AWTY 161 - Jim Exposition, P.I. (Stars Align)

Hello and welcome to our weeb area 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 power hitter with a preference to clay courts. Sound familiar? You all know this star. It's chain chomp.

Oh, I knew it was going to.

Be a Mario tennis rope. I thought you were going to go with waluigi.

Oh, my God. It's true. I just wanted the big ball that holds the tennis raghet in his teeth because why is that a character? I love him. Don't get me wrong, I love him. I want a choice.

I was expecting you to say a real tennis player, and then when you didn't, I was like, oh, that makes more sense.

Excuse me. Chain chomp is a real tennis for so long.

He has a brand deal. I have the sneakers. I know the Williams sisters and that's it.

I can say the name mcenroe, but I don't have any context beyond that.

I know John mcenroe because he was in Mr. deeds the Adam stands.

My dad likes tennis, so I know plenty of tennis players. I won't get into it here.

Yeah, you're the anime expert, not the tennis expert this week.

Yeah.

Why are we talking about tennis?

Yeah, we are watching stars align. Hoshii. No. sora which is we're going back to a sports anime. Kids.

Yeah.

It's been a minute.

Yeah, limber up. Got stretch.

I had heard about this one a while ago. It aired in late 2019. And from what I know, it's just like soft boy sports anime. And that appeals to me.

That's like a perfect formula.

Have either of you heard of this one?

I have not, but at this point, I assume most sports animes are in it for yeah, this is just a good group of boys because that's all I hear about from every sports anime.

That's why I watch sports anime, pretty much.

I remember there was like a softball or baseball, like girls anime, because there's not as many girls anime or sports animes, which is surprising with stars of the line, though. I know the ending sequence because I saw it going around, being passed around by a lot of people. I saw a lot of animators and artists on Twitter. So a lot of people were talking about the ending sequence being like, yo, yo, this is good. I was like, okay, I don't know what the show is about, but I like the ending and that's all I know about it.

Yeah, I was going to say something. Oh, I like to collect my son's. My boy collection grows with each sports anime I watch.

I've fallen into it. I didn't think I would because I don't give a shit about any sports, like maybe hockey. And then I watch High Q, which we will get to one day. Rest assured, listeners, we will get to one day. And yeah, I watch High Q. And I was like, oh, I get it now. I fully get it.

That was me watching ping pong.

Yeah, you shouldn't be ping pong. I was like, all right, here we go. I guess I'm a sports anime fan now.

Love it.

Fury on ice. That's a sport.

Yeah.

Good group of lads there.

I was also going to say that's the difference is that boys get the sports and then girls get the Niche club anime.

Yeah, that's interesting because I can't think of any Niche chill boy anime where they're just like hanging out like Super cub, but for boys.

Yeah. Ceritama might be the fishing one, but I've never watched it, so I don't know.

Yeah.

What was that other diary of middle school kids or whatever?

Diary of our days at breakwater.

Fairly recently. I can't think of the title, but I'm like, yeah, that is just boys doing nothing and being idiot.

Oh. Daily Lives of High School Boys.

That's it.

Yeah.

Not a club.

I don't know if that was recently. That might have been like a year and a half ago.

No, it was this year.

Was it?

It was time means nothing matter.

Time is confusing. Just like the scoring of tennis. So, yeah, the segway attempt.

Yeah.

Let's watch the first three episodes.

The deuces.

Damn, I forgot how much middle school sucks.

Oh, I remember very clearly.

Keeps getting worse.

Yeah. What point was this show on A and E? Because they know Trump.

Is this anime or degrasse?

I mean anime. Degrassey. Now that's something.

Hold on. Now we're gay.

Yeah. Before I hop into episode one, I'll give a little content warning here for physical abuse and some homophobic bullying. So if that gives you any idea of what we're getting into here, it wasn't what I expected.

How many times have we done content warnings in the episode? Now I'll tell you.

Well, I'm just saying it because people actually read the notes.

Yeah.

Also, it kind of came out of left field, especially this first one.

Yeah. All right. In episode one, we have some people moving into an apartment building in the city. And they're like, wow, we have an elevator here. But the boy mocky is like, no, I'll just take the stairs. And his mom is like, it's on the 8th floor. And he's like, nah, I got it. And he runs up and he's so fast, so quick. Then we see school time. Some people are playing tennis. A girl is watching them from the window. It's a boys versus girls game. And some other girls join the first girl and they're like, why are they even bothering? That team are national champions. And then we find out it's the girls team. The girls team are the national champions. And we see some super pitiful tennis playing from the boys. The male advisor says they're doing their best, but it doesn't seem like it. They're falling all over each other and missing tennis balls and all that jazz.

I like that excuse. It's like, are these police making fun of us? Are they just throwing the game and horsing around? No, they're genuinely that shit skill level.

But also they don't really care is the thing.

Yeah.

You don't care that they're bad.

Yeah. They're just here to have fun. So we see one boy who does take it seriously. His name is shinjo. He's the team captain, president of the club, whatever. He thanks the ladies for the game. Some of them wonder why they even bother playing with them. We see the other boys, they're just like, sitting in the grass in the shade, and the girls are like, Why don't they care that they lost? Shinji goes shinji from evangelion?

Yeah, he gets on the way.

Shinjo goes over to the rest of them. They're all chatting. One of them is the younger brother of a girl on the tennis team. And someone is like, you should ask her to go easy on us. But that's not going to happen. Why would they?

She's just going to go harder if I ask that.

Yeah. And one of them is like, oh, we're never going to be good, so why should we try another boy? I did get this one's name. I don't think he talks. No, he leaves now. Taquedo. He says he's sick and tired of losing and the girl that he likes will never like him back. And then shinjo is like, well, that girl's way out of your league, so it doesn't even matter. But then takayo is like, you know what? Fuck this. I'm going to go find something way cooler to do. So he's out the one other person I got the name of in the club.

