AWTY 110 - Child Pope (Higurashi)

I don't care. All these things you talk about mean nothing to me.

Hello, and welcome to Halloween. There yet. I'm your anime idiot, patrick dugan.

I'm an anime expert. dana hollander.

And I'm brenda mccullough. Your anime single white female.

If anybody's looking, so is Brendan.

You're in the same boat, your competition.

You know what? You think it'd be a good place to find someone through your audience podcast? Audience? No. If you're listening, don't contact me.

I don't talk to me.

I want someone with higher standards than who listened to this podcast.

Hey, don't insult our listeners like that.

You're beautiful listeners.

I love you. I want someone who hasn't listened to me for 100 hours already because it's going to be the same story over and over again.

Yeah, I feel like we've learned that.

It got 20 episodes in me, and then I just loop. I just start repeating myself.

Me too.

If you start a you'll date those.

Listeners, that would be a great way for you to find a partner. Let's do that.

Do you know Charlie McCarthy, the ventriloquist dummy from the 30s? We're in. We got something to talk about. Perfect.

Go all the way back.

That's how you find them on a mortal. I just have really outdated references. That's the only thing that calls me. I say that because that's the single wage female is the closest thing I have to the show we're watching today because I know literally nothing about it.

All right, same.

What do we have going on this week?

This week we are watching what is from what I gather, this is like the horror anime. We're watching higarashi. When they cry yeah, we've looked up.

A few horror list of anime to get we want to make the Halloween Five special. And yeah, we don't know many, so a lot of the list kind of repeat themselves. So I've seen Higarashi on there a lot too.

Yeah. And the other thing and why I wanted to do it now is because it got rebooted. So there's a remake right now. I'm pretty sure it's just exactly the same. It's not like a brotherhood type thing where it's not a manga or anything like that. I think it's just a remake because it is, like, so successful or whatever. But there weren't enough episodes out of that for us to watch that.

It's too fresh, too neat. No, we're being too topical.

We're too topical.

What?

Within the episode, I referenced Charlie McCarthy and single white female. And single white female. I only know things in 50 year increments. Holy shit. Single white females 40 years. Oh, my God. Sorry. That actually just hit me. Wow, cool. Sorry.

Have you guys heard of this show?

No.

Looking at those lists and seeing, like, screenshots from episodes, I've recognized the character. Like, I've seen this green haired girl covered a blood before, but, like, no context, so I don't know anything about it. Really?

Got you. weirdest Time. It was either when I was in 6th or 7th grade. My best friend at the time loved this show.

This came out 2007, so if that helps place it.

Yeah, well, still, I think that would be either it would be either end of 6th grade or beginning of 7th grade. But yeah, that's kind of how I know about it. I loved the character songs. I don't know if that's really a.

Thing anymore for anime, but amv.

So people make no, they would write songs that the voice actors would sing and they were like, their characters songs.

Like, everyone has a specialized theme.

Yeah. So. Like, for instance, the melancholy of harhi Suzamiya. Every character has either one or two character songs.

Okay, that does vaguely sound familiar. I vaguely remember stuff like that.

Yeah, so that was the thing in this one. But yeah, so I liked the music and the songs, but I never actually really watched it. I just knew about it through this friend.

Nice. Got it. Vaguely got throwback recommendation from 13 years ago.

Oh, God. No. Yes. Oh, God.

You should get around to watching this show eventually.

I'll do.

It a dozen years later. I'm sorry, a baker's dozen.

Oh, God. We'll try to watch buffy in college.

Anyway, so I've picked episodes 1719 and 20 because they seem like they go together.

Getting thrown into the thick of it.

Sure are.

It's still under 400, so it's not as bad as one piece.

So let's let's get scary spooky time.

Blood.

Let's make sense of this.

Let's decipher this puzzle. Can we solve our anime puzzle?

Yeah. I don't think this is a mystery show, but it is right now where.

We landed in it.

Last week after we recorded, I apologized in advance because I had to read every synopsis of every episode to pick episodes that seemed like they would form a coherent story. Because I didn't want this to be another situation where we watched the first three episodes and there was nothing exciting happening at all. So I read every synopsis and I picked these three episodes because based on the synopses it seemed like these would tie together pretty well. Little did I know the storytelling in this show is whack. I have episode 17, so I'm going to try to piece together what we missed. So from what I understand hold on, I've already lost my train.

Let's start off. I'm confused.

No, my mind just, like, went blank. So there's the sonozaki family. That's where the twins are at. Me on and she on. And I watched episode eight and apparently there's like demon blood in their family and in the town that they live in, there's this curse where if you leave, you're like, going to die or something. So they're pretty much there to perpetuate this curse. That's what the sonozaki family does. Yeah. And then neon is like the representative of the sonozaki family so she goes and talks to village elders and stuff, and then there's torture. There's like ritualistic torture and stuff. And apparently the other thing is that this is like a groundhog's Day thing, I think, where every four days, stuff just gets reset, which is why the season takes place in arcs like it does.

Okay. Because when this episode started, we were watching episode 17, and the title card was like, chapter four. And I was like, oh, yeah, chapter four, part two.

I was like, oh, fuck.

Oh, no. We're indeed should. We know about part one?

But it seems like it wouldn't matter because it didn't make sense anyway.

No, and the reason I went back and watched episode eight is because I was like, is it always like this, where they're just talking all the time but not really saying anything? But also we're getting a lot of information that doesn't make any sense. And it is always like this episode eight was just like, a little slower paced.

Got you.

But anyway, we start off episode 17 with shion in bed, and she gets a phone call from her twin, neon, who's on a payphone, and she tells Sheon that this boy, sato, she called her and that he wants to apologize for what happened at school. So whatever that is, that happens a.

