AAA 763: Best and Worst Anime from 2024
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Hello and welcome to episode 443. No, I lied. I lied. That's Hobby Addicts. We're past that now. I'm all out of sorts. This is episode 763. Oh my goodness, we're in the future now. Of the Anime Addicts Anonymous podcast, the only podcast around where I don't remember the name of the episode. But it's the only podcast that also makes their anime addiction worse, which we try to do every Sunday live on Twitch.

and YouTube and everywhere but also not live everywhere else and if you're not listening live because you're also in the future big announcement our anime Oscars are officially out so

Go check out our website, aapodcast.com, and make sure to vote for your favorite shows of 2024. And your least favorite show when it's out there. We'll have a whole collection of different genres. Best Boy, Best Girl, Most Surprising, Best Studio, Best Movie, all sorts of things that we want to hear your opinion on. This is kind of our big event that we do every year, and we have a ton of fun with it, so please vote.

Go vote. AAApodcast.com should be out by the time you're listening to this. Unless you're live, in which case, wait a little bit. I'm sorry. And also, thank you so much for joining us. Also joining us are my two fabulous co-hosts today. We got Caroline, who is sipping on a luscious looking coffee. What kind is it? I'm not a coffee person. It's medium roast. It's a plain medium roast coffee. Mid. Sugar. French vanilla creamer.

That's the magic recipe. That sounds pleasant. That honestly sounds very pleasant when it's like two degrees out. It's actually a little bit warmer than usual, but hopefully everyone has survived the cold or surviving the heat in some places. But we also have Raggedy here who is not drinking coffee, but looks like he's in a chilly place. Where are you at? I am quite cold. I am in Punk Hazard.

which is from one piece because of course it is, and is a representation of the United States because the other half of punk hazard is on fire. So there you go. That's very topical and tropical at times. I'm assuming, uh, as always check us out on Twitter, tech talk, Facebook, Instagram, I guess, uh,

I guess we do all those things, but mostly we're on Discord where we have a bunch of events, live watch parties. You can always come in, chat with us, fellow animatics. And it's just a good old time. Wait a minute. The place to be. It's free. Are we still on TikTok? Because TikTok got the kibosh. I assume so. And then it came back. But if you deleted the app, then you don't get it back. So did Kaiden delete it? So do we not have it anymore? I wonder. I actually haven't asked him about that. I don't know.

You know what, listener? That's a task for you. You go figure it out. Find out. Let us know in the comments. Well, I don't have TikTok. I can't talk for this. What are we doing today? Well, to get you revved up and ready to go for the 2024 Anime Oscars, we have a prelude to it where we have kind of conglomerated together as one podcasting unit to

and voted on the top five and bottom five shows of 2024. So we took a little group poll, we got the results, and we're going to go through those, give our little hot takes about them, and just kind of encourage you to maybe watch the ones you really like if you haven't seen them yet before you go to vote in the poll. So that's our main topic, and we have the continuing big

impression section where we are going through all these winter 2025 shows. Today we will be doing an impression on Zenshu, the 100 girlfriends who really, really, really, really, really love you, season two.

Apothecary Diaries Season 2, I Have a Crush at Work, and Because Raggedy's on the Show. We can't not talk about Amiku? Emeku? I don't know. Emeku MD, Doctor Detective. So we got a lot of stuff on our plate today. I'm sure it's all medically accurate. Anything else. And we will get all of the details from our own medical expert. You'll find out.

You'll find out later. Ooh. Anything else we want to get off our chest before we hit this bad boy off running? Nope. Let's get to the news. Let's do it. It's time for big news of the week. Oh my goodness. It's so nice actually having news this week for once because the last couple of weeks have been pretty sparse, but...

My big news of the week is that we finally have a release date for the upcoming Lazarus anime. This is the new anime from Shinichiro Watanabe, who you know from Cowboy Bebop, Samurai Champloo, and Space Dandy, as well as Animation Studio MAPPA, who will be airing finally after years and years of talking about it and teasing about it and just kind of just showing images that no one really cares about. April 2025, which is...

Right around the corner. I like that. I like when we get announcements of whether it be video games, shows, movies, whatever, when it's like, hey, you can watch, play, experience this soon. I don't like when it's like, hey, you can check out this. What was it like? What was the not Ghost of Yotei? What was the one I'm talking about? Ghost of Tsukishima.

Yeah. It's like, oh, you can play this in 2027 or watch it. And it's like, I don't neat, but I like this. So I know it's been teased for a while, but we got a date, uh, though we have no announcement yet on when it will debut on Toonami. So I'm assuming it's not going to be too far after this. Uh, I,

I know when Uzumaki came out, that was Adult Swim, not Toonami, but pretty similar in some respects. We got the dub a couple days after the sub, so Raggedy, I assume we have a similarly good dub for you. God, I cannot wait.

There's a lot to be excited. I mean you have Watanabe you have Mappa you have Chad Stiletsky from John Wick who was the stuntman and coordinator of that doing a lot of the work here for the action sequence and stuff that should be cool the anime will feature a soundtrack from Kamasi Washington floating points and Bonobo which all seem pretty solid so there's a lot to

you know, to feel good about, are you guys excited or do you just kind of don't care at this point or you'll believe it when you see it? I don't know what this is, but I'm happy you're happy. Muted expectations. It will be like any other anime that has ever been announced. If we're going on Mitsugi's try and true one to five scale, I'm like, I'm like a four.

Okay, so pretty hyped. Pretty much max thrusters. Just a little bit of reservation. Yeah, I mean, my only reservations really are that Toonami has their hands in it, which sometimes is really good. Sometimes is really bad. That's really my only holdout. I like Watanabe stuff is always fun, always a blast. It's MAPPA, so it's got to look good. The trailers have little snippets have all looked good. I'm excited.

Yeah, I'm kind of with you, Raggedy. I'm excited because there's a lot of good people involved that I have trust and belief in, but I could also see this being incredibly disappointing. Like, a couple episodes, it could be cripplingly mid, and I called it, washed up, old news, hack. Like, I could see it being either way, but I've got hopes. I think this will be a return to form, and maybe I'm just optimistic and foolish, but hey, I'll take that. I got my hopes up, for better or for worse.

So that's my big news. Caroline, what do you have? All right. I have news that is only big probably just to me. I don't know if anybody else really cares about this. Massive. But it's something I am excited for. I probably mention every single time they do this. But the band When OK Rock has announced that it'll be on a North America tour this year to promote their new album with Stand Atlantic as well.

They'll be performing in 15 cities in North America between May and June, including the Prudential Center in Newark, which will be very convenient for me. And it'll be on a Friday night, and I'm hyped. Like, I'm getting these tickets. I'm so excited. The band will also perform in Mexico, Chile, Argentina, Brazil, and Peru in April, and France in July. So I don't know if there are anybody else, or is anybody else, that is...

fans of when okay rock other than me but i hope to see you on tour yeah i feel like whenever a big either stage show or live production of something comes out you're the person who gets it yeah i mean this is your forte

Honestly, for how big 1OK Rock is, I assumed they would have done more anime openings. No, they're just not an anime band. They do a lot of... They're not a lot of, but they have done quite a few live action stuff and video games, I think. And Beyblade. I guess I just see them on the same kind of big star thing of like...

Oh my goodness. I'm blanking on everything today. The band that did Riri from Erased. Asian Kung Fu Generation. Yeah. Like to me, they're in like the same like mega stardom Japanese rock band. I would definitely compare them closer to Cold Rain or something like that in terms of their style. But even Cold Rain did more anime openings. Yeah.

One OK Rock has definitely gotten into more pop English songs as of late. But I don't know. I'm still excited. They're a really good band. And even if you're not like a huge fan of them, I can vouch every I've been to several of their concerts and every single one was so much fun.

So I highly recommend if you're just looking for a good time that this would be it. What's the song? If someone's like, oh, I've never heard one OK Rock because I only listen to anime soundtracks. What's the song to sell me on it? Their biggest song, like the song they're most known for is called The Beginning.

But they have a lot of good ones. I want the Caroline recommendation. Oh, you're really putting me on the spot, Mason. There's so many good ones. I'm at the restaurant. I'm asking the waiter or waitress what their favorite is. I don't want to know what the masses get. Oh, well, now I'm drawing a blank. Can you give me a second? Let Raggedy do his news and I'll be back. No, because I've been drawing a blank all episode. And I want to make sure it's not just me who can't think today. No, no.

Take your time. Think about it, Raggedy. Give us your news. Caroline, you have 27 to 39 seconds. God, now I'm feeling even more anxious. My big news of the week is Caroline's a fake fan and can't – I'm just kidding. That's not true. My big news is it's pseudo news. It's more about something –

that's interesting from Viz and what they're doing because they now have a shop that is exclusively for the U.S. and Canada. And it now gives kind of the North American market opportunity to get official merchandise for a lot of our favorite shows. They... I don't know about you guys, but whenever I try to find any anime merch here, it's like all these...

third-party sellers or screen-printed t-shirts, not official stuff. I never can trust any of those Instagram or ads. Yeah, it's going to be terrible quality. I'm going to stop you right there, though. Caroline, time's up. Okay. Because 1OK Rock is a band with a lot of eras. If we're talking classic 1OK Rock, Liar is a good one. Also, Memories or...

Onion or Deeper Deeper. But if we're talking more recent hits, Neon is really good. When They Turn the Lights On has kind of like a queen vibe to it. And Eye of the Storm. It's really fun. What a cheesecake factory. Sorry. I really... Anyway. Okay. Give me... Until next time. 20 more seconds. No. I will do a tier list next time.

Sorry, Raggedy. Continue. Yeah, that's okay. But yeah, I'm used to sifting through all of these crappy third-hand dealers. It's either that or Crunchyroll Store is an option. So it's nice to have another source for real official stuff.

