Licking the Iceberg (feat. JP Brammer)

include this thing. But but Fran and our producer Phoebe are both giving me death stairs as I attempt to sing the Sailor Moon themes. You're not getting it because art isn't being appreciated. Art should be censored, just like Sailor Man and um. But today we are talking about anime with J. P. Brammer, because this is like a Virgin the show where we give yesterday's pop culture today's fakes.

I'm Rose damn you, and I'm Fran Toronto. Today. Our guest is JP Brammer, a good Judy of ours, incredible author of the advice column Ola Poppy, which also is a book Amazing Visual Artists expert et truly the person in my phone who absolutely knows the most about anime um so thank god we have him here to pop

our cherries kinda and tell us what pokemon we are. Yes, I was just watching a TikTok where this person was talking about how they have multiple fan fiction accounts and on one of them they faked their own death so they wouldn't have to keep updating a story queen, which I love. Like, that's the level of like boredom I get to where I've picked up a hobby or something. I don't want to do this anymore and would love to be able to fake my own death to get

out of it. Like if I could fake my own death to get out of doing this podcast, it's only a matter of time before you do. Oh wait, speaking of faking your own death, do you know what I did this Friday? Friday? I went and saw the national tour of Wicked, the musical The Untold Story of the Witches of Oz. I saw it at the seracer strum Um Center for the Arts in Coasta, Mesa, from California.

My friend said, L O L. Look the Wicked National tour is coming to sort of near l A. And I like texted back a screenshot of the receipt of me having bought the tickets. You know, it was like you thought you were you were joking. No, this is this is happening, Baba. No, it's never a joke when it comes to Wicked with you. So it took two hours each way to get there. God, and we had reservations to go to dinner at this place which had a Wicked themed cocktail came with little witch hots. We

asked the waiter. He's like, I don't know, it's like something witchy. Was it called the Wickedly Talented Adele disease? Doesn't know it was not, unfortunately, um, but we like, this is so humiliating. We were late for the show. It took so long to get in. I never and Fran you know how I feel about lateness and about being on time. Rose is the most punctual girl you

have ever met, And like, this is the thing. The whole trauma around being late for me and why I'm so dramatically early to everything is that I grew up with parents who were always late, and I hated being late for things, and so it conditioned me to always want to be early. So now when I'm forced into a scenario in which I am late against my will, I am furious. And then okay, so then the show starts at seventh pty and like by the time we actually get to the door to go in the theater,

like our door to enter, it's only seven. And most plays, you know, I would say, there's a couple of minute grace period, but we get we get upstairs. Yeah, plays do not start exactly on. Ushers have no grace you this. Ushers are the most judgmental people on the planet. And let me tell you, I used to be an usher. Did you know this? I did not know that. My my mom used to take me and my family like all the time. We would be volunteer ushers for Chicago's

production of Blue Man Group. And we because my mom loved Blue Man Group, loved and what so did we ask the family and so it was like this Blue Man Group path her like moral check checklists. Yeah, I suppose, so, I mean there are some you know, it feels a little satanic, because it's a little satanic for sure. Also, like those those Blue Men, we're fucking each other with their Blue Dick sucking the house down boots, but like, should we do a Blue Man Group episode? And no, no, no,

we shouldn't we. Sorry, I'm overwriting. There's nothing to discuss about that show other than the fact that we were required to wear white button downs and black slacks which we bought from Coals, which makes no sense because we were too cheap to afford actual Bluemn tickets. I'm pretty sure we went back and slab Bluemen Group as a family as ushers for free, like six times. Um. Well,

this performance of Wicked the Musical was mostly okay. You know, it's a touring production, so everything's a little jan kie. It was performed at about one point five time speed, like they really wanted to get through the show. The performances were like buried across the board. Glinda was fine, Fierro was very good and very hot. Alphaba was kind of a snooze until no good Deed which she ate

or Madam Morrible fucking sucked. Yeah. Oh, actually, the girl who was Nesta Rose was great and it reminded me that I really hope we get an extended edition of Wicked. Witch of the East in the movie, which TBD on whether or not that ever actually happens. Well, I didn't have as eventful of a weekend as you did. Um you went to go see wid I went to Mexico to hang out at a gay nude beach, and the

last day of my vacation, my phone completely died. And you know now I'm phoneless and well, I'm hungover from food poisoning as well. I woke up three am with violent food poisoning. But at least I have got a great hand. You know, it could cure your food poisoning, or at least make you feel better. The New Florence in the Machine song King, which I have you listened to? You yet? Know that in Mexico zero like no service, very bad WiFi for most of the trips. So I'm

very gratefully out of touch with reality. Unfortunately, did make me miss some New Florence. Did you like the song? I love it, It's so good. I I don't know if we've talked about her at length on this podcast before, but I am a Florence in the Machine stand and

I am so happy that mother has returned. Although she in the song says she's not a mother, She's not a Bride She's King, which period amazing song, such a good video like video is very clearly referencing Hereditary meets Suspiria with like a hocus Pocus look, like she's literally wearing Sarah Jessica Parker's look from hocus Pocus. She's back. She's booked at a bunch of festivals this summer. Does that mean an album is coming? Yeah, an album's coming.

You know that. I don't go see live music, but I absolutely will be going to see her because I've seen her now for every era and she's the only artist that I actually feel like I need to see in concert because the live experience is transcendent. Possibly because the the first time I ever did acid was out of Florence the Machine concert. But yeah, I love her. I have like a very intense spiritual connection to Florence, and I'm so excited for new music. I'm a huge

Florence fan. I only I saw her once at as the only homosexual and at a concert in Indianapolis, and I remember it was on the fourth of July and she qued fireworks to go off right at the second Bridge um over. It was incredible her so much I'll go and listen to King watch the video. Okay, I'll watch this video. Also a video that you missed is um, do you know who Analyn McCord is? Yes, speaking of mothers? I did, unfortunately see this. Okay, so this is a analyne.

