Welcome back to Shoujo listeners. I'm your host,
Sarah, and always joined by Joe here on the Shoujo
podcast. We recap and discuss Shoujo anime series
that I have seen and Joe hasn't. Rosa Versailles
being the exception to that role. But yeah, and
currently we are recapping Chihayafuru season
two. And before we jump into that, we like to
catch up a little, see what's been up with us.
And yeah, so I know I've got a lot to say. How
about you, Joe? I don't have. Well, mostly it's
like I finished watching some anime. That's what
I mostly had to talk about. Well, we are an anime
podcast, so I think that is a good thing to talk
about. I watched Ghost in the Shell Standalone
Complex second gig season two. I finished watching
that. So as a recap, I really liked season one
because I thought it was fun and did a lot of
fun things and did the Ghost in the Shell thing
where it's like, oh, we're kind of thinking about
ideas and things like that. And also, do you
want to see Bateau just a huge cyborg guy shoot
a giant gun and it was cool and then season two
was pretty bad because They just leaned all in
on like this storyline. That was like kind of
dumb because like the first season had more of
a like kind of a scatter shot plotting to it
were like some episodes related to like the main
kind of season wide plot and then a lot of other
just one off episodes just kind of existed that
were kind of fun. Season two had mostly episodes
that are just related to the plot and the plot
was just not good. They really try to convince
you that the like the two antagonists were these
really interesting guys and they were kind of
like. not selling me on it. You know, it's that
thing where everybody talks about how like, oh,
this guy is so mysterious and powerful. How is
this? How is this happening? What kind of guy
is he? And then you see him on screen and you're
like, this guy is not does not impress me very
much. So that was that was disappointment. Number
one. OK, let's what's number two. I finished
watching Sockamoto Days season one, which is
a show about a ex. assassin who got married and
now just owns a convenience store and a bunch
of shenanigans happen and it's like a comedy
about how other assassins because he has like
a bounty on him. And it's goofy. My problem is
that it's not I don't think it's that funny.
Unfortunately, I'm like not having as good of
a time with it as I wanted to. I want it to be
a little more gag heavy and it's not quite as
much it definitely feels like one of those things
where like in comic form i think i'd probably
like it but as an as an anime i'm not as interested
in it um so that was kind of a bummer but it
was okay it was it was it was fine so yeah those
are the two things i finished i'm i'm almost
done with gundam x i got four episodes left and
then i can talk about that uh It's been a while
since we had a Gundam segment. Yeah, I've been
really dragging my heels watching it, you know,
but I'll get there. Yeah, I'll get there. OK.
I don't think there's anything else that I watched.
I already talked about how I watched all four
John Wick movies last time, right? Yes. Yeah.
Yeah. I didn't watch. I don't think I watched
any movies. Oh, no. Last night I watched. I'm
also watching all of the Disney theatrical. Oh,
that's right. Animated release movies. And last
night... Does that mean the live action ones
or just the ones that went to theater? If they
have a significant animated part of it. So like
Mary Poppins counts because they look like the
penguins. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That one counts.
Enchanted. Enchanted counts because there's like
a significant portion. But like, you know, other
ones wouldn't. And then so last night we watched
Make Mine Music, which is some... Like they released
all of these movies in during like, I guess this
is the world, the World War Two era when they
couldn't really produce a lot of movies because
a lot of the crew was involved in World War Two
because they were drafted. So they just like
made these different collections. But the two
movies we watched last night were Make Mine Music,
which is just like a bunch of shorts. that were
not that interesting. And then Song of the South,
which is one of the worst movies I've ever seen.
OK, so Song of the South, famously incredibly
racist, right? Yes. Is that what's Blash Mountain
was based off of? Yeah, yeah. So like the way
it works is it's a movie about this boy that
has to go stay on his grandmother's plantation.
While his dad go and does some type of work in
the city. I don't really understand what his
dad was doing. They don't really get into that.
And then like he has to deal with all his life
challenges and he meets a guy whose name is Uncle
something. I don't remember what his name was
Russ. I don't know. But like he makes friends
with some of the black workers there and they're
all incredibly stereotypical and. Uncle Remus,
that's it. And Uncle Remus tells him stories
about Briar Rabbit and the other ones, and that's
what Splash Mountain was based on. But they changed
that to being Princess and the Frog now, which
I think makes sense. But yeah, it was a really,
so not only so. Famously, this is a very racist
movie because it is both Basically, what happened
is my understanding is that like they tried to
make a movie about the South, but they didn't
want to offend anybody. And so they ended up
making something that was incredibly, that was
mostly just racist because they didn't just imagine
how bad it would have been if they weren't holding
back. You can't make a movie that's like going
to be not racist, but also be OK for like Jim
Crow South people. There's just no way to do
it. So, yeah, it was. But not only was this movie
racist, you know, like in the kind of ways you'd
expect with the stereotypes and also it kind
of seemed like all of the black workers were
slaves, even those technically took place post
slavery, but they just didn't put that on screen.
So you'd have no way of knowing it. It's also
just really boring. Like the shorts are all kind
of the same, like it's all, oh. Briar Fox and
Briar Bear want to catch Briar Rabbit, but Briar
Rabbit outsmarts them, but they do it like four
times. It is basically the same every time. And
then the actual movie about the kid is super
boring, and I don't like that kid. They give
that kid weird eyebrows. Oh, okay. We hate weird
eyebrows. We hate weird eyebrows. Yeah, so that's
what I watched. It's not good. Next up, we have
two more random, like, movie... Goodness. compilations.
Are you going in like release date order? Yes.
OK, so it's like a bumpy start. Yeah, so we have
four more movies and then we get to Cinderella.
OK, so you done. Yeah, you already did Snow White.
