I can't do something like that for a cake.

Hello and welcome to our weep there yet in exploration and an education and anime. I am your anime idiot, patrick dugan.

I am an anime expert, dana hollander.

And I'm brenda mccullough, your anime magical girl with no secrets whatsoever.

Not suspicious at all.

How ominous.

Don't worry about it. Try not to think about it too much.

And I won't. What do we have going on this week, friends?

This week we're watching the first three episodes of puella Magi matoka magica.

This is a show we actually both had on our list. Yes, very good.

Yes, it is also a mouthful. This is the most anime ass title we've had so far.

Yeah, a lot of people just call it matoka magica, which is still a little bit of a mouthful, but it's less so.

Takes up a lot of real estate in that brain and mouth.

The pmm abbreviation isn't super helpful.

No, not better.

There's also two movies. One is like a recap of the whole series, and then one is like a sequel to the series, like to finish it off. And those also have very long names that are similar to the title of the show. And it gets real confusing real quick if you're trying to search it.

Great.

Yeah, the name is a cluster fuck.

But we love convenience.

It's very good.

Well, we will write it out for everyone so you can see what's going on and your path will be clearer than ours.

Yay, we'll see.

Yeah. This was something that was on both of your lists for things that you wanted to watch. What is your experience with it? When did you first see it? Did you fall in love immediately? All that fun stuff.

I watched it when I was 16 or a junior in high school because it was so popular. And I think when I watched it, I remember liking it. But at the same time, I don't remember a lot about it. I just remember its reputation, but I remember liking it. So I'm excited to get back into it now as a more cognizant person.

More experience under your belt. Yeah, I watched this back in college because a buddy of mine really recommended it to me. I might have heard the name before, but I don't remember any of it. But then as soon as I saw the characters, I was like, oh, I've definitely seen these before. I don't know what they're about. And I really struggled with it. Like, the first two episodes, I was like, I don't know, man. He's like, no, just stick with it. Just stick with I was like, I don't know. And really just dragging my feet to watch the show. And then I got to the third episode, which we'll cover, and I was just like, I'm fucking in.

When you Google madoka magica episode, episode three is the first one that comes up like in Google Auto Fill because so many people Google it.

It's interesting time. I won't say good. It's interesting.

Oh, you're selling this so well.

You got to watch it anyway.

I don't remember exactly what happens in episode three, but I have a guess, so it should be exciting.

I know exactly. It was burned in my brain.

I'm going to take a crack at trying to guess what this is about. Based on the name, which is mostly gibberish.

It's not a lot of English words.

Yeah. So this is going to be mostly out of nothing. I'm going magi and magica. I'm assuming something magical about this show. So I'm going to say your classic magic school story.

It's Harry Potter. We tricked you.

Yes. Anime Harry Potter. I would give so much money to that.

We could probably find a series.

We'll get there.

Yeah.

The show is still young, so we are watching the first three episodes and let's dive right in.

I'm in my pajamas. Got a blankie. Got some green tea. And I'm ready to die. Oh, no.

We are back from our nightmare hellscape. We are ready to discuss.

Yeah, I had a great time. I don't know about you guys, but I had a great time in this nightmare hellscape.

So we were a hard trip. It's good to revisit.

Yeah, we'll get into it. I have feelings.

It's like returning to an old house and be like, oh, yeah, I remember all these good memories. And also why I don't live here anymore. Fuck, this place.

Perfect.

You got good memories of a bad place.

Yeah.

Episode one, immediately, it's got an interesting style texture animation to it. It's got like a lacy curtain almost opening up. And it feels very like claymationy. And then it goes right into the anime style. So that's something to catch your eye instantly. And we got some solid jams going right in the beginning. And this like crazy gray scale dystopian sort of world where stuff looks destroyed. But you got this good thump and beat that I'm really into. And we see some girl fighting off this giant thing. I'm not exactly sure what it is. A lot of buildings and shit flying around.

Yeah, it looked like she was just fighting a building.

Yeah, it looked like it was enormous. And then we get the pink girl talking to this little dog creature. So I can only assume that's the main girl. I already watched it, so I know what's happening. But I'm playing like I don't wink. And so the tiny dog creature at this point talks to the pink girl saying like, he can save her if she makes a contract with him to become a magical girl and hit the snooze on the alarm because it's all a dream. She wakes up in her bed.

A contract just doesn't sound right. I wouldn't make a contract with that thing.

No. Contracts are never good if it's a realtor if it's an employer, if it's a bank, if it's a tiny talking dog with weird ears, don't read it thoroughly before you sign anything. Yeah.

Any magical thing where it's not like, hey, let me help you out. And it's like, you must sign this contract.

We'll make like, oh, God, how many contracts do you have to sign in blood before you think, this isn't a great idea?

Maybe I should rethink the way I sign things. Maybe I should read the contracts before I sign them.

Nah, the fine print, but I need to save that mysterious anime girl in my dream.

We'll see. Oh, I will say disclaimer. I got this whole soundtrack of this whole show, like, on my ipod, because just fucking all the music is fantastic. I'll say this now so I don't have to keep saying, every song is good. They're all good.

A firm basis of every song is good.

I read all Game of Thrones to it, and I can't disassociate them anymore. It's very fitting, though. Anyway, so after the opening sequence, we get the main character getting ready to drag her mom's lazy ass out of bed. Really got to wake her up, get her baby brother's jumping on top, too. And we find out the main character is Medoka, the titular character of Medoca magica. And she's going through her morning routine with her mom, who turns out is not really lazy, just doesn't want to get out of bed. But she's a very professional working mother. Like, she seems to be in some.

