Welcome to Shoujo, the anime podcast where I, Sarah, introduce my good friend Joe to Shoujo anime and thus introducing Joe to Shoujo. And show Joe. No, I should use hence instead of whatever. Henceforth. The brain. I'm feeling frazzled today. But yes, I don't. I well, I just finished watching the episodes. Basically, I don't know if you saw on my Discord, Joe, but I had a car accident on. Oh, my God. I did not hear about this. Saturday. Luckily, I'm fine. I feel like nicks from my
window glass busting in, but okay. And now Moxie the cat's here to help me keep be focused even more. Oh, that's so annoying. I was just I was going through this like back road and this lady who had stopped at her stop sign, but I guess just didn't look to see if anyone was coming, like drove in, you know, pulled forward as I was going and hit me on my driver's side door. Windows shatter. Freaking door doesn't open. Yeah, I'm seeing the picture. Oh, my gosh. Yeah.
So as always, I never like, oh, my God, that was scary. I'm like, oh, my God, my car. Look what you did to my car. Why are us it's like why do I even have a car this car is cursed or something I a lady like like it two years ago park into my car Like an idiot. What's why are there dumbasses everywhere? Yeah, she like my mom was getting out of the passenger front door and This lady parked into the door as it was opening. She like hit my car door as it was opening
Push it out. It couldn't close. Freaking could have hit my mom. And it was like a empty ass parking lot. And like, how can you be parked? How can you be parking so fast that like it like makes the whole car shake? I'm like bad. I'm a garage holder. So you bet. I remember her name and now I'm going to remember this lady's name. When drivers of Austin are out to get my. Wonderful
car. And I won't forget it. So now I got to deal with all that annoying crap of like, well, and don't worry, I got her on video admitting it was her fault. So I'm stupid ass. Our shirts try be like, oh, it's your fault somehow, even though it's clearly not. So I'm like prepared. That's good. Yep. So just good. So annoying. Well, at least you took care of it. Handled it like a pro. Well, no, I cried. OK, well, you
know, you did get hit by a car. And then because I had gone to meet my mom's sister for lunch, so I told them and they came and met. And then the lady asked my mom if I was a new driver. Oh, God, because I was crying like I was 19 or something. I'll just take it as a compliment that I look young. Yeah, you look young. Oh, God. Yeah. So and I finally settled and I'm like just I'm so tired and just like I'm like settling
on a very basic name for this dog. I just couldn't exert the brain power to think of a better name. So her name is Pepper. I'm so basic. That's cute though. Pepper. I know. It's not like Spot or something, you know. No, no. Yep. So I got that settled. My my new supervisor gone now had a lovely week. She's great. Super excited. Had had work interview yesterday, so I'm just work wise. Things are going great. That's good. Life wise, man. How about you, Joe? Hopefully you
have a more positive. Last weekend, I went to a wedding or I guess this last weekend, I went to a wedding in Louisville. Kentucky, so I had to drive down there and I was like the DD at all of the events because I had a car. Nice. You know, it was fine. It's fine. It mostly just means I had to stay up really late and then I had to ferry a bunch of drunk people home. Oh, no. That was fine. No, no, no. They didn't get that drunk. Good. Nobody was getting like sloppy.
So it was it was actually. Yeah, it was good. But it was a fun wedding. But clearly, like I needed to catch up on some sleep. and I didn't sleep any more than usual. So I'm like dead today, even though I got eight hours of sleep because I got really bad sleep this weekend. Oh, man. Yeah. Like the night before, because like Saturday night, I got in at like three thirty basically, and then I had to wake up at like nine something. So I ended up. How long was the drive there?
And then, yeah, so the drive to Louisville from Columbus is like three, four hours. God dang, man, everything. driving just in there. That's crazy. Yeah. So it was like half the states in the country in the time it takes to drive. That's true. Yeah. That's so nice. Going to Houston or something from. Yeah. Yeah. So it wasn't that bad. But yeah, that was good. Went to a wedding. I don't think anything about Louisville is particularly interesting, to be honest. But OK, I went there.
So, yeah, my eyes hurt. Oh, no. But in other news, I did watch something in between now and then. Oh, yeah. Another Disney movie of a horrifying background. We didn't do it this week because some of my friends were out. Instead, I watched Mobile Suit Gundam Wing Endless Waltz, the movie, the movie sequel to Gundam Wing, the worst Gundam so far, I thought, or like one of the worst ones. I mean, the movie is an endless waltz is very
fun. It was good. They like spend a lot of time with your characters just being fun and like bantering back and forth. They kind of retconned some of the stuff that happens in the original show that makes it better. They just redesigned the Gundams with no explanation. They just look cooler now. They're supposed to be the same. Yeah, they're supposed to be the same models or like the same robots, but they just look totally
different. It's great. So had a fun time. Much much better than original Gundam wing was still is a little you know not Going for it in the way that I like Gundam to do, but it was a good time. It's a good movie You know it had a fun had fun with it good. I'm glad you watched something fun That's right now. It's on to turn a Okay, I will say my mom just binge like all of the current love Island season, so Okay, look If you just get started, you get hooked. So, yay,
I've converted another. Yeah. So many. Okay. Yep. Okay, sorry. That's the only Love Island thing I'll say. I mean, I just talked about Gundam. You can talk about Love Island. It's okay. No, it's my whole personality right now is complaining about how hot it is and talking about Love Island. You know, when I was at this wedding, I was feeling like a real boring person because all of the people there, like, because my friend that got married went to, like, they did, like, AmeriCorps
and, like, all this other stuff. So, you know, a lot of their friends are, like, met in, you know, we all, we all met in Indonesia or whatever. OK, cool. So, by comparison, I feel incredibly boring because I'm, like, I don't, all the things I'm interested in, I can't just talk to these random people about. They're going to be like, what are you talking about? I feel like the most boring guy who's ever existed at this wedding.