McCord is an actress who I really only know from the short lived nine to Want Oh reboot along with all of us that came out post Gossip Girl. So cut for context. I don't know if all of you listening to this note, but there's a war happening right now, which I think is a topic that this podcast will not dive into. Absolutely not qualified to him any meaningful commentary on it, is deeply unfunny, is deepitely not something to commentate on, especially from people in America that have

no experience in foreign affairs reporting. But one thing I do feel comfortable commenting on it is Annelyine McCord's video about how she wishes she were Vladimir Putin's mother so that she would have loved him enough that he never would have invaded Ukraine, which I think was a really great lesson to everyone else who will now bear witness to a literal war that we just we don't need

anybody's too say, we don't need takes. Like I'm just waiting for all of the fashion influencers to who I followed, to be like, let's put together an out to go fight World War three. You know. Like there's this girl I follow who I don't know if this is your algorithm.

Her name is Sammy. She's this British girl and her thing is she goes, let's get dressed, and then she proceeds to put together these like kind of ugly outfits, but like they're very expensive, and she has like literally every designer handbag that's ever been made, and she has reached this point of like ubiquity that my mom, who's on TikTok, was like, do you do you do you follow the let's get dressed girl? And I was like, yeah, obviously, mom, Okay,

it has to be set. The fact that Pangina was eliminated, I babe, not Manilla Hydra and should be scared for her life life. Oh my god, I'm so worried. I truly don't think we have ever seen a queen react to being eliminated like Pangina did, because like that's the thing. Not only were we all gooped and gagged, but like usually the queens are able to pull it together enough to leave the stage with Grace. Not Pangina, because she did not think she was going home. She thought she

was making it to the end. And when she was talking about her country and how like apologizing for shaming them devastating. They have to bring her back. They have to bring her back. I will say, the most haunting exit from drag Race since sobbing off stage as they're all there and I'm sure there's so much more sobbing that was cut, Like I'm sure like part of that is like editing. No, No, I don't think. I don't

think they would have left it. I think they turned they turned her mike up one of the producers in the back, like bump, bump, Pangina. That was ugly crying. That was not ugly crying. That's like me in my car between the Taco bell, Haywin dough and the window where you get your food, ugly crying, hoping that neither of the people can hear me. I have never like seen Rue so genuinely shocked. I've never seen Michelle express

empathy in that way before. I've never seen like a queen that's so deserved to be there, Like it was such an absolute miscalculation on Blues part. Like I'm trying to figure out, like how to decipher like the difference between like what Naomi Smalls did to Manila and what is happening here. But it's the same thing. It's they want to win the only they're actually playing the game. They want to take out the competition. The slight difference,

honestly is that you need to stick the landing. Because Naomi got on that next episode, she goes, yeah, I did it, like what she was kind of serving and that I do see a scenario in which Blue is like, oh my god, I didn't know. I feel so bad that I bet he regrets. It's so hard. I mean, I guess we'll find out this one. I also want to know the other queen, who's whose lipstick they had.

I think Baga also eliminated Panchina, which is why it was such a twist because I felt that Baga won that lip sync personally, and I fucking hate Baga, Like I disgusting to be eliminated. She should be eliminated on get that Baga off the screen. I'm not of not watching that a lazy, talentless piece of ship. No, she's not talentless. Like her snatch game was phenomen but like she, I felt she won. This was it. Though I thought it was kind of boring, I think that it was.

It was all very like the same thing. I mean, a snatch game is like over time and time again completely And I didn't laughing her. I I giggled. I felt that she did the best out of the group. And I felt that Baga, even though her style of lip syncing is so lazy like drunk woman and at a bar in Manchester or whatever, it still was wildly or entertaining than whatever the funk Blue did. And I thought they were both. They were both horrible. That's that's

what I should say, is they're both horrible. But I felt, well, that's I think what was gonna eliminate was going to eliminate Pangina, So for Blue to eliminate just I wonder if like the bad lip syncing on UK versus the World is like somewhat a product of like not having the fear of being sent home in you to make you do better. But then again, the lip syncs on regular Drag Race where they could be going home. Have not been great either, Yeah, they really have not. Thank

you for being here today. I am so happy to be here. Above being a content creator, I am a content consumer. So I'm very excited to discuss some anime with you today. Yes, because you know, last mer I texted you and said, I really want to get more into anime. What should I watch? And what did you tell me? Um? Well, I said Hunter x Hunter. I said full mettal Alchemist. I said Avatar, which it's hotly debated if that's anime or not. You know, purists will say,

purists will say it's not. Um but anime is kind of a state of mind at the end of the day. So if you feel like it's anime, it's anime. Um And I remember telling you to stick with Avatar because you're like, this is for children. Yeah, the first couple of episodes, the first couple episodes are a little rough and like very childish, and then it just gets so real and so good, very adult fast. Yeah, very quickly. Yes, But but ultimately you told me to watch Neon Genesis

Evan Gillian and I did watch. I did, and really liked it. It's you know, like a show about huge robots that take over the planet. Yeah, and it's very gorgeous. Yeah, yeah, it's the premise give us a t LDR, My god, the premise, okay, as if you could give a t LDR any any like large scale anime that has the most intricate lots ever. M Evan Gelian follows the journey of Shinji, who is a young boy living in what's called Tokyo three. So something called Second Impact has already

happened and wiped out half of humanity. The remainder of humanity is sort of living underground in Tokyo three, and Shinji gets selected by his father to pilot an ava or an Evan Gelian, and this is something that is meant to fight off these things called aliens that for some reason are attacking Tokyo three. No one's quite sure why. But a select few kids, all selected from the same class, by the way, so these are all like potential pilots,

were put into a school together. Um, a few are selected to pilot to the avas, and the ava's have to fight off the angels. And there's a whole lot of lore going on behind it, but I think at its core it's sort of about Shinji really not wanting to pilot this robot and his dad being like pilot the robot. And it's just one season, right, yes, and

there are movies afterwards. So when Shinji like joins the whole scenario, there are already some pilots of these robots and it's they it seems to be really difficult to pilot the robots. Yes, it is not fun pilot, which is kind of like seems goes against I think what a lot of us would assume as kids is like all you want to do is control a giant robot exactly.

