AWTY 193 - Topias (Hyouka)

Hello and welcome to our week there yet in exploration and edge education and anime. I'm your anime idiot, patrick dugan.

I'm an anime expert, D hollander.

And I'm brenda mccullough, your anime passing grade.

Wow.

Yeah.

How pleasant.

Yeah. Please get degrees, baby.

God. I'm a communication major. Don't I know that? I had a biology class, I think my last year. I think I got like an A on a test on the first test I ever took in that class and then just gradually did worse on everything in that class.

Hey, well, you know, when I was at community college, I had a teacher say and I might have said this on the podcast before because it really stuck with me. He was like, here's how I look at it. C is average. So if you're getting A-C-I don't know why people get so mad at you. B is above average itself, and A is like, incredible. So if you're getting c's, don't be so hard on yourself. And I was like, hell yeah, dude.

Yeah. Good.

That rules.

Everyone wants to be the protagonist in their own anime. You can't be average.

You need to be the best. Well, it's hard to be the best. Hey, let's stop.

Okay.

Yeah.

Hey. This show is nothing.

We know it.

We can't play these games anymore. Time is now a luxury. So I want to play fun in very fiendish air quotes game with you. I spent some time digging through the past animes that we've watched because there's so many shows that we watch or plan on watching, but we have to pivot because the world fucking sucks. So I was looking back through and there's a lot of dystopias in anime. So I wanted to do a side by side comparison with our current dystopia. And I want to play a game called dystopia or Dtopia. And you're going to see if our current dystopia is any worse, better, or about the same as a dystopia you would find in an anime. Do you want to play my game?

The names play that game? Yeah.

Okay, perfect.

Cool.

First one. I feel like it's pretty easy, at least for you. We're going to start out with Girls last tour. It's a war destroyed society. You're scavenging. But there's an upside. You don't have to deal with other people well.

So we're deciding if we would rather live there or continue living here, correct?

Yes. Is this an escapism fantasy at this point? Is what we're getting at.

What fallout are we in? Is it three? Is it four? God, I hope it's not four. My mod at four was actually pretty fun for me.

If I had a companion like the girls and girls Last tour, I think I would like it more than if I was by myself. Because I know realistically, if I was in that world, I would not survive. So, yeah, if I had a companion, hell yeah, I would live there.

If there's anything we are on this podcast, it's self aware of ourselves we know we wouldn't do well. I too would enjoy Companion A for keeping my mental energy intact. And also got to be real with you. I'm like two bad days away from just cannibalism at any moment. Listen, we already established this as a Dysopia of our own. My door is locked from the outside in this apartment building. It's rough. I would say no, because I've endured walking through all the snow during a bad winter. And that shit sucks. Like, so much so on that level. Just the first, like, two episodes we saw, it was just like, waste deep snow. I'm going to get a tow.

But plus side, there's an implication there that you'll have water at some point. So is that better than our current distoop?

Also true.

Yeah. This is my childhood dream. Being a way too young Medal of Honor player and fall out fanboy. Absolutely. So, yes, I would definitely choose that over this current dystopia. So next up we're going to see would you rather live in Sunny Boy? Where you fall into a multiverse C, where you all get some form of superpower quirk thing, but you do have to spend all this time with everyone you individually went to high school with.

No.

No, I can't do that to myself. No, I would not do that.

As someone who finished sonny Boy and deeply enjoyed it and tempted to rewatch it because it's just a mind trip, I was so on board. I was like, hell yes, easily done. God, that last sentence.

We do have to keep them somewhat dystopian. Because, again, a lot of these there is a clear answer. And it's not this current dystopia.

Because even if it was just the shitty kids from sonny Boy yeah, because I think I could handle that. Like, the one shitty kid in the red shirt, he's just a punk ass. But you could avoid them like that's easy.

I just don't think the people I knew in high school could effectively work well together enough.

Dead in a day. Dead in everyone.

Yeah, for sure.

If you're telling me you have to be stuck on an island of Mark Fucking from my high school nah, we.

Use his first and last name. Is that his Christian given name?

It delivered a pizza to him in college and he evolved like a pokemon into the next stage of deucery.

Great.

Honestly, no. Sunny Boy is such a wild ass trip. Yeah, because I would just fall into the broom closet in the school and just go to a whole other dimension for an eon and just forget everything. Yeah, I would take that risk.

All right, cool. Fair. Yeah, I absolutely would not do that. That sounds like a terrible time already. I didn't number one, I can't spend that much more time on a beach in my life. I really need to stay away, but yeah, I couldn't go through that. Unfortunately. We would stay here also, if I.

Was my high school self again, I couldn't know. Absolutely.

Yeah, absolutely true.

I didn't think about aging down, but considering that it is a hard no, thank you.

The biggest start with sonny boy is just high school.

Yeah.

It's not the weird universes.

It's teenagers, let's be honest. Next up dystopia. Rave Master society has crumbled into a music centric desert world. Are you down? What gang would you join if so? What music gang?

I don't remember enough about rave master.

Me either. I just know it was like music apocalypse, and I absolutely would be in a post apocalyptic SCA bang gang for sure.

It was the weird love child of Road Warrior and spongebob because Tom kenny's in there. So, like, I already established I don't know shit about music. I am my brain just doesn't work on that level at all. I I hate how much I would thrive in Rave Master. It's just such dumb bullshittery. I would be a king there. I'd be living it up. I'd hate myself for it.

