AWTY 181 - Brain Bummer (Tsuritama)

That was so weird.

Hello and welcome to our week. There yet an exploration and education. Education and anime. I'm your anime idiot, patrick dugan.

I am an anime expert, dee hollander.

And I'm brenda mccullough. Your anime, big mouth, Billy Bass.

Here's a liz. Sorry. I wrote.

We went for the same thing, just different angles, different parts of the commercial.

I had one.

Yeah, that's a bad thing. attracts.

I liked putting my finger in its mouth.

There's a cold open for you.

No.

I'm a big fan. There's a TikTok that somehow synced up their alexa to a big mouth ass and just plays any song you want through it and it still sinks up the mouth and it is incredible. I love it so much to just see that fish, like sing whoop and stuff.

Wet ass foot. No, I'm not going to finish that one.

So, yeah, just shifting gears. We're watching a recommendation from Victoria kodak. We're watching Suritama this week. Another fishing anime. Yeah.

Fish, fish, fish.

And we exhausted our knowledge of the shelf.

Honestly, that's about it. That's all I got.

I feel like I was on tumblr when this was really popular, so I saw it like weekly as things came out. But yeah, I never watched it. I just know that it's about fishing. Boys fishing.

Yeah. This is a spring 2012 anime.

Oh, wow. I've never heard of it. Ever seen anything of it? From the quick Google I did of it, it looks like our days at breakwater, but for boys, yeah.

Finally we get something.

For the men.

I've been waiting so men be represented in fishing finally.

I literally know nothing about fishing. It's a dry well for me.

Everything we learned about fishing came from our days, pretty much.

Yeah.

I I did some fishing as a youth, but very unappealing now to be like, hey, can I just, like, injure an animal and then just pretend I.

Didn'T just stab it a mouth and then let it go?

Yeah, just say I beat you and then throw it in so it continues to live injured. Yeah, not for me in real life.

Yeah, I went fishing once when I was six in a pond, and I was the only one that caught a fish in. Everybody in my family. Very satisfying in that moment.

Take that, win a six year old going fishing a few times, don't care for it. And then I realized it was just an older generations version of just day drinking and getting away with it. I was like, oh, got you. That's why you like fishing. You just get away from everyone and then get blasted off your ass and then row back to shore.

Yeah. Any excuse middle aged men will take to just drink. I have a specific memory of being at a campground in New Hampshire going fishing, where fishing licenses were required for adults but not children. So being a very small five or six year old caught a fish, but then couldn't get it off the hook. And I was like, dad, dad, can you help me? He was like, I don't have a New Hampshire license legally. My very by the book fire official father was like, I'm not going to break the game code of this to help you, crying child. I'm sorry.

Oh, my goodness.

I just imagined like, a leviathan dragging you into this. Father is like, I can't. The license.

My hands are tied. The ranger is sitting here on the top watching us.

I'm so sorry.

Or vice versa. Children have diplomatic immunity. And it's just you putting like a knife in your mouth and diving into the water and like rambo.

Absolutely, yeah. That's when I truly grew up, when I killed that serpent that drag me to the deep.

It's almost like your own anime, I think that is like Dragon Paulsae, actually.

Anyways, we're clearly just spinning our wheels. Shall we start watching? Yeah, we're watching the first three episodes.

Let's cast.

Cast two fishing anime enter. One will leave entertaining. Which one will it be? Hi. Welcome to unnecessarily aggressive anime Fight Cap.

Oh, shit.

It'll be which everyone can untangle their fishing line first because God knows that takes a while.

So we start out in episode one. We see the island of enoshima. We get a legend historical backstory of a five headed dragon that was harassing the island from the ocean. Oh, no. So terrible. One day, the storm and fog rolled in and covered the island and obscured everything into darkness. But then a celestial princess comes down from the sky. Smiles and rays of light come out and banishes the darkness and the dragon.

Thank goodness.

What's happening?

Yes. Don't worry. This will not come up again, at least explicitly in these three episodes, so don't worry. So we see a boy with a fish. Just stupid dapper. I mean, you mentioned seeing this on Tumblr. This is an outfit that definitely would have been very popular in 24 Tumblr. So I can understand why just like pink and like lime green polka dot vest and suits and just has a fish in a bowl walking around. So they're at a train station and the fish says, what? Oh, talking fish. And the fish is like, all right, where to? So they go to an aquarium and the boy points at the fish in the tank and oh, they follow his finger. Oh, he's commanding them to jump around. So magical. So we cut from there to a transfer student, but not the kind you're.

