Trash Taste Podcast - Our Favorite Things of 2025 | Trash Taste #287
Episode Date: December 19, 2025🛒Sign up for a $1 per month trial period at https://shopify.com/trash 🥤Buy Waifu Cups at https://gamersupps.gg/TrashTaste with code [trashtaste] Follow Trash Taste: https://twitter.com/Tr...ashTastePod https://www.reddit.com/r/TrashTaste/ To watch the podcast on YouTube: bit.ly/TrashTasteYouTube Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast for free wherever you're listening or by using this link: bit.ly/TrashTastePodcast If you like the show, telling a friend about it would be amazing! You can text, email, Tweet, or send this link to a friend: bit.ly/TrashTastePodcast Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Transcript
Discussion (0)
Hello and welcome to another episode of Trash Taste.
I'm your host for today, Garn.
I don't know why I grabbed Mr. Potato Head as I was doing the year further.
Stop touching.
Sorry.
I'm sorry.
I'm sorry.
I just saw moving past and I was like, ooh, look at that.
And join me once again are the boys, Joey and Connor.
And we get to talk about our favorite things that we got into, watched, read, listen to, whatever.
Because it's the end of the year, guys.
Yeah, let's talk about it.
It's another year.
Doesn't feel like the end of the year.
This has been a weird ass year.
Yeah.
Every time this episode rolls around, like the favorite things thing,
because we've done this multiple times now.
I think it's like third time maybe,
third or fourth time we've done this.
Every time this episode rolls around,
I'm just like, what the fuck I've done this year?
It's weird how it goes so fast yet.
I remember something so clearly and they feel so far away.
Yeah.
Also, they feel so close.
like the Swiss special.
We filmed that in February.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Right.
That does not feel like this year.
That doesn't, it weirdly doesn't feel like this year, but so many memories feel
so vivid that I feel like it was like two months ago.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It's really weird to have that.
That is true.
Time is such a funny thing.
And we're also getting older and we're going to die soon.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
That's also a thing.
So not all the things that are in our list are things from 2025.
Yes.
No, no, no.
This is our excuse just to be like, just to talk about shit that we like.
and we discovered or maybe watched in 2025.
This is our representation of our year.
Yeah.
And out of every year that we've ever done this,
this is by far the hardest that I had to work
to scrounge nine fucking things to represent me in my year.
I remember the first time we did these,
this like favorite things of whatever year it was.
It was like, oh yeah, I mean, only nine?
What am I going to put in?
This year I was like,
I put three in and I was just like, well, I'm done.
This year, one of the other things I'm going to put on.
This year, as you can probably guess, one of the things that's going to be on my list.
Yeah.
This year, my year was top heavy of just this one thing was like 70% of my year.
And then I'm like, a couple of things in the draw.
Yeah, yeah.
And there any other things I did this year outside of this one thing?
Yeah, we might have talked about some of these things on past episodes.
We might not have.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Well, this would be the episode where we go maybe a bit more in depth.
We'll talk about all these things in detail.
Sure.
Yeah, exactly.
So who wants to go first?
Fuck, I don't know.
Let's, let's, spin the pan.
We'll let you know audio.
Listener.
All right.
All right.
It is, that's close.
Joey.
What the fuck?
There was like a 2% chance it was going to be corner.
Yeah, it's like super low odds.
You know, I was going to bring out trash box.
So now I was like, ah, can't be bothered to worry.
All right, all right, fine.
Joey's going first.
Load up my three by three then.
So before you talk about each one, just say what the nine things are.
Yeah.
Okay.
So nine things are.
Meditations by Marcus Aurelius, fantasy life one, Garnuvel, Hans Zimmer, my engagement.
I feel like I feel like Aki would kill me if I didn't put that on.
Exit 8, Himaedin, Best Buds, and Tagopi.
Okay.
Okay, what do you want to start with?
I don't know. What do you guys want to start with?
Let's start with. I can talk about all of these, but.
Meditations by Marcus Aurelius.
Okay. Meditations by Marcus Aurelius. So this is a, this is a book that I read.
Not that long ago, actually. I was rereading it the other day at the trash taste office.
Because I, I finally, I finally popped my philosophy novel Cherry.
Yeah, I was like, fucking hell, Jerry.
Yeah. You've got, you've got to step, you've got to step even like,
Down the rabbit hole.
Yeah.
So what's this book about?
So this is a book written by Marcus Aurelius, who, if you guys know anything about Roman history,
was the leader of the Roman Empire.
I think it was AD 160, something like that.
Yeah, we're going to have to look that up.
But yeah, he was the emperor.
If you've watched the movie Gladiator, absolutely banger.
He was the old guy that gets killed by Joaquin Phoenix's character near the beginning.
Yep.
And he was a real person.
And he wrote this book called Meditations,
which is considered one of the greatest philosophy books ever written.
And I think it was back in like,
I think it was while we're in L.A. this year,
Brandy May Expo.
I went to a couple of like bookstores that people were recommending to me.
And there was like this entire section for philosophy.
It was like a huge section for philosophy.
And I was looking at it.
I was like, I've always been interested in reading philosophy of books,
but it's like, you know,
because there's so many different types of philosophy.
It's like where the hell do I even begin, right?
Because I feel like if you start reading the wrong one
or you go too far into the rabbit hole as your first novel,
then your viewer philosophy just gets kind of skewed
to like one side or the other.
So I ask people online being like,
hey, what is like a good go-to start to go into like the gateway novel
for philosophy books?
And out of a number of ones that I ended up buying,
this one was brought up a lot.
Do you know anything about this?
No, not at anything.
So do you know who, you know who Marcus Aurelius was?
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah.
So he was, again, as I said, he was at one point the most powerful person in the world
when he was like the head of the Roman Empire.
And he wrote this book called Meditations.
And it's not even really a book.
It's like a list of almost journal entries that he wrote throughout his lifetime that was
never meant to be published.
He basically wrote it.
It was basically his, as the name suggests,
meditations towards the way that he lived his life and the way that he wanted to live his
life and the way that he viewed life and stuff like that. And it's all based around this
philosophy called stoicism, which is where the word stoic comes from. Yeah.
Which is all about this idea of not letting certain things control your life that are outside
of your control and kind of being the drive, like sitting in the driver's seat of your life.
And this was this book that he wrote or list of journal entries that he wrote, which again,
were never met for publication, but some 2,000 years later, it is now considered one of the
greatest philosophy books ever written. And this, like, you know, you know, sometimes you'll read
something and every single thing you read is like, holy shit. Yeah. That was this book. Like,
literally every single entry in this book, I had to reread several times because it's not only
written in a very poetic way that can be open to interpretation, but also just, I've never
met, or I've never, I've never seen a person who can give this much of like a poignant
statement on life and the way that you should be living life. And like, I'd always heard of
the term like stoic and stoicism and stuff like that. But I never had like a full grasp of
what it actually meant. I thought, you know, when I, when I hear the when, when someone says,
oh, he's very stoic. Like, what do you imagine when someone says, oh, he's a very stoic person?
Someone who doesn't confide in people easily
Someone who keeps themselves
Yeah, yeah
So it's a lot of that
But also a big like misconception
That a lot of people get when they hear stoic is
Oh, you shouldn't feel like emotions towards anything
Because you shouldn't let your emotions like overrun your life
Marcus Aurelis instead kind of said
Well no, you're a human
You're going to feel emotions towards certain things
But what you should so you shouldn't
It's not this idea of you shouldn't feel emotions
towards certain things and just get things done.
It's this idea of you should feel emotions towards things,
but you shouldn't let those feelings and emotions control your life.
And I can just read, I can just write off or list off just like a bunch of like quotes from this book.
And like I feel like it's kind of crazy to think that a dude who lived 2,000 years ago
and was talking about life 2,000 years ago,
which suffice to say none of us can relate to on a surface level can write.
shit that every single person, no matter what walk of life you're in, can relate to in one way or
another. If I, if I had a library, sorry, if I had a fucking diary and that just got like
leaked to the entire world, I would hope my writing was being. Dude, right? And it's not just like,
who got pissed up the fucking spoons today. Can't remember what happened that night out. I'm sure
that might have been in there, but maybe it was removed. I mean, obviously, you know, 2,000 years ago.
I imagine that his words have been almost translated quite a lot
in the ages.
So it's probably the rough meaning of what he said.
Yeah, a wide variety of changes.
Yeah, so he originally wrote this all in Greek, obviously,
but it's been translated multiple times over many, many, many iterations.
I've read the one that is like the most highly accepted and praised translation.
Yeah.
I forget the author's name.
I apologize, but...
Marksrellas.
Well, yes.
The translator author.
I forgot his name, yeah.
Give us a quote.
Okay, I'll give you a quote.
This one is on perspective.
He said,
everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact.
Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah, that's pretty good.
You know, which is like very, yeah, bars.
Yeah.
You know, you could leave life right now.
Let that determine what you do and say and think.
So it's just like, it's very simple terminology,
but said in a very almost poetic way.
And, like, and, you know, there's quotes like that
that are very just like, to the point, yeah,
I understand what he's trying to say.
Obviously, easier said than done kind of things.
Yeah.
But he also throws in, because, you know,
at the time, Greek was this language
that was very, like, poetry heavy.
Yeah.
And Marcus Aurelius, you know, would describe things in, like,
there's this one chapter where he talked about how
when someone bakes bread.
Yeah.
And when the bread rises, the cracks at the,
the top of the bread, you know, break the dough apart. And he kind of alluded that to this whole
idea of, well, the cracks are there because the bread rose. So it's like some, sometimes, I interpret
that that as, you know, when every person rises to their best, sometimes it's not going to be
perfect. You know, there are going to be some consequences of some cracks in the road, but at the
end of the day, the bread is made. Yeah. You know, and it's, he says all of these things in a really, like,
poignant and poetic way where I feel like, there's, I feel like,
is going to be one of those books that I'm just going to continue to reread over my life.
Because, you know, different moments of my life, I feel like I'm going to reflect on different
things that he said. And it's, again, it's just crazy that, like, I can relate to this
2,000-year-old Roman Empire and use those words to reflect on my life. Yeah. Yeah. And it's just
crazy that, you know, at the end of it all, he wrote all of these things for no one else but
himself to see. And yet he was able to write like that. So, like, as someone who, like, you know,
wants to get more into like creative writing and stuff like that too. Yeah. This was just like a really
good, um, not only like, you know, good way to like look back on my life and kind of think about
the way I'm living my life, but also just like a really good study material on just writing and
like poetry and stuff like that. Yeah. Which I really fucked with. I mean, I mean, what you said
reminds me of a line that really stuck with me this year, uh, from, uh, from orb actually, uh,
where there's a character that it was just talking about the magic of books. And how she,
can like, you know, she can read words written thousands of years ago and relate to someone
who she would have never known and never knew existed. And yet she can relate to this real
person, they're, their words that existed generations and generations ago. And this is like
just a real life example of that. Yeah. Like honestly, like even if you like don't really like care
to like read philosophy books or anything like, I feel like this is one of those books like legitimately.
Like we always say things like, oh, this is a book that everybody needs to read.
read. I genuinely think this is a book that everybody needs to read. Because it's just, you learn so
much about not only yourself, but also it's just a really good way to just take control of your life.
Yeah. You know, maybe not in the same way that say a Roman emperor did, but just like, you know,
use his reflections and use, you know, because again, this is coming from a guy who at one point
was literally standing at the top of the world. Yeah. And, you know, there's that saying of like,
you know, absolute crop, absolute power crops, absolutely. This is one of the few examples. This is one of the
few examples where it really didn't.
Like, if anything, the power
that he gained over his lifetime,
he used that in
the most meaningful way possible
and to like use that self
reflection to then again kind of
inadvertently teach people
fucking millennia, you know,
since then. So just like,
just be a good person and to like just
take control of your life and that's like the best way to live life.
Yeah. Yeah, I forgot which Roman
Emperor it was. One of them was like
literally a farmer. And he was like, all right,
I'll fucking sort it out.
Stop farming.
It's like, all right, I'll take over for like two,
two, four years.
Yeah.
Sorted it all out.
And then he was like,
we'll go back to farming now.
Now back to my real passion.
I know,
I can't remember who it's cool,
because we have a word named after this guy.
Really?
Yeah, I forgot what the fucking thing is.
Do you think this is like the original Sigma Grintzer?
People in the Roman Empire just like,
they were just like,
we're just like,
we're in the shit.
Oh, yeah.
Sinicinus?
Yeah, Cincinnati is named after this guy.
Oh, really?
Oh, really?
this as well, yeah.
It's like,
he basically,
Basically, yeah, when Rome was having a fucking hard time, he was like, fine, I'll sort it out.
Stop farming.
Yeah.
Sorted out, went back to farming.
Based.
Which, you know, is the thing that doesn't happen nowadays.
People don't know when, you know, there's no, people want more, more, more, more, more.
The greed of more is corrupting power.
Yeah, you know that whole meme of like, how often do you think about the Roman Empire?
After this book, a lot.
I mean, it's...
I think about it a lot now.
I think the meme is so only present because so much of...
especially at least like European
and American culture
draws from it in nearly
every single aspect of life.
Yeah, totally.
If you look hard enough at anything that we do,
it somehow always ends up coming back to the fucking Romans.
Yeah, it is.
And also they built things that are still around.
So of course you're like, who built this fucking thing?
This thing's sick.
You're off the Romans.
Yeah.
And then you're like, when they didn't build, you're like,
oh, they didn't build it.
That's what I mean with the aqueducts in Wales.
Like, this is so impressive.
must have been the Romans. Yeah. No, it wasn't. There's like, 1700s. We did build things.
Damn, we did that. We can do that shit. I think, I think the other, like, last thing I'll touch
upon this, because I can go on this book forever. But, like, I think the other incredibly
poignant thing about, at least, like, the translated version that I read of this, is that because
these, you know, excerpts that he wrote throughout his life were more so, he wasn't telling
anyone in particular who was telling himself these things, as, like, as the name suggests, like,
self, you know, meditation.
Meditations.
So the book, at least the one I read,
is all in second person.
So he refers to himself as you.
So it's all,
it is the original SigmaGRAF.
So it almost sounds like,
yeah, it almost sounds like he's talking to you.
Yeah, that's funny.
You know, it's saying like, you need to do this,
you need to do this.
But in originally, he was talking to himself.
Yeah.
Being like, bro, get your shit together.
You need to do this, bro.
Don't forget this, bro.
Yeah, don't forget this.
Walk in.
Yeah, he was the original guy who locked in.
You should get into Diogenes next.
Oh, yeah, yeah.
This is definitely, like,
ever since I've read this book,
I've read a bunch of other, like,
kind of surface level philosophy books.
Like, I read The Tale of Cicephas and stuff like that.
I actually, like, sat down and read the book for that,
which is also an amazing book.
But, yeah, this is, like, slowly taking me down
the philosophy book for a lot.
It's the problem of me, like,
tangentially listening to people talk about philosophy.
is that like I feel like I know what Sisyphus did,
but I can't tell you right now.
Yeah.
Right, right.
And then I'll, you know, all these things.
Yeah.
I'm like, I know what they are and I'm like,
I should probably just sit down and actually read these and get into it.
Yeah, that's the thing.
It's like, I knew about the name Sisyphus and like, you know,
the pushing the boulder off the hill or whatever,
but I never knew what that story actually entailed or like what.
Punishment, in it.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Or like what the idea of what Sisyphus's tale entails.
The streamed game.
Yeah.
The rage game.
Yeah.
That's what it was a word.
I mean, there's no better thing to quote as a joke than philosophy.
You sound so fucking funny when you quote like this, you know.
Yeah, but you know, there's that there's that great quote of like, you know,
one must imagine Sisyphus happy.
Yeah.
Like that was, there was a, that was originally based off of the book about Sisyphus.
And now that I actually read that book.
They just had such fucking cold fucking stories.
Yeah, but one must imagine Sisyphus happy has become like a meme.
It has become a meme.
Now I hear that shit.
And there's so much, like, so many lines that fucking hit.
And now I just think, damn, this has been, that's been meme to fuck.
I know.
It's so annoying.
The cave?
Is that Diogenes?
The cave?
No, who did the cave?
What's the cave?
One way.
Fucking light meme where you, you like, you're in the cave and you hold up the, like, the, like, the silhouette.
And it projects onto the back of the cave.
This is like one of the fucking.
Oh, oh, oh, yeah.
I know what you're talking about.
I forgot the name.
I don't know.
Diogenes, he was basically like the, the,
original troll.
That's right.
Oh yeah. The guy was like, but what if this?
Yeah, yeah. Like, there's a few
stories I remember. Like, I think
like, it's so weird that all of these
philosophers just lived in the same time. So Plato,
I believe, was like, they were
trying to define man.
