Hi, everyone. This is Patrick. I'm here with a quick content note about this week's episode. This episode was recorded on Saturday, May 23, when a show about getting away with murder was a silly campy lighthearted thing. And editing this on Friday the 29, that no longer feels like the case. So I want to let you know that if you are not up for that, I don't blame you. I kind of felt icky editing this because there are a lot of light hearted jokes about murder and stuff that now feel distasteful. But rather than not releasing an episode, we want to give you advance notice that this may be a little too topical this week. And if you need to skip it, do whatever you need to do. We're here because we want to be helpful and fun and a nice distraction and not a reminder of how shitty everything is. So we ask that if you're able, please support funds like the Minnesota freedom fund or the louisville bail fund and your local black lives matter organization and we'll have more fun down the road. Love you. Stay safe.
Man, that bear is a dick.
Hello, and welcome to our weed there yet in exploration and education and anime. I'm your anime idiot, patrick dugan.
I am an anime expert, dana hollander.
And I'm brenda mccullough. Your anime, season two, episode 23 of lizzy Maguire. You know, the murder mystery one.
Does someone get murdered in lizzie Maguire?
That is the only pop culture example of a murder trial that has ever been. I feel like we should have seen that more.
Well, it's referenced so much in classic cinema and of all the artistic studies done in colleges and stuff, we get tired of it. It just becomes the norm at this point.
Yeah, it's like, of course every show is going to have a lizzy Maguire arc.
Everyone's a gordo. Someone's the miranda, but she's not in that episode.
I don't know what I would be. I haven't watched lizzy Maguire in a really long time.
I think the dazzney. Was Sam. I'd probably be him because he's the one that's murdered. And then he goes off and watches TV for the rest of the episode.
I'm the mom then. I forgot parents were an option.
Joe, she called my bluff. I don't have an encyclopedia knowledge of lizzy Maguire.
I'm finding out I have way too much information about Liz mcguire.
You've got me to admit.
Fake fan. Fake fan. boo. This man. Wow. I remember by far too much of a show.
I could tell you anything about the lizzie Maguire movie, but the show, not so much.
Not so much.
Oped. That's about it.
Where are we here? What's that?
Yeah. What's happening? Where am I?
Shrewd for a second.
I woke up locked in this studio.
Well, I could tell you this week I have decided that we're going to watch DongAN rompa.
Ooh, yes.
It has quite the history if you'd like me to shed some light on the situation.
Information about something relevant. Amazing.
Wild. I know. So it started as a video game. It's called DongAN ropa. Trigger happy havoc. And that came out in Japan in 2010. And so before it came out in America in 2014, somebody posted screenshots of the entire game on, like, reddit, I think. So it was made available to read as, like, a web comic. And that's how people got into it. And then, like I said, it came out in America in 2014, four years later. Yeah.
And there are other dedication to screenshot every night.
Visual novel.
Actually, I read the first chapter, whatever was designated as the first chapter because people were so into it. But I didn't get super into it at the time.
I'm honestly surprised it's that recent. I thought it would have been earlier than 2010.
Yeah, I thought so too.
Yeah.
Same. This is definitely franchise.
Yeah. At the studio, we were dubbing V Three, which is, I guess, the third game. I don't know, Japan with numbered sequels. That could be the 40th game. Who could tell?
Psycho Three is number ten, I believe.
But I became aware of the show at that time when it was coming out, and I was like, oh, this is a really cool premise. This is fun. And then I learned it was based on a visual novel game, and I was like.
Why is it not fun anymore? It could still be fun.
I'm not super into visual novels because if I'm going to read something, I'll just read something because I can go at my own pace. But if it's a visual novel and it's like, here, we're going to set the beats, we're going to have little transitions for each line. It's like, I don't need a whole production to just read a story.
Sure, but what about the smutty ones?
He. Yeah, that's where you get them.
Yeah, I could read about Smud, but when you see it, it's still like half and half because it's, you know, it's a visual novel. There's not much motion, so it's like but like, listen, you think we can get we have bad Internet.
We're revealing too much right now.
Let's rein it back in smut habit.
Back to lizzy mcguire. No, that's smud still. Sorry. Okay. Yeah, I knew about this franchise, thus my intro. But I've never played any of the games. I know they got like a very devote following to it. And that's why I was surprised, as recent as 2010 was the first one. I thought this could have been like 95 back on old school, like macintosh computers. And it could have this following. I'm surprised.
Well, there are a lot of like we said, there are a lot of games for people to get into.
Yeah, I guess that's true.
Yeah. And now it's an anime and we're going to watch it.
Oh, boy.
We're going to watch the first three episodes and your punishment for doing this podcast with me. I sentence you to watch this anime.
Time for despair.
We got ourselves a moita.
Moiida mysteries.
We found the body.
Missed. What is this voice I'm doing?
A body has been discovered. I think that's from the games. Yeah, it's a sound on TikTok that I hear a lot.
God. Do we actually know anything from the actual content itself and not through weird references?
Yeah, we're going to watch this show. We went in with the exact wrong expectations because the Internet has just memified it. So Bad News is more about junko.
Inashima than any of the other characters. Who exactly.
Anyway, right away I'll say I don't know a single person's name besides the main character.
They try to based on their things.
Yeah, exactly.
Their super high school level whatever.
Just want to be sure we're on the same page with that because I'm not even attempting at me.
Yeah, I know some of their names, but definitely not all of them. So we start off and we see a kid struggling in a chair. He's tied to a chair and a black and white bear is watching him. And then the black and white bear presses a button and this boy gets launched into space. And this aesthetic is very witch zone from motoka magica.