I think that my favorite animals sort of trouble the power trip fantasy, so like being you should be able to do this thing and wield this power and it should be so much fun, but their complications and their restrictions. Um Hunter Hunter, my favorite anime of all time, does that as well. But in Ava sort of like who doesn't want to pilot a huge robot? And they look really cool, I mean they look chic, their fears looking

like they yeah blens Way for sure. No, just I feel like, um, I want to know more actually about like the place that this like that this kind of culture object found you, Like when did you first start watching it? Why? Um, like when you like, what was your kind of first impression? Like Rose and Eild virgins to it. I think that we were saying, like, you know, you you power through those first three episodes and like you get into the world, like what was your kind

of first impression first? So I read this YouTube comment that rang true to me, which is the more depressed you are when you find Evangelian, the more you will enjoy it. I think that it is a very moody anime. It is I think at its core about loneliness and about feelings of isolation. It's got this sort of like apocalyptic but at the same time disaffected kind of thing going on around it. The coolest girl in anime ever,

she's so cool. She really embodies the vibe of the whole thing, Like she's really cool, she's sexy, she's capable.

She never quite panics or freaks out, even though there's these giant creatures attack King, and so the apocalypse sort of becomes mundane and even yeah, they're very nonchalant to that, like they're living in this bunker after this huge explosion has taken half of humanity out and mist is sort of just this hyper competent, sexy general kind of woman, and she's like, I gotta fight these angels today, gotta fight these monsters before they wipe out humanity, and she's

just sort of about it. Which I happened to watch this anime before I guess the world really started falling apart, But I think it's gaining more resonance with me now because the apocalypse does feel rather mundane at times, or like everything is falling apart, everything is apocalyptic every day and we're just still going about our little chores and

going about our little lives. And you know, she's just a sort of like, you know, I love beer, I love taking weekends off, and I'm really good at fighting these aliens. Um. But I watched it about I want to say, twenty seventeen. I was a new Ish to New York still and really feeling that isolation of being surrounded by a lot of people, not really knowing everyone. You know, that classic you're on the subway, people are all around you and you feel anonymized by the city.

It's just like that very cliche, you know, but so so real. And I think that evan Gelian is kind of about that feeling of just like, wait a minute, I'm alone in this world. Um, it's very isolating. It's very like in Evangelian Um for those who haven't watched it, they have this concept, which I love, called an absolute terror field. Okay, that's just my life. So literally, in the world of Evangelian the absolute terror field is the

thing that makes you an individual. It is your fear of connecting with another person intimately that collects and holds you as a person that you can't quite merge seamlessly with another human beings. So it's a literal force field. The Angels have them, and they're more literal like their actual force field, so if you try shooting them with missiles,

the absolute terror field will kind of protect them. But it works that way with humans too, because the goal of evan Gelian is the Human Instrumentality Project, which is meant to turn all of humanity into one superorganism. So they're all gonna lose their individuality and they're going to join into a blobby, hive mind kind of thing and it will be bliss and everyone will be reunited with everyone else, and that no one will ever be lonely again.

That's sort of the idea behind human instrumentality. Meanwhile, everything is very depressing and isolating and desolate. Can you have your absolute terror field around you keeping anyone else from being able to breach the wall so to speak. Um, So, all those things going on, I think that they're quite easily turned into metaphors for depression, for loneliness, and I think Evangelian speaks to you the most if you're feeling that at the time. Okay, maybe I should try watching

it again. Job, let me tell you I am depressed. Yeah, I feel I love that. I mean, there, I think it's so funny, consuming dystopian uh content of any kind. Um, But like I never would have thought how you said it so succinctially of like that feeling how unfortunately relatable it is to be like, oh, I'm in an important character in a movie about the end of the world, you know what I mean. And but like within the show of Evangelion, like it's almost like the mundanity translates

to something that is like so much more. Um. Yeah, I love that. But I feel like when I watch like even like watching Hunger Games or like Handmaids, I'm trying to think of like other dystopian fiction that we're consuming now where it's like, oh yeah, you first reading, you're like, oh that's so funny, that's so out of this world, and then you're like, oh no, yeah, that's kind of happening now. Yeah, squid Games not too far from reality. It's happening. Would you do if you were

in the Hunger Games? Would you volunteer? Do you think you could survive? Um? I think, unfortunately, what if I was just like an avid consumer of the TV show, like when they like televise it like the games get to watch. That's the that's the part that everyone forgets about the Hunger Games is that there's a huge aspect of it which is about reality TV UM, and it's

like for entertainment purposes. I think I sadly like, well, no, because I don't watch Survivor, So I don't know if I would be into the Hunger Games, Like what if I was just watching it like drag Race and I was just like, oh my god, the Queen's this thing. That's where I'm like, I'm I'm unfortunately been told that I have like FI vibes, and so I I unfortunately

see that I see some of my worst self in that. Um. So maybe I would be in the world of Hunger Games, someone who was an avid consumer of the Hunger Games and then maybe was radicalized two or three movies. Okay, I would be like the Donald Sutherland. I feel like the evil overlord with the bushy eyebrows, the bushiest eyebrows. Wait, what's the thing? He says, and that I'm a cock what the nicole? You know? More cock shuck, But like in the old school version, which is like the old

school version of a cocksucker or someone who sucks cocks. Um. Something the anime does so well is that that like kind of dystopian isolation, even when the narrative isn't dystopie. And like I'm thinking of a lot of like Miyazaki films or like a Princess Mononoke or like something we're in. It's like that character is somehow like so alone and so and like within that aloneness it becomes like heroic. It feels like, I mean, I know in Miyazaki creates

like a protagonist. He's always trying to like take someone who's like really flawed, like in Spirited Away, someone who's like manic or like she's just a child, but also has the ability to like traverse an insurmountable level of dystopia. Um. But I really appreciate that, and like the animal genrange. I really love taking little breaks from I guess what

