AWTY 174 - The Beast is Pigeons (Your Lie in April)

And who eats lunch on the roof? That is so cliche.

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

I am an anime expert, dee hollander.

And I'm brenda mccullough. Your anime lion mufasa. Get it? See, one of it in there shows.

About like, that's for the month before that's the lion show month.

No, it's like, march sleeps like a sheep and April is kicking in the door like a lion. What's it what's the thing?

March comes in like a lion.

No, you nailed it.

Yeah, I thought so.

That's not even the show we're watching.

No, we're watching like lion stuff. Right? It's like sheep and a lion. It's like sheep in the big city but like a lion bodyguard or something.

This week we're watching the new Zealand movie bear verse shark. Great.

Well, now I'm interested.

But no, it's a special day of love and you know how we like anime this week?

You know how we keep anime at a safe, friendly distance? Professional. Strictly professional. This week we're watching your lie in April. Your lie in April. The main character is a lion named April.

Oh, right. Okay. No, now I see what you were going for.

Thank god. I need one person to grab me.

Every I actually panicked when you said that. And I was like, wait, were we supposed to watch march comes in like a lion?

Wait, is that what the other show is?

That is the other show.

Maybe that's why I was so confused by this. I knew what the title was and I knew it was about but I'm like, why do I keep associating this with lions besides the obvious lion? April. Okay, so there is actually another show called that that makes more sense for my brain.

We are a mess already.

Just going to pull the curtain back real quick. Me and d watched the rest of future diaries last night and it ruined me as a person.

I already watched it.

I was like, I'm finishing a future diary and d is like, me and Paul want to watch it with you. I was like, that's not comforting. Yeah. So we're coming to this punchy, but hey, valentine's fun. We had a lot of fun, but my brain is actually soup.

You know what?

If that's not what Valentine's day is about, I don't know what is. You expose the most truest part of yourself, the soupiest brain version of you, and if your partner still loves you, that's real love.

Beautiful.

Everyone out there, we hope your heart is soup today. But yeah, you're lie in April. I have this in my brain as like a capital a big romance anime, but I truly know nothing about it. So what is your experience, both of you, with this series?

I know about it and there was someone who I'm already resentful toward it and I don't want to be, but it's because I was having a conversation with somebody one time and I had just seen your name and I said, oh, have you seen your name? I really liked it. And he said, no, I hated it. And he went on to tell me everything he hated about it. And then he was like, but have you seen your lie in April? Oh my God, it's so good. And so now that's just in my head and I'm just like, well now I don't want to.

Oh boy. The baggage never will. The baggage is established by other people. That has nothing to do with the content itself. Yeah, it happens. It sucks.

Yeah. But I know a few things about it. Not from him, but from just knowing about anime, right?

From culture, from society. We're all talking about this. I know nothing about it because apparently I was mixing it up with another show for a long time. So I'm not sure what I know anymore. I think it's musical and I'm pretty sure it's romance. But we already peaked with the best romance anime out there, which is my love story. So we got to do the rest.

And just ruined a bunch of like, genres for ourselves right off the bat with this show. So here we are just soaking up the scraps. What a introduce. That's extremely popular.

It's good.

That's why when we did those episodes and you're like, yeah, it's okay, I guess. I'm like, oh boy. Oh no, this is the best. This is the peak. It's going to be a rough ride there, buddy.

Never feed a baby. I don't know why my brain was like, find the fanciest. Food. lasagna. That's it.

Garbage soup.

We're all going to go sit in a dark room for several hours and think about our life choices. And we're going to watch this show at some point. We will be right back. Am I dragging or am I rushing? Tell me brendon.

Tell me lion shit.

Smack shit. Oh no.

Is this the whiplash movie? The drum movie with the jk. Simmons? Is this J. jonah jameson yelling at me again?

I had an actual panic attack watching that film.

I've never seen no.

Yeah, it was good, but I never want to watch it again.

Don't blame you.

But it just like, hey, this seems like an artistic movie. Do you want to be stressed over 2 hours? I'm like, no, I'm good dog. I'll pass.

Yeah. Luckily this isn't as stressful.

Dodge the bullet. It seems like a lot of music shows are just very stressful.

This has a touch of stress.

It's got a touch it's got a little baggage. It's task stressed.

Yeah. You just need to remember, music is not for enjoyment and pleasure. It's a rigorous form of skill and dedication.

