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UZUMaking me crazy - Anime Club · Anime Club Podcast

0:30
Welcome to this week's very spooky episode of Adelaide Club
0:37
and we have a super, super special guest.
0:39
Of course I am your host Phoebe, and I've got my Co host Chris.
0:42
But enough about us. We've got the wonderful, the
0:44
beautiful. They're very talented as well.
0:48
We have to throw that in there. LJ Matthews Yeah, a round of
0:52
applause. Thank you.
0:55
You're so welcome. Thank you very much for coming
0:57
on before we dive into this week's episode and the very, I
1:05
would say, haunting. Haunting and anxiety inducing
1:11
world of Jinji Ito's Uzumaki. Do you mind if I just ask you
1:15
like what like LJ what was your like first anime like?
1:19
How do you remember how you got into anime was?
1:22
Did you go straight in with the horror anime or was there like a
1:25
softer starter one? OK.
1:27
No, I definitely started with like the Dobbs of Sailor Moon
1:32
and Pokémon and Digimon when I was really little.
1:34
So like, I don't know, 8 or 9 or something.
1:37
I was way too young for horror stuff.
1:38
But then so that that was what I started with, yeah.
1:42
And I think they just remember thinking, oh, this animation
1:45
style is really different and it's really, really cool.
1:47
And then fight now, oh, it's from Japan.
1:48
And then kind of learning more about it from that.
1:51
Yeah, lovely. And also that those those Sailor
1:54
Moon episodes especially like the original series, the
1:57
vaporwave colour story, because I could still live in that world
2:03
and. The fun thing is it's only that
2:05
colour because the original animation cells are degrading
2:07
that didn't used to look like Oh yeah.
2:10
That is a fun see, This is why we got to get more artists.
2:13
So that's a great fact. Yeah.
2:17
Starting strong. So with this week we're doing
2:22
because it is obviously spooky season.
2:24
Chris, what are you scratching yourself with?
2:25
Is that a tiny arm? Oh, sorry, yeah, Fidney made is
2:29
a little spider. Oh.
2:33
Pipe cleaner spider. Pipe cleaner spider perfect for
2:37
Halloween. Scratching my face with it.
2:41
Just scratching your face with it.
2:43
Did you like a little hand there?
2:45
It did. I thought it was like some sort
2:46
of weird little Twiggy hand. I was like, oops, has he just
2:53
gone? Has he just made himself like
2:56
another hand to scratch with rather than his own hand?
3:00
It would be very on theme. This used to be a villager.
3:07
But yeah, this week we're doing Uzumaki, which is a hard, hard
3:12
to describe. I tried to talk to a colleague
3:14
about this, and I was, they were like, what are you doing?
3:17
And I was like, well, it's an anime anime where everyone
3:24
freaks out about a spiral, but trust me, it's really good The.
3:28
Really scary spirals. Of this incredibly scary
3:31
spirals, what would you how would you describe this?
3:35
Obviously better than that. What would you what would you
3:37
say the show is about? Well, it's about a village
3:45
that's cursed by this Curse of the Spiral, as they put it,
3:51
where the villagers start seeing spirals everywhere.
3:53
Everything starts turning into spirals and it all gets very
3:57
sinister very, very quickly. Yeah, yeah.
4:01
And it is really pacey, like the whole.
4:05
Yeah, definitely. The anime is, yeah.
4:07
Yeah, the the anime it's 4 episodes long.
4:12
They're 2020 425 minutes each episode.
4:15
You could watch them until a couple of like until yesterday
4:19
you could watch them on 4oD and I think they've now sadly taken
4:24
so because we went. Back.
4:28
I got confused about the end and we're like, how did that end
4:31
again? Did they die?
4:32
Did they do this? And I was like, I'll go check.
4:34
It's not available in your region anymore.
4:36
So well. There's not anymore.
4:39
Either, yeah, heartbreak. And also to take it down the
4:45
week before Halloween it's really kicks off seems like wild
4:49
timing to me. Feels to be honest.
4:51
It feels personal, but yeah, it is like a it's a strange kind
4:56
of, it's a strange story about what seems at first to be just a
4:59
small town and a woman returning to her, her small town.
5:03
And then slowly, yeah, you realise that this curse has set
5:06
in. And at first I was like, oh,
5:08
this is going to be very psychological.
5:10
But Nope, it's just incredibly surreal.
5:14
Yeah, there's a lot of body horror as well as the
5:16
psychological element. Yeah.
5:19
I like the body horror more than the spirals to be fair.
5:22
I know there is some spiral element to the body horror like
5:26
the last one on our head, but I like the other stuff better than
5:30
that. So Jinji, it was kind of known
5:32
for the body horror, like the girl sound stuff.
5:35
Yeah, yeah. And it is.
5:38
I feel like I've read, I've read some of the manga, but not all
5:41
of it. And I feel like in an anime felt
5:44
a lot more visceral than when you're seeing it in pictures.
5:46
You're just it. It somehow feels easier to kind
5:50
of put it at arm's length. Because you can put the book
5:53
down as well a block away with it being 4 episodes, it felt
5:57
like there was a lot of very disturbing stuff crammed in the
6:00
like 2 hours. Yeah, for sure.
6:04
And the pacing of it I quite enjoyed because I think the
6:07
whole thing is in in black and white and I think really stylish
6:11
as a choice on how it looks. But because of that, you there
6:16
isn't a huge amount of visual interest always.
6:19
But having that real pacey storytelling makes it feel like
6:23
incredibly, incredibly dynamic. But also I was like, like, do
6:31
you do you find, do you guys find this scary?
6:34
Because I personally found it more anxiety inducing than like
6:38
shocking. It's one of those that's like,
6:41
it's some bits. I was kind.
6:43
It was like squeamish and I was like, oh, that's a bit grim.
6:45
It's sorting the plays on your mind after you've watched it.
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A bit like I find that with a lot of Stephen King adaptations
6:51
or like the ring as well, it's more like works on you after
6:56
you've watched it and you can't get it out of your head.
6:59
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, I completely agree.
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And there was never a point where I was like squeamish.
7:04
I had to look away because it was I was scared.
7:06
It was more like, did those newborn babies just talk?
7:10
It's like I had to think a lot back on it and it's stable.
7:12
There's a lot or some mushrooms growing out of it.
7:17
Oh. They're all eating it.
7:21
Oh, yeah. Yeah.
7:22
Like the more you think about it, the.
7:24
Oh, that. Pregnant woman's drilling into a
7:26
human being. Yeah.
7:30
Yeah, yeah, yeah, it was, yeah, it was.
7:34
It was visceral and good, I think.
7:37
Pacey, what were your guys thoughts on the animation style?
7:40
Because it is very different to I think any, anything else that
7:45
I've ever seen. I liked it.
7:49
I mean, I do think the line working stuff was kind of a lot
7:53
sort of cleaner sort of thing than Junji Ito's art.
7:57
His has a bit more of like, it's a lot of fun.
7:59
Yeah, very sketchy, kind of a gritty quality.
