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Deep Space and Dragons
What the F—aculy: The Missing Adult Supervision in Anime Schools
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We explore the curious absence of actual teachers in anime school settings and discuss what makes a genuine teacher versus just a "sensei" character.
• Karl shares his vampire blood test conspiracy theory after a mix-up at the clinic(yes he is dying).
• Richard recounts his wild gala experience where he surprised former classmates with unexpected dance moves
• We analyze why so many anime series set in schools completely lack faculty supervision
• Popular anime like "The Irregular at Magic Academy" feature student-led responses to terrorism with no adult intervention
• We critique ranking lists that conflate "sensei" characters with actual classroom teachers
• Koro-sensei from Assassination Classroom represents the gold standard for anime teachers
• Many series like My Hero Academia and Jujutsu Kaisen quickly abandon their school settings
• The problem with turning every protagonist's background into something special rather than letting them be ordinary
• Our picks for which characters would make excellent teachers in series lacking faculty
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Someday we're going to record a pre-reel and the following statement will be nonsensical because there will be a pre-reel for it. But welcome to Richard and Carl Presents Deep Space and Dragons. I would present you physical deep space, but technically it would be an empty box. My name is Richard.
Karl:My name is Carl and I would present you a dragon. But if they did exist, they seem to have gone extinct.
Richard:Or they just went somewhere better.
Karl:I mean, that's entirely possible. They might have just gone to an alternate dimension. But who knows? Maybe a company like Colossus will like find dragon DNA and splice it onto a lizard, and then we'll have Komodo dragons that are actual dragons man.
Richard:they make a throwaway line in World Trigger where they just straight up go oh yeah, these invading neighbors were probably every extraterrestrial sighting Bigfoot, loch Ness, monster and basically all supernatural phenomena were just them abducting people for tryout organs and it kind of tracks. But before we get too far into the weeds here about our very focused, very on-brand podcast, what's?
Karl:new in the Carlverse Well you know, I mean maybe I don't say this as much as I have in the past, but on our podcast we believe in self-care. You know, stay hydrated, exercise, go see a doctor every now and then. Stay hydrated, exercise, go see a doctor every now and then. I mean you gotta keep yourself in prime condition, right? So I went to see a doctor for a checkup and he told me to go get some blood work done. Cool, I don't really like getting blood work done.
Richard:So one time I went and got blood work done and I watched A person pulled it from your body and used it to chop someone made of diamonds Into merch.
Karl:No, no, but I watched them Like they stuck the needle in and then I watched the blood spurt into the little vial Trigger warning Blood spurting.
Richard:Ugh. Remember, this is one of my weaknesses. You're doing psychic damage to me. Please continue.
Karl:Apparently, it's one of my weaknesses too, because I looked at it and my vision started to fade as I saw the vial they were filling.
Richard:Oh no.
Karl:I didn't actually pass out, but ever since then I've been like okay, I can't watch, so I'll close my eyes or look away or whatever.
Karl:So I go to the redacted clinic and I have an appointment, so I get in right away and they take my requisition sheet, rec sheet, they call it Uh, and they're like okay, uh, just need to confirm your name and date of birth. Confirm my name and date of birth. And this lady she wasn't very friendly, but she was a pro, because I look away and like I don't hardly even feel the needle prick in, uh, and then she had to take like three different samples and she managed to change all all the vials without actually like disturbing the needle somehow. So it's like it was super quick, it was done and I was, I was like completely painless. I was like, okay, cool. And they're like, okay, and you gotta do a urine sample. It's like, oh well, I went to the washroom right before I came here would have been nice, but whatever it's like, will you provide me some tea or something Is a fair response to that.
Karl:No, but so I just took the container home. I was planning on going back later with the urine samples, yeah, but like three or four hours later I get a call from Revecta Clinic and they're like is your family doctor? Is it this Dr Milan? I was like, yeah, that's my family doctor. They're like okay.
Richard:I don't think you doxed anyone there.
Karl:Well, I don't think. So I'm assuming there's more than one Dr Milan in the world.
Richard:All right, so we'll go with Dr Milana for now, and that should brainwash people enough.
Karl:Anyway, he's not really relevant to the story, but he could be one of our listeners, maybe, anyways, but maybe, like five minutes later they call me back and they're like oh yeah, there was a mix-up. We need you to come back and do blood work again.
Richard:They lost your blood.
Karl:Like uh-oh.
Richard:There's a vampire stealing your blood.
Karl:That would be more exciting. So by this time I've been able to get my urine sample, I'm like, okay, I need to go back anyway. So I go back to the clinic and they're like, oh yeah, yeah, we'll get you in right away, We'll get it done real quick for you because we screwed up or whatever. And I sit down and the lady that took my blood the second time she was very friendly and I much more appreciated that part of the experience. But, holy diner, she was so much less gentle with the needle and with the changing of the vials and stuff.
Richard:It was like ah, so you got stabbed.
Karl:Well, I mean, it definitely hurt a little more and the one arm is kind of bruised. The other arm is like there's just a little prick mark from where the needle is, because I didn't get it done on the same arm, because that would have just been madness, that would have just been madness.
Richard:That would have just been madness. Although apparently you have a lucky arm, it turns out.
Karl:Maybe, or maybe it was unlucky, because I guess the first lady who I assumed was extremely competent and professional I guess I don't know if my stickers were on the same sheet as someone else's or what, but she put the wrong person's label on my sample, and so then the hospital is all confused because this Madeline person no idea who they are.
Richard:No, no, I'm telling you this was all done intentionally for a vampire, just to score a lunch Like blood just goes missing because it got sent to a non-existing person. It's like the most economical way to vampire in 2025. Like not only do you get a look at their health records and know how clean the blood is, but like who's hunting down missing blood. You're fine, perfect crime.
Karl:Perfect crime for a vampire, but regardless, as far as I know, the second sample was successfully sent to my vampire doctor, dr Moana the vampire.
Richard:Moana is such a great name for a vampire, no one would see it coming.
Karl:But then Then today I received a call from the doctor's office. Um and uh, I guess I'm a little bit like, I'm slightly concerned and maybe something to do with this whole kerfuffle, the blood getting swapped around, uh. But they're like, yeah, actually we need to use to do like more blood work and stuff. I was like, oh well, okay, I guess I'll have to go get more blood work and stuff. I was like, oh well, okay, I guess I'll have to go get more blood work done. Hopefully it's not just a random misunderstanding.
Richard:So, on one hand, I care about my friend's health. On the other hand, I know who you are as a person and it's like your blood at this point is really more of a sauce. I know your eating habits. What you're going to be told is you should improve your eating habits. What you're going to be told Is you should improve your eating habits. You're 30 something now. That's what's going to happen. If I had to guess.
Karl:Well, my guess, aside from just Missed files. Getting misfiled, my guess I was once told by a Blood lab technician or nurse.
Richard:A sanguinist, if you will. Are they nurses? Sanguinist.
Karl:Anyways, they were taking my blood and they're like, oh, you have really thin blood. And I thought about it. It was like, okay, well, I mean I don't bruise especially easily, but I do often bleed, even when I'm hit by blunt objects.
Richard:I remember you telling me that the metal counter is made out of blood, thinner Maybe, and being like.
Karl:What is this?
Richard:noted with and like actually taking that statement far too seriously.
Karl:Anyway, I was at work a while ago and I'm just working away and then I see there's a blood smear on the counter and I'm like what, where'd this come from? And I look at the tip of my finger and I have no idea how I cut myself. But it's just this tiniest little cut that's just bleeding a tiny little bit, but it wouldn't stop bleeding for like three hours. I do just love this idea that vampires have just been feeding off you.
Karl:for years Maybe have just been feeding off you for years. Maybe I don't know. In any event, that's my theory is that it has something to do with my blood being thin.
Richard:Oh. Well, on the other side I was really nervous during the story you were just going to tell me live on recorded podcast you had cancer. Because that's a Carl move, that is an insane Carl move you would do. It's be like. So I learned I have a rare autoimmune disorder and the first time you're finding about it is on this live podcast. I'm just saying, if anyone were to poll, that it would be you specifically.
Karl:I uh, first things first. Like I say, I believe in self-care, and going to see the doctor if it is feasible for you is a part of self-care.
