Hi everyone, sorry in advance for the Sappar audio quality on this episode.
I have a new recording setup and still need to iron out the kinks.
Volume levels on the recording turned out way too low for some reason, which means the audio
sometimes cuts off early and generally the sound is not great yet.
Make things worse, John's neighbor decided to go full hog on his house with his power
washer just when we started to record our review of the Lucius and Dungeon.
We also had to deal with that.
Hope you enjoy the episode regardless and we'll try to be back to our normal recording
quality in a couple of episodes.
Anyway, enough apologies.
Let's start the actual show!
[Music]
Hello and welcome to an all new episode of Anime Brain Freeze.
We are your deliciously monster hosts.
I am John and I'm CC and when there's just too much cool anime to watch we've got you covered.
Today we prepared a truly gigantic feast for you.
First I will review the new Shonen Monster Megahead from Production ID, IJU #8.
And John will join me to discuss Studio Triggers tasty fresh fantasy series Delicious in Dungeon.
With our season finale, of course we will give your picks for best anime of the season.
For all of that let us throw a couple of fastballs away in the quick and the dead.
Repair Kaiju slaying weapon of choice, put out the fancy China because we'll be cooking!
Definitely don't pause the pod, be right back!
[Music]
Well, quick and the dead time, huh?
I don't know, I feel like there was...
There are a decent number of things that I've watched that I don't want to dive too deeply into.
So I'm just going to keep it down to like, free this time to, I feel like we're the most,
the most important to me.
So, datalive is...
It's finished, it's done and dusted.
I can't believe it took this long to get here.
That is neat.
Oh boy, it had some weird steps along the way and even within the fifth and final season
the kind of leaned a little bit on the CG in some points that wasn't too great.
But on the whole, I feel like seasons 4 and 5 were so much better than when JC staff
took it, jumped in and took over because, boy, remember when they had an episode where they
tried to create an entire volume of the light novel into 23 minutes and I complained about
that then and I'm still salty about that.
But 4 and 5, they definitely, they handed out to Studio Geek Toys who talked about them
a little bit.
I talked about them a little bit before.
And boy, they really knocked it out, super hard, super hard.
So I'm glad that they kind of were able to bring it full circle.
We got the good ending and there's a couple of video games I still want to read through.
One like it just came out, I think as of this recording, like two or three weeks ago.
So there is still stuff to check out if I want my data life.
But the anime was really good in the end when all was set and done and we're stuck it out.
I mean you were looking forward to it.
So I was like, well, this been out as John expected to and one to two, but apparently did.
So that's good.
Well, I still was a big fan of how they teased the coming of the final season.
I think I said this before, but after the end, what they were doing was they were putting
the episode titles at the end of the episode in season four.
At the end of season four, they put data life five and was like, okay, all right, cool.
I like that.
That's a good, that's a good way of doing that.
So they got it, they got it, they got it, did it.
So I'm glad for that.
I guess I'll sandwich in here something that wasn't, I enjoyed, but still wasn't stooped
all about it.
And that was laid back camp three, which is a show and characters.
I still really enjoy, but it wasn't this one through a studio change.
It wasn't bad, but and I said this before, it's just handled like, I believe it was eat
bit and they have a thing with their backgrounds where they just kind of paint over photographs
and you can tell and it was like a little distracting from time to time.
The character designs are a little bit different, which that doesn't bother me as much.
It was like, oh, they look a bit different.
What's going on here?
All right, sure.
Chasing the character designs, I feel like that I was able to push aside, but they kind of
shifted direction a bit from being, you know, comfy like it was to being more goofy.
And you know, there was that in the past, because you know, the characters are all just a bunch
of silly goobers and I really like all of them.
I don't know if it worked as well, but you know, it was still the core of it was still there.
So I still find for what it was, I guess, but it wasn't quite with the crew at sea station
were laying down when they were still working on it, but they've gone on to start working
on other things.
So I can say it's good for them.
But last thing I'll talk about is in it all, I guess it will kind of lead into something
that I'm interested in watching starting next season and that's Uruse Yatsuda.
I don't know about you, I definitely never watched the original adaptation.
Not any of that.
I guess from everything that's gone around, it was kind of a mess and this was a bit more
faithful, which you know, David production is pretty good at sticking to the script, but
it's still making things fun to watch.
I'm actually really glad that I checked this out because this was something that, you know,
I knew always sort of existed and I was like, I've seen some of Takashi's other stuff.
I watched a little bit of New Yashu when it was on, oh God, was it on Tsunami or adult swimmer,
both I don't remember.
I watch a little bit of that, I was like, yeah, this is neat, but I kind of fell off it.
So it's something that was a little more, this was definitely a lot more silly.
But it was fun and I really like seeing the story between Ataru and Lung and seeing that
play out and I guess Lung was the girl for a lot of people back in the day and she's cute
here.
I'm sure she was cute back then.
I'm not quite sure what to say beyond that, but it was a silly good time and I think the
next show in the Takahashi line to hit is Ron Ma Hath.
I'm curious to see what happens with that adaptation.
I wonder how well that has actually aged just in terms of the jokes and everything.
I hope people are being a bit more aware of the whole topic of maybe being trans and
everything, which doesn't necessarily fit with Ron Ma Hath, but because it's something different
because it's a curse and not a decision that Ron Ma makes.
But there are some things that are here that are an underlying factor here.
I wonder how well that has aged.
They're definitely going to tone down the nudity that much.
I know that much already evident in the trailer because the old series was Ron Ma throwing
their tits around every other episode.
So goddamn, that's going to be severely done.
Oh, yeah, for sure.
I just, you know, the old probably doesn't hold up.
So hope maybe this will.
So yes, we'll find out.
I don't know.
Well, you know, for the old Urasea sort of show, I think that has still a lot of its fans
because that was that was more memorable.
She's baby, then the TV series adaptation anyway, then it was maybe Rumi Kotaka Hashi's and
as well, they were also now doing it, you know, we worked version that is more closer to
the manga and that's why it differs itself quite a lot from the old's adaption.
But I think like there's still a lot of people who prefer the old adaption.
I don't know if that will be the case with Ron Ma.
We'll see.
I don't know.
I watched it when it came on German TV over here when it was released.
I mentioned this before when they did like the, oh no.
We're going to show anime at prime time.
We're going to make this this adult thing.
The first series they chose was Dragon Ball Z.
Fair enough.
The second series they chose was fucking Ron Ma.
What a combination.
What a, what a, what a double feature.
Uh, he says so it's anime.
So everything it has to.
So it must be for adults.
Maybe they were like, it's a sitcom.
So it fits in here.
I don't know.
But still weird.
A weird double feature of having Dragon Ball Z and Ron Ma have airing next to each other in
the evening on German TV for a while.
That's such a crazy.
It lasts long.
And I think we touched on it, but that crazy BBC Dub man.
Yeah.
Definitely.
Definitely crazy shit.
Yeah, we'll see.
It's going to be fun.
Probably I'm not going to check it out because I was like, uh, her on the old show and
there was like, okay, this is, I just don't really vibe with Rumi Kotakawa.
She's humor, I think that much because it's pretty much always the same antics and one.
I mean, I, I see the attraction, everything.
If you're in the death kind of humor, but for me, it doesn't do really anything and then
in Yasha when it was brought up mostly annoyed me and I mostly was there for the action,
not my brand of humor, I think.
So that some of the stuff is good.
Curious about it more from a quote unquote academic standpoint.
Yeah, sure.
Because I want to see what it's about.
Yeah.
And it definitely has its fun parts.
It always had like the old version to an assumed a new version, but there's some jokes
in there that are just so very classic Rumi Kotakawa.
She said, come stuff where I'm like, that is just not for me.
And you know, that's why I'm not going to check it out myself.
Well, I'm very interested to hear what you have to say about it eventually.
Yeah.
I'll see.
I will see what goes on.
Okay.
I didn't really check anything.
I had a lot of shows that I wanted to watch besides the ones that we reviewed the season,
which was a very light season for us with only two episodes.
But you know, I want to check out go go loser range.
I want to check out.
I was grim variations and one other show that I look ninja Kamui maybe maybe it was last
in I'm not even sure.
Yeah, I think I didn't get to any of those.
It was just it's a somewhat hectic time in my life right now.
I know I don't need to apologize for this because this is our podcast.
We can do whatever the fuck we want.
And we will review what we review and what we don't review.
We don't review, but still it's like, okay, it's just a bit of a lighter output from me.
For the past couple of seasons, I guess, but there's going to be more in next season,
probably and the one after that.
I think there are a lot of interesting shows under rise and I might pick up some of the shows
that I didn't actually get to this season that are from the season and put them throw
them in the quick and the dead or do a full review when their next season, if their next
season come out.
I think for some of them that have already been announced.
I think so.
So we'll see some of them will maybe find their way into the cooking of the dead because
quick and the dead is free game can throw everything in there that we want.
And from whichever season we want and even from years back.
But I mean, I mean, looking me through Uma Musume in their few seasons ago, because screw
it.
Why not?
So if I am interested in any of the shows that are still there that I haven't gotten to
yet, I will probably check out.
I finished one show, but that I want to do make that a full review eventually at some point,
maybe with a friend of ours and that's the, you know, I talked about it in a preview
quick in the dead of starting it again.
And that was the two, some three version of Hunter Hunter, no, 2011.
I finished that.
Still love it.
I don't know if I want to do a full single only review.
I feel like the series merits a full review because it just so goddamn good, but I want
to have someone to throw my thoughts at who has watched it.
So if I can't do that, I won't probably won't do that.
And I said refer to our deal listeners to the podcast I mentioned before, Media Cloud Plus
who are going through the entire series in like three to four episode batches and episode
that is very interesting.
And they have some interesting insights and background stuff that I can talk about.
So if you're hungry for Hunter Hunter content and reviews, that's your podcast to go right
now, but eventually maybe I'll also give my two cents.
I mean, I started to watch the 2011 Hunter Hunter during, okay.
So back during the height of the pandemic and when I was still working at retail, we had
a TV set up in the back room and one of the people there was super all about it and they
were like, let's watch Hunter Hunter and I started watching it.
And I couldn't get over the over what in a vensably good boy gone was.
Well, that was just like, oh my god, this character is like, he's good to a fault and trust me.
That comes back to the serious no's this and comes back to this and client returns this
on its set without spoiling too much in several ways.
So maybe, you know, maybe I'll try going back to it eventually, but I won't make you any
promises.
I already said I try and watch one piece and I'm still still sitting at the same spot I
was before and I'm only falling further behind.
Hunter Hunter is a shorter time investment though.
It's still a long show.
Don't get me wrong, but I mean much fewer episodes than one piece.
It's what 110 something episodes compared to 1,110?
Yeah.
Yes, yes, something like that.
Let me check Hunter Hunter has one or 48 episodes.
That is still a big batch and there's like one arc that takes up most of it, but it's still
like less than 100, 100.
So again, no, but enforcing nobody to what you're just saying, it's one of the best shown
shows period out there in my opinion and even though it's not finished and I don't know if
it will be giving the health problems that the writer creator Togashi has.
But this series and starts and ends with a very solid point in the story where it's like
I can see this being the entire story is fine the way it is.
I know there's probably still something coming after that, but I'm good with it ending
here because it feels like a complete arc for at least two of our main characters.
So that's more than we get in a lot of other anime that are cut short, right?
Especially the adoption field.
So yeah, I can definitely recommend the 2011 version.
It's not perfect.
There are some issues there.
They're cutting out an important character out of the first episode of it that comes
back later and I feel like if they had included that like they did in the old adaption and
like it is in a manga, it felt more it would have felt more resonant when that character
comes back and his role he the role he takes in the story and everything and for some reason
they decided they did the same thing they did with full metal alchemist brotherhood where
they're like, no, we already had this part of the story.
We need to rush the fuck through it.
Not from that is some of the moments in the new adaption are a bit less resonant than they
were in the old adaption or in the manga because they decided to rush through some of it very
quickly.
So that's the biggest problem the new adaption has, but it's tolerable.
So yeah, and there's so many plus points in regards to this is a lot better pacing and
animation quality in certain parts and it covers more of the story than the old adaption.
But yeah, the other thing you know for sure is that departure is a pretty good song.
Yeah, and it's nice how they they always evolve on that and always change the opening, but
the song technically stays the same.
