I will eat you alive.
Hello and welcome to our weep there yet in education and exploration and anime. My name is Patrick dugan, and I am your anime idiot.
I'm dana hollander, and I am an anime expert.
I'm brenda mccullen. I'm an anime baby, which is also a horrible parasite.
Wow, baby.
Learning about humanity, both as an alien life form and just a regular baby.
Wow, he's got layers.
It's like an onion fuse to your hand.
What about parfais? Everybody loves parfais.
And there's our man for a shrek reference.
Next week when our guest is Lord farquad.
Let me check off the list. Got it.
Memes. Got them.
All right, we just have to hit sonic and then we're all set.
No, it'll happen.
Not after last time.
I genuinely kind of feel bad about that comparison because I can't not see it now. Like that show.
We've hit our sonic reference quota for the rest of our lives, I think.
With that one episode.
Yeah, I think we're good. We're good on the sonic.
All right. Anyway, thank you to all the sonic fans who started listening after last week's episodes. I'm sure you'll be disappointed in the lack of sonic from this point forward.
We're the number one podcast on TV and art.
Oh, no.
Anyways, the reason I mentioned parasites is because we're watching Parasite this week. Yeah, yeah, it's one of a newer show. I think it came out like two, three years ago, maybe four.
2014.
There were four? Yeah. Jesus. That was four years ago.
Almost five.
Time keeps on slipping, Brendan.
Oh, gosh, I'm old.
The years get shorter.
So, yeah, decided to watch this one after the kind of feel good episode of last week.
We've been too happy lately and monica was just the beginning of our downward spire.
It was the tipping point.
Yeah, we got into the feel good stuff before the holidays, so we need to balance ourselves out before we get to actual feel good stuff.
Yeah.
So let's lower to that threshold a bit with some body horror. Do you guys know anything about this show before we get into it?
I do, so I don't really have a guess. I've never seen it, but I know what it's about.
Yeah, what about you, dudes?
This is not something I'm familiar with. shockingly.
Wow.
Yeah, I have no frame of reference. You just mentioned body horror, so I'm already on edge. But I'm going to make a wild guess. It's about a boy. That befriends a tapeworm. And they go on adventures together.
All right.
Shockingly accurate.
That's a great guess.
One of the most accurate guesses I've heard.
All right, cool.
Not what you think. You'll see.
Okay, I'm ready for my expectations to be at least somewhat met.
Yeah.
We are watching the first three episodes.
Let's dig in.
Let's just do it.
Let's just burrow into it cerebral cortex.
Wow. Okay, here we go.
I'm not liking this but let's go.
It's such a new, like, falling down a hole. I'm falling into the anime. Oh, no.
A cliffhanger happened. I don't know if this has ever happened to us before.
Yeah, normally we get like a nice clean resolve, but not this week.
It is like the carapace of cliffhangers. It's like right there. You know, shit's about to go down in episode four.
Like second one of episode four.
Yeah.
But yeah, let's see how we get there.
Yeah. So episode one, it starts out with a cold open, if you will. It's like an older couple and they're standing in front of a window. They're just kind of looking at each other. The guy grabs the woman and his face just opens up. Very reminiscent of the demogorgon from Stranger Things.
I was thinking very audrey, too.
Yeah, that's a good one. Musical theater for our friends. That's a popular one, though.
All you Rick moranis fans.
Yeah, I'm a Rick miranda stick.
Literally, after that 1st second, I paused it and screenshotted my first two notes and sent them to Brendan because my first note is, okay, let's get this over with. And the second note in all caps is, okay, come through Demagorgan, because it's just right out the gate. Here you go.
This is what you're in for.
Here's how gross we're going to be.
No. Yeah. This is a great way to just hit the ground running. Heads don't work like that. I don't know if you two realize that, but that's not normal of most people. Yeah.
I only know like two people that can do that.
Yeah. What weirdos can do that? My first note is just he going to munch. He going to crunch.
I also wrote munch Crunch by lady because he eats her head just straight up gone with his head hunch. And then we get the opening, which is a good opening.
Yeah. This is something I would have so been into in 8th grade.
Yeah, I'm into it now.
It's not bad. nothing's better than some screamo metal at nine in the morning.
Yeah. But it's also auto tuned, which I am into.
Yeah. It also seems like it was a Japanese artist just who learned to sing English phonetically because a lot of the words don't go together like that. But he just powered through and I was losing it. Also, I should mention, I watched all three episodes of the dub.
Oh, I didn't even know there was a dub.
Oh, yeah, it's not great.
Okay. I felt it was pretty similar to.
The sub, but different strokes for different folks.
Yeah, I think the adaptation wasn't great. Well, I had a couple notes, but we'll get to them.
All right. I thought I just watched it subtitled all the way through because I watched it on verve, not Sponsored, and it only said subtitled. Like it didn't offer me a dub. So I just watched the subtitles.
Okay.
And it was good.
I won't comment on the quality of them, but I'll say they're both the same quality. So whether one is better or worse, they were about the same for me, at least.
Interesting.
Yeah.
After that sick opening, we get our main character. His name is SHINICHI, and he's in bed waking up, and there's a creepy little voice that goes, oh, how unfortunate. I failed. And he says, what's unfortunate. The voice just goes, Shut up. And he wakes up and he's like, what just happened? There's nothing in my room. And of course, he assumes it's a dream because, you know, he was sleeping.
Yeah, that's how half of anime start anyways, a dream. And then they wake up, and then it's the real life. Or was it?
Pretty much, yeah. Considering the last one we just watched was yeah.
So he goes downstairs, and his parents his mom is making breakfast. His dad is eating breakfast, because that's what parents do, I guess. And his dad asks if he found the snake, and he's like, Excuse me?
What?
What? Is that a euphemism for something, dad?
That's immediate I thought.
And then he also remarks that his hand feels numb. And his parents say that he wrapped his headphone cord around his arm really tightly, but they don't really elaborate on it. So I thought he fell asleep with it wrapped around his arm. And then he woke up and thought it was a snake. That was like, what was happening in my brain?
Yeah, because we've all been there. We've all fallen asleep with headphones in and then woke it up in a messy tangle.
Yeah, I once woke up with them around my neck, and I was like, Cool.