Richard:Especially if you have to do the benefits to drain.
Karl:Because if there is something that is seriously wrong, it's better to catch it early and then hopefully be able to still have a long and happy life. Fair, that's the moral of the story is keep up self-care, and getting regular medical checkups is an important part of self-care.
Richard:Man, I did the opposite of physical self-care this week. I think it would count as emotional self-care, though.
Karl:So what is new in the Richardverse?
Richard:Okay, so last week I was planning to do nothing but unfortunately ended up popular. Did I mention the gala on last episode?
Karl:You did mention the gala. Someone bought you all. Someone gave you money to buy a ticket.
Richard:So I ended up going to this gala last week. That was last week, right? I don't remember anymore. I think I told you pre-gala but not post-gala.
Karl:Pretty sure that's how that worked. Time has lost all meaning, so due to a, friend of mine that I met at a wedding a few years-.
Richard:well, I knew beforehand, but we had met up at a friend's wedding, mutual friend's wedding, and this friend kind of unlocked an ability in me, so this friend dragged me to the dance floor and was like, if I can dance, anyone can dance, and this person is objectively they're cool, but not in the conventional sense. So this particular friend, who shall remain nameless, is not the person you'd expect on a dance floor ever, but like that's where I like practice, because I had this lightning rod drawing everyone's attention away to do dancing.
Karl:So at the Scala.
Richard:I'm using the free bar for everything. It's worst because it was an open bar, enjoying waves of meals singing karaoke, busting on the dance floor because I had a theory.
Richard:No one will ever believe my ten or so classmates that were there that this happened. No one will believe that Richard, as soon as the music started, took off his tie, threw it behind him, dramatically threw off the blazer, went straight onto the dance floor and started busting a move. No one will ever believe them that this happened. Nor will they ever believe when he climbed up on stage and poorly sang Eye of the Tiger and then sang a romantic duet during karaoke. These are not things people can imagine me doing because I am objectively terrible at them, but that's the bit. No one will ever believe them that this happened. Even listening to this podcast, it sounds fake. The idea that I just went and actually like partied at this gala is insane to visualize, but it was like such a yolo moment of the only people from this who will ever see me again are people who actively try to stay in touch with me, which right I gave that line for book one nine nine a few times to people who have been saying all week like goodbye forever.
Richard:Unless you Google my name and click on the first result and send a message. I'm like the most easily doxxed, easy-to-find human being who's ever lived, so it's like if someone loses touch with me they're just not trying. Like I'm pretty sure you could just yell Richard and I'll probably show up. There's decent odds. So I go to this gala. Then a new Gundam anime comes out. So I download a stupid Gundam mobile game which is like just an SD Gundam, like the turn-based strategy one's mobile game.
Karl:Okay.
Richard:So I've been listening to Gundam on TV while playing Gundam on my phone, while sending out job applications, nice, nice.
Karl:So I've been listening to Gundam on TV while playing Gundam on my phone while sending out job applications. Nice, nice.
Richard:So I'm emotionally feeling great the new. Gundam series is an alternate retelling of the One Year War. But Zeon won because Char just stole the Gundam.
Karl:Yeah, okay.
Richard:So that's episode one, and then episode two is like seven years later and I'm like this is great. I have no idea what's going on, but I love me some Gundam. I'm like this is great. I have no idea what's going on, but I love me some Gundam. Plus, I'm one of those heathens that prefers dubbed anime to subbed and Gundam always launches dual language for the most part. Right. So like I'm just out here, like other than preparing for grad school and job hunting and this and that, just kind of living my best life.
Richard:for a couple weeks Busted out the old PS2 to play some Gundam vs Zeta Gundam. Those good times were had. I also learned that Gotcha Force was developed by the same team that developed Gundam vs Zeta Gundam, where Capcom stopped making Gundam games. So instead they made Gotcha Force, which uses the Gundam game engine, but they use their own units in it. Right, there's a piece of knowledge that no one ever needed or asked for well, I mean, that's on brand for us oh yeah, that's pretty clear podcast and I think I taught everyone well.
Richard:And with that note, we're going on to the topic of anime teachers. Disclaimer for this list we're going to try and focus on ones that also actually teach and aren't just a sensei, because I was thinking about this and I'm like the five elders from Kenichi, for example, the five masters taught him a lot of things, but I do think you can actually count the jiu-jitsu guy as an actual teacher because he also helped him study and taught.
Richard:But what could each have been better if these super experts were all. I like to say that that show would have been better if it was college age to begin with, because it would have made more logistical sense. But what if each of the elders was also just a teacher with their subject. Would that have actually just been amazing that all five of them just taught different actual classes at college?
Karl:That would have been pretty amazing.
Richard:Like you, just go to fourth period and it's just Apachai teaching art history.
Karl:Yeah, see, so I so the main reason that I wanted to talk about teachers. In anime, there's a series on Crunchyroll. It's called the Irregular at the Magic Academy.
Richard:Yes, I have thoughts about that. I have so many thoughts about that show. But let's see where you're going with this first, before I start ranting about resurrection guns.
Karl:So I haven't gotten very far. I just I started the second plot arc of the first season.
Richard:Is that where he builds the floaty belt?
Karl:Yeah, that's where he builds the flying device.
Richard:Yes, Okay, cool. I wasn't sure my memory was that good on this one.
Karl:The first plot arc is just called enrollment. I think it's like six or seven episodes and terrorists. Okay. So first there's terrorists that are seeking to cause social upheaval by taking advantage of the disparity between magic users and non-magic users. They're trying to basically cause a civil war to destroy the country from within.
Richard:Ie the plot of every comic series ever made, particularly X-Men-style comics.
Karl:Right, but so some of the students that sympathize with the terrorists because their school is divided into class one and class two.
Richard:Yep. Wasn't it like the snowflakes and the rejects or something.
Karl:Blooms and weeds.
Richard:That was close. I do appreciate, in 2025, calling a class the snowflakes, though.
Karl:Anyways. So class two, the weeds. Some of the students sympathize with the terrorists because class two isn't as good at magic, and so they steal the master key to the broadcast room and then they break in and do a broadcast. Eventually the broadcast gets shut off, but they're still in the room and it's locked and they can't get out. No one can get in because the master key has been stolen, yeah, and the student council is trying to figure out what to do here and they're like, oh well, stealing the master key is literally criminal activity, yeah, right.
Karl:And then they decide Not to involve the police and instead have a debate Between them and the people in the Broadcasting room. Sure, and they go to the debate and there's Firstly, it's not really a very good debate Because there's no moderator, right, but secondly, this is their response to criminal activity and there have been zero adults that I've seen. And then, while they're doing this debate, they kind of get to the end of the debate and the actual terrorists attack and they stop the terrorist attack on the school and they manage to figure out where their base is and the students and the student council decide to go and raid this terrorist base, like you do, like you do. Right, but nowhere, at any point, has there been any teachers, no adults whatsoever, and so, and one of the issues that class two has is that they don't get the same amount of resources as class one, one of those resources being faculty time yeah, office hours.
Karl:It's like office hours yeah, that's what I mean to say, but there's no faculty. I haven't seen them, they just don't exist. It's a, it's a school, and I I get that the story is not about the lessons or the classes, uh, but like at least have like a teacher explain a concept that you know is then going to be the focus of that episode, like why, and so I was thinking about it was like how many series have I seen where it's supposedly set in a high school but there are no teachers?
Richard:so it's interesting because the series I'm going to pivot into, which which has many, many other problems, like a deeply problematic series of the To Aru no Index and its various spinoffs, and they lampshade this problem in an interesting way. So teachers barely ever do shit in that show. They occasionally will, but they set this academy city to develop supernatural powers in people right. They set up this academy city to develop supernatural powers in people right. No-transcript.
Karl:Okay.
Richard:So it's like you have to start with kids showing special abilities and then you take them to this place to amplify them. So there's almost no teachers in this, but it doesn't bug you as much Like why are we sending kids if one person can flick a coin at the speed of a railgun and the other one has a riot shield and a baton, so they will use the? There's one professor that'll show up in Expo Dump once in a while about how the power system works, and that's pretty much it for adult interference in the show.