So it's really it's one of it does one of the things we like to see in anime where they
change the opening around to match the series, but you know they also did something with
the song and everything and yes, it is super catchy and I think I don't have the
thing, the final lines in an anime OP as much as I do have done with Hunter Hunter.
Just you know because it's such a good band and the episode starts moment also in terms
of what the lyrics say in everything.
So yeah, great show fantastic show right now won't talk talk more about it, but I recommend
everyone who is remotely into shown action series into adventure series into cool monsters
worlds, who characters, whatever cool power system, really intricate power system, but
Jesus, I hear Nan is a lot.
Nan is is a whole damn lot.
Yes.
It gets more and more lots of further the series progresses, but it that also makes it very
entertaining because there's like a lot of interesting shit done with it.
It's not just a simple like you know that guy is much stronger now and everything.
It's the way the way the many facets Nan takes and many forums and variations is really
interesting.
So yeah, check that out everyone and the other show I'm still watching I haven't watched
an episode in a month or something, but I plan on picking it up again is the 2003 that's
2003.
I think version of Astro boy.
So what you loving that show it's fantastic.
It's I'm so glad I was there are finally good subs for it available.
I was so blown away by the first episode and how fucking good it looks.
The production value on this show are nuts for TV show.
I did not see that coming.
I fucking love it and I definitely will talk about it eventually.
That's an even shorter show John.
So if you want to watch it all the goody maybe pick that one up.
That is one that I want to watch for a while.
I need to I would like to get on that.
It's also one of those shows where it's like yes, there is there are some plot threads that
are continuing, but it's one of those.
Hey, you can watch one episode you know just randomly after work or whatever because
it's just the mostly close of story and everything and it's very old school.
It feels very Saturday morning afternoon or Saturday afternoon show cartoon, but just with
incredible production values and just cool designs like really modernize, but still classic
Tessacar designs and everything is just a fantastic looking show and really fun.
Really got damn fun.
I feel like it's weird to me to say I wanted to watch it for a song, but I feel familiar
with it because of the treasure game on the Game Boy Advance.
It's pulled a lot from it for its character designs and inspiration.
So I heard yeah, that I still need to check out.
It's a good game.
There's a lot to it actually.
Yeah, cool.
Yeah, definitely gonna check that out eventually.
And everyone else if you can get your hands on it, check out the extra boy version.
After Plutua, I was like, I finally need to pull the trigger on this because I enjoyed the
anime adoption of Plutua so much and I wanted to know even more about this universe than
I picked up through osmosis and I mean, for everyone who doesn't know, Astro Boy is the
little head icon in our podcasts, you know, logo.
So we, I mean, it feels kind of like a crime that I haven't checked that version of that
anime out yet.
So, I mean, we have touched on Astro Boy here and there, Pluto and Adam the beginning.
Yes, absolutely.
So, so we're there.
We're there.
Yes, absolutely.
We have covered in a review form, but I feel like this is what of, this is a classic
incarnation, even though slightly modernized because it's the 80s or what's the origin
of the 60s.
Yeah, I think so.
Yeah, version, but I was like, okay, I want modern sensibilities and modern production
values, but I want to have still the old school designs that seems like the best middle ground
for that and even though a lot of people are favoring the 80s version, but yeah, I still,
I'm going to keep on watching this.
I'm looking forward to getting back to it.
Yeah, everyone wants to watch along, try to find it, try to think it out.
It's out there.
It exists now as a good serve and yeah, definitely recommending that even though.
All right, and with that, I think we're done with the quick and the dead and we're going
to move over to our penultimate room.
And, great.
[music]
After the destruction of their hometown, Battle Friends Kafka Hibino and Mina Ashero make
a pact on officers in the defense force.
Interize organization tasked with protecting Japan from colossal monsters known as Kaiju.
decades later, the 32-year-old Kafka has all but given up on his dreams of heroism.
That he cleans up the remains of the slaughtered Kaiju after they are defeated by valiant soldiers
including Mina who has successfully achieved their shared goal.
Upon meeting his new coworker, Reno Ichikawa, Kafka faces a mirror of his past self.
ambitious young man who's one desire is to fight as a member of the defense force.
Fortunately, the two are soon involved in a freak encounter with a rogue Kaiju, though
Kafka demonstrates his innate heroic nature and rescues Reno from a certain doom he is left
gravely injured.
While both men recover in the hospital, Kafka is seemingly attacked by another one of the
beasts.
That's a result he gains the ability to transform into a humanoid Kaiju with the strength
and powers of the massive monsters menacing Japan.
DAP Kaiju number 8 by the military, Kafka resolves to use his newfound gifts for the greater
good.
Kai together by mutual respect, Kafka and Reno set out to join the warriors of the defense
force.
True balancing act, because the one person tasked with destroying Kaiju number 8, none
other than the superstar of the defense force and Kafka's childhood friend Mina.
Kaiju number 8 is based on a manga by Naya Matsumoto, which started in July 2020, counts
13 volumes and is still running.
Also light novel and two spin off manga.
The anime, as I already mentioned in the intro to this episode was produced by Production
IG, which we of course have mentioned many times on this show.
So, Phil, Psycho has, Hiq, and a lot of helping hands to wit on most of the tech on Titan
stuff and many other high profile shows in their story.
The first season of their adoption of Kaiju number 8 counts to have episodes and was directed
by two people, Yukamiya and Tomomi Kamiya.
The former also was a director on Bloodlade, BazaBeater, Somalopar, Olihei, the natural anime,
added key animation and storyboards for shows like High School of the Dead and Bleach.
Later, as mostly been working as an animation and episode director before this, for example,
Detective Conan, aka Closed, Carolyn Tuesday, Jujutsu Kaisen, Psychopath, Cabinary of the Iron
Fortress, among other things.
The adaptive screenplay was written by our favorite Mad Man, Hichiro Okuchi, who can be
sometimes it or miss, especially when he's doing original work.
Every coat, G.S. and Devil Man Crybaby, you get a valve rave, wherever you skate the
infinity in which from Mercury you get a guilty crown, but his adapted stuff is usually
solid, and same applies here.
I haven't read the manga, but the anime adaptation of Kaiju number 8 is all around handled
really well.
Got big booming, incredibly well staged action scenes, mind blowing, fights with riveting
choreography, but also tender character moments and a lot of really well edited comedy.
This show is a lot funnier than I expected with this attack on Titan Light Air setup, and
I don't know if the style of comedy just worked really well for me personally, but I was
laughing a lot mostly because of our incredibly relatable main character, but in general the
writing, direction and timing of the jokes was pulled off just as effectively as the action
scenes in my life.
Most of it is delivered in the first half of the series, since things get a bit more serious
in the second half, but it was very welcome regardless and made the moments where the
show, the moment where the show shifts gears at the halfway point even more effective.
All of this is underscored really well by Yuta Bando's Pulse Pounding soundtrack, who aside
from this has only done music for movies so far, Bell, the news Mamorra Hosodah movie,
Shin Ultraman, Shader of the Sea, Popel of Chimney Town, all films, Kaiju number 8 seems
to be his first TV show soundtrack.
And Bando is mostly going for electronic/industrial stuff here with some occasion of vocals thrown
into the mix, but he also delivers some really effective moody tracks that build anticipation
and atmosphere really well.
Simply not the genre of soundtrack I expected, considering the composer's output so far,
especially his work on the Bell's soundtrack I expected more of a grandiose orchestral score,
but what he created here works really well for the sci-fi look and feel of Kaiju number
8.
Maybe it doesn't work as well as a standalone listen, but as a companion piece to the visuals,
it packs quite a punch.
So yeah, what is Kaiju number 8 about?
I mean, I gave the Insights group already in the little opening narration for this review,
but there are a lot of Kaiju text in Japan.
I mean, not only in this show, but just in general, it's a thing.
And this one, no.
Okay, okay.
Not in the real world, maybe, but in media space, John, you kind of can't escape it, especially
since Hollywood has vastly adapted even beyond stuff like, you know, Godzilla and things
like that, but we also had Pacific Rim.
And I feel like Giant Wind and Silver Field.
So I feel like Kaiju are kind of a thing now also in with that name, not any giant
monsters anymore.
Everyone is now calling them Kaiju because Pacific Rim kind of established that in the
West and Sphere.
And yeah, this is what this show is about.
Like Kaiju attacks are so normal in this in the world of the show by now that people seem
to be at least partially pretty chill about it.
If they are not directly in affected areas, like in the first episode, you see Kaiju alarm
and everyone is looking at the phones.
I'll, we'll see if the defense was will show up, which is kind of like, has like this
kind of pop star air about it like superheroes, right?
The Avengers are showing up.
Everyone is hyped about it and everyone is looking at the phones and want to see some
recordings of the action.
But it feels in the beginning, it feels like a bit more low key was like, oh, there's another
Kaiju attack.
Well, everybody get out of here and wait for the defense force.
So in the beginning, it feels like they got this nailed down, right?
They're the big super Europe, but they got it under control like there's danger there
and you know, towns get very often demolished, but not many people maybe get to lose their
lives or whatever because this has now has now become if not daily, maybe weekly or monthly
occurrence and the defense force is usually prepared.
But what happens once the defense force leaves has to has successfully complete their mission
and has destroyed the Kaiju?
Well, that's when our hero Kafka drops on the scene with his crew because he's part of
the cleanup crew.
They get rid of corpses, they clean the buildings, they collect samples, you know, all that
comes with its own problems.
A city Kaiju blood, shit filled intestines, like there's of course a joke in the first episode,
it's all about the poo poo stuff.
There's someone cuts up the Kaiju at the wrong place and gets burnt by acid and then
also, I don't know how it happens, but I think Kafka is relegate once more to cutting up
the intestines and there is pixelated shit flying everywhere.
And apparently it smells really bad, which I can only imagine.
But yeah, it's really hard work and unlike the actual hunters that cost this mess, first
and foremost, you know, the third division, which are kind of like this, he's big superstars
and Mina at the front there, his Kafka's old childhood friend, but they're like the best
equipped and the ones that go most wild, when they fight Kaiju apparently.
But unlike them, the cleanup crew is not really thankful for it.
But Kafka is doing his job, he's good at it, he's really good, he knows what he's doing,
he's a 30-something guy, he's advanced age, whatever, at least an anime.
Come on, man.
But you know, he's there and immediately of course, because of him not having the typical
shown hero age, right, he's not in his teens or in his very early 20s.
He's not at the prime young age of 16.
Yeah, he's instantly relatable to both of us.
I would say you have watched the show, but trust me, if you see Kafka, you're like, oh yeah,
I get that guy, totally get him.
And that was the thing for me.
I saw him was like, oh, he's immediately so fucking relatable.
And he's also very sympathetic, he's a super good guy, right?
Not too old, but you were talking about with GONE in the hour, quick and death thing.
He's just a good, he's good to his, you know, he's colleagues, he knows what he's doing, he's
putting the work in, he's a bit of a goof, a bit of a big goof that only gets even worse
when he gets his Kaiju powers, because he doesn't know how to control them and gets really
funny.
But, you know, he doesn't have it all figured out, he's still trying, you know, to do it and
he isn't in the place where he wants to be right now.
He wanted to be with his childhood friend with Mina and fighting the Kaiju in the defense
force, but it didn't pan out.
He is 32 now and this, he now wanting to join the defense force, which happens when he runs
into Reno is kind of like his last chance.
I think that's, they increased the cut off age to get more recruits, but, you know, this
would be his last chance for now to get into it.
I think this is the cut off age and with 33, he didn't have another chance, but at the
point we meet him, he has kind of given up on it because he, he has tried the exam.
I don't know, at least once, I think several times and failed several times and he's given
up.
He's like, I'm gonna, I didn't cut it.
I'm not gonna cut it.
So I might just well give up, right?
That's a mood.
Yeah, that's a mood.
And he's resigned himself to at least in general, or in a way supporting the defense force
by being part of the cleanup crew, which is nice, right?
He could have gone into a completely different field, but you see, his heart is still there.
Like he wants to do something even remotely to support his country to fight in the Kaiju,
right?
If it's only cleaning up the shit.
So that's where we meet him at debating off the show.
That's where he is.
You know, part of the cleanup crew still wants to be in defense.
Defense force technically, but it has given up for now.
And then Reno Ichikawa joins the cleanup crew as an intern.