I would think of as American storytelling. I think in a love of Japanese storytelling, it can get very dark and also not necessarily give you the payoff you expect at the end, where it's like, but everything will be okay, right, and then it's just like maybe not maybe give me give me a sad ending. Yeah, seriously, and like the end of Evangeli and the show anyway. Um. Not speaking on the movies is so vague and so like is

this good? Is this bad? I can't really tell. I just love stuff like that, and you get that watching movies, I guess from other cultures as well. Just let you take a little vacation from the tyranny of American optimism, where it's just like the end everyone has there has to be a wedding where everyone's cool at the end, every dad's fine. The happily ever after feels very western. Yeah, and movie studios won't make things without happy endings like

it's such a fierce Um. What what was your gateway drug into anime? As something of an anime consume? It brings me no pleasure to announce this. Um it was Naruto. And I know everything there is to know about Naruto. Is it frowned up myself? Is it frowned upon an anime community? You know, it's just silly to me because here's why my little sisters love Naruto. It's so good and so bad. Like I think if the quality of the later seasons were better, I would be like more

upfront about being a Naruto stand. But I know everything about the Great Ninja War arc, and that is trash like garbage, garbage story telling. Nothing makes sense. People have sort of checked out in terms of the animation and the art style. Um, everyone gets brought back as some sort of zombie like clearly they're out of ideas. And it's just hard. It's hard being a Naruto stand. We are often um overlooked in this country and we are underfed.

And what is Naruto about? Um? Naruto is about a goofy, little neglected ninja who would grow up to become the Ninja president. Um. So he went from a child soldier to being the leader of the child soldiers and that's beautiful. Yeah, beautiful. Yeah, it sounds sounds great. Well, that's what's so weird about Naruto is that, like, so the main antagonist is always like, this whole system is horrible. I'm going to like get

rid of it and start over again. And the show makes you think that's this horrible idea, and then you look at it again, it's like, why are these children going out fighting each other with knives and their little superpowers? And that's not great. Maybe Sacek made some points, but

the show kind of doesn't let you explore that. There's a lot of anime child warriors, like even Sailor Moon like that, by the power of the Moon, I will punish you, like she is a you know, magical girl, um teenage uh the magical cop cop, magical moon cop. She is a magical you know. It's so I was about to say, Taylor Swift, Sailor Moon was like definitely my gateway drug. I guess maybe a lot of baby

queers had that. But I remember being in like the anime aisle, or rather not even an aisle, like an anime like section of Blockbuster and begging my mom to let me take home like the vhs that had like the first eight episodes or whatever, because like my mom wouldn't didn't want me to bring it home because it's like very femin It's like this, like you know, it's like almost like Barbie content, you know what I mean. And so there was something where she was just like,

my Sean can't watch this. But like I when I took it home, I remember being like kind of like in it for the girliness and then staying for you know, that subversion of like the heroine of like because Sailor Moon is like famously like a dumb bimbo, and I feel like she's like never knows what's going on, and like she never she's like always at a cross um, she's always at a crossroad that someone has to fix for her, but that she's still like saves the day

every time. I don't consume anything where there's a little theme going on, like I'm the lightning one, I'm the fire one, I'm the water one. I love that. Well. Like Pokemon, let's talk about it. I think we should have that conversation conversation. What was your Pokemon? Your first Pokemon memories, my first Pokemon memories. My god, it goes so far back. I remember getting a Pikachu plush because I was gay. I was very uninterested in like the

actual like card game. I didn't want to play anyone else. I wanted to collect the shiny ones, for sure. But they were like boys in my Catholic school who knew all the rules and we're very into like actually battling each other, or like back in those days you would connect your game boys together with a cable and joking that's a double end dildo. I was mostly in it for the aesthetics, like I am for everything else in this world. I was just like, oh, I love the

way these look. Um, specifically like dragon Air. I think that's the gayest. Yeah, the one with the horn and the wings. I saw her at dragon Airs at Pieces. Yeah she's at Pieces right now. Um yeah. I I remember also not being that into the card game at all. Like I was just like, these are pretty, and I want to draw all these Pokemon, and I'm going to collect a binder full of them, but like did not actually really connect to the lore. Obviously watched the series

and was like horny for Brock and Misty. Yeah, talk about another heroin Bembo, Like Misty is so hot and so fierce. She's the water one. Yeah, she's the what was your Pokemon entry point? Okay? Great? Second grade? UM, that's when you know the the franchise of Pokemon took flight.

It was like huge success, um. And once it reached like the American zeitgeist, and then, of course a little later reached the Midwest where I was, UM, kids started collecting cards and it was immediately banned at my high school. UM in large part because I think kids started fighting over cards, and there became financial ramifications to like, you know, eleven and twelve year olds, like giving away or getting

tricked into like trading really expensive. Yeah. It was literally an economy, and all of a sudden, the parents have to like research on the monetary value of these cards, which is they're like, it's so absurd. It was an economy. Implying that there was a Bernie made off of the Pokemon economy in some middle school somewhere. I wonder who. I wonder who It wasn't me. I wasn't savvy. I was just like I love Metwo exactly. I never did

the card game. I U got I wanted the game that when Nintendo Blue came out, I had the original Pokemon Nintendo game and I played it to the end, and then I never had any interest in Pokemon again. Uh wow, like people people were playing with the cards at my school. I just like, really, I wasn't into it. I think like I was into like Magical Girl anime. UM, but I don't know, like the game didn't really do

it for me. Um. And I haven't like through the years, I have not really spent a lot of time with anime except you know, um, um, you know, upon your recommendations. And then okay, earlier this year, like the end of last year, I did get kind of into this one anime called the Ancient Major Spride. Have you watched you your sever down the Iceberg? I know what? Yeah? Okay, So it's about this girl who sells herself into slavery

because she's poor. Um and she is, and she's bought by a demon who has like a skull head no no, no, um, and he's like, I'm your daddy, now I'm going to take care of you. Also, you have magical powers, and that's kind of what the show is about. It's about her like getting into all these magical hi jinks and then he like comes and saves her and he's like,