I mean, it was nice. Like, I don't think anybody thought that it was just me being like, wow, I have nothing interesting to say. Well, you think if you said to any of those people who don't know you, oh, I have a podcast, they're going to be like, oh, God, here we go with another like white dude with a podcast. Oh, yes. I have to caveat that every single time. Like any time someone learns, I guess I'm like, oh, yeah, ha ha ha. God. Yeah. But, you know, it's cool. Yeah.
Mm hmm. Yeah. Better than all those other white dude podcasts. Yeah. I don't just like get mad at stuff. We have a format. Mm hmm. We have a format and we're very niche about what we're doing and what we're watching. Incredibly. Yes. So that makes it feel better. It makes it feel like we're not just doing this to do this. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So that's what I have. We're almost on a too high a period. There'll be a third season
that we have to come back to. You might have read the episode title and thought, why did we watch four episodes? And the answer is because one of them is a recap episode. Did you watch it in its entirety? I watched it. I watched it. by skipping ahead 10 seconds very often. Okay. Yeah. Okay. I did that a little bit, but I was like, oh man, I'm like, cause I just watched the episode like an hour ago. So I was like, I gotta get through these. So yeah, no, there's
not really much, much to miss out on. So I'll take one filler episode, a season of Shojo. It doesn't feel like this has enough space to have this filler episode. No, that's so true. I don't know why they do that. Yeah, I maybe they're mandated to I don't know have like a recap for like all the people that Maybe it's just cuz everything happens so slow. That's like remember this happen like within the season you're watching I know it feels like it's a eternity but Yeah,
it's a little odd to have it that way. I don't know. I Don't know to think about that. Well, I guess this will just be another outlier in our Our catalog here. Mm hmm. Yeah. Well, do you have anything else that should we get into it? I've decided who I'm going to marry and run factory. Oh, OK. Yeah. No, this is important business. So who are you? Who are the candidates? Like, what are we? Is it like one obvious one or is there like several? Well, I've seen holes.
OK. Well, there's definitely like the benefit, right? Because it's like. You have to like spend time with them to increase like your relationship rank. And so obviously you're going to be higher rank with the people introduced into the game earlier. And like, I still haven't gotten the last candidate into my villages yet. And I'm like 55 hours in. So, but I think this might be the first one where you can marry any gender.
Very ranted about the fact that you can play as a guy or girl and whichever one you don't play as is in the story and people call them by that name and so that means that whatever character I am and alternate if I play as a dude the character I'm currently playing as would be addressed by her name by character so they have all the voice actors saying the name, the
default name. So why wouldn't it be that if you leave the default name when you play that character, the other characters that they already have saying the name would address you, you know, instead of having the like dialogue and the silence when it's like your name, you know, you didn't put a custom name in. Oh, that makes me so mad. All right. I'm on the Rune Factory wiki. Who am I looking up? Hi. The Oni God, because I because he's like, right. It's like, oh, he wears a mask.
So you're like. When do I get to see what he looks like without the mask? He's hot without the mask on pretty eyelashes. Yeah, this guy looks like which are you just I was going to say, well, yes, he's the god of the underworld. Yeah, he's the Oni. We got big bats, you know. Oh, yeah. OK. Because there's like God can it because it's like. feudal Japan style. And there's like four villages, one for each season. And then there's also like a god for the heavens
and the what did I just call it? Was it not hell? What did I just say? Underworld. Underworld. Yes. And so he's the one for that. But and then there's like mundane. normal human characters. And then troublingly, a character that was a child in the last Runefactor game is now a candidate in this game, which technically it's but it's also like the community now is like first introduced to her as a child. And now she's like, oh, and it's like, oh, who is it? I have a list of all
bachelorettes. Hina with the hat. Oh, with the hat ears. Yeah. Yeah. She was like a And then she's talking about my hero from when I was a kid, which is like the character you play as and she's got a tail. That's yeah. There's like I don't understand. Super understand. I don't know. There's like animal hybrid people and the people and then I don't know. People with pointy ears and people with normal ears. So I don't know. We don't super go into like establishing.
Who's this chick with a huge hat? Huge hat. Who's this chick with an enormous hat? Who? What's the name? I don't know. I'm just looking at wallpaper. Rune Factory 5 HD wallpaper. Well, that's Rune Factory 5. This is Rune Factory Guardians of Ozima. Oh, my God. God. Ozima. OK, I know. Why is it like Rune Factory four or five and then this? Why can't you guys have already heard me complain about? Why can't you be here? Oh, you
like the big? That's a downgrade. Yeah. Oh, you're thinking there's like a witch lady in the last game. You're her has enormous. That's good. I think you should have a bigger hat. I think you're a big fan. That character is good. Crazy. He has a hat, but it's like a tiny hat. It's like a it's like a porter's cap. She's going to have something. Uh huh. So were you looking at the right person? Yeah, I know. I was because I was looking at Kai Roman. I'm looking at the romance
guy, but it didn't say which game it was. Now I see that it does. OK, OK. I don't get to see his face, though. I know, but you have pretty eyelashes. No, there doesn't seem to be a Kai face reveal. Dang. Oh, dang. That's good about not spoiling it for people. I don't see it. And then there's one that's like a automata, like he's like a robot guy. OK. All right. I got to see this guy. His name is Choi Ling, which I like his name a lot. The UI. Oh, man, he's got
a weird. The DLC character. Yes. Him and Helika are like the DLC candidates, which I'm assuming they're in the game anyways, because like you can have you build relationships with non romantic partners. But, you know, that's. I don't know what the benefit, because you can have them as combat companions. I guess that's the benefit. Why would you ever talk to somebody if you weren't going to try to date them? Because there's no like little cutscenes with them. Like there's
no like friendship cutscenes, really. I know it's mostly just like combat stats and like you can cook special dishes once you reach a certain rank with people and stuff. Yeah, I've already said this, but I think we're in fact, I don't know why. Because I've only played Rune Factory 4, 5, and now this one. But Rune Factory 4 was like incredible. Rune Factory 4. I don't know if you like it. I'm going to look at this. I'm like, I like it. And then in that one, I married
Dylas. And then we have a he's like a he's like a horse guy. So he's got like a horse guy. Yeah. OK, somebody has like someone's got like a top hat. Top hat. Oh, the girl. She's like a ghost girl. Kind of. Yeah. Some girl has like a hat that's like it's got like two little it's like a witch hat, but there's two little sides of it. So it looks like kind of like a like it's got like an antenna. You got to say the names. I don't know. I'm just looking at pictures. So
I just all I can see is pictures. You should get Rune Factory 4 special on the Switch if it's ever on sale or if it's on Steam. This is a Steam summer sale right now. Have you gotten anything? No, I've been extremely behind on all video games ever. Yeah, I know it's like Claire Expedition is like a little bit off I'm like, it's not off enough to like incentivize me to buy it now before I like have time to play it If it was like a huge discount or like Greenfall 2 that one's
still an early access buzz. Yeah, I have like no I like just I feel like I somehow I have no time to do anything I don't really know why that is or how that is but that's just how it is. It's because people have friends This is good. You got to cut it out, hang it out with people. I guess. Just take all your time. Yeah, maybe. Yeah. Oh, Joe. Mm hmm. Oh wait, did I already say this? I sang karaoke on a stage. No, I don't think so. Did I already say this? OK. Yeah, I.
