AWTY 157 - Post-4Kidscore (Show by Rock!!)

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

I'm an anime expert, dee hollander.

And I'm brenda mccullough. Your anime ned schneebley.

Here to teach us how to rock, baby.

Spell. S-C-H neibly. Mr. S. Mr. S. You call me Mr. S. Love jack Black.

Anybody else love jack black? I love jack black. You know who else? Bowser. I love bowser.

Right?

Why?

We wanted to get in your way. We knew that was coming.

Surprised? That's what we're talking about today. We're talking about the cast of the mario movie that was announced at the nintendo direct on September 23, 2021.

Honestly, it's japanese. It's animation. It's animation.

It closes paper. That direct was like god damn fever.

Dream with every actor that appeared on my screen. I screamed louder. I was like, me. What?

Every reaction, more thrilled screams, I assume.

Some were like some like, keegan, michael key is towed.

All right.

Wild, wild pick. Fred Armison as cranky kong. Honestly, I'm more surprised that cranky kong's confirmed for the movie. What the fuck is he doing in that movie?

Of all the mario characters, we were just begging for a cranky comic.

Kevin michael richardson as kamick. Kamick will talk in the movie. Why?

Incredible.

I have to argue with that.

I have to put out my manifesto everywhere. Danny DeVito has to be wario and Steve Bushemi has to be waluigi. If at least Danny DeVito doesn't play wario, I will lose my marbles.

It's the only way they can salvage their poor choices in other regards, at this point, yeah, I have yet to see a single take. We're talking about the internet. I have to see a single take that's like, yeah, chris pratt. Okay. Like, even neutral, I have yet to see that. I've only seen why? Why?

I think friend of the show, brian has been the only one who's been like, yeah, I'm ready for this. But it's not like this was a good choice. His angle is more like, this is going to be either really good, like surprisingly good, like the lego movie, or it's going to be another mario movie that's an absolute train wreck and there's no in between. I was like, yeah, probably.

Yeah, I'm excited either way.

I love watching people's react to it because it's their mind breaking with mario and then them being a little more confused with peach. And then collectively, everyone gets to louis jean goes, yeah, I like charlie day.

That's good.

And then we get to bowser where everyone is just shot but not necessarily disappointed. And then we get to donkey kong and everyone their soul shatter.

God.

Because they're not prepared for seth rogen as donkey kong.

I loved that brian.

In my mind, it makes sense. I'm like, okay, I kind of get it, too. That direction unprompted. But now that I see it, all.

Right, yeah, Brian was saying on his stream that he thinks they're going to have him say, you may smack it, but I feel like that meme is too obscure to end up in an illumination film.

Nintendo is not going to back a donkey tongue, thick ass, all cheeked up meme from the 90s animated chip. They're not doing that well.

If Donkey Kong doesn't have a thick ass, I don't want it.

I want to see Donkey Kong with a retractable teeth because depending on the games, he'll smile and not have teeth or will have teeth. It's upsetting.

Also, if Bowser Jr is in it, I always forget her name. But the woman who plays Bobby Hill.

Should play Bowser Jr. Because in my.

Mind, Bowser and Bowser Jr are hank Hill and Bobby Hill. Donkey Kong and Kitty Kong are homer Simpson and bart Simpson.

I'm right.

Anyway, I sell Cooper and Cooper Accessories.

Okay, we should probably talk about Antonio now.

Sorry we couldn't not address it.

Yeah. So why the School of Rock intro? Besides talking about Jack Black?

God, that felt like an eon ago.

Oh, it's my show. Why I try to throw it to someone else? God damn it. Why? Here's the answer. Me. Yeah. We're watching a show by Rock. This was a recommendation from Ribbonquest. It definitely wasn't picked at random at the end of last episode, but now having time because I did intensely Google it before. This is musical isakai. Yeah, one of our made by San Rio kitty vibe to it.

I didn't know that.

That makes sense.

It's another one of our favorites. Mobile game made into an anime.

Yeah, because the only thing I know about this is that wildly expensive statue, which now makes sense because I'm like, how does this show have this much merch power behind them? San Rio. That's why. Yeah, that'll do it. Yeah.

This popped up in our super expensive anime figures, and the main character was, like, a $6,000 figure. We know it from its reputation of being stupidly expensive. Have either of you heard anything about this otherwise?

No, just that yeah, that's pretty much it for me. All right.

Fantastic. Well, we know nothing about it. We already did a long Mario riff as a tradition.

We talked about Mario.

Less ago.

No.

My mama mia. Yeah.

I'm into post four kids core. Like, you can really tell the 90s influence on these vocals. It's just so indie. I don't think you've heard of it.

I hate the words post four kid corps. And this is someone who wanted to drag you both back into four kids of fun.