we're gonna get married, the classic coming of age narrative. Yeah, of course there was something like there was something a little insidious about like the fact that not all of these, not some of these like more adult enemies, but like a lot of these cartoons were designed for kids, and yet their characters are so hot, like so so I was attracted to every Miyazaki protagonist, all of them girls and boys, like and that anything the androgyny of like

how pretty these characters were. It's like a part of that, like draw well animals very fami, very fam even the boys are so like emotive and like in their feelings and problems, huge huge hair. Oh my god, how much gel is being in these animals? And Gary ashcatch ums nemeses and Pokemon was a fag And I think that was the big crux of their relationship, is like Gary was in love with Ash and like didn't want to admit it, you know what I mean. Um anyways, that's

a tangent. I also needed to mention that, um my mother forbid me from watching Pokemon after like my first to Blockbuster rentals because a neighbor told her that people were getting seizures from it. Yeah, No, not at all. I mean there might have ben there may yeah, of course there may be. Maybe what there was like one headline m that my mom read on like focus on the Family dot com or something like that about how like someone you know with epilepsy maybe saw Pikachuse Flash

and had a seizure or something. But like my mom literally forbid me from watching it because she was like, no, Pokemon gives you seizures. And I was like, Okay, I definitely definitely remember Pokemon. I think kind of Harold Ding the the anime boom in America and we really have had it ever since. And having sisters who are younger than me, they're they're eighteen year old twins. Um it was. They love anime and have like their their whole lives

as they've been like conscious of what they're consuming. And I think, I guess, and it's just now part of like the culture Alexicon for for kids growing up now they have so much more access to it than even

we did as teenagers. You know. I just thought about one thing that needs to be addressed is the number of bops that anime has given us in weeks, like a Cruel Angels thesis, the theme song to Ethan Gillian I love, It's so good it's it's slab, like the theme songs Oh please, the full Middle Alchemist soundtrack incredible, like oh my gosh, sailor Moon. Honestly, I was at a party that I will not name and promote here where they played a a remix of the Pokemon theme

song and I astral projected, we're taking this out. Bleep it, bleep it, phoebe by. No, I was not on the poke bon I was. I was at something. I was at another time party, another bleep party, um, and uh yeah it was. It slapped its leaped so hard. But I also was thinking about I don't know if we want to get to this too fast, But I am thinking about urion Ice, of course, are well you think about your course for the virgins. For the virgins, uri on Ice is maybe one of the gayest things ever created.

And we have consumed, between the three of us a lot of gay ship. We are paid to consume a lot of homorotic things, and easily your on Ice is the gayest because it's not because it's not only about ice, it's not only about figure skating. It's about gay figure skating, and it's a it's a an anime of gay figure skating,

and they create they create an entire romance. So long story short, there is like a kind of flop ice skater who is trying to get his he's trying to re emerge into the zitegeist as like he's trying to you know, have his moment back and be a professional figure skater. And he falls in love with a coach that is just basically body shames him into greatness. Um,

it's amazing. Um. And so I remember when I was watching this, I was just like, wait, this is for children, and it's huge, huge, and like consumed by heterosexual people massively in Japan, and yet um yeah, it's like like, so it's the horniest thing I've ever seen. And yet they never well it's arguable they kiss, but it's like their faces are hidden. Why don't you think they I think it's up for interpretation, and I think that they don't. They absolutely kissed. Why it is literally so gay that

it's ambiguous. That's the thing. Actually, that's that's not Ki sing is gayer than kissing, Okay, but the only thing gayer than gay sex is the anticipation of gays. Let me tell you they have a plenty of gay sex in fan fiction. That there is a lot. There's a lot of urion Ice fan fiction. And I have read some of it. I have not I have not written

any of I have I have read a lot. I um My, one of my best friends lives in Japan, and he brought me a stack of urion Ice fan fix that they literally like published and is sold in bookstores. Like a lot of anime fan fic is like sold in bookstores, and it's very It's like a whole other genre of things. I love that genre of like homo erotic, super niche anime. Like there's ones that are just about cooking. What's the digest Like, what are some of them are

about bread? Well, Like there's literally an anime family, just like there's a kink for everything. There's an anime for absolutely everything. If there is an industry out there, there is a niche sort of slice of life anime coffee shop, anime restaurant, anime, um anime about like it's just every

like pilots. Yeah, exactly, if you can dream it, it exists, Yeah, which is why Yurie was like, I was like, this is so specific, and I'm enraptured by whether or not he's going to do this like quadruple parrouet or whatever. It made me so interested in figure for like for

like a very short amount of time. Yeah, and the and the interest was really only relevant to the show because like I do like some figure skating, like I'll watch the Winter Olympics sometimes, but my interest wanes pretty quickly. And I was realizing that it was more about, you know, like the gay relationship drama than the figure skating of it all. Um, I wish there was more of it. There was supposed to be a movie. There wasn't. And I mean, I'm ready for the movie whenever it comes out.

But you're on ice doing for you, Adam Ripon, couldn't I love? Actually, you can watch it on crunchy roll question or I guess you can pirate. Yes, I have a crunchy roll subscription. I thought I bought it to watch the Ancient Majors Brian Why because because okay, here's actually how it happened. I was watching the Lindsay Ellis video about Stephanie Meyer, and it was like apologizing to

Stephanie Meyer. Linda Ellis is a video essayist, and it was about like the how badly everyone treated Stephanie Meyer when Twilight came out, and it started delving into like the like monster boyfriend trope, which is like obviously what Twilight is, and started talking about Ancient Major's Brian and I was like, I'm into that. One thing Rose is going to do with any genre is find the that absolutely regardless of absolutely It's like I have a homing beacon.

