Don't believe in yourself. Believe in me. Believe in the communa who believes in you. Hello and welcome to our weeb. There yet in exploration and education in anime, I am your anime idiot, Patrick dugan.
I am an anime expert, dana hollander.
It's me, brenda mccullough. Everyone's favorite weebly.
Our hero returns.
I'm trying to think of something stupid and witty, and I was just like.
I was hoping because last week you said something about a lovable gorilla man. I was hoping you would continue with that theme.
It's me, brendan mccullough, everyone's. Lovable giraffes man.
Oh, I met from the show. Everyone's favorite.
Brendan mccullough. Everyone's favorite face on a torso.
It's just my face on dugan's torso. No, it's so bad.
I don't like this. Get me start over. All right, well, anyway, that's an intro. That's one way to get everyone to turn it off real quick. If you're still here, you're a true fan.
Yeah.
So, yeah. What are we watching this week?
Kirin legon, which I thought was a prolific mechanime from the late ninety s. I was super wrong. It's actually from, like, 2007, so I guess it's not. I think it's still fairly influential, but not nearly as much as I thought it was. I enjoyed it as a show. It's not like, one of my top favorites, but apparently it's got a very long and wide appeal to a lot of people. It's very well regarded, so I figured I'd go one to watch just because it's so popular.
Yeah, I remember they were doing, like 10th anniversary stuff last year, so yeah, I guess that makes sense that it's about ten years old and it has enough legacy to actually remember its anniversary, so that's good enough.
People be excited.
It's a good sign.
Yeah.
It's also, I believe, our first mech show.
Yeah, definitely coolly. Had robots, but not quite anyone in the robot. Well, yeah, that one scene.
Yeah. So you got our first proper mech show, which is a staple of anime genres.
Our first capital M mech show.
Mech. You got to really emphasize it. Do you guys know anything about it?
Yeah.
I watched the first episode a very long time ago, and then I can't remember if I liked it or didn't like it, but I didn't keep watching it.
So I'm going to assume you didn't like it.
I guess so. In my mind. I don't remember disliking it, though, is the thing.
It could have been a continue if the mood comes up.
Yeah, exactly.
I love it.
It's one of my favorite shoes. I've only seen the first episode ten years ago.
It's my passion. I love it.
I don't know what it's about, but I love it.
The first episode is so good. I just don't want to watch anything else.
I have to ration it out for the rest of my life. Yeah. So I have shockingly zero knowledge of this. What? I only have one of the supervisors I worked with. Her favorite motivational saying was, believe in the me that believes in you. And that's the only thing I know about this show.
It's very passionate. It's a very passion filled show.
So shall we dive right in?
Yeah, I'm ready.
We're watching.
Episodes one, two and eight of Gurn legon, whatever.
I forget which episode I pointed out, but that is a very Japanese word. And they add a little extra sizzle to a little extra spice when they say gurun lagun versus everything else in.
The script in the English dub.
Yeah. So I watched all three episodes of the dub.
Me, too.
Brendan, did you do your usual switch them up for one of them?
Yeah, but I forgot until the last one. So I watched first two episodes dubbed, and then the episode eight, subbed.
Got you. But let's just say off the bat, for the dub, it is a very good cast.
Yes, it is.
Just so many people to not jump at too far.
There's one character I thought was much better as dubbed than sub. We'll talk about, but listening to the sub at the last episode, and I was like, wow, he has much more personality in the dubbing than in the sub.
I actually didn't look up the cast, so, I mean, they're good. I enjoyed the dove, but I didn't look up the cast.
Yeah, the cast. I believe I still have it up. Let me see. Yeah. simone is yuri lowenthal.
Okay.
Kyle ebere is camila. camina. Yeah. It's still loading. I'm an idiot.
Steve bloom is Leron, who is the character I was talking about.
That's Steve bloom.
Yes. delightfully out of typecast for him.
Oh, my gosh.
Michelle ruff is yoko. Later on, we get Sam riegel as one of the villains. So, yeah, this is a very who's who now of actors.
Yeah, this was eleven years ago.
Yeah.
Good cast. Good English.
Good cast.
Good work, guys. You really did.
You're done good, kid. So, episode one, let's start with the opening because we start right there.
I was surprised that there was no lead in. It was just the op just going right into it.
This opening is a fucking bop. It's lit as shit. It is hot fire. Like the Thomas wildfire that burned another good one.
And you know what? I think it's the first song that we've heard as an opening that is sung by a woman. Oh, wait, no. My love story did all the stuff. But it's interesting to hear it in, like, an action e show.
Yeah. Especially since it's like, hey, watch all these dudes. And then the one girl fight some.
Robots just dude about how manly they are.
Yeah. But, yeah, I was liking it. The translation made no sense because I have subtitles, but I did not expect much.
Yeah, I was just listening. I didn't read the subtitles.
Yeah, just basically everything Communist says of, like, pierce the sky your hopes and dreams are all magic. Just that sort of inspirational stuff.
Hell yeah.
It is. Great motivation. So we start off seeing some space explosions. We sort of pull back into a ship that is flying through space that's saying, like, oh, no, all the stars in the sky are our enemies. We have to fight them all. And then the ship turns into a mechanism.
At this point that I wrote, I am already confused.
Yeah, me too. That's why I don't have a lot of detail, because.
This kind of happens.
This all happens, and then it's gone for the rest of the episodes we watched.
Yeah. This is a big foreshadowing.
Yeah, big, like, flash forward. I assume they cut to, like, years earlier. So, yeah. Once we get out of space, we immediately go underground, where we see tunnels being dug underground as our hero, simone is saying that he lives in this underground society where digging tunnels helps expand his city, and he gets the pleasure of getting paid and, like, pig mole steaks good. So, yeah, some good eats down in these holes. Yeah. As he's digging, he finds a little baby drill, a little tiny drill in the dirt that he's like, oh, this is cool. And he turns into a little necklace because he's a little bigger boy. So he has to yeah, he got to symbolize it.
Low drill for a little driller.
Yeah, hit him.
So, yeah, he comes out of this tunnel and is confronted by some local girls who are like, ooh, a digger. He's gross. He lives in the dirt.
