[Music]
Hello and welcome to an all new episode of Anime Brinfries.
We are your animation loving revenge driven eye-stancing hosts.
I am Jon and I'm CC and when there's just too much cool I may to watch we've got you covered.
Today we have three very differently flavored shows for you.
First I will join an animator as they get Isikai to the world of their favorite movie in Zenshu.
Then Jon will bring back the edgy odds energy with a vengeance by reviewing the bloody fantasy tale Ube Blood.
That's not least I will take a seat at the ice rink to witness the underdog ice skating story of a student and her coach in metalist.
So grab your peg bar and blade of choice.
Make sure to not leave the luggage with your ice skates on the train and definitely don't pause the pot.
We'll be right back.
[Music]
After graduating from high school Nazo Kuhiro says "Thou's a career as an animator."
Her talent quickly flourishes and she makes her debut as a director in no time.
Her first anime becomes a massive hit, sparking a social phenomenon and earning her recognition as an up and coming genius director.
Her next project is said to be a romantic comedy movie themed around first love.
However, having never been in love herself, Nazo Kuhiro struggled to understand the concept of first love and as a result she's unable to create the storyboards causing the movie production to come to a standstill.
Joining the heroes of her youth she uses her new ability to summon her drawn creations to fight the endless army of monsters that is destined to lead this world to its destruction.
Can Nazo Kuhiro rewrite this apocalyptic tale and will she find her way back home or is she doomed to meet the same end as the world that inspired her?
Zenshu is an anime original and is handled by Studio Mapa, which of course we have talked about so many times at this point.
You know, they handle parts of a Tekken Titan, they worked on Jujutsu Kaizen, a bunch of other shows that even don't come to mind right now.
We have Tekken Tab so many times and so since they are probably would say
John, what do you say they are like the biggest big hit anime production studio as of this moment? Still?
They're up there, that's for sure. I mean people know their names alongside Toei and Sunrise and you know some of the other bigins that aren't springing to mind at the moment.
I feel like especially the big manga adaptions, like action wise, like the big action shows, a lot of them of those go to them.
And they pretty much all of them are pretty much on the same very good, if not at great level of quality in terms of animation.
Like I don't remember a Mapa show in recent time that I felt like was completely like Luster in any way.
I mean that brings out the whole whole hog.
Yeah, exactly. I mean, too a fault, right? Because we have heard stories especially when it comes to the
production of Judasderkeis in season two where animators were overworked. They were like, like there was a crunch, there was too much pressure.
A lot of people working on that show expressed their discontent online.
So yeah, they're definitely not perfect when it comes to treating their anime just a correct way.
So really interesting, them of all studios handling a topic, a show with a topic like that that is deeply rooted in animation and animation production itself.
So it's like, yeah, let's see if there's something there. One of the animators.
Yeah, one of the animators not in here is something maybe that's maybe a bit critical of their studio.
I found one thing that made me chuckle in that regard, but I feel like there wasn't that much.
There weren't like real jabs at like, oh, fuck, this is like company or something, which we had in
Dragon-made, made dragon. Yeah, which we had in made dragon. So, but yeah, they're handling the, they
handled this and of course the animation is gorgeous. I'll go into that more specifically when referring to a certain scene
later on, but yes, this series is directed by Mitsue Yamazaki, who also directed the Hakennen remake,
monthly go nozaki kun, though I am an inept villainous and did a bunch of storyboard and episode direction work on stuff like
no origami bleach attack on tight and penguin drum and much more.
Script and series composition were handled by Kimiko Ueno, who did a lot of script work on Shinchan,
Space-Dandy, Delicious and Dungeon, Yugi-Oh, and more the music is done by Yukari Hashi-Moto,
who also did the soundtrack for Komi-Kan, Communicate, Mr. Osumatsu, Penguin Drum, Sarasan-Mai,
Toruadora and many more. So the production has expected is there people with track records. And yeah,
so with this dev out of the way or the main staff anyway, of course a lot more people had worked on this.
Yeah, the set up already discussed in the summary, we have Arman character Natsuki Hirusa, who becomes this
phenomenon, like she creates a magical girl anime, I forgot what it's called, but straight out of
high school and that shit just is a mega hit. Like it's an actual cultural phenomenon apparently,
which, well, good luck doing that with the magical girl anime these days, but apparently it was,
of course, with that success comes pressure. The expectations are super high,
10 billion yen high according to her, the president of the studio she's working for.
So, expectations are high for her to deliver another one, which is determined to be a rom-com.
Movie titled "Hatsukoi First Love" and like I said in the summary, problem is Natsuko is such a work
course. She has had no ex- she has been obsessed with animation and getting better at it with it since,
I know it's great school, but definitely middle school. She has had no experience with romance,
technically whatsoever. So she has no idea how to conceive a story about that. She is constantly
hassling like people in her office to tell her about their first love experience, to just talks to people
on the fucking street like like a text girls in the street and ask them what is your first love?
That seems normal. That seems absolutely normal. It doesn't make her less scary that since she isn't
making any progress, she has decided she won't cut her hair until she finally will finish the story
boards show. So she looks like a goddamn, I don't know, thing from the ring. Just has her fucking purple
hoodie and it's just hair growing out of the hoodie, where her head should be, her face should be.
It's just hair, long black hair reaching down to her legs. So yeah, that's very funny. That's most
of not her look for the entire of the show, but definitely for a lot of it. Yeah, she is stuck.
She has writer's block. She has imposter syndrome because she can't make any progress and she can come
up with her own creative ideas. And that definitely plays into the later story as well. And into the
general theme of this show, which is about these kind of things. And of course, probably is also
depressed to a certain degree because she is still her passion technically, but she's losing
a bit of it because she just feels like she made a wrong decision or she isn't verbalizing this.
But we see, especially later down the road in the show, we definitely see a lot of imagery that
refers to that. Like we have, she has a dream sequence where she sees a lot of her people from her
from her past life, like from her school, from different from the animation club at college,
from her studio that she's working in. And all of them are also wearing the hair in front of
their faces like she does. And all of them are accusing her of actually being a fraud,
of not being able to actually do something. And she is like this one hit wonder and actually all
her work sucks like her drawing skills suck and everything, right? Oh, yeah. Yeah. So she's definitely
deeply in it. She is dealing with it by not really dealing with it. And her character is also not
helping the issue because she is a perfectionist. And she has this tendency, I have to storybots
delivered by other team members don't live up to her expectations. She doesn't berate them. She just
says she'll do it herself instead, which doesn't solve the issue. Doesn't her, her colleagues get
better and puts much more work and pressure on her shoulders. And boy, oh boy, did that have a
familiar rigged for me? Because for a long time, I was pretty bad at teaching other people what I know
instead would rather resort to solving an issue myself at work because depending on the situation,
it is less time consuming to do the task yourself than showing another person how to do it. And also
that way you can be sure that it's done quote unquote right, which is of course arrogant as fuck because
it implies that the other person can do it as good as you. Spoilers, that's usually on you because it
means you did a bad job training them. You know, although speaking from experience, there are some
people that just don't listen either way. It's not a great approach to working in a team. And while I've
gotten better at it, I can still heavily empathize with not to go attitude here. So it's like, yeah, I
want to do this. This is my project. And also I, you know, I need to do it the way I want to do it. And
because I'm just the best at this, right? That's her approach. And this is my passion. This is my
thing. She hasn't learned how to properly work in a team yet. And it doesn't help that everyone
kind of not everyone, but a lot of them are treating her just like this genius director, like this
genius that has come out of nowhere and has delivered like this mega hit. And of course she is right.
Of course she must know what she's doing and is doing everything right. I mean, some colleagues speak
up against that, right? But the president is like super supportive of her. She will figure it out.
But kind of ignoring the massive rope lock that like that's what I stumbled into, right?
So that is a big problem. Zen shoe, by the way, the title of the show is short for Zen shoe say,
which is a real term used in Japanese, Japanese animation production apparently and usually means
redo everything or full retake. It's what she says to one of the animators that is bringing her
the storyboards for the announcement PV of the movie. So this term is referencing a complete rework
or revision revision of a scene or project, probably mostly applied due to quality issues, but here
it of course also has an additional meaning since the show is also about Naziko literally rebooting
her passion for and approach to working in her chosen profession. So that was really interesting.
I was like, oh yeah, okay, I get what you're doing here. So but yeah, so what happens? She chokes on a
clam bento lunch. It's not really clear if, you know, it's like poisoned or something like that because
there was a bad clam and there is something or if she chokes really just, you know, but she ostensibly
dies just like her favorite director, which she read about dying earlier in the first episode,
who created the movie that she watched as a child that inspired her to become an animator herself,
a tale of perishing, which apparently was in contrast to Naziko's first outing, an absolute flop,
like a super bomb because it's apparently like this classic fantasy tale or made to look like that,
but turns into like this incredibly depressing story where everyone dies at the end.
I mean, with a name like that. Yes, exactly. One should have seen that coming, right? But,
you know, it was from an acclaimed director and everything, but it didn't connect with audiences.
Most of them anyway, that's why it was a flop, but it connected with one person very strongly,
and that is Naziko, who was so intrigued with the characters, the world,
the what it was trying to say. She says multiple times, I don't quite get it, but that's the fun part.
The fun part is me not completely understanding where, what it was trying to say and where it was going
unconsciously mulling that over in my head, right? And thinking about this show, this movie made me think,
this movie activated my fucking synopsis and it made me think about animation all the time and
about the characters and their motivations all the time and this world and how it works. And that's
what made me want to draw something like that myself and tell a story like that myself.
So, this is the spark. This is what got her into this industry,
and her strong will of course, in dedication, but yeah, so she reads about the director of that movie
dying, who she also apparently died due to food poisoning. And then that same thing apparently
happens to Naziko, which immediately when she wakes up in the other world, in the world of a tale of
perishing, it's like, okay, this is a dream, right? This is not actually an Isakae story where she
died and got brought to another world, but she's having a dream about this because she just read about this
that her favorite director's food has been food poisoning. She's in this clear state of depression
wrestling with her inability to finish this project of hers, trying to cope with imposter syndrome
and everything. And now she has this dream about her favorite childhood movie that got her into
this profession and of this dream is gonna make her work through these feelings. That is the intention.
That was my immediate thing that I got out of it. Okay, this is not really an Isakae story.
It's using the classic Isakae tale as a vehicle, but it's just a, it was all a dream story,
and the use of that dream is making her realize, you know, that she's still has passion and that
she had the power all along, right? She had the, she knew how to write about first love all along and stuff
like that. That was pretty much from the get-go, and I think I hit the nail on the head there. I mean,
they do some, they're not super clear on it by the end, where it's like, what's this dream,
what's this real thing, right? Did that really happen or stuff like that? But in terms of where,
what it was doing and where it was going with certain things and just how it happens,
it definitely feels like, okay, she just ran the whole thing. Her brain made her dream about it to work
through that shit. So, a really cool concept, and especially from the perspective of her being an
animator and director who is now trapped in a world all too familiar to her. We have seen stuff like
this or shows that kind of go into this kind of topic, namely the things that come to mind first from
recent quote unquote time are recreators and keep your hands off as you can. There were many more shows
that deal with animation as an animation production as a topic. I think one of the most famous one,
probably being Shiaubako, but I haven't seen that. So the ones I would compare them to, aside from maybe
Maid Dragon, which has a very cynical take on the whole thing. I would go with recreators and keep
your hands off Asakun. And I think Zen Shiu is not as much in conversation with its medium as
some of the other shows, like especially those two that have tackled anime as a theme in their own
story. For example, I'd say keep your hands off Asakun goes much more in depth in terms of technical
details and processes while recreators is willing to go on much wilder philosophical tangents and
more interesting thought exercises when it comes to creations confronting their creators and everything.
And just the whole thing of story as a medium and what would it mean if these characters were real
and stuff like that. Zen Shiu does stuff on the subcontextual level, but it's more in service of
delivering a pretty well-rounded arc for its main character instead of being too interested in what
specifically makes anime such a creative force and such a draw for many people. Again, there's some of
that in here, mostly in episode 7 where we learn about Asakun's youth, but a lot of it is also more
fluffy fans service in the form of references to other shows and familiar tropes. Not bad by
any means, but if you expected something more substantial from this, I don't know if Zen Shiu will
deliver that for you. It's still interesting, it's still like a cool concept because it's like a
reverse thing of recreators basically. In recreators, we have these creations from light novels from
anime, from video games that come into the real world due to reasons and here it's a creator going
to a fantasy world. And of course, she is not a normal person there because she has this magic
pack bar which is this animation tool that helps to align storyboard sheets and stuff like that. And
when she meets the party of the heroes, of the nine heroes who are at this point only four
anymore, the others have left or died because this is still in this is already in the middle of the
movie where she is basically joining the story. They immediately have to fight off like the invading
evil of this movie of a tale of perishing which are these insects, crap monsters called void.
And the prophecy is that the voids will destroy the world like there are these,
tell me if you heard about this before John, there are these crystals in this fantasy world.
So what you're telling me is she's just a the pictomancer.
She's just a pictomancer just breaking out her palate and drawing up things to fight the other things.
Exactly. Exactly. That's that's exactly what she is because her power as soon as she's
joined this world as an animator is just once her weird pack bar starts talking to her and says,
you must draw, you must draw, Naziko. She can summon like a normal work desk or a
stensibly normal work desk in a stunning sequence akin to a magical girls transformation because of
course, since her first week break out hit was a magical girl, I'll make it wood looked like that. And
John, I've shown you that sequence. It's stunning. It's Mapa going all out. It's crazy. Yes. And the first
thing she draws is a not copyright infringing version of the ancient warrior from Nazca.