And he, much younger than Kafka, of course, calls him, Senpai pretty much the entire of the
show.
He wants to join, he can still join the defense force.
He's very ambitious.
He comes across a bit cold in the beginning, but him and Kafka hit it off pretty quickly
and become kind of besties in a way.
This immediately becomes a body cop show at that moment, right?
Because they're also like in kahoo once Kafka gets transformed into a Kaiju by this weird
mosquito Kaiju thing that apparently just hijacks him.
And then first only transforms him gives him the ability to transform into a Kaiju, but
later has another effect that I won't go into because it's boilers, but that happens.
And then in me and Reno is the first one who witnessed that.
And who really has a still Kafka under there.
And then it becomes all about him knowing it and both of them trying to hiding it while trying
to get into the defense force.
Which of course is as funny as it sounds, right?
Because there's a lot of dumb shit happening.
And a lot of them trying to bend around themselves to keeping people from finding out that
Kafka is a Kaiju, at least for a long time, for the first season.
And yeah, a lot of humor derived from that.
And yeah, he's the one of course who gets Kafka trying out again for the defense force.
Especially after he got the Kaiju powers and everything and Kafka feels now he has a chance
to supporting his friend, maybe eventually catching up to Mina.
Although he's not entirely relying on his Kaiju powers in the first couple of exams.
He's trying to do it with his own body strength, right?
Because he doesn't want to cheat.
He's an honest guy and he's like, no, I want to do it with my own power.
And makes almost last place in the fitness exam.
Because ask me all, no, with 30, your body is basically dead.
Wait until you get to 40 dear anime watchers.
Not just speak of 43.
Anyway, so he has a bad fitness level and can't draw out the suit's power successfully in the
beginning.
The contestants, the people are trying to get in defense force or defense force members in
general have like these power suits that they're wearing.
If you've watched guns, they kind of look a bit like that who increase their power output.
They can only be used at a maximum, a limited amount of time.
Otherwise they will do serious harm to your body, but in general they protect you a bit,
they give you more power and everything.
But you need to be able to draw out the power out of these suits.
And Kafka is just not able to do that in the beginning.
But since he has been disposing of Kaiju corpses for a long time, he knows a lot about their
strength and weaknesses, which gives him an advantage, especially when they get to actually
fighting the Kaiju in the training exercises.
And it's not only about the actual fitness and performance numbers, but also how, what does
the person actually do in the combat scenario?
And then Kafka is like, no, don't take the Kaiju from the front, but from the side, from
that angle.
And so on because that's where their weak point is because he knows because he's dissected
a lot of Kaiju during his work in the cleanup crew.
And his superiors noticed that pretty quickly.
Most of them is the vice captain, Sushiro Hoshino, who is Mina's right hand man.
And he then decides to take Kafka under his wing as a cadet and train him.
He says he's doing it because Kafka showed some strategic expertise and real team spirit
in the trials.
And also because he thinks Kafka's antics are hilarious.
Because he sticks out.
He's the old man in the field of a lot of young contenders and applicants.
And he is just, he's always like, this old man is so hilarious.
And so it's really fun.
And the other characters say this to like everyone likes Kafka immediately because he's just,
he's just an old goof.
And yeah, what he keeps to himself is that he already is expecting something is up with
Kafka and that he might be related to a strong Kaiju appearing during the trials.
So immediately we have somewhat supporter, but also maybe somewhat danger to Kafka on
the plan here, not to speak of Mina, of course, because her official task is to find Kaiju
number eight and destroy it.
But yeah, Sushiro is like kind of the mentor character to Kafka, but also rival, right,
something to aspire to and maybe eventually overtake.
And Sushiro at some point has Kafka, he shouldn't get too attached to the other team members
since anyone can die during the missions.
So he's like also taking care that maybe Kafka doesn't get too invested because he seems
a bit naive and, you know, optimistic in certain parts.
And Sushiro is more the sober.
I have seen shit type, right?
We see how grim the show still gets in future seasons.
It isn't there really yet.
There's some dark parts in this season, but all things considered, this is much more lighthearted
than expected to be in its first season.
I expected something on the tone of tech on Titan.
This is not that.
It's got a lot of similarities with the giant monsters and everything, but it's definitely
not there in terms of our everything in hope is hopeless and everyone is dying left
and right.
In case it's definitely more of a fun time than tech on Titan is in joke.
There's also a fight happening later in the in the season that Kafka and Sushiro are
both involved in, which is probably one of the standout fights in the show.
So that's just looking fantastic.
It's super quick.
It's super fun.
It looks really good.
Great choreography and everything.
Because you know, Sushiro has like everyone is kind of like using guns and everything,
mostly except for Valina using giant as tank gun and a giant tiger.
Yeah, she has like a pet tiger.
That's the whole setup for the story actually.
Her cat got killed when Kaiju attacked their village and that had her so distraught that
Tuchira up.
Kafka said, "Hey, let's make a vow right here now.
We're gonna join the defense force and defeat the Kaiju who did this to your cat."
So, that's the setup and of course because she likes cat when she is grown up and just
fucking superhero.
She of course has a pet fucking tiger who helps her kill Kaiju with his badass.
That tracks that's very anime.
I fucking love it.
But yeah, most of the other characters I feel like are using guns and everything.
Kafka also of course using his Kaiju parts, but Sushiro is usually using two short swords
because he's the ninja type character.
He superfies super quick.
He's a melee fighter and he was only ever told that his weapons are outdated and he should
give up wanting to join the defense force.
His family is very much traditional sword fighters, whatever I think with Kendo and everything.
But Mina told him she needs a close quote of specialists on her team that can clear the
way for her.
So she can unload her enormous gun.
So that's why they work so well together.
That's why he's kind of an outlier in terms of common expertise.
The other big melee fighter is Kikuru, which is probably either the third or the fourth
most important character in this in this first season.
She is one of the applicants, one of the people who joined the defense was in the same class
that Kafka and Reno are joining, trying to join it.
It's going to the same tries and everything.
And in the beginning she comes off as this super snobbish, and the best there is two pigtails
whatever and blonde and super snobby attitude.
What is this old guy doing here?
Get him out of here, fuck this guy.
And God, you're so useless and it feels a bit bitchy in the beginning.
But she can back it up because she's super strong.
She's like the daughter of one of the top Kaiju weapons manufacturer.
I think also the main manufacturer of the power suits I think.
So she's super well trained with no such user, her power suit thing.
Can draw the power super well.
She knows how to effectively use weapons and everything.
She has trained from the earliest moments on.
But she definitely has daddy issues because her father always expected her to get perfect
results and never rewarded her with affection for achievements.
And puts pressure on her by telling her to do it for her dad, mom.
Oh man.
Typical asshole anime dad.
So finally getting that affection must be the thing that pushes her to do to be as good
as she is.
But of course also makes her short-sighted and reminded and almost suicidal on the battlefield
in certain situations.
And then she runs into Kafka and doesn't know what to make of that guy.
That's a bit of a spoiler, but he eventually transforms in front of her situation to protect
her.
And thankfully she doesn't read him out.
So she immediately becomes one of the most important characters in the show because together
with Reno, she's like the one person that tries to still hide Kafka secret.
And they immediately become also kind of friends.
And there's definitely a rivalry and love interest thing developing between her and Kafka.
At the point she knows that Kafka has Kaiju power.
She's even more intent of not being outdone by him.
And like I said, she also becomes the third one of our core characters.
And she recommends Kafka not letting everybody know that he's Kaiju because all Kaiju are
so powerful that they get a number either get experimented on or just get killed and
slash or turned into a special weapon.
Because that's also a thing that happens like Kaiju get killed and then turned into weapons
that can be used against other Kaiju.
So that could be ultimately Kafka's fate if he reveals to everyone that he's a fucking
Kaiju now.
So she doesn't want that to happen because she likes him eventually anyway a lot and believes
in him and everything.
So yeah, but that's an interesting dynamic.
And her father also later comes back into the picture again because it's really important
character in the military and everything.
And so that's something interesting that is set up for the coming seasons I bet especially
their dynamic and the outrio there of young cadets.
And yeah, I liked all of these very much in the beginning.
It's like, what's your deal?
Why are you being so mean to everyone?
But no, she's actually I get it where she's coming from.
And Rainier of course is also there.
He's more of a companion piece to Kafka and like straight man foil for Kafka to, you know,
bounce his nonsense off of.
And he has his hands full in the beginning of protecting Kafka secret of course.
And they just have a very fun cop that a body coped anemic.
So it's really fun to see them was going together.
And he himself wants to get better at killing Kaiju.
So Kafka doesn't have to transform anymore because he wants to protect him and he considers
him to be a vampire and so on.
And that does mean he could be like the perfect guy and he's really good at fighting and everything.
But he also is kind of a bit of a dumbass in certain situations like at one point he almost
gives away Kafka secret.
Thankfully the guy he's talking to isn't even bigger idiot.
So that works out.
But yeah.
So as you can see already a bunch of cool characters, but they're even more like a lot of other cadets
in the entry exam.
And as you know, Haruichi, Haruichi, Izumo, who's top of his class is also the heir to the
Isumo technology to Isumo technologies, like which is the largest anti-Kaiju arms manufacturer
in the country.
He will probably play a more important role down the road because there is an industry,
there's money, there's greed, considering a lot of his family's fortune hinges on Kaiju
still being a danger, we'll see what they do when the perspective on Kaiju eventually maybe
starts to shift you to Kafka.
Well see, so that's interesting.
We also have Iharu Furuhashi who is like this absolute powerhouse and kind of a dumbass,
but fun.
Kiko of course, Aoi Kaguragi who is like this rising star in the ground SDF.
And we have Okonogi who is the operator like in the home base and she's also featured
heavily in the ED, she would go with glasses and everything sitting in front of your computer
the entire time.
And everyone of the cadets from this, at least from this year seems to have joined up
because they were either saved or impressed, less inspired by Mina.
So everyone has like this, oh my god, she's the best.
And then when they find out that Kafka and Mina were sheltered friends, they are all very
suddenly very interested in Kafka.
Speaking of rival ships earlier.
There are definitely a lot going on in the show.
You know, we have Kafka versus Kikuro, though that is more one sided.
We have Kafka versus, so she at some point, rena versus Iharu, Hauru, Ichi versus Aoi.
And yeah, like I said, eventually Kafka versus So Shiro since Kafka needs to gun for the
vice cap roll if you really plans to eventually stand right next to Mina on the battlefield.
So that's bound to happen.
And yeah, some other fun characters, there is a platoon leader called Nakoshima who has
like this Cougar mode and is drooling over some of the cadets.
Oh, yeah, yeah, but it's not too sleazy.
It's a fun scene.
And you know, Iharu, who is the idiot that I mentioned before that rena was talking to
who's like this ultimate, this big or this powerhouse guy.
Given by his will to protect others because Mina protected him, you know, one of the ones
that were inspired.
Of course, it's also wants to stand next to her on the battlefield so that could also lead
to a rival chip between him and Kafka.
Lots of interesting rivalries, potential rivalries going on here in character, relationships
that might come up in the future.
I can talk much about Mina, yet aside from her being the main motivation of Kafka and
the initial setup and everything.
But in this season, she's mostly this elusive stoic force in the background for, you know,
most of the first half of the season and only drops in with a big gun to do some message
damage to Kaiju.
She becomes more important in the back half again, aside from being Kafka's main motivation
of course, but talking about her character arc in the back half of the season would mean
spoilers.
So that's something I can bring up in the eventual season to review.
But yeah, like I said, I didn't expect the show to be as much of a comedy as it is.
Kafka and Reno rightfully freaking out about Kafka's transformation in the hospital is God
damn hilarious and the escape scene after that from the hospital is even funnier.
Also yes, I get it.
The guy's name is Kafka and he gets transformed into Kaiju by a bug.
It's already set.
It's already set at a Z-Pig that's a bit on the nose.
I don't know if the author of the manga is a Franz Kafka fan or just read the for Van
Blum in high school, but either way the show is wearing one of its inspirations on its
leafless thing.
That was going to as bad say there's no way they don't actually know some level of awareness.
Pretty sure.
Yeah.
So yeah, mostly commonly in the beginning then gets more serious once the trials are actually
over and they actually have to fight the Kaiju there is another humanoid Kaiju showing
up and that's the person then after causing a bit of haggarek in the travel, havoc in the
trials then sticks around in a different form hiding himself on the cleanup crew and everything.
