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Hello and welcome to our week variant an exploration and education in anime. I'm your anime idiot, patrick dugan.

I'm an anime expert, dana hollander.

And I'm brenda mccullough. Your anime stand. Pollodoch. You know Michael jordan's assistant in Space Jam, played by Wayne Knight.

Oh, my God.

Very relevant.

Yeah.

I was waiting to see what your basketball knowledge would be. And of course, it was Base Jay.

I'm from philly, so I know Dr. Jay, but that's about it.

Wow.

But you already heard her voice. We have a lovely guest today, happily Aaron from Manga pod and the author of the soon to be book when the Last Dragon Died.

Yes, hello. Thank you so much for having me.

I specifically reached out to you because you have been a big anime recommendor.

Oh, recommendor.

I like of different anime series in manga. So I am very happy to have you on the show. Thank you for coming on.

Of course. Thank you for reaching out to me. Anytime I get to chat about anime, manga, any sort of thing, I'm always there to just word vomit. All of the stuff.

Actually.

Naturally, when you hear the words anime and manga, the next word you think of is basketball.

They go hand in hand the most intuitive. Obviously, I learned that word before because I could not figure it out. I was trying to say a word and he runs like, oh, it's this one, I think maybe intuitive. So I had to slip it in just because now it's just stuck. Stuck.

It's the word of the day calendar now in your head. But yeah. As the title of this episode will appear for listeners, we're watching Kuroka no bosque, which was a pick from yourself.

It was, yeah. You asked me, you're like, we could watch anything if there's something you want to watch. We haven't touched karoko yet. I was like, I will always talk karoko. Force people to watch karoko. Force people to read karoko. It is 100% my top five anime of all time and my number one manga of all time. Wow. There's just something and a lot of times, my favorites, they're like kind of all just decimal points apart, but croco, there's just something really special from the second I thought about reading it. And then when I got into it that I just connected with all the characters and their relationships and the writing and just excitement when it comes to how the action plays out within the basketball matches. And as somebody who doesn't watch basketball, I learned everything from karoko, so that's great. But yeah, I just connected with so much to the point where there's like 100 characters, there's just so maybe not 100. There's a lot of characters in this because you have like five from each team that you learn about. And so I at one point had every single character memorized and there's position, and so I'd only be able to drop position names. When I was talking about, like, haikala or hatami and all of this stuff. I don't understand the word that came after or eight point guard.

And it's something else. I didn't hear the rest.

Which point guard has which eagle eye? And then I know that it was.

Just I can't wait to hear Brendan try to say any of these names or remember there.

I got a lot of anime manga experience. I see the words, my mouth cannot handle it. I tend to just give them nicknames or call them sonic the hedgehog character.

We can't do that again.

Not again.

Never again.

Bad for playla magica.

My four year old, because I have a lot of croco merchandise all over the place. I have a lot of Croko figures that are like, they don't differ from each other a lot, but I have a lot of them. And so she would see them, and I have all the manga and everything. And so one time she asked me about it, and so I started reading the Manga tour because it has pictures and stuff. Cute. And she pronounces some of the names better than I do. I don't know if it's like a kid thing where the way they see them, like the pronunciation is just different. But she'll say the names better than I do. I'm like, Girl, we got to get you your own weeb channel.

We've heard of the anime experts. Now let's talk about anime prodigy.

So I can't give her a lot of credit because she has a bakugo pillow and she calls it karoko. Not quite, but she took it to daycare. She took it to daycare for showing.

This is my boyfriend bakugo.

A letter of the week. And it was K. And she goes, I should bring karoko. I was there when she walked up to her teacher. And her teacher goes, what's this? And she goes, It's karoko. And the teacher's like, okay, sure. So I'm indoctrinating her lunch to my husband when she watched sorry, I've derailed.

Of course.

Last thing was that she likes to watch the third opening for croco. And there's kisse in there. And she's like, I like him. He looks nice. And I told my husband, what are you doing?

So it begins, but when is she.

Going to watch or on High School Host Club? That's the real question.

Oh, that's true. That's a good one. She wants to I want her to watch Card captor soccer.

Oh, that's a good starting point.

That was my first one. That's a very good starting point.

Good.

So there's a lot that I want to show her. She watched a little bit of My Hero with us, which is how she became really wanting to learn about bakugo. Because she makes his snarling face all the time now. Anytime she sees it, she just makes the snarl. And I'm going, Great.

That's so funny.

This is what I want out of half. It's why I had children turn them into it.

Weebs. I feel like in, like, 30 or 40 years, after a few generations, there's just going to be an army of jocks, like high performing jocks who are rebelling against their nerdy parents. It's so nerdy.

Now.

Winning the heisman Trophy. naruto ichiko.

All the weaved names have been brought to America.

Everybody screw.

You dead. I'm not going to run like naruto. I'm going to run like an American athlete.

My track coach told me that's not the right form. Dad.

God, it's like you know nothing about sports.

What are you talking about? I watched all the sports anime stuff.

Do we need to watch Hi Q again?

Your form is terrible. I can't wait for President luffy to one day take over. Anyway, we've gone all over the place, so we're watching. You picked specific episodes. We typically just do one, two, and three if we have no idea if we're going in blind. But you picked episodes 23, 24, and 25.

