AWTY 146 - Papa Baseball (My Little Monster)

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

I'm an anime expert, dee hollander.

And I'm brenda mccullough. Your anime 1989 American comedy film starring Fred savage and howie mandel doing a.

Lot of IMDb work.

I'm going to tell you, the only reason I know about that film is because of homestock.

Just restart the episode.

No, we're in it now.

This went in a wrong way.

I think it's that movie.

You ever wake up and be like, oh, it's going to be a weird day? That's sort of what just happened here.

Yeah, I had Jack in the box last night. I knew that it's 05:00 p.m., but.

The day just reset and we're like, oh, no. The clocks just turn back to 10:00 A.m..

Here we go. That morning punchiness the American film. I have references call it little Monster.

Yes.

Just for anyone who doesn't feel like looking up my archaic references.

Yeah.

Thank you. Thank you. That was me. I didn't want to look up your archaic.

That's fair. They're not good.

But yeah. What was that have to do with this week's show?

It has only to do with the title, I hope. Watching my little monster. Yeah.

Howie mandel also in this one.

Weird big anime fan. Who knew? Yeah.

He tried to get into dubbing.

Makes sense. He's Canadian.

Yeah. Like I said last week, I wanted to do a nice little romcom for me. I deserve it.

Just a mental reset.

Yeah.

I was going down my list and I looked this one up and it had good ratings, so I was like and I read the description and I was like, this seems fun.

Let's try it.

We're so scared now. I read it. It looked okay. There's no weird third episode twist.

You always got to double check. Have either of you heard of this program?

Not at all.

Not it sounded familiar, so I looked up the title and that's where I found little Monster, that 1989 American cult classic masterpiece.

But now, clearly you're looking for this one, right?

Yeah, not the 2019 one about zombies with the woman that starred in Us. That actually seems good in a well made movie. No, I'm going for those Fred savage deep cuts. But no, I don't know anything about the anime.

Great. Yeah, we were just discussing it came out in 2018 and I had thought that it was older than that, but it's not. So I was surprised.

I was like, you said the manga ended 2013.

Yeah. Was that it?

Yeah. Okay.

So, yeah, like a weirdly long gap in between.

Yeah, it said it actually started the manga started in 2008 and then ended in 2013. And then the anime came out in 2018. So five years in between all of them.

Yeah. Just work in five year increments. Oh, wouldn't that be nice? Don't do anything and then take a five year break.

It's only the wood side.

I don't want to think about how old that movie is because I will fade to dust.

Believe it came out in 2000 and turning into dust and blowing away.

I'm old.

We have to put Brendan back together quick. Get the glue out. All right, we're going to take a break. We'll be back. After watching the first three episodes.

I was expecting a lot more monster. It's going to be real with you.

You wanted it to be real monster boys. Real monster. Yeah.

Murray element to be found. We're back in it. We'll come in on there.

Like, me, just give me some scales. I don't need a lot. I can work with stuff.

Maybe some horns.

Yeah. Having monster in the name of your anime is a very loaded term.

You got a lot of perverts out here. That's a loaded title.

Yeah. And because of the title, I was expecting there to be more contention, but there wasn't so much.

Yeah, this is a very mild show.

I'll set it up. I liked it a lot because it reminded me a lot of something I would watch when I was twelve. So let's go. Which is exactly what I wanted this week. So I'm in it. I'm happy. So we open on episode one with some cherry blossoms, chess.

So you know there's going to be smooch in.

Exactly. And a voice is telling us that she has lots of stories to tell about a lot of people, including a chicken. So that's fun.

My first knows ooh, chicken.

Yeah.

You have my attention.

Go on.

And then the opening starts, and I was like, oh, some light pet play.

Okay.

He has the boy in a collar more than once and a leash.

Yeah, it's a pretty standard opening. The song is pretty catchy. I listen to the song every time. But yeah, we see like, a silhouette of the two main characters with the girl dragon, the round, the guy on the leash. I was like, oh, we getting into the kink anime. We get in kink here.

You want to know?

All right.

I've been reading a manoa called the sensual M, which is about a guy who's like he's got, like, imposter syndrome, kind of where he's very accomplished at work, but then he likes to be a little pet boy, and it's very sweet. And I was like, I'm unfamiliar with the concept.

I don't I don't understand. Can you explain more, please?

Go ahead and google.

Careful.

But yeah, that that's what immediately came to mind for me. I was like, I know this isn't that, but so we meet Shizuku. She is in high school, and she sits next to a guy named Hariyoshida, but he has not been around since he beat up an upper classmen. And now, like, yusuke urameshi, he's got a lot of rumors floating around about him that he's an evil kid that was covered in blood from this fight and all this stuff.

Yeah. They show a shot of, like, he got into a fight, and there's just a blood silhouette, locked body lying on the wall. I was like, what the fuck happened?

So she's like, I don't care about all that stuff, though, all that teen drama. I care about my dreams. So I'm focused on calculus. And that's it. Yeah. And a woman comes up to her. We find out later that she's one of the teachers and she sends her somewhere. So she's looking for Haru. And this place I'm still not 100% sure what it is, but we go back there a lot. It seems like Haru does live there, but it is also like a recreation center. Like, it has batting cages and, like, arcade games and stuff.

Yeah.

It's never elaborated on beyond this is the fun teen hangout spot, right?

Yeah.

That also houses children.

Yeah. It's unclear.

Yeah.

We'll just call it the community center. Yeah.

And, I mean, they show the front of it a lot, but they never put subtitles, so it says what it is on the front of it.

It's ran by an angsty 20 some year old. I'm sure he's great with the kids.

Yeah. Cool guy in sunglasses. So, yeah, she's looking for Haru and he's there getting angry at a video game, and this cool guy at the front desk tells him that he has a guest, and he sees her and jumps out the window to avoid confrontation.

He's also very shy in high school.

She just goes up to the guy and she's like, I'm just here to drop off his school work, so here you go. And then as she's leaving, he's, like, rustling around the bushes, and he grabs her and pins her to the ground, which is, like, fun visually, but also like, stop. Please stop grabbing her.