Don't don't worry about it. A lot, there are a lot of, of course, there are a lot of references to
Anna, another anime in this show. A lot of them are blatant. Like I mean, her magical girl anime
doesn't necessarily look like Sailor Moon. It's more of like a cross between Sailor Moon and
like delinquent anime, like the link with school girl anime, maybe with a with a side of ninja.
But you know, that is pretty obvious. It's obvious what that is referencing and in a later action
scene where they have to fight an area battle. She summons a missile barrage, an eternal circus.
Literally, literally animated by a ton of himself actually.
Really? Yes. Yes. Oh, that's sick. That is very sick. When I learned that I fucking cheer.
I was like, oh, fuck. So, yeah. So there are a bunch of references. Both shallow cuts and deep cuts.
There's like an anime or a character she sums. I think in the third episode called
Serval Cat Mask. It's not Tiger Mask at all, bro. Even though he's a wrestler.
There is a Gundam knockoff. There is a bunch of other stuff in there where it's like, okay,
I get what you're doing, but you're not doing that thing because you know, for reasons.
But the some of the references are incredibly obvious. And it's fun, right? It's like, okay,
I get this. I see. I know what is. So I immediately get what
Natsuko's inspiration is. Like these are the stories. These are the characters. These are the drawings
that she practiced on that she can draw immediately that she knows how to do a very quick fashion.
Like holy shit, that girl can draw fast. And not only that's apparently not only like because of
her superpowers in this world. She has been since she started so early and she is able to draw
up characters super quick. So you get paid by the shell, you gotta draw fast.
Yeah, apparently. But yeah, that's that's what she's doing. So she's summoning a bunch of characters
from animation she knows. And those characters help her destroy the voids. And she, you know,
actually helps out the party a lot like she becomes a real like the real powerhouse of the team.
And that's cool.
Funny, concerned, picked on answer, I think is the strongest DPS currently. There you go.
When was that introduced? I wonder if that was an inspiration for this show.
I mean, I got to imagine this show was in production before the launch of Don Trail, but
it was introduced in 7.0. So it's been out now for a little about a year.
Oh, okay. All right. I don't know. Maybe there was some overlap there, but there could be that's
entirely possible. Yeah, but we don't want to accuse anyone of anything and maybe otherwise
it doesn't a number of marsh like just like this show does it to two wild wild degree.
It's not like it is a new job because I mean if you've played ff6, you know, realm was also
picked on answer. Really? Well, that's the thing. I haven't played ff6 said I haven't played any of
the final fantasies before ff7, but now that the remasters are out and in my possession,
I will get to it eventually. It's actually on the plan. Maybe we'll speak about it.
Oh, you already paid yet. Yes, we will eventually. But I think persona of three reload will come first.
All right. So she is not the only character in this world, of course. We have a party of heroes. Like I
said, for I guess later five and originally there were nine because there are nine countries in this
world with nine crystals and the story is if the voice destroy all the crystals, then the ultimate
void will be summoned, which is this giant as monster and it will be destroyed the entire world.
So we got the head heroes from nine countries with the nine crystals and these heroes
banded together to defend the realm, whatever, but you know, since it's a very harrowing tale,
some of them already died. The ones we have left is the main hero Luke Braveheart.
Come on and name. Oh my god. Amazing. He's a knight, a classic knight with a very powerful sword.
We have Unio, an anthropomorphic magic casting unicorn. That is very weird. It's like this cartoon
character, like maybe Morgana and Persona 5 or something like that. We're pretty much the same character
as actually, but you can also transform into a real flying unicorn. So that's interesting. We
have Memo, who is like this classic Elven Archer and we have QJ who is like this more, I don't know
what these kind of statues are with the big eyes and everything like made out of clay, but he looks
like them. I think I know. Yes, I think one of them also is a dark stalker, maybe a character.
I'm not sure. Yeah, I'm okay. I don't know what they're called, but I know that. But he's a robot
and he is, you know, a response before detecting the void and stuff like that. So they, this party
encounters Tatsuko, doesn't know what to do with her. The first thing she is some kind of weird
gremlin because of her hair. And especially Unio is absolutely not fond of her. Like he hates her
guts and I guess vice versa though, Tatsuko just seems to be like, whatever, fuck that guy. And
just worlds him around holding his horn. She can be a very violent person, but that's also very
funny. She's very quick with it and has some snaki retorts and stuff like that. So she's a very
fun character. So in her banter with Unio especially is very entertaining. But yeah, Luke of course,
I'm who is this? What the hell? What am I supposed to do with this? Memel and QJ seem to be more
open towards it, but yeah, even they have to get acquainted with her first and they don't want
in the beginning because they're the heroes and, you know, who is this person? What is she talking
about the real world? What is she talking about? Animator? What does this mean? What is the kingdom
of reality? What? So they're kind of flustered and try to just push her to the side. But since
in the she at the end of the first episode she stops the story from going the classic way, which
in the original movie in at that part of the story, Unio sacrificed himself or has to sacrifice
himself by unleashing a kind of self-destructive magic to stop all the voids that attack the city.
And because that's a quiz there and has her super powerful summoning magic and someone said
ancient warrior that destroys all the void, Unio doesn't die. So she has already changed the story.
So what is that gonna result into? Like what will come off this? Things definitely change
through her action. So once she does that once she beats the void there, she slowly becomes integrated
into the party. The townsfolk become very fond of her, start cheering her on and so on. She costs
she is so powerful. Fun side thing of this is not to go actually acknowledges that she is an isekai
kind of considering she's part of an industry of the industry where this is still I guess the dominant
kind of story they're telling for some reason these days. I feel it would be weird if she didn't
understand what's going on even like I said it's maybe a dream and not an isekai. I mean I guess to be
fair it seems like sick eyes are kind of finally on a downtrend now it's just that you have fantasy
story and it happens to be light novel. Yeah even though I look at live-turn I still see that isekai
tag and I just don't like okay good good for you. Yes yes and that's the funny thing right I would
have skipped the show maybe if it wasn't mapa and I knew it wasn't isekai but as I mentioned the sneak
peak of fucking surprise me I thought it was a work comedy I didn't read the entire summary of this
thing and it's like okay doesn't work comedy by mapa about animation I would check this out. Nope!
Rookie mistake. Rookie mistake. But I hate I got a cool show out of it so that was that was a nice
surprise. Anyway she is still even though she knows what's happening kind of to her she is still
somewhat confounded that it happened to her specifically which is one of the more funnier lines in
this show quote "doesn't this only happen to shuttons and needs? I had a job with benefits!"
I mean I can't blame her for reacting that way so you know sometimes you don't always have to
make friendship truck cool. Exactly sometimes you make friends with clam cool I guess there's also
the the the show is definitely having fun taking jabs at you know the all-to-familiar tropes
all of old anime too there's this funny reference to plot contrivance when junio says that
everything is fine because qj isn't detecting any voids at the moment and natsuko replies he doesn't
detect anything because he is charging from now on he will always be charging at the most inoportune
moments and you know we know how that happens when you have like a character with kind of an
overpowered ability that would kind of solve the issue every time you a lot of stories try to
find a way to extract them remove them from the equation it's like why did you introduce that
character with that power then in the first place the superman problem like if you make superman
too powerful he you know why is there justice league right you that's that's actually one of the things
that Bruce Timon the guy said when they created the justice league tv series and are like well we made
them second the first season to try to make superman too weak in every episode because we wanted the other
characters to shine but that made superman look kind of like a wimp it's kind of tough if you have
like the super all powerful character to give him something to do that or give the other characters
something to do that he wouldn't be able to solve easily by himself just as himself just in terms of
power scaling and everything so I was interesting it was interesting that this show just was not acknowledging
that it was like yeah yeah that's you know that happens a lot so we're gonna take on doing that yeah
nazico also talks about death flags like when when's you know certain things happen in the show I was like
oh fuck here's the death flag I need to do something because that is where you shit use when someone
says something like that shit goes absolutely wrong you know she's familiar with this kind of stuff
so yeah that's fun I think just in general the show is doing a really good job to show a show also a
progression on nazico we like we the thing with the hair is not just in there for fun say like when she
actually enthusiastically gets to draw something to change the story and help her new friends or
later friends for the first time that's the first time we actually see her face in this show like
it's entirely covered the entire time and then when she has that magical go transformation thing
scene and starts to draw that ancient warrior that's the scene I I sent to you that's the first time
we actually see her face in the show so that you know heavily emphasizes the relevance of that moment
and you know from that moment on her her showing her face and characters looking at her face
becomes is much more important than I expected especially when it comes to her
relationship to look and we'll get into that she helps beat them a lot of
helps the characters beat a lot of the void there's also some things in this in this world and
that's where again you feel like okay more evidence that this is a dream like there's a bartender
called Naomi which looks exactly like a fox furry version of nazico's producer manager president
whatever of the studio later later later there is a bird a weird bird with a turtle shell on his back
that has the exact same haircut and kind of face like the director of the movie of a tale of
perishing and who is telling her entirely it's no use you can change the story and so on and
all of these are just so these classic dream trope thingies right so yeah but that's interesting in
itself in terms of what what it means to change the story of a different creator and everything and
there's a nice cap of sentence for that at the end out of the bird I will get to that at the end
of the review but yes that's some interesting shit initially not so close very keen on returning to
the real world but then she starts to wonder there are no deadlines here no pressure to deliver the
next big hit of course on the other hand there is a very imminent danger of an apocalypse but hey I
think we can all agree that's far easier to handle than the parrots of wage labor so she becomes
very like happy to live in this world she others several times like this since I don't remember
tale of passion being this happy and she loves the food in this world she loves food in general she
my god that woman can eat and look look is a good cook so she gets to eat a lot of good food and she
kind of becomes very happy to be in this world she can summon her power as at will she only can do it
when someone from the party or she herself seems to be in direct peril but you know still she's
a force to be reckoned with until a specific moment in the show kind of in the last couple of episodes
but yeah we have a couple of other characters like I said look the brave here we get to him last I
think because he is aside from a nazico the most important character in this story but we have his
in the movie love interest destiny heartwarming destiny heartwarming yes that's her name
luke rayfad a destiny heartwarming Jesus Christ okay and in the movie you know she was the one who
after a lot of his friends died put them out of his depression for a while until she also gets killed
so in this things again take a turn because you know nazico is there nazico is there to save the day
so destiny doesn't even be middle of die or whatever and instead becomes very infatuated with
several cat mask the character like when when she sees a nazico summoning him she wants to be like him
and suddenly becomes super buff which which was a fun thing like her first being her like this princess
character and then she becomes like this bodybuilder the rest like the character really funny
wearing the cat mask all the time I love that so that's kind of awesome though yeah and she she you
know her kind of story is that she once or is intent to marry like this rich pompous somewhat I mean
not really douchey guy he's just weird he has a lot of wives and she wants to make her her his next
wife he doesn't necessarily seem to be a bad person aside from that but you know she only wants to do
it so he gives her money to have like create an orphanage for all the orphans in the city and
you know nazico helps her be like there are other ways to do this so you know changes her character
there is mammal who is like this elven archa like I said and she has an interesting story in
regards to kind of having the same problems that luke has only she is already in step further she
they have all suffered so many losses and so much despair that she is at this point where she is like
uh this all sucks I just wanted to end so I'm just gonna find a way to some of the ultimate void myself
and this one what it's like all right hmm that's dark that super fucking dark check back a character
that is so depressed and I don't feel bad giving that away because it's very very obvious that
it's her uh what at that point made me wonder a bit was how nazico is behaving or about
nazico how about how nazico is behaving is first of all her pickheadedness extends to her behavior
in the fantasy world like from you know her pickheadedness from rogue she's intent on solving certain
crises on her own because she thinks she has the most detailed knowledge about the plot of the movie
and knows the character she eats in and out she's the best person to handle it I understand going for a
more delicate touch in regard to not telling all the characters what she knows which would in my
eyes make the most sense right it's like hey I know the suck is bad to hear but here is how the story
goes and at some point you know in the beginning they wouldn't believe her but once they get really
acquainted with her and know what their powers in that she's from different worlds where something
exists that tells the story of this world you know I would imagine you would want to know everything
about that so you can change your own story but she kind of takes that decision away from most of
the characters by just not telling them the entire story because she thinks she is the best person
to change the story and to handle it and to decide who has to learn how much information about it
like I said I understand going for this more delicate touch but one could argue that as soon as she
has entered trust of the party she should tell at least some of them everything she knows everyone
is literally on the same page with holding into integral intelligence is a really bad idea considering
the situation and as soon as you look beyond her character traits as a reason you realize this is
just to keep things surprising for the viewer after all if she immediately told the party the entire plot
we'd know it too I feel like this is a very ineligant and contrived method to solve this particular
issue though like why not have her tell the characters everything and then have that be the reason
that the story changes drastically from what she is familiar with that would also align our point
of view her point of view more with ours since all the developments would be new to her as well
and like I said they partially do that especially later on like once she starts interfering something
something happened at the different at different times and places then they did in the movie but they
should have leaned fully into that instead of having her keep her full knowledge so close to a chest
in certain regards again there's some characters she tells what she knows later on but also some of
the characters immediately after she tells them they die and it's like okay all right uh so yeah
and in regards to Memon this is especially egregious I guess because she knows that Memon in the story
of the movie is a traitor which kind of crystallizes in the third episode or something so it's not
really a big spoiler it happens very quickly because Memon is you know super depressed she's like part
of this cult who want to the voidists I think who want to just summon the ultimate void and have
this this pain that is misery in this world and because they feel like it's hopeless to keep on living
and Luke stumbles across that and she and him work together to find a way to get Memon technically
out of this this mindset and everything and stop her from summoning the the ultimate void and the
original movie once when she tries to do that Luke has to kill her or something which you know makes
this situation worse so of course they will avoid all of that and the way not to avoid solves this issue
the way she sways Memon's heart is by summoning a character from not Uta Prince Summer
that who dances with Memon to show her the beauty of life which is funny as fuck but it's falling
really flat in terms of emotional impact like the tone of this show is all over the place in
certain parts this character story needed some kind of really personal catharsis moment but instead
we get a goof like it all plays into the theme of Naziko being able to invoke positive changes for
the characters of this story and everyone becoming infatuated with the characters and stories she
creates which in turn rekindles her passion for animation that makes sense that is her character arc
but you know if you go for a dark and serious tone and something as bleak as a character wanting to
empty entire world because they are incredibly depressed and miserable because of all the loss
and grief they have experienced and in the face of their almost eternal lifespan you really need
to go the extra mile to give that character something to live for male idols ain't cutting it
even though Memon says she is a oh god what what this what is the name of that that not
not idol character that she summons is something very ridiculous but she says after that she's
gonna be a stand for him for life so all right okay but yeah it's still funny a lot of the show is
funny the human the show is actually really good a lot a lot of times but this was one of the moments
one of the very few moments where I was like I wish you did something different here and the thing is
and maybe again that's a fault of how the characters are structured in general Memon should have
had a completely different character story maybe something more lighthearted just like destiny if
you want to go with a lighthearted solution and they should have kept the really dark stuff
in terms of character motivation everything to look because look kind of has the same problems as Memon
and he gets a satisfying resolution or a more satisfying resolution from an emotional standpoint
at the very end of the show so why did you pack the same story kind of story in here twice like
just give Memon a different story like the aside from not so cool the female characters in this story
don't get much to do which you know that would have not made this better I guess if you gave her
another lighthearted stuff but something different more substantial would have been better than having
basically look story rehashed for her as well so I was a bit of a stumbling thing where it's like okay
this is I wish they went another route here but again just one of the small things not so cool
