AWTY 170 - Re-Aligned (Kageki Shoujo!)

What a moron.

Hello and welcome to are we there yet? And actually exploration and education and anime. I'm your anime idiot, patrick dugan.

I am an anime expert, D hollander.

And I'm brenda mccullough. Your anime that one opera episode of Hay Arnold.

Oh, I like that one.

Cameron.

Carmen.

I don't know carmen. That's it. I knew Cameron.

Cameron?

No. Cameron kirk. Cameron. No, we don't want to talk about that guy. Who's a good Cameron?

Cameron from ferris Buellard. Just doing all of pagliacci.

Yeah, okay, we'll go with that one. Go red Wings. No, I'm a Flyers fan. I can't say that.

Sports.

It's the closest sport I care about. Besides animated ones.

None of these athletes are pretty enough.

I need dumb feral goblins, not big drunk idiots.

How do we get here? What's going on?

I'll tell you. This week we're watching kageki shojo, which in English is opera girl. Yeah.

This is all about the web browser, right?

Yeah. Is it short lived? Does that exist anymore?

I think it does, actually. I think people are shifting to it because Chrome sucks.

No, I haven't had any issues with Chrome. Google knows what I'm doing anyway because I have an Android phone.

Yeah, true. Same.

There's no hiding anything anymore, so might as well lean into it. Yeah, but this is what this podcast actually is. We're just destroying the lives of our nsa agents, making them listen to this.

If I have to suffer with my anime thoughts, so do you.

Taking you down with me.

This show is another one I heard from a mother's basement video. I think so. Threw it on the list. It's another one, seemingly, of cute girls just doing a thing. And I like musicals and opera sometimes.

Depending.

Yeah. Have either of you heard of this?

I have not, no.

Excellent.

I barely know anything about opera as.

Well as any indication. Meaning?

I mean, dugan used to be a musical theater kid, didn't you?

Yes, I was a musical theater kid, but I didn't get too deep into listening to shows that I was not doing. So sort of grain of salt. How deep into musical theater knowledge I have got you?

I still like musical theater because I'm insufferable. ding. That's me winking at the camera.

I enjoy musical. I mean, like, many of us raised on Disney stuff, musical innately built into me whether I like it or not.

But, Brendan, didn't you watch shrek the Musical?

Yeah, that was good. No, I like musicals. I'm just like I'm not like a theater kid.

But I just wanted to confirm if I made that up or not. I couldn't remember.

No, shrek the Musical has no right being as good as it is. It is good, though. It's legit. Real good.

This is my official endorsement for everyone watching shrek the Musical, because I watched it as a joke when my brother brought it home on bluray when he had an internship at dreamworks and then I ended up really liking it's wild.

That this just like snuck by, but it's real and actually good.

We watched half of it, but my altered by substances brain was not super latching on to. I'm watching shrek, but I have no clue what's going on. I can't keep doing this. I had to turn it off.

It could be rough.

When you just listen to Who I'd Be, it's the best song. I love it.

Anyway, anyway, yes. Musicals. Good shit. Opera I never got my teeth into. I also had a classical music class in college and the teacher was so horrendous. It has left a horror taste for any kind of classical music for me whatsoever. So opera is definitely getting pinged for that in the crossfire. It's not their fault.

It's not opera's fault.

It's not opera's fault. But it's very intimidating of a genre medium to get into.

Medium.

Medium.

I don't know. Yeah. I don't know. That's a conversation for someone else to have.

Yeah, it's very classical and a lot of guest.

We have a professor from berkeley. Opera is to us.

Oh, god. I don't want anyone of any actual credibility on this podcast.

You will actively lose your tenure status.

Yeah.

So much has listened to our show. This is a warning to all professor anime fans.

I talked to my grandma. She's like, you're still doing that podcast? Can I listen to it? I was like, no, you really can't. You're actually illegally forbidden from listening to it.

You'll be arrested. The FBI will barge you.

I've said shit on your grandma. I can't hear that.

Tell her to listen to episode 69, stopping.

Grandma. You seem to be real big in that hentai scene. Check out episode 69. Anyway, what am I Demoraling from?

Yeah, shall we just get into it? Because we keep tangenting. It's the only way we'll get through this.

Let's warm up our voices.

Long, me and you and Brendan are going to watch three episodes.

Been. who'd have known? Who could have predicted this? Not me.

Three episode test.

Duped. Again.

We started out with just a boring, boring show and then trauma out of the.

Hint of trauma.

