AWTY 85 - Alfred Molina's "The Scream" (Another)

Good morning, Ray. Good morning.

Hello and welcome to our weave video area. An exploration in education and anime. I'm your anime idiot, patrick dugan.

I'm an anime expert, dana hollander.

And I'm brenda mccullough. Your anime, unexplicable traumatic small town event like the dancing plague of 1518, do.

You do research for that one?

We don't talk about that.

We don't talk about the incident, not since 1518.

I was so hoping you would say your anime. DJ khaled.

Why another one?

You know what? That's better. I wish I went with that channel.

I only know him from one viral news story and I was like, I don't think we should do that.

Yeah, he sucks.

No, he sucks.

I know very little about him. I know much more about very obscure, weird traumatic events from 500 years ago than the DJ.

DJ khaled has two things. One, another one. Two, he doesn't eat his wife's pussy.

So he's garbage.

Garbage.

You know what I'll say it DJ call. It is not invited on this show. We will never invite him.

I don't care how much he loves me.

Rudo.

Fuck you.

That's not the direction I thought this opening would go. I think I can safely say that.

Did you think it would go in another direction? Transition. What are we watching anyway?

We're going to watch an anime that I found on a I think it was a top ten horror anime list called Another. I've been craving some spooky, scary horror gore, so I went in search of one and this is what I found next.

It's been six months since Halloween. We need her fix.

Yeah, yeah.

It's halloween's half birthday, so we have to honor that.

I'm craving it.

Yeah. Brendan, do you know anything about this show?

I believe I've actually watched this one already. I say believe because I could not tell you anything about it.

Great sign.

I honestly don't even know if I've watched the anime or if I read the manga. I I know I've consumed the story at some point and I could tell you nothing. I don't remember anything. I don't know what happened at that point in my life, but that's gone.

Cool.

Yeah.

Strong, lasting impact.

Maybe I don't know, maybe it was too traumatic and I repressed it. I don't know.

That would be fun.

That would spicy.

Could you imagine you just watch an anime and like a sleeper agent, do.

You just activate just trigger something? Where are these pictures of me? In Rome. I don't remember being in Rome. Wait, when did this line up? Oh, no.

Oh, God.

It's coming back. Yeah, we come back from the break and I'm just screaming. I'm just screaming for like five minutes. It's almost a shirt that dugan knows nothing, but oh, yeah.

God, no.

Absolutely not. dana, have you heard about it beyond this list or like, anyone talking about.

It or anything like that?

Looking at the, like, art. I feel like I've seen that girl with the eyepatch before. But also it could be another girl with an eyepatch. That happens in anime. That should be on the bingo card, too. Girl with an eyepatch. It doesn't happen quite enough, but it's.

Hard when anime is like, yeah, let's give people distinct styles and have, like, funky hair and all that stuff and like, distinguishing features. But they have to do it so everyone has a wild distinguishing feature and then they start to blend together. It's like, oh, God, which eyepatch girl is this?

It's always like, spot the protagonist into any anime scene and it's like, oh, it's very clear. Except for, I think in Mob psycho, I've seen people do it online where they're just like, I genuinely don't know because mob is so plain looking. And then in my hero academia, because everyone's so bonkers in that show. So it's like, it could be any of these kids.

And they all are.

It is all important boys.

It ends up just becoming the main three by the end. Anyway, I still love my hero. I don't like I don't like that they drop the ensemble cast.

Boo.

Yeah, boo.

I haven't watched it.

Yeah, I haven't seen it since, like.

Episode four of this show.

So anyway, I've watched a lot of it, but not a lot of it in terms of how much there is now.

Yeah, I still like it, but I mean, I'm a sucker for superhero stuff anyway. Horror.

Yeah.

So, yeah, we're going to watch the first three episodes. Let's spoof it up.

Your spine.

The pace of this show is about this fast and I want to pull my eyes out.

Oh, boy. I was still looking forward to what you were about to say. For some reason, in my mind, I was like, teeth.

Oh, no. I gave that intro thing more interesting things to look forward to than the show did.

I felt suspense.

I want to pull out my small intestines. ooh, that's an organ most people don't go for. Well done. Well done.

It's long, but yeah. This is almost an hour of the one conversation in the horror movie of don't go up on that house on the hill there, you see? But for an hour.

Where are we?

Yeah, we have episodes where I feel like I've said, this episode could be half an hour. This is another one because it's just the same thing. It's another again until something else happens.

Yeah, my notes. I literally stop taking notes for a bit because it is literally the same information we get in the info dump at the beginning of the first episode. Yeah, this will probably be quick because it's just the same thing. The same vague warnings about an old mystery.

Hey, guys, you want to talk about my hero academia again? I'm fine with that.

We can roll back to that after we talk about this.

Yeah, we'll see how much time is left on the clock.

Here we go. At the end of the episode to keep you around, listener, I'll make actual good horror recommendations. Here we go. For anyone who likes actual good horror recommendations. I mean, like, the four horror movies I actually like.

For anyone who actually likes this show. Sorry for what you're about to hear.

Yeah, well, I mean, this could be a fun one. People like when we get mad.

Hey, listener, we love you. We love you.

Hey.

If you, like, valid in your choices of media.

You're clenching your head. You're hurting me.

Stop shaking me.

So in episode one, we open on a damn and ominous music, and a guy is telling a story about someone named Misaki. She was popular, and after, they say, like, she was beautiful and she was good at everything. She was popular. And then after 9th grade started, she died, but she died in like an accident. And then one kid was like, but she's still at her desk. And then just from that day on, the whole class acted like she was still alive. And then the girl, whoever he's talking to responds, and it's like, that's kind of creepy. I feel like that's fun. Like a class that goes bonkers because they pretend that a student is still alive. That's cool and fun. That has promise, but we don't get to see any of that.

This is false hope.

Yeah. So they keep pretending she's alive until graduation. And then he's like, but there's more to this story. And then that's pretty much the extent of we hear of the story as well. For the rest of the three episodes.

This four minute info dump is just going to be regurgitated at least three times each episode for the next three episodes.

It's always ain't looking that bad now, is it?

Yes, it is.

I reach it different bad. Then we get the opening and I like all like the creepy dolls and stuff like that's fun. I was so like, oh, wow, this is interesting and fun. How good.

