O Maidens in Your Savage Season Discussion & Review | Anime Watch Club
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Hello ladies and gentlemen and welcome to Anime Watch Club, a bi-weekly group discussion and review where the hosts of the Wastey Anime Podcast nominate and vote on shows either we haven't seen or shows that hopefully lead to a great discussion. On today's episode, five dudes are going to talk about five girls going through some shit.

And as we discussed the 2019 anime, O-Mated's in your seven seasons. Let's meet these grown-ass men. First up, he thought losing his V-Card is when you use your debit card to buy V-Bucks in Fortnite. We got Kat. Kat, how's it going? What the f-

uh yeah i'm doing great i shamefully have played roblox wait no you're talking about oh i said four damn you just told on yourself yeah dude that was talking about an unforced error uh yeah i played roblox when i was fucking 24 yesterday

I haven't played Rolex since I was 13, dude. I don't think it released one of these. Whatever. We'll get. All right. Whatever. Next up. Inspired by the show. He's starting his own chain restaurant called Five Queens Pork and Beans. We got JJ. How's it going? I don't like beans. So that's like a conflict of interest for me. Oh, yeah. A fellow bean hater. Let's go. But it rhymes with Queens. And I didn't have anything else. Don't you? But you're such a big Beantown fan, Pat. Yeah.

Those aren't food items. This is a five guys joke. Okay. Cream. Oh yeah. That's a good one. That's probably the best. I've seen. Yeah. That's what it is.

Alright, cool. Our first moderator tonight. He got no maintenance in his Savage season. We got Miles. Miles, how's it going? That was true. I dedicated my Savage season to our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, and I'm sure we'll talk about that at some point during the show. Hell yeah. And Pat. Yeah.

That was a really good one, Pete. Thank you. Yeah, well, as Pete said, we're talking about Omains, a savage season, aired in summer of 2019, done by studio Les Deuce. That's probably Les Deuce or something else. It's French for two. Oh, okay. Les Deuce? Trois? No, it's definitely not. Trois is three.

whatever uh yeah it's not spelled like do uh but anyways it's uh based off a manga uh genres of drama romance a theme of school and the demographic of shonen so yeah let's uh get right into it and uh miles why don't you start us off yeah um one it's missing the genre of love polygon and um it should have that and that's the the single best genre

And no one dislikes it. Anyways, so I pretty much got what I expected from this show. The only thing that was different than what I thought going into this, having heard Pete's opinion and Mother's Basement's opinion on this show, was that it was like a little more comedy oriented than I thought it was going to be. I thought it was going to be like, it is dramatic, but like, I guess less dramatic.

And I think humor is like obviously a good way to broach like the subjects of puberty because it's like a funny time, especially in retrospect. You know, so I did like that. I enjoyed the show. I think it's funny. I've seen some like conversations online. And if teenagers, mostly women talking about puberty and sex makes you uncomfortable, the show will not be for you. And if that is not something that would bother you, then you will probably enjoy the show. It's a good show.

I liked it. I would probably recommend it to people who like this sort of coming of age story with a little hijinx-y sort of stuff. Yeah, there you go. All right, Kat, what about you?

Yeah, my first impressions of the show were that I came into it not knowing what I wanted, not knowing what the show was going to be. So I was just like, oh, cool. Like, the synopsis felt like this was either going to go into, like, a really heavy, like,

Not necessarily classroom elite drama, but I just wasn't sure what I was going into. I was pleasantly surprised by what it gave me, and I really liked the coming-of-age story. I definitely recommend it to anybody that's passed most of their puberty, just because I feel like people who would be in the midst of puberty would feel a little weird about it.

Well, it might resonate with it. I don't know. But yeah, I would definitely recommend it for most people. I get what you're saying there, where a lot of the stuff might not land for someone that's currently going through it. That's actually a very interesting perspective. I didn't even think about it until you said it that way. But Jay, what about you? Yeah. So kind of echoing a similar thing to Miles. The first thing that I would say is that my first impression was

Well, first off, I was watching the dub, and the dub for this is really solid in my opinion and really enhanced the humor aspect of it. I kind of figured it was going to be a pretty funny thing going into it because while those periods of our time, of our lives rather, are very dramatic, they're dramatic in a melodramatic way that's humorous for our sort of...

age group looking back at it in a lot of ways and there's just a lot of humor in those growing pains and stuff like that i mean in the first couple of episodes we have an incident that i think pretty much everybody here can relate to at least in some way maybe not as devastating as what happened to the character it was so close he almost did it perfectly i

Yeah, I think that the relatability of this show is super high. So like, this is something that I would recommend for pretty much everybody. If you're somebody who has a wide taste in anime and is willing to give it like, you know, non shonen a shot or non like battle shonen a shot, you'll like this. Like, it's, it's funny. It's got heart. It's got a good dub. The only thing I wish is that it was not on high dive.

Oh my god. I used to be a high dive champion. It's so bad now. It's terrible. They downgraded it so much, actually. It's kind of insane. People didn't like it. I had to go and search for the series every single time I booted it up because it wouldn't

continue and then like in the menu you can click on the episode you just watched but it doesn't have like the drop down like hulu or netflix or whatever to go to the next one it's so bad anyways yeah so pj and i as we all live in the same household uh completely legally use the same high dive account yeah and it is

One, all of the like recently launched is frozen on whatever Pete watched before they changed like how they did things. Then you have to go in the settings to find your watch lists, which is the settings for the watch list. It's so bizarre. And then there's there's like a plan to watch and then like a favorite. And there's like two different watch lists that feel I don't know, just I don't know. High dive.

My favorite is that on my Roku TV, whenever I hit add to watch list, it goes, no motherfucker. What are you even thinking? Go on, go onto the website if you want to, or the app, if you want to make a watch list, why would you think you could do that on your TV? You fucking peasant. It's crazy. I don't know. I like, I know. I, the mobile app is so bad too, for like downloading episodes and trying to watch like,

Welcome to High Guy fan line. It's like... It's laughably bad. It's so bad. Like...

I know everyone loves to shit on Crunchyroll. At least their app works, man. Like for me, I've never I've had issues where sometimes subtitles don't pop up or whatever, but at least it works and you can download episodes to watch at a later date and not have that issue. At least I've never had that. Like how how does a multimillion dollar level

not have a funk that's relies on streaming, not have functioning apps. You would like, I don't know the full back end of stuff, but it's crazy to me that like one dev over the course of like two months, wouldn't be able to figure this out. And this has been an ongoing problem for what? Like years, six years. Well, years ago,

I don't know. It's like, it's much worse now for like a year. Like I liked high dive. It was janky, but I liked it more than crunchy rule before crunchy rule did their latest update. And before high dive did their latest update. I liked high dive. Now that wasn't a popular opinion, but I feel like it was reasonable, but now it's just, it's, it's insane. It's, it's fucking awful, but you know what? Wasn't fucking awful.

Oh, maybe it's another Shavans season. I think we all enjoyed that. Pat, did you do your first impressions yet? No, I didn't. I was. Can you do those real quick? Yeah, no, I get it. Neither did I. He didn't either. And for some reason, I thought he did. So let's let's go back to that. But I feel like we all had to get this off of our chest.

It sucks. It is awful. It's so disappointing. Like it's the one job. Like imagine if YouTube just didn't load videos when you clicked on them sometimes, or you saw the high dive check clear. Like, like I don't get it. It makes no sense at all that like, Oh God, like,

okay beat those are your impressions that high dive what are your impressions on having to watch it on the show we watched i won't add on to the high dive pile on because everyone knows my issues with it but i love old maidens uh this is on my rewatch and there's a couple things i really noticed in for my first impressions about this while this is a story about five girls essentially going through their

with like puberty and sexual stuff. I noticed that they did actually touch a lot on like the guy's perspective too, which is something I kind of like

forgot watching this four years ago that that was a focal point of the show itself so just like first impressions i thought like this show did a great job it's sort of showcasing both sides but like through the eyes of the female cast so really enjoyed like that perspective and yeah i mean this was my number eight show of 2019 like i really like oh maiden so i would i would just say honestly if you have if you like any hint of romance i would recommend this show to you i think it does a lot of things

different than typical romances and just like stuff like the dialogue was great i know people said like when i was looking at reviews that they said like this show is cringe guess what they're in high school it's supposed to be cringe like they're supposed to way they're supposed to be over dramatic and unreasonable and dumb in these situations because they're they're figuring it out and i think the show showcases that very well so i would absolutely recommend the show

Why solve your problems when you can just run away from them, right? No, I do that all the time still. You comically sprint away. Yeah. No, I get it. I agree with you, too, that it's like that's it was a I don't know. That was one of my main frustrations with the early episodes, I would say. But at the same time, again, that's like, OK, they're high school girls. Run from their problems. It just felt like a, you know.

