Given Discussion & Review | Anime Watch Club

Welcome to Anime watch club, a bi-weekly group discussion and review where the hosts of the what do you say anime podcast, nominate and vote on shows either that we haven't seen or shows that will hopefully lead to a great discussion. On todays episode, we will be reviewing the first season of the 2019 anime, Given

Socials/Discord - https://linktr.ee/whatdoyousayanime

0:00 - Intro

2:25 - First Impressions

11:18 - Akihiko's boyfriend, Ugetsu Murata

16:52 - Mafuyu x Ritsuka

38:32 - THE Performance

42:38 - The Build of the Romance and Plot

46:23 - This Show is Hilarious

50:52 - Other Favorite Moments and Gripes

59:01 - Final Thoughts and Scores

1:08:38 - What We're Watching Next

Episode Transcript

(00:08):
Home me, now I'm finally fulfilled.
This is what my heart's been waiting for.
Home me, now I'm finally fulfilled.
Pick me up to dance and pick me up again.
Hello, ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Anime Watch Club, a
biweekly group discussion and review.
We're the host of The Way You Say Anime Podcast.

(00:29):
Nominate and vote on shows either we haven't seen or shows
that hopefully do a great discussion.
Today's episode, the click five of the Way You Say Anime Podcast
will be reviewing the 2019 animegiven Let's meet Today's stars.
He took Johnny's old spot on keyboard.
We got Jay. Jay, how's it going?
Pretty good actually, I like theshow a lot.

(00:50):
Me too, and I like your head man.
Thank you. Welcome on rhythm guitar and
still owner of the Space Event Center.
We have Cat Cat. How's it going, man?
I'm chilling. People in the Space Event Center
are doing great. There's no red pulp in the Space
Center at all. Don't worry about it.
Don't look into it. Trust me, I'm I'm the most

(01:13):
trustworthy president of this podcast.
Hope you got good plumbing. OK, trustworthy cat.
Good to know our first monitor is oddly guitar Miles.
Do you remember our fake band name when we reviewed OG Bang
Dream? No, no I don't.
Second question, how many times do you think I've asked you this

(01:34):
question? This is the third time.
This is the third time the correct answer is Poop and
Party, which is a offshot of Popand Party from OG Bang Dream
though. OK, this is the third time I've
done this intro. It's been a good episode
everybody. Thank you.

(01:56):
This show is better than Bang Dream.
Say that. There we go.
All right. Yeah.
And it's Pat. So yeah.
Welcome. Welcome to another watch club.
Today we are watching or we're watching Given.
Given was a studio Lurch anime sourced from a manga done in

(02:17):
summer of 2019. Genres of boys love and drama,
themes of music in school and yeah, PG13.
So let's do our spoiler free first impressions if you want to
start us off Miles. And would you recommend the show
as well? Yeah, I did not know what to
expect from the show as I hadn'treally heard of it before, but

(02:40):
it crushed our community vote and people seem to be a big fan
of it. I was, God, I don't know, in
between lukewarm and regular warm on it initially, though a
lot of my qualms do get solved. I think some of the
characterization at the beginning of the show for one
character in particular, I, I just sort of found bad.

(03:03):
I don't like it, but I think everyone gets flushed out pretty
well. And this is technically not in
the spirit of our first impressions, but I, I guess I
just don't want to be jarring when I I like the show.
I really like the show. I thought it was good.
I would recommend it. I think it's got a very good
cast. I think that most of the drama

(03:23):
in it is very good. The music is good.
It's nice to see some some sort of like all pop rock sort of
stuff show up. You know, I didn't know if I
would ever see a Arctic Monkeys reference on a on an anime, but
I got to. And so that was nice.
But yeah, thumbs up for me. Very much enjoyed.
Would recommend. Perfect.

(03:45):
All righty Cat, what about you? Yeah, I really enjoyed the show.
The first, my first impressions were just that it's really nice
to start to see the start of something that's kind of Yuri
Betty or Yowie Betty. And it actually be like a Yowie
because I still remember San Euphonium and that's.

(04:09):
Yeah. But I I, I would highly
recommend this to everybody but homophobes.
And if you're a homophobe, stop watching.
You're not welcome here. True.
Yeah, Bass. All righty, Jay, what about you?
Yeah, I liked this quite a bit. I thought that the character

(04:30):
designs were solid. The music is obviously like
really good, as well as like thelike soundtrack and sound design
in general. You can definitely, it feels
like they're actually like playing the instruments instead
of it being like a recording anda lot of, you know, band shows
and stuff like that. It feels very fluid.

(04:52):
I yeah, the first 3 episodes were a little bit slow,
especially because as far as relationships go, I'm not
actually a huge fan of the main couple compared to some of the
other relationships in the show.Really just the one major one
that we'll probably talk about later, but I stuck through it

(05:12):
and I would definitely recommendit for that.
As a note, based on episode titles, one of them is Somebody
Else by the 1975, which sort of confirms that heroin exists in
this universe. So take that as you.
Want it? I like it.
I I agree with you too, that about the couples.
We'll definitely talk about thatlater.

(05:32):
Pete, what about you? This was my second time watching
it. This came out when I was like
really getting into seasonal content and this was my first BL
that I watched. And I think it's not only is
this like a really good show, just in general, I think this is
a really good introduction show to BL.
I think it's really grounded andI think the production of the
show is is done really well. But coming into this I'm a

(05:55):
rewatch, I watched the dubbed, love the dub, especially Mafia
Yu's voice actor. I thought he killed it.
This was a fantastic dub to watch first two episodes.
I thought it from what I becauseit's been 5 or 6 years since I
watched it, I thought I remembered it kind of being a
little slow in the beginning andI I felt like it was a little
bit better pace than what I remembered it.

(06:16):
I did like the jam session from episode 1 a lot.
I think that was a great way to introduce the entire cast to the
music that they're going to produce and the music was
fantastic. So big fan of that.
What I recommend this absolutely, if you're getting
into BL, I think it's a great BLstarter.
If you're a fan of just like drama and romance, I would
recommend it. But I guess just in the since

(06:38):
this is like our pride month andwe're going to be talking like
BL and stuff like that. I think shows like this, Sasaki
Timiano, classmates, I think these are like 3 really grounded
shows that can get people into this type of romance.
So definitely recommended. 2 thumbs up.
There you go. Yeah, you beat me a punch there,
people. I was about to mention that we
forgot to mention that this is our Pride episode.

(06:59):
So happy Pride month barely snuck it in just by the end of
the date As as when we're recording this.
At least don't. Mind this coming out in
mid-july. We recorded this during Pride.
We did technically we had four hours left in on the East Coast
here just under and yeah, so my opinions on the show or first

(07:20):
impressions I I really like the music.
It stood out to me compared to music and other band shows we've
watched, at least for Watch Cluband I.
I had more fun with this show that I thought I would.
I definitely not my genre by anymeans, and not something I would

(07:40):
necessarily seek out on my own, but I'm glad I watched it and I
think that like what a lot of the others have caveated with, I
would recommend this absolutely to anyone who's interested in
getting into BL or into even just banjos in general.
I think it does a pretty good job of having a cast that blends
together and makes sense together.

(08:02):
Being in a band together maybe not makes sense together
romantically like we'll talk about later, but at least makes
sense meshing together as a bandand as people.
I thought that was pretty well done.
And 11 little note too this the show is a lot funnier than I.
Ever could have expected. It to.
I want to break myself in the episode.
Yeah I know I don't want to jumpahead, but the intro to episode

(08:24):
11 was some of the funniest fucking shit.
Oh, that was funny. It's so funny.
That surprise, surprise narrator.
Yeah, that was that was. Good.
Yeah, that was weird. I just like I.
Well, it's like the thing that Tarantino got knocked for in
Inglorious Basterds, right? But no, it's so funny here,
blah, blah, blah, blah. No, I'm kidding.
I love that. I loved it.
I thought it was hilarious. Explains.
I don't like, I didn't like this.

