AWTY 166 - Devil Man Fish Baby (Tatami Galaxy)

Hello and welcome to our web area in exploration and edge education and anime. I'm your anime idiot, patrick dugan.

I'm an anime expert, D hollander.

And I'm brenda mccullough. Your anime lost in space because I tried liking this show. I know nothing. I got nothing.

Patrick, you have to watch anime today.

Ground control to Major dugan. Bad news.

Got. So no.

It'S anime again.

It's that time of the week again.

You know, the bad time the earth went around. Wow. I was trying to represent a week. I was like, okay, another week is here. I was going to say the earth went around the sun seven times.

No.

We'Re all in a great head space, so let's watch some complex stuff. We have a recommendation from Robert Anderson. We are watching tatami Galaxy this week, which yeah, know nothing about, but it is supposedly in doing the research, a very pretty show, a very interestingly animated show. But yeah, we'll get into it. Is this something you heard of D? Since Brendan already said no, I played my hand.

I've heard the title and I think this is another masaki wasa show in one way or another. I'm not sure how he was involved, but I'm pretty sure he was.

Yeah. I looked this up because it reminded me a lot of the night is short walk on girl and I was like, this looks very similar in style and shurn off both masahaki Uada Wasa. I can't say names. That guy, the director, he also did ping pong. Keep your hands on the etherken. That food chain episode of adventure time. All stuff is covered on this pocket.

All our usual touchstones. But yeah, looking this up, I saw mention that this has a very clear influence on edgar Wright and Scott pilgrim and stuff. I feel like that seems compatible. I've had this on my list of like, this seems catered to me.

We've been hurt before by that. Interesting. I look forward to seeing aubrey Plaza in here somewhere.

Yeah. Surprise. She voices the main character. Oh, just we don't know that.

We know nothing.

Yeah, we know nothing. So we'll just throw it away. Take us to the real episode.

Yeah.

Third verse, same as the second verse, same as the first verse.

A little bit louder and a little bit worse.

I do enjoy a rogue like and just playing the same thing over and over and over.

Love, Hayes.

Yeah. Wait, is this safe scumming the anime?

It's weird because I was also sort of playing death loop recently, which is literally just a rogue, like a game, but not a rogue.

And also the paint stumbles into groundshog day narratives like seven years after this came out. But it's in the zeitgeist again. So we have a bathroom.

Yeah. Same as it ever was.

Same as it oh, no.

This is not my beautiful house.

This is not my beautiful one.

My beautiful wife.

Kermit.

Yeah, you can spend.

So we start episode one. Oh, boy. Is this the fastest dialogue I have seen in anime?

Insane.

I heard that this was a very pretty show and very well animated. Couldn't really tell you because I had to keep my eyes glued on the subtitles. There were moments where I checked, they were there for less than a second. Just multiple frames of a sentence that you need to read just to keep up. And it's like, oh my God, this is breakneck pace.

Yeah. So we watched this dubbed. I think even dubbed, I would have had trouble following what was being said even if I wasn't reading it. It was so much, so fast.

To my knowledge. I don't know if there's an official dub, and I assume it's because every dubbing company is like, fuck this.

No, can't touch this one.

It was on funimation's website, but it was like behind an account wall because it's mature content. So I don't know if there's a dope or not, but I can't even imagine, like the articulation one would have to have to sorry, jasper's playing with a box. jasper is my cat, everyone.

He's having a fun time with that box.

Paul, where did you find a mouse?

But yeah, I can't even imagine someone speaking in English with that kind of articulation. To make it possible to understand with.

How quickly they speak, it feels like you'd have to record it all and then speed it up at like 1.25 speed. Like it speed up slightly just to condense it and fit it all in. Because God, that's a lot.

Seemed like he never breathed it's.

Very impressive.

So, yes, we are prefacing that in that dialog wise, couldn't gun to my head give you a rundown of what happens? So this is mostly based notetaking based off the plot synopsis to be like, okay, do I have to take the history of the apartment building he lives in? Seems like it's all bombed out and destroyed, but it's just a very shitty apartment. It's like, no, I didn't need to write that down.

Okay, cool.

Yeah, he's just a teenage boy. Being a teenage boy and saying things you don't care about.

Yeah. You know what we talk about on this show?

Anime.

So we get a small primer. We see. This is shimo gammo shrine. It's shrine outside of kyoto. And on occasion oh, when when the moon is right in the sky, a small ramen food cart shows up. And this is a popular place for our main character. I say that because I don't think he ever gets a name.

Nope, I don't think so.

Yeah, in like even in the notes, like the synopsis that I've seen, it's just protagonist, so unnamed main character. I'll just say Maine boy boy is there eating ramen. And he sees the sky on the other end of the bar with a weird shaped head. It's an eggplant shaped head.

Looks like Jay leno.

Yep. So he's like, I feel like I've seen this guy before. And the man looks to him and he's like, hey, you. I'm a god. I'm the god of this shrine. Hey, what's up?

How are you doing?

So he's like, hey, I've seen you around, young man. You're a piece of shit with no purpose in life, right?

We have that in common.

Feel targeted by the show.

He's like, hey, so I'm going to level with you. I've seen you around. I'm the god of matchmaking, and I'm about to go to God Con where we meet up with all the other gods and we put our matchmaking decisions into the world and essentially fire cupid's arrow. That's where it goes down. So for you, I'm in a little bit of a pickle. I think I can set you up with a girl, a girl, you know, in one of your college clubs. But there's also a chance I may set it up with your best friend, who is the world's biggest piece of shit. So, yeah, I'm really torn. It could go either way at this point, but I'm going to let you figure it out. If you want to come talk to me, we can make this happen. The boy is like, skeptical. But how do I come talk to you?

