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The Significance of Attack on Titan (Ft. Video Game Club)
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In this episode of Chatsunami, Satsunami is joined by Slade of the Video Game Club podcast to discuss the hit anime show Attack on Titan. With its final part on the horizon, can Slade and Satsu stop the rumbling? Why do so many people want to cancel Slade? And what did Satsu see during his time within the walls of university?!
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Transcript
Introduction & Guest Welcome
00:00:05
Speaker
Welcome to Chatsunami.
00:00:17
Speaker
Hello everybody and welcome to another episode of Chatanami. My name's Satanami and joining me today atop the wall is none other than the one and only anime slash titan expert himself, Slade from the Video Game Club Podcast. Slade, thank you so much for joining me today. Thank you for being another person to listen to me ramble on about why everybody should be watching Attack on Titan and how great it is. Hey, I'm happy to listen.
00:00:44
Speaker
I'm happy to expand my mind to different enemies. Yeah, not enough people are watching Attack on Titan, that's what it is. Attack on what now? Yeah, exactly. Attack on Titan. I'm actually quite curious because, as you said there, half-jokingly, but Attack on Titan is one of those enemies because I was going to say the whole thing of, oh, it's this anime about giants and everything.
Anime Tropes & Challenges of Introduction
00:01:07
Speaker
But is it safe to say that even in mainstream circles, Attack on Titan is very well known?
00:01:13
Speaker
Yes, I think through a lot of just social media and memes in general, there's also the fact that there's like a during Attack on Titan's final season, there's a point you can note where like people stopped watching the Superball here in America because the new episode dropped. Really? Yeah, there's actually like a viewer drop for like 20 minutes.
00:01:32
Speaker
Wow. That is really surprising. The other thing, I think it's just because it's so well written, non-anime fans can get into it like Joey from the Game Club Pod. He's not an anime person whatsoever, but he got fully invested into it. You're totally right because anime is hard to explain.
00:01:48
Speaker
And there's some animes, and I think one of my friends who also runs the anime side of this particular podcast with me, Green Show 95, him and I talked about our experiences about growing up with anime and watching anime together through university. And there's a lot of animes that you stick on that have, let's say, unfavorable tropes that you kind of think. There is no way you can sit down to let your mum and dad say,
00:02:16
Speaker
Oh, it's this great show called Sword Art Online. You're gonna love it. You would get disowned, that's all I'm saying. It's like, son, what have you been watching lately? Ah, High School DXD. How do you explain it, you know? Are you watching your animus again, son? Get out! Get out!
00:02:33
Speaker
I can't think of any off the top of my head because there's just so many examples. But you know that when you're watching Anatomy and then there's just that one fanservice moment. I mean, I was one of those stupid people that watched Food Wars thinking it genuinely was going to be about food. Because people joke about that, they go, haha, people think it's about food. And I'm like, there's no way this can be that bad. And then you watch it and you're like, hmm, there's a lot more fanservice and I'm comfortable with it.
00:02:59
Speaker
Yes, I've been watching for the first time lately. Kill la kill. Oh, God. Yeah. Yeah. And there's so much fans. I've had to stop watching a few times just from being uncomfortable. Yeah. I'm like, this is just this is a little too much, a little too much. I gotta need a palate cleanser for a bit.
00:03:16
Speaker
I have to admit, that's one of the reasons why I haven't watched it because the anime studio, I can't remember off the top of my head, who does it? Studio Trigger. That's the one, thank you. Because they also did a short for Star Wars. Yes, they did the twins episode.
00:03:32
Speaker
Yep, that's the one. And then they did the recent Cyberpunk anime. Don't get me wrong, those are beautifully animated and everything. But as you said, for Kill the Kill, that's the one thing that's been putting me off. It's one of those, like, animes that, again, you know what you're getting into when you go into it. So I'm like, do I want to jump in?
00:03:50
Speaker
I don't think so. Not yet anyway. I'm not at that stage yet.
Attack on Titan's Popularity
00:03:55
Speaker
Going back to what we were talking about to begin with. No, you're totally right. Attack on Titan is one of those enemies that appeals to people outside of the anime sphere of influence. But I'm actually quite curious, how did you get into it to begin with?
00:04:09
Speaker
I'd have to go back to it's the memes because I started watching it when season three had came out. So I guess I picked a good time to watch because there was plenty of content. I don't know if you're aware of your audiences, but there was a four year hiatus between season one and two. I picked like the perfect bench watch time. And one of the problems was when I was, I was traveling a good bit and I remember watching like some stuff from season three and I was on an airplane looking at it on my phone to the pure disgust of the person sitting next to me.
Personalized Anime Recommendations
00:04:37
Speaker
You should have just like looked them in the eyes and given them your headphone like, don't be shy. It's just attack on Titan. It's good though. I had some friends like, yeah, just give it a shot because normally I like a lot of silly comedies. I am also a huge Robcom person. There's nothing wrong with that. One of my favourites is Kaguya Suma, Love is War.
00:04:54
Speaker
Do you know, I haven't watched that yet, but I've heard great things there. It is so funny. And the narrator in the English dub, he sells the show. He's great. He's having too much fun being the narrator. But yeah, rom-coms are my weak spot. So this one for me was also kind of out of left field, the watch deck I'm talking about.
00:05:13
Speaker
Well, all I can say is you're amongst strengths here, because one of my favourite enemies is Chunebeo. Have you seen that one? I have not. That one's another good one. I'll give you the details after this episode, don't you? You've already taken one of mine, so I feel like I owe you now. I'll try and find a backup in case you don't like it. I'll be like, I'm so sorry, here's another.
00:05:32
Speaker
It's like you're returning it to the store. Yeah. Do you find that as somebody who's a, um, as somebody who's an anime fan, if somebody's like, Hey, what should I be watching? You have to, first of all, think of who you're talking to. And then you're like, what would they actually like? Or do they have some thing that I don't know about that they won't like this for? If that makes sense.
00:05:48
Speaker
Yeah, oh no, absolutely. You have to kind of consider. Yeah. Yeah. So when somebody asks me, you know, like for anime recommendation, I usually think like, what do I know about this person? And then I toss like two or three animes out and I'm like, just pick one. You'll like one of these. But there's some animes that are just a very hard sell. Before we started recording you and I were talking about JoJo's Bizarre Adventure. I don't even know where to begin to sell somebody all that other than it's fantastic. And why aren't you watching?
Impact of Spoilers on Viewing Experience
00:06:12
Speaker
I mean, I have to admit, I didn't start watching JoJo until the lockdowns in 2020 and that was another show that people kept saying, oh, you should watch it, you should watch it. I'm like, yeah, yeah, sure. I actually had no idea what it was all about. So, you know, as soon as the vampires started popping up, I was like, this is JoJo. And then, of course, when you go from
00:06:33
Speaker
season 2 to season 3 and then it goes from Hamon to Stan's. I was actually really upset. I was messaging my friend, I was like, dude, where's the Hamon? I don't want these silly muscle spirits. I want my breathing back. Where's my
00:06:48
Speaker
Oh, I was so angry at that. I guess spoilers for JoJo if you haven't watched it, you should. But for part three, one of my favorite things is when Dio's like, I can finally get rid of you, Joseph. And then he's like, all right, Hammond can't do that. Like, that's the last we see of it, I guess. Yeah.
00:07:04
Speaker
like, okay, let's put a pin in this. It's like, because you're not have aimed for the head. No, they're not playing by Highlander rules. They're playing more pied, you know, anime logic. So you're like, ah, great. Speaking of when you were saying about how you were getting into Attack on Titan, I actually remember when I was in university, I think
00:07:23
Speaker
it was around 2014, I'm going to say, where it started to really pick up steam. One of my flatmates, this is how we bonded together, weirdly enough, through anime watching Full Metal Alchemist Brotherhood, Hunter x Hunter, as I would call it. All the greats and everything. It was fantastic. But then he introduced me to Attack on Titan,
00:07:48
Speaker
I'll tell you how popular it was. It was so popular that there was actually a fellow student. I had no idea who this girl was. I had no idea, but she actually walked around with a survey corps cape. Now, always remember, people who had no idea what Attack on Titan was were looking out saying, why does that girl wear a cape?
00:08:09
Speaker
I remember I looked out of the window and I was like, oh, and I just kept my mouth shut. I'm like, yeah, I don't know. She's wearing a cape. Whoa. On my phone, I actually have a Survey Corps case. You see, now that's understated.
Attack on Titan Storyline Overview
00:08:23
Speaker
A hearing is understated. Wearing the full cape? Obviously, she wasn't wearing the manoeuvre gear or anything.
00:08:30
Speaker
That would be a bit too much running around with swords, but it was quite strange. But I remember my flatmate and I, we would watch the episodes and it was really interesting to see it because Attack on Titan, although I've seen my fair share of, you know, poor parts of anime and your bits that are a bit
00:08:49
Speaker
brutal. The one thing that really unnerved me, and I'm kind of desensitized to it now, but the smiling Titan, which is very synonymous with the end of the first episode, you just see this like Titan with a permanent grin on their face and you're like, oh, I don't like that. ALICE For as silly as the Titans really look and as goofy as they run, there's a couple times, I mean, you do get a little desensitized to it, but there's such a looming presence that they have.
00:09:14
Speaker
Oh, no, absolutely. Like, you're like, this design, it's silly. We're all aware that it's silly, but when they're over there munching down on one of your friends, you're just horrified by it. It actually reminds me of, and this is going to sound like a very weird term to use, but I've used it in a couple of previous episodes. Have you ever heard of, and this is more like a homebrew kind of term, have you ever heard me talk about the Mike Tyson effect? No, I have not.
00:09:39
Speaker
So this is really weird but I remember years and years ago, one of my other friends and I, we went to see a film called Ip Man 3. It's Donnie Yen who plays the main character who's like this Wing Chun master and everything. Really great action film. But in the third film for some reason, they were kind of running out of ideas I want to say, but Mike Tyson decides to go to China. They
00:10:03
Speaker
both end up fighting. He's speaking very bad, I think either Mandarin or Cantonese. I can't remember. But he's speaking kind of goofy, Mandarin or Cantonese, and he's saying, oh, let's see who's first or the fastest. The whole premise is goofy, but then he's moving forward and punching out windows and things. It's the kind of thing that looks goofy from an outsider's perspective,
00:10:28
Speaker
but if you were in that actual scenario where Mike Tyson's coming at you trying to punch your head off, you would think, huh, this is actually terrifying. It's the same thing with Titans. It's like, oh, haha, they could get away. But if it was me in the middle of the Trost district or whatever, I'd be like, nah, you know what? Into the basement. I'm saying in the basement where they cannot get me.