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I get that will probably be hard to animate and see why they did
8:04
what they did. And it does look really nice and
8:06
really dynamic. Obviously there's a lot of
8:08
discussion online, and we've talked about it beforehand as
8:11
well, about the fact that the budget was very much reduced
8:14
after the first episode. You can kind of tell there's a
8:17
lot of rotoscoping and things in the first episode that looked
8:20
really cool and really fluid. And then Warner Brothers were
8:23
like, we don't have the money for that.
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So then it starts to look a bit more sort of like a Flash
8:26
animation at points. Yeah, yeah.
8:29
Yeah. And I think that in particular,
8:31
the backgrounds really suck up for that cut in budget, don't
8:34
they? Yeah, and I was kind of hoping
8:36
it'd be a bit like, you know, like more modern releases like
8:39
Sailor Moon Crystal where the tidied stuff up for the DVD
8:41
release and went back and because they had sort of less
8:44
strict deadlines, so we have to go back and tidy up some of the
8:46
art. I'm hoping they might be able to
8:48
do that if there is a DVD release of it.
8:51
But overall I thought it looked really good and it was a nice
8:54
homage to Junji Edo style that worked really well.
8:56
I did think with the Junji Edo Collection anime it was just a
8:59
bit weird seeing stuff in colour.
9:01
He has the odd colour splashes in his manga, but it did feel a
9:04
bit strange so I really liked that this one went for the black
9:06
and white. Yeah, I agree.
9:09
I thought the black and white was just a very stylish choice.
9:12
And also I feel you could easily see the thread between the manga
9:17
and the anime. Yeah, like it like this, even
9:21
even though there are changes and like you say, the pacing for
9:25
this, like it all feels very crammed in.
9:28
Whereas I think in the manga it's a lot more, a lot more
9:31
storytelling happens. I was going to say that.
9:34
Yeah, there's it's more like spaced out and there's kind of
9:38
more room for the horror to develop.
9:41
The anime just feels a bit like, Oh my God, this is happening and
9:44
Oh my God, now the snail people are.
9:46
Whereas in the manga it kind of builds it up a bit more.
9:49
It's still absolutely insane, but you get there's a bit more
9:53
like breathing space for those plot points to develop.
9:55
Yeah, yeah. Yeah, how about you?
9:58
Because this is marked kind of first introduction to Junjido.
10:03
So it was like I'd seen, I'd seen the images, I'd seen the
10:06
images of the I and the guy twisty in the bucket or the
10:12
water bucket or whatever. So when I first saw it in this
10:15
black white movement, to me this is a, oh, this must be what the
10:18
manga feels like, but animated. So I really liked it and I think
10:23
it suits it as well. I don't know what it would have
10:27
been, would have looked like if it was coloured in.
10:32
I think it would have probably took away from us.
10:34
I think it would have been such a classic story as well.
10:36
And like you say, there's those classic images of like the eye
10:40
with the spiral around it and what friend and the tub behind
10:43
with. I think, yeah, it works a lot
10:47
better because like you say, you can see that image and go, oh,
10:49
that's from that manga page and kind of relate the word better.
10:53
Yeah. And there is also something so
10:56
that like they do clean up the line work in this.
10:59
But one of the things that I really appreciate is the keep a
11:02
lot of the hatching in, yes. Do yeah.
11:05
Shading, yeah. And having it black and white
11:07
makes that really effective and it.
11:10
Also in the lighthouse that looks really good, the shading.
11:13
Yeah, yeah. And also in I thought in the,
11:16
for me, my favorite episode was the the whole of the hospital
11:19
episode. I thought it was the most
11:20
unnerving. It had the most moments where I
11:23
was like, oh, like, I yeah, I think I did flinch a couple of
11:27
times in that episode. And you have a lot of that
11:30
really stark, like very white environment to very shadowed
11:33
environment. And then you see that hatching
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in like glorious detail. It's good because that's one of
11:40
the really distinctive things about his art as well, and one
11:43
of the things that that pays a really big inspiration for me
11:46
from several ways. But that way especially how he
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does hatching and shade. And it's just really, really
11:51
intricate and it doesn't look too crowded.
11:54
It doesn't look too busy. There's always like just the
11:56
right amount. Yeah, yeah.
11:58
And it's and actually the still that you've managed to pull
12:00
Chris, like where you see the guys.
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So it starts off with the guy who's like, my father is
12:06
obsessed with spirals, and then he goes to his house and his
12:10
father is has spiralled himself into a bucket.
12:13
It's bizarre, but like that, like you can see even in this
12:17
image the way that he has these like like areas where it is like
12:21
relief from the hatching that allows that still to have that
12:25
contrast so you don't lose at the detail.
12:27
It's like. A wooden.
12:29
Intricacy. It's very much like a wood
12:31
engraving. Yeah, Yeah.
12:34
Which I thought, yeah, is really cool.
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And I think that would only work in black and white.
12:39
Even the picture you know of his dad when he shows his office and
12:42
it's just covered in spirals as well.
12:45
It's chaos. Everything's a spiral and it's
12:48
kind of still doesn't. It looks mental because there's
12:50
lots of spirals everywhere, but it doesn't look.
12:54
Overcrowded. Yeah, your eye can still find
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the thing that you're supposed to look at.
13:01
That's a really hard thing to do when you're drawn.
13:03
With yeah, and when it's where it's so and when you've got so
13:07
much detail in an image, like also, I think the other bit that
13:10
I really that I the other. There are lots of moments where
13:13
I was like, oh, that would make a great poster.
13:15
That would make a great and one of it's where the two women with
13:18
the spiral hair, I think it's like Kiri and then the the girl
13:22
who's like weirdly competitive with her.
13:25
Yeah, yeah. Like when they're both coming in
13:29
and they've got this like crazy spiral hair where like Kiri's
13:32
first being drawn into the curse of the spiral in the town.
13:37
And I thought, oh, that's that's an image that could, you could
13:40
easily lose all of the detail because like all of the hair
13:44
strands, the way that they're sort of twisting up.
13:47
Yeah, but you still manage to focus on the faces.
13:50
And I think it's really well composed.
13:53
There is one of the covers, I don't know if it's just for a
13:55
single issue of the manga, one of the collected editions, but
13:57
it's Curiae with a hair spiraling and then it's got
14:00
other characters faces in the hair spirals and stuff.
14:02
And again, really nice focal points in the image, like it's
14:06
really clear and it doesn't get lost at all.
14:10
Yeah, yeah, I love that. And also because the because it
14:14
also gives me an excuse to talk about my favorite anime of all
14:16
time. And I know Chris is going to be
14:18
internally hating this. Like given any excuse, I'm like,
14:23
so there's this anime called Mushishi, which is like very,
14:27
very beautiful. It's directed by so the person
14:29
who directed this series, like the Uzumaki also directed
14:33
Mushishi. And I think that like they're
14:36
both of them are very good at that like compositional
14:39
storytelling where they find like a strong image that they
14:43
then can like linger on. So even though you have very
14:47
fast-paced, like Mushi Sheet isn't a fast-paced anime at all.