Yeah. I didn't know how to describe it, knowing it was a visual novel, though, originally. That makes sense. It feels like where they're too deep, but it's got a very wide landscape and stuff and a very particular style to it.
Yeah, but so he gets launched up and he crashes back down and then the rocket opens again and he's a skeletony. skeleton boy.
Oh, man.
Got them spaceballs.
So rip to that kid, whoever that was. And then we see hopes peak High School. It's a high school for highly skilled kids and kids from all different fields, like models, idols, baseball players, all kinds of kids.
If you're the best at something, you'll probably go here, right?
But it's not even like sports or extracurricular activities or like academics, like yeah. The main character is there because he's just like the super lucky kid. How is that?
Well, he won through a lottery, so they just call him super High School level good luck.
Yeah.
But yeah, so it's our main character. His name is naegi nagi. I can't say it right. nai eggy.
Naegi Boy.
Egg Boy. Perfect. We got there. So Egg Boy. Yes, he won a lottery and now he gets to go to this school. He gets to go to Hopes Peak High School. And then as soon as he steps on campus, the world just goes dark. And he's like, oh, something's not right here. And then he says the core curriculum here is despair. bum.
What a twist.
Yeah. And then he wakes up in a classroom and he looks around and there are like, security cameras and iron plates on what would be windows, I believe.
Yeah. We've all been to an inner city public high school.
Yeah.
And he gets up and walks around the classroom, and on the front desk, he finds, like, a hand drawn flyer for the welcoming ceremony. So it directs him to the gym, where he finds all of his classmates. And we get all of their names. But again, too many.
Who cares?
Yeah, but so they all have these things assigned to them. Super high school level blank.
Two things real quick. Why the fuck is the baseball boy got a goatee in high school? Second, I love the super level high school grappler who is just a fucking Hunter Hunter character, and she's amazing.
Wait, which one?
I love her so much is what?
I think her name's a soccer.
Oh, Soccer.
It's just like a hunter hunter character. Just so big. It's starred up, and musclely is held, like, 75, like, just enormous. And her name's, like, Soccer, and she's a lady. And it's like, yo, I'm super into this character.
This is it.
Because she also has, like, a pretty gentle voice, like, saturated. I loved her, so I went to her wiki, unfortunately spoiling the future. But it's like, yeah, she's six four. She's this giant grapple master, and she just has this very pleasant, sweet voice. And it's like, oh, I love you.
She becomes friends with, like, the swimming like, the swimming athlete. I was like, yeah, gowns. bean pals. chick.
Love it.
Got it.
Yeah. People ship them part. After we're introduced to all the characters, they all say that, oh, we all woke up in these weird classrooms, and there's kind of, like, a commotion. We just get, like, a snippet of what each of them are, like, what their vibe is, what they're about. And then we see this girl, Mizzono. She is the super high school level idol, and she knows Egg Boy. They went to junior high together, and he's like, oh, my God, you remember me. I would have never thought that you would remember who I am. And they have, like, some playful banter, and then there's a boy with glasses.
So, ida, I guess can we try conflicted? I'd love to just collectively see without notes, if we can remember all 15 people, because I couldn't tell you, like.
Half of them right now or just.
Like, throughout the course right now, since let's assume who's in there? So we mentioned a grapple girl. We got baseball boy character.
Baseball Boy. Baseball Boy.
Yeah, Egg Boy. We got idle. Who's the friend? We got swimming, girl. We got fat fanzine kids. We got Programmer. See, a lot of these people, they're like, styles don't go with who they are because the fanzine guy is like, oh, yeah, comic Book Guy from The simpsons. Got it perfect. In one.
Sophie grammar Girl is just a very small girl and, like, a wide hoopskirt dress. No computers or phones or anything on her.
We got fashion, girl.
Yeah. Model Junko. That's Junko.
We got fuck celeste is the gambling girl.
Oh, yes.
Gambling girl. We got Monitor, the home monitor. We got the air.
See, I can't remember who we said.
Who else we got?
Did we say the swimmer telling audio?
No.
We got to see what they started as. Like, fuck fortune telling.
Boy fortune teller.
Oh, yeah.
I think we're only missing two. Literary girl.
Mysterious girl.
I think her secret is that she's super high school level detective.
Okay. She seems like she was, like, the veteran of like, I've been here, done this before because she's so quick to just jump. All right, we're down to one now.
Yeah.
And then you said the literary girl who's pompadored pompoker.
We got them. The biker.
15 krista watts.
Shit, we did do it all.
Wow.
I thought I would get, like, two.
Cool.
We really did it.
Congrats, everyone. We remembered 15 things.
We remembered the show. We just talked about it's hard, though.
There are a lot. There's a lot eda. The air is, like, real quick to establish hey, sorry.
Just one last thing. Who is the eda in this show? Is it the one with the glasses, or is it the hall monitor who's very by the book? I was conflicted. That's a good question because it's his personality versus class.
If it can apply to two people, let's not because we're going to mix them up.
I'll just keep calling him the heir then, because that's why I refer to him in my notes. So he steps up and he's like, we should figure this shit out. Like, what are we doing here? He's kind of an asshole. And then Junko, she's one that I know the name of the model. She's like, oh, my god, I love her voice. In English. She's just a Valley girl stick. Oh, my god, they took my cellphone from me. And then everybody else realizes that they don't have their cell phones either. And they're like, oh, no, it's fine. Like, I bet we'll get them after orientation. And then there's a voice, and it's someone welcoming them to the school. And then the bear comes out. This is Monokuma. And he's the principal.