Almost died last night. Great.
What a rush. His mom offers him breakfast, and he just says, Now I want some toast.
Give me that toast.
He's not very hungry. And then he sees a spider and freaks out. Because our boy is afraid of bugs. And I just think that's precious.
He's so relatable.
Just a teenage boy afraid of bugs.
I'm not afraid of them, but I don't like them.
Yeah, I'm okay with most.
If they're chilling, I'm chilling.
I have a lot of legs. I don't want to see them around.
But especially after this show, I'm not okay with anything that can crawl inside of me.
Good point. And then we see the guy again, mr. munch. Mr. Munchcranch. And his presumably daughter is calling from the other room. She's like, where's mom? And then I'm like, oh, well, this girl is going to die, too. We don't see that happen because he's.
Also watching the news, because he's, like, trying to mimic the speech pattern. I guess he's learning the language for the first time.
Yeah, she does get eaten, but we find that out later. And then SHINICHI is walking to school, and there are some weird animation choices of some 3d figures.
Like the background people were models.
It's awful to me. It's just like it glares out and I'm just like, Why?
Yeah, it's usually done with cars and any big vehicles, and sometimes it's done with big crowd shots, but because this is kind of the only thing, at least as far as I remember, the only thing that's ever 3d, it really stands out more.
Yeah. And it's like, not done well. And it's just like, yeah, I didn't.
Pick up on that. I may have been writing a note and missed it, but oh, yeah, some.
Like in a few scenes where there are, like, background people, they're like weird, chunky, almost Minecrafty moving people.
Very robust.
Yeah. He's walking to school and his friend murano tries to sneak up on him and it doesn't work because his hand just kind of acts on its own and just, like, grabs her and he's like, didn't surprise me, can't get me. And he turns around and they're, like, talking for a minute and then he looks down and he's just clenching her.
Breast, grabs her again, but worse. It's fine. I wrote he's like John wick and then a gropey John wick.
And I was just like, okay. So it's the parasite thingy, right?
It's got to be sure he's not just a pervert.
Yeah. He wouldn't just do that. He also didn't know what was happening.
See, for me, I was just like, well, it's starting early.
There's that fan service we know and love.
And she smacks him and runs off and she sees these other friends I am seeing on the wiki that her name is yuko. Did not write that down.
Yeah. I don't know. It may have just been said in that first episode, but I don't think I've ever heard yuko said again.
I think it's definitely maybe once or twice more.
And she's kind of like, wow, smooth move, dog.
Smooth moves.
And she asks if something's wrong with his hand because he kind of keeps looking at it and clenching and unclenching it, and he's like, eh, it's probably fine. And it was at this point that I kind of figured out, like, what happened, but it is confirmed later in the episode, so I'll talk about it later. So he's in class and he's kind of zoning out, thinking about stuff, and the teacher comes over to him and he's been using his phone under his desk and he doesn't know it. And he's been googling pictures of the human anatomy.
Yeah. Like very science biology pictures.
Yeah. So his hand is doing some weird shit. His sentient hand is grabbing titties, looking up human anatomy.
Hey, for any anatomy that a hand can mindlessly Google, I'm glad it was like biology.
Yeah. Especially after grabbing a titty.
Yeah.
His hand is just exploring the human body.
It's not the best place school to be going through that.
Yeah.
Is this where we get the flashback scene of what happened that night?
It is. I didn't take notes on it, which is weird, but yes, it is. So he's in bed listening to music. He's got his earphones in, and this little weird worm bug thing tries to crawl in through his ear, but he kind of smacks it away.
Well, he's got the headphones in, so he can't get into the ears.
Yeah. So he feels it trying to and he smacks it. And then he freaks out because he's afraid of bugs.
Yeah.
So he tries to smack it. He tries to go in through his nose, and he, like, sneezes because it tickles. So that's when he tries to defend himself. And it just gets on his hand and just burrows on in, leaving a hole. Which didn't bother me at the time, but, like, thinking about it again really bothers me.
Yeah.
No, it's some bad stuff right here.
Yeah. In my notes, I wrote, this makes me feel weird, but nothing has drastically triggered my tripophobia yet. But now thinking about it, it makes me feel icky. I don't like it. So he's freaking out, and that's when he wraps his headphone cords around his arm to cut off the circulation. And it does not reach his brain, which is what it's trying to do. And his parents hear the commotion, and they come in and they're like, what's up, SHINICHI? And he's like, there's a snake, and I'm dying.
There's a snake in my there's a.
Snake in my hand. And he's talking about the hole in his hand. And his dad is like, Where is it? And he's like, It's right here. And it's gone.
I wrote down one quote, and it's like, Please, son, tell me you're not on drugs. And I was like, well, he was able to tie off that arm pretty quick for someone not on drugs.
Wow. I hadn't thought of that.
He knew the right thing to cut off.
Wow. So that all happens. And then during their break, he tries to say, sorry to murano for grabbing her titty, but she's not happy with that.
Naturally.
Understandably.
Yeah. And then SHINICHI yuko remarks on how he's been acting weird all day. So he's like, yeah, I'm just going to go home. So on his way home, there's a little girl playing in the street. Well, she's playing with a ball. And the ball goes into the street, and she chases after it like a.
Little kid would, as you do.
And then very Edward cullen of him jumps in front of the little girl and punches an oncoming vehicle that is going to hit her. And it just like his hand transforms. And that's the first thing that made me feel very gross. He just stops the car, and the car just gets a huge dent in it as if it hit another car. So his hand not only is doing weird shit, but it also has superhuman strength now and then he gets home and he takes a knife and he's going to stab his hand to try and get it out because now he remembers what happened. And then it wakes up, turns to a little face. And it's got a little face. It's got a little eye and a little mouthfully. It shows its strength again by breaking the knife in half and just throwing it.
Yeah. SHINICHI tries to sneak attack where he's, like, talking to it. And he's like, this is and goes for it real quick. And just the hand immediately catches a knife, breaks it, and then throws against the watch like, bitch, you try. Don't even bother.
I was quick enough to stop a car. You think you're faster?
Yeah.
And it's like a weird baby because it doesn't talk very well because it hasn't learned how to talk yet. And it also is just sleepy. It's a sleepy little baby.
Yeah.
