AWTY 175 - Nihilism 101 (Life Lessons with Uramichi-Oniisan)

The only thing you ever perfected was stealing my thunder.

Stealing your thunder, eh? Hello and welcome, two are we there yet? In exploration and education in anime, I'm your anime idiot, Patrick dugan.

I am an anime expert, dee hollander.

And I'm brenda mccullough, your anime Miss Carol. And Miss Carol thinks all those kids are little Charlotte pickles screaming in the distance. Oh, yeah, this is a deep, raw garage car.

I could imagine it when you said that, and I was like, at least I know it. Whatever it is.

The phrase, as soon as you said.

It, I could picture the big hat in my yeah, like, I can't place anything else about this statement. What sleeper sound word did you just say to me?

Ms. Carol?

Do I have to assassinate in the big hat?

Ms. Carol thinks all her kids are little, and that phrase is burned into my skull. That's about? Oh, God. I was I we're talking about this. Before we started recording, I was going to pull a deeper reference, an older reference, and then I referenced the realized the reference I did pull was 30 years old and my body is disintegrating.

I don't have fingerprints anymore, which is.

Great because I plan on stealing a lot of stuff.

But now you don't have the friction.

Yes, but now they can't catch you.

A lot of money to cryogenically freeze myself.

I've come for you, walt.

Well, what anime series did we pull from the Disney vault this week? I tried.

They don't own anime yet.

They'll get there. This week we're watching Life lessons with urmachi onisan.

Yeah.

So from what it sounds like, all we know is it's about a disgruntled TV show host or children's TV show host, and that's all we're going on. So do either of you know more about this?

No, just that. And I think it sounds like it could be fun.

Yeah, I don't know much. Looking this up, I was like, this just seems like a common enough trope that everyone's familiar with. But I'm like, how often does this actually happen? Like, was Mr. Rogers actually kicking his shoes off the send me these kids, I'm out of here.

But we know that's not true. We know that Project is a very nice man.

He was a great man. But I looked it up because this seems like a common enough trope that it's got to be based on something. And I couldn't I mean, granted, it was all hearsay and rumors and this and that, so there might not be real documentation of it or any stuff written down. I couldn't really find any disgruntled children, so hosts or at least none that are worth talking about. Yeah, but I'm surprised. This seems like a common occurrence, but not as common as we think.

Like, even when Steve put blues clues, it wasn't like, because he hated it or anything.

Yeah, and even in, like, Lucky Star, we saw the trope of the ending end credits. Like, I'm a pop star, but I'm so crushingly sad. So it's always circling around stuff, but it's time it got its star roll.

I guess pop stars I could understand more, but like, children's show, it's like you got to really like kids if you're going into children's entertainment. That's the point of it. But I guess we'll see how it goes with this one.

Yeah, we're going to watch the first three episodes. Hey, there. Random Edge lords. You ready to go to Hot Topic in this, the year 2008?

Yes.

I'm gonna get a pierce the veil t shirt. I didn't even listen to that band. I feel like this is problematic. They might be problematic.

Isn't everybody in terms of oh, no, mcr.

I like mcr.

It's weird. I've kind of had a weird emo phase revival of Music Wise lately. It didn't in high school. I didn't really in high school, but for some reason I'm living in it on my thirty s now. Because why not? Who's going to stop me?

You not. It's your life. You're not my real mom. My apartment can't tell me what to do.

Shit. Greg my landlord. He's a very nice man, and this.

Is perfect to cultivate your angst.

Wonderful.

Yeah. So we start out episode one. It's your standard, very cheery preschool show. It's a show called Together with moman, and its host is the titular aromachi onisan I'm going to call him Maine. That's a very long name. So Maine host, he's talking with the kids. The standard like, hey kids, we have a fun show for you today. Just super bright and peppy. But as he gets the end of his intro, his voice goes hoarse and he starts struggling a little bit, and the kids are like, Are you feeling all right? He's like, oh, that's just from all the heavy drinking opening credits.

You like that joke? Get ready for another three episodes of it.

Yeah, truly. Already? That's about the peak of the humor they delve into, so it's going to be pretty one note from here on out. So we just get a sample episode of he's asking the kids how they're feeling, and they're like, oh, I'm happy. I'm cheerful. He's like, oh, but I'm depressed.