Absolutely.

Boy, college class made me hate classical music. Let's see if this anime will make you hate classical music. Let's go. Episode one start off with a peppy blonde girl walking to school, sees a cat, starts chasing after, trying to feed it a cookie. Now it's the opening that has nothing to do with anything. We get the opening. It is a bona fide BOP.

Yeah, it is on plenty of YouTube top 20 best anime o peas of all time videos.

Absolutely. It is by Goose House, who we've already listened to once on the opening of Silver spoon. Also, a bop sets a high bar for the ending that doesn't go. I live up. We'll get there and then we open on a young kid very diligently playing the piano in front of a large crowd, like a big venue. And it's tough to gauge with anime kids because, like, we've seen jojo's Bizarre Adventure where they say they're 16 and they're clearly 35. So I think this kid is either twelve or three.

And I can't guess.

There's no way of guessing.

He is under teen, and that's one of the categories of anime characters. And he is very diligently playing the piano for a very large crowd. And we see a lot of people are all by his skill and prowess at the piano. And as his playing builds up, we cut to the future and we see a guy in a music room, like sitting on a piano stool in front of piano, listening to the opening song. conveniently enough, I think they paid a lot of money to get that song because they play it a lot in this first episode. They're really stretching their budgets worth all for it. And we see him like writing some sheet music and stuff to the music he's listening to. And we cut to the girls baseball team outside and one of them hits the ball right through the window, shattering it as you do. And one of them runs off to get the ball and runs past, like, the boys soccer team. And they're like, I had another one. And they shut up. Some characters that know each other on those teams will get to them. And we see the girl from the baseball team run into the school. Her name is Subaki. And she goes to retrieve the ball and finds out which room it went through, opens the door and sees Piano Man knocked out and just like, so much blood.

I don't know. Would a baseball do that?

If I broke a window with someone in the room and I saw that much blood, I assumed the glass shrapnel just turned them into a salad because it was an entire body's worth of blood. But no, he just got dunked on the head by the ball and apparently just all of his blood is in his skull. Who.

Ripped to this guy.

He's dead.

I truly thought the story would be this girl and some dashing young man hiding a body and falling in love.

That would be so fun. That's a perfect title.

You're lying in April. They're lying about the murder.

Yeah.

Oh, my God.

Wait.

We found the real story. Everything else is a hallucination of a dying main character.

Wait, ticket. Don't release this episode. We can pitch this. So, yeah, we see. He got hit in the head with a ball and just so much blood, and she's like, oh, my God, are you okay? And he lifts up his head, and it is koise, who is the protagonist, and she sees him. He goes, oh, it's just you. Okay, whatever. And grabs the ball and starts walking away. And he's like, hey, what the hell? He just knocked me out and broke the window. He can't do this again. So apparently, she keeps doing this a few times, and she says, like, what do you want me to do, hold back, restrain myself during practice? You don't want me to give it my all? The passionate, fiery jock girl. And then we see. He goes to start cleaning up the pieces of glass, and as he reached for a piece of the glass, she grabs his hand, stops. I'm like, you can't risk damaging your hands. And then that's all said about that. It's safe to assume he's a pianist and his hands are important. And then we see. I wrote the names down. I'm currently looking at the wattie. There it is. Wattry. Okay, I spelled it wrong, so it's a good thing I didn't read it. He is the soccer boy that was giving her sass earlier. He's standing in the window, I guess it was, on the ground floor, and he snaps a picture of them, like, through the broken window, basically saying, like, you two childhood friends and neighbors who grew up together. Why don't you just hook up? All right. Basically like, yeah, you got a room. And then we cut to them all walking home together. They're friends, and they're saying how the principal chewed them all out for breaking the window. And Coisay says he's got to write two apology letters to the principal, one for himself and one for Subaki, because for some reason, he has to clean up after all of her mistakes, and this is an ongoing thing. I don't know why he's going to and then we see. I just started calling him jock. The soccer boy gets a text from a girl and runs off. He's a horny fella. He's a girl chaser. I'm sure he'll have great character development throughout the series. And Subaki asks if Koisi has a crush on anyone. Like, who are you interested in? And he says, like, oh, no one. I can't imagine I would ever beat anyone's crush. I'm so unlikable and boring. And she starts yawn at him for giving up too easily. He's only, I think they say, 14. He can't be giving up this early and just assuming he'll live his life alone.

