Steins Gate Discussion & Review | Anime Watch Club
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Hello ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Anime Watch Club, a bi-weekly group discussion and review where the hosts of the Why You Say 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, the El Sai Kangaroos of the Why You Say Anime podcast will be reviewing the 2011 anime Steins Gate. It is I, your mad co- our podcast host Pete. Oh, so cool. Let's meet today's sons of bitches.

First up, he's going to get turned up tonight. We got Jay. Jay, how's it going? It's going pretty well, honestly. Just trying to stay not frozen in the Twin Cities. Yes, it was fucking freezing when I took out the trash today. No fun. Our first moderator tonight, he mistook D-mail and sent the JPEG of his package. We got Miles. Miles, how's it going?

It was small enough to fit the kilobyte requirement as well. The upload size was perfect. Fit pretty easily. Yes, it did. And Pat. Yeah. Big intro. Yeah. Even when there's four of us, we'll get an intro. Yeah. Yeah. All right. But yeah, so as Pete said, we're reviewing Steins Gate. We're finally doing it. This is our two-core show, so normally we only do one-cores, but yeah.

Today we felt like doubling up on the ab work today. And yeah, once a year we do it. So if you want to vote, remember to vote. We voted for Steins Gate pretty heavily, if I remember correctly, too. Won by like a landslide. So yeah, let's review this 2011 anime from the spring 2011 series or season done by Studio White Fox with themes of drama, sci-fi, suspense, excuse me, psychological and time travel.

It is also sourced from a visual novel, which, you know, if you're thinking, what are some of the other famous ones? Higurashi. Clanad. Clanad. Yep. Digimon Survive. White Album 2. White Album 2 as well. Yes. White Album 2. Fate Stay Night. All that jazz. All the fates. Yeah. Yep. And you can tell that this is sourced from a visual novel too. Gatou Shoujo.

yeah we don't have an anime for that though they need to make one i would give it a 10 fair enough all right but yeah let's do our uh opening uh i don't know first impressions which uh i don't know i don't know about you guys but i feel like i have to caveat my my first impressions with like just how i felt about the show because i i don't know i guess we'll get to me eventually but uh miles why don't you start us off

I had really high expectations going into this. I had them because this is like a lot of Miles things going for it. It is also just like number three ranked anime. It's like the number one ranked visual novel, even though it is the second best source from a visual novel about time loops that we've watched for our two-core episode. You know, still...

exciting. You know, so I was expecting a lot. People really talk up like a lot about this show. And if it met those lofty expectations, we'll have to see. But I did enjoy it. And a lot of people talk about this starting slow. I personally didn't think so. Though I understand why people would think so. I think that I...

I don't know. I enjoyed the build-up of the character dynamics, and then I enjoyed the subtle things in the background that were going to point towards the things that were happening. I also had fun kind of hating on Okabe because, and I'm sure we'll talk about this at some point, he's really dumb.

Like, exceptionally stupid. But, you know, it is sort of fun to see when people are playing around with stuff like time and trying to guess how that's all going to happen and everything. Would I recommend this? Yeah, I think this is a really easily digestible anime. I think it has, like, some anime-ness to it, but pretty much everyone I know who's seen it likes it, myself included. I think it works pretty well.

even though it does have some like tropey stuff it's not as bad as like a lot of things are so i don't know i definitely recommend it i think it's you know one if you're if you haven't seen it yet and you're a big anime fan it's a classic go and watch it two if you're only like kind of into anime i think this is like a very good one to digest you'll be able to talk to a lot of people about it and it's you know rated so highly for a reason so thumbs up from me there you go all right uh jay what about you

Uh, yeah. So, I know Miles said that he didn't really agree with people saying it started off slow, but this, it starts off incredibly slow. Like, the first 12 episodes, I know we're talking about the first three, but I'm just gonna give my opening impressions as the first, like, 12 episodes, because that's when the plot really kicks off is in the second half, in my opinion. I agree, so go for it, because I was gonna say the same thing. Like, the first half is just...

Slow burn character introductions, really getting to know everybody and laying the foundations for what they want to change and do change with the D-mail and that sort of thing. And I'm not necessarily complaining here. I like a slow burn sometimes, especially whenever the characters are well written, which in this case they are. But that will turn some people away from it.

Overall, though, this is a recommend for me, just based off of even the fact that it is a slow burn. I think that if you're somebody who enjoys great character writing and intricacies that you won't quite get at the start, but whenever you get to the end, you're like, oh, shit, that's what was happening at the beginning. And on rewatches, I'm sure it's even cooler when you're watching it at the beginning. I think that that's a great reason to watch it. The voice acting is...

God tier, like maybe the best voice acting in general in a series that I've ever seen personally. Like it is truly insane.

Yeah, this is a highly recommend for me. Like, uh, miles also said, this is like a part of anime history. And I think that if you're somebody who wants to call yourself a fan of the medium, you should, you know, check it out. Even if it doesn't necessarily seem like your thing, you know, it's, it's like number four or three or something like that rated of all time. Like,

Like just watch it if you're a fan of the medium. So yeah, recommend for me. I think that makes sense. Yeah. Like if you really want to claim to be like a big anime watcher and like someone who knows what they're doing with anime, there's this and like cowboy bebop feel like,

iconic shows that you have to watch, right? Anyways, Pete, go ahead. One of the two, for sure. Yeah, alright, Pete, why don't you go next? Have all three of us seen Bebop, I think, other than the number one anime fan in the Discord. I have more anime watched than all three of you combined. Hey, you know what? You have to have a good foundation, Pete, or the building will crumble. And as they say... I got tsunami weights, so if the building shakes...

I'm good man Pete's Foundation is literally what's it called the horny cooking show yeah it's Food Wars yeah I couldn't remember it for a second thank you

me too it's iconic honestly all we'll say all we'll say is that on twitter there's an ai function called gronk and if you look at the if you use it to our profile it says the community has embraced pete from the what you see anime podcast so i think my foundation is solid thank you that's crazy the rare elon dub maybe his only dub i've ever given him but um

First impressions, I'm somewhere in the middle between Miles and Jay and Pat. I think it does start slow. For me, it kind of kicked off around like seven or eight is when I started to get much more invested in it. But this was on my rewatch and it was so much fun.

Um, the first time watching it through was more like trying to figure out the pieces of the puzzle and play along with the game that they're going with it. And now my rewatch is seeing the clues in front of you and not realizing that they're there. So like that whole time, me watching this rewatch, like I thought it was a blast, but

Um, I'm with Jay. This is my favorite voice acting show ever. It's my favorite voice acting performance ever with Okabe. I love Mamoru. This is what made me fall in love with him as Okabe. Um, I just think like his is how like eccentric and outgoing and stupid he is in this show. It's just the perfect personification of who Okabe is and,

I think it's just one thing that made me fall in love with this. This show also has this like really random, great Sakugo in moments that I also like thoroughly enjoy. But yeah, this show is, it has a mix of everything that you want it. It has action, mystery, romantic subtext or subplot, I guess. Um, power, found family, power of friendship. It has like everything rolled into one. It's my, it's my anime egg roll. Like I love this show. Um,

I would highly recommend it. I'm with everybody. This is a, this is a staple. This is a classic for a reason. Um, I cannot recommend it enough. This made me really want to go watch zero. Like I liked science gate the first time watching it. I loved it the second time watching it. So two thumbs up from big Pete. I would say that, uh, the fact that it has everything was, uh, a strength of it and also a weakness where the, like there were certain things that I had that made me think about, uh,

how old the anime was and like just like I think Miles was saying it earlier there's the tropes and like they are there they there are so many and we'll talk about that later like how frustrating it was to start for me so like like what everyone else has said yeah I that first two episodes I tried to watch it and I had to put the show down because I was like I am I am so bored I

The otaku culture shit is so cringe. I am physically recoiling as I'm trying to watch this show. And then the next five episodes as well for me were pretty slow paced and slow burn. And I was wondering where it was going. And then I do think it picked up around that 8 to 12 mark. And I never looked back because I was so invested. And I think that's a testament.

to the writing of the show and it all does pay off in the end to all of that. So burn feels like it pays off for the most part. And I am glad that I watched it. So I would highly recommend this show. I think we'll get into the more nitty gritty reasons of why I liked it so much later, but highly recommend and it,

It does pay off, I promise. But man, those first few episodes are like, what am I watching? How is this so iconic? And then it all makes sense. So I and I do appreciate that or came to appreciate that after the first few days of being dreading watching this show. So, yeah, I guess that's our first impressions of Science Gate and 24 episodes. It's a very long show. So lots of and very heavy as well. So, yeah.

Go watch the show before you finish listening to this, because we are going into the spoiler mode. And Miles, I think you have a synopsis ready for this to just really kick us off and start a discussion? Or did we... Yeah, you know, as I try to, just a little overview of the plot, at least the starting points of it, in order to get us in that mindset. So we follow Rintaro Okabe, who is our main character. Am I speaking too loud?

No, no, I was zoning. I was getting into you. I was focusing in onto the great podcast content, by the way. Sorry, yeah. Anyways, so he is going to a presentation that is about time travel. During that time, he finds a woman dead in a pool of blood. He sends a

text message about it on his way home, and that text message somehow changes the past. Through investigation with the woman who is now alive and his lab mates, they find out that their microwave is

Also sort of a time machine. You know, I think they were waiting until they got the hot tub in to really go for the time machine, but they accidentally got there a little bit early. So then it's them playing around with the phone wave name pending or name subject to change or whatever it was called and seeing how they can affect the past with it.

Along the way, they add more people to the lab. They meet people. They do things like requests for people if they're able to do that. And that changes the timeline. It then becomes apparent, and this is, I guess, where I'll probably stop. After a while, that changing the timeline has serious consequences that are not easy to untangle. His childhood friend Mayuri is murdered, and Okabe comes to find that no matter what he does...

