August 12, 2024 • 52 mins
For the Penultimate Episode of Season 5, our Hidden Egg protagonists delve into their own psyche, and the anime that shaped it. TAM and mort discuss their fav anime from the past and present, in this off-topic episode. So, if you do happen to anime and/or weeb, come along and hear us nerd out! XD
Check out the articles that we shouted out during the episode:
The Lasting Legacy of Avatar: The Last Airbender by Ben Ulansey
I’ve Been Selected to Speak at Medium Day by The Sturg (Gerald Sturgill)
Remembering What Made Me A Teacher by Murphy's Law
I’m Reincarnating as a Slime by The Accidental Monster
To watch the video version of this podcast, go to our Substack. For more about writing with vulnerability and information on articles discussed in the episodes, visit themonsteralley.com.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Hi, I'm Tam.
(00:02):
And I'm Eternally Mortal.
And this is the Hidden Egg Podcast, where we talk about vulnerability.
And stuff and things.
And articles on medium.com.
And you're listening to season five, episode eight.
So we're on eight, eight, episode eight, episode eight,
the second to last episode of the season.
(00:22):
Goodness. The penultimate.
Episode of the season, because that word means second to last.
Oh, does it?
It does. That's what that word means.
Today's theme is anime, but we have a couple of shout outs
first that have nothing to do with anime whatsoever.
(00:44):
Yeah. Well, I mean, some some of them have something to do with that.
But yeah, yeah, I've moved those.
Those aren't shout outs anymore.
They are and they aren't like, you know, whatever.
Oh, OK. Right on. All right.
So the first one is from Murphy's Law
and it's called Remembering What Made Me a Teacher.
(01:05):
And it was I really liked it.
I wish I could be the kind of teacher that he is
or have that kind of teachers to teach me all sorts of stuff, because.
I don't know, it sounded really fun.
I'm really thrilled that Murphy's Law has decided to share parts of his life
because his life sounds so interesting, like has had so many interesting moments.
(01:29):
You know, there's not a lot of people that I know
that have been able to be homeless on a beach and then, you know,
quote unquote, live to tell about it.
And that's what.
So kind of started Murphy's Law on the direction of his life in a certain regard.
And I don't know, it's just it's been really interesting to read the little bit
(01:51):
that I've read. If I ever find time, I want to delve into more of Murphy's
writing because it's really good.
Let's be clear, you read this whole article.
So the little bit that you read isn't of the articles of Murphy's
body of work on medium. Right.
Yes, that's what I meant.
I'm just clarifying. We definitely read the whole thing.
Yeah. Yeah, I understand.
(02:12):
Yeah, I agree. Murphy has.
He's been through some stuff and has a unique perspective on those things.
And is somehow able to convey that
in a really entertaining and wholesome way.
Right. Like, you know, Pixar movie wholesome almost in a certain regard. Yeah.
(02:37):
I could make them the movie of Murphy's Law, but, you know,
I don't have time and stuff, but still anyway, moving on.
So the next shout out is from the Sturge, Jared Sturge.
And it's I've been selected to speak at Medium Day,
which sounds very like to the point.
But he's talking about like what themes he's going to talk about
(03:02):
and kind of generating some hype.
I think that's really cool.
I'm really excited to hear him speak at Medium Day.
So, yeah, that's that's awesome that our buddy Sturge is getting to
selected to speak at Medium Day.
It's it's deserved Sturge is a mainstay of medium from my perspective.
So, you know, I'm glad he's getting glad he's getting some of that recognition.
(03:23):
So good on you, Gerald.
We'll be cheering you on.
I'm really hoping that I'm awake for it because.
There's a lot like it's all day, you know,
so I'm not entirely sure when his segment is going to happen.
And in in the past, I have not been awake for the for the fun stuff.
(03:47):
So it'll be in the article that says the time.
Yeah, I forgot.
Yeah. So so go read it.
Yeah, check it out.
So then the other one, there's two other ones that are technically shout outs,
but they fit the theme.
So they're not going to be shout outs because we're not really talking about articles.
(04:08):
So these are the articles that fit the anime theme
that we're not truly talking super deep about, but we might talk a little bit about.
Yeah, we haven't really said that on the main episode here yet,
but we're going to be taking it a little bit old school with this episode
and being a little more free form with it.
We've got these two articles that we're going to talk about a bit,
(04:32):
but we're also just going to talk about anime that we love and just just kind of,
you know, pick each other's brains about it like we do.
And we're pretty excited for the free form, or I am.
I can't really speak for you, Tim, but, you know, for the free form
discussion, I'm pretty happy about.
But this definitely the one to talk about these articles, though.
(04:54):
OK, go for it.
So the first one is Ben Ulanci's article from way back in February.
So it's not it's not a brand new one
called The Lasting Legacy of Avatar, The Last Airbender.
And like, you know, you start reading it thinking it's just going to be a
(05:14):
kind of like review piece of the series.
But then he gets like really in depth about.
Him growing up, watching it and being a little kid, like.
Trying to do the moves and like what it like what it did to his generation.
Right. And how like everyone in his social circle, like, you know,
(05:37):
was aware of it and talked about it and was excited about it and how it was odd
programming for Nickelodeon to play at the time that they did.
It was it was it was a strange choice for them to go for,
you know, a really deep and introspective anime like, you know, show.
It's funny. Instead of Jimmy Neutron.
(05:59):
It's funny because I don't know if you watched Nickelodeon growing up.
But when I was a kid, like kid kid, like before turning 10 kind of kid,
Nickelodeon had substance.
It had shows on Nick at night from even before I was a kid.
(06:19):
They were like the rerun oldie stuff.
And yeah, I've seen those, too. Yeah.
What were the what were the shows?
They were like Mr. Ed.
And yeah, Greenacres Greenacres.
That was like my favorite show.
And that was that had some substance to it.
Absolutely. And Get Smart also was on at that time.
(06:41):
I think they had Mork and Mindy for a brief period of time, too.
Possibly they were all delightful shows.
I used to watch those as well.
And then something happened during our generation.
What? That was Nickelodeon.
Nick at night was a whole different.
It was like how Nick Jr. was a whole different thing.
Nick Jr. was a whole different thing.
(07:01):
Nick Jr. I thought became a different channel.
Well, I mean, yeah, but Nick at night was on Nickelodeon.
It was on the same channel.
It just was at night.
And they were reruns of things that had been previously on Nickelodeon.
Well, Nick at night deserved to be its own channel.
Once all the channels started splitting into having
yeah, it never did, though.
(07:22):
They just dropped shows.
I know. But something happened.
And maybe it's because they like split everything up.
But like the substance just seems to bleed out of Nickelodeon.
And like like like the like the fucking goo, the slime, whatever they call it.
Along with their their Nickelodeon slime crap.
(07:43):
Yeah. What the hell did they call that?
I think maybe it was I think it was slime.
I thought it was something.
I think they call this slime. But I don't really.
I used to watch all those damn shows where the kids had to do things that were weird.
And if they didn't do right, they got slimed.
I don't know what it was, though.
Yeah. Anyway, the the the the whole thing.
My point is that he's right.
(08:05):
Like Avatar, the last airbender coming back to Nickelodeon.
Well, not coming back to.
But it it brought back substance.
Yeah. And yeah.
And brought.
I don't I kind of feel like it brought storied,
like a serial story substance to kids in that generation.
(08:29):
Right. And really have it.
Yeah, I really think so, too.
And I came to the show as an adult.
And I'm pretty sure I've said this on the podcast before,
but I came to the show as an adult and I adore it.
I do. I adore it with my whole heart.
So they really made a fantastic thing with that.
Yeah, I've watched it like no joke five times.
(08:52):
Yeah, not surprised.
Yeah, I've only I've only probably got like two passes through the series.
But I do weird things like decide to try and watch one piece
or try and figure out what original Dragon Ball was like, you know. Yeah.
So so that was that one.
And and then the other shout out was because you threatened to shout out my article.
(09:12):
So I had to I had to have it.
Yeah, I don't even have that as one of my tabs.
So I have to look at your screen to be able to remember the part.
But yeah, Tam's article about the slime anime.
Yeah. That one time I got reincarnated as whatever.
What's it called? What's the full title?
That time I got reincarnated as a slime.
Pretty sure is what that's called.
(09:34):
I swear, I put it in the first couple of paragraphs, but I guess I didn't.
No, I don't think you never know.
Oh, there it is. That time I got reincarnated as a slime.
There it is at the very bottom here.
Yeah. Tam and I are watching the slime
anime together occasionally whenever we get around to it.
And season three. So no spoilers, please.
(09:56):
Yeah. And we.
Kind of glad Sturges in here.
I feel like Sturges might want to start.
One of my want to spoil it for us.
I don't know that he's watched it.
And well, he might just find spoilers to give us anyway.
I'm just joking. Love you, Gerald. But.
(10:16):
But yeah, we're watching together and we're like pausing every few minutes
to like talk about the implications because we've watched season one and two
and we watched the over and we watched the three episode mini arc.
And there's probably more.
We just discovered like yesterday that there's some sort of spin off anime
that is supposed to be like a one point five, if I'm not mistaking
(10:38):
what I saw there.
You might like that.
Yeah, the slime diaries.
Yeah, I really do like to like when I get into something
to get into it whole ass and check out the whole thing, you know, so.
I'm really excited about this game that just really.
