AAA 780: Solo Leveling Wins Everything
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Hello and welcome to episode 780. Dang, that's a big ol' number of the Anime Addicts Anonymous podcast.

My name is Mason and I'm here today with two good friends to make your anime addiction worse. Coming off of the heels of a gigantic war against all of nature, we've got Caroline. Hello. How are you doing? You look very snuggly. I am very snuggly. I'm wearing a thick sweatshirt because it is the chilliest Memorial Day weekend we've had in a while. Yes, I am at war with nature at the moment. Growing a garden, but the animals...

Love it just as much as me. Who will win? Place your bets now. Caroline B. Deer. I am ready to throw down a deer. And we have Andrew. Andrew, who are you wearing today? I'm doing crime in a past time by being a revolutionary Gundam pilot. Oh, very nice. Very topical. I'm wearing Uniqlo. Oh, that's high fashion.

True. And yeah, we're here today. We're live as we always are on Twitch and YouTube. Hopefully it's running a little bit better than last week. My computer was just waking up from its nap and I think that chunked it a bit. So hopefully we're running buttery smooth. Thank you all for joining us. Thank you all who joined our Discord. That's the place to be for all the interactions as well as the links.

which you can also find at our website, aapodcast.com. To our listeners' choice, remember that vote is still up. That determines what shows we are reviewing from the spring season. Please go there. Put in your input. We really want to know what you want us to review, as well as the Family Feud vote. I haven't been told it's closed, so...

I'm going to just keep on doing that. Yeah, it's still technically open. Okay. And with that, I think we are just going to keep on ramming into this show because I think we got a lot of fun stuff this week between becoming vacation planners, inspired, I think, no doubt by my recent trip to Paris. We're going to be talking about if we had to arrange what you would do on a vacation in a specific anime, what would you recommend? And I think we're going to be talking about

as well as a review of Sakamoto Days. So let's just get right into it with Big News of the Week. It's time for Big News of the Week.

Caroline, why don't you lead us off? Because I think yours is much larger in impact than mine. All right. Well, originally, I was not going to talk about anything today. But then I realized, oh, the Crunchyroll Awards literally just happened, like, I guess early this morning or late last night or something.

So, yeah, this year's Curriculum Anime Awards have been giving out the results. And just a reminder on how they do their eligibility. Quote-unquote, a majority of the season aired on television or online in Japan between October 1st

2023 and December 31st 2024 at least in part those shows are eligible and quote unquote moving forward the eligibility period will extend from January 1st to December 31st which is a little more normal because so far like with the eligibility currently it's just not normal

But just to go over some of the standouts from the results, Solo Leveling led the race, winning nine awards, including Anime of the Year, Best New Series, Best Action, Best Main Character, Best Score, Best Ending Sequence, and Best Voice Artist Performances for Brazilian Portuguese, Castilian Spanish, and English.

And by the way, this is solo leveling season one because that's what was eligible. Season two will probably carry next year's award season. What are your thoughts, guys? Man, I wish I could say, oh, you know, I haven't seen much of season two. So I can't while I have my doubts, you know, I really can't say I've seen it. But this is season one, folks. This is season one.

I would argue that most people didn't know that. I think they're just like, oh, I really like season two of Solo Leveling. I'm just going to vote for this right now. Yeah. For a 2023 show to win our 2024 awards in 2025. Honestly, I mean, I kind of, I feel like it's only natural for somebody to carry opinions about a show based on what you've seen most recently of it. So I can't fault them too much for that. They're not going to distinguish season one and season two in this case, even though we wish they would.

I mean, I'm not surprised. So leveling one, I think honestly, season one is probably a stronger season than season two in the most part. Um, and I think a lot of people really enjoy the show and I think they just want, I think they're also probably using this as a stepping stone to get their other web tunes. Um,

to show that there's love for webtoons and probably to get other webtoons adapted, which is slowly starting to happen. So I think this just gets a lot of bias based off of that. I would equate solo leveling to attack on Titan in a lot of ways, not for maybe the reasons that you would think,

I would say that it is a show that is what a lot of people perceive to be different from the, what they consider current anime thoroughfare. And so it gets a lot of, uh, brownie points for being different, quote unquote, from a lot of other anime. Um,

And so people have glommed onto it a lot more than any other of the other things that come out then. And not to say that Attack on Titan is bad. It definitely wasn't as great as everyone said it was. I will die on that hill. But I will say that...

There were probably, and there were actually, actually I say probably, there were definitely better shows out there, but I think like it was discussed in the, the discord server, uh, the regular one. I don't think the private one, but I think it was discussed. Right. But at the end of the day, this is just a popularity contest. Um, and, uh,

More often than not, the Shonen shows, No Hate Against Shonen, are going to do better at the Crunchyroll Awards more often than not. Both you comparing solo leveling to Attack on Titan and solo leveling winning nine awards. I want to say like, oh, I'm not mad. I'm just disappointed. No, I'm mad. I'm angry. I'm pissed off and they can't get away with it. This show is not that good. I think we all know that deep down in our bones.

It's not. It's not. It's not anime of the year. It's not the best new series. It's...

It's none of those things. But clearly I'm in the minority or whatever. I guess I'm too flustered. I'm too brain fried by this happening. What is your anime of the year, Mason? Any other show. I haven't even looked at the nominees. Any other show would have beaten it. Let me go over the other nominees for anime of the year. There was Don D'don, Free Rin, Delicious in Dungeon, Kaiju No. 8, and The Apothecary Diaries, all against solo leveling.

And I'm kind of shocked that Dundon and Freerun absolutely should have taken it over solo leveling. Yeah, I don't. I mean, yes, I cannot speak to the Castilian Spanish. Maybe it was really excellent. I'm not going to sit on some high horse. Yeah.

But no. That's such an arbitrary award. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm just like, that's so arbitrary. But sure. Sure. Look at this. This is interesting. All the nominees for Best New Series are the same nominees for Anime of the Year. All of them. The same. That's actually not true.

It goes to show that at least new stuff is coming out. I guess. And I assume when they say new series, they're not counting things like... Sequels. Well, not just sequels, but things that are...

or whatnot, right? Yeah. I assume that's what they mean by new series. And then, because like Anime of the Year, I'm pretty sure next year, if they put Solo Leveling Season 2 in Best New Series and in Anime of the Year, then you're just kind of like, okay, guys, what is this process? Yeah. Who's paying you? Like, you know? It's the collusion. I guess I think we all agree. No.

Not what we would go with. Oh, no, totally not. Next year, Solo Leveling Season 2 no doubt will be nominated. Do you think it does this well? I don't know. It could be that the hype ran its course at that point. Um...

I think it'll probably get things like... It'll probably get Best Action again, probably. Like, in the Best Action category, the nominees against it were not that... Like, I'm not that surprised that it won against the nominees in that category. No, neither am I. I'm just saying I'm pretty sure it's gonna probably get awards like that again. I think because of...

Was it Jujutsu Kaisen? They're sort of trying not to have repeat winners, if I remember correctly. I don't remember if it was because of Jujutsu Kaisen or if it was some other series. But I remember that was like a whole thing about like... Kerfuffle on why they changed the eligibility. Yeah. I think at the end of the day, this just proves why...

having a jury to filter out proper winners is an important thing. Like, going to an award show that is purely popularity-based yields disappointment to me, personally. Because I'm not cool like you. Except for the AAA anime Oscars, which are voted on by lovely listeners like yourselves. Yeah.

Yeah, but even then, we don't filter that. I mean, obviously, I'm being facetious here. But it is something like, you know, I think you're maybe more alluding to something like the R-Anime Awards, which does do a jury curated list of

but it does allow for, I think there is a voting element and then there's the jury. It's the best of both worlds. There's a public vote and there's a jury vote and you get a sense of how things go. And I think the ability, most importantly, to,

What I value in an award show is the write-ups. Why did this show do so well? And I guarantee you, if we asked the thousands of people that voted for Solo Leveling, why did you vote for it as the best main character? Okay, we need to talk about that. You're not getting much besides, oh, he's strong. Yeah. Let's go over who sung Jinwoo, one of the blandest main characters ever.

For a reason, perhaps. He wasn't always bland, but he became the blandest because he's so OP. Let's see who he won against. We got Freeran, Mau Mau from Apothecary Diaries, Momo from Dandedon, Okaroon from Dandedon, Kafka Hibino from Kaiju No. 8. It's the exact same anime of the year for the shows. But that's not the problem. It's like...

Mau Mau, Momo, and Okaroon, I cannot fathom that. Cannot fathom. I just don't think as many people have watched...