But I'd be no chance to skim the plot on the rave master wikipedia page. And this is not helping me.

Something evil happened. They needed to collect the rave stones to seal it back. Real big fish did the theme song for the dump.

What was the world like? I don't remember.

Remember jojo? No, I do. It's bad, but somehow dumber stealing later.

Picks in this game.

I guess it is. They both had raiders. It was just roaming bands of raiders.

I don't from answering this one because I really don't know.

Yeah, that's fine. We'll pivot over to Bobo Bobo where bald fascists have taken over and are oppressing people with hair. But there's still hashtag random humor, so there's some level of freedom of speech.

It's not bald people oppressing people with hair. But that sounds like here. And the hashtag random uwooness is just Twitter. It's me spending time on Twitter and TikTok.

Yep.

Just fully disassociating on social media to avoid the real reality of the bald fascists outside. So you just turn into, like, a campfire for a minute just to relieve some tension.

Yeah, they sound about the same. This place and that place. dystopia and dynam.

I mean, don't want to play my hand here, but given the way my hairline is going, I think I'm going to be doing better than the bobo bobo world in a few years.

Can't beat them, join them. That's fine if you're a cartoon character.

I do actually want to shave my head so bad, but I can't.

All right.

Yeah. How about devil is a part timer, kind of apocalyptic? There is a dark lord in this world you're living in, but there's still capitalism. Would you choose to do that just with that possibility? Anytime this dark lord could gain power and take over the world.

So are we living we're living in the fantasy world or we're just living in the Japan that the devil lives in?

Yeah. Living in the Japan that the devil lives in. So a little bit still this dystopia, but also there's a big vampire deed.

I think that the purpose of the series is that he gained some kindness.

Park rose three sizes that day.

Yeah. So I would live there. I would befriend him. I would work at the Wacdonalds with him. Where did they work? No. mc rondos.

I think that was it. Yeah.

Mc ronaldo's. I would work there with him and be his bestie, and then everything would be fine. I would teach him to be kind. I'm weaving my own tail now. It's an au. It's a fan fiction.

Adopt my son.

Because that show, like you said, it's pretty much just modern day, but with insidious evil dark overlord lurking in the shadows, which debatably is still just modern day, depending on who you see as the evil overlord. I'm going to go on. Let me say, you know what? I'm going to save dug in the edit. I'm not going to say a politician, but you know which one I'm talking about.

We all know we don't want it. Yeah.

But I'm going to say dya because I'm just living in Japan and they got free health care. That's all I need.

Damn.

I'll take that.

All right. I probably would I would occasionally have to dodge some, like, demons in the street. Oh. Occasionally, my car gets hit and run enough in Los Angeles. So if someone throws a demon through my windshield, par for the course. So that's fine. Next up, on a similar note, because it's probably more tempting than the last.

One.

High school prodigies have it easy even in another world. You live in a beautiful, rich, like fantasy world, but there's a legion of fucking rich assholes trying to bring capitalism into this paradise.

Such a rich 15 year olds.

Yeah. Do the rules of the anime still exist? Do they still have protagonist plot armor?

We could tempt the scales because we know more than they do at this point.

Because if it is just you're in that anime, you're in that world, maybe. But if it is like, those shitty seven kids are also there. No.

Yeah. My biggest dream is to live in narnia post White witch era. So that seems similar.

Close.

I don't know. There's even, like, too much government there before the children get there.

It's not the best fantasy world we saw even before kids.

Here's what I would do. I would live I would live in Datopia, but I would stay in the Japan that they no longer live in because they were probably actively making the world worse.

Absolutely the best choice.

Thank you so much. Sharing the mayonnaise, the kissing in the opening sequence. fuck, man. That show sucks.

Knows of that.

God okay, next one. Dog on rompa. We're going to say a murder game show. But there is a chance you can prosecute someone for murder in this world.

That is truly fantasy.

My problem? I love a death game.

You love a death game.

We all know it. You're a toxic trait.

Yeah. I absolutely could never survive one, especially if it was like this, because I panic when I am interrogated. So even if I didn't kill somebody, if somebody came up to me, if we were at the trial and they were like, hounding me, like, we're pretty sure you're the one that did it, D. I would have no defense. I would just lose it.

We've all played among us together.

Yeah.

We all know.

I'm a bad liar. I did get very lucky one round. I was very proud of myself for the listener.

We actually had to stop playing among us together because everyone in our friend group hated lying so much they couldn't do it. And I kept winning every time because I'm a little shit who is so skilled at lying that it makes you question the friendship with me, which is fair.

Hey, you need someone with that dynamic. Just in case, keep it in your back pocket.

I was able to kill two people in front of other people and talk my way out of it in a random game. Once I had an eyewitness and I still got them killed before me.

My God.

What I'm saying is I am a sociopath and shouldn't be trusted. Just out of curiosity. I don't think it'd be a better life. I think I'd be out pretty quick. I'd be pretty arrogant and smuggled again. Like, yeah, I'll win this game and die in, like, round three or something. Like not first, but eventually. Just sheer curiosity of how I do.

I'd go full well so I could kiss junko, which was perfect. She's the one with the pigtails. She, like, dies in the first episode, but then it's like a plot twist.