Oh, well, we don't know where to we don't want to progress the story yet. So we're gonna make them run away. But that doesn't really explain my actual thoughts on the show. I, I also enjoyed it. I don't know if I would recommend this to everyone either, though. Like, I wouldn't recommend this to like your run of the mill every day, like anime watcher, I would really leave it for the more

People in our vein, I guess, you know, of like, oh, they watch stuff critically or they are looking for something that might change their perspective. I know this is a shown in show, but it definitely doesn't feel like it's targeted to people.

Like what was it? What's shown in technically 12 to 16 year old men. Like I can see the boys. Yeah. Teenage, whatever the yeah. Young teenage boys. Like, I don't know. Like I can see how it could be viewed by them and enjoyed and, and seen by them. But I don't really feel like it's,

something on their level on, on that like demographics, basic level of, of interests. But, uh, I, I really did like, I thought the characters were, uh, the strongest part of the show with their dialogue between each other. Like Jay said, the, the dub was so, so good and incredibly well localized. I, I would recommend this, uh, to the people that I said before, like, yeah, like,

us basically, or people in our community, people that are like watching seasonally shows, but not your generic battle shown in watcher, I guess, or, or just anime consumer in general too. So yeah, I think that's a five recommendations from us. So go check it out. And I guess we'll get into spoilers. Not that it's too spoiler dependent of a show, but if you don't want to hear some of the ways that these girls resolve their

their savage seasons, then give it a pause and come back later. But yeah, Miles, you have a little quick synopsis and then you're going to start us off, I think, right?

Yeah. So we follow the literature club of a school and the members of it. There are five members. So we have Kazusa, who I guess like in my mind is the main character. Do we all like agree with that? Okay, cool. And then, you know, her friends, Rika, who is like the president of the literature club and like kind of uptight Momoko, who's like her best friend and is for a while just trying to like figure some stuff out and along for the ride and

we figure out why that a little bit later he to a who is an aspiring author and gets into some shenanigans with a teacher as we will explore and Nina who is I guess kind of in a way a foil for Kazusa in some ways you know she likes to act like mature

mature and stuff she ends up being a romantic rival for her for Kazusa at one point and she has like her own like backstory and stuff and so we they're all friends and stuff though it's like not incredibly antagonistic except for like towards the climax but we just go through like their various shenanigans and everything like that so the way that I thought we would we would break this down is

is by going through the characters like one by one. And then at the end, just like talking about the confluence of it and anything else that that hits us first. So I guess the place that makes the most sense for the start is Kazusa. She is the main character, kind of. You know, they're all the main. You guys know what I mean. She's the primary of the main characters and her main arc is

storyline is she has a childhood friend named Izumi and you know as she as they're growing up they sort of learn that maybe they're like attracted to each other and

And figuring out how to do that and how to deal with, you know, the old feelings of being kids together, but like a budding sexual attraction towards each other and like a romantic interest. Understanding that the other one in their friendship also like views sex and it's not like a just them sort of thing is where they starts off. So does anybody have some thoughts on Kazuta's general arc before, you know, there, if we want to start off?

Jay. Okay, sure. You looked like you were going to say something. If you don't want to talk, I can. No, I can go ahead. Okay, cool. So, Kazusa's arc with... What was his name? Izumi? Yes. Was pretty interesting, in my opinion. I think that it definitely covered a lot of the... It's a very familiar story in terms of American coming-of-age stories with...

you know, boy and girl, childhood best friends. Growing up, they don't really see each other as like anything different from each other. But as they grow older, they sort of realize the differences between the sexes, at least between those two and like the different things that life will have in store for each of them, as well as like, you know, eventually discovering the physical differences and the sexual differences that cause them to come together a bit.

I guess I kind of have a question for the rest of you guys. Maybe one of you can bounce off of it if you want. How did you feel about Izumi and Kazusa's relationship? Did you think it was well done? Did you feel like they had been organic friends for a while? Or did it feel forced to you or whatever? I...

Go ahead, Kat. Okay. I thought that the relationship was done fairly well, especially with the fact that Izumi wasn't, like... Izumi wasn't being touted as, like, the type of...

I don't, I guess it's just recency of like some of the anime that, that have been circulating some of the anime that I've watched, but he's not a type of guy similar to Rudy, which is a positive thing. It's lower than the bare minimum, but like,

Still, I also like that he wasn't just, I love woman, I love ogling them. It was my special interest is trains, but I'm going through all this stuff. But at the end of the day, like anytime there's a train that's mentioned, I go on about stuff because I've still got that part of my personality.

And I love how Kazza understood that even though she knows more about Izumi, she's not safe. And it's just kind of like that mix of emotions that they kind of grow out of. I really enjoyed that aspect of their relationship. I had a question. I also really liked their relationship, too. I thought that they established how they were connected earlier on in life and how they...

Like actually mesh as people as well. Like it makes sense that they're friends. It makes sense that they like each other, blah, blah, blah. I thought that that was cool. I just had a question like in the episode where they like become boyfriend and girlfriend. I don't know if this was just again because of the way it was translated into the dub or not, but like.

His confession didn't really read as a confession to me. It was like it almost more felt like a friend zoning and then suddenly they were dating. Did anyone else feel that way after the first watch? Yeah. So the the moment where it becomes a confession is where he steps on her shadow.

Where to me, that was him sort of like defining that he actually did want to like pursue something, but he was like still maybe a little bit confused. Right. Cause he's like, I'm not sure what I think about you. I have all these feelings, you know, you're like a little sister to me and a big sister to me, but like also I am a little bit attracted to you, but they had just done that whole, like she was planning on stepping on a shadow. Right. But then like, because of the legend they told. So then he does that. Right. So he, he does it. And so that that's him saying, well,

let's give this a go you know let's let's try to make this this work um you know which i i thought was like pretty cool um okay i i must have missed that i like that with the i guess the specific uh moment but yeah it was just weird because like the literal words out of his mouth were like

Yes, and I think that's intentional because that dynamic of what exactly are we, how are we going forward, does he actually secretly like Nina more than me? Like, move forward from that moment, right? To answer Jay's question really quick, I didn't think it seemed forced because, and I think the defining moment of this for me is when maybe Nina is pushing them together to avoid her own feelings for ease of me.

And she's like, oh, you should like buy him a train. You should do that. And like, she's upset that other people know this stuff about Izumi, but she knows what type of like era and models of trains that he likes because they're so close and connected. And so she's like, I can one up that. And like, here's your favorite train more. So, you know, it's like if someone was like, oh, Miles, here's an Alakazam Pokemon card versus like any Pokemon.

Taking notes for trains. Yeah. If anyone wants to give me a gift, you know, so I don't know. That's my thought. Pete, do you have thoughts on this before we kick it back to Jay for his thoughts? No, I actually really liked it because I thought like it was initially awkward because it reminds me of like my high school girlfriend where we were like really good friends for like five years before diving into like being a boyfriend girlfriend. And like when we were boyfriend girlfriend, it was so awkward. Like it took us weeks to

to sort of like figure it out where it's like, okay, like we're dating now. Like I can kiss you. It's like, oh, I never did that before. So it's like, I like their progression of going through being friends to like being like,

you know holding hands was such a big deal in the show because it's like you never did that for the whole time you knew each other and now you're doing it so it's like yeah it's gonna be awkward yeah yeah yeah it's like it's like mood all of that all of that is just like i was just like oh my god junior year of high school is hitting me right now yeah i really like the relationship sick yeah so jay did you think it was like forced or did you just think there was like potential for us to see it that way i'm curious

Uh, no, I didn't really think it was forced. I thought that there was maybe some potential there. I think that whenever it comes to writing like childhood friends specifically in any television show, uh,

Or writing in general, it can be hard to sort of nail down those vibes of getting... That these characters actually really know each other. And I think that the examples that you all gave, like, of her knowing, like, Izumi's into, like, retro trains specifically, like, that sort of thing, I think that really helped out quite a bit in my, like, perspective of their relationship. Yeah, because you can't, like...

