Hello and welcome to more than 10 times! Our podcast that is here to show that anime is far more than just tentacles and cat girls. There's also countless stories of love, loss, laughs, hope, horror and happiness that are designed to be found and I have Brenda White, the Salt and Pepper Senpai, I'm here to help you find them. Modern Hentai is proudly powered by our friends over at Audio, Technica and Dashwater, so please go upgrade your audio and hydration games today, preferably after listening to this fantastic incoming episode. And joining me in this sagoi studio is a dear friend of mine who I was fortunate enough to meet through the greatness of video game podcasting way back in 2015/2016, so we've been doing this for nearly a decade ago, courtesy of the hungry gamers and a couple of NPCs when he's not rocketing an assortment of stylish snapbacks and raising the cutest of families. You can also be found kicking ass and helping change lives for the better as an award-winning combat trainer from an anime standpoint, he cites Dragon Ball Z, Attack on Titan, Bleach and Hajime No Ippo as some of his favorites, you can find him on them socials at A-Clay PT, which is A-C-L-A-Y-P-T, Andrew Clayton, you bloody legend, welcome to the show baby. A text me back, how you doing man, it's good to be here. I'm doing great, it has been a long, long time between drinks with you on a microphone, so I'm glad I've managed to coax you out of retirement for this episode, so dude it's great to see you, great to hear from you and yeah thanks for coming on by. Yeah thanks for having me, it's a refreshing change of pace, I'll put it that way, my life gets pretty busy. You are eternally busy, like I see everything you're up to on the socials and like the five minutes of sleep you probably get at an evening with everything else you've got going on, so myself, the viewers and the listeners, thank you for taking some time out to talk to anime with me here today, but yeah let's go back, let's dive into the A-Clay origin story, let's talk about all the great things you're doing, all the great things you're done and then we can sort of narrow that lens to an anime type of perspective, so yeah let's hear about all the cool things that Andrew Clayton does or has done, or anything you want to share anyway, the floor is yours, let's talk about it. So as you said, me and a friend of mine used to do a video game podcast a couple of NPCs, yeah like 10 years ago, when you phrased it like that it actually sounded old, I guess I am pretty old but I feel old man, so don't worry about that. But yeah we used to do a podcast, we did that for a long time, that's when we met you and a whole bunch of other amazing people, and after that I started doing personal training, I was at my other job and I was like oh man there's got to be something better than this, so I started doing personal training and I'm doing that for two and a, just under two and a half years now, and I bounced that between another job, like a factory job, and I also do, like I've got kids now and life is crazy, my girlfriend's also studying, she's a uni, so she's doing that, it's just an eternal juggling act. And you two have like collectively 15 plates each in the air that you're trying to juggle and balance, like it is nuts the amount of stuff you two do and it makes people like myself feel lazy when I'm like I'm too tired to do anything when you like you know work multiple jobs, raising kids, studying, living a happy family life and everything else, like I'm damn like it's a hat tip, like neither has hats on right now, I'm surprised I don't see you in the trademark cap today, but yeah, I used to wear hats all the time, I only wear the hat at the gym because it's part of the brand, which is why I used to do a podcast too, so I used to wear, yeah, even on, I've got a business card, where is it, I've got a stash of business cards here somewhere, where the logo is actually like, let me see, yeah the logo here is like, there you go, yeah, so with the snap back, right, so it's part of the brand really, but I just like, it's just uncomfortable to wear them all the time and I get all sweaty and stuff, so I'm just like, they have, can't be bothered, that's fair, that's fair, well yeah, like that was, I think my first interactions with you way back in, yeah, 15, 16, you were, you were the king of the snap back, like I don't think I ever saw you without a hat on back in those days, yeah, yeah, I've still got a whole collection of them up there, like in this room over there, I was like, do I wear one today and I'm like, now I don't really wear them, that much anymore, so, and then I think, I think one of the reasons I actually stopped because I used to get like, the hats to match the shirts, so I used to like, coordinate and always on brand, very thematically, yeah, yeah, stylish, and it just got hard and I'm just like, I just can't, I got older and I'm like, I can't be bothered anymore, like for example, this shirt, this is a, Alex and Victoria actually went to Japan and got me this, this jumper, this is a, my hero academia UA jumper, yeah, the UA high one, it's so good, yeah, it's pretty cool, I'm like, I don't ever had to match that, I can't be bothered, whatever, so, but yeah, yeah, yeah, it's just lots of work, lots of family time, and then obviously trying to juggle, gaming and anime in between all that, which is, it's a mission in itself, thank God for crunching all of my phone, let me tell you. Oh dude, the joys of technology these days, the fact that you've got an almost endless catalogue at your fingertips, on smartphone, on web browser, on television, on iPad, etc, etc, you're like, we are in peak technology accessibility era, it feels like, if you want it, you can find it, you can consume it wherever you are, and it's the best, it's pretty good, it's pretty good, I am, and now my girlfriend has logged onto my Crunchroll account on her phone, because I just got her onto a solar leveling, so, yeah, good call, that show is so good, oh my lord, it's fantastic, so you've watched all of the first season, yeah, it took me about five days, and I binged it, I smashed every opportunity I had, I was watching it, and then when I finished it, I was like, I, I need to read more, I need to know what's going on, so I'm about, almost 100 chapters into the manua, because it's not manga, it's just Korean, yeah, so I think the anime ends at chapter 45, I want to say, and I'm like close to 100, so I've got like, season two covered, pretty much. And probably season, like, and probably season three, pretty close to that, and how much time they, they sort of spend fleshing out this world and the characters, like, I was the same, like the second that anime hooked its claws into me, I'm like, all right, I need to know about this world, I need to know what happens to Jin will and everybody else, so I smashed, I've done all 200 chapters of the manua, I know where this is going to end, and I'm so excited, but also now getting impatient knowing that, okay, I'm going to see this story wrap up potentially in five, six years time, so I'm just like, God damn it, but also I can't wait to see some of these manua panels translate to screen, because my God, it is a gorgeously written, gorgeously drawn, like, I love it, and I normally don't, I try not to read manga ahead of, I like to watch a show to completion and then read it, that's what I did with Naruto, I did that with Dragonball, with Bleach for example, I read all the way up to date, obviously I was up to date with the show and then, because that was at hiatus, I read ahead, it's the first one I actually read ahead and was like, now I'm watching it get translated and then now I'm like, I did the same with Black Clover and now solo leveling, yeah, so it's the, because I know you've been enjoying Kaiju number eight as well, that shows fantastic, it's one of the best new animator come out, not only just this year, like we've been pretty spoiled, solo and Kaiju coming out back to back in amongst ongoing seasons of Demon Slayer and my hero and all this other awesome stuff, but Kaiju is phenomenal, like, I don't know if you're fully up to date, but episode 10 blew my socks off, like, it was perfect, is, yeah, yeah, because the, so here's the thing, right? If I watch stuff on my own, I will watch it in the Japanese dub, like, I'm fine, like, for example, one piece, I'm up to date with one piece, which, let me tell you, that took a long time, so obviously that's not in English dub, so I watch that in Japanese, but for the most part, because I watch a lot of these with my girlfriend and she would prefer the English dub and so I'm like, yeah, that's cool, whatever, I'll just, I'll just watch it with you and the English dub for a lot of shows these days is actually really good. Yeah, the quality has, like, risen so highly compared to English dub of yesterday, where it was a bunch of people mailing it in, hyper exaggerating every turn of phrase on the screen, but now it punches almost blow for blow with the same quality as the Japanese initial vocal delivery a lot of the time. Depending on the show, I would argue it's better. Yeah, so for example, I've only watched Kaiju in English because that show drops the English dub in the same day. The simul drop is so rare, but also, I don't know if you've seen online, the dub for episodes 11 and 12 are going to be delayed by, like, three weeks, so we have to pivot from the dub to the sub for the final two episodes. You know, at that point, I have to wait 10 days, look, I haven't even started Demon Slayer, so I've got to wait. So here's the thing, like, it was actually really hard at first to wait, but I've got so much to watch and so little time anyway that I'm just like, I just pivot to other stuff. So for example, like, the last season of Demon Slayer, not the current one, the last one, the first English dub episode didn't come out until I'm pretty sure the eighth episode in Japanese. So I was like really behind, and I was like, yeah, cool, whatever. At that point, it's like, oh, when that's not out, we watch Jutsu Kaisen, or at the moment watching my hero, and she's watching solar leveling, and in between everything we watch, we're about 52 episodes into Dragon Ball, I'm getting her into Dragon Ball. Okay. When Toriama passed, I'm like, I'm going to watch the whole thing. And she was like, and my misses was like, yeah, watch it together. So now it's like, every time we're not watching something new, we just slap on some Dragon Ball. And it never ends, like, we are never going to not have something to watch, never have not have something to consume, whether it be a new season of some of the greats like we've been talking about now, or new IP that is constantly coming out every season. That's a good stop. It would potentially be worth your time. Yeah. Well, even well as anime fans these days, because the quality coming out of all the main line studios is just consistently topped here. Like you said, whether you're a sub or a dub hunter, like it is great irrespective. You do potentially lose some translation or context, depending on which way you go and how it's how it's translated from, you know, manga panel to screen. But it's a good time, and yeah, things like crunchy roll, high dive, even Netflix, like the catalog that Netflix has now. It's really cool. It is my goddamn mind. They go deeper one there. They go deeper. Yeah. Yeah. Only the first season, but that's fine. I'll take it. Yeah. I think once once the licensing subsides for certain regions, you'll see following season sort of drip fed on to Netflix. But yeah, there is a huge back catalog on there, like Disney Plus has got a lot through the Hulu sort of offset, Amazon even has some good stuff like where it's good, well, no matter what streamer you're on, there's some stuff to control. Arcing back to the whole dub for sub debate, it's funny we talk about that. There's one of my mates sent me a clip. It was a meme and it had the clip of Irwin. Are you up to date with the tag on Titan? