AAA 774: Anime's Biggest Letdowns (feat. Pancake)
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Get ready! You are back to the Anime Addicts Anonymous Podcast! Make your anime addiction worse at AAApodcast.com! And now, here are your Anime Addicts! Hello, and welcome to episode 774 of the Anime Addicts Anonymous Podcast. My name is Mason, and I'm pleased to present to you today the Goon Squad, who I believe... Let me look at my notes. We are...

the most zesty bad bitches around. We have the king of sass, Andrew, porting in looking mighty fine. If we listen...

If we listen to each other's heart, we'll find we're never too far apart. And maybe love is the reason why, for the first time ever, we're seeing it eye to eye. I feel like I could have done something with anime in there, but it was really last second. And that's a throwback to Hobby Addicts. Yeah, listen to our Hobby Addicts. That was a good one. Because we also have the queen supreme of one-liners, Pancake. What up? I'm going to try not to curse so we don't get taken down today. So we'll see how long that goes. I did say...

bitches two seconds in to purposely pave the way for you. I laid my good boy status on the line. I just flopped on the ground like a jester for you to walk triumphantly into the land of F-bombs. What the fuck?

It's only YouTube. What's the worst they can do? It's only YouTube unless once again my computer, which when we tried to stream every Sunday live at 5pm Eastern on YouTube or Twitch, you know, either one, it's on both. Last week my computer just decided to

just commit seppuku and die multiple times throughout the stream so i apologize uh it didn't exist last time hopefully this week it goes better but uh welcome all who are watching live and uh welcome everyone to the podcast this is going to be a fun one we got a good crew here uh we got to do a little bit of housekeeping we recommend that you check out our website aapodcast.com there you can support us write us mailbags see what we're going to review in the future and all sorts of stuff including join the discord follow us on the socials and it's

It's just a good place, a good starting home base to do everything you need. And we love you. We love you all. What are we doing this episode? Well, we are doing a main topic of the biggest anime letdowns, all the times that anime just...

Made us feel disappointed beyond belief, but we're still here. We still love it. As well as a review of the show Medalist from winter 2025. So pretty recent. We're in the present now, people, and I'm excited. I think this is going to be a good episode. Any other thoughts before we get this bad boy rolling? Let's just do it. Let's go. Let's just do the thing. It's time for big news of the week.

The first big news that I want to talk about is just one of many sequel announcements that are getting me hyped to come, and that is THE Ghost in the Shell. Not Ghost in the Shell, THE Ghost in the Shell. We're studio-witting it with Sai and Saru, one of my favorite studios, who announced this remake, not really a remake, a new project a while ago, but we are now getting the first visual, trailer, and some of the main staff announcements for this project. And, uh...

While the past few installments of Ghost in the Shell probably could fit into our main topic discussion, I'm...

Honestly very excited about this. Yes, unfortunately We do not have the iconic voice of Atsuko Tanaka as the major but there's a lot of good announcements here for one The director will be Moko-chan who worked as a key animator and storyboard for Dandedon, the Heike story and Tatami Time Machine Blues So a bunch of good-looking shows that I think we all enjoyed to look out to that's their directorial debut

as well as the script by To and Joe, who did Godzilla Singular Point, which is a little bit much, but it's got good science in it. And just some other key staff members that I think will make this promising. But honestly, the biggest reason why I think this will be a success...

is because of the image I'm now showing on the Twitch, which is "Floofy Hair Major is Back." And I think we can all agree that floofy hair, that big 80s poof, is what peak anime is all about. I guess it's 90s poof, but still. I'm excited for this. I don't know if I should be, but it's a great studio, some good people working on it, and a great IP. So here's the new Ghost in the Shell being actually decent. We'll see if it is. Any thoughts, opinions on this? Are we excited?

I am optimistic, cautiously. I think it'll be great. I like the return of the floofy hair, as mentioned. It'll be a good time, hopefully.

Yeah, I saw Sai and Saru and I'm like, oh no. And then I saw this image and I'm like, oh, they're actually going to draw it normal. So I'm actually kind of, you know, here for this, you know, some pretty decent animation. But what really comes down to Ghost in the Shell, what's really the most interesting parts about Ghost in the Shell are it's like philosophical discussions that it does bring up about like the self, the being, right?

personhood, uh, and just a whole bunch of other things. When I look back at Ghost in the Shell standalone complex, my favorite episodes are the standalone episodes where it just took like, uh, uh,

a little part of a theory, a philosophical theory or philosophy, and just sort of like explored it for an episode. And I'm hoping that's what a lot of this show is. The Laughing Man stuff, I didn't really care for. It was all the other, like, and I think that's when Ghost in the Shell is actually...

at its most interesting is when it's discussing this whole transhumanism and all this stuff. Like what, where do you stop being a human anymore? And, or even just like, like sentience and all that kind of, that's, that's the good stuff in Ghost in the Shell. And that's, if they have that with some pretty solid animation and the major doesn't look like she's 12 years old, I'm actually going to be here for it. Oh, absolutely. I'll glaze the shit out of that. Yeah. Agreed.

2026, though, did we say that? No, we've got a little while to go. Yeah, I think it might probably be spring, maybe, 2026 is my assumption. But we're definitely going to get some more visual stuff before the end of the year. This feels really early for an announcement trailer, though, don't you think? Yeah, I mean, the...

the announcement trailer was visually not too much to go on. Just a lot of screen grabs of like places in the manga recreated and probably the anime atmosphere. So yeah,

It wasn't a ton, but we get this sometimes. I mean, we get anime announcements all the time years in advance. I mean, I don't want to spoil this next announcement, but who knows when this next one's coming out. I'll just slide on in there. We have another anime announcement, and that would be part seven of JoJo's Steel Ball Run. Super exciting. We got a PV. I believe it was yesterday is when it dropped yesterday.

And Steel Ball Run is exciting because this is kind of where JoJo goes from a shounen to more of shounen seinen. So that's exciting. And this JoJo takes place in another universe. Oh, are you showing us a manga behind you? I am. For the live streamers only. I got some JoJo on my desk. So this is when JoJo becomes multiversal, right? Yes, this is the...

This is the one with the horsies and they are racing the horsies to find... Is this the female JoJo or is that the last one? No, that was the last one. This is Horsies Across America. Yep, with the evil president. This is Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap. Yeah, it's Western. This is Filthy Axe at a Reasonable Price. I'm not into that, but $20 is $20. So this is super exciting. Hopefully... I didn't see that it said Netflix on it.

But let's hope that it's not a Netflix special again. Let's hope it doesn't... I mean, just the release schedule of a batch release is not what JoJo is about. JoJo's Bizarre Adventure is not...

a good series. JoJo's Bizarre Adventure is running around in a circle in a Taco Bell parking lot. It's stupid. But when you get 40 of your best friends at 2am doing it, it's the funniest thing ever. And JoJo's Bizarre Adventure needs everyone to be on the same episode at the same time, hyped for no reason for one weekly episode to just go nuts with it and make memes. It's all about the community with that.

Absolutely. And here I thought it was a night at the Waffle House. No. It could be. Sometimes. That's part four. So, don't have a whole lot of information other than that without going into, like, spoilery stuff from the manga, but Western, horses, balls, and...

And being paralyzed. We'll leave it at that. I can't believe it is happening. It seems quick. Yeah. Let's hope it's good. Let's hope our copium isn't

So part seven, much hype. It's a good one, especially because part six was kind of not up to the heights of four and five, I would say. Well, I feel like going from part five to part six is really difficult just in general. Yeah. Yeah.

Andrew, what do you got for big news? Yeah, what's your news? So I'm just going to steal Mitz's news because my news is really boring. Ava fans are degenerates. I mean, that's just normal. So...

As one of them. And the other news. True. Yeah, basically that there's a train station in like the 3.0 plus 1.0, whatever that movie is called, which I still haven't seen yet because it took forever to come out. People just keep going outside of... They go to this train depot outside of the...

actual hours you can tour the train depot, ignoring all of the signs that says don't come here outside of these hours. And so it's become a problem. And so they have to figure out what to do with it. But the other more interesting news that I think people want to probably us want us to talk about is Japan is finally doing what most other countries do and increasing the price on tourists for a lot of their tourist attractions.

You see this a lot with...

pricing to a lot of places. So like I equate this to what Disney does. So if you live in California, you can go to Disneyland or if you live in Orlando, you can go to Disneyland for cheaper. But if you're from out of province, out of state or out of country, you're paying the full price. And I think Japan, what they're doing is something similar where they are basically setting up a two tier, uh,

pricing system where if you are a local you pay a cheaper price and if you are a tourist you're going to pay a higher price i think it's been floated that this is a way to combat the weak yen that it currently is but it's also something that i don't i mean like it sucks prices are going up everywhere but it's something i'm not entirely mad at because it it is something that you know

you should do to some extent, you know, you do want your locals to be able to still go to these places, if I'm not mistaken, right? No, that makes total sense. For example, Meow Wolf in Denver, when I lived there, they had a local Denverite price. And then if you came from out of state, you had to pay a different price. And I think that makes sense, especially on attractions. Yeah.

