AWTY 243 - Finale (Naruto)

In an anime. I'm your anime idiot, Tess Dugan.

I'm your anime expert, D. Hollander Gonzalez.

And I'm Brendan McCullough. Your anime series finale.

What?

Hit that light switch.

It's time.

Click. I was trying to think of a series finale, and my go to, of course, was cheers.

I guess we were cheers all along.

Everyone knows your podcast is the cheers you make along the way. Hi. This is it.

It's the last one.

It wouldn't be an appropriate standoff to not just immediately derail it with bullshit.

Absolutely. Especially with a reference that is at least 30 years old.

We're hitting 40. God. Looking back and seeing this, like, oh, yeah, we started this in 2018.

Wow. We were so fresh faced, so hopeful. Eyes full of wonder.

Well, lighten our eyes. Pep in our step.

A little more respect for the general populace. That's gone.

Oh, yeah. Done forever.

Hooray.

We have one more anime to watch. Is there something obscure from Brendan's childhood or something that D latched onto in middle school? Or do we have something, like, hyper specific?

Today I have an anime. Arguably, this is the last anime of all time. Like, we've watched every anime after we've watched this one. It's over. And that's why it's the finale. Today we're watching a show called Naruto. Don't know if you've heard of it.

I have not.

It's not ringing any bells.

Well.

We'Re going in blind. Let's see how this goes.

We're watching three. No. Yeah. It's Naruto. We don't even need to joke about it. If you think of an anime, it's probably Naruto. People rose up against the US government by Naruto running at area 51. This is undeniably a piece of culture that will exist longer than anime. Yeah. We have to do it. We have to. We have to.

There have been anime before it. There have been anime after it. But I don't know any kids who went to school wearing dragon Ball Z geese. I knew plenty of kids that went to school wearing Naruto headbands, though. And gloves. And one kid that never took gloves off and got permanently skin sunburned on his hands from it. That kid, he had, like, a permanent tan line around his hand because of the gloves.

Oh, my goodness.

It was weird.

Yeah. I've never actually watched an entire episode of Naruto.

Wow.

Lucky you.

And once again, this is a finale. And I'm sure you've been able to tell for a while now. I'm not actually really an anime expert. I kind of am the tropes. I have my faves. But Brendan has seen far more anime than I have because he doesn't have a threshold for shit pain that he'll put himself through.

I've watched so much stuff, and my friends, you included, just unabashedly telling me why. Stop. Stop watching it. You don't like it? Stop watching this. I'm like, no, I'll keep going.

No, I hate this. I only have 50 more hours of it.

You don't understand. I have to beat it. I hate it. So I have to win, and I win by finishing it.

That may be something in there. There may be some truth to that.

Yeah.

Not only has it ruined those shows for me, it's also ruined those shows for anyone I talk to because they can't mention those shows without me going off into a tirade.

Well, yeah. Brendan, what is your specific history with this show? Because, yeah, watching it all, I also know there's so many narutoes, and I don't know which is which or why there's. Well, I know why there are so many. It's the ultimate anime, but I don't mean there's a lot.

First off, the proper name for a plural of Naruto's is a Narutai.

Naruti.

Againin of Naruto is a collective of plural. Yeah, of course people are going to argue like, is it the best? No. Is it the most popular? That's debatable. It's still going as Boruto. We don't need to talk about that one. But we've got Naruto. We got Naruto. Ship it in, which is after a time skip. And then we got Boruto, which is another time skip, where it's about his son. And it's just so prevalent to the point where Boruto should be an entirely different series, but the mangaka of it, it's so locked into this franchise for life that he had to tie it into Naruto somehow or else no one would publish it. And it's very clear that he wants to do anything else besides Naruto, but this is now his sisyphissian boulder two push up hill.

Poor guy.

Boulder two is pretty much all Sci-Fi now. He doesn't want to be doing this, but only be in Naruto. A friend of mine still reads Boruto and it fills me in on some. It's actually insanity. But we heard for the roots, we're not doing Shupadin why bother? That's way too far. In fun fact, Naruto, it goes for about like 150 episodes and then goes into, like, a 70 episode filler and then goes into Shupadin. So they just really were stretching it out at the end there.

Great.

But my experiences with it, I've watched all of it. I watched most of Shupudin when I stopped on the anime. I started reading the manga, and I finished the manga. I hate it, but not as much as, you know. It's a low bar. What we're watching today is what I consider the peak of Naruto. There's other good episodes after this, but these three episodes, episodes 48 to 50, I believe, is where it peaks. It doesn't get better than this. There's still good episodes.

Get any better than this, you just.

Don'T get better than this, in my personal opinion. I think for the people who've watched it, the haku Zabuza arc, which are episodes like twelve to 18 real early, I think those are the best Naruto episodes. I think it peaks so goddamn early now in hindsight. But these episodes are three that fit very well for the podcast format. But it is very iconic episodes that a lot of people remember and call back to as some of the best. So I chose those thinking it would be very fitting for the podcast.

Wow.

Well, thank you for not giving me their weirdest little guy arc or other brendan specific choices of things.

All right, real quick. Zabuza is just like a weird, shark toothed mercenary who's just really.

There we go.

I love him. Haku. Non binary, non gender conforming as fuck, really cool and super cool powers. It just is, like eight episodes, so we wouldn't be able to cover all of their stuff. But I do think Haku and Zabaza are the best parts of Naruto.

Nice.

Yeah.

All right, it's time to watch one more anime. We're watching episodes 48, 49, and 50.

Everyone warm up your sinai pills. It's the end.

I'm Naruto running.

I'm gonna use my special talking style, and you, the listener, are gonna use your special listening style. If you open the chakra in your ears, you'll get a podcast. Hello.

Believe it.

It's so dead on, though. Like, it's not wrong, is it? Parody? If it just fits naturally into the.

Show, you don't have to change anything.

No, not a word. There is a village hidden in the sound. They would do podcast.

It's true.

God.

All right, episode 48. My first note is, let's fucking go. I watched it on Hulu, and it gave me a warning that it was for older teens. And I was like, oh, no.

You'Re a real old teen.

Yeah.

Which is weird, because the totally legal way I was watching it, it was pg and on Cartoon Network. So come on, make up your mind.

Great point. We get the opening right away, which, on your very legitimate website, there was a different opening than the one that's on Hulu because the one that's on Hulu has, like, the japanese opening, which is a pretty iconic opening. And Paul was watching it with me and knew all the words, and I was like, hello. I didn't know he knew that much about Naruto.

This wasn't the fighting dreamers opening, right? I believe that's a later.

No, I think they have more than one by kung fu. What is it? Kung fu generation?

Yeah, this was an earlier one. Fighting Dreamers is, I think, might be the most iconic.

Yeah, it wasn't that one.

Yeah.

But, yeah, Paul was very excited to watch this with, like, he was like, here's the context. And I was.

Is what? This is why Paul and I get along so well.

So it starts off with this character Neji calling Naruto a loser, which was very fucking funny. He just said, hey, you loser. And I was, yeah, yeah. We all hate this kid. Yeah. And he fucking hates Naruto. He tells Naruto that he's a failure and he'll never change. But Naruto's not gonna take that. He runs at Neji. But then Rock Lee, the bowl cut wonder, gets between them, and he's like, you guys can't fight like this. You have to fight in an official match. And Naruto gets very dramatic and says that he's going to fight for Hinata's honor and he's going to win. There are so many characters in this show, and they're all here. It's like super smash brothers ultimate.