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So Irwin's final speech, right? And he sent me this meme and it was like this girl rocking back and forth on this horse. And it was almost like flashbacks from Naam and she's just like flashbacking to the horse ride up to the Titan with Irwin's speech. And it was in Japanese. And I've only really heard it in English. And let me tell you the English dub for that speech gives me chills. It's unreal. It's unreal how good that is. And I like a lot of All Might speeches in English. It's obviously it's Chris of Art. So, you know, he's pretty good. Yeah. He's a powerhouse. Mate, he's everything. He is. He is like, you can't turn on an anime without him Chris of Art pop up, whether it be a lead character, an ancillary character, just a throwaway NPC you meet along the way. Like, it's the same churn as far as the big names within the English dub, which is fine. But for me occasionally it does get jiring where I'm like, hang on, I know you was this character and now you're that character, like, and my brain has to sort of rewire in a few seconds because I'm like, what am I watching again? It's funny because we're not obviously me and my missus are watching Dragon Ball. So we're not up to like Z. So Piccolo and Vegeta aren't introduced yet. So she doesn't know Chris about as those voices. So she knows him as All Might. She knows him as Yami from Black Clover. I love Yami. My favorite guy is Black Clover. Awesome. He's a bad son of a bitch. Funny story about Black Clover. We started watching it. We got about 30 episodes in and me and my missus were like, not feeling it. Not feeling it. I was like, I don't get the hype. And then, so she didn't want to watch anymore. And I was like, that's fine. I'm like, you know what? Everybody's talking about it. Everybody's raving about it. I'm going to read the manga. It's going to take me, like, I'll breeze through it easier. And I want to see what the hype is about. And I couldn't tell you where it picked up for me. Probably just before the elf arc. So just before that arc, that's when I was like, oh, okay. All right. I get it. And now I'm up to date with the manga. So I'm like, way ahead of the anime. Love it. Love it. I'm like, I've got a binge this show now. It's amazing. It didn't land with me on my first pass as well. I gave it a look because, you know, a friend of both of ourselves, Mr. Janet loves it is a black clover tragic. But one of my biggest things that grinds my gears with anime is the loud, hyper-aggressive protagonist with that, like, screechy voice all the time, like, where he's just always not angry, but always just unnecessarily emotive and it's always like a real angry, powerful, jarring voice. Yeah. And yeah, Mr. Astor in black clover did that for me at first. But then I gave it another crack and I'm like, okay, I love this world. Love me, the black bulls. Love what's happening here. Love the power creep that's starting to play in. I'm curious. And so I pushed through and I'm just about up to date now on our black clover. And it's, it's well worth the system. It's good. But I see what all the problems up because a lot of people seem to bounce off it because it doesn't do anything new. It's just like regurgitating all the regular tropes, like he's, he's basically Naruto in like a, like a fairy tale kind of world with like bleach kind of squads. And it's like, it just, it just doesn't, it doesn't do anything unique. But I don't know, when you get into it, I'm like, okay, this is, this is cool. It's got some good moments. Like you just kind of, once you get past Asta being Asta, you're just like, you kind of like, okay, no, no, he's cool. I don't mind him. He's all right. Especially in the manga, like where he's up to now. Oh, yeah. I'm just like, stop yelling all the time. Please. He's going to be like a cargo. I mean, wizard king. Yeah. That's true. That's true. But like, that's it. I think that's just the, for all the main line shown in the do well, they all follow those same beats. Just have that same type of archetype with your protagonist and the struggles and the power creep. And yeah, it's just ripping that out and plugging it into different worlds, different universes. Like with my hero, we've got Deku, who's a little bit of a softer protagonist, but they're going through those same struggles and trying to be the very best. But no one ever was. Yeah. Exactly. Like it's a story that's universal and stands the test of time. So I understand why they copy paste it to a degree. It's pretty good. Yeah. But no, I mean, we are, we are eating well and listeners. If this is your first time, stop it on via more than a entire first and foremost. What took you so long? But secondly, thank you for making it here eventually. The way this podcast works is we do singular episodic deep dives on the opening episode of a particular Adam A in question. At the time, I do a bit of back and forth with my co-host who joined me on this on set episode just to work out, you know, what are they into? What are they like watching tropes that they enjoy, tropes they want to avoid, themes, etc. and then we try and land on it on an anime that they've yet to watch at the time. We go away, we watch that first episode and then we meet here on the podcast to sort of unpack the episode front to back, talk about the good, the bad and everything else in between. We do not go beyond the first episodes or some work going to ruin the overall plot or massive twists and turns and spoilers. It's just going to be singular deep dive focus on that first episode. See if we landed on a good recommendation. See if A Clay here is going to continue to watch beyond this first episode and also see if it's an anime that's worth it, you listeners and viewers out there checking out as well. So that's how more than Hentai works and it's exciting because I'm hyped as hell to talk about this one because our title in focus for this episode of more than Hentai is an action shown and known as windbreaker in all capitals for added emphasis. It's a manga series written and illustrated by a satra in knee that began serialization in cadanches magazine pocket monger website in January of 2021. As of May 2024, the series individual chapters have been collected into 17 tonk upon volumes and we saw an anime adaptation directed by Toshifumi Akai with scripts written by Hiroshi Seiko and music composed by Ryo Takahashi debuting in April of 2024. The series is produced by clover works who are one of my personal paper studios and are known for titles such as Batchi the Brock, Spy Family, My Dress Up Darling, Pyramir and Rascal Bunny to name but a few windbreaker in all capitals for emphasis can be found on Crunchyroll and currently holds a score of 7.81 on my anime list based on 41,000 unique user reviews and I personally have scored this season. We still have to be fully upfront listeners viewers. We are recording this on the 20th of June. So we have two episodes left of season one to go and I would be scoring this because my anime list do not allow decimal scores, I've rounded up to 9 out of 10 I would put it about a solid 8.5 if I could but yeah 9 out of 10 is my current standing on windbreaker. And the story is as follows, Haruka Sakara an outcast turned street fighting prodigy joins Furene High School where Braun trumps brains on his first day as Street Boral introduces him to future classmates who instead of shunning him fight by his side. At Furene it's all about protecting the town of Makochi, earning the students the nickname both Lauren struggling with their unexpected support, Sakara must adapt to this newfound camaraderie as fierce enemies arise, he learns to fight for not just himself but the community that finally accepts him. So Andrew the first episode we're going to be diving into is called Sakara Arrives at Furene. So let's go broad brush for now, let's talk about your overall general impression of the episode before we deep dive into this fantastic 20-odd minute join. All right, before I say anything, his name is Sakara and my brain interprets that as a girl's name because it's more commonly a female's name, Sakara from Naruto Sakara from Cardcaptor Sakara, so threw me off and High Q does the same thing, High Q's main character is Hinata, I'm going to just start watching that, it's pretty good, I'm big in the sports anime, not the point. So I'm like at first I'm just like okay, it had to like download that but at the moment I think I would, I'm not like super invested in it, I do want to watch more because it is kind of up my alley, I like all these like fight anime and it's a bit more grounded, it's a bit less like hyper anime, like a super crazy martial arts, you know, but it's the animations good, the character seemed pretty good, it seems like it has potential, but for me I'm probably floating at about like a 7 out of 10, I haven't even watched Tokyo Revenge's but I feel like it's along the same kind of lines as that in terms of like power scaling and like