[SPEAKING SPANISH] [SPEAKING SPANISH] [SPEAKING SPANISH] [SPEAKING SPANISH] Hello and welcome to "More Than Hentire." Podcard says it's here to show that anime is just far more than tentacles and cat girls. There's also countless stories of love. Lost, laughs, hope, horror, and happiness that it is dying to be found. And I'm Brendan White at the Salt and Pepper Sempime here to help you find them. "More Than Hentire" is proudly powered by a friend's over at Audio, Technica, and Dashwater. So please go and upgrade your audio and hydration games today. Preferably, once you're done checking out this fantastic, fantastic episode. And today in the studio, I can't help but sense a little deja vu joining me on this episode as a man who we're not watching every anime from 2008 free, the endless '08 podcast highlighting the best and brightest anime from the fantastic year of 2008 can be found working on his very own tabletop role playing game, such as "Blood Cloth." And this world summons too many heroes from an anime standpoint. He's a big fan of recent releases, such as "Freely," "Delicious in Dungeon," "The Danger in My Heart," "Off and Carry Diaries," and "A Sign of Affection," and this is all time favorites as forward allowchemist, brotherhood, killer kill, and touradora to name but a few. You can find them on their socials @duffhounds which is D-U-F-H-O-U-N-D-S, Nick Duff, AKA Duffo. You bloody legend, welcome back. How might you be doing? - Thank you, it's so good to be here. It really got me into my own headspace as well where we're used to, we've got a time lip gimmick and we've set up our own loop here. I feel like I've brought that with me. - Yeah, so listeners and viewers or however you're consuming this podcast, yeah. Full disclosure, we recorded an episode a little over a week or so as time ago now, but we had some conflicting issues with some technological demons and problems within the Matrix. And that episode may or may not ever be released. Who the heck knows? We've managed to salvage two thirds of it as of time of recording, which is the 18th of June, 2024. So hopefully that episode does see the light of day because it was a banger discussion, but we've decided, now what, let's do it again. Let's not just retread the fantastic banter we had last week. Let's tackle a whole new anime this time around on MTH. But yeah, man, let's jump on in. Let's get a bit of the Duffer backstory. Let's talk about all the great things you're doing because you are a very multifaceted individual. You do a lot of things in the normal nine to five life, what you're also doing, some really cool, really bespoke, but very interesting anime based podcasting with Endless08 and then also some of the TTRPG stuff you've got going on. So where do you want to start us as far as the Nick Duff story? - Yeah, look, I'd love to get into Endless08. Bespoke is a really good phrase, which I think I'll pick up for it. Yes, it is a gimmick podcast, ultimately, where we wanted to talk about anime, but it needed to have a focus in there because rather than just discussing every show that comes and having it all flow through, I really wanted to just take a slice of anime life, especially from our formative years. I'm in the age bracket and my co-host is in the age bracket where this was high school for us, this was us just sort of getting into anime in a big real way. And we are revisiting a lot of the first shows that we ever came across and a lot of shows that we missed at the time, but tonally fit with the things that we were watching. - It's such a good concept. And I love that 2008 is the year you've landed on because there is some fantastic, fantastic anime, some little less or more so than others, depending on what you're looking for. But yeah, we certainly were eating well throughout the year of 2008. And yeah, to have, I guess, such an important year and an important touchstone in your collective lives there now being able to deep dive not only on all these great anime, but I feel it probably transports you back to that year just in a broader lens as well. Like, yes, the anime is great, but you're probably getting so many like memories and recollections of things that happened throughout that year outside of, you know, discovering and consuming anime for the first time. - Yeah, we are happy with the podcast at the moment 'cause we're watching Soul Leader, which is great. - Yes, yes, really great to revisit. One of the things we were talking about in 2008 is the year that creepypastor.com comes under the internet. - So, I don't know if that's a good or a bad thing like, I've spent a few hours on their browsing over the years and yeah, I certainly feel equally educated as I do unsettled, I think. So depends on what you're looking for, what we're into, right, Dafoe? - Yeah, people had an appetite for horror. They wanted spooky themed things. - Yeah, yeah, and we, there's an endless supply of spooky themed things out there. But yeah, creepypastor is a good gateway drug for many people, whether they're just discovering that genre for the first time or maybe just looking for a point of difference to their usual sort of viewing and educational history, but yeah, creepypastor's got so much stuff on there. I haven't been on there for a while, so I can only imagine the crazy nonsense that you can dig up on there. Now, have you been on recently to see what's going on? - Oh yeah, I mean, I had to comb through. I think like the kind of SCP Foundation is eating their breakfast at the moment. - Yeah, pause, pause a lot of that away. But yeah, there's still people making short spooky things on there. - Oh yeah, oh yeah, because, you know, with the social media society and that swipe left or swipe right mentality, we need that short instant gratification. So yeah, short film and short media is definitely the gateway for many people to, you know, be informed, educated and potentially terrified, but... - Which we'll get into with the show later. - We will indeed, we will indeed. But yeah, let's talk about some of the other stuff you have going on because I mentioned at the drop as well that you have designed, developed and created and now obviously have released to the World Wide Web your own tabletop games with blood clot and this world summons too many heroes being two notables that I think are worth talking about. - Yeah, the latter being the most applicable here because it is my anime themed one. It is Isekai Pal fantasy role-playing game with the concept being that it is an Isekai, a very typical kitchen sink fantasy world where the first guy to get brought into it had a spell copyability and the thing he copied was the summoning scrolls and then just like a made hundred of them all went, listen, if there are any problems, just use one of these. And unfortunately, people in this world took to that a bit too aggressively and have just been pulling out heroes left and right and it has created a bunch more problems than it has solved. - It's so good, it's such a fun concept. Like I've dipped a few toes over the years into TT RPG but I haven't played anything that is pulling from my love of anime directly into that world. So I need to spend some time in this universe and seeing what this is all about because it feels like it's gonna be an absolute hoot of a time with so much craziness that could be thrown at me at any given moment. And the fact that you've got multiple expansions available within that universe to jump into as well, it feels like I could spend days, weeks, months, maybe years combing through this world. - Yes, I get people ask me about it. So like, oh, you know, I played this game, I had a bunch of fun. I think I accidentally made my character too powerful and I go, no, no, that's the intended experience. - Yeah, yeah, the power creep is real and justified. Have you got a character you've made in this world summons too many heroes that sort of stands above the rest like as from maybe like from a fondness perspective? Like there's a character you've got where they just own your heart for better or for worse? - Yeah, one of the ones I keep coming back to, I always toss them in as an NPC 'cause I love to have a bunch of, all of the people around you in the world also be heroes that have been dragged in and the one I use is Moriarty, who there are people in this world, some of them come in with like personalities of like legendary figures from the other world. And it's very unclear whether he is that or if he is just a British guy who is a role-playing Moriarty. (laughing) - I love that. I don't want to spoil anything, but hopefully throughout that playthrough or maybe future iterations with Moriarty involved, we might finally get to the bottom of years just playing the role or not. There's a nice level of intrigue there, Duffer. - Yeah, and that's fun. - It is super fun and something else that is fun and I guess the reason why we're here today is anime. The greatness that it is mentioned like 2008 was your primary awakening to this fantastic, this fantastic world and the many universes within. So let's talk through how you found it, what you're currently consuming at the moment. Like I mentioned, some of your favorites from the last couple of seasons, as well as a few of the all-timers like former lack of his brotherhood, kill, kill, et cetera. But yeah, let's dig in to your anime viewing habits. Let's talk about good things, bad things. Maybe we can then even like touch on maybe what your favorite anime of all time is. I know that's a bit of probably a hard question to narrow down or land on, but yeah, I'm very curious. So let's talk some anime. - Yeah, absolutely. The current season for me, I am someone who watches the start of a lot of shows and tape is off on them. I don't have a single completionist bone in my body. - So like that's admirable. Like I wish I probably had a little bit of that restraint in my body because I'm the opposite where I'm like, this could be the most piece of crap thing I've ever seen in my life, but I rarely drop anime or rarely drop things that I'm watching or consuming. So yeah, for better or for worse, I usually see it through to the end and a lot of the time I regret wasting my time doing so. So yeah, I have to tip to you for doing the right thing sometimes. - Yeah, it's tough because there's a season where like a kaiju number eight strong start starting to taper off, maybe I'll finish it. - How dare you win to break a strong start starting to taper off, maybe I'll finish it. - Yeah, like wind break has been fun, but kaiju for me, especially like episode 10 that just came out this past weekend, it is one of the best singular episodes I've seen all year irrespective of kaiju or just anime in general. It is so well written, so well paced. And yeah, you got to get back on the train now. - It's interesting, I've picked up the manga and I found that the pacing gets a bit better. I think it's just the length of the action scenes to get dragged out and just coming back on the same beats over and over the amount of times someone almost gets eaten by a monster and you have the same shot of like the monster's teeth around the person and then a last minute save. It's incredibly hype the first few times, but then you see it the fifth time and you're like hang on. - Yeah. - Are you reusing old assets here? Like what's happening here production IG? What are you doing? - It's a show where like the direction is cool enough that they could be doing other fun stuff with it. - Yeah, but no, I'm happy that you at least working through the manga because it is a great read. And like you said, it does really pick up the pacing once they sort of establish the world and the stakes and give us some back story as far as what's happening with Kafka and Ko and from there it just goes from strength to strength. So yeah, stick with it both in the manga and the anime 'cause yeah, that episode 10, some of my favorite viewing all year. - Nice, embarrassingly the one show I have completely stuck with for the whole season, nearly watching it pretty much as it comes out is chilling in another world with my level two cheap hours. - It's fun. I thought that was just gonna be another bottom of the barrel, copy paste, fantasy nonsense that we get several times every season, every year without fail, but it's been enjoyable. I've been really vibing with it so far. - Hey, he's won be over so quick. It's like aggressively anti-slavery. The biggest wife guy out, he is so wifed up. - Yeah, he's aspirations right there. Like we all aspire to be in that type of situation. He's a genuine good protagonist that you can sort of care about instead of a lot of these very forgettable fantasy protags and they throw us season after season. - Yeah, I even just love the, he doesn't want to walk to break out, does, he's just got like the demon king as like comes around and hangs out at his house. (laughing) - It's end viewable. - It is, and like a couple of others you mentioned, like you are a man of very impeccable taste, I have to say, like freerin' beyond journey's end, the first season's just wrapped up. Greatly, we've just had a confirmation of season two of delicious in dungeon is on the way. - Yes. - The danger's in my heart, the second season finished recently, there's a third season of that on the way. I'm up to date on the manga at the moment, which makes me very sad because I am obsessed with that manga. Anna Yamada is like my spirit animal. I love her so God damn much, she's the best. And then like Malmau and Apothecary Diaries also a fantastic protagonist. And then a sign of affection is one of the sweetest anime I think I've just about ever seen. - Yeah, it's really great. My co-host BJ on the show Endless L8 is someone where one of the reasons I grabbed them for the project is they kind of stopped watching anime around like 2010, 2011. And I've been reintroducing them to it. So while their headset is still in 2008, they've come to be a couple of times over the past week and they're like, have you heard about freerin'? Is this show about an elf? And I'm like, yeah, yeah, no, we all know it. - It would have been such like a proud parent moment where you see BJ come back to the fold after years out in the wilderness and now they're trying to educate you on potential IP to check out. Like it would be very touching every time. Like even though you've like watched that already. Yeah, that's great. Like a paddle in the head like in an anime type of vibe but it's got to feel really nice though to know that you've made an impact and pulled it back in. It's not such a big way. - Yeah, they've watched fear and start to back twice over now at this point. - Damn. - And because of the Japanese speaker, they insist on referring it to it as so-so-not fearin' every time. - Respect that. - Which just gets because I'm reason. - Yeah, and I respect the hell out of that. What was the anime that you put on the table for them to come back in after they put it down, I guess, in 2010? What was that sort of hopeful gateway anime that you went check this out? I think you're gonna love it. And what was the hook? - It's very fake. 