for the first time ever last week. And I realized that I may think I know a song, but I truly don't unless I can hear the voice singing along to it on stage. I forgot that was a thing or like the music isn't playing loud enough. So I like forget when I feel like that's not as bad. I wouldn't feel bad about that. But this is like it's like this dive bar. So it's like everyone's like a regular and they're all freaking incredible and singing like Broadway songs. You just need
to become a regular. So I forgot there was rapping in in the end by Linkin Park. OK. Uh huh. You didn't remember that part? Well, I don't know. My Shinoda it's slow at least, but like I just. Yep. Yep, and then I sang How Far We've Come by Mashbox. No, no, I don't think so. I'm just like pat on the back for even getting up there and doing it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Nobody cares. Everybody's very chill at karaoke. You get the idea when you go. But, like, specifically the
group I went with were all very good. All of them did, like, theater or, like, one of them used to be a music teacher, so they're all really good. That's why they want to go to karaoke. I was just like, I'll give it a go. You know, you should take a game cafe or something and just like destroy them at something. I'm not even good at video games, though, Joe. That's true. All right, no, I might be sure I'm not
even going to arm wrestling. I don't even know how to arm wrestle properly as I learned with Jenny. It's like proper etiquette. You need to hone a secret talent so you can you can upstage everybody like in secret, you know. That's good. You can really get a car to. And then just do it. Hey, you want to check this out? You beat me on your first try. I'm surprised our game didn't get down to a 50 -50 because it seems to happen so often. OK, yeah. Good, good. Yep.
Should be. All right. Yeah, we should. We're like, look, there's a payoff payoff to the whole synchronization. So here's the thing. Here's the thing. We watched four episodes because one of them is a recap and like. These episodes are good. Like, these are good episodes of television. I enjoyed watching these. Not that much happens, I feel like. I wrote down a lot of things that, like, I wrote down a lot of words here because there's a lot of, like, little asides and things
like that, but not that much happens. So we'll see how long this takes. But yeah, let's get into it. So Chihayafuru episode 16 is called Wait for the Emperor's Return. This is a recap episode, slash, there are some gags in it that we'll cover, but mostly it's just recapping the first... 15 episodes of the season. Kind of a relevant title, waiting for the show to return. Yeah, some of these do have titles that seem relevant, but it's hard to tell. Don't count
on it. Let's see, some of the, one of the, the first gag makes it like a pretty funny joke about how Kana only has three eyelashes, which I thought was funny. I thought you would probably enjoy that. Because you always complain about how underdrawn she is. And Sumira gives her fake eyelashes, which is very funny. Married to the rescue. A
couple other things. We learned that Nishida's sister likes retro because she says he looks like Johnny Depp, which is a funny thing, but it's also unfortunate name poll to consider now that we know who that guy is. So that's unfortunate. Even anime ages poorly in references. That's not their fault. There's no way they could have known that. No, no. But yeah, that was just I
was like, ah, let's see. We got another bit where Nishida tells the crew that the only confirmed couple in the show is his sister in retro, which is extremely funny. And everyone's like, oh, come on. It's got to be side characters have girlfriends, too. But they don't. Chihaya says she wants to date someone who's good at card, which Tai Chi and Tsukuba listen to intently. So I guess that Tsukuba is like going for I don't know. I didn't really get that because that's
going nowhere. And then Kana says she wants to date somebody who knows how to put on a kimono and Satomu Nishida both like that because they both like her. I don't know. We've kind of like not done anything with that, but that's you can't do that to us, Arthur. If you're not going to give us anything. Yeah. Them liking them or whatever. So those are the pairings. Anyway, that's basically the end of the episode. Easy peasy. Now the shortest
recap ever. No thoughts other than the fact that, like, just coming out and being like, yeah, Nishida's sister and Retro are the only couple in this show. And I'm like, yeah, that's pretty sad. They're acknowledging it. Yeah. Chihayafuru episode 17 is called Gust of Wind. We open on everybody being wowed by our guest reader. Play starts and Fujisaki is pretty good. Also Rionne who's playing Chihaya. is playing somewhat differently
than the normal opponents as the OP plays. We come back to Shinobu, thinking that Arata really hyped up this match, but it's looking to be really boring. Chihaya's team is losing across the board. We learn that it's because their coach makes them work out a lot and do stretches and things like that. Rion keeps taking all two syllable cards on the first syllable, kind of like how the master does, because she has learned the
reader's proclivities or whatever. Chihaya's a... dummy who can't identify her own play strategy in front of her. She gets like senses thing. Eventually. Come on. Sorry. As do I. Well, the game keeps playing. The reader's the reader's reading is so good. She is able to visualize a forest. Her voice is so multicolored. But can reading cause colors? And she has like, oh, yeah, I can sometimes. predict what you're going to say based on the intonation of how you're saying
things and take cards early. I should do that. Shinobu thinks about this, too, and thinks that this reader gives away too much when she reads, which is why people like the guy who's the current master can do so well with her. And she hates it because Shinobu clearly is not that good at
doing this. Or as good at doing this. We learned that Rion is in Class B. The reader thinks about how about her granddaughter and how she was kind of a prodigy, but she tends to lose focus halfway through matches because if the reader isn't as good as her grandmother, she gets distracted. This means that she'll probably never be queen. So this is probably her only chance at being a champion, which is kind of basically because
she gets. Yeah, she gets the step in like at whatever time works for her and not because she earned it herself. So, yeah, whatever. Yeah, this is like having basically home field advantage. Super I am surprised because I didn't get as much backstory as her on her as we do with some characters. Yeah, I mean, I guess we kind of do like glimpses. It's not like it drags on forever in a flashback. That's true. Yeah, we're not. It's not as flashback heavy. People kind of just
talk about her. Mm hmm. Things are going bad. Jihai looks over at Kana and thinks about poetry. She tries to visualize the cards as the poems and manages to take a card one syllable early. Jihai tries to scoop a card her opponent is covering and it looks like her hand gets crushed, but it turns out that maybe her hand didn't get crushed and she's okay. But we'll check back in on that.
