Skip Beat! Ep 1-3: Unlock Your Hatred

Here, I got to do like a good job because this could be someone's first time listening. Right. Actually introduce us. Yeah, right. Welcome to show Joe the intro to show Joe anime. I am your host Sarah joined by my good friend Joe who I am showing show Joe to. And so we are show Joe and hello. We say, oh yeah, say hi. Hi. Yeah, that guy. This is what my voice sounds like. I know we can be hard to differentiate sometimes, but you know.

Yeah, it happens all the time when podcast hosts just sound the same. You can't tell us apart. That's true. It can happen. We don't really have that problem as much. No, at least no one's told us because they haven't written into us. That's true. It could be it could be that people just don't know and they just think we're one person. We're just so in sync. Until we get that feedback. Yeah, who knows what could be happening. You could have an impact on this podcast with your email.

You could force us to pitch up or down our voices. I just got I just started messing. I bought some vinyl records last night. I have a because I had pre-ordered the persona three portable vinyl that they had announced and then was waiting. I kept getting delayed, so I just canceled it by had already gotten a vinyl player. So I got so I used that for the first time last night and has like a little pitch thing and I did not realize what that was going to do to it. It sounds weird. I guess.

Yeah, I'm a little DJ now. I can mix it up. You mean like when you speed it up? Yeah. Well, there's the speed and then there's pitch. Are two things I can mess with on it. Okay. So I got the Eagles and guns and roses to two different records. And that's interesting. What?

Because like, I guess that yeah, I guess when we had like a turntable or whatever and had those settings that like you can speed it up and stuff like that and like realizing that like, oh, this is just how Alvin and the chipmunks was made. I totally understand how they made Alvin and the chipmunks now. It's just it's just this you just pitch it up. It's crazy. Yeah, you can just do it. You can just make any song and Alvin and the chipmunks song all of a sudden. It's crazy.

Yeah, so my speeding stuff up. Yeah, you know what? It's weird. What two nights ago I watched a little shop of horrors. The Frank Oz directed the one in the 80s, I think. I heard of it. Yeah. 1986. And I was reading about it because it's like the first time because watching with group people and I'd seen it before but only ever seen the like theatrical ending where everybody like the plant. It's like a different ending.

It's like the happier ending than the one of like the the the play and also kind of the original when they shot which is like way goofier. But I was reading about how they did the plant movement because people were like, oh, is this CG and it's like, no, this is a big puppet because it's Frank Oz and he's, you know, a puppeteer right worked with the Henson company. He's, you know, famous guy. You know who else is with the Henson company. You. My company. Yep. Sorry. Continued.

But what they did is like to make the plant look really realistic is they filmed it in like regular speed or whatever and they sped it up to make it look more fluid, which means that any scenes that had like a actor and the plan in the same scene the actor had to like slow mo move and like mouth words and everything so that when they sped it up it didn't look weird, which is why there's not that many scenes where there's people and the plant at the same time.

But it's just like very funny to like think about having Rick Moranis like slow motion dance around with this plant so they could speed it up. That's funny. It's something other than mecha anime. I don't even talk about mecha anime that much. Oh, whatever. You so do. Oh, no. You do. But yeah, we're here covering a new show today, Skip Beat and for anyone new here before we cover the episodes, they'll just catch up a little bit of what you like, Dan.

They've already been talking this long and what we still got more before we get to the good stuff. Don't you worry. I can assure you we're so entertaining. Don't worry. I'm gonna have a lot to these episodes. I wrote 3200 words summarized in this episode. So there will be a lot about skip beat.

This is this is my favorite manga ever and I'm using this as opportunity to reread it because I have like, I think I have like 49 volumes and it's like hard to retain the newer stuff like I've read the old the first half of it a lot more so I can recall it pretty well. So I like didn't have to take as many notes. But so I'll kind of chime in with some manga comparisons. Okay, go through this sense the the anime is only one season tragically.

But yeah, I guess before we get to it, anything of note going on with in the world of Joe. So I watched a mecha anime. Yeah, I watched I watched the code Geo sequel Rose of the recapture. So okay, if you don't if you don't yeah so the name is ridiculous. So if you don't know code Geo is a I guess it's a franchise that came out at this point there was original show called Lelouch of the rebellion which is where you can understand what the like naming pattern is.

It's name of something that came out in like 2007 or something. Yeah, but they did the anime thing where like they make a TV show and then they make like compilation movies of the TV show, which is like a pretty common thing that they do. But because you are shoving an entire TV show worth of content into a movie you like change stuff. And I guess those were popular because then they made another movie.

That's like a sequel movie of like the TV show, which is weird because the TV show kind of ends in like a definitive place where it's like well and now we're you know some characters are dead some characters are over here we're done. And then they made a movie where they're like just kidding we're gonna try to like shuffle everything back up and make it not done. Or they just tacked on like a whole extra set of episodes.

Oh yeah, like what I was across and they just added like eight more episodes that were like ridiculous and they walked back entire story. Yeah, yeah, they did a similar thing in this in this movie and then they're like part of this movie was like an announcement that they're going to bring this into a franchise and they're going to come out with a new show and this is the show that they came out with.

So the thing about Code Geass right is like it is a it's pretty well liked it's a you know it's it's not dissimilar from Gundam where it's like, you know they're the mechs but also it's kind of about like geopolitics and it's about like what are these different alliances and stuff like that. It's a little bit more goofy than Gundam I feel like.

And like you know the politics of it are like a little bit different it kind of comes down into a different place, but it is like for the most but you're supposed to like take this seriously as like a drama thing. Rosé the recapture is insane it does not do any of that stuff it like pretends to do that stuff and it does a terrible job it has all of the energy of the Star Wars sequel series the sequel movies did you watch those. The Disney ones.

Yeah seven eight nine, you know how like it started off being just like rehashing the like the the seventh Star Wars movie the Force Awakens is just a new hope again but like more ridiculous. This is basically just that it's just it's just rehashing the original show but like making way less sense and way more rushed and also like just kind of absurd.

It's crazy it was like insane to watch I was watching with a bunch of friends and we were just like hooping and hollering when all this stuff was happening it is like not a serious show at all it's insane to me that they brought back this series and then made this which is nothing like the original series in terms of like tone or like quality it's just so weird I mean the animation looks nice but like what's going on is like why is any of this stuff happening this is insane.

Cool so thumbs up or thumbs down. Oh it's bad I think it's bad I think it's an interesting thing to watch because it's just so wild, but I think ultimately it sucks. Good names though there's a character named it's 12 episodes it's like this is why it's like you can just blow through it it is like ridiculous and like doesn't make a lot of sense but it is goofy and like it's a spectacle like it's fun to watch. They got some good character names a guy named Ash Phoenix which is incredible.

There's some pretty good names so yeah it's you know it's goofy if you like code Geos I guess just like you can watch it sure why not it's like ridiculous. Nice. Go for it why not. Like a that sounding.

I don't like the Mexican it the Mexican it are bad I think like I don't love the Mexican code Geos normally like I like it at the beginning when the roller skating around and I don't like it near the end where they're all flying around and all the Mexican this one are like really skinny and weird and they move in weird ways and they don't feel heavy they're too floaty I don't like it. Bad Max I get these Max a like two out of five.

Hmm. This yeah dude you want to have good Max as part of your Max show I feel like this is an easy thing is an easy thing to think about right. Right. Okay. Cool. Anything else or you just. Oh yeah I mean like. Clubs and all that stuff. Oh yeah I'm still I'm still jogging on all my book clubs I started the next book of her see. We played Baldur's Gate. Yeah that's something fun that happened since last episode. So that the segment we add like our Baldur's Gate update.

Yeah. Maybe we should shoot maybe we do that instead of recommendations. We just it's like a long. We just hate recommending stuff now. No I know you're like oh what how am I going to recommend something every time but I don't know. That's true. How's everyone feel on the recommendation. I'm playing which spring are. Yeah yeah it's been recommended super well received on. Consoles now it's on those and I'm happy. That's good. Maybe they'll mean they'll make another one. It's just so cute and.

Hi Barry. She's so cute it just makes me happy playing that game. You know I'm because I'm not so picky about the game play. I also did not play on the hardest difficulty. Yes I tried to and then I stopped because it sucks. There's just unwinnable fight like you have to grind to play on the hardest difficulty. There's just unwinnable sequences I feel like. Yeah it's a very grindy game even though you told me it's not a very grindy game. Did I say that.

Yes I feel like I I mean just put it on low setting and then you don't have to grind. That's true. Which is what I did. That's what I'm doing. Cute characters and little pets you get. I've missed so many pets. And there's a Joe in it. There's black Joe is in there. I've missed so many pets that I can't get anymore because I one shot them. Oh no. So I can't get them. Dang no I've got all the little all the little critters. It's tragic. Devastate.