That is great. She's great.

She's not wrong.

I had conversations with friends like that when I was 14. So I get her.

I was this friend at 14 and 30, not much as James. He says she sees the world in, like, vivid color. And she's always very energetic and expressing herself. And he doesn't he kind of sees everything in monochrome. He's bland. And boy, is he. And he gets home and we find out his dad is away on business. Child living alone, check. And then a little later, we find out his mom's dead. Check. We got both of them in the same bingo square. Yeah.

This episode was trope and infodemp City.

And then as Subaki gets home, she answers her cell phone and she's talking to someone, and she's like, oh, no, sorry, I forgot to ask him. I'll ask him tomorrow. I'm like, cool. Did that come up at all? I don't know if I'm just forgetting stuff.

Yeah, it's cowerie.

Oh, okay.

Asking her if she talks so atari.

That makes more sense. I just I just blanked out of.

My head for a while because we.

Never we don't it's the one side of phone conversation, so we don't hear who's on the other side. So I'm like, this could be about anything.

Yeah.

And we see. Yeah, we see. casse goes inside and goes to, like, a little altar first. Mom with her funeral picture hanging up there, and it's like, Hi, Mom, I'm home. And talks to that for a bit. So, yeah, dead parent club and other parent away of business at all times. So we got the child loving loan. Next day, kois in class, remembering what Subaki said about seeing the world in vivid color and how he's just bland. And then we get a flashback of him playing piano. It's him. He's the little dude playing that I was going to say guitar. That's not what piano is.

Tickling the ivories.

Yeah. And he's just playing away. And we see at that concert, he starts, like, having a mental breakdown and stops playing and just starts crying on stage and losing it and saying after that, he was done for. No more piano or piano. And he ends up staying behind after class just to get some work done. He doesn't seem like he's involved with any clubs or sports or anything. That's what he does after school. And once again listening to that boppy tune that we've really got to get our money's worth. And that's, too. Bobby sneaks into class behind him and nails him in the back of the head with a baseball. rude.

He's concussed. He must be.

He has a lot of bruising on the blood brain barrier. And she starts parading him for being dull and boring and doing school work after class instead of going out and living his middle school life. And she's like, what are you listening to anyway? Picks up the headphones and starts listening to and she's like, oh, my God, this is that new band. We get it that there was a tie in deal with Goose House. We get it. They're good. You can't listen to any other music on YouTube. We get it.

I was watching a TikTok earlier today of someone finding an old Arthur vhs that has in it. I just can't stop thinking of them on the same level. Yeah, check out this cool new band.

Is that the chip? skylark? Yes. So they're talking about what they're going to be doing on the weekends. And she's like, Well, I got a point. Okay, I'm piecing it together now while I repeat it.

It's all coming together.

It's all coming together. Like, boomerang. It's all coming back. Anyway, she says, hey, I'm going out this weekend with Jock Boy, and he's got the new Girl of the Week. And I'm dragging along because I'm introducing them. I don't want to be the third wheel. Do you want to come along? And it's like, well, then I'll be the third wheel. It's like, no, because I'll also be there. That's how the wheels work. And we'll be a car now instead of a tricycle.

None of them can count, which is a vital thing that they don't mention.

Is it that vital? I don't know. I've been pretty good. She also says, like, oh, the new girl's also a classical musician, so maybe that'll be your fancy, because I know how much baggage you have with music and you hate it now. And he says he gave up being a musician. She's like, oh, really? Then why do you keep transcribing like, sheep music all the time for whatever you're listening to? And she points out he's hanging on to it still. He's still clinging to the music, even though he says he's giving it up and hates it. And he says it was his mother's dream for him to be a world class pianist because she never could. And get a flashback of seeing her with, like, a breathing tube in a wheelchair, totally sick and saying even though she was dying, she kept making him practice the piano over and over, trying to live her dream of being a world class pianist through him making him practice all the time and even beating him when he didn't practice or didn't do it correctly.

So great mom, unrealistic expectations of a literal child.

Sure.

There you go.

And he says that was three years ago and he was going to make it happen. He was on his way to being a world class pianist right when she died. And that's kind of alluded to that. That's what the concert was when he had his breakdown. And now he hates piano, but piano is all he has left because he put so much time into it. And he does tell her that his mom I think he did it wasn't just in his head, but he just says, like, yes, my mom beat me to play piano. She's like, but you're so good.