Richard:But at least like because the regular in the Magic Academy is like. You think you'd have people with magic teaching the magic school to begin with. Right, that would probably be the strategy.
Karl:Well, I mean, like I totally get it that it's like sometimes that the academia section of the show is not really the focus, Although I do think part of that problem because I'm going to interject a bit is I think people underestimate the value of the academia portion of a show.
Richard:As someone who likes those portions of a show, it's the super genius problem, super genius problem. So when you write a character, to be smart, you yourself have to be smart and I do think a lot of people writing manga don't have it retained enough from high school to convincingly have a teacher give a high school lecture. So to dunk on my Hero Academia.
Richard:My Hero Academia takes place in a school Straight up and the professors are all heroes. Place in a school Straight up and the professors are all heroes in the hero school. This makes sense. This is a good concept.
Richard:And then they just send the children to the front lines to fight, because I guess that's where the action is, and then just the school stops being a thing, even though they couldn't even get through two school years. I'm like, did you just not have more than four lessons planned for for this manga? Because they're like we're gonna do a power test and then a fighting thing and then a school festival. I guess we're done with the school. And I'm like schools operate constantly. Is there nothing else you can like? Don't you want to like world build or lore build or have more, like they like to call them filler moments? But I'm kind of pivoting more towards character building moments because, like my, most of my favorite moments in my hero academia are when they were still students. Like I don't, like I don't find the league of villains jumping them more interesting than them using their superpowers to put on a rock concert. Like the balance made sense. So my hero just like yeah, it's called my hero academia.
Karl:Funny that they turned the school to put on a rock concert.
Richard:The balance made sense. So my Hero just like, yeah, it's called my Hero Academia. Funny that they turned the school into a flying fortress at the end for some reason yes, to keep the school relevant. And I'm like, yeah, no, you never had these professors teach a lesson in their life. You had this little subplot of All Might reading a how to teach guide so he could be a better teacher, and instead he just builds a mech suit and goes out himself Cause he didn't teach anyone a damn thing over the entire show.
Karl:It was kind of a terrible teacher.
Richard:He even mentioned, to protect that he'd get seven superpowers. Like that wasn't relevant information. Imagine saying I tutored this kid and he broke both his arms and his legs and be like yep, I tutored him Great.
Karl:But then it's like there's a series like Kaguya-sama Love is War.
Richard:Yeah, there's no teachers in that.
Karl:There are no teachers in that, but most of what actually goes on in there they meet at school, they go to clubs or whatever. But most of what actually goes on happens outside of school hours. Yeah, or a lot of it happens outside of school hours, yeah, or a lot of what happens a lot of it happens outside of school hours. I mean full disclaimer.
Richard:that's just one of my favorite series of all time, Somehow.
Karl:So it's like that's another series where it's like there aren't really any teachers. They don't, they never do anything, but at the same time you don't really notice because the students aren't stopping terrorists well, the thing about. Takagi Asama though is.
Richard:There's a few. They mention the school president a few times and he has a couple sit downs being like you're the student council president. There's like adults that are paying some attention. There's a few moments where an adult will pull a character to have in the side, or other times maybe, like the teachers don't notice the bullying. But then there's a bullying happening in a way that it makes sense that the teachers wouldn't notice the bullying. Like oh, when they're out playing soccer, some kids just called him a weeb and this girl started spreading rumors over Discord that he's a creep. Yeah, a teacher wouldn't really be able to do much about that until someone actually were to come to the teacher and tell them this was happening.
Karl:But like but so yeah, oh sorry, go ahead.
Richard:Oh no, you go ahead.
Karl:Well, I was going to pivot into one of the the stupid new series with the gun.
Richard:Oh Marshall King.
Karl:Marshall King.
Richard:We haven't talked about that at all on podcast and I do want to throw a couple things about it. So for those who are unaware, it should be everybody. Marshall King is a manga series being done by the creator of Dr Stone, I believe. No, it's not the creator of Dr Stone, I believe.
Karl:No, it's not by the creator of Dr Stone. It's by the artist of Dr Stone, who is himself a Korean manga, a Korean manga artist and writer who just moved to Japan. And before we tear the series, a new one.
Richard:It has the best use of color I've ever seen in manga, where they keep it like 90 black and white, but I'll use gold for dramatic flair and effect and it looks artistically. Shout out to that technique. I would love if a better story used that art style. They're like very controlled, deliberate, like if it makes me think of like sin city and I'm like, yeah, noically, that's amazing.
Karl:Okay well, so I don't necessarily want to throw too much shade at it at this exact moment. I actually wanted to highlight something. I've mentioned it already when you have a teacher and they're out on the front, they're teaching a lecture, and they just say, say, oh, and in this case, this is the gun that caused the apocalypse that made the world a desert wasteland, sure, and it's here at this school, and then it's like it's an exposition dump. It's just a reason to, yeah, dump.
Richard:That's why all these places schools in the first place right, so it's like.
Karl:But for all of his flaws, at least marshall king has teachers that genuinely do teacher things, and as an audience member I can then know okay, this is going to be an important theme of the show, or I mean, well, it's interesting, it's not resolved way too quickly, but as someone who likes the monologue about gundams.
Richard:Several gundam series start with a character like in a classroom of someone explaining the current political structure although it's, but like the real thing is using the teacher who explains things, but also having to be a character, because it's so easy for a teacher in these to become npcs.
Richard:So let's take sadaro gojo, the protagonist of jjk. Sadaro gojo is objectively the worst teacher, and jujutsu kaisen taking place at a school is the most pointless plot choice they made. There was no reason for there to be a school. No, no one attended a single class. Yeah, and like I didn't even mind the idea that there's literally three students in each year, because that's how many people they found with weird superpowers, I actually like that part.
Richard:Like I had an epiphany there, like as a writer, being like oh, you're right, I don't need 20 NPCs in this room, I can just have there be less people with superpowers. But because of superpowers you get one teacher per three students. That's fair. But then the show like immediately promoted the students to field agents within 30 seconds, and I'm like why are?
Richard:they even students, just age everyone up to being adults and have them, recruit them and give them an office. In fact, jjk would have been so much better if yuji mcgummi and Nobara were adults who had graduated high school and Gojo just rolled up and said come work at my agency and it was like a nice lawyer office where they proceeded to then go, murder, curses and have terrible things happen to them and it'd be the worst life decision ever.
Karl:No-transcript Because it gained nothing from being a school. It really did.
Richard:But like.
Karl:It gained nothing.
Richard:Now here's what gained everything from being a school.
Karl:Assassination classroom, so I was actually going to segue.
Richard:oh okay, counterspell my segue, I'll force by no, no, no, no this website is called wwwrankercom, yes, which is funny, because it's not their thoughts, it's literally people's opinions. Ranker's wild for that. It's like if ranker does something insane on his listings, like putting seven JJK characters in anime's top ten hottest men, for some reason that's the voice of the internet. It's literally popular opinion. Ranker's great for giving us awful information about humanity, but please continue.
Karl:The best teachers, best teacher characters in anime history history. They seem to think more sensei than school teacher Number one Kakashi Hitake. He is.
Richard:So here's the thing.
Karl:I would agree if it was Aruka sensei, because Aruka sensei is genuinely a teacher and he's a real character in the show.
Richard:Kakashi's been coasting on his Riz for like 20 years because he was also in 5th place for. Tardis Anime Men. Because I watched that listing earlier today Because someone did a video on it. It was really funny and it was like Yuji and Sukuna made it on the list. I'm like that's just the same dude. But once tatted up, this is a dumb list.
Karl:But so the segue why I decided to segue here Is that Kakashi is number one, not really a teacher. I mean, he's a sensei, but he's not. He walks in one classroom and has a brush fall on his head and does a belt test, Exactly. But Koro-sensei is number two anime teacher in history.
Richard:I do think that, like Kakashi, just like I said, is a cooler character than Koro-sensei Kakashi, just like I said, is a cooler character than Koro-sensei Kakashi, the actual protagonist of Naruto. Fun fact, if I were to make a Naruto gachapon game, I'd have you play as Kakashi, Because he's the person actually building. Kakashi is actually a throughline throughout the entire story. He's the. Pokemon trainer to the other characters.