'Cause like Endless O8 started with Gunsling a Girl, Il T. Atrino. A show with a great premise that fails to execute on it completely. - It's about cyborg assassins in Italy who are like these children who have had like bad accidents and like rebuilt so that they can do assassinations for the government, which should be really cool. - Yeah, like anyone that hasn't seen it, like it's a fine watch. It's certainly not gonna win any Oscars for its writing and whatnot. But it's, I've watched worse. I've watched worse. - Yeah, we jumped in on season two, which is where the production values like really crashed as well. So we're like, oh, cool. This is just like a still that's shaking around. - Hey, someone worked hard shaking that still. Well, they shot us, you know? Settle down, settle down. But yeah, as far as the question I sort of threw out there a little minute ago, what is your favorite all-time anime? Have you got like a top three? If you can't sort of put them in any particular order, is there a few that sort of stand above the rest for you for personal favorites? - Revisiting Torodora has made me realize that it does live in that zone. Recently revisiting Kill the Kill. It's made me realize that it lives in that zone. And the third one, I think, is a curveball, monthly girls, and I was keeping on it. Are you familiar with this show? - I am, it's, I've only caught maybe a couple of episodes over the years. It's something I need to go back and give more time to, to be honest. So give me the elevator pitches to why I need to pick this one back up. - It is a rom-com. The reason it plays out is like so hard and fast on all of the jokes is 'cause it's adapted from 4koma rather than from a more connected story one. It is this girl who has a crush on a guy in her class, finds out that he is actually a shoujo manga artist. And he writes all of these like romance stories, but like he's the most like clueless guy in the world, knows nothing about romance himself. And he is just copying all of this by like watching his classmates and writing them down. - And she comes to the horrifying conclusion of the realization that the main girl in his stories is actually based on this guy's dude best friend. - It's just so made and like. - You've told me too. - It wasn't perfectly. - It sounds like my kind of enjoyment. So I'll go back, I'll go away after this and watch it and I'll report back, but I'm sure I'm gonna vibe with it because it just sounds like the kind of good dumb wholesome fun that I gravitate towards within the anime world. So yeah, couple of bang is like, Killer Kill is so fantastic and so distinctive. And the animation, like I did a rewatch over Christmas this past year and it still just holds up so well. Like it is just balls to the warm madness and I'm all for it. - Yeah, it's good because it's the kind of story that could only be told in anime format, right? - Exactly. - Like there are things about this medium where they're the accentuation of action, of people's reactions, the kinds of things that you can do with color and art and changing styles. You know, there are definitely shows I watch where I'm like, this was good, but it obviously became a show to promote the manga or to promote and try and sell some of the light novels. This is not that, this is a standalone experience that like really shows what it is animation can do. - Yeah, it's so good. And even though like the concept is totally different but like I did a rewatch fully cool the other day and it just, it's that same just eclectic madness that you cannot find in any other type of medium it feels like. And yeah, Killer Kill, anyone that hasn't watched it for some strange reason. Firstly, what are you doing? And secondly, get it on your screen the second you're done watching or listening to this episode because it's one of, it's sort of on the fringe on my top 10 for sure. It sits in there, maybe the back end, but that's no disrespect to the anime overall because it's great and there's just so much good stuff. But yeah, it's just a super fun thrill ride of an anime. And it doesn't, like the pacing is brilliant. Like it doesn't overstay it's welcome. You just get a complete viewing experience where it's just a rollercoaster from those opening scenes right to the end. - Yeah, stunning soundtrack too cannot overlook how good the music is in that. - It slaps. And like you mentioned Torodora, like I did a, did an episode of "More Than Hentai" on Torodora a few months back. And yeah, did a rewatch. And this is an anime that's quick mat 16 years or so old now. Like it is going back quite a while, but it still holds up not only from an aesthetic standpoint, soundtrack standpoint, pacing and writing standpoint, but also thematically, it's timeless themes, timeless relatability. And it's just, it's great. Like I'm top tiger, like love her to death, love just the chalk and cheese dynamic and just the whole will there won't they cuteness that come from Torodora. So yeah, you're a man of great taste. - Yeah, when we were doing our episode on Torodora, I was reading this excerpt that the creator had given on its 15th anniversary, which is like, if I was creating this show today, the main difference would be that Tiger would have Twitter and she would accidentally post stuff that was meant to go on her private to her main. That would be one of the major conflicts. I could see that and it would just slot in there seamlessly. Like you're jumping from 2008 to present day, it would still be a fantastic, fantastic watch because yeah, it's so fun. But annoyingly for like listeners that maybe all viewers that don't have Netflix for some reason, they took Torodora off Netflix here in AU back into last year, which annoyed me to know in because it was a good like little gateway for casual people that might not have been across anime or might not have crunchy role. Just like, check out Torodora, it's on Netflix. You like have a great time, it's gone. - Yeah, it's crazy that Netflix has really scaled up their anime backlog, it has kind of become a, I was, the anime news network has done some reporting on this and showing the kinds of numbers on people watching that, which is like just blown up enormously. And I've had it really interesting 'cause they did a breakdown of, you know, the most watch shows. I think Barkey was definitely up there. Do they have Demon Slayer? One piece is definitely high out there. But the one that really surprised me is they also did a breakdown on the shows based on the percentage of viewers versus the percentage of how much show there is. Like obviously one piece can get a ton of views, there's a million episodes of it. But the one that had like the highest concentration of viewers for how much of it there was was my happy marriage. - Which is phenomenal. Have you watched it? - I have not, no. No, it's like this one kind of went over my head and I'm like, what is this? But yeah, the views on it just like a huge, enormous, crazy hit. - It's stunning and was one of my, was on, I think I put it at about 12 on my top 104 of 2023. Really, really well written, gorgeously animated the soundtrack that accompanied it was equally as gorgeous. But man, like I felt constant sadness watching this show because yeah, some of the scenarios that play out are just heartbreaking. And the lead's name escapes me now, but she's just the sweetest, most beautiful character. And you just want to see her do well. And she's just constantly getting kicked and knocked down and just neglected and abused by family and everything else. And it's a really nice story. And it's only, I think it was a 12 episode run, if I remember right Duffer, it wasn't a huge season. And I hope it gets more of a great story. And Netflix is just another one knocking out of the park and picking up some of these IP lately. - Yeah, absolutely. - I've got another question for you. It's something that I haven't thrown around on the podcast before, but I wanted to know, who's your anime hall pass? - What? - Can you please? - Who would it be? - Yeah. - Anime hall pass as in the anime character that I am sexually attracted to, is that what you're throwing out? - Yeah, like let's say, you know, when you like you see it in a lot of film and TV and even just talking amongst friends and whatnot, where you find out, okay, if this person crossed my path and said, right now, let's go do all kinds of things and your partner will be completely fine with that because that's your one hall pass. Who would that be in anime? That's what I'm curious about. - That's really challenging. I don't have a good answer. Can I get back to you later on the episode and stay on that? - You can, yeah, we can circle back to this at the end of the episode 'cause yeah, I didn't put that in the show notes. So you didn't know that was coming. So you can think about that and let me know who your hall pass would be. - I promise I'll have a very intelligent and well thought through answer for you. - I respect the hell out of that. But yeah, listeners, viewers, however you have come to find more than a hand tie first and foremost, thank you. And secondly, why did it take you so long, but it's great to have you here. Irrespective of that, the way this podcast works is we're going to be doing a singular deep dive on the first episode of an anime that at least one of us here on the podcast has not seen at the time. We sort of talk about what we're into, potential favorite anime tropes that we wanna potentially watch or avoid. We go away and put together a bit of a short list as far as here's a few anime that I feel you might enjoy. And then Dafoe went through that list and sort of said, I think we should tackle this one. And then we go away individually, we watch it, we take our notes, then we come back and we deep dive on that sucker and we go front to back full spoiler on episode one, holy and solely. We can watch beyond episode one should we choose, but we're not going to spoil major plot points, beats, twists and turns that go beyond this first episode. So it's gonna be a full singular deep dive on episode one here on more the pen tie. Anything beyond that? Happy to talk to you offline on the socials. If you've got questions, theories and thoughts on the whole season as it plays out or maybe the flow on films as a loose spoiler there. But the title in question for this episode of more than hentai is a supernatural romance known as rascal does not dream of bunny girl senpai, which is a Japanese light novel series written by Hijime Kamashida and illustrated by Keiji Mizoguchi. Asky media works have published 13 volumes since April of 2014 under the Dengeki Bunko imprints, a 13 episode anime adaptation produced by Cloverworks, who are one of my personal favorite studios and are known for titles such as Bochi The Rocks, Spy Family, My Dress Up Darling, Horamea and Windbreaker, even though Dafo said it was a little mid, debuted in October of 2018 and covers the first five volumes of the series, an anime film adapting volume six and seven titled Rascal Does Not Dream of a Dreaming Girl, premiered in June of 2019. Rascal does not dream of a sister venturing out, a second film adapting volume eight premiered in June of 2023, and Rascal does not dream of a knapsack kid, third film adapting volume nine premiered in December of 2023, and an anime adaptation of the university student arc has also been announced for the Rascal franchise. Rascal can be found on Crunchroll and Netflix, pending your region and currently holds a score of 8.23 on my anime list, and that is based on 1.1 million unique user reviews, and it is currently the 52nd most popular anime overall on the website in a series that I personally scored nine out of 10 on my anime list. And the story is as follows, high school student Sakata Asugawa's life was