Hey everyone! Today we have a special treat for those of you who missed it: the first Ace Anime Reviews Rwednesday! Hopefully you guys enjoy it, and don’t worry if you can’t tell us apart – as we discovered while writing the transcript, we also can’t tell us apart at times. Thanks for supporting us, stay safe, and I hope you have a fantastic day!
Audio Transcript: Ace Anime Reviews Rwednesday
13 January, 2021
Ace (A), Charlie (C), Noah Haley (NH)
A: Alright! So, this is gonna be our first Ace Anime Review Rwednesday, where we talk about whatever anime we’re watching. I’m Ace Barret King, I’m the Founder of Ace Anime Reviews, my pronouns are he and him, and eventually I’ll get around to actually putting stuff on the patreon page. Now you guys introduce yourselves.
NH: (sounds of something shifting) [I’m Noah Haley,] I’m the newest writer of Ace Anime Reviews, I use they/them pronouns, and I’m the reason that, uh, the other writers are writing reviews, ‘cause I keep bullying them to.
A: Ah! Thank you for that! I didn’t wanna have to be the one to do them every week. I’m glad I only have to write once a month.
NH: Mm-hm. If that; February’s very short. Alright, Charlie, you’re up.
C: Charlie, my pronouns are they/him, and I’m the one who used to do most of the reviews before Haley signed on.
A: Oh, yeah! I like how the newest person always takes up all the work, and then somebody else comes and they kind of slack off. Like how when Fen started, she was doing most of them, and now she, I think she did two this season?
NH: Yeah, she’s done two or three, but she’s also, um, trying to get an entire light novel read in the next twenty four hours so that she can have a review up by Friday.
A: Oh, how long are those? They’re about the same length as an Animorphs book. She can crank that out in a few hours.
NH: Uh, well she had two hundred pages left at, like, noon, so…
A: Oh! That’s a – it’s a long book!
NH: Mm-hm.
A: Jeezus! Well, I’m bringing up the tumblr, ‘cause I figure we’ll just scroll through, um, and do them backwards based on whatever we’re doing. Ok. And, uh… Oh! We need to talk about (inaudible)
NH: Huh?
A: I said we need to promote the site, I forgot about the itinerary I gave you guys. Uh… right
NH: (crosstalk) (inaudible) the itinerary.
A: but, yeah, AceAnimeReviews.com is, as it sounds on the tin, our anime review site, but we also talk about video games, and light novels, and whatever the hell else we feel like. Um, most recently, we did post one actual article or review a week. The most recent one is from Noah, and they wrote a review of… what was it called?
NH: My Next Life as a Villainess. It was called Tropes and Treacle in [Fantasy] England.
A: Yes, that was it. I forgot, I don’t, I watched that anime, and I completely forgot the title. There’s been a lot of, um, a lot of, I noticed, ‘cause I, like, have watched a lot of– read a lot of Webtoons, and there’ve been a lot of copies of that, of somebody waking up in, in a book as either the villain or an extra.
NH: Yeah, it’s a fairly common, uh, uh, well you can’t really call it a twist, but it’s fairly common these days
A: (crosstalk) Yeah, the best one –
NH: I guess that’s somehow more valuable than being a heroine, I suppose.
A: Yeah, the best one is on Webtoons right now, and it’s called The First Night With the Duke, I recommend it. Um, there’s one on Lezhin [transcriber’s note: pronounced leh-zin] or however you pronounce it, something, something about a villainess, but that one you have to spend money to get past a certain chapter, but it’s, it’s nice. And, um…
NH: (crosstalk) Is it a light novel or a manga.
A: It’s, um, a webcomic, which is, it’s, yeah it’s a webtoon, it’s a webcomic. Most of them are korean, but there’s some that aren’t. See what it’s called.
NH: Like, if there’s a light novel you’re trying to get your hands on, I know a place.
A: Oh, I don’t, I don’t really read light novels because most of them are only online, and I cannot read online at all. It’s just like, my brain will not focus. Like, I got all the – oh it’s called Princess Villainess! And that’s a one where she’s, um, she wakes up as the villain in a book that her sister wrote.
NH: (inaudible)
A: Yeah, it’s pretty good. Um, sorry, I don’t know if you guys can hear that beeping, that’s my phone.
NH: I cannot.
A: Ok, good. So, yeah… And, um, we do oohave a patreon, um. We don’t have really a lot going on for that, ‘cause we’re just starting. Uh, basically
NH: (crosstalk) patreon.com/m/AceAnimeReviews, all one word.
A: Ace Anime Reviews, all one word. Um, patrons, the patrons’ll always get a shout out at this point in our little chats, and then, um if you… join at one dollar tier, you can vote which light novel Fen, uh, reviews each month, as well as anything else we decide to do, uh, voting for, um, at five dollars a month you get access to our discord, um, and then at ten dollars
NH: (speaking gently to their cat; inaudible)
A: Um, you’ll be entered into our monthly sweepstakes and you can join us on one of these chats! So, yeah. Oh, I hear Charlie talking to Tiger Lily.
NH: Nope, you hear me talking to Virgil. Close though.
A: Oh, do I? All three of us sound alike, it’s gonna be really hard for people to tell us apart.
NH: Oh, they’ll learn.
A: Yeah.
NH: I learned to tell the McElroy’s apart, they can learn to tell us apart.
A: I guess. I’ve never learned to tell the McElroy’s apart.
NH: (crosstalk) I’ll be the loud one.