Thinking of, at least not at this point.

So we start out with a kid transferring out of a class.

Subversive.

The logical thing that is implied with everyone transferring into a new school is they have to transfer out of the old one first. whoa. This has never been addressed.

I thought you just disappeared and never spoke to any people ever. Again. That's how I've always done it.

Yeah, give them the old Irish goodbye. All right. You won't see me tomorrow, math. So the teacher is like, all right, this student yuki is leaving. So come say goodbye to the class. And yuki gets up and he's super duper nervous. And he's like, oh, I'm going to fuck this up. Oh, I'm going to do so bad. I'm going to embarrass myself. I'm going to fart. And they're going to laugh at me forever. But as he's freaking out, we see just like, sweat pour down his face. He's like, oh, no, it's happening again. And he is just completely, like, submerged in this classroom in water. But it's all in his mind, question mark. Because we see, like, the outside class are like, what? He just froze up? What's happening? But in his head, he got washed away by just a wave of water and anxiety that threw him out of the class. So he goes home and we see the house he's in is in the process of moving out. We see a woman with a box walk out and he's like, oh, no, let me carry that for you. I'm like, what a nice man. Helping his mom. He specifically says, like, you should not be carrying heavy things. So I was like, oh, that's like a notably pregnant advice thing. So his mom's probably pregnant.

Cool.

This is his grandma?

Yeah, she looks like a pokemon trainer when we do She's Got Style.

There's just something about the casting of the dub actor and the image of the grandma that really I did not like, every time she was on screen.

I was like, I don't like, how do you play an older grandmother figure? It's like forcibly soft spoke. It felt restrained. I don't know.

Maybe it was an older woman who has a very young sounding voice. But they could have just cast an older woman.

Yeah, it felt intentional because she is drawn to be very young. She has gray hair. But as Brendan pointed out in the chat before this, hair color and anime doesn't matter. The main character's hair is bright orange. So that's no indication of her age. And just like, physically not like any stereotypical aging has happened to this woman.

She's got like two extra lines on her face. That's it.

But yeah. So we see them move up and we get a quick little road trip montage that acts as, like our opening credits for this first episode, which was cool that they broke format and were like, yes, let's just travel. We're not going to do this. This isn't the standard opening. But yeah, road trip time. It gave it like a 90s comedy movie feel going to the new city. So as they're pulling into their new town, we see magic fishboy. See the car from the bridge? And he's like, yes, the car.

That's all we know at that point.

So yuki and his grandma move into this super duper, ideally cute house. And yuki is like, all right, I'm going to go check out the new school. Talk to you later. And then we see fishboy walk up to the house where grandma's hanging up like a sign with their names for the front door. And he walks up and he's like, hey, what's up? I'm an alien.

Cool.

Thanks. And she's like, okay. All right, dope. Nice to meet you, alien. And he just picks up the paintbrush and just adds his name to the plaque of the people who live in this house. He's like, well, I live here now. She's like, all right, cool.

I guess I can't fight you on that. You wrote your name.

It was at this point I checked off the unlikable main character. I'm like, I don't know what else this character will ever do in this series. I hate them. Just that moment alone and everything else to this point. I'm like, this kid is insufferable too much.

But yeah, we learn from the sign that this is Haru. So Grandma is like, all right, you can move in, but on one condition. And then we see her mouth moving, but through binoculars because Haru is being watched. There are these secret agents in turbines just watching. And one has a duck or a goose named Tapioca.

It's a duck.

Okay, cool. I thought I heard goose but did not write it down specifically. Tapioca. I'm like, all right, yes, I'm on board. This has to be a major part of this, right? Tapioca? You wouldn't introduce Tapioca, an animal companion to an anime and not have it around a lot, right? Okay. But they're like, yes, the aliens on the move. So we see yuki, he's on the train going to school, and he's very nervous. He's in a seat, and an older man walks in and just stands in front of him. And he gets nervous like he did in the classroom, being like, oh, I should offer him up the seat. But I already hesitated way too long. it'd be pretty clear that I was running it through in my brain and just, like, getting very internal and like, I'm going to freak out and flood again. I'm already making a terrible impression on this town, like I do in every town. And then he looks down and sees another kid give up his seat. And he gets mad because he's like, I was about to do that. And we see a couple other kids who end up being in his class, like, noticing. And he's like, they're probably students I already messed up. I didn't even set foot on school grounds yet. Okay, goodbye.

We have to move again.

This is why he moved so much. And anytime he's, like, freaking out, he's not just, like, sweating. His face is contorted. There's a lot of animation put into his they call it a demon face when he's panicking.