taken, has taken a turn for the unexpected when he meets teenage actress, Maya Sakurajima, dressed as a bunny girl, wandering through a library and not being noticed by anyone else there. Maya's intrigue that Sakata is the only one who can see her as other people are unable to notice her anymore, even when she is dressing normally or attempting to stay away from celebrity life. Calling this phenomenon adolescent syndrome, Sakata decides to solve this mystery while continuing to get closer to Maya and meeting other girls who also suffer from the same syndrome also. So the first episode Duffer that we are going to be tackling is titled, "My Senpai is a Bunny Girl." Let's go general impressions first before we start deep diving, beat by beat, scene by scene for the episodes of Duffer. What is your general impression of Rascal does not dream of Bunny Girl Senpai? - This is a show I think made a good first impression on me. It is a good looking show. I can already see where things are going here and where all the points of tension are going to be. They have forecasted a lot of that really well coming into it. Great opening song. - Hell of a-- - This opening song's fantastic. The baseline in it is really satisfying in a way that like J-Rock baselines really tend to be and really stand out in that way for being. And I'm looking forward to watching more of it. I'll straight up, this is what I'm going to continue with. And I want to also say the reason I'm also very enthused about this. I watched the first episode. I got to the end and we're like, okay, that's pretty good. I keep going with this. And because I'm a very thorough person, I also went and read the first few chapters of the light novel, just so I could be across that. And when I had to stop reading the light novel, because it had gotten to where the first episode ended, I was genuinely annoyed that I had to put it down. - I love that. You've done more research than I have. I've only consumed the visual medium. I need to go back and actually read the light novel 'cause I love this world, love this characters. My general impression of this world is like, I love Rascal does not dream. I want to avoid spoilers here, but I think it's really well written. I think it tackles a lot of themes that make you stop and pause and think. The franchise overall is really great for me. I love this 30 and episode run as well as the movies. And also, I just love my, my Sakura Gima is one of my favorite female heroines. And who knows? Like we were talking about hall passes earlier. She might very well be on mine because she's a great character. And the way she's written just has so many levels and layers to it. She's, yeah, she's a beautiful girl and everything else, but that is like just one part of the sum of all her parts. She's a really great character that gets fleshed out and has real flaws and is relatable. So yeah, this anime, it's real and it's funny. And even though there is this weird element to it, it just works and it's believable. And yeah, just been a good time rewatching over the last couple of days. - Yeah, I was surprised it's so franchised and like, you know, multiple films and everything like that. My primary experience to this show beforehand, I didn't know anything about the plot. I recognized Sakura Gima Mai because I regularly get an ad on Facebook that is for a holographic back of a phone that's got her on it. And so I picked this up. I'm like, oh, this is the holographic phone girl. - The holographic phone girl, what a title to be known as? And like, yeah, from an outsider, like you see just the key art for the anime itself and you just think, oh, it's just gonna be a very sexually suggestive run-of-the-mill slice-of-life potential anime here, but it is really so much more. And I think seeing her in this bunny costume branded about everywhere, I think it's a little misleading to the story and the character itself, where you think it might just be a little bit of a horny romp where there's a lot of heart. - I was definitely expecting more action to this, yes. - Yeah, and we do get a couple little sprinklings of etchi in here. One felt very unnecessary to me, but we'll talk about that soon. But for the most part, outside of this younger dog girl, teenage years walking around in a bunny suit, there isn't a ton of hyper-sexualization going on in this first episode and throughout the season, even though this is set in a high school and we do have a lot of horny school tropes going around. It's pretty grounded and pretty respectful. So, yeah, if you've just seen that Keon guy, this just looks like it's gonna be a bit of a smudgy fun. It's not that at all. It's a really, really great story that's worth your time. - Yeah, I think that the whole bunny girl thing gets unfairly pinned on the Japanese. We came up with that. That's on us. Playboy was us. - Yeah. - I went off on-- - Damn, you have to. - Yeah, I was like looking into this actually. I went off on a Google deep dive on this. - All right, bring us along. Let's go. (laughing) - 'Cause I was like, how did this end over in Japan? And the answer is in the '60s, they had all the Playboy clubs. They had four of them over in Japan. Tokyo, Osaka had them. And obviously, they stopped doing well in about the 1970s for multiple reasons. People just weren't that into how sexualized that was as a club experience anymore, plus there was a bunch of, 'cause there was a lot of gambling happening at these clubs and they really tightened down on gambling restrictions around that time. And so while they kind of stopped operating in America, in Japan, instead, they sort of broke off into these small little venues, which become the cabaret style clubs that we know today, the hostess clubs. - That's right. - Yeah, that was then like a salvaging what existed of these big Playboy clubs that existed in turnier into something that was a lot closer to what Japanese people were used to and could afford. - Yeah, something probably a little bit more respectable, definitely in comparison to just that hyper-sexualized Playboy mentality that is still bandied about today. - Yeah, and these things are like primarily frequented by Japanese businessmen who aren't necessarily like the executives and CEOs, but they are just people who are working like 12 hour days, six days a week. - Yeah, you know what? A better way to unwind after 60 plus hours of working is by hanging out at a cabaret club with some girls dressed as bunnies. So I get it, makes sense. - Yeah. - All right, so let's jump into the opening scenes. This episode, it starts us off with a dream sequence where we're introduced to our protagonist, yeah, Sakura Azusa Gawa. And we hear this girl's voice, we don't see the girl, but we hear her speaking in this voice and she's sort of playfully teasing him about kissing. We then see him sort of snap out of this dream and he starts his morning off and we find out it's May the 29th. And he picks up this sort of notepad that's in his room and he begins to sort of read through the pages. And it's, we don't quite know who wrote it and what the context of in this notepad, but we get this line just before the OP kicks off. And it says, what is written here after is truly something unbelievable, but everything is the truth. So be sure to read through to the very end. Then we see this line before the OP kicks in and it says, on May the 6th, I met a wild bunny girl and then the opener kicks off and it's a really fun J-Rock track by a band called The Peggies. The title is Kimi Noce and it is just a toe tap and bop and the opening, super vibrant, really great editing as well. And I liked that they're timing that sort of guitar referee with transition and cuts with character introductions where we're hearing like the gin and jumping and shifting between the characters. I thought that was really smoothly done as far as quickly introducing us to a heap of characters or seeing these scenes play out, but just tying it in with this bop by The Peggies. It's funny because we see all the female characters in this opening, all looking cute, having fun, smiling, living their best life. But we see, Sakata, he's either running, stressed out or isolated and sort of a little bit downtrodden through this whole OP. So I'm like, this is a little bit. - That's good. That's what I want to see in a protagonist. - I don't want to see if Tag is having a good time. - Yeah, I'm like, this poor guy, like what's happened to you, Sakata? First and foremost, a girl was making fun of him about kissing and now he sees just almost, I guess chasing these girls in this opening around for whatever reason. And then one of the final shots of this opening is probably where I did fall in love with my originally, where we see this shot and it sort of pans around and she's in the bunny outfit, look at all cute. She does this finger gun and fires this proverbial bullet from the finger gun right into my heart. And I'm like, I love you, I'm all in. I don't know where this ride's gonna take me, but I'm taking it with you, Maya, let's go. And so that's the opening scenes. It's a fairly normal start to an anime, like nothing feels out of place, nothing feels too crazy at this point in time apart from, I guess, the referencing of a wild bunny girl. - Yeah, I was watching this and going, this is an opening, I started the episode for the re-watches, once I know what's going on and I watch this scene back, I'll go, oh, nice. - Yeah, yeah. - And until then, I've got to hang with it. - Yeah, a lot of Easter eggs. A lot of Easter eggs in this first episode, or in the opening when you see it. And yeah, like you said, if you're new to the world, you have no idea of the context or what they're throwing around on the screen. - Yeah, I really liked all of the beach shots that they put in the opening. And it's good at signals that you're gonna see a lot of that coming up because this is a show that is very geo-located. It is about a place, you know, this is a Noshima, which is the island, kind of a few hours south of Tokyo. And we see like a lot of this local. This is one of these shows where like, I'm sure if I looked it up, people have like taken photos of the local landscape and you can put it side by side with all of these shots that are being animated here. The creators like it clearly have a lot of affection for this place and this part of Japan. - And it's so well-drawn, so well-animated. Like it is stunning and that consistency stays throughout the entirety of these 13 episodes. There isn't a dip after that they're blowing the budget on a pilot or anything like that. Like it is a steady high bar and like, and that's just what you come to expect from CloverWorks. Like they're one of my favorite studios. Like the work that they're constantly churning out is of such high standard and Rascal is certainly no exception. - Yeah, they have a very high standard of quality. I think it helps they've split off from A1 and A1 did have a lot of the industry power in establishing what good anime looks like at the moment, partially through brute force, but also partially through having this like very clean, visually appealing style and just knocking out so much of it into the market that they've kind of kept that control over our understanding of what anime looks like at the moment. - Yeah, and that's like, that's admirable too because they are consistently dropping new content that they're involved in directly or maybe in parallel with other studios, but it is always at just such a high standard. Like anytime I see CloverWorks attached to something, I know, okay, regardless of if this story is gonna suck, I know it's gonna look great. - Yes. - Sort of my mind. Minds that I have, anytime I see CloverWorks, yeah, logo pop up on an opening for an anime. So yeah, after that opening ends, we're transported to the library on that fateful day of May the 6th. And it's funny, as I was rewatching it, I didn't really connect the dots where, you know, May is such a focused period in this anime and yet like May and Maya, like there's continuity there and similarities with the naming conventions of the lead and this month and the potential subtext here. And I'm like, man, how did I only just realize this? I've watched this franchise through like three or four times over the years and I didn't connect on little things like that. But anyway, we see Sakura in this public library flicking through the pages of a textbook, do any thing, but little does you know in this moment that his world is about to be turned upside down because as he's engrossed in this textbook, we're seeing these shots just slightly out of frame or just parts of Maya walking around in this bunny outfit, just aimlessly wandering through the library, trying to get the attention of whoever will give her the time of day in the library. But the kicker is that no one can see her. And we also then find out as well that Maya Sakura Jima, she's a famous actress. So she's not just a gorgeous high school girl. She's a gorgeous actress that's well known in the public eye and anyone who's anyone that's had a television in the past decade plus should know who this girl is and yet no one can see what's going on apart from Sakura because he actually realizes from the corner of his eye as you see this gorgeous girl walk around the bunny costume. He's like, what's going on here? The intrigue is peaked and he goes and seeks her out and they have this first great interaction where it just shows