Sort of big company. Woman.

And then I think the dad's a painter. From what I can tell, he seems like an artist. There's a lot of paintings around their house, and there's just a lot of chairs in her parents bedroom.

Yeah, that was throwing me off. Yeah, that's odd, because a lot were pointed at the bed, and it was like, that's weird.

An audience unsecured me. I just thought he was, like, a stay at home dad. I didn't really think that he had a profession.

I think he was a painter because there was a lot of paintings in the house. And I assume the mom's too busy working, and it's not madoka doing it, so I just was assuming. But he's not a huge character, so we don't have to get too into it. So then they have a nice family breakfast before work in school, which never happens. It's impossible to do that.

I know.

And then the mom runs off, finishes her coffee, and then madoga goes to school. Yeah.

I made a note that this seemed way too happy. Some death is incoming real quick.

Yeah. I was like, this is so sweet. They're living such a nice life. And then I remembered what the show was about. Oh, yeah.

When I first watched this, it just felt real slice of lifey. And I was like, this is just boring. Like, I just don't care and then now re watching it, it's just like.

Oh no, when will the alien meteor crash into their house, killing all of them and giving one of them powers? That's what I'm waiting for at this point.

That's anime. So madoga runs off the school and meets up with some of her friends. And on her way she meets her blue haired friend. I just started calling her sonic and.

I started calling with her guy. That's pretty good though.

That's great.

They're all just sonic.

Oh my God. They all have one.

Yeah. So she starts telling to her friends and her friends are teasing her about her choice of ribbon, saying it's like very eye catching and she wants like boys attention. So they start teasing each other about that. Just friend stuff. Very wholesome just girl stuff. Yeah. So class starts and the teacher is teaching them how to fry an egg properly and clearly working through some relationships.

Yes. She's petty AF because she's like, would you reject someone for frying an egg? Wrong. And clearly her date last night did not go well and she's just venting to the class.

So what you're telling me is that you don't care if someone fries your egg wrong and that the guy that I was with is just an asshole?

Exactly. Oh God. I had an English teacher like this in high school. It was rough. Yeah. So anyway, new anime, beginning of a show, got to have a new student. New transfer student. That's a staple. Check that off the anime bingo card.

That is the free space.

So the new student is humora who's this long dark haired girl. Everyone's enthralled by her immediately because she's the new student. But she seems very cool and collected and if anything, kind of cold and maybe a little distant. But that's just more alluring to the new student.

Serious?

Yeah. Oh, and this is also the girl that madoka saw in her dream is immediately on alert and she locked the eyes with her right away. So everyone's gushing over the new girl, talking about all this stuff and trying to get her attention. herma seems harama. I'm going to call her Shadow. Shadow the hedgehog.

Shadow is good.

Yeah. There you go. Yeah.

The sonic comparisons are working very well here's.

The I know their names. My mouth is just dumb and can't say them.

Yeah. I'm just thinking of later on. There's a red one.

Yeah, that's knuckles.

Knuckles. Perfect. My God.

So Shadow faint sick and says she's not feeling good and has to go to the nurse. And amelia goes in with madoka saying like, hey, you're the class aide or the nurse's aide. You should take me to the nurse. And as they're walking there, madoka asks like, hey, how do you know I was the nurse aide? Like, you just got here and yet you already know. She's like, oh, the teacher told me. It's like, yeah, I guess that makes sense.

I'll allow it for now.

Yeah. Keeping her hand on her pocket knife just in case.

Yeah.

Also, this school is just like, all glass walls and a lot of light. And I fucking hate it.

It's a really weird they live in, like a really weird futuristic kind of place. Yeah, because I noticed when monica was leaving her house in the morning, a painting that she passed actually changed. It was like a TV screen we.

See in a later episode. There's a cd player that's just like a stick, and then it folds in half into a wedge. And then the cd spins openly between those two wedge parts. And it's just kind of like at least the school is a cool setting. I get why they would want it in a show. I fucking would hate being in there. It just makes me very uneasy. Glass walls everywhere.

Yeah. In the second episode as well, they have, like, mechanical deaths that will get to where you need it to be.

And it's like, it's sterile.

We're in this futuristic place and it does not come into play at all.

No, they never address it.

It's weird.

So Shadow tells madoka to call her by her first name, Shadow. This is kind of odd for a new person because it's a very personal thing we've talked about before in Japan. It's a very personal way to talk to someone. So she's a little thrown off by that. And then Shadow asks if Medoka values her friends and family and if she'll do anything to protect them.

Very like, do you love your friends and family? it'd be a shame if something happened to them.

It's like, bad question to ask.

What?

I mean, if you're already uneasy about someone, it feels like a threat. Yes, of course I love them. I protect them. Shadow is like, good. Don't change medoka. Stay as you are forever. And I wrote that quote down. She's like, make sure you never change, ever. That's weird. So cut to later gym class. We find out Shadow is an all star at sports. We see her in the classroom doing all the math and all these crazy equations. And she is super smart, just like, all around perfect student. And people are kind of in all of her. And then we see the little dull creature from madoka's dream sitting up in a top of a tree scouting out everything, being a little creep.

Watching boys watching.

First chance to pounce.

I can see you from my house.

He never blinks. So that also is oh, yeah.

I'm waiting for a delicious squirrel to climb up this tree.

Beady red eyes.

Yeah, the big, piercing red eyes. The bead eyes. So cut to medica and her friends are talking about the new student at lunch saying like, oh. And madoka is saying like, oh, I feel like I know her before I saw her in her dream. Her friend sonic immediately calls her out and just being like the anime character in you is popping out saying like, oh, I saw her in a dream. We're destined to be either.

