Angelic Layer Ep 21-22: Platonic Tandem Bike Riding

Welcome to Shojo the podcast, where I, Sarah, and my good friend Joe here, discussed show Joe anime, but psych that hasn't actually happened yet. Because technically our first show is a show, but it's show Joe ish as we've stated previously. So just Hank Tat with us, we're almost done with this one. And then we'll like for realsies be doing show Joe. And we've got some hot take or not hot, but like lots of takes this episode, apparently, right, Joe?

Yeah, unlike normal episodes, we don't say anything. Well, it's like, well, it's very different drama stuff happening. It's the like, uh, episodes. The what? Oh, dear. Is that how you were reacting? Well, it was more like, I told you so. Oh, they're fine. They're fine. Um, fine. Okay. Yeah, they're fine. But in the last week, yes. 100%. But before we get into all of that, let's catch up as friends would. Do a regular segment.

Yeah. So I went on a worker treat this last week, which I thought was going to be relaxing. That it was a lot of work too. So the band, you know, just the trend of just me being insanely busy continues. And then we have a new course coming out next week, our Venice course. So then that's going to be another crazy week. So maybe one day I'll be able to return to a more laid back lifestyle, but not today. Is this okay? This is just like a this month thing.

Or like, are you ever, is this just like forever now? Well, I just feel like this has been like, I haven't had any fun things to share because I've just been doing work stuff for the last several episodes we've done. And I do have, I did, I brought my card a game with me. And I managed to get a few people to play it with me and they seem to like it. So maybe you'll like it too. When I forced you to play it. And, and I watched the Fallout series. Did you? No, I haven't watched that.

No, it's pretty good. Yeah, it's good. Well, because it works because Fallout is such a like, it's more of a setting than one specific plot. So you could tell all sorts of stories within it. So then if you just tell a new story within this familiar world, you get to like do the fan service of the things people recognize, but it isn't directly compared to like the game because it's about something different. It's really good.

I, yeah, I think it's been renewed for a second season and made me want to replay these games I never finished. So I really downloaded Fallout 4 for my Steam Deck. So maybe it's just kind of like a slowly world. And if I stream it, I can't play the fun radio songs that I love. And also watched a little show called Angelic Lair, but we'll get into that. Yeah, that was not count for the section. This is what the section is about. Yeah, I have played a lot of the Fallout games.

I don't know if I am a fan, particularly. Yeah, they're not really for me either. But I kind of just don't like, I just don't really like, was that Bethesda? Oh, yeah. I didn't play Skyrim. Skyrim, I've never played Skyrim. It's fine. I feel pretty special about that. Because I hate because I played Fallout 3 when it came out and I did not like it particularly, although I played it a lot because it was like one of the only games I had. Something about that like gameplay style just feels. TDS.

TDS. Yeah, it's kind of TDS. It's scary when giant wraps and cockroaches are jumping at you. Oh, I don't like the first person perspective. Yeah, so I don't know. I have some things. I have several things actually. So I finally finished season two of Free Wren. Oh, yeah. OK, so there's more than I thought this was like on its first season or something. I think there's two. See, I think they did a thing where it's like one season directly into two.

OK, so there's like a season break like winter and spring releases or something. Maybe I mean, later. Correct. Maybe it's not even correct. I just assumed it was on its first season since it's the first time really. It's like a buzz right now. Yeah, I guess maybe it is this first season, but it just like was broken into two parts. Yep. That's how I do. So I think it's like a total of 28 episodes or something. So I kind of just assumed it's two seasons because everything is very short now.

But maybe this is just normal. It was good. It's good. It's really good. It ends very strong. Good. You know, I recommended this before. So it continues to be good. It does not fall off like some of the other season twos I was talking about last week. Yep. Yep. So finish watching that. You should watch that. Let me think. I read the first volume of a manga called I'm going to try to pronounce this correctly, which hat atelier? Oh, I've heard of that.

How is it? Yeah. So it's a it's a story about a kid who they like live in a I guess like fantasy world where like magic exists, but kind of only witches can do it. Yep. And they're very secretive about how they can do it. And this little girl wants to try like really like loves magic and wants to do that. And then through a series of circumstances, she ends up becoming the apprentice to this one guy who is named is quick free. I think that's how you say his name.

Everybody's got wild names like her name is Coco, quick free. Their characters are named like Agat and Tetya. Pretty good. And she accidentally like freezes her mom in a crystal. Oh, dear. Basically. And so she has to learn how to do magic so she can try to undo that. And her and quick free are going to like investigate the secret book she acquired as a child, like at a festival that was sold to her by like a dark witch. But everybody's trying to figure out what that is.

So it's kind of a mystery. It's kind of a just like a new like being introduced to like a new world kind of thing. It's very cute. It's very fun. The drawings are incredible. Oh, yeah. OK, I always in my mind, I say like at Lear or something. But like because there's a whole series of like at Lear. Riza is one that's on the switch right now, but there's it's like a long running series where you have to like craft potions and stuff.

And but yeah, I've heard of that manga before. What can you hear? They just started like someone just started like mowing their lawn outside of my window. No. OK, cool. I don't think I don't see it on the recording, but I'm just like, are you serious? Like never happens. You need to put a win. I'm in an apartment. I live in an apartment, so I don't know like where they're even doing this. What a sign out that says, hey, I'm recording. Yeah. We just.

And then lastly, the last thing I did this week was I watched a I watched the spy family code white movie in theaters. Oh, OK. Which is my choice or with by accompanying your friend. Choice. Yeah, by choice. OK. Have you seen the series beforehand? Yeah, I've read it. So I read the manga for that. So if you're not familiar with the series, by family is a I guess fairly popular now.

Yeah, like a comedy series, comedy series about a like it takes place in like the fantasy Cold War between what West Allis and Oceanus or something. The main character is a spy who's like a master of disguise named Twilight. He has a mission to go undercover as a family so he can gain access to this one like reclusive important politician in Oceanus named Desmond, something.

And the only way he can get access to him is by having his child go to this private school and like earn enough Stella stars, which are like gold star awards for being an outstanding student. Because if they get enough of those, there's like a yearly gathering where he shows up and it's like the only time he shows up in public or something. So Twilight has to go and get a family that is a wife and a kid.

And the person he chooses for his wife is this woman named Yorra, who is a an assassin for the for like some organization that's part of the Oceanus government, I think it's not exactly the same because they're like kind of a side thing. But yes, she's an assassin and she wants to be in a fake relationship with Lloyd because she doesn't want people to report her for like being weird and like being a single woman who's unmarried in society. So she's like, yeah, I'll like agree to be your wife.

And she's like really socially awkward and weird. And then the kid they get is Anya, who is like this small child they take from this or Lord gets from this or Twilight gets from this orphanage. And she is psychic. She could read people's minds. Yeah, she's a hoot. So she knows that both that he's a spy and she is an assassin, but they don't know each other's professions at all. And she's shipping them hard. And she is just like, oh, I get to be part of a family now. That's cool.

And so the whole thing is just like a comedy based on that. White Code White is just like a not like a new content thing. It's not. Yeah, it's not in the manga at all. So it's like totally new. It's cute. It's cute. It's just like a fun little like TV show. Like it's like a really long episode of the show, but it has a movie budget. So like, Yorgans an extremely cool fight scene. Oh, that's inside of like a zeppelin that's on fire. It's awesome. OK. Yeah. So it's like really fun.

If you like that kind of thing, I mean, you should like if you want to see this, you can just like watch the show. And if you like the comedy in that, the show is basically the movies basically just like a larger, higher budget version of that. So it's pretty fun. Cool. Yeah. I've seen the first season. I haven't watched the second one, although I feel like people don't like it as much as the first season. So maybe that's why I've been hesitant.

I feel like this last season, season twos have just been wild. Like JJK I haven't watched because apparently like friggin just warmer. What? Well, action, but also like people dropping like flies or something. And then. Oh, yeah. Listen, if you like JJK. Nope. Continue. So if you watch JJK, you should you should watch and enjoy that season because from there. Hmm. Oh, yeah. You know what's coming. Yeah, I read it. And it's like, yeah, really just spins its wheels from that point.

And then season two family or spy family. I've heard it's just about this dog who's been added. So I don't know. Oh, yeah. Behind the dog. Yeah. But we'll we'll get to it eventually. I mean, I feel like that's what people have said, although I'm not like deep diving reddits for the hot takes of spy family. I'm a little lukewarm on spy family because it's been running long enough where they just start doing these. The problem I have.