These bitches are cattiest shit.
Yeah. I didn't understand why they were being so mean if that's, like, a normal job to have to expand your community.
Yeah. You also live in a hole. Just a bigger hole.
A dirt girl.
Yeah. Where are the standards?
I wrote down one of their quotes, like, what's so fun about digging all day? I'm like, what do you mean, what's fun about that's? His job.
Also, what do you do all day?
What do you get off no name animate girl.
Yeah.
Never see again.
Me, I organize all the rocks that come out of the hole. I'm a rock girl.
High end.
The most prestigious position in this hole.
These bougie mole people.
So, yeah, he comes out and immediately gets mocked by these girls who are like, ew, this guy sucks. And he goes back to his digging team, and that's where we meet Kamina, a big, tall, lanky older boy who is the most inspirational person who will ever meet in your goddamn life.
I was told that communa is 16.
Yes. And simone is 14.
Yeah.
And there is a 30 foot difference between the two.
Worlds apart, riddled with yakuza like tattoos. Despite living underground, he did them himself.
He threw a bunch of rocks at himself until he bruised permanently.
He has to do them every night to rebruse them.
I would not be surprised. He seems that dedicated to being cool.
Yeah, he's passionate, confident, incarnated.
So, yeah, he rallies up the team. He's like, hey, we're all doing great work. We're all amazing diggers. This is Team gurran, and we're the best diggers in the whole pit that we live in. He inspires the team and says that simone's drill will be the drill that pierces the heavens, whatever that means. Yeah, because he's trying to break to the surface, because the rumors are that there's a surface world above them where there's no ceiling.
Wow.
Shocking.
God, my Cost PROBIO is kicking in hard, always being in tunnels and just.
Like, no, no, thank you. See, the extreme introvert in me is like, oh, yeah, just put me in a hole.
But then you think about the logistics, and you're just like, oh, yeah, maybe not.
I guess maybe I'll live on the surface still.
Fine.
We'll all be there someday.
Coming sort of whips up the team, and he has a plan to break to the surface, which involves getting all of the pig moles to sort of stampede at the same time. He gets a stampede to sort of, like, ladder lift themselves up to the ceiling of this pit. But they are stopped by the chief, who's like, no, you're not breaking through here. And cuts down the tower of pig mole. Guys.
Darn.
A valiant effort.
You can't have those little shits escaping and ruining his plans to keep digging forever, I guess.
Just keep going down.
Maybe they're digging down to the other surface on the other side of the world.
That's possible.
They're digging a hold of China.
Yeah, I understand that it's like a weird different society that they're always underground, but just the idea of, like, oh, yeah, there's nothing above us ever. It's just all rock all the time for all of existence. What a weird way to look at things.
That's true. They don't expand the tunnels up. If they assume they're just surrounded, why are they just digging in one direction then?
Yeah, they're currently going away from the surface. Like, yeah, it's odd.
Conspiracies this mechanism doesn't hold off to logic and science. Wait a minute. My superior brain knows something's up. The chief of this village sort of detains Communa and the digger crew and scolds them, saying, there's no surface, there's no point in trying. Where we learn kamina and his dad, when he was a small child, at some point reached the surface, supposedly. Yeah, he's a little bit dodgy on the subject of it, so we don't really get a straight answer. And everyone in the digger crew apologizes and is like, no, don't lock me up, because Kamina is sentenced to the stocks for however long.
And then Communa is like, he says, I don't want to be called bro by you losers. To which I wrote, but fam, because I understand that. He's like, Call me bro. And I'm sure it's like big brother in Japanese. I'm sure that's the that's what it is. I forget which one that is. oni. On. A onay is big sister. oni is Big Brother, but Bro is just so like bro. Yeah, I can't take it seriously.
I think even watching the sub, it's not like they don't even say, like, oni. It's like a blood brother oath of, like, kindred chip. So I think it was a different word entirely. So I think that's why they go with bro instead of brother, because he's like, blood bro.
It just changes the tone.
Yeah. It gives them a nice, relaxed surfer.
Vibe despite never seeing the ocean or a coastline.
But, yeah, Kamina is blocked up. Everyone else is sort of given a knuckle wrapping and sort of sent away. And then there is an earthquake in this underground city, which is a little bit devastating. We find out that it's sort of taken for granted that there are earthquakes all the time, and simone's parents were killed by an earthquake and accepts that he one day will be taken by the earthquake too.
That's so fucked.
Yeah, that's varied.
Like, why wouldn't they want to see if there's a surface up there?
Just get away from that message.
Yeah.
I was also thinking, can you really call it an earthquake if you're not on Earth? That's just me being petty and shitty. But cross my mind.
Planet quake.
Yeah, ground quakes. tremors.
Ground shimmy jazzy. It makes it better.
Jazzy ground shimmy. I lost my grandpa, but it was.
A jazzy ground shimmy starts playing whenever those shimmies happen.
That's my whole family. To the great shimmy of 96.
Oh, that's what the girls are there for. They're the shimmy girls. They sing and get everyone through the Great Shimmies. So Simon is back to digging, and he finds a great big mech underground, and he runs over to communa under the dark of night and says, like, well, yeah, they just turn is the.
Dark of underground yeah.
The perpetual darkness of the Earth, the.
Even more dark than the normal daytime.
Dark, the sleep dark, advanced darkness.
There it is.
So, yeah, he breaks Kamina out. camina has a new little mole friend that he was saving for food because he got his rations cut off, so now he has a little fuzzy buddy.
Worst case scenario, he'll eat them.
Yeah, he was saving him, trying to get him nice and fat.
Love it, camaraderie.
So he breaks Kamina out and says, hey, I got to show you this weird metal face I found in the ground. And about 10 seconds later, he is immediately found by the chief.
He knew this would happen.
Yeah. He was keeping an eye on the one prisoner in this town. So, yeah, it makes sense that he's keeping tabs. So, yeah, he's watching them and confronts them and to give him a beat down. But then there's a giant, bigger earthquake that sends an even bigger metal faith falling through the ceiling of this underground society.
Big teeth being rocked because that just confirms that there's a surface.