immediately how different the two are as far as from a personal standpoint, like Sakura, he's very blunt and straight laced with his honesty yet Maya sort of sassy and cool and got this cool calm collected demeanor. And the banter they have just from being in these first few scenes together just hooked me like I was eating up everything that was happening here just with this dialogue exchange because we can see with these first interactions, yeah, that Maya's got this just subdued sass that can just cut right to the bone it feels like. The deadpan delivery is great. It's so great, it's so great. And because their first interaction ends where Maya says to Sakura, she's like, forget what you saw today and don't have anything to do with me under any circumstances. So I'm like, I'm hella intrigued as to what's going on here because I'm like, there's a girl walking around in a bunny costume that no one can see, but this guy, is she like a figment of his imagination? Like, is this an invisible friend scenario playing out here? Why can the world no longer see this beautiful, talented starlet? But this random dude that had a dream about getting teased about getting kissed by some girl that we don't know can see her and they can interact and acknowledge one another. What has happened in here, Dafo? What is going on? - Yeah, I kept having to like transpose like a celebrity zing. So I'm like, okay, you gotta imagine this is like our equivalent of like a child style, like a Disney style, I guess. It's like, hey, I happened to go to school with Sabrina Carpenter and also Sabrina Carpenter is now here in a bunny outfit walking around. - And I'm the only one that can see Sabrina Carpenter. Yeah, like people are like, Dafo, you crazy. Like, what are you smoking this morning? - So when we had an abstract on the library thing, fun note from the light novel, he is there at the library getting books for his little sister. Oh, I love that. Yeah, Kade, she's such a beautiful character and we meet her later. But see, that would be great context. Like, we have no idea about that in this opening, but we just thought he was in there doing some study for school or something. - Yeah, the reason I liked this scene right out the gate, because it plays it fairly straight with the visuals, but the sound escaping that they do hear immediately. The soundtrack for this is quite good at bringing in these eerie noises. Like, you're just seeing a girl walk around a library, but there's all of these like deep resonant, like humming noises and it always sounds like feel-goings. - Yeah, it's a little interesting 'cause it really juxtaposes from this like cute, sweet, normal library type of scenario. But yeah, there is some sort of creepy horror-ish undertones with the use of these little fleeting sounds sort of popping in and out, but it didn't get to the point where I was feeling uncomfortable, that's for sure. But the use of sound overall in this episode, in this season is really well done, because I know when to bring it in and put it at the forefront, then when to really fade it out and just have it in the background, just adding some additional depth. - Yeah, it's depth is a really good way to put it. It was bringing depth to the scene. - Yeah, so yeah, we have this little intro with them and after this season ends, we jump forward to the next morning. We're now back home with Sucketer, who's reflecting on his encounter with Myers, he's sort of laying half asleep, half awake in bed. And then interestingly, like you mentioned, his sister just now, this is where we're first introduced a little kite because she's in bed with the brother, Sucketer, snuggled up and we do get a couple of weird semi-awkward throwaway, itchy lines and moments there where it did raise an eyebrow for me for a hot second, but they didn't dwell on it too long. - You didn't care for this, you didn't care for the sister stuff. - No, no, like, the less of this, the better in any type of medium, but especially anime, like, it's a well that they go and drink from far too often in anime. And yeah, we get a little sprinkling of it here, but luckily it doesn't sit around for too long to make me feel uncomfortable. - In the moment, like the sister's hugging him in bed and he's like, you're too big, you're too old to come into my bed and like hug with me and just like, oh, is it because you're getting horny over this? - Yeah, you suck what? - And he's like, it looks away and kind of shakes his head and is like, oh, as if anyone will get horny for their sister. And I kind of had the moment where I was like, hang on, show, you can't act like you're too good for this. - Yeah, exactly. Like you threw it in our face, like this wasn't subtle. This was there for everyone to see it. And it was nice, I guess that Sakura was quick to dismiss this and try and tell Kite, you know, you've got to stop doing this, but we understand a little bit more about Kite as this episode plays out as to maybe why she is the way she is in the few aspects. But yeah, we don't dwell on this itchy scenario playing out at all because it flashes forward. And we see Sakura, he's riding the train to school and he's riding the train with his friend, Yuma Comedy. And they have a bit of a general discussion then. Sakura weaves in some probing questions regarding bunny girls and he finds out that Yuma loves bunny girls. And then they get off the train and we see just this sea of students making their way to Minigahara High School, I think is the pronunciation of the school they attend. But it's interesting during this moment too because the two boys are walking together side by side. But we see that Mai is like a few steps ahead of the boys at the moment. And they both can see her in this moment, like Sakura sort of acknowledging Mai talking to Yuma about her and they can both see her and they're talking about her and around her. And it's interesting, like you feel that she's paying attention, she might be able to almost hear what they're talking about. And it's kind of sad because they give us a lot of context here with Mai where she's always alone. She's never with anybody. She doesn't really have any friends at school and this gets further emphasized and built out throughout the episode as well. But we start to see that even though she is this famous starlet and everyone knows her name, no one really truly knows her because she's always by herself. And I was like, man, my heart's breaking for this girl, Dafo. - Yes. And with the visuals, they're really trying to ramp up. This is probably the most busy I have seen the public look in an anime. Like normally you see a walking to school scene. People are just like, going down a quiet road. No, you're correct. This is a sea of students every time. Like there are probably like the near like 40, 50 in scene at any given time. And they're all like done in detail. Like they're not blurred out these aren't, they haven't quickly done these together as background characters. They put the effort into making this all look like individual people. Whether it's walking down here, when we have the train stations later, the train stations all feel really busy and filled with fleshed out people. And having that all be so busy, I understand that's a big ask for an animation studio, but it really works in the way of making her feel even more alone and isolated. - I agree, man. I agree. And it's bang on sort of realization here because every scene we see in this first episode, especially it's lived in, it's vibrant. You can see that, yeah, there isn't just a few characters or almost some copy paste MPC archetypes that they're just mailing in. Like you said, every student looks individual, looks like a fleshed out person. Like I rewatched Akira the other day. And it's like the amount of copy pasting and just replacing of just the general face style and structure in that film is rampant throughout where there's so much time and money that got put into this from global works to make it feel living and breathing and distinctive. And yeah, even though it is just a scene where I see your kids are walking to school, like it is so well done. And like you said, it's gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous. - Yeah, I'm happy to hype this director. I'm convinced this is a visionary 'cause I looked up, it is Soji Massey is the director for this. We looked up his other works, Akiba Made War. - Have you watched Akiba Made War? - Yes, it's so good. - It's so good. - Akiba Made War. - If anyone needs the like the elevator pitch on Akiba Made War, think of if Quentin Tarantino made an anime, that's probably what Akiba Made War would be. It is so good and so gorgeously animated. The soundtrack is an absolute humpa and the combat and the concept is absurd, but it just works. - One of the things that makes it great is the direction. It is clearly made by someone who watches like a lot of crime and mafia and the orchestra shows. And brings in all of the imagery and framing and all of the things that make that that, but it's all made cause. - That tipped you good, sir, 'cause I think I think that shows praises a lot and I loved it. Came out in 2022 and it's a ton of fun, but not enough people watch it and talk about, like it is only on high dive and not everybody has high dive, but it's worth hunting down because it is so distinctive. And like you said, the direction in it is phenomenal and it's just a hell of a time. - Yeah, if you've played and enjoyed the Yakuza games, you will get Akiba Made War as soon as you go into it. - Yeah, it is phenomenal, but just like Rascal is too. So yeah, we see this great, this great well animated scene, countless kids on their way to school to work on their education. And then we're introduced to another character here where we see as the two boys are walking together, Saki Kamasado rolls on in and we find out that that's Yuma's girlfriend. She runs in, grabs Yuma by the arm and whisks him away, but as she does that, she's shooting daggers at Saki in the process and you're like, "Oh, okay, no idea why she doesn't like this dude." Maybe she's just hyper jealous that Saki does stealing her boyfriend away and taking precious time away from her, who knows? But we also, throughout this sort of process, get some more context about Mai and we find out that a lot of the reason she is alone is she started school late due to a couple of roles that she had to shoot beforehand and that in turn made her more of an outsider and just the way I'd summarize this because it is a well explained scene where we get a lot of context here. The short version of it is she's pretty much an outsider because the usual high school nonsense and drama that comes to it. Like if you attend late and you try to make too much of a scene to be memorable and fit in, you're gonna fit in even less. If you don't do even less, you're gonna stand out even more. So she just went, you know what? I'm just gonna fit right in the middle, just exist on my own and do my own thing and navigate this crowd and this sea of people solo and it made me very sad. - Yeah, I felt that. I did a transfer midway through grade eight when I was in high school because my dad had to move for work. And so after having just set up that first social group, being pulled away from it, dumped in the middle of, you know, at the time, grade eight was the start of high school. And I didn't make any decent friends for the first six months I was there, purely because exactly what they're talking about, the flow is in place. Everything is so set. It's so hard to become part of any sort of group or the flow of anything that is happening when it's so set like that. Like this immediately clicked for me. - Yeah, so it's sad and probably, yeah, very relatable to a lot of people. Any time that you've entered into a stable social situation that has been longstanding for a while, it's hard to sort of find your gap to fit in and become part of that circle. So yeah, you feel for my here and we flash forward to a little bit later in the day and we can see Sakura sitting by his lonesome, eating some lunch and we get Saki arrive again, who is a Yuma's partner I mentioned before. She bails him up at lunch and she pretty much tells Sakura to stay away from community and that she knows all about the hospitalization incident. And it's just like, okay, what is this? What hospitalization incident? What happened here? Is this the major plot point that's gonna fuel this entire season? Who went to hospital? Why were they hospitalized? I have so many questions. But after she sort of throws that at him, she lays a few more verbal boots into him about being a loner and having no friends and he's a loser. She just, Saki doesn't seem like a good person and I immediately was not a fan of her. I immediately was like, you know what, Sakura, I'd gladly be your friend. I don't know what happened with this hospital thing, but I got you back. But also throughout this little exchange, I started to see again, how similar Sakura and Mai are, where they're both loners. They're both sort of just floating their way through life for lack there in a better term. And there's a lot of similarities between these two, even though they don't know it. - Yeah, definitely. I think because it's a rom-com, you do have to have a loner protagonist to some extent. That is just a staple of the genre. But what I found interesting here is normally they make the character a loner because it lets you start from scratch, really. Like all of the new friendships that they make and relationships they build, they're going to be new to the main character as well as to ask the audience. Like that's straightforward framing device. But this show is not doing that. We are dropped into the middle of his life with only allusions to what has happened before this. Like you have the hospitalization instant that's floating over here. This guy's head, like he obviously has friends and has people, when they are walking along in the sea of students beforehand, when the main character first chose an interest in Mai, the first thing his friend says is, "Oh, so you're over this other girl now." Yeah, Shoko Makinohara gets a mention. Yeah, and they refuse to talk any more about it. 