it's hard to be like to fit we have been friends for years into characters that you get 12 20 minute segments of uh when they're not you know you don't get to see all that development so it takes like skill and writing right to like make it seem like they have known each other even though we the viewer were not there for it um but i do think they they do that pretty well um

So there's a scene early on in this arc that I think we might all kind of want to talk about. And I think this is okay. Which one are you thinking of? Well, they tie into each other, I guess. Okay. So this is the scene after the scene. Okay. You know? Oh yeah. I mean, there's, yeah. Okay. Then I think this is sort of like, it shows the, the friendship that they sort of have because she walks right into his room without knocking and

uh like she belongs there you left the door open though too like kind of his fault i think it was closed right it was closed it was cracked okay yeah open so like you know that's you gotta reduce suspicion a little bit though right because if it's all the way closed then maybe you'll know yeah i don't know anyways she walks in on him masturbating um yeah and um the hog

yeah he's greasing the gopher and watching uh some sort of train porn and uh i forgot it was trained yeah which like like for sure it's on brand gonna involve some amount of non-con but like whatever it was multiple dudes on the train too so it was a train on multiple levels oh wow

He was, yeah, greasing the trails. Not trails, tracks. Greasing the tracks. Yeah. Stepping on rails. Toiling the tracks. And so there was a few things about this scene that I liked. One, I was very impressed initially with his ability to just be like, nothing happened. Just play it off like nothing happened. But he gets a little too into that and forgets to turn the porn off.

So he's like, he's too committed to the bit, you know? And so I, you know, I was watching it and I was like, okay, good job. You just, just, you know, put your shirt over your thing. Just look, you know, just act like nothing weird has happened. Okay. Turn, turn off the porn. Oh my God. Wasteband dude. Yeah.

And then it just never happened. And she ran away. And Pat, I'm going to say this is a case where her running away makes perfect sense. That was one of the acceptable ones. Yeah. Yeah. Fair enough. But this sort of is the scene that like kicks off the them seeing each other and like a more sexual relationship.

way kind of thing. This and the scene after it, Pete, if you want to talk about that one. Yeah. Cause okay. Cause it's like, we go through different stages of like how they view sex in the show. And like, this was the key point of causes as character where like everything she sees is somehow sex related, even if it's not. Um,

And I just thoroughly enjoyed sort of like, you know, Mr. Wong's Chinese food or something like, you know, like big ball soccer Emporium or whatever like that. Like she's running past all of these different things where it's just like everything is sex on your mind. Because like when you're at that age, it's like things start changing in your brain and you start wanting new things. And I just like I thought like that was like a great moment where everything started just like clicks in her head where it's like, oh, shit.

I'm at that age now where this sort of thing happens. And like, I don't know if anybody can like recall that certain point in their life, but like,

it happens to everybody and like sort of just showing showcasing that and then like the actual train going through the tunnel at the end and she's like it won't fit and then she's like oh it does fit it's like I don't know it's like all of that is just like compilated into like this realization of like we're no longer kids anymore like we can have sex we can start doing different things as teenagers now

And I really like how that showcase like sort of that, that mindset and that emotion of causes us character. I, yeah, I, I need to say the waiting 12 episodes from like the train going through the tunnel, her standing above it and like not,

in the train or whatever. And like her being like, how, how will this work? And like freaking out to the end when, you know, like they've matured a bit and they've like come to accept these things. And it was just like the very calm last line of the show. It fit is so funny to me. I died. It's so funny.

Oh, goodness. Yeah, I don't know. Kaza, I think, had a relatively cheery experience during all of this. Her looking at panties was kind of fun.

it kind of like reminded me of like going to buy condoms or something like that where you know it's like i would like go into like a store and like be like okay does it have self-checkout no by six oh how those get i guess i'll buy them anyway it's just like very uh you know like this isn't mine i don't have sex that's me oh i'll pay it forward

you know but just I don't know I thought like that was like a pretty relatable scene where you're sort of like looking at sex related objects that aren't inherently sexual like I guess like I mean they are but like not in like a

I don't know. They don't make you horny, but when you're a teenager, I don't know, they kind of do. In the context of where they're being presented, they're not horny. Yeah, exactly. It's not actually lewd or anything because it's just a pair of underwear or whatever. Eggplant. Yeah, in your head, it's so...

connected. It just reminded me of being a teenager, like, a lot. Yeah. I guess this is where I, myself, I never had that issue because my mom was... My mom taught sex to a lot of people, so I just grew up in a household where we just had a wooden dildo that showed people how to put on condoms. I was never...

in that situation because anytime there was anything that aroused me it was actually overtly sexual well okay someone's not into fornophilia but that is okay well cat got it yeah I mean I don't know Jay relatable for you or no are you more of a cat can I tell you uh

You know, one time when I was in school, I was reading The Fault in Our Stars by John Green. Have y'all ever seen or read that? Yes. Anyway. Did that pay off for you? Oh, yeah. No, I was reading it in math class, and I got to the part where they're about to have sex, and I started crying.

And I was crying. People thought I was crying because it was sad because there's a character where terminal two characters with terminal cancer in the book. No, no, no. Good, sir. I,

i was crying because children with cancer were getting laid and i wasn't i was that horny you turn into like randy from south park in that uh the medicinal fried chicken yeah where it's like man if i just get a little oh i'm just gonna get a little cancered stand don't worry you know just so i can get laid so there okay no that okay real there was a

Not my school, but my best friend's school had a kid who had cancer. And he asked a girl out and she said no. And he said, but I have cancer. So like... Now they're married. I don't know. They're not. They never dated. She was like, I don't care. Which is good for not being like, you know...

But yeah, okay. So we've talked about Kazusa a lot. There's like a lot of intricacies to talk about these characters. And so Pete being the great host of this podcast that he is, is moving us along. So we are going to talk about Nina next. Nina intertwines a bit with Kazusa as in she is also attracted to Izumi. So Nina...

I really liked. She presents herself as sort of wiser than she is. When we first meet her, she is, you know, like...

She's the one who brings up sex like she's not afraid of it and is super mature. And she has this very teenage talk about how in the grand scheme of the universe, humanity has barely lasted any time. And my life is a fraction of that. So I'm going to die soon. It's like a Kesha song or something.

And what I really liked about her is at the end of this, you know, like the girls look up to her and listen to her. She's like popular and pretty. And, you know, she comes off as wise. And she was just like, when she says something that was like contrary to what she had been saying at the beginning, she was just like, yeah, I'm stupid. I have no idea. I was just saying that stuff to sound cool. Fuck you. Like, you know, so I...

I don't know. I really felt need a relatable because like when I, not that I've completely grown out of this, but like when I was a teenager, definitely, you know, I tried to be like, I bought a copy of gravity's rainbow for no fucking reason. Like I'd ever read that book and, you know, just like trying to be cool and like wise and smart and like,

feel like I have everything under control, right? Like, I feel like that's another very common teenage thing. I forgot a major part of Nina's story is because I tried to block it out of my brain. She also has, like, an acting teacher who's, like, literally just a pedophile. Like, he's like, yeah, I'm a pedophile. Like, he's not even...

Like, he's just like, yeah, like I'm just. Stemic pedophile. Yeah. It's like a one off. Oh, yeah. Hollywood elite. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And so she she has this thing where he was like definitely attracted to her when she was like a young kid, but like never acted on it. But I sort of like confused her a bit about like what attraction is and like what love is. And at the end, she punches him in the fucking face. And it's great.