00:10:52
Speaker
I'm staying in with all of Aaron's secrets and everything. All of the Yeager family's devices and whatever they have. I'm staying in. You would have thought they would have gone round the wall. In fact, do you know what, sorry, before I go on to spoil a territory, will we just dive into the main discussion? Sure.
00:11:08
Speaker
slight warning to all those anime fans or soon to be anime fans to have yet to watch Attack on Titan. This episode is going to contain a lot of heavy spoilers up until probably the most recent
Podcast Promotion & Sponsorship
00:11:21
Speaker
episode of the anime that's pretty close to the end, so spoilers abound and yeah, we will see you right after these messages.
00:11:29
Speaker
Welcome to Chat Tsunami, a variety podcast that discusses topics from gaming and films to anime and journal interests. Previously on Chat Tsunami, we've analysed what makes a good horror game, conducted a retrospective on Pierce Brosnan's runs James Bond, and listened to us take deep dives into both the Sonic and Halo franchises.
00:11:48
Speaker
Also, if you're an anime fan, then don't forget to check us out on our sub-series, Chatsunani, where we dive into the world of anime. So far, we've reviewed things like Death Note, Princess Mononoke, and the hit Beyblade series. If that sounds like your cup of tea, then you can check us out on Spotify, iTunes, and all big podcast apps. As always, stay safe, stay awesome, and most importantly, stay hydrated.
00:12:12
Speaker
Join me, Slade, and my two co-hosts, Joey and Tim, over at the Video Game Club, where once every two weeks we review a video game, not too dissimilar to a plug club. Podcast. You can find us at the Video Game Club on all good podcast providers, and some sketchy ones as well.
00:12:35
Speaker
This episode is sponsored by Zencaster. Zencaster is an all-in-one podcast production suite that gives you studio quality audio and video without needing all the technical know-how. It records each guest locally, then uploads the crystal clear audio and video right into the suite so you have high quality raw materials to work with. For more information on how you can get 30% off a Zencaster professional account, please check out the code in the bio. So, Slade, I've got a question for you. Oh no.
00:13:07
Speaker
So what is it that you like about it? And again, I don't want this to sound like a kind of X-Files interrogation to be like it. What is it you like about A Tag
Why Watch Attack on Titan?
00:13:16
Speaker
on Titan? But what is it that draws you to this anime that you think it's one that everyone should watch?
00:13:22
Speaker
the stress of the story that's going on and it's the endearment of the characters that you're watching that despite all these bleak odds they're still going for it. You know this isn't something like watching Breaking Bad or Better Call Saul where like you kind of hate everybody and everybody sucks but there's endearing people and they're just trying to make the best of it given the terrible situation they've been dealt. I mean yeah no I totally agree with you. Especially when that terrible situation is man-eating giant.
00:13:51
Speaker
How many? It's a bit of an oopsie in the bad day scale. It's at least a 9 out of 10 on the bad day scale, right? Oh, yeah, absolutely. It's at least a 9 out of 10. It's like, oh, I forgot my keys. Oh, I dropped my lunch in a puddle. Look up. Oh, man, there's the colossal tiger.
00:14:10
Speaker
You see, in terms of spoilers for the series, what's your relationship with that? Because this is one of those enemies that is very hard not to get spoiled with it. And I've said this before on Twitter and other places, Instagram is the worst place for spoilers, I think, on the internet.
00:14:28
Speaker
So to give you an idea, because I mean, we're in a great anime season right now. There's a lot of stuff that comes out on Saturdays. And I'm watching My Hero Academia. I'm not going to spoil what happened in today's episode that came out on the 15th of October. But I watched that episode at like 7am or so my time. And then, you know, I look at Instagram like an hour later, and I just see massive spoilers from that episode. I'm like, this thing's only been out for like two hours. Why are we doing this? Give people time.
00:14:55
Speaker
I mean, have you seen the YouTube spoilers? Even with Disney Plus shows? Because I remember I'm a huge Star Wars fan as well, so sometimes I catch up. For example, the recent Andor series that as of this episode has just come out, or the Kenobi one that came out, and I kid you not, the same day it came out, the same day I watch it, I go onto YouTube and then it's like, oh yeah, here's a spoiler slash cool scene from that episode. I'm like, how do you just
00:15:22
Speaker
it in the thumbnail they just put it in the thumbnail or just whatever and i hate those people it's like canada rex dies question mark question mark question mark it's like well obviously you've got the bloody corpse on the thumbnail what what am i supposed to get out of that
00:15:37
Speaker
Oh, it frustrates me. I have to stay off YouTube. I genuinely, or be very careful, because the way YouTube itself has started to change its recommendations, you could look up cute puppy videos or something like that, and you're like, oh, OK. The first three or four are cute puppy videos. And then the next one is like, do you want to hear how So-and-So dies in Attack on Titan? I'm like, why would you? What? No! What am I doing? Yeah, exactly. You're just like, no, no, I do not. I do not want to know this. It's like, thank you, but no.
00:16:07
Speaker
This is something I was talking to you about before we came on, but for anyone who doesn't know, of course, Attack on Titan is just basically about a bunch of people that live in, I was going to joke and say, a gated community. It's like a simplistic story. Gated community.
00:16:27
Speaker
Can I tweet that? Yep. It's like a group of people who come from not medieval Europe. Basically they have to explore outside the walls to see if there's any giants. These like huge creatures called titans and they have to either take them down or just basically protect themselves and then
00:16:48
Speaker
One day things go wrong and a big titan, bigger than any titan they've ever seen before, peers over the wall. It's basically the image that everybody thinks of when they think of attack on titan, they think of the colossal titan, the big muscular one without the skin that's just like the muscles underneath and of course he kicks down the door, all these titans rush in and that basically sets up the plot.
00:17:12
Speaker
that one of the children at the beginning sees his mum die, he wants to kill all titans. Unlike Luffy who wants to get the one piece, or Goku who wants to be the very best, Ed and Yegor's not a nice body.
00:17:24
Speaker
He didn't have a nice upbringing. He's a little turd of a child. We'll get to that, don't you worry. Eventually, he grows up and he tries to do his best. That's the whole premise. Humanity fighting against these giant cannibals, essentially literal giant cannibals. The colossal titan is 60 metres tall. He's slightly taller than both of us can mind.
00:17:52
Speaker
I think we would need it with the retrench coats to be as tall as him.
00:17:57
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, that Titan's 60 meters and I think the armored Titan, the one who runs through the gate, he's I think something around 30. I'm going to Google that to make sure I'm right. No, go for it because I actually can't remember. I know he's smaller. Oh, never mind. He's only 15 meters tall. Never mind. And I was right, the colossal is 60 meters. I mean, that's a big difference. But actually, that sets me up for my next point. Going back to spoilers, when I watched this, season one and two had just come out. It ended
Pacing & Spoilers in Attack on Titan
00:18:24
Speaker
with the female Titan arc.
00:18:26
Speaker
where she basically decides to destroy your city because, you know, haha.
00:18:31
Speaker
And yeah, she destroys the city and everything. There's the big fight. That's when it ended. And this is when we're getting into spoiler territory, by the way, dear listeners, so please be warned. But I remember looking up Beartold, and I was like, who's Beartold? Because people kept bringing them up in the show, and I'm like, who's Beartold? And I looked them up. I kid you not, the first image, or rather the first Wiki page, was the colossal titan. And I was like,
00:18:57
Speaker
Are you shitting me colossal? Actually, I was so upset that day. I was like, are you serious? I've been spoiled by fandom wikis, doggo! That's a terrible way to be spoiled. Exactly, and season three wasn't anywhere near the horizon, so I was like, great, now I have to be a pleb and go read the manga. I don't know, maybe it's because the first two seasons are very action packed.
00:19:22
Speaker
and the kind of Season 3, I hope I'm not pissing off a lot of people by saying this, but it's very dialogue heavy.
00:19:42
Speaker
because I think when I went from, you know, like the action-packed anime going to read the manga and there was a lot of pages where it was just like a big speech bubble over half of the page. I'm like, huh, is this what it's going to be? And don't get me wrong, I think season three does cut that down a wee bit in some places, not overly so, but in some places I'm like, oh, thank God. I don't know if fans would have been happy about it going from Attack on Titan to Game of Thrones here. But don't get me wrong,
00:20:12
Speaker
early game of thrones fairly decent but cutting the pace as it were but it's still interesting like it's still as you said was it a four-year gap in between season two and three or one and two one and two oh was it right okay one and two yeah it's absolutely it's a crazy amount of time to wait you know but that's one of those things like i especially with as long as animations and what all they have to animate going i i'm happy to wait kind of
00:20:35
Speaker
Oh yeah, I'm happy.
Trends in Anime Season Releases
00:20:37
Speaker
It's a bit like crunch culture and things like that, forcing the animators to break the wrists over products. The same with gaming, with programmers breaking the wrists over a flimsy keyboard just to get that quest program right. It's not something you want to encourage, but on the other hand, and again, sorry, that's my bottom line. I'm not going to justify anyone being exploited, but
00:20:58
Speaker
And so really, there's this trend, and I don't know, you might be able to tell me, there seems to be this trend recently where they're not releasing anime in seasons, they're releasing it in parts. So it depends on the anime. So like My Hero Academia season six right now is going to take half a year to go through season six. No breaks. They're doing an episode every Saturday for six months. Yeah. Yeah. But then you look through spy family, right?
00:21:24
Speaker
and they took a two-month break and now they're continuing season one. Yeah, of course. So they took a break and now it's going to be another 12 episodes, so a total of 24 for the first season. So you have two options, you can either watch every Saturday or you could just wait for everything and then binge the hell out of it. I'm going to be honest, I think Netflix has just spoiled me.
00:21:43
Speaker
The amount of shows I binge and then there's other shows that have a cliffhanger and I'm like, yeah, I'm not coming back to this because I'm going to forget it. Usually I go, oh, I can't wait for the next part unless it's something I'm really into. I remember years and years ago, because I do a lot of language learning, I got into a Spanish show called Money Heist. I don't know
Pacing in Various Shows
00:22:05
Speaker
if you've seen that.
00:22:06
Speaker
I have not. Again, it's not an anime, but it's pretty good. At least the first two seasons are really good, and then from season three onwards, because it was so popular, they wanted to revive it and everything, and they had the season three, four, and five, which just weren't as good. But again, it was like people were waiting to see the next part and everything. Yeah, it was still annoying. I've just benched through the first part of this show. Why couldn't there be more? Logistically, that's impossible, and it's like, no, you didn't.
00:22:37
Speaker
Jokes aside, one of the shows you and I were talking about going back to Jojo is when I was moaning to you about part six of Jojo being split up and there just being like zero fanfare over it. So like the first part of season six, or sorry part six, it was very well publicised and everything and was everywhere.