Hey, get a little taste here.

It's a little bit yeah.

Shall we get into it?

Yeah, let's talk about it.

Ha ha. So, episode one, we start out. We're introduced to our main character, cyan. I think she has a different human name here. Who cares? It's syan.

That is her real human name. God, give it Christian. Christian name.

I thought I heard I had to take notes in a different setup as normal this week, so I thought I missed her regular name. And then syanne was like her character name. But we'll get there. But yeah, it's sia.

Cool.

So she wants to join the schools band club. It's not the school band but clubs.

She wants to join the ko in everything.

Yeah.

So it's the middle of the year, but she is too goddamn shy. She missed initial sign ups and she waited a whole half year and she's standing outside the door and she's like, oh, is it so weird? I'm so awkward and I can't bother them in the middle of the song. I got to just and she freaks out. We get a really fun opening credit sequence here where as she's standing outside the band room door, the band inside starts playing the song and then it cuts into that being the opening credits song.

Yeah.

And I think this is one of the few times we see an anime where like the opening in context works with the plot of what's actually happening in the show. So she's singing along, but then as the song ends, she was singing along in the hallway in front of other people. Oh no. She has been seen by humans in the world. She has to get out of there very relatable. So she leaves and that night is at home playing guitar all sad. And she's like, oh, I said I would do it today, but I guess I'll work up the courage to join the band tomorrow.

Shucks hub beans.

Obviously it'll be easier the more they see me lingering outside their door. Right. So she decides to play this rhythm game on her phone and ah, she unlocks a cool new the Strawberry Heart guitar. ah, sick cool in game collectibles. But we see a spooky demon flash on the screen. Oh no. And it sucks her into the game. Oh no. And she's naked. Oh no. San Rio. How could you?

I trusted you.

When I looked this up ahead of time, I did see it. Said it was a mobile game, but I wasn't expecting this. I was expecting her to join the high school music club. So I was kind of like, what?

This is a point where I've just abandoned ship of I don't know what's happening anymore. I've given up entirely on trying to understand the show. I'm like, let's just go. Let's just go on this ride because it's gone from me.

Just crash over me. I'll take it as it comes. So she flies into a magical music city. This is midi City Life. And she crashes into a furry concert. yep. Everyone has a persona when they play music.

Incredible.

They at least are San Rio like cheeby cute little models and not overly sexy, which is nice because this is a very kid focused show. Hence like the four kids vibes. This has, like, a very six, seven year old max age target demographic.

Yeah, like a glitter force.

Exactly. Sorry, I was going to say, knowing it San Rio now, in hindsight, makes sense when it's like the cg moments where they all look like funko pop furries. Now I have actual context for why they look like that.

Yeah. When they perform, it goes from standard 2d animation into 3d cgi. So it is like, oh, we're in a new world. Everything is going to be different. But then they only use it some of the time, so it's a little confusing. But yeah. So she crashes into this concert where this very popular boy band is playing. Did I get the band's name?

No, I didn't get any of the band's names.

Yeah, I got the main band, which we'll get to in a moment, but they play and she immediately falls in love with the lead singer because he's such a dreamboat. And she's like, oh, this is a weird dream, but I'm going with it. Don't question it. So the song ends and the band's talking about, yeah, rainbows and peace. This is a band band for a six year old audience. Garbage nonsense. But as they're talking about peace and sprinkles and rainbows, the world shatters and a giant skeleton ogre attacks the city. Oh, no.

Hell, yeah. All right, I'm on board.

So the world, like, shifts and changes. They get put into the battle arena version of the city, where only the people with musical skills can be in this area. But why is sian also in here? He's just a fan. Right, right. So the boy band, everyone has to have a side hustle. And you're also the monster fighters of the city. You know, you got to pay the bills somehow. So they're like, yeah, time to fight this ogre. I just played a six solo. Now I can punch a skeleton. Hell yeah. Anime rules. So they start to fight and then they, you know, standard, very kitty anime. They have to shout out, oh, no. If the monster tags you, it'll drain all your energy. We're just playing tag, right? It's not actual real conflict. Don't worry, kids. But they have a melodium stone. They're like musical power. Gem corps.

Gemcore is also another genre.

Yes, true gem and the holograms. Yes. So they start fighting and one of them gets caught up in an energy ball and their melodicium stone gets, like, sucked out. And all the other band members try to jump in to be like, hey, stop it. Stop that big bully. But they also get caught in energy balls. And as they're about to get killed, just very beautiful opening line. That solidifies it as four kids. Core is, remember that strawberry heart guitar she unlocked in the game? Well, it appears to her and says, let's get rocket, baby.

See, this guitar is played by Jack Black.