It reminded me of so much energy stopping that car. It's just so tired.
Freaking knives.
It reminded me of the ogami Yellow from yugio. I know you guys won't get that, but any other weaves listening might get that right. It's that shitty, yellow, weird, googly eye monster that I think kaiba had.
See, I was thinking of the monster from a real monsters that just holds the eyes in advance.
Oh, crumb.
Crumb. That's it.
Yeah, that's a good comparison.
Just those big lips and just like, eyes on stalks.
I think I've written it down later. I'm like, I'm uncomfortable with how plump these hand lips are, too.
Kissable.
Just kissing my hand.
So SHINICHI takes to Google and Google's talking right hand, weird snake. And I was like, that's not going to get you anywhere, honey. It might get you some weird, like, porn.
Oh, that definitely led to some porn.
No, they cut that out.
Yeah. So of course, he's like, well, that didn't help. And he eats dinner with his family, goes to bed, decides he's crazy. And then he wakes up the next day and his arm is just stretched out, splayed out across the floor. And the organism has kind of broken itself into two separate blobs.
And one of them real quick. This is where I noted that this was a bad adaptation, because when he wakes up, he sits up and says out loud the words, It is morning. I am awake. I'm like, oh, God.
Wow.
Oh, God. They could have put anything else in there, but they chose It is morning. I am awake. A human thing you say out loud to yourself.
This is also weird. I have the note that's a mangled corpse hanging on a clothesline, but it's not in the summary on the wiki.
Yeah. It's when he goes to sleep, we see little snippets of other people being attacked and muted by these things.
Yeah. So there's like, a woman on a walk in, just like a separate part of Japan, and she finds, as I put a mangled corpse on a clothesline.
There'S also a drunk guy that stumbles into a bloody alley. And it's sort of alluded to that. This is the monster that ate that lady in the first scene. Or more monster.
Mr. munch and friend.
I assumed that the mingled corpses on the clothesline were like the mom and the daughter, but we now know that it's not. There is more. So one blob back to Shidichi's room. One blob is reading a book, and the other blob is turning into things. So the thing in his hand is reading and learning how to morph into other things, which is pretty gross and pretty terrible.
Educated self.
And he's like SHINICHI is just kind of like, what's up?
What are you doing?
What are you doing? Hey.
In my body.
Hey, it's time to pay rent.
Get out of my hands.
So it's at this point we find out that the parasite meant to reach Shinichi's brain and eat it. So it could just take him as a host. But because SHINICHI cut off the circulation in his arm, he could not reach his brain. And he matured in his arm. It matured in his arm before it could eat his brain. So now it's just part of his arm.
Yeah.
Yeah. enhancement. Human improvement.
Enhancement.
Wow. I will accept that one with open arms. I like that one.
Oh, open arms.
Oh, my God. It never ends.
Wow.
It doesn't.
And SHINICHI is just kind of like, well, fuck, I guess I'm going to have to cut off my arm. And he's like, very calm about it. And the parasite is just kind of like, nah, dog, don't do that. And he's like, Why not? And he says, It would die, and you would lose your right hand.
We both lose.
We both lose. And I'm just kind of like, you know, if if it meant possibly stopping a malevolent alien monster, I would cut off my hand.
I would. Especially since I'm left handed, it would not impact my life as bad.
I didn't know you were left handed.
I win for once. The southwest wind.
So the parasite is just kind of like, here, listen, while I'm asleep, I'll give you full control of my hand. Full of control of your hand. And it'll be fine. We'll be fine. And SHINICHI is kind of like, no. And then he goes to sleep again.
I wrote down the quotes. I'm tired. I sleep now. And Shaniji tells, hey, you're just using that to get out of this discussion. I'm like, fucking same. Relate to that way too much.
Yeah. So he goes down to have breakfast, and he wants bacon and eggs this time. And his mom was like, yesterday you didn't want it. And he's like, well, I'm hungry now. And they see a spider on the table again. And this time, SHINICHI just picks it up and takes it outside. Because now I guess, what's he got to be afraid of?
There's a bug in him now.
Yeah.
We get the full on toby Maguire spiderman stuff where he's like immediately better.
Yeah, he can see without his glasses. Just kidding.
He got ripped overnight.
Yeah.
We didn't see it in these episodes, but he actually does lose the glasses at some point.
Yeah, we see it in the opening.
And he gets weird hair. So while he's walking to school, the parasite is kind of like, hey, you're going a different way? And he's like, yeah, I'm going to go to the cops. And he's just like, why? What are they going to do? And then the parasite tells SHINICHI that another one of its kind is near them because he's got like a radar.
They can sense their brainwaves.
Yeah. So they can sense each other when they're around each other. And they go to an alley and they see a dog eating another dog rosecoop. And the dog is just kind of like, you failed too, my dude.
Another fuck up. Join the club.
You got an arm. I got a dog.
I wrote down the quote. Please don't talk, Mr. doggy. I like that. That's Shinichi's reaction. Just like, dogs don't talk. Please don't talk. This is making me weird. Yes.
This is the one abnormal thing in.
Your life right now, SHINICHI.
So the dog decides that it's going to kill SHINICHI because sure, they're both failures, I guess. Yeah.
Kill each other.
Yeah.
Eating that other dog was not enough nutrition for it.
So the parasite in the dog makes the dog's head just transform into a terrible, terrible thing with wings and a weird sucky mouth. And it's just all bad.
Yeah.
And it flies after SHINICHI. But the parasite in his hand kills it pretty easily because it just like fishing. And it gets sharp claws and just gets in there and rips the dog's heart out and crushes it. And the parasite and the dog is dead. yay.
To be fair, there are two dead dogs. What a great start to this show.
Wow.
To be fair, that's still less than the dead dogs in jojo.
You're right. And then SHINICHI goes to wash his hands, and I like this recurring thing of the parasite in his hand being like, it's cold, it's cold.
And the parasite was saying that the dog didn't understand anatomy as well because it was studying earlier that day. It was able to quickly defeat the dog. And the dog alien was able to.
Yeah. Because seeing a dog reading in a library would be weird. People would question it.
Oh, it would be so cute, though.
Yeah. And then we get a weird scene of a guy just murdering a woman in, like a dump.