Lot ever revealed in these three episodes what happened.

Yes, I understand that this is part of the arc, and maybe you're watching this week to week, so maybe you don't really forget what's happening, but at the same time, you just might. So maybe you should remind your viewers what's going on in your show.

It's very common for all forms of media to be like, hey, previously on the last episode, even if they don't say it in those explicit words, like, the first few minutes are usually, oh, after we thought about blah, blah, blah.

Blah, blah, blah, blah.

Exactly.

It's like, no, they just hint at things of, like, after the fight, after what happened with in character, we don't know.

After shion barred by Lisa Frank pencil case and never gave it back.

That bitch.

That's what I thought it was.

So neon gives shion satoshi's phone number so she can give him a call, and then we get the opening. And the opening used to be my jam. Well, I was still rocking out to it. I think it's a fun, weird song, and I like all the flowery visuals.

It's not bad. We definitely have bad openings, but I definitely got strong industrial evanescence vibes from it.

Yeah.

So I'm like, if that's your jam, go for it. This is it.

Yeah. So Sheon calls satoshi, but he calls her neon. So we got this twin switch and situation parenting, and it gets confusing for the audience. And our theory is that it's supposed to be confusing for the audience because it's confusing for them. Like, maybe they don't even know who they are anymore, which I don't know.

Which is great when you're trying to grasp the basics of what's happening.

He says he's sorry for whatever happened, the incident. The incident. And he says he'll never forgive the people who are making their lives hell. And she may be close to them, but he thinks she's different because again, it's her family that is like fucking shit up in this town. And then she asks if he's okay, and he's like, oh, yeah, I'm fine. I'm waiting on my next paycheck. I quit my job. I'm just worried about satoko. She needs to get out and have fun. And I think maybe this is his cousin. So he asks her to take satoko to the Cotton Drifting Festival, where people just rips. That.

Just way ahead of a vape.

Praise 2007, cotton.

And she's like, well, why aren't you taking her? And he's like, I have plans. And she says that she understands. And then he asks her if she believes in Oyoshiro and the curse of the town. And Oyoshiro is the demon who curses anyone who leaves the village. And because he was thinking about leaving, he's like, I don't think it's forgiven me. So his aunt gets home and he hangs up. And then we see him, and he has a wild look in his eyes and he's dragging a bat through the woods. And then the festival is going on, and there's a girl crew, and they're just there to have a good time.

Girl crew, vape night.

Going out with the girls to get vaped.

And then rica tells satoko that she doesn't have to worry about anything tonight. All they have to do is have fun. And she's like, no, I have too much on my mind. I'm five and I'm thinking about too much.

I am deep and intellectual. Why do dogs go woof?

I'm pretty sure that the main characters are in middle school. So when I look at the small girls, I'm like, are you element? Actually, six, probably.

It's very possible. I will say real quick, every time I heard Cotton Drifting Festival, I just heard grandpa from the rugrats cursing like a prospector. That's cotton drifting festival.

You always yell at me for my glassy shoe.

Yes.

You've been on a street lately.

Yeah, I have no defense for that.

So rica asks satoko, what if the thing that's making you miserable got erased from your life? And satoko is like, that's stupid, that can't happen. And then rica is like, but that's what's destined to happen. And we don't know what the thing making her miserable is. So rock on the enigma. And then we see a woman walking through the woods, and this is satoshi's aunt. And she comes up to a cabinet in the woods that satoshi told her about so she could flip it.

Did anyone else think of the clown box from My brother my brother show?

You must put a sacrifice that would be scarier that would make this show better. So she's like, examining the cabinet, and he's waiting there for her, and he just fucking wrecks her with the bat.

A lot of blood to spray. It like a lot of blood, like, thick.

It looks like ketchup. Yeah, the way it splashes. And then there are some old dudes worrying about something that happened. They say it happened three times, and it's bound to happen a fourth. I think what it is is that kids sneak into the ritual shed and they see the torture devices, so then they have to kill them. And the police find the woman's body, the aunt, and her face is completely smashed in, so they don't know who she is. And then I think it's shion is on the phone with someone talking about it, and she asks them if they knew where satoshi was. And they were like, no, I don't.

I was confused when they found the aunt's body because one of the cops is like, based on how she's dressed, we could probably determine who she is pretty quickly. And I'm like, I just imagined cops going on. Did you see a woman with a pink shirt and shorts? Because that's how she's dressed, and that's not descriptive at all.

Yeah.

Oh, yeah, that's my grandma. Everything cool. Maybe I should have given you more context rather than just asking about random clothing.

I wanted to know where she bought them. They looked great.

Goodbye. Nothing to worry about, kitten.

So I deciphered that. She on is when she has her hair down, she's she on. And when she has it in the ponytail, she's Me on. So, yeah, as Me on, she goes to see satoshi and they're shopping for satoko's birthday, and he wants to buy her this big teddy bear, but he can't afford it yet. And then Me On is like, well, let's just go talk to the shopkeep so he can hold it for you. And then Me On, well, you know, she's Me on right now. She makes fun of him for not thinking of holding it before, and he thanks her and pats her on the head.

Layway my brother.

Also, I'll be honest with you right now, I didn't realize that there was twin identity swapping until the next episode we watched. So all of this I was like the one main character I did not pick up on hidden identity stuff going on.

Yeah, it's a little confusing.

I'm sure it won't come back or anything. It's not relevant.