Oh, yeah, there's a game to. Yeah.
I hope that it's everything that I'm thinking that it's going to be
(10:59):
and not just being a graphic novel.
But on top of that, Tam wrote a novel,
an article about the slime anime, and I I don't have it in front of me,
so I don't remember exactly what I thought about it,
but I do remember really liking it.
I think I even clapped.
I don't remember. I rarely remember to clap, but.
(11:24):
It's a special it's a special bond for me because Tam and I
are watching it together.
And so when Tam talks about it, I get to see all the stuff
that we're kind of like giddy about together when we watch it.
But it was still delightful to read.
I really liked it.
But that was our second article.
Did you want to say more about it?
There's I mean, that's all the articles.
(11:45):
No, I did you want to say more about your article?
Oh, really, I wrote it because like it's so we used to watch Fruits Basket.
And that's a relatively short anime by comparison, but
but the slime anime has has really like bumped up to that spot where
(12:05):
I feel like it is teaching me new things about social interactions
in large groups where like Fruits Basket is more about the one on one kind of thing.
And then sometimes in a like family, familial group, small groups.
This is more of like these people aren't family.
(12:28):
They're friends sometimes, but sometimes they don't really know each other.
They just have a common theme, like a common goal, common goal.
And and sometimes they are enemies.
And like it just it's showing me different ways of.
I don't know, I guess, social interactions.
(12:48):
And then that's kind of like that's what I that's what I use all media for.
If I'm being honest, like everything, everything I enjoy
is based on what it's teaching me that I could use in my life socially.
Understood, understood.
Well, I guess I guess there's also
(13:09):
some things that it's teaching me, like things about myself.
Or how to like handle certain situations within myself and not feel overwhelmed.
But I don't know.
Well, that makes sense. That might not be everybody's experience.
Do you mind if I go in a direction off of that?
No, go ahead.
(13:30):
So I was trying to find an article today about Attack on Titan,
because Attack on Titan is one of the one of my favorite anime of all time right now.
I would probably place it in my top five.
I'd have to think about it and really figure out my top five, but probably my top five.
And there was one article that I was reading that was talking about how the theme
(13:54):
of Attack on Titan is pro-fascism.
And I was kind of flabbergasted as I was reading it, because it was talking about how
since it was depicted in the anime and it wasn't
(14:15):
necessarily shown as the complete total evil path the whole time,
that it might be teaching us that fascism is okay.
And I'm like, what do you mean, teaching us?
Like, this isn't...
I don't think that any work of art is intended to
(14:39):
like, preach a dogma.
Does that make sense?
They absolutely preach dogmas.
All of them do, to some extent.
Some of them purposefully, some of them accidentally.
But yeah, stories do try to teach us things.
That's literally the reason why stories even exist.
(15:02):
It's how we passed down information from generation to generation in an easy to understand way.
But if they actually believe that fascism is the lesson, like fascism good is the lesson of that anime,
either A, the anime is bad, or B, they misunderstood what the anime was actually saying.
(15:27):
Right.
Because fascism in reality has been proven to be bad.
Bad times.
It's not good for us.
Absolutely.
And so...
Can I get into it? Is it okay if I get into it?
So, you know, there are multiple different civilizations depicted.
(15:57):
Nationalities, basically, for the sake of argument.
And a couple of them are quite militaristic, and a couple of them definitely have a single ruler,
which can be just linked into fascism.
You know, one ruler, fascism.
People say that? You're okay with this?
(16:19):
Yeah, I mean...
I don't know that one ruler equals fascism.
Are you aware that people say that?
I was not aware that people say that.
What do they think a monarchy is?
Fascism. Fascism-lite, maybe?
Do they realize that it's not technically fascism?
(16:40):
I don't know. I don't know that they do or not.
It depends on what kind of monarchy it is, I would imagine.
Yeah, I guess that's true. A monarchy can be fascist.
But it's the square-rectangle argument.
Kind of, yeah, exactly.
If a monarchy has some sort of a council that is by and of the people, then is it a monarchy at that point?
(17:02):
Is one of the questions?
Because it's not being ruled by a single person or family.
It's being ruled by a council.
But anyway, the point is that I can sort of understand where this person was coming from
and saying that there's fascist elements in the story, certainly.
And they don't all get their comeuppance.
(17:25):
And I hate to hope it's not ruining the show for anybody,
but the ultimate point to me of Attack on Titan was that...
God, how do I even...
Humans are just humans.
We're just people trying our best to get by in the world we find ourselves in.
(17:49):
And even the people that follow fascism, sometimes even the ones that intentionally follow fascism,
they're still people.
The system is terrible, and those that maintain it are terrible,
but even those that maintain it, we can find them as people.
(18:12):
I think would be the only way to link the two things together.
I'm really struggling with trying to come up with all the right words here.
But it was such a human anime to me.
It mattered so much about who the people were and that people mattered.
And it blew my mind that they thought it was promoting fascism, I guess, is all I'm saying.
(18:39):
I got lost. Help me.
Yeah, so I mean, I don't know anything about Attack on Titan,
but I don't believe that you would enjoy something that actually promoted fascism,
because that's just not...
(19:02):
That's the height of abuse, really.
There's no other option.
There's just one person determining everything that's happening.
There's no connection between them and the people at the bottom that they're stepping on.
Right. And Attack's one of my core values, autonomy.
(19:24):
You're taking away the autonomy of many, typically, in most fascist regimes,
and forcing them to do what you think is right.
And I hate that so much.
Can I get a little political?
Yeah.
I mean, personally, I feel that the thing that we do wrong with all of our governmental types,
(19:45):
from fascism all the way to the socialist democracies that people,
which I think are probably more beneficial than fascism, but still flawed,
I think the problem is that we're putting people in power that want to be in power.
And the only solution that we can have as a true government that actually works for everybody
(20:11):
is to put people in those positions of power that deserve to have that power that don't want it.
Right.
They have proven in other situations that they are capable of resisting the temptation of power.
That's because it's the corruption of people that want that power.
(20:33):
And so they're not resisting the temptation.
They're going deep into it.
And I just don't think that no matter what government system you have, that's never going to go well.
Yeah. It's incredibly difficult to figure out what people's true motives are.
And while we've had many, many, many politicians that have claimed to be for and about their constituents,
(21:00):
it just gets shown every time. Maybe not every time, every time.
A lot has gone wrong. I'm so distracted by these damn cats.
And you put them there. You put them there.
They're delightful. They're a little too delightful, if I'm being honest.
Well, you know, if you click anywhere else, they stop moving.
(21:24):
I am. I just the one doing the whack-a-mole, I could not stop staring at.
OK, I'm back here. Hi. What's up? How's it going?
So do you want to talk about something that's not attack on Titan?
Yes, absolutely. Let's move on.
Like we I mean, we can kind of talk about erased if you want to.
(21:46):
There's like a darker scene to to anime.
Yeah. Well, the thing is, I don't I don't I don't yet.
I haven't really like formed my entire opinion about the race yet because we haven't finished it.
It hasn't been finished yet.
But did you want to talk about another one that has a dark side to it that we both loved and we watched together?
(22:10):
Are you talking about Elfen Lied? I am.
I don't know that there is a darker side to anime besides Elfen Lied without beyond.
Yeah, without taking away meaning like in order to have that darkness.
You know what I mean? Like Elfen Lied has the darkness, but it had like every bit of that darkness is meaningful and necessary.
(22:38):
Right. Exactly.
And it was so like I'm going to say a weird combination of words in my mind, but it was very darkly beautiful.
Like I felt so much watching the anime.
I'm pretty sure we watched it twice in a very short period of time.
Of course, we haven't seen it since. Right.
(23:00):
It's been a long time since we've seen that one. Yeah.
Yeah, I don't I don't know that Ghost is going to want to watch that with me ever.
So well, there's this very specific scene in there that is is one that it's like, which I understand if people
the the the the puppy.
(23:21):
Yeah, the puppy. Oh, yeah.
That's that's a that's a deal breaker for a lot of people.
And I get that. I totally get that.
I absolutely do understand being deciding not to continue with that after that.
But I every scene is impactful in the way that it was meant to be.
(23:44):
It meant something to the story.
And it is something that does happen in real life or at least has.
Yeah, I hope it's stopped.
But I'll bet you it still happens. Yeah, we raised as a puppy scene, too, didn't it?
Oh, does it? I could have sworn it.
I can't remember. It might.
Cannot remember. I could be wrong.
(24:05):
I could be mixing them up. Yeah.
But anyway, that's not all that's kind of traumatizing about Unlead.
But I mean, if you if you're a person that likes dark anime, if you if you like to get into the fields, all of the fields,
like, you know that you're that type of person, then I think you'll love it.
(24:29):
But trigger warnings. Yeah.
All the trigger warnings, like all warnings ever.
Basically abuse of any sort.
So anyway, that's that one.
We talked about freeze. We talked about freeze.
Photon. We didn't talk about photon.
(24:51):
Photon. That was also so long ago for us.
But yeah, we haven't watched that in a long time.
So all I really remember from Photon is like the let's call them wacky misadventures of Photon and his big sister and the inappropriate
attractions. So you don't remember.
(25:13):
You don't remember Hamana bye bye.
When you say that, it rings a bell, but not I don't like I can't I can't place the bad guy.
But I remember he's goofy. He was he was just a goofy and I don't remember what the scene was, but I just remember there was a scene.