I did. I don't know who's seen it. Have any of you watched it?

No.

Okay. Nobody? Okay, so I apologize if that was confusing, but 23, 24, and 25 are my favorite from the first season, and it was, like, top five favorite matches from the manga in the show overall. And I love the first three episodes of this series, but I feel like 23, 24, and 25 give a really good idea of how intense the matches can be and how the stakes of it's not bad versus good. It's like just the rivalry that's happening within it and just how cool moves can happen and the emotion that goes into it, too. So I hope it didn't completely can I say bad words?

Yes.

I hope it didn't completely get fucked up for you guys because you didn't watch the first few. But I just feel like those are my three of my favorite episodes from the series overall that I feel like give a really good idea about what the series can be in terms of the intensity of the matches and the characters relationship and chemistry and development and stuff.

Fantastic. If it helps, we already watched one piece where I picked episodes 247 483.

It makes me feel a lot better.

Jump around a lot.

Just a little bit.

Just a little.

Just a little. Oh, my God.

Amazing. All right, I'm excited. I'm ready to lace up. Get on the court, get some me.

And coat those do some fouls. Use your bird eye.

Sweet.

Donks got a pivot. Got a pivot.

Basketball words.

Referees.

Whisper night. Oh, we got a real nail biter on us. We got a real competition going on. It all comes down to this board of bands.

Oh, boy.

The monsters don't have a chance against our board. Jordan, I still only know spaceship.

And welcome to the Jam.

Hold on. And slam.

We can't go too far we could get copyrighted. We don't want to sing too good.

Let's fight now. It's opening for croco. Let's fight now. There you go.

Episode 23. Start right there. Were these the last three episodes of the season?

I believe, yes. Season one.

Yes.

I only saw 25 listed. I didn't know if this was a series wrap or a season wrap.

Yeah, there ended up being oh, my gosh. Three seasons, I believe is what it was. And yeah, it ended up being three. I think it was like, what did it end up for? Episode count, 75 episodes.

Wow.

Damn. Plus, sports anime. That's a pretty good run.

Yeah, so good. There are some that are like Prince of Tennis, I think. Got a couple hundred. apa diamond is still going, which is also a very good sports anime, which my other husband, mizuki, is in there. miuki? Oh, my God. He's going to divorce me.

I forgot my old name to name.

Anime heroes is rubbing off on aegis.

It's 75 episodes. Plus there's a movie called Last Game that comes out that's set after the series. But it does cover the entire manga, too. The entire manga gets and they do a really good job of one for one, bringing the manga to life. And the first season, the manga was really popular. But the first season, nobody super watched it till near the end. And then it took off. And so then the budget for the next two seasons is crazy. Increase. The animation that happens in the next two seasons is insane. Like, really good. Especially near the end, there's just stuff that happens where it's just like one long take of just basketball back and forth, passing and then going around. And it's just very dynamic. Near the end of this first season, there's definitely some really good animation that happens. And it just jumps up like two more tiers. It's just crazy. And as somebody who loved the manga and was so proud to see it becoming an anime, I was like, oh my gosh, it makes me so happy to have something done. If it's like when they're watching a basketball game happening animated or like watching it live, it's so fast. There's so much movement and all of that. And so when you don't have that in something you're watching, like an anime, it makes it not quite as exciting. So to see it happening in all its glory was really validating as a fan of it. Yeah, I love it.

That doesn't whet your whistle for the next season. I don't know what will.

Yeah, that's so good. Sorry.

So episode 23, we get the opening starts off real hard, like real intense, and it kind of mellows out, but it still gets the high energy and it's amping up for basketball and sports. So it's a good BOP to start with. And I'm going to apologize now because we're jumping into 23. I don't know these names I don't know.

I got you see, my biggest issue, once they got onto the court, I was like, yeah, I'll just use their basketball numbers. That's fine. But both teams have basically the same.

Numbers on it because in Japan, the number correlates to your position rather than identifier. Yeah. So you'll notice that the aces, like kiese and almine have the same number, I believe. I can't remember.

I'll tell you, those are the only two names I got.

They repeat it so much. Something you guys might have noticed, too, is that in bass, they do this very consistently. In all sports anime, is there's always someone in the audience to be like, what's happening? And then someone else goes, this is happening.

So we open up with a redhead and I'm assuming Karoku.

Yeah, karroko is the light blue. He is, yes. Okay.

Doesn't seem like a main character to me.

I know. It's one of the beauties of karoko. Yeah. You watch it all the way. When you start watching it from the beginning and then go all the way through, you realize how much of it is Karoco's story. As opposed to a lot of people think the other characters, it's them, and it is as much theirs. But it's like, mostly like karoko, who does not seem like a shonen protagonist.

No.

Especially with that little doggy on his.

Head, the little pop. So we see them running along like the coastline at night, kind of talking about how they're going to beat their rival teams. And then we cut to the title card and we cut back to it's a schoolyard and presumably a flashback at this point. And we find out to Kisse and another character who I don't know is relevant. I don't recognize his character in the other episodes, but it's everyone, like, trying to bounce a soccer ball, how long they get bounce it for. And it's this other character who seems to be the captain for the soccer team, and then Keysay, who are the last ones able to do it. And Keysay is just doing it, and he's like, it wasn't hard to copy what he did and to just be good at this and keep going, but now I'm just bored. And then he kicks the soccer ball into the goal because he just not because he can't do it anymore. Just because he doesn't feel like doing it anymore.