Yeah. Like a backyard alley thing.
Yeah. And something falls from the sky and it's an egg. And it opens and crawls towards SHINICHI. So I don't know if it's another one.
There was an interstitial that said two days earlier, so this was the arrival of these parasites.
Got you. So yeah, that's the parasite we come to love.
Our good friend. And then in episode two, we get a name for this hand.
Yeah.
Oh, do you want to quickly mention the weird checks? The position of ending music?
Oh, yes, the ending.
It's all so good.
It's very soft rock, kind of boy band esque.
It kind of felt like R and B to me. Just like very smooth.
Yeah.
And it's just like, okay, we just saw a dog monster eat a dog and then get its heart ripped out. But.
Also, the coming Up Next time clips were really cool.
It was just kind of like a red. A lot of images. There wasn't like a monologue or actual scenes. It kind of like it was like from the perspective of something, but at least in the dub. The next time on Parasite or the episode title was still in Japanese, so they didn't dub that part. So I thought that was weird.
We're taking interesting.
Yeah.
All right.
And that brings us to episode two. When episode two starts, we see all strangers woman is being harassed by three men who are trying to get too friendly. None of them were wearing 69 sweatshirts, which is strange at this point.
The universal sign of a thug in an anime.
Exactly. We needed that, but we didn't get it. And then another stranger walks up and just knocks him out and is like, hey, I'll walk you home. And it's pretty clear that this is another Parasite host person.
Yeah. I did not trust him immediately.
Mostly in his speech pattern.
He was like, oh, walk you.
And it's like, oh, that's not a human.
Cool. It's very cold and calculated. But yeah.
The harassers follow them and is like, hey, we're going to kick your ass, old man. And then he naturally just unfurls his head and kills them. And that's our intro.
I'll say real quick. He kills all the gang members and he kills the woman too, because he's planning on eating her. But then he also gets blind shotted by one of the gang members, like, hits him in the face with a pipe. And I wonder if this is the character we meet later on, later in the episode of Mr. A. And this is why he's kind of off, because he has, like, head damage.
Yeah, I wouldn't be surprised. I think it may be the same person.
Yeah, they make it super clear.
Yeah. So we cut back to, I think the next day. It's SHINICHI chalking to his hand. And he's like, hey, I can't just call you like, righty? Or whatever. What can I call you? And his hand is like, I have no use for a name, but call me migi. I think that will work. So we now have a name for this parasite.
It's migi, which I believe is just hand in Japanese.
Yeah.
Which don't name it then you get attached to it.
Technically, he's already attached to it.
Migue was like, I'm not your pet. Don't give me a name. So, yeah, we go to school where they're all in gym class, they're all playing basketball. moreno and yuko are still hanging out. moreno is still mad about the groping, understandably? And yuko is like, hey, SHINICHI, she'll forgive you if you make this next basket. And then they're all bashful because they're clearly crushing on each other. So miki being the true wingman helps him land the basket.
See, I actually have a note that says hugo is the best wingman because she's setting it up because his crush didn't say that. So she's saying it for her.
They're a team. migue and yuko, best wing people.
Your right hand man. I love this. Sorry. Anyway, So makes basket a bully is like when he gets shown up by SHINICHI making this basket. After the class, SHINICHI and marino are putting stuff away and he's like, hey, I'm so sorry. I don't know what came over me. And she says, oh, you can make it up to me by one. Never doing that again. You two taking me to get some pancakes this weekend. So got that date set up.
Nice.
We're very similar, me and murano. If you apologize and give me food, you're good, especially pancakes.
The true beef breaker is pancakes.
Love a good pancake.
Okay. With the name beef breaker.
So we then have migue interact by noticing he gets a big old boner from this date being set up. And it's like, hey, I know you want to meet with her, so I'm exploring your anatomy.
You look in the bang. Same. Yeah, says migue.
They have that fun moment. But then the bully who got showed up confronts SHINICHI outside of class and is like, hey, she's my girl. Back off and starts beating him up in true high school bully fashion. And SHINICHI is like, oh no, migue is going to kill this guy. But migue, again, being a true wingman, knocks him out without killing him, which was expected, but teaches him a lesson.
And spooks the guy. Because I was watching the sub, we get the really standard, like a real solid Yamura line from SHINICHI when he's like, don't, there's always a great line in the subs.
Very classic.
Yeah.
So migue is like, hey, you got a piss? So let's go. And then they go to the bathroom and migue is like, hey, hold on real quick. I'm going to give you a boner.
I want to see what that's like. You start jerking them off at the.
Urinal while other people are in the bathroom.
This tickled me. I thought this was so funny.
It was a good moment of levity.
If I were in a body for a day that had a dick, that's all I would do. I'd just be like, let's see how this goes. It just cracked me up.
So punishes them by putting money under the cold water again. And then the other guy in the bathroom comes up. Hey, why are you talking to your dick?
I can't focus when you're talking to your packer. Use the word pecker in the dub. And it was great. That was the only adaptation I like.
Yeah.
They say Johnson.
Yeah, good choice.
But yeah. So that's the bathroom. Fun. And then we get back to some murder stuff because yuko is discussing has everything, the killings that are around. And they have been called the mincemeat murders since everyone is so brutally just ripped apart. And this is where Migue realizes that all the other parasites that are doing this are cannibalistic. So that's why we saw the dog eating another dog. And then parasites that take over humans eat other humans because they like their own kind and they feel it's inefficient to eat other creatures.
Yeah. They also comment on the fact that they're calling them murders, but it's happening all over the world, so it'd be hard to catch the murderer that is doing this.
Yeah. When it is so widespread, it's not a single person.
Yeah.
So at this point, SHINICHI is like, hey, I need to go to the police. I don't care what they do to me, but these murders are happening all over. And if they dissect me, they'll at least know what's going on. And at this point, Migue is like, hey, I need you to live so I can't have you die. I can't kill you. And then shifts into, like, knifehand form and goes, you don't need your tongue, eyes or ears, so maybe chill with that going to the police shit.
It's very good. Like, listen here, fuckboy moment from miguel. I will tear you apart. Self preservation is my number one priority. And I'll do whatever I need to to you to save me.
Meeky'S, raw as fuck.
I need you alive. I don't need you to have a functioning life.
