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The Most Unserious Samurai Anime Ever - Anime Club · Anime Club Podcast

• 0:00
  Have you started? No, that can't be the start.
• 0:04
  I refuse. That can't be.
• 0:29
  Welcome to anime club Boom Boom boom, The Dirty old art
• 0:33
  classroom where we get together every week and talk about anime
• 0:36
  that we just have seen and liked or sometimes not liked.
• 0:39
  But this week we're doing a very likable anime and luckily I'm
• 0:44
  with a very likable trap. My lovely Co host Chris.
• 0:49
  I actually jested to the right direction this time as well.
• 0:52
  Which I felt very. Excited about because I.
• 0:55
  Normally would do. It the other way around.
• 0:57
  Before we start anything else, I just want to wish Phoebes a very
• 1:03
  happy 40th birthday last week. You.
• 1:06
  Bastard, I'm 36th ancient. But thanks ancient old lady, I
• 1:17
  did. I have been checking out the
• 1:19
  grey hair in the mirror lately and I'm wondering if it's if
• 1:23
  it's time to embrace embrace the blue rinse.
• 1:29
  I don't never we've. Never.
• 1:33
  Molly's got that in. Do you know when you just grab
• 1:36
  the first shampoo bottle? And there's been times where
• 1:39
  I've been like getting loads of like, salt and pepper and I'm
• 1:42
  like, what's going on here? And I blame the blue shampoo.
• 1:46
  So don't do it. That's fair.
• 1:52
  So, Chris, what are we doing this week?
• 1:56
  Well, since it was your birthday, we are going to choose
• 2:02
  your choice, which is Gintama as you can see from I.
• 2:05
  Just overrode you this time. It's fine, everyone gets a
• 2:09
  birthday one. I'm going to override you for my
• 2:11
  birthday as well. Yeah, we did Gintama because
• 2:16
  it's just hit Netflix, right? And they've just, the dub has
• 2:20
  just hit Netflix. Yeah, there's no soap.
• 2:25
  There's no sub. And it made me feel really it it
• 2:28
  was, I was very excited when I saw it dubbed because normally
• 2:32
  you have to watch it in sub if you watch it on country roll
• 2:37
  because it's one of those ones that doesn't always translate
• 2:39
  very well. But I got really happy when I
• 2:41
  saw it and I was like, let's do Gintama.
• 2:45
  Fair enough. Like the gremlin that I am such
• 2:50
  a good it is it is a really good series.
• 2:54
  And this is AI think this is actually quite a fun starter
• 2:58
  anime. I think so I did earlier yeah, I
• 3:02
  think it's a weird 1. So it's it's hard because it
• 3:05
  references a lot of other anime. But I would like if I, if I had
• 3:09
  a friend who was just getting into anime for the first time
• 3:11
  and they'd been watching like like like Dragon Ball, Bleach,
• 3:16
  like this is this is an anime that I would recommend to Lee
• 3:19
  and Tooney who are like broadening their anime
• 3:22
  perspective because it kind of is part of it does that thing of
• 3:27
  like it's not. It's very irreverent in terms of
• 3:32
  anime culture. Nothing is saying.
• 3:34
  Yeah, nothing is sacred. Yeah, definitely.
• 3:38
  Kind of still done with a lot of love.
• 3:42
  I'd say I was. I was going to say, you need
• 3:44
  like a very, very basic knowledge of anime, like bit of
• 3:52
  Naruto, bit of Dragon Ball Z, bit of bit of Bleach, which was
• 3:56
  which was out coming out at the time.
• 3:58
  This was Aaron, Correct. Actually, it still is now, isn't
• 4:02
  it? It's like it's back into the
• 4:04
  2000s. But yeah, it's it's got very not
• 4:09
  in jokes, but like the it's enhanced if you know what
• 4:13
  they're talking about. And you know what?
• 4:14
  The parade Paradean. Yeah.
• 4:17
  And there's and there are so many references.
• 4:20
  This is one of those animes where it's a bit like Knight of
• 4:23
  the Living Cat in that the the jokes are quick.
• 4:29
  But in Gintama, I think that it's a much broader spectrum of
• 4:32
  of what they're joking about. So if you do have a bit of a
• 4:35
  base in anime, then I think it's a good one.
• 4:38
  But I also still think it's because it's so lighthearted and
• 4:42
  cheerful. Yeah, you probably only need to
• 4:44
  have seen a few of the big animes.
• 4:47
  Like if you've seen the big three.
• 4:49
  I think you can. You're ready for Gintama.
• 4:52
  What? What do you?
• 4:53
  Class as a big three, by the way.
• 4:55
  Naruto, Bleach and One Piece. Like really shown in three.
• 4:59
  Yeah, I think because I do. I would also say that Sailor
• 5:03
  Moon for me is one of the big ones, but I think she sits in a
• 5:06
  class all of her own. So I I've seen loads of people
• 5:11
  talking about Big Three at the minute and there's loads of
• 5:14
  people kicking off that Dragon Ball Z isn't in the Big Three.
• 5:19
  Oh. Yeah, I would say it was 4.
• 5:27
  Well, if you're going to do Dragon Ball Z, you might as well
• 5:29
  do the Big 5 and then do something like My Hero Academia,
• 5:32
  because I also feel like My Hero Academia is kind of deserving of
• 5:36
  a place in the Big Three. It's only been gone for.