after battling a lot of voids destroying a lot of voids winning the day becomes overconfident
does this does the same thing like she's always been doing but to a self destructive degree just like
she does in the in the workplace it's kind of basically having the same development as she has
in the real life she has in this fantasy story and at some point she's like I'll do it all by myself
it's just it'll just be faster in the end so of course her lesson is to rely on others and everything but
it's interesting to see her like okay that's just her at some point she is like reverting or
resorting to dandling all the stuff herself because she thinks she is the most competent person to
handle a job but in that in return that puts a lot of strain on her too much strain and at some point
her magic starts to not probably work anymore because of that and the irony of Mapa of all studios
delivering a show that is about burnout and being overworked in the animation industry
those somewhat self inflicted in this case to be fair is not lost on me
that was the one thing where I was like okay yes I
but that was the story of as a whole not a specific reference to work conditions or something
like that because that's not in the show but yeah one of the best and funniest episodes in episode
is episode seven which focuses on the different stages of Nazoco growing up how Taze of
Parishing Sparta session with animation and Meta want to become a virtuoso like that
movies director and how her unrelenting passion influenced all the people around her it's really
great like one some of their classmates someone from college who also wanted to become an
animator and stuff like that uh and yeah and I think this is where I will go into spoilers which I
don't really do on one season reviews as much which I should maybe do more or we should do more
if it's just a one-season thing and not something where it's like or a definitive one-season thing
and not something where it's like oh this might get another season and then we couldn't talk
about the developments so just use the first season discussion as a primer but this show is over
this is a one and done thing I don't see the story being continued from where it leaves off at the
end so I might as well go into spoilers so if you don't want to know anything about the ending of the
show turn off here now and I will jump to the next review place don't turn off the pod
but yeah um so as can be expected from nazi ko's next project this is also turning into a love story
like I said it's a bit of the reverse scenario as it is for recreators where the anime characters
come to the real world and meet the creators here it's a creator traveling to the world and
confronting the characters of her favorite creator who are basically the root of all her life choices
creations that inspired her and that she yes loved in her own way so what happens if those characters
suddenly are as real as normal people to her and one of them confesses their love to her how would
a creator cope with that situation oh very interesting because that's what Luke does he very slowly
after being like very put off by nazi ko in the beginning he very slowly becomes very fond of
he becomes flustered around her in certain situation you know red as a tomato and stuff like that he realizes
that he loves cooking for her but not for cooking itself just because to see her like eat and you know
react to her like be happy about that he is the one who cooked for her is like do I just like I think
some person says to him maybe you just like characters watching characters eat and he looks at Yunyu
and Yunyu is galloping down something and he gets this look on his face like no that's not it
it's definitely it's probably not that I watch nazi ko eat and that I watch her eat my food that I cook
for her so that's when the realization slowly creeps in but he also apparently hasn't had any
experience really with love yet I think destiny in the original story was his first love
so he doesn't know how to cope with that he has to talk to some of his friends I think you know one
person who tries to really like get him to talk to nazi ko is a justice who is like this dragon who
was part of the nine warriors before but like left them because he couldn't really fight with them
anymore got depressed about it he couldn't fly anymore because his wings got damaged and one of the
fights and you know he just became a drunkard and everything and one of his the stories of the show
one of the character stories is him getting him out of that funk and helping nazi ko for killing
or destroying one of the or a hurting one of the void attacks by actually lifting her and
her desk up to a mountain even if it's very hard for him because he can fly properly anymore
but yeah once that happens he kind of rejoins the party again and him and Luke have reconvened
even though you know they were at odds in the beginning because Luke was so disappointed because
justice was like his his idol in a way like he looked up to him a lot so when justice comes to him and
says like yeah you realize you kind of love with that girl right look it's like what no that can't
be and he tells him like how to talk to her and I don't know if it's him or another character tells
Luke you know after Luke is just spending multiple days just telling nazi ko that he loves her and of
course she doesn't know how to deal with that because that never happened to her especially not from
the character that you know she actually also has loved since her childhood but in a kind of different
way right because he was always with her and he was her inspiration and everything he was a favorite
character in the show in the movie so someone tells Luke that that he needs to tell her that how he
feels about her and his solution is telling her just I love you every time he sees her and they don't
really have a conversation about it he just tells her that and she doesn't know how to handle that
and how to have a conversation about that and yeah that just as I think is like okay come come on
you can't like force her your feelings on her you have to like be a bit more this needs to be
more of an exchange and everything and you need to reconsider her feelings and everything
so that's really interesting and how these two grow together but it's also not only about learning
to feel a new kind of love for the first time it's also about facing the inevitability of certain
things in life like that for example not so close to providing the story of her favorite movie because
she fell in love with the main character and doesn't want him to die but that might not be her story
to tell I don't I feel like the end of the story agrees with her point of view but there's some things
in here where it's like is this really her place to do this like that's another person's story
like I feel like at certain moments especially when the the director bird comes into play and
scolds her for trying to change the story it seems like the show is trying to discuss the integrity
of art as a deeply personal form of expression here that not everyone should be allowed to change
just because they can and that even if a tale is very like depressing that has merit that can have
merit that can have something important to say and everything like I said there's a quote I will get
to that but that relates to that but yeah that was very interesting I like that the show invests an
episode to show that Luke didn't fall for Nazoco out of nowhere she is because she is the one who
pulled him out of his depression and gave him hope like he needed a reason to keep fighting the
voids after all the laws and misery he had experienced and Nazoco became that reason for him
so this is the better version of Memon's storyline like I said who basically already was a step
further into the spare than Luke but while the resolution to her story lacked any emotional
impact whatsoever just like Destiny's looks version really works because he's not just in love
with Nazoco's creations he's in love with her as a real person and the show contrasts love for
fictional characters or work of art with deep romantic love here same applies to Nazoco who until
now has loved Luke as a character as a work of art of her favorite creator but now she falls for
him as an actual person and this will of course help her finish her work in the real world and grow
as a person so that's really cool that storyline really works and this is why I think it's kind of
doing the story at the service to also have another character in there like Memon who has a similar
story but with a much less engaging resolution you know just basically a joke but yeah I like to look
Nazoco's storyline I thought there was really well done and it has another wrinkle to it there some
not another small moment I really liked and that is kind of rare I feel like especially when you
come to shows where you know a romantic relationship is involved and John you know how we both are not
very fond of misunderstandings and there's like this moment where I mean I mentioned before
you knew is very upset that Luke falls in love with Nazoco he does not want that because he can't
stand her and he wants he wants Luke to fall in love but with any other girl he looks like he
has known Luke since they were childhood friends right since they were together since they were kids
and he's like no this girl is bad for him I don't want that for him fuck right he's really upset
and he doesn't know why Luke can't tell him you know certain things when it comes to that relationship
and everything and there's this moment where Luke talks to justice you knew is somewhere in the
background hiding listening in and this is like this typical scenario was oh Luke is gonna say something
that's gonna hurt you knew his feeling and then you knew he was gonna snake away and gonna harbor
resentment towards Luke or more towards Nazoco because of that right this is this is a thing that
happens in so many other shows where it's like okay a person listens into what a person is saying they
say something hurtful then the other person is you know distraught and leaves the scene and then the
other person actually says something nice right that alleviates that what was said before or gives it
more context and it's like oh the tragedy if only the other person had stayed for like one more minute
they would have never oh it's such a misunderstood oh I hate that I hate that so fucking much I hate
that I hate it so fucking much I want to punch everyone who puts that in their story like in the face
so I was very happy that this didn't happen here because Luke actually you know he says I can't
talk these kind of feelings that I have for Nazoco to to to to you know um and you know said oh fuck
because he's family I can't talk to he's like family to me I can't talk to my family about my love
problems and you knew it's like oh Luke I'm family to him so he heard the part that could have been
hurtful but then looking me it was like I know he's actually not just a friend he's family to me and
that's why I can't talk to him about this and of course that makes you knew super happy and I was
happy too like that was very nice so please can more shows do that instead of doing that stupid
overheard misunderstanding blah shit thank you very much then shoot that you can show that you
showed me that there's another possibility there and another way to go a much better way anyway
yeah Nazoco look at you knew out the best characters by the way like justice is also pretty good
and like I said Destiny and Memon sadly get the short end of the stake because they're not really
that much characters really like there's some in there but I don't get that much to do and also
add that are not as interesting and that's a bummer the actual ending is also a bit a a brap she gets
technically transporter to the real well back to the real world we don't see her arriving there I think
I don't know if we see her wake up and realize it was a dream I think we did then if we see her
disappearing from the fantasy world and next scene we see is her finishing or having finished the
the movie hot so koi first love and it was a success of course and everything and we see her finishing
movie and everything and then she just is on to the next project or whatever like it's like really
only a minute of footage after the the the fantasy world basically gets restored and she disappears
from it we see her in the real world we see her working with her colleagues and then she walks down
the road and it looks like on the other side my the part is looks like on the other side the party is
walking in the opposite direction and then she turns around like her and then the show is over so it's
it's it's a very abrupt ending like there's not really any big apologue or you know
catharsis or a reconnection between her and look or whatever or no she stays in the fantasy world
which again makes me think also because the she doesn't really talk to the characters the characters
might not really be there it I feel like it's just toy it was a dream thing and it's toying with uh
was it maybe wasn't it uh like it's I feel like it's ultimately a satisfying resolution this was
always about nazi ko remembering what made her fall in love with animation in the first place like
again was a dream was it the true is the guy experience who knows but it did the trick and she also
learned to rely on others uh which shows in how she yet she accepts the storyboard from a different
animator and everything in the final scenes so her character artist where I realized she realized
that she actually hadn't uh first love all along right she realized that she has had the
passion all along she had the craft all along she had the skills all along everything was really
there she just had to be reminded by her favorite work and what was that was the thing that the show
was setting out to do with that character and the other big part was Luke of her character journey
and I think those two characters really work really well in the story the other characters don't
get that much to do I think you know is on in third place and they do some interesting stuff with him
everything one else is kind of light in terms of character development but uh I liked it I thought
it was really fun uh I thought it's incredibly well animated the production values are out of this
world um fantastic looking show and yeah I feel like if you want to see what's a slightly different
Asica's story I guess if it is one if it isn't one technically it is one I think uh that takes
some jabs at the tropes of the medium that it's in and a lot of fun references uh you maybe
have probably already checked this out I hope it's it's a fun story uh it's it's fun characters especially
the main character not so close great and uh yeah I would say give it a chance uh it's not perfect
but I say for its runtime it's doing a lot of interesting things especially when it comes to what
uh how it relates to uh anime itself and everything it's not as deep or interesting as
recreators or as you know going as much into detail in terms of what the action production uh is about
like maybe shrobako or keep your heads or how you actually become proficient in this uh in this craft
like keep your heads of asica goes into but it's still a light fluffy fantasy tale with some interesting
bits sprinkled into it uh so yeah uh it's uncrunchy rule and while the final words of the director/bird
Kametaro Tsuriyama ring true quote easygoing simpletons don't go thinking happy endings are all
there is to entertainment considering all the dire shit we are currently dealing with in real life
I sure don't mind seeing a whole sum happy ending in my escapism of choice if you do so as well and if
you want to see a really well animated show on top of it with fun characters some interesting themes
and hearty loves definitely check this one out
so we'll be a blot sure is a show that exists
a ringing endorsement by john uh yeah so when we talked about it during the sneak preview
definitely tell that uh it war it's inspiration very heavily on its sleeve much like you talked
about what's in shoe uh uh look at that connecting threads um but yes 20 years ago a young swordsman
named asherite earns the fabled title of blackmeister blade master or exceptional skill with a sword
used to identify the emperor of butcher this name so i don't remember how they say in the show the
emperor of sazlenden to be one of 14 elite warriors and a perilous quest to defeat the evil nation of
whist tech whist tech was a formidable foe possessing powerful weapons and dark magic
equipped with lances blessed by the emperor himself the 14 warriors traveled in the enemy territory
losing three of their ranks the dangers of the land seven of the remaining eleven abandoned
the quest fearful of the risks involved nevertheless asherite and the three others proceeded to successfully
complete the quest it was then that the seven who abandoned in the mission ambushed their comrades
in a pond turning returning home they told the emperor that they had completed the quest themselves
after they were forced to kill the four who betrayed them as result they were hailed as heroes and
conduct the seven heroes while the four who were killed became symbols of treachery and received the
moniker the lances of betrayal thus the story is of the void the void of asherite no known as
canzel who indeed survived the slaughter and vowed to take the heads of his traders companions who
have over the years become powerful nobles and warlords hailed as saviors by the people
so this show is headed up by our friends who we've talked about several times in the past
satellite and this show is based on a manga that has finished its run
asterisk because there's a sequel manga yeah i saw
penned by etoroji siono and i think this like they've done some other stuff as you
make this is prey the v one that got big directed by takashi nao yeah who's done
all a little bit of a lot of things i think that's a theme in this episode because
you know the the directors of zenshu and you know and uh and the one the next
show i'm going to talk about is like i i feel like there's not that much big stuff they have worked on
as actual directors but they've worked on a lot of shit in general it's like okay
nao yeah has worked on some high profile name stuff like real gun s uh little busters
we cross and a couple other things you know that are no names but then i look at the rest of this list
and i'm like okay i've heard that name sure yeah uh script was done by tatsuya takahashi who is
worked on such winners as aero manga sensei yeah but they've also worked on some other good stuff
like one of my personal big favorites the 2011 idol master series so they've done good stuff
uh there's also some scripting by tatsuya gamaata who's done some other stuff like i think we
talked briefly at at least in passing at one point about nights of sadonia yes you know i i know
exists i watched one episode i think the animation is fucking disgusting so i'm continuing being sort of
on music done by shunarita who hasn't done a whole ton of anime work but has done like
a couple of games like there's the one game and i know off hand off this list was this
PlayStation v der rhythm game called ea vt colorful back when vocal oid was at its peak
but they did some music in s a o alternatives so they they they have been a round
the show well let's i guess we can talk a little bit about some of the characters first but
the overarching narrative in this show is pretty much what i laid out talk about the summary
the seven heroes are the bad we need to get rid of them some of them are more bad than others
and there's uh we've really only have uh major encounters with like two of them some of the other
ones are there one of them dies and somehow comes back question mark uh but i mean that's also a thing
that happens where there are me hero canesel who is sliced up very brutally the show is um makes no
secret about how violent it is is no it is very like you said of its age from the ought and edgy and dark
and bloody and jesus christ that's what stood out to me when i watched the first episode how much
fucking blood there is a sense just got damn and i mean and i mean there's a lot of it but i don't feel like
it's i don't feel like it's overly excessive like yes it's there but it's not like
we're not seeing like comical gallons of blood mortal combat oh no no no no no it's not that i think
are there even any i don't know dismemberments and stuff like that or is it just blood spurts everywhere i
don't know i feel like i was a lot of it but it was not super excessive i don't overly remember any
on screen like beheadings or dismemberments like i think it's implied yeah sure it's not really like
that's super gory there's also like you know a japanese broadcast standards yes of course show
a beheading even though there are shows that are in different times slots where you get to see that
every every once in a while but uh canesel was trained by this uh sword mr.