We circled back, it was at this point, I wrote down the guitar is talking, and I genuinely have no fucking idea what's happening right now.

It's fine. Don't think about it too hard, because she just starts shredding on this talking guitar, who's like, yeah, blame me to take out that skill, that monster, baby. And she does. She starts shredding everyone. There's just a bunch of bystandards watching, and they're like, who is this girl? Who is this rock icon and frees the band and destroys the monster? So this whole time, she was in her cg like character furry version, which is like a little raccoon, like, tanuki made thing. Thank you.

She's a cat.

Is she a cat?

Yeah. gothic lolita made cat.

Cool.

Of course.

Yeah, it just hits all of the tropes.

So after this fight, it goes back into standard 2d animation. So she turns into a hybrid form of her human body and this cheeby cat girl. So she's more regular Furry now.

She's the anime Furry we're used to.

So after the fight, a bunch of people run up to her like, oh, that was amazing. And the first one that comes up is a talking eggman.

Nice.

I really like this little egg, man. And then he started talking, and I didn't like him anymore.

Yeah, design good.

Perfect design.

Exactly what you want from four kids.

Even though this isn't.

But as he starts talking, she is like, oh, you're an egg. And then he just does a really long extended riff. It's like you told a very cheap Robin Williams impersonation egg. Your prompt is egg. And he tries to go into a Robin Williams riff on eggs, but it just is weird and doesn't work.

It felt like, boom, where the style was just, like, really intense and changing every reaction shot. And it's like, I didn't need this. I didn't need this in the show.

Yeah. He starts out being like, how dare you call me an egg? But then just it turns into him being like, yep, I'm an egg. I'm an egg. All right. It's like, okay, this just doesn't work.

All right, pick a lane.

But this is maple. He is the president of brr, a record label. I forgot what it stands for. Big rock and record. Something very simple that might I don't know, close enough. Yeah, it might as well be. Well, he's like, hey, kid, I got to sign you to my label because you're so amazing. It is two bands. You know, you can trust me to be great with music. So we see the other two bands that he represents. One is a girl group called Plasmagica. Great. Was it did I get these other members names? Are they even introduced in this episode? I cannot remember.

They're color coded, and it's fine.

Yeah, but yeah. So they meet this new group, and they're about to pile into the beat up record label van. But just then, a giant stretch limo crashes into it and oh, it's the boy band from before.

I hate to admit this. That did make me laugh.

Yes, that was a nice moment. They are in the back of the limo and they're like, oh my god, you saved our lives with your amazing rock. You should join our big record label. And Eggman is like, back off, you fucking poachers. I'll kill you. I will skin you alive.

He's been real different ever since Sonic.

Yeah. So they get into the van, which is now this is the last moment for me. They get into the van and the back is just like, destroyed. The bumpers, like dragging on the road. And they get in and they go back to the headquarters, which is a building, your standard building that has dormitories, a cafe on the first floor, a band practice space in front of the mill buildings.

Yeah. All those normal things that it definitely looks like it has room for this.

Vertical integration record company is real skeezy to me. You shouldn't own everything the band does.

Yeah. This is a cult.

Yeah.

So they get back to the headquarters and we meet brendan's favorite character, the secretary band manager, angelica, who's just a big milk with an eyepatch.

My note is I feel targeted and I'm waiting for someone to call me out. Sure enough. Yeah.

Could not. So they get there and they're like, all right, we're going to rocket you to stardom. And sayan is like, oh, well, I just want to play. I don't know. I've never been in a band. And they're like, who cares? It's fine. We have two bands. As you can imagine, that's not a lot anyone we can get. But Plasmagica, the girl group, is like, hey, you should join us. You should play with us. And sayan is like, oh, shit, this is real weird. I got sucked into a magical world. Not going to focus on that. I got invited to join a band. The one thing I wanted in this world. Who cares if I'm in a coma or whatever? So now that she's a part of the band, we see ooh, the Rival, the Rivals. ooh, the big record label. We see this Resident Evil, Mr. X looking dude just lingering, and he's talking to someone in a studio. And he's like, oh, you aren't leaving that room until you finish your contractually obligated album. You're going to give us an album a year or you're going to die and pay us all that money back. So get to it. And this is unicorn virtual music. The big evil company.

It's the one that sucked her into the phone.

Yeah, this is the bad guy. And he says that he's found a musician that will help complete the album, but he just hasn't gotten to her yet. ooh, who could that be?

I'm guessing it's eggman.

Yes, absolutely. He's an amazing harpsichord player. So back at the brr hq, the band is going to jam. But, oh, no. A challenger approaches. And that's where we end episode one.

Oh, boy. Here we go. So at the beginning of episode two, we got some boy band singing. Some, like, angsty. Cool boy band. I did get all of their names.