I'm so looking forward to this.

Yeah, I still have hope. And then we see a boy in a hospital. This is koi chi. He's our main character. He apologizes to his grandmother and she's like, it's okay, you are badly injured. And then he asks her if she told his dad, who is on a trip to India. And we hear that over and over again, too.

Can't really forget.

No, he's on a business trip to India, but his mother is dead. Dead parent club. And his grandma says that she hasn't told him. And he's like, okay, I want to tell him myself. And then his grandma is praising his father, saying like, oh, after your mom died, he's been so strong, pushing through, still working. And then there's another girl, and there's another girl in the room. Her name is racho. I think that's like, she can't I think this is like his mother's family. I think it's never established. Completely unclear.

Yeah.

Later on he asked her info about his mom, so he can't quite yeah, somehow related to the mom.

Yeah, but so she Raiko points out the high school that koi chi will be going to, and she's like, oh, public schools are a little different than private schools, but like, I'll help you fit in. So this is a rich boy, rich boy from Tokyo that's used to going to private schools.

Fancy lad.

Fancy lad. And then the nurse comes in with some kids from the school. And it is at this point that she establishes that he likes horror, because she comes in and she's like, oh, you're reading like a Stephen King book, Mr. Horror fanatic. And then she leaves with the students and we get EDA glasses girl and izumi that's her actual name, edie.

EDA leda EDA picnic.

But so they've brought him flowers and are there to welcome him. He was supposed to start on Monday, but then whatever happened to him happened. We still don't know what happened to him. And like, you hope it's something fun and spooky. In reality, he just has a collapsed lung.

I mean, he's in the hospital.

He's bad.

He's in the hospital. Do you hope that something fun happens?

Yeah, I hope something supernatural happens in it. But so he says he moved to this town for family reasons. And then EDA gives him a copy of the notes from the class and he starts to say something and then trails off. And then Easemi is like, can we call you by your first name? And he's like, yeah, whatever. And then she shakes his hand, and then she's like, are you sure you've never lived here before? And he's like, I think I would have remembered if I've lived here.

You think?

And then that night we see him going on the elevator, and there's a girl with an eyepatch in there, and they stand in silence and she's wearing a school uniform. So he asks her if she goes to the junior high, and she nods. And then he notices that they're going to the second basement. And he's like, what are you doing down there? And she's like, I have something to deliver to my poor other half. And then I was like, I bet it's the morgue.

Yeah. So we're clear here that she's like a ghost, right?

Yeah.

Everyone was like, oh, yeah, ghost.

Ghost.

Cool. So establish here Ghost for an intelligent not even an intelligent insulate on very thick. Just the average viewer can be like, okay, ghost is a ghost.

Cool.

Just need to firmly establish where we knew that was a fact.

Yes. The moment he walks in the elevator by himself. And then there's another girl, all of a sudden there ghost.

Yeah, but so this was my thing also about him in the elevator. Like, where was he going. He gets in and then doesn't press any buttons.

Yeah, I was thinking about that, too.

He's like, taking the ride.

He's like, you're going down to the second floor basement, are you? Because you didn't hit the button, man.

Where are you going? koi chi. But so she has a weird doll with her, and then she gets off the elevator, and he calls after her, and he's like, Wait, what's your name? And she's like, My name is Misaki mae. And you're like, Misaki, she's the ghostie. Even if you didn't get that in the elevator right away, her name is the name of the girl that died, and then it is the morgue. I'm a genius. And then we go to Koishi's house, and there's a bird. They have a pet bird that talks. And in the Japanese, it sounds like a bird, like imitating someone's voice. But in the English, they didn't do that one.

We should say this dub is not good.

Not good.

I don't know what you're talking about. I love four kids.

There's literally when the kids are talking to him in the hospital room, there's, like, long silences, and he just goes like, were you here to talk to me about something? It's like, you couldn't fix that? You couldn't find some way to make that work and not just be like, oh, we have to keep this awkward silence in here. We have to honor this.

It's essential to the plot.

It's the tone of the show. It's the uncomfortable I don't know.

No, this is just god, piss porcey wakes up.

He's getting a call from his dad, and his dad is wishing him luck on his first day at school. And then they talk about his collapsed lung, and he's like, It's not the end of the world. I had one when I was younger, and I'm like, Are collapsed lungs normal? Like, what is the stat? What are the stats on collapsed lungs? And then they're talking about whether or not they're hereditary. And I'm like, I don't know about that.

Maybe, like, weak lungs. Like, maybe there's a specific condition that results in a collapsed lung, but, like, collapsed lung itself isn't hereditary.

My best friend in high school had a collapsed lung, and his was because he was, like, six foot two and barely £160. He was a big spaghetti noodle. Yeah, it just couldn't support it because you're stretched so thin.

Yeah, well, I remember Olivia benson got a punctured lung, but that's because she was stabbed by a perp she was chasing in an episode of Law and Order. sdu sorry. Where are we?

I spoke yeah, slightly different.

But so his dad is like, don't worry about it. Enjoy your life. bye, son.

God, India is hot. It's so goddamn hot.

It's so hot. India is so hot. And then he talks to the bird. And then I'm like, the bird must come in later in the series, the bird must start saying something.

I mean, it kind of but anyway okay, good.

I'm smart. Wow. foreshadowing is my expertise. And then we see racho. It's like a flashback of raco giving him advice. And she's like, you got to follow the class rules. It's group over individual here. And the fourth rule is but we don't get to hear it ever. And then he talks to his grandpa, who is praying at, like, an altar, a shrine, and it's like, for his mom. So, yes, I suppose this is his mother's parents. Ritzko is his mother's name. And then he goes to school. He's being escorted to his class by a man with glasses. And Miss Mccami, she's the assistant homeroom teacher. She's a MILF.

Check.

Don't know if she has kids, but that's her type. And I think the other guy is the teacher. koi chi introduces himself to the class, and they're all super quiet. And then the teacher is like, if you all work together, you'll graduate in perfect health. And I'm like, wow, what a not weird thing to say at all.

You will have a punctured lung like this asshole over here, what a weak idiot.

And then he goes to his seat, and he sees me sucky. And she has the main character window seat, so she's important.

Damn that's. With his finger card.

And then, oh, this was my favorite part in the dub. A student goes up to him and says, are you all healed up? And he responds with, yeah, I do make any sense.