At it.

It's like, don't act like that, right? Yeah, don't act like it paid off. Like, there's a lot of vibes of, like, you're so talented that's like, yes, he was beaten into this at the shot. I don't like how much they're doting on his skill when it was forced upon him like this. And Subaki is trying to get him to play again someday, because it's a shame to let that talent go to waste. And the next day is the first to arrive at the meetup, and he's waiting around like, where is everybody? And he knows there's a pair of shoes and leggings in a tree, which is very weird. So he pulls them down, and when he's looking around, he hears someone playing the melodica. So he follows the tune and sees a blonde girl standing on top of a playground equipment playing a melodica to a bunch of kids. And as he's watching her, subaki's words resonate inside his head about falling in love and seeing the world in color. And when she finishes playing, the blonde girl turns around. It turns out while she was playing, she was crying. She starts coughing melodica killed my mother. My mom wanted to be a world class melodica player. Not a thing. She, like, coughs and says, like, oh, she went too hard. So I couldn't tell she was just out of breath or emotionally invested in the songs she was playing. And they stare at each other, and they lock eyes for a good long while, like, quite a few seconds, I would say.

A cute girl coughing is the equivalent of coughing into a tissue. And there's blood.

And one of the kids that she was playing, too, is like, oh, the pigeons didn't show up. She's like, oh, we just got to play them again. The song that sued the beast and the beast is Pigeons, and the song is melodica music. So the kids all break out their own instruments, and they all start playing with her on top of the equipment. And of course, he stands by watching him, listening to the song. He's like it's so breathtaking. She's beautiful and amazing musician. I got to snap a pic. And while he pulls his phone out, the pigeons show up, and a big gust of wind scares them off. But with the big gusta, wind also blows up her skirt. And koi sus got the camera out.

Whoops my favorite?

Yeah, your favorite in ours, the misunderstood pervert trope. And of course, she hears the camera shutter click and starts beating him up for taking an upscale picture of her, which he wasn't doing. It's a misunderstanding. And he also has her shoes and leggings and starts yelling at him about that. That's never explained why they're in a tree.

Who knows? Because she's weird and quirky, of course.

Yeah, she's zoe D chanel without the bangs. It's very manic. pixie dream girl. And then the two friends show up the jocks, and they were looking for them, and they introduced blonde goyal as kyrie kauri. I know these words. I wrote them. Why can't I say them? cowie and sabaki's classmate mccoy introduced to her calories, like, oh, I'm so sorry. I didn't realize that you were part of her group. My apologies. Ha ha. And then leans in, if you tell them about that picture, I will kill you. And, like, threatens him over it still. And Subaki teases them, saying like, you got here early so you could try and meet the girl on your own and make a good impression with you. Slide hug. And he's like, no, I showed up on time. You were the ones that were late. cowri runs off saying, like, all beans, I'm late. I got to go. Come on, guys. And turns out she's playing violin at the music hall that they were meeting in front of. And Koisi says he'll hang back. He doesn't want to go in there. And cowri grabs his hand, says, like, come on. You're part of the group today. And Boy is just so smitten, just so head over heels. It's just so many goddamn cherry blossoms in this entire show. Yeah, I picked it for Valentine's Day alone, apparently just for the cherry blossom budget, because we can't watch any more anime with cherry blossom. This one took all of them. But yeah. So they're running into the music hall, and that's where we end episode one.

I'd like to think every show that we watch immediately after we see a scene with cherry blossoms, there's just a man with a push broom just gathering them all up just to save them for this show.

I'll point it out right now. There's a scene in episode two where they have just the windows open at the school, and we see a bunch of sherry blossoms blowing in on the wind into the hallway. I'd be so mad if I was a janitor. Like, God damn it, everyone leaves the windows. I'd be so mad.

They're so pretty if you keep them outside.

Almost every scene outside or peripheral to outside had cherry blossoms.

I feel bad for anybody who's like, I don't know if cherry blossoms are like, in terms of allergies I don't know what that's about.

That would be terrible.

Just bubble boy.

Yeah, just a tourism industry built around something that will kill you.

Cheese.

So we start episode two. They are running into the concert hall. They're getting in just under the wire. And carrie runs backstage. So cose, of course, is freaking out because this was the same concert hall he had his freak out as a child in. So there's some real literal trauma associated with his place that he was not warned about. So understandably he's not thrilled his friend super don't care.