Oh, he seems like a fun character to love. You right. Oh, he's gone. Okay, goodbye.

He seems passionate.

Just kidding about girls.

Then we get a student council meeting. The student council president is a fat girl. There were, like, two fat girls in this show, and I appreciated that. They're talking about club budgets. She does turn out to be a bitch, but, you know, it's okay. Well, you can be fat and be a bitch. Look at me.

Good representation.

She was fishing. She wasn't necessarily a bitch because she wasn't wrong with what she was saying.

No, yeah, but I mean okay, so she's talking about how she wants to change the budget for at this point, each club gets the same amount of money, but she wants to change that. So the budget for each club is based on the value of the club. So if a club is producing, quote, no results, those clubs shouldn't even exist. They're just draining money from others that deserve it. meritocracy.

Meritocracy, yeah.

And I guess I just think about, like, art clubs. Like, how does she view those? What kind of results can those produce?

Anyway, we should also really cut the taxes of those really good performing clubs to help save money for everyone. It'll trickle down. Don't worry.

Yeah.

I immediately thought of, like the ufo Fund club or the esp club from Mob psycho.

Yeah.

Where it was just really people just hanging out and not doing shit. Yeah. I'd be annoyed if I was a club and I needed more funds and then they existed. Also getting those funds, like, fuck those guys.

Yeah. I don't know.

But also, this is middle school. Chill. Chill.

Yeah. That's how I feel about it.

Listen, you need an identity. A lot of them, whatever you got.

Yeah. I don't know. They say it also in the show. The boys are like, I thought we were just supposed to be having fun. I thought the clubs were, like, for students to be doing something. And that's how I feel about it. But anyway, because it's not like this.

Is the official schools tennis team. It's tennis club objectively. It shouldn't be ranked like that level.

But it could be different in Japan. Also that they don't have official teams.

Yeah, fair.

So the boys are talking about it. They're worried what will happen. They've got to win something or they're doomed. Some of them are, like, already talking about what they'll do next semester. They say there aren't any third years that stuck around from last year, and there aren't any first years who are interested, so there's no one to motivate them to stay active. Then we're back to maki. He runs downstairs just to get the paper all before his eggs burn.

Fucking. He flights. Good God.

Yeah. He's fast.

So fast.

Yeah. And he makes his mom a bento. Cute. She leaves, forgets something, and he runs it down to her just to prove how fast he is. Once more.

Sonic.

Yeah. He should have blue hair. At Shinjo's house, his big brother, he brings him something and he says, Give this to maki. And shinjo is like, maki. We see maki leaving his apartment, and the girl who was watching the game earlier is getting out of the elevator. Her name is conico. And they talk for a moment. She asks why he didn't take the elevator. He says it's a hassle. And she's like, Eight flights of stairs is a hassle. And here he is at school. shinjo goes up to him and gives him the thing. Turns out they're childhood friends or something. And I guess maki used to live there, so yeah. Shinjo's brother wanted to give him an astronomical almanac because maki likes stars. That's cute. nerd. Yeah. He also likes math. He says he likes math.

Nerd.

Yeah. shinjo is the class president, and he's talking to everyone about the club changes. And he introduces mocky to everyone. Then we see the tennis girls talking about what the boys might do. They think they should just stop. They're making soft tennis club look bad. maki is in the classroom with some other kids, and there's a cat just running around. A little kitten?

Yeah.

I thought they'd address this, and they never really do.

I guess it just got into the school somehow.

Sure.

Yeah. Sorry.

Another anime spilled into this one.

Tokyo from class three B turned into a cat. We got to catch you.

Don't worry. Animals.

Wizard Club. They're at it again.

Wizards.

Yeah, it's running around. maki is the one that grabs it. And shinjo sees this happen, and he's like, Fast reflex it. maki and conoco are walking home when they see shinjo, and he tells maki to join the tennis club, but maki is not interested. shinjo tries to appeal to his emotional side. He says, we have to win or we'll get disbanded. And maki is like, I don't want to. Goodbye.

This does not impact me. I will still not be in the club if it gets disbanded.

Yeah, then everyone will not be in the club. See how that works for me?

They walk away, and conoco is like, shinjo seemed pretty desperate. And maki is like, I don't care. I'm not interested. And then that night, shinzo tells his big brother he's trying to get maki to join and why? And turns out Big Brother used to be part of the team. And when he was there, the team went to nationals. And now he doesn't care because he's a 20 something year old person. So he's like, this means nothing to me, pal.

I'm no longer in middle school.

I have a healthy relationship, so I still don't obsess over my school athletics.

It, like, surprises. shinjo. Big Brother is like, It's not my generation that's there anymore. It's your time. My state doesn't matter. And then shinzo is like, oh, because you think we'll fail? And then he leaves. And I'm like, no, he just doesn't care because he's not in middle school anymore.

Shinjo saw wild concerts.

So the next morning, Big Brother is talking to their mom. He says he won't be around for dinner. Their dad is out on a trip. This really upsets her. And she's like, So I have to be alone with that boy. She hates her son shinjo. I'm sure later in the series you find out why. But for now, she's just like, I fucking hate that kid.

It comes out of nowhere, and we don't address it in three episodes. What's happening here?

Yeah, he's not a tennis song or.

Like, you very strange. Then in the evening, machi is walking home. He looks at the moon, and he sees venus. And he's like, oh, that's nice. And then he sees shinjo again. shinjo, she's not ready to give up. maki is still not interested.

It's been a day.

