AWTY 134 - The Vape Times (Daily Lives of High School Boys)

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

I'm an anime expert, dee hollander.

And I'm brenda mccullough. Your anime peter Parker just a plain, ordinary, average high school boy. yep. Don't ask any questions. Don't worry about it.

Nothing see here.

Nothing see here. I'm definitely just a super dorky fellow and isn't a six and a half foot tall model played by intro garfield. And I'm just down all my lunch one.

Are you fine?

Yeah.

You have to be more specific.

I mean, the only good one is into the spiderverse. Now that that's come out and just wipe the floor of all other previous.

Spiderman movies, peter B. Parker supremacy.

Oh, God.

He's my favorite Peter Parker.

It's so refreshing. It's something different. We're not here to talk about spiderman.

I'm here to talk about Peter B. Parker.

We're not watching this spiderman anime as much as I can.

Yeah, you open the gates to give D the opportunity to turn this into the Peter B. Podcast to talk about.

My favorite mid 30s sad man. Honestly, I wish he was chubbier. What a guy.

He's goals. Not goals I want, but goals. And I will very likely achieve goals nonetheless.

I'm all my way inevitable.

It is my death.

Hey, dee. Giving you an opportunity to talk about something else. What do we have going on this week?

Yeah, this week we're watching the Daily Lives of High School Boys, which is a slice of life anime that I've heard a lot of good things about.

Based on the title, I assume it's a horror anime.

Probably. It came out in 2013. So yeah, within the last decade.

Relatively new.

Comparatively, I think.

Like I said, I've heard good things and I feel like most high school slice of life shows are about girls. So I think this is an interesting.

Change of pace because normally when you have a boy as the main character, it's usually because he has a superpower or a ghost inside him or something.

Yeah, but these are just boys.

Just boys. Presumably Brazil. We'll see.

Have either of you heard of this?

No, I've heard of it, but not.

Much like Ozumanga dio or Anichi Joe. I've seen clips and I think it seems pretty funny. So at least for what I've seen.

We'Ve also had shows where it's good in cliff form and bad and anything beyond that, those stories good. So we'll see.

Yeah, that's the extent of my knowledge on it.

I'm just hoping we're all working from a shallow pool of information. So we're just sputtering.

It's definitely going to have over the top comedic elements because if it is just the daily life of an advertised school, it's going to be boring as fuck. Like it's going to be real slow to the table. Yeah, there's got to be something on reddit shit posting.

Having some cheetos.

I think I understand nuclear physics better than an actual scientist. Get out of here, 14 year old.

Well, without further ado, shall we travel back to high school and relive possibly cringe worthy memories?

Oh, no.

Hey, look at that time. I got to be literally anywhere else. They're just thinking a fat rip on my face now. No.

We're back. That's it.

We're back. That's it. That's it.

Okay.

We'Re in.

I feel like our segues back into the episode are just you guys beating me into saying something dumb.

We never bait you. We're just like, hey, do you have a thought? And you're like, Something dumb, you say.

I didn't say that. I didn't say that.

No.

Well, I mean, taking a fat rip of a vape is pretty good for high school boys.

Yeah, it seems to wind up thematically correct. Probably a little. The show was a little before the vape times, but they would catch up.

The vape times.

These boys would definitely try it at least once.

Sure. Find yourself walked around downtown, and it just smells like a circus exploded nearby. It's someone vaping that's the cotton candy sent.

Cotton candy and mango.

Let's go together.

So in episode one, we have toda cooney on his way to school. He's got toast in his mouth.

Classic.

He's late. His friends He, Denori and yoshi. I just kept calling him yoshi. yoshi takay.

Every letter in his name is doubled up. So it's like, two o's, two S is two i's.

Yeah. They got some long names, so they run up beside him, one's eating curry, the other's eating ramen. So, like, casual.

Casual breakfast on the.

Go really sets you up for what this show is going to be. So then there's a big explosion, and some robots come out of nowhere, and there's going to be an adventure. And then it all stops. And toda kuni and yoshi tacke yell at Hidanori for putting himself in the middle of the story, and it turns out they were just using their imagination. And Hidanori wants this to be an action anime. And toda kuni is like, no normal life. This is a slice of life anime. Yeah. So this is super right off the bat.

Yeah, super.

Just super meta right off the bat.

Yeah. So this is in segments like most slice of life anime. And the first one is them role playing. They're helping toda cooney talk to a girl. And I love the support.

The friendship.

Yeah. Where Heat and ori is just, like, painting the picture. He's like, you're in the classroom. It's after school improv.

I wasn't prepared.

Yeah.

For initiative.

Yoshi Take is playing the girl that Tatakuni is going to confess to. But then, just as he's about to do it, he, Denori, comes in as a female teacher trying to seduce tada kuni. He has failed the simulation. Start over.

Tight to square one.

So this time, the blond boy is playing more of a blond boy. That was before I knew the names yoshi take.

I had blond boy in my notes, so we can switch.

I called them tata, Hide and yoshi. But yeah, so blond boy, he's playing more of, like, a stubborn class president, and glasses boy does not like that card again. And Tata kuni is tired of this game, but he starts to take it seriously. He's like, so which one should I go for? The shy girl or the stubborn class president? And his friends are suddenly tired of this role play, but he has one more trick up his sleeve. He goes for the class president and grabs blonde boy's hand, and they just run through the house. And glasses boys like, yes, this is great. Take her to your future.