Yeah. So he managed to avoid this flooding. But he gets to class, and we're told, hey, we're expecting two transfer students today. What? But one isn't there. But yuki is. So, yuki, get up and introduce yourself to the class. And immediately off to a great start. He's so in his head, like, you got to do great. You got to nail it. This is the first impression. They're going to remember this forever. And he just starts rambling and, like, starting thoughts he doesn't have an end to. So he just has to keep searching for things and pausing for weirdly long times. And he manages to be like, the ocean is pretty here. Okay. And the teacher's like, all right, thank you. Good. Sit down, please. You're wasting class time. So he sits down. He sits right next to a girl that saw him on the train. So of course he freaks out and is like, oh, I was weird in the classroom. I was weird on the train. She's going to tell everyone I'm weird and stands up to freak out. And just as everyone's turning to him to be like, what are you doing? The second transfer student, Haru, shows up.

Hey.

So Haru comes in, and he's like, what's up, bitches?

I'm an alien.

And just immediately, not even the teacher is like, hey, welcome. This is our other student. He's like, hey, what's up? I'm your new alien classmate. All right.

I'm quirky.

Love me. This is my only personality trait.

Lowell xd. Right.

So he calls out, yuki. He's like, hey, rumi. Hey. We're best friends, me, the weird kid, and the kid who desperately wants no one to think he's weird. I'm aligning us immediately. So, of course, yuki gets all nervous, and he's, like, about to flood and freak out. But Haru pulls out a water gun and squirts him with it. And then he blacks out. Yeah. So as he comes to again, he is singing and dancing with Haru, and the class is loving it.

Oh, no.

So he wakes up and is immediately embarrassed, obviously looking past the fact that he is now beloved by this classroom because he's singing and dancing and being comfortable. But afterwards, Haru follows yuki and is like, hey, come fishing with me. And he's really against it. He's like, no, I'm going to freak out and flood again. But he gets shot with the water gun again and blacks out again and sorry, what were you saying?

No, I just laughed because he just has a you don't have a say in this anymore gun, which is a terrifying concept.

Yeah. Just like, come on, we have to advance the plot. Let's just get through it. You're going to argue with me anyways, so we'll just skip ahead. So he wakes up again, and they're in a fishing shop, and this is where we see the other classmate, not sugi, the one who gave up his seat on the train are eda. He walks in and the woman who works there is like, oh, yes, he is our part time employee. He is known as the Fishing Prince because he's so amazing at fishing. So of course, he walks in and is like, all right, these fucking weirdos. What are they doing here? I want to work. No one at school needs to know I'm this fishing guy. But yeah, plot advancement tool comes out and Haru squirts him with the gun. And they're immediately at the pier and they start fishing.

Sorry, did they say natsuki's name in the first episode? Because I didn't catch it until the second episode recap.

Yeah, I got it here. When they're talking with the woman running the shop, she's like, oh, yeah, that's not sugi, the Fishing Prince. So we do get that intro here.

Okay. I thought she just said he was a part timer, but she never actually said his name. Okay, my bad.

Oh, good. But yeah, so they're like, all right, let's go fishing. Cool. Not sugi. Teach us how to fish. You didn't know? Okay, cool. All right. So they all give it a shot. Again, if you listen to the breakwater episode, there's just a lot of like, this is how you cast a fish fishing line. So we're not going to go into a lot of that. But yuki is very nervous. He casts, but he catches something. It's out of control. He caught a big sea bass, and it wiggles its way off. And they all go home exhausted. So he gets home and Grandma is like, oh, you have a fishing rod. What's up? He's like, yeah, this weirdo just took me fishing. We'll never see that guy again. Don't worry. And immediately after, Haru comes in and is like, hey, rumi, I live here too. And he's like, all right, we're going to save the world together. And they say, I didn't know it at the time, but we will remain to be seen. Cool.

I feel like there should have been a sitcom, like, laugh track throughout this whole show.

Yeah, truly just a mork energy going on.

Yeah, there it is. Something was reminding me of it.

So in episode two, we get a little episode recap. Cool. And then we get the opening. In this one, it's just all the characters doing a little dance. I like the song a lot.

Yeah, I like the opening and ending songs. They're pretty catchy.

And then we see the three of them eating breakfast. Grandma says she didn't know aliens eat me so soup. And he's like, I sure do. yuki thinks about his grandma, and when she does, she'll do stuff like this. And when she does, she doesn't listen to him. And then he and Haru are walking to school. Haru gets scared of cat. They're on the train. There are some school kids that are making fun of them. yuki starts to get anxious, and then Haru shoots him with the water gun. And then suddenly they're dancing in front of the class again. So, I mean, it's a pretty useful tool if Haru can see that he's getting anxious. And he's just like, stop it.