Love that you are an anime character.

Yeah, she's right. Her name is in the title. Oh, I was also calling her sonic and made up these names because we don't find their names out right away. Yeah, Medoka and sonic, they decided to go to the mall after school. There are other friends. What's the b in sonic? The B? Oh, no. I'll call her cream. Cream the rabbit. That's a better one.

All right.

So Medoka and sonic go to the mall while Cream goes off to do a bunch of extracurricular activities because she's.

Like, the green haired girl. Got you.

So she's in, like, piano and this and that. So she does all that stuff and goes away while Medoka and sonic go to the mall for the music store. And while they're listening to some music with doki here someone calling out for help and doesn't seem like anyone else notices. And she goes off trying to find out who's calling for help. And then at this moment, we get a scene change and Shadow irma it's, chasing down we see her, like, chasing down the little dog creature and just like, wailing on it. Just like we don't see exactly what's happening, but it's definitely being hit by something and she's chasing after them. So got a little chasing going on in this really dark alleyway sort of setting.

Yeah, they're like up in the air vents of this mall.

It seemed like this part was under construction still or something. Like while the rest of the mall was open, this part was closed off. So it looks like she's chasing him through there. And then as madoka keeps hunting down the voice calling out for help, she stumbles upon this area and goes aside. And she's in that same setting where that dog is being chased down and he jumps to her arms and he's all beat up and, like, cut up and torn apart. And that's when Shadow appears. And madoka tries to protect the dog groot from it because it's a little animal being hurt by someone else. Of course you protect it.

This is a direct reference to the classic cinema scene from Shrek where donkey is being chased by a group of villagers and Shrek saves it. I just need the media crit aspect of this to not go overlooked. This is a shrek reference.

Why is the one episode I referenced Shadow the hedgehog, also the episode you referenced, Shrek? That is a very cursed image. I don't want in the show.

They also get married at the end. Shrek and song. No, don't want to. Thank you for my fanfic corner.

This podcast is a ruse. You got tricked into it.

Next episode, we will be watching the film adaptation I am making of this.

So madoga is protecting the little dog creature. And her AMA shadow looks different. She's in like, a different clothing. And the blue sonica even comments on that, saying, like, hey, why is she in cosplay?

Yeah.

So this is something it took me a while to notice the first time I watched it because her different clothes are just kind of like it's very similar to a school uniform she already wears, but just like darker and purple and gray. So it's not as obvious. But so while they're talking, sonic comes in and sprays Shadow with a fire extinguisher to distract them. And they get away. They use this as an escape. As they're running away, we get another sick beat going on, which if you play video games, it's usually an indicator of something bad is about to happen. And as they're running down the hallway, just like the walls start melting and just changing and being real trippy. And we're going into a psychedelic freak out. Turns out that little dog creature is full of lsd. And when you touch it, you just trip balls.

The poison dart frog of anime.

Yeah, that's the secret to it all. You touch it and you're just immediately like, oh, man.

Yeah. And then all of a sudden, this new girl appears. She's blonde. I'm going to call her tails.

Perfect.

She saves madoka and sonic from all these little weird cotton ball monsters with mustaches. And they don't look they look like the lace in the beginning of the show. They don't look like traditional anime stuff. They look like sort of stop motion papercraft, almost like deco paj sort of shit. And it's really weird and kind of unsettling.

Yeah, it's a very Collage style. I was getting, like, very Eric Carl style.

That's a good way of putting it.

It was off putting when it was a complete mystery to you. So I'm a little mad at you guys putting me through that.

No warning. You all blind like we did.

Yeah.

The show is if you're a weed that took a bunch of acid and wandered into a michael's craft store, it's a rough time.

What if these puff balls had mustache?

So the blonde girl thanks them for rescuing Cuba, who turns out is the little dog creature. And then there's a transformation sequence where the blonde girl just summons just a shitload of guns, just like a thousand giant guns that are floating in the.

Air and just opens her thing.

Yeah, that seems to be her main weapon. And she just blows away all of the cotton ball monsters and then they return to the real world. After she defeats them all.

Yeah. After that I wrote omg bullet. Hell yeah.

She summoned they were basically all single shot muskets. And it's like you can summon because we see you summon other types of guns. Why not just summon something that you aren't throwing them away? Like reaper, you can actually fire more.

Than once or twice, something with a bigger class size.

And I know you said you wanted to just say off the top that all the songs are good, but mommy's transformation song is my favorite. I love that song.

I don't know if I have a favorite because I listen to them all at once in, like, the full album, so I don't know if I can even differentiate them. It's all good.

Sure.

They come back to the real world and Shadow appears, and they lock eyes with tails, and there's a little tension there. And they say, the witch managed to escape. You should go after it. Kind of hinting at tails, kind of telling Shadow like, hey, get the fuck out of here. I don't want to see you around these parts no more, partner.

This town ain't big enough for the two of us.

Exactly. So Shadow takes advice of the heads on out, and that's when we find out the blonde girl, Mommy still going to call her tails. This is fun. heals, kibe. And that's when he pops up and says, like, oh, I want to make a contract with you too, madoka and sonic, and you become magical girls. And just like the dream, he's already making a deal with madoka. And once again, yeah.

Mommy very vaguely said to homeura, I'm willing to overlook this, as if she's like some authority. Yeah, there's definitely mommy is just immediately so sketched to me. And I don't know if that's because I've seen the show or if that's just, dudes, did you feel that way about her?