Okay. I have like petty political squams with the spy family because, you know, he's a spy that like basically works for the CIA. She's like an assassin. Her brother is this asshole named Yuri, who's like his whole personality that he's like very overprotective of his sister because they were both like orphans or something. It's kind of like raised him more or less. And he like works for basically like the KGB or something like that.

Like Soviet equivalent of the FBI is like the secret police and he just sucks. And like the problem with that is all of the plots that focus on these individual characters always have to be like a plot line that's like, oh, the balance between these two countries is on the brink. And if these people who are protesting the government protest too hard, they're going to lead to war. How can all these dissidents complain about the empires they live in? Y'all should just be grateful to live here.

And like that's kind of how they all end up being like they're all kind of like cracking down on like internal protests and like like protesters and like yeah. And like dissidents and those kinds of things. And it kind of ends up being like a very impressive world. So government story and it's like, yeah, man, I don't know if you should look at either of the governments of the Soviet Union or the US during the Cold War and think they were doing a good job.

I don't know. Yeah, it's I'm just it's when they focus on those plot lines. I think it sucks. Like when they try to like talk about politics because they're doing the Cold War without any politics. So it's just like every episode or like every storyline that's just like Anya does this goofy thing. I'm like, that's great. Or even if it's just like Twilight does some ridiculous over the top spy shit. That's fun.

But every time they like try to make it like a serious point, it's always like the most bootlicker stuff. It's just I don't know. It's just kind of embarrassing. You know, it's just like, OK, yeah, yeah, yeah, we all love the CIA. Sure show. I definitely think they're the good guys in history. They definitely aren't doing stuff like getting MLK killed. You know what I mean? It's just like, all right, yeah, totally a historic understanding of how these

organizations actually work in real life. But OK, deep. That's a very petty. It's a very petty thing. Hey, I love being petty. My mind's in a more like totally like low stakes way. Yeah, like most of my family's just some goofy over the top stuff. And like, that's why it's fun. I just think they just been having these recent string of chapters that all want to like make a point.

But like the author doesn't seem to understand politics enough to like make a point that's coherent other than like going too far is bad. And it's like, cool, man. Anyway, the movie is good. My family's fun. Anya is adorable. Everything. I like the dog. They don't like the dog. I'm lying. I feel like maybe I only saw one. The dog is a thing I've seen. Yeah. Great peering ears or something. Big fluffy white dog. A big, fluffy dog. And he also has he can. Spoiler alert. No, don't do it.

Don't tell me. I'll watch eventually. I won't tell you about the dog. Okay. Yeah. It's good. Spine family is cute. Sweet. Cool. Awesome. Well, what else is cute but our angelic layer beach destination episode. We're going to the beach beach time. Oh, yeah. Then Joe's got things to say and I I do too. But I feel like they're going to be very different things. Oh, we're going to diverge. We're not going to be talking about character feelings and I'm going to be like, oh my God, skin cancer.

So. Okay. Yeah, we are going to be talking about different things. Yeah. Okay. All right. I'll do you like it. It's time. Here we go. These summaries are super long because there's so many cuts. There is. Somebody just talk to each other. Oh my God. Okay. Here we go. Here we go. Angelic layer episode 20 is called summer time at the sea. Someone is in love with someone. We open on hot. Oh, go announcing that it's a great day to tan.

Then we cut the guitar practicing judo and telling himself how he's really going to do it today, which you know, he's really going to ask Masaki out. This is the implication. Then we cut to Masaki trying to wake up. Tamiya who has slept over, but you can't get her to wake up, but then announces that it's a great day to go to the beach because this is the beach episode in her sleep. Tamiya says guitar is name elsewhere.

Oh, God is getting angry in a parking lot because nobody has showed up on time to car pool to the beach because they're also going to the beach back at Chocos. Masaki is making lunches and Tamiya tries to help, but she can't cook for shit. Choco comes in and announces that she has to work today. So she won't be in this episode. Then she leaves Tamiyo and Masaki beat up with Katara and Hadoko.

Masaki and Hadoko start walking to the train while Tamiya puts Katara in a headlock and jokingly says to two of them should go alone. And Katara was like, stop joking around and Tamiyo is like, Oh, well, I guess you hate hanging out with me. Ha, and then she runs off because this is the tone. Of the episode with them. We cut to the dev team, including Shuko and Ojiro in a car all driving to the beach.

Ichan teases Okada for bringing too many snacks, but Okada reminds him that he was the last to arrive. And thus if anybody's going to get a penalty, it's going to be him. There is so much yard work going on. What the heck? I can't hear it. Don't worry. So you just mean bug them. Worried is going to show up in my recording. But if it's showing up in the recording, I'm sorry. It's fine. We, we transition to the kids at the beach.

Masaki is wearing a one piece swimsuit with a heart on it and Hikaru is wearing the same swimsuit but tiny. Katara tries and fails to flirt with her. They play around at the beach. Across the way, the dev team is setting up their beach spot and we find out that Ichan's penalty game is to swim in the ocean while trying to catch a fish and two watermelons are like tied to him. So like the ocean water will cool it down or something. I didn't really understand this.

Masaki and Tamiya play volleyball together, but Masaki sucks at it. Hotoko is acting like she's tanning, but she's also wearing like a, like a one piece swimsuit. So she's kind of just lounging around. It's pretty funny. She tells Katara that he should join the girls, but he's all shy about it. Masaki offers to get shaved ice for everyone and goes off to get it. Katara tries to be a gentleman and get it for her, but is like too assertive about it and Tamiya spikes a volleyball on his face.

Hotoko swims out in an intertube, leaving Katara and Tamiya alone on the shore. Tamiya starts moping about how Katara clearly likes Masaki over her and she loudly accuses him of not having a good time at the beach, which he denies. You get some cuts at other people enjoying themselves at the beach and Tamiya starts to work up the nerve to tell, to talk to him about her feelings. But before she can, he decides to run off and help Masaki carry the shaved ice because of course he does.

In the ocean, Hotoko gets mad at Katara for running off when she was trying to wave at him. At the beach stall, Ojiro asks the vendor for a mix of strawberries, melon, and lemon-shaved ice for Shuko. The vendor asks if that's like a new trend or someone because someone else just asked for that same weird combination. We cut to Masaki holding a tray of shaved ice, where one of them is a mix of strawberries, melon, and lemon. She fumbles around with some kids pass her by and bumps into Ojiro.

Ojiro notices that she has the same weird flavor combination and Masaki tells him that she used to eat that combo with her mom when she was little. Ojiro tells Masaki that he came to the beach with his brother and his colleagues as Katara shows up. We transition back to the dev team as Shuko seems to be fainting from the heat. Yuko and Shugi offer to take her to a nearby restaurant, but she's like, that's okay, Ojiro's coming back with shaved ice, but she's not going to make it.

Masaki tells Katara that Ojiro is here with his brother and Ojiro says that they're not really like, he's not really much of a brother actually. He's kind of embarrassing. Nearby, Ichan pops out of the ocean and declares that he isn't going to find any fish. Ojiro calls to him and he rushes over to greet Masaki in like a very weird way and Ojiro gets embarrassed. Masaki learns that Ojiro and Ichan are brothers and Ojiro looks mortified.

Ojiro comes to the team or Ogata comes up to them and tells Ichan and Ojiro that they're going to have a barbecue lunch. Then he recognizes Masaki as like the player from work and he invites her over to Masaki agrees and she's about to go get, or she says she's going to go get Hotoko and Tamiya and Ogata is like, wow, Suzuka's here too. That's crazy.

Then her and Katara run off and Ichan gives Ogata a penalty game where he has to eat a bunch of, he has to eat Shukou's shaved ice in like three seconds or something. Ojiro thinks this is going to be fine that Shukou and Masaki are going to be at the same beach barbecue because they're going to meet at some point, but Ichan is still like, no, Shoko isn't ready for that. Ogata says that the Anatas took Shoko to the restaurant after all. So like it'll be fine either way.

The remaining dev team and the kids all hang out. Masaki Tamiya and Hotoko all talk about how interesting it is that Ichan and Ojiro are brothers. Ojiro almost tells Masaki that she too is related to someone important in Angelic Layer, but decides not to. Over at the restaurant Shukou is feeling better. Ichan comes to switch to swap with the Anatas and he tells Shukou that Masaki is also there on the beach and she responds demurely. The dev team and the kids eat lunch.