It just opened very recently, so their library is not exactly the deepest yet, but they do have quite a bit of shows. They have Bleach, Freyrin, One Piece, Naruto, Death Note. They even have a little more niche stuff like Rooster Fighter and RWBY on there, which was kind of cool. The news item, I guess, so to speak, from this is that the big headlining thing they had was a Sailor Moon Monopoly set, which was kind of cool.

Which I have a link for in the show notes if you want to help us out. Oh, I want to see this. My favorite thing on there is sold out, unfortunately. They made a replica backpack for one of the characters for One Piece, which was really cool looking. I like it when it's not just a picture of a character on a t-shirt. When they try to do something a little more creative like that, I always enjoy it.

I wish they would have a better view of what these properties are on the Sailor Moon Monopoly board. You can see them. I can't really read it. You need some glasses. Oh, it's the photo quality. Oh, it's from the... Yeah, if you go to the actual website, you can pull up the... Oh, okay, okay. I was on the news link. Yeah, I think the Broadway is Queen Serenity and...

The first property is like the cats, Artemis and Luna, I want to say, if my Sailor Moon memory is good. You got it correct. Oh, nice. So they do have it up there. See, I'm not just a shonen freak. I have a little shoujo in me. Okay, so it's just the characters. I kind of wish they were a little bit more creative because they're not –

People are not property, okay? Oh, oh. Did not know we were going there today. Why? Yeah, I'm kidding. But, though, to be honest, I'm not sure what else they would do. The planets, I guess? Yeah, I mean, I... Well, someone needs to order these shirts to see what the quality is. Because Uniqlo is still, like, the...

the gold standard of anime merch in their shirts because those are pretty good quality. That said, they're only the gold standard because there really hasn't been any other competition. And these are looking a little pricey and I don't know what shipping and stuff, but just that there's other merch that is like licensed and proper stuff makes me feel better than getting it at some random third party thing that who knows where it's coming from and stuff. So check it out. Shop.viz.com.

If you're a weeb and you're not ashamed of it, like if I was wearing this full print of Boruto Naruto next generations, like t-shirt where like the design goes all over. I don't, they have, that's rough. They do have one like polo shirt. That's Naruto theme where it's, it's like ramen all over. And his face is like on the ramen package. Like they, they have some, they have some pretty funny, clever stuff. Yeah. Check it out. Check it out.

um are we ready for our main topic all right judge some anime let's do it you know i am uh we don't have a fancy drop for it but it is the top five slash bottom five of 2024 this was assembled by all of the hosts of this podcast so if you don't like the results don't blame us i mean partially blame us but not completely you know how it is

And where do you guys want to start? At the best shows or the worst shows? Let's do worst, then we can build ourselves up. I like that. I wanted to start with maybe a few of our personal sort of honorable mentions that didn't make the big list. Yeah, you can put out any honorable mentions before we get into it if you want. I will say personally, I very much kind of abstained from the worst shows category only because...

Yes, a lot of the shows I saw were not my favorite and I rated them low. Like there's a whole swath of shows that I dropped an episode or two in that were so not engaging that it was even worth my time to determine how bad they were, you know? Fair. So like understanding like these are the worst shows ever.

that we either were forced to watch or like that we finished. So, and let's also remember, this is the worst of 2024. Maybe now that we've also like diversified the people we have on here, we have also been more selective with the shows that we want to watch. So if somebody has reviewed a show, they are more likely to have actually liked the show, which is a little bit more. Yeah. It's really funny because I think all five shows, except for maybe, yeah, except for one show, all of them were ones I sat and watched through of my own volition for some reason. Yeah.

See, you're a trooper though. Like I don't have time to watch Rin Kai or like High Speed Etwahl or like that stuff that's just like aggressively bad. So I didn't vote for those because I don't watch them. So there's probably worse stuff out here. So if you like any of these shows, that's your excuse that you can use. You're welcome. You can have that one. But starting from the best or worst show. So number five and making our way to worst. What do we have first?

Are we doing our honorable mentions first? The ones that are not going to be? Oh, yeah, sorry. We can do the honorable mentions. Okay. So an honorable mention of one of my best shows that is not appearing on this list overall, and I'm the only one who mentioned it, Oshino Ko Season 2. I thought it was a fantastic season.

Wait, we're starting? Oh, we're starting with any honorable mentions. I thought we were starting with the worst honorable mentions. Sorry, I thought we would just do all the honorable mentions first. Oh, okay. Okay, we did not plan this out right, I guess. We did not come to a consensus. I hope someone else got the whiplash. I'm sorry. You know, Don DeDon is here. All right, what do you two want to do? I'll just follow your lead.

Let's do the worst shows starting with the worst honorable mentions. All right. Raggedy, do you want to take this one? I will take one. I think I'm the only person on planet Earth who watched this show. The Grim Variations, it was a show on Netflix where they took weird spins on famous fairy tales.

The first episode was interesting enough. It was a spin on Cinderella, where Cinderella's the villain, basically. But it's just very weird and not in, like, the good Mason weird. It's, like, weird in, like, the... Like, it just... I can't even describe, like... Because they tried to make each episode completely different to work this whole variation spin, and they go to just some strange places, and it was not worth the watch at all.

Don't watch it. Well, not only did I not see the show, I've never heard of it until you just brought it up. So you really... That's impressive. Though, Cammie in the chat says that she watched one episode of it, said it was fine, and didn't want any more. The first episode is the best episode. Validated. And it can fool you. It's the Uzumaki of a good show. Which, honestly...

I think you also include... No, Otaku had it on his list. I had it on my list in the last slot, but just as more of an honorable, honorable mention of... I feel like it had to be mentioned. Uzumaki was disappointingly bad. Reverse just bad. There was some merit in it in a way that these others didn't have. Obviously, it had hype and acclaim that it drastically failed to meet, but...

A worthy honorable mention. Caroline, what's one of your honorable mentions not on the list? Towards the end of my list, because I didn't actually fill out all five boxes that we had here. I only filled out four because there was nothing else that I really felt like I really disliked at any major points that I wanted to talk about. So at the bottom of that list...

So not so bad, but also not that great was Alia sometimes hides her feelings in Russian. I just felt like it started off pretty fun and then it just got dragged down by silly stuff. And I got really, really bored. Poor Otaku cop in shambles. Listen, it is what it is. Yeah, at least he can put it on his top five. I might have at one point.

I had shows on my bottom five that were on people's top five. I felt bad about that, so I deleted them. Oh, wow. Now I want to know what it was. That sounds like some... Oh, okay. The actual list. Let's do it. Are we ready to get to the official list? All right. Let's go. Starting with number five. So this is not the worst worst show, just the worst show. Train to the End of the World. This is from the spring 2024 season.

And I did the impressions on this. So I watched the first couple episodes, didn't hate it, thought it was fun, but just kind of oddly strange and quirky and dialogue and reference heavy. And it was fine. It just wasn't really pulling me in, but it didn't strike me as aggressively bad.

I didn't complete the show. I wasn't there for the reviews. So how did it turn out? It's been a while since I watched it. I thought generally it was okay. I mean, I did put it on my list. I think I ranked it like three or four. Yeah, three. Okay.

It was just okay. Like, it had some promise, and I think that's what kills a lot of shows, when it has promise, and then it doesn't do anything with it. Yeah, I didn't watch this one. I listened to the review, and I remember Mitsugi really hated it. Well, that was not going to be a surprise. Yeah, I will say, the way I aggregated these scores was very artistic of me. It was more reading tea leaves and objectively applying numbers to everything, but this was heavily carried by...

This being Mitsugi's least favorite show by a landslide. And we all know Mitsugi, what his preferences are. This is definitely not a Mits show. So I understand that. But that coupled with Kirlan having it at number three. Oh, sorry, guys. I ruined it. I made it low on the chain.

Yeah, exactly. It really isn't that bad of a show, to be honest. I didn't really see that much garbage last year, I guess, which is a good thing. And that's what I'm saying. These shows are the worst shows that we watched, which it's not the end of the world. Who wants to take the next one? I'll do it. Okay, so the next one on our list. Yeah, you will. You had this at the top of your list. Okay.

Number four is Windbreaker. This was a dumb show that had very little going for it. It had a nice punch animation going for it, and that was basically it. Everything else was paint by numbers and silly. And I loved it.

This wasn't on my top list, not even close. I don't think it was nearly bad enough to be on the worst list considering some of the other stuff that we had. And I will say everything else above this, I have not seen. So you are probably correct. The biggest problem with Windbreakers is, like you said, it is very paint by numbers.

A lot of it's being lifted up by Cloverworks doing a good job with the animation. You know, if there's one thing I can give Mitsuki credit for is that he coined the term breaking wind for this anime. With that. Did he though? I thought I came up. It doesn't matter. You know what? It doesn't matter. You know what? I just assumed that he did. If it was clever, it probably wasn't him. Oh my gosh. Well, we can collectively say that we coined that then.

Yeah, podcast trademark. I really feel like talking about Windbreaker by itself is kind of so-so, but I feel like it pairs very well with the number three bottom show, which is Bucci Ghiari.

