Home me, now I'm finally fulfilled.
This is what my heart's been waiting for.
Home me, now I'm finally fulfilled.
Pick me up to dance and pick me up again.
Hello ladies and gentlemen, welcome to what do you say
anime. I am your host Peter.
A few weeks ago Miles and myself did an episode talking about all
the things that we are grateful for and thankful for in anime
and that was a whole bunch of fun.
How about things we love like seasonal formatting, Uma Musume
and sexy old people both. All things that we giveth we
must also take it. So on today's episode, we are
flipping the script and getting a lot of things off of our
chests with what I'm dumping as like our hot takes rating,
whatever else is devolving from this episode.
The episode, which kind of going to be like a makeshift episode
during the episode was a lot of fun, but we wrote down a lot of
stuff that we that we want to say and then sometimes people
like our rants and our stupid takes.
So I thought this would be like a very, very fun episode to do.
I also make the a point that there might be shows that we
like MASH on or hate on our subject that we mentioned that
makes us sound like idiots. I just want to say by the end of
the day this is all for good fun.
You the listener have the best taste in the world because you
are you and you are beautiful. But with that out of the way, if
you think Chainsaw Man is bit as fuck or if you want to beat Rudy
with a brick, you have made it to the right place.
Miles, this was an episode that you pitched to me, so I want to
get an idea of sort of what you were looking forward to doing
during this episode. Yeah.
So, you know, there are a few, a few different things.
I think like the main thing we're going to do here is sort
of like a plant your flag, you know, what are your takes?
And you're just like, I don't, I don't care what the facts say.
I don't care what reality says or what the community thinks,
any of that. I know this to be true.
I will die on this hill. Bury me here.
This is what I think about subject XY or Z, and we're going
to try and it's always hard, you know, so maybe these takes will
be cold, but we're going to try to make them a little spicy, a
little against the current or or at least our perception of it,
so. Yeah, 100%.
It might come off as like elitist at some points.
I think especially for me, that's why I, I don't care at
the end of the day, like this is all for fun.
So like I, I am not, I might be dying on like my anime hill, but
in my real life hill, I'm not dying on any of these takes.
But it, it sometimes it's like when you're involved with
everything and you see some of the stuff that goes on, it just
gets repetitive and old and it's just like, man, sometimes people
just need to shut up. So that goes for us as a
podcast. We talk all the time.
Sometimes we need to shut up too.
So, Miles, did you want to start or did you want me to start?
You know what? I'll start.
Take it away. OK, great.
So you know, we were, we were talking on the Discord but
earlier about people's hot takes and this actually came up sort
of coincidentally, but I'm going to be a little more inflammatory
about it. You do not know if that sub is
good or not. You have no fucking clue, right?
You're reading some texts, people are voice acting you
actually one don't know what the fuck they're saying 2 you've no
idea what words they're emphasizing or whatever.
You know someone who speaks like a very little about of Japanese.
Sometimes the stuff just does not match up.
It's like I've heard someone say Euroshku three times in a row
and it said a different sentence each time.
So like come on, you know? I don't know.
The reason you think dubs can be cringe sometimes is because
you're used to people speaking English and you are aware of
what's fucking cringe or not. You have no idea what's cringe
in Japanese. You have no idea if that voice
line was cringe or not. You you just don't know.
Is that the ignorance is bliss though?
I don't know. Yeah.
You don't know, but yeah, you also don't know.
If it's good, you don't know it's good.
You know, like, oh, what was your favorite part of whatever,
you know, thing? Oh, I really liked the voice
inflection because it's literally all I can pick out
from it. Like, that's it.
That's whatever. I want, I want to agree with you
because I love this take so much, but I actually like
thoroughly disagree with you a lot of this.
But good, good, that's the point of this, right?
Because we just did The Rock ago and I was like, this is like the
best voice acting performance I've ever heard in anime.
And you're like, you know what the fuck they said.
But it's like, it's like, what else?
It's OK. So it's like, this is funny
because I was having a conversation about soundtracks
in anime about what makes a good OST.
And I said, I think I try to keep it as simple as possible
because I am smooth brain where if you notice the soundtrack in
the show, I think that's a good indication of if the soundtrack
is good. It's very basic.
But if you catch my drift, like you, you're hearing it.
You're not just paying attention to the the cinematics and the
dialogue and stuff like that. If you hear it and you're like,
oh, yeah, I remember this. To me, that's like a very good
indication, at least a good starting point of where a
soundtrack is good for voice acting.
It's like if it, if something picks up in my brain like, oh,
this sounds different, maybe, maybe good isn't the right word.
But if something somebody does in a show where it like is
different from outside the realm of what I'm used to, I guess I
probably acquit it with it being good because it's different.
Not I'm saying this out loud. I don't know if it's good or
not. I just like that it's different.
Yeah, So I mean, there are, you know, there are instances,
right? Like let's do pseudo harem from
like a season ago, right? You could probably tell that
that voice acting is good. You know, there are different
characters, you know, the general sounds, so that makes
you know, so you can we'd be like, oh, she's being the
Sundaray now, and she sounds like the Sundaray or whatever.
Like that is doable. However, there's like a lot more
to voice acting and it's like how you say the word, which
syllables you emphasize, you know, and there's like all of
that stuff and you just can't, you can't do it, you know, and
it's like, like pitch inflection is a huge thing in Japanese.
I don't fucking know how it works, but but, you know, lots
of, you know, most of the people watching our podcast also, don't
you know, So I've always thought it was weird that, you know,
people are like, oh, this is my like favorite voice acting
performance. It it, which is fine.
You can like something, but like, why?
If you like, had to talk about why, I don't know how you would
ever break it down. I just don't.
I don't know how you do it. This reminds me of I forgot what
movie it was. Adam Driver had some like
serious role that he was nominated for like best actor
for and someone like I was like I don't understand why Adam
Driver is such a good actor. And then they cut out like the
pieces of it and it's just like him screaming the entire movie.
And apparently just like screaming makes you a good
actor. And so like to, I feel like to
some people it does. And then to some people when you
take it out of context like that, it's like, oh, this is so
stupid. Same thing with voice acting.
It's just like, I don't know if screaming is good or not, but I
like it. So smooth brain for me.
Well, I love that take. That's a fun take.
OK, good, good. OK, my take.
Yeah, we'll start on a journey, but it's going to get to a
point, I promise. So OK, OK, so I just went to an
anime convention at the Wisconsin Dells.
It was called Colossal Con N if you ever have the opportunity
and live in the area to go to a water park themed anime
convention, do it. It was a fucking blast.
But if you've been to if you've never been to a con, you've been
the one con you've been to 100 cons.
People set up panels during the convention that you can apply
for. So with this, it's a great way
to get introduced to a whole bunch of different fandoms.
And the beauty of anime cons is there's so many correlations
between other like nerdy fandoms that's a great mix together.
Like somebody was doing like a Star Wars panel and somebody was
doing like a Stevens universe panels because of the parallels
are all there. Like it makes sense, but there's
got to be a certain point where enough is enough with fandoms
introducing or whatever that you're doing your panels for an
anime convention. So I went to because this what
happens is they only have like a block.
So you apply and you might not get accepted just because you
apply. And the main point of what I'm
going to get to is that if you go to an anime convention, the
focus should be on the anime. Like it's cool that we like hell
of a boss and whatever. Yeah, dude, fucking weaves.
Love that shit. Oh, no.
Are you ready? Oh my God.
OK, good. Continue.
So there was a panel that drove
me crazy and I didn't tweet about it, but it's it's a
different 1. So that they set it up where it
needed to be. It was like a panel on like
architecture. And so I was thinking, oh cool,
this is going to be a panel on like the different architecture,
you know, like real life comparisons that are found in
anime. That's what the description of
the panel sounded like. I was like, that is a very
unique panel. I am really looking forward to
going to this. And then I got there and it was
morally just mostly just about actual architecture.
I'm like, OK, you had me in the first half, but maybe you will
make it so it's like interesting.
And then you tie it into these things.
And then the 1st 10 minutes of this person's panel was talking
about air vents in the current convention hall that we're using
of how is circulating air to the room.
And I said, what the fuck are you doing at an anime convention
telling me about air in air out systems that used by the
Kalahari resorts. And so my I don't care if you
thought that was cool. That was the dumbest shoot I've
ever seen in anime convention and anime cons need to be
focused on the anime. That's why we're all there.
And I think it's cool that we like get all these like
different phantoms and shit. But there got there has to be a
point where you are reviewing panels and if somebody wants to
talk about air ducts and anime convention that not only should
their panels be rejected, they should be banned from the
convention. Like that is up there with not
asking for pictures instead of just taking random pictures.
That's the same level of this guy.
Like it was insane. So my actual like hot take is
that the like your your nerdy fandoms.
Not all nerdy fandoms are welcome at anime conventions.
OK, so I I'm just going to respond with one of my hot
takes. I'm going to put this out of
order. Anime is just kind of like a
fucking vibe and people shouldn't gatekeep it and like
whatever can be in anime. And you know what?
I wasn't planning on including air ducts, but I'm going to.
I actually just got some air ducts installed today.