We did Snow White. So yeah, we did like Snow
White, Pinocchio and Dumbo and the other one
Bambi and the Reluctant Dragon. Did you cry watching
Bambi? No, Bambi is not that sad. Everybody talks
about Bambi like it's super sad because like,
oh, the mom dies. But the mom dies like pretty
late into it. And then she dies immediately.
No, she does not die immediately. She dies late
into the movie. Everybody thinks that like, oh,
Bambi gets help from all his friends to how to
live independently. That's not what happens.
Bambi goes and hangs out with all the little
baby critters. And then they then they see the
dad that's just posturing all the time. and then
she gets shot, and then he goes and lives off
with his dad, and then he comes back and gets
married. That's what happens in Bambi. Everybody
thinks it's about a different thing. I remember
the dad. Okay. Maybe I'm just thinking of Land
Before Time, where his mom dies right off the
bat. Oh yeah, Land Before Time, his mom gets
wrecked immediately. Bummer! That's right, yeah.
Anyway, what have you been up to? Uh, as I mentioned
to you, Um, I just like to like hinder myself
by, uh, taking care of animals. I probably shouldn't.
So right now I am fostering a little four month
old puppy that the shelter calls fruit loop.
Um, she's, she's really cute. Uh, she's like
a Chihuahua schnauzer mix maybe. And yeah, I
mean, I puppies are kind of the worst. They just
show on everything and pee everywhere and cry
when you leave them. And yeah, yeah. So just.
Getting over the shell shock of all those things,
but they're babies. I get so unsympathetic to
their plight of being helpless. Let's see. Uh,
I... No, I feel like I did things. I feel like
I've done things. Oh my God, Joe. Love Island
USA is... Last night's episode was so good. And
tonight's episode that I'll watch after this,
I get to watch the fallout. But basically there's
like this one couple that's super toxic, um,
where like the chick is super like kind of controlling
of him and... like perceives slights to her when
she shouldn't. But then he's all like super fine
with it. And it's like, dude, everyone, everyone's
telling you. This is kind of rocky. So last night's
episode was like the first chance for like viewers
watching to like have an impact on it. So that
sent the message to her that like, you know,
not all as well. So now we get to see her like
freak out in this episode. So good stuff. Good
stuff. Kind of maybe the least likable. I'm trying
to think. There's like people I liked and now
I don't like them as much. Normally it's the
other way around where they suck and then they
grow on you. They got worse. But yeah, it's like
this one chick. I don't know. It's like it's
tough because it's like, OK, these people are
like 10 years younger than me. You know, they've
grown up in a different way. Yeah, there's maturity.
Yeah, so. The sweat shake is like, so passive.
I guess they're teenage years, so maybe, yeah.
Yeah. Super, super on the socials during COVID.
They don't know how to box trot or whatever.
No, do you? They never come to a local dance.
I don't know how to. I've been the passive partner
in dancing where I don't have to really do anything,
but. Uh, they don't know. Yeah. So it's just
like freaking the swan chicks like I didn't know
that's what that meant or this or that. It's
very obvious things that she should know as like
a 23 year old. And I'm just like, oh my good.
What did she say? She said like, I didn't know
ponies were real. I thought you were going to
say. What do you think? Ponies? She's like, oh,
those are real. She didn't like she wasn't like,
oh, I thought they were just baby horses. I didn't
think they were like a different thing. No, she
she thought they were like mythological, like
unicorns. That's incredible. I mean, I guess
that's really funny. Maybe she just have. has
only watched My Little Pony, so she just thinks
they're little cartoon characters. I mean, unless
she only watched the newest... Like, the older
ones look like actual ponies, though. Like, what
ponies look like in real life. Well, if she doesn't
think they're real pony... Well, if she hasn't
seen a real pony in real... I don't know. I can't
explain it. I guess at some point I did learn
that narwhals were real, but I can't interact
with a narwhal in real life, you know? Uh -huh.
Because they're in the ocean. I've seen a pony
before. I've seen them. She lives in New York,
but is from Florida. She never went to a petting
zoo. I don't know. Maybe those are like, well,
maybe. Yeah, maybe it's a good thing, because
that means animals aren't being used as entertainment
for people as much as they used to be. I'm not
that worried about ponies, though, for that.
They're mean. They're domesticated. It's like,
but like they didn't even do, you know how like
you go to the zoo and they have like the farm
animal side and you're like, well, that's dumb.
I can see farm animals or whatever, but then
it's a petting zoo and you're like, never mind.
I get to pet a goat. This rules. Yeah. Uh huh.
I really like petting goats and no other barn
animal. I don't know. As a kid, they'd try to
eat my hair. I don't know. There's this cool
company that I like almost worked at, I think
right out of college called Tiny Tales to You.
And it's like a traveling petting zoo, but it's
all like small animals like turtles and rabbits
and hedgehogs and stuff. And like bearded dragons,
which I was like, that's awesome. I kind of want
a birthday party for me as an adult to have that
come. Yeah. Hang out with little critters. But
yeah, let's see. What else? What else? I got
my dress in for my sister's wedding. It looks
pretty good. So I'm excited for that. That's
fun. I got I got my hair trim. Let's see if it's
probably super not interesting to anyone listening.
I'm like, what did I do now? What did I do with
my life? This is what I feel like. Oh, I know.
Oh, sorry. Go ahead. No, I was just saying, I
also feel the same way where I'm like, I do a
million things and then someone's like, what
did you do? Like, how was your weekend? I'm like,
I literally don't remember anything that happened.
