Shonen Jump Round Up: RuriDragon is perfect and Karl has a rare Blood disease

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Hello InfoSpear and welcome to Richard and Carl
Presents Deep Space and Dragons.
I don't think we have any deepspace or dragons to present this
week.
I'm Richard failing the premise.

Speaker 2 (00:15):
And I am Carl and I mean, yeah, I mean our topic, if
we ever get there, is anotherShonen Jump roundup and there's
surprisingly few.
There are dragons.
There are dragons in ShonenJump, right now.

Speaker 1 (00:26):
You sounded so excited about that because I
can't think of any dragons.
Oh, are we?

Speaker 2 (00:32):
Well, I mean, there's one dragon and she's not even
really.
She's like a half human, halfdragon.
Anyway, that's not really thepoint, it might get there the
point is that we always, that wealways present our awesome
parody show.
That should not be takenseriously or as fact.

Speaker 1 (00:46):
Absolutely Don't sue us the internet, don't sue us
politicians, don't sue us peopleflying to space on dick-shaped
rockets.

Speaker 2 (00:57):
We always present our Deep Space Dragons with a
little side of what's new withRichard and Carl.

Speaker 1 (01:03):
Sometimes A few times , I'm like, no, I'm vetoing you.
This has happened.
And to find that episode, myadvice is listen to all 100 of
them at 1.25x speed.

Speaker 2 (01:15):
I think 1.5x speed when I watch YouTube videos.
There's some videos that I lovewatching them, like Doug T
Murrow.
He's one of my favoriteYouTubers, but I always watch it
at one and a half times speedbecause it's too slow otherwise,
I find 1.3 is like before itstarts getting too distorty.

Speaker 1 (01:34):
I did Critical Role at 1.5, but I'm a human being
and that's how you do it.

Speaker 2 (01:41):
I have done a few videos at two times speed, but
yeah, it does get a little bithard to follow when you're that
fast, or if you go like 1.25,you're basically in the clear.

Speaker 1 (01:50):
That should be enough with how fast I talk to be able
to follow still.

Speaker 2 (01:56):
But what's new with?

Speaker 1 (01:57):
you there, richard.
So, because my life ismysterious, I'm working on
Redacted Research Project.
I got a commission to write aredacted novel for Redacted,
about Redacted, and it's awesome.
I love when people pay me towrite them books.
That's the best feeling.
So, any listeners, if you wantto hire a ghostwriter, since
I've recently graduated, myrates will never be this low.

(02:18):
I'm not going to tell you whatthey are on air in case a future
employer comes back to bite me,but you can get me a pretty
reasonable price right now.
I'm talking like you can get100 books for the price of a
downtown Toronto house.
Yeah, I did the math right.
I think it would actually be100 books for the price of a

(02:38):
downtown Toronto house.
It may take me five to tenyears to write those hundred
books, did you?
imagine someone's like I want tocommission a hundred book
series, because my story conceptis as long as one piece can you
imagine if they paid you with ahouse?

(03:01):
gambling on that there realestate market.
So I have my graduation comingup soon.
For the people out therestalking me, I got published in
a poetry journal recently, whichis cool, so I have to go to a
lunch party for that.
It's also almost my birthday,which is funny because people
can watch this asynchronouslyand will probably come out after
said birthday and they'll haveto figure it out through like

(03:22):
context clues.

Speaker 2 (03:24):
Uh yeah, it is me, isn't it said birthday and
they'll have to figure it outthrough like context clues?
Uh yeah, it is me, isn't it?

Speaker 1 (03:28):
hey, you just made it like.
Now they have a 1 in 31 chanceof getting it right.
32 of their stupid laughing,laughing, laughing.
But yeah, like between havingcommissioned writing work and
research work and my naturalinclination to only go into the
sun once or twice a day, I'mliving a pretty ideal summer at

(03:50):
the moment.
Can't complain about it.
So what's new in the Carlverse?
All happy, fun times, right.

Speaker 2 (04:00):
Well, I mean first little mini movie review.
Final Destination Bloodlinescame out this month.
Another clue as to what monthit is when this video was
recorded.

Speaker 1 (04:14):
Oh man.
I do enjoy the idea of someoneplaying detective to figure out
my birthday through this and notjust Googling Richard Kivas and
seeing if they can find it.

Speaker 2 (04:23):
So my fiance and I have decided to watch the Final
Destination movies and so farwe've just watched one and two.
Number one, I think, holds uppretty good.
There's a few weird writingchoices, but for the most part
it's pretty good.
Number two is kind of getting alittle bit cheeky.
It's not campy but it's kind oftaking itself less seriously.

(04:44):
And number three I'm startingto think that maybe number three
will start to get like Becauseeverybody watches Final
Destination just for the crazy,gory, insane ways that people
die.

Speaker 1 (04:56):
So Final Destination.
Here's my hot take of FinalDestination.
It is a good drinking movie inthe sense that you can like
easily speculate during it whowill die, what order and how.
So it's like it's a fun movieto watch in a meta context.
But I don't think I'd enjoy itWatching it silently with people

(05:17):
who cared about the movie, likeif we were watching with people
who didn't care about the movie.
I think it's actually a prettygood franchise Because it's
stupid.
But it's like I don't want tosay clever, stupid, that's too
much credit but like the puzzleof oh, there's a logging truck
in front of you, that's what'sgoing to do it.
Oh, is it the Ferris wheel?
Oh, is it the snake?
So it has a certainsatisfaction.

Speaker 2 (05:42):
See, then I'm at work , right, and I I'm climbing up a
ladder to change what?

Speaker 1 (05:51):
did I tell you about doing any physical activity at
all right now?

Speaker 2 (05:55):
He says I'm climbing up a ladder to try and pull down
light covers.
I can do a sidebar here.

Speaker 1 (06:03):
So I had a conversation with a dear friend
of mine today a mutual friendand I explained some things
about how certain individualsare weak to paper cuts right now
and I'm concerned they're goingto get themselves killed
because of how they live theirlife and are always in danger.
Now please, continue yourunrelated story.

Speaker 2 (06:25):
So I'm climbing up the ladder and you have to pull
these tabs to swing the lightcover down and then kind of lift
it up off the hooks and bringit.

Speaker 1 (06:35):
You have to like Carl don't speak down to our
audience.
Obviously, everyone who's everwatched an episode knows how to
change a fluorescent light cover.

Speaker 2 (06:45):
Well, no, they're recessed.
They suck royally, but one sideis sharp and pokey.
Ah, I don't know why they do it.
Does it help diffuse the light?
I'm not sure, but it's the sidethat points down, and so you

(07:06):
have to like carry it.

Speaker 1 (07:07):
You have to climb back down the ladder with yeah,
I took one of those across thepalm of my hand one time and
just shredded it.

Speaker 2 (07:13):
It was like full cheese grater damage and then
you have to, like, you know,like spray it off because it
gets all dusty, and then youhave to climb back up the ladder
to try and put it back in.
And you know, it's bright lightin your eyes, it's not diffused
by the light cover anymore.

Speaker 1 (07:36):
Yeah, you're not presidential enough to stare
directly into the sun during aneclipse.

Speaker 2 (07:40):
But then so I get the light cover back in and I am
having trouble in the last clipto actually clip back in place.
And yeah, I cut myself tryingto put this thing back in.
I thought I was going to cutmyself on the sharp pokey side
of it, but I actually cut myselfon the rim around the light

(08:05):
cover.
And yeah, I mean I have amedical condition right now
where I have a low plateletcount and so it's like it's just
a tiny little scrape but itbled for like three hours and
I'm at work and I'm like I don'tknow it doesn't seem that
serious, but should I go to thehospital?

Speaker 1 (08:21):
I don't know.

Speaker 2 (08:24):
I didn't, you were under specific instructions to
not do this spoiler alert I, Idid not die.
Are you still bleeding, though?

Speaker 1 (08:35):
no, no, I'm not bleeding anymore because, like
so my brain's been enjoying theanime trope of okay, I guess
carl now has blood powers andate the blood blood fruit.
Because, like, as like an animeside effect like oh, my nun
ability is a control blood butthe side effect is I have no
platelets makes a weird amountof like somatic sense.
But like I just have thismental picture where you're just

(08:57):
never not bleeding now and it'slike your solution isn't to
like get treatment, it's okay,better chug some electrolytes
and try to make sure my body'sproducing blood at the rate I'm
losing it.

Speaker 2 (09:10):
I am getting treatments.
I just haven't watched FinalDestination.

Speaker 1 (09:16):
It's kind of like that's such a fun interactive
novel idea though, where it'slike you have this condition
where any injury kills you, andthen you get like the
interactive visual novel.
Of which thing do you think'sgonna kill you?
That's actually like thisvisual novel design, by the way,
is every prompt is like youhave to pick the one that

(09:38):
doesn't kill you and they're alllike spiky lip rough edges I, I
.

Speaker 2 (09:44):
I'm not sure whether or not watching the final
destination franchise is makingme feel better or worse about my
, my uh condition worse but I dothink that the medicine is
actually working, uh, and I amgetting getting better.

Speaker 1 (09:59):
So, um, you know, that's, that's the good news see
the thing is, it's like I wantto be emotionally supportive,
but you're also carl, so it'slike I can't just be like I'm
concerned, my friend could die.
I have to be like I'm concerned, my friend could die because
he's a bitch.
Like I can't just be concerned,like I'm like I was fully

(10:21):
prepared for the what's new withme, to be like oh, I took out a
life insurance policy in Carl'sname for Carl.
So how's it going?
Friend, you should reach forthis candy I put at the bottom
of this jar of knives, liketoday.
I'm like has he had this hiswhole life?
Did I nearly kill him with asword?
Fight by pushing him into athorn bush a decade ago.

(10:42):
And if so, fight by pushing himinto a thorn bush a decade ago.

Speaker 2 (10:44):
And if so I mean, I do think I might have had thin
blood for a long time, but Idon't know if I've had it my
whole life or not.
It's tough to say.

Speaker 1 (10:54):
I'm pretty sure that's exactly what killed Mr
Svartengu.

Speaker 2 (11:02):
But I mean, yeah, besides that, you know what's
probably a?

Speaker 1 (11:05):
red flag for our friendship.
I have such faith you're goingto tell the entire world your
private medical problems.
I set up several bits inadvance for it.
I'm like I have such completefaith this is going to come up.
I'm going to do nothing butmake preemptive homages to it.
That only I'll find funny, likeI was going to be.
Like, did you really make thecut today?

(11:26):
Did you get through with aclean bill of health?
What really sucks.

Speaker 2 (11:32):
So far, so good.

Speaker 1 (11:35):
Well, it's kind of funny because, like for one of
my research projects, I've hadto listen to a lot of like
medical stuff lately One of mynatural weaknesses.
So I was like reading anarticle about getting a heart
pump installed and I'm likeeither this will kill me or I'll
develop tolerance to thesethings.

Speaker 2 (11:53):
Yeah, I mean I've heard that they are using 3D
printing to create like atitanium lattice that you can
use as a joint replacement.
So then the bone will actuallygrow into the lattice and it'll
be not organic, isn't the rightword but you're definitely a
cyborg, and it's that's sick.

Speaker 1 (12:13):
More integrated, I guess.

Speaker 2 (12:16):
I don't think that's going to help me in my situation
, but medical technology isadvancing and it's kind of crazy
the things that can be donenowadays you are so close to
being a Morbius, though, likeI'm pretty sure the exact plot
was he had a rare bloodcondition and he gave himself
vampire bat powers for thatspecific reason.

Speaker 1 (12:35):
I mean, if anyone's going to be using morbid time,
it's you.

Speaker 2 (12:44):
Alright, we ready to move into a show and jump
roundup I was just gonna I wasgonna transition by saying that
I don't think there are anyvampires in shonen jump right
now that's wild, you like.