The police, they corner them on the street, and they're like, hey, we're looking for you, satoshi. And obviously he's worried because he just murdered his aunt. And then shean is like, oh, I can give you an alibi. We were eating dinner together. And then the police guy is like, well, me on, we saw you with your girl crew at the festival. And then she like, reveals. Like she's like, well, I'm not me on I'm actually shi On sonasaki, so I was with him, so whatever. And she's like, you're welcome to look up my family if you want to. And then they go away. And she's just like, hey, satoshi, just tell them you were with me all day. That's going to be your alibi. It's fine. And then she's like, are you mad that I lied to you about being neon? And he's like, nah, whatever.

I'm so chill. A family member is dead, but that's cool.

I killed my aunt. And you are not who I thought you were for the past however long. But it's fine.

It's cool.

We're all lying about everything right now.

It wasn't until she talked to him that I realized there was twins. So I thought when she said to the cop, like, no, I'm my twin. You can look it up in the family history. I'm like, shit, that's a bold bluff to just tell a cop, like, fucking look it up. And it's being a full on lie and being like, oh, wait, that's true. Okay, yeah, that would be pretty crazy.

I too didn't realize there were twins at this point. I was playing coy before just saying, oh, I didn't know they're switching identities. Totally thought she was lying about having a twin. Did not pick up on the opening scene having two identical characters talking to each other.

So the police take them to the station to question them separately. But when they get there, Sheon has, like, family members waiting for her. And they take her away. And in her inner monologue, she's like, I never would have guessed what would happen to me in my worst nightmares. And so she gets to the family home and Me On is there. And she tells she on that their grandma is super mad at her. For what? Again, we don't really know. She doesn't say if it's because she revealed that she was pretending to be neon. I don't know why.

Unclear.

So Me On takes her into a torture chamber and their grandma is there. And she yells at her for hanging out with satoshi. So that's why. Because their families are like, feuding. This is romeo and juliet. And shen goes off at the old lady. She's like, I'm tired of holding my tongue. Like, this whole family feud thing is ridiculous. And she just yells and yells. And the grandma is mad at satoshi specifically. It's not just his family. I also just hate him.

Okay, I thought we had a thing going here for the reasons of why we're killing people. But if it's just whoever, then all right.

And then while she's, like, ranting, shion is like, well, neon is just jealous of me and satoshi. So that's like, where you've been getting your information about us. neon has just been telling you what's going on. And then shion says that their family issues mean nothing to her and that she's in love with satoshi. And like, why should anything else matter?

Yeah, that's where managerial yet.

And then mia isn't having this, and she's like, shion, you may hate being in this family, but you're one of them, so you have to deal with it. And then shion says it doesn't mean anything to her to be part of this family. And then mian is like, you better apologize to Grandma right now. And shion is like, but why? What did I do wrong?

What's the big deal of you.

See, that's what I'm saying. Sure, we got dropped into the thick of the story, but then there's also shit like this where it's just like, what do you mean I did something wrong?

Just the scene by itself, the scene is like, what's happening here?

Yeah, you obviously just did wrong by your family.

But I think that might also lead credence to your idea that the twins don't know who they are. Because I think shen might be I don't know, insane. Especially after the stuff we see her do later on.

Yeah. So neon threatens her by bringing satoshi into things. And then shion loses it and apologizes to me on and she gets on her knees and calls her master.

Yeah, that was weird.

Cool. I think it's just because she's the family representative. So she's like the big wig yeah.

Master for like the whole family. Not specifically.

Big child.

I hate that Perry Go word. For some reason, that got a very personal reaction.

Good. Now I know. So then they bring out the device, the device that pulls off fingernails.

Everyone's got one of them. I also like that you just casually looked at the sentence, grandma let her into the torture chamber, and none of us addressed that. Yeah, it's fine.

Yeah, once this machine came out, I was like, oh, yeah, this is a horror anime, because nothing up until this point besides like, demon curse, torture room. I was like, okay, yeah, cool.

So I had to scroll down to the bottom. My notes. Where am I? Here it is. So to pay recompense, Sheon has to have one fingernail pulled for each of her missed deeds. And if she pulls all three of them off, she will be forgiven and will also other people will be forgiven for whatever they did. They say that one is for satoshi. So she's like, okay, great. I'm going to do it then. And she has to do it to herself. She rigs her hand up in the thing, and she has to, like, push down on this other part that will pull her fingernail off. So she does her pinky. It seems very painful. And then mian is like, are you giving up? And she's like, no, I can do it. I can handle this. But then on the second nail, the contraption misses.

Yeah.

She like, hits the lever at a weird angle and it doesn't fully take it off. She's like, oh, no. That one didn't fully count. I got to do it again.

Fuck.

Yeah. It looks like it sucks. And then that's when she loses her mind about the pain. And then mian rushes over, trying to comfort her a little bit, even though.

She'S like, you still got to do it. And I can do this. But oh, sister.

Oh, my god. I love you. Come on.

Oh, my god.

Twin'S.

And then some dudes come over, and they put, like, a pillowcase over her head, and they finish the job for her as she screams in pain.

Yeah, good stuff.

Yeah. And then she goes home, and she throws up. And she's like, okay, I was forgiven. And now I need to forget about satoshi because if I keep interacting with him, my family is going to do something to him. And then she goes into town, and she sees that the big teddy bear he wanted is gone, and she congratulates him in her mind for buying it. And then I guess a coach from their school, he drives up and he's like, hey, neon. And then she's like, actually, I'm Sheon I've been lying to you for a long time. Everybody she tells is just like, okay, cool. Interesting.

I've seen Parent Trap. I know how twins work. That's fine.

One of my few notes for those episodes just, oh, Parent Trap, but with a murder mafia family. Cool.

