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Jujutsu Kaisen S2 Ep12: Blunt Knife
797 Plays1 year ago
Sleep deprived Zu is in full effect during this episiode but thankfully Andrew is here to keep him in check. So much happened this episode but somehow, not much either. Lots of great story build up to talk about!
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Transcript
Introduction and Theme Song
00:00:01
Speaker
on another exciting episode of the Animation Deliberation podcast. I can use the words. Just like this episode, I'm going to get a grip as we talk about Jujutsu Kaisen, Season 2, Episode 12, Flunt Life. What? Nice! Right after these hours, we have no controller and I collect my thoughts.
Challenges of Singing the Theme Song
00:00:31
Speaker
Hopefully I can do this one without stumbling. Sing along if you know the words. One, two, three, it's time for animation deliberation. A conversation and a celebration of our favorite action animated series, yeah. Yeah, welcome back to another episode of the animation deliberation podcast, where we take action animation of cartoons seriously, but not too seriously. As we have made very clear time and time again,
00:01:02
Speaker
And I am Andrew Rogers and let me tell you that might have been the most difficult rendition of me having to sing the song I think ever because I was so in my head about like switching celebration and conversation which I've done so many times on accident that I was like don't do it don't do it don't do it yeah there's definitely been times where like early you had to sing the song and it was just like 10 minutes of me like cutting out like every wrong oh my god
Authenticity and Humor in Podcasting
00:01:28
Speaker
There were some early times that I messed up that song so many times early on. I don't know how many of you made it as a behind the curtain to the listeners. There's a lot of podcasts out there where it's the you know, somebody will talk and they'll be like, oh, let me say that again or let me try that again to like, you know, just sound good and sound professional, depending on the the context in the show and the production that they're going for. Like, it makes sense. But I don't have brain capacity for that.
00:01:56
Speaker
as you guys can see this is like as genuine as it gets we don't cut anything out we don't alter anything if we stumble we stumble you're here to laugh with us you're here to laugh at us really don't care this is quality quality content as long as our microphones are clear and we sound stupid and clear nice audio that's a win for us that's a win for me that's
Brand and Ad Reads
00:02:20
Speaker
all
00:02:20
Speaker
Yes, I mean, I feel like at this point, there is kind of like, it's just our brand, that you're going to get some inevitable slip somewhere in the podcast that one of us has to laugh about the other person doing. So the irony of me always saying I can't talk on this medium that requires voice is like uncountable now. I think it's the continuous
00:02:44
Speaker
joke that we have had ongoing, that you take the most complicated part of all of our ad reads, despite being the non native English speaker, just to see if you could do it all. Yeah, I think I've only gotten that ad read right once.
00:03:02
Speaker
It's genuine, it's from the partner. And that's part of why I don't want to record like fresh ad reads for our stuff where we just click a button and it plays because there's so much fun that comes from us inevitably messing something up somewhere. I don't know how much our sponsor's like that, but we have a great time. And talk about the prospects legitimately, let me actually think about it. So do you want to give an ad read to try?
00:03:30
Speaker
Oh, you want me needed to do an ad read? No, I mean us, like should we just do our ad read and see how well we knock this out while we're talking about it? Knock this out or maybe it's going to knock us out. I'm not entirely sure. But yeah, by all means, take a product we don't get knocked out because if we got dehydrated, we would knock out and stuff like hydration
Liquid IV Ad Read Mishaps
00:03:54
Speaker
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00:04:00
Speaker
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Speaker
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00:04:34
Speaker
You did. That was that was pretty impressive. But I got to cut you off and go for story time here, because at the top of this ad read, you said something and it's one stick of liquid IV in 16 ounces of water. I had someone recently I was just happening to talk about like the sports drink kind of things. And I mentioned, Oh, I have a sponsor, you know, you get the liquid IV stick, it helps you with hydration, all of those other things. And
00:05:00
Speaker
they asked me, like, Oh, what's in the stick? Like, how does the stick work? And I'm like, Oh, well, you take it, you open it, you pour it in, they're like, well, what if my bottle is not big enough? And I'm like, well, it should be it just, it goes in all sized bottles. And they're like, Yeah, but what if the stick is too big? And the long story short, after having this conversation enough, they were thinking like a cinnamon stick.
00:05:21
Speaker
that you drop in your bottle. So yeah, I feel like we should clarify in case there's anyone out there who has not experienced any of these sports drink style hydration products. The liquid IV stick is a little packet of powder that you put in your drink, you shake it up, and then it gives you all of these wonderful benefits. But it was the funniest conversation once I got to the end of it. But I was so confused. They were trying to be like, but what if it doesn't fit
00:05:46
Speaker
In the bottle, I was like, what do you mean? It's they're like, is the stick a standard size? I'm like, well, hey, I don't know what a standard size stick is. But be what? What do you mean? It's powder. So yeah, listeners, this is a powdered drink. You put it in, it makes things taste great, because they do have those flavors, they have zero sugars, they have all the things in it. And then on top of that, unlike most
00:06:07
Speaker
actual sticks. It's going to be non GMO and free from gluten, dairy and soy. And on top of that, it's not just good for you. It's good for your body.