named glia and you know he learned everything he knows from her and she is like renowned as being like
super strong super good at what she do so her student took on her lessons very very well
and on his deathbed he basically takes the blood of a fairy and is able to use that to bring
himself back to life and he takes on like an entirely different appearance and he's power he gains
magical powers from the light of the twin moons uh-huh wait so so his so his his original
uh the way he looks originally is not how he looks in the first episode of the show no
interesting because because i don't know if i guess we can go full spoilers because it's not clear
with the story of this show is not finished it got to about like chapter 60 62 out of
170 and sadly we were speaking before we started recording sadly it doesn't seem to be in the
business of doing season two recently because there was that other show that uh they did the the
underground the driller one whose name escapes me that we really liked and its story is not finished
and there's definitely not a season two on the table or it doesn't seem like there's one so
which is unfortunate is it we both really liked that story yes and i bumped that i don't remember the
title uh need to look up the episode where we reviewed it because uh i remember you doing a rockman
dash reference and the title but i don't remember what the name of it so so so so go go go go go go
right yes that was a very fun show i feel like there was so there was that there was also
help which is yeah who knows if that's going to get its story finished in the anime form yeah but
it's definitely that was also definitely sort of the not quite as edgy as this but definitely a
darker story with a twist at the end i would hesitate to say this story has a twist because it really
doesn't you you're kind of getting what's on the tin i mean just if you if you watch the first episode
of this you i think know what you're getting out of this show just in January in terms of tone in
terms of what the what the character types are uh what what's the language and you know what what the
focus is put on and everything i feel like i got a good idea about what the show is gonna do
when i watched like how it handled its story in its first episode okay i know what you're going
for here i know what this is doing and considering when it started and everything it feels like it is
definitely one of the shows of that time and it's i don't know it's intentionally harking to simple a
simpler thing and that's what it's trying to do or if that just happens due to how it's set up but
i feel like there's death it feels like it's a simpler story from simpler times it very much is
kind of to its detriment i mean a lot of people were really down on this show um but you used to
you seem to be to at least enjoy parts of it so what what what what where the parts i thought it was
okay i mean it's not it's certainly not high or the best rating but i mean we get
as somewhat interesting cast of characters like in the first episode to see kainesville trying to save
this elven girl yeah but we never actually really learn her name really which is absolutely hilarious
okay kainesville tret goes up to her and she's like uh she calls her peepie you say what are you doing
out here you know you should come home and she's like oh that's not my name it's in the running joke
is that we never actually learn what her real name is which is kind of funny and i'm like all right
that's pretty good um and he uh ends up getting making a little bit of trouble for himself because these
like basically night's templor who are like out there executing people just because
you you said one bad thing about the seven heroes that you have to die so
another guy steps in whose name is he means weed weed yeah and he's got an ipad she is like very edgy
as well he's like but he helps out kainesville and peepie in there a moment of need and introduces them
to this lady altaya who is a smuggler a smuggler of people who helps them get out from underneath the
oppressive fist of the seven heroes which you know she's out there doing the good work and she's got
okay the the one thing i was wondering when watching the the first episode was does she stay with the
party just because it seems like she unwillingly gets like has to tag along due to reasons
and how it pens out at the end of the episode yes and no because that first sort of like that and then
she disappears for not not a long amount of time but you know other things happen and then she ends
up coming back around a little bit later on in helping everyone out so like because at first she
is definitely like you said an unwilling participant all in all of this but when but she likes kainesville
she you know she thinks he's got spunk so he she is willing to be like you know
i'm at least in your camp i think you can do this i after seeing what you have done i think you
have the ability to take down the seven heroes so she is at least an ally to him she she doesn't abandon
him but you know she's obviously not you know the strongest of the lot so can't really fight on the
same level but she does show some impressive swordplay as it goes along so that you know there's a lot
that happens but there's um there's all that there's the seven heroes themselves the first one that
we need of is i hope i'm gonna try and say this name of it's in german go for it stem wolek what
stem wolek i mean the oh has an umlao on it so i might be impinged pronouncing it can you send me
that i'm very interested can you send me that it's probably a nonsense word uh i just want to see
how it's spelled i am going to dm it to you i was wondering like i have no fucking idea what
they're supposed to be so don't worry about it there's a lot of nonsense pseudo germanic names in
here they're like sure sure guy all right i mean at least the names in free ren were they yes they
were sent the chips of the characters and what what they relate to most of them anywhere was like okay
yeah i see why you wouldn't name the car it's very on the nose and we made a joke game out of that
which was very fun which we will do again when whenever free ren season two drops but you know
you know not every show does that apparently i was already wondering about the translation i mean
bloodmiser to blade master klingon miser will probably have made more sense although klingon blood
would yeah but that mean but yeah so huh i mean like this show doesn't have as much of a of a grasp on
a german language as klingon does like the name of the m the uh kingdom that sends out the 14
lances is this and i'm still not sure if i'm saying that right uh slah slah lendon
yeah it looks like the lendon but that's also not german so i have no fucking idea what this is
and i mean the way um german is pronounced in japanese is always yes i mean sometimes i get it down
yeah it means the same with english sometimes and i mean that's the same for us when we try to
pronounce certain japanese words so who are we to criticize but still it's funny it's just you know
i feel like i don't i don't want to come across like an asshole making fun of it but it's just
funny uh hearing people just pronounce the stuff in a very weird way when you are a native speaker
and that just stays with it it's not a criticism of them like learning a different language is hard
and you know if you don't have a native speaker wrong when you create your show i see that in you on
u.s shows a lot as well as like they hire people who are obviously not german native speakers
but they then have them speak german sentences and it's like okay that's not even remotely convincing if
you actually grew up with that language as you made language and i assume it's the same for some
people if you know if you have a very heavy german dialect and try to speak english and then put that
in a tv show and try to convince people that that is an actually native english person so i mean
that goes both ways every time kind of reminds you of i think it was i can't remember the name of the game
but it was some old japanese developed i think baseball game from like that olden days and
the the names of the players on the roster were like nonsense like they're trying to be like
these western american names and it's like okay i think you needed to consult with someone just like
i think how do you base my i don't know if she oh no uh consult with anyone on this but it reads like
it doesn't outside of maybe the title of the show in gain sells title a lot nicer i mean this is
this is also a show and that counts for every show that's created in respective country this is
geared towards japanese people and how many people how many japanese people knew german to a degree
where did like sticks out to them so who fucking cares and if it gets released over here it's like
if you watch it at least if you watch it with a dub it's gonna be probably if it is actually a german
word or if it's you know released in the us and if it's actually in english word it's gonna be
retranslated and spoken by a person who actually speaks that language and then you know it's not
noticeable anymore so it doesn't really matter like i wonder how many japanese people really are like
what that is not all that word is pronounced i have to i have to feel like there is probably a non-zero
number yeah sure i mean yes i mean there are obviously not large but no but there are people who
study different language of course i mean there are some people who probably are in there i don't know
how which semester of german studies in japan probably or something like that at least as a
secondary course or whatever and are like what what is this let's also not forget that every single
every single episode title is also in german really oh my god yes with translations provided i don't
know how if they are 100% accurate but okay okay we have to look at these i need to see the
episode titles now do we have a Wikipedia link or something because no i'm very there we go i'm
very interested this because it also has some summary 100 e21 so okay the first one works
it's not wouldn't be spelled like that but that's how that that kind of works
guess that also works but that no not really i mean no that that's not i mean the the words are correct
but they're not in the correct you know declination and in the right in the right uh syntax is important
yeah exactly syntax is very important like the second one for example it's untermog
mondo so that means according to the show under the morning moons so the correct translation would be
untermog in mondan or the untermog in mondan this morgens but untermog in mondan doesn't make sense
not not entirely but you know you still get the idea the long rain long rain works uh
curinsel of course the name of the main character the castle of the hero is perfect he broke from
head and yeah that works that's good that's actually proper proper german uh yeah the name of the city
stemberlich maybe that is actually a german city that i don't know i don't fuck i don't know what
the references for this so it would be really interesting i should probably google this uh but i
mean he was he was one of the seven heroes i don't know if they're just trying to you know give him a
weirdo goof name but i just that doesn't ring familiar but it could be a city it could be actually a
character a german character from history that i'm not aware of or something like that that has i've
seen that in anime before so the lehrezag episode seven absolutely correct head murder is not
entirely correct it would be held in murder so yeah but it's almost right young leaves
younger blätter is correct um counter attack gingangriff also correct with feeling gefiltsu nope
yes would be midgefuel uh or maybe mit hat's with heart something like that it depends on the context
and the last one new sword no i swear it is absolutely correct so it get at least half right
it's a passing great it's a passing great absolutely that's that's definitely a c i would say
so maybe c minus so yeah that's fine i'm just not sure about some of them but yeah i mean it it
went for it and uh in half of the case it worked so good on them i'm surprised
yeah so there's a lot of there's a lot of that throughout
kainsl makes a lot of enemies as well as allies as you might expect from being very edgy and very
singular minded in his goal he ends up fighting with the brother of this uh princess ot and kills him
and then ot swears vengeance but then she finds out that what kainsl they was kind of an act of
mercy because her brother clauto saw up to some not good stuff so you see things happen with her as well
let me talk about that in a little bit but um a lot of this is just going from point to point seeing
parts of you know this world and fighting the seven heroes like i said we have encounters with
stem wilak yeah um and then kainsl has a run-in with one of the freebies heroes galen
there's your chrono trigger reference um he and kainsl were kind of good friends back then but
glen like sort of secretly hated kainsl back when he was ashoree because he was like
just like a super great swordsman he was a very calm even headed uh guy back in those days
and he ends up getting killed by kainsl and then coming back apparently it's weird and confusing and
it doesn't really make a whole lot of sense they run across uh this dude garan pen who is like this
guard for part of uh stem wilak's white wing army and he's just like this big imposing guy
but he's like this giant softy and he wants you know he doesn't he doesn't actually know
all of the awful things the seven heroes are doing like underground and behind the scenes and you know
he just like when he sees uh someone getting hurt he's just like he starts crying these tears of like
sympathy he's just like he just wants to help people out man he's just he ends up being just kind of a
cool dude who gets done dirty but then he gets done under the and he gets some super powers later on
and it's like oh jeez okay you you you got you got done right so you know there's all that um
the other in there's this giant confrontation in one of the towns where
the one of the heroes is like kind of goes off the deep end and when uh you know it's sort of
at first when kainsl starts his his little uprising the citizens are like oh well he's the bad guy
he's going up against the seven heroes they save the world but then when they see the one of the
heroes in particular start committing these atrocities against the citizens the sentiment sort of
starts to change a bit i would hope so they they tried deploying this like giant battleship airship
thing for use against a kainsl and his cohorts and it gets co-opted by them instead and they end
up yeah using it to attack the uh the castle of this one hero barra star and barra star is like
when he's first shown off he's kind of weird because he's like this battle hungry guy and
the there are these women that are brought to him for for his pleasure and um when he starts
having these weird flashbacks he kind of like kills one of them and it's like oh oh boy that's
hmm but then later on when he sees kainsl he's able to sort of recognize well wait
your ashoree aren't you and he sort of has this flashback to back before they were even conscripted to be
you know the heroes he has this moment where he's remembering like oh he helps want to
tend to the fields with his father and his family wants to become like this merchant himself you know
their wares and become like this this this merchant guy i'm very i'm very worthy there because i'm not
phrasing things very well sorry about that um but his father is like you don't have what it takes
to do this so you need to go and become a hero and provide for us that way and well you know
it kind of works out sort of but it definitely sort of haunt sim like it's like this beard repressed
memory but it also reads like he's sort of got not like Alzheimer's what sort of i'm looking for shoe
dementia yes yes yes yes yes yes almost like it's a dementia thing where he's does it have a full
grasp on the formation of all of his memories but seeing ashoree is like this trigger to be like hey
i didn't want it to be like this and it's like very his final moment is just like very apologetic and
sorry and it's sort of honestly kind of this legitimately sad moment for this character but
canesles like listen man you cannot be suffered to live the way you are because you've done so many
terrible things and he kind of puts him down as almost like an act of mercy hmm so that that's one
really that's what i thought was in particular a really strong moment in there sounds like you
that you can at least like empathize with that character even though he's a bad guy in terms of
oh and some level yeah yeah or at least you feel i don't know at least feel sorry for him in a certain
way maybe not necessarily empathize but you can understand where like maybe his motivation came from
and everything and yeah so that's always i feel like that's at least something to give the the
bad guys a bit of substance there's there's also one of the heroes Elginaha who was the names
in the shower out of this fucking world i know but he kind he cast a spell on himself to create this
giant wall that's like kind of separating out part part of one of the world from the other whoa
it is stir yeah this massive wall and he this happens a little bit before but um he ends up
turning himself to stone and
canesles just he goes down into the depths of this like dungeon underneath the city and
he sees this and he has to in order to break down the wall in order to get to you know the other side
where all the other heroes are holding up and protecting themselves he kind of he's a i guess you
say he's kind of technically already dead because he turned himself into stone man but Kingsville has
to break the spell by also putting him down and then this giant wall surrounding everything just