Yeah. shinjo says, I know about your mom. That she works full time. And we see this boy just telling him everything. And I was like, how does this boy know everything?

Why do you know so much?

Yeah. Hi.

My name is Jim exposition.

Yeah, mackie told me everything.

Got to go tell the bacon club about their new members tragic past.

He burned his hand on some bacon grease.

I want an anime about Jim. He's interested.

That would be so good. Just Jim exposition going around to every anime and giving the exposition, and that's.

Every episode in between.

He's a private eye, just digging up all the tragic backstory.

Yeah. God, write that down.

That's a good idea.

So we find out maki's parents are divorced, and now he does everything around the house. Since his mom has a full time job, he's, like, alone a lot. So because of this, shinjo offers to help him around the house. The boy also told shinjo that his mom might not make a lot of money because of where she works, so maybe that's why he doesn't want to join a club. So shinjo also offers to pay for maki's equipment and uniform, but he still is like, no, you're just going to throw money at a problem. I don't like that. And then shinjo reminds maki that his older brother used to be in the club. Shinjo's older brother, riota, I think it's talked too fast and choked on my spit. Rioti, I think, is his older brother's name. And this gets maki's attention. shinju is like, yeah, my big brother thinks that you do well, and for some reason, that does it. maki is like, yeah, okay, but also pay me because I don't join clubs for fun. I can't afford it. And shinzo is just like, okay, I'll give you ¥10,000 a month. how's that? And I'll pay you more. If that's not enough, I need you on the team. And they shake on it. shinjo tells him all this stuff, where to meet tomorrow and everything, and then gives him a racket and runs off.

He's already a professional athlete in middle school. He's being paid to play a sport.

Wow. maki kind of gives it a slow swing. Then we see him at home cooking dinner when the doorbell rings, and he tries to look out the peephole, but the person is covering it with their finger. The scene is really upsetting, but it is, like, extremely effective, in my opinion. The way he opens the door and, like, it's his dad, this shitty man. He's just, like, pushing in already, and he's walking around saying, the place isn't much. Mocky is like, Why are you here? Please leave. And he slaps him across the face. His dad is there for money, and maki says, we don't have any. And his dad kicks him while he's still down. He says, I know your mother wouldn't hide anything from me, so you must have hidden it. So he finds the money and leaves, and he leaves machi curled up on the floor, and he just goes back to making dinner. That's the end of episode one. Yeah, it was really, like, field. Yeah, I was like, what the fuck?

At the end. Also, wasn't it a post credit scene, if I remember correctly?

I mean, technically. But the show never stopped. There was no credit sequence in this one because the credits were just rolling over the scene between shinjo and maki.

Yeah, I just remembered it and being like, why did you leave such an important detail after the credits but got.

To sit through and got to earn that bonus bonus plot.

Yeah, I could just I don't know. I felt the fear. I felt mackie's fear of like, oh, shit. Not only is this man not supposed to be here, they just moved and he found them somehow. So sets it up pretty effectively.

Yeah, we see the finger go over, like the eye hole cover, like, on the door. I was like, maybe it's shinju's older brother. They clearly got a relationship. Maybe it's just swinging by and like, goofing on his old friend. He used to do this as kids. And then when the door opens, you see the gnarled hand. Not gnarled, but like, very detailed. Older man hand grabbed the door. I was like, oh, fuck. This ain't fun anymore.

Yeah, definitely a sharp right turn.

Yeah, I feel like we see it a lot too. When someone gets knocked down, someone just comes up and kicks him in the base. That's real fucked up and does a lot of damage. So it's always like, oh, Jesus Christ.

Yeah.

Anyway, moving on to a lighter episode, more fun time. Episode two starts off with some bullies. Okay, no, I misread my notes because I thought it was one of the tennis members. But it's not. Turns out just some bullies bullying up on this one kid, calling him gay and saying like, oh, why don't you go get your boyfriend and stuff? And I was like, they're bullies. I don't know who this kid is. They're just assholes.

Delicious middle school homophobia.

The memories, the prime.

Wouldn't be middle school if there wasn't at least not my middle school. And we see shinju walking up the stairs. He basically tells him like, hey, fuck off. And the main bully is like, yeah, what are you going to do? And then the two other goons are like, no, man, he's an athlete. You kick her ass. We actually can't fight him. So they back off. And shinju says, like, you should have just, like, punched him straight in the jaw and really shut them off for good. And the kids like, no, violence is not the end. Violence is always wrong. What is wrong with you? He doesn't say, what's wrong with you? But he's like, very clear. Like, no, you can't just fight your way out of a fight. That just causes more fights. So he makes that very clear. And then we cut to shinju introducing maki to the club advisor, who's just like a real Shield teacher and teacher's lounge. He's like, hey, I'm the art teacher. I'm like, yeah, that makes sense. You really don't give a shit.

I like him.

He's fun. And I remember my high school, I think he was a soccer coach as well as the art teacher would frequently cancel practice because he was just hungover. I was like, yeah, that makes sense for an art teacher.

I don't want to be outside in the sun.

I'm taking this because it needs an advisor role, not because I give a shit about sports. Yeah, that's fair. And while he's talking, he's like, all right, yeah, welcome to the club. shinju is going to set you up with all the equipment that he already promised you. So that's good. Oh, you got a little mark on your face. What happened there, mark he's like, oh, I fell out of my bed and just kind of laying on my face. Okay, be careful. And then we cut over to seeing the girls practicing. And it's like a full armada. It's a lot of girls in this club. I think at one point later, they even mentioned they have like, five managers. It's a legit club. We see them practicing while shinju shows maki the club room. And it's like, oh, it's pretty cranky. He's like, yeah, it's pretty much just storage. But we use it as a club because we're not good enough for our own club room. So we just get changed in here and have our equipment in here. And maki starts picking up and using the equipment that's left over. And he's like, oh, what about this? It's like, oh, yeah, that was so into this thing. But he ran off, so I guess you can use it. Otherwise it's just going to get thrown out. So might as well put it to good use. And we see. Mocky picks up like a sun visor. He's like, oh, what about this? This is kind of neat. Usually only girls wear sun visors. He's like, why?