Yeah, because now daylight is coming through and they can see the sky a little bit, and they're like, see, there is a surface. And also holy shit, our town is destroyed.
Because it's about the halfway through. And I like the commercial break bumpers for this show.
Oh, yeah. Those are cool to do.
It it's a lot of heavy shadows and outlines on the characters, and it really reminded me of, like, beautiful Joe. And I really enjoyed that style of art.
I don't understand the reference, but I enjoyed the art style.
Who came in that art style? The whole face falls down.
And then with that giant metal face, when they try to confront it, a girl falls down too.
Yeah. This made me very excited because I've seen a lot of yoko around.
You know, she's a very iconic character.
She's very done a lot. And then immediately she was just sexualized to hell. I don't know what else I expected.
Yeah. shocker.
She wearing booty shorts and string bikini top. It's kind of what it's going to be. Yeah.
Since there is communi is also never wearing a shirt, even when fighting giant mechs, I can understand that they would also have her in less clothes, but.
It seems like a normal thing.
Yeah, because it's like this weird, like, post apocalyptic naked society where there's a lot of exposed skin on people of all genders. But it's like, immediately Communa has, like, eyeballs popping out of his face.
The wolf gentle.
Yeah.
You don't have to worry about sun damage to your skin or skin cancer when there's no sun in your society.
That's true.
So, yeah, she falls through and is immediately sexualized. And it's great. We're all on board. And she is fighting this mech and is trying to help simone and Communa fight it because it wakes up and tries to rock their shit.
She just gets going real fast.
Yeah, she got a big gun. Yeah. Just this big sniper rifle that she's using to attack it. And it's her signature weapon. So, yeah, the three of them sort of escape for a moment and crawl to the smaller mech face that simone found underground. And it turns out it is a mech that is activated with that tiny drill key that he found earlier. So he activates it, he powers it, and he uses that mech, which has a drill very symbolic to a lot.
Of drills in the show. A lot of drills.
A tiny drill for a tiny mech.
Yeah, he's a little Mike wazowski mechanism.
No? Yeah, it is maybe about 5ft tall. Yeah, it is adorable. But yeah, he uses this drill mech to attack this other giant turd drill mech that we find out are called gunmen. They fight this and they launch it up into the sky. From their cave, and they see the world for the first time. And this is actually a very beautiful shot of them seeing the world and just the background of the cratery landscape and the sky, and you can see the curvature of the Earth, and it's very beautiful. And then they immediately fall back down and crash into the ground, and they are confronted by two more gunmen.
So you're neglecting to mention that simone definitely landed in yoko's boobs, which is.
Another classic anime move, and she was not bothered by it until she saw two giant robots right there.
Yeah, she was chill. She was like, oh, how cute.
There's a lot of sexualization of yoko, and it doesn't slow down.
It doesn't get better.
No, it's pretty consistent. And that's why I'm like, I thought this show was older because of how.
Rude it was calminga. Called her breasts tasty morsels, and I want to die. Once he realized that she also used to live in a pit, called her Pit Girl and said that she had thunder thighs, when a moment ago he was drooling at the sight of her.
Because surface girls are surface girls are way hotter than other pit girls, because I have seen neither.
Yeah.
I will say there is an episode we didn't watch it. If there's an episode where they have, like, the beach episode where everyone's in bathing suits, she actually wears more clothing for her bathing suit than what she walks around in every day. Like, it's so mind boggling, the characters. Like, I think this character was clearly like, we want a very visually striking character that people will gravitate towards, and that's it. No sense of practicality, no sense of decency, nothing. What visually looks cool.
Yeah.
No one was afraid of skin cancer in this world because it is like a desert hellscape up on the surface. And it's like you get 200% sun every day.
Yeah. Let's hop on into episode two.
Oh, the ending real quick.
Yeah, this was another jam.
I don't know if I watched it.
I can't remember if I did or not.
Well, if I did, I don't remember.
It, so I was too busy being angry.
That's the thing. I enjoyed the song, like, the music in it, but it was just kind of like, this is nice. And then you didn't have to keep watching, as opposed to the opening, where it's just like, Fuck, yeah. Let's get into this.
Yeah, it was just simone walking through, like, an outline and then, like, a protopunk song of, like, you can't tell.
Me what to do, pretty much.
Hell, yeah.
That's episode one.
Episode two. We start off where we left off, and they are faced with two new gunmen. And yoko explains that there were three, and that one fell down into their pit, and now they have to presumably fight the other two. And my favorite thing is that Simon just kind of sees them turns around and starts digging, and I was just like, yeah, that's what I would do. Just turn tail and hide. And they're like, what are you doing? He's like, I'm going home, you guys. I can't do it.
I just learned there's a whole other world on top of mine. I just want to go to bed.
And the gunmen are just bigger. Mike Wazowskis. All of the necks are just big faces with arms and legs.
Yeah, just Mount rushmore. spreaded arms and legs.
Yeah. I also wrote down shots of yoko's ass are getting boring.
There's a lot of them.
If you're going to sexualize her, at least switch it up a little bit.
Yeah, be creative.
Come on, let's get some titties in there.
Oh, don't worry. There will be plenty of mouth.
Let's see. So Kamina is convinced that he can fight them with just his sword. He'll be fine. Kind of tries to fight them, and then there's like, a huge amount of bullets coming from behind them. And yoko is like, hey, those are my friends. And I'm like, oh, look, a bunch of men that don't sexualize her.
Well, they finally the true heroes.
They're like, yoko, we'll help you. I'm trying to look at my notes and the wiki.
This is actually where we meet Leron.
I love him.
Before we get there, we see inside of the gunmen are little fuzzy boys called beast men.
So the things piloting the gunmen are beast men, and they, for some reason, show up when the sun rises and leave when the sun sets just to fight their beast.
They just like to sleep. It's actually never really addressed why they attack and leave with the song.
Cool.
Yeah.
Great.
It's kind of weird. Love a plot hole. So levon comes over, and he looks at the mech, which Kamina has named Logan, right?
Yes. The little one's. Login.
Yes.