like breaks to pieces and it's like Jesus dude there's there's a lot there's a lot of tragedy
that happens in this show but i mean some of it is weird and dumb goofy but others of it
it feels like it's coming from a somewhat earnest place but it creates this weird dichotomy
in the story that it doesn't always feel super genuine it feels like yeah i did this because
it seemed cool and you know that is again of its era and i don't know a lot of like
reading one of the reviews on anime news network it's the person there Kevin Cormeck reviewed it was like
yeah i'm glad this show was done and i'm like okay i get i kind of get that sentiment but also like
this is just trying to tell its story and even though in the anime form it's very incomplete
we've got maybe a third of the way through it i thought it was fine you know it's again it's nothing
earth shatter it's not doing anything wholly new but at least the encounters with one of the heroes
in particular was a bit more interesting than the rest of it i mean seeing the turn of the citizens
rally against the equal one quote heroes was probably the big like oh heck yeah moment like
everyone is starting to see you know the monarchy as it were for what it is yeah it's it's
you know that that's like at least a satisfying turnaround it's like yeah finally finally people
get it right that can be satisfying in itself to like cut away the lies through the actions of the hero
even though he's not really interested in that he's only interested in killing the bad guys but
you know he has a positive effect that that regard i guess so is it is it is is is is kinsle
at least at that part of story is he like a character that you actually want to root for like he
didn't feel particularly sympathetic in the first episode he does also not to the other characters
that are on the good side so i wonder if he actually become someone where like yeah that's a guy i
could hang with or at least i i aside from his revenge driven plot that's a character i can sympathize
with i mean like some of the characters like pp and altea in vied and ought sort of start to see
that he can be a a decent guy not through any revealing of his own we see all of that in flashbacks
where you know he was a generally pretty nice guy and he just wanted to go the other hero
stuff to fill his duty and then you know he almost got killed so the whole betrayal stuff just
broke him from you know as a as a in terms from a character step but i totally get that i understand
why he's driven to revenge and everything like everything all this ideals and all his his you know
his optimism i guess and his positive outlook on the world was just completely destroyed by how
these people behaved so i totally get that he's smiling up to this and gone gone all his apes gone
but he you know he's the you can't i mean you can but they should always be more to the main
character than being like this rough uh uh you know i'm a mission driven guy like the the good
journey of this is he is that character and he has this mission and then he comes into contact with
other other characters that show him there is more still more for him in this world in this life
than this mission for revenge which is exactly the story that preserves after a certain point like
guts is on his single-minded revenge driven uh mission to kill Griffith um and then he meets his new party
he meets a shirka he meets uh cervical he meets uh why can't i think of the other characters names i'm
so bad with characters name but you know he's he's new for an a say and uh he's cedro and pack of course
pack is one of the most important characters that lead to a turnaround for guts but you know
that's his story uh at least up to the point until uh mural left us and that made him also such a
compelling character because he's kind of unsympathetic as an and an asshole when we meet him
and we only learn later uh why that happened and after we learn that and can already empathize uh with
him he has already started to change due meeting pack and meeting a couple of other people and
especially when he meets his new party and becomes friends with them and everything and their
support him he becomes kind of he is on the way to becoming the old person the nicer person that
he was for a while in the uh in the male uh uh millennium falcon arch millennium falcon know uh
what in the uh in the flashback arc i forgot age of the falcon or whatever i forget what the name of
that of that famous artist that has now been done to death in the series and a movie uh and three movies
but that is that is an compelling character story the problem is if you leave characters in
whose main mission is the revenge stuff leap them be just being like this stone called bad asses
and then treat the other characters like assholes or side things or whatever i feel like then
it becomes a bit difficult to to root for them i feel like if they interact with other characters
if they are just alone and only face the bad guys that's a different story then you don't have to do
that but if you have them interact with characters that are not part of the revenge mission you might
i feel like you need to show a more sympathetic side to them uh of your main character so i wonder if
kinsle actually shows that i mean he's cooperative at least okay i mean maybe there's a bit more of
that in the later chapters of the manga i'm not sure but um i mean that girl i was talking about earlier
at when she is at death's door later on he gives some of the fairy blood that he's infused with to her
to bring her back to life and get her similar powers to him so now he's now he's got someone on the
same level as him in his corner so that's cool yeah but that's nice yeah okay that's that's some nice
gesture and everything and i was just wondering because in the first episode he felt like kind of a
douchebag so i wondered if he would go the uh uh say similar out to gods or if he would be stay like that
for a longer time maybe then change in possible future chapters that haven't been adapted yet
but uh sounds like he's already on his way there maybe it feels like in this first third it's a very
slow turn but again that could speed up later on a satellite maybe finish your adaptations please
yeah please especially sakugan now that we remember the name uh another question uh satellite is a
not in terms of animation not necessarily as much of a high profile studio as for example
how we just talked about they can deliver really good work i feel like the first episode of this
looked serviceable the fight looked pretty good so i just sat from some weird camera perspectives maybe
but uh how does that progress throughout this season like is do the fights look cool like or is it
like oh no only the first episode look passable and then they gave it to the b team there's some
fights later on that look decent i think i don't this is definitely not at the uh top of their list
but i wouldn't say it's one of their weaker uh offerings like it's not top simple gear
no it doesn't okay i simple gears weird to me because i feel like the first season looked the best
when they had another studio backing them up that is true yeah the first season did look the best
that is much but but but but i don't think it ever looked outwardly bad no i mean there's some
episodes that are definitely in terms of i don't know people who worked on it a little or time or
budget dedicated to it definitely on the lower spectrum where you have very low impact fights i guess
or no not what's very like the fight against the noise and everything or something like that
in some episodes where it's like okay this feels like people just raising their arms and you know
striking with a sword once or whatever and there's no intricate choreography or some weird
some wild camera pants or whatever in it but uh i feel every season had at least a couple of
standout and a moment's animation oh yes where like the satellite went full ham and it looked really
good i feel like the biggest number of them might still be in episode one excluding the actual
transformation sequences of the girls because i feel like those get better with every season i
feel like they went yeah they went all in on the host exactly especially like in the last season
it's fucking those look fucking insane so i feel like that is the outlier there but aside from that
i probably get at the first season looks the best yeah yeah i feel like through uva blad the quality
of the animation was at least consistent so i don't feel like there's anything that really
horribly stuck out in a in a bad way so yeah i was able to watch it and not look at anything
like oh that doesn't look just like watching everything i don't know okay sure fine
it is it looks decent and it is what it is but what you recommend is to some people certain people
will you watch a second season if it gets produced i might check out a second season it gets produced but
again you know who knows again who knows if that'll happen number one and number two i feel like
if you are if you're looking for something like this it's a little darker and slightly more edgy
yeah you you can probably derive some level of enjoyment from it like i said i think this is a
pretty solid six out of ten maybe if i were to put a number to which i don't really like doing
but i i did enjoy this for what it was you know again it's certainly not high-arter at or absolute cinema
yes i put my hands up like the meme but uh if you just want some dark fantasy
anime yeah it'll it'll fill that uh roll for you um where can people watch it if they want to
you can watch it on high-dive and i believe the show actually has a dub now as well which is cool
in an age for less and less shows are getting them uh high-dive and sent high-film works are out
they're doing their best to dub shows so neat yeah yeah check it out if you want something that's a little
grittier and definitely not inspired by the video game romancing saga to shut up don't worry about it
sukasa akiwuragi always dreamed of becoming a competitive solo figure skater but starting to
relate in live meant his ambitions never got off the ground no barely scrapping by he takes on an
assistant coach job resigned to a future far from the one he once imagined for his first day sukasa
meets inori yuitsuka a shy fifth graders sneaking into the ring to practice captivated by figure skating
but held back by her mother's overprotectiveness and her own self doubt inori has never been encouraged
pursue her passion until she encounters sukasa beneath her personality lies great potential
waiting to be unlocked with the right guidance moved by inori's determination to change and
reminded of his own struggles sukasa offers to coach and help her chase the dream she has been too
afraid to voice while the road ahead is long and filled with unfamiliar challenges and rival
skaters inori dedicates herself to the art and strives to one day reach the Olympics and become a
medalist thank you ma l rewrite for that summary just like the one for zenshu so medalist is based on a
manga by suru mykala which i assume is a pen name that's manga started in 2020 currently counts 12
volumes and is still going the anime adaption so far counts 30 episodes and is handled by studio
angi who have i have not heard about before not consciously anyway they have done in between animation
on a lot of high profile work like my hero academia musha kotense some fate stuff some love life stuff
gunna witch from mercury and much more but when it comes to their name around okay when it comes to
actual headlining a show though none of the shows they worked on really rang a bell except for
maybe the detective is already dead so i'm glad to report that medalist proves they got the goods
john you have thoughts on the detective is already dead apparently it was a show that exists
okay getting another season for some reason and well i guess judging from metal is the animation
others must have at least been good on it so it was pretty and there you go the director of
metalist is yes otaka yama moto who also directed hino maru sumo servant service the velkira
chronicles anime adaption among other things and also did storyboards episode direction and key
animation on many other projects like squid girl tokyu miumu or blue exorcist the series composition
and screenplay were handled by yuki hanada who you should be familiar with john
because really yeah he did the same thing for pretty much all of love live and it's been of
and also sound to fonyo steinskate and more so yuki hanada has had his hands in a lot of really good
stuff so and he delivers here the soundtrack was composed by an even more familiar name yuki hiashi
mr. hi ku in my hero academia he is definitely one of my faves in the anime music composer landscape
and he did not disappoint you either aside from handling the score he also did the insert song
composition and then rachement for five of the songs played in episode five and eight of the show
wow yep uh and yeah this show is of course a sports anime who would have suspected cc would
would review a sports anime this season eight no way oh way for real now but yeah so this is about
ice skating that's not a sport i necessarily gravitate to in the anime space like in real life i don't
gravitate to any sport really but in the anime space i at this point have reviewed a bunch of sports
anime on this show and watched even more because i just like sports in anime i like a good a good
underdog story which a lot of anime sports stories are and this is no exception the other ice skating
anime i think the only other ice skating anime i reviewed was uh ureon ice which was a very popular show
that was handled by mupp i actually i think and i like that show but i was not completely enamored with
like a lot of other people are so i was like okay i the problem with ureon ice i think for me was mostly
i like the characters i like the character stories i had a problem with the actual sports side of
thing because i don't know anything about ice skating i don't know how the competitions are scored i
don't know what the difficult things are what the important things are about it what's like when a
character performs good i need the other characters in the show to tell me that they're performing
exceptionally good because i can't see it right because i can i don't know what to look for i feel like
this shows doing a better job and i'll get into that later at giving me the ability to be more in the
moment and understanding when a character performs well and you know actually understanding what's
going on in competition because it does a lot more um uh legwork in terms of telling me what
difficult moves are where uh what characters what characters might struggle with in training what
the different career press uh and so on what they need to do to actually get into certain
competitions and everything so that already is more is are a lot of important basics to make me as a
sports anime enjoyer and afashinato uh enjoy your sports anime show uh so i was happy uh to quickly
notice that a metalist uh seems to be very interested in delivering that groundwork for people who
are not familiar with the sport so yes as said in the summary the main we have two main characters
first the main male character sukasa 26 years old who got into figure skating very late 14 really
only started out in twent- uh with twenty while most ice skaters figure skaters start like already
in kindergarten probably with the basics yeah uh so he got in very late very passionate always hard
worker problem is if you get that late into this game you don't really have a chance to making it
super far he went later into uh into actually dance ice dancing ice dance got very far uh or got at
least to the all Japan competition with his uh partner heat to me or his friend heat to me i don't
know if they actually have a thing going on the show is not super clear about that like they they
seem to be she seems to have been more successful in the sport and she is now a coach uh in her own
right but he came to her to learn from anything and they also became dancing partners uh and made it to
the all Japan tournament and they didn't they didn't place there like they placed forth they didn't
get get to the podium but they all things considered and house late sukasa started that was probably the
most successful he was in his career ever and since then he has been struggling uh like it's doing
part time jobs and everything he doesn't have a lot of money and he can't really make any progress
you know in his chosen career even though he made it to the nash uh to the nationals and he because
of that he considers himself of course not good enough uh when heat to me offers him the job of an
assistant coach at her school and he's like uh i i i only made two nationals because of sheer luck
and everything she's like no you actually get the skills got them it right yes real trouble believing
in himself he lacks severe self confidence he is a very positive person uh which you know uh
is to the benefit of our other main character but only when it is applied to other characters he
can't apply it to himself he only when he looks at himself he only sees the flaws he says that he
wasn't dedicated enough he wasn't getting early into it enough uh into it enough right and stuff like that
uh yeah so very relatable character and you want to immediately when you get to learn him and
he's just he's such such a lovable lovable goofball like in general and so fucking passionate and
enthusiastic once he meets his to be student um that you just immediately root for him the stuff we
talked about in the review with you know with you will blood and everything you know do we get something
to root for for that character and immediately with Sukasa you're just immediately on board with that