I was going to say rim smack.

Rim smack, just with your hand.

We needed some sort of unexpected humor.

In that we got to pull those jokes here today.

But yeah, a kid is like, I'm going to cast a magic spell to make you feel better. He's like, I'm going to cast a spell that will protect you from the trials of adulthood. And yeah, truly, we just keep going through this several more times. Production on the show doesn't seem to care as long as he's outwardly cheerful. It's whatever he says is fine, so who cares? So they sing the usual ABC song was replaced with his protest song to corrupt executives for exploiting his pay. And he tells the kids to, like, beware the work, life crushing adulthood existentialism. For babies.

For babies.

So many times when we get to shows like this where it's like, so surface level, like, yeah, edgy I say I depress and I drink a lot. That's the extent I know about depression. And it's like, oh, you sweet summer children. You never suffered a day in your life.

This is surface level depression. This is comedic referential depression.

Yeah.

But, yeah, take a break between the episodes. He fakes his smile to go out into the halls. And, like, between segments, he's just, fuck, I'm so done with this shit. blah, blah, blah. They get a new batch of kids in for the next episode. One asks his age, and he's like, I'm 31. And the kids like, oh, my dad's 29. It's kind of weird that you're playing an older brother character and he's like, hey, shut up, you idiot.

Get off my ass.

Child moves at their own pace. becky I don't know.

I got a friend from high school who was 25 and had, like, six kids by then. And I'm pretty sure everyone has to live up to their standard.

Yeah, I was trying to think of a terrible name that a millennial would give their kid, but I couldn't think.

Of anything malachi but as white suburban as you can spell it.

A lot of y's.

Yeah. ys and ghs. So we get to the next segment where they're calling in the bear and bunny friends. Just two mascot characters dressed up like a bear and a bunny. And they're like, they can't hear us cheer a little bit louder and they still don't come out. He's like, all right, try a little more. And then he just loses his voice because he has to keep shouting because, you know, all the heavy drinking. And then it cuts to him backstage yelling at them like, I told you to come out on the second queue. I'm losing my voice. I can't just scream at you all the time. They're like, oh, but the director and they just fight in bicker. And he pulls, like, big shot, I'm the star of the show stuff.

But wait, we find out. The baron bunny are old classmates because they all used to go to sports Science University together.

I missed that.

I wrote that down because that actually tickled me. I was like, why bother? Why put effort into it? Yeah.

They all have PhD, doctor, physical education or pe degrees, basically. And they're like, yes, we're gymnasts. We're strong. We're ready to work, and this is the only job we can have.

Cool.

So they're all sad and broke.

You think for being a gymnast he wouldn't be drinking and smoking constantly?

Yeah, you'd think, but yeah. Say his soul is burning away. And the mascots are like, dude, you've been at this for so long. You clearly hate this. Why are you still doing this to yourself. Like, finally someone acknowledges, hey, this man is not okay. And isn't just like, yep, edgy for the sake of being edgy. They're like, no, this you're being so dramatic. What is wrong with you? Why are you still torturing yourself? So he wakes up the next day. He's depressed, and he's got to fake a smile for the kids. And same jokes. Same joke. Same joke. But his mentality is basically yeah, you got to just fake it till you make it. Don't let the bad vibes put you down. We just get some, like, internal monologue of like, if you accept your alone, loser, you will be. So just keep pushing and avoid the inevitable. So we get back to the next episode where they call out bayer and Bunny again. And they still make him call three times. So when they get out, he's like, oh, we got a fun game. You're going to play tag with the bunny. And every time you catch him, kids, he has to do something funny. Just really setting him up to, like, you're going to be doing, like, push ups and just jumping jacks for the next half hour. fuck you. Don't miss your cube. So of course he gets pissed. And after the show, they're arguing in the dressing room, still just fighting the same note. Why are you here? Why are you doing this? Don't ruin it for everyone. And then they insult his dead eyes because he's just so glazed over and unaffected by everything. And he's like, okay, that finally awakened the anger in me. And he finally snaps and beats them up. So they all go out to the bar. They're all still mad at each other. Yeah, here's where we find out that they are, like, a year or two below him in college, where they met, blah, blah, blah. So we go back to the studio. We see a different children show filming. This one has a man and a woman hosting. We got the man dogga. He is a singer and was supposed to be, like, a theater actor, but sort of same thing. He got stuck in a dead end job he hates. And his characteristics are so good. He thinks dirty words are funny. Do you get it when they say, like, poopy, he laughs.