Ha. Trick into coming back to your childhood trauma place. Got you.

But you're so good at.

Maybe I just are beating you again.

To play the PA. Oh, God, it.

Feels like that at any moment.

Yeah. Already he stepped 1ft in the concert hall and people in the lobby just waiting for this separate violin concert to start are just like, is that that kid? Is that that kid? So he has a reputation for this freak out as well, and just his, like, general skill. So he's just doubly like, oh, fuck this. For so many reasons don't want to be. So they go in, they find some seats, and he is so pissed at Subaki, and she's like, I know I tricked you into reliving one of the worst days of your life, but I guess you'll be mad at me. He's like, yes, I will.

You are correct.

So the competition starts. We get a little bit of an explainer of how it works because the two friends total, like, classical music noobs, are like, we have no idea how this works. Why are they all playing the same song? And he's like, okay, yeah, so they're all going to play the same song. It would be wild for them to judge a competition and be like, yeah, you played a better song, so you're a better person. No, they have to all play the same thing so they can be judged one on one. So we see the first person playing and it's whatever. toddy immediately falls asleep. So he's down for the count and we see that cos, he's getting goose bumps. He hasn't been in this environment in so long. It's bringing back the good feelings as well.

He's getting goose house bumps.

Yeah. So the violinist on stage, they're playing to, like, a piano accompaniment to a beethoven song. We see the first two people play. The second one is, like, starting to struggle. But then county steps out. So she steps out, she says a quick prayer and is obviously immediately so incredible that people are like, Wait, but she's playing a different song. No, she's playing the same song just so good, people immediately aren't recognizing it. And she is obviously just shredding this violin shredding.

Yeah.

So she's going nuts. We see, like, the head judge get, like, furious and explainer for the audience surrogates of the two non musicians. cose is like, yeah, so she is incredible.

I'm in love.

I have a boner right now. But she's also really not lining up with the accompaniment that piano players getting pissed and having to match her speed and tempo. So she's making it her own. But that's not the point of this competition, so she's going to piss a lot of people off.

That actually made me really upset. I was like, that's so inconsiderate.

Like.

Yeah, but they get through the song. It's just a very long, beautiful sequence. I don't think we've mentioned, but this show is just gorgeous.

It's real pretty.

Yeah, just a beautiful long sequence of her just shredding. And she ends and gets a standing ovation from the crowd. But the judges are going through their scores and their heads. We see one judge is like, wow, she's incredible. I'm surprised. Like, looking at her form. She hasn't won any awards. I don't know her name. She's the best failure. Failure just does not advance through judges scores. Because they're all like, yeah, that's just we got a wild card here.

The head judge has to be actually held back. He's going actually feral because this girl's sort of riffing on beethoven or whatever.

Yeah. He's like, you disrespect the beethoven's rolling over in his grave. blah, blah, blah. But we get to an intermission and everyone out in the lobby is talking about her because it was just so head and shoulders above everything else. She walks out to go check in with her friends because she's done for the day.

She knows it too.

And two kids she doesn't know just gives her flowers. And she's like, oh, shit. Yeah, cool. And they're like, we hope you win. And she's like, I'm not here for the competition. That's why I entered this competition.

Because she's been out playing in that playground the whole time. You didn't have to come inside. Yeah, she loves an audience.

That's the thing. She loves the attention.

The pigeons aren't enough for you. But she runs over to her friends and co say is like, this is like something out of a movie. She's grateful and generous to kids. She's beautiful and shreds the violin. But she's running over to another man. Oh, no.

I can't literally with the dialogue. I watch the English dub for all three episodes.

Same. And it's just very like very flowery. Very flowery.

So like, the dialogue here is like and she runs to the hero, leaving friend A on his own or some shit like that. And I had to pause it and push my ipad away. I was like, shut the fuck up, dude. Jesus Christ.

I ain't going to tell you the dialogue. The monologue that was going on in my head when I was 14 was like a monkey clapping symbol. It's like no thoughts in there. Nowhere near to this level.

Yeah. So she runs over and everyone's like, oh, you did so amazing. blah, blah, blah. And she's like, oh, say you're a musician. How do you think I did? And he like, sputters for a second. It's pretty clear. He's about to be like, well, you blew the competition, so go to hell. But he notices her bracing. She actually cares what he thinks. Oh, he can't be critical. He says, you got flowers from strangers. That's good.