Only girls protect their eyes from the sun?

Yeah, I realize this. I'm like, yeah, I don't really see guys wearing sun visors too often. I'm like, but why not?

Interesting. Because now thinking about the tennis matches I've seen, I feel like there are a lot of men who wear sun visors.

Yeah, like professionals.

I wonder why these middle school boys don't want to do something they associate with something girls do.

But you seem you just put it on. And he's like, well, I'm going to use it. Okay. And then we see. I didn't write her name down. I just called her neighbor girl. She's in the classroom looking out the window, watching the tennis club again, just being like, exercise. I get her. Machine introduces himself to the club, and half of the club members are like, hey, welcome to the club. And then the other half are like, hey, is the new guy who fucking thinks he's going to be so hot? Get ready to be a loser like the rest of us, and just real shitty attitudes. And Machine is very clear that he just isn't putting out with their shit. I wouldn't call it hazing, but it does feel like kind of a hazing. The new guy sort of like attitude. And it's clear he's just putting his foot down like, no, I don't play that. I don't got time for that. I'm here to make money. And they all introduce themselves. I remember absolutely none of their names. Shinji says they play doubles in middle school. That actually no clubs play single, so they got to pick partners. And for now, shinju will be mackey's double partner. And he's like, you know what? We can't play on the court, though. The girls got the court. We only get to play on the court, like, Tuesday, thursdays, and saturdays. So in the meantime, let's do some laps. Let's run. And everyone hates this. And as they're doing laps, I guess they're just doing laps around, like, the courtyard area and not the whole school. I couldn't really tell what they're running around.

Yeah, it's like the pe area kind of.

Yeah, because we see like, a bunch of different clubs practicing their different sports. So they're running laps around that whole track area. And as they're running, we hear a lot of conversations with other club members and stuff, being like, oh, is that the Soft tennis boys club? You don't see them too much. Oh, they're actually trying to do less. What a waste of energy and time. They're not going to get better that way. Everyone kind of talking shit on them.

Yeah.

The attitude to this club doesn't make sense to me because they are all saying, like, oh, why are you running? That's not going to help you get better at tennis. And also, man, they never exercise. That's probably why they're so bad at tennis.

It's a lose lose either way for them.

Yeah. I mean, the girls tennis team sees it and they respect it. So I'm like I think that's the opinion that matters, I guess, who actually.

Know how this sport is playing better.

Good at it like that. We get glimpses of the girls tennis team a lot because the one boy Santa member and the girls tennis member brother and sister. And then I think it's like the captain we see of the girls tennis team a lot. And they're like, oh, hey, they're practicing. They're running laps. Good for them. And they're like, oh, they got a new member. Let's see how well, they're not talking shit, which is at least nice to see. Yeah, there's not like a weird forced rivalry of like, we're better than them.

The other girls do that. But I like, yeah, that the captain doesn't do that.

Yeah, some of the members do, but I don't think we ever can get their names. And we see all the boys struggling running laps because it's running. It sucks. We've all been there. And then we see maki, who was at the tail end of the group, starts picking up pace because everyone was getting tired. And he starts making it to the lead with shinjo and thus of rival reforms. They're heading the group and they're running the fastest, and they're trying to beat each other and laughs. We just get a good few minutes of them running around, trying to get faster and faster and kind of bumping into each other, trying to be first. And we see right at the end when they finish the lapse, I think shinju is like, an inch further, his foot is slightly further, but there's no finish line. So I don't know. Really? They pretty much stop at the same time. They cross the end at the exact same time, and then they just collapse on the ground because they've just been running, like, full force for 20 laps or whatever amount it was. And bit by bit, we see the rest of the club following behind them and collapsing on the ground with them. It's like, oh, God, that sucks. I'm going to throw up. One member is like, I throw up four times already. This is hell. Yeah. She says maki has speed and endurance and asked once again, like, we should pair up. We already just showed we can match each other pretty well, so we'd be a good double spark. And as they're laying in the ground, mocky agrees. And they just reach out their hands. I thought they like, shake out or something, like fist bump, but they just kind of, like, lock hands for a good minute. And I was like, huh? All right.

I was like, oh, that's nice.

The tennis code. Yeah.

Hold hands for a minute. That's how you lock it in.

That's how I finish all my business deals. And so after that, after they do it, they really go in bonding session. They all welcome maki to the team as they're all passed out on the ground, they all put their hands on top of each other. And the neighbor girl says, like, oh, that's dumb. If they just want to run, they should have just on track. It's like, I agree with this girl, but come on, you have to understand, other sports involve running.

Exercise works in the gym.

Yeah.

They'Re playing basketball. Why are they running around so much? Do you know what this is?

It's not just jumping in place. It's not like jumping is any factor into basketball.

Tennis might be the most or have the most running involved beyond track.

That's true. Run back and forth a lot.

I did it for a hot minute in middle school. It's like, it sucks. I could not do that. And then that night, we see she's in her room, just drawn on, like a tablet, drawing some anime girls in, like, I think, Save Our Moon outfits or made outfits. She's checking her socials from posting. And she's like, God, why is everyone still so into anime? Girls with skirts and DIEHIGH socks. What a bunch of losers. And it's like, you're drawing it. Do you know you're the one drawing it to everybody?