True love exists.

And then they're exhausted, and they just end up back in toda cooney's room. And he's like, I wanted you to see this view, but they're just, like, looking at a wall. And he's like, fuck you, dude. And then it's revealed that they go to an all boy school, so none of this matters anyway.

They don't need to practice. It'll never happen.

Next up, blonde boy asks about a test, and Todd cooney complains that they're still at his house. He denori, moves to leave, but then pauses, and he turns to the blonde boy, and he says, what do you think of skirts? What's your opinion on skirts? And then they start arguing about the length of skirts, and the blond boy seems to think that they're too short. One of them thinks that they're too short. They're like, that can't be comfortable. And Todd cooney is like, please don't argue about this. And then He denoy is like, don't you have a sister? Can we borrow some of her skirts? And they're like he's like, no, please don't. You absolutely cannot. But it's too late. Blond boy has already taken some, and he also grabbed some of her undies by mistake. But never fear, he left his in return. So they're going to try on the skirts. They want to know how it feels. So after a lot of commotion, they go to separate rooms to try them on, and they all come out, and toda cooney is the only one who actually put it on.

Got him to bait it.

Got him. And then blond boy is like, you could make money off of that.

You look good.

You look great. And he sits on the floor and poses. He's like this. And they're like, yeah, that's great. And then his sister gets home, and she opens the door to his room, and she sees him putting on her bra, and they're like, it's not what it looks like. And she's like, don't stop on my account. Absolute freaks.

You've committed this far.

Next.

Yeah, just real quick, I think this it doesn't feel, like, malicious or anything bad. It's just, like, very honest childhood curiosity.

Exactly.

Hey, guys, I'm kind of embarrassed, but let's try on skirts and just, like, a very playful interaction. So at the start of the segment, I was like, Where are we going? And then it ended up I was like, oh, I feel so good. Okay.

This year it's great because they genuinely just wanted to know what it was like to wear a skirt.

It wasn't a perfect friend for looking so good in a skirt. Yeah.

It'S concerning Glasses Boy. Solo.

Yes.

Yeah. Glasses Boy talks about time you saw a cute girl at a restaurant, and when she left, there were three chopsticks on her plate, and the other boys freak out. Then, blond boy. This is the clip I have seen. Blond Boy tells a story about having hairy nipples, and one day he decides to try and shave them, but he shaved off his nipple by accident. He's like, do they grow back? Because I'm down one.

I'm missing one. I don't use it that often, but I like symmetry.

Yeah, I liked the idea of having them both. Then it's tada kuni's turn. They're all just telling spooky stories. So he talks about how he went to a friend's house the other day and they drank too much, and he took his friend to the bathroom to barf. And when he barfed, there was a worm in it. And his friends hate that. Glasses Boy and Blonde Boy are like, are you fucking kidding me? Like, it's the worst thing they've ever heard. They get up to go to the bathroom to also throw up, and Tatakuni's sister is already in there. She has, like, food poisoning, and they all throw up together, bonding.

The thing was, she was listening in through the door and also was so grossed out, she had to puke.

I thought they asked her why she was throwing up, and she said something about seaweed chips.

It's after they start throwing up, and they look at their throw up, they see the seaweed chips she ate earlier.

Yeah, it happens in a later episode that she's just seriously listening in on all their conversations.

But it turns out toda cooney made it all up. But there's no way he could say that.

Now, I don't expect to see it a lot in anime we've watched, but I was kind of surprised. It took over 100 episodes of this podcast to get a collective vomiting scene.

I don't want to dwell on this because I hate throw up.

Yeah, we'll move on.

So next, Glassesboy gets to class. He and Blond Boy are wondering where toda Cooni is, and they look outside and freak out because Tatakooni is walking to school with a girl. Everyone hurries to look because if you'll recall, they're at an all boys school, so they must see this girl. Then the delinquent of the class shows up, and he looks out the window, and he's like, well, based on their body language, their relationship either isn't very good or they just met and they aren't actually going out yet. And then he tells everybody to maximize their virgin power. And I was like, okay, sure thing. And then they go outside and meet Tatakuni to intimidate him. I don't know what the plan was, but it turns out yeah, I think maybe they were going to try and make him fight them to look good. Like maybe they were going to lose in a fight. I don't know.

As a former high school boy, I can assure you that they don't know what the plan was either.

But it turns out he was just giving this girl directions to the train station, and everyone is shocked. And then the delinquent boy is like, well, how was I supposed to know? We were all listening to you, man.

You were the leader.

You have a 05:00 shadow.

So next, there's a girl with long hair, and she's reading while walking. So quirky glasses glasses Boy laying on the grass near a riverbank and reading as well. And he gets up to leave because it's too windy. And she sees him, and he sees her. And then they stare at the river in silence. And this is the first of at least two bits where Glasses Boy, it's just Glasses Boy in his head overthinking the whole situation. And I think it's fucking hilarious that he's just like, yeah, he's just sitting there like, what do I say? What do I do? What is she expecting?

There are some aspects of the show. Sorry, I'll let you get into it, and then I'll explain afterwards.