No, you misunderstand me.

You get a whole even played full of it.

Thank you.

You can't leave the table until you finish it all.

Yeah. Well, you see, I enjoyed at least the first episode. I honestly don't even remember the second episode because the third episode was so terrible.

It fucking cold cocks you out of nowhere. It's real bad.

Yeah, but let's get into it. So in episode one, we're introduced to this theater that hosts an acting troupe of women. And some of the actresses were said to be more gentlemanly than real men. That's fun. And then we learned that a school was established to teach the next generation of the troop. And it's like, really hard to get into that. We see some people on a train. A guy is watching a video of some idols, and he looks up and realizes that one of the idols in the group is sitting right across from him. What? And they make awkward eye contact. He tries to talk to her. She literally runs away.

A lot of signs, buddy. Don't know why he's going to picked up any of them.

Leave her alone. She's in the train station. Someone else tries to get her attention. He's like all up in her face being like, it's so terrible you got thrown out of the girl group. I'm going to stan you no matter what happens. That's real English dialogue in this show.

Real hip translator, real with the youth.

Yeah, buddy. I mean, stan culture is like a big issue, I think, in my opinion. But is this show going to handle it? Well, I can already tell it won't, no. So this is I. Her name is I. As she's running, she actually sees a guy she knows. Turns out it's her uncle, and he gives her a letter. She found out that she passed the first round of auditions for that acting school. yay. And she says, I'm one step closer to two years with no men. relatable. What a joy.

Honestly, just from the opening, it's like, yeah, I get it.

Yeah. Especially being a former idol and stuff. Yeah.

That's all you need to know.

And he's actually a teacher at the school. He says there's more male teachers there, but they head off. There are like, some people talking about someone getting into the auditions. It doesn't really come up again, it doesn't matter, whatever. Yeah. I think it is like a group of people. And then the grandfather of another character comes up and we see this other character at a grave. She's at her grandmother's grave. And she came to pray and, like, show the letter to her grandma that she got past the first round of auditions. Now it's second round audition time. We find out that there were over 1000 applicants and only 200 made it through and only 40 will be offered admission. So this is cut throat, baby.

Real deal.

Yeah. So we see i's uncle and another male teacher, and they're kind of looking down at all of the girls who are auditioning and they talk about a few I'm not going to get into it. And then I walks up and these girls gossip about her. And they're like, oh, she got kicked out of the group because she called a fan of creep to his face. And she's like, it's okay. Nothing can hurt me because I don't care what people say.

It's fine concealed, don't feel.

Yeah. And she's drawn to this big old cherry tree. It's beautiful. It's in full bloom.

Shake it off the bingo card.

Yeah. This episode is called something about a cherry tree. And her uncle up from the balcony is like, oh, no, don't go under the cherry tree. And the other guy is like, Why didn't you warn her? But she's under the cherry tree admiring the flowers. The girl from the grave comes running up, and I just falls in love right away. She's like, she's so tall, and her eyes are so pretty.

I held it all from kicking off the gay square on the bingo card right away just to see if it was just because she is just so toweringly tall now that got checked off eventually. She in love.

And so this girl introduced herself. Her name is sorosa. And I is like, you're tall. And she's like, yeah, it's the tall girl. Yeah. And she asks I to take a picture of her with the tree. And I is, like, surprised that she doesn't want a picture with her because sarasa has no idea who she is. So that's nice and refreshing. Then we find out that the curse is that if you stand under the cherry tree, you won't do well in in the school. If you get in and or get it at all. Done. Done.

What a twist.

And then we just jump ahead. Fuck the auditions.

Moving on.

Who cares?

I made it in, and sarasa did, too. I and her uncle are celebrating, and she's like, how did sarasa make it in? And we see the announcement of the accepted girls. There's a ceremony to welcome them. And sarasa bursts in the door late, and she sits down next to I, and people start murmuring. And sarasa is, like, talking really loud. She's tall and loud, so she draws a lot of attention.

Like, in a lot of shows. It's kind of like, oh, this character talks enthusiastically. Or they kind of get roped up, like in a laid back camp, mount fuji girl, where she's, like, very excitable. This girl is so goddamn loud.

Yeah.

So loud.

She's devious of all social kids.

Yeah. She's like an American theater kid. That's the vibe she gives off here. So i's uncle tells her that saratha got in on the recommendation of two teachers, and really they just wanted her in. They were like, this is the 100th class in this school. Maybe we should mix it up and add someone who's not that talented.