He can't really escape that fate. So the second half of that, of the anime is sort of spent trying to untangle the changes they made, trying to find a way to save Mayuri and then some extra spicy stuff at the end.

So I just want to really quickly go over some of the time travel terms that are used or like, I don't know, the metaphysical stuff in the world for people who maybe haven't seen it in a while or whatever. And so the first one of those is going to be world line. Right. So in the Steins Gate universe, the.

time or like existence or whatever is probabilistically like oh god what is it called uncertain right so like it collapses into one but like all possibilities sort of exist they're not collective though so there's one current collective world line

And that can change based on their time travel stuff. Specifically, the demails are what would change it later on when they actually go back in time or when he sends his consciousness back in time. That would not change which worldline they're in. So changing events is what would shift your worldline. That is a term called divergence that they use, which measures how different those worldlines are.

There are also certain events that happen in a lot of worldlines, in clusters. I sort of view them as having gravitational pull. They converge on... A lot of different worldlines will converge onto one singular point. Mayuri's death being one of them. World War III or CERN taking over the world are... The Gulf War. Yeah, exactly. And so...

That is why it's so hard for him to prevent Mayuri's death when it was easy to change other things, because Mayuri's death is a convergent event. It's called an attractor field in this. The Gulf War and her death are the same thing in the world timeline. Well, yeah, there are small attractor fields. Not to say Mayuri's life isn't important, but it's not a...

a thing that is like world changing, you know, but then there are also large ones and they are often like heavily associated with each other because they sort of like entangle those world lines together. There is, and that's sort of the overview. So they're not always, it's not always time travel, i.e. back and forth between,

Sometimes it's time travel sideways. Time in this is... Yeah, is multi-dimensional, right? So it goes forward and backward and then also side to side. And so that is what we'll be talking about there. Okay. Okay.

Can I ask a few questions to start our discussion? Because I have a few questions about the plot points and things that happened. And this might help you give some examples of those things as well, I think, while also making sure that I did not misinterpret things that happened in the show. First really dumb, stupid question that's just like a clarification thing.

What did the metal versus the not metal little frog thing matter for? Like, it made the paper burn at a certain altitude? What was the, like, for the scientist or whatever, or Curious Who's father gets on the plane and then it, like, combusts or whatever? Like, what was that? Why did that happen? It was a really pivotal moment. It, like, destroys the existence of CERN, right? Like...

Final episode. It doesn't destroy the existence of CERN. It destroys the paper on the time travel. So in that attractor field, which is attractor field beta, I believe, when he is giving the presentation as opposed to Kurisu giving the presentation, he takes her paper, as we saw, and goes...

defects to Russia and starts an arms race. So world war three happens in that CERN taking over the world happens in, uh, alpha, the alpha attractor field timelines. Oh, so it's a different guy. I understand. Okay. Okay. But, um, I guess my question is why, why that little guy mattered. Um, I'm actually unsure. I don't know. Um, cause he said that it was cause it,

caused the paper to catch on fire he must have like slipped it into the the paper on the in the plane or whatever but like why did the metal one not do that versus the green one i don't i don't understand that's why i was like i thought that maybe i just missed that one line of dialogue that explained it and maybe it was explained but and it's obvious again to be very clear too this is such a minor little thing doesn't matter but i was just that was one of my main questions when i finished so i was like what the hell and i expected it to be answered because this is so well

thought out this show is. Yeah, so it is, in order to, I'm reading this, um, okay, so what happens in the world where she gets the metal one is that when he is going through the metal detector, it goes off. And then he brings the

Because of that, when he's going through security, it goes off because of the metal OOPA. I'm reading this on Reddit. As the papers went through the checked baggage, we had to carry it with him rather than letting it be stored. And because of that, it didn't burn because he personally had them with him. But since it was a plastic one, the papers could end up in that fire, which is why that made a difference. And there was a fire on his plane. That's why it mattered. Yeah. Yeah, because Trump was president and then

you know, aviation mistakes happen and boom. There you go. Okay. All right. That makes sense. Uh, yeah. Thanks Obama. Um, okay. That was one of my questions. My, uh, my next question was around what, like what, uh, there are so many characters in this that are like love interests and you can tell that it was a visual novel, right? A hundred percent. What, uh,

What was the main plot in the visual novel? Do you happen to know like what, because it seems like to me, the way I'm interpreting what was, what I saw was that instead of just having you pick one plot, this show kind of combines all of the plots into one, like it webs them out obviously, but then it brings them all back together as he undoes layer after layer of their, of their actions or of their, their messages or whatever.

And then it ends without a winner? Is that basically... Without a winner? Well, Chris... Probably, but... Christina! Yeah. So, I mean, what it... The way that it works, and I haven't read the visual novel, so this is just my understanding, is that you can get alternative endings for the other characters, and you get a little extra bonus scene and stuff with them, but in that one, Chris stays dead.

And like the main route is what we get here, basically. Right. So you undo everything. You go through all that stuff you did at the beginning and you find the Steins Gate world line in order to have your cake and eat it too. Right. So you avoid both the alpha and the beta attractor fields and have a world where neither CERN will take over the world or World War Three will happen and Chris gets to stay alive. Okay. And CERN exists without...

Okabe. Correct. Like technically existing or anything Okabe or any of the papers or any of the things that he does. Yeah. They technically exist. So he's about, it's all about like not getting their attention. Yeah. So in one of the, the one in the timeline where he sends the D mail, right. Where Chris dies. Cause he has to see Chris die in order to send that D mail. If he doesn't see Chris dead, there's no reason for him to see the D mail. So, um,

In that one, CERN, who is searching for signs of time travel, because if you remember when they researched the computer, they went into CERN's thing and they saw CERN had some time travel stuff, but it was matter-based and people died because it used micro black holes in order to

repeat i'll say that which is which is a real thing by the way like i just want like the whole like preference or the whole story of like steins gate is like based off of like the real john titer thread which i think is super cool and like cern is like a real organization in life that john titer uh links micro black holes to

Yeah. And CERN, they actually joke about it. If you look at people, when they do Ask Me Anythings on Ask Science or something, someone asked them about if they had a time travel machine or whatever, and they're like, oh, we sold that to the organization and stuff. And if you look at their job descriptions and stuff, sometimes they will capitalize the organization when referring to themselves, just as a little Steins Gate nod. Yeah.

But okay. So in the world where he doesn't send the D-mail because Chris is alive, at some point Chris starts working for CERN. CERN then takes over the world using her time machine. In the world where he does send the D-mail, CERN finds him because of that and is able to then use his time machine when they jump in the labyrinth. He can then...

they get it from there. So that's sort of like a split between those two, those two events, if that makes sense. Got it. Okay. So they always exist, but they only take over the world in one because they, they get the time machine information before anyone else in one, whereas it goes public and there's like an arms race and the other, the tractor field. Okay. And final, final question.

Sorry to dominate like this, but it's confusing. So it's a good show. This show was very confusing and it did it. I give it credit to it made it pretty simple for a non science brain person like myself to

I like to think that I'm pretty good historically and with math and everything else, but science, I'm very on especially theoretical stuff, but I was able to follow it for the most part. There's just some more overlapping storyline things, I think, that get a little confusing because it's such a spider web and different line points or whatever that split off and it becomes confusing. My final question then is why is Okabe...

the guy. Is that explained or is that hinted at in the show? It is not. It depends on what your level of acceptance for this is. Because he is not the only one that can remember things. Other people can when prompted or when things happen. There are a few hints towards this. He has by far the best recollection.

This is, I guess, a good coincidence. He has a term for it. I can't remember. Yes, reading Steiner. So he talks about, like, that. He has, like, more of that or whatever, which is just the ability to understand that the world line has changed. So it is a little convenient that the person who accidentally invented the time machine also...

Was able to determine that it got used. Because no one else would know. However. Other people can sort of tell. They sort of play it off similar to the Matrix. With a deja vu. Or thinking something had happened. That type of memory. Or whatever. We see it with.

when he's talking to various people about like trying to switch timelines or whatever with like Ferris right like she's kind of aware that this wasn't like her original worldline so you know but he does have the most for sure which I guess is why he's the best I have a very simple answer he's the main character

And like Mayuri sees them as dreams. Dreams, yep. And whatever instead. Okay. And then Kurisu sees them as nightmares. Right, because they all involve her dying. Yeah, every single one of these dead. And Mayuri calls them dreams. Well, yeah, yeah. She describes them as nightmarish. Yeah. But no, I didn't even realize it was Hana Kanazawa. That's so funny. Oh, yeah. Hana Kanazawa. I totally just bet. Okay. Okay.

Those are most of my questions. So, yeah, he basically is the main character. So that's why. But that's and that's fair. Or maybe it's we're observing it through his lens. Whoa. Who knows? I don't know. Those were just like my general like how questions after this. And it was really fun. It's really cool that those answers are discernible from the show. I'm pretty sure, too. Like in hindsight, everything you said makes sense.

I think. If you watch it, because I'm the same way as you, Pat. The first time I watched it, I had so many questions. I'm like, you know, I wasn't really sure. I was so used to, like, time travel. Whether it's, like, Back to the Future, straightforward, or, like, Butterfly Effect, where it, like, branches off. This is, like, a little different. And so I was confused by, like, the timelines and stuff. The second watch through, if you watch...