Taichi, meanwhile, faults. Also, it turns out she probably did hurt her finger, but like not in a way that we can easily recognize because like it hurts, but it's not jammed. It's weird. She's like, I don't really know what's going on. She thinks back to when Kana said that it's good that their A's didn't get hurt. And she's like, well, so much for that. Yeah, she knows who almost falls asleep and then sneezes on a
guy. This causes one of the. Organizers. She's like, I. Why does why is anime so into like. Just playing mucus is disgusting, I hate it so much. Shinobu is such a nuisance in this season. Only thing she has going for her is Karda. I'm surprised they're not trying to get rid of her too, if that's the reason they're trying to get rid of the emperor, is that he's like a buffoon. Like, everybody hates the master because he's
like... Annoying and doesn't do anything and then shinobu is like just a recluse that doesn't know how to interact with people It is also like very off -putting Yes But anyway by sneezing this causes one of the organizers to like notice that she's here and she tells her that She's the queen so she should sit up front and then she gets dragged up in the front near the coaches Which pisses her off because she's like I was gonna leave but now I can't leave because I'm
in front of everybody So this sucks, which is very funny She vaguely recognizes Chihaya, but then Chihaya loses a card and she's like, whatever, nothing interesting going on here. Yeah. Ryo notices that Chihaya is slower and thinks that she might have actually hurt her earlier. Chihaya is able to start taking cards pretty easily, and she remembers back to one time when Dr. Hirata said that getting hurt can sometimes affect the person who hurt the other person more than the
person who got hurt. Mind games. I think Dr. Hirata might be the character I am most similar to. Just like talking. Yeah. But you know, he's just like, take advantage of their, you know, like, don't get caught up by like feelings or anything like, you know, I don't know. I just feel like everyone. Well, he's like not emotional. He's like thinking around others, emotions or I don't know. I mean, I don't I just am like,
I like that he's so. Nonchalant about the you know, like ah Look, I feel bad for hurting you good. Don't don't miss this opportunity Never mind. Yeah, I don't know. I like dr. Harada. I guess that's just what I'll say Yeah, it's good. It's too bad. He isn't in this season more. But yeah, no Turns out the Rion gets in her own head a lot. She highest hands over the only one syllable card in the game Which is a big gamble and surprises everybody including Shinobu. It
can't be true They say more one. Maybe it's only one syllable card she had, because I'm like, they talk about more one syllable cards later. Well, no, but I guess it's because it's like as cards get taken out, then the other cars become one. So it's the only one that's the beginning of the game. Yeah, yeah. Never mind. Don't listen to me. I suck today. Anyway, terrible comments. I don't need you don't need to remember all the
details. I have the summary. Uh, Chihaya takes, uh, then Chihaya takes that one syllable card super fast and Shinobu is like, ah, wait, it is, it is her. It's that one shaker takes one syllable card super fast. Chihaya, that's her name. So she gets recognized by Shinobu. How fun. Chihaya has taken four in a row and the rest of the team gets motivated to do better. Nishida thinks that they need to start contributing.
All the guys stand up and take a break and then they hype themselves up as we cut to credits. Just did they like practice this routine of like smacking themselves in the faces all at the same time? Yeah, they all do the same motion. It's pretty goofy. Mm hmm. Yep. Yep. Yep. So do we think about we learn what Rion's deal is? It's like what if she does the Jihaya thing. She's the first year. Yes. Fujisaki. Or she. And maybe she's a second year. I don't know. He. Yeah.