guy you meet that person and after a couple of scenes you're like okay he's now absolutely i'm i'm on
team Sukasa he is the best uh so that's nice uh the other main character is Inori who is i think uh she's
in fifth grade i don't think they ever say her specific age uh Sukasa guesses like 10 or 11 i think
but yet she desperately we want to become a figure skater she sneaks into the ice ring uh ice
ring uh she has like this deal with the owner who just because he wants to be nice to her tell sir hey if
you don't have the money to actually pay for being here because mom doesn't want to give her any money
for that then just bring me uh worms from from i don't know the park or something i have a couple of
pet birds i can feed them to them he doesn't have pet birds uh he just tells her that or so i think he
doesn't maybe he does have pet birds but he just tells her that so that she doesn't have to feel bad uh if
she doesn't have any money and she can still watch and uh you know train uh ice skate uh at the
ring so very nice guy that owner but yeah she's yeah that's very cool often so she sneaks into the ice
ring just when Sukasa is there due to you know being there meeting he to me and everything
and he is just like confronting her is like young lady um did you sneak in and she said oh
fuck i've been caught i've been made and she just runs away from from him and he chase us after her and
it's a couple of things happen very funny things this is a very funny show and he they end up
talking and she's like oh i love ice skating but my mom doesn't want me to do it she my sister was an
ice skater and she hurt herself and couldn't continue career and my mom doesn't want me to experience
the same thing and that's why she's keeping me from doing it and i don't want to be a burden and also
you know you know you know doesn't actually think she can do it because because her mom isn't supporting
her like she likes a lot of confidence she's not good in school she doesn't have any friends right ice
skating is the only thing she potentially could be good at but but she cannot fully live that life
right now so she's kind of she's kind of a sad little girl so suksa kind of give her a little push
and says hey if you really want to ice skate just tell your mom that you want to do that and have her
take you to school just believe in yourself do it very important you know he actually does that
but that kind of backfires a bit at least for a moment then i talked about the sneak peak but i'm
gonna bring it up again so in her is mom for the first like three to four episodes of this show
is a very unlikable character because you see where he's where she's coming from you immediately
understand what this person is about her she has two daughters one of them is was kind of an
overachieve I guess she immediately was deciding on ice skating she hurt herself couldn't continue
and she is worried you know ice skating is very expensive as a sport that gets
spelt out in the show a lot of time equipment is very expensive courses are very expensive and so
and so money of course plays also into that but you know the most important thing is that her daughter
got one daughter got hurt and couldn't like fulfill her dream and she is worried that
innery will cling onto a dream due to looking up to her sister her sister is the reason she wanted
to ice skate because she looked at her sister in on the eyes and thought she was super cool and she
wanted to be like that right so that's her inspiration and her mom is worried that innery can't
look past that and it's gonna cling to a dream that she also can't realize especially because she's
now at the cutoff age of actually getting into his important being successful which took us also
realizes because he started also very late and didn't get anywhere really so you know if
if if innery wants to start she has to start now and her mom is this roadblock understandably from a
certain perspective but she is very selfish it's obvious that she's doing that because she doesn't
want to see her daughter get hurt but the downside of that is that she bars her daughter from
making very important experiences and actually finding something that makes her feel
like she's worth something like doing something that she feels good at because she doesn't feel
good at she's bad at school like I said she's not good at doing she is bad at making friends and everything
so ice skating is the only thing where she feels like she's kind as where she feels somewhat good
doing it and that's the thing her mom takes away from her so right that's very just because she doesn't
want her daughter to she doesn't really pay attention to what her daughter really wants and what she
needs she just looks at her daughter through this very narrow space of her other daughter and her own
like worries and hurt feelings and you know that's really bad and that's really bad parenting I'm sorry
I'm not a parent but that's very obvious if you look at it and she has like this very shitty
approach to discouraging innery from her dream in the first episode after he only goes to her and
tells her that she wants to do ice skating legit her mom takes her to all the clubs in the town to
her the coaches tell innery that it's pointless to try because she is already too old it's too much
work she'll never catch up to the kids who started early and she will never be good enough man
I get the intent right she doesn't want innery to end up like her daughter like her other daughter
although we'll get to that because that's also not a good motivation because it makes it sound
like how she talks about it makes it sound like that not being able to do ice skating through
her other daughter into depression and she's become like I don't know maybe killed herself or something
like that absolutely not the case so that makes this behavior more ridiculous but we get to that
so she doesn't want her to waste her youth or dream or on a dream she has very low changes or almost
no chances of achieving and again money also plays into it because ice skating is a big issue
all understandable reasons but this ain't it lady there is a scene where she points at other girls skating
and literally says see how good they are so small and already practicing jumps think of how miserable
you'd be if you joined them wouldn't you be embarrassed what excuse huh yeah you keep that going
and you can use all the money you save from not letting innery ice skate to pay her therapy instead
like that's some big old shitty anime mom move right there so I was immediately like I was oh my god
oh my god burn that character like burn her to the fucking ground she's one of the worst anime
moms I've ever seen just fucking Sukasa like take take innery away from that woman and well my wishes
of course get fulfilled not directly like he's adopting her or something like that but Sukasa of
course ain't let that mom be actually on an anime mom behavior fly because he and innery are kind
in the same situation only years apart and he didn't have supportive parents so as either so he's
gonna train her and he is actually really good at it like we in the first episode he is the one
who's encouraging here he's the one who telling you can do this and he is very he gets very enthusiastic
when he sees how much innery on her has already taught herself on her own and how far she has already
progressed like he sees the potential of her immediately the thing that her mom of course didn't
pay attention to he immediately sees what that she can actually do this if she puts the work in and
he's so mesmerized oh my god this this girl's amazing a bit too enthusiastic he to me is very much like
oh my god keep your voice down and and the other parents are already breathing down my neck because of
potential preferential treatment to some of the girls and you're just falling over this one one girl
here you can't do this and that all of this like him supporting her and her mom like going against
that and telling him please don't encourage my daughter too much that it won't work and so
and so on all this leads to innery's big statement in the scene in the first episode where she says like
please let me I don't have anything I've I hate the person I am right now I don't want to be this
person anymore and the only way I can I feel like I can get become a different person get out of this
is ice skating because that's something I've passion for that something I feel like I can do
well and you won't let me do it please let me do it and suprasus reaction to it just will melt your
heart it's just so so adorable like how he's like oh my god I get there I get her I just want to help her
I want to help her achieve her dreams I want to be a coach like while a few moments ago at least in
the show shows runtime in the episode ranta he was just very reluctant because he also didn't believe
that he would be cut out to be a coach because you know he he feels like he doesn't have the experience
he doesn't have the talent because he isn't not that good of an ice skater himself and everything he
hasn't cleared the competitions the badges and so on the medals so he doesn't feel like he is
cut out to be that but he sees this girl that has this this desire to to progress in this sport that
he also that he also has an incredible passion for it so I say he is a girl who can actually achieve
it and he doesn't want to live through her precariously there's was one of the worries I had in the
beginning was like okay is this gonna be that story where it's like okay he couldn't achieve his
dreams which also a lot of parents do right they get their kids into the sport that they were also
part of or in any sport or anything successful or try to make them a movie star or model or whatever
because they let a normal pedestrian life or they also were part of that business and couldn't
achieve success so they want their children to to succeed them and live you know their success
through them and that's also a very shitty thing to do it's putting a lot of pressure on the kids that's
that's like doing it for the wrong reasons that's not doing it for the kids that doing it for yourself
that's very selfish so I was worried that he was also that this story would go also that way
like at some that he is only doing it because he didn't achieve it so he wants to to achieve success
through you know but that's absolutely not the case because that's not the guy that Sukar says he's
just happy to see someone who is kind of in the same situation that he was in but with the same drive
but that he now can make a change in that person's life by being the support that he never had
and by teaching that person the things they need to learn and just being that kind of positive force
in that life and he sees that he can be that for in a re and he is like I'm gonna train her and
him he's just so desperately asking her to accept her passion to accept her will to do this and
her dream he's like okay that's it I'm just gonna take this girl to the nationals I'm gonna make
her a medalist I'm gonna make her the best skater in the fucking world that's so he's just okay
that I'm gonna do it and that's great and I immediately fell in love with these two characters
and they're a great team and that is like the most important component of the show is it's main
character two main characters there are a lot of other cool characters in the show but the team of
Inori and Sukar is so good and their dynamic is so great and so wholesome like they have this
this incredible positive teacher student relationship without any that was the other worry I had
without any iki subtext to it which you know considering her age considering his age considering
he's a man she's a she's a girl and some anime go when it comes with age differences and everything
that was also something I said oh god this is gonna turn into this kind of iki love story nope
nope uncle that I'm really glad to hear that I was so glad I was I mean this first season doesn't
have that the whole manga so it's still not but did just in terms of tone and what it's doing
right now or has done in this first season I'm very confident to say that it's not where the story
intends to go and it's just this wholesome tale of a guy who wasn't able to cut it because of like
of confidence and like of support in his chosen passion profession dream and now he finds the second
chance in a girl who is in kind of the same situation and that can he be a force of good for and can
actually help achieve what she wants to achieve and become the person that she wants to become so
just great like I mean I'm getting goosebumps talking about it because it's such a it's just a
such a wholesome tale is such a wholesome character dynamic and the show is packed to the brim
with emotional moments between these two characters when they make progress in their individual
journey is not only in a re becoming a great ice skater in her own right but also sukasa becoming a
fucking great coach this is a dual character story this is not only about innery becoming a
gold medalist this also about sukasa becoming a coach to a gold medalist and adds and finding a new
passion in life like that is linked to his previous passion and that's fucking great so yeah
again all these scenes where she makes progress and he just being so happy about that are so
fucking cute and adorable and you know he just has this smile that lights up the entire room
like every time she succeeds in a move like the whole show just just fucking erupts into
into sunshine and rainbow's technically because you know that's just the girl she is and this is
especially double impactful because outside of that she is still dealing with a lot of
lack of self confidence right she has to overcome this we come she will come stronger and stronger
and more strong will the father show father the show goes she learns to speak out she learns to
be very vocal about what she wants what she needs right but she always in certain moments falls
back to blaming herself for not achieving once what she wants to achieve feeling too selfish
with her dream and everything and feeling like she is putting her desires over the needs of other
people and everything like she's very self conscious about that so it's really great to see a grow
out of that and actually finding her footing in terms of what like is again what I said what she
wants and what she needs and how that actually positively influences other people as well and that
can that she can do that for them as well by actually doing what she likes to do so it's great in the
beginning her moods are rapidly switching between other excitement and severe depression when she
can immediately pull off a new move on the first try which I would attribute to her mom you know like
a lot of bad shit that you know he thinks about I would totally give that to her mom because you know
that didn't come from nowhere but you know there's also a thing about that I will talk about that because
it happens in the fourth episode which I feel like is not too late in the show to call to the spoiler
or too much of a spoiler but yeah Sukhason knows what Inuri needs the most
what Sukhason knows that what Inuri needs the most is someone who believes in her and you know
just supports her in her wish to be finally good at something she loves to do and you know he
recognizes that her desire to skate is too strong in Inuri because for just for her to stop and be
happy that she stopped for technically no reason because he experienced the same thing when he started
out and he didn't have someone who went all in for him so he's helping on being that person for Inuri
and yeah again can give her preferential treatment but I don't know if that works out because we only
see them really together we see in the last stretch of this season we see him also training another
person which is also interesting an interesting little arc in its own right but aside from that it's
only just those two really together as a you know student teacher duo there are other teachers that
get thrown into the mix that also teach something to Inuri there's a ballet teacher that Sukhason
later invites to a training camp so he can teach the kids something about posture and everything
and how to improve on that and of course that gets into it and you know some of the the other coaches
that they meet when on the competitions also you know give their input and something like that and
he asks them for it like because he's not experienced as a coach and he's like can you please help me
on this particular topic like this coach they coach they meet at their first competition a real
competition and he's like please what can I do about this teaching her how to make
this jump or whatever and he the other coach is like well what do you see when you look at
this performance and so on and Sukhason tells him everything he sees and he's like well you got all
of it already you know what to do so what do you need my help for and Sukhason is like what
what do you mean it's like you you got it figured out like the only thing you lack is self-confidence
and believing in your choices like you have to get right instincts you have the experience from
eye-stancing you know what it's important but you what your student needs to do to get better the
only thing you need is to believe in you having those instincts and that eye for you know quality
and expertise so that's that's really cool like that's one of the the parts of Sukhason's character
arc like he he has I mean he doesn't know everything of course not right because he didn't do proper
single eye skating he didn't really take part in in that many competitions or whatever and you know
he didn't get very far but he knows the basics and he is a very good eye skater like he
he he got the movements down he got the physique he he has the right inspiration which we'll get to