They'll probably do better next year as awards with season two, I think, or part two or core two or whatever coming out later this year, I think. I think they'll probably do a lot better. I think Kaiju 8, number eight. But this is just a thing with award shows. Like you see it with the Oscars or whatnot. There are like the hit movie or the hit show that's going to get like a ton of awards and it's going to win most of the awards. And usually it's when you have like,

crushing presidents like this that feel more fueled by quote-unquote maybe not as the best decisions. They tend to overcorrect in the subsequent year.

uh, before it goes back to this. Like, I think this is next year. We'll probably have more varied based off of if there was even any backlash to this, I don't even think there was any backlash to this, but I think next year might be more varied if there was backlash to this. And then it'll happen again in like two or three years after that. And you'll, you'll see the same thing with the new hit anime. Um,

But yeah, I feel like what most of this stuff, like, what is it? Danda Don was probably in a lot of categories. Freiren was in a lot of categories. Soul Loving was a lot of categories. Um,

you know, and you're only going to find originality in things where they couldn't be put into like best romance, uh, best, uh, what is it? Film of the year, best original anime, things that they could probably not fit into. So you're going to definitely see that a lot. Yeah. But I'm not, hold on. I'm just curious about like, as a music boy, um, what are your thoughts on it winning best score, Mason? Um,

I mean, it's been so long since I've seen season one, and it was so forgettable that... It's Hiroyuki Sawano. I mean, it's a fine score. It's fine, but it's a Sawano soundtrack. Like, it sounds just like everything else he's done, and it's not... Oh, then I changed my opinion. I didn't know it was Sawano. Sawano's fucking great. He wins always. Period. Yeah, but even then, like...

No. Like, I guess I'm just cynical at this point. Crunchyroll continues to get all this money and branding and name recognition and just funnels it into just the most disappointing and pompous award shows that actually has no significant value of... I don't know. I'm just a hater. I'm just a hater. But we love Crunchyroll in this house because of all the anime they provide us. It's a good streaming service. We'll give it that. Whoa!

Of all the streaming services, it's the solo leveling of them. It is a very adequate streaming service that could do us so many things better. But we still love it for the amount of stuff we can watch on it. Just to finish the discussion on the best main character category, it does not help that they have Momo and Okaroon both as nominees. Because that split the fandom of Dandodon.

If they didn't do that, it's possible they could have, at least, you know, one of them could have won, I think. What do you think? That's wishful thinking, and I wish it was the case, but... For reals.

Anyway, that's enough. No more talking about solo leveling. We were supposed to review solo leveling season two, this very episode. Actually, yeah, we were. That would have been fun. And I... And Mason said no. And I was not... I'm not, no. But let's just get through the rest of this discussion on the awards because we have yet to talk about anything else other than solo leveling. Free Rin ended up winning four awards for best director, best background art, best drama, and best supporting character, Fern. Yeah.

Yeah. Sure. Why not? I disagree on Fern. I do not think that she was all that great. I guess I would want to see who the other supporting characters were. Supporting characters were Jin-Chi from Apothecary Diaries, Sen-Chi from Delicious in Dungeon, Himmel also from Freerun, Seiko, so Granny Seiko from Dawn to Dawn, and Turbo Granny from Dawn to Dawn. I feel like I'd either go Freerun or...

any of the dungeon-meshy folks. It just doesn't feel like the dungeon-meshy... Like, it doesn't feel like there's as many supporting characters. They're all kind of equally bracing and are the core foundation of that show. Even Fern...

I mean, yeah, she's just... It's not called Fern's journey to, like, learn magic. Like, she is a secondary character. But supporting characters are always a wobbly mess of, like, how do you vote for them? Yeah, I agree on that. Senshi definitely doesn't give supporting. Senshi, it's a group cast, it feels like. Jinshi, kind of...

I feel like it's more main than supporting. But, I mean, I wouldn't disagree. He's just the brick wall that Mau Mau bounces off of. Mau does so much work in that show. She does. She's single-handedly. She should have won best main character. Himmel is hardly in Freerun. Yeah. Like, he's so supportive, he doesn't even exist. He's from beyond the grave. Spoilers. He's carrying the team. Like, I wouldn't vote for Himmel. I think I probably would have voted for Turbo Granny if I had at all participated in this.

She kind of just rubs me as comic relief most of the time, more than much like adult guidance or banter. I don't know. I feel like this discussion could have been the whole topic, I think, today. It honestly could have, but what else? Yeah, continuing. Dondodon won three awards, Best Character Design, Best Anime Song, and Best Opening Sequence.

I'm not sure what the difference is between anime song and opening sequences. Cause they both won for, um, Otokunoke. That's the name of the song. I think it gives them room to put in like insert songs. Yeah. Pretty crazy things. Yeah. You know, from like those idol shows or things like that. And then opening sequences, or it might just be the song versus the actual sequence itself as like animation and like in relation to the music and not just the music itself. Oh,

Here's the details on best anime song category. This category recognizes a vocalist, soloist, duo group, collaborative recording, or instrumental played during any part of an anime series or movie film. These are songs that get stuck in your head, make you want to sing along, or give you a rush of emotion. Whether they make you move or move you, these are the songs that stay with you. I hate Crunchyroll.

It looks, I'm not totally certain, but it looks like all, if not, most or nearly all of these songs are openings or EDs. Yeah, because most common anime fans couldn't name any song besides the opening. Yeah. So...

And, yeah, just to shout out a few others, Best Romance went to Blue Box, Best Comedy went to Mashal, and Best Slice of Life went to Makaine. So that's kind of my rundown of some of the awards. Makaine, forever in the Venn diagram of romance, comedy, slice of life. Where do you put it? I think it's more slice of life. I mean, it could work as romance, too, but it's kind of more... It's kind of like the anti-romance. It could work for any of them. Yeah, but, like, it...

You can make an argument in any of those genres. And I think it works. I think it's a good show. I think it has a lot going for it. It's just hard to put it in a blue box.

Well, yeah, I mean, to be fair, most of the things nominated in the romance category are a little bit weird, right? So like Scott Pilgrim Takes Off is in there. It's not really a romance show. Radma 1.5 isn't really a romance show either. The only ones I could assume are A Sign of Affection and The Dangerous My Heart Season 2 as well. So when you put in other things like that, I mean, Blue Box is going to win if you base on that definition. I would argue that Scott Pilgrim Takes Off probably should have won Best Romance, but it's obviously not the

the romance that i think they're alluding to yeah it's how did they vote for the best show in the romance category or the best show that exhibited romance i was not a big fan of dangers but i would pick that by a country mile for its romance over any of the others so yeah and dangers in my heart is also in slice of life category there's no rules anymore there aren't any

It's all a trick to make us talk about Crunchyroll for way longer than they deserve. But for those who voted and like soul leveling, congrats. You have a feather in your cap. Yeah. And that's only like a portion of the awards that they had. So if you want to look more into that, it's kind of interesting just to...

see what else was nominated. But once you have a system where people can vote daily and just spam the voting results, you have lost all credibility. I mean, when you have solo leveling win nine awards, that also is a sign. But yeah, you're right. You're right.

Really quick for my big news of the week, I just wanted to mention we got an announcement that ReZero Season 4 is coming sometime in 2026, which is a pretty quick turnaround. Season 1 came out in 2016, four years later we had Season 2, four years later we had Season 3, and now just two years later, assuming it comes out on schedule...

We're going to get season four. Have you guys been catching up with this? Are you up to date on your ReZero shenanigans? What do we think about this? Are we hyped? I haven't seen season three yet. And now I'm not totally sure if I'm going to because as much as I did like season one and season two, I don't remember what's happened. And yeah, I don't know what I'm going to do about that.

That's fair. Andrew, any skin in the ReZero game? No, I mean, I watched season one. I really enjoyed season one. I think I never got to season two just because of timing at the, uh, when it came out and I'm far behind. Maybe I'll catch up on it at some point. I'm surprised it actually made it to four seasons, to be honest. Um,

because not a lot of shows tend to make it to the four seasons that aren't shown in shows. So that is a surprise. I'm happy for it. Maybe I will start watching it again because it reached such a milestone. But yeah, I don't know. I'll probably have to start again from season one. I might have to do the re-versions where they did like, they condensed it down to 13 one-hour episodes with some like the Blu-ray footage or whatever. So maybe I'll just do that. There we go. There's some Rezer I love for you.

And with that, we can go into our main topic, which is something that Caroline came up with. So you want to explain it to the good folks? Yeah, so basically, we are planning vacations in anime worlds. And, you know, just because there are so many variety in the anime settings that we get. So I wondered what would make the best vacation spot? What would you do? What would you eat?