Yeah, so what do we think about Nina's arc? There's a lot of really interesting stuff here, in my opinion, but I got to do the explanation. So if anyone else has some points they want to bring up about Nina, please do. I'll be quick, just because Nina was probably my least favorite character of the five, but I did enjoy sort of like her... When she said like she's going to die soon, then she wants to have sex, I sort of took that as...

like becoming an adult like a lot of people view like once you have sex like you're an adult type of thing and so i kind of viewed it as she's been grown up into this world where like she's been viewed as like very sexualized um like you said a grown man like feigning over her and i felt like she was just trying to like get out of that phase in her life and then having sex would do that

And sort of like, I don't know if it was like a mindset where it'd be like, okay, now I had sex. Now I'm an adult. Now I don't have to like view this as like a child anymore. Wouldn't really worry about this guy. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. So like I, I did enjoy sort of like that mindset that she was running through and sort of how she was dealing with some of the issues. Like the fact that like a lot of the times where like she had like the bully, uh,

like stepping on like her notebook and she's just like well if i do something it's just going to cause more problems if i don't do anything then they won't cause more problems so i'm just not going to do that i was like yeah i like that like it's when she does try to act mature she actually i feel like there's parts where she actually is mature and like that was one of the scenes that it was but like kind of i agree kind of just like how she went through the motions and

was chaotic i like i did feel like i don't think any of us has been in a situation like that so it's like it's hard to describe but like just like sort of how she just went through the motions of having all that happened to her and sort of like where she is now i felt like she was like a good person for the most part and added like the right amount of chaos and drama in the story that was needed

this one time at band camp yeah no um i'm just kidding uh i have not obviously i've not had anything anywhere relatable to her uh but i i agree with you pete that she seemed to be as mature as she put off just less like less confident or cocky than she actually did like she's probably the most mature out of the whole group i would say right like

I don't know. I don't think she is. She's definitely the pettiest out of all of them, right? And she has her reasons and everything, but she goes through a whole little Joker arc there at the end. Right. I don't know. I guess this is where my psychopath comes out. She's doing what she... She's being selfish, but she's doing what she thinks she needs to do to win...

win so to speak right yeah there's like levels to that in my opinion like shoot your shot like i'm not gonna say like don't do your thing and like i don't think kazusa would say that either but then like lying about someone molesting you or whatever so that you can like put that guy's hand on your butt to like try to oh yeah i would never call that mature she sexually assaulted that man oh yeah yeah i mean i i

I'm not endorsing it. I'm just saying, I think that there was, there was a thought that were like a methodical approach and thought behind everything she did in those moments, which would argue, which would, I wouldn't say that it necessarily is mature as much as it is like,

yeah like i guess it depends on how you mean mature like i sort of mean mature is like accepting the world and understanding your place in it and like i know not like your ability to you know set up a scenario where you come out on top and like a romantic rival scenario i guess yeah i get what you're saying

I feel like Nina was the most clever out of the group. Absolutely. Definitely not the most mature. Neither. Yeah, neither. I feel like the most mature out of the group was probably Kazza, ironically enough.

Yeah, yeah. I mean, they're all immature in various ways. And I think that I mean, that's obviously the point, right? I think I think I'd agree with that cat. And insofar as her, she's like probably the most able to be like, I don't really know what the hell's going on here, which is like honest and honest.

you could view that as like being mature, but back to Nina really quick, you know, do we have other like, okay, what did, what did we think about her interactions with her teacher? Because I, they made my skin crawl. I did not like them. I, I do get that that is like intentional and stuff, but it did make me uncomfortable. Yeah. I agree with you that it's supposed to make you feel uncomfortable. I think that like each of the girls in a way sort of represents like, like this is all about like,

obviously like what, like young women's sexual development and how different things can affect that, how different backgrounds and such can affect that. And I think that like for Nina and, uh, Hondo, who we were going to discuss later, they are both very uncomfortable subjects in a lot of ways, but they are still like realistic subjects that do happen in

I mean, and not just to girls, obviously, but primarily to girls and young women, this sort of thing, being groomed or taken advantage of by an older man. Like, they're the primary targets of this sort of thing. So I think it was, like, an important thing to show. Like, you know, like...

It's uncomfy, but the reality of a woman's sexual life is often uncomfortable, sadly. Like, it's meant to show a realistic portrayal of the world in that way. Like, frankly, like, we're kind of lucky that they didn't have anything more violent going on in this because, you know...

That's just the world type of world that we're in. Unfortunately, there's a scene where Nina is upset that she's not getting like catcalls, even though they bother her. And that's something that I've like heard women in my life know, like sort of like talk about where like.

It's like weird where it's unwanted. You do not like it, but you also view it as a sign of being attractive, which of course you do want to be. And so like the absence of them can hurt you, even though it's like a negative thing. And so they sort of dealt with that whole deal. And I thought that was, that was good. I mean, I think,

there's a lot of things in this and I, I know I've probably missed out of them, but I feel like you can just sort of tell the stories written by a woman because of the amount of things that I've heard from women in my life that are mimicked in this. God, did you have something on Nina really quick? Uh, yeah, I, I really wanted to like Nina. Like I, I wanted a God Nina feels like a character out of scum's wish.

honestly where she and i hate scum's wish uh or like i want her i want to root for her i want to root for her to become more mature i want to root for her to have a good ending but she continues to choose the bad choices over and over and over again and i that feels like a like i

She doesn't feel comfortable talking to anyone else, and she only wants to figure her stuff out on her own, which is in and of itself extremely immature and extremely dangerous. Like, every time I saw Nina on screen, I was like, please choose something better for yourself. And each time I was let down.

She's the meme of if, like, when I die, I want you to carry my casket so you let me down one more time. I think she gets there at the end. I think that, I don't know. She gets there, in my opinion, at least. I guess I could say this when we get to Momo's part.

Well, let's get to Momo's part. And I know Pete, Momo is your favorite character. So Pete, why don't you kick us off with some Momo topics? Yeah, I just love Momo because of like the idealization of her character. Like obviously she's gay, like straight up, like not even by just like straight up gay and sort of like her mindset of questioning what is going on in the world. Because a lot of my friends that were in high school that were gay, like they

you know, like dated the opposite sex and did everything like they, they thought like the status quo type of thing where Momo's character was just like,

trying to figure it out in her brain a lot of times versus like i don't find dudes attractive like what's like why aren't i in the same stage as uh kazoo kazusa or like nina and then you know like some of the other realizations versus like i think when she like touches sugawara for the first time and she's like oh her skin is so soft i really like touching soft skin and i

All those things like coming into her character, I just thought it was like a breath of fresh air of these type of characters that we see in these types of shows. So I just really liked how she like went through all the problems in her life and how she sort of handled it.

where she got really frustrated at points and like she really showcased her frustration whether it's like protecting kazusa or the fucking worst character in the show uh sugimoto um yes he could eat a big old pile of doodoo but like i hate him so much oh he's okay sorry he's awful okay yes the director is the worst character sorry he's not even the second worst character

No, he's not. He's the third worst character. Okay, hot take then. He was my least favorite character. I fucking hated that dude. It's sort of just how seeing the frustration of her

trying to figure herself out while everything was going on was just so well done. I thought just how they handled that frustration was perfect with her character. And I just sort of like resonated with her and really fell in love with like watching her character trying to just figure shit out. And she's like, I don't want to date boys. I want to go play street fighter. It's just like, yeah, just fucking do it. And she did it. It's just, I really enjoyed her character. I can bounce off that. I did not particularly like,

feel one way or too strongly or the other for her like i was kind of like indifferent on her uh but i did like what you just mentioned pete like where she's just like i just want to go play street fire like i just want to go do this like i i have no interest in anything that that's going on here i did appreciate those moments but that that's pretty much all i had on her at least she's by far not the worst girl in the group but probably my second least favorite so perfect

Personally. Yeah, go. So I, bouncing off of what Pete said,

I really loved how she kind of came to the epiphany that she was gay after playing Street Fighter and playing as Chun-Li. Yeah. Like that was like. We've all been there. Oh, yeah, absolutely. Have you ever played Street Fighter V? All those costumes are there for sex appeal. Anyway, that's the only reason why it's a success now. That's not true. Yeah.

That's not even close to being true. Is 5 the bad one or is 4 the bad one? 5 was the bad one. 5 was fine. 5 was perfectly fine. 5 was perfectly fine. In the comments, write which one's the bad one.

Anyways, Chun-Li is hot. We all agree. Chun-Li is hot. We all agree. Overrated. Shut up. I don't know. Shut your mouth. I don't like her outfit. I've just never been... She wears other clothes, Pat. Okay. She's a police officer. Oh. I didn't know she was a cop.

a cab unfortunately why did you ruin this for me cat i suddenly like her a little bit more yeah um yeah i don't know i've just always been like ah she's fine like obviously she's not i don't think she's ugly i'm just like kind of like eh whatever you know like there's much hotter characters in video games pixel you're a chun li did something to me when i was in first grade um so

I knew. I knew for a long time. Anyway, so I loved that she ended up learning about her sexuality via Chun-Li. I also really liked that...

