Audio Transcript: Ace Anime Reviews Rwednesday
27 January, 2021
Ace (A), Charlie (C), Noah Haley (NH)
A: Now. We’re starting now.
C: Hello, everybody! Welcome to Ace Anime Review Rwednesday, where we get together and shoot the shit about the most recent anime we’ve been watching, which is, we’ll let you know later. I’m Charlie, they/him, and apparently I’m hosting today.
A: Haha!
C: But here’s our founder!
A: I’m Ace Barret King, use he/him pronouns, and I just got off working seven days in a row, which is why this stream is so much later than usual.
NH: And I’m Noah Haley, they/them. I’m youngest and newest, and I’m the one you have to blame when things go wrong. Or when they go right! I’m the one to blame for everything!
C: Yes, and that’s Zuko who’s barking in the background and being a very bad boy!
A: Oh, thank God I can’t hear him!
NH: If you don’t acknowledge him, he’ll go away.
C: He won’t, he really won’t. He’ll get worse. So, at Ace Anime Reviews, we review anime, but we also talk about light novels, and video games, and, really, whatever takes our fancy. What else do we do? (scanning itinerary to remind self what to talk about next) We’re getting better!
A: Yeah.
NH: Yeah. Our most recent review on the site was for Old Man’s Journey, written by our lovely Charlie.
C: Oh, yeah. I did that one. I talked about how much it’s a nice game and everyone should play it. And it’s a shame that my siblings have never heard of it, apparently.
A: Nope.
NH: Sorry.
C: It’s fine. It’s three years old and it was… sort of indie?
A: Oh! Which means in about two years, I might actually play it! ‘Cause it always takes me five years to get around to playing any game. I didn’t play Persona 5 ‘til last year!
C: (Crosstalk) I haven’t played it at all!
NH: (crosstalk) Persona 5 isn’t an indie game.
A: And I have, I have Bloodborne, and still have not played it. I’ve played about five minutes of it.
NH: (crosstalk) That’s also not an indie game.
A: I know!
NH: You said it takes you five years to play any indie game.
C: (crosstalk) Even longer for (inaudible)
A: Oh, it takes even longer than that to play an indie game. I still haven’t played Spiritfarer despite it being right up my alley.
NH: Amazing.
C: Yes. (inaudible)
NH: I believe, Ace, you have promised us a review of something for this Friday.
A: Yes. The next, on Friday it’s, I’m writing something about The Remarried Empress, which is a Webtoon. And specifically, I’m writing a slightly half-hearted defense of Rashta’s character. So, that should be
C: (crosstalk) Yeah… I’ve been reading that one, it’s interesting?
A: Yeah. I’ll get into most of my issues with how, it’s mostly the advertising, how she’s, how it’s advertised, like how she’s framed in the advertising that’s kinda weird. But also, I was looking at the comments, and somebody called her ‘Trashta’, and well, I’m gonna have to, I’m gonna have to get into that a little bit, I think. Not too much, anybody smart and sexy enough to follow us probably already knows why, will quickly be able to pick up on why calling her trash is not ok. But we’ll, you know, I’ll get into that on friday.
C: Yep. Former slave and rape victim, callin’ her trash, that’s fantastic.
A: Oh, yeah.
NH: Oh, that sounds lovely.
A: Uh huh.
C: Yeah. It’s actually very interesting.
A: It’s really, it’s really really good. It’s not the best… It’s not the best. I think Your, Your Throne is the best Webtoon on Webtoons right now, by a pretty wide margin, but The Remarried Empress is still probably in the top 5 in terms of objective quality.
C: (crosstalk) Yeah. Yeah, and you can… All the characters are characters, and you can kinda get where the empress is coming from
A: (crosstalk) Yeah, yeah, they’re all very well-rounded, fleshed out characters. There’s no real antagonist except for maybe the emperor
C: (crosstalk) He’s a dick
A: And obviously the evil, the viscount who used to own Rashta.
C: Yeah.
NH: Oh, man, you should, like, write a review of this or something.
A: I know, I should like, write a character analysis about Rashta, and talk all about how she’s not a bad guy. Maybe, maybe on Friday.
C: (crosstalk) Yeah, she’s just been severely fucking traumatized.
A: I know!
C: Ok, so! (Ace laughs) We have a Patreon! It’s patreon.com/m/AceAnimeReviews, don’t you love my transitions.
A: Oh, yeah. They’re very, very smooth.
NH: This is normally the point of the show where we’ll shout out new patrons.
C: But we don’t have any right now, very sad. So we’ll just let you know what to look forward to! We only have three tiers right now, because we’re still small and building our base, and all that. But, first tier is early access and voting power. That’s one dollar a month. You get to read reviews a week early, excluding premiere reviews and first impressions, those everybody gets at the same time. And you get to vote on druidquest’s monthly light novel review and any other patreon polls. Druidquest is our other reviewer. She is Fen and she doesn’t like…
NH: (crosstalk) She’s not to be put on mic.
C: She’s not to be put on mic.
NH: (crosstalk) Never. Never allowed on mic.
C: So, she probably won’t ever join us on these, but she exists, and she’s awesome, and read her stuff.
NH: (inaudible)
C: Second tier – What’s up?
NH: I was gonna say, if you go to AceAnimeReviews.com, you can select the writers and you should read all of their shit – (to LotRO) What? Why am I getting?
C: Yeah.
NH: Sorry.
C: Second tier, you get everything from first tier, as is standard, and then you also get the Ace Anime Reviews discord for fi- sorry, five dollars a month. That’s access to our discord channel, where you can chat about anime or whatever with other patreons and maybe us!
NH: With other patreons?
C: Other patrons.
[NH and C sibling bickering]
A: You! You called them patreons last week!
NH: Yeah, and you know what? Charlie? Didn’t stop mocking me for it, so I’m gonna keep mocking them for it.
C: As is my duty as elder sibling!
A: I know, it is.
C: Tier three! Is ten dollars a month, that’s entry into our monthly sweepstakes, along with everything else, all the other tiers. That’s automatic entry into a monthly drawing to join us for one of our weekly discussions for our Rwednesday. And, yeah, we’ll probably think up new stuff, There was talk about maybe a book club?
A: Yeah, that’s still percolating.
C: Yeah, we’re, we’re percolating a lot of stuff, and it’s gonna be, it’s gonna be great! Come check us out!
NH: There’s not gonna be much new going on with the site until we actually have income, unfortunately. Because two of us have full time jobs, and the other two are unemployed and dying from it.
C: Yep.
A: Yeah.
NH: Not to bring down the mood.
C: Well, everybody knows. They understand, they’re very smart! They follow us.
A: They’re smart and sexy.
C: Mm-hm. Just the best. Patreons. And followers.
NH: (chuckling) Patreons and followers.
C: Ok. So, let’s get into it. What do you wanna talk about first?
A: Oh, I have a list. I started with Wonder Egg, and that’s gonna be good ‘cause I just watched that today, so that’s, it’s fresh.
C: Same.
A: Yeah. I like, I like the new girl, she’s cool.
NH: She’s awful, I hate her.
A: She’s funny.
C: Yeah…
NH: Is she funny?
A: She is. She amuses me.
NH: She’s a bitch.
A: She’s a
C: She’s a brat.
NH: She’s a horrible person.
A: Yeah.
NH: She told her fan – Instead of just, like, politely explaining ‘hey, I appreciate the thought, but like, maybe don’t shoplift and spend all your money-’
C: She’s a child!
A: Yeah.
NH: That’s not an excuse!
C: But it is a reason.
A: I’m sure she’s probably downplay- like, making herself sound worse than she maybe was. Because if she really was just a fan, then I don’t think that she would be doing all this for her. I think she’s leaving a lot out, I think she’s an unreliable narrator.
C: I think that’s a lot of guilt talkin’.
A: Yeah.
C: You know, I don’t ‘like her’ like her, but she’s a cool character.
A: Yeah. She’s not a nice person, but I like her as a character.
C: I think she’s got a whole hell of a lot of room to grow.
A: Oh yeah.
NH: I’m sorry, Fen walked into the room to talk at me about the, the egg show of eggy egg-ness.
A: Well, tell her to put it in the chat!
NH: I told her to just get in the discord text chat and she said no.
A: Or to get in the twitch chat!
NH: She just wanted to- Yeah. I mean that has a delay. No, she wanted to point out that if Rika had handled it responsibly, or compassionately, she would not be there.
A: Yeah, Chiemi would not be dead.
C: Yeah.
NH: I mean, she might still be, I mean. There’s like, there’s more than one trigger for that sort of thing.
A: Yeah.
NH: But it’s entirely possible that it was just the last straw on an already overladen back.
A: Yeah.
NH: But that doesn’t make her frickin’
A: OK?
NH: It’s not ok. And, like, she’s an interesting character
C: (crosstalk) It’s not meant to be ok.
