It's pretty lame. Hello, and welcome to the first episode of Are We There Yet? An exploration, collaboration and education and anime. My name is Patrick dugan, and I am your anime idiot. We have an experiment that we're going to run. I have my two very good friends, dana and Brendan.
Oh, you flattered me, sir.
They are going to go through the very noble, very important cause of explaining why some people think anime is good.
Yes. Do you have time to talk about our lord and savior anime?
I have plenty of time. What we're going to be doing on the show? I am going to have these two fine people, show by show, episode by episode, try to show me why anime is worthwhile.
That's a hard premise to sell, because I think deep down, even me and dana don't think it's worth.
I mean, at least you'll be able to see why Brendan and I are the way we are.
Yeah.
I'll learn more and more about your inner workings and how your brain looks at the world.
Oh, for sure.
All anime is trash, and no one knows that better than someone who watches anime too much.
Definitely.
Exactly.
Yeah.
So before we go into it, let's break down a little bit our experience with anime, our levels of knowing what it is. Let's start with dana.
Okay. So I've been watching anime since I was twelve. I was first introduced to it when I was in 6th grade, and I didn't really watch much until 8th grade, but once I found shows that I liked, I really got into it, and I was really gross for a while with it. But as a lot of people who watch anime definitely are, usually are, and eventually I kind of grew up. I still love anime when I watch it. I still love all the old shows I used to love. I'm just more mature and less annoying now. But it's a fun genre. Anime has many genres within it. I just think it's fun. Most of it's silly, most of it's dumb. And I enjoy it a lot still.
All right. And Brendan, where do you stand on your history with anime?
Well, I was always a big comic nerd, so my secret shame, being way too passionate about dumb fictional things is rooted deep in me. I think I was trying to look up the name of it exactly. I believe tenchi moyo was the first anime I've ever seen in good chunks. Late Night on tunami back in the day. So it premiered in 2009, so I don't know when I found it, but sometime after then. But it was just early on where it's just like, hey, here's cartoons that you love. I'm like, yeah, I'm on board with this. And it's like, also, these cartoons are full of curse words, blood and booze. I'm like, all right, let's see where this goes. What?
You can do that in one type of show.
Yeah, there are some shows that only do that and focus way too much on one specific element of that. And it's uncomfortable for everyone involved.
Each one of those things has its own genre in anime.
And we will get to all of that.
It's going to be a ride. Just talking to some of my friends about like, oh, did you see this show? It's like, no, this one makes me uncomfortable and I don't want to watch them. Oh, no, it's really good. It's like, yeah, no. And now I'm questioning our friendship.
I respect you less a little bit. Well, I am the least experienced person with anime of the three, which is why they are going through this teaching mission to educate me. I watched some as a kid, just what was on TV because it was like the birth of tunami was around when I was starting to actually explore interest. So I've seen some things in my.
Tunami is the gateway drug.
Exactly. So I have like flashbold memories of like Dragon Ball Z and things like that. Staying up at sleepovers and watching stuff I probably shouldn't have. Yeah. We should also mention that we all know each other because we all worked in anime dubbing. So we have some more hands on experience. But even spending almost a year and a half completely immersed, I couldn't quite get on board. So we're still working through that.
You're stronger than us.
We got in on board solely because we liked anime. We're like, oh, this company does animate. Get me in. Get me in on that.
That was definitely part of it for me.
I actually drove cross country because of the internship. It's the most solid thing I had to a job out here. When I drove across, I had an in.
So she's privileged.
That's CC privileged life.
You have connection, networking.
It was always fun talking to other interns who were like, oh, yeah, I'm doing this mom in school. I'm like, I'm paying a lot of money to survive me for free. Yeah, it's going to be fun because should we discuss what our first show is?
Yeah, it's a big. I'm going to let dana sort of introduce this because this was dana's choice idea.
Burden.
What is the show and why did you pick it for this week?
All right. So Brendan mentioned his first anime. This was my first anime. In this episode, we're going to be covering Death Note, much like dudes and Brendan. My first experience with anime was just watching it on TV. And I didn't even start from the beginning. I just saw that it was on adult Swim one night. And I was like, sure. So this was my first anime. It wasn't the first anime I was like completely obsessed with, but it definitely was something that really just pushed me in. Light yoga. Me just grounded and pushed me off of a cliff.
I was a little worried about making this the first well, no, I wasn't worried. I was excited to make this the first episode because it's a fucking big one to get into, but I didn't realize it was your first one that you actually watched.
It was so it was the first anime I ever watched, but like I said, it wasn't the first anime I loved. The first anime I loved was The melancholy of Harihisamia, which is pretty different.
It has a different name. It's a little different.
It's a little different. Death Note is super gritty and, like, as a 13 year old or twelve year old. Yeah, I think I was twelve. I don't know why I liked it so much because it felt, I think.
Because being a teenager is defining yourself by how gritty and edgy you can.
Make your media choices. I had friends at the time who were like, emo, and I just couldn't get into that.
So this was your email?
Yes, this was my my chemical romance.
I had people in school ask me, like, are you emo? You always wear black shirts? I'm like, no, that's just all they print superhero stuff on. All I have is spiderman and X men t shirts.
So death note.
Man. You know what? I'm careful of what I want to say about it because I don't want to give stuff away on the first half. Yeah.