I didn't even catch that.

Where was the qct? That hello, hello, grammar. And then we just get this extended sequence of all of his classmates asking questions about himself. And we see them about himself, and then we see them all individually, and they're, like, asking him about Tokyo. And they're like, Nothing happens in our country town. yeehaw. And they start asking him, like, personal questions. And they say that they know all of this stuff because the teachers talked about him, which is weird. And then one of the girls is like, what type of girl do you like? And he's like, Why are you asking me?

Calm down, thirst.

And then they don't answer that question. They just keep asking him questions. It's all very overwhelming. And then koi chi mentions that he doesn't see izumi, who is one of the girls who came to see him in the hospital. And then they just, like, breeze past it, which I thought was intentional, but I also think I think now it was just bad writing because it doesn't matter. And then they're in pe. koi chi doesn't get to do the run. And then a kid sitting with him is like, do you like running? And he's like, yeah, I do. But right now I can't because of my whole lung thing. And then the other boy is like, I can't because I have a heart condition. God, I wish I could know how it feels to run. And I'm like you're not missing much.

You know walking sucks. Imagine more of it.

Imagine it sucked.

And then all of a sudden, the kid with the heart problem gets up. And he's like, I'm going to go to the nurse's office to lay down. And then coy, she's like, Are you okay? And he's like, yeah, it's fine. And then he leaves. And then the glasses girl comes up and she's like, hey, where did he go? And you see that she has a sprained ankle. And she sits on the bench, and he's like, hey, why does class three have pe on their own? Like, unlike other schools where classes have pe together? And she's like, oh, one and two go together, and four and five go together, but we are different. And then she's like, oh, when you were on your tour, did they tell you anything? And he's like, no, it was just like a normal tour. And then she seems shocked and it doesn't matter. And then he's like, hey, where's Misaki? And then she gets really nervous. She's like, who? And he's like he just sees Misaki on the roof and leaves. Doesn't say anything. He just runs away.

Bye, plain girl.

Goodbye. I'm going to go talk to the girl with the eyepatch and red eye. And then he approaches her, and he's like, Why are you up here? And she's like, I don't know. Why are you up here? And then she hides her sketch pad behind her back, so she must be drawing something spooky. And then he asks her how she spells her name, and she says it's with the same characters as Sympathy and scream. And I was like, oh, cool. spooky love.

That crazy. I use letters well.

And then he's like, you remember meeting me at the hospital? And she's like, no, you should stop asking me questions. Something sad happened that day for me, so I need to just stop asking questions.

I need to be as obtuse as possible in this pilot episode of a show.

I need for no plot to progress.

At all the mystery.

Yeah. And then she tells him that their classmates associate his name with death for some reason, she says, a cruel and irrational death that took place at the school. And she's like, this cool. This school is especially close to death, especially class three. And I'm like, that's just an on the nose joke about you being a ghost. And she won't tell him what's going on, but someone will jokes on us. No one does. And then she leaves. And my theory at this point is that someone in his family killed her, or someone with his name killed her. But again, we don't it doesn't matter.

Don't find out.

Don't find out. And then he heads home after school. His grandma's driving him home. And she's like, you're getting along with your classmates? And he's like, yeah, whatever. And then he sees Misaki standing in the rain. And that's episode one.

Yeah.

Let'S go again. Let's watch the same episode.

Yeah, mine very different. Episode two starts. I watch the dubs, and they keep referring to him by his other name, saka kabari. And I heard kabi bara. So that's what I called him for all my notes.

I called him Boy because who fucking gives this shit? That's fair main character.

We get a few establishing shots of a school, and then we land on what was her name? Misaki. Yeah, Misiki. Just sitting on a bench by herself. And kathy Barr walks up and starts talking to her. And he's like, oh, gee, I don't see you around a while. Why are you trying to whatever. And she asks if he's okay with this. And then the wind just picks up, and we see a bunch of, like, flower petals fly all around. And she says that it may have already started, and if it did, it's too late to stop. We have no context for this, and it never gets really answered. And I'm all about the slow burn first show.

Yeah, you are.

I'm fine with that. And I understand we only watch the first three episodes, but we get nothing. We really don't get any nips of a plot developing until the very end of episode three. So it's like, you could sprinkle this a little more. These fishes are dying for some food. And you just got to sprinkle a little flakes on the top. You can give us nut licking the side of the tank for the algae. We get the opening, and then we come back to our class. They're having and they're all painting a stall life of, like, fruit and the bowl. The standard one kid's painting a lemon, but he's painting it as alfred monks or alfred monks The scream.

I thought you were going to say alfred molina. I was so excited.

I was thinking of monk, but I definitely had molina in my head visually. I was thinking of doc oc from spiderman, too. And this kid's just turning the lemon into The scream painting and getting strong Lemongrab vibes from Adventure Time here. So I was happy for, like, a hot second. And kathy Barr starts talking to the art kid like, oh, yeah, I'm in the art club. So the teacher lets me get away with dumb shit like this because I do it all the time. And then we see the jocko over in the corner trying to do the same thing and turning the apple into, like, a monster. And she's like, knock it off. Only he gets special treatment because he's Art Kid. You're Jack kid. You get special treatment in gym class. And that's when instead of talking about clubs for bodies, like, yeah, you should join the art club. And kathy Barr notices that music. He's not in the class again and cuts them walking after class down the hallway. And with our kid, he starts talking about the scream painting he's doing on the lemon. He's like, doesn't the scream make you feel uneasy? Isn't it kind of like grotesque and hard to look at? He's like, yeah, but that's why I like it. I'm a weirdo, but sometimes you got to look at stuff like that. You can't always pretend like everything's good all the time. Sometimes you got to look at something like that and admit, like, yeah, this makes me uncomfortable, and I have to embrace that. So right around when Jocko shows up wanting to talk about the teacher trying to derail and go to a new subject, cap bard is like, nah, man. We're talking about weird, dark shit. Let me brood in this dark moment. I'm God man. And Jockey is like, oh, man. Yeah, I understand that feeling. I understand being disappointed. I remember I was so excited to be in this grade. And then I found out I was in the cursed class three. And when he says that him and the art kid both took her, like, he said he acknowledged it, that class three is cursed.

He mentioned the main plot of the show. That's illegal.

