Crunchyroll's and Bakery Bureaucracy

Karl buys a wedding cake and somehow end up trapped in a maze of draft orders, email payments, and “you can’t do that yet” rules that make paying for anything feel harder than it should be. After the bureaucracy rant, we switch gears into a fast, opinionated tour of what’s trending on Crunchyroll and what actually earns the hype, then close with listener questions that go fully off the rails. 
• wedding cake and cupcake order logic falling apart 
• credit card safety habits and why we keep multiple cards 
• the modern expectation to hand over more personal data 
• VGA dying and rebuilding a dual monitor setup 
• Lampgate and the cursed missing power cords 
• Netflix One Piece as the best version 
• JJK animation praise and frustration with endings 
• Sentenced To Be A Hero dodging bad tropes 
• Frieren pacing and why it still works 
• Solo Leveling as action first storytelling second 
• Fire Force and Soul Eater with the fan service problem 
• Fate Strange Fake as a production value monster 
• JoJo talk and the Doug Ford stand pitch 
• Devil Fruit picks and how we would abuse them 
send them in to be put in a lottery to win a signed copy of the Waltz of Blades, or maybe some of our merch, because we have merch 

Transcript

Cold Open And Wedding Teasing

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hello! This is not Dr. Dr. Richard, one of the key players in Richard and Carl with a K presents Deep Space and Dragons.

SPEAKER_01 0:10

Uh and this is not Dr. K. That could be a Doctor, but it's not Dr. K.

SPEAKER_00 0:15

For the record, Dr. K is a drug dealer name.

SPEAKER_01 0:21

Probably deals ketamine.

SPEAKER_00 0:23

There's no way that if like uh say Longy Moscow was to go see Dr. K, it means he's macro dosing horse tranquilizer, like. So before we get into a deep talk of which billionaires are probably on ketamine, what's new with you? That is not our topic this week, but it could be. What's new with you?

SPEAKER_01 0:46

Okay, uh well, so uh I'm not sure if I if I've actually officially announced this on anywhere on our podcasts, but you know, I'm I'm getting married this year. I I want to point out something.

SPEAKER_00 0:58

I have to point out something. You have said that at the start of every episode for the last two months.

SPEAKER_01 1:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:06

And I just that's so good. I don't know if I announced this. And I'm like, you a Okay.

SPEAKER_01 1:13

You think at the start of every episode?

SPEAKER_00 1:15

Must know to me isn't always about my wedding. But it works its way in. Like, I think they got the full suitgate story.

SPEAKER_01 1:23

Suit gate story? Uh yeah, I don't know if they did.

SPEAKER_00 1:27

I I still think you need to wash all your guests on hot to shrink them so the suits fit.

SPEAKER_01 1:34

Okay, so this week's shenanigans are not about uh suits. This week's shenanigans are about Kate.

SPEAKER_00 1:39

You know what's even better though? Is if I say suitcate and we didn't ever talk about it, that's all the information they ever get. That's like perfect 10 out of 10.

SPEAKER_01 1:49

Well, and and we have absolutely no way of knowing whether or not the story came up in this podcast or or in our Daggerheart podcast.

SPEAKER_00 1:55

Well, what's even better is some episodes I'll like upload, the auto quality will be off, and I'll just scrap some and not tell anybody, so there's just lost content. Anyway. So you won't actually know which episodes have aired unless you listen to all our episodes, which you obviously do as our lead quality checker.

SPEAKER_01 2:15

That's that's my entire role.

SPEAKER_00 2:19

Like, I'm pretty sure there's episodes where my audio just doesn't go through the entire thing, it's just you talking one side into a wall, and I still uploaded it anyway, and got like 30 downloads somehow. There is no qual Like I I'm gonna say this with all the love in my heart. McDonald's has substantially better quality checking than us. I mean that sincerely and seriously. Like a person comes in and audits occasionally.

SPEAKER_01 2:47

Uh but so so uh my my fiance, uh, she decided that uh she wanted to get our wedding cake from crave cupcakes.

SPEAKER_00 2:58

I mean, I hear good things about crave cupcakes, like this kind of track so far. Ooh, is it gonna be one of those instead of an actual cake, it's just a massive collage of cupcakes, therefore removing the cutting process? Because those are great.

SPEAKER_01 3:11

I hadn't thought about getting into trying to do a collage.

SPEAKER_00 3:14

Because like you could literally have them with this a collage of cupcakes, because each one's like a large pixel, do like a pixel art, like do up like an 8-bit Zelda Sprite style of you and your fiance and cupcakes. Like, come on. That's sweet.

SPEAKER_01 3:30

Uh that is sweet, but that's not that wasn't very blind.

SPEAKER_00 3:33

But the pun was intended.

SPEAKER_01 3:34

It wasn't. Anyways. Uh so she decides that she wants to get our wedding cake from Craig Cupcakes. Uh she takes out her style. She wants the Bridgeton cupcake. Or the Bridgeton cake. Uh I don't know if it has anything to do with the fact she that she likes the Bridgerton Netflix show, but probably not even related in the slightest, but I mean You should know these things.

SPEAKER_00 4:06

I there's no way I would know these things.

SPEAKER_01 4:10

So she takes me to create cupcakes, and she was like, well, I tried these cupcakes, and I'm like, okay, yeah, they're delicious. Whatever. I mean, don't!

SPEAKER_00 4:19

Bad Carl. Don't say to your fiance they're delicious, whatever.

SPEAKER_01 4:23

I didn't I didn't say whatever.

SPEAKER_00 4:25

I I I just Yeah, you didn't say it to her just publicly on the internet.

SPEAKER_01 4:30

I I am invested in in this way. I just be. I just don't really care about much about the fine details, that's her department.

SPEAKER_00 4:41

I'm just saying, A, after talking with some of my friends about what my best man's status will impale, they're like, no, no, no. Carl is the groom. Your only job is to not let him run away and make sure he shows up sober. That's it. You're not the one looking at cupcakes and flower arrangements. And then I took a screenshot when I was asked about flower arrangements last night.

SPEAKER_01 5:12

Anyways. Um so we decided that we want to get Craig cupcakes, and it's delicious. We try we take we taste test, it's good. Um, she chooses her cake, uh, she sends them an email, and they're like, Okay, uh, this is your order. Um we have to we are you're getting we're getting an eight-inch cake for the head table, and then everybody else gets cupcakes.

SPEAKER_00 5:39

That's a good plan. Like, I I approve of this strategy straight up.

SPEAKER_01 5:45

Um and uh so they send us back the email, they they want you know all the information about what the order is, and the last thing they ask for they're like, okay, before we can set up this draft order for you, we need your credit card information. That makes sense. And well, I'm just like I I don't know if I'm being difficult, but there's something I like I know they're legitimate business, but there's something about sending my credit card information by email or even over the phone. It's like I don't I don't want to send it over the phone or by email.

Credit Cards As A Life Hack

SPEAKER_00 6:20

So I'm gonna give you in the audience some life advice here. So moving to the big city, everything wanted my credit card from being allowed to use the elevator in my building to the garbage removal truck to the moving truck to like everyone wants my credit card. That's why I have multiple. I have a crappy credit card with a short limit to use in these situations where the fraud can only cap it like a grand. So, like, my advice to you is go out and get a crappy Walmart credit card, they'll literally mail it to you in like three days, and use that for sketchy online things, because they can only fraud you for like 2,000 bucks. That's my thing, it's get a credit card that's less attached to you as a person is my life hack. I have a fine array of credit cards I've been credit card credit rating maxing over the last year. I think I've given you this rant where it's like, this is my Rogers one, which only pays my phone bill. This is my Tim Hortons one that only pays my Tim Hortons. This is my Amazon one that's set to auto-receive payments from my books to low over my Amazon credit card. None of these credit card and then I just kind of rotate through them in a sequence to slowly build credit. It's like, look how much look how much credit he's building. I'm like, this world's broken. Because it's like the idea that my credit rating is substantially better by having five credit cards than zero is ironic. Because one of those is smart. Anyway, TLDR, I do think you're being a bit paranoid because the world has shifted to a weird police state. Like, I think I told you to like get an apartment. It used to be you'd give them first months red in a polite handshake, and now it's like they wanted pay stubs for both my jobs and my ID and my SIN number and just so much documents. And my landlord was nice, like, this was a private citizen, companies are worse, they'll be like, yeah, we're gonna need a credit report, and your last six pay stubs, and two letters of recommendation. And I'm just like, no wonder people are on house. This is ridiculous.

SPEAKER_01 8:21

So that sounds like a big city problem.

SPEAKER_00 8:24

Yeah, but like the microcosm is that people just expect you to give them more information and it's insurance than they used to for pretty much anything.

SPEAKER_01 8:34

Hmm. So Okay, well, so I I don't have a problem with giving them my credit card. Give them a credit card. I have a problem with giving my credit card via email. It's weirdly calm.

SPEAKER_00 8:46

Did you know email actually has more legal protections than most forms of communication? Really? Yeah, legally, you cannot have a company data mine off your email. Say that to any other delegital service. Like, because email's old enough that they actually have legislation around it.

SPEAKER_01 9:09

Fair enough.

SPEAKER_00 9:11

So basically the TLDR is I believe you're completely right and justified, and the world's not gonna let you get away with it. Because we just gave up freedom. We've given up freedom. So just be happy they didn't ask you for like the other half of your spleen.

SPEAKER_01 9:27

Well, so we send them an email, we're like, yeah, we're not comfortable sending our credit card by email. Uh can we pay in store? And they're uh this they're like, okay, yeah, you can pay in store. Uh but because we didn't get payment, the draft order won't be on file, so you'll have to place your order when you go into store. Fine, I can do that. I have the order on my phone, I can go do that. So I go into the store, I give them the order, and they're looking on the little tablet, they're getting all the information, and then they're like, Oh, you can't you can't book that far in advance. Our our our system only lets us book a month in advance.

SPEAKER_00 10:08

And uh That's dumb on their part.

SPEAKER_01 10:12

I didn't pay my parking. Uh, so I was like, whatever, I'll come back another day because I didn't want a good ticket.

SPEAKER_00 10:18

Reasonable.

SPEAKER_01 10:21

So I I go home and I have to uh admit my defeat to my fiance. And she's like, okay, well, I'm gonna send them an email, and uh the person uh the email is like, oh, I don't know why you couldn't couldn't put that far in advance. I'll look into this.

SPEAKER_00 10:36

I like to imagine, by the way, you walk in, tears in your eyes and go, I've old you, and she's like, they're cupcakes. That has to be how that played out. But continue.

SPEAKER_01 10:51

That's more likely to be the other way around. She would cry over the cupcakes, and I would just be like, Yeah, they're cupcakes.

SPEAKER_00 10:56

I don't believe that for a second. I absolutely believe you're the more emotionally frail of the two. I know you very well.

SPEAKER_01 11:06

Anyways. So she uh she emails them back, like, okay, well, you know, you could like pay over the phone, or you you know, should be able to pay in store. Um so I go back to Creative Capcake again, and I'm like, okay, I want to place this order for my wedding. Uh, and they're like, okay, do you have the draft order? And I'm like, well, no, I I don't have the draft order because we told the person we were talking to that we were gonna pay in store. Uh and they said there wouldn't be a draft order until we paid. And the person in the store is like, well, in store we can only book a month in advance if you want to book further in advance, you need to have a draft order. And I'm like, well, I'm here to pay so I can get the draft order. So like, well, you can't pay until you get the draft order. Like, but but it can't be both ways.