OK, I remember now I've been playing Rune Factory,
Guardians of Osama. OK, so I've like put on hold
my fantasy life playthrough and I'm playing this
now and I'm enjoying it. You haven't played any
RuneFactory games, have you? Nope. The fourth
one is really good, and I don't know if they'll
make another one that good, but, um, I am liking,
we're having, like, I'm having fun playing it,
but I'm like, forever fearful now, like, this
is the same thing that - Happen with dragon hvl
gargoyle. It's like okay. I'm playing cuz I like
and Anticipating all these awesome things are
gonna happen Later in the game that are gonna
pay off and then they don't and now I'm worried
that that's gonna be the case in this game cuz
this game has like very much had like a dating
sim element to it and I'm kind of worried that
like the interactions aren't very interesting
or Meaningful, whereas room factory for never
if you have portraits Character portraits never
get rid of them. I love character portrait so
much better. Yeah, sorry. I saw a big write up
on what happened with Dragon Age Veil. Yeah,
yeah. It's a whole thing right now. I haven't
read it. Tell me about it. I didn't read all
of it because I'm like, I don't even know what
the backstory is with this, but I just got like
kind of the bullet summaries of like what people
were talking about having read it. I haven't
read the whole thing yet, but yeah. Troubled
production. Yeah. Well, now it's like, oh, buyers
coming to an end. Yeah. I haven't finished like
there's so much stuff. I'm like, oh, I've done
all this stuff, but like I can't I can't I'm
not done with any of it yet. So like, I can't
talk about it. Like I have like an hour and a
half thousand times resist. I won't talk about
it until the end, because what might happen in
the end is going to matter what I think about
it. So. Nail space. If I keep this puppy, I've
been agonizing over names and she's kind of like
crazy sometimes. She needs like a villain name.
Oh. That's like a good lady villain name, Joe.
Like historical? Just anything. From like a fictional
thing or like something else? It can be fictional.
Cricket, be nice to this puppy. Rita Repulsa.
from Scooby -Doo in the cool school. Do you know
that just off the top of your head? What's the
one for Power Rangers? Yeah, I was just trying
to pull something. Oh, what's her name? I did
not super watch Power Rangers. She also had a
goofy name. That's like an alliteration thing.
Yeah. So sorry, listeners, if there are any like
animal sounds in the background, because I've
got a puppy and a dog who like for the most part
doesn't want nothing to do with her. But they
did play together. like two days ago, so I'm
like, there's hope. But Cricket's like me, she's
like, ew, babies. Oh no, read Repulses from Power
Rangers. What the hell was it from Scooby -Doo
and the Ghoul School? I don't, what is the Ghoul
School? What's your favorite Scooby -Doo movie?
We're, okay, we're, we gotta get into that. What's
your favorite Scooby -Doo movie? Out of all the
animated ones or like, I mean, I like the live
action one pretty good too. Really? Okay. I really
like Cyber Chase. I think that was my favorite.
Cyber Chase. That one's pretty good. I like The
Witch's Ghost. The one with, uh, the one where
they go and visit Stephen King, but it's not
Stephen King. That's the one with, I think, uh,
that's the one with, uh, the Hex Girls are in
that one. Oh, I don't know that I've seen that
one, but I've seen the Hex Girls. Oh, okay. Yeah.
Oh, okay. Revolta is, is, is the one in Scooby
-Doo and the school school. That makes more sense.
I was like, that's too good of a name to be like
an, like a Scooby -Doo TV thing. Rita Repulsa
is... Power Rangers. That's probably enough about
a bunch of random stuff. Anyway, I guess we'll
talk about Jihai Furu. The other fine anime you
watched. The other fine anime I watched this
week. No, I keep watching it. I keep being like,
oh, I just want to keep watching. So really just
binge, binge it and then come listen to us. Yeah.
And then listen to like 10 hours of us talking
about it very slowly and being like, do you think
this is going to happen next episode? All right.
Yeah, it's something. Here we go. Chihayafuru
episode 10 is called Rain Takes Longer to Dry.
I will say there were better episode titles this
week. We open on the next match in the team tournament
at Nationals for high schoolers. They're up against
a school called Yamaguchi Miyoka, which is like
some magnet school, I guess, that gets you into
I think Tokyo University is like the top one.
But basically it just means that all of their
opponents are nerds that wear glasses because
that's what we're doing this week We're fighting
the nerds Elsewhere the officials discuss what
they should do about errata Playing for another
team is an unprecedented offense So they don't
have like a playbook and they don't know what
to do One of the officials is like we should
just ban him from playing in the individuals
But then the another guy there says that they
can't do that because errata might be like the
next best player After the master and maybe he
can beat the master and we can stop having this
guy We all hate as being the master because everybody
hates him I don't understand why everybody hates
him, but it's very funny how much nobody likes
this guy Well, I think he like is kind of like
well, right? He's like never graduating from
college and that's like a shameful thing and
they're like we don't want this bozo Wrap -in
card to the world. Also. I have a sad announcement
What this poppy just chewed through the cable
of my my stream deck? Oh, no. Damn it. Oh, jeez.
Can a cable be replaced if it's, like, not pluggable
into the device? I mean, you could, like, solder
it. Or you just, like, melt it together. Yeah,
you could, like, reconnect the wires. That's
not real. I don't know. Maybe, maybe not. You
could open it up and try to replace the wire.
Oh, boy. OK. I don't know. Yeah, so that's all.
Darn it. Well, I just... God dang it. I just
got home, so it's like I can't put her back in
the crate yet. So, OK, we'll see how this recording
goes. Continue. All right. As I get mauled. Suddenly,
Arata's fake team members burst in and try to
explain what happened, but Arata drags him out
and says that he must accept his punishment because
he likes to give up. The Mizuzama coach and the
Yamaguchi Miyoko coach talk to each other, but
the Yamaguchi coach clearly is just using card
as a studying tool. He's like, this game's great
because I can get all my guys to study using
it. Which like I don't think they really need
help with that man, but whatever anyway play
starts and the yamaguchi team is like Has placed
all of their cards in a really weird configuration
and also like every time They do like a card
gets read or like a card gets flicked or whatever
They shuffle them around. So like this is their
strategy is like what if I just redid the entire
board? every round This is very effective against
Chihaya and her opponent recognizes that Chihaya
relies on the placing of cards more or less in
the same spots because I guess it's like pretty
typical for people to do the same kind of layout.