It's a little bit of a hamana bye bye.
(25:34):
And we just made fun of that for like days.
Yeah, that sounds like us. Absolutely.
But it was it was goofy almost all the way through, if I remember correctly, until the very, very end and the very end got very serious.
And I don't remember what happened.
I remember being very like floored by it, like I really liked what had happened.
(25:57):
So I'll have to watch it again sometime.
But that does that does lead me to another anime that has a very goofy sort of feel to it.
But it has presented the seriousness throughout and then ends very seriously and deeply that I love that you watched with me.
What was that?
Try Gun.
I love Try Gun.
(26:19):
But it's hard to watch.
I don't like so hot take.
I don't like steampunk.
Oh, yeah. It's not like I don't hate it.
It's just it doesn't really do it for me.
What I liked about Try Gun was the story, not the setting.
Right. I understand.
(26:40):
I liked like if you had put that if you had made it if they had made it like less about it being, you know, steampunky kind of technology era, it would have been even better for me.
Understood.
It is such a good story, though.
You couldn't take like you can't remove that aspect and make it the same story because like it needs the planet to be kind of on planted.
(27:12):
Right. It's a yeah, it was kind of a specific.
Well, I mean, they could have probably done it in a different way.
You know, I mean, ultimately, the beginning of that anime is that, oh, no, I don't think that they go through the origin story until midway through.
So I guess I probably shouldn't talk about it.
But I think a different setting could have been possible.
(27:33):
I just remember there was a sort of like terraforming theme that needed to be a part of it to an extent.
But it's only about what planet they ended up at.
Right.
That could have been changed.
We've played Rimworld.
We've played Solares.
We know how many planet types there are out there.
(27:55):
But I was thinking about trying to do Trigun as the anime I really wanted to talk about.
So glad we're going to talk about multiple of them.
But I really was thinking about making Trigun the one I wanted to talk about because I love it so much.
I am completely in love with the character of Ash the Stampede.
The story of Nicholas D. Wolfwood is one that has impacted me from the moment that I saw it.
(28:19):
I can't think about his ending without tearing up a little bit.
Yeah.
Sorry, I guess that's a spoiler.
I don't remember his ending, but I do remember that he has an ending.
Yeah.
And it was epic.
When we watched it together, I had to like pause it and like cry it out for a little bit, if I remember correctly.
(28:41):
I do think I remember that.
So it's very impactful to me.
But I haven't watched the new one yet.
There's a new Trigun.
And I really probably should take a break from watching Dragon Ball to watch the new Trigun to see what it's like.
Because when I started looking for articles to potentially reference in this episode,
(29:02):
all of the articles I found about Trigun were about the new Trigun and like started showing me screen caps.
And I'm like, no, no, I am not spoiling.
The new Trigun.
I'm not.
I just refuse.
And so maybe I should probably get to that sometime soon.
Maybe I should take a day off and just binge the after because it's a new anime.
(29:23):
They probably only have 12 episodes out.
You know what I'm saying?
Right.
I mean, you can probably add it into your day.
Yeah, probably.
Well, it's just that it's it's not something that I can just casually watch at a meal time.
Like what I'm watching at meal time isn't taking my whole attention.
(29:46):
But when I watch that one, that's going to take my whole attention.
That's like the next time I watch Evangelion, I'm giving it my full attention.
So make sense?
Because Evangelion just deserves full attention if you're going to watch it.
Evangelion is like I don't even I've watched so many more anime since then, because that was like it wasn't my first anime, but it was like the first one I fell in love with.
(30:13):
No, that's not really true either.
Tenshi, I think, was the first one I felt.
Oh, yeah, Tenshi.
I forgot about Tenshi.
Because, well, everybody forgets about Tenshi because Tenshi like split off into like five different fucking stories replaying the same events five different ways in five different universes.
(30:34):
And it got too confusing.
And so none of us like whatever.
Well, I'm just done with it.
You know, you could have kept the story as it was.
You didn't have to retell it a million different ways.
You could have just continued on, but they didn't want they didn't want to end the will they won't they with between Tenshi and literally all the other characters.
(30:57):
Right.
To keep the reverse harem going on or is it a reverse?
No, it's just a regular.
That's just a regular fucking harem.
They just wanted to keep that going on.
So they just started everything back at the beginning and retold it in a different way.
And it just got confusing.
I do want to say that like a little bit of Tenshi that I did see because you introduced introduced me to it.
(31:22):
I did like that for a harem anime, it did seem to have a little bit of substance to it.
It wasn't so since some harem animes that are really, really light on substance and Tenshi the characters actually seem to care about each other.
Yeah, Tenshi didn't go as hard into the TNA either.
(31:44):
It was more about the tension and the awkwardness between characters.
It was a coming of age thing, and it was obviously written for teenagers like younger teenagers, not the older teenagers.
It was written for people that hadn't had sex yet, were still trying to do what they were supposed to be doing and having to deal with these feelings alongside.
(32:09):
And this anime gave them reactions to be able to do that, to be able to deal with those feelings and not give in to them.
And I liked that. I liked that about it.
But telling it five different ways, man, dude, pick a lane.
Right.
Do you mind if I get religious for a second?
(32:31):
No, go ahead.
You mean like the Gospels? Whoa.
All right. Anyway.
Evangelion was kind of the same, but like really philosophical.
Yeah. Did you real quick?
Because as for anime you first loved, were you one of the ones that fell in love with Inuyasha?
(32:54):
Oh yeah, I love Inuyasha.
Yeah, I've never finished it.
I've never I've never found the I watched the hundred and seventy four episodes that Netflix had.
And then I never got the resolution.
So there's like 50 or 60 episodes that I've just never seen.
(33:16):
We'll have to fix that at some point.
But yeah, we were talking about Evangelion and I keep breaking you away from it.
Did you have more you wanted to say?
No, I don't want to go too deep into it because it was a great anime at the time.
But like there's so many better anime now that go just as hard into philosophy as as that one did without being nearly as confusing.
(33:41):
Yeah, I'm going to I was going to say I don't know if it's a hot take or not.
But like one of the things I really like about Evangelion that I think a lot of people don't like is that the ending still confuses me to this day.
There's two different endings, you know.
Yeah, I know that there's two, but like the one for the show.
I don't even know which one is supposed to be the real ending.
They just have two different endings and you just pick which one you like, I guess.
(34:07):
But I mean, I understand the ending.
I mean, it doesn't really confuse me.
It's just it was presented in a confusing way.
Well, that's what I mean, like trying to take all the words leading through the ending to the end scene, if I remember the end scene correctly.
(34:28):
Is difficult because it doesn't seem to make a lot of sense.
And I like to analyze that shit when I get to it, but I have to get the entirety of the backstory to get there.
So that's why I have to watch the whole show again.
I am not going to go too far into it, because I don't want to spoil the whole thing.
But I got the feeling that the ending of Evangelion was similar to the purpose and feel of the ending of Angel Beats.
(34:58):
Right. There is a parallel there.
There is a parallel. Absolutely. And Angel Beats.
Oh, Angel Beats.
Yeah, that's one. I still break that out whenever I have to deal with grief.
It's one of the more surprising to me, surprisingly impactful anime to me, because like I felt all the feelings of what was going on in that anime.
(35:31):
But even just talking about a bit of a spoiler, but the end of what I saw, I think that they've made new shit for Angel Beats.
And of what I saw, which I guess was just season one, was so immediately impactful in the moment.
It was a moment that I hadn't considered before.
And like it makes me cry to this day. My avatar on Steam is still I can't remember his name.
(35:58):
I've been trying to remember the main character's name this whole time, and I can't remember it.
It's still him. Otanashi. There it is. Otanashi.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And such great music and Angel Beats. Oh, it's beautiful.
Oh, music. Was it was it Rasefan?
(36:22):
It was. I was just going to bring it up to Rasefan, which in some ways kind of can be considered a better Evangelion.
At least for some people. I think so. Although the ending eludes me.
I only watched it through once, so I need to watch it through again to see if I understand the ending better.
Yeah. Well, someday you and I have to watch it again. Not that you can't watch it without me.
(36:47):
Oh, oh, oh. What was that one? What was that one with the I just watched it recently?
Cap was the one that brought us into it.
Which one? The one with the little girl with the Nodachi.
And they were like shrine maidens that fought these creatures.
(37:14):
Uh, there's. Yeah, sorry. There's like. I know that describes like 10 different answers.
No, no, no, no, but I don't. There's a few anime in there that like I don't remember, but I enjoyed the crap out of.
But like, I don't remember them anymore. They just didn't make enough of an impact to put through.
And there's there's one like that. And there's another one that's like about demon fighting where there was like spirits and dead people.
(37:44):
And a kid that was trying to go to high school and also got contracted to fight demons or something.
And it's like, I mean, that sounds a little bit like Madoka Magica.
But yeah, that's not the one I'm thinking of.
The one I'm thinking of, the only thing that I can think of that I know as soon as I say it, you'll know what I'm talking about.
(38:07):
But it's like the big twist of the thing. And it's OK. It's two girls.
One is younger than the other. And the older one is teaching the younger one how to how to do the battling thing.
And then and then but then there's the twist. I don't know. I don't even if you spoil the twist.
(38:31):
If you said the twist, I don't even know that I would recognize it.
The twist is that the older one ends up being like infected by the evil spirit guy.
And then the younger one has to kill her. I have no idea. Literally no idea.