They're anime. You will love anime, you will
love the dudes panel. No, but it's it's the thing
where it's like, I think it's I. I heard to say that is
ridiculous. Like honestly, like it's not
even adjacent. It's yeah, I mean.
It it's shocking how little people watch anime that go to
anime conventions and I like, I like in the Grand Theft.
If you watch one anime year, I I don't care that that's plenty,
But it's like when you go there for, I don't know, it's just
like if you went to like a baseball convention, they start
talking fantasy football. It's like, sure, there are
parallels to it, but like I'm here for baseball.
Like when I'm there at an anime convention, I feel like it
should be focused on that. And I think it's like, I don't
know, I feel like I'm taking crazy pills sometimes where I'm
just like, this is like the big panel of the week and it's like
nothing to do with anything that we're involved in.
And but I agree that to a point that it is a vibe for sure.
And I and I love the mix. It's great, but we got to gate
keep some. I, I would say so like my, my
thought would be like something like hell of a boss.
Honestly fucking sure. Like I'm so fine with that.
That was like the main thing at our local 1, like they have like
the hell of a boss and what's the other one has been hotel.
Like those were like the two focal points of like our local
convention, which I was like, whatever.
Like it's huge. I get it.
Yeah, but like that's like. Yeah, I like, you're a small,
you're a small con. You got to fill these things.
The architecture thing I have to say is really fucking funny.
It's really funny. It's it's a gotcha.
The he got me so good. I thought it was going to be
such a cool panel. It was one of the worst panels
I've ever been to and. You didn't leave.
I left 15 minutes into it but for the for the 1st 10 minutes
talking about he like had satellite pictures of the resort
that we were staying at and like the airflow systems on their
roof and was talking about it. I was just like, what are you
doing? OK.
That is. That is really interesting,
yeah. Like I, I, I feel because like
one thing about like anime and anime conventions, like you
could be whoever you want, wherever you want.
It doesn't matter. It's so welcoming itself, but it
gets to the point where it's too welcoming.
You have to draw the line. I don't know if it's a hot take
where it's like we have to gatekeep, but this is mine.
We should be gatekeeping anime conventions to fandoms.
That makes sense. And because like panels, my
buddy's panel was declined. It was something like anime and
like fighting games related. And his panel was declined.
But this guy's panel on air ducts was accepted and it drove
me, drove me crazy where it's like, I love going to cons and
this is sort of the entertainment that you have
during the day. And I just feel like we need,
it's necessary to put our foot down.
And that is so funny, dude. It's so.
Funny it doesn't make any sense where it's like and there's like
80 people at this panel and all like 30 of them left within the
10 first 10 minutes. But like that's yeah, that's
that's my first hot thing We got to start gatekeeping cons I.
That was my thought. So I was like so ready to
because like I I would be in the like, whatever the fuck you want
is like an anime as long as it's like an animated TV show.
So when you were talking about this whole concept, I, I was
ready to just hit you with it, but it was about airtime, which
is so is the furthest thing you know from that.
Cause like, OK, here's a hot take here.
Here's here's how all all encapsulate the five part John
Wick is an anime the live action movie John Wick.
I think Fast and the Furious is an anime so I get it.
Yeah, OK. Yeah.
OK. So like that, that's like my
thought, right, That there's like a, there's like a mood to
some of it. And some anime isn't an anime
like March comes in like a lion. Wow, OK, isn't you're a hoe?
But yeah, I don't know, I I just like the like the general, like
to me, the gate, the gatekeeping gets so weird where you'll see
things like the Rick and Morty anime or the Scott Pilgrim
anime. Like Mal will like not let them
on even though 1 is like made by science or whatever.
And like to me that's just so insane.
It's like it's an anime by any fucking definition.
You're just salty that globalism exists.
You know, I was thinking about adding a hot take where like Mal
excluding like Scott Pilgrim is perfectly fine.
No, it's not. No, it's.
Not that I changed, I could. No, I wanted to do it because
like that's such a like, it doesn't, it shouldn't matter.
I I like it just for the fact that they are so headstrong on
excluding like Western media from it.
But. Only I respect it.
Even though I disagree with it, I respect it.
We're going to have, it's going to be so fucking stupid.
We're going to have Star Wars Visions 1 and Star Wars Visions
3 on Mal and not Star Wars Visions 2 because it included
like directors and studios from like South America and other con
and stuff. And it's, it's so, it's so
stupid. Yeah, it's.
So stupid. Yeah, You know, so I like.
I would love somebody who has that take that agrees with it to
let me know why they have that take because I, I kind of just
want to throw it out there just for kicks and giggles, but that
was what I could even bullshit my way through that to play
devil's advocate. That's like, the argument I've
seen is like, it needs to be made for a Japanese audience.
And it's like who the fuck are the Mal moderators?
If you look at like Netflix, like statistics, like the most
popular show on like Netflix is like K dramas.
It's like it doesn't need to be made for a fucking they watch
everything. It's not like they're only a
like, I don't know. There was there was a poll about
like what Japan's favorite anime was like, I don't know how many
years ago, 10 years ago or something.
And SpongeBob 'cause to them to in Japan, SpongeBob is an anime.
So it's like you have to, you have to have this.
It's so weird. You're like, we're not actually
doing the real Japanese culture. We're like anything that's
animated is a thing we're doing. Like it has to be, not.
Yeah, it has. To be.
Yeah, it is. It's so bizarre.
Yeah. Have you seen the Japanese
SpongeBob by any chance, 'cause the the guy, the voice actor who
played SpongeBob I think passed away this year.
Incredible. I know we were talking about
voice acting before, Yeah. I know you're, you're, you're a
really big fan of his performance.
You really like the way he said, like, bring it around town.
You're only good in this player internal.
Countdown it's yes love these some Japanese SpongeBob.
It's great voice acting. I will not hear any takes
otherwise. Yeah, no, it's and it's better
than the English, even though the Japanese would be the like
the dubbed over one or whatever. Yes, 100%.
You're up next. What you got for me?
Oh goodness, yeah, I guess I, I kinda am.
OK, so my next my next take is, and this is something that I've
espoused in or so I read it before, but it's something that
I do, I firmly believe. And it's you like Mecca anime,
all of you, every single fucking one of you, because all I hear
is people saying they don't like Mecca and then like all of their
favorite anime are Mecca. And it's like, what the hell do
you do? You don't?
Why is Mecca different than like comedy or something?
Like how many people if like you're, if you have even Gellion
or Tapaturger and Lagann or Code Gillos in your top whatever, do
you like Mecca? See you.
There's tons of there's tons of people in our discord and just
in the community. People don't like big robots for
some reason, which is whatever. But then it's like 3 of their
top 25 shows like, OK, Pete, let's do you.
Let's literally let's let's break this down here for you.
OK. You got my top 100 for you.
What's your Oh yeah, How many are in your top 25?
That are Mecca. I have the Evangelion rebuilds
at 8:00. OK.
I have that doesn't count well. No.
What is it? Well, they're not no, they're
not Mecca's, no. What Pete, What's the show?
It's Pluto, but they're not Mecca's.
OK. No, no, those are Andrew.
That's fine. Tokyo at 20.
OK. And I think that is it.
Yeah, that's it for Mecca. So I have two in my top 20.
OK, so 10% of your top 20 is Mecca.
That's probably not that bad for any given genre.
You know, I don't know that's. Pretty good like.
Yeah, and like, would you say you're a big Mecca fan?
I always say that I I don't hate it, but I don't actively search
it out. Yeah, I don't know.
It's to me, it's this thing where people will always say
they don't like Mecca whenever I'm trying to like, hey, you
should watch like Gundam, whatever.
But they actually fucking do. They do like Mecca.
They, you know, someone will be like, oh, I don't like Mecca,
and I'll be like, wait a minute, do you have that fucking trapped
in an Atomic game at a nine for some reason?
That's a Mecca. I haven't had.
Kids yeah OK see you know it was like, well it's like our our
dear viewer and person who helps me make games.
Preston is like don't like Mecca.
It's like his seventh highest rated genre or something.
It's, you know, so I just, I don't know why Mecca gets this
different thing than being like, than anything else.
You know what I mean? No one's like, I've said this
before and people been like, actually, but no one's ever
like, oh, I don't like swords. I don't like any animated swords
in it or like instruments, like, yeah, you do.
So like, you know, it's just a plot device.
It's fine. I don't know What.
What are your thoughts there, Pete?
I think it's funny because like a lot of times when people that
like say like they don't like mechas is because like I don't
really like how they have like 60 some episodes and then you
know, they have like 3 episode long Mac battles and then you
watch it and the Mac battles are like 3 minutes long.
Everything else is like political warfare, scheming,
character drama behind the scenes.
It's like that's why when the Witch from Mercury was like
pitched was that nobody said Gundam, everyone just said witch
for Mercury and I think it tricked people into watching
witch for mercury because no one said the first part And I think
if they did it would pull people.
This is also a theory that I have on like a bunch of
different things where it's like the they have it in their mind
that they're not going to like it if they have robots.
It's like the same thing with like if people like how many
people in the world would stop reading one piece if it was
labeled a shoujo? Same thing everything else.