I love it because he's like, yeah, I just came up with this name. So literally, the title of this show is a name he came up with for their team of Diggers and a name he came up with for the mech. So the name is literally gibberish that he just made up.
Yeah. I was confused by it because I'm like, oh, it would be like if it was, like, Team camina, it would make sense or something like that. Or team Diggers. So I looked up it's a weird word. Yeah, I looked it up. What? It means gurn means scarlet, so it just is like, red. And Login means elongated face, so it's just long red face.
All right.
Yeah, sure. I guess that word very literal.
Yeah.
So in the evening, after all of the festivities, leron comes over, and he's kind of looking over Logan and talking about how much he likes him and how he's just as type. I like Le Ron very much.
Me too.
Because he's effeminate, and that is the joke. But it's not in a way that's like super gross.
It's not the Smith.
Yeah, that's great.
Yeah. He's also, like, as flirtatious as Kamina is. So it's not like they're like the gay character that's just going to hit on you also. And it's like, yeah, we've seen the main character do that. So it's not outside of the realm.
But of course, because lebron is gay and then presumably gay. And he flirts with Communa. Communa hates him because naturally, Communa is just textbook fuck boy.
Yes, absolutely.
I really like his design. Like, looking at him, I'm like, what a cool guy. But then when I don't know, watching the show, I didn't like him as much as I thought I would, which is disappointing.
Yeah. His inspirational moments were good when he's trying to pump up simone as he's like the smaller, weaker boy and he's the confident older boy. Yeah. Their brotherly relationship is good, but his interactions with most everyone else is not.
Yeah.
I think both him and yoko were designed with a clear purpose to the story to continue the plot, but with a very visual design in mind. They got to look cool and then they're going to serve this role in the show and that they weren't thought of as people or characters. They were just like utilitarian. But I think with Lerod, who is fantastic, I think he mostly uses his presentation with Communa as like a power move because he says, like, oh, get a sense of humor. Like, fucking get over yourself.
Yeah. He's kind of trying to make him uncomfy because he's like, you masculine butthole. Get over yourself.
Yeah. Which I find is even better. He's not just like the trophy feminine character who's just flirting with everyone. Like homina is who's flirting with all the girls. But he's just like, no, I'm just fucking with you. Like relaxed dude. And I was like, oh, this character's great. I love it.
Yeah. One thing that kind of drove me crazy is that it's nighttime and they're looking up at the stars in the moon. And communa goes I made it, dad. Like, out loud, not to himself. And simone goes, what was that? Kamina? And he's like, nothing, don't worry. And I was just like, it wasn't even like a to yourself kind of thing. You said it out loud.
He had no internal monologue. It's all outside voice.
Yeah. And I don't know why that made me so like, why would you even do that? I don't know. It just irked me.
Oh, yeah. We also skipped over at the very beginning. There was like a short quick flashback scene of Communa and his dad going up to the surface when he was a small child. And his dad's like, oh, do you want to come with me? And he sort of pulls back. So he's like, all right, come find me when you can.
I have it written down like it was a dream. Like, he fell asleep.
That may be coming up. I thought it was at the very beginning.
I didn't write it down.
I forget.
Oh, you know what? Netflix skipped the beginning for me, so that's why I thought it was just, like a recap or something. But I did get that. I just got it as his dream.
I mean, it's pretty short. It's just like this is what his dad was, the kind of man he was. Where all the confidence and masculinity comes from.
Yeah.
And the love of flair. Because he has a lot of jewelry.
Yeah. All those rings. And then Leron and yoko kind of they're like, you guys can't read because they can't. And they teach them about the stars and the moon, which is kind of.
Sweet not to interject too much. That's something I love, is this show isn't about the kid next door or something. These are weird whole people. There's clearly, like, society that is on the surface and interacts with other villages and stuff. And our main characters are just these two back woods, like, hillbilly weirdos that just live in the ground. They're not normal characters, and that's something I really enjoyed because they're just, like, so weird.
Yeah.
Because there are other pits, but they are equally as weird.
Yeah. So they're making their way back to their pit, which is now above ground, so it's not really a pit anymore. And they find a skull. They find a skeleton, and they're like, oh, we better bury it to to respect the dead. And communa is communa kind of like he died. Why do we care?
Yeah. He's like, Why waste the time and energy? It'll be fine.
I think that's why I wrote down, communa is a whole asshole.
I think that's why I wrote that down.
Yeah.
And then yoko is kind of like, yeah, you have a very romanticized idea of what's going on up here, because living here kind of stinks. And he's like, what? Impossible.
What?
War? I don't see a war.
We didn't fight three mechs in the past, like, half hour. What are you talking about?
Yeah. So they get back to their city town home base. That's a good one. And simone and Communa immediately fall asleep.
Real quick after Logan shuts down. After the fight, they had trouble getting it started. Back up. And simone looks at yoko, and of course, titty Shot, because he got it.
And then it starts up, and it starts back up.
Is the robot powered by boners? The boner bot?
I mean, anybody boners not a euphemism for their penises.
Oh, my God. It absolutely is. Oh, my God.
You got to stick the drill into the hole to power it on.
I want to go to bed.
I never realized. Anyway.
Yeah. So they wake up the next morning, and Leon polished log on, which made me like I was like, that's so nice. He's all shiny. Oh, and this was. After that, camina had his dream about his dad and watched him walk away from him, which was kind of nice. I liked that it wasn't like his father being like, you're weak for not wanting to come with me. And it was more of like, when you're ready, come up here and find me. I thought that was sweet.
He dropped him off at daycare for ten years.
Yeah, exactly. I also wrote down a comic called yoko missy, which kind of makes me mad, but I'll try and move past my anger.
That will never happen.
It is established that the dynamics between the two are not excellent, not great, not great.
And then gunmen arrive, because that's what happens every day, and there's a big tremor. And it's at this point that Simone realizes that the tremors that were going on underground was because of these gunmen. So now he's mad at them because they effectively killed his parents. So now he has a motivation to want to kill them.
Yeah, because the boner bots are powered by passion, testosterone, anger, and titties.
Things every teenage boy has and wants, in that order. Teenage boys have titties, have anger, want titties.
Okay.
They have a powerful want a need.