Who would you go see? That kind of thing. I actually had a little bit. It's a very simple idea to think about. But when I was trying to think of ideas to write down, I'm like, oh, I remember this show. The location seemed pretty cool, but I don't remember the details of it. So how am I going to think of what am I going to specifically do there? But I did my best. And I, you know, you guys probably did much better than me. So we'll see what we all came up with.

Yeah, I don't know how to... I feel like if any of us actually watched all of One Piece, that would be just like an easy, oh, here are the five best islands that I would go to kind of thing. And it was kind of tough picking just one. Stop stealing Shonen Showdown ideas, Mason. Oh, oh, oh. I don't know. That sounds like a great idea for Shonen Showdown if Emery and Raggedy are listening. And it's hard because so many shows take place...

on earth so it feels like a waste to be like i would go to tokyo japan where this happened like okay that's kind of lame or like a lot of the fantasy shows you want to go to like made in abyss you're like that is not a place i would want to visit yeah vacation that was the first one i thought about like that would be so cool but i also don't want to die so what do you do about that yeah

So I think first across the board, you know, I think going anywhere, if you could just travel in style by traveling on Howl's Moving Castle, that would just be cool. Just instead of dealing with public transportation or flights or anything, just go across like the Australian outback in a massive castle. Like that would be fun. That'd be cool. But who wants to go first? Who has a good example of a vacation itinerary?

I think my best itinerary comes from Naruto.

So, and honestly, I feel like a lot of the big, long-running shounen shows, those are the best for vacation itineraries because they have so much in their worlds that they have built out because they're so long-running. If I had seen One Piece, you already said that would probably be a good example to go with. But in Naruto, I feel like a few days in the village hidden in the leaves would be very nice. I would go to Ichiraku Ramen, of course.

Maybe the dango shop. I've never had dango before. I don't even know what they taste like, but they always go there. The hot springs. Have you had mochi? Yes. Is it basically that? It's the mochi outside. There's nothing on the inside. It's just the gooey mochi part. And then it's just like coated in like a syrup of some kind, depending on what kind of dango you get. It's just a texture thing. Okay. Still a place I've wanted to go. But it looks very fun. The hot springs and visit the Mount Rushmore of Hokage's.

Because that's just what it makes you think of. And then also do a little outside the village traveling and go to the waterfall of the final battle in the show. That would be cool. Nice. I know some of those locations. I didn't get far enough in Naruto, but it seems relaxing overall. So do you want to go? Yeah, I can go next. So...

The last place I thought of in my making vacation itineraries, and the reason I'm wearing this very adorable tank top, is Pokemon. Is there not a better place to go on vacation for? And there's so many different regions to choose from, and you could pick it based on what Pokemon you like the most, and this and that and the other. But I think at the end of the day, the most interesting one I would pick is...

is the Hoenn region, which is from Ruby and Sapphire. And this is modeled based on Kyushu, the second smallest of Japan's four main islands.

But despite being on the smaller side, it harbors a surprisingly wide and memorable assortment of geographical points of interest. You have large active volcanoes, which breed nice hot springs. You've got these rich rainforests and dune-filled deserts. You've got plenty of water, so much water, too much water, some might argue, and beautiful coastlines to go with it. So much water. So much water. You've got safari zones. Well, it depends on which...

Legendary is active, I guess. That's fair. I was a Sapphire boy, so lots of water. Yeah, there's just a lot of variety to the Hoenn region. So if I had to...

I tried to do like a five-day itinerary kind of thing. So day one, Hoenn region, flying north into Fortree City. Not much to do there, but it's a city in the trees. Like how cool is that? That's Ewok vibes all the way through. Then you go down the river of 19, 118, those routes to get to Mauville City. You can get some banana growing tropieuses. You can get a shark. Like how awesome on vacation if you just went home with a shark. Yeah.

Pretty neat, right? Not many other places can one-up you. Then you hang out in Maulville City for a day. Yeah, it's Sharpedo. It's a shark. It's a shark. Maulville City, bursting metropolis. You got the gym. You got the bike shops. There's two different bikes in this region. How awesome is that? You got the food court. You got the game corner. You got all the combat-related stuff. You got Krooner's Cafe, a.k.a. Gooner's Cafe. So many things. Full day in Maulville City.

Next day, day four, route 110 to Slateport. You got the cycling track thing. It's a beautiful ride. Everyone loves it. And you end your trip in Slateport City. You got abundant markets. You got lighthouses. You got the coast. And it's just a nice relaxing end to the trip. So Pokemon, Hoenn region, five days, north to south, right through the gut of it. That's a good time. You see, you did what I was thinking of in my mind, and I did not do that. So...

Because it's tough. It's tough to find a place that has enough of interest. But there you go. And you can pick up some Pokemon on the way, including a shark. What do you got, Shruggy?

Yeah, so Frigitours presents a visit to the digital world. Yes, the Digimon digital world, because I guess I have to be specific for some of you all. All right, so what can you expect on a DigiWorld tour? Well, literally, it is the best option that you could do.

explore the multiple facets of the digital world. It's lush and varying digital landscapes incorporating both futuristic and realistic landscapes. You see, what is it, streetcars on the middle of a lake. You see

Mountains that are sometimes all volcanoes, sometimes lead to frosted islands, sometimes lead to the sandiest of beaches, the lowest lush of forests. The temperature is always perfect in the digital world. Sometimes it does get a little bit hot, but that's only because you're in

The volcano region. Oh my goodness. Our multiple vacation packages offers a variety of activities for all ages and all types. You want to ski, surf, snowboard, go to the play on the beach, trek through the woods, climb mountains, explore active volcanoes, find a glacial...

You want to go through a weird cave with all kinds of digital, like,

magic lines going through it and explore some ancient ruins that are maybe not so ancient. You can do it all and do them all at your leisure. And honestly, it is one of the easiest ways to travel. You don't like to drive. You don't like to be on a boat. You don't like to fly, which you could also technically do in the digital world as well if you were interested in skydiving, all that kind of fun stuff. Don't worry about it. It is the easiest mode of travel that you can come across and

We will send you a Digivice per person going on this vacation. And all you need to do is open up your computer and the Digivice will take you to your pre-programmed location.

So, Fridgie, you're wondering, you may say, oh, Fridgie, but what about all of these digital monsters that exist in this world? How are we going to protect yourself? Well, each Digivice comes equipped with one Digimon of its own to help protect you on your vacation. If you want to take care of it, you can take care of it and treat it as a pet or

Or you can just take it out if you need to protect yourself. But a lot of our errors can also be, you know, programmed to your own liking. This ain't no VR world where you're lying in a bed and you're trapped there for so long and your body is slowly dying. No, you are turned into data and you are flung through. And don't worry, we got some of the best healthcare in the system. We can just reconstruct you.

Boom. Don't forget, such great locations exist in the world of the digital world. There's a place like File Island, a very nice beginner island. So much activities you can do there. So easy to do in a couple of days. Just maybe a weekend vacation. Don't forget, you've got the Continental Server if you're looking for a more week to two week long vacation that explores like maybe some desert areas. Want to travel the desert? Who knows right there?

Ew, maybe you're feeling a little bit moody and depressive and you really just want to exist in that space. There's the Dark Ocean. Ooh, lots of eldritch horrors live there, you know, if you want to tickle your fancy in that particular way. All this and more on Frigitour's Presents.

I'm not going to disagree with you, but that gave me big vibes of exploring is easy when you have a library card. You can go anywhere your imagination takes you. But you literally can't in the digital world. Yeah. Now, what do you say to the whole existence of like,

people who enter the data scape and are just reconfigured into data, like, and have moral quandaries of them not being the same person they were when they went in. Well, then a digi- a fridgy tours- presents tour to the digital world is not the tour for you. There you go. There's your warning. But I'd say give it a chance nonetheless. You'd be surprised. The price of just being able to snap your fingers and go wherever you want is a price that only your metaphysical deductions is the cost. Yeah.

Caroline, what else do you have? I just figured out I'm not going to the Kelly Clarkson show. Why? Because you're going to the DigiWorld instead? No, because my friend... Okay, so...

Sorry to interrupt. No, this is a huge bummer. Yeah. No, this is way more important. Just a quick backstory. I'm visiting a friend tomorrow in New York City, and she got tickets to go to the Kelly Clarkson show through lottery. She found out that she actually got tickets for Tuesday, not tomorrow, and I have something to do on Tuesday, so I can't go. Yeah, go to a Kelly Clarkson show. I can't go. So how are you going to...

drown your sorrows by vacationing where? No, I'm more invested in what's more important than Kelly Clarkson. You said, Notmare, moments ago on our Hobby Addicts that you had Tuesday off. No, I have a haircut, and I spent so long getting this appointment, Mason. Oh, my. You're giving up Kelly Clarkson for a haircut?

