Trash Taste Podcast - Don't Watch Anime to Learn Japanese | Trash Taste #6

Episode Date: July 10, 2020

Today we discuss our learning methods for Japanese, anime that changed our life, and Connor's anime-like story of how he became a pro chess player! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to Trash Taste. I'm your host, Connor, and I'm tired as far. Great intro. We all just did a very strong coffee, but I'm again with Joey. Hi. And gone. No nicknames today. I just didn't think to do that.

I'm keeping it simple today, are we? I mean, that's who we are, right? I'm very tired. Every day before we do an episode, I wake up at 7 a.m. to go to a Japanese class for two hours. How was like going for you? It's going. It's going forward.

Sometimes you're too tired to learn things. And I remember being like this university, I would be like asleep basically. Yeah. But then they make you talk. So I kind of. Yeah, like how's it going for you? Cause like me and Connor have gone very different routes

in terms of our how we've approached learning Japanese. Because you've taken classes and I'm like completely like self-taught because I've realized in university how classes really like slowed me down in terms of my learning process. Yeah. Just the biggest problem I've encountered is self-discipline.

That's exactly why I wanted lessons. Because the way I see it, right, lessons are like, okay, if I'm keeping up with these lessons, these are like the bare minimum that someone at any mental capacity can learn Japanese, right? So if I'm learning it at this structured course that anyone can do, right, I should learn X amount of Japanese minimum.

Because we know that everyone who's like homeschooled doesn't actually like do anything. And also I'm like, I'm a liar, dude. I lie to myself a lot. Like when I say I'm gonna learn Japanese, I will do everything in my power to like, think that I'm learning Japanese, but not do it. Like during the quarantine,

because at this point in the episode, it's pretty much done in Japan, it's pretty much open, but like, during the quarantine, because, you know, Connor, you couldn't go to Japanese lessons, right? You had to do, like, Zoom lessons. I hated Zoom. And you were telling me that, like, most of the time, you were just playing Ark Night.

It was just like, yes, I am listening teachers. It's like, oh, new unit. Problem was, right, is that I was in a, my class is mainly like housewives and like people who are much older than me. Yeah, right, right. So a lot of them weren't tech savvy. So they were all spending 10 minutes saying,

hello, hello, can you hear me? Hello, meanwhile, I'm like already set up. I've got my whole YouTuber's setup, right? I've got two monitors, three mobile phones, you know what I mean? You got the green screen in the back? Yeah, yeah, yeah. The pro streamer set up.

I know what I mean? Right, and like, you know, it's just like, When I'm at my PC, like, I'm doing everything but what I'm supposed to be doing. Right, right? So I got two monitors, right? So I can also put my webcam over the fuck I want. So when they're like, are you looking?

And I'm like, yeah. I'm like doing work on the other monitor. Yeah, yeah. And I know you're like, well, Connor, you're paying for those lessons. Why would you not do it? I don't know. I paid to be in class, you know? Yeah, exactly. That's like university in a nutshell, though.

I mean, you're paying to be here. You're paying to learn. Right. Oh, why do I have to go to class though? Yeah. I can have to, I could just study from home. Like, I hate going to the class and having to do that and be back in that environment,

because you know, I wanted to get out of that. But at the same time, I am learning stuff. Like, it is slow, and I do a lot of study in my own time, mainly kanji, because they don't teach it's kanji. Yeah. They don't teach you kanji? It's practical Japanese, so it's all supposed to be for like speaking and getting by.

To reiterate, when I say classes, I think most people will assume, like, every day. I do classes two times a week for two hours. That's it. So not a lot of time to learn a language really, right? So it's better than nothing, I guess. Oh yeah, it's much better than doing nothing, right? Exactly.

Because for me, like, I've tried to focus less on the reading and just pure conversational for me. Yeah. And actually one thing that's really helped with that is not watching anime actually, but watching, yeah, but watching virtual YouTubers. So I've like, I've like really gotten into watching virtual YouTubers for the past few months, yeah.

Who are you in? to. Um, Asa Coco is probably my favorite one at the time of right now. She just had her 3D debut. I'm sounding like a total, fucking deterrent. Is that the one you like simped over in Superchat? Yeah, we, I saw that all over Twitter was got, God was simping.

I just didn't work. I was very drunk at the time. And I saw she was like, she was having like her first 3D debut and I'm like, I'll just fucking throw it, throw like 30 bucks, whatever. And then like as soon as I did, like my Twitter notification just like fucking exploded. Gigaki simping over this to be a YouTuber. Imagine getting caught simping, but over a virtual YouTube.

No, because like, it's actually really helped my Japanese way more than watching anime. Because with watching anime, like, I don't know what the anime watching experience has been for you, Connor, since you've started learning. But for me, I found it a lot more difficult to watch anime now that I'm learning Japanese, because you know when you like read the subtitles?

Yeah. And then you kind of understand what's going on. So you wanna like try to listen in to what's being said, but because you do that, you kind of just miss what's on the subtitles. That's like been my anime watching experience recently. And well, I imagine Joey's just on his throne here being like, yes, tell me more about your struggles.

What are these subtitles you speak of? Okay, one thing that I noticed that bugs me is that now that I know like, I'd say like a very basic amount, right, very minimal. Like not enough to watch an episode and be like, yep, I understood all of that, but enough to like get some sentence is that when I read the subtitles,

and obviously because in Japanese, sometimes the subject at the end of the sentence in English, it's normally at the start Japanese. So sometimes you'll see a subtitle that comes with the other half of the sentence, so you're hearing the sentence that's gonna come up. And it's like, you're like, Johnston Joe Star, and it's just like, I know you can see.

Your next line is gonna be. Yeah, because it kind of messes with you. And then also like, just watching any hentai. It's really frustrating because I'm more like, I realize like two minutes in, I'm starting to be like, okay, what are they saying? Oh, yam at all. Stop.

Kimochi means it feels good, okay, I understand. I guess though it makes sense to like watch V-tubers, though, to like learn Japanese because like, you know, these are real people who are like speaking, right? They just look like anime, but like their mannerisms and they're phrasing, even though, you know, they might be playing like a character, right? Yeah, it's still like a real pose.

a real person. Cause it feels like they're having an actual conversation. Cause you know, like, watching, watching an anime and you hear a conversation, you're like, no, I've never actually, this isn't a real conversation. This isn't a real conversation that's happening right now. Yeah, yeah.

And I'm like zoning most of it out, whereas when I'm watching a YouTuber, it feels like a genuine, like a Japanese conversation. Like you're actually hearing a story the way like any, any person you talk to Japan would talk like. Yeah, yeah. So it's been like way more useful for me

in learning Japanese than it has been watching anime. Also because I guess like with V-tubers, again, they're like real people, right? So like the speed that they talk at as well is very real. And it's like not like overly accentuated. So it actually makes more sense to like get used

to that kind of speech speed than like, eh, so na no, no one talks like that, right? No, because you know like it's like the anime voice acting voice. You know what I mean? Which is not how real people talk like. And this is true when like, I'd say dub as well, you know.

You hear like a dub voice actor or like a dub performance and you're like, this isn't how real people talk. This isn't how many people talk. It's very anime, you know, so. So it's like, it's more like watching a live streamer. So it's been like, I'm not gonna say that's, I'm not gonna say that's the only reason

I've been into V-Tubers, but it's actually, if you're trying to learn Japanese, I'd say V-Tubing is much more useful than learning. It's educational, I swear. They're watching anime. Because watching anime now for me has become a lot harder. And you get the joy of finding that one V-Gube, you can simp, right?

You're like, oh yeah, that's my one. It is a little bit annoying to watch anime sometimes. But then also now, sometimes I can look away just for a second, and I can still understand what they said, roughly. Because I'll know like three of the five words that they say, and off that I can kind of piece together what was being said. Isn't that such a like a gratifying moment though? It really is.

And I was gonna say as well, like one thing, that I found really helpful than I thought I would dread is like learning kanji. I think learning kanji is so interesting. I know you love your kanji. Yeah, yeah. But learning has been so fun, because when it slowly starts to make sense,

it feels like an RPG where you're unlocking the world where you live. Right, yeah, yeah, yeah. Because I can slowly start to read stuff, and then there's like multiple different, like, ways to read a kanji, and then when you like know both, it's like, yeah, I'm kind of. You're like that one Issaquai pro tag

who just like comes in and it's like, what does this say? I don't know, and then like 12 episodes in, it's like, yeah, I get it. Yeah, it's been really helpful for like just learning, like speaking it in general, because a lot of the words have the same pronunciation. And then obviously Kanji is the way to differentiate.

Yeah, Kanji like holds the meaning, right? Yeah, yeah. And sometimes reading a whole sentence in Hiragano is like a fucking nightmare. It is a nightmare. It's weirdly enough, like, if for people who'd like have no idea about Japanese, it might be hard to like think about, but a full on like Hiragana or Katakana sentence

is so difficult to read sometimes. Whereas Kanji's just like, oh yeah, I know exactly what that means, I know exactly how to read it. It's the way I see it is that in English, is that how we don't need to read the word, we know the shape of the word. You know what I mean?

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I know the shape of the word, I can read it, right? And I think that's how kanji is the Japanese people where they don't necessarily read it, but they recognize the shape, yeah. And then they just know what's being said in the sentence. Because have you seen that video where you can read like an entire paragraph

where if it's, if it's the word is the first letter is the same, the last letter is the same, and you swap all the letters in the middle, you can still read what's going on. just because of how your fluency works. Yeah. And I feel like it would be the same with Kanji as well. I think so, yeah.

Yeah. It is the same, but instead of the first and last letters, it's like, does this have one line in it or two? Like, you just have to like, it's that, but just squinting really hard. Yeah. Yeah, there are somewhere there's so many lines where I'm like, how the fact people just like read it this fast? I mean, the more difficulties when you start to write it, right?

True, true, yeah. That's when it starts to get difficult. Yeah, because I have like an app and then it like vibrates my phone if you do the wrong stroke order. stroke order. It's like, no, it's like nuts on how you do it. I mean, it's been good though, because whenever I write a kanji out in my class

in like the right stroke order, the teacher's like, like in the TV shows. Like, what the fuck? Because like you never really think about something like stroke order, you know what I mean? Which stroke order is basically the order you write it in. Yeah, because like I write my S's the wrong way

in English and people freaking. I've seen you write your S and it's like. Tell people how you write your S's. You're supposed to do it from top to bottom, right? Yeah, most people do like, yeah, I do it from the bottom up and then like swish down with the cursive. I don't know why. I'm like, how did you learn that?

I was like, dude, I was so bad at English in school. So to clarify, right, like, okay, I'll just start the story with this, we'll start strong, right? Okay. I was so bad at English that they like put me with the kids who, you know, were not good at, anything, you know? Like, yeah.

Yeah. With, I was in like the English class for one year with like kids with learning disabilities. Yeah, right. And I remember being like, dude, what the fuck? Cause okay, like I've always been like really good at most subjects in school. And okay, to clarify the reason why my English was so bad

is because the only reading and writing I ever did was in Welsh. Because my school was Welsh. So they, or everything I spoke in school and read was in Welsh. But I obviously knew how to spell English, Speak English, obviously. And then, yeah, I remember we did like an English spelling test.

And I got like everything wrong. Bear in mind, I was like eight. And I couldn't, I remember they said like, oh, can you spell the word said for us? And I was like, yeah, sure. And I just put like, like, SED. SED. I put like, yeah, or like ZED. And then my parents are like, oh no.

And bear in mind, like I never read anything in English. Reading it all. It was just always video games. So, so yeah. And I forgot what was like, why did this story come up? I forgot why I was saying this. Because you write your S is weird. Yeah, so I think I learned how to write,

because in English as well, in school, they teach you the stroke order. Do they? I can't remember this. I mean, I learned it when we had to, I don't know if this is only in Australia, but like, I think I was in like fourth grade or something. Yeah, because you have those papers

which are half width and full width. Yeah, yeah, yeah, and then you have to, I learned how to do it when we learned to write cursive. Yeah, because we, I wrote in cursive and it kind of became a thing where for some reason, I just started writing some of them weirdly, and no one ever stopped me. And so I just, I've always done like,

I'll go into like the A and then I'll go down and then do the S up and then slash down. How do you write your like the number five? Do you go from the bottom or do you go from the top? It depends, I guess, like whatever the situation. What do you mean it depends? Yeah, I don't know, like sometimes. How does that work?

There's only one way to do it. Most of the time I would do it from the top, but I remember distinctively, I was doing it from the bottom for a while and then I stopped that. But I also used to write my fours, like the correct way of doing, How do you learn to write fours in Australia?

I do it this way. I do it that way. That's the way I learned, but then I remember I was playing brain training and they wouldn't accept that way of writing force. This is when I was like 11. So then I started having to write fours in the Americanized way, which is doing that way.

Like that? That's the Americanized way? Well, it's, well, I think so, yeah, where you do like, it looks like a kind of like spiky nine, right? I don't think I've write any letters starting from the bottom. No. I'm like always, I'm like, always like, You do your fours.

Like this. Oh yeah, I do it for the opposite way, I think. Yeah, yeah. So you do it from the bottom. Yeah, from the bottom and then I go across. How the fuck do you do that? I don't know, man. Yeah, just feels so weird.

So in school, did you have to learn English literature and language? What's the difference? Like the, because they were two different subjects for us in school. Oh no, we just had English. Oh shit, because see I had to learn English literature, English language, Welsh literature, and Welsh language.

I fucking hated doing that many. Oh, okay, because I think for us, like maybe it's just my school, but like, It depended on the day of the week. So like on like, it was like on Mondays, we go through like a literature for like the term that we have to study and then on like Wednesdays

we like got to like do something else like watch a movie or like study a different text for like a certain thing or like how to read an essay and write an essay on Fridays and shit like that. So yeah, we didn't. I think it's because though just my school was just very small as well so they probably wasn't enough English teachers

in our school to be like, you're the literature one and you're the comprehension one, you know. Yeah. How does it feel like learning a new language as you're older now though compared to when you were a kid? Because like I remember we had to learn a lot of other languages when we were in school.

We had to learn like Spanish, French. Didn't take any of that shit in. No, no. But it's been like a really different challenge learning Japanese as like a grown adult, I would say. Because I don't know, has the fact that you were very much into Japanese culture and watching anime helped you at all from your perspective?

Yeah, definitely. I think it's made it easier. but like easier with an asterisk, right? It's like easier to understand some concepts culturally that might explain some of the language, right? Which is great, but at the end of the day, it doesn't help me like in a crazy amount. Yeah. I think it just helps me understand

why certain things are in other way they are in a language. You know, why is it like, you know, why you can't be direct to someone? Why to us su-massen or unchot-dot, you know, like it's never, you know, and I guess because sometimes when you're learning the language, you're like, why can't I just be like direct? Yeah, that's not a thing.