And essentially both of these shows are very similar in a lot of ways. They look visually pretty gorgeous, pretty fantastic. They have great animation, great personality in the animation, the set designs, like the character designs, they all really pop and kind of grab me and are kind of cool, but are just both bolstered by such a kind of boring script, boring writing, boring show that has a kind of potential with this

Ragabond exploring delinquent sort of fighting crews going around like they're very similar just one has more of a supernatural slant but both of them just kind of go astray somewhere along the way and you just are left feeling kind of dejected and disappointed by like what you got at the end and Once again as currently mentioned they both had potential. They just didn't deliver anything. I have a question. I

Since I mentioned I have not seen this show and I decided to look up images. Why does this guy have a chain growing across the bridge of his nose? That's is that a necklace? Did he just Caroline? That's what we in the industry called fashion. This is a frickin set. He looks like he's he already kind of looks like a weirdo. Like he has he has the the lip.

like spikes for lip rings and then he has his tongue sticking out and he's so carol i there's a lot wrong with this buchi guri is directed and essentially done by the same studio director crew who did uh skate to infinity oh yes that tracks and there is a very bombastic cartoonish larger than life figure who is uh flamboyant and full of energy and just

lot to take in and when you kind of have that kind of character type, you know what you're getting and it's uh It's just a lot it shows a lot is the chain like attached to his earring and that's how it's laying across his nose Or is it like just hoisted up and you know, you know when you get bored and you have a necklace on you're like Let me let me just like like play with it. Let me put it above my lip or my nose I think

I wonder if this will catch on someday. I don't think so, though. I think as well, but I would need to re-examine. I would need to go look up some fan art or something to assess the contraption. I think the difference maker between Bucciarie and Windbreaker, which makes Bucciarie higher on this list and a show that I actively disliked, is that while Windbreaker is a kind of mid-show from a story perspective and character perspective, there's nothing aggressively offensive about it.

Any of the characters, really. Buchigiri, the main character, is actively hateable. I detested the main character of Buchigiri thoroughly. Yeah, I was, I think, more mixed on Arjun than you were. I get where he's coming from, not wanting to get involved, but he does get pretty infuriating from what I recall. Makes sense having it here. Yeah.

Yeah, it just also felt a little creepier and skeevier and a little more, like, assaulty and pervy in a way that doesn't play off my palate that well. So...

But I think they're a good group. I'm glad they're bunched together in our ranking. And now we can move on to number two, which is I should be doing the number two draft. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's not. This can do it in post if he really wants. Who wants to take this? Who even watched more than a couple episodes of this? Oh, I watched all of our number two choice. Suicide Squad, Isekai.

This is exactly what it's labeled on the tin. It's Suicide Squad, but they're isekai. Whoa! And it's not even... Unfortunately, it's not the quality of the second Suicide Squad movie. This is like the first Suicide Squad movie. Including the same amount of Joker time, which is...

I didn't even put that together until just now, that the Joker is sprinkled slightly throughout the show the same way as it was in the first movie where you think he's going to be something, but it was advertised as a selling point and then he's just not in it. It's just enough to tease you. Just enough. It's a...

Bog standard of bog standard isekai stories with the heroes reskinned to be the Suicide Squad characters. It's not animated particularly great, which is a shame because it was Wit Studio that did it. The writing's not great.

The characters, some are okay. Like Harley Quinn's fun, 'cause Harley Quinn's always a fun character. Clayface is kind of fun, 'cause he is very like, he's like the genre savvy character, so he's a little bit fun. And then, oh God, what's his name? Peacekeeper is like, he was in the new movie, but not as good, so it kind of like is that disappointment of that gap from where you've seen it be.

The only thing of real redeeming quality for this show is the OP and ED were pretty good. That's about it. So this was back in summer. I watched an episode or two for Impressions back then. I just remember being let down. And obviously, when I picked it, I knew there was a chance that it was going to be just a shoe-in DC anime crossover. And it did really feel as shallow as that.

I had my hopes like maybe you know crossovers have been kind of hot these days with stuff like Castlevania or stuff like Cyberpunk like those both I think are pretty well beloved so I gave it a chance it was really just went over as a wet blanket even not being super intimate with the Suicide Squad characters and story and modern renditions of it it didn't really sell me on it so I think whether you're a fan or not a fan you were going to be kind of disappointed by going into this one so I

Yeah, just all the flashy OP animation wasn't enough to realize how bad it looked in the day-to-day part of the show. So it was pretty crummy. And you had this, not the worst on your list, but a lot of other people didn't think it was very good. So that's why it made the number two spot. I watched some bad shows. I actually had Buchigiri above this more because, again, I just hated that main character so much. That's fair.

But they belong on this list, both of them. Are we ready to get to, I think pretty handedly, is the AAA podcast stamp of approval for the worst show of 2024? Oh, yeah. You want to take this one, Rickety? Because you had this front and center on your list. Oh, yeah. This was number one on my list. It was number one on a TakuCops list, too. And I think it was high up on your list, right, Mason? Yeah.

I mean, it was the highest on my list with my very vague rating. But yeah. And absolutely nowhere on Lady Emery's list. Let's just remember. Okay. So it's My Dear Friend Nocomaton is our number one worst show ever.

Beyond the normal issues with this show, what we talked about in the review, the animation not being good, the jokes not really landing, the way it's structured just making absolutely no sense when it should have been short instead of a full season. I still have my own personal vendetta against the show because after I was finished watching with it, my child kept asking for the stupid fucking show for like another month. Was she also going, no, Kun.

I'm done. No, not quite. Talk about another show where the OP was the best part of it. Also another show where the OP was. Yeah. No, no. She would point at the TV and say, dear, more dear, please. I was like, please let it end. Let it stop. How old is your girl again? Oh, she's two and a half now. Oh, you should never have showed her that. You think she would have taste by that age. No, she watches One Piece. She has no taste. That's her. Driven out of her.

Yeah, I saw a couple episodes of No Kotan. I had it pretty high on my list for impressions when it came out, just because it seemed like it could be fun if it was done right.

Um, by the first couple episodes, I'm like, I'm not like, it has to hook me and it didn't have a hook. It just had a lot of craziness and it wasn't particularly well done. Uh, so I just never picked it up again. And I, I avoided that review. I did not want to be there for it. You made the right choice. Yeah. And so like, this is the token brain rot.

no shit meme show of the season. And I get that that's not for everyone. It's a comedy style that is not going to resonate with everyone. But even the show that did something similar in Pop Team Epic still flexed enough creativity and talent in the animation and voice acting and different elements of it that even when I wasn't vibing with the humor of it,

I could at least appreciate what it was going for, how it was challenging the mold or something beyond just ha ha CG deer and the same tropes recycled with some of the worst characters I've ever seen. So yeah, I'm sure there's some people who really live and die by no cotton. And I get that. I'm happy for you, but there's shows that do this kind of comedy and,

Vastly superior and I would rather have just watched that instead. So is it the worst show of 2024? Yes, we just proved it But if you think another show is worse remember to vote in our triple-a podcast Oscars We have the esteemed pooper scooper award and that chosen by Thousands of you guys carries much more weight than our little list here So once again go vote before you forget, I mean, we'll remind you every week, but just do it just get it off your plate. I

I think we should at least give No Kotan props where it's really worth, because out of all the shows on this list, no other was able to create just as many memes as No Kotan did. None of these shows came close to the memes. I mean, even outside the memes, No Kotan at least is memorable. Like five years from now, when you're going to ask me like, hey, name something in Windbreaker.

I'll be like, uh, like the guy had two-tone hair. The heterocromia with two-tone hair? But he also had two-toned eyes. Like, maybe that. But like, there's no point or element of it I'll remember. Like, Nokotan, as unfunny as it was, at least I will be like, haha, CG deer. I remember when that happened. And that girl who ate all the frickin' rice. Like, at least it has some cultural currency, even if it is pretty much worthless. Yeah.

So that's the olive branch that I will extend. I won't. Let's move on to good shows. Let's go to some positivity. And now, Caroline, honorable mentions...

uh aka all the shows that i put on my list that no one else put on their list because a they didn't watch them or b i have the worst taste ever because pretty much every show i put on here no one else had in a country mile of their top five but let's start caroline oshino co season two okay

That's really good. In case you guys are surprised, yes, Oshino Co. Season 2. You had no idea, right? So that's the only show on my list that did not make it into the top five. I just think it was a really good sequel. It didn't rest on the laurels of what made the first season good. It expanded on things. Characters were developed.

It's setting up for a pretty good sequel season, too. I've sung them the praises quite a bit in the past, especially in that review, so I don't want to go on for too long. But yeah, definitely a good show of this year.

I was trying to avoid all sequels on my list here. And so for the record, the parameters we had for making these lists was shows that began and ended in 2024. So when you go to vote for the Oscars, Freyrin will be eligible because it didn't end until 2024. And we didn't vote on it last year. But we didn't put Freyrin on our best list here because it didn't start in 2024.

Don't worry about it. Just clearing that up. It's all complicated. A lot of sequel shows like The Latest Monogatari, Sound Euphonium, Season 3, like those are long running stuff. And I didn't think they needed more time in the sun with our list here, because if you already like them, you already know that. And I was trying to get the new stuff. That said, Ocean Oak Co., while not making my list, I was very pleasantly surprised with Season 2. I was coming in expecting it to be like

a step down more of the same just not really worth the hype and all the stuff that it had been garnering and I thought it was quite solid I liked what it did most of the time and I was I was like yeah season three let's do it so I'm with you Caroline and honestly if I didn't if I didn't put my kind of cheese pick on here it Moshinoko would have made my list too

There we go. Speaking of my cheese pick. Yeah, let's hear your cheesy pick. I have, well, one cheesy pick and one legitimate pick. My cheesy pick, which was my number one show of 2024. It was a single episode OVA. It was One Piece fan letter. It was great. It was directed by Megumi Ishitani.

Yes, that's her name. So people who know, they know. She only does like a few random episodes of One Piece and they're everyone's favorite episodes. She got her own little side spinoff thing. It looks amazing. It is the top rated anime for 2024 on both Mal and Annie list. Some of that is probably, you know, One Piece fans being One Piece fans, but...