I also really liked that she was the intermediary between Nina and Kazuto sometimes. And I especially loved the end where she actually got offended about Nina, like,

being super self-destructive um because it was i also like that nina is like bisexual uh or at least implied bisexual uh representation but because they're holding hands at the end of the show i'm like i never got that vibe at all why i i just in my opinion if you're like walking away with someone and holding hands the and i would say it would be so great if i

in anime like one time you had a queer character who got to like unambiguously date someone right but that's i think the implication is is there right like they walk away together holding hands yeah um you know if i'm not into someone and they're into me i'm probably not holding their hand that's sort of a maybe that's just amazing it's something all the time

It's something that I talked with one of our Discord members, joined the Discord by the way, Veronica, about where we both were in agreement that they definitely were implied to be at least trying to see each other or trying to get together. But I definitely wish they would have actually done something with it, like actually be more unambiguous with it. But

I liked that Momo was fine. Like she was trying to learn about herself. She opened up to Nina, even with a super strong sense of like self-preservation and earnest and being earnest to Nina and learning that Nina took that and then did something else to, uh,

And it applied herself to something else that was not even close to what she wanted. I agree. I agree with you, Kat, that it could have been somewhat implied, but I'm going to hold true to my staying card of if you don't show it, it's not real. So nothing if not consistent. So.

Yeah. It's just like, and I get why, but I do, I can see where you guys are coming from though, where it could, it definitely could, it could seem implied. I'm not saying, yeah, my, I, I generally agree with you. Like, I think it is implied. However, I feel like,

I don't know you know Kat was saying like oh she might be good by representation like I don't know I don't think so because like have her deal with that literally at all in the show show any sort of appreciate like interest in the other like I don't know she almost feels Nina and I guess this isn't fair to say to her after she literally tried to steal a boy from another girl in the show but like she almost feels closer to like an asexual or like

like representation than she does to me a like a bi representation just because she doesn't she's sexually attracted to izumi yeah she literally said she was that's why i said that's why i predated my statement with

the entire point that she is interested in. All right. I, let me rephrase that. And let me try like a romantic, I guess like, that's maybe that's the better word. Yeah. Or it is the better word, but like, she just almost doesn't seem to like care is the way I would view it more than that. She was bisexual. If that makes sense that she's kind of just like, I don't know. I'm so scarred by my childhood trauma with this director that I,

I don't really care about the romance. I just want to have sex or I feel nothing about it. You know, like that's the other than like the natural urge, I guess. So yeah, I guess that isn't asexual in any way, but what I was going for. That's I guess I would disagree, but we also don't have like a ton of time to go back into Nina, sadly. But Kat, did you think of like how you wanted to wrap that up real quick?

That's okay. Jay, do you have Momo thoughts? Momo thoughts? Yes. No, I don't have any super strong feelings about Momo. I thought her... I guess that the main thing that I would say is to, again, also agree with something that Veronica had said in the Discord, that the...

Same-sex relationships were definitely not given the same treatment in this as the straight relationships. And yeah, that is how Japan is. I get that. People will say, you know, do that to kind of excuse it. But there's plenty of things that just show openly queer relationships in media, even in 2018. So I don't know. I don't think it's a very good excuse. And I think that the author could have done that better. Yeah.

Yeah, I think I guess like for a quick defense of it, at least a bit, is that Momoko is like unambiguously gay and that is not always done either. That's true. And so that is something that I think is done. And the story is sort of about her figuring it out. Now, I agree, you know, other everyone else agrees.

Except most some of the other characters get to also have a relationship. They figure out their sexuality, then they get to date someone or they get to try to sleep with someone or they get to do these things. Right. And Momo just gets to figure out her sexuality. And it's sort of left there. So I agree with your main point. But I've seen a lot of anime where people are like really heavily implied to be queer in some way and are just it's never clear.

ever committed to it's like a bit you know so Momoko's feelings being taken seriously by her friends and all that I think is a step in the right direction from some of the things that I've seen at the very least it's definitely not done perfectly in my opinion but I guess some amount of credit potentially yeah can we talk about Hitoha next please yeah we can talk about Hitoha next alright are we ready

Go off. I hate her. I hate her. I was so bored every time she was on screen. I did not find her interesting at all. Fucking... She's awful. She's a terrible person. I get it. She's going, trying to learn things. Alright, maybe I wouldn't say she's a terrible person. That's hyperbole. She's worse than a terrible person. She's boring. She's incredibly boring. She's incredibly boring. And...

Yeah, she's very cliche. I'll do that. I'll do that to her. Yeah, she's so cliche. I hate her. Like, I don't know. I was just so disinterested. Like with all the other girl, again, Momoko wasn't like my favorite by any means either. But I at least appreciated like what you guys were just talking about with her, her discovering herself, the funny ways that or the ways that they were able to show that in the show was really cool.

I had absolutely no interest in anything Hito had to say, do, write, or whatever in the show. And I was like, ugh, I did not like her. I did not. She's... I'm not a fan. She had my least favorite character arc, but not because of her, but because of how...

What the fuck is his name? Yamagishi. Whatever. Yeah, the teacher. How, like, he was treated in this, where this fucking child predator gets, like, a redemption arc. And, like, I don't know. That just struck me the wrong way. Like, I kind of like T2O, but I sort of talked a bit how when I was younger, I always tried to be, like, smarter than I was and, like, come off as, like,

more sophisticated and stuff like that. Right. So like, I sort of like, you know, she's like trying to be an author and she's trying to, you know, have a relationship with a teacher that she thinks is like cooler than he is in like a way. And I thought she, I thought she was pretty funny in parts and I thought it was admirable how she was willing to just,

defend her friend by being like actually like i was gonna be i was the reason they were like there and stuff like with the sex hotel area um though i i i i don't necessarily think you're wrong for thinking that she was like duller or whatever like comparatively i think that that's probably a relatively popular opinion pdf thoughts there oh no i just don't agree i it was more

like obviously like the teacher is like a huge garbage man or whatever like i don't agree with his actions and they were kind of like trying to preface it's like okay if i'm gonna be very forward and if i'm very forward then she's gonna like not take my advances and then she does take his advances and then she's just he's just like well i'm still keep doing it

until she stops and then like it doesn't it's like yo my man you are you need to stop doing this yeah but like i think that's more of a reflection on him as a character yeah i agree then then hongo so like i i wouldn't say that she was boring i actually thought she was like really fun but like i didn't think she like her arc wasn't like interesting yeah

but she is sort of like she has gremlin energy so like i'm was there was there ever a resolution to her did she learn a lesson i was about to say like she literally did not change at all by this story which oh maybe that's the point i don't know if it is i don't think it is either but that's why i said it that way like i i don't know she said she's

manipulative like it ended in like i don't know i didn't like her i she's just my my inner hate for just lollies you know it's just my it's all me you know it's all i don't think she's a young girl no i was being facetious because

Though, yeah, I don't know. I mean, she is manipulative, but she's also manipulative because her teacher found her on a sexting website and met up with her. You know what I mean? And then she doesn't feel attractive. I don't know. She gets the pass, in my opinion, because as the adult, what you do is you transfer her to a different classroom.

You let someone know that like she came on to you in any way. It actually, what you don't do is ever be on those websites as that teacher. I forgot that that was how it happened. It wasn't her initiating. That's my bad. That is, yeah. What you do if you're that teacher is find a new fucking job or jump off a cliff. Work for the Archdiocese of Boston. But

Like, yeah, I don't know. To me, there was the issue where I thought they did a good job with Nina's teacher where they were like, damn, that guy's a pedophile. And like everyone who hears about him is like, oh, my God, that guy's a pedophile. And then he's like, I'm a pedophile. And then this other pedophile was like.

I'm a really good teacher. Color tag. And everyone's like, it was awesome. It's just like, wait a minute. You were just almost, you had a high schoolers vagina in your face 10 seconds ago. Like what is happening here? I don't know. Cat, Jade, you guys have opinions on this, this particular little heat to arc. I'll let you go, Jay, man. Yeah. I don't know, dude. Um,

Yeah, she definitely does have Gremlin energy, I agree with Pete, but unfortunately Gremlin energy cannot save you from everything, including trying to... I don't know...