characters and all that kind of stuff, a guy that I work with, he watched Windbreaker and then he watched Tokyo Revenge's, he's like, loves that stuff, so I do want to watch more, but this was a case of me and my mrs. watched, I was like oh I got to watch this episode for the podcast and she's like yeah, watch it and then we watch an episode and then she's like oh, Hell's Paradise is on Netflix and then she's like oh, solo leveling, how was Hell's Paradise by? Oh my god, shout out to Hell's Paradise, like I think it got unfairly disrespected by a lot of people last year when it came out because I love it, I love it, it's fantastic. Yeah 100% but yeah yeah so I do want to watch more of it, it does look good, I feel like the first episode doesn't do anything extraordinary, anything out of the, like it's a pretty basic first episode but if you're going into that expecting this it's like okay cool, I see that this has a lot of potential, there's so much room to grow, there's so many characters and there's like a bit more of a grandest story and he's got like in a turmoil that he's going to try and overcome and yeah, it seems good, it's got potential, so I'm in. Yeah I just wrote a couple of words to jump on the back of your general impression and I wrote yeah stunning, like aesthetically the animation from Cloverworks top tier 10 out of 10, gorgeous backgrounds, gorgeous character models, gorgeous fight and action scenes. The action scenes are really slick but they're also brutal as well, like you're seeing dudes faces get smashed in, you're seeing blood and viscera, like it's not just sort of surface level punches without violence and you know flow on effect from what you're seeing these dudes getting beaten up and cut up and bloodied and battered and bruised which is cool but I also like that outside of that brutality it's fun, like this first episode, it's fun, it's enjoyable, the cast of characters we get introduced to are really cool and I liked that it was like you said it's real, yeah there is a story here that you know it's far fetched to a degree but it's something you could see happen and see regularly like you think of soccer hooligans and stuff like that that run rampant through England and Europe and stuff like the way they fight, yeah there's not abilities and stuff happening here like it is grounded, real martial arts with real stakes and real ramifications so yeah I had a good time with it, I think the tough part with the way more than Hentai works is especially like what you said there Andrew where it's always tough to be fully invested after a first episode like not a lot of stuff can get laid out within 20 odd minutes like you do see some where that first episode is just top tier 10 out of 10, I'm in, I'm hooked one minute. Absolutely. Yeah but like where this is sort of more grounded in reality it's hard to have such big massive jaw drop moment so I like to think of like anime like typically it's a rule of three where like if you're not in by the third episode there's a high chance this might not be for you or it's just going to be a pass instead of a potential world beta. So yeah the first episode I don't know if it was just me at the time but like rewatching it again overnight like maybe I'll just feel a little bit emotional or hormonal or something but there's a few times watching this episode again where I'm like god damn this get me like I'm in I'm so invested and I think it's probably indirect bias because I've watched beyond episode one so I know where the story goes and the character development stuff but now this first episode hit well for me and left a very good impression, very good impression. Yeah I really like um I don't remember her name the girl that owns the that he saves in the early touchy barner yeah yeah I like her she's awesome she's got so much character yeah and um there's there's so much I feel like there's so much more to her and I like that they've got this like little dynamic that's I think that's one of the biggest things that would make me go back to the show like there's there's a lot of good like character interaction and I find a lot of a lot of shows don't have that some people can really drop the ball um and I don't think this show did I think this show does a really good job of these two characters like establishing kind of like who they are where they're at mentally at this present time and just kind of how they like interacting with all these other other thugs coming in it's it's it's a good time um like I said I'm I'm invested but I'm still a bit cautious that's fair that's fair like you said earlier in the episode like you've got so many things on and you've also got so many other IP that you love and adore you've got to be very strategic with your time you don't want to go too far down a rabbit hole in and then have bias remorse almost like god damn I've just wasted six hours worth of my time watching this season where I could have gone and watched something else so yeah I hope if you do persist that you don't feel that way but yeah on the the relationship with touchy barter as well like we'll talk about it more depth shortly but I like that she isn't that tropey dangeline distress you see so often in all of anime words she's the pretty girl but she's helpless and needs a man to save her and yeah like uh Sakura steps in and does beat up some dudes but you can see like she's standing she's standing her ground she's not taking any shit from these guys you know she's talking about how she wants to crack this um box of eggs she's carrying back to the store over their head but doesn't want to ruin the eggs like she's got some sass and yeah some backbone which I like I love me some sass let me tell you yeah yeah for better or for worse I can't seem to avoid sass so yeah yeah that's my daughter's father let me tell you yeah so so the the opening scenes of this first episode it starts when we get this black and white sort of dream sequence where we see images of this guy walking across a tightrope and it's getting interlaced then with shots and flashbacks of school where we're getting various students all talking negative towards this character in question talking about oh he's gotten into another fight you know he's a delinquent he's dangerous he's the worst of the worst and they even call him a walking plague and I'm like oh that's some serious words to throw around like I'm already feeling bad for whoever it is they're talking about and then we see this boy ball from the tightrope in this dream wakes up snaps to present day and this is where we're introduced to Sakura and we get the very cliche anime you know the frustrated noise that we get yeah because he's woken up from this dream and frustrated so I immediately love him because I love me a frustrated sound in trouble me yeah yeah so all right I can feel you I can empathize and then we jump forward and we get these really gorgeous shots where we're seeing this town I mentioned earlier Makochi and we're seeing a lot of people just going about their days like it's a living breathing community going about their daily lives it's gorgeously shot not only the background but the foreground and the characters they're all just nothing NPC's doing their thing going the shops and buying groceries but really stunning with NC Sakura enter the scene walking down the street the perpetual loner walking down the street hands in his pockets grizzled and frustrated with the world but it's contrasted by just the gorgeousness in this scene where we're seeing all these beautiful fallen cherry blossom petals coming down from the sky and like walking over these cherry blossom petals really gorgeously seen and then we get some some contact from Sakura here where he's like he only cares about the strong and I've got zero interest in the week so you're like okay you're a bit of a tough boy here we get it we understand it and this is where we're introduced to Touchy Bada she is getting accosted by this group of punks but I like that yeah we see immediately she's feisty and she's giving as good as she gets the leader then grabs her on the armor she attempts to go back to her storefront that's when Sakura appears and then we hear this really really funky rock track start to kick in and we get a look at Sakura here and the character designs that are done by Taishi Kawakami fantastic love them love the Sakura design because yeah he's got these two-tone hair different colored eyes and from what I was reading about like the basis of that character design is actually very cat-like it was very inspired by a cat as far as he's a bit rangy and limbless and the way he moves and jumps around very cat-like so he's got a really cool first impression you're like this guy just looks like very unlike most generic dark-haired blue-eyed protagonist we see in 99% of anime but he ends up tallying up these five dudes like with ease just boom boom boom they're gone Touchy Bana is shocked as hell but also surprised and she gets a monologue here going about from Sakura where he's like you know I'm only here I've got no interest in the week I only want the strong to seek me out I'm going to be the very best I'm going to kick everybody's ass and I'm going to be top of the class at Furine we get the opening then start to cut in gorgeously animated the opening and we're getting this really fun and fermented track titled Zetsai Rido by Notori really good bop and the artwork and the animation style in the opening really compliments the track we get introduced to a ton of characters all with unique and distinctive looks and vibes every trope you've ever seen in anime that's that's he's heard the main characters are they're like okay these guys have cool haircuts there we go yeah but it's it's a really good hype setter like this is all done in the first five minutes seeing the intro to Sakura seeing him kick the crap out of these five dudes without breaking a sweat seeing that yeah he is the strong eternal loner that just wants to fight his way to the top but then this opener that's just a bop had me hives what were you feeling after these first five minutes so here's where I'm at with the main character um I feel like he taps into I see I find him he seems heavily inspired by Naruto and I find that like a lot of shows specifically like black clover and stuff um and like JJK where there's like they're like the he's the kid but he's got this like demon inside of him blah blah blah like that kind of side of Naruto but this guy really taps into like really what Naruto is