Also, he does quiz bowl a lot, and so these are
all quiz bowl guys, and so they always relate
everything to quiz bowl. This happens throughout
the episode. The Yamaguchi Miyoka coach gives
a long and boring explanation about quiz bowl.
The short version is that you buzz in and answer
a question, but you have to know when to buzz
in, so there's like some strategy to it, I guess.
It's not, it doesn't need to be in here. Chihaya
takes a card just by slapping a bunch and then
runs to pick it up when suddenly lightning strikes.
And we see a what looks like a disappointed and
soaked Shinobu looking in from the inside as
she tries to find the entrance of the building.
She sulks off and everyone was like, who the
hell was that? And she has like, oh, my God,
it's Shinobu and she's lost weight. This part
was great. I like it when Shinobu just shows
up. You're back. Yeah. Yes. Yes. Sorry. I like.
Oh, God. And now she's barking. I put her in
the crate. Okay, she'll settle down eventually.
It just sucks when you're in an apartment with
babies. Chaotic life right now, but yes, I was
listening. Uh -huh. Yeah, it's again with the
like, backstories of characters that we'll never
see again. Yeah, at least these guys had like
a distinct style. But Shinobu shows up and I
love that. Shinobu's here and she's being weird.
Hey, sopping wet Shinobu! enters from the front
because she found the front door finally and
sees Arada. He's like, oh, hey, how was the birdman
rally? But she just cries instead of responding
because obviously it got rained out. Then Arada
tells her that he won't be allowed to that he
might not be allowed to play in the individual
tournament tomorrow because he broke a rule.
She doesn't say anything and grabs his hand and
drags him over to the one of the officials and
tells him that if Arata isn't gonna play then
she's gonna forfeit and this guy's like hold
on wait the Queen can't drop out of the tournament
you're like the whole reason you're like the
big draw and Arata also protests but Shinobu
grabs his head and forces it down into a bow
and says that he should be begging them to play
so they both ask If he can play Rada's like why
are you doing this and shinobu says that the
that first the birdman rally got rained out And
now I can't even play you because you're gonna
be disqualified I can't be disappointed anymore
this weekend and they both bow and ask for a
rada to be reinstated Uh, this was fun. I like
shinobu throwing her weight around a little bit
That's good. Elsewhere, Sumire is stuck in a
side building because she doesn't want to run
out into the rain. Satomu shows up with an umbrella
and she debriefs him on a group that she was
supposed to watch, where she took detailed notes
on what each player is wearing and not much else.
He's like, that's great. And Sumire is like,
oh, ha ha ha, thanks. I like scouting more than
I like playing, so it's all good with me. And
Satomu is like, cool, I'm gonna go combine all
of our notes and he leaves. And Sumire wonders
if Satomu likes watching. More than playing to
just like her because she doesn't really like
playing all that much back in the match We learned
that she highest opponent Sig really likes cardam
more than quiz bull. Oh, what a shock Meanwhile
she higher is like inhaling and exhaling a lot
to reground herself and her opponent thinks she's
hot because okay This doesn't come up again.
I just noted that this happens then he scans
the field to find out that his team is losing
three out of five matches currently so like the
strategy of moving around all the cards is kind
of only really working on chiaya turns out that
shuffling the cards means nothing to nashita
who plays defensively meaning he doesn't really
care what his opponent's side of the board looks
like he's just trying to make sure they don't
take any cards from him so as long as he takes
a couple he's gonna win Meanwhile, Kana has memorized
the cards by authors and not their positions
on the field, so moving them also doesn't really
affect her all that much. I don't really understand
how this happens practically, but this is what
she does. And then there's Taichi, who just re
-memorizes the entire field every single time
they move the cards around, and he's also just
faster than his opponent. Yeah, I'm like, girl,
just because you're... You're remembering them
for a different reason, but that doesn't mean
you're not remembering the position of the cards.
Yeah, you still have to know where they are,
but you know, okay, whatever. But we don't even
we don't even comment on Tsukuba, who I assume
is just getting wrecked. Yes, always. Chihaya
realizes that there's no way for her to remember
the cards and that she's just gonna have to do
her best. Her game is close and she's but she's
a much better player and does a lot better when
there's like a fewer number of cards. So she
starts making up the gap. Her opponent keeps
comparing her to stars. I'm not about to add
that to this recap, but the star he finally settles
on is the Amazon star, Bellatrix, and the constellation
Orion. I felt the need to say this in case it
comes up again, but who knows? No, it won't.
It's great. Too much. This guy's a simp. Yeah.
Anyway, Chihaya's team wins 4 -1. The other team's
coach is like, well, that sucks, but we always
have a Quiz Bowl. But Chihaya's opponent is real
sad about losing Karda because he secretly likes
Karda more than Quiz Bowl, and they all have
a group hug. So Chomu and Sumire meet up with
the team. Sumire tries to give Tai Chi cookies,
but he says no again. And then Sumire tells them
that the queen showed up, but she was soaking
wet. She's like, yeah, she like walked in and
then some guy like... who, like, helped some
guy get undisqualified from the tournament, and
Shihei is like, that's a rata, it has to be.
But Taichi tells him or tells her that they don't
have time to deal with that. They need to prep
for the next match because I can't deal with
my love rival being here right now. We got to
think about Karda. Tsukuba is tired and has to
be subbed out, but Nishida says that they should
keep their lineup without Tsutomu as we cut to
credits. That's the stinger for next episode.
Yes. Why is he being all... Boo. Nobody calls
him by his name, man. He can't get upset about
him doing stuff if you're not even going to call
him by his name. Anyway, this episode was fine,
actually. I like I thought it was totally fine.
Like the kind of episode of the week. It's like,
well, it's like a monster of the week format,
but they're just playing different opponents.