• 5:40
  Five years, Enough series, yeah, but it's got enough episodes
• 5:44
  that I feel like it can. It's like Bleach doesn't have
• 5:47
  that many episodes really when you break it down compared to
• 5:52
  like. Take away that Quincy arc and
• 5:54
  you've got about 4 episodes. Haven't.
• 5:57
  You would you please get a little?
• 5:59
  I'm going to make you do Bleach one time and that's the only
• 6:02
  time you're allowed to complain about the Quincy arc.
• 6:04
  I like the Quincy arc. What are those?
• 6:07
  People. People.
• 6:08
  Like what's it called? Cilantro?
• 6:12
  And I don't know, people like eat the soap.
• 6:15
  Coriander. That's it.
• 6:17
  That's the one. Where are you from?
• 6:21
  These Cable Fancies is dreaming of going over to Florida.
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  Oh, no thanks, I'll pass. So yeah, Gintama, how would you
• 6:33
  describe Gintama to someone who's never seen it?
• 6:37
  Right. It is right.
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  It starts off as a slice of life comedy where you just follow a
• 6:45
  couple of characters going round and and they're at their odd job
• 6:52
  business where they do odd jobs. So people are on the town.
• 6:56
  And then as soon as you hit episodes or when when it had it
• 7:00
  written down and 58 bam, it starts to get serious and adds a
• 7:04
  quite in depth storyline background.
• 7:08
  But if I was comparing it to something, maybe the off the
• 7:11
  American office. Yeah, that's a good comparison.
• 7:15
  It does feel very workplace comedy because I was also when
• 7:20
  we were watching it, I was like, I think you could cast your
• 7:23
  friends in in different roles. Like I was casting all the nerdy
• 7:30
  up north lot in in my head in the different roles.
• 7:37
  Which which one was Lee? Lee was the grumpy police
• 7:41
  officer Elvis Lee. The mayonnaise one, the gorilla
• 7:46
  would correct. Yeah, I get that.
• 7:50
  I get that. I didn't know if you meant that
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  of the the one that's in the BDSM.
• 7:55
  No, no, no, no, no. Fair.
• 8:01
  I cast you as the Hungry Girl. What's her face?
• 8:07
  Oh yeah, yeah, and the the Alien 1 Kagura Kagura.
• 8:12
  Kagura, that's who I had you as. Oh, thank you very much.
• 8:18
  I would. I would probably suit a bun,
• 8:21
  Yeah. I think you'd look cute in her
• 8:24
  little jazz. Speaks bluntly and causes chaos.
• 8:32
  Everly. I've got the BIOS in front of us
• 8:33
  in case I forget the names. Yeah.
• 8:37
  So that's quite good. I think that's quite a good
• 8:40
  description of you. Speaks bluntly and causes chaos.
• 8:44
  Babies on Facebook? It depends.
• 8:49
  So talk your characters. So, yeah.
• 8:51
  So it's a kind of a comedy anime.
• 8:54
  Yeah. It's got like a whole big cast
• 8:57
  of characters who kind of jump in and out in a kind of very
• 9:02
  farcical way. I would say.
• 9:03
  Like it's fast-paced. Lots of there's loads and loads
• 9:08
  of references and jokes, pop culture references and jokes.
• 9:11
  At one point in the dub, they're talking about John Cena.
• 9:14
  John Cena and. John, I love that.
• 9:18
  It's because I said cilantro before.
• 9:21
  It's messed up a whole dialects and accents that need to be
• 9:24
  said. We're officially now an American
• 9:28
  podcast and. And after this, we're going to
• 9:34
  hit the sidewalk and go to a diner and other such American
• 9:40
  things. No.
• 9:41
  So I yeah. And I thought that was fun and I
• 9:43
  was kind of curious. I was like, oh, they've done
• 9:46
  like quite a good job of like localizing some of the jokes and
• 9:50
  giving it like references because I'm sure it's not John
• 9:53
  Cena in the original. No, so this is my first time
• 9:57
  watching the The Dope because I've watched it purely soap
• 10:01
  originally and I tried to but they don't have English
• 10:04
  subtitles on the Netflix. They just have have the dope so
• 10:08
  I can't confirm whether or not but he was about about then.
• 10:13
  That's true. And wrestling is quite big in
• 10:14
  Japan. Yeah.
• 10:16
  But I also feel like they would have a Japanese wrestler.
• 10:19
  Do you know what I mean? I I I thought it felt so
• 10:23
  incongruous. Yeah.
• 10:27
  Although you were saying because it's got some other like
• 10:29
  Japanese culture figures, yeah, that have caused some
• 10:34
  controversy. Controversy, you were saying?
• 10:36
  Before, yeah, it's it's in the two hundreds episodes.
• 10:40
  There was an episode that was like censored because the parody
• 10:45
  de political figure. I don't quite know what his name
• 10:49
  was, but it was just before an election and it was kind of seen
• 10:52
  as a bit a bit biased. It was kind of like, I don't
• 10:55
  know. I don't know if EastEnders did a
• 10:58
  horrible parody of Kia Stormer just for an election election or
• 11:02
  something. I don't know be that that kind
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  of equivalent. Yeah, it feels like it's it
• 11:09
  feels like if South Park did a Trump episode just before
• 11:12
  election, which they did. Yeah, maybe.