00:22:56
Speaker
and then recently they've just released part two of part six which is not confusing at all part two of part six. Yeah it's just there was no fanfare and everything and they were just releasing it part by part and the reason I'm bringing this up is because and this is what really irked me about Attack on Titan.
Frustration with Attack on Titan's Final Season
00:23:14
Speaker
Attack on Titan season four, the final season, isn't quite final is it?
00:23:19
Speaker
No, we're on the final season, part three. And if you're not read up in the manga, it's literally one book left. It's book 34. Oh, god. So if you've watched all of it, it's literally a book worth. So it's got to be just 12 episodes. I don't know how you could stretch this out longer. No, when there's a well. When there's a will and an anime budget, I suppose you could. There's an oxymoron.
00:23:44
Speaker
Yeah, no, I know what you mean. I can't why they're doing that because it's such a widely regarded show, but it's more like my annoyances. It's very first world problems, as it were. It's not like we should be holding the anime scene accountable for. It's anime. That's all I can say about that, really.
00:24:04
Speaker
just enjoy it. That's that's the big thing. As you were saying, we've been talking about how this show primarily was all about the Titans and it was all about humanity fighting them with really cool like harpoon technology. It's basically, I was gonna say it's like a steampunk Moby Dick almost. Just get them flying around. Yeah, I'm not gonna say that you're wrong.
00:24:28
Speaker
There's no wrong answers except what I say. This is a show that, again, as I said, Attack on Titan, it's literally in the name, but then around, I want to say about the end of Season 3 going on Season 4. In fact, no, sorry.
Shift in Conflict in Attack on Titan
00:24:44
Speaker
The beginning of Season 3, where it becomes very much a human versus human conflict, and then they kind of build on that as soon as they start talking about what's outside of the walls and everything. What was your opinion on that?
00:24:57
Speaker
I really liked bringing in the human on human conflict into it. And then the fact that about halfway through season three, you start learning more about where the Titans actually come from, and about the people who live on parodies. That to me was just like a mind blowing revelation, because, you know, it just shows there was a world beyond the walls, you know, this just wasn't some random little town in the middle of Eastern Europe, which is what I thought it was. But suddenly, they're on an island by themselves. And then you find out
00:25:22
Speaker
that it's the people outside of the island who's been sending the titans at him this whole time. And it's like, these people didn't do anything to deserve this. Y'all have been mercilessly just attacking them for years and years and years, and then you really start hating the people outside the wall. I mean, on hindsight, it definitely comes back to bite them and the naper, the neck has it there.
00:25:43
Speaker
There's a lot when you're watching Season 4 and you think, oh my god, this is brutal. Why are they so angry? And then you think back to Season 1 and 2 and the first half of it, and you're like, oh yeah, it was dumb foreign policy. Yeah, you look back and you're just like, it's genocide, but...
00:26:01
Speaker
on the other. What they've been doing is arguably as bad. I can't remember what they're called, but you know the government of the other major territory? The Marlians. Marlians, that's it, thank you. I have to admit, and this is going to probably piss off a lot of fans, but have you seen the Muppets Christmas Carol? No, I have now. Have you not?
00:26:21
Speaker
Now, there's a character in the original Christmas carol called Jacob Marley. You know, they make a joke in the Muppets one and they have a whole song where they sing, oh, it's Marley Marley. So whenever the word Marleying came up, I just kept thinking of those two Muppets. You're the old Muppets. I just kept thinking of them singing that song and I was like, oh my God, I can't take this seriously. It's like beating people and being a totalitarian state and they're like, you're named after a Charles Dickens character. Come on.
00:26:51
Speaker
Come on, rebrand! I can't think this seriously whatsoever. Yeah, I can imagine if I was in that universe getting mercilessly and I'm so on the ground, would you now go, come on! This
Character Motivations
00:27:01
Speaker
is like how when I first watched, it's a tweet I really regret the most that I've ever had in my life. When I was first watching the final season and the first time you meet Gobby, and she's just like, I'm perfect and everybody else is wrong. And I'm immediately like, I love this character. She's great. And then two episodes later, she shoots Sasha. And I'm like, I've never hated a character more in my entire life.
00:27:20
Speaker
It is definitely one of those shows that you're on site for the heroes and the people who have been done hard against. I want to support these characters, I want them to get justice and everything, and they go about it in the weirdest way. Or not the weirdest, but the most violent and anti-support way ever. It's like, oh, we're going to show that we are part of this society within parody island. It's like, oh, how are you going to do that by blowing up your leader?
00:27:49
Speaker
I beg your pardon, so I'll step it back a bit. We're also going to turn people into titans. Sorry, I'll dial it back a bit. When did we get from we're not happy with life to was there no strongly worded letter put in there? Maybe I'm too British for this.
00:28:06
Speaker
Is it not like a change.org petition? We're just gonna throw that in, okay. You think at some point just somebody would have gone, I mean, the people of Marley have planes and the people who live on the island of Paradis, they're still using horses. At some point, you think you could show up with your flying machine, land, blow all these people's minds and be like, yeah, we have stuff like this if y'all don't chill.
00:28:27
Speaker
That's the thing that absolutely baffles me, and I don't know if it's explained in the anime. I can't remember if they just left parody alone. Oh no, that was because of the rumbling. No, because I was good to say, what was stopping the Marlians from flying a Zeppelin over, dropping Reiner down?
00:28:43
Speaker
Because they thought the whole time that any of them could just, you know, turn into a Titan essentially, right? Oh, yeah. And you know, you got to have anti-Titan weapons to kill that and you saw like the anti-Titan rifle. I mean, that thing's lumbering and big and you have to like sit there and set it up with two people just to get one good shot. But it's that's why the people of Paradis, they figured out the whole OTM gear, which really confused me. It's because like you can figure out this gear that'll let you zip around from building the building, but we couldn't figure out a train.
00:29:13
Speaker
Have they not got train tracks on the walls at some point? They do have train tracks, but they have to push them or use horses. I'm sure there's a joke in there about train infrastructure, but at this point...
00:29:31
Speaker
make your own jokes. Oh, god. Yeah, now you're thinking about it. You're like, this is more irritating. It's it's all set up for plot. That's all it is. I don't think it'd be important to really trans because you know, the horses were so much faster. And it's not like they had the resources to build the things. Yeah, when you're restricted to just being inside the walls.
00:29:51
Speaker
Yeah, I suppose there would have been like an in-universe explanation for that. Like, oh, it's because the king doesn't forget about trains. Could you imagine that? Imagine that, okay, the king of Peridot is just like, okay, here we go. We've made the population complete.
00:30:09
Speaker
Lately forget about titans. Nobody knows about our history with the titans. Do you know what we should build? A couple of days later, do you know what we should build? We should build a train system. Immediately the servants just serve us a train. It's like, ah, shit. I can't reverse this. I mean, one of my favourite bits is when they get over to Marley and they see a car for the first time, and you've got Honji over there trying to feed it like a carrot.
00:30:33
Speaker
Oh yeah. I honestly wish we had more moments like that. If you could get an OVA of just like a little, let's say four episode miniseries, what would you like to see the most? Oh definitely them and the city of Marley. Or not city but the territory. Like it would be interesting.
00:30:48
Speaker
to see them interact with everything and it be more of a slice of life thing. One of my favourite OVA's, and this gets in so weird, but there's an OVA of Sasha and the rest of them in a cooking competition. Have you seen that one? That's one of my favourites. Just because there's so much misery and so much hardship going on, and this OVA is literally about a cooking competition. It's amazing. I just love it so much. I think another good one
00:31:17
Speaker
This would be a little more on the serious side, but I'd like to see Levi actually growing up in the underground because you hear about how, oh man, I'm going to be a bad Attack on Titan fan, but I can't think of the commander's name. Erwin? Erwin, thank you. That just skipped my mind and I'm now going to be shunned by the Attack on Titan community. And you call yourself a fan.
00:31:49
Speaker
There is, but it doesn't show, I mean, it's also the main thing about how he was growing up in the underground. I just want to know what brought him into the survey corps. There is, as you said, a brief OVA, and there's kind of that small flashback stuff that you get intercut when you're talking about Kenny and everything, the guy who initially found him and raised him as a strong word. You come to the bars and things with him.
00:31:54
Speaker
I can't sleep.
00:32:11
Speaker
sure he didn't starve to death. That's about all. It showed him how to use a knife, essentially, which is kind of a weird jump. Very good at using a knife to tighten, cover, slash, Beyblade, because he is a fast boy, that Levi. He is a little Beyblade, though. That's a good spinny boy is how I like to describe him. Boy is a massive spinny boy.
00:32:30
Speaker
Especially, I remember the first time I saw the scene where they're trying to rescue Aaron, jumping back to Season 2 where Aaron gets kidnapped by the Female Titan. Yeah, who was it? It was the Female Titan? No, it wasn't the Female Titan, was it? Yeah, it was Annie. I think it was just Berthold, Ymir and- Yeah, that was the second time. This is the first time they got kidnapped. Yeah, you do need a chart to figure out how many times they get kidnapped.
Recurring Themes & Humor
00:32:58
Speaker
But off the top of my head, he gets kidnapped three times, I want to say. But the first time's the female Titan. Then he gets kidnapped, rightfully as you said, by Bertolt and then the armored Titan and Ymir. And then he gets kidnapped by… The Marlians themselves? No, it's Historia's dad, remember. Oh, that's right. Yes, he gets taken by Historia's uncle. It's her uncle. Oh, his uncle, sorry. Yeah, his uncle. And then the fourth time…
00:33:22
Speaker
Oh god, yeah. It's like a willing kidnap. Does it count as a kidnap? Is he trying to get a free coffee from this? Like in his fifth kidnap, he gets a free, I don't know, Jager bomb or something. I don't know.
00:33:35
Speaker
feels like he's on to something, but yeah, going back to the first kidnapping, where he is trapped by the female titan and of course Levi stops him and he does the spinny thing. I was shocked by that because I honestly didn't expect it. But you see people spin around in the show, but he does spin like a beyblade and you're like, Jesus Christ, what is he eating in the morning?
00:33:58
Speaker
You think it's all the tea that he's consuming, right? It's just got it ready to go. I mean, as someone from Britain can confirm, if you have too many teas, that's what happens.
00:34:07
Speaker
There's been many an accident at the bus stops if you have too much to eat. It's a tragedy. That's the real reason I wanted to come on today to talk about that. But there's a lot of really good characters in this though, going back to the characters. They're all pretty well-written too, is the other thing. Because you're going to get attached to certain ones and other ones you just won't really care too much about. Do you have a favourite character? None that are alive, no.