Pretty much, yeah. And then the Copman comes and he talks about her hand injury as if he knows what happened. And then he takes her to the station, and she's like, I don't want to talk about mine and satoshi's alibi anymore. And he's like, well, I don't either. I want to talk about what happened yesterday. And she's like, ugh, what? And he's like, satoshi dipped. This boy is gone. And just he left and didn't come back. And she freaks out. And then he explains that his theory is that satoshi killed his aunt, and he's right. And then someone then tells shion that they have someone else in custody for killing satoshi's aunt. So I guess they're just trying to cover that up. The chief of police seems to know that satoshi is the one that killed his aunt. But because he's gone, they're just like, my jurisdiction.

I can't chase a murder over city lines.

And then they talk about the town cursed some more, but somehow satoshi got out. And that's episode 17. All right, lots of shit going on.

So I'm going to lead off with my second to last note because it dramatically changes everything about what I thought was going on. Apparently, somewhere in episode 18, there's a year time jump.

Yeah, see, that's the thing too. The synopsis did not mention this, obviously.

And going back into they don't explain anything in this show. I truly did not realize that watching a whole episode of this show until the last, like, two minutes, where they're like, this is a year later. I was like, what time?

Much like in the Coronavirus lockdown in anime has no meaning.

Yeah, at least in this one.

At least in this one.

Basically, what I'm piecing together is at some point in episode 18, pretime jump after time jump, whatever, satoshi ends up dead and shion is out for revenge. Yeah, maybe so. That's as much backstory as I have on how things link up. So we start out with mian just having shion like prisoner, just like holding her hair as she's making phone calls, talking about two other people died from osha hero's curse. But xion has a taser.

Didn't plan on that, did you? idiot? Surprise.

Technology wins again. Yeah, she on has a taser, tases me on and reverses it. So now she throws her in the tortured dungeon. Yeah, we're introduced to a dungeon.

The cave system under the house.

Yeah.

So basically they were going to try to blame the death on the rival family, the hojo family that shion is from. Or not shion.

Satoshi.

Satoshi.

I didn't write his name down.

Blond boy.

Blond boy. romeo satoshi.

He's already dead.

He's already dead.

That's why I didn't write his name in my notes, because I was like, I guess it's fine. But yeah, she's like, all right, I'm in control now. Goes to the grandma. The matriarch in control and tasers her too. So she throws me on in the dungeon and questions about the connection to the damn conflict.

Yeah, that damn conflict.

I guess this is the source of the hatred between their family and the hojo family. Sure cool. And neon is like, I have no say over it. It's all Granny's doing. So shion goes to question granny. But weird, when you taser like a 90 year old woman, they don't take it too well.

So she's dead. Not thrilled about that?

Oh, no.

I fully wouldn't doubt if it was like some secret of like, grandma's a master at faking her own death and just like, riddled herself unconscious this whole time and is going to come back in the second to last episode, be like, ha, I was alive old. That wouldn't surprise me at all.

Yeah, me either. I was thinking that until she just in a fit of rage, just fucking bullwiths her, like 50 times. Just her corpse in a wheelchair. But using the knowledge that Granny's dead that beyond doesn't have, she wheels the body down and it's like, hey, I got granny here. If you don't tell me about the secret well where you dump all the bodies, I'll kill her and throw her down there. mian's like, no, don't kill this obviously alive woman. The well is in the stella cross from me in the dark corner. She goes over and sees there's like a staircase. And she's like, sick.

Brett never been down these stairs before?

No, never thoroughly explored. The prison in the basement.

Sorry, I just imagined they renovated that have murdered families out there. Some other family buys a house, and there's just a single refrigerator in the murder basement. Everyone's got the fridge in the garage? Yeah, just the sodas and the other groceries that didn't fit in the real fridge. This giant murder cavern. Just one fridge with, like, half a six pack of soda?

Yes.

Throw some sick parties down there.

This is where we keep the bodies. This is our torture room. There we have the fridge and where we keep our skis in the off season.

The Halloween decorations, we don't need to use enough. Main season.

We don't box them up because we want an extra spooky down here.

We don't want to crumble it. That's where my mind is.

Sorry, but mian well, shen's like, ha ha, granny's dead. fooled you. You gave me the information anyways. And mian's like, oh, you're just doing this to avenge satoshi. And this is where I learned satoshi was dead. And shen's like, I will kill you too, if I find out you're involved. So far, you're saying you're being honest to me, but if I learn you lie to me, I'm murdering and torturing you too. So the next morning, someone calls for Grandma and shion pretending to be me. On is like, oh, she's asleep. Can I just take a message? And they're like, okay, there's going to be an emergency meeting at the shrine. Yes.

Cool.

Another person calls. I don't know what the fuck was going on with the second phone call, so I'm going to ignore it because it doesn't seem to factor in.

Don't even remember it.

Apparently, this round of the curse is because four people broke into the Tool shrine. It's where they have their murdery stuff, but they go under the guise of it's sacred. So the demon gets you. One person will be murdered, and the other will be spirited away. But since there's four of them, we have two confirmed dead bodies and the two other people who will potentially be spirited away. I e. Just murdered, but their bodies won't be found because they throw them in a fucking well. Is she on and kee, she goes over and messes with khi, pretends that mian already questioned him. I don't know. He doesn't really factor in, but he's at risk.

Cool.

She's freaking him out for whatever reason. All right.

I think she was trying to get information out of him, but mian got information out of him last night, so now he's confused. And it's like, well, my digging for information didn't work out. Got you.

Okay, so she goes to the shrine meeting, and they're discussing the curse and all the murders, and there's a village grandpa, I guess, who's the leader?

Christopher Joe.

Yeah. So pretending to be neon is now she's like, okay, I have to pretend to be the voice of this family. Okay, let me psych myself up.

This is so funny to me. That it's just a group of old men and then a teenage girl who is head of her family for some reason.

Very weird.