We've all seen my hero. academia. Small animals running the school. Yeah, it works.
Yeah, exactly.
Sure.
And they're all kind of like, what? Hello? And he's like, all right, so you guys live here now for the rest of your lives? And they're like, the rest of our lives? What do you mean? And they're like, we can't stay here. celeste, the gambling girl, she's like, that's unreasonable. Like, we can't stay here for the rest of our natural lives. And Monokuma is like, natural lives. You misunderstand.
Don't get ahead of yourself. It'll be like a month, tops.
So there is a way to get out, and that is to murder your fellow classmates. And as we all know, I have been rereading the Hunger Games.
Is that why you picked us?
No. Maybe subconsciously, but also apparently I love Child murder.
He tracks.
Because I love the Hunger Games. And the only one yeah, exactly. Anyway, so if a student kills another student and isn't discovered, then they live and everybody else dies. Fun.
Great.
Yeah. So he's like, do anything you fucking want. Kill each other, slaughter each other. I'm ready, baby.
Let's get this going.
He loves I'm here to party.
Yeah, he's just like, you know, watching all of you kids with such bright futures just fucking ruin each other. Love that shit.
Bread and butter.
God, now I can't stop imagining him. A Stanley tucci. And like.
So the biker Boy, he threatens to, like, kill Monokuma. Like, he grabs him and he's and Monokuma's like, oh, no, no. Bringing harb to me is against the rules, baby. And he starts beeping. And then Mysterious Detective Girl is like, oh, my God. Toss him. And then he tosses him, and then Monokuma explodes. And they're like, Is that is that it?
Did we win?
What happens now? But then a new Monokuma pops up from behind the podium, and he's like, that's your only warning. Next person who tries to hurt me, dead on the spot. yay.
I was kind of surprised no one got freaked out by just a talking stuffed bear right away. Like, what the fuck is this? They're just like, all right.
It's also in shock.
Yeah, I guess.
He introduces himself as, like, a robotic bear, and we see his digital eye. He's half a white bear, half a black bear. The white side looks nice. The black side looks evil.
Yes. So after that, that's the orientation. And they're all just kind of like, what do we do? What do we do now? And then we get like, an opening of sorts, but it's not the actual opening. We just see all of the kids on screen again, just in case you missed their names before.
I don't know this. I'm there in Japanese.
No? And we see soccer, a big strong girl, she's trying to break through the metal walls, but that doesn't work out. And so they all decide, oh, let's try to find a way out. And then the AIRBOY is like, I'll go search by myself. I don't want to be with anybody because you're probably already plotting to kill me because I'm so important.
I mean, I want him dead, but.
Not yeah, for sure.
That's not but it would be nice.
And then the biker Boy doesn't like that idea, and he's ready to fight. He really likes fighting, I guess. And then Egg Boy tries to stop him. But Fighter Boy, biker Boy just punches him. And then he wakes up in his bedroom with the idle girl next to him. And she's like, yeah, this is your room. This is your bedroom. We all have our own rooms. And she tells him that while he's been out there looking for a way to escape, and then in his mind, he's like, oh, she was a big deal. I can't believe that she remembers me. And then she's like, of course I remember you. And he's like, Did I say that out loud? And she's like, no, I can read your mind. Just kidding. And you think that comes in later, but it doesn't because well, how could it?
I mean, we got a talking bear in, like a dead school. Sure, why not a psychic?
We got a crystal ball psychic as.
One of the kids.
That's true. But she's like, I'm glad that we're together. We should make an alliance. We should be like little detectives. We'll work together. And then they head down and they see the rest of the people. And celeste do. The gambling girl decides she's like, it's probably best to stay in groups because no one would kill in front of the others. And then the hall monitor calls a meeting to order and to discuss what they know. And pretty much what they know is that they can't get out. And that's it. There's like a metal grate in front of some stairs that maybe could become unlocked later, which seems like a video.
Game thing, so probably checks out.
Yeah. And then the programmer girl talks about the kitchen. There's a lot of food. It gets restocked every day. The point is, they're living well. They're just trapped. So, I mean, if they don't kill each other, monokumo would probably push them to do something. Yeah, but in this note, I compared it to The Hunger Games. I said, it's like The Hunger Games, but if they got to stay in the capital and just killed each other, but that's no fun, right?
Got to get that, BOYDA yeah.
So gambling girl is like, we should just adapt to our situation since we're living in the lap of luxury, essentially. We're doing fine. Let's just deal with it. And then I didn't really understand this. They were talking about how there's a curfew set in place, and they all made an agreement that after curfew, they would just stay in their rooms. And I was like, but isn't that what you have to do?
There's sort of like a day cycle and night cycle where it's like, okay, daytime free hours you can go out and about, but during the night you should be in your room. Sort of like if this was a normal school, that would be the case. But of course, this is murder school. So they're like, these are the designated times. No one's supposed to be out. But that's a pretty good time to do some murdering, if I do say so myself. So they're like, okay, we're all going to actually honor that rule so we can know that no one is out murdering if we all right now agree to not murder in this time.
Great.
Yeah, it's going to go great.
We all agree we won't murder each other when we're the most vulnerable and unconscious, right?
No one going to murder when there's the least amount of witnesses out.
So the days pass. Three days pass and they still can't find a way out. And they're all just, like, tired of it. And programmer Girl gets upset and people console her. And then a swimmer girl is like, hey, I bet the police are looking for us. Like, our friends and family must be concerned. We've been missing for three days. And then Monokuma is like, no, if you want to get out, you need to murder. I'm bored.