Speaker 1 (12:58):
I'm gonna have to use generative ai technology,
because this is a weird question.
What percentage of Shoin Jumpruntime has had a vampire in it?
So to quickly answer thisquestion, with some vampire

(13:24):
series, jojo's had a vampirefrom 1987 to 1989.

Speaker 2 (13:31):
Isn't Dio still actually a vampire?

Speaker 1 (13:34):
Yeah, but I don't know if we're still counting,
like I don't know whatpercentage of JoJo's counts as
having a vampire in it, anyways,and then they had Seraph of the
end in there from 2012, whichhad vampires in it seraph of the
end.

Speaker 2 (13:50):
I think it's still ongoing, isn't it?
Yeah yeah demon slayer they'renot vampires but they're vampire
adjacent.

Speaker 1 (13:59):
But apparently only less than 10% of show and jumps
runtime has had a vampire in it.
Huh, because risotto vampirewasn't in jump.
Only less than 10% of Show andJump's runtime has had a vampire
in it Because Risotto Vampirewasn't in Jump.
Seraph of the End wasn'ttechnically in Jump it isn't.
And Hellsing wasn't in Jump.
So yeah, and Chainsaw man isrelatively vampire resistant.

Speaker 2 (14:24):
Yeah, chainsaw man is definitely not about vampires.
Even the Blood Demon or theBlood Devil is relatively
vampire resistant.
Yeah, chainsaw man isdefinitely not about vampires.
Even the Blood Demon or theBlood Devil is not a vampire.

Speaker 1 (14:30):
The Bat Devil had vampire vibes but like so,
vampire free, not exorcist free,but getting an exorcist
reduction.
So I'm going to talk about andI'm going to talk about it
briefly, but I'm going to starton World Trigger.

Speaker 2 (14:47):
OK, what do you want to hate on World Trigger about
today?

Speaker 1 (14:51):
So they're like the bottle episode ends in one day,
but apparently they're doinglike a 24 hour calendar day.
So I'm like, fuck off, yeah, Iuse my F-bomb for that.
And then we get to part two andI'm like I forgot what this
exam in two phases.
What's part two?

(15:11):
And I'm like I forgot what thisexam in two phases.
What's part two?
Please tell me.
It's action based, the amountof money I'd pay for an alien
invasion to happen right now,instead of it going into another
wave of exams because, like, Idon't actually know if the exams
have taken up an egregiousamount of time or it's just that
its release schedule gotdelayed by so much that it feels
like it's been egregious.

Speaker 2 (15:27):
It's definitely been a significant number of chapters
spent on this bottleneck, whichreally highlights some of the
issues that World's Record has,which prior to the bottleneck it
just was a bottle test.
It had issues, but you couldstill focus on a few main

(15:49):
characters and they were stilldoing cool and interesting
things.
But now it's like they'retrying to get you to focus on
everybody talking about howeverybody's doing.
It's just so much telling andnot showing.

Speaker 1 (16:02):
So here's what I'm going to say about World Trigger
, and this is a controversialstatement.
If World Trigger has theruntime of One Piece, it can get
away with this arc.
So if World Trigger goes for750 more chapters, this goes
from being the entire length ofFullmetal Alchemist spent in a
bottle cap to being a singulararc.

(16:25):
And, like, if World Trigger hasa truly comically long runtime,
then it was worth getting toknow all of the characters,
right, right, because then wespent all this time with all
these characters and then, ifthey all start going off on
missions, scattering, dying,whatever, this did a lot,
because there was about 50chapters I'd say probably so
like a fifth of the series.

(16:46):
If the series goes long enough,then it was worth getting to
know the characters at thislevel of depth, right, right.
However, if world trigger onlygoes to 300, this is a colossal
waste of my time and a waste ofa series, because you could have
fit the entirety of FullmetalAlchemist in here.

Speaker 2 (17:05):
It's just so sad because I mean A, it's unlikely
for any series to go past 300, Ithink, especially with a
release schedule like WorldTrigger.

Speaker 1 (17:16):
It's released one or two chapters a month, but then
also it's like it has so muchpotential at the start but yeah,
that's kind of my weird hottake like I think it can, on a
long enough timeline, recoupfrom this, but I don't think
it's going to right, like Idon't think it's going to

(17:39):
outlast the run times of dragonball and bleach and things.
I just don't think it has it init.
But what's weird is it's doneso much world building and lore
building, I believe it could runthat long without the story
imploding.
That's kind of my hot take isthe scope is big enough that it
actually has enough story tosustain a thousand chapters.

Speaker 2 (18:01):
Yeah, I mean I wouldn't be surprised if the
author has like a Tolkienianlevel of world building and like
probably even has alienlanguages that he's developed,
that it's like eventually oneday we'll see all of the hard
work and like history textbookof this fictional world.

Speaker 1 (18:24):
But let's move along to Mor trigger so that's me
being like I'm being kinder onit than it deserves, because I'm
like is the bottle test almostover?
Please let the bottle test beover, all right.
So the next one is black clover.
Black clover just kind ofstalled out completely.
It needed to go weekly to keepmy investment.
Sorry, black Clover.

Speaker 2 (18:45):
I kind of agree.
The chapters aren't really thatmuch longer, so it doesn't
really have the extra content tobe like yeah, this is worth it.
I get that the author neededmore time to be able to live his
life and not die, but it is sadalso.

Speaker 1 (19:05):
Also, black Clover has always just just been one
piece with wizards.
It's just Naruto and One Piecefused together, set in wizard
land.
He wants to be the wizard kinginstead of the Hokage.
It's probably more Naruto thanit is One Piece.

(19:26):
I'm going to say Black Clover'sjust Naruto, pretty much
straight up.

Speaker 2 (19:33):
Yeah, I think it really hasn't done anything
wrong, but it really hasn't doneanything exceptional either.
It filled a void that was leftby Naruto.

Speaker 1 (19:44):
And then the Marshall King angers me.

Speaker 2 (19:49):
I was going to segue into Boruto, but oh, let's go
into Bort.

Speaker 1 (19:53):
Oof, I have infinite thoughts on Bort.
It's a black clover, worse thanNaruto, better than Boruto,
pretty comfortably put it inthat range.

Speaker 2 (20:03):
Boruto could not fill the shoes of its predecessor,
that is for sure.

Speaker 1 (20:06):
So I gave this talk a while back while helping,
working on a project, editingsomething, and while playing
through the fantastic Expedition33, claire Obscura, and it's
like the best pieces of mediaare about something.
Boruto's not about anything,it's just member berries.
It's like ooh, look, watch usreference things that were cool,

(20:29):
like even Boruto teleporting.
They're like ooh, look, he'sbasically, but not really, using
the lightning, flying lightningtechnique.
Isn't that cool?
And I'm like no, oh, look, shehas Mangekyou's Showering Gun,
despite us explaining why thatcan't happen.
And I'm like not only did youdedicate a truly obscene amount

(20:49):
of screen time into explainingwhy she shouldn't have this
power right now and the sideeffects this power should have
you forgot to give her acharacter, a personality,
motivations, or have her passthe bechdel test, or has not
passed the bechdel test in itsentire runtime.
No two female characters had aconversation.
That's not about a malecharacter.

(21:10):
I'm not entirely sure Narutopassed it.

Speaker 2 (21:18):
Yeah, you're probably right.
I don't think Naruto passed thetest either.

Speaker 1 (21:22):
It's like I think I'm giving this speech where, for
Naruto, every fight built onitself, every technique was a
setup for the next technique tokind of like remix things, and
they really only gave charactersone trick or two with the like
specific notion that these weregoing to be used to murder
people.
Right, so like you're, like,okay, he makes clones, turns

(21:43):
clones into things, oh, turnedhimself into the clone into a
thing to do, a shuriken.
That's cool.
Oh, you learned a death ball.
Oh, he grappled them with theclone to hit them with the death
ball.
And then even you get to likethe sick moves of like, oh, he
has a wind death shuriken underthe other wind death shuriken
that's actually hit.
Like everything he did built onitself and it was sick.

(22:05):
Boruto is going through so muchand so little at the same time.

Speaker 2 (22:12):
Yeah, so they had this whole big thing about his
planetary rotation, rasengan.
And then you know, he goes anduses it on the big bad and the
big bad's like, oh cool, I justbeat your move.

Speaker 1 (22:27):
So my problem isn't even that though.
So my problem isn't planetaryrotation Rasengan.
My problem is Boruto is beingaired like a highlights reel,
not like a series, so there's noemotional connection to the
planetary Rasengan.
So original Rasengan was hemeets Tsunade, who's like hey,

(22:51):
jiraiya says you're a big deal,come back to the city.
And he's like I hate all of youbecause my little brother died.
And so you get.
Naruto has seven days to learnthis to get this person to join
the village.
But really it was.
Naruto wants to prove to thisperson that says he village.
But really it was.
Naruto wants to prove to thisperson that says he's a scrub
that he's not a scrub, right,and then while he's doing this,
he watches his buddy sasuke getowned by his older brother.

(23:14):
He's like no, I need to provemyself.
And then lands a hit on kabutowith it, and the whole thing was
like every character there hada motivation to be there, right,
it wasn't.
And then storytelling.
It was because of storytelling.
Orochimaru was there because hegot his soul arms ripped out,
because his plan failed, becausehis sensei didn't trust him,

(23:37):
because he was a rap bastardwhole structure there.
Doraya was there only becauseNaruto reminded him that, hey, I
should probably care about mystudent's kid and do my job,
right.
And then Tsunade was going tosell them both out.
It's like no, no, this kid'sworking hard.
I feel kind of bad screwingover this kid.
I don't feel bad screwing overJiraiya Fuck him.

(23:59):
But every character's arc forhim learning the Rasengan was
built on not only previousexperiences in this show but
character motivations.
Everyone was there for a reason.
I don't know the names of thesenew sand characters that showed
up for no reason.

Speaker 2 (24:17):
Nor do I care about.

Speaker 1 (24:17):
Koto Hamaru's tree clone girlfriend, because Koto
Hamaru's actions were not whatresulted in a tree clone
girlfriend.
Boruto's actions were not whatresulted in a tree clone
girlfriend.
Boruto's actions are notresponsible for the actions of
the characters in Boruto.
He hasn't shaped the plot ofBoruto in any way, that's true,
so it's impossible to care about.

(24:39):
And, of course, oh, go ahead.

Speaker 2 (24:44):
Well, I mean, it keeps coming out monthly and
it's like I gotta it's a.
That's definitely one of thosesunken cost fallacy series where
it's like we've invested thistime already.
I'm too invested to just giveup.
I want to see how bad it gets,you know right.

Speaker 1 (25:00):
But like that's my main thing is that they went for
this like fate of the universescope to keep power scaling
their show, but forgot to writecharacters.
The villains literally don'thave personalities.
So one of the best writtencharacters in early Naruto that
got people into the series wasZabuza.
Because Zabuza was like, hey,this is an evil ninja, but he's

(25:22):
just doing his job.
He's not malicious, he doesn'thate our protagonist, he's just
doing his job.
He's not malicious, he doesn'thate our protagonist, he's just
doing his job.
And then his minion dies.
It's like you let your frienddie, your friend die, you're a
terrible person.
And then Zabuza sheds a tearand he's like, yes, I loved my
minion, but we're ninjas andthis is our job.
That was great because werooted for Zabuza and we rooted

(25:42):
for Kagashi, because we wereinvested in both characters.
Mm-hmm, no, boruto charactershave Villains, have
personalities whatsoever.

Speaker 2 (25:53):
That is definitely true.
But you know what charactershave tons of personality.
I'm listening All thecharacters in Chainsaw man.
Chainsaw man is so like.

Speaker 1 (26:03):
So Chainsaw man is wild right now because I'm like
Denji's getting character growth.