I mean, right. So far, it's just the biggest. Right. Jay has to have some kind of obstacle. And she was certainly at first, but. Now that she's injured, she's like, he just needs to learn to be able to just turn it on from the beginning, not like get injured. And then that's like your I had to work despite that. Mm hmm. OK, I'm sure I think of like, I don't know that hand pressing down on fingers like. would be hard enough. I feel like it'd be more like the angling of your
wrist under it. Like, your wrists would be more likely to get hurt than the finger. It's probably just like you're moving so fast that, like, having the tip of your finger get stopped and you just, like, jam the rest of it in there. My arms are too, like, pop. If I try to play Carter like that, I'd be like, pop, pop. Oh, yeah, I'd just be smacking the ground and hurting my hands all the time. Like, there's no way I'd be able to do this. Oh, boy. But yeah, I guess talk to me
matter. So I don't know. They're softer. But like, I mean, you're still smacking the surface. And they're like more like thick cards, too. Yeah. Anyway, I don't really have any other thoughts about episode 13 or 17. Moving on. Episode 18 is called My Fear is that you will forget. We open back up on the match, Chihaya's mystery finger energy. What did I just say? Mysterious finger injury has motivated everyone into getting into the zone. They're all like, oh, Chihaya's
hurt, so we gotta pick it up. Kana reads us this current score line. Chihaya is down by six, Nishida is down by three, Taichi is down by four, and Satoumu and Tsukuba are both down by seven. So it's looking real bad. Taichi thinks that his opponent isn't as good as Arata, but he's still pretty good. He realizes that he's been getting too many flashbacks this game as he thinks about Arata too much and decides that he's going to forget that and play for real now. And then he
takes a card. This is very funny to me to be like, I've been thinking too much about Arata. I got to stop having flashbacks. The flashbacks between this guy and Arata is making me be like, Arata really is cute. It's like I'm just really the only three characters to get effort put into them. I'm just imagining all last episode Tai Chi is just constantly having flashbacks that you just can't see. You haven't even played against Errata since you were children. It's been so
long. You don't know how good he is. Errata casts the biggest shadow ever on this show, despite barely being in it. Yeah. Oh, man. All right. Well. Tsutomu doubts that he can actually do anything to win his match, but he thinks he's gonna try to surpass his expectations. Nishida is strategizing on which of his opponent's cards he should take. Tsukuba tries to focus on cards with his name in it and just make sure that he
takes those. He gets a flashback where the team says those cards are good and then he takes one of them from his opponent. So yay Tsukuba scored a point. It seems like Chihaya's team is gonna start making a comeback. Also Chihaya has just won seven in a row and has narrowed her deficit to three. Rion notes that she high is getting faster somehow, which we know is because she does better the later the match goes. That just makes me think of the like bleach where it's
like, no, he's not moving faster. I've just gotten slower or whatever with the season one like Renji. Yakiya. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's some that's some good stuff. Some good one on one content. The blonde guy sees that Rion is starting to lose her lead and gets all huffy about it. He starts to think about how he chose to do Carta because he didn't want to sweat, and he really values beauty. And you know who also plays beautifully?
Rion, because he's in love with her. Satomo loses to this guy, making the score 0 -1, and he realizes that the other guy doesn't blow his bangs when he's frustrated, it's when he's getting serious. So I guess he miscalculated, but also he wasn't going to win this game anyway. Nope. But he does go out first. Rion starts to get into the swing of things and the reader tells us that she should be able to read her voice more like the master
does. Chihaya remembers Kana's explanation for several cards right before both her and Rion take one. Shinobu was shocked because both of them took it a syllable early. So that's interesting. Perhaps a challenger is among them. Chihaya gets the card and feels her injury. Then she sees Shinobu and thinks that Arata must have sent her. I don't really remember why she thinks this. I don't know. She's like, it must be him. I know it's him. I don't have any reason, but I know,
I know he must have done this. Yes. Only give credit to him. Everything's about him. He does nothing. He's pulling the strings in the background. He's making the show happen. As she's walking back, she pats all the guys on the shoulder. Back in the side room. Which I'm like, all of them, like, are like, I don't know. She's like, oh, she hired him. I was like, oh, like, go to touch, I don't know, like. Except for Nishiya, they all like hold their shoulder where she touched
them. Yeah, I mean, I guess it meant something real big to Taichi and Tsukuba who are both in love with her. I'm sure Satomu just feels bad for losing. I feel like, well, no, I guess you don't want to mess someone's hair up. I feel like that would be more endearing. You just get a little hair rustle. Yeah, a little too intimate. Taichi's perfect hair. Back in the side room, Arata goes to pee. He hears them playing in the
final and waits around outside. In the third place game, all five games are neck and neck apparently, and they're all trying to keep their heads in the game by encouraging each other, and Shinobu hates it. She hates that they're all encouraging each other. She's like, this
sucks. We get a flashback of child Shinobu, and we learn that she was kept apart from players her own age because she would go easy on them, and their coach wanted her to be at her best, so she only ever played people that were older than her. And we get like a little scene where she's like playing another girl and their game is like apparently was close But then she plays against an adult and the other girl sees that she was like holding back the whole time I love
how they draw a tiny shinobu. She's just like a little Yeah, blobby kid blobby kid. Yeah, so good. She looks like she woke up Mm -hmm So that's really sad Yeah. She has game had another card they almost took at the same time. So one of the coaches volunteers to like referee their match. So he just like watches them play so he can call it both Shinobu and the Fujisaki coach
are full focus on the game right now. Well, the guy that's right, because each final game has their own little ref watching, which is nice. I'm like. Now I could believe that he has thoughts of the match because he can actually see the cards on like everyone in the audience. But I think that's morale, isn't it? Arada's like guy. I think so. Oh, maybe. I couldn't tell. Rionne thinks that she's never lost a match that her grandmother was when her grandmother was the
reader. Back outside, Arata reveals that he sent Shinobu to watch the match because the only way they'll get more peers at their level is if they actively try to boost the people around them. Shinobu sees everybody in the room trying their hardest and her heart starts to pound in a weird ish kind of scene. OK, I don't like the way they show just done where like it's like her image is like, you know, like, yeah, and not like a
weird color. Aura coming from her back or whatever that was Special attack or something Yeah, anyway, she's starting to feel the spirit of camaraderie or whatever Hold strong, Shinobu! This is the thing! Don't get suckered into the sappy stuff. No, we need Shinobu to like these people so she can go hang out with them when they go to Karda camp next season. So she can be on the show more.