Mason, I have had to schedule, reschedule this appointment multiple times. My dead ends are deadening. Deadening!

I need to get a haircut. Folks, this is the kind of content you can expect on a hobby addicts, not hobby addicts, an after party as well. Yeah, that's fair. All these exciting life moments that you just got a glimpse of in this episode. I'm very upset at the moment. But if I could make myself feel better, I would go to...

the town and Kiki's delivery service because it's so cute and picturesque. It is just...

A beautiful place. It is... The creators of Kiki's Delivery Service literally took the most beautiful towns they could see in Europe and mixed them all together and made this town in Kiki's Delivery Service. Not so many activities to do because it is quite the... You know, it's relaxed, you know?

It's a little seaside town, so you can go to the beach, but I think just spending several days walking around it, just, you know, getting some air, enjoying the bakery shop, uh,

maybe just ordering something from Kiki for fun. Maybe, what was it? What was it that, that, that kid that Kiki is friends with and she has to help him at the end. What did he do? He was like an aviation fan. Maybe there's something to do with that. Maybe if you bribe Kiki, she'll, she'll fly you around on her broomstick. Yeah. I think that would be a nice vacation.

Speaking of which, I'm going to figure out what else I'm going to do tomorrow because I need to figure this out. Well, I also was thinking about, you know, not a vacation of traveling all over a country. And I guess I'm going to glance at the chat and realize that I'm sharing a wavelength with BCom who suggested this as well. But if you want a nice relaxing town to stay in, don't stay in Kiki's Delivery Service where you have this bumbling witch just messing up all the orders and a blimp falling on you.

Head instead, if you can survive another 300 years, to the world of Aria and Neo-Venusia, which is the perfect imitation of the city of Venice, both in architecture and atmosphere. It's a harbor city with narrow canals instead of streets, and you travel along by these unmotorized gondolas piloted by these beautiful folks singing the most gorgeous songs you ever did hear.

And, first of all, you're on Mars, which is badass. That's awesome. And you got two moons instead of a measly one. That's double the moons in Kiki's delivery service. Two? Two. Two. Doesn't mess with the...

With the tides that much, but hey, that's how it be. Anyway, you go around and you can sample different gondola companies, whether it's the titular Aria, Himeya, Orange Planet, and you can just experience all the beautiful architecture of the city from the reconstruction of notable locations as the Piazza San Marco, the Bridge of Sighs. You can see just the gnarliest buildings

goopiest, just chunkiest looking cats you've ever seen. You'll be like, what is that? And people will say, it's a cat. And you'll be like, I don't believe you. And they'll just say, this is how Mars cats are. I don't know what to tell you.

It's all about soothing tranquility, multiple spas, fine dining for your leisure, and if you're into more getting out there, getting out and about learning about something, which is, I know, lame nerds, you can join a day trip to see the salamanders and the gnomes in the sky and ground respectively to see how they, like, actually manufacture the artificial gravity or just the elements that keep the planet running. So,

If you just want a chillaxing vacation, head to the world of Arya, head to Neo-Venusia, and you'll just be refreshed and renewed and rejuvenated. And that's really what we all want from a vacation, right? I think so. Obviously. I mean, I have to workshop this next one. I didn't write it down, but I was kind of... Well, we can work together. We can... So, alright. Do you suffer from childhood trauma? You bet I do. Do you have...

High school trauma. You bet I do. Take a wonderful trip. Frigitors presents Afterlife. The... Oh my god. What's it? Not Angel Beats. Actually, it was Angel Beats. The world of Angel Beats. Angel Beats had some dead people in it. They were all... Go and live your...

exciting high school fantasies from your old, maybe you didn't have the best high school life. Go enjoy what high school life could have been. Has you taken more time to just do the craziest things you wanted to do? Rebel in the silliest of ways. And maybe at the end of it, you know, find some self-discovery and reincarnate yourself into a better person. Angel beats.

I didn't have much for that one, but I thought that was a funny concept. Do you actually have to die to take this afterlife tour? I mean, you don't have to. I mean, you kind of have to, but you can come back as yourself without actually the memories of that world death.

but feeling like you've changed as a person, maybe. I think we could work on that. A lot of your vacations really have you just foregoing the person you currently are and re-existing in a different medium. I mean, there's something to say about being a vacation. There's vacation versions of people and home versions of people. And I'm kind of playing into that concept a little bit. So that's sort of where I'm at with the whole thing.

What better way to escape your life and get away from yourself than by just not existing anymore? Exactly! On that note, I was actually thinking for a second to put Hosokino Reitetsu's world on my list. Because on that note, do you have to die to get down there? Possibly, but it seems like a pretty chill place. Like, a lot of places to explore. I would think of it more as like...

Um, like a more fun, fun, educational trip. You know, it's fun and educational at the same time. Uh, it would just be really interesting to see how people live after death. Caroline, for the people who have no context to that show. Yes. Would you rather vacation in hell or heaven? Um, was heaven depicted in that show?

Yeah, I think they went up there a couple times. That's where like Momotaru was up there. Well, it has been a while since I've watched Hosokino Reitetsu. It's a recommended show. Let me ask you this. I have not seen Hosokino Reitetsu yet, I think. Do you want to see the giant goldfish? The giant singing goldfish that sway in the breeze oh so CGI lusciously. Yeah, that kind of rings a bell. I'm not sure what the context is behind that, though. Yeah, I think he just has a garden of singing goldfish, as you do in Hell. Yeah, Hell's pretty neat down there.

What else you got, Caroline? Kind of similar to that, Kino's Journey. Just do as Kino does and go about the journey. Just travel on long roads with a motorcycle and visit unique countries with their own little gimmick. I think it would be so fun. However, I would be more choosy on the countries I visit than Kino. I would not go to a place that may not let me leave. But...

It would just be really interesting to see how different people live in this very structured world where every country is a gimmick of some sort. Yeah. All right. I got one more for you guys. And this one I went all out on. Now, no one's going to get any of what I'm saying because not enough people have watched the show. But I'm pulling up on Twitch a map of this place.

And this is the world of Akka 13. Such a crazy place. And as you can clearly see, the continent is in the shape of a bird. And it's very adorable. And in Akka 13, the kingdom of Doa, that's the name of this whole continent thing, is split up into 13 wards. And in the show, they bounce around from ward to ward. There's political subterfuge and all stuff going on. It's such a cool show. It's so stylish. There's so much bread in it. Highly recommend it.

But when someone said, oh, make a vacation thing, this is the first thing I thought of. So here's my game plan. And you can use this handy dandy map as a reference. But what you do is day one, you fly into Badon, which is like the beak of the bird. It's like the big metropolitan city. That's where our main characters are situated. So I have like restaurant recommendations. You go to Pond for the donuts. You go to Picadad for their chocolates. Go to Mugi Maki for their flavored breads. And you go to Vert for a high-end dinner. Day two, you take the train on...

all the way to the middle, kind of where the heart of the bird is, to Doa. So this is like the Paris of the world. You just go over all over the place. There's the royal palaces. You eat their specialty walnut cake. It's just extravagant. It's gorgeous. It's beautiful.

Next, my favorite of all the wards, it's Jumoku, just south of Doa. Essentially, the agricultural systems have just run rampant there, and all their foods are mega-sized. We're talking cartoonishly big. Like, this is where, if you had anime food in real life, that's where you'd go to just get the monster burger that you need to unhinge your jaw like a snake to eat. That's where I want to go.

Next up, down at the very, very bottom almost to the belly, that's farawa. And this is like beautiful flowers, kind of

Mediterranean feeling of sorts. It's gorgeous. You're gonna spend a lot of time there. It's very wealthy, but it's got a lot of minerals. It's a good time. Finally, you go down to the bottom. There's like an island at the very bottom. It's like disconnected. You take a ferry over there. That's your like beach day. It's mild tropical climate. Everyone there is like cheerful, relaxing. That's the Aria-esque element of this trip. And then you fly out. So if you've never seen Aca 13...

this will make no sense to you. But if you have, you'll realize that this is just the best vacation in all of anime. It's not fancy, but it's cool. And that's all I got. I'm sorry. Oh, no, don't worry about it. It's a tough topic, right? Because a lot of the shows we are watching or enjoying are usually a slice of life or are just like facsimiles placed on top of the real world that exists already. Unless you're going to something like some of the more fantastical shounens like Naruto for the most part. Like,

I would say it'd be great to visit like a colony in Gundam, but no, it's not like I get to pilot a Gundam or a mobile suit or anything. So it's just like, yeah, some of those things do become difficult, especially for the shows I watch. I watch a lot of Mecha. I watch a bunch of Slice of Life. You know, maybe the Cowboy Bebop

See you next. See you tomorrow. See you. What is it? See you space cowboy. Sorry. I was going to, I thought there was more to it. See you space cowboy tour where you visit different like random places, but a lot of them are like seedy and underground. Yeah. Which is what makes the show really good. Yeah. Like I want to go to ghost in the shell, but like, that's also like cool futuristic cyberpunk, but it's also like dystopian nightmare and it's kind of grungy and you're like, ah,

Or even edge runners, right? Yeah, exactly. So there's a lot of cool places, not ones I want to visit. Yeah. But it was still like a fun exercise, I'll say. Yeah, Caroline, do you have any more you want to share? Yeah, I had one more, sort of online. Frigid kind of alluded to it not being as good as a Digimon tour, but I think if it wasn't a death game, a nice little vacation in Aincrad would be pretty nice.