He's like, get to 100.

I did it.

I'm done. I have nothing to do.

Yeah.

So he's already shown his prowess with just athleticism already and like any good boy in high school, blonde earring and a model.

Yeah, of course. They are actually in the beginning of it. They are in middle school. This flashback is middle school.

Okay. You can never tell what the age is.

Do not look like middle schools.

We've seen jojo's already. I don't trust anything.

Hello. I am a handsome baby. Goo goo gaga.

I'm zero years old.

So, yeah, we got kisse. Seems bored, and he's just walking around, and then he just gets hit in the head. He's kind of thinking to himself, saying like, oh God, it's so boring. Like, I'm good at sports, my grades are fine, but I'm just bored at him. I don't find competition in it. And then he gets nailed in the hip by basketball, and he's just like, who the fuck? And then he finds you just said it, I'm going to struggle. almine bought them in the head with the basketball. He's like, oh, hey, sorry about that. Can I get back? And he runs off and goes, play basketball. And keise follows on me. He's just so taken without me. That just so beautiful.

Thousands and thousands of fanfic began.

Of course you could hear it starting, the pens rushing, the tension, the eyes, the eye banging. And he's immediately swept up by all me. And a being like this person, I have to get into basketball. I must challenge him. He's so good. And he could finally find a rival that can actually keep his attention and make him want to play the sport and not get bored with it right away. So then we come back to the present day and it's Key City playing against I mean, a tournament.

Yeah, it's the finals of a tournament or the semi finals. Semi finals.

Got you. Okay, that explains the intensity.

Got it.

Stem play gets rival team.

I can't remember. So the first half of the first season sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt. No worries. The first half of the first season, they do an intro, which I thought was going to be at the beginning of this, and it wasn't. So I feel really bad now. I apologize. So the whole premise of karoko is that in high school there was this team of basketball players known as a Generation of Miracles, and they became undefeated. And then they decided that all of them would go to different schools so that in high school they could find out which of them was actually the best. And so they all started out loving basketball and eventually just become by their third year, they become kind of basketball assholes. Not in their evil, but that they're undefeated. And so they're all super good and are very complacent with basketball. And so then, croko, it becomes his mission to make them love basketball again. And so he goes to a school that's brand new, has nobody there, they're not known for basketball. And so he goes there and teams up with a new team. And so the reason kiese and almier are having their rivalry thing is that there are two Generation of Miracles on opposite teams. So that's a big part of why they have all that history.

Got you so much context.

I know you love throwing it. If you have any more questions, let me know and I'll explain. Hopefully I can I feel bad for just throwing you guys in.

No worries. We got an anime bingo card, but he usually applies for the show. But I think that's an info dump we can check off on the bingo card.

Sweet. I'm happy I could bring it.

Yeah. So we got kiese on the white team and amine on the black team, and they're playing in the semifinals. And right away, as the game starts off, I think it seems to be like a slow start because it's only like one three pointer here and there right away. And we see a player on the black team get the ball and immediately do a quick shot, like three pointer shot. And they point that out because kesey then starts doing his secret sports ability, which is copying other players like styles and movements. So as soon as that player does it, keysay is able to do it right back for his team. So it ties it up three three. But when keese goes to do a shot, alma pops up out of nowhere and is able to deflect it before it goes in. So even with keise copying, he still can't get quite past Alma. Basketball is fun to watch. It's boring to listen to someone talk about it. There's going to be a good amount I'm just going to gloss over. Because it's basketball, some people get points, some people don't get points. They go back and forth. Yeah, we'll highlight the important stuff. And while they're playing the game, the white team captain is saying, make sure we are helping a key Se. So it looks like everyone in the white team is focusing on key se and trying to give him the ball and give him the best shot at winning against amina. And it seems like amina's team is doing the same thing with him. They know who their best player is. It's the generation of miracle players. So they're giving them the ball as much as they can. And while amine is trying to trash talk keyse and go to them into messing up, he just wants to beat him. Hold on. Keith says he just wants to beat amine, not necessarily do what the right thing in basketball is. So kind of just saying he just wants to beat him. That's his end goal, regardless of, I guess, the rest of the tournament or team. And then we see amine just run of circles on him. I got a lot of notes here saying he fake pass, crosses over, does a lob shot, like formless shot, and I was like, I'm so happy it's subtitle because I don't know what any of these are in basketball.

See, that is a nice thing because the people who create sports manga and sports anime know the vast majority of the people watching aren't going to know what all the technical stuff that's happening. And so it is nice to have people in the audience who know the sport be like, oh, he just did a crossover. He just did this and stuff so that you can be like, okay, I'm following exactly what that is without feeling, like, disrupted about what's happening on the game. Like, this is a nice context for this.

Exactly. You can see the example as they do it. So as they're still playing, keith says he knows amina is the best because he lost to him so much in the past. And that's when we start getting flashbacks of them playing against each other, like, one on one matches, and Keith just losing to him over and over and over again. But Keysay is still excited. Like, he's still smiling because he finally found someone he can be competitive with. He finally found a rival that actually matches his skill level and surpasses it. So even though he lost him so much, he thinks, like, this is the time. I can do it. This is it. Got that plot armor. I got to beat him this time. So they talk about how amanda's team is also very good, and they have, like, a precognitive defense where they can like, any good. They can kind of predict what's going to happen before it happens, and we see the other team going. And the captain of the black team, we find out later. I don't think his name was ever dressed, but he has glasses, so he's the designated EDA of this show.