What if we got weird with it.

But they think they can make her a star? And then we get, like, another flashback of I watching sarasota leaving, and she's, like, running, but she keeps checking her phone to text people. I thought that was really cute. I was like, that's annoying. But it's cute. She wants to tell everybody she made it in.

Yeah. It's weird that I is also following her and stopping when she stops too, and doesn't walk past her, around her. Yeah, it might have stuck behind her, but she's doing her own thing. Let her be.

Yeah. And then sometime in the future, I is checking into the dorm. She goes in her room and who should be her roommate but sarassa, of course.

Who could have seen that coming?

Wow. She closes the door in her face and goes to ask if she can change rooms. We see there were a couple of twins that auditioned that got in, and they ended up in the same room. And then we see these other two girls who one is like a prima ballerina, but her real goal is to do musical theater. So here she is. And then this other girl, who I called nepotism Girl because her mom was a big deal in this coca Theater.

Troupe, is her only personality trait.

Yes. So I goes into their room again. She hangs a curtain between them because she wants privacy, but sarasa doesn't get it. She tries to give I a nickname and goes underneath the curtain. Then we skip ahead in time again. I is like, oh, there's a week of orientation classes, and on the last day of that week, I had had enough. So she didn't wake up saratha to go to class, which is rude. So sarasa is half an hour late, and that day, a military man is there to teach them how to move synchronously. So they do some drills. Teachers watch from afar, saying this group must have caught the eye of the military man because he's still there. But it's probably because one group of girls still hasn't gotten the drill down yet. And some older girls from the school are watching as well. They start the drill again, and saratha bumps into the nepotism Girl, making her mad. The military guy picks them to I and then one other girl out of the group and has them do the drill in front of everybody. The girl that we don't really know from before is always behind the others. He tells nepotism Girl not to do it so fast, and he tells I that she has improper posture and a weak core from being an idol. Your bloodline is weak. And he tries to reach out and touch her. She backs away, saying she doesn't like to be touched. And he says he has to be careful not to offend anyone these days. Fuck you, guy. First you're in the military, and now this.

That strike too.

And then he moves back to saratha, and he's like, you have to be more aware of your surroundings as a tall person, but other than that, you're doing great. And then he asks if he can shove her, and she's like, yeah. And so he does, but she stays standing. And then she's like, Wait, do it again. I wasn't ready. And she takes, like, this funny stance, and he tries to shove her, but she doesn't move. And he jokingly asks her if she wants to join the military. She says no, because she's going to be in the coke a theater troupe and play Lady Oscar. And that gets everyone's attention. And this other teacher is like, that means you have to be the best of the best, then. And she's like, I'm ready to accept the challenge.

Funky protagonist.

Yeah. And then i's inner monologue explains that there are four troops of 80 performers, and each one, like, has its best girl. And I is like, I don't care about doing that, but she's going to have to work really hard. After class, sarasa looks for I to walk back to the dorm together, and I just hides from her. And then we see i's uncle and the other male teacher talking about sarasa and the stance she took to stay standing when the military guy shoved her. And there's another teacher in the room that explains it was opposed from, like, a kabuki play. So that's, like, a little hint to what sarasa grew up with.

Backstory.

Yeah. And then we see her grandpa doing some stuff, and we find out later that sarasa's grandfather makes tami mats. Okay, cool. They say it, they mention it. And then we see a guy reading an article about I getting into the school, and it's easy to assume that this is a guy that she called a creep because he looks like a creep. Yeah. And then Serossa finds eye, and they walk back to the dorm together. And that's episode one sounds nice and normal for now. I'll never tell.

Do you like stalking? No. No one does. It's a running theme of this show, though. We yay also go back to the opening ceremony when the principal is giving a speech. He sounds like a text to speech.

He did. That was wild.

Sounded so off.

I was finding a lot of the English dub. Everyone is the chillist mosanxed out, the Thomas vibes. Oh, did you check out these girls? They got into the school. Oh, those twins over there. It's just, like, so smooth and just like yeah, whatever, man.

I don't give a shit. This dub sure was something, I'll say that. It's like, everyone had, like, here's your character and the one emotion they portray. Filter all the dialogue through that one emotion. Got it. Cool.

Yeah. Well, I as that character, we see a lot of emotionless. She's just another one of those that I got.

And her dubbing wasn't too bad, but the principal sounded like a speech robe.

Yeah, it was very funny.