Let's speed this up.
And he's like, I know what, I know what will work. Let's give you some motivation. Follow me to the multimedia room. So they go and they all find dvds with their names on them.
I really just wanted Monicuma to roll out, like the rolling stand with a little TV on. It like the crj TV.
Like watching deck tails kids.
Yeah. Everything else is super high tech, except for this.
So Egg Boy watches his dvd and it's like a video of his family wishing him luck. And then it cuts to the same room, but it's like empty and torn apart. So, like, presumably something has happened to his family. And then at the same time, all of his classmates are watching theirs and they all have a similar reaction. But the idle girl freaks out way more than the other people. And he's like, what did you see? And she just doesn't answer. She just has a breakdown. And mysterious Detective Girl is like, I want to know who you really are. Monokuma. Why are you doing this to us? And he's just like, I just want to see you suffer, man. That's all I want.
I'm just in it for the kicks.
And then the idol girl busts out of the room and Egg Boy follows her. And he's like, I promise you that we're going to make it through this. And that's the end of the episode. And at the end of every episode, we have a screen with all of the characters silhouetted and who's still alive. So for now, all 15 are still up and kicking.
Oh, you mean that thing that we talked about? That would be a good idea on another, but then they didn't do it. But then the show is doing it. A good show.
Maybe.
We'll see.
So that's episode one.
So, yeah, we pick up the next day. Episode two. We start off. There's a note and an announcement that okay, during curfew, the shower water is going to be shut off. Only the girls bathrooms have locks on them. Everyone else or all the boys, you don't get one. You got the lock on your main room and that's it.
I started thinking about that. I was like, oh, I guess that makes sense. But then, yeah, once they say, like, oh, you have to lock on your main door, I'm like, well, then why would you need a bathroom lock when.
There'S 14 other people trying to murder you? But if no one can have too many locks in that situation, I say.
I get.
But yeah. He's like, also, you all have a gift in your room. You all have a toolkit that can it's like screwdrivers and stuff that you would pick locks with. So as the main character is in his room exploring about, he finds that his bathroom door isn't opening. He's like an eye boy. I have lock on door how? And then shows up and is like, oh, no, you just got a shitty door. So I'll put in a work order. oops, this is embarrassing. Oh, God.
Also, don't look under the stucco. It's a mess.
Yeah, but he's like, okay, you just got to, like, lift it and do it. But your main door isn't locked. It's kind of fucking stupid. Don't you think you should lock that? idiot.
Look at me. I got in here just fine.
Yeah, you're lucky I'm not a murderer.
So he also has a decorative sword in his room. I wonder if that will come into play. Then idle girl comes over and she's freaking the fuck out. She's like, okay, last night someone tried to open my door. I heard the doorknob shake. I am terrified someone's trying to murder me. And the main egg boy is like, do you want to stay in here with me? So there's like a built in witness. And then she's like, but there's only one bedroom. I'm so sorry. When I booked this murder school, I.
Assumed there would be two beds for us. It's a busy season. They ran out of room, so we had to put us in one.
So he's like, okay, so how about we trade rooms so if someone tries looking for you, they're not going to find you. And just promise me you'll keep this door locked and don't let anyone in. And she's like, okay, even if you come, I won't open the door. And they swap rooms, so they go to bed for the night.
Totally my room now.
So the next morning, everyone they all decided that they're going to meet every morning for breakfast for, like, a roll call, make sure everyone's still alive. The next morning, everyone trickles in, except for the idol girl. So of course, main character egg boy is like, oh.
Oh, fuck. Fuck. Oh, fuck. Oh, fuck.
And when they go to check on her, she is dead in the shower. The whole room is torn up with slash marks, and she has a butcher's knife in her chest.
Wow. Pretty pink blood.
Yeah, that was a choice.
I kind of like the style. It is like the perfect amount of campy for this. It's like if saw was supposed to be a fun time.
Hey, blood saw.
All the blood is neon colors, and the screws on the windows are, like, giant and irregular shapes and sizes. So it keeps it fun, it keeps.
It long, it keeps it funky fresh. And that's the pink blood. I feel like the pink blood and the aesthetic is, like, very iconic at this point.
Yeah, I wasn't sure if it was just an aesthetic choice or if it was like one of those weird censorship workarounds where it's like, it's not red, so we could argue it's not technically blood, so we can have as much as of it as we want. Like samurai Jack, where he like, cut open people and it's all oil, wink, wink, nudge nudge. Because they're robots.
I think it's just an aesthetic choice.
Yeah.
So finding the body, egg Boy passes out because he does that a lot. When he wakes up, he's in the gym, and they all are because the bear called a pep rally. And everyone's like, hey, it's super fucking morbid, dude. Someone just died. And he's like, no, it's even more morbid. What, have you murdered her? So here's how this part of the game works. So we get the explanation of the second part of their games. He explains, in this part of the game, the person who can go free has to murder someone, but they also have to get away with it, meaning there is going to be an investigation and a trial. So how this works is that the killer needs to commit the perfect crime so they don't get called out for it in trial. Because what happens is if the killer is accused and everyone guesses correctly who the killer is, the killer is executed. But if they falsely accuse someone, the jury is executed. So the killer wants everyone else to die.
Yeah.
