[Music]
Hello and welcome to an all new episode of Anime Brain Freeze.
We Are Your Rentable Hosts.
I am John.
And I'm C.C.
And when there's just too much cool anime to watch, we've got you covered.
Today we bring the pain and the joy in equal measure.
First John will return to his old ball and shame,
rent a girlfriend and talk about in what ways its newest season is bringing him ever closer
to a rage-induced brain and neurism.
And after that, I will turn the page on a true classic
by reviewing the news adaptation of the "And Surely Book" series.
So get ready to dive into a world of chud like wonder and imagination.
Don't forget to pay your rent on time or you will end up truly made unless
and definitely don't pause the part, we'll be right back.
[Music]
I don't know where to start because they're into girlfriend season 4.
Once upon a time, there was a man who ventured into the dangerous world of anime romcoms.
Not knowing what he was getting into, he decided to start watching a little show called
"Rentacle Friend" because it sounded fun and intriguing.
Little did he know that he would end up torturing himself to no end.
Is that how it started out? How it went until now?
That's the real life story.
So I had issues with season 1 and 2, but I felt like,
okay maybe there's something to this, I'm pretty sure I talked at length about season 3 a couple of
times now and I thought it ended on a really strong really heartfelt note.
And then season 4 throws that all out the window.
Ah, because there was character development in season 3 and season 4 was like,
we can't have that because then we don't have the drama anymore so we need to back pedal on the
character development or what happened here.
Yeah, there's a lot of that. So,
Kazoo Yis family takes this like, biannual vacation to this resort called the Hawaiians,
which I believe they said is in Okinawa.
So about as far as south as you can get in Japan, I believe that's where they said it was.
My notes are very sparse because I was just getting so frustrated with this, I'm sorry.
Aloha, yes.
So Kazoo Yis grandmother Nagomi is so taken with Chisuru and is so
so fixed on the idea of her marrying her grandson that at one point in an earlier season,
she gives her this ring to hold on to that was hers and was Kazoo Yis mother and it's like,
okay, I can't get you like the girl and she and you want the best for your grandson and all that but
don't you think that's a little heavy-handed and cc is from a different generation. I feel like maybe
cd that appropriate or something, I don't know. I mean, yes, but they go on this vacation.
I'm skipping a lot of the preamble in the first few episodes because it's largely unimportant.
There's a lot of himming and haing and uh what's her name? Oh God, the ex-girlfriend,
mommy coming in and the one you hate, the one everyone should hate.
Mommy coming in and trying to convince Chisuru that Kazoo Yis just using you,
if you just kick him to the curb now, you can just leave this all behind you and Chisuru is not stupid, okay?
Thank God, Chisuru is not not naturally the case, you know, some of these things.
No more Chisuru is not stupid. No more to it, Kazoo Yis is not manipulative. He's an idiot, yeah,
but he's not like some manipulative prick. He clearly, like, he can't get the words out of his mouth,
but it's clear he wants the best for Chisuru and I look at that and I'm like, okay, you know what?
At least you're not trying to be disgusting about this. You're being a little weird about some things,
but you're not like outwardly gross. Like, okay.
And then Ruka plays into all this where she's like, "Oh, but I still want to be your girlfriend, Kazoo Yis."
He's like, "Listen, kid, quite literally, kid, because you're still in high school, kid, I'm into Chisuru and I've said this to your face."
So they go on this vacation and guess what? Everyone is here. Nagomi invites a lot of other people without Kazoo
and she's Ruka's prior knowledge, guess who shows up, but mommy and she wants to throw a wrench in all of this.
And Chisuru is so bewildered by all of this because Kazoo Yen, her agreed on like a signal prior to the set.
If someone forced the two of them into a situation that they wanted to be, that they didn't want to get into that,
Kazoo Yen was like, "Do you feel comfortable with this? If not, say, you know, this?"
Ah, say, and I'll shut it down and it doesn't go as planned.
What is the safe word?
I honestly don't remember. It's not important.
Ah, same. I thought it would be something ludicrous that would then lead to them having to say that word in situations
where it would lead to very stupid misunderstandings.
I don't remember it being like anything stupid, but not really as safe or as much as it was a signal like, you know.
Yeah.
And then they get all dragged into this and Chisuru is feeling real sort of about the whole situation
and I don't blame her.
And Kazoo Yen feels awful for dragging her into this.
And Chisuru is like, "Kazoo Yen, I just want to give you back this ring and we can move past this and get on with our lives."
And Kazoo Yen is like, "I've want you to hang on to it for now."
And she's like, "Oh, okay, all right."
And his intention is to finally get the words out, just say to her, "I don't want you to be a rental girlfriend anymore."
And every time he goes to say it, he gets shut down in one way or another.
And I'm just sitting here pulling my hero like, "Chisra's Christ."
And mommy is over here trying, putting on the nice girl front saying, "Oh, I would never get between you and Chisuru or anyone."
You were, or doesn't say Chisuru because at this point,
Chisuru is still putting up the front like, "No, we're still, we're still, you know,
professionally."
Like, like, client and, like, like, I can't think of the other word, but,
mommy's not buying it. Okay, clearly. She's right, right? I mean, she is right.
She has to ride on to there. It's not like she is.
But, yeah.
But she's trying to go about it in a way that's basically going to make everyone miserable and destroy their lives.
And it's like, "You need to tell Nagomi right now."
And it's like, "What if I told her that, oh, you're in some sort of distress in this, in that,
in Nagomi catches wind of this?" And she's like, "Chisuru, is there something wrong?
You can tell me if there's a problem." And it's like, "Oh, no!"
And there's this one episode where Nagomi takes Kazuya out for a walk and they're talking.
And she's like, "Well, I'm just so glad that you found someone you can be with."
And she's respectful and she's kind and she's sweet. And Kazuya's sitting here like, "Oh, no."
And he feels understandably terrible for perpetuating this lie to his grandmother
because they couldn't get the truth out to Chisuru's grandmother before she passed.