You only got, like, one line, dude. But episode two, I ain't refused anyone's names in the show total. Yeah. Episode two starts off with tall Girl showing off her new school uniform. I guess during the rehearsal week, they were just wearing, like, their gym clothes, and now they got the actual school uniform. It's like, hey, check it out. Look at my uniform. Ain't it cool? Idol and idol's. Like, no, I have the same thing. We all wear the same thing. It's a school uniform. It's like, yeah, but, like, it's official. And Tall Girl's just having her moment.

And getting shut down by it.

And then we get to it's the night before. So then the next day, the first day of classes, and Idle wakes up and gets ready and all that. It's like, I guess I should wake Tall girl up. I didn't do it all during the rehearsal week period, so maybe I should try now. And she just stands by the curtain of her bed being like, hey. And there's like a little paperball letter. Well, she didn't wake up. Time to go. And does not try at all. And as she's walking out, we see the prima ballerina. Rule Queen with the ponytail walks by and it's like, oh, where's tall Girl? It's like, oh, she's still asleep. Prima ballerina is like, the fuck she is not on my watch. Runs in and just starts screaming at Tall Girl and shakes her awake. And to no one's surprise we'll jump at, she ends up being the class rep. So class rep girl. And she's mad, basically saying like, they're going to reflect the first years, all of them as a group instead of individuals. So tall girls bringing her cred down as well. And tall girls like it's 530, which fucking blew my mind. Why are we getting up so early? Are we meeting like, the military guy again? She's like, no, we're meeting someone even scarier. The second years.

The worst sophomores.

While you think about it, this is only a two year conservatory program.

Is it?

Yeah. So maybe they are scarier.

Then we get the opening. And opening pretty decently. It shows off the cast and stuff. Nothing too crazy. But I really liked the color palette and tones they go because they really skew from what the rest of the show is. And it's a lot of neon pastels and stuff. Really interesting. And then we cut to the first years meaning the second years. And this is where Rule Queen becomes a class rep because she scored the highest in her exam. And the first years are being shown the morning cleaning routines that they all have to do. They have to go to different classrooms or studios or stuff and clean everything. And the second years choose to be an advisor to a first year. So all the second years get a pick who they want to be the big sister to. And we see very quickly. The one of the girls that ends up being the advisor for Idol is actually a fan of the Idle group. She was the one that was fan girling out during their practice. And she turns out to be a real shrewd bitch. She starts gushing to Idle, being like, oh, you're so cute, and you're really good, and this and that. I'm a big fan of your head group. I was like, cool, you're not a fan of mine, because if you were, you wouldn't be doing this and shuts her down pretty quick. And I liked you. You had that cold beauty sort of thing that's like cool. Can we not talk about that?

We could technically we could check off legally dissimilar brand name because there is a J pop group called akb 48 and this is like jpx 48. So there you go.

For me, yeah, that works.

An interesting thing that I won't get into right now, but they're like ranked and they're ranked in this too. She mentions she was like ranked 13th or something.

Okay.

That's like a real thing.

I think of like an idle group or group, like four members at most and not like 20. Like it's with her group.

So yeah, that's why it's 48, because there's 48 members.

If it's different enough to not be sued, it's different enough to get checked off on the card. And we see Idle girl starts like cleaning up her room and she's not very good at sweeping us up because she never had to.

Hilarious.

The advisor is like, yeah, it shows you've never cleaned before in your life. And she says like, if you're going to be in the operas and stuff, which do you prefer? Like the male roles or the female roles? And girls like, no, I don't really care, I have no real preference. And kind of making it very clear she's not in it for the opera. She's just here to be away from mankind.

It's fine. The show also doesn't seem to be into the opera because we learn nothing about the show.

I'm so sad. I wanted it to be about the shows.

We had a lot of terms thrown at us and nothing else.

Yeah.

And the fangirl starts saying like, you got to be careful though, because people start judging you if you're qualified for certain roles even before the school year starts, even before the practice week started, you got guided or you got judged as soon as you got admitted in here. It's like cool. Love the pressure. Thanks.

Yeah. Everyone's been judgy as shit so far. No kidding.

It's not a shock. And then we cut to tall girl with her advisor who is, quote, a Latin beauty with a rocking body. I don't know what that means.

Terrible.

I don't think she's from Latin America. I don't know what that means. And it really confused me.

I don't know. I just want to check the subs. Let's see what it says.