Yeah, she needs to go hang out with them and then she can like play against Satomu, but she's like holding back because she's like, oh yeah, that's right. I shouldn't just crush everybody. And then they like high five at the end or something. I don't know if I want that, but something like that, you know. We see that Taichi is still down by five cards and there's only nine cards left. He's reset after early mistakes, but the remaining cards are all on his side of the board, so he
can't get a lead easily. His opponent is confident and doesn't fault and doesn't seem to be tired at all. He's able to take his opponent's card out from under him by being faster. Then Taichi takes a card because Taichi is like, I got to get my head in the game. Let's fucking go. So he goes. and he starts to do better. So it's like it seems like Tai Chi might be able to start recovering. But then Tsukuba loses his match to his weird weeb opponent. But at least his
opponent is at least nice about it. Anyway, this puts them down to two wins for Fujisaki, and they only need one more. Yeah, I was going to say when the guys like. Oh, you were good enough to make me go into second gear. I was like, I don't know. This makes me think of one of the shows Joe watches. That's like a one piece reference. Oh, I guess so. Yeah. Yeah. When he does like the weird. No, I haven't watched that much, but
where he does like the weird thing. Yeah. And no, it's like, what was the Ghost in the Shell second something? Standalone complex second gig. Yeah, that's like that kind of keep saying words absurd. Yeah, that's great Yeah, so things are looking bad, but then Tai Chi tells me she didn't she hi if they're gonna get three wins as we cut to credits I like the Shinobu content in
this episode, because I like Shinobu. I think it's nice to have a little tragedy that she never got to hang out with anybody, and that's also why she's standoffish and doesn't know how to get along. That's good. Yeah, I do want to see her be, like, blush a little when, like, her and Shehiya talk about, like, the daddy bear, Snow Maru stuff. Like, I do want to see her just, like... have a friend and connect on something
other than Carla. Well, and this is good because it's like the only way she knew how to hang out with Arata was to ask him to play a game. And he's like, no. And that's it. She got nothing else in the tank. She's like, well, I guess I'm going home. And work with Chihaya. She'd play with you. Yeah. But yeah, I need Shinobu to have friends by the end of this. This is what the show is really about to me. Yeah. Shinobu's journey.
Yeah, Shinobu's journey. But she's like. The last boss, so they can't have her soften before that, unless that's like the strategy that's for Chihaya to win. Is that like, I don't know. I don't want her to win by that, though. I want Shinobu just to make friends. I don't want her to get worse in Carta because of it, because I don't think that's like I don't think the show would think that. Far late. Yeah. But yes, that
part was good. Yep, yep. They're down. I think I'm kind of agreeing with you that the show is better when we don't watch Chihaya's games. Yeah. Because it's gonna be more interesting. Especially true next episode. Thank God this one doesn't dwell on it. Yeah. So. Yes. Oh, man. You want to get into the last one? I think we should start doing it. Yep, yep. Gonna say. These are so straightforward. Nah, I was just gonna say we're gonna need to, for season three for sure, do four episodes,
I think. Okay. It's not, it still takes me a long time to write it. Sorry. I'm gonna stop. Sorry! Okay, okay, I'm playing markers Sarah stop talking about not three cat stuff right now Stop talking about how nothing happens these episodes. I wrote down 2 ,000 words that's way less than like I wrote down for the Rose of Versailles for every three episodes, but You know, it's still still got to do that. Yeah, but that's
right. You're the one didn't never mind We'll decide we'll decide we'll do four next time because we need to do at least one more four and then a three But we should do the last episode episode 19 is called. I do not know Where this love will take me. We open on Satomu thinking that it's surprising that Taichi would declare that they're going to get three wins when he mostly never talks up his game and always tries to let his actions speak for itself. But now he is. Maybe
he's growing. And by growing, I mean, I need Taichi to start talking shit. I need some shit talking Taichi. Throw some insults around, my man. The trash talk game in this show is terrible. I saw like... trash muttering, like mutter under your breath something. I know. Only Sudo does that. Yes. Yeah, that is a tactic we're not seeing. Yeah. Very much. Taichi takes another break and tries to come up with an optimal memorization
strategy to beat his opponent. He tries to forget Dr. Hirata's advice and aims for the card in the bottom right again, because he's like, I'm just going to hit that one. I'm just going to hit the bottom right and like mess with this guy. He gets lucky and it turns out the card at the bottom right is the one that gets read
and he takes it. Satomu realizes that it's a multi -syllable card he sent over earlier and remembers that he told Taichi that his opponent always prioritizes covering cards which gives like a slight opening because there's a bit of a delay when you cover a card to like go to take. Taichi takes a long time to decide which card he's gonna send over and his opponent seems to
realize that he's being iced out. The next card is read and his opponent hits his card in the lower right hand corner which Taichi... has taken twice in a row, while Tai Chi hits the correct card, leading to a double fault, which brings his lead down to one. So he hits the wrong card and his opponent takes the right card, which is the worst thing you can do. So get wrecked, NaNoRada. Yeah, whatever your name is. Perfect. Yeah, the guy who just, like, I imagine squeezing
boobs the whole match. I'm very glad to watch this man get destroyed. Taichi thinks that they've all played five matches today over the course of nine hours. God, what a long day. Yeah, that's so much. And memorizing the field must be kind of hard at this point. Taichi's game is close and we learned that Chihaya is just one card away from winning. We learned that Rion and Chihaya's match is getting so wild. They're both just kind
of doing whatever now at this point. Like, we're kind of done with strategy here because everyone's just trying to go as fast as possible. Chihaya is on her last legs, but she takes the card and wins anyway, winning the match and bringing the score up to 2 -1. Rion loses and Chihaya immediately falls asleep, like face down. So now it's down to just Mashita and Tai Chi. No awareness for the stakes of the other two matches on your team. On the floor. My good lord. Ugh, yep. We check
in Chihaya winning. Yeah, what a nice change of pace on the board We check in on the sheet and it turns out he's just really experienced has gotten into the groove. So he's keeping it together Tai Chi's opponent takes a card. So he only needs to win one more While Tai Chi needs to win three cards He thinks about this about how this is their best chance to win as a team. So it's now or never both games Go down to luck of the draw. It's one to one Somehow, woohoo!