'Cause he doesn't want to pick the subject up again. But you're already told, again, that there's more going on in this background that you're not going to show us right now. Yeah, yeah, there's a lot of intrigue. And this is all within the first six or seven minutes in this episode. There's a lot of things where I'm like, I've got so many questions. I have so many things that I'm excited to discover and unpack as I sort of canvas these 13 episodes. Because, yeah, Shoko, yeah, he's the stereotypical loner pro tag, but there seems to be a lot of depth to this boy. And I'm like, I'm curious to see what's happened because, yeah, it looks like he's already, he's carrying a lot on his shoulders as the way it feels to me in these opening sort of few minutes is where they're indirectly walking in his shoes. Yes. Oh, listen, the hospitalization incidences. There's only so many ways that could go. Either he was badly hurt or someone else was badly hurt. Yeah, yeah. Either way, it doesn't sound very good. And, you know, if Saki knows about this, who else knows about it? Like, it feels to me, you know, we've both gone through high school. We know how school works, like people talk, rumors fly. So you're worried as far as what did happen, what didn't happen and how Saki is dealing with all this because, yeah, high school can be a nightmare. Did you, that was a strange question. Did you have any, like, hospitalization, incident level things at your school? Yeah, yes and no. Like, I grew up in a very small country town. So we made our fun in a lot of stupid and destructive ways. So there was frequent trips to the hospital, but not like I put people in a hospital. It was more so like, this was peak jackass era. So we were doing a lot of dumb stuff. So I was in and out of hospital, or my friends were in and out of hospital 'cause we broke bones, hurt ourselves, consumed things we shouldn't have. So Dr. Brooks knew me very well because, you know, I one time, like, electrocuted myself in the science lab and had to go to emergency. And other time I consumed too many laxatives and had internal bleeding and could have died. Concussions and, yeah, brokenness and sprained that. So there was a lot of dumb hospital related scenarios. I wouldn't call, like, there's not one particular hospital incident per se, but there was many, many regular hospital appointments. At law, that's hard call. My only high school injury was I broke a finger playing European handball. (laughing) Settle down or I don't. No, not a cool way to go. Yeah, a lot of dumb stuff. And I worry how my body is gonna feel as I get older because, you know, CTE and all that kind of stuff. I had a lot of concussions, knocked myself out cold a few times, so I hope my brain maintains its current level of activity into the future, but who the hell knows, man? Oh, yeah, I have to assume that rectal tract is just gonna be super clean, super efficient. I'm feeling great. I am feeling great sometimes. But, yeah, we're curious about this situation where we hear the hospitalization incident. It was certainly one of the main things that had my, you know, cog starting to turn as far as, okay, what does that mean? Like you said, Dafoe, was he there? Was he put there by somebody or did he put somebody there? What's gonna play out? Are we gonna get clarity on this in this episode? Is this gonna be a slow burn throughout this whole season? Who knows? Oh, look, I like drip feeding. Yeah, it's fine. It's fine. (laughing) I am drip feeding information. It's good, it's good though. I appreciate that. So after this moment here, we jump to the end of this school day and we see almost a mirror scenario of my walking alone to school, we see Sakata here walking alone home, heading to the train station, because, you know, he went to school with his friend, but it's clear that Sakhi has put the foot down and in this moment, Yuma is not walking home with Sakata. He's on his lonesome as he tries to catch the train. And as he makes his way to the train station, he notices that Myers, waiting there by herself, headphones in, and he also sees that there's a couple of fans just behind mine, they've realized, "Oh, it's my, the Hollywood star." Like, let's try and get a photo. And their band, little loud, little obnoxious, little creepy. And Sakata just, Cooley and calmly walks right into the shot, impedes them trying to get a photo of mine, you know, giving her a little bit of grief. They get frustrated, Sakata snaps back and retorts very Cooley. Like, I respect it. He just like deadpan responses back to this guy and his partner and they get frustrated. They leave. - He asks if the guy's from the Planet Creepshot. - And it's just such a dry lack of emotional delivery for it too, which makes it even funnier and even better. And it just lands. And so they leave frustrated without getting a snap of the style at my. She thanks him, then goes on to ignore a call from her manager. And you're like, "Oh, okay, it's happening here." There's more to this phone call that meets the eye. Sakata then brings up yesterday and the erotic bunny costume as they're on the train ride home. But it's funny, because you can see in this moment, Maya's acting ability comes out right away where she's like, "Oh, I'm perfectly fine "with being like a sexual object to young boys." Even though you can tell inside, she's dying. She is not fine in any way, shape or form. She then changes the subject to the hospital incident. We get a little bit more context here where she sort of says, "Sakata, "you sent three classmates to hospital?" And you're like, "Whoa, "Sakata's a bit of a bad son of a bitch. "He's hospitalized three classmates." But then we also find out here in this moment, Sakata no longer has a smartphone because he got frustrated and tossed it into the sea, something that I get frustrated and throw things sometimes. But Dafel, I wanted to want to know, have you thrown something you probably shouldn't have over the years? - Absolutely. My therapist encouraged me too. (laughing) - What was it? What did you throw? - If you feel like sharing. - That was a, it was a big frozen drink that I bought specifically for the purpose of throwing somewhere that I shouldn't and I threw it into a construction site. - There's a lot to unpack you. (laughing) - Is there any reason specifically landed like a frozen coke or a slushy or whatever it might have been? Like that does, makes a good dramatic sort of splash explosion on impact. So was it more of the theatrics or is it? And it's almost like a vibrant pop of color at the same time. Is there reasoning behind the construction site? Like we can, we can pass this and not worry because I know I'm probably going into some potential delicate areas here. - But yeah, can you share the reasoning behind this? - I'll simply say that I had a lot of anger management issues as a child. I got them under control but probably clamped down like way too hard on it. If that makes sense, children are correct. It's the thing that happens. And then yeah, hit adulthood and yes, had a therapist who was encouraging me like, you gotta do some, you gotta break some rules. And of course I don't have a delinquent streak in my body. So I was thinking about what delinquent teenagers did when I was in high school. And I was like, oh, they always used to throw full drinks into the construction site. I will do that. I'm a bit embarrassed that it did feel satisfying and I did enjoy it. - There's nothing wrong with a bit of rebelliousness. - It's shameless littering, but yeah. - And was the construction site like active at the time? Like was there construction workers doing their thing? Or was this after shift? Like what level of riskiness do we have here with this throw of the slushy? - It was end of day, there were no construction machines operating, but there were people on site. People that would have watched that and gone, oh fuck you. - And so when did you like watch to see the impact? Or was it sort of like a toss and like a rocker run as we used to call, we used to like throw rocks on someone's roof to get them to come out and then you run before they chase you? Like was it that type of vibe? Or did you sort of throw it and stand there like a like a proud badass? - I did a half committed speed walk away. - I respect it, I respect it. You know what, nothing wrong with a bit of rebelliousness. We need, like you said, we need to, we need to get a little wild sometimes. - Yeah, sorry, coming back on the show, a couple of things I wanted to mention off this part. - Yeah, yeah. - First thing straight up, she's totally given up on the idea of shaking this guy or getting rid of him. Like after how dead on she was, when she was like, don't talk to me ever again, you would expect her to say it again, but instead she's like, no, let's just have a chat this time around. - And I reckon that come from her researching him. I reckon it came from her jumping on Google or whatever the Google equivalent was in this anime. And she's read up on him and the curiosity outweighed the distance she wanted to put between him, I think, where she's like, I wanna know what happened with this guy. There's a lot of stuff getting thrown out around about him, similar to what she deals with being in the public eye. So there's some similarities here. I wanna get to the root of this. I wanna see what the truth is. - Yeah, you even catch the hint of that 'cause she's like a fan of forums where they're like talking about him and he's like, oh, I haven't seen any of that. And she goes, oh, you don't name such. And even just from that sentence, you're like, oh no, you poor girl, you name such. - It's a slippery slope. Listeners of yours, like, don't do it to yourself. It's better the W don't know in that regard, I think, because the internet can be a horrible place. (laughs) - Yeah, I think the attitude from people around her is instantly thinking, yo, my co-host, BJ, talks about having been a blonde foreigner who lived over in Japan and the amount of people who do just walk up and stare dead at you, pull the cameras out and take photos without even sort of any consideration or anything like that. - It's insane, hey, like the world we live in, like just respect people, respect their space. And yeah, if you do wanna do something like that, ask. Don't just, yeah, whip a phone out right in someone's face that you don't know and take a photo or a demand a photo. Like, you know, people, people be people, no matter how big or small they are in the public eye, like it's all very confronting. - Yes, unfortunately, like two talking things ramped that up, co-host. (laughs) - God damn internet, duffo, god damn it. So yeah, we're back and we're getting more back and forth here from my and Sakura. And we find out during this exchange as well that my doesn't believe the rumors about the hospital incident. She asked Sakura about it. He pretty much says, no, it didn't really happen. It's all good, but then it's interesting because we see my start to really push back and drill into Sakura about this situation because she's like, why are you letting the rumors exist and circulate? Like, why are you giving up without even fighting? And I thought that was a really great line. I'm like, damn straight, like it can be tough out there to listen and walk through your day without fighting, but it can be as equally as tough, you know, trying to fight the good fight and correct all that white noise out there. But you can see she's a little bit stoic and determined and strong will to sort of write those wrongs. But during this really great interaction on the train, that use of sound again, like there's some quiet moments during this back and forth and this first real discussion between my and Sakura where all we're hearing is like the of the train, but also weaving in these really beautiful delicate pops of music. And it's just a gorgeous scene overall. And it really started to hook me. - Yeah, and it's still busy. It is a full train, a full train full of detailed people. - Yeah, all of these, like these beautiful, even they've put a lot of attention into the ads in this train as well. And it brings full attention to that when he catches her like spacing out of the conversation and just like staring a hole as he puts it later through this movie poster. - Yeah, everything in these scenes is there for a reason. Like it's not just for space feel, it's to further emphasize this world is real and lived in. Or like you said, there's little Easter eggs for future plot devices and stuff that are just getting thrown in here and there that you don't really notice on first viewing. But we get also some small backstory during this sort of train exchange here where I