and you know it's just he doesn't believe in himself enough so this is also and through you know
seeing you know he succeed and him being a good coach he slowly of course progresses in that and gets
better at that so that's that's really cool and he you know when it comes to innery that he very
quickly shows that he is a good teacher like through his actions even if they're self-doubt like
for example he knows how to encourage her he knows when she is shaken and lacking confidence he
understands when he needs to push her regardless because not facing a challenge would do more damage
than failing it and he knows how to calm her nerves and help her refocus he's just natural really at
that he knows how to handle her he knows how to handle her different moods and he knows to what
button to push to actually make her progress at the right moment at the right time so never be too
forceful never be too delicate just the right kind of approach for each given situation he's very
adapted that and again the only thing he lacks is self-confidence in his own skills so yeah just like
his student really because that's the main thing that innery also lacks in the beginning with
like confidence in her own abilities to do this but she has Sukasa to get her there and Sukasa has
partially her and some other coaches who help him realize that he also has the skills to get her
there and they developed this really really cute ritual when of course innery is always very nervous
like in the beginning of a contest of when she has to do a batch test and whatever or when she has a
competition so to calm herself down she develops this ritual of holding the chords on Sukasa's hoodie
to calm her nerves like and right before she has to go on the ice and then she she ties
this to like this this this this um this bow like if she would like she would tie a shoe and there's
a reason for that and I won't give that away because that's a nice very nice emotional moment at the
end of the of the first season but it's very cute just a whole dynamic was was just like I said very
holds them very soon after she starts out innery meets one of the other important character and
technically her her her goal her her her goal to match um who is hikaru she is like this upstart
skate prodigy the same hs innery but she is of course much more advanced than innery innery is a
pre-lame uh on pre-lame level and she's on novice already and already on her way to olympics
but she's a very cool person she's not stuck up or anything and does look down on innery and she's
just like hey you you that getting into the sport that like that's super cool I want to ice skate with
you and everything and innery is immediately that jisheen innery immediately hit it off uh and not
only does that make her innery is ostensible first friend but it absolutely fans the flames of
the fire under innery's ass she now considers hikaru the person she wants to be able to beat with
the ultimate goal of becoming the best skater in the world and the gold medalist of course title drop
so yeah that's that's her goal now she wants to be as good as hikaru and yeah that's of course that's
that's the probably how the the manga is gonna end eventually I mean the she's not even remotely
close to getting there like in at the end of the first season she barely uh or she she just
achieved the permission to perform to compete on the same level as hikaru that's where the first
season ends but we'll see uh if she uh how she gets there and when they actually compete against each other
but so far she is like this lofty goal that innery has set for herself and uh that she wants to achieve
innery small side thing innery can be very intense like when she desperately wants hikaru to teach her how
to jump she's like very much you will need to teach me how to do this I don't have any time I need to
get back and you're the best please teach me but no it's very normal but it doesn't really put hikaru
uh hikaru off she just does like I don't know how to teach that I'm not a coach but you know
you'll get there uh so she's also encouraging uh you know re and reennery doesn't like practicing
a choreography in front of people because she feels like they are laughing at her um so sucasa
suggests they skate together so she can hide in his shadow and even more so than his pupil sucasa
becomes a completely different person on the eyes like gahn is the big goofball making way for an
elegant dancer immediately sparking the desire in innery to be able to look as elegant on the
eyes one day you know so that's the other inspiration she not only wants to be hikaru if she also wants to
be as good and confident on the eyes as her teacher is and she now she has like this clear two main
goals that she wants to achieve is like okay I'm gonna be the the best ice-skating world I also want
to be like as cool as my coach I want to be as cool as hikaru and just this clear things now finally
in her life something she wants to strive for and chances or something she wants to go for
not all coaches and students have such good synergy though there are mario and reo ko for example mario is
a bit brash and likes to tee tea's reo ko and reo ko is a little wrecking ball of fury regardless
reo ko who likes cats and does likes to be called mittens uh immediately takes okay I mean that's
the translation I think in japanese mikaichan but immediately takes a shine to innery and does innery
has made another friend yay uh though it's not easy to survive reo ko's blast of destructive energy
unscathed especially when innery gets a bit on her bad side and they become rivals for a while
but yeah also fun character duo and kind of prominently featured in the show like at least in the
first and second half uh tsukasa also teaches innery how important it is for her to make her own choices
in training and competitions is very important he's not like this dictator in terms of his
teaching style he doesn't always say you do this you do that he's like okay you have these two choices
this might not net you as much points but you have higher chances of succeeding here
if you combine these techniques and stuff like that these would net you more points you would
stand out more but these maybe have a higher chance of succeeding i won't dictate what you go for this
is up to you uh in the work you put in i'm just telling you just from expertise this would uh do
this and this would do that he he likes it to desserts right that's very like a very funny analogy
gives him her like this xma this is dessert this is it and this does this and this does this so
both are good but depending on what you want to do and what you want to learn one might be better
than the other and this is how you should choose our next steps right and he's not the one who
decides that just on his own he asks her what she wants and that's very cool and a very good way of
teaching actually so uh i like that uh a lot and and regards to training the show fast tracks innery
training for the sake of having her perform in the first competition in the first four episodes
like she makes progress very quickly probably a good choice considering the short run run time of
the show at least you know first season but it feels like at the beginning of the show like innery
is just like all of this comes naturally to her because we don't really see her doing moves uh
like training certain stuff over and over again to get better which she obviously is doing but we
don't see that we just have to assume that and since it's so rushed you get the feeling like oh my
god she's a prodigy she's so fucking good she doesn't have to do anything all of that flies
to her like she gets better and better and better and better she hits a cut a bit of a brick wall
later in the show like in the middle part a bit of it but not too big um and some several small
ones in between but there's never like this real crisis of of oh my god i will i will never succeed
anymore really aside from what her mom is doing obviously it's to her but that was a bit of a
thing was like okay maybe if we took a bit more time showing her progress and everything
it would feel a bit more realistic uh and not as like she was always destined to be the new star or
whatever so that was a bit of a thing was like okay maybe this can be contributed to the show only
or at least the first season only being 13 episodes right and maybe they wanted to get to a
specific point and maybe it's longer in the manga i don't know but it's not that big of a problem
because you know you can assume that she did most of the stuff a lot of times and you know
Sukasa is just a very gifted teacher in everything so that's how that panned out but yeah i appreciate
like i said i appreciate the show teaching the viewer a bit about how scoring works and ice skating
again that was one of the things that disconnected me from urea on ice i understood when characters
were performing well or badly due to the scores but i didn't understand why and in here it's like okay
this move gives you this kind of score but if you do these combinations of moves successfully you
definitely get a passing score but those moves are harder to execute but you don't have to do as many
moves that can go wrong right so huh okay i get why they're now going for this combination instead of
this combination and if she performs bad on that particular move then that detracts a lot from her
score and everything so that's the that's the key point that's what she has to succeed to do and so on
so that immediately me understanding more of how the performances work and what the important parts
of the performance are gets me immediately much more invested in the competitions and performances
themselves because i can follow along now i can know now where the important moments in the performance
are and what what inner we need to do to succeed to get to where she wants to get so i like that
the show put the time into actually you know introduce me a bit more to these kind of details to i
skating another character in the show that is not featured as prominent but is of course important
in your sister mecha who is the complete opposite in terms of character much more extroverted
but yeah also sounds like she isn't harboring any resentment towards putting that much time into
ice skating even if it didn't pan out she's starting a broadened Canada making steps forward in a
modeling career so uh mom what exactly was the problem again looks like it worked out anyway
why did not let have the inner that experience too like even if it didn't doesn't pan out apparently
still work out maybe because inner he wasn't good in school and everything and
but did these were the moments where it's like what is what is your problem lady just
that anime mom syndrome yes apparently but thankfully not for two mom uh for two mom for too long uh
like up to the third or fourth episode she's constantly throwing wanges into the gears because she's
afraid in a room you get hurt or or not succeed or be depressed like she's trying to influence
suka such a string can you take some of the moves out because it seems like she's not up to her game
and i'm worried that she will not be able to do this and of course in re over here here's some of that
and you know false back on you know oh my god what can she believe in me and stuff like that or
am i i guess i can't do it after and stuff like that right you know just just just support and believe
in your child you shitty parent fucksake like she only wants her to skate uh yeah only wants her to
skate until middle school two right because she still considers it's just a flight of fancy and whatever
and yes it's just frustrating at least for a while but an important realization for inari is that
it wasn't just skating that was cool it was mainly assisted in spider she wanted to look just
as cool and pretty on the eyes as meekah and once she realizes that that gives her a bit of an
additional drive especially when her sister watches her from the audience uh and one of the most
important things suka sa tells inari and which is exactly the attitude her mom should take
after inari has fallen and wasn't isn't able to uh to do the moves she learned right before she has
to do it in a competition is um don't worry about falling it's fine it's okay to be anxious but if
you fall you get back up and go on as if it didn't happen even if you blow the entire competition
it doesn't matter i won't be mad we'll just try again telling her first that he believes she can
actually do it early in the episode but also that he will support her no matter the outcome and that
she isn't hurting him by failing because that's one of the things that inari is most worried about
she doesn't want to hurt her mom she doesn't want to hurt suka sa by just failing their expectations
like you know not being able to achieve what she said out to do that's you know suka sa telling her
that she doesn't have to worry about that particular thing is the most important thing an insecure kid
like inari who worries about being too selfish and he is not as confident as her sister needs to
hear no matter what happens the people who love and support you now will still love and support you
after and he ends his speech with now knock him dead kid what a guy classic rocky moment
fucking amazing and inari's first competition is a side to behold as expected it doesn't go perfectly
but just like suka sa told her to do she gets up immediately after she falls and delivers not only
what she trained but also little extra the music is great the animation is stellar it's awesome i
was yelling come on you can do it like i was like i had to verbalize it i was just so engaged
and yeah this is the this performance is the thing that finally brings her mom around
her finally realizing that her mom finally realizing that she has a strong daughter and that she was
really only worried about getting her to herself instead of paying attention to what inari actually
wants or needs is one of the best emotional moments in the show so far uh up to that point
she finally hugging her daughter and telling her that she will support and believe in her and that
she is sorry that she didn't do it from the beginning has everyone in the show and me in tears
it was worth so worth sitting through the frustration with the mom character in the first three to four
episodes to get through this moment i absolutely loved it i thought it was fucking great
and i'm glad that i stuck with it to experience that because it was it was really well done
and very very just a very emotional high high point and what is also good is that
we immediately see what it looks like when a kid thinks it has to do it all on on on her own
Ryoka who has always been deemed a problem child by adults does lost her trust in them and is now
hellbent on achieving greatness entirely on her own uh and she is completely thrown off her game when
she can't land one move she practiced for uh for very hard it goes into full depression mode and
thinks she can't recover from this because she thinks this has ruined her entire performance she
reboots her choreography and that mindset of course is what has an actual bad impact on the rest of the
performance so you immediately have this contrast it's like okay this is you know what happens if
took us i wasn't such a great teacher right i mean mario is still a good teacher but you know
she didn't it doesn't quite have a handle on uh on what Ryoka needs yet that you know
she has a good talk with her after after that that thing goes wrong and even though she even even though
mario was a bit mean to innery before innery still really wants to be her friend which leads to a
couple of very cute scenes between the two and Ryoka just clinging to her like a fucking toddler
it's very nice and yeah uh innery sure picked a lofty goal in terms of rival because what comes
after this is hikaru's first on-screen performance and as fucking incredible i sent you that video
yeah i watched it and i was wow yeah still can't believe how good this cg is in this show i didn't
i usually can very quickly pick out when something is cg i wasn't immediately able to hear later on
in the show there definitely some moments where it's like okay yeah here it shows much more but
in the in the hikaru's performance it's just so fluid the camera movements are so great which i
also think also think is a big part of why this looks so good like the camera movement and short
composition is able to conceal some of the minor hiccups in animation fluidity and moments of stiffness
but just in general that those two minutes of performance or however long it was just fucking
stellar it's just such a good choreography it looks so smooth and just focus on the right moments and
the audience reactions and everything the music is good and yeah this is probably the best the show
looks uh in its first season uh it's just amazing and due to hikaru we get two rivalries for the price
of one because hikaru's coach hikaru's trainer is junioraka a gold medalist one of tsukasa's idols
and a piece of work uh when when inari asked him to deliver a message to hikaru for her he tells her she
will never be able to get to hikaru's level never mind ever have a chance of beating her this of course
writes up tsukasa and when juniore torts with beating my pupil means beating me you really think
and nobody like you can do that tsukasa is like dems fighting words and i'm gonna take that
challenge i'm gonna make inari the best skater on the planet and uh yeah a battle of skaters and
coaches hell yeah so that's like so that's that's the thing that's what i meant you not only get like
an underdog story for the for the student you only get one for the coach uh he who has now his own
rival who's uh he is deeply emotionally connected to because seeing juni perform at the olympics is
what got tsukasa into ice skating so he has to basically overcome uh or get better at coaching then