Anyway, give me soccer. Give me the big one. Give me the wrestler one. Oh, yeah, just actual jojo's character in her name. Soccer. And she has tea with her swimming girlfriend. God. otp.

Right? Yeah, that was my justification as well. But I was a Survivor fan. Let's take it to the extremes. We're almost there. anyways, the second game does take place.

On an island.

Advantage. I got that lived experience, baby.

On a desert island. I'm the one that finds a cave and then lives in it for, like, three months and everyone thinks it's dead. And then I become the smoke monster from Lost.

Damn.

Perfect. All smoke monsters have immunity. Okay, how about ergoproxy? There's an ecological disaster that forces humanity to move into domes and there's, like, androids, but they all catch a virus that's just going around and it makes them self aware.

The murder virus?

No. Then that sounds pretty bad.

It's wally, but, like, a bad time. It took me, like, two watches of virgo proxy just to understand what's happening. So it was a lot. The mall was neat, that one episode. They had a mall that was kind of cool. And then they had, like, the what was it named? pico. It was like the little girl in the bunny outfit who just really does nothing and just wanders around. Like, if I could just have her life and just be like, yeah, I'm in a little bunny suit right now. I'm just going to vibe my way through the apocalypse. Yeah. Anyone else besides Peak? No, that'd be a bad time.

Okay. How about last one? Promised neverland. Children are raised to be food for alien creatures, but at least they get to live up in peace. Or grow up in peace.

Are we children in this scenario or.

We the little up to you up to interpretation. Her name was because again, there's a world where someone just knows this exists. And it's like, yeah, sit.

I think I could if I was my age now, I've only seen the first season. I didn't read the manga. I didn't watch season two because I heard it was really bad.

Yeah. A smart move with stopping there.

Yeah. So I know very little about the world outside of season one, but I do think I might be able to thrive as a mother, like, as isabella's role.

I think you currently would have a tough time as a mother. I think you in that world for like a decade plus or whatever. Could get there. Yeah, I could see that.

Thank you so much.

I could see you shit.

We didn't face value take you for.

Being that cold and heartless you had to get there. I unfortunately did keep reading the manga and know where it went, and sheer principle, I have to say. No, I'd rather take dystopia than that out of just sheer narrative principle because how fucking dare you with that series?

Fair. Yeah. I only saw the three episodes we watched, so I don't have that pain. I will gladly hop into, like, a serene hospice paradise for a little bit.

But yeah.

So that's dystopia or Dattopia, we're all in a good, healthy place.

Yeah. I did kind of lose the threat there. I would rather live here than in the promise. neverland at all if I had true.

But yeah, we're having fun here. We're joking around.

We're goofing.

I think I picked, like, dad topia. All except for, like, the last two, which I feel like says a lot about me and my tripling need for escapism.

Well, speaking of escapism, shall we watch an anime?

Yeah. How exciting. We started with a game. How fun is that?

Everybody genuinely forgot we were doing a podcast.

We'll keep it brief because as we mentioned, whatever we're watching hiuka. We're watching the first three episodes.

Let's go.

Pinnacle of professionalism.

We're back. I'm giving as good writing to this podcast as they gave to this show. So that was our transition back in. So, episode one, this Extreme unlikable main character.

This character is lazy, he's cynical, he's me, and I don't like it.

Yeah, we hate what we see in ourselves, of course, but this is just a pure edge. Lord, he walks in, first day of high school, but I'm already so over it. Who has the time for all that? socializing and clubs and friends? My motto. Thanks for asking. I won't do what doesn't have to be done. And if I have to do it, I'll do it as fast and as easy as possible.

That's my motto for this episode.

Exactly. So, chatting with a friend. This is sato. He has a second name he often goes by, but sato is shorter. Again, in spirit. With the episode, we're preserving anything. Main boy, ereki.

Cool.

Again, keeping it short. Ereki's older sister said he needs to join the Classic Literature Club because she was an alum. And if they don't have enough members, at least one, they're not going to have the club anymore. So he's like, all right, I guess I have to well, real quick, normally.

We see a club that has, like, three members, and they need a four to get enough members. This club has none. Yes. How is it still existing till this point? Yeah.

Who is this one senior who did it all four years by themselves?

Yeah.

And just graduated.

They just sat in the room and read. Hey, that's what yuki was doing. And Harvey Suzamiya. She said she was there for the literature club.

Hey, wait a minute.

The parallel.

He's like, all right, if I'm the only person, I get a sanctioned room in the school where I can just dick around.

It's.

Fine. I'll do it. So he goes in, gets the key to unlock the room. The one key in the school.

Very important.

I shook my heads ironically so hard I knocked my headphones off. So I don't he can't hear us.

I think Duke is great hosting. He's doing a lot of effort in a show.

Okay, sorry, I can hear again.

Wait, he edits. He's going to hear that. What?

I'm not going to compliment secretly. What? So he unlocks the club room, and there's a girl waiting inside. Oh, spooky.

Is she a ghost?

She's also going to join. She's like, oh, I recognize you from a class. And he's like, oh, weird. I don't give a shit about anyone. I don't recognize you. So whatever. This is Eddie. She has lovely purple eyes. That's the nice thing I'll say.

Single to file, straight over.