I'm going to go on a limb here. Favorite character? Yeah, I was going to say he's.

Like, the only thing that was good about this show.

He is a genuine himbo. He's just on the shit. I love this dude. This guy is great.

Yeah, but just based on, like, we're hitting the same one note thing, let's introduce another character who again, one note. The first thing is, like, there's a doctor. His name is Richard. His nickname could be Dick. Like like, you you could have so many, like, clever double entendreas, but you go for, like, the cheapest, common, denominator dirty words. And it's like, all right. Okay. This is like, you could have had fun here.

We talked about how your line April was like mad libs by a 15 year old. This is also like that, but just like the completely other end of the spectrum.

Absolutely. Yeah. Your line April was like, romanticized, like fanfic dotnet. This is fortune. This is the 13 year old. Unfortunate. Listen, if you tell me, hey, here's seven dudes and they're just going to beat your ass, and the one dude just slaps him around gently a little more, I'm still going to like him more. I'm not saying I love this, but I'm saying this dumb himbo that giggles at the word penis, I'm going to take them and run with it.

Fair enough. But yeah, same thing. The woman, where is her name? tadano. She was a singer. Tried different, like, pop star idols, jazz singer stuff. And it just never really clicked. So our main guy walks in on the scared mascots. They're terrified because they were about to talk shit about him as he walked in. But he's like, I reached a new low. I don't have the energy to even address these idiots. So he's like, all right, I'm reaching the end of my life here. I'm getting too old. Yeah. And here we get dega walks in and sets up that Dick joke and just laughs and laughs and laughs. And the main character knows to exploit it and just keeps saying dick and semen and balls, keeps saying dirty words.

The first one was like, a physicist, and then the rest, I couldn't even tell if they were real names or because he just at one point says, Dick seaman. I'm like, I have trouble believing that's anyone's actual name. No, because if you're named Richard, why in God's name would you ever choose to go by Dick with that as your last name for the comedy? If these were actual names, maybe, but at least vary them up. ingle bird. humper. Dick. That's a funny name. That was real. Toss that out.

Yeah. So he sets the guy up to laugh so hard he can't go out and host his segment. So the main guy hosts for him, and they do a little we're going to do a drawing segment. Hey, main guy, can you draw a picture for us? And he draws a weird bird man holding a baguette with, like, a beak and a mouth. And he's like, oh, this is the man that haunts my dreams.

That was pretty funny to me, honestly.

I love the bird man. I never saw it with Michael keaton, but I enjoyed this version of it.

Yeah. And that's where we end up. He finally catches the bunny bad talking him, and he's standing behind him and hits him. And that's where we end episode one.

In the beginning of episode two, they're filming once more. Ramichi is with a bunch of kids, as per usual. And he's like, you all have so much energy. I wish I could have some. Wow. They all yell really loud.

Give me some of that, give me some of that.

I'll have what they're having. They all yell and he has like an angry moment. He says something about, you guys are still so happy. grownups don't have any real energy. We just need to fake it till we make it. yay. Then we see space, like a galaxy. And the birdman with the bread that Iramici drew is there and he's like floating on the baguette and there's just hundreds of him. And then Iramici wakes up to his alarm and it's time to do it all again. He goes into work, runs into the barren Bunny guys and he's like, got some pep in his step this morning. And in his mind he's like, I've just resigned myself to having a bad time, so that makes me feel more positive somehow. And he's changing in his dressing room when the producer guy knocks and he lets him in, which the producer guy finds weird. And then he runs into I got iki teru for the immature guy.

I stopped writing names down immediately.

Yeah.

Oh yeah, I put his last name. Ikitaru is his first.