So the tension is immediately high when will he show up again and there you know there's
it.
Let's just say to show escalates and escalates more during the course of the season.
It's got a really good solid escalation curve going on with not much downtime.
It's really, really quick pacing, but it doesn't feel rushed every character who needs to
get their amount of time that they need to for decent development and everything we got
cool character moons, we got cool action.
Everything is really well balanced.
They also do sometimes previously on Kaiju number eight segment.
I feel like that's pretty rare in anime.
And actually saying previously on I mean that it was something you would see in western
shows, but it happens in the show several times and it was like, okay, interesting and the
show also got some really cozy vibes, you know, the character interactions and the comedy
do with do their part, but we also have like these neat moments.
There's one where everyone gets together after the first mission for food and bickering
like colleagues do or family and that just brings the good vibes.
The good moment in the show and moments like that are sprinkled in between and I like them
a lot.
And yes, I said there is a strong comedy aspect to the show, but don't get me wrong.
The focus is there are very much on the action, especially in the second half of the show.
And when the action hits, it usually gets serious and very tense and very cool.
And there are several pumped the fist in the air moments, especially when Kafka is concerned.
And when he has like a dynamic last moment, saving entry and so on, this one especially
in the second battle against the first humanoid, other humanoid chiseled that shows up that
is really, really cool and where I was like, fuck yeah.
That's how you do it Kafka.
That's how you do it.
And the music does it's part two because that's one of the moments where one of the tracks
with the vocals kicks in and everything.
So the show knows what it's doing, the composer and the director knows what they are doing
with this and it's really tough.
And the action scenes just regularly deliver something on par with the best attack on Titan
has to offer in regard to small guys taking out big monsters, battles, which makes sense,
because production ID also worked on the attack on Titan together with with at least for
some of the seasons.
And the scenes involving Mina, Sochiro, Kikuru and of course Kafka are the highlights here,
especially Sochiro being this high speed tube-laden sword fighter is basically a guarantee
for incredible action choreography with cool tracking shots and everything.
So yeah, that's definitely something to look for and to enjoy.
And yeah, not much more to say about this.
Everything else would be spoilers, which I don't want to do or a heavy spoilers.
I've spotted a bit here and there, but not big things.
So Demley, yeah, I love this show.
I love this first season.
I think it was fucking great.
And it definitely catered to me specifically more waste and more, not just because I'm a big
show net, but also the edge demographic of the main character and everything.
But yeah, you can watch it on Crunchyroll in most countries, maybe Netflix and others.
And you should definitely give it a look.
This was for sure the show where I was looking forward to its episodes the most each week,
because I loved all of the characters.
The mystery was exciting of why Kafka actually was getting transformed to Kaiju, not that
that is solved yet, but it was still strong hook for everything.
And the action was riveting top to bottom.
And that in a season that also featured my hero academia and demon slayer.
So that is saying a lot.
If it can contest with that.
If you are in the mood for some big explosion punch fast with cool monsters and fun characters,
definitely check this out.
Hey, well, giant monsters are fun aren't they?
Yes, one monster is too though.
Yes, particularly those that may appear in a dungeon and may or may not be delicious.
Maybe not always delicious, but definitely edible.
True, true, true.
Oh, that is the idea behind delicious in dungeon.
Yes, it's not called edible in dungeon.
That's dead.
Yes, come on.
Dungen Meshie.
Yes.
So, adventuring night Lyos Toden leads a small party through a seemingly endless dungeon,
a subterranean maze full of dangerous monsters and precarious traps through the use of advanced
magic and explorer can sometimes be resurrected, allowing them to learn from past mistakes and
give traversing the dungeon another go.
However, when a powerful dragon eats Fallen, Lyos' spellcasting sister, she sends her brother
and his companions back to the beginning to save them from their permanent ends.
So strapped for cash and equipment, Lyos resolves to fight his way through the dungeon and
rescue Fallen before she can be digested by the dragon.
Despite some of Lyos' allies abandoning him to remain by his side, Elvin Mage, Marcel
Donato and Caffling Waxmeth, Chilchuk Tim's due to their lack of funds.
The party faces the daunting prospect of starving before being able to complete their quest.
However, they find salvation in Senchi, a dwarven warrior with a penchant for cooking and safely
eating defeat in monsters.
With Senchi's culinary expertise, Lyos' companions struggle through the dungeon while learning
about gourmet dining and each other along the way.
Thank you to M.A.L.R.R.E. right for that very succinct summary of delicious in dungeon.
I forgot to mention that my intro summary for Kaju No. 8 was also from M.A.L.R.E.
who we write mostly.
I added a little sentence at the end.
So this show is hyped up for a while actually.
I missed most of the hype but once it dropped, I was like, "Oh, everyone is talking about
this."
I just remember that I don't think I've watched it, but I think there was a short or some
sort of commercial that they put out that they were really highlighting.
Being like, "Hey, this is the one to watch.
You should go watch it, check this out."
There's a big marketing push for it.
Apologies to our listeners for the sudden noise coming from outside.
We are, I guess we might as well say, full disclosure that we're trying, recording a new way,
we're still working the bugs out of it.
Yeah.
Systems change and we have to adapt.
So, bumps me out of it because I feel like with the last one or two recordings, I finally
figured out our audio levels and now we had to redo it all over again.
But it's fine.
So, we'll make it work.
But yeah, this is the new big studio trigger show.
When did we talk about them last?
You animal probably?
That sounds right, yeah.
So it's been a minute since we have, since friends of the show, studio trigger have been
around.
So, getting all the credits out of the way first and foremost, this is based off a manga written
by Ryoko Kui.
Kui, like eating ha ha ha ha.
With art by Naoki Takeda.
Kui has a couple other things under their belt as well, neither which by none of which are
really familiar with.
So, I don't know if it's worth seeing off here.
Takeda has done some art in character designs on, this is a pretty long list.
But they've done some work on some most, some other trigger stuff like Dina Zennon and
Grid Man and a couple of it in some work on Kill a Kill as well.
So, they have been around to do character designs.
So.
By the way, in that trigger show we talked about was a Cyberpunk intro.
That's it.
I knew I was going to say BNA sounded right, but in my brain I was like, and I think even
after BNA we had Dina Zennon, but I'm not quite sure.
I think so.
We have, their name has passed through our mouths before.
Oh yeah, several times.
They're just, you know, the high profile, former GuyNike staff studio and they just recently
reviewed a transformer 30N or 40th anniversary video.
40th anniversary.
Yes, and that was also really cool.
So, trigger always does cool stuff.
But I feel like this is their most in terms of looks and everything for the most part,
most conventional anime we've seen.
Maybe.
Yeah, this is.
I'd say that they're, you know, they're still the little trigger flare here.
Yes, of course.
That's the next.
Yeah, they're definitely sort of kicking, helping to kick off, you know, I feel like this
fantasy anime Renaissance as it were.
This is definitely, it's probably one of the better ones that I watch, I'm not sure about
you.
Yeah, absolutely.
I feel like just in terms of, I mean, it's working off on a manga, right?
So they don't run into the trouble that they sometimes has with the writing on their original
work, but in terms of just visual quality looks great in terms of writing, it's top notch,
it's super, the story's super fun.
So yeah, it could be definitely up there as one of their absolute.
I mean, and the next thing about this is the same manga that has finished its run.
That is very good because kind of getting a little bit of myself here, but, you know,
there's already confirmed to be a second season.
So we know that there is the possibility that this story will be seen through to its ending.
Yeah, very glad to hear that.
If Tringer makes a habit of that, like picking up manga adaptations that have already finished,
please go for it.
I wouldn't mind that.
I'm here for it.
Absolutely here for it.
I mean, some of the, I've talked about their original works too, which are, you know, all,
not all winners, but they at least see them through the end.
There's some weird stuff in there that's for sure.
Like somehow the other night I was talking with some friends and, uh, Arling in the
Franchion, his niver came up, but, you know, I feel like those are two of the, you just,
just push them up to the side.
It's okay.
They tried, they tried some stuff and they, hmm, I mean, that can be mostly attributed to the
writing, right?
Not necessarily and, you know, bring some other writers in and whatever.
And, nothing in the Franks was a co-op with a one, but not that I wanted just to, you know,
absolves trigger from any stupid decisions or whatever in the story department, you know,
brand new animal wasn't entirely their thing, I think, with in-house writers and everything.
And I was not, I mean, I like that show to an extent, but there were some decisions that
I absolutely could not make sense of.
And it's like, what are you trying to say, show?
What are you actually going for here?
And, you know, that, you know, can sometimes happen.
And Killer Kill was fun, super fun, but also, you know, the ending was not as great as it
could have been.
And the same applies to, what was the movie that we watched in, in New York, Comic Con?
Oh, a premiere.
A premiere, right?
Super fun movie.
It looks fantastic.
But the ending, the very, very, very last minutes, it was like, what?
That's what you're doing with it?
Okay.
Yeah.
But there was also, I think, the same writer, a spread new animal.
So I think that she seems to be just his problem.
I don't know.
But yeah, so there's some stuff in there.
It's a bit wonky, but Etra and I was super fun and super well pulled off from beginning
to end and great man and done a Zenon R as well.
So there is so much good stuff and everything at least, least that looks fantastic when
Fringer puts their hands on it.
So it's definitely that.
Yeah, this show was directed by Yoshiro Miyajima who has had hands on almost everything
that Trigger has worked on as far as I can see.
And a couple of things, I'll say, like they worked on a little bit of JoJo part four, excuse
me, apparently a little bit on S.A.O. and some other stuff as well.
So they have been around in more than one sense of the word.
Written by Kimiko Ueno, Nanami Higuchi in Yusato who have all worked on a whole bunch of
stuff.
But one, one of the people they didn't realize was involved with this show is that the
music was composed by Yasunori Mitsuda.
Oh, really?
I was not really.
Yeah, either.
And an anime stuff before?
A little bit.
Actually, he's done a bit of, look at his list of credits, Black Butler, InoZuma 11 and
a couple of things as well.
So not like a super long list of anime credits, but yeah, he's done some.
He really interesting.
I never like picked up on any because, you know, Mitsuda has a very, at least when it comes
to the JRPG area has a very easily discernible style, I would say.
Like you can pick up Mitsuda's music easily, at least from a certain time.
I don't know about his newer stuff maybe, but everything that was around the chrono
cherry-gar, chrono cross, Zenogir, Zenozaga area.
No, wait, Zenozaga, no, he did the first one.
He did the first episode one, right?
And then I think after that was handed off to you.
You can catch your, you can catch your, yeah?
And I can always pick out his soundtracks.
It's like, I have a very distinctive sound, just like you can catch your own soundtracks
have, but I never picked up on him doing any anime work.
I was never like, oh, this is, this is what the hell is this Mitsuda soundtrack?
And I didn't for this anime either.
So maybe he applies a different sound design, whatever, sounds, composition, tactic to,
to anime compositions.
I don't know.
Apparently he worked with someone, Shunzke Tsuchiya, and I'm having trouble digging up the
significant amount of their work.
Uh, okay.
They have done a bunch of stuff since around 2005, according to VGMDB, so they have all
some, so, you know, collaborative level them.
So it looks like Tsuchiya did, must have worked along a side of him on that game, another
Eden, and then did some stuff with the Chrono Cross 20th anniversary live tour.
So I guess they've been working together for a little bit.
Maybe a student?
Could be, yeah, like his understudy.
Yeah, right.
Like Hans Zimmer had a lot of those in Hollywood where it's like a lot of them just went
in the beginning for the same-ish style.
I think Harry Grayson Williams comes to mind, and who also then did soundtrack the music
for Metal Gear Solid.
I think if I remember correctly, and a lot of his stuff in the beginning sounds very
Hans Zimmer.
So maybe it's the same thing for, for Mitsuuta and the other composer on the show that, you
know, riding with him to pick up all his style and learn from him.
I don't know.
It's true, could be.
Anyway, yes, fantastic soundtrack on this.
Absolutely.
I love the first OP for this show, by the way.
I think that's just this very, very cozy, full-key sound to it and gets you hyped up for
the episode.
And the second one is okay, but I like the first one better.
How do you feel about those?
I mean, I find it.