But yeah. So she's like, okay, we've confirmed that these two dead bodies are part of the curse because they broken to the shri. And everyone's like, oh, the murder blah. And then she mentions that shion and kei chi are next, and no one seems to react that much. So she's like, they seem to know what's up or what's coming next. I can't trust any of these people.

She makes a comment. She makes a comment where it's like, how can they be so cold and not responsive to what I say? Like, we got to hunt down these two people and kill them. And be like, yeah, that's what your village does.

Yeah, that's your whole thing.

That's the whole deal.

I've only seen two episodes, and I'm already on board with them. What are you talking about?

I am for this political party. They are in this town.

But yeah, so she brings the grandpa Leader guy back to the house, and she's still pretending to be neon is like, oh, yeah, it was definitely shion that broke into the shrine. But we don't got to kill her, right? We can just let this one slide, right? And he's like, I mean, based on the curse, if she's truly remorseful, we don't have to kill her. And she's like, all right. Sick.

Cool.

And she asked more questions about satoshi dying. And he's like, oh, yeah, we kind of just hated that family, so we had to do it. And she's like, but didn't xion ripping her fingernails out count for anything a year ago? And this is at the point where I'm like, fuck. This is a year later. Oh, yeah, her hand isn't bandaged up anymore. I guess some time has passed because she has fingernails again.

I fully just, like, hand wave that to its anime. Like when someone gets cut in a scene, and then the next scene that cuts gone. I figured it was just continuity error.

Yeah, same. But basically he sort of let slip that, oh, yeah, ripping the fingernails out didn't change anything. We hate the hojo family, so he was going to die anyways. He ripped your fingernails out for nothing.

We just did that for fun. It was just a fun prank.

Good, too. It was a good bit.

I I needed some arts and craft supplies. I was just out of artificial fish scales for the thing I was making, so I just needed three more.

My diorama disgusting.

So she sort of reveals, like, motherfucker, you say it's this curse and this demon stuff, but it's just a bunch of murderous people who just love to keep murdering and tasers him.

That's her weapon.

That's her weapon of choice. Yeah.

And that's where we end episode 19.

Oh, boy. And as in good television, the taser instantly knocked everyone out like a swift hit to the back of the head, instantly knocked out. That always bothers me. Episode 20. It starts off with she on I think calling the boy from the last episode didn't write his name down, don't care, saying people died from the curse and her family's covering it up. And he's kind and maybe the villagers are in on it too. And he's like, well, you talked me into going into that tool shed, so you wrote me into this. People who should be getting killed. How are you going to fix this? She's like, interesting. What if I and then hangs up. She's like, I don't care about you anymore. Cool, okay. And then she thinks they're all following her grandma's wishes. Like her grandma was ruling this town before this or this village before this. She figures they're just following her instructions still. So she hangs up on him and then calls the village leader. No. Yes. She calls the village leader's house, but that's the guy she tased and kidnapped last episode. So someone else at his house answers it. Let's say his son, for fuck's sake. And he's like, oh, yeah, the village leader is not here. He hasn't been back for a while. She's like, oh, we just sent a search party out to look for him. I'll go and help too. He's like, yeah, that's a good idea. Maybe we can call the cops. She's like, sure, whatever.

By and hangs up very among us, very fast pretending.

And it's also interesting. She's like, we'll do a search party and I'll come with you. And then we see her at the rest of the episode. She doesn't join the search party and no one questions her why she wasn't with the search party that she organized. And it's like, hey, wait a minute. So after she calls him, she hangs up and it goes down to torture the village leader in the basement. So he's like, wrapped up in a hanging from a chain, like, by the neck. And she wants answers. And he says, like, I don't know if I can give them to you. Like, I might not know stuff. I'm a dumb old man. She's like, all right, I believe you, but what if is the blonde boy still alive? And he's like, I find it hard to believe that he would still be alive. She's like, it's unnecessarily, dancing around the issue. She's like, yeah, just say you're already hanging from a chain by your neck in a torture chamber by psychopath. Why? Be coy she already knows he's dead?

I don't know.

And he says her grandma it's a long way away, but he basically says her grandma has the ability to manipulate the police as well. So by saying that, the blond boy was, like, spirited away, it was just like a wild goose chase to keep the police busy, to not find the real body, which is apparently down the well. So he's like, why would she do that? And shion is like, so people would think he got spirited away and wasn't just murdered by her. So it's just a long, wild goose chaser going on involving the whole police and the whole village and stuff. Then the leader says then she asked, like, who did it? Who killed blond boy? Who killed my romeo? And he's like, there's a rule within the village that we don't ask who did it or how they did it. It's just like, hey, someone's got to kill this guy. And then it gets taken care of the next day. And no one question.

You got this one.

You got cool.

Thanks.

I did it last week. My arms retired. It's like you told. So he says, like, people do it on behalf of this curse, basically confirming, like, yeah, the curse is bullshit. It's our way of manipulating. The people in the village. Says all that and says that she says, that's it, and then runs off into a cell and finds the well in the back of the cell. And that's when I'm like I don't know if I wasn't paying attention or just I'm so confused. She just randomly runs off and yeah, she finds the cell that blond boy, I guess, was held in and his body was thrown down, and she just sees the ladder going into darkness. We don't actually see, like, the bottom of it, or she doesn't actually go down it. She just finds the bone well. And when she gets there, she collapses in a dramatic fit of like, oh, no, I love her. He's dead, and drops the flashlight that rolls behind her that projects her shadow onto the wall. But she's going crazy. Excuse me. This gets me very emotional because I'm.

Just so choked up.

I'm allergic to continuity in the storyline. So the shadow is projecting on the wall.

Then this show should be fine.