You guys went above and beyond.

Else'S name.

The band's name is crimson something, but they all say their names very clearly. So I was just like, I guess I'll write them down. But anyway, then we get, like, the actual opening, which I don't even remember if it was the same song as the first episode.

Was it? It was, yeah.

Okay. It's different, though. I liked the first one better.

Yeah, first one was like a music video daydream. This is, like, standard anime opening. Still catchy song, but it goes to what you expected.

Yeah. So the boy band is arguing as they tend to do a lot with each other. The leaderboy, crow, is yelling at the others. He threatens to destroy the other two ion in yiba. And they're like, yeah, sure, let's fight. One of them, I think it's I don't know, one of them is always like, I'm a god. And I'm like, hello.

Whoms?

He's the leader of the cult. We just don't know it yet.

He's almost like, I'm God.

Follow me. Yeah.

It was hard to tell if it was like, hey, is this you being an egotistical musician thing or you're actually a god? Because this is a magical world thing. Yeah, you do suck. I don't believe the second one, but I'm not ruling it out.

So they're like, powering up to fight. It's stupid. And then rom, he comes in and he stops them from fighting. He's like, you guys shouldn't fight. We're supposed to make history together. And then they all start crying, and they're like, oh, my God, you're so right, rom. And that is just him. That's just what they do.

I like that they all listen to rom because he's the only one with a job.

Yeah, he's the only one with stable income. So crow calls cyan random cattle because that's what he calls their fans. Like his groupies. It's like, bro, you probably don't have any fans, if that's what you call them. The other girls are like, she's not just one of your fans. They all stand up for her. Pink, purple and yellow. crow gets mad about Milk talking about his parents being dairy farmers. I don't know. This is incomprehensible. He's a lot. They're all a lot.

We had a lot of attention for these boys that aren't the main characters.

Yeah. So we get some shots of the city, and then we cut to right after their jam session. And they're like, oh, my God, that went so well. We vibe so good. Yellow tells cyan that she shouldn't hold back. And sian is like, I didn't know what to do because I've never played with anybody. And then she's going on about how happy she is and then her stomach growls. So they're like, okay, time for dinner. And that's when we find out that there's a cafe downstairs that they all go to after rehearsals.

You can only spend your company money here. This is a work town. bezos.

Eggman is down there. He's drunk. He's yelling about making music. The girls come in. The boy band is there too. They see an ad on the TV that that popular boy band is in. They're advertising some kind of drink. crow gets upset. He's like, we need to catch phrase. And then they all argue again.

Yeah, we haven't even heard you play music. We don't know if you fucking suck yet.

No, I can attest they fucking suck. I don't know about their musical prowess. Yeah.

And rom is just sitting in the cafe organizing receipts. And they're like, it's his full time job. And the girls admire him for it. crow bothers him so much, he punches him in the face. He's like, who cares about catchphrases and other bands? It should be about our band. And crow falls at his feet again. Eggman gets a call. The boys have a gig. They're the opening act for the big popular boy band. rom suddenly says that he's not interested and angelica tells him to take it. So they do.

Everyone obeys her.

She's got the ipad and big tibbies.

I mean, I didn't say it well, it's the truth.

It's undeniable.

Eggman asks syan where she lives and they're like, you should live here.

Red Flag.

Yellow is especially happy. Yellow seems like she has a crush on cyan. They ask her where she lived before and she's like, I moved around a lot. And they're all thinking that they shouldn't cry because it could have been like a traumatizing thing or something for her. They show her her room. It's really simple, but it'll do for now. And Yellow lets her borrow some pjs. And they all say goodnight before they walk away. She stops them, like she's going to say something important. And then she just says goodnight. But it's just because she's so nervous. She can't say thank you, which I feel like is wild. She looks out at the city. She's like, how did this happen? And then Jack Black guitar makes another appearance. And she confides in the guitar about feeling alone. He explains that they're in midi City and everything here is all about music. And she's like, Why do I have cat ears and the tail? And he says, ah, that's your mun form.

I know, first son. It was copyrighted.

And he talks about the rock, the stone that reacts to the audience's energy, but it can also be tainted by bad energy too, which is just like, yamatika, magica. Good job, you guys.

I'm also kind of getting cod Leoko vibes from this, like where they fight stuff in like the cgi and stuff.

Oh, that's weird.

You can trace the influences all the way back.

And the guitar says that she was chosen to save this world, but she's got work to do. And until she figures her shit out, she can't go back to the real world. And she's like, I don't know if I can do all that. And the guitar is like, you already did when you fought that weird skeleton man. Time to rock, baby.

I wish we were exaggerating the guitar at all, but we're not.