How many people do you realistically think would just
straight up stop watching it or reading it because it's labeled
something is? I I don't, I don't think anyone
would like stop, but in a world where it is labeled as that, I
think less people would like start and and I, I tell I've
told the story. If you I don't know if I've ever
told the story on our podcast, oddly enough, but skipping
loafer signing right, but like. Everyone thinks it's a shojo,
yeah. Usually it it it gives off, you
know it it it gives shojo vibes, right like.
Oh, for sure, yeah. Some of the art style for sure
does, like the chibi moments and stuff like that.
That's way more. Yeah, so.
There was like a thread on Mal that was like, is this a shojo?
And then it was like, I don't want to watch a shojo but I want
to watch this show. What should I do?
And it's like, what are you doing?
What are you like? And that's me for like anything
like just who cares if it's like, oh, I don't never say I
don't like X blanketly. You know, there are a lot.
There's some things we can say. There's some things.
As far as like genres and stuff go, you know what I mean?
Yeah, Yeah. OK.
Fair enough. Yeah, I won't put you in the box
right now, bud. There are some things I.
Yeah, no, that's fair. That's, that's, that's true.
I I, you know, as far as like, you know, like, I don't know,
there's a lot of Isakai I don't like, but you know, I'm not
going to, if something sounds interesting to me, I'm not going
to not watch it because it is an Isakai or I'm not going to not
watch it because it's, you know, one of Pete's stupid shows where
nothing happens. Like, I'll definitely give it a
try, but that, yeah, that's sort of like I, you know, I, I don't
know, it's weird because I feel like everyone agrees with this.
And then there are like a slight sub genre of things that people
will disagree with it on. Like a lot of my casual friends
and stuff. Getting them to watch a romance
would be like fucking impossible, regardless of how
good it is, regardless of it's the fact that they like ROM com
movies that are English or whatever.
You know, it's just like, no, it's this thing or you know,
like, oh, I like action anime. Oh, here's one where robots
fight each other. Oh, I don't like it when the
robots fight each other. Do you ever watch a show where
the robots fight each other? No, like maybe you do.
Who fucking knows? I don't know if I have a steal
something from you but you've had like a hot take that's been
stuck in the back of my head for like 3 years.
OK. Where like I agree for like 85%
of it. And it's that people need to be
told what they like and don't like because because they cannot
make that decision for themselves.
And I think that's like so spot on that like it, it comes with
like the what people consume in media in general.
I feel like especially in our sphere where it's like, if it's
not, if it's manga, like I feel like so many people will refuse
to read something if it's not in Shonen Jump, or they will refuse
to watch something if it's not made by Studio Moppa.
It's just like people need to be like people want.
It's not only do they need to, but they also want to be told
what to watch and what to read because that's what the masses
are consuming compared to what they actually want to watch,
which is making their own decisions for themselves.
Yeah, I, I, I think there's like an anxiety around like I get it.
So I don't get to read a lot of books and I like reading books,
right? But like I just don't always
have the time to sit down and like read something.
And so I tend to be pretty safe when I'm selecting which book
I'm going to read next because there's like that risk involved
or whatever. So like, on one hand, I do get
it because like you don't want to invest your, you know, if you
watch 3 anime a year or whatever, you don't wanna invest
your time in a thing that you might not like.
On the other hand, it's worth it in my opinion, because you're
expanding all the things that you could potentially like and
like the top of every genre or demographic or whatever is
probably gonna be pretty good. Like regardless of what it is,
you know, it it'll it'll probably be good.
You know, so I think you just like sometimes you need to not
tell people what you like, though.
I do like that. I worded like that you need to
push people out of their comfort zone, you know, and be like,
hey, I promise you, you're going to enjoy this.
Here you go. Yes, that sort of.
That kind of ties into like my other one that I want, OK.
Go, let's go. But this is so it's like it's
not like a attack on like any one person, but it's I actually
did like a rant on this I think earlier this year, sort of like
what I was watching and seeing within our realm, not just like
podcasting, but like anime Youtubers and stuff like that.
Is that, and this is just in general, doesn't have to be like
anime related, but like it sucks me when I'm like involved with
it was like people are more worried.
I, I like, how do I, how do I phrase this as like a hot take?
But like, I guess how do I, I don't know if it's like a hot
take now that I think about it. Like I don't think it's that
much of a hot take at all. You know what?
No, we're, we're we're fucking rolling here.
OK, Tell me what it is. I'll tell you if it's hot or
not. I'll give you a hot O meter.
Trent put in the hot O meter. Hot O meter.
It's like it's like the meters that like 4 KS or like how loud
are you? You get louder.
Yeah, exactly. Yeah, help or whatever.
Well, it's just like people are so worried about not making the
content that they want, but the content that will get clicks.
And it's like that. But it's like it's more for like
the people that aren't making like a living off of this.
And I watch their content and it's like they're so not
passionate about like what they're talking about compared
to when they talk about their other passions and shows and
mangas that they're reading or whatever.
Where it's like you are so much more involved in the shit that
you like compared to what's popular.
And I just think like it gets into a, a, we get into like this
sphere where it's just like recycled garbage of the same
thing. And it's like right now, even
though like I love Don to Don, like don't get me wrong, Don Don
is a great show. But I think last Saturday I saw
like 6 people drop Don to Don videos.
I was like, oh cool. Like I'll I'll check them out
and see like what they're doing. And you just click it and it's
like you are obviously making this video because it's the
hottest property right now. It's like and everything you are
saying right now is just nonsense.
It's just Oh my God, he stole his testicles.
We haven't seen an anime ever where a guy stole his testicles
and it's like daunted on is the most ground breaking anime of
2024. It's like, no, it's fucking not
like it's a great show, but like I'm a shout Rob even though he's
my my boy show and showdown love Rob.
He did a video about how da da da is like changing the anime
sphere essentially of this one anime is changing everything.
80% of his video is on the manga.
And I just said, Robert my man, your content is fun, but these
like click baiting shit that you are doing is just getting so
old. And I don't know if he's just
like me old man yelling at the clouds.
But if you have like a click bait YouTube video, like I'm not
going to click it. Like it's just like, I don't
know, I feel like it, it's like a combination because like I get
it as we, we do, we drop a seasonal episode the week after
the season ends. Like I get it.
Like I, I try to be on top of the ball with like what's hot
and what not. Like that's not what I'm like
whatever about because like when we go through shows, if I don't
like it, I'll talk to you about 3 minutes.
I'll say it's men and give it a 5 and move on.
It's like these people making like 15 minute videos on Oh my
God, you have to watch this show. 86 is the best thing ever.
And it's just like, it's not. And I don't know that's that's,
it's more like a rant, I guess more than just like a hot take
or anything like that. But it's like I've been seeing
it a lot lately and it's just, it's just, I don't know, it's
cool that you're getting clicks and notoriety.
I think your content is boring. Yeah, I, I mean, not, I don't
think that's necessarily a hot take, right.
Like if you're not passionate about something, don't make
content about it is a it's a freezing cold take.
Yeah, this is more of a rant than let's back up.
This is not a hot take. This is just get something off
my chest part. What I'll I'll I'll give a hot
take version of it. Honestly, those fucking useless
videos. I think they're kind of cool and
useful. So like when you're hype about
something, it's just kind of fun to listen to people and also
hype about it, even if it's not adding anything to the
discussion, even if it's just like, I really like Dana, Dana.
And they just say that for 15 minutes and they're like, it's
the best. And they never explain why.
It's kind of fun. Like, you know, my reaction
would be like after a sports win or something, right?
Like, you know, like the Colts win game, imagine.
And you know, then you're just you're just listening and you're
just like, oh, Anthony, you're just going to you know,
whatever, Who fucking cares? None of this matters.
And you just like say whatever and you listen to everyone who
has an opinion about that as long as it's positive.
And as soon as someone disagrees with you, you turn it the fuck
off, right. So like.
I, I, I feel like I need to like be a little bit more specific by
what I'm saying because like, I think making stuff like that is,
I have no issues with it. It's, it's, it's the like the
people that I follow and like respect and like their content.
It's like when you're seeing stuff like that from, let's just
say somebody you respect. I don't know who you respect.
Respect. Everybody OK perfect.
So if you were following like this channel for like 5 years
and then everything they put out was great and then they start
glazing because it's the hottest new thing.
And then like that's where to me, it's where it's like you're,
I'm connected to like the person and like their passion and what
they're doing for it. And when they're doing stuff
like that, it's like it loses everything that I followed you
for and like. Yeah.
So it's like the authenticity. So like, yes, that's yeah, OK.
That's the word I would like to look for.
OK I I would give like an example.
Then imagine the gathering creator notice the commander's
quarters who used to do like budget commander decks and they
would put like a lot of thought into it and be like, make this
commander deck for like less than $10 on like TCG mid or
whatever. And and then universes beyond
happen. And like he might have had a
little bit of a mental break because of this.
And now everything is just like incredibly click bait and it's
just like all doom and gloom because that's like what people
like to click on. And it's not like real content.
And like, he probably doesn't care, but he's like, you know,
he reads like 3 videos a day, but he's like, none of this
fucking matters. But they'll get 100K views and
I'll make money, right? Like that.