Yeah. Hypoallergy yeah, sorry, I got that mixed up. Yeah. So her shadow is projecting on the wall in front of her, and she's seeing it as the shadow of her romeo, of the blonde boy. And she starts talking to him of like, how could they do this to you? I just want to be with you. Maybe if I'll jump, if you catch me, we'll be safe. And he's like, no, I'm super dead. Don't do that.

If you jump, you will die.

And I couldn't tell if that's what she wanted. Like, we'll die, we'll be together, or if it was just like I don't know if she thought he was actually there because she's talking to a shadow that isn't him. And he's like, yeah, no, don't jump. Stay safe. Don't kill yourself, and don't come after me. I'm already super dead. And she's like, oh, no, that sucks, man. But you know what she says? Like, all right, I'll live for his sake. And then she runs back to her sister in a jail cell who didn't mention it, but she did, like a negligence or like a 90. And I didn't understand why that's their prison uniform. It's very confusing to me why her sister had to change her to throw her in a jail cell.

Yeah, I had to go back and check because I was like, I'm pretty sure she wasn't wearing this when she got tasered.

She was in, like a kimono.

Yeah, she wanted her to look dramatic.

It just very weird to me.

There haven't been enough big titties in this show yet.

Better show these middle school ones.

And yeah, she runs back to her sister and she's like, hey, is his body down that well? And she's like, yeah, that's where we put all the bodies. And she's like, oh. Her sister is like, oh, but I pleaded to save his life. I pleaded like, don't kill blonde boy. Maybe we can work this around. We don't need to just kill him right away. That's when she starts freaking out, like, no, I bet you lied knowing she didn't do that and she didn't even try to save him. So then the next morning, she meets up with some random characters. I'm sure they came up in the last 17 episodes and they all think she's me on her sister because her hair is up. And she's like, oh, yeah, I was out so late searching last night. I was up till 03:00 a.m. torturing and killing my grandma. I mean, searching for the village leader. And once again, you think someone would have seen her searching with them as search parties go. And then so she's just with two random schoolmates. And then as they're walking and talking, they meet up with two other random schoolmates. These are the two younger girls who we presume is in elementary school, like six or however, old yard. Then babies, little kids. And they talk about the one girl with long bluish hair, purplish hair, how the one girl starts freaking out, like how she's so cute and adorable. She does like a nan, like, cat peace sign thing. I was like, all right, I'm cigar.

It also just straight up doesn't match the tone of what's going on all around.

No.

I also just really hate the anime trope of, like, one character who is just beyond cute and everyone obsesses over him. It's so fucking a darn. I've never met anyone like either of those two personality types of my life.

And it's nico nico ne.

It's just enraging. So, yeah, they say, like, the one girl is super cute and she's part of one of the great families. So within this village, there's one family that controls everything. But then there's great families that control everything as well. So it's like, I guess a mafia like levels of control, I don't know. And shion starts getting mad at the little girl, so they go to school, and then after school, she pulls her side and starts getting mad at her, asking what she thinks about the troublemakers, the people who went into the tool shit and saw the forbidden tools that no one was supposed to do. And if they need a way to distinguish themselves, to kind of redeem themselves. And she's speaking kind of for herself to see if there's a way she can save herself because I guess she went into the tool shed with them. And the little girl says she's a priest of this god demon thing. I wrote down the name. I'm not even going to pretend to say it. And she's like a priestess for it.

She is?

Of course she is. She's she's the pope.

Six year old child pope.

It's the new hit show coming to HBO. Is there a hot Pope? Isn't that actually a show? The young pope. The young pope. God television garbage.

Yeah.

And she says like shiona's. Like, oh, so you're the priestess, so you speak on behalf of the demon god. And the little girl is kind of like, yeah, that's kind of what it means. Sorry I'm hot shit in this village. What are you going to do about it? And then she just slaps around a few times because I don't know, I guess she hates being undercover and keeping a disguised together. So she's just sort of slapping a little child around. And she keeps saying, how can her family make sure the troublemakers will distinguish themselves? And the little girl is like, why do you keep saying distinguish? Like, what a weird choice of words. And Sheon says to the little girl, it's just as bad as her grandma for running things and manipulating people and telling them who to kill and stuff. And she's just as guilty as a grandma, and I can't wait to kill her too. Cool. Sick dope good protagonist. Then we cut to shea just in her house, stabbing at the ground with a knife, reflecting on how all of her loved ones are dead and there's no one left for her, so she's just going to kill everyone. It's like, great, cool.

That night you killed your grandmother.

I can't believe those murderers murdered people. I'm going to murder them as revenge. Honey, do you see the irony? Her blood, her bad demon blood. That night, or while she's stabbing the ground, the doorbell rings and she goes to answer, and it's a little girl from before. How convenient. And she's here with a big old bottle saying, hey, can I borrow some of your soy sauce? Like that's wild fucking what are you talking about? What an insane request.

What a bit comedy bit for this supposed horror show.

What a good goof. Is this the equivalent of asking for a cup of sugar? Which is also really dumb, but I guess it was topical or relevant back in the we just still keep using that bit. And shawn is like, sure, come on in. Let me go get you some soy sauce. And as they're walking, she mentions in her head, like, hey, I don't hear her footsteps. And she turns around to catch her, and she's like, still there. And she does, like, a little goof with the bottle. And they keep walking again, she's like, oh, she's matching her footsteps with my footsteps. So she can be stealthy. It's like but you already know she's there. What there's anyone else in this house? Why does she have to be stealthy? I think it's just a way to make her seem suspicious. Like the little girl's doing shit. And it's like, I don't all right, so she thinks the little girl's up to something. And when they get there, she goes to pull out the soy sauce from, like, a cabinet on the ground. And when she owns Bent Down, she looks at the little girl. Little girl just has pepper spray.