14:50
It's a very different anime to this.
14:53
It's also they have elements of body horror in it, but it's like
14:57
very gentle horror, whereas this is not.
15:00
Compared to this anyway. Compared to this, yeah, this
15:03
would be like a brutal version of it.
15:06
But I can see, I can see the crossover in it.
15:09
And I like also was like automatically was going to like
15:13
this just because of that fact. I was like, how can I not love
15:17
it? Even though I think I'd started
15:21
watching it before Chris even told me.
15:22
He was like, you know who directed this, right?
15:25
Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
15:29
So what about you? Like you guys, did you have any
15:31
like moments that really struck you or like favorite characters
15:35
that that you enjoyed in the in the 4 episodes?
15:41
I just really wanted to give Shuichi a hug.
15:43
Nobody was listening to him. He was telling them from really
15:46
early on that stuff was messed up.
15:49
And Kyrie is just like the spirals.
15:51
That's a bit weird. Like, Oh my God, just get out.
15:58
Why is no one leaving? This is not fine.
16:03
Yeah, I suppose it would be a very short story if I had all
16:06
just left as soon as stuff started to get weird.
16:08
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Or if he gets his wallet, he
16:12
comes back in. The village is a spiral.
16:14
Oh man. Yeah.
16:16
I think I left it at the near the centre of the spiral and
16:20
then the whole anime is just him trying to find his wallet.
16:24
Feel like that needs to be a parody version that someone.
16:28
Oh, where did I leave my keys? Oh no, they're in the house
16:34
that's full of people melted together.
16:36
Has anyone got their keys? Oh, that was weird.
16:40
Yeah, there's a lot I say that I'm going to say that a lot in
16:43
this episode. I think every time we mention
16:45
anything because a lot of it was weird, yeah.
16:50
Is it a? Point at the start mentioned a
16:52
lot of things that are OK. If people are, if people come to
16:56
anime club and they don't expect spoilers at this point.
17:00
OK, fair enough. Be fine is it is it episode 2
17:04
where the snails start coming in?
17:06
Was it end up under one? I can't remember I.
17:09
Think I think it's 2. Two I.
17:14
Think it's 2. Yeah, because it's like the
17:16
cremation and stuff in one and yeah, yeah, I can't.
17:20
His forehead and stuff. I think it's two and the goat
17:22
the school and yeah. Because the the the wet boy is
17:27
introduced then and in the second episode he turns into a
17:31
snail. Wet Boy.
17:38
The thing is, there's a perfect description for him, I felt.
17:41
Sad for the wet boy. I felt really sorry for him.
17:44
Everyone was so mean to him. Oh yeah, because they stripped
17:47
him naked and chucked him outside, dragged him by his
17:50
ankles. But when he because.
17:53
He's, you know, a bit slow, literally and figuratively.
17:56
Yeah, yeah, I know kids can be cruel.
18:01
Yeah. Not the cruelest thing in this.
18:05
No. So it got to the point where he
18:08
turned into a stale. So the they didn't know what to
18:11
do with them. So they chucked him in the
18:13
chicken coop with these with the bully who was also turned it
18:16
with stale. And then they did a weird mating
18:19
thing. And that's the point where I
18:22
thought, right, I can deal with body hotter, but now it's
18:25
getting a bit weird. I thought that that was quite
18:29
funny and I don't know if to be humorous in the manga as well.
18:33
Like oh it was his bully and now they're snails and they're
18:35
mating haha. Like his sense of humour.
18:39
But they're also teenagers, so it's a bit.
18:42
It's a bit weird, but and it also feels like a strange fan
18:45
fiction that you would read about an anime where you're
18:49
like, this is insane. Yeah.
18:52
So seeing it like out delivered as a story beat, it feels, I
18:56
think it feels very tongue in cheek.
18:59
Do you know? Do you know what bit made me
19:00
laugh as well? Do you know Spring Boy?
19:03
Oh, that made me laugh. I was tackling at that because
19:06
it's just so absurd. And they're like, oh, he's just
19:08
got a suspension from a car. He's using it to bounce around.
19:12
I've lost it. And then it was like it was
19:15
never mentioned again. So yeah, he springs went.
19:22
There's a lot of things where they're just like a passing like
19:24
weird oddity and you're like come back.
19:28
Which is very congy do to be fair how that bit plays out in
19:32
the manga. Didn't get every read the full
19:34
thing before this, but he just just have run bits like that
19:37
that are almost like there's bits of like really messed up
19:40
horror like humour in amongst all the horror which that makes
19:44
it more horrific because you're like I shouldn't be laughing at
19:46
that. That's really messed up.
19:47
Stephen King does that a lot as well.
19:49
He does and he does. And it also is that kind of rich
19:51
law building where you just throw away concepts.
19:54
As a writer, you're like, this is a background concept, but in
19:57
itself it could be a whole story.
19:59
And because of that, you feel like this world is much bigger
20:02
than just the town that you're in, or there's the character
20:06
that you're following. I think that's more successful
20:09
in the manga than the anime, just because the anime only had
20:11
four half hour episodes. I think they did as well as the
20:14
code with the really limited time.
20:17
That's what I wanted to ask as well because there was some of
20:21
the characters like Spring Boy and Snail Bully and stuff like
20:25
that. Do they have a, oh sorry, wet
20:28
boy? Do they have a more of an in
20:30
depth background in the manga as opposed to the anime?
20:33
Because it sometimes it felt a bit right.
20:35
He has his character, there's a scary moment.
20:37
Moving on to the next and next in the anime.
20:40
So the bits with the school and the hospital are like condensed
20:43
into their own episodes. But in like the manga Suits, I
20:47
think it's like 19 issues. I want to say that's in my head
20:49
for some reason. It is like spread out across the
20:52
whole story and kind of more developed in the background.
20:56
And there's kind of a bit more set of right, Like you find out
20:58
more about the butterfly gang and stuff as well that was kind
21:01
of shoved in really randomly. I really wanted to know about
21:05
them because you just just like, oh, who's it?
21:08
These guys? Oh, they do what they want.
21:10
They're the butterfly gang and you're like.
21:12
Well, this sound cool. Yeah, they're on the lake now.
21:15
Well. Come back.
21:17
Yeah, Yeah. They've been eating the human
21:20
snails. Yeah.
21:21
Moving on. Yep, that was the one thing that
21:25
was kind of bits where it was just like I was just saying
21:28
next, which you kind of had to do with the limited time.
21:30
It would have been nice if it had been spread over more
21:32
episodes. Yeah, I would love to see this,
21:35
this whole series be remade and given more budget, more time.
21:40
Like a full anime? Like do like a full 20 episodes
21:45
for me and I'd be happy. Do you think?
21:48
Because I feel like you could easily.
21:50
There's a lot of material there, yeah.
21:52
Do you think it would have worked better as a a long film
21:56
instead of a 20 episodes? Sorry, 4 episodes because you've
22:00
got more of a chance of a build. Up Yeah, there's a live action
22:04
adaptation which was only released in Japan.