Haru not great.

Not great. But he asks her if she's a spy for the school. And she's like, no, I was just here to give you your homework. If she really quickly gets away from him. And as he's, like, sitting there talking to himself about it, she tries to sneak away, but he's like, hey, wait a minute. What's your name? And she tells him, and he blushes. And he's like, is this like when a friend drops off homework for, like, a sick friend? Does that make us friends? And he says, you can call me Haru because we're friends now. And he like, all of a sudden gets very sweet, and it's like, okay.

Well, we also see the chicken walking away at this point, first appearance of the chicken, which is like, got my eye on you.

Very important.

Yeah. Plot and stuff. But this chicken, this chick is watching, waiting.

He's the real plot. No, it's a rooster. They say it's a rooster.

Yeah, it is a rooster.

So she goes back to school, talks to the teacher. She asks how it went. And Shizuku is like, yeah, he called me his friend, which was weird and stupid. I don't have friends. And the teacher thinks that maybe she could convince him to come back to school now that his suspension is lifted because he won't talk to this teacher because he doesn't trust the school anymore because he just got suspended. They didn't let him explain himself or anything. But she doesn't want to do that. She just says no. And then she's like, I'm going to steer clear of that guy. I don't want to be around him. Really. And then she's walking home from school and again grabs her, pulls her into an alley. Haru, please.

Oh, don't worry. He gets worse.

It's downhill from here.

He tells her to follow him. He says he found a stray dog. And then she I've heard this before.

This is a kidnapping.

No, we all watch the soap, right? Because the line he says when he pulls her in definitely stuck out to me.

What does he say?

What was the line?

He pulled her in and he says, make a peep and I'll rape you.

And I said, that's not what my subtitle said.

I did not see that.

I got to wonder where I got my show from then.

Yeah, mine just said, did you get.

The Ghost Stories dub?

Yeah, mine just said, don't say anything. Like, it was like, be quiet. Like, is anybody following you?

Okay. I'll say I got the odd one out then. Yeah, because yeah. What a fucking choice to put that line in. Because there's nothing else in these other three episodes that really stood out. So I'm just like, what the fuck is this?

Yeah, that's not great, but that's not what I saw.

Wild say this non canon.

Careful where you watch your anime, folks.

Yeah. So she says that she doesn't like dogs or animals in general. And we get a flashback of a dead bunny, a class pet, and all these little kids crying about it. And she's there, and she just says, hey, can I go home now? Even when she was little, she was all business.

I kind of get like, if you only give a ship out the bonnie, it doesn't matter.

Yeah, I guess the point of the flashback is that all the kids started calling her dry ice because she had no feelings. She was very cold. So that's kind of stuck with her. And that's kind of why she's like, I don't need friends.

I mean, it checks out in most of her behavior, so it's fair.

So they take the dog back to its owner, and then they're at a fast food place when a couple of haru's friends shows up and one asks for money, being like, that's what friends do. And that's like his word where he's like, friends, gives him money. What a dummy.

He actually clothes when someone says friends to him.

Yeah. And then there's one friend, he's blonde. That's his notable quality. And he seems very interested in Shizuku as they're, like, walking out, he like, lingers looking at her. And then Haru asks her what school was like. He asks if it was fun, and she's like, if you want to know, you should go back. And he says that he's scared because everyone is afraid of him. So he's nervous to go back to school and be shunned.

So I missed this. Do they say how long his suspension is? Because they kind of the way I read it, he's living at the batting cages. I was reading him as like a feral child that hasn't been in the school system forever. So I was like, how long has he been suspended? What's it like on the inside? All my people are gone.

I think it's like so later in an episode, there's a character that says he went to middle school with Haru. And he also very rarely came to class in the first place. So I guess he is just like a delinquent went and he came to school one day and got suspended. So I think it's that his suspension has been lifted, but he just hasn't come back either.

Yeah, got you.

Okay.

Yeah. I'm not sure exactly how long it's been.

We also get in a different episode, we get like a flashback of the first day of the school, and he wasn't there either. So it seems like he just kind of drifts in and out and is just too scared to go back now.

Yeah, okay. But so also he's like, yeah, and I have friends, so I don't need to go back to school because I don't need to make friends there. And then Shizaku is like, listen, I don't really have friends, but I know that friends don't really beg each other for money all the time. Like, that's not right, so I think you should get better friends. And he reacts very poorly to this. And he pours his drink on her head from the bitch. Terrible. What the fuck? And then says that she's a bad person. And I was like, Haru, fucking get over.

You should have friends that respect you, you fucking ass.

I hate you.

How dare.

But so he gets up to leave, and she gets up and throws something right back at him. It looks like ice cream or something. And then she just bolts. Yeah, I like that about her. I'm going to say right now in the next two episodes, I don't like her very much. But I do like that with Haru. She is no nonsense. Like, she's like, no, fuck you. I'm not going to take this from you.

You've been outside of society for so long, you don't know how to behave.

He really is a feral child. She also has those really thin ponytails. So she just reminded me a lot of maka from Soul Leader in this first episode we see, she's got, like, the take no shit out of it. I was like, I like her. I'm on board with this character, even if she doesn't like dogs, which I'll forget.

So the next day, teacher asks for an update. She says if he doesn't come back, he'll be expelled. So it must be a while. So Shizuku goes back to the community center and tells the guy at the desk that Haru is going to be expelled. That that's the situation. And then he's like, hey, you want to hang out? Maybe do the batting cages? So she does, and while she's out there, she overhears the guy from yesterday who asked for money that Haru won't lend him money now. So he took shizuku's advice, but he says there's no point in being friends with him now. And the other friend he's talking to is like, it's not like you need the money anyway. What's the big deal? And he's like, well, that's the only reason I was friends with Haru. Whatever. So she turns around and sees Haru sitting there, and she leaves and goes up to the shitty guys. And she is very nervous, but she's like, hey, Haru thinks that you guys are friends, so you should just be honest with him. If you don't want to be friends with him, tell him that. And one of them goes up to her and reaches out, but Haru grabs his wrist and tells them to leave. And they're walking together, and Haru is crying. And he says that he's happy, and that makes her very emotional too. So she gives him a hug and says that it'll be okay and that he'll meet the right people to be his friends. And he says that if she's there, then he'll go back to school. And he's like, I think I might even like you, like sexually. And it's like, oh, bro, filter.