So there's kind of two thoughts I have on this is one is there's a difference between a locals discount and a foreign or outsiders increase in price. And I feel like more often we get, you know, the local discount, which I think is good. It feels better than, you know, the foreigners having to pay extra.

That said, though, I feel like this comes off as a Japan is instituting this nationwide as some like governmental policy. This is local businesses. Like this is a business deciding to charge more for certain folks, which is always a business's prerogative to do so. And, you know, I don't like it, but it's fine. This isn't I don't think there's like a policy set forth that's like all foreigners have to pay more because their currency is worth more. Like, I think it's just like, hey, we can get away with this. And I

It's okay, but it will bite some businesses in the butt if you go there and see people paying cheaper for what you're paying more for. But I agree that for the large portion of museums or attractions, this is digestible to some degree. And it doesn't irk me or make me anti-going to these places or Japan. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, it would be a different story if it was like you go to the...

convenience store and the rice ball that is you know 300 yen oh you're a foreigner so we're gonna tack on an extra 500 yen to it not that would be like a different story than oh this attraction you got to pay more because you're not from here makes more sense I mean I don't love it but I get it and it's okay

And if we let's just be honest, let's let's just say these are probably the prices they should have been charging for a while now that they probably just haven't increased to at some point. And so, you know, it's like, oh, yeah, yeah.

And in a way, you know what? I need reasons for less people to go to Japan, okay? I don't want y'all to ruin Japan for when I go in a couple years, all right? I don't want there to be... There's already enough people in Japan. We don't need, like, a billion more foreigners. Just a few less, you know? If this prices out a few people, like, not the end of the world for me. I'm going to be a little bit of a capitalist on this one, just this time. Yeah.

But that's because of my own pure selfish reasons. I think it's crazy how many people from China are going to Japan. True. That was wild. Both times that Mitz and I went last year, it was just astonishing. So hopefully that helps with that a little bit. Yeah, less people going is going to be probably ideal. I mean, how much is like a extra $20 at the ski resort going to like...

Be like, oh, I guess I shouldn't take this $4,000 trip. Like, I get it. You'd be surprised. You'd be surprised how cheap people can be once they get to the place that they are going. Yeah, but then they're already there. Yeah, but they're...

That extra $20 is a de-incentivizer for some people. Okay, maybe I won't go to that ski resort because it's an extra $20. Now I'll go to a different one that's a little bit cheaper or I won't go to that ski resort. Maybe I'll go to this other place. Maybe it'll incentivize people to explore other parts of Japan. That's what we need more than anything. But that's a question for another day. I think I read somewhere that Japan is offering some free local flights once you're into the

to get people to go outside of Tokyo. Go to Hokkaido. Go to the... Yeah. Go somewhere else, please. Yeah. Go to Gunma. You know? Just build a mini Tokyo at multiple places throughout Japan. And then when people... Their plane lands, they're too dumb. They'll be like, oh, it's Tokyo, not knowing that they're on the complete other side of the country. They...

You get a lottery system. It's like you get to go to Japan of the North. You get to go to Tokyo of the North. You get to go to Tokyo of the West. Yeah, you have a 33% chance of going to actual Tokyo. Then they could use, you know, make more money on the Shinkansen rides to get to real Tokyo. Exactly. Luck of the draw. Thank you. That was a fun big news of the week. And now we can get to our main topic, which is...

The biggest letdowns in anime. Obviously the letdown word. When you look it up on dictionary. Is a feeling of disappointment. So we're going to try to not come off. As the worst bad people ever here. And just be all negative Nancy's. Complaining but that's okay if we do. Because remember we're the goon squad. We're bad people we don't care. That said I would argue. Almost any artistic experience. That you ingest over a period of time. Is disappointing.

You know, if you're thinking hard enough, you're going to have some disappointment. Your favorite show ever probably has at least a couple moments that you're like, hmm, that wasn't my favorite, or that episode was just so-so, or I didn't like that line, or that's, like, you can always find...

things that don't meet a high bar of standard. But I think there's a lot of ways that shows can be disappointing, whether it's a show that starts off great with an awesome first episode and kind of just becomes lukewarm by the end, sequels that don't match their predecessors, community favorites that get really hyped for you and then you watch it and you're like, that was it? Classics that you loved as a kid that don't hold up 20 years later? So I think we're going to go through

bunch of examples of shows that gave us a big letdown I kind of want to stress and let me know if you guys agrees I feel like a good show can still be a disappointment and the worst credit show you've ever seen Could not be because you never had high hopes so I feel like every show we talked about today isn't necessarily a bad show They just you know, we're disappointing for one way or another Absolutely

So who wants to start off? Who wants, who's got something on their list that they want to point to is like, when I think of disappointment, I think of this show. I, I can go. Yeah, you go. Oh, you want to go first? You go. I'll start with mine. Cause mine's a little bit silly. I, when I think of disappointment, I think of, uh,

Yuri on Ice, but not Yuri on Ice the show, because that show is amazing and great, and I will be making more comparisons to it later. I think of the fact that the movie was canceled, and that is not the letdown that you think it is, but it is a letdown in the sense that

The show itself was so enjoyable and so much fun that it almost felt like it was promising us more. And the fact that we didn't get more retroactively kind of makes the rest of the series a little bit like that's unfortunate. Definitely gave us all blue balls. Every one of us. It was that was a tragedy.

Oh, they teased. They teased. They teased. I know. For so long. That's what I'm saying. We got blue balls like mad. They heavy. Like you couldn't have given us anything else. You just rip it out from under us.

It is a big letdown. And I think that's a, I think that is a big letdown for that franchise because it had so much potential. Um, I didn't even think about that. Cause in my mind, like dreaming machine, the, what was supposed to be the fifth film from Satoshi Kon before he like tragically passed away from pancreatic cancer. Like that was a film that was like, was storyboarded. It was scripted. It was in the works and then he died and they just kind of fell apart and we never got it. Very nice. Yeah.

No one died, and we still didn't get the movie. Why? Why? Give it to me. Give it to me, please. I want this. So wild. But it does lead into something that's really interesting and why my list is going to be a little bit weird in a lot of ways is because...

I tend to forget letdowns in anime more often than not. I just sort of like move on with my life. I was like, when I was constructing this list and I feel like process is actually kind of interesting for some people to discuss and I don't know if we discussed process and how we constructed our lists.

I came up with mine in like two minutes, but that's just because I forgot what the topic was for this week. But when I was thinking about it for those two minutes, I was like, all right, let's go to dropped anime because that's most likely to be a disappointment. I just never finished it. And I went through it and all the dropped animes. I just I don't know why I started them.

in the first place. And so that made it hard to see why they let down. The second one was, let's go through my list of completed animes and look at all of my like low scores, you know? And a lot of that, I was just like, you know, I think I expected some of these. So I have a couple of those, but it's so weird for me to be so hyped

And then by the end, I'm so unhyped. It feels like it's usually such a slow and progressive letdown. But also, I'm at this point in my anime watching career outside of the podcast where I just watch the things I know I'm going to enjoy. So it's kind of hard to be let down more often than not at my age.

I guess. Andrew's just too good. He knows he's like a connoisseur. He can tell at a distance. He can clock a show as being good or bad. It doesn't fall into the trap that Pancake and I do of being like, oh, JoJo Part 7 is going to be so good. It's going to be so good. And then it comes and we're like, oh, man, that was a bummer. But we all know I have a misogyny system for how I judge isekais. You do. It never lets you down. It never lets you down.

But speaking of which, I'll just jump to one. JoJo Part 6. That was a letdown for me. Especially coming after Part 5, which was just such a good, goofy, fun time. And then Part 6, it just kind of left a little bit of diarrhea on the sheets for me. A little sad. And I'm trying not to get too excited for Part 7. But man, it's hard when you love JoJo.

So that was a huge letdown. Were you expecting it to be a little bit more crazy, a little bit more wild, or were you expecting it to be like less weird? Was it just that? You can say the B word. It's okay.

No, just well, Jojo's weird and normal. But was it like too weird for Jojo? Was it like a different kind of weird than you were expecting? For me, a lot of it was the animation was kind of lacking for me. It just didn't give me the same kind of punchiness as previous. It just wasn't as fun as before. I don't know. And I think how it was released on Netflix really hurt it.

That we kind of alluded to previously. So it was just kind of, I don't know, limp-dicked me a little bit. Speaking of limp-dicks, Mason. Oh, wow. I was going to say, I wanted to shout out ZeroRokio in the chat who mentioned Metallic Rouge. Everything Watanabe did outside of Bebop. Hey, you take that back. There's some good stuff. I disagree with that statement. Samurai Champloo is pretty good.