NH: But she’s not a character I want around, either.
A: Yeah, I mean in
C: (crosstalk) Her actions are never treated as ok.
A: Yeah.
C: Is the thing. Like, what the main character, I forget her name, I’m sorry.
A: Ai.
C: But she, like, constantly- Yeah, Ai is always taking her to task, she took her to ask about it, like, ‘you call your friend your wallet?’ and shit like that, and…
A: Yeah.
C: Like, she’s not treated as if she’s some perfect paragon of light and she was right to do it…
A: Yeah, she’s – It is clearly framed as she was in the wrong.
C: Yeah.
NH: My issue isn’t with the framing, I’m just tired of those kinds of characters appearing in general.
A: Yeah.
C: Yeah, that’s fair.
NH: (to LotRO) No! I died!
A: She’s not- like, the only type of character, like, she could easily be that type of character that I just cannot stand, who, like, starts conflict just for the sake of, just for absolutely no reason. Like, in A Silent Voice, everybody’s, like, there’s a character like that, and that was probably the whole reason why I didn- could not like that as much as a lot of other people like it. Because I just cannot stand that type of character. And she’s not that, she’s just- she’s obviously got some stuff that she’s workin’ through and she’s not willing to face, and she’s very unreliable. She’s an unreliable narrator, clearly, and she has- There’s room for growth there.
NH: I think it’s- I’ve dealt with too many of those assholes growing up, I don’t care if they feel bad about what they did.
A: Yeah.
NH: I don’t want their apologies, I want them to leave and never come back.
A: Yeah. I mean, and she is willing – she is putting her life on the line to rectify her mistake, which I think is admirable.
NH: Mm. You’re right, if that’s what’s actually going on, that would be admirable. But, like, we don’t actually know what the whole thing with the wonder eggs is. Like, I keep referring to it as the gatcha game of – (to lotro) Oh no! Please go into stealth mode, I don’t want to fight, I’m talking. – of grief and trauma, because it is a, it’s like that a lot so far. They just keep bringing you in, and you keep hurting yourself – oh son of a biscuit!
A: Yeah.
NH: (to LOTRO) Why are you attacking the sheep?
A: Yeah, my main, my whole, the only downside of this episode was the girls that they’re supposed to be saving have absolutely no character whatsoever. All we know is that they’re obsessive ibul- idol fans who committed suicide because their, their, their idol that they stan committed suicide.
NH: Yeah.
A: Which apparently is a thing that happens with, because idol culture is toxic and bad.
Nh: Yeah, but, you know, it’s a two part episode, they’ll probably get more characterization – (to LOTRO) I don’t have enough room to do that? – in the next episode.
A: Yeah.
C: Yeah.
NH: I’m dying again. Why is this sheep so stupid?
A: I don’t know.
NH: I do appreciate with Wonder Egg that they do root the sources of everyone’s trauma in some very real problems that actually happen, and it’s not some sort of fuckin’ mystic ‘this person, this alien monster from another planet has possessed you.’
C: Yeah.
A: Yeah.
C: Plus, defeating the trauma doesn’t miraculously save the people permanently. You gotta keep on coming back, and coming back, and coming back.
A: Yeah. They need-
NH: Well-
C: It’s very realistic.
NH: Assuming that’s even what’s going down. Like,
A: (crosstalk) Well, really, they said that it doesn’t really save them at all. It just puts them a bit towards saving the person that they care about. Like, he said in the first episode that the girls that they’re saving will only actually be saved if they have a friend willing to go and do the eggs and save a bunch of people to save them. Which is not guaranteed. So. But, yeah.
C: Ok. What’s next?
A: Next I have Jobless.
C: Oh, yeah.
A: It was a good episode. There was a lot of – I noticed there was a lot of characters with green hair and red eyes lately. Like, there were a couple last season, and there’re a couple this season. And at first I thought it was cool, but now I’m starting to feel like my, like my brand is being infringed upon.
C: (giggles) Yes, they’re doing it just to spite you.
A: Yes. To spite me personally. They found out that that’s what I like to do, and they were like ‘well, now, we’re gonna do that. Make him look like a copycat, even though he’s been doin it for years.’
C: Yeah! Yeah. You said last time that it seems like he stops perving on them after he gets to know them. And he kept her fucking underwear.
A: Yeah, well…
C: And he’s worshipping it!
A: Yeah, that’s a bit weird.
C: Yeah.
A: Well, there was a statement the writer of the original light novel made on, on twitter about his perviness. And he said that, that – or they, I don’t know if the writer’s a man or a woman. Or an other. They said that he kind of – that at first, like, he thinks of them more as video game characters. It takes a while for him to get it through his head that these people are human beings with rich inner lives and all that kind of stuff. So. Which is part of it. And also that part of the reason that he’s so slow to improve that aspect of his personality is that he does not consider it a flaw, at first, so he has no reason to change it. But that he will get better. But it won’t go away completely.
C: Yeah. Ok, I buy that.
A: Yeah.
C: And I like that they treated him pantsing Sylph as ‘oh no, you fucked up.’
A: Yeah, I liked, I liked that his dad had a chat with him about consent. I liked that he was genuinely sorry. Like, he immediately knew that he did bad. And his dad has a little talk with him about consent, and then he apologized to Sylph.
C: Yeah. I’m not a real big fan of his dad.
A: Yeah, his dad’s…
C: He’s kind of an ass.
A: Yeah. Let’s see…
C: I mean, I know that he realized afterwards that ‘hey, maybe I shouldn’t’ve hit my kid.’ But he still resorted to, first, ‘oh, my kid’s being a snot, I’mma hit him.’
A: Yeah, it’s not, didn’t, yeah but his kid also called him out on that. So, we weren’t supposed to like that he did that.
C: Yeah, but also, his kid is what? Five?
A: Yeah, about there.
C: Like, according to him, his kid is five. That’s not his job.
A: No.
C: His dad got some issues that he needs to fuckin’ work through.
A: Yeah, he does. But, I think his dad is just has just some more medieval ideas about stuff then
C: (mouth full) That and he’s a childish asshole. (notices NH trying to speak) What?
NH: Isn’t his dad a retired adventurer or something?
A: Yes.
NH: Wasn’t he just, isn’t he just used to solving most of his immediate problems with violence?
A: Probably.
C: Probably. Violence or booze.
NH: Maybe he just shouldn’t’ve had a kid. Maybe he should have had therapy before he had a kid.
A: Yeah, he should invent therapy and then go to therapy.
C: (inaudible)
NH: I will be completely honest, I haven’t seen this show.
C: Yeah.
NH:I watched the first episode, and then the second episode started really gross, and then I decided I’m not watching the rest of this, and so I didn’t.
A: Oh, that’s fair.
C: That’s fair. That was a gross kinda moment.
A: Yeah, but what about Sylph? Do you like Sylph as a character?
C: Yes. I love Sylph, she’s, she’s an angel.
A: Yeah. I like that, I like that she was also able to learn the incant- to use magic without incantations. That’s not something that he gets as a super special protagonist power.
C: Yeah.
A: That most likely it’s one of those skills that, if you learn it a certain way, it’s hard to unlearn. So, since she learned to do it without incantations when she was younger – but like if, like if he had tried to teach an older person, if he had tried to teach his teacher to do it, it wouldn’t’ve worked. But since she’s just starting out, she’s able to, yeah.
C: (crosstalk) I think he did try to teach – yeah. Yeah. I liked the hint we’re getting that his teacher has gone off to maybe research some incantation-less magic. Like, she’s inspired by her student to progress her own studies.
A: (crosstalk) Yeah. Yeah. I exchanged those 34 tickets. And look, I have the new character. His deck is mostly, you mostly get his cards by leveling him up. So, and through events, so he’s got a lot of filler in his deck right now. See.
C: He has onion hair. Turnip hair.
A: Yeah, he does. His name is Kite, the poor boy.
[C giggles.]
A: I have a theory, his parents were probably not 25 years old when he was born.
C: Probably not.
A: Because I work in a hospital, so I see a lot of babies that, generally speaking, the ones with the dumb names have younger parents. Because if you’re not 25, you’re not old enough to understand consequences.
NH: That’s not fair.
A: I think the worst one is probably a little boy named Pino. It’s like, have you ever been to school, Mom? You know what he’s going to be called his whole life, right? Poor penis.
C: (breaking) Oh, that poor kid.
NH: Poor child.
C: It’s not funny.
NH: It’s hilarious. Because we’re awful people.
C: We only laugh because we lived through it.
A: Yeah…
NH: I didn’t. They didn’t have any room to make fun of my name.
A: Hey, well, we all changed our names. Only two of us still have the same names that we were born with, the others all changed it.
NH: (to LotRO) Please stop giving me things, my inventory is full.
A: Alright, anything else to say about Jobless Reincarnation?
NH: It’s real gross.