Yeah, there was like some weird authority feelings I was getting from her, even though they're supposedly on the same level, if they're both just magic girls. So it was a little bit off putting.

Yeah, she's a little suffer, a little suspicious.

There also just whenever you have a mysterious character, be like, be careful, don't do this. And then the very seemingly nice character shows up. You know something weird is happening with them.

Yeah. When she's like, no, this is fine. You're like, okay, well, oh, no, I.

Should have trusted the mysterious mean girl all along.

Dang.

Damn, dude. You're already looking through the tropes.

You're catching a film or two.

I didn't see Mommy as, like, an authority figure with that. I thought I saw her more of just like a threat but very polite way of saying, like, hey, leave now or I'm going to fucking break your jaw open. Just like, oh, but that makes her.

Suspicious to hate someone so much.

Hey, I'm very nice, but I'll beat your ass.

I'll burn you on the spot.

I'm very nice to everybody, but I hate you.

And yeah, that's kind of it. We get the ending sequence, which is just like a boring one, static image, just nothing really going on. Nice tune, but that's it. It's just one shot of Medoca and cream and sonic having a good time playing around that's all the sonic analogy works so well.

Yeah, this is spot on. I'm deep in the floor now so much.

This must be a thing, a direct reference.

I'm sure there's some fanfiction crossover, but yeah. So that's episode one.

So, yeah, second episode, I'm going to zoom through it a little bit because a lot of it is just explaining evolution. Yeah. How being a magic girl in this world works. So I'll try to zoom through it.

A little bit quicker.

But we start with another dream. I'm sensing a theme. Mommy talking with QBay about the contracts and how to become a magical girl.

Oh, I will say I did my traditional thing of sub. Well, this one I did dub, sub, dub. And immediately, within the first minute of the sub, I already prefer the dub. I don't know if it's because I already have a history of it and, like, memories of it, but something about the English voice actors seems more delicate and fragile. They seem more hesitant when they speak, especially Medoka. And I think that plays super well to the show and her character.

Yeah, I think I watched it subbed when I first watched it, however many years ago. But this time I watched it all dubbed, and it was good. I liked it.

Yeah, it's not bad. So, yeah, Medoka is doing the usual morning routine. Her mom is concerned because she was out late last night and being the cool mom, she was just like, just cool. Call me dude.

That's literally what I was. In my notes, I wrote Cool mom with a capital C and a capital M. Yeah, cool mom.

Even in the first episode, I'm like, the mom is my favorite character so far because she's just so chill. She's like a baller business woman. Yeah. But yeah, madoka is like, hey, I was hanging out with friends and street. It's fine.

Also, quibi is there with Medoka, and we find out that normal people, normies can't see.

Cube muggles.

Muggles.

No, locals can see. So madoka and sonic, I'm leaning into the nicknames, too, because it's delightful. They go visit Taylor, who just has her own apartment, even though she is just, like, a year older than to.

Assume 9th grade is the same age as here. She's 14 and she lives by herself.

Mommy is a third year, so that'd be junior in high school or something.

In the English stub, they say she's a 9th grader.

Oh, okay.

Yeah.

That is the separation in Japan, I think.

Yeah. Also, when they go to her apartment, this is the flashback of the day before when they rescued kibe. So it's right after this is when Madik was staying out.

In tails apartment. They sort of go through the whole plot of being a magical girl. So, basically, Cuba will create a sole gem once the contract is made, and it will give them their magical powers. And that is sort of the symbol of their contract. And in return for making this contract, QBay will grant one wish for each of them whenever they want. No matter how fantastic or impossible it may seem, cuba can make it come true.

Infinite wishes.

Another weird thing that Mommy says, she sits them down and she's like, you're involved in this whether you like it or not. And it's just like, what?

Yeah, we keep saying you have a choice, but we're going to just keep hounding you. It super.

Feels like I don't have a choice here.

It's kind of like because they can see Cuba. Like, you're already kind of magical.

Since your subconscious agreed to it in a dream. You're kind of stuck with a sorry, sorry.

Learn how to read the contract.

I don't think I've ever heard anyone say that sentence.

There's a lot of things on this show that are beyond normal conversation topics.

Yeah.

So yeah, basically their job as magical girls isn't just to run around and have powers. They have to fight wishes. They have to fight witches. So basically, witches are the source of chaotic energy in the world. They are often found near, like, fatal car crashes and suicides and murders and unexplained crashes and stuff. Sort of corrupting regular people to do bad things. And they hide out in these collage zones of what we saw in the last episode, the michael's Craft Stores Collage.

Zone was the sequel series to chalk Zone. I will back.

That kickstarter deep.

Cut.

But yeah. So they need to hunt down these witches and sort of bring balance to the Force or whatever.

Fucking Star Wars? I don't know.

Star wars on a trek.

It's all here.

That's where we're at today.

This show has it all.

It's a perfect show.

A little bit of something for everyone.

Yeah.

So they sort of consider their wishes. We flash back to Medoca and her mom getting ready. She's like, hey, hypothetically, if you had a wish, what would you wish for? And her mom was like, oh, let me overthrow the CEO. Because he's he's just standing in everyone's way and sort of just staying very business focused. It sort of like turns the gears of, if I was CEO, this is.

How I'd run the company. Say.

We then flash back to the flashback and tails invites them before they consider or make their decision. They can take as much time as they need to think about it, and they can join tails on a witch hunt to see how it goes and see if that's the life they want to live.

Drown. The witches.

Drown.

Get it? Witch hunt? I don't know.

Yeah, meet me at the stake in the center of town and we'll burn some witches.

Yeah, it'll be great.