00:34:31
Speaker
Well, that's the thing. You get attached to some of them. I always remember reading through when I decided to read the manga at the time between Season 2 and 3. I remember reading certain characters and they're like, oh my god, Historia, she is going to be the new queen and everything. I remember reading that and I was like, who the hell is Historia? I had to go back and rewatch the scene. He's like, okay, fair enough. Oh no, Amir's a titan. I was like, okay, who the hell is Amir?
00:34:58
Speaker
And then I had to go back again. I was like, oh, good, so much jumping. I mean, I have to admit, the one that grew on me was Jean. I love Jean. I love Jean. Because initially he was very much, you know, this stereotypical, oh, look at you. I'm better than you. I'm going to be in the military police. And then, you know, he has that friendship with Marco and that's tragic. See, actually seeing how that happened. I was like, I don't care what happens. Aaron, you bring on that rumble.
00:35:27
Speaker
They deserve it. You bring on that rumble in my boy. I was like, you bastard. Marco wouldn't have stood for this if Marco wasn't here. He could have talked down, but no. I was so angry. See, that's the thing though. They do like a heinous shit like that, like killing Marco and things. And then they're like, but why are they attacking us? It's like, what do you think? I guess to answer your question, yes, John.
00:36:16
Speaker
John, yeah, the answer to my question, John.
00:36:21
Speaker
And it's not like something you're going to plaster over shonen jump. What do you think about that?
00:36:29
Speaker
Well, it's one of those things, and we've said this on the video game club a lot, the villains are always more interesting than heroes are. And I like watching Aaron go from the hero of the story to the antagonist of the story. That's such a great, you know, if it was like a math problem, it'd be a perfect bell curve, you know, which is watching me in good good. Oh, no. It's like, you know, that kind of bubble video boards, but it's like the sound where people go, Oh, I fuck.
00:36:56
Speaker
Because you can see the gradual decline of his character, and you think, wow, well done to the writers for that. Yes, absolutely. And then you can just watch the mental well-being of everybody. You think about Connie taking Falco hostage in the final season. It's like, Connie, you're dumb, but you're not like this dumb. Chill, chill. Connie, I think I can see the molars. Connie, why are you closing the mouth? I can't see. Connie, it's cold in here.
00:37:27
Speaker
Yeah, that was a brutal scene. You know what I honestly think the most brutal scene in Tag on Titan is in the final season? And it's when Armin gets shot in the fucking face. Oh yeah, forgot about that. I mean, you see it and the episode just ends and you're like, there's no way. And then like a few minutes later, Dodd's like, oh right, he's got Titan powers, so it's fine. He's okay. Plot armor. It's fine. It's fine. Did you think that he got a bit more boring when he got the Titan powers?
00:37:53
Speaker
Yeah, he definitely stopped being such a whiny baby. That's what I would say. Yeah, he went from whiny baby to just like, oh no, the Titans are attacking. Anyway. You know, he was a cry baby, but at least that was like his brand. He turned into the Clarkson meme of just, oh no. Anyways.
00:38:12
Speaker
But it's like, you know that, I don't know much about fashion, but you know that Supreme Brand and Prayer Heads would essentially just be Supreme and then underneath it would just say Crybaby. We would just be Supreme Crybaby. And I was like, I can't believe I'm asking for this, but where's the whiny Crybaby that we knew and loved?
00:38:29
Speaker
Oh, because he's just very passive and he has his outburst. Although I do love that moment. There's a moment in the last season where he's like, maybe Aaron's a good guy and he's just playing along and then all the balls come and all the tight ends coming out and you're like, no.
00:38:48
Speaker
You're like one of these fan theorists that is like, oh, what if he was alive the entire time? It's like, do you know what actually reminds me of? Have you ever played Modern Warfare 2 by any chance? And again, spoilers for Modern Warfare 2. The 2009 one, I should point out because there's of course a reboot coming out soon, so we're not talking about that one. But you know Ghost and what happens to him, he gets like shot in the head.
00:39:10
Speaker
Yeah, that's another brutal scene altogether but I remember at the time reading things online and people were like, well maybe you survived, you know, we did see the bullet go right through so maybe he crawled away and all of this denial is essentially going on and that's what I thought about this. It was like Armand being like, you know, maybe he's a good guy, maybe those people we crushed were really bad.
00:39:33
Speaker
Oh, it's like the genuine denial of what has happened, because you don't want to think that it is your best friend. But at the same time, when your best friend is the courage and terrorist, it's a pretty big red flag. It's the difference between your friend and not paying you back for that lunch you got them versus supporting a cultish movement around them. You're like, one of these things is not like the other. What we're saying here in this discussion is watch Attack on Titan, it's great.
00:40:03
Speaker
Essentially, yeah. It's a family-friendly, no-hones partner. You almost made me choke on my drink. Yep, educational.
00:40:12
Speaker
Well, yeah, it is educational for family values. I didn't really know what to expect. See, when they talked about the whole basement thing at the start of Season 1, they're like, don't go in the basement. And do you know what I always thought? Why didn't they walk around the edges of the walls and then kind of just zip down, get into the house, get underneath? Why did they have to go the long way through?
00:40:34
Speaker
I think it's because the place was so infested with Titans, even the small ones which could hide behind the three or four-story houses. You've got to clear it out. There's no other option. I suppose. I know that's complaining about the egos and the Lord of the Rings, like, oh, why didn't you do that?
00:40:52
Speaker
Because there wouldn't be a movie and the same, there wouldn't be an anime. Exactly. Exactly. Even still, I've just had a giant pot and slammed it together on top of the walls and people would have been like, the hell is that? Oh yeah, let's try and get up the wall here. I totally know why. I guess the human condition is half the fun of watching this.
00:41:12
Speaker
Because there are some bits you kind of think, oh, well, what if they did this or that? But when you look at the real world and things, you think, yeah, some people can be pretty bad. Especially when you add monsters that can eat you and everything. And that whole scene going, I know we're kind of jumping back and forth, but that whole scene in season four where, oh, what's his name? Aaron Stadt. Oh, Grishin Yeager. Grishin, that's the one. Yeah, I was trying to remember. I knew it began with a G. That's my only defense, Your Honour.
00:41:42
Speaker
I remember that scene where he's been arrested and I'm not going to lie, I'm not happy with the Beast Titan. Could I file for a very salty rant here? Yeah, sure. You mentioned to me before as well that you were not happy about the Beast Titan and I'd love to hear your thoughts on it.
00:41:58
Speaker
In Season 3, I think it's the beginning of Season 3, the Beast Titan is introduced. Honestly, I read that in the manga for the first time. It wasn't spoiled for me, so I came into it completely blind and I was just so shocked. I was like, oh my god! This new type of Titan, he's not an abnormal. He can talk.
00:42:18
Speaker
I was really interested, I was like, oh this is so cool. And then the more the series went on, the more I grew like a severe dislike to, is it Zeke? Yes, Zeke Jaeger. I was so annoyed when they sold out his family to the military police and everything. You little dick.
00:42:36
Speaker
Which is another statement, and I get why they did it, because of all the pressures and everything.
00:42:53
Speaker
either way but obviously he spent more time with Eren than he did Zeke. He probably played catch with Eren and he didn't play catch with Zeke kind of thing. Zeke adopting oh I can't think of his name but he's the original Beast Titan wielder. Oh yeah yeah. Him adopting that like artificial fatherhood with that character. I really liked that and it made a lot of sense. I have to admit I really did like that as well. See when I saw that scene out of context where it was just Zeke saying it's them officer they're causing the revolution and I thought oh you little shit but
00:43:21
Speaker
obviously, as soon as you learned about his past and how Grisha was quiet. I don't want to say abusive, but maybe abusive is the right word. I think it's emotionally abusive because he was forcing his kid into something. I mean, the kid's just a child. You shouldn't be forcing your children into doing something. I think that's what it is. It's an abusive relationship. I mean, but he also did that to Aaron by making him the attack titan anyway.
00:43:43
Speaker
What were your thoughts on seeders? And why are they saying nine titans? I could be wrong on that. There is nine titans. Is it nine? Oh, thank God. Can you get myself a hand in the back for getting something right in the episode before I mess anything up?
00:43:56
Speaker
But yeah, what were your thoughts on that? Because I wasn't sure, I'm going to be honest, I wasn't sure how they were going to go with that. I'm happy it was just like a set number, if that makes sense. Because, you know, it seemed like, oh, now somebody is the cart Titan, somebody is the female Titan, jaw Titan, the beast Titan. I'm like, all right, at some point, we got to quit having specialties. So I like that there's a certain number on it. You know, so basically, you have three categories of a regular Titan, an abnormal Titan, and then one of the nine. I think
00:44:25
Speaker
Especially, I would suppose from a writer's standpoint, I'm not a writer, but I would suppose that also helps him narrow down what's what. Yeah, that's true. Which when I was on talking smack dolls to talk about this, I do like the fact that the world has rules, and it abides by the rules. It's not like, oh, this is anime, so we can do what we want. No, no, no, no, no, no. No, there's rules and we're gonna abide by it.
00:44:47
Speaker
Aiden, what are you doing with your last minute power? No, no. Get back here, Cage. Come on. I thought I was doing that and again jumping around slightly, but going back to like the big reveal where it turns out Aiden can manipulate
00:45:02
Speaker
I don't know if it's right to say... well,
Revelation of Grisha's Past
00:45:04
Speaker
Titans as well, but I don't know if it's right to say manipulate time as well, when there's that big show down between Zeke and Aaron, and they go into this big bubble dimension thing, and they have it like a big shindig, and then all of a sudden they're like, oh, by the way, let me show you. I love... I actually do love that, when he's like, let me show you how abusive Grisha was, and how terrible my life was, and then he sees it in very different ways. That is honestly like me, when I'm showing someone my favourite YouTube video.
00:45:31
Speaker
And it comes out as not as funny as I remember it. And I'm like, no, no, this bit's better. No, no, this bit's better. And they're just like, listen, you've got this soap. I not only really like the time manipulation where it's just Aaron and Zeke walking around, but I also like the fact that it's in the books. And in the anime. I don't know if anybody's ever pointed that out to you. So if you look at the first season that's animated, there's a character that is the older Aaron design standing in the background the whole time.
00:45:58
Speaker
really yeah yeah they're not in every shot mind you i can i'll send you some screenshots of where he is and then in the manga you know okay so you remember in the season one right when christian is like if you're a good boy today i'll show you what's in the basement he's holding the key and you notice he's not looking at erin he's looking off in the distance oh half hair dot yeah in the manga he's looking at older erin i'm gonna toss this in our chat we got here just so you can take a look at it and you get a live reaction everybody look at this see this is a content you come for
00:46:27
Speaker
Yeah, it's all audio podcasts with visual representation. Hot damn. Wow. That is adult Aiden. Wow. Obviously from two different studios, he looks different because you have to remember you have Mappy did the final season. I'm trying to remember who did the first three seasons.