explained how she's been in the public eye since she was six years old. So she's been the bell of the ball and a starlet since she could barely walk and everyone knows who she is. And it started out as fun and exciting, but over time it became exhausting. And it got so tiresome for her that she began wishing that she could go to a world where nobody knew who she was. And that's where my started to realize that people weren't able to see her and notice her as much. And that sort of emphasized here where she goes, "No, I'm gonna go to a public area and test this theory." - Yeah, I love that they use the Anoshima aquarium for this. - And it's gorgeous. Those scenes where she's walking around the aquarium, looking at all these fish, doing this sort of tour and just this exploration through this gorgeously animated scene. And I'm a sucker, like Zoos and Aquariums, some of my favorite things in the world to go and explore. So anytime I see one in any form of media, I'm like, "Yes, I'm in." And especially when it's my whole past year in May, I'm like, "Oh, I'll be there with you, baby. I'd be looking at all the fishes with you. I'd never leave you alone. It's all good." But in this exchange, on my first view, I'm like, "Is there some form of like magic or spell that's been cast here? Like, how are they explaining the situations playing out here with Maya where she exists? She's a real person. People can see her. But now people are starting to sort of see her less and less or she's starting to exist less and less in the human world. And I'm like, "What's happened to you? Like, where are they going to take us on this journey? Like are we going into some magical fantasy type of situation here? I've got so many questions." - Yeah, yeah. I was the way to put this. I got the impression as they were doing all of these scenes because the way they show it is that people start like almost walking through her and trying to run through her. - Yeah, which is very upsetting. Like, one dude shoulders her at the aquarium and I got very defensive. I'm like, "Man, I would have said something to you, buddy. Like, there would have been words exchanged here." - Yes. And what I thought to myself is there's going to be an explanation for this and the explanation is going to be so bizarre as to not be an explanation at all. - Yeah. And I think that's kind of what we got. - It is very much what we got. And it's good because we don't have to wait too long to start to understand what is potentially happening. Like, that's the great thing with this first episode is they do a lot of table setting, but they also explain this world in such a great, clean and succinct way where we understand what's happening and we understand the stakes by the time this 24 or so minutes cuts to credits at the end. So yeah, the pacing is really great. And we get a little bit more confirmation regarding the situation where people are no longer starting to see that my exists because we stop by, we find out that after the aquarium, she stopped by a cafe to attempt to order something, ask the matriety, "Hello, can I get something?" Nothing, doesn't exist. She's almost like, "Is she a ghost? Is that what's happening?" And she passed away. Was she part of the hospital incident? Did she die at the hospital and she's a ghost factor? I don't know, helped Sakurai here do something and understand this world? What is going on? But anyway, that wasn't the case, but it made my mind certainly go a direction in this moment. - Yeah, I think this is the point. I was actually thinking about the very opening scene still, which would begin in so little context for where he's just had like a flash of a girl and he's like, "Who even was that girl anyway?" And these written records, I was like, "Oh no, he is going to forget this girl entirely." Yeah, which, you know, you can hear little hearts start to break thinking about that thought aloud there, but we then also start to understand the relationship, the bunny costume, where we find out she's been using this costume as an experiment to see if people can see her out in the wild because anyone that sees a gorgeous, famous Hollywood star like walking around in a bunny costume is clearly gonna be like, "Oh my God, who is this?" Like, "What is going on?" - What is going on? - Possibly turn their heads away. Yeah, exactly, so it's like, "Oh, okay, that makes a lot more sense now." Like, it wasn't in there for smudgy, easy, unsavory reasons. It was there as like a scientific experiment here where she's using this as the measuring sick to work out if she is viewable and exists in this world for better or for worse. And I'm like, "Oh, okay, I get it." - Oh, well, I mean, like she could have been to clan costume. Let's not pretend it's entirely, not for itchy reasons. Hey, hey, you get your mind out of the gutter, all right? You settle down, you're a wild boy, I've realized now, I have to find out, you like to throw drinks at construction workers, you calm down. - I had a hard think about the whole past. Neon Genesis, Misato Katsuragi, I think is the correct answer. - That is a great answer. - Because, yeah, look, she's the sex icon, but she's just problematic enough that you know it would be really good, right? - Yeah, yeah. - Yeah, she's a great character. She goes hard, she parties hard, she drinks hard. - Yeah, there's gonna be a lot of sore heads after that exchange, but I respect that we've gone back and confirmed that. But listeners, viewers, we was your anime whole past. I'm very curious to know, hit me up on the socials that more than senpai to do that. But yeah, we're getting that validation regarding the bunny costume and my and Sakura are still here walking through this very busy train station area, like we've said a few times here, Dafo, like again, it is living, it is breathing. People are running to and fro, getting on and off their trains, going about their day. Like it is such a fleshed out living breathing world. - Just like a Japanese train station, yeah, yeah, absolutely. - It's so good. - Over there, very recently. And that scene especially, it just brought me right back there. I'm like, yes, that is every transit center I had to go through. - Hell yeah, hell yeah, yeah. So yeah, Cloverworks again, out of the park, knocking it. So we stopped by a little sort of store/bakery here and my goes up to the store person. She's like, hey, I'd like to get a custard bun. But we're starting to see this invisibility play out real time here where she wants to get this custard bun, nothing, no response, no acknowledgement from the store person. Sakura walks straight up and he's like, hey, one custard bun, please, straight away. Immediate acknowledgement, there's the custard bun. So we can see that, yes, okay, this is a real thing. It's not some type of mental break that Sakura's having. It is something that's playing out in real time. And yeah, my, my asking this moment, you know, do you believe me? And he's like, yeah, I do. This reminds me of stories that I've heard over the years and we find out that it's something called Adolescent Syndrome. And you're like, okay, I don't know if that's a real thing in real life, if it is cool, whatever. But as he says, those words may stop in a tracks here where he sort of mentions this Adolescent Syndrome and he starts to explain it a little bit more where that could be anything from hearing people's thoughts to seeing other people's futures to swapping bodies. And that's where my is like, whoa, whoa, whoa. Like this sounds like some type of nonsense urban legend. Like this can't be a thing. Like what are you talking about, fella? - Yeah, I tell like they're trying to do a play on middle grader syndrome here, right? The classic Schunibio that a lot of Japanese shows like to play with and all that like someone pretends that they've got some kind of magic power or they establish an identity for themselves that they think is really cool but is obviously very put on and doesn't work. And yeah, pretending that you were invisible and no one can see you is the kind of thing that I think a middle schooler would do. - Yeah, not very true. But this one in time is actually grounded in reality because even though I guess she, yeah, wants to escape the public eye, she also doesn't want to escape to the point of non-existence. So there's a little bit of stress there in Maya when she's starting to realize this and hearing of adolescent syndrome. - Yeah. - The walk continues. They then arrive at Sucketer's apartment. He asks me to come upstairs to show us something that I will confirm to her that he believes her. At first she's like, whoa, like creeper, like this ain't happening. What have you got in mind here? Just immediately thinking that this guy is going to do some pervy stuff. He quickly downplays that they go upstairs. But then we get the first massive, my freak out here because, go upstairs straight into his bedroom and he just calmly just starts taking his shirt off in front of her. She freaks out. And after she's done calling him filthy perverted and an exhibitionist, she realizes that he took his shirt off to show her this nasty scar. And it looks like almost like a giant bear claw has just swiped down this boy's chest like it's three massive rips right across the chest. Like it's a mortal looking wound. Like, I don't know how this boy survived it. - The crack in the light novel, as she looks at him and says, oh, you got in a fight with the X-man. (laughs) - Wolverine style, I love that, I love that. Yeah, but it's a nasty wound that Sucketer is sort of showing here. And it's a very interesting decision here by my way. She's like, hey, can I touch this scar? And then you're like, okay, like, a little bit of a head scratch, a little bit of a moment here. And she touches the scar. And somehow it feels good for Sucketer. And he's sort of like, getting really uncomfortable and squirmy and whatnot. And that then freaks out my little bit and she pinches him and sort of pulls him back to reality in this moment before it gets too cheeky. And then Sucketer's like, hang on a minute. Like, let me further explain why I believe you goes to his dresser, pulls out a photo of his young sister we mentioned earlier in the episode, Kade. And we see this photo of her in her school uniform and she's covered in bruises and bandages and wounds. But he says that she wasn't assaulted. She was just bullied on the internet. And in this moment, we get this flashback where we see Kade come home from school, Sucketer's playing some PlayStation. He's already at home. And she walks in and sees him. And they say, hello. And we see this moment where these little cuts just start appearing all over her body in real time. And this is where he believes that Adolescent Syndrome's a real thing because also he said that he awoke one morning, covered in blood from the giant chest wound and that's why he had to get rushed to hospital. And I'm like, holy shit, this episode in this scene here in the apartment took such a dark, serious turn all of a sudden, it was a bit fun and light and a bit cheeky. And then I'm like, Jesus, OK, we're talking now about cyber bullying. We're talking about poor young kids getting verbally assaulted and attacked on the internet. And it translates into real words, real wounds on the people. And you're like, man, I'm very much of the mindset. People say sticks and stones break my bones. But words can never hurt me. That is the biggest lie the world has ever seen. Words have so much power, whether that be a good thing or a bad thing. But words can break people not only internally and emotionally, but externally. And we're seeing a play out in the scene in real time to this poor little girl named Kade. And it really hurt my heart. Yeah, it's crazy because the thing that kicks it all off is that she left another classmate on red in a group chat. And this other girl took it the wrong way and is convinced all of these other girls to like a gang up on her and tell her to go fucking kill herself and everything like that. Like, one of my coworkers has a 12-year-old daughter. And I know she says all the time, I am so glad I did not grow up in the social media age because 12-year-old girls and access to the internet. Like, they are capable of social warfare in a very unsettling way. Yeah, it's scary stuff, man. Like, I've got two sisters that are much, much younger than I. So I saw them grow up in this world. And some of the things that talk to me about or share with me just blew my mind. Like you said, like kids are just cruel and nasty. And then the greatness/evilness of the internet and social media means you've got nowhere to hide. Like, fair enough, you can cop a hard time at school. But after three o'clock bell rolls around, you can go home and potentially escape. But not anymore, like, they can get you 24/7. And it just is really evidenced in this sort of scene. And poor little Kade, even though there was some weird little Echee subtext getting thrown around when we first met her at the start of the episode. Like, yeah, my heart broke for this girl in this moment. Like, man, I just want to give her a cuddle and try and make things OK. And you can sort of realize in these scenes as well why her and Sucketer are so close because he's been there for the whole time. And like you mentioned in the light novel, he's going to live with your books and things. And we find out very shortly about why she's so shy and why she's the way she is at the