about like this really troubled youth you know really looked down upon for reasons that are like he has no control over you know um and just like trying to find his place in the world and I think like I don't personally like vibe with that as in like I don't like empathize with that but I really like from a narrative standpoint I like the potential that has and I feel like it does a much better job of tapping into like the essence of what something like Naruto kind of really emphasizes you know um so that's I think that's another one of the things I was like okay this this guy's got potential there's so much room for character development for the main guy that I'm just like yeah yeah I mean I mean yeah and the good thing in this first episode we do get a lot of context as to why Sakura is the way he is like they don't leave a lot of stuff you know they unpack a lot in this first episode and there's a lot more that happens in the follow on but in this episode one we do get a lot of understanding of how he came to be and why he is the way he is from an emotional standpoint yeah he is the eternal troubled youth has experienced bullying his entire life and he's always just been his own person so seeing that in contrast with this sense of community in this town is a nice yin to the yang in a way where everyone in makochi they're you know one one community one goal one dream they've all got each other's backs where Sakura has had no one have his back since he was born it feels like teamwork makes the dream work you know oh yeah oh yeah so after we get yeah that fantastic intro like as I said the the song is Si Rido by Notary it's a banger it's saved in my anime playlist yeah i vibe with the music i vibe with it yeah just gets the toes to happen and just gets you hype for what's to come and so we flash back now and we see um touchy barney here she sort of wants to say to Sakura she's like hey i want to want to give you thanks come to my restaurant no i'll thank you with food so uh Sakura you can see that yeah he doesn't deal much with people or doesn't deal much with getting thanks or praise in his life up into now and maybe he just hasn't really had many experiences talking to women as well because straight away the tough guy demeanor fades for a second he gets very embarrassed red-faced but then to try and compliment all that or offset all that embarrassment starts to act tough and almost he's like hey you want to fight like i'll kick your ass tachibata like let's go because he doesn't know how to deal with that situation like to him that's the only way to like oh i don't know how to deal with the situation fight yeah you know and um yeah like what gonna i'm interested to see him find his place in the world and like learn you know like they're especially what kind of what happens next is like a really key indicator of him you know even starting to to show who he really is exactly exactly yeah so so they're at this restaurant anime food again looks delightful looks perfection i was drooling because she whips out the omelet rice which is the anime staple looked fantastic and he starts hoofing in loving it gets his words jumbled up because he's like hey can you want to take off from this place and she's like um i think you mean takeout idiot like what are you talking about so clearly again just socially awkward doesn't know how to be in these moments in contrast to most of society i do like too that the elephant in the room is addressed straightaway where um then tachibana is like you're a very unique looking guy like instead of it just being accepted that this guy has got white and black hair and a blue and a yellow eye she's just like do you dye your hair are you wearing contacts like what's going on with this look here buddy but straight away again like you said Andrew he's ready to rumble he's like you want to fight let's go let's let's scrap because uh he's just so used to people making fun of his appearance in this moment where there's just genuine curiosity here from tachibana yeah no it's um it's really good because i feel like some shows just kind of the characters just accept certain things for for what they are and um yeah i think this kind of is back to like this show being quite grounded just the the overall tone seems really good um that's i think that's what i like about her she just like she's she's got sass and she just doesn't doesn't hesitate to put itself out there yeah and i also appreciate too that um the primary female the first female i've met in this series you know they haven't they've steered away from the the tropey gorgeous high school girl like she this girl is a woman she's writing a business she's i mean she's a good longer woman you know what i was saying that's what i mean like she's gorgeous and the character model and just the vibe like she's got this long earring and the bob cart and like she's got a cool vibe they don't hypersexualize her at all like she's not there we're just the the breast hanging out there for no reason like she she's dressed more um moderately i guess properly appropriately yeah that's the perfect word yeah so sassakara challenges to a fight after yeah tachi barter start saying hey why do you look this way but then we get more context as to why saka is here and we find out that the main reason that he's came to furyin is that even though the school is ranked the lowest of below it's full of the strongest fighters and is as refuge for failures and sakura intends to take this top spot so i think not only one he can relate to being seen as the lowest of the low and a failure in isolated and not a good guy in society but he wants to yeah attend this school to ascend to the top of the the food chain at furyin high school so i'm like okay there's the stakes there's the plot moving forward we know there's the ambition is here yeah to be the hokage of the school oh yeah oh yeah and we get more back and fun uh back and forth fun here between saka and tachi barter and yet again sakura constantly blushing getting uncomfortable because he just doesn't know how to be around this girl and around this society that is uh you know this town where he's like this town is full of weirdos like i never accepted yeah like i never get accepted anywhere i'm not made to feel welcome no matter where i go so what the hell is happening but the scene ends where we've got tachi barter telling sakura to forget about taking top spot as it's never going to happen as fighting skills alone aren't enough to help you become king of the school you need people to stand with you and i think like that messaging there like it's just such a simple line but it is so universally accurate across not only whether you want to become the king of fighters at school or you want to you know live a good life in all other aspects like it is just a universal term and universal way to live because like you said like you need people in your corner rising tide raises many ships all that kind of stuff so i'm like relatable themes relatable messaging let's go yeah no no it's pretty good um yeah it's like i think that's it's kind of this is where i kind of vibe with um high cue because i just had a high cue same thing main character on their own and then like slowly becomes part of this pack and there's like tension at first so that's what i'm assuming it's gonna go there's he's gonna find his place among the the wreckage the the trash heap but yeah there's uh i'm i'm really curious to see how he interacts with some of the other characters especially i'm expecting um i always like the really over the top um hyper excitable characters so i want to see how he interacts with like characters like that like he won't know how to deal with like he's already kind of like off but not off put but like um taken aback by someone like um i can never remember a name like tachibata yeah yeah like her so um he's already kind of thrown off by that these guards been dropped so i i want to see how he interacts with a lot of these other characters i think it's gonna i think it's gonna be really funny i feel like there's a good vibe here and i think there's a lot of potential for like like humor and i like i like it when it's serious but i like it was funny too like i i think some of the better shows can have a really fun combination of that like um kaiju number eight does a fantastic job with that um was it hajamee epo does as well um a lot of these shows right they they have that that blend they know when it's time to be serious they can like go on to like more comedic tones but not like throw so much of it in your face that it becomes too much that yeah so i'm hoping that it finds that that blend but yeah i i really look forward to see how he interacts with some of these other characters it's going to be fun yeah like Hiroshi Seiko who who wrote the manga to anime adaptation really gets it and like you said there man i completely agree like if something's just serious all the time that seriousness and that tension you feel starts to wither away a little bit because you just become so used to it so when you can it can work but these tonal shifts yeah yeah attack on titan does a good job that's true that's true attack on titan is not really comedic in many ways right like if at all so i it's it's a perfect example of like deliveries important and if that's like don't try to be something that you're not and like attack on titan was like we're not we're not trying to be funny so they didn't you know and this show seems to have that good blend and i'm just yeah i just hope it keeps it it does juggle it really well like up to episode 11 now i think oh yeah so yeah that that that tonal shift works and like you said you you forecasted that perfectly where seeing him as in Sakura how he's so socially awkward already dealing with all these different alpha and beta personality types yeah some of those interactions are phenomenal so yeah it's just good enjoyment and they jump between comedic to horrific to violent to serious to action sometimes in the span of five minutes but it just seems to flow like the the structure panel to panel is really really well done so um yeah we then see we get a so the next scenes we see that same group of five punks or street delinquents that uh Sakura took down earlier they're back with a vengeance now there's like 20 of these buggers running around through the town causing all kinds of rough shot through makochi they are smashing the town to bits vandalizing stuff just being real sons of bitches here and we get a little