SPEAKER_00 12:03

Like, I think I've mentioned this before. My biggest pet peeve of all, and I do mean everything, including like this goes above actual war crimes. Is when someone won't let me give the money for their service.

SPEAKER_02 12:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 12:19

Like, it drives me nuts to be like, um, no, this isn't possible. Like, I think I ranted about trying to get my phone line, uh, my internet set up where I'm like, I'm trying to pay you money. Why are you fighting me? I don't understand. When I literally said to someone on the phone, I'm like, oh, I'll I'm like, do you know what you're doing? And they're like, yes. I'm like, I don't think you do. Can I talk to somebody who doesn't cognitively offload with AI their day-to-day thinking process? Because, like, you gotta be able to just write a note. Like, just write down this man has paid, and like stick it somewhere. Like should not be this hard. Type it into your personal Google Calendar. This month is the K wedding, and then an alarm goes up. Like, I don't. Oh. I'm getting vicariously annoyed at this just to let you feel vindicated. I'm like, oh, how dare.

SPEAKER_01 13:17

Uh, but so I mean, the person I talked to the second time ha was far more helpful. And they're like, okay, um, well, I'm just gonna collect all the information that we need, and uh we'll get this set up for you. Um the person you were emailing back and forth isn't working today, so I can't talk to them directly. But you know, you don't have a customer number yet or anything, so we'll have to get this draft board made up. Uh much to my chagrin. Like say I'm perfectly willing to pay. I have the credit card. Uh I was a little bit bummed out that I still had to leave my credit card information with them. As opposed to actually just making payment right then and there.

SPEAKER_00 14:00

You know it's funny that your identity gets stolen more often than mine when you can literally Google me.

SPEAKER_01 14:09

Well, yeah, I mean, I've I've only ever actually been victim to credit fraud once, as far as I know.

SPEAKER_00 14:15

But it made you so mad.

SPEAKER_01 14:18

Well, so it it did make me really mad because uh at the time uh we were playing the SD Gundam online. Or at least I was, I don't know if you were still playing them. Oh, I was um and uh to get the Taiwanese um play cards, you had to order them through a uh American website. And uh so then it was like five American dollars or something like that. Um I did this like three times, you know, spent five American dollars, and then my credit card gets cut off, shut shut off. And they're like, yeah, that was suspicious. You spent five American dollars, you live in Canada. Okay, like turn my credit card back on, that was me. I do it again, like, hey, you know, that's five American dollars, that's suspicious. It is kind of suspicious. I I know this. Uh the third time, I'm like, hey, can you like put this website on your safe for this user list or something? Because like I am buying this five dollar Taiwanese card off this American website. Like that's just that's me. And they're like, okay. Then a couple months later, maybe it was because of the suspicious website, but my credit card has like a$1,500 American American dollar payment purchase or something. Um, and it's like the single largest purchase I had ever made uh today on on my card. And they didn't notice. I was like, um this like plastic surgery place in like Wisconsin? That wasn't me. Can you guys fix this? And like, oh yeah, we're sorry, sometimes things slip through the cracks.

SPEAKER_00 16:16

Anyways. They were so vigilant when it was you.

SPEAKER_01 16:21

Yeah. But ridiculousness of credit card companies aside. I I think we'll have to follow up with credit card cakes, but I think uh our order has been drafted into the army.

SPEAKER_00 16:36

Yet again, you're trying to pay them. It should have been as simple as I would like to give you money for this goods and service, and they say okay. That should be the entire process.

SPEAKER_01 16:48

Well, and I'm a little bit confused, but why you can't book that far in advance in the store? Like what why is there a different process?

SPEAKER_00 16:55

Oh, incompetence. They want an email pinned on their inbox attached to the calendar so the manager person can type that into the calendar, because they simply do not trust the people at the cashier to type in Actually, let me put this way, Carl. Say I told you I wanted redacted pizza to cater my wedding. Would you trust the person at the till to ring that in, or would you rather them call you? Like, if you had to give an instruction if someone came in and was like, oh, I would like to book a wedding, would it not be a wise policy to be like, okay, person of the tale, tell them to email me. Please.

SPEAKER_01 17:36

Oh. Well, I mean, uh, my my workplace is is unusual in that uh we don't really like emails.

SPEAKER_00 17:43

But I stand by my statement that you'd want them to talk to an adult.

SPEAKER_01 17:49

Uh but uh yeah, I I will say a more professional pizza place probably would prefer to receive uh large orders like that by an email.

SPEAKER_00 17:57

I I'm gonna let me rephrase. Do you trust the average tail watcher in your place to successfully p tell you about something happening in eight months? And have it wrote it down, it informs you intelligibly.

SPEAKER_01 18:11

Well you're barking up the wrong tree. Because you have complete faith. Complete faith in it, got it. We can just put in the order as soon as they make it. Yeah. They they make the order a month in advance, and we just put it in, and then it sits on the line for eight months, and then it prints off an hour before it needs to be there.

SPEAKER_00 18:35

You see, there's still like for a wedding, you still see the fly, right? Your 30 pizza oh, that's so funny as your 30 pizzas coming out on random Friday, everyone forgot about. Have to go borrow dough from the other store because no one bothered to tell you they booked in a wedding. I'm just saying I see the train of thought. I'm not saying I agree with it. I'm saying I understand the concept of we shouldn't handle weddings in store when we're a bakery, and we don't know that anyone everyone can we will want people to make promises they can't keep and have angry brides beat us to death.

SPEAKER_01 19:12

Yeah, no, I I I I I can kind of understand the whole thought process. It just don't understand why it was so difficult.

SPEAKER_00 19:20

Yeah, like I'm with them up until the part where you came in the store and they didn't just figure it out.

SPEAKER_01 19:26

But but then the same day, uh, I need to renew like my tenant insurance.

SPEAKER_02 19:33

That's one of my many new expenses.

SPEAKER_01 19:37

So I I go to the uh to the insurance office, and uh I'm like, okay, I'm here to renew my tenant insurance. I forgot to bring the paper with my policy number, but can you look it up by my name or phone number or whatever? Like, oh yeah, yeah, yeah. We can look it up. That sounds like my number. And they they look it up. They're like, okay, I'll have to go get you a broker. I'm like, why can't you just like take payment like right here? Like I'm standing next to a debt machine. You have all my information that you need, like whatever.

SPEAKER_00 20:10

People really are not taking your money.

SPEAKER_01 20:14

We go they go into the bank, uh, and uh they talk to the broker room in it or two, and then they come back, I'm like, okay, I'll need your credit card to do this payment. Okay, fine. It's still weird that they're not gonna process it through the debit machine that's right in front of me, but I give them my credit card. They go into the back, they talk for a couple minutes, uh, and then they come back out and they sit at their desk and they're chatting about Gucci glasses or whatever. Uh um, but I'm waiting for this broker. A couple minutes later, the broker comes out and he's like, Oh, um, our system is uh being a bit laggy right now. Uh I wrote down your credit card information, and we will charge you and your insurance will be renewed. Uh, but I couldn't do it today. I'm like, oh twice in one day I had to give my credit card information out to pay for something instead of just being able to pay? What's what's even going on? And this was like Thursday the 12th.

SPEAKER_00 21:12

You see, we switched to a cashless society after the credit card companies released COVID, right? So they could get more microt debts and fees. You have any idea how much banks and credit cards must have made with us phasing out cash and raw profit?

SPEAKER_01 21:30

I I have uh a conspiracy theory that I don't I don't believe is true.

SPEAKER_00 21:34

That birds aren't real.

SPEAKER_01 21:37

Um that uh that Epstein Island, right?

SPEAKER_00 21:42

I want it to be anything other than the truth, because the truth is so boring and gross. So please, please give me a theory that's not oh, they're just a bunch of old pedophiles who are rich, because the richest people in the world are gross.

SPEAKER_01 21:58

See, this is already better than the reality. And uh Epstein had a a fail save where uh say engineered COVID, and if you didn't check in every 30 days, it would get released as blackmail for the people who might try and kill them.

SPEAKER_00 22:18

So, like that's amus- I a quote I literally said the other day in class where we were talking about feminist works and things. I literally am like, listen, if they were actual cannibals and were killing and eating these people, it would be less gross than what actually happened. I want to put it to some context here. If they were actual vampires, it would be less gross. Like, it would be better ethically if it was an immortal cabal of vampires. That would be less evil. Cause like killing people for their blood at least has motivation, other than I'm an old creep. Like, there's an element at least of hunger to that, which I can rationalize a bit better than the reality of the situation.

SPEAKER_01 23:07

Anyways, I I don't believe that that conspiracy theory. Uh, but I I just thought that was kind of amusing.

SPEAKER_00 23:15

Um actual Satan being on that island would be less depressing than the truth.

SPEAKER_01 23:22

Anyways, uh enough of all my my credit cards and conspiracy theories. I'll do with you there, Richard.

Conspiracy Jokes And Life Updates

SPEAKER_00 23:29

Uh let's see. I went to a retro game bar, played some rampart, I got accepted into my PhD HD program, which is pretty cool. Um I complained about Epstein Island in class a lot this week, which is fair and valid because they're monsters. And I bid watched all of Netflix One Piece.

SPEAKER_01 23:50

Contextually, how did Epstein Island come up in your writing classes?

SPEAKER_00 23:57

Easily. We were talking about Feneminism in graphic novels, and then we were pivoted to AI usage in graphic novels. AI usage pivoted to billionaires, billionaires pivoted to gross creeps. Because everyone who owns these AI companies for the most part is a gross creep or will become a gross creep. And the quote was wouldn't it be nice if these tools weren't made by literally the worst person to have ever lived?

SPEAKER_01 24:28

Are you quoting yourself? Maybe.

SPEAKER_00 24:35

I did that in the paper in the paper I was writing the other day because I cited another paper I wrote.

SPEAKER_01 24:41

That's hilarious.

SPEAKER_00 24:46

Like at one of these points I'm gonna do a lit analysis on the Waltz and Blades and talk about Mr. Kievis's language work. It's gonna be great.

SPEAKER_01 24:56

That's pretty funny.

SPEAKER_00 24:57

But yeah, TLDR, pretty much the same update as last time. Now that I moved and settled, everything's stabilized. The sun's shining metaphorically, the birds are singing metaphorically. My future has some stability metaphorically. Life is great. None of these things literally true, but alas. So shall we get into today's topic?

SPEAKER_01 25:22

Yes. I have one more well, I have one more rant to go on here, actually.

SPEAKER_00 25:27

I'm gonna give you three minutes. Three minutes? Oh. We're at the 25-minute mark, bra, and we haven't talked about a single nerdy thing.

VGA Ports And Monitor Philosophy

SPEAKER_01 25:38

No, okay. This one's gonna be slightly nerdy. Uh first first things first. Uh, do you know if VGA has a video output style uh uh connectivity? No, I can't think of the ports. Port, I guess. Yeah. Do you know is VGA dead? Like are are new computers not shipping with VGA ports? I think so. Okay. Uh well, because like eons ago, uh I I lived I lived in a place called Sunderland, uh, and I I walked over to my local future shop. Uh ironically, I think of the past.

SPEAKER_00 26:19

Oh, that's beautiful. I have not thought about that. Oh, please continue. This is nostalgic. This is warming me.

SPEAKER_01 26:26

Anyway, I I walked down there uh and I bought an off-the-shelf desktop PC by Acer. Uh Acer is known to be a relatively cheap brand, um, but it had uh VGA, DVI, and HDMI for the video output. Yes. Um and so then I it was onboard video, but I was able to actually just hook up two uh monitors to that, one using Ichimai, one using VTA.

unknown 26:57

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 26:58

And then several years later, uh, I'm in the process of moving. I had my desktop computer in an uh awkward place, and I smashed my shit on it and knocked it over, and the hard drive crapped out, and the computer wouldn't wouldn't boot.