You can't do that. That's too aggressive. Yeah, I think learning Japanese for me, I didn't realize how much I kind of just zoned out Japanese when I watched anime before. Oh yeah, you do, you filter it out because you're like, that's nonsense to me. I'm focusing on this.

You're just like absorbing the subtitles and you kind of just mute out the Japanese and I didn't realize that until I started learning when I actually picked out individual, like how the sentence works and how the language actually works, that I realized, oh, oh, this didn't help me a lot at all.

But I find it really hard in my head to recommend learning language to people because I feel like if you're not gonna like actually do it, it's kind of a waste of time. Oh no, it takes commitment. Yeah, that's what I've always said to people though about Japanese. And it's one of those things where like learning Japanese,

especially if you're not, if you're not going to do it full time, it's like at least a five year thing that you have to commit to. And if you quit two and a half years in, you know. But that's the problem, right? that like so many people, I get fucking emails about it all the goddamn time. Being like, what's the easiest way to learn Japanese?

There is no easy way to learn Japanese. You just have to sit down and just be like, am I about to commit five to 10 years of my life to learn this shit? Yes, go for it. It's like any like skill chart, right? Where it's like the first like real, getting over the first real difficult, like bum is the hardest.

And once you get past that, you've gone through a challenge you've overcome it. Normally you can keep going. Let's the same with any craft, right? Like voice acting as well, like photography, anything, right? YouTube. YouTube, right?

There's always gonna be that first point where you think you're starting to understand it. And then you get to that point where you're like, fuck, I know nothing about what I'm getting into it. And it's that point where if you keep going and actually like start to really put in the work, you'll probably see some results,

but a lot of people quit at that point. Because like I'm always really paranoid and this is true in my life and whenever I'm like doing a playthrough of a game right, when I'm doing something and it's just sub-optimized. And sometimes like sometimes I like paralyze myself because I'm just like, what if I'm not doing

this most optimal way? Is this a wasted time? I'm so scared of wasting my time. So when I first started learning Japanese, I spent more time trying to figure out the best way to learn Japanese than actually learning Japanese. It's gonna be like that.

Yeah, I guess you're the opposite to me in that sense. Like I do video games, I'm definitely like that. I'll maximize the shit out of video games. But everything else in my life, I'm like, that's good enough. I'm kind of the opposite with video games. I'm just like video games. Yeah, you are, yeah.

Video games are just made to be like fun and time wasting. Because I'll talk to Jerry about a video games that we're both playing and I'll be like, you know this is like 2% more efficient to do this like this method, right? And Jerry's like, I don't give a fuck. And I've already put CSTL in this game. Like I don't care.

Like that's how if you're learning a language though, I'm like as long as I'm learning something in the language that I can view is somewhat useful, I'm sure it's not a waste, right? Like there's, I feel like there's no route to learning a language. Like any bit you learn of it is like, it's putting the jigsaw together.

And it depends on the person right? At the end of the day. Yeah, because that's the thing. Like everyone has a different path, everyone learns differently, and you're not gonna discover the best way you learn unless you actually just go out and fail at something. Like I didn't know, I didn't fucking know

I would waste like a month on Duolingo. I wasted a lot of time on Juulingo. I did. Don't use, like other languages, European languages, I'm pretty sure it's pretty good, but I took Japanese, it was not very useful. Yeah, yeah, it was very- Throwing kanji at you right from the get-go,

like, and not explaining why you need to learn it or why this is. That sounds efficient. It was like teaching me the kanji for window. Like, like, one of the first things. Yeah, it was hard and like seat, kanji for seat and I thought like, why are you teaching me this shit?

Like I don't even know the kanji for Monday. Like why would you teach me window? I don't need to know this. Like I don't even think Windows in like the top 100 most used kanji. So why are you teaching? Yeah, yeah, it's pretty uncommon to say. Yeah, like I feel that the way

it went dueling or went about it, we're never gonna get a dueling response ship by the way. Yeah, it was yeah, not good. And if we do it, you can call us out on that. Yeah. It's like, Jewlinglo is a way, it like tricks you into thinking you're learning. No, no.

You know a lot of like, disparate, like, pieces of information that you can never piece together as a whole to use anywhere, basically. Yeah, and it's a shame because I feel like you don't really realize that you're being marked off by duolingo until like, you actually start learning it properly and then you're like, I literally have no use

for anything I learn on duelingro, because it was such a mess. I remember distinctively, I didn't even know how to say any sentences, but they were teaching me how to read the kanji of Kyoto and Tokyo. And I'm like, that's cool, but like, I don't need to know this.

Like, I genuinely don't. If you go to Tokyo and Kyoto, it's written in fucking English. Yeah, yeah, it's like, this is something that I don't need to know. What I would like to know is how do I say like, oh, I recommend this, you know? I think it's, I think, you know? Like, I didn't know how to say,

I think, or anything like that, right? It's like, dueling, I don't need to know if this is a pan, okay? I know this is. I know what an apple is. I don't have to ask what an apple is. But there was some good stuff there. I'm not saying it's all bad,

but I just felt like the structure was all over the place. Yeah, because I remember when we first moved, before we moved to Japan, we were on, me and Connor, we were on Geolingo for like a good month, month and a half, before moving to Japan. And then we got here and we were like, oh, oh, we don't know shit. So we need to start off by learning Hirogana and Katakana. And I remember we just like, I sat down

and I googled like what the best memorization techniques were. And then I found this memorization techniques. Like I can't remember what. it's called. We'll link it in the description. It's like, nemonics or mnemonics. I can't remember the exact pronunciation of it. And then I learned all of Hiragana and Katakana in like one day. And then I told Connor,

yo, this shit works. And I was like, nah, no, I don't know about this. And then I linked him the same article and he comes back to me like three, four hours later and like, bruh. I can read. It was crazy. It was like I said earlier, like when you go outside

and like you've unlocked the world, because you can start suddenly reading McDonald's menus with no... Is that the one where it's, is the pneumonics thing where it's like you... It's like shape-based? Yeah, yeah, so it would make you assign, like, and to be fair, this is how like memory champions,

memorize stuff. They assign stories and shapes and objects to the memory, and that way they can recall them much easier. So it would say like, Koo, which is the one that's like that. They're like, it's a chef's hat. Think of a chef's hat when you see this symbol. But like, Koo King.

Like a chef's hat. I mean, it's kind of like a bent one. Oh, okay. It was like, yeah. It was like, yeah. It was like a sign, because then you remember, that's kind of dumb that it's time you do that,

but then you remember when you see it, oh, it's that dumb thing. Yeah, yeah, yeah, you remember the dumb shit. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I mean, it's really stupid, but it made you remember it. Because it's like counter, counterintuitive, right? Because by remembering more stuff, you remember one stuff better,

as opposed to just repeating the same thing over and over. Right, right. But the best way I've heard an explanation for it is that it's kind of like a, your memory's kind of like a filing cabinet, right? Yeah. So if you just have one random piece of, information that you just randomly file,

it's very hard to just find that random piece of information, but you have, if that information is got a bunch of other information that relates that, then it's much easier for you to like find it in your memory. So that's why you can just recall things a lot easier. Yeah, it's, I definitely feel like that. Like, I find that learning symbols for me is like way easier than learning like anything else.

Like that's why like Kanji's been pretty fun so far. Yeah, you're definitely like a person who like, remember stuff like visually, right? Yeah, yeah, when I'm like, like if you give me like a set of numbers, I can normally remember the numbers like decently well. Like so learning Kandi's great because like I love just putting like a hundred symbols

in a like a program and just making it test me over and over and I'll do that for like hours until I can remember all 100 right. Yeah, yeah. And that's what I find that really easy. Well that's the, at the end of the day that's what is probably the most effective right? It's just fucking wrote learning.

You literally just need to like force that shit in your head by just like doing it, doing it, doing it. And at least the good thing about doing that here in Japan is that if you then force yourself to learn all those symbols, is that you just walk outside and you're like, oh. Yeah, you can use it like practically, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Like, just somewhere I'm like, I'm never gonna fucking, like, why don't need to know this kanji? And then like two seconds later, I'm on the train and that the place has one of the kanjis in their name. And I'm like, bro. I get it. Yeah.

Which is like question for you, Joey, which is, I have always been curious, like how much studying have you done? Because a lot of people assume that Joey's Japanese is like a second language, right? And it's completely wrong. Joey has a second first language. Yeah, pretty much.

Like, a lot of people don't know this, but Joey's Japanese is better than most Japanese people. Yeah. Like, it's- I had no idea how good your Japanese was. I just kind of thought that you were like decent at it. Yeah, yeah. But then I came here and then you were teaching Kanji to like 40 year old people.

And then they were like, what the fuck? I was like, it was in this studio. We were like having a party and like, we had like three people from our company. All Japanese. And I was like teaching them about like different Kanji structures and shit that were like, I'd never heard of this shit before.

And I'm like, have you never heard of it before? It's so simple. Yeah. I did a lot, like, a lot, a lot. Like when I say, I've said it in videos, but like when I've said like, I've studied my entire life, like I'm not joking, I've studied my entire life. Just to put it in perspective, when I was like,

like maybe 10 years old, you know what I used to do for fun? What? I used to read the kanji dictionary. I would literally, seriously, I was that one kid, like my parents probably thought I was like borderline autistic because I would like sit in my room as a 10 year old and I'm like, I got nothing better to do and I would just go to my mom's bookshelf

just take out this massive like 2,000 page contradiction and just open up to a random page and just read it for like hours on end and like I don't know, maybe, I don't know how much that actually helped me in the long run but definitely it kind of got me like to like, familiarize myself with different shapes. And in that sense, I'm definitely a lot like Connor where I'm very good at learning things visually.

Yeah, yeah, I need visuals. Learning sentences and stuff doesn't do anything for me. But like another huge thing for me was probably the fact that like my mom had like this like, kind of this unspoken rule where if I spoke to her in English, I would usually get ignored. And that says really cruel, especially when like a four year old

just trying to like talk to their mom about something. And like, but I quickly picked up on it because like I was like four or five years old and I'd like, be like, hey mom, can I do, you know, blah blah. She's just straight up ignore me. I'm like, all right, she's in a pissed off mood. But then the more times you experience it, I'm like, oh, I have to ask her in Japanese.

And because the moment I asked her in Japanese, she's like, yes, son. That's a genius way to make your kids. Yeah, my mom was exactly the same actually. And I'm like, thank, I'm like now, she's like, you're gonna appreciate with this when you're rolling up. Thank you, you're getting this now, Mom.

I appreciate it now that's an older again. Mom, I also appreciate it. Thank you. Because like, if she didn't do that, then I wouldn't have just like, I wouldn't have forced myself to learn Thai or to use Thai in a practical setting, which is very hard when you're not living

in the country that you're using. Exactly, you know, like everybody around me spoke English, right? Because I was living in Australia. And like, I had a few, like, childhood friends who spoke Japanese, but because all of my childhood friends were also halfies like me,

sometimes we just spoke in English to one another. So like I needed a way, I guess my mom was like, all right, I need to find like a consistent way for my son to keep speaking the language, just keep improving. And like it really helped as well because my mom was like exceedingly good at Japanese and like kanji and stuff like that especially.

So like whenever I had like a question or like I learned a new word, I always went to my mom and I try to force myself to use that new word in a sentence. And she would be, she would either say like, oh, that's not how you use that word. This is how you use it. Dumb little shit.

and you tell you how to use this word. Like she could immediately know when I was trying to like, where it was like, oh yeah, you just liked that word, didn't you? Because she'd be like, okay, that's not quite how you use it, this is how you use it, and then I'd use it again.

And she'd be like, okay, perfect. And that's just how I learned from practicality, right? Do you know one big reason I really wanna learn Japanese? Why? It's one specific series I want to experience after having learned Japanese. Yeah. And that's the Monogatari series.

Oh, yeah. I really, really wanna experience the Monogatari series after learning Japanese. Because like, I love the Monagotari series now. But I feel like I'm getting like maybe half the enjoyment I could be guessing and like all the appreciation I could be getting. There's this video I've been trying to write for the longest time called You'll Never Understand Nishio Ishin.

Where because as you said, the Monogatari series and everything Nishu Isian writes is fucking phenomenal. Wait, he's an amazing author. A lot of it translates pretty well into English, right? But the thing that makes Nishuasion so amazing is the subtleties and the way that he plays around with the Japanese language.

and that shit is fucking impossible to translate. Yeah, yeah. And I wanted to make that video because I fucking love Nishuition and the Monogatari series, like more than anybody. Yeah. But it's like, how do I explain to my English-speaking audience about how you'll never understand it

if you're an English speaker? No, that is so hard to do it. You need to have like a basic understanding of kanji, right? Yeah, understand how- Just kanji, it's, it's everything. He does wordplay in a way that I've never seen any Japanese author do. And I think that's the whole reason

why so many people love him, It's because like, it's like, wow, I didn't know that you could, like he makes Japanese people's Japanese look dumb. That's the only way to describe it. But a Japanese person will read that and be like, wow, it's like, I don't know this language. Because like, have you ever seen the Monagetari series? Yeah, yeah.

I was learning kanji the day and I came across the monogatari country. Oh yeah, yeah. Because like for, is it like Hanase or Gorg? Which kanji is it, the one where you, it's like to speak or to tell a tale is like a- Oh, gore, yeah. Gort is like one of the meanings is to tell a tale. It's to tell a tale, right?

And so it's like a- And Monogatari just means like thing tale. Yeah, yeah, thing-tale. That's essentially what I mean. And I was like, I saw it and I was like, oh, that's pretty cool. Yeah. Because like that's the thing, right,

with the Monogatari series is that even the titles are a play on words. Right, right. Because Bakemono and Monogatari is two different words. Right, yeah. And he just fucking mashes those two words together to just turn it into one thing.

Oh, okay. And like that's, that's like the brilliant subtlety of Nishiel I don't want to say the whole thing because I want to save him for a video, but- Okay. So I was gonna ask, how is it reading the light novel compared to watching the anime? Because that's something I've always been curious about

how well the anime has been able to translate his writing into a visual format. I think with like, that's the one thing I love about Shaft, right? Is that they do hold this like really weird appreciation for initiation for Nishuu's writing and that's why, like, you know, Aradagi's like monologues are way longer than any anime monologue should be. Like, there are so much, that's why it's so dialogue.

