AWTY 108 - Skate or Die (Paranoia Agent)

What's with the coconut tree? Pig. Hello, and welcome to our weave There yet and explore and education and anime. I'm your anime idiot, patrick dugan.

I'm an anime expert, dana hollander.

And I'm brenda mccullough. Your anime. Back off. Don't touch me.

Don't know.

Are you clean? Where have your hands have been? Don't touch me.

Okay.

All right.

This can apply to so many things right now.

The pandemic, my mental state, my emotional.

State, general state of being.

That's just my mood towards intimacy, which is healthy. Good stuff.

Have you talked to your therapist about this?

Working on it.

Okay, good.

I remember being in high school at my locker, and a friend walked by and pat me on the shoulder. And I was such gobstruck that I completely forgot my locker combination because I'm so unused to physical intimacy of any kind.

I'm so touch starved, I completely forget everything as soon as someone lays a.

Finger on me, a shoulder pat reset my brain, and I had to go to the administration office to unlock my luck.

Someone just made you glitch? They found a code.

A code they could exploit.

Ruined you.

They have to you.

It's like, where's the kill switch on this one? Oh, don't worry. It's any physical contact. But that'll never happen. We don't have to worry about that.

But yeah. What do we have going on this week?

It's discurring month. It's that spooky, scary skeleton month with all them dance and bones.

Yeah.

Scarier than every other month so far.

But this time, we want to be scared by, like, fun scary. By like Bet midler in hocus. pocus. Like, that kind of scary.

The spooky month.

Yeah.

The over the garden wall month.

Hell, yeah.

We should all rewatch it.

Can we do that for anyway, my favorite anime.

So I figured we should watch an actual spooky scary anime. At least one that I thought was I don't know much about it because it scared me as a child, so I didn't dig too deep. But this week we're watching paranoia Agent neto. I got my personal baggage with it, but do either of you have any history with it?

I've heard of it, but that's pretty much the extent. And I know that it's Satoshikone. So based on the fact that he did Perfect Blue and I loved Perfect Blue, I'm excited about this.

Yeah.

I'm in the same boat. I just know who made it. But that gives me hope for this show.

Yeah. He also did Tokyo grandfathers, godfathers. godfathers.

Yeah. We're kind of running through his backlog of work, which I'm okay with. He's very good.

Yeah.

I mean, when you find someone who makes good anime, you latch on things.

Going on, and you pray to God.

Please keep your streak alive.

Well, no, but the stuff he did make was good. Yeah. I remember watching just the opening to this Late Night on tunami as a kid and being like, oh, boy. In uyasha. And then this came on. I was like, oh, time for bed. I'm not tapping out. This one's unsettling. I don't like this.

This one's not for me.

Nope.

This one mom tucked me in. Mom tucked me in.

Tom, you betrayed my trust. So, yeah, I never, never really watched it, because the opening of it was just very unsettling to me. So I'm just like, hey, you know what? I'm good. I don't need this in my brain already. There's enough stuff up there, so, yeah, I know a bit about it, but I never, like I said, never delve too deep. So this will be my first in depth look at drama.

Yay. We're doing it together.

Yeah, we got you.

We got you. We're here for you. We're watching it. We're not here for you when you watch it, but we're here for you. Like, in general, I would say we're.

Holding your hand through this, but I don't think that would be good for your brain.

That was just shut me down, and I'll become a test for the rest of the episode.

On the other hand hey, wait a minute.

Come here real quick.

This is the special dana and dugan episode.

We put Brendan to sleep.

Fine. I ate a lot of rice before this. It might happen. Anyway.

We sent him a lot of rice and a melatonin gummy. And now knocked out.

Here we go. Let's go to betty By. I'm out. See ya.

Quick, while he's asleep, let's watch the first three episodes.

Okay.

And we're back. Or are we? Is it all in your head? No one knows.

What happened. What I miss?

He woke up.

Oh, dang it. We'll try again next week.

More melatonin, please.

Attempt 108 to get him to fall.

Asleep through the episode. We already turned worn milk and Craig on the mate. That just got me sick. That got me real sick.

The warm milk made him stronger somehow.

My bones, they're too strong.

But, yeah, let's talk about some spooky stuff.

Yeah.

So, episode one, we start out, we see a montage of people all making excuses, trying to get out of stuff, being like, oh, I'm stuck in traffic. I'll be late. That's not my department. blah, blah, blah. And then we see an old man writing out this big chalk equation in a park or parking lot, something, and he sees a woman in a bus drive by. This is satoshi cone. So we have a lot of just snapshots of things to go.

Okay, this will pay off in 13 episodes.

Yeah. Honestly, I was very helped by reading a synopsis before taking notes, so I knew the through line I needed to pay attention to and could let some of the external, just, like, set dressing stuff fall to the wayside, which helped, but yeah. So we follow this woman. Her name is sakiko, and she is a character designer. She designed a very cute little dog thing named Maromi. And she's trying to come up with her next big character. And her boss is like, oh, yeah, you're going to blow your last one out of the water. It was the most popular thing we did, so we kind of need you to save this company. So he's like, oh, yeah, we'll get it by Monday. You can do that, right? Yeah, great. Perfect. And she's like, oh, fuck. I got nothing.

My great boss.

So she's walking home and she's walking down a dark alley and she sees an old woman digging through the trash. And she's a little uncomfortable. So she runs away and looks back behind her. And the woman is gone.

She was just put around the corner, pressed up against the wall. The old woman was more freaked out than she was.

Oh, god, other people. So she gets into a parking lot and she trips and drops everything from her bag a bunch of sketches of characters and drawings. And one rolls under a car. She goes to get it and rips her shirt. And she's like, fuck, I have this big creative block. I'm terrified. I rip my shirt and just starts crying. And in her frustration, she looks up and just sees the shadow of someone attack her.

Spooky.