I do like the character design in the show. It's very cute.

But she's also joining this club. And he's like, hey, so how'd you get in this room, then? Because I have the key. And she says, Wait, hold on. Stop right there. When I walked into this room, the door was unlocked. Folks, this is about the height of this episode, tension wise. And now you can see why we are doing what we're doing, why we.

Did a game fluff at the beginning. I wish this whole show was the same, except this girl was replaced with Danny mcbride's energy and, like, noises. And it's just the one. Just real weird. But otherwise it's as mundane and neutral as the rest of the show.

How'd you get in here? I don't know how I show up in half these rooms.

I'm just kicking in windows. I found myself in this room. What up?

So the friend sato from before is eavesdropping, so he's like, oh, can I join? Hey, wait a minute. My main role is to just info dump stuff about this world. Aren't you that girl from the big, famous, popular, productive family in town? And she's like, yeah.

Okay, cool.

Yeah, it doesn't really come up. Doesn't really play a factor in. But they spend a lot of time being like, there's four families in this town. Each of their names correspond with I.

Didn'T even check off info dump on the bingo card because I just shut off completely when he started talking.

Yeah, it's fine. No bingo this day. We already played a game where's the next piece of relevant info so, yeah, she's like, we need to get to the bottom of this mystery. And there's like, a very clear, like, there's we're building romantic tension between the male and female lead, even though he is the biggest condescending prick I've seen on TV in a while. But we have, like, a big fantasy where she gets, like, hair tentacles that shoot out. The animation in the show isn't bad. This is to discover this is please help me find who accidentally locked the door.

Her enticing characteristic that makes the protagonist fall in love with her is she's mildly curious about things.

She gets incredibly hung up on the most mundane questions.

She is a manic dream girl, but she is the mild human reality girl.

She is making up questions to ask in small talk, like, what do you think behind that door? Let's make a TV show episode discovering that.

Let's go.

Okay, so.

It'S like, hey, what kind of funky bird do you think that is? Like, oh, I don't know. Let's go ask someone. And there's birds in this area instead. It's a wild it's a literal wild goose chase of trying to catch the bird and taking it to the zoo to compare it. So you could just ask, like, a bird dude in your neighborhood. It's super easy.

Yeah, so I'm just going to gloss through it. They do sherlock Homes level investigation into this stuff, and we just simply don't have the minutes on Earth. It turns out they listen real hard and they hear there's a janitor who also has a key, and he changed a light bulb in that room. And when he was done, he walked up the door and didn't realize someone was inside.

That's it.

Like, ten minutes solved.

It's the first half of this episode.

One prompt. Prompt number two or sorry, we have three mysteries because I forgot about Piano Girl. So sato is telling a story about there's a ghost rumor about this school. Look, there's someone heard music from a piano room. And then they walked in, and then the music stopped. And then they saw a ghost with, like, bloodshot eyes and messed up hair, and then they ran away.

Goddamn, this show is boring.

Eddie who comes in and is like, hey, what are you talking about? And oreki is like, hey, tell her a different story instead. Tell her about the bulletin boards. Because sato is like, on the student council or whatever. He checks the bulletin boards for unauthorized things. And there's these secret society posts that get put up. Oh, man. There's this underground group that not even the student government knows about called the joro Spider Society.

Isn't that just a group of friends? If it's not an official club, that's just hanging out with buddies.

Brendan okay.

Once you're a goonie, you're a goonie for life.

Brendan, sean asset is going to kick my ass.

Kick your ass in. So they are like, hey, let's go on a treasure hunt to find some of these forms. Or they they're like, okay, let's let's devise. Which which bulletin boards are the most likely to hide a secret message? Or is it if they're looking to recruit members, is it the board that has the most foot traffic by it? They go to a bulletin board. They're like, lots of posts. Let's read them all, shall we? And then Eric, he's like, hey, look, I found it. It's under this baseball poster. Mystery solved. They're looking for two new members. And they're like, wow, you're such a good detective. You're so good. I trust you with my deepest, darkest wishes to solve in my life. And so they part ways. And then sato and oreki walk home. And he's like, yeah, I had to turn in a paper. This bulletin board was closer to the exit. I wanted to preserve energy. So I put the post up. I just wrote on a post it note because I lied to this person who is in a club with me.

And trust me, trying to be friends.

But sato is like, oh, but you played along at all. You could have done that. Someone has feelings, but he doesn't. And that's episode one.

Great.

There was one point where I wrote, no one's names down, but the sidekick says, if you're going to proclaim your life motto, say it with your head on high and don't paraphrase it. And I thought about it. paraphrasing would be the epitome of his life motto, which is do nothing and do it as fast as possible.

Yeah, absolutely. Someone already did the work for you.

Also with the piano one, he wraps it up and deduces it without even going to check it out. Showing how absolutely pointless these individual mysteries are, but then also fabricating his own so they wouldn't have to cross the school's campus to go to the music room. So the fake one is the focus, and the real one he was able to do without even looking at it. Showing two mysteries equally as pointless because he just made one up on the spot that was more interesting.

Yeah, gosh. They really they really the thing is, they really like build up these stupid freaking mysteries and then they find the solution. And it's like so they don't even get that excited about finding the solution that it feels like such a let down.

There's no pay off.