I mean you kind of mind control them it's little lean now. Yeah that is like. It's a little sus. Yeah she is a witch I don't know witchy. Yeah okay anyways. We'll do the borders get after we talk we'll catch you up. Yeah. Oh what have I been doing. Long pause. It's been a week. I went on a date. Okay how was that.

It was good and I had two drinks and did not feel gross today so I don't know what the maybe when I say give me the cheapest alcohol you have that like does something like maybe that matters. Oh like maybe it's bad. Yeah. Like it's worse. Yeah like maybe that's why it's gross. Yep I think that that would make sense. I had ice cream. It was good. I think I went to dog parks just I don't know I just playing friggin dragon age still and now I'm rereading skip beat so I'm excited for that.

It's my favorite series ever. Nice. Yeah I don't know I feel like I don't have anything. Oh we need to figure out what we're going to do for recording because I'll be out of town next weekend for TwitchCon. Okay yeah we'll figure that. Yeah yeah nothing too exciting on my end. I tried watching the twisters movie. Oh the sequel movie. This guy the guy who's like the hot guy not doing it for me. Like turn off. He's from Arkansas in the movie though. Wow doesn't say where in Arkansas he's from.

They just call themselves the tornado wranglers or something is like what his little posse of storm chasers is called. Oh yeah. If anybody's wondering I went to college at the University of Arkansas that's why. Yeah. Joe's one true love. Arkansas. No that's not true. No. No. Is it just like Texas with less people? I don't love Texas either. Yeah me neither. Get me out of here. Oh I mean are you going to get out of there? I feel like we're going to stay there forever. I will one day. Uh huh.

Yeah I don't know. One day I will leave this hell. But until then. But not today. No not today. So we're going to do the ballers update now or do you want to do it at the end? I say do it at the end. Okay. We've got the people waiting long enough. It's time to talk. Skippy. Talk about Skippy. Yes. Should we give an intro to Skippy for people that don't know? Like what do you mean? Like when's it like what year to come out? Oh um it came out probably like what like 2011 is that one? Alright.

I'm on it. The manga started its run in 2002. Yeah the manga is older. And it's ongoing? Yeah it's like the longest shoujo I have in my collection and it's still coming out. I mean it's probably finishing Japanese Navy but like they're so slow to release the manga. And annoyingly like as we get like the last two years I've been collecting the new ones. They're like getting skinnier and skinnier. Pissing me off. I'm gonna pay like the same price for smaller volume.

She's been doing this for 22 years. Jesus Christ. It's fine. Written by Yoshiki Nakamura. 50 volumes that's crazy. Oh man I am almost done then. And it says completed? That's how many of us are ongoing. No it says present. According to Wikipedia I'm just reading Wikipedia. End ever. The anime came out in 2008 and ran for 25 episodes. What is that I thought? It's directed by Kiyoko Sayama. Oh perfect. Let me see some other stuff. Name. A director. Did some storyboarding for Hunter Hunter?

Director, director. Directed some parts of Princess Tutu. Oh yeah maybe we'll cover that one day. I'm trying to see anything. This seems like one of their first full time director things. They were like directed episodes. Kiyoko. And the main character's name is Kiyoko. So they're like you've got the job. Directed Brave 10. I've never heard of this. It sounds maybe familiar. I haven't seen it. I haven't noticed a lot of vampire night. Oh dear god. Directed that.

We'll probably have to cover that. It's like when I remember what that is. I was like oh god. It was like off the popularity of Twilight at the time. Very dramatic. Oh my god. I don't know. Maybe it's actually good if I gave it a chance. We'll see. It's animated by Studio Hal Filmmaker. They went defunct in 2009. So right after Skippy came out. Damn it sunk the ship. It was in July. So they went defunct in July and Skippy ended on March 29th. Yikes. A couple months later. It spodes well.

But it was merged into some subsidiaries. So I think the people are still around there. They made, what did they make that we might have heard of? Boys B, they made Princess Tutu. They made Aria the animation. Trying to see if anything else I recognized. Saber, Marion and Jay. Cool. Well. So that's interesting. I don't know. None of that stuff really. I'm not recognizing. I mean, I guess like, what? Keeping it to the okays. Maybe production IG. I recognize them.

I don't really recognize these guys that much. See, I don't pay attention to this stuff at all. Dude, this, this, I feel like when you start paying attention to this stuff, it like. Makes sense. You can kind of tell how a show is going to be a little bit if you can like see who the production company is. You know what I mean? Like now everything is ran by like. Nope. You go ahead. What are you going to say?

Nope. I mean, I feel like these different, the different like production companies have their own like, I don't know. Stick. Yeah. Or like they have their own little arc to how things go. Like a lot of the show and stuff right now is being made by Mappa who like. Oh yeah. They're, I feel like their thing is season one gets big animation and everything is like very spectacle and then all subsequent seasons look like crap as they just outsource stuff to everybody else.

That seems to be their stick. I see. And like you just never know if you're going to get quality from them or it's going to be like just whatever phoned in because they take on like a thousand projects every year. Kind of a production bill kind of place. And then there's some other ones that are some other things. So yeah, I like to focus on that stuff. Hopefully if I remember, I'll start giving these introductions to these things beforehand. I'm sure this was so fascinating for everybody.

But as we watch more stuff, maybe we'll recognize some people here. People do get pretty genre because like if you look at this for other stuff, like you'll notice like, oh, this person also wrote for this thing or like something else. Yeah. Okay. This. We'll keep an eye on it. Yep. I'll say that.

I mean, I had read the manga and I was in high school and this anime came out and I remember liking it, although I feel like it's one of the ones where that like it doesn't feel like everything within the show gets the same level of polish. Like there's so many like background characters that look like shit compared to like the main characters, but I guess that was just happy bothered. But also they're kind of like kind of like when I first read the book, I was like, what is up with these dudes?

Their faces are like so skinny and it's like kind of a weird art style at first, but you get used to it and you know, they kind of, I feel like when you release a lot of shojoes, I think this happened when I was reading Yasha too, but like the arts and fruits basket, this happened with fruits basket, but like you start reading it and if it's like a longer going series, you, you notice like a lot of updates and more detail and slight changes being done to the art.

And this is definitely one of the series where they kind of eventually get like to the best version of it. But this is based off the earlier part of the show. I don't know. So I'm like, I wouldn't say the dudes are like super hot, but like the protagonist is what we're here for in this series, or at least for me. Freaking love to go. But we'll, we'll get into it. Yep. Let's get into it then. So we watched the first three episodes. Episode one is titled and the box was opened.

We open on a fairy tale-esque story of a god long ago who created a box that has many keys such that you could never open it on your own and everybody is given a box by God when they are born and it'd be transitioned of an image of a girl sleeping on the floor in a sleeping bag. And the voice says that this praiseworthy girl has a box, has a locked box within herself. Then the OP plays. I recognize this OP from when we watched all those at the beginning.

Yep. I don't have a lot of thoughts about it. I mean, I like the song. It's pretty good. Kind of corny, but you know, it's this catchy. It's pretty good. It's a lot of like chasing after, this is the one where she chases after birds and I can only think of the opening of serial experiments lane when it comes to birds. I've not heard of that. Oh, we got another bonus episode on the word. Oh dear. Just like our ring episode, our ring bonus episode went so well.

Hey, serial experiments lane has a female protagonist and you're gonna like that. Is this a game? Or an anime? An anime. I've never heard of it. Yeah, it's cool. Anyway, OP finishes and we open on a fast food restaurant where our protagonist works. Her name is Kyouko Mogami and as soon as her coworker comes into reliever, she runs off to her second job. While she is changing out of her uniform, she hears some of her coworkers talk about pop stars.

One of her coworkers is really into an actor turned musician named Shou Fuwa and has two gigantic posters of him that she got when she bought his album. Kyouko freaks out because she also bought his album but didn't get a poster and collapses on the floor in despair. Her coworkers like, oh, maybe if you bring the receipt to the store, you can get, they'll give you like any of the posters they have left over and Kyouko takes that idea and rushes off.

She rides her bike like a maniac, barreling into the store with her bike. It's very cartoony and she's just like, she like jumps onto the counter with her bike and like pins this dude to like the back of the table. Yeah. She demands a poster. The now terrified store clerk hands her the only poster they have left. She is satisfied but catches the time and realizes that she's going to be late for her second job at Daru Maya. She shows up to Daru Maya and it's like an old timey Japanese restaurant.