No. And she is like, well, okay. But I still do want to join the bandit School before Golden Week, so I have to get back before then. But she'll try. She'll try to save the world. And then we see her. She's taking a bath. She's in the tub singing, and the other girls hear her. And when she's out and in her room, the guitar is like, hey, was that your song? You should play it on me. And then Purple knocks on her door and they sit and they listen to some songs that Purple wrote. She asks cyan if she writes songs and if she wrote the one she was singing in the bath. And then Pink and Yellow come to hang out, too. Purple says that Eggman is the one who brought them all together. Great. I just feel like I'm reading a shopping list.

This episode is very dry on things that happen. Yeah, let's explain.

Let's catch you info dumpy. Yeah, I do want to point out, after scientists out of the bath, she's in, like, a night down or something, and we see the guitar blushing before it talks to her, which implies the guitar, if it isn't, can get horny, which has a lot of questions for me. And then when Pink and Yellow come in, yellow sees sian in the nightgown and sees, like, a little above her knee and goes to whip out her phone. It's like this girl is dangerously thirsty. She is way into side attraction before.

What is this Feeling?

But if you see someone, you're like, I need to get pictures of this person for my personal clip. That's creepy.

Yeah.

Furry. And then you see a human for the first time. Is it like the same thing where you're like, oh, what is any skin person, gross person?

Oh, flesh.

So their goal is to perform, to be the headliner at a music festival. Cute. And they're all excited to perform together. scion is ready to put in the work, and she wants to work hard for the other girls in the band. Now it's time for the boys opening act. crow is very nervous, and they get called to the stage and they ask rom to pump them up because he's the only one that has any sense. I guess the audience is upset that they're opening. crow, of course, calls them cattle, and they hate it fair that they should. And then the boys are in their cgi animal forms, which, honestly, I kind of hate. They look like sonic characters a little bit. They sing a song and it's a pretty all right song, rocking. And the audience likes it. And now it's time for the Pretty Boys. After their performance, they're walking down the hallway and blonde Boy from the Pretty Boy band, he says, thanks for being a great opener. And just rom just blows past them without saying anything. And crow is like, we warm the audience up for you fellas.

It's like, yeah, dip shit. That's what the opener is for.

Eggman is happy with their performance and they're all still arguing about who performed better. This is when cyan finally gets the girl's attention and thanks hurt them for being in the band. And then we see a girl spy and she's like, that's them, whatever. And that's the end of episode two. It was just like that verbatim.

Then we go on to episode three. Opens with the president, Egg, cooking for the girls at the cafe because I guess he also works there. Once again, Big Red Flag don't join this band. Don't join this agency. He's cooking up, like, fried rice or something for the girls at the cafe talking about how the bad guy rockman, offered the girls a bank. Oh, yeah, I'm like, decrypting my own notes as we go. Yeah, one of the bad guys that we saw in episode one, he's just like a rock person. Not like rock and roll, like literal stone. He's like Eastern Island Head, but in, like, a business suit. And he came to the president and offered them a battle of a band competition with the girl bands. So he's representing a band of girls and they're challenging our girls in this band. I already forgot our name.

Plasmajica.

Sure.

Fantasmic. Like the Disney disneyland show. Anyway.

I can't remember anyone's names. They warned that he's shady, he's up to something. They don't quite trust him, but they do it anyway because, really, what choice do they have? They got no other shows. And then Yellow, she's like I guess she's like the hacker, one of the band. She's got like just seven computer monitors in her room and just sits there in the dark all the time.

They're all for poor.

I mean, I get it. That's fair. She's dangerously third. She's looking up the other band. No, this is when they're still at the cafe. So she's on her phone, she's looking up the other band and sees that they all went to the St. mety Private School or something. They go to this school that's, like, specialized for musicians. So basically, anyone who goes to the school is guaranteed to do well in the music industry. So they're just like, well, shit, looks like we're in trouble because we're just the ragtag group of underdogs. And they see that they're also all on the student council, which I feel like was a weird. Detail that doesn't pay off. But I'm not sure if they're the overpowered student council on our bingo card, so I put it on there just in case.

I'd say so.

I mean, seems like it.

They're pretty big.

And then we cut two that bands in their student council room at school talking. And yet, sure enough, one of the girls was the girl we saw spying on them last episode. And they're giving a brief rundown of what they saw and it's like, oh, I didn't see them play, but I was able to scout them out. And they don't seem concerning. They don't seem that bad, so we should be able to beat them. But you guys, I was switching between the sub and dope with this one. Generally pretty good. But one of the girls in this band, that accident was a choice.

I don't even remember. I'm going to be so real with you. I don't even remember.