(08:44):
I don't like Tarantino movies. It's all coming together.
Oh, it's OK to be wrong on both of those things, Miles.
That's. But yeah, no, I to finish, I
guess. Yeah, I, I very much enjoyed it
more than I thought I did. And the comedy was a nice touch,
even though I wasn't sure if I thought it fit the show it was
funny at. So it didn't matter to me, I
guess. You know, we'll talk about that

(09:06):
later, I'm sure. But yeah, so that's our first
impressions, I think mostly recommends.
Good job, guys. Good, good choice by us and our
listeners who voted on what we watched.
And yeah, let's get into our spoilers.
Not that spoiler heavy show, honestly, but good to know at
least. And yeah, let's get started,
Miles, you got your synopsis. Yeah, so this is like a a show

(09:31):
about a band with a romance thrown in and some, you know,
melodrama, back story stuff. But we have two main characters,
4 main characters. What do we think?
24. Four, OK we have 4 main
characters but two are more mainthan the other two.
Like it's Animal Farm and so we follow Ritska and Mafuyu.

(09:58):
Mafuyu. Is that how we pronounce it?
The the English subtitles kept saying Matthew, so you could
just call him Matthew. If you want my English subtitles
kept calling him Mafia, which I thought was even funnier.
So there we go. So Mafia.
Matthew. Matthew.
Matthew. When?

(10:20):
Matthew. Yeah.
Oh my God. I wonder if it's spelled with.
You know what, This doesn't matter.
And it's not because voodoo is is is winter.
So they meet, Ritska is a very good young guitarist.
Matthew has a guitar and seemingly doesn't know anything
about guitars at all to to what I would consider an outstanding

(10:42):
degree and I'm sure we will talkabout that at some point.
Truly remarkable how little he knows.
And he helps him with his guitarand they slowly fall in love.
But Matthew has some some baggage he needs to sort through
before he can like, truly commit.
And then they put on a killer concert and start dating.

(11:04):
And that is the synopsis of the show.
We also have like a little side note with the other two band
members, Akihiko, who is my favorite character, and Haruki.
Haruki is into Akihiko and Akihiko isn't into Haruki.
We don't know. But he does have a boyfriend who
is a very good violinist. I like his ass.

(11:29):
Really. Because I thought we were
supposed to not like him and then he was nothing but nice to
people. But yeah, I thought like the
introduction of him, I guess just to jump into.
This so sinister at first. He was, he was, it was like, I
thought love would be great. And it like shows him playing
violin and he like is so good atviolin.
Akihiko's like I must never playviolin again because I am not

(11:52):
worthy. And he's like, love is painful.
And I was like, I'm really interested to see where this
goes 'cause I like that kind of dynamic.
But then he was just a then he was just a kind of a cool guy, a
little snarky. I like just comment about the
mugs when he asked him to make him a cup of tea or whatever.
And he was like make your own tea but he grabbed 2 mugs and
he's like. He says as he grabs the second

(12:12):
mug. Anyway.
Like I thought that was fun. So, as we all expected, our
first talking point is on Akihiko's boyfriend.
I feel I feel like the the hatred that you were or like the
hatred that the the the show wastrying to instill you with was

(12:34):
actually targeted, targeted towards you Miles with your
hatred of what's her face from from snafu, the black girl girl.
Yukino. Oh, wait.
Yukino. I don't hate Yukino.
I just think I can't. I don't want to.
I just have opinions about the show.
Can't spoil SNAFU. Yeah, so I don't want to spoil

(12:57):
Snafu. Yeah, OK.
I don't, I don't hate her. I just think spoil Snafu I yeah,
I almost did. I almost spoiled snafu.
No, like, I I don't know. I, I actually, I, I kind of want
to pack this like a little bit because I do think like, do you
guys agree that the show, when they introduced Murata, who is

(13:20):
Akihiko's boyfriend, who is likean international violin player,
like we were supposed to think he was bad, like on that intro
at least kind of bad. I feel like.
But then I, I didn't get the feeling that like he was at all.
I don't, I don't know. Maybe it plays into it later.

(13:44):
Have you, have you seen the movies?
Pete Wink. OK, so Pete has seen the movies
and he knows the answer. So this is not a fun question to
ask. Him I haven't seen the movies
but. Oh, OK, awesome.
I've seen the first one, sorry Ihaven't seen the rest of the the
the new one that just came out and the second movie that's on
crunch and roll. I assume that he is going to
have some sort of relationship with Ma Fuyu at some point

(14:07):
because he like recognized his talent and he himself is
somebody who has talent, obviously.
So yeah, he has, he has a chance.
He has a chance for redemption in my eyes.
But him being in the way of the two that I want to be banging is

(14:28):
a big issue for me. OK, so like I would support
that, but he's he's like a lot cooler than Haruki.
And So what I'm here to say. No, he's not.
What are you talking about rightnow?
Who's? A world class violinist.
Yeah, OK. Did you see the braids?

(14:50):
Yeah, OK, Herky has good hair. What is it?
The braids? It's.
I don't know, I think. I think Akihiko needs.
That was you hearing me like basically backing up for a
second and then going back into it.
What about it? Are are you saying that he's the

(15:17):
Drake of the situation? Whoa, whoa, that that's some,
that's some strong accusations, Pete of Miles shit.
I wouldn't say all that. Well, I was just kidding.
That did the wrong person for the the person swap like like

(15:40):
we're not going to just one walkpast that right like.
It happens all the time, I'm used to it.
It's like. Your family is always getting
mistaken for other people. My parents called me my
brother's name my entire life, both of my brothers.
I'm a twin so. Happens all the time.

(16:01):
Yeah, exactly. I have AI have a very good
friend named Derek. He's the best friend of my
wedding. And my friend Nick called me
Derek while talking to me about Derek like a week ago.
It's just it it it has. It's the way my.
Grandparents. My grandparents called me my
uncle's, my own. No, they call me my uncle's name

(16:24):
and then my cousin's name until they get to my name.
They've literally gone Tiger, Alan, Jay.
Alex. Yeah, Alex.
There you go. Now the now the audience knows
your name is Alex and not Kat and it's.
Yeah. Ashton, Tammy, Kat was all
Castro. Anyway.
Yeah, no, I, I just, I was bad at yes, ending there.

(16:47):
And I apologize it it confused me.
Let's let's talk about, I think you know what, let's just start
off in the thick of it with our main couple because I think
we're going to have a lot of good things to say about all the
character dynamics except for maybe this one and the music and
the band dynamics and all that. I think we all liked that.
And I, I didn't necessarily think I would be coming in here

(17:08):
defending the main couple, but for me, as time went on, I
thought they did a good job developing that.
I didn't get a sense the beginning I didn't understand
why Ritsu would like Mafia U like at all, because the way
that Mafia U was initially characterized for me and they

(17:30):
and they add depth to him later.But he he's like he's not dumb,
but the show wants you to think he is the dumbest human
initially because he does. He's like, oh, I didn't know you
could replace strings on a guitar.
I didn't know you had to tune guitars.
I don't know what pegs are even though I've already tuned my
guitar. What do you think?

(17:51):
You were turning buddy? Like I I don't know.
Anyway, so you find out later he's actually like kind of smart
and he's, he's good at things and he, he's got like a very
good and emotional intelligence and everything, but like he's.
A basketball player, man. It would not.
That's smart. Mafia.
Yeah, he's the baller. He's a basketball player.