She's a duck.

I hate you. So they are going off to school. They meet up with Cream. That was the fire name for the friend, the rabbit. Yeah, Cream the.

Rabbit.

All right, so they meet up with Cream, and Cuba is still hanging out with them. And since normie's can't there's a lot of terminology hanging out with it now. There's a lot of terminology going on in this I feel insane talking. But anyways, that's where we're okay, so Sonic, creed, Cuba, and the normy meet up. And Medoka is like, hey, so she can't see you. So we're just going to telepathically talk. And qubit is like, yeah, we can all hear each other. It's all good.

We're in a club now. It's cool.

Yeah, you're fine. The friend is like, hey, what's going on? You keep just staring at each other. And then we didn't meet up last night. Oh, no, you're in love and then runs away. And girls can't love girls.

I was like, they're not gay, but let them be.

Yeah, but why not?

They're not but mind you fucking business. Yeah, Cream. Cream is on my shit list right now.

Yeah, well, she's just so obsessed with boys, too, I think, because so many boys love her that she's just like, what do you mean? Girls can love girls?

No, that's an option.

The popular girl isn't as awoke as she should be. What weird, they're basically hanging out in school and they're like, hey, is it cool for Cuba to be here? Because Shadow wanted to kill you last night. And she's like, in our class right there.

Yeah.

Cuba is like, yeah, it's fine, whatever. Tails is in the school and in this telepathic voice chat, we're all in this together.

Like, hubay is literally just taking advantage of Modica and Sonic, just because he knows that if he's around them and if he's at school with them homer, I can't attack him. Shadow.

Sorry, her proper name.

Yeah, I was going to call her sayaka, but I was like, no, I can't.

Excuse me. Use her.

I know it's sonic. Sonic, I'm so sorry. baptized is sonic. But yeah, qba was like, oh, yeah, she won't attack me because I'm with you guys. And also Mommy will protect me. And I was like, you suck. You're just tagging along for safety.

He's like a shitty politician at the White House. It's like, I can do whatever I want. I got a diplomatic community. It's like, you asshole.

Yeah, don't abuse it. Just chill at home. Watch some Netflix.

Fucking relax.

So, yeah, on their break, they are up on the roof sort of just contemplating all of their wishes. And they're like, yeah, it's kind of a shame that we were chosen because we're kind of like rich kids. We don't really want anything.

Sonic gets real deep right here.

Yeah, we grew up having everything, so we don't know. Like we don't have deep desires that could not be fulfilled because everything's fulfilled. It's like, thank you for acknowledging your privilege.

Fucking humble rag.

But yeah, so they're just, like, trying to figure stuff out and then Shadow appears. Yeah. Shadow comes out of the shadows. It's sort of like, I'm not here to start shit. I'm not going to fight you.

I'm here for the Chaos emeralds.

Yeah. I'm here to assassinate the President, I think. So she's like, yeah, I was trying to stop you from meeting Cuba, but clearly you have already met. So this is sort of the final warning. Do not become a magical girl. It's the shitty life. Yeah. I glossed over in the last bit that they established that magical girls aren't exactly always on the same side, because defeating witches will give them special powers. It's sort of a loot system of sorts. So it's sort of a competition of who can take down the witches and get the power ups. This is just sonic.

It's just sonic.

Yeah.

Who can get ratings and you trade them in for prizes, like robotnik.

Oh, man. That somehow ruined the show for me.

Now look what you've done. This was you, Brendan, all right?

You introduced me. You can't take it back now. It sort of establishes why there would be animosity between Tails and Shadow. So they meet up with Tails after school for their trial witch hunt internship. Yeah. They're intern witch hunt. They're getting course credit. It's all coaching.

It's not illegal.

So they track the energy from the soul gem. Also tying in another thing. Soul gems just kept reminding me of skyrim.

Yeah.

And I just had to bring in another brand.

The most ambitious crossover in history.

They used the soul gem to track down the witch energy, which is making someone try to throw themselves off a building curse. So Tails saves her, sort of guides her down so she doesn't die jumping off the building. And they enter the Labyrinth, which Shadow follows them in, in secret.

Hiding the shadows.

They get into the Collage Zone and sort of just start fighting off these weird, fuzzy mustache men. And we get to the there's a point.

Mommy. Wait, Mommy uses a gun. She shoots it literally once and then throws it away.

Yeah, this is like the musket system, because she summons, like, 20 guns and then shoots each of them once.

She's just so extra.

Just think about a revolver real quick and then that will save you some of the mental magic power. I don't know how it works, but still, efficiency, people.

Yeah. Come on.

She's a 14 year old with her own apartment in the city. She can do what she wants.

She's got money, no rules. They fight the switch, which is like a weird jello plant thing. butterfly butter. I don't even know how to describe it. It's like staring at an Elder tour.

I cannot be beautiful and I love her.

Yeah, we describe a lot in the show, but if you don't watch it, at least look up what these witches look like, because these zones are just insane to look at.

It's a very yeah, they're pretty wacky.

Yeah.

It does not have even, like, animalistic form. It's just some shapes. But yeah. Tails pulls out a giant fucking gun and shoots this thing and wins treyo finale.

Hooray.

So when they win, they return back to the regular world and they find a grief seed, which is sort of a witch's egg that will hatch a witch or give them their powers if they defeat it. So this is sort of the recharge crystal to the soul gem.

Mommy points out that her soul gem, after fighting, got cloudier and a little darker. But with the grief seed, it kind of takes away that cloudiness and makes.