Richard:But, he failed to teach Sasuke anything so hard and like he also didn't it's funny he doesn't teach Naruto a damn thing to act to Like deliberately. Just, oh, I'm going to go teach Sasuke in the Sharingan's Only Club. Sakura can just I don't know cut her hair and go die. I don't care. Like Kakashi was a terrible sensei, like objectively he was an awesome Black Ops ninja Terrible sensei, because, yeah, rurika was a decent one.
Richard:You had mentioned that Assassination Classroom, which is where Koro-sensei comes from, was actually a really excellent Like I said, I have my one complaint that the final fight had two squid monsters and they didn't use their entire arc of squid monsters. Training to kill one of the squid monsters was just such a wasted opportunity. It had a perfect ending, but its final fight could have been better. But still a gold standard. Koro-sensei literally knows every character and they use it as a writing device to make us, the readers, at least know something about a truly large cast, and by the time you get to the end of it, you have a pretty good idea about most of the people in that classroom.
Karl:I definitely agree. That is a great example of an actual school teacher in anime, even if he is an alien, and it's an action set piece kind of show but he's also the protagonist he is also the protagonist. He's actually the protagonist.
Richard:So Eraserhead, for my Hero is like right on the middle he starts as a teacher and then they forget to be about the school completely. So when you get him doing it it's like I cut off my leg before the anti-quirk bullet gets to me. To stare at him to turn off his power, because I'm awesome, sleep-deprived Batman. I'm like okay, but you started as a teacher and then you just outsourced everybody to internships and fieldwork and you just kind of never actually finished teaching anyone. He had a strong start and then the show forgot.
Karl:Have you ever seen Bungo Stray Dogs?
Richard:Bungo Stray Dogs is amazing and terrible and beautiful.
Karl:So Asamu Dazai, is he actually a teacher?
Richard:Is he?
Karl:actually a teacher. Is he actually a teacher, though? No, he's an employer. Okay.
Richard:He literally is like this is our book detective agency, welcome aboard. He's not a sensei, he is a burnt out librarian.
Karl:Specifically, and I relate strongly to burnt out librarians. Have you ever seen great teacher Onizuka?
Richard:He should be on a watch list.
Karl:So he is also not a school teacher.
Richard:I'm going to give a tangent on this one. So when I started at working at Redacted Pizza about 7, 8, 10 years ago now, my kitchen manager was into a few very specific 90s animes he was into and he had a bunch of tattoos and was skateboarding in the back of the restaurant. Guy was a legend.
Karl:He liked Dragon.
Richard:Ball like you do. He liked Naruto like you do, and he recommended to me great teacher Onizuka. Onizuka's motivation and this is so 90s, you could not write this manga in 2025, is he became a high school teacher to find himself a teenage bride, specifically, and was a former biker gangster. Huh, and he's actively. He accidentally becomes a super inspiring force and accidentally becomes a good teacher, but his motivation was to be a creep.
Karl:I see.
Richard:So it was an interesting read, but like the idea of like a gangster comes to a school for selfish awful reasons, ends up inspiring people because he's like 22 years old, becomes a substitute teacher, like the premise was good, but like the idea that like that kind of like master roshi style comedy is dead, that's it. It was literally based around. Like the master roshi style comedy of this 22 year old wants to lose his virginity so he decides to become a substitute school teacher is a terrible, terrible premise that would never get greenlit.
Karl:I see.
Richard:And probably inspired a lot of series after it.
Karl:Well, so, like I said, I'm going down this list of.
Richard:But I will say, ironically, if you rewrote this and changed his core motivation to literally anything else, he was actually a good teacher. It's just fun fact. We've decided that teachers hitting on students should not be a thing and there's a lot of entire decades of movies that try and say that it's fine, right yeah.
Karl:So I was. Just I was going down this list of great teachers in anime and Onizuka is. I lost him, but he's in the 40. No, he's number 39 on this list. Somehow he manages to find himself above Henry Henderson from a spy family. A spy family is only at 46. And going down this list, that was the first actual school teacher. I mean my Hero Academia doesn't count. There was a bunch of teachers from there.
Richard:So I'm looking at the ranker list as well, and I will say so. They have Azumi Curtis on here from Full Metal Alchemist, in terms of being a teacher. If she had a classroom, yeah, fair enough. Like, if Fullmetal Alchemist was a high school anime, she would objectively have been a good teacher For the purposes of our discussion today. Nope, although you did mention Iruka, I'm like you know if Naruto'sos like spent longer in the academy days would have absolutely counted what?
Richard:the hell is awesome doing on here? No, no, what is madonna doing on here? Madonna never taught a day in his life. He's just like. Madonna's teaching job resulted in obito well, and then like life.
Karl:He's just like. Madono's teaching job resulted in Obito Well. And then like the frog, sensei Fukasaku Like what, oh? Or Kisuke Urahara Also, definitely not a real teacher.
Richard:So not a meow, let them have In JJK. Like I said, they were technically students and he was technically an improfessor. More importantly, he actually, unlike Ojo, actually taught Yuji things.
Karl:But he was like he was absolutely a mentor.
Richard:Like that was a mentorship. Like you should have been paying Yuji. He was doing professional labor.
Karl:Master Roshi is actually an interesting one. I mean, he is a perverted old sensei trope, yeah, but in original Dragon Ball he does genuinely teach Krillin and Goku math and reading and writing. He just does it in a perverted lecherous way.
Richard:So it's like Roshi does better than a lot. The fact that Kurosensei's not literally at the top of this list is just an insult. Kakashi belongs at the top of a lot of lists. This is not one of them. Also online is way too high up on this list for it being the teacher list.
Karl:Really, this list just seems to be popular adult characters in animes. Really, this list just seems to be popular adult characters in animes.
Richard:Right, like we'll go down a bit and we'll go to Igneel, who did in fact teach Natsu how to read and write, and Igneel if this was a list of best anime dads, I have Igneel like first. Probably Igneel was a great dad.
Karl:Fairy Tail was a pretty good series in general and I mean it gets props for not being in a high school and it's just. It's kind of weird that the series is not in a high school and yet Igneel is 22 on this list of greatest teachers.
Richard:So it's funny. It's like we're talking about great teacher Onizuka and the idea that gangster who accidentally inspires people, kind of like the karate, like almost like the Cobra Kai teacher guy. It's like, yeah, like teachers who aren't school teachers but are like specialty teachers are fair game in this discussion, but we want the classroom to be a factor, because the original debate was where are all the teachers? And I find it falls on like a of either.
Richard:there's no teachers in this anime or these teachers are shounen protagonists and aren't actually teaching anyone anything. So we all go all the way down to 31, Frankenstein.
Karl:Oh, frankenstein is actually a teacher, right in the middle Right he teaches classes.
Richard:He mentors people. In Right in the middle he teaches classes. He mentors people in and out.
Richard:Of the classroom, his first experience is him trying to murder them and he beats the crap out of them and then he shows up the next day to give a lecture. He is absolutely a teacher and a side character, but pretty good. Soul Eater had good teaching staff. They had the zombie guy, they had him. They actually taught things at Death Academy, like they sent them out on missions, but they then, like, went back to lectures. So I would say Soul Eater had actual teachers who did their jobs pretty well. Including literal death from the Bible did his job pretty well too.
Karl:But do you think that he deserves to be higher on this list than henry henderson?
Richard:frankenstein yes frankenstein's better than henry henderson as a teacher so frankenstein, while going insane, while falling in love with another teacher, turned out to be an evil witch, did a lot of teaching like soul eater for the first half of it, kind of like my hero, but to a more like consistent consent. Yeah, no, he did his job pretty well and he got more screen time. Was he a better anime teacher than Henry Henderson?
Karl:If Spy.
Richard:Family came out regularly and was a completed story. It'd be a much firmer debate, but he just hasn't quite had enough screen time to teach yet, yeah, that's true.
Karl:Screen time to teach yet, yeah, that's true. I mean they did do his whole wartime backstory with his lover, lady friend that went off to war.
Richard:But on this I've been building internally by removing everyone who doesn't count on this list. I have Stein at like four, like I don't even put All Might on this list because he just wasn't good at teaching. He never actually taught a class.