This girl had purple hair and a bun and that is the only differentiating characteristic between her and any other character. So I don't know what they're talking about. And her advisor says she has to deep clean the practice room. She has to get in between the floorboards and in the guardrails of the windows and really decline it all in 2 hours by herself. And told her, I was like, well, that seems like a lot of work, I better get into it. She's like, yeah, you better hurry up. And her advisor is acting very smogging coy saying like, you might be late for class if you don't do it right, but I don't think you will. Being very arrogant. And she starts talking about like, oh, yeah, all the other second years, didn't want to be your advisor, but I took on the challenge. It's like cool, really hammering home that she doesn't like Tall Girl already. And she says, like, oh, you wanted to play Lady Oscar. that'll never happen. You can never play that role. Pointing down a tall girl. She's claiming. And we get a flashback of Tall Girl's grandmother saying similar things, saying she'll never get a specific role. I think it's the same role, sure, but basically like screaming at her, discouraging her, saying, you'll never be good enough. And so when we snap back from the flashback, tall girls crying on the ground. And her advisor is like, what are you doing? Stop crying. You got to stop crying. People think people are going to hear you and think I'm beating you up or bullying you. I'm like, you are bullying her. Yeah, you made her cry.

Your words made her cry. She's crying and you're afraid people will think you use words that made her cry.

Yeah, that's what happened.

What a concept.

And then her advisor has a long inner monologue to herself about how tall girls sticking out of the group. And because of that, it's going to be much harder for her to blend into the roles. And the nail that sticks out gets hammered down or whatever the old expression is. And when she starts thinking about this, she triggers her own flashbacks. And she's talking to the fangirl girl back in their first year. And we find out that tall girl's advisor is 19 and tall girls like 15. She was like a ballerina somewhere else and started later than everyone else. And in her memory, the fangirls kind of tearing into her in that subtle method that high schoolers love to do and just really shit on each other to their face. And she's like, oh, I don't think you'll be good as the lead performer. You're a little more mature and have a more womanly figure. So you'll be better playing like the old witch and the hags and monts and shit like that. So it's like, oh, cool. Fangirl is a real bitch.

But hey, as someone who is fat ended theater all four years of high school, that's the reality. Like, oh, that you're going to be a mom all the time. That's just real.

You don't fit the lead.

Not that this girl is fat or looks like that, but it's a real thing that happens.

Yeah, we'll get to it in episode.

Yeah, this place is shitty. We're not going to hide the fact it's like, cool. Why is this entertaining to watch? And then it cuts back to present day and her advisor tells her about the curse being like, you stood under the cherry tree. that'll be my excuse for why you'll never make it, instead of me just being mean and bullying you. That's my out. So she tells us about that and Tall Girl says like, oh yeah, well, I'm going to prove the curse is fake and I'm still going to be the lead because I don't believe in absolutes. When it comes to can and cannot. I'll do it anyway. Fuck you. A curse. Fuck this school. It's like, hell yeah. I ended up rooting for Tall Girl because everyone else sucks. And then they end up both being determined. And her advisor gets down on the floor and starts helping her clean because she wasted so much time making her cry before. Then we go back to the locker room after everyone's done cleaning their own separate rooms. And everyone's worried about the tall Girl failing because if she fails, then they all fail and get yelled at and they all look bad. God, just no one has anything nice to say ever. They say how scary all their advisors are. And one of them says like, oh, well, the fangirl seems like a nice advisor, so you lucked out. And idol's like, yeah, really lucked out there. And then we see some of the second years talking in their classroom saying, these fresh years are a bunch of rookies. They're roofs, they're nothing. And Tall Girls advisor says like, hey, fangirl, you better watch out. Some of them might just raise up and snatch your spot away from you when you're not looking because you're bitch. Just being real catty with each other elsewhere entirely. We see two boys in robes reading tweets. God, this threw me off.

Who cares? This doesn't matter.

It doesn't. One kid's reading The Tall Girls tweet. He's reading her Twitter. His older brother comes by, takes the tablet away, goes like, oh, you're reading her Twitter. I remember back when she used to practice dancing here with all of us. She used to be real good. I wish she stayed. Anyway, can I get access to that Twitter account? And I mentioned that because I can only assume something bad is going to happen from it later in the series. Back to classroom. The teacher's starting class and he goes, all right, let's do some class introductions. And the class rep says, like, hey, we already know each other. We've been in groups and stuff for like a week now. That's a waste of time. And the teacher goes on for a while, but he basically breaks it down, saying, like, hey, this is a specialized high school, not like a regular high school where you can go off and do job. This high school, you either join the ranks of our opera or you get the fuck out. And if you join the ranks, you'll be stuck with each other for a while. So might as well get to know each other real well. So they end up going around. Doing intros again. coincidentally, we only get the intros of class. rep Girl, nepotism Girl, the Twins timid Girl, Tall Girl and Idol. There's about 20 other girls in the class. They do not matter.