A: OK.
C: It’s gross, but it has room to grow, and I think they’re actually gonna stick to that.
A: Yeah.
C: Hopefully.
A: Yeah. Alright, next we have Heaven’s Design Team! They made a li’l elephant!
NH: They made an elephant, they made Cthulhu!
A: And they made a weird bug.
NH: Yes, an underwater bug.
A: And I didn’t know what kinda bug that was, but apparently, it’s extinct. So there’s, like some weird time, time thing going on. I think they probably just made them all in advance and it’s – oh look, I won! Because they lost- their internet failed.
NH: Yeah, no, they’ve got kind of a, oh what’s the word… anachronistic
A: Yeah
NH: They’re like the Doctor, they go to whatever time period they need to.
A: Maybe they exist outside of time, and then god just puts them wherever the hell they want.
NH: That makes sense.
A: Yeah. And you know what a weird- ‘cause we have somebody who likes birds, and we have somebody who’s obsessed with horses. You would think that there would be people who’re obsessed with cats and dogs. Because canids and felids are an ecological niche that exist everywhere on the planet. So you’d think that they’d have somebody who likes making cats, and somebody who
C: (sarcastic) But they’re not special!
A: likes making dogs, and those two would always be arguing.
NH: But that’s not as much fun to make fun of as a dragon that’s made of farts.
A: Yeah, that was funny. But I’m sure there’s probably stuff you can do with canids and felines that would be fun. Like, how, introducing how the hyena came around ‘cause it’s a feline, but there are no dogs around, so it has dog software on cat hardware. [transcribers’ note: patently untrue, look up African Painted Dogs, they’re awesome]
C: Hyena’s a thing on it’s own, they’re not actually felines. [tn: they’re feliforms – on the same branch as felines, but their own special leaf]
A: Yeah. Well, you know what I mean.
C: I mean, they originated from felines, but they’re not actually… [they share the same ancestor, I meant; see above]
A: Yeah. Well, because they evolved that way, to fill out a niche that canines fill, because they didn’t have that. [seriously, look up the painted dog, they’re hypersocial canids that are some of, if not the most successful hunters in Africa. They regularly live in packs of over twenty individuals, and have a way of hunting that’s been compared to special ops military units. Also they’re pretty. Ok I’m done, sorry for the special interest vomit]
C: Yeah. And foxes evolved to fill a niche that felines fill.
A: Yeah.
C: Yeah. I’m, I’m a little irritated that neither of you mentioned that the angels’ collars are wings.
A: They’re what?
NH: What do you mean?
C: They’re wings! The collars of their shirts? They’re designed to look like wings.
A: Oh! I never noticed that. I noticed the ones on the back of that one guy’s
NH: They have them on their backs, too.
A: I never saw them on his collar. Ok, can’t use that.
C: Well, now you’ll see them! (menacing chuckle)
A: Ok, I can’t use that. Alright so, that’s the only one I can use.
[discussion of LOTRO follows: skip to 24.30 to avoid it]
NH: Do you guys need any hides? I mean probably, you always need hides, don’t you.
C: Neither of us are — I’m not a tanner, I can’t –
A: I can use hides – uhm, Rhlotr can. Rhlotr’s a tailor.
NH: Oh, good – I’ve lost the sheep, apparently.
C: That’s leather, not hides. You need to turn the hide into leather.
A: Oh! Oh, yeah, you need to send it to a forrester. Send it to Taterberry! Taterberry’ll make it into hides.
NH: I’m just gonna leave it in the kinship house.
C: (crosstalk) That makes sense.
A: (crosstalk) Oh, that works too, you can also do that.
NH: That’s what I’ve been doing…
A: Which means I need to get on Taterberry and get a kinship invite.
[End LotRO chatter]
C: It is actually hilarious that at least one of the animals that were created was created by a child.
A: Oh, yeah. I’m sure that that’s probably not the only one.
NH: Let’s give the little baby some credit for the seahorse.
A: Yeah.
NH: I mean and plus, technically-
C: (crosstalk) The seahorse didn’t invent the sea- the kid didn’t invent the seahorse, the old man did.
A and NH talking over each other to explain that the kid’s the one that made the male seahorse the one to give birth due to a labeling error.
C: Oh yeah, that’s right.
NH: And he’s part, he’s most of the reason that Cthulhu exists, apparently.
A: Oh, yeah.
NH: That was cute.
C: Mm-hm.
NH: It was a cute episode. Nice, light hearted. No serious topics, nothing to get angry at. 10 out of 10, would recommend. Go watch Heaven’s Design Team.
A: Yep. Again, the only negative thing anybody has said about it is that the transgender woman is played by a cis man. And your mileage will vary on how bad that is.
NH: It’s not bad at all, in my opinion.
A: Yeah.
NH: But I, please, it’s just something (inaudible) please, yes, thank you, thank you. Sorry, I’m just trying to get stuff out of my inventory because I’m running out space.
C: Congratulations.
NH: Thank you. I love running out of space.
C: Oh, it’s a challenge we all must overcome.
A: Yeah.
C: Over and over and over again.
A: Oh, if only you were subscribers and had that thing that would let you access your vault and the shop from anywhere on the map.
C: Kiss.
NH: I mean, I’m out of space in my
C: My.
NH: vault, too.
C: Broke.
A: Yeah.
C: Ass.
A: Alright. And then, last one, we’re talking about
NH: (crosstalk) Yeah.
A: is Sk8 the Infinity.
NH: It was good.
A: Yeah, the cat boy, they, they, they skated against the cat boy.
NH: (crosstalk) Yeah, it had that.
A: Oh, and the Dio ass motherfucker finally showed his face, and he sure is a Dio ass motherfucker.
NH: He sure is a fucking adult pretending to be a vampire so he can pick on teenagers.
A: According to the, to the preview, I think he’s supposed to be a matador.
NH: He has vampire fangs.
A: But he looks like a JoJo character.
C: He has the bull horns on his board and the cape and shit, yeah, I sort of buy matador.
A: Yeah.
NH: He’s clearly Dio Brando’s humansona.
A: Yeah, I think they have the same, I still haven’t checked it, checked, but I’m pretty sure they have the same voice actor. [translator’s note: they do! He’s also Bobobo and Kuzan from One Piece]
NH: I wouldn’t know, I haven’t watched JoJo in Japanese.
A: Yeah.
NH: ‘Cause I can’t focus on all of it.
A: Yeah.
C: I haven’t watched JoJo at all~ My mind is pure.
NH: The second season is the best.
A: Not watching Jojos is homophobia.
C: I’m sorry. It’s not happening.
NH: I haven’t- I will confess, I haven’t seen past the second season in its entirety because I just got distracted by other anime. Oh there’s a for sale sign by the kin house.
A: Yeah. I didn’t- I still haven’t watched all of Phantom Blood and none of the second one with Joseph, but I kinda jumped on with Stardust Crusaders. Which is… it’s fine.
NH: That’s fair. I – So did I. I didn’t get to watch all of it. I know that-
A: My favorite it Diamond is Unbreakable still. And I don’t – ‘cause that’s just my jam. Josuke is the best JoJo.
NH: Yeah.
A: Because he is a very good boy who loves his mommy.
NH: I like the second season best. Jonathan is my favorite JoJo.
A: Yeah.
NH: I am a basic bitch, I will admit. I do love the original.
A: Basic bitches like Joseph.
NH: Hm?
A: Basic bitches like Joseph.
NH: Oh, well then, I guess I’m just frickin’
A: Actually, Jonathan is probably one of the least popular. Yay! I win, I beat Seto Kaiba!
NH: (crosstalk) I like Jonathan. He’s just like a normal, nice guy.
A: Yeah.
NH: He’s just a normal, nice guy.
A: Yeah. He dies pretty early on, though.
NH: Whose adopted brother steals- who gets his body stolen by his adopted brother. Which is unfortunate.
A: Yeah.
NH: His adopted brother became a vampire and killed his entire family.
A: What is this? Xyz Hunter… Increase the attack of one monster you control until the end of your turn by the number of your opponent’s-
NH: (crosstalk) How do I get out of where I am? Can I just transfer back out? Nope.
A: Xyz Materials. That’s only useful if I’m fighting somebody who has Xyz Monsters.
NH: I appear to be trapped in the residential area.
A: (inaudible) Oh that’s a shame. If only you had a milestone.
NH: It’s not- nowhere near where I was, though.
A: (crosstalk) Do we have anything else to – So we spent our time talking about the skate anime talking about JoJo, is there anything we want to say about the skating anime?
NH: (laughing) It was good! The skate was good. It was that classic, like, kinda feel good power of friendship inspires the jaded veteran type bullshit, but it was very well done.
A: (crosstalk) Yeah.
NH: It was a literal child. And
A: Yeah, we found
NH: Reki was a bully to him, in an affectionate way, which I oddly admire.
