AWTY 208 - Bloodcoughia (Chainsaw Man)

I want to do that stuff so bad.

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

I'm an anime expert, D hollander gonzalez.

And I'm brenda mccullough. Your anime Texas Chainsaw vibing.

Vibing.

We're just here for a good time. We got to get nasty.

I do need you to clarify further. You got to be more specific. This is an anime show. I'm very scared with the energy you're setting up either way.

Well, we all know Texas is a threat to begin with. It's already scary.

What kind of viving is it?

I mean, it's a good vibe. I like it. No, that doesn't mean it's good. That doesn't mean it's good at all.

I like you're still not you're still not satisfying my fears is one particular.

Okay, I can't fix that. We we're 200 episodes in my dude.

It'S you know, this brendan's trust I mean, dugan's trust of Brendan is broken.

I can't recommend anything, at least with.

Anime in our friendship. It's okay.

I don't know. I think anime has been so bad. I think it's tainted everything else. Like, hey, check out this cookie. It's delicious. You're going to be like, go to hell.

Is there a dog poo in it?

There's wasabi in this. What is this? I mean, I've done it to myself by having bad taste.

We know this, but what do we have going on this week?

This week it's something I'm very excited for, which, again, isn't reassuring to anyone. What? It's a manga that I read and love deeply. It's finished. The part one of it's fully finished, so it's an easy read. And the anime is finally out. And it's been very highly anticipated. It's being done by studio mapa, who's done a lot of great stuff. We're watching Shane sauce manga, buzz, buzz. Buzz buzz is a little like plumbial chainsaw.

Yeah. Being highly anticipated. This is something I've been hearing about for what feels like years. So it probably has been or it could be like three days again. Who knows?

Fully don't know anymore.

Dee, is this something you were familiar with or knew about before in the anticipation times?

Yeah, so, I mean, brendan's been talking it up for a little while, and I'm just not a monger reader. So I've been waiting for the anime because it sounds like something I'd be into. And I have to say, at this point of recording, there are six episodes out. I've seen all of them.

Hey, I don't know how you do that. Sorry. Just my brain doesn't fully wrap around the concept of watching and enjoying anime.

You know how you just file your taxes for fun?

Something that's out?

I know. Weird, right?

It's very much work now for dugan of just watching any Japanese media.

And I also Paul. My husband watched Humble Brand. Not watched. He read the whole manga. Everything that's out in, like, a day. So he also is enjoying it very much. So much so that he wanted to know what would happen.

Yeah. Yeah. Part one is not long. It really is a fairly new series overall that it came out and then part one ended at a good stopping point. So it's a real easy read and a much easier watch because yeah, he said six episodes out.

Yeah. Obviously it's not done yet, but once again, it's cited for the rest of it. And I'm excited to watch it for the podcast.

Boom.

Podcast.

Well, then let's delay no longer. We're going to watch the first three episodes.

The little gremlins.

That's the vibe of the show.

Yeah, we're back.

Get down with the sickness.

Now it's just a fun guessing game for all of us to see where dude Will ended us to come back in. We don't know.

Yeah, there's no rest on the break anymore. We're all on guard of like, I'm going to say something.

Wait. Watch brendan. He's going to say something stupid. Then we'll come back on that.

Now I feel like I have to be funny all the time. Not that that's hard for me or anything.

I'm just so professional. I just can't turn it off.

You know, I've had actual meetings at work with my manager. Did, like, an evaluation where it's like, we appreciate the humor. You're a funny guy. We need you to be a little less glib in life. I'm like, I can't promise that even in a professional capacity.

Listen, even in this critique, saying, hey, please stop being glib. I have to be glip about it. I don't know if I can fix it.

You pay me my livelihood that I need to live. And I can't promise you I will be professional.

Can't stop shittiness.

I blame the simpsons. All right, episode one. Let's get into this, because it's a lot, I'll admit. That episode starts off with someone breathing slowly as they walk down, like, a dirty alleyway in the city. And they're walking down as they turn a corner and see, like, a door covered in different notes and stuff. And they go reaching for the doorknob to open it. And they wake up. We had a doorknob. No, not the person.

Oh, okay.

We haven't had a prolific dream in quite a while. And they say like, oh, better get ready for work. And then they head out and we get a few shots. We see a young scrungly boy, blonde teenage boy with an eyepatch walking down, shrieking like a little montage, walking places, doing odd jobs for money. And while he's talking, he's like, oh, I did this, I did that. I sold this body part. I sold my eye. I sold my nut. And it's just like, oh, he's barely holding together.

This man is kept together by duct tape and pennies. And pennies.

He says he still owes no, no pennies. Because then he'd have to spend them.

True.

Yeah, he's not liquid at all. He says he owes over ¥38 million, and if you convert it to Us. Dollars, that's a fucking lot. I'm not doing math. And he says, yeah. He says he owes a lot of money to people, but he's got a little body. We see he is not really dressed right away, but he's got a little, like, dog who's got a chainsaw face. He goes like, rumor, I love him. And he says the dog starts barking. He's like, oh, is there a devil nearby? And we see as he turns the corner, he's holding the dog like a chainsaw. It's always funny seeing him mold him like an actual chainsaw. And we see him turn the corner. We see a large, just big red ball with a ton of eyeballs and arms sticking out of it. And he has, like, old inner monologue saying hunting devils is the best source of income. He has the best way for easy cash. As we see the devil turning around and seeing him and grinning with his huge smile, it's nasty. And then we get the opening, which is I love it. I didn't like it at first, but it really grew on me. And now it's very touchy.

