking on thin ice here.
We're concerned.
I might end up liking Karumi.
It depends on how much of a mean girl she is.
Sometimes I like the mean girl characters and stuff.
But I love Chizuru and Chizuru doesn't trust her.
Mm-hmm.
It's interesting how Chizuru's not doesn't take offense at being compared to Ryu's being like,
oh, we're like brothers.
She's just like instantly on board with that characterization.
Well, yeah, we'll get into it more.
They're dynamic later on.
Probably pretty soon after this whole Karumi arc, I think,
if I remember correctly.
Salako braiding your hair is pretty good.
I mean, that is the good thing, right?
She's got straight long hair, which means with straight hair,
it's easier to updo some stuff.
Also, I feel like, yeah, with the long hair, you can do more things.
So there is more possibility for different styles.
So her hair is more malleable versus if she had like a more distinct hair texture or color,
then it wouldn't work as well with different things.
It's just it's interesting that like her thing is like, oh, should I get a perm or dye my hair?
Which seems like really big changes.
Whereas I was like, have you ever like you could wear like a bow?
You could like there's like things you could do.
That's true.
Well, she just super admires Karumi.
You know, she likes how people think that Karumi and Kazahaya look good.
And you know, it's I think it's we can see it's slowly dawning on her that something about
how she feels towards Kazahaya is different.
You know, obviously we see she gets pangs of jealousy.
She just doesn't she can't identify it that that's what it is at this point.
But so she wants to change because she wants something more with Kazahaya.
Right.
She's not as at ease like you were concerned like, oh, if you like someone,
wouldn't you be more nervous around them that you were talking about last episode?
You know, we're seeing a change in that dynamic between them, right?
Like they're not as comfortable.
There's more tension and hesitation.
I feel so smart for saying that.
Well, I feel so smart for being like, I don't think she has a crush on him right now.
Because like she's saying stuff that's like he's and she didn't.
I was I'm over here.
I'm kissing my muscles.
I'm flexing.
I'm kissing the bicep.
It's me.
Dr. Joe's on to something.
I can read a text.
Let's go.
Yeah.
So that's where we're at.
We've got building the next few episodes should be chock full of stuff.
Should it?
Like because here's the thing like, I don't know what direction we're going to go with
because like, I mean, we could immediately address the Karumi stuff, right?
But I kind of feel like that would work better if we let that cook in the background.
Well, we've got the sports festival, right?
That's a thing.
We have the sports festival coming up.
That will be the vehicle for more socializing.
And I mean, what do you want to know?
Or like, what do you want to know the most about me?
I mean, I already know these things.
I already know this.
This is as fun as a game.
I've already seen this show.
I mean, if I was to think, I think I would want to know more about what's up with Ryu and Chizu.
That's where I'm at.
We're concerned about Iona and Penn.
Dynamic.
I'm concerned about Iona and her shitty current boyfriend.
Yeah, that's true.
Well, I can see it being they live in a small town and it's easy to kind of get bored.
So maybe like just changing partners is the way to keep things exciting.
Although is there a college around?
Like how is she dating a college guy?
I don't know.
Apparently he's close enough that he called to see if she could hang out of what's good
thing.
She was like, hey, I'm hanging out with friends.
So now I'm not going to ditch them to come hang out with you.
Yay for Iona.
I mean, it just seems like these from what we've seen so far, Iona is kind of just doing
her own thing and people are a way to entertain herself with as we've seen with her teasing
Kazai Hayas.
I'm assuming her boyfriend serves a similar purpose of just being a spectacle for her.
I guess so.
What do we think her family life is like?
Maybe like a single dad who works a lot.
I don't know.
I don't know that even to the point that I've seen a show that we get a reveal on her family
background.
Oh, OK.
And I mean, May we'll see once season three comes out, they do give their side characters
good development.
So we should learn more about her at some point so that any other thoughts before we
wrap things up here?
No, I feel like I hit all my big stuff.
OK, good.
Well, we're all expecting your publication that's going to bring more attention to this
podcast.
You're I feel like I'm going to work search this and Google scholar and like a thousand
people have already written about this exact thing.
We'll see.
You just have that work.
I haven't done the literature review.
I'm sure I'm just rehashing stuff.
People have already been rehashing for years because I'm showing our oral many years late
to the party.
I just got lazy clipping stuff from this to put on socials, but that would be a good
one to clip and put and then you don't have to write anything because you just spitting
mad facts already.
And all none of those are facts.
Those are all theories.
OK, well, I'm just saying she had theories.
I'll probably read like an author interview at some point and they're just like they just
say like, oh, all that stuff.
Not none of that stuff is happening.
Man.
I mean, this is one that has more thought put into it.
Not that you've seen whatever show we cover next has to be a more typical, like more basic
just the stereotypical show.