Do not matter. So we know who's getting in. It's none of them.

It's none of them. And then after they do the intros, the teacher says, all right, we're in for a treat. We're going on a tour of the campus, so I could show you around today. And we see them go to the costuming department and the set making department and backstage. And I also made a note that you only see those, like, six girls again. The other 20 girls in that class are nowhere to be seen, ever.

Welcome.

Really?

I just noticed the whole last episode, they mentioned, like, an orientation week. Why are you doing a tour in the first actual week of class?

Great question.

Haven't they already lived on campus for a week?

I feel like, well, this is just a tour of the theater, but also still you think they would do that during orientation week.

Yeah, you think all these performers would immediately want to see the place where they would be performing.

Yeah.

So as they're going around the theater, tall Girl gets distracted by a blinding light coming through a stage. So she wanders off to a door, and the teacher's yelling at her to stop. And when she opens the doorway, she goes to the Pitch Black theater. I don't know where that blinding light was coming from. That's just my nitpick. And she goes out on stage, and the teacher goes running after saying, like, hey, get off stage. You're not allowed to be there. It's secret grand.

He is yelling like, she will die.

Yeah, it's ridiculous. Pick her off. No.

The centaur guardian.

That's the wrong door.

And she just ignores him and keeps walking out on stage. And as she gets further out, he basically says, like, hey, further up on stage, there's the Silver Bridge, which is a separate walkway on stage from the rest of the stage. He doesn't say this, but he says it with this intensity of, like, if you go out there, I'll fucking kill you. He stresses out so hard of, like, no one's allowed to touch the Silver Bridge stage. It's. Like what? I assume it breaks and people have to fix it. Like other people get up here. It's just so intense.

It's sacred.

It's holy ground. And when she's out on stage, everyone's like mesmerizing, oh, it's the Silver Bridge. That's where the best of the best go out, like, at the end of the shows and stuff. And as tall girls walking out on stage, there's a few technicians in, like, the control room, like, hey, who's out there? Oh, it's probably Mr. So and so the teacher. Let's throw a light on. Okay. So they throw a spotlight on her, and she's glowing in the center stage spotlight all by herself in the theater. And this is where I checked off that Idol fell in love with her. She's really just like there's a big shot, like, zoom in on idle Girl as she falls in love with her. And then the episode ends with a shot of the stalker arriving in the city with the school in it. So if you thought that was a one off thing no. And then we get the ending where it's still images. It's not like animated still shots of what the girls performing. Still very pretty, but not as, like, technocolored as the episode, which I was a little disappointed by. It that's episode two and episode three.

Doesn'T exist by yeah, we brought tweak super weird. Yeah. We'll say this is pretty much exclusively an episode about the traumatic backstory of I and her fear of men. So I bet you can tell where that's going. But trigger warnings now for predatory behavior to young girls so much. Okay, so we start off seeing some of the girls. They're eating lunch, but I is eating alone because who needs friends? Her uncle Tai chi joins her, and I is complaining about Tall Girl, and he's teasing, like, oh, you can't stop complaining about her. That means you like her, because you can't stop talking about her. She's always on your mind. So I go to the locker room and changes, and sarasa follows her, just idly chatting and talking about, you should eat lunch with us. We are friends, right? And I just looks her dead in the eye and says, no, we are not friends.

Shut that down immediately.

I have never said that to you. You just latched on to me. So then we see fanboy stalker arriving in the town, and it's like, yes, this is where I'll find it. So back to Ian sarasa. sarasa is like, no, come on. You got to have friends. Why did you come to Friendship Academy if you didn't? And I didn't come here to make friends, damn it.

Yeah.

And she's like, no, I'm just here to avoid men. And here we start the flashbang.

Here we go.