I liked that the gunman came and the beastman inside called them uppity. Human filth. I was a fan of that. That's a good insult. So, let's see. My notes are scarce, just like, Dude, I'm looking at the wiki. So Simone wants to fight them. He goes out to fight them. Calm. He tags along, and he's going to take a gunman.
Yeah. But before he runs off, yoko, here's some protection. Do you know how to use this? And gives him this itty bitty pistol, little gun.
Well, she gives that to camino, right? Or does she give it tomino? Yeah, camino.
And he's like, of course I know how to use this, and we see later. He does not.
He does not.
He's dumb idiot.
In true older brother fashion, once his little brother got a robot, he's like, hey, I want one, too. And also like, a robot, yes. I need to be cooler than this little kid, so I'm going to get a bigger robot. So that's his mission.
Yeah. He tries to get Simone kind of to help him with that, and he gets log on nice and close to the big one. And yoko talks about how she's always giving him back up because she's somewhere helping also. And I just thought, you've known him for a day. What do you mean, always?
She's always with him in his heart.
So kamina gets into the mech and the beastman that is piloting. It is no longer an issue. I guess I kind of missed however that happened.
Yeah. Simone sort of, like, forces the mouth of the mech open and pulls out the beast man driver.
Yeah. So he's out and Communa gets in, and he thinks he's like, oh, Simone just figured out login. I can figure out this one. It'll be fine. And it didn't work like that. No, kind of did, though, because it took a minute. Again, I was like, a bunch of weird stuff happened. Like, he was having a vision, and I just heard, is he okay? Did I get something? Is he having an existential crisis?
All those hallucinogens I took last night, it was a terrible idea.
Gather those mushrooms from underground. I think it was him, like, trying to cope with the idea of, like, he could potentially die out here on the surface, like, the body they saw earlier, and he was trying to, like, deal with that, and it was what.
Motivated him to somehow figure out how to pilot the Gunmen.
Yeah. The deus ex machina for this show is literally just, like, passion and force of will that solves every problem.
Makes sense, I guess. So he starts fighting the other gunmen. And my favorite thing, actually, was hands off my beloved little brother Punch. I thought that was cute.
Yes. He also had the who the hell do you Think I am? Kick.
Yeah, I didn't write that one down, but I liked Hands off My Beloved Little Brother because it's another one of those moments where you're like, oh, yeah, he's got a heart somewhere.
He has only for some good qualities.
Yeah. And then he named his big mech gurin, so yay. That's the name of the show, guring. Hey, I also wrote down because the beastman that was displaced by Communa is on the ground, and he's, like, yelling about how he's not dead or something.
Yeah, his, like, lieutenants think he's dead.
They're like, let's avenger, Boss, and he's like, you idiots, I'm right here.
So I wrote down, quit telling everybody I'm dead. So while that big fight was going on, they kind of dug up that skeleton that they buried in episode one, and Communa sees a piece of jewelry that his dad wore on the skeleton. So he gets very upset and realizes that the skeleton is his father, and he did not, in fact, thrive on the surface shocker.
In fact, he made it about, like, 20ft from his hole, because they're, like, right there. So just the thought of his dad going up there, being, like, a new life and immediately being stepped on by a giant mac the surface, and then for ten more years, Communa is like, yeah, my dad's doing fine.
He's invincible. Nothing bad goes wrong. He's not dead. 10ft above me right now.
Yeah, it's fine.
It's all great.
Welcome to the Dead Dad Club, Communa. You're now officially an anime protagonist.
Or IP.
Mr. Tominana.
I liked with communa's mech. Every time he punched something, he reminded me of deku from my hero academia, because every time he kicked and punched, his limbs just exploded.
Oh, yeah, that was weird.
Yeah, because I guess it's kind of frail or he was punching so hard. His force of will was punching harder than the Met could physically keep up with. I guess. I don't know. It was definitely something odd.
Yeah.
So that's episode two. Yeah. Two, yes.
A lot of fighting. It wasn't hard for me to keep track, but it's hard for me to keep track of it in my brain because it was just a big robot.
Fight that's mech shows. It's weirdly. Kind of why I don't watch them, but then watch every other fighting show.
I don't know.
I'm not the biggest mech battle fan. Yeah, but yeah. So then we're going to keep ahead a good amount. And episode eight.
Yeah. So the summary of the episodes we missed, they fight robots. Okay. And we're back.
Moving on. I was thinking about it, like, watching because they do a little recap in the beginning. I've actually watched the whole series already, so I figured it helped for you guys. But yeah, it's basically they get all the guys that they're with, they pick up some more people, and they just start leading a resistance against the beastmen. And as they go, they start taking over more Gunmen. And different members of their group now use Gunmen as well. And that's basically it. That's like six episodes summarized right there.
Right?
And cutting through the bullshit, I didn't miss anything.
And gurn and Login can now fuse login drills into German, into the top, and they form, like, the full mech that we see in the opening sequence.
Do they do a fusion dance like in Steven Universe?
No.
Then what's the point?
They just fucking drill into each other's skulls.
Oh, romantic.
No, it's not about romantic. It's about penetrating and God, it really is just about.
I've cracked the case. gurn, Login, it's like fooly cooley, where it's about adolescence, but with bigger robots.
And even less subtle.
And less subtle.
Oh, my God, there's pardon me. That's like, yeah, it's probably about dicks, but I don't know. Putting it into words out loud is like, oh, my God.
Just assume most shows are about dicks and yeah, you're fine.
Oh, my God. My love story is just tainted.
No, not at all about dicks.
It's impossible. That show is too pure. I ended up finishing all of it. It's very good.
You're welcome.
Quick update. That's the one show I've actually watched more of right now.
I'm the ultimate winner.
Yes.
Dropped everything. Like a hot box of rocks stuck with the lips.
All right, episode eight.
Yes. Sorry, we can derail a bit because not a lot of plot happens, or rather, it's very easy to condense.
Yeah. I assume there will be one big robot fight in every episode. There's a quota.