Yeah. I messaged Brendan and said, I'm so excited I get to watch this opening three times in a row. And I would agree with that. I think the first time I saw it, I was like, I don't know how I feel about this. But now every time I watch it, I'm just like, yeah, because I love all the characters and everything. And just like, seeing my favorite part is the shot where who is it? The one where kobeni is on the table. And if you know what I'm talking about, I'm talking about she's, like, crawling backwards off of it.

Yeah. The opening for this, for most of the shots in the first half, primarily is just a ton of film references. The magazine of this series is a huge film buff. So there's no country for old men. There's a pulp Fiction in there. So if you like movies, watch the opening so you can guess them all.

Yeah.

I genuinely was like, oh, no. I see tarantino too much in this intro. Oh, no, that doesn't bode well for the rest of the show.

Twice. That's too much. It's way too many. And we come back, so we see the protagonist, he's pulling the chainsaw dog out of the devil. And he goes, There you go. I killed a tomato devil for you. And he's talking to, like, an older man on the side. And he's like, hey, make sure you burn the seed so it doesn't come back to life. And the old man is like, oh, great. Thanks for helping us out. You'll get 40,000 yet for killing the tomato devil for us? And he's like, oh, that's awesome. Easy money. He's like, well, of course there's a consultation fee. There's waste management fee for disposing of the body. There's this fee, there's that fee. And by the time he's done, I think it was like ¥400,000 or something crazy huge. And by the time he's done, it was like it left the protagonist here with ¥70,000. So he really nickels and dimes and takes a lot of fees from him. And then we see we see the boy walking away. He's with his little buddy, and he's doing the math. He's like, Well, I still owe money to all these other people, so if I take all of their fees out that they're owed this month, that leaves us with, like, $800.

He says he has a water bill. And I'm like where you live. In a shack with a mattress in it?

Yeah. I don't know what's a waterbed.

Got to get the water from somewhere.

He's not an animal. He still has needs. Yeah. So he just has a lot of bills to pay, a lot of debts to pay. And he goes from essentially like $40,000 to, like, $180 real quick. And as he's walking, we see the old man he is talking to and kind of like a henchman in a car. Turns out they're Yakuza, and they're talking about, how do we put up with why don't we put it with Dengue? Why do we put up with this kid? That's the protagonist's name, Dengue. And the old man says his dad was a deadbeat and a bum and owed a lot of money to him. And then when he killed himself to get out of the debt, all of the debt just went down to his kid. So now they're milking the kid for all the debt he's got. And they said, denty is good, though. He's obedient like a dog. So they'll keep using him to keep skimming money off of it. And we find out he was desperate enough to kill devils and sell devil's body parts to the yakuza. So we see the yakuza guys drive off, but before they leave, they pull up to Dengue and the henchmen of Thrones, like, hey, Dengue, I'll give you, like, $10 if you eat my lit cigarette. Then she's like, oh, hell yeah.

$1.

Oh, one dollars?

Not even ten.

Yeah, sorry, don't give me too much credit. I'll give you a buck if you eat my lit cigarette. Then she's like, Hell yeah, I will. And pops that blind boy right in his mouth and gets that dollar. Every dollar counts.

He says afterwards, ah, I can live for three more days. He's living on thirty three cents a day.

When the car drives off, he spits out the cigarette. He didn't swallow it.

But hey, free dollar and free heat for tonight.

Let's not get too ambitious. We don't have the luxury of warmth. We go back to dengue's house and we see. Yeah, it's a dirty old shack, and it's not even like there's a bunch of crap in it. I think he's renting it from someone. Yeah, because why wouldn't he just move all the crap out and sleep on.

The floor on, like, a storage shed?

Yeah. So I think he's, like, renting it from someone. And we see him and him and PUCHITA, who's the little chainsaw dog, sharing a piece of uncooked or not raw, raw bread. Raw bread, not toasted, nothing. Just a slice of plain white bread. And he's talking about and he's like, oh, I hear people that really live it up in the city put, like, butter and, like, jam and cinnamon on it, like, just flavor of any kind. Living like a peasant without knowledge of.

Spice of any sort, a second ingredient in a meal, the luxurious.

Yeah, he's genuinely dreaming of just like, what if I had seasonings and a bath? That's all he can imagine. And that's peak luxury for him. That's the best I personally can do. He talks about how he dreams of one day being with a girl before he dies, which, considering how many body parts he sold, might be soon. And when he goes to sleep, he has a flashback to young Dengue and his dad's grave. And it's just a little kid standing at a fresh grave with the Yakuza in their car right next to him being just saying, like, hey, get a ¥700,000 by tomorrow or we're going to chop you up and sell you for parts. It's like, God, this sucks. It's a shitty life. And then we see the opposite drives off, and Dengue hears, like, a little chainsaw revving noise and looks over and sees PUCHITA for the first time, and he's like a devil. And PUCHITA comes out and he's hurt. And Dengue is like, well, if you're going to eat me, just get it over quick. Might as well. I ain't got nothing to live for. And when he sees that PUCHITA is hurt, he's like, oh, I heard devils can heal if they drink blood. Here, just you can drink my blood, but we'll make a contract if you drink my blood. So PUCHITA comes up and bites him, drinks his blood and heals. And then she says that with this contract, now, he saved Puchita's life, so PUCHITA will save his life. And that's how we start working together.

Good buddies, friends.

You could just imagine any boy and his dog like montage. But it's just funny thing, a chainsaw coming out of the dog.