What is your experience with Death Note, if you have any? Brendan.
Oh, I watched this. It wasn't one of the first animals I watched, but it was definitely an early one for me. And it was besides Dragon Ball Z, this might have been like the biggest one that people widely like praise. There's shonen, which is like the biggest manga company, so they have those, like, big characters than that. naruto, dragon Ball, Z bleach, all that. But this is one of the big ones where everyone's seen it, everyone's talked about it. It's in the hierarchy of anime up there. Whether you think it deserves to be there, whether you like that it's up there is kind of debatable. It's definitely up there because people love this one. I think they've made like three movies out of it, or four now.
Really?
And it's not like sequel movies. It's just the same movie. It's the same story, just over and over and over again. So it's pretty self contained and people like it for a reason.
All I know about it going into it pretty blind is you write a name in a book and death, I guess yeah, death happens.
I know.
Netflix, I guess, messed something up with it.
Oh, boy, did they I did not watch that movie. I don't know many people that did. And I know even fewer people that enjoyed it. By fewer, I mean done.
I mean, just by watching the trailer, you can really see what they've changed and how it's pretty bad. It's pretty bad. Pretty different.
They not only they made a live action movie of Death Note for Netflix, but they also americanized it, which is just wonderful. Just ma no one asked for this.
I'm so glad. willem defoe plays reyuke and that's the only good thing about it. In my mind.
That's the only good thing. Everyone agrees that was, like, perfect casting for that. It's his voice, but they easily could have just painted his face and he would have blended into that character easily because he's a demon.
But yeah, goblin costume on.
So as dana said, the main character's name is Light Yogamy. I think in the Netflix movie, his name is like lightsmith Turner Turner. It's just super americanized.
And it's just but they thought Light was fine.
Light'S fine. That's not the weird one. It's this foreign ethnic name that has to change because people don't understand what other countries are.
How will the white people ever understand.
They'Re not eating with forks? I can't relate to this. So it's just so strange. It's it's Death Note and namesake only like, everything else is different. Like, Reyuk is the same.
And for some reason, Reyuk is there reef there?
Yeah, why not? He's bored. At least the other ones are live adaptations, which in my opinion, are never good, but they're at least akin to the source material versus this one who just went balls out Michael Bayified, just doing whatever they want. They're in caution and any investment in the actual material. To the wind. Yeah, don't watch that one. Watch the anime.
Okay, we are about to we're going to take a quick break. We're going to watch the shows, and then we are going to be back to discuss whatever may happen.
Okay?
So you watch the first three episodes of Death Note.
How you like it?
How do you feel?
Do you feel angsty and teenagery? Do you understand why this spoke so much to so many young teenagers?
Yeah, I can definitely see that. There's definitely one of my first notes I wrote was just nerd with a God complex.
What? No way.
Really? Because the first note I wrote is this theme song is lit. Okay.
Yeah. As soon as I watch the opening song, I grab the sticky. I'm just like, Fuck yeah.
This is the first episode. Let's first talk about some anime intros.
Yes.
Oh, boy.
I'll admit I was jamming to it at first. I told myself I was going to try to watch all of the intros for each episode. But when I got to number three, I was like, I'm done with this intro. This is good in small quantity.
Well, it's a vow I make to myself to at least watch the entire opening and ending songs at least one time.
That's what I was going to do. But then I heard this again, and I was just like, Fuck, yeah. And sort of listening to it at least the opening every time.
Yes.
I think I'm just spoiled with short intro where it's like, yeah, this is catchy for maybe 10 seconds.
Also, there's the nostalgia of it for.
Brendan, and I think that tied in yeah, pretty well. But it was also true with Netflix. They have the skip intro where if you get to the next episode, it skips automatically. I was like, whoa, whoa. Slowly roll down there, Netflix. Let me go back.
I'm okay. Thanks, Netflix.
Yeah, let me enjoy this tasty minute and a half.
Maybe lemme choose and then not just force it on me.
All right.
It was very gray, so it wasn't super pretty to look at.
It's extremely gray. And then about halfway through, they're like, oh, hey, we found a new color and it's red. And that's just all it is. For the rest, artistic wise, I enjoy the style of the show. I think it at least makes it as realistic as anime can get, but at least shows enough differentiation in some of the characters we see, especially the police officers, where none of them is definitively anime. Main character protagonist. yugio hair, like just an abomination on their head. Like a meth lab exploded in their hair.
They could have easily given light yogamy. Purple hair.
Yeah, and it would have been no one would have bad an eye. But everyone looks like pretty down to earth normal ish, but still differentiate enough as not just background characters that you easily forget about, but yeah, the beginning and ending are just super hot. Topic shade and gray all out there.
And you can see how it could appeal to me. Twelve year old girl with emo friends trying to relate to them.
Yeah, but I just cannot.
I was definitely trying to look through it through the eyes of a young teen. And I was like, oh, this would have been my jam.
Sick. I would have loved watching this at 1130. And I was like, really quiet on the TV so my parents don't know I'm still awake. That's solid, though.
Still a fan.
As the years have gone on, I've definitely waned in my love for it. It's still very good, but not as the end all be all anime was once, I think, in all of our lives, but still rock solid. At least I think so.
Yeah. Let's dive into this first episode because I thought there was going to be a slower burn.