SPEAKER_00 27:12

Well, it did get booted, literally.

SPEAKER_01 27:15

Right. Uh but so then I uh bought a new PC. Um but again, I'm just buying an off-the-shelf thing, and I actually bought a uh refurbished uh one of those like commercial Dell PCs that are like in the small form factor. Yeah. Uh and this one had HDMI and display port, but no VGA and no DVI. Uh and uh yeah, so so then I wasn't able to hook up my second monitor anymore, so for several years I had no second monitor. Uh and I've decided How can you live that way? Well, my computer use has just dropped off significantly.

SPEAKER_00 28:01

I have two going right now. I'm contemplating setting up a third.

SPEAKER_01 28:07

Well, I I felt bad because I specifically built this uh computer desk tower thing so I could suspend it uh vertically orient my monitors to the suspend them one above the other. Um because I think that's I like it better than the horizontal.

SPEAKER_00 28:25

You're a sociopath! Everything you've said has made me visibly angry. Yeah, no, I it's if you want a smaller footprint in your space, you go vertical. If you want to like be a sociopath that doesn't follow the aspect ratio of human vision, which is horizontal, because that's how we see, which is how we've designed all of our objects. Like you don't understand. Paper is designed and folded to produce books on the assumption in all cultures that we have a certain aspect ratio of vision. What's wrong with you? Ugh. But you read from top to bottom. Yeah, but it's still on uh three stacked horizontal lines lined up on lines of thirds. Have I tie you nothing?

SPEAKER_01 29:15

Anyway, uh spoiler matter is that I bought a new new monitor, uh, and uh I had to make sure that it had display port, and then I had to buy the display port cable. Um This feels like an adapter thing. Like, I feel like that adapter must exist. Display port to other uh output technologies? Probably.

SPEAKER_00 29:39

It feels like a thing. I mean, I'm spoiled. Occasionally my brother was just like, hey, Merry Christmas. I didn't get anything last year, so here's a new PC, and I'm like, fuck yeah, and then I have a new PC.

SPEAKER_01 29:50

Well, and ironically, I I uh actually the the new monitor I have to do.

SPEAKER_00 29:57

I need to do a quick clarify. I don't think my brothers ever went a year with nothing for Christmas, but it'll be like, Merry Christmas, here's a carton of egg dog, Merry Christmas, here's a new gaming PC. Seemingly a random.

SPEAKER_01 30:10

Wild swings.

SPEAKER_00 30:12

Oh yeah, like it's never been nothing. I want to be clear. This wasn't like I'm making up for a lack of Christmas, it's more some years we'll be like, hey, we bought each other both Monster Ranchers Hunter stories, and other years it'll be like here's a new Xbox because I said so. It's unpredictable. It is great. I think this year it was Bastard.

Lampgate And Lost Cords

SPEAKER_01 30:38

I'm gonna be trying to work on uh coding a video game going forward.

SPEAKER_00 30:43

Oh, did I tell you about Lampgate? Lampgate? I don't think so. So one of my good friends will send me home with random textings or random knickknacks for their house. Things from like automatic water dishes to cat hammocks attached to windows to lamps. Two years ago, they sent me home with these.

SPEAKER_01 31:01

You said automatic water dish automatic water dishes? Yeah. And I was thinking of like dishes that water themselves, the botching? It's like, oh no no, for cats.

SPEAKER_00 31:10

Yeah, that's less fun. I like where your brain was at. So they sent me home with these LED lamps that are like Wi-Fi enabled. You can set them to like rave mode and dim and brighten them from your phone, etc. etc. And I hadn't plugged them in at my old place. So we moved to the new place. Okay, and they're like, oh, you kept the lamps I gave you. I'm like, absolutely. And trying to find the cord for them, and then my brother's like, he's never plugged those in. He might never have had the cords. I'm like, why would you out me like this? He's like, well, because you threw them under the bus with your friends for like seven years without me being able to defend myself, so screw you. So my friend's been mocking me, being like, oh, I kept these maps, lamps, and never plugged them in for sentimental value for two years. You had these lamps, and I'm like, how's the lamps? You're like, they're cool, and you never thought they're cooler when plugged in, huh? Right, right. So every time I see this friend, they're like, it sure is good that you kept the cords. Oh wait, you had to buy new ones because you hadn't plugged the lamps in in two years. And it's just like that'd be ADHD for you in a nutshell. Yeah, I'll plug in these lamps when I get a second. Year passes, move with them. Never had used them at the previous place.

SPEAKER_01 32:25

What kind of cord are they using? Display board?

SPEAKER_00 32:29

I had I basically had to like go on Amazon and type in the product number, be like adapter for this kind of thing, and then they gave me cords.

SPEAKER_01 32:37

Yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_00 32:39

So I never did find their original power cords, which means I guess I should have been a little less harsh on your insane vertical monitoring. That's what's insane about it. It's facial. It's just gross. It's like the equivalency of putting ketchup on ice cream. Like, sure, it's technically a fruit and fruit topping goes on ice cream, but you're doing it wrong. Uh, I wonder what really has more what do you think actually has more sugar content? Cherry syrup or ketchup? Like, what's actually closer to being a dessert chemically?

Netflix One Piece Fixes The Anime

SPEAKER_01 33:16

Hmm, that's a good question. Uh what you know what else is a good question? Uh what's new on Crunchyroll?

SPEAKER_00 33:24

Yeah, so moving into the topic, I'm gonna start with something not on Crunchyroll. So I binged the new season of live action One Piece yesterday. I mean the day before. I wasn't intending to watch all of it, but it was so good. Yeah. They fixed so much of One Piece. For one thing, their 16 episodes cover 130. Yeah, so and like the things they chose to keep make so first off, One Piece's big what would you say One Piece's biggest three problems are? For if you want if I was trying to convince if you're to try and convince your girlfriend to watch animated One Piece, what would you say its biggest three problems are?

SPEAKER_01 34:09

Uh well I mean pacing. Pacing is terrible. Um the uh clear shift in art style over time.

SPEAKER_02 34:21

Huh.

SPEAKER_01 34:21

Um and uh the repetitive nature of it because like it's just cookie cutter, each each arc is almost the same. They they go to an island, they fight the big band, they go to the next island, and then they get sent back to the start of the grand line. Like, how many times have they gone back to the start of the grand line? Never.

SPEAKER_00 34:41

That's literally never happened. You hallucinated that.

SPEAKER_01 34:45

Yeah, but they get like set back a bunch, don't they? Nope. Oh, really?

SPEAKER_00 34:50

Correct.

SPEAKER_01 34:52

So Well then I don't know what the three biggest problems with with with one piece are.

SPEAKER_00 34:56

The way they designed women. What's that?

SPEAKER_01 35:00

Yeah, except for uh except for the at the start, Nami was a reasonably sized uh and aspect ratio woman. Like you, you know.

SPEAKER_00 35:11

So like the things that Netflix is fixed. So first is the pacing. Second is character building. So a lot of the new scenes they added were characters that like never got screen time together actually like developing as characters and growing. So it makes so they've used a lot of plot points to make it become and then storytelling instead of like I mean because of, not and then storytelling. So they like folded in events to like build on themselves. They shifted the point of view to follow them and then the Marines back and forth so you can kind of see like the stakes in the world building. They've moved in things way earlier to like build stakes up, but also, so it was impossible to create one piece of foam fan service. Right? There's no version of reality where they weren't putting Emily Rudd in a bikini. So instead, they oiled up all the men as well. I say this as a bit, because like every male character at least one point in it is standing their shirtless, and there's ones where they're in Snow Kingdom, and Zoro's just dang their shirtless flexing, and the character's like, why are you doing that? He's like, because I look good. Okay. And I'm like, that's somehow the correct solution to this problem, isn't it? You just you do it to everybody, and you've solved it. So, like, the first season, they added in like the Marines early, and you like actually follow back and forth between the Straw Hats and Kobe and Garp, because they brought in Garp really early into the show. And then the second season, they trimmed a lot of the bullshit. You gotta see Zoro actually kill a hundred people in one episode. And like, they didn't Tarantino the blood, but they didn't Toey the blood either, so like you see him stab someone in the throat, they bleed, and they die like a person would, like, a reasonable amount. And I'm like, man, a lot of people are dying in this Netflix version, but they're doing it subtly, which makes it better. I'm like, there's a few times like, oh man, Luffy just straight up murders that dude. Luffy gets the ship, it's like, well, that'll teach that dude. He's dead, Luffy. And it's just like they do a bunch of little tweaks, and I cannot believe like how much better of the show is than the actual original animated series. Like, there's a bit where Considering how badly we uh they watched Cowboy Bebop. It is baffling the difference in quality, because I'm like, no, this is like actually the best version of One Piece. It's just like little things, like there's a bit where a character literary goes, like, oh, you thought we were skipping Logetown as they like go into that plot arc and compress like 12 episodes into one very solid episode. And they're just doing a good job of like, hey, now I'm rewriting with this with hindsight, and I'm doing an immensely better job of the show.

SPEAKER_01 37:54

Yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_00 37:55

But also some of the things they decide that were worth keeping. So my favorite scene in it is about midway through season two. In the original, there's a scene where Sanji goes on the shell phone and like pretends to be one of the agents to confuse the villain of the plot art crocodile and then gets jumped by a combat otter who rides a uh vulture with machine guns.

SPEAKER_02 38:18

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 38:19

And I want to let you know that they didn't they need to cut, I don't know, 80% of the stuff out of the show. So there's no words for how happy I was that the artist combat otter still fought Sanji while the phone was on hold and the machine gun vulture was there. And that fight scene, like they frame it like they're just fighting in the background while someone's on the phone, like, waiting for the person to talk. And I'm like, I'm so happy this made it in. Because a group sat around a board deciding what to kind of like we gotta keep the otter in the sunglasses, though, right? And there's a bit that this otter was spying on them and drew portraits of them to show the boss to like break their anonymity, and the portraits it drew were manga accurate. Yeah, okay. Like, that's such a good bit, right? Yeah. So I'm like, this show is just a good time, and I highly recommend it, because like they even said in an interview, a lot of adaptations have the instinct to explain what's happening. And this one just simply didn't bother. And it was great. Like, they didn't ex feel the need to explain the snail phones or like the s wor various world settings, it just got into it and let it be. So, 10 out of 10, highly recommend Netflix One Piece. Season 2 decide to go more wacky, but like they've done such a good job grounding it, like, all the characters are taking the world completely seriously, and it's just a beautiful thing. Like here's an example. Princess Vivi in the anime shows up as an assassin and jumps them, and then proceeds to do nothing for a hundred episodes, right? Right. Instead, because she's combat trained, she jumps in and helps during the fights. So Luffy and Vivi fight robot Whopple Eats People Man. And I'm like, yes, correct. Let your characters do things and talk to each other. Also, the series actually passes the Bechtel test now. Yeah. That took a while. It's a low bar to move across, but I'm gonna bring this up as we go over or what's new of Crunchyroll is. I'm absolutely gonna ask Breed Show, do you think it passed the Bechtel test? So we're going to follow the order of what's trending in Canada. I've already talked about One Piece, but I'm gonna follow up with the One Piece anime is on hiatus right now as they move into Giant Land, and their last couple plot arcs are two of their best One Piece plot arcs. And Wano was their worst plot arc because it lasted forever, and then they trimmed it down. Technically, One Piece has just started its second season because it took a season break for the first time ever.