Yeah. And
Plato was like, I think
man is a featherless
biped. And fucking
Diogenes rocks up to
one of his lectures,
plucks a chicken.
plops it on the fucking desk and be like, and was like,
behold, man.
And Plato retracted that statement afterwards.
And it's just like, the back pedal of the century.
We used to have good discussions.
Yeah, I know, right?
The OG ratio.
Yeah.
The OG ratio.
Yeah.
Yeah, okay.
So yeah, even, yeah, even if you're not, it's a philosophy,
like this changed my mind on everything.
I think every man is born with a counter.
That's counting down for the moment.
you're born. And it is this predetermined time in your life when you get into philosophy.
Everyone's counter is different, but it happens to every man. It goes back to, like you said,
it's the man count for reading about the Roman Empire. Yeah, exactly. Or the Greek Empire.
Yeah. To me, it all came at once with this book. I think when you live your life a bit more,
you kind of, you've come to respect what has come before you. I think that's just a natural part of
just living life. 100%. Speaking of life, fantasy life. Yeah.
What is fantasy life?
So I was thinking about like, all right, I need to put like a video game in this three by three.
But I thought about I'm like, man, compared to like the previous years, I haven't really played a whole lot of games.
Fake gamer.
Yeah.
I mean, I played like Dragon Quest 3 and one remake.
I finished those.
Those are great.
But I think when I thought about what's the game I put the most amount of hours into this year, it was fantasy life.
So what is fantasy life?
Okay.
So have you heard this game?
No.
Okay, so this is a game that I think Arki found because she thought it was going to be some kind of like cozy, you know, like Stardu Valley-esque type of like farming simulator type of game, which in an aspect it is.
Yeah.
But this is a game where it's really hard to explain.
So it's it's all about, it's literally an Issaqai story of this kid who gets transported into this like fantasy world and he needs to find a way to get back and also like stop the, you know, the great being that's like trying to destroy the world away.
whatever. Yeah. But it's really confusing because the game throws so much shit at you that
you're like, you get like five, ten hours into this game and you're like, what is this game
trying to be? I thought the ratings are amazing though. Yeah. Oh, it's amazingly fun. Like, if you love
like cozy JRP's, this is like the best game to play. Yeah. Um, I put like a hundred hours
into this game, dude. What'd you doing it? So what do you do? You can literally do every, so it starts
of, it's like, imagine if you took the job-building aspect of runescape with the village
creation element of like Stardu Valley, but also like the dungeon crawling aspect of any,
like, you know, procedurally generated dungeon, and also an open world, like, breath of the
world.
Oh, wow.
It's like, it's like this team when, all right, name your top five favorite games.
and was like, okay, we'll do all five of those at the same time.
It does look cozy.
It's super cozy and super fun.
And there's like multiplayer in this as well, so it's good fun.
Yeah, while we were in, while we were in LA, because I was in America for like, what, three and a half weeks after anime expo?
Yeah.
Dude, for like two weeks straight, I just played this game.
I just, like, chilled on the couch.
I was like, I'm not going to do any work.
I'm just going to chill and play this cozy-ass game, and I ended up seeking a hundred hours into it.
Yeah, there's also, like, you can get like skills and shit as well, and, and, you can get like, skills and shit as well, and, and,
there's like dungeon crawling.
I genuinely don't know how to describe this game,
but it is, if you love cozy JRPGs,
this is like the game to play.
It looks visually quite fun.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
It's visually super simple,
really, really good fun.
Of course, it's fishing and stuff.
I mean, it's not a JRPG without fishing.
Of course, yeah.
And again, I like the whole aspect of like,
it's almost like the RuneScape job building.
So you can go out and like fight monsters,
but you can also like build your fishing level
or build your like tree cutting level
or your mining level or, you know, stuff like that.
Yeah, it's just a really simple fun game
that I sunk way too many hours into.
So, yeah, there you go.
It looks fun.
Yeah, it actually looks, and it's multiplayer as well.
Yeah, you can do multiplayer in the open wall segment.
Oh, yeah, and then the straight up, like,
Breath of the Wild style, like, what the fuck is this?
The shrines and shit as well, because why not?
Is there farming in this?
Yeah, there is farming in this.
Yeah.
Okay.
Again, it's like, it's like, again, it's like,
Roonscape, Star Do Valley, Breath of the Wild, dungeon crawling.
Is there romance in this?
Yes, there is romance in this.
Oh shit.
I gotta, I gotta.
Because you can-
And they're gonna great couch game.
Yeah, this is a great couch game.
Super fun, chill.
If you just wanna like chill for like a couple of hours
I gotta recommend this to Sydney then.
Oh yeah, yeah.
This is, this is-
This looks like such a Sydney game.
Yeah, Sydney would love this game.
Absolutely.
Looks cool.
Yeah, there you go.
That was the one game that I've run.
I know, it looks fun, man.
Yeah.
Uh, you're a gamer.
Yeah.
I'm a gamer.
Bakaru.
Cool.
Oh,
Ganibaru.
Oh,
goes the way around.
Yeah, right to left.
So this is the one manga choice
that I put in.
So my hairdresser actually
recommended this manga to me.
This is like a 13 or 14 volume
kind of like horror thriller.
Novel.
Yeah, I love the series.
Yeah, the art is amazing.
So basically the premise is
there's like this police officer
who moves into this countryside with his family
to kind of get away from the city
and he's the only like
kind of police officer in this tiny little village in the mountains
and as he's trying to like assimilate to the village life
and to like, you know, get to know all the villages
and stuff like that.
Yeah.
He notices they're like a little bit weird
and they're like a little like the vibe is off basically.
He's like something's up with this village
and there are these rumors floating around
from people outside of the village
that this particular village has a,
cult family that is said to eat humans.
Ooh.
And he's like, well, as a man of the law, I can't let that slide.
And also, I have a kid and wife I need to take care of as well.
I'm not letting them get eaten.
So he goes out and investigates and it's just this fucking roller coaster ride of this guy
just trying to basically put a stop to this like whole family.
And the art was really captivating for me.
And also just there are so many story beats where you just like,
like, oh shit, I don't know what's going to happen anymore. It's, it's one of those thrillous
horrors where it's just like, you think you know where the story is going. And then they just
throw something and they're like, actually, no, it's nothing like that now. So completely,
you have to completely change your perspective. And what's also cool is that when I reread it,
it's one of those manga where the hints were very obvious from the beginning. Yeah. It's just that
because you didn't, yeah, yeah, because you didn't have the knowledge of what was happening.
That's the best kind of like, yeah. Because then you can.
rewatching. You're like, oh my God. Yeah, that was so fucking obvious kind of deal.
Who's the author? I don't know this author. I feel like they're only known for this.
There was also a live action as well of this. Nino Mia Masaaki. It was live action. Yeah,
there was also a live action TV series of this, a Japanese one, that my hairdresser originally
recommended me to watch. But he was like, 22. But he was like, you should probably read the
manga first before watching it. And I watched this live action as well.
well and it was very good. For a manga-based live action in Japan, this was very, very good.
Disney Plus. I don't always have faith in Japanese life. Yeah, exactly. But you know what? Yeah,
7.4 is good. Good score. Very, very good. Yeah, I got a bunch of my friends into this one as well.
Very, very good. So that was definitely my manga pick of the year. For sure. I will have to check it
out. Yeah. Next one. Oh, that's Han Zimmer. The Go? The Go. So, Aki and I went to go see
Hans Zimmer live. Oh shit. No fucking way. Easily the most expensive concert ticket I've ever paid for,
but fuck me, man. Was it like, oh, how much is the concert? So we were in this, it was this
giant stadium. I think it was, was it Tokyo big site or one of the big ones? And we were right in the
middle on the ground. Oh, no. Yeah, because it's all seed. It's all seated, but we were right in the
middle on the ground, like band is right there kind of deal. I think I paid 500 bucks.
Jeez, but I mean
Was this in America?
No, in Japan.
It was in Japan?
500 bucks, I've never even heard of a concert.
Yeah.
Yeah, so when I saw the ticket prices, I was like,
oh my God, that is, but
then again, I thought to myself, I'm like,
when am I ever going to see Hans Zimmer?
That's crazy, though.
I didn't even know he came to Japan.
Yeah, yeah.
Or did concerts.
Yeah.
So him and his band came,
and it was like a two and a half hour concert
and they just did all of the Hans Zimmer
soundtracks.
and it was, oh my God, when they did the Gladiator soundtrack, dude,
I was crying.
Because they also got the original singer that does like the vocal tracks and stuff like that.
They did Pirates of the Caribbean.
They did Inception.
He did Pirates of the Caribbean?
Yeah.
Oh, God.
He's done everything.
He's done all the goaded ones.
They did Lion King.
They did, yeah, just like all of the, oh, Dune as well.
Oh, my God, Dune Live was crazy.
They opened up with that shit, and I was just like, oh my fucking God.
I would love to hear the Dune.
Yeah.
Yeah, so that was all done live.
And it was so cool as well because it's like Hans was like in the middle.
Right.
The entire time he was like playing guitar and playing all these instruments, and he was just conducting the entire thing, but also playing it.
Yeah.
But it's just so cool because it's like you're watching him play and he clearly loves this shit so fucking much.
Like the entire two and off hours, his face literally looked like that.
It was just smile on his face, like looking back.
his band and it's just being like, yeah, let's, I know I'm killing this shit.
And also he's so fucking funny on stage.
Oh, really?
Like, between each, like, set of tracks.
So they split it up into like each movie.
So they would play like Dune and then, you know, do a couple of tracks from the Dune
soundtrack.
And then Hans would kind of talk to the crowd a little bit and like introduce, you know,
like the next thing and stuff like that.
Man's got jokes.
He loves just fucking throwing around jokes.
Like, he's the guy.
He's so funny.
And he clearly loves like his band.
members so much and just all the music he made. I remember one, one of the soundtracks he did,
I forgot what the name of the movie was, because I had to look it up afterwards. It was a
soundtrack that Hans Zimmer did back in like, I think during the COVID times or something of
like some superhero movie that was incredibly poorly received. It was like red, red scarlet or
some shit like that. Oh, is that the Black Widow movie? Yeah, the Black Widow movie. He did that.
Yeah. And when he, when he, I remember he was just like, okay, so this next next
set of tracks is from a movie. I'm not going to name because it's a terrible movie.
And he's like, but I think the soundtrack is amazing, but the movie is terrible.
Enjoy. And I remember everyone in the crowd is like, what the fuck movie are they talking about?
So we had to look it up. That would never fucking happen in Japan. Oh, yeah. That's hilarious.
Yeah. But yeah, that was, I mean, I went to a lot of concerts this year, but that one, that was my
What was the best soundtrack to hear live?
Oh.
For me, it was a tie between
Dune and Gladiator.
Oh, gladiator would be so good.
I think, I think the Gladiator soundtrack
might honestly be my favorite Hans Zimmer soundtrack.
I just have core memories.
Have you know all those shots
when they do like the flashback in the fields?
Yeah.
There's dead wife.
And there's just that music that's blasting.
Oh, yeah.
Oh, with the woman singing?
Yeah, dude.
With a woman singing one.
Yeah.
That's like the most iconic.
my wife is dead flashback.
Yeah.
You know what I mean?
Because it's either like in a field
or they're under the bed sheets.
Yeah, yeah.
Like the fucking sheets.
You know what I mean?
It's like peak,
my wife is dead flashbacks.
Yeah.
Oh, dude, when that song started coming on, bro,
I started crying.
It was fucking beautiful.
And it was really cool as well
because the entire time
behind the band,
there was this like ultra, ultra,
ultra wide LED backdrop.
And they were just playing
scenes from the movie
just well behind it and just
oh yeah it was so you know where the song is from
yeah so you know where the song is from
where was the venue
I forget where I was
it was somewhere in Tokyo it was
one of the big
it was Zep I don't remember exactly where it was
but it was probably like a
10,000 cap
venue so it was a big venue
it was a big venue yeah
and yeah that was out of all the
bands I went to go see that was easily
the best concert. I would honestly say
might honestly be one of the best concerts I've ever been
to. I wouldn't be surprised.
I mean, I would love to hear Hunts him
alive. Yeah. On some of the
tracks. Yeah. Also funny that...
I remember we talk about on trash taste, but he, like,
roasts people on Reddit. Oh, really?
He's like, really... He, like, gives criticism
to people's, like, soundtracks on all.
And he's fucking brutal.
I mean, look, I think if anyone has the right
to be critical about the soundtracks, it's
him. Yeah, I mean... He's kind of the goat.
Yeah, it's like if Messi says you're a bad
football player.
Yeah.
Well, it's messy.
So, you know.
He is the guy.
I'm sorry.
He was rude about it, but he's the guy.
Totally.
So what's his middle one?
You know, just casually getting engaged.
Also, I also included in this, though, because, you know, I did a lot of...
Yeah, I did a lot of traveling this year to, like, different parts of Japan, different countries.
But that Madagascar trip.
Memorable trip, Joey?
Oh, incredibly.
I mean, honestly, even without the engagement, it might honestly be my favorite trip I took this year, or within the last couple of years.
What does one country your boys want to go to this coming year?
This coming year?
Yeah.
One that's like you're like, I've been putting off for one reason or another, but I want to go.
We should hold each other account.
America.
Fuck no.
Fuck off.
We live in America, basically.
I really, I've always said right now, the top of my bucket list is Iceland.
Okay.
Where do you want to go?
But I'm probably going to end up going for like my honeymoon to Iceland.
I do have somewhere in my bucket list.
You don't want to say it, but I don't want to say it.
Right, yeah.
I mean, another one of my bucket list is Malaysia, but I'm going next to me.
We all got to go.
Yeah.
We'll do this next.
Yeah.
Yeah.
We're going to do it.
It's going to happen.
You go to Iceland.
You go to your place.
I'll go to.
And you got to go somewhere that's not America.
Philippines.
You go to Philippines?
Let's just run it.
Yeah, dude.
I feel like, why not?
Why not?
I just run it.
Did you just pick a random country?
Or is that just my reason?
One of the Southeast Asia.
They deserve it.
They deserve my presence.
They deserve me.
They deserve me.
No, it's over to you.
I feel like I feel like I got to hype them up.
Yeah.
I got to go there and I got to feel like I got to know how fucking heat it is.
I got to know I want to try the food.
Yeah.
It's just overdue that I got to start hyping it up.
Yeah.
I need to go there.
Be like, yeah, Philippines changed my life.
And then I'll come on the pot and talk about it.
Absolutely.
You have to.
So if you don't do that next year, what can we do?
If we don't go to the country, we're thinking of,
you could donate $1,000 to charity.
Easy.
I mean, sure.
So if you don't do it.
The thing is, I don't know if I'm going to,
because the thing is we're eventually-
$1,000 charity, Jerry.
Well, okay, let me change my answer then.
Because Iceland is going to be off to my wedding.
Okay, okay, which is probably the year after.
Okay, yeah, yeah.
Next year, okay, let me change my answer then.
Next year.
Yeah, it can't be somewhere we've already been.
Can't be somewhere I've already been.
Hmm.
Oh, man, that's kind of tough, actually.
because I definitely want to go to like say
You've been in New Zealand?
Yeah, when I was like
I'm going to pick for you.
Honestly, no, but honestly
I do actually want to go back to New Zealand
because the first time I went I was like three years old
I should remember it.
Yeah, I also want to go.
Yeah, so New Zealand definitely for sure
I want to go back to.
I also want to like visit like Hungary
and stuff like that because you know,
I have my family who live there and stuff.
Yeah, Hungary's good.
She's watch this YouTube video of this guy cycling
from UK to China.
Yeah.
And I was like, this looks ridiculous.
But when he was like cycling through
like Uzbekistan. I was like, yeah, just kind of want to check it out. Yeah.
Like, it looks crazy. He's just cycling through a desert for like 10 days.
Actually, I'd like to go to China as well. I've never been to China. China's cool. Yeah,
China's cool too. Yeah, China. I feel it's a waste of an old go concern. It's right there.
China's cool now. It's in. It's in right now. I would say that all the country is cool
right now. I would say that all the countries are shaking themselves in the foot.
China by virtue of just being China. It's like, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's like the valve
effect, you know.
where, you know,
when all your competitors
just shoot themselves in the foot,
you know,
I guess we're the best now.
You win by doing nothing.
Win by default.
Yeah.
Next up is exit A.
Exit A.
Exit A.
I did talk about in a recent episode.
I did talk about in a recent...
You want to briefly mention whites on the list?
Sure.
I thought,
I was thinking about like what movies
or like,
what were some of my favorite movies
I watched this year?
And I realized that
I didn't actually watch a whole lot
of like new movies this year.
Yeah.