bit more insight into Sakura in this moment as well where um he feels that being called a freak of nature felt familiar but also almost like good for him in a way like you know that's what he wears is like a badge of honor because he ends up coming head to head again with this group of 20 and yeah they're like who are you such a freak and that sort of excites and and sort of almost stimulates Sakura anyways like I love that this is the world I'm used to I'm gonna you know settle all my problems with my fists here yeah it's it's almost like um it's the idea of like his guard's been broken by all these characters like accepting him and now he's in his own like like you said like he's like this is familiar territory so now he's like okay cool I've got to be got to be sharp my guard is up you know it's forced him back to to what he's he's comfortable with and he he that's the only way he knows how to react to situations so now he's like oh yeah man I'll call him back to back to where I belong you know that's a back to normality here and it's like that um influence of the cat like you can see it's almost like a cornered you know stray or feral cat where he's just always ready to rumble always ready to hiss and claw and he says in this moment where they're having this exchange with the uh the leader of this group of punks we don't actually get his name I don't think in this first episode if we did I don't remember it neither do I but you know generic punk villain A and uh we find out yeah Sakura he measures self-worth and value only through fighting and winning so it's all right it's time to scrap fellas but we get also then touchy barner's words echoing in Sakura's head about you can't do this alone you need people with you and almost uh internally Sakura's sort of saying you know stick it up your ass touchy barner I'll show you I don't need anybody and he charges head first into this group of 20 with reckless abandon but this whole fight scene that we get going on here is so slickly animated and Sakura is just dispatching punk after punk after punk uh and we find here that male punk Y which was actually written in the caption doesn't even get a name it's male punk Y sorry he runs from the fight and we hear all this scuffling happening so touchy barner's come back out of the store to see what's going on male punk one Y grabs suchy barner holder at knife point Sakura though does not hesitate at all in this moment runs in fly kicks the absolute snot out of male punk one Y but then he's sort of standing in front of touchy barner like a human shield and he's questioning himself he's like why am I protecting this girl like why do I care what is going on I've never done something for someone else's sake that has not like benefited me before in life like what's happening with my brain right now what's going on but I want to pause here with this exchange because I love love love the mixture of these continued shots through the fight the rotating cameras they even mixed in some first person actually what we're seeing um Sakura's fist play out and it's cut together super well super slick and you see the impact of the fight and just how goddamn good and how much you're about our Sakura is when it comes to fighting but that animation combined with this really subtly underlayed music just made this exchange pop and it's probably my favorite scene in the entire episode because it's just 100% 100% um so one of my favorite shows of all time Hajime no hippo love it and one scene I will never forget is when hippo is fighting his rival and he goes up the round really hard round he goes back to the corner and his rival sendo is sitting in the corner and just like staring at him menacingly and hippo has this like internal dialogue questioning um what he's doing if he can win against like someone that's like such a monster and I really I really love when shows like this really tap into the characters emotions in that in that instance so for example when Sakura goes to save um my my brain says touchy carway is that a name you're close touchy bana very close very close it's such a carway kaiju the the guy that's Kafka's best name oh yeah with the with the white hair yeah voiced by yuji his english voice is yuji it's a dori yeah anyway you're laying on the money yeah so when he went to save her and you got that internal dialogue oh my oh here we go here we go because like so many shows can have slick animation and it's awesome like I love the animation it was great but slapping in some of that like internal dialogue that turmoil that um even like him not even realizing what he's doing why he's doing it how his body's just reacting it's like he's in the heat of the moment discovering who he is and who it's almost like he's subconsciously trying to be um I love that stuff I eat that all day I love it yeah it's like a bit of a awakening where he's having this in inner conflict and then he's like yeah who is this like who am I right now like I've only lived one way up until this moment and now I'm subconsciously just jumping in front of this girl that I met 20 minutes ago to protect her from these gangs like I don't give a shit about anybody apart from myself and yet I care about this girl right now and I will hypothetically die for her and I'm just like okay character development we're already seeing this shift we're also already seeing that the fact that someone has just cared for this boy for the first time in his entire life has made him question who he is immediately and yeah when there is a straightaway he attached yeah like he was like I'm in yeah I was all for it and yeah but that exchange where we are seeing I love a good sort of rotating 360 or 180 camera in a animated scene like it is just slick and cloverworks were on one during these fight scenes so we jump back to the to the street fight again one of the other punks that has been sort of knocked down crawls towards picks up the knife that Sakura managed to disarm male punk wife with earlier yeah that punk grabs the knife slices him across the ankle I'm happy it wasn't an Achilles cut because that is one of the things that make me get really uncomfortable I don't know what it is but there's certain attacks or impacts that happen within film anime games that just make my skin crawl and it's like anything that goes into somebody's eye like a needle in the eye that and like then like nails or something getting ripped off there the three that always make me just go so I saw the slice I'm like no no no Achilles please not likely just the ankle that's right it makes you weaker than ease does it yeah I don't know what it is like I've seen a lot of things over the years but those are the three constants where I'm always just like oh I've got to kind of look out look out the corner of my eye and watch it through my fingers so you're with fingernails or yeah fingernails toenails anything like that just like no thanks I don't know what it is I'm I'm pretty sure uh what the latest bad boys movie they mentioned it that toenail ripping torture is the most pain you can give to somebody without killing them like ripping all their fingernails off it's brutal it's brutal I've had fingernails and toenails ripped off like not through torture but just through stupid acts or not paying attention and yet it sucks but I can only imagine how it would feel having like all your fingernails and toenails ripped off one by one would pull anyway any way any way to that I've had one when I was younger doing jujitsu I planted one of my feet on the floor to push off to I think I'm trying to roll someone or do something and my I think it was one of my little toes the toenail got caught in it and I ripped the whole thing off so yeah yeah no it's not fun I had um the one I'm thinking back to I was about 12 and I was at a friend's place we were running around outside I think we'll you know play in some game and we were outside went to went to the side gate to go from the the front yard to the backyard and they had this old wooden gate and we'll barefoot and I remember I grabbed the gate and swung it open to go through and my toe was like just perfect height for the bottom of the gate and it clipped my big toe and just ripped this thing like it straight up and off like it was just sitting like this on the bottom my toe like it was oh I howled yeah I howled did you call a tow truck um yeah sadly small country town not many tow trucks around so my mom just had to sort of she ended up like ripping it off because it's no good to my toe now yes that made me how again and then just wrapped it up and went away with with one big toenail for a while that's rough that's rough yeah yeah but luckily yeah Sakura didn't lose any fingernails toenails or had his Achilles sliced just got surface level scratch across the ankle there but he realizes then in these moments that he's sort of probably bit off more than he can chew because he's standing guard in in front of touchy barner realizing that hey I can't fight all these guys and keep this girl safe at the same time like what have I done and we see this moment here where we get this silhouette of a baseball bat coming down on touchy barner and he closed his eyes in this moment sort of just accepts that this is the end for him he's going to just take this baseball bat and god knows what happens there but then we're introduced to another character in this moment we weren't used to Haragi who steps in last minute face to face with with uh Sakura and just absorbs this baseball bat shot to the back completely no sells it like takes this steel bat to the back ain't no thing but a chicken wing to to Haragi here just takes it thanks Sakura for doing what he can to keep things going up till this moment Elbow is the punk into oblivion just one shot to Dushar punk goes flying we get this really really funky guitar riff then kicks in in this moment we're introduced to three more characters from Furene High School we've got Matsumoto who's like this Mohawk wearing dude we've got Kaiji who's sucking on a lollipop wearing headphones and then we've got Jana Gada who has got the generic sort of buzz cut sort of vibe uh they all roll in like oh man we were told there was a hundred guys here like there's there's no point as being here two of us could take all these punks type of thing and I'm just like okay we can see that these Furene guys they mean business like these are some bad sons of bitches and then Sakura then just proceeds to watch on in shock as these these four boys just kick the shit out