As opposed to like the passion project that the channel started
out as. Yeah, I I mean, I think that's a
good rant, not a hot take. Though no, not a hot take.
No, it's just. Trent 9th Circle of Hell,
Dante's Inferno. Put that at the bottom.
Frozen solid. Not, not a hot take, just a
rant. Like you said before, this is
not just somebody hot takes and somebody rants things we got to
get off of our chest. And that has been something that
has been on my chest where I I want to see my friends succeed
and I want to see my friends talk about the things that they
love. And when it's like, I don't
know, it just feels like, you know, it's like, what if your
favorite artist started incorporating like AI into their
beats? It's like, well, fuck.
It's like God damn it. Yeah.
It's not maybe not as stressed or not to that level, but it's
just like, I know you are capable of doing so great.
I want to at least hear it in your voice.
Yeah, I get that. OK.
We got, I got like 7 more. Yeah, no, I got I, I got more.
I'm I'm just thinking about like what to go with, you know what
I'm going to say? I'm going to say deep doesn't
mean what you think it does. This is like a thing that I
fucking I fucking hate. I, I think 1 I think deep is
used is like a, a, like a straw man where people will like
attack a show that it could be a pretentious show, whatever, you
know, but they'll be like, Oh, the show's bad because it's
pretty good and people are like, Oh, it's so deep and it's like
not, it's not deep and it's like because the moral is whatever
and it's like deep is the, the if this doesn't, it doesn't mean
that it's going to fucking change your life.
No one is releasing an anime with like some new philosophy
about the world that is going to change how you perceive and
think of everything. Like that's not going to happen.
OK, you're going to watch Neon Genesis Evangelion and you're
going to like it or not, but no one, no one it honestly, maybe,
but no one is saying, you know, that this has like the fucking
answer to everything in it and that it like unveils some
secret, unknown thing about humanity.
That is not what it means. What it means is that it layers
things that could be incredibly obvious through different layers
of the show. So it's, it's deep like that.
There are there are layers to it, and they can all be very
simple things. That's.
My truck is deep, yeah, like an onion, you know?
But it, it's something like like monogatry is not it's, it's
deep. I'm sorry, people.
Like yes, it's a weird show that's kind of pervy, but
there's like the metaphors go for like 3 or 4 layers visually
and with like the words that are used and with the naming
conventions and it all feeds onto itself.
That's what deep is. It just means there was a lot of
care put into like this aspect of like theming and everything.
The theme could be Sinjo Gahara is hot, you know, and that can
be deep. The theme could be the power of
friendship and that could be deep.
Deep doesn't mean profound. Those are different.
It's different and I just feel like I, I don't know, I feel
like deep gets used as like a like a derogatory term torch
shows that people don't think are as profound as people might
claim them to be. And it's like the insight to the
human condition or whatever doesn't need to be there.
You know, like something like, you're going to be better at
answering this than me, Pete. What's like a show that really
goes deep on like a job or like a hobby or a club or?
Something. Oh, like Shiribako or something?
Sure, yeah, I bet Shiribako's deep in so far.
Is that it like is a deep dive into the animation industry or
whatever? Yep.
I've never watched it, you know, but like, you know, you.
Don't you don't call without murder.
OK, so it's worse Oshino Ko and I, I don't know this is going to
attack into like another thing, but get your response first
because I I just have more things about this.
Well, yeah, OK, it's funny because like I I have like my
take on things on the Howard, things are deep where it's like
things are as deep as you want them to be.
If you want something to be deep, you could go and deep dive
into all these different things on like the littlest thing to
make it seem like it's deep, but that's only if you're willing to
like go and invest that into it. Where I know we had like someone
with like eagle was like deep diving into stuff like girls
bang cry and like doing talking to me about like the direction
and like the casting and all this stuff that went into this.
And it's like, that's really cool.
And there's a like you said, I think there's layers, but in
like a different way. Is that also deep?
Like, does that make it deep because they have all these
different layers outside of like making the anime inside instead
of inside the anime itself? And to me, I think it's like the
answer is yes, I think you can do it.
Like I think being deep goes into like multiple different
directions where how far do you want to dig into the show to
make it as deep as you're looking for it to be?
Well, I think that's the I guess like in I would agree and
disagree. Oh.
Useful like yeah, it either is or it is it.
You'll either like the show or you won't.
You'll think it's deep, or you won't. 5050 shot.
Yeah. So like I think like to figure
out if something is deep or not, you have to go digging.
That is true. Sometimes you'll be in a
sandbox, you know, and it won't be deep.
And that's that's fine too. It's not inherently bad or
anything. It's just like not everything is
deep and that's OK. And like some things are deep
that even if you don't like it, it can be deep.
Like it, I don't know. That's just like the whole, the
whole idea there, you know? And like they're also like, I
don't know, like what, what would you consider like wide
instead of deep? You know, there are more
dimensions to these things, you know what I mean?
Like, I don't, I don't know, that was deep.
Wide maybe, I guess maybe I feel like something that like is
longer lasting could go wide like like one piece probably has
like a watch that you could dive into, but like, you know, like
each arc has like their own whatever that you could dive
into somebody maybe one Piece is wide and yeah, it's like a.
Very fast world of all different.
Factions and stuff and. Yeah, yeah, I, I don't know.
It's not about snails and the number of pilgrimage.
Sites or. Whatever for Hachikuji and yeah,
I, I don't know. It was all of that was was like
a lot and like, you know, I don't know.
And that, yeah, never mind. I'm not going to go.
I've complained about this particular show too much.
I'm not going to. But yeah, I don't know that
that's sort of what I wanted to talk about.
Like I feel like people will knock a show that people think
is is deep if they think the the messaging is like common or like
whatever. And it's like, I don't think
I've ever really seen a show that said something that wasn't
some sort of common message ever.
Like I just don't think I've consumed that many pieces of
media. And maybe this is just like my
fault or whatever, but things tend to be, they tend to have a
moral of some sort and how that is portrayed can be obfuscated
or obvious. But like, I, you know, I, I've
just never seen something and been like, holy shit, I've never
ever thought about that before, you know, other than when I was
younger or something, You know, it's like you learn how things
are based off of each other and stuff as time goes on.
You know, it's like the first time I ever watched something
that had like a time loop, I probably lost my mind more of
that, right. And it's like, but like, you
know, it's just your first time being exposed to that.
So if you're exposed to it again, don't think less of it
because you've seen it before, you know what I mean?
Cause like someone else will be watching it or seeing that is
their first foray into that sort of media.
Yeah, you know. No, I get it.
I love that. That's a great answer.
OK, this one that I want to get into is actually like anime
related. This is not going to be a hot
take. This is probably going to be
mild. Maybe we'll see.
But I think this goes towards my favorite genre in romance or in
romance. In the end of it is romance.
And I think that in the stories that we need, this is going to
be a 2 parter. It gets to a certain point where
I think romances are no longer considered romances, and I think
we need to make a justification for that when we have like 200
chapters of people like trying to feel each other out.
And. And trying to figure out like
who they are and what they are, that's not a romance like, like
I, I get if you need the first like 40 chapters to build
something up. But if we're at a certain point,
whether everybody can have their own like criteria for this and
whether it's 10 episodes, 50 chapters, at a certain point,
they're not going to figure it out.
And if they are, it's going to end poorly.
And when it comes to that, that's no longer a romance.
That's just that's just I don't know, we need a new word.
What what's what's a what's a romance where it's not a
romance. That's I need whatever genre
that is. And I think we need to that
needs to be solidified because when I was thinking of like
anime of the year stuff and one of my favorite categories to go
over is best romance. And then we have to get into the
criteria of our shows that were they is like is too many losing
heroines a romance is magical girl and evil Lieutenant A
romance is all guy mixer a romance.
And I I feel like we're getting like, I don't know, like I feel
like we need like a better criteria on what romance is,
which ties into my second point, which is not like a hot take or
anything like that, but I think we need more.
You actually have to show the scenes, but like the idea that
characters are having sex in their shows.
And I think it's like a huge point of like relationships
where it's glossed over and anime.
It makes it seem like nobody has sex ever unless you're in like
Horomia, or at least that has like an indication that the main
characters are having sex. But like I think that's like
such a great way to grow and he's like an emotional fan base
with the two lead. If they have like interactions,
whether and you like you don't have to.
It doesn't have to be like a hentai singer just like them.
So you want to see full pen and and like more anime just like.
No, so like I I hate anime does this and like how like Mushoku
Tensei does it. It's just like fucking awful and
I hate it where it's just like in the next morning, there's
like blood on the bed. It's like motherfucker, like
they never have like the conversation after or anything
like that or before. It's always like that's the like
I don't want that. I don't want that.
I want the scenes of like telling you like after you have
sex with somebody, like all your emotions are like it's like it's
like a wave. Let me hear.
Let me hear the 1st. I want to hear some pillow talk
and I want to hear some after pillow talk.
OK, so that's more of like a rant slash mild hot take.
I think on like romance and shit in anime.
And Miles, you have any thoughts?