I kind of rewatched a lot of like old
favorites that I used to have or, you know, because there's been a lot of like,
re-screenings of old movies and cinemas that I've seen a lot of, like, I went to go see,
you know, the 4K, um, reinterpretation of, uh, or not reinterpretation of, uh, or not
re-interpretation, but re-screening of Princess Mononoke.
And I saw that as well.
Yeah, which was amazing.
Bro, it was so fucking good, man.
So fucking.
I was like, I'm so glad that, because like, that was one of the first jibly films I watched
as a kid on my fucking VHS that I probably watched at least 50 times growing up.
So it was finally.
cool to actually see it on the big screen.
Yeah. And it was,
it just reaffirmed to me that it is the best jibly film ever made.
Like, no question.
But out of the new movies I watched, I would probably say, yeah, A Z8 was my, like,
it was the most surprisingly good.
They didn't think it was going to be good.
I didn't think it was going to be good.
Just because I've played the game and I'm like, there's no story to this game.
How the fuck are they going to make a 90-minute movie out of this?
Shockingly good.
I would definitely rewatch that movie, for sure.
All right.
Yeah. And then I guess I can also, in that also same vein, I can talk about Taco Pete.
Go back to Princess Mononoke. Yeah. Have you only seen it in Japanese? Yes. Okay. So, okay, so you haven't seen the dub. I haven't seen the dub. Okay. Should I?
Huh? Should I mean, the dub is fucking like, like, it's a, it's a Disney, it's a Disney, it's a Disney, it's a Disney dub, basically. Okay. So basically you can never agree to go wrong with the Ghibli dubs anyway. You know, same thing with all the other Ghibli movies like, how's movie?
Castle has like Christian Bell in it and all that stuff.
Yeah, yeah.
Love husband.
I was like, am I crazy because you know the girl at the beginning that gives her charm to like Ashitaka?
His sister.
Is it his sister?
Is it his sister?
Is it his sister?
Yeah.
I've seen the movie by the way.
Huh?
I've never seen Princess Mono.
Okay.
I've not watched many Ghibli films.
Okay.
If you have to watch any Ghibli film, it's this one.
Yeah.
seems like the next one that I really want to watch,
because I really liked Castle in the Sky.
I really fucked with...
I believe...
I believe this was the one after Castle in the Sky,
if I'm not mistaken.
I watched Valley of the Wind.
I think I was Nauska.
Yeah, I think I watched Nauska.
Naska's up there as well.
I think I watched that one too.
And the boy and heron and I liked a lot too.
Yeah.
I don't know if it was like a sub-thing
when I watched the Princess Mononoke
in Japanese theaters,
but I was like, I think it implied that that girl was his betrothed or something like that.
And I was like, I was like, well, I don't think it was like that in the dub, was it?
Hey, yo, did they change it to a sister or was that like a mix up in the sub titles?
So, see, here's the thing, right?
So, like, when I went to go watch it at IMAX, it had been, fuck, at least a good five, 10 years,
maybe since the last time I watched it.
Yeah.
And, you know, the story is set in the Nara period, which is what the 1200s of Japan.
So the language that they use is very old.
Right.
And if you're not paying attention or you're not, you know, if you don't understand,
there's a lot of terminology that they use that is just old Japanese that people don't say anymore.
So, which is, but at the same time, it's also very, yeah, Kaya, right?
Yeah, that's a sister.
Yeah.
Oh.
Oh, it's, you know what?
Never mind.
There you go.
And they said they did change it.
The original subversion of the film,
Kaya is not actually Ashitaka's sister,
but his bride to be.
I thought I was like tweaking out
when I saw that in cinema.
I thought it was a sister.
No, because it was, they changed it to his sister
in the dub.
Oh.
You know, Disney were like,
yeah, it's his sister.
That's like really famous on film law
that he was getting fucking pissed off
with them changing his movies.
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.
And he sent the famous thing
is sending the swords, the katana being like, no cuts.
Oh, yeah, yeah, that's right.
Yeah, I think Disney did Disneyify.
Oh, well, there you go.
I didn't even, see, I didn't even point that out or figure that out.
Because I feel like, again, it's like, for me, Princess Mona Noke is really good because
it's, I can watch it multiple times because, again, the language is so old.
Yeah.
That if you don't really pay attention to it or you don't read it in the Japanese subtitles, you can
miss out on a lot of nuance.
And you can miss out on a lot of, like, the, the finer details of the, the conversations
that are happening. Because I remember, you know, even though I was like, what, five or six years old when
I first watched this movie, I didn't understand what the fuck they were saying. Yeah.
Because I was like five. I just enjoyed the movie for what it was, because you can still enjoy
the movie visually speaking. It's, it is a visual marvel considering it's...
Oh, it's 100% is. Considering it's almost a fucking 30-year-old movie. Yeah, his films have aged.
Oh, yeah. But, like, just, I remember just like some of those scenes on the big screen in IMAX.
I was just like, wow, this is a painting. Good animation just doesn't have.
age, man. Oh, dude, 100%. And the story is so good, too. And the voice acting is, was that the first time
you watched it in Japanese? Uh, yes, it was. How was it compared to the dub? I mean, it was great
as well. Um, I mean, both, Prince, Mononokee was the first anime movie I ever watched. Oh, really?
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, because I know, like, you're, you're not really a huge fan of, like,
Ghibli. I'm not a huge fan of Ghibli. Uh, like, you know, some people, they fucking love Ghibli. I'm like,
they're good films.
And it's just, you know, a lot of them just aren't really like to my taste, I would say.
But, you know, they are a Marvel filmmaking technically and critically.
And I remember being shown Princess Monanoque by my cousin.
And I was like seven or something.
And it was just like the first anime film I'd ever watch.
Yeah.
Shame it never played on British TV.
It never was it added ever on Australian TV?
No, I mean, my only exposure to it was my ground.
sending me the VHS
for Japan, yeah.
I feel that's how you come across it, right?
So I just gave you the VHS.
But I remember I saw a post
about Christian Bale
where they were like,
what one of your movies
would you show your kid?
And he said, Howls.
Oh, yeah, yeah.
And everyone was like,
we didn't say Batman.
What the fuck?
It's like.
Damn, no American psycho.
That's crazy.
Yeah, that's crazy.
I wonder if he hates that character
to an extent.
I'm sure he does now.
Yeah, I think he's.
I think he's like talked about this before.
Oh, actually.
Where he was just like, you know, he'd,
I believe he had like an interview
where he talked about the main character of American Slico.
And he'd, I think this was even before
the modern internet movement maybe,
but he'd met like, you know, business people
were fucking, you know, New York, you know.
Like pure stockbrokers, they were like,
yo, I fucking love that character, man.
And you're like, you like the...
You like the guy.
You like the writing of the character, right?
And he kind of like realized,
Oh no, they actually just like the character, even though he...
He's just like me for real.
I'm like, do you want that, though?
That's actually like, that's fucking terrifying.
Yeah.
I think my favorite thing about Princess Mononoke as well,
such a small thing, but like the voice actor for Morrow,
the Japanese voice actor for Morrow, Miwaki Hiko, is just like,
because he also played the witch, you know, the fat witch in hell as well.
His voice acting is just like on a number.
other fucking level. He's so scarily good at the characters that he plays. And I remember just
watching it on the big screen. I'm like, oh my God, I am terrified all over again. Like I was
when I was five years old. But yeah, anyway, exit eight, great movie. Go check that out.
I want to watch it. What's next? I guess I can talk about Tarkopi as well. Because we've obviously
talked about Tarkopi as a death or right. Well, we haven't finished talking about Taka Piri on the
pause. Because we reacted to the best two episodes. Yeah. Did you finish it? I did finish it.
How was it?
I haven't finished it yet.
Oh, you haven't finished yet?
What? It's like six episodes.
Yeah.
I know.
It's probably going to be on my best of anime list.
So when I know something is going to be on that list, I normally wait till the end of the year to watch it.
So it's like fresh in my mind when I write about it.
Fair enough.
After I watched the first two episodes, I was like, yeah, it's probably going to be on the list.
Yeah.
That's very good.
Yeah.
I mean, you know, I made a whole video on it as well.
And just I think it's one of the best, probably,
long time
that I've seen personally.
Takapi, which we've already talked about,
this is the year that I would say,
as a mate, I'm like, damn,
Joey's watching anime again.
And I think it started with Takupi, if I remember correctly.
It did start with Takopi, yeah.
Because I've loved that manga.
I just love all of Tys and Five stuff
from the manga.
And Takopi was certainly up there.
So when I saw that they were going to make an anime of,
I was like, all right, I got to come out of retirement
for this one place.
And I watched it, and it was,
it couldn't have been any better.
Like this was one of the most perfect.
Like, you know, so many people like glaze this show of this year,
but I think rightfully so.
Like, it is just in terms of directing,
and obviously the writing is great because it's Ties and Five.
But I think the thing that impressed me the most about this
is that even though if you've read the manga,
you'll know that for the most part,
it is a very quiet show where technically,
like there's some big points that happen throughout the story.
But other than that,
not a whole lot of like quote unquote exciting things happen.
And yet they somehow managed to turn some of those very quiet scenes into just some of the most unnerving moments I've seen in an anime in a long time.
Just like whoever was responsible for directing the anime knew exactly what they were doing when it comes to like building suspense and like holding tension in scenes because that's the whole reason why the manga was so powerful when it came out as well.
and the animation and like cinematography
is just on another level
and I just as a big like horror and like thriller
anime advocate I wish more shows did
like horror in anime like they did in Takopi
because it's just too many
I feel like the horror genre in anime especially
has just gotten such a sour taste to it
because just a lot of the adaptations
have just been not that great
because either the director doesn't quite understand
how to turn that tension into
into, you know, movement or, you know, show it on the screen and stuff like that.
But the Tuckopi team fucking knocked it out of the pot.
I think you used these perspective really well.
Yeah.
I think it's a hard thing to sometimes show or write the story for multiple characters' perspectives.
But I think it is a really good way of blending them and allowing you to kind of question everything.
Yeah, totally.
In a really solid way.
Yeah, yeah.
So that was, yeah, easily the best anime I watched this year.
So I had to include that.
Overall, solid year for anime.
Solid year.
Yeah.
The one of the bottom there,
best buds.
I just included that
just because I had nothing else to put in.
Joey made another YouTube channel.
I made another YouTube channel.
What?
You were like,
can't monetize your hobbies.
You make another hobby and monetize it.
What the fuck is that?
Yeah, we've made a whopping $30.
We're fucking killing.
I'm just saying.
So yeah, this is just like
Alex, who is our content producer for trash taste.
Him and I were like, we miss all let's plays.
Let's make a let's play channel where we just fucking dick around
and just like have fun together.
So we started that while I was in America back in June.
And almost at 10K subs.
So nice, nice.
But yeah, I think it's just like a great outlet for me and Alice
is just like hang out because he's in America.
And we don't really get to talk all that often.
And I love talking to him.
He's my boy.
So yeah, we was just like, fuck it.
Let's just like bring back all like 2010's energy let's plays.
Yo, game grumps.
Yeah, legit.
We love game grumps so much that we made our own game grumps.
Yeah, yeah.
So yeah, I just wanted to throw that in there as a shout out.
Go subscribe if you want.
And then the bottom left one, this is a novel series called Himerden or the Densetsetsu series by Nishu Ishin.
Nishuishuishin, for those of you don't know, made the Monogatari series, Katanagatari.
you know, Medica Box. He's made so many, like, iconic anime and manga series. Yeah. But he's
originally an author. And this is one of the series where it got no adaptation, no manga, no anime,
it's just a novel series. And I wanted to kind of go through, because I love, you know,
everything that he's written so far, I just wanted to go through the rest of his catalog. And I
stumbled across this Densetzer series. It's like 10 novels. And I'm, I'm like through the fourth one
right now. And it's fucking wild. Like it's, it is so initiation. The only way I can describe
this show is it's, it's so hard to describe a initiation story without it sounding like a fever
dream. But essentially, the main character, so, so the novel starts off with a third of the
entire world's population dies overnight because the earth let out a giant scream.
and it's this scream that like nobody heard but everybody felt and it killed a third of the population
and our main character uh he's like it's the book starts off where he's kind of talking to his
like therapist and he's talking about like coming to terms with the fact that a third of the
world has died and he's done and he can't do anything about it and then he gets recruited by this
organization which is uh an organization that was created to basically fight against the
Earth. So it's this weird, like, kind of parody on the superhero magical girl genre
where humans go up against the Earth and try to destroy the Earth before the Earth kills
everybody. Right. And obviously it's initiation. So, like, the characters are fucking crazy. The main
character is crazy. Yeah. The rioting is bonkers. And there's just so much, like, fun, like,
kind of, what's the word, like, dissections and, like, kind of parodifying.
you know,
magical girl genre
and the superhero genre
and the thriller genre
and stuff like that
in ways where it's just like,
I've been reading through this thing
and I'm like,
I don't know what the fuck
is happening in this book
but I just can't stop reading it
because it's just so fuck.
I would say out of all
of the initiation stories I've read,
this might be one of his
most fucking bonkers story
that he's ever written
and I can see why this
didn't get an adaptation.
Yeah.
Because I just can't imagine
this being adapted
and it making sense for anybody.
Maybe there's a way
you could tell the story.
Maybe.
You know, I mean.
Everyone always say things on adaptable, but the, yeah.
Maybe one day we'll get it, but it's, it's, it was one of, yeah, I would say this is probably
his like, maybe, I don't want to say his toughest read, but I mean, each of the books are like
700 pages long and there's 10 of them.
So they not only take a long time to go through because Nishuishing loves to do this thing where
he, pages and pages, he goes off about one thing that at the end of it doesn't fucking matter
to the story.
That's one though.
It's about the journey
and the destination.
Yeah, exactly.
And it's just really cool as well
because like there are so many moments where like,
for example, in like,
I don't want to give too much away,
but like, say for example,
in the second book,
the main character meets this group of five magical girls.
Right.
Who literally are just magical girls.
And, and, and, and the first book,
there is no hint towards these magical girls coming out.
Yeah.
In the second book, yeah.
So the second book opens up where,
um,
he gets no.
notified that the entirety of Qshu, like all the people who live on Qshu disappeared overnight.
And so he's sent into Qshu to figure out what the hell happened.
And so when he gets there, the first thing he encounters is this magical girl who's just standing in the middle of a field who tries to kill him.
For no reason.
And there are just these moments where like, there would be like chapters of Nishuishin describing this magical girl, giving her a name, giving her a personality, giving her her
pages and pages and pages of her interacting with the main character,
only for then it to end with her head exploding for no reason.
And there are just so many moments like that where you're just like, wait,
so you're telling me, I sat through, I sat through 150 pages of you describing this character
thinking that, you know, maybe they're going to be like friends with the main character
or something or, you know, like be a pivotal part of the story, and they just suddenly die.
Maybe he writes it all. He's like, yeah.
Yeah, man.
I have a feeling he starts writing a character.
He's like, I don't like a killer off.
This is what we call vibe writing.
It is vibe writing.
He's definitely, he's definitely, he's definitely vibe coding with this.
It's the writing version of vibe coding.
Yeah.
So I've been loving this novel series so far.
How many entries are there in this?
So there's 10 entries.
Oh, wow.
And I'm through book four right now.
Yeah.
So that's like what I've read.
through almost 2,000 pages so far of this novel.
So it's been great to, like, keep my Japanese up to shape.
But, yeah, easily one of the most bonkers stories I've read.
Yeah.
I have no idea if there's an English translation for this.
I've just been reading on my Kindle in Japanese, but yeah, it's been a lot of fun
reading through this.
If there is an English adaptation and you like Monogatari series of Katanagata and you have
Nishuotian stuff, I would highly recommend this one.
And there you go.
That was my 3-by-3.
Awesome.
Wow.
It seems like a varied list of things.
Yeah.
Yeah, because other than all of these, I was just, I don't know, I was just chilling this year.
We were working along.
We worked a lot.
Yeah, working a lot.
Yeah.
So these are the ones I could scrape out.
So there you go.
Fair enough.
All right.
All right.
All right.
You want to go next?
You want to go next or just like it next?
Okay.
All right.
All right.
Let me.
That's you.
My list.
As you can see.
Wow.
This is...
Mostly video game.
This is Connor's Twitch channel.
Yeah, so, so if I, so just a reason why this is so many video games.
He's a gamer.
I have played, I counted, I played 150 games.
Holy shit.
On stream.
Wow.
I played games offstream too.
Holy fuck.
I am a gamer through and through.
Damn, you locked into being a gamer this year, huh?
This year I went so incredibly hard on video games.
It is a, even when I look back at the games I've played this year, I'm like,
Wow, I played a lot of fucking classics.