Your sister like really latched on to it because of the situations she was going through at the time.
(38:54):
Right. And like it was one of those like empowering.
You've got to do what you got to do kind of moments where like sometimes you you have like the people that you love.
You have to you have to kill them for their good, for the world's good, for, you know, everything.
And obviously it was metaphorical for her or not. She didn't have to like hurt people in real life.
(39:19):
But it became a huge metaphor. Man, I really wish I could remember the name of that one.
Yeah, sorry. I really wish I knew which one it was, too.
Do you mind if I kind of go through some of the anime that I've watched that I don't think you've seen about?
You don't have to ask my permission all the time. You can just bring it up.
No, I just want to make sure we're flowing together, you know?
(39:41):
All right. All right.
Because like there's a couple of anime that I'm going to bring up, like three of them that that the kid introduced me to.
And I really adore.
But I need to go back and watch some of the one that I love the most is Haikyuu, the volleyball anime.
You watch it, too, didn't you? Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, Haikyuu.
(40:04):
It's so wholesome. It's the oh my God.
For character interactions, it is like like three points below Fruits Basket, honestly.
Like it's so good with characters with the character interactions.
I adore it so much. The art still so much fun, too.
And the drama that they build up with every fucking like game of volleyball is amazing.
(40:29):
Yeah, they adequately they adequately matched how it felt to be a teenager.
Right. Like every. Yeah. But only only with volleyball.
Yeah. But it was it's fantastic. I absolutely adore the anime.
The the other one that I watched that I really liked, but I haven't finished.
(40:52):
And I just kind of stopped while there was still more to watch.
So I don't know if that bodes well is My Hero Academia.
I haven't watched that one.
I just like a good coming of age superhero story.
Like it just makes me happy. And that one was pretty good.
You might like the the Irregular at Magic High School.
Yeah, that's one that I know that you've seen a few times and I've seen little bits of it.
(41:17):
So I need to watch it in its totality. I know that it's really good from what you said.
I just haven't gotten there yet.
And then the third one I wanted to bring up was Naruto.
Of course, I haven't watched that. I have no plans on ever watching that.
Yeah, it's it's one of those that like people that are currently in their people that are currently in their late 20s and early 30s.
(41:40):
Like all of them watch Naruto. All of them. All of them.
Maybe not all of them, but like a good number of them know Naruto.
It's like people that don't know anything about anime right now.
I can be like, I've seen like Naruto and they're like, oh, I love Naruto.
And again, it's another coming of age story. It's a shonen.
(42:02):
It's a shonen anime. And I really actually like some shonen anime.
And like you and I watched Hunter X Hunter and love the crap out of that.
And it's kind of no offense, Naruto fans, but Hunter X Hunter is kind of a little bit better Naruto.
But Naruto is also much bigger. It's got a bigger story.
It spans generations at this point, you know, kind of like Dragon Ball does.
(42:28):
So, you know, Hunter X Hunter could span generations if they if they wanted to.
They could easily add like make the main characters of what is currently the story,
make them the parents and bring a new generation in. I'd watch it.
Yeah, they could also do us a flashback and show us the current generations parents,
(42:51):
which most of them are referenced in the show. That's true. Yeah.
Or at least some of them. So, you know, so there's some places they could go with it.
I don't know if they will, but they could. Right.
But I wonder if it was better because it was targeted in a certain way,
because like Naruto branched out quickly. Yeah, maybe.
I like I like wholesome animes like like Silver Spoon.
(43:17):
Yeah, Silver Spoon was great. I need to watch that one again, too, because it was just so sweet to watch.
And then and then I don't might be an unpopular opinion, but I feel like Food Wars is also pretty wholesome.
I love Food Wars. I'm so glad you brought it up.
I forgot all about it. And a lot of people don't like Food Wars because they seemed.
(43:39):
It's not really seeming. They kind of really do like sexualize food.
They do so much, but I love it. I love it so much.
I want them to make more episodes of Food Wars, please.
Yeah, Food Wars was really, really, really fun to watch.
I enjoyed all the character interactions as well.
I don't mind sexualization of consenting adults in my anime.
(44:03):
I really, really, truly don't. Look, there are certain foods that bring you that level of pleasure.
Like, maybe you don't actually have a food bosom, but it's it still feels real good to eat certain foods.
So like, come on, it's fine. Have you seen the other stuff that they do in anime?
(44:28):
Like, yeah, all this is not the thing to condemn.
And that's not and that's one of the things that we're not really talking about is that there is a whole sector of anime that's like some pretty like when we say dark stuff, we mean like, you know, really like deeply touching on many emotions.
But like, there's some when there's some dark stuff out there that's very let's say they take away the autonomy of characters a lot and in ways that's really kind of upsetting.
(44:54):
And I'm being vague on purpose because I'm not trying to give out attention to that.
I don't think that that's good story writing.
Speaking of darker anime, one that was brought to my attention after I wrote that article was so I think it's called I'm a Spider So What?
(45:16):
Okay.
And I didn't really feel like it was all that dark, but after thinking about it, it does have some pretty morbid elements like the first episode, so I'm not really spoiling anything the first episode, she reincarnates as a spider.
And in order to survive, she has to start eating her spider siblings.
(45:43):
Great.
It's a little dark, and she does almost die a lot. And, you know, it, it, so it has it has some elements of fear and some light cannibalism.
Which, apparently, I would assume that they did that because those types of spiders or whatever.
(46:07):
There are spiders out there that actually do eat their siblings, I assume.
Yeah, she's a monster spider. So, yeah, all the other spiders were doing it too. It was not, it was not like she just made this decision to go, she tried to resist, she didn't want to eat her siblings, but it just ended up happening that way.
(46:30):
Interesting.
It's kind of like the slime anime in that like there's skills and stuff.
I really liked it, even though it might be a little dark.
Just a little as a treat.
Right, understood.
As we're going a little dark, I'm going to have to do at least two honorable mentions here because I think we're probably heading towards the end of the episode here.
(46:58):
But, Tokyo Ghoul is one of my favorites.
Definitely in my top five.
I only, I've only seen what I assume is the first season, maybe it's the first two seasons, I don't know. I'm not going to reference the moment that was the last moment for me. I heard, I think that it continues, maybe it gets worse.
But I adored what I saw in the ending.
(47:24):
I can listen to that opening theme song and cry because of that ending easily.
It's fantastic. And then one that you and I have watched together at least once or twice and we adored was Soul Eater.
Oh right, Soul Eater. How did I forget Soul Eater?
(47:45):
I watched that one, I'm not feeling confident enough.
It's really inspiring.
Yeah, Maca Albar.
I was just thinking about, what a character.
It just went away.
Fairy tale.
Fairy tale. Ah, fairy tales great too.
(48:06):
Fairy tales great too.
I think I've watched all the fairy tale and like, I have not. I got halfway through and boy that is a long anime.
It's a very long anime. I mean it's not One Piece long, which I'm not talking about One Piece because everyone that is in the anime world knows what One Piece is.
It is the Mount Everest of anime and it is also very good.
(48:29):
I'm probably never going to watch it. It is too long.
Right. But fairy tale, if you want to think about it with a different kind of setting because they're kind of focused on a different goal in life,
is somewhat similar actually to the concept of One Piece.
And it has great character interactions.
(48:52):
It's got some fan service, which I still really like to have fan service again, as long as it's kind of not done in a gross way.
And that's gross as a subjective term.
But yeah, I really like fairy tale a lot. It's good.
And there was one other one. I can't remember.
I mean there's a whole bunch of them.
(49:13):
Black Butler is a good dark one. Oh Black Butler. That's a good one. That's so good.
First season, the second season.
Right. It's okay. It happens.
It was part of it.
It's kind of how I feel about Korra.
Right. Korra was great too.
(49:35):
Shout out to Ben Ulanci.
Because Ben wrote a very passionate piece about The Legend of Korra and it is pretty good.
I know we're forgetting a billion more that are delightful and loved.
Probably. But yeah, so many.
There's no way we were going to mention them all in one episode.
But, you know, this anybody who's like, hmm, what anime might be enjoyable?
(50:02):
We've given most of like the really good ones. So it's a good place.
Good place to start if anybody's looking for that kind of thing.
And, you know, if you are thinking about an anime, go and check out some medium articles about them.
Because, you know, people have really written passion stuff about what they, what they, what anime they like.
(50:28):
Of course, there's probably going to be spoilers in it, but, you know, you can get some good feels about what people's opinions are.
Just throwing that out there.
Well, I'm kind of running out of steam, Tam. How about you?
I am. Stick fork in me. I'm done.
Right. You didn't even like Cyberpunk. So you don't like being powered by steam.
(50:53):
I don't know what that means. Don't worry.
So I guess we'll go ahead and end our episode. And I think we can't end it the way we normally have been ending.
We cannot. I'm just going to do my thing here. Is that cool?
So everybody listening to our podcast, remember that if you want to, you can be part of the live action by joining our Discord through the monster rally.com.
(51:22):
Which also has links to our articles, Spotify and Substack.
And special bonus, the Substack is the only place to get the un-centered version. I did it again. Un-censored version. Un-censored version.
Un-censored version.
Sorry. Please continue.
You're continuing. It's your thing.
(51:43):
Oh, that's right. It's still me.
Yeah, you messed it up last time because you didn't say your name and your sign off.