A: Yeah. We found out the pink haired husband’s name is Kaoru, but they don’t like being called that.
NH: Not at the- not at S.
A: No.
NH: Everyone has their alter egos at S.
A: Yeah.
NH: Which is a super exclusive underground skate rink.
A: Oh, yeah, I know, super exclusive club that is full of people, all the time.
NH: Yeah.
C: Hey, what’s the, what’s that one anime – I swear this is related – what’s that one anime with the awesome chick with the shoe backpack and the-?
A: Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken!
C: they wanna do animation? Say again?
A: Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken!
C: Yes, that one! This, Sk8 kinda reminds me of that, in that it’s more, it’s sort of a love letter to skateboarding the way that was a love letter to animation.
A: Yeah!
C: Did anybody else get that feeling?
NH: I haven’t seen that one.
A: Yeah, like, it goes into the technical stuff about it more than most other sports anime do.
C: Yeah.
A: Also, apparently, the person who, the series creator is also the person who wrote the first, who wrote Free!, which was a really good anime that only lasted one season, and never had anymore.
NH: What are we talking about?
C: Don’t you love those anime?
A: Free!
NH: I haven’t seen it. Are you guys in the text chat on the discord?
A: Well, if you ever watch it, only watch one- no, I’m not in the text chat on the discord.
NH: Oh. Is Charlie? ‘Cause I gotta-
C: Yes, I’m watching you type.
A: Yeah.
C: Had to step a- they had to step away for a second, they’ll be right back.
A: Ok.
C: So.
A: So, did we have anything else to talk about today?
C: Well, I enjoyed the spider anime.
A: Oh, right!
C: And since they’re not here, we can talk about the spider anime!
A: Yeah! What happened in this week’s spider anime? I don’t remember.
C: Baby dragon killed
A: (crosstalk) Oh, they killed a dragon!
C: (crosstalk) Big dragon, and apparently that was her parent or something?
A: Yes, they killed
C: (crosstalk) A relative at least.
A: Yeah. And little dragon felt very upset about murdering- about killing somebody who was trying to kill them, and that they have never met.
C: Yeah… Well it’s the idea that ‘hey this was related to me..’
A: (crosstalk) I guess.
C: ‘am I going to turn out like that?’ I think is a very real fear for her at the moment.
A: Oh, yeah, I think that’s probably what is her concern.
C: Yeah.
A: That makes sense. Well, I mean, our spider friend is the only sentient monster spider we’ve seen, so it’s possible that Fei just doesn’t know that she’s the only sentient earth dragon. If she is, which she might not be.
C: Yeah. And they did give us a good reason why she can’t just kill the humans.
A: Yeah… They’re stronger than her.
C: ‘Cause the humans are stupid powerful!
A: Yeah! They’re level 29! She’s level one.
C: Well, she did just evolve.
A: Yeah. But she’s the equivalent of level 11, maybe.
C: Yeah.
A: So, yeah, I can see why… That’s, that is a good reason.
C: But, I think it’s going to be a fun running thing, where she goes ‘oh, I’m awesome, I’ve got this shit on lock!’ and then bad shit happens.
A: Yep.
NH: What are we talking about now?
A: Spiders.
C: Spiders.
NH: Oh, man… I wanted to talk more about Sk8 the Infinity.
A: Oh! Well, let’s talk more about Sk8 the Infinity! What you gotta say about Sk8 the Infinity? Cat Boy’s a cat boy.
NH: Ok- uh, yes, he’s very cute, it’s very tragic – no, what I want to say is there’s this thing that WAVE!! and Sk8 both try to pull off that Sk8 is definitely more
A: (crosstalk) Adept at?
NH: successful at. Yeah, ‘cause, like in WAVE!!, they try to paint Masaki’s whole obsession with surfing as him chasing this high that he gets off of waves, like to make it seem less gay that he fell in love with surfing after watching his extremely attractive classmate doing it.
A: Yes.
NH: And for that, it just comes out of nowhere, like he hasn’t shown any real interest in surfing up to that point, apparently, his best friend has been trying to teach him for years, offering to teach him how to surf and he hasn’t been interested. But in Sk8 what they do is purposely take this new thing that Reki introduces Langa to, and they show Langa connecting it explicitly to something he has a lot more experience with, that brought him a similar sense of -what’s the word I’m thinking of?
A: Familiarity?
C: Joy?
NH: Yes. And it’s connecting it to that, and showing how he grows in his feelings towards skateboarding, out of that initial baseline of ‘oh, this thing reminds me of this other thing that I love! I want to get back that feeling of loving something.’
A: Yeah. And also! And it still manages to be super gay!
NH: It does manage to be super gay! I absolutely love all of the work Reki puts into Langa’s skateboard.
A: Oh, yeah.
C: Yeah, really, I really fucking appreciate how much he tries to adapt it as much to how you skateboard- snowboard for him to skateboard properly.
A: Yeah.
C: ‘Cause he’s so used to it that he’s never gonna do a whole 100% ‘ok, I got this skateboarding thing down, now.’
NH: Yeah, and I especially appreciate how he’s not shown to have any real significant, like, jealousy or bitterness towards how good his new friend is.
A: (crosstalk) Yeah. He’s just thrilled that his new friend likes the thing that he likes.
NH: (crosstalk) Like, that’s something that would have been easy to build with. Which really- Sorry?
A: I said, he’s just thrilled his new friend likes the thing that he likes.
NH: Exactly! But there’s so many times in sports anime where your new friend will be really good at the thing that you like, and they just started and you’ve been doing it for years, and then you’ll get all bitter and shit, and it’s understandable. It’s a very relatable experience
A: (crosstalk) Yeah.
NH: But it’s so refreshing to have them both just like ‘oh! You love this thing that I love! I will teach you more about this thing that we both love, and we will be happy and bond over it.’
A: Yeah.
C: Yeah. And I appreciate that they don’t make him like, ‘oh I’m a genius at skateboarding.’ It’s very much related to ‘oh, I have this experience with a very similar sport, and I can adapt that. Not 100%, but you know, I can sort of adapt it to doin this.’
A: Yeah. And also
C: (crosstalk) ‘and I’ll still fall on my ass every five minutes.’
A: And also, kinda related to
NH: (crosstalk) And when he can’t adapt it, his- Sorry, go ahead Ace.
A: I said, it’s also kinda related to the whole thing with the incantation-less magic, is that part of the reason why they, he’s just at that age where he’s not gonna be able to learn the muscle memory Reki has for skateboarding, so he’s trying to use the muscle memory he has for his snowboarding to improve his skateboarding. And Reki’s building the thing around that.
C: And, yeah. Sometimes it works, sometimes he needs to adapt.
NH: Yeah. It’s really sweet, I love it.
A: Mm-hm.
NH: I think Sk8 might be my favorite this season, and there’s an anime about two girls who go out and fight supernatural monsters based on creepypastas.
A: Yeah, it’s
NH: Which you’d think would be right up my alley, but the main character is so fucking unlikeable!
A: Yeah…
NH: Have we already talked about Otherside Picnic, or is that what we’re about to get to after you guys
C: (crosstalk) We haven’t talked about it at all.
A: We haven’t talked about it.
NH: Alright, you guys have fun talking about your spiders, I’m gonna
A: Oh no we’re done talking about the spiders, you wanna talk about Picnic?
C: No, we’re done.
NH: Oh, good.
A: I paid attention this episode, mostly. I did miss some stuff. I forgot why Toriko left. And I felt bad- but I did feel feel bad for Kozakura at the end when she was left behind.
NH: Oh, yeah. Toriko left because Sorawo told her that she did not want to risk her life for someone she does not know.
A: Which is understandable.
NH: Which is understandable. She does say it purely out of a place of ‘I don’t like that Toriko has this other person in her life that is more important to her than me, because I don’t want to admit I’m super gay for her.’
A: Yeah.
C: (inaudible)
NH: Yeah? Oh, sorry. Sorry. Is that better? Is that better? Is that better?
C: Yeah, it’s better. Thank you.
NH: Sorry, I had to move so I could reach my keyboard.
C: I love your voice, but you talk so close to the mic that it’s hard to understand you sometimes.
A: Oh. I lose! Let’s not waste this person’s time!
NH: What? Oh, ok.
A: Oh, in the game.
NH: But, yeah, that was a problem with the light novel, too. Like, the first four episodes so far adapted three of the first four case files. I don’t know when the big head village comes in. Originally the third
A: (crosstalk) That was the last episode.
NH: That was the third episode. The fourth episode is the one with the time, space, and the middle aged man
A: Yes.
NH: Where – with all the plant people where Kazakura gets left behind
A: Yes
NH: Initially in the light novels, the third case file is with the marines in the liminal space of the train station that doesn’t exist.
A: That sounds weird.
NH: Oh, yeah! It’s great! They go and they find a bunch of American Marines who got trapped on the Otherside.