But at least she got to see the movie that Chisuru wanted to make. So she got, you know,
a good ending. His grandmother, a danger of dying. I mean, she's old.
I mean, she's old and, you know, and I don't think the implication is there, but it's like, you know,
Kazuya wants to find someone to still live down with to make his grandmother happy because that's
all she wants is for her grandson to be happy. I mean, she also needs to learn that you should live for
yourself and not for other people. The funny thing is that, you know, his ones and her ones kind of
coincide. He just can't, you know, verbalize it to the person that he should do it too.
Yeah, because there's this big dramatic scene where I think the story was that Kazuya's mother
and father got married at a church that is nearby to the resort. And Chisuru's trying to get away
from the so she can think for herself and she runs off to the resort and for a little, to the
chapel for a little bit. And she's just thereby herself and Kazuya runs up to her with every intent of
saying this thing to her. But mommy is trying to lay down the law. Chisuru and say, well, if you don't
say something to Nago Me by now, I'm going to do it. And when Kazuya goes to say something, she has to
run away and intercept mommy and it's a whole mess and not that my anime, not that my anime
list ratings mean anything. But this is the lowest rated season so far. It hasn't gone above a seven,
but we're getting close to dipping below a six right now. Yeah, I'd that is still higher as I would have
expected considering what you said about the show, how you described it and everything.
But I guess people who watch it or at least some of them have different expectations. I wonder,
has the as the series at this point I have sadly already forgotten, but has the series made it
clear at this point is that Chisuru feels to say way deep down as Kazuya and they're just like
the only role block is that none of them can say it or is it still kind of unclear or on her part.
So that it could end up if Kazuya like verbalizes feelings that he could get like shut down.
She clearly has feelings for it. So it's the standard just talk to each other you dumb it is.
Like it's at first like she's kind of unsure, but then as things go on and as they're talking more
without him actually saying it she's like she is she says in so many words,
if a guy told me that they wanted to be with me, I would give up the rental girlfriend business.
Intent, intent, intent. Yes, yes, yes, and it's like this is the worst I've ever seen of this kind of story.
That is gotta say something considering you have seen quite a lot from calm anime, right?
Because we are at like I don't know where exactly it leaves off in the manga. The
final episode of season four is called Paradise and Girlfriend. Paradise and Girlfriend is like 20 to 30
chapters of the manga that runs from chapter 188 to 230. Okay, it's 42 chapters. Excuse me 43 because
it goes to 231. The manga is currently at okay, how many chapters do you want to guess the manga
is that before I reveal to you? It's you. After like as a whole or as a whole two current.
So wait wait wait wait wait as the series and again, the watch chapter. I am going to be conservative
and guess maybe 190 but between 190 and 200 because literally 43 chapters have the same name and the
first chapter that has it is 188. Okay, so 300, 405. This is correct. John, you're gonna have to stick with
the series for a bit longer, I guess. How do they stretch this shit out so long? I don't understand.
Like I mean I do understand like sitcoms exist, right? And they run for I don't know how many
fucking seasons even though the steam just is out after like the first two or something.
Even Seinfeld, a show about nothing of their own admission has more going on than this.
Yeah because it's always the same thing here, right? Like you have the two people who are obviously
meant for each other and then you have someone throwing a wrench into that and it's not probably not
even as like that you have many side characters that have their own thing going aside from our two
mains. Like you don't have the how I met your mother situation where you have like two potential
other pairings as well who have their own stories. This is not the case here, right?
Well there's Ruka who wants so bad that you'd be with Kazuya but it's still Shazuya.
Like it's not like she's going after another guy, right? But I glossed over a lot of details in
this season because I have gone over the main thrust of it. But Ruka had been going on a rental
date with one of Kazuya's friends and he was invited on this vacation as well. And things are
awkward between them but not outwardly like awful. Like Ruka is crazy issues for Kazuya is not here
to cause trouble. She is at least respectful of everyone. So I will give that to her.
One as she is enough. And Kazuya's friend who's named I can't remember and it really it doesn't matter.
He tries to speak with Ruka and it tries to at least smooth things over with her and it's like
at least someone's trying to do something here. And then another one of Kazuya's friends is on this
trip as well and he's so oblivious everything and it's like so you are worthless in the grand scheme
of things. Why are you here? Why do you matter? You don't go to infuriate you further. And then
Kazuya's parents are there and they are so much worse. Like Chisuru goes out one night with
a Kazuya's mother and they have this talk about they have the talk about oh this is where
Kazuya's father and I got married and the ring that you have you still belong to me. And it's
I mean it's at least a nice talk between them and they go to the resource gift shop and
Chisuru buys this like keepsake like little ring thing for Kazuya's mother and it's like
okay you know that's kind of nice at least but it's so overshadowed by everything.
Else, dude. I don't I don't know I don't know if I can do this to myself. Season five is coming
next year. I don't I think I have to cut myself loose like I was between hate watching this in
Sword Art. It's like I mean Sword Art hasn't been running for a while. So I mean there's been the
two progressive movies which I still haven't watched and I want to I want to at least sit down and
watch them at some point and say that I have to be like okay it's at least it from a different
perspective maybe awesome as perspective of the story was at least slightly less stupid than
Curie Toes but if it still gets to the same end point then like meh also I don't know when it happens
in the manga. I think it's in one of more recent chapters so I don't think it'll happen in the
enemy for a minute but I want to call out the author of Rage Meijima. I want to call you out
specifically me a Gima. Why? Does Kazuya's appearance change to look suspiciously like you?
Are you trying to say something about yourself with this story? What message are you trying to send?