of these 20 odd punks with ease and then we get these really cool moments where all the townspeople are starting to come out like open up their front doors or their windows and they're cheering from the rooftops like yeah yeah kick their ass like get it going and we get some context here as this scene plays out where Tachi Bana is explaining that up until two years ago this town was overrun with gangs and crime and bad shit like it wasn't a safe place to be people were just downtrodden not living their best life until the students of Furene high school stepped up cleaning up the town and protecting its people and they put a sign on the edge of the town that says anyone past this point who causes pain who brings destruction who holds evil in their heart will be purged without exception and in a sign of respect the townspeople call them both Furene which means the windbreaker so you're like god damn the speech that Haragi gives regarding you know anyone brings destruction etc etc you're going to be purged that combined with the context of the situation i don't know what it was member i got so hyped and so emotional like i want to join Furene i want to run through walls with these guys like is it because the uniform is cool is that why it is a cool looking uniform is cool but everything about these dudes just it oozes cool yeah it does it does uniform they're just a bunch of bad sOBs and i'm all for it i've vibe with the guy with the mohawk i feel like those characters i really gravitate towards i've got two things about that scene one i always think of the family guy meme whenever like they say the name of the show in the show or like the first episode they're like and they we call them windbreaker and under there but also it throws me off right that they call them windbreaker but not the wind like windbreaker it's like a plural because there's heaps of them yeah like it really throws like i like all like the windbreaker gang or something like windbreaker as a singular name for a multitude of it just my brain is implodes at the thought of it it's accurate very accurate yeah like they're not windbreakers the windbreakers like i guess bofurine maybe in the japanese tongue translates to like that's plural like it can be singular and plural maybe just with the english translation it just gets lost i don't know i feel few peasants over here yeah us us uncultured white boy swine that's right that's right yeah but it's a really cool scene that plays out there where yeah sakura is on his last legs giving up accepting whatever is to come with that baseball bat and then yeah hiragi and the boys just roll in towel up everybody but it just it made me feel like i was watching scenes in like street fighter where you see the crowd in the background of the game like cheering on the fight and stuff yeah because you've just got like johnny and jimmy from you know room to be up the road pop their head out of the window and they're like yeah get them boys and there's people in the in the rafters and people on the ground like in all the shop owners like they've all come together to back you know furine or back the bofurine here the windbreaker because yeah they're doing what they can to keep the town safe and like yes i love this this is a community i want to live in i want to be part of this gang but also like i i also really like the phrasing they use on that little the section they're like purged without exception like like it's so um immediate and it's so like like uh aggressive yeah but like it's it i think it really doubles down on the tone yeah of the of the shows like some of the themes and i'm like oh okay all right all right they they they mean business i'm down yeah it's like this is their code there is no gray it is black and white yeah either in or you are out you're getting purged like if you're here it's of course trouble whether it be big small or in between you are going to be done you are going to get the snot kicked out of you and you are going to get kicked out of this town because uh yeah we only want good people here this is our community this is our tribe and we uh fight to the death for everybody within so i'm like yeah i love that it's just rubber stamps this is it respect these rules otherwise you're going to feel the pain it's almost like anti-hero vibes right like it's not like goody two shoes like uh we won't we won't um accept it but you're going to have to be like ushered out blah blah it's like no no no no you you do the wrong thing you're getting clapped like it's it's game over yep yeah and i love me a good anti-hero it is it is the best type of hero for me like because yeah like it makes them more relatable like they're not clean cut perfect citizens like they've got their warts and their black marks and have potential you know rough upbringings like um yeah but they're they're there to ultimately try and do the right thing and keep the people of this town safe and sound so i'm like you know what makochi i respect everybody that's in here and i just especially respect bofurine because we get some more context here where you know one scene is the lowest of the low but soccer is sort of in a monologuing this situation playing out is he seeing these people just get embraced as heroes in the community like all the all the townspeople come out after the fights over and they're like yeah thank you so much well done like you kick that guy's ass like high fives and smiles and thumbs up like it's all it's all good times but then we again see just how socially awkward and how isolated soccer has been his entire life because a few of the townspeople then make their way over to him and be like also he wanted to thank you for all the work you did today we you stood up when no one else is around and we can see you're injured like oh the old lady that tries to help the guy yeah yeah yeah yeah what if she would yeah and he just again freaks the hell out clearly feels very undeserving of all the praise and the positive words that are getting thrown his way and he puts on that that front again where he's like I don't need anybody get away from me like leave me alone you're punchy idiots but again touchy barner she calls bullshit on this and she's like you know what I saw all these kind things you did today you helped me and saved my life twice you alerted the old man in my saw earlier that he forgot his gift for his grandson like you didn't need to do these things fella you're telling lies and it again started to hit me in the fields there because we can see Sakura starting to buy into this town buying to its people buying to both ring but then he starts running and I'm like holy shit is he running away like is he getting the hell out of dodge from all this attention and positivity overwhelmed almost yeah yeah but I was wrong because he wasn't actually running away he was running towards that initial first punk instigator who has somehow got back to his feet and is about ready to cause more drama and Sakura does this giant leaping hero moment kick right to the face of this dude and everybody the townspeople the members of both ring they're like oh whoa like who is this son of a bitch like that was impressive now we get some more narration here from touchy barner just before the credits cut where she goes a boy the lowest of the low hated by all worth nothing but his fists this is how he became the hero of our town cut to credits and like holy shit I mean that line then at the end let's get it it was a really good way to round out the episode you know what I mean like um it just kind of shows it gives you a vision of okay he gets to this point so we know now we're like we know what the the final well we know kind of know where the end game is or or something of that sort so now it's like oh okay so he he does make it but like how does he make it what what how does the road look to to get to that point you know it kind of reminds me um my hero early episodes of my hero it's like same thing rounds out but like this is how I became the number one hero right but we don't know unless you read the monk up but like we don't know that point and I think I think it was probably the perfect way to round out that episode and like I think about it and I'm like this episode as a first like a pilot episode really well crafted like overall it just does all the right things you know and I think that's where I'm like okay this has this definitely has potential if this is the quality of of writing in animation and music if all these pieces have come together quite succinctly in the first episode like what what does the rest of the series have to offer yeah it uh it sort of puts the foot to the floor on that gas pedal in this first episode and like you said man like you know animation quality stays to this high level throughout the entirety of the episodes of watch beyond that same as the soundtrack same as the writing same as the fights because we do get a lot of like one on one scuffles in future episodes just to sort of see that power hierarchy play out as far as essentially the latter but it is so good and yeah I love that it does end on that mic drop moment where you're like okay we know where this this story is ultimately going to end up where Sakura is going to become the hero of this town but yeah how does he get there how many hurdles does he have to jump along the way like is this a quick short trip is this a multi-seasonal thing that could take potentially decades for him to become the hero like does he become the hero at school or is maybe the hero in his 30s who the hell knows like I've got so many questions but they gave us just enough breadcrumbs at the end of this episode to go man I want to know more I love this world already I love that there's some realness to these characters some relatability to these characters I like that yes they do have each of the archetypes available with some of the the members of you got it but you got it yeah like people gravitate to certain certain archetypes and tropes so they want that character that they can root for or hate but secretly love at the same time yeah because if they don't have it I'd be like where's the funny guy where's the funny guy and unless it's like really really well written like something like Attack on Titan then I'm like oh it feels a bit empty but yeah they they really found a good balance of stuff in this episode like it was it was very good I am looking forward to more yeah I'm just thinking back to it I'm like I don't know if they could have done any better like