Okay. But yes. He wonders why she's sitting there right near him when she could sit anywhere else. Should he talk to her? About what? Maybe she thinks it's going to be like a romantic Meat Cute. He looks back at her and she's blushing. And he's just like, this isn't a special moment for me. I kind of feel bad. He's like, I'm only here because my other friends had their jobs. But he's like, maybe I should fulfill her romantic dreams. So out loud, he says, the wind, it's troubled today. And immediately in his head, he's like, I hate that I said that. I want to die.

That sucks so much, you fucking dip shit.

That was the cordialt ass bullshit.

That felt like the most human line of dialogue we've ever seen in an anime.

Yeah, but she seemed to like it. So she stands up and says some poetic reply about the wind, and she walks closer, and he just wants her to leave. So he pulls out his phone and he's called his friends. He didn't even have to look.

He was like, I need them with an sos out.

So Blonde Boy comes very quickly and he says some random shit about the wind. And he sees the girl, and he blushes. And the girl seems way too happy about that. She's like, oh, yeah. And then he keeps saying cryptic shit about the wind. And then toda cooney shows up and ruins the mood by saying something about potato chips being half off at the convenience store.

It's me.

And it's at this point the girl gets pissed off and beats him up and she drops all of her stuff and it turns out she wrote a novel and was just trying to make a scene come true. So glass's Boy is reading that and he gets really upset that he fit her description of a lonely otaku.

She's not wrong.

And that's episode one. That's where that ends.

But yeah, I will see another scene in the next episode that also gives me a similar feeling. But there's a phenomenon that helps reframe things. I feel this mostly from the movie Cabin in the woods that just really helps you restructure every horror movie without spoilers. But if you know, you know. But now watching this, this reframes most anime in my eyes because I assume if you feel like any inner monologue of any main character because just all these characters just pull out the most eloquent poetry and just like these are like long monologues and meanings and stuff. But just like hearing the internal monologue of being like, I immediately regret that. That was the corniest and bullshit that just helps so much of like, this character is trying to be cool. I'm sure they're kicking their own ass in their head being like, no, this villain isn't intimidated by that quip.

Oh, fuck. It's why some of my favorite shows have just friends immediately dog piling on their other friend for saying something so out of character of like, why did you say that? You're not a philosopher. What are you talking about?

Yeah, that's what's fun about Slice of Life. I feel like that happens a lot. One of them will say something poetic and then the other one will be like, that was the dumbest shit I've ever heard.

You're not in an anime, stupid.

I think it also helps. It wasn't planned, but that we watched this one so much later in the podcast because it does well as a parody. If you already know what it's parody. One punch. Man, like, this would be a bad first anime. But now that you know the tropes, now you can like, get the jokes.

Yeah, but yeah. So we pick up in episode two mower sketches. Yeah, we see the boys walking home from school and every boy's Dream finding the perfect stick to sword fight with. So, yeah, I didn't really take a note of their names. So main Boy, he's the only one I refer to.

I got protagonist blonde and glasses.

Yeah, that's what I had. Main boy picks it up. He's like, oh, cool. And one of the glasses boy has an umbrella. So they're like, Ha. All right, that was for fun for a second. Now let's just keep on going. But the friends are in too deep. They start role playing. They're like, yes. The legendary sword fighter with a tragic backstory. He's like, no, that's in too deep.

I don't want it's over.

I'm out.

But they're like, no. I am the legendary fighter. Jack. I have joined your body. We must destroy the castle. He's like, guys, no. We know people on these streets.

We can't be doing I live here, please.

But they just keep going. It blonde boy pretends to be the enemies. They all have the same poses. But as they get to the end of this role play, they realize, oh, fuck, we dropped our backpacks when we found this cool stick. Oh, no, we have to go pick it up. So they drop the stick and just run back to get it. But then the class bad boy and his friends walk by, and they also start playing with the stick because, yeah, we're teen boys. We just want to play swords.

Yeah, we love sticks.

But of course they get super into it. And then a girl walks by and they're like, oh, fuck. We know people on these streets. We can't be doing this. So next sketch. What's a good transition?

I don't know.

Several opportunities to find one, but moving on. So apparently two of the friends work at a pizza place. Okay. But, yeah, they get to work. They have one other coworker who is like, I assume, like, a college or just like an adult woman. Not a high schooler, I assume. And they're talking to her and like, hey, you've seen it, all right? You're an adult. What do high school girls like? And she's just so over it. She's like, I'm here to work. I'm not here to give you advice. So she's like, if you're cute, I guess tell them if you say you like them, they'll like you, but you have to be cute. I don't know. And then they just immediately start talking about themselves, being like, oh, the girls will never like me. blah, blah. She's like, hey, I got a fucking question for you two. Why do high school boys always just fucking talk about themselves?

Chill out.

You're at work. Please make pizzas.

Please. I have a delivery. It's getting cold. But they're like, hey, it's fine. You can be cute too. I mean, you're not, but you could work on it.

That was me in high school. You're not cute, but you'll get there.

Come on, just stick with a gym.

I'd be a very cute girl. I don't know how to take kind of nice.

I don't know.

They sure. But I'm not. So am I not a cute boy?

Am I a pretty girl?

But of course. She's like, what the fuck?

I'm being roasted by these tools I.