Do I come and make an offering at your shrine again? No, I live upstairs, room 201. Right about you.

I live same shitty boarding house you do.

I can't place where I know this guy. I'm your neighbor. We live next to each other. I'm in unit 210. You're in unit 211. Come on.

I'll be honest, gun to my head, if you ask me who my neighbor was, I could not tell you either. So I feel him on this part. Fair.

So we get a little bit of backstory on this main character. So he was the typical high school loser. He didn't join any clubs. He just hung out with the burnouts and the unmotivated kids. So when he got the chance to go to the ideal college life, just like Capital U University, he's like, okay, now it's time to make a change. I can have the actual romantic college experience and have all that stuff. Let me join a club. And the club he joins, drumroll, please. Tennis club.

Oh God.

Now so immediately, someone pours some boiling water on them.

Oh, no.

His mom hates him for no reason that I won't get into it. I can't get into it.

Not again. Too recent. So he joins the tennis club, and once he does, he's like, all right, maybe I'll get to flirt, meet all the hot chicks in tennis club. But once he joined, he realized, oh, everyone here is already in a relationship or couple off immediately. So he almost instantly becomes the last single guy there, except for one other person. That's his friend Ozu.

Ozu.

Just a handsome young gentleman. Of course, he is drawn to essentially be a demon. So it's pretty clear, like, yes, we can all establish this as a bad guy.

Have you seen stefano? Yes.

Very much has the same face. So he and main character bond, they're like, Love sucks. It just sucks your personality away. Just real classic incel of like, why are all these guys falling for the scam of love when you could be farting in a basement with other dudes? That's where it's at, the Dream Party city. So they're like, okay, our master plan, we got to break up all these couples. We got to show them all love is fake, love is bullshit, and you don't need it. So in doing so, we're going to actively break up all these couples. So their master plan, the town they're in is, like, along a river. So there's, like, a start of summer party that typically happens where just people gather by the river bank. It's a popular hangout spot for the college kids, and they decide, let's set off some bottle rockets at them. Not like, above them to be like, oh, this is real distracting. Let's shoot artillery bottle rockets at all. Our friends and colleagues sit.

Cock block of the century.

So as they're setting up, they are, like, looking through binoculars across the river, and they see akashi, the girl that he is, that they supposedly have a loved triangle with. God, okay, sure, yeah. But akashi is your typical she's too cool, she's so cold, she's not friendly, but I understand her. We can vibe. But they set up all these rockets and fire them off. And all the couples go screaming and running because they are under fire. They're actively dodging fireworks. So they set this off. They see across the river. kashi is not impressed. She's just like, you fucking idiot, and just dodges all the fireworks. But then naturally, everyone's like, hey, let's go beat the shit out of the people shooting at us. So they run across the river and try to catch them, and that Ozu and Main character run away. So because they didn't have any disguises, were entirely visible, and we're shouting each other's names, people realized it was them and they were ostracized. They were kicked out of a club called the Black cupids because they're just systematically destroying all these relationships and all their schemes were exposed. So we see as they're running away from the fireworks, main character sees a fortune teller. ooh, mysterious. Just sitting on the sidewalk, and she's like, you seem like a man with hidden potential. And he's like, yes, I'm a confident single guy. I will take any validation you can give me. Tell me more, fortune teller. Obviously you see my untapped potential. And she's like, Well, I see you're going to be presented with an opportunity soon. This is your chance. You have to seize on this opportunity no matter what it is, because if you don't, you will be a loser for the rest of your life. And he's like, that's way too vague. Hey, do something. God, do something. Not the fireworks thing. Don't do that. But you already did it. Oh, man. Okay, sorry. Yeah, you stood to talk to this fortune teller immediately before, and she would have been like, oh, wait, never mind. Don't. So talking to the fortune teller, he's like, that was too vague. I don't understand you. But then he sees Ozu walked down the street with his arm around a woman. Oh, what scandal. He feels so betrayed. He's like, oh, I thought we were brothers. We were in the no Girls aloud Club.

How could you?

But Ozu is like, it's fine. She was my dental hygienist, so we just knew each other. It doesn't matter.

You know how love happened.

Yeah. So they go to a restaurant, and they're talking about this betrayal, and ozu's like, hey, I know you're giving me shit, but I saw you the other day at that matchmaking shrine, and I saw you going through the process being like, oh, give me a girlfriend. Give me a girlfriend. And main character was like, oh, no, I didn't. I was buying porn there.

Yeah, that's why I was at a pornography store. I was buying pornography.

So ozzy is like, it's weird. anyways, what do you think about akashi? And main character is like, oh, no. What, are you expressing interest in her? You shouldn't, because I am definitely interested, but not really. And ozzy is like, yeah, I think you should go for it. She seems to hate everyone, but she seems to hate you less, so that means she likes you, so go for it.

That's an end. That's all I need.

So he gets in his head. He's like, oh, man. Just really going through his thoughts of like, is this a trick? This is the scum of the earth. I don't know if I can trust what he's saying. And when he looks up, akashi is sitting across from him. Oh, no. How did you get here? You were just spacing out for, like, ten minutes. But the real reason she's there is she's there with the tennis club, because after their attack, they went to this restaurant like they normally do. Hey, Maine don't go to where they're going to hunt you down. She was like, Ozu already dipped out the back. Don't worry. I'll cover your check. You can get out of here. And he's like, okay, thank you. And he runs off. So we get another flashback of how he and akashi met. They were both working at a summer book fair, and she was the ice queen that none of the guys wanted to talk to because she was just too hostile. But he was like, yeah, rock on. Keep doing your thing. Yeah.

My society.

That's my kind of woman.