A: I can tell Travis apart from the other two, but that’s because his voice is very distinctive. Um.
NH: I can tell Travis apart from the other two because he’s my favorite.
A: Oh, yeah. Alright, so that’s all the boring stuff out of the way, so now we can talk about anime and the – I’m just going in the backwards order from when these were posted, which means first is the idol anime. None of us like idol anime, but we still cover them, and I don’t know about any of y’all, but since I am the Boss, I do watch everything, even if I know I’m not gonna like it, which means I have watched all of these fricking idol anime.
NH: (crosstalk) I’m sorry.
A: Gekidol is… did not really strike me as being much of an idol anime, it’s more like a basic acting club deal. You know?
C: I think [when you add in] the whole technological hologram whatever the fuck, it crosses into the idol anime… sphere.
A: Yeah, probably
C: (crosstalk) Yeah…
A: Yeah, but so they’re trying to do something new with it, which is, which I appreciate but I don’t trust idol anime trying to be new and different, because, after Nanabun no Nijuuni did me dirty, I, I just, the only good idol anime is, uh, Zombieland Saga, and I will never trust another one ever again.
C: Yeah… I do appreciate that this season there was no excessive, uh, sexualization of the children in the idol anime.
A: (crosstalk) Oh, that’s always nice. Well, I mean
NH: (crosstalk) That’s always a plus.
A: Yeah, that’s always, always – I mean, if you like titties, and you wanna look at some titties, that’s fine. And, also, I, um, most of the time, when you’re seeing, like, a sixteen year old boob, and stuff that they do use for fan service, like, it’s upsetting to us, as adults, but, most of the time, those are anime that are directed towards an audience about the same age as the characters. So, it’s about, probably, on the same moral level as those teen dramas, that always have a lot of sex scenes and stuff, [that] people kind of let slide because the actors are twenty. And, like, the animators and voice actors are all in their twenties and thirties, so, you know, it’s, it’s, I’m not, I’m not a fan of it, ‘cause I’m not, I’m gay, so, the uh, the titties don’t do anything for me. So if there’s nothing but titties, I’m bored. Which is why I get really nit-picky when I have to cover a fan service anime, but, uh, it’s, I mean, like, you do you. If you like that kind of stuff, I guess it’s fine. Let’s see
C: Counterpoint, it’s gross (inaudible)
A: Yeah… And then I*Chu. I*Chu is boring
C: Yeah.
A: I asked, after I watched it, I asked Charlie if, uh, they knew who monokuma and she had and, uh, sorry, they didn’t, um, but that’s just ‘cause the principle dresses like a teddy bear, which is the only interesting thing about it. That, and, one of the, one of the guys just cannot sing at all. Which is bold. But, like most idols in idol anime are not good at singing, like it’s one of the BangDream! bands [Roselia], like one of their selling points is that they’re actually good at music. And then there’s Idolls!, which
C: (inaudible)
A: Yeah… I guess that’s one with the over designed males, which is sometimes interesting, but usually they’re like, like I like Bungo Stray Dolls, Stray Dogs, sorry, and I like, uh, Nanbaka, but usually, they kind of miss me; I’m not into that. And Idolls!, which the animation’s weird, apparently it’s motion capture, that’s why it looks like that. So…
NH: Yeah. It’s so very awkwardly CGI
A: Yeah, it’s it’s it’s motion capture, which I, I actually kind of found myself digging it a bit more, just ‘cause the way, like, they talked was more like how actual people talk, instead of the little squeaky like “Ahhh, kawaii” kinda thing that like…
C: (crosstalk) Yeah, it reminded of, like, the virtual, virtual streamers that are popular nowadays.
A: Yeah. Yeah, they’re like that, like, I’m not even into a lot of those. I probably, like. I was subscribed to all the [English] hololives, and I think I only watch maybe one out every ten of their videos. Partly ‘cause they’re really long. You know, ‘cause I don’t actually attend streams that often. And then Idoly Pride, which, uh, which apparently only had one star on funimation, which got, um, the guy from mother’s basement, his hopes up that it would be entertainingly bad, but it’s just kind of ok. I think the one star is just –
NH: (crosstalk) Geoff Thew?
A: – fanboys annoyed that there’s a boy in it.
NH: Hey, do you remember my, that’s not a question I should ask over a stream, never mind. I didn’t say anything.
A: Ok.
C: I kind of like Idoly Pride better than the other ones
A: (crosstalk) Yeah, like it’s, it’s
C: like, they were brave enough to kill off the idol in the first episode
A: (crosstalk) Yeah. And also, they had, let a, they have a girl child talk to a boy child about her own age, when usually idol fanboys and moe fanboys cannot stand that, which is why, usually, if you see a guy in a idol or moe anime, he’s either a dad, or a little brother. Or you’ll have someone like in Non Non Biyori, where their brother never talks. Because, uh, you know, those kind of fanboys, they like to cater to the most insecure, obnoxious, toxic fanboys in their base, for whatever reason. Alright, and then, uh, next up, we have Wonder Egg Priority. Did either one of you watch Wonder Egg Priority?
NH: No…
A: Oh, you should, it’s delightful. It reminds me of Flip Flappers, which is one of the nicest things you could possibly say about any anime.
NH: It reminds you of what?
A: (slightly louder) Flip Flappers!
NH: Oh, I haven’t seen that one either.
A: Oh, you should watch that, too, it’s, it’s also delightful. It’s about a, it’s a magical girl anime that likes to really, it really likes to play with the medium, and also it’s super gay.