Must have been pretty good. I guess.

Yeah, it was like such a weird measured like I'm not going to give you any credit for the thing you just did. I'm going to say, like, other people seem to like it.

It's not my cup of tea. But I don't know. I guess you're popular.

So. We jump forward to end of the competition. Who cares about the other half of this competition? And she gets to advance because she was the audience favorite. So she truly was like the wild card pick. So it truly works. So it's the next day or later on, we see cos. He's like, poring over the sheet music to that beethoven song. He's like passed out on the floor of a classroom when watati walks in and is like, oh, dude, I thought you were dead again. Okay, cool. You're not. Because apparently he like, cose hit himself in the face with a basketball before and was like, I'm going to the nurse. And then just ditched and went to go play piano. Sounds very familiar to some high school experiences for me. But he's acting strange. So watati is like, what's going on? It's a girl, isn't it? You got a crush. And Cose is like, no. No one will ever love a dork like me.

One, yes.

But two, I'm just amazingly trained classic pianist. No romantic skills in my future. And we're taught. He's like, hey, you know, sometimes the girl has feelings too. And that is also important to a relationship. So someone could like you. Wow, that kind of caught me off guard because I've never really heard that in a teen romance of like no, you're pining your main character syndrome. That's not key to how romance works. It's two people genuinely liking each of.

Their, especially coming from the token fuck boy of the show.

Yeah. He's like, oh, by the way, I'm going to fuck another girl after school.

Bye.

But co say he's like I'm done. I'm just leaving school early. So he just starts walking home and he's thinking about her song and is enraptured the entire time. But who could it be waiting in his path home but cowdy? It's faked. So he's like, oh, hey, what's up? And she's like, oh, hey, friend day. You know how you're in the friend zone, but he like, finally recognized, oh, yeah, you're dressed in our school uniform. Now we can establish that I may run into you in the school and not be a stranger out in the world. So he's like, yeah, I was going to wait for wu toddy. I was going to surprise him. And we're going to walk home. And in his head, cosmic, oh, he said he was going to walk a different girl home. Awkward. Oh, yeah. He's at whatever sport he plays practice. And she's like, oh, cool. I'll go to the soccer field. And he's like, no, don't. That's so bad. You don't want to annoy him with your presence, right? That's how good relationships work. And she's like, oh, yeah, I guess. Well, you'll be my stand in then. She's settling for me. And that's where we end episode two.

Section of Every Good Relationship Settling.

So in episode three, cowerie and Jose jose.

That's it.

That's my brain. Because I just wrote a main boy. I didn't care to get his name.

That's fair. Honestly, that's fair.

Jose. They're eating at a cafe together. He's doing his stand in job. She's, like, taking pictures of the food before eating. Then she digs in. She's like, It's so good. And her, like, little cheebe reaction is bald. And I thought that was very funny. I was like, what? So he's, like, looking at her, thinking of how when she plays the violin, she's a force of nature, but right now she's just a girl. And then some little girls start playing a piano in the cafe. And cowerie is like, how cute? And what a happy piano. And he's like, nah, that piano is so unhappy. It's got a pot of flowers on top that could cause water damage.

Yeah, buzz kill.

Yeah.

Boo. boo.

This man.

Boo.

So kari goes up to the girls and talks to them and she offers COSE's assistance on the piano. And he's like, oh, no, I'm retired. And she pressured, but she pressures him into doing it. And he plays the right hand part for the little girl who's playing twinkle, twinkle, Little Star. And Cowerie sings it and the main boy starts to show off and everyone is impressed. And it's like one of those, like, everybody clapped sitting.

Oh, God. It really is.

But he has, like, a trauma moment and stops. And after that they leave. And cowri kind of loses sight of him, but sees him getting the attention of a little black cat. And kauri runs over and he says, oh, I used to have a little black cat just like this. I have to cough. Hold on. So she goes over and asks if he's really done with the piano. She says that she knows he was great and won a lot of competitions and played with an orchestra at a really young age, and, like, any young talented musician has heard of him. And she asks why he gave it up. He says, I play the notes, but I can't hear them. And the more he concentrates and gets lost in playing, his performance suffers. Says some poetic shit, says he cursed and nothing will break.

It tunnel vision for the years.