That's what I wrote it down in my reality, though.

No, he's a little dickish.

He's a little shit. It's never about the personalities. It's just the glasses character glasses, check. Black hair, check, check, ida. That's all it is.

That's literally the only thing I'm doing I couldn't remember.

Ima yoshi.

Yeah.

Now I'm just thinking of yoshi.

Yoshi.

Call him yoshi slander.

Oh, God. I'm just imagine eating a yoshi costume. He's just gone so fast.

That's not fair. He keeps hitting the ball and just spitting it out.

He turned my defense into an egg. So the teams are still, like, going. Even though the generation of miracle players are totally the best ones, the teams are also still good. It's not like they're just sitting on the sidelines waiting for these two guys to just go one on one. So they're playing back and forth. They get a rebound shot. They sink it in. It's like 1813 at the end of the first quarter with kesey's team winning, and then they go on, like, a little break, and amine says he's got, like, an assistant or something on the team, and she has all the data on all the players and analyzes everyone, and she comes up like, oh, kiese is doing this. He's like, no, don't. I got it. He doesn't need help from other people. He's the star athlete. And that's kind of where that basketball asshole arrogance is sort of coming in, I guess, like you were talking about earlier and kisse on the other side of the court wearing like it's kind of too easy. We're already winning. And I've got a few shots off amine. So it's like, I don't know, how is it going to go. And meanwhile, amen's got this insane grand. If he could have the sharp teeth, he would he's that character was it red and Free randomly had the sharp.

Oh, yeah, that are like canon. They don't just laugh over it. Oh, sorry. I was just going to give context to almina's whole thing too. I don't know if I said this or if it was specifically addressed in these episodes, but his whole thing is that he is the best of the best of the best. And so he was also the one who had the most love for basketball. So basketball was like his life since he was a little baby. And then when he becomes the best of the best of the best, he loses any sort of competition. And people who are playing against him just give up because they're like, well, you're too good. I can't play with there's no point. I know that you're going to beat me. So it's not fun. And so he eventually just got bored and lost because he has no challenge against it. And so a big one. He's like a very big, not villain, but like antagonist of it. Not in the evil way of like he just needs somebody to play against. So that's kind of why he starts grinning. Because Key say there's a challenge coming from keyse and it's from this person he used to play against. And so it makes him excited. Like he's starting to find that love of basketball just in that challenge there because he hasn't lost. And so getting the thrill of being able to go out against somebody is like a really big step with his character development. And it's why this battle that's not.

The right word, battle with an anime fight, we can call it.

That game is like so important. And it's also the first game in the series that doesn't feature karoko or the main team. So it's the first game that you see two generation of miracles go against each other that doesn't have the main basketball team in it. So that's another thing that makes the match stand out too.

That makes more sense now. And then we see Karoku and his team sitting on the side, like in the stands kind of analyzing both teams and trying to get an idea of how they play. Because in the tournament they're probably eventually going to play against them. And I forget exactly who says I think it's Karoka who says like, amine gets more ant up in the second half of a game. So they're losing right now, but that's not going to be for long. So when the next quarter starts, the black team got taking it slow. And people are kind of thrown off by that being like, oh, they're not as aggressive like they were losing, so you think they would be. And then that's when we get Captainita Yoshi just talking up ammune stuff's getting real intense, and he's a big shit talker, and he's saying, like, having plans or, like, smaller teams, like small fries. We don't have plans. We just have skill. We don't need to think. We can just be that good. It's like, Damn, you're smuggish shit. But he's got omni, so he's kind of got a point.

Yeah, he has the evidence to back himself up. We're good. Ourselves are good, but we also got this Ace guy who's literally never lost in, like, three years. So I think we're really good.

We're chilling.

I just imagine the coach in the locker room before the game, just, like, furiously scribbling on a notebook, and it just says, Ball hard.

And right as he's, like, talking shit, like, we just got skills. ominous steals the ball from kissing and just runs down and just scores a basket easily. It's just like, Shit, he's got a point.

Yeah.

And so they're going a bit more. They tie it up through, like, a free throw, and the white team is putting everything on keyse, who's kind of looking like a little run down, a little tired. And that's when idiot starts saying, like, you can't just copy everybody, man. Like, if you're copying, you're not doing anything new.

You got to be yourself, man.

Yeah. Don't be just a copy of someone else break out of the mold, man. It's now a beatnick for some reason. And that's when the captain of keise teams, like, nah, like copying, is learning. He copies it, then improves it, and that's how he grows. That's how we all grow. And it's at that moment kesey gets past amine and goes to take a shot. But that's what amina just comes out of nowhere and just slaps that shit down, because that's not happening in his house. And there's a timeout called, and the coach is talking to Keith, and keisse asks, like, hey, can we do that thing I talked about before the game? I'm ready to unleash the secret weapon. And that's the end of episode 23.

Building it's building what's happening.