A:(crosstalk) Oh that sounds like it will end totally well, and nothing bad will happen. And it will be super cool
NH: (crosstalk) Oh, it ended great.
A: all the time.
NH: Oh, yeah. They trust them immensely, to the point where they had to escape these heavily armed traumatized American Marines by jumping onto a hell train.
A: Ah!
NH: And it was great. And that’s originally why they were fighting, in the next part with the man and the plants, because Toriko wanted to go back and help those marines, and (inaudible) said ‘No, I don’t care about them, and I don’t care about your tutor.’ And they were not happy, she was not happy about it.
A: Aw… Hi, Kami! Kami is lying on the cat tree next to me.
C: Aw~
NH: Sowara is just a deeply, deeply unlikeable protagonist.
A: I noticed they changed how they romanized her name. They added a w. Is that ‘cause
NH: That’s ‘cause that’s how it was initially romanized.
A: Oh. They, they fixed a problem. ‘Cause before it looked like a boy’s name. Which I think might, is
NH: Well, yeah, it’s also not spelt how it’s pronounced in english.
A: ‘Cause the way it was, they were doin’ it was more like ‘Soraow’, instead of ‘Sora-o’.
NH: Yeah, ‘Soraow’. Yeah, so they added a ‘w’.
A: Well, whatever it is, it’s a weird name.
NH: It’s an interesting name, yes.
A: Yeah.
NH: Otherside Picnic is fine. It show- it, like Adachi and Shimamura, shows promise in how gay it is,
A: (crosstalk) Yep.
NH: And then it opens its mouth.
A: Ah.
NH: It’s very sad.
A: Does anybody have anything, like, anything you watched this week that you want to talk about? Even if we didn’t say it, but you want to say somethin’ ‘bout it?
C: Well, I mostly played Final Fantasy this week, so…
A: Oh, yeah. You have been playing that. I’ve been thinking, I’ve been, I would’ve loved to be playing Final Fantasy this week, but I was working for seven days in a row.
C: That sucks.
NH: That sucks.
A: Yep. Not fun. I don’t know why I’m doing this, they’re- I can’t do anything.
NH: Why isn’t this fucking…?
A: (crosstalk) He’s strong-
NH: (crosstalk) (inaudible) keep up with your twitch stream, but for some reason it’s playing through my monitor speaker, and not my headphones.
A: That’s weird.
NH: So if I seem distracted, that’s why.
A: Hmmmm.
NH: Oh, is it because my sound output is…? Nope. Ok, well, fuck you twitch, I don’t like you anyway.
A: Yeah.
NH: Streaming three days a week, twitch.tv/arctickchild
A: (laughs) Let’s see… Trying to think of… Alright, Final Fantasy XIV. I’ve been thinking that since my streaming is so bad, that.. To try just, like, recording, like, doing a Let’s Play of Final Fantasy XIV.
C: (sound of someone definitely listening, no really)
A: Then, hopefully, it might look better. When I make a new character. Also, partly because there’s that book that I’ve been wanting to write, and one of the characters in it is heavy- has been isekai’d from a place legally distinct from Eorzia, so having that, having that character will give me incentive to actually work on that book. I need to work on that.
C: Yes.
A: Yeah. But, I’d have to find time, and I barely have time for everything I do right now, so, who knows.
C: Yeah.
A: Yeah. Maybe if somebody were to, like, say, I don’t know, join our patreon at the five dollar tier…
[C and NH giggling in the background]
A: and come to our discord, they could say in the discord, ‘hey, Ace, I think it would be super cool if you were to do a Let’s Play of Final Fantasy XIV.’
C: Well, I’m streaming on sundays, so if you ever want to join me.
A: Yeah. Well, we’re not doing our- oh, I work on sundays.
C: Oh, yeah. That sucks.
A: Yep.
C: So, are we done talking about anime then?
A: I guess we are, so what’s next on the itinerary?
C: Now it’s time where we shoot the shit about whatever we want-
A: (crosstalk) Oh, wait! What’s up? No, wait. Wait, wait. Haley? What’s up? Did you…?
NH: Oh, I was gonna say, I’ve been watching Angel Beats, and I did re-watch a couple episodes of Peter Grill illegally. Because I was planning on rewriting that review. This is, I’m just gonna warn you guys now, the review after Ace’s is going to be my review of Peter Grill in the Philosopher’s Time. And I have to re-write it again, because the first two versions I wrote were very angry, and very mean to the people who worked on it. I did say multiple times that none of them deserve to continue working, and some of them deserve to burn in hell.
A: (laughs)
NH: So I have to- I have to rewrite it to be slightly more moderate in tone.
C: (crosstalk) Though, to be fair, to be fair, they are making light of fucking rape, so
NH: Oh, yeah. That’s why I’m, that’s why I’m mentioning it here. I’m gonna give you guys a couple weeks notice. My review is very heavily centered around the fact they use male rape as comedy. And female rape as comedy, let’s be fair. In one of the, in one of the episodes, they did give a woman an aphrodisiac so that she would pressure Peter Grill into fucking her.
A: Ah! Not ok!
NH: It’s – it’s a wonder – it’s a wonderful show, for… good people.
C: You would be doing me the world’s greatest favor if you never told me anything more about that show ever again! The more I hear about it, the more I hate it.
NH: (crosstalk) I’ll tell you this – I’m not watching anymore of it. But I’ve been watching Angel Beats, that’s what – that’s what – I’ve been rewatching Angel Beats, and I’m reminded of how lovely it is. I can’t say anymore, because I am working on that review after Peter Grill. Hold on, Fen just walked into my room.
C: So, uhm, what else have you been up to, besides working to death?
A: Nothing, just working myself to death. Uh – so what’s next on the it – well we’ll wait for Haley to get back
NH: (crosstalk) Shoot the shit. I’m back.
A: I’m trying to think if there was anything I wanted to talk about of any of the other anime I watched this week.
NH: How was Cells at Work?
A: It was good. Both of them involved hair matrices, which was – I wonder if that was planned, but I doubt it.
C: Looks like next is best and worst of the week, so what was your favorite episode this week, Ace.
A: Oh, Wonder Egg Priority.
C: Yeah?
A: Yeah – well, probably, I haven’t watched Osumatsu-san yet – oh, no, actually, no, it wasn’t Egg! It was re:Zero. ‘Cause we saw Emilia as baby Emilia, and she met her, her, she met Juice, and she called him Juice, and it was cute.
C: That is cute.
A: Yeah. re:Zero is a good show. You should watch re:Zero.
C: Yeah. And Noah, what was your least favorite thing you watched this week?
NH: Back Arrow. It was just boring.
C: Yeah?
A: What was it?
NH: (crosstalk) That’s all I can say –
A: Oh, Back Arrow.
NH: For all I can say – yeah, Back Arrow. Like, for all I can say about Jobless Reincarnation, I didn’t watch enough of it to actually care about it, but I’ve been watching Back Arrow and I enjoyed the first episode, and I wanted to enjoy the second episode and the third episode arrived and y’know what – it just, nah, it was just boring.
A: Yeah, that’s a shame.
NH: How do you take a Wild West mech anime set in fantasy land and make it boring?
C: I don’t know, but they do it all the time.
A: Yeah.
NH: They shouldn’t be able to.
[moment of silence as we get distracted by other things]
A: Things suddenly got quiet, is everything okay?
NH: Yeah, I’m – I’m looking through my Games folder for something to play that I won’t feel inclined to yell at.
C: Well, we already plugged the upcoming article, so let’s just shoot the shit until it’s time to plug things.
A: Is there anything — trying to think.
NH: Let’s see… I’ve been playing a lot of Sims 4 lately.
A: Oh! I’ve been wanting to get back to Sims 4, but every time I –
NH: You’re cutting out, babe.
A: Everytime I either stream it or try to watch somebody else stream it, twitch just cannot handle it. It’s just constant buffering.
NH: That’s – weird, do you have a VPN?
A: I do not, that costs money.
NH: That’s not true. Opera has a free VPN, but uhm, VPNs sometimes can cause that –
A: Send me a link.
NH: You can just google it, Opera Browser, comes with a built-in – but your VPN can sometimes cause connective issues.
A: If I had a VPN I would be learning how to get onto the dark web so I could buy black market testosterone.
NH: (inaudible)
A: It’s super not fair that testosterone is a controlled substance and estrogen is not, y’know what that is? That’s sexism. Sexism, plain and simple.
C: Yes. Also, both of them taken in the wrong dose can kill you, so –
A: Yeah.
C: – please be careful. I love you~
NH: Also, testosterone taken in the wrong dose is what athletes use to cheat.
A: Oh, that’s probably why! That’d be why it’s a –
C: It’s the athletes’ fault!
A: because it’s, it’s – that’s why, I got ya. That makes sense.
C: It’s all the jocks’ fault.