Everyone's here.

We got Mario, we got link, we got Dr. Mario.

And they're all just sitting on the sidelines talking shit about the people who are actually fighting.

Yep.

I love this, because if you want to get into the poor writing heteronormity of this shonen jump series, which is a problem throughout the whole publishing house, this is probably the most attention Naruto ever gives Hanata, who he ends up marrying and have two kids with in. Wow, it's so bad.

Great. One guy. They're like, all trios. There's, like, teacher and then three kids for each teacher one guy is talking about all the people he wouldn't want to fight, including Rock Lee and Gaara, the sand freak, their teacher. There's another. What's his name? Chochi. Jochi.

Yeah. This is Shikamaru Eno, and Choji.

Yeah. So Choji is saying how he's really nervous to fight, and then their teacher comes over and encourages him and says that he can have barbecue if he wins. Hooray.

I relate to.

And then we see Gaara, and he's just fucking vibrating. And I was like, is he okay? And then one of his peers wonders if something stirred up his inner demon, Gaara. I categorized him as a sand freak without knowing that much about him. But I was right. I know one thing about Gaara and that he likes sand.

I'm sorry. We do know two things about Gaara. He's also emo.

Oh, yeah.

Eyeliner one.

Look at him. You know it.

He's also voiced by Liam O'Brien. Emo, the boy loves dramatics. Yeah. There's the gaara and his team. They're his brother and sister, so they're all village hidden in the sand.

And his peer brother, Konkuro, goes to talk to Naruto while Naruto's being dramatic and standing by himself. And he asks Naruto if he knows anything about Neji. And he's like, no, I don't, but I'm gonna kill him. And then he's just breathing really hard.

I know the plot where they're going to bury that guy.

Oh, shoop it in foreshadowing. Spoiler. If you actually give a shit about Naruto, don't listen to this podcast, because I'll spoil everything. Neji's one of, like, the three characters in the entire series that dies.

Dang. Does Naruto kill him with his own two hands?

No.

Darn.

Then he lied.

Wait, no. One of those three characters comes back as a robot in Boruto. Never mind two characters. That's not a joke. That's not a joke.

Oh, wow. After Naruto says he's going to kill Neji, Konkuro is like, I like you. And then Naruto is like, well, no offense, but I don't like you. And it's time to continue the competition. What's it called? The cheating exams.

Cheney choning exams. So they're all Genin, which is the rank they're currently at. And this is a test to get to the Chunin, which is the rank above them.

Chunin. Okay, I got the vowel wrong two times. Three times.

Don't worry. I've never gotten a name right.

Once the names for the next fight are being chosen, Rock Lee gets very indignant and says, I want to go last. I hope I don't get chosen next. And then we see that Gaara's name is chosen and he uses some sand magic to get down into the arena. And then Rock Lee is also chosen. But surprise, he says this was all according to his plan, and he knew that if he said out loud that he wanted to go last, he would get picked next. He was manifesting.

Yes, all according to Keikaku.

Ahead of his time.

Truly his teacher, Guy sensei, which I found out today, is named Mike Guy.

Might.

Mike.

M-I-G-H-T-I could have fucking sworn Paul told.

Me his name was Mike.

I love that.

I'm gonna keep calling him Mike Guy. So Mike Guy warns Rock Lee that Gaara is a little sand freak. And there's something going on about the thing he wears on his back.

He's out of his fucking gourd.

And then it's time for the fight. And Konkuro says that Rock Lee will never beat Gaara, but he's stronger than they all think. The fight starts Gaara. No, it doesn't start. Gaara opens his gourd before the fight starts. He opens it. The fight begins. Rock Lee runs right at him. But Gaara hits him with some sand magic. And he doesn't even need to move. And we see like a flashback of him doing some more wax. Sand stuff. Sand coffin.

It's real fucked up sand shit.

Yeah, real freak ass stuff.

Totally.

Oh, he is just Sand Chris angel, ain't he?

Oh, Gara angel. Sand freak. Sand freak. Rock Lee won't back down. He's kicking, he's slicing, he's dodging. But then we find out it's not even sand magic that Gaara is doing. It's just sand that protects him. It's autonomous. And nothing will touch him as long as that sand is in the game.

Oh, yeah.

I need to consult the rules. Is this two fighters? Is this sand its own fighter? At that point, yeah.

It doesn't feel fair to me.

Ethnically, no, but yes. Also.

Gaara is bored. He wants blood. The sand picks up Rock Lee and throws him against a wall. Sakura wonders why Rock Lee doesn't use ninjitsu or genjutsu, which is magic, essentially. So that's why he keeps punching. He has no magical abilities whatsoever. His teacher, Mike Guy, says that Rock Lee had nothing going for him when they met. We see Rock Lee Dodge. He dodges an attack and does, like, a million flips and lands up on this big hand statue that's in the arena. But Guy Sensei has faith in him, and he tells Rock Lee to take them. And Rock Lee says, but, sensei, you said to only do that as a last resort. But Guy Sensei gives him permission, and he's like, yeah, I have seen this. Who hasn't?

This is the iconic moment.

Yeah, only do it as last resort.

You hit a small hurdle. Do it immediately. Take them off right quick.

Oh, no, you didn't win. Immediately. Take them off.

Take them off.

You got a hangnail. Take them off.

So Rock Lee takes off his leg warmers to reveal ankle weights, and people are like, ugh, that's stupid. Just some training weights, whatever. And as he drops them to the ground, they fall, hit the ground, and they crack the floor. They're so heavy. And he was moving pretty fast already with those on. So now that he doesn't have those, you can't even see him. He's bobbing, he's weaving, and he's able to get some hits in on Gaara.

Gotta go fast.

Gotta go so fast.

Gaara, go fast. No, Lee, go fast.

Guy Sensei says they've only focused on Rock Lee's taijutsu, which is like physical fighting, since he's got no magic. So now he's the best in the world at his punches and kicks.

Oh, yeah.

Everyone is very impressed. Gaara isn't looking so good. There's sand pouring out of the gourd. And then Conqueror says, uh oh. And we see that there's sand covering Gaara's face, and he looks crazy. And his crew saw this coming. The inner demon is coming out, breaking free. And Konkuro explains that Gaara can wear the sand like armor if it can't protect him as a shield. But he doesn't say this part out loud. The armor is actually pretty weak because it takes a lot of Gaara's power to keep it up.

He, too, has a last resort move.

Yes. But it just shows how good rock Lee is that Gaara needs to use this sand armor. But even so, Rock Lee isn't giving up. And he's like, I got to get him in the air so I can do my special move. So he unravels some of his wrist bandaging and runs fast circles around Gaara. I forget what the move is called. The lotus of some kind.

The primary lotus.

The primary lotus. He whips him up in the air and kicks him up higher and higher. And he gets Gaara all wrapped up in bandaging and slams him to the ground.

Got him.

Got him. Or so we think.

Honey.

What?

But we're through all three episodes, right?

Everyone around looks pretty shocked. Gaara lays in a pile of rubble. He's all cracked. His face is all cracked. And then he starts to fall apart and turn into sand. What's going on? And that's the end of the episode.

Oops, all sand.

Oops. All sand. My boy was sand the whole time.