So that's the game. And they're like, okay, we'll give you time to investigate, but then meet for a trial. But Fashion Girl refuses and like, this is fucking sick. This is demented. I'm going to kill you, bear. And tries to stomp his face. But he's like, sorry, I only gave the verbal warnings yesterday. Now you die and summons spears and shishka bobs her.
Bye, junko. I think that's part of the fun of this game and show is all the different ways, like, people are killed.
Just the absurdity of them.
Yeah, it is fun. Later we see, like, gatling guns for defense. There's so many fun, final Destination style ways to die that they come up with it is interesting.
But then we also get skipping ahead of it. We get some of the real twisted ways of people dying, which is very solid esque, how it's like, tied to their characters and stuff. And random. Spears.
The ironic death.
Yeah.
After she is killed, as an example, the bear is like, okay, start investigating. And then I feel like this was my words. Are failing me today. I feel like this is what I would want from the game, but we didn't get it in this show. I feel like the investigation aspect is the most fun thing to play in these things, but here it sort of flashes, shows you all the clues sort of out of context so they can be used in the trial.
Yeah, I never played it, but I remember when I read this scenario that it went on for a long time because as the main character, you can talk to everybody and find out what their alibis are and stuff. So it makes sense that they shortened it. Yeah, but he could have talked to people. I feel like they really took that out.
They kind of leap over, like, the clues that the audience would have of like, oh, I can piece it together before the main character, but they kind of jump skip. So it's like, eh. Which I kind of appreciate, though, because for me, when I played these kind of, like, mystery puzzle solving games, I'm the guy that goes over every nook and cranny and talks to every single person just in case. It's like, I don't need five episodes of Egg Boy talking to every other character. I'm kind of glad we skipped over a good chunk of it.
Yeah, I am glad they didn't linger on this, especially if they're like, okay, this is the first murder. I feel like later on we may see more extended sequences, but they're like, okay, we're still sort of teaching you the format of the game, so let's flash through it. But, yeah, I feel like this for the visual novel aspect of the game, I feel like I would want it to be a little bit more like first person investigation. roam about and look for visual cues rather than like let me just see if I can decipher the inconsistencies from this eight page text of conversation I have with this one person. Yeah, but, yeah, so we see a couple of flashes of the evidence. We see the sword was used, the handle to the bathroom was taken apart so someone could get in. We see in the trash area, someone, like, burned their shirt to get rid of evidence, but left a glass orb shattered on the ground. We see a bunch of this sort of stuff. idle girl wrote some numbers on the wall as she was dying, which is a clue that they can't figure out at this point. But, yeah, there's a bunch of stuff. We'll get into it with the actual trial of how everything goes together. But, yeah, they see the investigation and then the bears like, okay, you're taking too long. This is boring. I'm calling the trial now. And everyone gathers at an elevator and they descend to the chamber to begin the trial. And that's where episode two ends.
Yeah, and going into it, they've all kind of decided that egg boy is the one that murdered her.
Oh, yeah, because they're like, she was in your room. Of course. It's pretty clear.
Yeah. So he goes into it with something to prove.
One additional detail that we find is that Eggboy finds the dvd that she was watching, freaking out about her family state. From episode one, we see that she was part of an idle Girl group, but, oh, no, every other member died. So she doesn't even have a future. Once she leaves here, she can't go back to her friends and groups. So that's why she was extra hurt yesterday.
I was a little confused by that. Was it clear that they all died, or was it that the group disbanded and it showed them as falling down, as if the band was dead, but I wasn't sure if the actual members were dead.
Yeah, I mean, it could just all be manipulation on Monokuma's part. It could be that it's just him trying to make her paranoid. So you never know.
The way I at least had her reading it was that she thought her group was dead.
Okay. Because I never trusted the idol girl. So the way I saw it is that she was the one that broke up the band or ruined the band or did something that broke up the band, and that he has evidence to prove that it was her and that she was this insidious manipulator. And even if she were to graduate and get out of the school, her life would be ruined because this evidence would get out then, too.
Got you.
I don't know.
Maybe I was just thinking about perfect blue weekend.
Think about it every day.
It haunts my dreams.
How could I not? But, yeah, that's episode two.
Yeah. So, yeah, episode three. And it's right where I left off with the elevator down, and the elevator opens up into the trial room, which for anyone who's played persona, looks like the velvet room. Just like Godious. Fuck.
The whole school kind of looks like it. Yeah, it's the aesthetic.
This is just like the higher end, like, fancier like a lot of velvet on the walls and stuff and trapeze and kind of like a throne almost that Monacuma sits in. And Monacuma says, like, oh, the trial is going to be like Parliament. And they're just like, podiums, but it's all in a circle. So there's 16 podiums just all circled around facing each other for them to discuss and have the trial marks themselves. And they say, like, oh, wait, why is there 15 or there's 15 students, including the two dead students who you have portraits of, which seemed distasteful. Monica was like, nah, nah, it's cool. Go with it.
They need to be included.
Yeah, we got to fill out the roster. It looks bad if it's just empty spots. And yeah, I forget. Exactly. One of the girls says, like, oh, there's 15 students, but there's 16 podiums. Monica was like, no, stop.
He just says, don't read into it.
Don't read into it. Even though this is a murder mystery show and don't think of that. It's like, it's fine.
I've been a special order a 15 slot thing. They only had 16 at Home depot.
I guess, for my murder school. Thank you.