And apparently there's no transition. Kazuya just from one chapter to another
changes appearance. And there are some people out there who are tripping over themselves to be
oh well he went and you know got his hair done or died or we're not no no no no no no no no no is
there's a potential to write that in later? I mean I guess but it doesn't sound like the effort's been
made me a Gima. What? Why? Also what are you considering? How you described Kazuya? Why would you
want to make yourself the self-insert like why would you want to admit to being that person in real life
because Kazuya apparently is a flaming idiot? So I wouldn't be too keen on just letting
all everyone in the world know that that's me that that's just a self-insert character like I mean
that suspicion is always there when you write a story and you know there's a prominent male figure
and you're a male writer of course that could you know always be there the same for female writers
with their female man characters but you know when you also make the appearance very close to your
and then that person you're starting he's a fucking idiot like what are you doing man? Why would you
why would you admit that shit like don't? That's I don't understand. I don't I don't get it
but it's hilarious to me let me be clear like especially that he did it without any real explanation
the story apparently he's like no that characters me now I'm done pretending I am Kazuya Kazuya
me like going back to Sword Art for a minute at least Curito is honest about what he is he's just
Kawahara's power fantasy and then when they let someone else write him for organ-a-lost scale he
became an infinitely more interesting character yeah how about that I think we both liked ordinal
scale right I mean that was it was a good movie I wasn't great but it was good it was definitely
serviceable it wasn't annoying or infuriating so so I don't I really don't think I can do myself again
with another season of this we will see John you've said this before I don't know I don't even
know when it's airing next season I mean next season there's gonna be so much that I might have to
just watch some of it in spring instead because Jesus Christ is there okay let's see I thought
there was much that I was interested in but I mean there was a lot I wanted to look at it at least so
I don't know what else to say on this other than I got to the end of this and apparently a lot of
other people probably hated it just as much as I did and I was so disappointed after season three
dude because it felt like it could get so much better and it didn't it got worse it got so much worse
I mean if I had already watched a few seasons of this or four at this point uh I probably would try
to stick with it just so to see the asshole character get her come up and but the problem is
that's not an assurance at this point like it's not a short that this will actually happen
and the problem is there's still so much of the story to tell story quote unquote but uh
I yeah I get why you are frustrated with it and I don't want to stick with that but
did I ever mention that this was animated by TMS I don't think you have and maybe at the very
beginning when you talked about the first season or something but are y'all doing this to pay the bills
because if so I hope that's the reason you're doing it I mean probably it's still a successful
serious right I wonder about that at this point I mean I don't know I haven't followed this at all
so I also didn't know that TMS did it but I hmm if the manga is still going and the anime is still going
something's working I don't know for who and why and what but something is apparently
I want okay yeah chapter Jesus Christ I just got hit with a massive truck chapter 405 released
as of this recording four days ago in December 10th wow now okay it's that current and apparently
got a hate fandom is such a garbage series of websites but at the bottom they're showing chapters
listed out to at least 410 so I mean you could wait until the manga has wrapped up whenever that will
be and then decide if you want to watch the rest of the show like like getting soft spoiled if
the end that could be a decade oh brother sure then you binge that shit but I hate binging I know but
you know then at least you could have get like soft spoiled on is it going into a direct the direction I
want and if like the resonance is yes then you at least know that it will that all that work all
that pain all that suffering will at least to lead to a good endpoint which at this point you can
know so I understand why you don't want to risk putting that much time into a show that might
eventually like do the ultimate betrayal and let us and mommy and together by giving air with
dimension or a subset like that Jesus Christ if they did that I would just I would personally
fly to Japan find me a jima and ask him what are you doing what is the message you're sending with
this it's a son of a two friendly I expected you to do something else to him no I don't I don't want to
me a jima son who hurt you that's the that is the core of what I'm trying to get at who hurt you
so badly that you're writing this story and it's such an awful terrible story that you could just
get to the point with but you have to rent a girlfriend is airing on crunchy roll and you can watch it
there the end question mark
11 year old orphan and Shirley has spent her life moving from one family to another
always hoping to find a place where she truly belongs she sent to live with elderly siblings Marilla
and Matthew Cutthbird at green gables acquired from in the town of Evonley it is quickly revealed
that she is there by mistake having expected a boy able to help out with farm work
and the cutbirds are surprised to instead receive a young girl with a vivid imagination and a flare
for the dramatic despite the cutbirds initial hesitation and energy intelligence and charm soon
win them over and settles into her new life experiencing many things for the first time such as
attending school and making close friends as she learns to navigate the joys and challenges of growing up
there and Shirley is based on a 1908 book slash book series this is probably the oldest
adaption or with the oldest source material that we ever talked about that that book slash book series
is most well known by its first entry and of green gables written by canadian author Lucy Montmere
the book series encompasses six books that focus on the character of and Shirley herself and
then there are a couple more that focus on our children and friends and others where she is
referenced or appears in and this new anime series adapts the first three books so and of green
gables and of heavenly and and of the island and counts 24 episodes it is i don't think i ever knew
it was a series of books me neither i thought it was one book but there's a reason for that
probably maybe i'll talk about it uh it is produced by the answer studio which i wasn't familiar
with before but which is a kind of prominent studio because it seems to have been founded in 2004
after the closure of Walt Disney animation japan by the vice president and general manager of that
studio and since then they have worked on a lot of anime among them tower of god your name flag
anpanman armor trooper voteoms and a lot more but also on several western productions like
transformers animated a lot of the see home video movies like Batman under the red hood son of
Batman teen titan's Judas contract and a lot more the series is directed by Hiroshi Kawamata
who seems to have directed a lot of younger kids focus stuff like shimagiro nipples nipples
health fluid etc but he was also a key animator on susume the thunder cats reboot and a real blast
from the past spaceship secretary is whose existence i recently unearthed from my childhood memories
and plan to rewatch uh when i find the time for it a series composition and descript of nine episodes
of and surely was handled by natsuko takahashi who also wrote scripts for i katsu acrarian
bakugan yokai watch but detective vendred there's another blast from the past oh my god do you remember
vendred john i sure do i never watched it but i remember it i watched it john it was one of my first
anime that i downloaded from the interwebs because the god come out over here uh vendred was