Liquid IV Mission and Discount
00:06:16
Speaker
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00:06:35
Speaker
And I can't stress enough, like I said, I've been using this product since before we had this ad reads for them. And the immune support one is very helpful, as in a lot of people are getting strep, flu, cold, COVID, it's that time of the year, people are getting sick, it's getting chillier. So please make sure that your vitamin C intake is good, and that your immune system is nice and strong because
00:07:00
Speaker
as much as we would love for you to just be sitting on the couch and binge because we want you to be healthy and just be on the road or at work or whatever and just be doing your day to day life when you listen to us. So do that and get 20% off when you grab your liquid IV hydration, multiply sugar for your any other variant at liquidiv.com and use code staywhelmed at checkout. That's 20% off anything you order when you shop better hydration today using promo code staywhelmed at liquidiv.com.
00:07:27
Speaker
And as always, thank you for supporting brands that have decided to support animation deliberation.
Podcast Voice and Listener Feedback
00:07:33
Speaker
Sometimes I listen to myself as we go through these ad reads and I'm like, Oh, that's the podcast voice thing that everyone talks about that there is just that sudden change as I'm going directly for some people like don't know that I have
00:07:46
Speaker
like, ad partners, they just think I'm a dude that, you know, has a podcast for like 10 listeners when we actually get about, what, like 13,000 downloads around the world a month. Those are our numbers right now. Oh, a month, maybe. Okay. I thought you were saying 13,000 a week. I was like, boy, that would be paying my rent at that point. A month with like all of our stuff. And we haven't been having as many episodes a week, so I'm sure that... But we are like above 10K, right? So it's like, we have a decent following, like, you know, the people in my community and stuff.
00:08:16
Speaker
or just like, Oh, yeah, this guy does a podcast. So sometimes like, it'll come up and you know, be like, Oh, yeah, I'm so thirsty and this and that. And like, in my full podcast voice, I go like, Hey, you can get some liquid IV for 20% off when you use my code, stay well. And then they're just like, Hell, hey, you do a really good job at like commercials and stuff. And I was like, Yeah, I do it for the podcast, like twice a week. And it's like, wait, your podcast is that popular? And we're just like,
Public Perception of Podcasting
00:08:43
Speaker
Yeah? Yeah, we do a decent job. I like to think we're pretty okay at this, but...
00:08:53
Speaker
Yeah, it's it's always fun to be exposed to that because like, no, no one walking down the street looks at you and thinks like, oh, you do a podcast. Like, that's not a it's not a thing. I think the only person I would look at me like I know is like Matt Mercer. I'd be the only person I'd be like, ah, this guy, I got him. Everybody else. I know your voice, but I probably wouldn't know your face if I saw you walking down the street, especially in Los Angeles. I feel like everybody's got a podcast out here. So nobody's that surprised when I say it.
00:09:19
Speaker
But we're beating around the bush. We haven't said anything about this. We haven't said zero things. Which I butchered at the beginning, too.
00:09:27
Speaker
Uh, if this is your first episode and you're still here, thank you. Oh man, that's funny. Um, I guess,
Jujutsu Kaisen Episode Introduction
00:09:34
Speaker
yep. We're talking about Jujutsu Kaisen. Yeah, this is why we talked about like, we don't cut things out, we don't script this. This is our weekly check-in for Jujutsu Kaisen. This is a weekly check-in for Zuhair and Andrew, where we happen to talk about anime. It's basically what just happened here. It's been one week, listeners, and it's been one heck of a week.
00:09:55
Speaker
Should I ever redeem myself by reading the synopsis? Let me just get my words back. If you want to do the synopsis, it's usually my thing that I will kick back and have a delicious drink here and try not to laugh when you stumble over things. That means you need to have your insightful thing ready for when I'm done reading. Okay. Hand gestures that no one can see. Alright. Juju Zukaisin, Season 2, Episode 12, Blunt Knife.
00:10:24
Speaker
Nanami discovers Ichiji's bloody body and escorts him to safety. Yuji and Megumi destroy the veil, trapping the sorcerers in the city. However, the veils trapping Gojo and the civilians remain active. They then rescue an unconscious Inno after he's dropped from the central tower. Megumi goes to take him to safety while Yuji runs off to reconvene with Nanami.
Episode 12 Highlights: Action and Exposition
00:10:43
Speaker
Meanwhile, despite the seance, only supposed to copy the deceased body, the soul of Toji is able to completely... usurp... usurp?
00:10:53
Speaker
You surf is correct. Okay. You surf the grandson's body and under her orders to kill all sorcerers promptly kills the grandmother too. Ha. Elsewhere, Nobara and Nita split up from Maki and now Bito Zenin when they are confronted by Haruta.
00:11:09
Speaker
Nobara attempts to fight to allow Nita to escape, but thanks to his technique, is able to completely evade every attack, seriously injuring both of them. Before he can kill Nita, Nanami arrives, resisting every one of his attacks and brutally defeating him. He tells the two to wait and rest while he heads down to back up the Zanes. In the subway, Mei-Mei and Wiwi encounter a pseudo-ghetto who unleashes a smallpox deity
00:11:38
Speaker
cursed spirit to keep them busy. At the same time, Yuji runs into Chozo, who immediately begins to fight to avenge his brothers. So this episode, I'm just gonna say it, this is my big insightful thing. This episode is how you do it. We got exposition, we got action, we got all sorts of things. I think this episode is beautifully structured. I don't know if it was necessarily the most impactful or anything like that.