It happened again! Not our first rodeo. Not our first rodeo. Both Taichi and Nishida have been coordinating this entire time to ensure that they both have the same card at the end, so they can win the 1v1. So we have learned from our match against Retro's team a couple episodes ago, and I like this. Pretty good, pretty good setup. That's a good, good - I don't know. Storytelling, yay. Pay off. Pay off. Yeah, for the time we spent learning all that strategy. There's so
much time we learned about this. And I was complaining. I'm like, this never happened, so who cares? But here we go. Yeah. Yep, yep. The Fujisaki coach realizes this and is like, uh -oh, we're in trouble. Kana thinks about the two remaining poems. The poem on Taichi's side is about a love lost, and Taichi hopes that Chihaya would wake up and watch him, which is extremely funny. Don't. Stop. On him, Kana. Stop it! This whole sequence
is so funny. The Fujisaki coach thinks that their captain has good luck, so they'll probably be fine. But their captain is realizing that their opponents just synchronized all their cards and is like, oh, I've been underestimating these guys. Retro sees this too, and is like, impressed that they learned to do this in such a short period of time. How can he focus on their match when he's in a match? I think his is over. He couldn't possibly see their card. Because like,
unless his went down to a 1v1, too. Oh, that's true. You know that it's the last card. Well, we don't find out who won third place, I guess. Oh, we don't. Who cares? I'm guessing it's the ladies. No, it's probably the dudes. I don't know. Because we love retro. We love retro so much. He looks like Johnny Depp. They should have a 50 -50 chance, but no one has ever seen Tai Chi win a 50 -50 chance before, which is so funny. And everybody, including Tai Chi, does
not think he is going to win this one. But he also doubts that he's gonna be able to steal from his opponent. A dead card is read and it becomes obvious that both Tai Chi and Nishida are trying to take from their opponent instead of defending their own card. Their opponents find this very weird, but it keeps happening after one more dead card is read. I don't know how bad his luck is. Never bet on Tai Chi's card being red. Very funny. So they're all in on defending.
And it doesn't seem like it's going to be possible to steal from these guys. Samira can't handle the pressure and is like, I just have to trust in Tai Chi. I love Tai Chi. Tai Chi thinks that he's unlucky forever as he goes through the remaining dead cards in his head. He prays to God to let him have this one instance of luck as Chihaya wakes up and the reader reads the card on Taichi's
side. Both Taichi and Nishida take the card and win, and Sumire starts cheering, but Kana quiets her while the reader finishes the second verse of the poem. Then Chihaya tackles Taichi and Nishida and the rest of the gang join in and there's for a group hug. Mizuzawa wins the team tournament. Hooray! Hooray! Hooray! They did it! Oh, okay. No, I feel like I was going to say something. OK, I don't understand. So does the reader just like stop reading when people
slap and then resume? I think she just keeps reading it, but like it happens so instantly because they probably took it on the first syllable. But like you have to say a whole line of poetry. Yeah, I guess they just. give us the dialogue between characters without that playing behind it. Yeah, I'm Sumire though. I'm like, I don't care about this poem. I'm happy my boys won, you know? Finally, Nishida coming through. Finally. He doesn't blow it. God. Yeah, man, man, man.
After the match, the Fujisaki coach says it's her fault for building such a technical team, which I don't really understand. The blonde guy is shocked to see that Rion is crying, but the coach tells her that no one on their team could have beaten Shihaya, so she shouldn't feel so bad. but also she can't just rely on her grandmother's
reading to win. After the match, Chihaya remembers that Arata says he doesn't care about team games and is sad, but then she walks out into the opening or like the main room and sees Arata waiting for them. She asks if he was watching. Her team is now the best in Japan. She became the best without becoming queen. So don't say you don't care about team games, Arata. And then she starts crying and Arata just kind of agrees as we cut to credits. He just like grunts in agreement.
A multiple time. She's like, yeah. Yeah. Oh, my God. Look, we get our we're going to get some I'm sure to be cut short time with a ride out. In the same room together. Six episodes from the end. Yeah. Well, yeah. Freaking Shiaya. Oh, I like the part where it's like. Pretend all I am is ears and my one finger and then like all our other fingers fade away. It's like she's flipping us off. Yeah. Uh huh. Yeah, so there we go. Our ladies are injured. Our ladies are
injured. Our dainty lady hands. Tai Chi finally gets a dub. Nishida finally gets a dub. Tai Chi should just get Renkei. They should just give it to him. Oh, God, he's got to do it whole another thing tomorrow where the chances of luck is going to work out. I doubt it. We need to have an episode where they all hang out this evening or something. I know we're not going to. I know we're just going to go immediately individual play because this is a never ending sports anime, but I need
them to hang. I need. like an entire 10 minute scene where Arata is in the room with them and talking to them. Never. It's not going to happen. I know, because it's like he's going to be like. The show is good. Makes you think that it's more than just a sports anime, but not really. It's just teasing us with the prospect of more and then doesn't deliver. It's going to be he's going to be like, I'll see you tomorrow and then leave. That's what we're going to get like one minute
of it being like, congratulations. I'll see you tomorrow out. And then Shinobu is going to walk by and be like. Like, yeah, see you tomorrow, Chihaya out. That's it, that's all we're gonna get. And then she's gonna be like, oh, I can't play because of my stupid finger. And that's why we have to have a season three. We can't have back -to -back victories. Games really are better when it's not Chihaya we're watching.