If for some reason, Pat, you watch this again in like two years, I bet you'll love it 10 times more because you will understand it so much better. Yeah. Like, I mean, when I finished, I wanted to go back and watch episode one again to see like what was hidden in there and things like that. And then I went into three hours straight of meetings for work because I have a job.

and it sucked because i didn't get to do that before we recorded but uh i really did think about that i was like oh the noises the yells the screams or whatever and i do they distort them in the first episodes and make him not sound like okabe uh or does it or is it just that they're kind of like so distant that you don't really notice it like i'm trying to think there's a couple options he could be distance also it's possible that he

I mean, I think he did, but he didn't necessarily need to be the person who did that. It could be in the same way that Mayuri dies, no matter what, right? Chris's death could be a convergent event in this tractor field. And so, like, maybe her dad killed her in that one or something. And that's why it sounded different. But he tried to save her, but that's impossible in this timeline. So he ended up accidentally killing her when he went to save her. The same way that he couldn't save Mayuri. But I am unsure. So...

Yeah, fair enough. Fair enough. I thought that that was very interesting. And it was cool to watch the show unwind every single step that they made and make certain little character moments make a lot of sense. I think there was a... I can't remember if it was the second or last or the last episode where he starts talking about like, oh, I'm such a mad scientist. And he does his little speech. And it's like, wait, that happened in like the second episode or third episode. And it was...

And it made no sense in the moment. Like, oh, everything's coming together. We're at the final stage. And then it's like, wait, no, we're not. We're three episodes in. What's going on here? I thought that there was a lot of cool moments like that throughout the show.

But all right. That's all my questions. Someone else. Yeah. So first talking point. And thank you for asking those, Pat, because I think that it's good to get this sorted before we start talking about the show at large. Right. And if anyone has any more questions, hopefully I'll be able to answer them. I did put in a lot of work making sure that I understood it. But again, it is pretty complicated. So, fuck, I could be wrong. We can answer it, too. True.

Not me. I can't answer it. So, but you guys can go for it. Um, yeah. So, uh, the first, there's the first episode, right? And then after that, there is, I guess what I would consider like a lot of setup is Jay mentioned. Um, you are introduced to a lot of side characters, um,

Of varying importance. And then in the background, they're doing some science stuff. And that slowly gets weirder over time. But in my opinion, they do a pretty good job of playing that down as to not seem as important as it is. I guess my initial question would be,

How... Because a few of us have alluded to it starting slow, and I think I was on the side of it starting the least slow. So from you three, I want to hear... Yeah, this was slow. What did you think first going through it? And then in retrospect, how did you think this, you know, as part of the show, the first several episodes was? You know, what do you... Who has thoughts there? Okay, so I...

I think that, like, the more... This is a very detail-heavy show. There's a lot of stuff you can miss. And I've been doing a little bit of wiki-trawling as you explained everything, just because I did have some curiosity in reading just the sheer amount of different, like, scenarios and stuff that have been put into this series, like in the visual novels and games and...

pachinko machines and all that sort of stuff is truly absurd. And the anime is honestly no different in that aspect. So some of the finer details that maybe flew over my head and would require a second viewing for me to really get them. But I think that like the crystallization of it is obviously at the end, whenever he's remaking how he found the,

Chris at the beginning, like whenever he has to knock her out and have the blood all over and whatnot. Like, I thought that that was a really interesting way to do it. And honestly, as soon as he was in the room where she got stabbed, I was like, he's setting it up to where he stabbed. Like this is making it to where you're going to be the one that stabs her. I don't know if anybody else felt that way, but I think that like, that is just kind of,

Whenever that happened, I was like, oh shit, okay, yeah. I see what they were going for from the beginning. That's really interesting. So maybe if you guys have some examples of more subtle things that happened at the beginning that weren't just blatantly shown to me on screen, I would be interested in hearing them.

Oh, I was going to say I was going to change topics kind of because I don't because obviously I don't because I am dumb and only watched it one time. So I don't know. Is there anything that you specifically notice, Miles or Pete, that like –

Well, especially you, Pete, on your second watch here, right? It's for sure dialogue-based, I would say. Picking up on some things like the Maori and Daru relationship towards the future. I think that's like... I mean, I think if you have reading comprehension, it was kind of very easily you could pick that up. But for me, I missed that the first time. Second time around, that was very forefront to what that was alluding to.

Um, stuff with like Ruka and like her identity, um, I think was a little bit like forefront in the dialogue. If you knew that ahead of time, or if this was like your rewatch and stuff like that, it was more of like, I would say dialogue based than actual like visualization stuff, if that makes sense.

like what they call things how they call each other the naming conventions of things are you definitely like pick it up the second time around that you can like force i i think the foreshadowing is there it's just whether you can pick up on it or not uh me being smooth brain um did not the first time and a lot more the second time that that makes sense i i could see that that that's how i expect but yeah my my rewatch of this would go which may happen we'll see

It's a long show, though. It was very long. I guess I'll speak on my end, at least, about what I felt in the beginning. Like what Jay said, I think a lot of the dialogue gets rewarded and makes sense later on. But this anime is so tropey and in its own way. Why do they have to be such perverts to each other? Why do they have to be such...

Like, otaku... Like, oh, because I'm an otaku, I'm a pervert. Or I like the maid cafe because of the... Yeah, there's so much stuff that, like... I would love to show this show to people who don't watch anime. But I don't think that they would really get it very much. Because I watched the first few episodes with Ashley, and it was, like, trying to explain to her otaku culture, things that are going on. And I, like...

I feel like she was very standing of it versus other people will not be. And it makes it really hard to recommend it to people in that regard, like non anime fans who aren't used to the bullshit, like, like, uh, got Itaru's whole character and, uh, Rumiho or however else you're supposed to say her name. Ferris or Ferris. Yeah. Like whatever they, they shorten it to, um,

the maid cafe girl like I had to explain to her why she's saying yeah and like speaking like a cat and even out of character and I was it's like man that will shut down so many people from wanting to watch it and I hate I hate that it drives me nuts when anime do stuff like this and like it offends me it offends me their culture offends me I guess I don't know that was a joke to be very clear but yeah

It does annoy me to no bounds that this show has so many of those tropes while also being so good. Because at the end of the day, I don't think... And why it annoys me the most, too, is that they weren't really used as plot devices very much. Like, Itaru being a perv doesn't really benefit him in any way or show us anything in the plot that happens in that way. I guess Ferris'...

that could you say her daddy issues would be why she chooses the maid cafe route but that i i don't know if that's really well she implemented moe culture in akihabara she's the reason why right right yes

She's my least favorite character then because of that. She's an entrepreneur. Leave her alone. I know. I know. I know. I know. No, I get that. She's balling. She is clearly balling. She was clearly balling beforehand. I don't know if you noticed, you know, like in the other timeline. But yeah, I guess that that's where like

I just get so frustrated when things like that are happening in the show. And there's a lot of the, Oh, don't look at me. Oh, and it's, it felt so visual novel-y where it was just like, Oh, the romance is bubbling and to keep people reading and,

and yeah whatever and oh why just like i'll tell you why because this was okay well this is a visual novel written by someone who's an otaku for otaku right so like i agree with you however this is just it's sort of like the whole point of these scenes is to establish the interpersonal connections to establish normalcy and hide the sciencey things that are happening in the background that are getting slightly more sinister as time goes on um

you know, so that when, you know, they kick down the door and shoot my Ori in the head, you are not expecting that. And that is, this is just like,

It's supposed to be like, okay, what is the day of the life of this otaku guy in Akihabara like? He has his otaku friends, and he's friends with one of the maids in the cafe near him, because Akihabara is like one half maid cafes. Maybe more. Yeah, and then it's the other half that there's all the technology, so like the CRT guy underneath them and stuff. It's just a whole bunch of things like that. And so it's too...

That is who you're trying to hit the familiar feeling with, right? Like these sorts of people, like as is being written, I agree with you that it would probably be better without some of the pervy stuff or whatever. But I also think as far as anime goes, it's not the worst anime.

thing that's ever happened. Like, I don't know. There wasn't a lot of like tame on it. Yeah. Like people are dressed conservatively. They don't like do any like cleavage shots or anything. Boobs aren't jiggling around all the time. Um, they do a lot of ass shots. I have to say like, like they do. It's,

But it's not I agree. It's not high school, the dead, which, by the way, vote for high school, the dead. Thank you, by the way. But like and I agree, like it's not it's not as bad as like anime that are like horribly stuffed with fan service or trying to get that rise.

But it's just like, why does it happen at all? It doesn't need it. It doesn't need that stuff to be good and to be entertaining. Yeah, it's just normal visual novel stuff. That's why it's doing it, right? Because it's playing into that. In the same way, you know, other things that

go off of this dude but pete what were your thoughts in the beginning well just on that it's just like you know not everything has to be marketed to you like this is marketed to a very specific type of person and it hits i think it checks like all the boxes for who it's trying to get to so um like i didn't i'd have an issue with it like i do have issue with like otaku culture in general in like some aspects but i also agree i thought this was

very tame. Like if you wanted Daru to sort of be like a loser character, I thought they kind of did a pretty good job at portraying him as a loser character. Same with like Okabe where like, he's kind of like a chenebio, but at the same time he's not. And like, I think that's that type of aspect of like being, you know, like essentially cosplaying as a scientist while also being a scientist is kind of fun. So, um,

There was aspects that I wish that like wasn't there. Like, like my biggest complaint with that stuff was like how he interacted with like Ruka and like her like transformation and some of the timelines and stuff like that were like, I wish that was handled better. I'm like, I understand like the scenes of like why they did that. And also I'm going to give some credit. It was 2011 and probably not like the best well-versed in that subject, especially Japan. So like,

That was where more of my issues were than just some of the otaku culture stuff. What was the question again? So I was... The original topic was...

you know, like the beginning scenes, the first several episodes, like, what did you think about them? Did you like them? How were they in retrospect? Yeah, for sure. I was going to say, I was going to clarify. So the, all those complaints are why it dragged for me. Yeah. Because again, like the very beginning, I should have led with this. Like, uh,

All of that stuff really 90% of the really annoying parts of it happened in those first seven episodes. Yeah. And of course, like I said, like it's, it happens here and there with them changing clothes, what I like, but it's nothing distracting. Like it was in those first like seven episodes where it was just like,

Dude, what I get that he's a loser. All right. You could also have shown that by, but then he's also so competent at everything. For sure. I, I, before recording this, I had a conversation with my brother about the, the Kendrick Lamar halftime performance about like the whole culture thing. And he didn't understand it. I'm like, it's not for you. Like my, my white brother, the it's not for you type of thing, but it's like, I had, I had that on my brain as well. So when I say like slow, like,

In terms of like Steins Gate, it doesn't mean it's like bad necessarily. Like, I think the setup was super important and the payoff that we got from building up these interpersonal relationships from the first couple episodes was so important.