Is there a reason why this year in particular was such a game every year?
Because you didn't play this many games last year, did you?
Yeah.
No, I think this year I, well, last year I kind of really enjoyed playing a lot of longer games.
And this year, I just really wanted to play a bunch of video games.
Yeah.
I found myself just really appreciating the medium of gaming.
I'm getting really into it, really?
Like this, I've had so much fun with playing video games.
So that's why there's a lot of games here.
But also, there was a lot more that I could put on here.
Yeah. I had to really, like, be very selective here with the games that I chose.
Yeah.
And only three of the games on this list of from this year.
But they're very good games.
Yes.
And I had to put one music.
I was like, fuck yeah, I put one music.
I put one.
I didn't put any music this.
Yeah, Joey didn't put you.
You did you have your hand zimmer?
Oh, yeah.
Okay.
I felt like I should put some music and at least this was, this is a way to talk about orb at least.
Yeah.
So let me go through the nine that I chose.
Yeah.
Our first one is Sackana Action, Japanese Band.
the opening for Orb.
Been listening
quite a lot this year.
Oh,
given the artist
that I've listened to
maybe the most this year.
Right.
Not Tame Impala.
Expedition 33.
Battle Fantasy Tactics.
I've ever list chronicles.
F1.
The movie,
the documentary
and the sport in general.
Yep.
In the middle is
Metal Gear Solid.
Yep. Dispatch
is the sixth one.
Adolescence.
I've put my favorite TV show
this year.
Soma.
And then one battle
left.
Another is probably my
favorite film I've watched
this year.
But again,
that was really hard
to the
I'll go through
because I wanted to at least have one TV,
one movie, and one music.
Right.
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah, honestly, it could have been nine games.
Yeah.
Because that is genuinely the thing
I've done most this year.
Right, right.
The most feelings about.
Yeah.
We can start with second action.
Yeah, basically,
all was so good.
And the opening.
I love it when you discover an artist
through like an anime opening.
And the opening was so good.
Yeah.
And then I listened to Monster or Kaiju,
sorry, that's the name of the song,
right, Kaiju?
That was it?
Yeah.
Yeah, I think so.
Yeah.
I listened to that song so much that eventually I was like, fuck it.
Let's listen to the rash of them.
Yeah.
And then I was like, oh, bangers.
Yeah, yeah.
They're such good hand.
Have they done anything else outside of Warb?
I don't know if they've done any other anime.
But they're a very, very popular band within Japan.
Yeah, they have been around for a long time.
Yeah, very well known.
I think Shinn Kakarjima was like the first, like, big hit.
I think that's Sark on action, right?
Not too sure.
Oh, there's a couple.
Okay, they've done a few.
Let's see what else they've done.
No, sorry.
Just, just, just, just, just, just,
Oh, damn.
What a banger.
Yeah.
One and done.
That's all that needs to be done.
I'm surprised because they definitely struck me as a band that would be in a lot more anime.
Yeah.
I mean, I'm not sure.
I mean, Orb as an opening, it doesn't, it's a little, I think it's unique.
Yeah.
No, they're definitely, their sound is definitely unique.
Yeah.
I feel like, you know, especially in these past couple of years, I feel like anime openings aren't
just like your generic like J-pop songs anymore.
Like they're definitely kind of, you know, I mean, anime opens,
have always had artists and bands that are a little more on the unique side in terms of like sound
and like suck and action like i think perfectly fits that vibe for a lot of shows but yeah and
and also orb did the fucking amazing thing of not changing the opening halfway through it's just
it's the iconic opening of orb yeah and i think it's better to do that than to yeah i think so too
yeah and to change it up yeah i think so like usually the first opening is the best for
Yeah, exactly.
The amount of times you get to like the second opening
and you're like this definitely sounds like a second opening.
I like the Dundadon second opening,
but it feels like a second opening.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Same thing with like Oshinoco as well.
I like the Oceyoko.
Gacda as well, I'm just like, yeah, it's fine.
Me, when I'm the band who gets commissioned to go,
check.
Yeah.
Oh, you're sure?
I have to follow up that.
Yeah.
Bro, for real?
Yeah, I mean, all was probably my favorite anime
of this year, even though it technically started last year,
but it went into this year.
It was probably still my favorite anime of this year.
As much as I love Takopi and I loved
a lot of other animas that came out this year,
but I didn't watch that many, to be honest.
It was still, I think, you know,
and this song was so fucking good.
It got me into listening to this band,
so I appreciate Orb for doing that.
Right on.
I guess we, which order should we go?
Should we leave games to last?
Sure, sure.
Because I got a lot to talk about with games.
F1.
F1, I've talked about on the pod a lot.
I won't bore you guys too much.
I watched the F1 movie,
which I really, really enjoyed.
I thought it was, again,
maybe one of my top three movies of this year.
Didn't put it on here
because I felt like this kind of encompasses it anyway.
Yeah.
And Drive to Survive, I got into,
and through that, started watching F1.
And it was just like a really fun,
fun year for me to get into it.
And it's probably been my favorite sport thing
that I've gotten into this year.
I feel like every year I dip my toes in another sport.
Yeah, kind of get a little bit,
into it, which is really nice, because there's always just random events that pop up,
and sometimes the sport you like, or you kind of got kind of into, it's like, oh, it's doing
something. Okay, cool, I'll watch it. Yeah, the other day, a random F1 video finally popped up
on my thing as well. But it definitely wasn't like the story-oriented F-1 style stuff that
you've been watching. It was one of those, like, I forgot what the title of the video was,
but it was something on the lines of like 12 infamous F1 cases where the horror, where the driver
died in horrible ways.
I think someone hasn't died in a long time,
but it does,
it has happened.
A lot of them were from like the 50s and 60s
where like regulations weren't formally set up.
Yeah, even nowadays,
how fast they're going,
you're like, Jesus Christ,
some of these crashes,
you're like, fuck me.
Yeah.
But it's been such a cool sport to get into.
I hope my boy Lewis Hamilton
can bring it back some time and win.
Yeah.
But it's, yeah,
it's just a,
it's been a really fun sport to get into.
And, yeah,
If you want to get into a new thing,
I reckon I'm watching Drive to Survive
or just watch the F1 movie
because it was so good.
It's such a good movie.
And I want to watch it.
It feels like an ad for the sport,
but in the best way possible.
It feels like I love letters to the sport.
Hell yeah.
Yeah.
Because he, you know, like the,
it's such a beautifully shot film.
And obviously all the actors are fantastic in it.
It's just,
it's the perfect package of what a banging sports movie
is meant to be.
Yeah. So highly recommend it.
Man, Brad Pitt does a lot of the good sport.
films.
And then I think probably my favorite TV show was probably Adolescence.
I haven't heard of this.
I was pretty popular when it came out.
Really?
Maybe I just don't watch TV shows.
Yeah, I don't watch TV shows.
Did you hear about this show?
I feel like I did.
So, Adolescence is...
Is it Netflix?
Yeah, Netflix.
It was a four-episode series, and the notable thing about the show is it was all one-shot.
Oh, wow.
So each episode is one camera, no cuts, and it moves around.
Right, right.
Which has some limitations, but it is so fucking good.
And basically, I'll tell you the story.
You can see it there.
A 13-year-old is accused of murder by a classmate.
This family, the therapist, and detective are all in charge of left asking what really happened.
Right.
And so it kind of, it's all, you know, very dramatic.
The first episode is them kind of arresting this kid and all the initial reactions of the police, the family.
And then the second episode is, you know, kind of questioning further the school kids about what's going on.
And then the third episode is where they kind of interrogate this kid.
Yeah.
And the whole episode is just interrogating this kid.
And it's such a good episode.
And this kid is his first time acting.
And he did such an amazing job.
But the best part was Stefan Graham.
I think it's his name.
I mean, if you're British, you will have seen this guy a bunch, gone, this guy.
Oh, okay, yes.
Yeah, yeah.
He plays the dad, and he does such a fucking gut-wrenching performance.
I probably one of my favorite performances, just full stop this year, of any actor.
I've never, I've not, I've not been that hurt in a long time and watching, watching him.
And also, like, I think maybe because it was said in the UK, but Stefan Graham's character is such a typical British man.
Yeah.
that watching him really kind of go through this from the lens that I feel like,
maybe even like, I see a lot of my dad.
Right, right.
So similar, because he's also, I think also from Liverpool.
My dad's from Liverpool.
Yeah.
So watching a character who feels so close to something in my life.
Yeah.
And seeing a man, because, you know, like, I'm sure your dad as well, like,
and all our dad's to an extent, it's like watching someone go through something horrific.
and kind of watching a dad from that generation
if you can't cry,
you can't go with any of this stuff.
Yeah.
Like, can't show emotion.
Having to kind of like outwardly deal with these emotions
and kind of go through it
and deal with what's happening
is a really horrific,
really hard thing to watch.
Yeah.
But he does such an amazing job.
And it was one of the shows
that's really stuck with me this year.
Right.
And I really, really enjoyed it.
Four episodes.
I highly recommend I'm watching it.
They're about, I think,
40 minutes to an hour each, an episode.
But some of the best acting,
really amazing intentional camera work as well that really like sucks you in.
You feel like you can never look away.
Right, right.
Again, there's no cuts.
It's just constantly following.
Yeah.
And it's kind of like watching this beautiful clockwork of all these actors because, again, the camera's moving.
You see everyone's moving around doing their thing and all the actors are to be where they need to be at the right time.
And it feels like almost a stage play in real life.
Right.
You can see the last two episodes of the highest rated, which I feel like is unusual for a show.
that's like this.
Like, you know,
normally these shows
that are kind of
TV shows
where they're limited run,
it's only the first episode
at the big hook.
Yes.
It's a show
that honestly
kind of reaches its apex
in like third episode.
Okay, okay.
But,
you know.
Is the single camera shot,
would you say that?
It adds to it a lot.
It adds to it.
It adds to it.
It adds to it.
A lot of the times,
like with 19,
1912 or 1912
or 19, what's that movie?
1970.
17. 17.
17.
17.
1917.
At times I felt like the camera being one shot was limiting.
Yeah.
In a way that...
Same thing with, what's the other fucking film?
Well, that stage actor.
Birdman or something like that.
Oh, yeah, Birdman.
It was Birdman.
Is it Birdman?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Sometimes you can feel like a limitation.
Yeah.
But I felt like because of what the scope of this was,
which was basically, again, like one of the episodes
is just in an interrogation room.
Yeah, yeah.
It never felt like it was a hindering.
And it added to a lot of the pacing of like, you know, trying to arrest this person, figure out what's going on.
Yeah.
It really added to like the tension of like everything's constantly simmering.
Okay.
And it worked really well.
So I highly recommend if you didn't watch this, because it was like the most watched TV show when it came out.
Right.
If you didn't watch it, for whatever reason, I still really think you should watch it.
Okay.
Really amazing.
Really worth watching.
And one of the most gut-wrenching performances.
Damn.
This came on March.
Yeah, March.
I please watch this.
Like, this is genuinely,
if I could tell you to watch any TV show this year,
this is it.
Okay, okay.
Again, four episodes.
Yeah, yeah.
And you can watch one episode,
come back to it a week later, like.
Yeah.
But for me, I had to.
Did you binge it?
Yeah, I had to.
I couldn't stop when I watched it.
Yeah.
I mean, and this,
it'd be so easy to binge, too,
because it's only four episodes.
Yeah.
And it feels very,
it feels very British and very,
maybe Australian to an extent,
you know, very,
it's more of the kin to the,
style of, you know, when something is a bit explosive, acting-wise, it's explosive in the
lens of British acting. Uh-huh. Oh, I see. You know, my personal preference, I like, I like the
more grounded approach to acting. Not over-conflated, like. Yeah, yeah, but it's about as dramatic
as it can get. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's not being arrested for murder. Like, it's, um, yeah.
But again, a really amazing show. I don't think I ever talked about on Trash Taste. No, no, you didn't.
I think because I went straight into Cycle Thorn after watching it. Yeah. I think that's probably why I'd never
ended up talking about.
Right, right.
And the kid also,
I think he won an Emmy
for his acting.
Oh, sick.
And I think also Stephen Graham
did too.
I could be wrong.
But it was Stephen Graham,
again, best performance
I watched all year.
All right.
Okay.
My favorite one.
Hell yeah.
All right, nice.
And then movies, honestly,
there's a lot of great movies
this year that I watched.
Yeah.
Honestly, my,
one about left another
was probably my favorite.
I watched,
because he's,
it's,
it's Leonardo of Caprio,
Benicio del Toro, is that his name?
Benicio del Toro.
He was amazing in this movie.
I really enjoyed it.
What's it about?
So, God.
So the movie...
Two hours, 50 minutes.
Oh, is Sean Penn.
Sean Penn.
And I will say, Sean Pan is the reason why this movie is so good.
I feel Sean Penn never misses.
He seems like a crazy person in real life and a little bit of an intense guy.
because I watched him in the Charlie Sheen dock.
Right.
And I swear at one point in this dock he's doing Coke on the table.
He seems like an insane guy.
I don't know if I'm like, it was a weird thing.
Anyway, Sean Penn seems like a fucking crazy guy.
But the movie opens up with them breaking immigrants out of an immigration center.
Right.
So you can imagine maybe how maybe some of the discussion around this movie got a lot of muted.
Right.
Yeah.
There's the people like, it's too, whoa.
It's like they basically like the opening scene is they scout out this immigration camp
where they're being held under like pretty rough conditions.
And then Leon de Caprio and this other character, I forgot their name.
I'm so sorry.
They break them out of this immigration center.
Yeah.
And Sean Penn is the cop.
And then one of the opening scenes where I was like, oh, this is not going to be a normal film.
Was I forgot what the name of the actress was.
Tiana Taylor?
Tiana Taylor.
Tiana Taylor.
She's like a Disney actress, isn't she?
Originally, I'm not mistaken?
I'm not sure what you're maybe.
Or like a Nick kid's actress originally?
So when they're breaking them out of this immigration camp,
Sean Pan is like the main cop who's there stationed.
Yeah.
And she goes in this room and like makes him jerk off in front of her.
What?
And then you're like, okay, he wants revenge.
No, he really was turned on by this and like wants to hunt.
her down to like have sex with her.
So it gets like really fucking weird.
Okay. And I like, I mean, so that's like the first 20 minutes and they time skip like 16
years and yeah, you know, I, the, the story gets very convoluted in a good way.
Yeah.
And I would say like the first hour and a half of the film is a 10 out of 10 and the last hour
or so, like an eight or nine. Like it definitely loses a little bit of steam. But it's very good,
It's very funny.
The actor, the director, Paul Thomas Anderson,
who's done another couple of films that I've really enjoyed too.
So really good film.
Pretty my favorite film that came out this year.
Yeah.
Highly recommend it.
Benicia del Torre did great.
I also watched him in the Phoenician scheme this year, which I really did enjoy.
But I, it was like one of those West Anderson films where it just felt like a West Anderson film,
but it didn't blow you away.
Right.
I mean, what was Anderson film doesn't feel like a Wes Anderson film?
But sometimes they do.
they feel like a West Anderson film,
but I'm also like super impressed
and locked in.
And that was like Grand Prix Best Hotel.
It's like,
oh yeah,
by far his best,
his best film.
And it feels like the West Anderson isms
push that story in a great direction.
Whereas some films feel like
it is at the extent,
like it is the movie suffers
for the West Anderson kind of.
Right. It like takes you out of it all.
Yeah.
And unfortunately, the Phoenician scheme
is a movie that is really cool.
But it feels like a movie that was made for actors and not for, like, people...
You think it was Oscar Bay?
Because it's just like, eh...
Sometimes it's just like, you know, every actor is just, you know,
trying to work with, like, a director like Wes Anderson, you know?
Yeah, I mean, it feels like a movie for someone who really enjoys the arts and that world.
Yeah.
I don't know what I even mean by that necessarily, but, like, it...
I don't know, there's a lot of things I wish...
There's a...
Wait, there's a character in this movie called...
Jungle Pussy?
Yeah.
So Sean Pan is in this movie,
and I will say the reason why I think this movie is rated so highly is because of
Sean Pan.
He is fucking terrifying in this film.
He is maniacal, evil, and like every single time he's on screen, he's fucking terrifying.
And his character name is Lockjaw.
God fucking down that.
Jesus Christ.
Colonel Stephen J. Lockjaw.
And I think another reason why a lot of maybe groups didn't like this
film is because there is a, like, in this movie, he has, like, this meeting with this thing
called, like, the Christmas Club. Yeah. And it's just a bunch of, like, white nationalists.