I fully don't remember all of this happening so fast.
I was very surprised. Like, three episodes in, I'm like, oh, shit, we're up and running. And I looked and I was like, we still have 34 episodes. So much has happened already. Yeah.
I don't want to jump too far ahead, but in episode three, getting to where we got, I was like, okay, we're at like a halfway point.
I have seen the birth and death of multi universes within the span of this plot line. Definitely forget. I forgot about the intro or just in the shinigami world of the death gods and they're all just, like, chilling out. Like, I remember it happened, but I forgot. At least in the intro where we see all the other shinigami, you see all these various monsters.
They're definitely the coolest design element of the show.
Yeah, it's definitely the most far out there and without spoiling. It's not really a spoiler because it doesn't happen, but you never really get to see them. Like, the intro is the most you see most of those shiny commies and that really bums me out because they're really cool looking.
Yeah, there's that one with the buck teeth. That was the thumbnail of the video I was watching this on and I was like, yeah, this guy is going to be real cool. He's going to be my favorite. And then he was like, hey, where are you going? So I'm like, okay, what's happening?
And then there's like the one guy who's just like, gold covered in gems. I don't think he's even in it. I think he's only in the intro. He might be a background character in the shinigami world, but I don't remember anything about him.
But don't design a background character that cool.
Give me his story.
I don't care about this. All right. I need to address ryuk's eyes going in different directions.
Let me say okay, hold on.
I could not take anything.
My second note literally is, I love Reyuke and always will. I love Reyuk so much. And through the course of watching the first three episodes, I also realize why I love 2017 pennywise so much.
So this is where it all began.
Yes. Full circle.
One of my notes is I love nothing more than the Reuke reaction shots because he has no reaction ever. It's just the blank, like, open mouth just it conveys so much, but it's essentially like the joker's head from Batman stapled onto, like, a Hot Topic employee's body. Like, you see, like, the strings and staples around his neck and he's just got this open mouth like expression and yeah, he's cockeyed. And it's just like, God, I love this.
Like, this is the epitome of death and fear. He has goldfish eye.
This is the god of death. This lazy eye bat song, bitch. I love it, though. I love it so much.
He's so good. He's my favorite part of the whole show.
I think I was going to say there's very little humor in the show now that I think about it. There might not be any, but the reaction shots of reuke might be the funniest thing.
I mean, he definitely has some funny moments. Like the things I've written, whether they're supposed to be funny or not, I think the things that he says and some of the things he says to light, just like, it's so funny to me. Again, not to jump ahead too much, but yeah.
Oh, man, it's great, though.
So it starts in the shinigami realm, where's ryuk going. Who knows what's he up to? oops. He dropped his death note.
Yeah. They mentioned later something that really bothered me. He said, oh, yeah, I put this in English because it's the most popular language on Earth. And then I just dropped it. But he seemed to know where he was dropping it. And he chose English for Japan. Yeah, he knows that that's the most popular language, but he doesn't know that Japanese people speak Japanese because we watched.
The dubs of it. So that makes me wonder if was it translated or was it always English?
No, I think it was always in English. I don't think I've ever seen the original Japanese show. But I think it makes sense for him to have said that because they.
Do introduce life in English class reciting, like Bible verses, which was also weird.
Love that.
If you pray to God, he'll protect you, or something like that.
I should have written those down. I didn't write down what he was saying.
Yeah, we should have, but, yeah, it was like the righteous judgment of God or something. It's like oh, wow. The subtlety is just gone out the.
Window and it's in.
There's a few enemies where they show the main characters in school learning English. And I always wondered, I'm like, American school is the only ones that don't do other languages. I mean, we do, but not to that extent.
Everyone is speaking perfectly.
Yeah, a lot of schools around the world teach a lot of people do speak English because they teach English, because it's just useful to know another language. And English is spoken in a lot of countries, so, like.
Sometimes I got that. Sometimes the God of death will give you his journal and you got to figure shit out, and you just got.
To run with it.
You got to be ready.
Wait. Why does Reyuk know English?
He's a death god. He can do what he wants.
I just imagine him in the demon world just taking esl classes.
Why is there a GH and laugh?
What is that?
I was just struggling for six years trying to grasp the th sound.
Well, he also points out, I think it was in the first episode, that for the Death gods, if they actually write people's names in the Death Note, they say they're working too hard and the other shinigami make fun of them. I'm like, Is there bullying in the shinigami world? Are they taking each other's lunch?
Nerd.
Yeah. You have nothing else to do. Why wouldn't you do your job?
Right? They have one thing to do, and that's it.
Yeah. Instead, they're just gambling with bones and skulls. Are they just the stoner kid that skip out on class and are just smoking behind the bleachers?
A good boy.
He reaches a good son. He's very dedicated. He's light. Light is a good student.
Yeah, they're both good students who like to just fuck with the natural order of light.
But speaking of light, so we're introduced to our hero, Light Yoga.
I'll say protagonist.
Protagonist. That's debatable, too.
Well, he's the main character, regardless.
Better or worse.
Yeah. Regardless of what he's doing. He's the main character.
Yes. So he's sitting in class and he sees a notebook fall from the sky and picks it up and he says it's probably like one of those weird chain emails.