I know. Don't worry. I got it this time. I swear. I'm not going to stare at the cats poking at the ground.
Hey, dear listeners, it's been great for you to come along. We appreciate you lending your ear holes to us and listening to us just talk about stuff that we love.
(52:06):
I'm eternally mortal and I hope you find smiles this day.
And I'm the Accidental Monster. You can find this both on Medium.com or through the Monster Alley.com and remember to follow yourself always.
Hi, I'm Tam.
(00:02):
And I'm Eternally Mortal.
And this is the Hidden Egg Podcast, where we talk about vulnerability.
And stuff and things.
And articles on medium.com.
And you're listening to season five, episode eight.
So we're on eight, eight, episode eight, episode eight,
the second to last episode of the season.
(00:22):
Goodness. The penultimate.
Episode of the season, because that word means second to last.
Oh, does it?
It does. That's what that word means.
Today's theme is anime, but we have a couple of shout outs
first that have nothing to do with anime whatsoever.
(00:44):
Yeah. Well, I mean, some some of them have something to do with that.
But yeah, yeah, I've moved those.
Those aren't shout outs anymore.
They are and they aren't like, you know, whatever.
Oh, OK. Right on. All right.
So the first one is from Murphy's Law
and it's called Remembering What Made Me a Teacher.
(01:05):
And it was I really liked it.
I wish I could be the kind of teacher that he is
or have that kind of teachers to teach me all sorts of stuff, because.
I don't know, it sounded really fun.
I'm really thrilled that Murphy's Law has decided to share parts of his life
because his life sounds so interesting, like has had so many interesting moments.
(01:29):
You know, there's not a lot of people that I know
that have been able to be homeless on a beach and then, you know,
quote unquote, live to tell about it.
And that's what.
So kind of started Murphy's Law on the direction of his life in a certain regard.
And I don't know, it's just it's been really interesting to read the little bit
(01:51):
that I've read. If I ever find time, I want to delve into more of Murphy's
writing because it's really good.
Let's be clear, you read this whole article.
So the little bit that you read isn't of the articles of Murphy's
body of work on medium. Right.
Yes, that's what I meant.
I'm just clarifying. We definitely read the whole thing.
Yeah. Yeah, I understand.
(02:12):
Yeah, I agree. Murphy has.
He's been through some stuff and has a unique perspective on those things.
And is somehow able to convey that
in a really entertaining and wholesome way.
Right. Like, you know, Pixar movie wholesome almost in a certain regard. Yeah.
(02:37):
I could make them the movie of Murphy's Law, but, you know,
I don't have time and stuff, but still anyway, moving on.
So the next shout out is from the Sturge, Jared Sturge.
And it's I've been selected to speak at Medium Day,
which sounds very like to the point.
But he's talking about like what themes he's going to talk about
(03:02):
and kind of generating some hype.
I think that's really cool.
I'm really excited to hear him speak at Medium Day.
So, yeah, that's that's awesome that our buddy Sturge is getting to
selected to speak at Medium Day.
It's it's deserved Sturge is a mainstay of medium from my perspective.
So, you know, I'm glad he's getting glad he's getting some of that recognition.
(03:23):
So good on you, Gerald.
We'll be cheering you on.
I'm really hoping that I'm awake for it because.
There's a lot like it's all day, you know,
so I'm not entirely sure when his segment is going to happen.
And in in the past, I have not been awake for the for the fun stuff.
(03:47):
So it'll be in the article that says the time.
Yeah, I forgot.
Yeah. So so go read it.
Yeah, check it out.
So then the other one, there's two other ones that are technically shout outs,
but they fit the theme.
So they're not going to be shout outs because we're not really talking about articles.
(04:08):
So these are the articles that fit the anime theme
that we're not truly talking super deep about, but we might talk a little bit about.
Yeah, we haven't really said that on the main episode here yet,
but we're going to be taking it a little bit old school with this episode
and being a little more free form with it.
We've got these two articles that we're going to talk about a bit,
(04:32):
but we're also just going to talk about anime that we love and just just kind of,
you know, pick each other's brains about it like we do.
And we're pretty excited for the free form, or I am.
I can't really speak for you, Tim, but, you know, for the free form
discussion, I'm pretty happy about.
But this definitely the one to talk about these articles, though.
(04:54):
OK, go for it.
So the first one is Ben Ulanci's article from way back in February.
So it's not it's not a brand new one
called The Lasting Legacy of Avatar, The Last Airbender.
And like, you know, you start reading it thinking it's just going to be a
(05:14):
kind of like review piece of the series.
But then he gets like really in depth about.
Him growing up, watching it and being a little kid, like.
Trying to do the moves and like what it like what it did to his generation.
Right. And how like everyone in his social circle, like, you know,
(05:37):
was aware of it and talked about it and was excited about it and how it was odd
programming for Nickelodeon to play at the time that they did.
It was it was it was a strange choice for them to go for,
you know, a really deep and introspective anime like, you know, show.
It's funny. Instead of Jimmy Neutron.
(05:59):
It's funny because I don't know if you watched Nickelodeon growing up.
But when I was a kid, like kid kid, like before turning 10 kind of kid,
Nickelodeon had substance.
It had shows on Nick at night from even before I was a kid.
(06:19):
They were like the rerun oldie stuff.
And yeah, I've seen those, too. Yeah.
What were the what were the shows?
They were like Mr. Ed.
And yeah, Greenacres Greenacres.
That was like my favorite show.
And that was that had some substance to it.
Absolutely. And Get Smart also was on at that time.
(06:41):
I think they had Mork and Mindy for a brief period of time, too.
Possibly they were all delightful shows.
I used to watch those as well.
And then something happened during our generation.
What? That was Nickelodeon.
Nick at night was a whole different.
It was like how Nick Jr. was a whole different thing.
Nick Jr. was a whole different thing.
(07:01):
Nick Jr. I thought became a different channel.
Well, I mean, yeah, but Nick at night was on Nickelodeon.
It was on the same channel.
It just was at night.
And they were reruns of things that had been previously on Nickelodeon.
Well, Nick at night deserved to be its own channel.
Once all the channels started splitting into having
yeah, it never did, though.
(07:22):
They just dropped shows.
I know. But something happened.
And maybe it's because they like split everything up.
But like the substance just seems to bleed out of Nickelodeon.
And like like like the like the fucking goo, the slime, whatever they call it.
Along with their their Nickelodeon slime crap.
(07:43):
Yeah. What the hell did they call that?
I think maybe it was I think it was slime.
I thought it was something.
I think they call this slime. But I don't really.
I used to watch all those damn shows where the kids had to do things that were weird.
And if they didn't do right, they got slimed.
I don't know what it was, though.
Yeah. Anyway, the the the the whole thing.
My point is that he's right.
(08:05):
Like Avatar, the last airbender coming back to Nickelodeon.
Well, not coming back to.
But it it brought back substance.
Yeah. And yeah.
And brought.
I don't I kind of feel like it brought storied,
like a serial story substance to kids in that generation.
(08:29):
Right. And really have it.
Yeah, I really think so, too.
And I came to the show as an adult.
And I'm pretty sure I've said this on the podcast before,
but I came to the show as an adult and I adore it.
I do. I adore it with my whole heart.
So they really made a fantastic thing with that.
Yeah, I've watched it like no joke five times.
(08:52):
Yeah, not surprised.
Yeah, I've only I've only probably got like two passes through the series.
But I do weird things like decide to try and watch one piece
or try and figure out what original Dragon Ball was like, you know. Yeah.
So so that was that one.
And and then the other shout out was because you threatened to shout out my article.
(09:12):
So I had to I had to have it.
Yeah, I don't even have that as one of my tabs.
So I have to look at your screen to be able to remember the part.
But yeah, Tam's article about the slime anime.
Yeah. That one time I got reincarnated as whatever.
What's it called? What's the full title?
That time I got reincarnated as a slime.
Pretty sure is what that's called.
(09:34):
I swear, I put it in the first couple of paragraphs, but I guess I didn't.
No, I don't think you never know.
Oh, there it is. That time I got reincarnated as a slime.
There it is at the very bottom here.
Yeah. Tam and I are watching the slime
anime together occasionally whenever we get around to it.
And season three. So no spoilers, please.
(09:56):
Yeah. And we.
Kind of glad Sturges in here.
I feel like Sturges might want to start.
One of my want to spoil it for us.
I don't know that he's watched it.
And well, he might just find spoilers to give us anyway.
I'm just joking. Love you, Gerald. But.
(10:16):
But yeah, we're watching together and we're like pausing every few minutes
to like talk about the implications because we've watched season one and two
and we watched the over and we watched the three episode mini arc.
And there's probably more.
We just discovered like yesterday that there's some sort of spin off anime
that is supposed to be like a one point five, if I'm not mistaking
(10:38):
what I saw there.
You might like that.
Yeah, the slime diaries.
Yeah, I really do like to like when I get into something
to get into it whole ass and check out the whole thing, you know, so.
I'm really excited about this game that just really.
Oh, yeah, there's a game to. Yeah.
I hope that it's everything that I'm thinking that it's going to be
(10:59):
and not just being a graphic novel.
But on top of that, Tam wrote a novel,
an article about the slime anime, and I I don't have it in front of me,
so I don't remember exactly what I thought about it,
but I do remember really liking it.
I think I even clapped.
I don't remember. I rarely remember to clap, but.