Biggest robot fight. So, yeah, this episode, it's kind of like the prepping for the big war, I guess. We see more of the team. They have the team gurun has more people, and they all have more Gunmen, and they're prepping to fight against Beastman generally. It kind of seems like someone with a degree of authority within the Beastman army. I don't know. It's all very cut fast and loose.
Yeah. He is the biggest gorilla man.
He's a big old gorilla boy with a big old hammer. Like everything about the show, you can easily understand what's happening visually.
Yes.
Big fat guy rolling the smaller beastman, and he's got a big, big dumb gunman that's just a fucking battle cruiser with, like, a head on top and some arms. We see glimpses of it early on, but yeah, it's just like a big old warship that every twelve year old and the creator of the show dream about, I guess, turning that big battleship into a bigger robot.
Are you sure the creator of show is the creator of the show isn't a twelve year old boy?
I can't prove he isn't, but it would make a lot of sense.
I assume he's at least 13 if he got studio permission funding.
He's just very charismatic. He's able to talk his way through anything, but yeah, so they're prepping up the fight against him. And the battle plan for this is that because logging can take over a mech. That's kind of what it does with gurn. When they form gurn login show name, they're going to throw Simone at the big battle cruiser and take control of it. So that's their main plan. And they're setting all this up and getting ready to go into war, and we get a little more of the will they want. They flirtation back and forth with yoko and Communa, which is my favorite trip. I love it. It's so good. And not absolute garbage and filler for writing.
Hey.
They do. It's not a will they won't. They do.
But up to this point, it has been back and forth.
There's also that other very unique thing where the other main character is in love with her, but she goes for the other guy.
Did you see moan my dude? Did she really think that you a very childish looking boy oh would win over yoko when she has Communa? I don't know.
I was probably going to say this to Liam, but here's something that's weird and we didn't see in the episodes we watched, but they do address it very briefly. Communa is like 16 or 17, roughly. Simone is like 14 or so, and so is yuko or yoko.
I thought she was 15.
No, she's 14 and just solely exists for tits and ass, and it's just very weird to me.
Yeah, it doesn't matter. You weren't a girl in high school. When you're a 14 year old girl in high school, this is gross. But if you're a 14 year old girl in high school and an older boy likes you, damn, you're the winner of high school.
Yeah, I remember some girls in high school who are like, I'm dating a college boy and now it's just like, oh, what the fuck?
I do.
I'm on the other side of that.
I hate it now.
It's terrible.
Much, much worse. But even that, like, just the idea of, like, she looks like that and she's, like 14. It's like spaghetti shring and the booty shorts.
Everything about yoko is a little fucked up.
But it's something I've noticed, especially with my hero academia, is how, like, protective and defensive fans of them have been about the female characters. When they see, like, sexualized fan art, they're like, hey, fucking well, slow down. These characters like 1516, and I should enjoy that more. I don't know if it's necessarily just because of that show and people love those characters so much, or if it's a general societal awareness of like, hey, maybe it's kind of fucked up. These shows super sexualized.
This is an interesting discussion because I feel like people definitely they overtly sexualize yoko because they do it in the show, so they feel like they have permission to do so without realizing that she's so young. But then in my hero academia, like uraka and Fropi and all of them, they are seen as freshmen in high school. They're not sexualized. They're just teenage girls.
Yeah, because you get the societal context of like, oh, these are school children. Don't draw titty picks of schoolchildren. While it's like, oh, she's an apocalyptic robot fighter. Yeah, go nuts.
Yeah. The one character that does sexualize the girls in my hero academia is, like, widely hated. He is the worst. And like, people at the school hate him. They're like, fuck, you mean it.
Shut up. He's constantly being reined in our gangs shot down.
This is an interesting discussion.
A fun little side trek.
I love awareness.
Like I said, this episode doesn't have too much plot going out. So we can condense it. We can derail easily. But I do like the idea that it's the setting. Like, it's different when it's in, like, a normal society. And like, in a city in a school versus apocalypse, anything goes.
Yeah, that's true too, because there's no established like, oh, you have to be 18 to be a robot fighter. It's like, no, this 14 year old showed up and is now the hero. So there's no rules. There's no adulthood versus childhood, which is kind of icky, but no good. Yeah, in this context, I guess makes more sense.
We're fishing first pieces, but it makes.
Sense in that world, but not in our world where we're watching the show and people are still hypersexualizing.
Yeah, well, I think people also don't realize if they don't know that she's 14, they're going to do that.
Because I think that's a quick one line they might have said. It like, out of nowhere, and it just gets skimmed over real fast. So I think most people don't realize.
She'S 14, but her titties but dead titties. Dead ass.
Yeah, she was definitely drawn as someone who they weren't worried if she was going to be sexualized or not.
And then later in the series, they do, like, a time skip of seven years, so she's only 21 at this time, but she's drawn like an old maid. Old maid.
Just like really, I don't know, beyond her pride.
It feels like that, and it feels much grosser. So it's just like, this is weird. Anyway, so, yes, yoko and Communa are talking, getting prepped for the big fight, and they kiss, or yoko kisses him, and then he kisses her back. That's kind of saying, like, I'll pay you back ten times this after this fight. All right.
Yeah, that was weird. What does that mean? Does that mean that they were going to bang?
No. Even yoko points out, it's like, oh, that's a weird way to put it. You could have made it slightly more romantic at all, but okay. And we see simone's watching them from the bushes like the dirty little pervert he is. No, he's going to talk to him, presumably. And he catches them, and he freaks out and runs back, because he also had a big old crush in yoko. And as someone who was once a hormonal 14 year old boy, I get it. Anything resembling a female that talks to you, you fall in love with. So I get his crush, but it just feels lazy writing.
Yeah, it was kind of sad because he just kept going, it's none of my business. And I was just like, you're right, honey, but I do it's. Okay.
You still got to go through this. Yeah. So that throws him off. That throws his concentration off for about the rest of the episode and is a bigger factor because these gunmen are powered by sheer force of will and.
Concentration, because his passion is gone. The girl he loved loved someone else. Oh, no.