So there is history of them being friendly before this. So he runs back to his apartment where Ozu is at. Ozu leaves him like, a cake dessert and whatever. So he was going to eat that dessert by himself, the main character. But as he's going to, he's like, this is a dessert made for sharing. Maybe. What if, like, akashi was here? Oh, no. Why did my mind immediately go to akashi? Oh, the god, he's influencing my brain and then just start spiraling for like, five minutes where yeah, relatable content.

Here we go.

Wow.

Sorry. Relatable content would be if he was spiraling for months, but here we are. Okay. But he's agonizing. He's like, I kind of do have a crush on akashi, but do I give up my loner lifestyle and lose to society by falling in love and all that garbage? And as he does, he just starts devouring the cake, being like, no, selfish.

Man time his hands like a feral beast. Honestly, I forgot the word incel until just now. And I was much happier. I was like, objectively measurably, happier?

Yeah, I've been thinking of it the whole time and I was like, I'm not going to say it out loud.

Yeah, sorry to bring it back into the world. That will be the episode title, but I'll bleep it out. We'll just see stars. Just know that it's in cell.

Okay?

We get another flashback while they're working at the book club, they're just like, sitting next to each other, chilling. And she's like, oh, I heard you found this, like, a ramen cart that's sporadically there, but you just happen to know where it is. Maybe you should invite me there sometime. Very clearly being like, hey, I'm into you, and he's like, Dave, I will not pick up on this and continue agonizing over if she likes me or not. So he finally decides, okay, I'll give in. I'll go talk to the god. Please don't give akashi to Ozu. He's a huge piece of shit. If she's going to end up with anyone, it might as well be me, right? So the god is like, okay, come come meet me at this place at 08:00. So he goes there and oh, it just happens to be the day of a festival. So it's Party City downtown. That's the second time I've said Party City.

This is not branded.

Clarify that. Sorry.

Dreamers for $5. Paper masks.

So he meets the god there. He's like, okay, cool. So here's the big plan. You thought I was just going to, like, grant you the godly power of being in love? No. akashi is across this crowded bridge. She's walking this way. You're going to walk that way. You're going to say something nice and pleasant to her, and then you're going to ask her out. And Maine is like, you expected me to do work. That wasn't part of the deal. But I I can't do that. You need me to emasculate myself by having feelings? No.

Disgusting.

The worst. So he walks across the bridge. He's like, this is so stupid. I'm going to tell her to fuck off. Take that, fate. But he sees her and he immediately freezes up and gets nervous. And she's like, oh, hey. Funny seeing you here. He's like, yeah, goodbye.

Fairly well.

So he doesn't do it and just walks away and is like, no, I didn't take the opportunity. So at that point, Ozu pops out of the crowd dressed in disguise as a woman. And he's like, come on, you fucking idiot. I went through all this work and put all this together for you to not go through with it. So this was another Ozu scheme, this whole thing, the god fake. He saw the main character at the shrine praying for a girlfriend and was like, me and my buddy who has this weird god head. Yeah, I'm going to enlist him. We're going to convince him to ask out his crush. So, of course, the main character is furious at this plot. And Ozu is like, if you don't ask her out right now, I'm jumping off this bridge. You have to do this. But out of disguise in this crowd are people Ozu fucked over, either by shooting fireworks at them or many of his other just devil man schemes. So they're like, hey, that's that asshole. Let's kill him. Push him off the bridge.

Bio zoo rit.

Yeah.

And they make sure to specify, oh, no, the water. You'll die if you fall in that, it's too shall. So the crowd murders him and they're like, hey, you Main character. Aren't you friends with that guy? Fuck you too. And they throw him off the bridge. And as he's following, ozzy was like, what a way for my life to end. What if I did everything different? ah, if only I didn't join tennis club, none of this would have happened. What what could have been? And then we get that classic year rewind sound and the episode ends.

Wow.

Interesting. I will admit I didn't piece together that Ozu set them up and that the god wasn't real. Like I said, I was pretty confused for a lot of this.

If I did not have a synopsis in front of me to be like, I'm checking my notes against this. This is what's happening, right? I would have been lost.

Yeah. So in episode two, we start off with Ozu and Mainboy, and they're watching some guy on some security cameras. And Mainboy tells us about Ozu again. He says, if I hadn't met him, I'd be a better poison. I doubt it. So they're going into this person's house because Ozu has the heat, and he tells Main boy to keep everything clean because the guy who owns the house is a clean freak. So he'll notice if anything moves. And he says something about, yeah, that's why he doesn't have a flesh and blood girlfriend. And then they go into his room and they see he has a sex doll. Weird. Yeah, I was going to say. So once again, we get his, like, rose colored campus life ideas, but that didn't happen. We know this. But this time, when he says he joined a club, he tells us that he joined a film club which was headed by this guy, Joe Gasaki. And we see some of the film club's exploits. They film something together where jogasaki is, like, always the star of the film club's little movies. So they're doing a scene where jogasaki hits the main boy and he winds up in the water, and he's changing his clothes because he's all wet now. And they overhear him. He overhears them, saying that they need to do another take. And he's like, I don't want to do that. And then he meets Ozu here. So it was at this point that I was like, oh, we got, like, an unreliable narrator on our hands because he's telling us different shit. But it's the same shit we heard last time. And then we see the two of them at home talking shit about jogasaki, saying that he doesn't have any original ideas. All of his short films are no good. So to combat this, main boy started writing his own little movies. And he describes three different movies that he tried to make. And they're all like different genres from each other, but none of them were received well. Jogasaki's movies always did better, and it's mainly because jogasaki is just super charismatic and everybody loves him. And then also, they talk about how Jogasaki's, like, right hand man made it really difficult for them to film. And ultimately, they were cast out of the film club. So similar situation to last time.