Okay. I wasn't sure if that was another line that was weirdly translated in mind.

No, he definitely he's horn. Yeah, he has some horny elements. And it's like, okay, not great, but yeah, not to the level of that first line that you got.

No. So, yeah, he does say that. And she's like, listen, you must just be confused because you've never had friends. So he takes that as if I make some friends and then I still like you, will you accept me as, like, a boyfriend? And so he's going to try going to try to make friends. And he goes to school the next day and he's very nervous. Time moves on. A month goes by and he leans on Shizuku for advice and, like social cues and stuff. So he's just, like, around her all the time. And she's getting annoyed by this because she just wants to study. Come on, girl, you've got to have something else to do.

I am a career woman that has no time for love or friends problem.

I don't know, I can't imagine that she has that much to study that's just constantly what she's doing.

I mean, she's the top of the class. If anyone else studies, I don't know. She'll be in second place for a minute until graduate salad.

I knew the two kids that were top of my class in high school. They were definitely smart, but they weren't this obsessive with it. Yeah, maybe I went to a dumb.

School, but so she sees the lady teacher that she's been talking to. Oh, he sees her and he's like, I don't like you because she's the one that suspended him. But she just lends him a book and dashes. She says, you have to treat women tenderly, and then gives him a book. And the book is like a romance. And I hope it's not like a steamy romance novel because a teacher giving that to a student is harassment anyway.

Especially after she's like, this boy needs to be back under my supervision again.

Get him back in here or he's.

Expelled so I can give him smut.

So he reads the book and he does as it says. He wraps his arms around Shizuku very tenderly. And we see them in a class and he raises his hand and asks another teacher how to do that. But so he really wants to hang out with Shizuku outside of school, but she's just worried about midterms and he just has no one else to hang out with, but he really wants to do something with her outside of school. So then she talks about how she always had the highest scores, but she didn't going into her first year of high school. So now she's trying to get back on top. And then he looks down at the things she's studying and he points out that part of an equation was wrong. And she realizes that it was him. He is the one that has the highest scores. But yeah, he just wasn't there on the first day of school to give a speech or whatever. So at that moment she's like, okay, don't talk to me until midterms are over.

We're rivals now.

I need to kick your ass.

I'm trying to beat you. So she like, drowns herself in studying. And then we see she gets grabbed again, but not by harder this time. Don't worry.

Surprising.

He pretty much stops that. There's one other weird thing that he does, but he doesn't grab her so much anymore. So he's wondering where she is because she's not in the classroom. And it turns out she was captured by the upper classmate that Haru beat up. And while she's in there, she's like, can I study? And they're like, I guess.

You plan this kidnapping out. Well, did you?

So he comes to her rescue and he's super mad. And she tells him to calm down, but he's in a blind rage, shoves her back and makes her nose bleed. So that's terrible. Real bad move, Haru. Get your anger managed. So she says, at this point, she's finished. She says, I don't think I can give you the connection you're looking for. And at this point, it's a waste of time. Leave me alone. Time marches on. We see a montage of them being dramatic teens midterms happen, and she got the best score. But even seeing that she's not happy, it doesn't bring her the happiness she thought it would. I put hari was back with that one guy and I was like, which one guy?

Yeah, there are so many just random characters thrown in. I'm like, Should I even write down your name? Will you be here next episode? I don't know.

Yeah, but I was referring to the community center man.

Yes.

He's there with him.

Papa baseball.

He tells him to stop playing the victim and picking fights because no one ever does anything to you. Stop it, Haru. You're stupid. And then Shizuku walks in and she tells him that she got first. And she's like, Listen, I don't hate you reason to.

It'D be fair.

Yeah, but she has decided that she doesn't. And she thinks about when he was so happy that he cried. And it like, made her feel something she had never felt before. So she thanks him for saving her from those dudes that day, saying it made her happy. And since that day when she told him that she was happy, he's been much calmer at school. And he hangs out around her when she studies, but tries not to bother her. And he says if it means a lot to her, it means a lot to him. And she feels weird being cared about. But she asks him to go get some food with her and he's really excited about it because that's just what he's wanted to do. And she's happy that he's happy. But then he kisses her and she's like, what the fuck? What the fuck is happening? Oh, my God. And then he pulls away and he's like, my heart isn't pounding, but I still, like, love you. Like, I feel really strongly about you. Anyway, let's go get some food. And then there's a silly little scene of Haru picking up a stray chicken. The chicken, which I was like, this doesn't seem important, so I didn't write anything down. But then I was like, Wait, it.

Is important how little we knew.

This is actually pretty central to the.

Next couple of episodes for some fucking reason.

So that's episode one.

Yeah. So just real quick, I need to address this show has the pacing of a manga, not a TV show. And it was kind of jarring for me because we got to the she stands up to the bullies, being like, hey, if you're not friends with him, don't be friends. And we get a nice moment of like, yeah, confrontation. Got him to come back to school. I was like, cool, great, satisfying ending to this episode. And then there were ten more minutes. Yeah, there were ten more minutes with multiple time skips. I'm like what? This does not feel like it should be in this episode. So it just completely these last ten minutes, I was like, the show is supposed to be over now, right? It just felt so weird and extended that I was expecting TV show, you know, like anime.

I think romance animes are kind of just like that. So I was kind of used to it. Like, you mentioned that and I was like, oh, no. And then I watched it and I was like, this is fine with me, but I see what you mean. But at the same time, I'm just kind of used to it.

For the genre, it definitely makes sense. But even the episodes themselves each are 26 minutes rather than the standard 22. So there is also just built in extra content. So it just kind of throws the pacing in a weird I don't know, it felt weird to me.

I was like, I didn't think it.

Would impact me this much.