Because the first time in my watch through, I loved Okabe. He was my go-to character for the entire show. That was my go. The second time through, Mayuri for life. She was the glue. Building up her interpersonal connections throughout the first couple episodes and really understanding who she was as a character and sort of why Okabe...

is like going through all of this so much. It was like, damn, you know what? It was slow, but it was so important to the story. So second time through, I, I was so impressed by it. Um, definitely realize how much more important those couple of episodes were. Um, I think there were some other episodes where it was like, maybe like slice of life bits or, um, non-actually scenes where I think like some of the comedy can fill in the gaps of the slowness. Um,

Um, if you found it better, we're like the first couple episodes, I think some of the cringiness of the comedy was like, not was too much for me where I didn't find that as enjoyable as compared to some of the other like comedy moments. Um, romantic flirting a little bit with some of the characters, um, the family dynamic with like, uh, broad and her, his daughter and stuff like that. Like some of those moments, I felt like filled the gap a little bit better for in terms of slowness. Um, but yeah,

if it's slow yes important more than the slowness itself so um definitely more appreciated on my second watch through i think that's fair too and like the show also keeping in mind when it was made like it's it has a kudure it has a tsundere it has a deri-deri it has a

god what's the last well i don't know like yandere's kind of yandere type yeah you can make i think you can make a case that mocha is or moika or whatever name is is yeah yeah for fb yeah for fb and and the uh and even ruka is like uh i mean how would you refer to like not a i don't even know if that's a dairy type but like a classic oh like oh it's a boy but i i

Like, I'm attracted to it. Like, that was, like, a lot of, like, harem anime would have that, like...

derry derry guy like an androgynous character or something yeah yeah right which yeah to be yeah i'm trying to dance around i know what the word you're trying to say or you're thinking of that we should say no no no no well no i mean like obviously that word but like that's what the yeah yeah 100 for a while in like 2010s and early 2020 shows there would always be like a visual novel like quite a bit

So it doesn't surprise me at all. But yeah. So like the character, like I just thinking like, or a guy, Rue, uh, the tennis player character, like character, like, I don't, I don't know if that care, like if, if you've seen that show, you know who I'm talking about, like that, that kind of character existing is, is it like all of these tropes? I was just like, God, what, this is so such a visual novel from, from, from its age that it was annoying me that, and, and,

Like, again, the female characters, I think, I don't know if we want to talk about the characters more specifically now, kind of like a light transition here. I felt like they, again, at the start, I was so annoyed because it didn't really feel like Mayuri or Ruka or even Kurisu really had like any agency and that they were really more just filling their tropes. It felt like that to me at the very start.

which, which drove me nuts. And then also obviously the pervy friend was just filling the trope like that, that bothered me at the start. And then over time it became less and less of that, that I began to like them by the end. I, I, it's funny. I don't know if I really even liked my Yuri before she got shot. Like, like actually, cause I was just like, she's literally just there to say and do her thing, which I'm right.

Too true, baby, you know, but then they build on that with the unraveling and everything else that happens that I thought it made made it much more enjoyable. And it, I guess, wouldn't have happened without all that buildup of me disliking them. So good on you, Steinscape, for figuring that one out.

Having the balls to do that. But what do you guys think about the characters? Are there any specific ones that stood out to you as your favorites or your, you know, specific moments that you don't see you see too often in anime?

I can go first. Yeah, go Pete. That was a question, by the way. Well, I just got done talking. Mayuri slapping Okabe in episode 23 was awesome. I really loved her character the second time through. She is sort of... I always...

like assumed like Okabe was the glue for everybody in the lab because it's like, it's his spot. He makes the lab members, but I feel like it's Mayuri who's like really solidifying the, the connections to everybody, which like made her like, I have two goats. It's her, her and Okabe are my goats in the show. So like,

her as like like i loved her as a character it's like it is moe where it's like you know she refers to herself as her name type of thing like a little bit of like herschel walker s but like it's cute because she's a cute girl um so like i was fine with it um

ursula walker coon oh walker coon don't be don't be the georgia senator please um i but to be honest i thought this whole cast was just like really solid yes they're tropey but like i think it's just done well like i think cursey was like a top tier sundry like i i love her i like i like how she sort of confessed her feelings uh to akabi in that one scene where it's like

you know, the hippocampus can retain like the actions better than the word. So I'm going to confess to you by kissing you. I'm like, that's awesome. Like, I think her being like timid, but like the tsundere type, but then still like going forward with it was like a great moment for her. Mary slapping, um,

Daru is just like fine Okabe just like throughout the entire thing just like his resolve of going through so many different time loops of watching your best friend get murdered so many different times and still having the resolve to continue and pushing through was great and then like the one time that he I think it was like

One of the episodes where he's like, I'm going to keep doing it because like Mayuri means that so much to me that I'll never stop. And then the one time that he gives up Mayuri is the one who pushes him to go forward and slaps him and sort of like gets it back into him. So like sort of stuff like that was just like awesome. And just the whole cast, like, you know, like the supporting roles with like, I think Ruka played her role or his role. Sorry. Um, Ferris played her role. Um, Mocha played her role. Bron played his role. Um,

It was great. I just, I think this cast was just stacked and they did a fantastic job. Yeah, I agree. Honestly, I think basically every character except for maybe Daru had something going for them. And Daru feels like a character who has like a lot of potential in the overall story, just maybe not in this particular arc that is in the anime. Yeah.

Mayuri, I wholeheartedly agree with Pete that she is the glue that holds everything together. I think that her relationship with Rintaro is one that, whenever it gets elaborated upon, it really does show you why he is willing to go through all of this for her. Her relationship with him and their childhood and everything and them growing up together, I think that's something that, personally, I think could have been elaborated upon differently

a little bit more perhaps maybe a little bit earlier but what we got was still pretty good in that uh chris is great i really enjoyed her and rentaro's chemistry as well like they have sort of a almost a will they won't they thing going for most of the series that's pretty interesting like

Like I said, their chemistry is just immaculate, and I really like that she becomes his sort of rock in all the timelines. Somebody that each time he can kind of tell her, like, oh yeah, no, this is me, like, I'm from the future. And she's just like, yeah, okay, that makes sense. Like, she's somebody who is on his level in a lot of ways that the rest of the cast just isn't in terms of understanding what's going on, and I think that adds a lot of texture to their relationship. Yeah.

Mocha, I liked her quite a bit. I wish we would have gotten more interaction with her and the rest of the cast, but I think that her spiral in the other world line is really interesting to watch. And the voice acting of that whole scene where she's trying to get her phone back is fucking insane. So good. Some of the best voice acting in the series, which says a lot with how amazing the voice acting is in this show.

And like the other characters, like I'm not, I don't want to just go down the lines list and all of them and everything, but I liked Luca. Like I thought that for something that originally came out in 2009, the gender stuff was handled relatively well. Uh, it made me sad that like, you know, Luca had to give up that sort of gender thing for everything. Like feels extremely unfair to me, but that's like the running theme of the whole thing is that time slash fate is unfair. Um,

And Suzuha, honestly, just watching her do her thing, her badass time travel cable thing, she's literally fucking cable, basically, is awesome. And I love that they just reused that scene of her knocking all those guys out and taking the gun five times in a row because it was awesome every single time. And yeah, it is a relatively...

cast of characters, but I think that even though there are a lot of characters, it keeps it relatively tight with it, despite that. Like, each of the characters is well-developed, apart from Daru, mostly, and it feels like nobody is really a wasted character, apart from Daru. The daughter also...

of brawn also kind of just exists to be like yo she's a little girl her visual novel what she does to the visual novel is insane yeah he can only imagine that because like it felt weird that she's and then other than like oh she's like the mascot a mascot like the penguin and neon justice evangelion and like that trope or whatever not mascot literally but you know i mean yeah he's the cutesy yeah like kind of like uh serious break

kind of character. Uh, like that's the way I interpreted her existence. Although, although in that one episode where broad goes off the deep end, it was a pretty cool parallel showing her like crack. Yeah. I think right when his head, I won't spoil it, but her visual novel is the exact opposite. I would love to hear about that. Then at some point, maybe after we, uh, after we're done here, we can hang out in the discord. Okay. Thanks Pat. Uh,

Yeah, man. Other than that character, though, I felt all of them were fleshed out, though, pretty well by the end of the show. I thought that was really, really cool. Did you guys want more on CERN and stuff like that? I did. I was like they mentioned France and like, oh, sick, we're going to France like and then they didn't go to France and as all things that involve France.