00:46:43
Speaker
studio wit. I didn't notice that right enough. From season one to three, I wanna say, it does seem pretty consistent. And then, yeah, season four, although it's still amazingly animated, you're like, something very different here. Yeah, they gave it to Mappa, who's also known for doing Jiu-Jitsu Kaisen and now Chainsaw Man. Oh, okay. So it got handed off to another studio because Mappa Studios is where I've often seen that they're a terrible place to work for, but they don't censor things and they're fine to be as brutal as they need to be kind of thing.
00:47:12
Speaker
before I decided to sit down and binge Season 3 and 4. I saw
Animation Studio Shift in Attack on Titan
00:47:17
Speaker
screenshots of her name escaping me right now, but she knows the female Marleyan that looks like Armin. She's blonde and she works with the parody to get them to, ironically enough, build railroads. Oh god, I got a photo of her
00:47:35
Speaker
over the bathroom in my office. Yeah, that's the one. I know who you're talking about. Yeah, I remember seeing her face and everything and I thought, why is Armin making that face? I genuinely thought for the longest time that was Armin. Yellin' out. Oh yeah, that's the one. Yes.
00:47:50
Speaker
I thought it was Armin as well, looking down because I saw the meme before I'd seen the episode. What is this? Why is Armin making this? I have an image of that just an angry face, except my office and the bathroom for our technicians. It's on the wall across from the toilet. So like, if somebody's sitting there taking a poop, it's just staring at them. The rumbling.
00:48:11
Speaker
Here's a slightly controversial question, but what are the things you don't like about this series? I mean it is a good series, I'm not gonna say oh it's terrible but what are the things you would say? I don't know about that. I think it leaves some things too open ended if that makes sense. Oh yeah.
00:48:28
Speaker
Absolutely. Because I've watched it twice all the way through because I watched where the final season part two is and I'm like, all right, it was like a month or two later. I'm like, I'm just gonna binge
Unanswered Questions & Underdeveloped Characters
00:48:36
Speaker
the whole thing. And there's a lot of foreshadowing you see, but there's like a lot of unanswered questions that just aren't there. It's like how the guy who writes for JoJo's Bizarre Adventure just forgets characters occasionally. To give you an idea, we've talked about Marco a lot. Marco's not mentioned that much in the first season. I'd like to know a bit more about him and why everybody loved him.
00:48:55
Speaker
Yeah, that is true. Like he kind of appears in the, I think, in the training arc maybe. But that's about it? Oh, yeah, absolutely. So I'd like to see some more about him, would be a good call. So what you're saying is you want a Marco over here, but it's like nine parts long and then part two is coming in 2025. Okay, cool. Yeah, absolutely. It's just characters like that. I wish got a little more attention. They don't need like an entire episode. Just explain why everybody loved them so much kind of thing.
00:49:23
Speaker
Yeah, which is kind of ironic. That's something this show really does quite a lot. You know, they have the exposition out every single title as a word. Oh yeah, do you want to watch like what happens to our heroes next? Well forget that, you're going to watch a 10 minute episode about, I don't know how Historia doesn't like strawberries and it's like, why do I want to know why she doesn't like strawberries? I was like,
00:49:46
Speaker
But you're going to watch it and you're going to enjoy the meaty lore. Well, I guess I'm watching 10 minutes about bloody strawberries, and then it's like they show it again in an episode later on. It's like, I know she likes strawberries. By the way, for legal reasons, this is a joke. There's no episode like that. But no, I get what you mean. I get what you mean. There's some stuff I think is a little bit of wasted time. It's so story heavy anyway that I think it's fine.
00:50:09
Speaker
Oh yeah, it's a minor nitpickable with Matt, but at the same time, it's like I just wish sometimes they could have used their... And again, maybe this is more because they're adapting the manga, so it's not really an anime problem, but... There's a whole episode in season four, in the final season, I think it's part two. Yeah, the final season, part two. They don't even play the intro and they don't play the outro, and it's just the characters having an exposition dump for 20-something minutes. You know, they're all sitting around the campfire and they're just talking about what's going on.
00:50:38
Speaker
the intro's not played, the outro isn't played. They just put the credits up while everybody's talking. See, sometimes some of those episodes are really well done because it shows the attack on Titan doesn't have to be this mindless, oh let's kill all the Titans which
00:50:54
Speaker
I have to admit, the first two seasons are marketed as that, as like Humanity vs
Warhammer Titan's Role
00:50:59
Speaker
Titans. Don't get me wrong, the bulk of it is like Humanity trying to deal with Titans, but if you take the series at face value for that, you're not really getting the full experience if that makes sense. Yes, no it does make sense.
00:51:15
Speaker
Yeah, it's like you're not getting the, as I said, the political intrigue, you're not getting Why's there a hairy titan? I mean, the only other thing that, and I don't know if this is kind of brought up in the final part of both the manga and the anime, but someone was thinking there, just as we were talking about the core Nine Titans. You know how Aaron eats the Warhammer titan? Yes.
00:51:39
Speaker
Which, don't get me wrong, the Warhammer Titan of those who looks cool was so overhyped. Because they're like, oh look it's the Warhammer Titan. And then two seconds later she's dead and you're like, oh. Because everybody kept saying, oh the Warhammer Titan look I'm doing a cosplay of the Warhammer Titan, she's so cool.
00:51:56
Speaker
They're like, oh, pull the plug out the ground. Easy. Like a Lion King moment. Like, come on, warhab, we're trying to wake up. But they didn't inherit her powers. So does that mean that someone could eat all of those titans and get all of the powers? I think that would make you into Ymir herself if you did eat all of them, because she's got everybody. So I'm just imagining Ed and Ed eating a couple of them.
00:52:19
Speaker
And it's just, it looks normal, but he's got the cart tightens it. It's just, it's like that classic cartoon, you know, it's a pig there, but it's a cart diving with like an apple in her mouth and roasted up all nicely with the little things over the feet. A wee bit of salt and paper, you know. Yeah. Oh, he's good to go. Yeah.
00:52:38
Speaker
what would your selling point be for this show? What would you say to people to get them into this show? Because I know we've established at the very beginning of this episode that it is like anime as a whole is very hard to get into. It's a hard sell, but what I think it generally does is show the human condition in its worst setting.
00:52:58
Speaker
If that makes sense. Plus this has a very, for as many episodes as there are, this has a very small time commitment of get the episode six. If you're, if when you're at episode six and you don't want to continue, I think you gave it a shot. That's fine to bow out there. But if you go through that cliffhanger at episode six, you're going to want to keep watching. I really think that's it. You've convinced me.
00:53:20
Speaker
It also has a great English dub that nobody ever talks about. I mean, they did a tremendous job in the English dub. And I think that's a big bar to entry for a lot of people who don't normally watch anime. They don't want to sit there and read subtitles for 30 minutes. No, you're totally right. Because I have to admit, when I started watching anime many moons ago, it's something that when I started watching anime, it was something I never really thought of.
00:53:43
Speaker
with people not wanting to watch anime because of the subtitles, but you're completely right. Especially the English dub for this is absolutely phenomenal. It's definitely
Importance of Language Options
00:53:53
Speaker
up there, and you could easily watch it without thinking, oh am I missing out on the performance of the original? You can obviously still go back and watch it in Japanese if you want, but you're not gonna lose out on the emotion and everything. No, they do a tremendous job in the English dub.
00:54:09
Speaker
But I'm also a firm believer in Webalations 316, which is dubbed or subbed. Please enjoy anime. Yes, I'll need to get a copy of that bit.
00:54:19
Speaker
I'm not somebody who Gatekeeps for, you know, which one you like to watch, to be honest, because I've read all the chainsaw, man, but where I'm watching it currently, I'm looking forward to the English dub, just so I can appreciate the animation without having to look down at subtitles constantly. As I said, My Hero Academia Season 6 is out and the first dubbed episode's out today, so I'm gonna watch it, even though I've already seen this episode, but now I can just sit there and focus on the animation and enjoy that.
00:54:41
Speaker
and especially for, as you were saying before, especially for an anime that is very heavy in narrative themes and things, because I'm going to be honest, a lot of animes, and I think it's a little better nowadays because I remember growing up
00:54:56
Speaker
up the only real prevalent enemies like your Pokemon, Dragon Ball, One Piece, those kind of ones set for kids. Nowadays there's just such a plethora of different enemies with different themes. You've got your own columns, you've got your action ones, and especially for Attack on Titan, as you said, it's definitely an interest and exploration into these themes of the human condition, how far someone's willing to be
00:55:23
Speaker
It's not solely about titans eating other titans and humanity. There's so much more to go into and I think those first six episodes are the selling point and then once you're past that, you're gonna understand why it's great. That is one
Comparison to Breaking Bad
00:55:37
Speaker
argument I usually hate when somebody says, oh you'll love it when you get to season five and you're like, I beg your pardon, season what?
00:55:46
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. Oh, as much as I love Breaking Bad, I know the first season sucks and you're just kind of like, nah, you gotta get through it. Oh yeah, no, there's been loads of shows I have to admit where I've done that and I've said, oh, this is absolutely terrible. Why am I watching this? And then you persevere and you think, well, actually it's picking up and then it gets better and better and you just get hooked on it.
00:56:03
Speaker
especially in this day and age where a lot of streaming shows, whether it be Netflix, Disney+, or Amazon even, they're 40 to 50 minute episodes. I mean, honestly, they're all starting to turn into K-dramas, but they're all like mini-movies in themselves because I have to say, see if you ever get into K-dramas, that is a commitment in itself, 45 to 50 minute episodes minimum. That's the thing though, with Attack on Titan, these are about 20-something minutes. Yeah, they're very short.
00:56:31
Speaker
yeah between like 20 to 25 minutes which is very nice on this day and age that they're relatively bite-sized you know you can blaze through a couple of episodes or you can kind of get a gist for the season for different aspects of it and yeah no it's definitely one of those animes I don't think
00:56:52
Speaker
people will regret, unless you're very averse to violence, in which case, why would you watch this show in the first place?
Episode Length & Streaming Trends
00:56:59
Speaker
Yeah, I would be very concerned with someone who didn't like violence and gold and things. It was like, oh, I just finished, you know, the latest episode of Love is War, let's watch this. It's like, no little anime boy, don't go in there!
00:57:11
Speaker
Yeah, exactly, exactly. It's like that meme of, there's my boy, and you just hear, oh, there's help. He's getting dragged away by a titan. Yeah, exactly. Look, just watch Attack on Titan. Again, I think the next big thing is Chainsaw Man, but everybody's talking about that right now. And I've literally got every single copy sitting on the shelf to my right. It's really good.