It's like gotcha bitch.

And sprays her. Okay. As she knows on the ground, the little girl gets on top of her with the pepper spray and pulls out a needle like a syringe full of something. And so they start fighting because shan's like, I don't know what's in there, but I don't want it. I'm not into that. I'm clean. And so it's pepper spray versus taser. And they have a little bit of a fight and a scuffle. And shawn is able to throw up some papers and distract her and dive through the papers to Taser and knock the girl on the ground. And while she's knocked out, she takes the NATO and injects it into the girl basically being like, I don't know what this is, but it's in you now. Good luck. And I really hoped it was just like the Death Note. Like, I knew we'd get into a fight, but and I knew you'd be stronger than me, so I prepared, like, super steroids in this syringe because I knew you would inject it into me. And now I thought it'd go into a bigger fight scene, and the girl would just be like a Ukushu demon, like a giant muscle monster.

That would be fun. That's too fun for this.

That's the thing that would have been bonkers and insane, but it would have been knowingly insane. So this girl gets injected with this drug and just kind of start shaking and freaking out. But nothing else really happens. We never find out what's in the syringe. It doesn't really seem important for some reason. So little girl stands up and says, like, oh, you can try to torture me and try and get answers out of me, but I don't think I'm going to let you do that. I don't want that to happen. And she's like, oh, I don't think you're in a position to really have an opinion anymore, so I'd like to see you try. So the little girl gets up and gets, like, a kitchen knife that's just nearby. And she's like, oh, there's always a way out. I got my secrets. And then just slams the handle, the knife against the wall and then just starts slamming her neck into the knife on the wall repeatedly. And just stabbing yourself in the neck, but you're using the wall to do it, and it's just excessive. She could have just slid her throat.

Well, it's her head. Not that it matters, but she's doing it to her head.

That's the thing I thought next too.

They never showed her head like the actual gore, like, when the ant got her head crushed in, it cuts off at the head, it doesn't show you the head. So for a scene like this, I wasn't clear what was happening, but once again, she could have just slid her throat. If she wanted to die, it would.

Have been much easier.

It would have been a lot easier. So I don't know why she had to put the knife against the wall and then bash her head against the wall into the knife. I'm just like, why? This is where it gets into the hostile and saw movies where I'm like, this is just excessively. Gory for no real reason. I'm not against gore, but I'm like, this is just dumb. There's no point to this. So she all starts gloating and laughing, and it's like, one of my enemies is dead. I win. And then right as she's covering up the body with papers, the phone rings again. And it's the little girl's friend we saw earlier that day. And she's like, oh, is the little girl there? She's like, yeah, she came over for something, and I gave her a bunch of food. Do you want to come over to get food too? She's like, okay, sure, I'll come on up. And she's like, Ha ha, I guess I'll murder another small child.

Time to kill another baby.

Because I'm the good guy.

I'm the protagonist. It's this time where she answers the phone. It's the second time someone calls and says, hey, is this person you just murdered there? And Sean says yes. Do you want me to get them? And my question is, what if they said yes? Because before it was the grandma and I was a little girl, and I was like, why does she offer that instead of like, yes, but they're busy. I can't get them right now.

Yeah, the simplest bluff to call.

Yeah, just be like, oh, yeah, sure, put her on real quick. She should be over there just getting a small thing. She shouldn't be occupied with anything, but instead she's like, oh, do you want me to get her? No, that's okay. I don't want to bother her. And just like, why?

I mean, I did just call to get in touch with them, but now that I know they're in another room.

Now that I know that they're with you and perfectly safe, super safe, there's.

Not a weird string of murders happening around you. And also, again, that's episode 20. Yes, I know as much after watching three episodes as I did before watching three episodes.

Same.

Yeah, I don't know. Like I said, I went back and watched episode eight to try to find something, and it seems like it's just the same thing of, like, vague talking about things that have happened and that's it. And then someone dies.

I'm glad you went back, though, that we have that additional context of, like, we didn't just pick, like, three random, weird episodes. It's just like, this is kind of the whole show. This is the tone of the whole show. So it's like, I don't think it mattered which episode we picked if we're already this confused.

Yeah, this is a grander experiment that started with Another, where we were like, okay, most horror series that we're watching are bad. Is it because we're watching select episodes like Another? We watched the first three and it was like, okay, nothing has picked up steam yet. Okay, experiment one didn't work. Okay, let's try experiment two. Let's jump right into the action and see if we can work it out there. And nothing made sense because we didn't have the lead up. So it's like, okay, this also doesn't work.

Yeah, I think the thing, too, when you think about it, like, when we when we looked into more of Another and, like, heard about the story, that also seemed really convoluted and like, the twist was dumb. So I feel like that's just a theme with horror anime, I guess, is that they're just like, scary is convoluted.

Yes. It's hard to follow and there's a lot of blood. That makes it horror, right? No, it doesn't. Like, and we talked about this before on the 100th episode I talked about with animes we would want to see or want to make. And that's when I said, I don't think there's a lot of good horror anime out there, especially in show forms, because all of the best horror I know of are either novels, movies, or, like, short stories. Like, June ethereum does a lot of short stories. I like Stephen King novels and stuff. There are great horror movies out there, but it's always like a self contained thing and not a long running series or even a 13 episode series is a little long, it seems. So it seems hard to keep that level of horror going without ruining the twist and the surprises. Like, anything more than 2 hours of horror is like, we're running out of steam. Because, dana, you kept watching Paranoia, paranoia Agent.

Yeah.