She's like, fuck my audience. I hate these people.

So she's like, the art girl. And then next day, we see in class, Shinju and Maki leave to go to practice, and we see she stays behind a little bit, packing up her stuff. We see two girls talking to her, like, oh, you're talking to the new guy off a lot. Maybe no one likes him. It's like, oh, these are her friends. Like, oh, you finally got a 3d crush. Ha ha. What a nerd. No one likes you. I was like, oh, they're bitches.

Cool. More of them.

Yeah, we need this. And while walking to practice, Shinji amaki are talking. Immaki is like, hey, hold up a second. Going without me? I'll catch up in, like, a few minutes. amaki just kind of falls back and sees the kid that was being bullied in the other episode, or earlier this episode. He's like, hey, I notice you're, like, trailing behind us. What's up? You want to talk? He's like, oh, no, I just want to he's like, you want to talk to shinjo? You like shinjo. Nice. You want to be in the club? They'll give you an excuse to be around him. He's like, I own tennis. He's like, you could be a club manager. You could manage all the stuff without actually being involved in, like, the physical activity of the club. Now we can be involved, and now you have a club. It works on a multiple levels. He's like, great.

You can't say no.

You have no excuse.

I couldn't say no. Neither can you.

It's a pyramid scheme. I'm dragging you into this too. Yeah. So Mocky's been in the club for, like, a day and has already recruited a new person. And that night, we see Maki is cooking for his mom and her boyfriend, his brother. I don't know this man.

I don't know either, but probably boyfriend.

You will say boyfriend until proven otherwise. Yeah. So maki's, like, cooking dinner, and it's his mom and her boyfriend just, like, at the tail, like, come on, Maki.

You've cooked enough.

Come sit down. Enjoy. Like, enjoy the meal. And they're both like, drinking. He's like, no, I'll finish this up, and then I'll run out and get you guys some more beer. It's like, you can't do it. It's like, final. Get your tea. And yeah. He's kind of like, hazing. Not hazing. I keep going back to the sports. He's kind of giving lip to the boyfriend, just being like, well, someone's got to do the chores and cooking around here, I guess. Kind of playing, like, I don't know who you are, and you're not contributing anything in my household, man. Like, you're just here to drink with my mom.

Boy, should sure would be nice if adult had responsibility in this home. What a weird concept. Anyway, I'll make your tea.

Yeah. Basically, the boyfriend's like, ah, come on, got. loosen up. And like, he's like, I'm going to fucking go for a bit. So he runs out, and once Mocky's gone, the boyfriend turns. He's like, hey, he hasn't found out about this place, has he? maquis mom's like, no, I don't think so. I think we should be good. But I am concerned that he might find it one day, and it's like, Shit, dad. Maki hasn't told them about shit, dad's. Appearance great. And the next day, Maki introduces the club to the new manager. And then they go to the I think one of them says, like, hey, who made makia boss? Why is he recruiting new people and making a manager? He's like, well, y'all ain't doing shit. So if I'm in this club, I'm going to be good, and I'm going to put effort into it. It's like, fair.

It is now clear to all of us that this club is on the verge of cancellation, so I'm trying.

So they go to the practice grounds because no courts for bad players, and shinjo gets the team going before Maki goes. Like, this club needs people. I want to be good at it. Otherwise I don't get paid. Before he can say or mention the deal that he's being paid to be there, shinju kind of shuts him and say, all right, let's move along, and clearly try to keep it a secret from everyone. And then before starting, shinjo shows Maki all the different grips and postures and techniques. So he had a little info dump here of all the proper maneuvers and stuff, of tennis and surprise, surprise, Maki is a natural. He picks it up immediately, and everyone's like, oh, shit. He's got, like, perfect form, which is understandable. He's the protagonist they have.

Hey, he runs upstairs. So naturally, he's very good at holding a racket.

And while they're practicing, we see neighbor girl. She finds a stray cat from the other day. Moving on. I don't know why. I'm guessing the cat just keeps coming back, but we don't get to it.

The cat is her father.

Okay, the twist. And Maki says that after doing some of the practice drills and stuff and seeing everyone else's technique, maki just says, like, hey, you're all really bad at this. Like, you've been here for a full year already. Your second years, what have you been doing? Because you're all pretty garbage. Like, hey, we're trying. It's like, yeah, that's what bad people say when they're bad at something.

Also, you're not trying. You're like, this is the first exercise we've had in a year.

Yeah. And he's like, if you're bad at this, you're probably bad at a lot of other stuff. Why are you even here? Why do you exist? You're a garbage. He doesn't go that far, but he does lay it on pretty thick. Yeah, you're pretty shit. And you're probably shit at other stuff. And understandably, some of the other teammates get a little mad at this. He's saying, if you put in effort, you can actually improve, but none of you are putting in the effort because you don't actually care. And one of the hot headed members, the one who's always looking for a scuffle, he gets all mad. He's like, yeah, what about this? And he goes to swing his racket at machi, and he stops himself, Mocky's like, what going to hit me? Do it. Be big, man. Use your hands. rackets are expensive. Let's go.

An adult fought me yesterday. I'm not scared of you.

