[00:00] OP AND INTRO STILTS: Welcome to the Spring 2013 Mid-Season Podcast! We’re going to start off with our intro song, Black+White by Nomizu Iori, that was beautiful presentation, or pronounciation from Mondaiji. *Takaii laughs* Here we go. [Mondaiji OP plays] [1:01] INTRODUCTIONS STILTS: Alright, that was a fun song. First of all I would like to pronounce, I would like to apologize for that pronounciation as everyone made fun of me while it was playing, but my name is Stilts and I am once again your host for this podcast. We got a good one for you, a good one planned for you. More writers on hand to talk about this season’s shows. So let’s start off. Enzo, why don’t you introduce yourself? ENZO: Well good morning. I am in Tokyo. That’s a nice echo. *laughs* ENZO: Today I’m sounding worse than usual as I’m not feeling well. Unfortunately ibuprofen has a mysterious ingredient—I looked it up and it’s listed as a hypnotic. I don’t know what it is, but it works quite well, so here I am. This season I’m covering Arata Kangatari and the second season of Chihayafuru and happy to be here. STILTS: Very good. We got a new one in, Kairi! Why don’t you introduce yourself? KAIRI: Oh hi everyone! I’m Kairi, I’m covering Hataraku Maou-sama and KARNEVAL. I’m kind of not used to this yet, so please take care of me. Yoroshiku onegaishimasu. STILTS: Will do. Oh, I forgot—Enzo you can do your’s second—but Kairi, random tidbit for today: what show are you most like from this season. You want to tell us what show that is this season? KAIRI: Oh, well it’s kind of tough. It kind of started off with Gargantia, but now I think it’s Dansai, after the two episodes of Gargantia that didn’t go down so well. STILTS: I’m not sure what to think about that! *Kairi laughs* ENZO: Is that what show we're most like or do we most like? STILTS: Are we most like. KAIRI: Oh! I heard "do" we most like. *laughs* STILTS: Oh, okay! ZEPHYR: Wait... KAIRI: My bad! Am I most like, hmmm... ENZO: I have no idea how to answer that because I have no idea-- ZEPHYR: What does that even mean? KAIRI: Yeah, I don't know how to handle that either. Oh that's a tough one. ENZO: I'm gonna--oh boy that's a tough one. STILTS: Ah, I got you stumped from the beginning! Wow, these introduction are getting derailed. ZEPHYR: Yeah yeah, this question makes no sense. KAIRI: Yeah, I don't really know. STILTS: Alright, we'll come back to that then. Takaii, you want to teach it up? TAKAII: Hey there. I'm Takaii, back for podcast number two of this year I guess. Forgive me, I hurt my back, so I'll be a lot more pissed off than usual but yeah! I'm covering two shows this season. I got Yahari. You know, the best show of the whole season. And the second season of Nyaruko-san, which if you haven't watched yet, you should go watch it. STILTS: Fair enough. Do you want to give the question a try? TAKAII: Well, okay. I'd pick Hataraku Maou-sama! because I am obviously not a regular human being in this effed up world and... STILTS: Aha! I like it! TAKAII: I have a subordinate that's also not human and I live a great life because I work at McDonalds every day and yeah. STILTS: Probably 2/3's of that was probably true also. ENZO: Yeah, you know what, I'm going to say that too, if I can jump back in, because I also live in Tokyo on a pauper's wage and try to survive to next to no money in a tiny apartment. I think that's the winner for me. STILTS: Fair enough. Zephyr, how about you? Introduce yourself. ZEPHYR: Hey there, it's Zephyr. This season I'm covering three shows. Railgun, Shingeki, and Suisei. Also the Naruto manga. What was that thing--what was the question again? I'm sitting there and I'm like-- STILTS: What show embodies you the most, something like that. ZEPHYR: Dear god... TAKAII: From this season. x3 ZEPHYR: See, I'm tempted to say Valvrave just for the heck of it, just because. KAIRI: Batshizz factor? ENZO: Are you insane and make no sense but are sort of fun anyways? ZEPHYR: Sometimes? STILTS: Yes, that's--alright we got Zephyr's. KAIRI: I think I'm probably Yahari then, just because I'm really snarky on the inside. ZEPHYR: I can see her thinking evil thoughts about us right now. *Kairi laughs* STILTS: That should liven things up. KAIRI: Yeah, well... STILTS: Well then finally, I'm Stilts, your host, as I said earlier, and I'm slacking this season so I'm not covering anything in particular, but I will go ahead and tell you what show I'm like, which should surprise nobody. Henneko. ZEPHYR: Yup. STILTS: Of course I'd be the hentai ouji. But alrighty, we'll go into our first section--we're going to talk about five shows and rap about some random ones at the end. We're going to start off with Dansai Bunri no Crime Edge. Kairi, would you like to give us a little intro on this? KAIRI: Oh, okay, so Dansai Bunri no Crime Edge. It's a really weird show. I went in thinking there's no way that this is going to be my favorites and that was not true. It ended up being my number one show right now. It's really beauitful show, there's just a lot of style going into it that I really feel is amazing. I just can't imagine having thought this is what is was going to be like watching it. But it's definitely not for everyone. There's a lot of stuff going on that I think--especially the fetishes turn people off. STILTS: I was not imagining that when you said that was the show you were most like. KAIRI: Yeah! STILTS: We are learning so much! KAIRI: Yeah. STILTS: Yeah, I know what you mean--the kind of feeling, the atmosphere-- KAIRI: Yeah, it's really amazing. I didn't expect it to be like that. I can see why some people were kind of like, "this is a really weird show." It's just really bizzare. But I think style and the atmosphere have a lot going for it. STILTS: Yeah, it's really weird but it's also really interesting. Enzo, are you watching this too? ENZO: Yes. When Kairi said in the little tidbit piece that you were going to say Gargantia until it kind of slipped a little and Dansai Bunri got ahead of it, even though that wasn't like the answer to the actual question Stilts was asking, I feel exactly the same way about this season. Gargantia was my number one and this was my number two but I think they kind of flip-flopped now. It definitely is a niche series, it's not for everybody. I just think this series has incredible atmosphere, it's incredible art, incredible animation. Really unconventional. I just think it's the best show of the season so far, it's just my favorite, I love it. KAIRI: Yeah, same. STILTS: It's one of the--each season I try to watch some shows I normally wouldn't and don't normally succeed. I was trying to watch Red Data Girl this season and I haven't started it, so who knows when that'll happen. But this is one of those that's really weird and when you look at the premise, it's a giant pile of whuuuuuh? KAIRI: Yeah, pretty much. STILTS: But it really does work out. I mean, it's almost got this kind of prince defending his queen thing to it, which if go into all the fetish stuff, it starts stacked, but it really that's what it is at its core. It's not as weird as it first sounds, but it is way weirder in some ways. KAIRI: I feel like saying it's the knight protecting his princess is a little weird, because yeah, there's some of that in there, but I feel like Iwai's not completely useless, she's not a thing to be saved either. STILTS: Well that's true. KAIRI: Yeah. It's an oversimplification I feel. STILTS: It's like during not the latest arc but the one before it, the camp arc? KAIRI: That's right. STILTS: Where, if she were useless, they'd both be long dead before the episode ended, which I actually prefer because honestly, I don't really like most true archetypical protecting the prince stories-- KAIRI: Yeah, same. STILTS: --you've got both characters being flat, but especially the princess that turns out to be uninteresting. But that's not the case in this one. She actually really is... KAIRI: Yeah I think so too. STILTS: Let's see, do we have anybody else that's watching this show. I think Zephyr hasn't. Takaii, have you? TAKAII: No, I unfortunately--this is one of the few shows I haven't started yet. STILTS: Haha, what was it, I thought you said there were four or five of them you haven't started? TAKAII: No--well I'm not sure if I'm going to cover it in a bit, but there's this one show that I have a friend who won't stop bothering me, it's the same guy who recommended the Maou-sama to me, was...