(18:13):
Well, that they bring him in later.
Right. Not that smart.
No, he's a baller the whole time.
That's his whole thing, is that he was a basketball player.
Yeah, 'cause he talks about how,again, he talks about how like,
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, I had basketball, but now I have a
voice or something like that, hesays.
In the dub at least. I tried to tell Simone this was
basically High School Musical and she got really mad about.

(18:34):
It oh 100%. Yeah, it's, it's high school,
100% High School Musical or 100%she should get mad about.
It she should not get mad at it.This is This is High School
Musical for high. School.
This is the validation that I was seeking.
Oh yeah, no, 100%. They're all in this together.
Like, I don't know how she didn't catch that.
And you got to get your head to the game anyways.

(18:55):
But it sounds like a few of us, if not everyone, has some issues
with this. So who wants to start us off
talking about that dynamic? I can start OK, I I guess it's
more long. It's like it's not their
character. It's more of like their trope.
It's a very common thing in BL where it's like the shy reserved

(19:15):
and then like the. I want to say like, how would
you just try Ritzuka, like a little bit more?
Yeah, at least he has like that face a little bit.
Yeah. And he has like that face where
it's like he kind of looks mean,but he's not like he's.
Kagayama. Yeah, it reminds you.
Of but also I learned from this was how many BL tropes haiku

(19:39):
incorporates into their characters.
Why do you think women like haiku so much?
Yeah, I we figured it out. So I so I guess my complaints is
more along the lines of the trope that they played.
I thought their characters were like decently fleshed out and
then especially Mafia at the endkind of breaking out of a shell
of being this reserved because he's the one that confesses.

(20:00):
So it's like. I, I did kind of like how they
subverted that trope a little bit at the end of it, because I
think at least I remember the first time watching it, that you
just expect Ritzuka to be the one to be the aggressor, and it
kind of wasn't. So I, I, I like that part of
subverting the trope, but it wasstill a little trophy.
Other than kissing him. The kissing apart was like here,

(20:25):
the moment he forgot he did it. And then you see, like after the
fact that he was, he couldn't get to that same mindset because
he was so in the zone or whatever when it happened.
So like, he could never be that person unless he's like, on
stage. Yeah, yeah.
I mean, I agree that Mafia sort of.

(20:45):
I don't even know necessarily ifhe like opens up more or if the
show just like highlights him insituations that don't involve
guitars. His intelligence kryptonite.
Because even at the end he doesn't know how guitars work.
I think it's all of like the cause, like the whole story is
like 2 parts at least in the first season.

(21:06):
So there's more to it. Like don't get me wrong, but
like the first season is 2 parts.
The first one's Mafia finding his voice, and then after he
finds his voice, he kind of changes as the person that he
is. And he got over that hurdle of
trying to express the words thathe's been holding in the whole
time and he uses music to find it.
So like that was awesome. And then he you sort of see like

(21:27):
that event changes him as a person.
So I think I really like him as a character.
I just think the relationship with, in the first season at
least, is a little trophy. I've Yeah, I have a minor
question for you Pete and anyoneelse can expand on this if they
want, but you raise something. I just want to mafia changes who
he is or do you think he like comes back into who he might
have been pre tragedy? That's a great question.

(21:49):
I feel like the back story because you see it even in like
when they were kids and he's like playing with like trains
and stuff. And he always seems like he's
that quiet reserved kid, at least through the flashback.
So I feel like maybe this was always in him, but like this was
like a monumental, like I think it's episode 9.
There's such like a monumental event for him that like, it's
hard not, it'd be weird for him not to change as a person when

(22:10):
he's been searching for the words to say to the person that
he loved that passed away. So it's like, it's just like
this event that he's finally able to get off of his chest.
I would hope he became a different person or at least
changed a little bit and then wesaw that.
Also, Miles, I would just like to interject that they're hot.

(22:31):
They need Ma Fu to sing and playguitar, not to be a guitar tech.
He doesn't need to know how guitars work on a technical
level. There has a lead singer you
don't really need to. A technical.
Level has two other people who can do that shit for him.
All you need to play 4 chords. That's it.
Does he also have like his pointguard tie his shoes for him on
the basketball court? Like, you know, like that's,

(22:52):
that's his ball. IQ is intense.
That's. My honor point is that people.
Who have intense ball IQ but they don't know that they can't
like wave a gun on a plane or something like that.
Like Mafia is not doing all thatsort of shit.
And if you want, if you want thelead singer of a band, you need
to learn 4 chords if you want toplay guitar.
If you're the lead singer, you don't need to know how to play

(23:12):
guitar. Just play 4.
Chords. I just want to.
I want to defend myself first. These are not technical things.
He didn't know how to tune a guitar.
Something you can Google. Yeah, but this?
Is like didn't know you're shotgun or bladiated anime or
something. It's just like, well.
No, I it's not. It's not that he's an idiot,
it's that he is specifically around the concept.

(23:33):
Ball IQ. Music he is.
He didn't know what an opening act was.
He is what, 17? Years old, how to set up a
fucking screen? Here, here's the thing.
Here's the thing about him. Like.
He has a Gibson semi open semi open guitar.

(23:53):
Semi open guitars by Gibson go bass like used for probably
about five to six years, which is their lowest point of like
their lowest point of value. So five years of of use they go
from they go down and then they go off.
So that at that lowest point of value they go for about 15 to

(24:17):
$1600. After that point, they go up
exponentially. So this dude has an extremely
expensive guitar that is that has rusted strings and he
doesn't know how to. He doesn't know how to tune
them. Like.
That's where do you where do youthink he got the guitar from?

(24:39):
He was never a guitar player. Yes.
Yeah, so. He he, he would never own the
guitar. Like, yeah.
Literally. Sell like Chaon where they just
randomly buy the world's most expensive guitar.
Well, Moogie's richest shit. He yeah, but for what's her
name? But like, again, I, I, I don't

(25:02):
know. This is like a, this is just
such a minor thing, but it just like annoyed me.
Not about mafia, but like about the writing.
It's like I just can't fathom someone not knowing what an
opening act is. I can't do it, it's impossible
for me. I refused I but I I don't know
other people talk about the relationship at whole and not
how I'm hung up on the fact thatthis man didn't learn how to

(25:25):
tune a guitar like. Miles, there are more important
things at hand. Yeah, I get where you're coming
from though, Miles. I really do.
Because it's like, OK, maybe tying shoes isn't one thing, but
does a what if this guy shoots A3 pointer and it's like, oh,
that's worth 3 points. I didn't know that.
Like that's what it felt like tome.

(25:45):
We literally see him shoot a three pointer and.
Pretty, that's true, yeah. He probably knows what it is.
It's like, have you ever played an RPG before?
He put 99% of his stats into ball IQ.
Like that's just what happened. I think it's.
I also think it's like a really easy way for.
The that's just mad he'd break his fucking ankle.
Yeah. And the the audience to learn
these things, like it's like very simple and easy.

(26:07):
And it's not like they spend like a shit ton of time on it.
So like, I you, you can have an audience stand in and like, you
need one. Like for sure.
To me, it's more like, oh, I I didn't know you could replace
the strings on a guitar and thenhis strings get replaced and
then he's like the same thing happens, Pete and I didn't want
to I didn't want to heartfelt. Let's move on.

(26:29):
Jay, tell me your opinion on therelationship.
I I will get fixated on this andI am trying my hardest to not
good one. Oh, I, I sort of agree overall
with what Pete said about I think that the tropes were kind

(26:51):
of running against them for me because like I've I'm just not
really ever a fan of like most main character romance dynamics
most of the time historically inthis watch club.
I'm sure if you go back and lookat romance stuff, I am almost
always more interested in like the secondary couple or
something like that. And that was just the case here

(27:13):
honestly. I guess like I liked what both
of them had going on individually, but like it's felt
a little sudden how they got together.
I suppose. Like the confession was good.
I liked that. Don't get me wrong.
I think that that was timed well.
But like the them deciding to date I guess felt a little rush

(27:36):
to me. But maybe that's because I'm
sort of used to like more shown in romances, which are like slow
burn. I'm not sure.
I'm pretty sure that this isn't considered a shown in, but I
don't know. That's a good question, yeah.
It does not have a demographic, so.
It doesn't have it. Boys Love would probably be the
demographic because there are boys love magazines, right?