Yeah, what the fuck? Like, can we just end? Like, yeah. Like, a standard Monogatari episode is like 95% dialogue. Yeah. But it needs to be because everything that Nishuotian writes is so important

to the story because it is really convoluted and it does add a lot of character. And like, and you know, like, if you've seen Monogatari episodes, you know how like every now and then there were just like these flashing images of text? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, that's all text, ripped, straight out of the novels.

Yeah, I was really confused that would happen. Yeah. I was confused a lot during every series of the monogatari. Yeah, yeah, it is confusing. I'm very surprised how big monogatari got. Same. It like, I remember when I first watched it, and I'm like, this breaks basically every rule

of like filmmaking convention that I know. It was like, oh, do, you know, show, don't tell. And Montagatari's like, how about we tell everything? And show basically nothing. And you're just gonna enjoy this 20 minute long dialogue. And you're gonna fucking, and it turns out amazing. And I'm like, why does this work? I have never seen something work so eloquently

as the Monagatari series. And what surprised me is that it just became like for the Otaku culture back then, it kind of became like a cultural phenomenon. It did, especially in Japan because it was just unlike anything. And I mean, you know, Katanagatari in a sense as well. I was gonna say like, if I was a betting man,

I would have put money on Katanagata being way bigger than. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And it's kind of weird that in the West, it was like the, other way around. And like people still don't really watch, I think Katana Gattrii because of,

maybe it's like, I don't know where you can watch it of that illegally. Yeah, yeah. I have no idea how you. You have to buy like a $400 Blu-ray, I think. Such a shame because it's an absolute bang of it. It is fucking great. It's got nothing to do with the Moronogatari series

just so you know. It's a good thing, honestly. But like recently, um, there was an OVA adaptation of the first novel that Nishua, she never wrote. I forgot what it was, it was Kubikiki cycle. That's what it's called. There was like a four episode OVA of it that came out.

And I was like, okay, it's Nishio Ishin. It's essentially the series that inspired the Monogatari series. So I'm like, this has to be big. Like, you know, of course, every Monogatari fan's gonna watch it. No one fucking watched that OVA. And I was really sad because it is screaming monogatari vibes.

It's weird because I liked the Monagat 3 series. I've watched, I don't know which part I got up to. I watched a lot of it. I mean, it's like, it's like, There's so fucking many, bro. And I'm like a monkey when I watch anime. I'm like, I don't wanna have to like think about like order and shit and like what I'm doing.

Just put something on, right? And sometimes it's like, I don't know what happened between the series sometimes. And because it's so confusing, there was so many times where I would start a season of one of that franchise, I don't know which fucking one. And I was like, am I on the right one or am I just confused because it's this series?

Like I wouldn't know. That is like easily the most like, that is the number of, I get past probably the most. What's the order? What order should I watch the monomeric episode? It's not even that, it's not even that complicated. Okay, but even though if you're watching it

in the right order, it's such a confusing show that normally you can get halfway into the first episode of like season two, right? Yeah. You're like, is this season two? I really like don't know what's going on. Like, but then I guess I didn't have any idea it was going on the whole time.

So I... That's the thing, right, is that the Monomotary series, like one season is already confusing enough as it is, like in an enclosed story. Yeah. And when you look at it on the grand scale of things, it's even more confusing because basically, initiation pulled a Quentin Tarantino Pulp Fiction

where like everything is out of order, but it's in the same universe, right? Yeah, man. I mean, I don't think it matters that much, honestly, as long as you just get like the, just fucking Google with the release order. Yeah, you gotta really go wrong. It's stressful though, man.

It's, I've somehow fucked it up many times. Like when I watch the Spoke Rohan Kishman, OVA's, for some reason, he, Iraqi, when he wrote them, gave them episode numbers in the thing. So when you're watching the OVAs, they don't do them in order and, but Iraqi never did them in order anyway,

if I remember correctly. So you'll turn on episode one, they'll be like, episode six and I'm like, what do you mean? Iraqi, please stop. And then you're like, space bar, right, fucking Google, right? Which episode is episode one? And then they see, yeah, episode one is

episode six, episode two is episode nine, episode three is like episode four, and then you're like, why? Why would you do this? He pulled like a George Lucas Star Wars, right? It's like, episode four is the first one. You have to understand. But it's not even that,

because at least it goes episode one, like four, five, six, then it's one, two, it's not even that. It's just like four, nine, two, seven. And it's like, why? No, it's like the, not just Harry, Susamea. Like, did you watch Harry Seizumia when it was airing?

Yeah. So Harahy Susamea had like, this broadcast order and it was it was for absolutely no reason. It was just broadcasted in this random order right and people were like I remember when it was when it was airing people were like oh this is like a genius move because it's kind of like you're piecing together the puzzle each episode and now that it's like all aired now like I'm pretty fucking sure that they aired out the order because the fucking last episode chronologically was just the most anticlimactic episode of the

entire series so they're like oh the best episode is episode six. Mix it up, mix it up. Just mix up order. And people are gonna call their genius movie. It wasn't genius, Tanikawa Nogura was just on crack. Wait, wait, was this the original Japanese broadcast? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah, yeah. So they had, because Tanikar Noggi was on crack. Wow. I didn't know that. I see I only watched it years after, and I think we mentioned this before, but I watched the movie first by accident. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

What a dumb mistake. Yeah, this guy can, I think you mentioned it in episode zero, so most people haven't seen it. This person watched the disappearance of Harahy's, Susamia first, which is like, how do you do that? I was still less confused watching that movie than I was watching most of the Montagatria series.

No, so if you don't know, they made a movie, right, of like the thing that like tied the whole Harri Susameha. It was, yeah, the disappearance of Susamea Houda Houda, which is the fourth novel. Like, novel. I don't fucking know, right? All I was is like, I was an,

I just got into anime, I wanted to watch the best rated anime movie, you know, No one told me. And it still is the best movie too. No one told me that I needed backstory, you know, and I went into it, and I watched it all, and I was like, wow, you know? What did you think?

Did you think it was a good movie? I thought it was shit, because I didn't know what the fuck is. How can you, how can I think it's a good movie when I don't know anything? I remember being really annoyed with the, like, Connor, I bet Connor just watch this right after school days. And just like, 10 out 10, 10 out 10? What the fuck is going on?

What, am I gonna, am I, these anime watch us? Oh, crack. I think the school days was what, like, you know, broke the camels back. Yeah, it was definitely the Hara-Hia Susamea movie watching thing that definitely like made me think like reviews are suss.

So have you gone back to like watch the movie since then? No, no, I haven't. You haven't. But you've seen the TV series now, right? I watched the first season of the TV series. They got like two episodes into the second TV series where they were repeating everything.

Yeah, M.Sate, yeah. And I'm just like, no. Okay. I'm not doing this. I would say that, Harahy still is very much worth watching in this day and age because of disappearance. Disappearance is still, It's probably my favorite anime franchise film of all time.

I agree. And up there is one of my favorite anime films of all time. And this guy apparently fucking hates it, so. I think the whole series is kind of mediocre. I don't know. Really? The first season was just fine, right? I was watching it and I was like, okay,

I know this is a terrible comparison, but I was just like, man, this just feels like Toradora, but like worse. I don't know why. What the fuck are you talking about? There's zero romance in there. I know, how? Because the whole setting reminded me so much

of like Toradora and the way that it was set up. What, that it was set in a school? Yes! Like every anime? I know this is like complete stupid opinion on my part. I recognize this is a garbage opinion, but the whole time I was just like, I guess because it was just, okay,

I was very bored a lot of the time watching how to do you say. The only thing that made me wanna watch it was the fact that Crispin Freeman, voice Kion. No, that's the best part of it. Yeah, he was amazing. And it was a treat watching him.

Yeah, what you said is like saying, oh yeah, Anahana was kind of like another because they have ghosts in it or whatever. You know, that's a fair comparison gone. I mean, I don't know, because like, okay, what show could- And they both start with A-N? Yeah, what show can you compare Harry Susameer to?

If you had to, the closest comparison. Look, here's the thing, like, Harry Susamea inspired a lot of, like. I came after that, that huge way, I became an anime fan after that huge thing had had its impact, right? So I think I came into it with like, zero attachment to it in any sense.

Yeah, because I think the thing with hierarchy that I find really interesting is the fact that it's one of those anime that is like really weirdly tied to the period that it came out in, much like Lucky Star, I feel, because like- I feel that's why I don't give a shit about it either. Right, because like the thing is like, I fucking love both Lucky Star, especially Lucky Star,

I think it was fucking amazing, but like, the problem is that the references in Lucky Star and like the whole fact that it really reflected the autoku culture of the mid 2000s is what made that show really funny in the mid 2000s. But as much as I love Lucky Star, I can't really recommend it to people today.

No, no, because the scene is just completely changed, right? But does that mean you can recommend Harrahisuzumia today? Yes, I can. Really? Yeah, because- I think I ruined it for myself. Yeah, you, you basically just watch the climax. You watch the climax before like watching

any of the buildup. So now you just kind of ruin it for sure. That's why I kinda don't feel bad for being like, yeah, I think it's not that good, because I'm like, I know I ruined it for myself and it might have been good. The only way to like top that experience is if you committed to reading all of the light novel.

I'm, I'll be dead for every of the light novel. I mean, there's nothing. I'm never reading a light novel. I mean, I did that and like the final, final volume of Harrahee was like pretty fucking good. So you just have to sit down and read nine volumes, man. I have no interest in reading a light novel ever. Because I remember like,

a lot of the elements in Harahy have been done in other place in that, because like, there's a lot of, like self-referential humor in Harrahie. And I remember when that was like an innovative thing. Like remember when every fucking light novel wasn't trying to parody every fucking,

every other light novel? And now it's just gotten so fucking lazy with its self-referential humor. Well again, like that's the whole thing where it comes to like the time period. You guys sound like anime boomers. We had it better back then. You should have sold the animas we had.

In 06, when Harrihy and Lucky Star came out, Like as you said, like the whole like self-referential thing and I think the whole meta aspect of anime was just so new. Like I remember when- It was such post-modernism. It was so post-modern at the time. No, because like I remember like at the end

of every Lucky Star episode while the credits were rolling, there was no ending song for Lucky Star. What it was was the scenes of all of the Lucky Star characters in a karaoke booth, but you were outside of the karaoke booth so you could only hear them. But the conversations that they were having in the karaoke booth weren't characters having a conversation with characters.

It was voice actresses having a conversation with voice actresses. And people are like, of course, they're voiced by voice actresses. These aren't just characters on a screen, they're real people. And that meta was like, that was fucking cool because no other anime did that. You're laughing.

He is laughing. You're gonna spend. Sit down, you're gonna sit down and you're gonna respect this culture. You're gonna respect this corner. I just don't care. It was cool back in the day. Back in the day, yeah.

Meta, meta, meta, like, I still think meta anime peaked with Monagatari. Like, in terms of, like, light novel, light novel, like, shows, adaptations, it kind of like peaked with Monagatari. And there's, there's been other good, light novel shows as well that has been meta. But I'd say, you know, Harahee really was the first time

I noticed it, it was Harrihi and Lockheed Star, and then Monagatari was the one that came afterwards, and then it kind of like, Like nothing out did it. And now you see a lot of lazy fucking attempts at meta-humor and meta-jokes. Like there was one anime I saw recently, which was like such an eye-rolling moment,

is the milf Isakai that aired last year. Okay. Everyone's favorite. Yeah. Okay, because it was, you know, everyone thought, and you know, it kind of marketed itself as like a parody of the Isakai genre, right? Because it's like, oh, it's the Isakai genre,

but you know, there's a mom this time, you know, you gotta, it's different. It's different because there's a mom this time. And I remember there was one joke, okay, they were in like, they were in a hot springs, right? And there's this one Sundare, that's in the hot springs. And then she like, she like stands up and she's naked in front of the main character, right?

And then the main character literally says, ah, this is the scene where you're about to hit me, right? And the scene where it goes, ah, but how about if I don't hit you? I bet you weren't expecting that, were you? And the main character goes, Oh, you're right. I wasn't expecting that.

And the Cinderay just goes off crying. And that was the joke. Wow. That was the joke. I remember we have this exact same conversation to Issaquite Taylor's video. You were like fucking like, fuming. I'm like, this is not how you write a meta joke.

You basically explained the meta before you told the meta. First of all, I want all my anime scenes acted out by Gant like that. Yeah. Second of all, I just like, whereas you said, you tend to watch the trash. I could give less of a fuck about the Isakai that's coming out. Yeah, I'm right there with you. It's so like, it's, it just iterates on itself

and then changes one thing. It's like, yeah. It's like, I wouldn't be surprised if there's another slime one, except he's like, a green slime next, right? And it's just like, that's gonna be the next big thing. That's just season two. Yeah, it's just a green and it's just like,

I just struggle to give a fuck about any of the Isakai that come out. Like, I wanted to watch the mum one, just for the memes. Yeah. I couldn't even muster up to like type it in. But the thing is, it wasn't even that good for the memes. Like, it was, it was, you saw the title,

you're like, ha ha, I can make a meme out of this, and then I did. And then I watched two episodes, I'm like, now I'm done. Because I wanna watch these shows so I can talk about them. But then I realized like, now maybe, I don't even know, that six months after that show's aired, that that meme is long dead.

And no one's gonna mention, not even. It's like by the time the next season comes around, at three months time, no one's fucking thought it. And then maybe it'll be like a factoid one day. Like, you watch some mummies account? Yeah, okay. You know what I mean? Like you don't need to watch it.

Right, right. Because for me watching trash Isakai or just trash anime in general, because apparently that's my brand or whatever. It's just, the reason I do it is because it's just like, it's just the easy turn your brain off show of the season, right? You know, you know, like, I have to be in a certain mood to watch something like Monagatari.

You know what I mean? Like, I can't just be like, casually sit down, having like my lunch or something and like, I'm gonna like... Monagatari is like the antithesis of, I'm just gonna put some, something on. Yeah, yeah, exactly. You don't put monotauri on. Whereas, whereas with the trash Issa guy, like, I just sit down for lunch and I just put it on, you know, and I just don't have to think. I watch it every week. And then I just end, and those are the shows I end up

watching because they're like, they're like the easiest watch. Because I know what I'm getting into. I'm not being challenged. You know, I'm just like, okay, this character is going to do that, whatever. How much of a brain dead show can we make this season? Oh, go, go on, go on. No, no, which is why I can watch them because they are brain dead. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I don't have to think. You know, you know, I, sometimes where you watch like a good show, right? And sometimes you just really wanna be in that right mood to watch something- Oh no, yeah, definitely,

or something good. But with some, with the trash shows, I never have to be in a certain mood to watch it, you know what I mean? Which is why I've found, I've found that I've watched more trash shows because like, like sometimes, I don't know, I get anxiety sometimes when if I know, I know, if it's a good show,

if it's a good show, but I'm not in the mood, do you know what I mean? Yeah. I totally had this, right? What was the show, Keep Your Hands Off? Is okay. Right, right. Like, that was one of those shows where I'm like,

I can't just not like, I can't just like watch this. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You have to commit to it. It seemed like such a passionate thing where I was like, I can't just half-ass this. So I watched one episode and I liked what I saw. Yeah. But because of that, I just never watched episode two because I had to be in that mood to watch it

and I never was. Yeah. It's the, those are like, really hard to like stop and then get back into. Yeah. And it sucks because I know, that was a good show. I know it was, but I just,

I didn't care enough to like find that time to be like, I wanna keep watching this. And I feel bad because like, everyone was like, this is the best show of the season. Yeah, I'm just sitting there like, watching like the 100th documentary on Netflix, you know, like, because. I have no time.