*smack lips*...uh the one about giants. *everyone laughs* ENZO: If you're going to remember the name of one show, that might be the one. It's the biggest hit since, you know, Jesus at this point. STILTS: Are you talking about Valvrave? ZEPHYR: Oh god. TAKAII: I don't think so. STILTS: Sorry. TAKAII: Hold up, I got, yeah, my mind, not there right now. I mean I'm here, but not there, you know. STILTS: Shingeki is what you're talking about. TAKAII: There we go, that's probably it. STILTS: Yeah... ZEPHYR: Oh my god... TAKAII: It's like Shingeki no Kyojin or something like that? STILTS: You should get to that one eventually...but yeah, Enzo or Kairi, any other thoughts on-- ENZO: Yeah, just quickly, I think that we were intentionally set up to think that Iwai was going to be the damsel in distress because she seemed very like the caricature for that for a couple of episodes and then as it came with the school trip episode, she really sort of stepped up and burst through that trope. And the other thing that I really wanted to say that I love about this show, as freaky as it is and as much as it loves to get into the whole fetish thing, there's a lot of beauty in this show, and a lot of the reasons it's so effective is because it really contrasts the twisted and the beautiful and puts them right next to each other and makes them seem that much more distinct because of the presence of the other and I think it's pretty rare for anime to do that. I know a lot of people get turned off by the subject matter, and it's not the easiest show in the world to get a grip on, and I would say too for anyone trying it: the first episode is the weakest in the series in my opinion, although I liked it a lot, so I would say if you didn't like it after the first episode give it one more chance because it does get better and better as it goes on and I would like to say that that's true about Red Data Girl by the way--I don't know if we're going to talk about that show or not, but that's another one that just gets better as it goes along in the series--Dansai Bunri, great show, give it a shot. STILTS: Yeah, I think--it kind of made me realize, what you said there, that it's good at telling a story without having to say anything. With images, visuals, and atmosphere instead of words, which is what you're supposed to do, but...isn't frequently what happens. But...yes. Any other thoughts on Dansai Bunri no Crime Edge? Good x3! We will go onto the next show. We're going to talk about a short this time. Namiguchiwa no Muromi-san? Why does anyone let me try and say any of these things? We're going to talk about Muromi-san. Enzo, want to give us a quick intro? ENZO: Okay. Namiguchiwa is a short, but it's not one of those three minute deals--it's half length. I'm a hardcore GAINAX fanboy from way back and at a position right now because GAINAX is basically pretty much screwed the pooch as far as I'm concerned. I have to look for my GAINAX fix wherever I can find it and I think that GAINAX now has become like--it survives in a chimerant kind of way--fans will know what I mean by that. The people from GAINAX get eaten by other studios and then their genes show up. We're seeing it with Dansai Burni which has half the staff from Gurren Lagann working on it, but we're also seeing it with Muromi-san which is done by another old-school studio, Tatsunoko. It even has a character called Takkun in it, which any GAINAX fan will know very well, it'll be close to your heart. This is just very much like an old-school GAINAX wacky ecchi comedy with an old-school look to it and a fantastic opening theme which is lunatic and out-of-control which is what the series is. It's bascially a history lesson with a side of Japanese mythology and then a couple drops of LSD on top. It's just really strange and incredibly colorful and very funny and not the sort of show you have to go into deep analysis about--you can just watch it and enjoy it and laugh at it and feel like you're watching an anime from ten years ago which I really love that experience and again, if you're a GAINAX fan, you have to look for your GAINAX where you can get it. Fortunately we've got two shows this season that have a lot of GAINAX in the genes and then we have studio triggers out there, the director of Gurren Lagann out there, he's done some stuff like Little Witch Academia and stuff like that. There is GAINAX stuff out there if you look for it and I think this show is a really GAINAX-like show. So if you're fan of that comedy, I think this one is a winner. STILTS: Yeah, I do like the, I like your point of GAINAX going through this zombie-like state, because...yeah. Whenever I see them doing pretty much anything but an EVA, even though I haven't seen any of the movies yet, I'm pretty much, well this is going to suck, but I still really do like their old way of doing things. This really does have that feel, but I really do enjoy the OP. It was the first thing that caught my attention and I watch it every single time. ENZO: Me too. STILTS: It's just...it's one of those--it tells a good song and an entertaining little story and up until the fourth watch-through I didn't catch all the details on it, but any OP ending with them destroying the world is pretty much entertaining to me. I think it's the humor that really gets to me. It's got this unabashed, slapstick-like humor. I remember when Muromi-san and the snake-thing and the kappa are eating mushrooms... ENZO: Yes...definitely... STILTS: They're getting shroomed out and I'm just losing my shizz because that's not supposed to happen! ENZO: Although my favorite part of that episode was what all the mermaids were doing with the cucumbers at the end. STILTS: Hahahaha yeah. They loved his cucumbers. ENZO: Yes they did. STILTS: I really do think the humor does work very well and the characters are pretty entertaining too, but it all really floats on Muromi. Most of the others don't really get used that much. ENZO: Well they're basically, in a way it reminds me of FLCL, furry curry--it has that quality to it where she almost is this alien in the sense that she's a mermaid, but she's an alien that comes to earth and makes this kid's life very strange. The overall themes are a whole lot less serious than that show, but there is a certain quality to that show which is why she started calling him Takkun, I immediately thought that's gotta be an intentional homage to it, because the relationship does verge on that. STILTS: I know there is a manga, and I just want to cut into say that whatever she said Takkun, I immediately started calling Takaii "Takkun". ENZO: Ah, there you go. TAKAII: Is that where it's from? STILTS: Oh yeah. TAKAII: Oh. STILTS: But anyways, go on. ENZO: No, that's it. You summed it up. You get scenes like characters shrooming out and doing inproper things with cucumbers and jokes about the kappa legend, which are prettty funny which involve anuses and balls and stuff like that. It's GAINAX. It's not GAINAX but it is GAINAX so if you love them, I can't imagine you won't like this show. STILTS: I know what the reaction on some of our writer's faces are right now. Come on Takaii, what do you think right now? TAKAII: You had me at GAINAX and cucumbers, and I'm like woah. STILTS: Yeah, unfortunately it's only 12-14 minutes total. ENZO: Yeah, way too short. STILTS: But it does make it easy to get into, so. ENZO: And it works in that format--it's a good show for that format because it doesn't need 22 minutes to tell a story. STILTS: Yeah. TAKAII: Time to top this on my list of things to watch underneath...other shows. Shingeki no Kyojin. ZEPHYR: That was-- STILTS: The one that we were talking about earlier, the other one. TAKAII: Shingeki no Kyojin, I remember that one. STILTS: Fair enough. Alright, we're going to move on to the next show, which will be oh god I'm not going to try and pronounce this. TAKAII: You can do it, you can do it! STILTS: Oregairu! It's got a six-word... TAKAII: Yaha--you got this. Yahari Ore no Seishun no Rabukome wa Machigatteiru. You got this, you got this, come on. ZEPHYR: Yeah, he's been practicing that. KAIRI: Yahari no ore no Seishun... STILTS: Well, since you pronounced that so well, Takkun, would you like to give us a quick intro? TAKAII: Okay, so Yahari--I don't want to say the whole thing seven times again. STITLS: Oregairu. TAKAII: Okay, this show I'm covering this season and I came into it thinking it would a lot like Haganai, like with the delinquents and the people who are crazy and can't make friends and just suck at life, but no...well it's all that but it's different. So, after the first episode there, you get a feel for the focus of the main character, Hachiman, who has ugly ass eyes, weird face, messed up personality, then he meets all these people and hopefully I thought it'd be some type of show where he would learn from being with other people and seeing it's okay to have friends and open yourself up but no. KAIRI: HA. TAKAII: It looks like this show is just going to go the oppposite direction and we're going to see him be a pessimistic dick to everybody and it's working out so far. STILTS: Ha, Zephyr, are you watching this show? ZEPHYR: Yeah. Actually it's been one of my favorite shows this season for the most part. When I'm sitting here and watching it, like the guys say, it's not really what I expected when I came into the show, but I think that really played a part in me liking it more because it really doesn't go to what you're expecting it from just watching it from the start. It's pretty realistic in terms of how Hachiman feels and the views he has because in general, there are always going to be people who are going to be left out that are loners with a pessimistic outlook. There have been people who have been through so much, suffice to say that term, "they've seen some shit." He's one of those guys that reflects on those people who have seen some shizz and there are some things you just can't expect from