Her boss tells her that even if she's like a little late, she shouldn't show up like a freaked out nervous wreck like she just like ran here. And maybe she should just like take the day off. She seems kind of frazzled. But Kyouko says she can't take time off because she has to pay rent. We learned that Kyouko has moved out of Tokyo by herself after middle school and that's why she needs multiple jobs. We get a flashback to Kyouko as a little girl.

She always wanted to be a beautiful princess like in one of her stories, but later realized when she grew up that it takes a lot of money to be beautiful. But she's broke so she's got to like cut her own hair and use hand-me-down stuff that she got from her boss and also she wears like old clothes. She can't buy new ones. It's very sad. She racks her bike and sees the light on in her apartment. She thinks that he might be back.

She rushes up to go see him and it turns out that it's show in her apartment. The guy from the poster, the celebrity guy, those people were talking about. Kyouko thinks of him as her prince, but he does not seem to give a shit that she's there. She complains that her call is always good at his voicemail and he says that he's just super busy and he's not going to talk to her on the phone.

She makes tea and thinks to herself that he used to be a lot kinder, but every time she sees him he gets more and more grumpy. She thinks that's okay though. She couldn't care less what happens to her as long as he gets to live his dream. She turns to see him leaving and she chases after him and tells him that he has the kind of pudding that he likes. He says that he was there to pick up some extra clothes, but he stays to eat the pudding.

We learned that Kyouko and Show used to be friends as kids and that his family looked after her when I guess she was orphaned. No, she's not an orphaned. It seems like she's an orphan. I mean, she might as well be. Basically, it's just her mom dumped her on her neighbors to take care of her because she was busy with work, I think. Okay. That makes sense. Let's see. She tells him about her co-worker that likes him and he is very satisfied that he has fans.

Kyouko is glad that he's in a good mood again, but then he turns on the TV and sees that his rival idol is on some talk show and is instantly in a bad mood again. She tries to make him feel better, but he does not react at all. On TV, the host tells us that they conducted a poll of women in their 20s of who was the hottest guys are, and Show is ranked number 7 below this guy and also 6 other guys. Or 5 other guys.

She tries to tell him that he's only 16 and this is a poll of 20 year old, so it's like kind of outside his demographic, but he does not listen and he gets angry and leaves. Kyouko yells at the TV and curses his rival, Ren Saruga. Saruga. Saruga. It's the next day. Kyouko tries to call Show and leaves him a message telling him how much she cares about him. He goes to work, but her second job is closed today, so she decides to go see him at the studio where he works.

She'll just tell him in person. She goes there after work and sees a bunch of girls waiting around outside the agency he works at. Scary fans. Like, today I'm gonna touch Show. Yeah, like real... Yee, I know idol culture is like a big thing there, I guess. We're gonna have to talk about idol culture, this is gonna be interesting. Uh, let's see... She goes there under the guise of Show ordering fast food so she gets like lead in so she can go talk to him.

We learned that Show is the only son of a guy who owns the largest Japanese inn in Kyoto, but he didn't want to stick around and be forced to marry some nice girl and take over the inn business, and instead he wanted to go into Show Biz, so he asked Kyouko to go with him to Tokyo instead and that's why she's here. She gets into his room.

I was gonna say in the manga, there's a note that, or he says, Yeah, at the inn it's the like, proprietess, or it's like the woman who runs the show there rather than the man. He's like, I gotta be the star, I don't wanna be just the dude with some chick running the show. Oh, okay. Yeah, so a freaking ego thing. So it's like, yeah, cool. She gets to his room, but then hears him complaining to somebody about how annoying Kyouko is like around the corner.

She listens in and he says that he basically only asked Kyouko to come with him because he needed a maid, and Kyouko never says no to him, and basically she was already his maid growing up, so like it's fine. Anyway, she came over, owed a court, so it's not really his problem. We learned that he's talking to his manager, whose name is Shoko, and he is also kind of coming onto her during this entire interaction. Yeah, he like straight up sits in her lap in the manga.

He's just kind of leaning over her in this one. Sits in her lap. Which is wild, because she seems like a full ass adult and he's a 16 year old guy. Shou says that if he goes back, his parents will make him marry Kyouko, and that would suck because she doesn't even wear makeup. She's like not hot. You can't be hot without makeup. We all know that. Kyouko loses it at this comment and then baseball pitches the food right out his face, but he dodges it.

Throughout this interaction, we've been getting visuals of locks on the box that was in the fairy tale at the very beginning coming off. Like he's picking them as a little devil man. It is at this point that the box open, and it turns out the box is full of angry demons that pour out. Kyouko seems to lose it and starts doing an ojo sama laugh. Like where you... Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. Yes, you do that one and your hand is behind your mouth.

She tells him off for playing with her life and that she hates him. She hates this guy. She's basically just like fuck you for playing with my life. She says that she'll get her revenge on him. She's like I'm gonna get back at you and she was like oh yeah, how are you gonna do that? With security throwing you out as security comes to throw her out. He taunts her saying that the only way she can get revenge on him is by going into Shobiz herself and out doing him, which she'll never do.

Because security's throwing her out now, then security throws her out. We cut to the next day and we learned that Kyouko has spent 30,000 yen, which is about $230 in 2002 money, or about $400 in 2022 money on a new hair cut. That is so accurate. $400 for a new hair cut. I wonder if I have to tip there. Yeah, because like cut and color, it's colors that's gonna cost a lot. I'm guessing that cut was probably $60 and the rest of it was the color. But here you're like expected to tip on top of that.

I mean she like leaves more than it costs. That's true. It's only like $35 or something, or $25, but she leaves $30. Her hair is now like orangy blonde. And also before she was like a brunette, I think. She had like black hair, dark hair. Yeah, she had like dark. Natural. At least in this anime they acknowledge that Japanese people are born with purple hair and stuff. Like so many. She's also got a trendy new outfit as she declares that she's gonna get show as we cut the credits.

She's got them cowboy boots on. She got those boots. With the fur. She's looking hot and ready to get some revenge. Thoughts. Let me say what are your thoughts and then tell you mine immediately. Yeah, go ahead. I just, I think it's okay. This is before like the whole villainous genre is a thing and like revenge plots are very popular right now. But this like was not a thing at the time that this came out, but I really like it. I think because I'm like very much a grudge holder.

So I like so relate to Kyoko and I think she's really funny, but I want to know what your thoughts are off the bat. I like this. I like that. You know, we watched Kimi Nitori again before this which is a show about love and I feel like a lot of these shows are going to be about love and this one's also going to be about love, but I also like that it's also going to be about hate. Yeah. Fuck these guys. This guy sucks. Yeah. It's great.

So how are you perceiving the little you call them little demon things like as it shows one of them like strangling him and she like throws all her little good good to shoot angel on her shoulder. Characters like at his face. Like there's a lot of manifestation of her feeling. Yeah, it's it's like a lot more cartoony in that like cartoon visuals will show up, but then it'll also actually like literally interact with the characters like it's kind of diagetic.

That's interesting because like in community today, okay, right? It would be like a sides or like a little like somebody would be thinking a thing and it would be cartoony, but this is like, I think a thing and then that thing comes out and punches a dude or something. Yeah, but like, I think the setup is that no one can see these things. They just feel like it's still like a like, I mean, it's not literally happening, right?

Yeah, it's just interesting that that is the I mean, that's like the type of humor we're going to get is like the much more cartoony and I like I think I like that. Yeah, I think that's really fun. It does make it hard to summarize. That's like, true, because like this visual gag is happening and sometimes it actually affects the plot that this visual gag happened. Yeah, I realize that so I read I think I'm learning a lot of the stuff that I know from Japanese culture.

I don't remember if this is in all because you know how they're shown and jump. There's something called shojo beat, which is like the publisher of a lot of shows, including get beat, and they have like, and notes at the back of the book kind of explaining things that wouldn't really translate well to English. So like, we see a lot of cartoony moments where a hand is coming from her mouth, like, give me that poster I need it.

But I guess in Japan there's an expression to want something or to want so much that hand comes out of the throat and that's like, there's a lot of like calls to Japanese culture in this. The manga is interesting because it is like one of the ones there's a lot of author notes kind of scribbled in with the to kind of add additional context to moments, which I'll show a few of those examples later.

But I think this show is hilarious. We haven't really gotten into the best bits, but the manga is so freaking funny. Yeah, no, there's a lot of visual gaps, which is nice because like, and I think it's just don't or it doesn't land very well. Yeah, no, I think it's good. This is like a lot more different. Yeah, I guess I should be explaining like how we need to do. Okay. Should we explain how like like manga publishing works a little bit?