I find it unendingly funny that they chose "Bump of Chicken" to do a song for a show called
"Delicious Ending."
I do really like the first song a lot.
The second one is fine, but I've found myself going back to the first one a lot more often.
Yeah, same, same, same, same, same.
I really like the first one.
Especially when they, you know, it goes back to the instrumental at the end and they have
like, you see the characters sitting next to the fire all sharing a meal and everything
and then the background, the choir goes, "Huh!"
That's really great.
Yeah, that's great.
Yeah, it's really fun.
It's cool.
So, yeah, definitely good music in this very fantasy, appropriate.
Guess we can talk about...
Moving to the characters a little bit.
Yes, a little wider restart with our main tall man.
Yes, my boss.
Speak of tall man.
Like, there are a lot of interesting races in this, right?
I wasn't sure who the normal humans are in this.
I guess they're the tall men, but also they're special because they're actually tall.
I mean, I just sort of assumed that tall men were human and they were called as such like
in comparison to like halflings like chill chug or, excuse me, half foot.
Yeah, half foot, right?
So, I just sort of assumed that was, "Oh, hey, this, but then that's weird because you
have sent you and he's just a dwarf."
Yeah.
And, you know, it's not like a special name that they came up with, you know, obviously
you don't always have to do that, but...
No.
But, yeah, it's...
Yeah.
Maybe these other, also well known in some fantasy areas, maybe like dungers and drinks or
whatever, I don't know.
But maybe they have been brought up again.
But tall man, I never heard before.
So, it's like, "Okay, is he just a normal human and he's taller than half foot?"
So, that's why they call him that or what is going on.
But I think like, there is a human, humanoid race and some, some, there are some subclasses
to that.
One of the tall men, maybe one is half foot, I'm not sure.
No, I think it's just...
Humans, because Valen is classified as a human.
Marcel is half elf, but you can also...
Marcel is a drug of...
Oh, she's also half tall man, tall woman.
Yes.
Lyos.
He likes food.
Yes.
And not only the normal kind or what you would deem as normal.
Well, I guess that's one step further in than where we should start.
Lyos is interested...
Has an interest in monsters and their biology.
And I feel like he makes a big show of it and sort of lead up, not only for laughs, but
to show them that...
Lyos is just a bit weird, my guy, but...
Yes.
I feel like when you're trying to traverse something like this dungeon that we have seen,
that is filled with monsters that it shouldn't be that irregular of an interest to take.
Maybe...
I mean, he's an entrepreneur or maybe he's a trailblazer who fucking knows.
And just, you know, considering how some of the monsters look, I would understand why
people don't necessarily gravitate to the idea of, "Hey, can you eat that?"
That regularly.
So...
I mean, being interested in them absolutely makes sense.
And I feel like there are other people who know stuff about the monsters, maybe not as much
as Lyos or Sanctuary do.
But there are enough characters that are interested.
But for him, he's a real monster, Otaku.
Like he's really, really into it, learning everything about them, sometimes to an unhealthy
extent.
Let's find out what you're about to.
Yes.
Like he's a real, real...
Fanboy.
And that, you know, manifests itself.
And also wanting to consume monsters and try to turn them into meals.
And he will go to great lengths to try all the varieties that are available in this dungeon
when it comes to monsters.
And...
Yeah, well, creatures.
I mean, the idea is sort of brought up by necessity after the...
You see the very first thing is Lyos and company trying to fight the red dragon and they
almost get wiped in, fallen, you know, sends them all away.
And when the idea of resupplying comes up, he says, "Hey, I've got this old book that says
that gives guidance on how you can prepare and eat different types of monsters."
And Grant is an old dusty book without of the information and stuff that isn't on
100% correct, but, you know...
Yeah.
Fencey correct.
If you get some of that...
If you got to start somewhere, I feel like Lyos at least has, you know, the right idea,
but...
It is.
And I mean, it's not...
It's not only that it's like, "Hey, now we have technically a food source, right?
Yeah.
You don't need to spend money on that more than necessary, but also we, at the party,
learn a lot about monster behavior and anatomy, which will help our heroes in battles as
well.
Yes, right?
You know, for example, when Lyos cuts up a mushroom, he realizes there's more resistance
from the meat depending on the direction of the cut.
So he realizes that they should cut those particular monsters vertically instead of horizontally
or diagonally.
But that's cool, right?
That's helping in multiple ways, not even because they can cook the mushroom afterwards,
but also because they know an easier way to fight them and maybe not get wiped as quickly
from certain monsters, which by the way, in this show is an interesting, is an interesting
aspect that like parties regularly get full wiped, like they die completely.
And then they get picked up by these corpse retrievers and then get revived and then need
to pay for that revival.
So there's a whole economy behind it and people trying to scam it, right?
They're like some assholes that we meet later on that try to make a quick bug out of that.
And so that's a whole thing in this show, like people regularly die in battles, but they
can get revived because of magic, because this is the thing in here that is actually talked
about.
And if they get revived before their body mass is completely gone, something for their
soul to attach to, they can go, they can, they live again.
It's actually one of the interesting lore bits that we learned about this dungeon that
they're going into, that the curse has been cast on it that prevents things from permanently
dying.
At least it makes it a lot harder for the soul to actually detach itself from the body.
And that was, I thought it was like that the soul binds to the dungeon in that way it can't
escape.
Yes, either the soul or the dungeon binds the soul to the body for a longer time.
I don't know exactly, I don't remember exactly how it worked, but it was either of those
two.
And that makes it much easier to revive people inside the dungeon.
There's also a big part when they would bring some of them out.
The soul would immediately detach itself from the body, right?
And then they would die as soon as they get out of the dungeon, so they need to get revived
in the dungeon.
So yeah, interesting mechanics that are implemented here, and the light that a lot, and aside from
the first thing that we meet where Felon gets, you know, consumed by the dragon and the whole
hook of the show, them trying to get back to the red dragon and trying to kill it and trying
to get her out of its stomach and then revive her, hoping for there enough being left
enough of her so fucking rusem to think about it.
Her like, he digested alive in the dragon.
When they first bring that up, it's like, oh, yeah, that's something you would have to consider,
huh?
But this is what they hope for it.
They're very matter of fact about it.
It's like, well, we have to get to it in time, so she doesn't get fully digested, then
we can revive her.
And it's like, okay, good to know that.
And, you know, those are the motivation for our main first three liars, Mosil and a chill
chuck.
And then essentially joins because he really, really wants to eat dragon, red dragon meat.
That's his holy grail, his wide whale, literally.
And so that's why he joins the gang and let it just because, you know, he sticks with them
because he likes them and wants to help them save a felon.
And so, yeah, that was cool.
But this, this death mechanic is, is ever present and some parties definitely suffer more
from it than ours.
Like we have this, this kind of secondary party that it becomes more important later on.
We got more other parties too that, you know, come across our party, but they die a lot.
Well, yeah, there, well, there's one party in particular.
Yes, Cabrous party.
They just fucking get constantly wiped and that also comes to play later on, but our party
not as much because they have sent you on the side, they have the book and they know what
to do, they know what to watch out for after a while.
They still get in trouble a lot, but they usually find a way out of it with, you know,
cleverness and, you know, the, the knowledge resources they have at their hands.
And then they cook the monsters, they beat, they cook and eat.
Yeah.
There's like, like you said, Lyos is really doing is doing the most things where like, maybe
dial that back a bit, especially his teammates, let him know that they are not on board with
everything he's trying to do. And I totally get that, especially from a sales point of view,
as boil as she's my favorite character.
But you know, he does stuff like letting himself get sucked into some living paintings to
eat the food, portrait, and them.
Not a successful endeavor, but we learn a bit about the history of the kingdom through
them.
Cool.
Yeah.
The, I mean, the dungeons, the dungeon and the monsters themselves, there's so much world
building in this show.
Yes.
And I get, and I get the feeling I may or may not be wrong about this, but I get the feeling
that, Kui may be a fan of the mystery dungeon series of games.
Really?
I don't play those.
So the original mystery dungeon game was a dragon quest spinoff.
And the crux is that you were traversing a semi-randomly generated dungeon.
Sometimes one character, sometimes you have a whole party and you have to manage both
your health as well as like a stamina thing in some games.
It is called hunger and some games it's not, but you know, there's the idea there.
So I look at that and I feel like there's a, there's a non-zero chance that there's some
inspiration here, which I kind of like that this is sort of like an extension of that idea
into, you know, like a fully fleshed out story.
Yes.
Obviously the dungeon in the games is part of it, but you know, this is definitely, you
know, I would, I would hazard say probably the logical conclusion behind that sort of concept.
Yes.
Absolutely.
But also in regards to lore, the show doesn't hit you over the head with it, right?
It doesn't do giant lore expositions all the time, which would be the worst way to approach
this.
Right, but you know, we still have enough bread crumbs.
Yes.
Sprinkle in between.
Yes.
To keep us going.
You know, obviously the main story is a lot more character driven.
Yes.
And that is also really good.
Like it's the opposite of the soul games.
It's like lore everywhere, but no real narrative happening and no character, motivation or
whatever.
But you don't like reading every item description?
No.
Oh, come on.
I've come to like the gameplay of some of the soul skins, but I hate the way it approaches
its story.
I absolutely didn't.
It buys it.
I just having everything like you having to seek everything out and every little bit and
peace and having to read up on it on the internet to actually grasp what has been going
on the background.
I'm here to have fun and not to fucking work guys like Jesus Christ get an actual narrative
writer for this shit.
I mean, I get that, but if you backtrace it to King's field, it's better than it has been.
Yes.
Sure.
And I guess one of them was a secretary who actually had a narrative.
I've played that yet.
So maybe I would like that the most.
But yeah, it's just like I, I'm never emotionally invested in these games.
Never.
I just play him purely for the atmosphere, for the world and for the game play.
I don't care about anything that's happening in the story.
Never because the game doesn't make me care.
Never.
Never does.
So that's a hangout by these games with this show never had that problem.
But like you said, it sprinkles a lot of bread crumbs in between with like, oh, we heard
about this before and now this becomes more important.
Now we learn more about this little bit of Lord that we heard before.
And this is how it plays into the character development and the way the story progresses
is the perfect way to do it.
It's the perfect way how you make people learn about interesting world bidding stuff while
attaching it to the character development and to the actual main narrative.
That the show is really, really good at that like the stuff with the paintings, right?
There's some stuff we learn about the background of the kingdom that is the whole setup for
the dungeon thing.
And later on that becomes very important character.
We meet there in the paintings becomes very important.
And it's like, hey, I've seen this before.
I know what this is about.
And I probably know what the characters motivation is because we've already seen that in this
little bit of fun goofy side thing where lies just wants to eat food that isn't the paintings.
And you know, that stays in the background for a while then it gets brought up again and
you, oh, that's what this was about.
And that's what all this is about.
That's a perfect way to do it.
This is amazing.
And I think the writing, that's where the writing really shows its strength like combining
this really effortlessly way of world building with the actual characters stories and the main
narrative.
Just really was really impressed by how the show handled that particular aspect.
Yeah, for sure.
It doesn't feel heavy handed or anything.
You know, it just works.
And for the most part, you know, like I said, there is a narrative there, but it's just very
slowly picking up in the beginning.
And that's also what I mostly expected from the show actually wasn't expecting to be ennemied
by its story so much by the end, but most of it in the beginning feels very slice of lifey,
character driven, hey, we learned a bit about the background of the characters, but not
too much.
And mostly it's about, hey, here's a new monster.
How do we fucking cook it?
How do we prepare a meal out of this?
How do we, how do we use the things that appear in this dungeon to make a proper meal by
the end of this episode?
And that's mostly what it feels like in a first couple of episodes and then slowly, but
surely we learn more about the world, we learn more about the characters, we learn more
about why they're here, why they use characters are here, what's happening on the outside,
why the dungeon exists, and so on and so on.
And it's rarely an exposition dump that's happening on the side.
We have some side conversations with other parties.
Or about our party and stuff like that, where it's like a lot of talking, but also a lot
of that is like our like red herrings, where it's like what that's, what are you saying
about our characters that can be true?
No, it actually isn't true.
It's just like only or only pause of that are true because it's hearsay and they got
some of the members from the other party got a wrong impression about our character because
of previous encounters and miscuses, just, you know, misconceptions in general and
preconditions, notions.