Okay. Now producer tells iki terror that Uramici seems to be in a good mood. But then he comes out of his dressing room and he's being his usual gloomy self and all hope is gone. It's time to start the show. So iki teru, utano and Urumichi are with the kids and they're going to sing a song. How come it only rains when you forget your umbrella? They sing and dance. They do another song. Ermicchi has to dress up as a spider and he's like, what the fuck? Next male time. Oh boy, here's the male and never fail. So utano reads it. It's a little girl saying that she hopes to marry someone like one of the onisans one day. And she asks utano which one she'd marry if she had to. And then she goes off about how being handsome and funny are no excuse for real life skills. And don't fall for these men, don't get trapped. And then she cries. They're taking a break in the green room and she apologizes. She talks about how much she hates her boyfriend. We love straight humor. Shout out to I hate my boyfriend so much, but we've been together for five years so I have to stay with him.

The most you have in common with someone is your past history together. It's not a great relationship.

The show is on in Uramichi's apartment and he's out smoking on the balcony. Time to go to work on the show. utano asks the kids their favorite animal and Ikitaru is there too. And that's like happening on the TV actually. And they're watching it in the green room making some idle chatter. Ikitaru laughs at the name Willie. Classic.

I can't fault. The guy, I laugh at him too.

Urmici comes up and says, more bad animal jokes. And Ekitaru laughs, of course. And then the producer is like, Urmichi, I got to show you something. And they made a puppet of the weird thing from his dream.

Hell, yeah.

And he's like, I drew that. I own that. You can't use that in the show. And they're like, Actually, you did it on the show, so we own it. So the segment is Irumichi's advice corner and the birdman asks if Iromichi enjoys his life and what he does in his free time other than working out. And it turns out it's just the bunny actor guy because these are things that he wants to know. And Ermici isn't having it. So bunny man apologizes immediately. He blames the director. He tries to blame the bear actor, but it's his fault. Ermichi says bunny man is being judgy about his hobbies. So why doesn't bunny guy talk about his hobbies? And you can't say anything that's consuming media because that's not a hobby. That's escapism. And I will say that is something that my therapist told me one time. She was like, what are your hobbies? And I was like, oh, I like to play video games. I like to read. And she was like, Those aren't hobbies. And I was like, what?

I don't question the premise of this very show right now.

What else happens? ramaji talks about the wall of adulthood. And once you climb that wall and make it to the other side, you don't have the energy to succeed as an adult. Which I thought was actually, like, pretty insightful. But in this show, it's like, who cares? If you're not dead, then society has done its job. That's something he says. Next, the group of kids comes in. Ermichi asks all the kids how they feel about the weird birdman puppet birdman pup because he just wants to get rid of it. So if the kids don't like it, he thinks that they'll get rid of it. But a little girl is like, well, you're the one who drew it, and you called it your friend, so why don't you like it? And then tells him he needs to get real friends. He asked Ikitaru if he ever wishes that he wasn't numb, but then he'd be aware of the suffering. And Ikitaru is just like, what?

Thinking about lunch?

Yeah. Next, back at home, Aramichi is in bed. It's Sunday, his day off. We see the bear man fishing. A cat comes up and he gives it the only little fish he's caught. But then a seagull snatches it away. Then we see iki teru at home cooking, but he's out of olive oil. Says goodbye to his dog and goes to get more. But then he brings his dog anyway to good him.

But when I saw he had a dog, I'm like, that's himbo. Status.

He's good nature.

Finally, you redeemed yourself.

I think his character is just like because he's not miserable. It's just kind of like nice that he's there.

It's just something's refreshing.

Yeah. Something different.

Yeah. He's the Mr. peanut Butter in this BoJack horseman hour long analogy.

Yeah. And then when he's at the store, he hears a guy say heart salami, and he laughs. utano is at a comedy show, and she's like the only one clapping for this comedy duo. And that was like, of course, the woman only gets literally, like 15 seconds. I don't know. I think that's so sweet that she goes to comedy shows.

Well, she said her boyfriend is a failing stand up comedian. So I think that was supposed to be her boyfriend on stage.

Yeah. Anyway, Bunny Man is at a casino maybe. And then he gets a call from Bear Man about his fishing. And then he's like, let's go to Ermichi. He's probably not doing anything anyway. And then he shows up with alcohol and sweets, and he asks Iromichi what he was up to. And he's like, I went to the gym. And Bunny Man is like, of course you did. And then he keeps stubbing his toe on a weight. And Uramici thinks it's very funny. And that's pretty much it. There.