So we see her the next day in the hospital. This is at this point a big news story because she is sort of well known for this very popular character. And she's being questioned by the police trying to get information on the suspect. But she can't really remember anything because she just saw a silhouette attacker. And that was about it. So we got our typical good cop, bad cop. Older guy is like, you're making stuff up. blah, blah, blah. I don't believe you. And then the quote unquote good cop who kind of wants to fucker is like, no, you got to be nice. You got to be tender. It's a thing. They talk about it later.

I don't remember that in the episodes we watched.

Yeah, not like super apparent, but he's like, oh, you got a right peach. You got to be gentle with her. And the other cops like, oh, I bet you want to peel her peach. He's like, so yeah, it's a thing.

Okay, I guess I didn't dwell on it.

Yeah, I thought it was just the older copying. Gross. I didn't think the younger one. I thought he was just being dismissive because she was a woman.

Yeah, there's stoja. cone. So a lot of just very creepy men. Yeah, that's fair out. So they're questioning her and all she can really remember is that he was like a grade school aged and sized kid with something gold and a baseball bat. And they're like, okay, that's not really helpful. But we'll try to figure it out. So they leave her alone. We see in the waiting room of this hospital, we're introduced to mr. kawasi, he's just this very skeevy, like tabloid reporter.

He reminds me a lot of is sort of like a frog character and spirited Away.

Yeah, that's what he looks like.

Yeah, because he's got like huge eyes and like a real squat body.

Yeah. He honestly is one of my favorite character designs in the show because you can just tell how like slimy and weasely he is. But he's visiting someone because he apparently hit someone hit an old man with a car and he's in the hospital. So he went and brought flowers. And the man's son is like, fuck you. Give us the money you owe us for your reckless driving thing or we'll take you to court again. He's like, my next article. I'll get the money. But he's like, fuck off and leaves. So as he's talking to the old man, he sees the two cops and recognizes them because he is a tabloid reporter and sort of an ambulance chaser type guy. So he goes up to the cops and he's like, hey, what's the scoop? You got something big? And they're like, go fuck off. Why would we tell you? So he knows that something's up and he scans the nurse pretending to be a cop and asks for the patient info. He just like, flashes a notebook with no badge on it. And he's like, yeah, this will get the job done. And it does.

Yeah, this person could be dumb.

Yeah.

Hey, I got it.

Yes. The patient in this specific room.

Yeah. All he says is like, oh, I had questions for what's her name? And she's like, oh, you mean this patient? It's like he gave you nothing.

It's also like citywide news at this point that everyone wants to talk to her because it is like a big case. But he starts digging around. He's in a library and borrows a computer from kids looking up some porn. Yeah, okay, sure. But he's going to the woman's workplace just really trying to dig in and get a scoop that he can sell. Since this is a big news story, we keep getting like cutaways to news reports and just like people about town talking about it. Just talking about, oh, it's such a repressed society. How could a child go and attack someone like this? Kids these days with their cell phones and their Sodie pop violent video games, the worst.

They're Bob Ross. disgust.

So the cops talked to a man in the area of the attack and he's like, yeah, there is this homeless woman. I guess she's about kid sized. Maybe go check her out. So they go to find her encampment, but kawasi is already there. And he's like, yeah, she disappeared right after the attack. That's weird. anyways, don't need to look for her now, I guess I'll take it because I am also a police officer now. Don't worry, my boys in blue, I'll take this one. And they're like, dude, can you just stop interfering and fucking up this investigation? He's like, not if I can make money off of it. So sakiko back out in the world, bumps into kwasi on the street, and he's asking to talk because he found the drawing that she dropped when she was attacked. So he gets her trust a little bit. So he takes her to a restaurant eating just like a giant thing of ice cream.

I hated this whole scene.

Yeah, this is extremely creepy stuff because he is very like, hey, I want the story, but also get a date. Lady just drops a spoon, looks up her skirt, and doing suggestive licking of the ice cream, all that stuff.

That really was what got me. Because he drops a spoon, looks up her skirt for a very long time, and then it just hard cuts to him, like, slurping the, like, whipped cream off the ass.

And it's just like, hey, lady, want to tuck about your trauma slurps?

Don't mind me. We have my big fancy Sunday. I'm here for a good time. So you're attacker.

Your dates go, hey, let's trauma bond, baby.

That one's too close. Maybe that is how my dates go. Maybe that's why I haven't had a date in a while.

So he's asking about a bunch of stuff, just trying to get any information and saying, like, some of this stuff.

Doesn'T seem to be adding up. Are you sure? Are you sure you're being honest with all of this?

So yeah, just trying to get any information. She's extremely anxious because of this creepy dude, and I skipped over this, but before this, she's reading comments online. The version of the show I watch didn't have any text translated, but it it seemed like most most of what she's dealing with is people online being like, oh, she's fake, she's faking it. She's making it up. She just wants attention or to get out of her work stuff, blah, blah, blah. So she's freaking out.

Yeah, you're right. Mine had a translation.

Thank you.

Yeah, some of them were like, oh my God, so sorry this happened to you. But yeah, the majority were that.

And then her little dog friend gave her a pep talk.

Yeah, she has her little dog character. She has a stuffed animal of it that she brings with her everywhere. And it comes to life and talks to her and is like, hey, fuck the haters, fuck the troll. They're just jealous of you. So, yeah, she has some trauma stuff going on. And while going back to the thing, since I skipped it back talking to kawasi with creepy ice cream, she hears roller skaters go by and like the peak of her anxiety and has a flashback to the attack. And she's like, oh, shit, I just remembered roller skates. The boy had roller skates on. So she goes back to the police and is like, okay, gold roller skates. That's pretty fucking specific. Hopefully this is helpful, but.

You can tell the show's older bit by how relevant inline skates are to the plot.

Yes. I mean, they're making a comeback, so it could also take place now.

I don't go outside anymore.

I wouldn't know a bit.

Yeah, I mean, like, skates are like the front back skates.