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  But this could be maybe kind of like an element.
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  Of yeah, and also probably a bit more decorum, I feel like, but
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  yeah, so it's got like it has got lots of pop culture
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  references, both like localized and Japanese and anime ones.
• 11:37
  Some of the anime ones are the ones that are like the most easy
• 11:40
  recognizable. Yeah, but who's like your
• 11:43
  favorite character? Oh, it's going to be.
• 11:50
  It's like in Turkey or I'm just looking at them.
• 12:00
  The and the guerrilla guy, the vice commander of the
• 12:05
  Shinsengumi, the dicted man is him, Yeah.
• 12:09
  Or it's it's the Emperor, which you won't have seen yet.
• 12:13
  I haven't seen that guy yet. I quite like the duck Elizabeth
• 12:19
  called. Yeah, which I didn't know the
• 12:21
  duck had a name until you told me that their name is Elizabeth.
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  And the fact that their name is Elizabeth makes me love them
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  even more. If if I remember rightly,
• 12:32
  because they communicate through signs.
• 12:34
  So they'll just lift up a sign. They taught that.
• 12:36
  But the guy that he that Elizabeth knocks about with is
• 12:42
  the leader of the rebellion. Because in this this is kind of
• 12:45
  like set you in the Edo period, but in an alternate version
• 12:49
  where aliens have come to earth and kind of took over the world.
• 12:53
  They've all of the samurai that were in Japan.
• 12:56
  They've took the swords off them and kind of not gentrified them,
• 13:02
  but they've they've bring them into kind of present day, but
• 13:06
  they're still wearing samurai you.
• 13:10
  Know period clothes. Yeah, yeah.
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  And the some of the poorer areas have the same style housing,
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  whereas the newer areas in the city kind of have like the the
• 13:20
  modern housing. So it's a bit of a mixed
• 13:23
  mismatch. So yeah.
• 13:28
  And I don't mean to bring it back to this again, but you
• 13:32
  know, Mushishi. No, I've never heard of that.
• 13:38
  What's that about? Oh it's it's an amazing anime.
• 13:44
  Someone actually bought me the concept art Japanese concept art
• 13:48
  book for Christmas in a stunning bit of amazing gift buying that
• 13:54
  I will never be able to live up to.
• 13:56
  What a loser, Chris. Chris bought that for me, and it
• 14:03
  was a great gift. Genuinely, genuinely.
• 14:07
  When I opened it, I was actually quite moved because I know that
• 14:10
  Chris has to listen to me talk about Mushishi all the time.
• 14:13
  So yeah, he kind of was, you know, giving me something that I
• 14:18
  would love while also inviting further conversation, which he
• 14:21
  probably didn't realize. If it makes you feel better, it
• 14:25
  was cheap. No, that makes me feel that
• 14:29
  doesn't doesn't make a difference because it's still
• 14:31
  really good. If anything, that makes me feel
• 14:33
  like even better because it's like, yes, bargain.
• 14:38
  The money went to help some kind, some charity or something
• 14:41
  as well. No.
• 14:43
  Did it really? Yeah.
• 14:45
  Oh. My God Chris, this is literally
• 14:48
  the best gift ever. Anyway, Mushishi.
• 14:50
  So in Mushishi, they have this thing where it's also set in the
• 14:53
  Edo period in Japan, but the main character is like a
• 14:58
  character out of time. So he dresses in modern dress
• 15:01
  while everyone else is dressed in Edo period.
• 15:03
  And what I was going to say is there's some definite parallels
• 15:06
  because most people are dressed in Edo period, but occasionally
• 15:10
  you see them in like, like I think at one point there's a
• 15:13
  kind of Elvis character who pops up who's got like popped collar.
• 15:16
  And so you see, like, these flashes of, like, more modern
• 15:23
  bits of clothing when it comes to, like, under score a joke.
• 15:29
  Yeah, it's like, an interesting thing.
• 15:31
  And it's the same with samurai shampoo as well.
• 15:33
  Because I feel like they mess around with that, like modern
• 15:36
  music score against and modern references against, like a
• 15:40
  historic setting. So it kind of fits quite nicely
• 15:44
  in with other favorite anime of mine.
• 15:47
  I I think I, I don't know if this is confirmed or not, but I
• 15:51
  think when you get anime like like Naruto and Bleach, where
• 15:57
  even in Bleach where they go to the oh, it's so sighty.
• 16:02
  Yeah. So that's kind of like an Edo
• 16:04
  style where they're all dressed in Edo clothes, but they'll have
• 16:08
  mobile phones and the half electronics with narrow it's a
• 16:12
  psych. The the hidden leaf village is
• 16:15
  just like, what era is this from?
• 16:17
  Because the ninjas the don't watch tellies, but some of the
• 16:21
  party has chainmail, you know, but they have they have
• 16:26
  Bluetooth E assets sometimes in one scene, I'm sure they have
• 16:30
  telly. So I think it might be a parody
• 16:34
  of that where you don't know what time it is and it doesn't
• 16:38
  really matter because it's an enemy, it's fight.
• 16:41
  Yeah. And I think also there is
• 16:44
  something about lifting things out of a bit like a purely
• 16:47
  historic setting, it makes them more timeless because they stay.