Yeah. Pocheta is like the perfect plush shape. I won't.

Yeah, there's a ton of plush art.

Merchandisable SL and just the perfect amount of chainsaw where it's not like the full blade, where it's like, oh, yeah, that's weighing your head down. It's just like the front little nub of, like, just peeking out.

Yeah, it's not a full snout, but it's like a chainsaw snout. And the tail is the ripcord. He's got a little handle in the back, like ears almost. It's great. And then yeah, we see. After they make a contract, dengue kills his first devil and starts selling it to the Yakuza for parts so where he started his lucrative business. And we see Dengue wakes up because he's hungry and talking about his dreams with pachita again, saying like he just dreams of just a very ordinary, mundane, boring basic life because at this point, he's had just nothing close to it. And then we see he starts coughing up blood. Anime flag. He sickly. He says he has the same disease his mom had, where she would cough up blood, and presumably that's what killed her as well.

The blood coffee is bad.

It's always so vague. It's always just something happens. There's some disease. And right as he coughs up blood, yakuza guy knocks on the door again, saying, hey, we got a job for you. I got another hunt for you. So he gets in the car with Yakuza and they drive him to a run down warehouse on the outskirts of town. It's all abandoned and desolate, and Dengue is walking in with but she's an arm in hand, ready to go. And the man's guiding them through. And there's nothing in this warehouse. It's real abandoned. There's no signs of any life, even a devil. Dengue is kind of like on guard. And the man stops and Dengue, we're grateful for you, kid. You helped us out by selling us all those devil parts for real cheap. And you're obedient as a dog. Bad thing about dogs is I can't stand the smell. And right as he says that, the shoveled looking guy comes up by and Dengue and stabs him through the chest, through him and poochie at the same time. Bad, bad beginning. I didn't know we were watching a jojo's show. He killed dogs on that show. The old man says they made a deal with the devil to get stronger to themselves, and that's the devil that's in this warehouse. And reggie said this this huge, disfigure, just slab of flesh that's like 12ft tall walks out of the shadows. And we just see like, intestines leading, like a tentacle leading to the old guy that was talking.

This show is gross.

It's very, very gnarly, very gorgeous.

We watched we watched one episode while we were eating. I think it was episode three. And I was like, this is a not dinner show.

I think I wonder why.

I regularly used to watch hannibal while eating dinner so I can't judge. And, yeah, it's just this huge, like, ball of really gross, like, decaying flesh that's just like, really tall saying that the ziac is were greedy for power. So they made a contract with this devil who turns out to be the zombie devil. And they are idiots because the power of the zombie devil is to turn people into zombies, including the people that make contracts with them. So they just basically handed themselves over to the zombie devil who fully controls all of them.

That's why you got to read the fine print before you sign the contract. Yakuza.

Yeah, I think they would know, of all people.

Yeah, true.

So we see all of the yakuza start emerging from the shadows. And we saw, like, two guys earlier. This is like 30, 40, there's a ton of people. And as Dengue is bleeding out from the giant gaping stab wound in his chest, he's running away, but they slowly catch up to him and drag him down and just brutally murder him. So fun. That's the show. Thank you for coming.

Yeah, real short episode this week, so if you have recommendations wait, sorry, I'm getting paged. There's more, there's more.

We see them. Yeah, we see him being killed and it pans away and it pans back. We hear dengue's last thoughts of him just wanting a normal life, and even that was too much for him.

Devastating. Very sad.

Very sad. And we see the camera pants away and pants back onto, like, a dumpster. And we zoom in on the dumpster, and Dengue and poochie's dismembered bodies are in there. Fucking sucks.

Zing.

They're really dead. And we see dengue's mouth dangling open as blood is pouring out of his mouth. And we see the blood trip down into Pujita's body and into his mouth. And we see Puchita's mouth move a little, and we see him waking up because the devils drink the blood to heal. Flashback. A lot of flashback. Dengue cutting down trees with pujita, which I love the scene, because he's just using them like a real chainsaw and not something with them. And they're just, like, doing a lumberjack job. And we see them again, having lunch, eating just a single piece of white bread. And Dengue just talking about his dreams again and saying, like, I know I'm probably going to die fighting a devil. I'm just a nude. It's a matter of time. He's like, but if I have one regret in life, it's that I'll probably die leaving you alone. pichi. He loves them so much. Dengue says, I heard there's some devils out there who are able to control dead bodies. And if you're one of those, I would like you to control my body after I die. Wait till I'm in the ground so the yacht is don't come after you. But, you know, I want you to have my body so you can live a normal life and you can just, you know, live the dreams that, you know, I wasn't able to fulfill. And then we cut back from the flashback and PUCHITA is fully fused into deng's chest. It's just a lot of veins, lot of sinew being re. sown back together. It's a gnarly juxtaposition from that adorable flashback. And we see Dengue waking up. And when he wakes up, he's in the dumpster and he's got his eye back and his body is fully repaired and PUCHITA is on his chest. He's like PUCHITA. Oh, I must have died. So you fulfilled your end of the contract, and you're taking over our body. And PUCHITA like barks. And he's like, ah, thanks, buddy. And then PUCHITA fully fucking talks, which.

Wild ruins it for me. It's not as cute.