(11:24):
It's a special it's a special bond for me because Tam and I
are watching it together.
And so when Tam talks about it, I get to see all the stuff
that we're kind of like giddy about together when we watch it.
But it was still delightful to read.
I really liked it.
But that was our second article.
Did you want to say more about it?
There's I mean, that's all the articles.
(11:45):
No, I did you want to say more about your article?
Oh, really, I wrote it because like it's so we used to watch Fruits Basket.
And that's a relatively short anime by comparison, but
but the slime anime has has really like bumped up to that spot where
(12:05):
I feel like it is teaching me new things about social interactions
in large groups where like Fruits Basket is more about the one on one kind of thing.
And then sometimes in a like family, familial group, small groups.
This is more of like these people aren't family.
(12:28):
They're friends sometimes, but sometimes they don't really know each other.
They just have a common theme, like a common goal, common goal.
And and sometimes they are enemies.
And like it just it's showing me different ways of.
I don't know, I guess, social interactions.
(12:48):
And then that's kind of like that's what I that's what I use all media for.
If I'm being honest, like everything, everything I enjoy
is based on what it's teaching me that I could use in my life socially.
Understood, understood.
Well, I guess I guess there's also
(13:09):
some things that it's teaching me, like things about myself.
Or how to like handle certain situations within myself and not feel overwhelmed.
But I don't know.
Well, that makes sense. That might not be everybody's experience.
Do you mind if I go in a direction off of that?
No, go ahead.
(13:30):
So I was trying to find an article today about Attack on Titan,
because Attack on Titan is one of the one of my favorite anime of all time right now.
I would probably place it in my top five.
I'd have to think about it and really figure out my top five, but probably my top five.
And there was one article that I was reading that was talking about how the theme
(13:54):
of Attack on Titan is pro-fascism.
And I was kind of flabbergasted as I was reading it, because it was talking about how
since it was depicted in the anime and it wasn't
(14:15):
necessarily shown as the complete total evil path the whole time,
that it might be teaching us that fascism is okay.
And I'm like, what do you mean, teaching us?
Like, this isn't...
I don't think that any work of art is intended to
(14:39):
like, preach a dogma.
Does that make sense?
They absolutely preach dogmas.
All of them do, to some extent.
Some of them purposefully, some of them accidentally.
But yeah, stories do try to teach us things.
That's literally the reason why stories even exist.
(15:02):
It's how we passed down information from generation to generation in an easy to understand way.
But if they actually believe that fascism is the lesson, like fascism good is the lesson of that anime,
either A, the anime is bad, or B, they misunderstood what the anime was actually saying.
(15:27):
Right.
Because fascism in reality has been proven to be bad.
Bad times.
It's not good for us.
Absolutely.
And so...
Can I get into it? Is it okay if I get into it?
So, you know, there are multiple different civilizations depicted.
(15:57):
Nationalities, basically, for the sake of argument.
And a couple of them are quite militaristic, and a couple of them definitely have a single ruler,
which can be just linked into fascism.
You know, one ruler, fascism.
People say that? You're okay with this?
(16:19):
Yeah, I mean...
I don't know that one ruler equals fascism.
Are you aware that people say that?
I was not aware that people say that.
What do they think a monarchy is?
Fascism. Fascism-lite, maybe?
Do they realize that it's not technically fascism?
(16:40):
I don't know. I don't know that they do or not.
It depends on what kind of monarchy it is, I would imagine.
Yeah, I guess that's true. A monarchy can be fascist.
But it's the square-rectangle argument.
Kind of, yeah, exactly.
If a monarchy has some sort of a council that is by and of the people, then is it a monarchy at that point?
(17:02):
Is one of the questions?
Because it's not being ruled by a single person or family.
It's being ruled by a council.
But anyway, the point is that I can sort of understand where this person was coming from
and saying that there's fascist elements in the story, certainly.
And they don't all get their comeuppance.
(17:25):
And I hate to hope it's not ruining the show for anybody,
but the ultimate point to me of Attack on Titan was that...
God, how do I even...
Humans are just humans.
We're just people trying our best to get by in the world we find ourselves in.
(17:49):
And even the people that follow fascism, sometimes even the ones that intentionally follow fascism,
they're still people.
The system is terrible, and those that maintain it are terrible,
but even those that maintain it, we can find them as people.
(18:12):
I think would be the only way to link the two things together.
I'm really struggling with trying to come up with all the right words here.
But it was such a human anime to me.
It mattered so much about who the people were and that people mattered.
And it blew my mind that they thought it was promoting fascism, I guess, is all I'm saying.
(18:39):
I got lost. Help me.
Yeah, so I mean, I don't know anything about Attack on Titan,
but I don't believe that you would enjoy something that actually promoted fascism,
because that's just not...
(19:02):
That's the height of abuse, really.
There's no other option.
There's just one person determining everything that's happening.
There's no connection between them and the people at the bottom that they're stepping on.
Right. And Attack's one of my core values, autonomy.
(19:24):
You're taking away the autonomy of many, typically, in most fascist regimes,
and forcing them to do what you think is right.
And I hate that so much.
Can I get a little political?
Yeah.
I mean, personally, I feel that the thing that we do wrong with all of our governmental types,
(19:45):
from fascism all the way to the socialist democracies that people,
which I think are probably more beneficial than fascism, but still flawed,
I think the problem is that we're putting people in power that want to be in power.
And the only solution that we can have as a true government that actually works for everybody
(20:11):
is to put people in those positions of power that deserve to have that power that don't want it.
Right.
They have proven in other situations that they are capable of resisting the temptation of power.
That's because it's the corruption of people that want that power.
(20:33):
And so they're not resisting the temptation.
They're going deep into it.
And I just don't think that no matter what government system you have, that's never going to go well.
Yeah. It's incredibly difficult to figure out what people's true motives are.
And while we've had many, many, many politicians that have claimed to be for and about their constituents,
(21:00):
it just gets shown every time. Maybe not every time, every time.
A lot has gone wrong. I'm so distracted by these damn cats.
And you put them there. You put them there.
They're delightful. They're a little too delightful, if I'm being honest.
Well, you know, if you click anywhere else, they stop moving.
(21:24):
I am. I just the one doing the whack-a-mole, I could not stop staring at.
OK, I'm back here. Hi. What's up? How's it going?
So do you want to talk about something that's not attack on Titan?
Yes, absolutely. Let's move on.
Like we I mean, we can kind of talk about erased if you want to.
(21:46):
There's like a darker scene to to anime.
Yeah. Well, the thing is, I don't I don't I don't yet.
I haven't really like formed my entire opinion about the race yet because we haven't finished it.
It hasn't been finished yet.
But did you want to talk about another one that has a dark side to it that we both loved and we watched together?
(22:10):
Are you talking about Elfen Lied? I am.
I don't know that there is a darker side to anime besides Elfen Lied without beyond.
Yeah, without taking away meaning like in order to have that darkness.
You know what I mean? Like Elfen Lied has the darkness, but it had like every bit of that darkness is meaningful and necessary.
(22:38):
Right. Exactly.
And it was so like I'm going to say a weird combination of words in my mind, but it was very darkly beautiful.
Like I felt so much watching the anime.
I'm pretty sure we watched it twice in a very short period of time.
Of course, we haven't seen it since. Right.
(23:00):
It's been a long time since we've seen that one. Yeah.
Yeah, I don't I don't know that Ghost is going to want to watch that with me ever.
So well, there's this very specific scene in there that is is one that it's like, which I understand if people
the the the the puppy.
(23:21):
Yeah, the puppy. Oh, yeah.
That's that's a that's a deal breaker for a lot of people.
And I get that. I totally get that.
I absolutely do understand being deciding not to continue with that after that.
But I every scene is impactful in the way that it was meant to be.
(23:44):
It meant something to the story.
And it is something that does happen in real life or at least has.
Yeah, I hope it's stopped.
But I'll bet you it still happens. Yeah, we raised as a puppy scene, too, didn't it?
Oh, does it? I could have sworn it.
I can't remember. It might.
Cannot remember. I could be wrong.
(24:05):
I could be mixing them up. Yeah.
But anyway, that's not all that's kind of traumatizing about Unlead.
But I mean, if you if you're a person that likes dark anime, if you if you like to get into the fields, all of the fields,
like, you know that you're that type of person, then I think you'll love it.
(24:29):
But trigger warnings. Yeah.
All the trigger warnings, like all warnings ever.
Basically abuse of any sort.
So anyway, that's that one.
We talked about freeze. We talked about freeze.
Photon. We didn't talk about photon.
(24:51):
Photon. That was also so long ago for us.
But yeah, we haven't watched that in a long time.
So all I really remember from Photon is like the let's call them wacky misadventures of Photon and his big sister and the inappropriate
attractions. So you don't remember.
(25:13):
You don't remember Hamana bye bye.
When you say that, it rings a bell, but not I don't like I can't I can't place the bad guy.
But I remember he's goofy. He was he was just a goofy and I don't remember what the scene was, but I just remember there was a scene.
It's a little bit of a hamana bye bye.
(25:34):
And we just made fun of that for like days.
Yeah, that sounds like us. Absolutely.
But it was it was goofy almost all the way through, if I remember correctly, until the very, very end and the very end got very serious.
And I don't remember what happened.
I remember being very like floored by it, like I really liked what had happened.
(25:57):
So I'll have to watch it again sometime.