You know, as it is a video game, plenty of opportunities for fun and relaxing, like beating up monsters, wearing some fun swordsman cosplay and have it not be weird. You can explore the different towns. And I feel like this is the main thing here. You can eat whatever you want because the calories are virtual. You can just do whatever you want and then wake up and go to sleep, eat some real food because you'll be starving, and enjoy the next day.

Yeah, you guys are disassociating too much in your vacations. But yeah, that could be fun. That could be a vibe. As long as you don't get trapped there. Yeah. Because everyone knows the vacation that never ends is the worst of it all. Mm-hmm.

That's what I got. I think that will do it for this wild and wacky main topic. Caroline, this was fun. Thank you for suggesting it. Thank you for making it what it should have been. And I just kind of passed the buck a little bit. But here we go into the weekly trivia question. In the anime Sakamoto Days, what is the name of the organization that professional assassins belong to? We'll head into the news break and give you the answer after that.

Hey anime fans, Mitsuki's here to bring you that sweet anime news, starting off with

Yes, another villainous show. The light novel, Aku Yaku Reijo no Naka no Hito, is getting a TV anime. It's subtitled as The Person in a... Yes, in a villainous. That's right. Another villainous show is coming. Let us all rejoice. Maki Budo began writing this villainous drama in the same place pretty much all light novels seem to be put. Shosetsuka Ninado's website back in May of 2020. It has a cumulative 2 million copies in print, which is...

Seems like kind of a small amount, if you want my opinion. It looks like there's also a manga adaptation coming that's been released since the 2021 November by Nazuma Shiraume, so you can check it out on there. The synopsis is about Amy, who's heartbroken over her own death. She realizes she has been reincarnated as her favorite character from an Otome game, the villainous Ramilla Rose Graupner.

So, shocker, we're being reincarnated into the villainous game. So, if you are a fan of villainous anime, well, they just keep coming, so you won't have to be without them for much longer here. Next up, another new anime is coming out. Hideo Kojima confirms Death Stranding's anime is in production.

So yes, I don't even know that there's a Metal Gear Solid anime, but now we're getting a Death Stranding anime that probably nobody asked for. Death Stranding's universe continues to grow from Hideo Kojima, of course, from the aforementioned Metal Gear Solid franchise. This was announced in an interview with Vogue Japan where he discussed the development of Death Stranding 2 on the beach, which continues the journey of Sam Porter Bridges, which of course is played by Norman Reedus from The Walking Dead.

And while talking about that, he said that they are indeed also currently working on an anime adaptation. So you will get to see some Death Stranding action, which is probably a lot more time efficient than playing the game when that anime comes out. Next up, Demon Slayer sets an unfortunate Gen Z record ahead of the Infinity Castle anime release.

It was announced that a reported cyber criminals have launched over 250,000 attacks using popular anime titles, a number that was almost six times higher than attacks disguised for non-anime films and TV series during the last, about the last year. Demon Slayer accounted for 44,000 of these incidents, which quick math is around...

20% or so so just a lot of attacks coming in from From Demon Slayer, so if you are a fan of a Demon Slayer Well, it seems to be under attack with also Gen Z watching more anime than any other generation They are particularly vulnerable to these malware attacks, especially as the legal availability of anime titles is ever-changing lastly in the news there is a controversial title that is under some fire here and

A webtoon series that is on the verge of getting cancelled a second time following a Netflix production team warning. This is the title that is known as True Lessons or Get Schooled, drawing heat from a Korean teachers and education workers union. So this KTU is concerned over the story's depiction of violence as it relates to the South Korean education system.

I didn't even know they had any kids left in South Korea to educate. Sick burn! Oh no. So, it is at risk of being cancelled. There are apparently scenes involving outright violence with a story similar to a battle-oriented shounen manga. There is a scene or section of this that legitimizes violence by portraying a government-backed character who assaults students under the pretext of protecting teachers' rights and

And the official statement titled violence is not true. Education has the goal of seeing this Netflix show canceled outright. So they are trying to just get this thing canceled. So, which is a pretty wild and is a little bit of a reverse Onizuka, I guess, if you really think about it, when we're in which case the kids are the ones doing the violence against the teachers. This was me, Sugi with some hot news this week, and now it's time to get back to the podcast.

Hey, anime addicts! Well, I bring this message to you every week, but the podcast does need your support. We do our best to keep this show running every week to get you entertained throughout your busy work week. But hey, things are expensive and we need support, so if you want to help out the podcast, do a good thing, get all of our bonus content, you can go to aaaapodcast.com/join or patreon.com. It does help us out a lot. We do have quite a lot of expenses to keep this thing running, mostly IT-related expenses.

But we do appreciate everything you can do for us. If you can't afford to offer any money to the podcast, you could at least tell a friend about the show. But if you do support the show, you're going to be getting our hentai episodes, our hobby addicts, and our after parties, where we do keep you updated on what's going on in hentai. We do get a little raunchy sometimes. And we do talk about what our hobbies are in our personal lives, which usually results in a lot of movie and video game talk. So if you're interested in all that...

aapodcast.com slash join or Patreon will get it to you. Help out the podcast and we'll continue carrying you as well. Welcome back to the podcast. We had a trivia question for you. Nonetheless, in the anime Sakamoto days, what is the name of the organization that professional assassins belong to? The answer is the Japanese Association of Assassins or the JAA. Or JA if you will. JA. JA.

Ja, you know Ja rules. Neat. Awesome. Thank you. Cool. You know what else is cool? Awesome. Thank you. Neat. Mailbags. It's time for an almighty anime mailbag. Anime. Anime. Anime. M-M-Mailbag. Bag.

All right. And today's mailbag comes to us from MD Jabroni. And don't forget, you can submit mailbags at aapodcast.com. Just click on the mailbag button and submit. And we have mailbags for the main episodes and our hentai episodes, if I'm not mistaken. And maybe a few other things, but I don't remember everything off the top of my head.

But yes, aapodcast.com and click the mailbag button and you can send us great questions like this one from MD Jabroni. Hey, AAA, wave. I've been wondering, dot, dot, missing a dot, with the Moe Archangel off being a successful Arthur, author, not Arthur, who is now the Moe-ist on the podcast. And Mason, you did not answer this question, so we're going to...

Surprise you and make sure you answer it now. Oh, I answered the question, and I will. I just wanted you guys to go first because this is not the full part of his mailbag. I deleted his idea of who he thought the Moeist would be, so I don't want to influence anyone's decision. And by Moe Archangel, are they referring to Chiaki? Yeah. Ah. A throwback, yeah. Yeah, throwback.

Personally, I think if we're talking about Moe as an innocence, I think it would be myself. But because I don't want to vote for myself in anything, and also because Moe could just mean as in positivity, I think Otaku Cop got that role. Andrew, who'd you go with?

Oh yeah, it's obviously Otaku Cop. He is essentially Moe embodied on this podcast. His earnest joy at just everything. His earnest disappointment when things just don't go the way he hopes for. That lilt in his voice, the sigh, the...

But Otaku Cop is obviously the Moe. It's that pure elation he just has. Yeah, there's a lot of elements to the Moe-Venn diagram. And I think we cover it in different hosts, between Caroline, Andrew to some degree. I think Raggedy Doctor brings a lot of Moe into the world. But I think Otaku Cop takes the case in some intangible way. And that is indeed who M.D. Gibrone is.

was putting forth as his submission. So I think Otaku Cop wins it. You are, I guess, now the new Moe Archangel, perhaps. I don't know. Does he get a crown? New title, new title. We'll workshop it. I think only the Pope gets the crown. How cute he wears it. But thank you for the mailbag and everything, yeah. But we are moving on to our review of...

of Sakamoto days. This is a winter 2025 show. You can watch it on Netflix and it tells the story of Taro Sakamoto. He once was this ultimate legendary assassin who fell in love and kind of left the organization, if you will. He now runs a store, you know, like a 7-Eleven kind of thing. And he lives a simple life. But people, they don't like that he's doing that. And he has a big old bounty on his head and thus people are out to kill him.