Speaker 2 (26:10):
He's here not molesting people.

Speaker 1 (26:12):
Way to go.
Denji.
Denji's aware this is toxic.
Yeah, Denji's had insanecharacter growth over the last
20 chapters.
And then just generally insanethings happening in Chainsaw man
is just Chainsaw man is Suchperfectly orchestrated chaos,

(26:34):
like I brought this up in one ofmy classes when we were talking
about body org, and it's likemy prof asked me a question Do
you recommend Chainsaw man?
And my answer, which I'manswering to our audience here
as well, is you have to go intoit analytically.
If you read it surface levelit's trash, but if you analyze

(26:57):
it it's fascinating trash.
It is the most interestingtrash because it's like, yeah,
it's so, it's the weirdest thing.
I I think I've given this rantbefore that a lot of fan service
in anime is hyper chaste butalso like super inappropriate
where chainsaw man is actuallysexual and awkward and

(27:18):
uncomfortable and gross right.
So like to compare to likelet's go hematan, that one, the
weekly series about the makeupinfluencer and their housekeeper
boyfriend who's torn betweenhis other love interest because,
honestly, he's actuallysurprisingly dateable.
Like that one I kind of give tothem.

(27:40):
It's like what's your skill set?
Oh my, I'm passionate aboutcooking and cleaning and being a
good housewife is kind of giveto them.
It's like what's your skill set?
Oh my, I'm passionate aboutcooking and cleaning and being a
good housewife is kind of likea all right, I can see the
appeal here.
Like your skill set isliterally dateable, but like
that series will be like here'ssome uncomfortable fan service
but never actually like havecharacters interact and it's

(28:01):
like no chance on.

Speaker 2 (28:01):
Man is written by an adult for adults, so it's like
this is a super uncomfortablegrooming relationship and
they're being very clear aboutthis well, and the other thing
is like it's hard to tell whatchainsaw man is about, but it
does feel like it's trying tomake a social commentary I know

(28:24):
exactly what chainsaw man'sabout.

Speaker 1 (28:25):
I guess it's not subtle.
Chainsaw man is straight upabout puberty and how external
influences affect someone goingthrough puberty.
Denji's not subtle metaphor ofturning into a literal murder
chainsaw.
It's literally just the storyof how society affects hormonal

(28:45):
teenagers.
The first season was literallyabout what happens if you follow
the rules when you're ahormonal teenager and learn that
society is just trying toexploit you.
So it's like it's a reallyhonest reflection of teenage
development, probably one of themore honest ones I've ever seen

(29:06):
.
Like this relationship rightnow we're like both of them kind
of like each other, I guess,but are just kind of together
via inertia and both have thingsthey actively dislike like each
other, I guess, but are justkind of together via inertia and
both have things they activelydislike about each other.
I'm like this is by far themost believable relationship in
manga.
Like I'm like I see every partangle that's going on here and
it's like, yeah, this is liketoxic, terrible and ineffectual.

Speaker 2 (29:30):
This is exactly what a relationship at 16 looks like
so, like just the, thecharacters have so much depth
and motivation.
They have like like you weresaying about naruto and boruto,
it's like the characters havereasons to be there and doing
the things that they're doing.
Um, and they're they're just,they're very full-bodied and I

(29:55):
think I really recommend it.
I do I recall, uh, afterreading the first arc that you
had actually like you were like,oh, this is trash.
I was like, but wait, it's,it's kind of awesome.
And then now it's like you,you're recommending it to
professors because it's so, ithas so much depth.

Speaker 1 (30:13):
But I do have to put the it's trash, but it's so.
The main thing, too is like itended really satisfyingly and
I'm like all right, let's seehow you.
I think the moment I got soldon Chainsaw man is when they did
a time skip and put in Asta andI'm like okay, I see where
you're cooking with this.
All right, you got me, I'mlistening.

Speaker 2 (30:35):
Yeah, because, like Denji, still is unequivocally
the main character, but it'salmost a dual-tag in this series
now.

Speaker 1 (30:42):
And it's like that is exactly what it needed to be
fresh for the new season.

Speaker 2 (30:47):
So like yeah.

Speaker 1 (30:47):
I have to revoke my Chantelman's trash statement.
It's art, I'm sorry, universe,it is.
It is simply art I lost.
So to move into something else,that's simply art.
Kaiju, number eight is justgood.

Speaker 2 (31:06):
Oh it's.
I mean it's getting so close tothe end.
It's been confirmed that it'svery, very nearly done.
I find the release scheduleseems to have.
The release schedule seems tohave slowed down quite a bit.
I mean it's getting so close tothe end.
It's been confirmed that it'svery, very nearly done.
I'm fine with that.
The release schedule seems tohave slowed down quite a bit and
that makes me a little bit sad.

Speaker 1 (31:19):
Yeah, but like I get it.
He's putting everything he'sgot into like His artwork went
up to like Saitama vs Garouquality Mm that is definitely
true.
I do think it slowed down so wecould draw more elaborate final
fight sequences.
Yeah, as she was using thesniper eyes with the sniper
rifle to line up the hyper megadeath cannon to then punch the

(31:42):
core.

Speaker 2 (31:43):
I'm like this is sick so like, and it's like right
around my between 100 and 150chapters that's what I have
always said is a good length fora series, because you go past
that and you end up losing focus.
But this has stayed veryfocused, very on brand, and one

(32:07):
of the things that you've saidabout it is that it's nice that
the protagonist is actually anadult and like to loop back.

Speaker 1 (32:14):
Yeah, so, like on earlier episodes of show and
jump round out.
I focused on protagonists, soI'm kind of like focusing a bit
on antagonists this week, justcause Cause I was having that
thought about the differencebetween Boruto and Naruto is
largely antagonist and pacing.
So Kaiju, number eight forbeing villain of the week, has

(32:35):
really only had the one villain.
Yeah, it's kind of just beenthe mushroom man this whole time
.

Speaker 2 (32:44):
I mean he had like a super villain buried inside him.

Speaker 1 (32:48):
But yeah, and I'm like okay, like a lot of what
they've set up, or it's likeyeah, this is just just peak,
just good anime, good manga, nofurther notes, good job.
Kaiju number eight kaiju numbereight definitely all right, I
felt you dodge around this one,the martial king, which still

(33:10):
has the credit for the best useof color in Show and Jump.
No other credits for it.

Speaker 2 (33:17):
I wouldn't say I necessarily dodged around that
one as much as I I'd rather talkabout Boruto.
Yeah, I just have more to sayabout Boruto.
The Martial King is just.

Speaker 1 (33:33):
So you know, what's a weird one for me is a sassy
comment.
I'm not sure where I'm gonnatake it.
So in fairy tale, slash, rave,master slash, I'm forgetting the
name eden zero, eden zero, yeah, yeah the author just reuses
character models straight up andthen actually explained that

(33:53):
they're from alternate realities.
And we're so audacious to havethree sets of Natsu in fairy
tale proper and like five Urza'syeah okay, so the.
Marshall King feels like I'mseeing it reuse character assets
from Dr Stone and they don'twork in this setting.
It just bugs me.
It's so petty to be like theyhave the short glasses girl's

(34:16):
character model They've reworkedto be the girl crushing on
Marshall T King or whatever hisname is.

Speaker 2 (34:23):
Jimu Godspeed Sure.

Speaker 1 (34:26):
Why not?
And I'm like hot take, youcan't be a rodeo cop in four
feet tall easily.
That doesn't really work.
I know that's ableist.
But in the Wild West, likedesign characters that like at
least look like they fit in yoursetting Right, like Dr Stone,

(34:49):
they got away with it because,like your characters, look like
random people, because they'reliterally random people, mm.
But I'm just like ugh and he'slike watch.
Also, I'm so mad they set upfor what would have been the
coolest gun move in manga andthen didn't.
Oh, so they make the quips thathe has to fire.
He has nine what 11?
Targets and only 10 bullets.

Speaker 2 (35:09):
I think it was 12 bullets, 13 targets, but
regardless.

Speaker 1 (35:12):
So he fires his bullets and the revolver chamber
is open and he goes into bullettime right and it looked like
he was going to catch one of thebullets shot at him in the
chamber and shoot at someoneelse, but instead he throws his
gun.
I'm aware that, because of howbullets work, you could not
catch a bullet in a chamber andshoot it back.
That's physically not howbullets work, but I wanted it
that would have been sick andshoot it back.

(35:33):
That's physically not howbullets work, but I wanted it.
That would have been sick.
Throw your gun has been doneLike.
That's not particularly cool.
So I'm like, eh, and it's likealso, apparently it just has a
continent destroying handgun forsome reason.
Like I'm usually pretty ride ordie for anime, but I'm like
your paler scaling's stupid.
I know that's the weird thingto make about a manga when we

(35:57):
can come on here and talk aboutsolo leveling for an hour, but
marshall's king's power scalingstupid in a setting with bullets
.
Why is their magical arms tostop the recoil of the
anti-continent gun?
And why is anyone talking to aperson?
Why are they bullying a guy whohas an anti-continent gun?
Can't he just erase all of themfrom existence with a shot like
why is anyone talking to aperson?
Why are they bullying a guy whohas an anti-contact gun?
Can't he just erase all of themfrom existence with a shot Like
why is he talking to anyone andnot just leaving?

Speaker 2 (36:18):
A he doesn't have any bullets.
And B I don't know if theauthor actually knows where he
wants to go with this, becausehe hasn't set up any other sorts
of antagonistic forces.

Speaker 1 (36:33):
See earlier comment about antagonists.
Martial King doesn't have one.
It does not.

Speaker 2 (36:40):
I mean, I guess you could consider the principal an
antagonist, because she set upthis challenge to be like we're
going to give you your martialbadge if you can do our little
trials.

Speaker 1 (36:50):
Also, there's no tension there, because we know
we can.

Speaker 2 (36:53):
Yeah, he's definitely , he's 100% going to do the
trials, and then it's up in theair whether or not he'll just
decide to stay at the school.
Anyways, because the I justhope this inspires cool dynamic
lighting for things.

Speaker 1 (37:09):
If it's just that, then its existence is justified.

Speaker 2 (37:16):
The artist is very talented.
I would say that marshall kinguh, visually is art.

Speaker 1 (37:20):
Ah nah, I don't like his character models I might be
a about it.

Speaker 2 (37:25):
So the the storytelling is like it doesn't.
It's unfocused.

Speaker 1 (37:31):
Alright, we're going to go into One Piece very
briefly, because you don't readOne Piece.
Okay, so around episode 1000,toei Animation Studios
quintupled the budget on OnePiece.
Okay, so every arc in One Piecehas been the coolest arc
because the show went fromlooking like a Hanna-Barbera
cartoon to looking like sololeveling.

(37:52):
One Piece as a story hasabsolutely forgotten what it's
about and I don't know why.
No one else has caught on butme and I'm worried.
I'm going insane.
So they do.
This Wano arc, which is theslow Wano, was like
200-something chapters.
One piece.

(38:12):
It was absurd.
It made the free to freeze afight.

Speaker 2 (38:17):
Look swift that is the the anime record for the
longest fight in anime history,right I don't like it.

Speaker 1 (38:25):
So they go to this egg and island arc right, which
covers a lot of like.
They bring back some charactersfrom oh so long ago, like name
dropping things, solvingmysteries, explaining what the
void center, like they do allthis world building lore stuff,
right.
Then they go to the giant landwhere they're doing all this

(38:45):
world building lore stuff, right.
One piece's stories have notfocused on the goals and
motivations of a member of thestraw hat crew since sanji's arc
in the big mom arc, like 500chapters ago, and then the rest
of the time skipped in focus.
This hasn't been about the strawhats following their dreams in

(39:08):
like 600 chapters if not longer,and I'm sorry my eyes are
glazing over when I'm readingthese chapters because they're
like the royal knights have comein and you're meeting this guy
who's on goldie rogers crew andthe giants and they're
unraveling the mystery of emuand I'm like none of this
relates to anything thecharacters are trying to do.
None of this has anything to dowith Zoro being the best

(39:33):
swordsman, sanji hitting onwomen, robin solving the
mysteries kind of has to do withit, but she's not the one doing
it.
So it's like he's made such anexpansive universe that his
character stopped like mattering.
Might just be a me problem, butI'm like it's like when I watch

(39:54):
Garp do a galaxy-destroyingpunch.
I'm like I don't actually careabout Luffy's grandpa.
I'm a B-Romanist.