Can't do that. What about the mystery?

You can't explicitly say things that are relevant to the story.

And after he says that, he pretty much says, like anyway, something entirely different. Like, he segues so hard out of it.

No, the number of segues away from actual interesting plot related shit made my blood boil. It's like every time alley, they like, tiptoed up to the ledge. They're like, oh, we're going to advance the plot a little bit. And then someone tackles them out of the way and is like, studying for exams is hard.

Get down, Mr. President. That's why I like shows where they just blow open your window with a small blondchild in a book, and they're just like, here's the plot. Let's go. And they try and talk about something else. And that's when kathy Barr notices Misaki in, like, a library by herself. And he's like, oh, see, guys, my friend is waiting for me and just kind of wander. He's just so fucking obsessed with her. He just disappears from whatever heels he's doing and goes to her like a magnet. He's enthralled the mystery of the eye patch.

She's like a manic pixie dream girl for him.

A manic, gothic dream girl. And, yeah, he goes in the room and shuts the door behind him. And as he's going into the room, both the other two kids are like, wait, don't go. And the door shuts. And I guess they cease to exist. I guess I'm a toddler and don't have object permanence because they could have stopped him, but they just let him go in here. So it's on them, I guess. He goes up to Misaki, and she's doing, like, figured drawings, like, pretty much drawing herself. It looks like and they talk about the drawing for a bit. And then all of a sudden this creepy librarian shows up saying like, you shouldn't be here, but you're welcome to be here any time except for now. Get to class. Thank you for the sage advice, librarian.

Great. Good, good stuff.

And he doesn't even acknowledge misaki at all. Weird.

If only they didn't establish he's a ghosted episode ago.

Maybe we'd feel spooks right now.

I don't know what you're talking about. I saw her talking to haley Joe osman. And they seem fine.

Yeah, they're just chilling. Hanging out.

Hanging out. The Bruce willis is there too.

The gang's all here.

And then we cut to kathy barra hanging out with his aunt after school, talking about school. And his aunt is drinking like it's a beer. And she pours like tomato juice in it or something. Like the fuck that's like a michelada. I don't know what that is.

Oh, it's that big drink where it's like a slush inside, but sometimes it's made with like clamato or tomato juice. And then you put a beer in it and as you drink it, the beer goes into it and that's where the alcohol comes from. I've never had one, don't get me wrong that I just know that they exist.

Yeah, I'm good.

Well, they do it with like fruit too. Like fruit flavors. Anyway, I don't really drink.

Maybe it's an allusion to a Bloody Mary. An interesting horror story.

Anytime I was brought up, I'm like, I think I'll pass. I'm not for some reason I think.

There'S a drink, someone like in my neighborhood drink called a Bloody caesar. And it was like tomato juice, clam juice and like vodka or something.

I was like, oh, and don't get me wrong, I come from the clam states. I'm down to clams, but I'm in a drink.

So he's talking to his aunt and he's talking about like, oh, I want to attend like a fine art school. I want to study like sculpting and carving. She basically says, like, your dad won't like that, and you're probably going to fail if you try. But what's the point of giving up before you even make the attempt? It's like, well, you just told me the point of giving up before I make it, so what are you telling me here? You told me to don't bother. But then also I should.

What, disappointment from my guardians? Is that a reason?

And then we get some random inner shot cuts of the bird and then some anecdotes, and it's like, I'm back to the hospital. And then kathy Barr is visiting the nurse that was taking care of him for some reason, I guess. I don't know. I've been to the hospital. I didn't go back to see the staff. He asked. He pulls her off her duty, she takes a break. And he asked about if a girl died in this hospital last Monday while. He was still here. He heard a rumor. She's like, no one died on my shift. I'm a good nurse. And tavi Barr asked. He's like, what about the girl that was in the basement? I don't know. You were in the elevator with her. You probably know more. And he mentions he saw her with the eyepatch. And the nurse was like, well, she's an eyepatch. She's probably in like the optometry ward. So that's not my department. I'll ask around and go against the hippocratic oath. I talk about keeping confidential information, but.

She'S a bad nurse.

She's like, I'll make a deal with you. I'll tell you if I find out anything. But you have to tell me why you're interested. No, you do the other one first. Yeah, you shouldn't be giving out this information willy nilly. And yeah, she says like, message you on the phone. And it's this break of an ikea of an ikea phone.

No, it's an ikea phone.

She builds it herself.

You build it yourself.

It took 6 hours on a Saturday and there's a bunch of assorted screws that are left over.

The rental relationship didn't last. She ended up breaking up with her significant other. They couldn't find a goddamn Allen wrench. So it's basically all we get with the nurse. And then next day class, they're learning about high cues. haiku's. And this reminded me of high school. This remind me of high cue. And I started thinking about those boys again because god damn it, that show hooked me fucking hard. Anyway. Fucking low. hiq. Now kathy Barr notices that pigtail girls are staring at him again. I forgot her name already.

Who cares?

Easy. Me.

It doesn't matter.

Girl no, she doesn't have glasses.

I'm thinking of other fucking they're two.

Different truly doesn't matter. I don't know why I care. It doesn't matter.

And because she was staring at him, that means she's going to stop him after school with glasses. Girl with Lady eda. And they talked. They started asking about his history again. Being like, you sure you didn't live here? It's like, I'm pretty sure I didn't live here. She's mad. She's like, well, I'm the head of countermeasures. And he's like, hold up. The fuck does that mean? That's not a normal school thing? And she says like, oh, well, as the head of countermeasures, I take countermeasures and plan ahead and execute different plans to protect the whole class. That's super vague and weird.

Counterintelligence agent basically, yeah.

It's like, shouldn't an adult be doing that and not just a random student? That seems important. But also, why is this class targeted?

Adults don't have the ingenuity to set up Home Alone style traps. Also, there's strip wire everywhere. Watch your step.

Don't go down the east corridor. Paint buckets every door. I got a tangential of somewhere. I kind of lost them, though.

We lost our math budget on nail guns last year.