SPEAKER_01 41:04

That is pretty hilarious. Also, the Wano plot arc is the plot arc with the longest fight in anime history.

SPEAKER_00 41:12

I'm so mad because there's a moment where the fight should have ended because it was super hype and then went for another 50 episodes. Like, there's a bit where he like went in a training guard and learned this cool uppercut punch in the original season when theme song plays as he uppercuts the guy, and like, yeah, end it. No. No, no, no, no. We're not just gonna end it on this hype moment. We have to like go through so much bullshit to get here.

SPEAKER_01 41:37

Right, and then that they have to go through an entire season of of Gundam Seed to finish that fight.

JJK Hype And Attack On Titan

SPEAKER_00 41:44

So much ha not just let's go with this. Kaido the Last Order and Psychopaths both fit into that fight in their entirety. All of Full Metal Alchemist fits in Wano twice over. The original and Brotherhood fit into Wano. That's ridiculous. So those are my One Piece thoughts. I assume you don't watch weekly one piece. I do not. It's really good right now. People are like, how the hell is Toei doing this without dying? And they're like, we need to take a break because we didn't do it without dying. It killed us. Uh, next on the trending list we have JJK. Are you following JJK this season?

SPEAKER_01 42:28

Uh I have not till I actually I've been watching more anime lately because I was like, you know what? I'm paying Prince Roll, I probably should watch stuff. And pre-run is is amazing. But uh I've heard good things about JJK animated. Uh you've told me that the it's a better way to enjoy the series than uh than reading it.

SPEAKER_00 42:51

There's literally some chapters where he was like sick and just wrote them as squiggly lines. Yes. So one of the things that was So JJK, the internet thinks is the best thing coming out this season. They're objectively wrong. But I'm not so objectively But I'm not so naive to not give it some credit. So people like, oh, it's the best animated thing this season. It's not. It's comfortably in fourth. Fourth is pretty good. Like that this episode where Maki goes in and they do a bunch of kill bill mo of cinematography homages. Mm-hmm. And it was sick. Like JJK's animation is sick. If any of the like older show and jump got JJK's animation and cinematography budget, it would actually be absurd. Like if Yu Yu Hakasho was done the way JJK was done, we'd be still talking about it to this day, instead of it being like, the fuck was Yu Yu Hakasho. Which had the same basic plot. Right. But like so, like, yeah, JJK, I highly recommend it. It did pass the Beckdown test, which was a fun twist. Not by much, but it did. Fair. And the JJK sequel manga just ended, and it angers me because people are saying it's a good ending, and I'm like, it won't be. In the three months, once you're stopped being high on the cool animation and production values, you're gonna realize that a character coming back in the second last chapter of a sequel manga to magically fix everything, because you introduced aliens is the exact reason you guys all shit on Borito every week and shit on the ending of Naruto every week. Do not pretend JJK did that well. Because you can't do aliens came in and solved the plot well in any show. No. That's not about aliens. Maybe. Maybe Star Trek. But even then, no. Because it's the idea it's such a news ex Machina, it physically makes me ill. That makes sense. So the sequel JJK manga angered me because they had Yuji roll up at the very end and then magically solve everything. Like literally ever. I didn't even really understand exactly like Also, I'm being vague about it because it is spoilers to a show people are currently watching, so I just shadowed the sequel and the ending of JJK. And people are in the middle of like season three. Oops. Saui. It doesn't matter what the plot of JJK is, though. Like I said, they did a kill like an hour-long kill bill montage with top-tier animation of Maki Murdering Dudes. Live action One Piece did it better with Sorrow, but they did it pretty good in JJK.

SPEAKER_01 45:30

Okay, so Netflix uh One Piece adaptation is gonna be here bar to clear.

SPEAKER_00 45:35

Kinda. It feels reasonable because it's not good. I just really enjoyed it. Like, it's still One Piece. Like, if I had to put it on quality, it's like, I loved Netflix One Piece, it's right up there with Starge HG1 from the 2000s. Like it's like, yeah, no. I'm not saying it's high art, I'm saying I th I binged it, which I don't often do these days. Because it was stupid and fun. And better than the original. Alright, next on the list we have somehow Attack on Titan is trending, even though no new contents came out for it.

SPEAKER_01 46:13

Yeah, a lot of what's trending on in Canada is for some reason not actually from this season.

SPEAKER_00 46:19

So we'll give it like a quick touch over for the sake of like the structure of this list. I'm gonna just say, like, the first few seasons of Attack on Titan on Netflix really brought like a second life to anime. Like, Attack on Titan was the animation gold standard when it was coming out. Mm-hmm. And it did do his time travel story well, which I have to give it credit for. Right, right. I didn't really care for it after this time skip that much because I was following people I didn't care about. It landed the plane pretty well. I'm not so arrogant to say Attack on Titan was pretty good. I don't love the weird Nazi at parallels it did, but that's for a paper later, not for me in this conversation.

Sentenced To Be A Hero Surprise

SPEAKER_02 47:00

Right, right, right.

SPEAKER_00 47:01

Now, Sentence to Be a Hero, I have in like second place for weekly animation. I think it's fight scenes and cinematography are actually cooler than JJK. It definitely definitely is a super cool, cool show. Um it keeps almost making me I've never seen something a series come so close to hitting red flags and then swerving to dodge them at the last minute in my life.

SPEAKER_02 47:28

Oh yeah?

SPEAKER_00 47:29

Well, long time viewers know I hate the concept of Ika size, I hate the concept of harems, I hate the weird underage, but my character's actually old trope and anime, it disgusts me. And the show keeps being like, he might be from another world. Huh, just kidding. Oh, I'm not. This are this younger character is actually reflecting on the horrors of war as their ascension weapon, and he's mourning the loss of the previous one like a daughter. Oh, that's not gonna be a Ramacom, because this guy's arm's getting shot off. I'm like, okay, okay, show. You got me, you got me. And they're like, here's my dateable adult protagonist who likes poetry, who got sentenced for speaking out against authority as a character slowly spends time with them and learns they're actually a good dude. I'm like, this is very reasonable. Yes. It's you keep getting so close to hitting a trope and then dodging it that I think you're fucking with me intentionally at this point. Also, his superpower is exploding knives, and he's paired with sword summoner, and that's just fun cinematography. Well, it's other superpower is that no jump good legs. I mean, to be fair, I would also let's be honest, Sentence to Be a Hero is the kind of thing I would write.

SPEAKER_01 48:43

You've read my work.

SPEAKER_00 48:46

Well, I literally installed jump good legs, magical jump good legs with glyphs on the legs of one of my characters like five years ago. Like there's some parallels to my own novel, to Sentence to Be a Hero that I see, and I'm like, this is a weird mirror to be looking at. This is absolutely the kind of thing I would come up with. So this clearly is targeted for me.

SPEAKER_01 49:10

Yeah, I would say I enjoy the Sentence to Be a Hero. Uh the only thing that I that bugs me slightly is uh and I don't know what they what they could have named it, uh, but Sentence to Be a Hero, the reason I actually started watching it was because oh, that's a peculiar, well, sentence. Like how do you punish people by making them heroes? And it's like, oh yeah, they go out and they do heroic work, but everybody hates them.

SPEAKER_00 49:40

And they have bombs on their neck.

SPEAKER_01 49:42

Yeah, no, it would be more like if it was like the cats call it Suicide Squad, but I mean that's so here's my thoughts on the nomenclature.

SPEAKER_00 49:51

And we talked a bit about this when we were talking about uh Pretty Please May I Face Punch Princess, which I would have called it a better name. Is a lot of these titles are designed by the publishing side, not the writing side, because this dud was a uh light novel, to hit certain search criteria. Because you look at the description in the cover and you think it's an Ikasai. Yeah, yeah, okay. Sentence to be a Hero is the most Ikasai ass name imaginable. So you just finished watching solo leveling, and you're like, solo leveling, I want to watch something like this, Sentence to Be a Hero. And it tricks you into being classic 90s fantasy. Fair enough. But also looking at the fact that it's being tricked, is all that's Well, you're not that's because you're looking at it too early, my friend. So, you know how I gave you a rant on symbolism, symbolic shifting, and semiotics the last month? I just straight up gave you this lecture because I was bored in the time to kill during a walk. Is that we have the term hero in our brain and we specifically think my hero academia hero, right? And then sentence to be shifts our meaning to oh, we're making someone be this kind of hero. I guarantee you one of the symbolic meanings over the course of the story is them reclaiming it to be the traditional meaning. So part of the point of the show is for them to be, ugh, we hate heroes, so oh, we love heroes. So the idea is that the show's over its arc is reclaiming the original meaning of that term.

SPEAKER_01 51:20

Well, and you know, I can see the symbolism where it's like, oh, people are like, don't be a hero. And to the double entendre there, uh, of don't sacrifice yourself meaninglessly, and also don't be a dangerous criminal that's forced into eternal military servitude.

SPEAKER_00 51:35

Which is sick, by the way. That's sick writing choice. Like, I just I don't I don't know why it bugs me, but I honest I'm wondering if there's gonna be a plot point that the reason you said they send them to be immortal is someone has a spell to like make dead people talk, and it's the way a way to keep them from actually being interrogated. Like, that's just I I feel like there's gonna be more to this ridiculous punishment, but I love this ridiculous punishment. It's like, hey, you committed a high crime. Was my crime lying? No, your crime is you guessed right. So you can't talk or your head explodes, and we're gonna make you fight for all eternity. Like, that's such a good pun. I would love to sentence the Donald to have to go as a foot soldier in in his war right now and save people and pull people out of collapsed hospitals, and if he doesn't, his head explodes, and then he has to do it again tomorrow. Like, that is the correct punishment for some people. Like, that'd be such a good thing to do to Elon is yeah, you're now forced to be a member of Doctors Without Borders indefinitely. Enjoy. I also like the magic system actually being a magic system. Glyphs collect sunlight, and then you combine it with the internal energy inside your body to make things happen. You put glyphs on things or tattoo them on yourself. Tattooing too many things on yourself is crazy. There's just straight up dragons and they're adorable, and you feed them. Like, I like internal logic being good. Oh, we just found these goddess things, so we use them, but they seem to like almost have been mass-produced. There's a lot going on. I'm enjoying it. The show can, however, disclaimer. It is entirely possible for the show to implode at any moment, because it keeps swerving past red flames like a squalum skier, and if it curves directly into one, it's over. It's over. But my favorite moment in anime this year, best year of anime, I think, I'm calling it early because like we're in March and we have things that are hitting my like lifetime top ten, is when the dude says you can't make us fight, and then he shoots off the other guy's arm and says, Why did you shoot the other guy when I protest? He goes, Well, because you seem more useful. That was so beautifully unhinged. You shot off why did you shoot him? To teach you a lesson now, get to work. What?

SPEAKER_01 54:04

Uh, descendants to be in here is pretty top tier.

SPEAKER_00 54:07

Oh, like King Norgle is amazing.

SPEAKER_02 54:11

Hmm.

SPEAKER_00 54:12

Alright. So I'm gonna just skip over Black Clover and Jack of All Trades Party of None. I'm assuming you haven't watched Jack of All Trades Party of None. I have not. So then we got Slime Stranding for some reason. Slime Ikisai's weird one. It started as a dumb power fantasy and turned to a weird city builder.

SPEAKER_01 54:32

Well, you've said that uh a lot of these Ikisai's kind of go that route for some reason. Because it's not done with the power fancy.