It's higher rated than all the other One Piece stuff. So people really did jive with it. My less cheesy real thing, I put Bleach Thousand Year Blood War. I know you have to be someone who's stuck with all of Bleach to get Two Thousand Year Blood War, but it is really freaking good. Why didn't Emery put that on her list? Probably because we're talking about it for Shonen Showdown this month. Tune in for that. Mason, why did you leave your... Oh, sorry. Yeah, go ahead.

I was wondering why you left your number three spot blank. So my number one show of the year is what we're going to be reviewing in a bit. Not this episode, but in a couple episodes, which I have not finished yet, to be fair. But it is Dead Dead Demon Day Day Day Day Destruction because that show is awesome and unique and a ton of fun and wild. It makes you think and I'm very excited to do the review of it.

My second favorite show of the year so far is the one that everyone fell asleep to, which is Shoshamin, How to Become Ordinary, with the hot chocolate mysteries that everyone just conked out to. And my number three favorite show of the year, I also haven't finished because it's not over with, but that's Orb, Movements of the Earth, which is...

Fantastic. Love the writing in it. Yes, the animation is not going to wow you, but it's just so freaking awesome. But it didn't end in 2024, but I didn't want to give another show that spot. So my number four show, I skipped ranking a number three because...

spite who knows so that's why that's why i uh my there's a blanks on my thing so well your number any other honorable mentions aka personal pics that were like crying out to be like no i have good taste audience no i've revealed my shitty taste okay perfect well then let's begin with the number five show according to the podcast hosts of 2024 caroline what is it

It's Yatagarasu! What? It made it, for sure. And I think it would have been higher had more people watched it, I would argue. Because I feel like... Regan, have you watched Yatagarasu? I watched all of it. It's great. It is quite good. I think the reason it didn't make my list is because...

It like the ending of the season is weirdly vague where they're obviously able to do more, but I don't know if they're going to get more. It's like one of those things where it's like it didn't have enough of a conclusion to me or plus didn't have a immediate like, oh, we're coming out with more for me to say like, oh, yeah, I'm all in on this. That's the only thing holding it back for me.

Yatagarasu was strange with its ending because it had a perfect ending point and then kept on going a bit. So you felt satisfied and then it did a drastic lane shift and told another, I'd still say compelling story, but it was just very different in mood and atmosphere and pacing.

and it kind of threw you for a loop and then it ended and you're like well I got more than I expected so that was good but also it wasn't like a nice clean ha the day is saved right off into the sunset so that could have fuzzled with some people but overall it came out of nowhere no expectations and really blew me away with doing a lot of things really well

Yeah, I just feel like it kept on adding, like, interesting points to it. Like, not only is it a fantasy show with people that can turn into birds, or, sorry, birds.

birds that can turn into people and usually stay as people. But then they have a whole social class system where some of the birds stay in their form as slaves to these other birds that want to stay in their human form as sort of a class hierarchy thing. And then you, like, there are so many plot twists on top of that that kind of reveal that the world is so much bigger and more complicated than you really think it is. Um...

And, like, this is all, like, it's not just a bird show, guys. There's a lot to it. So I think, I'm hoping for a sequel season. If you haven't checked it out, and you're a big fan of, like, political interplay and, like, twists and undercutting and court drama and...

action and mystery like it just has a lot of everything and it actually fits together on the plate pretty well uh don't miss out watch yatagarasu if that sounds like it's up your alley and uh consider it for the oscars if you're gonna if you're gonna vote but the full name of it is in case you're confused it's yatagarasu the raven does not choose its master so if if you type in yatagarasu and you're not sure which one it is it's that one there you go

Moving on with a show that probably no one has ever heard of, but it's Solo Leveling. Solo what? This is not...

Solo leveling? I don't know how to pronounce it. But, you know, solo leveling from all the way back of winter, so a year ago, and I know people are going to be confused and think they're voting for solo leveling season two, which is currently airing. No, this is the OG solo leveling. It actually is qualified because it came out in 2024, which seems like a bajillion years. I wasn't the biggest fan, but you guys can tell the listeners why it was so good. Yeah.

It's just good popcorn show. Like, it's buttery. It's salty. It's how popcorn needs to be.

But it's not at all adding any nutritional value to your watching. So it's a fine show. It's such an easy watch. Surprisingly, it was not Mitsugi who put the show over the top on this list. It was Kite. That doesn't surprise me. He put it as his number one pick. Yeah. Mitsugi had it as his number three. But yeah, this is like, this is a Michael Bay movie turned anime, right? This is Bad Boys 2. You turn your brain off, you watch the pretty colors and they are some real pretty colors.

The production is good. Let's not pretend it's not. I mean, let's not pretend it is. Okay, Mason, you're stopping an elitist. But it's well beloved. It's very popular. It scratches the itch that people come to those kind of shows for. And people are enjoying season two. It does its job. It does its job. Yeah, it's the type of show it needs to be that it's trying to be.

And I'm glad for solo leveling fans. And they're getting more of it. So keep it coming. Next up, number three on the top shows, which kind of surprised me, but it didn't make anyone's number one show, but it popped up a lot across the board. What is it, Caroline? Because it's on your list. It is Kaiju number eight.

Which, I mean, I feel like it didn't reach the heights that we kind of expected it and wanted it to, but it's just a solid show. It's fun. It has some pretty decent, fun characters, even though the main character is my least favorite. But yeah, I mean, it's just a fairly decent show and I would be hyped for a season two. I think season one is very much a stage setting, getting you used to the characters and the world. Yeah.

It could definitely become a much crazier show leading into a second season. I think that's probably why it's more middling on our top list is that it's good. And again, it does its job well. It does the Shonen punch-em-up stuff with a little bit of an extra zest or flavor. It definitely gets more into the gory, horror-y kind of stuff, which is...

Always fun. But yeah, I think season two is what could put it more over the top. But that being said, if a season two is probably just more of the same, doesn't really go much further, the opinion of it will probably drop for me. Yeah, it's tough. It's season one of a shounen. I mean, stuff like My Hero Academia, even itself, which breaks things up into seasons, has those two core things to really get the ball rolling. And at the end of the day,

Like Caroline said, Kaiju No. 8 was kind of disappointing because I thought the manga came out so strong and I liked the premise of the older main character, blah, blah, blah. And it just didn't really hit that itch for me. But it still was a very competently done shounen. It was fun to watch. The world seems really interesting. I want to know more about how it works and how they're going to function within it. So it's a good time. I don't mind that spot. Number two. All right.

And a show, once again, going all the way back to winter. And this was a two-course show that felt like forever ago. Delicious and Dungeon. Dungeon Mesh-y. Triggers back into Dungeon. Yeah, I just feel like with this show...

It was just such a surprising hit for me because I knew that it was critically acclaimed going into it. But knowing that it was more slice of life than otherwise, I was thinking, okay, it'll be a nice show, but not an interesting one. But it was surprisingly very interesting and entertaining. The Wishes of Dungeon is what happens when you have someone – excuse me.

You have a creator actually put time and thought into not just the character or the basic story, but the entire functioning of the world around the story and characters. That's what makes it stick, I think, more in people's minds is how well crafted the dungeon is, how the ecosystem works, how the, like,

Yeah, it's characters playing off each other more than a lot more thought is put into this. A lot of care is put into every aspect of the show. And Trigger also did a really good job adapting it and animating it. Yeah, it looks gorgeous. It sounds gorgeous. Just the atmosphere is awesome. And I talked about moments ago. Oh, you know, Kaiju number eight has an interesting world. I like seeing how stuff functions within it.

But when you compare it to something like Delicious in Dungeon, it's such another level of the intricacies and the whole consideration of the package that Raggedy was talking about that makes it feel so immersive and entrancing for every new room they encounter.

It all kind of winds together. It's this whole ecosystem more than just a backdrop. And that really sold me. And I kind of didn't vibe with the show at the beginning. I thought some of the characters... I'm not going to name names, but you know who it is if you remember our talks on it. Kind of annoyed me. Kind of were aggravating. But like the world, like the characters, I just eventually warmed up to them all and really had a good time with the show. It's very meticulously produced and thought of and just really...

earned the praise that it deserves so i'm definitely glad with this one being at the top of the list almost all right and with that i feel like number one is not a surprise to literally yeah another show the best part about it is the op but also the rest of the show uh what is it caroline it's don dadan obviously yeah obviously

All right, we're done here. No, okay. Well, we haven't been able to review this yet, so I don't know how much we can go into without spoiling what we'll eventually say. Just general positive sentiments, if you want to give anything. I mean, I don't think anyone right now is like, hmm, don to don, you say. Hmm. Is that like Yatagarasu? I haven't heard of that. I should check it out before voting in the Oscars. Plug, plug, plug.

I think the number one thing that really hit with Dawn to Dawn for me is the characters. Like, the characters are just so fun and it feels refreshing. I don't, like, their interactions with each other is like, I can, even if it wasn't,

involving a plot with aliens and spirits and supernatural powers and talking cat dolls, etc. I would just want to watch these two main characters interact, no matter what the plot was. I feel like they're annoying in a way that high schoolers are annoying and not in a way that some anime writer was like, oh, let's have this person be kind of grating.

It was like, no, a 15-year-old pipsqueak kid probably would whine about this or, like, make faces at this girl or run around the room naked and just be goofy. Like, they feel in this world, like you said, of supernatural oddities and craziness that

There's a sense of realism and groundedness in how the characters are portrayed, how they act, how they bounce off each other. That makes the action scenes and the nonsense scenes both just kind of riveting in a way with phenomenal animation, great soundtrack, just all this really great, once again, similar to Delicious in Dungeon, just great world building and production that just makes you feel like, yeah, this is fun. As Raggedy said, bit of an...

ending but more is to come and I don't think it diminished it enough in a lot of people's eyes this is what peak shonen looks like this is science saru knocked it out of the park I cannot remember well I can't remember I guess but it's been a very long time since I've watched a battle shonen that has made me super hyped over the action and then also cried like a little baby and

Oh, yeah, of course. When he with the testicles. I felt that. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah. OK. Just making sure it's the same thing that were you crying over the science mannequin finding his love? No, I was cheering. OK, for that one, which. And oh, my God, that sequence was also great. Don't do that. So good. Just watch it. Watch Don Don. Vote for it for the Oscars. You don't even have to watch the show. Just like watch the opening and you're hooked.