Like, they didn't even talk to the janitor. Like, oh, hey, you locked this girl in a classroom. Maybe you should be more careful. They didn't say anything to the man.

They see him from down the hall and they go, oh, that's what happened.

All right, see, like, again, these things, they keep hinting, like there's spooky stuff going on. Like, we do mention there's like 20 something episodes of this. So that if they're really doing the slowest fucking burn possible, that's not a way to keep people invested, to be like, there might be a real ghost later. Now I'm going to just make up a hypothetical situation that sounds plausible. And then you're just going to go, oh, yeah, that probably happened. And then we're going to move on with our day.

If the mystery hasn't hooked us in episodes that have done it in the first three episodes, god forbid. More than that.

Okay, so episode two, we see. I was calling him hotaro. That's the name I got for the main characters. So that's what I'm going to call him.

Yeah, they flip flopped. I didn't want write down I didn't.

Write down anyone's name. I call him protagonist, girl and guy. And psych girl and guy.

Yes, that's fine. So we see him go about his morning while we hear the letter that his sister wrote to him. And we get practically no new information from that. It's just her asking him to join the literature club. Bada bing, bada boom. We get told that it's been a month. So a month has passed. Houtaru has been enjoying his time with the club. He goes in. aru offers him snacks that she brought from home. He takes some. They sit and read. aru closes her book and says, this is pointless. And he's like, what? And she's like, we've been spending so much time in the club room, we should go do something. And he's like, is there something specific you want us to do with your time in the club? And she very cryptically, says, yes, but that's personal.

Thanks.

I want to do something. What? It's a. Secret, then I can't help you. What do you want from me?

Oh, now I remember why we just sit here in silence and read.

So she's like, but we need to do more activities. So she suggests submitting an anthology to the cultural festival because it's a club tradition and the school will give a club a budget. So under those conditions, Hotaro like Biggrudgingly agrees.

Budget, they don't do anything.

It's literally a book club for all that we know.

Yeah, so they don't know what that entails. So they go look around for past years anthologies. They're not in the club room, so they decide to go to the library. Houtaro knows the girl who's working there today, and they do not seem to like each other. satoshi is also there, and while Ho, taaru and the girl at the desk are bickering, he calls them a cute couple. They both get mad at him. She gets mad in particular because she likes satoshi. He knows that. Okay. They introduce arrow to her. Her name is mayaka. The two boys in her went to middle school together. aru asks mayaka if they have old anthologies from the classic literature club. She says, I'm not sure. We have to wait for the librarian to come back to ask her.

And they wait in real time for five minutes, essentially.

And they spend a lot of time talking about the nickname that they call the cultural festival at the school. Didn't matter.

Didn't even remember that part.

Yeah, I wrote it down because I thought maybe it would matter for a mystery.

That's the thing. It is a mystery. It's like, oh, all these subtle clues, like, you you can solve it yourself at home. And then they say, like, oh, this unseen character did it. Okay, that's fine. And just fully undo all the things. So it it punishes you for paying attention to what it's saying.

It lays the bread crumbs and then eats them?

Yes.

Satoshi tells mayaka to tell them this story. aru perks up. She's like, fucking tell me. It's called the most favored book of disfavor. Who thought of that? I don't know. This thing has only been around for five weeks. So mayaka says, every week someone comes to pick up the book at lunchtime, and then they return it after school five weeks in a row. She shows it to them, and it's a book about the school's history. They look at the checkout list, and aru, of course, is like, I need to know what's going on with this book. For some reason to know it's a sequel in a series, and I just really want to read it. So hotaru. He doesn't actually care what's going on, but he wants to figure it out for aru, of course. So he's like, well, people must not be actually reading this book. So what are they using it for? Based on the names on the checkout list, all of the girls who checked it out. I already spoiled it. All of the people who checked it out are girls. Girls?

What's satoshi sexist hypothesis that we could pull from this?

Satoshi suggests that maybe it's a superstition, and they think it's good luck to check it out. hotaru says that that's dumb. But I was like, I don't know. That seems okay.

They're in high school.

Maybe it's true.

I just love that their first thought is, all these girls are checking out the same book. Are they in a class? No, it has to be about a boy.

Absolutely. So they notice all the girls. They're all second years, but they're all in different classes, so maybe they're using it for some kind of code. mayaka is like, no, I don't think so. aru smells it and says it has a weird smell, like a bad one. It smells like paint thinner somehow. No one else can smell that. This book smells like paint thinner.

It's a pretty strong smell.

That's a pretty strong smell.

Also, they did use this opportunity. Do you want to describe that quick little shot they put in there?

Dee?

I don't remember it okay, we get a quick when he's like, wow, she has an incredible nose. We get a real quick furry shot of her leaning over the table from behind. Just had to sneak it in there. Just real quick to be like she's like, part dog or something.

Oh, yes. I didn't even think about it. Yes. They gave her some ears and a tail, so Houtarou was like, I may have thought of something. And he tells aru that he wants her to check something for him, and he's like, I'm not going with you. And she's like, yes, you are. And then we get this weird mind palace thing where hotaru is sitting in a dining room, and aru is in a maid outfit, and she's serving him, and she's offering him two menus, a grade course and a rosie course. And she, like, forces him to choose the rosy course. So it's probably a metaphor for her rosy disposition and convincing him to stray from his usual glumness. That's what I wrote in my notes. Very academic, very on the nose.