It's whatever. But yeah. She goes back from the police station, goes to her apartment, and kwasi is at her door waiting for her, just trying to get more info and possibly some smooches babe. So she runs away and he's chasing her. She drops, like, a handkerchief with her character on it. He stops and picks it up, and when he does, he gets attacked by the rollerskate kid. And she's still running, like, trips on the stairs, but up rolls the roller skate kid and he's like, good to see you again, and just leaves. So she's like, oh, fuck. Okay, this sucks. This sucks. Everybody gets one.

You're good now?

Yeah, that's where the episode ends.

Yeah. All right, so to speak, of the opening. I love it. I love the opening so much.

Oh, yeah, I glossed over it. This is probably one of my favorite openings I've seen for most of the shows.

I definitely enjoyed now watching in the hunting context for the show, but I can still fully understand why it was so deeply unsettling to me for a child.

Yes, I would understand.

Oh, absolutely. Just every in the show, like, cynical character, just like, very bigly, smiling, is just very unsettling into camera.

I love it.

But as a kid, I didn't even have context of like, oh, these are the characters. I just saw a bunch of people maniacally laughing in a lot of situations where it looks like they are either about to die or have died. And I'm just like and I knew there was a kid rolling around with a bat. And to me, there's nothing truly as terrifying as a child.

So in combination, even as a child.

Even as a child. So with that and the just really, like that's the thing. It wasn't like, horrifying to me, the opening. It was just deeply unsettling.

Yeah, I love the song, too.

It's a good song.

I really like everything about it. It's great.

It's well done.

So we have this kid, his name is yuichi, but his friends well, everybody calls him itchy because everybody loves him. He's good at everything. He's smart and he's good at sports. And he's got a hat and golden skates and a bat. We see like, a picture of him with a golden bat as well.

He's good at everything, including sports and murder.

What?

Wow.

We see him like he's like, on his way to school and everybody is just like, oh, my God. Hi, Ichi. Oh, my God. Hi. How are you? Oh, look at his smile. He's so handsome.

Like a weird Disney Channel main character.

And then we see him before leaving for school. He's admiring his reflection and practicing his smile. And then he heads off and he says hello to some neighbors, and they say hi back. But then he flashes his signature smile to some girls from his school. And they ignore him.

How dare they?

But I'm the most charming. How could this be?

Because I'm the sweet baby boy.

Everyone loves me.

And then he gets to school. People ignore him, too. They just, like, run right past him. And then he opens his shoe locker, and there's a note saying, you're shown in Bat, which is the name that the news has given this attacker.

I'm glad you had the translations because this confused the hell out of me. I'm like, Man, I don't know what's happening right now.

Yeah, this episode specifically has a lot of, like, graffiti and messages and stuff. I was like, I assume it's just hate mail.

Yeah, that's pretty much what it is. So he, like, get smug about it, and he was like, how could that possibly be me? I'm such a good boy. How could I be that criminal? I'm going to be the student council president. I'm Ichi. Everybody loves me.

Everyone loves Ichi. It's like a weird sitcom starring Ray romano.

In case it's not clear. His name is yuichi. So sure, people call him Ichi. But ichi is also Japanese for one. So he is the one. He's the best.

That makes more sense.

Yeah. So ichiban is like, that's the best thing. So he starts talking about this kid, Ushi, and he hates this kid. He's fat and poor, but for some reason, he's challenging ichi's status.

He's an evil mastermind, but he's hiding it.

Yeah.

Under his friendly countryside demeanor.

Yeah. So eg sees himself super highly, and he goes into class and he sees writing all over his desk. This one is a bit extreme. It says, like, oh, yeah, you're the guy. You're the attacker. You should be executed.

That escalated real quick.

Yeah. These kids are relentless. And he, like, looks to ushi, like, angrily as he's talking to, like, other people, and their, like, faces go all melty. And it's evident that already Ichi is just losing it.

I have no evidence it's this person. And I'm going all in on that dairy.

So the cops found they call her Miss saggy. So that's what I wrote in my notes. They found her handkerchief at the area where the dirty reporter dude got attacked. And they want to know if she might know the attacker because she was at both crime scenes. And there's a funny moment where the bad cop tries to be nice, and he leans forward and talks to the little dog stuffed animal. And she's just like, Are you fucking crazy? Because he thinks that that's going to, like, get through to her. And she's like, I'm not a child.

I think she says what does she say? He's unhinged. And the cop is like, what? And she's talking about the attacker, but it definitely looks like she's talking to him, and that's why the other cop starts laughing.

So she asks about yeah, she says, Is he okay? But that's it. Yeah, she's referring to the reporter. And, yeah, they tell her that he's fine. He's in stable condition. It's weird. Like, this kid, this attacker uses a metal bat, but all of them come out okay. Her leg was, like, bandaged up. And now this guy, he's fine also. So I wonder, what is this kid getting out of this? So we go back to Ichi, and he's being ignored during pe, and he overhears people talking about him. And I wrote this down. He says, Everybody is being manipulated by the media. How idiotic.

There were a lot of lines, specifically in this episode where I'm like, God, I hate how relevant these quotes are. Still are too topical.

We wanted a break in this horror anime.

Damn. He was a toshi kun. Prolific writer.

Damn it. And it's like, after school, and he sees ushi helping some girls carry some big stacks of papers, and one of them is like, hey, Ushi, do you want to come hang out at my house? And Ichi just fucking freaks out. And in his mind, we just hear his thoughts, like, overlapping and getting louder. And he's, like, looking at the group of people, and they're just kind of staring at him, like, what's your deal? And their faces go all melty again.

Once again, there's nothing more terrifying than the unbridled confidence of a child, truly.

And then each year is back at home, and he's, like, telling his tutor about how he's being treated at school. This is a problem. It sucks that he's being treated this way, but the way he tells her is it feels manipulative. Like, the way he's like, oh, my gosh. I've never been bullied before. everybody's always been so nice to me. I'm perfect.

When a straight boy feels adversity for the first time.