Karl:Okay, so Koro Sensei is definitely number one. Who was number two for you? Izumi Curtis.
Richard:I'm still using their list. I'm just removing everyone who doesn't fit in it. So, number two, just using their list, but, being correct about it, we go all the way down to Iruka. Yeah, okay, and then we go, because he actually genuinely, was a teacher. Then we go all the way down to Shoto Azawa Eraserhead.
Karl:Yeah, okay.
Richard:We put an asterisk next to Nanami.
Karl:Okay.
Richard:We go all the way down, going, still going, still going, still going, still going, still going All the way down, still going to Stein At like fourth down, still going to Stein at like fourth. 30 people on this list were objectively not teachers.
Karl:Objectively not teachers I mean.
Richard:Silver Raylight did not teach. That's not what he did.
Karl:Yeah, I mean. So sensei is more of just an honorific term in Japanese, but in North American culture in my opinion anyways it definitely is more that master-apprentice relationship rather than that actual student-teacher relationship. And so this seems to be more senseis rather than actual teachers.
Richard:Because, yeah, like Roshi gets close, like Roshi, I'd probably also put a star next to him Because, like, at one point he actually sets up desks even though he has them read on pornography. He was not a good teacher, but he tried.
Richard:He is actually a teacher, though, where Igneo was just a dad. You don't get accounted as a teacher if it's your son you're teaching. You're just a parent and like what the heck is? I understand. Naruto's a popular anime. Let's get the third Hokage off here. He didn't teach anyone anything of value. Did we have like Biscuit from Hunter x Hunter? No, cut that out. Dazai just teaches you new and fun suicide methods, so he really shouldn't be on this list as a teacher.
Karl:Right so.
Richard:Stein definitely counts. And then we go down, we go down, we go down some more. And Onizuka was the next one that's actually a teacher Onizuka, which is that great teacher from Onizuka. Okay, that makes sense and then chainsaw man's a funny one because like if someone had actually put denji in high school, his life would be so much better right now well, I mean, he does have a few moments where he's actually in high school, because I mean the whole point of the second.
Karl:Well, the starting point of the second act is him being at school and taking the control demon, the reincarnated control demon, to school. And she only goes along because she enjoys going to school, but she knows that she could just kill everyone if she wanted to.
Richard:So then we scroll our way down and then we get to Henry Henderson at my eighth, seventh or eighth on my revised list, where I moved everyone who's objectively not a teacher, right? So Henry Henderson would definitely go on the list. So, president, mike, I'm not counting, he doesn't teach a class, he's just like the em, the MC in the radio hall, like no Midnight's a little closer, she does teach a class or two. I'm going to let Reagan count. He doesn't teach in a classroom, but he's absolutely like full-time mentoring this kid.
Karl:Fair enough, and definitely not the sensei relationship, because he's just he's not a sensei relationship because he's just not a sensei.
Richard:No, he's ragged, he's great. I'll have to put an asterisk on him. I don't think I can actually count him. So then we get Yuyuko Uramura next.
Richard:He's actually a teacher 100%. So in Blue Exorcist, unlike JJK, which felt the need to have a classroom with no one in it, blue Exorcist Exorcist Academy like actually had like a full graduation program that took a case over years and like actually taught. And he actually taught like he had his teaching license and went and taught people how to exorcist while being the protagonist's brother. He's absolutely on this list. He was a good teacher. Sure, he got possessed by Satan. He was a good teacher. Sure, he got possessed by Satan, but he was a good teacher.
Karl:Madara Uchiha from Naruto. He's a good teacher, right.
Richard:I mean, who is he? Even a sensei to Obito, I guess? When he was gaslighting him, maybe Like that was just a weird choice to be on this list at all. Like Madara doesn't teach, he never like stood there and be like, here's how you do the hand signs for a fireball, jutes? No, he preached, and then we got I'm not, I'm not counting Sapele.
Karl:No, nah, I thought about it.
Richard:But no, he mostly just pontificated and explained to us what was happening. The viewer.
Karl:Right.
Richard:Maybe like they never forgot Jotaro never got, like part one's weird, because the training arc would have made so much sense and a time skip would have made so much sense, but that just didn't happen.
Richard:He's like here's how you punch the frog, and then Joe could just punch the frog and it was done. Likewise, wing Sensei from Hunter Hunter was just there to show us the Nym type chart, and we're getting near the end of like people I recognize. We got Ur from Fairytale, which is much closer than Igneel, but she did adopt those two ice wizards she trained, so it's like those were your children. You're not a teacher if you're teaching your children. We got anime characters that are absolutely not senseis. Get rid off this list, get corn, I was gonna say ren ren tosaka from fate stay night.
Karl:But she, she is not even a sensei, like she's not a teacher in fate zero, and then, like the later, fate sequels. In this franchise from Fate Stay Night.
Richard:She is not even a sensei, you know, the joke being that, in Fate Zero and then, like the later Fate sequels in this franchise, Weber from Fate Zero goes to school, gets his teaching degree and becomes a mage instructor.
Karl:Okay.
Richard:And is actually just a professional magic teacher in a lecture hall teaching students how to mage. That's who should be there, or even like the actual teacher from. That was like a martial artist person who didn't really accomplish anything is at least a teacher. That name should not be on this list okay.
Karl:So I mean now I think we've gone through the flawed list enough that it's like okay, so there's lots of animes that have senseis. It's kind of like I need to stop when we're knowing I'm on this list before we like move on to like there's lots of animes that have senseis.
Richard:It's kind of like I need to stop before I'm on this list, before we move on to our core topic and wrap up, I finally got to a character from Kenichi Right. So in Kenichi, a show about six characters specifically training the protagonist, probably the closest from breaking from sensei to actual teacher, because a lot of these senseis don't actually teach, they just show off their superpowers. Which Kenichi character do you think showed up first for best teacher? Knowing what you know about the characters and this list is best teacher who do you think showed up first?
Karl:Well, I mean. So it's been a while since I've read Kenichi. I see that Shigure Kosaka is number 71.
Richard:I am so mad about this. This is completely unacceptable.
Karl:Isn't she the weapons master?
Richard:She's the worst one at being a teacher, by a lot.
Karl:Yeah.
Richard:She doesn't use weapons. She shows up like twice and mostly just makes him a shirt. It should absolutely. He doesn't use weapons. She shows up like twice and, like, mostly just makes him a shirt. It should absolutely be the Jujutsu guy in first Apochi, maybe in first because he has the most passion for it. I could even see a good argument for the alcoholic karate guy who absolutely is super invested in his student but pretends not to care. Right, but like, all of them are objectively better teachers and like, I'm sorry, jujitsu guy's the one who came up with an actual training plan and trained him every day, that was his actual teacher, the one who actually taught him things. Sure, he didn't do shit.
Richard:I call bullshit, like okay then, we get to sakaki two down, and then we get to asami kojetsu two down, so like they're all the kanichi people are pretty grouped together, so like there's only like four spaces down.
Karl:But I'm so bitter about it uh, here here's the funny one from the list uh, number 87, the best teacher in anime history, goku no, absolutely not I don't think he taught anyone.
Richard:I don't even think he taught oob anything I agree with the list for the first time, where apache is absolutely a better teacher than goku and at one point he kicks the student's soul out of his body and has to bring it back because at least he like tries to teach him things. Oh man body and has to bring it back Because at least he tries to teach him things.
Karl:Oh man.
Richard:Oh, here's a character who absolutely should not be on the list. So you know I mentioned I read that entire we Never Learn series. That's now doing that Sidcraft series. So the teacher from we Never Learn is on the list. So remember how, at the start of this list, I pointed out that a male teacher who's three years older than their students becoming a teacher here on their students is completely morally unacceptable and should be shunned by society.
Richard:This professor ends up marrying the protagonist of the story in one of these plot routes, who was their high school teacher. If a girl does it, it's a dating option Like Persona 5. 5. This was so funny. So one of the teachers in persona 5 is a creep and your first mission, persona 5, is to like break into his mind palace and get blackmail on him because he's a creep. But one of your dating options is a different teacher and I just think it's kind of fucked up. I'm using my f-bomb of the episode for that To be like hey, if this man hits on a woman and they're a teacher, we as a society are like that's terrible. If we gender role flip it, it should still be equally terrible. That's just objectively true. It's just as bad, but one of them is a good ending for a manga and the other one is a villain. Just as bad, but one of them is a good ending for a manga, and the other one is a villain.