Therapy gun.

Yeah, yes. But I would just be terrified of like, hey, guess what? You're going to just forget the next 30 minutes and your body's going to move on its own. That is absolutely terrifying to me.

Yeah. And then after school, yuki, he's walking, and I think he's trying to get away from Haru. So he goes into this small building, and there's a girl with pink hair, and she shoots him with a water gun too. And then he's on top of there's this structure in enoshima called the Sky Tree. They talk about it in the first one a little bit. And this pink haired girl tells yuki that she's haru's sister and they need his help to catch this big fish or they can't go home and the earth will be destroyed. So he agrees under threat of water gun. And then they're back at the fishing shopcafe, and Haru asks natsuki to teach them how to fish. And the girl who works at the shop, I think her name is misaki, she's Naziki's older sister. And she says that he should do it. And she's like, you can at least teach them how to catch a seabass. yuki Google's seabass. He's like constantly googling things. And then another girl comes, sakura, and she's nazi's little sister. And he's like nicer when she's around. And he agrees to teach them because sakura wants him to. So they go on out. natsuki helps them get their equipment ready. He's explaining it same as last time, lots of terminology. That doesn't matter.

You love to see it.

I love half learning about a thing you're going to half explain to us.

Then you have to tie a thing to a thing. And yuki and Haru are doing really bad at doing it. And Naziki gets upset, and Haru shoots him with the water gun. And then he just ties the thread for Haru. And when he comes to, Haru is like, look, I did it. And he's like, wow, good job. And you keep like, hey, wait a minute.

Let's go rob a bank. What? Water gun.

That's where yuki it is made clear that the water gun somehow puts people under haru's control. natsuki and Haru start fishing, but yuki is still working on tying the thread. And he eventually just gives up. Like he kind of does it. So he casts out something, bites his line, another seabass. And we also see it happened in the first episode, but when he gets anxious and he gets like that wave, the fishing, like, pulls him through it. So it's like grounding him in some capacity, but so he's reeling it in. But he lost the fish because he didn't tie the knot right. And natski chews him out for not doing a good job. And then yuki starts to freak out again. natski tells him to stop wasting his time, and then yuki runs off. And then we see the guy with the duck from the first episode fishing as well. And haru's sister asks him if he's going to give up on yuki. Oh, no. haru's sister asks yuki if he's giving up, and friends don't do that. And yuki is like, well, we're not really friends, so I have no responsibility here.

He's a home invader, for better or worse.

And then that night, we see natski making dinner for his little sister. And then his dad and a woman named mariko get home, who, like, might be his girlfriend. We don't know. marico leaves, and his dad thanks yuki for making dinner. And then natsuki gets upset at his dad, saying it hasn't even been two years since their mom died. And then his dad tells him he should cut his hair. And then he just keeps being an angsty teen, and his dad has a drink.

This whole scene felt very forced to me. Like they're trying to make it seem more traumatic than it is. And his dad seems a little gruff, but doesn't seem bad, but it feels like they're painting him. And, like, look at this abusive parent.

Him specifically saying, like, it hasn't even been two years, but it's been over a year, because that's plenty of time.

Between that's, like, beer time. And it's like, look at his dad drinking. And they show, like, a shot of the fridge with, like, three beers or something. That's not bad. He's just having, like, a dinner. It felt like they were really trying to make it seem more traumatic than it was.

I guess in my adult brain, I'm just like, oh, yes, this is a scene showing that Naziki is an angsty teenager to his dad, who's actually just trying to be a good dad.

Yeah, the dad seemed fine to me. I was just like, I don't know, this felt weird.

Yeah. And then at the other house, haru is, like, banging on yuki's door, being like, come fishing. But it's nighttime, so yuki doesn't want to go fishing. And then he goes outside to their nice garden, and he's talking to Grandma. Haru is upset that yuki doesn't want to be friends. And Grandma says, hey, Haru, does being with yuki make you happy? And he's like, yeah, sure does. And Grandma is like, you should leave yuki alone, then, if you want to be friends with him. Because if I've learned anything about my grandson, it's that if he wants to be left alone, you should just leave him alone. And then she coughs. grandma's not as healthy as we think.

She is, even though she has the body of a 25 year old.