But this pacing is just because the school starts. She goes to get Haru, brings him back. Then once he's back at school, it skips ahead, like a month. And then she's preparing for midterms. And then the midterms happen. And then I think it skips ahead a little further in the next episode. But yeah, like the slice of lifestyle, especially the romance stuff, time is kind of irrelevant until midterms finals, a sports tournament, or someone's graduating. Otherwise, there really is no time. It's just this perpetual, whatever year of high school. You're in.

Romcom'S live in Jeremy baramy, baby.

Yeah, exactly. I haven't seen the time knife yet.

You'll get clicked.

Don't worry, you'll get there. We all get there eventually. I was kind of surprised how with the episodes, because they start immediately after where the last episode ends, there's no separation of, like, next day. So episode one ended with them going to get food after studying, and then they kiss. Episode two starts off them at the food place getting looked it up, manja. yaki. Which is kind of like a pancake thing you cook at your table.

I was going to look that up. That looked tasty.

Yeah. You want this? So, yeah, it starts off with them getting food at the restaurant, and she's kind of, like, aggressively making these, like, pancake meals at the table. And she's kind of freaking out because she's still flustered from the kiss. So she's kind of, like, freaking out about that. But Haru is chill. He doesn't seem to realize what's going on with her. He's kind of surprised that the choir acted kind of so, like, chaotic. He seemed overwhelmed. What happened? Kind of what he just did. And then we get the opening, and then it comes back to raining outside of a storefront. I thought this was a flashback with the kind of thing filter we had on the camera here. No, it's just shizuku at the store. I guess her family runs. She's helping, doing inventory and kind of keeping track of the numbers because she's good at that stuff. But she's having trouble today because she's distracted for some reason, I don't know. And I think that we saw her looking at, like, a melon, and it's got two stickers on it, and she's like, Mr. Anderson, you can't just keep putting half off stickers on random shit. I'm the one who doesn't I know these are fake. He's like, finally he's just catching an old man trying to get discounts and yeah, so we see at school the next day, the teacher says that Haru has to retake the midterm exam because he forgot to put his name on it. So he effectively get a zero on it. She she's like, oh, man, Haru, why are you so dumb? And she looks over at his paper. I guess they handed it back to him because he's the only one that didn't put his name on it. So they probably found him easy. She looks at his exam and realizes he got more answers to write than she did. So if he put his name on it, he would have done better than her. He would have been first in the class. And she gets her all frustrated. She's mad. That's her thing.

I have no other personality traits.

Hell, you can't be effortless at the thing I spend all my time doing.

And then she hears a strange noise as she looks haru is got something under his chest. He's got a chest burst. He got a xenomorphic inside of him.

That's a wheel monster.

Here's the little monster. Give him a little hat, a little cane. It's like spaceballs. That's another 80s reference. No, it turns out it's the rooster we saw from the last episode. It was raining outside, so Haru smuggled him inside the school because, why not? And then the teacher sees him, was like, hey, the fuck you doing with a rooster in here? And he goes, not now, and jumps out the window because he forgets what doors are.

They paint him so feral, yet he's a genius.

Yeah, he's multifaceted.

Whatever he wants. He's interesting. I can fix him.

I think I kind of would like him more if he was just feral. Like, I kind of don't like that he's a genius.

Yeah, it's interesting.

You could say delinquent.

Yeah. You could still effortlessly work in school and do fine. You would have no problems. But if you're just a feral, like, child off the streets that was raised by a chicken yeah, okay. I can see why you're problematic. I can see why you have trouble assimilating into society.

Yeah. Plot twist. This rooster is his father.

We don't see his parents. It might be, but yeah. So we see him jump out. The window, and we see him just leave the rooster in a box with a note on it that says, like, be nice to this chicken, or I'll fuck you up, or something to that. And we see some guys looking at like, hey, what the fuck is this? We go back to shizuku, and she's all flustered because he's so dumb and fair on crazy and weird, and he loves her, and it's like, I don't know how to process this. So she has all flustered.

Why can't I study love?

And he says he loves her, and she realizes that she might actually love him back. She's like, but if he loves me and I get this way thinking about it, that means I love education. And while walking home together, a classmate runs out to try and stop them while training out, and she just eats shit and falls through a garbage can, and it's great. The humor of this show is bizarre, especially now that I know that I got a weird subtitle translation of it. But just, like, the pacing of the humor, I don't hate it. I certainly don't hate it. But it definitely caught me off guard of like, I wasn't expecting this.

Yeah, because her inner monologue is, like, so dry. She's like, oh, yes, clinical, I am the ice queen. But then it's like, oh, goofy chicken humor. Okay, the chicken.

I was kind of like, it's the silly mascot of the animal sidekick, whatever. But then we get this character, natsume Oscar, and when she gets introduced and some of the other characters, it gets a weird flow tone, which, like I said, I don't hate, but I definitely wasn't prepared for. So, yeah, natsima runs out after them and eats absolute shit over a trash can. And she says she needs help studying. And shizuko is first in the class that she wouldn't know how to study well, so they end up going back out to the same place they went before and getting some food and talking it over and how roost still has the rooster with them, because why not? nasm says, like, oh, I didn't do well in the midterm, and I have to take a makeup exam. And if I fail the makeup exam, I'll have to take remedial classes, and I got something planned for the day. Remedial class is supposed to happen with my friends, so I don't want to miss out on that. So I got to do well on this makeup exam. Can you help me study if you're so dumb and fail at the midterm, sounds like you need those where we do a class like, damn, bitch.

Damn.

Okay.

Damn.

You deserve to suffer dry ice. So they kind of get up and leave after eating, and not somebody runs out after him out of the restaurant. She's like, no, wait. You have to help me. And stops them on the street and just starts puking. Just terrible. Everything they just date. She's like she's like, God, how much did you eat? Why did you eat so much? And nasm says, like, oh, it's because I'm too cute. And boys would overwhelm me and swarm me if they thought I was a light eater. So I have to eat a lot. And because I'm so cute, that's why other girls hate me. It's like, you're this character, right?

I love that they just started walking away from her, though. But she was like, cute. So I can't have any girlfriends because they're all so jealous of me. And she does turn out to be nicer than that, but in that moment, I was like, yeah, fuck you. Walk away.