22:06
I haven't seen it, but I know the ending is different because
22:08
the manga hadn't finished. It's a bit like a theory where
22:12
they just made-up an ending because it wasn't.
22:14
So I don't know if that's any good or not, but it's definitely
22:17
possible. I saw it come up in the when I
22:21
was doing a bit of a search and doing a bit of a of a having a
22:25
look for images and things. And I think the thing that I
22:28
decided I was like body horror anime is probably my limit.
22:32
Do I want to see the body horror on real people?
22:35
I feel like that's. How they do it?
22:38
Yeah, like. Like either the special effects
22:40
will be amazing and I won't be able to look at it, or that'll
22:44
be terrible and I will be able to look at it but will be
22:46
disappointed. Funny if it's terrible.
22:49
It would could potentially that could be a top grubs pick Chris.
22:54
I love BB movie horrors. Yeah.
22:58
The best? So good.
23:01
So in terms of like so we've got like the highlights.
23:07
We for you was snail wet boys and snail bullies love moment.
23:13
For me it was the. They had names.
23:15
I don't remember their names, but they had names.
23:19
That's their names now. No, I don't want to know their
23:23
real names, Chris. I only want to know as Snail,
23:26
Bully and Wet Boy. Wet boy or IP to a real?
23:30
One the the other, the other bit that really caught me was the
23:37
mother in the hospital. Like that was the bit where I
23:39
felt like proper tense, proper, like, oh God.
23:43
Oh so. Yeah, she's mum.
23:47
Yeah. And you think, God, he's tried
23:49
so hard and she's so close to recovery and she then she starts
23:53
to spiral, quite literally. And.
23:55
Because that dead husbands egging her on about the spirals
23:58
in her ears, which is messed up to be.
24:01
Honest, super messed up. And he's there like she can't
24:05
find out that like the most spirally part of the body is in
24:09
your ears. And you just like, see her like
24:11
chasing this kind of idea around and trying to find her medical
24:15
chart and stuff. Meanwhile, pregnant women are
24:17
sucking blood and there's like a mosquito thing going on.
24:21
Yeah, the mosquito thing. A lot of bug stuff.
24:23
Nails. A lot of bug stuff, yeah, yeah.
24:27
Just think it was funny how the M of the doctor was just like
24:30
damn that one outdated medical post.
24:33
I was right in front of her in that exact room with Sean
24:37
spirals in her ears. I hope she.
24:39
Didn't see it. I bet he managed to take it down
24:42
at the last minute. Or did he?
24:46
Yeah, it's, yeah, I found that quite.
24:49
And then you see, like, yeah, obviously we all know what
24:51
happens. She kind of goes at her, goes at
24:53
the spirals in here is trying to eradicate all the spirals.
24:56
Yeah, because I'm assuming she just kind of that's how she dies
24:59
because she managed to get through to our brain.
25:01
Yeah, I think that's what happens.
25:03
Yeah. Although you don't see it
25:05
happening, you like. You just, Yeah, the context,
25:08
yeah, you just isn't it, Yeah. Exactly.
25:11
And actually, I don't need to see it happen.
25:13
It's bad enough just watching her like get to the stage where
25:16
you know that she's going to stab her own, stab her own ears
25:20
and then the other bit. In the manga, Sorry So Shuichi.
25:23
Hello. Go for it.
25:24
Yeah, in the manga, so after he loses his mom, he's stuck in the
25:27
house for weeks and he's really depressed and becomes really
25:30
emaciated and gone. And that's kind of part of his
25:32
mental decline as well, which in the anime, obviously, because
25:36
they don't really have the time to go into it, he's just kind of
25:39
one minute he seems sort of all right, then the next minute he's
25:41
like, this whole time's crazy, everything's spiral.
25:43
Oh my God. Yeah, yeah.
25:44
And he seems, it's almost comes across a little bit mopey at
25:47
times because you're like that way from nought to 60 because
25:49
you don't see that see the kind of more gradual decline, I
25:53
guess. Although I feel like I do like
25:57
the whole time he's like, we're all going to die, We're all
26:00
going to die. Really helpful.
26:05
You can't get out. Maybe like let's try leaving
26:08
anything productive. And then the other bit I found
26:12
kind of horrifying was when their people are like crawling
26:16
inside the stale people to consume their.
26:19
Bodies, that was. Grim which that because it would
26:22
be grim. 1st I mean it's very grim for the snail person.
26:28
And the and their faces are still very human.
26:31
So it's like they went in and they were like, they're soft.
26:34
And I think at one point he's like, oh, they're delicious soft
26:36
cheeks. You know, you're like, oh, yeah,
26:38
yeah, yeah, yeah. Really gross, but it.
26:44
Might be that delicious, we just don't know.
26:46
But here's the question. So here's my question.
26:49
Would you if you had the choice and you were trapped in this
26:51
town? Would you eat a snail person?
26:55
How and how hungry? How many days would you go
26:58
before that's just not an option?
27:00
I've. Never had a Scargo and I quite
27:03
like snails. They're quite cute so I would
27:06
feel bad, but then the whole thing is that the town's driving
27:10
them crazy and the spiral curse is part of what drives them to
27:13
do it. I don't know, I feel like it
27:17
after a point I just wouldn't have a choice.
27:19
I would have to eat the snail people.
27:22
I feel like it's if it's a choice between eat them or
27:24
become them, I'm going to eat them.
27:27
That's a fair bite, yeah. I don't like, yeah, if it's like
27:32
eat or become a snail, Ali, But I don't particularly want to.
27:36
And I have had escargot before in Brussels.
27:40
They sell them like, almost like street meat.
27:42
You can buy like a cup in the antiques market in a garlic
27:46
broth that is unnervingly green. It's the wrong colour, the wrong
27:52
colour for what is like snotty bogeys in it, but they're
27:56
basically like mussels, essentially.
27:58
OK, well I love mussels so I might be back and forth now.
28:01
They might like a little less seafoody mussel and with a lot
28:05
of garlic. It's all right, but I don't know
28:08
if I could go in face first, I think.
28:10
No, that's. Scoop them out the shell.
28:12
That's like the depths of madness, isn't it?
28:14
Like crawling into the shell to eat the but they were very
28:17
hungry as well I suppose. They were very hungry and
28:20
they've been trapped in these weird houses for a while as well
28:23
at that point. What about you, Chris?
28:25
Are you eating the snail people? I wouldn't be the first, but
28:28
I'll be the second. Be honest.
28:31
Like first. I'm just doing, you're kind of
28:34
hanging back being like, I'll wait for someone else to jump in
28:36
and then I'll start. Yeah, yeah.
28:40
Yeah. Yeah, like when you're at a
28:42
wedding and like, there's a like a dessert buffet and you're
28:45
like, no, I could go for some cake, but I've got to wait for
28:48
like, the mother of the bride to break.
28:50
The snail. But as soon as she picks up late
28:53
up, I'm at them. Snails.