This one's fine because it had enough like individual
personality of like our thing is we're going
to mix up the cards each time. That's at least
kind of like gimmicky and novel. More so than
some of the other ones that are just like, what
if I just played in a weird way, like the chick
who was guessing, but also trying to do premonitions.
I didn't really understand what she was doing
or what her strategy was. Yes, this is a bit
more understandable. Yep. Otherwise, not that
much happens. Nah. Shinobu's here. That's great.
Arata's here. He's not disqualified. Are we supposed
to interpret Shinobu as being like a, well, but
they're not romantic in any way. So this can
only be misinterpreted. Uh, yes. Well. I mean,
it's tough because like if these are normal people,
that's what she would be considered. But she
won't even like bother to think about her feelings.
So she may like internally feel the like sensation
of being slightly jealous, but she can't articulate
that that's what it is. So she won't like, you
know, understand why she feels like it'll be
the whole like, oh, why does my chest feel like
this? Why am I feeling so hot all of a sudden?
Yeah, stuff like that. Oh my God, because we
don't understand ourselves ever in adolescence.
All right, let's just move on to the next one.
I don't have anything else. Yeah. Yep. Yep. Yep.
Episode 11 is called I feel as I'm sorry, verse
11. These are verses verse 11. I feel as though
my body is on fire with Ibuki Mugwood. We open
on where we closed before everyone's like what
do you mean? We shouldn't sub Satomu in but surprisingly
Satomu agrees And it's like you shouldn't sub
me in and then he points out that he needs to
do more scouting on their next opponent But Nishida
interrupts him saying that he was I was baiting
you, bro You can't let me take like you can just
let some newbie take your spot If you lose your
drive, you're gonna lose your edge, he says.
And then he starts getting real emotional and
starts heading off alone, leaving the rest of
the team in a daze. Because he's projecting?
I don't really understand what was happening
here, because we get a flashback of him in tennis.
Yeah, it doesn't set anything up in advance for
why he's all upset. It's very odd. Yes. But,
yeah, I feel like they've handled... Because,
right, this is like an episode focusing on the
two of them. But, I don't know, maybe it's mashing
them together is making it so they aren't getting
enough time either way, so. Yeah, I feel like
we don't know what to do with Nishida. Because
I feel like what we're doing with Satomu is pretty
clear here this episode, but with Nishida, I
am just kind of confused. Yeah, I mean, I guess
it's like, oh, he's the guy who taught him Karda,
so he, like, wants him to want to play and blah,
blah, blah. But we just don't get... internal
dialogue to explain that's what's happening.
We just have to like put that together ourselves.
Yeah. So that was weird. Anyway, Tai Chi is like,
well, shit, what am I supposed to do with our
lining startup now? Because he has to make the
stop the lineup. Chihaya takes the notebook and
tries to look over it while the coach gives everyone
snacks. Chihaya decides that they'll have Satomu
sit out this round and use the same lineup as
before. We jump to Nishida stress -eating. He's
embarrassed that he said all that stuff right
before a game, but he doesn't want Satomu to
fall behind. Also, he sees his sister in the
cafeteria and is like, holy shit, is that my
sister in the cafeteria? That was funny. Yeah,
yeah, that was funny. Chihaya goes to get him
and tells him that they're using the same lineup
as before, so he's got to play. Nishida passes
to Satomu, who tries to give him some advice
about how his opponent just guesses a lot, but
Nishida kind of ignores it. Their next opponent
is some team from Kyoto called Shouyo, and their
shirts have a pun on it, and everybody's impressed.
Outside... Love a pun! Yeah, it's pretty good.
Outside, Satomu, Sumire, and the coach get lunch.
The game starts, and Nishida's opponent takes
a card immediately, and Nishida's like, uh -oh,
this might be a hard match for me. Outside, Satomu
has fallen asleep, and their coach goes to watch
the match, and remembers that Chihaya... said
that after picking the lineup, she's like, oh,
it's more exhausting to watch and analyze matches
as it is to play. So Satomi was probably more
exhausted than anyone else, which is confirmed
by him falling asleep. Nishida remembers what
Satomi said about his opponent and wonders if
they're really just guessing this whole time.
His opponent faults and Nishida realizes that
he really is just gambling with each swipe, kind
of thinks about notes. Yeah, just yeah, just
the power of thinking about something is enough
to You know, like nothing has to have happened
between the two of them. You know, I don't know.
Like he just decides to remember that that's
what he said, even though he wasn't paying attention.
Yeah. We heard him, you know, kind of thinks
about the notes against her opponent. Her guy
likes to stand up a lot, so she tries to guilt
him into not standing by trying to be cute. There's
a lot of like, like baiting horny guys into doing
stuff in this show. At least they didn't talk
about her boobs this time. That's true, they
did not talk about her boobs this time. It's
a miracle, yes. Tsukuba's opponent likes to contest
cards so she can take breaks, so he just has
to not entertain that and she can't take a break.
And she hi his opponent smacks the mat a lot
which is intimidating, but it's also bad technique
So it just play normal. We don't learn anything
about tight. She's opponent I don't think we
get a flashback to Satomi asking the team that
lost again show you to help him out He begs them
after saying that he wants to help his team and
they presumably help him because they're like,
okay Yeah, that's like a good enough reason because
before they were like man. I don't want to help
you out. I don't know you Back at back to the
present Tsutomu wakes up and Sumire tells him
that she thinks it's great that he is so good
at gathering info Nishida bursts out of the room
and tells him that they won and then tells Tsutomu
or he asks Tsutomu if he's gonna play in the
next match and he rushes over to them and we
get a montage of Tsutomu playing Carta from last
season because remember Tsutomu actually does
like playing Carta He's just doing this for the
team. He's taking one for the team Everybody's
moved by this display of camaraderie Oh, there's
more to this. Oh, there's so much more to this
episode. Elsewhere, Arana's punishment has been
reduced to writing an essay, which is extremely
funny. He also has to loan his clothes and phone
to Shinobu because, like, she's totally wet.