Yeah, I do. I have lots of thoughts on this
one. I fucking I hate what you just
told me about the fucking bout. It's just like.
I found out something about the light novel that makes it worse.
I was like, Rudy is the worst person in the world.
Like the, the, the, the weird focus on like virginity there is
gross to me. Yeah.
That being said. I like that'd be you, Miles.
Miles. Yeah, so here, here's my hot
take. Something like Too many losing
Heroines is more of a romance than Oh my God what's the show
called? A sign of affection.
Yes, that's exactly. Insane take.
No, it's not an insane take because when two people are
dating, they're just dating, right?
So like, like, I don't know, name any movie that there's like
a married couple in it. Is that a romance because it's
focusing on a couple? No, The notebook, yeah, OK, Yep.
Obviously not a romance. But that's the thing.
What percentage of the notebook is about them trying to get
together? Well, that's a movie.
What percentage, Pete? 80 Dine.
Yeah, sounds right to me. When we're together, they can't
even remember it. Well, it's.
Like I hate that. Like once, I hate the idea that
like once you're a couple, it's like the fun is over.
Like Miles, is your life over because you're buried now?
Like. Yep.
Oh, OK, never mind you all. Scratch that, scratch
everything, I said that was a freezing cold take.
No, I mean, it's not right, but like they're, you know it, it
just becomes more normal. See, right, like like OK, let's
view a terrible romance that you love that a lot of the community
loves, despite how bad it. Is Toradora.
No, OK, no 'cause that would Toradora would help my point and
this is going to help my point too, but it's it's going to be
more illustrative. I think it is.
It's about the Love's hard for no talk, right?
So we have two, yeah 2 couples that we focus on primarily in
the Why are they children? This is like the collector's
edition one because they met with their kids.
Yeah, I forgot. Yeah, their childhood are
friends. Yeah, they yeah, I forgot the
extreme romance of like I've met you before 1A date.
Fuck. It really, truly romantic.
Anyways, there are two couples, right?
There's one couple that is already established and then
there is one couple that is like newly established, still getting
to know each other, still trying to figure out what they're
doing. Which one do you think is more
romance focused out of those two couples?
Depends on what you're into, especially for political.
What do you think, Pete? It's the question.
The new couple. Yeah, that's because that's what
that's the point. It's the point of the romance.
It's about getting together. It's about sorting it out and
overcoming some sort of barrier in order to get to the goal,
which is like to be together. Both What if you could not only
write a lead up, but write like an aftermath of like everything
that comes after it? Because I I've seen animes where
it's like, or maybe more along the lines of like manga of
having these characters in established relationships and
still having fun, still being romantic.
It's like new issues arise from when you're actually a couple as
well. And that could still be fun
because you can build up to other things.
Yeah, but you need to. OK, you need to.
You recycle it some, right? So let's take something we both
love, right? Love is war.
Big fan. You have your your main couple.
I could I could do this too. I don't know where my copies
are. Oh, here we go.
Wait. I'm gonna, I'm gonna do, I'm
gonna do a pee, everybody. Flex, everybody.
Flex. Oh, we did it.
OK. We have Volume 25 here.
Yeah, Minecraft Volume 1. So like if your main couple and
then they get together, right? And then the focus immediately
shifts to the next couple trying to get together until there's an
issue with the first couple preventing them from the plan of
staying together. And then they need to fix that.
The chase is more fun, right? Because marriage, which I love.
And if you're listening to this, Kayla, I love you so much,
right? But what marriage is and being a
couple is, is is your wife asking you what you want to do
for dinner and what show you want to watch on Netflix until
you die? That sounds lit get easily.
It's great, I love my life. I don't want to read a manga
about it. What?
About like the there's just so many other elements that you can
explore with it. Like you could you could still
be you can still have romantic whatever shit and you can, you
know, have talk about kids and potential someone might be
cheating on the other partner. That might be fun.
OK. But we can't.
We can't get this. This never happens, right?
I don't that's what I want. OK, sure you're super grieving.
Here's here's my hot take. People should break up an anime
ever. That's a.
Good one, I do like that. Right.
Yeah, like, if we're going for that, sure.
What I don't want is a couple in the current atmosphere of anime
we have where no one has ever broken up ever like trying to.
Think of try. To think of an example where
people break up and stay broken up and that's it.
Oh break up, stay broken up. I bet there's like 2 but I can't
think I'm. Sure, I'm sure something exists,
but the fact that you who has this like encyclopedic
knowledge, especially of like romance anime and manga, can't
just be like, oh, this one is like, you know what I mean?
Like I like the idea of that's like the.
Chase, though, like it's all leading up to like that point
and we never get past the point where they can like, break up.
But even OK, look, I will give you my fucking house if Yuki and
Yuki break up ever. Clip it.
If Yuki ever break up officially, they're done forever
and ever. Never.
Yeah, that would never happen. Right.
And, like, I always like the idea of, like, I don't know.
And like an American show, like Glee or something.
Like before Finn dates Rachel, he dates Quinn.
Right. And so you have, like, that sort
of thing. Like, people don't start.
I've always liked, like, the Jim and Pam thing where Pam's dating
someone else. I like that sort of dynamic.
I wish we had more of that. And then you can, like, flip it
into it. Yeah.
But we're not.
We're never gonna get that. Why not?
We're gonna do what I want. I just ask.
That's why I don't want more established couples, because
once you're an established couple it it's over.
I just think, I just think your take on too many losing heroines
being more romantic than a sign of affection is insane.
But I love it. I respect that.
Well, it's just like, I don't know, she's just like, I guess
I'm in love with this dude. And then they date each other.
Yeah, that's awesome. That's what, that's what more
people should do. They should.
I sure. Yeah.
I don't know each other based off their looks and only their
looks. See, the difference between us
is like you, you love these like grounded shows and stuff.
You're like, you're a cramp. It's a story about people who
realistically go camping. And I'm just like, I want to
die. Oh, girl, you know, So like, I
like remember, I, I thrive off the existential dread.
I need that. So I don't want, I don't want
happy couples. You want Cabin in the Woods?
Not yeah. Exactly like I want, you know?
So we just watched the fucking Rocky Will, shouldn't you?
Right. We also did just watch Devil
Man. But like Rocky Will, shouldn't
you? That romance and that.
Give me that. That's what I want, right.
So like, that's an example of something where people break up
and stay broken up. By the way, there's an example I
already forgot. And yeah, yeah, you watched it
like we watched it a week ago. No idea.
We literally published an episode about it today, the day
we are recording this. But like, that's more of the
stuff I want. That's like messy and
everything. But like, you know what?
Like White Album 2, What you want is White Album 2.
No, I don't want what you want that show that shows.
Yes, repeat. The other take you agreed with
is that people need to be told what they want.
And I'm telling you, you want White Album 2.
I want White Album 2 if all of the characters are not presented
as like the smartest people in the world and they're presented
as dumb people. I would respect the hell out of
White Album too. I.
Scored the elite album too. Oh, people make mistakes.
I don't care. The show doesn't present these
people as people who make mistakes.
You want scums Wish. Maybe I haven't seen it, no.
I know I need to watch that. I've been saving it for already,
whose turn isn't even. It's yours.
Let's do like one more. If you got a big one or if you
have a couple, just run through them.
OK, well, I I have one shows if you make you if you make a show
and it is dark, dark doesn't mean mature inherently.
It doesn't mean deeper inherently, and it doesn't mean
better inherently. Like I don't like whenever
someone describes me, it's like this but darker.
I'm just like, oh, I'm going to not like it then, huh?
Because like it I don't know. I just I feel like it often
misses the point of like what makes like popular dark media
popular, you know, which is like always like relatability.
I feel like these things jump the shark very often.
Something like, and this is something that no one's going to
disagree with, but I'm going to like take it to its its maximum
point to illustrate my point. So something like read you of a
healer, right. No one's like wow, this show is
First off, no one's like wow this show is good.
Second of all, no one thinks the dark elements of that make the
show more mature or more deep, or I would.
Say it makes anything less mature.
Yeah, almost certainly. You know, so like if you're just
adding grim elements to something in order to like do
whatever. If if that's the thing, it just
it doesn't add to a show in my opinion.
I don't I don't like that. I don't need to see that.
I don't care. It's like whenever people are
like, I want a grim dark Pokémon game where we see the gritty
underworld of the Pokémon and it's like, I don't Pokémon's a
fucking kid show. I want to see the the Pikachu
Pikachu. Like you can like make it a
little more adult oriented. Sure, like, you know, just
slightly more mature, increase the, you know, verbiage and
whatever. But like, you know, it's not
like, oh, we're we're, we're, we're doing fucking poaching.
We're poaching. Oh, there's a strung up toros
that's being bled out, you know, like, I don't know, it's just
like, I feel like that's like when people try to think of how
to make something that maybe they've aged out of better.
It'll just like My Hero Academia is one that I, I, I found like a
lot where people are like, it's not, you know, people aren't
fucking dying all the time or whatever.
And it's like, yeah, 'cause it's about fucking 13 year olds that
have superpowers. Like that's what the show is.
And it's OK. And it wouldn't be better if
people died like it, wouldn't it?
It would maybe even, yeah, that's not what the guys trying
to do. Like, and that's OK.