Shunned from society.

How could this possibly be my fault?

God, society sucks. Wait. Why can't I be a part of it anymore? How could this happen to me?

So they're out at a restaurant, and he's complaining how he wants recognition. And then Ozu calls him selfish. And he tells Ozu that he's wasted his college life because of him. Because of Ozu. And Ozu tells him, it doesn't matter what path you take, you'll always end up here, which feels relevant. Keep that in mind. And then Mainboy asks if they've had this conversation before, and Ozu is like, no, it's just deja vu, pal. Don't worry about it. And then he says the same stuff that he did in the last episode about how he's actively trying to make main boy a bad person. Ever since I met you, that's been my goal.

I've seen your potential to be just a real garbage man.

Is that bad? Is that a problem?

I think Ozu is a hoot. He really makes the show fun because he is just terrible. Yeah, for it, they're just people.

It's fun to watch.

Yeah. And then he just pulls out Joe Gasaki's grades, and he's like, listen, even though this guy is really cool, and everybody loves him. His grades are terrible. He's been here for eight years.

That loan, though.

Yeah, a lot of people go to college for eight years. Yeah, they're called doctors, Tommy.

Well, I just finished my sociology degree, and it took me seven years, technically.

There you go.

Although I did I always got good grades, and it was a belated decision. So it's not because I got bad grades. Just to clarify for me, I graduated college the other day.

Hell, yeah.

Anyway, and then Ozu talks about the swimsuit audition, which was when joga had that's what I was calling in my note. joga saki had a bunch of ladies come in in just swimsuits, and he judged their titties. He, like, had them stand behind a thing and put in so he could see their boobs. And then he kept, like, a record of each one terrible, especially him being as old as he is. Think about that.

Terrible. I didn't realize that.

Yeah, he's probably at least 26. And then Main Boy gets an idea. So he's like, I'm leaving the club anyway. I'm gonna drag this bitch down with me. And ozu's like, I'll go along with whatever you say, my friend. So they're going to film an expose documentary on joga saki, and then they're with God Man from the first episode. But then in this one, they explain that it's literally just a guy that Ozu knows. So they're taking some stuff that they filmed, and Ozu is manipulating the film to make jogasaki look even worse than he is. And Main Boys, like, at this point, it's not really a documentary. It's just like a personal attack. And Mainboy's had enough, so he gets up and leave, and he's walking down the street and he's stopped by the same old lady fortune teller from the first episode, tells him the exact same thing from the first episode. And he's like, I feel like I've heard this before. And yeah, so he has to take the opportunity that's in front of him or life will continue on the same way it's been. And then he walks along. He sees Jogosaki out with a bunch of friends. It's kind of funny. He sees him as if everybody's, like, carrying him on a pedestal and he's like a kangan stuff, but he's just drunk and hanging on his friend's shoulders. And they talk, and Jogosaki is like, it's really too bad that your films didn't get picked. But, I mean, they have to be something people want to watch, and people just didn't want to watch your films by. And then Ozu runs up. He says he's been looking for him. And now Main Boy is determined to make a LIBELIST film against jogasaki. His words. So, yeah, they do more editing. They finish the film, and there's a little event where they're showing one of Jogasaki's movies, and Main Boy sneaks in and switches out the film with his. jogasaki introduces the movie, he introduces Ozu, saying that Ozu did the sound editing, and Ozu is up there taking a bow. And the main boy is like, wow, playing both sides.

Got to head your bets.

I also look at one point while they're making the film, ozu is like, hey, by the way, you can put your name on this. You don't have to put my name on this film. Finish it. If your buddy who's helping you on a project wants no association with that project, it's a bad sign.

Yeah, maybe question it.

Yeah, just put down Alan smithy for me. It's fine.

And then akashi did the special effects. So now we get another little flashback of how they met. It's pretty much the same thing. She's cold to other people, but now they're in the film club. He didn't meet her at a little bookshop. She's blunt and no one likes to talk to her, but he likes her. So, back on this day, it's time to start the film. Mainboy has second thoughts about showing the documentary because he doesn't want to undermine akashi's work. But Ozu is like, yeah, shut up. It's fine. So the movie starts and it seems like it's the movie that Jogosaki made, but then when they cut, the filming doesn't stop, and then it's just a bunch of clips that they have. So there's like, him going to the bathroom, him putting a gift that some girls gave him in the trash, a shot of his grades. It gets bad.

Yeah.

He somehow has, like, a rock climbing wall, but it's teddies. That's cool.

That was my favorite because it was just so absurd.

Yeah. They like, show him, like, on the phone with his mom, and he's like, But, mommy, I'm almost out of money. And then he's drinking from a bottle. So it's not just that he likes boobs, it's that he's like a baby man.

It's like he doesn't like women. He just likes breast. Just naples, which is bizarre.

Yeah. So the audience is turning against him fast. He yells to stop the film, but everybody's like, no, let it go. Keep going.

Hold on. He's onto something.

Yeah. And then it goes on to show him with his sex doll. And it was at that point I kind of felt bad for him.

Yeah, that one didn't seem as bad as the rest of it.

Yeah. Because, you know, that's just a guy doing what gets him his jollies. As long as it's not hurting anybody, that's fine. He's weird.

He's weird.

All the titty stuff. But this is whatever.

Honestly just mean having a titty wall like that he rock climbs on and suckles on feels a little weird than just a sex doll.

Yeah, much worse. Meanwhile, Ozu and Main boy are back in their editing room trying to clear stuff out. They ran from the viewing party before anybody could figure out it was them. And then akashi shows up and. She's like, yeah, they didn't stop the movie because the audience was enjoying it. Why would they stop it?