So he's wearing the, uh, Fukui West uniform still,
so like the fake team he was on. But his fake
team is like, oh, you can keep those clothes.
It's cool, dude. In a flashback, we get a scene
where they tell him that his punishment is that
he has to write an apology and that he can't
cheer for his friends. Specifically, they don't
let him cheer for his friends, which just seems
really mean -spirited. But like, whatever. Adults
just suck, I guess. Yeah. It's the thing, right?
He baited him into revealing what he was there
for so that he could take it away from him as
punishment. It's just like that's such a mean
thing to take away from somebody like, oh, you
can't cheer on your friends. Yeah, yeah, he'll
see him tomorrow. Whatever. It's very unimportant.
Back at the tournament, their next opponent is
the team with the weird chick in it. Chi Hai
is excited to play against her. Samiri notes
that most of the rest of the team. are just like,
no, I'm sorry, her notes just comment on what
everybody's wearing, but don't worry, because
Satomu has reverse engineered the notes to find
out that the rest of the team are just like relatively
normal players. It's just that one weird chick
who's really good, which I don't really understand
how they got this far, if that's the case, because
like, you have to win three out of five matches,
but whatever. I guess they had to be good enough
to train with her. I guess so, but they really
made it seem like, oh, it's her and her like
posse of four... friends who would just do whatever.
Also, so far, they've been using the same lineup.
So Chihaya, like, is like, oh, I guess I shouldn't
play against their ace so we can just win three
games easily. I guess I won't go up against the
weird chick. But Tai Chi, who's about to fill
out the lineup, you know, decides like maybe
we shouldn't do that. And then he gets a scene
with Retro who tells him that they need to win
because the Retro's team is also in the we're
at like the semifinals now. Yeah, yeah. Yeah.
The playoffs. Yeah, we're in the playoffs. Chihaya
thinks about how the playoffs room is the room
where she played Shinobu last year. Taichi decides
to put Chihaya in the third position so she'd
be matched up against the weird chick. Satobu
and Taichi think to themselves that this plan's
only gonna work if the other team uses the normal
lineup, which they probably only did in the early
stages, and maybe they'll switch it up if they
think there's a stronger team, but then the matchups
are red and it's all according to the regular
lineup, which means they don't consider Chihaya's
team to be all that strong. As we cut the credits.
So get wrecked. That's right. Oh, man. Well,
right. Here we are. Yeah. Constant. The. No break.
This is fine. Yes. He was your favorite character
last season. But this is fine. I think this is
an OK way to go with it, being like he still
likes to play, but he also likes to help his
team and he is easily earning MVP. Yeah. Now
not even playing for sure. I know he's like going
above and beyond. I feel like no one else has
a team who's like questioning the losers right
after they lost. Yeah. Well, he basically just
like gives them the way he just tells them how
to beat their opponents. It's like you're given
like a walkthrough on how to beat this level.
Yeah, that'd be handy. Yep. I mean, yeah. Especially
a game that's very presented to us as a lot of
passions, which means emotions that can be read
and counteracted and stuff. I don't know. I've
never done sports where I had someone scout the
other people for me. That's pretty intense. I
don't know. They're probably, I don't know, I
feel like in movies it's like, oh that girl has
a bad ankle, kick it! Accidentally. Well some
of these have such like distinct tells that you
can definitely see like, oh how talking to like
the previous opponent would be like, oh yeah,
this person just like kept contesting cards and
was really annoying. And you'd be like, oh yeah,
like in retrospect it's a thing you might notice,
like while it's happening it may not be that
obvious, but you're like, oh yeah, that happened
like six or seven times. Yeah, that's what the
strategy of the chick do. lost against Shinobu
in the Queen match. That was her thing for a
long time. But she stopped doing it, right? Because
it wasn't becoming of a Queen. So she had like
stopped doing it and then blah, blah, blah. Yeah,
yeah. Went back to it. So I've seen that before.
I've seen that before. Yep, that's fine. The
Arada stuff is funny. It's mostly just fun. Like
it mostly just feels like a plot device to keep
him away from Chihaya and Taichi till the end
of this. Yeah, they can just see him at the individuals
match, which I think is pretty funny. Yeah, he
loans Shinobu his clothes. Oh, see. And then
it's in a normal show. Joe's friggin Chihaya
would run into her and be like, is that part
of the shirt? Why is she wearing his shirt? Oh,
how close are they? Blah, blah, blah. That's
not going to happen. Doesn't even happen. So
not much there. And then we got to play a weird
girl. OK, Tai Chi is still class B. Yep. So he's
gonna, we're gonna, whenever he gets the singles,
it's gonna be him having a whole, like, oh, I
can't even face off against Araya. He's not even
gonna see anybody else in the cast. It's gonna
be him in retro. Oh, yeah, because they're always
in Class B together. His, I guess, Satomu lost
against Kana, so he's still D and she's Class
C. No, they both got, because you don't need
to win to get to Class C. Oh, right, so they're
both Class C. Yeah, they're both Class C. I think
so, yeah. So they could possibly face off against
each other again. That's true. And then, yeah,
I guess there'll be a retro and fight scene.