Anyway, thank you for sitting with us. Hopefully you check out some of their shows if you haven't yet because they are probably pretty good. And make sure to vote. AAApodcast.com. I'm going to remind you every week unless I'm not here and someone else will. But don't let it get away from you because it'll close in like a month and you'll be like, oh, I should have voted. No, no, don't put that on yourself. Just do it. You'll feel better. And yeah.

It'll be good. We'll have a fun time. It's a good show. And one last thing, if you want to see a full breakdown of how we ranked our shows, it's linked in our show notes. If you want to get a full view of our rankings. I guess we'll leave it in there.

Not anymore. Maybe I did it more for us, but we'll leave it in there. We'll see if people can find it. Or we could just copy paste it and put it in later or something. Yeah, we'll do something. Check out the show notes. You can get our individual bad taste. And with that, I think we have trivia trivia question.

I always want to read the trivia question. From EmekuMD, what famous detective is the inspiration for Kimiyasu Sakurai? Find out after the news break. ♪♪♪

This is Mason and this is your news break for episode 763 of the Anime Addicts Anonymous podcast. First up, we have another merging of studios.

Studios Production IG and Signal MD will be merging, with Production IG becoming the surviving company and Signal MD being dissolved. This merger will take effect on June 1st, which marks the start of the new fiscal year for the companies. The reason for the merger was to effectively use the management resources of both companies to improve the profitability of the overall group. And personally, I hope it is also to help the staff there from being stretched too thin across multiple commits and projects.

SignalMD has produced anime such as Nap and Princess, Recovery of an MMO Junkie, The Fire Hunter, and much more, with the most recent being Nina: The Starry Bride. Overall, since both studios are subsidiaries of a larger company and have already been working together on projects for a couple seasons, I'm not expecting a huge change to come of this, but it does align with a lot of changes we've seen across the industry over the past couple years.

I'm interested if we can notice anything that comes out of it from a consumer standpoint. And finally, if you are a fan of physical media and old school anime, hold on to your diapers, as Discotech Media revealed 24 new upcoming releases during a recent event. I don't have the time or patience to go through all of them, but here are the highlights that will be coming to Blu-ray in 2025. And I want to put out a challenge for folks who have been trying to watch some old anime but don't really know where to start.

Just randomly pick one of these, just without knowing much about it, going as blind as possible. Just see if you can find a stream of this and start watching, see how it treats you. It might not be good, but it will be an adventure nonetheless. First, the three episode OVA Cyborg 009 vs Devilman, which will include the English dub, celebrating its 20th anniversary, all 50 episodes of Angel Heart with English subtitles,

If you want something from the 90s, all 42 episodes of Flame of Rekka will be coming, along with an Ocean Studios produced English dub. And if you like English dubs and want an awesome movie to check out, try Space Adventure Cobra: The Movie. This will be a dub-only release which is interesting because, due to television standards in the UK, it was dubbed at 25 frames per second, as opposed to the normal 24. So if you used the Japanese audio with it, it wouldn't sync properly.

And if you do want to check out the Japanese dub or one of the other dubs, they have released this in other formats previously. Next up is Vivid Strike, which will not only include all 12 episodes in Japanese with English subtitles, but it will include next episode previews, promos, and TV commercials so you can really get the full experience. Though this doesn't come with the bonus OVAs or Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha Vivid, because it's with a different licensor and they couldn't come to an agreement with them, unfortunately.

Next, if you're feeling a little dark and edgy, they are releasing all 26 episodes with English subtitles and the English dub of Higurashi When They Cry. And if you're feeling a bit more ecchi than edgy, all 12 episodes as well as an unaired episode of Dare S, also with the English subtitles and English dub. But probably the biggest one of all, and the one that Mitsuki certainly is feeling some sort of way about,

It's Irosuke Doji: Legend of the Overfiend, a very adult anime which is presented now uncut with a brand new 2K scan and restoration that took almost nine months to complete. Restored from one of the last remaining 35mm prints of the series, the release will also include all three episodes in the subtitle-only standard definition version and the 1989 compilation film versions, so you are getting your fiendish fill of this series if you want to.

Well, that will do it for the news break. Appreciate you sticking with me. And now let's get back to the show. So you're at the gym feeling great and looking great too. I might add that is until your favorite podcast ends. Now without your headphones, you're suddenly lost in the wilds of meat land. Don't get lost in the wilds of meat land.

Get the AAA podcast extra content. We'll help you gain some fun times with our hobby addicts, after parties, and hentai episodes.

Nothing gets your blood pumping quite like hentai, and nothing helps the podcast quite like your support. So head over to aapodcast.com slash join or Patreon to support the show. Again, that's aapodcast.com slash join or Patreon. Oh! Bro, sounds like you need a spot from the AAA podcast. ♪ music playing ♪

so

Welcome back to the podcast following that oh-so-delightful news break. When we last left you, we had a trivia question from Amakumd. What famous detective is the inspiration for Kimiyasu Sakurai? A big hint for people watching live where they could see who this character looks like because it's quite obvious. If you know, you know. It's Columbo. I did think that he looked a little familiar, but I did not put two and two together when I was watching this. No, that's fine.

It was, I mean, personality-wise, maybe not quite there, but it was very funny. I mean, yeah. Good call. Thank you, Raggedy, for the excellent trivia question. And with that, let's go on to our mailbags. It's time for an almighty anime mailbag. Anime. Anime. Anime. M-m-mailbag. Bag, bag, bag.

Let's have Caroline read this because I messed up. All right. So this one is coming from Thy Eggman. If you'd also like to submit a mailbag, you can do so at AAApodcast.com. And they say, Hi, AAA folks. First time writing in. I had a question today that I couldn't think of a single answer for. What's the best non-romantic male-female rivalry in anime? Okay.

This is tough because I literally looked through my anime list and I'm thinking, I'm looking through each show that I have at least a fairly decent score on because why would I make mention of anything less? And I wondered, does Fujikomine and Lupin count since the romance is mostly one-sided?

No, they definitely have a very romantic thing going on. Okay, so that doesn't count, and I'm at a loss. I have nothing. I have nothing. I don't know why there are no male-female rivalries without at least no romantic undertones. Like, there are some that are not full-on romance, but they're being shipped. Everybody's shipping them anyway.

That's the thing. There's always some romantic people that are going to apply that ship, but it's got to go with the intent of what the show is going for. Because usually they are. Exactly. Exactly.

Yeah. I knew this was going to be a tough question because I know the Eggman from Annie list and they have watched a ton of shows and they have impeccable taste. So if they couldn't come up with something I knew I was done for. That said, I briefly kind of perused my lexicon, my Rolodex of anime. And you can get a lot of like side rivalries when it's with like side characters, you know, characters that aren't a primary person. So they kind of compete, but not in a,

The show doesn't give them the time to have a romance. And I feel like you kind of see slim inklings of this with shows like Bakuman, Ping Pong, maybe even a bit with like Freyrin or Fullmetal Alchemist. But I think the one I'm landing on to answer this question is I went with characters that are like too dense or not social enough to know that like romance is an option. Like those characters that are so...

you know, either dumb or whatever that like they don't even consider like a normal relationship like that. So I'm going with from the Shogun Tama Kagura and Okita. These are two just like

unbelievably strong characters that just don't realize that romance is a thing, kind of. So even though people kind of ship them, I don't think they feel like they're in a romance, even if they're kind of whatever. So that's my cowardly answer. Gintama, there you go. I had to dig into the Shonen brain rot because if someone's going to mess up a romance and just forget to put it in, it's going to be someone who's writing Shonen.

They are more of the smaller parts, though. So, like, Soul Eater has Blackstar and Maka that have a little bit of a rivalry going on. It's not a main focus, but it's there. One Piece has Big Mom and Kaido.

who are two of the four emperors from One Piece, so they... their rivalry does kind of span a big chunk of the show, but they don't get a lot of time sort of face-to-face with each other. It's like a rivalry of position more so than anything else.

Someone in the Twitch actually caught one of the ones I had here, which is Natsu and Urza from Fairy Tail. They have a bit of a strong rivalry. They're always trying to fight. There is no romance between them whatsoever. They have their own separate romantic partners, couplings that they do. But again, not a major part of the show. So the one I picked as like the best one is from Food Wars. Soma Yukihira and Erina Nakiri. Thank you. Yeah.

There are some sort of romantic undertones, I guess, there, but I did double check. It is confirmed that they are not in any way a couple and don't. Wait a minute. I thought they ended up becoming a couple by the end. No, he goes off and becomes like a wandering chef. They're not. They're definitely romance. I thought it was 100% confirmed that they got together.

I double checked before I put this on here. They don't. Okay. So they actually don't. That doesn't feel right. But there is still some romantic undertones there. There's definitely romantic undertones. There is. Yeah. I will say. Yeah. Sorry. Was there anything else you want to say? I would say the reason I put it as the best is that it is like a major driving part of the show is him basically trying to impress her with his cooking.