definitely one of the first that i watched fan sub so that was interesting experience uh yugi ojiex
and money many other things uh also handled the series composition on a lot of those as well
she is aided by miharu hirami and rin-rin who both have worked with her on a couple other shows
before this one as well while also doing their own separate stuff the music is composed by michiro
ojima who also did the soundtracks from full metal alchemist little witch academia le shivalye deo
couple of episodes on back snow white with the red hair which we reviewed and many more
wow that's a line up yeah and all these talented people have very big shoes to fail why
well it was already an old adaption of the first book in 1979 and that was handled by none other
than studio jibli member entayau miyazaki kokonspirta isao takahata who of course famously also directed
grave of the fireflies only yesterday the tale of princess kagia and many more back then he was
still working at nippon animation and his adaption of and of green gables technically kick started
nippon animations world masterpiece theater line of tv series which adapted a lot of works of classic
literature into anime there were a couple of other shows before enough green gables that can be counted
into that adaption franchise quote unquote but those didn't run under the world masterpiece theater
the moniker yet if i'm not mistaken but yes many of these shows aired on german tv when i was a wee
lad and i watched a bunch of them just to name a few hide of the alps that was also co-produced by our
biggest public broadcasting network then a dog of landers the adventures of tom soya princess
Sarah little women one in two poliana peter pan the bush bb and i liked a lot of these shows
it was very much my jambeck in the day besides your standard action stuff this and other anime that
were not handled by nippon animation and that weren't necessarily always based on existing
classic literature work but at least were period pieces like the rose of a sigh robin hoot treasure
island lady Georgie world masterpiece theater also later did an original story called tico and friends
which is about this girl that makes french friends with an orca which i also liked
for kids shows the writing in these anime often felt more grown up and gripping in certain parts
very much focused on character development which was not a given for cartoons at that time so they
very quickly caught my eye and i stuck to them so yeah love to or at least liked all these shows
didn't watch every episode of all of them but because i were trying to air in you know sometimes
saturday morning sometimes in the in the afternoon or in the noon here so sometimes i was in
out of school when it was airing and so on so you know but i you know i i tried to catch what i could
but my biggest educational black spot when it comes to those particular kind of adaptive works
has always been the first and of green gable series because for some reason i never caught a single
episode of it when it was on tv over here so when this new adaption was announced i was pretty excited
because finally i could experience this story in anime form i guess this new adaption isn't
considered part of the word masterpiece theater franchise because it's not produced by nip and
animation and that last century last entry of that particular series was in 2009 which was actually
the adaption of the end of the green gables prequel so i went about and checked out this new adaption
and of course i can't make any concrete comparisons to the old show because i haven't seen it so i
leave that to other people and also i haven't read the source material so i can talk about how well
that is covered either but i think i can evaluate whether this is a good series telling a good story
in its own right first of all this is an incredibly pretty show a lot of the environments and
backdrops look like impressionist paintings like it's crazy pretty much every walk through the
woods is magical the lighting the color work how pristine yet warm everything looks when it's
knows it's a supremely gorgeous show like i i was mesmerized by like from the first episode on like
from the back the backdrops alone look gorgeous but also the character animation is amazing and
like i said the color work and the lighting is what stood out most to me like there's so many pretty
nature shots in this and so many uh detail put into facial animations of characters and everything like
it just looked amazing like they didn't have to put that much work into a show like that i guess because
it's mostly hinging on dialogue and everything but it's just it feels like they wanted to put the work
in and they did like it's just a very very pretty to look at show and yeah so it's about this orphan
girl named and Shirley born in Nova Scotia in Canada is taken in by the cutboard siblings uh and gets
to live on their farm estate green gables probably named after the green gables of the house they live in
on an island full of flowers and trees uh the island is prince edward island a real canadian island
province however communities slash town avenue where they reside in is uh where a lot of the story
is set in is fictional but as far as i've understood it a lot of the stuff in Lucy mod Montgomery
and books uh is semi autobiographical so you can assume several of the locations and characters
are based on existing places and people just fictionalized with stuff added and stuff subtracted
it's still considered a fictional work but with a lot of real-life personal influences
and yeah and is waiting at the train station uh this show starts up with her actually
going to the train station with the with the woman that handles her adoption and then she ends up in
on on uh on prince edward island in heavenly and is collected by this old gentleman called
Matthew cutboard who is kind of fluster that uh he's greeted by a girl because he and his sister
marilla were looking to adopt the boy to help them out at the farm because staring you know older
uh and staring you know work on a farm as hard and they can't do it on all on their animar so they
needed strong hands and so they didn't expect to get a girl uh and also i when i did the sneak peak
for some reason i mean the series doesn't make it clear that they are not but i
thought they were an old couple i didn't know they were siblings so i'm sorry for that
just thought they were met uh married couples and i described them as such so if people who
read the books or watch the old series listen to that sneak peak they're probably
were majorly annoyed i'm sorry my bad but now i know okay so they're siblings i don't know if
they're twins or anything but they're they're siblings and yeah so Matthew immediately just like
oh fuck oh no what am i gonna do uh not in those words but you know he's he's immediately distraught
because he also immediately takes a liking to and she's very energetic as a very vivid imagination that
uh you know she's not necessarily retreating to whenever she's bored but you know then it flares
up and she's even to like oh what is that like and what is that like she she talks a lot she's a
curious go with big ideas that uses big words like a lot of people comment on that she's like for
for a lot of people say like for such a small girl you use a lot of big words and some of them
also feel like condescended by her doing that which is a very i like i feel is of the time like
that feels like a lot of people like in more rural areas like if a girl used a lot of you know
big and extravagant words and we're like is she think she's better than us or whatever
and you know she gets some of these reactions but uh yeah she's she's very you know she's very energetic
like i said like she's like she immediately captures Matthew's sympathy the way she talks and how
she's interested in everything on their right on their cart right back to the farm uh to to green
gables from from the train and like she likes to give places and things new names like a normal
pond she renames to the lake of the shining waters and avenue she renames to the way of white delight
the the tree in front of her uh in front of the window of the room she resides and she calls the
snow queen so so that's her thing um but she does that so she can you know she can remember the the