Everyone is shocked by the fact that the box lunches Masaki and Shukou made are basically identical. Ojiro comes over and almost casually reveals that Shukou made these lunches, but Ojiro cuts them off and Fuji Mori slams them out of the way just in time. It's at this point like Ogata seems to be the only person who doesn't know that this is a secret. Masaki is surprised to learn that even the seasoning in the other box lunched is the same, but Ojiro also distracts her from that.

Back at the restaurant Shukou says that Masaki looks like she's having fun and Ichan tells her if just looking is enough and Shukou says, yeah it is for now and she's going to go home early. It starts to get late and Ogata announces that he brought fireworks because we are doing a beach episode. Oji Mori asks the kids if they would stay with them and they agree. Ojiro asks Masaki if she wants to take a walk.

Katara says that maybe they should go back home instead because they don't miss the train but then Shugi is like, I can drive you guys back, it's fine. Tamiyo headlocks Katara and makes up an excuse for why he'd want to leave. That isn't the fact that he's like angsty about Masaki and Ojiro taking a walk because she is doing good cover for him. And then Masaki and Ojiro leave.

Ojiro takes Masaki to some cliffside and then she notices that she forgot to bring Hikaru but Ojiro tells her that it's fine, she doesn't need to bring her doll for this. They talk about their names for a while and Masaki says that she's jealous that he and his brother work together on Angelic Layer. Back at the beach in angsty Katara waits for Masaki to get back. Tamiyo notices that she left Hikaru which is kind of weird and Katara says that they should go look for her right now.

He starts to run off to over where they went on that walk and Tamiyo starts running after him. She yells after him that she knows that he likes Masaki as she trips and falls and Katara stops and Tamiyo, collapsed on the ground, tells him that she's been in love with him for as long, for a long time and she starts to cry about it. Katara looks back as the waves gently push against them. He's about to respond but is interrupted by Ogata yelling at them that he has some drinks for all of them.

Then we cut to nighttime. Katara was glaring at Ojiro just like non-stop and Haruko tries but fails to distract him. Shuuji, Ichon and Tamiyo are all holding sparklers and Ichon says that whoever's sparkler lasts the longest will have their wish come true. Shuuji goes out immediately. Nearby Ogata and Fujimori set off like five fireworks all at the same time which gets everyone's attention and then during that Tamiyo sparkler goes out leaving Ichon as the winner.

Masaki is awed by the fireworks but then looks over at Tamiyo who looks like she's been crying. In the night a lone discarded sandal is gently rocked by the waves as we cut to credits. A cinematic end to your recap. I know. This recap was so long. Well, yeah, lots to talk about. My first comment was regarding freaking Hotoko being like, oh, I can't wait to get a tan. I'm like, oh, I love the Chouko. Five. And it's like not even a thing people do in Japan, right?

I feel like Pale Skin was wrong with this. There's a scene later. Yeah, I have a shot of it. Where the Tekoto is like lounging like she's getting a tan but she's not wearing the right bathing suit. Like she's totally just like this. This goes back to Hotoko the cinephile. She's watched the movies. I was going to say that's exactly what I was going to say. She's just panting. It's so funny. It's so funny that Hotoko would care about getting a tan. Yes, I know. It's wild.

We've got Misaki doing when she's first waking up, freaking little arm muscles, little flex, which I thought was funny. Oh, yeah. Yeah. See, she's athletic. She got muscles to. Not really. She was like volleyball in this episode. It's pretty bad. Oh, I was going to say I am Tamoyo in the cooking scene. Like, like, don't look at me in there. She's like, I'll help you. She cracks eggs by smashing two eggs together. Like, girl, what did you think was going to happen? What is happening?

Okay, maybe I'm a little better than that. The saddest display. Shoko looks very stylish and trendy for the like five seconds. We see her. She just came in to say that she isn't going to be in the episode. Yeah. Oh, God finally, you know, kind of standing up to each on. Yeah. Oh, God is so excited to go to the beach. Yes. Like, this is the oh God. It's his only day off for summer. It's freaking sucks. Yeah. Um, okay. I don't know if you noticed.

I don't think you mentioned this in the recap, but in the car, each on an O'Jarrell are talking and each one says you're after the daughter, aren't you? And I was like, oh, that's so bad. Creepy. It's like, hey, bro, you're supposed to be hitting this chick's daughter. Not her. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, God. You know, that's supposed to be my girl. Come on, man. We talked about this.

Uh, matching swimsuits with Hikaru, but yeah, Kotara tries to compliment her and her swimsuit, which I was like, don't that seems weird to just be like, hey, look, look good in your S, you know, revealing little swimsuit. Okay. Her swimsuit is not revealing. It's more than he would see on a day to day basis. It's really not honestly. Oh, well, I guess not for the gym clothes. Basically. Yeah. Like it's not like she doesn't have swings. Wow. Yeah. You can't resist. Um, yeah.

He tries to compliment her and she's like, oh, your swimsuit looks nice. And he looks like he had Karu and he's like, he said your swimsuit looks nice. Oh, my God. I'm surprised she isn't doing the puppeting that Kairi does with Blanche because she's talks to her like she's a real person. Might as well be doing a little ba-ba-ba-ba. Extremely funny. Oh, man. And Kairi's also wearing the same swimsuit. Yes. I know.

Well, like last episode you were saying we'd never get to see Hikaru in anything else. So there you go. Wish fulfilled. We should have gotten the angels, the other angels. I know. I know Sai and Kairi's time so we didn't get to see their angels. I know because because we they don't want their romance developing and this is a romance episode. So we can't they can't let us see that. Only straights allowed. We get to see. Potoko's swimsuit has a pineapple on it. Yeah. And her hair's up.

The first time we see her hair up in a little bow. Yeah. She has a huge bow. It's like, no, that's a good alternative to a hat. You look like a child now. If you're not going to have a hat, you should have a big bow. Yeah, that's right. Oh, man. Okay. And freaking. Okay. And then she talks about how I'm like, it's finally real. It's her. Hikoko's realizing that, hey, maybe there's more to life than angelic layer. Like, life. I'm five. I should get out there do things.

But yeah, Suzako looks so cool in a swimsuit. I know. She's not bringing a swimsuit. Bummer. Bummer. And then yeah, what you were talking about. You're right. I didn't even think about that part. I was just like, she's telling her brother to apply sun tan oil to her, but all she's got is like her legs and her arms. You're five. You are five. She definitely just watched a movie.

She like watched like a James Bond movie and is like, oh yes, this is what the this is what the this is what the actress does. Apply ocean. Send hand lotion to me. Katara. It's like, what are you talking about? I'm what I mean. It's so funny. She has like a little leg kick. It's pretty good. Skin cat. Oh my God. They're real. They can't. They don't have real skin. Okay. Well, my we saw a God to get sunburned. Oh my God. I don't know. I even think about that. That's your body.

More misaki saying the like, yeah, like it's out of control. This episode. Yeah. Like, yeah, no. She's just like the only sounds who makes them people are talking to her. I feel like I really cursed us by pointing that out really early on. Yes. Well, it's very prevalent when she learns about Ojiro and each time being related. I'm like, oh no, another revelation to blow Misaki's mind. How is she going to recover from this one?

Thank goodness she doesn't have a match to do while she's thinking about how she didn't know that they were related and blah, blah, blah. Match in Angelac Lake. Oh, a game. Okay. Okay. I guess you're going to do a blower mind. No, no, no, just because anything seems to distract you from the task at hand. This flavor combination of ice she gets is just a different like when she's like, I'm going to go get ice. Yeah. Tommyo like calls, but and it's just everybody got an individual flavor.

Misaki just gets the combination of all three of their flavors. Yeah. Doesn't seem that crazy of a concept. Mr. Ice guy. Are you talking to me? No, the guy who came for the shave died. Oh yeah. That guy was like, oh, is this a trend now with the kids? Like somebody else just did this. So a kid just came up there and asked. Yeah. Let's see. Pocko in an inner tube. Yeah. Just more child things for her to do.

It goes out into the ocean and inner tube and then it's just like, we got to cut every like 30 seconds to her waving back to Katara on the beach. She doesn't like three times. Yeah. Like I mean, brother, let's see. Oh, God. Is yeah. He seems pretty oblivious. I think he just doesn't know that they're related. So that's why he doesn't know that it's a secret. See, this makes sense because like a couple of episodes ago, Shiji didn't know this either. Yeah. Remember?

Yeah. Cause like when she's in the hospital, she's like, oh yeah, her daughter's here and she hasn't seen her daughter in like five years and she was like, what? Yeah. I know they also didn't say like, Hey, nice to see you again after I demolished your little, you know, one seven, whatever angel, Shiji. Oh yeah. They don't talk about Shiji's mash. That's too bad. You'd rather forget about it. Probably. Yeah. He felt like he just didn't want to talk about it.