Her soul jam bright again. But they didn't really ask why. modoka and Sonic were kind of just like magic. They were like, okay, cool. They didn't ask like, why does your gem get dimmer? Why is this necessary? Why is this important?

You got to find that amount of magic. So the more witches they fight, the longer they can fight witches.

Yeah, but we know that.

We know there's stuff going on here.

Yeah.

I would ask. I would be like, why melod dimmer?

Yeah, they're not the most inquisitive main characters.

Yeah. They don't really care. They just kind of go with it.

Yeah.

Shadow comes again out of the shadows and such an appropriate thing. Tails offers her, like, hey, there's still some juice in this thing. Do you want it? Sort of, let's break bread. And she's like, no. And walks away.

I finished the pizza. Here's the fucking crust, you animal. Damn it.

Here, eat my scraps, pig.

Fucking Phil.

So, yeah, monica goes home and is so inspired that there is such a helpful person like Mommy in the world and wants to be a magical girl just like her.

Wow. There are other ways to help people, madoka.

No, only this.

Get your EMT license, for God's sake.

Yeah. This is like all my telling deku to be a police officer about to.

Say that she's not deku. She has powers, damn it.

All right. And that's episode two.

Yeah. So in the beginning of episode three, Sonic goes she goes to visit someone in a hospital, name is Kyosque, and I guess they were friends or he's just someone she admires. And she brings him a cd. They have a cute little moment where she gives him the cd and they share headphones, and they're like, too far away. So he gets a little closer. Very cute. Very middle school romance.

Yeah.

And he starts crying and sayaka has this memory of watching him play the violin. And you see that his wrist is all bandaged up. So we are to assume that he cannot play the violin anymore because of something that happened to his wrist.

It's so tragic.

He got the stringer's wrist. It's a disease that only affects violin.

Ouch.

There's no cure.

No, it's completely tragic. So madoka and sayaka, go and watch Mommy tails fight more. They're not fighting a witch. They're fighting a familiar that got away from its witch. So this one doesn't leave a grief seed like it does before. And monoka decides to ask Mommy what she wished for, and Mommy doesn't really want to say, but she was close to death, so she still doesn't really reveal what her wish was, but she's like, I didn't have time to think about it, which sucks.

Yeah.

I just wished for something.

Yeah, she doesn't say it, but we get the flashbacks showing it was, like, a pretty bad car accident, and Cuba showed up right when she was about to die. So it's kind of like yeah, I.

Kind of assume that she wished to be alive. She wished not to die.

You never want to be the wishy that accidentally asked for a sandwich or something, and you're like, Damn, it could have cured cancer.

Dang. Wow.

I wish I knew what to wish for. fuck.

So sayaka asks if her wish can be for someone else kind of hinting. We learned pretty much that she wants to use her wish to help Kyoske because she figures, like, his Sonic name.

Okay, here we go. Ralph. The duck. No, that's a muppet. I don't know the crocodile because he's got headphones.

Okay, sure.

Oriented.

Okay. Yes.

Vector.

I'm still going to call him Kyokay.

You do you.

I will imagine a crocodile.

Perfect. She pretty much wants to help Kyoske and Mommy. Well, Cuba says, yeah, that's fine. You can make a wish, but it doesn't necessarily have to be for your benefit. But Mommy says, like, this is the smartest thing she said so far. She's kind of like, maybe think about it, though, because being a magical girl, you're risking your life. And also think about it in the way, like, if your intentions are pure, that's better, because she really would just want to do it so he'd be grateful to her.

Yeah, you don't want it to be, like, a guilt trip wish.

Yeah, because then she could just be like, I did this for you. Love me.

Yeah, it's a selfish wish disguised as altruism. She thinks she wants to help him, but it's really just to make him love her.

Monica goes home, and she's kind of talking with Cuba, and qube tells her that she has enormous potential as a magical girl and that she could be, like, the most powerful magical girl. And I'm just sitting there like, okay.

She'S got me character syndrome.

You're obviously just trying to get her to make a wish, you little devil.

Qb is Bay.

Don't be mean to I will be mean to him.

No, I just want to say that.

I will for sure. Yeah, that's a good one.

I didn't know how to spell his name, so I wrote it out phonetically as Q. Bay.

Perfect.

I got you.

Yeah.

He sucks. Anyway, shocking, her mom gets home, and she has to help her dad bring her into bed, and her and her dad have, like, hot chocolate afterward. And she says, like, why does mom work so hard? And he kind of says she really likes working. She just has to work late nights sometimes. And he talks about how strong of a woman she is, and it's nice. It's cute. She has good parents, good role models for love.

Yeah.

The good death train is just rolling.

On through one of these. I know, right? Just do me.

This guy is such a good character. Oh, no.

The chandelier falls on him. Episode Four Calling It.

So the next day, monica and Sonic go to the hospital to visit Kyosque again, and they see a grief seed that has not.

Yet there was a brief scene of Shadow and Tails at a fountain.

Kind of oh, yeah, I forgot about that. I forgot about Mommy calling homer a loser.

Yeah.

I was just like, wow, here they are, Mommy's true colors. Because Mommy says, you know, they have great potential. Why are you trying to stop them? And homer is just like, come on, you know what they're signing up for shadow and Tails.

I needed you to say it.

Shadow says, you know what they're signing up for. Why would you encourage them to do this? And Tails is like, just get out of my way. I don't want to see you anymore. Like, leave us alone.

She says, you're afraid of them being stronger than you kind of turn it against her, which is not true.

Yeah, Mommy's got some feet to her. She does. She's a weird bitch, and I love her. They see a grief seat at the hospital that hasn't yet activated hatched or whatever, but it's close. It's very close. So monica goes off to find Tails, and Sonic decides to go into the labyrinth with qb.