Wait, does Miles want to talk about the cast first? Yeah. Oh, sorry, you asked it, so I forgot. No, I asked it. What am I saying? You did. So I'm going to do something crazy, and I think I'm going to defend Daru a little bit. I think that... We're going to have a dialogue. I definitely have my issues with the character. He is sort of just openly...

pretty horny in a way that would not be okay in a workplace or in many situations. However, I do think that there is something to say about the role that he plays in their group dynamic. We were talking before this, Jay, about like how people had to give stuff up or whatever, and he didn't. And then I pointed out is because he didn't ask for anything. He didn't want anything changed, but,

And I sort of think having a character like that is important to it. He's just, you know, he's there, he's interested in his job, but he's like, he's a relatively happy guy. He's okay with his life. And I think he sort of goes hand in hand with Mayuri a bit for a sort of grounding force for Okabe. Like Pat, you were talking about how Mayuri was there just to do and stuff. But like, I do think,

she is humanizing for Okabe. And that is pretty important. I agree that, but I think at the beginning it felt like she was that that's all she was. And then, yeah, I, you know, maybe at some point, but I, you know, Pete was mentioning it as well. You know, how, how much he really cared about her in the second watch through. And I haven't watched it twice, but I would guess I would feel a similar way because like the slap moment he talks about is, is her, uh,

taking that humanization sort of by force because, you know, Okabe sort of loses himself in some of these timelines as these things are happening, as he's jumping back time and time again. You know, he even talks to Chris about why, like how he doesn't care that when he sees Mayuri die anymore, you know? And so, yeah, yeah.

maintaining those relationships. Mayuri also gets, like, concerned because he's not spending as much time with her, because he doesn't want to hang out with her, because, you know, he's going to die, and how that, like, affects everything. And then there's always the question of, like, do, you know...

Do you spend so much time trying to stop someone from dying that you waste the time you had with them in the, in the meantime. Right. And so like, he's able to get there at the end, but it's only after he's able to let go of one of Chris or my URI. Um, and I think it's important to know that his initial decision was to save my URI. Um,

over a woman he was in love with that's how important my area was to him as someone who had been with him since his childhood you know who's like his best friend who believed in him and was with him even when he was that weird guy in a lab coat running around um you know so uh you know for you miles uh yeah i don't wear my lab coat don't tell anyone though um that's oh that's an osha violation well they don't exist anymore so don't worry not yet actually it's

That's a Doge violation. Yeah, a Doge violation, I'm sure. One thing I do want to mention, just to bring a little spice to this, because this is a show we're all sort of happy on. Okobe really bothered me at the beginning. Specifically with how he did time travel stuff and was just like, I sure hope this doesn't fuck up everything and just kept doing it.

And I don't know, like to me, I don't know. It really bothered me because as we see from basically any time anyone learns about time travel in this show, it leads to some absolute fucking disaster. Right. Like someone taking over the world, World War Three, whatever. And if you know about it, being the only person to like mess around with that is just crazy.

or messing around with it at all or doing anything with it in experiment. I don't know. I just found it very irresponsible. And I know that's sort of the point, but like insanely so. Yeah. And it's, and the, and the only, and the answer to this is like the billion lions versus like every one of every Pokemon argument where it's like,

you can always just say, but it's a billion lions, a billions, a lot of people, literally what you have, the only answer anyone ever has to give you in this argument is he's a mad scientist and it's so dumb and that, but it completely justifies why he does all the things he does, in my opinion. Well, he also, I will say, does it to help his friends. And there is like an admirable quality to that. Um, but I think as he learned, there were consequences to the, those sorts of things, you know, um,

But I guess I would like to get Pete and anyone else's perspective on this early Okabe. Like when you were first watching it, when you're rewatching it this time, because, you know, everyone says he's goaded and I'm not going to like disagree that he's a really cool character, but yeah,

I don't know if it's like my little scientist brain coming in and being like, experiment ethically, do things well, and buy the book, and you know, all that. Yeah, fair enough. You know exactly who he reminds me of where I like him a lot, and you are just like, whatever on him, is Lelouch. Yep, okay, fair enough. It's like...

Is he the best well-written character? No, like he's not. But you know what he is? Very entertaining. I think he plays the role of this is just how I view him as a Chenibio mad scientist who is happens to be a mad scientist. So like he's playing this role that in the context of the show, I think is portrayed very well.

And when you, I like characters that have like this goofy side, like this silly side, but at the heart of it, like he's a really good person. Like he saves Ruka and that, and that flashback where it's like, he accepts Ruka for like, it doesn't matter. Like he sees Ruka as a person and not like as a boy or a girl. And it's stuff like that, where it's like at the core of it,

At the core of it, he's a very good person. And like that, that's what I took away from it. I like having the individuality of a character like this, where you can be wild and frantic and stupid and silly, but really still have like the basis of your morals, because I kind of view myself as that person.

because like i like to say stupid shit i like to do stupid stuff i like to say stupid things to you guys but like at the end of it like i still want you to view me as like a good person like that's what's the most important and i think that's what they portray in okabe and it's why i like him a lot yeah so i i definitely can see that um

I guess my issue is like, I don't know, I'm always pretty risk averse as a human. And to me, it's like, I know that I like I do acknowledge what he was trying to do was for good. But like, I just would have never if I learned about time travel, I would never use it.

and never tell anyone. Okay, but if you were a 19-year-old loser who was trying to get attention... I was, and I wouldn't have, but I was a different kind of loser. I'll say, I think how the story portrays him, as this... I just wish that these guys were 25 instead of 19, but besides the fact, if you were going to write a 19-year-old character who was like,

holy shit i invented the time machine i'm going to tell everybody like obviously that's stupid and that it is stupid and so i think like it's written as that so like i i like how it's portrayed even though it's like yeah it's it's also it's like i wouldn't have done it but how they did it is i think the best way they could have done it so that's why i like him a lot as a character okay i get that for sure jay you had some bouncing off yeah um

I don't know. I didn't really find Okabe that offensive anyway, even in the beginning or anything like that. And I kind of wanted to...

Like, tie this into Daru a little bit, too. I didn't... Whatever you were defending him, I just wanted to state, to clarify, I don't think he's, like, that horrible or anything. Like, yeah, he's like a horny weeb, but, like, there's literally millions of them, and a lot of them probably listen to this show, and there's nothing really wrong with y'all. I don't know. I don't think anybody in this show who's part of a lab member is really, like, that bad of a person. They're just...

It reminds me a bit of Orb, in a way, where a lot of the protagonists in Orb, who are also scientists like this, are flawed people, but they're trying to do something that will change the entire world. This is obviously a bit more sci-fi than heliocentrism is as a concept, but...

It takes odd, crazy, out-of-left-field, outcast people to do something like that in these sorts of stories. That's the point of sci-fi, basically.

So I guess I just kind of had that in mind. I understand where you're coming from. I think that it's like a reasonable position to have. It just didn't super bother me all that much. And I think that his mad scientist demeanor is, I mean, that's just like a mask that he wears to protect himself from the world more or less. Like you literally, you literally see him at the end, uh,

Like, he's broken down quite a bit, and then he has the whole, like, oh, you know, I am Hyo-Nin-Kyoma, and then he reaches, and the world is in my palm, that sort of thing. Like, he literally, it's like...

It's like when we were talking about Space Dandy, right? And he had the whole episode with that girl and stuff. When you have a character that you're doing for people that care about you, it's important, and you're the leader of people, like Okabe or Dandy, it's important that you keep that image up. Because people are depending on you to look to you as a beacon for that sort of thing.

So I guess that's never why it really bothered me because I realized that it's not about like who that's not necessarily who he is as a character. That's just what he's trying to like represent for people.

Yeah. I don't mind the mad scientist persona. Cause it's always fun to do that a little bit where it's just like, I could do anything. And then you like tell people to party, how you can make meth or whatever. You know, I guess to me it was just sort of the, and I get it. He's young and he's trying to do the right thing and trying to help people. But yeah,

you know, I don't know. To me, it was just, I saw a lot of the initial things coming, like, Maori getting fucking blasted, and, you know, CERN coming in to steal everything, and how all of this would just sort of, because that's what happens in every time travel story, you know what I mean? It's just sort of like,

I don't know if I've seen a time travel story that's like, yeah, for sure. Fuck with this. It's a good idea. And so maybe it's just that anxiety that was getting to me. I don't know. But speaking of my area getting fucking shot in the head, let's move towards, I guess like the second half, a little more than the first half. And I guess it's going to be a little bit of a long episode, but it is a, it's a double length show and it's pretty complex. So yeah,

I apologize to anyone who wanted a shorter episode, but they can just pause. Yeah, true. They have their own form of time travel and it's pausing. And yeah, there you go. That's deep, man.

You drive the blunt down to me after you're done smoking it, man. For sure. And, okay, so to me, the big shift, and to everyone, the big shift in this show happens, I think it's episode 12 where Myra gets domed. So, okay.

Basically, CERN breaks in and is like, we know you have a fucking time machine. You're going to give it to us. These are the people we think actually worked on it. Let's take them alive and kill anyone else who knows about it. And so Mayuri dies because she's not like a science person. And so Okabe then uses the time leap machine, which was invented by Chris.

to send his consciousness back in time in the same world line in order to try to prevent this. This leads to many failed attempts to do so. So how did this event and the subsequent increasing of pace and stuff hit for you guys? I'm assuming we all loved it because I thought it was great, but hearing other people's opinions on it is good. So what do we got?

I guess I can go first, because I somehow... I'm pretty good at avoiding spoilers for things I want to avoid them for somehow. I don't really know how. So I didn't know that this was coming specifically. I knew a big twist was coming around the 7th to 12th mark, but I did not know, like you said, Mayuri got capped hard. Like, I...