He's only known her for three days. But yeah. So, yeah, they're gearing up for the big fight. They're going over the battle strategy, which is to get Simon on top of the big warship and take control of it. And that's pretty much it. That's their main goal. And once they do, they're going to win. And as they're running into battle, we see them all teaming up. We see all different gunmen. One of my favorites is a monkey gunman who has legs for arms and arms for legs. Yeah, he's got these itty bitty legs he's holding two pistols with, and then his whole arms are used for walking. It's just like, this is a fun design.
Perfect.
This is a fun design we don't need to see in every episode. But yeah. So they go in and they ambush the battleship of the beastmen, who are in this ravine, sort of like this canyon or valley, and they jump up, up top, and they're like, haha, we got you cornered. And the beastmann say, like, we knew.
You were the higher ground.
Anakin, don't try it.
Don't try. So they're like, we knew you would try this, so we're ready for you. And they throw the big worship just throws beastsmen up in their gunmen, like, just straight up to attack them, which is yoko's empty. And then yoko just pops them out of the sky like clay pigeons. And her gun is much more powerful now. For some reason, leroy fixed it up.
I forget if it was in this episode or the second episode, but I think in this one, he like, hands it back to her and he's like, I did some shit. And she's like, cool.
Yeah, but it's stronger.
He's like, oh, you normally don't let anyone touch your gun. She's like, It's a special occasion.
It's too big to fail. I don't want to mess up. So she trusts him more with her gun than herself, which shows a lot.
Of his character, which she should trust him more because she one shots these dudes.
She gets a big upgrade. And so she's picking them off. And then that's when Communist says, like, oh, we knew. You knew, we knew. So we prepared ahead of time for that as well. And then they just start throwing rocks.
Love that.
It's not really a battle strategy. It's not really like a tactical advantage. It's like, hey, here's some big rocks, and we're above them. Let's smash them. And that's it. That's their main battle strategy. And during this time, we see viral or viral.
Viral.
Kind of like the main rival antagonist sort of character, especially.
I remembered him. I remembered hearing about him and something about his back story being sad.
Yeah.
That's all I know.
But it's with every antagonist, I don't remember, so it didn't leave much of an impression. But yeah. So they kind of got a rivalry going back and forth because the first time they beat him is when they formed gear on legon. So his pride has been sullied, so he wants revenge on them.
Specifically, his voice actor in English kind of just sounded like an angrier communa. I thought they sounded very similar.
Yeah, this was sam regal was viral.
And it is at this time, I believe. We see Simone flying out and onto the big warship. And you can't hit them because it's his blind spot and he's got these stubby little arms and they can't shoot above them. And it's just very poor planning on this ship design because it looks stupid. We see it walking around and it's not like the battleship stands upright. It's just like there's a dude just shoved there's an action figure shoved through the middle of the warship. And he's got little legs sticking out and just looks like he's got, once again, a big old dick for a ship. Like, he's just got this big piercing part coming out, like the torso of the ship's body. So she's like, this is perfect.
Metallic imagery.
It's wonderful. I just really hate this ship design specifically. Out of all it just looks real dumb.
Yeah, it's not great.
No. So Simone gets in there and starts taking control of him. But like you said, he's not concentrating. He can't really do it. So he's struggling a bit. And it's at this time the big general guerrilla guy is like, screw this. The ship is like, getting taken over. I'm going to go on my own personalized gunman and comes flying out and just fuck shit up. And I believe this is Communa gets hit for the first time, to which.
I wrote Lol by Communa.
No, sorry. backtracking a little bit. simon's having trouble concentrating. And communist sees it. So he flies up, jumps out of his gunman and punches him in the face. locks him in the face, just kind of like, get your shit together. Like a more manly slap to the face. And that's when timo is like, all right, cool. I got this, and takes control. And yeah, his willpower and passion gets focused. And this is when the girl guy comes out. And when he just flies out, he just, I think, just pierce his communist just right through the middle of the gunman. And it's just like, oh, god, that's a real bad injury. And everyone's worried for a bit. And he's able to shake it off and keep fighting. And no, that's not how it happened. I watched this like an hour ago, and I heard freaking he pierces him. And everyone's like, oh, fuck. Shit is going down. Like, communist dead. Yeah, lol pie.
Loli.
See you.
And communa is knocked out. Everyone assumes he's dead. And Simone sees and just loses his mind and starts going into overdrive Super saiyan and just loses control of the ship. And it's just freaking out. And so much it's beyond just controlling the ship that the energy is flowing out of him into the ground, into the volcanoes around and erupts one of the volcanoes. And he somehow seem to just kind of goes on autopilot. He just kind of zones out and it's just heading straight towards the volcano. And presumably he's going to throw himself in. And people are freaked out. And then just by sheer force of willpower, kami does back up and is able to snap Simone out of it.
Yeah, he launches his arm from his neck to again, punch him in the face and be like, hey, dipshit, keep fighting.
I like that as Mexico to do that too.
And it is like a nice moment of like, hey, Simon. I always want to call him Simon, of like, hey, Simone, you got to start believing in yourself.
And that's where if you can't believe in yourself, believe in me. Who believes in you? And that's where that quote comes from, which is, I think, one of the better takeaway lines from this rather than, who the hell do you think I am?
Yeah, that was pretty bad.
Yeah.
And they say it, like, all the time, and it never gets better for me.
Yeah, he says it, like, four times in this episode. It's like, okay, we get it. You have a catchphrase.
And so when he snaps Simon out of it, simone is like, oh, cool, you're alive. Pops off the big battleship and creates girl on Logan and teams up with him. And this is when they just start wrecking shop. And we find out that gurn logon's primary weapon is sunglasses that are also.
Yeah, this was the first time I'd seen gurn login as a big thing. And I just wrote down optimus Prime.
Yeah, he's arrived very similar.
Yeah. So he uses the sunglasses as a sword at times. We saw Communist doing that. But then with this against the General, he throws two pairs of sunglasses that essentially stab him through his arms and legs and flay him, put him up on top of that. I'm trying to think of the word I can't, but just kind of, like, enable him from moving. And then that's when we get the big dick energy flowing through with the giga drill breaker, and he just gets a bunch of drills shooting out of him and then one big ass drill, and they straight up murder him. And it's okay because he's not human. Murder is fine as long as it's not human, right? Yeah. And that's how they defeat the big old bad guy of this episode and I guess kind of a season, maybe, I don't know, of this eight episode run we're willing to talk about. And it all comes down. We're all settled down. Did it. We won. hooray. What's that? Communa is really dead this time.