Karl:Okay, so, stepping back to the idea Of teachers in schools, yes, so the bottleneck Portion of Hyperfixating on the list. World, trigger World trigger the bottle test. Hyper fixating on the list about it will trigger.
Richard:Will trigger the bottle test why would you do this to me?
Karl:so I mean it definitely implies that there is an academic portion to the organization for some reason. Yeah, so there's an academic portion to border we don't really see them go into any, like the organization I'm blanking on the name for some reason Border, Border. Yeah, so there's an academic portion to Border. We don't really see them go into any like classrooms prior to the.
Richard:Well, asamoah's in like regular high school at the start.
Karl:Him and Yumi go to regular high school for a while I don't, Would you say any of the characters in World Trigger actually count as teachers or are they more in the Sensei category? Because there are lots of adults that do adult things, which is my main complaint about the irregular at the Magic Academy, where there just are no adults doing any adult things, where there should 100% be adults dealing with terrorists, 100% be adults dealing with terrorists.
Richard:So for World Trigger specifically. World Trigger is my number one example of if you just age up every anime character by three years, your story becomes perfect. So World Trigger is a part-time job Right, and all the characters act like employers and managers and supervisors like they should.
Richard:So if everyone in World Trigger was 18 and it's like they should. So if everyone in world trigger was 18 and it's like, oh yeah, I'm in college and then I have like classes two days a week and I go do border service the other two days a week, they absolutely act like bosses and they do it really well. Rendo is a great boss, but because it's like paramilitary for uh, for border, they're all military style bosses. Rendo's not a teacher.
Richard:He doesn't sit there and teach you things, he instead has Azumi. Oh, what's her name? I want to say Azumi, but that's probably wrong. Whoever their operator is, whose name eludes me right now because World Trigger has like 500 names their squad operator is told by their boss hey, teach these new guys how triggers work. So she goes through, breaks them down, pulls out a whiteboard explains the type of triggers Well, they're splicing and gin, having fight scenes against those triggers and it's like yeah, she's not a teacher, she's the same age as this guy, but from a work point of view, she is his supervisor. Like was literally told by the manager okay, train these new recruits for a workplace structure. It's perfect, right? Like?
Richard:think about your own pizzeria. You're absolutely be like hey, vlad, can you go teach this new guy how to make a pizza? Be like yeah sure, I don't know how you're my boss, but this happens, so I might as well do it. And I proceed to go do it, and then me and you would probably go back and have a drink afterward like world trigger makes absolute sense and like when we think about where our own lives are at, like when we're working part-time at redacted donuts.
Richard:Yeah, that was kind of the structure of their managers, not teachers, because it's a job and world trigger is very overt that it's a job, to a point where a character's like do we get paid for this?
Karl:Right right.
Richard:And I think World Trigger would gain nothing from it being an academy. I think it would gain everything from putting everyone college age, where they're actually able to just disappear for a month and just make up classes later, because college you could just not go to class, and that's the thing that blows my mind about these animes that are like using schools but not really is. In japan you're not going to graduate high school. If you disappear for a week to fight demons, you're just not college. You can just retake classes. That's how colleges are structured and take a smaller course load uh, mashal.
Karl:Mashal is kind of an interesting one. I don't think there's any actual teachers in mashal counterpoint.
Richard:There's no characters in mashal. I read every chapter of mashal and I know one character's name and it's mashal. I did not retain anyone else's name. Gimmick backstory none of it is in here. So, yeah, every teacher could have been named with their own superpower, their own backstory and personality. I wouldn't have caught any of it Because my brain was not prepared to absorb Mashal lore. Nor was Mashal written in a way conductive to naturally absorbing it, because if they wanted me to know any of these characters' names, I'd have it in here. I would, I promise.
Richard:I'd have better odds naming every character on Assassination Classroom's class list, I'd get further in that. Also, all three characters in Assassination Classroom should be higher than any of these show. And protagonist teachers Even the ones who get paid as teachers, like Gojo, gets teacher salary. That's unacceptable.
Karl:Gojo is a trash person.
Richard:Just full stop. Gojo's a terrible person. He always has been. That's kind of the bit. So I've actually been watching like I'm waiting for it to get bad, but I'm on like episode three of a series called From Old Country Bumpkin to Master Swordsman. And I thought it for it to get bad, but I'm on like episode three of a series called From Old Country Bumpkin to Master Swordsman Okay.
Richard:And I thought it was going to be Ikasai garbage and then it turned out not to be an Ikasai.
Richard:Then I thought it was going to be harem garbage and it turned out not to be harem garbage.
Richard:It might literally be about an old man who trained a bunch of people to be swordspeople who are then being recruited by their students who are now in like the royal military to teach the royal military, because he's actually the best swordsman in the world but didn't know it because he basically lived in Swift Current and, like it hasn't lost me yet, it could easily go into harem garbage or lore garbage or other garbage. But like the few episodes are more about like his sword technique and him actually teaching people swords. And I'm like, yeah, this man is a teacher, him actually teaching people swordsmen. I'm like, yeah, this man is a teacher. He's like you're stronger and faster than me, but your momentum was wrong and my dynamic accuracy was enough that I could just simply tilt the blade to the left, catch it and then pistol whip you at the handle of the sword. Okay, and here's why you were standing wrong and here's how I did this to you. You scrub, but he was like polite about it.
Karl:Okay grub, but he was like polite about it. Okay, from country bumpkin to master swordsman Gotcha.
Richard:I don't know if it's good, but like it seemed appropriate for this. And then the Gundam Witch from Mercury took place in an academy that had a Gundam going. For some reason there was no teachers in that at all. None Didn't matter, didn't even pretend it mattered. Should have been teachers in it all. None, didn't matter, didn't even pretend it mattered. Should have been teachers in it.
Karl:There was not, it's just. There seems to be a lot of series where it's like this is an academy, like that, food Wars, food Wars, food Wars definitely takes place in a cooking academy. Sure it does, sure it does. I don't think there's any teachers there who's teaching anything.
Richard:Oh, they do that. Oh, like there's some gambling one. I did a liar's game, I think it was. Was that like gambling school?
Karl:I don't know if it was like liar game or not. I remember there being a gambling school one. Maybe it was liar game.
Richard:I don't know. There's some gambling school one that took place in the gambling school where you gambled and it's like there's no teachers there. It's like, yeah, yu-gi-oh, they were high school students, but that didn't matter, although, in Yu-Gi-Oh's defense, oh, our students went out to play card games after class. Yeah, the adults don't need to do anything. Someone tells you the fate of the world depends on the card game. You laugh in their face like you're supposed to, and then blue lock just locks people in jail to play soccer which to be fair is about how actual sports training camps go.
Richard:Just lock people in jail to play sports and then threaten to kill them if they do bad. That's how you teach sports.
Karl:Shinobi Undercover is another interesting one, where there are adults.
Richard:So I ended up dropping Shinobi Undercover. I like the premise because I like Full Metal Panic's premise.
Karl:But like.
Richard:I don't know. It just kind of like didn't pull me in. I don't think it did anything wrong, like it didn't spite drop it. This wasn't a RoboCo situation. Although I will say the singular character in Full Metal Panic. The teacher there does actually get a fair amount of screen time as an actual teacher and the reason that she doesn't do much when actual terrorists attack is she is a regular teacher in Japan and her one problem problem student she doesn't know is a trained mercenary and it actually the most qualified person to deal with this problem is, in fact, the student by like a lot
Richard:so it's like he's like there's a bit later in fact, the student by like a lot. So it's like he's like there's a bit later in, when the series decides to stop being a comedy, near like the three quarters mark, where he's just like oh yeah, I've just been a trained assassin this entire time to guard the student. And she's like oh, I see, I thought we were doing bits.