Yeah, something's happening. And yuki is thinking about what's been going on, and he thinks that maybe he should have tried harder, even though he was frustrated. And then the next morning, Haru and yuki go out to practice fishing. yuki starts to get frustrated and vocalizes that. And when he looks up, Haru is gone, taking grandma's advice. natski is on a run, and he sees yuki getting frustrated, but at least he's trying. So he gives him, like, a soft, approving look of, like, good for him. And then we see Haru fishing on the beach. His sister asks him why he likes yuki. He says he doesn't know. He just does, but she doesn't like him. But Haru was like, you guys will be friends. It'll be fine. yuki is still working on tying that thread, and he remembers that Naziki, like, ran his mouth over it. Like, when you do when you're, like, trying to thread a needle and you're trying to get it to be, like, altogether. So he tries that, and it works. yuki goes to find Haru, and he asks him to stop shooting him with his water gun. And Haru says, okay, and his sister seems to be upset and walks away. And then the boy with the duck bursts out of the sand with the duck, and he's just like, Ha, ha. And he's just like, Things aren't right. Tapioca tapioca says quack.

Thank you.

Tapioca your checks in the mail.

They go to school the next day. natski goes up to them. Haru calls him a prince, and he's like, I told you not to call me that at school. And yuki shows natski a picture of the thread that he tied. He's like, Look, I did it. Now I won't wing it anymore. Will you teach me how to fish now? Like, properly? Now. I want to. And then the boy shows up with his duck. akira is his name, so he's another transfer student. This was wild to me. I laughed so hard. He says, I may be 25, but don't let that deter you from becoming friends with me. And I was like, sir, why did they let you enroll in this high school?

This was the wildest thing in the show so far. Including the secret agents and aliens.

Yeah, it's like, brev. Come on.

Like everyone else. He looks like a high schooler.

Yeah. He could have just not said anything. I never would have known.

Yeah.

And Haru seems really freaked out by him. And then we get narration from yuki saying that the story really began after the four of them came together that day. And that's episode two.

Oh, boy, does this story come together. Oh, boy. So much happens in episode three. Let's get ready into this. Starts off with the three boys fishing after school and natski saying that they aren't ready for the ocean. They haven't earned the right to fish in the ocean, so they have to work their way up to it.

You got to catch a bird first.

Honestly, that might be easy.

If you can catch a bird, you.

Could catch a fish, catch tap yoka with the montage.

So he makes them practice while aiming at the beach. So he gets, like a little bucket out and puts in the sand. And he says, I won't let you fish into the ocean until you can cast and land the, like, practice lore in the bucket. And the whole time, Haru is insufferable because that's his character quirky. I hate him so much.

So me.

He's just so obnoxious. natski gives them a tutorial on how to cast, which I feel like would have been good if he did that before expecting them to know how to fish. I feel like this could have been good two episodes ago, and he wouldn't be so pissy with them. So he teaches them how to actually cast and, like the technique on how to do it. Now they just have to practice it over and over again. And then we see some classmates walking by as they're getting ready to go surfing. And natsky teaches them a good way to practice the cast is by saying, by counting out loud, like, one, two, three. That way you can keep yourself consistent or saying, like, a casting phrase over and over again. So they say, oh, I wrote it down somewhere.

Henoshima bowl.

Henoshima bowl. So, yeah, it's just like a food dish. So that's what natski says when he casts, and that's what Haru and yuki overhear him doing. So Haru is, like, screaming it as he's casting. And, like, the classmates walking by see that, which makes yuki start getting embarrassed and start flooding and freaking out. And as they're practicing, we see akira shows up with this duck, which scares Haru. And then akira walks away. And then we just follow a cure for a while. He goes to the fishing cafe, talks to the cafe owner. Then he goes to a shrine where he sees a bunch of people dancing with a priest.

I love all these old people doing their aerobics, basically.

Yeah, that's what it looked like. Then he goes to Natski's dad's restaurant and gets inoshimable, and it's tasty back to the boys. We had a little side adventure with a cure for some fucking reason. Come back to the boys practicing their casting. Still, eventually it gets late, and they all go home without ever hitting the bucket. naski goes home and cooks for his family, and his dad says, your sister told me you're out fishing with your buddies. We should go out sometime, practice the old legendary family cast. And he says, Ian ishima bull as well, so Nazi got it from him. And then we see Haru and yuki having dinner. Grandma. grandma's like, hey, by the way, I'm going to be taking a trip to the hospital for a while.

It's like, hilarious.

She's died.

I'm going to be gone for a couple of days. I'm going to the hospital. Why aren't you just there now? What's wrong?