It was a good film.

She's like, God, Joe Gasaki and his goons are looking for you. And she says, I liked your other movies better. You're an idiot. She also says that he hasn't kept his promise, but he doesn't remember. And then she's like, just get out of here. And he tells her not to be fooled by Joe Kasaki's magic. And she's like, I'm not stupid. Like, you know me.

Clearly a college dipshit. We all know that.

Yeah. So off main boy goes. He returns home, and the already eaten castella is there, the cake that he ate. So that's interesting. This is a very intriguing plot because it's like, is this just him imagining what it would be like if he joined different clubs? Or is it actually, like, him being in, like, alternate realities and like, having memories of the past realities? At this point, we don't know.

But yeah, real quick on that with the fortune teller. When he when she gives him his fortune this time, she's like, oh, that's ¥2000. He's like, wait a minute. You've raised your price and slash. Yeah, so he still retains some memory.

And he so he's yeah, after he sees the eaten cake, he lays on the floor. He looks up at the ceiling. He remembers akashi having a conversation with akashi. He said he was going to make a movie about true love. And then the same exact thing happens. A moth lands on her face. She freaks out. Same scene, different place. She talks about she had lost a toy. It's the same conversation as last time. Don't know if we talked about it, but it happens. And then he's like, oh, maybe the opportunity the old one was talking about was akashi. And then he talks about regretting his decision to join the film club. And it was at this point I was like, oh, this show is just the it's not exactly groundhog's Day. It's like the dice episode of Community where it's different reality for each person that had to go get the pizza. So, yeah, this is just different realities for each club he might have joined, maybe. But yeah, he watches the film about true love that he never finished, and then the clock turns backwards again. One mo again. Time to go again.

One mo again we go.

And that's episode two.

And one mo again. Episode three, different clubs. All right, moving on. There are a little yeah, episode three starts off with Boy just riding a very high end fancy bike and talking about how he's going to win the race. And he's in his rose rose tinted glasses, collegey or whatever the phrase. And we see him ride his high end sports bike to the side. He locked it up, and I got this high end chain to lock it up, keep it safe, even a hydraulic cutter. Can't get through it. I got to protect my investment. He would see him get off the bike and start walking upstairs. Looks like he's doing, like, a delivery or something, like a courier. And as soon as he walks away, as soon as he gets up to the door, we see just a dude walks over, breaks the lock, takes the bike, and keeps going. He's just like, hello. Excuse me. Yeah, boy was, like, 10ft from it when it happened. So he's like, right there. And this was when we find out there is an overzealous volunteer called the cleanup Corpse that are going around taking bikes that have just been strewn around campus. And over the years, they've gotten more and more zealous to the point where even if it's slightly out of a designated biking zone, they'll take the bike, and the people never see those bikes again. So they just straight up steel. And they stole his bike, and along with it, the two years he invested.

Into it, it was a nice bike.

It's a very nice bike. We see him kind of sprawled out on the ground as they drive away in their pickup truck full of bikes, wondering, who did this? Who's responsible for this? Which I feel like is a much more meta question for the overarching show rather than this individual moment. And then we see this time in freshman year, he joined the cycle club. Same deal as before. daddy is going to get a girlfriend in. It turns out he just hung out with burnouts and lay abouts all high school, so he wasn't actually prepared to be a cyclist. And so he's, like, the scrawny, weakest member of the club, and everything is the same. We see the gym with everyone working on the cycling club, and he's already exhausted on the bench. And Ozu comes up this time, and he's a literal fishman. Like, even the protagonist says as he's narrating it, he's like, this fish man creature swam up to me out of the floor, and it was like, what?

Reality is getting a little funky.

Yeah, because he's in the gym. He's not by, like, a pond or a stream, and there's this fishman, like, swims through the ground. I was like, oh, okay.

He's like, I have to tell this story over and over again. I may as well embellish it.

Got to keep it interesting for me. And, yeah, he's like, hey, you're kind of shitty. I'm shitty too. Let's be shitty together. He's like, okay, and just agrees with him. And we see. Ozu would never show up yeah, he says Ozu would never show up in the circle. They say circle a few times, and I wasn't exactly sure what he meant by this, but he says instead of showing up in the circle, he would show up in his roomt, like, club.

Like, instead of saying club, they would say, like, film circle.

Okay.

Yeah, it was the same for the tennis circle in episode one.

Yeah, okay. For a second, I thought it meant like, the building where he wouldn't go through. The building just appeared. Okay. So, yeah, he wouldn't show up in the club. He would just show up in his bedroom. And his master, his drifting buddy, is also on the second near him. So we see it as he come into the bedroom and talk the protagonist a bit. And while he is, we see his drifting buddy master in the window behind him sneak in and start eating some of the protagonist's food and then run out. Just a real dick move. This iteration, we see the main boy kind of putting it with less of oz's shit. It's less of a buddy buddy and more of just like this fucking guy. So you kind of end up, like, kicking Ozu out of his room. And as Ozu leaves, main guy finds, like, a cycling book and notices, hey, you can get customized parts for your bike that'll help adapt for your weak strength because you suck at cycle, but they're really expensive. He's like, oh, that's what I'll do. So we see him working, like, a lot of different part time jobs, like donating plasma and stuff. He has like, even some illegal jobs, and he's like on a fishing vessel and stuff. And he said he took out like a bunch of loans from his buddies and colleagues and coworkers, but also he could afford his dream bike, which he gets. And it's the bike we saw in the beginning of the episode and only for the cleanup core to take it away from him just a short while later. And now that he's bikeless, he's all distraught. He was walking back home, and he goes walking back down an alleyway and bumps into none of Me, his old bike. His old shitty bike with like a basket on and stuff that carried him through all the hardship and sorrows in his life and was always there for him. And you know what? Fuck the fancy bike. He's going to win that race with none of Me, the old true bike.