And so that's really interesting and you have some classic tropes of hey elves and dwarves
necessarily don't like each other or elves and orcs don't necessarily like each other,
but maybe it's because of a different reason.
And you know, this gets progressed really well in during the course of the show.
And then of course you have all the goofy shit in between with Lyos just freaking out of
her, another one C wants to eat like, he would even eat a demy human like a fish man.
If others allowed it, he's a man is Lyos is an absolute man is.
Yeah, but they kind of put the next on that.
So well, in a way, but he does other weird stuff like we have this character who joins the
main gang very late in the show is it to who is like this new cat girl party.
He member a very brash, but you know, also very capable in combating everything and she
just reluctantly joins the gang for a certain reason.
And then she has to address at a certain moment is really not so long about it to dry herself
up and everything.
And Lyos immediately wants to counter nipples because she's a cat lady.
I want to see how many she has because she's female and just the men is that guy just
a goddamn man is is she like a cow she like a cat is she like a human is.
Only two and it was like get the fuck out of here Lyos.
A man is like I said.
A academic however, his intuition is not bad like this is episode with shape shifters and
he figures that out pretty well and quickly John did you figure out all the shape shifters
immediately.
No, I mean some of them are very, you know, have a very egregious design differences.
Yeah, I mean, there are a couple they're like, okay, all right.
But then the rest is like, maybe this one.
I got it right at the end, but I was surprised how sure Lyos was about all of this and with
his deductions and everything.
I didn't expect that for him.
So that was nice.
He's more observant than we thought.
Yes.
And of course he's like, he seems to really care for his sister and not in the bad anime way
of caring for your sister.
So that's a nice.
I'm cool head for that.
Yeah, it's really a nice change of pace.
And you know, so that that works and then he gets this little sort, buddy and he names
him Kansk of course.
And you know, he's a big goof and he's very weird in certain parts, but the thing is the
show just, you know, let him.
The show is.
Let him.
Let him cook.
Let him cook and let's him eat that regularly like from other characters where it's like,
you are such a goddamn weirdo.
Get out of here.
Leave me alone.
I'm sure everyone has seen whose interest in the show has seen the memes of a.
Since she is Walter Roy and Lyos has just seen.
Yes.
Lyos, we have to cook.
Yes.
I'm pretty sure you've been sung on show did a reading of that.
And it definitely the part is in crime and there's, I don't know, the Marcila on the outside,
maybe be, I don't know, Skydor or whoever.
And it's like, no, don't.
I don't fucking know, but yeah, let's get to her actually because I can't holding hold off
on talking about my favorite character for any longer.
Oh, Marcilism mood, isn't she?
Absolutely.
And definitely my mood like I would, I totally can relate to her not being like super into
it and just wanted to eat normal food.
I get Lyos experimentation interest and I would definitely be there and be like, yeah,
I'll try it at least once, but he's just so into it and wants to get everyone else into
it and she's just in the beginning, she's absolutely not having it.
Later on she is like more open to the idea, but she makes a hard cut at certain things,
like demi-humans, right?
Nope.
Definitely not going to have that.
If it looks like a human, I'm not going to eat it.
I don't blame her on now.
Absolutely not.
I imagine this in the sneak peek.
I love her reaction when she actually really enjoys something they cook up out of the fruits
of a carnivorous plants and she gets nerdy about how the sweet taste figures into it and
Lyos is so happy that she shows interest in the topic of monsochrizyne which makes her
recoil and fear and disgust because she doesn't want to become as creepy as him.
It was amazing.
Like her reaction faces are some of the best things about the show.
All of her jokes are the best in the show.
Like the gotta find a spell to turn back time reaction to the face pumpkin meal is probably
my favorite.
It is so goddamn, so dry and funny and it's just a great bit of humor and she just delivers
all of that.
And she's just, I feel like she's the most relatable character just in general.
She's maybe being the next one to dad, but he's more snarky and brash and playing as
cynical and everything and sarcastic and my soul still feels a lot more earnest in her problems
with certain things and her whole ups and everything and she on the other side of the
coin, she's a lot more optimistic.
Like she's definitely not the bravest of his little fit party member, but she's doing her
best and her magic is strong.
You know, problem is in the early levels of the dungeon or strong magic is not really
needed.
So she feels like she isn't contributing and is way too eager to prove herself.
Of course, backfires to a hilarious degree, but also results, you know, in a better meal
on occasions so there's that.
And she can be very, can be very headstrong and voices her opinion on the regular basis and
everything, but she and Fallen, Lyos sister, became best friends in school.
And Fallen actually taught Marcel a lot about dungeons and I really like their backstory.
It also takes the series a bit to get there.
So it's a neat moment when you realize, oh, that's why the slightly, cowardly lady that
complains a lot is still such a diehard when it comes to getting Fallen back from the
red dragon.
Well, Lyos is self explanatory, but for her, this was the key moment where everything clicked
for me.
Oh, that's why she's doing it.
Of course, of course, it's her childhood friend and it's the person that she, that she's
super connected to and Fallen on the other hand, who was a bit of an outsider, the entire
and connected to her and just they have like this really, really strong bond and strong friendship.
And of course, she wants to get her breast front back from the dragon, even if it means putting
herself at risk all the time and if she's not the most brave person.
But that made her super relatable and super sympathetic and she's doing it despite, you know,
all the odds and despite her, you know, being not the best fighter in everything.
I just liked her a lot and, you know, her clash with the Orc leader where they get into this
heated arguments while making bread go.
So that was really cool and eventually getting to an understanding thing.
And she's just having these freak outs where she gets grossed up by bucks and stunts everyone
as a reaction.
And it could have been amazing.
And you know, this could have gone a different way and she could have been more of a snobbish
character because she was an exceptional student and her mom is a court magician or something
like that, right?
So she's kind of like high class, whatever, but maybe maybe a little standoffish, but not
too like a, not too annoying degree and also not a absurd degree now.
Yes.
And she also feeds very down to earth and certain aspects.
I like that moment where she has to freshen up and sent she and she's like, want to get
out because she's just like, I'm going to wash up and everything.
She's like, no, no, you can stay here.
I'm not going to get naked.
I'm just going to put the washing cloth in here and just rub the, the, the salt of a bit
and sweat and whatever.
And that moment where she does a bit of self narration there and talks to herself because
she is thinking about something while washing herself was just such a, such a real down to
earth moment in a fantasy series and in an anime and felt like made this character even
more like, oh no, she's just, she's just a girl.
She's just a down to earth girl who's trying to help out her best friend and she's here.
She doesn't like being here.
She doesn't like to eat fucking monster food, but she's doing it to make this happen and
get fell in back.
And ah, she's, I just, in my opinion, she's obviously objectively the best character,
even though she is sometimes a bit of a scaredy cat and not a fan of dungeon food like I said.
She's definitely going get, trying to get over the adversities and everything and doing
the best for fellin.
I love her.
I think my seal is just fantastic.
And you know, she becomes much, her power becomes more important later on the series.
She is doing something out of good will like, you know, because well meant intentions and
everything, good intentions, but that kind of backfires and that kind of brings it also
with other characters, but still you know why she's doing it and why the other characters
is blamer for that and everything and I totally get it.
It's not like, oh no, Marcel, what did you do?
It's like, no, I get it.
I get her.
I understand why she's doing that and why she's so adamant of doing this because she also
has a different understanding of magic and everything.
And that's probably going to get brought up again.
It's going to be an important part when they, you know, bite the lot of the dungeon eventually.
So the choice that she makes in the moment that makes sense.
Yes, absolutely.
To, to, to at least the viewer and, you know, the immediate party, but you know, to everyone
else.
Yeah, they're not so, not so happy about it to put it lightly, which to flip the coin is
also understandable.
Totally understandable.
Yes, right.
Because bad experiences and everything, but also wonder is not all of that like classic
doctrine, who is, who's on the wrong here?
Like, what is the background for this?
Are the others wrong and Marcielus just naive or does she really have just a better understanding
of magic and that's why she made that decision and is sure that it will work out in the end?
We don't know at this point.
We don't know if she was right.
If it's, or if it's something in the middle of these two positions with C. So that's also
really interesting, right?
That's still a mystery that's going to play out of the course of the next season probably.
So I like that.
I like the nightmare episode of hers, which was neat and gave us a good insight into Marcielus
feeling of guilt and everything was really good and just only here.
And you know, that deeper character stuff, but also the goofy stuff, you know, she is not
like this super uptight person.
She does a lot of goofy shit as well, not only as reaction to the goofy shit liars and the
other characters do because she's kind of the straight woman here that they play off with
their antics and straight man being chill, Chuck.
But you know, also when she gets goofy like the skyfish, which he goes into full skyfish
mode in one episode, just fucking hilarious.
And you know, just yeah, she's just fun.
And another really fun detail about her that's just on a visual side and that I haven't seen
I think in any other anime.
He changes her hairstyles in pretty much every episode.
She only other character in all the anime I can remember that being actively pointed out
was hard to he because she wore her a different style every day of the week.
That was actually part of the story.
Yes.
Right?
Because she would get her attention and everything.
But in this is just a neat side thing.
It's just like, it's her thing.
She likes to change her per head lot.
She they even talk about her hairstyle when they have to shape shift her episode.
And she is like, wait, no, but that is just my hair.
I wore this already once like a couple of while ago.
And yes, she did.
And one of the previous episodes is like, no, I did this.
It's just I'm in the mood to wear this today.
Why?
Right?
And she has like a couple of different hair sets.
Some of those she goes back to, but some, maybe some of them only are shown in one episode
or whatever.
And that's going the extra mile from like a, from an artist's perspective, like having
a character model in there just for a couple of episodes with a different hairstyle.
That it happens so rarely in anime.
Yes, you have character set changes to her hairstyle after an arc or whatever.
Bulma and Dragon Ball also does this every time an arc is over.
But you know, not like in the course of one episode, like, and then next episode is the
different side.
And the next episode is the different hairstyle.
I picked up on this like after a couple of episodes.
Wait, is she has style different every time?
Yes, it was.
Like I said, some of them are used several times, but it's still different in every episode.
I guess I wasn't so observing because I didn't notice it as much at first.
Yes, at first me neither, but after I was like, wait, oh, this is happening.
So it's really cool.
And they always look great like they always fit her character.
And yes, really cool shit.
Just like show delicious dungeon, showing you that trigger is going for the extra details
here and putting a lot of work into the little bits that are super fun.
And yeah, my seal is one of those characters, both in the character development department
but also in the visual department that emphasizes that.
So yeah, laughter.
Love the other characters too though.
Sanji is super fun.
John, I want to tell us a bit more about him.
Sanji is a gruffle dwarf who's trying to make a living, eating the monsters in the dungeon
and he just, you know, and he sort of helps to maintain parts of the dungeons.
Equal systems.
Equal systems are good work.
Consider himself a caretaker of the dungeons ecosystem.
Yeah, and he outwardly says that.
There's certain things that he does.
He takes care of like, there's like this golem that he tends to every solving.
He uses it to plant vegetables, but also make sure that it's tended to and taking care
of.
And he says that, you know, a lot of the monsters are meant to be like a balance so that they
don't wander into.
I guess, you use the word biome.
Biomes that aren't their own where they would be subject to danger or, you know, with
like some of the stronger ones might go up further and might make it more dangerous for
the people trying to traverse it.
So he's very mindful of that.
Yeah, absolutely.
And like I said, he has extensive knowledge of how best to cook and eat a lot of the monsters
and he imparts a lot of that information on to Lyos as the story goes on.
And he would, it's a, we find out a bit further in that he kind of has gone through some
stuff.
Oh, yeah.
But on the front of it, he comes across as just being very, you know, he's it again, he's
a single mind it, I would say.
Yeah, single mind is a good reason.
He's wants to maintain the dungeon ecosystem.
He's also interested in finding out what different monsters taste like, but there's the one
in particular.
What is a red dragon taste like?
Yeah.
And that's one of the things I got that they just needed a main motivation for essentially
to join the party because technically where he was, he was happy.
So considering cooking red dragon essentially is main goal here, at least for a while, I expected
to show to make a bigger deal out of him, you know, actually being able to maybe fulfill
his wish slash mission.
But you know, when we get to that, which yes, spoilers, but of course, that's what the series
builds towards.