Middle schooler pretty much true. And then we see they all kind of get flustered. Like, I fucked it. Well, you know, let's let's stop fighting. Let's just do some drill. So they do, like, practicing their technique and swings and stuff. We see the girls team keeping an eye on the boys team as they practice. And they're like, oh, yeah, they got the new member. It's like, yeah, actually, he seems to be whipping them into shape. They're putting in effort now. And we cut to, like, the neighborhood being like, oh, man, there wasn't a fight. And it's like I enjoy her commentary, but she really she adds very little to the show. And I'll say from what we see, machine says a lot of shit in this episode, especially at the end here. He's not wrong, though, which makes it feel worse. And then we get the ending sequence. And this is what I've seen. This is the only thing I've seen of this show. And it's a lot of the club members and then a few of the non club members. So we see, like, the student council body president. We see the neighbor girl and some other people, but mostly the club members. They're all just, like, by themselves or in pairs, just dancing to the end song. And I realized with a lot of this show, the character designs are I don't want to say minimal, but they're simplified. They're not overly complicated. They're not very beachy or on high school club, where there's a lot of lines and details all over the character phases to make it pretty it's very simple and it's to make it easier for when they do very dynamic movement and stuff during tennis. And that plays really well here with the dance sequence because you get a lot of movement, you got a lot of different styles of everyone dancing in their own way. You get a lot of personality from all the people dancing in different ways. Like, yeah, a few of them are putting in an effort. One of them is putting very minimal effort, but he's still happy to be dancing. Maki and shinjo are going all out, and then we come back to them. And Maki stopped and was playing with the cat, while shinjo is, like, exhausting himself. And we see, like, a few we see I forget it. I don't know his name, but he's like one of the more abrasive team members. But he's dancing the whole time. But it's all like idle pop dance moves. It's not just like regular dance. It's very like showmanship, showy. And then the Soon Council body president just going fucking full force. And just she has just a neutral expression, her on her face all the time. Like, yeah, I can do this one of.

It powerful.

I love it. It was great. And that's episode two.

Yeah. So we start out episode three. They're all walking home. Some of the friends are going to mackey's place, and he cooks them all dinner. And they're all amazed at how he can cook. whoa. The skilled guy has more skills. And then they're talking about different tennis positions. Just explaining basics of tennis, which I won't do here. And mom comes home early from work and meets everyone. So, yeah, friendship outside of school kids, good stuff. So the next day, they're in class and just explain the scoring system of tennis again. You can look it up. And they're after school going to have their first practice match. So they're like, we think it's too soon for the new kid, the one who's the only one good at tennis here. And they're like, no, we can sort of just assess where everyone's at. So how about me, Captain Shinji, and the only good kid? How about we play the rest of you? I wonder how this will go. So weird. He's just immediately amazing at tennis, who would have cast protagonist weird. And yeah, he just sweeps the first group. Then they set up a second match with two more people and sweeps them two. Yeah, they just play more games. Then they get to the third one, and one of the kids trying to be a little shit is like, yeah, let me just hit the ball at mackey. Let me just hit him with the ball because he's good. This is how I'll win pain. But being so amazing, maqui is able to adapt to all the strategies. This is the third time he's playing tennis for real.

Of course, he's won two Wimbletons already.

So sweeps every other group just destroys. So after the practice, like he did in the last episode, maki is like, wow, you guys suck at tennis. What the fuck have you been doing for a year? Because it's clearly not trying at tennis. And as the team is going to be like, oh, well, trying to defend themselves, shinji just throws down his racket. He's like, he's right. You can't argue with him. All fucking suck. What are we doing? We've been at this for a year, and you can't beat someone who's been playing for a day. This fucking sucks. I quit and just walks off.

Respectable fair. I love when people quit things. I'm always supportive of quitting.

Yeah.

So he goes home. We get to see that lovely home life dynamic where he walks in and his mom is like, oh, home early. I guess you quit because you fucking suck at tennis, my child.

Since we don't get what the drama is in these first three episodes, she is just a nightmare person. I'm sure there's reason. I'm not saying it's justified, but it's just like, we don't have context for why she's like this, and it's like, what the fuck? Yeah.

Truly doesn't even have any context for, like, oh, why are you home early? Did something go wrong? So many factors. It's you gave up. You a little shit. You're going to be a loser for the rest of your life. So while he's gone, the rest of the team still at practice. maquis is like, hey, so I saw all of your doubles partners. Why those pairings? And they're like, oh, yeah, because we picked them because they're fun. They're these are the people we like playing with. He's like, Fun not allowed in middle school sports. Obviously, you're not optimized for tennis domination. This needs to be corrected immediately. Then we see Shinji in his room, and then his older brother comes home and is like, hey, don't listen to mom. You got to stick with it. You're just at a turning point. All that sort of encouraging. Hey, I know you suck at tennis. Well, you don't personally suck at tennis. I know your team sucks at tennis, but stick with it, champ.

No, I just am imagining what it would be like if I was Shinjo's mom, and he came home and I was like, oh, you quit? Sick kid. Got some chicken nuggets.

You want to go to McDonald's?

Whoa. You can focus on things that will actually take you somewhere in life. Weird. Pull up a chair. Let's I have a catalog here.

What other clubs you can be happy and not stressed. I love that for you, son. Come here.

You have indicted your entire life's worth and journey in middle school. Nice. Also, it's unimportant entirely, but it caught my attention. It's a very plant heavy household in Shinju's house. He's got, like, four cactuses in his room, and his brother's got, like, three giant plants.

Nice.

I appreciate it more than just the barren, empty wasteland of anime protagonist rooms that we see a lot. It added character to the room itself.

Join Plant Club. Clearly that's you like cactuses.

It may be because you're kind of a prick.

That's why his mom hates him. He keeps bringing home all these fucking plants.

You know, I love to bathe three.

Times a day, if that's the drama. Oh, God, that would be amazing.

Not dramatic enough for this show. The next day at practice, they're waiting for Shinji and Maki to show up, but they don't, because Maki goes to watch the girls team practice and immediately is like, ah, yes, I fully understand tennis now from watching one game on my second day of caring about tennis for financial reasons.

It's like Alan Strange from The Secret Life of Alan Strange.

We can't do this.