Sure, in terms of like, okay, tell me I'm ready for a story. Like the way they normally work is like a magazine will pick up a or like they have these compilation magazines, right that will contain like one chapter of, you know, 10 or something. Stories, and then they'll they'll like pick these up and like they'll do a run right so you'll have, you know, this many chapters in like a contract for a mangaka or like you know the people like the illustrator and writer.

And if they do well then they'll get renewed on like longer stuff like that and then when you have enough, and it's like your series is popular enough in this magazine, they'll print it as a volume.

And that is just like here's the first, you know, six or eight chapters or whatever, all together. And that'll also include like that usually includes some more information that's where you get like bonus stuff and things like that and you get like more explicit author commentary and stuff like that too. Yeah, I had.

I think I got like discontinued in English but yeah, because but it's also like, oh, I feel like this is a spoiler for certain ones where because it's like ongoing so it's not like all of them are the first chapter so you have to like read the previous ones to and then there's like the version but but yeah, I know if if you want to know more watch. What's that what's that anime called about make being a manga artist. There's a lot of them. Which one are you talking about? It's like the first.

What is it called? It starts with the D. D. It's something. Bakumon, no not Bakuman, I think it's called. Bakuman? Bakuman. No. Okay. I don't know what you're talking about. You do or don't. I don't I don't know what you're talking about. What is this? I think it's called that. Okay. Yeah, there are stories about manga making manga. That's actually not that uncommon. Kind of like how a lot of people make movies like a lot of directors make movies about making movies.

Yeah, just to like high schoolers who like combine forces because some manga are both written and pen or like illustrated by an individual and then others is like a partnership of one person doing the art and another doing the story. Yeah. But yeah. And there are like contests and stuff so like you can like get notoriety by winning contests and then that can land you a subscription or like a slot in one of these magazines anyway.

Anyway, I was just saying because you were talking about like which which magazine it was originally published and stuff like that. You know genre literature also kind of used to work like this is my understanding. Like you publish short stories and then you could combine short stories and like fix up novels. All right, so episode two. Oh, do we have more things to say about episode one?

I was gonna say like how freaking 30 shades of gray was like a fanfiction for Twilight and then it turned it up at this. Did you say 30 shades of gray? 20 shades. What's it called? 50 shades. Fewer. Fewer shades of gray. There's only six. Six shades of gray. 50 shades of gray. Yes, it is 50 shades of gray. Yeah, that was a fanfic. Oh, God. It's a little different. Okay, episode two. Episode two is called The Feast of Horror. We opened on Kyoko Summarizing last episode.

Yeah, these titles, like we don't really ever revisit the box thing in any of these other episodes. Like guess that is like, is that like a reference to some like myth or something? Maybe. I feel like it is. Basically, I think it's just because it does not come up again. It's a set up of how she was so lovely and then turned into the grudge person. It's so funny to me that the reveal is that like, oh yeah, you open this box bestowed on you by God and it's like, how to be angry?

It's like rage inside the box. No, it's not like the manga like kind of occasionally touches on that concept more, but I don't remember if the anime does. Okay, it was just funny being like, God gave you the rage box that makes you pissed off when it gets opened. You can't open it yourself, you can only be opened by other people who suck. Episode 2 is called the Feast of Horror. We opened on Kyoko Summarizing last episode.

She says it's been five days since her confrontation with Shou and since then she's moved to live at Daru Maya, the place where she works. She lives upstairs. She sets out in the morning to get a full-time job because she only works in the evenings. We learned that she says she's looking for a job to her boss and her landlords now, but really she's just trying to get scouted by a talent agency, so she kind of just hangs out where she thinks scouts might be.

She goes into a long monologue out loud about how she's going to get her revenge on Shou and everybody's like, who's this weird girl saying stuff? And she's like, I'm going to become more popular and famous than him. Yeah, she kind of has a lot. She's a little delulu sometimes as they say these days. Oh yeah, she seems real unhinged in this episode. We cut to Shou, who's not worried that's going to happen at all. His agent's like, are you worried that's going to happen?

He's like, no, that's stupid. We go back to Kyoko. She goes to the LME agency's front office and asks to talk with someone, because this is an agency that is highly acclaimed. The receptionist asks if she has an appointment because it's not like you could just show up and talk to anyone and she's like, no, but like you should just let me talk to somebody. She fights with the receptionist and then a man named Mr. Sawara comes to see what's going on and he decides that he'll meet with Kyoko.

They go and sit down and get coffee. He asks what section she's interested in joining. She doesn't know what that is and he explains that the sections at their agency are singer, actor, and TV personality. So the kind of like two or the three career routes you can go. Kyoko says that she doesn't really think that she'd be good at any of those and Sawara gets annoyed and accuses her of just wanting to join so she can meet Ren Saruga.

He tries to throw her out, but she insists that she didn't even know Ren worked here. Just then, who should pass by? But Ren himself, he's like, what's going on? And Kyoko is dismayed that she'd have to work with him if she got accepted here because she doesn't like him. But then she thinks to herself that the only reason that she didn't like him is that he was Shou's rival, but now that she hates Shou, there really isn't a reason to dislike this guy. So maybe he's cool.

While she's doing this, Mr. Sawara fills Ren in on the situation and Ren goes and tells Kyoko that it's very interesting that she wants to join their agency, even though she doesn't really want to do any of the jobs. Then he throws her out and tells her not to come back. And then she's like, I really do hate you. Yeah, she decides that she actually does hate Ren. Great. Give her a reason to have sex.

I mean, he has like a very normal reaction where he's just like, oh, you want to join our business even though you don't want to do anything? That's stupid, leave. Everyone goes about their business. After a while, Sawara and Ren notice that Kyoko has just been sitting out there on the sidewalk in front of the agency for like the entire day.

Kyoko wonders if she should try a different agency, but then decides that the only way to beat Shou would be to go to one of the top tier agencies, so she should just stick it out here. The workday ends and Mr. Sawara leaves the office. He notices that Kyoko's gone and thinks that he's in the clear, but then she ambushes him outside. We learned that he's the chief of the TV talent section. He's 41 years old.

His full name is Takenori Sawara, and his blood type is AB because I guess Kyoko has been like... Researched. ...sci-off. Yeah, researching this guy. She begged him to let her work in the TV department, but he says no and then gets in a cab. She follows the cab on her bike and then follows him home and he goes home to his family and she keeps harassing him all day. She does this for four days until he finally gives in and schedules her for an audition.

He explains to her that she'll need to pass the audition in order to like work at the agency because obviously. Kyoko's fine with that, and Sawara thinks that she isn't taking this seriously. She like doesn't understand that this is gonna be difficult. Kyoko is jazzed for her audition, even though she doesn't like have anything to prepare. She's like, why I don't even know what I'm gonna do. She runs into Ren in the hallway and he's like, oh, it's you again. Are you actually gonna audition?

And he tells her that it's a waste of time for her to audition because it's hard for people who actually like Shobiz to like break into the industry. And she doesn't even like it all that much, so she's definitely not gonna make it. She tells him that she needs to get into Shobiz so that she can get revenge on Shofua. Ren doesn't know who that is. He has to look him up on his phone and he's like, oh, it's that guy?

Yeah, actually, like it wouldn't be that hard for you to beat that guy because that guy sucks. But anyway, it's not gonna happen here because you're not gonna pass the audition, which like it's pretty hard. Like you're not just gonna pass it. Having, you know, determination is only gonna get you so far. Back at home, Kyoko tries to prepare for her audition. She remembers Ren taunting her and thinks to herself that she'll add him to the list of guys she needs to defeat. It's the next day.

I was gonna say, is this the part where she has the posters on the wall? Yes. And then she in the manga, there's a note saying that the size, because it's like a big giant poster show and then a little one of Ren and the author note is like the size of the poster represents like the size of the crotch she has against them. Oh, yeah. Like how much you hate this guy. Yeah. It's very funny that she's just like, you know what, I'm just gonna be fueled by rage. I'm gonna add more people to the pile.

It's the next day and she shows up to the audition. She thinks that there's a lot of pretty girls here and instantly gets dismayed because her hair and her clothes were like, what she had banked on. And she decides that this must be a curse cast on her by show who wants her to fail and starts to fashion a cursed doll to get back at him. In the waiting room, some woman gets angry that there's a little girl here who's also auditioning because being around kids breaks her concentration.

Then she notices Kyoko poking a needle at a doll and she yells at her for doing needlework while waiting for such an important audition. And then she just like storms off. She's like, I hate you guys. I'm leaving. A little girl starts crying as comforted by the other women, but Kyoko is like, seriously kid, I can see through your crocodile tears. I've cried as a little kid before. I know you're faking it. Unprompted. She hates this kid.