28:55
I'm right behind there or. Take his cheek off.
29:01
If there wasn't the risk of being eaten, maybe being a snail
29:04
wouldn't be that bad. You know you don't have to worry
29:07
about bills or taxes, so you just slime around and.
29:11
I love salt though. Oh, that's yeah.
29:14
That's gonna be a problem. Yeah, you're in.
29:16
That memory as a snail person, yeah.
29:19
Your high sodium diet is going to make your snail life very
29:22
short. Become a snail and just
29:24
immediately die in salt poison. Oh yeah, Grim.
29:35
So in terms of so we've done high moments, what we like,
29:40
where do you want to see it go? I mean, they've they do the full
29:42
story. Normally we only watch 3
29:43
episodes, but we've done the full story.
29:46
Yeah, yeah. And I think there was.
29:50
So I was more curious about how do you feel like it?
29:53
So it's where I can't forget when this was published, I
29:55
think. It was the 90s, I want to say.
29:59
What is Wagga? How do you feel like it's held
30:01
up in terms of animation style, thematically storytelling to?
30:08
Yeah, I think, yeah, yeah. I mean, because the the actual
30:14
setting of the town, I mean, it's obviously traditional
30:16
Japanese town, but there's nothing that really sets it in a
30:20
specific time period. I mean, maybe there would be,
30:22
you know, somebody might be a look at the model of train
30:25
pulling the minute you go, oh, that's definitely a 90s train or
30:27
something. But I think it's quite timeless,
30:31
to be honest. Yeah, I agree with you.
30:34
I think because there's a lack of like identifiable technology
30:38
and a lot of there. That, yeah.
30:40
Calm down. Sorry, the dogs.
30:41
Now wants to be involved. He's got he loves about the wet
30:44
boy. Oh my God, he would love a wet
30:48
boy. He'd be in that chicken coop.
30:53
Oh, put him in the chicken coop and then his parents come and
30:57
go. That's not our son.
31:00
To be to be fair, if you got a phone call from your son school
31:04
and we've got you, we've got your son, can you come and pick
31:06
him up there? And the pointed to a big snail
31:09
shell and. But there you go, take more.
31:11
But it's a man sized snail so I would be questioning where did
31:15
they get a man sized snail? That's not normal.
31:18
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, maybe he's.
31:21
Did you dress him up? No, that's actually his son.
31:24
All right, pull the other leg. I'm just going to go home now.
31:28
Would you be that surprised with Finley though?
31:32
No, no. You'd be like, I don't need to
31:36
ask the school where they got the shell.
31:37
Finley, where did you get a man sized stone from?
31:40
I grew it myself, Father. What if you do with that bully?
31:46
Yeah. Well.
31:48
And then there's the eggs. Yeah, yeah.
31:52
Isn't that a thing though? Because I, I keep seeing loads
31:54
of videos of people going up in trees and be like, these are
31:57
some invasive snail eggs, let's squash them kind of thing.
32:02
Yeah, you have to do pet snails as well because they can just
32:05
reproduce, say, sexually. Oh.
32:07
Yeah, and the reason? That's all pet snail because I'd
32:09
feel bad and then end up with hundreds of snails.
32:14
But yeah, no, they because they're hermaphroditic, so they
32:17
can any snail can reproduce. Within, they've got all the
32:21
parts, yeah. They've got all the parts, and
32:24
they can also reproduce with their own selves.
32:27
That's the dream. Sounds I mean we've all given it
32:31
a try practice but yeah and but no I don't think no snow snails
32:42
I find them kind of disturbing. I like I've unnerving I.
32:46
Find I think they're cute, but I have very very wide range of
32:50
animals just I think are cute. OK, fat, we're talking.
32:55
We're talking the exotics, reptiles, spiders.
32:57
Yeah. Yeah.
32:58
OK. I forgot what we were talking
33:05
about before that it was. The eggs being crushed eggs
33:08
being. Crushed.
33:10
It reminded me a bit of the scene in the 1998 Godzilla when
33:14
the babies all die, and that was very sad.
33:17
That is sad, Yeah. Also, I think a really good
33:22
Godzilla film. Underrated, I say.
33:25
Yeah, she was Scott Matthew Broderick in.
33:29
I thought I thought he was good in that film.
33:31
No, he just did something in Ireland a couple of years ago.
33:37
The crimes, Crimes, yeah. But in terms of how it held up
33:43
in 2025, I agree. I think it holds up very well.
33:46
And I actually think the fast pacing of it is something that
33:50
doesn't date it. So it doesn't have that tech
33:52
like the technology like you don't see a floppy disk, for
33:55
example. So it doesn't feel out of date
33:59
and you. See like ATV or anything do you
34:01
you. Don't you don't.
34:02
And there's no phones or anything really, I guess because
34:07
that would also solve the problem of we just call for
34:11
help. The reception would have been
34:13
down, but. Style phones as well like with
34:18
the like spiral cords and the spiral cords could have started
34:21
killing. People, Oh my God, that was
34:23
that's the whole episode in itself of just people trying to
34:26
phone for help and then yeah, yeah, losing it.
34:31
I don't know if it's the same in the the manga but did you see
34:33
all the spirals in the background as well where they
34:36
start increasing? Like even them in the hospital
34:40
where the where the mum she do you know when she sees a spiral
34:45
in a what's it called, the thing that goes in your arm cannula.
34:51
Oh yes, in. The Whirlpool, yeah.
34:53
So she chucks at the ground and then the lead makes a spiral as
34:58
well. In on the buildings in the
34:59
background, there's just some random ones.
35:02
That's in the mango as well, like in the sky and stuff and
35:05
background things. Yeah, yeah.
35:08
I thought we should have a spot in them.
35:12
You are. The dog agrees.
35:15
The dog agrees the I because and I also think this is the other
35:21
thing. So it's like you have this whole
35:25
budget cut from episode 1 to episode 2.
35:29
However, I think this is a really good example of how to do
35:33
really good anime and storytelling on a very low
35:37
budget. Because I actually think for
35:40
considering how like what they had to work with at the time, I
35:45
think they've made something that feels very timeless, where
35:48
the animation quality is good enough that it doesn't feel
35:51
jilted or jarring. And it has a lot of detail in it
35:59
in terms of like background spirals, things where if you
36:02
watched it more than once you would be like, oh, I didn't
36:05
notice that the first time. Yeah, and it's one I would watch
36:07
again as well. Yeah, yeah, for sure.
36:10
Like I'd be happy to watch it again relatively quickly, which
36:13
I think like when Chris said this morning he was like, oh,
36:16
they've taken it off 4oD. I was like, oh, I was going to
36:19
watch it again at the weekend just.
36:22
Services do we know? Like it's own Crunchyroll or
36:24
something Not. I mean, I know.
36:29
That the collection is on Crunchyroll, so I was going to
36:32
check that out next and see, but yeah Chris, yeah, yeah.
36:38
Usually it switches it over from one to another.