• 16:54
  Yeah, they stay kind of like if they're, if they're in a
• 16:58
  timeless space, then you can watch them at any time yourself
• 17:01
  as well. So there is, I think it's also
• 17:03
  kind of a clever, like storytelling device in a way to
• 17:08
  kind of just separate it from modern or purely historical.
• 17:14
  I think there's only one example of that.
• 17:16
  Where it's not is Jurassic Park. Some of the dinosaurs are
• 17:21
  feathers. That's true, and also other
• 17:25
  space programmes where they talk about Pluto being a planet.
• 17:28
  I once got into a very heated debate with my dad over a game
• 17:32
  of Trivial Pursuit because I demanded to know when Trivial
• 17:35
  Pursuit was published because the question was what is the
• 17:38
  penultimate planet in the solar system?
• 17:40
  And it depends on when Trivial Pursuit was published.
• 17:44
  And he overrode me and we lost as a result.
• 17:50
  And I'm not still bitter about it.
• 17:52
  But I was right. That's that's that's the most
• 17:56
  middle class you've ever said to me.
• 17:59
  That's that's the most. I think it is.
• 18:04
  Is it OK? Look, I just take so far very
• 18:07
  seriously. So far, yeah.
• 18:08
  Yeah, let's not rule it out. We we used to play a Trivial
• 18:13
  Pursuit with my with my grandparents, but they had like
• 18:16
  in addition from the 80s or something and it was like, yeah,
• 18:20
  can, can women whistle or why can't women go in these
• 18:23
  buildings? This is because the women right
• 18:26
  answer. What should you do once a month?
• 18:28
  With a woman, it's closed palm or something, isn't it?
• 18:36
  Anyway, Gintama. So yeah, Gintama.
• 18:42
  So it's, it's fun, it's lighthearted, it's comedy.
• 18:47
  But then as you say it kind of sometimes it catches you with
• 18:49
  like serious themes and topics. I think it's also because it
• 18:54
  feels like it's, because it, like you say, it's referencing
• 18:59
  things like elections and stuff as well.
• 19:01
  So even though it has this timeless quality to it and
• 19:04
  actually the the humour I thought still tracks, but I was
• 19:10
  just curious if you felt like going back to it, did you enjoy
• 19:14
  it as much as when you first watched it in like the naughties
• 19:18
  really is when it was out right? Do you know what it kind of
• 19:22
  reminded me of that time? When have you ever seen that
• 19:26
  anime? Is it ghost hunting stories?
• 19:29
  Do you know where the the English VA and stuff?
• 19:34
  Which is like given no direction at the kind of starters trying
• 19:38
  to get away with more and more until it ended up in this mental
• 19:41
  series with loads of like memeable lines and stuff.
• 19:46
  Or like in Vampire Hunter D, where they didn't have a script
• 19:50
  at all and they had to just make it up and you've got that very,
• 19:54
  very famous. I love that part, that just
• 20:00
  makes it better for me. It, it kind of reminds us of
• 20:04
  that and that I think dated for me.
• 20:08
  So that that brings me to time of mid 2000s Internet where that
• 20:15
  kind of humour was all over and like Dragon Ball Z Abridged,
• 20:20
  Yu-gi-oh bridged, all of that kind of stuff was out at the
• 20:22
  time and. Fan fan dubs as well.
• 20:27
  Yeah, do. You remember.
• 20:28
  Fan dubs. Oh, I'd I'd never used to.
• 20:32
  I never watched the fan dubs. I used to watch the fan Subs.
• 20:38
  I and I loved in a fan sub so this is backward.
• 20:42
  Like anime wasn't really so much a thing in the UK.
• 20:45
  It felt more niche and you'd have to go searching in discount
• 20:51
  bins. HMV or like in the deep dark
• 20:57
  torrents of the web. Yeah, that was born, but.
• 21:01
  You'd have someone who'd obviously spent ages learning
• 21:04
  Japanese and had translated it. And then they did like Asterix
• 21:08
  notes where they were like, well, this is a thing that
• 21:11
  doesn't really translate. And like, the translations were
• 21:14
  just like, sometimes just a bit clunky because instead of like,
• 21:17
  they'd have to explain why it doesn't translate because they'd
• 21:21
  obviously put a lot of personal work into it.
• 21:24
  And it's like, oh, that's not really a subtitle because I
• 21:27
  can't read all that in five seconds.
• 21:30
  Yeah, I remember that. Because you used to have to keep
• 21:33
  your left eye at the top of the screen and your right eye at the
• 21:36
  bottom because reading what's happening or what they're
• 21:38
  saying, then we have note, this character's nose is bleeding
• 21:43
  because in Japan, blah, blah. Yeah.
• 21:44
  Yeah, and they'd also do like the the names.
• 21:48
  I mean, you'd have names but spelt like.
• 21:52
  Yeah, yeah, because the. Name would have like a
• 21:54
  significant meaning. Yeah, yeah, this is a play on
• 22:00
  words. Blahdy blah.
• 22:01
  Yeah. Yeah.
• 22:04
  Cheers. Cheers, Fan sober yeah.
• 22:07
  Thanks nerd. I always remember Lee telling
• 22:12
  me. I'm sure he used to watch fan
• 22:16
  sobed Dragon Ball Z or something.
• 22:20
  And like what what people used to do is when so they'll be like
• 22:25
  a company, not a company, just a group of people here with fansub
• 22:29
  series and then it will be in a race to get them out.