NH: Hey!
A: They ruined it for everybody.
NH: I, as a former reformed jock, do take offense to that statement.
C: (crosstalk) Good.
NH: It’s not the jocks’ – fuck you.
C: (giggles) Well, technically, I suppose I could be considered a jock, too, at one point. I was on a swim team, and then in the Navy.
NH: Were you in, uh – I forgot what I was gonna say.
A: I never did a sport.
NH: I know, Ace, but we love you anyway.
A: I was in band. But then I got pulled out because I forgot to pick up you and Fen from school, and our step-father lost his shit.
NH: Fuck them.
C: (crosstalk) Our step-father can rot in hell.
A: Actually, I had to stay behind to leave my, uhm, to get my science book and missed the bus.
NH: Like, not to get too serious but, fuckin’, that wasn’t your job. That was his and Mom’s, not yours. They can fuck off.
C: It should never have been his job at all.
NH: That’s true, but unfortunately our mother hired him for it.
A: But that really does speak to our age difference, that I was in high school and you guys were in – first grade? Yeah, you were in first grade when I was in high school.
NH: (crosstalk) You’re only like seven –
A: Makes me feel old.
NH: You are old. You’re like seven years older than me, that makes you what, thirty (absolutely failing to do math) five?
A: I’m thirty-three. I am thirty-three.
NH: (crosstalk) That’s right, Carianne’s thirty-five.
A: I am the same age that Jesus was when he died, so if I make it to my thirty-fourth birthday I can tell Jesus to kiss my ass.
NH: (laughs) I mean, theoretically you could do that anyway.
A: Yeah. Ah, crap.
NH: What happened?
A: Ah, this thing stopped my thing from using its effect, it’s fine.
C: Anybody read anything interesting?
A: Well, I’m waiting until the plugs before I talk about what I’ve been reading. Oh, wait there is one that I don’t wanna plug but I do wanna mention, is I’ve been reading this one webtoon, it’s a BL one, it’s about a boy and a vampire, and these people have absolutely no relationship outside of having sex. They just fuck constantly, and
NH: (crosstalk) That’s… boring.
A: and the vampire’s like, ‘oh I don’t think I could live without this guy.’ It’s like, dude. You don’t know each other.
NH: (crosstalk) Do you know anything about him?
A: You’ve done nothing together except for have sex, and once, you went shopping,
NH: (crosstalk) What’s his last name?
A: he doesn’t even know your first name!
NH: Jesus Christ. (laughs) Oh, I’ve been reading Marry Me, which is a webcomic.
C: Yes, I like that one.
A: Which – oh, I, I used to watch that one, but I was following too many webtoons so I ended up – that was one of the ones I stopped watching.
[C and NH talking over each other cooing about how cute Marry Me is]
A: It is very cute and sweet, but I watch a lot of cute and sweet ones, like, Cursed Princess Club is very cute and sweet, and… Though that one does play therapist slightly too often. It does get kind of boring sometimes. But –
NH: Which one?
A: Cursed Princess Club.
NH: Oh, yeah. I haven’t read that one.
A: Oh, it’s good.
C: I started that one, and I just, I couldn’t keep up with it. I don’t know why. I mean, it’s good, just…
A: Yeah, it’s – it’s fine.
NH: Oh, I started reading that one you guys were talking about last week, the one who – about the girl who was being reincarnated constantly –
C: (crosstalk) Meet me in my – See You In My 19th Life?
A: Oh, yeah, that one.
NH: Yeah, it reminded me – it had very strong – oh god, what’s it called? There’s a light novel with a similar premise, where a couple keeps being reincarnated, but if they ever meet and fall in love something tragic happens to her boyfriend, and she is the only one who ever remembers their past life so she has become very emotionally dead
A: It kind of reminded – there was one, they were doing a short one, a contest a few months ago, and there was one in there, my favorite was one called Dimensional Hopper. It was, was, the guy, where everytime you go to sleep he would wake up in some alternate timeline as some alternate version of himself. And it was really kinda weird. But the person who writes that is named Nori, which makes him automatically one of my favorite creators because my cat’s name is Nori.
NH: You’re a very unbiased source.
A: But Nori also has a uh, has, has, a webtoon called The Masked Henchman which is good and you should read it, and they’ve finished it and started a new one called The Ogre Chef which only has one chapter.
NH: Sounds like – it’s not the same, it’s a similar premise, as a David Levithan book, that I’m googling the name of because I don’t remember what it’s called. It’s about a teenage boy who goes to sleep and wakes up every day in a different body. It’s the same universe, but it’s a different body every time and – anyway he falls in love with this girl and he keeps finding her when he wakes up the next day.
A: That reminds me, there was one – I don’t know why it reminds me, but there was this one manga I was reading, back before I deleted the illegal streaming app – I mean manga app I was reading it off of, because it was filling up my data – my phone’s storage too quick – but there was one where these childhood friends, every night they switch their physical sexes and swap ‘em, and it’s this little romance between them and it’s cute. So, but, uh – I dunno why it made me think of that, but. Eh. Anyway. Anything else we should talk about before we start plugin’ the stuff that we wanna plug?
C: Uhm, well, I’ve been reading Omniscient Reader – I don’t wanna plug it or anything –
A: Oh, I love Omniscient Reader! That was such an interesting premise!
C: Yeah, but it’s really, you know, you gotta kinda like the genre?
A: It gets busy.
C: Yeah…
A: Like, there’s a lot going on, but it’s oddly enough, it’s easier to – I’ve had a lot easier time following it that I have with a lot of the ones like that.
C: Yeah. It’s, it’s, it’s very easy to read, but there’s just a whole lot to pay attention to.
A: (crosstalk) Yeah. Like, I get, I remember who everyone is, even when they haven’t shown up in awhile, which is extremely rare for me.
C: Yeah. And he keeps calling the Protagonist a fucking chuunibyou, and that’s just fucking hilarious.
A: That’s hilarious, yeah. Well, while we’re talkin’ about Webtoons, my favorite webtoon is Your Mine. Which is the one about the guy who is stalking, who’s a stalker for some girl, but then, spoiler alert, turns out he was kidnapped and brainwashed for ten years to be obsessed with her. And there was another one who was kidnapped and brainwashed for ten years to try to kill her, so it’s some kind of weird thing between ‘em. But it’s really good! Uhm, it does have some issues. It did have the whole crossdressing serial killer, which is bad. And, uh
C: Always, always bad.
A: Always, always, always bad.
NH: Uh, this webtoon on the front page of Webtoons is called Love Me Knot, and I’m really hoping that that is not a furry pun.
C: It’s not.
A: Oh, it is. I think it is. Is- Are they furries?
NH: Uh, no, it’s the red string of fate! Ok!
A: Oh! Oh, thank God! Oh, no it was Blades of Furry is the one I was thinkin’ of. I didn’t even read that one. I was like, I saw it was called Blades of Furry, and I was like ‘I’m good.’
NH: I hope you guys have fun, but, um, I’ll pass.
A: Oh, I get it. I know. I watched the Omegaverse video.
C: Also, Pixie and Brutus updated recently and it was cute.
A: Which one?
C: If you keep up with – Pixie and Brutus. It’s the
A: (crosstalk) Oh, yeah. Pixie and Brutus is cute.
C: Little kitten and retired soldier dog.
A: Yes.
C: It’s cute!
NH: Oh.
C: It brought a smile to my face.
A: Yeah.
C: Gave me a giggle.
NH: It’s very cute. They’re playing hide and seek.
C: Mm-hm. And he forgot his butt.
A: Oh, so we’ve already been plugging stuff, but time for specific plugs!
C: That wasn’t plugging, it was just mentioning.
A: Yes.
NH: Talking!
A: Specific plugs! We’re gonna have to add a segment called the Webtoon hour.
NH: I’ve got a couple things I would like to plug. Up first is, especially to you two, if you stream, there’s this artist, Harris Heller, who runs a service called StreamBeats. Which is a bunch of free music that allowed to use on your streams, it’s great, I’ve been using it on my streams. The music always fucking slaps. You should check it out.
C: Did you Google him?
NH: Huh?
C: Did you Google him like you said you were gonna?
NH: I did! He does not appear to be a Nazi.
C: (bitter over the state of our country) That’s always a fucking relief.
NH: It is!
A: Yeah.
NH: He, he, he, he seems like a very interesting musician. And for professionals out there who want to stream, Pretzel Rocks is also good for that, but Harris Heller, he’s got a bunch of playlists of Spotify as well, of his copyrighted music. Other than that! Tripping of You is a webcomic. It’s about Liam and Milo. I’m going to plug this specifically because it is now in its last chapter. It’s coming to an end. Should be ending in the next year or two. And it’s about these two kids who meet in British High School, fall in love, and all of their slice of life drama, and it’s very cute. It’s very sweet. It’s not dealing with anything overly heavy the way the other webcomic I read is, which means it’s perfect for these days and times.