Yeah, I never should have doubted you.

And the day of the race goes to get ready, but his bike is not there, turns out, because it's so old and shitty, someone thought it was just like a transport bike for a random onlooker or something, or for someone to keep up with a cyclist to watch. And they didn't think it was an actual racing bike scooters. So by the time he actually got his old bike back, he was already 4 hours late to the race, and everyone has already got a huge lead ahead of him. But he's not giving up. He's going to prove him. He's going to show what not he can do. And we see him, like, riding through the rain and gets a flat tire, and he's going uphill and he's like, God, David, why are you so heavy bike? And it's, fuck this pizza shit. Bike. Yeah, it's not a good bike. Like, yeah, it got him through stuff, but it's not a racing bike. And eventually it looks like he just kind of gives up and goes off to a restaurant and is just kind of out of it. Just drink his own tea. And we see on the TV that old grifting got some witch, won the race with his bike.

What?

Turns out, wild clean up corpse that took his bike. The bikes are never seen again. Turns out, Uzu's, God buddy got it somehow, and he's all pissed. Main boy gets running out of the restaurant screaming, and finds himself back at God. I swore I could have said this before. Me, cheat. Doesn't matter a place, a reoccurring location in the show. I don't I can't say the name. And he runs into the fortune teller again, and the exact same prophecy got reach out, grab the opportunity in front of you. It's just dangling there, dangling. Hit dangle. And once again, she raised the price a bit. And he's like, hey, wait a minute.

Hold on.

Wait.

Only continuity in the show. That's the inevitability of the universe, inflation.

The show is actually trying to teach.

Hey, don't worry about responsibilities.

Cool.

Right, kids? Here's a devil fish man.

We give you a 3% raise every four years. Don't worry, the cost of living will raise up 10% every year. But economics fish man.

Devil baby.

Don't make cry baby, but it's just a apes apian.

I have to say it out loud. I couldn't let that stay in my brain for the rest of the day.

I couldn't live with that. So after he gets his fortune, he ends up getting a little drunk passing out alongside the riverbed. And today, Ikashi shows up and picks him up and just puts him on her bike and start to ride. And he wakes up, like, mid ride. She's like, hey, I found you drunk on the riverbed. That's not great. Anyway, I'm taking it back to my circle because we got a huge favorite ask cool. And then pass it out again. And in this pass out state, we kind of get, like, a flashback her. She's a great cyclist. She joined the cycling club, won a big race that she was in. Both won, like, the women's division and also just the race overall, and then immediately quit after she won and got the prize money and invested it into her new club, which is the one she's in, right? And same thing. She's a nice, clean, unapproachable bubble. So she takes them to this shabby house in the park with just a bunch of people that are working on different parts and stuff. We find out it's like a glider plane. It turns out he's the perfect candidate for the birdman project that she's working on. She's part of this club squaw.

But the film club was the last episode.

At least the phrase birdman came up in the first episode. I don't remember exactly where. So I think this is a weird through line, through all the timelines as well.

Yeah, I didn't pick up on that.

Yeah, there's a lot going on, but the birdman project is kind of like this. It's kind of like a thing the Red Bull does where it's like you build like a glider sort of plane. You throw it off a giant platform into a lake and see how far you can glide. So if anyone's been bombarded with Red Bull commercials like I have been, it's that. And they're like, you're going to be the perfect candidate to be the pilot for it because you're so weird and scrawny and have really no physical stature at all. So you won't way down the plane aerodynamic for it. And he's like, oh, cool. Not a compliment.

Thank you.

Hey, you're a weak nerd, right?

Okay. And they're like, you don't have to do anything. Like, you just have to be here. Just stay healthy, don't get sick or something. But when the time comes around for the con, otherwise you're perfect. Cool. And he's kind of worried this kind of like a weird prank they're playing because no one said he's perfect for anyone.

You're perfect. Can we fly you into a lake?

I've done dumb things for less. That night. He goes home, goes back to his apartment. I don't think there was cake this time, or if there was, it was like even less. It was just crumbs. But once again, he sees a moth on his light, and he sees the little bear figuring dangling from the light and remembering that him and kashi talked about the during the race. Back on his first race, he was exhausted, out of breath, on, like, on the sideline. She stopped and said, hey, how's it going? And they do a little chit chat, and he makes a promise with her, another reoccurring, and then she went on race. So, yeah, he's just remembering that. And the little figure is one of five that she has that she's missing. Oh, I should have given it to her, but then I started second guessing myself, and then I didn't give it to him. And now I don't know what to do, and I crippled by indecision. And he wonders if I gosh, you would even like him, maybe even if he did return the doll and all this. Well, after tossing and turning all night, I passed out. It's like, great. So the next day he wakes up and him and Ozu goes to titty Man's place, and for some reason, I don't know why, he just shows up and they're like, you want to be in shape for the birdman contest? So we're going to train you. I'm going to drive you hard. I'm going to get you swollen big, and you're going to look great. And that's exactly what happens. They get a training montage and he gets all jacked up and muscley. So he returns to a shabby shack in the park. As he's walking through the club, everyone's disgusted by him. I just loved all the reactions of all of them. And when he goes to meet like the club leader, founder, president, whatever, he just are screaming. He's like, no, you're ruined, you've destroyed your body. You put on all this stupid muscle. You look like a goddamn ape. Now we are not to redesign the whole fucking plane. Even if you put on ten more pounds, we'd have to redesign it now. Look at you. He got goddamn monster and it's just berating him. And I loved it. He said, just don't do anything and you're perfect. And he went ahead and did something. So now he can't be the pilot. Any fool or so he's dropped from a project and he's dejected. And outside the club business is like, great. Now kashi is going to to have be the pilot. She's that ideal, but she's the best runner we got. And now we have to redesign the whole plane and make changes to it. Awesome. So Main boys outside dejected and akashi comes out and gives them like a drink and apologizes for bringing them into all this, only to get him kicked out of it, all this stuff. And she says, I figured the perfect pilot's body would be one that was crafted by idleness and carelessness. And that was yours.