It calls you home. Yeah, directly to like the weirdest, most perverted, darkest possible offshoot of whatever you will. You will find her at the bottom of the iceberg every single time, like licking the iceberg. No wait, that's actually such a a absolutely accurate thing about how you can seem. But it's also it's true, and it's like, you know what, I'm happy that I have stayed curious and that and that when something like that pops up, I'm not just like, oh, Okay,

cool child is born an artist. Yeah, you kind of have to. That's a thing. Sometimes it's like I think that the best cultural critics are the ones that also understand what's at the bottom of the barrel, you know what I mean, the things that are maybe the worst parts of the genre. That's still okay, let's not talk

dirty about ancient majors. Yeah, maybe not that specifically, but I do think like when I consume something, like I kind of want to watch the bad thing too, you know what I mean, Like, I think it helps me understand when totally there's and there's a lot of bad animals. Well that's where you mind, like people just trying to scratch the itch or whatever. And I think that's what drives most of most art forms in the world. It's just more laid bare in the worst parts of it.

Like you see what the goals of most anime are in a very simple form. When you look at a bad anime, it's like, okay, yeah, it's for escapism, it's for like looking at huge anime racks, like it's just their breasts are so large, heaving, heaving, both the men and the women. They have very large, big naturals. That's

that's a very crucial part of it. And I think mikers on a new anime o, God, I'm sure it exists already is the thing that I was about to say on Sailor Moon, but I think she's like sixty. They're very young on Sailor Moon, but they're just like they fully formed. Tuxino Mask was one of my early childhood crushes. But okay, who was your favorite sailor scout? Mine was Sailor Venus. Mine was, I believe, also Venus,

if not Mars. Well, mine was, weirdly Sailor Mars, which I don't understand for myself because that doesn't feel like it fits with the rest of me. I don't know she's I think Sailor Mars is the gayest of them. Well, isn't she gay in the original? No, because in the in the so in the basically when Sailor Moon. Can you all can correct me on this, When Sailor Moon came over to the US, they took out all of the queer ship that was in the original. Yeah, Neptune

in Neptune and Uranus. Yeah, I'm sure it was Neptune in Uranus um. But I remember like being totally like sideswiped when someone told me that they was queer stuff and sailone and I was like, no, there wasn't because it's because of the way they dubbed it, which is like, you know, a big conversation when it comes to anime is like dubbing versus subbing, and like what gets lost when you watch a dub version rather than the original, which you should always watch the subs always, but even

then you might not be getting like the correct translation. Right, Yeah, I feel like, Um, it's also like very funny and obviously you know anime of files you should like slade into ideas and provide more context. But like I do think that, like it's funny that like Japan, like in terms of like how um queer people are seen in

that society. Like it's it's actually like a super homophobic, like very rigid kind of version that has really rich like subcultures um in like where communities there, and yet like Homo anime is so massily consumed and accepted in a way that it's almost what in a way that was like to you know, risque for American audiences, you know what I mean. Um, but yeah, I would love

to if anybody has more context. Well, it's like I guess like whenever you have a no Homo moment that allows you to have all the homoments like, that's why your ion ice can exist when like literally in the first episode victors like naked in the Hot Spring is like get in with me, but as long as you don't see them kiss, it's fine. And sis straight women like in who that consume anime? In Japan, the the largest genre they read is gay anime. It's the same

male anime. Yeah right, we're right. What is the overlet there? Like? What is that? Um? We could go a dangerous route and let's do it touch on hintie. Oh, obviously we're looking the iceberg. We're here the iceberg. Talking to one of my really good friends the other day and we had this moment. I don't remember why it got brought up. He was like, have you ever seen Goblin Dungeon? Have

you is? Tell me this is not a hentie, tell me this is not At this dark moment where we both confessed that we've seen Goblin Dungeon, I don't remember why I saw. It's basically, um, this video about these really hot anime boys men and they go into this cave to fight some goblins and the goblins end up sucking them. I'm googling, right, you know, be careful you look up on my heart WiFi, but listen, they will do it. It's way words. Yeah, it's we're actually changing

the name of this podcast to Goblin. This goblin is very hot. He's got jugs, he's going on big, he does not skip chest a. There's a lot to take in Goblin Dungeon. I would read the essay on Goblin Dungeon. I would read the thesis. I honestly, I'm not ashamed about the fact that I love HINTI porn. It's definitely not like my first saying that I will, you know, put in my on my my porn alt. Where's your stripe on the flag? What are we adding to the remote flag to make you feel? This is absolutely a

representation moment. This is a very important visibility for the anime woman with huge jugs on top of No, I love good NTI porn like. It's definitely follow a lot of hint I accounts on my porn all. Do you actually masturbate to it? Not? Usually, it's it's maybe like it's more of an aesthetic appreciation seasonal once a quarter, once every other quarter. I just find it like I I mean, like I don't like engage with a lot of porn that way, but when I do, like, I

kind of need them to be real people. I need y'all to accept me in this moment. I do accept you, y'all. Watch y'all watch like tune porn of any kind? Like any sort of hint? Have y'all watched I have watched tune porn historically, but it's not Have you watched the one where Tarzan from Tarzan Fox Mila from Atlantis? That genre? I've seen Flynn writer and um Kristof. Yes, I think that might be. If you follow Mr x tune on Twitter, I strongly recommend his stuff is very talented. His clips

are the clips are very shortott art. You should subscribe to his patreon and get the full bid. There is a really funny image of from Frozen of of Elsa, Anna and Kristof in bed and Anna and Christoph for having sex and her and Elsa are just holding hands. It's so curse. What was so so funny? For some reason that you were going to bring up bowl off

in that? I'm sure that exists. Oh yeah, for sure, let me just google that Carrots there for a reason, WiFi Rose, you are maybe the first and definitely primary person to send me tune porn. Yeah, in earnest and in a funny in a funny wrench porn. I've got wicked porn. I love I love grand and the King Triton porn. Actually, I feel like I sent that to you, did send that to me, but I had already but

I had already seen it. This is the thing is usually when Frand sends me something that is a really curse, I'm like, I'm like, ah ha ha, but in reality, you already have. I saved it to my camera. Like five years ago. There's this the iPhone, the new iOS has these little thing things called widgets, and you can have this like fun with the day that it'll be like it'll take like featured photos from like your camera roll and like put it on your like homepage screen.