• 22:34
  So some people used to just take other people's fansubs and then
• 22:40
  just re upload them and then put their logo at the end.
• 22:45
  So the original guy started leaving little messages and
• 22:49
  stuff. But like, if you get this from
• 22:51
  joessobbing.com, he's a thief. Don't.
• 22:55
  Don't watch it come to Chris's sobbing company or something.
• 23:00
  They used to do a lot of that in because they also is like in the
• 23:04
  early 90s I used to have because you couldn't really buy manga in
• 23:07
  English, like manga wouldn't be released and you'd have whole
• 23:12
  whole series that just never got released in the UK.
• 23:14
  So for like some of the series you would want to read,
• 23:18
  especially like all of the like romancey kind of teenage, there
• 23:23
  were a lot of teenage Japanese kind of like, you know, boys
• 23:28
  kissing boys, girls kissing girls kind of.
• 23:33
  So you'd have like scanlation groups and they would get really
• 23:37
  territorial of their translations.
• 23:41
  Right to the. Point where they would like do
• 23:44
  stuff to the pages to like and I can remember like watching drama
• 23:50
  break out in like on like Manga Fox or wherever it was that I
• 23:54
  was reading all of these illegally.
• 23:58
  With the like start adding the watermarks and stuff like that
• 24:01
  to the manga pages. Yeah, and they'd also used to do
• 24:04
  like the kind of they do like in jokes at the beginning of the
• 24:09
  their like translations as well that they like, you know, the
• 24:16
  lead translator would do a little comic or something.
• 24:21
  So they got it got weirdly, it got weirdly like a weirdly
• 24:25
  subcultured. Yeah, and it was rife back then
• 24:31
  though, because I remember like torrent sites as well.
• 24:34
  Like obviously before Pirate Bay and stuff like that, people
• 24:37
  would make the road and they would have the ASCII art and the
• 24:41
  weird designs that they used to have on was like, this is a lot
• 24:45
  of effort for me downloading, I don't know, Metallica
• 24:48
  discography. Yeah, yeah, it's, it's
• 24:55
  interesting, isn't it? Because I think there's
• 24:56
  something about streaming websites, it's made anime so
• 25:02
  much more accessible. Like it's so easy now to track
• 25:06
  down anime. But what I've realised is it's
• 25:08
  now so easy to track down good quality anime.
• 25:11
  I don't watch any of the weird series that I like because we've
• 25:15
  we've done some stuff where you've been like, oh, have you
• 25:17
  seen this before? And I'd be like, yeah, I've seen
• 25:19
  that. Yeah.
• 25:21
  And it's obscure and strange, but it's just the only thing
• 25:25
  that you could watch at the time.
• 25:28
  Yeah. Were were these.
• 25:29
  This was like it was free on YouTube.
• 25:34
  Yeah. Kind of anime.
• 25:37
  Seven parts or an episode or something.
• 25:39
  Yeah, yeah, all that original viewed air like airings.
• 25:44
  So like Ovas where you get like 3 episodes of a series.
• 25:48
  Wolf's Reign is 1. Yeah.
• 25:53
  Yeah, which never got like, I don't think it get got like a
• 25:57
  did it get like a full series? But I can remember watching the
• 25:59
  OVA. I can also remember watching
• 26:01
  another one about like it wasn't Bleach but it was about the
• 26:04
  death gods and. There's so many, it could be
• 26:08
  anything. So many it could be.
• 26:10
  Literally it could be anything but those Ovas were like the
• 26:12
  only thing you could like get a hold of sometimes.
• 26:18
  Yeah, and even then the quality was sketchy.
• 26:24
  Super sketchy and sometimes the translations made zero sense.
• 26:31
  I didn't know any better. No, no Crunchyroll or anything
• 26:36
  but then. Yeah.
• 26:39
  Enough about how old you are though.
• 26:45
  You ancient dinosaur, this is where you should like flash up
• 26:50
  like a a special effect of like old Victorian timing back in my
• 26:55
  day. When we used to.
• 26:58
  Listen to anime on the Wireless. What's happening this week,
• 27:03
  Shinji? We're used to ration bad guy.
• 27:16
  We can do that now because we're pre recording.
• 27:18
  So there you go, that's a note for you for later.
• 27:22
  Brilliant. Yeah, it's just starting to
• 27:25
  starting to edit everything now, but yeah, anyway.
• 27:27
  We try to up a game anyway, a little peek behind the curtain,
• 27:33
  which of course in these days is considered quite, quite
• 27:39
  salacious anyway. Gintama.
• 27:44
  So yeah, Gintama, it's I'd say fast-paced, good fun.
• 27:50
  Would recommend to friends. I I don't know because my my
• 27:56
  views skew if no, because I wouldn't have recommended
• 28:00
  bartender to Lee but he watched it despite me saying I don't
• 28:04
  think it'll be your thing and he absolutely loved it.
• 28:07
  And then he went on to watch the live action as well.
• 28:10
  Yeah, that that's ever. I'm not doing that.
• 28:14
  Also because I I have a thing where I don't recommend Lee
• 28:18
  something unless there's at least one explosion in the first
• 28:21
  episode and there's zero. Face bartender Kaida.
• 28:30
  Oh, Bartola. Yeah.