Do I got to think of what that is?
Well, I mean, this does compare because this has a lot more emotional weight to it.
Not the thing that depressingly, but like there's just more thought put into it.
Yeah, the thing that is kind of impressive about this one is that it doesn't like it's
cartoon, but it's mostly staying in like the drama territory.
Like it's not moving into like melodrama.
Everything's heightened.
You know what I mean?
Like even with the last arc, the whole time I was like, I'm pretty impressed at how everybody's
having like pretty realistic reactions and nobody is like being, you know, like cartoonishly
whatever.
So like, yeah, it doesn't move into melodrama.
We're just like gesturing at things that happen.
It's like these are actual things that could happen or like actual feelings you could experience
not like super heightened versions so that you get the point across, which is something
that a lesser show would probably move into that territory or like a show that's doing
something else.
You know, I don't want to.
Nine episodes in just based off these nine episodes.
What would you rate the show?
It's pretty good.
I mean, it's going to depend on a lot of like housings turn out so far.
I think it's pretty good.
Yeah, it is good.
I like it a lot.
It's so makes me happy watching it.
I get cool.
Well, that's that let's roll into recommendations.
Yeah.
What I'm prepped.
I'm prepped on recommendations.
Oh, right.
Okay, I'll start then.
So as I was talking about earlier, always looking for more podcasts, which is why I was
listening to celebrity stuff, but I'm going to recommend my attempt to be more well informed
of the world.
There's a podcast called wiser world.
She only puts episodes every once in a while, so go us for doing it every week.
Let's see.
I'm just going to read wiser world takes foundational world history and makes it
approachable and concise remind us of world basic history so we can have the context we
need to think about current events.
Basically, I'm just trying to like get better graphs of like what leads up to I'm trying
to be more aware of things happening, I guess, and she presents it in a very good way.
If that makes it easy to listen to, there's like, you know, I just learned about the well,
no, never mind.
I'm not going to like I learned about the history of North Korea and stuff like because,
you know, vaguely aware of it, but it's cool to get like the whole play out essentially
at the last hundred years of the history.
So it's been really interesting and a good way for folks who maybe live under a rock like
myself to get a bit more aware of what's going on in the world.
So wiser world, I listen on Spotify, so not too many episodes, but they are good.
And I highly recommend that podcast.
That's that's my recommendation this week.
How about you, Joe?
Have you got to be a found inspiration?
Not really.
I mean, you're looking around your bookshelves.
Yeah, I came back to my seat.
I shot mate.
So the thing I want to recommend, but I can't.
I finished a book recently called Computer Power and Human Reason by Joseph Weisenbaum,
which was an MIT professor who made the first chat bot.
And it goes through a lot of really interesting stuff as he like talks about how people project
onto machines.
I think it's pretty relevant now with like the popularity of chat, GPT and all that stuff.
Book goes hard.
Like not for the casual reader.
No, it is for the casual.
Like it's written for a casual audience.
Like it does talk about.
Like me could comprehend what's being said.
Yeah.
I mean, there's some technical stuff in there.
You can kind of just gloss over.
You just agreed with me.
I did not agree with you.
I was saying that the book is written for somebody who doesn't have a technical background.
I'm not calling you dumb.
Okay.
No, I think you're very smart or I wouldn't do this podcast with you.
Really?
Yeah.
I'm not a total dud.
You're not.
I don't think you are.
You seem really surprised when I said that.
Like you think I think you're stupid.
So if you say I'm smart, that means something.
I'm not that smart.
I just like I'm this is my preoccupation.
You're curious, you're curious and knowledgeable about a lot of different things, which is
admirable.
A big brainstorm all that info.
This is why I was like, oh, I should recommend another podcast, but I'm like, I probably
already recommended to these podcasts or it's like all in the same network podcast.
It's just these guys.
Recommended technically on a recommendation segment is games studies, study buddies.
That's the only podcast you recommended.
You've mentioned other ones, but that's the only one you've used as a recommendation
in our recommendation segment.
But book continue the book.
I'm not recommending this book because it's no longer in print.
Anyway, chapter 10 is called against the imperialism of instrumental reason.
You are recommending this.
I am recommending this, but you can't get it anywhere.
Where'd you get it?
I bought it off of eBay.
Okay, then people can find it.
Yeah, I will recommend a podcast instead.
I'm going to double recommend so you can actually access this.
I'll recommend a podcast by that same network of people plus another person who's does a
lot of super interesting stuff.
So I'm going to recommend shelved by genre, which is the same guys who do game study,
study buddies plus Austin Walker, who does like a lot of really interesting stuff in
the game space that, you know, think deeply about this kind of stuff.
And the way I'm thinking about like, oh, how, how men and women are perceived all stuff
that they do constantly in this podcast.
This is about genre literature.
They read books in segments and then talk about them.