Claim he thinks it's like some ruined joke. And as he walks away, it does the dramatic whipping shot of him turning out, I must have. And then it cuts to him in his room already having it. But just everything about this show is just so extra and dramatic. And just like, even just in turning around, it is like a big if it wasn't for the lack of superpowers, this could easily be in the jojo universe. It's just so over the top with some of their shots.
It's very dramatic. Yeah, but so am I.
It works so well.
So here we are.
Here we are. This is what happened.
Most of this episode was just explaining what the Death Note is and realizing it actually works and all that fun stuff.
It just all happened so fast. From being like, oh, I don't know about this. Does this even work? To killing two people and being like, Murder is cool.
Yeah, I wrote down it was five days from when I think ryuk just confronts him at first and is like, oh, you've already, like, filled up this thing. It's like, whoa. Hey. Five days. You had a lot penned up.
It's five days and you've killed more people than I've seen any other human with a Death Note ever do in my entire lifespan. Yeah, maybe relax, but yeah, I like that. They even showed, like, light being conflicted about, like, having the power to kill people and like, should I? Shouldn't I? As a quick flashback in a later episode, like in the first episode, just like, boom, right off the gate. Like, yeah, he's cool with killing people. And even just the second of remorse, it's like maybe a ten second scene in a later episode from, like, a writing standpoint.
I don't know why they did this all so quickly. I don't know what's going to happen. I know what happens because I've seen the whole show, but, like, I don't know how just in the first three episodes, so much happens, and it seems like like, what else is there to do?
It's it's very interesting, too, because, like, the main quote action of the show is writing in a book. I think it was in the first episode, of him writing down the names and the big flourish of the pen and speeds of sweat as he's writing. Like, he's sweating just from writing in a book. It's so intense.
So intense.
Yeah.
They couldn't have found, like, a more interesting way to go.
But that's the main action sequence of the show. Like, it's not Dragon Ball Z. There's no real fighting in it. So like, that's it. They got to work hard with what they got. And it's not much. It's an interesting story, but it's kind.
Of boring to watch. It is at this point where Reyuk visits Light after the five days of him doing all of these kills. And Light is like, why did you choose me? And ryuk is like, I didn't choose you. I was bored. And you picked it up.
Yeah.
And I love them to you. I loved that.
Well, I like because they address early on that Light got, like, first place in his school test for school wise, he's super smart.
I wrote down number one again, fucking Mary Sue.
But it's good because it explains why he thinks out everything very thoroughly when he actually does anything with the Death Note. But it's also just like I like rudy pointing out, why do you think I picked you? Stop being so vain. Like, get the fuck over yourself. Yeah, you ain't special. I'm the God of Death.
I do what I want interaction. I mean, in that interaction, I also have written down this quote that Light says. He says, I'm going to get rid of them all. I want the world to know of my existence, that there's someone passing righteous judgment on the wicked. And I also wrote down, oh, my God. It's. Episode One god Complex So soon?
Relax.
That's why I was kind of upset about it jumping immediately into him having this, because I wanted to see was he just pissed off at the universe before all this? Was he's already, like, on the breaking point?
Yeah, he kind of like ruke says he was bored. And he says, I also am bored.
Well, we find out in the later episode that his dad's a detective. So it kind of implies that maybe he's around that justice and criminal world more than the average person. But yeah, it goes from being bored to filling five pages, I think they.
Said, worth of names. I don't think they say specifically how many. But he filled up quite a few pages in five days.
Yeah, like real quick. But I think they also had to throw in the whole God complex. Like, he just killed a crabble of people in the first episode. I think it had to be quick because of how boring it kind of is. It's just a dude in his room. Yeah. For most of the show, he's just writing in a book. So they really had to sell you in this first episode as quick as they can because it's just like at least in line with most of the anime. This is a weird one.
Yeah. I think it's interesting because essentially Death Note is a crime drama. But in the first episode, they don't really showcase that at all. But that's kind of what it turns into. Like kind of a supernatural crime drama.
Yeah. I was getting some, like, serious hannibal vibes when I was getting to episodes two and three. Once they introduce elle and hunting down or trying to hunt down each other.
Yeah. All we just discussed is episode one. So episode two is kind of more of the same. I wrote down, oh, the crime boys, they've arrived.
Oh, God. Maybe this is why I like hannibal so much. Maybe it's because I watched this so young and it influenced me. That enjoys a lot.
You were ready. This was hannibal Jr.
I also have written down, I think in an interaction in the beginning of episode two, people ask Light if he wants to hang out with them, and he says, no. And ruke says, Aren't you just going to go home and sit in your room?
Fucking felt called out by that one.
I wrote ryuk call him out.
Too real. But I know they make more attention in it. And the mango but, like, Light apparently is extremely popular. And I know in the first three episodes it doesn't get into that too much. I think maybe a little in the later episodes, but like yeah, it's not just like he's the nerd. He gets first place in the testing and all that. He's very attractive by both the school standards and my standards. How are you doing? He's also pretty popular. He's not like an outcast. He's not this weirdo.
See, I got that 0% based on everything he does, I don't think beyond talking to the teacher and that one student who's like, hey, want to come hang out? He's like, no. I don't think he talks to anyone that is not his family.
Yeah, he barely talks to them.
Yeah. And then people are like, okay, he snubbed me. He's never hanging out. He's still the greatest guy in this school.