But that does that does lead me to another anime that has a very goofy sort of feel to it.
But it has presented the seriousness throughout and then ends very seriously and deeply that I love that you watched with me.
What was that?
Try Gun.
I love Try Gun.
(26:19):
But it's hard to watch.
I don't like so hot take.
I don't like steampunk.
Oh, yeah. It's not like I don't hate it.
It's just it doesn't really do it for me.
What I liked about Try Gun was the story, not the setting.
Right. I understand.
(26:40):
I liked like if you had put that if you had made it if they had made it like less about it being, you know, steampunky kind of technology era, it would have been even better for me.
Understood.
It is such a good story, though.
You couldn't take like you can't remove that aspect and make it the same story because like it needs the planet to be kind of on planted.
(27:12):
Right. It's a yeah, it was kind of a specific.
Well, I mean, they could have probably done it in a different way.
You know, I mean, ultimately, the beginning of that anime is that, oh, no, I don't think that they go through the origin story until midway through.
So I guess I probably shouldn't talk about it.
But I think a different setting could have been possible.
(27:33):
I just remember there was a sort of like terraforming theme that needed to be a part of it to an extent.
But it's only about what planet they ended up at.
Right.
That could have been changed.
We've played Rimworld.
We've played Solares.
We know how many planet types there are out there.
(27:55):
But I was thinking about trying to do Trigun as the anime I really wanted to talk about.
So glad we're going to talk about multiple of them.
But I really was thinking about making Trigun the one I wanted to talk about because I love it so much.
I am completely in love with the character of Ash the Stampede.
The story of Nicholas D. Wolfwood is one that has impacted me from the moment that I saw it.
(28:19):
I can't think about his ending without tearing up a little bit.
Yeah.
Sorry, I guess that's a spoiler.
I don't remember his ending, but I do remember that he has an ending.
Yeah.
And it was epic.
When we watched it together, I had to like pause it and like cry it out for a little bit, if I remember correctly.
(28:41):
I do think I remember that.
So it's very impactful to me.
But I haven't watched the new one yet.
There's a new Trigun.
And I really probably should take a break from watching Dragon Ball to watch the new Trigun to see what it's like.
Because when I started looking for articles to potentially reference in this episode,
(29:02):
all of the articles I found about Trigun were about the new Trigun and like started showing me screen caps.
And I'm like, no, no, I am not spoiling.
The new Trigun.
I'm not.
I just refuse.
And so maybe I should probably get to that sometime soon.
Maybe I should take a day off and just binge the after because it's a new anime.
(29:23):
They probably only have 12 episodes out.
You know what I'm saying?
Right.
I mean, you can probably add it into your day.
Yeah, probably.
Well, it's just that it's it's not something that I can just casually watch at a meal time.
Like what I'm watching at meal time isn't taking my whole attention.
(29:46):
But when I watch that one, that's going to take my whole attention.
That's like the next time I watch Evangelion, I'm giving it my full attention.
So make sense?
Because Evangelion just deserves full attention if you're going to watch it.
Evangelion is like I don't even I've watched so many more anime since then, because that was like it wasn't my first anime, but it was like the first one I fell in love with.
(30:13):
No, that's not really true either.
Tenshi, I think, was the first one I felt.
Oh, yeah, Tenshi.
I forgot about Tenshi.
Because, well, everybody forgets about Tenshi because Tenshi like split off into like five different fucking stories replaying the same events five different ways in five different universes.
(30:34):
And it got too confusing.
And so none of us like whatever.
Well, I'm just done with it.
You know, you could have kept the story as it was.
You didn't have to retell it a million different ways.
You could have just continued on, but they didn't want they didn't want to end the will they won't they with between Tenshi and literally all the other characters.
(30:57):
Right.
To keep the reverse harem going on or is it a reverse?
No, it's just a regular.
That's just a regular fucking harem.
They just wanted to keep that going on.
So they just started everything back at the beginning and retold it in a different way.
And it just got confusing.
I do want to say that like a little bit of Tenshi that I did see because you introduced introduced me to it.
(31:22):
I did like that for a harem anime, it did seem to have a little bit of substance to it.
It wasn't so since some harem animes that are really, really light on substance and Tenshi the characters actually seem to care about each other.
Yeah, Tenshi didn't go as hard into the TNA either.
(31:44):
It was more about the tension and the awkwardness between characters.
It was a coming of age thing, and it was obviously written for teenagers like younger teenagers, not the older teenagers.
It was written for people that hadn't had sex yet, were still trying to do what they were supposed to be doing and having to deal with these feelings alongside.
(32:09):
And this anime gave them reactions to be able to do that, to be able to deal with those feelings and not give in to them.
And I liked that. I liked that about it.
But telling it five different ways, man, dude, pick a lane.
Right.
Do you mind if I get religious for a second?
(32:31):
No, go ahead.
You mean like the Gospels? Whoa.
All right. Anyway.
Evangelion was kind of the same, but like really philosophical.
Yeah. Did you real quick?
Because as for anime you first loved, were you one of the ones that fell in love with Inuyasha?
(32:54):
Oh yeah, I love Inuyasha.
Yeah, I've never finished it.
I've never I've never found the I watched the hundred and seventy four episodes that Netflix had.
And then I never got the resolution.
So there's like 50 or 60 episodes that I've just never seen.
(33:16):
We'll have to fix that at some point.
But yeah, we were talking about Evangelion and I keep breaking you away from it.
Did you have more you wanted to say?
No, I don't want to go too deep into it because it was a great anime at the time.
But like there's so many better anime now that go just as hard into philosophy as as that one did without being nearly as confusing.
(33:41):
Yeah, I'm going to I was going to say I don't know if it's a hot take or not.
But like one of the things I really like about Evangelion that I think a lot of people don't like is that the ending still confuses me to this day.
There's two different endings, you know.
Yeah, I know that there's two, but like the one for the show.
I don't even know which one is supposed to be the real ending.
They just have two different endings and you just pick which one you like, I guess.
(34:07):
But I mean, I understand the ending.
I mean, it doesn't really confuse me.
It's just it was presented in a confusing way.
Well, that's what I mean, like trying to take all the words leading through the ending to the end scene, if I remember the end scene correctly.
(34:28):
Is difficult because it doesn't seem to make a lot of sense.
And I like to analyze that shit when I get to it, but I have to get the entirety of the backstory to get there.
So that's why I have to watch the whole show again.
I am not going to go too far into it, because I don't want to spoil the whole thing.
But I got the feeling that the ending of Evangelion was similar to the purpose and feel of the ending of Angel Beats.
(34:58):
Right. There is a parallel there.
There is a parallel. Absolutely. And Angel Beats.
Oh, Angel Beats.
Yeah, that's one. I still break that out whenever I have to deal with grief.
It's one of the more surprising to me, surprisingly impactful anime to me, because like I felt all the feelings of what was going on in that anime.
(35:31):
But even just talking about a bit of a spoiler, but the end of what I saw, I think that they've made new shit for Angel Beats.
And of what I saw, which I guess was just season one, was so immediately impactful in the moment.
It was a moment that I hadn't considered before.
And like it makes me cry to this day. My avatar on Steam is still I can't remember his name.
(35:58):
I've been trying to remember the main character's name this whole time, and I can't remember it.
It's still him. Otanashi. There it is. Otanashi.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And such great music and Angel Beats. Oh, it's beautiful.
Oh, music. Was it was it Rasefan?
(36:22):
It was. I was just going to bring it up to Rasefan, which in some ways kind of can be considered a better Evangelion.
At least for some people. I think so. Although the ending eludes me.
I only watched it through once, so I need to watch it through again to see if I understand the ending better.
Yeah. Well, someday you and I have to watch it again. Not that you can't watch it without me.
(36:47):
Oh, oh, oh. What was that one? What was that one with the I just watched it recently?
Cap was the one that brought us into it.
Which one? The one with the little girl with the Nodachi.
And they were like shrine maidens that fought these creatures.
(37:14):
Uh, there's. Yeah, sorry. There's like. I know that describes like 10 different answers.
No, no, no, no, but I don't. There's a few anime in there that like I don't remember, but I enjoyed the crap out of.
But like, I don't remember them anymore. They just didn't make enough of an impact to put through.
And there's there's one like that. And there's another one that's like about demon fighting where there was like spirits and dead people.
(37:44):
And a kid that was trying to go to high school and also got contracted to fight demons or something.
And it's like, I mean, that sounds a little bit like Madoka Magica.
But yeah, that's not the one I'm thinking of.
The one I'm thinking of, the only thing that I can think of that I know as soon as I say it, you'll know what I'm talking about.
(38:07):
But it's like the big twist of the thing. And it's OK. It's two girls.
One is younger than the other. And the older one is teaching the younger one how to how to do the battling thing.
And then and then but then there's the twist. I don't know. I don't even if you spoil the twist.
(38:31):
If you said the twist, I don't even know that I would recognize it.
The twist is that the older one ends up being like infected by the evil spirit guy.
And then the younger one has to kill her. I have no idea. Literally no idea.
Your sister like really latched on to it because of the situations she was going through at the time.
(38:54):
Right. And like it was one of those like empowering.
You've got to do what you got to do kind of moments where like sometimes you you have like the people that you love.
You have to you have to kill them for their good, for the world's good, for, you know, everything.
And obviously it was metaphorical for her or not. She didn't have to like hurt people in real life.