• 28:31
  In bartender, I might recommend giving Tama to him, I think he'd
• 28:38
  love all the Dragon Ball jokes. Yeah.
• 28:41
  Yeah, and he'd probably spot Dragon Ball jokes that both of
• 28:44
  us just like. Well, the had never.
• 28:48
  Passed. The basically the plot from from
• 28:51
  totally from memory, I can't remember where this is, but one
• 28:54
  of the characters tries to give up smoking.
• 28:57
  And because smoking has been outlawed in this this world.
• 29:03
  So obviously with it being in the Eddo period that's been
• 29:07
  happened by aliens, the space travel.
• 29:09
  So it goes to a place where tobacco is grown so you can have
• 29:15
  a cigarette, one last cigarette. He goes there and it's Namic and
• 29:21
  he's just like, oh, all of it's been burnt or something like
• 29:24
  that and needs to get together the seven ooby gooby balls to
• 29:30
  wish to get a dragon to come here so I can wish for my
• 29:33
  plantation to get back to scratch and all the tobacco to
• 29:37
  grow again. So then he goes on a quest to
• 29:39
  find these ooby gooby balls. He finds Krillin.
• 29:43
  It's not called Krillin it's called Rillin or something like
• 29:45
  that. Raw horn and sells in it.
• 29:48
  It's mental and but the these are all stand alone episodes as
• 29:53
  well so he could watch that. This is the other thing is that
• 29:57
  there are quite a few like little episodic bits, like there
• 30:00
  is a kind of a three thread, but it's not.
• 30:04
  I don't think you need to have watched every episode to enjoy
• 30:07
  this. I think you can pick it up.
• 30:09
  Like if this was just on the telly mid arc, I would be like,
• 30:14
  yeah, that's fine, yeah, I don't need to go.
• 30:17
  Back. Maybe he's not Not.
• 30:21
  After it gets real serious. Yeah, because I mean even when
• 30:25
  it gets serious it's still standalone ish, but it's got a
• 30:29
  more of an overall story between it all.
• 30:32
  But there is some serious episodes and some horrible
• 30:35
  backstories like horribles and sad and because obviously the
• 30:40
  aliens have come and disarmed all of the samurai that are
• 30:45
  roaming the land and that that the one have done that
• 30:48
  peacefully and. Well, and you have with what's
• 30:52
  her face? Is it Kagura?
• 30:54
  What's her name? Kagura the Alien.
• 30:57
  Yeah, the alien girl who's like crazy strong and just wants to
• 31:00
  eat good food. I love her.
• 31:04
  She's another one of my favorite.
• 31:05
  Characters. I've just remembered that
• 31:06
  episode where you've been her parents as well.
• 31:09
  Yeah, so, and I was also going to say that even like her
• 31:13
  introduction has tinges of sadness in it because you
• 31:16
  realise that she's basically been like Co opted to commit
• 31:20
  crimes and things without her really understanding what's
• 31:23
  happened. And there is a kind of like,
• 31:28
  you're like a, oh, like somehow this is a series that manages to
• 31:32
  make you care about characters that are entirely silly and are
• 31:35
  just there to deliver jokes. It's quite.
• 31:38
  And I think in that respect it is very similar to The Office
• 31:41
  because The Office does that to you as well.
• 31:43
  Yeah, I mean, even for example, Shimpachi, you know the guy, the
• 31:48
  Kip of the glasses, and he's often referred to as just
• 31:53
  glasses because he's got no personality.
• 31:56
  That's what they say about it as well.
• 31:58
  And it's like the team person he's or what's it called in
• 32:02
  Japan where you go to where where you go to a gig and you're
• 32:07
  like a super fan and you have all the all the version and no,
• 32:12
  there's something, there's another word, like a small
• 32:14
  specialized word. And I can't remember to take a
• 32:18
  fanboy or something like junior member of a club.
• 32:22
  And you have the it's the middle-aged men dance and
• 32:25
  whatever, basically. But yeah, he's one of them.
• 32:29
  And he's the worst of the weeb culture sometimes.
• 32:36
  His sister as well. Also I thought she was a parody
• 32:40
  of your Woman out of Samurai Shampoo because she wears
• 32:45
  exactly the same kimono, has her hair exactly the same style.
• 32:51
  Shampoo was after this. Oh, wasn't it?
• 32:54
  Yeah, so I like, but it was like I couldn't Unsee it.
• 32:58
  Once I saw her, I was like, is she supposed to be?
• 33:00
  What's her face Foo from? And then I was like, did they
• 33:04
  steal the design for Foo from Gintama?
• 33:07
  It just felt it was one of those.
• 33:09
  Maybe it's one of those like if you have enough, like monkeys
• 33:13
  doing typewriters. I think I'm just going to assume
• 33:17
  that it's some kind of parody of a trope and that she maybe.
• 33:23
  Yeah, maybe. Highly likely, yeah.
• 33:29
  So yeah, it's good fun though. And you'd I think we both
• 33:33
  watched past episode 3. We just blitzed past episode 3.
• 33:36
  Episode 3 is a speck of dust for me.
• 33:41
  I only watched the first 3 episodes.
• 33:44
  Oh, but you have seen it all before.
• 33:48
  Most of it I don't know because this series has quite famously
• 33:52
  and finished. They'll they'll see when it
• 33:56
  comes to the end of the series. This is for final episode ever.