Speaker 2 (40:04):
Well, I mean, One Piece is way past my 150 chapter
mark, where things start to getdifficult to maintain focus so
like the last arc again wasn'ttoo bad because they only
introduced three new characters.

Speaker 1 (40:18):
So it was like, okay, you filled me with cameos, but
at least I, you don't have toexplain who anyone is.
I'm fine with that.
And then we're on giant islandexplaining all these giants.
I'm like I don't care, I do notcare about this giant island's
population.
Understand, this is your shtick, from chapter 100 on, where you
go to island and meet a bunchof characters, have an adventure

(40:40):
, leave, but a lot of yourcharacters are forgetting to
leave the story so I'd ratherfollow any of these people who I
know it's my classic.
You shouldn't be addingcharacters to stories after the
halfway point?
Yep, I know.

Speaker 2 (40:52):
It's my classic.

Speaker 1 (40:53):
You shouldn't be adding characters to stories
after the halfway point.
Yep, that's my mini rant on OnePiece.
I'm like I don't care about thegiants from Chapter 50.
Don't so?
We've almost made it to Showand Jump proper.
Any thoughts on Spy Family,which my thought is?
It's going too slow.
They found one Dragon Ball,they found three Dragon Balls.

Speaker 2 (41:16):
Yeah, I would definitely agree.
On the one hand, I really dofeel sympathetic for content
creators that aren't us, becausethey put way more production
effort and value into theircontent.
Because I mean, we do.
I'm a novelist.

(41:37):
We just talk about what we want, and so it's easy, but when
you're actually trying to writea cohesive story, it is hard to.

Speaker 1 (41:43):
I've written three books.
I can be a bit bitchy.

Speaker 2 (41:50):
But yeah, it's just.

Speaker 1 (41:54):
Imagine if my first novel only covered the walk to
the northern city.
See, I can judge them.
I have had two books and I cansafely say my first novel
covered more story than 116chapters of Spy Family that's
true, but the difficulty of thecontent creators for Shonen Jump
than 116 chapters of Spy Family.

Speaker 2 (42:15):
That's true, but the difficulty of the content
creators for Shonen Jump is thatweekly release schedule Nah, I
still call bullshit.

Speaker 1 (42:21):
So I'm going to be mean to creators, which is funny
because I'm like Mr Arts Rightsand things.
The problem with Spy Familyisn't the monthly.
It isn't that it's that theydon't, it's pacing issues.
I've read probably 100 plusanime and manga in my life right
Easily.
I know in 116 chapters withconfidence you can tell all of

(42:44):
Gundam and Zeta Gundam and allof it's more complexity, only
doing 15 pages at a time a month, like I read through all of
gundam the origin, which wasreleasing monthly and yes, they
covered all of gundam in thelength of spy family and
sometimes it's just literallyempty pages where nothing
happens, or sometimes condensedpages where too much happens,

(43:09):
like the second half of tokyoghoul.

Speaker 2 (43:12):
but I'm not saying it's about output.

Speaker 1 (43:14):
I don't care how long it takes you to tell your story
, I care about your pacing.
How, like spy family story arcsaren't doing anything to
advance the plot of spy familyright, like none of his missions
have actually got him closer tohis objective.
None of your missions have gother closer to her objective and
nothing anya's done's got hercloser to his objective.
None of your missions have gother closer to her objective and
nothing Anya's done has got hercloser to her objective.

(43:35):
They're just not achievingthings.

Speaker 2 (43:40):
Yeah, I guess that's a fair criticism.

Speaker 1 (43:43):
The fact that Lloyd hasn't had a conversation with
the alien big bad of the show isridiculous.
I'm fine with him being analien, I'm more fine, with him
being a mind reader.

Speaker 2 (44:02):
I probably.
I think it still has potentialand it is being somewhat
hampered by its release schedule, but I definitely, when
explained that way way, Idefinitely agree that there is
some pacing issues with spyfamily because, like for stories
that have come out monthly thathave been the same lengths just

(44:23):
going sheer pacing, need toremind you that claymore came
out monthly and was about thislong.

Speaker 1 (44:31):
Yeah yeah, that's fair, things can definitely
happen.
Fullmetal Alchemist came outmonthly and was about that long.
There's a balance, because Ialso think that things that fly
through ideas too fast Fallapart as well.
So, on the note of nothinghappening, psychic Policeman Cho

(44:55):
chozo, I like your characters,I like your concept.
You gotta do something I, I, Idropped that one it's mildly
amusing every week, but it'slike garfield comics and I'm
like oh, buddy, you could be sogood, you could be so much
better than this.
Like to give a weird example,if it had brooklyn nine nine

(45:16):
energy.
Or like, yes, it's a weeklypolice sitcom but like you have
some plot threads of you, havecharacter driven arcs going
through the series and peopleare like aging and advancing,
it's still working right on adifferent?

Speaker 2 (45:31):
no, it does.

Speaker 1 (45:32):
It just does nothing yep, have you been following
Star of Beethoven?

Speaker 2 (45:41):
I have been reading Star of Beethoven.
I'm intrigued, yeah, because onthe one hand, it's just a
simple story about rediscoveringyour passion and figuring out
what makes your art uniquelyyours, but then, on the other

(46:04):
hand, it has this strange sci-firesurrection ring, that what
even is that?
How many chapters do we have ofStar of Beethoven?
14?
, 14?
So I was like there's a hugemystery which currently it's on
a cliffhanger.

Speaker 1 (46:25):
That's like I guess the best way I can put it.
I can say this Go ahead.

Speaker 2 (46:32):
The best way I can put it oh, go ahead.

Speaker 1 (46:34):
The best way I can put this one is I've seen the
historical figure comes back toImpassion.
A Youth story before there wasone about a guy that was
rediscovering hot springsbecause he was an original Roman
aqueduct professor.
Anyway, I've seen that plotthread a few times but it
matters in this one and is goingsomewhere and I'm kind of blown

(46:57):
away that the beethoven thingis actually going somewhere.
I just assumed it wouldn't beever like.
I'm like, wait, this b plotactually has characters in it
and you're going to introduce meto some villains doing like
there's villains in this.
I was actually like, wait,there's villains in bit.
Star of bateman what?

Speaker 2 (47:19):
yeah, I I think that one has a lot of uh potential.
I I don't really see it goingsuper long.
It's like it's definitely not awhole series.

Speaker 1 (47:28):
But yeah, I want it to be like oh, what was it?
It gives me similar energy tolike that paradox, ghostwriter,
one where I'm like, okay, you'regoing somewhere with this and
I'm willing to let you have yourlike 50 chapters to go
somewhere with this.
Yeah, yep, all right.
So news Exorcist, I dropped.

Speaker 2 (47:52):
Fair.
It's currently in the middle ofthe most fanservice-y
fanservice arc possible.
Sure Well, this arc.
It makes sense to unlock moreof his hidden potential, that he

(48:13):
needs people to protect, andthe person that he could protect
the most would be someone he isdating, that he has emotional
romantic feelings towards, andso he's currently going through
the harem of powerful femaleexorcists that have formed
around him to choose one as agirlfriend, and they're at a

(48:34):
festival.
They're all trying to maketheir case because they all like
him, but he can only choose oneand that'll unlock his
potential.

Speaker 1 (48:40):
Didn't AI write this by just scanning a bunch of show
and jump?
I know?

Speaker 2 (48:45):
This Lewis arc is just why it felt like it had
potential, but it's really likeugh.

Speaker 1 (49:00):
And I refuse to give Roboco a single click ever.
Okay, just out of concept.
Just out of concept.
Kill Blue also lost me.
I really think they're tryingto go for the old man dates high
schooler.

Speaker 2 (49:15):
Well, I mean, they did straight up.
He is actually planning to.
Well, he proposed to the maincharacter Norin.

Speaker 1 (49:26):
And I dropped it that instant.

Speaker 2 (49:29):
Well, I mean, the plan makes sense to actually
just be like hey, thesechallenges are are garbage and
the only way to stop them isjust like counterpoint.

Speaker 1 (49:38):
Why did the author write a story of an old man
becoming a teenager to proposeto another teenager?
Like to pull up to a meta levelat its core?
An old man wrote a story of anold man being thrown in a kid's
body to go to high school.
To propose like convoluted plotreasons whether it makes
logical sense or not.
He wrote a story for that tomake logical sense to happen,

(50:00):
which felt like his goal fromday one.
And that's a problem.
He should be on a list.
Straight to jail.
Directly to jail.
Let's just not even play around.

Speaker 2 (50:13):
So well, I mean, at least that one's not
hyper-sexualized.

Speaker 1 (50:17):
Yeah, because he'd be in jail, straight to jail,
anyways.
So next is a series calledEmbers.
I've never read a simplechapter of, because I think it's
about soccer.

Speaker 2 (50:28):
Wow, way to judge a book by its cover.
Yeah, completely.
I mean, it is about soccer.
I haven't actually read anyeither, but it is about soccer,
yeah.

Speaker 1 (50:36):
So I haven't checked into Witch Watch in a while
Because I remember being madthat it's like why is this a
reverse harem when the firstoption's the best option?
You could just give me a nicerom-com.
No, screw you.

Speaker 2 (50:48):
I also dropped Witch Watch.

Speaker 1 (50:50):
All right, I also dropped Witch Watch, alright.

Speaker 2 (50:53):
Sidcraft is messing with my head.
Oh, Sidcraft is messing withyour head.
Alright, alright.

Speaker 1 (50:56):
Alright.
So four chapters ago theyintroduced this weird artificer,
love interest, childhood friendthing and my brain immediately
goes ugh, the show's going theharem route.
I hate this, Damn it.
I had faith in you said craftand you broke my heart.
Then the next chapter comes upand I'm like, oh, more of this

(51:17):
crap.
I hate this, you've ruined myshow.
Then it decided to get good andI'm like, wait, what villain
shows up?
Character ends up having theirsecret blown way earlier than I
was expecting, faking deaths,dramatic declarations, and I'm
like did did you get good?

(51:37):
Did you read my hate mail?
Did you read?
Don't you make this a dumbharem show?
I'll drop you like a sack ofbricks and decide to accelerate
the plot instantly because, likethis, the contrivance that made
it like an open-ended haremnonsense of he thinks the two at
love interests are dating eachother, therefore off the market

(51:58):
got thrown out.
But also the main villains likeactively showing up and trying
to murder them, right, I'm like,oh, the main villain is
actually attacking yourassistant, who now you've had
this dramatic reveal about.
But also have to like thestatus quo is changing and you
can't keep a harem series going.
Have to like the status quo ischanging and you can't keep a
harem series going if you changethe status quo and I'm like,
did you, did you get my letter?

(52:18):
Because, yes, do this.
That is pretty funny becauselike, I don't mind a rom-com but
like, yes, they added so muchmomentum back to it.
I'm like I was so worried withthis really dumb nonsense
character going down the dumbnonsense gag route that I was
going to hate this and drop it,but then he pulled me right back
in by doing things I did notthink you had the courage to do.

(52:41):
I'm worried they put up thosetwo chapters and nearly got
canceled and now have like 10chapters to wrap it up.
I mean that is possible.
I'm fine with that, by the way.
Yeah, do you?
I mean that is possible.
I'm fine with that, by the way.