I don't know, it's, I've had that problem a lot more with anime recently. I feel, you though. I think this, this is the reason, this is the fucking reason I still haven't watched Fuller Archimist, okay? Yeah. Because you know it's good.

I know it's good and I'm like, because here's the thing, I can go years without watching or reading a manga of a series that I know I'm going to love. I, but I want to be in the right mood and it might take years, it might take a fucking decade. Okay, like last year, I finally read 20th Century Boys. And it went from like,

I know I was gonna read this since I basically started getting into manga to, okay, yeah. This is like I thought, one of my favorite manga of all time. And it's fucking incredible. But I had to wait, like, so many years to experience it because I just wanted to be in that perfect zone to read it.

And I'm so glad I did, because there are some shows, do you have some shows that you think, if you rewatch it, you won't enjoy it as much? Oh, yeah, yeah. You're not in the same headspace. Like 90% I think. Yeah, yeah. Because I feel like, that's why I can't,

I can never get behind watching anime weekly. Because to me, I can't, I can't. I can't. I can't do it anymore. I'm always in a different headspace sometimes when I'm watching a show. There's some shows that like transcend that. And like they're so hype.

Such as. Attack on Titan. Watching that weekly was like hype as fuck. Every single week, no matter what, that one day it came out. I was hyped a shit for that show. Cause I binge that whole series. Right, but like it was such a good episode by episode

that like even though it sucked, it sucked after wait a week. It was like so good because that one day in the week, you got like a treat. And it didn't matter how bad your mood was or where your headspace was that for 25 minutes you can shut your brain off and just have a fucking time.

It was great. Man, I used to be able to do that so easily when I was in high school and uni, but like. And as well, joining in like the discourse online, you know, like talking about it. I feel like that's a different side that I never got growing up with anime, which is the social aspects.

Because for me, it was just, I watch a show and I'm like, that was an amazing show and I have no one to talk to about. Yeah, same, same. The social aspect has quickly become one of my favorite parts of like watching anime. And it's why like I caught up to Demon Slayer on episode 19, right?

Like, because I wanted to get involved at the social discourse, because the memes are great, I love memes. No, the memes is great. And like, it's, it's made it so if a show has like a bad ending or something, I still enjoy it because- It's just the shit storm that follows.

I love that shit. I remember when Darling and the Franks ended and then there was this shift at like episode 18 or 20, I can't remember the exact episode. And then everyone lost their shit. And like, it's not a good, but I had a blast watching it. I just realized something.

I remember that, you know, when Big Ed was a thing, I know, bear with me, this is gonna make sense. Big Ed from Nighting Day Fiancee was the thing, right? Like it was, you know, great memes, fantastic. I wanna start watching Nighting Day Fiance because of that. And I was like, it's just like not the same. I was watching it and I was like,

oh, it's because I need the YouTube comments for every clip. Because it's like one thing to have a clip is, it's funny, but when there's like, just the perfect YouTube thread, roasting the shit out of it, it's so full. It's so funny. And also when someone's an asshole on a TV show,

you wanna be like, everyone else thinks this guy's an asshole, right? Let me go and check the comments. Yeah, yeah. Because do you get this now where you watch some YouTube videos or clips some shows or YouTube video where they do something in the clip? And that's the moment where you open up the comments. You're like, I hope everyone's talking about this.

And that's what I love about watching anime weekly is that you get that kind of like, everyone's gonna be talking about that thing that just happened on Twitter. Like, it's gonna be fun. I love turning in on that. But then like you said, oh, go on, go on. Do you ever get personally offended,

when you go on a YouTube video and then the comments are disabled. Like even if it's something you never wanted to comment on or you never like, if it's just, most of it is like anime trailers or anime opening sometimes. I see the comments are disabled. I'm like, I don't know why, but I feel offended.

I'm just like, you fucking pussy. Yeah, I turn like American for like five seconds. I'm like, free speech is dead. Where's my second amendment? Like going back to what you said earlier with the, if you rewatch the show and not in the right head space, I just, for some reason I was like,

I'm pretty sure if I've rewatched darker than black, I wouldn't think it's that good of a show. But I remember really liking that show. And I'm happy to leave that memory. There's a lot of shows like that. Like, a lot of shows like that of that time, like, ergo proxy for me is one of those. Yeah, I've rewatched or proxy, I don't think I'd like it.

I don't think I'd like it as much. But when I watched it, I was in that like perfect, like, angsty, like, big brain boy mo. Yeah, yeah. There's a lot of shows that I'm just leaving in that bubble. Yeah, yeah. I'm happy to talk about these shows, but I never want to rewatch that.

Yeah, because like for me, the one big show for me is Kada No Kiyokai. Yeah. I watched it when I was like in a really dark headspace. I watched this one with the blood sword. No, that's beyond the boundary. That's a different one. Oh, okay, I thought we're talking about beyond the boundary.

He said beyond the boundary. Yeah, yeah, it's Kaka no kāāāākā is beyond the boundary. Oh yeah, that's it. Yeah, that's it. I was like, what the fuck's the Japanese title of that? Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's the one with the pink-haired, in the glasses with the last.

It's about, it's one with the assassin who has like the death eyes or whatever. But yeah, I was in a really dark headspace when I watched that and- I've become- No, but like it's, it like, it was one of those series that I don't wanna be that guy. Oh God.

But it was like kind of life-changing for me. Like, because- Okay, now we need to know. Please explain. How are that- Please elaborate? No, because like I was like, I don't wanna get in too much in the detail, but I was like in a headspace

that I was like, kind of like, the lowest I've ever been in my life. And then I watched this series and it connected me, connected with me on a level that nothing else could at the time. And it kind of like really changed

my perception of the world and everything like that. And because of it, it's like one of my favorite anime of all time. But because I'm not in the same headspace that I am now that I was back then, I'm so fucking terrified of rewatching it.

Because if I rewatch it and I just don't get that same connection that I'm like, I don't want to lose that. I don't, I don't want to lose what that series gave to me at that time of my life. And that's like the one series

that I really hold like really close to me. And another series is actually Evangelion. Because Evangelion, I think is one show that it's just infinitely rewatchable, right? Because every time that I've watched Evangelion, I've got a different experience out of it. I 100% agree with that. I watched it first time when it came out on Netflix.

It's the first time I've been watching it. Oh, really? Did you find it? It was good. I mean, I think because it was the mega hype show that it was, I think you go in expecting too much. Yeah. I mean, I was happy with what I got.

It was just very confusing. That's under Hideaki for you. But it was great. And I liked how he built the world is a very, very terrifying one. And I feel like it's a lot of anime struggle to do that. Yeah. And like a truly terrifying world.

Do you have like that one anime that, as Garn said, is like life changing for you? Yeah, yeah. I mean, we spoke about it last episode, which fucked up the recording, by the way, but Boca Rano is definitely one of those shows that like, I think definitely changed. Yeah, yeah.

Because again, I think it was a similar thing where I was at a point where I think I was really confused with what I wanted in my life. Yeah. And it really helped, like, ground me a lot and really understand a lot of emotions that I was perhaps feeling. Can we re-talk about Boca Rano?

Because I want the audience to know about Bokanano. Yeah. Not enough people have seen Boccarano, unfortunately. It's one of those shows where, It's not the best show, but it's a very important one that I think people should watch. Yeah.

And I don't know how to describe that. It's very, disturbing, but not for like the conventional reason for it being disturbed. Yeah. So what Boca Rano is about is, there's these group of kids.

This is gonna sound awesome, by the way. Yeah. Yeah, because it sounds like an Evangelion rip of right? It really does. Because there's these group of kids and then they're like the, I think they're on their school trip or something.

It's been a while since I've seen them. They're on a school trip. Yeah. And then they find this, All I remember is they find his cave with a talking head or something like that. No, so there's a guy in a cave and he's like a middle-aged man

working on like a PC in a cave. It's really weird setup. Yeah. And he basically asked them, do you wanna play a game? Would you like to play a game? Which, you know, anyone asking you that ever with a bunch of kids, an immediate, no, no, no.

And then I think they all get on a scale or something, they all take turns, he measures them, and then, you know, whatever happens. And then suddenly they go outside or it happens later on that evening. Because they're all, we get to know these characters a little bit, There's like, how many kids is there? 12. 13.

There's like that, around that many kids. And then they get teleported into this huge mech and there's a scary floating head that's like talking to them. And one of the children has to pilot the mech and now we're gonna go into spoilers a little bit. But it's episode one. So I'm gonna spoil the premise a little bit to you.

But so one of the kids pilots the meck and they're fighting another mek and it's to save the world that they're told to this floating head character. Very intimidating character. So they win the battle. Hooray, they all win. and they all celebrate and they go outside,

they stand on the meck, and then one of the kids just drops dead and falls off the meck. Then they find out that each time this mech comes back and they're summoned, one of the kids has to pilot the meck and when they do,

they're going to die immediately after. Yeah. But it's to save the world. Yeah. And what the real beauty of this show isn't really the mech battles or the mec fights. It's more of the fact that

these kids who have to pilot the me to save the world, it's basically kind of like a monster of the weak kind of show. where every week a new monster comes along and the new kid, another kid from that group has to pilot the mech. But it's about the backstory

of each of the kids and just having to deal with the fact that they're gonna die. They're just gonna die. And in like really realistic ways as well. Like these characters are very believable. It makes me like uncomfortable, even like thinking back to like the emotions it brought out in me.

You know, like I get like very like, you know what I mean? Like it's a really, really, really brutally honest look into like the human condition and life and especially how it's, you know, a lot of these kids from a lot of different backgrounds. Some of them have it easier. I remember there's a one kid who's the stereotypical piece of shit.

Yeah, his dad's spoiled, right? Yeah, right. But there's some of the kids, you know, who I think there's one kid who's like 16 or whatever and he's looking after two, his two siblings. Yeah. And it's brutal because he's the one who's raising these two, his two sisters, I think.

Yeah. And it's horrible seeing him have to like come to terms with that he's not gonna be to look after his sister. It's really brutal. It's something that just disturbs you on like a level that you can't really describe. It's so raw, it's so realistic. Yeah, yeah.

No filters whatsoever. And like it's something that really was like, not many people have watched. It's something I was really gloss-coy- It's uncomfortable. It's really uncomfortable to have to like sit down and sit through. I admit I definitely like did not watch it

when it was first came out. Like I definitely gave it some time. It's definitely not like, yo, you watched the last episode like. High, but like, Because I think the problem with Borkorana and the reason why so many people didn't watch it it when it came out is because the way that they marketed it

was not that good, not that accurate. A lot of people are like, oh, it's a mech, must just be an Evangelion rip-off. There's no world where it's like the number one anime because it's just too uncomfortable. Yeah. Yeah. But it also came out in the time period because I think it was like the early to mid-2000s

where there was just so many Evangelion rip-offs. And like they're of like varying quality as well. There's another show that I fucking love as well, which is Rassafon. And that's, that's just an Evangelian ripoff. I've no idea what that is. It's, it's an Evangelian rip off, but it's still really good. It's really, it's really good.

It's like, it totally rips off, but it goes about it in a totally different way from Evangelion. And Boca Rano also sits in this category of just shows that people have really looked over because premise alone sounds like an Evangelian ripoff. It does, it does. But the way, the way they go about it, it's just absolutely harrowing,

just seeing these stories of these kids who have to come to terms, of the own mortality, because it's a fucking tragedy. You know what I mean? It's different from Evangillion. Evangillion to me is just, Ano's raw cry for help. You know what I mean?

That's like, you can't watch, like everyone's analyzed last two episodes of Evangeline on and I, I think it's going back to that meme about the blue curtain. I'm fucking sure that Anno had no fucking clue what he was doing. Everyone's like, oh, okay, the way that these lines move and the way that it's like very sketchy is like really reflective on

Jinji's like mental state. Meanwhile, Arna's just like, we didn't have much of a budget. Just wanna put that out there. Because, because like, but that's why I love that Evangelium because everyone comes out of Evangelion with something different

because his message was so raw and he put so much of himself into the series that it's impossible not to like come out with it. Feeling something, right? I like with Evangelion especially that, I don't know if it's just, unknown is just like trolling like crazy, but there were moments where like,

the Evangelion fan base and like the super hardcore analysts of Evangelion are like just so committed to this idea of like everything in Evangelion, every piece of imagery. Everything has to have a meaning that I remember when UNO finally came out in an interview about like the meaning behind Evangelion and he just straight up said there is no meaning.

It's just the show I wanted to make. And people like, but what about like the fact that every time the angels die it turns into a cross and he's like, I just thought that looked cool. And all the analysts were like, no, no. No, he's lying. There has to be a meaning behind.

And I'm like, if the creator says there's no meaning, there's no meaning, bro. What's Occam's Razor where the simplest solution is the best solution? Is normally the actual solution? Yeah, yeah, yeah. And it's like, even Gellin definitely made me uncomfortable and feel bad for a lot of the characters.

Yeah. Like, Boca Rano just, like, went way deeper. I'd say, like, Evangelion isn't, from like a story structure perspective. It's not, it's not even remotely similar. remotely similar. Bokerano, like, I feel like has more of a structure around its plots where Evangernan just kind of ended

on this, you know, as I said, raw cry for help from Anno. Yeah, but Boca Rano was definitely, here's a group of kids dealing with something that's very, very uncomfortable, and you're gonna feel fucking awful watching this show. And like, it's not even the worst part that like kids are gonna die.

It's like sometimes it's, their fucking backstories are fucking horrific. Yeah. And I'm not gonna say it, because I don't wanna spoil it, it's a really good one, but there was one episode in particular. And it, like, after I finished it, it was one of the things where I had to, like,

just sit there for like five minutes and be like, fuck, fuck. Like, I'm, I don't know if you can remember all the episodes. There's one of two plots that like, one of the stories where I was just like, oh, Jesus Christ, it was right at the end as the episode.