There's a bad interesting characters show their ass so much. Why does anyone hang out with you? All right, we're friends again. But that was weird.

You're on thin ice.

Worst possible presentation is their first impression for all these characters. I was kind of watching the show.

I was kind of like, man, fuck.

All of these characters. I don't like any of them. And then they do grow on you. But it's like just the worst first impression with every character.

There's nowhere to go. butt up.

Well, and natsumi says she can't take the remedial classes because she actually plans on meeting up with a bunch for all nine friends in person for the first time. And she can't miss out on that, so she has to do well on this makeup exam. She's good. Once again, I was like, no. Why is this my problem? I don't care. Isn't that fair? haru heard the term friends, so he lit up like a French poodle, and he's all excited. And he goes, I'll help with friends under one condition. You have to go. Take me to meet your friends. When you go to meet up with them. She's like, oh, weird. Okay, yeah, I'll take any help I can get. So we cut to them all studying together in the library. And they just went with Jazz Go and studied with her, much to her chagrin. But haru is kind of a bad teacher because he's a full ass. And even though he understands everything, he's terrible at explaining it. So he's like, Why do you make it X squared? No, it's just X, you idiot. What the fuck are you doing? And just has no tact because he is a feral, savage child. And shiza gu walks out to get a break from them, get a little fresh air. And she sits down next to the rooster and starts eating like a bun and then screams at the rooster and scare it. For some reason, she hates animals. And then Hahru comes out and says, like, oh, nazami ran off where she is at, but he got bored.

After I berated her, she just ran away. Weird.

Super weird. I don't understand women.

Anyways, want to make out again, basically?

And she asked, like, why does it matter if people don't like you? Like, who gives a shit? You don't deal with people anyway. What matters? And Howard says he's like, oh, you're kind of weird. It would scare me because it would feel empty inside. Like I'm being surrounded by this darkness, and I fucking hate that. But ever since I met you, I haven't had that feeling. I've been feeling happier, so I'm fine with it now. I don't give a shit anymore. Now, now I got you. Of course, that makes her all blushy. She's nervous because he's so open and clear with his emotions. And that's probably the only thing he can understand.

He has no filter ever, whether it's good or bad.

Yeah, I guess that's true. And then we see Katie. She's a gut studying by herself, and she's kind of reflecting more on what Harvard said and thinking, like, maybe there's something wrong with her. If haaru and natsume kind of have these feelings like that they want to tease other people, and she just doesn't care at all, maybe there's something wrong with her, or at least different, and that's why it's never impacted her at all. And then we see the baseball team outside winding down after practice. And one of the baseball players comes over and opens up the windows because he's a classmate. And we see it. sasahara going to miss out on me while I guarantee you that. And he sees her studying, so he just comes over and talks. He's, okay, I just wanted to chat to you for a bit. She's like, oh, who are you? He's like, what the fuck? I'm in your class. Okay, cool. What do you want? He's like, what? Just want to talk. Damn. gee. jeez. Okay. He's like, no, I just want to come over. And you know, I like you. I want to get to know you better. And she just stares at her. I was like, liar. He's like, you got me. Okay.

How could you tell?

My opening line is, I'm just lying to your face. He's actually more interested in Harvard, and ever since she went to talk to him, he's been more stable in coming back to school. And this is where he says, like, oh, yeah, me and Harry used to go to middle school together for three years. He would just fuck off and not come to school for just weeks at a time. So it's kind of crazy to see him coming back this consistently. And they chat for a bit, and then he goes back to finish baseball practice. But before he goes, she's catch them and say, hey, can I ask you a favor? And cuts off before we hear it, the suspense. And then we cut to shizuku comes back to the classroom and sees natsume just passed out, like, face down on the desk in all of her notes and notebooks and stuff. And just kind of like dreading it. Studying with hair, but he kind of gave up. And I just can't learn this shit. It's not going well. And I'm going to be doomed. And Shazick, who looks at the window, sees hair fighting with the teacher about the rooster being like, hey, why the fuck do you have a rooster in school? What the fuck are you doing? And we see. Natsimi says, what? Yeah. She says like, well, yeah, you're a student. Students are kind of supposed to study. So get to studying. Natsimi says, like, who cares what the students are supposed to do? Supposed to do. Since her real life lives on the Internet, that's where all her friends are. That's where people come to her with advice and talk to her. She's just a simple girl with hair problems. She's a girl who says like, sounds like you're lying to yourself. You're living alone.

I do love that. She is like this beautiful girl that could be popular in a different anime. But in this one, she's just a huge fucking nerd that just lives online.

She's an Internet gremlin. Well, aru is just a literal gremlin. Like, there's just a lot of feral kids in this anime.

That's why it's little monsters. They're all gremlins in different way.

Yeah, basically.

One'S nerd gremlin. One's gremlin gremlin.

Yeah, Nazi, I have a bunch of friends online. She's like, you're lying to yourself. She's like, shut up. I know. You don't need to tell me that. Basically, I miss. Like, don't tell me these things. But NASA miss is like, yeah, I just like being close to other people, even if that's online, even if that's not in a physical space. So I enjoy that. And then she says, like, well, all right. Here you go. I'll help you with her notes here and here. And then she yells out the window to the heart, like, hey, you still want to go to that? Meet up with other people? Her is like, yeah, I still want to go. It's like, all right. Then she turns back to natima. She's like, he wants to go, so that means you have to do well so he can go. Like, I'm doing this for him now. And she says she'll help nazami help out with some of her notes. She's like, oh, thanks, because I'm real fucking dumb and I'm going to need some help. And she goes like, well, maybe. Nazi is like, no, it's a way too far now. You have to help me. You're not pulling out of this now. Yeah. She says she has to pass it. She can go. So nasmi is very happy, and she's kind of dreading it. And nasimi says, like, oh, by the way, the makeup test is tomorrow. And she feels like, you fucking kidding me with this shit. All right, we're going to the only place I know that's open 24 hours for some fucking reason. The arcade baseball place.