Well, she says what you think just because a woman or child can cry that that will help them and it seems to have a big impact on this child. And this kid's like, dang, she got it. She got it in one. I got read in the audition room. Mr. Sawara looks at Kyoko's application and thinks to himself that she would immediately get rejected if he didn't invite her himself. Because her attached picture is her scowling instead of smiling.

Yeah. And in the manga, the author says that she basically was using a disposable camera and they kept being blurry and so she was getting frustrated as she was taking him. And so that was like, that turned out okay. Hell yeah. The audition starts and all of the women are introduced to the judges, which are just like the various heads of the different sections. So like the acting and singing and TV. The president is missing though and Kyoko wonders where he is.

Just then, sparklers shoot up from the stage and like Samba dancers show up with their animated kind of weird and they start dancing as the president dances out dressed in a like sombrero and a cloak. He introduces himself as Laurie Takarada and everybody thinks his performance was lame. Yeah, he's quite the character. It's very weird. Elsewhere, Ren is thinking about the audition and whether or not Kyoko will bomb.

All of the women show off their talents, which include things like tap dancing and playing guitar and baton twirling, etc. We learned that the women who got mad at everybody in the waiting room's talent is to memorize scripts really quickly and perfectly. So like she's like read through it and they're like, what's on page 210? She's like this. They're like, wow. Which like it doesn't really seem. I guess that's useful.

But like, I mean, she's basically just showing off another talent of acting, which seems like very funny that it's like we have three departments, which is like singing TV. And acting. But then like the talents people have are like tap dancing and doing like a ribbon gymnastics thing. Like this is like a weird. Yeah, it's like everybody like America's got talent going on. I mean, I guess this is before they had, I mean, it was a popular right because it came out 2002. Yeah. Right.

There's a very variety show strong culture in Japan. Right. And they just kind of do goofy stuff or random ass stuff. So maybe it's just like, what can you offer? Yeah, I mean, it's just interesting that it's like, it's not like you try out for all departments at once, which is kind of weird. Yeah, is peculiar. Yeah. Then we learned that Kyoko's audition at that like when she's introducing herself, she told everybody that her motivation is to catch up with show.

It's like what she said, not get revenge to catch up with. And I think that's going to make her fail for sure because like you can't just say you want to be as popular as somebody else. Kyoko is going last in the talent competition and Sawara feels like an idiot for recommending her.

But President Takarata thinks it's interesting that she's trying out for the agency that their agency instead of shows because he's like, well, if she just wants to get close to show, she would have gone to his agency, right? But she's going to this one, which means she doesn't actually want to like interact with this guy. She just wants to be as good as him. That's weird.

Kyoko comes out for her talent section, carrying a daikon radish and a knife because she's decided to do something unique as we cut the credits. So yeah, this is a weird audition. Like the premise of being like we only going to have these like we're selecting out of the same pool, even though these are all different departments. It's kind of odd, like are they only trying out for one of the departments, but it's just like everybody's here to like rate them?

Yeah, I guess maybe it's like better to apply for all with a better chance of getting into at least one. Because they kind of the judges are like, oh yeah, we really like this girl. I think she'll be good for our department. Yeah, it's just like weird because it seems like it seems like you'd want to have like, oh, well this person like you got accepted into the like the singing one, right?

You got accepted into the but they kind of make it sound like everybody's in competition with everyone else. Like next episode, the like angry woman is like taunting Kyoko even though she's clearly in the acting one and it feels like Kyoko is going to be in the TV one. Yeah. So it doesn't even seem like it matches. Yeah, it's just a little weird. I mean, there's a lot of research on how this works in Japan. I mean, and also the time, but I feel like now it's just influence is what.

Well, now it's like, right, this is like totally supplanted by like what influencer culture has gone with like social media and stuff like that. Like this is where like nowadays, you just show up and be like, here's the number of followers I have on this thing and then they'd either like, let you in or not, like, I don't even know if they would have a try out thing anymore. And then you bring your own audience because that's just like how things have shifted so much.

And like for actual idols, like I know that like Kpop, right, they have different like schools you go to and like train to be and stuff and they like form teams out of people. Based on. Yeah, it seems really bad. It's like it seems like a totally exploitative. Yeah, I think there's a documentary about it or something. But yeah, it's wild. I don't know if it's. Ringo turned out OK, but we don't know about the rest of these. Yeah, but that was in the pack.

I feel like the things have really changed because I feel like it used to be more like this, right where it's like it's almost like an American Idol type. Oh, yeah, yeah, it's just like not on TV. It's just like, hey, can you show up and come to this audition and like do well? Yeah, OK, you're in cool. Yeah, and now it's gotten like way another series called full moon, which is like kind of a I think we watched the opening, but where she's trying to be a singer.

And yeah, she just showed up for like open call addition and and just like a room like a random room with a panel of people. So like a job interview almost is weird. Like if they're super intense like that too, where it's like a bunch of people versus the one applicant. Yeah, I mean, it feels like you could still like that still does happen maybe, but it feels also much more like well all the top agencies or whatever.

People from like social media because they already have following so it's like not a risk. Yeah, crazy. We're gonna have I feel like this covering the series is going to be a lot about what do we feel about a celebrity culture and influence there is and like all that stuff about like how this industry is run, not knowing that much stuff about it. Maybe we'll have to learn about it.

We're familiar with our like Western but I mean, I'm not as familiar with like Japanese perception of because I feel like it might be like oh, don't waste your time on such a frivolous thing, you know, like following an idol and blah blah blah.

And I feel like that's what the weirdo dude does. He just like goes to idol meetups to shake their hand. And so it's kind of a strange subsection of the population that's into it but I guess the younger one and they're about to have a population crash so this is all about to be the forefront. Once the people who aren't into it are gone. Yeah, it's also just kind of weird that it's like very it's much more like corporate controlled I feel like.

I mean, from what I understand about music industry stuff it's like you know you can hop around different like recording labels and like people start their own recording labels and they're like different kinds of it's more like people operate as like free agents and feels like where this is like you're like may or break with your company and if your company decides that you're done you're kind of just done. Yeah, which is weird. I don't know. Well, we'll figure it out as we go along.

Yep. Episode three is called the emotion she lacks. We jump back into the audition. Kyoko is nervous because she hasn't done this in a while. We learned that this knife that she has is the chef's knife that her boss, her boss, Taishou uses at Daru Maya and that he loaned it to her for this audition. And she thinks to herself that with this knife there's no way she can fail.

She introduces herself and says that she is going to make a rose out of a daikon and everybody is surprised and confused because this is like not the type of thing you do at this audition. Kyoko very intensely starts carving up the daikon. We get a flashback where Kyoko tells us that she learned to cook at a young age so that she could be useful to Shou's family while she was staying with them. The training montage. The training montage.

She thinly peels the radish and then like organizes the layers of the peel to like look like a rose like if you kind of like layered them on top of each other. But she messed it up and it kind of ends up looking like more like a cabbage than a rose and she's all bummed out about that but the judges all seem impressed and applaud her. So Laura gives her a thumbs up.

Apparently this is like all only master chefs are able to do this skill so it's like I guess well known enough that everyone's like whoa this girl's talented. Yeah. And also it seems like the the president is like a weird eccentric guy so he kind of likes weird eccentric stuff. Yeah. So that kind of plays to him also. Yeah that's true. This is where I'm like this is the most like X factor or whatever kind of thing about this right where it's like you show up and do some weird talent.

Yeah. Kyoko thinks about all the support she's gotten from the adults in her life like Shou's parents who motivated her to learn how to cook or her boss at Daruyama who lent her the knife. That's it though. Those are the only four people. She's riding high on her presumed victory. All the contestants filter back in for another round.

The angry woman congratulates Kyoko on her outlandish audition but tells her that she's just a spectacle and doesn't actually fit into the talent and the talent agency. But she does serve as a nice contrast for her. So like I don't know keeping up I guess. Yeah she has a good line in the manga where she says you stand out. But that's because you don't belong here. Yeah. Kyoko hates this woman. Everyone. It's so good. I love the change. It's a ball of rage. It's so good.

The next round is a reaction test where each contestant is handed a phone and they have to react to the voice on the other end of it. Kyoko is sitting next to the angry woman and is pissed about having to sit next to her because she does not like her. The angry woman tells her that this is the part of the audition that's the most difficult because every year the president comes up with like a new thing so you kind of can't really prepare for it. And that's why it's the most difficult round.

It's the angry woman's turn and instead of responding to like every you know because most people are going and they like get the phone and they kind of respond after the voice says something. But the angry woman does not respond after the voice says something she just changes her facial expressions to reflect what she's feeling and then at the very end of the phone call she starts crying. The judges are all impressed that she can cry on command. Good stuff. Then it's Kyoko's turn.