And you think that you expected everything, right? Yeah. That's what I love though about these, like human drama shows, is that like, sometimes they may just be, like, the simplest thing of like just a story between two people or one person. But if it's done really fucking well, it can be some of the most powerful

fucking storytelling ever. I think it's more relatable than at most things and it's really uncomfortable to think that you could be in a situation where you've to come to terms of your death. Well, that's why, like, you know, I'll say this till the end of time, but that's the whole reason why my favorite manga artist

of all time is Inyo Asana. I was gonna say, like, the one series, the one manga series that I'm like, that I'm still waiting on to be in the right head space to read is Oyasmi Poon-Pun-Pu-Hs. Yeah, I need to read that as well. Yeah, because like, I've read that, I've re-read that like two or three times,

like all the way through, and every time I'm just like, oh no, like, that's the only way, it's just, oh no. Yeah. Because it's just so, like, and it's not just Poon-Pun as well. Like, Ini-Ossano is just so good at writing these characters that are just so believable. Yeah. And it's really disturbing when you see these characters,

these very believable characters, run into these very believable and horrifying situations and you're just like, if this isn't like based off like a real person's life, then that's just scary in and of itself because this guy can just think of stuff like this. Yeah, yeah. And present it in a way that is just so terrifying.

Like, it's like when people like, man, Dangan Rompah's really like despairful, I'm like, I'm like, please shut the fuck up. Like it's got pink blood for fuck's sake, like, Like, like, real despair is like uncomfortable. Like, Dangan Rompah is not fucking uncomfortable. It pisses me, sorry, I know that I- But it's on my wifu died.

You probably pissed off so many Dangan Rompah fans with that now. When you see these characters, like, they're about to die in Dungan Romp, it's like, who the fuck gives a shit? Yeah, I feel like there are certain levels. Because like everything that, the series that we've talked about is just like, it hits you. I don't want to say it, but like, it hits different.

It's doing different. Okay. To a reason why you should watch this, if you're like me, I'm a person who avoids these kind of shows like the play, because I cry at like anything. I cry at like Deku when he says anything at my hair academic.

Remember Deku screams even like a little bit? I'm like, I'm in tears. I don't know why. It's like a human reaction. I'll cry at anything. So I normally just watch shows that I can turn my brain off to right because I don't wanna have to get into like,

oh fuck sake. I'm really scared now, I really just like, now that you've said that, I really want you to read like an Inuitan. No, I will, no, I know, it's gonna ruin me. And that's why like I stay away from it, but like please watch Bocranor. You will not regret it.

No, no, it's if you're in the right head space for that kind of show, because like, you know when you have like social barriers up and you see something that's, you know, sad or something. It's like, it's like, yeah, you feel sad, you cry, whatever. But there are some shows that you're like, you don't know whether you wanna cry, or you just lie down and just like disappear.

Yeah, yeah, because there's plenty of romance shows that like have really, left me kind of like very sad, but it's a different feeling. Like Golden Week made me very sad a lot of the time. Is that what it's called Golden Week, right? Golden Time. Golden Time. Well, yeah, Golden Time, sorry, I'm an ape.

I like Golden Time a lot, and it made me very sad, you know, very upset a lot of the time, but like it's a, it's not, I don't leave that feeling like, oh man, there's no hope anymore. I felt the same way when I watched Socoroso as well, because like there are some, because like that seems like all like, oh yeah, you know, cute, you know, kids in a room, you know,

just romance stuff. But some of the backstores are some of these characters, I'm just like, fuck man. That's the only way I can describe is just like, fuck man. Like that's just sad dude. But yeah, as you said, it's not like, it's sadness and despair are just two totally different emotions, right? Because it's kind of like those kinds of shows

where, you know, I use the, you know, oh, it changed my life kind of, which is really corny when you say it. Yeah. It's just one of those shows where you finish and you just sit down and you just like stare at a blank war and you're like, oh, whoa. Yeah, it's the big sigh, right?

Yeah, it's the big sigh. It's the big side. You can't even like listen to the ending song because you're like, I can't listen to this show. I need to be in silence right now. Like, I remember being very sad and having a similar feeling watching BoJack Horseman and it taps in the same areas.

I know you're laughing because I did. By the way, last time we recorded this, I said an analogy where, The most amazing in our way. Bocorano, right, to sum it up to you, if you're familiar with BoJack Horseman. Bocerano is, imagine if BoJack Horseman had 12 kids and they were all equally as fucked up

as Bo Jack Horseman. And then, and then they all had to get sacrificed and you slowly got to hear the backstory of these fucked up BoJack Horseman children. It's so fucked up and it's, it's like different because in BoJack, it's his own fault, right? And it's all that and whatever. It's very, you're very sad, okay, whatever.

It hits, it hits differently. It is different, and I hate it. This episode of Trash Tastes is sponsored by ExpressVPN. Wow, we've changed shirts, Sherry. How amazing. I'm here to tell you today about ExpressVPN. Now I'm sure a lot of you are thinking,

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Because I think one other series that I watched that just hit really deep is this for like four episode OVA, based on this novel called No Longer Human, which is like a classic Japanese novel, I think. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That is like probably one of the most harrowing things

that I've watched. Never heard about that. What is it about? It's written by this guy called Dazai Osama, who is considered like one of the three great in traditional Japanese literature. He was like a guy from like, the big three. He was, he was the big three.

So what's the story about in this one? It's been a while since I watched it, but I'm not sure if it's his, is like autobiography or if it's like based on his life story. But it's just based on his life story. Okay, so it's just based on this life story about this guy who just keeps taking Ells, man. Like imagine if you just take,

imagine if you just take ELs your entire life and you're just looking for that one win, but no, you just, you just keep taking ELs your entire life. And I can't- That sounds like the joker. I'm joking, I'm sure. No, but it's this guy just gets more and more depressed as his life goes on because to,

It is based on his life story. So like this character, it's someone who's like clinically depressed. Yeah. And he's so depressed that, you know, he tries taking his life multiple times. Right. With, you know, women that he's been with or just people that he finds. And then he just keeps living, which is actually true. Like the author tried committing suicide several times.

And then he succeeded. Yeah. He actually succeeded. So that's- He drowned himself. Yeah. So that's like the headspace. of the author who wrote this.

And like, it's, it's the story, like, I can't. Wait, so he died? Yeah, yeah, yeah. He finished, after finishing this story. After he finished, this was the last novel he wrote before he drowned himself. Yeah, so it's just fucking, it's the most like.

That's like one long suicide note then, kind of. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because it's just like a raw peek into the headspace of someone. This is our most depressing episode. Yeah. I'm sorry. It's really good though, it's a really good piece

Yeah, because like it's, it's just this, it's just based on his life story and just all the shitty things that happens to him. And then it ends with just, you think that you think he's found like, of this ray of hope, right? You think he's found his ray of hope and then he just gets shit on once again.

Like imagine if someone has stage four leukemia and then you just find out he has AIDS as well. And then he gets kicked on, and then you just kick on it, kick him while it's like, and like, how it, ends is that he's like, he's like so, like, he doesn't even think that, like, if he commit suicide, that's not even the right way to end it. It's called no longer human because he feels like he's so, he's so low that he just doesn't, he's no longer human. Like he, he's no, he no, he no longer

is in this human world. And it is the most harrowing thing. I've, I've, I've used harrowing a lot Because I don't know, I don't know, I mean, it's the only way to describe that. I don't, I don't know. I mean, because you're essentially reading the fall, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, reading the- Pretty much. Damn, that's, that sounds like a lot.

Yeah, yeah. It's brutal is the only way to describe it. I mean, I like those experiences, but they are, like you said earlier, you have to be in the right headspace. Because I feel like, I don't know, if you go into it like already like pretty fucked up, like you're not feeling too great.

It's not gonna do great for your mental health. I think the one problem as well with no longer, human and the reason why probably not a lot of people know about it is that not just because of its subject matter, but just the fact that anime fans today know Dazai Osamu for that one Bungo

Stray Dogs character. That's true, isn't it? Yeah. And people are like, oh, Dazai, yeah, he was my husbando in Bungo Stray Dogs, not knowing that the real Dazai was the most depressed fucking author in like, probably all of Japanese literature. And he wrote some, not just no longer human, but he wrote

some amazing pieces of literature. Just because, again, He based it so much on his real life and the fact that he was just fucking depressed as hell. Yeah. And because like, I feel like you have to be in the head space to write something that powerful, just that rule that just hits and just cuts that deeply.

It's like an Ed Grail and Poe situation. Yeah, yeah, right? You can't write dark poetry like that unless you had a fucked up life growing up. So yeah, I feel spoiled, you know. I don't have anything to worry about. Sorry, sorry to bring a downer of this episode. People have watched less,

But bottom line is that, you know, regardless of the fact that we did like talk about a lot of like depressing pieces of literature and media, like just because it like puts you down at the end of the day, it doesn't mean it's something that people should skip over. I think that it's equally as important to experience those kinds of anime and literature.

I like to do that so that I'm, I'm comfortable with having those emotions prop up sometimes. Right, right. That I can, I feel like I have at least some experience dealing with them. Maybe when it's someone else, it's a lot easier. But if you do get to that point where you are starting to feel like that,

it's like, okay, I can kinda understand where this is coming from. Yeah, yeah. Maybe I know better how to process it. Yeah, like question to you guys, going off this then, but it's a bit less depressing. Has there been any shows or any anime in your history that has like affected you in any way?

Not just like, in the negative aspect, obviously, or just rethinking life, but just like. Black Butler. Fucking, you definitely had to rethink life after that one. I think for me, like, the one, as much as I hate to use the word, change my life, for me was like, and this is gonna sound cliche as fuck,

but Klanad was one of all. Alright. It was. I know, I know. I totally understand where that laughter comes from. I'm sure there was a handful of people who laughed at the same time, right? Because it's so cliche now to say that Klanadad Changed Life.

But when I watch that, like all the way through, it like straight up, After Story fucked me out. That was the first time that I, like, not just in anime, but in any piece of media, that I just fucking broke down crying. Because especially that second half of Clonet After Story, it was just the most brutal payoff

to the longest buildup, right? And just, I don't think I'll be able to, that's, again, like, going back like million topics, that's another show I don't think I'll be able to watch again. Just because, again, I'm not in that headspace. And it's just something, it's not just like the fact that it was just a sad, anime. But I think it's just the fact that again, you've been kind of following these characters

lives all the way through, whereas like most, you know, visual novels or like romance stories would end with the couple getting together. Planad took that one step further and showed you, as the title says, the after story, right? Of like what happens. And I think just seeing that made these characters even more relatable to me. And that was the first time where I was like, you know what? Family, family is cool, man. Like family's fucking. Like before that family was just like a thing. Mr. Christian matter. It was like, it was like, because before like,

you know, the concept of like family was just very much like everybody else where it was like, yeah, of course family's cool. Like, yeah, everyone wants a family. But like, Klanad was that one show that really dug into like just how important family is. And I think that like, I mean, as weird as it is to say, after I watched Klanad,

I became way close to my family. And I think that's like a big aspect. That's pretty wholesome. That's pretty wholesome. And that like really changed my life, I feel. I feel really bad now. Because you're talking about how clan I changed your life. I couldn't fucking finish the first season.

Yeah, I know. I, to be fair, that's the problem. I watched Klanna and after story. And I think the whole time when I was watching Klanlena, I'm like, when's it gonna get good? Yeah, yeah. I am, don't fucking sing that dango song one more time, bitch. I dare you to sing that song one more.

Because like, I remember watching the first eight episodes and I'm just like, man, this is trying really hard. This is probably really hard. fucking boring. Yeah, but that's the problem, right, is that like, the thing with the first season of Clan, I never say to people, hey, you should watch the first season of Clana.

Yeah. Because I know that on the grand scale of things, the first season's fucking boring. But you can't appreciate the second season. That's the problem. You can't jump into after story without having experienced these characters. Yeah.

And it is important because a lot of these characters do make it a very significant impact in after story. But I guess, you know, it's really hard. I guess especially now, like maybe back then you could make someone watch 25 episodes. Yeah, yeah. Bullshit to get a good payoff. But now you can't do that.

No, no, no. I just don't think you can recommend it anymore. Right, because like the story structure and the joke structures that pop in, it's just so overdone now. That like, it just seems like an aged version of everything that you can see today. But back when Klanat first came out,

like 2009, I believe. Yeah, it was about 2007, 2009. I think I watched it after I watched Harry Susan Mia the first season. And I remember thinking like, this is just like shittier. And I remember, like, like the school dynamic was just garbage. And I remember, do you just watch every high school anime

and just like, yeah, it's in high school. It's the same show. It must be good, right? No, I like to compare the high school anime and see what like dynamics they got going on and see what I'm enjoying. Oh, their uniform is different to the line before. It's when there's a model in that school?

Okay. Like going off topic, like I remember the first time I watched Sarah for the end. And I remember it was like a show with a post-apok about like how vampires are taken over the world. And then for like four episodes in, there's just a fucking high school. And I'm like, why is there a high school?

If there's one show that doesn't need a high school dynamic, it's fucking this show. I'm like guilty because like I'm like the only guy I think you read, has read all of that manga so far. Like it's still coming out. Oh, I'm the complete opposite guilty. I never consumed anything about it. Which is so weird because for the longest time,

I don't know if you guys got these messages, So many people were asking me to make a video on several end. It's got a really big female following. Yeah, well, yeah, it does. I don't think there's been a single antituber that's made a video on it. Because they're all dudes.

I mean, not even like the few females we have in the energy community. The first episode of Zara for the end was like, one of like the best first episodes of like, I remember for a while that we had had. It was such a good first episode. Right. And then they're like, it was really good.

World ending, wars. And then, yeah, like said, high school. And then it's like, ah, It gets really good again when they leave high school. Because they quickly abandon that. And I'd like to think that's the artist, the author being like, yeah, this is like, shit, go back.

Yeah, yeah, it got really good. And I'd say where like about two thirds through the manga, because it hasn't finished yet, but about two thirds through the manga where it is right now, it gets amazing. Yeah. And then it goes like, not so good. Yeah, because did the manga deviate from the anime?

Because I remember watching all of the anime. And it was one of those shows where I had a good time, watching it. If I remember correctly, the manga was really, really similar to the show. Right, right. And they build on a lot of the things that I thought were really interesting on the show amazingly in the manga as it goes on. Yeah. But then it became really weird and world ending plot kind of like trigger-e. Right. It's, yeah, I don't really like the main, like the final villain that they have as well. Like, it's just a fine. It's fine. It's one of those I'm like I had a good time watching it.