Everyone's favorite arcade baseball place.

They go to haru's house range organization.

We joked that it's haru's house, but we don't see him in any other building like any other location.

They say he lives there. I don't know where, but I think he does.

Okay. I might have missed it. They talk a lot in this. I had to pause a few times. Take a note.

Yeah.

Yeah, this show has a lot going on.

Yeah, it's very fascinating.

We're an hour deep in the episode, and we're part way through episode two.

She goes forces them to study all night. And they do an all night at home. Not to me. Pass. And she passes with like a 32. I don't know how the Japanese grading system works. That's super fucking low in America. But they say she passes, so that's enough. And then they cut to like, hooray. We pass. And then it just transitions to Monday of the exact same pose of like, we're back. And she's going to ask how the meetup went. And NASA says like, oh, it sucked. I went up there meeting. I figured I meet all my friends, having a great time. But all the guys there kept leering after me, and it was gross. And then haru started fighting a bunch of guys for no reason. And now I'm just going to quit that online group and not be a part of it. Oh, okay. It wasn't that important anymore. I guess not. And then the teacher comes into yelling about the rooster again. And she's asked that Sahasa baseball boy no, I gave up. Baseball Boy asked baseball Boy to take care of the rooster for him. That's what the favorite she asked him the other day was. And he's like, yeah, sure. I love fried chicken. And then we cut to not too many. And she's still on the roof hanging out, hiding from haru as he's like, running around, like looking for him like a lost puppy. And she goes like, I can find her. Relax a bit. And that's me. I'll go buy us some drinks as a thank you for helping me study. And once she leaves, she could relaxes more because she's like, too many people. I'm sick of it. But now I can relax. Shut my eyes for a bit because we pulled in all night. When nasimi comes back, she sees shizuka fell asleep. And hav is right next to her. And he turns around and tells her, like, don't wake her up. And nasima is like, oh, god. It wink and leaves. And we see she's waking up with her head in haru's lap. And she's like, ah, fuck glass. And he like she goes to run and hair basically grabs her from Linked back to the car and like pulls her back down. Like, no, you need sleep. Like, go back to bed. Relax. She's like, oh, you sure? He's like, yeah, you look cute while you're sleeping. She's like, and flustered.

Stop saying that shit to me.

She realizes the first time she's ever skipped class. And the old her would have never dreamed of just lying on top of the roof, like, looking up the sky, like in the middle of school day. And she feels like she's growing a bit. And she tells haru she's glad she met him and that she thinks she loves him too. Yeah, I think that's it. And then we get the ending, and this is the first time we see the ending. Reminded me of marmalade Boy, like, the style of it. And then after the credits, we get a little sequence of Natsmey getting called away by her teacher. She's on her laptop, like, gremlin inning away or something, and the teacher calls her away, and as she walks by her desk, she sees natsumi's laptop and just sees, like, a bunch of advice that Natimi is writing. And it kind of seems like a stalker of like, this is how you approach the person. This is how you run into them, make it seem like a natural acquaintance. And then once you have two pieces of their hair, his or her hair, they'll be yours forever. And it's like, oh, she crazy. That's episode two.

Let's not address that again, shall we?

Moving on.

So we're back on the roof because, yeah, these start pretty immediately after, and we see Shizaku say, I love you, haru. And immediately she's like, oh, fuck no. I have feelings. I'm the ice queen.

Can't do that.

So she's like, troll you're on my prank channel.

If she said that, I would have lost my mind.

But he's like, no. Cool. I mean, it's a romcom, so we aren't allowed to love each other at the same time. So if you love me, I'm naturally not as interested in you. And if I'm interested in you, you're not interested in me. Keep that dynamic going.

Yeah, this part is so weird.

Yeah, so he's like, all right, if you love me, you know I love you. Will you go out with me? And she's like, no. I said, Just kidding so I can't see you. He's like, all right, fucking weird, but cool. We'll still hang out.

Oh, for real? Okay, fair enough.

Back to the weird dynamic we had before. Cool.

Thank you. When she rejects him, he says, like, oh, good, and then lays back down. And then that haunts her for the rest of the episode. It's like, what is this guy's deal? What games is he playing?

You're both playing games? God, high school both said you loved each other.

Just get it over with. God, my love story was great, wasn't it? They just got it over with an episode too.

Anyway, so baseball Boy comes back into school with the rooster. He's like, oh, yeah, I forgot to say I have a cat, so I definitely cannot keep this bird in my house. So they're like, okay, I guess can we make it a class pet or something. I don't know. None of us want to actually have responsibility over this animal that was stolen at some point, I guess.

Found.

But they're like, okay, let's build a chicken coop and make it a school project. Extra credit, I guess. So they're in the library planning it, and they're like, okay, we got to buy a bunch of stuff. I found some plans. Hey, what a concept. Let's hang out this weekend and buy some stuff. And they're all like, Hanging out with friends. It's a new level, and none of us are ready for but of course, going through all of this, she is still shook from the love thing. So they go to the store. Sasayan and Natsmey get there first, and they're like, oh, the two friends that aren't really friends with each other.

Well, I guess we'll just hang around here for a while.

Yeah, I think this episode is where it finally clicked with me. I was like, oh, this is just a very accurate depiction of high schoolers not knowing how to do anything with each other. They're all secretly terrible, but openly terrible.

But they're all friends.

Oh, they're dumb. High schoolers. Okay, I understand.

Right.

Got it.

But yeah. So they get there, they see papa baseball, do a weird hand off to some other guy, and they're like, what's the weird drug deal? Okay, whatever. This won't come back. So the others get there, and then they leave. And then they go meet, go to the store. Why didn't you need an extra scene? The show wasn't long enough. Cool. So we are at the store getting all of the things they need for the chicken coop, and they run into the bullies from episode one because it's Team Rocket. Yeah. Friends that were mistreating haru, and they're like, hey, this girl looks familiar. Aren't you the girl that told us off? And all of the friend group are like, Fuck it. Beat it.

Cheese it.