names better Matthew is already taken with her uh taken to her she's like immediately like
not bewitched but he's like oh my god this girl is all amazing and everything and uh i would like
to keep her but the problem is his sister marilla who is like this very strict woman of few words
right and she expected a boy and once you know Matthew arrives on her doorstep with and she's like
what what is that where's the boy like what why do you bring a girl home and we can't use her
right and then it's super distraught and super dramatic and it's like this is the worst day of my life
and everything which i guess right and she explains it like she's like hey i knew something was wrong
like this sounded too good to be true like i'm i get bra i'm i'm i'm getting brought to this amazing place
everything is beautiful here and i you know i i knew this was too good to be true i knew something
was wrong here right and she's just crying and everything and if we're super sorry for her
and um you know marilla is like what good is she or to us but Matthew is like hey
does that really matter maybe we can be like good for her if we keep her around and that
you know kind of pulls at marilla's not necessarily at her heartstrings because you know she
intends to bring uh and back to uh the orphanage the next day and she kind of she does that but then
she runs into the woman that is supposed to adopt and in her stead and that woman is an absolute dragon
like even stricted in marilla and like feels already like a real asshole and like drilled sergeant
and something like that which marilla is not she's strict right she is you know expecting that
you know her orders are followed and trying to keep an online but she's not completely cold or mean
and that is uh what that other woman seems to be like misblew it or whatever she's called or blew it
and uh yeah and immediately marilla is like well i haven't said that i decided to give her back yet
and that's kind of already that that that point she decides to take and back with
her to to green gables and give her her home there and yeah we start from there uh or we go from there
and and it's getting listening to school she's making her a friend in the form of Diana
who becomes like her best friend throughout her entire life like they're bosom bosom bodies or whatever
they're gonna call uh are called and like really like like the bestest of besties and everything
and so she's an important character throughout the story and uh yeah so this is pretty much
at least for its first third a coming-of-age story of Anne you know experiencing childhood
and taking in all these new experiences and i would say this is the most interesting part of the
story just because it's done really well which i think can be contribute to contribute to the
at least partially to the people who worked on the series having worked on a lot of stuff that is more
geared towards younger children or a lot of it anyway and you know they get the perspective
i would say of Anne and what the author was trying to convey with those experience and everything
and they can really capture like the childlike wonder that Anne encounters every day
and like seeing something new in her environment meeting new friends going to school for the first
time meeting an interesting animal or whatever like she is like taking all that and was like these big
bright eyes and this big smile and she very much lives in a moment whatever made it seem like the
world is ending one day is already forgotten after goodnight's rest on the flip side a lovely day can
suddenly throw her into the depths of despair on a whim uh like her reaction to the cosmic expecting a
voice very theatrical like i said and there's so many moments in the show where she's like
oh everything is wonderful everything is great and one little thing happens and she just
completely flies off the handle or is immediate like completely
distraught and crying and everything like she's the original choony she also talks talks like that
all the time like so narrates her own life and everything and you know she really is like
likes to do stuff with big words you know i i kind of can relate to that i guess i didn't talk that much
as a kid at least but i you know uh i when i did i i could also be somewhat theatrical i guess
so that that felt like near and dear to my heart and i could relate to to that character and was fun
listening to her uh talk and everything i mean whether you'll enjoy the series or not is very
dependent on how much you can tolerate over enthusiastic very theatrical little girls at least for
its first uh first third like that rarely stop talking if that is not your speed and tone in terms
of dialogue you might get fed up with it if you find it adorable and funny you will definitely get
your money's worth my patience was tested at certain points but i think overall n is a welcome
ray of sunshine even if she really is the original choony bureau template in the way she talks and
behaves and everything dramatizes everything like everything i mean first third i mean that's
kids though yes absolutely but you know she is even for a kid she's a special one in that regard
like she's really really going there like in every aspect so it's fun i enjoyed it like i said she
names things so she gets can get to know them better when marilla asks her why she named the tree
outside her bedroom the snow queen and asks marilla if she'd be okay with being just named woman all the time
like and has a very vivid imagination but she's also good at explaining her world view to
matter of fact people like marilla broadening their perspective subsequently so that's cool like
she's like every person she meets she like broadens their horizon by just her nature at the way she
talks and the way she treats the world and everything and i think the most obvious that that is seen
or like you can realize is like in the character of marilla who like i said this is very strict
kind of harsh you know set in her ways woman but who you know after like let's say a bit of a
problematic start is very much taken taken to end and like Caesar as very much as a daughter after a while
almost after short while almost every ludicrous thing and says makes marilla blurred or the concealed
chuckle and in certain situations she matches adds theatrics with her own like turns out to our much more
alike than any of them would have guessed well except Matthew he knew all along that smock bastard
he ain't hiding it either he's so happy about all the warmth and brings into their lives he's a big
smiling teddy bear and i just love the dynamic between these three characters like it's so much fun
to see a marilla warm up and you know and being starting to be able to control herself a bit more
in certain parts but also just Matthew just being just overjoyed by all of this like he's he's
immediately like oh man this this is great this is this is already doing so much for us and i i
love having an around and i'm so i'm so happy like and you're happy with him because he's he's
just like this awesome character and uh you just want him to be happy so and marilla too out there
while like in the beginning you think oh no she's like this old crow or whatever who just doesn't
it's so matter of fact and doesn't know real happiness but that's absolutely not true and you see
that very quickly once she and and starts to interact regularly right so you know Matthew is a bit
of a mediator between and and marilla like marilla not overly harsh but definitely applies a strict
hand to ends education and upbringing and Matthew is willing to be more lenient and tries to see
things more often from ends perspective like yes to deal with two very stubborn women now and he's
surprisingly adept at handling both of them when it is necessary so that's fun to witness uh i'm
not saying he's manipulating either of them but he's like hey have you considered looking at it
from this perspective or what if you did this instead and he's just good at that so he's he's got
the calm to mediate like he's very like relaxed in that regard so uh that's that's that's very nice
and uh ends parents died when she was very young so she has nothing but her imagination to help
her remember the short time she had with them so that makes it very understandable why she's so