Truly, just going to summarize. We don't need any specifics. So I is the child of a famous actress who her father is a mystery, and everyone just sniffs around. I trying to get the scoop on who the famous dad is, if famous at all. So we just see her really internalizing, like, yeah, already my life is just people saying, oh, you're so pretty girl, your girl girl. And that's exclusively how young children are taught to just by what gender they are. So she's really just shutting it out. She's like, this is all bullshit. I don't give a damn about my famous mom. I just want a family. And she has this teddy bear that her mom said was from her dad, but she's like, I can tell it's a lie. Nothing matters. Yeah, boys at school make fun of her for her famous mom. She doesn't care. She does, but she hides it. And then we see the introduction. Her mom starts dating creepy stepdad archetype. That's all you need to know. And, yeah, he starts being creepy and pervy and weird. So one day, mom goes out of town, and step dad assaults her again. We don't need to linger on details. So she reaches out to tai chi her uncle, who is actually supportive because her mom isn't receptive, isn't believing her when she says, hey, creepy stuff is happening.

He is the only good character in this show. This man?

Yes, absolutely.

Yeah.

So her uncle puts, like, a lock on her door so she can actually feel safe at home, and then gives her a key to his house and says, if you ever need to run away, just come find me. And, yeah, long story short, this is her fear of men and wanting them all to die. Which justifies so she grows up a little bit. We see her at the Idol audition. Her mom is in it of like, yeah, I'm famous, so naturally you'll be famous too. And she's like, I really don't give a shit. I don't want to be an idol, but this takes place in my uncle's hometown, so I can at least be close to a family member who likes me. So fair enough. But she didn't realize this is signing up to be an Idol, which is all about male attention.

Fuck.

This was a really bad idea. So she eventually snaps at this creepy fan. Literally, all she says is like, hey, creep, back off. That's the extent of what we see. And that is enough of her not doing everything to cater to her male fan base. So she is fired from the group. So, yeah, that's basically it. We go back to the present. They're in a tap dancing class. Teacher just more and more stuff. Teacher just immediately goes up to a girl, and it's like, you're too fat. Lose weight, fatty. You stupid piece of shit, because you're so fat.

She said no fatties. And I laughed.

I'm sorry.

I was like, Are you kidding? For real? This is the dialogue you've chosen? No fatties?

Yeah.

To a very average, fit actress. And it's like, oh, cool, great. And just going into like, no, women watch this, and women want to see you skinny because they'll just pick you apart.

I'm sure those people actually exist in this industry. It's not entertaining to watch someone just be shitty. And that's it. That's all we are.

Yeah, especially after, like, hey, no. This is the trauma dumping episode. It's like, let's just get all the jazz we can in while we're here.

It's shitty in the past, it's shitty in the present. Is it going to be shitty in the future?

Yeah, you bet.

Trends point to it, so we see. I walking home where she runs into fanboy. And she immediately takes the fuck off and runs away because yeah, literal stalker. So we see uncle and Tall Girl talking and he's like, oh, I see you're rooming with I. And she's like, oh, yeah. But she doesn't want to be friends. And then I immediately comes running up to them and is like, hide me. I need to get off the streets now. So the logical response is tall girl who doesn't know her is like, oh, cool. I will walk through these streets with you. No, don't worry. I know you're actively at your uncle's house where you can hide safe inside. Let me, a person you hate, take you back to see this guy.

Cool. That's the worst that could happen.

Yeah. Again, just reading the vibes so well. Tall Girl is like, you know what always makes me feel better? Singing a song.

La.

And they run into stalker guy again. So of course I is freaking the fuck out. And Tall Girl is like, hey, creep, back the fuck off. What are you doing here? And the fan is like, oh, shit. I am creepy. Fuck didn't consider that you dropped your bag before. Here it is.

Who could have saw that? Yeah.

And I get flashbacks, understandably ptsd and runs away. And that's where we end the episode.

Oh, boy, we got stars aligned. That's what we're going to call it now.

Yes.

Here's what I will say. I do think that they could handle there are interesting things going on in the show and I don't think they will handle any of them well. I think the dynamic of having the 20 year old be part of this school, like having that big of an age gap of people trying to make it, I think that is potentially really interesting. I think that addressing fat phobia in the entertainment industry, especially in Japan, could be interesting. I also think the issue of having a stalker from being an idol is also pretty interesting. But like I said, I don't think this show will handle any of it well because I don't think it's not a drama. It's kind of a comedy. Like, I don't know what this show is trying to be. If they want to handle those issues well, they should have done better because they could be potentially interesting. But I can tell that they won't be. That's my feeling.

Like even at the very end as I runs away from the stalker after having traumatic instances, you can see the gears turning in Tall girl's head where she's like, oh, this guy's pretty harmless. Oh, it's probably just a misunderstanding series. We're going to get her over fear of men. It's like, that fucking sucks.