I really thought that that was a cool way to just completely change the tone of the show. And I guess, you know, more about visual novels. They're much more your thing. And time travel shows are much more your thing as well. But like, I didn't really see that coming. I expected their deaths to be more like tragic than I guess in this case, it's like a calculated, you know,

assassination essentially i i guess i guess i expected their their and of course a lot of myri's deaths other than the ones involving cern are tragic or whatever but um i think that that was i i thought it was really cool it caught me completely off guard i really didn't see that one coming at all uh i don't know how everyone else felt

Yeah, a lot of times when... Did you see it coming on your second watch through? On the second watch through, I think I caught on a little bit, but it's like, you know, would you play... I'm going to put this in quotation. When you're playing God or whatever, like, there's consequences to your actions. So...

I like the idea that like this kind of started as like an accident and then like, Oh, wouldn't it be cool if we did this? And like, okay, now it's my turn. Okay. Now it's my turn. And now it's my turn. It's like, it's like building up. It's like, okay, how is it going to fall apart? And like, I remember my first time watching it. I was like, okay, like,

Some catastrophe is going to happen because of what they're doing with it. Like, they're changing too much. The timeline is unstable type of thing. And, like, time is going to fall apart. And then it's like, oh, no, we're just going to start killing people and start World War III. It's like, oh, my, what? Like, I was super coughed guard the first time. And I kind of just, like, kind of forgot how...

Just, like, the emotion that I felt after episode 12, just because of how much I liked Mayuri the second time through, where I was just like, fuck. Like, that's my girl. Like, and she just got blicky. And I was like, damn it. Like, it definitely... I feel like it hit harder in a different way the second time through. So, I think it's great. Like, tone-shifting story. I thought it was, like, one of the best. And it, like, logically made sense. So, big...

big it was very sudden right like it was just like they're having a party and then bam it's it's sudden but like it like it makes sense like it's not like it's like i felt like i was i was out on a walk and then boom truck cooed or something like that it's like no like this all logically made sense and built up to this moment like there was evidence in the previous episodes of like them talking about cern and um you know cursu being a 4chan redditor or whatever and like posting stuff there and

like there were hints of like cern catching on to them from like episode like three and so like the build-up was great knowing like these little clues are sprinkled in the in the story where it's like they're they're they're they're fucking up with the timeline with the dmail but they're also fucking up based off of like how they're um like showcasing this time machine where it's like

john titer was such a revolution in like this 4chan space and it was like a i'm gonna put this in quotations a made-up story and now they're sort of doing the same thing that john titer did it's going to attract attention so it's like i i like how that was sprinkled in the story that led up to um the boom headshot moment

Yeah, I thought that that scene was really well done. Episode 12, I think I commented whenever I watched it. I'm pretty sure in the Anime Club channel I just commented, well, damn, alright, episode 12. Because it was just like, holy shit. Every, like...

You know, that escalated quickly. Like, really fucking quickly. And we kind of spent episode 13 going through more or less the same situation, I'm pretty sure. Or maybe episode 12 just felt like two episodes for me. I'm not quite sure, because I kind of watched this on an extended period of time. But...

Yeah. Like I said earlier, I think that it was well done. The Sakuga in it was pretty decent in terms of her knocking out all the goons and everything. I wish we would have known a little bit more about the rounders, like these goons that work for CERN or whatever. We learn about their leader or whatever, FB, later on. But from what I understand, they don't...

Compared to the visual novels, at least, they don't really super go into, like, the Rounders as an organization or whatever, and how they are in relation to CERN. Or, in general, like...

It seems like the whole... You guys mentioned wanting to know more about CERN. That seems like something that is elaborated a lot more in the novels and was probably just kind of cut because of timing. I can give a quick 15-second synopsis of the Rounders. They're all essentially homeless or broken kids from broken families that CERN recruits as thugs, essentially. They give them...

shelter and food and money and stuff like that but in so they never have to go back to that life and then instead and then in trade they work for sir basically was that got it they do the wet work base yeah 100 yeah yeah okay got it yeah interesting but yeah i liked that episode quite a bit and that was like i mentioned in my opening thoughts that was like the real turning point for me which that's probably too slow for very many people i assume but i

I don't know. I liked it. I liked the slow burn and I liked the turnaround and everything after that. The market shift was really cool. Oh, yeah. One thing I wanted to say, one thing I wanted to bring up about the you started to mention it there, like the voice acting throughout the show was phenomenal. And I actually watched part of this, the first part of this subbed and then like five or six episodes dubbed as well.

And the dub was awesome. The dub cast was stacked too. Okabe is sick in the dub too. Like really good. Real good. Yeah. He did a real, I was looking at some of the other characters he's done and not a lot from shows I've seen, but like iconic characters and it, the whole cast was really stacked. They, they, they balled out for this in, in the dub. And I, I guess that makes sense given how successful it was subbed and in general, like the IP that itself was, but yeah,

Yeah, it was stacked. Uh, and I think that they did, uh, was it UJ earlier who mentioned the, um, the scene with the cell phone, uh, or, uh, with, uh, Mocha like in her room. Yeah. Like banging on that, the, the, that was incredible. I watched that sub. So I don't know if the dub was, I assume the dub was pretty good for that too, though. Like there was so, so many moments that I was just like getting so sucked in by the voice acting that I

A quick thing for the dub. Okabe and Chris talk to each other about humans being inherently temporal in the sub. And in the dub, the term that they use is time-haunted. And so I was listening to a YouTube video today by Max Durant about...

uh, Heider, Heid, the philosopher they mentioned in this and his like philosophy and how it related to times gate. And his thing was like, basically all humans are haunted by the anxiety of times, relentless, like march forward and stuff. And that, you know, we, we get through that by being with other people and caring about people while we're here.

And so that was just sort of an instance where the dub might've had like a little bit of a better translation, um, than that for that specific scene. Um, but what I've caught from the dub is good. I, I mean, watch both watch the show 40 times. Um, you know, I think it's pretty good. Um, so as Okabe goes forward, uh, and this is actually a part that I wanted to know what everyone thought about too. Um,

The way that they try to get back to the original timeline is by undoing the D-mails that were sent. This is a little hard because people sending them no longer exist in this timeline. Because you would have no reason to send a D-mail if that thing that you wanted changed already happened. So you don't. And that's why the world lines are shifting. So he has to...

Figure out why people would have sent them and then convince them to send another one to themselves, telling them to ignore the first one. We then go through the side characters again and undo the D-mails. What did everyone like about this part? It was another, it was like, so we have action for a while trying to get My Area to Live, learning about how it works. And then we sort of go down again before another crescendo at the end.

But do we like this part? Do we think it was interesting? I thought there were some pretty, like, I really liked the Ferris scene, like with her and her thinking about her dad and everything. Cause that is just a whole, you know, like what a situation to be in, you know, but I want to know what everyone thought here about that.

I loved it. I think the best part of it was sort of the, you mentioned it earlier, sort of like the deja vu with like their, their memories from the past sort of like hinting that they remember. So like, I think that was a big inclusion to sort of convincing people to do that. And just sort of the correcting the wrongs. I wouldn't say wrongs like necessarily, but fixing the, the, the actions that got you to where you were and,

is is a good way to just solve the mystery itself so um i thought it was handled really well i thought there was like i loved the ferris obviously like that that scene that part was awesome to me i loved it i think it's a lot of times where i don't know but you guys if you had like fantasies of like if you could go back in time to like a certain point what would you do in those moments and like what would you change

And I think it's a fun, like, what if for a bunch of different people based off of their experiences. So big fan of like how it was resolved. But a lot of times it was more along the lines of I really enjoyed the story itself that they were telling with each individual character. I really liked that part more. And it made the earlier episodes that felt like dating sim episodes more

not as bad to me not bad but you know i mean like not as useless and drag like again like so it's another example of something that earlier on when i was first watching it i was like why are we getting this whole ruka episode and this whole uh ferris episode like i don't care about them really like they don't feel important to what's happening here blah blah blah blah blah and then

When they go to undo all of that and the favors that he did for them or the text, whatever, emails, whatever, then they all suddenly started to make more sense. And it was more like, OK, the payoff is there. I don't think there was a single bad one like episode wise. Sorry. Like there was just no bad episode at all with in that mini arc, like before the crescendo. I thought it was really cool how the world just kept getting undone, like undone.

Like an onion or an ogre. It has many layers, and each layer getting peeled off one at a time is pretty cool. I should have said that. I've made that joke 400 times on the podcast.

We all love Shrek. This is a Shrek-loving podcast. Yeah, well, you know, we've been doing this so long, we can finish each other's... It's a great anime. Onions. Yeah, okay. Wow. Way to go, Jerry. Ogres. Yeah. All boulders would have been a good one. Okay, um... Jay, any thoughts on this, or summed up well enough? Yeah, summed up well enough for me. I pretty much agree with everything you guys said.

He doesn't fully agree, so there's something. So what is that? Let's delve into that. So the second plot twist slash event or whatever is Okabe has a big decision to make. Him and Chris grow attached to each other, sort of figure out that they love each other and everything, but he also figures out that in order to get rid of this CERN, Take Me Over the World timeline, she's probably going to have to die.