00:12:01
Speaker
But the structure was just so, so good in terms of giving me like everything that we would want. Because like, yeah, we just talked about a lot of things, but some of it was just straight up action. Some of it was just straight up like, gasping moments. I, I thoroughly think this is one of the best structured and directed episodes that they have had.
00:12:25
Speaker
without a doubt, and we barely saw some of our main characters. It was basically all side characters, although I would argue at this point, fan favorite character, Nanami, is about to become a main character, I feel.
Character Dynamics: Nanami's Role
00:12:40
Speaker
Nanami! Yeah, 100% agree with that. Whoever directed this episode needs to do the rest, and if he has been doing some past ones, then I'm glad it took you 12 episodes to get together.
00:12:55
Speaker
It was consistent. There was good reiterations of stuff that they had told us and reminded us how it works. There was good explanation of new stuff. There was good action. There was good intensity. There was good story building. As you said, and my weekly text from Jillian said, everything and nothing happened in this episode. And I loved it.
00:13:16
Speaker
I have said in the past that I still feel like the show is a better binge than it is a weekly watch. But obviously you guys watch it weekly so that you can listen to us weekly. So we thank you for that. That's the only reason. And it really is doing a great job now. Like I'm genuinely looking forward to next week. I'm still keeping my bar tempered because of how it's been treating me early on.
00:13:37
Speaker
I forgive, not forget. And it's doing a really good job. And one of the big highlights of this one is when they were giving. Actually, no, I'm going to get to that part later. The best part of this episode is them establishing what a great a sorcerer is.
00:13:58
Speaker
again, they take a lot of stuff from Naruto that I like and are just kind of expanding on to that here. And one of the stuff in Naruto is the rank. So it's like, what does it mean to be a Jonin? What does it mean to be on but when setting the standard for that, so for us to have an opportunity to see, is it Nobara? Yeah, Nobara struggle with a higher rank
00:14:22
Speaker
curse, which had my problems with that too, and to see them add the standard to what Nanami can provide and perfectly segue that into what Mei Mei is about to do. Yes. Was awesome. Because at one point, I wanted to see so much of the toji stuff, I didn't care what was happening with Mei Mei.
00:14:43
Speaker
But the way that they transitioned that was just so well done and beautiful that I was like, okay, you are balancing these stories well enough that I give you permission to continue, even though my saying has nothing to do with how you proceed from here. Yeah, this show does not have a power creep problem yet. I'm not one timestamp. I have my I have my calendar ready to go.
00:15:07
Speaker
So I'm all all set to go with those notes. But yeah, a lot of shows we talk about like the Dragon Balls and like Black Clover, Hunter x Hunter. There's all these shows that like you get the characters like have a struggle to defeat this villain in season one and then like.
00:15:27
Speaker
that villain or someone equal to them comes back in season two and they absolutely destroy them. And it's just like, oh, they're that much powerful or they're that much weaker now. Like you get those imbalances, whereas this show, like you said, just did a beautiful job of showing exactly where everyone's at, keeping those ranks together and making sure we know exactly how they should be functioning. So yeah, over the top, I do feel like I need to be a voice of the people on this one though, and disagree with you that that was not the best part of the episode.
00:15:58
Speaker
The best part of the episode was Nanami's rippling muscles the entire time because they went in on the animation for him just taking off the tie. It was such a badass scene, but also it is getting thirsty. They didn't quite hold back on making him just full on
00:16:25
Speaker
like protector energy the entire time like it's it's oozwe level of oh they're just going for it at this point aren't they? Sure. I feel like they took the
00:16:37
Speaker
the muscular design of Panda and just put Nanami's skin over it. Because he did not look like this previously. Like he looked... I was looking at it and I was like... I was like... I was like they took this from somewhere. Like which design did they did they duplicate? You know like the the old Disney animation stuff from like the 70s and 80s where it's like you line it up and they show how they like reuse stuff. I was just like they definitely took this from like Panda or something.
00:17:06
Speaker
But yes, that you're talking like gorilla panda, not Yes, yes. And I have to emphasize that when we're talking about muscles. It makes it I was getting like Jojo's vibes for sure of like just these overly done physiques. Let's see. I've made it clear that I have my problems with mappa and not being consistent in the animations that they use.
Animation Consistency Concerns
00:17:26
Speaker
And the first time that we saw Mei Mei in the tunnel, I was like, where the fuck did the animation budget go for this scene? Especially when we were in the back. It was just like, what the heck? Like her walking made no sense whatsoever. It just looked really sloppy. It looked really bad. His clapping was just awful. And one thing I've noticed that map has been really consistently bad at is lining up their sound.
00:17:52
Speaker
with their movements. So like the steps like when the foot touch like you didn't hear the click of that part when the hands clap like you don't hear it at that part like it's clap clap clap clap but his hands are doing this and it's like what the no that doesn't make any sense. So I was like where the fuck did the budget for this season like for this one particular scene go and the anatomy comes in all jacked up with that detail I was like oh found it. Here it is.