And they're like constant sort of rivalry. That's why it's, I guess the best, but I mean, even if characters don't get together or they are one sided, there still is a romantic connection. Like even Naruto, like, yeah, sure. He doesn't get with the girl he's maybe pining for at the beginning, but,

But, like, there definitely is a rivalry, but there definitely is that romantic slant. Sure. I honestly think this probably would have been a fun, like, discussion, just rivalries in general for a main topic. I don't know if that's been done before. But I did think of one when I was trying to come up with an answer before, but I feel like the rivalry is such a – it's hardly a rivalry, but they have this one fight that kind of –

puts them into a rivalry-like relationship, and that would be in My Hero Academia, Bakugo, and Ochako. So they have, like, one fight, and that kind of puts them against each other. Yeah. And it does help them progress in different ways for a short time, I guess. So technically kind of a rivalry, and there's absolutely no romantic undertones between the two of them. No, those are between Bakugo and Deco. But that's all we got!

This is all we got. There is hardly any good answers for this. Yeah, like Raggedy said, you get like positional kind of rivalries. Like I'm thinking the student council from stuff like Kill la Kill, where all the three-star Goku uniform people are kind of, you know, elbowing each other out for the top spot in that kind of rivalry way, but they're all still on like a team. So it doesn't feel like, you know, capital R rivalries. What about...

What about Chika and... Yeah, go ahead. What's his face? The emo guy from Kaguya. Chika and him. That's just bullying. That show is 100% bullying and 100% romance. You just don't know it yet. Um...

Yeah. No, good question. That was a head scratcher. Thank you, people. Let us know for missing anything. We probably could spend all day trying to look up this kind of stuff. Because all I kept on seeing was like really, really good rivalries, but between, you know, same-sex rivalries or rivalries that do have romantic undertones to it. Or same-sex and romantic undertones. The best.

With that, let us play the drop for the moment you have all been waiting for. Today, we're going to be doing impressions. Impression time, believe it. Round two, winter 2025 impressions. This is where we go through the first couple episodes of all the shows that have come out this year, decide which ones are the most valuable, the ones we want to review, and we pass them. And when we pass them, when we lock them in, when we say that's that good stuff, we will be doing a review when the show completes.

We're going to pass six of them. Not all today, maybe some yesterday, like in the case of Solo Level in Season 2 and Bang Dream. Time is a circle. Thank you. And we're going to do a couple more episodes after this, so this is not the BL end all. But at the end of all our impressions, we're going to have six shows that we're going to pass that we'll do the review on, and then we will open it up to you listeners for you to vote in the last three shows. And you know where people can go to vote for that?

AAApodcast.com. That's the same site where we vote for the Oscars. Oh my goodness. So many things to do. It's a one-stop shop. You can even find links to the Discord. You can find links to submit mailbags like you just heard. Just go there. You're all set. You're Gucci. But yeah, we got five shows on the docket today. We will see how many make the cut.

And first up, it's I Have a Crush at Work. Or Can You Keep a Secret, depending on how you look it up. Yeah. Both of them are absolutely terrible titles. Like, why was it between these two? They're like, together, they make up a long isekai title that does say the name of the show. I Have a Crush at Work. I Have a Crush at Work, and I Need to Keep a Secret. Together, it's doing this.

Which one do we like more? I think I Have a Crush on Works works better than Can You Keep a Secret. I like Can You Keep a Secret better. Actually, no, you're right. I feel like Can You Keep... Because at first I was like, that doesn't really have much to do with what actually happens, but a lot of it is the girl trying to keep a secret. It's definitely more... So I guess you're right. You're right. Well...

To continue being right, let me tell you about the studio. It's Studio Blade, which I don't really know much about. I've never heard of them. Where you can watch it, well, it was supposed to be on Hulu, supposedly. I had to find it on the high seas. I also.

So maybe it'll come out on Hulu at some point. As far as the synopsis, Yui Mitsuya and Masugu Tataishi are co-workers. Very strange name. Yes. They are co-workers in a relationship, but they want to keep it a secret from everybody else. And that's basically the show. It's these two characters that are just got the hots for each other and don't want anyone else to know about it and the shenanigans that ensue.

So those shenanigans is basically the girl being assumed because she doesn't know what else to do to keep this a secret. Like she cannot do anything else but create a toxic work environment for him. That's the only thing that she could do. Yeah. I mean, I want to say that there is some.

something fresh about this show in that it is adults in a full-on relationship that start, it's not a spoiler. It's like the very first opening of the show, you find out they are in a relationship. So it, and they're in bed together. Ah,

You get some of the high school hokey stuff that you're used to from rom-coms, but it's definitely cranked up more to an adult level as far as the problems they deal with. And it's not as much of the, oh, he brushed past my hand. Does that mean he wants to hold it? It's much less of that and much more of the, oh, we got locked in the storeroom together and we do want to make out, but we just don't want anyone else to know about it.

That violates OSHA and company policies. Yeah. Now, this show is aggressively fine. Like, it does fix, like Raggedy said, a lot of common complaints. Older characters, workplace instead of a school. They're in the relationship already. And there is, like, some physical intimacy. It's not, like, on screen for, like, a titillating sense. But, like, there is that component there. And they use kind of a passable excuse of the gossip of, you know...

the office and like not wanting to disrupt their jobs or the kind of roles and positions they have within them to have this disguise the fetish of oh we can't in public share it and there's some cute fake outs there's something enjoyable and fresh about it but you know where this show is going like it's an inevitable arc of people slowly figuring out that they're actually in a relationship but

They're in a good relationship and it's okay. So they're going to, they're also going to keep the secret and the secret quote unquote is probably just going to grow until pretty much everybody knows. And then it's like, I've seen this show, but it still feels good in anime because we haven't seen a thousand. So I like some of the more flirtatious moments. It's nice. Um,

uh, the characters are not for me. Like they're just so bland. And like, especially the guy, the guy, the guy's main character point that they have pointed out so far is that he's overly considerate of others. Like, wow, what a, what an idea. What a concept. That is the number one, uh, put that in your Tinder profile. I consider it overly considerate. That is the number one personality trait of all male protagonists in anime. Um,

Yeah, so they're just bland. And he's extremely goo-goo-ga-ga over her. Like, everything she does. That's so cute! Oh my god! I get that there's the honeymoon phase of a relationship, but it's just very extreme. To the point of, like, this is a boiling tea kettle. They both are. I'm just like, oh, their emotions are just gonna run wild and they just can't hold it in because they're just so in love. Yeah. It's fine. It's cute. Like, if you like a romance show, it's a solid pick. Yeah.

But it's a little... And I know that you said that you can see why they want to keep it a secret for, like, all the gossip. I still feel like it's a little too contrived. Like...

The gossip is not made – they show a little bit at the beginning why it could be a problem, but it does not seem pervasive enough to be that big of a risk. Yeah, they could have – And also I feel – I mean they could have literally just made it a company policy and that would have solved the problem. Yeah, a company policy would make so much more sense. Like why didn't they just do that? Yeah.

Yeah, and it's so friggin' obvious. Like, they're together at a movie theater, like, miles away from their office, and they're seen by a co-worker, and he thinks that's a coincidence? So, yeah, it's that kind of stuff. It's fine. It's a fine show. If you're really, really itching for a romance, especially if it's, like, post-high school romance, then I think it's fine to watch, if you can watch it, that is.

I'm with you. I guess I don't mind the gossip as the gimmick because I think the point is that the can you keep a secret is not for the two main characters. It's for all the people that will find out about it. And it's not trying to avoid company policy. It's avoiding all the other people who might make a thing of it. And I think they need to make it more of a thing, make it more of a

to have that pay off logically, but I think that's where it's going to come in, and that's why they need to keep it a secret. I get it, but like you said, it's fine. It checks the boxes, but it's not so like...

where I'm like, oh, we got to talk about this. We got to review the intricacies of them being in an elevator together, but not being able to hold hands without blushing. And I know they, sorry. I think we can pass this. We can pass this as a fail. But yeah, and as they, I know they mentioned this kind of as like an offhanded joke almost. I also kind of wish that they, maybe not just the company's policy, if they had to do something else other than that, they would.

The kink idea is actually kind of funny. Like they just like to give it a secret as a kink. I don't mind that idea either. I mean, that's my that's really the veiled point of the show is to be like, oh, you can't say it in public, but you can be super different in the bed. OK, I think we should quote that, Mason. What a quote for you. I mean, I think it's fun. I'm going to continue watching it, but I don't think it's worth discussing.

is how I would say it, phrase it. Like, it's not worth this, like, devoting a review to, but I think if anyone, like you said, if anyone's looking for a romance that maybe is a little different than what you're used to, to kind of spice things up a little bit, this is worth watching. Yeah, I agree. All concur or fail. I have a crush at work. I concur. Well, because it's work, we got to do this drop. No! God! No! God, please, no! No! No! No!

A show with a very similar premise at times. Moving on. All right. Next up we have Zenshu, which is being done by Studio Mappa. It's available on Crunchyroll. And the general synopsis is Natsuko Hirose, who is a genius animator and director, gets isekai'd into her favorite anime from her childhood, A Tale of Perishing, which is like a fantasy world with

heroes trying to defeat evil monsters intent on destroying the world. So I came into the show with pretty high expectations. I thought the PV looked pretty good. And

And basically, like her her beginning problem is that she's starting work on another anime and she's feeling the pressure of living up to the expectation because her previous work was so highly viewed. But it's a romance anime movie and she does not really know what to do with it.

So then she dies from eating a bad lunch or something. And she's isekai-ed into her favorite movie. It's like a spoiled clam or something. It's like some seafood. Yeah. So...

But this isekai-ing into her favorite childhood anime, you are expecting that to be the thing that's going to help her through her problem, which is trying to animate this movie. That's what I was expecting. That this was a temporary isekai to help her figure out how to develop this romance movie. But this type of world is not going to help her with that, I don't think. Right.