fixated on imagination and what it does for her right because it gave her somewhat of a home in her
mind because she couldn't really remember her real home and that makes her makes it immediately
understandable why she is so god damn why her imagination is so vivid and springs up at any given
moment and a lot of people don't necessarily understand and say stuff like well you you you you you
you're a weird one and you know but marilla after a while comes to understand it and very much relates
to that as well like I said once she understands what Anne is all about it's just it's just
so fun like there's this um marilla has this friend I guess neighbor they they definitely like if
they're not in the beginning of the show they become very close friends by the end uh called Rachel
and Rachel is like this very nosy neighbor like the busy body of the town right and she like when she
meets and she kind of makes fun of her hair and that is a problem because Anne is very self conscious
about her looks especially her red hair like she immediately flies off the handle when someone makes
fun of it uh she has quite a temper like there's this moment when she enlisted when she starts school
where this boy Gilbert also a very important character the local hotthrob in her school calls her
carrots to get her attention as boys do at that age and she turns around and breaks a writing board on
his head which seems to only making become more infatuated with her actually but you know she has a
temper she you know which as it turns out Marilla can have to uh but uh you know and definitely has
and she has that towards Rachel as well when she comments on her hand everything so she's she's
rude to her and Rachel is like totally surprised that a kid will talk to her like that
and Marilla is like you have to apologize that that just is not okay and everything you know sends
Anne to her room and everything but then she goes down the stairs and you see in her in you get to
take a peek into a little Marilla's mind and she remembers the face of Rachel when Anne just yells at
her and being like completely surprised and and Marilla just punches over and starts to snicker because
she fits it was the most funny thing ever and it's amazing like you immediately oh no she gets
Anne she totally gets her and she actually finds it super funny the way Anne behaves and she likes it
and then you know she gets actually gets her to apologize and and apologizing to Rachel couldn't be
more fake and theatrical and she really enjoys leaning into it which doesn't which again doesn't
go unnoticed by Marilla because she sees Anne's version of a shit eating grin that Rachel doesn't see
but it works regardless like Rachel takes the apologies like okay girls do what what girls can do
and they also become friends and everything and Rachel is a very important character in the show
so that's nice like it's like oh this is all meant to be this works and these people at some point
yet and and she's supposed to be in this community of course Diana her best friend right there both
in into into books and stories and everything and they immediately gel with it out of become immediate
besties and that space very much at the end of the show and you know it's just fun and it's hard
warming and it feels good and it's funny and it's just such an enjoyable show in its first third
but it's also not entirely sunshine and rainbows all the time and is a very headstrong sometimes
mischievous kid not necessarily intentional intentionally but you know she's definitely not above trying
to make things go her way if possible add to that her theatrics her propensity to drama and exaggeration
have every chatty nature and her constant mood swings and Marilla has her hands full so it's not like
you're always on the side of Anne sometimes you're also on the side of Marilla it's like oh god
I'm sorry for that woman she like she has worked cut out for and this is the first experience being
apparent because both of them are not like neither Matthew nor her are married neither of them have
kids that's why they wanted to adopt the child in the first place to help them out on the farm
and Marilla really could hardly have picked a more challenging candidate as her first child
even when it comes down to it you know Anne is a very good kid like she is really good like she's smart
she is fun she has a good moral compass and everything most of the time so they picked a good one
but still it's a lot of work and I'm glad this series doesn't hide that and it's like oh kids are
you know a lot of you know the the the Shinzo Abe protocol of anime you know doing god
is like please get kids kids are so amazing they're the best thing ever and nothing bad happens when
you have kids and it's not of work at all and you should just get kids because it's no trouble whatsoever
and this show is not like that because Anne is a lot of trouble like she's a magnet for problems
but you know the show also conveys that it's still worth it like that the cupboards adopt the
terror because she enriches their lives so much in so many ways and that's nice and yeah so as I
thought said in the beginning the show covers the first three books of the and series so
Anna of Green Gables and of Evan Lee and Anne of the Island in just 24 episodes and it shows
the brisk pacing is not necessarily a bad thing but I have seen people very much
preferring the attention to detail and more contemplative mood of the old show and there's
definitely an emotional moment at the midpoint of the show of this show of this adaption that I
would have liked this adaption to sit with a bit longer plus they really should have skipped the
upbeat OP for that episode because that felt wholly inappropriate considering what happens
right before and after it is played you know you get the feeling to show very much is intent on
covering all that material and I understand why they did it because the third book ends kind of a
very good kind of perfect note when it comes to Anne's character journey it's not complete because
there are three more books technically and maybe we get a new another season but I kind of doubt it
because it felt kind of very the end at least for this adaption but you know these are so as
comparison the old series from 1979 which only covers the first book at 50 episodes
oh wow and this one does three books in 24 yeah that's I mean I am not saying that the
and I've read about the read that too that the old series definitely has some pacing problems
in the other direction where some of it felt feels very slow but you know that's not like
according to a forum post I read the first episode of the new adaption covers the first four and a
half episode of the old adaption at ridiculous like I've seen something like that before
and time progresses very quickly in the show like in the first episode n11 and by episode six
she is already 13 in episode seven she turns 14 at the end of episode six she has to cut her
hair very short due to reasons in episode seven it has already fully grown back and I think in the
old series she has short hair for like I don't know how many episodes at least 10 I think or something
and you know I wonder how much this adaption left out because you know like I said the old one
has had 50 episodes and a lot of the episodes definitely are two separate stories squished into one
episode like spy family does it for example then again maybe this will get a second season like I
said these small self-contained stories are already in the book as well but it definitely had a lot of
places it felt like the series just rushed through the story um apparently it takes my
really a lot longer to soften up in the old adaption which might make that development feel more
rewarding there I don't hate that it goes very quickly here from oh we don't need to just go to
god she's the best thing ever in my life and I'm so glad that we adopted her right I finally in the
old adaption it takes a lot longer to get there which like I said can feel more rewarding once that
switch is actually flipped and there's also you know the story progresses after the first I don't
even know how many episodes I guess 10 or something and for a while goes to school outside of I don't
even know I think enraptment uh uh but definitely not on the island and then she teaches as a teacher