them for the most part. He really represents them well here as a realistic take on things here. It's nice to see. STILTS: It really does flow naturally from everything you learn from Hachiman. It would be more out of character if he did err on his "ways", quote on quote. TAKAII: Oh on that one Zephyr, I had question. Up till recently, for the past few episodes, I think the show's been paced really well. The first four or five episodes, I was having a serious problem with the pacing--it just seemed like things were moving a little too quick ly. I mean, I think it's gotten a whole lot better, especially with this most recent mini-arc being split into two episodes. How do you feel about that? ZEPHYR: Yeah, I guess I can see where you're coming from. I think part of that comes from them just trying to introduce everyone early on. I was kind of surprised that they split this part into two episodes--it was nice, I wasn't expecting it to split into two, but it definitely made the pacing seem better. It didn't see much in terms of pacing issues early on--okay noisy door--but yeah. It is better, but again, I didn't really feel that it was that badly paced early on. STILTS: Enzo, aren't you watching this? What do you think about that? ENZO: Yeah, this is the show this season that I'm most conflicted about. I actually stopped blogging it although I still watch it. It kind of drives me crazy--I'm really love-hate with it. There are some things about it that just don't work for me and at other times it's incredibly insightful. I do think it's a series that has a lot of interesting ideas about adolescence and human relationships. For me at least, it gets bogged down with too much trite bad comedy and a little bit of muddling on what kind of message it's trying to get across. There are times when I feel like it's throwing too many ideas out there and isn't too sure about which way it wants to go as a series and I find it to be a bit confusing from my perspective. I'm not sure if it's trying to have it both ways in a sense. What I really do like about this show is that it tries to be a serious show about loneliness and adolescence but it doesn't necessarily take the view that Hachiman is wrong, because he doesn't want to be like everyone else. I think that would be the easy cop-out way to say he's just a miserable bastard because look at all those happy kids who have good social lives and get along, but it doesn't shy away from the fact that they're willing to blend in with the crowd and not be individuals--that's good. On the other hand, you look at him and say, deep down, a lot of the reasons why he's lonely is because he has no choice. He uses that as a cop-out and says, "I don't want to be a robot. I'm an individual. I'm special," but a lot of it is that he doens't have the ability to get along with a lot of people, so as always, the truth lies somewhere in the middle. There's nothing wrong with that as a message, but sometimes the delivery is a little bit cloudy and it doesn't feel directed and to the point to me--I feel like it's throwing a lot out there and seeing how it all settles. There are times that I like this show and there are times when I really don't like it, so I would much rather have that than a show that I feel nothing at all, so in that sense, I think that it's very much interesting. It's deeply flawed, but I applaude it for having insight and times and being very ambitious. STILTS: So, take like something you were saying there. You're saying for Hachiman it might be partially part of the reason because he wants to be alone, partially because he doesn't have the ability. It's kind of like how in the last arc, the little girl who didn't want to be alone, but that was a clear-cut one. For Hachiman, it's really not so certain. ENZO: Well that was really interesting because--if you really look at the way he approached the problem, it didnt' work out the way he planned it, but I think the way he tried to solve that problem was a clear indication of what he is, if you know what I mean. Also though, I think it's worth pointing out that for all those other people wanting to help, he was the only one who really understood what she was going through. The others acting as if they did. Even if you don't agree how he went about solving the problem, he was the only one who saw things more or less how she did. That's what makes it special. I really do think it would be easy to dismiss him as a loser who's been burned and retreated into his own shell like a tortoise and doesn't want to interact with people, and a part of that is true. He's seen shit, or I suppose Zephyr said that. *laughs* ENZO: Well he has! He's seen some shit and he's got combat fatigue, but he also is smart and does not want to be another Stephord student, if anyone gets that. He does not want to be another robot. He wants to be his own person and one of the hardest things for teens to do is to be their own person but still fit in with the crowd and have friends. It's not something that most kids can do--they can't find a way to do both things and I feel he's one of those kids. Most of the kids fit that category, but he's the one that exemplifies it the most. STILTS: Yeah, so for him it's a situation where it's really nice for him to be in a situation where a loner really understands a loner, though he's the only one that can help people in that certain mindset, because he's the only one that does understand. I did really enjoy that resolution because I sat back and gasped at what kind of villain he is. Kairi, weren't you watching this show? KAIRI: Yeah, I'm watching it. I mean, you guys already beat it dead already, but-- STILTS: Oh, there's material left. I still got notes written down, so you've got to have something to say. KAIRI: For me, this is a really interesting show, because watching Hachiman is like watching myself. Just like I was in high school. I had friends, but I didn't really have that many, and I had lot of drama in my school and the way that I was always looking for the nasty underbelly of things. STILTS: We're learning so much about Kairi, go on... *Kairi laughs* KAIRI: Yeah, I'm going to come off as this really creepy person when I'm done here, but yeah. STILTS: Just by joining RandomC you're already crazy. KAIRI: That's true. Whenever Hachiman opens his mouth, it's like wow, holy shizz, it's just like me in high school, like this is me. I really understand what he's going through and how difficult it is. Like Enzo said, it's just really tough when you're that age to like fit in and be your own person and it's like the show does a really good job portraying that through Hachiman. The rest of the show is interesting, but for me the pull is Hachiman himself. STILTS: You're raising your hand Enzo? ENZO: I just want to touch base real quick on something you said it's nice to have him in the club because he's a loner and can understand. The thing I find interesting about that is that Yukino is a loner too, but her lonerness is quite different from his. It's interesting to compare and contrast those two characters because the only thing that's standing in the way of her being popular is herself. I'm not sure Hachiman could be popular even if he wanted. TAKAII: With a face like that, of course not. STILTS: Ohhhhhh~ ENZO: Here's the thing. I don't personally find him ugly and I think in most cases anime characters aren't supposed to be scary or ugly or really are. For a Brains Base show this is not really important in the larger scope of things--the animation and the art is pretty generally ugly for Brains Base in my opinion. It's probably the least impressive show they've done visually, which is too bad. TAKAII: I see a lot of things that-- ENZO: A lot of shortcuts. But anyways, Yukino interests me--I don't like her, but she interests me because the only thing standing in her way is herself and because she lacks what he has--despite how much we call him a miserable person, he has empathy and she doesn't. If there's anything that comes out of this for her, it's actually learning empathy from him. STILTS: Yeah, it's actually a really interesting way to put it. The difference between the two of them might be that while the world has pushed Hachiman away, Yukino has pushed the world away. She's the one who's separated herself whereas Hachiman could probably integrate himself with the world and probably when he grows up, will to a certain degree, but at the current point he doesn't really have a choice. ENZO: I'd agree with that part. TAKAII: Don't you feel bad every time he has one of those flashbacks? Don't you just feel bad for him? Wow. That's some pretty messed up stuff girls can do to you. STILTS: What? You're not supposed to play Jenga alone? TAKAII: Oh ho ho ho~ KAIRI: Hey, girls are not the only one to do messed up things. I had a little kid, following me around when I was young, and he was like, "Penises, where are you?" okay? So shaddup! ENZO: Okay. STILTS: I should probably clarify that--would you like to explain? ENZO: Contest please. STILTS: Should we not give context actually? It's-- ZEPHYR: No. Nope. Let's ignore that. STILTS: Alright, that didn't happen. Actually, we've been going way overboard