• 33:59
  I'm really sorry to see. And they'll have a special at
• 34:01
  the end, saying goodbye and like farewell for the last time.
• 34:05
  And then they'll a couple of weeks later they'll air another
• 34:09
  episode and it'll be like what's happened here.
• 34:11
  They'll be like. We're back again, which I kind
• 34:16
  of like. I have to.
• 34:18
  I think they just like have fun with it.
• 34:21
  Yeah. And I, I love that about it.
• 34:25
  It's even even the titles because the first technically
• 34:31
  the 1st 1st 2 episodes aren't really culling because it's not
• 34:34
  in the banga. But the, the third episode it's
• 34:37
  a psych. What's it called again?
• 34:44
  Nobody with naturally WAVY hair can be that bad.
• 34:46
  Thanks. Yeah, and I remember an episode
• 34:53
  called In Every Box of Cigarettes, One tastes like
• 34:58
  Camel shit. I don't know if that was a bad
• 35:02
  translation or what, but I was just like, I think we're just
• 35:06
  having fun here and just been like that.
• 35:13
  Yeah, it's yeah, I think it is just a it's, it feels a little
• 35:18
  bit like a send up of other like not just anime but other TV, you
• 35:22
  know like when you have like the friends episodes, the one where
• 35:24
  such and such is such and such. Yeah, yeah.
• 35:28
  Or, you know, I mean. With the amount of parodies as
• 35:33
  well it must, it must get to that week in there.
• 35:34
  Be like, Oh yeah, I've been watching One Piece this week.
• 35:37
  Let's put a let's put a joke about that in.
• 35:40
  Yeah, because the safe. Yeah.
• 35:43
  And I feel like because the other thing is you were saying
• 35:45
  that they're because they do a lot of complaining about the
• 35:47
  budgets and things, but they also in order to be able to like
• 35:52
  make jokes about elections and like to make jokes about the
• 35:56
  stuff that's happening in other anime that's being released in
• 36:00
  roughly the same time frame, they're putting out stuff at
• 36:04
  like a quite a swift rate. I think they've got like, so
• 36:10
  it's not like the most exciting or beautiful animation, but
• 36:15
  that's where the jokes kind of hold it up, I think because they
• 36:18
  have to like to do that kind of satiry like pop culture stuff.
• 36:24
  You have to be in the moment. Yeah, exactly.
• 36:28
  And I don't know how manga artists and anime creators
• 36:34
  actually have time to do anything else with the pace that
• 36:37
  we've got to chip things out. I know it's like a famous, like,
• 36:40
  brilliant joke in this way. Constantly missed deadlines as
• 36:43
  well for for doing stuff, which I totally get.
• 36:48
  But if he's if they're powered because there's so many this
• 36:50
  drug, I mean to be. Fair.
• 36:52
  We were supposed to put this episode out last week, but we
• 36:54
  didn't because. It's it's on on theme, isn't it
• 36:58
  for that? I mean, I mean there's just so
• 37:06
  many. There's like 10 or 12 there that
• 37:08
  I've got listed of parodied on to be.
• 37:10
  So they must have been watching that at the same time.
• 37:13
  Yeah, yeah. What's on your list?
• 37:15
  And so I've got Dragon Ball Z, Naruto, One Piece, Bleach, Death
• 37:21
  Note, Neon John, Genesis Evangelion, Attack on Titan,
• 37:25
  Fist of the North Star, Detective Corn and Sea, LA Moon,
• 37:28
  Pokémon, Georgia's Bizarre Adventure, and there's more as
• 37:32
  well. And that's just what I brought
• 37:34
  the list. That's impressive.
• 37:37
  Isn't impressive that they like go for all the heavy hitters?
• 37:40
  I'm trying to think. I think they at one point they
• 37:42
  definitely do like some sort of Gundam parody.
• 37:44
  I'm sure it's in. There, I'm sure there was a,
• 37:49
  they've got a big gun in the sheet of a Dick as well that
• 37:52
  like we talked about, I vaguely remember that was that was that
• 37:57
  not a Gundam 1? I mean, there's Gundam does
• 38:03
  have, there is a Gundam that has big guns called Heavy Arms,
• 38:07
  piloted by pilot #3 Trevor. He was my favorite pilot as the
• 38:14
  teenager. He's the emo clown anyway, the
• 38:20
  sad clown. Yeah.
• 38:29
  So I think they do. But it also, it reminds me a bit
• 38:31
  of a like a newer anime which didn't have it had like one
• 38:36
  series. And it's weird.
• 38:38
  And it's also on Netflix called Space Dandy.
• 38:43
  Like it feels like it's in the same kind of surreal weirdness
• 38:47
  territory as Space Dandy. And I don't know if you've ever
• 38:50
  seen that, but that's also quite funny.
• 38:53
  And I think if you really enjoyed Gintama, go give Space
• 38:57
  Dandy a go. Like if you're looking for.
• 38:59
  Something similar, yeah. And I think it is literally, I
• 39:03
  think they've made one series. So it's like a very easy thing
• 39:08
  to watch from start to finish as well.
• 39:12
  So that's a good one. That's a good one for your and
• 39:14
  Lee's challenge as well, I reckon.
• 39:17
  But they do have they do have quite a few sex jokes in it, but
• 39:21
  all of them are with adults so it's fine.