That meal feels pretty much the same as all the others in terms of presentation and emotional
moment and whatever.
But then, you know, then what you mentioned before, he went through some stuff and I guess
the big emotional meal for him is reserved for an ultimate episode where we learn about
his origin story.
We're just pretty dark.
But at least to the aforementioned nice emotional moments.
So there's that.
And I was surprised that the red dragon meal wasn't that, right?
That that was his big holy grail, his white well for reason.
Why does he, why is he so intent?
Why is that the thing that he?
I never tasted this and this is so important to me and so on.
But it's just that.
And even then when they eat it, he's not like, oh my god, this was worth all the effort
and everything.
It's just another meal.
So it's a bit surprised how low key they were about it, considering that it was his main
motivation for a while.
But again, there's another meal is more important.
I mean, I guess it kind of makes sense in a way to me because he keeps, even though
essentially helps out the others, he's generally a pretty good nature.
He keeps to himself a lot.
Yes.
So for him to sort of keep that under wraps because of all the stuff he went through in
the past, it makes, I don't know, I guess it sort of works for me, but I could see why
you would say, you know, sort of, you need at that moment, he still needs some time to
come out of his shell.
That was not the big emotional thing.
I mean, it's not like he's completely standoffish with the other characters in the beginning
or it's like, I don't care about you.
I'm just with you because of I want to eat the drag meat or stuff like that.
He very much like learns about, there's a lot of interaction with in the party and them
letting, learning to know to interact with each other in general, like everyone has their
job and feet of expertise and essentially starts integrating cookie into everyone's speciality.
For example, he uses Chilchak's knowledge of traps to help him prepare fruit, like finding
boiling oil or using a blade trap to cut a big chunk of bad meat.
And you know, that affects the other characters because that means essentially learns about
using traps and Chilchak learns about cooking, you know, everyone then benefits from this partnership.
And you know, I like just like the party seeing growing together in that way and essentially
is kind of a catalyst for a lot of that.
You know, we have Marcelle making soap from the fat of the kelp and essentially letting
her clean is here with it because she puts so much work into it at some point.
And you know, now her support magic works better on him.
They can walk over water and everything.
So that was a nice moment and that is something that we don't see in the beginning because
like you said, then she is used to being mostly to himself and he has to first learn how to
rely on others, how to consider the feelings of other people.
Again, and how to interact with them properly and you know, that's one of his big character
flaws.
He is strong and very knowledgeable in Monster cuisine, but he is not really into risk management.
I mean, yeah.
You know, he's like, I know a dungeon, I'm not into complicated stuff.
And which means he clashes with Chilchak in the beginning a lot who is all about identifying
traps and avoiding them.
And you know, then the others don't necessarily take into consideration, take the ecosystem
of the dungeon into consideration.
Just like that.
And he also doesn't is no fan of magic because in his opinion, it makes things too easy in
his eyes.
You lose perspective and appreciation for certain things when being able to solve every
problem by just thinking as a spell and there's some people in the real world who would say,
Hey, if you want to eat meat, you should maybe be able to slaughter a pig or you know,
a cow or whatever because just buying it from the supermarket and makes you lose the
connections to what that actually means and see that perspective and essentially is kind
of like falling into that.
I just found the whole magic angle with him sort of interesting because classically speaking,
dwarves are resistant to magic.
Like as in it has less of an effect on them, like which is something that goes back to
like dungeons and dragons and whatnot.
So the fact that he, the, like the magic that Marcel used on him to be able to walk over
the water was only more effective after she had helped wash his hair and beard because
you know, I guess that was like the best conductor for it.
Hair is a big catalyst for magic as we learn.
Marcel uses her own hair to cast some spells on certain characters like the Cabrero's party
right when she heals them or whatever.
She uses her own hair, I think, and that's how they find out that this party had some interaction
with them, I think.
So hair is very important and senti is a big old dirty, no, small old dirty man, like he's
very much just test very, very dirty hair and that's why when it's needed, suddenly in
one episode, Marcel's magic doesn't properly work on him.
Yeah, you're right.
That's really interesting.
Again, good world building when it comes to the races that are present in the show, the
different ones, right?
And how they differentiate from each other in certain character traits and but also in
certain body traits and what they can't do.
And yeah, but you know, they find a way around that, which I mentioned before, like something.
And senti actually appreciates, he learns to appreciate magic of or certain aspects of
magic after while he's not the biggest fan of it, but after while he finds out there is a certain
use for some of it, certain you for certain tools, that children use as he was not interested
in that.
And for senti, it's mostly like opening up his, for the others is opening up their eyes to
the dungeons, to the dungeon and learning about its different biomes about the different
world, the monsters and what they can offer them and how they work and how they interact
with each other and everything and getting knowledgeable about them for about that for senti
since it's been a long time in this dungeon.
It's about learning the things the outside world has to offer is his life in the dungeon
and also benefiting from that and having the monsters and the ecosystem.
So it's all about exchange and learning from each other, which was pretty cool.
I like that a lot.
So yeah, cool character again.
The last of the main bunch is probably his chillchak, which I feel like doesn't necessarily
go through as much development as senti and marcil.
Yeah, we, I feel like we don't really, we just learned a little bit about it, but definitely
not as much as any of the other characters, but that might come in the next season.
So we learn he's technically an old man.
He's 29, which is like what?
You just said before, but the different life spans people because we have different races
and those they age differently.
Humans, tall man's age like humans.
Wafs have 2.5 times the lifespan of a human half foot like chillchak usually only have a
lifespan of about 50 years.
So with 29, he's getting there, right?
And elves usually for about 500 years, so definitely not as long as in Friven, but still
Marcil, I don't even know if they say how old she is at some point.
Apparently she is 50.
Okay, so she is still pre-earned.
But yeah, so chillchak is kind of an old man.
I think at one point we learn he has a family outside of the dungeon.
It's just on the side, info, it's not made a big deal about that.
We don't see a flashback to that really or anything, but I think he has a wife and two daughters
or something.
So, but you know, because of his, the way he looks and he, when he talks, he feels like this
young cynical or sarcastic person who is always annoyed if people don't listen to his instructions
because he's the tactics guy.
He's the guy who knows all about the traps, all about lockpicking, all about avoiding danger
and everything.
So, you know, he has his clashes with Senti and he has his clashes with Lyos who is always
going out of the way to find new monsters and it's like, no, that's not what we want to
do.
We want to avoid them.
God damn it.
And so yeah, that's of course fun, but that's mostly his job in the party and in terms of
the show is being like the, like the straight man who complains about the other characters
doing dumb goofy shit and you know, him not doing that so often.
I mean, he has also some stupid things happening to him like, you know, he has trouble with mimics,
but who doesn't?
Frieden can also sing a song for that.
You know, he moreso of different reasons and everything, but he's has still goofy parts,
but he's the straight man in this group and he's always like, God damn it.
Why do I have to take care of all these children doing dumb shit and it feels like that.
So that's his main role here.
I feel like aside from that, there's not that much happening with it in him in this season
yet, but that could still come.
And he's still an integral part of the party in terms of skillset, but also, you know,
sometimes doing something in exposition, but also in terms of reactions to like I said,
all the nonsense that is going on around him.
So it's very enjoyable.
And you know, in the battle, he's mostly like, I'm going to run away because I cannot really
contribute to this.
discretion is the better part of valor.
Yes, but also that that also does its part in certain.
So cool.
Yeah.
And outside of those four, we have a couple of interesting side characters or coasters,
felon, lies, there was mostly around in background stories, right?
That of missille, for example, and a bit of other stuff because, you know, the moment of
Asian given the main motivation of our party.
Of course, she can't be around too much in the season.
And then we got some other characters, other people like, you know, the gnome, I forgot his
name, who's another party who becomes a bit more relevant in terms of lore and exposition
later on and politics.
There's Kabru, who is like, he, I think you miss well, right?
I think he's a tall man.
He's tall man, right?
And he was this other party, the party that gets completely killed that we mentioned in
beginning.
And his motivation is mostly like he wants to destroy the ruler of this dungeon and does
keep the monsters from spilling out at a certain point because that's what happens on his islands
and had a lot of all of the people he knew or a lot of the people he knew killed and everything.
So that's his main goal and that might eventually interfere with our main parties goals.
We'll see.
I can see fell, fell and figure into that posing side and them having to fight Kabru eventually.
He's also a bit of, I don't know, he seems to be a nice guy generally, but there are these
moments in this story where he seems very, very like sober, cold blooded when it comes to
killing certain people when it seems to dishing out his own, his own brand of justice.
Yeah, there's something bubbling just under the surface.
Yeah, something very callous and ruthless about him in certain moments that makes you feel
like not entirely comfortable with this guy.
Like he feels like he has good intentions, but it feels like he will go to certain lengths
to achieve his goal set might not be super nice.
Yeah.
And that comes across in certain moments.
You know, he's not like a guy that is sitting on his prejudices and everything like this.
He's got, he's got a certain opinion in the beginning about Lyos and the sister and he, he
changes that like he switches, he switches and he accepts that he had a wrong impression
about Lyos in the beginning and he changes his opinion on him.
So he's not like completely narrow minded or anything, but in regards to his motivation,
it's just like as this, this paladin ask like super, super night in a certain way that is in
it for not the money, like most of the other people who are going into the dungeon, like they
just want to looted, ransack it.
He's in it for the long term goal he wants to, to help the people outside of the dungeon
by destroying the person that is causing all the, the bad stuff happening in the dungeon,
all the monsters who appear in everything.
So he's a kind of a noble goal, the problem is when it comes to other people interfering
with that, he is probably not going to make this, let this be up for discussion.
So he won't abide people getting in his way.
Yeah, so I'm pretty sure it's going to take up an antagonistic role eventually.
Uh, we'll see.
Right now he isn't, he's going to be somewhat be part of the party, I think eventually, at
least his thesis, uh, at the end, there might be, but also not.
He's still around though.
I wonder about that.
Yes.
And he's definitely one of the most interesting characters when it comes to the prospect of
future seasons to see where he goes and where his character goes.
Mm hmm.
Because right now it's just, it's just a wild guess where he will actually end up when it
comes to the relation to our party.
Like I feel there's, I thought there's two other characters who would probably join before
he does, but I'm, I could also be way off.
Yeah.
Now I'm pretty sure I know what you're talking about.
And just because of their history with our main party, I would agree to.
Mm hmm.
Absolutely.
So, um, I am willing to be proven wrong at any point.
Absolutely.
And by the end of the show, we also get another faction that is playing into this, which
are the Western elves, which of course also will play into more sealed story, probably
eventually when they encounter them, uh, who are, uh, intent on leveling the dungeon, which
cover is trying to convince them to not do that and to seal it instead because leveling
dungeon means a lot of the monsters will spill outside and will kill a lot of people.
Well, he wants to, uh, before, you know, the elves will kill the monsters too, but, you
know, a lot of people in that conflict will lose their lives.
And they're just more, you know, with the, they're about the Bluntamer approach and he's
more about the scalpel going into the dungeon to the lowest level and beating the final boss
so just.
Mm hmm.
So, we'll see, uh, but he, I think he convinces the elves to also get into the dungeon.
Uh, I don't know.
We'll see.
Interesting setup for the second season.
And, uh, we see where this goes.
We don't know that much about Isis, uh, Sumi yet, uh, the last party member of Man Group.
We barely talked about her because there's not much to talk about her.
I think she is part of Shuro's group first, right?
Yeah.
She was one of his retainers and then Shuro just was kind of like, Hey, I think you should
go with them and he said, soon we start like, uh, fine.
And is he even saying that or is she just running away and then joining up with them later?
I'm not sure.
I, I feel like that was part of it.
Maybe I'm remembering wrong, but I think she, you know, because she's like this, this
artificial beast man, she's not really necessarily fond of her, the country where she came
from because it feels like she is an experiment or whatever on, on willing one.
So maybe that will play into it and we'll see if that story gets elaborated on later on.
That sounds really interesting.
But, uh, yeah, there's a nice moment between her and Marcel later on like with their hugging
each other.
They become pretty, flows pretty quickly, which is fun because it's, Isisumi is like this.
He's not a people person because she is a cat, haha, haha.
But, you know, the her interactions with the gang is with, with the rest of the parties
more standoffers in the beginning, but later on, due to certain circumstances she and Marcel
get pretty close pretty quickly.