moment. But, yeah, man, it was a really noticeable tonal pivot in this episode, for sure. Yeah, this is a guy who makes big sacrifices for his sister. He's living without a phone, without the internet, something which is going to inherently socially isolate you from other people. You can't get someone's number. You can't message them online. You can't be in group chats. You're missing out on events online. You can't open any of the forums where people are talking about them. Yeah, he's just he just let it all play out. Like, whatever it will be like he talks about that situation with my earlier in the episode about rumors are just like the atmosphere. Like, you just can't escape it sometimes. You just got to live with it and deal with it as best you can. But, yeah, we find out as well as they start talking about this hospital incident a little bit more where it was, yeah, it was Sucketer was the one who ended up in hospital. And it's interesting because, you know, the three claw marks across the chest, that mirrors the whole three boys will hospitalize. Like, each one of those marks represents maybe the three alleged boys that went to hospital for whatever reason. And then we see, yeah, Kite walk into Sucketer's bedroom. She freaks out and it's a really big tonal shift moment again after that dark explanation as far as Kite dealing with the bullying and stuff, where she freaks out and she thinks that Sucketer has hired an in quotes professional lady, which cracked me up to no end. And it really just put a positive spin on everything that just played out the last few minutes before. I'm like, man, I'm feeling sad and a little depressed. This is going into some heavy dark places. And then just a nice sprinkling of humor and confusion just really changed the tone and made me feel good again. Yeah, there's a good line in the light novel where it's like, why are you considering all these other options? Why isn't your first assumption that I've got a girlfriend? And his sister goes, well, that would just be the worst fucking thing in the world. I don't even want to think about that. Yeah, well, that's notably absent from the anime. So I like that they left that whole dancing around incest, curiosity that runs rampant in anime and mungus and that sort of just world. So I'm happy that that's gone here. But we get some more funny parts here where, yeah, Sucketer's like, no, she's not a professional lady. It's nothing like that. And then Kyday is like, she making you buy a vase? Is she making you buy English learning supplies? She's like throwing you into textbooks, yeah. Yeah. And so again, I was just cackling through this, through this whole thing play out. We then get introduced to our Nussano, the cat. But then my sort of stands up, says, hi, great to meet you. Kyday gets shy and then she runs away. And yeah, we find out here in this moment where Sucketer is explaining to my, Kyday is no longer going to school. She's a total homebody due to the incident that happens with the cyberbullying. And then we find out as well, like you said, their duffel regarding his phone, staying away from technology helps subside the adolescent syndrome symptoms. And that's why he threw his phone into the ocean. That's why he stays off the internet. That's why Kyday doesn't know who my is at all. She doesn't know that she's some famous Hollywood star because she doesn't watch television. She just reads the books that you mentioned that Sucketer, I guess, brings home from the library. So yeah, he's just doing what he can to keep his little sister safe, keeps her free from harm and isolated from technology because a technology's bad and it leads to bad things. - She can see my. - Yeah, she can. - Importantly, I have a feeling that would be an important tidbit later. - Yeah, yeah. So yeah, she sees my freaks out when my says hello. And yeah, we find out that yeah, she's just really introverted, really shy, never leaves the house. Her whole world pretty much is Sucketer because throughout this first episode, we don't see or have any mention or references to parents or a parent. It's just Sucketer and Kyday living in this apartment as young kids. - It's a brother, a sister, and some kind of ironic metaphorical ghost that will kill her if she gets on the internet. - Yeah, God, that's scary. - Yeah, yeah. - Focalizing that, that's very scary. Yeah, we have that situation. They have a little bit more talking here where Sucketer tries to give some advice slash guidance to Maya, but in his delivery and his thoughts hits some real delicate spots for Maya, where he's saying, you know what? I saw you looking at that poster on the train earlier, it's clear that you miss show business, you should get back into it and start getting into it, into acting. Maybe being in the public eye again would mean that people would remember you and all this would go away. She storms out and in doing so also tells him to keep the bunny costume. And we find out here as well that after that, my stop's coming to school. And then Sucketer jumps online via one of the school computers, so keeps the internet far away from the house, keeps Kyday safe, jumps online, Googles Maya, and is immediately greeted with countless rumors about her. And I really like just the realness that this episode has brought to the table so far, like that it tackles all these themes that are just running rampant throughout society and highlighting these social issues that really need to be addressed and wiped from the earth. But sadly, it's not going to go anywhere because the internet sucks. - Mm-hmm, yes. Look, I'm hoping the show handles this well. It could also go very Banksy with all of this. I'm also ready for that as a sort of angle. But so far, I think it's staying the course fairly well. - I think so. I think it's walking that tightrope, and it's executing and delivering the message and the tones to a high standard so far, combined with that high level of animation. Like it's a really polished first episode. And after this, we see that Sucketer is working at a Denny's and lo and behold, old Koonami is there working with him. The friend that was removed from his world earlier by his jealous girlfriend. - Yeah, you got this context. This is how these guys know each other. They're co-workers, right, yeah. - Yeah, so they're working at a Denny's side note. Love me some Denny's, love me some pancakes in general. So anytime there's some brand recognition in anime, I'm always like, yes, little fist bump. I'm like, yes, good taste here. - I would have liked in the light novel, they had a moment here where he explains everything that happened, like, oh, your girlfriend came up to me and said, don't talk to me. And he's like, oh, sorry, you had to go through that, but isn't it so cool how fucking much she loves me? (laughing) - She's so passionate, that's what I'm into. - Like that lion would not have broken this story or this flow, like some of the directional decisions, you know, that lion and the one about being at the library for Kydat, I think they would have added just a little bit of extra levity to this episode. But anyway, it doesn't seem like-- - It doesn't even seem like the final cut, it is what it is. - No, no, so yeah, we see them both doing their thing in Denny's and this is where we're introduced to Fumika Nanjo, who we find out is working for the local television station. She's trying to get Saka to talk about the incident, so the hospitalization incident. Or at the very least, also a bit creepy and a bit weird, wants to get permission from Saka to take a photo of the scar on the chest because it's like, you know, it's a great piece, it needs to be talked about. We want to understand what's happened. We've heard all these rumors, but nothing's been clarified, but no, Saka doesn't just shut the door on this, doesn't want to buy of it, not gonna happen. And then we see him ask about my, why did she go on hiatus, what's happened? And Fumika, oh, I know many things, I've heard many things. We don't get any further explanation outside of that, but we can see that she's gonna play a part in this story where she's going to potentially provide some more information and context to Saka to regarding mine why she left showbiz. - Yeah, this is a weirdly, flirty newspaper. - Yeah, she's cheeky. - A flirty news anchor. Like he tries to get her to order something off the menu and she tries to order him. - Yeah. - And he's like, can I order you an ambulance? 'Cause clearly you take your head. - That's right, that's right. - The ambulance line was great. Like, again, just really witty, but just dry and instant response. 'Cause yeah, she gets a bit cheeky, old Fumika, 'cause she's clearly woman in her 20s or something like that. She's clearly much older than Saka to her, yet she's flirting here with the high school boy and then you're wanting to take a photo of this alleged big horrific scar on his chest. - Yeah, you can tell like this is how she operates. This is how she gets information out of people. - Yeah, and you know what? I respect the hustle. So we're then flash forward to the following days. We're back at school, we're in the science lab and we're introduced here to Saka to his second and only friend because we hear earlier in the episode where Myers like, do you have many friends? He's like, I've got two, that's all I need. You know, I only need two friends. Like, he's perfectly happy in life with two friends and yeah, clearly one with Kunimo is on the fence due to the girlfriend situation, but yeah, Rio Fudabar here, she's this very smart scientific girl who has got this very intricate experiment going on, taking place here as Saka is talking to her about adolescent syndrome. We find out that this very intricate experiment is just to make like the best cup of coffee the world's ever seen just about. And I'm like, hell yeah, I respect this girl. She's fantastic. - Passes in the coffee in this beaker and he goes, oh, if you got any sugar and she's like, oh, this is close enough. And passes him like a, it's a magnesium dioxide, I think it is, clearly poisonous. - Yeah, it's great, but she's a fun little character. We only get a few minutes of her in this first episode, but she certainly leaves a memorable first impression where yeah, she's hyper fixated on making the best coffee potentially the world has ever seen while also talking back and forth regarding adolescent syndrome. There's a weird translation here that I thought was very questionable where Rio sort of claps at Saka to about ghosts and stuff. And about, I can't remember the exact wording, but like, he's like, I'm not into scat as in like, - Oh, she's like, oh, do you want to turn yourself invisible to sneak into the girl's toilets? - That's right, that's right. Yeah, and yeah, he immediately, instead of, yeah, saying, you know, I'm not a perv, I don't want to look at girls in, on the bathroom. It's like, hey, I'm not into poo. Watch out, I don't have a poo finish. - Oh, you think I want to watch them shit. That's what you're saying to me. So I'm like, oh, okay, that's interesting, that's a choice, but it also made me, made me chuckle again when, 'cause I just didn't expect it. It just came out of nowhere. - I don't hate that this guy whiffs sometimes. I know that for a lot of writers, it's very tempting to write a character who has always got the most witty response and is the most clever. I think it adds a bit of reality to him, but sometimes he's a riffs just like, aren't that good and don't let? - 100%, 100%, like, yeah, he's, it's good to know that he's not a fan of scat, like I'm happy that that was addressed and we don't have to die wondering for the next 12 episodes after this to work out, if maybe he has got a bit of a poo finish. So that's sorted, we can move on from that. But yeah, we find out in this exchange as well that Rio, she's an adolescent denier. She doesn't believe that adolescent syndrome's a real thing. She prefers to stand on the side of logic and she drops a bit of our Schrodinger's cat knowledge on suck at her. - The anime classic. - It's a very low-hanging fruit, it feels like. He gets thrown out more often than I care to imagine. - I will say, you know, I've been saying stuff, oh, the light novel out of this. It should've had that. Here's one where it was clearly a good cut. This thing goes for a while because she does a full explanation of how the human eye perceives light and images. She gives a full explanation of Schrodinger's cat. She goes deeper into like a quantum mechanics and observation theory. - Damn, okay. - And I'm kind of flipping through this going, okay. - Well, I guess it adds further context as far as just how smart Rio is as a character. And we see more of that play out in this season as she gets more and more involved in the episodes. But yeah, it was a clean cut. - What bit it felt like? - You see in that Simpsons episode where they have Stephen Hawking in it. And he rolls in at the end to give an explanation about how someone standing in a hardware store could potentially not see another person usually like this quantum physics explanation of light traveling through soil dust. And at the end, everyone goes, great. - Yeah, that's it. - Excellent. - Yeah, so I think this scene was certainly pasted and edited and cut the right way then. I'm very curious to see how long and in depth it goes with there because yeah, it intrigues me. Like my nine to five, I do a lot in the security surveillance world. So