And you said and like we talked about with Another words, like, the first three episodes didn't really pick up steam. It didn't really capture us yet. But then you said Paranoia agent. The first three episodes were your favorites. So it's like, even with a, you know, renowned crew that made a show as highly regarded as paranoia agent, it still seems like yeah, it kind of lost some steam towards the end of it, like from what you were telling me. So I don't know if it's a great medium or if there aren't good stories or if I don't know, there's a billion different factors for what can go into and make a show good or bad and stuff. We know that from working on some stuff, but maybe the marketing where they're like, oh, make sure you include this character. But it's like, oh, that's forced in, we don't want to or this and that.

Yeah. Looking into horror anime for this Halloween episode. I've heard of hellgirl before and reading about it, I've watched Hell Girl reading about it. It seems like each episode is like a self contained thing, so I feel like maybe that is better. And then I also found one, I think it was called shu baiyu shui yabi or something. But it was a lot of episodes because each episode was only four and a half minutes and they were just about like Japanese horror folk tales. So yeah, I do think that like you were saying like a 13 episode series or in this one's case a 26 episode series that was like a.

Video game and got a live action remake of it and it's got a reboot of it. Like it's got a lot to it. Like it's a big franchise.

Yeah, but like it's I can see how it would be difficult to keep a horror story going for 22 times 26 minutes.

Yeah. Because I'm trying to think of any even non anime series that are horror that are a single narrative running. Because twilight Zone is like the short stories. Yeah, it's all anthology short stories, one off episodes, even like American Horror Story. It's a season and then they just reset.

It's different every time. Yeah.

I was going to say the haunting of Hill House, but now with The haunting of bly manor, it's kind of the same thing of American Horror Story. I haven't watched bly manor yet, but they've changed. It's like the same actors playing different characters. Like in American Horror Story.

Interesting. Yeah. I was trying to think of them like, are there any good heart TV series I've watched or I've enjoyed? I'm like the closest I could maybe think of is hannibal, but that's just a very gory thriller mystery. I wouldn't even really consider it horror. There's definitely creepy elements to it and some very horrifying imagery, but I wouldn't consider it horror per se. But that's probably the closest I could think of of a long running show that had horror elements to it.

Yeah, because even stuff like Stranger Things, where it's like, yeah, there's horror stuff going on, but it's not like a horror show.

It's not the whole genre. I think we're realizing like yeah, it's just a very difficult genre to do in a long running format.

Sorry. With it being as popular as it is, I'm sure some of our listeners at least probably really enjoy it. And if you do, I'm sorry that this was our experience of it. I just wanted to see some gore and I knew we probably wouldn't in the first three episodes.

But even with hellgirl, because I watched a few episodes of that when it was airing because a buddy of mine was really into it. That's kind of the same thing where it's anthology where it's just like each episode focused on certain characters, then you see what happens to them, but then hellgirl is a character like in another and then there's like a weird group of spirits or devils. I don't really remember what they were, ghosts or whatever that were with hellgirl. So that's the ensemble cast of hellgirl and they're the main group who interact with new random side characters every episode. So then you see Hellgirl's overarching Story so they couldn't do just an anthology series where it's episodic each time and self contained stories. Like there is an overarching Story with the titular girl, hellgirl. And I don't know, I dropped it after three or four episodes so you can see how captivated I was. But I don't know, maybe it does have a loyal fan base like this one does.

Yeah, it does. I want anime horror to be so bad because I feel like it could be good.

Like that's the thing. It's it's the sorry.

Like a cursed town. That sounds fun. There's but 26 episodes of it.

Yeah, that's a bit much. You can't oversee the welcome and there's so much that can be done really well. There's so many moments in anime and different shows that is horrifying. There are very chilling moments of episodes but it it, you know, it kind of can't linger there or they just runs out of steam. So it's really difficult. But I mean, there's so much great horror manga but I don't know, I guess it doesn't translate well when it's in motion. But they're doing uzumaki, which is one of jita's most famous works and I even have a manga of it and I don't like horror. I'm a big old pussy. But I got a copy of it and it's genuinely very upsetting to read. I tried reading it on a plane and I could not because I was in public and ashamed of it. But it is good. It is very well done and at least the teasers I've seen of it seem great. But I am curious if it has the same impact of reading it at my own pace in manga versus seeing it like presented to you at a different pace in animation.

I hope it's good. I want it to be good so bad because I'm I've never read it. I need to read it.

You've moved. But I was going to say I can let you borrow it.

I've moved.

But, yeah, it looks good. And hopefully it's better than the last June it took a collection because that was very bad.

Yeah. Well, we aren't there. If you were a horror anime that you want us to try yeah, if.

You listener, we always ask for requests, but we need to solve a case.

This is a big screen horror anime.

It doesn't need to be super long running. We just need a solid example of a horror show that is not we'll say, like, more than, like, six episodes because at that point, it's like long movie length short film.

Yeah.

So if we can get a recommendation to break the slump, to say, hey, there are good horror anime series out there, that is not paranoia.

We already watched that parasite. Already watched it.

Yeah. We need those recommendations and you can send them to us through our email. Are we there yet@gmail.com? Or you can reach out to us on Twitter. Instagram. Are we there yet? On both. You can find me on Twitter and Instagram at Mr. Patrick dugan.

You can find me on Instagram at queen. Period weebu and on twitter at queen underscore weebu and queen underscore weebu art.

You can find me on Twitter at aBTS brendan. It stands for almost better than silence.

Thank you to camille ruley for our artwork. And thank you to louie zong for our theme song stories. You can find all of louie's music at Louisong bandcamp.com. Thank you and we hope you'll join us next week as we learn to live with anime.

Maybe I'll just watch It 2017 for the 15th time.

I'll join Thanksgiving anime.

Key points.