There had to be some good writing in this episode.

Well, good is a generous word.

So he comes out of his mind palace, and he's like, yeah, okay, I'll go with you. mayaka says she's coming, too, and I'm like, you're working. She tells satoshi to sit at the desk at the library, and off they go. Ho tar says he's taking them to the art room because they're probably using it during art class because the fine art classes are combined. So that's a time that people from different home rooms will be in the same classroom together. So they get there, and they see that they've been using it to pose for portraits. Mystery solved. That's it.

Wow.

And they can't seem to wrap their minds around how he could possibly think of that. Even though the book smelled like paint.

Thinner, it's probably around somewhere that has a lot of paint in it.

You're so fucking smart.

Oh my God, have my baby.

Aru says she's fascinated by his mind. They talk about how smart like she's like really book smart, but he has raw ability. It was at this point in my notes I wrote god, shut up.

This kid has played like one Professor layton game. He's not smart like and again, he's.

So condescending about it too. Whenever she's like, I think this might have happened immediately, he's like, no, that can't possibly be it. What possible thing could it be? And just completely disregards any input she has.

Yeah, aru says she had fun. mayaka is frustrated she couldn't figure it out. Houtaru thinks about how he could never see himself acting like they do because he's not like other girls. He turns to leave, but aru reminds him they have to wait for the librarian to look at the anthologies because that's why they came here in the first place.

The episode plot. Sorry, I'll get back to this. We also weren't invested in that.

And just like the mysteries in this show, that ends real quick because the librarian shows up. Just then satoshi asks about the Classic Literature anthologies and she seems surprised, says they aren't there, and walks away. She says, I'm very busy, and walks away very slowly with a clipboard.

You shouldn't bore me. Goodbye.

Aru says it's time to go home, but again, cryptically says that she learned something today but won't say what it is. And she says it's personal again, and she's thinking about how she can use Hotaro's skill to help her with something. hota is at home and aru calls him. She says she'd like to see him and wants to talk to him about something. It's their day off. It's a Sunday, so he goes to a cafe to meet her. She shows up late, whatever. She seems reluctant to talk and he gets up to leave. He's like, if you're not going to say anything, I'm going to go. And she's like, no, don't. I have something to confess to you. But we don't get to hear it yet because it's a cliffhanger. And that's episode two.

He says it's his precious Sunday to do nothing and he won't waste it here. If you're doing nothing, you're not wasting it. Sit down, you dick. As someone who enjoys doing nothing on Sundays, gestures around at my lifestyle, I get it. But also, this kid's just such a brick. Episode three. Let's see how fast I can get through this actual plot. You see it because it said it had a plot. It doesn't. Episode three starts off in the cafe where we left off with the protagonist guy and protagonist girl. I can't be bothered to remember these names. He asked for another cup of coffee she asked him for a favor, but it's a personal matter, so she's scared to ask him about it. The favorite has to do with her uncle, who is someone who is really important in her life. She used to ask him a bunch of questions, and he would answer to them, because he's the only one who didn't get tired of her constant berating of questions, a habit she has yet to drop in her high school years. And she says he told her something very important once, but she can't remember what it was said. Why don't you just ask your uncle? Well, he went to India and disappeared seven years ago. India? That's where protagonist guy's sister is.

Oh, man.

Wonder it if there's no telling if it'll even touch.

Genuinely have no idea. Later in the episode, the sister is somewhere else. So clearly wherever it's in India is not that important. But yeah. So her uncle went to India and then disappeared. I'm assuming he cut ties with her because, God, this family seems to suck. I get why. And she says she once asked him a question, and she learned that he was in the classic literature club back in this very high school 45 years ago. And when she asked him about it, he was reluctant to answer. He didn't want to tell her, but she kept prodding him and prodding him, and eventually he did answer her question, and it made her cry. What? What's happening?

But now she's represented and can't remember.

She represented and can't remember what he said. She just remembers crying after and the fact that he didn't comfort her when she cried, so her mom had to come in and comfort her. So traumatizing, she immediately forgot what it was.

I imagine it went something like this. Uncle, uncle, please tell me about this club. Oh, nothing really happened. No, you have to have a story. Please. Please. No, really, we I read hamlet once. No, there has to be a club. Can you shut up?

Just yeah, 1 minute.

I hope that's it.

After 22 episodes, that that ice cold slow burn.

He just finally asked her to stop talking.

Just one day, without question. sweetie, please. I got a headache. Immediate tears.

I just got laid off. I can't do this right now.

I got a lot of shit going on. My life. You're a three year old child. And that's why she joined the classic literature club, because she has to figure out what the mystery of her uncle is, because he's gone missing and it might be tied to it. I really hope it isn't. I really hope it's a coincidental thing and there's just nothing here. And she asked all of the teachers about her uncle when he was a student here, but no one remembers because it was 45 fucking years ago. Any of those teachers have retired or died, and she wants help solving this mystery. So she asked her personal sherlock Holmes protagonist boy, and he does not want to help because once again, he is a cock, and he refuses to do anything for anyone ever. But he thinks about it and says, she's so invested in this mystery, I'm afraid of what the answer will be and what it will do to her emotionally, which is incredible growth for our character to think about anyone else's well being. But he does not act on that emotion. Instead, he tells her to essentially fuck off. So again, not great. He says, Why don't you ask other people for help? She says, this is a private matter, doesn't want to share it, don't know why it's a mystery. She doesn't know what it's about either. How is this a private, personal matter? Why can't you tell people about this? You don't even know what it's about. And she wants to figure out what the mystery is before his funeral, and he says, what? You said he was missing. He goes, yes, but her Japanese law after seven years of someone going missing, you can legally bury them. And once he's buried, I can no longer solve this mystery. Why?