Well, I mean, I guess it would make sense if you would have soccer's podium, like, twice the width because she's enormous special ordered. Yeah, she's earned it. She's better. So, yeah, they go down there and they all line up in the podium. They got porches of the black ribbons hanging over the dead students. And we see the screen appear as the trial starts. And it's the same style as an opening in the beginning of the episode, like the visual or beginning of the show in episode one. That like visual nile visual novel style. It's like dark and kind of that, like 3d environment with 2d characters. And, like, the camera drops down and spins around in the circle. And I'm just like, oh, this is the game. It wasn't bad, but it was very different. And I was like, oh, that's actually kind of neat. It's done well.
Yeah. It just highlighted where they were basically at in conversations. It wasn't like, okay, this is the mechanic now. If you don't know the game, you don't know how this works. It's like, no, we're just going to, as they say, like, catch phrases from the game. We're going to show the snippet of the ui from the game.
Yeah, like, objection from Phoenix. Right. And stuff like that. Page will splash up. You don't have the number of accusations in the bottom corner of like, oh, shit, I'm running out. I better save scum and reload my old safe. So we get a shot of that. And then mystery girl, the detective girl. It really bugged me. Everyone is, like, the high school biker and the high school baseball player and the high school swimmer and then question mark. I'm like, come on, I get it. She's the plot device that pushes the show. But, like, come on, just tell us. You could just do, like, mystery novel girl or whatever. Tell us.
She did mock trial justify it somehow.
But even that gives her an edge.
But at least that would make sense rather than just question mark.
Yeah, that's true.
So she says they should start with the murder weapon and it was a kitchen knife stabbed through the idol. And Egg Boy says it was a knife. And everyone's like, yeah, dude, no shit. He's like, no, let me talk. It's important.
God, let me have my moment.
Because everyone's already decided he's guilty. And the swimmer girl says, like, yeah, now that we talk about it, me and soccer were in the kitchen last night really late. Why were you two in the kitchen late? We were making tea because we're girlfriends. Back home.
We're in love, and we don't want anyone to know about it yet.
It's just soccer, having this, like, little tea cup and stuff and just like, god, what great characters. What perfect characters. But they're like we were in the kitchen late, like, making tea and stuff, even though it was, like, after hours, and we saw the idol come down, and she went down to get a glass of milk or something from the fridge. But when she left, we noticed one of the knives was missing, so she took it. So the murderer didn't take the knife. The murdererie took the knife that she was killed.
The victim.
That's a word.
No, murdery.
Murdery.
Yeah. Okay.
She's that's canon in the games. That's what they call them. Not us being dumb, right?
Yeah.
She's not alive. She's a little murdery. And Monacomo points out that only the killer can graduate. So there's no point basically saying, like, there's no point in two people teaming up and, like, going against one person to kill someone because only the person that actually committed the murder can graduate, and then the person that helped them would be stuck behind and killed. So they're like, all right, so she didn't team up with anyone. She didn't, like, get the knife and, like, give it to someone, or they used it against her, like, all right, so what happened? They they say the girl took yeah, and then Egg Boy says she probably took it for protection because she was so scared that somebody was trying to break into her room the other night. And mystery Detective Girl says, like, oh, that could be true. Or she lied. Egg boy's. Like what?
Never my wife. We knew each other for, like, a minute eight years ago. How could that be?
Yeah, he's very loyal to her for only really speaking to her for three days because he even says, like, oh, we went to the same middle school, but we never came in contact. It's like, all right, man, you're real horned up for this girl. She says there's more evidence, though, in Egg Boy's favor, so we should keep going. Yeah. The doorknob on the bathroom door was broken, so you had to do a special way to open it. That only apparently Monacuma and Egg Boy knew because that's who he told. So he's like, if Egg Boy was on a murderer, he would have just opened the door. He wouldn't have had to break it open. And he says it also wasn't just, like, smashed open. Like, the screws around the doorknob were unscrewed. It was taken apart. It wasn't just broke. So it was someone who used the toolkit to break in because they thought the door was locked. And Eggboy says he claimed the killer didn't realize that Egg Boy and Idol Girl switched to rooms. But then Mr. Girl says when she was looking for clues, she noticed that idle girl switched the nameplates so the only one that knew that they weren't in their rooms were Egg Boy and idle Girl. And they also talked about, like, the lock couldn't be picked. The hall monitor was saying, like, oh, yeah, it's like some big industrial sized electronic lock that's impossible to break through. It's like, why do you know that hall monitor? What are you doing, eda? What's happening? But basically saying why they can't just like, locks are safe unless you can just dismantle the whole lock itself, like the doorknob. The mystery girl also says that while she was looking for clues, she found the notepad and of course, did the fucking sketch thing where she like, sketches across the whole notepad and finds the imprints from the previous note that was written on there. I got to wonder how legitimate that actually is of reading notes because you see it all the time in shows and movies and that feels bullshit.
I test it out sometimes.
I have my notes in front of me. Let me find a spare sheet of paper.
There you go. Write a little note and then rip it off and do a shading of it. I ended up shading first grade actual pencil.
I only have mechanical.
Goddamn, I'm using a mechanical pencil.
Is that work?
Could work.
It doesn't work.
I'm going to keep going with the plot while you two figure that out. This is terrible to listen to hard.
Yeah, I call bullshit. I got nothing.
You got nothing.
I mean, in the places where I press down hard enough, it shows up, like, with the previous note. But that's the thing anyway.
I use it in, like, a checkbook. But that's like specific paper. Like, you really got to be pressing hard to leave that much of an imprint on the next sheet below it. Everyone's freaking out right now.
There's so much happening.