So she goes to tell them the position that all of class three is in. And the other two students stop her and pull away, saying, don't tell him about that thing we have to tell everyone about and warn them about it's like, okay. And because they left kathy Barr alone for a second, he wanders off to find Misaki, who walked by like a child, like a goddamn lovesick puppy. And he follows her home for a bit, but he loses the trail and he gets lost. And then he's just out in front of this weird old building that says, the Hollow Blue Eyes of yomi at twilight. It's like, cool. If I was in middle school, I would just sit fuck right off and go home. I don't know why this captivated him.

So I'd be like, candle store. Got it.

Got him. Moving on.

Crystals.

Chalk of realignment. Got it. Not in bath bombs.

Great. What other kitchen stuff can we wear?

What other Bed, Bath and beyond merchandise do we need? And while he's standing out in front of the store, he's just looking in the window, and there's just this weird doll sitting in display. And that's when he gets a call from the nurse. And as he's talking to her, she says, like, oh, a junior high girl died here. And then the phone starts cutting out. And we saw this a bit in episode one and now in episode two. And then we saw the bit in episode two and revealed in episode three when he talks on the phone with someone, the phone will start cutting out. Like it can get staticy, and we can't really hear what they're saying anymore. But then in the next episode, they play back the sound of the dialogue of that person talking crystal clear, so that way it reveals the clue of what they said to you, but they obscured it in the moment. So in episode three, he remembers her talking, and we get the whole dialogue, but in episode two, we get it all jargled. I don't know why it's very much.

A fuck you of we need this to be mysterious, but we don't want there to be a valid reason that this information was obscured. So it's obscured at the moment, but when it's plot necessary, yeah, fuck it. We'll just pull it out. Because she said it out loud, so it's out in the universe now.

It irritates the hell out of me because it's a mystery. And it's like, ah, try and figure it out before we reveal the plot. And then when they do, they're like, ha ha, you dumb idiot. You didn't figure it out in time. It's like, no, because you purposely obscured the clues and facts that would lead me up to that conclusion. Like, you didn't do a mystery where I could figure it out. You just lied and hid stuff, unnecessary information that would break from me to the mystery, and it annoys the hell out of me where they're just like, you idiot. You didn't figure it out.

God damn it.

You just lied the whole time. How could I?

But it's like everything's also so fucking obvious that they don't even need to do that. It's like, oh, it's the one gross girl, right? Yeah, cool. Okay, cool. Great. All right, cool.

Anyway, we find out in episode three. I was going to say now, the girl that died, wasn't she had a different last name or no, she was like a single child and had the same last name as Misaki. So it's like dun, dun, dun. And then after he's on the phone, he goes into the little shop because I guess he's just got time to kill and shop.

Us.

We can't keep referencing good media here.

We need to be in the sunken Place.

And there's just this little lady sitting behind a desk, and she's just surrounded by a bunch of these weird dolls. She's like, why is it middle school here? All right, whatever. Just don't fuck the stuff up, I guess. And she's just very vague and cryptid, but she doesn't do anything.

Just like everyone else in this goddamn show.

Yes.

No one gives a shit in this town.

And he just wanders around this store that just got a bunch of creepy dolls in it. And then after a while, he walks downstairs and then he's in just this workshop, I guess. I suppose this area is not off limits. And he sees half finished dolls and like, different parts of them sitting around. And then he looks and sees one doll that's just in a coffin. And it's got very similar hair to musicy and like similar eye and just a very similar look to her. And he goes, musicy is like you. She's like, how do you know I was here? And it cuts to a way where it looks like he's just talking to the coffin and presumably the doll in the coffin. And then eventually she walks out. Turns out she was behind the curtain that was behind the doll in the coffin.

Pay no minds to the woman behind.

So I don't know why she thought he saw her when she's clearly behind a curtain. But she's also a ghost, so whatever. And when she walks out, she's like, yeah, why do you think this doll looked like me? Because it looks exactly like me. Well, only half of me wink. Well, I guess for her it's blink because ipad. So she's saying, like, oh, yeah, I come here. People think these dolls are creepy and people don't understand them. But I don't mind. Do you? He's like, no, I don't mind. Yeah, that's why you're both here. That didn't need to be said. And she's like, well, these are two of my favorite dolls. And then she just goes over to two dolls that are kind of like leaning against each other. And they have, like, very sad expressions on their face and for some goddamn reason have nipples. But none of the other dolls do. Felt like that was a weird thing they wanted to highlight.

That was a choice.

Yeah. And she says, like, oh, it's so weird how calm they are despite being connected to each other. And cappy Bar is like, yeah, they're calm because they have each other. They have someone like to be with, so they're calm. She's like, no, they would be more calm if they were separated. Thanks for your doll theory.

Don't know what I thought we were. Yes.

Anding improv, baby.

And then she just turns around sharply and she says, do you want to see what's under my eyepatch? And she goes to take it off, but the camera is cutting away, so we don't see it. And then it's not even music. It's just this very loud, like, jittery scratching noise gets louder and louder. tinnitus was just going nuts. It cuts away before we see anything interesting. shocker.

I was still hoping this is where things would get wacky.

It's just a hollow eye full of centipedes or something.

Yeah, some bullshit like that.

It's just pennywise in there.

Okay, so let's break down the timeline of this reveal. So end of episode two, she's like, do you want to see what's under my eyepatch? And slowly we fade up. And then end of episode. So presumably about a week goes by between episodes. We come back in. We start episode three. Same exact footage. Do you want to see what's under my eyepatch? Zoom up and opening credits. Really drawing this out. This is going to be great.

It's going to be real good.

She's so spooky. She's going to, like, stab him or something. This is where it gets good.

Yeah. So back from opening credits. Do you want to see what's under my eye patch? It's a green eye.

It's just another eye.

She's got heterochromia.

She has a fucking different colored eye. And that's the reveal they teased for over a week. They had to show you three times. The suspense build up to be like, I have a glass doll's eye. You're in a doll shop. I fucking figured.

But it doesn't look differently. It's just a different color. It doesn't look like, oh, that's obviously a glass doll eye. Like, she has to explain that rather than just, like, showing it looking different than her other eye. Rather than just the eye.

Is it like cursed or something?

No, it's a glass eye.

It's my eye.

Also. It made me so fucking mad. Her normal eye is red. Okay?

Right?

Red. Establish red as a natural eye color.

It's animal.

And then they're like, my spooky eye is so much mystery and a normal pigmentation you would see on any human. It's like just fucking reverse it. Why?

But that's why the doll was like her or half like her. Because she had that class doll eye that was green like hers.