Yeah. And it's like, very interesting hearing this intimidating message being sent from this very high pitched voice.
A baby.
Yeah, just a baby in my hand. Yeah.
It is a very gentle, baby like, clinical voice, which is it is fun. I am liking the voice of Migue.
Yeah.
Then they go out and just walk around town. It doesn't seem like they have, like, a real objective. And that's when they bump into another parasite.
Yeah. So another parasite appears. At this point, Migue is like, hey, avoid. Because we don't know. We're still figuring out how all of this works. But SHINICHI is like, no, if this person is out there murdering people, let me confront them. And then this is sort of a first lesson for Migue of how humanity works. And it's not just self preservation, it's working as a community. So this guy shows up and is like, hey, I sense you're a parasite. I don't want to kill you. I see you failed to take over this host. You're so new. You don't know that you can come live with me. I will offer you my arm if you join up with me. It'll be two parasites and one host, and we can roll everything. And he cuts off his own arm to sort of make this opening where Migue will kill SHINICHI and jump hosts. And there's hesitation because naturally, Migue doesn't trust this and decides to kill the other parasite, not to save SHINICHI, as SHINICHI suggests, but needing self preservation. And that was the safer option of the two things.
Yeah, this is a very like one. When SHINICHI started getting, like, a little bit of a hero complex, I was like, all right, let's not be a light yogamy. And then when Migue was like, again, he kind of had this thing of like, Why did you pick me, Migue? And migge like, Fuck you. I didn't pick you.
Please.
My pod opened up on your satellite dish on your porch. Chill.
Yeah.
Migue mostly said, like, I didn't choose you. It was just too many unaccountable factors with the other guy. He's like, I already know what's going on with you, so it's the safer option for me.
It could be a play, and I would die as soon as I detach from you. So I'm not going to take that risk. Yeah, you ain't hot shit.
Shiny jeep. Calm down. Get over yourself.
You're a gross high schooler. Get over it.
So we have that, and then we jump immediately into a joyful pancake date.
Yay. Date time. So cute.
Pancakes always taste better after murder.
Exactly. You got to unwind from all that murder.
Yeah.
So they're going on a cute date. They're warming up to each other. It seems that the waters have calmed between them, and then they go walk in and they go to play in the park. But they see three hooligans again, none wearing the 69 sweatshirt.
They do not get the memo.
They're not on brand.
Yeah, come on. You have a uniform. Wear it. They decide to go to the park, and they see these kids. They have a cat buried in the sandbox, and they're trying to throw rocks at it, which, number one, bad. Number two, how did they get the cat to just chill? Yeah, I figured it would be able to dig out of loose sand.
I always thought about that, and I was like, who the fuck does this? What kind of psychopath does this? And I'm like, how do you do it? Yeah, I'm very impressed by your if.
It'S a stray cat, that stray cat would not take that.
Yeah.
So logistically, I'm confused, but also morally, I'm like, no, don't do that.
Don't do it.
Stop. Let's not.
So in the new heroic state, SHINICHI confronts them and digs the sand out. And they're like, Check out this nerd.
We're just trying to have fun saving cats.
You love the cat so much while you marry it.
You saved a cat. Gay.
It's gay to love cats.
Let's go play Xbox.
Go play Call of Duty.
So as he's walking away, they take the rocks that they're throwing at the cat and throw them at him. But naturally, Migue senses this and catches all of the rocks, like, over his shoulder. And then he just turns around and growls, I will eat you alive. And they all run away.
I love it.
It's a good line. It's a good line.
And yeah. moreno is like, cool.
Christ.
So, yeah, they're walking down the street, and moreno goes to hold the meeky hand, holds it for like a second, and then is like, let me switch to the other side. So there is some vague sense that she can sense somethings up because it also flashes back to the gym class where she asked him, like, hey, you are SHINICHI, right? Because he's been acting so weird. So there is some sense that she gets that something is off with him.
I heard a little note and I was like, yeah, meeky and a little handhold. Never mind friend zoned.
Meeky gets love too.
Another hand.
My time has shine.
I can then she also wants to mate.
She's trying to make hand ew.
And then we see a clip of, like, a dark room where two naked people. One is the parasite from the opening that stopped the assault. They're about to get it on. This mysterious man and a mysterious woman.
Very cryptic, not into it.
Very cold, calculated sex scene.
There was no romance.
Just how I like it.
Very clinical.
It was very efficient. I'll get all other day. We got shit to do.
And that's episode two.
Yeah.
Although there is some implied romance because we cut immediately to that chill as hell ending song.
If that's the romance of this show, I feel that that's as romantic as we get. Even the hand holding is more romantic. All right, episode three starts off and there's a woman on the train, and we just see her talking, saying, what are you doing? You're disgusting. Why are you trying to feel me up? And just straight up shaming this train molester. And it's just such a fucking power move. I love it.
So good.
People just start looking like she says, like, you in the gray coat. What the hell do you think you're doing? And everyone looks at the guy in the gray coat. She's like, oh, he's a permanent. No, he's a mustard. And then when the train stops and opens up, he gets flung out of it. Like, he gets thrown against the bench and it cracks. And she just walks out in her powersuit and just has no time for his bullshit.
Yes, mama gas queen.
And then we cut to SHINICHI. By the way, I think this is the most we've ever said the main character's name, especially on my part.
Yeah, for you, it's great there's only one.
It's easy to follow.
Yeah.
We see Sunichi coming down to his parents eating breakfast and his dad's talking about the mincemeat murders and thumbs. Not now, not at breakfast. Like, for christ's sake, put it away.
84 people.
It's becoming an epidemic. And it's good to see that people are actually noticing it versus just like yeah, I guess people are just disappearing. Like another anime.
The world is a crazy place.
Ha ha.
Back to the newspaper and his dad's talking about a literary award that someone won. And she says, like, oh, yeah. The story is about a guy who has the ability to talk to reptiles. It's completely ridiculous. And it's like, now, if you excuse me, I have to go talk to my alien hand. For a while.
I didn't understand why this happened. I was like, Why do they care?