All right, so picking up in episode 24. We start off with Kisse up against almi, and kiese passes it, and almi notes that they're not playing as aggressively as they were initially. So something's up. Something's changed. So amne goes up for a sick dunk, but gets a charging foul, just barrels over someone so the shot doesn't count. And amne keeps scoring on Kisse, and kissei has a little fantasy. He's so cool. I look up to him so much. I'm so deeply in love. But he has the realization that since he learned everything from him, he can't possibly overtake him because he's just too good. And so we sort of get, like, an explanation on how Kisse can copy. Other players of his own skill level, but he can't just magically watch someone in the NBA and just play at, like, shack levels. It has to be on par with his own skills.

I feel like this moment where they're explaining it is very much like, well, yeah. Isn't that obvious?

Yeah. Remember, it can't magically be good. I know this is anime, but still.

It'S a nice little room. Oh, go ahead. I'm sorry.

Oh, yeah, I was going to talk about my clown father, pennywise in it. Chapter two, they have this, like, realization where they like, oh, it only is as strong as the form it takes. And it's like, yeah, what do you mean exactly. Of course he can't, like, possess someone and just take their skill. No, that's impossible.

Yeah.

He said, can't copy shack, and his shins just sprout, like, four more inches.

His skill is that he's big.

He's very good at selling pizza now.

Very good at underselling artists and trying to get them to do animation for Dirt Sheep.

Shack, we're calling you out.

Keith always tips when he commissions art.

He's a good boy. So we get to the half time, I was like, it's not intermission. What is the word?

They call it an intermission, though.

Half time show.

They also call the locker room a dressing room. So I don't know what's going on in the place. Some theater kids translated this. So eda gets half court shot just as the buzzer goes. So they're in the lead going into halftime. So they're in the locker room sort of taking a second to get it all together and get the head in the game. Yeah. And keyse says, hey, I need a little bit more time to copy the moves. It'll likely not come until the end of the third or the start of the fourth quarter. So basically, he's going to be just observing, not going as hard. So the team is like, oh, can we make it if our ace is just hanging back for half the game? And we also have the pink hair girl that was in the crowd talking about the other team. Her name is satsuki.

Satski.

Satski, yes.

She is the manager for alma team, and she was also the manager in high school. And she's like, Almine's childhood friend.

Got you.

I knew she was aligned with almi somehow, but I did not know the specific.

I got you.

Well, she is in the black team's locker room and saying, hey, watch out. kisse. I know he can copy people. He's going to try to copy Almine. And the whole team is like, but he's the best. He can't just copy him. But alumine accepts the challenge and is like, I'd like to see that scrub try. He, of course, is the anime protagonist of this episode. So he has to go be moody by the river. So he goes, take a breather. And we got Karoko with a little puppy on his head just walking up and checking in with his buddy. So he says he is just watching the game and he doesn't know who will win, and neither does kisse. It's like the first time he sees his confidence waiver and he's not like, yeah, I can take this guy. He seriously does not know if he can be Almine, which is character development for him.

Yay.

Yay. That's why he's so excited.

He's got the fire passion, the flames.

The flames of realism. Knowing your limits is power.

I'm powered by the flame of I don't know, he's kind of tough. It's a rough game.

Can I win though?

So they're back in the game. They started off and immediately kisse manages to copy one of alone's crossovers. And it's faster than expected, so everyone is caught off guard. They thought they had more time.

Daddy.

And then there's a foul on eda for something. I forgot the specifics to write it down, but sure. So everyone's like, wow, kiese is really bringing it now. He's going to take Almine, huh? And they note, no, he's only copying his skills when he's not being guarded by almier. So he's still not fully confident. He's only going against the lesser players as of right now. So then there's various scores and everyone's getting point.

Lots of baskets, lots of points.

I'm just skimming through, seeing what's the most succinct way I can get this.

And every time kisse starts like hopping amnesty style, someone on ominous team fails them kind of just to stop them from getting that basket. Like, no, don't let him do it. Like, once you get the hang of it, he's going to plow through us.

Which is something I love because they're just like, we can't let him. Like, they do start getting a little scared of keysafe because they know what he's trying to do. And even if they're like, well, he's never going to beat alma, they're still like, oh shit, maybe he can. And so they're just starting to get more and freaked out while Keysay's team is getting a little bit more chill and comfortable because they believe in their ace so strongly. So I just love the little building blocks of kiese during this match as he gets closer and closer to alma. And it makes him a little bit less than just the pretty boy flaky that you expect him to be early on.

Yeah, he's not just that one earring.

Yeah, he's got so much more, so.

Much more to that ditzy face and head.

His pretty eyelash is pretty.

Such a pity boy.

One thing that Keith also picks up on is he has teammates and they can also do when they get here, development. So, yeah, he's starting to let the others take the lead as well since he's still getting warmed up in his copying. And we get some various teammate shots of unnamed players, at least to me, scoring, rebounding, all that fun stuff. And once they get or, he goes up against Almine finally, and he breaks past him. He finally copies and learns that he can get past him. But when he goes up to get a dunk, amine fouls him, but he still scores because he throws it behind him and just aloups it to himself and just scores even though he was fouled. So he gets an extra free throw from that sick. And with that free throw, they now have a single digit. Or the black team has a nine point lead. So finally single digits. They're catching up. And he realizes that the copying is finally working. So he starts to fumble, kisse, dunks. But amine realizes, oh, this is also part of his plan. I have four fouls on me now. I think at five. You're benched or something.