on this one but I've two things to brush on real quick. One, I've actually been pretty pleased with how complex and interesting the popular kids are. Usually they're complete caricatures but they've taken a large part in the plot and been central characters through many episodes and a few seem to have a little depth--well maybe one of them--but that's way better than most shows that involve high school. It's actually interesting to see the popular kids being used more than just villains. And the other thing is the thing we should've been talking about this entire time and I'm very sad that none of you brought it up--Saika. TAKAII: It was commented when you asked for closing thoughts man. STILTS: Okay yeah there we go. TAKAII: It was commented as soon as you said, "Oh anyone have any extra thoughts?" STILTS: Oh yeah, she, I mean he is so devastating. TAKAII: Well shoot man, that's what a trap is supposed to be. Supposed to get all your feelings messed up and your thoughts all jumbled around and you're like wow. STILTS: I was talking on Twitter about this and saying that Hastur is a better trap, but as it was pointed out, Saika actually has a chance with Hachiman. TAKAII: Yeah, that's the scary part, isn't it? STILTS: Yeah, that's the scary awesome part. That's the best part right there. TAKAII: I was hoping one of you guys would've brought up Saika earlier, but it's okay. STILTS: It's all you, you can go on more, as you're doing right now. TAKAII: Okay, so before we hop onto the next show, are all of you caught up with the show right now? STILTS: I think so. ZEPHYR: Yeah. TAKAII: So, I don't know what's going to happen, but I'm kind of interested because we already have that stupid weiner dog connection between Hachiman and Yui, but now that limo, that black luxury car that pulled away, I wonder what that car has to do with everything else now you know? STILTS: Like everything is connected. ZEPHYR: Yeah, you start wondering if Yukino actually, part of talking to him in the first place was because she might've actually been in the car himself and been part of the reason. ENZO: That's what I thought. ZEPHYR: It really throws a wrench in everything because they've been getting along so well before that but you already saw how he reacted to him rembmering that Yui was the one whose dog he saved, so if she realizes that Yukino is also involved in that way, he might snap in a different way. I guess that's what the title preview for next way is about--him going back to his own path, so that might actually happen. TAKAII: Going back to it, again. That wording. STILTS: Yeah that'll happen a few more times probably. Honestly though, I'm not that fond of that. It always annoys me in stories like this where all the characters are intrinically linked together by these random occurences whereas sometimes people are just thrown together. To bring up a very random example, chu2koi, chuunibyou two seasons ago? TAKAII: Chuunibyou? Yup yup. STILTS: They were just friends because they were friends before and just met for no particular reason. That's kind of usually how it freaking happens instead of all these webs of, "I hit him with my car and it was her dog," and whatever the hell-- TAKAII: Well you see the whole thing with him being hit with that car, like Enzo said, it provides a good anchor point, that really demonstrates Hachiman has screwed up his thought processes and thinking that show off empathy for helping a complete stranger and saving their dog from being hit from a car. STILTS: You're right, it is a good show of empathy. Alright, any last thoughts, any confessions to Saika like that before we go on? ENZO: Yeah, one quick last thought for me is that if Saika actually does turn out to be a girl, I will be very disappointed that they were pulling that trick all along. TAKAII: But we know she's, he's a guy. *laughs* ENZO: Well, assuming that's the case, I think it'd be really interesting if they didn't treat the Saika route as a joke and actually as something serious because hey, he's the one person he's actually shown attraction to. Maybe they don't make it a joke next week, maybe we treat it seriously. I know it's a pretty wild idea, but it would be an interesting turn for the show to take. ZEPHYR: I would see how that could work. STILTS: I would think that to be fantastic. No, of course the reason why he seems to be attracted to Saika is because he is so effeminate so...they kind of have an out there, but-- ENZO: The heart wants what it wants! STILTS: Yeah, I think it'd be way more interesting than that. That would elevate the show. ENZO: Me too, totally. TAKAII: It would, it would elevate you? What? STILTS: I'm not going to disagree? Alrighty, we've gone on this show for awhile, but- ZEPHYR: Can I say one more thing? STILTS: Alright, one more thing, you've got thirty seconds. ZEPHYR: Yeah, no, we were talking about Yukino and Hachiman were complementary and stuff and I remember in the first episode where he first goes into the club and they have that conversation and I feel like the dynamics there were pretty much demonstrated how complementary they are to each other, like they're both loners and both fulfill some sort of void with each other before it's all said and done. STILTS: Fulfill a void? Ha. TAKAII: I like that. ZEPHYR: Fill the hole! TAKAII: Okay five seconds before we finish the show. You know on the sign where they have the clubroom and they have the room number at the top? STILTS AND ZEPHYR: Right. TAKAII: Have you guys noticed there's the stickers seem to be increasing in number? STILTS: No, actually. TAKAII: Yeah, every episode they show it, there's an extra sticker on there and then if you watch the end of the episode, you know how they have a little eyecatch at the end. I forgot what the big guys' name is, but his voice actor is awesome. But if you watch at the end of each episode, every episode he's not in, he pops up there and he's doing something really creeper or stalkerish, so. Just a little lookout for you. Watch the whole episode, so. ZEPHYR: Nice catch. STILTS: Okay cool. Well that's a little easter egg for anybody who listens to this whole thing. Going onto the next show. It is Suisei no Gargantia. Finally one I can pronounced! TAKAII: Yay! ZEPHYR: You sure it's pronounced that way? STILTS: No, but Zephyr, you want to give us a quick into? ZEPHYR: Well first off, story-wise, Suisei is pretty much the reversal of a common trope used by a lot of sci-fi shows. Instead of someone being thrust into a war, we have our main character Ledo being thrown out of one instead, and being forced to live out life on a planet he has no idea about and is much more primitive than what he's been used to. Generally, impressions wise, this is one of the shows where there's definitely been some hidden message in these instances. Depending on who you are, there'll be more hits, or more misses depending on your preferences. Generally for me, I feel like I've been pleased with how the show's been going on so far. It hasn't been quite the slaughterfest we expected, considering Gen's involvement--well not yet. STILTS: Yeah, not yet. ZEPHYR: Yeah, there's always a couple more episodes for that, but I think a large part of that has been due to the director, Murata Kazuya, and you can see a lot of his previous works showing here. I've loved a lot of his previous works, Xam'd and Eureka Seven are some series that come to mind. You can really see a lot of things from those shows being bought into Suisei as well. Coming to the most recent episode where, I presume everyone here has watched the latest episode, right? STILTS: Well yeah, though Takaii-- TAKAII: It's okay, I won't watch it for awhile, don't worry about it. STILTS: Well okay, you can take off your--you can step out of the room Takaii. TAKAII: If I could I would've done so awhile ago, but I'm good. ZEPHYR: Apologies. But yeah, this recent episode has obviously with that cliffhanger, I feel there was going to be some sort of separation there and it's something that the director has done in a couple of his other works: the necessary separation necessary to create extra space and the reunion afterwards. He does it really well and I'm starting to feel pretty well about how it's going to develop at the end after it all. And of course you have Gen messing things around, so it's been pretty good for me and I feel like the best is yet to come. STILTS: Hopefully hopefully. From my personal point of view, I kind of enjoyed it when it was less plotty as opposed to when it's getting into the plot--it can only go so far, if it actually goes to be amazing, it'll be because the plot gets amazing. But I did kind of enjoy it when it was showing Ledo trying to integrate with this vastly different society and give him such a good reason to have trouble with that. It was just fascinating to watch. ZEPHYR: Yeah, you gotta love Amy as well, just invititing him in. "Have some fish! Fish carcass!" STILTS: And also she's adorable. Enzo, are you watching this show? ENZO: I am indeed. For four episodes this was my favorite show of the season and I thought that the fourth episode especially, where Ledo had that conversation with Bevel and his brother, that was one