And you can like make a show that's dark and make it good,
but that's not, doesn't make things better.
You don't make things better by adding fucking grim dark
elements to them. It's a it's a big thing in my
mind. Yeah, I think like it it like it
needs to equate to something that's trying to present in the
story where something like Redo of a Healer is like the exact
opposite. I think something like Perfect
Blue where it's, you know, it's showcasing like the
sexualization of idols for like male otakus.
Maybe you don't agree with it, but at least I think in the
context it makes sense of like why they're portraying it the
way that they're doing it in like the story.
Well, yeah, it's looking at the dark elements and like, showing
you that it's ugly, right? And like, that's not what Redo
of the Hero does or Redo of the Healer does.
Like, I'm pretty sure you're supposed to masturbate when
you're watching that. I don't.
Know yeah, yeah, there's some yeah, yeah, you're you're
definitely which is also like because it's like in Japan, like
more women than men watched redo of a healer and then the West
it's like 99% men, I think. Guilty as charged.
I did, I did watch it. I did Oh my God.
I gave it A2 just for reference. Fair enough.
Touché. It was, it was awful.
It is a terrible written show. And it's, it's like, have you
ever seen like the meme where it's like, oh, you don't like
dark humor? And then the dark humor is just
like sexual assault. It's like, that's not yeah.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's like, yeah.
It's like, like when someone's like, oh, I was only joking and
like, what? What was the joke?
And this joke was like, I put a swastika on screen.
Yeah. And it's like, oh, that's not a
joke. Oh that's that's a swastika.
Jokes are funny. Like that's not.
Funny yeah, I don't know that that that's one see and it's
like I don't know these are just sort of things where like one
example is that I you know, I talked about how I liked Medoca
magic out of someone and someone was like, oh, you'll probably
like magical girls sight and it's like no, those just no, no,
those actually could be more different, you know like it they
they both are dark and 1 is dark and bad and also like it doesn't
make it more mature and it's sort of like.
I sort of viewed the Have you ever seen the movie?
Well, you've seen Saw. I would assume I've.
Seen. Yeah, like 1 and 2.
OK, have you ever seen the movie Hostile?
I know what it's about, but I haven't seen it.
So to me, there's like the difference there where Saw
they're both torture movies where people get tortured and
like, I'm not going to blame anyone for not liking that,
right? And it's like sort of like a
grim topic, but like the point of hostile is to watch people
get tortured and like saw the regardless of how well executed
has like a other point. There's like a more interactive
plot, you know, there is something that is trying to do
via it's it's darkness or whatever.
And so like that, that's sort of the big distinction to me that
like dark isn't really like a genre or like a category in my
opinion. It's it's just an element that
some shows have, but it it is by itself almost irrelevant to if I
will enjoy something or not. No, I couldn't agree more.
I think we both have the same like ideas of like what we think
of as like dark and whatever in our media and like how we
perceive it. So couldn't agree more.
I'm going to get to my last one. This one, this one I actually
think might be spicy because based off how I feel, how I see
people on like Twitter and Discord, and I don't know if
I've ever said this opinion to publicly allowed.
So so when people say like things like, oh, you shouldn't
trust the scores on like Mal or Annie list for like how good a
show is, yes, you should. You absolutely should.
This is if you've ever taken a stats class or if you've ever
taken a survey, this is exactly what it is.
It is a survey of the people who watch this type of content and
they're rating. This is a very good way of
understanding if the same people who are willing to sign up for a
website that logs your anime like a specific show.
And I I I just think it's funny when people are just like, oh,
you can't trust whatever, blah, blah, blah.
And it's like 400,000 people who signed up for this and this
website voiced their opinions on it.
Yeah, you should that it's, it's a very, it's a very clear
indication of like the masses of how a show is perceived.
And I always thought it's funny when people like don't do that.
I'm like, that's literally what a survey is like these are all
just surveys. So.
Yeah. So I'm going to say there are
there are some points to this. I'm going to disagree with you.
You need to know the biases, right, Because Mal has his
biases. Things like, as you have
mentioned, show Joe's Joe says, things like that, they're going
to be scored a little lower on something like now, right?
The things that again, break certain norms of anime are going
to be lower. Things with like unhappy
romantic endings, things get knocked for that.
So I would say being aware, yeah, you know, things that are
are 3D animated, right, CGI that's going to get knocked.
So know if you care about that or not.
Things that are Western in any way, they're going to get
knocked on Mal, you know, So be aware of that.
But also generally speaking, I completely agree.
Like if someone shows me something that's like A5 on Mal
and it's like, trust me, it's good.
I'm not going to trust them. I'm going to trust the the group
at large that that's. Yeah, I mean, that's what like
there's advanced analytics where you can break it down by like
gender and age and stuff like that to get a better
understanding of like shows that maybe you would like more or
less versus like the popular vote.
But I guess it's more of long lines is like people use Rotten
Tomatoes for movies as like the baseline score.
Like people, people don't say, oh, it had a 9.1 on IMDb.
They say it's they got 91% on raw tomatoes.
Like that's, that's what we use. And then in an R sphere, it's
either Mal or any less. And most of the time they're
very similar. Like there's no, I don't think
there's like one show that is just so drastic on one side
versus the other. But it's like, it's like it's a
very, it is a great tool to get a common grounding on a specific
show. And when people, it's more along
the lines of people saying like it's not a good resource to use
for whatever it is. A as somebody who is in a
corporate analytics role, it is a fantastic resource to get all
the data that you are looking for.
I it's like, it's like when people are like when you were in
college and they're like, you don't use Wikipedia as a source.
95% of my sources were from Wikipedia.
It's like, yeah, yeah, you can, you can use Wikipedia as a
source. I feel like Mal and Annulus are
sort of the same thing where it's like, oh, it has an 8 point
whatever on Mal and be like, oh, that's, that doesn't mean
anything. Yeah, it does.
It means a lot actually. So I don't know if that's a hot
take or not just because I see a lot of people that like
completely disagree with ratings, even though they use
their, because everybody uses like their own system.
But I think that's for like most surveys in general anyway that
you sort of like, even if it's if it's a one through 5 and 5 is
like strongly agree. Maybe most people don't use that
or they use it a lot. So I was going to say like, I
think it's an incredible resource to use.
I think it is a great understanding of where a fall
shows within the people who care enough to make an account and to
log it. Also, mild hot take.
Maybe not Mall and Angeles, they're the same.
They're they're both ledgers. They're both there to record the
shows that I watch. One is not better than the
other. I don't care.
It's a straight up I, I literally use it to log what
shows I watch. I it's the same thing as a notes
app on a phone. They're they're the same thing.
I would have said that until one time during our secret stand up,
I got just like a word doc that was shows people had watched
like just a list of it and like it's not the same as either of
those two. There's not like links to it.
There's. OK, like running it on a piece
of paper is going to be different than electronically
logging it on a database. But in terms of like being a
Ledger to record the shows you watched and the score you gave
it, they're the exact same thing.
I don't care if the UIS are prettier, I don't care if the
other one uses decimals. It's literally there to record
shit for me. So I don't know if that's about
the hot take or whatever, but. It depends who you ask, I think.
I, you know, like I, I agree. I know people who definitely
disagree and I, I get why they do right 'cause like people like
tweaking things a certain way. I have one last one if that's
OK. Yeah, I'll see.
I'll see. If I had any more I might just
do like a speed thing at the. End Oh, you would do a speed
thing 'cause I I saved what I think my spiciest 1 is for last.
OK, let me just run through what I wrote down 'cause I really
don't care. OK, cool.
What do? We got impact should be the most
important factor when resolving anything that deals with
violence. I don't care how flashy fights
look. If the impact or the relevance
of the fight don't mean anything, it doesn't matter.
Glazing of particular brands should not be a thing anymore.
This is specifically towards manga where people just like
jizz their pants off of like what's new and shown and jump
like it doesn't matter. Like I, I feel like it's weird
that people like glaze specific like magazines and stuff where
like before it came down to like distribution, where like it was
way easier to read Shonen jump properties and that's why more
people like focus on reading stuff like that.
No, it doesn't matter. You can read any fucking manga
ever made. Now we we don't live in that age
anymore. That's just, I just find it odd
that people just like, I can't believe this got acts from
Shonen jump. It's like the show sucked.
Like someone who isn't super into manga really quick, how
would you view that as different than?
Like I know I understand some of the differences but like they
curate a certain vibe right? Kind of.
But like, OK, so here's the we're I was trying to talk about
earlier with like if something was labeled whatever, if you
have two fantasy action shows and 1:00 and they look A&B, they
look the exact same thing. And one was on Shonen Jump and
the other one was on Shonen Magazine.
People would watch option A more than option B because it has the
title shown and Jump. But like it doesn't it doesn't
matter anymore. Like show and Jump doesn't mean
quality. Like I don't know if it's ever
meant quality. It it's just before we had such
a limited access to reading manga where the shown and Jump
app was like the first like subscription based manga app
that we had in the states. And so like I get why people
would revolve wanting to read those programs because they can
pay $2.00 a month and get them professionally translated from
Japan or whatever. Now it doesn't matter.