I guess he wasn't there when they first got there because he was with Shigo. That's true. That's true. I like Ojiro just being absolutely mortified by Yusha's behavior because he's wearing the typical like not cool swim outfit where it's like a unit tarred that's red and white stripes. Yeah. He is wearing like a swimsuit that's from like the 20s or something. Yeah. It's a very funny. Oh man. Yeah. And we finally see Ojiro and some casual clothes. He's finally not in his school uniform.

Thank you. Casual Ojiro has arrived. And freaking finally to Moel like just tell him how you feel. So you stop like being upset because he doesn't know how you feel. So he's into someone else. So at least that's been said now. Yeah. So during the part where Oh God it comes in is like, oh, Misaki is here. You should come in with us. She's like, okay. Like Ojiro and each on Ojiro is like, I think this is fine. I think it's fine that she can meet her daughter here at the beach. It's okay.

She'll be okay. Like each on is the one that's like, oh no, we need to make sure that doesn't happen. Yeah. Like Ojiro this entire episode really is like, we should just tell Misaki about her mom. It's kind of weird that we're not doing that. Yeah. Well, it seems like organic. Well, it seems like organic moment. Yeah. I mean, yeah. You ever have to do the wrong thing because all the adults around you are making the wrong choice. Totally. I he's like 16 maybe. Oh man. He's 15. 15. That's a lot.

Yeah. That's a lot of stuff going on. But he's right. I mean, this is the thing is like, he is right. He's the only one who's like actually thinking this through and like being, like thinking about Misaki's feelings. Everybody else is just thinking about Shuko being like, well, Shuko wants to do this, so I guess we'll do this. Yeah. Ojiro was like, yeah, this is kind of messed up. And the fact that I'm having to like be an accomplice in this also sucks. Yeah. For sure.

So I feel for him this episode. Fuji Mori almost kills Ogadan and then I'm smashing him. Oh yeah. He's like buried on his sand and she's supposed to smash and watermelon, which is a very popular activity for Japanese speech episodes. Do you want to explain this? Well, I mean, it's just like, you know, pinata, but it's a watermelon. So they end up typically eating the watermelon after it gets smashed, but like sand all up in that thing.

So it looks like the game is you put a watermelon on the ground and one person has a stick and they're blindfolded and they need to like try to strike it. And I guess you try to break it. The watermelon. Yeah. This is the thing I've only seen in anime. I don't know if people do this. Maybe they do. It's yeah, it's like what you're saying. It does sound like a mess. Yeah. But like not do it on a towel or something, but then you get watermelon over your towel. I don't know.

Yeah, I've seen it in so many. You know, you just like a charm to accept except things once you watch enough anime like, OK, everybody must do this in real life. Japan. Yeah, actually the case, though. I don't know. I mean, I guess it's like in like the US cartoons, they're always making a huge sand castle and it's like, I don't make a huge sand castle every time I go to the beach. Sometimes I do. I don't know. Yeah. Watermelon game kind of weird, though. Let's see.

Yeah. This is where God says like when he at the end, he's like, I brought fireworks. He's like, this is the only day of the year I could take off for summer vacation. So brutal. I don't want to burn all his PTO at the beginning of the year. Or he just gets none and it's just freaking bright. I don't know what the duration of the tournaments, but it's probably just like the big season and then maybe they get more time off in the off season of Angelic Layer. That might be true.

Oh, by the way, I also noted that Shuko's wearing a sun hat that you should have gotten. Oh, yes, I know. That's what I'm talking about. Sun hat. I don't need a sun hat if I just never go outside. And where the each on bathing suit. Yeah, for real. I straight up. I think the last time I went to beach, I straight up wore my scuba wetsuit just so I would get some birds. Oh my God, it's not that bad. It's terrible.

So I'm 30. I've only had two bouts of basil, soker, Sonoma, my face, the money maker. My streaming face. If you were in a sun hat. My streaming face. Yeah. Ojiro and Misaki go on a walk. It's the most interest Ojiro's ever showed in Misaki. I kind of feel like this is somewhat informed by the fact that he feels bad that he has a lighter about her mom. A lot of what they talk about, I feel like is informed by next episode because they just talk about it. Oh, who named you? Oh, my name is Ojiro.

My brother's named Ichiro, which doesn't make as much sense based on stuff we learn next episode. Oh, yeah. Oh my God, you're right. I guess we'll talk about that. But yeah. Okay. We'll talk about that next episode. Also, when they come back to like when Misaki's like, oh, I left Ikaru and we come back to the car. Not only does Ikaru have the same swimsuit, she also has a little hat. She has a little sun hat too. See, she knows what's up.

The ending is pretty funny because Ichi-han is so stoked to win his like wish contest with like the little sparklers. It's very funny that Shoo-G loses immediately. Yeah. Great. I love Shoo-G. The low key best character. Yeah. We get some Fujimori and Oga to hang out and I'm kind of cute in this episode. So I'm like, okay, yeah, this is what we're doing. They're fine.

Yep. Yep. And at the very end, Misaki looks at like Tomio and she's crying because like Misaki has been oblivious to all of the stuff that's been happening between those two all day. Yeah. She does it. I mean, I would think since she still doesn't know what it is, she would have gone up to the UK or does it dawn on her in that moment? I don't know. Well, as we learned last episode when she doesn't talk to Ichi-han about why he didn't say he's the founder of Angelic Layer.

Misaki is the master of not talking about things. No follow up questions. All she does is give people worried looks. That's true. Very true. Like thanks, bud. We'll talk more about the romance stuff next episode because it leads right into that. Sounds good. I will do next episode now. Yep. Yep. So, the next episode 21 is called suddenly just the two of us secret double dates. We open on Hitoko and Misaki watching a VHS of Ojiro's finals match from earlier this year in the Kansai games.

We see Wizard fight another Angel who's like wearing a gas mask and generally looking kind of cool. The opponent seems to like she's going to hit Wizard, but Wizard activates his secret technique, Magic Guard, which just looks like a giant protective dome that appears around Wizard for like half a second that deflects all the attacks and he wins that match. Misaki looks at this and then wonders how she's going to be able to beat that as the OP plays.

Back at HQ, Ichan is helping Shuka run a test. He apologizes that his brother isn't there to help out and Shuka says it's fine because he's in high school now and probably wants to like go on dates and stuff and be a high schooler. Ichan says that he can date after he graduates. Otherwise he might get wrapped up with some terrible woman. Ogata and Fuji Mori speculate that Ichan probably didn't date much in high school and wasn't very popular.

Ichan hears this and shuns a weird alien that looks like fire down Ogata's pants as a punishment. We get back to Hanoko's place where Misaki is leaving. She notices some crazy looking green shoes with like wings on them by the door and Hanoko says that those are Kataros and he accidentally brought them home on accident after going to a public bath and Misaki asks how that's even possible and Hanoko's like, yeah, he's been pretty like spaced out lately.

We cut to a beleaguered Kataro who was pouring milk and sugar into his orange juice. He asks his dad if a girl has ever confessed to him before and his dad's like, oh, did Tamae do that to you? And Kataro's like shocked that his dad can put two and two together. And his dad says only childhood friends stay friends through grade school and that she's a girl so it's like kind of obvious which I, Joe, do not agree with. Stereotype. Sorry. Friends of people. Correction.

I talk about when they're at that little cafe. That's his friend who is obsessed with Ringo. That's his friend? Yeah, the little glasses. He looks like an old man. That's not his dad. No. He looks like the oldest man ever. Hold on. I need to go look at it. Okay. Okay. I'm going to finish it out and then I'm going to look. Yeah. Okay. We cut to Tamae opening the fridge and drinking directly out of a milk carton like a total cretin.

Then she starts to practice breaking eggs so maybe she can learn how to cook properly like a girly girl, but she sucks at it. Her dad comes in. This is definitely her dad, right? Yep. Yeah. Yeah. She's like, what are you doing? That's weird. Hurry up. The title match is going to be on soon. You should come watch it because they watch sports together and that's pretty fun. She says she's good and he's like, but it's the world cup. And she's like, I'm going for a walk and then just leaves.

Misaki walks home and sees a mom pick up her kid so that the kid can use the vending machine. And then she's like, oh, that's cute. And she smiles at Ojiro who's just appeared next to her and then is shocked that he just appeared next to her. Ojiro tells her that he got all of the beach photos developed and they go to a restaurant and Misaki laughs at all the pictures of Ichon. She asks Ojiro why Ichon has a Kansai accent, but he doesn't.