Considered talking to the police.

I don't know why she can't figure out this mystery after he's buried, because he's going to be buried. He's not there. He's missing.

Here's a suggestion. Maybe she should go to therapy. They would help with digging up a past memory. You want to remember. Probably not this teenage sad sack.

Even the therapists go, yeah, this is just nothing. You have nothing here to, like, unpack. You got nothing going on here, sister. Oh, God.

This guy is the opposite of therapy, just actively toxic to your life.

And yet for some fucking reason, she has to make peace with this mystery before the funeral for a body that's not I can't get past that point. It makes no sense.

I mean, it's a thing. If someone's been missing for a certain amount of time, you can declare them dead.

It is a thing.

But she continued to investigate.

Yes. She introduces it as, like, a formality of like, yeah, he's missing. Wait, now he's buried?

Yeah.

You know, they declared him dead. I can still wonder what he said to me. That doesn't mean this conversation didn't happen.

I don't get the time crunch they put on besides just putting an artificial time crunch on it. Okay, so protagonist guy is reluctant to help her, but he says he'll help her. But she can't expect much from him. He'll do it at his own pace. If he finds something, he'll tell her if he thinks it's relevant, but he finds something and he doesn't think it'll help her, he won't tell. Basically saying, I'll help you, but I'm doing the bare minimum. I'm doing it as little as possible and involving you as little as possible, and life continues. I don't know. Montage overlaps. Protagonist guy starts talking in a voiceover, saying, we got midterms and because of midterms, club activities are suspended for studying that we got a montage of them doing midterms and then they go back to club activities literally just filler to reach that 22 minutes mark of this.

Episode because, excuse you, these episodes are 27 minutes.

I'm going to be honest right now going to play my hand. I was watching these at 1.5 speed because I couldn't deal.

I thought about it. Certainly did. I just took a break between each episode.

Good news, dee. These notes are pointless as the show is. Nothing mattered. So after the midterms, he gets another letter from his sister saying, hey, I'm no longer an India. The only thing tying me to this mystery is gone. Now I'm an instant pool. Don't worry about that. how's the club going? I bet you're going to keep the tradition alive with the club by doing anthologies. Let me tell you about my anthology. Who is the sister? What is her obsession with what's happening?

Like you're asking too many questions.

I'm so mad. It's another one of those shows where I went in head empty and had no feelings whatsoever. But now that you're making me think about the show, I'm getting enraged.

No, just stop thinking. Just keep going.

I got to do the recap.

You can think after Brendan. We hit the hour mark. We can do it as easy as possible. Just land the plane, babies.

We're going to sully salliberger this strange river. She asked about the anthologies and she says if you want examples of anthologies, they're in the club room. We put them in a chemical locker, white, because the club room is in the science lab. Commercial bumper cut back to exterior shot of just some kids outside with a kid wearing a big weird blue hat. And a girl goes, hey, nice hat. The guy goes, shut up. And it's got a reaction out of me this entire show.

I remember that.

He got a legitimate chuckle out of me and it's the only thing I care about.

Yeah, I want to know more about them.

Truly, a random line of wallet was the most invested we were in any characters. That's what the show was.

I have no idea what it's about, but it's the only people I care about. These two. Back in the club room, protagonist guy shares the letter he got with a sister. With everyone else. They say there's a chemical locker, they look for it. They say, we can't find the chemical locker. The protagonist guy says after they looked for it, he goes, yeah, I know, I already looked for it. Thanks, dickhead. You could have saved us some time. He says the anthologies are missing. He points out that they probably changed club rooms a few times since his sister was here two years ago. So they said they got to go ask a teacher where the club room was previously. He goes, I already did that as well. It's like, once again, you could be sharing this information before we have to pull it out of you, because I thought we were friends. It's been months. My guy, and he says, I asked the teacher two years ago, this club was in this room that is now being held by the wall newspaper club. Newspaper. I don't know what the wall is. So it's a newspaper club and a sidekick. Girl says, you're unusually prepared today. You must be pumped to solve this Missouri. Any immediate return to me, like, I'm not pumped. I'm not excited. I have no personality traits whatsoever. I am the protagonist and protagonist girl says, they must search in the newspaper room, or also I have to search the whole school and do a full sweep of the school. Says, I won't be tolerating that minimal effort all the way through. We got to get in this newspaper club room. And while they're walking to the club room, he notices two little weird markers on the walls. He goes, huh? And doesn't share it with anyone because he's got to save that trump card for later. So he seems smart. Good work, professor. Late to get to the newspaper club room. Guy opens up. He says he's a third year. He was back here when the main guy's sister was still in school. And they say, oh, hey, can we come? He walks out and trust the door behind them. Oh, can we come in? He goes, no. I'm the only club member here, and I don't feel comfortable letting people not in our club in our club room and let yoga me back here deduce. This was like, well, you moved into this club room, so you must have moved all the shit out of the club room. And the guy was like, yeah, that's common sense, duh. He goes, all right, well, what did you move out here? He's like, I don't know. Some cardboard boxes and Mind Palace boy hannibal lecture himself pieces together and goes, the anthologies must have been in those cardboard boxes you moved out of the room. We'll have to go find them or look through them newspaper. The guy's like, cool. I still am not going to let you in. He's like, Well, I guess we'll just have to go get a club advisor to get permission. And the newspaper boy goes, like, not an authority figure. Fine. He says he can't search the club room. He's really upset. He snaps at him, and I'm running out of fictional detectives to make fun of this character with.