Sir.

Just say yes.

Just like Alan Strange.

Yeah, you're right.

Good job, Brendan. Here's a gold star.

I'm going to get distracted by this.

So good.

Ow. I hurt myself.

But yeah. So the manager kid finds the captain. He's being all sulky by the riverside. He's like, hey, are you still having fun? Don't really get an answer. So we then see, as the rest of the team is waiting for the captain and monkey to show up. Oh, no. The homophobic bullies from the start of the last episode come up. What's going to happen now? Surely they're here to join the team, right?

Something encouraging, something heartwarming. Not be just chittles.

So they go up, and one of the kids, the younger brother of the girls team captain, they go up and start making fun of him. They're like, yeah, you're a loser. You should just give up. Your sister's way better than you are. He's like, hey, stop it. And they're like, oh, not pressing the right buttons. How about we talk about your family's divorce, how you have one parent.

Ha ha.

We're middle schoolers. We think this is going to go great. Naturally, he stands up, just gets tunnel vision and just hits one of the bullies in the head with his racket and just cuts a gash into him. The bully immediately is just like, crying. Like, oh, I didn't see that coming to my actions.

Not physical retaliation.

Why did I challenge someone with a weapon in his hand?

Talk shit, get hit. I mean, roll the playground.

Yeah. The lessons of middle school, fuck around, find out.

Find out. I do appreciate that when he hits the bully with the tennis rag, there actually is blood. And it's not just like it's a silly anime, like bonk. Ha ha. Yeah, that would fucking hurt like hell.

But yeah, so naturally not great. So the rest of the team takes the bully to the nurse. And I don't understand that part of my notes. mocky comes in and says, hey, don't fight. There's probably a more nuanced thing. I just could transcribe it. Well, but yeah, then afterwards, they go to the advisor because there was a fight. And he's like, hey, don't fight. But also, good one. Have some candy.

Yeah, I do like that. The teacher, it's not just the class like, oh, someone started a fight. You're all equally expelled. It's like, no, there's clearly one bully here that started shit. And the teacher at least knowledge of that. Yeah, he was an asshole for doing that. You shouldn't be attacking with weapons. But he kind of deserved it.

But also, what did the bully think was going to happen? He clearly went for a sword spot.

So that's all. Yeah.

So this whole sequence is kind of cluster fuck. So the rest of the team, immediately after being like the advisor, is like, yeah, don't fight. We see the rest of the team in the locker room, and they're like, oh, I guess we saw a boiling over point. Let's talk about backstory, shall we?

Oh, gosh.

Because immediately, we see the advisor say, hey, don't fight. We then see the locker room, and they're like, do you know why that kid doesn't like to change in front of us?

It's.

Like what? I didn't realize this was a dynamic.

Yeah, this did kind of come out of nowhere. Yeah.

But here we are. And they're like, that's because he doesn't want you to see the burns all over his body.

Wow.

Excuse me.

Yeah, they mentioned it, like, once earlier. They mentioned machi is like, oh, where's this kid? And they're just like, oh, he doesn't change with us.

Okay. They throw, like, eight new characters at you right away. So immediately, the names became white noise to me.

Yeah.

Didn't notice that.

Yeah. So for us, not paying attention, it was a shock, but sure. But they're like, oh, yeah. Tragic backstory. Because when he was a baby, his mom just freaked out and poured boiling water on him. Crazy cool. I love that the show is like, we need some twists. How about just parental abuse? Does that sound good as, like, a catch all?

Yeah. And they all climb.

I think they also mentioned that the bully was also saying that he still lives with his mom. So even, like, after we get this revealed, I think they're trying to make it out to be, like, postpartum depression or something, because it seems like she's, like, by herself. So maybe this was, like, after divorce. But yeah, it doesn't handle it very well or clearly. So just it seems like shock value for the sake of shock value.

Yeah.

But yeah. So we get that backstory, and he afterwards meets up with his sister, and they walk home together, and they're buddying around. So everything's all right. Cool. Don't worry about that trauma. So later on, everyone is home, and Shinji gets a call from Maki. He's like, hey, don't forget, I still got to get paid. You can't quit if you leave. You are not obligated to pay me, so don't do it. And they say the team is better together, and he agrees to not quit because he got bullied by someone he is financially obligated to. Friendship dynamics. And that's where we end episode three.

Wow.

I will say Maki was on the phone with Shinju's older brother, and his older brother comes into Shinju's room and say, hey, machi wants to talk to you. And I got to know what's up with Shinj's older brother and Maki, because.

I hope it's not something fucked up.

I thought it was because I knew neighborhood kids were like, yeah, he's got a brother of the same age as me, but I'm more friends with his old brother than him. I've known that. So I'm just like, oh, maybe it's that. But with how many twists and turns the show has gone, I'm now scared of what it could be. And I'm just like, it could be.

Just something nice where they're just good pals. They understand each other, but they're both.

Very good at tennis. They both love the stars. They're both aliens from tennis planet and they're trying to fit in on Earth. But they're their only contact. So that's why they're connected. That's why it's called stars align. They're tennis playing aliens.

They were both adopted. That's a twist. Later. Just kidding. We don't know that for sure.

Anyway, are we there yet?

This one than I thought.

Yeah, soft spooking tennis boys. Oh, boy.

Yeah, I feel really weird about this one because I liked it mostly. But the abuse shit was very strange. I was like, why is this happening? And like, the description is something along the lines of like, boys and tennis club navigating the difficulties of middle school. But I don't know. I guess I didn't expect it to be like a comedy per se, but I also didn't expect this.