It's done by TMS Entertainment. It's based on a manga.

And Andrew, what were your expectations going into this review? Yeah, I think, I don't know if I was on the Impressions episode for it, but I know I watched a couple of episodes before the Impressions. I probably was on the Impressions episode. Either way, I watched a couple of episodes of it. I enjoyed what I saw. It felt very generic in a good way. And I figured, oh, maybe some more interesting things are going to happen. And so, yeah, I was like, I was not impressed.

I was only saddened that I had to watch it only because I already had watched all of Solo Leveling Season 2 as it aired. And I was like, oh, no homework this weekend, this week for the podcast. I'm sorry. But honestly, when I started watching it,

I, uh, yeah. Impressions wise, like the first couple of episodes, they went by pretty smoothly and I enjoyed what I watched as far as impressions go. Caroline. I knew it was going to be, you know, slice of life with a fun little gimmick, uh,

But I heard a lot of good things when it was announced. And as the show was airing, some people were falling out of love with it. So my expectations got measured at this point. I wasn't sure where I was going to land on it. And for myself, I've read a bit of the manga of The World's Greatest Assassin Rejuvenated as an Everyday Store Clerk. And it's...

pretty fun. It's not my typical fare. It's mostly about the paneling and the action and just how things are done on like a mechanical standpoint. How the manga conveys action and impact, which it does extremely well, but not much else. So I was pretty mixed coming in. I thought it had potential to be fun, but I also, similar to Caroline, but maybe even earlier on, I heard a lot of people being kind of irked by the animation and how it visually looked and

I don't know. I failed it during impressions. I didn't think it did enough to sell me. But I believed, you know, in the full run, it could turn itself around and be something worth watching. So that said, would we, spoiler free, recommend Sakamoto Days to the people who have not seen it yet? Andrew, what do you say? Yeah, totally. I think...

Well, okay, so there's like a couple of answers to this. If you read the manga, you probably aren't going to have as much of a good time with this. I don't think it does anything probably different from the manga. I haven't read the manga. If you haven't read the manga, I...

I would say watch it. For me, it's a fun classic shounen comedy in the sense that it doesn't rely too heavily on ecchi moments to be funny for the most part. I think that we get a lot of characters that have quirks, but at the same time are oddly...

grounded at the same time that makes for a very layered show more so than I was expecting. And to be honest, when I realized it was TMS Entertainment, I

basically the jobber studios, one of the most jobber studios you're going to come across in the anime industry, I'm not surprised. I think where... I think a lot of the problems come from... And I think the same problem happened with Chainsaw Man as well. I think that there's something that you can do in...

2D, not animation, in manga form that doesn't always translate well to motion unless you're going with a top tier studio willing to put in that kind of work. Otherwise you're going to come up with stuff like this. And if this is just an excuse to read the manga then I think

that's not terrible as well. But yeah, I would recommend it if you haven't seen the show and you like good old fun classic shonen comedies. Like, yeah. Yeah. Caroline? I thought it was fun for a couple of episodes. I liked Shin and his ability. I, you know...

It is gimmicky, but I actually thought it was kind of cool more than I thought I would, like in the different ways they were using it. After a while, I thought that Sakamoto Days just became, haven't you heard, I'm Sakamoto, but Sakamoto's a retired hitman, and just defeats the other hitmen flawlessly. It really is Sakamoto in, haven't you heard, I'm Sakamoto. It is just that.

After a few episodes, I did not really find it to be all that entertaining. The characters apart from Shin and sometimes Sakamoto and, you know, those guys, I just thought they were not that great. And I just don't know if most people will be all that gripped by this show for 11 episodes. And I believe there is more coming. So I don't know if it's that recommendable, unfortunately, in my opinion. Yeah.

Yeah, I'm also, to no one's surprise, be a bit of a hater here. Like, there is a universe where Sakamoto Days is a success for me. It has its fusion of Spy Family, One Punch Man, JoJo, and just blends it all together to a really fun, enriching, wild assassin hijink show. But that's not the version we got. And really, besides the basic shounen services that Friggy alluded to...

The show really isn't giving me much. The gags aren't amusing, the pacing is all over the place, the directing is stiff, and the writing, I just really can't express how bad it is. It's some of the worst I've experienced for such a hyped product.

And I feel like this show is being in the sensory deprivation tank for 20 minutes. It's just eating iceberg lettuce. It's just not giving me any nutrients. There's no funny witty lines. It's all so bland. I mean, Caroline brought up the, haven't you heard? I'm Sakamoto. At least on that show, the person, you know, they're going to win, but they're in crazy zany situations and the way that they get out of them is

is always something new and refreshing. Here, it's Sakamoto, oh, he's looking down the barrel of a gun. He's gonna move really fast though and win. Or he's in a knife fight with someone and he's gonna move really fast and he's gonna win. Or he's in a gambling game. Oh, he's gonna move really fast, he's gonna win. Like it's so samey in where they think the gags are coming from. And it tries to marry this violent action with comedic hilarity, but it just comes off as stumbling and silly. And in a word,

Blant in about 34 words the textbook definition of a just below average show It's not offensively bad, but even being generous anything I would give the show praise to it's been done better by other anime and it's just forgettable It just maybe part of it is just I've read some of the manga and I realized that's just the superior version of the story But I got nothing out of this show. It was so lackluster and unfortunately, I can't recommend it to anybody and

Unless, like, as you said, you really just are jonesing for a simple, fun shounen show. But, you know, that's not what I'm about. So, we're gonna get into the details. We're gonna try to really feel out why I feel the way I do. And hopefully, you know, give the show some more love than what I just said. But, here is your spoiler warning. Spoilers! Oh my god! And we're gonna get into the nitty gritty. Obviously, we've only seen season one. Season two, this kind of splitcore thing, isn't out yet. It will be coming out shortly.

So we can't talk too much about that besides projection. But where do you guys want to start? What would you like about this show? I laughed a couple times. A couple times? Was it the pizza assassin? Was that funny?

- I don't know, I can't really remember what exactly the joke was. - Was it the fight in the dinosaur costume? - All right, okay, you know what? You guys are being so salty. I'm just gonna have to like put you guys in your place to some extent here. - I'm so mad. - I think Mason, you come from a, if it's not esoteric or weird background, it's not doing anything interesting and that's why you were always never gonna like the show. And Caroline, I feel like you just come from a place that you're so new to watching anime in some way, shape or form that you just don't appreciate.

I have been watching anime for now 10 years. How is that new to it? I've been watching it for like 32. Okay. I'm not even 32 years old. You can't blame me for that. You're just old. Yeah, I am. I am. And if you've only been watching anime for the last 10 years, you're still new to watching anime, in my opinion. Oh, my God. You're still new to watching anime, in my opinion. That's it. You got to get in on that ground floor.

It's a classic. If you've seen under a thousand anime, you're a noob scrub. If you've seen over a thousand anime, you've seen too much or old hat. Like there's no. Hell yeah. No, I totally agree with that. Yeah. No, as simple as that. But I think that's why you're so disappointed. No, but I think that's why you're very disappointed in the show, Mason, for the most part. I think if you, you, you begrudgingly chose this.

I think you would have... And honestly, if you had stuck with solo leveling, I think you would have had pretty much agreement with everybody here, which I guess makes for a less interesting podcast to some extent. But I think you would have had more agreement with people here on that show and what his failures are, which probably don't align with, as we know from the Crunchyroll Awards, the people's general alignment. But as for Sakamoto Days, yeah, there's a lot of gags. Yeah, I think that...

Can I remember all of them? No, but I remember chuckling through most of the show for the most part. I mean, I was talking to B-Com earlier and he's just like, what the hell is this? And it's a scene of Sakamoto fighting a T-Rex exhibit monster.

from the museum in during the lab arc and that's just like ridiculous on such a level that i think it's kind of fun and funny and the way he's just like i want that for my daughter and like we're gonna take it alive and then he's just like nope this too dangerous we're gonna destroy it and then he destroys it which is also ridiculous as well but yeah anyway i also will refute the whole like they're just one-dimensional characters but

Oh my goodness, these were the tropiest characters I've ever encountered. Every backstory, every sob story was things we've seen a thousand times with the most lamest, crummy hitmen villains. Every character that they described as being Chinese, we got Lu and we got Wu Tong or whatever his name is, it is just like their character designs are...