Speaker 2 (52:53):
Yeah, do you have thoughts on Sidcraft.
Uh, no, I just I did find it alittle bit odd that.
Well, maybe not odd, but whenyou texted me saying that
Sidcraft was dead to you, andthen obviously it wasn't, but I
believe that was the firstchapter where there wasn't a

(53:14):
mystery to solve, yeah, Ithought he'd given up on the
mystery and leaned into theharem.
I thought that was aninteresting coincidence which
apparently was worth noting.

Speaker 1 (53:26):
Yeah, I didn't catch that until you just said it.
But yeah, you're right, that'swhy it pissed me off so much,
thank you just said it.
But yeah, you're right, that'swhy it pissed me off so much,
thank you.
Not only was it a pointlesshour of bullshit, they stopped
having a mystery to solve in mymystery manga.
Could wonder I got pissed?

Speaker 2 (53:44):
but now you're you're right the, the mystery energy,
is definitely back in um andit's.
Hopefully it has enoughmomentum to carry it forward and
continue to be an interestingseries.

Speaker 1 (53:56):
And, like I said, if it's not a death clock and they
only gets like five morechapters to wrap it up, I won't
have hated my time I spent there.
It gets bonus points for beingadults Fair.
On the next note, have you readthe first four chapters of nice
prison?
I?

Speaker 2 (54:14):
have.

Speaker 1 (54:15):
I don't like it.

Speaker 2 (54:18):
I'm in the same boat.
It is just I don't understandwhat it's trying to be.

Speaker 1 (54:26):
It's trying to be like Kochikame.
It's trying to be like 90sshow-and-jump slapstick humor.
It has very similar energy toChozo in that one, but it's
stupider, objectively stupid.

Speaker 2 (54:43):
Yeah, maybe that's the problem.
The problem is that it's noteven remotely trying.
Or maybe it would be clever ifwe read it in the native
language.

Speaker 1 (54:52):
I don't think so.
He has handcuffs as glasses onhis nose.

Speaker 2 (54:58):
Yeah, and his ball and chain is some sort of
dieboard robot thing.
It has no subtlety.

Speaker 1 (55:08):
That's my issue.
It has no subtlety, but I willgive it this weird credit.
Does that not feel like arandom character to play, as in
a 2D Jump Ultimate Stars, whereyou're like, who the hell is
this?
Like he'd be right at home inJump Ultimate Stars.
So I'm giving him that credit.

Speaker 2 (55:24):
Yeah, maybe that's why they okay a whole bunch of
series is so they just have abigger roster for their
inevitable fighting game thatthey released.

Speaker 1 (55:30):
Nah, because they switched to making 3D arena
brawlers because Ninja Stormmade a good one, so they felt
compelled to make nothing butbad ones.
Since Fair, I don't get it.
Ultimate Stars not only soldout all its copies, it sold
internationally when it wasregion locked still.
And they're like no, no, no,everything's 3D now.
And I'm like no, hire a spriteartist for 20 bucks, yeah.

Speaker 2 (55:54):
Jump Stars was a great game for the DS.

Speaker 1 (55:57):
Indeed Trucking along .
I don't follow Akane Bansheebecause I don't understand the
cultural significance.
Me neither.
I dropped Shinobi Undercoverafter like four chapters because
I don't know.
I wanted it to be more fullmetal panic where it took itself
seriously.
I don't know you still followshinobi undercover.

Speaker 2 (56:23):
I am.
I kind of was surprised thatyou actually dropped it.

Speaker 1 (56:25):
I thought that you were standing for it it's weird
because, like I don't read itconsistently, sometimes I'll get
curious and check.
It just didn't quite grab meand I'm not sure why.
I didn't do anything to get it.
It didn't get blue box where Ihad to throw it out, right, I
don't know.
I don't think it made anythingwrong.

Speaker 2 (56:51):
I mean, it's not really doing anything
exceptional right now either.

Speaker 1 (56:55):
And then we have Elusive Samurai, which I just
haven't followed for 202chapters.

Speaker 2 (57:02):
That's another one where I guess, if I wanted to
learn more Japanese history, itwould be interesting to read,
but the cultural significance issignificantly diminished here.

Speaker 1 (57:16):
So full disclosure.
I have been reading Hematin andI don't understand how it's
still going or how they plan tokeep it going.
But I'm like, oh, this is justcompletely wholesome for the
most part, I'll allow it, Iguess, even though everyone
involved is stupid.
Wholesome for the most part,I'll allow it, I guess, even
though everyone involved isstupid.
It's the cardinal sin of beinglike here's a love triangle.

(57:37):
And I'm like why is there alove triangle here?
You've already solved it.
There is no reason for this tobe a triangle.
Person A just dates person Band you have literally no reason
not to.

Speaker 2 (57:53):
Well, it's kind of weird because there's not even
really any drama or tension.

Speaker 1 (58:00):
Honestly, that's probably why I'm still reading
it.
It's just I'm like nothing'shappening here.
Scroll through, quickly, absorbit Like I've read all of it.
It I can't speak for it.
I I don't know what specificreason why I've read it all.
Maybe just nostalgia, maybe fora simpler time, I don't know.

Speaker 2 (58:25):
All right then buggy go, some fucked up shit yeah,
I'm wondering what, what's upwith this release schedule,
because, again, that'sdefinitely a series that's
really high on my list ofincredible potential but like so
disappeared for a couple monthsso it's wild.

Speaker 1 (58:43):
Release schedule, as I was talking before, pacing and
release schedule can combine tocreate or kill a monk.
Right, bug ego has so muchacceleration going on, like so
much weird shit happening persquare foot.
But it's very much like jojo'sfour and jojo's five where
there's enough happening in eachindividual chapter that I don't

(59:06):
feel like I need to read thenext one, like it doesn't.
It's Trigger where I'm like, oh, just get through this thing.
So I don't mind that.
It's inconsistent as hell, aspeople are getting haircuts and
being straight-up murderers.
Right, it's also just weird.
It's just weird Things getbonus points for being just

(59:28):
weird.

Speaker 2 (59:31):
But I mean there has to be, like you say, there has
to be some sort of subtletyabout it, like nice person
doesn't have enough mystery toits weirdness.
I think that's it.

Speaker 1 (59:49):
Bug ego is bizarre.

Speaker 2 (59:52):
Prison is weird.
Bizarre is definitely a betterword to describe when Nice
Prison is just.

Speaker 1 (59:58):
Nickelodeon and Ruri Dragon is perfect.
No notes, just keep on keepingon.
It's just a perfect manga.

Speaker 2 (01:00:14):
I'm so happy that that series actually came back
and continued going, because itwas just the idea of the
half-dragon, half-girl Well,half-human, I guess, half-dragon
, half-human, half-girl, don'tmind that.
Anyways, the awakening of thedragon powers, and then just
like the crazy interactions thatit causes.

(01:00:35):
It's been it's wholesome andit's interesting.

Speaker 1 (01:00:40):
To like loop back to an earlier rant about Boruto
Ruri.
Dragon is 100% character driven, like it's literally using the
plot device of magical dragonpowers.
It's really about differentcharacter, social reactions, how
they act to it.
Who's a good person, who's abad person, who's a famed chaser

(01:01:00):
who's just pretending to be onteam dragon versus?
I mean to this person because Itreat them like a person.
Therefore, I'm actually a goodperson because I'm giving her
shit and I'm giving her shitbecause I don't care about her
dragon bullshit.
Therefore, they should befriends and I'm like deeply
invested in this teenage drama,being like I'm not gonna treat
you special because you havedragon powers and she's like

(01:01:21):
that's all I wanted.
It's like I can't go to schoolanymore, so I guess I'll just
jump in the pool and freeze it.
Look, I have spikes.
It's like I'm watching someonelike defeat their social
awkwardness due to dragon powers.
I'm like they're going throughcharacter growth.
Look at that character growth.
They did a bit.
That's such character growththat they did a bit like

(01:01:45):
actually that was a hugecharacter moment.
They stood in front of a roomand did a bit instead of just
wanting to curl up and die yeah,uh, I, I am definitely here for
rury dragon, that's one of theseries I definitely watch which
is wild, because I'm like it'sjust like, oh, these superpowers
aren't anything to do withanything and I'm like, wow,

(01:02:09):
that's so brave.
I'm so proud of the willpower.
This author has to have notintroduced another dragon
character.

Speaker 2 (01:02:16):
Well, I mean, they kind of did, I don't know.
I think they're going toactually meet the father soon.

Speaker 1 (01:02:22):
But you know what I mean.
Right, Like the easy thingwould have been is to like
slowly transfer in other halfdragon kids from reasons to
create drama, right right.
Instead, it was like the bigdramatic moment was taking
garden shears to snap off thehorn so they'd be less dangerous
, and it was like, yeah, I'mgonna cut off one of my horns to
traumatize a classmate.

(01:02:43):
Calls their mom, do they throwback?
Am I mutilating myself?
This is probably worth knowingbefore I do my dramatic gesture.

Speaker 2 (01:02:52):
Yeah, that's definitely a very cute,
wholesome and unique series, andthen the opposite of that.

Speaker 1 (01:03:01):
Ichi the Witch.
I just don't care.

Speaker 2 (01:03:07):
Are you actually reading it or did you?

Speaker 1 (01:03:09):
drop it.
I'll occasionally speed read achapter to see if it can catch
my eye.

Speaker 2 (01:03:15):
I mean, yeah, I don't think that it will.
It's not really doing anything.

Speaker 1 (01:03:20):
It's just kind of a ball of tropes and like I hate
when something tries to take asetting and has no interest in
saying anything interesting withthat setting.
So I'm the only man amongwitches is being written by some
dude, I have to assume, becausethere's like if you're going to
make your show about genderpolitics, you should probably

(01:03:40):
have gender politics in yourshow, right?
I've seen a few anime do that,where it's like women get
superpower except the one guy,so he's the most special guy,
and I'm like that's, that's bad,that's toxic for so many
reasons.
don't do that, get that out ofhere unless you actually want to
say something about it, like ifyou were showing jumps, first

(01:04:03):
openly trans character, thensuddenly you're doing something
and I'll give you my respectright but like oh yeah, it's
like the premise of straightwhite guy enjoys the lesbian
cult doesn't sound as good whenyou put it like that does it

(01:04:27):
right, like they're doingnothing with it and ultimate
exodus.
Kiyoshi is also a nothingmurder I dropped.

Speaker 2 (01:04:36):
Oh, I was so, so mad.
They did a chapter whereUltimate Exorcist Kyoshi, he
gets poisoned with the poisonthat turns him into a baby.

Speaker 1 (01:04:51):
Sure, that's a pretty common poison.
I think that happened in bothBlue Box and Sakamoto days and
Black Cat.

Speaker 2 (01:05:00):
It's a very common poison in the world of anime the
poison that turns you into ababy, or magic, or whatever.
It's pretty.

Speaker 1 (01:05:07):
The entire premise of Dragon Ball, Daima and GT.
So good they stole it twice.

Speaker 2 (01:05:16):
So he gets turned into a baby.
And then the next chapter hegets found by another character
and saved and then immediatelyback to being an adult.
And it's like why?
Why did you choose to put thisgarbage trope in the middle of

(01:05:38):
what's supposed to be aclimactic battle?

Speaker 1 (01:05:40):
So to kind of follow up on that one a bit, to go to
an earlier rant we were givingabout character driven.
One thing that didn't reallycome up that I think is worth
mentioning is kind of some of myproblem I have with pacing is
things have to matter in yourstory.
So nothing in boruto has reallychanged the status quo in

(01:06:00):
boruto.
Somehow, like even naruto andsasuke, they didn't have the
courage to get rid of them andhave that have a lasting impact
on the village.
Somehow naruto being sealedhasn't affected day-to-day life
in the leaf village.
It's not different undershikamaru.
It's the exact same village.
No one's right like.
It's not like someone declaredwar and the village alliance
broke down and the status quochanged.