And she goes nuts on him, like, kicking him and stuff. And she yells, saying that he has to keep playing and that a life for them without music is death. And he's like, that might be true for you. And he remembers Wattadi saying that because she's in love, he likes her more. But it's not just that she likes watati. It's that she's in love with music and the violin and life. And that must be why she sparkles and he yearns for hern. And she tells him that she wants him to be her new accompanist piano. Accompanist sidekick. sidekick.

Can I disrespect you on stage?

I treated my last one so well.

I mean, he'd probably like it.

Yeah, truly acknowledges, yeah, the last piano player refuses to play with me now. Did I fuck you over?

Burned to my bridge. I need a new one. I'll be honest, I was a little distracted this whole scene by the cat because it's got big old ears and reminded me of Adam Driver.

And then, despite his objections, she says that it's not his call. I don't know what was happening.

A lot of people pressuring this kid in who seems to have legitimate baggage.

Yeah. He's not just saying, like, he doesn't have to say, I have trauma. Don't make me do this. Yeah, but it should be enough that he's just like, no, you're too good.

To clear read between the lines of my trauma.

Yeah.

I have to stop. At a certain point the next morning, the two of them run past subaki with cowri, yelling at him to be her accompanist, and he hides from her. At school. cowri and subaki are in Home EC discussing Cowerie's decision. And subaki is like, we'll just make him do it. So he's walking in the hallway when he hears a violin playing. He finds that the sound is coming from the music room where he plays piano, and there's sheet music everywhere. He opens a book, and there's more. It's stuffed into his locker. There's even some in his house. He, like, opens his window to yell at subaki, and she has it pinned up on her window on a paper, wasting trees, lot of paper. So they're just putting it everywhere, trying to convince him to work with Cowerie. A week later, we hear some students say, oh, that song is still playing. It's been a week, so we know it's been a week. He's laying on the floor of the music room. He's like, I just can't do it. And then we see cowri and subaki are on the bus, and they say the competition is tomorrow. And then Cowerie suddenly says that she'd feel bad if they forced him into performing, which I know. Yeah. What have you been doing this whole time?

Let me try manipulating him by pretending to be a good person.

Now, I don't want to force him into doing this. What if we gas? Let him go. What if we made him think it was his idea? Would that be better?

Subaki says they just got to push him around a bit, and they'll get Wattadi to help too. cowrie says, gee, with the way you talk about him, you must really like cose. But she says, no, it's like having a little brother around. She says, even if he never played the piano again, it would be fine. But I want him to quit on his terms because he seems, like, less lively without music in his life, and I would say he quit on his terms. I think just because he had a trauma doesn't mean I don't know.

I feel like he also maybe didn't go into it on his terms. So he getting out of it at any chance he could was his terms.

And why force him back into it.

To hey, the parent that yes, almost.

Like his terms now are, I'm not going to play. And you're like, no, that can't be it.

So she talks about the day he stops playing, and he acts like he's frozen in that moment. And she thinks that he needs to play again to, like, be in the present. She gets off the bus. Cowerie is left on the bus. The next stop is the hospital. And she gets off the bus at the hospital. Oh, no.

The drama.

The drama. That's what I put in my notes. So, time for the next round of the competition. We see cowri running up some stairs, gets to the roof of the school. Cose is up there, surprised to see her because she should be at the competition. She says she's been looking for him, and she says, who eats lunch on the roof? That's so cliche. And that was like the one time I was like, oh, that's funny.

It's funny. But they also acknowledge the cliche thing and still put it in the show.

But that's why yeah, you didn't make.

A fun joke about all the other tropes. You trained. Okay?

They should have a character just be like, God, why are there so many cherry blossoms this year? So he says he can't do it because he's not trained to be an accompaniment piano sidekick.

There it is.

Which is, I mean, a great reason. He says he wouldn't give a performance he's proud of. He can't play anymore. And she says it's not that he can't. He won't. He's making excuses. And then he says he gets vulnerable. And he says, when I play, I feel horrible. And then he says more poetic shit about feeling like he's at the bottom of the ocean and we could get more dramatic flashback stuff of the panic attack he had on stage at the last competition he played. He's like, I just can't do it. And she's like, but you'll have me this time. Someone you barely know and who's mostly bullied you. And she wants him with her despite his issues. Isn't that good enough? She says she'll give it everything she has and the audience will love her. So she's like, I was put here to make music, and so were you. And cowrie asks him to believe in her, and she says she's so close to losing heart, and she's crying. That's when he says he'll do it. And then watari and subaki bust out the door on the roof, and they grab him. They got to get to the competition. So they're rushing on a couple of bikes, and they haven't even played the song together. But cowrie is confident that they'll be good. And as they're going, he says, I've always lived in this town, but it's never looked like this. implying that it's now got color, because that was the theme in these episodes. And that's episode three.