I'm moving again.

This time by myself. And yuki is like, Why didn't you tell me earlier? She's like, I knew you'd get this way, so I figured I'd just tell you the day before I go. And he says, whatever. I'm used to it. And I'm like, I feel like yuki might be justified in his anger at this point. This kind of seems like a what the fuck?

Yeah.

So he goes off to his room and pouts. So we had that heart touching moment. Got to duck curry, a little food, stand on the corner of a street, and a guy in his turban suit and sunglasses being like, Sorry, man. We're all sold out. And she's like, oh, God damn it. Again, you're always sold out and mad. And the guy closes up the shop. It turns out he's part of the secret agent group that's working with the kira. So he goes back, and they got all this tech, all these 1000 computer monitors, and they call their boss, saying akira is following jf one ak harun.

It's just a fucking it's like a league of drag queens. The duck people.

Yeah, the group akira is with are, like, men in black, and they're all wearing, like, turbines. The group they're talking to yeah. Looks like a drag queen, like Sunday brunch sort of set. I was like, I kind of want to see what's happening there. That seems fun.

What's their deal?

But we get, like, no spin up. We get no information. It's just them talking. And his boss, I think they're in the sky tree. I think we get, like, a shot of them before we see the inside of it. So I think they're located out of this guy tree. And akira says haru and his sister can control people with using water. So you're able to confirm that. And his boss talking like, well, make sure you keep an eye on them. They are alien, so you got to monitor the situation, even if you have to pretend to be a high schooler. But you know, you're back in high school again. Why don't you enjoy your time?

He's not even pretending to be a high schooler.

No, he fully admitted he was a.

25 year old man.

You blew your cover immediately on purpose the first time you spoke.

You couldn't have done a worse job. But his boss is like, have fun. You're in high school again. Take a load off. It's easy. kira's like, no, I have to prove myself to the Duck Curry organization. They're like, all right, see you later. Guys like duck curry soup, and they do, like, a weird pose, like a sentiment pose. I'm just like, the fuck is happening with this show?

These guys rule.

Then the Marks Brothers show up for some reason. I don't know how.

He also got in my pajamas. I'll never know. Ha ha ha ha. And meanwhile, we got to hair. He's in the bathtub talking to a sister communicating through the water, and she says to beware of the duck. If you look at the duck in the eyes, you'll die instantly. hover is like, I think I already did that.

Then you're a ghost now.

You're dead to me. And she says, yuki is useless and hasn't caught anything yet. Why are we even investing time into him? haru is like, I don't know. I like them.

I guess I want to hold his hand, kind of.

There doesn't seem to be a reason why yuki. It's just because he's yuki. Then holler gets out of the bath and goes outside and sees grandma outside gardening. And he's like, Why do you always tend to the flowers? Aren't they just going to die? She's like, yeah, but I want to make sure they're happy and healthy while they're still alive. Everything dies eventually, but you got to make the effort while it's still around. And she thanks him for taking care of yuki, for giving him a friend he never had before. And she explains, like, while I'm gone, make sure you take care of them. And thanks for doing that. He's like, don't thank me yet. I haven't done it. She's like, no, I'm thanking you. And goes into a lengthy explanation of how thanking someone works, and it just kind of buffalo. And then she pulls some flowers and puts them in, like, a special potato forum and gives them to haru. And she's like, here, look at these flowers when I'm gone. Whenever you see them, you can think of me. And if you ever want to talk to me or you want to make a wish, you can do it on these flowers.

This scene, alma confirms that grandma is going to die.

Yeah, really putting that final nail in her personal coffin. She's like, you can make a wish on these flowers. And it's like, will it come true? No, they're just flowers. But here's your mcguffin. Here's your emotional mcguffin. Here's what you need to continue the show. And it's like, okay, thanks, grandma. I'll come to your funeral. And next day, she's going to the hospital. So they wake up, and she's like, all right, thanks for seeing me off, boys. I guess I'll see you when I get back.

Wink.

And she also does the inoshima bowl cast. I don't know why. I guess she heard yuki doing it. And she does it to be like, good luck out there with the fishing and such. I'm off to die now, but so long. And so they go to school, haru and yuki. And haru is like, why are you so upset, yuki? What's the big deal? I mean, don't worry. Everybody dies someday. It's like not the time. haru. Not the time. So basically, it just skipped to the next day after that. And yuki's mad understandably at him and haru and his grandma, so he doesn't go to school that day. And after class, Naziki notices that it's like, hey, haru, where do you live? You live with yuki now, right? Show me where you live. I got to go drag his ass out of belt and make him cast again, which is exactly what he does. They show up at his house and try to get him to cast. yuki says he's not in the mood right now. And naski says, like, now is the perfect time to go casting. Why? We won't get into it. And he walks away.