So stand offish.
Yeah, he's kind of got the Mary Sue identity of like, people love him. We don't know why, but people love him.
I loved him when I watched this, and all of my friends watched it in middle school. I, for some reason, liked Light very much, and I was, like, on his side for some reason, which is weird. Speaking of sides, in this episode were introduced to L, who is a detective of sorts. He's kind of like a freelance detective that just is very good at solving mysteries.
He's sherlock shut in. Yes, he's sherlock, but he refuses to leave his house.
Yes. I have written down we don't really get to see him in these three episodes, but I wrote down emo middle.
School girls love L. I can see why.
If you see his face, you'll just be like, okay, got it.
Yeah.
They start to show a little bit of it in episode three. He's got that, like, just like his. Jaw line.
That strong jaw.
I can see just from that jaw.
What a hottie.
So elle has this assistant lackey that goes out into the world for him, which, when they introduce it, it's so bizarre because the chief is like, yeah, we don't know who L is. And it's like, oh, mysterious. Does he call in? No, a guy in a trench coat shows up and they're like, who's that? Is that elle? No, that's his assistant. We also don't know who he is. Okay, so you just let a random guy in a trench coat show up? You didn't ask him his name?
I wrote, I'm so glad that he's always wearing a trench coat and is always shrouded in darkness.
He's got the heavy shadow because otherwise.
Anyone could see what he looks like.
He's actually not anyone special. He's three fourth graders in a transcoat.
L gave each $0.25.
Yeah, that's the thing. It's like, we don't know who L is. It's like, fair enough. He's on a laptop. He's on a remote location. We've never seen him in person. We also don't know who his handler is. It's like, he's right there.
Conference room.
You got to have an idea who he is.
Just flipping.
He, like, hangs out in the back of the squad office when they're all trying to figure shit out.
Yeah, I like to think that he's like crang from the ninja turtles. L is a little brain crang, and then the guy in the trench coat is like, the body that holds crang exoskeleton. Yeah. It's always really strange to me where it's like, we don't know who he is. He's 5ft from me. What?
Make small talk? You're not that busy.
How'S the weather?
You've got, like, zero leads right now.
How'S the weather? I'm guessing pretty bad because you're in a big trench coat and a hat, so you feel like there's going to be rain today.
He's very warm.
He's got to be just sweating.
He's always so cold, so he has to wear all that stuff.
See, he committed to the trench coat, so he has, like, a cooling system running through it. Keep him cool throughout the day.
And now he has no choice. He wore it once, and now everyone expects it from him.
He's the trench coat guy. It's like you shave your head into a mohawk once in middle school. It's like, oh, there you go.
You're mock the mohawk, dude.
I like, though, with L, like, when they introduce him, they also reveal the name they've been given light, because people don't know it's light yet they're calling him kira, which is like a playoff of killer in English. But it's great because that's one of those even in the dub, that's clearly one of those obvious Japanese words where they put much more emphasis on the pronunciation than any other word in the script. It's like, oh, no, we have to hunt down kira. kira.
Kira.
All right. You put a little sizzle on that one.
I just love the English word killer.
It would have been boring to just call him killer. And also, it's in the dialogue to say based off of the English word killer.
Yeah, but it's not just like even in the dove, it's not just like, oh, we have to find kira. It's like we have to find kira.
They have yeah, it's names and locations.
That's something that always tickles me because it just stands out so much for me. It does.
Exactly.
Also, I liked how novel it was on that when he was on the Internet chat sites, he had to explain that.
Yeah.
On the Internet, no one knows who you are, so you're anonymous. I was like, oh, it's so pure.
It's pretty dated. Let's see. I'll try and find out when.
Premiere 2006.
I checked.
Times have changed.
That's early Internet.
Yeah. That's birth of YouTube era.
Oh, God. It was.
So it shows that keita is kind of getting a following, and people like twelve year old me are on his side.
Well, because he starts off killing people, but he's killing all the worst criminals there are in the world. So it's the Batman complex of like, he's the good guy. He's stopping the bad guys, not realizing it's. Like, oh, no, he's murdering the bad guys.
Yeah. Not to go back to the American Netflix movie, but I think there's a scene that was released on YouTube before it came out, and this is the only thing I've seen of it where it's just Light sitting in a classroom watching a kid get bullied. And ryuka is just like, Kill him, kill him, kill him. And it's like, that's not that's not what happens. Like, thinks he's doing something good. He doesn't just kill, like, randos.
I think he specifically says later on in episode three that I'm not on your side. I'm not on l side. I'm on no one's side. I'm just here to watch. I'm bored.
Yeah, I wrote that down. He says, make no mistake, I'm on your side. I don't support you. I'm not your ally.
Yeah, that's why reeva was instantly one of my favorite characters as a kid, because I'm always a huge proponent of the third party character. It's like varys in Game of Thrones. He's not on anyone's side. He's doing his own shit for anyone listening. I make a lot of references to most of the time is irrelevant to the conversation. But yeah, that's what really caught my attention, because you could easily see what kind of show it would be if ryuk was like, gung ho. Like, yeah, I'm going to help out my buddy Light, or work against him and always try to sabotage him. But by him being neutral, it, I think, adds a more interesting element. And to go back to the American Netflix one, I think that's one element they changed that actually kind of fundamentally ruins the story. Because in the show, we see that Light is not a nerd. He's not getting picked on all stuff. it'd be very easy to see him getting the book. I'm going to kill my bullies. He even has a moment of that in class where he's like, what if I killed this guy? He's like, no, he's just a jerk and an ass. But I can't kill him over it, right?