I don't know what to say, man. Cause fuck this teacher. But also like, I don't like what she did in the situation either. She sexually assaults him multiple times. Like in a way, right? Like, like force or force herself on him in a way. She just does it. All right. Then define. Yeah. I'll double down on that statement. I was trying to be like light about it, but like, does she not literally like come on to him or sexually assault him? Like she does multiple times and like, Oh, she's a naive little child, whatever, blah, blah, blah. Like, I don't know. Like,

yeah yeah all right cool learn she does it multiple times it doesn't change she's a bad other teacher that he marries because like that too they're gonna be like 70 years old he's gonna be like the guilt has been eating me alive

I went to that love hotel with Hitoha. She immediately dies. For me personally, I think Hitoha had my favorite character design in the show. I really liked her kind of like raven eyes. That was really cool to me. It reminded me of Rui from Sing Yesterday for me.

which I loved her character design, didn't really like the show, or didn't like the ending specifically. But yeah, I really did not like her arc. I loved that she was probably the most outspoken about her... Well, not necessarily the most outspoken. Definitely the person that wrote for her friends the most.

Being as... Bremlin-y as she is. But it just... It definitely made me feel the most uncomfortable. Like, every time she would... Like, either attempt to sexually assault... Allude to sexual assault... Or actually sexual assault... It just made me... Like...

It made my skin crawl. I was not okay with that. I don't know. I just, yeah. Like, I don't know. You're not wrong. And maybe I'll have to work through this. My general thought is, as a grown-ass man, don't put yourself repeatedly in a position where a young girl is growing. He could stop it at any time. Exactly. So that's the thing. It's not that it's just her fault. She is a child. You are an adult. Right.

But I think it's both. I think it's fair to say that both of them were guilty or guilty in this situation. Yeah, just one's more guilty than the other. Absolutely. It's OK. I would say they both make bad decisions and I blame one of them for it. Yes, this is how I would put it.

Yeah. Like, you know, I don't know. Sometimes kids do dumb things and you have to be like, hey, kid, you're doing a dumb thing. We're not going to do this. You need to stop doing this, you know, as opposed to like encouraging it, especially in this case, you know, where he I mean, he knew what the fuck he was doing. He was like, we have to do it this way to skirt the law. I knew because my high dive didn't have translations. I type everything in a fucking Google Translate unless I could just read it.

So it was just what went really quick back to Nina when she was texting easily. I couldn't read the first sentence, but I was like, oh, she must just be confessing or something. But then I could read the second sentence, which was a salary man is touching my butt. And I was like, OK, well, that first sentence was something different than what I thought. Then I had to rewind it. Yeah.

Okay, last and not least, at least in my opinion, as I believe she is my favorite, we have Rika, the president, who starts off pretty prudish and discovers that she really likes a guy. Pete, you had some Rika thoughts. I'll just be real quick. I just enjoy Rika's character as somebody who acts like she doesn't care at all, but when she actually cares the most.

And then sort of coming to the realization that it doesn't matter. It just have fun and do what you want to do. And like towards the end of it, she just like more open about her relationship with her boyfriend and stuff like that. But I do enjoy the characters are just like, I don't care what other people think of me. Oh my God. He said I was cute. And then like sort of realize it's like, oh, I really do care what people think about me. So Rico is like, she's like my third favorite character, third or fourth.

Personally, I think Rika is probably either my first or second favorite character. Mainly just because, yeah, she starts off very prudish, but she eventually realizes that she was the least... Or one of the least mature in the group. And she starts backpedaling and understanding more about the world. And she starts...

She really resonated with me personally when it came to my first relationship with a girl where I was just...

Like, I tried to be super, super cool and super holier than thou and tried to not, like, hang out. But, like, in reality, I was stressing over every little thing, and I didn't really realize it until it was pointed out to me. And that was, that's exactly what Rika did. And it's just, yeah, I really, really like Rika. Rika's my favorite character. I liked her arc the most. I think I liked her relationship with whatever the guy's name is. Toon. Well.

Yeah, the way that they came together and flirted and stuff. I thought that that was really nice. And both characters are just good people. Which is nice. They were cute together. I liked them by far the most, I think. Definitely my favorite. I've also got to really say something real quick. I really feel bad for Sonoe. Like, the way...

Yeah, the way that they treated her after she got pregnant. I also really like the fact that Sonoe did keep up with Rika. Anyway, let me...

Yeah, their friendship was pretty cool. Their budding friendship where they're pretty different people and then they start to understand each other and everything. Riku was my favorite for a few reasons. I was a little uptight in high school about rules. Wow. Couldn't resist that at all.

Yeah, so I went to a Catholic high school and I was like very like there was a conversation I had with my girlfriend in high school about how she didn't feel attractive because I didn't want to have sex with her and I wouldn't have sex with her because Jesus, the J-man upstairs. Yeah.

But, you know, it's sort of like that. It wasn't like a religious thing on her reason for reasoning, but she like seemed to be like all like like the impropriety and stuff was like something that I could I could relate to. But then like also dealing with the fact that like you're a human and all that was sort of fun. Her doing editing the notes that he gave her, like when he did like 80 pages of you're cute or whatever. And.

you know, she like fixed the grammar and the spelling and stuff. It's like how I want someone to respond to my confession. Like, I love that idea. Um,

And it is like her ending it with Yoroshiku Onigashimasu is so funny because that's like, it will be nice to be working with you in the future. Like I look forward to like our future like collaboration or something in Japanese. It doesn't like really translate into English very well. It's like a very formal Japanese thing. And it's just, I don't even know how someone would like,

you know, like if you ask someone out and they, they like ended an email with like, you know, like best regards or something like that. It was just like very like that. It was really funny. I really liked how she stood up for Sonoe. Like, you know, like, Oh, like, you know, she,

she's like doing something that we consider right. She's like caring about her kid. Like, yes, you made a mistake, but she's like doing what's good. We don't need to like put her down for that. And her just sort of realizing various hypocrisies around like all of, all of these subject matters. I thought were great. She also gets to do the, she's all that moment where she just takes off her glasses and lets her hair down. And she's like hot now. And that's like a top tier trope. Yep. We also forgot that he, so I got to do the 10 things I hate about you thing. We, but,

A lot of fun, I guess, like Western rom-com things. I don't know if they were like direct homages, but maybe it shows that, you know, there's nothing original in some way. You know, but I really, I really liked Rika. I really liked, honestly, the entire cast. I just had a great time with all these girls. We are running a little long, but let's quickly talk about the moment the show jumps the shark where they get

They kind of out of nowhere kidnap a teacher in order to get a dating ban lifted from their school. And then they learn about each other's feelings. And I liked that part of it. But they kidnapped a teacher. That was weird. Did everyone think that was weird? Ransacked the school. It was a very rushed ending. Yeah. Extremely rushed ending. Yeah.

i i do agree ransacking the school's fine like who hasn't um but uh me either but like i know we did uh last day of school throw all your papers we just talked about my love of rules okay there's a difference between throwing papers and like what they did i mean come on like that was crazy i know it's for the anime but it was just like but i don't it just felt you know out of character but it was just like i don't know they got

I guess they were making their stand and there was the symbolism with the savage season or whatever, like in the literal sense, but I was just surprised. Painting some stuff on the school didn't feel too out of character to me. I could see something like that happening in real life. The felony of kidnapping a human, regardless of his quality of one, is sort of where they lost me for a little bit. Um...

I'll get like maybe the other things like yeah Pete I'll just say I'm like because the first time I watched it the only reason why I gave it a 9 instead of a 10 was because of the ending like I didn't really I thought it was like Russia didn't make sense on my rewatch so to me it just kind of sort of felt like they needed a way to get everybody together somehow and wrap up everything and like that's what they went with so on my second rewatch I said fucking sure like whatever it was fine but

I don't know, man. There's a lot of ways to get them together. 100%. At that point, I was like, I was cool with them adding it there. Like, it was fine. I liked the color tag part. I thought that was like a really neat idea where you got to see people's like relationships with each other by sort of like vague descriptions of color and like people going to like try to find what that would be. I thought that was neat, though it came from that piece of shit teacher. So honestly, horrible idea.

Just the worst. Jay, what do we think about the ending there? I wasn't really that big of a fan. I think it was a rush drop. Yeah, I do agree, sadly. I liked the ending ending, but I think that climactic scene was bad. I don't know if that's exactly what you feel like, but... Yeah. From what I understand...