And Ojiro tells her that he and Ichon are like brothers by marriage and he used to live in Tokyo. We cut to Katara who's in the lobby of some building. He sees the world cup on TV, which turns out is like a boxing match and not soccer, which is what I thought it was and thinks that Tomio must be watching that right now. But when he calls the elevator, he finds that Tomio is just standing in it and he freezes, but she's like, just get in the elevator, dude.

Misaki thinks to herself that she shouldn't have brought up the fact that Ojiro and Ichon are like, are brothers. Ojiro tells a story about how when he came, but how he came to like roasted sweet chestnuts after his stepfather, his new stepfather, tried to bond with him by offering him some and he agreed to eat them, even though he doesn't like them very much. And he's like, after that, I would just, he would just keep getting them for me. And then I eventually just started liking them.

And Misaki's like, oh, I did the same thing with my grandparents and Karin Tao, which is some kind of pastry. And then they walk off together talking back in the elevator. Katara and Tomio stand in silence. Then the elevator breaks down. We cut back to Misaki and Ojiro eating ice cream at the park. Misaki asks him why he named his angel wizard and Ojiro says this because he wanted to be an eight wizard when he was little.

He asked Misaki why she named her doll Hikaru and Misaki says that that was the name of one of her old dolls that her mom gave her. But she left with her grandparents so they had something to remember her by. Ojiro asks Misaki if she wants to see her mom and Misaki says, of course she wants to see her mom. And Ojiro gets really quiet and Misaki's like, but it's okay because I don't want to bother her. Oh my God, I feel so bad for Ojiro.

The scene moves to the two of them on the roof, somewhere staring at the sunset. Misaki asks Ojiro why he's so nice to her and he tells her that the reason is that she reminds him of his first love. Misaki asks what she was like and Ojiro tells her that the first time he saw her, he was in fifth grade and she was 26. So like obviously he never said anything or did anything about it.

Misaki asks if he still loves her and Ojiro says that since he never did anything, he couldn't get rejected so he never really was able to get over her. Misaki says that he should go and tell her if there's causing him that much trouble. She says that she hasn't been able to work up the nerve to tell the person that she likes him but Ojiro is cool and kind and any girl would fall in love with him so maybe it'll work out and Ojiro is like thanks and then the scene ends.

Kataro and Tamiyo are still stuck in an elevator. Tamiyo asks Kataro who his first love was, if his first love was Akane in grade school and they both like have a little laugh about it. She tells him that it was obvious and then he's like, oh yeah, well who was your first love because he's a huge idiot and she tells him that it was him. Ojiro and Misaki are walking around and Misaki starts to think that this might be a date.

Ojiro buys a little bunny keychain from some random street vendor then he says bye to her as he gets on a train and also that he isn't going to lose to her tomorrow because there matches tomorrow. As we like see the train take off, we get a little view of Misaki waving at Ojiro and as the train starts moving, Ojiro's mind eye, in his mind's eye, he pictures Shuko instead of Misaki because Shuko was the 26 year old he was in love with.

And then he thinks about how he can't lose to Misaki because he needs to beat Shuko in the finals. The scene goes back to the elevator. Tamiyo says that she has to pee and that they need to talk about something to distract her from that. Kotaro decides to bring up the other day at the beach because he's the dumbest boy alive. And she's like seriously you want to talk about how you rejected me right now and Kataro's like well I didn't technically reject you.

I just didn't answer which is like a different thing. And then she's like okay but you like Misaki and I know that so it's basically rejection. And then he says no those are different things. I just haven't thought about you as a girl at all which upsets Tamiyo because like obviously right then they are saved from the elevator and Tamiyo just runs out. Back in HQ, Ojiro packs up to go to his match because it's the next day.

Shuko tells him to do his best and he says should you really be saying that since I'm like gonna be battling against your daughter and Shuko's like oh I only said to do your best I didn't tell you to like win. Which makes him really salty and then he's like okay well I am gonna win and like I'm gonna beat your daughter and then I'm gonna beat you so there. And she's like okay.

Before the match, Hadoko comes up to Misaki and asks where she got that bunny key chain and Misaki's like oh it was a gift and Hadoko's like oh yeah from who your boyfriend and she's like no he's more of an older brother. I guess that's settled. The match is about to begin with both Ojiro and Misaki being introduced to the crowd. Hadoko says over the radio that even though they haven't figured out how to counter match a guard at all they'll just do their best.

The match starts and the playing arena is a field of grass with some mountains in the background very scenic. In the crowd Tamiyo is sitting alone. She can't work up the enthusiasm to cheer for Misaki even though she says that Misaki didn't do anything wrong which she kind of feels bad about. But then Gitaro shows up and asks to sit next to her. She offers him some tea which he rejects because that would be an indirect kiss.

Then he says that since she asked him out he has been thinking of her as a girl and as a result he doesn't think they should be palling around like they used to including the fact that she should stop putting him in wrestling moves all the time. Thank you. To which Tamiyo agrees and it makes her happy that she's being seen as a girl now even though I think that sucks for reasons I'll get to later. During the match Wizard uses magic guard to deflect Takao's kick.

Gitaro and Tamiyo have gotten over their weird relationship hangups and start cheering for Misaki. During their cheer, Tamiyo puts Gitaro in a headlock because yay. Woohoo. I cheered when that happened. Good shit. Misaki is reassured by her friends and is ready to take on Ojiro for real as we cut to credits. All right, my first thought that is directly expecting a response from you Joe is that are you happy now?

Wizard. His name is Wizard because of magic guard so he does magic so it's okay that he's a wizard without a beard and staff. No, it's so bad because this is a magic guard's a new technique. He has a name with wizard first. Yeah. Okay. His name is Wizard because Ojiro wanted to be a wizard. Right. No sense of style, no pointy hat, no robes, nothing. Come on man. Kind of wizard where you trying to be. My first note is all caps. VHS tape. Woohoo. The past. A lot of time.

I don't care who's like I got this recording from a fan. A fan? Yeah. Oh man. I look at contact or something like she's on online forums and is like hey do you have a VHS you can email me? Okay this Ogadas punishment is very reminiscent of like episode one or two where he gets an octopus guy's pants but now it's just another like multi-limbed creature going down the front that was pants. Yep. Poor Ogada. Poor Ogada. And then okay do you want to talk about how it's his friend and not his dad?

Okay yeah wait hold on. Well first off I have a comment that like Ogada and Fujimora are talking about like how each one is popular and then he's like Ojiro's life must be tough because each one isn't popular but it's like he's the founder of Angelic Layer. I feel like high schoolers would think that's cool. Well I guess. They don't think that's cool? I mean if he doesn't show his face very often. I mean understandable. But he gets announced. It's something they don't know.

Yeah. Alright I'm looking at the scene where he's talking to. Okay. I mean we do get to meet another parent at least, Samoya's dad which she seems kind of just whatever at least they do things together. Not as good as Kaye Dey's dad though. He's the best parent we've seen. Is that his friend? Okay so I'm watching I guess. It's his friend. The one that went to the Ringo concert? Yeah the one's like I gotta get extra card go with me guy. It's him. Okay sure. Who's very poorly aged.

Yeah what team is going to talk to their dad about their crush? I don't know. I mean they could. Oh. Only me. Maybe just close up his dad. We haven't met their parents yet. I don't think we ever will. We might not. I don't think so. I'm looking at the scene and in the background of the cafe there's another like hanged painting of just like some lines like Shoko has in her living room. The fame of local artists. What is going on with the wall art in the show?

No did you see later when Misaki and Ojiro are in some place it's like all like African like face mask art wall art stuff. It is? Yeah it's like wild. It was incredibly distinct. The part where they're walking and Ojiro starts talking about roasted chestnuts. I just anytime I think of roasted chestnuts I think of Rama one half when he has like this training exercise from shampoo's grandma where he's gotta like quickly snatch the chestnuts without burning himself. I've never seen Rama one half.

Oh that's pretty good. That's pretty funny. Yeah. Hold up. I don't know. I like the comedy as I'm afraid. Well some parts are probably not gonna be. Oh watch it. You can show me that. I like the manga more. It's a comedy which means there's so much more space for filler. Ojiro stole some guys probably really expensive shoes. Oh you mean Kotaro at the bath house? Kotaro stole some guys really expensive shoes. Those are like children's shoes. Those are like going from hunter to hunter.