Hopefully freaking he wins finally. That'd be
nice. Chihaya will probably lose because she
always does. It's too early for her to win. It's
my season two. I guess so, yes. And I doubt she'll
play against Arda, either, because that's too
soon for that, too. Yeah, I just need to know
who the match... Because, like, they can't all
play each other, right, because it's single elimination,
which means she either plays Shinobu or she plays
Arata, or Arata plays Shinobu. I mean, we still
got whatever happens with this match and if they
win another one. So it's a long time before we
get to it. Will we make it in season two? I don't
like that. Sorry, I was going to say one more
thing. I don't like that. They keep showing us
too high and matches because she matches are
always the most boring shows that other people's
matches. They're not that good. I need to know
what we watch any. Well, I guess we watch Tai
Chi's match where he was just really high and
unlucky. And that was funny. But. I don't get
to see her like Tai Chi be cool or like I want
to see Tai Chi have a win, you know, that feels
like a win because that just feels more like
he didn't screw up. I feel like I want him to
feel like it's a dub. You know what I mean? Yep.
Yep. Yep. Yep. Anyway, Chihayafuru verse 12 is
called the only sign of summer. We open on the
weird girl whose name is Megumu sitting against
the wrong opponent. She like sits down against
the wrong team and her teammate has to go and
get her and everybody thinks that disney's is
cute. We get an extended joke where her weird
fan club where we learn that they're a creepy
photography club from the all boys school because
the other team is an all girls school and everybody
at the all girls school hated them because they
were taking creeper pics of everybody except
for magumu who wanted them to take pictures of
their Carta Expedition like exhibition, but at
the end she deletes all the photos and it became
a weird fetish thing or something I don't know.
I didn't think this was funny. We get multiple
guys I'm just gonna ignore it. Oh the whole backstory
Unnecessary we don't like it back stories about
this chick and both of them mean nothing to me
The crowd in back in the present is jazz to watch
Megumu the possible future queen play her opponent
is Chihaya As a recap, she lost against What's
Her Face, who went on to face Shinobu and lost.
So she's like the third best woman at Karuta,
I guess, at the moment. Play starts and Magumu
is very fast. Everyone in the crowd decides that
their game is a foregone conclusion and they
should watch Retro Team's game, which is against,
I think, the team that won the team tournament
last time, right? That's who Retro's team is
playing? Yes. They're like the big, bad school
of Carta right now. Yeah, they're like the hot
shot team. Fujisaki. Mm -hmm. With the weird
guy. And a hot coach. And the hot coach, that's
right. The ref who told Arata that he can't watch
his friends is assuming that he's here for Retro's
team because he just said that he was here for
the Tokyo team, but there was two Tokyo teams.
Also, Sudo is here, which is annoying, but at
least he's watching Chihaya's game and he doesn't
really say anything. Magumu keeps sending it.
Chihaya won syllable cards, meaning Chihaya will
have to be more defensive. Tsukuba is tired and
thinks that Kana... Who's not playing? He's not
playing. But he also thinks that Kana is tired
because she's played and lost all three matches
today, even though I don't think that's true.
Did he just say that? She lose all three? Just
two out of three. I don't think she lost all
of them. Yeah, she didn't lose last time. She
won one at least. Yeah. She's lost several matches
today. But he's just like, oh, she's so tiny
that if I can't do it, she can't do it kind of
thing. Women can't do stuff because Tsukuba sucks.
Chihaya tries to take a card, but Magumu is still
faster. The opponent's team coach. thinks about
how he's had to convince the girls on his team
to join, and it was only because of Magumu that
they joined. We get a long backstory about Magumu
losing last year in the Queen Semifinals. This
motivated the rest of the team to work hard and
support each other. Chihaya has lost the first
four cards, but manages to take the fifth. Kana
places a phantom hand on Chihaya's shoulder,
and quotes one of the cards, and Chihaya looks
at the sunset outside and thinks about the poem
that... kind of just quoted and takes one point
of inspiration. So Cooper sees that Connie is
actually winning her game by three cards, and
she is able to take another card off of her opponent
again as we cut to credits. This was a weird
episode. Yeah. Too much time dedicated to the
camera. That was a long sequence. It was a really
long sequence to say this dumb joke about how
she's like. She wants them to take pictures of
her and then she deletes them because they're
in like some kind of weird, submissive dominance
thing. I don't know what's happening. Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah. And then there was the second flashback,
which is just like, I try to convince the girls
at this school to play card, but they didn't
want to. And then they saw that their friend
was really into it. So then they got it really
into it. And now we're here. And I'm like, that's
not a very interesting story, my guy. Well, hopefully
that means we don't learn anything about any
of them except for Magomu. Now we can ignore
them. At least, uh, I'm forgetting our main character
girl, our protagonist girl. No, our real protagonist.
Shinobu? No! Sumire? Sumire, yeah, I like that
she's like, what? We're going to the flashback
right now? Oh, yeah. Oh, my God, I'm her. She
is me. She's like side eyeing the camera guys.
How could you not guess her immediately? I'm
like, yeah. That's our real protagonist. Because
she doesn't get to do anything ever. That's because
she's the one there for love, but there's no
time for love in this show. She's the one there
for the show that I wanted and said, we get the
show that we have. I'm so sad she didn't piece
together that Arata, like she doesn't know that
Arata and Shihaya have a thing, because if she
saw Arata and Shinobi together, then she would
she would be stirring that pot. You know, because
that's her chance to get Tai Chi. She should
have noticed that Tai Chi got all weird. when
she mentioned that, and he was all, like, stern
with Chihaya. She should have been like, oh,
he's not normally so critical or... She needs
to know. She needs to be in on the weird love
triangle thing. Otherwise, it's not fun. All
we're getting is teases. All of these episodes
are just teases about, like, ooh, Arata's here,
ooh, but he can't see them. We only have 13 episodes
left. Oh, boy. What episodes were these? Oh.
Through 12? Okay. And through 12. Oh, goodness.
Yeah, I know. And then there's season three at
some point, which I'm like, hopefully that's...
Can't remember that one hardly at all. If they're
not tongue -kissing in season three, I'm out.
You know what I mean? If we're not getting there,
if we're not, like... Oh, my God, Joe, we're
not gonna do that! If we're not, like... This
is... This was the mistake that, uh, KimiNiToDoK
season three made, okay? They didn't have that
in there. If they did, it would have been good.