It's a common complaint about this director in particular, Marie Okada, that there's a lot of like drama for drama's sake. She did like Anohana, IBO, a couple of other things that I can't remember, but... Iron-Blooded Orphanage. This is how the manga ends too, by the way. Yeah, it's only 32 chapters. She wrote the manga. Oh, did she? This manga was written at the same time as the show was coming out, basically. Oh, I didn't know that. Yeah.

Yeah, she's been an industry mainstay and she got to like do that. It's like a declaimed show and everything. But I do think the ending was like a little...

It felt like it definitely felt like a rush job. Was this 12 or 13 episodes? I don't know. Well, well, yeah, I don't know. Might have helped out a bit, honestly, but probably not too much for me personally. I think honestly, you just remove the kidnapping and put in some other plot device that makes more sense. Okay. Simone asked this at one point we were watching what happened to literature. It should have ended with them doing like a literature reading or something like that. I don't know, man.

no i should have ended with her saying it fit because that's so funny no saying it fit obviously yes that but like the climax of the drama should have had something to do with literature in my opinion oh yeah yeah well the teacher's a fucking fake teacher um he's he's not real um and so he was like color tag or whatever instead of like

let's read sylvia plath to each other or something i don't know yeah um fair enough yeah fucking bozo director's done it everyone just grips sorry it interrupts my brain just farted yeah she's done like all over the place like everything it's kind of crazy yeah she's like a big person in the anime space

And she can't write endings. No one can, though. It's a thing that not just anime, but media is bad at. In my opinion, at least. Sometimes it happens. Did we pull off the shelf, Pete? Oh, nothing. I thought you were talking about a manga or something. I don't know. I was relatively satisfied with the characters' individual endings. I do think the climax was a bit

However, final thoughts and scores. Do we want to go do that? Do we have anything else we want to? Great.

Miles, why don't you start with me? Yeah. Okay. Sorry. It's okay. You steal my thunder. We make it work, you know? Yeah, we got there. I enjoyed this show. I had a good time. I thought it was funny. Some parts of it were like a little ridiculous, like specifically, again, we talked about it. Like it's like episode 11 and 12 sort of where they kidnap someone and then like,

get over it and they're like no one brings up the fact that like he was dating a student or whatever um there's like some stuff just sort of gets like lost in the plot to tie up the other main character stuff like you know momoko and kazua and nina get like a lot more attention than like the hito plot line and i i think that sort of makes it confusing so because of that i ended up giving it an eight but i did very much enjoy it but eight out of ten for me all right yeah what about you

Yeah, so my final thoughts kind of align with what me and Veronica thought about. And I'm going to use her words because she worded a lot better than I would have. So she said that this makes me think of Erica Friedman, of when Erica Friedman talks about parting the God's curtain, which she describes as a certain class of fury for men that gives the male reader a tantalizing peek into the secret world of girls.

And I really, really like that description because she also goes on to say with shoujo manga, women understand that they talk about sex so they can focus on other things.

While this being a shounen, it kind of is kind of like trying to balance that where it's going a little bit further into, hey, woman, do think about sex. Understand that. And I really like the way that she phrased that.

For my personal final thoughts, I really did like the show. It was a very fun ride. There was a lot more SA than I was comfortable with, but I'm not really comfortable with SA at all. So that's a thing. But personally, I would probably rate this at a 9 for me personally.

A nine. All right. Jay, what about you? Yeah, the pros of this, the character writing was really solid. I thought that all five of the main characters and I guess Izumi as well felt pretty fleshed out and like real people for the most part. They were believable. It reminded me a lot of like my, you know, puberty years and beyond that sort of thing and how uncomfortable that was for me.

But I think that some of the cons are that the ending is like... Like, the third act of this in general is kind of like a letdown compared to the first two, in my opinion. Apart from, like, the time skip. I liked the time skip well enough because it was mostly just fan service. Hongo's arc was a little questionable, despite me overall liking her character. And...

I don't know. The gay couple just not having any sort of confirmation or anything like that really just kind of rubbed me the wrong way. I'm not going to lie. While I was watching it at the beginning, I really loved it. I thought that the first couple episodes do a great job of hooking you in. The ending is just so bittersweet for me because of how much of a rush job it feels like that. It's kind of...

It's a little hard for me to like fully recommend this to somebody in that way. So for me, it's just a seven out of 10. There you go. All right, Pete, what about you? On top of what everyone else said, the one thing I wanted to talk about in my final thoughts was sort of just the male representation of the show and sort of how it was kind of the variety of dudes that you have, because I think.

everybody experiences this like puberty in a different way when you're a dude, because like, I remember going through phases where it's like, holy shit, I just really want to touch some boobs like straight up. And there was those guys who like with the karaoke where it was like, I want to fuck. I want to fuck. I'm like, yeah, I had that mindset at one point in my life, like for sure. But then I also had like the mindset of someone like easing me where it's like, man, I actually just like really want like a girlfriend and a partner and like,

If I get to touch boobs, awesome. But like really what I want is like somebody in my life and that range of like characterization with the boys in the show I thought was really cool and sort of like, you know, I hated that Sugi character. I'm sort of like gaslighting girls into like trying to like get him to date. I feel like worked in high school and like he's a huge piece of shit. And I like that they like showcase that as like this teenage child.

like manipulator trying to get girls the whole point is like he was just like oh i just want to be friends with you i respect you it's like actually the whole time he's just trying to sleep with you and like i just thought he gets rejected he's like you're a slut yeah exactly yeah yeah but like even like when they first met he's just like he's like oh no like i know like this was sort of like a mixer but like i was more along the lines of like i respected you when we were in school together and like i really liked like how you handled yourself but like he was just lying and

Like he was just trying to like get in her pants the whole time. So like showcasing like him and then showcasing like easily, I really like easily like opening up about the difference between like emotionally liking somebody and physically with him and Sugiwara. I thought that was like a really like that's a thing for sure. Like,

I just thought that was like really handled really well. And just, I don't think I've ever seen that in an anime when you sort of have to discuss like the difference between like, like emotionally falling in love with somebody and just thinking somebody is like super fucking hot. So that was cool. I love this show. I, I thought it was just like the dialogue was so handled so well. It was a great combination of just cringe, but like informative and real dialogue that I would expect some girls to talk about and

didn't like the ending really but like that's honestly really my only knock even though if I hated like the characters I think they showcased like the male characters that like the teacher and the director even if I hated them as characters I think they showcase what they were trying to in a really in a really good way so I'm gonna give this show a 9 out of 10. Yeah so I think a testament to the show's good stuff is the fact that we spent our over an hour talking about

just the characters and their relationships and their arcs so to speak and we didn't even really talk about like the show on a broader sense which part of that is just the nature of the show where it literally just jumps around uh from like this character's arc to this character's arc like over like that's the show and i but i i do think that also speaks to the strength of the characters and how we could have kept going for all the characters at least a little bit i i

I would say that this character design was, I thought, pretty boring. And that obviously isn't the point of the show. But I don't think it's like a strength of it either, I guess, if that makes sense. It looks fine. Doesn't look bad. Doesn't look particularly great either, I don't think, other than very specific moments. Like a couple of those, I think Miles called. I don't know if you called them out in the episode, but you did in our Discord.

of like well animated scenes i i do want to highlight how awesome the dub was though localization on it there was uh one translation when they were doing the the names for sex on the whiteboards that was so fucking funny what was the there there was one in between something well okay so i didn't get those so again i i went through them and did the thing so the there was holy war uh one that was my favorite one yeah yeah or so fucking funny um

It's spelled H-O-L-E-Y-W-A-R. Under the C. Yeah. Six. Socks. Sacks. They just like ran out of ideas. So they replaced the vowel and the word sex. So it was funny. Like that was those kinds of scenes were really good. I think that they did a good job of like, like, again, this is coming from a 26 year old guy. But like, I thought they showed like.

How a girl might think during puberty in a very lighthearted, comical way and in a way that would be relatable or understandable for pretty much everybody. But in particular, from a guy's perspective, since that is the target demographic, we again, we didn't even get to talk about stuff like that either. Mainly because of the fact that it was time better spent talking about how great the character is.

I agree with everyone else the ending I did not like and a couple of the characters were just not it for me. I think it was Jay who said it best that the character arcs finished well for the most part but then the show itself's ending was just kind of whack. I don't know. It felt like it came out of nowhere to me. I have this show at a very strong 7 where it was enjoyable but

I don't know. It also just is not made for me. Like this is not the kind of show you would usually catch me watching. So I think it's, I think that's like a, I'd give it a seven and a half if I could, but I can't because I make arbitrary rules and fun and just like the girls in the show do. So there you go.