Like you can read anything you want.
And so like it's just like, I don't know, there's like there's
like debates of like where it was ranked in like there's Shona
jump rank. It's like, who cares?
Like why does it matter? Like I feel like it's it goes
back to like watching and reading whatever it did you want
to watch instead of whatever people are telling you to watch
since Shona jump is like the biggest thing.
OK, seems like closer to like ATV channel, I guess, where it's
like, oh, I like the shows that are on HBO or whatever, but now
you can watch whatever the fuck you want all the time.
So like it's less important. It's like watching yeah, 911
versus Chicago PD. Like are you gonna watch 911
just because it's on Fox? Like it doesn't, it shouldn't
fucking matter. Watch the show that you wanna
watch last one. This one is more for like people
like us. But if you are a creator in the
sphere and you want to build a community, you need to build it,
not your community. Like I see so many people start
up Discord, start up group chat, start up all these things and
their intention is for them to build it around their brand and
have the people that they like recruit build it for them.
Or instead that you should be creating the community or
whatever that you're trying to build.
You as the creator, you build that, not the people that
whatever. So this this steps back to like
I I think we brought it up in discord like a month ago with
chibi reviews and where his community is posting all this
like vulgar shit, like bigoted stuff, like all this stuff and
like you don't say anything. You don't do anything about it
because it's getting you clicks. This happened with D Pitty who
did like the P Diddy cosplay with like Justin Bieber where
and and stuff like that where it's like if that is the vibe
that you are putting out and you don't say anything to it, that's
the community that you're going to create.
If you don't do anything about it, then your community is going
to curate you instead of you doing it the opposite way.
So I, I would just say like, if you are looking to build
something like that, everybody does this.
And some people just do this as like, you know, they create like
a video essay and they just want to like express what they want.
They have no intentions of building a.
Interacting or. Whatever that's that's
completely different. So people who are like going out
of their way to, you know, like us.
I want to find like minded adults who like anime shoot the
shit in whatever. If you don't make that known or
if you don't curate that and you let somebody who is toxic and
build that toxicity, it's sort of get worse.
So that's sort of my other thing where it's just like so many
people that I see in the sphere just don't care as long as it
gets clicked. And if you're trying to build a
community, just be careful and you need to put in the effort of
what the community represents because now, now this the chibi
guy his to me his no matter what he does, unless he like saves
100 cats from burning building his reputation with me is
completely burned. Like it's like you're. 73 cats,
7373. 73 cats. Give me 10 years and then I'll
think. OK, OK, OK.
OK. Yeah, it's one of those things.
This is now possible if if you're.
If you post something on Twitter and your first five replies, the
most replies are like bigoted shit and all this stuff and you
do nothing about it, guess what, my man?
That is a reflection of you. So be the community leader you
want to be, especially if you have a voice in the sphere.
I wish more people would speak up about issues plaguing like
this community and stuff that have a voice and then do nothing
about it. So because they're afraid, I
don't know if they're afraid like losing viewers and shit,
but like that. But I mean, that's just a huge
thing for me. So that's my last rant, Moss
take away. OK, yeah, so we're going from
that to fart joke to people should like Mal Mal more.
No. OK, people.
Should like Mal Mal more though. They should thank you.
Character development is the most overrated fucking.
Thing Oh watch your fucking mouth bro.
Just in fucking anime. I are just media or something.
It's just like every time someone's like, oh, I love this
character they have. Such a fucking character moment,
yeah. Yeah, I was saving it for last.
I I fucking I fucking can't. OK, they're are so, so many
people treat it as like the one criteria for what makes a cool
character or whatever and like, fucking Nah, you know what I
mean? No.
OK, Yeah. It's like my favorite thing
about anime. Do you like Homer Kemi?
Yeah, she's topless, Flock. Yeah, she doesn't change it to
fucking all. She does one thing the entire
time. She has one goal the entire
time. She just does the thing.
Technically, she was a little shyer at the beginning.
We get a flashback of that that's not really presented
throughout the show. Fucking Spike Spiegel, That's a
character people really like that I really like.
You've not seen the show? Yeah.
He doesn't fucking change.
He's the same guy. He's just fucking cool.
He's Soka, right? See Soka going through a lot of
character development. A little bit.
A little bit in the manga, yeah. OK, so like past where the
anime? Is yeah, past where the anime
is? Yeah, a little.
Bit OK, did you did you like him when you just saw the parts in
the anime? I like he's one of my favorite
characters ever. Yeah, OK, there we fucking go.
Including the manga. Yeah.
Like, I, I don't know. And there's something something
like like 2 characters that I think sort of like would
exemplify. This is like in in Haiku.
You have glasses guy. That's.
My GOAT. So he has that whole character,
right. But then you have someone like
Hinata who just does like volleyball go Burr and like he
gets better at volleyball and stuff, but he he stays the same
volleyball go Burr just the entire time.
That's fine. Yeah, it does what I'm saying.
Like static characters are fucking fine.
It's fine. It it they can be great.
You know, you don't need to start, you don't need to have
this character arc where you you learn some, some valuable
lesson. It's actually good to have like
a moral standpoint of a thing. We we just talked about Devil
May Crybaby, right? Like I love Miki Nakamoto and
she's like one of my favorite characters in anime.
She is a good person, the beginning and the end.
And she doesn't really change. She's just like a virtuous
person. I love it when there are
characters with flaws and they don't change.
Sai Kamiki, another Monaco magic character, she doesn't change
for the worst. And I love that.
I like, I love seeing that, you know, even, you know, I just, I
feel like there are so many examples that you can go through
of characters. Every Kono super character.
The worst? Yeah, but like, I don't know,
Cosmo's never learned a fucking lesson, right?
And I would have shout out Preston, who did talk about one
of his hot takes to me. And part of it is how Cosmo is a
sex pest and people overlook that because he's funny.
And 100% ideal. Yep.
OK, you heard it here, but like, you know, Aqua isn't changing as
a character, Darkness is not changing as a character.
There's a whole scene where Megamine is thinking about
changing as a character and cosmos like fuck no, go boom.
Like, you know, and that's part of what I love about there's
characters, right? Like I think there's something
good about not changing and following who you are and being
true to yourself, right? Sign of affection.
I'm not, I'm not hating on it. If you're 2 leads right, you
have Yuki. Yuki comes out of her shell.
I'm assuming as we go further there will be character growth
where she learns to express herself more and yada yada yada.
Spoiler she does. Oh my God, it's me.
Haven't in what I've seen seen any hints of character.
He's actually just super fucking hot and cool, and I imagine he's
going to be super hot and fucking cool just the entire
time, and that's his role and that is fine.
And people like him, you know, fucking Kogamy from psychopaths.
That's another character I don't know.
Fern hasn't really changed at all.
And Friar and I really like her. I'm sure she'll get there some
point in the manga, but it's going to take a minute because
I've read some of it. We're not there yet.
I still like her though, but she still does, you know, Stark Bang
Bang bang Friar and Sama that you're annoying, but I care
about you. Like, you know, I don't know,
I'm trying to think of other examples and I, I'm sure there's
plenty of them, but like, I don't know, I know you said it's
like your favorite thing, but like, I don't, I feel like
there's a lot of characters you really like that are actually
kind of static. Yeah, so I think there's like, I
think it's like boils down to like the context of the show.
Cause like not every single character needs to have like
this enthralling back story to like really understand who they
are as a person and something. I think this is important, too.
They can have that and be static.
Yeah. Like Monkey D Luffy has 1000
episodes about him, and he's still Monkey D Luffy, and he
wants to be king of the pirates and that's who he is.
Like, you know? Yeah.
Sorry, but I think there's characters where when it doesn't
happen, it like, I don't know, I feel like there's like a vibe
check or something like that. Because like the one that really
speaks to me where a character needed the development and to me
didn't get it and significantly hindered the show because of it
was Baccago. Like straight up, when you have
five seasons of that static character, I think is an issue
where I think that that can be an issue with not having
character development. But I don't know, I think this
just comes out like the things that you were looking for in the
things that you like in anime, where to me, resonating with
characters is a huge thing and development is part of that and.
Yeah, no, I mean, I agree. And so like, but I also would, I
guess I would want to flesh out like character depth and how
well they're fleshed out and character development, right.
You can have a character that is not it's two-dimensional or
whatever and not very well known.
You don't know their motivations.
They have character development, right?
They just change their mind on something or whatever.
Or they become a different person because XY or Z.
Then you could have a character that doesn't ever change, but
you completely understand their psyche and all of that.
You know, I don't know it. It's like weird, like, OK, do
you think Oscar? And the unjust as even Galleon
has character development. I think in the Rebuild she does,
I don't think in the normal 1, not, not kind of because like,
so she's just she's like, so like I feel like with her
development, you needed a lot of time because she's like such a
damaged individual that in the span of what we got, Evangelion
wasn't enough to like flesh out everything about her.
But I think with Rebuilds where we had like a time skip a little
bit where like I think that showed a little bit more of her
character. Yeah.
So not, not the rebuilds, because the whole point of the
rebuilds is to to sort of flip this stuff on its script, right.