(01:06:22):
Even boruto being like plothacks into being the villain
didn't actually do anythingbecause all the characters who
care about boruto still careabout boruto for some reason
right, they haven't evenbothered to explore that yet so
it's like if you do somethinglike make someone into a child
and then turn them back intoadult, that only works if it
changes the status quo.

(01:06:43):
So in black cat, the reason theydid that is our murderous train
, something or other, got to bea kid and be a happy kid for an
episode, and the plot narrativefor that was he was able to
reflect on the fact that hischildhood was fucked up and
resolved to give his teammate agood childhood.
So for him it was a turningpoint of I gotta be a kid again

(01:07:05):
and I liked being a kid thistime around.
Now I'm gonna make sure toprotect eve I think it was and
give them a childhood.
And that resulted in himgetting his death laser ability.
Somehow, and even thoughthere's a lot of logic jumps of
why, the nanomachine virus thatturned him into a kid gave him a
laser cannon.
It changed the dynamic of theshow going forward, right,

(01:07:27):
because it made him less edgy.

Speaker 2 (01:07:29):
It caused him to have character growth him less edgy.

Speaker 1 (01:07:36):
It caused him to have character growth or somehow
sadara's magekyo sharinganability that's activated by the
death of a loved onespecifically, has not changed
her character in any way.
The power that literally drivesyou mad from emotional
outbursts did nothing in anyevent.

Speaker 2 (01:07:48):
uh, the kyoshi, ultimate exorcist, Ultimate
Exorcist, Kyoshi, that one, it'sjust.
I read a lot of the comicsongoing in Shonen Jump, but a
lot of them they're right on theedge of me dropping them.
They're not doing so bad, likeWitch Watch, where again that

(01:08:11):
character turns into a child,and that's kind of where it lost
me what a trope.

Speaker 1 (01:08:19):
What a weirdly specific trope, although, to be
fair, it'd be fascinating ifChainsaw man did it.
But Chainsaw Man's better thanthat.
Chainsaw man has the.
I crawl out through my ownmouth, but Chainsaw Man's better
than that.
Chainsaw man has the I crawlout through my own mouth.
I put my arms through Denji'smouth to have it exit through

(01:08:40):
Pooch's mouth to fire a tankshell.
Any given panel of Chainsaw manhas more creativity than the
entirety of Witch Watch, not achapter, a panel.
Yeah, I agree, as I'm thinkingabout the last chapter panel of
Chainsaw man I looked at whichwas the inverse devil causing
things to flip, while a bunch offaces covering a body screamed

(01:09:03):
to not get punched and while hislove interest laughed in the
background.
So much going on.
Like literally, literally onepanel.
It's kind of funny because likechance on man's art style is
closer to like the attack ontitan, art style that you're not
on board with, but the contentjust has you, so invested yeah,

(01:09:26):
I mean it's a little bit cleanerthan attack on titan.

Speaker 2 (01:09:30):
Attack on titan was just a little bit too messy for
me.

Speaker 1 (01:09:32):
I just had a hard time with it well, it's kind of
wild like looking at chainsawman right now.
I felt the need to open achapter for this point.
Most of their panels andcharacters have no background
drawn on them, so there'sactually like a lot of white
space in the average chapter ofchainsaw man, and I think it's
so we can conserve energy forthat aforementioned final panel

(01:09:53):
of gravity being flipped onsomebody, while it falls on
somebody else, while agirlfriend laughs, while the
famine devil eats its hand,while the chef devil tilts its
head sideways.
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:10:06):
Pandemonium.

Speaker 1 (01:10:08):
All right, so moving on from Kyoshi, because I'm
doing this in somewhat order,odor of the Flame have you read
the first two chapters of that?

Speaker 2 (01:10:19):
I have, and actually that's Ironically.
Well, not ironically, but thereason I was actually interested
in doing a Shonen Jump Roundupis because I find that series,
in particular Ice Head Gil, wasa series that didn't really do
much but it kind of had thisNordic inspiration and like ice

(01:10:43):
zombies and you know, acharacter with a powerful weapon
, artifact, going and fightingzombies and sailing across the
sea.
And I am very surprised thatthey cleared that, they okayed
the Odor of the Flame so closeto Icehead Gil being canceled.

(01:11:07):
It's just less than six monthsago.
I think I would have to doublecheck.

Speaker 1 (01:11:12):
Maybe they canceled it so they could run Odor of the
Flame.

Speaker 2 (01:11:16):
I mean, maybe I will say I liked the other artists'
work, red Hood Guild or whatever, yeah, although that one also
seemed like it got canceledbefore it actually said
everything it wanted to say.

Speaker 1 (01:11:32):
So Odor of the Flame, I mixed, but mostly positive.

Speaker 2 (01:11:36):
So I'm not vibing on the art style, but mostly
positive so I'm not vibing onthe art style, yeah, but I mean,
who doesn't vibe on NordicShaman King?

Speaker 1 (01:11:45):
So here's why I'm giving it bonus Nordic bod he's
definitely good.
So you know how I threw allthat shade at Black Clover
earlier, where it's like theyjust borrowed a setting, and
then I threw that same shade atNaruto, where it's like you call
them ninjas.
They're not ninjas.

Speaker 2 (01:12:02):
We don't even know what the tech energy is and they
dress in orange.

Speaker 1 (01:12:04):
So a lot of mongolians, like their theme is
set to adding like itchy thewitch is like I want that witch
aesthetic with floopy hats, butwe're not going to sacrifice a
single goat or have a singlemoonlight orgy, like they don't
even understand the point ofwitchcraft.
But odor of the flame.
Not only is it hitting thosenordic vibes I mean, there's no
vinland saga, which is likevinland saga is right up there

(01:12:26):
with legend of arslan, whereit's like, oh yeah, this is just
history, but good, where odorof the flames.
Like you get the point behindit.
It's like, yeah, you're afighter, because the way you
fight is you cook, you keep thefire lit and you support us.
And I'm like, oh, you're goinglike you're leaning into the
valhalla warrior butacknowledging that every soldier

(01:12:47):
, even this kid you have as aline cook because he's a battle
line cook, is in fact a warriorand the weapon in hand is him
cooking.
I'm like that's good flavor.
Like they're using this fireand ice motif but actually like
using it symbolically.
So shaman kingness aside of,yeah, I'm gonna summon the fire

(01:13:08):
spirit out of the sacred flame.
I love how much of not an asspull.
That was hey, specifically.
Bring this fire, set to containspirits, to the battlefield and
be a good dude.
Oh, the spirit in the firethinks you're a good dude.
That made so much sense.
It really did.

Speaker 2 (01:13:26):
I don't say that to throw shade, I just that's I.
Maybe it's a little bit tooobvious, but the idea that he
might burn his arms to ashsuggests that he is going to
learn to imbue a weapon of somesort with his spirit.
And most likely there are goingto be other.

(01:13:48):
It's Nordic, so they're notusing Undine and Selphie and
Gnome and whatnot.

Speaker 1 (01:13:53):
Well, some of them they are, because those were
swiped from Nordic.
Shows what I know about thespirit tree yeah, they might use
all of those actually Like thereal bear game.
Oh yeah, I'm pretty sure it'slike Salamander's a translation
of the fire, one from Nordic,like I think they're all bad
translations of those.
Yeah, okay, anywho, but like,yeah, like the elemental power

(01:14:21):
battle feels like it's goingthat way.
Also, I was amused by thecharacter design for like oh
yeah, we're not sexist in thisone, we're just gonna put the
beefiest woman we've ever put inshow and jump and make her a
badass commander.
I'm like I respect, I respecthow built this woman is, so much
like you're not just sayingthey're built and then making
the miyotoichi where they havetoothpick arms despite being
jacked.
No, no, they're built.
I mean, we're going immediatelyinto training arc, which I'm

(01:14:46):
like.
Alright, you're going to usethat to explain the power system
, sure?

Speaker 2 (01:14:51):
Yeah, I mean, maybe so far we only have one example
of someone actually using aspirit in this way.
But, like I said, I justimmediately get Shaman King
vibes, which isn't necessarily abad thing, because Shaman King
was a pretty good series.

Speaker 1 (01:15:09):
Oh yeah, and, like I said, I'm not super vibing on
the art, but I'm vibing on thestory, which is so much more
important Because I'm like OK,like it's simple but also good,
because, like all rightprotagonists who they show,
don't tell is a good person god,I hate when they tell us the
protagonist is a good person.
Then the chode never doesanything of value for anyone, at

(01:15:30):
least like, at least denjiknows he's a douche and I'm on
board, right.
But we get so many blandocalrissians who are like I'm a
good dude, because I'm a gooddude, I'm like no, this kid was
like getting stabbed with spearstrying to melt his commander
because he's like, and then hiscommander's like oh, I would
have just killed them with firepowers, but you went to save us
as your move.

(01:15:50):
Respect so I'm like all alrightalright, you joined the military
to feed your sister.
I can respect that.
Also, they have people drinkinghot mead, which I'm like,
alright.

Speaker 2 (01:16:12):
I definitely think that that one has a lot of
potential, which means they'llbe cancelled as soon as it gets
good Looking at you, duran,duran.
Doron Dororon.

Speaker 1 (01:16:26):
Alright, so I'm going to just let this episode run a
little long because there'sstill three series left talking
about that I want to talk about.
Probably won't take too longthough.
So Kagura Bachi is sick.
Probably won't take too long,though.
So Kagura Bachi is sick andit's just better than Weekly
Show and Jump.
It feels like it's a bettermanga that deserves to be a

(01:16:49):
monthly release, like Chainsawman and Gaiju, because it's just
better.
No one's on its level.

Speaker 2 (01:16:58):
Chainsaw man is released weekly on Tuesdays.
Kagura Bachi is released withthe rest of them on Sundays.

Speaker 1 (01:17:06):
Yeah, but if Chainsaw man takes breaks, I just accept
it as a cost to do a business.

Speaker 2 (01:17:11):
But those two series are definitely the standout
series in Shonen Jump.
Um, that they're just.

Speaker 1 (01:17:20):
They're on a different level than everything
else in the magazine right nowso you know what kagura banshee
makes me feel like it's likerion and kenshin in its peak,
but also it's like more creativethan that, I don't know.
Like the new chapter, like okay, we're gonna, okay we're going
to bring back Teleport Kid, whohad brain damage, so your powers

(01:17:42):
are less because he had twosuperpowers, so we had to give
you brain surgery.
And I'm like interesting, okay.

Speaker 2 (01:17:52):
Yeah, we're not sure how well your superpowers are
going to work anymore.
You just got to try them andsee, I guess this is what we
want you to do.

Speaker 1 (01:17:59):
It's like we don't know if you can do it, but then
they like set up these villainsfor 17 straight pages so the
hero can be set up as a completefucking monster.
I was so happy they got me withthat warping so good, because,
like security's like oh no,these guys are dangerous.

(01:18:20):
Oh no, these three brothers aredangerous.
Oh no, these three guys aredangerous.
And it's like no, no, boy bandguy just absolutely turned one
of their heads into paste.
That was just such a cool panellike.
And then samurai dude's like oh, just sits there hand on his

(01:18:41):
chin.
Like oh, oh, no, wait a minute.
That was definitely my favoritechapter in show and jump this
week.
Like, as good as chainsaw manis, they got me like kagura
banshee.
The reason they actually got meLike Kagura Banshee, the reason
they actually got me here sogood, is all of the times

(01:19:02):
they've introduced a villain.
The villain has actually been athreat, right, they'll be like
this guy's dangerous and thedude will proceed to roofie the
entire apartment building, right, right.
So they introduce these newguys and they're like mouse
protocol everyone hide the fuckaway and just let him go to the
murder chamber and I'm like,okay, we're, we're following day

(01:19:26):
job tony and much like myself,day job tony's like I want to
kill this guy he killed mybrother.
But I'm day job tony and I'mnot going to get myself killed
over this right.
So looking at the photo of hisnephew on his desk, he has to
let these villains go past andlike they do such a good job for
this.
So zero guy to just face punchone into paste.
And I'm just like, oh, you gotme, because you've never pulled
this trick on me, that's true.