You're Richard? Yeah. You're kicked from the game.

Got you. I didn't know if you were benched for the quarter or the whole game, but yes. So he's one more foul away from being kicked out of the game. So he's like, this is also part of your strategy. Now that I'm at risk of being ejected, you think I'm not going to go as hard? fuck you. I'm going to just go hard. And he won't back down. And key say seeing him still go as hard as he has been going accepts the challenge. And that's a very succinct episode 24.

One of my favorite episodes, watching that.

When the game goes hard, you go harder.

Yeah.

It hard. So much with the ship.

Wow.

Sorry.

I was just going to say it's.

Hard to avoid it with us, but I just went hard with you.

Yeah. All right.

It was a good one.

So episode 25, the final episode of the season. How exciting. What will happen? I bet they'll play basketball.

Let's nah.

At this point.

Beach.

It's so weird in this episode. Yeah. They just go to the beach. They just, like, hang out.

Maybe the holiday.

Yeah. We're back. We're back in the game. We get, like, a little recap of what happened, like, right before the beginning of this episode. And each team is on their bench talking strategy. And the black team coach is pretty much saying, like, we need Almine on the court, but he also has four fouls, so there's a chance that if he gets that fifth one, he'll get benched, which would also be terrible for us. And then Almine says, just pass the ball to me. You guys don't matter. Just let me fall.

His famous line from the show is, the only one who can beat me is me, which spawn many memes. When they make those, like, fake anime valentine's Day cards that are inspired by certain anime that are just like memes, al meanings is always to me, from me.

I just love that he doesn't need anybody else.

It's also a very ominous thing to say when your rival in this match is copying you exactly.

Yeah.

And then the captain, yoshi eda, he's like, yeah, just do that. We have to win.

Sure. I have a date later. I'm not fully invested.

Whatever. And then on the white team, they're talking about how Almine has a chance of getting taken off the court, and that their only chance of winning at this point, really, is quice just charging through and getting that form down. And it's time. It's fourth quarter time, and they play basketball, and pretty much all the action at this point is just between keise and Al Mine. Almine scores, and then kiese does the exact same thing that he did. And this continues for, like, four points. Or baskets. baskets are worth more than one point. And it was at this point I wrote the note. This goes on. I wonder how many people ship these boys, because the tension is just.

Delicious.

And then we get, like, commentary from Jesus Christ. Name of the show? caraco.

I like, I forgot if it was caraco or Karoko.

Yeah. His team is watching this game, and they kind of just like they're the ones giving the commentary the whole time, so we get more of that from them just talking about what's happening on the court. I made myself laugh with this. alamine is in his mind, he's like, tse got the same eyes as kuroko, but I didn't know it was kuroko at the time. And I just kept calling him dead eyed blue hair boy. Nothing. His eyes convey anything. So I laughed because I was like, what do you mean? Kissesay's eyes are so intense right now.

Yeah, they didn't do, like, the side by side comparison with a shot of it was Karoka in the stands, just sitting there watching. Not like a flashback of Karoku in the middle of a match being intense or anything.

In the manga mc Eyes, manaka does at the end of certain chapters, he does little omakay, like, just a one off, cute little comic that's making fun of himself of what he wrote in the chapter. And so for that one, it's like, he has the same eyes as Kiruko. And then at the end, it's like alma being like, Wait, does he? He really does. There are different shapes.

Love that. And then we get this blonde boy on the black team. He's like, I feel like I haven't done anything this game. And I'm like you haven't. Really? No one has.

Speaking of pocketgo.

Yeah. Spiky blond hair boy.

Spiky blonde hair.

And then, jeez, I should have given myself more context for this. I wrote, there he go.

You fill it in, listeners.

I think keise does something. Is it keise or Almine kisse? He breaks off and, like, draws al.

Mean, just kind of floats away.

When he jumps off.

When he jumps. But it looks like he's just kind of floating, like, to a different planet.

So there's a minute left and kisse has to score. So he takes off down the court, I think.

Yeah.

And then Almine is in front of him, and he's like, should I go left or right? And then surprise, he goes up. And I think that's when Almine jumps. And he tried passing the ball to his teammate behind him, but shucks, Almine blocked it, slapped it down. darn and Almine says he knew he was going to try and pass it because before he did, Keith kind of looked to his teammate, and it was at this point that Almine was like, I don't rely on my team. And I'm like, that's not a great mentality to have for a team sport. Almine, you need your teammates.

You lost because you weren't as big of an asshole as me.

I wonder if he ever learns his lesson. Please tell me he does in three seasons.

No spoilers. But Karoko wins over everyone's heart. So no.

Okay. Thank God. Love that the game isn't over. More basketball happens. There's more sexual tension between these boys. And cuse. At a certain point, he just says, I don't care if we lose at this point because obviously that's not going to happen. I mean, we're not going to win, but I just don't want to give up. I want to finish strong. And then it is over and the white team loses. darn shocked and unexpected. rooting for I know, right? And he say is like, so exhausted that he can't even get up. And then the team captain comes and he helps him up and he says, don't worry. This isn't over. We're going to try again in the winter, which is lovely. Love that mentality cry.

I love it.

Just sweat.