FLCL, yeah, that was pretty bad. Carol and Tuesday is pretty solid. It was not a letdown. It may have let you down, but it did not let me down. I got what I wanted. First one on my list has to definitely be one that I brought in all the hype myself. And I did this, which is Japan Sinks 2020. This is...

Coming off of a monster stretch of unbelievable quality products from Science Saru and S-tier director Masaaki Yuasa. They did 2018 Devilman Crybaby. They did 2019 Ride Your Wave. They did 2020 Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken. They are killing it. Banger after banger after banger.

And why wouldn't I get excited? The Olympics are right around the corner. Here we are set for this Netflix drop of this Tokyo Magnitude 8.0-esque disaster story set on the brink of hype. And all my favorite people are working on it. It starts off beautiful, emotional, opening music. Kicks everything off splendidly. I'm like ready for peak everything. And it's...

It lost the plot, it lost the humanity, it lost the animation. Just everything of any potential quality in this show went downhill so quickly that it was truly one of the biggest disappointments in my anime career of just being all in on the show and just getting served a bologna sandwich. It was not good. I have not seen this. So I'm happy I didn't get disappointed.

Yeah, this one's on me. A lot of the other ones on my list are a lot of sequels or stuff where...

had a winning streak, but not this one. Yeah, I think sequels was a lot of the things I ended up being disappointed with. And one of the ones I was disappointed with was Natsuno Arashi, Akinetsu, because it felt like, and this is me remembering it because I watched this when it aired. The original Natsuno Arashi is this weird, esoteric take on...

I think it's like I'm in my Mason phase of watching anime, probably, where I'm looking for like these weird things. I think you would probably both love and hate Natsuno Arashi in a lot of ways, Mason, if you haven't seen it already. Because it just it is kind of weird and it's kind of silly. And the story does make sense. And it is a character thing. The second season comes back and it just feels like, is this...

redo of the first season? What's happening? This is kind of weird. And it just kept being weird. And I'm going to admit it. The reason that I probably let down is because the original Natsuno Arashi had a really banger of an opening. And that probably is what got me through most of that weird show that I may have not watched all of it back then. And season two did not have as a banger of an opening. And maybe that's why I'm so let down by Natsuno Arashi season two and I couldn't go through it.

But oh man, I will show you the opening one of these days. It is a banger. I dropped season one a couple episodes in. I think just when I was doing my deep dive on everything Studio Shaft ever did, I don't remember a single thing about this show. I don't. Damn. I'm looking at it. I see the art and I see the characters and nothing is ringing a bell. Maybe.

Maybe I should give it another shot. Basically, a guy goes to work at his, like, either he goes to work at his, like, grandparents or he's visiting his grandparents in, like, the suburbs or, like, the rural part of town. And he works in a cafe and he meets, basically, this ghost girl from during the wartime Japan. I don't even know why I remember all of this. And she basically has the power to time travel. And then they meet a whole bunch of other characters. But she can time travel when they, like, hold hands and stuff. And so it leads to a lot of random shenanigans with that. Yeah.

But like I said, that opening is like a banger. It's such a banger. And it like pulls on a whole bunch of old model, like not gravure, but like model magazine shots and people taking poses. And yeah, anyway, season two is a letdown because it didn't do any of the interesting stuff like that. And that OP wasn't a banger, so it couldn't even sustain me through. There we go. There we go. Pancake next on your list.

Berserk 2016. I don't think much needs to be said about it. It is CGI cling clanging fucking mess. It does no justice to how beautiful the manga is. It takes everything good about Berserk and says, what if we just made it bad? And that's what they did. I mean, let's just be fair. They were faithful to his background drawings.

Yeah, and like it did follow the plot, like the events that happened in the manga happened in the anime. So like at least I had that little like kernel of like, well, it's still a good story. But man, oh man, it was rough. Yeah, it was real rough. Could not finish that. Could not finish it. Just go read the manga.

True. I'm just going to shout out one of Mitz's because he made us a list, even though he fucking abandoned all of us again. Even though nobody asked, he still can't get the podcast out of his heart. No. He said, Trigon Stampede, rough to watch CG and some annoying villains. I have not watched it, but that is what Mitsugi says. It wasn't that bad.

I guess I never had such high of hopes where I was like, I mean, I knew it was Studio Orange. Like, yeah, you're going to get CG. That's what they do. And their CG. I like the look of it. They redesigned it. Sure. But it was fine. I didn't I wasn't that disappointed. I have a bone to pick with one of the ones he put on here. I don't think it's actually a letdown. I think it's just coming to the realization that it was never that good to begin with. What? Shield Hero Season 2?

Wait, how'd you guess? How'd you guess? No! To be fair, though, Andrew, as someone who did not like Shield Hero Season 1, Season 2 was objectively...

whole cavern level below it like it totally as bad as it would got so Which was kind of you know if a bad show gets even worse am I disappointed or am I impressed? That's that's I think the argument we need to have yeah I was surprised like I season one I have my issues with like character and a little bit of the story not so much with the world building but season two I was just like I don't even think you care anymore and

Like, I like I can't you don't even make you can even do the enough to make me care enough to even finish. I think I got like a couple episodes in and I'm like, yeah, I'm I'm good. Arguably, I should have put Shield Hero season one on my list because I did never finish it. Like, I just got bored with that one. So, yeah, Shield Hero, something that Mitz likes.

That's for sure. Season 4 coming out this July. Has he watched season 3? Has he followed up with it? No. Well, it's his favorite show. We're calling that now. If you're a new listener, Mitz is usually on the podcast. He loves Shield Hero. This is canon now. Favorite. Yep. It's his favorite. Tell him all about it in our Discord. Join our Discord. Tell him about your love for Reptalia and you guys can just go back and forth on that.

You can bond on that bondage. All right, Macy's. In a weird way, we're complaining about Berserk 2016. Oh, the CG looks so bad. Mitz is complaining about Trigun Stampede. Oh, the CG looks not good. Here's my complaint, or not so much complaint, but biggest letdown. Ponyo, beloved, comforting, beautiful classic by Studio Ghibli. And I remember I was watching a bunch of Ghibli shows or movies, and I was like, oh, this is awesome.

I should have my mom watch one with me. And I was like, Oh Ponyo, that's, that's, I heard that it's not like a violent one or anything. She might love it. So I get, sit my mom down and I'm like, Oh, let's watch Ponyo. This is this anime thing. It's really cool. And her just like mocking me afterwards for being like Ponyo wants ham after it breaks me down emotionally to this day. Uh,

Ponyo is one of the best looking movies even unlike Ghibli standards. It's out there, but it's just so childish at times and the plot and writing so nonsensical and confusing in a way that just Didn't leave me with the warm fuzzies like it's supposed to it just I was so disappointed in what I

My emotional arc was with that. And my mom making fun of me for having her watch this didn't help. So absolutely. It's not a winner. It's like you're going to give me spirited away and Princess Mononoke and Castle in the Sky and then give me motherfucking Ponyo. Like, what is that?

Like, it's still a fine movie. Like, it's still decent. But when you compare it to what came before with Ghibli, it's just not in the same league. Well, and you can't even really say, like, Ponyo's fine. It's a fine movie. But it is a children's movie, and I get that. But even Totoro is more interesting to me than Ponyo as a children's movie. Oh, for sure. Like you said, I like Ham. Yeah.

Totoro is a kids movie to be appreciated by everyone. Ponyo is a kids movie for children. Yes. And just Sakugo Stomps who are like, yeah, the frame rate on that fish swimming was immaculate. Like, yeah, I get it. Fair. But also that's all it had going for it. I don't hate Ponyo. I just hate watching Ponyo with my mom. Anyway. Andrew. Andrew.

Yeah, all right. So this actually gets into one of the shows that isn't a season two or...

or anything to that effect. And when I say this is a letdown, this is a letdown in the sense that I really like the OP and I really liked scenes I saw from it when I was like that showed up on, you know, like my feet on like Twitter or anything. This is back in the day when Twitter was more like you would get random clips from anime and stuff like that and not like the TikToks. So this is pretty TikTok kind of thing. And so the show that was a letdown for me was Nichijou. Yeah.

in a lot of ways because I went into it after it was airing. It wasn't like, didn't sound like my thing. It has a banger of an opening. I really like that opening. I will watch bad shows for a really good opening or even very mediocre shows as long as the opening is sick because, you know, that high sticks with me. That's hilarious. Even though I could just... Like, you're like the OP lord. Like, you just love... If the OP is good, I'm in. Yeah. Yeah.

Oh, yeah. I'm dropping it. I wouldn't say that far. Let's just say a bad OP will make it hard for me to like love a show. But if like, OK, so a good OP with a good show makes a good show, a good good like a better show.