The Detective Girl made etching, like a shading of the note. And she's like, I'm able to read the entire thing perfectly. And we can see that idle Girl wrote a note saying, like, ooh, come to my room later tonight, winkie. And it's her signature, so it's definitely her. She wrote it and she gave it to somebody asking her to come to her room. And because she switched to nameplates, they're like, oh, they would have gone to Egg Boy's room and killed Egg Boy. No, she switched the nameplates so they would have gone to her room, which was really Egg Boy's room. I was like, because that is immediately contradicted. They didn't need to go into it. And it just made it more confusing for me for a second.
Yeah.
They'Re saying the idle Girl set up a trap for somebody. She thinks somebody was coming after her, so she set up a trap to try and get them before they got her. And Rich Boy, the heir, saying, like, maybe she was setting up Egg Boy to be the victim or not. The victim, but the suspect. This way, he's the only one that know they switch rooms. So he'll go back and be caught red handed sort of the next morning. And egg boys, like, freaking out. Like, no, my wife would never do that. chill, you horny nerd.
You've really idealized this girl that you've.
Known for less than a week. And then kirishima, he's the baseball boy. He's yet to play you red hair. And he's voiced by Justin Cook. He's Kyoshima from my academia, and it all just ties back. He says we're out of clues. Like, let's just wrap this up and move it on. And we got kind of a ui panel from the game. Like, papa when he says he's like, we're running out of clues. And egg boy is like, Objection. No. We still got stuff to go through, my dude. And a boy points out that there's a dying message in the blood where she wrote the numbers on the wall in the shower. And he says, if you rotate those numbers, it's actually not numbers. It spells out a name, Leon, and you see it. The numbers were, like, 11037, and it flips upside down to Leo. And then the N wasn't finished. The dash across the end wasn't finished. I was like that. Okay.
Well, I I mean, it you can kind of work that she was making that movement. Like, they added, like, a couple of, like, tiny little streaks.
She was stabbed and dying. At this point, I didn't expect.
It'S written pretty well. I feel like they just left out the dash in the middle just to mislead you into thinking it was numbers.
Well, yeah.
So just like, okay, so it turns out leon's the baseball boy's name. I never acknowledge him as that. That's Kyushima. And kirishima a good boy, so he wouldn't murder anybody. So he starts freaking out because now he's being accused. And Detective Mr. Girl says, like, oh, yeah, you also tried to destroy the evidence. We found it. Part of the bloody sleeve was by the incinerator downstairs, right next to a broken crystal ball. And the fortune teller dude's like, oh, yeah, I haven't seen My for my crystal ball in a while. Is that where it is? Like, maybe you should have told us that earlier.
Why is this coming up now? In a murder trial?
Nobody else is helping. Just Mystery Girl and Egg Boy are doing this.
It really seems like that.
I feel like everyone else it wasn't.
Me I'm discovering, but, yeah, I'm sure they were all thinking that. But it's also one of those things where if we accuse the wrong person, we all die too. So maybe I should have an effort.
To lend a hand.
We're all on it here. So, eggboy recaps, everything. The sherlock thing of, like, I bet this is how you did it, and it's exactly how he did it. So he's just doing a play by play even though it's all speculation at this point. And he says, you killed her, then he took the evidence and you took your bloody shirt, and he went to throw it in the incinerator. But at night, the incinerator is locked off behind that grape, so you couldn't get into it. And the only person that could get to it and turn it on by hitting the button is if someone threw something at it. And the only one person that could nail that shot pinpoint perfectly is a baseball player. And you threw the crystal ball and it dropped and you threw the shirted, but he didn't realize the sleeve was hanging out, so it burnt off and fell down and he didn't catch it. So it was you, baseball boy, with your goatee in high school, you piece of shit. And he starts freaking out. Like no, it's not circumstantial. You got no real evidence on me. You can't pin this on me. And he's just freaking out more and more because it's clearly him now. And, yeah, Eggboy says, like, all right, then show us your toolkit. If you've used it, it'll prove that you unscrewed the doorknob into the bathroom to kill her. If you haven't used it, then you're good. And he starts freaking out, like, nah, you can nah, I'm not I'm not showing you nothing.
I'll have to prove you proved you anything.
I lost it. I I never got one. Her door was broken. I didn't get a toolkit.
How weird was that? I ate it. Shit. So he's freaking out, and he really has no response because he's pretty much dead to rise here. And they're like, all right, let's move on to the voting process to vote on who's guilty. And everybody votes him guilty. No surprise there. And we see him say he was like, oh, she was trying to kill me. She learned me in there to try and kill me. That's why I had to defend myself with the katana, because they make a point of the katana earlier was in a sheath, and there was, like, scratch marks on the sheath itself. So they were trying to imply that, like, he grabbed it to defend himself and then took it out to try and attack her, defend himself against it. And Monacuma was like, oh, cool. Self defense. Awesome. You still killed her, and that's all that matters. Your reasoning does not, so you're dead, buddy. And I made a little note. I'm like surprise. Surprise. The person with the giant red bloodstain on his shirt is the murderer. Like, we didn't point it out. He's wearing, like, a white jacket and a white shirt and white pants, like, all white, and he's got red hair, and he's just got a red splotch mark on his shirt. And it's just kind of like we've seen the blood is, like, neon pink, so it's not actual blood, but, like, come on, eat the hint right there. And monica Sakirshima tries to run away, and he's like, get me out of here. Let me know. He scratch out the walls. I don't know why he didn't go to the elevator, which is how he got in there. But okay, sure, he's not the smartest one. We've already seen this. So Monacoma was like, all right, cool. Your punishment is going to fit your crime. Except it's not. It's going to fit your personality because you only have one thing going for your personality. It's baseball.