back on the back on in evidently for like another lights for the second that's the second second
third her learning to become a teacher then teaching for a while and then the last third is her at
college and there's this tear field could buy to her class at the end of the second third where she
decides to go back to college um because there are reasons why she you know went back to
avenue there's a reason why she went back to green gable in the second thirds um which I don't want
to get into because spoilers but after at the end of the second third she's like okay I want to go
back to college uh and so on and uh further my education everything and there's this tear field
could buy to her class uh that she taught for the past two years apparently the problem is
that's barely one episode in this show like that her teaching her class like this is like oh my
I'm so glad I met all of you and they all her kids are crying and everything and you know we just
saw one episode of her working actually as a teacher she has some interaction with one of your
pupils that's like a continuous storyline in the second uh in the second act I would say where she is
like uh she's trying to that that kid lost uh recently lost his mom and everything and she's trying
to get him back on his feet and everything and that kind of intersects with the story of an old woman
and that kid's father and everything so she kind of still has stuff doing stuff with one of her
pupils but you know all these kids crying like at the scene in that particular scene is like
she has talked to maybe two of you once in one episode why are you so sad I don't I mean I can of
course assume I get that this is in the original story probably and if we would have gotten like a
50 episode adoption of every of the books probably ten of those or 20 of those would have her
teaching it would have been her teaching her class and that's just not in this adaption so you have
to also have a very vivid imagination to sometimes get the emotional resonance out of this story
when the story kind of asks you to to have that to feel for those characters when it's just
rushing through a lot of the story beads so that's a bit of a problem I still liked it I think it's
still a well-toed story but it definitely has very brisk pacing at certain points because you just
you can cover three full books in 24 episodes that's not possible I'm not saying that they all
showed it perfectly but you know well I mean that's better than when JC staff tried to do a full
volume of data live in one episode so yeah sure but you know I can understand why people were like oh my
god this is going too fast like especially people who watch the old adaption and like that right
and maybe read the books and we're like no this is there's not like they leave too much out which I
don't have right I neither watch the old adaption I didn't read the books so I don't even have like
the baggage of knowing what it could have been like but even I watching this show noticed that at
certain parts it's just bush like going bi as a breeze so quickly and there's some very like
serious moments in the later parts of the show like the first couple of episodes are very sweet
and light yeah usually the drama is very low stakes like and being forbidden to see her best friend
because she accidentally got her drunk or and accidentally dying her hair green instead of black
like the epitome of lighthearted slice of life stuff and of course all of this is treated with
the gravitas of the universe imploding by and and the show knows that and wings at the audience several
times without belittling ends feelings though because they are for the most part genuine but you know
after that can't last forever because like I said after like the first 10 or 11 episodes
and kind of has grown up like she's going to study outside of the town and then she comes back
is already a teacher like I think she is fully grow she is technically fully grown up in terms of
character behavior and everything by episode 16 and that is she's going to college and even before
that like she's like leaving her childhood behind in like episode 9 or 10 or whatever by moving out
of the town for a while and you know this is a coming of age story of courts not only for like her
childhood part which is the old adaption I guess but you know and growing up learning from
many mistakes becoming a woman marrilla learning to become a surrogate mom it's all very heartfelt
and sweet the ultimate calm for food but once on and starts to become an adult you know focusing
more on her studies trying to fight out what she wants to do and who she wants to become to show
occasionally dips into more of a melancholic tone and serious tones and definitely there's some
topics tackling loss and problematic stuff in relationships and everything you know especially
later parts when then things become much more serious like starting with the second act but definitely
also in the third there is still funny moments in there obviously a lot of them even entire episodes
and everything but there also much more is much more serious stuff in there there's this moment
of the marrilla notices how tall Anne has become and that she will leave the house soon to study
in a different town where she asks her why she isn't as chatty and is not using as many big words
anymore and Anne replies I don't know I don't want to talk as much it's almost a pity isn't it now
that I'm nearly growing big enough to say any big words if I did want to it's fun to be grown up in
some ways but there's so much to learn and do and think that there isn't time for big words
which is a very succinct way of describing reality pushing aside imagination when you become an adult
and that is also kind of what is happening to the show because in the first act you are like
mostly focusing on this side like wonder like a child discovering this entirely world this world
that is entirely new to her having so many new experiences making friends like growing attached
to her new parents and everything into town she's living in and so on and like everything is fueled
by her imagination everything is hyper colorful everything is like a need a need of big words and
everything over everything is super dramatic and that kind of goes away with the second act naturally
because it has to because she's becoming an adult but with that also a bit of the fun leaves the show
I'm not saying that's necessarily a bad thing but you know if you think like the entire show is going
to be like the first act and it's just going to be you know function and against with and that
kind of doesn't happen at some point in the moment also her character changes because it has to
like the show shifts gears at the midpoint by for example by introducing like these twins
Davie and Dora Humorilla also does because they're of a relative that died a relative that died
and that is putting an into a big sister/mother role and Davie is a little shit I didn't catch
much for this shift really like it's not super big like it's only a couple of episodes because the
series like I said rushes rushes through all of its story beats very quickly but like I said the
series naturally loses a lot of its spirit once and has grown up that is not the fault of the series
it's just the nature of the story and the source material but once your character grows up they
have to deal with grown up problems and less without landage kids kids stuff which is by nature
more fun especially if the kid in question is one with such a vivid imagination as ad I think
in that particular part of the story the problem is instead of really leaning into the grown-up
stuff and making everything feel more complex and serious it tries to have its cake and eat it too
you know there's an fulfilling more adult roles like being a teacher and surrogate big sister
and the troubles that come with that but it also tries to keep the youthful spirit around by
introducing the twins and have Davie be a little scoundrel problem is it can't recapture the magic
of kid and story like Davie is annoying and Dora is a timid nothing character so instead of the
story properly evolving and staying focused on solely on n and her adult troubles it's trying to
flip back and forth between the more lighthearted and more serious stuff and it doesn't necessarily