00:18:19
Speaker
I am going to save my thoughts on the animation until the end of this episode, because I think it's a very pertinent conversation, but I don't want to entirely derail us while we talk about how great this episode was. Okay, we'll stick with Anime Deliberate till the end. Yeah, no, there's... I didn't... I didn't prep you for what I have to say on that. You never do. If you don't... Well, but like, it's kind of some big news that came out like this week.
00:18:45
Speaker
kind of stuff. So it's a whole other part of the conversation. But I do agree there was a lot of a lot of ups and downs, but the not the not only scene was just so good. It was so intense. And like, I understood a little bit stuff. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, like that's Yeah, you know what I'm talking about.
00:19:06
Speaker
But yeah, no, he just, he went from like, oh, this guy's fun and interesting to now I see why all the manga fans have been clamoring for this character to have all the screen time that he's getting in this moment because it is awesome and just so much fun. And we didn't even get a refresher on his powers. It was just straight no work diving in and letting him pop off.
00:19:30
Speaker
Yeah, because the tie is a stronger one. He tries to get everything with his blunt knife first, which we didn't even see. Like it was just on his back. We saw it, but we didn't see it in action. So the fact that he was like, I don't have the time for this now, the firm that that supervisor is alive, though. No, I think he's dead. OK, because the way the girls were talking about it made it sound like he survived. I mean, our synopsis.
00:19:58
Speaker
Oh, it does say, Arsenopsis says escorts him to safety. So there's a chance? But I feel like that was the whole... No, that's like the Eno to safety.
00:20:10
Speaker
No, he took Nanami discovers Ichiichi's bloody body and escorts him to safety. Oh, okay. So I think he survived. The way they describe it. You know, also possibly. Yeah, I'm not totally sure because he also had the mention of like, I found the bodies of several dead assistant supervisors on the way here. I'm assuming that was you. But maybe just because Ichiichi is like a main assistant supervisor that he survived it. I'm not totally sure. But that does lead into
00:20:39
Speaker
I don't know if you caught it. I don't know how many people caught it. Absolutely amazing. Sprinkle of here's what not a means motivations are in this episode was when during the cold open. Did you catch that like they panned over each cheese body and there was a flash frame of something else there.
00:20:59
Speaker
I'm gonna go with no by the stunned silence basically it was they showed his bloody face face down on the pavement and they did a quick like maybe two three frame cut to the face of the student from the first five episodes that died and
00:21:17
Speaker
You know, made God or ghetto become evil, basically like that being his last straw. We can't forget that was none of these partners. So the fact that he is seeing his old partner's face on these assistant supervisors goes way into.
00:21:35
Speaker
this is his motivation. He does not want to see anyone else die. Like, we talked about Gojo being willing to sacrifice lives. I have this feeling that none of me is just straight up, I do not want to lose another person and I'm going to go buck wild. And that's why he just literally kicked down a glass door and walked through it to be like no one else is going to die while I am here. And I think that was it.
00:21:57
Speaker
awesome, awesome way to just remind us that this man cares and is honestly probably a better person than Gojo, which is so weird to say about a main character.
Nanami's Character Motivations
00:22:07
Speaker
What is funny is that like, I remember the flash, I don't remember that scene happening, but
00:22:15
Speaker
with us with you talking about how much the mongoritas have been claiming to see him like that scene started playing my head as you said that so when you asked do i know which scene you're talking about like that did pop in my head okay so it wasn't even or maybe like in my subconscious i did see it but it's like the the build up for like everything else you mentioned go after it's like did that actually happen and then you said oh okay i guess that did happen yeah it did happen it was super cool and it's also just like
00:22:45
Speaker
I wondered, why did Nanami show up for 30 seconds of the prequel episodes? He didn't actually do anything, but there was just that moment of, hey, Nanami is here. This is why. It was the same of maybe being in the first episode, too, to show that a step. They did such a good job. And that was my complaint, right? I was like, if you're going to spend this much time doing stuff I don't care about, it better come to fruition in the future. Do not add all this shit for no reason in these first five episodes. So now it's like,
00:23:15
Speaker
Okay, thank you. You're actually putting these things where I need them to be. And but that's why I have to give them so much credit because they're doing it in such like way cooler ways than we imagined. We were just like, Oh, the obvious like big bad guy is going to come back and not carnated. That's why either these episodes means
00:23:36
Speaker
This is like either these episodes need to be longer or you just like wait for the binge, which I hate to say because I like watching stuff in a weekly basis and giving them to look forward to. But it's like. Early on, they weren't doing enough to like entice me, right? And we started doing these end of August. And it's we're in the middle of October.
Weekly vs. Binge-Watching Jujutsu Kaisen
00:23:59
Speaker
That's a long payoff. Mm hmm.
00:24:03
Speaker
really long payoff for people who are actually paying attention to all of the details, right? Well, that's why they're listening to us. For the casual watcher that doesn't listen to us, what's wrong with you? You can't even answer that question because you're not listening to us. How do you tell someone, you should watch Jujutsu Kaisen week by week, right? Right. Our co-host, Jay Scott, is a perfect example of this.