No, none of these girls in this band rememberable, especially in this episode. But it's just like one of them just kind of like got a real yeehaw, sort of how do you do? Texas accent boy cut back to band practice with our girls. And Purple says that the venue that they're going to play at was the first venue she went to where she was inspired to be a musician herself. She was there seeing graceful King perform and that motivated her to be a musician. And I think graceful King is the guy that was kidnapped by the unicorn record thing in episode one because they called him King. So I'm guessing that's going to pay off later. And then after band practice, they all go back to their rooms. Science room is like all decorated now, like fully loaded with stuff and very ornate. And she starts talking to the guitar again and he says, the battle of the bands is a real battle. And the audience decides the winner. I wrote this down because I thought it was going to be like an actual battle where they fought. No, it's just actually just a battle of the bands that two bands compete and then you vote for who the winner is, which is how all battle of the bands work.

I guess you never know in a world like midi City.

Yeah, I was expecting combat.

We established there's musical combat in episode one and then it never comes up again.

Yeah. Meanwhile, Yellow is really worried back in her room because she joined the band to make friends because she's not good at that. Maybe because you're so horned up and taking pictures of people weird pervert. And we see her, she has a flashback to her meeting President eggman. She was just walking around town one day with her bass guitar and she sees the boy band that's with the record label performing a show. And then eggman just comes a binder of like, hey, you got an instrument? Want to be in a band. Okay.

I'm fairly desperate.

Yeah. He's like, Maybe you could practice for me. But he already offered her to this position. She joins the band because she wants to try and make friends with people, but she's finding out that she's having trouble even making friends within the band itself. mimo Pink, who's like a sheep and an alien, is contacting her people through a space phone. So I guess that's a subplot.

Sure.

We'Re in, like, a digital music world with animal people, but then there's also aliens. It's a lot.

Yeah, there's so much they're trying to establish here, but also nothing making it very boring, too.

They cut back into purple. She's the leader of the group. You know her well. She's ga. Kind of sick, bubblegum ga. She's on her laptop looking up stuff, saying she's gonna be the rock queen no matter the cost.

I actually I really liked in the dub that Purple kept calling everybody, like, pet names.

Yeah, like honey and sugar. Yeah.

Yeah. I don't know. I thought that was, like, one endearing thing. I was like, wow.

Personality.

You can make them unique even by how they speak without giving them a crazy accent.

Incredible.

I love the accents. And then we cut to back to science. She's on her bed, just writing, like, a song for the show. She keeps trying to talk to her guitar, but he seems to dip out at the most inconvenient times. But we get, like, a little inner monologue with him saying, like, I got to leave it up to you. You got to get ready for the show on your own. So I guess he's just trying not to hold her hand the whole time. So I guess he's ignoring her intentionally.

I hope he turns into a real person and they fall in love.

Maybe.

I hope so.

And then we go then they have practice, but cyan is nervous. Yeah, they have practice and scientists to tell them something, but she can't because she's too nervous. Cut to the show. So we have, like, no downtime in between, and they're doing sound check, and they go out to see the other band do their sound check first. And they get very intimidated because they're all well performing musicians, and they all know each other because they all go to school together. So they knew each other before they were bandits. And then we see the big Stone Man manager come over. It's kind of bragging about their plans, like, yeah, we got a big major record label debut plan for these girls. Like, oh, yeah. Well, music is not just about the money. Soon it's like money and keeps walking. So it's very clear, like, grabs this year, basically, it's very much like the big corporate agency versus the little go getter who's doing it because he loves music. And it's kind of implied that eggman used to work with that agency, and that's why he. And then we cut to the green room and we see yellows being all debbie downer, real Negative Nancy, real sad sack, a real fucking bummer. Just saying, like, well, we saw them at sound check. They kicked our ass there. We might as well just fucking give up and go home. And it's like, no, we're here. Like, what are you talking about? And it's like, we're not close friends. They're all close friends. That bifacto makes them better at music because of the power of friendship that powers them. I was like, oh, God. Sounds, those white noises. The emotion automatically makes it better. And Purple tries to reassure her, saying like, no, it's okay. We're still new. We're still learning. We can get through this. And he was like, now why bother? We're terrible. It's like, oh, my God, this girl relax.

It was weird. I thought this was weird when she was just like, we're not actually friends. And I was like, what? You all sit together and hang out all the time and seem to get along very well. What are you talking about?

Yeah, it seems like she arbitrarily decided that they're not friends. I feel like everyone else is like, I thought we were friends. I think it's friends.

I thought you liked me.

Yeah, you were my maid of honor.

I don't even know you.

You met my parents.