Also, if her eye that we see wasn't red, maybe we wouldn't know that she's a girl.

If her eyes brown, it'd be like, cool, whatever. But red is like, you're a ghost.

I have one red eye. And under here is hazel.

She's got pink eye.

Freak. Don't talk to me.

Okay, so big reveal. I'm going to try to speed through this because there is so much that is just retread and retread to the edge.

Yeah, I want to talk about my hero academia.

I have my list. I wrote a list.

Yeah, we'll go through this pretty quick. Takes off her eye patch. It's just green. And she's like, I can see things I shouldn't. Cool. Does that factor into the show at all? No.

Are you going to tell us what that means? No.

So they're talking in the doll shop and he's like, what's? The studio M in this building? And she's like, oh, that's where karika makes dolls. Does it factor in?

No.

So ask why the doll looks like her and why in the hospital she was carrying a doll? And what is up with a girl who died? So they literally tell the same exact story that we get in the opening of episode one. Literally, the info dump at the start of the show. They're like, let's devote seven more minutes to that class. Girl died. One kid says he sees her, and then they pretend she's not there. And then they go to the graduation and her ghostly form appeared in the class photo. But the photo they show us is so old. I honestly could not identify which face was supposed to be the ghost face.

Because yeah, they say she's like, she looked so pale and dead, but she was smiling. It's like they all look pale. It's a black and white photo.

They don't zoom in on her face. They don't point it out.

You got to guess.

Yeah. I looked up more of this after watching the episodes and I started remembering stuff. The person who it is is like a twist reveal. So that's why the photos zoomed in on just the class. And I think in the later episode it zoomed out and you see the ghost girl at the end of the group picture and you find out it's her. It's blank person. So that's why it's like cropped, but it's so bad.

Can I also say I feel like part of her death is like, oh, they say it was an accident, but it was actually murder. But while she's telling the story, this time she's like, I heard it was a plane crash. Some people said it was a fire. All we know is it was an accident. And I'm like, what are you talking about? There's no theory that she was murdered.

That blew my mind because they're like, yeah, this girl died, but no one's really sure how. This is a small ass town. Like, if I know old Man Steve up the street died. It's a heart attack. There's no speculation of like, I heard a monster came in and bit his head off or something. Like, no, if it's a small town, you know what happens? The dude just dies.

Especially if she's supposed to be this girl.

Yeah, because shouldn't she know how she died? Yes, she should definitely know. But they never say, like, she was never found. Like, her body was never found, so he couldn't do an autopsy. They're like, no, she died likely an accident. And it's like, okay, if that's the case, there's a body that someone studied and was like, yep, definitely blank is the cause of death. You know, medicine, science.

This was 26 years ago. They didn't have that kind of technology.

We're just a simple farm town. And this is the year 1986.

Here's the criminal's DNA sample. Gross. Moving on.

Here's the thing about this. Like, this is where the plot also gets twisted and confused because I thought that what we were seeing was what the guy was talking about in the beginning. I thought that this was the story of the kid saying that he still sees her and that this will be the class that goes crazy.

Yeah, but no, you know an interesting story.

Yeah.

You can set up mystery without just, like, obfuscation and just gasoline your whole audience.

Like, yeah. Like, they dedicated three episodes to be like, oh, this fucking crazy shit went down 26 years ago. anyways, let's talk about the aftermath 26 years later where nothing happens anyway. Yeah, there's going to be a lot of complaining rant, so maybe not as short as I anticipated. So it's closing time at the Doll Factory, and the clerk is like, all right, get the fuck out. And kid and weird ghost girl just disappeared and wasn't acknowledged by the clerk.

Nutty.

Wow.

So let's talk about bullshit that is not important now because we're going and talking about high school entrance exams. Yeah. So it's just an extended I put in quotes character development thing as everyone's like, where do you want to go to high school? I think my grades are good enough to go to school. And blah, blah, blah. I don't know. My family doesn't want me to go that far. blah, blah, blah. Rivalry of people, blah. Who gives a shit? So they're talking vaguely about that. It's starting to rain as school has ended. And glasses girl is like, main character, you forgot your umbrella.

Do you think you want to walk home with me?

It's very cold at the school. It's very drafty.

Yes.

She's shivering.

Go to school on the ice planet hop. So they're walking home together, the girls talking about how she wants to go to Tokyo but can't afford it. They vaguely mentioned class trip stuff. I thought they were talking about where they were going for high school. I don't know who it was.

Irrelevant, who cares?

But even the simple stuff they cannot say clearly.

I thought class trips were in 9th grade. Yeah, but ours is in 8th grade. Okay, but instead it's like a five minute conversation.

You just have to say that this is a horror slice of life where nothing happens. This is a real time telling of a horror story of like, I saw a ghost on Monday. Well, let's in real time get to Thursday when I see the ghost again. So as they're walking, they're about to leave the building and a main character, boy is like, hey, what is misogy? Like, what was she like? And a girl starts crying. She says, don't say that again. No, no, we can't we don't talk about that. If it wasn't clear from no one answering anything you asked since you started going here.

We told you not to talk about that. No, you didn't.

Fuck. So says there's, ask about the class three from 26 years ago. And she's like, the story, you heard the story. We can't we can only say off camera and not to you directly, well, that was only the first year. There's more to the story, but we're not getting to it now because fuck you. And another guy comes out and he's like, hey, don't fucking talk about it. So he goes home and rico comes in and he's like, hey, what class was my mom in?

Do you want to talk about it?

Yeah. She literally tells him to wait. Like this will all be revealed later. Literally, the showrunner being like, keep watching, sweetie, please just stay with us.

We promise it's going to pay off. Just like her eye thing. That was a good reveal, right?

Yeah, just keep watching. Audience. I got a three episode plot that I gotta stretch across twelve episodes.

So yeah, the next day at school goes goes and sees ghost girl on the roof. But goes up to see her and she's not there. The boy calls him and says like, you got to stop investigating this class three from 26 years ago. Shit. And literally tells him, I will tell you next month if you drop are you fucking kidding? What? High schooler is like measuring like, yeah, in a month's time I can discuss the events that you're investigating now. No one even talks like that. That's not even like a okay, this is a plot device. It'll pay off later. It's just literally like, sorry, my schedule is a little busy. Can I pencil you in for July?