It is a big running joke in this show of Urmichi only works out and like, that's his only hobby. And then he takes the other guy for having no real hobby and latch onto other people's hobbies like a parasite, but not being able to actually contribute to anything because he is not actually into those hobbies. The definition of hobby is too broad to debate.

I thought you were going to give an exact definition of hobby right now.

I was like, no, because you could debate going out in nature and connecting with that's also escapism from your daily life. I feel like you can get real petty and nitpicky with a definition of hobby and quantifying what is and isn't a legitimate hobby.

Yeah.

Anything.

Sorry. It seems like it's something that engages your hands. And I was like, video games engage your hands.

Yeah. What are you talking about?

Hammering nails into a wall engages my hands. I'm not going to call that a hobby.

Sitting and hammering nails into a board.

Of wood, that's just my Wednesday night. Anyway, episode three. You see, I'm trying to fill time here because god, what?

End this. End this.

If I didn't have depression before this shit gave it to me. Episode three starts off with Ermichi, the only character whose name I wrote down, doing his morning routine. And he notices that he's low on soap. And he tells himself, remember to pick some soap up after work. I wrote this down. mistaking it for a kind of plot device or storyline of some kind. I apologize in advance for wasting all of your time. Then he goes to work and producer hands him a piece of paper saying like, hey, here's what your costume is going to look like for a new segment we're going to try and do. And army is like, oh, god. Then we get the opening. And then the lady singer and himbo come in. Producer also hands himbo his new costume, saying he's part of the segment as well. And he's like, I got to wear this. So clearly something's going on. Then they start recording the show. And honestly, I don't know why they keep these people employed because the amount of post work they have to do to cut out all of their depressive monologuing and redo all the ADR has to be so expensive, they should all be fired. Honestly. They start filming the show and the lady singer starts with the show saying like, oh, she's got a tummy ache. It must have been something she ate. It wasn't clean or her hands weren't clean when she ate it. So the baron bunny come out and they go, we got to watch out for germs and you got to wash your hands. We know who can help with that germinator. And we see the himbo come out and like an A shirt and shorts and like a white cape with a big J on his shirt and says he's the germinator. I'm guessing there's some joke in the original subtitles for why it's a J. And he says, yeah, you got to get rid of all the germs on your hands before you eat because they'll make you sick. And then Yeramichi comes out and he's bacteria on. He's basically wearing the same outfit, but purple. He's got little, like antennas. And germinators like, we got to stop that bacteria and starts throwing balls at him. But he throws it too hard and nails urimici right between the eyes and nearly concusses them. He's like, you're supposed to throw it easy. He's like, sorry, I kind of got to commit to stuff when I do it.

I'm a method.

I'm a Method acting from the theater. fuck method acting, also known as assholes. And then they give all the kids a bunch of the balls. So the kids are getting involved with it and fighting off bacteria. And we see here amici basically diving around and jumping around on set, using his gymnastic skills to get in the way of the balls. So the kids actually hit them. So it actually takes a lot out of them. And then we see germinator starts pelting him again but not pulling his throes. And the segment is about washing your hands. That's kids television. And after a segment, him boat goes in to check on your meech. He's saying like, hey, you kind of got roughed up pretty hard there. Sorry about that. And he calls them bruise a meechy. Oh, no, son.

Wow.

Play not about penises. Wow, we really advanced.