NH: Ooo, I love gay!
A: Yeah. And, um, Wonder Egg Priority also does that, where it drops you off into this kind of – actually, another thing it kind of reminds me of is another Webtoon called Beetle Hands, where, um, that’s a horror comic, where the main just gets dropped off – I should be playing this game! – um, just gets dropped into this weird horror thing, where things are chasing them, and there’s lots of symbolism and stuff. And, um, you don’t really get any explanation of what’s going on for quite a while, and that’s kind of also what, uh, what Wonder Egg is kind of like, ‘cause like, I have no idea what’s going on. Just something about bullying, and saving girls who committed suicide because they were being bullied, and if she does that, then her friend will come back to life allegedly, which I don’t buy that, I don’t trust the bug, but, you know. But it, it seems like it’s gonna be a good one. I’m looking forward to the next episode. And then we have the surfing boys anime.
NH: The one where the main character decides that his whole life’s purpose is surfing after seeing a very cute classmate surfing.
A: Oh, yeah, that was super gay. You can’t, you can’t really claim that he’d never seen a surfer before, because his annoying friend with the ukulele is a surfer.
NH: His annoying friend with the ukulele has been offering to teach him how to surf for years, allegedly! And he’s always said no.
A: (crosstalk) Yeah! So, obvious- Yeah, so clearly, the only reason he’s suddenly changed his mind is because this other guy was super hot. What does this do?
NH: Oh, it’s not because he’s super hot, it’s just because surfing looks So Cool all of a sudden!
A: Oh, yeah, that’s it, sure. He, he didn’t have a sexual awakening at all.
NH: I mean his, his boy crush can’t be given any credit, because they didn’t even bother to teach him how to swim first.
A: Yeah. I mean, like if you can only doggy paddle, you have no business trying to swim in the ocean, you will die.
NH: It’s. Ridiculous. I can’t wait to see how this comes back to haunt them.
A: Oh, yes… And, uh, let’s see… But while we’re talking about that, we should probably talk about the skateboarding anime, just ‘cause surfing and skateboarding kind of go hand in hand. They’re very similar.
NH: (crosstalk) Sk8 the Infinity?
A: Oh, yeah, that one’s great, I’m gonna, that’s gonna be my one sports anime this season.
NH: It looks great!
A: Yeah, the only time I’ve watched more than one sports anime in a season is whatever, whenever Yuri on Ice was going, because it also had Keijo!!!, and Keijo!!! was delightful. But, um, yeah, but, yeah, that one’s really good, I’m looking forward to that.
NH: That one’s funny, too.
A: Oh, yeah.
NH: Like, I don’t know, I like skateboarding. I don’t do it, ‘cause, like, I don’t have a sense of balance, but it’s fun.
A: Yeah, when I heard about the skateboarding anime, I thought it was gonna be doing, like, half-pipes, and that kind of extreme sport kind of thing, but it’s, it’s, there was a little bit of that? But not, not really?
NH: Uh, I think I’m about to have a minor (inaudible) I don’t think I saved before I closed the Sims 4.
A: Uh oh. Well, that’s not good.
NH: No.
C: That’s a freak out you can have after the stream.
NH: Yes, I am, I’m going to have it after the stream. Ok, no, I’m safe. I just realized I didn’t remember saving, so I wanted to check.
A: Oh.
NH: But I did. So, we’re fine.
A: Oh, the worst thing that can happen from forgetting about your sims is that they all die.
NH: What?
A: I said ‘the worst thing that happens from forgetting about your sims is that they all die.’
NH: That’s not the worst thing that happens. I know some simmers for whom that’s the entire goal.
A: Yeah.
NH: I mean, I don’t know them personally. I know of them.
A: I know. Well, the whole point is that you, you kill them, they don’t die accidentally. But, um, or that they destroy something that you like having. Alright, well, next up we have Kemono Jihen, which does right everything that Dr Ramune did wrong. It’s great, I love it.
NH: (crosstalk) You mean there’s something that Dr Sprite didn’t do right?
A: No? What? Oh, yeah! Dr Sprite wasn’t, wasn’t a masterpiece? No, it was, it was not, it was awful.
NH: That can’t be true.
A: Yeah, and, uh, like, um, I already pretty much said my piece, ‘cause my, ‘cause after sleeping on it – Usually after I get real mad at a premiere, I’ll sleep on it, and then I’ll be kind of ok with it, but, um, with Ramune, I just, I can’t get over the fact that he took away an abused child’s, one of their most important survival techniques. Like, kids need, kids in abusive households need to be able to lie. Like, it’s, it keeps them from dying. You know?
NH: He did what?
A: Yeah, he gave her a teapot that forced her to tell the truth to her mother, whom he already knew was abusive.
NH: That’s not…
A: Because he told her that her mom said that she wasn’t allowed to cry or laugh and had to save that [for when] she was acting.
NH: Oh my god…
A: Yeah. And then, at the end, he, he, um, meanwhile in Kemono Jihen, the, um, sorry I’m trying to focus on too many things all at once. He comes to, um, the main character comes to a place where he can tell right away that the kid is being mistreated, and he immediately interferes himself in the situation in order to keep him safe, even though he was – was technically hired to kill him. But he ends up not doing that, because he compulsively adopts kids. Apparently. So…
NH: That’s cute.