He's got some logic somewhere within him.
He's got some restraint. It's very low, but in there.
Another thing to point out toward the end of episode two is that L pretty much narrows it down. They broadcast some dude who's like, I am lynd. L Taylor. lindell Taylor. Here I am. And then Light, because he's an idiot, just fucking kills him on national television and then El broadcasts. And he's like, Jokes on you. We were only broadcasting this in one region of Japan.
But I like how shocked it might be. The most emotion we get out out of of L, the whole series. But after that initial killing on TV, he's kind of like, oh, shit. You actually did it. Okay?
You dumped it.
He's like, you fell from my bait, you dumb idiot.
No, that was one of the first things I liked about this show was that plan was super dope. But also, he's like the top of his class, smartest kid. And someone goes on TV and is like, hello. This is my face and my full name. I need you to surrender now, or I will hunt you down.
Yes. Which he has been previously keeping very secret.
But I think it's a good way of showing like, in the first episode, we kind of get an idea of like, I'm going to be a righteous god. But with this conflict, it really highlights how full of himself Light is and how quickly he bought into this god notion of just like, oh, you think what I'm doing is wrong and evil. Like, when he says evil, he gets triggered. He's just like, my favorite I wrote down. It's like I like, how to prove how not evil he is. He immediately kills the guy who just called him evil live on TV.
He immediately kills a cop on TV.
Yeah. It's like you're evil. It's like, oh, yeah. Boom, you're dead. It's like, just prove this point. It's a clever show. At times, it can get too clever, like, even for its own good. But I like that all the characters aren't just dumb anime protagonists where it's like, oh, no. How do you find me? It's like, well, we tracked all the times of when you were telling people we found out you were only killing criminals that were known to the public whose names and faces were shown.
The first person you killed was on local broadcast in this region of Japan.
Yeah. No one else knows about them except for this area. So yeah, they very quickly deduce stuff really fast, and it shows how smart ella is, but it shows other characters later on. They're also in touch. They're all not just idiots, because nothing drives me more insane, where it's just like, people are hiding from a monster who can hear them, and they're like, why are you doing first off, stop yelling like he's going to find you. He stopped running around in a full suit of armor, like how dumb some characters are so quickly. So that's one thing that caught my attention with the show early on. They actually think stuff out, and it's pretty clever.
Another note I have written down more than once. Like I said, I've only watched the dub, and we watched the dub so we could take notes. But I really like the dub.
It's not bad.
I think the actors are really good.
Granted, we're kind of biased since we all met each other working at a dubbing facility. Yeah.
For me, if I watch the dub of a show first, I tend to be more partial toward it.
Yeah. And I think that's the same with subs. I think a lot of people see subs first because they're easier to get out there because you're just transcribing stuff.
Versus recording on the pay for it.
Yeah. And it also gets out there quicker. You're able to see the subs faster. But yeah. I don't even know anyone personally, I don't think, who's, like, a sub superiorist, where it's just like, it has to be the subs or nothing. No, I've even watched the show in norikami. I've alternated between subs and dubs every episode. It's fine. Granted, maybe the voice casting, which is good for both languages, but I think we get through it fine. It didn't mess me up as much as I thought it would.
So we move into episode three. My first note for episode three, the serial killer investigation HQ sign that's just written on a piece of paper outside of a room.
We've taken over the break room. Go somewhere else for your coffee.
Hey, guys, let's put a sign out so everyone knows where we are and it's really easy for people to find us.
Ted is on vacation. We can use his office.
It is a very small room for, like, 30 people.
Got a small budget, had some cutbacks.
I also have the note written. How does l not just catch him in the first ten episodes?
That's one of the things where it gets tricky, where it can be too clever. Where yeah. They narrowed down from the world to this specific neighborhood in Japan in one.
Episode, and also in this episode, two people with close connections to police officers.
Yeah.
So in three episodes, it seems like by episode five, white will be in jail.
Yes.
Well, there's 37 episodes, so it's just a long it's just a cooler episode where he's in jail. It's just the whole series. Yeah.
Well, I mean, remembering the things that happen that like the things that I do remember. It's like, how do they get there? Why is that necessary for them to do? I'm not going to spoil anything, but.
Like I think early on they're like, we got to get people's attention any way we can. And then once they have that attention, say by like episode 20 or so, kind of like, we're pretty safe. People are pretty into this show. We can play around a bit. And I think some of the later episodes start milking it and start stretching it out longer than it needs to be. Especially after the first three episodes where it's just like boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. Plot wise.
No. Yeah, I was punched in the face by plot.
Exposition. That feels like an entire story arc.
Yeah, it's a lot. If you told me this was the first season, I'd believe you until I rewatched it. But yeah, they narrowed it down from the entire population of the Earth to 141 people, like all the cops and their relatives within the first three episodes.
Right.
Kind of just like, damn.
I also have written I love the background music. I'm pretty sure it's just the same track every time, but every time it comes on, I'm like, oh yeah.