Can'T even imagine as a 24 year old. Fucking high school boys being like, Were you cute?

I can find someone. Keep your chin up.

An engaged 24 year old person, you'll find someone.

Yeah, just stick with it.

She's like, hey, look at that mirror over there. And they look over and she takes off her glasses. And weird, she is cute. She's just at fucking work and isn't putting in put out cute vibes. So she's like, hey, here's a sweet, like, anime girl pose. Fuck you. Now deliver the goddamn pizza and get.

Out of my face.

So as they're leaving, they're like, I wonder if we'll ever see that girl in the mirror again.

Fucking idiot.

Next segment. Hanging out at main boy's house again. And the sister is like, hey, you motherfuckers. I'm missing more underwear. Can you stop? You had fun for a minute, but now you're actively like destroying my property by stretching out my underwear. Can you stop? They're like, oh, no. We only did it the once. We honestly don't know where it went this time. But then blonde boy sees in this conversation, one of them is wearing a bra.

Why would they choose to wear a bra? That's like the least comfortable girl I ever wear.

Yeah, I don't get it.

But an interesting choice.

But they're like, don't worry. We're going to stake out the clothing line. Someone's obviously stealing it. So they go hide in the bushes and look. And blond boy is just like, we're in too deep. How do I tell them I know? Wait a minute. Glasses boy, you're also wearing a bra. God damn it. But later on, he's like, okay, it's too awkward for me to bring it up. I'm going to bite a bullet and takes a pair of panties off the clothing line and just puts it on his head. And then everyone comes out and they're like, oh, you're the pervert. And he's like, yes, I martyr me. So he's just ready. And of course, the other two boys just throw them under the bus. They're like, you fucking disgusting pervert. That's my sister, you monster. She comes out and just kicks the shit out of him.

I like that. He's kind of conflicted, though. He's like, I got to beat some sense into those two and make them realize they shouldn't be stealing their sister's underwear. He's like, no. What would a true friend do?

Solidarity.

Yeah, it would go in deep with them no matter how bad their choices are. I was like, nah, man, don't do that. That's a bad idea.

Hit on him immediately when he takes the bullet and they throw him under the buff. He's like, oh, fuck you. I'm ratting you out. No, you're actively wearing bras.

Fuck you.

Next segment. Okay, so a real quick one. We're back on the riverside. Oh, we see the girl. She's sitting she's sitting by the river reading. And we see bad boy walk up. He's like goes over and says something poetic about the wind. There's a silence and he walks away. And then we hear in his head, oh, fuck. I thought that was my sister. I just embarrassed myself. Stranger.

Goddammit. Oh, no.

His sister is like, hey, I stepped.

Out of the shop.

He's like, we have to get out of here.

We got to go now.

Go, go, go.

Next segment. So it is like the school cleaning day where it's festival. It seemed more involved than just like a volunteer activity. But there's like a theme day where students go down and clean up trash around town. Be helpful. But the main boys are like, that sounds dumb. We don't want to do that. But there's like a pamphlet for the activity. And they look through it and they're like, hey, wait. No. Part of this trash pickup day involves a 70 hours fast. That can't be right. That's too much. What's going on there? Oh, yeah. We're also introduced in this segment to a Hat Boy.

He's just hat boy.

One of their classmates, he wears a white hat calling him Hat Boy. That's all he is.

Perfect.

My favorite part about the scene is when Hat Boy walks up and gives him the pamphlet, like, hey, you guys got to clean up too. Like everyone else in school, blobboy and glasses are just like climbing on top of each other and making it a total bowl and just being assets. And it's like, I'm glad it's just constant. Even if they're not on screen, assume they're doing something dumb. And it's like, great, fantastic, perfect.

But yeah. So they're like, 70 hours fast. This sounds weird. Let's go talk to the principal because we need to know why this is a part of the thing. So they go into the principal's office. He's a very serious man. So they're like, hey, what's up with this 70 hours fast internal monologue of the principal? Fuck, I don't know. I've only been working here for three years. I can't admit that to students. I have to be an authority figure. Okay, time. Dramatic anime speech. Time. Okay. This was the other scene that was like, ah, yes. Everyone is much more confident presenting than they are in real life. Everyone is bullshitting all the time.

Yep.

So he's like, ah, the 70 hours fast. The year was 1984. He walks over to a bookcase to pictures, and he's just like, dramatically leaning looking at it. He's like, 1984. The school was in trouble. We were low on enrollment, and we were at risk of being shut down. But the valiant principal, as all principals are valiant, went before the school board and filibustered for 70 hours arguing why the school must stay open. And due to heath's sacrifice, the school did stay open. And we honor him with a 70 hours fast. And they're all like, oh, wow.

So noble.

Great. But then one of the boys reading the pamphlet is like, cool. It says here the school was found in 1989, so that did not happen. So they're all like, fuck, it's so good. Yeah, it's it's just so fun. It's so good. This is a show next segment. So we get ghost stories. Part two.

Yeah.

So they're going around ones like, I was brushing my teeth and I found a super long white eyebrow hair. And the other boys are like, that's not bad. Okay, so next boy is like, i, too, was one day getting ready in the bathroom, and then I felt a sharp pain. And then I got a nosebleed for a second, but then it stopped. They're like, yeah, that's also not really that scary.