00:24:28
Speaker
Yeah, I don't think I'm gonna watch that every week. It's like, oh cool, like you have other things for work, you have life, this and that, we do this as a hobby. But like, we couldn't entice him to watch it on a weekly basis. Did those first five episodes give us anything to be like, dude, you got to watch this every week, you're missing out? Like we would have for Demon Slayer, or Minor Academia. It's very true, because like, my partner in the other room right now,
00:24:56
Speaker
has not watched past the first five episodes or six episodes. Yeah. Partially because I have to watch them without her so that we can record the show. But like she's not going out of her way to watch them on her own time because I can't watch them with her.
00:25:10
Speaker
And that's a perfect example because her and I watch all of these things together like every single other show we have covered on this podcast, she sits down to watch the episode with me. And this one she has not and I've offered I'm like, I will rewatch them with you. I don't mind. She's still like, I don't really feel the need to and I that's
00:25:31
Speaker
it is a legitimate problem. And I don't, I don't know how they fix it. I don't blame people for not wanting to watch it. Yeah, like, we called, you know, Jay Scottie to the stand here. It's not a Hey, why aren't you? It's a No, we get it. Like, this is just what we got to do. Like, I wonder if I was not recording this show, would I would I also have fallen off? Like, there is that legitimacy. That's how I guess
00:26:00
Speaker
There's, there's a few shows that we've been doing like every three episodes, right? Like Harley Quinn. Yeah. And when we finished the first five episodes and then it started off slow again, I really wanted to send you the text of like, is this something that we do like every three weeks?
00:26:16
Speaker
I mean, I didn't cover Harley Quinn because I fell off. No, I'm talking about for Jujutsu Kai's and like, is this something else that we just like do in bulk of three episodes? Because I don't know if I can talk about it every week. And right now it's getting to the point where like, at least it is fun for me. But the fact that it took, I want to say 10 episodes, 10 episodes to get this far. Because I genuinely wanted to rewatch episode 11 before I got into this into this one. And I did.
00:26:43
Speaker
And I have my friend who's like texting me as he's watching right now when the recent texts literally just now from John is episodes aren't long enough, dude. Yeah, they crammed this one for sure. But enough about like, our overall planning, like, let's talk about what actually did happen because a lot of good things did
Character Abilities: Nobara's Development
00:27:02
Speaker
happen. The one thing that I said that
00:27:05
Speaker
bothered me a little bit is that, so I make a lot of comparisons to Naruto with this. And one of the big comparisons is that this is the closest thing to Team 7 that we've had since Naruto. And the running joke is that Nobara is useful Sakura, which I disagree with in plenty of ways. But I was ready to see her in action because she left off on such a high note and she's had more time to train. And I was excited to see like what you came up with.
00:27:34
Speaker
I know we talked about like setting a standard for power levels, bummed that she was the point of reference for that. Because she has a really cool ability and she is capable of holding her own. So to see her get beat to the point that she was making like desperation swings was just kind of like, she shouldn't have gotten beaten that easy.
00:28:02
Speaker
it's such an interesting because I do feel like she held her own a little bit and it did a very good job of like showing us how good Nana me is. But I feel like and I'm trying to look back through I can't quite find it in our previous notes. Was she nominated to become a she was nominated to be promoted but not grade one to
00:28:26
Speaker
She was not made to be promoted, but not to grade one. Okay, because I was just about to say she feels like probably the weakest of the group by a good margin at this point. Like she doesn't feel like she should be considered in that grade one group. So I'm happy that she's not from a storytelling perspective, but also I think she was supposed to be like three or something.
00:28:47
Speaker
Yeah, just just make her better though. Like I think she as a character is so fun. So well written does not take anything from the men that she trains with like she's absolutely
00:29:02
Speaker
I'm getting like, I'm almost getting Artemis vibes like Young Justice early Artemis when she was trying to prove herself to like, Wally and Robin in Young Justice, I'm getting those similar like, no, she doesn't need to care about their opinions. She just is here and doing a great job of doing it. That's kind of what I'm getting.
00:29:22
Speaker
out of her and I love that because, like, Young Justice is my favorite. I love all of those characters. So the fact that I can even make a comparison speaks to how much I like her as a character, but her fighting just doesn't, it doesn't feel like it's holding up. And I, again, it works from a storytelling perspective because the whole thing is there's not that many powerful sorcerers because they can barely get any anymore. But it doesn't fit the praise that her opponent was given. It's like, I remember you from last time, you've gotten stronger. It's like, has she?
00:29:51
Speaker
Is that what you're trying to convey to us right now? Yeah, it's interesting. The assist that she gave to Nanami was freaking awesome, where she called in the sword and swung that nail in and was like, not today. I was like, okay, that's what I wanted to see more of. That confidence, that precision, that use of your technique, love that. More of that.