It'S true. This is it. This is why it feels manipulative is because while he's concerned about the bullying, he's more concerned with fixing his reputation before the student council election, because Ushi is running, too, and he just wants to beat ushi.

Yeah. It's all about his status and his ego, and that's all that matters.

Yeah. And the tutor is like, does anybody know? And he's like, no, I'm going to deal with it. And then back at school, Ushi is kind of walking around the campus looking for Ichi. And when he finds him, he's like, Hi, Ichi. What did you want to talk about? And he's like, don't call me that. You don't get to call me that, you disgusting, fat pig. And then he accuses him of starting the rumor that he is the shonen Bat Kid. And Ichi, he backs him into a wall, and Ushi starts crying, and Ichi gets kind of aggressive. And we see someone snaps pictures of the situation. And then in class, Ichi gets a message that has, like, the worst picture that somebody took. It's like a picture of him holding onto ushi's wrist as he's trying to walk away. So he gets it first, and he's like, oh, fuck. And then everybody else in his class gets it. And then Ushi stands up and he says, Ichi is being bullied. Like, if things keep up this way, he's going to be cast out and we have to fix this. It's not fair to Ichi. And ichi is mortified. He's like, how dare this kid pity me. What the hell?

First he sets me up with this photo up, and then he's playing the good guy. What a monster. For someone who's genuinely like, hey, stop. This kid's pretty cool.

Yeah, she's a very sweet boy. And Ichi just sucks and is going a little crazy, so he's having a time.

It's the thing where the manipulator thinks everyone else is manipulating stuff around them because that's what their line of thought usually is.

Yeah.

And then we see the cops walking together, and they're talking about the homeless lady, like, oh, where is she? And then they show their drawing of shonen Bat to a woman, and she like, gasps. She recognizes him. And then we hear snippets of people talking about the whole shonen Bat situation, what he looks like, the weapon he uses.

Oh, also, sorry, real quick, just in the dub for us, the name was lil Slugger.

Little Slugger.

Great.

Wow. Well, I mean, yeah, like, it pretty much in Japanese, that pretty much means bat boy.

Yeah, I just realized we haven't said it yet. And I just love little slugger for this serial attacker.

Pint size slasher.

Yeah, just a sweet kid.

So as we're, like, hearing this, these snippets of, like, what he looks like and stuff, like, these exaggerations. Also, we see that some kids have vandalized ichi's campaign picture, and they gave him, like, point teeth and red eyes, and they drew him with the bat and stuff. And then the teacher comes up and pulls him into the conference room, and the cops are there to ask him questions, and they've asked him questions that we don't hear. And then their last question for him is if he knows. soggy and he's like, oh, she was the first victim, right? I don't know her. I just know what I've seen on the news. And then they apologize, and they're like, you know, you're not really a suspect, but we have to check you out. And then the teacher blows up at them, and she's like, he's being bullied because of this, and so you need to find the actual attacker and arrest him. But it's like, hey, lady, you're the teacher.

I can't control you, I guess.

But I don't know. She should be like, hey, kids, stop bullying this other kid, please.

They outnumber her.

We know how scary kids are.

And then he has a vision of his birthday party, which is coming up, and everyone is there. Like, he's imagining what it would be like once they do find the attacker and he's arrested. He's like, everyone is there giving him gifts and apologizing, like, groveling at his feet, feeling so bad for believing anything Ushi would tell them, even though Ushi is definitely not the one who started this rumor.

Yeah, he's like, now that I talked to the police, and the police said, it's probably not me that will free my name.

I like, in his fantasy that everyone's giving him gifts. Like, one kind of looks like a baseball bat wrapped him gift. One's just a big present. One girl just gives him a full arm, like a full vase. And I'm just like, what the fuck?

He's a pharaoh.

What is this?

And then it's the actual day of his party, and no one shows up. It's just his mom and his tutor, and he does a little party popper just by himself.

Wow.

Yeah. Like duggan said, he was like, I guess the investigation did not help my case. And then we see him throw out his skates, and he kind of has a moment, like, staring at them, and he breaks down a little bit. He cries, and then he runs off. And we just see the street that he threw the skates through, the skates away on. And it looks like it's the same street as the one that saggy saw the woman digging through the trash in the first episode. So in my mind, I'm like, Is this a time thing? Is the attacker is he a time traveler? Did he take the skates and then start attacking people? But, I mean, who knows what the case is right now, and we don't.

Know Doctor Who's had it. He's going through time and just beating people with bats now.

I am fucking sick of humans now.

God, I'd watch that Doctor Who, I gave you so many fucking chances every time.

And he wonders why this has to happen to him. And he's walking home from school, and he sees Ushi, who's carrying a palm tree. Never addressed.

Never explained.

Great. Perfect.

It's addressed, but not explained.

Yes.

And then Ushi is like, you know, I'm not upset about what you did. I understand what you're going through. I hope the actual attacker gets arrested so people will leave you alone. And he talks about how at his last school, he got bullied so badly, and that's why he had to transfer to ichi's school. And before he left, his counselor told him to be positive. So that's what he's done. And in ichi's mind, he is just angry. This part is, like, cool, because Ushi is just having this heartfelt moment where he's like, yeah, I understand what you're going through. And then it would cut to ichi's mind being like. I wish you would get attacked. And then Ushi would say something nice again, and then it would be ichi's mind saying something terrible again. And I thought that was so cool.

He's just, like, so truly unraveling, ichi's whole thing. He's like, yeah, I got bullied. So for confidence, I want to try to go for student government. And he's like, he's after me. He's targeting me specifically. He needs my sterling reputation. He's like, can you listen for half a second, man?

It's like, you meet the robinsons, where they're like, hey, goob, you want to hang out with me?

And he's like, Everyone hates me.