Hey, brenda, what's your favorite color? I'll tell you in January. What? Fuck off.

This is important information this kids should know in order to act accordingly to the class rules. If it's like, we're not going to just wait, hold on.

This is super important. You do this specific thing, but I'm not telling you why.

Don't worry, I'll explain it in time. Well, I'm investigating now, so I'll get to it first, so you do nothing to deter me. Okay, so then we get told that I gave you the wrong name. The hospital death girl was a misogy, not misogy. What? Okay. I think the difference was like one was with a misogy versus misaki.

Yeah.

And it's like, why trying to throw.

You off the trail? Like, oh, it's not the obvious. Ghost girl.

Cool. Great. All right, sweet. So they take their exams. He finishes early and meets ghost girl out in the hallway, who also finished early. And he's like, wow, you are always done with your classwork early. And I've never seen you in a classroom or talk to another person. That's just a weird coincidence, right? And she's like she mentions like misaki was her cousin or something.

Yeah.

And he asked for the story. And this at the end of episode three. Okay. Remember how ten minutes into the first episode, we're like, yeah, that's the ghost. End of episode three is where they're like, surprise, I'm a ghost.

Whoa.

Fucking obviously that's not a spooky reveal when you spell it out in the first goddamn act of your series for.

The first 40 minutes of your show.

Yikescoob, it's a ghost.

Whoa. Sorry. That's a faster pace than this show ever hit. And then the glasses girl comes out of class, sees him either talking to no one or sees the ghost girl unestablished. She just freaks the fuck out.

Yeah, I think she sees her. I think that's why she freaks out.

Okay? Because I've seen this in a few other stuff, especially with ghost stuff where ear tastes me more of like, oh, that person is not actually there. But then someone will see the main character with that person and react and get scared. So it's like if no one else sees them, then you're just reacting into this one dude by himself.

Well, here's my theory, is that she sees her, so she freaks out because she's like, I'm about to die because I don't know the rest of the show. But my thought is that if they don't follow the rules, there's just a month of dying spree where all of the kids in the class die. And when they see her, they know that they're going to die. So that's my theory. And that's what I'm going to hope it is.

It's close.

It just pissed me off so much that they were like, okay, three episodes. We're going to pretend that people just happen to not see her. Okay, cool. Okay, end of episode three, we finally get acknowledgment from her that no one in this school can see her. Great. millisecond later, someone fucking sees her.

Wait a minute.

Well, that's part of the reveal, but.

Just completely contradicted the ghost logic you just put into the world. Well, you can't do that because we know at the end of episode eight, they're going to explain that, oh, they can see her when they're about to die. And it's like, okay. So we're going to go for like five more episodes and think, wait, what the fuck? Can people see her or not? They told me they can't. But everything you're about to show me is going to be they can.

That's similar to the nurse calling, saying like, oh, the girl's name is this. And then we're led to believe, like, oh, that's ghost curl. And then we get the actual clear audio of the nurse in episode three saying like, oh, her name is actually something different. You're like, okay, so it's not Ghost Girl. Cut to immediate next scene. Ghost Girl being like, yeah, it's my cousin. It's still like me. I'm still related to that person.

I am also a ghost.

Also, I'm a ghost. Okay. Why did that whole nurse thing happen? We didn't need this to throw us.

Off the scent so we could immediately, within the same episode, get put back on the scent.

Yeah. Like it happens so fast where it's like it undoes that.

I want to talk about the actual exciting thing that happened.

Yeah, it was exciting for me.

Yes. This hot second.

It's too little, too late. They buried the only interesting thing that happens in these episodes. After an hour of a slog of snail horror, I was mixing up snail and slog and said flail slail. So she exits classroom, picks up her umbrella, sees Boy talking to Ghost Girl, freaks the fuck out. Does he see her? We'll never know because she goes over to the stairs, trips, drops umbrella, the sharpest fucking umbrella that has ever existed. Her dad works at a knife sharpening factory and was like, let me just practice on this baby. Get it nice and pointy for you. She trips, falls on the umbrella. Anne impales herself and dies. Anne and credits. Who gives a shit?

You know what else, though? I feel like this is really indicative of how disappointing the show is. Her glasses come off and like, you see her eye exposed. And you're like, oh, shit. Go through her eye. And then it goes through her neck. And it's like, why?

Also with her glasses fall off. And then the one lens breaks. So it's like, oh, that's where the umbrella hit it and like, shattered the glasses. And that's where it's going to be through her eye. Like it's setting it up to be the eye. And in the panda, it's through her neck.

It's what? But see, this is what I wanted. I was like, I want some horror. Gross final destination bullshit. And here it is.

But also, I'm bored now because they could have condensed this into an episode. What they could have done in the.

First half of an episode.

Yeah. Like, if this was the cliffhanger at the end of episode one, okay, you did something interesting. And then there's a reason to investigate this shit. Because if you have, like, vague can people see this girl or not. Oh, when someone almost sees her, they end up dead. Oh, mystery. A reason to go talk to her and investigate. No, let's drag this out. Let's make it as unconnected as possible and let's just throw it in at the very end.

Maybe. He was like, I got nine episodes of great content, you guys. And they were just like, oh, but you need to fill twelve episodes. And he was like, fuck, I feel.

Like nine is generous.

Yeah. So far we have one episode of Interesting Content.

Five episodes. I have five great episodes for you.

We have a fifth of an episode of drake content.

I have a great movie for you. Can you make it a series movie? Yes.

Sure.

Anyway, Brendan, can you just tell us what happens?

Well, I like, at the end too. The main kid runs around with just the gym coach or whatever, and the teacher sees it and just goes like and runs down the stairs. We see the shot of her unpayed on her open umbrella. Now all of a sudden it's open. It's a white umbrella, which is blood pouring out around her. Like, if I ran down the stairs and saw that, I'd be like, you know, what the fuck? I'd freak out. I wouldn't be like, oh, no.

Something concerning what happened here.

The teacher's very composed despite a student just being impaled on her needle umbrella.

Yeah, well, he's probably used to it at Spooky Academy, class three.

And I was disappointed by the ending credits because it just like pans across as each of these main characters, I guess, fade in and there's no real movement. So I figured that be an easy way for them to change the ending sequence every time. Like, say, when someone dies. And then when they fade in at the credits, there's something different about them. Like they have the injury that killed them. Something like pueblo magica where after she hits the fan, the endings change. Like bad.