You, like, control everything. Right. And he's like, he, like, wants to join them. Um, but they're
like, you haven't had sex with a black person, have you? He's like, no. No. And then they find out he's
lying to them. And it's like, yeah, it all goes. Yeah, it's all very odd. It's all, but, um, really good
movie, really gripping. I highly recommend it.
Okay. At least, you know, it might not be for everyone. I don't think everyone's going to enjoy this
film, but I think, and it's, it's, it is a messy film. It feels like a couple of things are all
over the place. Yeah. But, you know, you have Sean Penn, you have Lion La Caprio,
Benisha Del Torre really like bring it together as well as a Tana Taylor. I've heard of
keep it together. Yeah, I've heard a lot about this film, but very few people who actually
watch the film. I mean, I would, look, I would, it's one of those films. I do want to
I would not mind watching it again, even though it's two and a half hours.
Yeah, I do want to watch this.
If it wouldn't have been this, it would have been like, I don't know,
Lawrence of Arabia, which I watched this year, which I loved, watched it twice.
Oh, the original one?
Yeah, I watched that twice.
Oh, dude, that's such good.
And I watched Bridge of the River Choir this year.
That could have been up there.
You also watched Heat, didn't you this year?
I watched Heat this year.
Yeah, you watched all the classics, man.
Yeah, there's a lot of movies that it could have been, but I think...
You watched Rand this year as well?
Yeah, exactly.
I watched so many good films this year.
I will say, just because it's 2025,
and I felt like this movie was very good,
fuck it, it can go up there.
Yep.
All right, gaming time.
All right, let's go through the games.
Finally, some real shit.
Finally, gaming.
Okay, there's a lot of, we got,
I mean, look, gaming this year,
fucking great.
Great year for gamers.
What do you feel like was the best year,
best, so not all of these games
came out this year, correct?
No.
But could you have filled this list out,
with games that came out this year.
Did you play a lot of games that came out of this year,
or was it mostly like older games?
Well, tactics and dispatch for this year, right?
So there's Expedition 33.
Expedition 33.
Oh, yeah.
And yeah, so if three of these games came out this year,
I think I've become playing games that come out right away.
Like, I will say, I really enjoyed playing expedition 33.
I love playing dispatch.
And it is fun to play these games at the peak of their, like,
popularity.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
It's fun.
But also, being a live streamer, sometimes playing these games, like, by far the worst
time, like worst chat experience I had was Exhibition 33.
Oh, really?
Viewers were insufferable.
Because they, because they all, like, when it's like the game of the month or game
of the week, you get the most insufferable people who come into your chat and try to
support things and tell you what to do.
Like, no, no, you got to do this.
Please, you see L and your team.
Like, they can't fucking like let me.
You're not playing the game that I play it.
But the good thing is, like, when I've played, what maybe was the, like, when I played FNAF recently.
Like, I played, I played fucking Five Nights of Fridays.
I played five at Fridays one through five recently.
Okay.
My first time I've ever said that I played through it.
That's crazy.
That's crazy.
I had a great time.
Chat.
Great.
It was awesome vibes.
Because enough time has passed where people don't care about what you're doing.
Yeah.
They're just pumped that someone's playing it.
Yeah.
They're like, oh, dude, this game was like my fucking peak when I was a kid.
And also, five nights is still very popular.
Yeah.
But because time has passed and it's not like cool to currently like it right now,
people are so much more fun about like watching you play it.
Right.
Like the more casual fans are going to watch it, right?
Or I guess the non-super diehard fans.
But like when people play it, like so for a game like Dispatch as well,
at times people like this as well when I was playing it.
Yeah.
Because it's so new, you know, we all get hyperfixated on things.
When something comes out, we make, we want to learn everything about it for about two weeks.
And then we go.
Yeah.
And so Dispatch, because I played it like.
like right when it was basically finished.
I had a similar experience
where a lot of people were trying to backseat
were trying to be like,
oh, you're gonna do this.
Oh, you gotta see the scene, please.
Please, you have to do this.
You know, it's like, no, no,
just let me fucking play the game.
Yeah, you know.
But, yeah, I think this year I could have
probably filled this list out
with games came up just this year.
But I also mostly played games
that didn't come out this year.
And that wasn't intentional.
It was just like,
I kind of just get in my head,
I'm like,
I want to play this game
Fuck it, I'll play it.
Yeah.
But I got into, for example, Metal Gear because I had a sponsorship lined up.
And I was, like, excited because I was like, finally, Conner gets to play the peak that is Metal Gear.
And I will say, out of all the games that I played, I think playing the Metal Gear series is probably my favorite gaming experience of shit.
I mean, it's one of my favorite gaming experience of all times.
That's a classic.
Yeah.
And like, you know, depending on the day you ask me, I'll tell you which game is my favorite and it will change every day.
Yeah.
Like, I will have a different mood.
What are you saying today?
I think two, it'd be two if you asked me.
Two. I think about a lot.
Two.
Two, the ending, have you watched the scenes from the end again?
Not recently.
You should go back and watch the calls at the end now.
It's fucked.
The amount of things he kind of predicted is shocking.
The more you, the more the internet progresses, the more I lean more and more towards two as being just the fucking...
It's scary.
It is the serial experiments lane of the video game
where the more time passes the more relevant it gets
Well, because there's like in two there's like
There's this whole thing at the end where obviously two is all a simulation
Yeah, oh fuck, okay, spoiler a little bit down
Two is all a simulation
And there's a whole big speech
Where they're talking about controlling information
Yeah
And the he goes, the AI goes off into being like
If we allow everybody to have a say over information
and the flow of information, nothing will be reliable.
Everything will be a mess.
And people, the loudest voices will control the say.
We need to control the flow of information to limit what people can see and do.
And it was like, when everyone has free access to information,
everything becomes meaningless.
And I was like, oh, my God, stuff like this.
You're like, it is shocking how accurate the prediction was and how well it's aged.
Yeah.
But then also like three is amazing.
And I think three is obvious.
Like I still, to this day, I don't, there's literally no basis in this.
I feel like two came out and they were like,
Kajima, you need to chill out a little bit, buddy.
And then they made three.
You know, I 100% agree with that way.
You know, you have zero proof.
Zero proof.
It's feeling.
Yeah.
It's like sometimes you just see like a visionary in terms of like,
and like whatever art form they do.
and you're like, damn, there is shows and movies I like that is based on, you know, a structural
storytelling kind of style. And sometimes you just see someone who just does whatever the
fuck they want to do. And I feel that with Kajima, man.
One is amazing as well. One might be like, I honestly feel like start to finish the most
polished metal gear in terms of like flow. And then two gets like really fucking crazy.
And three is amazing too and extremely polished. But has some convoluting.
aspects to it. Like the camo system
than the original is a little like
and the medical aspect of it.
It's like innovative at the time, but you're like
and I understand what he's trying to do.
But I think that's the charm
of Kojima's art is that
it is so weird and
convoluted, but you're watching
a guy who's passionate and who
managed to make something interesting.
And that's the coolest thing. And that's the best thing
about art. Yeah, I feel like all three are just
different experiences. He never wanted to make
the same game twice. Yeah, exactly. Yeah.
despite having it being in the same series.
You know, all three have their own unique identities
doing their own unique things.
I mean, they always say, you know,
imitators are rarely as remembered as originators, right?
And I feel like, this is totally the case
where it was like there was no other game
that was doing it like this,
and not really a lot of games that were doing it like it afterwards.
I want to play four.
I will play four at some point.
I don't know why I've put it off.
I haven't really no reason not to,
just haven't.
But it's pretty been my favorite experience of gaming.
and, you know, people have been really supportive as well, like me experiencing it.
Like, again, like, none of the toxicity of any, like, games when I play, like, brand new games.
Yeah.
Everyone's stoked.
I think Nalgae fans just get so excited when they're like, oh, a new person coming into this obsession.
I'm not, when he won the board, when he was, like, getting him to get a little gear, I was like, ah, shit, I got out.
I got away four, him finish three before I really, like, that was me with when he went into, when he got into Final Fantasy.
I was like, here we go.
Yeah, so that was pretty, like, my.
pinnacle this year.
Hell yeah.
Obviously,
Exhibition 33.
Yep.
I mean,
by far,
I still need a player,
man.
It is by far my
favorite game that came out
this year.
Hopefully,
hopefully since we,
you know,
December and January,
this coming December and January,
we're a little less busy.
At least I'm a little less busy.
Yeah.
That'll hopefully be the time
we're actually,
we're going to start this game.
Yeah.
I mean,
it's on my three by three as well.
Yeah.
I figured there's a good chance it would be.
Because I'm just like,
it's just not even close for me in town.
I,
I've seen now that it's,
gotten so popular that like people are starting to push back against it. It's always it's always the
cycle. It's gotten too high. The highs are too high. They're like we got to bring the French down
somehow. I think I think the reason why that is though. And I think again like Exhibition 33 has kind
of introduced a let me start again because I think gaming as in general in the past I want to say
two three years has really reached its apex of like I don't know if it will keep going up,
pretty well of like popularity as like an accepted medium.
Like I feel like we are talking about games or at least getting there.
Games are on the same level as movies and TV shows.
Totally.
They're happy for a while.
Yeah, but I feel like, you know, it's like I could talk to my parent about like movies.
Yeah, I can't talk to about games yet.
But I feel like every year we're getting closer and closer to that being like where gaming is in that thing.
And I think because as well, I think we are seeing the fruits of the fortnight's labor of like,
Minecraft and all, you know, these kids who grew up with playing Minecraft and Fortnite like eight,
nine years ago, who are now, you know, they're all young adults. Yeah. I think this has been,
I think, like one of the first games that has really kind of crossed the, the gaming spectrum.
Every single type of gamer knows about this game has given it a shot. Whereas other games that
are huge releases, like Dark Souls, like, the cod players aren't touching it or talking about it or,
like, you know, stuff like that. But, but Eldon Ring also did the same thing, I think, as well.
But I think it's been the first, like, really heavily story-driven game
that has kind of crossed into all facets of gaming.
And so I think everyone's getting into it.
Everyone's talking about it.
And a lot of those gamers who haven't experienced, like, chrono-trigger
or these types of games are like,
based on that, you know?
Yeah, like, all these gamers that haven't really experienced peak gaming are like,
this is the best thing ever.
Do I think it's the best game ever?
Well, look, no.
I think it's too early to have that conversation as well.
But I think like it is kind of it has opened a lot of people's eyes to especially younger gamers to the beautiful world of storytelling and video games and is becoming like, you know, so I think that's why we're getting a bit of pushback against it.
People are like, I'm tired of people pretending like it's the best thing ever.
Yeah.
It's like, yes, there are other amazing stories.
But it's also, I think it's a good thing.
I think it's also the fact that like, you know, the fact that, again, I think a lot of non-RPG player gamers or just non-gamers in general maybe looked at a.
you know, a game mechanic like turn-based and maybe had like a slight negative connotation
to it where it's like, oh, it's boring or it's whatever.
Yeah.
Who then played this game and was like, actually, turn-based can be really good.
Yeah.
And I think in this is, this is ruined a lot of turn-based combat for me because I'm just like,
it's so good where it triggers that part of my brain that likes active game play and also
term-based gameplay and it actually triggers the best part of both worlds as opposed to me having to
choose between one side or the other. It's just fucking insane characters great as well. The music
is phenomenal. Yeah. I don't know how the fuck they just found that composer like a like developer
forum. He just turned out to be like the biggest genius in the world. It's, it's, it's a, it's,
always the ones you least expect.
And like it didn't, I don't, I really don't feel like it did anything new.
It just did everything fucking amazing.
Right, right.
Like, people are like, wow, they turn base combat with blocking.
It's like, that's not new.
No.
But like, they just did it so well.
Yeah.
And I think it's an, it's an, it's an earnest story.
It's like, it's storytelling.
It's risky.
You know, there's some really big twists in it that I think a lot of games nowadays would really
shy away from trying to tackle those things.
It has got one of the best hooks in video games.
Like the prolog, if you finish that prolog and you are 100% guaranteed to finish the game.
Right.
The prolog is just that good.
And if I will have like one complaint about it, which is like my only complaint about Expedition 33, is just it...
The more that modern games like evolve, the more I'm just like, damn, games are just like looking the same.
you know?
And it's just,
something about Expeditions 33's, like, visual language.
The, like, Unreal Engine look.
Yeah, the Unreal Engine look, which is just like,
there's so many, like, cool designs in it, you know,
like, you know, like, you know,
they call me so many cool monsters, so many cool designs,
but something about it, the color, the color scheme
and just the, the aesthetic,
they all just, like, blend together in all this, like,
visual AAA game gloop that makes me, like,
does like, even though the designs themselves are very interesting, just the, I don't know, the aesthetics
just all blend together for me and all like the AAA game and gloop that.
I don't think the game is perfect. Yeah. Like, like, I'm, I just simply remember the UI
was like horrible. Yeah. Like navigating the menu and having to pick your, what were they
called? Pigtos. Pigtos was fucking annoying. It's like, this, we've had decades of Final Fantasy
to figure this out. Like, come on. Yeah.
And I do think, I know this is controversial, I do think like the last act is probably the weakest of the...
Well, you didn't do any side content.
I didn't do any side content.
I'm a cool bullshit on that.
Okay, so what you're telling me is I need 100% this.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
If my one thing that I could have done, and I think I will go back and revisit it because they're adding a bunch of new side stuff.
Yeah.
Right.
You need to do the millennia.
I do want to do the line.
But they're also...
Okay, so they're adding a new, like, world and a couple new boss fights.
So I think when that comes out, I'm gonna go back and do all this icon.
Yeah.
Because I'm,
so actually it's kind of good that you waited.
Okay.
Now you can go all into it.
So I'm gonna revisit it.
Yeah.
Now this holiday season,
I am 100% going to dedicate time to actually starting this game.
But the first act is so good.
First act is like absolute 10 out of 10.
Yeah.
Like God tier.
But I'm excited because I also think the world they created was ultimately
extremely fascinating.
And I'm excited to see what other stories they tell.
Yeah, I think with the ending, it gave,
we didn't find out everything.
We found out enough.
I'm not saying the ending is bad.
It's like first one 10 out of 10,
middle act 10 out of 10.
Last act, 9 out of 10.
Like, it's still very good idea.
I just didn't really like the pacing towards the end.
But that's my personal preference.
I know people don't like when I say that,
but fuck you.
It's still like by far the best game I've played this year.
And I feel like it is healthy to offer criticism,
if any, to an amazing game.
I feel like, you know, it is important.
But yeah, it's genuinely fucking fantastic.
You haven't played it. There's a reason why everyone's talking about it. It is a very moving piece of art.
Yeah. And you would you're doing yourself a disservice by not playing it. Yeah. Colorful. I wish more AAA games were colorful. It is quite dark. It is quite dark. And it's it's not even like triple A games as well. It's just like modern movies. You know, it's it's the Marvel kind of like muted fucking colors aesthetic that. Unreal Engine does often have that look. Yeah. Yeah. I just I
For me, like right now, I just love games that have a very unique, like, visual language.
Because that's, I don't care too much now about, like, ultra realism anymore.
You know, it's all about, okay.
I don't think anyone wants ultra realism.
That's tell that to the gaming industry.
You know.
That's just what they think people want.
Yeah.
I think people do that because it's like the simplest thing to say that you've done differently.
Yeah.
It's like, look, it's the most realistic.
Yeah.
And it's like, nobody wants this.
It's just easy to convince a board of executives that, like, this is a good thing.
thing. Yeah. Like that's the only thing, right?
Totally. But also, um, uh, I think it's, I want to talk about dispatch next. Yeah, I'm curious
about dispatch. Yeah, because X-133 is ex-Ubysoft devs and dispatch was the ex-tel-tales,
uh, founders. Yeah. Who then went to Ubisoft and were like, oops, bit shit and then made
dispatch or ad hoc games who are dispatched. So two, two games of the year, I think, really.
Ubisoft with the generational throw.
I mean, you know, the reason
it's, it's, you know, if I'm Ubisoft, right?
Yeah.
Also, I think there was some news article recently.
I don't know what is going on.
And by the time this episode out,
it might be more lashed out,
but it implied that they were having some financial difficulties.
Right.
And it's like, if you play a Ubisoft game,
you fucking know why they deserve to be in financial difficulties.
Oh, they 100% deserve to be.
It's like, this is absolutely,
nobody feels sorry for them
because this is of your own doing.
Right.
You play any of these.
games, it's fucking horrible. They have this, this stupid native game launcher. They want you to
download on PC. All their games are monetized and bloated to shit. None of their games feel
inspired. It's the same shit. What the fuck are they even doing with that franchise? And why is it
still alive, bro? It's keeping that shit on fucking, it's like on life support, but they keep pumping
it out because they think people want it. And gamers are stupid enough while they'll buy it. And then,
you know, you have to be asking yourself, fuck, we fumbled like,
two devs that made, went on to go and make fucking absolute artwork that sold amazingly.