36:41
It's. Annoying because all four is
36:44
free. Yeah, exactly.
36:48
Yeah, and it would, and that's yeah, But go for if you can, if
36:52
you're watching this and you haven't seen it, it's worth
36:55
having a Google and seeing where can you watch this?
36:57
Because I think it's, this is an effort.
36:59
This is a series I'd be happy to recommend to people because you
37:03
know that they're only going to, they only need to give it two
37:05
hours and they'll watch it all. And it's.
37:09
Good quality. You might need to break from all
37:11
the horror, to be fair. Something.
37:14
Yeah. I watched it in one go and I was
37:16
like, oh. Yeah.
37:22
I don't know. I watched it in the one and it
37:25
kind of dulled all this them scares a bit from me.
37:30
You. Could desensitized.
37:31
Yeah, I could desensitize quite fast with body, body horror.
37:35
I'm like, Oh yeah. And I.
37:36
Think with the piercing probably didn't help with that as well,
37:38
the fact it was all crammed into two hours, yeah.
37:41
Whereas it was like a full, you know, 20 episode series.
37:45
You would have more time to really build on it and build on
37:49
that paranoia and the spirals kind of developing everywhere.
37:54
And I think you'd also have time to have more of that humour
37:58
creep in and let you down so that when when the next bit of
38:03
horror comes, you're like, oh, and you're kind of, you're not,
38:06
you're having that. Yeah.
38:07
Yeah, whereas you think it has to maintain a.
38:13
Springboy and also the guy you fancied, Curia, who ended up
38:16
wrap around a car tire. That.
38:19
Was a very fast little subplot. Yeah, yeah.
38:23
Yeah, Also what the, what's that?
38:27
What is with the babies? What was with the babies?
38:31
So the babies, the babies with the mushrooms and they were
38:35
talking. How are the babies talking?
38:38
There's so much that I'm just like, it doesn't make sense.
38:40
I feel that just well. Maybe not explained but it's
38:43
kind of given a bit more context in the manga.
38:45
But it did make me think of June where like.
38:49
Oh, that awakened. Yeah, the abomination where the
38:53
kids are like preborn. I assumed it was probably just
38:56
something like that. OK, there's a kind of hive mind
38:59
that happens with the. Yeah.
39:02
They were all like, oh, I hope we can go to the warm place
39:05
again. And I'm like, oh, are you going
39:07
back inside the mother? Yeah, that was the implication I
39:10
had. Yeah, back in the.
39:13
Womb and again also the idea of a baby crying back into its
39:17
mother having been born while talking that just that whole the
39:23
whole the hospital episode, episode 3.
39:26
That for me was the peak of the horror in terms of how it ended.
39:30
What were your guys feeling? Because it has this ending.
39:33
This is a massive spoiler alert. So.
39:40
Massive spoiler is that the like basically everyone dies,
39:44
everyone kind of submits to the curse in a very happy.
39:48
It's really, really depressing, but also I felt very fitting.
39:52
That's the same as the manga, isn't it?
39:55
Yeah, I think so. Yeah, yeah.
39:58
I think they just build up to it a bit more the manga because
40:00
episode 4 of the anime is a bit like and now it's like a few
40:03
weeks later or whatever and the Zaid workers trying to get in
40:06
and stuff. Yeah, and they're having to try
40:08
and go. Into the where the village has
40:11
all been built into this massive fire.
40:13
Yeah. There is a labyrinth.
40:15
Vibe and there and then she has to like castaway, the creepy
40:19
slime boy that she's been carrying and is depressing
40:23
because you're kind of. Wanting them to get out and
40:26
escape. And you're really rooting for
40:28
Kyrie and Chuichi, aren't you? Because you're like, oh, you
40:30
know, they're going to get out and they're going to survive and
40:33
they're going to be together and happy, unlike the other couple
40:36
who did. Well, I suppose they got away
40:37
together, but I don't know if it was happy.
40:40
It just buggered off into the sea.
40:44
Time. We don't know.
40:46
Having a lovely time swimming around.
40:49
But yeah, it's the fact. That both at the end are just
40:51
like, we're too tired to fight this anymore, let's just lie
40:54
down in this temple and be sealed in the earth forever.
40:57
But then it was really interesting how it all happens
41:01
again in the future and it all restarts and it shows you like
41:04
their future selves and their roles are swapped.
41:06
That was cool. And you have again.
41:09
That idea of this kind of coming full circle and it comes back
41:12
like even even the story is a spiral.
41:14
Spiral. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
41:16
Beautiful, beautiful, like nod at the end.
41:19
And also very, I think very fitting of the horror genre
41:23
where you have this idea of like a cursed place that like
41:27
generation over generation is pulling people in.
41:31
And that for me, felt very Stephen King, that element of
41:35
it. Like I, I was genuinely, I was
41:37
like, oh, that feels like a Stephen King novel.
41:39
This is how a Stephen King novel would end.
41:41
Yeah. And.
41:43
Also the fact that I don't. Think I can't what the names are
41:46
the characters at the end, but like the the like reborn career
41:50
who looks a bit like like female version of she says something
41:54
about like it's the very last line anime is about oh will we
41:58
escape this kind of the horror that's underneath our village.
42:00
So she's aware of it this time around.
42:03
Yeah, and also and. Also, they have the the same bit
42:07
of dialogue that leads into that as well, which I thought was
42:10
interesting as to the first episode.
42:13
And I think that's the benefit of having watched it all in one
42:16
go. As you see that, you see it come
42:18
full circuit. Whereas I think if I'd left it
42:20
and had what, like 1 episode a day or something, by the time
42:23
I'm old forget, yeah. And, and also by the time I
42:28
watch it, I'd be like, yeah, I also want to lie down because
42:32
I'm tired. That's a very relatable way to
42:34
die. And there was obviously no.
42:37
Way for her to get back up to the surface as well, yeah.
42:44
Yeah, yeah. And like he's because he's like,
42:46
go leave me. And it's like how?
42:50
Yeah. How are you?
42:51
Thinking that's going to. Happen, Yeah, if you're sitting
42:56
on a way out of his like fella, just just both go.
43:02
Don't send her into nothingness. Like it's very wild.
43:07
I thought it was very Lovecraftian as well.
43:09
The temple under the ground and the weird like everyone being
43:13
drawn to it and weird ancient horror and also the idea.
43:17
Of ritual as well where you see that in a lot in Lovecraft of
43:22
like tribes or villages performing rituals that they
43:27
don't they can't explain yeah and that it felt like, you know,
43:32
with the people trying to build houses around themselves because
43:35
they've become this fused monster in a kind of ritual
43:41
shape felt very love crafty and as well I agree yeah, it's a bit
43:45
like. The rats in the walls, the kind
43:48
of people. Yeah, yeah.
43:52
Snail people. Yeah, it's these snail people,
43:58
tasty, tasty snail people with garlic.