Like, she has, like, the little hair bun thing. Chinese. He's a similar way. She makes the pork buns, and she knows kung fu. This, like... You can't get more tropey than that. No, here's how you get tropey, Caroline. Let's have...

the token woman on the team. Let's just have, you know, we need women. We just need, not a woman character, just, we need girl. We just need girl. Okay, what is she going to do? She's just going to be constantly in need of rescue. Okay, how can we go even lower? Let's have her be a literal cheerleader. Let's have her actually in a cheerleading costume while the men go out and do things just because she's that just tokenly subjugated to being a nothing burger. Like,

Heisuke was dumb, Shin was just flat. I didn't like anyone. There was nothing. There was no depth to anyone. There was no...

There was no dialogue. Nothing resonated with me. Frigid is so upset with me that he's muted himself. Mason, are you saying that P-Skate did not tug at your heartstrings? That little bird? No. I thought we were free from him because we had his episode. And then we're like, okay, we moved on. Nope, he's back on the team. Everyone's back on the team. Did you not watch the opening, Mason? Oh, I knew. I knew. Oh, the opening and ending were probably some of the lamest I've ever seen. The songs were bad. The visuals were bad. I will say.

I will say the first part of the opening I thought was cool with the letters. When they were just spelling out Sakamoto? Yeah, but it was in the different perspectives. I thought it was cool. You guys are ridiculous. Okay, no. Fridgie, I'm sorry. Tell us your thoughts on these characters and how they are not at all tropey.

I didn't say they weren't tropey. I think that they combine a trope with some backstory that gives them some layer, right? So Sakamoto is the ultimate assassin who basically has a soft spot for his family and his daughter. He has the fun, old... I'm like, I'm a dad. My wife basically runs the household, and I want to make sure my daughter has...

basically everything in the world, but I'm also very deadly and I'm not allowed to kill anybody. I think that works as a multi-layered character. Shin is somebody who can read people's minds and is also a fanboy to Sakamoto, but at the same time, his abilities aren't broken all the time. And he got the abilities maybe in the dumbest way, but he ultimately did care what people thought about him and that's why he ran off in the first place.

Lou is probably is one of the weaker characters, but she suffers from multiple different problematic tropes, being a foreigner in Japan and being a woman in Japan, but also is technically...

stronger than Shin in terms of physical prowess. They give her the drunken master style on top of that. And technically, she could be the leader of a mafia if she wanted to, but she chooses to have a more quiet life after going...

her whole arc being about seeking revenge for the death of her family. And I know they put that on the back burner, uh, as how much it affects her, uh, as well. And then let's see, Heisuke is the sniper who was always told that he was garbage and is just looking for that validation, but he's actually a pretty like top tier sniper. And when he gets that little bit of validation, uh,

He would be the type of person to glom on to the people who have actually shown him that kind of thing. These are all things that we learn about in their episodes. And then when they're not being focused on, they do get reduced to their tropes because they're focusing on other parts of the world. Yeah. Anyway.

You described what the characters are, but that's not actual good writing. I can make up the character. Oh, he has blue hair. He's next door neighbors to the president and his half sister is Japanese and he loves Pokemon. Like I just told you four things about a random character that doesn't give them any depth or meaning or personality. Everything was just so trite and in the manga, the writing is not any better, but it is there to fit cool action scenes, which this drags.

drop the ball on both visually and in the positioning and directing it just was a mess it was a cluster there were so many cool scenes that i would be emotionless for in the show and go back and see that scene in the manga be like yes that's how they were supposed to do it and i can see the through lines but they executed it so poorly so when you miss the one thing the manga had going for it well so i'm not supposed to enjoy about this show well you're not supposed to enjoy this show

You specifically, because this is not the show you watch really good. This was not my kind of show. There's no doubt. But like, tell me you actually genuinely enjoyed the bathhouse episode or the gambling episode. That was so stupid. And I... Those were just so... That was a waste of time. That was not funny. It was not violent. It didn't make me think. It wasn't high stakes. I didn't care about the villain, the main characters. It was just...

The show existed, and it was on, and if I was just watching a dub while I was eating my dinner, fine. I'm sure that's a fine show just to relax you, but really digging down to it in the way that I do, it's like you said, Andrew, this is not a Mason show, and it never was. And I can get behind some silly comedy, but as Mason has so eloquently described, I just, I need more than...

bunch of dumb-dumbs like a lot of them are just dumb-dumbs. Heisuke's a dumb-dumb, Lu's a dumb-dumb, Shin can be a dumb-dumb, Sakamoto isn't a dumb-dumb but doesn't talk at all so that's the main reason of his mind reading abilities because they want Sakamoto to be the cool brooding type without having to talk but they also he's also the main character so they don't want to make him too too boring so they have him talk in his mind but he's still putting up the front of being like the cool type that doesn't want to talk and

So that's the main reason why they have this mind reading ability in there. Yeah, so you got those dum-dums. You got every hitman being a dum-dum in some way, shape, or form. And why are there so many hitmen in Japan? Who are they hitting on? Like, who are the people that just keep on buying these assassins? How much money do they have to spend on killing people in Japan? My funniest part is when they announce that the bounty is out on Sakamoto.

And they're like, oh, it goes out tomorrow. But the best of the best are already going to be at your doorstep. And then like just the schlubs are like, I can kill him. And it gets thwarted in seconds. And I also, speaking of dum-dums, all the NPCs in the show, everyone who is just on a roller coaster or driving along and just... In the bathhouse. These crazy things are happening around them. And they're just like not reacting to it in any way. Like I'm not looking for that level, but it's just too...

I'm blanking on this kind of loose and just silly comedy that just never resonates well with me. I don't know. I'm just a hater. I'm just a hater. No, it's fine. I get it. I hate on all your esoteric shows for similar reasons. I think if it's presented in a particular way, I think you love Sakamoto. Yeah, I think there's the potential here. I think that's all it is. It's just presentation for you in this particular case. It is. For example...

Episode three, they're at the theme park and Sakamoto's daughter Hana is like going around, going on rides and stuff. And there's that like janitor hitman who's coming after them. And there's a pretty funny scene where like

They're walking around and Sakamoto like stabs a guy in the stomach. He doesn't die. Same with the people exploding off motorcycles, but they don't die. And they like whisk him away in the cart and it's fine. In the manga, when they show that shot of Sakamoto, like brutally and ruthlessly, like stabbing this dude through the chest, like,

It's phrased with the camera, like, on the ground. And Hana is in the shot. Like, his daughter is, like, two steps in front of him. And here he is, like, mercilessly taking down people right behind her back. Like, that's his swagger. And, like, hiding his two faces in one panel. Here...

Instead Lou like is like oh Hannah what's over here? So she's completely absent in that shot that like killing blow and really that's the fundamental mistakes that this show has is it removes where that disconnect and like purposeful shifting of comedy and violence goes hand in hand and they kind of try to purely separate those things which makes scenes that are supposed to be comedic just come off as blandly non-violent and these violent scenes come off as blandly comedic and like

separates them and gets lost in the sauce so it's my best way of trying to describe why it works in the manga and not in the show besides it just kind of generally looking not that great i don't know so why did you pick this show mason i didn't for today's because this wasn't why did i do it for this review because it wasn't solo leveling season two i mean there was other shows we could have picked that you might have enjoyed more no this was the most popular show of the season

No, it wasn't. It was like one of the most popular shows in winter 2025. But you didn't have to review this. I'm on the next like seven episodes here. I got to pick something and I'm not going to watch My Happy Marriage season two and I'm not watching Solo Leveling season two. So what else am I going to watch? I don't know. There could have been something, I bet. I'm just curious. Not that he couldn't avoid it anyway in the next several weeks. So Solo Leveling season two was most popular. Sakamoto Days is second most popular. Yeah.

Second most popular. I guess so. I did find the daydreams of Sakamoto killing Shin to be funny. That's where my chuckles came from, is in the different ways that he would just brutally murder him if he did anything wrong. And that was fine the first or second time, but nine times in, and I'm like, okay, we just need an excuse to have violence. I get that the show doesn't have ecchi, and I'm all for that. Yay, yahoo. It doesn't need it.

It does have a little bit with that one. Yeah, that one hit woman. But just like needless violence is like for a gag. Was it much better? Was it as funny as them saying, ha ha, you're so fat. Oh, come over here, tubby. Oh, that blubbery dude. Like, okay, we get it. I don't know. It just felt repetitive in the few jokes it did go back to the bucket for.