(27:58):
So, though I don't know what magazine is from SO.
The demographic is shown an eye or shown an eye.
Don't use that. Don't use that terminology.
No, Shonen I is fine, Shoujo I isn't fine.
I thought it was both. Is it both?
I'm pretty sure that you'd be. The voice love is literally just
Shonen I. No shonen Shonen I is like

(28:21):
Bokano Pico where it's like adult adult man and younger
person. OK, so I know.
Yeah, I don't know. The history of all of these
terms is convoluted. No 100%.
The West, then Japan and also I could have messed that up, I
don't know. No, there's just a reason why
people don't say shoujo I and Shonen I anymore because it has

(28:43):
that connotation of like pedophilia.
Oh, that's fun. I'd never heard of the terms
before. But so if you just Google Shonen
I and it's Wikipedia, so take what you will.
Literally just boys. Love comes up, yeah.
Is Connor, It has a connotation that's why people don't use
anymore. It's the same reason why it's
not on Mal anymore or whatever. People know what boys love

(29:06):
means. Yes, exactly.
Yeah, that's that's. True, you can just say that.
OK, wait, yeah, you know what? We can save this for a history
episode if we ever have one. But I'm reading better right
now. Sounds.
Interesting how it how it works.Someone was saying something,
Jay you were about. Yes, I kind of lost my train of

(29:29):
thought. I'm not.
You thought that the confession was good, but perhaps the end
result was rushed and this is maybe because you are into
shonen. OK, yes, which are typically
slow burn sort of deals. I don't know.
I like the confession overall just because it was a big sweet
moment, but also like in hindsight knowing how the end

(29:49):
goes, which I'm sure we'll talk about it.
Like, I mean, I'm obviously going to watch the stuff that's
after this now, but like, come on, come on, you could have made
this two cores and just let me watch like all of it or
whatever. I don't know.
I agree. Does that make sense or?
I agree, it's like. 13 episodes and giving us a little bit more,
something like that. Like it's like a weird number of

(30:11):
episodes, too. It's 11, yeah.
Like it could have at least been12.
And giving us one episode of them like people reacting to
them having a love confession orlike them going on a cute little
date or some shit or like a better hook than just like what
we were given there. No, put in time.

(30:33):
I so I agree, Jay, in the sense that like we're at at the end of
the show, I was sitting here like, all right, well, where do
we go from here? I guess it's all just exploring
secondary characters now. I guess there's still a little
bit more with which I guess technically they're not
secondary because we agreed thattheir four main characters, the
four man members, whatever, likeour main, but like the two lead

(30:56):
the main couple. I I guess there's still a tiny
bit to explore with Mifuyu and his previous lover and how
everything went down exactly. Not just like a retelling of it
by his friend Chima or Haragi, whatever, however he was
referred to and there's some of that to explore.
But I was also just kind of like, Oh well, the story's over.

(31:17):
And for that with those two, like, oh, they're happily ever
after, it felt not rushed, necessary, maybe rushed is the
right word. But like, but it was just like,
well, where do we go from here? Why are there two more movies?
And I guess it is probably to explore Haruki and Kaji, you
know, the other two band membersand their relationships or their
interests and then and then where the band goes from here.

(31:38):
But I was kind of just surprisedthat it if it was like, oh,
well, there you go, salute. They kissed.
Move on, you know, Here we go. They do tell the band members
and everything like they, you know, they have like that pay
off, which I thought was seeing how the the different reactions
I thought was fun, but it would have been nice to see more.

(31:58):
I agree. And I would have liked to have
more formation on the other two band members like in any way,
because they just sort of never developed that.
But you know you. Got a little birthday party?
They they did have a birthday party.
That is so true the. Grades were cute.

(32:19):
They put so much up on the wallsjust for one pieing.
One cream pieing like that doesn't feel.
Very. I've done a lot for one cream
pie. Savior, Brother.
I got buried. Bonks to bonks to all three of
you. Jesus.
No, you said it. I he literally got cream pie.

(32:42):
I don't know what you guys are talking about.
I'm not using anything weird here.
I'm saying anything weird. I think that happens.
Yeah. OK.
No, but actually go ahead. Go ahead, Cat.
Sorry, what were you saying? We're in Pride month and we have
two, two LGBT people here. So yeah, you're going to, you're

(33:07):
going to get sexual innuendos. I OK.
I don't know where to how to respond to that.
I'm sorry. Not in a rude way, just like I
don't know where to go from there.
I'm lost my my brain is like. Oh, it's licking out.
I was. Just trying to talk about the
cream. Pies, man I.
Was. Yeah, and I am too you.
Know what you did? I I Pat's acting.

(33:29):
Surprised that we would go that route.
No way. I can't get your.
Head out of the gutter. You threw a chicken leg into the
alligator. What were you expecting there?
Were you? Expecting me not to chomp my my.
Boy. Skater season, baby.
It's gainer season, is it? Man, it's leaking.

(33:49):
It's leaking. Let's actually talk about
something in the show. I OK.
Please, Pete. OK, well, I, I think the whole,
the, the whole part of season 1 is to get to the app or, you
know, the, the performance of Mafia U and having everything
that he went through prior to it.

(34:10):
And then sort of this, you know,they didn't have lyrics.
He kind of came up with the lyrics on the spot as how it's
perceived in the show, letting everything out in that moment.
And to me, the first time I watched it, I was sort of blown
away because like, this was a huge build up.
And when you have that big of a build up, it's hard to deliver.

(34:30):
And I thought they crushed it. I thought the lyrics were
incredible to the song that he was, you know, performing to
like his late boy ex-boyfriend or whatever.
And to me, like this is the episode that like what makes
given given. So I guess I want to get your
guys's thoughts on sort of how the build up.
How do you like the build up? How do you like the execution of
Episode 9? I assume that that's the one

(34:54):
where they perform. Yes.
I figured it was but. So there is a lot of scenes in
this that I liked. I actually really liked getting
mad at Mafia for like not havingdone the stuff.
I feel like we don't we don't see that dynamic like a ton in
anime where like there are two people romantically involved in

(35:16):
each other and but like one of them gets mad at the other in
like a what felt like a very realistic and like completely
fairway to get mad. You know, like that he'd been
putting they'd all been putting in a ton of work and you know,
he hadn't, you know, carried hishis part and you know, he got

(35:37):
upset about it and like I I liked, you know, just that sort
of like the conversation they had when they were like sort of
yelling at each other room off. You was like you said you would
like believe in me and he's likeI did, but you didn't do it.
Like, you know that. I don't know.
I I thought that was nice. I thought the song was great.
It is one of I think my favorite, you know, sort of

(36:02):
insert song moment things. It kind of reminds me of the
Argo like talking is that was that an arco or all the musica?
It doesn't matter in the Argo mygo.
I thought you were saying Argo, like Ben Affleck's movie.
I was like what the fuck are yousaying I was?

(36:24):
Getting the plurality of the. How do you possess?
A pronoun. You're correct.
It's my go. When Ben Affleck said I am
Batman, I was like, yo, that's just like mafia.
An episode died of Given. Yeah, yeah.
What what I'm here to say is mafia is Ben Affleck, that is
no, but like that. Would make great secret.