Joe, I think you know a deep down, but the answer
is no. Of course, of course, I don't think I
don't think I'm I'm not convinced we'll get to
the end of the show and anybody will be even
consider being in a relationship. I think this
is the rest of Tai Chi's life. I think is the
rest of his life is being second place in a race
that he refuses to get out of. No, Tai Chi, not
I feel like he's not on anyone's radar is like
a good Jojo dude character. Oh, I'm on the show
just subreddit. Yeah. People just don't know.
He's so pretty and like has like a nice little,
I was a little shit as a kid, but grew up well.
And yeah, isn't that nice? What a thought. What
a notion. We need to have a dude like mature.
We need a we need a like a Chihaya Furu like
sequel series with everyone's kid. I know. Except
it's just it's just Tai Chi by himself. No. Because
he's alone. Or Chihaya got some other guy and
he's like. the uncle to the kid or something.
Oh, yeah. Mm hmm. He's like, how's your how's
your mom doing? He's like, what? And he's like,
never mind. Don't know. I didn't say anything.
Now, don't do that to Tai Chi. No, he deserves
better. It's going to be like the thing. I don't
think you'll ever get better. He's like a successful
business man they have and like those those stories.
But then he comes back. But then he's like reverted
back into being kind of the loser he was before.
I just watched It Chapter 2. This is just what
happens in It Chapter 2. No, it would be where
he's like this big wig and all the girls in the
office are like, why is he single? He's such
a cat, blah, blah, blah. And then like, I don't
know, it's like a weird... And then they bust
out the card deck and he gets like a thousand
yard stare. Oh, man. They should let us make
that. Tai Chi! They should let us make that if
the show ends like that. I know, right? Like,
Kimi needs to know, okay, I haven't finished
it, but I know there's a sequel series about
our girl Karumi. Karumi! I'm like, where's the
Tai Chi sequel? Yeah, eventually we'll get on
the boat of reading the manga. I know that one,
this is that one. I'm still reading The Rose
of Versailles. I'm reading the Rose of Versailles
and I'm like not quite through the end of the
first volume, but it basically does the first
half of the show, but there's four more volumes.
So what are they doing in the other four of those?
So I'm going to be fascinated. Yeah, we should
cover some of the manga's bonus episodes at some
point. Yeah, yeah. For sure. We also need to
do our next Jurassic World. Oh, yeah, Jurassic
World. We got to do that. Which you need to do
the script because listening back, I'm like,
oh, my God, Joe tried to tell me like three different
times to speed it up. I truly do not ever. I
can't do the script anymore. Yeah, I can. I'm
just retelling the movie scene by scene. How
hard could Jurassic World be? We made another
park. Chris Pratt's here. Oh, no, the dinosaurs
are out. Oh, but the velociraptors are cool now.
We got out. We did it. Yeah, there you go. I
feel like I watched it. You know, we're actually
going to have to watch it. Oh, God. Yes, we are,
because I got to. Yeah, we got some bonus episode
down the pipe. Good. Now it's cricket barking.
All right. We can wrap this up, then. Oh, OK.
Yeah, let's do that. I got. Chaos. Chaos over
here. While I watch Love Island. If you like
this show, please rate us five stars on your
podcast platform of choice. Tell your friends
about it. Talk about us on social media or something.
Tell people to listen to it. Yeah. Yes. Yeah,
we're happy to see we have some new followers.
Yeah. We hope you guys continue to spread the
word. Yeah. That was what to cover, even though
we got the next year and a half planned out already.
What did we learn this episode? Oh boy. We got
to stop doing this, man. It's just like we're
not learning anything. We're just like, how horrible
would it be if this happened? Don't do that.
You should just remember things by their authors
because then you don't need to know the position.
If you just learn the authors, it doesn't matter
what order the cards are in. You'll just know
it intuitively, I guess, because you're Kana
and you just know this stuff. That doesn't feel
like a good enough one. I'm sure you just said
a bunch of funny stuff with my internet spells.
Oh, okay. That's why you didn't react to my extremely
funny joke. Yeah. I'll just have to discover
that. A joke? What did we learn? A takeaway?
Freaking... Don't eat, like, seven plates of
curry before you have a sense. Semi -athletic
mashup, that's like a big deal. He just shrugged
it off. It was incredible. The sheet is a tank,
dude. What happens if someone throws up on the
whole deck of cards? Is that like a technical
foul? Like how many cards is that worth? I don't,
yeah, what happens there? Good question, that's
a good question. Oh man. What do you think Arata
wrote in his essay? I don't know. I feel like
sorry I helped my friends and was trying to help
people out and being cool, but I guess I can't
go cheer on my other friends because I violated
a rule. I guess you could have like zoomed in
at least some of the little words he said and
see what those said. This is when I this is this
is an acceptable use case of using Chad GPT.
I'm pretty against generative AI, but I think
if you have to write a bullshit apology letter,
you can use you can use Chad GPT for that. That's
fine. Yeah, he has to write it. I gotta read
that anyway. Gotta write it. There's no Chad
G. Oh, that's true. I know, right? He could say
some wild stuff in there. Or just don't let him
watch the haku, you know, match some stuff. The
one they think, oh, if only they were in separate
rooms, they could go watch the other one. Whatever.
OK. All right. Thank you, everyone, for listening.
Catch you next week on JoJo. JoJo. I'm trying
to do like a dramatic like, like, like. What
well like you know like at the end of Pokemon,
and it's like what'll happen when oh? Yeah Tune
in next week Same bat time saying back channel
or whatever That's literally how the Batman ones
end from the 60s Dude I need to watch the rest
of I only got through season two oh god Okay,
all right, hey attempt number two trying to end
this Let's keep going. Do you learn anything
else? No? No, I gotta watch love Island man is
gonna be crazy. Okay. Bye