there's a lot of camera-based stuff we have to deal with as far as optics and how light bounces and reflects and stuff like that. So I'm gonna go have to read these chapters just to get Rio's understanding of this. But yeah, she's a, she didn't adolescence denier. Yeah, we don't really come to any conclusion in this back-and-forth in the school. And then we again see Sakata walking home alone, the eternal loner. He swings by the bakery that we mentioned earlier to buy a singular custard bun. He questions the employee in this moment too though, where he's like, "Hey, do you know Maya, this starlet who's been famous since the child, she was in everything." And the employee draws a blank. She's like, "Sorry, don't know who you're talking about. Don't know what's going on." And Sakata starts reflecting on this situation playing out where he's like, "When people no longer see her, her existence then comes into question." And he has that moment of realization and panic sets in and he just starts running the rest of the way home. And he's then greeted by Maya sitting calmly on his doorstep waiting for Sakata to come home. It's interesting because she's in her school uniform, even though she hasn't been going to school for, I don't know, an undisclosed amount of time. So it's a choice there. But the episode ends here and it's bookended by The Lion about, on May 6th, I met a wild bunny girl, but they also add some additional depth to that. And she's like, "You must remember, even if you forget, be sure to do a good job, future me in depth." And you're like, "Oh, what? Like have we got time travel going on here? What is happening, Dafu?" Yeah, but my read of that, like the sort of realization he comes to, I figure is, "Oh, she hasn't been avoiding me. The severity of her symptoms is getting worse." And I think what is happening, my guess going forward, that it getting more severe is it's not just fewer people being able to see her. It's her existing for less time in the world, right? Like potentially she actually just blipped out for that two weeks. And if he's not actively holding on to her, using his memory and trying to remind other people about her, there is a very real risk that like, she's gonna blip out hard. She's just gonna never have existed in the first place as far as anyone is concerned. That's fantastic. That is so fantastic. And it immediately puts in perspective where I just said, "Why the hell is she wearing her school uniform, even though she hasn't been attending the last few weeks?" She was probably there every day, but yeah, due to the fleeting memories of her and her existence fading in and out with people, she could have just been sitting there at her desk with no one actually knowing she exists in those moments. So, well done. You brought a lot of additional context to this episode. I love it. - Yes, I haven't seen the rest of it, but like, I think it's signpost to this stuff really well. Like you can crack into it if you are a viewer who likes digging deep into stuff. There is stuff to dig into, yeah. Hell yeah, yeah, so we don't get the ending. We do get the credits sort of playing out in this situation where, yeah, Sucketer's running back to his apartment and sees Maya. We've got the credits sort of semi-transparent playing off sort of the side of the screen here. We can hear a little bit of music very dully in the background, but it's more so about this big moment. And yeah, that book ending of, you know, May 6th, I met a wild bunny girl, but yeah, you must remember, even if you forget, be sure to do a good job future man. You're like, damn, I am in, it's got its hooks in me, it's got its bunny ears in me, it's got everything. I cannot wait to see where they go with this story because I love you Maya and I love you, Sucketer as well. You seem like a good dude who you can get behind in route four. - Yeah, absolutely. - It's great, but all right. So I guess the first question, it's already been answered throughout this episode. You're going to keep watching, you've committed, you're happy with the choice, it's a thumbs up so far. - Yeah, hopefully it gets dubbed at some point. I know the movies have been dubbed, which is interesting. I was searching around thinking that I just couldn't find the anime dub version because some people, some people have been Mandela affected into thinking it exists because they're like, there's a dub class for it. Of course it exists. - It's, yeah, the films have got that dub track should you choose, but yeah, the 13 episode anime is sub only, but the vocal work is great. It's really well done, really emotive, and it's a good, easy listen/read, but yeah, it's worth checking out. Have you got a favorite scene or moment from this first episode that you feel stands above the rest? - Yeah, my favorite scene in this, I think it is the train scene for me. This is our first time that we get to really show off our two protagonists connecting with each other and roofing with each other. This is something that's got to be so solid 'cause the promise of this show is you are going to see these two characters interact a lot. It's got to be good. And the fact that you leave that scene or wanting more conversations between the two of them and wanting more of that is like, that's good. That is perfect 'cause that is exactly what they're showing needs to deliver on. - I agree with you, man. And I think that train scene just really sets the tone and the dynamic between whatever this relationship might ultimately end up being like the first interaction we had or the previous interaction we had between these two characters was where my was, you know, saying, stay far away from me, forget you ever saw me pretty much. And then the next scene, they're just comfortable in each other's orbit. It's good, real conversation. It's not like just typical high school acutesy nothingness like they're talking about real things here, providing real answers and getting very raw. And yeah, it just sets a really solid foundation for these two moving forward. And they're just, they get really fleshed out in those few minutes on that train because they peel back a lot of pretty delicate layers. - Yeah, and the things they say are self revealing in a way that those characters weren't even expecting. Everything even down to just staring at a poster on a train is something this story comes back to. - Yeah, yeah, very much so. But listeners, viewers, if you're still on the fence about Rascal does not dream of Bunny Girl Senpai, but you're a fan of things like My Teen Romantic Comedy Snafu, Clan Ad, or Cockrope Connect, which are the three most common if you're gonna like that. You're gonna love this on my anime list. Do yourselves a favor and check it out for disclosure. The episode we did record, the potential last episode is on My Teen Romantic Comedy Snafu. I hope it does see the light of day because it is also some fantastic rom-com greatness and rom-com realness too, which is they've got similar tones at times, these two anime, and yeah, it's well worth exploring. As I mentioned, there's three films out on top of 13 episode run of this anime and a fourth film on the way, like the world beloved, the Rascal universe, and justifiably so. - Yeah, I think Cladet is a really good pull. And as soon as you say that, I can absolutely see the parallels with that as well. We will get to watch Cladet off the story in my time loop. - Yeah. - Good forward to that. - That makes me very, very happy. Slightly jarring period piece anime style aside, it is a phenomenal story and yeah, makes your heart feel so many things, good, bad or otherwise. Like it is one of my favorite anime franchises. Let's move into the last word presented by Japan Crate. Experience Japan through snacks and knick-knacks via monthly package drops, courtesy of Japan Crate.com. And while you're there, be sure to use code 8bit15 to check out, to save yourself 15% off your order and get free shipping to anywhere on Planet Earth. Dafo, what is your last word, your last words, your last thoughts on Rascal? Does not dream with Bunny Girl Senpai? - My last thoughts on this show, what I am being promised here is a puzzle box from the overall setup of giving us this mystery to solve about what is happening with this girl, who suddenly can't be seen in the world around her, to all of these little puzzles that are set up with every single character, whether it's just how people feel about the hospitalization incident, how this relationship he has with all of his friends who all have these things that aren't being disclosed to us. This mystery girl that he was still supposedly maybe romantically involved in or maybe had a hopeless crush on, we still gotta come back to that. There are just so many threads that this wants to put out in front of you and I am ready to pull on those threads. - I'm right there with you. I've got so many questions after this first episode. I think my biggest question is, my Sakura Jima, please will you marry me outside of that. Check this anime out, it is really great. Yes, it can be a little hard to find here locally in Australia, but if you look hard enough, I'm sure you will track it down and it is well worth the time. 13 episode runs, so it's not a massive commitment, but storytelling that takes place throughout those 13 episodes is fantastic and will make you feel good things, bad things and everything else in between, but all in a positive impressive manner. So yeah, I can't speak high enough for this. Like we said, the animation by Cloverworks is stunning. The characters are real and I'm all for it and I can't wait for this fourth film because yeah, I love this world, man. And I love talking anime with you. Hopefully this second episode comes out down the line sometime soon because it was also a banger, but thank you so much for stopping on by again. Dafoe, Hesse Dafoe, that brings us to the end of another episode of "More Than Hentai." Thank you so much for stopping on by the segue studio again. Appreciate you as always. It's been an absolute blast having you on here and bringing such a great, unique, yet universally understandable insight to the world of anime. And I also love that you're the great A student bringing extra insight and context through the light novel because you know what, I respect the diligence you have in getting those thoughts onto paper. So thanks again. - Hey, it's nice. Look, I like doing it. I am always that here's all the research I've done personally on my podcast. - Well, I would give you five slushies out of five that you can go through our construction workers for the work that you put in today. But do where can the listeners find you and all the other fantastic content you've got coming up because all the links for Dafoe will be in the show notes. But yeah, let us know what you got coming up that's worth checking out. - Yes, you can find the podcast Adless08@endless08.com. I'm on the socials @dafhounds and dafhounds.itch.io is my store platform where you can find games like This World's Summer's Too many Heroes or Bloodglot, my medical fantasy horror game where you use medical astrology or leeches and all kinds of weird things to solve some very strange and gory. - The illnesses. - So good, so good. And the crazy part like that is that a lot of those types of things that you are using in blood clot is actually medicine of yesteryear, the stuff that they used to get up to and the experimentation they'd do to try and fix and cure what owls you back then terrifies me reading up about it. So this blood clot sounds like a ton of fun. - Yeah, writing the medical astrology class was actually one of the most fun ones to research 'cause I'm looking through it going really, really. And then you're like, "Yeah, okay, that is a real thing." - Yeah, I did. - No wonder life expectancy back in those days was so low. Goodness, but yeah, listen as you can find me on the socials at More Than Senpai. You can find everything we're doing holistically here, not only with More Than Hentai, but our new weekly anime news podcast I'm doing with Courtney Smith called More Than Headlines over at More Than Hentai.life. It is a safe URL to browse, so don't worry if you're on the work network. You won't have got pinged or flagged with anything there, but you can find yourself some tasty merchandise over there at More Than Hentai.life. And while you're there, you can join this agoise board through the low price of $1 a month. You can get exclusive access to perks, content, and giveaways that you will not find anywhere else on Planet Earth. You can also get yourself some exclusive pins that have just dropped from the manufacturer. I've got them in my hot little hands right now, and they are fan-free-contastic. But gosh, be sure to rate, review, and subscribe this podcast as well as Endless OA, as well as all the other podcasts you listen to on the regular, those ratings and reviews take no time, costs no money, and mean the world to content creators, like myself and Dafo, so please, pay that positive karma forward. If you're checking us out on video, chuck a like and a comment on TikTok or YouTube, because those likes and comments keep us in the algorithm, keep us track, and keep us trending, keep us relevant. But listeners, whether your anime be subbed, dubbed, or still yet to come, enjoy yourself and much love to all the gorgeous wife who's out there from Dafo and myself. Goodbye! 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