I'm not gonna rewatch it, I'm probably not gonna remember most of the stuff that happens. Would you recommend people to read it or watch it? Because I haven't done either. If you, I would say watch it and if you like what you've watched, then continue onwards. Okay. You'll probably enjoy it, I think. Up to a certain point and then you'll start

to be like confused and, it's good though, it's good. I like how they did a lot of things, and like, sounds like the most Trump sentence ever. I like how they did things. They're a lot of good things. It means a lot to me. I did things. I like the things I did.

It was like. I totally get it though, because I actually agree with you. Like, it was good. I had a good time. It's like the most six out of ten ever. It's like, it's very decent and I have minimal complaints. There's not much to it and you're just kind of like, I'm happy with what happened and I don't want anymore.

It was before I had like five E-Sikai to watch every season, and this just took the space of that where... This came after, right after the hyper of season one of Attack of Time. Yeah, yeah, it did. And I remember everyone was hype as fuck for this anime. And then it kind of like fell off. Even though I thought the movie, the anime was pretty fucking hype.

Yeah, it just kind of just didn't take off. And I don't know why. That's the thing, right? It's weird as well, because the anime had like an amazing, like, fight scene. It like, like an orchestrated, like, fight, like they were hunting down these vampires. Really cool episode.

And for some reason that wasn't enough hype. It's one of those shows that weirdly, like, I hear so many people talk about it. talk about, but I don't really see anything about. You know what I mean? Yeah, yeah. Because I think people who read it are really, really into it. Yeah, I mean, it's good.

There's a lot of like. I think the problem with it is that I just kind of lacked its own identity when it first aired. Because I remember when it first aired, I think like I made a joke that it was like, oh, it's like a tack on blue exorcists with gay vampires or something or something on the line. It very much is like an amalgamation of a lot of different aspects.

Yeah, yeah. And the main character is kind of annoying. Yeah, yeah, that's true as well. That's never a good sign. It's a, it's a, it's an, it's an, because it's like, I like all of this, but we're getting a lot of this one thing that I'm just kind of wish we'd just be

a little less like potent, you know. Yeah. There's a lot of shows like that though where I've read the manga after it and no one really spoke about it and I was like, I don't really know what I read this. Like a certain black clover? Black Clover. I didn't read Black Clover.

Hey man, man, black clover is good. I'm reping Black Clover, man. I shouldn't have said that now. He's gonna go off like 40 minutes about it. My monkey brains like taking over now. Black lover? Black lover? For some reason, I always end up reading the manga

that no one fucking talks about or gives a shit about. And I don't know why I end up, I think because I don't know anything, I find it more interesting. Because no one talks about it. I'm definitely in that phase right now. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

I just wanna find the weirdest fucking, like, unknown manga and just like, talk about it. Like, okay, like, I know that, I know it's not unknown at all, but I read Terraformers just because, like, no one speaks about it, and I remember liking what I saw of the anime, which is funny,

because the anime adaptation was horrible. Horrible. But I remember enjoying the concept. So I went back and read all of it. And I had a fucking great time. Yeah, Terraformers is awesome. It's amazing. You should definitely read it if you get the chance.

Super gory, terrifying cockroaches. Yeah. Great time. Really good. If you've seen the thumbnail that Connor is made about his cockroach story, that's a terraformer cockroach. Let me give you like a 30 second pitch, right, on Terraformers. So there's an expedition to Mars, and there's these cockroaches that are like absolute giga-chat cockroaches, like the most, like Jimbro cockroaches.

And then they want to bring them back to Earth to a sea. why they're like this. Who made these cockroaches like this? Because there must be some reason. Why are they so chat? And then it turns out that, yo, these guys can fight. And then the humans get injected with bug DNA, insect DNA to become super humans,

but then they still keep getting destroyed by the gigacad cockroaches. And it's just a great war. It's a great time. Lots of politics, lots of game of throwing politics ask things involved. It's fantastic. Lots of deaths.

Yeah, it's great because you would think that a really straightforward plot where it's about action, big cockroach, fight big bug boy. Yeah. And but then it just certainly, but then it really quickly, like, because you, you, for the,

for the, oh, that's such a terrific way to be a bug boy. Oh, you, you big butt boy. Because you'll never feel as excited for learning one bug, like, cause I remember, right, I remember thinking when I was in like high school, the mantis shrimp, coolest bug in the world. Is that a monster shrimp is?

Is that a bug? Yeah, is that the one that, like, punches? It can punch at like the speed of sound. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. And it punches so hard that it can't be contained in aquarium. Oh. I remember that chapter. This thing is like, like, time.

Yeah, yeah. And then when they made like a human formed with a mantis shrimp, I was like, bro, bro, I know what that is. And then, yeah, then he was, he was, he was OP. He was pretty strong. But I would have gone off topic. But because I remember, you read like 80 chapters

of this thing thinking that it's just gonna be like, big man punch bug man. Like, yeah, and like that's fine, because you're down for it. Then it quickly turned into like, but wait, if Earth was trying to take over Mars and get these samples, there would be a lot of up politics involved with which country is gonna want one.

And so it divulged into a lot of that. It's really fucking interesting. The wall building's done really fucking well. It's super fucking good. I really recommend it. Sorry, that turned from a 30 second pitch into a whole discussion, but it's a great manga. And if you like something like Gantz, something like that,

you'll probably feel right at home for you, I think. I think I've read it just after I read Gantz, because I was looking for something very- It's perfect for that kind of, like, I was in like that edgy teenager face. It is literally, edgy, I was literally living in my edgy teenager face like six, months ago. I read Gantz, I read Terraformers, like, yeah.

It was, I don't know why. Sometimes the edgy teenager phase, like, you never grow out of it, you know what I mean? Sometimes I fucking love going back to my edgy teenager phase because I really want to reread Gantz as well. Gantz is fucking great. That's like, that defined what I was into as like, as like a late teen.

Yeah. It's so good, Gantz. It's like aliens, sexy girls, gore? Yeah. Sign me up baby. When he starts just like, okay, there's a scene in Gantz, and like, I guess because you're used to the, normal dynamics in anime.

Rather like, oh, a hot girl turns up and he wants to have sex with her. But then he actually just starts fucking her. Yeah, he just starts fucking her. I'm like, who is this chat? Like I've never seen such a big chat in anime before. What the fuck? I was on the train reading this as well.

There's a terrible manga to read on the train because every time I'd flick the panel it would be naked tits and stuff. And that sex scene in the manga is so long. It's so weird that it's like, not even remotely like a realistic depiction of sex. It's so weak because then suddenly she's obsessed with him after it.

It's so, yeah. But the one thing that's amazing about Gantz and I would like to sell people on is one, the monster drawings and the level of detail. This is why you do not want, you do not want to watch the anime at all. Please do watch it. Because Gantz is like peak mid 2000 Gonzo CG.

Like it's like you think CG today is bad. Watch Gans and you just see how bad CG was back there. There's so many drawings. I just remember the, just remember just the, Absolutely just messed up CG of like, even the opening, where it's just like, let's see how many times we can rotate this camera and just make everybody sick.

Hopefully we have it on screen right now so you can see it. It was good song. The opening was a fucking banger though. Oh, that song was so good. Rip slime, man. Rips line, but like, every time I watched it, I was like, I'm about to throw up.

Like, it's so dizzying. If you enjoyed the good parts of Darling and the Franks, like the mystery and not knowing anything about the world and wondering like, oh my God, how does this all function? Yeah. If you like that aspect of world building, you'll love Gantz.

Yeah, I was really impressed by the world building in Gantz because not to spoil how it ends, but like the actual ending of Gantz itself was like very, very anticlimactic. But the actual answers was like that, that kind of was like that, you know that big brain like meme? That was like, oh my God, like it's fucking great. Like it's one of the few series that I've seen

that has built up this huge mystery and has delivered on it. You know what I mean? And I've delivered on an answer that like, it's satisfying. The actual ending is not great, but the answers for the main mysteries were very satisfied. So it doesn't end amazingly,

but the explanation for all the stuff that was happening is very cool. And I thought it was really interesting. But there's also some stuff in the manga that did not age well. Well, like what? I don't know. Oh, you don't want to say.

Yeah, everyone who's read it will know what I mean. But there's a part where like a character does blackface and suddenly like turns like- Oh my God, I completely forgot. How about that? Oh, oh, so. I've been read in so long, I genuinely don't remember.

Oh my God. I read it like six months ago, and there's like a scene where one of the characters goes to shoot up a thing in public, goes to do a public shooting. That's that, oh my, now, now that, it's like, really, really bad. That's the most yikes.

It is awful. That's the most yikes moments I've ever thought. Please don't cancel Oku Hiroya, please. Because it's like they, it's a normal Japanese guy, And then he wears black face, but then he just is drawn like an actual black guy. Yeah. And it's really, really uncomfortable.

Yeah, yeah. Because you're like, hmm, I don't really know. Yeah. And then that was the moment where I went online to be like, is this, is anyone else realized how fucked up and then immediately everyone was like,

we, you know, it's good, but it's- we kind of turn a blind eye on it. It's the one thing that makes it really hard to recommend because it's a very interesting, and it does a lot of cool things, but then it's really, really fuck, like, that part is like, you kind of wish, I wish that there wasn't there,

because you could recommend it to edge people. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's just too much. I mean, it's just, it's just like an example, something that hasn't aged well, because when I've read that as a kid, I, you know. There's a lot of nuance that is lost in Japanese culture about that kind of stuff.

But it's still even for Japanese standards, is pretty awful. It was, yeah, like when Gantz was like serializing, it was very, like, lopsided in terms of like, is this okay or is this not okay? You know if the Japanese audience is concerned with it being racist, it's like, it's like, hmm, I don't know.

It was like, it's definitely the one giant stain on like Gantz in general. I think so, other than the 3D CG. That's a pretty damn, I mean, that's just the stain. Yeah, that's just like the shit stain on the other way. And they had a live action movie, didn't they? Yeah, yeah, but the live action was not as horrible as a lot of people thought it was going to be.

because I watched the live action. And I was like, you know what? This was, it wasn't amazing. Like, solid five out of 10. Okay. But there was definitely a lot of like questionable CG about it because of course Japanese live action. Obviously.

Right, but the way that they actually like did the whole Gantz thing and the whole feel of it, like the whole like despair of like, oh shit this world, we don't know what the fuck is having. They did that really well in the live action. What do you think is like the best live action anime movie? Because that's hard because it's like, I wanna say, I know, I know which one it is.

I honestly. Which one is for you? Gintama. Oh yeah. I'm not familiar with Gintama. It's a Gintama live action. I was, I've never laughed at that hard watching a live action. And like, not even like, I'm not talking about like Dragon Ball Evolution like ironic laughing.

Like it's genuinely the, it's genuine, it brings out the Gintama spirit so fucking well. And I don't know how the hell they did it because you read a manga like Gintama, watching anime like Gintama and you're like, there's no way this can be live action. No fucking way. Like you can't translate this comedy into live action. But they somehow did it. The mad lads did it. I'm like the casting was perfect, the costumes are perfect.

I'll take your word for it, because I have no idea. Even the action scenes, because the second half of it goes into like the first story arc of Gintana. Yeah, yeah. And concludes it and I'm like, wow, this is actually like really good CG and really good choreography and it's like very believable Gintan movie. Like I would watch that again.

That's how good it is. I was pleasantly surprised with the Jojo Part 4 movie. Really? I didn't like it. It was like fine. I didn't like some of the scenes they did pretty good. I mean that's the thing with live action anime movies, right?

The bar is so low that just, yeah, like is it simply being fine? Or is it just like genuinely? Being passable is like the best compliment you can give an anime live action. I remember watching the Ghost in the Shell live action and I remember how offensively average it was. Yeah.

Like it was like, I couldn't form an opinion on it because I'm just like, it's okay. It's like, the ghost in the show one was really weird because it's like, if you watched it as a ghost in the show live action, it was like a four out of ten. But if you just watched it, it's like, if you just thought like, okay, this is just a standalone, like, sci-fi.

Complex. Yeah. Shut the fuck up, gone. Big brain references. You know, I watched, Alita the Battle Angel was like really good. And you totally forget that to a manga. Did you think it was good?

I thought it was pretty good. I thought it was kind of shit. I think that's one of the best, like, anime or manga movies we've Really? Yeah, I mean, it was, the ending was just whack, man. Yeah, but I mean, everything up until the ending was, for me, Alida was very much like Ghost in the show.

Whereas like, as it- No, I put it higher than Ghost in the show. It was hard than Ghost in the show. Have you read Alida? No, who the fuck is read me? I have. That's why I watched the movie. Joey's read everything, though.

That's why I've watched the movie. Yeah, I bet if I watch the manga, I'd like it. Yeah, very much like Ghost in the show. Watch the manga. Watch the manga. What's, I bet if I read the manga, I'd appreciate, I'd like the manga more. If you've, it's like ghosts in the show, right?

Like people who are fans of ghosts in the show before they watched live action were like, that was a shit adaptation of ghosts in the show. Elite is the exact same. I guess so. It's good as a standalone movie, but as an adaptation of Alita, it was pretty weak. But at least the Hollywood ones are better

than the Japanese adaptation. Yeah, I mean. Did you watch the attack on type of life action? Oh my God. What's with the big Nazis? What's with that? I got invited by Madman in Australia to go to the cinemas on the date,

like the premiering day. Oh no. You can bring a plus one. So I brought my best friend, who's like a huge anime fan and we watched it. And we just kind of sat there as the credits for rolling. And I just looked over and I'm like, how was that?

My friend's like, I know you got me in for free, but I want my money back. That's like you say, he's like, you know what? I kind of have to agree with you there, man. Like, no, because I like, my cousin, who I've been trying to get into anime for like ages, biggest normie you can kind of think of.

And then I was like, breaking back. Like I was like recommending attack on Titan because that's like one of the perfect Yeah, yeah. It's Attack on Titan. And then he fucking ends up watching the Attack on Titan live action.

And he was like, yeah, that wasn't very good. I'm like, why? God tap, why? You were almost there, you were this close. And now like, now whenever I recommend Attack on Titan, I'm like, no, no, no, trust me, the anime is so much better. He's like, ah, but like, is it the same story,

but like, you don't get it. You might not know, but there's this character called Levi. He wasn't in the live action because they couldn't pronounce his name. Yeah, that's the reason why they cut him out, right? Oh, really? The reason why Levi's not in the live action

is because they were like, these are Japanese actors, I don't think they can pronounce the V sound. And I'm like, you do realize this was written by a Japanese person. Yeah, yeah. People like that, the reason why microwaves come with instructions.