Um, she ends up, you know, I don't know. She's okay with it at the end though. Upset, I think understandably. So he goes through that and the big plot twist after this gets reset is that a character we haven't really talked about, uh, Suzuha, um, who is actually John Titor and a time traveler from the future shows up again and is like, I have been sent back to stop world war three from happening. Um,

So it's like all of a sudden a different, you know, they didn't, it's just a different catastrophe, right? They didn't avoid a catastrophe. The catastrophe just changed. And, you know, so then they go through dealing with that again. And there's a really cool scene where Okabe like gives up, but then gets like a message from himself from the future about how like,

Like, yeah, I did give up, but now I'm not going to. Like, I need you to go and do this. Like, this is possible. He gives himself a pretty good pep talk. And that leads to him trying to find the Stein's gate line. Which, from all I can find, is just something that he thinks sounds cool. Which does fit his character. He says it in the show. Yeah, true. I didn't know if it was a thing where it sounds cool. I don't know. You know why Dave did that? Because I wanted to. Yeah.

you know, and he's able to make events happen in such a way that we suspect, you know, the future will be brighter in this world line than in the other world lines. What do we like about like this last, you know, this climax of the show following action sort of scenes. Cause I thought it was really good. Like the, I thought that the climax of the show was really interesting. Like the,

them narrowing down what exactly they needed to change in order like the small minute details they need to change in order to drive the divergence of the world line over one um i thought i like when it comes to time traveling and trying to solve like paradoxes and stuff i always think that that's the most interesting part is like

Especially whenever it's, like, repeat time traveling, whenever you're trying to get, like, the perfect sort of speedrun tech down. Like, that's one of the things that I really enjoyed about, like, Link Click was them finding creative ways to affect things, but not too much. Like, them trying to keep the timeline stable, that sort of thing. I think that that's just, like...

That's sort of the peak of time travel stories for me personally, and I think that this did it masterfully. Watching Rintaro, as well as the rest of them, sort of settle into their roles that they have in terms of the leaps and everything was really fun as well. I think that everybody did their part, which is sort of rare to see in these sort of things. And I think that the hooks for the potential...

uh sequel interquel prequel that is zero that sort of thing that are presented in the end are also really compelling whether it's you know uh daru and his daughter seeing how that sort of thing happens as well as like the other lab members that don't seem to be accounted for on the coin since there's like two random asterisks that are on the coin or something like that yeah

Yeah. Um, as well as like, we don't really know if they stopped everything, you know, like for real, for real. Like it's one of those things where like whenever time travel was involved, like,

Shit can happen. Like, somebody can find out a way to change it or whatever. It doesn't have to be time travel. There's all sorts of scientific bullshit that can happen. So I think that, like, the climax of the show was done really well. I enjoyed seeing him figure out how to rescue both Mayuri and Chris, as well as, like...

The hooks for the sequel have me really interested. I want to go watch Steins Gate Zero, and I'm actually kind of interested in some of the novels and other stuff in the overarching series as well. I think that this was a great introduction to it. So one of my favorite things about this is in the first part of Suzuha going back in time, they bring her bike and the time machine breaks and she fails her mission.

And that time machine was built by Okabe. The second time machine that she uses is built by her dad. And so when Okabe goes into it, it's like, oh, it can fit two people. She goes, of course it could fit two people. My dad built it or something like that. It's kind of like a shot at Okabe and then praising her dad at the same time. Like I thought that little thing in the story was super fun because like she wanted so bad things.

To like, I mean, they do in the first timeline, but the second timeline, she also wants to like, like embrace her dad. But like Daru is like, huh? What? And then this type of thing where it's just like, well, we're not going to fail this time machine around because my dad built it and not you. So I really like that.

There's something interesting too about when she fails and how time travel works in this where I think she might have been destined to fail because it wasn't

The way to change things is by going sideways. It's not going forward and backwards because they have that scene where they talk about how the grandfather paradox doesn't matter and that you can meet yourself and like, you can do whatever, because that will have always happened. You have to create like a new, was it alpha timeline or whatever? Like they needed to diverge from the current line that they're on into a new one. Yeah. It's not, and this is important. It's not a new one.

It's a different one. No, it is a new one because the different one becomes the main timeline. Yeah, so all timelines exist all the time forever. No, all timelines are possibilities of the current timeline that they're on. Sorry, I mean exist in a potentiality kind of way. Yes, they all potentially exist, but it's not like it's where it's... Because this is where I got confused the first time, where it's like

we have multiple parallels where we're like, if I go right, then there's going to be a new timeline created where I go left or something like that. Like that's not the case in this timeline. If I go right, that is the new main timeline all the time. And so, yeah. Yeah.

so like the other ones don't matter yes but if something happens yes you could switch to a world line where you went right instead of yes i i guess it's like when you do switch lines that is the new main timeline yes there is only one active world line at a time what i meant was that they're not so creating yeah they're not creating a new one yes they're

turning the lights on on a new one and turning the lights off on an old one yes correct yes yeah okay it's very um there's um yeah it's like yeah i don't i don't have time to get into like the quantum mechanic different like i think it's dull though yeah i i would love to as a point like i i can't decide if this is like a many worlds interpretation or a copenhagen determine like

interpretation of quantum mechanics or something else entirely because it sort of mixes a lot of these views of how quantum stuff works. I think it's like a many-world or whatever it's called, right? Yeah, but the thing with many-worlds is many-worlds posits that

They split, they branch where this all just exists. There's no, the arrow of time doesn't go forward. The future exists. Yes. In a static form. Correct. You know, like, yeah, it's not like the future, like the future has happened in like many worlds, everything branches from like when things happen or whatever. And they're also simultaneously happening. Correct. I believe in at least the original.

And that's not the case in this one, which makes me think it's more Copenhagen. But like, I don't, I don't know, because I don't know anything about quantum mechanics. I am stupid and it's a very hard subject. Same. I just tried to sound smart. Yeah. I just, I just say things. Steins Gate. But yeah, I don't, I really, God, there's more interesting stuff with like,

I would love to, this is what I think is like so great about this is that I think, you know, we've already gone pretty long on this episode. So we should probably wrap up soon, unfortunately. But I also think I could talk about this in like maybe several more hours, even just some like top, like I would, but like the bias Okabe has for his original timeline and how that,

Like, is that fair? Does that make like, because like it's set up in such a way that he thinks and convinces other people that one timeline is more normal and natural than the other ones. And I don't think that's true. I could argue that it is. Yeah. Okay. See, this is what I would love to discuss because I think that they are all equally true and it just,

matters which one you know but unfortunately i don't think we have the time to do that whole conversation um but you know to pull a pat if you want to talk about the show you know come join our discord uh links in the description below um dick plug that yeah so is my venmo and um

Because I just really, I feel like there's a lot of really interesting questions that Steins Gate asks about, like, does fate exist? I can see people say, I listened to a three-hour video today on some guy saying yes, and I still think no. I don't think it's saying that. So it's just, there's a lot of interesting things to talk about. So anyone else's thoughts about the ending, the finale, what we thought about that, and then let's wrap up.

I kind of had all my questions answered earlier. So I, that I feel like I got a lot of what I wanted to say about the finale out already. Like it was really well set up and well executed. It wasn't what I expected it to be. And it made a lot of the buildup to the show or like throughout the show worth it. You know, like it really did feel like it all came together and any of those questions I had, none of them were like,

They were just, I missed them, which I really appreciate too, or maybe not miss them, but misinterpreted whatever you'd want to say. So I, I really appreciate that in a show. This is the kind of show I like where it actually has a finite ending or, or at least gives you the resources to figure out what the finite ending is. And I think that that goes very, it's very uncommon in media in general, but especially anime. So I really, really appreciated that.

Uh, I, I did love like the Disney ending, like the happily ever after type of thing. However, I, I think I forgot who brought it up, but like the idea that a new catastrophe could be a, like to come up wink, wink, guess what happens in the visual novel? Not everything is solved because they saved the day type of thing. Like, uh, that's great. Also with like watching this, uh,

I think the beauty of, like, episode 24, where it's like, he has one final chance to, like, save the day. And, like, he does. But, like, what Steins Gate Zero represents is, like, what if he didn't? What if that's the final chance that he didn't? So, like, Zero is essentially...

he gets the papers burned but Kurosu still dies so like I love the idea that there is another route if I want to go watch what happens if we did stop World War 3 but I'm out of chances and now I need and my girlfriend's dead like I love that that's there for me and so that's like another thing about Steins Gate that I love that it set up that if I want more content if I want more anime content it's there for me to go get

Yeah. I, I, there's a lot out there. I might, even though I know what happens, might read the visual novel just for the more depth and stuff. So I forget the name of the company that does these, but they also do like chaos head and chaos child and everything. And they are so dense. There are, it's nuts. Yeah. There are like appendices upon appendices, like describing everything and all the factions and what's happening and terms and everything. It's like, if you love to be a nerd, uh,

and read, I'd suggest. Shout out to Sharp, by the way, who I think has read all of them. So like we have a resource if we want to reach out, if we have any questions. Right. Sharp is who I aspire to be, except for his love of Violet Evergarden. I'll never get off that hill. But his ability to consume media is, is absolutely. I'm just kidding. Sharp. I love you. Thank you for listening.

But yeah, I guess let's wrap this up. The show was really, really good. We've talked pretty extensively about everything. I enjoyed all of it. There were parts that frustrated me, but I get why it would happen. And God, I don't know. The show is a little hard for me to...

to score because there were times where I was frustrated, but that's not necessarily bad, but I also just finished it. So I haven't fully been able to like digest separating that, the like negative feelings I associate with stuff versus like,

like is that intended is that good you know it's like that always takes me a while like when i first finished end of evangelion i was like this is a two and then i thought about it and like consumed it and everything and i was like i actually just said it's two because i fucking made me hate humans but that was the point you know it was supposed to make me feel gross and so now it's actually really good now it's a tad actually what yeah it was who knows um you know before this discussion before doing the research that i did to make sure that i didn't look like a

while trying to describe how the time travel worked and everything. I had this at like an 8. I think I'm going to give it a 9 now. This could easily bump up to a 10. I just need more time to digest it, and this is silly, I'd just rather bump it up if I like it more than...

then give it the 10 and then bring it to, I don't know. But I don't know. I had a great time with it. It definitely is one of my favorite things. And it's one of those things that, you know what? I'm just going to give it a 10. I thought, now that I'm thinking about it, like it has flaws and everything, but I'm going to think about this like literally forever. I'm going to have a lot of fun discussing with it, discussing it. It also does stuff where I don't necessarily think I would agree with the thesis that it's giving in certain cases, but I also think it does like a good job presenting those. And as someone who's like,

It dies on the first hill that ever happens. That's like pretty rare for me. I'm like willing to fight things like immediately. It was like, I'll find the first hill and just die. But this, I'm like willing to listen to it and like consider its points and everything. And I think it isn't very hard line. I think it, it just was like, this is, this is my idea. So yeah,

It has flaws, but I don't think I really care about them. And I just sort of vote on vibes or like give my score on like how much did I like things, right? Like I try to do that more than being like super analytical about it, which does seem a little anti-Miles, but it's important to have fun when you're watching shows, even though I don't, even though I don't like Pete, I gave quince and eight.