It's like a pikachu talk. Like, out of the yes, exactly. It's jarring. But we see with the glow on the camera, it's very much like, in their mind, it's not real life. But PUCHITA says, I want to make a new contract with you. PUCHITA says, I'll be your heart and heal your body and repair you. But this means you got to live your own dreams, and I want to see your dreams through you instead of me living them for you. And Dengue wakes up, jumps out of the dumpster, and we see he's fully healed up. Even his eye that he sold earlier, fully healed, back to normal. The only difference now is he has a rip cord in his chest, in the center of his chest, and he jumps out of the dumpster, and the zombie devil sees him, and he's like, devil hunters are so, like, tenacious. Just so annoying. All right, zombies, get them again. This time, eat them so that there's no body to come back from.

I do want to say real quick, saying that the demon, the zombie devil saw him is a little bit of an understatement, because everyone in this warehouse is just staring at this dumpster with a spotlight on it, apparently. I don't know how long they had to wait, especially if Bochita was like, okay, wait. Wait until the akaza is off our tail.

Okay, now do it.

I don't know how long they've just been sitting in there, but everyone's just been watching them.

I mean, what's obviously going to do, they're just hanging out. But yeah, the warehouse does have a hole blown in the roof and is a full moon, so it is a full spotlight on the dumpster. Great lighting. But yeah. So the zombies go to start attacking him. genji is real pissed off, saying, like, Damn, yakuza. They're so greedy. They had it made. They had a great life, an average life that I wanted. But even that wasn't enough for them, so they made a deal with the devil. So they were greedy. He's like, you know what? I guess I'm kind of the same. I had fuchita. I should have been happy with the life I had. No, my dude, that life sucked ass.

That was good life. Safely, objectively.

That was a bad time. But he's like, I should have been happy just with fujita. But you know what? I'm back now. I got I got this rip cord. You know, baby blade. Let her rip. Let's see what this is about. As the zombies swarm on them, and while they're piling on him, you hear just a chainsaw noise, like revving and sure enough, he explodes out of the swarm of zombies with the full chainsaw, head and chainsaw for hands and just starts tearing them apart. And the zombie devil is terrified. Honestly, who wouldn't be? As he just starts cutting through all the zombies that are running at him. I saw a clip of this on Twitter, like a breakdown. It looks CGI apparently it's fully 2d, which is mind blowing to me.

Yeah, absolutely insane. The art style is so good. There's so many points where I was like, oh, cool, this is 3d. No, apparently none of it. None of it is.

I guess, yeah, there's I mean, there's like sequences, the sequence of him running away from the the devil zombies the first time is like, so smooth and well animated. All of it is really nice. It's gross, but really nice.

There are scenes that look like, fully rotoscoped to be like, oh, no, this is the most human fluid I've seen in animation in a minute.

The color in just this whole show is just absolutely gorgeous, where there are scenes where it's just like a high close up of someone's eye and it's beautiful. But yeah, we see the zombie devil scared out of its mind as Dengue just runs on top of the zombies and dives into the zombie devil, fully carving out one of its eyes. And the zombie devil's freaking out, trying to fight it back. It's screaming and just super terrified of Dengue right now. And, yeah, they just keep fighting for a bit. And eventually Dengue just like, rides his chainsaw up one of, like, the zombie devil's tentacles and right into it. It just cuts it clean in half. And Dengue says he's like, well, you guys are full blown devils now, fully incorporating the zombie devil. And I was paid or I was brought here to do a job, which is to kill devils. Here I go killing again. And he cleans out the warehouse and just proceeds to kill all of the remaining zombies that are still there.

And he says, if I kill you guys, I don't owe shit.

Yeah, he's cleaning out the debt and the warehouse. So he spends all night cleaning up or cleaning up the zombies. And we see the sun rising. In the morning, a car arrives outside the warehouse. We see three people in black suits come out and walk into the warehouse and see all the carnage of all the bodies. And you see Dengue in his chainsaw form, like, hunched over and bloody in the back. We see a redheaded woman walk up to him saying he has a very strange scent to him. He's not human and he's not devil. He smells like neither. And we see Dengue on his feet, but about to pass out as he's, like, wobbling. And right before he falls back, he asks her to hold him, which she does, and she grabs him right before he falls over. And while she's holding him, his chainsaw form, kind of just melts away as he goes back into dengi. And he's one of the men that are with the woman, asks if he's possessed, and she says no, and says that she is part of the Public Safety Commission. They were sent here to kill the zelda zombie devil. But seeing as Dengue did that, dengue now has two options. He can either be killed by her, or he can be her pet. He can come with her and work for her and do everything she says. And she says that her pets always get the most delicious food. They always get fed. Well, then she's like, what kind of food? She's listing off? Like, oh, for breakfast, you'd have, like, eggs, toast, salad glass, orange juice for fruit, and just list a very nice meal. And that's all Dengue ever wanted.

You had me at breakfast salad.

He says this feels like one of his best dreams come true. And, yeah, that's episode one. We get the credits. Fun fact, credits are different every episode, so make sure you stay tuned. But for episode one, it's just standard black screen, white credit scroll.

Yeah, we pick up pretty immediately. In episode two, they're leaving the warehouse in a car. dengue's stomach rumbles, and this woman, we learned her name spoilers makima. I said, we found her name, and immediately went, oh, no, it's not apparent. Where is it?

Oh, God. Okay.

So he's like, oh, yeah, sorry. That's my stomach. And she's like, oh, that's so weird. I heard a pet talking, but you didn't say, like, woof or rough or something. Oh, shit. What did I sign up for? So they stop at a roadside stand to get food, and she's like, Order whatever you want. Don't worry about it. So he gets super excited. He orders udon and a sausage.

Oh, boy, living it up.