They need a hand to hold for everyone. Yeah, yeah, like, oh my God, you watch the fucking movie? Oh my God. How'd you fuck up this bad? How did you fuck this up? Like, man. Man, I kind of just stay away from the movies, though.

I stay away from all anime movies. I think the only one I've enjoyed is Edge of Tomorrow, which I didn't even- That one was really good. Tom Hanks? Oh, Tom Hanks. Oh, Tom Cruise. Fucking, Tom Cruise.

Tom Cruise. Tom Hanks, I ordered that. Yeah, I didn't realize, because I didn't even realize that was based on a manga. Yeah, it's, all you need is kill. Which is like the edgiest title ever. Yeah. All you need is kill. All you need is kill.

It's actually based off a novel that was then, and later adapted into a manga that was written by Obata Takeshi. Oh, illustrated for Death Note. Right, right, right, right. Which was also very good manga. So when I saw, because like, I picked up the novel while it was in Japan, because I was just like, all you need is kill?

Fuck yeah, dude, that sounds awesome. And I read it, and the novel was really good. But then, like, when they were promoting in the bookstore, they were like, Tom Cruise movie coming out soon, I was just like, oh no, oh, don't do this. Please, please, Tom, don't do this. do this. But of course I had to go watch it because I'm like, all right, this is gonna be, this is probably gonna be shit.

Let's go watch it. I was like, alright, you know what? It was good. I'll give you this one, Hollywood. It was good. You did good. You do it. It was one of the few films that I watched it and I was like, oh, I gotta go read the source material now. Yeah, yeah. And it was quite different from the source material. It wasn't exactly the same, but that's how you adapt a live action movie in my opinion. You gotta change some things. If there is something that is just, if there is a concept in a story that you know will never work in live action, don't put it in. Yeah.

It's so simple, and yet there are so many fucking productions and directors who are like, no, we can do it. No, we can definitely, assassination classroom, giant yellow guy, fucking man, CG will fix that. That was a weird adaptation. I don't know why, but I've slowly started to find myself like watching live action anime movies.

Why? Why? Why would you do this to yourself? Because it's just like- You're gonna give me shit watching trashy's a guy. It's just a guilty pleasure for me. Now, even if it's, because I watched the erase live action as well. And even though I didn't like erased. That was on Netflix, right?

Yeah, but purely just because I was like, I, I, it's just, it's the perfect example of curiosity to kill the cat, right? Because it's like, I'm so curious to be like, how could they possibly adapt this? And then I go into it, I'm like, amazing. I just wasted an hour and a half for my life. You just some anime adaptions, you just know

are gonna be shit, right? There's some you watch for the train rack, but not all of them, like ERAC you don't need to watch. The former Alchemist Live I don't need to watch that to know it's gonna be shit. Yeah, that's the one I, that's the one thing I still haven't watched. The Death Note one is...

You just watch live action movie now. And you'll be like, guys, Comedal Archimus isn't that good. What the fuck you're talking? It sucks. For Metal Archimist sucks. What are you guys on? Is she please do that? No, please don't.

You'll actually ruin the story. You'll get a speed run story. It's just awful. I mean, the only reason I watched the Death Note one is because, you know, I wanted to be, you know, able to help with the discussion on Twitter. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, I got a great video out of it.

Right, but if you can't, yeah, exactly, right, you can clown on it, it's great, because everyone's gonna be waiting for it, but you can't clown the erased one because no one gives a fuck. Well, that's why I didn't make a video on. Why watch it? Why waste an hour and a half? Why, why?

I mean, I've done that, I've done that with more, I think there are more anime live actions that I haven't made a video on than ones that I haven't made a video on, just because no one needs to know this is shit. I just need to know this is shit. I don't need to share this because everybody already knows it's shit.

Like I didn't have to make a video on the Parasite Live Action because everybody knew it was gonna be shit, but I needed to know that it was gonna be shit and sure enough, I found out that it was absolutely garbage. You know what blows my mind that sometimes they only make the anime to promote the garbage movie. Yeah.

Like, was Parasite one of those situations? I know Kaiji, the Gambler one, yeah. That was definitely, uh, that anime was just made to promote the movie. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it was. Yeah, and the movie was, uh. The movie was questionable. I mean, I actually, like, I enjoyed the Kaiji movie

in this like really campy kind of way, you know what I mean? It's, it's kind of, it's kind of, it's kind of, it's kind of, it's kind of, it's kind of, it's kind of, it's kind of, it's, it's, drama or J drama. So do you want to explain what Kaiji is quickly? Yeah, so it's a gambling, well, it's a gambling story. So this guy racks up this massive, massive debt.

I forgot why he racked up this massive debt. I can't remember why he did it. For some reason. Yeah. So basically he gets an offer from this like mysterious company that can clear his debt that just says, you need to go on this ship and you're going to play a bunch of games

and if you win these games, then we will clear your debt. Or you can go into even greater debt. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And the basic premise is just Kaiji on this ship or just like after the ship arcs over. It's just him going through a bunch of different gambling games and just trying to clear his debts.

And he's not O.P. So that's like the best part. Yeah. He loses a lot. It's very realistic. And it's great because you genuinely don't know if he's going to lose a win every day. It's a very quotable show.

A lot of people didn't watch it, I think mainly because for some reason, it was only published in 480P. Really? Do you remember? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It was only published in 40P, yeah, yeah, and it came out in 2007 as well. And it was only 480P, and I remember, like,

when I was watching it, I'm like, where's the H. What's this is ST bullshit? So just know that when you watch it, it's gonna be like that, but it's definitely worth your time. I thought, I thought the reason why people didn't watch Kaiji was because of the art style. I think is that, and I think there's a ton of reasons

why people don't watch. Because like, it's got like zero female characters in it, I think. Yeah. I can't remember a single female character. It's got a lot of ugly bastards in it. I know that. That is the one show that is more ugly bastards than hentai.

That's that's Kaiji, right? Imagine, imagine an NTR plot, but instead of sex, it's just watching a guy, it's just gambling. It's just NTR gambling, that's just Kaiji, okay? But it's fucking great. It's so good. It's like, I, going from watching Kaiji to, I don't know how you pronounce it, Kakaguru. Kaki Guru, yeah. It was like, how can I watch this shit when this gambling is so fake.

It's all just bullshit gambling to serve the plot. Whereas in Kaiji, it felt like real gambling. Kaki Kui was just like, they threw, they were like, okay, how do we make these hot girls orgasm? Gambling. Let's just throw it in. But like the main character always wins, unless it doesn't really matter, then she doesn't win. And it's like, ha ha, you didn't expect that.

It's like, yeah, but it didn't matter. Yeah, exactly. It's like there was one dumb moment, that's the part I dropped the series is when the girl with the gun playing Russian roulette. And it's like, it's obvious. No one is going to die in this. situation. Don't pretend like someone is going to die

because I'm not stupid. And then I couldn't watch it further because I'm like, this is just dumb. Whereas if that was in Kaiji, like, someone's gonna die. Yeah, which is great because, but then it wasn't sure. Maybe both of them could die. We don't know.

That's the best part about Kaiji is that like you just genuinely don't know. No, the best part of Kaiji is the narrator's voice. Oh yeah, yeah. Oh no, no, no. Okay, God. Why is there just that narrator in like every fucking show of that time?

Because it's so epic. Because I only see it in anime. You know, you're not watching this Netflix show and this narrator comes out, you know what I mean? Dude, what's the follow-up series, the spin-off one with the middle management, whatever? Tonagawa. Oh, yeah, Tonagawa.

Oh, yeah, I never watched that one. Was it any good? It's very, it's quite funny. If you go in expecting Kaiji, you're going to be very disappointed. Yeah. If you want Kaiji, then you, it's better if you read, like, I don't know the author's name, but, like, read some of his other works.

Akagi is really good. Akagi, I really like, Akagi was, Akagi is basically Marjong Kaiji. And like, here's the thing. I had no fucking interest in Marjong. I was watching the show. I had no fucking rules of the, I had no fucking clue of the rules of Marjong either.

But you get drawn in, right? After I finished Arcadia, I was like, man, maybe I should learn how to play Marjong. It's just fun. I had the exact same thing. I don't know which show was. It was with little girls competing in Meijong tournaments.

I don't know which, I think it might have just been called Mahjong. Oh, maybe, I don't know, yeah. I don't know what it was, but I remember I was trying my goddamn best to learn Mahjong. And I was like, I, There are a lot of shows like that, but I mean like,

you know, March comes in like a lion made me really invested in Shogi. I was like, I don't know what the fuck Shogi is, but then after I watch Marsh comes in a like, I wanna learn Shogi. I mean, Shogi's just Japanese Chogi, right? I mean, Shogi's just Japanese chess, right? Yeah, I know, good of chess, right?

Yeah, I know, I wanna be good at that. Yeah, I don't even know how to play chess, and yet I was like, showgy looks fun. What? I was gonna know how to play chess, Joey. Because, I just did it. Wow. We didn't even own like a chess board in my house.

You know how to play chess, right? Yeah, I know the basics. That's good. I fucking suck at it. I haven't played in years. We need a chess anime, but obviously, because I actually really want a chess anime. Because you'd be so good in anime. It would be so fucking hype in anime.

I'm surprised there hasn't been one yet. It's because like, how big is chess in Japan? It's not very big. I mean, I guess if you're gonna play chess, you might as well show-y, right? There's plenty of, no, because I think a lot of the grandmasters are from Japan. Really?

Oh, yeah, yeah, that's true actually. But like, yeah, I feel like chess, because I remember I got like sucked into this YouTube pole of just like watching a lot of chess videos. I had like no interest in chess. Yeah, I had no interest in chess. And I'm like, man, this is actually like really interesting

because the history and just the entire premise of chess is like really, really interesting. The fact that you like a lot of history. Yeah, like like, like, like, it's basically like this massive tournament arc, you know what I mean? And there's like, reading about some of like, some of like the most historical chess games was like, it's like, I have no interest in chess,

but this was fucking hype. And I remember thinking, man, this would work so well in an anime or manga setting. So I went to, out to try and find a single chess anime or manga. And there just wasn't one. And I was really, really disappointed. It's surprising, honestly, because, like,

I think the whole stereotype with chess in anime is, like, you know, the fucking, like, transfer student who also happens to be, like, the daughter of, like, the giant company is like, oh, let me just do a little bit of chess on the sideline. Basically, the way chess is using anime is to make someone look smart. Yeah. Like, there's no reason for a luge to play chess.

I was about the same. Because it's, he's a tactical genius. Yeah, he's a tactical genius. Do you ever lead with the King, Connor? No, you never leave. For example. Do you want to tell people about your hidden, like fucking, that you're like a chess champion?

So when I was 13 or 12, well, it was, I just started high schools after I left primary school. I was playing professional chess. Yeah. And like, I like, how I ended up in playing professional chess was weird to begin because I never played it much.

I just liked video games a lot. Yeah. So video, it was the only video game that my dad would play with me. Yeah. So it wasn't, right? So if I wanted to- E chess.

Yeah, no, it was normal chess, right? But like, I remember I was playing at like year three. How old are you in year three in the UK? Like eight, nine? Eight nine. And the chess club was only for like the last year, which was like all the 12 year olds. And I remember they wouldn't let me play with them,

but one, they let me play with them, and this is so anime, right? Yeah. Because outside of the chess club, I beat their best player in a game of chess. And then they were like, no, no, you gotta let this guy play with us. He's good, yeah, yeah, yeah.

And so I beat them all. And then nothing happened for like three years until it was my time to join the chess club. And I was allowed to join the chess club. Right, right. And then I was, I joined the chess club and our school had lost like every single chess tournament ever, right? Because it was like a local,

I don't even know we had this. There was like a local circuit, right, between all the schools played each other, like football and every other sport, right? There's one for chess. And, uh, I remember that we started playing in that and also the guy who was number two

in our chess team, because I was number one, we were both like equal, which is also very anime, right? He had the rival character and everything. His power level was on par with mine. My whole chess experience is genuinely like an anime because I'm gonna keep talking and there's more stuff to it. Yeah, yeah.

And then we just started like winning every single game like against every other school. Like it wasn't even close. I remember like these kids were bad. And I remember every time they were like, they would be like shocked at how quickly we would beat these kids. Because it's very different in professional chess to playing at someone who doesn't.

In professional chess, it's a long thing. And I'll get more into it later. But these were games I could win in 20 minutes. Right, because I could see how they fucked up and I would take it. And to me, it just made sense, right? I had to practice. I was just good at games and it made sense.

And then one time there was a school and these guys had been like number one for like 10 years in a row or something because they had a guy who was someone's parent, and he's obsessed with chess, knows, like, he's very, very good at chess, and we beat his team. And they were, like, shocked. They were like, Nanny?

You beat like the prodigy team. This is like a sports anime. No, it is. This is a fucking sports anime. You could base a chess monger off of your life, honestly. No, right, because I remember thinking, like, it was weird because this guy was making, like, a whole commo.

Bear in mind, I was like 12, right? I didn't know what the fuck was going on. And this guy was making like a whole commotion. He was like shocked. And I was sitting there, and he was like, walk me through everything you did. And I was like, I don't know, I didn't write it down. Because he's supposed to write it down,

the professional chess, and he was writing it down. And I thought that was weird. I was like, why would you write down your moves? You did, you just did them. Why are you not gonna go back? And he was like, which one, which move, why did you move here? How did you know how to do that and stuff? And I was like, I don't know, I just like did it.

And then he spoke to my mom and was like, you should come to this thing. And it's like, it's weird. It's like, 200 kids come to a place. Yeah. By the way, chess for like kids is a really weird kind of thing that's, it's really, it's just adults pushing a bunch of like, a bunch of like Cambridge kids.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I went to a location and there was like two, 300 kids all just playing chess. And then you would get like an opponent. And if you won a lost, you would then play someone who was like, one. Yeah. And the more you kept winning, the more you would go up.

And then eventually people who won all their games would go on to play for like the area. Yeah, like a big area. Like a legit. Okay, here's the best torn arc. I was killing all my games, right? And I'd won like four, so you play seven. I remember I won four in a row.

They were really easy. My friend as well, he'd lost like two and then he was already out. And I felt bad, I was like, I'll avenge you, I'll go on for you, but I'll see you in the finals. And like it's weird, because I never had any, like a lot of these kids as well,

they would be studying it in between games, but I would just whip out like Pokemon and start playing it. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's my time to go, and save and then play. But I remember, so like my fifth game was against the guy I beat in my school, like the prodigy team, whatever.