Sonic is just such a hero. I've said it for years.

She goes so fast.

She couldn't wait for Mommy. She had to go fast.

She had to go fast. So they're in there. Cuba is kind of like, you know, if you make a wish, we can fix this ourselves. And Sonic is kind of like, I know, but fucking chilled. Yeah. I don't think I'm ready yet, so this is fine. I feel okay. I'm just kind of scared. And then monica gets back with Tails, and they go in. Sorry. And Shadow follows closely behind and warns her, warns Mommy Tails that this witch is not like the others.

Mommy tails sounds weird.

Mommy Tails. So let me call them by their name.

No. Do our level, dana.

I know. I'm so sorry that I am so cultured. Just kidding. So Shadow warns Tails that this witch is very powerful and that she should just let her take care of it. But tails is like, no. And she traps her up in a bunch of ribbon, and she's like, I'm going to do this. And you're going to stay right here. Don't struggle because they just get tighter. And monica is kind of just like, okay, that's fine.

That's what the good guys do, right? They just type people.

Yeah, tails is a good guy, right?

Yeah, it's cool.

Sure. So they go deeper into the collage zone. And all of our terminology is key right now. It's all just coming to a head.

We're all realizing it. Like hearing it, we're like, fine. But once we have to actually say this stuff out loud, we're like, oh.

No, it just gets worse.

Yeah, we're in the kala zone with Tails, Sonic, and Shadow.

Yeah, no normal is around.

So monica says to Mommy, Tails, she says, I thought of my wish. Can I, like, tell you? Can I, like, run it by you? And Tails is like, yeah, sure, go for it. And she pretty much just says that she just wants to help people. She just wants to wish to be a magical girl, which is the side.

Effect of the wish. Like, it's going to happen anyway.

So Mommy is kind of like, maybe dumb. Think harder about that. Yeah, that's really stupid. Because me being a magical girl, it sucks, madoka.

It's real bad.

This is where she's kind of like, I'm always alone and tired and scared and it sucks. And madoka is like, well, now you have me. Like, I'll always fight by your side. And mommy's like you will. And monica says, yeah, of course.

You're not alone.

So. Mommy. Mommy feels great. She's in an amazing mood.

She's walking on air.

Walking on air. And then they meet sayaka. She fights some stuff in like, a cute little sequence. And she has, like, inner monologue about how happy she is. So obviously something bad is going to happen to mommy.

Oh, hey, look, there's that other shoe about the drop.

Whoa.

Oh, wow. Here it comes. I can see it. Is that oh, yeah, there it is. Yeah.

I didn't see it with all this weird, like, swirly faced monsters just walking around.

Yeah, but it's about, like, I don't know, 25ft off the ground now. Here it comes.

It's going out quick.

Yeah. So they meet sayaka and Cuba and the grief seed begins to hatch. And they find the witch's lair. And mommy is ready to fight it. It's just this tiny little thing. It looks like a tiny little stuffed animal. Super cute. Doesn't fight back.

Yeah, which is never a good sign when you're like, I'm just kicking this inanimate objects ass. This is too easy.

Wow, I can't believe it. What a good day I'm having. I have a new best friend, and this witch was easy. Wow.

Everything coming up me. Everything coming up tales.

And episode title. So she does her big finale move and shoots the little stuffed animal thing. And she's like, hell yeah, I did it.

Fuck it.

But, uhoh, here comes that shoe. It's hit the ground, and a big, scary clown monster thing comes out of the mouth of the stuffed animal, approaches Mommy, opens its mouth and bites off her head. Fucking munch, munch, scrunch. Here we go.

Visceral.

Yeah. She lifts her body off the ground. We don't get to see a lot of this, but her decapitated body falls out of its mouth and it just goes to town, eating Mommy. So mommy's dead.

Oh, yeah. She's like, super dead.

Super dead.

No return, no redeeming, no redemption. No. Let's go. No, just straight up dead. All right.

Straight up dead.

Until the movie.

Cool.

Yeah. Fully dead. She's gone. Which, of course, because she was too happy.

That's not true. It came down.

That's what I keep saying about this damn family.

You're not allowed to be happy in modica magica.

No, it's not allowed.

And quba is just sitting there like, hurry, wish for anything. And I'm just sitting there like, Too eager. Cuba.

I mean, too much.

If there's ever a time for him to be eager for them to make a contract, it's right now, because they are in very big danger. I get his eagerness here. Everywhere else was a bit excessive, but.

Still, I mean, I get it.

But also, at the same time, it's.

Like, no time for like, hey, let's just take in that this person we knew was just decapitated. No.

Do it.

Make wish.

Contract. Business time. The shop is open.

Wish for a sandwich. hurry.

What are you buying?

Cool. All right, great. But because Mommy died, shadow also referred to homer as Shadow. That's perfect. She's released from her bindings because Mommy doesn't have that power anymore.

She's dead.

Yeah. So she swoops in and saves the day. And madoka and Sonic are kind of left dumbfounded, and I'm just kind of like, you better rethink that. Are you rethinking it now? Because I would be. And Homeura takes the grief seed and saya is like, Give it back. It was Mommy's. Give it back. And HomerA is like, she's dead, and I'm leaving. You are idiots.

This is only for magical girls.

I fucking warned you so many times.

Yeah. So monica and Sonic are very upset, and that's kind of where the episode ends and the ending song has changed.

Yeah. Much different.

And I love it.

Yeah. Much more intense now. Matches the tone they set up in the past five minutes.