SPEAKER_00 54:40

Yeah, because as we learned from One Punch Man, you can only do the bit for twelve episodes. And then the bits uh you're done. You're used up your bit.

SPEAKER_01 54:50

And then you actually have to write a story.

SPEAKER_00 54:53

Like, and you can only do the overpowered protagonist for about 12 episodes. Like, let's pivot, even though it's not on our list, but we're gonna talk about it. Is the Heavenly King anime, slash, it's from China, so not anime, whatever they call it. Is awesome, but absolutely kind of peaked out at the end of season two.

SPEAKER_01 55:14

The Daily Lake of the Immortal King uh is is the full title for anyone listening. Um and I mean I would kind of agree with you. I I I do think uh seasons one through three are kind of a trilogy that actually have a nice arc if you watch them.

SPEAKER_00 55:32

Yeah, beginning, middle, end, kinda sorta. Well I still love the bit in season two where the intro directly goes into the ending of the last episode. Like that was great. Got me good.

SPEAKER_01 55:45

Um But season four is it felt like an addendum that didn't really need to exist. And season five feels like they upped the production value. I haven't watched it all yet, but it feels like they upped the production value. Um uh, but it still doesn't it doesn't feel like it's continuing the story or really needed to exist.

SPEAKER_00 56:09

Ah, fair enough. Because it's like there's bits in the first and second and third season, they're some of my favorite bits. Like when the froggy literally goes, why is there theme music playing? and then gets exploded is amazing. Shooting the arrow around the world to hit your target is still one of my favorite clips. Just full stop. That's just such a good bit. So, like, yeah, like top tier entertainment. For sure, check out the first three seasons, then drop it if you need to. Uh I don't know. They mean like you're gonna be singing what makes it worse. I'm literally letting you go through it to then tell me if I should throw it on in the background later. Like, I'm just using you for this purpose at this point.

SPEAKER_01 56:51

Well, okay. The th the this season does have an absolutely fantastic bit. Um where uh his unborn sister, they're like uh doing tests or whatever, um, and they're listening to the to the heartbeat. And it just like starts turning out this like this crazy music and everyone starts dancing, and they're like, Oh yeah, I've never heard a beat this sick.

unknown 57:19

Okay.

Frieren Pacing And Rowling Rant

SPEAKER_00 57:19

That's a good that is I do love an overpowered character bit I haven't seen before. That's that's fresh. Yo. That's pretty funny. Alright, next on our list we have free rin. Freerin's just art. Like, I've heard the argument that the first season takes like six episodes to get started. And like, uh I feel like I, if I was doing free run, I would have opened with the battle against the demon king with the budget of some of the later fights they have in free run to just kind of like let people know that's coming. That's the only thing I would have changed in free run, is I would have added an extra opening five minutes of the party of heroes actually defeating the demon king and showed pieces of it. Not the full fight, but like just a chunk of it, and then have them returning home.

SPEAKER_01 58:04

Just as a quick aside here, actually, uh the first four or five minutes of the first episode of Immortal King season five. Yeah. Uh is a a big battle that is assumably going to happen later in the season. Um, and the reason the reason I say they have their production value, uh, and I suspect they put this battle at the start uh to pique interest and to show off their animation quality. Um but so far I like I'll come back around because it was kind of uh like you say, open with the fake battle to be like, oh, this is this is coming, and then you can show off your animation quality and and uh get people interested. I don't really particularly like like that technique as it relates to the Immortal King, but I could definitely see how that would have uh improved the slow start to Freerin. Because yeah, free is slow start.

SPEAKER_00 59:05

Yeah, free run doesn't really feel like it picks up until we get like the first demon arc. And then I'm like, okay, now I'm in it to win it. Like once we get to Aura Kill Yourself, then we're then free run is cooking, and I'm like, yeah, I'm here for the ride. But for the record, I love the slow and steady kind of like adventure of the week building up towards the larger like I like the structure of free run fundamentally. I just have to it's just a hard sell to be like, guys, it's pretty good for the first five episodes. And then it starts to get really good because it set the groundwork is a hard argument to make, especially the 20 somethings with cell phones in their pocket and ADHD.

SPEAKER_01 59:46

Yeah. It it has it it's done well, but it has the pacing of a book.

unknown 59:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 59:54

It has the pacing of Lord of the Rings, let's let's be honest, like Yeah, and I mean, like, it's really hard to translate that pacing to uh animation or film in general. Uh, case in point, uh the uh Fantastic Beasts and where to find them.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:11

I really thought you were about to say Lord of the Rings. I'm like, you're not coming at Lord of the Rings here, bruh.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:16

No, no, no, no. Um So it's like the the last one, which is probably the last one because it did so poorly, uh, where uh they just like a bunch of characters show up on the train and then they go through all their backstories and and then finally actually get on with the movie. Uh, but the movie is just them being as confusing as as humanly possible, uh, and the movie just comes out as this jumbled mess. JJ Rowling, or JK Rowling, I mean, not JJ, JK Rowling, uh, is an author of books. She is not a screenwriter. To be fair. Her skill set just didn't translate well.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:57

And I mean, like Death of the Author and all that, but also, fuck that bitch and her weird transphobic political stances. Like with the funding and money she made on Harry Potter, she could have just set up women's shelters without attacking the trans community. Like, she could have just not been a hateful cow. She was allowed to do that. Uh, that is true. Reminder, this is a parody podcast, and nothing we should say ever say should be taken seriously or legally. Don't sue me, JK Rowling. But maybe don't be a cow.

unknown 1:01:32

Hey.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:32

Anyway, what's next on our list?

Solo Leveling Praise With Caveats

SPEAKER_00 1:01:35

Next is uh leveling. Uh I think soul leveling peaked. I I agree.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:42

Um the I I really, really like the character's motivation. Like the very first episode, that choice uh between going further into the dangerous dungeon with the extra doors that they that they don't know what's beyond, uh, and being able to actually um afford his mother's medical care. Like that uh moral choice, which he ended up getting a whole bunch of people killed because he wants to be able to save his mom. Um and then that motivation carries through so much of the of the show, but he achieves his objective, the show's done.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:26

I don't think it's worth watching any of the subsequent seasons. So here's my thoughts on solo leveling, which I'm notoriously a solo leveling hater. I loved the video game Claire Obscure Expedition 33. I did not like the awards it won at the game awards. Because, like, they won best indie game and they had Daredevil voicing one of their protagonists. It won like all of these categories, but like it won best RPG, for example, but wasn't actually the best role-playing game. The best role-playing game was Kingdom Come Deliverance 2, where you're like a peasant and actually have to like bake bread to become a knight, like which was a much more immersive sim. Like you play a role better. My problem with solo leveling is that it ha giving it best fight scenes is legit. Giving it best soundtrack, no, free runs was better. Giving it best animation, probably. Giving it best story, no. Giving it best protagonist, absolutely not. Giving it best antagonist, there wasn't one. So it's like Soul Leveling is an action movie, and people are acting like it's a drama when they describe it. Right? Like, it's like going in and being like, why did John Wick not win best movie of the year at the Oscars? I'm like, because it wasn't in the it wasn't best overall movie. Best action movie for sure.

unknown 1:03:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:55

But like, that's my thoughts of solo leveling, is like, it's a stupid cool show. That's stupid and cool. It's the best Ikasai by a wide margin. Other than other than maybe Digimon Adventure or Inuasha. Like, it is a actually my favorite Ikasai is Vision of Escaplone, but uh solo leveling was objectively better than Vision of Escap- of the three I mentioned, solo leveling was objectively better as a show to sit down and watch. For now, I do think every single additional season past this point is gonna be diminishing returns, and much like Boruto will eventually drop the show to being mid. Because the power scaling gets absurd, and he loses personality as he goes, and there was never really any stakes other than the personal ones.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:46

See, and that's that's what I really liked about it was that the stakes were so personal. Uh, but again, he achieves his objective by the end of what's animated.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:56

And like, to talk about Face Puncher Princess a bit, it had a great premise and a great character, but like forgot to have danger in stakes. Because like Soul Level is also at the point of like there's no reason he should lose a fight to anyone ever for any reason at this point.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:13

He's already the most powerful being in existence, basically.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:17

Yeah. And it's like, once you have like, oh, I gave my character a power-up who could already stop time and punch people to now stop time and punch people better. You lose any tension. So, like, it doesn't really matter how cool you rip off the Chimera Ant fight. It's not gonna Also, like, I'm gonna throw shade at soul leveling. Not a nothing in there is original. It's just soul it's just like it's just Hunter Hunter meets Sword Art online, like. But like with its bullshit menu system, blah blah blah blah blah. But like, yeah. That's it, I'm done dunking a soul level. It's pretty good. For for all that dunking, it's It's pretty good. It is pretty good. Like, that's the honest review. It's pretty good. If you want to watch a B tier Marvel movie with a plus tier animation, watch solo leveling. But all that, like, all that's missing is him fighting a color swap version of himself and losing his powers in the sequel.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:19

Well, unfortunately, that doesn't happen, but.

Fire Force Fan Service Problem

SPEAKER_00 1:06:21

Alright, so next on the list is Fire Force. Uh, Fire Force. Tis tiss. So it's part of the Soul Eater universe? It's technically a spoiler that everyone's already spoiled.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:36

So it's like a pre-well tissuable soul eater? Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:40

So Fire Force is in its final season, which means it'll end with starting up Soul Eater. Okay. So they've green lit that they're doing, and now they're doing like a manga accurate Soul Eater after Fire Force ends. Because Soul Eater pulled a full Metal Alchemist original run and just made up the second half because the manga wasn't done yet. Yeah, okay. So this author has a weird thing that makes my eye twitch that he does. Okay. Because the core premise of his work is usually pretty good. His art style is cool, his concepts are good, but he feels insistent on always having a booby McBoob fanservice character. So fanserv- they're literally a character in this whose power is they strip, like, unwillingly. And it's just like, dude, grow up. Does Firefirst pass the Bectel fest? No. Unsurprising. What's really bizarre-ish though is Soul Eater does. Huh. It's because Soul Eater had a female protagonist with their talking scythe sidekick, and there are a few other female characters. Like every character they did a gender pairing for every one of their squads, so every male character is either male character of a female weapon or female character of a male weapon for most of them. Which resulted in a pretty nuanced take. But then they just have Booby McBoob witches as characters. I'm like, Can I you give me the IP and I'll make a six Soul Eater game and I'll just edit the sprites. A little I want the team that did live action One Piece to do live action Soul Eater, and it will be exquisite. That's I think what I actually want. The little revisions and by having knowledge, past tense, retcons, adjusting characters' physiques to be human, spreading out the fan service evenly, so you're not removing it, you're just balancing it and being less aggressively sexist. A few more characters talking to each other to pass the Bechtel text. Boom, clean, done. Oh. Yeah. That that's it. Fire Force and Soul Eater will be great when adapted live action by Netflix by the same team that did One Piece. That is my take. It is an insane crack take, and I stand by it. Soul Eater is actually doable too, because like you just need enough practical effects in CGI to have a dude turn into a scythe. Because you could just do choreography of someone fighting monsters with a scythe. Like the superpowers of Soul Eater were pretty low tier. Right. Also, if they can adapt One Piece, they can literally adapt anything.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:15

You did say they have an otter riding a uh machine gun vultures.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:18

That's so good!