of the most insightful and emotionally resonant conversations I've seen in an anime for awhile. The thing is for me is you have to realize that people waiting for the butcher shop are going to be disappointed because a) we know that Gen is not writing every episode, which is usually what he does with his shows, and he's already said publicly that he wanted this show to be different than what he's known for. I think Zephyr said exactly that it flipped the trope and had the person come out of the war instead of someone being thrust in the war. I think someone else said that Gen sort of views this show as something for young adults who are just starting their lives as kind of a letter to them. In that sense, it's really about Ledo's sense to adapt to a world that really isn't his, which is what I think many young people going out into the world feel--they didn't make this place, but now they have to survive in it. I think that's a major theme in addition to the plot, which has now started to get really heavy. The problems I had with episode 5 and 6 was not Ledo trying to find his place in the world, that's obviously very important. The problem was for me was that not for one episode, but two-- STILTS: Is this about the fanservice and the (something) about? ENZO: Yeah, I know they're trying to sell Blu-Rays for that, but taking two episodes and sidetracking the plot, it basically derailed the narrative drive of the series. It ground the momentum to a halt, and it's not so easy to recover from that. I personally think episode six should've been episode five and with apologies for swimsuit episodes. Just look at Outlaw Star for example, if you don't believe me, and Gurren Lagann--these types of episodes can be really good but that wasn't one of them as I was concerned. It didn't really contribute to what episode six was really about, which was about Ledo's quest to find his place in his world. If it has been an episode, which episode six was, I think that the series might just be edging out Dansai Bunri for me as number one spot. As for me, I think it's slipped from number one spot at least to number two, but I still think this is a really interesting show with interesting ideas. I like seeing Gen doing something different than what we're used to seeing with him and I like seeing him tackle topics that are more universal and less mythological so to say. I still think this show has a chance to be really special--a twelve episode show with two episode pick-up in the middle, it's hard to say it'll be a great show, but it could still come pretty close to that because that's what it can be when it's on it's game. That's what I think. STILTS: Besides, being second for the season is not too bad. Let's see, we did have someone mention Eureka Seven earlier and Kairi has not chimed in, which I believe means she's holding herself back, go ahead Kairi. KAIRI: Yeah, I have a lot to say--not really. You guys always get to it ahead before me. Compared to Gen's other works, this really works for me, because Murata is working it--that's my personal preference obviously. But like Enzo said and like I said earlier, episodes five and six really did a number on the show. I'm not saying this from a purely feminist perspective because I can deal with fanservice, like I like fanservice, it's fine, it's not a big deal. However, the way that this one was handled, like the episodes in general, I feel like it could've been done better and it really took away some of that class. Like you really don't expect the kind of messages that were involved in there. I didn't expect those kinds of things in Gargantia and it didn't feel as elegant. ENZO: Crass is the word I'd use Kairi. KAIRI: Yeah, exactly, it's really crass, and I was just really upset by some of those ideas and disappointed that Gargantia went to those levels because it was such a beautiful show--I mean it is a beautiful show and has great messages about growing up and not fitting in, which are great, but those two episodes detracted. ENZO: By the way, we're going to whore ourselves out unabashedly selling some DVDs, so stay tuned, we'll be back to the show in a week. KAIRI: Yeah, that's pretty much it. STILTS: Yeah, that reminds me of an old rant of mine on fanservice actually. Anyone who's watching Hyakka Ryouran, clearly I have no problem with it, but it does have a place, which would be more season, which would be a more occasional thing. So while I was not particularly bothered by those two, I do believe I watched them immediately back-to-back, so that kind of helped a bit. Those are the kinds of things you marathon and you hardly notice, just cause you got it over in an hour and thirty and who gives a shizz. But those kinds of things can throw in a bit of fanservice and it'd be great, but if it throws around a lot of fanservice and it starts to whore itself out. KAIRI: It wasn't the amount of the fanservice, but rather the way it was done. It could've been better. ENZO: Kairi, you were the one who pointed out episode six, which I really liked, but the belly dancing scene where she did her dance for Ledo, that was completely in context and really good, but that thing in the restaurant-- KAIRI: Yeah, that was really gross. ENZO: --kind of made me want to take a shower after you watch it. The other thing that really offended me was the mean-spirited bit with the transvestites in episode five, which completely felt so far beneath the dignity of this show. I mean, talk about going from one extreme to another. I mean talk about episode four, which was so humanistic and so understanding and deep and going to that the very next week, it's hard to believe it was the very same show. KAIRI: Yeah, that's what I mean, there was a lot of elegance lost in those two episodes and it really hurt the show in general. STILTS: It's like what we were talking about Saika earlier. It seems like whenever most anime go off into thee whole LGBT spectrum, it's joke time, rather than taking it seriously. KAIRI: Yeah... ENZO: But Saika is nowhere near as mean-spirited and offensive-- STILTS: Actually Hastur would probably be a better example as he's completely sidelined, but yeah. TAKAII: For now, for now, for now. STILTS: For now. We can still get that episode, but no wait, I really can't understand that and I can't believe I didn't think of it until you guys brought that up, so more people should listen to the podcast! We say intelligent things! KAIRI: Sometimes. STILTS: Occasionally. When I'm not talking. Takaii, you have anything to say about this one? TAKAII: I would if I was watching it, but... *Stilts laughs* KAIRI: What... ZEPHYR: This guy... STILTS: Augh! TAKAII: You just gotta call me out in front of everybody! Alright, I was going to watch it, because I'd hurt my back, so I'd been at home and my friend got me an Apple TV, so I've just been here, streaming my stuff over, and I was like I should catch up to these new shows and catch up to them, like Shingeki no Kyojin, but then something happens, I misclicked on my iPad and started watching Steins;Gate again and then I was like, "this is great!" and then I fell asleep. STILTS: Awww, there's so much to judge you about in there. I would say if I had seen Steins;Gate. So moving on. TAKAII: Iunno, I've seen it, but I'm rewatching it. Yes I've seen it. STILTS: I was taking that you had seen it, but-- TAKAII: It's all thanks to my friend, so okay. ZEPHYR: I'm judging you on that one Stilts. Judging. ENZO: Guilty! ZEPHYR: See, that was the guilty sound right there. STILTS: The guilty yell or whatever that was. ZEPHYR: Bee boop. STILTS: Sorry, it was my day off tomorrow. I do think at least for the people who don't pay attention to the news and what Urobutcher says, he is a big draw for this series because there's that element of when's the butchering going to start? So you watch it because you think it might, and it doesn't seem like it will, but-- ENZO: Seems like it doesn't. KAIRI: I don't know. STILTS: I hope it doesn't because it won't fit, but you're kind of interested to see if it will, so that plus the series being an original, which is always interesting. KAIRI: I don't know, whenever I feel like whenever, "When's the butchering going to happen?" I'm also like, "Please don't let it happen," kind of thing. STILTS: That's true. That's how I-- TAKAII: Oh, you did say Urobuchi Gen. Okay, I was like, "the shaft guy? Who makes all of our lives better?" That guy, okay. ZEPHYR: Yeah, I'm sitting here and I'm like, I'm really hoping that it kind of stays the way it is for the most part. It doesn't go descending into some slaughterfest, but at the same time there's just that part where you can't shake this nagging feeling, you just can't . Even despite all this, someone is probably going to eat it before the show is over. ENZO: Characters can die without an Urobuchi Gen show. ZEPHYR: Yeah, the way he takes out characters... STILTS: He does have a style for it. ZEPHYR: Augh, you know PSYCHO-PASS for instance, but... STILTS: Any last thoughts on the Urobutcher, I mean Suisei no Gargantia? Okay, we're good. [Hataraku Maou-sama is omitted temporarily due to time constraints] [74:00] INTERMISSION STILTS: Alright, and we are back! Now