they throw a lot at us in 20 odd minutes yeah they they do but in a way where it's it's easy to digest I don't really feel overwhelmed with information outside of names you know like I'm pretty like that with most anime it takes me a little a little bit bad yeah um it takes me a little bit to kind of get used to who's who but outside of that like it was very digestible you know like so many shows I love Attack on Titan but season four the first few episodes overwhelming with the amount of information they just vomit onto you yeah so yeah I really respect what how they delivered all the all the necessary bits and pieces there was just enough to keep you interested just enough to let you know who the characters are some motivations know that there's something deeper that we'll explore later um and then introduce a few more characters like everything was was kind of really well crafted and I'm all for it I agree like um like the term like popcorn movie I don't know if there's a term like popcorn anime but that's what it felt like this where you could just sit along you eat your popcorn you're going to be entertained you're going to enjoy what they throw out on the screen you're going to camp for some of the characters will it win in Oscar probably not but you're not going to walk away from watching going shit I'm wasting my time like you walk away from me going oh that was fun I enjoyed what happened to you that's what it feels like to me 100 like so even though I love my shonen anime one of my other favorite types of anime is sports anime love love sports anime blue lock um Kuroko no basket obviously a high cue that I'm watching now they do a really good job of introducing characters um getting you attached to not just the main character but all the other characters that aren't they're not side characters they're just as much of an integral part of the story as the main character but like emotional investment like that's that's what I want I want I want to feel the emotions that they're feeling I want to like get to the end and when the main character like tears up because something happens I want to feel that too you know I like yeah I just that to me shows a high quality of writing because I find a good story isn't just about what happens it's it's about the characters and how they deal with everything that's happening how they interact with each other and the emotions that they portray to the the viewer the reader or whatever so um I can I can feel myself getting invested but I'm not invested yet okay okay emotionally I mean that's it it's yeah it's it's hard to have those heartstrings completely pulled in a pilot episode that runs 20 minutes but they do a good job to get you interested get you curious get you caring about the characters that's my big thing I'm like I want to care about these leads whether they're the protagonists the antagonist like I want to understand their motives as to why they are who they are today and where they want to be and I think this first episode does a really good job of that and those closing lines from touchy barner about uh yeah how he becomes the hero of the town I'm like yep I need to know how he becomes that who is he at the end of this story and you know who are the bodies that he has to fight his way through to get there like got so many questions I want to see this power hierarchy plow and I want to see a whole host of crazy larger-than-life caricatures villains that he's going to fight on his way through there because you can see with some of the character models like Sakura he's got a very unique look and vibe to him yep compared to most shown in protags which I'm all about yeah it's good and like we not every show has thousands of episodes like one piece to get you emotionally invested so I really respect it when they when they can do that and I know you've watched a little bit more than I have obviously I've only watched first episode but um do you feel that now where you're up to are you like a bit more invested I'm more invested like it is um I watch a lot of anime and I'll watch a lot of anime from front to back like my stupid brain won't let me put a lot of anime down even if it is crap and I'm not enjoying it a lot of the time if I see it's only 12 episodes I'll push through to the end to see if it gets better and it redeems itself but Windbreaker as far as new anime that's come out in 2024 so far it's definitely my top 10 oh okay all right all right okay I'm solid I'm solid see I'm I'm quite the opposite like like I said before my time is quite limited so if I'm not if I'm not invested by like sometimes even the second episode if I don't feel it first second episode I'm just like now and then only if I hear good things about it or maybe I see something or TikTok or something um then I'll be like oh maybe I should revisit it like for example Black Clover I pushed through with Black Clover because I heard everybody talking about it Benny loves it so I was like okay I think I really need to give it a chance so I did um I did it in manga form because I'm much easier on my time but I'm not at that point with with this show I'm not I'm at that point where I'm like okay first episode was good I would watch more that's that's a pretty big deal for me so well that's good that's good that means it's it's it's a thumbs up recommendation right now you're not out on it will you hopefully find some time in the coming weeks to to dig further into the world of Windbreaker in all caps for emphasis yeah all the episodes are titled that way too yeah we are breaker like Windbreaker for dramatic emphasis um I would like to the plan was I was thinking of watching more by the time we did the podcast but then the new episode of Kaiju dropped new my hero dropped and then um my mrs was like I started hills paradise and I'm like oh well you should check out solo leveling and I was like oh watch the first few episodes with you so distractions are plenty good distractions though like all four of those IP you mentioned I adore yeah pretty good you're a you're a family of impeccable taste yeah that's right um question about the the manga of Windbreaker is it ongoing it is ongoing yeah okay yeah so I haven't read a lick of the manga so far but um it apparently like it reviews well it's won a lot of a lot of awards over the years it came like the manga only started in 2021 funnily enough the manga started like two months before NPCs ended because your last episode of NPCs was like March of 2021 and oh Jesus in January of 2021 so it's been cranking for three years you've got 17 tonkabong volumes available at the moment but yeah it's still ongoing oh wow okay cool cool I might have to toss it out we'll see we'll see oh yeah I do like reading manga but I am more of an anime first because then I can like if I've watched it I can translate voices and sound effects and stuff to the manga I think that's why I like it that's my adjustment too man like I've I've started to really dive into manga this year and what are you reading um everything everything like like I did yeah like um from the mind my side like solo leveling reading Chainsaw me like reading all the big heavy hitters chainsaw man JJK I don't rate chainsaw man hey that latest chapter holy guacamole I hear the manga is amazing I haven't read it I've only watched the season the anime but I'm like not super into it hey it didn't hit the same I think the hard part especially for chainsaw and JJK for me is they are works of art on the screen like the animation from mappa for both of those million chef's kisses I feel like JJK is questionable at times but I don't know if you've read any of the manga like the animation in the manga for both of those is nowhere near something like you think of like a one punch man or a berserk or something where it is perfection on a panel where you see JJK and Chainsaw man and there's just so much like black and white noise and aggressive line work everywhere but then you see it in anime formula man this is gorgeous but I agree like some of the what would you say like the the more reserved minimalistic scenes that you see in JJK as far as the lack of detailing yeah yeah yeah that is ripped straight from the manga because it is very simplistic at times and very busy oh okay okay I can appreciate that I guess but yeah I don't know chainsaw man I watched it I wasn't super into it but I was like everybody's talking about it so I like kind of this is the one that's the one occasion where I'm like I'll persist I feel like chainsaw man is written by like a 12 year old virgin in their basement like good lord and man they're like avoiding spoilers but the chapter that dropped last week that I read it feels very much like that too like I'm not going to explain the story but I think it's the first time I've actually seen Karma Seaman drawn in a manga panel in my entire life so there's like that in them like whoa okay this is going somewhere and like you said it feels like a little horny teenager in a you know mum's basements writing this because some of the things that get talked about I'm like cringy but I guess it is a typical horny young boy and that's what Denji is so yeah I mean like brand I don't mind like I don't mind stuff like sexualized stuff happening I mean early Dragon Ball is quite like that um not excessively and things like berserk have like some really dark adult themes so I don't mind that stuff but it just it's got to fit the world for me like I don't mind a bit it actually sprinkled in there but it's got to fit the world and the characters in the story like if you just showing some titties or an awkward situation just for the sake of it it's like I know why you're doing this but when it adds to the story and the world and the character and the progression or the tone like you said like berserk is dark heavy mature written content so it makes sense why there's sex scenes and nudity and stuff where if you just throw it in for a cheap pop like I don't need to do that like I'll chuckle sometimes but sometimes I'm like yeah and like like I said I watch a lot of this stuff with my my partner and she can get quite uncomfortable with some of these themes which I completely understand and when you watch something like like it's we can deal with it in Dragon Ball because you're just like at first she was like hmm and now she's just like okay all right everybody's a bit pervy even Bulmer's a little bit pervy when a cute guy comes on on the screen but then you watch we watch Chainsaw Man and she was quite uncomfortable