Yeah. And I'm hating on the show. I'm not going to give it like the worst score ever. Like, it's still fine. Like, you can follow along. There are some generally like nice moments. Maybe season two gets a little bit better when we actually have decent villains to contend with. Like, I'm presenting it like this is the trashiest show ever. And it's not. It's just I found it incredibly reductive and middling.

Yeah. Any good things? I'll keep my mouth shut. I won't say anything bad. I do think there was, like, potential here for me to really like this group that they're acquiring. Because one after another, like, you get... We're adding more to the Sakamoto crew of ex-criminals.

But if there was just, like, something more to these characters, I think I would actually really like it. Because, like, Heisuke's addition would be really cool if he wasn't so dumb. And, like, now they have this, like, this smart guy from Lu's gang joining the fray. So maybe that will shake things up a little bit in the different ways that they encounter hitmen and all that stuff. It's just the characters themselves. I don't really like them. Yeah.

Heisuke is so strange because he's this... Why does he get, like, all target on his cheek, you know? I feel like snipers are supposed to blend in. All the character designs had, like, some sort of face paint on it just because... Yeah, and in what world would you... Okay, so in what world would there be a hitman agency, for one thing? For a second thing, in what world would they completely...

deny work to a master sniper. That is assassination 101 sniping. You're not going to give this guy any jobs because he can't do anything else but snipe. That is that's a literal job in the armies to be a sniper and do nothing else. So I don't have an army, right?

It doesn't matter! Is just to say that Heisuke has potential to do work in this world where there are hitmen or agencies. And the fact that his whole backstory is that he wasn't given any work because his only specialty is sniping is crazy. But that's not the only crazy thing in this show because once you have a villain made of weapons with patchwork skin...

and wearing a deer head mask all in one. You have just gone too far in the silliness. I know it's a silly show, but that is way too silly. Yeah, I mean, the second Shin can mind read and Taro can, like, lose 200 pounds, like, yeah, it's supposed to be a whatever show. Like, that fun stuff didn't, like, ruin it for me. Ugh.

But that villain did for me. I don't... And that one guy that just kept on licking everything. I hate characters that lick their lips and whatever. That guy. It makes me want to vomit. Do we think season two...

Or I should say the second part of season one will be better. Are we optimistic with where the show is headed? Personally, I think it's going to be more of the same. Yeah, it's gonna be more of the same. I'm actually looking forward to it. But the villain pushes things into little balls now. Yeah. Isn't that so amazing? Yeah, actually, it's pretty crazy.

I mean, I did think it was an interesting question of how you could feasibly crush a whole person into a little ball. That was kind of metal, but... That's pretty brutal. Yeah.

Yeah, the show's going to be more of the same in the second core. And I think that's actually usually a good sign. But then again, the second core is probably conceived as a continuation of the first core anyway. And I, so I don't expect there to be like, because of how it is, I'm pretty sure that's just how the new, the more recent anime processing and creation is. It's going to, it's not like there's going to be a giant boost in the animation, given how close it was. I don't think there's going to be a giant boost.

I don't think there's going to be a much greater change to the story unless the story in the manga does some kind of big crazy swings. Yeah, I think it's gonna be more of the same and I've enjoyed what we've gotten so far. So it makes for a, I'll probably enjoy it. Like I went into this thinking, oh, I think I'll have fun with the show. And then I had fun with the show. I didn't go in with any major expectations. Yeah.

I heard people said they weren't really loving it. And like I said, I liken that back to when Chainsaw Man, where people were hyping the shit out of Chainsaw Man because it looks so good in the manga. And then the anime could barely... just did a fraction of that. And I thought it was still a good show, but people were just, I think, overly hard on it because it just wasn't doing the manga. Which I think...

You know, unless you're expecting, you know, production IG or Trigger or Studio Kara to be doing like some crazy animation on it. I don't think you're usually going to get some of these more stylized manga unless they have like a very specific aesthetic going for it. One more thing I wanted to talk about on my list here.

So, three times over the course of these 11 episodes, does Sakamoto or Shin twist an enemy's neck? Now, most of the time, when you show a character twisting the neck of somebody else, that is a death blow. I'm not sure of many people who come back from a twisted neck, especially when they do it so fluently. They're like... They're like, yeah. So...

How is, are you telling me that all three of them survived that in order to avoid their no kill rule? And if so, did they know how to twist somebody's neck specifically avoiding to kill them? Because that is their most important thing in their lives is avoiding killing anybody. Yes. I think a lot of people died. When I first saw that, I'm like, oh shit, they just killed that guy.

I think a lot of people died. I don't know if it was all the neck twisting, but there was some bail boo-boos. Yeah, like a motorcycle of people blew up. You can survive a motorcycle explosion. Yeah, you could. They did. So clearly. I don't know. It's just they leave a lot of things up for chance here with how important their no-kill rule is. I'm going to say based on because they have a no-kill rule and how deeply they respect it and how deeply they don't want to piss off Sakamoto's wife. Yeah.

I think that they're stopping just enough to not kill. And so it's just like a really intense hit. And to be fair, you say that, but like you've seen chiropractors do that shit to animals like where they just go. Yeah, but these are not chiropractors. OK, OK. Yeah, they're not chiropractors. That's totally the argument. And also chiropractors are doing it very gently and very calculatingly. These guys literally twisted their neck off. Totally. Totally.

Any other thoughts? Or are we ready to score this thing? I'm ready. Yep. I'll go first because I think I'll be the most negative and then we can work our way up. Yeah, no surprise. I really didn't enjoy any of the episodes here. I think it's very middling. I understand this is a ha-ha funny shounen show with a blubbery overpowered main character. Comedy is subjective. If you got a chuckle here, all the power to you. This...

It's just not a Mason type of show, and I didn't get much enjoyment as a Mason out of it. I just felt like it carried very little weight. I thought across the board the production was weak, and the writing was abysmal. I'm giving it two portly meat buns out of five. I'll go next because I'm the next most negative. It might have only been 11 episodes, but I was waiting for this show to end, unfortunately. It was just...

It was unfortunately a little bit of a slog. Not terrible. Definitely not the worst that anime has to offer here. I just wasn't feeling it. There were a couple moments that I enjoyed, but they were just in between episodes of just filler, it felt like. Nothing all that entertaining, nothing all that groundbreaking. So with that...

And also the writing, as Mason said, just not good. When you get Lou saying, and what makes different bad? Different! Saying that to the big villain that has killed multiple people. I'm like, Lou, shut the frick up. Yeah, it's just not that good. I will give this show two and a half Sakamoto's turning skinny in 0.7 seconds out of five. Perfect. Yeah, I give the show three and a half.

Three and a half main characters with weird quirks out of five. I think the show is a pretty standard show.

action comedy shonen show and I think it does it pretty well. I think if you liked things like Gintama, you'll probably enjoy Sakamoto. If you liked things from like probably the early 2000s, mid 2000s, like that sort of years of anime where you get a lot of those like kind of comedy shows with like sort of a shonen bent,

I think you'll enjoy a lot of the slapstick comedy that's in Sakamoto. Is it doing anything wholly original? No, but I mean, what really is these days, to be honest? I think it's just maybe it could have, it definitely could have used some better presentation. Yeah.

And I think that probably would have upped my score, but I don't even think so. I think it gave what it wanted to give, and it gave it pretty decently. And I don't fault it for that. So, yeah, three and a half out of five. Very nice. I don't think we had any bets on our Discord for our show because no one knew what we were reviewing, but there we go. There you have it. We got some positive. We got some negative. That's how we do it here sometimes. Sorry for being...

All gloomy, but hey, that was another episode of the Anime Addicts Anonymous podcast. Once again, head on over to aapodcast.com. Fill out the listener choice for spring 2025. Fill out the family feud if you would so like. Please do. It's much more fun.

Join the Discord. We've always got things going on. Anime clubs. Watch parties. Just random discussions about who knows what. If you're mad about Crunchyroll, if you really like Crunchyroll, put it in there. People love to hear it. Next week. We're still not doing Solo Leveling Season 2. I'm sorry. I'm not going to watch it. But I'm going to watch 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, Really Love You Season 2. And it'll be a fun time, I hope.

Yeah, let's hope so. Any closing comments? Yeah. Another shout out for Anime Club on our Discord. It's open to everybody. We meet every other Wednesday at 9 p.m. ET, though we are considering changing the day and time. We have not done that yet, but it's in consideration. But for now, Wednesdays, 9 p.m. ET. Next club is June 4th, and we'll be discussing the first 13 episodes of Oron High School Host Club, which I am re-watching, and I have to say...

It's still good. It's still so fun. So join us, please. It's going to be a good time. All right, that'll do us. Thank you for sticking with us. I hope you have a fantastic week and we will see you in the next one. See ya. Bye.