It's a low try.

Okay, so Main Boy is like, oh, I got a scary story. You know Hat boy. Well, one day I was on school. He didn't realize I was there, and he took his hat off. And the things I saw changed my life. And the other two are like, what? What did you see? What did you see? It's like, I cannot say. So they sprint out of the house and we're like, we got to find this dude and see what's under his hat. We need to know right now. And the sister also eavesdropping again, is like, I'm joining you because what the fuck? What's under his hat? So they just find Hat Boy and chase him down. And once again, Main Boy is like, well, it's too late to tell him I made up that story too.

Poor hat boy.

But yeah, we didn't mention it. I loved it. The end of the first episode, the end credits song was a song with the dramatic lines that they were saying on the riverside. And it was so good. It was perfect. Just, like, genuinely making a good ending song out of the random bullshit they were making up about the wind. And it ends with them singing about the paid potato chips being half off. But then like, the regular N credit song that we see in the next two episodes is like a school play thing. It's fun. It's fine. But there was an mcredit scene where it was I didn't really understand. It was daily life of a lady. It was just like a weird sketch about a girl not wanting to go to school, and she's rich and her butlers are trying to give her excuses, and then she has a false tooth. It was weird. It wasn't as good as the rest. So, yeah, kind of a down note to end episode two on, but that's where we are.

I did like when her false tooth eventually did fall out, it was a running joke within the scene that she had one. And then it actually is true that the one butler that kept pressing her about the false tooth picks it up and then starts chasing the other two butlers around with it as they're grossed out by it. And it's just like, just everyone's an idiot. Just everyone's dumb as hell. And then we get episode three and it opens up with just a shot of the. Sky. And that's it. It's just one shot the whole time. And it's the boys talking about how they're going to tackle summer and what they're going to do with their time. And they're like, well, it's summer now, but most animes actually start in spring. That way they can introduce the new transfer student. You get the cherry blossoms. Yeah, but it's summer for us. But it's going to be winter when this is airing. And they're talking about the airing schedule of the show and how it's conflicting with the seasons.

It's already on the summer break episode, but it's way too early.

Yeah. And then they start planning on what they're going to do for their summer vacation. They get the opening and then we get first segment is summer plans. And we get Glasses Boy talking about how they're going to spend their summer vacation and pretty much how they're going to get a girlfriend or spend time with girls because they're pent up out at the all boys school. So they got to make the most of their free time when they can. And everyone's already glad. Boys just kind of tearing into everyone else like all the other guys in this group. You suck. We should get a new chairman for this group to dictate stuff like, yeah, let's get a better chairman. Let's get hat over here. He's good. All right, Hat boy. Bring him over. So they're discussing like, all right, well, we got to know what girls want if we got to spend time with them. It's like, wait, protagon. You got a sister. And right on queue, she's walking by the door. Little sister, if you had to date one of the guys in this group, who would it be? She's like, I don't know. He was like a boy. And he's like, ha ha. I'm the best. Come over here and sit on my lap. She's like, I'm going to beat your ass.

I take it back immediately. You're my nemesis now.

So she starts, like, fighting.

I love how willing she is to beat anybody's ass.

We see she has a lacrosse stick. She's going to beat ass. She starts fighting with him immediately. And glasses. Boy gets cocky. And he's like, all right, I'm chairman again. Let's figure out how we spend time with girls and segment. Now we cut to we're at the beach. We got the beach episode. Yeah, we got the montage of them hitting on girls at the beach and failing.

Yeah.

And then we notice Glasses Boy, like walk around. He sees like, a beach stands that sell an udon. And he sees after some of the girls reject him, they walk by and he notices that they have some of the udon. And he goes, wait, guys. I think I figured it out. Girls like men the same way. They like their noodles hot. And they all just start beating the shit out.

That was terrible.

I love that, though. That he's just like, we're not that's it? We're not hot enough.

Yeah. So then we cut to another site. Then at the hot springs. We got hot springs at a beach in one episode. hotshot.

Amazing. All the tropes I just knocked on my desk.

Sorry. And they're just walking out of the hot springs, and they're also talking about what Glasses like, they're telling the other guys in the group, like, Glasses said at the beach. He's like, oh, come on, guys. I was like, Get you guys like, shut up. And as they're walking out, they find a ping pong table.

Hell yeah.

And they're like, all right, we'll play ping pong, and we'll answer trivia questions whenever you hit a ball. And then whoever loses three times in a row gets a penalty. All right, great. What's the penalty? You're going to have to punch out the student council president. Agreed. It's like, oh, God. Okay. I don't know who that is, but I feel like it's not justified. So they start playing ping pong between, like, the five of them, and one of them is the delinquent guys asking questions as they play. He's like, cool. First round, name all the moons of uranus. And immediately they're hitting the balls back and forth. And everyone's like, titania. And all the other ones, I immediately forgot. And everyone's doing great. And then he gets the ball, flies through the protagon. He don't know him. He's dummy. So he loses the first one because he can't hit the ball because he doesn't know he can't answer the question, so he can't hit the ball. Shit. All right, round two. Presidents of foreign countries go. And the first two guys hit it right away, and they both know something. And he gets a blind boy. He just goes, Obama. And it goes to the protagonist. He goes, damn it. That was mine.