a lot of the time and I think going back to Windbreaker I think that's why this is part of the digestibility right like there's no part of that show that I was bored with there was no part of that first episode that made me feel uncomfortable or made me feel like I had to be you know when you watch something over sexualized like Japanese typical Japanese stuff when you watch it with with your partner and you're just like oh no this you have to like feel like you have to explain it like this is just them it's not like you know you feel you have to justify it's awkward like my my partner like she's she's European knows nothing about anime so I'm watching anime I've got statues of characters from anime and manga and she's like why do you have statues of these like busty girls in school uniforms or whatever and it's like no it's not like that trust me there's a great story being told yeah I promise behind the titties yeah whatever whatever you guys are so crazy yes so I always appreciate it when a show can introduce mainly female characters in that regard like yeah I'm a big fan of strong female characters I always hop and back to the what is it the family guy thing with Cleveland is like you're saying you don't find power sexy it's true though it's true I mean like powerful women love it love it like erza from fair fairytale Mikasa I was about to name drop Mikasa because I know you're a big AOT fan it yes like powerful women are fantastic they don't all need to be helpless sex objects just to move a plot forward for the sake of it like and that's why I think in this first episode especially like Tuchy Barnard is probably my favorite character introduced in this first episode yes she's a tough strong woman she's who don't need no man yeah she don't need no man she was ready to fight those five punks at the start of the episode like she wasn't there going oh help me sir except one please like she's she's tough and she's smart and she's well spoken and she cares and yeah she she's definitely my favorite character in episode one yeah and I think he just goes to show that storytelling not just in anime but in general has kind of come a long way like like you said the whole damsel in distress kind of thing is so old fashioned and it doesn't need to be done even though Sakura was there protecting her and saved her twice in that episode she was never really quote-unquote helpless you know I mean we don't know maybe she's got some hidden talents we don't know about she would have smoked them we don't know but she never showed weakness and as I respect that from a storytelling perspective but as as a father and how I feel like since having a daughter my view in the world is a bit different because obviously I you see things and you see like how you want your kids to grow up and be influenced and I'm just glad that we have like strong women that can like shape the younger generation for the better right and it's not just about like every woman has to be strong like context context matters right and context really and narratively she seems like at the moment the best character yeah no she certainly she certainly wins the MVP for episode one for me do you have a favorite scene or moment in this episode that stood out of blood rest so I just like fights fights are pretty cool I like it when they punch and they kick so I probably the fighting was probably the highlight for me but I wouldn't say quite much because I think the rest of it was so well delivered but yeah no no I think the fight scenes I'm pretty big on like the quality of animation in fight scenes like we're at a point now where sometimes studios drop the ball and we've seen so many absolute bangers like you look at demon slayer my hero attack on titan like the even I don't even like chainsaw man that much but the animation was fantastic right so it's on part of like Hollywood blockbusters these days or sometimes a sense above the Hollywood blockbuster level as far as some of these big fights and big choreographed set pieces like it just blows my mind how pretty and amazing fights are these days in yeah and there's such just such a good flow right and like I said before I like that it's a grounded way of doing it and yeah no I just it was it was really good really good like the fight was the highlight but I think it was quite closely followed by my brain keeps saying tachi kawa but the girl and um but also the intrigue with the main character like I see potential and I'm like okay all right all right I love that I love that but listeners viewers if you're still on the fence about windbreaker but you're a fan of anime such as blue exorcist Tokyo revenge is bongo straight dogs or butcher giri they are the foremost commonly if you're going to like that you're going to love this comps on my anime list so yeah if you've checked any of those four and you went that's a good time jump on over to windbreaker and give it a look and in my opinion windbreaker is better than at least two of the anime that I just referenced on that list of four oh I want to know which ones uh butcher giri which first episode started with a lot of promise but sort of tape it off pretty quickly for me gorgeous animation but the story just could not give two hoots about see that's what I was worried about with this I was like I hope it doesn't fall down that I've seen it happen so many times and I'm I was worried it was going to do that yeah the storytelling remains consistent and it depends like I appreciate turkey oh and bongo but I'm not high high on them like it's again like popcorn anime where I'm like okay I get it I don't know have you watched any of Tokyo revenge's no it's on my list it's on my list yeah but something they do with that with that um anime or that IP is a bit unique in contrast to the other four I mentioned and I'm not going to say anything because it is a pretty big spoiler but that adds a nice wrinkle but that wrinkle gets a little boring for me after time so after time is that usually referencing I'm not referencing any particular I don't know what you're talking about but let's jump into the last word presented by our friends over Japan create experience Japan through snacks and knickknacks by monthly package drops courtesy of Japan create calm and while you there be sure to use code 8 bit 15 at checkout to get yourself 15 percent off your order and free shipping to anywhere on planet earth Andrew what is your last word your last words your last thoughts on windbreaker in all caps um solid seven out of 10 voted potential very well rounded well put together first episode and I am very excited to see where it's going I like that I think that's a very positive outlook to have on windbreaker so listeners viewers give it a peek and let us know what you think I would have dropped it otherwise I'd be like that say that third time for this okay because yeah you are a busy man we've confirmed that throughout this episode you get a lot going on so I appreciate you finding some time to not only record today but also find some future time to keep peaking windbreaker because it's fine it's a good time it's well worth the cost of admission yes sweet sounds good but dude thank you so much for dusting off the microphone after over three years to jump back on here with me and riff anime it's been a goddamn great time and hopefully the bargain has been you enough to jump back in and do something like this regularly I don't have the time but it'd be great to do let me tell you I think about it all the time I I more than once I've messaged Alex and been like how can we revive the podcast you know I just don't know if I have the time right now I would love to I would love to I do enjoy you know gas bag and about all the good stuff like all gaming and anime I feel like I don't get to talk about anime a lot there's like a few people in my life that I talked to about but like even Alex doesn't watch that much anime in comparison he's read all of solar leveling and he hasn't watched it that's crazy yeah no I um I would love to do something like this more it's just it's it's hard it's hard it's a hard knocks life you know life is life is busy and life can be difficult in a lot of positive ways don't get me wrong but um yeah just trying to find the time to manage everything and do it at a standard and a level that you're happy at with as well at the end of the day is the difficult part like we can half-ass things in life sometimes but I'm all about full-ass you don't want to half-ass always that's right that's the best way to be exactly exactly but yeah dude thank you so much for stopping on by you can find Andrew at a clay PT on them socials you can find me at more than senpai if you want to check out the holistic experience of more than hentai you can do so over it more than hentai.life that is a safe URL to search you don't have to worry about anything suspect popping up on the work network or on the browser so more than hentai.life completely safe completely child friendly and you can get his hands on some fantastic merchandise over there and you can join the segue squad for the little price of one dollar per month to get you exclusive access to perks content and giveaways you cannot find anywhere else but be sure to rate view subscribe this podcast in all its great audio forms but if you're watching us on tiktok or youtube be sure to hit that like and drop some comments on there as well because those likes and comments help the algorithm keeps us relevant keeps us tracking and keeps those emotional lights on in podcast content creator hearts like myself so please do that but dude thanks again for stopping on by it has been an absolute blast have a great riff and with me so hopefully we can do it again very soon pending your very busy schedule yeah i mean if there's anything else you want to you want me to suss out and you don't have a guest hit me up and i can let you know what i've got going on and i'll do my best i'll do my best it's like because you messaged me before you're like it's too close is this time still good or maybe we could do xyz day and i'm like no today's the only day this is it this is all i got that's it i'll just see where you do have these little finite pockets of time that you can slot stuff in it will make things happen i'm sure yeah yeah no sounds good sum you up awesome well listeners whether your anime be subbed dubbed or still yet to come enjoy yourself stay hungry and much love to all the gorgeous wife who's out there on behalf of andrew and myself goodbye so you