Once again, not a copy.

Those hands have not seen a day of work. You're perfect to fly.

You're just barely scraping by in life, and you're just this weird clip of a man.

No one will miss you if you drown in a lake. Right? Cool.

Akashi says she didn't actually expect him to train. She didn't expect him to do anything because he hasn't done anything ever. That's why he was the perfect pilot in three lifetimes.

You've done nothing.

She also has the memories they carry over. It's like, man, you don't do shit. I counted on it this time. I made bets. And he ends up back on the bridge overlooking the river. And while he's off looking, he sees the cleanup corpse. But this time they're taking akashi's plane. The glider that they've been working.

No.

And he sees the devious leader of the cleanup corpse. He's got like a big hat and a trench coat. He's covered his identity this whole time. Turns out it's a really shitty person. Any idea who that might be?

We know one main character.

Hold on, that would be a fun twist.

Yeah. So it ends up being Ozu. Mainboy runs over to talk to him because he's like, hey, what the fuck? You stole my bike. And it's like he kind of gives him the spiel again of like, we're connected, we're both shitty. We're connected by the black thread of fate. And it's like, you're not denying the shitty things you've done.

You stole my bike.

Fate stole your bike?

Basically, yeah. He's not denying that he did it, but he's like, you deserve it. It's weird. And he's like, hey, you spent a lot of money on that bike, right? A lot of money you owe. Why don't you come work for the cleanup crew and get a little money back? You can help me out. It's like we're tied together anyway. Everyone's already pissed at you. Like, everyone already hates you. You got nothing to lose. And main boy is like, well, if we target the bikes from happy couples and only take bikes from them, I'll do it. It's like, cool. Glad to see your still shit. And while they're talking and while he's agreeing to do this, is putting the hat on him, putting the trench coat around him like, hey, welcome to the club. And right as he does that, they hear like, a noise and it was just like, akashi's coming. I got to dip out. See you. And they're on a train cart that they were loading the glider into on train tracks. And when he hears akashi coming, ozu cuts off his cart and just rolls away on the train tracks out of existence. And leaving the main protagon display with the trench coat and a hat of, like, the cleanup crew leader. And sure enough, akashi shows up, sees the cleanup crew taking the glider, sees the leader there. She's like, hey, what the fuck? I thought you were going to help us and now you're just taking our plane? And main boys like, trying to defend them. So he's like, no, there was oh, boy, how do I explain this? And as he's talking, the cart that they're on, the train cart that the gliders on just starts drifting further and further down the hill until it just takes off entirely. And akashi starts following them on her bike. And he's like, you got to stop the Carter. You're going to fly into the lake at the end of the tracks. He's like, well, there's no brakes. What do we do? It's like, it and he just mainboy climbs into the glider and he's like, if we're going down, if we're picking up speed, might as well try and take off and fly on this bad boy. He's like, you know what? I you know, I got some practice of cycling. I got some strength in my legs now. I can just cycle this bad boy and take it off him into the air as soon as he gets in the glider. No pedals, no way. No way to cycle it. And he's like, hey, kashi. The fuck what? And she's like, oh, yeah, we were part of the freefall category. You just throw the thing off a platform and just pray.

It's like you assumed there would be a bike element. We objectively never mention anything about a bike because it's not there.

Not there. Why would there's also not an elevator? Because it's not there. And sure enough, they get to the end of the train tracks and the glider gets launched off and it's flying over the lake and he's dangling out of it and it just starts falling apart because it's not done. And he's hanging out of it and it crashes into the other side of the lake and he falls in. And while as he's drifting through the water, he reflects. Ha. I wonder if two years ago, before I joined the cycling club, I could have avoided all of this in Ozoo. That's episode three.

Bada bing, bada boom.

That's how we do it.

It just dawned on me this was a sneaky way for this anime to have all the club activities in it. And then they're like, we can't decide which club to put this kid in to set our story. What if we do some flashback stuff so we can do them all?

Perfect.

That's a show.

This is the club anime.

Anime. It stops here. Nothing else can beat this.

Wow.

Yeah. This is an interesting one where I can tell there is great artistry in it. It was extremely detrimental to have to read the subtitles and not be able to look at all the art, as I mentioned at the top. So I would recommend if there is a dub to watch that, because you're going to just have your eyes glued on the text that you will not be able to enjoy the visuals, which are very cool, very interesting. This is from 2004. It still looks fresh and wait, what? Yeah, this is 2004.

I know it's stylized, but like, that still.

I think the novel might have come out in 2004 and I think this might have been 2010.

Oh, was it?

I looked it up beforehand. I think maybe still. Yeah. That's eleven years old.

Yeah. In 2021. To watch it after watching almost 200 series and being like, wow, this looks really cool. Like, there's live action video segments that's just blurred enough to give it like an animation quality. It's really interesting and well made. It's a fun way to do a ground's hog day sort of story without having to do the same things over and over and over again. Just having those, like, recurring touchstones. This is going to be like a rare I want to come back to this. I'm watching it now not in the ideal time where it's like, hey, chart out what happens. But there's definitely a lot going on here that I definitely want to dig into, but my brain currently hurts.