They look yes. That's a huge shoe. Yeah they do. They have things on them. Also the part where he pours milk and sugar into his juice is very funny. Oh yeah yeah yeah. Wizard in Hikaru name origins. Right you said wizard because he wanted to be a wizard when he was a kid. And Misaki says Hikaru is the name of a doll that she had left behind in Wakayama when she left for Tokyo. So now we know why she was named that. And freaking my big note.

I told you it was a love triangle that she was in with her mom. I told you. It's not. That's. I told you. But it's not. It's like oh it's not even a. It's a love line. Okay Misaki at the bottom liking Ojiro liking the mom. I guess. Okay. But still. That's an angle. Toadsock. Awkward. Yeah that's kind of awkward. Tsaro. Okay but before that okay so Ojiro's mom remarried. Yep. To Ichon's dad. Yep. Yes and they became brothers in law but then why are their names like that. Yep yep.

It's like they didn't. That doesn't make sense. Remember the last episode. Like. It does not make sense. Why would they have a blind date. Maybe they only wanted to marry someone who's. But he like he said it last episode like it was intentional and I'm like oh they're like half brothers with like different fathers but that's I don't think that's true. You made it sound like that's not true. Yeah. No. As he said they're not blood related. That's just not well thought out I guess.

That's just weird. I don't know why would he say that this is the last episode and then say this this episode. Oh man. I mean because this episode's called like double dates. It's just like Masaki and Ojiro walking around while Katara's stuck in an elevator with Tamoya but. Ojiro in high school. Masaki year in middle school like chill out. Okay. It's like a pity date. I did this work. I did this work. Ojiro's in love with Shuko.

Oh no. Okay. So when Ojiro met Shuko she was 26 and he was in fifth grade which makes him like 10 or 11. Yeah. And like the Japanese system I think. So that's a 15 to 16 year age gap. Right now and I looked this up on the wiki just to confirm. Ojiro's 15. Masaki is 12. That's a three year age gap. Reasonable I guess. And Shuko is 31. So the so Shuko had Masaki when she was 19. Damn. I guess they're from a small town. I guess maybe there just wasn't that much going on.

Yeah. I mean that's not like unreasonable. That happens. That's how old my mom was when she was pregnant with me. Oopsie babies. I also looked at some other ages. Do you want to guess? Do you want to have a little guessing game? How old do you think everybody else is? Oh dear. Okay. Who we got? How old do you think each one is? 34. Younger. Oh. He's younger than Shuko. 28. Yep. He's 28. How old do you think Shoko is? 29. She is 26. Okay. Oh yeah. She's significantly younger than her sister.

The only people who I found ages for. How old do you think Ohgata is? Oh dear. 24. Yeah. 24. Really? Damn. Go be. How old do you think Kaede is? 17. Nope. She is 15. Damn. They made us Ojiro. How old do you think Sai is? I guess the same. Nope. She is 16. Come on. I said they were in the same class. Yep. It could just be a couple months. I guess. I guess. Yeah. So age gaps here. Three between Ojiro and Misaki and 15 or 16 between Ocho and Shuko.

Yeah. I just think if you're in different levels of the school system, you shouldn't intermingle in that way. Like to stick with the safer, less questionable age range. What are you like? What are you? Who's questioning this? Me. Not that it's going to. Well, like a one year age gap is fine, right? Because it's like you're just one year apart, like if you're in high school or something.

And like, if you're just on the one year age gap between middle school and high school, still one year, you just happen to be on that transition point. Yeah. Not that I think like middle school relationships probably mean anything anyway. No, no, no. So it's all kind of a moot point. But like in the screen cap you have, this is her being like, oh, this kind of seems like a date. And the answer is yes. It's a good date, but like she knows it's not. So it seems confusing.

I guess she likes him and she's referring to liking him when he's telling her about his first love. Yes. How awkward will that be whenever she finds that out that he was talking about her mom and he's just hanging out with her because she's like the backup to her mom. Okay. That's enough. I don't think that's why he's hanging out with her. Like, okay, that is going to be really awkward. That's like, oh, yeah. Because he's like, if me and Shuko get together, then I'll be your stepdad.

So then I got to be close to you. So I get in with the kid, then I can get in. Awesome. Not what's happening. Although I think we should be playing Stacy's mom every time they hang out like they're on screen together. That should just be playing in the background of their fight the whole time. Yeah. Or like every time him and Shuko are on screen together. Oh man. She'll be playing Stacy's mom. That doesn't mean he also likes to say the woman that his brother does. So that's fun. Yeah. Gross.

Yeah. You know. Yeah. I mean, on one hand, like I understand. I mean, you know, if you're like in fifth grade, yeah, you get over it. Shuko is like, okay, if you don't know that she has abandoned her daughter, she does seem cool, you know. I guess. Like she does a theme. She's like the person doing all this testing. She can do all this cool stuff. She plays the sport that you play. I suppose. And she's really good at it. Of course she thinks she's going to be cool.

Yeah. Now, as soon as I learned that she abandoned her daughter to do this, a lot less cool, which I also think Ojiro thinks because he definitely thinks that it sucks that he can't tell her. He almost tells her in this episode too. Yeah. Because he's like, oh, do you miss your mom? And she's like, yeah, of course. And he's like, uh, should I tell her? I feel like I should tell her. But he doesn't. Yeah. Brutal. It's brutal. This kid, I feel bad for Ojiro.

I don't remember, but I think his mindset must be like, I can only confess my feelings to Shuko if I beat her in an angelic layer. So that's why he's so determined to beat her. That's what I think. He's like set that as the thing he needs to do in order to confess. Well, like Ojiro is very adult, right? Like he hangs out with adults. He basically has a job that he works at. He knows, like even he's telling the story, he knows that like, I'm not going to get together with Shuko.

Like that's never going to happen. You know what I mean? Like he understands that like, yeah, a 15 year age gap is insurmountable. Like I'm just kind of infatuated with this person. I don't think I'm really in love with him. You know what I mean? Like he just kind of, he knows that this is not going to work out, right?

Which is what makes this work for me is that like Ojiro understands what the situation is and he understands that like, oh, I should be hanging out with Misaki because she's in my age group or whatever. But like he clearly doesn't, isn't interested in her in that way, but he does genuinely feel bad. And so like he just kind of like hangs out with her because of that. You know what I mean? And like they are friends. And like by the end when Misaki is like, oh yeah, this is given to me.

Yeah. He kind of like a big brother type. I think that's actually right. Like I think Ojiro basically correctly, that's like, oh, she got the right thing across, which is I'm thinking of you like more platonically. Well, if Ichon and Shuko get together, then Ojiro will be her uncle. That's kind of funny. Look at all this. Yeah. See, this is shojo-ish.

We've got all the like, oh, let's knock me care feelings so we can make big misunderstandings when we could have just been straightforward and clear this all up. But I mean, this is what I'm saying. Like I think Ojiro is being straightforward this episode. And by the end of it, nobody has any misunderstandings. Yeah. This is why I think he like, he feels like he's doing it correctly. I guess it was more last episode then. Yeah. Last episode was a little weird.

But now it's like, well, now that they hang out like a second time, I mean, that was the first time they really ever hung out like outside of Angelic later, right? No, he went to her house. Remember, he put her address up for everyone to see. Yeah. And they can actually talk about stuff. Yeah. Okay. I guess. I feel like Ojiro is actually a pretty cool guy in this and like pretty much doing it correctly. Yeah. Well, I like that he's just embarrassed by his goofy older brother. I love that.

That's pretty funny. The part, oh my God, the part where Shuko was like, oh, do your best. And Ojiro was like, yeah, you really should I really be saying that? Because I'm going to fight your daughter. And she's like, oh, I didn't say win. And he's like, yeah, well, I am going to win. And I'm going to beat you. So how about that? Yeah. She's like, dad.

What's throughout the tournament or when they Hotoko and Masaki meet up and they're in their uniforms and I have the thought that maybe now you're going to be like, no, I don't think that's what it is, blah, blah, blah. Because you like to shoot down my conspiracy theories, but maybe their school pressures them to wear their school uniforms at the tournaments to promote the school or free. Why would they wear the uniforms otherwise?

I mean, everybody wears their uniforms and things like Ojiro wears the uniform, Sai and Kaye, they wear their uniforms. I think they just go after school to this. Do you have and I think they just all immediately go after school. Sai's the only one with the uniform for every day of the week. The rest of us. Yeah. Well, Sai's a fool. Sai is not normal. She's so cool. And we don't get to see her. Because like the other because Tamiyo and Katara are also wearing their uniforms in the go.