But so he not just wishes Ushi would get attacked for solely malicious reasons. He also wants him to get attacked. So he gets him out of the way for the student council, so he can then pretend to feel bad that it happened, so everyone will be like, oh, ichi, what a nice, empathetic boy. And just then, while ichi is, like, in this mind space, ushi does get attacked by shonen Bat. And then ichi gets, like, manic happy, and he chases after him, and he's, like, yelling for him to wait. And then the shonan Bat turns around, and he tilts his cap up and smiles just like ichi does, and he turns around and rolls away, and ichi can't catch him. I'm so glad I got to do this episode, because this one was my favorite.

It was a good one.

Yeah. So saggy is watching the news, and she hears about the report of ushi's attack, and she's like, huh, I do think I know that kid. But then little stuffed dog reassures her that even if she did, it was a long time ago. And she's like, You've been acting different lately, and I think you should stop. Just forget about things that happened and go back to normal. I don't like you right now.

Little dog. You got chill.

Yeah. Normally, you're quiet and not animated. And don't talk to me. I don't like this recent development.

I don't like your tone. And the cops visit Ushi, but he's just laying in bed with, like, an oxygen mask, so they don't ask him anything. And as they drive away we didn't mention this in the first episode, but there's a part where we see that the old man's equation that he was writing out equals to 510, which was soggy's hospital room, and it's her apartment number. And then in this episode, it equals to one, which is Egypt spooky. Yeah. And egy is going crazy. He's sitting in his room, watching an old video of himself playing baseball, thinking about how great he is, and then his mom knocks on the door, and she's like, Why aren't you at school? It's election day. But he doesn't want to go because he knows that he's going to get blamed for ushi's attack. And there's nothing he can do to make people believe that it wasn't him. And his mom is trying to get in, but his door is locked. But then he goes into a big melty vision where she gets into his room and then he's outside in a big melty world where the colors are all super bright and unrealistic. And he sees some old ladies on the street being like, hey, that's the shonen Bat kid. That's the attacker. And then the kids from his school calling him a murderer and stuff. And then in the distance, he sees the actual shonen Bat rolling towards him. And he goes, hey. And he turns around, but no one's there anymore. And he's like, there he is. Like, it's not me. There he is. And then he rolls up and smacks him with the bat. And at this point, we're like, did this really happen? Or was it in his mind? It really happened. So he did get attacked. And that's how episode two ends.

Yeah. Everyone's getting whacked.

Yes.

I'm not 100% sure if it's clear, but I think the back gets warped more with each attack. It seems like a little dent at the first episode. And it seemed real dented this episode.

I didn't notice.

Yeah.

I couldn't tell if it was ichi's, like warped imagination animation or just like the bat itself was just canonically getting more bent.

Yeah. I mean, there's like 13 episodes of the show, so that that is going to be real messed up by the last episode.

It's just a pretzel.

It just all wrapped around. Yeah. So we get episode 13. Starts off with lots of anime figures and then a big old otaku nerd just going at it, just plowing into some prostitute. And I thought it was a sex doll at first because she didn't move for a while. And I'd be like, yeah, he would have a sex style. But she gets up and leaves and calls. I guess it's just her handler. It's not very clear, but person who's kind of like arranging clients for her. So she leaves after hooking up with him. And he's like, oh yeah, I got another client for you. It's right down the block. So once you're finished with him, you can just go on home. And then we see her call back someone again. And we hear some voicemail messages saying, I forget the first one said it said, why are you doing it? How long are you going to do that? That's it. And then it kind of repeats the message. And then we get the response to that message of her calling back saying like, I'm just living my life. I'm doing it while I'm having fun and while I still enjoy it, so I'm going to keep doing it. And then we see her getting home and checking her answering machine, also dating the show a little bit. But yeah, we get those voicemails again, like, how long are you going to keep doing this? She's like, stop calling me. I'm going to keep doing it as long as I want. And like, why bother? And then we see her sit down on the couch and she pulls off her long black hair, and it's a wig. And we find out too. She takes off her makeup too, and find out. It's the tutor from the last episode, Miss chona.

I loved this reveal because we keep seeing them. We kept seeing the tutor and this girl with long hair together, like in the opening and in the ending. So I was just like, well, obviously they're connected. Like, maybe they're sisters or maybe they're a couple, but no, same person. I gasped a little bit. I was like, oh, cool.

Yeah, I wasn't expecting that, especially from what we've seen offered at this point. So she takes off the wig, and then the voicemail message keeps playing. And at this point, this is why I started realizing, like, this kind of sounds like a conversation in her head, like, between her and herself. And then we cut to a reporter outside of the school talking about when YUICHI got attacked and that now he's hospitalized. And then we see the detectives who were reviewing the case again. They're in the hospital lobby kind of running over to clues again. And the one detectives, it's all just random attacks. And the senior detectives like, no, it seems random, but there has to be some connection. It has to be a through line. Like, why else would they be targeting this specific area and stuff? And that's when we see the tutor walking out. She was visiting uechi, like we saw in the last episode, or no, we didn't see the last episode, but she was visiting uechi. And then it cuts through. I guess she's at work, and I think this is like a school or something or maybe like a university or college, but she's in, like an office room with a lot of books around and coworker. And she's just dropping off some papers to him. And he's like, oh, while you're here, do you think you can make some tea? And she's like, yeah, sure. And thinks she doesn't know who she is. I think she's having, like, a little existential conversation in her head, a little crisis. And then we get a brief montage of all the times she goes out as Maria, which is the prostitute identity of her going out and hooking up with all these guys and banging away the night. And.

You'Re not wrong, but I don't like how you're saying, isn't that every episode, though?

And then we snap back to chono.

Snap back to reality.

I was going to say the rest, but I don't know.

There goes gravity. That's all I know.