And I had to play him again, and we drew it. It was really like anticlimactic And I was like, fuck, I beat him last time. I wanted to beat him again. Anyway, I got on the team and I was okay. I was struggling because this is where it was getting really serious. Like, I was decent enough where I could win like 70% of my games,

but it was still starting to get like really long. Because chess games never went more than an hour. Yeah. And then I start becoming like two hours. Yeah. And I'm 13. And I'm like, this is kind of taking them. This is kind of taken.

I just want to play fucking Pokemon. But I started winning. And then I got content and they were like, hey, do you want to play for your country? And I was like, sure, I guess I'll play for my country. Like, why not? Yeah, I'm doing good enough. So I turn up.

I go to the first tournament. You won't believe, because I was number 10. So there's 10 seats, right? One is the best, 10's the worst. So I was the worst on the country. Worst the country for the team, right? Guess who was number one? I think I've told you guys a story.

Yeah, yeah. It was like the main bully at my school. You can't make this shit up, man. You can't make this shit up. It was like the main bully at my school who like, no one. knew he did this. This is the point of the manga where like the flashback

like he used to bully me. He was the main rival all right? He literally was the kid that everyone was scared of. And I remember thinking like man, he was really good at Halo Wars too, that was weird, right? And then suddenly like he's really fucking good at chess. Like he was amazing and he was winning a lot against like really really good players.

Bear in mind when it got to this point, it was pretty much me, him and eight kids who are gonna go to Cambridge. You know what I mean? The environment was really weird as well. And I remember just, that was when I really started to not enjoy chess anymore, is that when, I remember when I lost a game,

I got fucking bollicked by the coaches. They were furious at me because they would take your sheet, right? Because this is when you had to start writing it down. They would take your sheet and they would rinse you for your moves. Yeah. And then they would watch you the whole game.

So there's like always an area above where they can watch you. Oh my God. And I remember if you made a move, that was under five minutes, that was a mistake. You got fucking rinsed fricks. They were like, you didn't, you didn't think long enough. You gotta go through the options.

Cause it gets to the point where you're like, you know that they're thinking just as many moves ahead as you are. It's starting to get really difficult. Because you're like, fuck, like I haven't studied enough at this point because I never studied chess. But this is where I was getting to the point where I was against people who were naturally pretty good,

but also was studying all the fucking time. Yeah, right. And it's just a really bad environment. I really didn't like it. It was just like, Whereas I would finish my games and I play Pokemon, they would wanna talk about, so why did you move Ruck to F2?

You know, why did you do that? Did he was really impressive when he moved his, and I was like, I don't. We are playing chess for eight hours today. I do not wanna talk about chess in between my games, right? And it was just like a really, just, yeah, it was a really weird environment. And I could, I think if I came into chess later in my life,

I would have had a more healthy enjoyment of chess. I still like to play it occasionally, but I think I'm just like scar. from the anime experience that I had. Yeah, because that's what I found, find so fascinating about chess is just like, like, like, talking to you and hearing about your chess story, and like, hearing it like reading up and watching,

like, Magnus Caruson's, I think that's his name. Yeah, Magnus Carson, his story, and then how you were just like, you were just born and you just got the game. They're like, there are people who just studied the game, and then there are just people who are just like, a genius as it, and they don't know why. Yeah.

It's like, it's fucking fascinating. It was just born to do it, right? Yeah. It's fucking fascinating. It was weird because you kind of, like no matter how good you are at something and like how much raw talent you have at something, when you start competing at such a high level,

you start to realize that like, it doesn't matter as much, but also you meet people who also, like, you know, there might be like 10 people in that country who also have that same raw talent, right? And then it's like, fuck. Yeah. Because then it starts to come to like who can put them. Because I didn't care about chess.

I never cared about chess. I was just good at it and I just played it. Such a thing that a protagonist would say. Right. I never cared about it. Whereas the protagonist would have got to my point, lost and then been like, I'm gonna dedicate my life to check.

I was like, Pokemon Ranger just came out. So like, I'm gonna start spinning around there. You took the Hikod and it'll go around, right? Where you just like, I lost end of the manga. And it was just kind of like, it gets to that point when your life, we're like, I just, I don't need this anymore. And I remember my parents are so sad, because I mean, I don't know why my parents were so invested in it.

I think that it was a mixture of proud, and also they love bragging about it. Why wouldn't you do? Yeah, of course. Your series got canceled from poor sales. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But then I had a spin-off, right? So what happened is about when I was like 16 or 17,

I had like a rejuvenation of my enjoyment. Right. Do you remember a website called MLG Game Battles? Do you remember that? So it was where you could like compete against Cobb, but they also had Yahoo Chess. And I remember I would compete against like fully grown men and beat them on Yahoo Chess and they would get so pissed off.

And then I joined the local pub. And that was a weird experience. Yeah. So I joined the local. pub chess team and I remember, bear in mind, they were all like 80 to 40 year old men. Yeah, yeah. I remember one time, I was playing against a guy

who looked like Ross Kemp, like the biggest, like a skinhead, terrifying dude like, he's like this over the table. Like a brick shit out. Yeah, yeah, like every, every bouncer you see at a nightclub or something like that. I'm like like 15, 16, like this with my Coke and he had like a pint and like smoking.

And I'm there with my coke, like occasionally checking my phone. I don't know if that pissed him off, but in between moves, I wouldn't look at what he was doing. I would just check my phone and I was like, because I'm normally thinking in my move, so I don't really pay much attention when I'm doing it. And I remember when I beat him, and he looked really fucking angry and I was so scared.

I was like, is he gonna hit me? Because he looked, he was like this on the table like this. I can't believe you won. I can't believe you've done this. I can't believe you've done this. People didn't like losing to a 15 year old. That happened a lot. I mean, yeah, I can understand.

I get it. Yeah. Like, you know. I'm just really committed to making this a manga now. Like, honestly. Yeah, please, because like from a narrative perspective, there's so many interesting ways you could tackle just chess as a concept.

I wanna take like that concept of like, you know, your friend being beaten in the preliminary. And then just cut to the scene where you're like in the finals. And your friend is like that one guy who narrates all your moves. He's like, he's like, he's just, He's the speed-rower. He's like, he just did an en passe. He's like, what's an en-p-s-a?

On-pase is when, and then he just goes on with this way, shit. You know what the one, okay, this is gonna say, that's so nerdy. There's one move in chess that I always wanted to use. And it was the, I don't know the name of it, but it was the one where like, if someone moves their, like, porn two

and then like in front of, if you move your pawn to, then they move it to as well, that you can then take it. That's an arm-p-s-s-and-a-all- I always wanted to do that. Yeah. Dude, using a rook is, is a castling is O-P.

You always castle, that's all I remember. Like, why did he castle there? It's like, I'll tell you why. He's stuff. Yeah, I don't know, because there's, I remember they try to teach us, they were like, why don't he use the Indian Prince opening of 1970?

And I was like, yeah, because they would, when I would do an opening move, I always did the same opening move because I just liked it. It was like, it's nice and symmetrical, I liked it. And they would always say, why did you use the, this person, like, yeah,

like I said, like the Indian Prince move of 1764. And I was like, I don't, what? What fuck is that? I just like how the bishop goes, whoop. You know. Bishop goes, it just feels nice, you know? It just feels nice.

It's hard to explain it when you're a kid because you're just like, you're just thinking full mood's head and you're like, if this goes here and this goes here and this goes here, then you go that, you know what I mean? It's just how you see it. It was weird. I just, it's like any sport, I imagine,

where kids are really good at it and the adults are really pushy and kind of like almost, borderline, some of the kids, I'd say they had like a predatory relationship with it. Yeah, yeah. Because a lot of them again, like I said, they were very rich parents whose kids

went to very good private schools and they were destined to go to Cambridge or Oxford no matter what, and they were, you know exactly what I mean, what kind of kids I'm talking about. Because the moment you spoke to them, you're like, we're from a different world. It's really odd.

Chess is like their entire wall to them, right? Yeah, it was like something that was forced upon them because it was, you know, it's something that looks good on the resume when you apply for Cambridge, you know, like, I mean, to be fair, it got me a few good jobs

or it helped a lot. I remember some job interviews, where they liked playing chess and they would bring it up and it was like, oh, that's cute, you're good. And it's like, I don't know. That's cute. Yeah, it's like, yeah, I play.

That's a really, you know, I think that's like a really interesting story that you have. Yeah, bottom line is we need to turn this into an anime. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Most definitely. If someone was like, I want to like make a chess anime, I would absolutely fun.

Just like talk to Connor. He has a very interesting story. If anyone likes, would like, a free story is right here. Because like, it's just, it's the perfect chance to like, teach people about how to play chess as well. I think it's a really good game

and it's one of my favorite things to like sit down and talk to someone about, just talk and then play chess. I think it's a really good way to, I don't know, just have fun. Yeah, exactly. And it's also fun beating people who think they're good at chess. It's really fun.

The power trip. Because you'll meet people who have just been like studying chess. I mean, it's getting really big on Twitch right now. Yeah, exactly. And you'll meet people who are like, you know, they're like really getting into it. And then you just like stomp them. And it's like, oh well, you, because,

okay, here's the thing, right? Here's the worst part about chess professionally is that you normally know, like, five or six moves in if you've lost or not, but you have to play it for another two and a half hours. And all it is, right? Yeah, that sounds crappy. That's the difference between casual chess

and professional chess, is that casually, you always think you can win if you out smart them. Professional chess, it's just like, how do I drag this out enough so that maybe they'll make a mistake? Yeah, yeah. And oh, God, it sounds horrible.

It was awful. I hated it, because it just got to the point where it's like, what's the fucking point in this? It's like being a troll online. It's just like I'm just, I'm literally just being awkward. Yeah, you're just prolonging the inevitable, right? Yeah, yeah. And it's like I fucked up, I fucked up 30 minutes in

and I gotta put up with this for two and a half hours. It's like loading a game of league and then five minutes in like your own five. Someone's inting. Yeah, yeah, someone's inting. The jungle is just AFK. You're like, are you like, can I just, can I just, can I just FF now?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like, this is like a diamond game right now. Like no one's gonna make a mistake. Oh yeah, because I remember this. You know, I never got praised for winning games. They would always be like, good job. You know when they would praise me, when I made it fucking hell for the other person.

I remember when I, this poor girl, I dragged it out and she made a mistake to a stalemate. This game went on for like three hours and 20 minutes or something ridiculous. It was something fucking long. And I remember I'd lost like an hour in 100%. And I just made it awkward. I wasn't playing to win anymore.

I was playing to make it awkward for her. And so I did things that you wouldn't normally do to try and win. You would just do it to cock block everything that she did. And I remember she was getting so stressed. And I remember being like, this is kind of fun, but also like, I hate this. So, like, when I got back, it was like coming back

into the football locker room. They were like, nice one, let's hit the shower, son. You really made it hell for that 13 year old girl. Congratulations, Connor. Like, I was just like, man, I didn't feel good. Like, I just lost, I got a stalemate. Like, I worked three hours for a stalemate. Like, are you kidding me?

Absolutely cock-tees. Yeah, dude. There's other worst ones there where like, there was, I remember those people who would constantly, like, because you can ask for a drive. Yeah, you want to draw? And it would fuck me, my psychology up, because I was like, does this mean I'm winning?

Like, I just think he's losing. And one time I remember I regret it to this day, I should have took the draw and I lost and then, fuck, he gave me an out. That's the learning experience, man. That's the character development winning. Yeah, no, yeah, exactly. I got a little trophy.

If you won like three games professionally, you got a thing called a Wendy. I don't know what it was. Why is it called Wendy? I don't know. It just says Wendy's burger. It's like a plaque that just says a Wendy. I'm sure there's some chess people who know what this is, but I have no idea.

Please, please. I was so confused. I was like, why does it not say my name? I won these things. I'm not Wendy, I'm Connor. But I think, I think also, if you Google my name, I think my chess records come up in the profession. Oh, wow.

If you dig deep enough, not people are gonna find them now. Yeah, yeah. You'll see exactly which like county and country I was playing for. Don't stalk him then. Well, is there any, I think, is there anything else you guys wanna talk about? That was a huge detail.

I don't think we can top that chest story, man. That was intense. That was, that was an intense. We just, we just watched the entire anime. It's a story. I love telling, but it's one of those things, where it's like, I can't bring it up

if they're not gonna be like invested in it because it's such a long story. But it's a really interesting story. I remember the first time you told me, I was like, this is, we need to talk about this publicly. You've never talked, because like, I bring it up occasionally. Imagine just being like, yeah,

I was a chess pro by accident. I was like, what do you mean? You were a nice, amazing conversation star, right? Like, yeah. From a young age though, I was just always really, really good at video games as well, like, it always just clicked. Like, I'd always just got them.

Like, to this day, I like, I normally get video games super quick, Yeah, yeah. You just have that tell them, man. You're a tensi. Man, it felt me, it was English, eh? And I could learn how to spell. You know, if they gamed English,

I'd have been fucking pro. I'd have been pro at English if they'd have made it like a spelling fucking simulator. Yeah, I think that's a good place to end it then. Thank you guys for watching. We love the memes on the subreddit, keep it up. Hey, shout out to the Patreon. Yeah.

As always, if you'd like your name on the screen right now, as you can see, or you'd just like to support the show, then make sure to go over to our Patreon because it helps us out a lot. Yes, and we also have a subreddit, our slash trash taste and also our Twitter. Twitter. Twitter.

Twitter. Oh, our Twitter. I think that's just trash taste pod as well. At trash taste pod, yes. So make sure to follow us on there. Keep giving us the memes. Yeah, we love the memes. We love the memes.

We love the memes. That's good, that's great with your memes and I appreciate them. If I don't comment on all of them, doesn't mean I don't appreciate it. We go through the subgroups. We see all of them. We see all of them just for the records.

Well, this was a diverse episode of diverse talk. Okay, another thing, so this was, this episode wasn't scripted at all. And none of our episodes are scripted, but sometimes we come in with a subject matter in mind or a theme, but this one we were just like, what if we just sit down, just talk? Let's just sit down and start talking

and we're not gonna worry about, about what we're gonna talk about, we'll just talk about whatever. So if you enjoyed that, give us a comment, because this is, I think, our very first one that we just had nothing planned. We had nothing planned. We could have just sat here and silenced it.

Just been like, so what do you guys want to talk about? I guess what kind of like balance do you guys want of like, because I mean we can do either, we're comfortable doing it. I think we're really interested to see which one strikes best with you, do you guys like it? And we just throw out anime names, talk about shit, then move on or do you like the overall topics? Yeah, yeah.

Make sure to smash that motherfucker like button, as always, and subscribe. Share the video and go and subscribe to our own channel. Ring, ring the fucking bell. Ring the fucking bell. All right, well, this has been a trash taste and I'm with the boys. We'll see you next time. Bye.

Bye. I gotta pee real bad.