Very bad idea to do this for my phone, But like the other day, it was like just King Triton's whole, just like hole and balls, because I had it saved my cameral the bottom No, no, no, I mean in this image, he they're kind of painting him as this big daddy bottom um. But no, I don't think Triton is the bottom. No, no, no, I think he's maybe a sub top poor unfortunate holes that was low hanging fruit.

We had to fight for Goblin Dungeon. Yes, this is The's what I'm saying when I say representation, honor your queer elders. Who brought you Goblin Dungeons? Yeah? Who's the anime boy who you have the biggest crush on? Yeah? Yeah, good question. I would have to really think about that one. There's a lot of hot ones. I mean, like the guy from kawee Bebop. Oh, yeah, he's gorgeous hot. They all kind of like sometimes they start to look similar with the big hair and like the Space person outfits

across different shows. But I know there's other ones. I love Hako and Spirited Away. He's the dragon. I remember, like when I first watched that, I was maybe in fourth or fifth grade, and I didn't really grasp the plot because you know, I had undiagnosed a d h D. But I feel like I was just like here for Hako and the fact that he turned into a dragon, which is also hot. Turning into animals. Are dragons of any kind hot babes? Yeah, yeah, I would love to. I look for that in a man. It would be

a nice feature. Yeah, the animals. I want my next boyfriend to be an animal. Just kidding, are you as a man not a river spirit? Yeah? How dare you? Spirited Away is so good? It's amazing. The food in it looks so delicious. You know what one dark confession I have is that I remember getting really titlated by the voice acting on Spirit of the Cimarron. The horse. Oh my god, what I'm going to I think it's Matt Damon. Literally it's not. I believe it's Matt Damon.

They the people they get to dub. Some of Homie Zaki's films is Aretes are hot, speak on that horses are very hot, Housmanman Castle, Christian bale As Howl and the Right. What are some of your favorite anime tropes? Oh my goodness, um, I mean like the whole Young Today, Like, oh, I'm a really hot girl and I'm mad but you love me, but I'm going to punch you every now

and then. Like that's such a trope. I really enjoy um because like and even Gellian, it's Oscar obviously, like she has the red hair and she's German and she's a bit, and she's like, I'm really good at piloting this robot, your pathetic shinji. Like I love there's this one meme account that tweets every Saturday, like alone the Saturday Night pathetic. I love Oscar every Saturday night. Yeah,

I love the I love the villain be like Nanny. Um. I think that maybe part of what attracted me to the world outside of like the thing that you said rose about, like the fact that every character is feminine kind of was like the world building, you know, like I was like a drawer and like love to like doodle and like think of characters and like build things that you know were existed like a part of a larger ecosystem, which is why I love Lord of the Rings.

We all love Loved the Rings, Yes we do. Yeah. I think what you what you're touching on something is like every time I've watched an anime, you feel very dropped into the world. Um. And I I like stories like that where um, they kind of take for granted that you're smart enough to just sort of like pick it up as you go along. Um And yeah, that

it's something that really works for me. I feel like I do this exercise sometimes as like um with like friends at parties or whatever, and I think we should all do it now, Like, which pokemon are you do most identify out in the original one fifty? Of course? Yeah, I'm going to need some help with this because I just don't know a lot of JP and I will I personally, I mean, I would love to know you're taking this. I feel sometimes like a pony Ta, like

not like fully grown, but kind of radica. But the thing is like pony Ti is like not um like clumsy enough. Like so I'm trying to like, I don't know, there's like an anime that's maybe a little more interesting. Yeah, well, I mean I don't think I'm like fully formed, you know what I mean, has kind of the baby horse kind of thing going on, but like aesthetically, I definitely see it, especially now that you have the mullet. Yeah, who social culturally? Like who is the most anxious pokemon?

Like what? Oh my god? No, there's so many other so many anxious at that are having a bad time. Let me say the whole thing Siduck is having headaches all the time. Yeah, signifies mental health issues maybe um um oh Voltar no, not Voltur the way, guess volt all lives in peril that he's going to explode and die. Well, the most depressing one is Cuban obviously, Yeah, because he wears the skulls his mom's skull, his mom his dead mom's skull. Does that mean every time that Cuban is born,

his mom dies? Yeah? I got it. And then like they make a Disney Channel original movie about you know how, like you know, as Christie Cross and Romano would say, you know how in de Coms. There in Decoms the mom is always dead like every well every Disney property, like mom has to be dead. Yeah, twitches um um every Markana? Oh wait was Mary kay and Ashley? Is that Disney? No, well every Markaane Ashley movie. It's like it's always a single dad, Right, that's true. I feel

like that. And then parent Trump Yeah okay, so JP, what which Pokemon would you mean? Probably Gang Gang Hunter, you give gang or Energy because very mischievous, probably one of the like the most like smart to like to see like incisive, like cerebral Pokemon cute. Yeah, and he's basically the little Purple Devil. Yeah, he's or I would say Dragon Night because that's he's a big boy. Well, yeah, he's a big boy dragon. I. I do love Gratini as well, a little like gay word gay work, I do.