I mean, after all of the movies we've heard with Chris nolan soundtracks where it's just like any police procedural that actually puts an effort into the music is pretty good by my standard. It's not just law and order. It's got a plus for me on that.
Also something that was pointed out in episode three. Light talks about how L is not known to anyone. Is that established to him in that previous episodes? Like broadcast that he's not known to.
Anyone or it's common knowledge. Like I think people know of.
L got you.
They don't know who he is because he solves crimes, like single handedly.
Got you. Yeah, because it was explained to the cops. Light is like, yeah, this guy is mysterious. But he saw one broadcast with him. Of course he wasn't going to say.
His name in episode three. It shows that Light I'm going to put it in quotes hacks in to his desk. I don't know if he actually hacks in or just logs in with his password and calls it hacking, like people on Facebook do. It shows that Light has access to his police files.
Why would his father let his stuff be so easy to access?
Well, he's at home and his guards down and they're on a home network, as they explain in a very exposition heavy paragraph, I guess.
But it's just on his computer at home.
Yeah, my roommate and I have the same wifi. I don't know if I could tell you I could hack into his stuff just through that. But yeah, I'm guessing it's through the files. He was able to get like a dossier about L the cloud before the cloud, there might be a few plot holes lying about there. You might find an apple core to fall down.
I think it's less of, like I guess they solve plot holes through, like, just being so smart that he can just do anything.
He's too smart. It's the power of friendship. But for the brain, the power of brain ship. He's got so much Brainship, he can just overcome any challenge ever that's not physical because he's still a nerdy boy.
Nice enough to help his sister with quadratic equations, which, when he's in class later, they're learning quadratic equations?
Yeah.
Wait, so he's teaching his sister what he's learning?
Yeah, like, she's supposed to be learning that at her level of math, and she's like, I don't get it. And then later when he's at Sat prep, they call it cram school. Whatever. The teacher is talking about quadratic equations.
I didn't even notice that.
Yeah, he's pretty muffled, and he was obviously just, like, improvising, but yeah.
Is that just like he's so smart. He already knows it. He's already teaching it.
I don't know. I remember in high school, I had to take spelling test in my English class because people were spelling stuff so wrong and one of the words was balloon. So maybe high school is lower than we thought it was.
Could be.
Maybe that's just america.
Also, at the end of this episode, we we see he's being tracked by someone, and then ryuk gives the very helpful tip that he can see when everyone is expected to die and their full name just, like, projected above their heads.
Yeah, my brand, my special eyes. I have special eyes, but I like.
To concede your death.
I like that where you tell him he's like, hey, you're being followed. I'm not telling you because I want to help you. I'm telling you because it's creeping me out, because I'm also following you.
I want him to leave me alone.
Get him to go.
Why he bothers me after he did the whole thing about not being on your side, not being your ally? I have written down, I'd love to see a picture of ryuk drawn in the I had to do it to impose meme of just that guy in the polo.
We got to make that now.
I also have Reuke doing simple math. Hell, yeah. Because he's just like, let's say someone has 40 years, and then I take away half of that. That's minus whatever.
It's like, you've been with Light this whole time. You know, he's like the editor. You don't need to paint it out like that because he gave, like, three examples for each thing.
Yeah. If I take away someone who has 60 years life, I kill them at 40. That means I get a 20. Yeah. I get how subscription works. I'm in high school.
Yeah. Pretty much the reason he does that is because he offers Light the ability to also do that with his eyes, to get shinigami eyes, and he will have half a life. And at the end of the episode, we don't know whether he does it or not.
Cliffhanger yes. I have not seen that. I'm going to say he does it because he seems like a petty bitch.
That would do that.
Am I right?
Yeah. I'll say, yeah, he's a petty bitch because, yeah, it was like, oh, he's pretty reserved character. He's pretty, like, low tone and quiet and keeps to himself, doesn't brag about his achievements. And then Light comes on TV and she's like, hey, yo, fuck you. And he's just like, what? How dare you. And she's like, oh, okay. You're very petty.
You dishonored me.
Yeah. Oh, I remember what I was going to say. That I like that when he is teaching his sister math, he like, talks over you after she runs off to go see your dad, who rings the doorbell.
Yes, I have that ring down. Why does his dad ring the doorbell?
Even if it's like, an apartment where it's, like, buzzing to let him into the building, it's like, you should still have a key since you live here.
Because if no one's home, he's just screwed, I guess.
Is it? To let them know, like, hey, dad's home, because he might be a cop in a way for a few days. I don't know. That's like a weird way of signaling ringing the doorbell, like, instead of just coming in because the milkman might just come in. The milkman doesn't ring the doorbell. Yeah.
That was purely just to be like, oh, who's at the door? What is his dad? Who's the cop?
That it is also revealed in this episode that his father is on the case. He's on the kita case, isn't he?
The chief was that it's?
Definitely a senior ranking police officer. He's not a b cop.
I thought his assistant, who in episode two got the literal oh, you're you're new. Let me explain everything to you, as you know.
Dave yeah. From like, as you know and then just exposition.
Yeah, I i thought he called him chief, so I may have missed that.
He might be I just don't know if he's, like, a lieutenant or something, or he might be the actual full blown chief. I forget.
Got you.