A bad OP with a good show makes a good show kind of mid. Okay. A banger OP on a bad show makes a bad show. You know, actually that was pretty solid, surprisingly. And a banger OP on a great show is just like,

Pure joy. What about banger OP, misogyny test isekai, questionable show? Like, how many mechanics are you pulling into this algorithm? Well, you see, the thing is, sometimes I don't get to those shows because I already know that I'm not going to like them. So I don't even let the OP sway me. I never get to that point. I might see them in like a OP compilation at some point later. And I'm like, oh, that's a pretty solid OP. Um,

But sometimes I don't... So is APC in the chat is saying you're a big fan of No Kotan. You love that show. Have not seen the opening. I mean, banger. Banger alert. Hello, 911? Yes, I'd like to report a banger. I didn't think I was going to like that show. I didn't think I was going to like that show, so I didn't watch the show. I might watch the opening after all. Look, I almost watched all of... What is that show again? Um...

Smile, sweet, sister, sadistic, surprise. Oh, Blend S? Yeah, I almost watched Blend S because of that opening. That opening's pretty solid. I watched like two episodes of Blend S and I said, I really like this OP. I don't think I can do this. I feel like we need to create a code of Andrew regulations and this is in like part 503 section F, the OP test. Yeah.

I forgot what episode, but we had a whole episode where our main topic was like trying to determine some like way of scoring a show. Like, oh, every time a character shows their boobs, it loses a point or something. Like, I want to know what the Andrew-like algorithm would be. It would have like...

sine functions and tangents and weird integrals. It'd be the most complex mathematical formula. You totally can assign a mathematical formula to it. Right now, it's mostly vibes-based. This is just a product of being... I get to be the old man on this episode because Mitch isn't here. It's a product of being the...

as old as I am, I have basically learned the things I like and I don't like, and I have basically condensed that into a formula that exists predominantly in my head. And what little parts you get are just aspects of the formula that I've been able to basically verbalize in some way

that makes sense to other people because I've realized I verbalized it for myself in a way that I understand. Um, so yeah, so yeah, so it's a very like, look, it is a graduate level thesis level mathematical formula that you could probably get a doctorate in. Um,

but yeah, Nishijou, uh, I think a lot of parts of it are funny. Uh, I just think that I couldn't like, I, the parts that I didn't find funny were a lot longer to get through than the parts to the parts that were funny. And I chuckle once every little bit here. Couldn't, that's why I became a disappointment because I saw a lot of those clips and those were probably the best parts of that show. Um, and I was hoping more of the show was like that. And when the show wasn't a lot like that, I went to like, Oh,

Okay, I think I'm good. Banger OP, though. That's fair. And honestly, any kind of sketch comedy show is inherently going to have some hits and misses by virtue of being so rapid fire with disconnected sections. So I could see that. Still a huge fan of it. Animation is on point. And when it does hit, it's so good. Yeah.

She does a suplex. She suplexes a deer at one point. I thought that was freaking hilarious. That was Nokotan. I'm kidding. It's the president. But anyway. Alright. I guess I'll throw out another one of Mitsugi's. Godzilla SP. Too much techno babble. I don't know what that means. I will not elaborate. So if you guys would like to, have at it.

Yeah, there was just the same guy who's doing the writing for the new The Ghost in the Shell wrote the script for Godzilla SP and it just got very much in the weeds of parallel universes and time travel and really didn't do the best of legwork of explaining that to the audience. So if you were not following along very precisely, you would miss a lot of the big moments at the end and be very confused and he didn't like that. So.

Godzilla looked good, though. Well, at least Godzilla looked good. I mean, that's the only thing we go to. That's the most important part, to be fair. Yeah, you got to have a good Godzilla. For me, I have Mary and the Witch's Flower.

That was a letdown for me. And I think it's because they tried very hard to be Ghibli and they just weren't Ghibli. And it felt a little boring and empty as a story overall. I'm not saying it's a terrible movie, but it just doesn't hit like you are led to believe. Yeah, I remember this one being very underwhelming. And it's kind of similar to... What's that other film that definitely is trying to ape the Ghibli aesthetic?

I guess there's a lot of them. I don't know. I don't even know. There's so many. Like, I was looking at the stuff. I'm like, oh, well, there's that one and that one and that one. Yeah, there's a bunch that tried to cash in on that kind of vibe. And just there's a reason why Studio Ghibli is Ghibli. Yep, absolutely. It's tough to replicate. Just ain't it. Let's see. Next one on my list. Ooh, what do I want to do? There's so many to choose from.

Let's do a sequel, which is... Let's go Made in Abyss Season 2. Ugh. I... Man, I really enjoyed the first season. I thought it was great. I really enjoyed the movie. It was brutally great. It was a tough watch. It was challenging. It's not for everyone, but I thought it just...

was both simultaneously so depressing and morbid while also being like triumphant and glorious at the same time. It's such a great whiplash of emotions. Season two, I thought it was just really aggressively fine. Like it just didn't reach the same highs of the dangerous adventure, the dramatic backstories, the majestic production. It just was...

kind of okay adventure anime with some of the characters I recognized but I just didn't get invested in the area they were at the progress they made the people they encountered it just didn't have that magic sauce and I feel like it's some shows really can retain that for years and years and years Chiafuru season 3 is

Seven eight years away. I was expecting that to be you know, I was hyped I was excited but I was expecting it to lose that special something and it didn't and I think we don't often give shows enough credit when they are able to retain what makes them so good over time and

It's only really apparent when the show missteps, whether it be a studio change or what have you. And I don't know what happened with season two. I don't know if it was the source material or the adaptation or what, but it just wasn't the same to me. And I agree. Made me sad. Did not hit. Season one had me like bawling in the last episode. Season two, I was just like, OK, but it didn't damper my expectations. Like if you said, oh, season three is coming tomorrow.

I would foolishly be like, oh, here we go again, boys. Peak is incoming. Like, I would be excited even though I shouldn't be. You know, all this disappointment is my fault. I'm coming in. I'm bringing in all this baggage. But such is life. What do we got next, Andrew? Let me guess. Banger OP.

Well, actually, yes. Oh, how did I know? So this one is actually twofold. So this is one where I definitely kept watching because of Banger OP. And it's a banger OP. If you've seen Guilty Crown, you know what I'm talking about. That OP is good. It is really good. But it was a really interesting premise, I think, that the show starts with that devolves into something really boring and

it doesn't do anything really interesting with it in a lot of ways. Like basically this guy is special because he is, and he finds this girl and she basically unlocks this power with him where he can base or, or she, he has this power. He can basically pull out weapons out of, uh, people's bodies. They basically their internal weapon. And so he pulls out this sword out of this girl, uh,

and this girl is special I can't remember why and I feel like the world was really set up for the it's been a over a decade since I've watched this show by the way but that OP is still in my mind it is that good and

it just kind of got boring. It became like this weird, like the high school drama got really stupid. They sort of, they, they try to become like an independent nation or some stupid things like that. They, it gets really boring and slow. The main character gets really annoying. He doesn't get any, he doesn't feel like he develops in any way, shape or form. Um, and everyone just sort of like lets him be a little bitch because he's the chosen one with the power. So pull weapons out of people and stuff. Um,

So, yeah, but the OP... And the soundtrack. If you've heard it, you know what I'm talking about. Yeah, it's... Oh, true. It is a sound of soundtrack. Yo, that show had so many... The animation... It's basically the same problems I have with Shield Hero in a lot of ways. Um...

good animation, good soundtrack, good OP. Well, the one shield hero OP isn't as good, but like good production values, you know, and then it shits the bed on story. It shits the bed on certain character developments. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, but, oh,

We need more Sawano soundtracks. That's all I'm going to say. He's pumping them out and they're usually pretty fun. So this was Guilty Crown, that is, was a little bit before my time. So I wasn't wrapped up in the hype going into it.

and everything I've heard about it was just pretty overwhelming disappointment, and I have never checked it out. I've listened to the soundtrack because, yeah, it's Sawano, but I've never actually been compelled to watch it to live in that disappointment firsthand. So, yeah, I think I'm good. Watch that OP. That's all you need to see of that. That's awesome. There you go. Pancake, what's next? I'll read another Mitz one real fast.

Pride of Orange. Hockey but Moe blob. Idol girls. Boo. I didn't watch. I watched maybe one episode of this and I just couldn't take his bitching. Was his excitement really that high? He loves a sports anime.

So he gets excited for every single one, I think. Yeah, I guess so. So not worth it from Mitz's perspective, but if you like Moe, Idle Girls, and hockey, have at it. From my list, I have Promised Neverland Season 2 because...

It felt like season one set it up to be like a three season show. And then we get season two and they speed run it and make it shitty. And they're like, that's what you get. You're welcome. Bye. Yeah, I think that is one of the biggest letdown season twos ever. And I feel like I didn't even get the full letdown experience because I'm not a manga reader.

I feel like if I had... Similar to how you and I have read Berserk, so we know how bad... Like, anyone can see Berserk and see how bad it is. Right. But, like, being a manga reader, you're even more intimately familiar on how much they massacred your child. Yep. I feel like I did not get that Promised Neverland experience. I just...