this is the part in the podcast where your host gets drunker and therefore starts to lose control of rest of the writers. So, we’re going ahead to do what we like to call, Wild Mass Guessing, where we give- TAKAII: What? STILTS: Ridiculous- TAKAII: What? STILTS: Ridiculous guesses about how the second halves of all these shows we’ve talked about and the ones we haven’t talked about are going to go. I think we should talk about the one we talked about before we went on that song break, Ore Imouto [Oreimo]. Anybody gonna guess how that’s going to end? TAKAII: They’re all going to die, and no one’s going to end up together. We’re going to all have a great life together. See you next season. Bye. ZEPHYR: Bad end. STILTS: The (?) not writing that show, come on! ENZO: I think it’s the forever alone ending. I don’t think he ends up with any of the girls in the cast romantically. Hopefully not Kirino. TAKAII: I can’t say anything because I think I spoiled myself earlier. I think I know what happens after this. I can’t speak but- ZEPHYR: This guy- TAKAII: So what Enzo said. STILTS: But the last light novel hasn’t come out yet, has it? TAKAII: He’s dating somebody, is he not? STILTS: Well, yeah. ENZO: Yeah, but I think the point is that the series itself is not over yet, so how can we be spoiled when the series itself hasn’t ended yet? STILTS: That’s the point! That’s the best part. That’s why we can do crazy wild mass guessing on this. I personally think they’re going to go for the Kirino end. TAKAII: I predispose myself. I don’t want to say nothing now. STILTS: I think they’re going for the Kirino end, because- ENZO: That would be hideous. STILTS: It would be horrible, but it would be the only way it could live up to everything. TAKAII: Do you remember…I think it was either episode 1 or episode 2. It’s a flashback, when they were all little kids and Kirino is all over him. She’s like “Onii-chan”, like she loves him. Then, for some reason, he’s like just being a [jerk] to her, like “I’m four years old now, we can’t be friends because it’s not cool or some [stuff].” Then, holy, her persona changed, like “no, f--k you, I hate you!” and then, “Sorry.” STILTS: Can we go back to Takaii saying “Onii-chan”? KAIRI: That was like me and my sister. (laughs) TAKAII: I don’t know what episode it was in. She was like, “Onii-chan~!” All happy and all high-pitched and everything, and then he’s like, “No, I can’t talk to you no more because you’re a girl, and I’m five.” ENZO: I think we can all agree that Kuroneko has peaked too soon and her getting a date this early in this series is pretty much the death flag for any relationship hopes she has. STILTS: It’s possible though. It could be the…You know, it starts and then it goes through troubles and then it goes back. ENZO: That’s my hope but it’s not a fervent hope. TAKAII: No comment. ENZO: My hope is anybody but Kirino end. If it ends with an Urobuchi Gen ending, that’s fine, as long as he doesn’t end up with Kirino. I’m fine with anything else. STILTS: The Manami end would be pretty awesome. ENZO: Oh, that’s a real long shot. STILTS: Oh yeah, a real long shot but- TAKAII: No comment on my side. STILTS: Hey, Ayase end? ZEPHYR & ENZO: Oh god! ZEPHYR: That would be quite epic though, I’ve gotta say. ENZO: Not even he deserves that! STILTS: I did like when she was insulted and he was deathly afraid. ENZO: As well he should’ve been. STILTS: Oh yeah, she just went yandere face on him. ZEPHYR: Castration time. Right off. Cut it right off. TAKAII: The look on her face, I can’t believe she was- ENZO: She was born that way. TAKAII: She was crazy. ENZO: Anything else is an act. STILTS: That’s true. Alright. What other series do we’ve got going on right now that you guys have some wild guesses [on] how they’re going to end? TAKAII: I would say Railgun, but we kinda know what’s going to happen, so- ENZO: That one, we don’t care. ZEPHYR: Yeah. STILTS: I think Misaka is going to (?) by the end of it but- ZEPHYR: How about Yahari? STILTS: That’s a good one. ENZO: How can that not be a forever alone end? KAIRI: I kinda want him to end up with the trap. That would be great. ENZO: I do too! Absolutely. TAKAII: I want him to end up with Yukino because they both can fix each other’s problems. KAIRI: He totally has a crush on the trap, like come on. It’d be cool. ZEPHYR: Yukino all the way. STILTS: Here’s the thing. The series is broadcasting a Yukino ending, and the best ending is the Saika ending, so maybe it’s just going to be a Yui ending so everybody’s pissed off. TAKAII: They’ll pull a Clannad and make OVAs for all the other girls, right? KAIRI: They would do that. ZEPHYR: There’s definitely an OVA. There’s actually an OVA being written by the author himself- ENZO: Yeah, that’s true. ZEPHYR: Coming so. TAKAII: Why can’t everything follow the FMA path, where you make a series [and] it turns out to be decent and then four years later, you make a brand new series- ZEPHYR: Make another series? (laughs) TAKAII: Then, you follow along with the author and then you end with the manga at the same time! That’d be the perfect world. KAIRI: She had to rush the last few chapters because she was behind. STILTS: That’s okay. I’m still waiting on that to happen with Soul Eater. KAIRI laughs. TAKAII: Oh, Soul Eater was so good, except I don’t read the manga so I don’t know. KAIRI: BONES is still saying that they want to make a new show. A new take on an old show. ENZO: Yes, don’t forget that BONES has said, “a new take on an old show.” It won’t be FMA. KAIRI: For me, it’s either Soul Eater or Ouran High School. It’s probably gonna be Soul Eater. TAKAII: If it’s Soul Eater, oh my god, I would- STILTS: I would want either of those. ZEPHYR: If it’s Soul Eater, yes, please. Yes, please. TAKAII: So, Stilts, did you- STILTS: What’s up, Tak? TAKAII: Before I forget, you know how I told you on IRC, I finally set up the thing to notify me when someone says something with my name in it? STILTS: Yeah. TAKAII: So, the sound it plays, I was trying to figure out how to show you, because my computer is recording. My phone is being used for Skype, so I found a site. So, are you ready for it? STILTS: Go ahead. TAKAII: Alright. (Takaii’s “unique” IRC alert sound plays) STILTS (chuckles): That’s marvelous. TAKAII laughs. STILTS: Wow. TAKAII: That’s why when I said “be right back”, I said “someone chime me in!” It just screamed and I was like, “Oh, I gotta get up now.” STILTS laughs. STILTS: Oh, I’ll be messaging you so much, but no, on the BONES thing, if they do either Soul Eater or Ouran, I’m going to be so happy. Enzo, did you actually watch Ouran High School? ENZO: I did. It was okay. It didn’t do that much for me, honestly. I thought it was a little bit…I don’t know, it was okay. It was a solid B- show but nothing that I carried with me for the rest of my life. STILTS: That’s a shame, but then again it did have the weird original ending, which is always a problem. ENZO: I didn’t know anything about that, but it was okay. It was fine. Much copied, I might say. STILTS: That was one of the few shoujos that I actually really enjoyed. ENZO: Well, it started out reminding me a lot of Fruits Basket, actually, which is one of my favorite shoujos of all time, and then I realized that the two are really nothing alike. Then, maybe in my narrow infantile way, I held that against it. I don’t know. STILTS: [I] can’t say. I haven’t seen much Fruits Basket. It’s on the list, but the list is huge. I don’t even know why I say that anymore. ENZO: Yeah, I know. I have that list too. STILTS: Yeah. What other things do we got, crazy guesses at how things are gonna end? Photo Kano, that’s going to end badly, because oh god but- ENZO: Well it started badly. STILTS: Yeah. So much sadness. ENZO: Let me say, I’m just looking at my list of series here to see if I have any guesses for how they’re gonna end. ENZO: Chihayafuru is going to end in the middle of the story, and we won’t have any romantic development. That’s my wild guess on that. STILTS: That’s not that wild. KAIRI: Sounds about right. ENZO: We’ll all hope for another season. How about Gargantia? How do people think that’s going to end? That’s an interesting one, because that’s going to be ending in a month. STILTS: I think it’s probably going to end with him….I want to say [that] it’s going to end with him integrating into society but as I say that, I don’t believe it. ENZO: Yeah, I don’t think he’s going back. ZEPHYR: Yeah, I don’t think he’s going back. I think right now, the way it’s going [to] happen, the Fleet Commander’s gonna bork, and because of that, Ridget’s not really prepared to take the seat yet, so the thing that’s gonna happen is Ledo is going on that journey to the land of the whale squids and what’s that guy’s name… STILTS: Pinion? ZEPHYR: Pinion’s going as well, but at the same time, what happens is Ledo will find some kind of key to the Hideauze’s past of some sort as a result of him going there or something about the prior society at least. Some kind of hint that really solves questions. STILTS: Some kind of discovery that’ll- ZEPHYR: Yeah. It might turn out that they’re human made or something. You never know with this series. I guess maybe he’ll