Babe caught me sanding. I do love that Conqueror makes a comment of, like, rock Lee's got a dumb haircut with Conqueror's juggalo looking ass on the Sideline. It's like, no one in this show can they criticize rock Lee's, like, haircut and eyebrows all the time. No one in the show has any right to criticize anyone. You all look like freaks.

They're all a bunch of weirdos.

No one looks normal.

Rock Lee is the one that's wearing actual clothes, wearing, like, athlete apparel.

He's wearing, like, a jumpsuit, which is kind of normal.

And the others are like, yeah, let me fight my jean jacket.

One of my favorites. Shino. He's over on the side with a collar way up to his nose. He looks kind of normal. What's that? He's full of bugs.

He's full of bugs.

The kid's full of bugs. Lousy with bugs.

Too bad we don't get to see that. Am I right?

No, that's fine. I love Shino. It's gross to look at.

Yeah, I'm good. Let's move into episode 49. So, yeah, Gara's shell made of sand, it's collapsing. It wasn't Gara himself who took all those hits. When Lee closed his eyes for a split second in the air, he swapped out. So he didn't take the blow, the sand did. And then we see Gaara get up, and he's got that wild look in his eye. Oh, no. The demon inside him. It's awake. It's saying, hey, keep that racket down out there.

I'm trying to sleep.

Um, so he starts wailing on Lee, and guy on the sidelines is, oh, yeah, there's a reason he doesn't do that lotus all the time. It fucking hurts. It's a forbidden move because it drains so much energy. And you can tell Lee is in pain.

Yeah.

Every time they say forbidden jutsu, you lose one brain cell. That makes you question why everyone in the show knows a forbidden jutsu. And uses it regularly.

Great. Good to know. So, yeah, now we get the flashback portion of the fight where we learn how bad Lee wants it. So, yeah, we see Lee as a young boy getting teased for not having any powers and just being a little guy who knows karate. And guy sees him and takes a shine to him. He's like, oh, that's the kid who has spirit. He has gumption. He doesn't give up. So guy trains him rigorously. Just kidding. Lee trains himself in the woods. He's just so dedicated. He's doing like, all right, if I can't complete this insane workout, I'll do this insane thing instead. And guy just watches him from the woods being like, yes, I'm a great teacher. Yes, learn from me, child.

This is all me.

So, yeah, time passes. He gets a little older, he's a little bit stronger, and they're like, hey, why do you all want to be ninjas? And Lee says, I want to prove that I'm as good as any other ninja with just my taijitsu. I need to be the strongest. Beating them up with no magic at all. And they show this exact clip four more times.

They really want to hammer home just exactly how incapable Rock Lee is at magic. He has, like I said before, no magical abilities whatsoever. And if you forget that, as soon as they think you might forget that, they show this clip again.

Listen, we're losing. We got to hit him again with a flashback.

Listen, he's jumping around at the speed of sound. But no, he doesn't have any magic.

He's just real fit. He's just got a tight core. Rock Lee is what a lot of the fans were hoping Deku would be in my hero, where it's like he's this grunty little nerd with no abilities, and then he overcomes them and proves himself. But instead, Deku gets, like, eight superpowers instead of. So, like, Rock Lee is the one they were rooting for.

He did remind me of Deku.

Quite a. Yeah, yeah.

Hard to be the scrappy underdog when you immediately get eight superpowers, but here we are. So, yeah, we see him still in the flashback. He's fighting Neji but can't win, and he's saying, oh, he's not going to give up even if you put him down. And so he just keeps training harder and harder. And Guy tells him he has or, yeah, he's training, but his pride was hurt from that fight. So he messes up, trips, jumping rope, bonks his head.

Oh, I hit my head and guy's.

Like the perfect time to be motivational after I've been sitting here for several years watching him in the woods. So he's like, hey, you know your strength. You don't know when to quit. You got the power of perseverance. And Lee confesses. Oh, he's scared the training won't be enough, and he's going to stay a loser forever. And guy says, hey, guess what? I was a loser too. What? Oh, no. I would have never guessed this guy.

Never that haircut.

But he says putting in the effort was enough to become a great ninja, so you can too.

And this haircut helped me get so much.

Pussy bitches love aerodynamic eyes.

They just love it when guys go so fast.

Yes. If we know one thing about dating, it's that girls love fast guys. So back in the present, Lee's still taking a beating. But he just needed a minute. He had to catch his breath. Because not only does the lotus bloom once, it blooms twice.

Oh, shit.

Who could have guessed?

So they're like, oh, yes, he knows more special things. And he has his inner chakra gates. He can open them, letting loose insane power that would normally be blocked by someone's near human body. But he's using the power of perseverance so he can open the first five of eight chakra gates. But, oh, he's so much closer to death because he's running so hot. And guy teaches him the power to do this on one condition. He has to use it to protect and maintain one's own ninja way.

Wow, seems like a low bar. If someone's insulting your ninja way on the schoolyard, you're just like, cool, copyright free Super Saiyan and just crack them in half.

I need to prove how strong I am. Okay, Batman has a gun and he shot you. Okay, it's time to unleash extra power. Because a guy. You're not going to be stronger than everyone if you don't have magic. I'm sorry. That's just the fact of this world. But that's where we end episode 48 okay, sorry.

Two things. Kokashi pulls off his headband and shows his sharingan eye. I love it with Kokashi because you see that his other eye is just black, like just a pupil. And then his sharingan eye has the iris and the pupil, and it just looks really weird juxtaposed between the two.

Whenever my eye hurts or something, Paul is always like, are you getting your sharingan? I guess so.

You already went through Puberty. You already got your sharing gun. You don't know that. Also, we talked a little bit about how bad this monganca is writing women in the flashback. We get a little dialogue from 1010, Neji and Lee's third teammate, who's the girl on the team. This is some of the most dialogue she gets in the entire series.

Wow, great. 1010, everybody.

Ten out of ten.

I generally like ten. Ten's character. I think she's neat and she just gets real. The shit end of the stick. She gets done real dirty. All right, episode 50, the payoff for all those flashbacks. We start with Lee opening up the third chakra gate, and he's basically going super Saiyan without the blonde hair, but we see his veins bulging, his eyes go white, and his skin starts turning red. He's going berserk. And then guy says he's not done yet. We see Lee opening the fourth gate, and Kakashi says, no one should be able to do that through sheer force of will alone. But Lee's able to do it. So shut up, Kakashi. The fuck you know?

It's literally happening in front of you. Stop. Believe.

It's impossible. And a child does it anyway.

The man is wearing sand as a suit of armor. Don't tell me what's possible.

One of your students has a giant demon inside of him. A 14 year old can open a shocker gate.

Wait, I'm sorry. Gara is fighting with three people. It's him, the demon, and the sand. Come on. How is this not a team match?