Yeah.
Motherfuck is gone.
Yeah. The series of my notes I wrote, communa eats it. Oh, wait, jk. Oh, wait, jk again.
Me too.
Got bamboozled.
I wrote lol by kamina. Damn. ouch. And then I went on this whole thing about how Communa has no redeeming qualities, and then I wrote, oh, he's still alive. Cool. I guess. And then, okay, now he's dead by.
The time yeah, and it's just the typical sad shot of just torrential downpour on everyone so you can't tell who's crying and who's not.
There was a very Lion King moment where the screen was dark, and Simone just went, bro. And it kind of made me like, oh, that's a little sad.
Yeah.
Because their relationship was the one good thing.
And now Simone is also founder of the Dead Dad Club, as well as founder of the Dead Father Figure Club. With both of them dead, he has nothing now. And that's where we stopped. That was it.
Excellent.
How do you like it? Are we there yet? No.
Here are my feelings. No, in here of my feelings.
When I was watching this, I was like, oh, I remember liking the show, and I, like, re watching. I'm like, oh boy.
Oh, boy, what? You just saw the percentage drop down.
As every minute down to zero. The show just, like, isn't really my I know I'm not the one we're trying to win over, but I've never seen this show. This show just isn't really my style. I don't really like action shows. I don't really like fighting shows. And this was pretty much all fighting. Yeah, and I understand, like, they had the moments, I feel like, where they were trying to be really hype, like kind of what my hero academia is. And I have a note written down that is Simon is mechdecku, and communa is a shitty all night because I feel like that's kind of what they were going for, and it just didn't deliver to me.
Yeah, kamina's inspiration sort of came through catchphrases rather than actually sending a message.
Or a good role model. I'm sure I'd care a lot more about kamina dying if I watched the other episodes, but I super didn't care. I was like, okay, fine, buy gross dick later. I super didn't care.
Yeah, I was not that heartbroken either.
As someone who watched all the episodes, it was less of like, oh, no, communist. It was more like, oh, shit, I thought he was the main character. That's not that's what caught me off guard.
Yeah, I think too, maybe just watching the rest of the first episode still might have had more of an impact that way. If you're like, oh, okay. So comin is the leader coming is going to be the main character the whole time. And also in the Netflix description of the episode, it says they lose one of their own. And I was like, oh, calming is going to die. So Netflix kind of ruined it.
But it's also eleven years old, so the spoilers are everywhere.
The dialogue did not age well in my opinion.
Yeah, I would agree with that. Anyway, this is very of its time.
How do you feel, dudes? You're the one that matters.
You're probably here.
No, yeah, I agree with most of what you said. Just fighting for 30 minutes straight is not my cup of tea. I'm down for the violent stuff. Like when you had my hero academia where it was fighting, but we actually got, like, character and backstory and they're fighting for a reason that I enjoy. But yeah, this was, hey, there's some mole guys and robots. Let's fight them because they want to fight us.
It didn't feel like there were any stakes.
Yeah, because they were trying to stop this sort of alien force for some reason. Because I guess they tried to kill them. But yeah, their motivations on either side are not super clear. So, yeah, it was a lot of senseless robot fighting, which I can see the appeal, but not for me.
This show is really popular. Very popular. Yeah, obviously people enjoy it, but it's just not minor.
Dude'S.
Cup of tea?
No.
And I understand that I pick a lot of the shows I have on our list, not necessarily because they're some of my favorites. Some of them clearly are my hero. academia is absolutely great. I love that one.
Hell yeah.
But a lot of the shows I picked were just like, these are very popular shows. And these are very well encapsulate. Certain genres for this one particularly, like, mech battles and the whole inspirational power of passion, friendship, and sheer willpower is like the driving force. And that just like that's literally how Simon, like, powers his robot and stuff and, like, how he wins every battle is just by being more passionate than the enemy. Like, that's all there is. There's no skill or training or anything. So it's a very particular genre of anime, and I wanted to at least show you a good example of it, even if it's not a good show for you guys. This is a good example of what that genre is.
Yeah. I definitely appreciate seeing why things are popular. So I'm never going to be like, no more mech shows because gundam is big. We're going to watch that eventually. And there's other mech shows I can't think of right now that we are going to need to see their significance of and see how they hold up for people like me who aren't super into mech shows.
Yeah.
So it's good to get other side of the tracks.
Break out of your comfort zone.
Yeah.
Walk a mile in someone else's mech.
Depending on the mech, it might be a very long walk or very little walkie. bitty stubby legs.
If it's simone's, it is like 3 miles off.
I wrote that one with the general when he came out in his gunman. I was like, oh, no. Another gunman with a big head and then a smaller head on top of it. The ultimate weapon. They always are more powerful than a regular big faced dunman.
Hey, two heads are better than one. All right, so looking forward to next week. dana, what's on the list?
We're going to watch the first three episodes of uri on Ice. I'm very excited. This is one of my favorite shows ever. It came out recently, but I love it so much. So I'm very excited.
All right. And you said the first three, correct. Perfect. All right. Well, thank you for joining us on our mission up to the surface of the show. We pierce the heavens of these three episodes. And thank you for coming on this journey with us. This is are we there yet? Please. These are some of the first episodes you're going to be hearing after the show has come out. So we would greatly appreciate if you would like us on Twitter and Instagram and Facebook, all that. Are we there yet? Reviews will greatly help us go on itunes or wherever you write reviews and say, hey, this is the greatest show I've ever heard.
And if you don't like it, leave us alone.
Yeah, we're having fun. Go away.
Feel free to write me a letter and I'll burn it immediately. Yeah. Thank you to camille ruley for our art. And thank you to Louis zong for use of the song stories off the album beats. You can find all of Louis music at Louisang bandcamp.com. And please join us next week as we learn to live with anime.
Believe in the me that believes in you believe in the anime that believes.
In you.
Take a powered robot.
Oh, God. Goodbye.