She puts the phone up to her ear and hears that it is a voice of a man who says that he was a fool for leaving her. The voice says that he tried to date other women and they all rejected him saying that he was too willful, selfish and overconfident. Kyoko imagines that this is basically what show what show is and like this would be like if he was talking to her.

The voice continues saying that it's that he's realized how how much she truly cared for him and how she was the only one for him from the start. And if they could could they start over as Kyoko has been listening to this she is radiating with anger like shaking physically. Everybody is like kind of nervous after seeing this but she gets her composure together and says very sweetly that she's so happy and that she knew that he'd say that and come back one day.

So are in the president seem impressed. But then she keeps talking and then she says psych and she says if an apology could solve everything there'd be no need for hell and then she smashes the phone on the ground which is which rules it's so good. There would be no need for hell. Awesome. She's got real good one-liners. She snaps out of it and apologizes for breaking the phone but she sees the president looking sad and thinks that she totally beefed it.

The results for the first round are posted. Yeah she messed it up. She screwed it up. The results for the first round are posted and Kyoko does not seem her name on it. They're angry woman taunts her and Kyoko says that she must figure out why she failed so she goes to see Soara. He was expecting that she would come and see him so they get coffee.

He says that the president and the head of the acting department gave her high marks but she got rejected because she clearly does not like love her audience. She's not good with love and he's like what does love mean to you and she says that it's a prelude to despair and destruction. Soara is like yeah there it is. He says that the president's philosophy is that a celebrity must love their audience and want to be loved by them to succeed.

We get a flashback of Shou's mother telling her as a little girl that she has to always smile for the customers at the inn so that they feel welcomed and that they will come to love their inn. Kyoko tells Soara that she understands and she asks them how it's possible to love a group of people that you don't even know.

He deflects and says that you have to want to be loved by them or like being a celebrity just kind of doesn't work. She says that she used to feel that but now her desire to love somebody has completely left her and then she leaves. Soara thinks to himself that that was weird. Then he gets poked in the face by the little girl from last episode. She asks him what's happening to Kyoko and Soara wonders if it's okay that he just like sent her off like that.

Kyoko goes back home depressed. Taishou, her boss, slash landlord and his wife are a little worried for her. Taishou is like the, it's not his name, it's like the master of the kitchen or something. And then she goes back home depressed and says that she's not going to be loved by her boss. Kyoko says that she never really served her customers with love before.

And she's been reserving all of her love for show but then he went and ruined it. She thinks that there's nothing more useless in this world than loving somebody and then starts to cry. Later that night President Laurie is looking over Kyoko's application. He says that she really is different than the other applicants and he's curious what she'd be like on TV.

But then he looks at her application and her favorite word is vengeance and she also kind of just radiates hatred so she might just flop immediately. But she does seem to have potential, you know? It's morning and Kyoko thinks that last night was the first time she cried in a while. She used to cry all the time as a kid because she thought someone would help her if she did.

And then she remembers about a magical stone she has that she got when she was a kid that always made her feel better when she looked at it. She gets it out and looks at it. She resolves to figure stuff out so that she can one day laugh again. She tells Boss and Boss's wife, which I guess is also her boss, she tells her bosses that she's giving up on being a celebrity and Chef Boss is displeased saying that he's disappointed that she'd give up so easily.

Elsewhere President Laurie tells Sawara to call Kyoko back. He's like, get her back here. He thinks that she has potential to become great if she can come back with enthusiasm because maybe they can like train her up and just like, you know, fix that flaw. And if they do, maybe she'll be great. Also, that little girl is there in the room with them so I guess she's already important.

So Sawara thinks to himself that she'll definitely come back because she'd never give up after one setback as we cut to credits. I forgot to point out in episode two when she's in the room with like being all angry at Ren and show that her bosses are like on the floor below her and they just hear her like maniacally laughing in her room by herself and they're like, what the hell's going on up there with him? Yeah. Very funny. Yeah. What do we think so far?

I like it. I think it's good. I like that she's such a little weirdo. Yeah, she is. And like most of her motivation is just like, I just fucking hate these guys. These are a list of people I hate. I think they suck. And I'm just gonna do some weird stuff. What am I good at? Cutting up this radish, doing some like pro chef things. That's pretty good. Getting angry and spiking the phone. That's good. I think that's great. Yeah. What did you think?

Yeah, I love Kyoko. She's so entertaining. Well, because we kind of see in episode one when she's trying to console show when he sees Ren on the TV that she already has it in her to like kind of make up these wild stories to justify things.

Like to like soothe his ego, but now she's just doing it to kind of like build up on the rage that she has, like, you know, feeling the soak in the fire and imagining all these scenarios like, oh, it's all shows fault because I only learned how to do this because I was trying to impress his parents. I just like that she just like fixates and like it's all his fault. Yeah, right. It always becomes about her revenge blood.

Okay. What do you think about the whole like, oh, you're going to be a bad celebrity because you need to be you need to want to be you need to love your audience and want to be loved by them. You have to you have to make the customer feel you have to always smile and customer service. I mean, you know, the customer is always right. I think it's a cultural thing, right? Like Japan is very much not about the individual but about society.

So it's like not it's most important that what you're doing is for like the greater population and not just for your own selfish desires. Kind of. So I feel like being a celebrity there's just, I don't know, like there's national pride or something like it's not because that individual or like openly, they're not openly being like I just want to be famous because I want to be rich and blah, blah, blah.

Yeah, like they got played off like, oh, I'm just, you know, I just love singing and happy to bring it to all my fans stuff like that. Yeah, it's just interesting to watch like to see this because I feel like, well, I guess here right we kind of had like a cultural backlash a little bit from that being like, you know, the customers always right thing where it's like now just like a bunch of fucking

Karen's like the customers are dumb ass. You know what I mean? Like that's kind of the like that's still like kind of the expectation for service jobs. You have to do that. But everybody understands that it's stupid and a lot of the time customers are stupid. Yes, and dumb. So it's it also makes me think that like, you know, Kyoko is trying to become a celebrity, but really what she should do is join like a punk band. You know what I mean? She would fit in so good. Uh huh.

That's like, depending on others when she's trying to extract her. That's true. Yeah, you can't you can't do a social like a solo act on that. But like, oh yeah, being like a like a lead singer that like hates you. That's like totally like a punk band thing. You know what I mean? She could easily make it big on that. Yeah. Uh, it's punk, widely popular in Japan. Yeah, I think so.

Yeah. Also, she's like, I'm assuming or we'll probably find out but right her whole life has been catering to show so it's not like she's probably had time to establish friendships with people. So she probably does not have many folks to rely on. Oh yeah. Yeah. No, I know. I'm just saying that like I can imagine this this storyline again, but like she doesn't think like if she was a punk band, it would not matter that she does not love her audience. You know what I mean? Like they be into that.

But it's funny to be like your problem is that you just don't love the audience and she's like, well, how am I supposed to love people? I don't even know. And it's like, hmm, are we going to talk about parasocial relationships here? We have to have some thoughts about some parasocial relationships. That's good. So having hope. Rubbing my hands together. We'll see. Who's your favorite character so far? Coco. She's crazy. He's great. At least favorite show. He sucks.

Yeah, he's like not really in it that much. I feel like he is just like the guy who sucks. So like, of course. Yeah. The little girl's name is Maria. We hear Mr. Sawa. Sawa. Sawa. Sawa. He's so certain. He calls her Maria. Okay. I feel like you might like the president because he's also insane. We just haven't seen that much of him yet. Okay. Yeah, he's goofy. Yeah, my biggest criticism is that they need to like tell me people's names.

I keep having to call that one chick the angry woman because she doesn't have a name yet. I think they, because they like call her up on stage. So they probably said her name. Her name is Kane something. But yeah, well, she's in the opening. So we know we'll learn more about her. Yeah, she's important. I know like they're important characters. We just haven't learned their names yet. It's just like, oh, it's that guy, which is bad for me making a summary.

Yeah, I know. I feel like there is so many. Visual gags in this. I do now feel bad about. Maybe we should have done two episodes instead of three. But it's fine. I'm going to keep up with the manga recap. It's easier because three three episodes makes up one volume. So that way it's easier for me to know what to mention in our recaps here. Yeah, I think it's great when she spikes the phone. I think it's good.

I think she should have her be angry. Like they're always being like, oh, she doesn't love the audience. This is bad. I'm like, I think it's good. Now you have some variety in your like, like celebrity lineup. I don't know. I feel like back then and in Japan, like, oh, a angry woman can't have that. Oh, yeah. You're right. This does kind of feel a little bit ahead of its time. We're like, I feel like we're going to be in a good mood. This does feel like you're pretty good.