Richard:Nope, actual terrorists are attacking now, so I'm gonna go deal with that okay thanks bye like, oh, I thought this, no, but it was like I'm fine with only like a character or two like homeroom teachers and things getting names, but man, do they love to place characters in especially superpowered schools and not have professors be equipped to handle this in any way, shape or form?
Richard:to the point where they just, the professors, basically don't exist and the student body just governs itself and then there's the opposite problem of like the gojos and kakashi's and a lot of people we bitched about on the list where it's like you're just another action character, you're not a teacher, you're just here to be a stronger protagonist. So it's like a lot of these senseis are literally measuring sticks to be like here's how strong a strong character is, so we can judge whether this new character is stronger or weaker and we can judge the main character's power level compared to them.
Richard:Like Akashi existed, just as a measuring stick for Sasuke and Naruto.
Karl:And he's not even a very good one, because the measuring stick isn't even consistent.
Richard:Yeah, but he also gets. It's funny because, like, were they going to kill him off? No, because he's the actual. Like the main villain is Obito and his rival is Kakashi, not Naruto. Like Kakashi's fight with Obito before he goes into Super Obito was like yeah, no, this is like the show about generational will could easily be reframed to be about Kakashi. It would not be hard to edit Naruto into being told from Kakashi's point of view.
Karl:I mean then you wouldn't get the awesome slugfest between Sasuke and Naruto when they run out of chakra.
Richard:See, it was awesome. But if Kakashi's your POV character, that still works. You just have him watch that Because he's watching his students, Because it's like I trained two people One of my students turned out to be a really good person, the one I didn't believe in.
Richard:And the one I did believe in turned out to be a bastard. But I taught the good one enough that he's going to win over the other one. For me, like it's weirdly enough, kakashi's character arc could come down to his two students slugging it out surprisingly appropriately, because one turned out like Obito and one turned out like Kakashi, and the end of his arc is Sasuke comes back to the village.
Karl:Hmm, yeah.
Richard:As he ends up reelecting Kokage. And if Jojo's Bizarre Adventure had any teachers in it, maybe every Jojo would have ended up an objectively terrible person. Jojo's is amazing. It is fascinating. Every single character named Jojo is objectively just an asshole, even like the good one at the start is, like I believe, about honor and fairness. Is out here kneeing criminals in the groin and that's by far the nicest one. You know who probably would get teacher status despite never being in a classroom. I'd probably give that to Freeran.
Karl:Oh yeah, I mean, she's definitely doing a lot more Well. She's pretty close to being a teacher, I suppose.
Richard:Although, I might give her the ideal problem. I'm pretty sure she's actually just Fern's mom at this point.
Karl:Yeah and like yeah, I think she fits either into the parent or more so, sensei than.
Richard:I think the big difference between our definition and anime definition is to be a teacher, you need to teach multiple people. I think is where we drew our line in the sand.
Karl:Yeah.
Richard:And most anime senseis pick a favorite, or just deadbeats like Gojo.
Karl:Deadbeats like Gojo.
Richard:Gojo's such a deadbeat. I hate him so much. I feel like my problem with Gojo is we're all supposed to hate him. He was written to be hated and no one noticed but me. Like literally every problem in the series is objectively his fault because he was cocky enough to think he could solve every problem in the series. Shibuya was one million percent Gojo's fault.
Richard:He lets Yuji have the finger. He leaves Megumi to get the finger by himself because he was out at a cafe, so he leaves a teenager to do this job, to get this cursed relic. Gets a call that the cursed relic's been stolen, finishes his meal, rolls up, says ah, I can handle Tsukuno whenever the hell I want. Lets Yuji get more powerful. Feeds Yuji more cursed fingers. Sends Yuji full of cursed fingers to Shibuya to fight the super curses. Signs off on that, proceeds to go suit the fight of himself. Gets brainwashed by his boyfriend. He went live specifically and he gets put in a box. Every death in Shibuya is on Gojo's head. Everything Ghetto does is on Gojo's head. Megumi, always trying to kill himself, is on Gojo's head. He is the antagonist of JJK. Nothing Kenjaku did would have worked at all if Gojo wasn't a dick.
Karl:Well, I mean of JJK. Nothing Kenjaku did would have worked at all if Gojo wasn't a dick. Well, I mean, except for Kenjaku being Itadori's mom.
Richard:That didn't go anywhere. Why does that matter? I'm serious. Why did that never come up again? So of the most pointless ass plot twists. So they're most pointless-ass plot twists. So they're like okay, itadori eats his finger, it's a coincidence. And then anime's like, no, nothing is ever a coincidence. It's because of the privilege of your birth, because we've hyper-fixated on eugenics in our racist country, I'm like, okay, fine, so Yuji was specifically bred to be a Sukuna vessel, I guess, even though a bunch of coincidences had to happen, I guess he was just genetically proposed to eating random cursed fingers.
Richard:That he only did because the other guy said demons eat this to be stronger.
Karl:So let's pretend this was an Aizen situation and all of that was set up.
Richard:They forgot to have a point to it. Sukuna dips that vessel and goes to a different one. So what was the point? Even if it was all true, it didn't do anything. Why not just have him be a random dude? And then we're thinking, oh, maybe a special ability he has from this Kenjaku thing will somehow play a role in the final plot to defeating Sukuna, when Kenjaku's defeated by his own hubris by creating this body. He never got to. Nope had nothing to do with anything.
Karl:Nope.
Richard:Just hit him with the friendship punch and hit him with dismantle, because he knew dismantle, because he was Sukuna's vessel. Sure, just so mad at that, not related to our episode topic at all. But why did you do this to me, maga? Why? Why not just let a character be a dude? It's like when I got equally angry when they were like Luffy didn't just have the rubber fruit, he had the special god fruit because his dad's special and his grandpa's special, and I'm like cool, doesn't that just make all his accomplishments? God fruit because his dad's special, his grandpa's special, and I'm like cool, that doesn't make. Doesn't that just make all his accomplishments lame and undercut the entire premise of this?
Karl:no, okay well, see, uh and I actually that's something we talked about when I was talking about, um, paranoid mage. Uh, when I got to the end of the series and someone posted a comment like oh, how come we never found out who his parents were, and I was like, because that's the point, because he's just a random dude that like just stirred shit up in the magic world.
Richard:Like man, they checked out on that. On Star Wars they did. They were going to get into it and then backed off, which is so much worse. Like the worst thing you do is start making a turn and then swerve back into your lane, like that's just incorrect tactic, ugh. But like it keeps happening. Like all of the big four Naruto, one Piece, bleach and Dragon Ball all of them decide to pull the your Parentage is Special card, although in Dragon Ball's case it was. You're an Alien which we're all willing to accept, given the things Goku does.
Karl:Yeah and again.
Richard:Dragon Ball kind of subverts the trope even in itself, until Super, where Bardock specifically wishes for his son to grow up prosperous, therefore making it ring somewhat or when Bardock was a legendary super saiyan somehow.
Karl:I mean ignoring those little side tangents. Half of the point of Goku's character is that he is a lowly saiyan and he's a nobody, and that he ends up becoming somebody through hard work and effort.
Richard:Which would have been so much better if he wasn't an alien at all. But you know, whatever Technically, tien exemplifies that more Shout out, my boy Tien.
Karl:Ah Tien.
Richard:So many things, I'm shocked my hero didn't do it. I really thought they're setting up Deku to be like all for one's bastard son or be like, oh, his quirk was stolen. No, he just seemed to be quirkless and then picked up all for one, which, coincidentally, works best when you're the most special. The thing that made him special was not being special, which I guess is fine. But then he lost his superpowers and got his Iron man suit. But like is it bad? That would have been a better story if he had no quirk the entire time and slowly built an Iron man seat over the course of the series. Like he just never, like all for one just wasn't a thing, and it was. Deku gets let into hero school because he tries really hard, so All Might just lets him in, even though he has no power, and he slowly builds himself a mech suit over the course of it. That would have been such a better show.
Karl:Yeah. Instead of just having a mech suit out of nowhere Him actually having to use tactics and planning to be able to defeat the other heroes who have powers.
Richard:Right, like that would have been great. That would have been so much better. I didn't mind. When his power just blew him up, though, and they had to use it in clever ways. And then they're like instead of being clever, let's just give you eight superpowers so you can just do anything. Now, oh, the curve, the curve in my hero, because they've abandoned the academia, like my dream manga like if someone wanted to write a perfect manga.