Every music nerd needs a jock to adopt them.

Hey, I'm your assigned jock to teach you social skills.

Thank you so much.

I guess I was kind of my gym teacher. I had a gym teacher who just played dodgeball all the time, and honestly, it fucking rocked. It was great. I broke my glasses, like, four times, but I gave him some Star Wars video games and I didn't have to take the final, so incredible.

Shout out to that guy.

He's a great guy. Great teacher. Anyway, what are we here for? Are we there yet?

Yeah. This was an interesting one where it is visually stunning. It is so beautiful. You can really tell. Like, I can see why everyone loves that. This is, like, such a romantic thing. All these elements of dealing with such beautiful art and these feelings for the first time. But yeah, I think being, like, ten years later, we are bumping up against the white knight. Nice, guys. Finish last element.

Absolutely.

I think the one friend says it in the show.

Yeah. The forcing trauma for the sake of being good at the thing your trauma made you good at. Yeah, definitely. In retrospect, doesn't hold up quite as well, but I can understand why it is so popular.

Yeah, I guess I couldn't think of it while I was watching it, but manic pixie Dream Girl is exactly that, for sure. Yeah. I just really can't with, like it's such a nerdy boy fantasy of like, oh, she likes this boy, but the boy is actually not a good person. And he's 14 and a womanizer, but he seems like a genuinely nice kid. So for that to be the character that he's given of, like, he's talking to other girls when cowerie doesn't have strong feelings for him that we've seen, like, it's not a big deal.

I don't think she has any feelings for him. I think she's using him to get to piano boy.

Well, I think she thought he was cute at least.

Yeah, but they went on one blind date and they're like, why aren't they already married? This boy is talking to other girls.

Yeah. So I just don't like that.

Yeah, this is another one of those shows where I'm like watching it. I didn't have strong, objectively beautiful as hell. Even with the miasma of cherry blossoms.

That part can be compared to your name. They're both very beautiful.

They're beautiful. Watching it, I never had a strong man. I was like, yeah, this is pretty standard anime. But now talking about it and thinking back, I'm like, hey, yeah, wait a minute. I'm kind of like, hey, she sucks. And their friends also suck. Let this boy yeah, leave him alone. You don't want to play piano.

Yeah, sure.

He could definitely use therapy and sort some of that shit out but he doesn't need piano.

I have such mixed feelings about him because it is like, god, I feel bad for him that this has happened to him and also that his friends are trying to force him to play piano again. But also, I don't like his feeling sword calorie.

It's the same as like, Nana. Yes, everyone's dunking on her for being dumb she is, but not for the reasons you're dunking on her for like yeah, I also don't like her, but I also feel I need to defend her for the shitty characterization she's been given in the show. And same with the main guy in this one. So sounds like no, it was whatever.

In the end altogether. It's whatever.

It's a fun watch, but not the best choice for romance show in the year 2022.

Yeah.

So I was about to ask what we're watching next week. It might be my pick is that it is true.

Cool.

I will find something now. Actually, just kidding. We'll just skip over it for now because yeah, I don't have the brain.

Also works.

Cool. If there's a show you the listener would like us to watch, you can send your recommendations to us. Our email is arwibariat@gmail.com or you can reach out to us on Twitter or Instagram at arwibariat on both.

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

I really don't recommend it. Just overall, Twitter is an awful experience. But I'm going to try and refix my brain by rewatching on repeat the sonic Nine video that was made by an animator and Joy India Swift. It's Brooklyn Nine nine scenes, but with sonic characters drawn over them. Highly recommend.

It incredible.

Free video.

Speaking of artists, thank you to camille ruley for her artwork. And thank you to Louisong for theme song stories. You can find all of louie's music at Louisong Pangamp.com. Thank you and we hope you'll join us next week as we learn to live with anime.

That segue was so good.

God, I hate future diaries.

I love it.