It's like, okay, get some anger out.

Yeah, I guess. Howard tries to get into practice more, but yuki isn't in the mood, and he gets mad at haru for not understanding how he feels. So haru goes to make a wish on the flowers grandma gave them. And that night, we see haru talks to his sister again, and it flashes at the empty fishbowl. And it's at this point I realized that she's the fish, I think, from the first episode, and talking to him again, being like, I want yuki to feel better so he can get better at casting. And she's like, Drop him. He's dead weight. He's like, no, I like them. I see yuki crying, and we've seen this a few times in other episodes, like, when he gets to his breaking point, I guess. But it's just text appears on screen that says, like, the events that have happened up till this point, and it just flashes, like memories in, like, a film strip style.

That's like a Jimmy neutron brain blast.

Sad. I don't know. It feels really out of place.

Brain bummer.

Here comes his depression.

Have a panic attack.

So that's what I've been experiencing.

You got to go cast him. And while outside talking to his sister what? While halu is outside talking to his sister, it starts raining like torrential downpour. And then we just see yuki is already outside on the beach, casting in the rain. And while he's casting, while he's practicing, a gear just shows up in, like, a raincoat with tapioca, and just like, what are you even doing? You should give up. Everything you're doing is pointless. Why fucking bother? It's like, Why are you here right now? How did you find me? What is the point of this?

Why do you have a duck?

Never address.

He's my boss. chill.

Probably. That's probably true.

The organization is named after him, so and then haru shows up with the sister, and they see him casting, and she tries to get haru to leave him, just like, Leave him. He's not getting any better. haru is like, no. yuki feels something for once. We got to dig deeper on this. We're at an emotional breakpoint, and yuki gets mad and keeps casting harder and harder, and he starts making his weird, anxiety demon face while he's screaming, enoshima bowl. And haru starts chanting it with him, like, following up behind him, yelling in ashima bowl. Inashima bowl. I get this should be an emotional moment. It's very silly. And natsuki also happens to be walking by. Everyone just came to the beach in a typhoon, I guess it's the perfect time. And walks by to see yuki land the cast as he finally keeps pushing forward and lands the practice. Laura in the bucket, and he nails and they're all all jazzed. Well, yuki and Harry were jazzed. Everyone else is kind of like, Why are we? And yuki thanks naski for his help, for teaching them. He figured out the trick. naski says, like, I don't know, I didn't do much. You helped taught me. Okay. And they all go home while yuki and haru keep practicing. And we see akira says that they're so close, they're stifling. And we see natski running home on a bridge, and he starts, like, yelling as he's running home, but it's like a happy yell, like a victory. Like we did it. Yeah, but he couldn't do that around anyone else, I guess. So he did it when he was alone.

He's angsty.

Yes. It's hard to be angsty and fish.

You don't understand. He's a teenager, unlike that 25 year.

Old in his life. You got me there. And that's episode, Three Little Boys.

And a lot happens, and surely I understand none of it. Yeah. I'm just baffled that we've watched two fishing shows with very similar concepts of, like, yeah, go to a new school, learn fishing, and make friends.

Yeah.

And the one with aliens, secret agents, and just, like, space plot is the more boring one. How do you do that?

It really feels like they're like, we're going through the motion. Why is haru living with them? Because he says he is. Why is haru an alien? Because he says he because he needs to be. Why is akira, a 25 year old secret agent infiltrating a school? Because he says he needs to. Like, there doesn't seem to be a reason for anything other than this is an anime. We have to fill time, we have to follow the tropes. But, like, story wise, there doesn't seem to be anything piecing any of it together, at least as far as I've noticed. It just feels really going through the motions.

Yeah, it feels like they want to be like, oh, we're leaving crumbs. Things will magically wrap up at the end because we do need to have an ending to this. But it's like, you're not leaving anything substantial enough that warrants intrigue and following your half plots of what you want your characters to do. So yeah, they're trying to do so much. Several of these characters have unexplained magical powers. It's waved away with, like, yeah, aliens and yuki, whatever the fuck he's doing. Yeah, it weirdly. baffling.