No bun. Boys cry. Brendan and then someone says something to Almine, and he's like, I'm a winner. I have nothing to say to these losers. shitty.

Yes, he's a big old asshole when it comes to basketball.

He's a bad boy when I can fix him.

And then I don't know his name, but the captain of the white team, who I repeatedly called eyebrows, he's got bigger eyebrows. He's got some eyebrows.

Kasamatsu.

Kasamatsu. He says, even though we lost, we got a finish with our heads held high. Don't mope around. We're the top eight, baby. And I'm like, hell yeah, dude. Great. And then they're back in their locker rooms, and the black team is discussing how the game went. And the captain starts talking about how this wasn't even alvine's final form. He could go further beyond plus ultra. And then we see the white team is leaving, and kesey is like, oh, we're senpai. And then someone's like, oh, yeah, he stayed behind. And yeah, there's a very sad scene of the captain of the team crying in the locker room. Yeah, it's hard.

See anime, no one dies. They just graduate, basically dying. Or they get injured. But graduation is death in sports anime. And so it's really sad because it happens a lot where they'll be playing like it's the last time, like, last game the seniors are ever going to play. And so you're sitting there and you're like, you want them to win, but if they don't, you're like, no, my heart is going to break if you don't. And then it happens. Poor cosmatsu.

Yeah.

It's kind of refreshing from all because superhero stuff is so big, and it's always the end of the world. Or even with anime. It's like the universes are going to implode in on each other. It's just kids playing basketball, but they really want it. Yeah.

And this isn't even like the finals. It's the semifinals. They're like, yeah, we're top eight. That's fine.

Yeah.

But yeah, it also just got me because he was, like, holding his head high and being strong for his team. And then once he had that moment to himself, he was like, fuck, man.

I want to weed his tough demeanor down.

Yeah. And then they start focusing again on the main team of the show. Who. I had no idea who they were. I was like, okay, they're in the opening. One of them is obviously kuroko. I thought it was the redheaded boy because he just has more main character potential. Yeah.

Big stone and energy.

Yeah, I love that. The spiky hair. And they're like, well, all we can do is go home and practice. We're going to get stronger, and we're going to do our best. And then there's like an interaction in the hallway between two characters I've never seen and also just it seems completely inconsequential. I'm sure it matters.

Oh, man, I got to remember. What do they look like? I can't remember.

One has sunglasses and green hair and okay.

They show every generation of miracle, I think is what they do. Yeah. They show little glimpses of them.

Got you.

They were all damn watching.

Yeah.

So they just kind of have a quick conversation about how good kisi and Almine are. And then there's a purple haired boy eating snacks who's mysterious. And then Blue Boy, who I now know is caraco Karoko. Sorry. He's practicing his shooting. And I thought this was very funny because the red boy comes up and he's just like, you practicing because you're literally terrible at everything else other than passing because he is so bad.

But it makes him a team player.

Yeah. Precious.

And then they have a little conversation about how good the other generation of miracles players must be at this point. And then they have a little moment, and the red boy donks and then the episode is over.

The episode and the season finishing with the dog.

Yeah. How else can you end know them?

It's a little more impactful. Yeah. How can you end a season without, like, having a point happening? It's literally a point.

Just a quick junk.

Remind you we're cool. We brought some emotions out at the end, but we're still duncan, we're still here.

Did you miss us? For three episodes?

We're back.

We still know how to play basketball.

So that's croakano bosque. So, dugan, are we there yet?

The title and the question. Question for the ages.

I have such a weird relationship with sports anime where they're always so interesting. Even though I'm like I know I don't really care about the subject matter in everyday life, but this narrative you're just drawing me in and I think this is these were good episodes to watch. Especially since this was not the main team right now. So you sort of get the vibe of the show without sort of, like, spoiling the main dynamics of the actual main characters. I'm definitely interested in this.

Great.

Yeah, I've heard it talked up so much by maybe some people on this bucket, so I knew it wasn't something that was like, oh, I don't get it. It's kind of just disjointed. Like, I knew there was a good story there, and you telling us that, oh, the animation is good at the end because it's the season finale, but it amps up much more than later seasons. I already thought it was good, so if it just gets better, that's even better.

Yeah. I got to say, while I was watching it, I was a little bored. But it's just because we don't know a lot about the characters, and I just don't like sports. But I'm the kind of person where if I hear someone else talk about something and talk about their passion for it and how much they enjoy it, I'm like, okay, yeah, for sure. I get it. And then also, you giving us context helps a lot, too. So I'm definitely more into it now thinking about it than I was while watching it. But I just love your excitement and passion for it.

I love it. Oh, man, I'm glad it spills over. It comes across okay. Believe me.

We've had plenty of episodes where some people's fashion didn't spill over too well. Like mine. Yours is presented in a much nicer way.

I'm glad. Yeah. I will talk about it forever and forever. My dying breath is going to be Karoko is the best.

Kill me.

Put it on my grave. Loving mother, wife. kuroko's best.

Kuroka is best boy. Yeah. No, I love Kuroka so much, and, like, if you really get into it, something I love about sports anime is that it's always so character driven because you don't care about matches. You're not going to care about a match if you don't care about the characters. And I think Karoko does a really good job of making you care about the chemistry between them. But also, all the characters are so different and so dynamic that even on different teams, they don't have just cardboard cut outs of every single character. Each one is an individual that they stand out once you get to know them more because you're like, oh, you have this personality, and this one and this one, and it's just insane to me that you can have a huge cast and have every single one be different.