Yeah.

No, as far as I know, it's just the same thing still for the whole series.

That's too creative.

Yeah. falsehood. My head. Yeah. So I remembered stuff and I looked a little bit up, but not too much because I still don't really care. Yeah. Definitely didn't leave a lasting impression because fuck this. So it turns out the bird was kind of hinting at stuff. Whenever he's by himself, it's saying like, Morning Ray. Morning, Ray. His aunt's name is racho, but the bird doesn't talk when she's around because she's the girl that died. And that's why they don't show her in the picture, because it's her face fucking his aunt.

So like, his aunt is the one.

So perks of being a wallflower. But horror. There you go. The show, I think the ghost girl was her sister, her older sister that died. And it ends up being his mom. Or the ghost girl is the whole. Red herring the whole time. And then the real monster is his aunt, who's also a ghost because he's the only one that ever interacts with her. That's why it was so quick. And like jargon in the first episode at the hospital where, like, the doctor wasn't there talking to him. It was just his aunt.

That's so bad.

He was good at me.

No, he did.

I didn't expect it to be this just makes me so mad that you mentioned it of the lying for trying to call it a twist, but you just misled us. The like, we're gonna show you an eye, but she gets stabbed in the neck. The like, oh, this is her. This is the girl the letters misspelled. It's the same girl. Like, you're just not telling us the shit.

It's the thing where if breadcrumbs trails like the bird because it's saying Rachko and it's the kid talking to himself or talking to himself, but he thinks it's his aunt, so he keeps saying he keeps saying, like, RayKo over and over again. And that's what the bird's mimicking and hearing. So it's like a breadcrumb. Like that where it's like, ooh, here's here's a little trail for you guys to try and solve the mystery before I big do the big reveal. And it's like, yes, but this character is in, like two minutes of a collective three episodes we've seen. She's not a relevant character. She's about as important as the grandfather is. So like, why would we think she's important? And she's as vague as everyone else.

They say her name is misaki.

Her name is not that they're probably going to be like, oh, I fucked up the medical record. I smudged some frosting on it. Oh, silly meat.

That's what I mean by, like, halfway.

What does that have to do yeah, what does that have to do with all the kids in the class dying? What are the rooms?

Why are they dull motifs?

I think it's like everyone has to because we also didn't even talk about the clearly cursed desk in the classroom that no one acknowledges except for the main kid. No, he doesn't even acknowledge it. He just stares at it. There's one desk by the window that's just super old and beaten up. It's like that's literally cursed because every other desk is brand new. So I don't think there are rules. I think they set it up to make it seem like there are rules, but there isn't. And I think it's kind of like if anyone acknowledges the curse, the curse happens. It's like the old Internet meme of the game where if you think about the game, you lose it's. That but murder. Anyway.

Well, anyway, I wrote a list of horror movies that I like. Again, these are just movies that I like. So I'm not saying, like, you'll like them. Anyway, so we got it 217, and it chapter two.

Love those films.

I love my clown dad. That's been established. midsummer is very good. Highly recommend. I like hereditary less, but a lot of people really, really like hereditary. So I also recommend hereditary. It's by the same director.

Good stuff.

Another one is called raw. It is a French horror film. It's disgusting. If you get nauseous easily by visuals, don't watch it us and get out by Jordan peele. Excellent films.

This is very good. I saw that.

Love Us. It's on HBO. HBO Go. If that's accessible to you guys. Cabin in the woods is a fun one. I haven't watched it in a really long time. One of my favorites, but it's a fun one. And then while writing this list, I was reminded of knives Out, which is not a horror film, but it is very good.

Very good.

Mystery. And then if you want cute anime girls with your horror play, doki doki Literature Club.

There you go.

That one is excellent. It is so good.

Jump off the HBO comment you made. I believe HBO is releasing like 500 hours of content or something for free. And you don't need an account and stuff, so it might be on there. You might be able to get access to it if you didn't have it before. yay.

Yay. Yeah. Also, I have two horex. One of my favorites, high school Spanish teacher showed it to us because it was a horror movie from Spain. It's called The orphanage and it's very good. And they actually leave breadcrumbs that go somewhere.

How fun.

Also actually heard of that.

Ye. And one more called Green Room, which is just extremely brutal, extremely fucked up. No, you get to see Sir Patrick Stewart as a Nazi drug dealing skinhead. It's great.

Yeah, I hear that one's raw.

Yeah, Paul really likes that one.

And I'm going to talk about the most recent season of My Hero. academia covers the cultural festival arc with Gentle Criminal, which I feel like is greatly underappreciated as a refreshing tone of piece for a very plot heavy previous art to the series. So I recommend it. It's a very fun time and it's got a very catchy song.

Yeah. Moral of the story is watch anything. This wasn't good. I'm going to try to find a good horror anime. I will. I mean, we haven't watched paranoia Agent yet. Other than that, I want to find a good horror anime.

I feel like that one scared me so much as a kid. I never gave it a shot. And now, especially after watching Perfect Blue, I can much more appreciate it now. And I do want to get back to it even though the main of the crux of the story has kind of been spoiled for me. But that one's supposed to be a classic.

Yeah, we'll get to it.

We'll get to it.

Well, sorry.

Yeah. bioshock. That's probably my favorite horror bioshock.

Very good.

I couldn't play it after 06:00 p.m.. Because it skirt me.

I love horror games.

Fun time.

So go watch a playthrough of pt.

It is not available anywhere now. But pt was incredible. I got to play it. I loved every minute of it.

Yeah, real talk. I'm kind of glad it doesn't exist. I don't want that in the world. I wish that was too scary. Just like I could never play good. fuck that.

Well, if there's a spooky show you want us to watch in this spooky month of May, I think Halloween and spring, I don't know. You can send your recommendations to us at arweevariat@gmail.com or reach out to us on Twitter and 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. abts Brandon stands for Almost Better Than Science, which is a video game podcast.

I do thank you to camille ruley for our artwork and thank you to Louis zong for our theme song stories off the album Beats. 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.

I'm going to go watch something good.

I'm already watching cowboy bebop. I started while we recorded.

Boo. Just kidding.