Like, what are we doing? We have these talented people, but we don't listen or let them do what
they want. I think even the dispatch devs are talking that they had approached Ubisoft.
And we're like, hey, we'd love to start our own studio in Ubisoft to make the games.
And they were like, no. Like, well, what, what?
I'll fuck you then.
Dude, they literally came to you to make a game for you. And you said no.
Like, they, I think the biggest crime that Ubisoft's done is that it doesn't respect the art of gaming.
No, right.
Yeah.
It doesn't, it has no respect for, as art as a media.
So I, it's hard to feel sorry for them.
Obviously, I don't want people to lose their jobs.
And there's a lot of time to people clearly at Ubisoft right now who could be making amazing stuff.
But it's, it's fucking, it's a travesty that they, you know, that this kind of, these people that are so creative that have the potential to make such amazing things that move us are being.
fucking shackled behind having to sell you fucking battle passes for Assassin's Creed. It's ridiculous.
What a waste of talent. But dispatch is fucking amazing. So I'd heard a lot about this game.
I don't know anything about it. All I know is that Jack Septu guys in it. Have you ever played
Telltale games? The Walking Dead. Do you remember that game? Oh, I haven't played. I've watched
Among Us. Yeah, I've watched people play those games. Yeah. So it is kind of like the spiritual successor
to those games.
Okay.
It's really fucking good.
It's basically you're a superhero who's,
you've a mech and your Mac breaks.
But you're,
you know, you're still a superhero and you're trying to,
you're dealing with that loss.
So instead of being a superhero,
now you are going to be working for the company
that dispatches the superheroes to the thing.
So you,
you know,
you're going about kind of dealing with these
misfits of superheroes
or supervillains turned superheroes.
And you're kind of dealing with that
the whole time there's a bunch of romance going on
and you're constantly being asked to choose
which path to go down and it's just fantastic
the voice acting he's voiced by Charlie by the way
most critical oh really yeah and Jack
you know and you always worry when it's YouTubers
in yeah in games you're like it could be just for the name
yeah but Jack Sean and Charlie did such a phenomenal job
hell yeah okay just characters and genuinely like
not just glazing them because of their friends of ours but they
they did such a good job really yeah yeah yeah
Some of the best writing in video games that I've experienced a while.
I was laughing constantly.
It takes about eight hours to go through.
Beautifully animated.
The gameplay, whilst very simple, is a very rewarding loop
that uses the character's strong writing to its strength.
It just oozes passion.
Every single part of this game is just so fun.
Animation is great as you can see.
Yeah, yeah.
It looks really good.
Aaron Paul voices the main character.
from Breaking Bad.
And he,
he does such good job.
There's like no,
it's no Peter Dinklage
in,
uh,
in,
uh,
destiny.
It's,
it's a genuine,
like,
you can tell he's passionate about it
and doing a fucking fantastic job.
Yeah,
yeah.
Um,
he's voiced by another famous actor.
I can't remember his name.
But he is so fucking funny in this game.
I'm constantly laughing.
Hell yeah.
But just,
just a,
just a genuinely 10 out of 10
game and some of the most fun I've had in a very long time.
And it's basically just a movie.
Yeah.
But a movie where you get to control some of the core aspects of it.
And it is so fucking good.
You can't really love this game.
I mean, I need to play this on screen when I'm next to be able to see.
It's, it's, I cannot sing the place.
A lot of good story-based game.
Yeah, yeah.
And I'm really excited to see what they do because if this is their first outing as a studio,
I mean, presumably it can go from strength to strength.
Is the story finished now?
Or is it?
Because Tell Telltales did episode.
Yeah, so the story is finished, but they're saying that there's going to be a dispatch
too.
Okay.
Don't know what that story is going to be, if it's going to fall the same thing.
But it's contained and it's finished.
Okay, okay.
This story is basically done.
Okay.
And it's amazing.
Like, I was so thoroughly impressed by every aspect of this game.
Right on.
And I can't think it's process enough.
And it feels like a breath of fresh air.
All right.
I'm very excited to play it.
Yeah.
And like, gaming has gone, again, we're spoiled.
Gaming has gotten so good.
Yeah.
And I feel like these extremely strong narrative games that are, that really are just movies with slight gaming moments.
That's just my, that's just.
Yeah.
I love this genre a lot.
I like it.
I played a lot of them.
And I think they are such a treat.
And I'm glad that there's another studio now that is still trying to put these,
these really big things going on.
I could easily see this being like a franchise of stuff, though.
Like, it's such a fun world.
and cool characters.
So credit to ad hoc studio.
Fucking fantastic job.
Well done.
I'm so excited to see what you guys do next.
Amazing game.
Final Fantasy Tactics, Evil's Chronicles,
probably my favorite story and writing and dialogue
and voice acting in any Final Fantasy game.
I've only played two games of voice acting in Final Fantasy.
But it is genuinely, I think...
I'm so glad you fuck with this game.
This is amazing.
This is easily my favorite Final Fantasy spin-off.
game. Such fun gameplay as well. I think the story and the writing is the best of any mainline game
I've played so far. I have to agree. Yeah. It's definitely up there. I just such a memorable game
with such poignant story moments. And also it's aged amazingly. Like this is a story that is still
extremely relevant, especially to today. I mean, it's, you know, it's a lot about the rich versus the
poor, the elite versus the working class. You know, the what does it mean to be good? What does
What does it mean to fight, to do nothing?
Is that to be a part of it?
Does that picking aside?
You know, it's such a relevant game in today's society.
And I also love strategy games in general.
And it's a fantastic fucking system.
The job system is one of the best strategy fighting systems I've seen of any game.
You know, I've recently played XCOM 2, which maybe is my favorite strategy game of all time.
And it's cool comparing the.
because obviously this came out in 1997,
as Exxicon came out in like 2016.
Yeah.
And seeing the different ways that games handle
strategy and top down kind of battle.
It's one of my favorite genres
and interesting to see
how insanely flashed out the Final Fantasy
tactics was for the time.
Oh yeah. I mean, when I first came out,
this game was so ahead of the time. This would have blown
my mind if I was like, well, I was
one at the time. Yeah, I think it would have blown my mind
full stop. But if I, like, if this was my first
strategy game, I would have been like,
Jesus Christ, how can I play anything else?
I mean, this was the game that got me into the Fire Emblem series.
Like, I played this first.
I will say, like, after playing this,
it does kind of feel like
at least when you're combating and playing the combat,
like the job system is so much more refined
as a system than the Three Houses,
like when I played that.
Totally.
But Three Houses, real strength is the multiple dialogue options
and the character relationships you build, right?
That's the main point of the game.
But, like, seeing the story,
then with this amazing combat system
and really thoughtful job system
that kind of really allows you to kind of shape
any character you want to be whatever you want it to be.
Yeah, totally.
It's a very, but it has a lot of dated aspects.
Like, leveling up is really odd.
Like, you level up based on how many actions
successfully you do.
Yeah.
So it's a very weird kind of class and game system
to have to use, but still in a really fun one.
Right.
And if you want a strategy game and you have a lot of time,
highly recommend playing this one.
But it's also a game that's, it's a tough game to recommend
because the story is so complex and so long that I feel like if you stop playing this game
for a week, you'll have forgotten extremely important details.
But there's a couple of quality of life changes they added this game that I'm really enjoying
that.
I want more games to add this, games at least, that are really complex.
which is like, they have the, like, the law button on the menu.
Yeah.
Where at any point, you can literally look at all the law,
but they also have a timeline and the world map
and the characters faces on them and what they were doing and why.
So it was really helpful to kind of be like,
in between days, just like, you know, check.
Um, what's going on in the story.
But highly recommend it.
I mean, they did that in 13 sentinels, but it, it didn't help.
No, because that story was so complex.
Ain't no way.
You cannot follow.
I've forgotten that fucking, I've forgotten the portline to that.
Yeah.
That's why I had to play that game like three days straight.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
If I stopped for one day, I'm going to forget everything.
Exactly.
Butterfaces and tactics feels like you have to play this game and this game only until you're done with it.
Yeah.
Otherwise, it might be tough.
I started playing, when it got it when the game came out, like the day it came out and I played
it for like a good four or five hours and then I just, I got busy and stopped playing it.
So I feel like I have to start from the beginning again.
Even though I already know the story technically, but yeah, I'm just like, I'm just like,
I don't even know where the fuck I am right now
You play the new one
Dude the voice acting is so good in it as well
Yeah yeah I mean
The voice acting is a fucking treat
I'm almost tempted to play it in English
Because as good as the Japanese voice acting is
I've heard so many good things about the English voice acting
I would I mean it's set in like the UK
Yeah yeah
So I feel like settings wise it makes sense
For it to be in English
I mean it's very you know reminiscent
I think it's very heavily draws inspiration
From the War the Roses in the UK
So it's very, very similar.
Yeah.
And touches on a lot of the similar themes.
So I highly recommend it.
And then down here I put Soma.
And this was a hard one because I wanted to put,
there's a couple of games that could have gone here.
It could have been mouthwashing.
Could have been Soma.
A couple other games.
Maybe even look outside.
I played a lot of games.
But ultimately, for me, I feel like Soma is maybe my favorite story of this year.
It's like just from a storytelling perspective.
It's the one that I've thought about the most.
I still think about it.
I think about Soma a lot.
And it's only been like two months,
but I still think about it very often.
And the implications that Soma asks
and makes you wonder,
I think you're going to be relevant for an extremely long time.
And it only become more prominent and poignant as time go on.
This and Expedition 33 of the two games,
I'm playing this whole season.
I really want you to play it
so that we can do like a one-hour section
where we'd talk about Soma.
Yeah.
One of the best endings in video game here.
Yeah.
All right.
I think it might be the best.
Yeah, I think it might.
It's funny.
Two of my favorite ending of video games of all time are on this list with MGS3 and Soma.
Yeah, MGS3 is an amazing end.
Yeah.
You know, it's weird.
MGS3, in my head, I feel like it ends in the field.
Yeah.
But it doesn't.
It's like, there's the whole Oscelot fight in the helicopter.
Oh, I forgot about that.
And then you had the sex scene.
Yeah.
Which is a pretty good ending.
And then you have the graveyard.
Which happens to all, but to me, it feels like it ends in the flower.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
But then, I mean, you have the scene of like this is the fucking him of the grave.
Yeah.
That's kind of peak.
But Soma, I think if you play at Joe, you'll understand, I think, why I think it's so poignant.
But yeah, that, that, uh, the ending.
I think I'll think about that for a very, very long time.
Yeah.
Hell yeah.
It's, it's, it's, uh, absolutely fucking genius.
Yep. Well, hope we can catch up in the holiday season, Joe, when you've played both of them.
I've been lacking in the gaming department this year.
So this holiday season is just going to try and finish as many of these games that I know I'm going to like.
And all my friends have been saying are good.
So-mo is going to make you really not excited about the future.
At least that's how made me feel.
I was like, I hope we never get here.
And last was certainly not least, here.
is it's dance.
Yeah.
So, as I said,
this year I had to struggle
to find enough things to put on.
Okay.
Just because my attention and time this year
was just so skewed towards one project.
Yeah.
Which was obviously Barn,
which was the, you know,
biggest projects I've ever worked on in my career and my life, you know.
I looked back and a lot of my year from like,
March till
the documentary release
it was just like
I was having trouble finding
a free weekend or free moment
and it wasn't just
you know I didn't really watch anything
didn't really play anything
didn't hang out friends barely hang out with my wife
but it is out now
obviously
and you know I'll just
I'll just start off talking about that which is
the middle thing I didn't put barn
because I was just like you know I've talked about it a lot
But I don't think I normally put stuff I made on my favorite three by three's list of the year.
But I do think that the documentary I just finished is, you know, as a creator, I think Barn was obviously the biggest ever project I've ever worked on, ever made with a team of people.
But as a YouTuber, I rarely say this, but I do genuinely think I've made my magnum opus.
It was a great documentary.
Yeah, it was a great documentary.
Just because it's something, this documentary was something that unlike Barn was worked on by myself, Alan and one other editor.
Just just the pure YouTube team.
And it was a fucking mountain to climb to do this documentary.
And ideally, we wanted to release it like, you know, get on the hype of Barn and just release it a week after.
and we did not know how much work this was going to take
until we started working on it.
And the release they kept getting like delayed
and delayed to the point where I had to have like a meeting with my team
just because they were, we were really, really close to burning out.
Right.
They were like, you know, they felt really bad
because they were like, we know we need to capitalize on the hype
and, you know, push it to cap, you know, if we want like good views and stuff.
like that and I, you know, sat them down and I was like, guys, okay, I don't normally say this like
often, but take a break, for one, because we all need a break from working on this project.
Number two, I don't really care about the views on this. This is something that I feel,
come into this, like, you are, you have one, you know, opportunity to work on a project this big
and this grand.
And even if we miss out on the hype of the release,
I just want you to make something that we're all proud of.
And we're all like,
we can all look at and point out and say,
this is the best thing I've ever made in my career.
Hell yeah.
And I think I can proudly say that, you know,
I think we achieve that.
There is, this documentary is not only,
it's not only like a technical documentary
because I've made technical documentary before making anime
you have as well Joey where we've gone to like studio tours
and everything like that
we much more approached this as just a narrative journey
about what it's like to take on a project this big
and it was much more of an emotional journey
as opposed to a technical one obviously there are
technical aspects to it
and it's just there are
some things happened in this year that were just that were just fucking hard if you've watched the
documentary. I don't think there has been any other project where I have like laid myself out
and just laid myself out as bare as this documentary. And there are certain points in this
documentary that I have to just hand off to other people just because it was so difficult for
me to revisit some moments that I genuinely like could not do it. And I think,
Alan did an amazing job at
distilling
what the emotions
were like during that time
but you know
it was really touching yeah absolutely
yeah watched the whole thing and it was
oh thank you yes I don't know I was really proud of you
yeah it was also it was awesome to just you know
be there and support my boy yeah absolutely
yeah thank you so much because um yeah for the first time in ages
I had to dust off my editing skills
and I edited you know a
big portion of this documentary myself as well, because a lot of it is, you know,
one thing I learned is like editing documentaries is fucking hard.
Because it's not like you have to, you have like, we had like over 100 hours of footage
and we had to like distill that into a narrative, basically.
We had so much we needed to cut and it was just piecing together so many different things
and having it, having a narrative payoff to each part of the documentary because we split
we split the entire
my entire two-year journey
into like different
different parts
which all have their own
like payoff
to that part itself
and
it has made me
understand
how difficult it is
to make a documentary
and actually make a narrative
out of life
you know
because I filmed a lot of this
not knowing
what was going to be
in the final documentary
I actually had
some people
message me to be like,
did you like fake some of this?
Like some of the shots here?
Because like, how did you know
you are going to like,
this moment was going to happen?
I think there was one moment,
which you guys saw in the theater,
which, you know,
it's like the moment where I find out
that Barn was like,
barn was approved.
And I had this like this moment
where all just like,
like sunk in.
And Dydas was like,
Yo, how the fuck did you know you were gonna film a documentary?
And I'm like, bro, YouTube brain, man.
Yeah, you just got a film shit.
Film everything.
Yeah.
Yeah.
You know you're gonna pitch it.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Like, why not fucking get the camera out?
Yeah, yeah.
Because I like, when I got a proof, I didn't know I was gonna make a documentary,
but I was like, this is a pivotal moment.
Maybe I should film this just in case.
Yeah, totally.
And there were some moments, obviously, in the year where it was fucking hard to turn on the camera.
with like some of the stuff that was going on my personal life.
And I've really had to struggle with just like,
fuck, man, what the fuck am I doing, man?
What if I turn on the camera today?
And this is a reminder that of just like the,
maybe the worst fucking moment of like my life, you know?
It's, it's, uh, it was super surreal experiencing that as a creator
and just as like the sub.
of a story in the documentary.
But, you know, you guys watch trash station.
You know how the story ends.
And yeah, I can safely say that this is the proudest thing I've ever made.
It's two hours.
And it, you know, I treated it like a two hour feature length film.
It is not a two hour YouTube video per se.
This is like two.
It is not optimized for YouTube in a way because it's like two hours of just me,
Alan and Abby making a film where you have to like,
where we assume the audience would pay attention.
Because it wasn't second monitor content,
which is what YouTube is great for.
It is two hours of pure, heavy stories.
That's amazing.
Yeah.
I think it's maybe the best YouTube video you've ever made.
Yeah.
And it's not a YouTube video that anyone can make,
regardless of how long they've been doing YouTube.
Like this is, yeah, this is like the culmination of your
almost two-decade long, you know, YouTube video-making career, I think.