the ultimate lofty goal that he had when he started os ice skating so that's that's really cool
that's that's that's that's that's a goal that's a challenge that's what i like to see that's
something to strive for i think i noticed on this show uh is that the translation is sometimes
really loose or often even uh in one scene another kid asked inari if the if she plays video games
but the subs say do you watch anime and there were several other moments where i'm pretty sure
something very different was said then what was appearing in the subs i don't know if they're
duptiles or do you even know if there is a dub otherwise i mean i'm fine with loose translations as long
as they don't fuck up what the respective scene is trying to convey does this one scene in the
german dub of cowboy b-bop where fei thinks the first episode with ad and in the original version
fe fei promises ad that she will take them with them or something like that if if ad does something
for them or whatever and at the end of the episode she just wants to get away and you know she
doesn't fulfill her promise because fei is shitty person but uh you know she just wants to get away
and in the german dubbers they made it sound like the others are others of the team are trying to stop
her from going back to ad and she's like i promised her i promised her as like that is the complete
opposite of what the scene is doing like what are you doing what what the fuck this is a complete
completely changing her character what what the fuck weird yeah it's super weird i don't know if
there was just like someone being didn't didn't like fei being an asshole here or didn't understand
the scene or something like that was super weird so i don't feel anything like that happens in
this show where like a character motivation or or a scene is completely reversed in terms of meaning
but there were some moments where i feel like the different parts of conversation didn't quite match
each other didn't quite connect and i have a feeling that's also because of the loose translation so maybe
dial it back a bit on the next project you translator i mean my japanese language skills are
incredibly low since i forgot most of what i learned so if even someone on my low level notices this
that should make you think that being said the loose translation probably enhanced some of the jokes
uh in this show so i appreciated it in that regard but like i said in some moments it was like
i don't know if that actually makes sense in terms of what the characters just said and yeah
and what the other characters said so just stuck out to me that rarely happens in in uh in most
shows so i was like okay weird doesn't doesn't detract from the fun of the show or anything it's just
something that stuck out a bit and uh that i noticed i like that after the first competition to show
slow down a bit to show more of the training uh the fruits of which are realized last minute in the next
competition and performance which makes it very satisfying it's not that dedicated to the stories of
the other skaters which again makes sense considering the short runtime of the of the first season
and maybe there's more to some of those in the other like in the later parts of the manga uh
some of the characters might come back but we meet a lot of girls a lot of girls skaters in in
this first season and some of them are just therefore one competition and that's it so far i mean
this might all be groundwork late for later because some of them are definitely advanced uh more
advanced than uh then uh inori so all of this might be groundwork late for uh later where uh she has
actually to actually compete against them and get first place over them like at a better school than
them uh so you know maybe i'm judging uh i'm uh too judgy here and this gets brought back later but
it's it was just something where it's like okay i wish i would have liked to learn more about this
character i would like to see more spent more time with that character to learn more about the
background you know to get more of a uh feeling of what they are about and you know why they are in
doing ice skating and so on but most of them are the important ones work well enough uh regardless
uh like the story of emma for example a student of the coach who helps uh sucasa like she had a very
trouble training period uh had to take breaks because of pain resulting from growth spurts and
overdoing it you know that's one of the things that happens to children of that age
and she had to deal with a lot of setbacks frustration and tears and i feel her overcoming that in
her performance would have hit harder if we saw more of the trying times she went through but it's
you know it's a great moment regardless but this was one of the moments like okay we have this really
nice resolution to her story and you know this gratifying moment of her finally earning the fruits of
her labor but we didn't really see much of that labor like we didn't we hear her coach talking about
her struggles but we don't see them really except for very very few minor flashbacks so spending
a whole episode on her going through that process and then showing her succeeding in that competition
would have been much more cooler uh so that was one of the things was like I feel like the show is
rushing it a bit here and i would have liked to spend more time with that particular character
but you know it was cool regardless and her story is also an important lecture for sucasa as a coach
like he has not been paying enough attention to uh inari overdoing it because she's like very she
knows she doesn't have that much time and she wants to succeed and she's very adamant and very
very work oriented and you know very ambitious in everything which is why her legs are so strained
that she suffers shin splints yeah not great nothing super serious yet but both of them need to learn
to take breaks even if time is of the essence right so you know she doesn't have to take breaks for
months on end because she overdid it and seriously hurt herself or even worse end up like a sister
right uh in that regard and has to stop entirely inari also learns an important lesson in that competition
with Emma uh like she realizes she will probably never fully catch up to some of the girls who started
early in the sport but she will never use that as an excuse to give up and reach for the go and
she will reach for the gold anyway and you know that's that's important lesson to learn like
understanding your shortcomings quote unquote and what you maybe can do but still in the face of
that being like no fuck it i'm still gonna do it you know i'm still gonna go as far as i can go
because i love this and i want to be the best i can be if that isn't as good or better than some
of the other girls then that's the way it is but i can still be i know i can still be better
so i'm gonna continue as long as i have the feeling i can get better and enjoy this
and that's cool um we get a time jump of almost an entire year between episodes nine and ten
oh we're skipping an entire training period which i mean i feel like maybe would have the show
would have benefited from showing us some of that but also it doesn't feel like anything super
substantial was lost it's basically like her going through all the rest of the badges she needs to
learn to be able to participate in novice competitions like getting out of prelim uh level
we skipped that entirely and just jump immediately basically right before her
test for the six badge that she needs uh this is not Pokemon but it's you get the idea so uh yeah at
that point the focus is shifted not entirely shifted but we the show focus is a bit on another
character as well who gets introduced pretty early on and who is also interesting in his own right
who is real um he is like this little shit uh who is the son of a another one of
a sucasa idols a uh a guy who also just like June skated at the Olympics but June got the gold medal
he got the silver medal and real is like this the super like i don't know
stag up child he's like he got a successful father he is of money i guess and he is uh you know he got
into ice skating very early because his dad wanted him to do it and so on and he uh he looks down
on other skaters of course especially innery he's like who the fuck are you right that is his behavior
towards her and uh he's he he feels like he knows everything and everything so when we first
encountered him he's a very unsympathetic little kid he's very annoying um the more we progress towards
the show and especially in the last episode where he's like doing a training he he doesn't want to
train at his uh his school anymore because June is hanging around there and he hates June and uh for
reasons that i won't go into too far but um he goes there uh he uh he goes to the school on the
request of his father where uh he to me and sucasa uh coach and does he train together with innery
of course and uh yeah he yeah he's a piece of work like both for innery and sucasa like he's treating
him like garbage partially because he's burned with the knowledge of how demanding the man's ice
skating world is uh he's that constantly estimating himself is not good enough hey that drinks a bell
right sucasa on top of that he has to compare himself to his famous father all the time and then
on top of that at his school he had to see the tenant of fikaro who started below him and then so
passed him and June also treating him like a piece of shit that is not worth being trained
that all did a number on his confidence in being able to achieve anything substantial ever
and his worst trait is that he is projecting his perceived own shortcomings on everyone else
like sucasa and innery of course along the lines of i'm sure i i can't achieve anything so how
dare you assume you can so that's a problem and of course his little character is getting over that
and you know that of course is happening by being completely steamrolled by sucasa's positivity
who don't get me wrong he is throwing his worst at sucasa by bringing up that sucasa is technically
still trellum level because he didn't get any get any of the badges he just the eye-stancing because
he got into this thing too late but he's only doing that uh Rio is only doing that so he doesn't have
to confront his own wall that he has hit and that he doesn't have to so that he doesn't have to put the
effort into overcoming it uh but yeah sucasa won't let that stop him from taking Rio under his wing
of course because he knows from his own personal experience that a positive supporter force is
exactly what Rio needs to overcome his lack of confidence and all the shitty behavior that
results from that and it's not like his father hasn't done that for him but not in the way that
Rio specifically needs and because they again sucasa and Rio have some kind of comparable
experience you know both in terms of also looking up to June and then you know Rio being
disappointed because June doesn't consider him a pupil that is worth training and so on and yeah
it's sucasa very quickly realizes what Rio needs and it's just the thing that is the thing that
that Rio that turns Rio around and that is a very little I think happens over the course of three
episodes or something uh a little fun uh character arc that's also emotionally rewarding when uh
when Rio finally is able to do what he wants to do and his dynamic with uh Inneries also very
funny it also helps Innerie advance actually because those two can't stand each other right because
especially after Rio insults sucasa and you know Innerie adores her coach and it's like how dare you talk
about him you little shit right she gets really agitated and really outs really outspoken and there's
like this amazing moment where it's uh where sucasa actually does a performance after Rio tells him
you haven't really done anything right so why why do you think you can teach me anything and then
sucasa goes on the ice and shows him that he can almost get as well as June just in a different way
and through that shows Rio that he can also become that person right he's like look you're so much younger
than me you have so much life still ahead of you and you I could get I could get this far even with the
you know with the shitty conditions that I started at so why do you think you can't why why are you
so being pessimistic so being so pessimistic about this you know just fucking try you and eventually
you will succeed you just you have the the knowledge you just need to find the right angle and
everything and that performance actually let's Rio realize that I think that's the moment where
you know we just lean over the ice and look I mean it's like hey little golden duck what did you think of
my teacher, Tsukasa.
(laughs)
Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh!
His face is so, her face and that seat is so fucking amazing.
She's, like, this fucking...
This absolutely snowman.
Yeah, take that, you little bit, it's so amazing.
You never, you never see Innoery doing that in the show.
She's, like, she's super nice to everyone.
She's very introverted, she's very careful to what she's saying
and everything and then real riles her up so much
by being mean to Tsukasa,
that she's just giving him shit, like, all the time
and it's a joy to behold.
It's just a fun way to see her character evolve
and see her find the confidence to actually speak to people
who treat her badly in that way and stand her ground
and stand in for people that she loves or likes
and it's really cool.
Like, that's what I appreciated about that last little arc
of this season.
And yeah!
- You have to see it just a little bit of smugness.
- Yes, exactly, just a little bit.
- Just a little, and real deserves it, right?
He's such a little shit at the beginning.
So you love to see him get a bit of comeuppance for that
but also, you know, at that point he's starting to change
and Innoery, of course, get, develop a different,
more friendly relationship, right?
He also has some nice words for her when she is very anxious
right before the scores for the final batch test get announced
and she's like, "Shivering, oh my god, oh my god,
I'll make it, I'll make it, I will never be able to skate
together with Hikaru."
And so on, he's like, "Stop that.
Your performance was great, don't worry about it."
And he's like, "Oh, okay, thank you."
It's like, "It's nice, you would have never done that before."
But, you know, him and he turns around and the moment
where he finally vites down what he actually wants,
he didn't fill out his paper in the training camp
of what he actually wants to train
because he feels like he can't go anywhere,
can't achieve anything anymore, what's the point?
But so, he gets to, gets him to the moment
where he actually writes down what he wants to achieve.
And it's just so emotional moment,
succes, and tears like, "Oh my god, what have I done
to deserve such a great pupil?"
It's like, it's so cute.
(laughs)
So yeah, it's just a fantastic show.
It's super, just emotionally rewarding,
it's super entertaining, it's funny,
it's well animated, it's got everything.
It's got everything I want from a fucking sports anime.
It's a fantastic underdog story.
It puts enough time in the important characters.
Most of the characters that are important
is for a season get a little character arc,
they get their cathartic moments,
mostly during competitions.
Some of them, yes, could have been longer.
For my taste, I would have liked this first season
to be a 26 episode season, 24 episodes season.
And have spent more time on some of the tight characters,
learn even more about their background stories.
Have an entire episode dedicated
to each individual character like Ryoka,
like Emma, like Ryo, just for them,
just learning their character, their story
through life up to this point.
I would have loved that.
But even without that, this is a fantastic season
of anime, of sports anime,
that I can wholeheartedly recommend.
It's just super entertaining, it fucking just went by in a flash.
It was super fast.
I mean, I couldn't stop watching because I wanted to review it,
but I also couldn't stop watching because I was so fucking enthralled.
I watched it all basically in two sittings,
and it was just, yeah, it was just a breeze.
It has its dark moments, especially with the mom stuff and everything,
but other than that, it's so light-hearted and it's hold some
and it's such good vibes and it just makes you feel good.
It's a real feel-good show.
And if you're in the mood for that,
and you maybe are interested in ice skating
or in other sports anime in general,
or in good animation, whatever,
in the cute underdog story, then just, yeah,
I definitely can recommend it.
You can watch it on Disney or Disney+ or Hulu.
The season ends with a beautiful and very emotional performance,
but that's not the end of the story,
so I'm very glad to hear that the second season has already been confirmed.
I'm looking forward to it very much.
I had a fantastic time with Metalist.
I laughed, I cried, I cheered,
and my time with this first season just flew by.
Can't wait to watch the continuation of this,
and if it continues, it's quality run,
it might become one of my favorite newsports anime.
If you are like me and like a great underdog story,
check this one out because you will get two for the price of one,
both a coach and a student underdog story,
and both of them are very, very cool.
(Music)
And that is a wrap on the 166th episode of Anime Brain Freeze.
All the music in our podcast is from the Double Dragon Neon soundtrack
by the amazing Jake Kaufman.
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We hope you had a good time and please join us again on our next episode.
Matt's good.
So long, everybody.
(Music)
Next time on AnimeBrainFreeze.
He was the best assassin in the world.
And then he went home and became a family man.
(Music)