But it's chona, the tutor talking with a doctor, and the doctor saying, like, oh, I just had to talk with Maria. She was kind of saying, she wants you to live your best life, and saying you got to take care of yourself, and she's taking care of herself. That's why she's doing all this stuff. She wants to do all this. So she told me to tell you to kind of get on with your own life the way she is. And we see that Maria is living her life. Yeah, she's saying Maria is living her life unafraid and wants to tutor, to be at peace. And then we cut back to Ms. Chenow waking up on the couch. But, like, in the Maria makeup and stuff, she has, like, a fake mole and, like, big, bright lipstick and stuff. And it seems like every time this happens, like, the switch off between these two people, it seems like the answering machine is, like, the key of, like, when Maria calls and leaves a message. And then when she comes home, she replays the answering machine messages, and that changes Maria back into Ms. chiano. And there's a scene of her back at the school with her coworker, and she just, like, hands in more papers, like, oh, here you go. Yeah, thanks for the reports. Hey, by the way, would you marry me?

This is romance.

Oh, man. It just sweep me up my feet here. nameless? Fiance. We don't even get his name, I don't think.

I don't remember.

Yeah, it does matter. So, yeah, he just asked her to marry her, and it's like, oh, weird. And then we get cut to the answering machine where she just starts deleting all of the messages from Maria. And then we cut to Maria out with a client who's talking to her as she's, like, getting changed. And he's like, oh, man, this is the last night. She's like, yeah, I'm done. After this. We're done. We're through. I'm getting out of the game, so let's make it a night to remember. And he's like, oh, come on. Why are you quitting? Like, what, are you getting married or something? It's like and so then the next day, she wakes up and plays the answering machine, and there's no new messages. She's like, oh, we're done. And she starts taking all of her dresses marie's dresses and all the elaborate makeup and starts putting them away and puts them in, like, a suitcase in the back of the closet. She's like, I'm done. It's over. It's no longer part of me. And then we see her out on a boat ride, like, on a little lake, little paddle boat with her fiance, and they're talking a bit. Real engaging conversation for two people about to get solid.

There's so much in common work together, romance, work altogether.

That's it.

End of list.

End of list. And she's out on the boat. Her phone rings, and, oh, the last night when she was Maria, the guy, the client was asking, like, hey, how about you give me the phone number? She's like, you got me. He's like, no, the white phone. Your personal phone. Number, not your business phone. So when she's out with her fiancee on the boat, the white cell phone rings, which is her personal phone. And it's her handler who arranged for her to meet clients and stuff when she was a prostitute. And he's like, hey, I got another client for you. She's like, how did you get this number? I told you I quit. What are you doing calling me? He's like, no, you said you were quitting. Quitting. Like you were quitting that quitting thing. So then you're working, right? What are you talking about? You've gave me this number. Why would you give me that number if you didn't want me to have it? So she starts freaking out and panicking, and then it cuts to her back in her apartment, and all of the clothes and makeup are back out on the desk and back in the closet. And then she goes and see if there's a new message on her answering machine. When she plays it, it's Maria saying she's shown as being selfish, only thinking about herself and that Maria is not going to go away that easily. Here we go. And so she starts panicking a little bit, and that's when the phone rings. And it rings for a few times, and we get different, like, cuts of the apartment around. And then when the last time it rings, she picks it up, and it's Maria who answered it this time. So then we cut to we see chona and her fiance talking to a wedding planner, and they're saying, like, no, we don't want a big formal event. We'll just get, like, wedding pictures, prove that we got married, and then we'll just do, like, a city hall sort of marriage thing, like, nothing fancy. So we see chona trying on the wedding dress, talking with the planners there. And while she's doing it, while she's putting on the dress and getting ready, it's cutting to different shots of Maria also getting ready to go out for the night. So you have a good comparison there with the shots. And the whole time, there's, like, a voiceover argument in her head between chono and Maria and chono's fiance. And then there's also shots of chona and her fiance going to a jewelry store, and he buys her a necklace with a heart around it. He's like, until we can get the ring, here's something else to kind of tidy over until then. And we see them in an actual church, like, an empty church, getting the wedding pictures. And like, oh, I don't think they go this far with it. And they're like, yeah, they're real pictures. It's real photography and all that stuff. It's just not the ceremony. And after they get the pictures, cut to chona's doctor congratulating her on getting engaged, saying, like, hey, should probably tell your fiance about your condition. She's like, oh, you think so? He's like, yeah, it's kind of a big deal.

Yeah, important together.

I know you just met this person a week ago, but if you're getting married so after he tells her that, we cut to chona in the hospital room visiting YUICHI and talking about his attack and stuff. And he sits up. He's like, okay, Miss chona. And she's like, oh, yeah. Do you need the doctor? He's like, no, I think you need the doctor. You seem like someone who would need the doctor more. And it's like, the fuck does that mean? You're a little bastard.

I'll smash your head again.

He's right. But he doesn't have the context for why he's right. It's just like, we also hit you, weechi. So I already got baggage. But yeah, we see. After she visits him, custachona throwing out all of maria's clothes and makeup. This time she put them in bags and took them to a dump. Like, she got a taxi ride to, like, the city dump and threw them all out. That way she wouldn't have easy access to them. And while she's there, she's a big old crow fly down and crow at her the same way one flew down when she got a call once she was on the boat ride with her fiance. She's like an omen physical representation of maria's dissatisfaction. Very good. And we see her walking back to the cab. And the cab driver is like, hey, lady, how long I got to wait here? And so when we see her walking back, we see a little glint in her eye. And she answers the phone. It's kind of like, that's Maria now. They switched. So then back at work with her fiance was going to ask him. He's like, hey, who's Maria? She's like, what? What do you mean? She's like, you called me the other night and kind of sound like you were drinking a bit. And you mentioned a lady named Maria. And who is that? She's like, shit. All right. Got to go and double check. And it cuts to her in a cab going back to the dump to make sure the clothes are still there. And while she's in the cab, the cab driver is like, hey, you kind of look familiar. Have we met before? Like, have you been in my cab recently? And when he says that, she's looking at a picture with him and Maria like, you know, from a night they closely spent together. And she's like, ah, fuck. So she goes back to the dump, and she sees that the clothes and makeup, they ain't there. Like, she finds the spot, and she finds the trash bags. And that's not what's in the trash bags anymore. And when she, like, steps away, she sees the heart necklace that her fiancee got her dangling from, like a rusted bed frame or something. She's like, nuts, beans.