That's true. You got a point. So Lee starts attacking, and each hit he has against Gaara is like an explosion, with dust and debris going everywhere. He's going so fast, he can't keep track of him, but neither can Garou sands. And Lee starts knocking him up into the air, shooting around, ricocheting around, and keeps juggling him in the air, cracking Garo's armor. And Kakashi can see with the sharingan that Lee's muscles are tearing themselves apart through sheer exertion. Ooh, I'm struggling. It wouldn't be are we there yet? If I didn't just fumble with speaking. So he see Lee pushing himself to the limit, and he goes in for the final strike. And he pulls Gaara in, opening the fifth gate, thinking he was saving it to use against Neji, his rival. And he looks over at Neji, saying, thinking that this was his trump card against him, but he's showing it early. We see Lee go in to hit Garo with the hidden lotus. And as he pretty much spins him up in his arm bandages, which I guess are a thousand of them, and Pylo drives them into the ground. We see that this move damages Lee's right arm and leg after he does it, which is why it's forbidden, except everyone knows it. In doing so, the gourd on Gaara's back dissolves and he's laying in all the debris in the crater on the ground in a loose pile of sand. And we see Gaara struggling to move, but he's able to get his one hand up. All the commentators on the side are thinking, notice that Gaara's gourd dissolved into sand and was able to cushion some of the blow so it didn't kill Gaara outright. He's a prodigy. And then we see Gaara sending the sands after Lee. And we get a flashback of his sand coffin move, where he just wraps someone up in sand and crushes them with it. But Lee's too exhausted to get away this time. And he gets his left and hand and arm caught. And as he's trying to get away, so Gaara's able to crush him. No, it's too much for Lee. He can't handle it. Gave it all he got. And we see Gargoda finish him off because he craves blood. And guy jumps in and is able to knock away the sand before it hits Lee. Yeah, before it hits Lee. And at that moment, Gaara has flashbacks of his family and it hurts him because he's emo. And he asks guy why he saved Lee even though he failed. And we get a little quick flashback sequence of Lee. Again, the flashbacks we saw last episode, like five times saying guy saying that he's proud of Lee and he's a student, which makes him precious to, like, precious.

I definitely thought he was going to reveal in this moment, that's my son.

No, everyone thinks that because they look identical.

Yeah, I just think it's so funny that from the outside, as an outside observer to the Naruto characters over the years, I found out at some point that Rock Lee was not Gai Sensei's son, but I thought he was his only student. So watching these episodes and knowing that he has two other students that he clearly just, like, gives less of a fuck about. So funny that he gets down there and defends this one student is like, I love him so much. What about Nenji and Tenten guy who.

Neji can take care of himself? I don't know. That other person you said. What was that you're mumbling? It's weird. I don't hear it.

There's words coming out.

We were supposed to spar an hour ago. I'm sorry. We were stuck at the salon. It was a whole thing.

They're at the salon every day to keep that tight bowl cut.

Yeah.

Honestly, thinking about the other teams and their instructors, I think all of them have a favorite, and it's pretty obvious. Maybe that's just shitty teaching in this ninja school. See, a guy steps in. Gar gets back up and starts walking away, saying he quits. He doesn't want to do the fight anymore. But it's too late because Lee lost the match. The second guy stepped in to protect him. And before the match is over, everyone is shocked and looks back because Lee, he's standing up again. He's still standing, and he's struggling, though. We see him shaken. We see his left arm and leg covered in blood. Not too much the blood. It's still PG. And we see Guy goes to him saying, it's all right. He did the best he could. He doesn't have to fight anymore. What? Lee's unconscious. He stood up and is fighting still through sheer determination and will.

Wow.

He just wants to win so badly. His body is on autopilot, and I know this series is full of magic and demons. This is kind of silly. Hey, guys.

All right, guys, lean in. I don't think this would happen.

This feels a little unrealistic. Despite him fighting a child with a giant sand raccoon inside of him. And Guy hugs Lee, saying he's proud of him and that he's done enough.

I love your son.

I mean, can we never see it? Because why would we ever care about any of these children's parents?

No.

Never get any closure or backstory with any of them. Well, one of them. I can't imagine what it was like to be Rock Lee's dad and seeing your son dress identical to a teacher, the most important male figure in his life, bar none. It's like, wow, that hurts, son. That's bad.

Hey, dad, I'm disowning you. And this man is my new father. He made me look sick as hell, and now I can punch and kick real good, which is nothing. You never did anything for me.

You never gave me a sick haircut.

Yeah, you know I'm bald. I wanted you to go bald with me so we would be a.

Just the fact that we never even hear about Rockley's parents, ever. And it's like, I gotta know what his dad's dealing with right now. I gotta know he's devastated.

Do you want to go to your.

Son'S little tournament thing?

No. Are you still holding a grudge? Because he wears identical clothing and hair to his back. Talked me once.

It's okay. Lee's mom's already fucking guy. It's fine. Sakura goes to jump in to help Lee, and Kakashi says no, she can't do anything to help him. And at this point, sympathetic words hurt more than anything else. It's like that's just objectively shitty advice there. Meanwhile, his other student that he cares less about, Naruto, runs in to offer sympathetic words.

So true.

Because he's off in his little corner because everyone hates him.

But he's a peppy idiot. I can't stop him.

And as he runs in, he glares at Gaara, giving him the stink eye. And Gaara glares back. And then the medical ninjas come in as they put Lee on a stretcher. And one of them pulls Skye aside to talk about his condition. And he says, lee's gonna need a lot of work. He's gonna need a lot of rehabilitation to fix his right arm and leg. But his left arm and leg, they'll never fully recover. He'll never be able to be a shinobu again. Shinobi. Shinobu. Shinobi. I've watched the show.

Obi Wan Kenobi.

Come on, Obi Wan Kenobi. He'll never be a ninja again. Fully. He has to give up on his dreams. All that stuff we talked about for the last two episodes. Fuck it, it's gone. He got too cocky. And Naruto overhears this. And being the hotheaded little idiot he is, which I get, he's a child. But also, damn, man. He runs in yelling at the medical ninjas, telling guy to intervene, saying he hyped them all up. He's got goals and dreams. He can't give up on them yet. He's got to be able to make a full recovery. He's got to fight Sasuke and Neji like he talked about.

He hasn't danced at Carnegie hall yet.

He's got a big recital coming up. Then we see guy crying over Lee's body as they're taking him away. And he apologizes to Lee and says he regrets teaching him this stuff and he shouldn't have pushed him too hard, but he says that in his head. So it's like, all right, that didn't help anybody.

Sorry I taught you to absolutely obliterate your body, little man.

Sorry. Realizing, oh, should I have given this child limits or boundaries?

Sorry. You were turning for the track team and I gave you just this big ul syringe of steroids. I probably shouldn't have done that. In hindsight, the one skill.

The one magical skill he didn't have. Self control.

And Naruto yells out, says he's not done yet. He's gotta prove himself. And then Kakashi steps in, calming Naruto down, holding him back and saying Lee was too determined to reach his goal. So much so, he was sacrificing his present for the future. And now he may never reach it. He sabotaged himself. And Kakashi points out that Lee had a rivalry between Sasuke and Neji, but he also developed a rivalry with Naruto. And he told Naruto to try and be worthy of Lee's admiration and sacrifice. Be the ninja. Ninja. Be the ninja that Lee thought Naruto was. And we see Neji off on the side, reflecting on the fight, thinking that the victory doesn't come to those who sacrifice themselves. Because then you can't have another victory if you sacrifice yourself. You only got so many victories. And then we see Gaara go back out with his sister and teacher. And they're both thankful that the worst didn't happen. After all, the Demon didn't get unleashed. And then we see Kakashi apologize to guy, saying for what he said earlier about teaching Lee about the gates and admitting that he wouldn't have been able to stop an ambitious student if he had one. And then he looks back at Naruto. And then we see the final match of this little tournament is kicking off. It's Choji and some other fucking guy that doesn't really matter. But the other guy's from the sound village, and he's evil because he's reflecting on how he was ordered by Lord Orochimaru to get into the tournament. And they were never gonna become Chonin. They were never gonna beat these children in actual hand hand combat. This is all about testing Sasuke and putting the cursed seal on Sasuke like Orochimaru wanted. And this guy realized he was just a pawn in Orochimaru's big scheme.