But yeah, you're totally right because audiences are pathetic cowards. Yeah. So I guess I mean, out of our protagonists so far, Masaki's definitely my least favorite. And Kyoko is my favorite. Yeah. Has your moments too. But yeah, this really, this is just my favorite manga ever. I just love it so much. How come you're not more like this? Are you just like seething with anger? I think it's because I don't put myself in situations in which I could see someone betraying me to make this happen.

Because I do hold grudges like I don't really forgive. I definitely forget. Okay. Like don't cross me, man, or I'll just cut you loose, which is yeah. That's good. No, I mean, clearly, I should probably be able to forgive. I don't know. I'm just like, yeah, so I relate to her so much. I just, yeah, don't put myself in social situations in which I would possibly have this happen to me. And I would suck her. I mean, she, it's not like she was set up for success socially.

Like obviously her mom like kind of was very distant and cold to her. So show and his family are like the only people she's had to rely on. So I can see it being like, oh, I owe them a lot. So I'm just going to be blind to his faults because these are the only people in my life. Yeah, the child levels are off the charts with her. Or it's like, because at the beginning I'm like, you're like, you should be in high school, but you just have a bunch of jobs.

Oh, no, your whole life is you just having jobs because people just dumped you off. Well, apparently, I guess high school is in compulsory in Japan. Like so you can just work after graduating middle school. It's just not very common. But yeah, she's having a hustle to pay for this apartment that he doesn't even go to. Oh, yeah, it's so funny for her to be like, I guess I never did like, like love my customers. It's like, dude, you worked at a fucking Wendy's.

Of course you didn't love your customers. What nobody loves their customers and fast food. Come on. Yes. Now, for real. Yeah, we've got more characters to meet. Yeah, it's I feel like quite a journey. Like this is a very dynamic character where we get to have as the protagonist here. That's good. I don't want her to be to become soft. That's what I don't want to happen. I want her to be kind of pissed off all the time. Yeah. I like I want to stand out. You know what I mean? I like that.

I like that she's just like, well, fuck you, dude, you suck. Yes, I know. I just, I love it. We do, we did see a glimpse of like, oh, show, why are you hanging out with your adult ass manager lady? Yeah, weird. There is like often commentary within the series on like these young teenage or these teenagers interacting with adults a lot and kind of like that power balance kind of thing. Yeah. So that'll be, I don't remember. I don't remember what part of the plot that this ends on.

I actually, maybe I do remember a little bit, but so we get like a decent amount of stuff because we kind of just jump right into it. These next couple episodes are going to be breakneck pace. No, but like a different setting. That is the fun thing about a show about show business is if you work on different projects and there's like different stylings and so we get to see characters look a bunch of different ways because they're performing as different things.

So lots of different outfits and hair and stuff like that. Yeah. Skip beat. All right, let's see it. I'm sure we'll have lots of thoughts about industries and celebrity culture and parasocial relationships and things like that and also like how are women allowed to be celebrities? What are the expectations for her or for them as opposed to how guys can act? Yeah, for sure. Yeah. So that's our coverage of episodes one through three.

We'll cover the next three next time and today instead of recommendations, we're going to do our Baldur's Gate three. We're not also going to do recommendations. Are we also? Okay, fine. I don't know yet. Well, we can do the Baldur's Gate. So we're playing Baldur's Gate three. If you don't know what this is. I don't know if I do. It's a game by Larry in studios came out in what 2020 early access started in 2020 and then October of 2023 is when it released officially.

Yeah, it's a game that plays like D&D or Pathfinder or one of those, right? Where like you do you have to make checks for things and you roll dice and that kind of stuff. And you know, there's a lot of dialogue options and stuff like that. You can interact with people a lot of different ways, that kind of thing. We're in a party. I'm playing a bard. You're playing a monk. Yeah, you're Cliff Clifton is what my character Clifton who is a bard. I am trying to, I like gambling.

I try to talk my way out of stuff. I'm all about buffing. My party member is whenever that happens, which we haven't had that many fights yet. No, not yet. But that will be what I do. I play as a dwarf monk named Yamir. And I normally play a very charismatic persuasive character, but that is not my character. And we are finding that out rather quickly that I should not do any talking. Yeah, just go blow it and get thrown in jail. Yeah, you're now a fugitive because you're bad at talking.

Yeah. So this is a different way to play the game than I would by myself, which is like the benefit of trying it with a friend where it's like out of my control how everything goes. So I'll get to play it in a new way. She'll make it more replayable. Yeah, I'm trying to role play. I'm trying to be a little bit temperamental. Some people are mean to me and I'm like, I don't know if I should like, yeah, be cool with you or not.

We had a bad basically start on this big ship by mind flayers and you get this gross thing put in your parasite from them put in your brain that is supposed to turn you into one of them and that's how they kind of like reproduces by inhabiting other people and turning them into one of them, but we aren't for some reason.

So that's like a big mystery that we're going to be trying to determine the cause of because we us and then our party members are all affected with the parasite and we the big forces is all to work together. Yeah, the ship crashes. We kind of like the people we meet are scattered around the crash site and yeah, they're all begrudgingly working with us. No one like will and is like the least abrasive party members so far.

Like yeah, it's because he's sherry jolly, but wait, will will will the guy with the weird eyeball who is trying to you think he's the he's the the most like a guy. I feel like Gail is the most like chill guy we got. That's true. I feel like well you actually you didn't. He's a wizard and if you're not a wizard, he kind of can talk down to you like you're an idiot because you don't understand this level.

But I think that the dialogue to choice you picked or something did not really demonstrate that so he's pretty well he talks down to you because you're bad at talking. I'm talking so he doesn't do that. Okay. Yeah, okay. Will and Gail are the two that are more chill but freaking laser a star in a shout out heart are all pretty grumpy. You know with reason, I would say now they're grumpy. I try to tell them to chill all the time and they never want to.

They're like, why are you telling me to chill and I'm like, all right, geez. I know. Let's see what's been your favorite character interaction so far like when laser was making that tiefling bow to her when she said teeth wing. Oh, laser doesn't know shit about anything and then she's just like she just showed up here because it's like her first like international travel visit and I got to explain to her like how to pronounce the things and also like how people interact. Very funny.

I'm like, oh, you don't know what's going on. Listen to me. I'm a bard. I'll tell you what's going on. It's pretty good. I'm a bard who can't freaking pass the check to make us some coin with your performance. I didn't make us. I did it twice. Five coins. Yeah, well, it's because we're hanging out with the like refugees. We don't have that much money. Yeah, that's true. Yeah, the druids who suck. I don't like the druids. We have a problem with children in our campaign.

I know you have a problem with children. The children love me. No, you started this and I'm suffering the consequences. There's the game does kind of like as as much as it's like you have all these options. It still kind of does the mass effect. Well, you can either be a goody goody two shoes good guy or you could just be an evil mustash twirling villain. And I agree that grades me a little bit. You're basing that off one scenario in particular that then just kind of snowballed into.

Moll hating us and throwing me and getting me kind of. Yeah, so basically what happens is like there's like you roll up on this guy and he's like this kid stole my am I know he's like, hey, kid, you stole my amulet. The kids like I and steal your amulet and I look at this kid. I'm like this kid definitely stole that guy's amulet. And it's like I can either intervene or I can. Because the guy is like if you don't give it back on this like I'm a smack you or something. Yeah, I'm a smack you kid.

And the kids like I don't have it and I'm like and it's like you can intervene and stop him from hitting that kid or you can like. Help him hit the kid. I don't know what the other option was, but I just kind of sat there. I'm like, let's just see how this plays out and he he smacks the kids so hard the amulet falls out of him. Like it's like it's like it's like it's like it's very funny. And then the kids like.

It like runs off or whatever and then some guards like what's going on here and I'm like, I don't know man. I'm just I'm just hanging out and then later on the kid like there's like a gang of kids who steal stuff and they're like you let Bobby get hit by that guy. And I'm like I didn't hit that kid. I just stood there. I don't know what's going on and they're like we're going to tell the guards that you're like bullying us and I'm like, yeah, whatever kid.

I just like saved you guys from like a goblin raid. There's no way they would believe you. And then we came back. Yeah, we saved a kid from a heart. I saved another kid from the Druids. I'm saving kids left and right. And yet we still go back to camp and this guy's like, oh, these kids said you were bullying them. We're going to take you to jail and they said that to you. But you failed it.