And he explains to her how Pocheta took over his heart to keep him alive. And she says, wow, that is so rare. Devils can possess people, but this taking over a specific organ? There's not even a word for that. I'm kind of at a loss there.

Got to put cheetah pacemaker. She got the heart of a little.

Guy, heart of a scam. But he's like, oh, yeah, Fuchita sacrificed himself. It's all that. And she's like, Well, I mentioned I get two different scents from you. So he is still alive within you. He didn't sacrifice himself. You are just two parts to one hole. He's like, what a great point. I'm going to pass out from blood loss. And does so.

Hold that thought for a minute.

So he wakes up at a picnic table, and their food is ready, and he's so weak, makuma has to feed him.

I love it. She says, can you feed yourself? And he says, I can not. I cannot, I cannot. Please feed me, mom.

Please.

Baby bird me, mama. I met five.

Minutes ago for people who know, you.

Know, oh, no, I'm afraid this show you recommended. So he's like, oh, wow, you're so nurturing and stuff. You're, like, the first person who's ever been nice to be in my life. So, like, what's your type? What's your sign?

Mama?

And she's like, oh, well, I happen to like the Dengue types. Wow, what a recruitment tactic.

I like that. He actually thinks he goes, Wait, Dengue, that's me. I'm like, God, he's dumb idiot boy. I love him.

I may have a third of the blood that I should have right now, but something tells me that was a flirt.

That sounds familiar. Where I've heard that name before.

It's me. So we cut till later on. He has a strength back. They're walking through the city, and they go to a pretty nondescript building in downtown. And this is the Devil Hunters hq. They're there on official business. And he's like, oh, wow, I finally have a job where, like, I'm going to be respected and stuff. But also, God, do I want to fuck. I want to fuck so bad. Oh, my God, I am so horny. Jesus Christ, I just want to fuck so hard.

That was an exaggeration.

Yeah. So pretty. Immediately, he was like, ah, foods in my belly. Now that need is satisfied.

Can I put my penis in?

See, I think, thankfully, is very much a 13 year old mindset, where he is like, I just want to do sexy stuff. Boobs. I want to touch a boob.

Yeah.

He's like, man, you wouldn't know what.

To do with that. He wants sex. He has no idea what that is, though.

No.

For a very dangerous individual, I do not feel unsafe around this man, because I'm like, you don't even know what you want, all right?

He is a child. He is baby. He had no parents.

And he's given a uniform. And we are introduced to another member of the team, Aki hayakawa. He is three years dengi senior, and dengi is to shadow him. But I want to hang out with the boob lady. You mean we're not going to fall in love and be a power couple immediately ahead of this organization?

You mean this isn't a workplace? Wrong.

So neither of them are happy about it, but they're like, all right, maybe you can fight at my level, Me makuma. Maybe you'll see a side boob in combat. I don't know what you're looking for, fighting in sexy times, but okay. So they're back out on the streets, and he asks kawa, hey, so what's her deal? She's single, right? He's like, hey, let's have a little talk, and takes him into an alley and just starts to beat the shit out of him. He's like, dude, you don't know what you signed up for. You are a piece of shit. You're worth nothing. Give up now. If you show up again tomorrow, I will continue kicking your ass until you quit for good. You don't deserve to be here doing you a favor.

Get out while you can.

So as he's doing that, he just crumples Dengue into some trash. And as he starts to walk away, dengue gets up and just kicks the ever loving shit out of his nuts to town. He's just trying to squash a spider up in there. And he's like, you took me for a weak fool. I know the rules of combat. I know the rules of fighting. You just kick someone in the nuts until they can't move anymore. And you do nothing else until they.

Give up nuts or nothing.

It's a good tactic. You can do it.

But he's like, hey, I had udon for the first time in my life. A girl gave me a shirt. This is the best day of my life so far.

You're not going to ruin it for me now.

I'm willing to die for this lifestyle at any moment.

Hey, I was given a second eye. I will rip this bad boy out just to spite you. So they go back to the office, and Dengue is like, oh, wow, weird. We ran into a testicle monster. He just went wild on kawa's nuts anyway. And machimo is like, yes, two idiots. The perfect team.

So dumb.

And says, Dengue, you're going to be on kawa squad. So she fills kawa in on his devil status. And he's like, what? Devil?

No.

Whoa. And he says, so kawa, you know he's part devil. So if he disobeys you in any single way, you have full authority to kill him. So that'll keep him in line. Wow, team dynamics. I'm a good leader. So they leave again. dungey is going to live with kawa because you have to look after this guy.

He's a babysitter.

So they're like, hey, real quick, is makima good? And I was like, well, you are her pet slave. Yeah, I think so.

Let me think real long and hard about that one, and I'll get back to you, buddy.

But they're like, well, it's like a net good, because she's helping kill so many devils. Don't think about it too much. Dengue mentions that he and makima hugged when they first met. And kawa is immediately super jealous.

I love Just. It's the most out of character for him we've seen so far.

So we get to their apartment and we just see Dengue really luxuriate with toast with multiple jams and a bathroom. And they get their first case. They go on the scene. They're on a police site. And the police let them in to do their business because there's a devil stuck inside. So they enter, and kawa is like, hey, you dumb idiot. You idiot piece of shit. I bet you don't even know what monsters are. This is the fiend. So this is like a devil that takes over a corpse. And Dengue is like, where have I heard that before I ring the bell, but I'm too stupid to figure it out. But it's him. That's him. But kawa was like, well, they're a little bit different. They all have just big old pincers somewhere on their heads. So they go in the room, and kawa is like, all right, show me what you got. Go devil mode. Do your big thing. Show me your supermode go sicker mode. And he just calmly takes an axe and cuts the head off the feet. He's like, that's all we needed. So my devil is kind of brutal, and it would be a little overkill right now. And kawa is like, that's your problem. You have too much empathy for these things. They killed my entire family. That's why I'm the way I am. Just so you know. I bet you'd be friends with the devil, you human devil combo. And dengue is like, oh, yeah.