(01:19:50):
Like there's a line where he'slike the executioner was livid,
just face piece something.
I'm like what?
And I'm like, becauseeveryone's this is morally
ambiguous.
I'm like not only do I believethis without hesitation, but
like this guy might end up faceplacing our protagonist, who's a

(01:20:11):
good guy, a temporary license,who kind of disobeyed them last
episode.
It's also the first time thisseries has really taken a break
from chozero as a who kind ofdisobeyed them last episode.
It's also the first time thisseries has really taken a break
from Trozero as the focus of achapter.
That's true, I was worried thiswas going to come to an end, but
you're at chapter 80 hereYou've dealt with one of the six

(01:20:32):
swords and you've mentionedSwordbearer and Chimera, ant
Island and the things like youdo.
But you're also setting up likethe police department is like,
oh wait, this man just spaghetti, one of the bad guys, into the
face, into pace.
Do we trust the cops?
I don't think we're supposed to.
And it's like the show'stelling me I shouldn't trust

(01:20:54):
blind guy, but I trust blind guybecause he's busy being too
cool.
And then blind guy's daughterdoes she get a?
Stay a character?
I want her to stay a character,I want her to get his sword,
but I want me to make me workfor it.

Speaker 2 (01:21:11):
I wonder, like the healer kid from the first arc,
like I'm wondering, is she likejust in the Like the healer kid
from the first arc?
Like I'm wondering, is she likejust in the background healing
people so that you don't have tolike injuries aren't permanent?
Or like is she actually goingto get more screen time?

(01:21:33):
Or like how much?
I am wondering how he's goingto divvy up the character
development going forward.

Speaker 1 (01:21:37):
Yeah, because there's two characters that haven't got
screen time his originalpartner, teleporty mcteleport,
blundy right and healing kid.
But it's like I think this isgoing places, like I'm giving
this series because it's justbeen better than most of the
other things I've been readingin show and jump the benefit of
the long game, because it's likelet's take bleach, for example,

(01:22:00):
because I love using bleachit's the most show and jump show
and jump series to ever exist,so it's a good comparator series
, mm-hmm.
So bleach made a bit of amistake early on, so they gave
superpowers to a squad right toChad, odehime Uriu, and then
they all stormed Soul Societyright, but then he never really
did anything with them for therest of the series.

Speaker 2 (01:22:24):
Yeah, not really at all, Except for using them as
baits for Ichigo.

Speaker 1 (01:22:30):
So it's like by putting these guys in the
background for Kagura Banshee,I'm like I'm getting more Full
Metal Alchemist vibes, thatevery character is going to come
together by the end and berelevant.

Speaker 2 (01:22:41):
Yeah, like Teleporty McTeleporty guy is doing
something.
Who knows what he's doing, whoknows where he is.
He could be anywhere, but he'sdoing something.

Speaker 1 (01:22:51):
Right.
So I'm like, now that he's madeit a little further into the
series, it's like okay, we havepieces on the board.
I think this is going to bemore full metal alchemist, where
the pieces will come back intoplay, rather than bleach, where
the pieces got dragged along andthen not really used.
Right, because sometimes yougot to like move a character off

(01:23:13):
the screen to like have them dosomething sick later.
So, yeah, I'd get a hot takefrom me.
Kagura Banshee's been sickevery week.
I genuinely believe he hasn'tforgotten about those characters
.
I also don't think he knew hewas going to get past the first
arc, because the first arc waspretty self-contained.

Speaker 2 (01:23:34):
Yeah, and I was worried about pacing at that
point because it felt like itwas blitzing through it, uh, and
I didn't know where it wasgoing to go from there.

Speaker 1 (01:23:43):
And then the second arc came out and it was like, oh
, wow, okay because the firstdark dealt with a sword and then
the second arc dealt with thesame sword mostly, but like that
sort of get pulled off theboard.
One sword's been broken, theother six swords are still
players in the story.
And then they're like, yeah,the swords are the key to the
actual plot because like bloodlink, magic seals, swords, magic

(01:24:09):
chimera, ant iron island, etcit's a very consistent island
that makes me I.

Speaker 2 (01:24:19):
I don't know why that makes me laugh, but that is
because it happened twicebecause that island specifically
happened twice with chimeraants on it.

Speaker 1 (01:24:26):
Can we get three for three?
Can it have chimera ants on ita third time?
It consistently had chimeraants be the really high tier
shows what's the next series onthe list here?
Sakamoto Days, how we feelingabout Sakamoto Days and him
yelling at people to fire theirguns to the ground for this

(01:24:46):
really nonsensical gun bulletsetup they have going.

Speaker 2 (01:24:53):
I appreciate the villain's plan.
I do, I do.
I appreciate the villain's plan.
Do you?
I do, I don't.
If you want to test humanity,go bold.
I think it was a bold test ofhumanity and I honestly do think
that he might be right that thesociety would just fall apart

(01:25:17):
in that kind of situation.

Speaker 1 (01:25:18):
Here's my problem with this whole give everyone a
gun and three bullets thingfirst.
That's impossible.
You don't get to just say theassassin society has conquered
japan, you all get guns in forthree bullets.
No one would believe that,because it's impossible, like
there's no way, like likesomething's missing, like maybe
they had a nuke under thiscountry or something to like

(01:25:40):
blackmail people into fault.
He has no authority.
What?

Speaker 2 (01:25:46):
Yeah, okay, I can see how that would bug you.

Speaker 1 (01:25:48):
Like he literally has no authority to enforce this.

Speaker 2 (01:25:52):
Well, I mean he has some sort of dirt on the prime
minister.
The prime minister, okay did.

Speaker 1 (01:25:57):
Yeah, and then would just get vetoed in Congress Like
this is insane, yeah okay,anyway, but here's what also
bugs me and it might just bebecause I'm from North America
America already has this.
This is just how Americaalready operates.
You think there's more gunsthan people in America?

(01:26:17):
Everyone does have threebullets and they can just shoot
each other.
Fair enough, yeah.
So what are you trying to prove?
That America exists?
That I don't know.

Speaker 2 (01:26:30):
I still kind of like the villains plan, even if it is
stupid what I did show wassuperpowers.

Speaker 1 (01:26:38):
They're not using superpowers to enforce this, to
make this be a thing.

Speaker 2 (01:26:44):
But the thing I do dislike about Sakamoto days and
it's kind of been a long timecoming is that Sakamoto himself
is this quote-unquote legendaryassassin.
What has he actually donethat's uniquely legendary to him
?
Like every other character thathe comes across actually has a

(01:27:08):
superpower and is clearlycapable of any feat that
Sakamoto has done.

Speaker 1 (01:27:13):
It's kind of interesting because, yeah, where
I was going with my rant is Ihate the problem but I like the
solution.
So my brain still can't wraparound this evil plan.
I'm like how like did you find?
a factory to mass produce gunsand bullets, like did you fedex,
ship them to people?
Like how do you do this?

(01:27:34):
Like physically, logistically,how does one, as an assassin who
has a league of assassins, giveevery citizen a gun with three?
Like how do you even do that?
But let's suppose you magicallydid this, which I don't even
think a genie could make thisactually play out to do this
prisoner dilemma experiment.
But then, like the solution of,I'm gonna use my psychic power

(01:27:58):
to yell at everyone's head,shoot the ground.
Okay, that's fair.
I do like when the solution isbased on, like a character's
development, their arc throughthis thing, blah, blah.
It's not emotionally connectedto anything.
Like shin developing thisability doesn't have an
emotional connection to it.
Because it's like if this washim, like coming out of his own

(01:28:18):
from sakamoto, like if there'slike somehow tied to his
character development, it wouldbe a sick moment.
But instead it's a cool moment.
Because, yeah, a cool moment isyelling to the intercom,
everyone fire your bullets inthe ground of your psychic power
, so they fire the bullet on theground.
An epic moment is when thingsconnect.
Like lee dropping the lates wasepic because he has a sick,

(01:28:42):
cool superpower and it directlyshowed the character arc of this
is a guy who can't do theseother things, so he became the
absolute best at the one thing,right, right.
But yeah, when a characterbusts out a new superpower, it
works better when it's tied tosome kind of emotion, like that
Rasengan thing of like.
Yeah, he Rasengan Kabuto byusing a shadow clone and he

(01:29:04):
learned shadow clones becausehe's so fucking lonely.
And then Sasuke pointing outlike, of course, you learned a
technique to make clones becauseyou're so lonely, and then
punching him with a lonelinessattack, like that's beautiful,
right, right, right, there's nobeauty that happens here.
It's like, for example, Iwatched like an essay on Hunter

(01:29:25):
x Hunter the other day andthey're talking about how Gon
went into adult mode and whatthat actually meant symbolically
.
So the story of Hunter x Hunterwas Gon trying to maintain his
innocence against a cruel worldRight, and the moment he sees
kite killed in front of him, hecan no longer be a kid in this
world.
So since he can, his childhoodinnocence thematically snapped

(01:29:49):
and he had to grow up and be anadult.
Emotionally his power wasliterally he grew up into an
adult and murdered the shit outof somebody, which was like,
yeah, this was a story thatsociety failed to protect.
Gone from the shit out ofsomebody, right, which was like,
yeah, this was a story thatsociety failed to protect, gone
from the harshness of reality,so he became a sociopath.
And when the core theme of theshow was he wanted to find his
dad because he was trying topreserve his childhood as long

(01:30:12):
as possible, there's thatthematic point of like his whole
arc is I want to stay a kid,and then reality made him grow
up.
It's like they're goingsomewhere with it.
I don't know how perfect anexample it is, but you see what
I mean.
Right, like when things tietogether, you get the sickest
moments.

Speaker 2 (01:30:32):
That is, that's true.
The emotional through line is avery important part of making
incredibly cool moments.

Speaker 1 (01:30:41):
To give a weird example, we're going to go to
the end of Dragon Ball here.
You know who got a characterarc in the Boo saga, who, mr
Satan.
Mr Satan learned that hecouldn't lie to defeat this
enemy couldn't trick him and hehad to be a sincere version of
himself, the doofy person whoordered Uber Eats and befriended

(01:31:02):
Majin Buu by making silly faces.
And then the thematic finalattack of the show wasn't Goku
and Vegeta teaming up and comingtogether, coming over their
pride.
It wasn't Goku overcoming hisgoofiness or Vegeta overcoming
his seriousness.
It was Mr Satan, the egomaniacactor asking for help from the

(01:31:23):
people around him, him takinghis fake goodwill and pretending
to save the world and switchingthat into power to actually
save the world.
And it was one of anime's mosticonic moments of all time and
it was, mr.
Satan, who had the character arcin the Buu Saga.
I mean, if you want the actual,less doofy example, the Gohan

(01:31:48):
scene in Dragon Ball Z, whichwas literally the accumulation
of a 10-year-long character arcwhen the message is literally
screamed at him A pacifistwatches his friends die in vain.
You're gonna have to grow up,you're gonna have to take
responsibility and you're gonnahave to eat that horse anywho.

Speaker 2 (01:32:09):
So sakamoto days emotional through lines are are
a little bit weak.
But what?
What's our next uh series?

Speaker 1 (01:32:15):
I think the final series unless you're following
Dan to Dan.
It was Dan to man, chainsaw manand Boruto that were at the top
of this list, but we touched onall of them earlier.