A: Yeah.
NH: And it’s called Tripping Over You.
C: Ace’s turn!
NH: Yep.
C: Ace’s turn. Plug two things! You get two things.
A: Alright, speaking of uh, since we were talking about webtoons, I was actually planning on promoting a couple webtoons! Neither of them is actually on Webtoons. One of them is on Pocket Comics, which you guys should check out, because it’s got a bunch of great stuff. And the other one is on Tappytoon. But they’re both ones that I immediately subscribed to because of the title. The first one is called So What if the Dark Lord is a Goblin. Which is about, doesn’t matter because it’s called So What if the Dark Lord is a Goblin. But if you need a summary, it’s about an elf who decides to resurrect an old dark lord – and you’ll never guess what race he is! – because the cops murdered her sister. So if you like dark fantasy where the protagonists are anti-villains and the antagonists are cops, you should check that out. That one’s on Pocket Comics. And then the other one I wanna plug is called The Skeleton Became a Cat Dad, and it is about what the title says it is about. Except that it’s not, because even though they ordered a cat, they got a human baby. But they don’t know that it’s a human baby, because nobody knows what humans look like in this world, so they just assume it’s a weird looking cat. And even though the title calls Skelly a cat dad, the comic refers to them by they/them pronouns all the time, so. And also the baby is always referred to by they/them pronouns. So, you know.
C: That’s awesome.
A: Yep. But that one’s really cute and funny, and that one’s on Tappytoon. And I just downloaded that one ‘cause I kept gettin’ ads for it, and I didn’t even know that Skelly Dad was on it, even though I had read the first chapter of that, when it first started, and didn’t know it was being localized until I randomly downloaded Tappytoon and saw it, and I was like ‘I know that one! That one’s about the skeleton raising a baby!’ And I happen to like stories about dads because I’m at that age. Any way, Charlie! Your turn to plug stuff.
NH: You mean, becoming a father?
[cat chat until 1.03.10]
A: Yeah. Because I am the father of my cat! Where is my cat? There she is. She’s on my bed.
C: Yes. Don’t you have two cats?
A: I do, but the other one’s just my cat, ‘cause I got him when he was three months, and Nori I got when she was three days, so that makes a huge difference.
C: Yeah.
A: I never bottle fed Kami. He just used to nurse off of Ash, for some reason.
[C giggles]
NH: Is that why Ash never liked him?
A: No! Ash loved him.
NH: Well, then, why did you send him to live with us?
A: Because he and Nori were- he was stressing out Nori! Nori was getting stressed out by him.
NH: (inaudible)
A: They weren’t getting along. And Nori got sick.
NH: Oh.
A: Yeah. Because Ash is very extroverted and likes to play, and Nori is very introverted. And does not always like to play. And so Ash was being too pushy with Nori and she found it overwhelming and got stress-induced colitis.
C: Oh, God, is that why he loves Tiger Lily?
A: Oh, yeah.
C: Is that why he loves Tiger Lily, because she- he remi- she reminds him of fuckin’ Nori?
A: He loves everybody. Ash is not shy.
C: Yeah, but he’s like, obsessed with her.
A: Yeah. And by the way, you know how Ash likes to steal food? Well, when I first got him, I follow Jun’s Kitchen on youtube, and he mentioned that when he cooks, he shows the ingredients to his cats. So that they’ll sit there and watch him cook. But I don’t cook, so I just did that with my food, and it gave him the idea that I was interested in sharing. So, um…
C: So it’s your fault.
A: So, from the bottom of my heart, my bad.
[C and NH laughing]
[end Cat Chat]
C: Is it my turn to plug things?
A: Yep, it’s your turn. Plug some stuff.
C: Ok.
A: Plug two things.
C: Ok, so, one is a webcomic. It’s Spirit of Farmers, it’s on Tapas. Farmer of Spirits, sorry. And it’s just really cute, a guy finds a plant and it grows into a child, and they have fun farming together.
A: Aw~
C: Yeah, it’s cute. And all that she can say is fuckin’ ‘hawa!’
A: Oh, that’s annoying.
C: It’s, it’s, she’s a toddler. It’s cute. And then… I don’t really have anything else to fuckin’ plug.
A: Well did you watch, read the new daily pass one that started yesterday on Webtoon, the one with the really awkward name? Flow-war, Flowe-ar, however the hell you’re supposed to pronouce that? That’s,
C: (crosstalk) Hello, Zuko, welcome to the stream!
A: An astronaut with a plant heart goes and fights evil plants. What happened?
C: One second, I have to go kill a dog.
A: Oh.
NH: Don’t get a dog.
A: I don’t want a dog, I’m afraid of dogs.
NH: This is for everyone. Just, anyone watching now, anyone who’s watching this back later. Don’t get a dog, especially if you’re not gonna be willing or able to give it the time, and effort, and money to give it the proper exercise and training that it needs.
A: Yeah, if you’re not gonna walk your dog, don’t buy a dog.
NH: Yeah, if all you want is a cat that’s big, get a maine coon.
A: Yeah. Like, my, my, our mom got a companion animal, and I told her, don’t get the dog, because you’re not gonna walk the dog, and we live in a little apartment. And I thought I had convinced her to get a cat, but then she brought home a dog, and then fast forward several months, she made me take the dog back to the pound and get it – have it put down. And then tried to gaslight me about it later. Which, there’s the secret lore on why I’m always talking shit about my mom, because she’s legitimately, objectively, a bad person.
C: She’s the worst?
A: Yeah.
C: Yeah… So. Where were we?
A: You were plugging- I was asking if you’d watched, if you’d read Flowar.
C: No.
A: Oh, it’s good. You might not like it ‘cause it’s kinda horror-ish, but it’s about an astronaut with a plant heart, who fights plants.
C: Weird.
A: Yeah. It’s neat.
C: There was, there was one that I read recently, that was really good, and I cannot for the life of me remember what the fuck it’s called.
A: We’re talking about Webtoons again, apparently.
C: Yeah… So just play Final Fantasy XIV.
A: Just play Final Fantasy XIV.
C: (remembering their recently dwindled bank account) Don’t play Final Fantasy XIV, you have to play- pay sixty dollars for the base game and then fifteen dollars for a monthly subscription.
A: (crosstalk) No you don’t! You can get the base game, Realm Reborn and Heavensward is free. You just gotta get the trial version. But if you want to buy the expansions, first you have to pay sixty dollars for the base – for that and Heavensward before you can start buying expansions. But! You can play through Heavensward, which is up to level sixty, for free. If you don’t wanna pay –
NH: You have to pay for the game, sixty dollars, and then fifteen dollars a month subscription to get all the content.
A: Yeah.
[C lost in the midst of buyer’s remorse]
NH: You know what that sounds like?
C: On PC.
NH: Sounds like bad.
A: Yeah. Sounds like something-
[prepare for screaming rant, lasting from 1.07.45 until 1.08.38]
NH: You know what is another MMO that is bad?
A: Uh, every MMO?
NH: The Old Republic.
A: Yeah.
NH: The Old Republic is bad.
A: We should stream that sometime very soon, Haley, I’ve been wanting to play that.
NH: We should. I, fuck, I still need- I’m thinking of just finding a random group to get through the latest story pack
A: (crosstalk) ‘Cause, yeah, I’m playin’
NH: because good lord,
A: My, my, my jedi knight is fighting justicars, and this is like my third time, second or third time through Coruscant, and I just- I feel like I’d be able to play for longer than, about an hour, if somebody was there ranting constantly that I could be amused by.
NH: Fuck, man. I’m gonna have to get t- to try to find a random team to get through the latest story content because these fucking Mandalorians are not designed for solo players, despite the fact that Bioware’s moST LOYAL FANS ARE SOLO GAME PLAYERS, AND NOBODY WHO PLAYS THE OLD REPUBLIC FUCKING LIKES EACH OTHER, FUCKING- I’m kicking away from my desk so I’m not shouting directly into the mic to save Charlie- BUT LIKE, FUCKING, YOU CAN’T, YOU CANNOT FUCKING CONVINCE ME THAT A COMPANY THAT EXCELLS AT SOLO PLAY STORY DRIVEN GAME, PUT THEM INTO AN MMO HAVE THEIR TWO BEST EXPANSIONS BE STORY DRIVEN, AND THEN IN THEIR MOST RECENT BULLSHIT THEY FINALLY PUT THE END TO THAT FUCKING STORYLINE-
C: (deeply amused and fond) You’re great.
NH: I am very annoyed. Do you have any idea how many times this fucking Dar’manda motherfucker, this piece of treacherous bullshit, this ABSOLUTE RUIN OF A PERSON, HAS MURDERED ME WITH ONE FUCKNG HIT, WHEN I AM AT FULL HEALTH!! AND I HAVE TO START ALL OVER AGAIN BECAUSE I DON’T HAVE ANYONE TO FUCKING REVIVE ME!!!