They go into real hard depth.
These guys are way smarter.
I mean, they have like a literature background.
So they're talking about all this other stuff.
They're bringing a bunch of other things in.
So like if you, if you like that segment where I like speculated on this stuff as a guy who
doesn't know very much, imagine if a bunch of three really smart people did it for like
three hours.
Yeah.
I should check that out.
I'm trying to be more, well, because I'm so confident in my own opinion that I've never
really consumed that much as far as like how other people perceive games because I have such
a strong sense of how I feel about it.
I think I should since I work in the industry and I'm going to start focusing more on community
management versus social media.
So I got to get my head in the game more.
So I should listen to me all your, your game and just oh, I will send this one is about
genre literature.
So they read through like the books they've read through are the book of the new son, which
is like four novella length books by Gene Wolfe that are very weird.
And then they also just read through all of the earth sea books by the story.
The story of the movie's based off of yeah, that movie is not good.
I haven't read it yet.
I need to read along with these things, but they go, they go into a hard depth about that
stuff.
So that's good.
I got a question.
You know, all these things, do these ever like, do you ever get to go into discussion
on these?
Are you just like talking to people about them?
No, this is why I'm able to volley back in the conversation.
This is why I wanted to do this podcast with you.
It's like, I want to talk about stuff like this and I never get to because even if I
talk to people about this, they're always like, that's interesting.
And it's like super one sided because what the hell are they going to be able to say
about this book they've never heard of?
You know what I mean?
Like, yeah, yeah.
Oh man.
So yes, this is why I want to do this podcast is because it gives me an outlet.
I could bring up all of the weird shit.
I look up in a week.
I watched an episode of some thing on the way you see people on YouTube about women's
dudes in freaking classical art.
Yeah.
I took art history.
I can slightly contribute to this conversation.
No, it's good.
I mean, you did it.
I like, this is why I enjoy talking with you because you will play along.
I mean, like, it's not dismissive.
Like I will say this to some people like some friends I have and they are not able to hang
with the conversation.
They just like try to change the subject.
They're trying to get out of this conversation.
But you know, it's like, listen, if you were to suddenly start talking to me about something
that was really boring to me, I would probably also try to escape.
So you're good at, well, I guess maybe we just don't talk about things that the other
finds boring.
But I'm like, I feel like you're always very engaged in what I'm saying and good at
asking questions and stuff.
Well, because I like talking.
I can edit the long one if you want me to.
No, I'm controlling and like to do it.
Stop doing it in Premiere.
I probably should.
Yeah.
Maybe if we got more reviews by people, I would be motivated to learn a new way to edit
the podcast.
If you if you like the show, please review us on your podcast listener.
Whatever you're using to listen to right now, you can probably review it there.
Please review it there.
Rate it five stars.
If you're on Apple podcasts and you leave a review comment, I will read it out loud.
That helps us with whatever algorithm they use, I think it also helps boost our or at
least my spirit.
Very often.
And I'm sad to see no new.
Yeah.
If you have anything you want us to address specifically, you can send us an email at
showjopied.gmail.com.
That's the show we episode, baby.
Next time 10, 11 and 12.
You know how we like briefly episode eight is essentially what we thought we were getting
into with these episodes where it was going to be like, OK, we talked about it.
That's that move on to the next one.
Easy peasy.
Yep.
Let's let's put editing Sarah of her misery and end it here.
All right.
Pardon words.
What did we learn this time?
If your teacher slash baseball coach wants to walk home with you because walking at home
or walking alone at night is scary, just ditch him.
Just say fuck you run away.
Yeah.
Just tell him to buzz off.
Tell him to date your teacher.
Don't date your teacher.
Be missed.
Don't possibly be missed.
What if this doesn't happen and I'm just like going to have it.
It's going to happen.
I know it is.
I mean, our last age gap didn't work.
So maybe this time, you know, maybe there'll be a time skip and at the end of the time
skip, he's dead.
Oh, damn.
Wouldn't that be good?
Like, oh, poor one out for pin.
Honestly, I'd be fine with that.
The end of the time skip episode is just cause a high going to a grave and like putting
some flowers on it.
It's just been I really hate time skips.
I don't think they happen to him.
Well, I freaking hate the one a young justice.
Yeah, that one's bad.
Like it happens in Naruto.
It happens.
That's true.
Well, that's like a series conclusion time skip.
Like it's one series.
It happens in one piece.
Don't tell me.
Oh, well, yeah, an episode like 500 of one piece.
Are you watching one?
Yeah.
No, I'm not watching your whatever.
Well, you need to watch one piece.
It cuts.
It saves you.
It'll save you so many hours.
It's such that so much time.
Okay.
No, we're ending it now.
Okay.
Okay, guys.
Thanks for listening.
See you next week.
Bye bye.
Bye.