Kind of was told like, oh, you don't know how bad it was. And I'm like, I don't. And it was already bad enough. No, thank you. I'm good. Yeah, I feel the same way. I did not read this manga and I'm happy I didn't because I feel like I would have committed arson because it was that bad.

I like how you're bringing up all the shows that people like in the Twitch chat are just like denying existed. Like Berserk 2016. What Berserk in 2016? Primers Neverland season what? No, they just made the season one. What are you talking about? They said go read the manga, right? Yeah. Nervously chuckles and cries. You mean Berserk 97, right? Like that's the only Berserk we have. Exactly. So.

Mason, let's let's do some odd ones similar to Andrew's very first one with the depriving of the Uri on Ice movie. I'm going to say Stars Align. This came out in 2019 and it is 11.95 solid episodes of character drama between the boys of a soft tennis club. Just being really passionate, melodramatic folks. And it's awesome. It's so good.

Until like the last two minutes ends with this really awkward dark cliffhanger. And you're like wait that was it? And you come to learn that like this was supposed to be a two-course show. And after years of being in production they chopped it in half. And didn't give anyone enough time to actually change anything. So we just are left with this awkward half story. And you're just like it could have been so much better. And it still is a good show for what it is. But to have that ripped away is disappointing. Not in the quality product but of just...

What could have been what was supposed to have been out there and we haven't gotten any announcement of any more to come, which is a letdown. I feel like we need Rascal Flatts. That song. Playing in the background. So sad. I think we have time for one more each and or just a couple speed round. I feel like we should just speed through them because we don't have too much left. I feel like. Yeah. Unless I mean, give give context if you would like. But Andrew, you got anything left?

No, honestly, like I probably have. Just give us a banger OP then. Just give us a show that you love the opening. Oh my God. On the spot like this. Let's, okay, kids on the slope. Great show, great OP, basically elevates it to great, great, great show. And that's a Watanabe joint, if I'm not mistaken. It's a Watanabe joint and Yoko Kanno, which by the way, I saw the Yoko Kanno concert in New York just at the end of March.

which was really awesome at the town hall. Really cool. It is crazy how this woman is like in her 60s and still sounds like a cute Japanese girl. Like it is wild to me. She has that energy about her. She she clearly loves what she's doing. It's not the topic, but I just want to gush about Yoko Kanno because she's amazing and I love her. And it was great to see her, you know,

her work done and her being there for getting her work done. Anyway, yeah, kids on the slope. Wait, I don't understand. Out of all of us here, Andrew, you are the cute Japanese girl. You understand more than anyone that that is just a mindset and you've got that. You are the Japanese girl in our podcast.

I feel like some people would take issue with that, but I'll accept the mantle that has been bestowed upon me. Sorry, I interrupted you. No, no, that's a banger OP, Kids on the Slope. That's the one that just came to mind. And it gave me a chance to talk about Yoko Kanno for a hot second. Excellent. Pancake, rapid fire.

uh, Tokyo Ghoul because what the fuck was that? And then, um, I also have MF Ghost. What the fuck was that? And then I'll just run through Mitsugi's. Uh, he has Rideback Spriggan came following Akira with heavy involvement from Katsuhiro Otomo. I don't know what that means, but that's what he says about Spriggan.

And we already covered Shield Hero Season 2. Just bad in every way. Pretty much amazing. It keeps getting more seasons. Yeah. Mason? Gohan trunk fans in the chat says The Deer King, which I would also definitely recommend. That's the movie that came out by the same team director source material as Morbito, Guardian of the Spirit. That was the letdown. Speaking of which, the other one,

What's the other one? I don't remember. You know what I'm talking about, though. That was a disappointment when I watched that. Speedrun. Some other things. Obviously, One Punch Man Season 2. Little Witch Academia. The TV series. Didn't like it. I loved the 2013 movie. Air quotes because it was like 20 minutes long. I moderately enjoyed the 2015 more of a movie. The Enchanted Parade. I can't do the TV series. For some reason, when you put those annoying characters on screen for more than an hour...

Everything I love about it just gets graded into oblivion. So nope don't like the TV show soccer quest PA works has all these awesome working shows Hanasaka, Iruha Shirobako soccer requests despite having maybe the best costume designs in anime It just was kind of middling and I guess I'll end with the biggest disappointment probably ever which is Pui Pui mole car driving school the sequel to my beloved Pui Pui mole car series It was it was not good

And it made me sad. It made me cry. That's how bad it was. Poor Memo. Oh, that's okay. So those are just a handful of the whole pantheon of shows that disappointed us in various ways. Let us know in the comments down below or on Discord where we got it wrong or where you thought shows were more disappointing. And we will leave you with that while we go into our news break. What is our trivia question for the good folks?

In figure skating, which of the following jumps are taken with a forward takeoff? A loop, an axle, a lutz, a sal, cow, or a flip? We'll see you after the news break. ♪

Hey, anime addicts. Mitsugi is here in spirit, and it's time for your anime news break. Well, the Devil May Cry animated series, I say, as I'm pretty sure this is not actually anime since most of the cast and staff are not Japanese, is getting a second season, as almost everything does, on Netflix. So this was announced this past Thursday by Netflix itself.

saying that the new season will be quote-unquote coming soon, so you'll be able to see more of Dante and his flashy guns and terrible one-liners all in his action-based glory. The service revealed that the first season debuted at number four on its global top ten list with five million views in three days, which I guess is quite a lot. It was also in the top ten in 87 different countries.

So it looks like the staff had planned multiple seasons, even dating back to 2021. So there could be quite a lot for Dante, Virgil, Lady, etc. in this property. So Johnny Young Bosch voices Dante in this property in the English dub. And of course, Scout Taylor Compton.

Hoon Lee and Kevin Conroy also play key roles in the work. So if you like Devil May Cry and you want to see more of this on Netflix, well, you don't have to wait too long because it is coming. Next up in the news, you'll probably recall that we talked about the scandals at Fuji TV, the TV station in Japan, and how many of the anime, including Sazae-san, did not have sponsors. It had been the first time in many years that Sazae-san didn't have any sponsors before the show.

And it looks like that is coming to an end after just nine weeks. Gio and OIC Group will be sponsoring Sazae-san. Anime News Network confirmed this past Sunday's episode aired, and Gio and AIC Group commercials, along with other commercials for Fuji TV Productions, were indeed there. So the Fuji TV Productions included also new drama series as well to fill in the time slots.

There are other anime series that were airing on Fuji TV that are still struggling to gain corporate sponsorships, but they don't have the cachet

that Sazae-san has. This includes the very popular Chibimaro-ko-chan, which is going without a corporate sponsor. So we will have to see if that and more anime get resolved, but it looks like the scandal is cooling in Japan around Fuji TV, and they are indeed getting their sponsors back for many of these anime productions. Next up, Wit Studios back at it again with an adaptation of Shunkatsuto Daikosha.

the light novel, which is going to be made into a TV anime that translates into agents of the four seasons, dance of spring from director Ken Yamamoto of, of Uma Musume. And again, done by wit studio. So Akatsuki began writing this fantasy romance series on, by, uh, with illustrations by Sewell back in the den, den Genki boom, coal imprint back in 2021. So I'm guessing this is a very popular property. And if you read the synopsis, it's very interesting story.

sounds of it's just strips of mythology about the the agents of the four seasons of the world where at one point the world only had winter and then the gods came down and they created the other for the other three seasons and then i guess spring went off on a journey and left the world um you know taking spring with her so which caused incredible hardship but she has returned and is giving her love to the winter so it just seems like a very beautiful sort of uh

mythology, and WIT Studio, of course, usually does a great job. So we'll have to see when this comes out. They don't have a date for it in the article, but I have to assume since it's been announced that it will be fairly soon. This was me, Tsugi, and this was your anime news break, and now it's time to get back to the podcast. ♪

Well, now comes the time of the week where I beg you for money. If you want to support the podcast, you can help us out. We love you so much. We've been doing this for so long, and it's really all for you. It has been all the way since the beginning, and it still is. So if you want to help us out, give back some love, keep this train on the rails, Patreon, patreon.com.

or our website, aapodcast.com slash join. We do our best to reward you. You know how we give you all the extra content. You hear about it every week. But if you do want to help out the show, now is a great time. It's a great time to do a good thing and help out a buddy and be a great anime addict. So again, support the podcast and we will keep supporting you as well. Sekai Ra

Welcome back to the podcast. Oh, it's so nostalgic hearing that old podcast music in those news breaks, but yeah, it brings you back. Hopefully, it also brings you back to knowing this trivia question, which was, in figure skating, which of the following jumps are taken with a forward takeoff? I realize I didn't need to write that with takeoff. That's a little confusing. Here are your options. Loop, axle, lutz, selkow, and flip the answer.