Speaker 2 (01:32:25):
Oh, Dan to Dan is.
I don't know if that one's inan.
I would say Chainsaw man is thehighlight of Shonen Jump On.
In my opinion, Kagura Bachi isa close second and Dan to Dan is
probably in third place Dan toDan fluctuates a lot for me, so

(01:32:49):
I'm going to put it in third.

Speaker 1 (01:32:51):
Yeah, but man doesn't try and distract me If Dan to
Dan cut its character roster inhalf because, like the core cast
I love, and then they're like.
If Dan to Dan cut its characterroster in half Because like the
core cast I love, and thenthey're like I'm nerdy robot guy
, I'm like I don't care, go away, I'm piano playing, ghost Shut

(01:33:13):
up.
It's like they almost want toput in too many characters now.
And we were good.
I was good with two and Iallowed four, and then I was
tolerating six, but now we're upto eight.

Speaker 2 (01:33:24):
The roster is getting a bit big, uh, but I still
appreciate um, oh, the sheercreativity on display is pretty
freaking fantastic that's that's.
The main thing about these topthree series is that they are
incredibly creative with thecharacters, with the powers and

(01:33:48):
with the fight scenes.

Speaker 1 (01:33:50):
They're just insane well, it's like part of why I'm
putting Kagura Banshee on myrating above Chainsaw man.
Chainsaw Man's thematicallymore interesting.
How cool was the scene wherethe daughter starts sword
fighting and so she doesn't gethorrified by murdering people.
She's practicing blind becauseshe grew up watching her blind
father and learned to swordfight blind as a way of playing

(01:34:12):
with her dad and then use thatskill to not die to assassins.
How sick is that?

Speaker 2 (01:34:17):
come on, I mean you're right, I don't know why I
love chainsaw man, it's goodlike don't get me wrong.

Speaker 1 (01:34:26):
It's really good, like when I cry, like as to
firing the hand cannon throughhis mouth, through the pocket,
like it's good.

Speaker 2 (01:34:37):
I think I like Chainsaw man more because it's
more bizarre than Kagura Bachi.
I love Kagura Bachi.
It's a very creative standoutseries, but it's not.
It doesn't do much to bebizarre.

Speaker 1 (01:34:57):
So I think the reason I give it to Kaga Rabanchi,
especially right now, is it'sgetting better, that's true.
Like so Chainsaw man isfascinating every week, and I
thought it capped and then theythrew him in a toxic
relationship.
I'm like okay, okay, but likeit plateaued at a few points in
the series, kaga Rabanchiishee's like okay, now we're

(01:35:19):
starting to stretch out the cast.
We're trying to like worldbuild and explain things.
I'm like, if you're growing, ifyou're growing instead of
contracting, if kajira bansheefelt like it was getting near
his end, I'd give it a chance,I'm in.
But like kagura banshee, you'rejust hitting your soul society
arc.
Your auction hall was likeparallel line along with soul
society.
You're just hitting your SoulSociety arc.
Your auction hall was likeparallel line along with Soul
Society.
If you're growing, if you'regoing to take full use of this

(01:35:42):
setting you've created, you willbe better.
Although I will say, though, ourprotagonist in Kagura Banshee,
chohiro, is just lessinteresting than Denji.
He gets some credit because heS saitama, faces a lot and he
deadpans a lot, like in my brainhe's cooler.

(01:36:05):
Ichigo right.
So, like ichigo's problem for along-running series is he
started at his coolest and kindof got lamer, I agree, and
kagura bachi.
Like I'm not really sure wherethe protagonist has to go, which
is why I'm like more investedin Samurai's daughter than I am
in him at the moment.

(01:36:25):
But like he's having somemoments because like there's
that bit where he's like okay, Ineed to learn how to actually
fight.
And like when she shows up,he's like I need to know how to
do this, help me out.
Shows up, he's like I need toknow how to do this, help me out
.
Like he's Right, he has room todevelop.
He's just kind of not yet solike as a personality, like he

(01:36:46):
was edgy loner, like he's themost generic show and jump
protagonist currently running,probably right now.

Speaker 2 (01:36:52):
Not the most generic.
He doesn't have spiky hair.
Yes, he does what he does.

Speaker 1 (01:37:00):
Kinda In the panel I'm looking at with the sick
blood angel reassembling abuilding.

Speaker 2 (01:37:07):
Okay, I guess he does kind of have spiky hair.
It's just pretty tame for aShonen Jump protagonist.

Speaker 1 (01:37:16):
I just find it amusing that his default facial
expression is Saitama face.
I'm not really sure what to dowith that, because like I'm
curious to see how this actswhen animated, if he deadpan
deliveries everything, becausethat could be amazing.
But yeah, like Ichigo had thatproblem too, where it's like
it's weird to make yourprotagonist the straight man of

(01:37:37):
your story, because usually youmake them the fool, so they
consistently pair them with adifferent fool, right, right?
So it's like the charactersaround him seem to have the arcs
and he's not really having thearcs.
I'm curious to see how it goesforward.
Yeah, and we didn't hit ourrandom question of the week

(01:37:59):
because this episode runningreal long okay, let's uh.

Speaker 2 (01:38:05):
Well, first I got a random question for you.
Oh, you found one.
I'm listening.
No, um, it's actually, uh,based on an error on my part,
nice, um, avatar 3 and shrek 5both come out at Christmas time,
but so the question, the randomquestion, is actually, I guess,

(01:38:25):
before I spoil my error, therandom question is which would
you rather see, shrek 5 orAvatar 3?

Speaker 1 (01:38:34):
who am I going with?

Speaker 2 (01:38:38):
oh, let's say you're going with panda oh then avatar
you don't think panda would gofor shrek 5?

Speaker 1 (01:38:46):
no so that's where I'm at is for a comedy I would.
I would take you to shrek 5,because we would talk during the
entire movie and enjoy it andoccasionally yell out random
catchphrases.
I would take Panda to Avatar,because then we'd low-key talk
about it afterward but youwouldn't say a word during it.

Speaker 2 (01:39:04):
Okay, that's fair.
For me it's audience-based, myerror is that Avatar 3 comes out
this year and Shrek 5 comes outnext year.

Speaker 1 (01:39:16):
Oh then, both Easy.
But for the record, I think Ipersonally I'm more likely to
watch Avatar with a personbecause they're going to want to
watch it, and Shrek, I'mprobably going to throw on in
the background on Netflix andplay a Gundam game on my phone
or something.

Speaker 2 (01:39:32):
Yeah, I mean there's quite a bit of hype about Shrek
5, but I don't think it's goingto live up to Puss in Boots the
Last Wish.
That's because that movie wasactually good.

Speaker 1 (01:39:43):
I just don't it was actually good it was genuinely
good.

Speaker 2 (01:39:48):
I just I don't think that they're going to be able to
write something that good forShrek 5 because it was really
good.

Speaker 1 (01:39:59):
Alright, here's our random question of the week.
If dreams were a currency, whatwould your most recent one be
worth?
So let's say canadian dollars,like let's go like movie ticket
prices, almost like dollar value.
How much do you think you wouldcharge for someone to watch
your most recent dream?

Speaker 2 (01:40:19):
if dreams were a currency.
But how much would I chargepeople to watch my dreams?

Speaker 1 (01:40:25):
the most recent dream specifically and if you want to
compare it to you to get likesome price points okay, um.

Speaker 2 (01:40:33):
Well, see, here's the thing, and it's kind of weird.
And sometimes, or well often, Ithink I should have a journal
by my bed to like write down mydreams so I can actually
remember them.
Sometimes I spam text them toyou, but when I go to sleep and
I'm dreaming right, and a lot ofthe times I will wake up to my

(01:40:53):
alarm, I will hit snooze, alarm.
I will hit snooze, and then Iguess you might call it lucid
dreaming, but I will actively goback to that dream that I was
just having.
It's like that was a cool dream.
I'm going back there.

Speaker 1 (01:41:07):
I'm pretty good at doing that.

Speaker 2 (01:41:09):
Then I wake up and snooze my alarm.
I'll come in and out of thedream three or four times and
then actually get up.
But then, as soon as I get up,even though I actively tried to
go back into the same dream andhave that experience again, I
forget what it is.
And then it's like man, Ishould really let these down.

(01:41:31):
So what I'm hearing?

Speaker 1 (01:41:32):
here is the amount would be how much would you pay
to revisit the dream?
I think I'm asking you thewrong question.
How much I charge you for dreama mission to your own dream
dream admission to my own dream.

Speaker 2 (01:41:43):
I feel like you'd give me a solid 10 bucks for
that to go back to your dreamlast night and see what it was
oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeahI would.
I would, uh, yeah, I would.
No see, I think I would.
Probably It'd have to be like adream vending machine.

(01:42:05):
I think I would pay a dollarfor a dream vending machine.

Speaker 1 (01:42:10):
So for my last dream.

Speaker 2 (01:42:12):
Or two of the dream vending machines.

Speaker 1 (01:42:13):
My last dream was pretty good because, like I said
, I binged that Clara Obscuragame.
Okay, my subconscious was fullofed that Clara Obscura game
Okay.
My subconscious was full ofBleach Clara Obscura and Gundam
Dracuix.
I can't give a narrativestructure to what I experienced,
but there was giant robots madeof blood, destroying ink
monsters.
Okay, that's like a $20 watch.

(01:42:36):
I feel like a full Edge ofTomorrow arthouse film played in
my head last night like it waspretty good.
I think you were there and youwere bleeding and you formed
your blood into a kaiju I wasgonna say I I feel like the the
blood might have been my doingso long story short.
That's like, yeah, I think Icould get 20 bucks for that.

(01:42:57):
Like a lot of my writing iswhat can I grab from my dream
space?
That's where my good scenescome from, so my real season one
like 20 bucks.
The one the night before.
I had like an angsty collegedream about like not graduating
correctly and walking across thestage and getting denied.
Like a super cliche dream thatone would probably sell for more
, but it's so lame, it was astereotype.

(01:43:21):
All right, I think, with that,since we went pretty far into
this episode already.
No second question and if youwant us to answer random
questions, submit your randomquestions to deep space and
dragons and you may find usyourself on the air.
You may have a coffee mug andif you email me, I'll probably
just send you a free e-book.

(01:43:42):
I don't care.

Speaker 2 (01:43:44):
Yeah, I mean definitely.
If you sign up for our Patreon,you might actually just get a
coffee mug.
I'm Currently, I think I'mprobably the only person in the
world with one, but I don't knowwhat the statistics are.
You are not.
We have a few patrons.
Really, they have gotten to thetier where they get a mug.
That's awesome.

Speaker 1 (01:44:02):
I'm pretty sure I know who it is, but I really
need to update our Patreon.
It doesn't have any unique orfresh content.
I watch YouTube and people givetheir Patreon plugs and I'm
like I've never given a Patreonplug because I just do not have
an editor to invest in.
If we had someone to take ourbest clips and animate them and
put them on Patreon, it'd besick.
There's nothing on the Patreon.
I literally went to an authorconvention a few weeks ago where

(01:44:24):
they explained exactly how Ishould set up my Patreon.
I never did, but you aresupporting us and that is
greatly appreciated so we canget more quality content like
this, where I complain aboutBoruto and talk about Bleach
every week week, even thoughbleach isn't even my top 10

(01:44:45):
favorite manga.
I like siren better than bleachin the meantime, you know
self-care, hydrate exercise,read a book I I think that all
our listeners, if they getrained on this week, should go
find like an indie coffee shopand like slowly sip a matcha
green tea while it rains outside.

Speaker 2 (01:45:03):
Ooh Right, sounds sophisticated.

Speaker 1 (01:45:08):
Bye, bye.
Also, it's my birthday, buy mybook.

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Shonen Jump Round Up: RuriDragon is perfect and Karl has a rare Blood disease

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