And honestly, I'm not sure if she's going to get Isekai back at any point. So I'm not sure where this is going, to be honest. It's an original anime, so I don't think anybody's knowing where this is going. Most importantly, Captain Avatar corrected us. It's Bat Oyster, not Clan. So there you go. Very important. That's why you have to be here live on the Twitch to correct us. So what do you guys think? This show has had me scratching my head.

since like minute one because I do not know what to make of it. It feels like it is trying to say something but I don't know what it is yet. It looks really good. There's a lot of really cool call outs to other stuff. Like there's references to like Nausicaa and Sailor Moon and Macross and Free Rins

Even from, oh my god, the guy Zorg from The Fifth Element shows up at one point. And that's only in the first four episodes. I can't tell if it's being overindulgent with itself about the hardworking animator who's working a soul-crushing job but is now using their animation skills to save their favorite thing. But then I just, it's tough because I don't know where it's going yet.

I watched four episodes because I felt like I needed every second of it to figure out what to do with it. And episode four ends and it ends at a point where you're like, well, you don't even possibly know where it could go. It theoretically could wrap the story in episode four, so I don't know what they're doing. The issue they brought up in episode four was very interesting because

But they decided to fix the problem in episode four when I feel like it should have been, uh, I should feel like this issue should have been padded out for longer. Because it is a very intense issue and they're resolving of that issue while very funny and creative. It's not, it's not for this world, I don't think.

So I haven't watched as many episodes of you guys, but I've heard all this kind of talk of anime fans who are like, oh, I like, I don't know how to feel about it. Like, I'm just like yelling at these people who are like, oh, just because for once you get a show that isn't the exact sugar coated flavor of isekai blueberry that you've been gulping down for decades. Like, oh, how should I feel about it? I've never tasted this flavor before. What should I think? I've never, I get it.

And I'll tell you how you should feel. It's decent. It's okay. Like, I'm with you all the way. You expect it to be leaning into this, and it's kind of just moseying at its own pace. And if you aren't down for that, it's kind of a strange watch. But I like that. I'm in for a unique experience that is maybe not exactly what I came to the table for, but I still like what's on my plate. It's definitely more...

anime inspired than just retro inspired as Raggedy said it's pulling from a ton of different shows and besides just the meta of an animator in an anime like seeing oh they're doing the the the high-flying it to no circus thing or the nosh good thing like you can see the references and you can point it out and feel very clever and I like that and especially because it's so visually strong and it's paying homage to these things and it kind of

is the MAPPA's animator wish fulfillment to actually be able to draw quickly and not be punished by the system which is very like the show has a lot going for it and I can get why people are still bouncing off of it because it is off in some ways like it doesn't feel quite and I think the big part is because this animator goes to this world that she loves it's this anime that she's super attached to and she knows all the history of it and she's so excited to be there kind of

But we, the audience, don't know the show. We've never seen the show. We don't have that same attachment and beloved characters that she's bouncing off with. And while we kind of get their personalities quickly, we don't really care in the same way. We're here for her story and she's not there. So it's off in that way. Overall, though, I'm still enjoying it. It's odd. It's quirky. It's strange. But I'm in for it. I'm not going to say it's going to end out amazing because I don't know where it's going just like you. But I think it's been strong enough.

that I want to keep on watching. I think it's just been, I think it's been okay. You know, I, I'm, I'm waiting for the point where it hooks me. If, if I were not to watch another episode of this, I wouldn't feel like I'm being deprived of anything. Um, I've been really bothered by character designs here. I mean, a lot of them are just okay, but then you got our main character who looks like the ring, uh, the, or, or whoever it is, uh, uh, Sadako. Um, um,

And I just don't like that. It's such a forced hairstyle just having in front of her face because like, oh, she's always looking down. So that's how it, I don't know. And when she pulls her hair back, she's a very nice looking character. And I get why they do that. It's just such a forced gimmick. And then you got Destiny, this character who looks like she is ready to be in a porno. It's just, I just don't like that character design. Yeah.

To be fair to Destiny, her dad also looks like he belongs in a porno, so it's clearly just a family. She's supposed to be a princess, and she looks like Slave Leia. She looks like that. I don't know. I don't want to spoil next week, but I don't know if anyone has watched any of the Red Ranger show. No. The Red Ranger Isekai show. Oh, I haven't. So I haven't made it far enough in Zenchu to encounter this Destiny character, but there's a character in the Red Ranger show also just...

has the Princess Leia thing going on for no reason. Just big witch hat, a lot of body showing. And you're like, did that need to be that way? Anyway. No. Do we want to vote? I vote that we pass it, though I understand reservations. I think out of the shows that we have on our docket today, this has the most potential to be an interesting discussion. Yeah.

Though I am extremely skeptical that it's actually going to turn out anything great. So I would pass. I'm also going to vote to pass. Yeah.

I think it is. I'm hoping that the promise it's laying down is going to pan out and it's going to actually say something instead of just being the pseudo wish fulfillment. So I'm hanging my hat on that. This might not be the best show we talk about today, but I would rather watch and review this, a season one original than a season two of a show that we know what we're getting and we've already gotten and already reviewed. Yeah.

So if it turns out bad, that's why I'm doing it. So with that said, unanimous pass. I think the drop should play. No, I hit the wrong button. I should not have done that. I don't think I've ever been this excited. You're excited? Feel these nipples. There we go. We have officially passed Zenchu for reviews. Can we keep the train going? Caroline, what's the next show? All right, the next show is The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, Really Love You Season 2.

Okay. Done by, I was expecting, I don't know. Studio Bebery, Burberry, Burberry Animation Studios. Blueberry Studios. You can watch it on Crunchyroll. We watched the first season. We reviewed the first season. And generally speaking, the synopsis of the second season is more girlfriends, more love. As I believe, Mason, you wrote that. Yeah.

Oh, thank you, Raggedy Rose. You can blame me for the terrible synopsis. I don't think we need to say much more than more girlfriends appear. And...

It gets a bit uncomfortable at many points. But, you know, it is what it showed itself to be in season one. It's dumb, but it can be fun. I don't mind the show that much. I was pretty favorable towards it in the first season, and I was excited to see the second season. I'll probably continue watching it. But there really isn't much to say other than what we've already said.

This show is surprisingly solid. The main character, unlike Bucciagiri, is such a good boy, but he's surrounded by such a ridiculous harem with solid production values that you can't help but just like...

be okay with watching it. The big problem I have with this is we know the joke. We've seen season one. Where is this show going to go? Will the same song be as compelling this time around? And I had my doubts, but it begins strong. There's an amusing little recap. There's some medic commentary, self-awareness that they're already in season two. Like, it's, you know, it starts off strong and then it jumps into, like,

Body swapping and the new girlfriend is like a middle school and I'm like, I think I'm good. I'm still okay. It's still a pervy, fun, absurd time, but it's just wearing a bit thin for me and I'm sure it'll be just as solid this season one. I just don't need to watch it. I feel like the biggest change in this season compared to the first season is that we actually see him being girlfriends or being boyfriend girlfriend with one of his first girlfriends mother. Yeah.

So she's wrapped into this now and she's a freaking weirdo. Like all of these girls are like kinks put to a thousand percent and they're all weirdos. Speaking of kinks, I mentioned this to Caroline in the pre-show. I'm going to ask you the same question, Mason. Is there something wrong with Japan with all this baby stuff? I don't I don't get it.

So when you have a show where, assumedly, you will have to write 100 girlfriends and make them diverse from each other, the way you do that is you go into their personality settings of your create a custom character, and you have to max out their settings.

So that's how you make them different. You have the character with the maximum size boobs. You have the character with the maximum size kink in this. I'm sorry. I'm going to stop you right there. You definitely didn't watch episode three. I'm talking about little baby stuff. No, I did not make it to episode three. I did not need to watch three episodes of this show to be like, no thanks. Spoiler, they got turned into babies. Though I will say...

I do have in my notes which few I have taken for two of the shows here not this one I wrote the words Goo Goo Gaga so I guess I should have applied that to this one as well so you'll have to wait for the last Goo Goo Gaga to appear but yeah it's fun it's trashy it's a silly good time Renterro is a genuinely good guy which is nice to see but you don't

Again, similarly to Can You Keep a Secret? Well, I would say if you enjoyed it, keep watching. There's no reason for us to give a full review on it because we already did that. Yeah. Season one was 2023, so we reviewed that episode 718. So go back and listen to it. Whatever we said about season one probably applies just as much to this one. And we liked it. It was a good show.

We just don't need to watch it again. So I'm good. I am. I'm I'm thinking that this could possibly pass listener choice when the time comes based on the quality of anime this season. I think that's a good shot. And honestly, if it does, like, I'm not going to complain. Like, I'm perfectly OK. We'll just do a rancor of all the all the wives or all the girlfriends. It's a fine show. But unfortunately, it failed. Excuse me, ladies. I'm going to go hang myself.

Sorry, we don't really, really, really, really love this show as much as we used to. But maybe this next one. Maybe. Raggedy. Next one we have is AmakuMD Dr. Detective. This is from Studio Project 9. You can catch it on Crunchyroll. And the synopsis is, did you watch House? Because if you watched House, it's House. But now House is a cute anime girl and solves real crimes too. I've not seen House.

Okay, well. I'm kind of surprised, honestly. But no, that's the correct description of the show. This feels like a show that was tailor-made specifically for me because I love mystery shows. This is very much in my wheelhouse. I remember from the Shoshiman Review, Mason, you were talking a lot about how a good mystery is one that you can solve. And I can. I have figured out

the mysteries for, you know, all the episodes I watched relatively early on. Maybe not, like, the... all the details about, like, some of the crime stuff or who did it and why, but, like, the medical stuff I pieced together because it actually follows, while exaggerated, like a house MD...