Yeah. If they planted the seed of the insecurity with Yellow a little earlier, and then it just explodes here, and it's like, oh, wow, okay, jeez. So she says, I'm going to fail all of you and disappoint you anyway. I might as well just leave. Well, you're going to disappoint them if you just leave because they need you in the band. So you could at least try, and it'd be better than just leave. And then syan strums a note on her guitar to get everyone's attention. She says, I got an idea. And then it cuts away before we hear what that idea is. And then shows the opening of the Battle of the Bands. And it starts with another cg performance, all in the animal forms of the other bands. And everyone likes it. It's decent. It's poppy rock. It's what you expect. And then the main girls turn, their band comes out, once again, magical girl transformation into the animal forms that are conveniently at your local retailer that you can buy San Rio. And right as they start applying, we get flashbacks to them back in the green room of cyan, telling them, like, I got ideas how we can improve our performance. Let's do this all two minutes before we actually perform. And I noticed every time, she's like, oh, Yellow, you're the bassist. You can do this. And yellow's. Like oh, this. And then, Purple, you're the lead singer, made guitars. You can do this. It's like, oh, this?

This.

It's like yeah, that. But we don't see the guitars or their hands so it's just them from the waist up not doing anything, saying, oh, let me do that.

It wasn't in the budget. Also, they didn't know anything about music.

Yeah, that's what it was clear of. Like, I don't know what they would improve on, but let's just imply that Cyanos what they were improving on, so they changed up their plan and song right before going on to try and make a bigger impact with it. And I also noticed when they're in the cgi animal forms, none of them have mouths, so I guess it's easier to animate them singing when they don't have mouths.

So it's like civilization team was like, oh, thank God.

Thank God. Because he assumes it on them, like singing and stuff. But they don't have mouse, so they're just kind of like bobbing in front of a mic. It's kind of weird looking. And everyone likes their performance as well, because they're good. And now it's up to the audience to decide. They're voting on the phones in the audience and from laptops and computers, they're watching around the midi city. They're all tallying up the votes. And while they're doing that, everyone says that saiyan's ideas were great. Whatever they were, they did it. I think. We don't know what those ideas were, so we can't tell the difference. And then the results come in and the winner is the other band. It wouldn't be that inspiration of the underdog band just wins every time and never faces any real challenges.

I don't know. Have you seen most anime?

That's true anime, it goes either way. But yeah, the other band one and of course the other bands like, smug about it like, ha ha, we knew we'd win, we're rich. And they go off. And then after the show, syan says like, I'm sorry, I was too shy. I should have brought my ideas up earlier and we could have practiced them more, but if I wasn't so novice and all of her bandmates try to reassure her, like, no, it's fine. Like, we did great, this was a great performance and people still liked us. We didn't get blown out of the water even though we still lost. And Scianne says like, this is better now because since we're all bandmates, we all express ourselves through music. So even if I have trouble expressing myself through words, I can express myself through the music to you guys. I guess you could talk. We live together, but we spend all of our time together. We will have to talk sometimes. They lost, but they're all pumped up to get back to practice tomorrow. And Yellow really feels like she made friends after just being an absolute drama queen. And then we cut to the countryside of this yeehaw magic digital musical world and it's just this really tiny school. Like, fuck, what was that one anime we watch? It feels like that it's a really small country school with like, four students total. And yeah, so it's just these four, like, little animal characters. They're in the cgi San Rio animal forms even though they're not performing. And there's sizing round tables talking about like, oh, man. Do you see the battle of the band at Mini City? Like, oh, boy, they are really great. Like, oh, man, it'd be really great to go to midi City someday where all the music is it's so cool. And, like, they're really leading on these country accents. And as they're talking, like, the fourth member of their group, I guess, kicks in the door. Hey, guys, what are you talking about? Oh, we want to go to Mini City. And the fourth member is like, hell yeah, let's go. Anyway, did you hear about this new hot ass band that's in midi City? They're tearing shit up. It's like, really? Who are they? And we get, like, a silhouette shot of them. And the name it's none of the bands we've seen so far. It's another new band. What's going on? No idea. Are these four country people a band? No idea. Let's keep going.

Every episode so far has ended with wait, and who is this other band, cliffhanger?

Who cares?

They may matter, they may not.

Don't worry about it. We got merch to sell. Got new characters. That's episode three. Are we there yet?

Yeah. So it's not great.

Yeah.

And that's it?

Yeah. While I was watching it, I was like, yeah, this is whatever. Like, the songs are cute, but through discussing it, it made me realize this truly is, like a four kids show where it's just one of those things where nothing happens. How I feel about those you're masters and such.

We love zach Bell in this house.

Drives me fucking crazy.

Like, this was excruciating for me. Like, I was just sitting here like.

Wow, we're really making something out of nothing.