But I like, when he was teaching when he was teaching his sister math, she runs off and he tells Reuke. He's like, yes. And now, if anyone asks, I have an alibi for me being a nice guy and doing something nice for other people because I'm helping my sister when she's in need. I'm like, this dude's a sociopath.
Literally.
He can only think about what he can achieve from someone else. He's not doing it to help her. He's doing it to help himself.
So, yeah, we're luck on the cliffhanger of ryuk offering light shinigami eyes and that's all we watched. We watched the first three episodes just to kind of give dudes the taste for it. And it was a fun ride for.
Us, too, because really a ride.
This is a good one to pick right off the bat. Just dive head first into it. I just imagine, though, if Light takes the shinyami eyes, are his eyes also going to be across, like, reuse his really yellow, red eyes?
He just has to wear sunglasses for the rest of his life.
What happened to Light? I don't know, but he's so much cooler now. He's got the sweet shades on.
I mean, he was cool before, but oh, my God.
Like, damn.
Also, I just met him, but he knew my name. how'd that happen?
Why I feel so accepted.
And he told me to watch out for that bus. I don't know what he means. Let's cross this road. Anyway. Who cares if it's red? It's a good show.
So the verdict?
Yeah.
Okay. At first I thought it was not great. I did not like Light as a character because Shock went full psychopath immediately real fast.
Yeah.
But once they got to cop Drama, who's hunting the hunter type stuff, I was starting to get into it a little bit more. But since half of the three episodes we watched was just explaining how the mechanics of demons work, that wasn't super great.
Very exposition. Heavy. Yeah, like I said, the primary action of the show is writing in a journal. There's not like a crazy Dragon Ball Z fight scene and stuff. So they got to make interesting what they got. And what they got not much. Which, I mean, goes to show how popular it is and how successful it is. They did it well. But also you get those writing scenes where it's just the crazy flourish and the sparkles and the quick shot cut like dramatic angles. So do you think you would continue watching this, or do you think that's enough for me?
Yeah, I think that's enough for me. I think I have enough edgy murder shows in my life. I don't think I need an animal out of there.
Yeah, it's definitely an interesting time because when this came out, this is, like, cool and weird and unique and Murder has definitely gotten more popular, especially in television. But yeah, I've heard a theory of someone say all the good popular TV shows right now are about villains, like Breaking Bad and dexter and Always Sunny in Philadelphia. They're bad people versus back then, when the show came out, it was all like, naruto and bleach and drama and the power of friendship, like good nauseating.
And this one's got the power of Brainship.
This one's got Brainship and fucking edge lords. So that's why so many people attach to it real quick. But I could definitely see now. And I play like it just seems like every other show kind of yeah.
There'S enough serial killer shows out there to hold me over.
You don't want Death God floating over eating apples, though. dexter. Don't have that.
I mean, there's that nightmare stag in hannibal.
Does that count?
Oh, yeah. The wendigo.
I love ryuk.
I don't mean to bash your best friend.
My dad.
Weird family dynamic. Yeah, I enjoy it. I'm going to say a good chunk of that's nostalgia, but because I've also already been through it all and know where it goes, I do enjoy it. And it still holds a special place in my weeb collection.
My cocoro.
All right. You know what it's about, though, when people talk about it, you know what they're talking about.
Yeah.
Got you.
I've seen some of it.
I was like, how does writing names and this become, like, a plot thing? Is it just, okay, so we don't use this? How did that work? But now I start to get it. It's like the cat and mouse of finding the person with it.
I think hannibal is a real solid comparison for it. It's the police dynamic, but it's also one of the most uneventful police dramas I've ever seen in my life. All the crazy camera angles are to distract you from realizing, hey, these guys are just talking for five minutes. nothing's happened.
Yeah, there are definitely episodes later in the series where twelve year old me was like, what? I don't care. Because they're like, about the cops. And I'm like, I don't care about this. Give me l and light what the heck?
I'm fully prepared to see, like, an episode where they're just talking about, like, how do we take care of my elderly father and his finances and his retirement pension for, like, 15 minutes? That's probably in there somewhere, because they get into the real nitty gritty of some stuff.
Then Rio comes out and explains how.
Pension works with simple math.
If you save $50,000 for retirement.
Yo, if ryu could help me my 401k, that'd be cool. I'd be interested.
If I could hang out with ryuk, I would I would touch the Death Note just to hang out with him and not write any names in it.
He would end up writing our own names and just like, I can't stand these nerds to skimmy out of here. One final thing I enjoyed is, like we said, light's not a good guy. He's the protagonist. He's the main character. He's not the hero. That's one thing I really enjoyed about it.
Yeah. Definitely made it unique for its times. All right, well, I mean, we're one in zero, Brendan.
Shit.
But, yeah, that was a good place to start. Definitely leading me down the road to.
Getting.
So, thank you all for joining us on this test run. Are we there yet?
It was truly a journey.
Yes.
We all were united by the power of Brainship.
Yay.
And here we are. Please join us next week. I'm not sure what we're watching yet, but I'm sure I will tolerate it.
For sure. All right. Thank you.
And I don't have a clever sign off yet, so goodbye.
Later. Soon.
Hey, real quick. These things weren't settled when these episodes were recorded, but thank you to camille ruley for our artwork. And thank you to Louis zong for for the song stories off the album beats. You can find all of Louis music at Louisong bandcamp.com.