God, I forget the one from The panther.

Inspector cluso.

There you go.

Thank you for the alley. Says that they need to find the chemical locker and nothing else. And he says they need to go to the library. What?

I don't know, Brendan.

At this point, they were in the club room, but the guy was saying, you can't search the club room.

I feel like I'm being held hostage.

And Brendan is just brendan, Brendan, too many details. If you need assistance, ring the thing above and a flight attendant will come.

And help you out. No, I wrote it down. People have to know what I wrote. They're in the newspaper club room, but they're not allowed to search it. And he points out, he's like, oh, the window is open. You got a fan on it. Smells kind of weird in here, like air freshener. And when he threatens over the club advisor, the guy says, get out of here. I'll look around for the anthologies. If I find them, I'll drop them off in your club room. And the protagonist like, cool, you played in my hand. Sorry for being a dick, and walks out. And then they wait a few minutes in the hallway. They say, how do you know all that? Well, when I was walking there, I saw a red info red trip wire. Yeah, I saw the infrared sensors in the hallway that were just put up when we got into the room. The smell of air freshener. He had the window open, had a fan, and it seems like he's trying to get a smell out there. Why would he try to get a smell out of there? Why did he put up the sensors? Who put the fucking sisters? Turns out he was smoking cigarettes, and he's heir to one of the big families, big four families that run this town.

And he left the room.

I get it. They can't have his name besmirched with cigarettes. And they saw cardboard boxes underneath the table he was working on. And inside those cardboard boxes, the chemical locker. Inside those chemical lockers were the anthologies and where he hides his cigarettes, which is why he couldn't have them searching around the room and catching him. So that's why he dropped them off when everyone was gone. Why did that happen? Did this actually play out? Or was this just in fucking Robert downey, jr's. Mind palace? It was just in the mind palace. This didn't actually happen. He's just explaining it retroactively.

God.

Anyway, we just figured out Blues clues. So they get the anthologies, they look.

The room, there's more. Jesus Christ.

They look the room, find the volume two of the anthologies, and it says, oh, boy, when that girl's uncle was here, he went from a hero to a legend. But slowly people are forgetting about him, and maybe it's better that people do forget about whatever he did. And they're like, gee, I wonder what happened. I'm scared to learn because it might be traumatic. Well, this is volume two. We just have to look at volume one. And then psychic girl goes, guys, we're missing volume one. I'm done.

Thank you.

God bless. I had to sit there. So is the listener.

Are you there yet? No, thank you. If you have a show you would like us what you can send. Our feelings are everywhere, all over this.

I'm so mad now.

I looked this up to make sure it wasn't another show that I was thinking of that gets really fucked up at the end. It's not this one, unfortunately, too interesting. But you were talking about a slow burn earlier. Apparently people don't like this because Ho taro and aru don't even develop any kind of romantic relationship by the end.

Why do you make that like, your most interesting looking things when I'm staring deeply into your high selfies and thigh?

And this. It did feel like blues clues sometimes.

Yes.

Blue clue.

A fucking dog. Yeah. I love it.

This is not as good as Blues clues. I just mean the level of mystery.

I would enter my seat with Mr. Salt and Mrs. Pepper when they had paprika. That shit was character growth. This shit got nothing.

So looking at the end, did this build to anything? Was there anything interesting that you could find, even just looking from space at the series?

Well, so I was looking up specifically what happens at the end. And so I did not read about anything else that happens. This article was just like, hyoka. Could have been a really good show. Here's why it wasn't. Because the two main characters don't get together at the end. And then I watched it and I was like, that's why it was bad.

You're one. Takeaway no notes otherwise.

So I might look up now to see what it actually was, what happened with her uncle. I'm sure it'll be underwhelming.

Yeah, I'm fine leaving that thread unfollowed. We will have a follow up a different time.

We didn't even mention the old school building that they fucked that.

You got to get out of here.

Please send your recommendations. Our email is arwaveria@gmail.com or you can reach out to us on Twitter or Instagram at rweevaria on both.

You can find me on Instagram and TikTok at honey. Period d or on Twitter at honey d Eight and honey d art and honey is spelled H-U-N-N-I-E. You can find.

Me on the corner of Van Ice and woodman. I don't think those were his intersect taking the microphone away from Christian evangelicals. So I can yell about this bucket show because I got to yell. I got to scream at somebody.

This is more important.

Thank you, camille. Thank you.

Louie.

Louisong bandcamp.com. Join us next week. More anime.

Goodbye, dragon for you. So, Ben, how is it?

Thank you.