I think it's because SHINICHI kept calling miguel an insect with how cold and calculated it was. So obsessed with self preservation and nothing else. And it's kind of a comparison to the story of the guy can talk to reptiles while sinichi can kind of talk to insects in a way, or these alien insects. So it's kind of like, I guess, poking fun at itself of sneeze saying, that's ridiculous, while he can also do that, sort of that's how I took it. Otherwise, yeah, it had no real reason to be there.
Yeah, I was kind of like, is his dad a fantasy author? Or what happened?
We never really know. He's just typical dad job.
Yeah. He's gruff dad. That's all he needs to be.
Yeah, but he also likes fantasy novels, I guess.
I suppose I'm still being things.
My son's on drugs, but also, I.
Love The Lord of the Rings. He's taking all my drugs. So sunic is going to school the next day and bumps into I forget her name crush sort of talking for a bit. And Migue slides up his arm and pops out of his collar. And it's like, hey, I sent another alien around us. Like, be careful. She's like, oh, this feels weird.
I love it.
Just poking from the collar like, hey, I got a secret.
I just don't like uncomfortable sneeze. He is with everything at all times because it's still gross and weird. He's just like, I hate this. So they say there's another alien and they can sense them. And as he's walking to school, the alien is getting closer and closer and surprise, the no aliens at school. So Sunichi is all paranoid, trying to figure out who it is while Migue is trying to sense down the brainwaves. And they're at a big assembly hall to introduce new teachers, which I guess is something they do in Japan schools. And miguel is telling Sunshine to keep your eyes down. Don't make eye contact. Like, try and remain inconspicuous. It's hard to point you out in this big crowd, and as soon as the new teacher comes up, it's the lady from the train. And as soon as he looks at her and locks eyes, boom. He senses the murderous intent, which is sensing murderous intent. Check that off on the anime finger card that's in every animation. But it's like pokemon. They lock eyes and they instantly know, like, you're another one of these aliens. I got you. So we see Sunshine going on with his school day.
Also, real quick, before they mentioned that she's replacing the math teacher who got into a car accident, like the day before. Are they referring to the car that SHINICHI stopped?
I was wondering about that. I wasn't sure, but yeah, that would be weird.
Yeah, we sort of glossed over how assholish this driver was because SHINICHI was crossing the street and the car was like, beeping. Like, I'm not stopping for you, idiot. Yeah, and it's like, okay, cool. So that's the school teacher, I'm guessing. Great.
But it was also like, kids.
He just loves the welfare of children.
Loves mowing down kids in this car. But it was also like, a red sports car. So I was like, a teacher can't afford that. It can't be him. That's what my thought was. But I did have the same thought of, like, was that the teacher? But it's unclear. So, yes, she's going on with his day. He's in gym class and talking to me. gee. And it's just kind of saying, what do we do? We're going to have to murder our teacher now. How do we do this in school and not out ourselves as an alien? And Migue is kind of saying, like, no, I could sense the murderous intent that they were an alien and like, the Brave Waves, but they seem like they're trying to live their life as the teacher, not just walk around eating people at the dead of night like the other guy was last episode.
Yeah.
Miggei mentions that she's, like, the only person that they've seen so far who has completely assimilated and not outed themselves.
And especially doing a complex job as a teacher and teaching other people, like complex thoughts like math and stuff versus just like, I don't know, like a thug for the mafia or something, where you can just kill people and that's your job. So it's kind of like, yeah, she's clearly trying to be that person and not just be an alien.
Mandate selling.
Yeah, doing great, throwing away molesters off the train. So miguel is kind of just like, be cool, kind of, we're on neutral terms, like, don't freak out. And SHINICHI is just super paranoid, trying to figure out what to do if there's a fight and how to protect people in his class. Like, he can't attack at school to the point where he's not actually doing anything in class. And as she walks by, she sees he's not taking any notes and calls him out and he's all flustered. And this gives her an excuse to talk to him after class. Like, see me after class, young man.
Someone's in trouble.
I still do this at my office job, and no one likes it. But so yeah, all of his classmates are around him, kind of give him crap for that. And one of the guy who actually saw him talking to Migue in the bathroom is there. He's kind of like, oh, man, how did you get to talk to the hot new teacher? Like, why do you care about you? And at this point, she kind of just snaps, why you got to be so mean? Why you got to be a dick? And she kind of yells at him, was like, oh, fuck. It kind of shows he's getting more aggressive or at least more assertive. And then we see a friend of Eco and the crush. I forget her name still.
Moreno.
Moreno. We see their friend. I guess she's been around, but she hasn't gotten a name yet. And she's kind of talking to everyone saying like, oh, why do you care about the teacher when you got all of this writing class?
Which is weird.
Everyone's kind of like, just like, all right, whatever. And blows her off. And then she kind of blushes. And I think that's kind of hinting that she might have a crush on Sunichi, but it's not too clear, at least not in this episode. So he goes to see the teacher after class, and it's kind of just like a neutral treaty discussion where they're just like, hey, you don't want to tag me. I want to attack you. We'll keep living our lives. And sonic, she's just super paranoid still of just like, how do I combat her? I think he's just like, fucking chill, dude. Like, she's cool. We're cool. We'll keep living our lives.
I love her. She's so smart because she's like, well, the parasite is controlling creature. The creature, because she's not going to kill any of her students. Because she knows that. I don't know. I don't know. I like that she's like, I'm only going to kill strangers. Like, I'm not going to kill anybody that's close to me.
Yeah, why would I blow my cover by eating coworkers and students?
I'm not an idiot.
Yeah, I got a sweet gig teaching.
Math last night from the Internet and the textbook.
I just googled how to math, and now I'm a math professor.
And while he's freaking out, she's like, I'm not going to kill you. I would have done it already.
Yeah, they're very clear cut and unemotional with their language. And they're just like, if I was going to kill you, it would have been done already. Like, relax. It's like, it's all practical. That's the way to communicate with these aliens. So Migue is saying, like, hey, she won't kill us. We won't kill her. We're fine. We can coexist. But she thinks she's still on edge. So the teacher tells him to like, hey, come meet me after school. I think, is it the same day? After school that day, yeah. And she's like, Meet me up at this place, and we'll talk further. That way we don't have to worry about anyone at school blowing our covers. So after school, it cuts at him after school. And we see moreno and yuko seeing him getting on the bus. And they ask about it later, but he meets up with the teacher at this just a restaurant somewhere downtown. And she brings along another parasite alien. And this is Mr. A. We don't really give him a name because he's not that important. He's not as vital to the show as anyone. Any name?