A: Yeah. And then in Dr Ramune, he interferes directly in the end, which means that he could have done so from the beginning, which as a medical professional, he should have done. Like, I don’t know if it’s different
NH: (crosstalk) Yeah…
A: I don’t know if, uh, Japan has mandated reporters like america does. But he should have child welfare, or whatever it’s called, on speed dial. For situations like that. Like, the fact that he just let her go, and put her into more danger, just really, just rubbed me the wrong way.
NH: Yeah, that’s fucked up.
A: Yeah. And then, next we have EX-ARM. My, uh, my computer, my ps4 was having some connection issues during the middle of that, and I never finished it because it did not strike me as something particularly interesting.
NH: For EX-ARM?
A: For EX-ARM, yeah. I was not into it. Charlie covered that one.
NH: Yeah, I haven’t seen most of the premiere’s that I didn’t cover, just because I’ve had to devote so many brain cells to not destroying my computer every time I load up Crunchyroll.
A: Yeah, do you, uh, have any other thoughts on EX-ARM after watching it?
C: Just watch RWBY.
A: Just watch RWBY?
C: I don’t even watch RWBY, and you should just watch RWBY.
A: I watched the, um, HbomberGuy’s, uh, big, long, three hour take down of RWBY, so I kinda don’t wanna watch RWBY.
C: RWBY gets a lot better, apparently.
NH: I don’t think he actually watched the later seasons, because a lot of his complaints do tighten up, like, I hate to say this, but after Monty died, they do get a lot stronger narratively.
A: I think, maybe, it’s just ‘cause it took him so long to write it that, write and make the video that another season came out after he was done. Oh, I lost. Look at that. My first loss. Let’s see how many more I do. Usually when I’m doing these duels, I’ll lose three times, and then switch to a different character. Alright, what do we got next? Whoosh, we’ve got Jobless Reincarnation next. Did you watch that one, Haley?
NH: No. That was Charlie’s.
A: Yeah, I know that was Charlie’s.
C: It gets better in the manga, so I’ll try and give a few more episodes.
A: Yeah, him, him being a perv was kind of weirding me out, but he’s voiced by the same guy that voices Gintoki in Gintama, so I started thinking, or imagining that it was literally Gin-san, and it suddenly became the funniest thing I’d ever seen. And I’m willing to stick with it just for that.
C: (inaudible) his mom…
A: Yeah, well, that was, like, briefly, like he’s not immediately gonna code switch into thinking of this person as his mom. Especially when he’s thirty-four and already has a mom. So, I’m, I think it’s fair that it was, and, I mean we didn’t really see him perving on her after that initial thing, I mean. Once he realized that’s his mom, he kind of, he kind of very quickly stopped.
C: Yeah…
A: Though, I mean, like, at a toddler –
C: (crosstalk) He shifts his attention to every other vaguely female shaped being in his radius.
A: He’s not sexually mature, so, really, like, I can see him being still kind of interested in the idea of sex, but he shouldn’t actually be getting sexually aroused. Just, like, physically, biologically, he should not be capable of it. But, uh, ok, next up we have Horimiya, Which is cute.
C: I like all the other characters in that anime better than the main character, which is fairly typical, for an isekai, but.
A: Oh, we’re, uh, oh on, uh, Job, yeah. But, um, moving on to Horimiya, which is adorable.
NH: It’s cute as hell.
A: The guy is uh, the guy is bisexual, which is cool. Like.
NH: I love this.
A: Like, you can’t even argue that he’s not, because the fact that he had an immediate response to ‘you should date this guy’ means that, uh,
NH: (crosstalk) “I don’t think we’d make a good couple.”
A: – which means that he’s considered it. So, you know. Apparently, it does get kind of, like, um, just like a little warning, it does get kind of like, dealing with sex and kink and stuff later on. I don’t know if you probably knew about that, but I thought I’d let you know now. But, uh, it’s handled in a pretty good, as well, pretty much as well as you, you’d, uh, it can be, for, uh, something aimed at teenagers. So. Next ones we have here are Dr Ramune, which I said my piece on, and Sk8 the Infinity, which we also talked about. It’s very good. It’s a good show.
NH: I could talk about Sk8 the Infinity some more.
A: Oh, sure! I like it!
NH: No, I was joking. It is. It’s good! Um, I liked how they showed, uh, oh fuck, I’m blanking on his name. Cute Canadian Boy getting the hang of skateboarding by duct taping his feet to it, and then pretending it’s a snowboard.
A: Yeah! Like, you probably could have gathered that he’s a snowboarder, even if you hadn’t seen the, like the only indication they gave you, told you he was a snowboarder, was the picture of him, and then somebody saying it later on, but you could probably, like it doesn’t seem like it comes out of left field, just from the way that he stands on the board, or the way that he, like, his posture, even if you don’t really know anything about skate-snowboarding, which I don’t. Like, I think I would have got that he was a snowboarder, even with that, even, even then.
NH: Even without his would-have-been-boss saying ‘oh, he’s a snowboarder.’
A: Oh, yeah, Bones is good shit. I don’t know if they’ve ever done a bad job. And he [Reki] also looks like the guy from the skating anime! Should we talk about the skating anime real quick? I just wanna, with that I just wanna
NH: (crosstalk) Are you talking about the, uh Skate-Leading Stars?
A: Yeah, I just wanna, hold on, where’s that, that one joke I made on tumblr about it? I’m just quote that. Um. Oh, it was a couple days ago. Um.
NH: Skate-Leading Stars is bad.
A: Oh, yeah, it’s real bad. It’s got like, half the freaking cast is that, that annoying bastard that’s in every sports anime that acts like their stupid game is the most important thing in the world.