So I think they just like go after school and that's why everyone's wearing the uniforms. Well, okay, Sai, Sai was in this tournament and we haven't seen anything other than her first fight. Has she been eliminated? Like, is this the last? No way. Like what is that? Like because she's already facing Ojiro. Is this like the last one until or she faced someone else before she fights? This is I think this is the semifinals, right?

Like it's probably Sai and Shuko on one side and then Misaki and Ojiro on the other side. Okay. Oh, you think that'd be a cool fight. And Ojiro, Hame versus Athena, both the white angels would be cool. Yeah. Well, we called this out last time, right? Because like remember, she challenged her. Oh yeah. That's right. Whatever chair and it's like, oh, yeah, you're definitely going to lose in that fight.

Sai. Totally. The grasslands, I'm like, this doesn't feel that much different than like a normal layer environmentally. Unless they just like slip on morning dew of the grass. But yeah, there's only nothing special going on about this terrain. I mean, I guess they could run to the mountains because the mountains are rendered in. Yeah. I mentioned this like in the first the first episode where I meet Ojiro and Wizard, but their angels are so complimentary visually.

You know, it's like the girls are pink and boys are blue kind of. But like the lining of the pants is the same and the boots with the white pant is, you know, like they're so very similar. Are you talking about Hikaru and Wizard? Yeah. They do have like similar designs because it's like they're both kind of wearing bodysuit type. Yeah, it's pretty good. They're very similar. So it's like it feels like they're shipping them together. But I also don't think that's happening. I guess.

Well, I feel like that's definitely definitively shot down this episode. Oh, I know. But why are their angels look so similar? Because they, I don't know, they're like both in the angelic layer. They just got the same materials. You know, Wizard doesn't look like a wizard. It makes me mad looking at him. He looks like he's in the matrix. Like what if the matrix instead of being black was blue? That's what Wizard looks like. What's his name have been instead? Like Technomancer or something?

Like that's, it seems better. Oh yeah. He seems like a tech wizard guy. Yeah. Looks like he's going to be in hackers. Yeah. Total sentinel for massive factors or something. Oh yeah. No entry angel. They just show up. Yeah. Yeah. He's kind of better than I'm standing inside. Okay. My favorite part of this episode, which you might have missed when Kotaru's talking to Moeo saying like all these things they can't do anymore. He says no more tandem bike riding. Okay. That's so funny.

Okay. We need to talk about them. We haven't talked about them yet. Yeah. So they get stuck in an elevator. Uh huh. Actually, should we start from the beginning? It's like Tomio. Tomio is like, I need to be more like a girl. Which means you don't like trying to change yourself for hail. I don't like this. At all. I mean, she's not doing it. Like this is the thing that's good. It's like there's this idea that she's like, oh, I need to be like a girly girl. So I'm going to learn how to cook.

And then she tries and she sucks and her dad's like, what the hell are you doing? That's pretty funny. Yeah. Um, and then, you know, she goes out, she gets stuck in an elevator. She just tries to make normal convert. She tries to be normal and he's being weird. And then he's like, oh, I don't see you as a girl, which is like the bad move, my dude. Like you need like the thing he's supposed to, this is where he messes up, right?

Like the thing he's supposed to say or the thing he probably should have said is, um, I didn't think of you as like a love interest. I was just thinking of you as a friend, which is like a real thing. Yep. But he doesn't say that. He says, I didn't think of you as a girl because you're an idiot. But also he also seems to think that's kind of true because when he sees her later, first off, we get the thing with an indirect kiss.

And I feel like I have a note here that's like, am I going to have to explain this to the audience? Oh yeah. What an indirect kiss is. I know. I think of it all the time in real life now. Like if I see anyone sharing a drink, I'm like, oh, it's stupid. It's dumb. Basically, like if you put your mouth to drink on something and then you're like here, have some, and then they do the same thing that's kind of like an indirect kiss because your lips are both touching the same thing. So it's dumb.

Yeah. I see this comes up in anime. Yeah. A lot. So it's both extremely like, it can be like arnie and gross, but also extremely like chased and conservative. And that's what I think of indirect kisses are. It's like, oh man, both of our hand touched a thing. So we kind of like had an indirect handhold. Stupid. Yeah. Just you guys wait all the things sharing an umbrella. Like, yeah. Okay. So he lays out these rules. Yeah. Because he's like, I only think of you as a girl.

You need to act more like our relationship needs to be more like you. You're a girl now, which is stupid because the whole thing that makes her special is that you have a special relationship with her. But Katara is an idiot. So these are his rules. No wrestling moves on him. This just seems like a thing he wants her to stop doing. So kind of like a chance. No riding tandem on a bicycle. What are you talking about? Is this a thing you do? So good.

I mean, is he talking about like, oh, like you ride on the back on the little thing or like on the pegs or something. Oh yeah. I was talking about. No, I think they have a tandem bicycle that has two. I do think they do. That's really funny. I think that's what he's actually talking about. I don't know why that would be like a thing you can't do with a girl. There's nothing going on with that. I don't know. I think it's like, yeah, like that's fine.

Also, if you're thinking of it as a girl, do you want to like create this or create closeness between you and not create distance, but all these things are about creating distance. Then he's like, you can't just barge into my room, which is also fair. She probably shouldn't be doing that. And then he's like, we need to use separate umbrellas. And I'm like, bro, if you're like interested in this person, don't you want to use the same umbrella? Why are you? Well, that's the thing, right?

I don't think he's specifically saying he's interested just that he's going to treat her the way he treats Masaki. So that at least she doesn't feel like she's being treated differently than his love interest, not that she's necessarily the love interest moving forward. See, my reading of this is like, yeah, like I'll give it a shot thinking of you as like a love interest. So we need to do all these things. I need to like be awkward and shy around you so I can think of you as a love interest.

It's like, I'm really like, this is the only way you can proceed. So yeah, like it's like, oh, well, I can only like fall in love with you if you fit into the tropes. So I need you to start acting more like the tropes. Yeah, I couldn't possibly like you are, which is stupid. And it makes no sense and is like totally undercuts the entire idea that like the reason you like somebody is because of like you like them as a person and how you interact.

But it's like, well, we're not in love if I can't like share an umbrella with you as a romantic gesture. So we need to go back to using separate umbrellas so that when I make that move, it works. And it's like, dude, just get a different move. What are you doing? Yeah. Oh boy. Yeah. And then immediately she starts putting him in a headlock. So I'm like, yeah, Tommy, not doing it. Let's go. So I hopefully that's just some dumb shit. Katara was saying.

Well, she immediately breaks it with the headlock. So good. Tommy, it was great. She doesn't have to change. She doesn't have to learn how to cook. Stay bad at cooking forever. Yeah. I support that 100%. Okay. You should learn how to like properly crack an egg. No. Okay. I can do that. Now it'll be the fight between he, Karu and wizard with his. How's she going to break the magic guard? Magic guard. I wonder what techno babble they're going to have to explain it.

It's probably going to be some like even more absurd thing than last time. Yeah. I guess that'll probably only take another episode. So that'll be episode 23 and then we'll have three episodes left. What do you think is going to happen? I think she's going to be dojiro. Well, yeah. I mean, after that. I don't know. I mean, we can't have the final fight yet. She does need to beat chuko at some point.

And I don't think it's going to be like at the actual fight because then she can't like work through her feelings on three episodes. You know what I mean? Like the fight needs to be the last episode, right? Uh-huh. Because it's the final episode of a series. Yep. Yep. So she has to find out in these next two episodes. Do we think each Han's going to confess his love? That is confirmed or even in a relationship or not? That plot hasn't been resolved yet.

It's the one last hanging love plot that hasn't been resolved as it is. So that has to. I hope it's not too cringe because he is 28. Yeah. Grow up, mister. No, I don't know. I'm awkward as hell and I'm 30. But that's I'm just that's my brand. Yeah. But you're not going to be like, oh, have you considered moving in with me? It's like we're not even dating. Yeah. Yeah. So next episode, break up the magic wall and the sake versus ojiro.

Well, maybe she's actually going to counter magic garden like the previous episodes where she just didn't counter that. Well, at least these people who are doing cool moves, she can't replicate and copy the way she does with rolling thunder. So. Okay. Take that. Yeah. Stop copying people. We hate it when we do something cool, huh? No, I just I mean, okay, I just wanted to be original things she's coming up with, which we haven't seen really fun during a while, which is good.