find some way to contact Galactic Alliance or something but I don’t see him going back even if this happens. I think in the end he’s gonna stay. STILTS: I think that might be. I think that he might actually contact them, but he won’t go back. ZEPHYR: He’ll choose to stay voluntarily. STILTS: Yeah. ZEPHYR: He’s on leave anyway, actually, because after he gave the information, he’s- STILTS: Wasn’t that like two weeks anyway? ZEPHYR: No, that’s it. He’s done, I think. STILTS: Was it? ZEPHYR: With his military obligations, I believe. I guess after this, if he really finds the key, then he’ll defeat them all. They’ll be defeated anyway. There won’t be any enemy to fight, so theoretically, he’ll be free to do it? Or he’ll get some kind of exception anyway because “I provided your key to salvation so…” STILTS: “So I’m gonna marry Amy and live happily ever after?” ZEPHYR: Ideally, maybe. STILTS: So much fanfiction will be made. ZEPHYR: Yeah. STILTS: Sorry, I’m just hoping. ZEPHYR: No, there’s going to be more fanfiction with him and Bellows. STITLS: Probably, but I’m not sure what kind of fanfiction you’re reading. TAKAII: Okay, I’m on. STILTS: Oh, you’re back, Tak? ZEPHYR: Welcome back. TAKAII: Thank you. STILTS: Welcome back. Well, I think that’s pretty good. I was trying to think of other good shows to guess about, but- ENZO: How about Valvrave? Since that’s crazy to begin with. Any guesses would certainly be crazy. ZEPHYR: Everybody dies. STILTS: We’ve got two seasons of that one, so do we really want to guess- ZEPHYR: Oh yeah we do. STILTS: At this this season or end of all of it? ENZO: We’ve already had a 200 year time skip too, so. ZEPHYR: Yeah. (laughs) It’s like, cue 200 year time skip, what? ENZO: Yeah. I love that show just for being as batshit stupid as it is, but it’s probably still too early to guess. STILTS: Yeah, I just thought [of] Saki being amazing in that one episode. That was entertaining. ZEPHYR: Let’s just settle on the fact that everyone significant will become a vampire and [stuff] will go down. STILTS: I’m an episode behind but I don’t particularly care about spoilers. Who do you think the five pilots are going to be? ENZO: The predictable thing would be that Kyuma? Is that his name? The guy who just had his crush got vaporized in the last episode. He might follow the standard path and decide that he too wants to seek his revenge by giving up his humanity and piloting a Valvrave. That would be predictable if that happened. STILTS: Well, they’re not above being predictable in certain ways. ENZO: No. It’s a show about clichés really so that would be fine. ZEPHYR: Yeah, that’s true. ENZO: What about Shouko? Is she gonna become a pilot. I think that’s the big question. KAIRI: I think she won’t. I think she’ll be the last anchor. ENZO: I agree. Anchor is the right word. ZEPHYR: Yeah. STILTS: I think that’s another thing. I think you’re right that I don’t think she will, but I think it would elevate the show if she did. ZEPHYR: Yeah. STILTS: Because that’s not the expected thing and it would be very very interesting to see what happens when our main character is going into battle with his love and the other chick that’s kissing him. Yeah… no anchor to humanity, and then what the hell am I fighting for anymore? It’ll be interesting to see what he does. ENZO: Maybe the busty airheaded teacher played by Hocchan will be- STILTS: Stop reading my dreams! ENZO laughs. STILTS: I’ve gotta admit, I didn’t always understand Divine’s fascination with Hocchan until lately. I don’t know. She’s really grown on me. ENZO: She’s awesome. STILTS: She only has like really one, maybe, two voices, which I hold against her a little bit, but they are fantastic voices. ENZO: I don’t necessarily agree with that, but there’s nothing wrong with that if they’re good enough. People love Kana Hana, and that’s all she does. STILTS: Well, she’s got maybe three. ENZO: Don’t forget that she played the male lead in Little Busters too, so she’s got that voice. STILTS: I know. ENZO: Although some people would argue but let’s not. STILTS: I still think that’s slightly a miscast but actually not a big one after our last [podcast]. ENZO: No, I think she did fine. STILTS: Yeah, she did pretty good. ENZO: He’s supposed to be a moe male lead anyway so I think that sorta worked. STILTS: As I say that, I was remembering the podcast where we talked about that. Listen to all of the podcast, people. KAIRI chuckles. ENZO: Right. STILTS: No, she does have more range than I originally give her [credit] for. TAKAII: Moe. Moe. STILTS: She’s awesome as the sensei. ENZO: Yeah. STILTS: Anyway, what other ones do we got crazy guesses about? ENZO: Kairi, how do you think Dansai Bunri’s gonna end? KAIRI: Ooh, that’s tough. ENZO: That’s a tough one, huh? KAIRI: That’s really tough. I’m still one episode behind but yeah, I have no idea what’s gonna go down in that. ENZO: Yeah, okay, I could make a guess, but you haven’t seen the …. If you haven’t seen the last episode, I won’t guess because I can’t really guess without revealing what happened. STILTS: I’ve only seen half of the last episode. I was trying to finish it before this thing. KAIRI: Yeah, I’m behind unfortunately. STILTS: I can kinda speculate. No, not really. It’s hard to think where it’s gonna end. You want to say that maybe it just ends in the no resolution situation? ENZO: No. I was just gonna say that since it’s one of those shows it has to end in the middle or with a completely anime original ending because they don’t have time to adapt everything. Unlike Maou-sama, it’s not going to sell well to get a second season, so I don’t think we’ll have a definitive ending. I think they’ll stop in the middle and say, “Okay, go buy the manga if you want to see what happens next.” STILTS: Which is fine. ENZO: Yeah, that’s better than the alternative which is a crappy ass pull anime original ending. STILTS: Unless you have original Fullmetal Alchemist level of episodes to work with. TAKAII: Thank you, Stilts. I was just about to say that. STILTS: I will always steal your things to say. Good job-u. TAKAII: I know right. Good job-u? What? STILTS: That last time. TAKAII: You’ll just have to play it. Oh dammit, okay. STILTS: Yes, unless they have that much to work with, I prefer they just go as far as they can, find a good way to stop, or find a good place to stop, and then just stop. TAKAII: Or just randomly announce season 2. That works too. KAIRI: That’d be great. Probably not gonna happen. ENZO: Never happen. STILTS: I almost said pull a Magi, but they actually tried to do an anime original ending and that worked okay-ish. KAIRI: People ask for sequels on the things that don’t need sequels, but nobody fights for things that need sequels. TAKAII: We need Index season 3. Let’s go. ENZO: Oh, you know that’ll happen. ZEPHYR: They have that movie, though, right now. Season 3 will come definitely. ENZO: Yeah, Railgun fans have got nothing to bitch about. They’ve already got two seasons of the show- ZEPHYR: They’ll keep coming. ENZO: Plus more to come. 2nd seasons, 3rd seasons, 4th seasons, it’s all about two things: did it help sell the source material and did it sell a lot of blu-rays and dvds? If the answer to one of those two things is yes, there’s a pretty good chance. If it’s not, unless it’s Studio Deen, you’ll never get your 2nd season. TAKAII: Studio Deen. ZEPHYR: You know, actually, this brings up a nice question in terms of…. I think we might’ve talked about this a while back, but what kind of show do you really want to see a sequel to? TAKAII: I want a sequel to Little Busters (hohoho). ZEPHYR: It’s already coming out though. There is a sequel. Refrain’s coming out. ENZO: Zephyr, do you mean, realistically? Or if we could pick any? ZEPHYR: If you could pick. ENZO: Seirei no Moribito, because there are five more books in the novel series and the first season is the best anime of all time in my opinion. So that’s a slam dunk for me. TAKAII: What show needs a second season…. STILTS: I’m too drunk for this. TAKAII: Oh! You know what show needs a second season. There’s two shows I’d love for a second season but they’re slice of life old kind of shows. One would be Mayo Chiki! That’s kinda recent, and the other would be- ZEPHYR: Yes, I remember that. TAKAII: [It] would be Ookami-san to Shichinin. The seven people. STILTS: Oh, Ookami-san. Yeah. ZEPHYR: Oh, yeah, I remember those shows. TAKAII: Both those shows, there was nothing really wrapped up with the male lead and the female lead. I was like, (grumbles). STILTS: Oh, I have an easy one. Sakurasou. ZEPHYR: Oh. I don’t think there’s really room for a sequel there. STILTS: They have enough books for it. The problem is the actual number of books. It would have to be a 15-episode series or a 7-episode [series]. Something like that. Some kind of weird number. ZEPHYR: There’s a VN for that, I believe. STILTS: Is there? ZEPHYR: There’s a game of some sort. On PSP. STILTS: Oh yes, there is. I need to get a PSP. ZEPHYR: It’ll never get translated though. KAIRI: Oh, I know what needs a sequel! Tonari no Kaibutsu-kun! ENZO: Oh yes. Totally. STILTS: I should’ve said that. KAIRI: I love that show. ENZO: Yep. Me too. TAKAII: That’d be a