That's the only one I know.

And then protagon gets the ball. He's like, all right, I'll start this off. Countries that have moons on their flag. Malaysia. And it goes around to all the other guys, and they all know a country. And it gets back to the protagon. He's like, shit, I only knew one. It's more than I knew. So he fails again and ends up losing entirely. And he has to punch out the student council press. We don't see that, though, so I assume it happens. Next segment, we're back at the protagon house in class as a blond boy are pretending to have a radio show. And protex.

I love this so much. It was so stupid.

It was your podcasting.

Ah, there's nothing cute about podcast.

It just it just really reinforced, like, wow, these boys are just playing pretend a lot of the time.

Yeah, and it's not even like the fantasy pretend where it's like, oh, no, here's a dinosaur. And we see the dinosaur, like, destroying them. It's like, no, it's literally just I'm sitting in the serum talking back and forth. And that's it. And protagonist there, he's just sitting off to the side reading one piece or something. And so Glass is blowing blondie or pretending to do the podcast, pretending to do a radio show. And Glasses is like, the host. And he's like, all right, next up, we got our new guest. how's it going? And sends it over to blondie. And every time, blonde Boy is just dropping it, either not knowing his character or just not staying within the bit and just kind of breaking scene. He's like, oh, you're killing me here. He's like, all right, well, we got some listener questions. First stop, listener question is, how can or was it why do teen boys have bad attitudes towards their mothers? It's like, send it over to my guest. Blond boys. It's like, well, actually because mothers usually talk to teen boys either when they're giving them more chores to do around the house or when they're scolding them for doing something wrong. So mothers don't really take much of an initiative into their Team boy's life and their interest outside of obligations. So of course, with those the only two interactions they have, the Team Boy will naturally get a little callous towards their mother and be a little resentful. Class is just like, shit, dad's. A legit response.

That's a real answer.

That's a real response.

That was too real.

He's like, okay. Yeah. So next question. Why do team boys dress so sloppily? He says, like, they're walking around with collared shirts and slacks. Is that sloppy? Oh, no, I was walking around in cargo shorts and flip flops. I mean, I still am, but I also teen.

But since then, you've given up.

It's no longer ignorance on my part. It's conscious decision. And he sends it to a blood Blake, and he's back over to my guest. Can you answer that question? And he does. Well, naturally, it's the mother's fault for buying clothes that are too large. He's like, that's not really. Bloodboy is like you can actually rude out that. Most problems with teen boys can be traced back to their mothers who they were once part of. So naturally, all of their faults come from their mothers.

Blonde boys getting into some freudian shit.

Classes just like, okay, you going through something right now. What's happening here? Just like kind of like off float by Tarni's made it's like, well, I think we're going to end it there because we're going into a weird territory. Let's wrap up the show. What do you have to say? protagonists like a protagonist who does anything. He's like, goddamn, I watch a plan that bear with us. All right, we're finishing up the radio show. Thanks for tuning in, listeners. And it just ends. Just I'm like sitting at dance quietly.

Oh, it's so good.

And then next segment, we cut to them at a restaurant talking about how they have to make the most of summer vacation use all the time they got because it's so limited in their youth. So we get another montage. woohoo pants. We see them doing all, like the trophy summer vacation stuff. You see an anime, they're out in the woods catching bugs going on like haunted like ghost walks in the woods. They're like a summer festival, watching fireworks, eating ice cream.

All classic summer boy stuff. Hot boy summer.

Hot boy summer. And towards the end of it, we see classes just lounging in his house, watching TV. Those lazy days of summer where he got really nothing planned. And the phone rings and he answers it. And his buddy going like, hey, what are we going to do today? He's like, I don't know. Let me check the calendar. And he looks at the calendar and it's September. It's like September 4. He's like, oh, fuck. Summer has been over for a long time. So I think they were just like, still in the summer mode, even in school. We fucked up. Next segment, we see classes on a train going somewhere. And he notices the girl on the other side of the train by the doors. And he says he rides this train every day. And she gets on at the same station as him. And he always sees her. And he's always wanted to get the nerve to talk to her. But he's too scared. He's a coward. He says he wants to tell her. He wants to go up and talk to her about the mole on the back of her neck and how there's a hair sticking out of it. I was like, oh, he's going to ask her out or something? No, he's like this, man.

He could be asexual ace representation.

He's mostly just an idiot. And I got to talk to her. I got to tell her. I'm like, that's one hairy mole. But I'm scared to talk to her. And I got to get over my team and get over my shyness. And he does. So we see him at school talking to a friend, like outside of gym. He's like, what do I do to work up the courage to talk to her? A friend is like, nah, man. No, don't do that. She might not see it as a courtesy that you see it as of like, hey, you got a big old hairy mole on your neck. You take care of that.

Can I point out a feature you might be self conscious about?