All of the best games. Yeah, so you think with her being injured means we don't have to watch her play, but I now remember a huge part of season three as the whole goddamn... injury and overcoming it. I'm like, oh, God, not looking forward to that. That's like a whole thing. OK, great. Awesome. All right. Look forward to season three. Oh, no. OK. But we're not done with season two yet. So at least we get to watch our other characters shine in Chihaya's absence. Oh, my God. Yeah,
we we. Oh, boy, man. But yeah, so far, the best the best match is this this this season. Think is Tomo's match where he takes from his that's still the coolest thing that's happened where he takes from his opponent in the 50 -50 Yeah, that's cool 50 -50s man. This team is riddled with them The stakes must be high So that was cool and then What else cool happened? Oh the part where Tai Chi gets retro to fault. That was good, too Yeah, that was good 50 -50s. That's
the only thing that ever happens. You're right I mean, I guess it's easier than explaining. I don't know, but they love explaining all the, like, specific match situations. It'd be nice to have us get to the point where one of our characters, like, plays against someone and they know that they're going to beat them, but they can also appreciate that this person will then become a better player. Like, they get the turn to be like, ah, yes, this person is a threat
in the making. But that's what happened with Tai Chi with the boob guy being like, I underestimated him. Whatever his name is. Yeah. Pails in comparison, errata. Double. That's what happens when you date a freshman in your senior and then you also fantasize about your coach. You lose. That's yeah. It's team of losers. You guys are just born to be losers. I'm sorry. Well, I still don't think the thing is, I still have no idea. I have no idea what's going on with Nishida. He just
wins. Why does he win this match? Why did he lose last match? What happened? Because he's a guy and both their girls are hurt. Man up for them or whatever. He is that guy. You saw that guy in one man. What happened? What happened to him? And well. I don't know. At least it came down to the original three members of the card club to bring home the wins. Yeah. All right. Well, we got six episodes left, which means we're going to watch three and three and then we're
done with season two. Yeah. Yes. So two more weeks. If you guys are. Still hanging on. If anyone's left. I mean, these were good episodes. The thing is, like, these were the most like the hype sports anime I've gotten so far, where it's like, yeah, you want to see this guy win. Like, I'm not really even noticing how long these episodes are. Yeah, I. Yes. And I know it's like, oh, Sarah said this is one of her favorites and
she's like shit on it constantly. I'm still not quite seen, especially when you're like, I'm tired of watching Shia. I just don't care. It's my. Let's say it's my favorite bingeable anime and then Hard Capture Sakura is just my favorite anime. And then now I'm afraid to cover that. And then you go, technically, for the one good thing, no, thank God, is it not that good? My favorite is? I'm not saying, I haven't, hold on, I haven't said any, I haven't said St. Jehiafru
is bad, okay? I had a good time here. I just don't think it uses its time effectively, and it kind of isn't selling me what I thought it was gonna sell me, which is like, I want this, like, I want the romance between the boys, you know what I mean? Like, I want them to be fighting for affection, but Aurora just isn't in the show. He just isn't in the show still. He still isn't. We're almost at season three and he's barely here. Well, maybe one day he'll be a character.
Maybe. Maybe one day he'll be a character. I mean, we got to like... Opening! I didn't skip the opening on one of these and I was like, yeah, it really implies that there would be more love triangle tension than there is. It's just like... A given, she hires an errata and then he's like, he doesn't have to spend time with her now because she's going to be hanging around forever. And then Tai Chi, it's just like, should just give
up. I just don't know how you come away from this, not just feeling bad for Tai Chi the whole time, because like he's doing his best, man. He's doing everything he's trying to do his best. He's unlucky. He never gets like what he wants. He never like. He's always coming out at the short end of the stick. It's like he might usurp. Ayane is my favorite side character of the shows we've covered. I'm not sure yet. Yeah, maybe. He's such a cool guy. I love Tai Chi so much.
Yes. Oh, we'll see. Who is that? Should we have like Tai Chi and trying to think of someone from Angelic Layer who'd be like a Tai Chi, but I don't think they really have one. No one's cool enough for that. Freak. Well, the guy who thinks he's cool. Freaking whoosh hair. Yeah, the guy was kind of a love interest, but not really. Oh, dear. Oh, dear. Oh, dear. Oh, dear. Oh, dear. Oh, dear. Oh, dear. Oh, dear. Oh, dear. Oh, dear. Oh, dear. Oh, dear. Oh, dear. Oh, dear. Oh, dear.
Oh, dear. Oh, dear. Oh, dear. Oh, dear. Oh, dear. Oh, dear. Oh, dear. Oh, dear. Oh, dear. Oh, dear. Oh, dear. Oh, dear. Oh, dear. Oh, dear. Oh, dear. Oh, dear. Oh, dear. Oh, dear. Oh, dear. Oh, dear. Oh, dear. Oh, dear. Oh, dear. Oh, dear. Oh, dear. Oh, dear. Oh, dear. Oh, dear. Oh, dear. Oh, dear. Oh, Rankini. No, I'm talking about someone from the Rose of Versailles. Freaking Ghirardelle. Ghirardelle. Oh, Ghirardelle. Ghirardelle. They can all hang out. No, Alain should hang out with
them. Alain and Taichi. Nah, Alain's too bro -y. No, I feel like no guy. Yeah, he's going to be like, look at this sissy man. Looks like a girl. I don't think you would say that movie alone would say that. Nope. Nope. Anyway, that's it. That's all I got to say. Anyways. Yes. But yes. So we'd love to hear more from you guys via YouTube comments, Instagram comments or DMs. Leave a comment on Spotify or most ideal would
be a written review on. the app store, which, you know, I don't know, the world values Apple's stuff. And so leave it. I don't even use Apple, but I like signed into my old Apple to leave us a review myself when we first started. So even if you just have an Apple ID thing floating around somewhere, or is that to like. Whatever. Nope. Don't talk. Stop me from talking. Um, what did we learn this episode? Um, tissues don't. Don't just sneeze on a guy and then. Disgusting.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's that's pretty good. Yeah. Yeah. Bring your own tissues. Alright. Please do. Yep. And yeah, we'll catch you guys next week. And I like. Look forward to hearing our bonus episode. No rush. Excited to hear it whenever. Yeah, it'll be coming out soon. Cool. All right. Bye.