(36:45):
What's his face? The one he's always with recess.
He's like, Oh no, Ben Affleck. Oh, Matt David.
OK. Yes, Matt, David, OK.
OK. And then it's like a pad.
I liked it more than that, though.
But like, I don't know, I just thought it was good.

(37:05):
Like it felt like this very likedamn bursting sort of moment
where it really felt like he hadkept a whole bunch of things
inside and like, you know, maybeeven like not necessarily just
made everything up at the moment, but like had overthought
and written or thought so many things.

(37:26):
And finally it just sort of likewas able to be expressed in a
way, you know, because like, I'msure he spent tons of time just
like stalling, thinking about it, not thinking anything was
good enough. But like, once he got to this
precipice, you know, it was all downhill and able to be
released. You look like you're thinking

(37:49):
about son. Sorry, I was just reading up on
the magazine that it's in. It is an offshoot of a show Joe
Magazine. So there you go.
Anyway, I also got a little bit spoiled on some future arcs, not
anything like plot wise, just about like where they kind of
go. Like it's not always going to
focus on like Mafuyu and Zika. So that's fine I guess.

(38:15):
If you look at the movies like they switch the order in which
they the main characters are. Like in the first movie, Mafia
and Riska are supporting characters and then Haruki,
Akihiko and Maratha are the maincharacters.
Got it. Yeah, that's pretty sick.
But As for episode 9, I really enjoyed it.
I mean, what is else is there tosay about the music?

(38:36):
Like it was just beautifully composed and the lyrics were
incredibly deep, like in just well made.
Especially like, we've all lost somebody that was taken too
soon, even if it wasn't like, you know, somebody that we were
a relationship like that necessarily with.
But like, just those emotions captured by the lyrics are so

(38:58):
potent and relatable that I think it makes me excited to
watch more of this, to hear moresongs and see, like, if they
give the other characters chances to kind of write songs
up for themselves, I think that would be pretty sick as well.
Yeah, I think that episode 9 wasdefinitely the pinnacle of this

(39:18):
series, and not that the rest ofit's bad at all, but it was just
outstanding. It was.
It's right up there with some ofmy favorite musical performances
and anime ever, honestly. I mean, I haven't seen a lot,
but like, yeah, it's definitely up there for me.

(39:38):
Can you use a picture Like what if the song was bad?
Like how the taste in your mouthwatching given if episode 9
sucked, I feel like the show would be like a six, but I'm
with Jay. Like I put episode I put that
song in like the same category as like God knows, like I think
it's like an S tier like rock song from an anime.

(40:00):
Like I, I think it's fantastic. I I think they're, this is a
weird thing and I guess I want people's thoughts on it real
quick, but like, I think there'sa way to make the song suck and
it'd be good. Oh.
For sure. OK, like where he's just so
emotional, you know what I mean?Like, yeah, like, it sucks

(40:20):
because he's doing it poorly, But in a world where it is
refined and he isn't doing that,it would be good, you know?
And like, there could be a moment where the band members,
like, care about. You're like, they don't care
that the performance would be that they're just happy that he
could finally express himself, you know?
So like, but I, I liked what we got.
I thought it was amazing. I'm just thinking that.

(40:42):
There's there's a really good part that you brought that up
because and rock is a lady's modesty that's airing right now
or I guess it's just wrapped up and finished.
But they do that where when you listen to the song like you
think it's good and then they'llpoint out afterwards that it's
bad and they'll tell you why. And then the next time you hear

(41:03):
them perform, that mistake is gone.
And I think that is a way that they could do that with given as
well. You it it sounds like, I guess
like basic level to us or maybe whoever.
But at least for me, like I'm a basic like audio listener.
It would sound good to me if I just listened to it for the
first time. But if someone pointed out the
mistakes, you could hear that. And I think that would be that

(41:24):
would be a cool idea to add to ashow like this because rock is
the ladies, modesty does it. And I think it's a great
addition to something in that show.
That actually makes me want to watch Rocket The.
Lady, you should. It's fantastic.
Very good. I want to watch it but I just
did not. I have not had any time to watch
seasonals. Honestly.
I just watched my Anne of Green Gables.

(41:45):
Priorities. Hotel.
And then I go. I go touch grass.
I I just thought it was a reallygood episode.
It's probably the best episode of the show, right?
Like. Yeah, 100.
Percent. I don't think anyone's going to
argue that, at least not hard, you know?
I think that's fine. I I, I kind of liked 9:00 and
10:00 and 8:00 and I don't know,I thought the show mostly got

(42:08):
better as it went on 100% in a, in a strong sort of way.
I think like the tropiness of the characters is Pete and Jay
had mentioned it gets fleshed out like they start kind of
trophy, but then like through moments like this, they become
less trophy and I bet did a lot for me to like making me like it

(42:31):
as much as I could. Yeah.
So all. Right, I guess I have a topic in
general, cuz I, oh, we've been talking a lot about this.
I guess I could talk about this a little bit more in my closing
thoughts, more specifically, I guess for my, my feelings on it.
But like while I was watching this show, I don't think I ever

(42:53):
sat there and went this was bad,but I also wasn't entirely sold
on it. I was kind of bored.
Maybe is the better way to phrase that.
Like especially like you said early on, I think my miles, I
agree the show did get better and the final few episodes were
interesting, but I was feeling very much in like I I wasn't

(43:15):
loving watching the show. I guess I don't know if that
that comes off wrong or not, because I do think it was well
made. I think it was well written.
The characters are interesting. I I just found myself bored.
I don't know, do I just not likeromance anymore or do you got
were were there any similar feelings like I don't?
Know can I, I'll talk about thatreal quick because I have
slightly different but same samefeelings to you.

(43:36):
So at the beginning of this, there were moments in everything
that I thought were good. But at the beginning, as I have,
I guess made mention of earlier,like to me, and this is
something I know you're not thatbig of a fan of, it was the band
dynamics and everything that like I was interested in you.
This isn't to say that you're like never a fan of that, but
you know, band shows aren't exactly your Forte.

(44:00):
No. And so, you know, I wonder if
that was it like the element that at least I thought stood
out at the beginning was like the music, the band interactions
and all of that. And then the romance is sort of
weak and I thought as time went on the romance got better, but
if you're not into that band stuff I could see just thinking

(44:22):
the beginning was just kind of. I don't know if anyone else has
thoughts on that. I think that's a very good way,
like explaining how I felt probably I would say, because
again, I do agree. I, I enjoyed the show more and
more as I as I went through it. But it, it was a bit of a slog
at first for me. And I do think it has a lot to
do with the band stuff just because I, I don't know.
And I was in a band. I was well school man, but

(44:43):
slightly different, but I was and I just I'm not as into it
the same way I'm not into sportsanime though too.
So maybe that's like the. What did you play in your school
band? We've been over this before,
Kat. You should know this.
It's a bass clarinet. It was the bagpipes.
Oh, thought you meant like. That was racist, smiles.
Careful, careful. I'm Irish, I can say it.