(39:19):
But it became a huge metaphor. Man, I really wish I could remember the name of that one.
Yeah, sorry. I really wish I knew which one it was, too.
Do you mind if I kind of go through some of the anime that I've watched that I don't think you've seen about?
You don't have to ask my permission all the time. You can just bring it up.
No, I just want to make sure we're flowing together, you know?
(39:41):
All right. All right.
Because like there's a couple of anime that I'm going to bring up, like three of them that that the kid introduced me to.
And I really adore.
But I need to go back and watch some of the one that I love the most is Haikyuu, the volleyball anime.
You watch it, too, didn't you? Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, Haikyuu.
(40:04):
It's so wholesome. It's the oh my God.
For character interactions, it is like like three points below Fruits Basket, honestly.
Like it's so good with characters with the character interactions.
I adore it so much. The art still so much fun, too.
And the drama that they build up with every fucking like game of volleyball is amazing.
(40:29):
Yeah, they adequately they adequately matched how it felt to be a teenager.
Right. Like every. Yeah. But only only with volleyball.
Yeah. But it was it's fantastic. I absolutely adore the anime.
The the other one that I watched that I really liked, but I haven't finished.
(40:52):
And I just kind of stopped while there was still more to watch.
So I don't know if that bodes well is My Hero Academia.
I haven't watched that one.
I just like a good coming of age superhero story.
Like it just makes me happy. And that one was pretty good.
You might like the the Irregular at Magic High School.
Yeah, that's one that I know that you've seen a few times and I've seen little bits of it.
(41:17):
So I need to watch it in its totality. I know that it's really good from what you said.
I just haven't gotten there yet.
And then the third one I wanted to bring up was Naruto.
Of course, I haven't watched that. I have no plans on ever watching that.
Yeah, it's it's one of those that like people that are currently in their people that are currently in their late 20s and early 30s.
(41:40):
Like all of them watch Naruto. All of them. All of them.
Maybe not all of them, but like a good number of them know Naruto.
It's like people that don't know anything about anime right now.
I can be like, I've seen like Naruto and they're like, oh, I love Naruto.
And again, it's another coming of age story. It's a shonen.
(42:02):
It's a shonen anime. And I really actually like some shonen anime.
And like you and I watched Hunter X Hunter and love the crap out of that.
And it's kind of no offense, Naruto fans, but Hunter X Hunter is kind of a little bit better Naruto.
But Naruto is also much bigger. It's got a bigger story.
It spans generations at this point, you know, kind of like Dragon Ball does.
(42:28):
So, you know, Hunter X Hunter could span generations if they if they wanted to.
They could easily add like make the main characters of what is currently the story,
make them the parents and bring a new generation in. I'd watch it.
Yeah, they could also do us a flashback and show us the current generations parents,
(42:51):
which most of them are referenced in the show. That's true. Yeah.
Or at least some of them. So, you know, so there's some places they could go with it.
I don't know if they will, but they could. Right.
But I wonder if it was better because it was targeted in a certain way,
because like Naruto branched out quickly. Yeah, maybe.
I like I like wholesome animes like like Silver Spoon.
(43:17):
Yeah, Silver Spoon was great. I need to watch that one again, too, because it was just so sweet to watch.
And then and then I don't might be an unpopular opinion, but I feel like Food Wars is also pretty wholesome.
I love Food Wars. I'm so glad you brought it up.
I forgot all about it. And a lot of people don't like Food Wars because they seemed.
(43:39):
It's not really seeming. They kind of really do like sexualize food.
They do so much, but I love it. I love it so much.
I want them to make more episodes of Food Wars, please.
Yeah, Food Wars was really, really, really fun to watch.
I enjoyed all the character interactions as well.
I don't mind sexualization of consenting adults in my anime.
(44:03):
I really, really, truly don't. Look, there are certain foods that bring you that level of pleasure.
Like, maybe you don't actually have a food bosom, but it's it still feels real good to eat certain foods.
So like, come on, it's fine. Have you seen the other stuff that they do in anime?
(44:28):
Like, yeah, all this is not the thing to condemn.
And that's not and that's one of the things that we're not really talking about is that there is a whole sector of anime that's like some pretty like when we say dark stuff, we mean like, you know, really like deeply touching on many emotions.
But like, there's some when there's some dark stuff out there that's very let's say they take away the autonomy of characters a lot and in ways that's really kind of upsetting.
(44:54):
And I'm being vague on purpose because I'm not trying to give out attention to that.
I don't think that that's good story writing.
Speaking of darker anime, one that was brought to my attention after I wrote that article was so I think it's called I'm a Spider So What?
(45:16):
Okay.
And I didn't really feel like it was all that dark, but after thinking about it, it does have some pretty morbid elements like the first episode, so I'm not really spoiling anything the first episode, she reincarnates as a spider.
And in order to survive, she has to start eating her spider siblings.
(45:43):
Great.
It's a little dark, and she does almost die a lot. And, you know, it, it, so it has it has some elements of fear and some light cannibalism.
Which, apparently, I would assume that they did that because those types of spiders or whatever.
(46:07):
There are spiders out there that actually do eat their siblings, I assume.
Yeah, she's a monster spider. So, yeah, all the other spiders were doing it too. It was not, it was not like she just made this decision to go, she tried to resist, she didn't want to eat her siblings, but it just ended up happening that way.
(46:30):
Interesting.
It's kind of like the slime anime in that like there's skills and stuff.
I really liked it, even though it might be a little dark.
Just a little as a treat.
Right, understood.
As we're going a little dark, I'm going to have to do at least two honorable mentions here because I think we're probably heading towards the end of the episode here.
(46:58):
But, Tokyo Ghoul is one of my favorites.
Definitely in my top five.
I only, I've only seen what I assume is the first season, maybe it's the first two seasons, I don't know. I'm not going to reference the moment that was the last moment for me. I heard, I think that it continues, maybe it gets worse.
But I adored what I saw in the ending.
(47:24):
I can listen to that opening theme song and cry because of that ending easily.
It's fantastic. And then one that you and I have watched together at least once or twice and we adored was Soul Eater.
Oh right, Soul Eater. How did I forget Soul Eater?
(47:45):
I watched that one, I'm not feeling confident enough.
It's really inspiring.
Yeah, Maca Albar.
I was just thinking about, what a character.
It just went away.
Fairy tale.
Fairy tale. Ah, fairy tales great too.
(48:06):
Fairy tales great too.
I think I've watched all the fairy tale and like, I have not. I got halfway through and boy that is a long anime.
It's a very long anime. I mean it's not One Piece long, which I'm not talking about One Piece because everyone that is in the anime world knows what One Piece is.
It is the Mount Everest of anime and it is also very good.
(48:29):
I'm probably never going to watch it. It is too long.
Right. But fairy tale, if you want to think about it with a different kind of setting because they're kind of focused on a different goal in life,
is somewhat similar actually to the concept of One Piece.
And it has great character interactions.
(48:52):
It's got some fan service, which I still really like to have fan service again, as long as it's kind of not done in a gross way.
And that's gross as a subjective term.
But yeah, I really like fairy tale a lot. It's good.
And there was one other one. I can't remember.
I mean there's a whole bunch of them.
(49:13):
Black Butler is a good dark one. Oh Black Butler. That's a good one. That's so good.
First season, the second season.
Right. It's okay. It happens.
It was part of it.
It's kind of how I feel about Korra.
Right. Korra was great too.
(49:35):
Shout out to Ben Ulanci.
Because Ben wrote a very passionate piece about The Legend of Korra and it is pretty good.
I know we're forgetting a billion more that are delightful and loved.
Probably. But yeah, so many.
There's no way we were going to mention them all in one episode.
But, you know, this anybody who's like, hmm, what anime might be enjoyable?
(50:02):
We've given most of like the really good ones. So it's a good place.
Good place to start if anybody's looking for that kind of thing.
And, you know, if you are thinking about an anime, go and check out some medium articles about them.
Because, you know, people have really written passion stuff about what they, what they, what anime they like.
(50:28):
Of course, there's probably going to be spoilers in it, but, you know, you can get some good feels about what people's opinions are.
Just throwing that out there.
Well, I'm kind of running out of steam, Tam. How about you?
I am. Stick fork in me. I'm done.
Right. You didn't even like Cyberpunk. So you don't like being powered by steam.
(50:53):
I don't know what that means. Don't worry.
So I guess we'll go ahead and end our episode. And I think we can't end it the way we normally have been ending.
We cannot. I'm just going to do my thing here. Is that cool?
So everybody listening to our podcast, remember that if you want to, you can be part of the live action by joining our Discord through the monster rally.com.
(51:22):
Which also has links to our articles, Spotify and Substack.
And special bonus, the Substack is the only place to get the un-centered version. I did it again. Un-censored version. Un-censored version.
Un-censored version.
Sorry. Please continue.
You're continuing. It's your thing.
(51:43):
Oh, that's right. It's still me.
Yeah, you messed it up last time because you didn't say your name and your sign off.
I know. Don't worry. I got it this time. I swear. I'm not going to stare at the cats poking at the ground.
Hey, dear listeners, it's been great for you to come along. We appreciate you lending your ear holes to us and listening to us just talk about stuff that we love.
(52:06):
I'm eternally mortal and I hope you find smiles this day.
And I'm the Accidental Monster. You can find this both on Medium.com or through the Monster Alley.com and remember to follow yourself always.
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