This guy.

Whoa.

Got a whole character arc in the last three minutes of this episode.

I can't wait to dig into this more.

No. Got some good news for you. This man dies in the next five minutes.

Oh, perfect. Cool.

And that's episode 50.

Wow.

We did it. We did the Naruto.

We did it. Hooray.

Are we there yet? God, no. There's like 500 episodes. It's too much.

You know what?

There's a reason I picked these three episodes because it's widely considered the best. It instills everything you expect from Naruto. Like, this covers all of it. So it's a good three episode.

And Naruto was barely in this.

That's the best part I get. Naruto is like a little shitty kid and everyone widely hates him and he's basically an orphan that raises himself. So I get why he's shitty. But, God, is it hundreds of episodes. He does grow, but, God, it takes a while.

Yeah. I am most surprised that I have seen so many clips of the start of this rock Lee fight. I didn't realize he lost. Yeah. Cool.

He gets two of his limbs shattered beyond repair, but then they do get repaired.

Thank God.

Good. Yeah. That is truly my only follow up question is, is Lee okay?

No. They spend a full episode talking about the severity of opening the seven Chakra Gates and how it damages your body beyond repair. And that's Lee's only move for the rest of the series.

Oh, my God.

He's like, hey, I opened five. What about the other two? And they just keep going so there's no consequences ever. Like I said, it's a show about ninjas whose sole job is to kill people. And maybe two of them die in the whole series. Like, it's weird.

Cool.

Great.

Yeah. Well, you got Shupanet. They got Boruto. They got son of Boruto, which is probably coming later.

We did it. We did anime, everybody.

We did.

We did it. We covered the final boss.

The final boss. We are done. We're washing our hands of it.

Yes. But first we're wrapping up with some little questions. A little questionnaire, if you will, a.

Little look back on the fond memories we've had these last five years.

Yeah, we can't just be like, all right, bye. Well, later, we didn't. Like an arto. Well, goodbye forever.

All right.

Has anyone ever irish goodbye? A podcast? We just do a normal episode and they just never come back.

The last, like 40 minutes are just silence. And people are like, oh, wow, they did like an extra long extended thing. No, they just left silent.

I feel like the best questions to start since Brendan and I thought of it both was what were your favorite shows and least favorite shows, if you can think of any?

It's so fun to say because I never finished fucking any of them.

But you finished the movies.

Hey, yeah. Fair. Yeah, I like some ranking of kings I feel like the general vibe of what I hear from you two who have continued. I've bought season two as a hey, idiot, you like this? At least financially support it if you're not going to watch it.

Jerk.

It sounds like it doesn't hold up the quality throughout, but I have certainly enjoyed the time I had with it and it really helped shape villain and sort of narrative lenses of like, oh, who's even the main character at this point. And that I think was just really a show that I was like, oh, wow, this is beyond current media standards that I have for any piece of media. This is just kicking ass. I truly don't know who's going to turn on who at each given moment. I thought that was great. And I think the one I would say of these that I enjoyed the most and have watched the most, I think I just didn't finish the last episode. Very frustrating. I stopped myself right before was skate the infinity. Yeah, I did go back and watch most of that. I got to the end tournament. I never saw the resolution great. But yeah, that as well was like, okay, this hit so many boxes. We are hitting cartoonishly. Fun while still having stakes, but not too intense where it's like, yes, we're in Skateboard City where every industry is skateboard based. It's like, no, we're doing stuff. So I think those two are my tops.

Nice.

Interesting.

If we get to answer ping pong, the animation is my favorite anime and everyone should watch it. And also your name. But obviously I liked those before. Actually, I liked ping pong while we were doing the podcast. I watched it, whatever. But yeah, those are my favorites, just to reiterate.

Yeah, because I had my favorites before going into this and I was trying to think of shows that I either didn't intend on watching that I ended up liking or never heard of and enjoyed after this podcast. So I wrote a few down and I realized it's a lot of just feel good shows like laid back, camp place, further than the universe, sweetness and lightning, stuff like that where it's just even my dress up darling. I was like, oh, that's just a real horny show and I don't need to watch it. I got the premise and then we watched it. I'm like, oh, this is genuinely sweet as hell. The character writing is really well done and I can't iterate enough. It is a horny show. Yes, very horny. But the character writing is actually very endearing for their dynamic heart behind the horniness.

That's what we learned hey, we learned a thing about anime. If you watch a horny show, make sure there's heart there too.

Yeah. I would also say ranking of kings is one that I probably wouldn't have watched. I was hearing really good things about it, but I wouldn't have probably picked it up on my own. But I've seen the entire first season and really enjoyed it. And then also, I knew I was going to like Chainsaw man, but at the same, like, I wouldn't have watched it probably if Brendan didn't push me so hard about it. So I feel like that's podcast adjacent.

Yeah, you were going to get into Chainsaw man whether you liked it or.

Not, because I knew I would enjoy it.

Yeah, Sarah's on my really surprised me because it's so weird, but it really tickled me. Golden Kamui was also another one that surprised me because I'm like, I don't know, because I read the manga at first and it's just so dense with the japanese history. It's hard to read, like, pacing wise, but the anime makes it flow a lot better. So I actually ended up revisiting that and really enjoy the anime. And it gets so silly. It gets so dumb.

What about least favorite? I think my controversial answer is panty and stalking.

Not controversial on the podcast.

Not controversial on the podcast, but for the anime community as a whole. That's like, my controversial answer of, like, I had no fun watching that. It wasn't funny to me at all. The art is nice.

Art is nice.

And then the easy answers are like, itudate. My Santa Zois was at least fun.

Zoz is silly.

I'm having trouble thinking of ones that were just kind of bad and not even fun. Oh, the opera girls one that was rough and stupid.

Oh, yeah, that was really. Oh, Yuki una is a hero. Is, of course, top tier quality of God, what the fuck are you even doing? But even that came, like, after we're like, oh, this is a mediocre show. And then just the look up of, oh, yeah, no, the rest of it. They're becoming disabled.

I didn't realize that was so early. That was like, the first 50 episodes. I was, like, 47 or something. The absolute mental breakdown I have with you reading the synopsis of what happens, and it just breaks my mind. Just going to a fit. Yeah, that one surprised me. Midori days, where the girl becomes the guy's. Yeah, for nobody. That's nothing.

No, it's for a very specific subset of people, actually.

But sorry, it's for nobody. I respect. That's the problem. Because there's bad shows like Hatalia, but we had fun because we knew it was going to be bad. Or Akikan. Yeah, I picked that because it was insane. But then there's shows where I'm like, I just had zero fun with it. There was nothing enjoyable here.

I keep thinking about this argument that I had about a show. It was specifically, let me know if this narrows it down. An unlikable main character who is mean to women. But I just remembered making the argument of like, hey, if your only thing is you're a contrarian to the last point made, but that sort of automatically means you accept anything previously said because you need to be a contrarian about the most recent thing said. I think about that all the time of just sort of in the Overton window sense of like, oh, we're fighting about this one thing. Why aren't we fighting about this anymore? It's like, no, we're beyond that. You're not seeing the thread of you losing, being tricked, and that sort of stuff. I just constantly think about it. It's for the best that I can't remember the show.