00:57:30
Speaker
because I remember you'd put up a tweet about it and I think you sent me a message saying, oh yeah, you should really watch it. And I did. I watched the first episode before we came on. Oh, not before we came on, but a couple of days ago and I thought, oh, actually pretty decent. But why is a chainsaw man not a chainsaw man? He's a chainsaw dog.
00:57:47
Speaker
Well, he turns in the chainsaw. I know, eventually. At the very beginning, you see this guy walking around with this dog that doubles as a chainsaw, which I remember when I was watching it, I looked at my dog and I was just like, don't you dare turn into a chainsaw.
00:58:04
Speaker
You're bad enough chewing up everything. We don't need you turning into a chainsaw. I mean, between that and spy family or spy ex-family, I never know if you're supposed to say the exes. I think it's just spy family. For the longest time I called Hunter x Hunter. I still do. If somebody said no, it's just Hunter x Hunter. I was like, you mean Hunter x Hunter. I would just say it the other way that irritate them. I mean, again, going back to the themes of this anime, considering there's a lot of very heavy story driven elements and things,
00:58:33
Speaker
There's a lot of twists as well. There are a
Twists & Storytelling in Attack on Titan
00:58:36
Speaker
lot of twists. Which again is really surprising because they don't really feel forced for the most part. You know when you get a twist in an anime or any show and you think, really? Is this where you're going with the story? But here, I don't want to say it feels earned, but do you feel that way for the most part? No, not really. On a rewatch though, the twists are very obvious.
00:58:57
Speaker
You're not gonna notice him as much the first time you watch it, but if you do a rewatch, you're gonna be like, I'm an idiot. I didn't notice that. Yeah, I mean, that's really how it is. You're gonna go, I'm stupid, stupid, stupid. Yeah, that's that's gonna be you on the rewatch. You're gonna be very annoyed with yourself for not picking up on things. There's like a there's a whole bit where, um,
00:59:17
Speaker
You remember the scene in the tower in season two where the Titans are coming up on him? There's a small like glimpse where a couple of people are talking and you look at Beartold in the back ready to bite his hand to turn into a Titan. Really? Yeah, and you wouldn't you would not notice that except for on the rewatch and you see him I mean his mouth is agape and his hand is in it like ready to go. Maybe he's
Clever Use of Foreshadowing
00:59:39
Speaker
just nervous.
00:59:40
Speaker
You just don't think about it until you're on that rewatch and you're just kind of like, oh, oh, oh. I have to say it is so refreshing to see an anime that have planned out everything. Yeah. It's also, I mean, the season one, there's a bit where Jean and Aaron get into that fist fight, right? If you look at Aaron later, he's got like the Titanstein coming off of his head. And you don't think about that. You're just like, oh, that's just the anime showing that he's hurt. But you know, in the rewatch, you're kind of like, fuck.
01:00:09
Speaker
Oh my god. Yeah, exactly. You're just immediately annoyed with yourself. Like, how did I not notice this? It's like when you rewatch it, you can launch a YouTube career of, you know, those people that have the thumbnails where it's the circle around something just completely irrelevant and then it's the arrows pointing to it and it's like, what do they mean by this?
01:00:30
Speaker
Yeah, exactly. You could have that as an entire career. So what is your favourite intro? Oh, that's a good question. I have to go for the classic.
Impact of Soundtrack
01:00:41
Speaker
I mean, that is the quintessential theme. The other ones are really good and the outro to
01:00:49
Speaker
think it's season three. That actually really grew on me, not because it's like a catchy one that I'm going to re-listen to in Spotify, but it's like the ending where it shows you, I think it's like the little girl giving the titan a gift or something. Then it shows you the pictures of human history of people fighting against the titans and things. I don't know why because it really unnerved me watching that Kingdom music beside it. I thought that was a really cool one, but again, it's not the
01:01:21
Speaker
I think that's, that is just like, whatever you think of Attack on Titan, that is the song you think. Yeah. For me, it's a season three's intro, Red Swan, which is like that beautiful piano intro. Oh, yeah. Everybody just kind of swinging through the title credits. That one's my favorite.
01:01:37
Speaker
What I will say though is the soundtrack for this is absolutely incredible. There's not really many songs in it or kind of background music that I would say, oh, that's rubbish, or oh, it doesn't really hit the same notes. It's absolutely perfect. Even the action music, it really pumps you up for, oh, God, what's going to happen? Or it's going to be a cool action scene. It adds to the stress sometimes where you're just kind of like, oh, somebody's going to die, someone's going to die, someone's going to die.
01:02:04
Speaker
Oh yeah. It's like, I don't know the name for it, but you're the one that's like, you know, it's like the choir singing in the background and everybody like has the shocked anime face and you're like, oh shit, it's going down.
01:02:21
Speaker
things aren't gonna go well for these guys. I
Unexpected References & Implications
01:02:25
Speaker
think you hear that music or it's something similar when you encounter the Beast Titan for the first time. It's the guy like, oh, it's okay, my horse is coming and then he grabs a horse and that plays and he's like, oh, shit. And I'm like, oh, shit, no. He grabs the horse and then he's like just pulling the gear off of him. He's like, oh, this is how you get around. And the guy's, he's just speechless. I'm like, yeah, you expect him to have a conversation with you? What?
01:02:49
Speaker
They call him the Beast Titan, they may as well be called the Yeet Titan. What is his power? He just throws shit really fast and the rest of the time he's getting his face blown off. He's so good at baseball though. Oh cheaters, I forgot that's the reason.
01:03:07
Speaker
I was wondering why he was so good at throwing rocks until later on. I'm like, oh, that's how he got good at doing that. I can't remember what season that is, but when they say something like batter up or some more game on, and I'm like, hey a minute, how would he know what baseball was? And then it's like, oh yeah, turns out there's a whole civilization. That's also, I think, one of the most interesting things is that you start to think when you meet the Beast Titan, especially, you start to think like, well, where did they come from?
01:03:31
Speaker
you're like, who's sending them? Is there somebody living outside the walls? And obviously they are, but they're an ocean away as well. But then that implies that Marley has like a baseball team? They probably do. They had to learn. I mean, he's wearing a literal baseball mitt. Yeah. So that implies there's baseball in Japan time.
01:03:49
Speaker
Well, in the defense of the odds, I mean, Japan next to, you know, it's like America's like the most played sport is baseball, and then Japan is actually the second most played sport. So, I mean, they're big in the baseball over there. Oh, no. No, I totally get the cultural impact of it, but it's just it's funny to think that in a world where they're scooting in the omnidirectional gear and there's always sighted during like the rumbling or something, there's this baseball team being like, oh man, does that mean they're games cancelled?
01:04:16
Speaker
We're about to take the Marley Championship title. It really is the MLB, the Marley and Baseball League, right? Exactly. In fact, you know, I've changed my answer a bit, the OVA, that's what I want to see. It's Marley Underdog. Marley and baseball team wanting to rise to the top. Think like Mighty Ducks, but with more Titans. Yeah, Mighty Ducks, but the Titan ability. Mighty Titans, yeah. Then again, Titans would be terrible in baseball,
01:04:44
Speaker
be another good OVA series though, now that I'm thinking about it. They talk about the war that was like 2,000 years ago. Yeah, that would be cool.
Desire for More Historical Lore
01:04:50
Speaker
Give me like five episodes of that. Let's see what happens. I hate when – well, not hate, that's a strong word, but I just like when series have such a rich lore, they tease it and they show you and then they're like, if you want to read more about it, you have to go into fandom.com. And I'm like, you son of a
01:05:07
Speaker
all I want to do is learn about your lore and it would be really cool if there was like a companion piece and it's like here's like a Attack on Titan themed napkin that someone got in the Japanese restaurant and it's the only like source you're ever gonna get this on.
01:05:22
Speaker
just let it explain it, just let it explain it. And again, for legal reasons, it's a joke. I don't want to make fandom.com users think I hate them, I really don't. Yeah, I'm jesting, but at the same time, it would be nice to see that in the actual anime. But again, going back to what was saying before, you can't really, like we're not Ed and Jager, you can't really go back in time and change that. It's a minor thing though, but I do agree with you. It does feel as if it would be something quite nice to see. And
01:05:52
Speaker
Is this going to be the longest episode of chat tsunami where we talked about Attack on Titan for an hour and a half? Oh, no, trust me. There's longer.
01:06:01
Speaker
There's longer when we talk about even more horrendous things, so don't you worry. Oh, goodness. Here's my next question for you. We're going to skew off of Attack on Titan for a bit. For anime-wise, what are you currently watching? I would say Spy Family was the recent one that I got into, and it's probably the only reason I've got a Crunchyroll account. Oh, I'm going to send you a bunch of anime then. Oh, please do.
01:06:24
Speaker
I'll help you justify that account. I'll give you a hand. Thank you. I used to be into anime in university. As I said, I had my very good friend and co-host of the anime side of this podcast, Green Show 95. Him and I used to watch so much anime, and we watched all the big hitters. As I said, FMA Brotherhood, Gurum Lagann, Hunter x Hunter, those kinds of shows. And of course Attack on Titan was the other one.
01:06:48
Speaker
But then after Yudhi, I kind of fell off. Like I tried getting into other shows and don't get me wrong, I do love Slice of Life once a lot more. I think the last one I saw was probably The Disaster's Life of Psycheeky, which I have to admit, I absolutely love. I don't know what it is about those kind of enemies. You're like one punch man.
01:07:06
Speaker
where it's like the overpowered hero, but he's just completely apathetic to the rest of the world. I feel as if if all animes were like that, it would be very annoying. But when you get one anime that hits the sweet spot, then it's good. But I don't know, I tried. This is probably going to sound bad, but I tried watching Japan Sinks. Did you ever see that one? No, I haven't. It's interesting.
01:07:32
Speaker
As
Current Anime Viewing Habits
01:07:33
Speaker
the title suggests, Japan thinks it's not very good. To be fair, it's pretty miserable, but at a certain point, it just goes from being quite realistic to, nah. I watched the whole time, but I was just like, nah, I wouldn't recommend it. But yeah, sorry to answer your question in the most long-winded way possible. Spy Farmway Chainsaw Man, of course, that's the other one I need to get into.