I think I'm looking I think you're more dragon night. Yeah, I see that, and like gangar maybe like when you get a little Yes, yeah, I see dragon e very like the softness. I remember being very tickled by the existence of needle Queen and needle King. I was actually needle Queen. Who's the who's the one that comes of four needle Queen? There was a weird gender thing. I was thinking about Rose for nit Arena because she's like

a poison type and and but she's cute. Those are like those are like the tinx ones because there's an no in an all an Okay, JP, which pokemon do you think I am? Oh my gosh, okay. Well, and if this feels like a read, it's going to be a problem. The Queen, the Queen, Okay, the Queen nit Arena does have big naturals. Wait, like, JP, I'm going to give you nine tails because she's spooky. Oh yeah, and she's you know, sextually. Yeah, I see that. Oh she's like a little fox kind of moment. Yeah, Okay,

very mystical ethereal but bad luck as well. Oh really, what's she's She's like a witch fox kind of thing. Oh my god, obsessed? Yeah yeah, she's the fiercest one other one. How do I make this my whole personality? Some do? Yeah, Twitter dot com. It's actually like a lot of game in whose whole thing is just like Pokemon. Ever knows that? Yeah? Or you know what Rose? Maybe

article know? Oh well, but okay, I'm also thinking about Rose as a cancer and like her her like because I feel like you're the first impression Rose gives is usually like a fire type or a poison type, down down, deep down, Rose, U are water, yes or maybe psychic? But not Jinks? Who is canceled? Question Mark? It's it's

interesting to me. Have we had the Jinks reckoning yet Jinks I think was canceled and because they reanimated her without the kind of black face thing that's going on with her as a Pokemon probably for the best, definitely,

and maybe vapourion or like a Lapris. Okay, the thing about Lapris is she's sensitives stickle um hard to get to know, Like, she's kind of the isn't she like the locknest monster kind of Pokemon where she is like never ever seen, but she has this like exterior shell that is also like big on decase I want to get you in trouble. Who's your least favorite Pokemon of the mine? I mean maybe like like side Duck or

ditto side Duck. I don't like Side Up. He's incompetent, but I guess he is kind of one of the most powerful ones. No, he's not. He's well, he doesn't. He's a He's a nice little boy with a headache. Okay, honestly, looking at side Duck, fran I think you might be. I think how accurate that is. He's always worrying about I've definitely seen like when we're on vacation and you and I see you like making coffee in the morning.

It's a little side uck energy. But I'm trying to create an itinerary for our vacation, and I'm like like clutching my head and being like, come on, there's so much to extract about, Like how you know, like animal culture, tune culture is like part of it, because like if you bring up Pokemon in any scenario of people of our age, we'll start talking about it again or like or like Kingdom Hearts or oh my god, Kingdom was just added to Smash Actually, oh yeah, isn't she isn't

she the last person? Oh? Really? Oh my gosh there yeah. Yeah. Kingdom Hearts is the one where it's like all the different characters from all the different things together the funniest video game ever made, because it's like, it's these anime characters and they've infiltrated the world of Disney sort of, so they have to fight in different Disney themed worlds.

So it's like Donald Duck and Goofy interacting with these anime kids and they have to go to like a Toy story world where this anime villain has stolen buzz Lightyear and they have to fight with Woody to get him back. Interesting, Okay, there are some credible There is a there is a clip where Goofy dies and um, Mickey Mouse and Sara and Donald Duck have to abandon the corpse to continue fighting whatever like villains they're fighting,

and Mickey Mouse like, they'll pay for this. Well, sometimes you have to leave Goofy for dead and move on. Mickey Mouse has a sword. By the way, Goofy is the weak link. Unfortunately he's he's he's a nice himbo in that game. He's got his shield and he's really dumb, and Donald is the Mage. So it follows like these like um role play tropes where there's the Healer and there's the Warrior and there's the Wizard and all these Disney characters have to kind of fall into it because

you know we're playing. Did you ever get into some dungeons and dragons everything? I just know that if I start, it will become at least a fourth of my personality that I can't let that happen to me. I only have so many I don't I don't want that to have. I want you to have a life. Thank you. Yeah. Like I've purposely avoided it, not because I don't think I would like it, but because I know I would like it and it's it's too much. But also like if you want to take that ride, I will chase

that dragon with Yeah. That that is why I had to avoid you and magic cards growing up. You seem to have quite an important relationship with mew two. Yeah you do, Yes, prominent Mexican American mewtwo. Um, I love mew two. I think he's so funny. The idea of mewtwo is hilarious to me. What about the idea of mewtwo the thick thighs, I thought you were going to

I thought you're gonna be like, you know, evil old. Well, like the fact that he would like immediately upon birth, he was like, why did you do this to me? And like killed everything? It was responsible. I think that's funny. Yeah, that he was relatable. Yeah, born into the world, Let me destroy the planet and how dare you do this to me? Bring me into existence? Okay, I did watch Detective Pikachu though, and Mew two isn't evil and right,

oh he's not. He's the victim. Well, mew two exists in a lot of different canons, I think, and like in the actual games, he's just sort of another legendary Pokemon. Only in that movie is he this like conniving mastermind. He the clones all the Pokemon and can make storms happen with his brain and it's it's quite camp. Actually, that movie is amazing, and he's so powerful and the only thing that can destroy him is his Twink counterpart. That's right. Well, And also it must be said that

Herman Kane plagiarize MEW two. Really, yes, I didn't know that Herman Kane, who is dead now um plagiarized in a political speech MEW two speech at the end where when he has his realization about it doesn't matter about the origins or the circumstances of your birth. What matters is what you do with the gift of life, and that is what Herman Kane stole. And then later everyone was like, did you just steal MW two heading? She's everywhere? And then then you two killed him. There we go rightfully.

We'll be back next week, So stay tuned, subscribe, and as always, please tell us what you want to hear us talk about next, whether it's a show, book, cultural phenomenon, whatever we want to hear from. You call us to confest at three to three pennance. That's three two three seven three six two six two three. Also leave us a review on Apple podcast that really helps us a lot, even if it's like a little sassy, a little spicy. I am Rose damn you. You can find me wherever

on social media at Rose damn You. I'm Frantera. You can find me at frince s Witch go anywhere you want on social media. You can subscribe to Like a Virgin anywhere you listen to podcasts. Like a Virgin is an I Heart radio production. Our producer is Phoebe Couter, with support from Lindsay Hawk Mint, Julian Weller, Just Crane Chitch and Nikki de Tour. Until next week see a Virgin's Chow. Fine by the Evil by moonlight, winning love by daylight, never running from a real fight. She is

the sticking with me. She is the one named Sailor Sailor, Venus Sailor, Mercury Sailor, Mars Sailor, Jupiter er powers also okay,