It doesn't narrow it down at all. There's so many. Yeah, I will say one I was maybe most disappointed by that I wasn't prepared for was brand new animal BNA.

Oh, yeah.

I finished it, and I love the artwork. It's studio trigger, so of course, it's phenomenal. The color is amazing, the settings cool as hell. I really enjoyed the main character, but that story sucks. Especially the main character's friend. Obvious girlfriend is a bitch. So it really just left a bad taste in my mouth where it's like, yeah, it was like a city that controlled all the media knowledge that the citizens within the city have. And it's like, this is the utopia. It's like this. No, you got to see how this is bad in every way. And the story is falling flat as hell. It was really disappointing, but it looks amazing.

Yeah.

That's what I was surprised by.

Yeah. What are some of your. I'm taking this question from Brendan's questions because I like it. What were some of your most memorable moments? Character stories? I'm putting future diary here because.

Memorable, that's for damn sure.

I simply love it. I didn't want to say it was, like, one of my favorite shows or anything, because it's not. But I think it's very funny and good to watch if you just want to fucking lose your mind at something. And then also, I stumbled across it by accident. And then we all went to see it. Enu o. Yeah, I just love it. We watched it again recently because it's on Hulu now and it's just like everything about it is so good. Anything Masaki Uasa touches will forever be one of my wrong, but yeah.

And that was a field trip that Brendan and I took to go see it. So that was. Wow. Friendships coming from the show. Wow. And not hostility. Wow.

Yeah. But I just feel like it was so unique. And the discovery of the voice actress that plays Inuo and the fact that she's trans and everything, it's so sick as hell. And she does some anime openings now too, I think, with her band. But I just love it. If you haven't watched Inuo yet, you really should because it was just really good.

It is very good. I still love it very much. It's an incredible work of art and media. It did lose the wind came out of my sails a little bit when I think, tess, maybe you pointed it where it's like, it's a knight's tale, but anime, I'm like, fuck it is because all the anime is like very queen adjacent. And I'm just like, oh, shit.

I mean, to be fair, I will say anything is a night's tale of anything.

Far enough, you get derivative enough. Everything's a night's tale.

Do you guys have any particular memorable things?

I think for me, I don't want to say I was surprised, but the level to which I enjoyed slice of life where going in, I thought, okay, this is just truly a day in the life. Nothing's going to happen. There's no narrative, there's no stakes. And then having most of those be my favorites was definitely a big thing to be like, oh, wow. Yeah. Having just a peaceful girl going out camping or we're just raising a little girl in a fishing farming village in Bakugan. Or Bakugan, whatever. Not Bakugan fully.

Don't.

I remember.

Oh God, I have the list in front of Bakano.

No, it's like that.

I'm truly going through the list. I'm just saying any anime I remember.

Specifically Bakano is one we didn't enjoy. Collectible.

Oh, yes.

That was the train one.

That was a no, I found it.

Barakamon.

Barakamon.

Thank you.

It sounds like a digimon.

You said farming village. And my mind went to the last Zoid show we watched where it was like a farming seaside village when it.

Was like, actually kind of interesting and good. Zoid.

Me, it was collective moments of me just losing my goddamn mind at various things. There's so many moments on this podcast where I just was fully caught off guard and just had to walk away and catch my breath. I think the most physical harm I've inflicted on both of you was watching Shirobako, which I still love, but it did bring us back to the production studio days.

Oh, yeah.

Was just a horrid experience.

Yeah. Going back, I think that is what I think of the most, because it just is such a visceral production thing. Yeah. Hey, if you want to know what working in animation is like, watch that show. Because that and when I got to keep your hands off the last word that I forgot. Izukin.

Thank you.

I had to stop watching it when they got into like, okay, so this is too ambitious. We need to cut down our timeline. Is this. So you have to do it in half the time. I had to turn it off in that opening scene of episode five or whatever. I was like, I want to keep watching this show. I can't. I am stressed. This is not relaxing.

The second hand stresses were very real. Keep your hands off the AsiC. And also masuaki owasa. That one. I also still.

I hate that now. I'm, like, remembering shows that I liked. Erased is a show that I probably wouldn't have watched.

Hey, I'm going to say it again. If you haven't watched Erase. Fucking watch. Erase. It's short, it's underrated, it's law and order. SVU plus quantum leap. That may not be appealing to you.

It's so good, though.

It's so good.

Yeah. I think we've kind of answered. I had what surprised you most, and I feel like we've kind of talked about that. I think for me, it is shows that I wouldn't have watched on my own, but ended up really enjoying. But it's kind of an obvious answer.

Yeah, there's definitely somewhere, like, I was going to get the ranking of kings no matter what. So it's the shows that really surprise me. I've said it before, place further than the universe. I think it's the only show that's made me cry, and episode twelve has made me cry every time I've watched that episode. It's consistent, memorable moments, though, first off, the four kids week.

Oh, yeah.

Because it was so much nostalgia for me, and it was also with my adult sensibilities of, like, God, these shows are shit. It's so bad.

Also, that also was so much earlier than I remember it being that was.

Like the first hundred. That was way early. Also, speaking of the first hundred, our episode 69 with watch Dente.

Oh, yeah.

I was very delighted by that.

That was a lot of fun.

That was a fun time.

I would have loved to do that again, but it really feels like something you can only do once.

Listen, I mean, hey, didn't you guest on a different podcast because of that? You essentially talked about it twice. Yeah.

If you want to listen to me talk about Hentai more, I was on the girls on porn episode of Hentai back in 2020.

If we did it again, it would be up to me to pick the hentai, and that's not allowed.

I like this question. Brendan thought of if you had to get an anime tattoo of something, what would it be? Oh, God, that's such a good question because we both already have one. I have a your name tattoo and.

I have an ancient magus bride tattoo.

Yeah. But I would get. I like the idea of getting, like, a manga panel. So I would get something from chainsaw man because I just love it so much. And also, it would be sick as hell. But that's not really, like, a style that I would necessarily want to put on my body, but I would maybe get, like, makima's eyes or something. Yeah, that would be neat.

I actually saw some nice evergreen shit takes on twitter, as it's known to have, of people complaining about chainsaw man anime looking too good because the manga is real scratchy and dirty. And that's intentional to the story. And it's like, yes, I agree. There's a reason it wouldn't work in anime, though. You fucking idiots. Don't complain about this. But yeah, if you got, like, a chainsaw man tattoo of a manga panel, everyone would be like, oh, that doesn't look well done. It's like, no, that's intentional. It's supposed to look scratchy.

I've seen some sick manga. I've seen some sick chainsaw man manga tattoos, but doesn't really go with my style.

I don't know if I hate maybe you, hakusho, because I thought about a full metal alchemist tattoo, but there's also so much imagery and stuff in that that's used in real life principles of stuff like the flamel cross of Nicholas Flamel. So I'm like, that'd be cool. But it may have real world implications or connections that I don't know about. And it's like, now I'm questioning, I do like, I do love full malachmus so much. It's still by far one of my favorite series ranking kings. I could get a tattoo of that be like, just a little boji.

Yeah.

Or hanging out or just the tiny little crown.

Just a little, tiny little crown. Yu. Yu hakusha. I could probably get yuhagashi tattoo and be happy with that.