It should only be Susie cut that we're seeing that with. All right. Two more fights left and four more episodes and two more episodes of shojo on angelic layer. Oh, well, yes, not the end of shojo and less shows like God, that was awful. Get me out of this podcast. I'm not doing that. Okay. Oh, good. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, good. Like it's a check. Oh, so nice. So next up, we are going to go through some recommendations that we have for you folks listening.

So do you want to go first or shall I Joe, you have you picked yours yet? Okay. You should go first for no reason in particular. Okay. Because you're totally prepared for this. Okay. My recommendation is a game from 2017 called battle chef brigade, which is on all the things I believe and it's a brawler puzzle game. I haven't played it in years, but I really reflect on it fondly and I just kind of want a reason to replay it. So I may do that soon.

But basically it's pairing combo based hunting and then puzzle based cooking as the game play of the game and it's hand drawn art. So yeah, it's kind of got like, you know, 2D and there's like little speech bubbles and characters, anime and stuff and the puzzles are fun. Yeah. It's so good. Definitely check it out. Battle chef brigade, female protagonist, Mina. Was that enough time, Joe? That's good. I'm also going to recommend a game.

I'm going to recommend the beginner's guide, which is a walking sim. A walking ship? Yeah, that's what it's called. I don't know. It's just walk? Well, like the gameplay is you just like walking around, right? Oh, OK. That's like, that's a genre of game. I thought that was like a joke when like a game where it's like, oh, it's taking so long to encounter things that is a walking game. I don't think that's true. Like that's like gone home is also a walking sim, right? Oh, I don't know.

I would consider it like a adventure game. It's not point click, but similar style of just interacting with the world around you. I guess it could be. I don't know if I. This is a thing that's called walking simulator. Adventure game that consists primarily of movement and environmental interaction. Yeah, I was going to say adventure sounds more compelling to play than walking sim. But it's not as accurate because anything could be adventure.

OK, but if you want like a more slow paced, is it mystery stuff? Why are you? Do you want to do this recommendation for you? What do you think the beginners guys about? No, no, no, speculate for me. The beginners guide. Have you never heard of this game? No, it's made by the same guy who made the Stanley Parable. This is a game that came out in 2015. It is a game where like a narrator walks you through a number of incomplete games. Made by this like specific game developer named Kota.

And through going through each of the games, the narrator tries to come to understand what type of person Kota was. They're trying to understand this person through their like artwork that they make. But while you're going through it, you get some notion that the narrator is not being like totally transparent about what they have done to your experience of these things. And what they're what the conclusions they're drawing about Kota are actually true or not.

So it is an interesting kind of reflection of like what it means to interact with somebody's work that is being curated by another person. It sounds a little like portal with Gladys and Shell or Shell, whatever her name is, where she's just kind of guiding you. But also it's apparent that she's withholding information. Kind of slightly. Not. No. This is like a much more narrative thing than portal is where like it's pretty obvious what Gladys is all about in portal.

And this this is like a much more like you get reveals as it goes along. It's very interesting in terms of like where everything kind of lands up. Cool. Look at this little gamers. Yeah, trying to guess at what people who make things are like in real life fools Aaron. Anyway, the beginner's guide. It's very good. It's also pretty short. Short games. The beginner's guide. Check it out if you haven't. Yeah. Beginner's guide and battle chef brigade.

A couple of gamers up in here with our video games. Yep. Hey, at least mine's kind of an anime art style ish inspired. It's anime. Yeah, you don't like watching this. You're like over here being like, oh, I love it when things have plots, but I don't want to just. Oh, no, I mean, the walking. As the genre name maybe isn't exciting. I feel like I jokingly heard someone. What's that? Like is it like PUBG or some game? No, no, no. What? It's like a. No, no, no, I'm thinking.

What's the one where you like drop down from parachutes on to fortnight? No, it's like a military based one. Regardless, those kind where it like takes forever to walk to whatever encounter is going to happen or you just walking through. That's been jokingly referred to as a walking sim because it just takes a long for you to get to the actual thing you're supposed to do. That's the only context that I've heard walking sim used.

OK, but the joke is that that game isn't a walking sim. It's supposed to be a shooter. Yeah. You end up just walking all the time. So it's basically it's not a joke about walking sims being lame. Yeah, I'm just saying that's the only context I have for as it. Well, for being the person who. You think you would know your game. I know our game is called Walk About mini golf. So what much of that game you spend walking like I make you walk. Well, I just teleport. I teleport everywhere.

So wow, just to avoid walk about motion sickness is a real thing. OK, there's smooth locomotion and then there's the teleport option, which is much easier on your brain. I can't believe you don't even walk about and walk about mini golf. It's crazy. I know mini golf. It's whatever you want. Mini golf. We make all the dreams come true. Aha, you'll see. You'll see once I'll bring my headset and you can try it out. Oh, yeah.

And then speaking of making dreams come true, if you want to make my dreams come true, please leave a five star review. Of Shojo on whatever podcast platform you're listening to. Yeah, please. If you leave a comment on that podcast, I'll read it out loud. Don't have one yet. No new one. But if you do, I'd read it. And if you leave any comments on Spotify discussions, I will read it. So pick which host do you want to hear your words come from wisely?

I would suggest Apple Podcasts because the world revolves around Apple, right? So that's the one where you make it. That's the one I feel like discover build. I don't know. I just want to talk about that one as being an important one. I don't know if it actually is the real way to help us out is if you recommend us to other people that you know that would like anime or maybe you'd be interested. We're almost done with Angelic Layer, so we'll have one whole thing out.

So if they want to binge a whole series, they can do that. Moving on to something else very soon. Yeah. Exciting actual shojo show. Stop emphasizing that so much. Sorry. We're reclassifying. Again, I still I super feel like my takeaway after doing this podcast is going to be that these distinctions are entirely arbitrary. And don't really like reflect. Yeah, actually true.

Because I mean, it's essentially just like labeling what the intended audience is, but that doesn't mean that that's not what you want to watch. Right. The intended audience through like a TV, exactly lens, right? Because like the only thing that's shown in about Angelic Layer is that they're dolls that fight, which like isn't particularly exclusionary. Gender. Yeah. Angelic Layer almost over. Next thing is going to be a whole different ballgame. It'll be interesting to see the transition.

It's got a soft place in my heart, so I'm going to be like, it's wonderful. It's perfect. And then Joe's going to actually look at it more critically than me. So the opposite was kind of flipping. I feel like you've been pretty critical of stuff so far. No, I have. I'm saying you're not going to be. Are you just going to be like, I'm going to be nostalgia pill. I feel like I'm going to be. Well, it's not even that old with show. But I just like fondly. It's just so wonderful.

It's just so like, oh, I just want to hug it. So. Okay. You can still like, you're still going to see. I don't know. And also like it. Like there's stuff that I like. But when I watch it, I'm like, yeah, this part isn't great. Like this, you know, this thing could have been different. Yeah. Sometimes I'm even like way more critical of stuff that I like. Or I remember liking. Because you care to think about it more. Yeah. Because I'm like, well, this is important.

So I'm going to give it my all thinking about this. Yeah. And in our next show, if it's anything like these episodes were, which is going to be like a little bit more drama filled, I am not going to be able to summarize them in the same way. Because those summaries were enormous. No, it's all about feelings, feelings. And remember, I'm trying to think of a word for this. It's okay to be on tandem bikes platonically.

Remember, you don't have to start seeing your, your friend as a girl to get them to stop putting you in wrestling headlocks. That's right. You could just ask nicely, maybe. You could just ask nicely. I don't know if that would actually work on Somalia, but. And that may not. In a normal world. Listen, you can ask your dad for relationship advice too. It's okay. You don't have to ask your friend who looks like your dad. You could just ask your actual dad. Uh-huh.

You know, sometimes they had advice. They were, they were a kid once. Maybe they remember. That's right. Maybe not. I don't know. Just not each one. I'm not a hero romantic experience. Yeah. E-tons a bad, bad role model for this. Also, try to save up more than one day of PTO for the summer. For real. Unless you just don't want to experience summer. Like, Well, she hate the beach. You hate the beach. You don't want to go outside. Save it up for the winter. Yeah. And it's finally bearable.

Also, don't try. Don't tan. It's not good for you. Stop it. Don't sunbathe. I don't care how much, I don't care how much you look like you're in your movies. Don't try to tan. I get that you want to replicate your favorite, your favorite movie. Oh, no. Good talker. She's so funny. Oh, dear. That was so good in these episodes. Okay, folks. Until next time, we'll see you next time. Two more fights. Two more fights. Yep. Yep. Yep. Bye. Bye. Bye.