(45:08):
Yeah, but yeah, no, I played thebass clarinet and had a lot of
fun with it and it was so good on my resident.
So yeah. Alter Sanks.
So I'm getting straight. I'm catching strays from
everyone today apparently. Oh, A. 100.
Percent going back to the the show, there's parts where I
would agree with you because like if it it doesn't matter if

(45:29):
it's BL or whatever, it's like when you do the trope or like,
oh, I fell over and now I'm on top of you thing.
It's just like it like it doesn't matter.
But but like I think what saved it for me versus other shows.
I think Akihiko is fucking hilarious.
He is so funny. He's amazing.
He's my favorite character by a mile.
Any time that he's on the screen, he is just like, I don't

(45:51):
know, something about him is just like no matter what he
says, I am intrigued by what he.I'm like Haruki in the shell,
just like I'm fanboying over like the littlest thing that he
does just because like his vibe is just fantastic.
It's just like, so I think like what would why I would agree
with you. If the show wasn't as funny, I

(46:12):
think I would have been bored. But Akihiko is that's my GOAT
right there. I loved him.
He was really good. I liked their dynamic a lot.
Yeah. Maybe that transitions to my
other gripe or main gripe that Ihad while watching this was
every time it was funny and it was it was funny.
I was sitting there like, shouldit be this funny or is it, does

(46:35):
it want, you know, like I like versus like the heavy top It's?
Natural, like the comedy they did, is it's about.
It's about romance, like romancehas its ups and downs.
Like you laugh with your partnerand you cry with your partner,
you know, like, it's not always good times, It's not always bad
times. It doesn't have to be like like,

(46:55):
I guess I can understand kind ofwhere you're coming from, like
from a. Like the tone of the show,
That's what I'm. Talking tone, but I don't think
it was ever like like I think they're apart from a couple of
moments like with Mafia's back story and everything, it was
never really like that dark. And I think that like Mafia's
back story is really sad, but like it's also like pretty

(47:19):
grounded and realistic. Like, it's something that
happens to a lot of people, unfortunately.
So I don't know. I think that it's just a show
that is meant to be grounded andrealistic about romance, and
romance has high highs and low lows when it comes to like mood
and laughs and that sort of thing, you know?

(47:39):
I think, yeah, like you said, itwas more the tone thing for me
where I couldn't tell if this show wanted to be a heavy drama
or more of a, you know, light hearted show.
And like we give. Points to something like Golden
Commly for doing that is the thing though.
Like why? What makes it different?

(48:01):
What makes it different honestly?
Like we give we gave points to Golden Commly for the same
thing. I guess that's a gritty ward.
That's. A gritty Ward thing.
Like it literally starts off with him going through.
Like there's a a in a later season of Golden Commly, there's
a heartfelt reunion that is interrupted by somebody having

(48:23):
to get pissed on, and it's a peak moment.
Why can't Given just have? Why can't gay boys be a little
silly? Also golden commonly.
True. But true, yeah, I guess what I
would say in defense of this is that one, like, I I think they
segregate the moments pretty well.

(48:46):
Like I didn't get any like tonalwhiplash, right when they're
focusing on Yuki and like that it's given the proper gravity,
right? Like everyone is allowed to
process it. It's not filled with jokes, you
know, it's not like a Bungo stray dogs thing where they're
cracking suicide jokes every other second or anything like
that, you know, But when they'rewhen they're fooling around as a

(49:07):
band or you know, Reese goes like freaking out because he
realizes the the boy he likes likes him.
Like those are moments. I think it just sort of tries to
do the whole experience of what being a teenager who's
experienced loss, who's falling in love for the first time or
the second time from off. You like what that is all sort

(49:30):
of like and that's, you know, you have periods where just like
anyone's life, right? Like, you know, we had someone
in our high school class who passed away, and that was like,
horrible. But we also, you know, that same
week would laugh even if there was like an undercurrent of
tragedy. It is just sort of the human
condition. I think they did a pretty good

(49:52):
job of expressing it, though. I do think that that threshold
is going to be different for everyone, right?
Like how much you can deal with that thing so.
Yeah, I guess I was. I agree.
It wasn't like whiplashy by any means.
It's not our worst offender of it all.
I guess it was more like I was trying to figure out in my head,

(50:13):
like, what kind of show is this?What is it trying to be?
And I didn't get a clear answer until like, or, or I I think I
was hoping or wanting it to go the more serious route.
And then it kept kept the comedyaround.
Once again. It was funny though, so I can't
complain too much. So yeah, that's I, I guess, does
anyone else have anything that they were like kind of not

(50:35):
impressed by with the show just because we've been pretty
balanced, I think in terms of lots of positives to say.
Or is there another topic someone has that they want to
bring up to specifically? Like there's something we
highlighted in the introduction I feel like we're forgetting or
haven't talked about yet. I guess really quickly I and
we've sort of touched about individual lines in the square

(50:56):
that is this band's relationship.
But I think the entire band feltlike such a authentic and good
friend group. And like they did a really good
job of like you have these four people, you know what, 2 or one
of them's in college, but like, you know, there's a couple of
early 20s, a couple late teams. There's some differences there.

(51:16):
And I, I think they did a good job of like their friends, but
like Haruki and Akihiko do ACT sort of mentory towards the
other two members, but like Risca is like sort of the most
prodigious of the things. But like that it didn't stop
them from sort of giving him Flack if he wasn't pulling his

(51:38):
weight and everything. And they just did a good job of
like being friendly with each other, helping each other out,
being supportive and then like giving sort of like tough
constructive criticism and stuffwhen they need to.
And I, I liked the whole dynamicof like dating in the band.
And this is one of the funny scenes that we I think we were
just talking about. It's in like episode 11 or

(51:58):
whatever where they where he like flashes back and it like
plays a thing where he was like,you know, one of the Haruki was
talking about he didn't want people in the band to date And
Risco was new to it. So he was like, I agree
completely. And it just like all the way
that all worked, I thought was just like super fun.
I, I don't know, does anyone else have like moments from

(52:19):
that? Because I think just talking
about the four people in terms of like their ships is sort of
limiting the the relationships that all four of them have with
each other in a in a way. I think yeah, one of.
You go ahead, Kat, Sorry. I think one of my favorite
moments was definitely when whenRitika was like as they were

(52:43):
practicing and Ritika was going kind of hardly mafia.
You had just kind of joined the band.
He he and Ritika were were playing and then both of them
weren't playing well and Ritika just started laying into mafia.
You only for like Akihiko to just go like you need to lay off

(53:05):
and it's like and he just he goes, he just kind of rails into
him and says you can't judge somebody because they're not
playing well when you aren't playing when you aren't hot shit
either. Like that's just a that just
that's just a really good like check for somebody, especially
in a, especially in a like, I'llbe it.

(53:29):
Even though this is a very like,it's a very like positive
masculinity type of thing to do in my opinion.
Just like you need to chill. You need to chill the fuck out
before you hurt somebody's feelings.
OK, Like that. That just felt really nice.
Yeah, I also agree with both Miles and Cat.

(53:52):
I liked the mentor aspect that the two older guys had,
especially Akihiko, Not Akihiko,the other, especially what
hierarchy had with the coffee shop stuff where like the guys
could just come and visit him atthe coffee shop and he'll just
like listen to them talk and give them a a nice cup of coffee
with his like oddly complex coffee maker.

(54:16):
I'm not a coffee guy. Sorry, everybody.
I just enraged some some percentage of our listeners, I'm
sure. Yeah, Akihiko.
I also like I feel like I didn'treally him and mafia you.
I feel like they didn't really have that much of a relationship
in the series. So there's not really a ton to
comment on there. I'm hoping spoiler alert.

(54:38):
This is a little bit how I feel about this series as a whole.
I want I need to watch the movies, I'm sure, because like
this it feels incomplete to me and that's going to be a big
part of why I give it the score.I give it personally, but I
think that from what we got, like it was pretty well
developed. I just wanted a little bit more
in the season, like I said earlier.

(55:00):
Like a group dynamic. One of my favorite scenes is
when they were all eating dinnerand they were deciding on a new
band name and they came up with given in like 45 seconds.
And I always loved bringing up the story.
I came up with the name. What do you say, anime In about
8 seconds. It rhymed say, in anime, like
play on words or whatever. I was like, Yep, that's that's

(55:22):
the podcast name. I literally didn't think of a
second name. So I just love that they're just
like, yeah, who cares what our name is?
Like we're just here to play music.
And it's like, because I think even mafia is like, that's it.
And they're like, Yep, that's it.
I'm like, that's exactly what I went through.
But I want to give a shot to AkiEco on my favorite scene.
I think it's episode 10 or maybe8.