• 39:24
  Even better. Yeah, but they also have like a
• 39:28
  Hooters type restaurant in space, but it's just called
• 39:32
  boobies. That's great.
• 39:38
  She's like, let's just call it boobies.
• 39:40
  Let's just stop trying to pretend it's something else and
• 39:43
  let's go to boobies. Yeah, that's fair.
• 39:47
  She's. Funny, so I'd recommend it.
• 39:51
  It's a bit of a drug trick towards the end, but it's good.
• 39:54
  It's fine I've I've been at the minute I've been watching some
• 39:58
  not very nice anime and in in themes.
• 40:05
  So it'll be a nice little break. That's a good, it's a it's an
• 40:09
  uplifting break, I reckon. What what have you been?
• 40:11
  Why have you been watching not very nice anime?
• 40:14
  Well as you know, me and Lee have a competition going on so
• 40:18
  you can watch the most anime in a year, so it's not exactly.
• 40:23
  So you've moved on to not very nice anime?
• 40:26
  No, no. It's the rule is you can't have
• 40:29
  watched it before. So obviously everything I'm
• 40:31
  watching is new, so I'm given things to try which I wouldn't
• 40:36
  normally try. And there was one called Kells
• 40:40
  Paradise. It, it was great.
• 40:42
  It's it's depressing. Everyone dies in the most
• 40:46
  horrible, brutal way. And yeah, yeah.
• 40:49
  I've heard of this, yeah. It's amazing, but I'm just like,
• 40:54
  just give us give us something as a palette cleanser, like
• 40:57
  nice. Coffee something the hope.
• 40:59
  Yeah. Go go, go watch Space Dandy.
• 41:01
  If like if, if, if I think if you like Gintama, you could get
• 41:06
  behind Space Dandy because it also is a bit parody and I think
• 41:12
  it, a little bit of it parodies Cowboy Bebop quite a lot, but.
• 41:18
  And I love it for that. Right.
• 41:22
  Nice. Yeah.
• 41:23
  Yeah, it's good. So yeah, you've watched past
• 41:31
  episode 3. We both loved this.
• 41:33
  It's definitely one to add to the list, we think.
• 41:36
  Yeah, it's going to be a big. In time ago.
• 41:39
  Yeah, hit. It was a hit.
• 41:43
  Yeah. Any parting thoughts?
• 41:48
  So I think sometimes when I was watching this again for the
• 41:52
  first time and I thought the first two episodes don't really
• 41:59
  give you that much and I think you need to stick at it.
• 42:04
  I think you need disregard with three episode rule and keep
• 42:08
  going. In my opinion anyway.
• 42:11
  I've seen a lot of people say similar things where don't watch
• 42:14
  the 1st 2 episodes because it's not, it's not part of the manga
• 42:18
  but I don't normally care about that kind of stuff.
• 42:20
  But it does. It does get better.
• 42:25
  I think I watched up to like episode 10 or something and I
• 42:29
  agree it's this is definitely a series that at first it doesn't
• 42:34
  feel like it's got much substance but it surprises you
• 42:37
  it and it builds over time while still delivering many many many
• 42:41
  jokes. Like the Office?
• 42:44
  Like the office? Yeah, it is.
• 42:47
  I think it's, I think that's a really good comparison for it.
• 42:50
  Gintama, the Office of Anime. Yeah.
• 42:57
  Yeah. So yeah, thanks very much.
• 43:01
  Next week, we are going to be watching Something to be
• 43:05
  determined. If you're not already, subscribe
• 43:10
  to our new Anime Club channel where we will be releasing a
• 43:14
  challenge that Chris will have to do after this, which will
• 43:18
  probably air before this episode I think.
• 43:21
  Or maybe not, Depends on when we edit it.
• 43:23
  Actually, no it won't. I'll, I'll plop it down.
• 43:27
  No, I'll do it. It'll get added, basically hit
• 43:30
  the little bell so that when we actually sort it out, you'll
• 43:34
  know that it's been uploaded because Chris is going to play a
• 43:37
  game and I'm going to be the Game Master and you've got ten
• 43:41
  chances to get five points or more.
• 43:45
  And if you do, you get to pick next week's episode.
• 43:49
  I I think the the rules are heavily stacked in your favour
• 43:53
  favour. 100% because I've created the rules more for you.
• 44:00
  You're the guy who tried to treat your marble rum so.
• 44:04
  Fair enough, fair enough, just wait till the next one sided
• 44:08
  competition that I get to do who can Weld the fastest.
• 44:15
  I reckon me doesn't. You didn't say who can Weld the
• 44:17
  best. True, true.
• 44:21
  Or the most safely? There's a lot to be said for a
• 44:26
  slap slapdash newbie in the welding game.
• 44:32
  The underdog. Lovely.
• 44:37
  Well, yeah. So stay tuned.
• 44:38
  We'll probably also post it to Facebook.
• 44:40
  So give it, like, go and follow us on Facebook as well.
• 44:42
  And that's another place where you can hear about what we're
• 44:44
  doing. Yeah.
• 44:46
  And also you can find us on Spotify.
• 44:50
  So follow us. Come hang out.
• 44:52
  We'll do this every week. And it's been lovely having you
• 44:54
  here in our dirty old art classroom.
• 44:56
  Thanks very much, everyone. Bye.
• 45:01
  Bye.