I mean, if I could, why not?

There was one.

My only friend in all of my life was a devil. So much so that it sacrificed itself for me. So, yeah, I'm on their side. But naturally, he didn't want the room to get too bloody because the fiend's corpse had porn that he can look at.

Porn omega.

So he's looking through, and you get Pochetta's voice in his head. He's like, oh, my man. You got a second chance at life. Are you really living up to your dreams? And he looks around, looks at the porn he's reading next to the decapitated corpse in the room. He's like you're right. I should aim bigger. I should have some aspirations. I'm going to touch a titty. Small. Baby steps.

He is an absolute idiot.

So they go back to the base, and makuma says, Dengue will have a new partner. She's also kind of a fiend. And we see a woman walk in with pincers coming out of the top of her head to look like bunny ears. It's a fiend. And she's like, you stand in the bite of my Power. And then she's like, Wait, your name's Power? Okay. And I was also like, Wait, Power is your knit? Okay, cool. And he's like, But I want to work with machima. But, well, I guess there's still boobs in the equation. My goal can still be pursued.

I love what Makimo says. You can work with Power, since Power is highly rational. That is a lie.

That's incorrect.

Absolutely fake. So they go out on patrol. They're just running around some rooftops, and Power smells blood in the water and just jumps off a building and smashes a giant devil sea cucumber with a mallet. And it wasn't her bounty, so there's trouble. And that's where we end episode two.

Yeah, I love her.

Power is we've stressed out how stupid benji is. Power is dumber.

She's dumber. And when you put them together, it's the combination.

Dengue and Power by themselves are like half of a struggling brain cell but together, they kill both sides, and it's no brain cells. It's just zero footage.

Then a black hole vacuum happens to be there, and that is more powerful than any brain cell in existence.

Exactly.

So, episode three again, we pick up right where we left off after Power killed the sea cucumber devil. And now makima is there with a bunch of cops, and she tells them that interfering with a civilian Devil hunter's kill is interfering with their business so they could be arrested for this. So she tells Power that she has to think before acting, and Dengue is the one who has to get her.

In line, which minutes ago, in the.

Sequence of the opposite, here's your babysitter because you are a baby now. Here's another baby that you were the babysitter for. What?

Yeah. So makima says Power was the blood devil, and she can get pretty worked up. So makima then says that Power might not be cut out for devil hunting, and Power gets upset, saying that Dengue is the one who told her to kill it, but that's not true. So now he's upset, and they're fighting like little children, like, literally holding each other's arms and trying to push each other, and makima tells them to stop, and Power just obeys right away, and she says that she wants to see that they can work well together, and Power says, okay, we can do that. So it seems like it's. Later in the evening, dengue is at a vending machine, and Power is with him. She's, like, on her knees, staring at some drinks with her face up against the glass, and he wonders when he might be able to touch her boobs, because when he commits to a goal, it's all he thinks about.

To be fair, out of protagonist we've seen in anime so far, his is by far the most achievable.

It's true conviction, I'll give him that.

Some may say I'm too driven. So he says out loud that grabbing a drink like this used to be a dream for him, but if they can't work well together, then he won't be able to live this life anymore. And Power is petting a stray cat, and she says that she prefers the company of cats and that she hates humans and devils because a devil took her cat, which she just named meowyow. Good name. I had a lot of trouble typing it every time.

That was so weird. In in the English dub, it was meow. Boylev.

That's a good joke.

Gosh.

That's a good one.

I'm just going to stop recording now. You, too, can finish me.

Yeah, you peek. You've earned it.

The whole podcast is over.

God damn it. The apprentice has become the master.

Oh, boy. So she says that she wasn't able to save her cat before she was recruited by makima, but she still wants to save him. And Dengue says that it's dumb to get so worked up over a cat, but he'd understand if it was a dog. Shut up. Dengue Guy But he's also like, but my dream is to touch boobs, and that's way better. And she says that if he helps her save her cat, he can touch her boobs. And immediately he gets worked up. He's like, fuck that devil. How dare he take your cat? I'm going to fucking destroy him.

I love that he says, I'm going to murderize him, and I'm going to kill the shit out of the devil. Which are both they're not localization choices. Those are direct texts from the Manga, which is great.

Excellent. So back at the headquarters, we see that Dengue has to get approval for Power to be put on leave. So that's how much control makima has over or the organization, but makima has overpower, and they ride like a bus type thing. And Power is like, laying out the plan, saying that denji is the only one who could beat this devil and that it'll probably use the cat as a shield. And Dengue talks about Pocheta saying that he went away, and I was so sad. I can't pet him anymore, but it's okay because he's still alive inside me, and it's literal, but Power doesn't know that. So Power says, that's silly, he's still dead. And Dengue just keeps eyeing her titties and is like, I'm never going to get along with this girl, but at least she said I can touch her boobs. And then we see makima standing in front of a panel of dudes, and they're talking about devils being used in militaries. And they ask her how the devils are working out on her team, and she says one seems promising and one seems interesting. And they tell her not to get attached. kawa. I call him Aki. He's driving her back, and he says that Dengue is disgusting, not interesting. And he wonders how she can have such high hopes for him. And she's quiet for a minute, and then we get the explanation of what devils are. So it's like kind of info dumpy, but not excessive.