And it's, yeah, it was fucking amazing, man.
Yeah.
And, yeah, if you haven't seen it already, if you have time in the Christmas holidays,
it would make me very happy if you go out and watch it.
Go watch it.
I don't think I'm ever going to make or ever going to be able to make a project like this
on YouTube ever again.
So me and my team poured our fucking hearts and our souls into this.
and we are all very, very fucking proud of the final, of the final product.
Hell yeah, dude.
And I think this is the first time I put one of my own YouTube videos in my
my three by three.
Honestly, yeah, based.
Right.
So with that out of the way, that is 70% of my year actually done.
So I don't know what to start off with.
We've already talked about Exposition 33.
Is that screenwriting?
That is screenwriting.
So obviously, as an offshoot to Barn, and now that barn's over, I'm just, something awoke women means.
You should have enjoyed my own ice cream plays.
I just did.
Like, I'm not even like, it's not even like I want to make another barn or another project or anything.
I just, I can't describe the fucking magic of just having something in your heads, whether it be characters or like a story or something.
and just being able to realize it physically and just have something that exists.
I think that's fucking magical.
And that's why it's like working on barn has completely changed my perspective on like any
creative project, right?
Because it's, I just think it's fucking cool if you are able to finish a project.
And, you know, people have like made OCs or like, you know, made original characters.
I had like concepts for like stories or, you know, concepts for different.
games or something, but I think there's
something fucking magical about
someone or a team being able to just
complete a project. There's a beginning, a middle, and an end.
It's easier to start it, but it's hard to end.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Right, right. Someone has put
out their fully realized vision
out there. Um, and
it's something that was just formed
from imagination.
I just think that's cool as fuck, man.
And so I've just been getting into just, you know, screenwriting's one of my outlets,
but there's so many different ideas for just so many different things I want to work on,
which is not just creating YouTube stuff,
but it's just more so creating original stuff that, you know,
I really have, working on Barn really awoke something in me.
I've been writing just a lot of like short stories.
probably will never see the light of day.
I don't really care if they ever do.
I'm working on another project,
which it's a much smaller project than Barn.
I'm going to say that out now.
I want to take on something smaller and scale,
but that should be out at the end of January,
which I'm not going to talk about now,
but...
Talk about it when it happens.
I'll talk about it when it happens,
but it is, you know, that it is down that kind of path.
But in general, I've just had a lot of fun reading other screenplays and just seeing the entire kind of like pipeline of what happens when, you know, another creator where that, where ideas come from.
And I think what I've come to appreciate is just how much a creator puts of themselves into whatever work they make.
Totally.
You know, even if it's a creator that works with a team, you know, it's.
It's just, everyone puts a little bit of their own experiences, a little bit of their own personality into whatever they make.
I think one of my favorite shorts that I've seen recently, which is one that I have like truly, truly related to.
I saw like this interview with Quentin Tarantino when he was talking about the making of Inglorious Bastards.
and at the beginning
he was like
they could not find the casting
for
Christop Waltz's character
I've got the character name
but they were like
we cannot
he was like
we cannot make this film
unless we find this character
and unless we find this character
it's not going to be made
right
and so they go off
and they find Christoph Waltz
and once they find
Christoph Waltz
it was like
to Quentin Tarantino
I was like, holy shit, this movie is being made because seeing Christoph Walt's portrayal of,
I think Landa is the character name.
Big is Landa.
Yeah, yeah.
Seeing his portrayal of the character, he said that Christoph taught him aspects of his
character that he had no idea about until we saw his portrayal there.
And I saw that interview before I made barn and after I made barn.
and seeing that after I made Barn, it just, I fucking get what he means so much because, you know, it's your perception of the character.
It's your perception of the character and you made the character.
I made these characters, but working with other people to actually realize them.
It's like they, it was almost like they were out of my control at the moment.
I had an image of the people they were and the, you know, the characters that they were.
And then through every process, through every process of this stage, the artwork, the artwork, the voice acting portrayal, you know, both English and Japanese.
it's like every, every single person that was in that pipeline added a little bit of their own
experiences, a little bit of their own self, their own soul into them, that, you know, by the time
I got to the final product, I knew this character, but also they were their own separate things.
And it's just, I just think that's, like to me, I just think that's so fucking cool that's, you know,
you know, you can make something and you realize it physically.
And other people can interact with it and other people can interpret it.
And it's just, it's just its own thing now.
It's just, it's out of your control.
And I can't begin to describe just how cool that feeling is.
And I'm chasing that high again.
And that's why I have this, this year, I've just, you know, founded this new passion of just, you know,
creating writing stories and I want to get better as well which is why I'm writing not out of
any kind of want to you know to any any kind of like feeling that I'm going to turn this into
anything I'm just writing just a good hour just just to practice and just to get something physical
and get something that I can you know tangibly look at because I do think with any creative
process, unless you finish it, it doesn't exist yet.
You know, it's, it's, it's, unless, unless you have finished the full stop until like,
this, this project has a beginning and an end.
In my mind, it, it doesn't exist until that point.
Totally.
And until it gets that point, it is just a vague idea.
Because once it's realized, once it's finished, then you can look at it and then you
could be like, okay, I could have done this better, I could have done that better.
I could have learned, you know, I, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you,
You can refine it and stuff, but you need to get to that finish point with every creative process, which is what I'm, which is what I'm trying to do, just trying to work on like small things.
Because I'm very, very proud of Barn.
I don't think it's the best thing I can do.
Now that it's over.
It's just the beginning.
Now that it's over, I've learned so fucking much.
Yeah.
And I'm, I'm fucking proud.
And I'm fucking happy that I saw this to the end.
And it's out.
And people can watch it and judge it.
And I'm like, fuck yes.
I'm so fucking proud of that.
Hell, yeah, dude.
And then the other side of me is just like,
shit, man, I can do better.
I know I can do better.
I'm sure you'll cook.
Yeah, man.
You always do.
Yeah, man.
But yeah, that has been my passion.
Elia, dude.
That I've discovered this year, let's say.
What else?
I will continue to do.
So let's talk about the stuff that I've already talked about.
Chainsaw Man movie, best,
this isn't gonna go by this.
It's not watched it yet.
But, man, Tatsky Fujimoto is just on some kind of, he has signed his soul to the devil.
He's an alien, dude.
Because everything that he touches has gotten like a triple A adaptation.
Yeah.
And the Chainsaw Man movie, I rewatched it, actually.
And I fucking never rewatch anime movie, anime anything.
Yeah.
It was that good.
It was that good.
There's, and to me, there is one scene in it, because you guys haven't seen it yet.
There is one scene in it.
My favorite scene in the Chainsaw Man movie
is not even an action scene.
Obviously, the action is
fucking incredible in this movie, but
there is just...
There is just this one of
the most beautiful
moments, the most beautiful
quiet moments I've seen in anime
in a while that has lived
rent-free in my mind since I watched
Chainsaw Man and I wanted to experience it again.
And I went... So I did so
in IMAX.
And yeah, he is, it is just an amazing adaptation outside of this.
I also have been watching Tatsky Fujimoto 17 to 26 as well.
Oh, the short stories.
Like the anthology of short stories.
They are fucking, like, going to the bottom of the barrel.
Like, and the bottom of the barrel is still fire.
It's still gone.
Okay, some of it is fire.
Some of it is like fucking weird.
I feel like you, watching this short,
okay, so what this is, it's like an anthology
of short stories that Tuske Fujimoto made
before Chainsaw Man, so when he was a lot younger.
And I felt like, you ever read someone's work
and you're like, damn, I feel like I'm learning a lot about you
right now, like your taste and preferences.
Number one, I really, really think he really wants to write
really wants to write a romance.
He really wants to write a romance.
But he is...
Shackled by action. Yeah, he is shackled that, I think,
when he tries writing of a vanilla romance,
it just never...
Well, I mean, looking like...
He can't do vanilla.
I mean...
There's also, like, elements, say, for example,
in like both look back in Good Byerri, for example,
where there are definitely romantic elements
that are kind of hinted at.
Yeah.
But as soon as he...
As soon as he tries to step into that, he always has to throw something where it's like,
yeah, but I just can't make it like a meat and potatoes romance.
I got to do something or add some kind of elements of the character of the story where it's just like,
you thought it was going to be a romance.
But it's just fucking weird.
Yeah.
And it's just like sometimes you read an artist's work and you're just, you know, it's such a,
some, you know, like with, uh, Kajima that we talked about,
Sometimes you just feel like they're just...
Such a passion.
Yeah, it's such a passion and just inserting their own weird preferences with no care about whether it makes sense.
They're just doing it because they're just...
Like wanting with feet, bro.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Like, I'm going to break down one of the shorts.
There's eight shorts.
I'm going to get down one of these shorts.
But I'm just like, sometimes you watch one of these shorts and you're like, damn, you're just a weird guy.
Which one?
Because I've read the manga.
You read the manga?
It's the one where there's this guy, okay, there's this guy who has a crush on his teacher, right?
And he has, he's in his room and he has his crush on his teacher and he's like, damn, she's my goddess, right?
And so while in the middle of this classroom, another fucking, there's a guy like comes in this classroom and he, and he's like a fucking school shooter or whatever.
And he, yeah, yeah, right.
And he has this gun in Japan.
I don't know how he's got his gun in Japan.
Yeah, yeah, no, it's an older guy, right?
Okay.
And it's a guy who used to go to school with the teacher.
Yeah.
And he's like, I fell in love with you and you just like ignored me.
I can't believe you.
And I'm going to shoot.
I'm going to shoot everyone.
And the teacher is just like, no, you can do whatever you want to me.
But whatever you do.
Don't do anything to the children.
Yeah.
And, and so the guys, and so the, the shooter is like, I can do anything.
That means I can have sex with you, right?
What about?
And the teacher's like, oh, oh, yeah.
I mean, I guess so.
And so at this point, you got me.
I did say anything.
At this, at this point, the kid is like,
the teacher
the teacher's going to have sex
no I must stop
this she is my goddess she can't have
sex and so he
he like stands up
and he's like
yamino
you
you must not have sex with the teacher
I feel like that was like the beginnings
of Dengi
yeah yeah right
so what happens
and so what happens is
he has
He tries to convince this school shooter to not have sex with the teacher.
Right.
He's like,
he's like, bro, you know, I'm from the future, actually.
I'm a time traveler.
Oh, my God.
I'm the time traveler.
I'm you.
And let me tell you what, and the shooter's like, what is that?
Yeah, I know what my future is.
I'm going to get arrested for this.
Obviously, I'm going to go to jail.
And he's like, yes, you will get arrested.
You go to jail.
But you know what?
When you're in jail, you're going to study.
And when you study, you're going to get qualified after you get out of, like, get out of jail.
And you're going to find a job desperately trying to convince him, not because he cares about the shooter,
but because he doesn't want the shooter to have sex with his sex with his teacher.
And so the shooter just fucking, like, freaks out, fires the gun at the kid.
And the kid, Matrix style, just like...
Just like does this, right?
And has this flashback about how the teacher tells him
that she's actually a real god goddess, right?
Has this like Demon Slayer flashback and then catches the bullet.
And then he catches the bullet.
Everyone's like, because the name of the short,
I can't remember his name, but the name of the shore is like,
oh, this person caught the bullet.
So motherfucker just catches the bullet.
And he's like,
Yes, I have proved now that I'm a time traveler.
I knew the bullet was going to go in that trajectory, and I caught it.
And, uh, yeah.
And it's awesome.
I'm just like, what the fuck is going on with your mind, bro?
What the, I'm like, this is like the epitome of like, never, never let bro know your next move.
Because you cannot, you cannot know what, like, direction he's going to take the story.
Yeah.
You know.
I feel Fujimoto is one of those people who clearly has such a good understanding on, like, really compelling character writing and just, like, human psychology.
But decides not to lean into it and just goes like, I understand all of this.
I'm not going to explore it in any way whatsoever.
Which, like, what I appreciate is just, you just see the rawness in, like, what he's trying to put into his work, which is why when he eventually gets into, like,
shernan jump, I'm like, damn, that editor, that editor's the real go. It's like,
he must have had to rein in some, uh, some, he's like holding the shackles back. It's like,
calm, calm down Fujimona. Yeah, because chainsaw man is also fucking weird. Yeah. But there is a,
there was a fucking, you feel like there is a direction to it. Yeah, there, it's on, it's on rails.
And because of that, it's just so fucking good and an absolute fucking masterpiece. And I think we
talked before about how at the end of season one, you know, I was like on the fence. I was like,
yeah, me too. I was like, forgettable. After watching this film, I'm like, oh, I'm, I'm a
fucking chainsaw man fan. Okay. I'm 100% through and through. I'll watch it. I'll watch it. Yeah.
All right. Um, what else? What else? Uh, what do you guys? What's the alien thing? Yeah,
what's the top middle one there? Top middle one. This, uh, so this, I got into in the animation on
YouTube quite a lot. And this is a series, a YouTube series called a Milky Subway. And it is...
Oh. Have you heard about it? I've seen... Japanese or English?
I've seen a little bit of it. Yeah. Yes. I've seen them pop up on Instagram.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I don't even know...
I was got a Hindi dub. Let's go. I mean, this is, this is kind of like that weird middle ground
where it's indie anime, but also...
It was picked up by some Japanese.
I don't know too much about it.
Shin A animation.
Yeah, shin A animation.
But it's basically mostly made by one guy who served as a lot of the staffing for this project.
So I don't know what the making of behind the scenes.
But this started off as one indie animator who posted this short on YouTube.
And I assume he got funding from some Japanese company to make this into a full season.
And even then, it's like, I think, uh, 12 episodes or something or eight episode, 10?
Is it 10?
12.
12 episodes, but each episode is only three, four minutes long.
Um, and, uh, three to four minutes long.
And it's all details.
It's basically one season, one story arc, uh, where it's just,
just a group of space delinquents that are trapped on this train and they have to find,
you know, trapped on this, you know, Galax, Galactic Express.
They're trapped in this train and they're just figuring out what is going on and why
they're trapped in this train.
And honestly, it is just the most charming thing I've seen in 2025 because I don't, I don't
know about you guys. A lot of times I don't find comedy anime funny. Just a lot of their style of
humor just doesn't vibe with me. But this has by far some of the best banter and some of the
best writing I've seen. I'm all in three minutes. Sorry? All in three minutes. Yeah, yeah. Well,
it's it's like three minutes, but really it's a 30 to 40 minute short film. Right. Cut up into three minutes.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. And
Yeah, it's genuinely just really fucking charming and really fucking funny.
It is someone who, it is written by someone who obviously knows internet humor, right?
So it's not the style of humor you kind of like expect in anime, you know?
Yeah. One thing that I think they do really, really well is banter because sometimes in anime.
You have you seen, you know what I mean when you watch, you watch an anime.
It's very unnatural.
And it's like person A talks, person B talks, person B talks.
Right?
This one, the banter feels so fucking organic.
And it's something that I'm not used to in Japanese animation.
You know, we've seen it before in Western animation and Western sitcoms.
But this one, it's just absolute chaos with people, with all of these like large and life
characters, all these different characters trying to figure out what's going on and everyone
has their own character arc and everything like that.
And the banterer is just fucking top tier that I was laughing all throughout like every
single episode.
There was like something funny that happens.
And the character writing was absolutely strong as well where even though this is like a comedy,
I would class this as a comedy animation.
Some of the character arcs genuinely like, damn, this is like, this hit me.
You know, you know, sometimes it throws in some.
serious, serious messages as well. And I don't know. I wish more comedy anime were this good.
And just the fact that this is an indie animation that is free to watch on YouTube, you know,
I would class it closer to stuff like, you know, something like what glitch is doing with like
Knights of Gwynne. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I think that YouTube indie animation is going through like a renaissance
Yeah, absolutely.
It's cool to see.
Yeah.
And yeah, this is one of my favorite,
one of my favorite things I've watched this year on YouTube.
How do you do?
I highly recommend it.
Yeah, I've seen that Red Devil Girl pop up on Instagram real so often.
And I've always wondered what it was.
Yeah.
And now I know.
There you know.
Well, let's go out of the rest of your list.
Yep.
You've got, yeah, satellite.
Yeah, what's the top left?
So top left.
So this, I got into a new genre of music this year.
It started off with this group, Sathlight Lovers.
This Sons of 1973, this album got a recommender to be on YouTube a while ago.
And it just put me down into this rabbit hole of this genre of music, which I didn't know I was craving.
But I definitely was craving.
It's called Shibia K.
Oh, Shibia K.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
You probably know about this, Joe.
But basically, Shibia K,
is kind of like if there was a genre of music that encapsulated the brightness and the optimism that I felt during like the 90s.