Richard:For me you would take the character writing and classroom writing of kaguya sama. Love is war and they combine it with the setting of something like my hero where, like one of my friends who's a really successful ya writer, put this really well about ya when a character's in their teens, all things are of equal importance to them. Their, their crush, invaded the world, are equally important to this character. That's how you write. Compelling ya is a character's crush and the fate of the world are equally important to this character.
Richard:That's how you write. Compelling YA is a character's crush and the fate of the world are equal to them, where for an adult they're not.
Karl:Right, unless you're watching something from the CW Arrowverse.
Richard:No, Arrowverse is YA.
Karl:Yeah, but they're all adults Are they, though?
Richard:Are you sure? I'm pretty sure it's all YA like? I think you heard me give my rat word. It's like nuclear missiles have been fired and they stopped at like a heart to heart. I'm like nuclear missiles. This is where we draw the line. The line is right there. Nothing else matters, literally nothing. Why are you like this? Because it's YA.
Karl:Right like CW is YA for 20-year-olds.
Richard:That's why we made a new genre called New Adult, which is YA for 20-year-olds. You'll notice that everyone in the Arrowverse is in their 20s somehow. But with that I'm going to move to a random question. I decided first, and then we'll go into a regular question. So, after going through a topic, who is your pick for best anime teacher?
Karl:Who is my pick for best anime teacher?
Richard:Yeah, now that we've discussed what we mean by that.
Karl:Oh boy, I did not come prepared for that, that's what you get. Best anime teacher.
Richard:No, it's not Gojo. You know who probably would count as a teacher that wasn't on our list. I'd give it to Senku Senku, who actually teaches civilization how to do things. That's his whole shtick.
Karl:Oh Dr.
Richard:Stone, I'd give him a teacher role for sure, Even though he's younger than most people he's teaching. Blackworth came out, and when he was defeated- his students.
Karl:Specifically, he had taught enough to bring him back. See, I have a lot of difficulty when I'm on the spot like this. I think of all the academies that we just went over, where it's like it's set in an academy but there aren't actually any teachers, which is a problem, because I need to think of an actual teacher.
Richard:Here's my question. So you're in the series Irregular at the Magic School. What character would you make a teacher grab from any other series to put in to be a teacher in that classroom? Where there are none, who are you promoting to teach this Magic Academy class? Their superpowers will be switched over appropriately. Like what character did that series need for you to not be frustrated at the lack of teacher?
Karl:I don't know, that's definitely an easier question. What? I think it would be somewhat counterproductive because a lot of the series is about null magic or counter magic, basically has jamming. But I think Eraserhead actually would probably be like I don't know how they would work it in, Maybe he would just have one of those rings. But if he was actually there and then it's like when the terrorists attack he's out there with the students trying to non-lethal force turn off their magic and whatnot, I think that he would probably fit right in all right, so I, for this same question.
Richard:I'm gonna promote nonomy to actually being in front of a classroom. It's a guy who clocks in, who's like work. I was a sorcerer and it sucked.
Richard:So I became a teacher and it sucks and it just clocks in because, like the energy is, they're in like the loser class and he's just like I'm in charge of the loser class because I was an accountant and it sucked. Because here's the thing about Nanami why this would be awesome. So the terrorists would attack and we've had Nanami bitch about his job the whole time, Takes off his tie, wraps up his fist and name of your allies and their locations and beats the terrorists. Like Nanami would be almost a wasted character. The salaryman who hates his job but hates his enemies more. That would be my pick. I'd throw Nanami in front of there. He's just like the sorcerer. I was a professional sorcerer and it sucked. So I'm a teacher, which also sucks. Sorcerer and it sucked, so I'm a teacher, which also sucks. I feel like the series just needs a nihilist in front of the classroom to then shit-kick some terrorists. I agree, Alright, and let's pull in our actual random question.
Karl:Okay.
Richard:This question comes in from Anonymous. Know, I probably would name drop people if they requested it, all right, so what animal who can now talk in this scenario would you have host the podcast instead of you? What species of animal would you have host the podcast instead of you? What species of animal would you have replace you next week for the podcast.
Karl:What species of animal would I Okay?
Richard:Or do you want to replace me with an animal instead, because I already know what I would replace you with in an instant.
Karl:Okay, well, what would you replace me with?
Richard:Talking capybara Capybara so chill To play off my chaos energy. It Capybara Capybara so chill To play off my chaos energy. It'd be pretty great.
Karl:Hmm, I didn't really think about, I wasn't really thinking about synergy. I was more so thinking about they need to be something. My very first thought is Perry the Platypus amazing.
Richard:No notes, perry. The platypus podcast would be so good. We don't need either of us involved in that. I just listen to that and he just has this dominator right. But like the thing is, he has a daughter, so I don't want to rough him up too bad, so I roll up on him, right.
Karl:Australia seems like a prime place for any sort of animal to have tons of interesting stories to tell, so maybe a kangaroo would be a good choice too. I appreciate that A platypus and a koala that would be a good choice too. I appreciate that. A platypus and a koala that would be pretty good, like zany energy and chill energy.
Richard:I still want to do the mix right. So, like, if you give me a platypus, I feel the need to grab. Like something like the blandest, like I think I'd go Canadian goose Like just something hateful and mean, although, to be fair, canadian Goose would just instantly turn into Redacted's podcast and start complaining about how autistic kids don't pay taxes. That's other bullshit.
Karl:Alright, okay, wait, wait, wait. I got a follow-up random question just based on my comment bullshit, alright, okay, wait, wait, wait. I got a follow-up random question just based on my comment there. Beautiful, the main character, the irregular at the Magic Academy.
Richard:The Gary Sue yes.
Karl:Firstly, do you know if he has a spell that restricts his emotional range, or is he just one of those anime characters that is very clearly autistic?
Richard:I think he has a spell that limits his range. I think they mentioned at one point using a lot of his bandwidth for things.
Karl:Yeah, okay, because it's just Gary Stu. I mean autism isn't exactly a superpower, because it's just Gary Stu, I mean autism isn't exactly a superpower, but it does come with some unusual thought processes. Exactly In the right application, someone with autism can be far superior in a variety of ways than normal people.
Richard:Well, if I weren't, anything rich in Gundam over the last week, it's that new types are just autistic people in space, almost every new type is strongly autistically coded in all of Gundam. Watching it from that lens I'm like, oh yeah, camille is the most obviously autistic coded person I've ever seen, but not related.
Karl:I just you mentioned I don't know if you actually did a paper on it for your classes or not, but you had mentioned that that Freerun displays a lot of autistic characteristics.
Richard:Yeah, actually, that paper is amusingly on my like portfolio website. So anyone listening to this podcast who clicks my link tree and goes to my author website can actually read that paper is amusingly on my like portfolio website. So anyone listening to this podcast who clicks my link tree and goes to my author website can actually read that paper.
Karl:Um, I just I found that a I found that interesting and B I was like huh, like this misunderstood super genius who is incredibly humble and doesn't seem to realize his own potential, but acts very emotionally unusual. He just appears to be neurodivergent in some way, but it is possible he's just under some sort of spell that makes him that way.
Richard:Let's see. So after doing a quick Google search, the first result was he likely has ASD. So the internet seems to be on this. But yeah, apparently there is plot points about it later.
Karl:Okay.
Richard:So he might be like, oh god, they might have. Literally gave him an autism vaccine. Oh no, oh God, they might have literally gave him an autism vaccine.
Karl:Oh, no. So vaccines? That's a question with thinly veiled racism.
Richard:Like I just like. So vaccines don't cause autism. But I'm not saying you can't magically make something in a lab to try and give someone autism. That's not a real thing. But in fiction there's no reason you couldn't and that's a problem. Oh, that is what a series that would be to read Someone going around doing that to people so many questions oh no. Well, we're going to wrap up here. Thank you for tuning in. Yeah, I'm happy ending it on vaccines don't cause autism and don't magically give people autism.
Karl:That is definitely a criminal thing to do. Bye.
Richard:Bye. Oh, what a risky territory for the last minute.