It's Axel. It's the only one. I don't think I knew that. I did not either. Thank you, Mason, for educating us all. Thank you, Medalist, for educating us. We also, hopefully in the spirit of education, have a mailbag for us to dance to. It's time for an almighty anime mailbag. Anime. Anime. Anime. M-m-m-mailbag bag.

Andrew, would you like to read said mailbag? It's technically in my color, but it's also not in my color. I just want to put that. All right. So Digimon blue onto it. All good. So this mailbag comes from our good friend MD Jabroni. Mason, you're my fave spicy boy with the hot takes. But I believe I once heard you say that Griffith did nothing wrong. Dot, dot.

So I was wondering, if you still feel that way, could you possibly elaborate? No, there's no need to. It's obvious. It's as plain as day that Griffith did nothing wrong. What I'm more concerned about, Mr. M.D. Jabroni, if that is your real name, those two dots, is that a mistype of three dots for like a continuation? Or is it a mistype of one dot as a period? Those are the real questions we should be asking.

But thank you for the mailbag. I'm sorry there was not more content to it. Yeah, no, Griffith is awesome. I wouldn't change a single thing about him. He's perfect. Okay. What do you think, Pancake? I don't like Griffith, but technically he did nothing wrong.

So my original plan was to hold up the manga and be like, look how stylish he is. You think you get to that point by doing anything wrong? Are you guys crazy? He's so fashionable. He's such a pretty boy. You think pretty people can do anything wrong? Mason. Did we all just collectively forget Casca exists in this world? Did we all just collectively forget Casca? But she's not as pretty as him. But that's not technically him.

Kind of. Girl. Girl. Listen, contracts are contracts. You sign an agreement and what happens... He... It's complicated. It really isn't. I mean, what he... I mean, sort of him, kind of him, is him, but not him. It's the meme, Mario. Yeah, like...

It's a complicated topic, and technically Griffith did nothing wrong. Okay, you guys are crazy. He totally did something wrong. And I think the manga does... I think the manga's whole existence is that Griffith did something wrong. The only thing... Is the whole existence of this manga. His crime was sleeping with a hot babe. I don't... You know what? And that hot babe is not Casca. You guys are crazy, and we can move on.

He's helpful to a lot of people because, as we mentioned, he's so pretty. He's beautiful. He's the prettiest girl at the ball.

He's the cute anime girl in our souls the whole time. Let's get into this review. Thank you for the mailbag. If you would like to leave a mailbag, go to aapodcast.com. Okay, let's get to the review of Medalist. This is a winter 2025 show. It tells the story of Inori, an 11-year-old girl who dreams of becoming a world-class figure skater. However, she's never really had proper training to do so. She meets a

a coach one day named Tsukasa who was once a former ice dancer and he becomes her coach and they set out to become ice skating people and that's what they do you can watch this on Hulu and maybe Disney Plus I'm not really sure maybe outside of America it's based on a manga and I think this was a listener choice one I don't remember I did not it was okay it was it was

This was failed by Pancake, Mitts, and Emery, I think, maybe? Yeah, I think the season was very packed. That or a lot had been passed already. It was a more packed season than I think we gave credit for originally. So the listeners were our saviors this time. Thank you, listeners, for not making us watch total poopy-de-doopy.

Yeah. So with that said, what was everyone's initial expectations? We'll start with Andrew. This feels like it's going to be some silly lolly skating show. So if we're talking about going in, this is me going into the impressions of it in the first part. If you're talking about me going into review for the review, I was like,

I didn't pass I didn't want this passed for a reason because the first two episodes are not that good in my opinion I think they are the weakest episodes in the show with especially in terms of characters because I do not care for any of these characters and they do not make me want to see more of them um but everyone kept saying it was good and I was just like uh uh uh and so yeah yeah um

That was my expectations going into the show. I think we should do an interpretive review one time. We're not using words, just using vocal inflections. We need to describe our feelings of the show. That would be fun. That would be a fun segment, actually. 40 minutes of that. An interpretive dance review of kinds.

Pancake, medalists going into it. Expectations. Oh no, another girl's sports anime that won't be about sports. That was my initial reaction. Accurate more than you would think.

Yeah, I guess similarly, I was across the spectrum on this because, yay, ice skating. Skating is cool. I'm a hockey boy. I love this stuff. Also, meh, modern day sports, particularly ones focused on girls, just tend not to really be focused on the sports that you come to watch. And finally, ew, Studio Engi. I don't really like what they've been doing. They did Uzaki-chan Wants to Hang Out. No one thinks that show looks good.

So all sorts of emotions going in. Though, that said, you know, it did have the music sport goat of Yuki Hayashi, a person who did Run With the Wind, Haikyuu. Pretty much any good sports show has his soundtrack thumbprints all over it. So, you know, it could have been okay. That said, recommendations. Spoiler free. Should the people at home watch Medalist? Andrew.

Yes. I mean, I guess yes and no. Probably yes, I guess. I don't know. It's really rough because a lot of me watching the show is me thinking that I would rather be watching Yuri on Ice again through most of this. And...

Yeah, so that's where a lot of it is. I really wish I was watching Yuri on Ice again, and this is what this show made me want to do. So yeah, you should totally watch the show. Yuri on Ice, I think, is a more interesting character version of the show in a lot of ways, even though it is a shorter period of a show. I think the main characters are grating most of the time, to some extent, with their personalities. But every now and then, they just somehow become endearing. Yeah.

I clearly both like and hate this show for many different reasons, as you've gathered. I think overall it is a solid show. It is more solid than I was expecting from. I thought this was a troll from the listener's choice when I first saw the pics from the listener's choice. I am still a little bit upset that I did not get my Super Sentai Red Ranger Isekai, but

as a review option from the listeners. So maybe that's part of where I was going into it. But at the end of the day, this is also your very generic underdog to greatness story, sports story. And how much you like those will probably determine how much you enjoy this show. I think I'm just not here to see like 10 and 11 year olds talk about like

their life as it's basically ending. So yeah, that's me. Yeah, you should probably watch it, I guess. Andrew, not a fan of worms, apparently. Worm hater. Yes. Wow. Yes.

Easily. Yes. Pancake, what do you got? I think, yes, I would recommend it. I think it's a super easy watch. I like the focus on the sport. And I actually, as we alluded to in the trivia question, learned a lot about ice skating from this versus I did not learn as much in Yuri on Ice. And objectively, Yuri on Ice is a better ice skating show. But if you

If you enjoyed Yuri on Ice and you like ice skating, I think this is a fun take at it. I think it has the potential to be a longer running anime that would show the characters maybe go through life and mature and, you know, grow in the sport. Maybe like a major possibly would be nice, but I doubt we'll get that.

I don't know. It can be a bit dramatic. That was ice cold. Yeah, this will run longer because you're actually going to get more of it, unlike Yuri on Ice. Yeah, I mean... I'm crying myself to sleep. Yeah. Well, we did get Season 2 has been announced that they're going to be doing a Season 2. Yes, it is. It's going to happen. So that's good. That's really great news. I hope they don't blue ball us like Yuri on Ice. It would suck for them to do that. It's Disney money. Yeah.

Disney money. Yeah, these are on Disney Plus. These are Disney Plus shows. Got it, got it. Oh, sorry. Disney Plus slash Hulu. So it's Disney money. So yeah, like I watch this on Disney Plus in Canada. So yeah, it's Disney money. So they're probably, if Disney bought that second season, they're getting that second season. Yeah.

Sorry to interrupt. No, I mean, I think it's generally what I would call a good sports anime. I think, like Andrew alluded to, the characters can be a bit annoying and overdramatic at times, but they kind of weirdly grow on you a little bit throughout. So, yeah, I recommend it. Maison.

I'm kind of in the same ballpark as both of you. Yes, the show is immensely watchable. It's very easy to get through 12 episodes of this for... Or actually 13 for this review. You just turn it on and it just kind of goes. And it just putzes along. The pacing is a little jank. The characters are a little whack and melodramatic. But it's digestible. It's anime. It's fine. I do think that...

I don't really compare it to Yuri on Ice. It feels very stylistically different in so many ways. And yes, they're both ice skating, but it's the same way that, like, One Outs doesn't feel like a baseball anime major. It feels more like a betting kaiju kind of show. To me, this show, Metalist, feels more like Bakuten or Backflip. It was...

Also kind of heavy CG, had the Hayashi soundtrack, and it just kind of felt like it's progressing with the novice to somewhat talented, whereas Yonais is someone who's in the depths of their career, already accomplished, already kind of dealing with that kind of midlife woes, even though he's 16 years old, but...

So it's a very different story arc and style. If you like figure skating, I think this presents it pretty well. And it's just kind of a compelling watch, even if it is a little janky in a lot of ways. It was better than I expected. And that goes a long way sometimes, having those low expectations. So it was all right. If you're really hankering for a sports show, especially one that focuses on ladies, that actually focuses on them doing the sport, that's rare these days. So for that alone, it's an all right watch.