good one. STILTS: That would be a good one. TAKAII: I didn’t like the way it ended. STILTS: That’s another one that opens itself up for one. KAIRI: Because the manga is still ongoing. Manga has a lot more [stuff] going down. (laughs) ENZO: How about Nazo no Kanojo X for another one of those where it’s still in the middle of- ZEPHYR: Oh that show! ENZO: Yeah that should have another season. STILTS: Let’s see how many people agree with this one. Seirei [(Seto]) no Hanayome? KAIRI laughs. ENZO: I don’t lose sleep worrying about it, but I wouldn’t mind it. STILTS: The ending was very good but I really enjoyed that series. ENZO: Isn’t Muromi-san sort of a second season of that show in a way? STILTS: More comedy, less singing? ENZO: I wouldn’t mind. I liked that show. I never really thought about it once it was over, but yeah, I wouldn’t mind a second season. STILTS: I admit, it’s half because I’m going through- ENZO: Oh, I’ve got another one. You’ve hit me on that same director. Seiji Kishi. Kamisama Dolls. There’s a show that needs a second season. KAIRI: Oh, that needs a second season! ENZO: Yep. TAKAII: You know what Stilts would believe would need a second season? He got his Hyakka Ryouran. He needs Senran Kagura for the last season to get a second season. STILTS: I wouldn’t complain but….although I was pleasantly surprised on Senran. That’s another one that doesn’t need a second one, but I wouldn’t complain. It doesn’t need one. I don’t lose sleep over it. I was thinking on a recent Hyakka Ryouran episode that Senran was done even better than I give it credit for at the time. TAKAII: Oh… STILTS: Oh, sorry, I’d better go for another obvious one. Anybody want to guess what I’m about to say? ZEPHYR: Let’s not talk about it. STILTS: You know what it’s going to be. Kyoukai- ZEPHYR: Horizon. STILTS: Senjou no Horizon. Yeah. ENZO: Oh god. ZEPHYR: Now that’s coming. STILTS: Season three!!! ZEPHYR: That’s definitely gonna come. It sells too well and has too much- STILTS: I would love to lose another- KAIRI: I don’t even know what show this is. ZEPHYR & TAKAII: Horizon! STILTS: You know… TAKAII: It’s the show that I started and handed over to Stilts to inaugurate him into the club. KAIRI laughs. STILTS: It’s the one that I wrote – and I don’t say this lightly – that I wrote a novel about in two posts. ZEPHYR: Yeah, he did write a novel. TAKAII: That’s why I gave it to Stilts. He was the perfect candidate for it. STILTS: Because nobody’s crazier than this guy. KAIRI: I don’t know about that. (laughs) ZEPHYR: Oh and one other thing I remembered. You guys remember earlier in the year, there were a couple OVAs released for the Young Animators project? STILTS: Mm-hm. TAKAII: Yes. ZEPHYR: Do you guys watch this? ENZO: Yes? ZEPHYR: So, what did you guys think of it? ENZO: Death Billiards! Awesome! ZEPHYR: Yeah, I just watched that the other day, actually. I finally found the time to catch up on- STILTS: I actually got that recently. Was it- Okay, I guess it was really good, so I’ll definitely have to watch [it]. ENZO: It’s Madhouse. It’s old school Madhouse. It’s really really good. Most of the attention went to Little Witch, which is fun- STILTS: [Little Witch] is really good. ZEPHYR: That was pretty fun. ENZO: It’s well made. Death Billiards is really good, edgy, dark, beautifully animated. I think that would make a very interesting series if you had someone different every episode going into that bar. ZEPHYR: Instead of those two in that scene? ENZO: Yeah, that was death pool. If Kon Satoshi was still alive….If Kon Satoshi was writing and directing that as a weekly series, that would be so great. ZEPHYR: That wouldn’t be called Death Billiards anymore, would it? ENZO: Well, no, who cares what it’s called if it’s that good. ZEPHYR laughs. ZEPHYR: True. The third one was Aruvu Rezul, right? ENZO: Aruvu Rezuru. There were four actually. There was the dragon one too but I haven’t seen that one- ZEPHYR: Yeah, I haven’t seen that one around. STILTS: Yeah, I haven’t heard anything other than the first two. ENZO: I thought Aruvu Rezuru was shockingly ugly from a visual standpoint. I had a hard time getting past that. ZEPHYR: I ended up watching the web rip or some low quality thing about it. I don’t know. I kinda liked it because you know sci-fi…but I was surprised, because out of the three that I’ve watched for the project, that actually was the one that underwhelmed me the most. STILTS: Pause. Pause. Say a lot of things so we can edit in you not admitting to pirating things. ENZO laughs. STILTS: You watched the latest version in the theater. Go ahead. Say thanks. ENZO: Well, er, okay. (laughs) TAKAII: I get all my anime straight from KeyHole TV. Where do you get yours? KAIRI: I actually use Crunchyroll so yay! ENZO: I can’t use that where I am, because it’s all blocked in Japan. Crunchyroll. KAIRI: That’s true. ZEPHYR: The web rip though, theoretically it’s legal because they put it up online on niconicovideo. STILTS: Oh do they? ZEPHYR: Yeah, it’s officially there. ENZO: Just say you watched it on niconico and be done with it. ZEPHYR: Okay. STILTS: Say that real quick. (Silence) ZEPHYR: Yeah. KAIRI laughs. ENZO: Hey, where’d you watch that, Z? TAKAII: He watched that on niconico, Enzo, but he’s too flabbergasted to talk about it. He’s too embarrassed to admit that he made an account on there, but it’s okay. We know now. STILTS (laughs): Thank you. Fair enough. ENZO: Also, the Young Animators project - the 2014 version – is going to have an anime by the director of Nazo no Kanojo X and Uchuu Kyoudai. So, that should be a lot of fun. Plus Abe-Sensei. That should be really good. STILTS: So, a lot of things I liked right there, so I’ll be watching. You know, (?) just knows that there’s one coming from them? I’ll take that as a no. Does anybody have any other things they want sequels of? Or any other things they want to guess about the ending of? Or anything like that? ZEPHYR: I hear massive typing. Massive keyboard smashing. TAKAII: I think we’re pretty good on the sequels. Is there anything else you’ve got to cover in the second half of this a-mazing podcast? STILTS: We did have one other thing we want to talk about, maybe. Does anybody want to talk about TV Free? TAKAII: TV Free? What’s that? ZEPHYR: Let’s do it. TAKAII: What’s that? STILTS: Takaii, you know what TV Free is. Your favorite show next season. TAKAII: Are you talking about the show where they added a random fifth guy when there were only four originally? Changing the whole atmosphere and everything? KAIRI: I’m only watching it if Takaii-senpai covers it. Just saying. STILTS: Oh, he is. We have him recorded twice. He will do it. ZEPHYR: No. TAKAII: I was thinking of taking a season off and then I was like, oh, I said I was gonna do it. ZEPHYR: You ain’t taking that season off. You crazy dawg. KAIRI: You’re just doing Free. STILTS: You can take a season off, not that season though. Alright, do we have any other comments on TV Free, guessing on things- ZEPHYR: Oh yeah, TV Free! TAKAII: TV Free. KAIRI: Two percent TV Free ENZO: Yeah, my comment on TV Free is Kyoto Animation’s big fans, just get over yourselves. You’ve had five years of basically nothing but moe shows. KAIRI: People who don’t like it….All I’ve seen are people having fits because it’s awesome. ZEPHYR: Nah, I remember I was talking to a bunch of people about it, and it was quite something seeing how everyone’s freaking out about KyoAni doing this. They’re like, “oh no, once you get a taste of the money you get from fujoshi, you can’t turn back!” TAKAII: That’s stupid. KAIRI: It is. ZEPHYR: It ended up being hours and hours of me trying to say that just because they’re doing this one show doesn’t mean that they’re going to shift all their priorities to there. I feel, if anything, earning the extra money for them could actually be a good thing for them in terms of future development. KAIRI: Not like they really need to earn more money. ZEPHYR: Yeah. At this point, the more money they have, the more chance they’ll make more than one show per season or something like that. STILTS: Every company wants to make more money. Everyone. KAIRI: True. STILTS: So, yeah, you could always have more money. ZEPHYR: More moo-ney. Mo-ney. STILTS: Mo’ problems. ZEPHYR: Seashelled with my seashore sells she. TAKAII: She sells seashells by the seashore? ZEPHYR: Seashored by seashells sells she. TAKAII: She sells seashells she sells…. Get to the choppa now! Did you see? ZEPHYR: Okay. (laughs) Let’s move on. STILTS: I’m just enjoying the fact that you guys are acting drunker than I am. TAKAII chuckles. STILTS: Okay, if we don’t have any more anime-related contents, I do believe that we’re gonna go into our ending song. We’ll probably keep talking and some bloopers after the fact but that’s only because I’m too drunk to move at this point. So, we’re going to go into our ending song. It is for Oregairu. Takaii, you want to say that full series name just so I enjoy listening to you say it? TAKAII: So, the ending sequence of Yahari Ore no Seishun Rabu Kome wa Machigatteiru. Song name is? STILTS: Hello Alone by Saori Hayami and Nao Touyama. TAKAII: Ya~y! ENZO: And a depressing song it is too. STILTS: Fantastic.