Yeah, I felt that too. I was like, the next episode is going to start and it's going to be them having a conversation without eye of him being like, no, it was just a misunderstanding. And it's like, no, yeah, they really.

Try and make it seem like the guy is like, oh, I wanted to make it seem like he has this justifiable reason for hunting down where her school is and in this other city besides just stalking her. But even if he does, even if it's like, hey, I wanted to apologize for what happened in the convention. The fact that he hunts her down and stalks her to do that makes it immediately unjustifiable, no matter what his reason is. So it tries to make this guy seem sympathetic and it's like, no, you just showed us the last three episodes of him stalking her for no reason. Like, no.

Yeah. I wish this show was actually about women doing these shows because that's a real thing in Japan. That's a big thing, like theater companies that are only women. But I've seen TikTok recently of this all women's troop in Japan that did anastasia recently. And I think that's really cool and I would love to know more about that. But they said, no, this is a trauma show. You got pranked.

Yeah, because you compared it to Stars align. And as someone who finished Stars Aligned, I would say even Stars align can go this hard into the trauma. At least this early into this show.

Yeah, the whole episode was just backstory.

It's real rough. And yeah, the dub wasn't winning at any points. The writing wasn't winning at any points. Even if I'm sure if it was subtitled and in the original script, I probably wouldn't love it much. It was rough. And yet even said the beginning of the show, I'm not huge into opera. I'm not a theater kid. I would definitely be more interested to see what the actual show is like the opera show than this.

Yeah.

Cool. Rough. Go.

Yeah, just very specifically doing a whole episode on the traumatic backstory of a character and then ending it with, oh, she's probably overreacting. Fuck off. Just like, completely. I'm not going to tolerate that. Especially when you establish this character is bad. Because when she brings it up, she's like, oh, no, you're overreacting. Don't worry. And then the show itself is hinting that that's where it's going to go. No, fuck you.

What a disappointment. I'm so sad. I just wanted to watch pretty girls do opera.

Like, only factoring in the first two episodes, this is still just a boring girls doing specific activity. It's not even a good one of those. So it's not worth the time in any regard.

Yeah. And we're like, I'm going to be vulnerable. Episode three. If you have been assaulted, don't watch it. I'll be real. Don't watch it. Don't watch it. That's all I'll say. Don't watch it.

Because I've seen shows before that handle that topic, but don't linger on it so fucking long as this show does. And it's like, god, this doesn't contribute to anything. Like, you don't need to do this in order to handle this.

Yeah, taking notes on this. I was legitimately just skipping through to the tolerable part. So it's like, just unpleasant to watch.

My entire notes for episode three were just, man, this fucking sucks, but written like, four different ways. That's all I wrote for episode three.

Yeah, this was not fun. Not fun.

So what better things are we watching next week? I will say to you, listener, we already had a show planned and I broke the glass, hit the emergency button to get rid of it because I looked it up. I saw genre horror. That's all I needed to know. We can watch it later. Not after this week. Not after where we're at. Just in the world.

No.

So, Brendan, thank you so much. Sorry to do that to you. What pleasant thing are we watching next week?

Super fine. I picked the show before we watch this, I am happy to change it next week. We're watching a recommendation from Ribbonquest. And I look this up and I will on God, eat my own shoe if there is a dark, dramatic twist in this shit.

On God.

On God. We are watching after school at Dice Club. Perfect.

Sounds harmless.

I hope it is.

A dice are made out of human eyeballs.

Otherwise I'm eating a shoe.

We'll get you a chocolate shoe if it's okay.

Yeah, give me leather. I'll do the real. Give me a croc. If I'm suffering, I'll go all in.

Oh, my God.

My mentally state. I could eat some plastic about now. So if there's a show you the listener would like us to watch, first off, truly vet it. We've been getting sent some foul shit that if you listen to the show, you know we aren't going to watch. So we can just put it out there.

No.

So if you have a somewhat moderately not repulsive show, please send it to us. Our email is arwibariat@gmail.com, or you can reach out to us on Twitter or Instagram. We're at arwibariat on both.

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

Me online at Almost Better Than Silence, which is an old video game podcast. I did like 420 episodes. I got a Twitter, but I'll be real with you. Don't contact. Don't touch me. I'm watching Ranking of Kings. Leave me alone.

I know only pure thing in our lives anymore.

Give me the booty.

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

I'd scream if my throat didn't hurt.

Fuck, man.

I looked at the void, and the void stared back.