Typically when we see the elements of dealing with middle school, of like, bullies and being on clubs you're not good at, that doesn't factor in the multiple instances of child abuse and just the full on like, yes, I'm an adult. I'm going to fight you like another adult. And it's like, no, don't stop. This isn't a common middle school problem for most of your audience. Sure, it happens, but this is a whole lot to sort of be a secondary B plot. Also, they're all dealing with insane trauma.

That's what I'm worried about is that there are so many boys on the team that I'm afraid that in each episode they'll be like, here's this kid's trauma when it doesn't like that.

Yeah.

I was surprised by maki's story, Shinju's story. We didn't get much of it with the family dynamic, but it just seems like dad works all the time. Mom clearly has a favorite for some reason. It's not great. But comparatively to the others, it's not that severe. Mocky's back story I was definitely surprised by, but I was like, well, he's the protagonist. We definitely have to have some drama. It's the third episode with yeah and Oscar. Or is it I forget his nameski. It's him. Where I was really caught up because so far all we know is he's got a sister on the girls tennis team and that's it. It seems like he might be kind of a shit stir, especially in the mock match. And when the bullies came up, he's like, hey guys, I'm on the steam. Fuck off. It seems like he kind of knew the bullies, so maybe outside of the club, he's kind of an asshole. And I'm like, that's all I kind of know of this random group character. He's just blading him with the club like everyone else for me. And then, yeah, it's like he's covered in burn marks his mom poured boiling water on when he was an infant in the crib. He's got this family dynamic. It's like, what the I didn't know this character existed till just now, and you're throwing a lot at me, so I'd be surprised. I'd also be lying if I said it didn't make the show more interesting because we've seen a few sports animes now, and like I said, the club just bleeds together into one amorphous blob of a character for me because they're all just very lackluster and uninteresting. But even with the last episode we see, that is key. Coming back from the teachers lounge with I think he was a vice captain of the club.

I love that character so much. I love the vice president of the boys tennis club. He's so sweet.

Yeah, he was sweet, but he was kind of, like, unmemorable to me. But in this moment when he's talking, he's like, yeah, you shouldn't have hit him with your tennis racket and split his head open like that. And even the teacher says, like, it blend more. It looked worse than it was, so it wasn't that bad, but he still shouldn't have done it. But then the vice president of the club is like, yeah, you shouldn't have hit him with the tennis racket. But I'd be lying if I said I didn't enjoy watching Get hurt. And it's kind of like, oh, shit. What? And immediately, just that line and that dynamic between two characters that aren't the protagonist or the dua duagonist or tritagonist, there's, like words, term short, and I don't know it exactly, but just to see that dynamic between two quote like side characters was already more character development than I've seen in full seasons of other shows. And I don't know if all of the very heavy handed cws drama is necessary, but there's at least writing between characters that is more interesting than a lot I've ever seen. So I'm kind of interested in it.

Yeah, I get what you're saying. I'm just worried that this is where they're starting with a scary dad that follows his family around and pouring boiling water on a baby. I'm afraid where it will go.

It'll be like, suffer porn or whatever.

Yeah, torture porn.

Torture porn.

And I really hope it doesn't I don't know. Like, I am interested because I like some of these boys. Like I said, I love the vice president boy. I don't remember his name, but he.

Turned his position on the team.

Yeah.

So it sort of, like, doesn't bode well for the rest of the writing that they're like.

Yeah.

For the most part, in episodes, these characters are uninteresting until we give them something very interesting. And it's like, whoa. How about you put that energy into compelling dialogue and making strong connections between these characters and not like, what's the gimmick? What's the trauma gimmick that we can give this character to make it interesting?

Yeah, I am aware of that and it is concerning. I'd be lying if it didn't get my interest. Yeah, I didn't give a shit about that soccer anime we watched about the clean freak. Didn't give a shit about any of those characters at all. But then again, I love the niche club girls doing just little activities and just nothing, no drama happens whatsoever. So we've clearly seen out examples of anime where you can have interesting and well written dialogue between characters and character development and growth without forcing just very heavy traumatic events in their lives.

Yeah, this one was crazy.

I was definitely caught off guard.

Wasn't at all expecting this surprise.

Like, we're going to be watching High Cuba for tennis. No. Got you. It's given there's a lot of baggage here. Oh, no, I'll probably keep watching it's like twelve episodes of the way through. If nothing else. The animation, like I said, the dynamic movement and stuff with the actual playing and the dancing at the end sequence. Clearly the studio knows what the hell they're doing because it's gorgeous looking. So if nothing else, that'll keep my attention.

But yeah. What do we have going on next week?

Next week we're going to be watching Sunny Boy.

Oh, shit. Okay.

Yeah, let's get into that.

All right.

Man, I don't like the tone of this, especially after the heaviness of this one.

No, I watched the first episode. It's pretty all right.

I watched all of it already.

It doesn't make you be trusted anymore.

But if there's anything you'd like to.

Have us watch, you can send your recommendations to us. Our email is rweedveryette@gmail.com or you can reach out to us on Twitter or Instagram at arweedveryet on both. You can find me on Twitter and Instagram at Mr. Patrick dugan.

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

Twitter, but there's really not a lot going on, so I'm going to abstain from it. Instead, I recommend following unsta munster on twitch. She's an artist I mod for and is very good at art. A lot of sonic art. Just feral a shit. She's chaotic as hell and is very so.

A lot of pregnant sonic art. Got it.

No, not that. We stopped that.

Thank you to camille Ruling, another great artist. Thank you to Louis zong for her theme song stories. You can find all of Louis music at Louisong bandcamp.com. Thank you and we hope you'll join us next week as we learn to live with anime.

Goodbye.

I retract my Alan Strange statement. it'd be. More appropriate if I say Kyle X One.

Oh, I know that one. Thank you.