Yeah, not a lot, but still checks the bingo card.

Yeah. So she says that all devils are born with a name, and the more people fear that name, the stronger they become. So she uses coffee as an example of a devil that wouldn't be strong at all because no one's afraid of coffee. But a car devil could be really strong because plenty of people are afraid of driving them or getting hit by them and so on.

Horses are real strong.

Yeah, like, just so strong. So Dengue is the chainsaw devil, and she thinks that that's very interesting. And Aki says even though he's interesting, that doesn't mean he'll be good at this and that he doesn't have aki feels his motivation is not good or legitimate, so he'll be bad for the organization, and he doesn't like that. Dengue thinks he can be friends with devils. That's ridiculous.

Insane.

And then we see dengi and Power arrive at a rundown house in the middle of nowhere. And she says, that's where the devil is and my cat. And as they're walking up, Dengue says he doesn't want to use the chainsaws because he doesn't want to lose blood. And she's like, what you're talking about? And he's like, oh, I can turn into a bunch of chainsaws. No big deal.

Oh, you didn't ask about me. Sorry.

I just thought it wasn't that important. So Dengue asks if the devil is going to use the cat as a hostage, shouldn't Power, like, be further away? If if the devil sees her? Like, he'll use the cat. And she's like, oh, I misspoke. And then they stop walking, and they turn and attack each other at the same time. But she gets the hit. She smacks him over the head with a hammer, and he falls to the ground. So she drags him toward the house and takes him inside. The devil says that she kept him waiting for a long time. And she says, I brought you a human just like you requested. So she was gaslight gatekeeping and girl bossing on dense hell, yeah. Yes, ma'am. So the devil says that it's his first meal in a while, and since it's a young man, it'll make him especially strong. So he picks Dengue up off the floor and points out that he's missing an arm and that humans did this. And so now he's got to have tasty human blood to get his strength back. So he holds Dengue upside down and squeezes some blood out of his mouth. And the devil says it's disgusting, but at least it made his arm grow back. And now he's like, now I need to cleanse my palate. Your blood was so fucking gross.

He squeezes on, like a caprice on and just blood explodes out of dengue's mouth.

Yeah. So Dengue lays on the floor and stares at Power, and she tells him how foolish he was to believe her story. And the devil, we see him, like, fully now. He's the bat devil, and he's looking over the city, thinking about who he'll eat. And Power says she wants her cat back, and he has it in a cage. And he says the exchange was for delicious blood, and she did not give him that. So he eats meowy boo.

My boy loves.

So we get a flashback of when she met meowi. And at the time, she was living wild in the woods, naked and dirty.

Hell, yeah.

And he was a thin little thing, starving. So she decides to plump him up, and then she's going to eat him. But, oops, she loves him.

Oh, no. Little chestnut.

Yeah, I like the cat. whoops. So we see her laying on the roof of that rundown house with Miawi. And then the Bat Devil grabs him. His arm injury at this point is, like, fresh. And he tells her what to do to get her cat back. Then, back in the present. Power says that now she understands how Dengue felt about Pocheta, and the Bat Devil grabs her and eats her, too.

To be fair, Power says Dengue is dumb for believing her story. Her story wasn't the lie, though.

No, not necessarily. Yeah, he needed to come for her to get her cat back.

Yeah.

You are dumb to trust your teammate.

I played overwatch. I know that.

So the Bat Devil flies off of the house. He's ready to eat a bunch of folks, but Dengue has grabbed onto his leg, and he says, I want them titties back. Give me my titties back. And he remembers a time where he couldn't find Pocheta. So he was so worried, he looked for him all day. And then when he got back home, Pocheta was there already. And he wonders how Power, like, remembering that feeling. He wonders how Power could have slept all of this time knowing that mia was with the Bat Devil. And then he unleashes the chainsaws, and it's time to get nutty. So we see a woman in an office when the floor she's on explodes because Dengue was thrown in there, and he tells her to get out. And she's, like, cowering in fear from him because he's a bunch of chainsaws. And they move down into the street, and big fight happens. It's very entertaining visually, I promise. As the fight goes on, Dengue is, like, telling people to leave or get out of the way. And the Bat Devil wonders why he wants to save people, and he throws a car at Dengue with someone inside, but the guy jumps out before Dengue throws it back at him. More big fight. The Bat Devil grabs someone to eat, thinking that dengi didn't survive his last blow. But he did, and he is hell bent on touching some titties. It's all he's talking about, so he can't die yet. The Bat Devil throws a huge rock at him, but he cuts right through it, and he's got the upper hand in the fight now, and he kills the Bat Devil pretty easily after that. And the Bat devil's guts spill out, and his blood is spraying everywhere. And that's the end of episode three. And this ending, like we said, each ending is different. This one is, like, very metal and spooky.

Yeah, it's like electric metal with some pop in it towards the end. And then episode two was, like, funky, heavy, base city pop. It's cool. Yeah, it's a nice little treat at the end of each episode. So we've done yet?

Scared me, man. Yeah, I I feel like I had the opposite phenomenon than I usually have watching this. A lot of the like, this is a 13 year old worldview going through stuff. That seemed to irk me more. Watching it, talking back and being like, no. Yeah, this guy's a dumb child. Okay, that makes me feel a little better. But I know it is my only purpose on this podcast to compare anime we watched to other shows and just, like, very specific scenarios, but, oh, boy, there are some parallels between this and Dead End on Netflix that are just real. I just want to say real specifically, a devil taking a seemingly hopeless boy to sacrifice to a devil in order to get something back while also having horns. Power is courtney just in attitude as well, and having a boy die a lot. And a loyal dog who through demonic possession, is able to talk.