Well, we'll see why it's not about penises. And then while he's talking to yamiche, meanwhile, we see baron bonnie leaving work. And so once again, bonnie is just shooting on Yoramichi, who seems to be one of his only friends, but he hates and fears him. And once again, it's just these people making their own lives miserable because they can't make any real decisions for themselves and move on. And once again, you're amici overhears them because he's in the lobby of the building and he calls Bunny out saying he's not very funny. And he gave him both the name Bruzamichi Onosan and told him to say it. And then they leave. And on the way home, I'm sure he's thinking about the segment and how you got to wash your hands. Then he remembers he has to buy soap. And then he buys soap. Glad we wrap that story line up great. That was going to keep me up all night. And then new segment. One morning, irama she wakes up getting ready for work. And as he opens the door, there's some religious solicitators there asking if he believes in God. And he surely does not, because what, God would give him the life that he has now and just kind of shits on them like he does everybody he encounters and then goes to work. While at work, there's like a weird fog lens over the camera. And we see Yeramichi doing the show, but we hear monologue in his head of what his thoughts are. And I would have written any of them down if they mattered, but it's just oppressive thoughts and him disassociating while he's working. And then he says he can't believe him and believe in himself anymore. And then we see the fog clears away from the lens, and a little girl asks if he's a good drawer because she heard that the Bunny told him that he was good at everything, especially drawing. And Jeremy just like, no, I'm not really, but I guess we're on camera, so I got to do it. And she asked him to draw Cure a Pure, which I'm guessing is a pretty Cure brand name, legally dissimilar brand name. forgot to check that off the list. But yeah, she asked to draw essentially a pretty Cure character. And he's like, oh, boy, that sounds complicated. Here we go. Let's see how I do. And he wants to believe. He wants to be someone that they can believe in because there is a weird inner, inner voice moment of his, like, wearing his thoughts. Because he's like, I suck and I'm depressed and I hate everything, but I'm still a children's show host. And I have to be something that they can believe in so they can try to have a happier life than me. But we've just seen the last three episodes of him talking to kids of how depressing life is. So it's like, why? What? Why now?

Take a lane.

Yeah, you don't get your redeeming moment this far in by being like, I'm I'm helping these. Kids as I verbally bereave them and tell them to give up hope immediately.

Yeah, I drew these two little girls a picture, and now I'm good. I'm good now.

Turned it all around. So he draws the picture. He draws his best Pridicure, and they're not the birdman from his nightmares, but they're in that style of it like, being, like, weirdly muscular and kind of plain in an unsettling way. And of course, the girls hate it. It's weird, and they lose faith in Yeramichi. And then himbo comes out. He says, don't worry, I got this. And he goes up and draws for the girls. And when he starts drawing, even that one little girl is, like, starting to have the realization of, like, oh, maybe I shouldn't have asked you to draw this. I've asked my mom before, and even she says it's hard to draw, so maybe this is a lot to put on somebody. Out of nowhere, I'm like, Why does this five year old have more emotional growth than any other character? And someone needs to someone's got to carry the slack. It can't be that one dog we've seen in the scene. And as she's saying that, Him was like, all right. And I'm done. And he draws a photo copy of the Pretty Cure character. Sorry. The cure. Pretty cure. Pure whatever. He draws them exactly right. And they're like, oh, wow, that's so good. Yeramichi is like, how did you do it? He's like, oh, I looked them up before I came out here. I overheard it, and I'm pretty good artist, but I couldn't do it in theater, so why bother? And he says he still looks up to Yeramichi and thinks his work was better. And then I go back to the green room. The bunny apologizes for setting up Yamichi again. And then Yeramichi asks if he believes in God, I guess trying to tie in the earlier segment for some reason. Acting.

Like, why try now?

No. Yeah. He asked if he believes in God and then just, like, beats him up again off camera. And then the bears like, hey, Himbo, do you believe in God? He's like, sure do. He's like. bless you himbo. Only thing good in this show next segment, the director is revealing, like, a bumper of the show when the crew walks by and he pulls her Michael off to the side. He goes, hey, hypothetically, just, you know, completely fictional, what if you had to come into work early or you had to stay to work late? What would you rather? hypothetically, of course. I guess I'd rather stay late. He's like, fantastic. Come with me. You're going to stay working late wasn't a hypothetical. It's a trap. Eye management. Don't trust the word I say. And he tells Yeramici that the higher ups liked his weird muscle ladies that he drew the other day for the children, and he wants Yaramichi to draw all of them, like, on these balls that he has. And yamiche is like, well, I guess I'm doing this now. And we see the clock pass and he's there for hours and hours and hours. And while he's drawing them, he spills a bunch of the balls and starts having an existential crisis. And as he's cleaning up, picking him up, he's reflecting on why he's feeling so guilty not doing any work that's meaningful for a career. And then he starts questioning what meaningful work would be and he starts flip flopping in on that for a bit. And then we see him just kind of pass out for a while. Next day we see Bear and Bunny come in and they check on yamiche. Turns out he pulled an allnighter and he slept in that room. So he was just like hunched over a chair, like on a table asleep. And the Bunny goes to check on him and also maybe to mess with him. And he sees Yeramichi's already awake. He says, I didn't sleep too well because I didn't have any booze or pills, sleep problems. And then while shooting that day, he says, don't worry though, I'll get what's rightfully owed to me today, and kind of wanders out of the room. And then later they are shooting and Bunny gets hurt and trips and they say they need germinator to come in and disinfect the bunny's wounds. So when germinator comes out, he's followed by bacteria on again who shows up. But now he's got his own balls that he throws a germinator and it's all the balls that I amici spent all night drawing faces on. And when he throws the balls at germinator, they turn to goo and stick to them. And it's a running joke with the germinator bacteria segment that they keep messing up their own names and calling each other the wrong ones, even though it's only two names, even I got it right so far.