Yeah.

But yeah, watching Karoko's journey from the very beginning and how he is very when you get to the end, you realize that the Karoko from the start is so much you understand why he's less not as emotional and closed off. Once you get to the end, you're just like, oh, all of this stuff makes sense about who the Karoka at the beginning is versus who he is at the end. And it's also like a found family slice of lifey thing.

Oh, we love that.

I love that 100% of found family and that all of them find, like, their teams are where they're supposed to be. Even if some of them you're like, this is a little weird of a diet, but you're happy. And so it's just, like, really heartwarming when this stuff happens. And you don't have to worry about people dying. It's not going to happen. And even when there is a real villain, they're just really fun to watch. They're not like your stereotypical villain. And so, yeah, it just has all of this wonderful stuff to it. And I just love the creativity when it comes to the matches because just like, how the characters are so varied, the matches are so varied, too. Even when you have two teams playing against each other who already played against each other, which is also very impressive to have happen because it could get very repetitive. But it's not every single one is an individual, which is why people could be like, this is my favorite match, and this one is mine, and have all sorts of different favorites just because every single one is different from each other. Sorry, I could go about it. And they're just great. And you can ship there's thousands of ships, which is awesome. Shout out to Fujoshis for keeping the series alive and making it super duper popular. But no. I love circle. I know so many people who just watch it and can get segue into sports anime from it.

I mean, he was basically introduced to us with a puppy on his head. Of course. Yeah.

Did they say what the puppy's name is?

No.

Number Two.

Number Two? Yeah. I can't remember it because when they found it, they were like, it looks a lot like Karoko. So his full name is Karoka Number Two.

I thought it was like a basketball. Like Number Two was a position on the team or something. He's like a defender. Okay.

So much simpler than that.

Yes. He's just the main character, but the second one. Well, thank you, Aaron, for coming on, introducing us. So lovely, beautiful boy basketball world.

Thank you for having me. This is really fun. I'm really appreciative that you guys had me come on talk about this and that. You guys are enjoying it too.

Yeah.

I think it was good. It seemed strange to just get thrown at the very end of the season, but I think it helped a lot for picking those episodes, so I think it paid off.

Yay.

Do you want to plug anything you got? Your book, your Twitter handle manga pod.

Yeah, I used to have a YouTube channel. It still exists, but I'm not super active on it. The main thing that goes on there is Manga pod, which is a podcast in which me and other co hosts get together and talk about all or part of a manga that we have read that week. Some manga we've done a few episodes on, some we've only done one, but we have spanned it's like 200 and some episodes. At this point I think I lost track, which is very unprofessional. But we have talked about a lot of manga. Yeah, I'm sure that we have discussed one that you guys enjoy. If you want to go and search for Manga pod, I also do a lot of mental health awareness videos. It's very important to me and I also have a lot of anime reviews and first impressions and stuff on my channel. If you wanted to go look at that, it's Happily Aaron. And then I am also Happily Aaron on every other social media site. I am currently working on my first book, it's called The Guardian and the series title is when the Last Dragon Died. I am in the third revision. It got crowdfunded last year, which was just absolutely mind blowing to me. And so I have a goal of having it come out early next year and I'm really excited about it. I hope everyone it's very anime inspired, of course, and it follows these two boys who are in like oh shit. With sword. Oh my God. dystopian there it is. Oh my God. I've only worked like 200,000 words of this book. It's all good. dystopian world where all the dragons have died, were killed off by humans and then a new breed was born that are half human, half dragon. So it follows two boys whose home country is very evil with how they treat the guardians, which are the hybrids. And so they go through all this stuff, they decide to get revenge on their country, they join a resistance group and there's this changing relationship and stuff. It's lgbt, which makes me really excited. It's young adult fantasy is the category. And if you want to go to When The Last Dragon Died, it is the website that has updates and stuff. You can see the COVID there as well as the thank you. I love it. Tony infante is who made it and he is absolutely just insanely talented. I also post updates of that on my Twitter, which is Happily Aaron. And if you want to come see pictures of my babies, I do that as well. Or talk croco or tie dramas. I'm really into those right now, too. Very obscure, but they're wonderful. So, yeah, that's my stuff. Thank you guys so much for having me on again.

Thank you so much for joining us.

Wonderful.

I loved it. This was so fun.

Yeah, that's good to hear.

And if there's a show you would like us to watch, you can send recommendations to us at arwibaria@gmail.com. That's our email address. Or you can reach out to us on Twitter and Instagram at areweevar. Yet. You can find me on Twitter and Instagram at mrpatrickdugin.

You can find me on Instagram at queen. Period Weebu, and on Twitter at queen underscore weebu and queen underscore weebu art.

You can find me on Twitter at aBTS brendan. It stands for Almost Better Than Silence, which is a video game podcast.

I also do thank you to camille ruley for our artwork, and thank you to Louis zong for the use of our theme songs stories off the album beats. You can find all of louie's music at Louisong bandcamp.com. Thank you, and we hope you'll join us next week as we learn to live with anime.

Bye bye.

One on one dunk.