NH: Fricking…that wouldn’t necessarily be a breaking point, for me, but, like, they end the first episode by committing crimes
A: I know!
NH: and then do nothing to build on that rush.
A: I know! Well, you know what, it’s just boys being boys. Just committing some assault and kidnapping and unlawful imprisonment and identity theft and fraud and plagiarism, like, you know~
NH: It was just for fun, no need to ruin their lives over this.
A: And then, but, uh, yeah, like every other character is that asshole who wants to act like their fricking dumb game is the most important thing in the world. It’s like, no one even knows what skate-leading is, is that different from figure skating or not? The anime doesn’t feel like explaining, and then, like, it assumes I’m supposed to know.
NH: Skate-leading is just team figure skating.
A: Ah! That’s, that’s lame. Like, um –
NH: (crosstalk) It’s like – okay, just go watch Yuri!!! on ICE instead.
A: Stars Align kinda did the same thing with soft tennis. Like, what the hell is soft tennis? Turns out it’s just the tennis equivalent of softball. But, um.
NH: Amazing.
A: But, see the difference between Stars Align and Skate-Leading Stars is that Stars Align was good. Um, I’d love for there to be a second season of it someday, but, yeah. That was a good show, so I had more patience for that kind of thing than others might have. Also I hate that kid who’s in every, every frickin’ sports anime. They need to, like, stop.
NH: (cross talk): Yeah, they aren’t completely unrealistic, I did swim with kids like that-
A: (crosstalk) There’s another reason why Wave!! is so good, is that, yeah, like-
NH: (crosstalk) – but also, they’re boring as hell.
A: – it’s another reason why Sk8 the Infinity and Wave!! are, are good, and I actually recommend Wave!!, even though I’m not gonna watch any more of it, is that, they don’t have that guy. Everybody there is there to have fun and
NH: (inaudible crosstalk)just genuinely enthusiastic!
A: Yeah, Sk8’s got that, closest they have is that clown guy, but he’s not, like, trying to ruin anybody else’s good time. He’s just having, being kind of a jerk. Like, he doesn’t have, like,
NH: (inaudible)
A: No, he does throw bombs, but he doesn’t like, um, what, what am I trying to say?
NH: (crosstalk) Are you talking about the guy who broke Reki’s arm after burning his skateboard?
A: (crosstalk) Yeah, like, I don’t mean he’s not trying to ruin anybody else’s – No, I mean, like –
NH: (crosstalk) And routinely throws actual explosives at competitors? Is that the one you’re saying is just having a good time?
Ace: Oh, he’s having a wonderful time! Like, what I mean is that, he’s not acting like somebody having fun playing a game is somehow lessening the, the, the, the gravitas of skateboarding.
NH: That’s true, he’s just, you know, risk, risking everyone’s lives for his good time.
A: I know! And it’s, and it’s delightful. It’s fun to watch. I like that guy.
NH: I mean, yes, as a villain, he’s very fun to watch.
A: Oh, yeah.
NH: Their insistence on referring to him as the anti-hero is a little off-putting.
A: No, he insists on referring to himself as that.Then, ah, yeah. Next is the, um, Hidden Dungeon Only I Can Enter. I, I, I quit that one in five minutes because the boobies went boing, and that gives me an excuse to quit.
NH: I don’t remember anything about this.
A: Uh, the title –
NH: Oh! He found a girl chained up in a dungeon –
A: The title makes me feel like there should be a, like, a joke about his wife’s vagina. That’s the hidden dungeon only he can enter. So I’m not surprised that it turned out to be ecchi.
NH: That would be funnier than anything in the actual episode.
A: Yeah
NH:Teenagers are boring.
A: Yeah, it’s, they, they kinda are. (Sniff) I mean, most anime is about teenagers, but –
NH: Maybe we’re just too old.
A: Maybe. Next is So I’m a Spider, So What? I like that, I really liked that one.
NH: Uh, pass.
A: Fen was very quick –
C: (crosstalk) It’s cute.
Ace: Fen was very quick to jump in my, uh, my messages on tumblr to defend the potato. Said that Shun was a good boy. So. But Fen isn’t here to defend Shun anymore, so I’m going to continue calling him a potato. If, uh, Fen had a problem with it, she’d be here. So, you know. I mean, it was basically That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime, which had it’s, uh, second season premiere, and is still good. And that’s all I’ve got to say about that.
NH: I keep meaning to look into that one, and then I get (inaudible: disturbed?) by other things.
A: I mean, it’s, it’s good, but it’s not worth sitting through twenty-four episodes to get caught up. Like, you could probably just watch the first episode, then skip to the most recent one and lose very little.
NH: Does it have an english dub? ‘Cause then I could just put it in while I’m doing other things.
A: I think it does, probably. I mean, you can check on Funimation. They probably have the dub if it, it’s got one.
NH: That’s good. I was heartbroken when I discovered By the Grace of the Gods wasn’t fully dubbed yet.
A: Yeah, my one issue with, um
NH: I was having such a good time with it.
C: You could just, you know, git gud and watch it in Japanese.
A: Yeah. Well, my one issue with Slime Time, is that after he names them, and they evolve, they often become less monstrous and very generic anime hot. Which is kind of boring. Like, the guy who did the character design clearly did not understand the appeal of monster girls. Uhm, lets see. Next we have Scar on the Praeter, which, uh, who keeps giving GoHands money?
NH: Oh, who knows. Probably the same people who gave Peter Grill money.