Yeah. I'd be interested in seeing because it must get to a point of his self awareness where he just knows what's going to happen. So the show must have some kind of shift at some point from just seeing clubs over and over again.

Yeah, because we do have mentioned that in the third episode, he was just starting to get sick of Ozu shit. There's just slight memories that are recurring and getting a little bit stronger each time. So it is interesting to see where they take it. I'm scared that they're going with an Ozu fight club. They're the same person thing because there's hints to it. But also, Ozu is very publicly addressed by people. So it's like, I'm afraid you're going to try to pull the rug out from under us. But we can be like, no, there's so much evidence that that was not a possibility because we get elements of him being like, hey, only put your name on the documentary, don't put mine. And oh, I'm going to disguise so you seem to be the bike thief captain, not me. And those sorts of elements. But it's like you can't do both, though. You can't also have him in the crew of the other movie because that means he has a physical property of being a person.

He exists without the main boy around.

I mean, we don't know the main boy's name, though. Yeah, maybe his name is Ozu and he did work on the movie. Who knows? But yeah, I would hope not. I hope something different happens.

Yeah, I don't think it'll necessarily because we've seen a lot of this director's other work enjoyed, I think all of it. I mean, pingpong music. I think the writing would be better than that, or it wouldn't be inconsistent to do something like that. But I'm still not sure what these are with these different episodes. I still think with three episodes, we're still in the setup phase.

Yeah.

And like we said, we're starting to see the changes and the shifts in continuity of him remembering stuff in him not tolerance as much with episode three. So I think this is where it'll start changing after episode three. But as of right now, we're still in the set because yeah. Are these just alternate realities? This is just him asking himself what if? Or is this actually like some sort of continuity where they all are happening one after each other because he remembers the fortune teller. I'm still not sure exactly what these are. So I can't say for sure what it is or isn't. Because if Ozu was on stage at the movie, that would make sense that they're not the same person. But if that whole movie club scenario didn't ever exist, then any evidence from that also doesn't.

Yeah, that's true.

With this one, I'm enjoying the ride and I'm less trying to solve the mystery before it's revealed because it's so stylized and so done in way. I'm like, you know what? You show me like I'm on board for the ride. I'm not going to try and guess what the twist is before it happens. Because if I do get it right, I'll be disappointed. I didn't let it happen. If I don't get it right, I'll be mad that I didn't guess so. I'm just like, you know what? Pretty colors. Let's go. This guy is a shitty person, though. unlikable main character all the way. Yes.

Ozu and Main Boy have a pretty similar relationship to, like, peko and Smile from ping pong, but they're both much worse. Mile is just depressed and pekko was also.

But in a different way.

But in a different way.

Yeah. I really enjoy this director's work. So I'm fully on board with whatever this is. Yeah.

Very rare to be like, I trust you, anime creative. Take me by the hand and lead me down your path.

You haven't hurt me yet. I was noticing the ends credit sequence because I didn't I really enjoyed how it was presented in the songs. But it's tatami matt room because you can see the lines within the room as, like, tatami mat and then all the other shapes are building off of it were other rooms with doors opening up, like a blueprint layout, like, of a door. And I think that's why it's to Tommy Galaxy. It's like because in the second episode, when he was in the movie club, he said one of his short films was a man trapped in, like, a four by four to Tommy Matt.

Yeah.

And it was just him, like, reliving stuff over and over again. I think that was a very quick hint of like, this is what it is. This is what the whole show is. And then the ending is like a one room tatami matt with all these different rooms branching out. And one part of the credit is a bunch of rooms collapsing in on the center with the taut on that. And, like, the screen gets really shaking jarring and stuff and a lot of pressure building up around it. So once I saw that and sort of piecing it, I was like, okay. I think this is just Main Boy, like, disassociate from the stress of it. And the short film he did in episode two was kind of a peek of what the show is, my guess. Yeah.

Because he said that film was like trying to escape the maze but every room is the same and you just keep repeating it. Yeah, that's definitely there. Also, whenever we get into deep discussions in the analysis phase, I'm like, yeah, this is a good show. Because thinking about last week where immediately we're like, Fuck this. No, there's not even worthy art to talk about here. Just the bold shift to be like, oh, yeah, the short film mentioned represents the ending credits theme. And it's like, yeah, this is good. I'll give it that. This is good.

Sometimes there's more to talk about. Sometimes it's just garbage. And that's mostly what I bring. I acknowledge that sometimes.

But sometimes every once in a while.

In a blue moon.

Well, what type of moon will we have next week?

I'll tell you. So. We've talked about Monster Girls before we've explored their bodies, but what if we explore their brains this time? So we're watching interviews with Monster Girls. The plot intrigues me. And, yeah, big, heavy plot.

I'm still terrified at the just promise of Monster Girls, but we'll see how it goes.

I'm excited either way. I love monster girls.

Kill you. If there's the show you're excited about, you the listener. Hey, yeah, I'm talking you there with the headphones, yes?

Me?

Yes. I mean, technically, yes. If there's a recommendation of a show you would like us to watch, you can send those recommendations to us. Our email is areweebeveryet@gmail.com. Or you can reach out to us on social media at areweeb There Yet? On Twitter and Instagram.

Yeah, you can find me on Instagram at honeyperiod and on Twitter at honey. dh and honeydart. Honey is spelled H-U-N-N-I-E. Find me on Twitter at abts.

Brendan. It stands for Almost Better Than Silence, which is a video game podcast. I did 420 episodes. I'm going to guess like 40 of them are solved, but that's a backlog. If you need something to listen to.

I just got a notice. I'm running out of storage space. So thank you to camille ruley for artwork. And thank you to Louisong for themesong, 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.

Same as it ever was.

Same as it is. My beautiful wife.