Get out of here. And they throw their basket at these kids, and they just get chased out, and they run away. Make it way more dramatic than it needs to be. But, yeah, they run out of there. So they run away. But they left natsume at the store, so Sassian is like, all right, I'll go back and get her.

They don't know my face. I'm not a criminal there anymore.

Yeah, so it's just haru and shizuku hanging. And they're like, hey, energy is weird between us now. huh?

What's going on here?

So they talk about acting weird, but, yeah, then they go back to the school now that they have all the materials, and they're like, okay, let's start building this. Oh, fuck. We don't know how to build this.

We're idiot bit off more than we can chew.

Just immediately being like, we fucked up. We shouldn't have bought all this stuff.

It's literally just a monkey. Finding a club. 2001 Space odyssey these don't just don't know what they're doing.

So this episode is just various configurations of this friend group separating and coming back together. So as they're building it, haru steps away to go get a saw and natsume goes to get ice cream. And then the bullies come back. No, they're ready to rumble. But they're like, hey, we feel bad because we were objectively assholes to haru. If you see them, tell them we say sorry. bye. Who's like, no, not going to get away that easily. You have to actually say or sorry. haru comes back and is like, oh, so we have to fight now? Is that why you're here? And before they can respond, shizuku is like, no, they are sorry. And as a peace offering, they're going to do all the heavy labor of building this chicken coop. None of us know how to build.

Right, fella?

Convenient.

And they're like, yeah, I guess that's the price we have to pay.

I really want the bulk and skull music from The Power Rangers playing. Whenever these four guys show up, they're just fucking dorks.

But they finished the coup. The chicken loves it now that the bullies took over. They paint it like camo and graffiti it. And Natsmey is like, oh, I wanted.

It to be cute like me.

But yeah, they're all walking home after a job well done. And natsay is like, Those boys were very nice. And before anyone can say anything hare's like, yes, they are good friends. And they're like peace. Peace falls upon the land.

Everyone's friends continuing.

Everyone being shitty but actually still friends.

Yeah, that's high school.

So, yeah, they separate again. And it's haru and her name is too long. I keep forgetting it. I need to look back at it. shizuku, they're walking home together. It's at night. They're talking about luck and philosophy and certain people are born lucky and unlucky.

And all that stuff.

And he's like, the day I met you. That's the day my luck turned around. And it's been nothing but smooth sailing ever since. And she's like, oh, fuck, that was too romantic. Okay, I give in. I was front. And I do love you.

Take seas back seats. I do.

So, yeah.

She's like, okay, I love you. And they're at a weird impasse because he's like, okay, again, we can't love each other at the same time, so we love each other in different ways, and I hope one day we'll be able to love each other the same way. And she's like, I'll wait for you. I won't tell you I love you again until you can say you love me the way you love me.

Very convoluted, but this whole part confuses me. And she's like, didn't she say you had feelings for me? He's like, well, yeah, I thought about you. Like dirty stuff. She's like, cool. Didn't need to know that part of movies like that where he is interested. He did say he loves her. Like, in episode one it's like, okay, but now that she's interested, it's God.

Yeah, but half the time when he mentions love, he's just like, I am just horny for you. And it's like, is that what you mean? This whole time? Can we just because you don't love.

Her son, can we scrub?

Do you want to have sex? Or do you actually care about her as a person?

It's a tough one, and neither does he.

No.

And we'll never find out. But as they're like, okay, I can walk home from here. Goodbye. He gets a text that just says, YUZON is back looking for you. What does that mean? That's so bad. Suddenly he's like, I want to go home for some reason. I won't elaborate. Can I sleep over at your house? She's like, okay, all right, whatever. So again, the romantic interaction would have been a great stopping point of this episode, but let's just keep rolling, shall we? But yeah, she takes him home and dad is like, what a boy at this late hour? Okay, I guess he can stay here. I mean, he is kind of weirdly homeless anyways, so yeah, I will take him in.

What choice do we have?

But yeah, so we see YUZON go to the batting cages. Just another edgy teen boy. He's like, settled debt. All right, we're stopped talking about the episode. Does not really matter at this point, but haru the next morning is walking around shirtless after a shower and she's like, oh, I'm so flustered. I love this man. I don't dare look. I'll sneak a peek and looks up and he's wearing a shirt, but he fell asleep and she's all flustered. And that's where we end the episode. So again, we could have had this very sweet good note to end on, but let's have a weird, like, shirtless shower thing and then a cliffhanger about weird blood debt.

Got to get it all in there.

In the last ten minutes. Yeah, but yeah, that's where we end episode three.

Wasn't me, because YUZON was the guy baseball dad was giving money to earlier. Yeah, he was like, don't come back. And then he comes back, but does he look exactly like horo? Are they twins?

I think the resemblance is too. Their faces are exactly the same.

Okay. Because there's a shot of YUZON and then it cuts to harrow. And I was like, what? He's just got longer hair. Like, that's the only difference.

So I don't know.

To be real, there are so many people, I had a hard time tracking everyone. So just on a baseline level, I was like, I don't know who anyone is.

Wait, is this the first time I got all the names? Roy. No, wait, I got baseball really wrong. Never mind. Yeah, we had a lot on the bingo card. Unlikable main character.

Go on the seinfeld route with this.

I still don't like holly. He's still just like, I know he's supposed to be a feral chip, but there's points where he's just a full asshole. Animal sidekick nosebleed because he punched she's to go in the face. Jerry blossom sundare, window seat, rooftop info dump.

It's all there, baby.

Child living alone and dead. Parent clubs are pretty close for hair, but we got no confirmation. But I'm going to put like a maybe on those.

Yeah, I'll allow it.

Yeah, but yeah, I mean, it's romcom stuff. We hit a lot of the bigger deal with romcom stuff, especially in high schools. The thing with me is my favorite moments of shows and character development are the very small, very quick moments where you get a peek behind them. So when she shows up to meet with everyone, she like, throws open the door and say, sorry. I'm like, my brother was an asshole and turned on my alarm clock. And everyone just looks at her, why are you wearing granny clothes? She's like, what the fuck? And like, that's it. That's the scene. But it was that quick moment where I'm like, that tells me a lot of the dynamic between these characters and chicago's like personality. Those are the moments I loved. And this show actually had quite a bit of those. Would not spent eating a ton, running up and like, please help me, and then just projectile vomiting on the street. I'm like, what a mess of a character. But it tells me so much more about her than her being like, I'm so pretty and all the girls hate me. It's like, all right, whatever. I did really enjoy these very quick moments of just these chaotic prevalent children.