A: Probably people who like so-so-bad-it’s-good stuff, ‘cuz it’s real bad. Like, uh, it’s, it, it – it reminds me of that one, the review that uh, whatsisname, Ebert – something Roger Ebert said in his review of Battlefield Earth, where he’s like, something along the lines of, “the director has seen in other movies that people like to tilt the camera. But he doesn’t know why.”
[transcriber’s note: the actual quote is, “The director, Roger Christian, has learned from better films that directors sometimes tilt their cameras, but he has not learned why.]
A: But he thinks it looks cool, so he assumes that if he tilts the camera all the time, that it’ll make his movie look cool. But with GoHands what they do is that they’ve seen that people will move the camera in certain ways, and it’ll look cool. So if they keep moving the camera constantly, eventually, by accident, they’ll have stuff that looks cool. But what they fail to realize is that cinematography is like the score, where it’s as much a part of the storytelling in a visual medium as the dialogue. So if you just do that stuff constantly –
NH: (crosstalk) Well to be fair, most major movie scores are just copy-paste anyway.
A: Yeah. So if you do that stuff constantly, it just overwhelms the audience with too much information and becomes meaningless. So, y’know. And like, you can have stuff with constant camera movements and scores and have it work well, but, the- the thing is that when it works well, it’s because the people who are doing it know what they’re doing. The people who make Handshakers and Scar on the Praeter and all these – have no idea what they’re doing, they’re just trying to accidentally make something good, and failing miserably every time.
NH: Well, someday they’ll succeed, and then they’ll use that to continue failing to make something good.
A: And this is like their third or fourth series. They would’ve started learning by now, if they were actually listening to people. But instead they seem more like that really pretentious guy in art class who’s insistent he’s a genius and people just aren’t ready for him yet, when really he’s just a pretentious idiot who doesn’t know what he’s doing.
A: So yeah. Next is Back Arrow, the one where the guy with the hair – (unintelligible)
NH: (crosstalk) It’s fun!
A: Yea, it was – that was one where I was kinda on my phone for most of it, but the main – the guy was entertaining.
NH: I wish he had put the underwear on before tossing them aside and getting his nice little mech. That would’ve been ideal.
A: It would’ve been – I’ll probably watch the second episode. I imagine – ‘cuz I didn’t, I wasn’t really paying attention – to be honest, I wasn’t really paying attention to Otherside Picnic either, but I watched the second episode and enjoyed it immensely, so I imagine I’ll have the same thing happen with Back Arrow. Sometimes I just get really distracted by my phone. You know how it is.
A: And next is Bottom-Tier Character Tomozaki. That show looks pretty –
NH: (crosstalk) It’s boring.
A: – but I’m not, not that invested. I don’t imagine it’s going — like it might be good, it could surprise you. I might give it three episodes, but. I dunno.
C: It looks pretty, but it’s not worth it.
A: Yeah. Next we have the volleyball anime, that’s, that’s one that looks like it’s probably another good show, but it’s about volleyball, and volleyball is bad, and I hate volley – and so, I’m not gonna watch it. Same reason I won’t watch Haikyuu!!, even though I hear that’s a good show, because I don’t like volleyball. Volleyball is unwatchable. So, yeah. Also-
C: (inaudible) volleyball as a background thing in the new volleyball anime, and it’s not gonna work.
A: Yeah. It’s like Haikyuu!! meets Stars Align, and it also has the problem where the dude deuteragonist is that motherfucker, who acts like, like tell him ‘you’re ruining your life!’ It’s like, bitch, he’s fifteen! Who cares if he takes, he doesn’t have to take anything seriously. He’s got seventy years of life ahead of him. He’s –
NH: At least.
A: He’s fine. Like, if anyone’s ruining their life, it’s the person who is pushing his body really hard at a young age, so that by the time he becomes an Actual Adult, he’s gonna be in pain all the time. But, you know.
NH: The worst thing about high school sports.
A: Yeah.
NH: I miss being able to move without my knees killing me.
A: Oh, yeah. Well, so do I, and I didn’t play sports. Next, we have Heaven’s Design Team, which was just absolutely charming.
NH: It’s amazing.
A: Yeah, the only thing I
NH: (crosstalk) It’s so silly.
A: the only negative thing I’ve seen anybody say about it is the, one of the characters is a trans woman, and is played by a cis man.
NH: Who?
A: Um, the, the lady with the purple hair is, is a trans woman, and is voiced by a cis man.
NH: (crosstalk) The birds
A: Yeah, the lady who liked birds. I would’ve liked to see them show the ping pong sponge in it’s – ‘cause they just show that it was approved, but it was invented as a tree, so I think, and, uh, a lot of people don’t know about ping pong sponges, so I think, uh. It’s a deep sea sponge. That’s where, that’s where God put it, was underwater.
[transcriber’s note: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chondrocladia. Check it out, it’s amazing.]
NH: (crosstalk) I mean –
A: But they didn’t show that in the, in the anime, and I think they should have. Hey, look, I won!
NH: Yay!
A: Yay!
NH: Are you still fighting the, uh, bandit, the american?
A: I’m still playing as the Bandit Keith, yes.
NH: Hello, american.
A: You’d think I would be doing better in rookie, but, meh. I’m not.
NH: How long have you played this game?
A: Uh, since it came out. I don’t, I don’t play ranked duels very often, which is why I’m down so low, despite having every character unlocked. But, yeah. The next is ABCiee Working Diary, did either of you watch that? It’s a short. It’s three minutes long.