always work but like I said due to the quick pace of the show it's also only about five episodes of
the whole series that deal with that part of n's life so it's not as problematic but it's something
that stood out to me I feel like by the time it reaches the third act the series strikes a pretty
good balance in its last third between the more lighthearted stuff like the Romans and a series
that becomes more of a focus point there and serious moments like character deaths romantic turmoil
and so on and that is mainly because it feels like it's focusing more on and herself again
and I feel like in the middle point I didn't get that as much or like it didn't feel as I don't know
it feels it felt like a transitional period which makes sense because that's also kind of what
that is in and's life like that's not where she's gonna end up eventually um and that's also not
where she started but it also feels like that in the show and I'm like how I don't like that as much
as the first part and then when I get to the third part I was like oh I like this much more than the
second part so yeah like this this gap in between where it's like oh okay you have to get through this
to get from the good part again to the good part of the story I guess but all of these are nitpicking
because I like this series of all all it's still plenty fun there and there are enough color
for shenanigans to go around but in my opinion the first third the first act is still the best with
kid Anne and from what I've understood the origin series is mostly just that so I might eventually
just go back and check that out I just like Anne getting acquainted with the life in green
gables making friends and her dynamic with marrilla and Matthew so much so once a lot of that is not
the focus in a more the series lost me a bit but I still liked it and like I said it got me back in
the third third act again and there was still a lot of funny sad and hardwarming moments in the last
two thirds so it was definitely worth watching it from beginning to end in the last part we have
like I said a focus on romance like you can guess who is the man like romantic interest as soon as
you interest the stage in this so it's it's more classic saccharine one very predictable but what I
like was that the series develop it develops it very slowly and carefully and it doesn't really
become the focus until the last couple of episodes so it's not overbearing like a constant will they
won't they whatever it's more on the sidelines of the story and then in the like in the final couple
of episodes it becomes more the focus but also doesn't take too much time there because I was afraid
hey if the series is rushing through the story so quickly and eventually it's gonna put the focus
on the romance like that's gonna waste a lot of time on stuff that I don't want it to be wasted
but it felt definitely more organic and naturally than natural than I expected it to so it was nice
and it kind of kind of bookends the story very well you know how that romance develops in everything
and also it makes sense that it takes a long time to get to that point so I feel like even despite
its short run time and it's rushing through the story the romance itself didn't feel rushed it felt
like it got the appropriate amount of time considering how much time was given to the other story
beats or whole little time was given to the other story beats in this in this adaption so that was
nice that was good I didn't mind it I thought it was well done even though like I said it's very
it's a very classic very by the book's romance very you know saccharine in a way but it has it's
ups and downs so it's not completely straightforward and everything so there's a bit of drama there as well
definitely so yeah I liked that as well what I also really liked while I'm steering towards
the end of the review here either the subs directly take text from the book or they adjust the
translation too much to tone by using less contemporary language it feels very much of the time
I think I read that they took a lot of the text for the subs directly from the books which is great
it definitely sounds like the people would maybe talk back in the day so it it feels like they
they definitely paid attention to that and put the work into make that sound it doesn't always
like there's some some things in there where I think oh maybe they didn't take that from the book
and it feels like that would be something that would be said at that time so maybe they had to
improvise there because they didn't have source material to to go from because they had to adjust
the script but while the Japanese I think if I'm not mistaken with my language of the with my
knowledge of the Japanese language which is which is very limited I feel like the Japanese
language is not trying to do the Japanese dub is not really trying to do that it's just using
contemporary you know normal today Japanese language but the English subs definitely go for
go the extra mile and it definitely sounds like you would read the book from that time in the way
the characters talk at the phrasing the phrases they use and the idioms they use and so on so that
was cool it was nice you don't get to read anime subs you know that have this kind of
prose usually so I like that I thought there was that was very a very welcome diversion
variation from the usual sub style you get what I also liked is D.O.P because it's so well animated
and the song is a real great jam and just walking dancing past the entire cast and then ending on
her grown-up version very sweet really liked it also like the ed was very pretty but yeah
I definitely liked this adaption I thought it was great definitely had some problems quote unquote in
that it is just going by so quickly and just carrying so much source material just I can't even
imagine how I would have liked looked at the series if I was familiar with the old show or the
source material have a red I will probably hated it because I was like this is leaving out too much
what the hell is this crazy but since I didn't have that I was like oh this is a really well told nice
coming of age story and it's a period piece which I really like and it's an un an underused setting
and everything I don't know how many anime or take place in Canada so that's that's nice
and yeah I thought that was great the ending is nice and warm and heartfelt pretty much
like the rest of the show and I love the characters of pretty much all of them were a blast and enjoyable
and except for Davey but also he gets also better so there's that but yeah I think this is a more
satisfying full circle ending in terms of setups and payoff then the old show probably had I
looked up when the show old show ends and that happens like like I said at the at the end of the
of the first act in this show like after I don't know eight episodes nine something like that 10
and I feel like if they ended it there and we wouldn't get a second season I would have felt like
okay this is an okay ending but it leaves a lot of you know threats dangling so I'm
glad that this show covers more of the source material albeit in very abbreviated form apparently
but like I said the way it ends up when where it ends up it feels very good it feels very satisfying
and you know I'm always happy when an anime gets it satisfying ending so that that does a lot
for me so I'm glad that this is this happened here would have it profited from being twice or three
times the length 124 core for each book probably but what we got is a nice adaption of a classic
coming of age story regardless with lots of engaging characters fun tears joy plenty and at times
breath-takingly beautiful to look at if you haven't seen the old show I'd say check it out and even
if you have you might want to check this out because it's a quick watch and covers more than the old one
did I'm glad I finally filled in that black spot in my library of unwatched anime classics and it
definitely has lend wings to my imagination
and that is a rep on the 174th episode of anime brain freeze all the music in our podcast is from
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a burning rivalry to become the greatest samurai of all turns into a crazy cross country adventure
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