You want to give it a 10, though. It deserves one. You know you're in control of that, right? Nope. It's a conversion point in our attractor field that I give it an 8. But yeah, I'm going to give this a 10. Fuck it, who cares? None of this matters. It's a made-up score for how much we like an anime. Those are my thoughts. What about you, Jay? Honestly, I

came out of this discussion a little bit higher on Steins Gate I think that I'm going to keep this pretty short because we're running a bit tight on time voice acting was A1 the cast of characters was phenomenal but I wish that I had seen a couple more of the characters that weren't quite as involved with the overall plot like Luca and Daru I think would have been awesome to see more of them

Music was pretty good. The OP was a fucking bop. I literally never skipped it. Every time they would go to that one scene where she hits that shit and it's like Chris just staring up like that, I would literally go like this in my fucking chair every single time, just dance around because it's like, damn, this goes crazy. I can already imagine people at a convention just going absolutely ham on a rhythm game to this song, just like the most intense shit you've ever seen.

I thought that, like, despite the slow pacing at the beginning, I really enjoyed it. The slow pacing was not a bad thing for me. I enjoyed the slow burn. It was really cool. I love this show a lot, honestly, thinking about it. Like, it...

I was a little down on it at first, but then thinking about how much I looked into stuff after this and wanted to learn more about it, it's like, oh shit, well, fuck. Maybe I'm not giving it as much credit. It's making me think about this so much, actually. I gave this a 9.7 on any list, but I'm going to go ahead and round it up to a 10 for the sake of Watch Club.

Nice, another 10. All right, Pete, what about you? So how Miles is thinking is the same way I was. I had the show originally at a 9, and then we would talk about Steins Gate, and all I would talk about is how much I liked it. And I was like, no, I actually think this show is great. It's my favorite voice acting cast overall. It's my favorite voice actor performance overall ever with Okabe. Loved my rewatch. Easy 10. The absolute easy 10. We're getting there.

And like Jay mentioned, I think it's a top five OP of all time. Can I be honest? I was kind of like, eh. You cannot be honest. You're lying to yourself. No, no. She was hitting that shit. Yeah, I mean, it's cool and it's iconic. I was just kind of like, eh, you know, after the beginning. No, I don't know. Well, fair enough. She does. She does hit it, though. She does. I'll give her that. Well made. I just wasn't vibing with it, I guess.

Uh, yeah, I, I think I'm in the same boat where after talking about it, I feel better about it and I want to keep talking about it. And I really, really do like this show and not to bring up the same comparison I made earlier, but like, it feels like the same vein as cowboy bebop to me, uh, where I think I personally connected to be bought more, uh, because of the interests that I have in my life. But, uh,

I'm going to think about this show just as much, and I think I like the show just as much while still recognizing some of the things I really didn't like that still stood out to me. The tropes. I cannot get over how much or how annoyed I was watching this show for the first five episodes to seven episodes, and it just sticks in my brain. Some of it was for a reason.

But other parts of it did not feel like they needed to be there. But I really, really do like the show a lot. I loved it. So I have this at a 9 out of 10. I'm going to stick to my guns from before we started and give it a 9 out of 10, which brings us up to, I believe, a 39 out of 40. How much do we think Cat would have given this a 10? 9 or 10, I would guess. He would have been pretty high on it, I'm pretty sure.

Yeah. Yeah. Either way, it's our I mean, unless he gives it an eight. Right. It would be our highest. It would be our highest rated show. So which makes sense given it's a number. We end up with a nine point seven five out of 10.

Even if I went with the 9, it would have been tied. Yep, it takes the lead now this time instead over a bunch of movies. It's pretty much impossible to beat. I have one show that I think that we can all unanimously give a 10 when it's all said and done. The last season of Linklick. Maybe, yeah. Yeah, actually, that would make sense, I think. They'll need to answer that question about the hospital I had or I'm giving a 10.

That's right. That's some lore right there. But yeah, so the Mal average was a 9.07. So we're almost three quarters of a point higher than Mal on the show. And that must just be haters. That must just be full Mal alchemists.

and fry run stands right surely i mean don't forget the gintama fan oh and the gintama fans too you're right you're right attack on titan they do that stuff they do that too that's gotta be it right basket fam just chilling though yeah they they're not on mal um they're not trying to bring it was number one no it was i know i know i know

But yeah, that's our review of Steins Gate, I suppose. Miles, you have what won our voting. I do. We had a really, really close vote this time. We were in the position when the last vote came in that any show but one could have taken the lead and won.

Which is pretty cool In third place we have High School of the Dead We had a second place tie Between Dumbbell And Boy and the Beast And then We're going to be watching The first Pokemon movie Wow The nostalgia must have just hit for people

But yeah, so tune in for that. We'll be watching that. I think it'll be fun. You know, I don't know. It's our first time watching something like Men for Kids, and it's going to be something that will be pretty nostalgic, I think, for everyone involved. First time I ever cried at a movie. I still remember to this day in the theater crying.

I have a great story from this movie too. I had a baby. Save it for the pod. Fair enough. We're probably going to do a bunch of childhood shit for that pod episode. That's a good point. That's a good point. Yeah, fair enough. All right, I will save it. You'll have to wonder what that baby sick thing is. Yeah, that's a good hook. Good hook. And so, yeah, there we are.

and i guess we're gonna nominate you guys for next week and pete has requested to go yes just in case just in case because i hinted at it like five minutes ago but that the show is done we can continue our watch club journey i want to nominate the new link click arc the the breed and arc okay link look season three breed in our basically it's like season 2.5

Is it over? Yeah, it's over. It's only six episodes and it's technically a prequel, but like not really. Oh, wow. Time travel prequel. Well, it's like my brain's so tired though. Time. I guess I'll have six episodes. It's six. Okay. Yeah. But time travel, man. Oh, all right. Sweet. Well, there's one nomination. Miles. Brighten. Brighten. Is that what we're calling it? Brighten. Breeden.

I just want to make sure I'm doing the right thing. Let's go. I never understood that. I almost did it too. Don't worry. I never even got, I never understood why. And I don't need to worry about it anymore. Went all four years with never figuring that one out.

Figuring what out? Let's go, Brandon. I just don't know why that was the thing. I didn't get it. It's stuck? Oh, yeah. I'll tell you the story after the podcast. It's so dumb. Yeah, I don't know. It's dumb. Whatever it is. So I... We were just really positive. And I want to try to, like, awaken something in Pete, right? So, like, Pete... I need Pete to really turn on his hater. Because I just feel like you haven't brought it in a while. Are you not making lunch? Okay.

I didn't know, but good guess. I'm going to nominate Kokoro Connect. Bro, fuck that show. Anybody who likes that show is wrong. That show sucks ass. Okay, everyone, that's your pitch right there. You see that? Yeah. That's it. That's what we want. There are very few. There are shows where I get why people like it. I don't get why people like Kokoro Connect. The show is terrible.

Yeah So that's what we're doing I like the pitch Yeah It was a very effective pitch There's like five shows that I get upset about And that's one of them Yeah I want that Hey you have an opportunity to nominate another one Of the shows that Pete gets very upset White Album 2 We also mentioned it in this episode already Yeah we did

No, I'm okay. I'm gonna nominate Citrus. Okay. Fuck yeah. You wanna get Pat triggered? You're coming for me? You want me to actually do research for an episode this time and prove how bad this goddamn dog shit show is? Oh god, I can't even imagine. I'll buy her a bike. Get out of here, Veronica. Okay, um, and Pat, what are we doing?

well high school the dead just got its eighth legacy point something like that yeah yeah we gave it i i yeah i pretty much guaranteed to win this time that's what we keep thinking but then we nominate the fucking pokemon movie and that somehow just takes a ton of votes away from it i don't understand what connection is there knowing voter analytics high school of the dead has like weird things where there was a certain group but not like a defined group there were people that were

that were uniformly voting for it consistently. Yes. And then they stopped, but not for any particular reason. I don't know if they just hated everything we were nominating for a bit or whatever. It's, I don't know. It's bizarre. I do. I do think dumbbells also took away some votes because of like just the nature of the fact that, Oh, that show also is, I want to give a shout out to cat who, who knocked his own show out of first,

which which makes sense though because he can't vote for it he can't vote for like there's there there is that aspect to it so um but yeah i'm gonna go high school the dead again uh just to try and get us uh over that line i think it'd be really fun to watch please give it a shot already had it down perfect yeah thank you i'm sure it's gonna be third place when you send me your votes but that's okay uh all right but yeah that's uh

That's it from us at Watch Club. Pete, why don't you take it away? Yes, if you have made this far and you want to support us, the best way to do so is give me a bunch of money. Otherwise, you can like, comment, subscribe, leave a review on whatever platform you're watching or listening to us on. Next week is our mid-season check-in on the first season of 2025. We got some bangers. We're going to be talking some worms. Can't wait to talk about some worms, though. Big fan of that. Otherwise, if you are here for Watch Club, we will see you in two weeks for the first Pokemon movie.

Thanks and we'll see you next time. Peace. Bye-bye. Bye-bye.