SPEAKER_01 1:09:19

I'm so happy.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:21

They kept a scene where Zoro's like, uh, you're where they're being petrified in wax, and they're like, what are you doing? Like, oh, I need to strike a cool pose because I'm gonna die, it's gonna leave an awesome statue. Like, they made Zorro such a himbo, it's beautiful. There's a bit where he like makes himself a spear by duct like tying a shovel to a stick, and then goes, What's the plan? I'm like, oh, I'm gonna hit the punchy bag thing in the roof of his mouth. And Nama goes, the Uvila, and he's like, oh, it's a female whale. Complete straight-faced kills me every time. I'm just like, oh. And there's a bit where he's like, I don't get lost, I'm great at direction, and just walks in the wrong way. It's like because the characters don't have the anime over-exaggerated reactions, it makes the humor funnier, because one piece bits would always have someone make a dumb face and like over-exaggerate it. Now if they're doing it straight-faced, which is so much funnier. Like there's a bit where someone's fighting and it's like, please take this fight seriously, I'm trying to kill you. That's great. Uh but yes, Fire Force, pretty good. It's just if it didn't have fan service, it'd actually be probably go a tier of really good. They have a really trippy episode where we learn that Fire Force is a sequel to our actual reality and they go photorealistic for an episode to look at the past world before the apocalypse turned them into a 2D animation world.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:48

Huh.

Fate Strange Fake Goes Unhinged

SPEAKER_00 1:10:50

Right? Like, that's trippy. It was like the standby me music video.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:56

Huh.

SPEAKER_00 1:10:57

Alright, have you been watching Hell's Paradise? I have not. It's pretty good. I've been saying pretty good a lot. So Hell's Paradise, I'd probably put in like seventh of things I've been watching recently. Okay. The animation's pretty. The premise of, oh, we're fighting horrifying plant monsters on Death Island to find the makeup in Elixir, as we follow actual ninja Gabimaru, and Samurai Chick as they learn the overcomplicated Nen power system. Season two got bad a bit because they took the time to explain their overcomplicated ass power system for like days. It's overcomplicated. TLDR ninjas and samurais fight plants monsters with a pretty good budget. Yeah, okay. I don't know how Fairy Tale is trending in Canada. I simply don't know how. I have no need to give more thoughts on Fairy Tale. I've given all my thoughts on Fairy Tale. Alright, that's fair. Like, I did full episodes on it. It's like, yeah, Fairy Tale fan services everybody passes the Bechtel test, shockingly, is terrible to men and women, had a mediocre season finale, then has a sequel going that's just more fairy tale, that's pretty good. Like, Fairy Tale, if I was rating it objectively as a fair human being, I'd give it like a B. But it's also one of the most likely things I've talked about that I'm gonna just sit through and rewatch at some point for the fun of it while playing a Game Boy or something. Right. Have you been following apothecary diaries?

SPEAKER_01 1:12:32

I have not. Uh my brother has, and he says that it's quite good and that I should watch it.

SPEAKER_00 1:12:38

I've also been hearing that through the V Grapevine.

SPEAKER_01 1:12:43

But yeah, no, I I have lots of things on my watch list. Uh a lot of them are not actually even that new. Um I uh I don't part of the reason I don't watch a lot of anime is because uh if it's something I'm genuinely interested in, I want to give it my full attention. So it's not something I can just put on in the background, especially uh if it's uh subbed.

SPEAKER_00 1:13:08

Yeah, like that's why I'll put on like dubbed fairy tale in the background, because it doesn't take my full attention, where going through like free rin again does. So anything in the current season we ha that you're watching we haven't touched on yet to jump ahead of it.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:23

Um well it's not trending in Canada, apparently. Um but uh there was a um uh anime cable 2025. I guess I don't know if that's current season or not, but it was called close enough. Scooped up by uh S-blast party.

SPEAKER_00 1:13:40

Oh, you better work quick here because I'm already off the tr I'm already off this bandwagon.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:49

It was just kind of dumb. I I I enjoyed it. Uh but um it's it's about a um extremely talented kid. Uh his parents die in a war and he gets raised by the mage Merlin. Um But Merlin is like, okay, this kid's too powerful, so I'm only going to teach them support magic. Uh, and then I'm basically gonna give them a mad inferiority complex or they think that they're worse than everybody around them, even though they're clearly leagues better.

SPEAKER_00 1:14:19

Did Chat GPT write this? Did ChatGPT write this? Because that's the most cliche I could say plot imaginable. That's not an ecosai. Wait, what? It's it's not an eco-side. That can't be Huh. Alright, uh you got me back on board slightly. If Truckkun's not involved, the odds of me enjoying it increase a little.

SPEAKER_01 1:14:43

Uh look, I don't know. I mean, I don't know if I would say it was actually really that good. Uh but it was it was it was fun. It was and it was relatively interesting to me at least.

SPEAKER_00 1:14:58

I mean you're right, it does sound kind of kind of bland, but Yeah, but I gave that same argument for sentence to be a hero where I'm like, it it tricks you, because algorithms. Like a sentence to be a hero went to an adventurer's guild and it was just a thug base.

SPEAKER_01 1:15:15

But I mean, so so basically, uh the S-Class party, uh, their support um character uh decides to retire because their sister is sick and they want to spend time with their sister before the sister dies or whatever. Um and so then they're about to go on this big mission, but the support character was just too distracted because of the sick sister. Uh so then she retires suddenly, and uh they're like, oh no, we need a powerful support person, and uh Merlin's apprentice uh just happens to be in town and and he's unranked, so nobody wants to hire him because he's just a support character. And they're like, Well, you know, we need a support character to come work for us, and then it turns out that he's the best support character possible.

SPEAKER_00 1:16:03

This is why it's bugging me. There's that new manga coming out that's nearly one for one that premise. Oh. There's like a mage guy who, like, yeah, I use wave and support magic, but my magic stats really low because I manipulate other people's magic. Ace was like a medicine ball at people.

SPEAKER_01 1:16:19

Oh yeah, the Kina To's magic or whatever.

SPEAKER_00 1:16:22

Yeah, that's why my brain's like, this sounds really familiar. Okay. I'm not saying it is really similar, but that's what it popped to mind.

SPEAKER_01 1:16:31

Uh I mean it the the setup is is different. Uh, but it it does have similar vibes to that new manga for sure.

SPEAKER_00 1:16:40

And yeah, the next one that like I'm watching recently we haven't touched on yet. So have you if you have watched Fate Zero, Fate's Day Night, Fate Stay Night Unlimited Bur Blade Works, the three Fate Stay Night spin-off movies, Fate Acrophobia, then Fate Strains Fake is one of the best shows ever made. If you have watched, yet to be fair, all of it fits in Wano.

SPEAKER_02 1:17:12

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 1:17:13

Because they're not long animes, they're like 24 episodes and three. Yeah, I think all of it does. Like, I don't even think I'm talking about my ass. I'm pretty sure it all does actually fit in Wano comfortably with some space to spare. But like. So, you would think Free Rin would have the best animation or Sentenced to be a Hero. Fate Strain Fate looks making them look like they're being made by amateurs.

unknown 1:17:37

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 1:17:38

Fate Strain Fate's production values puts everything this season, debatably the best season of anime in human history, to shame. To shame. Every scene, even the dialogue and exposition is super cool, super well framed, good mix of comedy, action, drama, tragedy, like it is beautiful. And it is a direct canonical sequel to everything I just listed. However, the entry curve of watching these five animes, I understand. I don't know how well this would work. However, there's a scene early on. So, there's a mage explaining the concept of this holy grail war where they had to start a fake holy grail roll to trigger a real holy grail war. And the wizard's explaining this to his apprentice, and the apprentice goes, Oh, by the way, this is America. The government's seizing this war. They're like, What? And then raises his hand, a bunch of marines in the bushes machine gun this mage to death as he puts out a cigarette on his head.

SPEAKER_02 1:18:45

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 1:18:46

So here's just some out-of-context scenes in Fate Strange Fake and why everyone should watch it. A priest with an eye patch punches a vampire with an extendable rocket fist. Huh. Okay. A character accidentally summons Jack the Ripper by using a novelty action figure. And then has Jack the Ripper shapeshift into a police guard to escort him into a s a station to bust out uh Richard the Lionheart.

unknown 1:19:16

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 1:19:18

A wolf manages to summon a demigod who proceeds to fight another demigod in one of the most cinematic battles of all time. And Hercules is mid-tier right now, doing his best. Okay. So this show is just beautiful. Like, there's a moment where a character. So a character who is executed for witchcraft summons themselves because they survived witchcraft and made themselves a new body, so they summon the fast horse of themselves to team up just to cause chaos. Huh. It's so good, man. Just watch it. Even if you don't know what's happening, even if you don't know what's happening, you have to appreciate a bunch of police officers with magical weapons fighting Cerberus in the streets.

SPEAKER_01 1:20:03

Right? Like.

SPEAKER_00 1:20:05

Wasn't Hercules like S t here in uh phase zero? Yeah, but Fate Strange Fake doesn't give a fuck. It's like someone decided to make the most unhinged version of the events imaginable and had it take place in off-brand Las Vegas.

unknown 1:20:24

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 1:20:25

Like, the amount of audible cheering I actually did when a bunch of dudes with machine guns stepped out of the bushes and just machine gunned this stupid beige to death. I'm like, ha ha ha, idiot. Oh. Or Versa got asked what a servant was, and he lied and said Charlie Chaplin. Because that was a Charlie Chaplin? And they're like, why did you say that? He's like, first name that popped in my head. I also appreciate comedy. So who'd you summon as your Lancer class server? Charlie Chaplin? I think he's lying to us. It's just good. Like, the idea that, like, I'm watching Freerin, and that's not the show I'm the most excited for every week. Or Sentenced to Be a Hero is not the show I'm most excited for every week, is actually just a beautiful era of mankind to be living in right now. Like, I'm like, oh, I have a day off, what am I gonna watch? And like Free Rin, the thing I've said, like, yeah, award-winning Lord of the Rings Caliber Free Rin is the third show I put on. That's crazy. But did you did you know there's a a Trigun sequel to the reboot of Trigon? Yeah, that hasn't even made my list this season. Hence my best season of anime remark. I'll get to Trigun eventually. There's a freaking Digimon series airing that I'm just waiting till it comes out dubbed.

unknown 1:21:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:21:56

I put Digimon on scene.

SPEAKER_01 1:22:00

I was just looking at a new anime from the season. I've seen the Trigon Stargate on there. I was like, well, is that actually new? But apparently it is this season.

SPEAKER_00 1:22:07

Yeah, so they they rebooted Trigun to follow the manga. And that's the sequel to the reboot. And I will watch that at some point because it's gonna be real cool. But that's me gushing at the season right now, we're gonna like, I'll get to it when I get to it. I got enough stuff to watch. It's really up there though between Sentence Be a Hero and Straight Fate Strange Fake. I think if I wasn't already a Fate fan, where they're like bringing together tons of lingering plot arcs from like five different scenes. So all the fate shows didn't feel like they were related until Strange Fake happened, where they all became related. Like the dude from Fate uh Weber from Fate Zero is one of the main characters in Fate Strange Fake as a begrunched old professor being sick of this bullshit.

SPEAKER_01 1:23:00

Yeah, okay.

My Hero Vigilantes And Spinoff Fatigue

SPEAKER_00 1:23:01

So like a lot of like things are going on. Also, they have they're doing the My Hero Academia Vigilante spin-off right now. Ah, yeah, okay. And to talk at that, but not at length. My Hero Academia's original anime run finished, like last season.

SPEAKER_02 1:23:19

Right.