Yeah, the lyrics were pretty wild, too. I was, like, reading the English lyrics, and I was like, oh, my God.

Very dramatic.

Yeah. It's literally just like the show, like, make a contract. Everything sucks.

Oh, and foreshadow, we don't really see her attack, so I guess not. Like Mommy, who had just a bunch of guns. It was just explosions wherever the monster would attack her, and then it would just explode, and then she would appear somewhere else. So it's kind of confusing right away of how she defeated it. But she defeated the witch very easily, it seemed.

HomerA. Yeah, that kind of shows that even though Mommy thought that she was, like, more of an authority, HomerA is definitely, like, the more powerful magical girl.

I do not know these characters.

You're talking about tails and shadow.

Thanks, Shadow.

You're welcome.

She can do chaos control. She can teleport. Like Shadow.

Oh, my God. Oh, my God. It's so good. I'm wigged out.

When are we writing this crossover?

It's just a mirror episode. They're just, like, mimicking every movement they do. Oh, my God. It's so good.

Wow. Ridiculous. But yeah, sonic with a super intense sonic boom. We end with a super intense ending song. And I love it. I appreciated it much more this time around than the first time I watched it.

This is the episode where I was really dragging my feet. Like, I don't know, I don't give a shit on magical girl style. And then I saw this episode. I was just taking my buddy like, what the and then just binge watched the rest of the series. Like, I just finished it in that setting.

It definitely set up, like, because it set such mellow, chill vibes to begin with because it's like, yeah, good home life, good friends. They're actually, in protecting each other, they're sort of inspired to make the world a better place and then fucking munched, munching crunch.

So are we confused?

There's a lot going on in this show.

Yeah.

And there's just more to find.

Yeah, I'm definitely enjoying it more now that we have so many sonic.

If you can just continue taking notes making this crossover universe.

Yeah, this is also sort of the first capital M magical girl show I've ever seen. So I don't know if this is how it typically goes. I'm going to say no. But, yeah, it's definitely interesting, the art style, just in general, because even the anime parts have very strong visuals. And just the collage stuff is very striking and bizarre and just fun to look at, but also deeply disturbing and uncomfortable at work. So I don't know if I would continue this. I would like to see where it goes and what's actually going on with Cuba and his devilishness. I'm assuming that's something like it, but yeah, I don't know if it's something I would sit down with a bowl of popcorn and just keep on watching.

Well, maybe the recap movie is for you then because then you can just get it all out in 2 hours.

That is a good point. Maybe I will give it 2 hours and do that.

I have watched the recap movie. It does a good job of recapping, but, like, you'd expect it's, what, twelve episodes of a show crammed into 2 hours? Yeah, crammed into 2 hours. So they cut out a lot of the emotional dialogue and interactions between characters and stuff. But if you are on the fence, that might be good for you, then.

Got you. I'll say I will consider watching the movie.

Okay.

All right, I'll take it. Yeah, I'm definitely going to rewatch it now.

This is the new category of, like, I wouldn't read the book, but I'd watch the movie of it.

Yeah.

For you, Dennis, I would say there is the other movie that's a sequel to the series and kind of wraps it up more. So I know what happens in it.

And I know it's, like, highly controversial, and a lot of people don't like it, but I'm very interested.

Okay. I don't know much about people's opinions of the show besides most people like it, but I thoroughly enjoyed the movie, but I enjoy some stuff that most people don't. I like a finite end to it. It's definitely a pin on the series as opposed to show being kind of open ended, so I enjoy that much more than just ambiguousness.

Yeah, I'll probably definitely watch it again and then look up the sequel movie. That's where I'm at. This wasn't for me, but again, I'm talking about my feelings about it.

Well, that was another.

Thought for Fun Journey episode.

So yeah. What do we have going on for next time?

Next episode, we're watching parasite, and it's spelled Prarsyte, and it's a weird one. Like everything else I pick, it's a weird one. Oh, boy.

I think you also just spelled it wrong.

No, that's actually how it spelled.

Are you sure?

Yeah.

I thought you said PR. A-R-P-R just PR.

A what F?

There you go. P-A-R-A.

It's sonic. It's Dr. eggman. We're rossing Dr. eggman next week.

Yeah, sure.

Yeah. It's a sci-fi alien show that doesn't spoil it too much, but it's kind of a body horror.

You'll see yay.

Can't wait for more nightmare imagery.

Hey, we had a nice cleansing pallet with Princess jellyfish. I got to get all these good feels fucking out of here.

Make it worse, please.

We need some grit.

Some manly animal exists.

Anyway, thank you for joining us this week. You can find us on Twitter at are we there yet? And at. Are we there yet? On instagram as well. And you can find me at Mr. Patrick dugan on Twitter and Instagram.

You can find me at Queen Weebu on Instagram and Queen underscore Weebu on Twitter.

You can find me at abts Brendan, on Twitter and on the almost Better than Silence podcast.

Yes, a couple of thank yous. We have camille ruley, who did our beautiful artwork cover art. And thank you to louie zong for the use of his song Stories off the album's Beats. You can find all of louie's music at Louisong bandcamp.com. Thank you.

We talked so much. I'll just throw in another plug. Check out Sonic mania. It's a very good game.

Oh, my God.

This week we are brought to you by Sonic mania.

No, stop. We're gonna get sued.

Nah say it's cool. They don't have money.

They don't know this show exists.

They're not Nintendo. They're not super litigious.

Shots, fire.

They know what they do.

Quick.

End it anyway.

Sorry.

Thank you. We hope you will join us next time as we learn to live with anime.

Quick gossip.