Oh, shock. I did it again. Oh, boy. wacky.

Jonah and we get a little voice over Maria saying like, she's never letting her go. She's like, I'm not leaving ever. This is us, like, thick and thin here, baby. Get used to it. And during this little crisis moment, turn out, like, snaps back to herself. And she's back in the hospital again, visiting YUICHI. And he says he's talking about his attack. And he's like, yeah, if if I'm being honest, like, when Little Slugger attacked me, it's it's kind of freeing. Like, it proved I wasn't the attacker anymore. People stopped, like, suspected me of it, and then they started sympathizing with me and, like, feeling sympathy for me because, you know, I got attacked. So, you know, it helped a lot. So it's kind of a freeing experience. And he says that Anthony keeps hearing the message of Maria replaying over and over in her head of, like, she wants to be free. Maria wants to be free too. So that just keeps looping and looping and looping. And then we see her back in her apartment, playing with the playing message on the answering machine over and over and over again. And then she eventually kind of snaps and takes the answering machine and breaks it, throws it against the ground. And then Marie calls on her white cell phone. So Marie is calling jono on her own phone, which is very suspicious.

Spooky.

She calls her, saying chona is the fake one and Maria is the real one. And it's all just this whole facade, like, what are you been doing with yourself? You don't even know who you are. And after she has that conversation, she takes a picture, like, a framed picture of Maria that's hanging over the answering machine and starts smashing it and trying to destroy the picture frame. And what she's doing is she, like, lifts her hands up, and another hand comes out and grabs her and stops her from destroying the picture. And then we see. I didn't mention this because it wasn't relevant, but when she goes out as Maria, there's, like, two marias. There's the long, straight, black hair wig, and then there's, like, a short, kind of manic pixie cut wig. So there's, like, two standard outfits she has when she goes out as Maria. So, yeah, she was smashing the picture frame, and someone stops her, and then it cuts to her, cuts to Maria. Both maria's dragging charna down the street and as Cherno's fighting or fighting them the whole time. And the whole time she's struggling. She remembers what YUICHI said about little Slugger. He's like, yeah, it was kind of like a freeing moment. And then right as she remembers that, as they're, like, fighting the whole time in the street, we kind of get shots, like silhouetted shots of her. We never get a broad shot of the whole scene. It's always either close up on one or two of the marias and then a close up shot of cherno struggling. And then when we get the broad shot, it's just a silhouette of just one person, like, wearing one of the maria wigs, like, fighting themselves, it looks like. And then when she remembers what YUICHI said, little Slugger appears right on cue and attacks jono. And right as he's flying up on her, she's still wet and dark. And then as it gets closer, her face lights up. And when she sees she's wearing the long maria wig, that falls off with the other maria wig underneath. But she also has just, like, clown makeup on. Like, it looks like grease paint, like makeup at this point. And right when she gets attacked, cuts away. And the detectives are there visiting her in the hospital after she got attacked. And I'm not sure if they actually talked to her. We see her fiance in there with her, and they're kind of just in the doorway. So I'm not sure if they actually questioned her at all.

I think in the sub, they say, like, we should do this right now. And then they leave.

Okay, yeah, kind of remember that. So they're walking away. And the younger detective kind of seems like the victims all look kind of relieved after their attacks. And the other detectives like, what? He's like, yeah, they got attacked. And that's bad. Clearly, they're in the hospital, but they seemed more distraught any time we saw them before the attack. And then after the attacks, they seem more at peace. He's like, that's kind of weird. And then as they're getting in the elevator, they see the old man drawing on the floor again, muttering to himself, writing out this huge equation. And the nurse is like, all right, Mr. So and So, let's get you back to your room. We get you some paper to draw on. And the next morning, we see chuno and her fiance living together. They established earlier they weren't, so it's like they've moved in together now, now that they're married, I guess. And they're watching a news report saying, like, we arrested Little Slugger. We got him. He's in custody. And we just get a shot of, like, a police officer kind of in front, really nervous and doesn't look confident in himself. And right as he's about to talk, the TV turns off. And after it turns off, it zooms out and we see it's the little dog mascot, little Dog plushy, sitting on the remote, saying, like, all right, I already forgot her name. But she's like, all right, no need to keep watching that. We're done. everything's wrapped up. We can move on now. So back to work. She's like, all right, here we go. That's episode three.

Yeah.

Cool.

There's a lot going on in this. It's a fun ride, but a lot it's a lot.

Very dense storyline. I enjoyed it because it reminded me a lot of dubrova. But there is a lot of characters going on, and they all tie in together. And like dana said, the alleyway where YUICHI is throwing out his skates looked like the same alleyway with the old homeless woman digging to the trash before the attack and was like, I didn't even realize that. But yeah, it did look the same. So a lot of the characters with seemingly no connection to crossing over and tying together somehow.

Yeah, I'm going to preface this because whenever we talk about cop dramas like this, we keep having the same fight. So I'm going to get in front of that and say, we can't go down this road for like the 8th episode. But I was also comparing this to dura in my head because I liked this a lot more. I feel like this it sort of took it in a more almost like anthology series sort of way. It didn't try to be like, here's a hint that things are tying together. Let me drop this very clear clue. And it just gave those like subtle things of like, it's the same alleyway, or this tutor is also the person connected to this. We don't need to shoehorn their stories together, but it just those like, very subtle, light ways. Because this show by itself, because it is like the style of the creator, has just a lot of cut away, seemingly random stuff, just even just as like set dressing and like, this is the world and how people think about things. So having those seeing a purposeful, like, here's a small little snippet of something, and then it's still being worked into the context of the narrative later on is like, oh, this is fun. It stands alone. So it's not like, okay, you're trying to set something up. I guess I'll find out in twelve episodes and goes into, okay, I'll put that in the back of my mind. Oh, you connected those things.