That was pretty funny actually. Every time they mess up and one of the kids was like, it's been two minutes and they can't even do this.

He just said his own name like a minute ago and he got it wrong again. And then Yeramichi says this was his hard work. This was the hard work that finally paid off. And he starts laughing and the other criminal on the side, they're like, does it mean his work paid off because he won the fight? Because germaner won the battle. They're like, I guess that's a weird win, but I guess Yeramichi needed it. And then he pauses, a little note comes up. It's like they ended up having to reshoot the entire scene anyway because the bad guy can't win. And then we get the credits and then there's a post credit scene, like joy a four minute put, like a decent amount of the show.

I don't understand why they put it after the credits before the credits.

If you do a post credit scene under 30 seconds. Anything more than that, just do before the credits. It's weird. So we see Yeramichi's at home working out late at night. And when he finally stops, he turns on the TV and sees kira Pure, the show he had to draw the characters from. And he's reflecting on people doing well, what they like, saying, like, if you do what you like, you're always going to be doing well at it because it's your own personal motivation that's driving you, rather than, like an external motivation. But anytime he tries to draw anything, his apathy is very apparent. And what he draws, it leaks into his work. And he hates seeing it in that. So we kind of get a hint of character development that he might like to draw. Question mark.

Thankfully, they hit it in a post credit scene.

Everyone hit those credits because we're like, all right, I'm done, and just stopped watching. And then while he's watching TV commercial pops on for like, hey, pop psychology quiz late at night. You can trust how reliable this is going to be. Here's the psychology quiz. Draw what I tell you and how you draw those will reflect your mental status. So he tells them to draw like, a house and a family and a pet. And then after your Amici draws those, the guy on TV goes over him. He goes like, if you drew the family and they're close together, it's a well knit family. They're loving and close. If you drew them pretty spaced out, that means you got some relationship issues and you can't connect well with people and all this stuff. He's like, you can drew the pet, and people are able to recognize what that pet is. You're pretty grounded and have a wealth identity of self worth. If people can't tell what that pet is, you might be a narcissist and kind of delusional and got to figure your shit out. So he takes a picture of what he drew and texts it to somebody. I stopped caring at this point. And it's like a dog. It looks like a ghost dog or like it's got tentacles or something. And when he sends it to someone, everyone replies back like, was that cappy barra? Is this a weird dragon thing? It's like, no, it's a dog. So basically implying, like, you're amici's messed up. Which I am astonished they have to say it because in case you didn't.

Get it by now, you're Amici is a bad person.

What Light yamagi would do if he never got the Death Note yagami. I don't care. I care.

Yoga main.

Light yogurt, yogurt, yoplay, yogurt.

Both of these guys suck. That's episode three.

Good on you for being so thorough in your description because this show is nothing.

This show wasn't great. We've had other shows, not great and very segmented like this. We still got to do the podcast, though, so I got to fill time somehow.

Whatever. I appreciate your dedication. You work horse.

You we could summarize the whole thing with shitty do suppress with his life choices that's the show and just kill it in three minutes.