44:02
And then my last thought was because what I find interesting,
44:05
this was something that you pointed out LJ when we were
44:07
having a chat before coming on was or like during the week when
44:12
we were messaging each other that there is this like really
44:15
interesting phenomena that happens with at like it seems
44:18
like with anime creators where Jinji Ito, one of the loveliest
44:23
men. I think he's.
44:25
So so. Cheerful and And yet this comes
44:30
from his mind and there's, there's and then.
44:33
There's something. About like you look at like
44:35
Studio Ghibli, some of the sweetest, most heartwarming
44:38
anime in existence. Miyazaki, miserable, miserable
44:43
fellow. He's an angry man, he's.
44:47
So angry about the world. It's a.
44:49
Mistake. And he's so.
44:53
And it raised. This like really interesting
44:55
question of like how does that work?
44:58
What do you think? Like how does one about this
45:01
and? I think it's the same thing as
45:03
where you often find, like, having been a goth since I was a
45:06
teenager, you speak the Goths and some that often some of the
45:09
happiest people that you'll meet.
45:11
Not all of them, obviously, but that does seem to be a bit of a
45:13
thing of like people who are very into our horror and very
45:17
dark stuff are actually very cheery.
45:19
Like, yeah, yeah, that's actually very sweet.
45:22
And lovely, I mean. Obviously mad as a box of frogs,
45:26
but seems very nice that interviews.
45:29
Yeah, yeah. And also incredibly prolific,
45:33
the thing I always find admirable about.
45:36
Stephen King is that. Even if you don't enjoy his
45:38
work, you have got to, like, admire his graft.
45:44
Yeah, at least part that I think was how much like.
45:46
Cocaine and stuff he was on in there isn't that probably helped
45:51
it definitely. Coloured some of the stories for
45:54
sure. Yeah, some hidden rage in there.
45:58
What's about Gingito? As far as I know, he's never.
46:00
Partaken in drugs. This is just his brain and also
46:04
he seems I was watching. Interviews with him and it
46:06
doesn't seem like you know, like where you have like the sad
46:09
clown who's like making everyone laugh but inside is like really
46:12
sad like he he doesn't seem like a clown character.
46:15
He seems like he's genuinely very cheery and obviously we
46:18
all, none of us know what happens inside, like the human
46:22
heart and stuff. Yeah.
46:24
But I do find. It fascinating this.
46:28
The contrast between Creator. And yeah, their world, like
46:34
their inner world versus. Like like their art versus what
46:38
that personality is. Yeah, and like it kind.
46:42
Of raised the quote like of like is like like is it?
46:46
Is this expression exorcism or like it like almost like
46:53
escapism, like something, it's like an indulgence in something
46:56
that you just isn't part of your life.
46:58
Is it that you're trying to get rid of something from inside
47:02
yourself or is it just like observations about the human
47:06
condition? I and I don't, I don't have an
47:08
answer because I suppose I know it's hard.
47:10
I was trying to think about it. Before we started recording, I
47:13
don't know the answer this. I don't even know the answer
47:15
myself with my own art, like sometimes it is getting stuff
47:18
out there and then sometimes it is just I want to explore this
47:21
theme and I don't want. Some things like I've written.
47:25
Like, short horror, like comics and stuff before.
47:28
And I've thought, oh, this is really messed up, but it's
47:31
actually quite cool. And I've like freaked myself out
47:33
with my work and thought, oh, that's really good.
47:36
So there was, I don't know if like, Jinji gets the same sort
47:38
of joy from. Oh, that's really scary.
47:41
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, maybe if there's just a
47:43
thrill to writing it, like there's a thrill to watching it.
47:47
Oh, that's interesting because I was going to ask, like, do you
47:50
find yourself having that, like an experience where you're like,
47:54
oh, this feels, this is something I've created that
47:57
feels part of me but not a reflection of me, if that makes
48:00
sense. Yeah, definitely.
48:02
Yeah. Yeah, yeah.
48:05
Oh, interesting. What about you?
48:06
Chris, thoughts with my arsenal? Yeah, yeah, with your spider.
48:14
I was. I was be son actually.
48:16
I couldn't make any this good. I bet you could.
48:25
I don't know. I think I.
48:28
Think you could just be interested in stuff like that,
48:30
these ideas and then want to put them down.
48:32
And I don't think you'll necessarily have to have the
48:37
personality that match the kind of art because, like, I mean,
48:41
look at the guy that created chainsaw man.
48:43
He's going to different personality.
48:46
And I know, I know, you seem a than a than a chainsaw for a.
48:50
Head Yeah, yeah, because see, because that's a.
48:53
Quite graphic and gory. Yeah, it is.
48:56
But he's. The complete opposite.
48:57
Well, he's. 2 episodes anyway. But yeah, so I don't know, it
49:03
could just be in his head and he's like, oh, want to get this
49:06
out, or I'm really interested in this and I want it to look like
49:09
this kind of thing. Yeah, I did read a few of them.
49:13
Once were, they were asking what inspired him to write this short
49:17
story Guil, which is about, like, fish coming on the land.
49:20
And they've got mechanical legs, which means it can travel on
49:22
land. And his response was just, well,
49:25
sharks are really scary. And then I thought, you know, be
49:28
even scarier if they could walk on land.
49:32
That was just his thought. Process.
49:34
He's not. Wrong.
49:36
He's not. Wrong.
49:38
It's like that, I sometimes think.
49:39
Like what's going to win a shark or a lion?
49:42
And it's like, it highly depends on the terrain.
49:44
But if you gave a shot, if you gave a shark legs, obviously the
49:48
sharks going to win. They're like horrifying things.
49:53
But I'm just thinking like people like.
49:54
Lovecraft and like Edgar Allan Poe and stuff and that, you
49:57
know, obviously very sort of morals, miserable people who
50:02
wrote very dark stuff as well, but I think it can just be like
50:05
your personality as well yeah because I think I.
50:08
Don't think if anyone was stuck in the kitchen at a party
50:12
because I feel like that's where you always get caught by either
50:15
the best or the worst of people. And if you got cornered by Edgar
50:20
Allan Poe or HP Lovecraft, you'd be like, I see, I understand
50:25
your stories, and you make sense to me as a person.
50:28
I feel like if you got cornered by Ginger Ito, you'd be like,
50:31
this guy's lovely. Is he some sort of primary
50:33
school teacher? And then you'd find out about
50:35
his work and you'd be like, oh, he'd be too busy.
50:38
Finding like the person's cat at the party, the horse cat.
50:42
But that's why Cats is so good, so cute.
50:48
And. Because it's like all of his
50:49
horror art he uses. All the techniques from that,
50:52
but writing about his wife's cats and it's so funny.
50:58
I think he might be one of the nicest people in anime and
51:00
manga. Is that allowed?
51:01
Am I allowed to declare that not fair?
51:06
He's a. Very cheery guy.
51:07
I love the videos that I like. Is it like this media just
51:10
showing random memes and stuff and he just reacts to them?
51:13
It's so good. So that's one of the ones that I
51:15
got. I got caught.
51:16
I also I also there was like an interview between him and
51:20
Miyazaki or something like they were doing like the greats of
51:23
anime and it was like did. That people.