(55:43):
But he like, looks at, yeah, it's 10 because they're dating,
I believe. And he's just like, you guys
aren't dating, right. And he does like the face and
he's like, oh, my God. But then he like, does the
realization he's like, oh, wait,I set you 2 up.
He's like, oh, yeah, that makes perfect sense.
Yeah. So I, I really like that scene.
I want to get that. I like.
I paused because I was laughing so hard.

(56:05):
I thought that scene was hilarious.
And just how it was delivered inthe dub was a plus.
Yeah, the dub was really solid. I agree dub was very and like
the other thing is why didn't they have a singer?
I guess they wanted to just. They're just doing this stuff.
No, no, no, no. Why couldn't it be let?

(56:26):
Me rephrase for. Mafia dub be good.
Singing be for Mafia. Well, was that this was the
Japanese dub the same singer that sings in the scene?
Because that doesn't always happen.
Right, like with. Voice with voice actors, I'm
pretty. Sure.
This feels like one of those things where no, actually I
think maybe not. I would have to look that up.

(56:49):
Because. There are two English.
Yeah that's what I was thinking.There's 2 Japanese voice actors
listed for Mafia. And two, English as well, right?
I wonder who is who? Now that I think about it, it's
it's interesting because like ithappens in a lot of anime too.
This is not a knock on this show, but I was just thinking to
myself, oh damn, I wish that we had a dub voice for this.

(57:13):
Oh the like for the the? Reason why it says that fuck
Google man. The reason why it says there's a
second person for Japanese baa for you is because there's a
live action version, that's why.So that's my bad, I got trolled
by Google AI. Well, I see 2 Japanese and two
English. Yeah, there's. 2 for Japanese

(57:34):
English. Do you think it's like the kid
version of him? Oh, could be.
He's literally talk when he's a kid though in the flashbacks.
If he says anything, they'll geta credit.
Through, Yeah. That's that's what I was
thinking, yeah. So maybe that's.
Yeah, OK. And Steph Garrett, one, it's
very common. There's no.
English singer, right? They just do the.

(57:54):
It's the. Japanese, that's what I'm that
is what I am bringing up here, that it's weird or not weird,
but I was just like, oh damn, I was kind of hoping that they
would they. Basically never do that in music
anime. I don't think I've literally
ever seen that happen. It's in like idol anime.
The voice actresses are all the singers.
Or no, no, I mean in the English.
English yeah, 100% never. Haruhi, God knows.

(58:18):
Really. Yes, but Harohee.
That makes sense because it's fucking Harohee.
But dub and company Crunchyroll ain't going to pay somebody to
fucking. Sing the new Rosa Versailles.
The English dub is entirely in English for the singing.
OK, and it was awful, so I switched to the sub and then I
couldn't read the subtitles so Iswitched back to the.

(58:39):
Dub shows how we feel about thatmovie.
Check out our review. Check out my Rosalie cell that I
got up there. It's nice.
All right. Do we want to do closing
thoughts or is there anything else we wanted to touch on
before we move on to that? No, All righty.
Timing. Yeah, thank you.
Adolescent is an amazing song. Miles, what are your closing

(59:02):
thoughts in your final score? Yeah, I I liked this show.
I thought at the beginning that I might not like the romantic
aspects of that, but over time II did like it.
I just realized that, you know, Mafia you just has too much ball
knowledge in his head to fit anyguitar knowledge in there.
And that's OK because, you know,they show that he is like a like

(59:27):
he was the organized one by there's a funny scene where
someone asks if they would have finals and oh goodness.
Oh, Risca has no idea. And then Matthew looks like
appalled that he has no idea, looks at him and just goes like,
yes, yes, we do, you know? And so there were scenes like

(59:50):
that that gave him some fleshed outness other than physically
being unable to tune a guitar that really made me like that.
I thought their dynamic as time went on and I didn't really
understand the spark that they hit.
But I guess that's not somethingthat you inherently have to
understand. But the what they built from
that I thought was good. And I really liked the

(01:00:10):
relationship at the end. I thought it was displayed like,
well and everything. And I'm excited to watch more.
Give us an 8 out of 10. 8 out of10 already Cat, what about you?
Yeah, this show was a treat to. This show was a treat to watch.
Honestly, this is just like one of those shows during the past,

(01:00:31):
during the past two weeks that Ijust kind of just that it just
kind of put on to kind of wind down from the day, especially as
my job gets more, gets more and more demanding.
And it just felt really nice to kind of kind of watched the
relationship between the betweenthe two bloom and that.

(01:00:52):
So I don't really have much elseto say other than like the the
sheer of the sheer value of thatGibson semi open electric guitar
is stupid. Like that's got to be like a
1990 semi open guitar and that'sgot to be worth like $8000 do.

(01:01:14):
You think he should sell it? I don't think the price of the
guitar means anything. I don't think.
He's so irrelevant, he doesn't he?
Matters. He doesn't want the guitar.
The guitar is his dead ex-boyfriend.
He doesn't want the guitar. I could actually see it being a

(01:01:34):
plot point where he gets anotherguitar, like as his final way of
letting go and moving on. Yo that's spicy.
He could literally get like 4. Guitars with that one.
Guitar I like. I live this gay shit, Pete.
I know what it's like. That's what song thank.
You like he could get 6 high endJackson guitars?

(01:01:56):
You can't play 6 guitars at once.
He doesn't have. You can't play 6 it'd.
Rather speak anyway. It brings up a great point.
You can only play 1 guitar at once, so yeah.
But you can do one and drop D and then just switch it if you
need to for yourself. Exactly. 1 could have AG Bender.
That's already 3 guitars if you if you don't want to move your

(01:02:19):
Oh my God, what are the clamp things called now?
I'm mafia you capo. Yeah just kidding.
Mafia has no idea what a capo is.
So like moving it you can just have three guitars.
Bam, 6 guitars. The other thing is like as soon
as you get into your soul, you just switch out guitars and you
start going into go into something with a different

(01:02:41):
setting. Anyway, yeah, this is not a tip
for me. I love the show anyway.
Perfect. All right, Jay, what about you?
OK so I just want to start this off by saying that if I was the
director and I heard Miles complaints, what I would include
in the next given like movie or season or whatever is I would
have them yell at. Like you know one of them yell

(01:03:04):
at mafia and he takes them to a basketball court drops his $8000
guitar on the fucking ground andsays you think I need this shit?
He just crosses them up and thendunks on them, breaking the
fucking backboard. Like the scene from link click?
Like the? Scene from High School Musical.
Like the scene from High School Musical.

(01:03:24):
So true, yeah. Scratch on that fucking guitar
would make it lose. Like 300.
Dollars. Anyway, but I liked the show
quite a bit. The music was fantastic.
Obviously, like we all said, I liked the romance quite a bit.
I just wish that there was a bitmore of it.

(01:03:44):
So I'm glad that there's movies to watch.
I'll probably do that this week,honestly.
Or maybe I'll do it tonight. Who knows.
Maybe I'll stay up late and watch one of them.
I think that my main complaints were that I wanted to see more
of the couple that I like and not that other couple.
So important to note that. The couple you like canonically,
not a couple. Yeah, that's true.
Come on, obviously they're in game like it's.

(01:04:06):
Going to be a great lesson on why violinists are way cooler
than bassists or whatever. Man, shut up, Miles.
You're so lame, man. Yeah, I like the show a lot.
It was really cute. I also give it a nine with a
possibility of being a 10 if they do the right thing in the
movie. All righty, another 9.

(01:04:27):
Jay, would you say that it's a given that they'll end up
together? Yes.
Would you say it's a seasons that they would?
Yeah, it was. It was kind of funny.
It's the same joke twice. Yeah, but it was different.