I'd say like the 90s, early 2000s, maybe late 80s as well, that kind of period because everyone knows about CD Pop now.
Citip has gotten insanely insanely popular.
And this was, I think...
It's like post-City Pop.
This was post-City Pop. It was inspired by City Pop. Yeah. But it has elements of that, but it is definitely its own genre of music. It has like a little bit of like Bossa Nova in there as well. It's like a little bit more chill. But like I, Kai, can you search up? It's got a little bit of like jazz fusion elements to it as well. Yeah. It's got like jazz fusion elements. Can you search up? Um, goodbye our pastel bridge on YouTube. So I just.
Our...
Our pastel bridge.
Yeah, this one.
Just such...
Looks familiar.
Like, I just like, this is genre music.
You can mute it, but I'm just like, bro, this color palette, this aesthetic.
The sepia tone.
I just...
It is ungodly yellow.
Yeah.
I'm just like, damn.
This is what listening to this genre of music makes me feel.
Whereas just...
The world is just...
a little bit brighter,
a little bit more optimistic, man.
Bro, they definitely did not get
permission to film on this train, man.
But it just like, this genre
music just encapsulates this
fucking time period.
That is like, that just
doesn't exist anymore, obviously.
But just listen,
just, you know, listen to Shibu K.
It just reminds me of just a brighter time
and a time of, yeah, yeah, it's a very,
very, very fun genre of music and...
Take us back.
Yeah, I think in terms of anime opening,
a song that would fit to these genre of music
is the Chobits opening.
If you remember the Chobits opening,
that is Shibby Ok.
Oh, fuck yeah.
That's good vibes.
Yeah, yeah.
So I obviously can't have you guys listen to any of it
since this is a YouTube video.
Go on listen to your own.
Yeah, so highly recommend Shibu K.
You can start down in the same rabbit hole
that I did with Satellite level.
But honestly, this entire genre of music is just something that I fell into.
And yeah, I've, you know, I just yearn for a brighter time, man.
Bring back some optimism.
GERN for a brighter, simpler time, man.
Bring me back, bring me back to this.
Hopefully we'll get back to this one day.
Another great band.
There's a couple of bands that are very much in this same vein as well.
I don't know if you've, I don't know how far you've gone down.
But like, Yuzoo is another great group.
Spitz are another great group as well.
Like, yeah, it's just, yeah, as you said, it's just like, it's just happy music.
Yeah, it is.
It just makes you feel.
Yeah.
It just feels good music.
It's just happy, simple music, you know.
If you don't have this, you have the whiskey, was it on your list?
Oh, yeah.
Did you get into drinking?
The far?
Yeah.
So, this was me just like, what did I get into this year?
And, of course, there was, so another, outside of barn,
And the biggest thing that the biggest event I was involved in this year was I hosted a family reunion with my family.
And we hadn't seen each other in, I think about like 15 to like between 15 and 18 years that my entire family had not gathered together again.
And I sorted out this big family reunion where I got to, you know, I got to meet my.
cousins, my aunties and uncles, some who I hadn't seen in like a decade. Some family members
had never seen each other, period. That was how big this family reunion was. And I remember
having this moment. This year, I turned 35. I turned mid-30s. Which, congrats.
That's old man. Yes, thank you very much. You're almost 40. Thank you very much.
And this last day of this family reunion, it was just me and my order.
who's basically my old brother at this point, grew up with him.
And he was like, what do you want to drink?
And I was like, you know, maybe I have a wine or a beer or something.
And he's like, no, no, no.
It's time.
You want to watch it.
All right.
It's time.
Because he's married to a Scottish person.
So he's like, no, no, no.
We're not drinking any of that baby shit today.
Brings out of whiskey.
And I'm like, are you serious?
Okay.
fine. And I was like, can I get it with ice and he's like, no, no. No, my gosh. We're doing
straight. We're doing it straight. We're doing it straight. He was very drunk at this
one, by the way. He was definitely imposing his, uh, his influence over me. So he brings,
he brings out a whiskey. It's a scotch of some kind. And he's just like, he pours me a glass.
and I remember just like having this first sip
and I'm just like
why does this not taste awful?
I'm like
yeah, it's time. I'm like shit.
Is this what happens? You meet you hit mid-30s
and you're like, shit. I mean, you have to keep
just trying it until you taste good.
You just need that one person in your life who is just
adamant in you being like, nah, no, no, give it another go.
Yeah, and give it another go. You know what? Maybe it was just
the vibe of that night because it's a very emotional night, you know, getting to spend time with, like, my
family and personally, I love the, like, you know, people I care about the most, but just, I remember,
I just remember, I just remember that night, and he just, he literally slides over the glass to me.
And I just take, I, you're just like, okay, I'm doing this for my bro. I'm doing this for my bro,
show my support. And just taking that first sip and just, there are moments in your life where you feel
your brain chemistry changing.
That was one of those moments.
I just remember taking that first sip
and I was like, why is this not like
any other sip I've taken a whiskey
in my life?
Right place, right time.
And now I am chasing that fucking high again.
See, I was, when I first saw this three by three
and I saw the barn documentary
and then I saw whiskey, I was like, oh God,
is this like, is this like Gansley tortured poet's demise?
He's like, I just started drinking trying to get through this work.
That's how we know he's gonna make the most fire shit.
I just imagine Ghana like two in the morning, like, head in hands just being like, I need a whiskey.
So I'm glad it's more positive.
I realize it looked like that.
Yeah.
From like, I was like, yeah.
It's like screenwriting whiskey.
Yeah, my going into screenwriting and whiskey at the same time.
Fuck, that's like.
And should be okay?
Yeah.
Like, bro's going through some shit.
I'm like, shit, this is like the, this is a righteous three by three.
It's like next is going to be like a fucking Marlboro, Marlboro or some shit like that.
That's going to be like next year's three and she's going to have like Miyazaki.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
He's going to be him.
Smoky.
It's just, this country's gone to shit.
Yeah.
But the problem is I don't want to tell anyone that while I see like now.
Yeah, because like.
You sound like you're alcoholic.
I don't know, not that I'm into, um, not like it's not like an alcoholic.
but I'm afraid that people are going to get me whiskey as like gift, which is like...
Yeah, gone, join the club.
Which is fine, you know, because I do like whiskey.
I will appreciate it.
Yeah.
But unlike a bottle of wine, you're like, okay, this gift is going to last, you know, a day.
Yeah.
When whenever I choose to open it.
Yeah.
Shit, man.
Like, I am not enough of an alcoholic to be like, shit.
I'm going to get through this, like, give me, give me a few days.
Bro, I've got like four bottles of whiskey at home, not even open yet.
I'm just waiting for the time to be like, I need to gather some people.
Yeah, yeah.
I'm not going to make it through this myself.
I've got one of every drink in my house that I just have in touch,
because I just don't drink at home.
Yeah, exactly.
It's like, I've got every type of alcohol you'd ever want.
Yeah.
I'm just like, please come over.
I need to empty these.
But the form is no one drinks whiskey.
You know?
I drink whiskey?
No, no one drinks.
Well, like, no one's at a party.
Yeah.
Oh, that's true.
Yeah.
This whiskey is just like, it's a vibe drink.
You need to go to an establishment as well.
Like a whiskey bar.
I feel in order to actually have a proper time with whiskey.
Yeah, exactly.
So what's next on your list?
What's next?
I see Dexter there.
Yeah, this was, I was like struggling to find things.
OG series or the new one?
Huh?
The OG series or the new one?
So Dexter, I ended up rewatching a lot of Dexter this year.
But I will 100% say it was mostly second monos and content.
This is the shit I just put on in the background because I'd already watch Dexter.
Yeah, yeah.
It's fine.
It's fine if it's second monocale.
Yeah, yeah.
You've watched it.
I've already watched it.
And I, Dexter was just, man, I am so susceptible to advertising and whatever because I think I just kept
getting recommended Dexter clips just from shorts randomly.
That's good show.
And I think it's because like the memes for Dexter have resurfaced this year.
Yeah, yeah.
Also, the new season apparently is amazing.
It's like 9.1 on IMDB.
Really?
I haven't gotten up there, yeah.
Yeah, there's like the brand new series
and where he's like pretend to be young
or something looks pretty funny.
Yeah.
Next to New Blood?
Yeah, it's like sitting at like a fucking nine.
I haven't seen a single episode.
It's very good.
Yeah.
One of the like classic era box sets.
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah.
I know a lot of people who like.
No, not this one.
It's a different one.
Different Dexter.
Yeah.
Yeah, that one's from 2022.
It's like the original sin, original sin.
Original sins.
Oh, it might be resurrection.
Yeah, 9.1 on IMDB.
Damn.
With 100,000 reviews.
All right.
Like, kind of crazy to see him kind of come back and just crush it.
Yeah.
Holy shit.
God damn.
I want to watch it because apparently it's godlike.
Well, I will get there soon, I guess.
I'm working my way through all the seasons.
And I forgot how genuinely good the first two seasons were.
He's amazing.
Like the first two seasons were,
like fucking peak television.
I think my favorite season is one where
John Lithgow is the psychopath.
He's very good. I think it's season four.
Who can you search
up his
John Lithgow, Dexter? Just type in
I love John Lithgow, man. He's very
good in Dexter.
Dexter. Oh, I think it's season three.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. This season is probably my favorite
season. He has
a very, very, very good, he was a
very, very good villain as well.
He's just a great actor.
Yeah, I mean, his character, yeah, his character, he's like, because he plays one of the villains.
Every season in Dexter has a villain that gets played, and his is a serial killer, similar to Dexter, but his whole spiel is that he is also living a normal life as well.
And he has found his, he has found balance between living a normal life and serial
killing, right? Which is what Dexter yearns for because he...
So he's like, Kira?
I guess. A little bit more fucked up than Kira.
Okay.
Do you know the concept of Dexter?
Not at all.
The concept of Dexter is essentially, Dexter is a serial killer.
But he only kills people who deserve it.
Most of the time it's like other serial killers or...
Or other things as well.
Right.
And the reason he's like that is because he has always had this,
this yearning, this urge to kill since he was like a young kid, right?
And his dad, who is a cop, found out about his like urge to kill, right?
Right. So instead of, you know, reporting him or whatever, his dad teaches him how to, like,
commit, like, the perfect crime so that he can, he can, like, kill without being caught.
Right.
One of his main rules is, like, whatever you do, do not get caught.
But rule number two is just like, before he's killing him.
like make sure that they deserve it.
Make sure that they are someone who actually has fallen through the cracks of the justice system.
Yeah.
Because the reason his dad taught him was because he was a cop and there were a lot of people who he felt were free and out roaming that didn't deserve it.
Right, right.
So it's worth checking out.
Yeah, yeah. Definitely worth checking out.
And I would say that the first two seasons are fucking fantastic.
They both have amazing villains and some really interesting characters well.
Like probably the character you've seen is Dokes, who is the black police officer.
All the memes of him.
All the memes.
You know the one where he's like in this car?
Yeah.
Like, oh, that guy.
He's Dexter.
And the one who's like, surprise motherfucker.
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah, yeah.
Okay, okay.
Yeah, he is one of the main characters in the early seasons of this.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Eric King.
Eric King.
Yeah, I don't know why this got a resurgence this year.
I think maybe the show and other things too, but yeah, I think,
hey, good for him.
And I think because of the memes, I just started re-watching Dexter again.
And you know what?
I don't even know if, I don't know if I would recommend it.
That's the problem.
It's, uh, if you want a classic box set shows, we just call them,
like a prison break or a 24.
Yeah.
It's a good one jumping too.
Because it's just like, I, it's, it's, it's,
funny because I know a few people this year
that has gotten back
into the box set era, but just
watch stuff on second monitor.
Yeah. Like, have you heard that
Didis watched all of the Soprano's second
monitor recently?
And I'm like...
Is that a second monitor type of show?
Not really, but
Sydney has been watching
King of the Hill, second monitor.
Oh my gosh. And yeah,
I've been watched... To be fair, the reason I watched
Dexter was because I was like,
Yeah, there's a...
The shorts, man.
The shorts just get me with, because there are so many fucking...
There are so many fantastic moments of Dexter.
But holy shit, the box set era of TV, I could not stand today
because there is so much fluff.
There is so much like...
A lot of fluff.
Yeah, nowadays, I think I've just taken for granted just how fast it takes to get to the point
of a TV show and how fast it is to get to that hook.
There's no fluff.
And every episode builds on the previous episode.
And going back to this boxette era, and especially, you know, especially revisiting a series I've already watched.
I'm like, holy fucking shit, man.
Just get to that moment.
I want to revisit in that short.
Just please get to that moment.
Because, you know, I ended up watching the first few episodes of that new Vince Giddigan TV series.
Yeah, it's fucking fantastic.
And it gets to the point right away.
Gets to the point right away.
And every episode I've watched builds on this a new idea, a new conflict.
And damn, watching Dexter plebores.
Yeah.
Yeah.
This is just like great fucking Zeev.
And then going back and watching Dexter as well, I'm just like.
Thanks a while.
I'm like, yeah, I don't actually feel guilty to the second monitor.
Yeah.
Fair enough.
All right.
And your final one?
And my final one, just because I try to.
to not put anime on this
because I try not to support my best of anime
2025. To be HeroX,
my Chinese animation
of the year.
It's amazing. It is amazing.
I'm a little bit biased
because the... You met the bloke? I met the
creator and he's so fucking cool.
I'm sure you'll talk about it more in depth
on your best of anime.
Yeah, yeah. But...
Should you recommend it?
So, let me tell you on why it is very, very interesting.
I'll give you two pieces.
Number one, it is a superhero.
It is a superhero world, and it is a superhero world
through the lens of, I guess, China.
But it has a very unique power system
where the power system is based on influence.
So it is a world where influencers
are superheroes, right?
So the more that...
It's not even about social media followers, per se,
but the more...
Social influence.
Yeah, the more people believe in you
and want to, like, cheer for you.
It's almost closer to idols.
Right.
The more people want you to succeed,
the more power that you get within this world
and the more that manifests into different powers.
Right.
Right.
And the really interesting thing
about this world is that you see how fickle that can be with just, not just like influencing,
you know, not just like, you know, how many followers does someone have, but how quickly can
influence like Peter and fall, depending on public perception and just how much like one, like
dodgy article or one, um, one bad rumor can be spread around you, you know, and how easy it is for
people to move on to the next hero and find new heroes, right?
Because this, this entire world of 2B HeroX follows different heroes, the top 10
heroes of this world and like how they came to be like the top 10 heroes, right?
And it takes place in like different timelines, following different characters that all like
converge by the end.
And I just found that really, really interesting, not only as someone who is, you know, a creator,
influencer. I thought it was a really interesting power system. But just a very unique spin on the
superhero genre as well. And the second thing is that it has by far some of the most insane
fucking animation. I've seen clips. Have you seen clips? So a lot of it boils down to the number
one hero, which is named X. And bro, every time he appears on screen, it is. It is,
It is number one aura, but some of the coolest sequences of animation that you've seen.
Because his power, right, is that every time he clicks his fingers, he basically changes animation style.
Oh, wow.
Yeah.
So, so during his fights, Kai, can you, it's better.
It's easier to show you as opposed to, as opposed to just describing.
But every time he clicks, he changes animation style.
And so in the universe, it's kind of like him changing dimensions.
I'm not too sure if it's like properly explained.
But he is, but it's some of the coolest, you know, action animation and action choreography I've seen in an animated TV series.
Just like conceptually.
And conceptually, it's really, really cool.
but to see it actually be executed on a level
and not in like a Spider-verse, like, level budget.
I'm just like, holy shit.
Meeting the creator, I just, I was, I was lost for words.
Yeah, let me, let me show you one of the scenes.
Kayki, maybe go on my Twitter,
because I retweeted it a while ago of like one of the scenes.
Because if you need a reason to watch TB HeroX,
just
just watch some of the
how are
why is this
2022
because you're not logged in
oh shit
you have to log in
yeah
oh fuck
weird
okay
I mean
never mind
that's fine
we have audio listeners
anyway
yeah yeah yeah
we'll watch it
yeah
I mean that's cool
yeah
yeah
and thanks for
show us
three by three
I think we've been recording
for a while
how haven't we going for
oh shit
that's a lot
we just can't
talking about the things.
Look, there's a lot of things to talk about.
That's like.
That is.
But there you go.
That was my three by three.
Hell yeah.
Thank you for sharing.
No worries, man.
And that was our favorite things of 2025.
And hey, look at all these patrons.
I hope.
Yeah, these are also our favorite things of 2025.
All of you who supported us for this year.
I believe there's one other episode after this before we wrap up the new year.
But until then, what you can do is head on over to our Patreon because not only
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but also you'll have an entire year's worth
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And we'll see you guys next week.
Bye.