01:07:55
Speaker
So far that's it, I'm gonna need to look through my list. Like what about yourself though? Other than of course Chainsaw Man, what else are you into? Chainsaw Man's the big one, the current release is My Hero Academia. Oh yes. The Spy family, it's you or season one continued on, it's
Introducing Anime to Friends
01:08:11
Speaker
been really fun. And the other one which is my slice of life for the season is Uzaki-chan Wants to Hang Out, which is I was on Talking Smack, we sent Josh to a waifu gauntlet of nothing but fan service and
01:08:24
Speaker
No action and no murder. Try to push his buttons a bit, which I think we did in the end. I had a lot of fun pushing his buttons. He's an easy person to do that to. I love you, Josh, but... I have to say, my usual co-host, Adam, he's not much of an anime watcher, so whenever we do an episode on anime, usually we bring our other friend in to have an opinion of two people who
01:08:47
Speaker
relatively know what they're talking about with anime. I say that very loosely but coming from the guy who called us ack on Titan a gated community.
01:08:57
Speaker
we were doing a
Game of First & Last Anime Episodes
01:08:58
Speaker
series where we were showing them the first episode of Anatomy versus the last episode of Anatomy. We'd totally recommend that, by the way. It is hilarious. We got them to watch the first Beyblade episode versus the last episode. It is wild. You go from these street kids going, oh, I'm going to be the best Beybladeer. Oh, let's have street fights to literal dimension hopping, talking dragons and things. It's like,
01:09:24
Speaker
This is insane. I would wholeheartedly recommend if anyone has a listen to it, please do, because I cannot give it justice in these. Sounds like a great time. Oh, honestly, I would wholeheartedly recommend that game. It is absolutely fantastic, especially for someone who, as I said, Adam doesn't watch as much, but he has done ever since I, unfortunately, asked him to watch more anime for the show. But yeah,
Casual Viewing of One Piece
01:09:47
Speaker
it's interesting to hear somebody's perspectives from outside of being an anime fan of
01:09:52
Speaker
Out of curiosity, see your co-hosts on the video game podcast and they as in time and age you are.
01:10:04
Speaker
is that he watches one show at a time. He's watching One Piece. Oh, Jesus, man. Well, I think that was just a post. There's no justification. You just go, there's One Piece, and everybody knows. Everyone's like, oh, I see why. You know that gif of everybody face-palming at one time? Yeah. That would basically be it. That's why Tim's about it. One Piece for me is the, I'm making dinner. I'll watch an episode while I'm cooking kind of thing. Yeah. That's what One Piece is for me, and that's why I'm only on episode 30.
01:10:36
Speaker
It's got a thousand episodes. It's not going anywhere. I can take my time. It's still going. I'm not worried about being caught up. And if somebody spoils something for me in episode 769, I'll forget by the time I'm there.
01:10:48
Speaker
As I say, it's my friend who likes anime. I remember at uni one time, I went into his room and was like, oh I'm just watching One Piece because he's like a big One Piece fan as well. I was like, oh cool, I'll have a watch. And all I know about One Piece is it's got pirates and they're looking for the One Piece. That's about my knowledge. There's a guy who eats swords, I don't eat swords, but he uses his mouth for swords. I'm being facetious, but I do know a little bit about One Piece. I just want to point
Impact of Toonami on Anime Viewing
01:11:15
Speaker
that out. Yeah, there was like one episode he put on and he's like, oh, this is the
01:11:18
Speaker
in an island where there's all these toy people and they're having a big tournament and Liffey's in disguise and I'm like, what the hell is going on here?
01:11:28
Speaker
I have no idea what is happening here. I got no context, no reference. No, just like people were beating up on the Wolfie. He's beating up on them. I'm like, I'm out. I want to sleep between that and the other one, which is quite a controversial opinion. I have not watched Naruto. I haven't watched Naruto. Well, I say that for the Americans back when Toonami was a thing on Adult Swim, which was like a TV channel when I was in elementary and high school. I used to catch random episodes, but I don't count it because I never saw anything in order.
01:11:57
Speaker
Yeah, they just showed anime episodes with no real like order of operations or, you know, they didn't show things in order.
Growth of Anime Popularity
01:12:04
Speaker
I'm trying to think of Toonami. Toonami was definitely a thing here, but I can't remember if it was a separate channel or if it was part of Cartoon Network.
01:12:13
Speaker
So it was a part of Cartoon Network, but it showed up at like 10 o'clock at night here. So it was during the middle of Adult Swim, they just had like anime for four hours. And they showed like the Naruto, Inuyasha, well JoJo's Bizarre Adventure was showing on it. Yeah, that's all they did. Obviously, they would nowadays, but I can't imagine back in the day if JoJo was like an anime back at the same time as like Dragon Ball. Yeah, no, that was the only way or you'd have to go to like YouTube and watch three minute episodes at a time.
01:12:42
Speaker
and hoped that the playlist was in the right order. Now here's a question for you though. Do you think that Attack on Titan would have been as popular here if it was brought out a decade earlier? No. Really? No, no. It's the same as like, well, I thoroughly think that Nintendo is the reason why you have the big anime boom of the 90s. I think Attack on Titan would have been too soon then. As good as it is, I think it would have been too soon. It's sitting in a sweet spot right now where anime is very open and everybody, you know,
01:13:10
Speaker
Everybody loves it and watches it and nobody hides that they watch anime. And I think
Stereotypes & Bullying in Fandoms
01:13:14
Speaker
back in the 90s, early 2000s, you were associated with the weird kid who growled in the lunch line. You're not wrong, but yeah. I'm just being honest about it. Yeah. I don't actually remember many people in school liking anime or they liked anime, but they weren't very forthcoming about it. Well, that's why. That was why. So I think now that we're out of that, I mean, it's the perfect time for it.
01:13:35
Speaker
You know, it's basically like what D&D is nowadays, thanks to Stranger Things, Critical Role, those kinds of shows. I'm not saying this as if they should bring back Billy in, but it's like the fact that people got bullied back then for liking those kinds of things. It's true though, it's like...
01:13:51
Speaker
Well, again, the reason they got bullied was they were growling at everybody else on the lunch line, or they were sitting there doing the Naruto fingers at people. Or running like Naruto. Yeah, or they unironically had the Death Note notebook. We're like, I'm writing your name in this. And it's like, well, this is why you're getting bullied at lunch. You would be amazing on a TED Talk for kids. This is why you get bullied. Number one, you carry a Death Note notebook.
01:14:18
Speaker
Actually, I'll tell you a funny story about that. Again, at the time of me being in university, I wanted to join other clubs and things. I wanted to make new friends, as it were, and I was like watching a lot more anime at the time,
Handling Fandom Conflicts
01:14:32
Speaker
so I thought, ah, maybe I should join the anime club. Now, obviously you wouldn't get this from me nowadays, but back then I was a very shy and introverted person.
01:14:40
Speaker
Come on, to the extent. But I found it quite difficult. It was like, should I go over to them and say hello and say, oh, want to be part of your club or not? And I was like, this is one of these I shouldn't have survived stories. You see these true crime podcasts where I turned round and I went to talk to them. And one of the guys put on a pair of anime bunny ears. And I was like, no. I was like, no, this is a step too far. And I don't. This is why they get bullied.
01:15:11
Speaker
There's nothing wrong with being yourself, but there's also a time and a place for things. It's like the kid who was getting into a fight with the bully at school, and he decided to try to power up Goku. It doesn't work. No, it really doesn't. I find it ironic that I show up at martial arts and training to be better, and that's the bit they focused on.
01:15:34
Speaker
I feel like it could... I feel like it could have trained me. Son, what did you learn today at martial arts? So they just start going... You just scream at your parents for 23 minutes and you're like, well, that's it. But you have to tune in next week and then we'll...
01:15:56
Speaker
I say this about every fandom though. The reason why a lot of people hate you is just because you're taking yourself too seriously. It's not real. At the end of the day, it's not real life. Don't be so serious about it, you know? And that to me is the problem 95% of the time in most fandoms is that they're taking themselves too seriously and then they get offended when somebody doesn't agree. So, you know, if you just remembered that it's at the end of the day, it's not real life. If something happens to it,
Criticism in Fandoms
01:16:19
Speaker
your life actually doesn't change. Just let it be.
01:16:21
Speaker
Would you say the Attack on Titan fanbase are defensive? Because there is like half a stereotype and half like a nugget of truth there where, especially for my Hero Academia fans, there's been that claim that they're quite abrasive and very defensive about the characters and you know, all of that. But would you say Attack on Titan fans are like up there or? I don't think they're that up there. I think that
01:16:47
Speaker
kind of like Dragon Ball fans and One Piece fans and Naruto fans, they hold their animes like, Oh, this is the best one ever. And it's the only one you should be watching, you know, and I hate that attitude. I can't say that. I think that's what makes them insufferable. Now for the My Hero Academia fan base for them, it's all the shippers. To me, that's what I'll bet if you browse like
01:17:06
Speaker
hashtag my hero academia on Instagram for a bit all it is is like Bakugo wanting the plow Deku and it's like didn't didn't Bakugo tell Deku to kill himself I mean a bunch of times I don't see this is that kind of relationship they're very much imposing on the character it's not a very healthy relationship is it no no that they have no no it's not
01:17:30
Speaker
That to me is what makes them insufferable is just kind of like, look, y'all gotta stop taking things so seriously. And you also need to remember that when if you're a fan and you make like a fan theory or, you know, whatever, it's not canon. It doesn't actually count. Do enjoy what you make. And if somebody doesn't like it like me, you know, if I sit here and say, oh, that's kind of shit. Well,
01:17:49
Speaker
that's just my opinion man. I mean I have to say that is something I always like emphasize whenever I talk about like a show or you know a video game because seeing less it's like utterly irredeemable like for example bardemic well bardemic does have the humor aspect on it so it's like whatever that but you know when you talk about like a film or a game that's like just so bad that it's got no redeeming qualities no fan base but if you're talking about something again like a tap and tighten or yeah people get so touchy about what they're fans of you know oh yeah
01:18:19
Speaker
Absolutely. Yeah, people get very, because they think that you criticising it is you criticising them. I think that's the issue. Because, I mean, that's happened to one of my friends saying, I can't remember what it was about. It was about Sword Art Online anyway, and he basically made a tweet, or rather a reply to a tweet about it, which was mistake number one, don't get me wrong.
01:18:39
Speaker
But then all the fans were like, oh, you didn't understand this, you didn't. And I remember reading through it, and what he said, it wasn't wrong. It was just an opinion, and there was a lot of points too, because I think he was talking about basically the fan service and certain
01:18:54
Speaker
very horrible elements of it, not getting taken as seriously as it should be. Yeah, because of that, a lot of people get, as you said, very defensive, very touchy about it. And if you want to like, and I'm just saying that in a general sense, if people want to like a certain show or they want to, as I was saying at the beginning, they want to wear a cape from that favourite show and walk around university, by all means, go for it.