SPEAKER_00 1:23:20

My Hero Academia stuck the landing pretty good. You've heard me get my rant that they like somehow shoved the entire events of the whole series into one year for some reason. Yeah, just one. Okay, sorry. Go ahead. So, like, My Hero Academia has some pacing issues. They end the show, have a little time skip, it ended fine. My Hero Acad except I don't Deku loses his power, gets an Iron Man shoot. All the main thing that's funny about that is the entire audience is like, wait a minute. Wouldn't have Deku been more interesting if he didn't have a quirk the whole time. Like if he was just Iron Man? If he just ov if over the course of the show he kept building himself new gadgets and by the end of it was Iron Man? Because his suit specifically has like versions of every one of his classmates' powers, the show would have been so much more interesting if he was just building gadgets and was quirkless the entire time. So My Hero Academia Vigilante's first season was interesting because it followed other characters in the world. But as suffering from Marvel syndrome in second season of they keep like diving into side characters from the main show. Like they did like a two-episode eraser head flashback. I'm like, this isn't his show. And it's annoying because they keep giving screen time to characters from the main series, even though it's a prequel. And I'm just like, have enough faith in the story you wrote that we don't have to give up 15 minutes of my Spider-Man movie to Iron Man. Right. I don't need to watch Fat Gum in the My Hero Academia spin-off. You invented new characters, maybe use them. Also, they're bad at being vigilantes in vigil uh My Hero Academia Vigilantes. Like they're not even doing vigilanteism. Really? Yeah, not really.

SPEAKER_01 1:25:06

We were kind of being vigilantes in the first in like the first well, probably the first season, because I did read some of the manga.

SPEAKER_00 1:25:12

Yeah, but not so much anymore. He just basically helps out a pro hero who turns a blind eye and like just give him a sidekick license. Like you know his name, you have his phone number.

SPEAKER_01 1:25:26

It's like also he's an adult, so like the old man Isn't the old man punchy McPunch face? Is he actually a hero?

SPEAKER_00 1:25:34

He dropped off the scene screen time for like after like episode season one, he just leaves into the background to come back like midway through season two. Huh. And he was a former pro hero, which is ironic because that means he was technically licensed to be doing all this.

SPEAKER_01 1:25:50

Because then like Punchy McPunchpace was like one of the highlights, I thought.

SPEAKER_00 1:25:56

Yeah, so we learned that Punchy McFunchpace, because they felt the need in season two to tie it all back to the main show, lost his powers to all for ones power ceiling shenanigans. So he's like, I used to have a quirk, but now I don't, so I just punch people. But what that inadvertently did, which I cannot stress enough, is wait, you're a licensed pro hero who lost your powers. Are you even committing a crime? Are you even a vigilante then? Like, if a police officer loses their gun, they're still a police officer. Like I suppose. So it's like, what is your struggle then? Like, there was no reason for you to be like, well, I left my friends and families behind to become a rogue vigilante. There's no reason to do that, though. You were already good. It wasn't illegal to not have a superpower. Anywho, my hero academia, it's done. It was okay. It's pretty good, I guess. It's also like the last like wrong running anime that I think's ever gonna hit that length anymore. Because manga just don't last that long anymore. Like that is true. All I'm gonna say about Chansaw Man is the fuck and then move on.

SPEAKER_01 1:27:18

Just the fuck. I'm gonna say uh uh I absolutely love uh condensing seasons into movies.

SPEAKER_00 1:27:26

Um right, yeah. We can talk about Rezé. I was worried I was gonna spoil the new chapter inadvertently, but we I'm happy to talk about the Reza arc. Oh, that was a good movie.

SPEAKER_01 1:27:35

Yeah, ironically, I haven't actually watched it yet. I kind of wanted to go see it in theaters, uh, but it I didn't get the chance, and it doesn't seem to be on Crunchyroll yet.

SPEAKER_00 1:27:45

There's a good chance that for pure quality that might actually sneak above Strange Fate. Fate, strange fake, maybe. Because they it's the whole thing's movie quality. Although I will say, converting Demon Slayer. To movies works most of the time. But like, eh, eh, to Demon Slayer, it's okay, I guess. I don't get the hype. I don't get it. Yeah, anything else series-wise that are worth talking about, would you say?

SPEAKER_01 1:28:25

Cause No, no, not in particular.

SPEAKER_00 1:28:27

I just uh I do want to point out that the new Digimon's actually really good for the record. I glaze past it because I'm like, I'm gonna wait till more of this comes out to like binge it when it's I like Digimon Better Dubbed. I'm hearing the boos already from our comment section. But I like Digimon Better Dubbed.

JoJo Hype And Art Style Drift

SPEAKER_01 1:28:45

Well, just for no reason in particular. Nice. Uh if you like subbed uh animation, um and you like the movie movie five seasons of shows, man, the first three seasons of uh Jojo's Bizarre Adventure in the movie form. So it's pretty peaked.

SPEAKER_02 1:29:08

Oh.

SPEAKER_00 1:29:08

I know we don't have a JoJo's era yet this season, but I am so thrilled for Cannonball Run. I don't know if you've read any Cannonball Run. I have not. I did finish uh Stone Ocean. So here's what I'm gonna tell you about Cannonball Run. So it's a reboot quill. Because you remember it's how Stone Ocean ended, they literally mulligan the universe. Right. So it's a reboot, but now they know what they're doing. Right. So JoJo's didn't really figure out what the hell how its own show worked till about season four. Sound about right. Part four is about the time they figured out what they what the kind of story Jojo's was.

SPEAKER_01 1:29:50

So like kind of I don't know, because cause each each season like has a uh like a different genre to it. Uh yeah, like but I'll say like three was a road trip. Season four was like a strange murder mystery kind of season.

SPEAKER_00 1:30:04

Yeah, but the reason I say season four is like I'm more referring to like how the power system works and how the characters work, and like functionally season four is when it becomes stable.

SPEAKER_01 1:30:14

Yeah, yeah, okay, that makes sense.

SPEAKER_00 1:30:16

So season four was like actually it's more interesting to give people weird stand powers to do is they start doing rock, paper, scissors with their stands rather than my power is more bullshit than your power. Yeah, yeah, okay. So Cannonball runs like, okay, we're gonna do all of the Jojo's things again with hindsight, but also remix and twist everything. Also, we're traveling across the United States on horseback to find the pieces of Jesus Christ in a high-stake Poker's match. Like Yes, yes to all of this. It's also one of their longer parts, so I'm like, okay, this is just a show. Like, Cannonball runs just its show, it'll probably be about 50 episodes. Hmm. Okay. And I'm like, yes, the Twink version of the President's United States has a stand power that lets him go to alternate timelines. I am on board for this, please. Please, like it's the Jojo's and it's like he basically he finished his original run, went, okay, I'm gonna take a year off, think about what I really want to do. And then God did a ton of cocaine.

SPEAKER_01 1:31:20

Oh, that's that's what he wanted to do.

SPEAKER_00 1:31:23

And then build a bunch of business expenses. He's like, Yeah, I go on trips for writing inspiration, and then build the tax expense to just go tour him. So he did the tour himself in person of what his racetrack was gonna be and visited all the places before writing it.

SPEAKER_02 1:31:36

Huh.

unknown 1:31:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:31:39

Dedication. So, like, I am stoked for that. That's gonna be sick. Chojo's is so stupid, it makes me happy. It's like the anime I talk about the most out of context to classmates. I'll be like, Yeah, sure, you really enjoyed reading some Hemingway, but did it have a character do a slow-motion dropstick so a vampire would catch both his fit feet, so he could aggressively do the splits and karate chop him with solar magic? I don't think. I don't think so. I think what you watch was less interesting, I'm sorry. JoJo's Bizarre Adventure is extremely apt-leaning. Also, has weirdly good produ like ever since he like started the Stone Ocean reboot, like, I don't know, 10, 20 years ago, has weirdly good production values to match how stupid it is. It's great. Mm-hmm. It's also like just gets not talked about, but also ta it's weird. It's like how can I put it? JoJo's is like the new battlefield or Call of Duty releases where no one's gonna like give it praise, but on a technical level, you kinda gotta acknowledge it.

SPEAKER_01 1:32:49

Well, and and like the the artist is um a legend. Like actually he's a legend that actually like draws inspiration from classical art, and so like people who are in that scene are like, yeah, this is like amazing stuff that like mirrors styles that they are impressed by.

Live Action Fan Service Backlash

SPEAKER_00 1:33:13

And then it's just this like dumb like my power is more busted than your power stands and like I like his like interest in you know what's fascinating about JoJo's, and to a certain extent, to uh sentence to be a hero as well, anime over the last 30 years of our lives has gone through stylistic shifts over time, right? Right. Like we start off like the Dragon Ball style was very big when we were growing up, of like not super wide-eyed, chiseled muscles drawn in, uh semi-outlined background. Like the art style and character models started that way. Then all the character models got softer and rounder, the characters looked younger and younger, to the point where we're like, this 28-year-old woman looks 12. And then JoJo's didn't. Jojo's refused to shift in the direction art was shifting for manga and anime. Like, I'm on a category right now on the sh a crunchy roll in the background that's like pure show and jump. But you look at the cover of Black Clover, you look at the cover of Doctor Stone, Boruto, even Dragon Ball Super, you're like, you watch art shift, like you even watch Dragon Ball's art shift, right? Where everyone's zoodlearmed. And then Jojo's like, hell no. We're just inked differently. We're just done differently. We ignored the shifts completely. We do what we want. Cause like, you look at Assassination Classroom, you're like, yeah, that's where the art style went. And then Jojo's just doesn't give a single solitary fuck what other people are doing. He's like, no, I could not care less. Like, I'm pretty sure if an editor of Jojo's told Aminie do this, he would just throw rocks at them till they left. Probably. Uh. Although it's funny to listen to some of Oda's recent interviews where he's like, yeah, the one live-action one piece means I don't have to fight with my editors or Toey about decisions, so I can make this character have melanin in there uh be melanated and be of different ethnicities, where Toey didn't like that. I'm like, oh no. Wait, how much of my constant debate of how woke is Oda being like, oh, wait a minute, how much was he held back by Show and Jump being like, you can't do this? You can't give this woman a speaking role in this manga.

SPEAKER_01 1:35:42

I gotta wonder. Talking about that shift in art style, uh, original one, like the original season of One Piece. It's like watching the first few seasons of The Simpsons or Family Guy. Uh because it's just been on so long, uh that the animation style is completely different. Um and then I talked about art style, and it's like um Nami started out human reasonably sized. I'm just gonna say human. Now it's like every female character is ridiculously overly busty for the fan service. And it's like when you adapt that to live action, that's definitely something that just doesn't happen.

SPEAKER_00 1:36:34

Well, it's really funny is like so you know how algorithms try and put things into your feed specifically to make me mad? Like, that's just how technology works. Right, right. So things like Snuck and Speed be like, live action one piece. Fans disappointed by Nami's lack of but-da-da. I'm like, no one's actually disappointed by this. Just stop. If you're a human being who looks at Emily Rudd and thinks, yeah, she really needs to be wearing giant novelty fake breasts the size of her head to play this role, go take a shower, clean the gunk out of your fingernails, and go step outside. Cause if you honestly believe that is a problem to justify whether you watch a piece of media, you're broken. Hmm. You're just broken as a human being. If that's a sticking point for you as a person. Like, if you actually see that on saw a human being with Nami's proportions, you'd vomit because it'd be a medical nightmare. Like, you'd be like, oh god, like that's a horror monster. That's a Baba Yaga, like not the John Wick one, like the actual one.

SPEAKER_01 1:37:46

If you're um watching anime for the fan service, don't. There's a good chance you should you should probably move to Epstein's Island.