51:26
Asking the same questions to different creators.
51:29
And I was like, these people could not be further apart, both
51:32
in what they make and in how they view the world.
51:37
Yeah, it's kind of gorgeous. Miyazaki is very like Osamu.
51:42
Tazuka who was also quite like it was so prolific he did over
51:46
700 series like had a heart attack after asking the nurses
51:50
to leave him alone and let him work.
51:52
I believe some of his manga got. Quite dark as.
51:55
Well, but he also wrote Astro Boy, so which is 1.
52:00
Of the kind of most upbeat anime and like, very hopeful about
52:04
humanity weirdly. Although I do find it weird that
52:07
there is a small boy running around in his underpants
52:10
essentially fighting crime. That's a weird choice.
52:14
It was like the 50s, wasn't it? Like times were different, times
52:18
were different. Boys run around in their
52:20
underwear. All the time then.
52:24
Flash Gordon did. Oh, hello, young man.
52:31
Oh, barely. He's like a souped up.
52:36
A souped up die. Die a rat.
52:41
Oh, I. Know his ego.
52:43
Can't take it, his little face popping up, it's so cute.
52:49
He's pretty cute. That's how he gets you, just
52:53
like Joji Ito, I think. Yeah.
52:59
So any last kind of thoughts on is a Mackie?
53:01
Which would you recommend this to your friends?
53:06
I would with a disclaimer of if. You're squeamish or don't like
53:09
body horror. Maybe watch the first episode
53:13
and see how you go. Yeah, yeah.
53:16
Comes with the trigger warning. Yeah.
53:19
What about you, Chris? I've got.
53:22
I've got. Unanswered questions that I want
53:24
to answer like, oh, what's your unanswered questions?
53:28
What happens with the with the village?
53:30
After it's a spiral. So it just it it.
53:35
Eventually it just gets rebuilt like the curse ends, new people
53:39
move in and rebuild it, it loses the spiral shape over time, and
53:44
then it all happens again. Didn't define points in the
53:46
future. I don't know why.
53:50
There's a curse and. Spiral forever is it?
53:56
Well, but I kind I kind of want it to.
53:57
Have like some some weird meaning or purpose or be part of
54:01
something bigger. There's a little spin off thing
54:04
in the. Manga it's in the collected
54:07
edition I've got but I haven't gotten around to reading it yet,
54:09
which is kind of more background on the curse and how it gets
54:12
established right. That's that's what I.
54:17
Was wanting to know because I was like Oh yeah this is amazing
54:19
watch. And I really like like coming
54:21
along for the right to get into this spiral village.
54:25
But then what? Everyone dies.
54:27
So it's just like you don't really see what the purpose of
54:30
it is. I think our fine thing that
54:34
there is no. Purpose that just happens.
54:37
Or there is and you just don't know why.
54:40
Yeah. It's beyond our comprehension.
54:43
Feels very like cosmic horror. Like, yeah, puny humans and
54:46
cannot understand we're just caught up in it.
54:49
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Which I is.
54:52
Some of my favorite types of horror is the like you, you
54:56
physically cannot understand this.
54:58
All you can do is try and survive and probably fail.
55:03
Yeah, nice. See how those fellows?
55:08
Thought a bit I have. Questions.
55:10
I have several questions. I feel like a lot of people have
55:14
that reaction of the watching news and Mackey but haven't read
55:17
the bank get to be fair and and in that way it also.
55:20
Feels very David Lynch, because I was thinking this is very twin
55:23
pink. This is very.
55:24
Twin Peaks. In that it starts off seemingly
55:27
in a normal town. Very quickly things begin to
55:29
unravel and you realize it's not just in people's heads.
55:33
Like actual phenomena is happening.
55:36
Imagine if there was like a special.
55:38
Agent Dale Cooper character and Uzumaki.
55:42
I think that would. Be the perfect, perfect anime.
55:47
It'd be so good if we had a kind of Spike Spiegel style
55:50
detective, yes right to judge Ito and tell him.
55:56
This idea for an Uzibaki sequel. Can we please have a Raymond?
56:00
Chandler esque. Is it John Marlow, Sam?
56:05
Marlow the your man. Have you watched the Maltese
56:09
Falcon? Chris won't have retained that
56:11
name. I haven't, I just remembered
56:14
them. Having eye holes in the
56:16
newspaper. That's all I.
56:19
Remember from my film and there was a.
56:20
Falcon in it. Oh, and right, so.
56:27
Why do these people still settle in this village when so they
56:31
come to this place and they say crumbling spirally village and
56:34
they're all right, I'm going to bulldoze this and make my new
56:36
home. Does no one think they think why
56:39
did all other people die? Or is it just like?
56:43
I know normally other people died.
56:45
Because all the bodies and stuff are underneath in the lake.
56:49
Yeah. So they're like also.
56:51
An abandoned. Ancient village, but also house.
56:55
Prices being what they are, yeah, true, yeah, if you if you
57:01
were offered. Yeah.
57:02
I think Japan's housing crisis is what is probably one of the
57:05
few countries where it's comparable to how bad housing is
57:08
in the UK. I'm guessing it's lovely pre
57:12
built spiral big. House, I mean.
57:16
Sure, it has a history of horrible, horrible deaths, but
57:20
have you seen the red? Nobody survived, Yeah.
57:24
And the size of the. Back garden.
57:25
There's a whole link there. Do you know what I mean?
57:28
Like I think I think humans in a in a financial whirlwind, that's
57:33
fine. Justify anything?
57:35
Yeah. There's some weirdly large snail
57:38
shells kicking about. It looks like they were.
57:40
Looks like they were having love in an they'd still be there.
57:45
OK, that's a slight. Possible plot hole?
57:48
Yeah. Oh yeah.
57:49
Because. Her brother's still on the.
57:51
Beach, just hanging about. Brothers on the beach.
57:54
Yeah, he'll still be there. Oh.
57:57
Do you think? He was just like, did you like?
58:00
He probably just lived there until he died, right?
58:02
That's what I imagined it would have been.
58:06
Bad for him. That would have been really bad.
58:08
For him and we've come full circle to a full sodium diet.
58:15
And on that note. In this spiral of that.
58:21
Of conversation thank you so much LJ.
58:25
Have you got anything that you'd like to plug before we wrap up
58:28
tell us about your art tell us about your what you've got going
58:31
on. So I do kind of a horror.
58:34
And folklore art that's very much inspired by John GE do It's
58:37
probably very obvious if you look at it.
58:39
I've got a website, laurenjmatthews.com, LJ Matthews
58:43
on Instagram, Facebook, Blue Sky, all your like usual
58:47
socials. I've got a mailing list as well
58:51
if you want to join that and just check, keep an eye on my
58:53
socials for what I'm up to. Yeah.
58:57
Thank you so much and. Thank you so much for coming on
59:00
and sharing your gorgeous artist brain with us as we looked at
59:04
this is great and. We'll see you.
59:06
Next week, bye.