And he's like, I don't know. All right. I'll think about it. So we see him back on the train. He starts wondering. I'm like, why has no one told her about this? It's so obvious. Someone had to have told her about this mole. If she's had anyone in her life that cares about her wait, maybe she doesn't have anyone in her life to care about her. Maybe she's got no friends or family. Maybe she's all alone. And this hairy mole is the proof of her loneliness. She's just so she's so oblivious to it because she has no one's to point it out. Maybe I could be the one to point it out for her, to give her some sort of relationship that cares about her and tells her to these things. He's like, I'm going to do it. I'm going to tell her. And he walks up next to her on the train and grabs the handle next to her, but he can't do it. He lost his nerve when he got up close to her, but he's so much closer now. He's starting to second guess himself. And all of a sudden, the train stops and she gets off. And we see we hear him yell out, hold on a minute. And she turns around. He got off the train with her, and he's just standing there. And eventually he works at the Nerve. He tells her, hey, that mole on your neck's got a hair out of it. Coming out of it. She's like and then she laughs a little and thanks him and then leaves. And we just see him standing there at the station by himself. And he's like, seriously worrying way too much about something so foolish.

We've been taking the same train route.

For years, built up this mental relationship that does not exist. Fun fact, if there is a head hair growing out of a mold, it means it's not cancerous. So it's a good sign. It's still gross. You might want to shame it. But yeah, I'm riddled with that. I've had a lot of dermatologists. And then yeah, as is standard, we got a post credit scene. We got a group of high school girls all hanging out in one of their houses. And one of them is like, hey, how do you think he'd get a boyfriend? And then the other high school girl just starts beating the shit out of her. It's like, oh, my God. She's like, how dare you ask something so shameful? So, like, we don't talk about boyfriends here. That's shameful. It's like oh, Jesus. Okay, if you insist. So they're just hanging out and they're like, what do you want to do? We got to find something to do. And the girl that beat up the other one, the aggressive girl, is like, we're high school girls. We can do anything. And it'll be wildly popular, and we'll make a ton of money. We've lost enough anime to know that's true.

Girl boss.

And she's saying we can do anything. We're high school girls. We're at the peak of society. We're the best that there is. Not like high school girl, high school boys watching them do something. God, that would suck. How boring and lame would that be to watch high school boys just do random, everyday stuff? And one of the girls says, like, hey, wait a minute. You got a brother, and he wears a school uniform. Let's try on his school uniform. It'll be silly and funny because we're high school girls and it's charming. Like yeah. So they wear one of the brothers, like, school uniforms, and they're just, like, horse around, like throwing each other around in that. And then the brother walks in and like, oh, hey, why are you wearing my clothes? That's episode three.

Here we are.

Yeah.

Are we there yet?

Yeah, this was a lot of fun. It is so nice to see a story centering around high school boys, even though they are constantly talking about how to get girls. It doesn't feel gross and malicious. Yeah, it's just very nice that there's still innocence. That there's still just like your horribleness is not the center focus of your personality.

You say innocence, but one of them was wearing panties on his head.

I mean, yeah, but still they weren't like, this is my fetish now. They're just like, hey, look, these don't go here. Isn't the silly? And he was like, oh, yes, let me bite the bullet. Let me do something disturbing to honor.

My homies, to bond with my friends even at the expense of my own.

Yeah, I like that they talk about girls every once in a while in a segment, but it's mostly just them being so dumb. And I love that that it's the daily lives of high school boys. But it's not always the nasty shit. It's just them doing the dumb shit that high school boys sometimes do.

Yeah, just like the naivete of, like, I couldn't tell you how a girl functions, so I'm going to speculate about it wildly for my entire adolescence.

That's fair. That is what teenage boys do. I think a lot of them, like, you guys talked about the inner monologues of people freaking out, even the principle of like, fuck, man, I've only been here three years. I don't know. Those were the longer segments, I think, overall. But they were funnier because they have the longer running joke.

Yeah, they can do extremely short sketch as well. They can do longer sketch as well. It's just a really good polished product for something just so trivial, so gentle, so light. They didn't need to make it as good as they did, but they did.

A very well done slice of life.

You could have done less. You didn't need to go this far.

Yeah, it's fun that it's not outlandish, really. Just that first moment where there's the robots, but then the rest is just like, no, that's not what this is.

It seems to ride the line between nietzsche Joe, which is, like, super over the top atlanders where a robot is one of the characters and there's like a six year old mad scientist. And the other one that you mentioned earlier did Izumanga dia manga dio, which was very mild, very milk toast. Like, really, nothing happens here. Yeah, so this was like a good intermediate of it's zany wacky characters, but it's in a Muntane world.

It was good, but yeah, this episode is a little short. I'm not going to put you on the spot. If you would like to join me in this bit, you can. But since we're talking about the antics of dumb high school children, if you have so many terms dumb antic stories. Brendan, this seems like you're hold on.

Hey, wait a minute.

But yeah. So let me tell you a little story. This was probably the stupidest way I ever got in trouble in high school. So I was in science class. There was just, like, laws of physics demonstration. There was, like, a wooden circle, like a hoop and stick for old fashioned things, just like a wooden circle sitting on top of a glass flask. And there was, like, a piece of chalk, and the gimmick is like, oh, it's inertia. If you pull the ring away, the chalk will just fall straight down into the jar. And it's like, oh, cool. A fun little demonstration. This was, like, the fun teacher, so I was able to relax myself a little bit more. We had fun. So me and my very genius scientific mind went through the transitive property. If I throw a binder at this wooden ring and knock it out of the way, I can just trick shot this chalk into the jar. So naturally, I threw a binder at it and shattered the glass.