SPEAKER_00 1:37:54

Yeah. But seriously, if I offended anyone with my rant there, unsubscribe to this podcast.

SPEAKER_01 1:38:01

And if I offended you, anyone with that, then you know, subscribe to this podcast and just listen for the hate.

SPEAKER_00 1:38:09

It's kind of funny where I'm like, no, no, like I'm an attention hoe. This is common knowledge. But I don't need your attention if you're posting that live-action Ami needs more cleavage. I don't need you in my life. Take a deep long look in the mirror and really ask yourself, is it worth it to type this at a keyboard? Like, did you get up and type this? You could have been sleeping. Objectively, a better use of your time than complaining about live-action anime actress's physical features is being asleep. That is a better contribution to society.

SPEAKER_01 1:38:46

Um, perhaps we should move on to our random question of the day.

SPEAKER_00 1:38:50

Alright, so we gotta view it. So, our first random question What is your favorite flavor of soda pop? My favorite flavor of soda pop. Very basic, very clean. So I wanted to say barks, and I've been fighting with this question since I received it yesterday. Okay, are you gonna mix it up and say barks cream soda? So my brother literally sent me a text asking for me to bring home cream soda yesterday. Like that actually happened. But I think it's Perry Coke for me. Mmm. And our second question, which is really specific, and they have no way of knowing what we're talking about, because we're doing this live recording right now, and the question just came in, and we don't tell people our episodes in advance. So know that this just came in unprompted randomly. Which JoJo part would Doug Ford be the best antagonist in, and what would his stand be? Oh lord. Which JoJo part would he the best antagonist in? So because he's Canadian, I like uh here's a hot take. I think a Jojo's part taking place in Canada in Saskatoon would actually be inspired. So I'm putting Doug Ford as the antagonist in like a missing chapter between part two and part three. I'm going like early settle like I want to go like 1930s-40s, Sask like Canada. So I'm feeling like this is a Joseph Joestar situation. So I'm going like, he just cheated on his wife, came back from Japan, is in Canada, and is dealing with Doug Ford, trying to cancel education as he's trying to get his marine biology degree. No. Part three takes place after it, after defeating Dio, where uh Joe Ski uh not Joe Ski, um Jodoro is in Canada to get his marine biology degree at University of Toronto. And Doug Ford is an evil stand user. And his stan's ability is privatization, where when he punches something, if they don't pay him a tithe, they explode. So his stand slaps you, and then you have like it's some kind of contract-based stand that like slaps you and make he like generate like if you don't pay the tithe, you die. I'm trying to figure out exactly how that'd work. I'm also really partial to his stand being a megaphone that makes things that he says through it sound more reasonable.

SPEAKER_01 1:41:38

Um I mean, what part do I think he would be a good antagonist in?

SPEAKER_00 1:41:44

I'm feeling part three post-DEO personally.

SPEAKER_01 1:41:49

Yeah, well, see, I I kind of think firstly, uh part four is my my favorite seas part of my favorite season.

SPEAKER_00 1:41:58

I mean, man, uh before between four and five is some real fighting, but yes.

SPEAKER_01 1:42:05

Well I would probably like part five more if it was released more consistently on the shown and jump app. Uh because it's just uh it's complete, but it's not they finished Stone Ocean on Shonen Jump before they finished re-releasing all the vault chapters for part five for the Mafia Golden Wind, that's what they say.

SPEAKER_00 1:42:27

I have Stone Ocean rated weirdly high, but I find Jolene amusing. Um, but part four.

SPEAKER_01 1:42:35

Uh if they added some political intrigue and uh Doug Ford's stand power was like a propaganda advertising machine, you know, like because he paid for all those advertisements against tariffs in the United States. Yup. I I think I think he would be a pretty good antagonist in in that particular setting of of the mystery town with some extra political intrigue.

SPEAKER_00 1:43:02

Alright, so I have two more suggestions for Doug Ford, because I like this. So this one's kind of a hot take, but Doug Ford, Early Canada, part 7, like Stone Ball Run, is a vampire, doesn't have a stand. It's just straight up a vampire. Because Doug Ford, looking and sounding how he does, but being a vampire, like chonky middle-aged Homer Simpson type, being an actual vampire, is a like admit it. The D you'd go to his rally and just go, advice, he was really funny. So part one that takes place, like my pitch is it's part one. But what's happening in Canada at the same time with current Doug Ford, who does not die at the end of part one. Just changes his name every few years. And like a Joe Star uh Joestar family member who has to learn like solar martial arts from like a like regional offshoot of Hamon learned from the aboriginal tribes in Canada to karate punch Doug Ford. The early colonies is pretty great, you gotta admit. That would be pretty funny. But I also am really partial to a stand being a billboard. Like the advertiser idea that's just a billboard is really funny. Or Doug Ford being the billboard stand. Like, I do love what they like, no no. Doug Ford is the stand, and the billboard is the stand user.

SPEAKER_01 1:44:40

That would be pretty hilarious.

Devil Fruit Powers And Final Plug

SPEAKER_00 1:44:43

Uh and the last random question to wrap things up. If you could have a devil fruit power, what would it be and why?

SPEAKER_01 1:44:54

If I could have a devil fruit power. Okay, so the only stipulation is that I can't swim.

SPEAKER_00 1:45:02

Correct. So I'd obviously have one. Can't swim in seawater. Swimming pools still count. You're you're allowed to swim in a swimming pool? I don't know, maybe. That's probably how I die.

SPEAKER_01 1:45:20

Well, anyways. Uh oh man, that would that would be awful. Go off a diving board, just think straight to the bottom, and we can dive deep enough to get you. Anyways. What would my stand power be? Or what would my uh fruit double fruit power be?

SPEAKER_00 1:45:39

So the one I'm picking is a stupid fruit. It's not the best devil fruit, but I have between two. The first is the devil fruit that lets you send something into the future. The Toki Toki fruit. Because I think the character that had that power did not use it correctly at all.

SPEAKER_01 1:45:57

Wait, am I supposed to invent a new fruit, or am I supposed to move one of the existing fruits?

SPEAKER_00 1:46:04

I think picking one of the existing fruits that comes to mind, or if you invent a new one. Let's go existing. Hmm. So I'm going with the one. So this character has the power to send people into the future, and all they do with it is like send several samurai into the future. I would be using it to obito my way through life. Like I send myself like one second in the future so your punch goes through me. And I would use this for combat powers. Because if I punch somebody a hundred years into the future, they're just not my problem anymore. Because I gave it to like, oh, I'm a passive character. I don't really do this. I used it to do this, and I'm like, no, no, no. You are not understanding the complex implications of being able to move yourself a week into the future so people leave you alone, and being able to punch somebody a hundred years, like that's amazing. You know how hard it'd be for you to fight me when you throw a punch and I'm just gone for a week? And then I'm just behind you and I tap you on the shoulder and I launch you into 1973. Underutilized. Although I'd also really like the flout uh hormone fruit that lets you punch the gender out of people or into people. You know how much is kind of funny. Uh, the political damage, well, not only does it have like great medical powers, gives you super strength things, but I could shake Doug Ford's hand and trance him on the spot and just see what happens. Like, the number of people, aggressively sexist people, I'd slap the gender out of. Or, you know, like help people to not need extensive surgery and drugs for years, I could just slap them and solve it. For the record, it's always a slap though, even if it's someone I'm trying to help out. Because if someone's like serious, like, I'm not comfortable in my skin, can you help me? I'm like, absolutely, and I'd slap them. It'd be done. That'd be done. And I would ch I would still charge, but I'd undercut the actual procedure by like 90%. Still need to make some money off this. How much money I can make if I can slap around people's genders. And I would tell everyone it requires a slap. It doesn't. But I tell everyone it does, and that's part of how the power works. Hmm.

SPEAKER_02 1:48:16

Hmm.

SPEAKER_00 1:48:18

I'm assuming you're panic scrolling through the uh devil fruit wiki right now.

SPEAKER_01 1:48:23

Well, I mean, I was I actually haven't opened yet. I'm just I was listening to you trying to think about what devil fruits I actually vaguely know.

SPEAKER_00 1:48:31

And if you don't, odds are any superpower you can think of, there's probably a fruit that doesn't. Statistically.

SPEAKER_01 1:48:39

Let's see. What do they have? A list drugs, huh? Okay. The library should Pharmacia. Anything other than the ability to transform to animals or elements of nature. The other category. Okay. Allow you to turn into a specific animal. Unlike other treble fruits, all the fruits carries are a will of their own.

SPEAKER_00 1:49:28

Yeah, someone fell fed the elephant suit uh fruit to a sword to have a sword that can turn into an elephant. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 1:49:37

Logia fruits. Rare is the most powerful element of nature.

SPEAKER_00 1:49:43

Yeah, okay. Alright, I'm gonna I have a list that's clean, so I'm gonna start listing one. You can just tell me to stop when I get one you like. Okay, okay. Gumu gummu, body becomes stretchy. Barra bara, you can chop your body into pieces. Subi subi, you become extremely smooth and slippery. Bamu Bamu, body parts become explosives. Kilo Kilo, control your personal body weight. Hana Hana. Spout body parts anywhere. Doru Doru. Generate and control wax. Baku Baku, eat and merge objects together in your stomach and uh generate and control wax.

SPEAKER_01 1:50:18

That one sounds like fun.

SPEAKER_00 1:50:19

That one's pretty great. Yeah. This list goes for a very long time. Including things such as turning people into toys, making uncreepable breakable barriers, swimming through solid ground, producing sticky flammable mucus, turning objects into flags, trapping people aside books, creating and controlling biscuits. Right. Transforming into uh light itself, turning into a cow, sun god rubber powers, eight-headed serpents, divine ice wolf, and a squirrel that turns into a hammer. Or a hammer that turns into a squirrel. I think it's a hammer that turns into a squirrel. Uh, but with that tangent, thank you everyone for tuning in to Carl and Richard Presents Deep Space and Dragons, the Carl show starring Dr. Carl. And if you have your random questions, send them in to be put in a lottery to win a signed copy of the Waltz of Blades, or maybe some of our merch, because we have merch. Yeah, we got merch. Including a mug. Indeed. Although it is funny that I had someone from my campus win the last draw, so I just signed the book and handed it to them. I feel like I should have put it in an envelope or something, so they had to unwrap it, but such is life. Such is life. Although it is funny that Although it is funny that there's a non-zero chance that one of my students from my tutorials listens to this, sends in a question, and wins a prize, so like there'll be a tutorial. I'll be like, before we write the exam, here's your signed copy, and explain nothing. Well, they let them know that you're the same person, don't they? Like to Yeah, but the other students are the ones that'd be deeply baffled. Uh yeah. Oh no, it'd be so much funnier if they thought I was a different Richard. Oh, they're just an unrelated fan of the podcast. I want that. I want them to not connect these dots. That'd be impressively hard to do to not realize that these are two separate Richards.

SPEAKER_01 1:52:24

That would be that would be impressive.

SPEAKER_00 1:52:27

Like I see someone with a deep space and dragons custom t-shirt they made with their Carl tattoo, and they have no idea I do this podcast. Oh, cinema. Better than JJK season three. Uh I don't know. Stay hydrated, folks. Have a good day, and I think you all deserve a little treat. I bought cinnamon buns from Ikea for$1.50. Not a sponsor, just a good use of a dollar fifty. Yeah, I've never actually never tried the meatballs there, but they're delicious. Whatever animal they're made from is tasty.

SPEAKER_01 1:53:04

Bye.

SPEAKER_00 1:53:05

Bye. Oh man. Ikea, don't see us.