00:30:10
Speaker
read the room like she was helping it was so good and it is unfortunate though because she did hold her own for a moment and then she got completely blown out of the water once she like almost passed out from that sword like it was really difficult because now that you say like oh
00:30:30
Speaker
You're better since the last time I've seen you. I feel like that fight scene during the sister exams was way better of a fight scene than this one was. Like, she had a better showing. So who knows? It feels like they're sidelining her now, now that Nanami has said, like, I'm at the minimum grade, which is
00:30:50
Speaker
badass line but does it feels bad for all of these other characters that I feel like are just not going to get screen time like we haven't seen Panda it feels like Megumi might be out now that he's taking you know back like I have my theory for that I hope it's the same thing that I want to see because there's one singular thing that we need to see out of Megumi with the remainder of the season yeah because
Speculation on Upcoming Battles
00:31:18
Speaker
Itadori is dealing with Chozo now. So if maybe he's on the street trying to get, you know, and his dad has the order kill all sorcerers and he's only warning through the street in the bubble. Two for one. I think that face off is coming. I think everyone's getting like a one on one face off now. Maybe he's going to be fighting the deity, I think.
00:31:44
Speaker
Yuji's gonna be fighting Cho, so I think the two Zendyans are gonna work together. Nana Nana me get though Is that is that who Nana me is gonna take down Maybe she's gonna go help out May May too, right? Yeah I'm just saying like Nana me's got to have somebody and his best friend Gojo is currently trapped in a box. So Sudo gets his line was really nice too It's like if you can deal with the special grade then you can come fight me. I
00:32:12
Speaker
Which, like, let's talk about that curse for a moment. I feel like we have seen nothing. I mean, we haven't heard the word curse deity before, but that thing just immediately showed that it was a menacing presence. Like, I'm not a hundred percent concerned that Mei Mei's gonna be okay, especially the fact that Wee Wee is, like, right there. I hate those names so much. It's so funny. Every time we say it, I'm like, it's childish, but I'm stifling it child.
00:32:42
Speaker
Okay, so the smallpox deity is one of the special grades. I mean, it's 17. Why are there so many? That's that's terrifying. Yeah, curse spirits. But um, yeah, there's, there's a lot that we've gone over. We jacked it toe toe. Yeah, there you go. There's my first Friday end of the night.
00:33:10
Speaker
the Toji scene. Nobara is a Grade 3. Nobara is a Grade 3. Very good. So yeah, I think she's got room to grow. I hope that there's a lot of room for that to show itself. Especially with Mei-Mei around, like, I feel like she could be a real good asset for her to learn from. Especially with that little monologue at the beginning of, like, how her power wasn't that great. She had to learn and grow, like, alright, now taking a bar under your wing, let's see what she can do.
00:33:39
Speaker
Oh, told you, that's what I wanted to talk about. That was an audible gasp moment. I think it was the only moment in this episode that got a like, big reaction out of me. And it was that silent, just sprint across the air pad to take out the grandma like I was waiting for the shockwave noise or anything. It was the fact that they made no sound and just did it. I was like a little like, type of thing, but it was hard.
00:34:10
Speaker
absolutely terrifying like toji already scary character and then you do that and remind us like it's it's gonna go down it's gonna be terrifying i love that i love that we're not gonna have this personality battle of like he's kind of back but the grandson is taking over now it just seems like toji is back and ready to go yeah that family lineage is just done now oh yeah it caught off at the solace
00:34:41
Speaker
You said kill all the sorcerers. I forgot that line. And I thought that was going to be the highlight of it until Nanami started doing his thing. Yeah, no, it was that what that was barely a footnote. Like it happened. It was the little thing. I thought we were going to get more Toji and then we kept Nanami and it was like, oh, no, no, this is this is better. This is this is neat. Oh, also Nanami's. The visual for his technique when he punched the dude in the face, how it like cut to that first. That was another flash.
00:35:12
Speaker
Yes. Again, they didn't bother to explain the whole, what is it? Seven tenths. But it was still. It's like, just just trust your audience to understand what you've already tried to explain. Little moments like that. You don't want to waste time. It's just I get that. And they didn't. And it worked. And I was here for it because I was waiting for him to pull out the knife and I was like, no, he's kind of a tie. So good. So good. Yeah. Not a man told you you're definitely stealing this show. For sure. All right.
00:35:43
Speaker
This episode was awesome, but I think, uh, I think that's it until we get to watch all of these fights that they're, they're setting up the chess pieces so well for it to just be fight scene after fight scene after fight scene. So I'm ready. Uh, any timestamp stuff that Oh yes. you need to establish that on nine 40 was the time for today. So they're doing a very good job of making the timestamps
00:36:12
Speaker
not really matter. Like, if you're not paying, if you're not paying attention to them, it's not affecting the long and short of it is most of what we were seeing was happening, like at the same time. Okay. So basically, we started the episode at 1002 was when may may takes down that, like, frog hat curse user that we saw previously.
00:36:40
Speaker
That was at the same time as last episode wherein the fight with Itadori and all of the Vale holders started. So like it was literally she defeated that guy before they even started fighting on the surface. It's kind of what that was. And then it jumped back. So I said all that was at 10 o'clock at 945 was when Nanami found the assistant's body.