There it is.

Oh, my God.

Because we were goofing around, this was, like, the fun class. We're not learning anything. We're like, hey, look at this cool chalk trick. So I threw this, and then the teacher was like, Too far. I was like, oh, no. Immediately got it. So I had to, like, write a paper on, like, how stupid that was. And yes, I immediately, as soon as it left, my hand recognized. Oh, this was a dumbass thing to do. But there we are. There's some dumb antics. Does anyone else have a story? I, again, don't want to put you on the spot.

Yeah, I was a pretty boring high schooler. Honestly, I didn't do anything remarkable. I did stage a coup in my anime club one time.

Okay, here we go. The story we're hearing now, I feel.

Like the story isn't that excited. It's just that the actual president was never there. So there was one club meeting where I was like, is it okay if I'm the president? And everyone was like, yeah, you do way more than they do. So they decided I would be the president. And then the other, the person who was previously the president, got really upset about that. And then the teacher called me a bully.

They weren't there.

Yeah, but anyway, show up to defend yourself.

You can't. You're not here.

So that's interesting enough. But the story about some high school boys that did a really terrible thing at my school. There was a tree in our quad that was very big and had been there for a very, very long time. And some senior boys I forget what your eye was. I was either a freshman or a sophomore. They decided that for their own little personal senior prank, they were going to chop the tree down. So they snuck into the school to chop it down, and it fell very close to the school's electrical room.

Ooh.

So they almost fucked shit up real bad. So they got in a lot of trouble. So that was a fun little thing that happened at my high school. I have fun stories about the teachers, but that's irrelevant.

But yeah, stage duc and my animal about the youth.

Yeah, that's what I did. I staged daku in my anime club and some dumb high school boys chopped down a tree.

Let's see. I'm pretty shameless about stuff I've done. We had, like, a study hall in my school, and you had to sign up for it so you could go to a teacher if you need extra help. And I just went to the same teacher every day for four years straight. And then all my buddies started joining. And we ended up being really good. It's weird to say good friends with his teacher, but we would, like, pretty much hang out with them every day. And as a senior gift for when we graduated, we built him a lifeguard stand so he could sit in it while kids are taking tests and throw tennis balls at them if he saw them cheating. My buddy also sold him his sega genesis. And I found this out because in the middle of my math class with another teacher, this teacher kicked in the door saying, hey, look what I got, and held up the sega genesis he just bought off the student. I love teachers like that trashcan painted like R. He just walked around the school one time with it, like, on a leash making beeping noises.

Wow.

What is this guy?

Who is this man?

Yeah, he's definitely that weird teacher. If you haven't had him, he's a lunatic. If you hadn't had him, he's one of the best teachers ever.

What kind of teacher was he?

He was social studies teacher, but I was, like, freshman, so it was real low stakes. Yeah, that's another teacher where I was like I had a higher level math. Yeah, in hindsight. I didn't do shit in high school. It was all my teachers and friends. As a higher level, like, junior year history class, it was like an AP or something. So there wasn't that many of us, and we're, like, talking about a serious big event in history. And then the gym teacher just comes in, sits down, eats a full plate of chicken wings, and then leaves. Because he was like he was, like, buddies with that teacher. So he's like, I can fuck around. You have the smaller class. Like, I don't have to worry about getting in trouble. And it's just like, God, what a.

I love public school.

That gym teacher. I also gave him my old Xbox 360 games, and then I didn't have to take the final in gym class, so I guess I bribed him interactively.

Perfect.

Believe it or not, I actually got student of the month for gym class because of that guy, because I was just talking to him about comic books and video games.

Love it.

Yeah. All the other stuff I can't really talk about on a public recorded podcast.

Yeah, it's hard looking back and being like, oh, yeah, all these fun memories are problematic. Now, let's not delve too deep into the life of actual teen boys. But yeah, we had some fun. We had some fun times with this remedy.

Light hearted good.

Chuckles. So, Brendan, are we going to keep the good times going next week? Are we going to keep the good.

Times going next week? No.

Next week is my birthday.

No.

So not only is it my pick, but it's also my unabashed, not shameful pick. We're watching a movie. It's called dance. O. It's going to be a bad time for you, too.

We already we were going to watch.

It, we were going to watch it.

But decided it was too bad for whatever week it was.

So now that we've had some we've had some levity, we've had some good times, some good vibes.

Sorry. I hate this show. This was so bad. Cancel all of these boys for their crime.

They have to pay for my crimes.

Oh, good.

Yeah. It's going to be a trip.

Well, listener, there's an anime you think is a trip. You can send your recommendations to us. Our email is areweevariat@gmail.com. Or you can reach out to us on Twitter or Instagram at arewave there yet? On both. You can find me on Twitter and Instagram at Mr. Patrick dugan and listen to my fiction podcast echoed locations.

You can find me on Instagram at honey. Period d on Twitter at honey d eight and honey d art or on twitch at honey d. And Honey is spelled H-U-N-N-I-E. You can find me on Twitter.

Abts. Brendan it stands for Almost Better Than Silence, which is a video game podcast I also do. We actually just hit our 400th episode.

Wow.

Did we do anything special for it?

I don't know.

We'll find out together.

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

My theater teacher embezzled money. Oh.

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