It follows like a logic to it. So it's there and it's, you know, the characters are fun. If you liked house, you'd like this. I enjoy it because it, like I said, it was made for me. I don't know if there is a lot of other people who will enjoy it the way I do. It's not that entertaining. It's kind of silly and boring. Yeah.

So, I don't need anime for this. I feel like there are a handful of really decent live action, medical, procedural, mix-up drama, mystery shows that I can go to to watch that kind of stuff. Stuff like Zenchu, that has to be an anime. Stuff, I would argue, like 100 Girlfriends, who really, really, really love you, that works as an anime. This show, I've already seen this play out in other mediums, and I don't really need the anime version of it to work any better. And

And I actually liked episode one of this. It had energy. It had that scientific vibe and hospital diagnosing thing that was really entertaining. And I could see, you know, if you were in the medical field, how you could piece together, you know, such and such deficiencies or such and such issues. Like, that was good. But then it just turned to episode two, which is outside of, like, I would say pure doctoring. It's into this whole...

crime scene with different mafia members and a shooting and a break-in and it just became this very hyper smart Dr. House she is too smart for you and she just grabs everyone and walks them through everything explaining the entire crime in seconds without like any doubt any like working through the process as absurd as it is she gets it right the first time and it just felt so

uncoroperative. And that's kind of part of what I was complaining about in my Shosham interview. I wasn't part of that mystery. I was just left out to be flapped along the back of this car, like a just married Ken's clinking on the driveway as I was just like, I guess she's solving the mystery. Here we go. And if you like that, it's comfy. It's fun. It's got a good pacing to it. I just didn't...

enjoy my time with it. I don't know. I felt like my interest waned after. Now, that being said, as much as there's not really all that many doctor shows or like hospital dramas and anime. One thing I did compare this quite a few times while I was I only watched the first two episodes of

I compared during my watch of that was to Apothecary Diaries because they have like the main character of Apothecary Diaries, Mao Mao, is kind of similar. She's solving these medical crimes with so much,

confidence and you oftentimes don't know where it's going and she has to spell it out for you what exactly the situation was. Very much like the main character of this show, the difference is that Mao Mao is actually a very entertaining character. And while she has this confidence that makes her feel ever so slightly...

not full of herself, but almost in that direction. It's not to the point of this main character, Ameku. She feels very full of herself. Oh, yeah. I think there's something even more than that. Because I think the difference is, yes, Mau Mau is very intelligent and does have some knowledge of plants and chemistry and stuff that I might not have to solve these mysteries. So I guess I get that. But Mau Mau is also solving these mysteries that have

Story and drama behind them and she's solving them within the confines of this like royal palace where she is not the top dog She has to work within the system and around the system to kind of gather clues gather intel Figure it out and piece it together before she can solve it She can't just trample her way up to the bad guy steps knock on the door be like this Oh, I got the info and we go over here and solve it like it. She's working within a system that makes that a

of getting the clues and figuring it out more entertaining than what I've seen so far of Doctor Detective. Yeah, Doctor Detective is very much like your procedural, it's your CSI, your NCIS. It's that model reskinned with, like I said, House MD. It speaks to a very, for me, it speaks to a very specific weird niche that I live in

And I'm not surprised that you guys completely have bounced off the show. It doesn't look particularly great either. So it's not like it's some stunning work of Sakuga that's going to make up for any of that. I think it's an easy fail, even though I'll still watch it. I guess. So as someone who dropped it at episode two, did it get back to more episodes like medical stuff? Episode three is about a, I mean, episode three is about a video that makes people commit suicide and it's,

Trying to figure out what it is and it's it's a medical condition that makes her like this girl like do this and that yeah That's the one I clocked the answer two minutes in Because it wasn't it wasn't very complicated so it's like which is I guess it you know if you know too much you might get I guess you might get a little bored because you figure it out too fast and

Now, was there anything? Yeah, that just sounds like a was there anything that like a I'm sorry, I keep on talking over you. Was there anything that you noticed? No, that was incorrect that they have done so far.

Medically speaking. Yeah. Yeah. What can we book him for to like claim that the show? Oh, we couldn't possibly pass this show. Are you kidding me? The tubular insertions of the carteroid were shown on the wrong side in the x-ray. And I wouldn't dare sully my eyes with such medically incompetent. Honestly, the worst thing medically was that she wore flip flops to the ER. Like, what are you doing? Oh, that's horrible.

That's real bad. That's just asking for a needle to fall on your foot and get stuck with, which happens. They drop a needle on the floor in the first episode and she's standing like five feet away. It could have happened to her. What if she was wearing Crocs? Would that have helped? Oh, God, I hate Crocs. Wait, wasn't the main character of Zenchu wearing Crocs? Yeah. She didn't even put them in sport mode. Devastating. I know.

She doesn't know what peak performance looks like. All right, are we done? Are we ready to fail this show? You shall pass!

All right. Well, we've passed Zenchu. We failed three more, but we have one more show on the list. One that we've already briefly talked about. Apothecary Diaries Season 2, done by OLM. You can watch it on Crunchyroll and Synopsis as Raggedy so eloquently wrote. More Apothecary Diaries, which he's not wrong. There has not yet been the Season 2 hook yet.

that is differentiating itself anymore from season one. It's more of the same. There is, you know, a continuation of story. There just isn't anything in particular to say, oh, this is the season two story, you know? I think they're keeping their cards close to their chest. They're doing a couple light mysteries, getting you reacquainted with the palace, the...

personnel within them the different interplay before they do like the big arc that is like the setup for stuff and I thought we were gonna get that big arc with like this bizarre this traveling like shop but it's kind of still just warming up to it we reviewed this episode 729 if you want to listen to our season one review and this is the third show I guess now

My notes that I said this is the goo goo gaga edition of apothecary season 2 Not because it's not because it's for babies, but just there's a bunch of like babies popping up There's like baby humans baby cats like there's just a lot of youth in this show that said

It's more season two. It's more Apothecary Diaries. It remains fun how Mao Mao has to, once again, play within the rules of her station. And she's not the only player in the game. She's not the only one trying to solve these mysteries and use her knowledge to not just solve the mystery, but also kind of have their way, have their power play. And for a winter 2020, almost the 2024, a winter 2025 show, you could do much worse than Apothecary Diaries.

The show knows when to come out because the rest of the shows are not always up to snuff. I really, really dug the first season. It's not doing much different from the first season yet. I remember the first season took a little bit of time itself to build to something more, so I suspect it's going to kind of be the same thing where eventually it'll get to something much more consequential.

to some degree the show lives and dies by mao mao and how you feel about her but i'd argue that a lot of the other characters are just as fun jinshi is a lot of fun the uh i always forget his name the his like his assistant his assistant gaussian i love him he is so funny um

I love how he's just the dad. Like he's basically playing dad for everybody in the show. Yeah. Oh, what he's reading the, the manual, the books that, that get sent in and he's just like, yeah, yeah. Okay. I'm going to, I'm going to take these and keep them. He just, he's very funny. There's more here than just her is I guess the point that I'm trying to get at. I think this is probably given this season, one of the easiest passes that I would give.

Yeah, I agree. I mean, I will say that season one hooked me right away because I was so interested in Mao Mao and her, the world that she's working in, like the inner palace. But now that we have delved in quite a bit on the inner palace and all the characters within that,

Season two, I'm wondering what more is there to explore in this. And I've yet to really see where we're going to go this season. Mao Mao is still great. I'm glad that Mao Mao got a Mao Mao herself, her little cat. Though she apparently does not like cats. That's very funny. And I'm going to be enjoying the second season anyway. So if it were a stronger season, I probably would have said...

Apothecary Diaries can probably step to the side for this season, but it's definitely not a strong season. And I think people would definitely enjoy hearing our thoughts on season two. So therefore, I will vote for passing it. Yeah. Part of me does feel like, oh, 20 more episodes of this show for a review kind of sounds like a chore. But also, I'm looking at the landscape of the other shows, and I'm like, this is just...

one of the better ones. It's clearly the cream rising to the top, regardless of the rest is just kind of crummy. It's still solid, looks good, sounds good. It captured the essence. And as much as I was complaining about, you know, 100 girlfriends being more of the same, Apothecary has more wiggle room. She can go out of the palace and go on other adventures. She can solve different mysteries. I feel like even if I know what I'm going to get, it's going to

be flavored just a little bit differently at times. So I'm definitely fine still passing it and I think that's what we should do. Yes! Yes! Oh yeah! Can you feel that? So there we go. We have now passed Solo Leveling Season 2, Bang Dream, Ave Mujica, Zenchu and the Apothecary Diaries Season 2. So two Season 2s, two...

Well, one kind of season two, but not really a side story adjacent thing. And one brand new original. So we got a bit of a thing brewing, but we have a couple more weeks of impressions to go. So we still have time to get some more shows. And remember, listeners, stay tuned to when we put out the official listener choice poll on a podcast dot com. You already knew that, though. You're already there actually filling out your Oscar. So I'm proud of you. Good job.

But yeah, that's our show for the day. Thank you so much for listening. Thank you so much Raggedy and Caroline for laying down their hot takes and very popular opinions because they got better taste than me. Clearly, we just saw those top 2024. They were all those picks. Any other closing thoughts? I think we're good. Did anyone figure out if we have a TikTok? I don't know. But at the very least, everything that's on TikTok you can probably see on Instagram anyway. So check out Instagram.

Yeah, or Discord or AAA podcast. Well, we already talked about that. You got it. Support us if you're ever so kind. We really do appreciate it. Hopefully you're staying safe out there and we wish you guys a great one. So we will see you next week for another week of impressions. Some more fun topics. Bye. Bye. Bye.