I guess that wraps up our watch club for Oman's year savage season. We ended up with an 8.0 average score out of 10, which is about 0.7 higher than the 7.3 on Mal that the show has. So we generally liked it. I think again, cross board five recommendations, some with caveats, but, but yeah, miles, you have what show we're watching in two weeks. I do. Yeah.

preferencing this with everyone i'm going to recount uh because i had lost the initial votes that i made i had the votes but when i recounted it was different than i remembered it being so take all of this with a grain of salt because i just need to double check my math anyways in third place is rent a girlfriend uh yes yeah yeah right which i yeah okay well that is the

that's the that's why I thought that just fucking one I did I the entire time but it apparently did not in second place Helsing in yeah I'm literally going to do a recount and in first place we have dance dance dance sir let's go so yeah that is the current case and I will let people know if that changes that's what's up

the russians had something to do with this repeat in his russian collusion it's not even his show it was my show but i'm genuinely confused how it won so and high school the dad didn't even place that's that's exactly something p would do to hide the fact that he was colluding with the russians oh yeah you did venitas i believe i did that

You did Helsing, I believe. No, I know what I nominated. I was looking for what I voted for. Oh, you voted. Yes. You voted Vanitas Dance Dance High School in that order. Yes. I voted for High School of the Dead so that running girlfriend wouldn't get more points. Yeah. And frankly, I didn't think it would matter. And it didn't. But in the opposite way that I did. Anyways, I'm going to get to doing that.

All right. But in the meantime, while Miles recounts, allegedly. I sent you. Share your screen, Miles. Yeah, I know. Hold on a minute, player. After the recount, the real winner is Helsing. And now back to the pod.

If you could first, Miles, though, give us your two core show because it is time for two core nominations. Got a we're going to watch a two core show instead of the one core that we normally do. It'll be our fifth or sixth time doing this. So that's pretty exciting. Miles, what have you got for us? Yeah. So I had a couple different thoughts going into this. My first thought was like, what if I just did

both seasons of g which i love that show but then i was like i can make that happen over time in theory via one core right like that's the thing that i could get done that isn't only available at this time and then i thought i've been really meaning to watch mushi she for like a long time supposed to be good um so what about that but then one of my people messaged me

And they were like, you got to do it. And I'm like, we won't get there. And they were like, maybe not in this timeline, but maybe in a future one. So we're bringing it back. Higurashi season two. Let's make it happen. Love it. It won't win. You've all learned your lesson. You all learned your lesson. Yeah. I hope we've learned our lesson. I do. But our voters might not have that, which is what scares me. Cat, what about you? What have you got?

Yeah, so I was thinking, because there was a good two to three year step where the one challenge nominating for two core was Fate Apocrypha.

I was thinking about it. I really want to watch it. I want to watch it on the podcast, but I don't want to watch it alone. But then I was like, you know what? Maybe not. Maybe not Fate Apocrypha. Maybe I'll have a better chance to win with a non-Apocrypha show. So I was looking, and I found Fate Grand Order. You Apocrypha. I'd rather die.

I chose this for you, Miles! For you! I'd rather be angry than watch mid. That's valid. Valid, honestly. I can respect that. Alright, so it's...

okay god we got there that's good i hope i don't screw the day but oh so it is apocrypha instead okay it is like uniron it's like my least favorite anime that doesn't have something like inherently like yeah about it like i i fucking hate that show that's the one with uh

uh the king of the king of the femboys right uh what's their name their name whatever it's very heavily identifies male it's part of the guy there we go okay that'll be a fun one two great starts to this uh really all right uh jay what have you got please have something

I think I'm going to seasons of rent a girlfriend. Yeah. Nah, I'm going to swerve away from that and I'm going to nominate the first season of Chi Hai Chi Hai. If you can, I did this six months ago. You cannot dibs the show. Six months. I did this so long ago. You already watch it. Pete. I'm watching it.

Okay. J.D., have a backup? No. Pete, do you have a backup? This was I claimed the show six months ago. I've said this multiple times. I am nominating this show for two quarter. Okay. Well, nominate it twice, but I'll count them separately.

yes so people have to let me know if they're voting for pg i like that and yeah that's good all right uh i guess the vote has always been a great idea well yeah historically yeah i mean when has it ever failed which one of you is mondale or whatever yeah the uh which one use harris whoa no too close all right uh

let's uh i'll go and then i guess jay you gotta come up with another one i don't know how else to resolve this so i'm making you have to go up with something okay yeah like uh but in the meantime i'll go uh i was really tempted to hey if you want to nominate my backup no

I know. I've never heard of Pat show and went, I want to nominate that. That shows fire. Are you ready for Pat's nomination, though? Because I think it's actually fire. You dominated High School of the Dead from Pat.

Yeah, I was going to say. Wait, that actually happened? It literally happened, like, not even a month ago. Yeah. Just because I nominate something does not mean it's fine. I nominated Rent-A-Girlfriend last week. That's true. Rent-A-Girlfriend season wasn't, isn't, like, the worst thing ever. You can't hold me accountable for my actions. What is this?

But anyways, all right. I was going to nominate Razzaifan the full actual show. I'm curious how different it was from the movie. And it's been like, what, two years since we watched the movie or so at this point? It's been longer. And probably been maybe even longer. Yeah. Honestly, I don't know. Time is a flat circle. But I had no faith that it would win because it took forever to get Razzaifan across the line. And I just don't win anymore, apparently, on this show. So yeah.

I'm going to take the, the easy slam dunk winner. That's probably going to win just because of popular vote and, you know, stop the count, blah, blah, blah. I'm going Steins Gate because I also haven't watched it. So I think it'll be really fun to talk about too. So May 16th, 2022 was our Raza Fon episode. So we did almost three years ago, at least two and a half. Wow. Good for us. Um,

So yeah, I'm doing Steins Gate though. And yeah, so Jay, if you want to nominate Razzafon, I don't even know. No, I'm good. That show's trash. I'm going to nominate the Apothecary Diaries. Oh, shit. Ooh. Okay. Apothecary Diaries. I, God, I'm so torn because like, yeah, I just want to talk about it though. Yeah. Okay. I'm not really that torn. That's a good pick. We might actually join that episode if we do Apothecary Diaries.

Kayla was very mad at me because I was like, oh, we have more Apothecary Diaries to watch. And she was like very excited about it. And then she realized it was just one episode. It's a week. And she was just like, why did you do that? And the next day, like we wake up, you know, we're getting ready. And she just looks at me and is like,

I haven't forgiven you. This is your fault, Miles. Based Kayla, as usual, I also am glad I'm going to binge the show and not watch it. Like, oh my God, I can't imagine watching Link Click seasonally. We watched it weekly last season. I don't know why she thought there would be a bunch of it. I think she just hoped and...

Yeah. Speaks to the state of the world media too, though, that like so many of the shows that we watch are not like seasonally dropped or like weekly dropped anymore. I don't know. That's a whole different podcast for a whole different day for a whole different channel too, probably.

We talk anime, and I think that that wraps up our watch club for the day. I didn't even get a chance to pitch my show. You want to pitch your show? Yes, because Miles, you mentioned earlier that the show Obedience was missing a love polygon tag. Guess who has a love polygon tag? Chihayafuru.

It's really good. We should all watch it. Is it one where I might actually doubt who will win? I am picking the other guy that people don't like because I think he's better. So I think that'd be a really fun conversation. There's a Pete looking ass and obviously got biased towards the Pete looking asses. The set of Chee Heifer. Yeah. And it's a really cool, interesting premise to like a sports show.

It's a very different type of sport. So I think it'd be really interesting to get involved in checking out what Karuta is. But yeah,

uh yeah uh go vote for chi higher furu uh but that is all for watch club if you have made this far and you want to support us best way to do so like comment subscribe leave a review whatever platform you're watching or listening to us on next week anime the year is here we are doing our nomination episode we have 16 categories so we're gonna be going over those we'll be uh talking about what was nominated we also be revealing uh

Where we are donating our votes to. So if you vote for Anime of the Year, for our vote, we will be donating a dollar to a specific cause. So look forward to that. Otherwise, if you're here for Watch Club, we will see you in two weeks for Helsing. Thanks, and we'll see you next time. Peace! Bye-bye!