(01:04:48):
Can I go? Yeah, yeah, Pete, whatever.
All right, sounds good. When my complaint, biggest
complaint of a show is I think it either should have been 10
episodes or 12. I think what we got on the
screen was pretty well done. One thing that I didn't really
touch on or we didn't touch on either is especially in like

(01:05:09):
these drama shows, something like Given or like Orange is the
topic of suicide. And I thought how they handled
that was done really well. I did.
I like that they didn't play as a joke.
I liked that they used it as like rumor bait as well in high
school because I feels like that's what stupid teenager kids
would do. So I like how they included that
in the story. It wasn't like overwhelming, but

(01:05:32):
I think it made a real message to Mafia's character.
So I just thought how everythingwas handled with that.
And then the epilogue of episode9 was just awesome, or the
climax, just just a really good story.
Highly recommend people checkingout if you like this.
Sasakita Miano and classmates, they're very similar vein.
I'm giving this a nine that I really enjoyed giving.

(01:05:56):
Oh, a nine out of 10 already andyeah, I'm in.
I I'm content with what I saw. I don't necessarily feel like I
need to watch anything more fromthis after like, like I would if
if it was given to me as like a Secret Santa or something along
those lines. I'm sure I would enjoy it.
But I, I feel pretty satisfied because I I cared a lot more

(01:06:18):
about the main two guys comparedto the rest of the cast.
And it almost feels like we're resolved, I guess, if that makes
sense. So that combined with the fact
that's not my favorite kind of show doesn't doesn't help me
wanting to wanting to continue watching this.
But I I can't say that anything was necessarily bad on the
screen. I thought it was very well

(01:06:39):
animated, including the we touched on it lightly, but like
the animation. I'm even like playing the
instruments wasn't what was thatjazz show we watched recently or
movie. Jazz movie.
Blue Giant. Blue giant like better animated
than that. Depending on the blue giant

(01:07:01):
scene. Blue Giant was really well
animated minus like of people walking up to the whatever
scenes. Yeah.
Fair enough either I guess. Maybe I'm thinking like Idol
shows too. Where?
Some of the blue giant performance were a bit sketchy.
The main one was absolutely fucking phenomenal.
Makes everything forgiven in my opinion.

(01:07:22):
But. But yeah, but being that they,
they looked, they didn't look too robotic.
Obviously it was there, but it wasn't as bad.
It didn't like Take Me Out of the moment by any means.
And I thought that the things that needed to be good in the
show were really, really good. So I think, yeah, I think that's
all I've got for this. I had an 8 out of 10.
I do think it starts a little weak, and that's where I was.

(01:07:45):
I was pretty bored, but it got alot better by the end, so I'm
very glad I watched it. So yeah, that adds up our total
score tally, our aggregate scoreto an 8.6 out of 10.
Pretty good, pretty good. 8.3 iswhat's on Mao.
So one of us should have been a little bit meaner to it and we
would have been pretty much right in line with with Mao

(01:08:08):
because that's what we always want to do around here, right?
No, we don't. We we try to everyday.
That's what we do, yeah. That's why we play the Mao
review game, to get better and better at at owning.
Sounding like yes, sounding likethe Mao people, right?
I don't like the average value. Yeah, there we go.

(01:08:31):
But all right, that's given that's that's our, our pride
show of the of the 2025 year. And let's talk about what we're
watching two weeks from now. Miles, what have we got for the
summer fun? Yeah, really fun race this week.
The last place show at 23 pointsand the 1st place show had 29
points, so everything was in like pretty close proximity to

(01:08:56):
each other. In 3rd place we had Oceanosaura,
in second place we had Lazarus and in first place we had Grand
Blue. So we will be watching Grand
Blue. We were so close to greatness.
Oh my God, I actually clicked a voice message instead of instead

(01:09:18):
of pin message. So now like it's just speaking
out the message I just typed into our anime clip chat and I
can't hear anything. Oh my God.
OK, it's done. Sorry.
But anyways, yeah, we were so close to greatness.
I am. Oh, I'm sad.
But hey, that just means next time we're nominating.
You already know what's coming back up there.

(01:09:39):
The banger show that we all knowAdult Swim will put out in
Lazarus. But yes.
Eagle said it was the worst showhe's ever seen like that is.
Strong words writer did too. Writer did, too.
Writer. Yeah, Writer, Sharp said.
It was really bad too, so I'm soeager.
That's an eagle. You said he had sharp.

(01:10:02):
I think eagle hated it too. So it's like.
It. Sounds like most people did, but
that's why I'm so I'm so curiousthe kind of.
Thing I have heard about it is that people hate it too much.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, that was that.Well.
But not that it was good, not that it was unworthy of being
hated, but that it was hated simply a little bit too much.

(01:10:24):
Just that we promised Neverland season 2 then that sounds like
to me. So there we go.
That's exactly the same argumentthat I make for it.
So yeah, let's let's do that. But anyways, we are nominating
now or we're not. We're not because we are going
to have the winner of our viewerchoice anime club show.

(01:10:45):
Ernie Brackett got there, Patrick.
Well done announced next two weeks from now we will know the
winner and it it is a close racein the finals between what was
it uma Oussame road to the top? Is that the second season of it
and. No, that's the the. 3rd.
Season. It's the it's like the OVA.

(01:11:06):
It's like the OVA. Yeah, because we watched the
second season, Pat, That was a watch club shoot.
Oh God, that's. Right, we did watch the second.
Season, you have consumed it. I have consumed it, no.
And I talked about it. Yeah, you even liked it slightly
more than the first season I did.
I did, you're right. And then it so it's between that

(01:11:27):
and loving Yama. Loving.
Yama Kun level 999, whatever that show is.
So, yeah, you will know by the time that, no, you won't know
what you will know what won by the time this episode comes out,
but at least you'll be able to listen to us wondering out loud
as we wait for the results tomorrow morning.

(01:11:48):
But that's why we're not nominating anything this week.
So yeah, I guess that wraps up Watch CLUB now I think about it.
Thank you all for listening. And Pete, take it away.
Yeah, if you have made this far and you want support, the best
way to do so is to like, comment, subscribe, leave a
review, whatever platform you are watching or listening to us
on. We got a weird schedule.
So like the next episode you're all listening to is also Watch
Club. So the the next non watch Club

(01:12:09):
show that comes out I believe isthe summer First Impressions.
I got to double check. But we got a lot of cool stuff
coming up. We got Shark Tank after
everybody hopefully finishes alltheir shows.
We got the payoff episode for that.
I will be watching. I got like 30 episodes of Una
downloaded on my iPad for when Igo to LA.

(01:12:30):
I'm going to be finishing Una then I'm done with mine.
So hopefully you guys are also close with yours.
I think we got a. Little bit more berserk, but
then we're done. Let's go, but we got in a couple
of months being Miles is gremlingoblin hobgoblin episode is
finally coming out. We'll be putting it to work to
finally get that out. That's been docketed for like a

(01:12:50):
year, but it's finally doing it.So we got a lot of cool stuff
coming out. So hopefully you support us.
This was our six year anniversary as a filming today.
So I mean Miles, Pat and Cat have been here from the jump.
Jay's been here for like 4 plus years.
So on behalf of everybody who wants to say thank you, if you
support us for a day, month, year, whatever.
So it's been awesome. I love the journey.
I've had so many cool people. So hopefully we can can

(01:13:12):
continue. As long as I have a voice, we'll
probably continue doing this podcast.
So I want to say thanks to everybody out there.
Thanks to everybody here for taking time out of your Mondays
to talk some anime with me. So love it.
Love you guys. So have a good one and we will
see you next time. Peace.
Bye bye, bye, bye, bye bye. Bye, bye, bye bye.

(01:13:33):
Bye bye.