Yeah. From beginning to end, this show is for me. I wasn't sure what to expect going into it. I was really worried that haru would be the same as he was because in the first episode, he does suck a lot. He literally punches her in the face real bad. And I was worried that that's how he was going to be. Just like super shitty all the way through. And he's still learning. And like, we kept saying he still has no filter, but I like that he's a weird feral, just doesn't know what he's doing guy. I like him.

He's a little different.

They do show a lot of growth of most of the main characters because even she is like, I would never hang out with friends on a weekend. I'm taking a moment to just reflect. Like, I'm not studying today. That's so weird. So they do a good job to be like, hey, don't worry.

They're not going to be on to.

Unlikable the whole time. We just need a starting point. They do take good measures to be like, hey, no, you'll have fun eventually. It's just rough waters right now.

Yeah, because it is a romcom and I am invested in Harvard and cheesy, whose relationship because like I said. I'm used to this kind of thing. This is how all romance animes are. Pretty much, yeah. But in this particular show, I care way more about this group of four friends because I think it's interesting that shizuku and haru, first of all, they're like, oh yeah, I don't have any friends. And then natsume, this beautiful girl who, like I said before, could have friends, just doesn't she just latches on. And then this baseball boy shows up. We don't really know a lot about him yet, but I like, we see them getting to know each other and they're just building a friend group and broadening their horizons. I think it's nice. I like it a lot.

Yeah, I've seen that done in a few shifts, too, which is one of my favorite parts of shows. It's very entertaining to see that happen. But usually it's usually like, with like, two main characters that fall in love in the romance. It's like, oh yeah, it's the main character and their best friend. Like, normally, boy, it was the main girl and her best friend. And then the main cast of character starts forming and they're part of it already. But this neither of the main characters have, like, any friends.

Yeah.

So it is interesting to see it develop. And yeah, I really enjoy it. Like I said, it was a small moment, but with not the main baseball boys showing up early being like, well, guess we got to talk. What's your thing to go? I do baseball.

It's like, cool, cool, cool.

That uncomfortable moment is I really enjoy those and I feel like that's more developing of those characters than, like, the long exposition of dialogue between characters. Like, yes, it is a romance that is the main focal point of Chicago at Harvard falling in love. But yeah, I like the dynamic rest of the cast and what's going on with them. What the fuck's baseball dad story? I'd be more excited to see that.

Yeah. And I can respect the things that obviously this isn't a perfect show. There's a lot wrong with it, but I honestly am probably going to finish it. It's only 13 episodes, so I liked it a lot, but that's not important. What's dugan think?

Are we there yet?

Yeah, I think once it clicked with me of like, oh, this is kind of a nice, realistic depiction of high school idiots, I was like, okay, I'm vibing with this more than like, no, I can fix this feral boy. And I'm also me going into the small moments, I feel like that's what I felt the show did the best. And with that, it sort of made the main plot, like the main romance of it a little disappointing because they did pretty blatantly do the when I say I like you, you happen to not like me, and when you say you love me, I'm not into you. Especially when that happened multiple times in multiple episodes, I was like, yeah, it just felt a little too much. I think in retrospect, I didn't love the show, watching it, but talking about it and just talking through it, I'm like, okay, I feel like it's clicking a little bit better than when I was an active viewer.

If that means yes, I get that process.

So I won't finish it. But I didn't dislike it as much as I did as I was watching it.

I'll probably finish because God knows what else I got going on in my life right now. That's two yeses and a maybe and a neutral. So I'll count that as a yes.

Sure.

I mentioned before, I do wonder if we kind of peaked with my love story watching it so early on, because fuck, it's so satisfying that within the first two episodes they're like, oh, you must like my friend because he's a pretty boy. And I forget I forget everyone's names. It's not new with me. But the main girl is like, no, I like you, you big gorilla man. Like, I love you. And he's like, what? And they start dating in episode two. I was like, fuck, this is refreshing as shit. And then I finished watching that series and it's just cute and wholesome the whole time I was texting D the whole time. Like, any conflict on who are these assholes trying to break up this perfect how dare they? And it's just like, yeah, it was a very good series. But like I said, whatever. Like we all said, the show does the small moments with the individual characters on their own very well. So that's probably what's going to get me through and keep watching this because yeah, she's going, Harry were nice. But that's to me is dumb. nasa's dumb as hell and I love it.

Dumb, dumb beautiful princess.

Well, do we have a dumb, dumb beautiful princess in next week's show?

Oh, boy, do I have no idea. Keeping the trend going of what we would have watched when we were twelve. Something I would have watched when I was twelve.

I like the setup.

To preface it, I've only seen the first episode of it, so I don't actually know a ton about this show.

Definitely don't like this setup.

I'll give this the end song slaps hard as hell. So that's got that. Look forward to next week. We're going to watch the first three episodes of Blood blockade battlefront triple B.

Baby show Simon bribing ribs.

Oh, I got to talk to kaipi right now. We got to bring him on.

Could have had him on for Food Wars.

If you have a perfect anime for a beloved food celebrity to watch, you can send those recommendations to us. Our email is areweed there yet@gmail.com? Or you can reach out to us on Twitter or Instagram at rweebethere on both. You can find me on Twitter and Instagram at Mr. Patrick Dugan.

You can find me on Instagram at Honeyperiod D, on Twitter at Honey D eight and Honey dart, or on twitch at Honeyunderscore D. And Honey is spelled H-U-N-N-I-E. You can find me on Twitter.

At abts brandon It stands for Almost brandon's Silence, which is a video game podcast I also did.

Thank you to camille ruley for our artwork, and thank you to Louisong for the use of our theme song stories. 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. What anime?

With the barefoot contest.