I hope there's a Mr. B later.
You'll be disappointed.
Dang it.
Yeah.
They skip right to Mr. C. There's no consistency.
She just goes down a roster of men named after the alphabet, and it's.
Mr. C. It's Mr. cunningham from Happy Days. That's an old reference. Just for me.
Wow.
Just for me.
You take that and hold it in your heart.
So, yeah, she shows up with Mr. A. And it's not clear if this is the guy that attacked the gang and saved the girl and then ate her in the last episode, but we think it is because we've already seen that they can change with their face. So it's not super obvious, but it's clear. Mr a's off. He's, like, twitchy and just kind of like, much more aggressive than the teacher is and doesn't like Migue and SHINICHI right away. So while they're in these discussions, they're just talking about more like, what do you know about us? What do we know about you? And how can we figure more out information about each other? And that's when the teacher reveals, like, hey, me and Miss Ray, this guy, we fucked. We fucked last night hard.
Which I hate.
The waitress is walking by. It just drops a glass like, oh, God. Oh, no. It's so caught off guard. There's just like a little side moment of like other people can hear them still.
I mean, I'm a fan of this character. I really like her, but as soon as she was like, yeah, we tried banging. I was like, Why?
But she says, Because it's to see what happens.
Yeah, it's like an experiment.
Yeah, they do say in the dub, we experimented and had sex last night.
Oh, see, that's bad too. That's just as bad as I am awake.
Don't King shim let them experiment in their hotel room. So she asked, like, what do you think happened after we had sex? And miguel's. Just like you're pregnant. Yeah. What do you think it is? It's human. It's perfectly human. And that's kind of when they discuss more, that the part the alien inhabited. Like, whenever they attack, their head kind of separates into these weird tendrils and blades and attacks people, but the rest of their body is still human. So even though two aliens had sex last night, their bodies are still human. So there's still a human baby in her. It's not like an infected baby. It's not like a hybrid or anything.
Yeah.
And it's around this point when Mr. A just, like, fucked his thumb out and just bails because he's just weird and doesn't trust Sunichi or Migue, and how many questions are asking about the aliens? And he's like, they'll have it's interesting.
Yeah. Because in this discussion, we kind of find that they don't even really know what they are. They just know that they're there and it's time to eat.
Yeah. They ask, don't you want to know more about yourself? And Mr. Knowing more about myself won't help me live. That won't do anything for me. All I have to do is eat and defend myself, and that's it. Yeah.
I know the vital life functions I need to survive, and that's all the information I require.
Yeah. And that's where shinichi's comparison to insects comes from, where it's just like they have no other thoughts besides just survival. Mr A walks away, and then shinichi's teacher keeps talking for a bit and basically saying, like, hey, we can still be cool, like in class and know about each other, but if you're trying out me, I'll fucking murder everyone in an instant. And she puts a spoon in her mouth and just, like, curls the spoon in her mouth and pulls it out, and her eye kind of floats upwards so it's, like, all white. So kind of like, let's be cool and not kill each other. But if you try, I love her.
I don't know if this is a direct quote or just how I felt, but I wrote, don't test me, kid. I'll ruin you and everything you love. Which I'm pretty sure is a direct quote.
If it isn't, it's the exact same message. That's exactly what she sent to him, basically. And then after the meeting, miki kind of calls. I'm losing his name. The more I say it, SHINICHI out and being like, you were terrified during that. And he just starts waterboarding meeky again under sink.
Stop calling me a coward.
I know I'm a coward. You can sense everything. I can stop saying it. Don't confront my feelings externally. And then, so we just see the next day, it seems like a regular day at school, and Mr. A shows up at school to murder SHINICHI and Migue because he's a dumb asshole and just ruined everyone's plans. And as he's walking into the school, we see him knock out, like, one or two people, and then he just cuts into the other two people. So it seems weird that he's intentionally not killing someone and then killing others. And everyone starts freaking out when they see the one body he left behind. And she was like, all right, everyone out. Like, emergency. Get out of the school and get away from this guy. And the teacher sees him and she's like, oh, he's ruining my plans. I'm out. And just disappears. We don't know where she went.
I was hoping she was going to go kill him.
No, because I didn't blow her cover. She's smart, so she's avoiding.
Go chop his dick off.
As far as anyone knows, she's a helpless teacher like every other teacher.
Oh, no, she got power.
So as they're trying to evacuate, sunshine and miggy are kind of talking about a plan of like, what to do. And Migue is kind of like, oh, no. Yeah, I got this super simple plan. We're all grouped up so he can't really pinpoint exactly where we are. So when he goes cutting through all of these students and killing everyone, I'll sneak up behind him and just stab in the face. And he's just kind of like, I'm not going to let you use my friends and classmates as human shields. That's a dick move. All right, fine. And then yuko calls him out, why are you talking to yourself? And like, whispering all the time? He's like, don't worry about it. I forgot something. And then runs off.
I'm thinking out loud, haha.
Goodbye, basically.
And so he runs off into kind of a hallway that's already been evacuated so no one would be around, and starts setting up all these desks on both sides of the hallway to set up as, like a shield or barrier, I guess, for when Mr. A walks up and he can help fight them better. And Migue basically says, like, hey, we're at the same Dragon ballsy power level. Kind of like, me and Mr. A are at the same skill set. So it'll just kind of be a draw. Like, there's nothing weird. And Sunshine will say, like, oh, well, the difference between me, like us and him is there's two of us and one of him. Like, I'm human and got you. And then he's just the parasite now. And miki is kind of like, huh, good point. And then cuts off a leg of a chair and just basically makes a shank and gives it to SHINICHI. And it's like, here's your weapon.
I love it.
I'll distract him and we'll fight and we'll build equal footing. And then you just come up around him and just stab him in the face. So he's like, we'll use what assets we have to our advantage. Oh, shit. Migue is definitely better fighting than I am. I guess I have to get involved now too, instead of just sitting on the sidelines. And at that point, we find out Mr. A is 3 meters away. For Americans, that's like, real close. I don't know the number. Okay, about nine, about 9ft. Just like, where is he? I don't see him. Like, we're in this big open hallway, like, where it could be he's just kind of like, oh, yeah, he's below us. And we see Mr. A just swing out from the floor below him into the windows and pop up right next to him. And he's basically like, oh, you set up all these desks as like, a barrier to protect yourselves. Just you dumb bitch. Now you're trapped in here with me.