00:37:11
Speaker
We go back to 10.05, which the entirety of the fight apparently took five minutes because now it's Itadori canceled out the veil. He crushed that in his hand. So back at 10 o'clock and then we go again back to 9.40. That was when Nobara first got to the curse user guy that with the hand sword. I cannot remember his name off the top of my head, but yeah, basically that was when that
00:37:40
Speaker
confrontation happened and then we go all the way back to 1010 was when Isidori enters the station and is confronted by Chozo. So really it's just saying everything that we have seen happened in the span of 20 to 30 minutes from the veils and all of the other stuff. So yeah it's like
00:38:05
Speaker
I don't think it necessarily matters. If it happened one to one to one, okay, they didn't, they could have happened back to back. But it's just telling you, hey, these things are happening congruently. But yeah, that's, that's really all that's happening. I started marking down, like, here's what episode each thing happens in. Because it's crazy to think, okay, it is 1010. He's coming face to face with Chozo.
00:38:33
Speaker
the whole thing started at 8 30 was when Gojo entered the veil. So this has just been like how many 10 episodes is a two hour chunk of time like that's that's crazy cool to me. Yeah, that's pretty good. Yeah, okay. Well, I think that's the end of the episode. I feel like we should address the teased elephant in the room when it comes to map as animation style.
00:39:02
Speaker
Yeah, I'm not sure if I have too much for it, but if you want to give the rundown.
MAPPA Working Conditions Discussion
00:39:07
Speaker
Yeah, I don't know if I have too much for it. I just think it is a relevant thing for all the listeners to know about if you didn't already know about this.
00:39:16
Speaker
Yeah, it's very unfortunate. Essentially what has happened, what has come to light apparently, is MAPPA has basically been forcing their animators to work 12 to 14 plus hour days to get all of these anime in the form of Attack on Titan, Jujutsu Kaisen, and all of these shows out that they're attempting to get. There's even reports of some of the animators sleeping overnight.
00:39:40
Speaker
It just seems like a really unfortunate situation, and the reason we haven't heard about this previously is apparently they were having their staff sign NDAs before signing on to, you're going to work on, you know, whatever shows coming up. They would sign an NDA that basically was like, yeah, you can't talk about the working conditions. You can't talk about what we're having you do or anything like that. And it's gotten so bad that people are breaking these NDAs in order to speak out about what's happening. So
00:40:11
Speaker
It's really just a big unfortunate situation and that's part of why we wanted to bring it to light just to kind of talk about any time that Zuhair or myself mentions, hey, you know, these animated things aren't lining up or stuff.
Solidarity with Animators
00:40:24
Speaker
We are not by any means attacking the animators. They are doing their best work. It's the direction and budget that they are being given by the actual studio that we're kind of calling into question when those things come up because
00:40:39
Speaker
Yeah, we're never looking at it as artists, not. Yeah, because that's the one thing I can't draw for the life of me. I'm not going to sit here and pretend that I could do any of this better than even the lowest level animators are doing, let alone map of being the big wigs that they are. So it's really just wanted to bring it to light, wanted to mention it, wanted to say we stand in solidarity with these animators.
00:41:02
Speaker
Pay them as much as they need to be paid to live their lives and make sure that they actually have those lives to live, that they are not locked in a studio for days on end just to get this content out. Because as much as I love being able to talk about 26 episodes, give us, you know, or 24 episodes, regardless, give us three chunks of eight over the course of the year or slow it down. Like, we yell at Attack on Titan all the time for how long they have taken to draw this out.
00:41:31
Speaker
No pun intended, being animated. But we know that they have to take this long. We're just upset at the format that they've taken. Here's a little one-hour chunk to tide you over. Give it to me all at the end when it's ready to go. Our complaint is never the speed at which these things come out, please.
00:41:51
Speaker
If someone out there is listening for some strange reason that has control of this or could say it, Mappa, we do not care. Please take care of these people. We've talked plenty about the Hollywood and writer strikes and actor strikes. We stand in solidarity with all of these people who are artists. I'm sitting here staring at one of my best friends who is an artist, and I would never want him to go through these things. And I feel the same way for all of the people in these groups. So it's just a big thing that we don't care. We want to enjoy it.
00:42:19
Speaker
And we hope that by bringing light to these things, we can make enough money to stop these things, get the attention that it needs. Yeah. Yeah, early. Well, even before the writer strikes that there's, you know, there's times where because map has been doing so much, we joke, it's like, where do they have the time to do this? Hope they're paying their people enough and
00:42:39
Speaker
For somebody who went to school with a bunch of animators, the animation department, even the students, I saw the stuff that they went through, and then hearing the stuff about what's expected of them in the industry, it's not easy, it's not light. It's all right and disrespectful, honestly, for the people that you need to make this stuff happen. So when the writer strikes, stuff started happening. I remember on one of the news episodes, we said,
00:43:08
Speaker
how long until this hits the animators when they realize that they can start speaking out on stuff like this. And obviously, as content consumers, we're like, we hope it doesn't happen. And they figure it out because we want our stuff and this and that. But at the same time, it's very difficult for people to make the livelihoods out of their art.
00:43:34
Speaker
and a lot of people would give up whatever to do that. So obviously these corporations like take advantage of situations like that where it's like, well, there's a bunch of people who lined up who were ready to do this. Like you have a great opportunity to hold that over your head, right? So it's like you feel like you have to, to give in to what's necessarily, ideally, not ideally, what is unacceptable environments.