Yeah, truly number one, this type of humor, like the parodying Mr. Rogers and barney and stuff, peaked in like 98. So this is very dated of a premise for even just a sketch, and then it's dragged out into three episodes, so that's good. Yeah. You mentioned bojack. There is that element of like a disgruntled TV star. There's behind the scenes stuff, there's unhappy, but even that gives some sort of difference in narrative rather than just saying, hi, I'm a horse, I'm depressed, drink. I mean, that is the first season, but they move away from that because weird, that gets tired very fast.

You see it?

Yeah. So, yeah, this is just this is teaching nihilism to twelve year olds and that's all you really need to take away from it, basically.

Are we there yet? Why bother? Yeah.

What's even the point of answering? I don't care. I'm so empathetic.

I don't know, I just thought I don't know, when I heard about it, I was like, this premise could be fun. I feel like it has like it.

Could be something forward to it. Yeah, I thought there was going to be more of just like sort of like a fame of like over the fame, rather than like, I'm supposed to be cheery, but I'm depressed.

I think it's the thing that bojack does is they started developing the characters instead of just relying on the single punchline for every segment in every episode. So sometimes, especially with anime, some of our shows doesn't quite pick up or doesn't quite have the twist that's in the story within the first three episodes. And that's up for debate if that's a good choice or not. With this, there's genuinely nothing endearing or interesting about any of the characters. So it's like, I don't care if any of them actually have any growth in the next nine episodes because it's like, what, twelve episodes? So we're a quarter of the way through the show and just genuinely nothing like Lucky Star had more going on than the show. I was more invested in the mundane conversation about how you eat chocolate croissants.

Because like, they like have fleshed out personalities. All these girls, like, you understand what they're about and you understand they're multilayered, whereas these people have one thing and that's it.

It's also tough with just like, entertainment that's not entertaining. Do you just want to be depressed and understand the challenges of adulthood and living in a life with a career that you don't like? That's just a lot of people's lives. Why make a show about that? But like bojack, they deep dive into it and they get much deeper and there are crazy plot wise that happen, so they go places with it. It's very, very depressing. Places. But it's more than just why bother living at all? Life is a joke. Ha ha. Who watched watches the watchman, but more boring.

It's about ethics and games. Journalists.

Like a reoccurring joke with the rabbit is he keeps slamming his foot into stuff and getting hurt. Like, why is this a joke? Why is this a recurring bit?

There's nothing if you want to get depressed and introspective, watch bojack horseman or bo burnham's inside. And if you want to watch children's show, go watch episodes of Bearing the Big Blue House on YouTube.

There you go. Absolutely.

Or Blue.

Yeah. I think that's also part of this is now that I work in exactly. These children shows, it just also is grading of like, no.

They'Re not like this.

No.

Yeah. It's the opposite extreme of like, oh, boy, working entertainment must be the dream. It's like, no. And it's like working in tournament is literally hell on earth. It's like it's also no, it's not great at times, we're not going to deny that. But like, yeah, it's like so far on the other ends. And once again, it's it's entertainment. Both this show and the show within the show. Like, the story wise, you can easily quit and do any other job. They're like, I have to do this. This is my job. Here's a wild notion for you fucking quit.

That's what I do.

Do anything other than that job you hate.

So this wasn't good. Upset. Disappointing. I'm not angry. I'm just disappointed.

We've had some strike.

I feel nothing about it at this point. Apathy. Okay, well, if there's a show you the listener would like us to watch, you can send your recommendations for shit on.

We'll do that.

Who cares? The life is meaningless.

I go for positive nihilism. The world is ending. There's no point in existence. Fucking do whatever. Go nuts. Have a fun time.

Exactly. Live fast. Leave a sexy corpse. Whatever. The email is arweevery@gmail.com or you can reach out to us on Twitter, Instagram at arwidariat on both.

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

Find me on Twitter at abts. Brendan stands for Almost Better Than silas, which is a video game podcast I did for nearly seven years. Why? It doesn't matter. I did it, though, because I did something. fuck you, irma. Take what's his name ermenci doesn't matter. fuck him.

Give me the himbo. Thank you, sha. camille ruley, for our artwork. Thank you to Louis Song for theme song stories. So you can find all of Louis music at Louisong Vancamp.com. Thank you and we hope you'll join in the next week as we go. Who even cares?