Yeah. My first thought is, because of a show I liked, which one? There's so many b stars. My first thought would be something related to one of the shows we worked on. So my mind immediately goes to, like, a hunter hunter or a jojo or something like that.

Jojo would be cool.

Yeah. That is sort of where I was leaning of just like, to have a jojo tattoo. It feels like a status thing of its own, of like, hey, this is my passport. I'm allowed in the anime club.

You would also be judged very heavily on specifically what character, what reference it is, what season it is. No one's more opinionated than the Jojo Phantom.

Yeah, that was another thing. This show is bringing up so many memories. I had a moment I was watching, actually. It wasn't like the actual thing. Wrong in the question, but there was a piece of trivia. Someone brought up on the renaming of Oingo Boingo into zendada mandata. And that's something I worked on and that's something I directly interacted with when they had to rerecord all that stuff. So I was like, oh, wow, they're giving obscure trivia about stuff I've done. Wow, that's insane. So I'll say something related to those episodes.

Similarly, I'm a big fan of drafi, and in one of the episodes they were talking about b stars horny furries, and one of the hosts made a reference of like, oh, I'm not sure of the name if it's Louie or Lewis because the dub flipped back and forth, and that was one of the shows I worked on at my old job. And it always hurts me inside realizing that that slipped through and our recording team didn't catch that because it's pretty obvious.

Wow. Pride and shame. Thank you. College humor extended network.

I got out fast, so I don't have any memories like that other than I always say that I was in a hunter hunter movie.

Oh, tattoo. You are mso.

Oh, my.

There we go. Got it.

Perfect film.

It's so good.

Oh, my lord.

You want a little underdog story about dinosaurs? Yeah. What if it knew kung fu? Hell yeah. What if had an adorable bond with a smaller baby or dinosaur?

It gives you a similar feeling to like a Paddington. If you've watched the Paddington films, it's not quite as perfect.

Paddington has kung fu dinosaurs in it.

No, but I mean the feeling you get when you're watching it. This was also a Brendan question. If you had to live in one of the anime worlds, which would it be? I had trouble thinking of one, and I think it's a simple answer, but I would love to be part of the club in laid back camp.

Oh, yeah, that would be excellent.

Yeah. Even though I personally am not a big fan of camping, I just think to be able to go out with your pals and enjoy some fresh air in several locations and be a cute anime girl. What a dream.

Season three, I think, is coming out soon.

Dang.

I realized something that was so appealing about laid back camp with all the camping. No bugs.

Oh, my goodness.

One thing is like, God, that camping would be great. And they go camping, there's so many goddamn bugs. It's hard to pick because anime is so full of danger, which is a lot of the story because I talked about this with some friends recently, like, my hero, academia. It's like, yeah, I'd love to have a superpower, but, you know, we'd get the shitty ones. None.

I was also thinking about restaurant to another world, but I would only want to be in the restaurant because I feel like there's shit going on outside of the restaurant. That's not great. It's still a fantasy world.

Yeah. The restaurant itself is like the reprieve from all the bullshit of those worlds. So the restaurant is the good place. Yeah, one piece would be cool as hell. You get a double fruit, you get a cool power. Whoops, you got one of the really lame ones. You got the slippery, slippery fruit. Bad. So it's stuff like that where I'm like, I'd like to live in those worlds and have powers, but I know I'd either get the bad ones or it'd be a random casualty that gets killed in the first episode. So that wouldn't be good. So if I had to pick polar.

Bear cafe, hell yes.

That's just a life, a little time, and the animals talk.

I was trying to find a different one. I think the first one just easily because it's sort of a cheat, is Pokemon. That would be the ideal to just, hey, let me hang out with some little guys. We're going to go on adventures, but no one really gets hurt because it's for young children.

I was going to say we didn't watch it here. I don't even know if it's out quite yet, but Pokemon concierge. What I wouldn't give to work at that hotel meet out of wool.

It's stop motion, the dream.

Yeah.

But beyond that, the one that I was like, oh, yeah. Because I kind of wrote it was Kino's journey, which is just, like, the vibes of travel, and it has the majesty of rural Europe, but it has unique and super themed cities with crazy stuff going on. I think that would be awesome to just travel through there.

Yeah, that'd be great, because I was talking about this with some friends. We agreed where Pokemon would be the best because it's like, you get the benefits of modern day life, but you also got a little guy who's possibly your soulmate. And I was like, but I love Digimon. You may not know this, but I love Digimon. So my friend was like, wouldn't you prefer to live in Digimon, though, where your little guy could talk? I was like, no. So much bad shit happened to Digimon all the goddamn time. Like, a nuclear warhead almost goes off in Tokyo in the first movie. Like, no, I don't want to deal with that.

No.

Give me siren. Leave me alone.

Yeah. What if you spend, like, ten years with a little guy and you're like, oh, yeah, we have a great dynamic. Awesome. Oh, no, they evolved. It's a sesky woman. There's sexual tension now with your dog. No.

Hey, don't judge. I'd be fine with that, too. But it could also be like, here's a little robot bug. Oops. He's Kabu Terrymon. He's a weird samurai skeletal bug, and it's cool as hell but terrifying at the same time.

I think we'll round out with this one. And, tess, you kind of touched on this when you were talking about slice of life. Do you feel like you discovered anything about your taste regarding all kinds of media through our anime journey on this podcast?

Yeah. Something I have figured out about myself is the ideal form of entertainment to me is the good old fashioned sitcom. I love a sitcom. I love a half hour comedy. It all gets wrapped up at the end to reset for next week. That's definitely something I figured out with this and beyond, but it also helps me know that a lot of japanese comedies are not good.

I will say real quick, so much japanese comedy is, well, so much comedy in general is cultural. So there's so much that just, even if it has translated well, even if it's localized well, even if it's dubbed, well, will just not translate culturally, and it could kill in that country where it was made. And it just will not land anywhere else, no matter how good it is. So it's a real tough one. Comedy is real tough.

Yeah.

Especially when it's like, hey, you know what the joke is, right? This one character is this way. Now what if that's the only dialogue they have for the entire series?

Yeah, it's the sad cartoon host or children's show host show. Yeah.

I think my thing that I've noticed about myself, and I think I kind of knew this before, but being able to explore the world of anime has helped me realize how much I love things. Like, again, chainsaw man, like neon Genesis Evangelion. Just like, shows about kids who just get in these absolutely fucked situations and you just want them to be happy and be able to do what they want to do, but they're just, like, in an impossible situation. And it's so upsetting. Real big fan of that. I think there should be more of that in american media. I'd say to an extent, amphibia hit me like that a little bit. Not as upsetting, not nearly as upsetting as either of those shows. But I love a sad kid in a terrible situation. And I don't know what that says about me, but it's the truth.

No, it is like a sincere thing of the, like, oh, yeah, you're brought up with so many children's things where they pull the punches and they're not actually dealing with it. And then a kid fucking dies in this one, and you're like, oh, no, there's real world stakes here. Yeah, this child isn't going to die just because they are a child. And that would be upsetting for the child reader also.

Just like, characters who are terrible and have no redeeming qualities, I. E. Makima. I love her dearly.

We love growth. We love overcoming adversity. We love growing as people and community and friends. We also love just unrelenting, just pieces of shit. People who just lean so hard onto the other end, it breaks the scale.

Absolutely.

Amphibia will catch you off guard. Amphibia's fantastic show. And there's one episode that actually got me real close to crying. Oh, I didn't see this coming.