Challenges and Hopes for Animators
00:44:00
Speaker
And it's tough.
00:44:03
Speaker
Obviously, when we give our reviews, we're looking as content consumers. We're looking as people who appreciate the animation form because as we know, it's already something that is very underrated. We talk about it because people look at it as something that's only for kids when in line it really is pressing a sense of imagination that we couldn't even pretend to have.
00:44:26
Speaker
Oh, so much beautiful to this, so much beauty in this. And there's so much that people deserve all the recognition for. So it's just something that we hope that they can resolve so that we can feel good about wanting to support these people and not have to watch them struggle for content that we enjoy watching and paying for.
00:44:53
Speaker
Yes, and I do believe currently the best way to continue to support these things is by watching them, because this is how we're going to make sure that they get the money that they deserve.
00:45:03
Speaker
Or rather, at least the studio gets the money, and then hopefully they filter that down to the correct people. And if they don't, then maybe those animators will speak out a lot more, and then they'll say something. I would hope it doesn't come to that, but... Because I think that's the biggest thing, is like we said, we have made those jokes previously. None of us knew these NDAs existed. We kind of just assumed, oh, they're actually making sure that this is not a problem in Japan, because this is where all of these animators are, because the only reason we haven't... I don't think that at all.
00:45:33
Speaker
The only reason we haven't heard about anything in the US is because the animators guild of America is different than the writers guild and the actors guild and their contract is not up until I think it's 2025. So I would not be surprised if all of these conversations are coming back around full circle again in a couple of years when the animators guild's contract goes up and they go for negotiations because
00:45:59
Speaker
Ooh, living out here and seeing some of it first hand is the wildest thing.
00:46:05
Speaker
But yeah, we wanted to, or I rather wanted to bring light to this. Hopefully this didn't drag down the back half of the episode and reminds you that even if we were incredibly silly at the top, we do try and keep this a professional art form. Yeah, I can't say. We get the point out. Yeah, we get the point out. We do really care about what we do. That's why we're here. We're avid fans that want to spread our wealth, our knowledge. I hope this is a great monologue that you can send to people who are curious about what our show is because
00:46:34
Speaker
We do care so much. Yes. And with that exhausting rant, I'm going to say that is all for me. I'm so tired now. Yeah, that was a lot. There was so much editing to still do before I.
00:46:48
Speaker
get ready for tomorrow. Not editing of the show listeners. This is just his day job that he still has to do. Luckily, we now have AI editor and again, we don't edit out our floods. So some work I have to do after this. Well, yeah, it's some but it's far less than I feel like we used to try to put in. It's more than I want to do a 10 o'clock.
00:47:09
Speaker
Yeah, that's true. East Coast time is late time. I got to get these on like Friday or Saturday when I'm doing this because by the time I finished a job and just like I don't want to look at my screen anymore. So you should definitely if you want to help this tired, tired photographer sitting across from me, that is one of the many artists that we want to support. The best way that you could do that is by leaving a review a five star rating and review is the single best way that you could support any podcast that you listen to.
00:47:38
Speaker
not just ours, it really helps the algorithm, it helps other people find us, and as I like to say, it is 100% free. It just takes you going in to your app of choice, putting down that rating and review that we hope we have deserved, and just letting people know about all of that. We also have all of our social medias, which is a great way to find us, and although it doesn't necessarily bring us any sort of show love,
00:48:00
Speaker
Sending in emails at animationdeliberationpodcastatgmail.com. We do love to hear from you. It brings us happiness, even if it does not bring us anything more than that, because we do love seeing those emails come through. Immediately when one of us sees it, we put it in our group chat. It is a great time. So if you do have any thoughts about how this show is going, if you just want to share anything that you say, if you find Zuhair's remarks at the top clever, because we actually had a conversation today,
00:48:27
Speaker
We have no idea if anyone even enjoys those cold opens or anyone gets the jokes that we're making when we do them. We're happy to listen to hear all of those. And honestly, if you've listened to this much of the rambling of the podcast,
00:48:42
Speaker
Great job, because we are nearing the end and you haven't decided to jump to another show while you're getting ready for our little stuff at the end to happen. So thank you from the bottom of my heart and Zuhair's. But not only is he on this show, Zuhair, is there anything else that you would like to tell the people about that you have going on? Yeah, I'm going to tell you guys about, just give some love to the Friends of the Show, 323 with Reed Murphy, Peeves Gapfest, and everything on StrandedPanda.com.
00:49:08
Speaker
They support the hell out of us. We support the hell out of them. I show up on a lot of those shows, so it'd be nice if you just got on their social medias too and gave them a look to find out when I pop up on their things. So with that, be sure to tune in next time. That's T-W-O-N-I-N, and as always, stay well. And until we have another cold open to come up with, muscle muscle.
00:49:28
Speaker
Thank you for listening to the Animation Deliberation Podcast, a proud member of the Strandepanda Network. If you would like to contact us, you can email animationdeliberationpodcast at gmail.com or follow us on Twitter at animationdelib1. For this and other great shows, you can visit Strandepanda.com or join the great community that is the Strandepanda Chat Facebook group at facebook.com slash groups slash sbchat. Tune in next time and remember, stay well.