NH: No.
A: And that’s all I can say about it. They say that the ABC is supposed to be an unknown creature, but it’s just, like, an otter/axolotl thing.
NH: Oh, it’s free! (referring to Duel Links)
A: Yeah. Next we have Hortensia Saga, which definitely picked a fun day to drop. Considering how it opens.
NH: Shit that’s right. I didn’t find out about that until after I finished watching it.
A: Oh, yeah. That, that is a show that hits differently in the afternoon, compared to the morning. (fatalistic laughter at the state of our country) It’s like, if you want to pick a fun, a day to premiere your anime that opens with a coup, January 6, 2021 was definitely it. The second episode has dropped, but I haven’t watched it, have you watched it?
NH: Uh, no. I wasn’t interested enough in the first episode. Like, I tried – I managed to, it took me like two hours to finish the first episode, because I kept getting bored and going to do something else.
A: Yeah. Like, that was one I (inaudible). I mean, like, it’s, it’s good, it’s fine, It’s just not something I’m interested in watching any more of.
NH: It’s very, very generic.
A: Yeah.
NH: Frickin’ Moth took me to task, ‘cause of how I reacted to, uh, Asshole McBowman using his bow to try and beat people up. Because, apparently, historically, that’s accurate.
A: (crosstalk) Oh, is it?
NH: But, emotionally, emotionally it was horrifying.
A: Yeah.
NH: I was just so, and that’s the only part of it I remember clearly, is that I hated Roy, and I hated how he used his bow.
A: Yeah. Let’s see, next we have Otherside Picnic, which, like I said, I didn’t really pay attention to the first episode, but I watched the second episode, and it was delightful.
NH: I love (inaudible) I went back and I read the first volume of the light novel series after I watched it. And, I quickly realized that I was not going to be able to read the rest of them, because the main character is just The Most Obnoxious kind of narrator – Hi, yes, can you be less loud please? Oh. Oh my god. That isn’t what I wanted.
A: Who’s being loud?
NH: Hold on. There, I-
A: Oh, I think we only have one more after
NH: (crosstalk) Sorry about that. Something launched on my desktop and it’s very loud. So I did not hear anything of what was just said.
A: Yeah, well. We’re on the last one, which is Suppose a Kid From the Last Dungeon Boonies Moved to a Starter Town. It’s cute. I watched the second episode. It was also cute. I liked that the girls had agency. Even though their agency kind of revolves around the dude, but, then again, everybody’s character kind of revolves around this dude right now. So, it’s fine.
C: It’s cute.
A: Yeah. So, as far as the isekai anime, well, it’s not an isekai anime, it’s a straight up fantasy, but it’s got the aesthetics of an isekai.
NH: As far as OP Protagonists go, he is more charming than some.
A: Yes, he’s more charming than baby Gin-san, but baby Gin-san was funnier, because I am imagining him as being baby Gin-san.
NH: Yeah. He’s more charming than Anus McShithead
A: Oh! I loved that show though. I mean, it was just so over the top all the time.
NH: (to someone off mic) (inaudible) McShithead (inaudible)
A: It’s ironic.
NH: (to a wild Fen) Oh, we’re talking on the stream about (inaudible) Sorry, Fen just walked into my room.
A: Oh.
NH: (inaudible) gone back to (inaudible)
A: Yeah. We’re on the last one, it’s too bad she had to leave now. What did you say?
Fen: (inaudible)
NH: Oh, hold on, I’m just gonna finish this conversation with Fen, and then I’ll be back. ‘Cause I don’t think she’s interested in being on.
A: OK. Well, then I’ll just sit here and play Yu-Gi-Oh by myself. Unless Charlie’s gonna talk.
C: (deafening silence of the socially awkward)
NH: Sorry about that, Fen wanted to know why we were talking about light novels and her.
A: Oh. Well, ‘cause we were talking about the premieres, which she knew we were doing, ‘cause she was invited to join us but decided she’d rather be reading, like a nerd.
NH: Yeah, well, she’s almost done with the actual novel, so, hopefully, there will actually be something for one of us to look over soon.
A: Oh, fun! Anyway, that was the last first impressions. I guess, uh, were there any other, ‘cause there were a lot of sequels this season. Any of you guys watchin’ any of those? I’m watching Re:Zero, and Promised Neverland, and both of the, uh, both of the Cells at Work, and Slime Time.
NH: Uh, no, I’m not watching any of the sequels. The only anime I’m watching right now is the Awful One, that takes all of my energy and will to live to get through two episodes of it.
A: Yeah. You know you don’t have, like I said, you don’t have to do a full review. Like, you can do an essay about this one aspect of it if you want.
NH: But the aspect that’s pissing me off would require me to seek out more media that portrays it in a way that bolsters my point.
A: I suppose.
NH: Oh, which initial character? Why are you making me do this, game? You didn’t warn me that Duel Links was gonna make me choose a character immediately.
A: Oh, it doesn’t matter. You’ll get the other one almost immediately afterward.
NH (talking to the game): (inaudible) reduced your life points – oh, is that what those life points are for?
A: The uh, I should probably warn you that Duel Links has different rules from the main game, though I don’t know if you know how to play either of them.
NH: I know how to play the main game. I used to know how to play the main game. I assume that’s why they’re giving me this very useful and fun tutorial.
A: Yeah.
NH: Wait, that’s not how that works, where are my five cards? Why is this game only letting me use one card a turn?
A: Because they’re teaching you. Eventually, you do get to hold five cards.