C: Ok, Haley, I want you to take three slow, deep breaths for me.
A: Count to ten, please.
[A moment of silence for Haley’s last shred of SWTOR-related sanity]
C: Remember that we love you.
A: Yes. Let’s talk about, talk about, think about LotRO, you’re playing LotRO, LotRO is chill.
C: Yes, LotRO is very chill. You don’t get as many quests all at once, like you do in Final Fantasy.
A: And when you’re overleveled for the quest,
C: (crosstalk) Though they are much longer.
A: the quest thing stops showing up on your mini-map, so you don’t have to be annoyed by that constantly.
C: Yeah.
A: Because you don’t want to pick up a level one quest when you’re level fifty.
C: Yeah… At least in Final Fantasy, you always get the option of ‘just pay me.’ Just pay me, I don’t need the fucking gear, just pay me.
A: Yeah. But yeah.
NH: Ok, I’m good. I’m calm.
C: Feel better?
NH: What – what were we talking about before I started screaming?
A: Final Fantasy-
C: (crosstalk) MMO’s and the differences between them.
A: Yes.
NH: LotRO’s a nice MMO.
[C and A make noises of agreement.]
NH: I’ve been in the Shire for so many hours. And I keep finding more quests to do.
A: Yeah. You know.
NH: I will say, in The Old Republic’s defense, for all that it has questionable gameplay, weak base stories, uh – [realizes they’re supposed to be defending SWtOR] Knights of the Fallen Empire and Knights of the Eternal Throne were very good, and there’s a reason Bioware has been beating that dead horse ever since Eternal Throne ended.
A: Oh, well that, that-
NH: (crosstalk) ‘Cause that’s when it peaked.
C: There is a reason that you can get so passionate about this game.
NH: (crosstalk) I mean, I love it –
C: If it wasn’t at least good in some ways…
A: I think it’s mostly just because Knights of the Old Republic was good.
C: Yeah, that too.
NH: I like the Old Republic. I know it’s a moral failing.
[A chuckles]
NH: But I like the characters, and I can even sometimes get into the class stories, as long as that class story isn’t Smuggler.
C: Yeah. So, you wanna promote your shit?
NH: Oh, yeah! Arctickchild! twitch.tv/arctickchild, I stream Wednesday and Fri- nope, not Wednesday and Friday, I stream Wednesday and Sunday mornings. I usually start off with Sims at about nine or ten, between nine and ten thirty, I start off with the Sims, and then I play from whenever I start until noon. And then I play Dragon Age on Wednesday and Sunday. Saturday evenings, I play the Sims 4, I’m working on a legacy challenge right now with the Neumanns, I’m on – my gen 2 heir just aged up to teenager, and I moved in Father Christmas, and we have a second child on the way.
A: Aw~
NH: Ok, someone else go now. I know, I’m married to Santa- sorry, he’s called Father Winter, I know I keep calling him Father Christmas.
A: His name is Clement.
NH: His name is Clement Frost, that’s right, and when you have a baby with him, that baby gets a special trait that gives you ten percent lifetime happiness gain on whims.
A: Aw.
NH: Which is why I had a baby with him, and then I decided that Ace was in need of a sibling, and so, even though Clement is an elder and will be dead before the child is a teenager, they’re having a second child.
A: OK.
NH: And he’ll actually be present in the life of this one. He wasn’t around much for Ace, because I didn’t move him in, because I didn’t have a separate bedroom for them.
A: Ah.
NH: And there you are, you’re all caught up on the lore of my current legacy family. Charlie, you go.
C: Well, I stream irregularly on twitch, ecpaulstein. I’m trying to stick to sundays at least, I’ll play Final Fantasy XIV, with my hoarding classes with Echo Charlie. But it’s a toss up whether or not I’ll stream any other day. And now it’s Ace’s turn!
A: Right. I’ve got my twitch, which is this twitch, which is twitch.tv/rhlotr. I’ve got my tumblr, which is also Rhlotr. And then, I have my youtube, which is Ace Barret King, and you can- which is where I put my recordings of both this chat every week, and also my Late Night LotRO, so in case you don’t wanna stay up that late on Thursdays to watch me stream LotRO, which I do on Thursdays, well, technically Friday at midnight til 6AM, generally. Then you can watch it on there, I cut it into hour bits and then post it one a day. And then, um. Oh, yeah, but yeah I do stream here, usually on either Monday or Tuesday, depending on whether Radio Dead Air aired on Monday or Tuesday. And then usually I would stream after Review Rwednesdays. But since we had it so late today, there’s gonna be no streaming until tomorrow. Which is gonna be LotRO. And then, so yeah, but yeah. Yeah. Lots of yeahs. Oh, and I also have a twitter, its @bootyuprooter, sometimes I remember to promote my twitches on there, and that’s pretty much all I use it for.
NH: That’s because twitter is evil.
A: Yeah. I do, I do go on there and read it, there’s lots of drama on there.
NH: Yeah, but you can get that drama off of tumblr, like
A: Yeah, but, well I can’t. I don’t follow drama. I only follow blogs that spark joy. On tumblr. So.
NH: Well, the really really good drama always makes it tumblr eventually, if you follow the right people.
A: (crosstalk) I like when people refer to discourse that I’ve never seen. That’s always my favorite.
NH: My favorite bit of twitter drama that I actually heard from youtube through TheymerSophie’s streams, was with Bean Dad
A: (crosstalk) Oh, yes. Bean Dad.
NH: and when I found out about, when it reached tumblr, it reached tumblr because news had been, we’d gotten news that the McElroy’s had dropped his music from their intro. And you know what their current intro song has been for the last couple episodes?
A: What?
NH: Griffin singing to a parody of the Rugrats theme. It’s adorable.
A: (crosstalk) Oh watched the, the, the new Monster Factory yesterday, they made a baby.
NH: Aw, that’s cute. I don’t watch Monster Factory because I (inaudible, something about other things on youtube probably?)
A: It was, let’s see. Trying to think. But yeah, but that’s twitter. And, so yeah! And then, Fen has a tumblr.
NH: It’s druidquest.tumblr.com.
A: (crosstalk) Yeah, and then.
NH: All these links will be in the youtube description when this goes up on youtube.
A: Yep. And then we have a tumblr, which is ace-reviews.tumblr.com. And then we have a website, which is AceAnimeReviews.com. So.
NH: Yeah. Last, this just past Friday, Charlie had their review about Old Man’s Journey. This coming Friday, Ace is doing…
A: A Defense of Rashta. How Rashta is not a man-stealing homewrecking whore.
C: I mean she is a little bit, but it’s understandable.
A: (crosstalk) It’s, it’s going to be called ‘Rashta is fine, actually?’
NH: Yes. And then the week after that, just forewarning you, will be Peter Grill. So, the week after Ace, remember, if you do not want to read about me screaming about Peter Grill, that’s when Peter Grill will be going up.
A: Yeah.
NH: Alright. I think that’s everything… Hold on, let me ask Fen if she has anything she wants to promote specifically.
C: Are ya winnin’, son?
A: I just won, this person committed suicide.
C: Oh, no. That was very stupid of them.
A: I think they probably did it on purpose. They were probably like ‘oh, well I’m not gonna win this, I may as well just end it.’
C: That’s understandable.
A: Yeah.
C: Maybe they had to do somethin’ and wanted to finish up quick.
A: Yeah, maybe that, too.
NH: (crosstalk) Fen’s not interested in freely publicizing anything.
A: Ok. Well, then, that’s that, for this week. You guys have a good one.
NH: You, too. Stay safe out there. I love you.
A: I love you, too. Bye bye.
C: Did we just get through a whole episode without Haley promoting the Untamed?
[A gasps]
NH: Oh! Oh, do you want me to promote the Untamed?
A: Oh, no, we finished our plugs! We probably spent more time talking about webtoons than we did talking about anime.
[NH and C bickering in the background]
C: Yeah.
NH: That’s fine. The Untamed is a show that explores trauma and the pressures of society. It’s available on Netflix.
C: (crosstalk) Five words or less!
NH: It has fifty episodes- You can’t describe the Untamed in fifty words or less! The Untamed is good. Watch. That’s five words! It’s on Netflix, fifty episodes, about an hour or so per episode.
A: Alright.
NH: It’s – it’s very good.
A: Ok, so this one week was more successful than last week! Let’s give everybody a round of applause.
[round of applause]
NH: Also the longest episode so far, I think.
A: I don’t know, I guess we’ll find out.
C: I don’t think so…
NH: It’s been over an hour.
A: And I haven’t actually stopped recording, should we just keep chatting and see? Well, no, I’m not. I’m going to stop recording right now! Everybody! Go. Read. Skelly Dad! Ok, bye.
Ace Anime Reviews 