01:19:18
Speaker
Yeah, more
Extreme Fan Behavior
01:19:19
Speaker
power to you, like love what you love kind of thing. Because I mean, I know I joked earlier about the guy putting on the anime rabbit ears and Abba saying that's not for me, but that doesn't mean that it's not for him. Yeah, that he shouldn't do that. I'll tell you one quick thing. The only thing that I did draw the line at was I didn't join that club at Uyuni.
01:19:37
Speaker
But I joined another club where I actually got to see a Corona student jump over lecture desks. And the reason he did that, he jumped across and practically the ritual ran across it because someone tried to turn off the Power Rangers theme from the stereo.
01:19:54
Speaker
Yeah, that's too much. Yeah, that's too much. That's like the kind of balance you have to have here. I
Staying Grounded in Fandoms
01:19:59
Speaker
think that's the thing a lot of people get too deep into a fandom, kind of forget, you know what I mean? Like, at some point, you got to remember where's too much and keep yourself grounded in reality. I think that's a hard conversation to have because so many people do take things too seriously and they think it's personal attack against them. A titanic attack, if you will.
01:20:16
Speaker
Sorry for me coming in here like a colossal, but- Yeah, exactly. Don't act like an armor titan, come on guys. Yeah, there is a time and a place for it all. There's a time and a place for every- you know, it's like some people just wear their cosplay in public, right? Which is fine, because I like to appreciate good cosplay, but at the same time, there's not a convention in town. If somebody makes fun of you, you just got to be kind of prepared for that. It's a time and a place kind of thing.
01:20:39
Speaker
at the end of the day, there are very horrible people out there. I mean, I've even listened to podcasts out there where it's one thing, again, it's one thing to criticise something that you don't like and everything. And of course, we've just got through praising this show, but there's a lot of shows out there, and I don't know if it's just because it's influenced. And this could
Enjoying Fandoms Responsibly
01:20:58
Speaker
be a whole episode in itself, but they're influenced by a lot of content creators who back in
01:21:03
Speaker
the day their only real gimmick wasn't like analysis it was just swearing a lot and just saying this is terrible so they think that the way they should get popular is by replicating that whether it be for anime, video games, films, that kind of thing and they're not really offering anything constructive they're just saying this is terrible and you should feel bad for being a fan.
01:21:24
Speaker
that's the people I don't like that's the bully you don't want to be that person but you want to be the it's a weird balance if that makes sense I don't want to word this wrong and then that actual hashtag cancel slayed comes out my thumb on the same button oh I'm ready I'm looking
01:21:43
Speaker
There's no real good way to put it, but I think we've said it the best we could here is that just keep in mind there's a time and a place for everything. And whatever you're in a fandom of at the end of the day, don't take it too seriously. It's like one of my favorite
Avoiding Intense Fandoms
01:21:55
Speaker
game franchises is Five Nights at Freddy's. I wouldn't touch that fandom over there with like a 39 foot pole because of the way they are.
01:22:02
Speaker
Yeah, that makes sense. I'm interested to see what the latest theory is and how things are going and who they think the new killer is or how the timeline is. But after I look at that, I go, okay, see you later. I'll see you in a couple of months when somebody figures it out.
01:22:18
Speaker
When the next map part theory drops, yeah. Yeah, yeah. It's just like, all right, cool. See ya. I was talking about this in Talking Smack with the wife who got what we put Josh through. I mean, him and Lewis didn't even know for Uzaki-chan wants to hang out. There was like a whole cancel this anime thing because, you know, it's a trope in anime. They just give the women big boobs. And there was a whole cancel this because it's bad female representation. I'm like, have you gotten to know this character? Did you
Appeal of Anime vs. Niche Documentaries
01:22:42
Speaker
just look at her and decide she's bad?
01:22:44
Speaker
Like, I mean, going back to what you were saying about Five Nights at Freddy's, as someone who's a fan of Sonic games, I 110% agree with getting the barge pull out and being like, you can interact, but please, if you're going to be weird, please just stay over there. So this isn't the Sonichu episode. You don't want to talk about Christian. Oh, no, I've had a whole month of that. They've got a 60. Oh, I don't even know how many parts there is now. It's like 60. I've watched all of them. Oh, yeah.
01:23:09
Speaker
I haven't. You could have invited me on for that. I could go on to Christian lore for days. I'm here. Honest to God, that's the closest I'll ever get to a true crime episode on this show.
01:23:21
Speaker
Today, we're going to be talking about the noir to take to music. Slade walked into my office one day and said he had a job for me. I just handed you a laptop and it said 60-something episodes. I'm like, you just got to look. Son of a bitch, I'm in. What's the easier sell to get somebody to watch the Christian documentary or anime?
01:23:45
Speaker
I thought you were going to say attack on Titan, you threw the curveball there. I did. Like the beast
Podcast Scheduling Challenges
01:23:50
Speaker
Titan, you threw the curveball there.
01:23:53
Speaker
Oh, that is a good question. Because the whole Christian thing is a very interesting psychological study and everything. And to that, it's absolutely fascinating in that regard. But in terms of all the fanservice in anime, I'm going to go with anime, but very responsibly. Because I know at least for anime, there's something for everyone.
01:24:17
Speaker
It's not family friendly content. It's not family friendly content. No, not at all. But speaking of family friendly content, that might be a good place to stop the episode. I know before it becomes a 10 hour episode next time. Yeah, exactly. We go on to a full rant. Oh, absolutely. Before we do it, I have one question for you. Do tell. Well, with you being Scottish, there's three words strung together that I've heard that Scottish people can't say. Is this purple burglar alarm?
01:24:46
Speaker
Ah, there it is. Now, I will say the first time I heard that or saw that video, you know Rocky has his montages. That was me looking in the mirror every day with hearts and fire playing in the background going, purple, burglar. I can tell you're focusing on what you were saying when you said that. I have to use 110% of my brain power just to say those three words. It's hard.
01:25:17
Speaker
Because a lot of people, I can't remember if it's like Lame that did that, because he's a very famous Scottish comedian who runs a Twitch channel as well, I think in the last couple of years. And he said that as well, but he just absolutely fumbled over his words for good reason, because this accent is not made for those three words. The first time I heard about it was on Top Gear, when I was watching it forever ago. It's the same as the Germans can't say squirrel.
01:25:41
Speaker
All right, really? Yeah. Next time you talk to a German, ask them to say the word squirrel. They can't do it. Right, now I need to find like a German. I'm trying to have a very profound conversation about something. They'd be like, do a Colombo. Oh, one more thing. Can you say squirrel? We've been talking about JoJo's Bazaar Adventure for the last two hours, but could you say squirrel real quick for me?
01:26:03
Speaker
just disconnects right away. Oh, no. But on that note, thank you, Sleeves, for coming on. Oh, this has been a, this has been a blast. It's been a lot of fun. Yeah, obviously. No, it has been. And you're definitely welcome to come back. If this hasn't scared you off, that is.
01:26:18
Speaker
Well, we want to have you on the game club pod at some point. We'll have to figure out somewhere in the schedule to slide you in. Oh, definitely. That would be up for that 110%. Yeah, we would love to have you on. It would probably be easier to schedule with Joey and Tim being that they're British and I'm on the other side of the pond. That's always our scheduling nightmare anyway.
01:26:36
Speaker
That is the worst thing. I will say that. That is the worst thing about making friends with other podcasters and content creators because you're like, oh, this person's so amazing. And I've interviewed people from across the world and you know that meme where it's the women with all the calculations and things around her head. And you're trying to figure out the timeline.
01:26:54
Speaker
I'm trying to figure out the time difference because I interviewed a very amazing streamer called Glitter Kitty, and she comes from Australia. It was an amazing interview, totally worth it, but it was so hard to try and make the stars align and try and get the right time. You're just like, oh my God.
01:27:14
Speaker
got. It's difficult, but when it all falls into place it's absolutely worth it to be fair. Oh, absolutely. But yeah,
Social Media & Audience Engagement
01:27:21
Speaker
before we finish for the very last time, where can these lovely listeners at home find your content? The easiest place to find me is over at the Video Game Club, where once every two weeks we discuss a video game, not too dissimilar to a book club. I don't know when this is coming up, but I'd assume our most recent episode is Persona 5 The Royal.
01:27:38
Speaker
They can also find me over on Twitter and Twitch at Slade Plays Games, Slade's Life on Instagram. Thank you for that, sorry. No, yeah, that was about it. That's it for the plugs. I know, because I always wonder when someone stops and you're like, is there more? Do they have somewhere else there they're going to advertise? Just like that gift for the person going, go on,
Humor in Sonic Comics
01:27:59
Speaker
go on.
01:28:01
Speaker
I was thinking of the one that's like, well, we're waiting. But yeah, if you haven't checked out Slade or indeed the video game podcast, seriously, go check it out. It's absolutely amazing content and yeah, amazing host a bit. So yeah, go check it out. I think we have a pretty good time. Oh yeah, no, I would agree. I was actually listening on the day of recording this. I was actually listening to your Outlast episode and that was just a blast.
01:28:25
Speaker
got to say, I listened to y'all's new episode today, the Sonic one. I didn't realize the comic was so crazy. I just had to double check the title of the episode and make sure y'all weren't talking about a Sonichu. It's like, really? This happened? ALICE Well, if you look at the comics before what they are today, oh my god, they're wild. I can't sum it up in like two minutes, but they are just absolutely insane. You think Attack on Titan's crazy? You think Attack on Titan?
01:28:56
Speaker
try trawling through hundreds of articles where it's like, oh, did you know that Knuckles has a family tree the size of a token character, or there's a woolly mammoth in a suit, or Charmie the Bee takes LSD and gets a lobotomy. You would think I was joking when I said that, oh, ha, ha, so it's really funny. It's like, no, no, no. Just like, everyone's laughing and I've just got tears down my cheeks. Like, yeah,
Closing Advice & Reflection
01:29:23
Speaker
these kids, they'll never know.
01:29:25
Speaker
You look like Aaron when he woke up from that nap under the tree, and he's just crying. That's exactly what I'm like. Just biting my hand, you know, because I'll turn into a Titan, but I'm just so sad. And in that depressing note, if you would like to see more tattoo content.
01:29:42
Speaker
Yeah, you can catch us on podcast.com forward slash chat tsunami. Or if you want to listen to us on your handy dandy apps, you can listen to us on Spotify, iTunes, and yeah, really any good podcast that look for the red panda under the name chat tsunami. And yeah, we'll see you there. Thank you again for having me. And thank you again for coming on. It's been a blast. It's been fantastic.
01:30:05
Speaker
Until then, stay safe, stay awesome and most importantly, try not to get eaten by titans. People won't be happy. Don't join the survey corps, don't do it. Don't buy capes, that's what we're saying. Over an hour and a half and we're saying don't buy capes, that's if somebody