So, with that said, we're going to get into the weeds. There's not a ton, but there's a moderate amount of spoilers. But here is your warning, just in case. And where would you guys like to begin? What is the most eye-opening part of this that you want to talk about? Eye-opening? I don't think any of it is super eye-opening. At first, I really could not stand Tsukasa or...

Nori, like at all. Like I found... Oh great, our two main characters that are constantly on the screen. I just felt like Tsukasa was such a Mary Sue with nothing behind him for the longest time. But once we finally got some more of his backstory, gave it a little bit of grace. I was like, okay, that's a little bit better. I still don't like that he's like the best ice dancer in the world, but it

I guess we need it for the competition between his athlete and the other main athlete, the black haired girl. And I can't think of her name right now. Hikaru? Hikaru? Hikaru. Hikaru. Hikaru. And her coach. The most contrived rivalry perhaps ever. Oh, absolutely. So...

There was that. He was a little bit overdramatic all the time and she was overdramatic all the time. But eventually, they kind of worked together in a weird fucking way towards the end. I was like, okay, they're meant for each other. The writing just seemed very base level. I felt like we got the first draft of this and it's like, okay, what if we have...

girl who's just really like she is a good character, you know, she works hard she has natural talent and she what we'll learn later on like she lacks that stubborn pride something that all the other characters have to overcome Rio with his like superiority complex mittens with refusing to take ballet like she's open to new ideas and she's like a sponge and

So she's just a good character. And the whole point of the show is she's starting her journey late and her coach started his journey late. And like, that's as far as they thought. And they just said, okay, that's good enough. Let's run with that. And it just makes it feel very lacking. And I thought the coach's backstory was,

And the way he's like adopted by this family. And they're like, why didn't you call that you were here? And why didn't you call him? Like, it just, it felt so kind of blah. Yeah. But I think where the story shines is little moments where you kind of get not just, oh, it's the 11 year old girl story, but it's also the coach's story. And we get his doubts and his struggles and his regrets. Yeah.

Growing up, we get Inori's mom who kind of reminds herself, oh, don't panic about the lost suitcase. We get Shinichiro Ryo's father fist pumping when his son nails a jump. It's not just the kid's story. It's more the adult's as well. And you get a little more glimpse into the community that builds a nice skater than just...

I got to work on my jump. And I did like that aspect of it, even if it was a little plain. Yeah, there were enough characters and enough character dynamics to keep it interesting. I feel like this anime would be absolutely atrocious if it were just about, if it solely focused on Nori and Tsukasa's story. Like you needed those other characters to be in the mix and those other storylines loosely being in there.

for that. I think the best episode for me was the training, like the training seminar episode with the young boy and Tsukasa and basically Tsukasa proving himself to him to push through that and basically called him on his bullshit. Like, no, you're obsessed with him and you're jealous. Like, get off of it. Go do it.

Well, it was a great kind of parallel because Tsukasa, this coach, his, like, regret is, I didn't start sooner. I didn't do this right. I didn't do this right. And Ryo, this kid, like, got, he started early. He had the perfect training. Like, he had all these opportunities that Tsukasa didn't have. But he still is like, oh, I should have done this. I should have, like, the story is everyone is going to regret the choices they make in some way, no matter how good they are.

Or great you get. There's still going to be someone better. There's still something out of reach that you're striving for. And all these characters are at different stages. In their figure skating journey. But they all have the same. Drive to get better. And like doubt and reflection on what they've done in the past. And I think that. You know progress of we see it across multiple people. Across this. You know season is. You know they're all moving in that same direction. And it's that group herd.

of progress that really ties them all together even if a lot of the kids kind of just feel like rivals to each other like a lot of these kids are brought up as like i'm going to defeat her and that's she just kind of plays a role as a kind of friendly villain more than like a well-developed character which is where the pacing really hurts the show because we get mittens and we get hikaru and we get all these folks but they kind of just end up being

adversarial hurdles to Claire. Like a lot of these people literally meet by kids just running into each other. Like so many interactions are just, oh, I'm sorry. I just headbutted you. I'm sorry. I just ran into you. Okay. Now I'm going to banter for two minutes. You're my rival now. Okay. I'll see you at the next competition next episode. And that's, that's kind of it. Yeah. I totally agree with that. Andrew, do you have any thoughts? Yeah.

Oh, yeah. So the rival stuff is just feels like it's like you said, it's just contrived out of nowhere. Literally, kids run into each other and now they're either best friends or enemies for life. Like and not even like enemies and like the crazy sense, you know, just we're now I must defeat you in the skating battle that we will take place at some point in the future. One thing I do want to bring up is that.

it's really interesting to me that they cared more about Tsukasa skating animation more than they did about any of the kids skating animation, or maybe because the kids are so small and spindly, it was so obvious that they were CG more often than not. Whereas with Tsukasa's animation, it felt like he had like a little bit more care to it. You know, maybe that is the intention, but it felt less CG ish. And, uh,

his animations whenever he was skating, which I thought was pretty cool and interesting. Yeah, honestly, like I said, as I threw, especially through like the first six or seven episodes, I was definitely in the headspace of,

I would rather be watching Yuri on Ice right now. I don't think this is bad. And the show won me over. It didn't fully win me over, but I definitely fell more... Not in love. I just found myself enjoying it a lot more than I was just annoyed with having to watch it in the first place. And so it was just one of these things where I think that a lot of the character moments were...

There was a lot of good character moments, and they definitely knew what character moments they wanted to hit. And most of them involve Tsukasa more often than not, even though they kind of gave him just like this sort of almost, like he said, better than winning the lottery type sort of luck in that regard. I think even...

I don't know. Maybe it's just where I'm at in life. I have a hard time like identifying with the, the, the kid character, um, as well. Cause those are just maybe not experiences I personally pretend potentially had as a kid, or I could like maybe relate to based off of my own personal experiences. And I just, I couldn't find that empathy to like hit it with, get there with her in that regard. Um, so I found like a lot of her stuff, like,

But she did have her nice moments as well. And, you know, when she did well, you did kind of feel good for her. And then when she freaked out, I kind of got annoyed with her. But yeah, for the most part, I mean, it's a, I honestly don't have much to say because at the end of the day, like I think the show is not mid in any particular way. I think it's definitely like a better show, like a good show. I think I wanted more from it in a lot of regards.

And I hope with season two, which I don't even know if I'm going to watch, to be honest, unless forced to, we get that there is more stuff, more depth to some of these side characters. Like,

A lot of the things about the side characters, they felt very surface level in a lot of ways, even when you are going into their minds during their skating points or whatnot. But a lot of these side characters do feel surface level, except, you know, like except for Rio, who is obviously going to be like a quote unquote love interest potentially in the future. Love triangle, I think. Yeah. But it's mostly from his perspective. Yeah. Yeah.

Because he likes both. You know, he likes the girl who's just naturally talented and the girl who works hard, even though he's kind of crazy. But it's also cute when he sees his friend and he becomes like a little kid whenever he sees his friend. He's like so mean to Inori. And then his friend's like, Ryo. And he's like, oh, my God, Bessie. Yeah.

You're here. Yeah, I mean, most of the characters are essentially like, I'm the one who's serious and logical and I think about everything. I'm the one who's passionate and I do this. I'm the one who can jump high. Like, it's very plain. Like, to put into level how...

some of these rivals are. How do we make Inori feel bad? Let's have some random NPC mom just shit-talking her out of nowhere. She's changing in the room, and they're like, wow, you see that Inori girl? She sucks, and she's new, and she's old. It's not even like that. Let's just make her sad for no reason. It just felt forced. Some of the people she competes with are literal just kindergartners because they didn't even want to put in any effort into designing them. They're just like, oh, she's...

competing with other people who are young. Let's just make them children. Literally even more of a children. It's very poignant. I'll put it this way. The problem is very emblematic in the Kanto arc. Not the Kanto arc. The Osaka arc, basically. The Kansai arc. Where she goes to that competition in Osaka or wherever. And they introduce like

Seven new characters. And the only reason you know that they're supposed to be important is because they have actual character designs. Yeah, exactly. That's the only reason why you know that they're important. They don't do anything with them. They have very few lines. They get some moments. But the only reason I'm like, oh, there's the people she has to do something against. Half of them don't even interact with her. Yeah, it's all season two, season three stuff. Which kind of gets me to the pacing of the show. Which I find interesting in that

You know, compare this to something like Chihaya Furu or Slam Dunk. Like basketball games or other games just take a while to show. There's a lot of room for stuff. In a show like this, you're going to do, at best, you're going to get a two minute long ice skating performance. And that's like the culmination of her training for so many months. You can't really stretch that out over an episode or two. There's not really much interplay. You kind of just show the thing from front to back.