The little world bezeling side payoffs are usually paid off within that episode. And yeah, I fully understand what you mean. We're like du ras. Like, we're going to give you a little sampler pack of every character in every episode, or like, a lot of characters in one episode. And then this, like you said, the anthology is like, this is yuichi's episode, this is chernobyl's episode. All the characters we see in the opening sequence, it feels like they're all going to get their own episode and then cross over with others when they need to. But that one episode is going to focus on just them for the most part.

Yeah, I think the other thing too is that this is only 13 episodes, so they have less time than do Robert Robinson to tie things together. And I think another thing is that all of these characters are pretty much they're tied together by showing that little slugger, like that's all something that they're worrying about. Whereas in Du ra, they all have their own things going on that eventually come together. But in this, it's like they're all, they're all living in this situation. So that simplifies it a little bit too.

The primary plot is still around. Yeah. The assaults ends the show in a bad little slugger versus dura. There is like, every character has their own plot and then there is an overarching, a plot, b plot, and C plot of the whole season. So, yeah, this one is concise. It's like, we know what the story is and we know how we're going to tell it in these 13 episodes. Yeah.

We don't get bogged down by like, oh, let's learn about the gang that runs a prostitution ring. Oh, let's talk about like, the big company that is corrupt and doing this, like, character design thing and just these very big concepts that they're like, okay, we need everything to be big and grand. It's like, no, just one silhouette of a guy on roller skates and that's all he'll need.

A world building for 13.

Yeah, this matters. It's okay. That's all you need.

I fully understand those criticisms. Yeah. They're very accurate.

I love this though. I cannot wait to finish this.

Yeah, this is very good. It's kind of freeing because I'm so used to being like, I'm just not into these, like, cop drama. Let's find this mysterious killer things, and finding one I do like and being able to go, oh, this is what I like about this. This is what works for me in this genre.

Because that is not about the cops. It's like the cops are very much a side character rather than like the main focus.

Yeah. Even if it is just like boil it down to criminal investigation shows.

I can see that it's a very renowned and highly regarded anime series for a reason. So it is good. I say that even though we've had our fair share problems with other very popular series for some fucking reason.

Yeah.

But yeah, this was one that I actually had. I watched like a video essay about a paranoia agent and like a dissection of it before watching it. So I already knew the ending and I knew a lot of the themes and stuff going into it. It spoiled it for me, but it also helped me appreciate it as I was watching it because I'm like, oh, I see it's. piecing it together. Like, I can still enjoy the series even though the big M. Night shaman twist was revealed to me.

Yeah, I'm excited to see what happens. I'll probably find after I finish it, I'll definitely look into stuff like that. But I get that too because I watched The Good Place because I found out about the twist. Yeah, some things are just like I mean, I think this would be interesting without knowing anything. Obviously I'm very interested in it, but sometimes it does make it more interesting where you're like, oh, wow, I can see how this is going to pay off in the end. And I can see how this does. This thing. That can be cool too.

Yeah, but even with knowing because we've talked about this before, where it's the I forget exactly what shows we've mentioned on particularly I complained about it, but it's the mystery of a show. Breadcrumbing it and then the dsx mocking out of nowhere. It's like, ha ha. I bet you didn't see this coming. It's like, no, how fucking could I? I didn't think Jesus would come down and stop a little slugger like in.

Another there you go.

Yeah.

Horror anime that had a bad twist.

But with this show knowing full well what the ending is, I can see the throughline of like, oh, no, they're definitely like, breadcrumbing it. And like well, like, even if you don't know what the ending is, you might be able to piece it together and figure out what's happening with these three episodes that we watched. It's not some crazy, out of nowhere, like, no one can plan ending. It is very well seated throughout this series, even just the first three episodes.

Nice. That makes me so excited. Yeah.

Because, like, already I have, like, theories in my head. And like, I'm going to keep an eye out for this specific thing to see if it keeps happening. And that also makes you excited to keep watching because it is like, oh, I genuinely feel like I have a lead on this puzzle and I want to keep getting these clues.

Yeah, just imagine you too, like, trying to figure out, like, a case. Like, oh, what about, oh, this might be it. And then I'm over in the corner. Charlie Day, like, pebby sylvia. Stop with all the fucking strings. Like, and I'm like, with Du Rob.

Like, I got like 47 ids.

Like, avoid that. Don't give him coffee anymore. Keep him calm.

Take some deep breaths.

Our red yarn map is a straight line.

Yeah.

Wild.

Mine is more of just a red wall. Like, the string has just covered the wall. At this point, you can't see the paper anymore.

Well, I think it's safe to say weeb made it.

Yeah, it's been a while. Yeah, it's ping pong.

What was the last one? Ping pong.

Yeah.

But yeah, I consider them. I feel very similarly about this as I did with ping pong. I think I think this is really good.

I really like seeing the fluid style of animation in both, especially in the hallucinogenic world where he's like, freaking I.

Love the animation in there.

It's very satoshi going.

Yeah.

So we're going to keep the spooky train rolling for next week. We got a listener recommendation. We're going to watch Ghost Stories. Yeah.

Keep this good train rolling.

I mentioned this was going to be the pick. I got scary reactions from dana and Brandon. Not super hopeful, but yeah, we'll see.

It'll be fun. We'll have a fun time.

If there's a show you would like us to watch, you can send your recommendations to us. Are we there yet@gmail.com? Or reach out to us on Twitter instagram. Are we there yet? On both. You can find me on Twitter and Instagram at Mr. Patrick dugan.

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 do. We also stream sometimes. I may or may not be starting the digimon game soon.

Oh, no.

Wow. Thanks for that warning.

Yeah, I'm going to try and bring you two into it.

I'm blocking twitch on my computer set up with a child block the entire website. Thank you to camille ruley for our artwork and thank you to Louis zong for 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.

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