You failed a speech check and then you went to jail and I'm like these guys are putting you in jail for bullying kids based on their word alone. I saved these kids. I saved that kid over there. Why are you putting me in jail? It's stupid. So I think these guys are kind of dumb as bricks a little bit. Like I think they're kind of stupid. Maybe if we were a tiefling, they would have been more open minded. Oh, cool. So they're racist. That's fun. I just say right.

You'll see race is like it's just like it's so funny to me that like we live like the setting of Baldur's Gate is like a medieval fantasy thing, right? Where it's like people are getting sold into slavery or whatever and there's like mind players, but it's like somebody hits a slap the kid for stealing something and it's like, oh, that's too far. It's like what? Yeah, you know what I mean? I just think it's funny. I barely played it.

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, like, you know, that's too far in terms of like modern standards. But like if something's set in that time period, I feel like nobody would care. Yeah, well, I guess it's easier to write scenarios based off what we know humanoid. Oh, no, it's fine. If they did stuff like this is Game of Thrones and people acting like they like were in that era. This game would suck because people in that era suck. And I wouldn't like any of them. So it's good.

I just think it's funny to be like, oh, okay, I let a guy, I let this guy smack a kid and all of a sudden I'm the bad guy. The kids stole that amulet. That kid did it. Yeah, I know you got pickpocketed by another one of those kids. Yeah, it's funny because after that conversation, like, oh, you'll get him next time, kid. And he was mad at me and I'm like, all right, man, whatever. And then we met another bard, Volo. Yeah, you guys had like matching hats. It was cute. We base.

Yeah. So we've talked to the Kaga. Who's like taking over the druid grove with the absence of the normal. Are people in the audience going to have any other idea? I don't know. Yeah, basically, what's going on right now is that we got three different factions, right? We got there's these tieflings who are like refugees because the place they live.

They're trying to go to Balder's gate, but they can't make it because they're like out of supplies and they're like living in this forest where these druids live and these druids are like, we hate these guys live in here. We're also getting attacked by goblins. We're going to cast, you know, in our leader or glorious leader who makes good decisions has been captured by goblins.

Now we have the stupid leader that everybody hates who's making bad decisions and they're going to cast a spell to like seal off the grove so they can be isolationist forever. And then we have the goblin faction who have all like adopted some new God and they're just like, we're going to kill everybody. We're going to sacrifice them all to this new God. And I'm like, that's basically it. We haven't talked to the goblins yet. Maybe we should align with the goblins.

I'd be down just to see how that goes. I'm thinking like maybe we should. Maybe, you know, I'm thinking about it because the druids suck that you show up to the druids. Druids are like, they like me because I'm like half elf or whatever. So they're like, oh, I can kind of trust this guy and they're like, hey, go chase all of the tieflings out for me.

And I'm like, yeah, I'm not going to do that, but I'll tell you I'm going to do that because I just tell people what they want to hear and then do whatever I want. And then I like went to get healed by somebody else. Yeah, and she's like, oh, I can, yeah, I'll try to heal you. And then it said she poisons me. She's like, dude, there's no way to heal you. I think you should just die. And then I have to speech check my way out of that.

And then she's like, okay, but like, if you ever feel like you're going to become a mind flayer, drink this potion that'll kill you. And I'm like, yeah, Nettie, I'm sure going to do that. And I'm like, am I going to do that? Fuck you, Nettie. Idiot. So I don't like the druids. The tieflings for you in jail for no reason. So I'm not super hot on them either. We should just, yeah. I mean, the dwarves don't really like the dwarves.

The goblins all kind of seem like they're stupid because they're just like, we just, wait, I worship this new God who says you should kill a bunch of people. So I'm going to do that. I'm like, well, that sounds dumb. Maybe I can engineer some kind of scenario where like everybody fucks off. I don't know. We'll see. Yeah. Maybe it's just that one goblin sucks and all the rest of them are cool. I mean, we did just kill a bunch of them, but like, I don't know. We'll see. We'll see what we do.

Yeah. We're probably like, what like five percent of this game or something. Well, like five, maybe like five hours or four hours. And our playthrough is going to take probably a hundred hours at least. Christ alive on a time like that. It's like a year's journey. We'll truly become our characters by the end of it. Well, that's the end of that segment. It was on sale. I guess we're not doing recommendations. So whatever. Yeah, I'm sleepy. I need a nap. Do you all recommend naps?

That's my recommendation. Okay. Okay. Well, remember everyone, it's actually maybe it's not such a bad thing to be fueled by spite, not in like the long term that kind of doesn't work in the long term. But in the short term, that could be pretty good. You know, get yourself a new haircut. Maybe that'll like you can reinvent yourself and also get yourself a list of guys. That's also good. Get a haircut. Get a new haircut. So I'll go use this still time.

Well, if anyone's a new listener coming in just specifically to listen to our coverage of skip beat. Welcome. We are happy to have you. Feel free to check out our previous coverage of one angelic layer, which spoiler alert, not a show Joe. And then our second one, which is their first actual show just series came in each and okay.

And if you made it past the segment where we talked about Baldur's Gate for like 15 minutes, which I'm sure made no sense to anybody who didn't who hasn't heard of Baldur's Gate. It's like it won all the game. Maybe we will see. Maybe it just sounds. Hey, there's hotties. He can romance. If you don't like that segment, rate us five stars and then lead a comment saying that I don't like that segment, but also leave five stars because I'm not going to I'm going to ignore it.

If it's not five stars, if you put four stars or you're like three stars and like that segment, I'm not going to read it. I don't care. If you show up and announce that you are only giving us less than five stars, then I'm just assuming you're a hater. And why would I ever listen to a hater? You're going up on my poster wall with all the boys I hate. Yeah, next to show. Leave us five stars and then tell us if you want us to change something. Yeah, we're open to.

You can also send us an email at showjopod.gmail.com. We will also respond to that. But leave us five stars. Remember to do that because like it's important that we can we can climb the ranks. I got to climb the ranks. We got to get back up on the Netherland board. You might think that we do this podcast for fun because we like to talk about show Joe. That's not true. It's really a competition. Yeah, there are other podcasts that are ranked higher than us. Yep. Can't have that.

I want to personally beat up Joe Rogan. Okay, I got to be the superior Joe. It's going to take going to take some time. We got plenty of years, right? We got our work cut out for us. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, you know, we can do it. We can make it to the top. We can we can branch out. We'll just get everybody into it. It'll be easy. Easy peasy. Yeah. Lemon squeezy. And cool. Well, on that note of our future legacy, we we bid you adieu until next week.

I think my favorite part about this recording was me saying 30 shades of gray. Yeah. Yeah, really showing off there. Yeah. How plugged in you are to the culture. Yeah. I'm hip. I'm with it. I'll know so much about celebrity stuff to talk about for this. No, that's good. Yeah. That's what we're talking about. Yeah. Yeah, like about pop culture stuff because I'm not into it.

Like I couldn't be bothered to like personally learn about it, but I can passively listen as I fall asleep to my nap about, you know, uh, freaking the feud between, uh, who was it, 50 cent and some boxer guy, you know, like I'm learning things. Uh huh. Uh, yeah. Okay. All right, everybody. Thanks for listening. We'll see you. Are you all here from us next week? Bye. Bye. Three more episodes. Hold always hold a grudge. That is a message of the okay. Just be pissed off.

Are you tired of being nice? Don't you ever just want to go apshit? Yeah, just throw your grudges at people. Little manifestations of it. Okay. We got to end this. People. What? That's what she does with their little. Oh yeah. Okay. Right. Sure. I'm tired. My eyes. Your grudges in some sort of, uh, like, um, cartoonish attack you can do when you have enough mana points to turn your grudge into a physical ability. Yeah. All right. We're ending it. Right now. It's weird rash on my arm.

It's very annoying. I'm done. Oh, it's game over for me. All right. What are you going to do with the podcast now that you have a rash on your arm? I don't know. I guess it's just, I guess it's just going to end. You know, I don't really have a backup for if you unexpectedly die. Oh no. Jenny can take my place. Oh yeah. You think so? Yeah. I don't think she, I don't think she's into show Joe like you are. We're going to end up just like watching shonen. We're just going to.

Yeah. You're just going to turn. You're just going to turn it into a Macca show like you've been wanting secretly. Oh, she's not into that either. Although we did watch code Geass. Yeah. Which I guess I'll talk about guy with a weird eyeball. Oh, like you just watched it. We watched the sequel series. Oh, they made a sequel series and it is insane. I was that called. It's called Rose of the recapture. I've never heard that in my life. Yeah. It's it's code Geass Rose of the recapture.

It is absurd. It's an absurd show. Okay. Oh, I didn't intro us yet. We have started the episode yet. Oh, throw this on the end.