I guess it was very trophy, and I didn't like it. I wouldn't say, but it didn't bother me that much. I don't know, I guess I'm just desensitized to stuff like this, but at this point that it's just like I'm sure it'll come together in the end, whether it's good or not, whatever. I'm not going to keep watching it. But I don't know. haru is annoying, but I find him a little endearing. I think it's because of his character design. I like his pink eyes and cute outfits and yeah, I guess I just I didn't love breakwater that much. I know you, Brendan, really liked the club president, but I didn't.

I like the club president because I am that shitty army character.

So these two are like I agree that this one is like, why are you doing so much? And also, nothing is happening. But I don't know. I'm not that bothered by it. It's cute. I don't know.

Yeah. Having you say that, I feel like I did go harder of like, this is a bad show. Yeah, it's perfectly fine. It's setting up so many interesting things and doing nothing with it, which feels more frustrating than just doing a straightforward show.

Yeah, a show should hook you in the first three episodes, which is the whole thing that we do on the podcast. And it's kind of bad if a show doesn't but I'm sure as the show goes on, things start to make more sense.

But yeah, we at least got confirmation that the water gun actually does mind control. And it isn't just yuki specifically, like, having a panic attack and just, like, repressing memories of the last 30 minutes. So it's like, okay, so the aliens are real. And it's not just haru and his sister being weird. Like, they are real. And then we have the duck curry force, whatever the fuck that's about. But it's just it kind of bother me more because we've seen bad shows. We've I've picked bad shows. objectively bad. No room for negotiation, but at least no, I really can't compliment any of those. There's nothing there. But those were it's kind of like the Super Mario Brothers live action movie where it's like, oh, it's so bad, it's trashy. It's like a future diary where it's like, this is a mess. But with this one, it was just kind of mediocre and nothing happens in the way of, like, girls doing nothing and in a club activity throwing that I have a weird affinity to. This is just like, they're trying to do stuff, but really nothing's happening. Like, the effort of trying to be weird and zany an alien plot but also doing nothing kind of drops further for me than a show that is just doing nothing.

Yeah.

Objectively, I will admit, haru is just a pet peeve of mine that is just, like, character trope that I find annoying. But it feels really like you said mork, like, I'm an alien and I'm zany, and it's like, oh, you're really forcing it here. So I definitely had more problems with it than probably most people. But yeah, nothing's happening, man. And like you said, three episodes and we have the most plot that's happened is grandma's dying. And that's the character I liked.

Yeah, that is one thing I wanted to share because D, you mentioned like yeah, she sounds like, weirdly young. What's up? I wanted to check out the casting for the English dub, and I found that this actress is most known for playing Misatto and yvonne genesis or neon genesis evangelion. Okay. Yeah. Been around established doing anime in the 90s. So, like, you shouldn't sound too young for the character you're playing. If like, I get that you're playing like a child, but that's interesting. It just didn't line up and felt weird.

Yeah, because I like her as misatto. They should have just I don't know. She looks young, but that doesn't mean she needs to sound young. Yeah, but yeah. Overall, it's like I said before, we recorded this show is, like, aggressively fine. Nothing about it bothered me. Too bad. But it is. You know, they're just like, here, have a trope. You didn't want that one. Here's another. Oh, look, over here another one.

How can I hold all these tropes?

Yeah, and the counterbalance of like okay, but you're at least going to introduce interesting things. Aliens, duck, secret agents. Okay, cool. And then still not pulling through.

It's like I'll explain it at some point. Don't worry about it.

But not now.

I'm one of those shitty people that I'm like. Mediocre is the worst thing I think it could be. Because if it's trashy and bad, we can have fun with it. If it's good, we enjoy it. And if it's in the middleing, it's like, I got nothing to work with here. But yeah, it's just like I didn't continue watching our days of breakwater, so that one didn't hug me either. I think I just don't like fishing.

Fair enough. Well, what would we have going on next week?

Next week I felt like having fun. And when I say I felt like having fun, war on high school. I think you're close. It's a romantic comedy we're going to watch. My next life as a villainess, I think is what it's called. Yeah, it's an Isakai, but she's in a dating game. Hey.

All right. Well, I'm intrigued. We'll see where this goes. If you have an intriguing anime that you want us to watch and actually intriguing, not like, oh, what a concept. The alien marries the fish. This time you can send your recommendations to us. Arweether@gmail.com is our email. Or you can reach out to us on social media at arwibaria, on Twitter and Instagram.

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

Find me on Twitter at abts. Brendan stands for Almost Better Than Silence, which is a video game podcast I did for 420 episodes blazing. Pretty sure we dragged the last 70 episodes out just to meet that number.

Perfect. We've gone too far. We can't do 69.

All right, we got to loop back around to the other fun number.

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

I'll take it up.