And there's like a really nice tender character moment between those.
I think it's either the penultimate or the last episode.
And I can see them having an interesting dynamic also in the future season and some stuff
happening there.
And yeah, looking forward to learning more about her character and maybe seeing some more
about chill chucks background and everything.
I feel like I got a pretty good grasp on Marcel and Senchi and Lyos at this point, but not
necessarily those two.
So, let's see, we'll see where this goes.
Yeah.
Those three in Fallon, we definitely have learned the lion's share about, so.
Yeah.
Which is funny because we haven't really spent that much time with Fallon herself yet,
but we've heard so much about the other characters talking about her and seeing her in the
background and certain background stories and everything that it feels like we already
know her a lot more than some of the other characters, which is, I mean, it's also a good
thing to do, right?
That makes you care about them actually fulfilling their mission and getting her back.
Because if it, if she was just like this elusive thing with like us, just Lyos sister, it's
just Marcel's friend, then that would maybe not be enough to be that emotionally engaged
in her story, but we see enough of her over the course of this first season where it's
like, oh no, she seems to be a really cool person and we definitely want to save her like
along with the party.
So yeah, that was super cool.
To look at my random notes of cool things.
Oh, I actually wrote great orchestral JRPG if soundtrack.
I just didn't pick up that it is that it was Mitsuda style.
So I picked up on the JRPG atmosphere, but it didn't pick up on it being Mitsuda.
Well, there we are.
There we are.
We've had the same thought, but didn't connect it up.
Yeah, it's funny.
Maybe we mentioned about the fauna in the flora and dungeon, which is really interesting.
You know, you have classics like Manating Plans, Basilisk and Sea Serpents, but you'll
also get really, really offbeat stuff like the cleaners who are these little microorganisms
that repair damage in the dungeon.
That's really fun.
Then the paintings who seem to be, features themselves in a way, you know, you get the living
armors that are not really possessed armors, but actually have like these little mollus
attached to them.
And that's why they move and these mollus have also their own ecosystems, ecosystem and
everything.
I thought I thought that was really cool.
That was super cool.
Yeah.
And that's these are the moments where you understand why liars are so obsessed with it,
because it's just a cool idea.
And you know, Sanctuary then finding out, I mean, it's, it's still a bit weird that the
first thing they then go to is like, oh, we found a new interest, an interesting new creature.
Let's cook it instead of studying it for something like that in its natural habitat.
But you know, that's what this show, that's that's the hook of the show.
It's like they're gonna cook fucking everything.
And yes, in Stereocat, I don't know, I mentioned this before, but people die in this show.
So there's a rising amount of gruesome gory deaths.
And you know, being able to revive usually everyone, it feels like that's how, why they put,
were able to put this in here without, you know, killing the mood as well.
But there's like one particular battle in the last quarter of the show where it's just
Jesus.
I did not expect that much blood in this show.
It went really wild.
It gets to be a lot.
Yeah, absolutely.
A lot of nice details aside from Marcee's hair, like the party is doing something from the
second opening that helps them in an actual fight later on, which I didn't pick up on when
watching the OP.
And then, oh, that's what they're doing.
Oh, interesting.
They just do that a lot of anime openings, them holding at the, each other at the hands.
And then in the show, they do like where they have a monster flipped through that and then
being.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
But the holding each other's hands in the, is the thing that happens regularly in anime
or peace, like them soaring through the sky and holding is just other's hands in the circle.
So I didn't pick up on that and then they actually do that and show and actually has an
effect in the fight.
And it was great.
So.
And yeah, just, you know, the story being as good as it is, like I said, I expected this
more of us to be a slice of life, a fair all the way through.
But I really got pulled in by the story and of course, as expected from trigger the action
and general presentation, I just top notch.
So that's really cool.
I think the last thing, unless you have something else, John, that I need to bring up because
it's the show it is.
What is, what of the monster foods, John?
Are the ones or is the one food item that you would like to taste yourself?
Yeah.
Oh man, I feel like for me, it would be sky fish and chips if only because of the great name.
But there was some other ones that looked tasty.
What was the one that caught your eye specifically?
Oh man, there were so many.
I don't know how I could pick one, but.
I think you love thing of meat or sight dish that stuck out because of the way it looked.
I'm seafood.
I just seemed to recall.
What was it?
I think it was just like a giant frog meat that they made one time and that looked really
good.
But I mean, I guess there's that, but there's just so many others.
Like when they had like the treasure bugs and they can eat them.
That was definitely the freakyest fucking monster designs and also meal they did was like,
that is so fucking weird, but also really just monsters pose mimicking treasure.
So you know, being their own kind of mimics.
And yeah, the fact that it's an extension of a mimic in a way.
Yes.
And you know, them just turning into that into candy because you know diamonds, rubies, whatever,
they also they already look a bit like, you know, clear sugar candy, whatever.
And then you know, essentially throws the actual gems away, the fool, the absolute cantaloupe.
And yeah, that, but that was fun.
And you know, there was the times that they made like the ice cream or like the jar of candy
as well.
Those were free, you know, just a little something sweet on the side too.
There's a lot of, man, there's a lot of good looking food in this.
There is some on less stuff, they do some pancake stuff and yeah, it's cool, it's cool stuff.
It brings to mind in particular, if you've ever played dragons crown and you see the meals
that you can buy in the tavern before like going out on adventures and fighting bosses,
it's like, it's like that.
Like it looks decadent.
It looks so good.
Yes.
Food was also comes to mind of course.
Although there is no people losing their clothes over the food in this one.
But yeah, that's definitely, that feels, felt very familiar when you know these, that game
and that anime that's revisiting that feeling.
Absolutely.
But yeah, I thought the show was great.
It seems like you feel the same John.
It was fantastic.
Really good time.
Two course shows, so not too short like 24 episodes, but it went by pretty quickly.
And we're getting a set in season, so that's pretty dang good.
John, where can people watch the first season?
As available to watch on Netflix and it is available.
They are simile dubbing it as well.
And you know, it being a little bit off of when I pros eat these videos, they may recently
be, I don't watch a whole dub, but the whole cast in the dub was really great.
And we, you and I talked about it privately, but it was nice to see that like a lot of the
Japanese community was like, can't know the voices are like really in line with what we
imagined, you know, they would be too.
So you know, it was cool to see a lot of agreement on both sides about it.
Yeah, and considering that the, you know, it's more technically a Western-ish RPG design
thing going on there in certain parts, at least when it comes to classic, you know, feeling
to the classic Dungeons and Dragons formula and crowd, maybe in certain aspects and maybe
monster designs in certain parts and you know, the races and all that that are available.
And we consider watching it in English instead because it feels like appropriate also
with the names of the characters and everything, you know, could, could be, you could do that.
I mean, I of course watch in Japanese because I watch all anime's up usually, but I feel
like this would be one of those, or just like the anime that are set more in the Western
hemisphere of our world that it might warrant checking out the English dub because it feels
like, oh, yeah, it's like maybe a series that would benefit from having that language as
the language that you listen to while experiencing the show.
So I think I've set this before, I'm kind of glad that we have moved past the point of like
90s, dubs being questionable.
And to the point that, you know, the production value and the like the cast and crew, like
the feeling that, you know, that, you know, there's a desire to elevate the experience is
definitely there.
So like, again, you know, same as you don't watch a whole lot dubbed because you know, most
of it is just simul cast and subbed, but this, uh, Kaguriyasama, Oshinoko, I think, uh,
and I haven't gone back to check out, but I think no coton has a simul dub on Amazon.
Interesting.
I wonder which I, I wonder how well some of the jokes carry over, but I also kind of want
to check it out at some point just to be like, huh, okay, because I saw some clips and it
does go a little crazy as you would expect, but you know, I'm glad we are at that point
where it's like, yeah, no, the dub can, can be just as good.
It can be an equally valid choice.
All right.
Uh, then I say dungeon food, oh, dungeon food, but there's still one thing we have to do.
[Music]
Bast of this season.
So yeah, best of the season, of course.
Now, since we only had two episodes this season, only three reviews, the selection is
not as broad.
So yeah, I don't, uh, no, John, I don't you start us off with what was your pick this
season.
Oh, brother.
[Laughs]
Well, I, I only have really two shows out of the full review should do.
Like, you know, I touched on some quick in the desk.
And there was a couple other shortest things I watched, but you know, those, hard to give
stuff to like, stuff like that or to returning shows because they already had their time to
shine.
So, you know, I've liked that Demon Slayer finally gave us time to actually breathe.
I actually really appreciate that.
So I feel like I could pick it just on that merit alone.
We got to know some of the Hashira and it was just, you know, a lot.
There was a good exposition that didn't feel overbearing in it.
But then we had delicious and dungeon, which had so many great characters and a lot of,
you know, just incredible world building in food all looked really good, man.
Oh, yeah, it's absolutely.
Don't watch that show on an empty stomach, people.
That's a bad idea.
[Laughs]
Just like with food for us.
Don't do it.
It's, it's gonna hurt you.
And when, when you're on a diet currently, definitely don't watch this show.
It's not gonna make you happy.
Absolutely not.
[Laughs]
Yeah.
So, I feel like, yeah, I would give it to delicious and dungeon just by that little bit.
Because, I mean, Demon Slayer is coming back for probably two more runs, if I had to guess.
I mean, we have the movie trilogy that's coming up and not sure if they're going to tie
that in with like the final arc that comes after that.
Yeah, I wonder.
I mean, it sounds like from the name of the movies, it's just gonna be the penultimate arc,
like the one before the final arc, just the infinite castle, but also maybe not like
you said.
I'm not sure actually.
It'll have time to come back.
So, delicious and dungeon, you know, it's possible it could win again, but you know,
we don't like to give three pieces around here too often.
So, I feel like D in D.
[Laughs]
Oh my god, I just got it.
Oh my gosh.
Wow.
I had not realized this before either.
Oh no.
It was a good show.
Please watch it.
[Laughs]
What's your pick?
I'm gonna go jump off a roof.
Please don't.
Still need my go-hose.
Anyway, yeah.
So regarding Demon Slayer, I liked the new season, but only really loved the final two episodes.
You know, weirdly enough, Demon Slayer hasn't gotten any of our best of the season awards so
far, I guess the previous outing probably would have had the best shot, but it had to contest
with Vinland Saga season two in Wytro Mercury, so tough luck there.
[Laughs]
True.
Maybe Infinite Castle arc will finally be the one we'll see.
Loved a lot about it, delicious and dungeon, the world building, the characters, the production
values, the story in itself.
But, as much as I love what it was giving me, it wasn't firing on all cylinders every
episode as much as Kajanama 8 was.
It mostly was, but not as much.
That kind of course, being attributed to it being more of a low-key show and also the season
having double the runtime of that of Kajanama 8's first core.
But regardless, Kajanama 8 was the show the season that had me chomping at the bits for every
new episode each week and had me wanting more after the end of each one.
Of the characters, especially the main guy, one of the most empathetic showmates at recent
time, also the most relatable one for me personally, because he's a bit older than your usual
Sean Protekun.
I duck the sci-fi setting, I duck the Kajanama 9's, the action, the visuals, the soundtrack,
all seem to cater to me specifically, not just because I'm a hopeless Sean and battle
bitch, but also because all of it delivered that little bit of extra jolt that I didn't
know I was looking for in that kind of show.
So, yeah, if you love your action and your big monsters and your 30-somethings that are
trying to find their place in life and risking a fresh start, this is the show battle show
for you and it was for me, so I'm gonna pick that.
Or my best of the season doesn't mean that I won't pick delicious dungeon in-genjone
when it comes back for the second season.
We'll see, that's something to look forward to, definitely, and looking forward to reviewing
that again with you, Jon.
But I think that's it for now for this season, short season, like I said, two episodes,
next season we have at least probably three for you with a couple more reviews and of
course in the next episode.
We will talk to you about the fresh new premieres from the fall anime season.
So until then, since it's getting cold again, stay warm and enjoy the coldest seasons.
Take care everybody.
And that is a wrap on the 159th episode of Anime Brinthries.
All the music in this podcast is from the Double Dragon Neon soundtrack by the Amazing
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Much good.
So long, everybody.
Next time on Anime Brain Freeze!
Oh dear.
We seem to really dug our booze in on this one.
Yes, we've grown pretty fun.
Of it.
[Music]