Yeah, it really is a show where they're like, yeah, we have two set pieces. Let's spread them out over three episodes. The middle. Don't worry about it. We'll figure it out.

Yeah, but it's a show for children, so that's fine. But as an adult, it's, like, not fun.

I didn't realize it until you just pointed it out that it's got the four kids energy. I was like, yeah, that's it. That's kind of what I was feeling the whole time. I didn't realize it because yeah, there's forced controversy, like, with Yellow just having a panic deck. And it's like, it's fine. We can get through this. It's like, no, I'm abandoning the band. It's like, that's shittier than if you just go on and perform badly. Like, I'd rather you just go on stage and fuck up and just leave entirely and stuff like that. And yeah, it really does just have energy of a kid show because with a lot of we talk about, like, just because it's animated, it doesn't mean it's a children's show. But this is a children's show. And it's even got, like, the high school tie in, but not like it was only in the first episode. But it might tie in more. Like if she goes back to school and then comes back, like, if she chooses to jump between worlds. I don't know if that's a possibility.

I can't imagine it.

That'D be weird. But once I learned it was the San Rio show, I was like, Merch, that's what the show is. That's why it has the $600 statue. Like we said.

It's not $6,000.

It hurts.

600 is just a regular shows.

That's just that's just any old fuck. You could probably find a zach Bell statue for 600.

That petty change, Brendan. I'm telling you now, do not look that up. Take it like that.

Within the week, Brendan is going to start a Go fund me to get a $600 zach Bell. figuring.

$615. Perfect. That's what I want. I get zach Bell shoes. Guys, do you think I could pull up zach Bell shoes? Like, not sneak have Zachbell on them? Like, it's zach Bell's actual shoes?

Maybe you could.

If anyone could, maybe it's me.

Maybe.

Do they make them an adult size?

That's the question.

Did they anticipate any adult to be like, hell yeah. zach bell's fuel.

Yeah.

Let's go. Oh, god. Anyway, by how much I've gotten derailed by zach Bell, you can tell my opinion on this show. Yeah, it's not bad, but yeah, it's very clearly four kids and heavily handed merchandise stuff. So it's not terrible, but it's not great. Yeah.

Pretty confident. No.

But it wasn't psychic damage. We've endured worse, like zach Bell, so it wasn't emotionally upsetting or distressing.

Sorry. Brendan sent us this $600 zach Bell. It fucking sucks.

It's the evil goth, like zach Bell one or just like super edgy. It's like the shadow, the hedgehog of zach.

Animated.

This was initially purchased out of kb Toys in 2000.

Yes, exactly.

Valuable at all.

There's also a fear of satchel in the duffel bag that he, like, travels around in sometimes for some fucking reason.

Wow.

Oh, God. These gems. These absolute gems of anime history.

I hate that face is terrible. Super rare super range base seller.

Only $42. Wow. If anyone spent more than that, they're a fucking idiot. If they spend that kind of money on zach Bell merch, the high upper limit is $50.

Retracts my $50 bid. Don't need to be shamed on this podcast, sir. Well, bad news going on next week.

I'm so glad it's dee's pick. So we didn't have Brendan just derailed to keep talking about that.

Surprise. We're doing that bell again.

Yes.

No, it's my birthday, so that means I get to pick what we're talking about and we're doing something different. We've explored the depths of my middle school anime obsessions, except for one thing we haven't talked about vocaloid. So next week I'm doing something it's not actually a series, but I'm calling it the vocaloid lecture series.

Welcome to my test.

This is going to end up being me talking about vocaloid at you guys, which I'm very excited about. It's my birthday present to me. So, yes, we're talking about vocaloid.

Hazunae miku.

Hot Tsune miku.

I love how to self indulgent our birthday episodes are because this is real me.

Is it bad that I already thought of vocal void?

Like, your zero is my favorite k.

Pop singer jpop, baby.

All right, if there's a vocaloid album, don't send it to us. That's not what our show is usually. This is a one time thing. If you have an anime, hell yeah, send that our way. Vocaloid anime email is arweebeariat@gmail.com or you can reach us on instagram or twitter at arweed there yet on both. You can find me on twitter and instagram at mrpatrick. dugan.

You can find me on instagram at honey d, on twitter at honey d eight and honey d art or on twitch at honey underscore d. And honey is spelled H-U-N-N-I-E. You can find me.

On twitter at abts. Brendan not a lot going on there. It's mostly me retweeting artists work to try and get a free commission done so I can commission my isach bell oc. See how that turns out.

Wow.

It's just zach. Brendan not creative at all. No, you've won several of those, but they saw your creation. They're like, no, no.

I'm turning this down.

Thank you to camille ruley for our artwork. And thank you to Louisong for themesong 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.

My brain is mush.

Rock on.