That's cute.
Yeah. Do you really think that would stop me? And then that's where it ends. It's a good clip.
I assume the main character.
It's episode three, so I sure hope so.
There's a series after this.
I actually didn't realize it was like, 24 episodes. I thought it was only twelve. So it's actually longer than I thought it was because it's only a popular series. Like, even talking to camille, it's been going for a while as manga. The anime is pretty new, but the manga has been going for a while.
Yeah. Our friend camille, who does our artwork.
Yeah. So yeah.
Those are the three episodes we watched. About as disturbing as I thought of it would be.
Oh, that's good. At least it's on point.
Yeah.
So yeah. Body horror. I can get down with some body horror.
That's good to hear. I got a lot more shows taking notes. Yeah. Adding to the list.
But yeah, I think my opinion of this, I think it was well done. I really like the relationship they set up between SHINICHI and Migue of like, hey, neither of us can die. You want a right hand, and I want to keep living as a right hand. So we have to protect each other and like, a true parasitic relationship. So it set that up well. I was enjoying the mixture. I was liking it a little bit more because I was getting those Death Note vibes. But it was more active than Death Note. It was less a quick three second plan and five minutes of explaining how that plan went off. Let's actually get into some fights and just, oh, shit, someone's right behind me.
Let's kill them. Yeah, it's better. Where the main action sequence for a show isn't writing in a notebook.
Yeah. Or watching the news.
Yeah.
So yeah. Getting out and actually doing stuff, I was way more invested than with Death Note.
It might be a bit on the nose, but it goes from a parasitic relationship to a symbiotic relationship as the series goes on biology terms.
Wow.
Yeah.
So are we there yet?
I am interested to see where this goes. It also helps that this is like, the first cliffhanger we've gotten for the episode. So we are about to jump straight into a fight. I feel like it in the first three episodes, sets up enough stuff to pique my interest. So I would say I would keep watching this.
Yay.
I was surprised I chose one of your shows for, like, the first time, Brendan.
We were talking about it the other. Night. I picked this show because I think it shows a lot of very interesting things, especially with body distorting and just graphic intensity of it. Like we said, the first scene right away is someone's face peeling apart and eating their wife. But I enjoyed it. I watched all of it, but it's not up there with one of my favorites. It was a fine and good show, but it's not one that really stuck with me too much. So I was surprised after talking to guys, talking to dana earlier, hearing how much she was actually pretty into it, and I was like, oh, I'm surprised.
Especially, I think, based on what I like. Brendan doesn't think I would like these kinds of things, but I love a good spoon.
I was also more surprised because I know duggan said you guys aren't big on the fight sequences or really drawn out fight sequences. So I know there are a few in this. I wasn't sure how many are in these first three episodes, but I know there is more fighting as opposed to just instant kills.
Yeah, it started out a pretty instant kill of like, here's an opponent, we're going to have a quick confrontation and then the fight. And it doesn't drag out for the entire episode. And I think it also balances. It sets up an actual life version that we don't get that much of in like Death Note or some of the other stuff where it's like, yeah, he goes to school. But the power stuff, let's examine that. It's like, no, he goes to gym class, he fights a bully. There's going to be regular everyday life, and we get that more than we've seen previously.
Cool.
Yeah. And even with bigger fight scenes later in the series, whenever they happen, I feel like it's still going to be interesting because it's shinichi and migue, like being strategic and having to work together.
Sort of like the Soul eater thing of like, each fight has several people because the weapons have minds of their own, so they're going to be into it and there's going to be dynamics beyond just opponent versus opponent.
Oh, cool. Interesting to know.
So, yeah, I was digging. Great, another one for the books. I always love seeing creative uses of animation, especially in monsters and stuff. That's why I love the Dark souls series so much of just seeing like, oh, that's a monster. That's like 90% human corpses. Cool.
How does that spoil it? But if you like monsters made out of human corpses, there's a show on the list.
I spoke too soon.
We'll get to it soon enough.
No? Yeah, I think I'm just so used to American style monsters of like, oh, it's like a beast form. Seeing Japanese monsters where it's like, no, this is a human body, but half of it is made of skeletons. Part of it's a tree. And also there's tentacles and tendrils.
Tentacles.
I love seeing unique monster designs.
Oh, boy. I got the show for you.
Oh, no.
We'll get to it in time anyway, as opposed to our next show, which I hope doesn't have monsters in it.
Yeah.
Yeah. So we are in the winter season, so we are setting up for our holiday shows.
Yeah. So, yeah, next time we're watching Saintly Young Men, because Jesus Christ. And also Christmas, sorry, if you don't celebrate Christmas today the day we're recording. It is the first day of hanukkah. Happy hanukkah.
And to be fair for me, happy hanukkah. Yeah, thanks. Saint young men or saintly young men? I don't know the exact pronounce the issue. It's also got buddha, so it's not just Jesus. Yeah, it's Jesus and buddha.
Yeah. So I've actually never watched it. But we're just going to do the first three episodes, see how that goes. To get a little taste.
Yeah, it's the odd couple. Sorry.
Hopefully no tentacle monsters in this.
Fingers crossed. But you never know.
You never know. It's anime. It's the odd couple with religious figures.
Love it.
It's great.
All right, well, thank you for joining us this week on Are We There Yet? You can find us on Twitter and Instagram at. Are we there yet? You can find me on Twitter and Instagram at Mr. Patrick dugan.
You can find me on Twitter at Queen underscore Weebu and Instagram at queen. Period. Weebu.
You can find me on Twitter at abts. Brendan. It stands for Almost Better Than Silence, which is another podcast I do about video games and random bullshit, just like this show.
Yeah.
Thank you to camille ruley, who got a shout out mid episode. And thank you, Louis zong, for the use of our song stories off the album beats. I always get those mixed up learning. You can find Louisvusic at Louisong vancamp.com. And we hope you will join us next week as we learn to live within.