My favorite thing I've ever sent Brendan, and maybe I've mentioned this on the podcast, was I was watching the finale and I sent him one picture of me, very excited that they were playing a k pop song. And then about an hour later, I sent him a picture of me sobbing, being like, what the fuck?

Amphibious. So good. I was very delighted and surprised by amphibia.

It's very good.

Overall, it's the best anime. I think that's something you and Abby have in common. Where we're talking, we're like, your favorite genres are children in absolutely traumatizing situations. Which I can't deny because one of my favorite characters of all time is Vivi from Final Fantasy nine, who is the equivalent of a six year old finding out that he is a super soldier made for mass destruction.

Oh, no.

And then learning he's got a good three years left of his life. He has to come to deal with grips with that, all in the span of, like, two months in the game.

I had no idea. I thought he was just a little guy.

No. It's so much trauma. Anytime I describe five someone, is this why you're depressed? I was like, maybe it's possible. But I think for me, I was surprised because I still love all the stuff I do enjoy. I still sucker for action, shonen jump sort of stuff, but I've really got into similar. To test the slice of life stuff, I've mentioned it plenty of times before. The girls doing nothing. That's just a very delightful genre. It's a weird caveat. I know I may get a little heat for this, but I like stuff when it's good. So when it's like slice of life.

That hasn't been my experience on this show.

But I mean, I'm saying there's slice of life stuff where it's like, it's just very wholesome and they do nothing. It's like, okay, that's fine, but stuff like sweetness and lightning, it's few and far between, but laid back camp have some very silver spoon. Silver spoon, but not existential, but like internal realization, understanding. And they talk about their emotions and they have genuine growth. You can see in the series skip and loafer is one of the more recent ones where I'm like, oh, this is so delightful.

I need to watch more of that I really like.

And so stuff like that where I'm like. Because it can be a nothing show. We've had a few of those where I'm like, it's pleasant, but there truly is no substance here. But stuff where it's low stakes, but there is genuinely good character writing. And character development is always so wonderful to see the life as an otaku adult or whatever.

Oh, watakoi.

Watakoi. Not as much, but there was definitely some genuine growth in there. And as we said plenty of times before, hey, they're adults. It's not high school that gets so many browning points.

What a delight.

What a thrill. Yuri on ice. Fantastic.

I love Yuri on ice. I wasn't even going to mention it.

That's one that I knew was good. Objectively, everyone went nuts for it. I'm like, oh, that's just the gay ice skating one. And then we watch the front pocket. I'm like, oh, it's truly wonderful.

They love each other. They get engaged.

They're so gay. And that dog looks like fried chicken.

Wow. And I would be upset if I didn't mention that we got a new household yearly tradition because Sam is in love with Saint young men. I almost blanked on the title I just brought up. And we watch it every Christmas now because it's just so good and so sweet.

I love that so much.

Are we beard there yet? Did we get tested to anime? No, we got Sam at the anime, though we didn't see that one coming.

And test proxy, text by proxy. Well, that's everything.

Yeah.

Wow, you guys, solid five years.

We did it. We learned every anime. We watched them all. Hey, if you find an anime and it's not on our list, call your local authorities because it's counterfeit.

It's fake anime.

I will get sappy now and say that I've had a great time these last five years doing this with you too. We're very different people than when started in some respect. Two name changes, two marriages, the fuck am I doing? But for me, it was like, oh, I get to talk to these friends that I made at this studio we worked at. How exciting. And now you guys are like a couple of my best friends. And I'm really grateful for this and I'm grateful for everybody that listened. Sorry if you just started recently.

Hey, you got a helpful backlog to go through.

Yeah, but we appreciate you too.

Also, I've looked at the numbers.

But thank you both. Love you both. And thank you to everybody.

Yeah, thank you so much. This truly began as a. Oh, I love these people. I want to keep talking, but if I don't commodify our hangout time, I won't do it.

Put numbers.

So, yeah, thank you for putting a format around this friendship that structured what is now just, I don't want to say a normal friendship, a good one, a cool. Yeah.

Thank you for coming up with the show test and putting up with endless bullshit. But, yeah, there's definitely times where I'm like, I'm in a shit mood. I'm in a bad funk. I don't want to do anything. And this podcast is doing this podcast and talking with you, too, has definitely helped me get out of my own brain rock.

I wasn't going to cry, but now that makes me want to cry.

It's fine. We had a good five years, and we'll never speak again.

Boss, this is the end. No. Like, we've truly gone to talking every day, basically, and bringing in friends who've guested and been around. We built this little community around anime.

And now Tess never has to watch an anime again.

No. Here's the difference. I only have to watch the anime I want to watch.

Yeah.

None.

Am I going to take probably a couple of years off, yes, but we'll go back. I have to eventually finish some of these shows that I genuinely enjoy.

Yeah, if you're ever looking for something, maybe you'll come back to our list.

And be like, oh, yeah, I've gone back to our list a few times where someone's like, what do I watch? I'm like, oh, boy, I got a list for you.

Well, yes. Thank you. The listener. Hey, listener. Listener. Hey. We love you. You're delightful. You've stuck by us. I don't know who's still here. Maybe you haven't. If you are, we love you.

Yes.

I heard you say you suck. Not you. Stuck by.

No. Yeah. Hard turn from D crying. We say fuck the audience and then turn it off.

Hey, I've been saying that for weeks.

No. Well, no, we love you. Thank you. Thank you to Camille Ruley for our artwork. And thank you to Dee Hollander for what will be our legacy artwork of what is going to be forever. Representing a couple of us. More accurately, now, it's our new tattoo. Yeah. So thank you both. You can find me. Hey, I can give. Finally. Hey, if you're on TikTok, tessables. Hey, something you haven't heard me plug explicitly. Hey, watch Nickelodeon. Hey, watch the loudhouse. Hey, watch several other projects that are coming your way. Yeah. Watch the things I actually make and the things that are taking me away from doing this stuff.

The reason we're stopping, Lol.

You can find me on all the usual places. Tumblr, honey, D, Instagram and TikTok honey, period. D. D is spelled. No, hold on. Honey is spelled H-U-N-N-I-E-D is spelled D-E-E. But I'm falling apart. Brendan made me cry. Now I'm falling apart.

Got you. Shit.

Ha.

You're emotionally invested in our relationship. I got Twitter still. I'm going down with that ship. I got blue sky. I got to code that somehow. Nothing's going on there. That's just my backup Twitter. Basically only social media I'm actually on to any regard is Twitch, which is. Are we there yet? I moderate for a few people. I'm in a lot of streams in certain communities. Don't make shit, don't cause trouble. I moderate there. It's enough. I think that's it. I was going to plug the stuff I actually work on for my day job, but fuck it, they don't deserve. I'm not going to say who because I still work there.

I technically work for the DMV, so I can't plug anything.

Hey, us government doing great stuff. Hey, one last political thing. Okay. Hey, thank you so much for joining us. Hey, Louis Zong. Thank you. Have you ever listened to this podcast? Probably not. I sent you the link. It's fine. It's cool. But, yeah, your tunes I've been listening to literally weekly for five years. And thank you so much. So, yeah, thank you all for joining us. And we learn to live with anime. We hope you do too. I should have thought of a better sign.

I think that's fine.

Goodbye.

Bye, everyone. Love you dearly.

We didn't learn to love anime. We've learned to live with it.