NH: OK
A: Yeah, um.
NH: Hate that.
A: Yeah, but, um, you only have three slots for monsters and spells and traps. And, um, your deck, it has to be twenty to thirty cards, instead of forty to sixty. ‘Cause this one kind of focuses more on, uh, finishing quickly, then on, um, the stuff that the other one does.
A: Yeah. So, we did all of ‘em, so, we may as well close up. Let’s see. Let’s look at my itinerary again, in case there’s something interesting. Ah, yes! Best and worst of the week. Uh, Noah, what was your favorite premiere this season?
NH: Favorite one of this season?
A: Yeah.
NH: It was either Sk8 the Infinity or Otherside Picnic.
A: Yeah. And, um, Charlie, which one did you think was the worst?
C: (inaudible)
A: Can’t hear you.
C: (inaudible)
NH: Can’t hear you.
A: Maybe you should –
C: (inaudible)
A: What’s, what was the worst premiere this season?
C: The worst one for me was EX-ARM.
A: EX-ARM? Yeah, that seems about right.
NH: For me, it was Hidden Dungeon, just because it’s the only one I remember nothing of. I think I’m about to kill Yami Yugi.
A: Oh, yeah, well, it’s very early, it’s a tutorial. But, yeah
NH: (crosstalk) Hey, don’t take this from me.
A: A’ight. And it should probably be pretty obvious which I think are the best and the worst. The best was the Egg, and the worst was Ramune. The worst in terms of technical quality was EX-ARM, it was just bad to look at. But, yeah. Um.
A: And, so, the next article, comin’ up on Friday is gonna be a review of the light novel by Fen. That’s why she’s not here, ‘cause she’s reading.
NH: (crosstalk) Don’t know which light novel it is yet, she hasn’t revealed that.
A: No. We don’t know. But, um. So, uh. Yeah. You guys have anything you’re up to? Or anything in particular you wanna talk about? I know that Noah wants to plug The Untamed on Netflix.
NH: Yeah, Noah does want to plug the Untamed on Netflix. It’s fifty episodes, hour long each episode, roughly. It’s about a dude who gets killed and brought back to life, and it’s a very touching and emotional tale about trauma, and debts we owe each other, and how society forces us into positions that we often make bad choices in, or choices that are taken as bad, regardless of what they actually were, and also, it’s great! It’s very gay, which makes sense, because it’s adopted from an extremely gay webnovel that you shouldn’t read, um. Web novel’s bad. But it’s great.
A: While we’re plugging Netflix shows, I’ll plug Sweet Home, which is developed, which is based on a webtoon, which is also good and I also recommend, but I’ll probably write an article talking about the differences between the mini-series and the webtoon eventually. But it’s good, it’s a Korean show about, uh – It has shades of zombie apocalypse, but the monsters aren’t zombies. It’s great, I recommend it. I don’t wanna give too much away, because some things about it’s premise are spoilery. But, yeah. How about you Charlie, got anything you wanna plug?
C: I’ve been playing video games recently, so…
A: (crosstalk) What video game have you been
C: Old Man’s Journey is nice.
A: I bought, uh, Bloodborne to play on my vacation, and then spent my vacation playing the Sims.
NH: Sims is a great game. Provided you have put in enough money to get actual useful packs.
A: And then, uh, so, aside from that, are you guys up to anything? Do you guys have any, like, social media, or activity or anything else you wanna promote?
NH: No, I don’t do anything on my social media.
A: Don’t you have a twitch channel that you occasionally stream from?
NH: Uh, sometimes, it’s, uh, I’m @arctickchild on twitch tv. I haven’t streamed in a while, though, because my set up is non-existent. I’m waiting until I get a microphone, and then I’m gonna try, I think, Bioware games again. ‘Cause I wanna play them, they’re good.
A: I do stream on this channel Tuesdays. I’ll probably do tuesdays, mostly, um. Wednesday we’ll be doing this, and then probably after dinner I’ll come back and do some more streaming of whatever the hell I feel like it. Thursday, since thursday I have to switch over to working graveyard, I’ll be doing Late Night LOTRO, which is basically playing LOTRO whenever I get home from work, at about 11.30-midnight to dawn, or whenever I get tired of staying up all night, so. That’ll be fun, if you guys wanna hang out and watch me do that, and I made a character just for that who’s a Beorning. If you haven’t seen a Beorning, then that might be interesting. Then I also have my tumblr, um, well I’ve got multiple tumblrs, there’s my gaming tumblr, which is basically just screenshots of random stuff, which is spelled the same, you know, Rhlotr. And then my main tumblr is booty-uprooter, which is two words: ‘booty hyphen uprooter.’ And twitter is also @bootyuprooter, that’s all one word. You can follow me on one of those, and then, yeah, that’s about it.
A: What about you Charlie, you up to anything?
C: Just a tumblr where I occasionally post writing prompts, if anyone wants to check that out. It’s ecwritingprompts – that’s e the letter ‘c’ writing prompts, all one word.
A: Alright. Lemme see if there’s anything else. And, that’ll do it for this week. I’ll probably be streaming again later tonight. I’ll put a post on my tumblr, and maybe I’ll even remember to post it on my twitter when I (inaudible). Who knows? I hope everyone has a good week. Thank you for joining me, you two.
NH: Thank you for having us.
A: Oh, no problem. Ok, you guys, have fun
NH: (crosstalk) Stay safe.
C: Love you~
A: Love you, too~ Bye~~~~
Ace Anime Reviews 