Now.

There'S some parallels that I couldn't help but notice.

Means you love it.

I related to it in one way that wasn't anime. So, yeah, this was a good time. It was, like we said, gory. It's not my typical type of show, but it is so beautifully animated apart from the gore. But, yeah, there are definitely some flaws. There are some like, I am the demon monster, and therefore demon powers. Like exposition type writing, which isn't the best. But, yeah, this is a fun time. And it has more heart than its horniness.

The heart outweighs the horny.

Yes. So, yeah, I'm having fun with this. It definitely lived up to the hype, I will say, for something that I have seen very heavily hyped for years at this point.

Yeah, I'm surprised going into actually watching it. I knew things about it, but nothing specific. So I didn't have, like I don't know, I guess I knew people liked it, but I didn't have super high expectations necessarily. But like I said, I'm keeping up with it. I've watched the most recent episode and I know things that happen in the future. So I'm excited to see things get worse because genji's life starts bad and it gets worse.

Yeah.

And I love shit like that. But it's also, like the comparison I make. And they were also done by the same studio, but I believe, as Jujitsukai said, because it's very similar with, like, I'm blanking yuji Yuji and dengi are both, like, silly little guys. Silly, stupid little guys. And then they meet up with a girl in juju Highkins Case, no burrah. And in this one, power that just make them even dumber.

Very strong, confident girl who is equally as dumb as the protagonist. And then a dark haired stoic keeps it in line sort of character.

Yeah, I would say jujitsu kaisen keeps things lighter in a way. Whereas this is, like, much more fucked up and nasty.

Yeah, it's a more fucked up sense of humor.

Yeah. And knowing what I know about makuma and other things that happen, I'm excited to see it all unfold in the anime. So I love this. And I think the acting is really I mean, there's no dub on hulu, which is where I watched it, but it's real good. All of it's really good.

I was surprised by this for the first time, dubbed for this. I was surprised by aki's, dubbed actor. It's deeper than I thought of him. It's still good, though. Still. All the voices are very good. Yeah. D and I were talking earlier before we started recording about the comparisons to Jujukaison because it's no shocker, it's a pretty standard shown in Jump plot or premise, which is plucky kid against the world becomes the thing to fight the thing. So like with juju, kai said, Yuji eats a demon finger and becomes part demon to fight demons. Dengue becomes part evil to fight devils. naruto becomes part nine Tail Fox to fight other tail demon. Like, it's a very common plot and especially shonen Jump. The fact that the series isn't shown in Jump at all is astounding. But with jinju Sukysan and Jameslman is a trend I very much enjoyed lately, which is the trio of characters. Usually the stoic dark haired, the bright haired protagonist and the girl. I'm very much enjoying the trend of the girl actually having a character and being dumb as shit.

Power is so fun. Before I watched the show, there was a goofy comic of Dengue and Power like goofing off and then Aki hands them hub abuba bubble tape and they both like their eyes get really big. That happens in the programs.

Oh, my God, they're doing some dumb shit.

And he's like, have some gum. And they're like gum.

They straighten up.

It's so delightful that they're that fucking dumb.

They are.

In a show this, like, heavy and dark. Just having these two complete idiots is just a hoot and a half.

Yeah, I feel like the humor really balances out the tone set by all the demons laying because I feel like that is where I really struggle with shows like this. Where you have all these heavy, gruff elements and then the light hearted bits are like, yeah, just mean spirited sexism. And it's like, oh, weird. This isn't a palate cleanser at all.

This is the joke.

But here, just having a teenager be like, I want to eat soup and touch titties. That's all I've ever known in my life, honestly.

Fair. I get it. Yeah. I will say, I do see people coming to the series for the first time being like, does he ever stop talking about boobs? I can assure you he does. It takes a hot minute. I won't lie. It takes a while. But yeah. Knowing part one of the manga is done so that arc of the story is fully done and knowing where it goes, it is wild seeing the beginnings of it again for me and seeing where they all start out because it's a very faithful adaptation of the manga. Like, very faithful. So it's crazy to revisit these characters from the beginning and seeing where they ended up and seeing how much growth there actually is. The dynamics between the three of them, especially Aki power and Dengue, changes so much and it's crazy to see how it starts out again and I really love it. I think it bounces really well with but it is pretty fucked up. I know a few people who are like, I hear good things about it. I'm like, no, if you don't like gore, don't watch this show like you don't like. So there are definitely some hard elements that might dissuade some people, but for people who get into it, you'll really get into it because it's great. I can't recommend it.

I'm very excited to continue to watch.

This television show and for people who are going to continue with it and want a fun preview, remember Baby birding oh no.

Going to change the subject immediately. If you want a baby bird as anime rex oh no. Instead of doing that, you can send them to our email, Are We There Yet@gmail.com? Or you can reach out to us on Instagram and TikTok. Are we there yet?

On both.

You can find me on Instagram and TikTok at Honeyperiod or on tumblr at honeyd. All one word. And Honey is spelled H-U-N-N-I-E. You can.

Find me like power rolling around in the mud and running into the woods with a bunch of feral cats. That's my life now.

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

And always remember to gaslight gatekeep and girl boss.

I mean, aki's got titties. You can grab his titties.