And then what do you do? You can't really just show this middle schooler eating shit for three episodes that she learned to do a double loop. Like you kind of just the show very much goes, OK, you saw one competition and let's say four months later. OK, she's a little bit better. Here's the next competition. And it kind of just pushes you along. And I get that in concept. And I wasn't really against it because I could kind of fill in the blanks like, oh, yeah, she's probably working hard in training and now she's a little bit better. Fine. I get that.

But then, you know, you get episode 10 where we get this interstellar leap of, okay, she got injured and now it's a year later and she's won all these more things and she's triple jumping all the way. Like, the show is very much like pushing to get her better and not really spending enough time basking in the trials and tribulations and kind of those inter-character dynamics with rivals and coaches and friends that you would kind of see in a major where you get that slow city buildup of her progress. It's kind of just...

It feels like we're speed running her way to the sport. And I get that because that's what people want to see, but it just felt a little too herky-jerky and getting to the next competition when we all know it's about the journey, not the destination. But I don't know. I thought it could have been, I mean, any slower and people will lose interest. I get that. Yeah. It could have been slower. Easy. Easy. It takes more time. I agree with that wholeheartedly. I felt...

Like it was competition, competition, a little bit of training, competition, the end. I did like Nori's character development, though, throughout. Oh, yeah. I just wish they spent more time on it. Her going from a crying, freaking out worm picker to, you know, letting it all go in the last performance of...

The season was really well done, but the pacing did feel a little breakneck at times. But I think that comes into what was our favorite arc. Probably that training arc where it was just her and Rio and other people just kind of doing ballet or working on this or kind of working together to practice their jumps. And that's where you really saw that transformative nature of sports. The confidence and feeling like she finally belonged after being bullied in school. All those kind of moments.

That we didn't really get that full release. We got it told to us, but we didn't see her emotional journey quite the same way. Like it was nice seeing her mom who had, you know, pretty valid reasons to be like, you know, I really don't want my daughter doing this. It costs a lot of money. It's a lot of effort. She's not really doing well in school. And, you know, my older daughter,

Daughter did this and she kind of had a rough time with it so like you feel for her mom even though she's kind of like speaking negatively and like not unintentionally speaking to children like that's kind of that dual Arc of the story where the adults kind of learn as much as the kids do But we just I wanted more time soaking in that and I think that would have given it more of the humanity I felt it was missing instead of just okay. She picked worms. She fell down once and she's a superstar now also why in the first episode

Did Tsukasa, like, chase her and, like, caught her, and her bag was full of worms. Shouldn't she have used those worms to pay for that skating session she had already paid for? Did she pick up worms? She was saving them for later? Yeah, I think she might have just, you know, got worms all the time. I guess so. Nonstop worm. You get worms on the mind. She's a shadow of Colossus thing. She's looking for those white tails. Yeah, exactly. I...

I also wish we got more time with poor Emma and her pigeons. What's up with that? Just sitting there. Emma will be back in season two, don't you worry. I hope so. I want to understand the pigeon thing. Listen, in this show, your daughter is either going to be this...

spoiled pampered princess who is just snotty and bready and annoying and that includes Rio he can be a pampered princess or you're going to be an animal girl like those are your only two choices so pick a side and not normal animals not horse girls not cat girls not dog girls pigeons that's your choices here I guess Minton is a cat girl yeah she is a cat girl she was my least favorite yeah she looks like she was straight out of a Sonic game

Yeah, I just did not like her. I mean, visually, I thought the designs were pretty good. I thought really Inori's like off model, like emotional characters, like all the funny ways they drew her were fantastic. Like all the expressions were really well done.

The performances were decent enough. They were CG, yeah, but they were fine. The only issue is there were some characters where they would jump and they'd be like, oh my goodness, look how high she can jump. That's incredible. But visually, the show wouldn't really portray that. It just kind of looked like a regular jump. It's like...

There were some missteps. Overall, it looked fine. It sounded fine. I mean, I'm a huge fan of Gustav Holt's Jupiter, which is like the song she dances to. So that was epic. It was very funny seeing this epic sounding orchestra with like an 11 year old kind of just shimmering along the ice. But hey, I'll take it. There's a bunch of funny moments. I loved when they were like at the sleepover at the training camp. And in the morning they woke up like in sleep.

Yeah. Figure skating poses like they were dreaming. Like, I loved little moments like that, which was peppered in from the parents staying up late making uniforms to the instructional booklets that haven't changed much since Tsukasa's generation. Like, I've experienced all those kind of on the hockey side. And being a hockey player, I kind of have that Venn diagram overlap with figure skating. Like, I've seen that process. And the show really did capture a lot of that really well. I just...

Wanted it to slow down and spend more time with the characters, learning and growing and having just better through line and emotional struggles. So that's kind of where I'm at. Yep. I think, yeah, I don't think there's much more to say about it. I think if you like figure skating or looking for another sports anime, this might be one to check out, but it is a little fast and they should have spent a little bit more time on it. Yeah, I guess so. I think, yeah,

It felt too fast and too slow a bit at the same time. I think if they extended out a bit longer, it might not be as good, but it felt like they went too fast in some ways. I think it's just maybe the amount of characters that they introduced. I think the more interesting arcs are the ones where they focus on less characters, right? So the training arc is very... It pulls back the focus on only really a couple of characters. The initial arc really does focus on a couple of characters. That middle episode after the...

when she wins her first competition, the Mako Cup, after math, where you learn the guy's backstory. That's probably my favorite episode because it actually sits with that one character and basically delves into some of his psyche. And there's obviously more, as you find out as you go on later. There's obviously more things that they're going to explore with that character as well. But this was just sort of like his whole little backstory. And I did like later on when they brought back

From the what's her name's perspective, the dead wife, where from his perspective, where she meets up with him and she says the same line. But when you see it from how the husband retells it, she saw him and she went on purpose to do the same line that second time. And she was so happy to find him after not seeing him for so long.

and how people's perception of the same event can be different. But yeah, overall, I think we should probably go into ratings. Yeah. Yeah. You want to lead it off? I always lead it off. I always start my rating first. Okay. So it was a solid show. I went in kind of annoyed. Yeah.

I came out less annoyed. And the show, I wouldn't say... I mean, technically it won me over, but it didn't really win me over in the way that it should have won me over. But it did technically win me over. Given all the things I said, I think you might be surprised that I am going to give this a 4 out of 5. 4... Solid. Dang. 4 triple Sal cows into...

Four triple double loop combinations out of five. And I think you kind of answered the question, but if you were not forced to watch season two, would you?

And do you think it would be better than the first? Unlikely. Okay. I think it might be depending on if they, if they just continue introducing more characters, then I don't think it will be. I think it'll probably be like season one, maybe a little bit less interesting if they decide to, well, we introduced all the characters in season one and now we're just going to like explore it more in season two. Then I think it would probably be a better, the season would be better for it.

but I'm not going to go out of my way to particularly watch it, I guess I would say. Okay. Pancake. What do we got? I went into this with little to no expectations. I thought it was going to be a girl sports bullshit. Came out, was happy with it, and...

I will definitely be watching season two in the hopes that it is more focused on the journey to this competition they've been hyping up with the trials and tribulations of that. So with that, I'm going to give it a astounding three and a half out of five. I'm going to give it three bags of worms out of five. Three and a half bags of worms? Three and a half bags of worms. Took a bite out of one. And sorry, did you say you would watch season two?

yeah i'm i would like to see where this goes i'm hoping that we get you know development of skaters yeah i am yeah similar it low expectations but it wasn't bad it was kind of enjoying yeah some of the rivalries were silly yes they kind of just speed ran a bunch of random people coming in so they can compete against them in the future i get that a lot of these characters are kind of annoying at times but then i'll take a step back and i'm like

They're 11. Yeah. Yeah, they're going to be annoying sometimes. I don't like it, but I think they captured that kind of energy sometimes. And I can't fault the show for having a pretty solid representation of what shit burgers I can be. That said, you know, I didn't love it and then blow me away. It's not really that memorable. I think season two will be better.

But where it stands today, I want to give this show two and a half rotations. But as we all know, two and a half sometimes feels like three. So we're giving it three out of five for an average score of three and a half amongst the three of us, which is a pretty good show. That's a pretty good time. Better than average. It could have been a whole heck of a lot worse.

Whole heck of a lot. So anyway, that will do it for our podcast today. Thank you all for listening. Hopefully if you checked out medalists, you enjoyed it next week. We also have another sports show on the horizon, but it's more romantic. We are reviewing blue box. So two quarters get watching. I need to start.

And with that, just a reminder, check out aapodcast.com. Check out our Discord because that's really the best place to be. Tell us, once again, all of your biggest animal disappointments. I can't speak right now because it's been forever. Support us if you want. We got some good bonus content. Hobby Addicts, Hentai episodes, after parties. It's all a good time. And with that, we will bid you adieu. Have a good week. Have a good life. We will see you in the next one. Bye-bye.