But like Oscar's a character that we see, I don't think she
changes. I think she is the same person
at the start and the beginning, except for she's like broken
now. And I don't think I would
consider that changing, if that makes sense.
Like. Yeah.
And so like, that's another example of a character that I
think is incredibly deep and interesting and fleshed out.
That is static. She is, you know, she never gets
over her need to be the best in everything.
And when that desire and everything doesn't match
reality, she breaks instead of changing, right.
She doesn't bend, she doesn't mold.
She stays the same and shatters because of it.
And that to me is like an example of a character that is,
is very deep and interesting, that is relatively static in far
as who they are in their like, viewpoint of everything, you
know. So like, that is, I don't know,
this is like my thought, like have you ever seen not an anime,
but have you ever seen Les Mis? No, OK, well, there is an anime.
Check it out. OK fair enough.
I I'm supposed to show you what you like.
You'll you will like the Play Bass anime.
I'm just like, I'll get that. Fair enough.
But like, you know, there's a character in that who he's like
the the bad guy. He's like chasing after Jean
Valjean because he sold bread and he's like, oh, you need to
be in prison forever. And his name's Javert.
And he's like my favorite character.
And it's because he does he never changes.
And he has like a song about how he never changes.
And then in the end, when he's saved by a criminal and he can't
bring himself to like carry out the duty, like to the law and
everything, he kills himself because he's just like, I cannot
change. I've made this abundantly clear.
But the world is telling me that I am wrong.
And so I am going to jump off this bridge like, you know,
because I just can't deal with the fact that I would need to
change who I am in order to reconcile this.
So like, to me, that's a really interesting version of a static
character, you know, So to me, character development is just
like held up as this pinnacle of what makes a good character.
And I vehemently disagree with that.
I think it can absolutely be part of it.
I think it is great. I love character development.
A lot of my favorite characters do not change.
And I think that can be interesting.
And I think the depth attached to them is can be interesting.
And I think sometimes it would be bad if characters changed too
much. You know someone like Rico?
Is that her name from Maiden Abyss?
Yeah, Rico, Yeah, yeah, we're. As she goes down and further and
stuff is tough, but if she she never from what I have seen has
lost her desire for exploration regardless of the difficulties
placed in front of her. Right.
So like her changing to be like wait a minute holy shit this was
a mistake. Would suck in my opinion.
Yeah, 100% yes, especially. How close they are, yeah.
Yeah. So like, you know, those are
sort of my thoughts. Like I, I I like it when
characters are true to who they are, and sometimes that involves
not changing. Yeah, or you can be somebody
like Aaron Yeager and have reverse character development
and. I yeah, I OK, Yeah, that's the
thing. If you, if you tell yourself how
to develop in the past, I don't know, you know, that's sort of
the, I don't know what, what do you think about that?
Because you, you, you said that was a spicy take, but that
that's what take. I want to get that out.
I just think it's overrated and it's like the only thing people
look at when they're thinking about characters.
I just think there are so many more aspects to characters that
can make characters good. I think this kind of goes back
to like your deep conversation too, when you say like, you
know, like a character is like deep and well written and you
could have like well, what does it mean to be well written?
I think I agree with like your Monkey E Luffy take where it's
just like he's been the same character I think forever.
I'm sure there's little whatever tidbits throughout the story
when. I was Googling like top static
anime characters like a lot of one piece fans said he was
static and maybe that was a year ago when he's changed but at
some point if you're static for 800 episodes you you were static
for long enough for me to count you.
Yeah, and it comes out to like people love Luffy.
So to me, I think that's just like the benchmark of like what
a good and well written character is, as if people like
them. So when it comes to like
character development, though, this is more along the lines of
like, if you are looking for that in anime, like not
everybody looks for that shit. So that I think that's where
it's different, where it's something I seriously connect
to. It's something that why I love
Bob, why I love Boji, why I love Guts.
Like it's these characters that do have huge character
development moments that I grasp onto more than say somebody like
a Monkey D Luffy. Like that's why Mob is one of my
favorite characters. It's why Gus is one of my
favorite characters. It's because they have these
moments in their shows to develop them as a character.
So I, I, I think, I think I like once you've got through
everything, I think it was a less of a spike because once you
like explained it, it's like it makes way more sense.
But I think it's just, yeah. It's, you know, the presentation
is sort of the thing and like, you know, I think having good
character development is good. Like we just watched girls bank
cry recently. I love Nina.
She's one of my favorite characters of the year.
And you know, she has like really good character
development and like self realization and everything.
You know, who doesn't so far have like a ton of character
development? Who Mao Mao?
Yeah, but it's like in this is like when we talk about like in
the context of the story, does she need to?
Because if she doesn't need to. Well, yeah, that that's fine.
The only. Exactly and.
That's because I guess what we could do is like for next
season, if she has like an interaction with a guard, like
maybe she just takes a step back or something like that, could
that's character development, like learning from what happened
from before. That way you'll get hit in the
face or something like that. Like it could be as simple as
that. And then Mama was still the
character that she's always been, which is her gremlin self.
Yeah, I, I don't know, My thought is just like in a lot of
these these shows like you like Uma Musa May.
Season 2. Season 1 was fine.
Season 2 is the goods. Yeah, but like, I don't know,
like the horse girls go Burr at some point.
Like, even in that like, they deal with adversity, gold.
Ship, she doesn't do anything, yeah.
She doesn't do Yeah, that's that's what I'm saying.
You know what I mean? Like you could have a great
character, not gold ship, but like you could think she's great
like. She is.
No, she is. She's perfect.
You can. You can.
Like you're allowed to be wrong. She is the horse horse girl.
I put it in AI generator and it spit out gold ship.
Yeah, that's. A bad thing?
Yeah, I don't know, maybe it's a good while.
I only have a a special week here.
I don't have a gold ship, you know.
But like the show where opera girls fight each other, Yes,
some of those characters are pretty static.
They just, they're they do the thing.
Sarza, relatively static, has a goal.
She goes for it. She's going to achieve it.
And you adore. Sarsa favorite female character
in anime. Yeah, and like, I don't know,
like I, I'm sure she has like some moments of development, but
I don't think she's changing fundamentally as a human.
She wants to play Lady Oscar. That is her goal.
She is happy. She is ganky.
She does all of these things and she keeps going at it, you know?
That's my girl, shout Sarsa. Yeah, she is not getting a
haircut to show that she has changed her her character.
I wish she'd like my girl Nino up there.
Fair enough. Have you seen you know what I
mean? Cause like sometimes character
development is great. Like when Nino goes from
drugging futuro to being like wait a minute motorcycles are
hot. I should date him, That's the
real. That's the real character
development. Don't drug your crush, just tell
them they're hot. Yeah, but I don't know.
Yeah, I, I just want to give it off my chest because I, I feel
like because character development can be so evocative
and easy to chart, you know, started A ended B, it gets a
little overrated as far as what makes a good character.
For sure. Beautiful.
This was fun yeah.
I thought this was going to be like an hour and we got over an
hour and a half so good for us for sort of makeshifting this
episode mid episode. But we we did some planning.
You did more play than I did. I should say that, but I thought
it worked out good. This was fun.
I wonder what? Let us know in like the comments
or discord if you have any hot takes.
If you got a rant you got to get something off your chest.
Spit my person. Do whatever you got to do, let
us know. Do you agree with any of ours?
Do you disagree? Do you have your own?
Did any of ours not go far enough?
What is more romantic, too many losing heroines or a sign of
affection? Let us know which one has has
more romance of those two shows. I might just put that on discord
and we can figure it out later. I.
Told you our discord is going to be biased.
Yeah, because they're base. Shout to our discord if you want
to be in a base discord. I don't even like I I don't even
like to be losing heroines. I.
Think we're gonna say I don't even like our discord?
No, that was that was my my thankful episode where I said
you weren't allowed to be thankful for.
Her correctly. You gotta shoot three people in
the face, including. Myself.
Yeah. Well, you know, we'll get there.
Yeah. I guess just to be perfectly
clear, I really like Sign of Affection.
I just don't find it particularly romantic.
And I do so two sides to every coin.
Miles, you have any parting words to your adoring fan before
we head out? Hi, Mom.
I thought it was Steve. I I'm new new fan.
Oh, new fan. Shout out to Miles's mom and
shout out to everybody out there who has listened and made this
far. If you want to support us, the
best way to do so is to like, comment, subscribe, leave a
review on whatever platform you're watching or listening to
us on. Next week for Watch Club, we're
watching Bang Dream. It's my goal.
We've been waiting for this and by we I mean like two of us.
So I'm really excited for that. Otherwise, in two weeks we are
doing our punishment fantasy football episode.
Hopefully if everything pans out, that should be what we are
doing in two weeks should be a lot like.
I hope we lose, so I hope that we have Taunton.
I hope, yeah, I hope like half of the people I we need 4
losers, 4 losers. It will be fine out of seven, so
look forward to hopefully that in two weeks.
Wants to say thanks to Miles for joining me.
As always, you're the best, you're the best and thanks to
everyone out there. We will see you next time.
Bye bye, bye bye, bye, bye bye. Bye bye, bye bye, bye, bye bye.