Yay.
So we get that visual novel, like, aesthetic again, where we see him getting chained up to a post. And then it's all silhouetted. And then the lights come down and we see the post. It's actually a scoreboard above it like a baseball scoreboard. And the whole post gets pulled into this caged area. And there's just a pitching machine. And he's chained up to the post as this pitching machine just throws a bunch of balls at him really fast until he fucking dies.
That's fun.
I love the theme.
Fun party. There's the whole, like, yeah, someone is murdered. And there's the brutality of that, but there's also the brutality of like, let's line up the 13 other student, or twelve other students at this point and have them watch as you just get pelted to death by baseballs repeatedly. I'm like, oh, brutal shit.
Yeah.
And I wonder if, like, a lot of the appeal of dungeon rope is just seeing how they die, like, the creative ways of how the other students die rather than caring about them. And then we see a boy, like, freaks out again. And he goes to Lungeette Monacoma for killing another student. And Mr. Girl stops and is like, yo, foot and chill. We already saw someone die because of this. Don't be an idiot. And then it cuts to him laying on his bed, looking up, trying to reflect on what happens, trying to cope with himself. And Mr. Girl shows up again. Is she love interest? Probably not. He doesn't seem that interesting to have multiple love interest in the show. And she asks what he thinks the idol's dying thought was, and he's like, I don't know. How do you think I would possibly know that? And she says, well, you knew her well enough to speculate. No, he didn't. He fucking did not know her well enough. He knew her for three days.
He made it seem like they knew each other well enough because of course they're like, yeah, we're friends because out.
Of we went to middle school, people.
I know of your existence.
Yeah, exactly. I see why she thought that. But like, the dude fucking do not know her. And she says, like, well, the idol left you a clue in the shower when he when she wrote his name. She didn't have to do that. She clearly wanted somebody to catch her killer, and she trusted you enough to do it. So she's just trying to make Egg Boy feel better about today's trial. And his only friend was killed. And he says, like, I don't know. This is going to be weighing on my conscious for a long time. I'm not the type to forget this kind of stuff. I'm going to be thinking about both idle Girl and Baseball Boy's death. I was like, yeah, but what about the fashion diva that no one seems to give a shit about even though she died? What about her? So any sympathetic attempt you made at making Egg Boy seem emotional and connected to all the students? He doesn't, because they immediately forgot about the girl that died yesterday. So unlikable main character check.
I'm starting to see how you feel about this show.
Let me be clear. I mostly just hate the main character. I don't like toy. I got a real thing. He just annoys me because he's just generic protagonist like everyone else is interesting. He's nothing. And then they have a little back and forth with him and Mystery Girl of saying like, oh, I bet you think I'll assist you with the further mysteries. And she's like, how did you know that? He's like, oh, I can read your mind. Like, this back and forth thing that I did with idle Girl before she was murdered. I'm kidding. I can't read your mind. And then it goes to the ending. Yeah. And that's episode three.
What a time.
What murder mystery funhouse. How are we feeling about that? Are we there yet?
Who wants to go first?
I liked it because I knew the premise of it going in, so I was like, okay. I was already on board for the premise. These episodes are sort of like an introduction to it, so it is nice to have a sort of solid arc to be like, okay, first three, you get the introduction of the characters, you get your first murder, and you get your first pretty routine investigation. So it's nice the way they set it up. I feel like you mentioned like, oh, the only reason you would watch this is just to watch the ways everyone would die. And yeah, that's kind of why.
This.
Does sort of scratch that Final Destination. itch of like, I know most of these characters are going to die. I just want to see how. And a lot of the characters are vaguely assholes, so you're kind of pretty okay with them dying if it's by murder or by being found out in trial. So all the characters are fun enough to still be interesting and not just outright like, oh, fuck this guy. So there's fun there. They make it campy enough that it's visually interesting. And I don't know, I'm feeling good about it.
Yeah, interesting. Like I said before, I knew the outcome of this one, but I don't know anything else. Well, I know one more big plot twist, but I would be interested in seeing how everybody dies. But rather than looking up on YouTube, all deaths and donkey rompa population super clip. Yeah, I'd rather watch it to see who murders who. And I like that the trial was an entire episode. I was worried that it would feel long, that it would drag on, but it didn't for me. Yeah, I thought it was kind of cool.
Yeah, the pacing of the show is pretty good, where they are like, okay, we're not going to get bogged down by the details. We're just going to give you enough to latch onto it and we'll find some fun later on. And classic, like any trial and a thing is like this hidden detail that everyone overlooked. And then it sort of reels you back in because I also didn't factor that in. And I feel like even though we're going to have at least 14 other trials, probably, I trust that the show is going to have them all be interesting.
Yeah, that's not going to be the same routine of it's cancer. It's not cancer. It's lupus. It's not lupus. It's this very weird disease. It's not that very weird disease. It turns out it was not cancer the first time they thought it was in the doctor house.
Shot Fired at Dead TV Show I.
Watched so much of that fucking show. But I'm surprised by that because I mean, I had a feeling dana was going to like it because you've already.
Read some of the Child Murder.
Just stick it's what you love.
It's kind of shocking. I've surprised myself through the entirety of our podcast.
The child murder was the friend of.
I promise I'm a good birthday.
Yeah, there definitely were certain elements of, like, the hall monitor who was kind of abrasive. But you saw he was actually like I mean, you didn't really see it, but he seemed fine. He just seemed like a very upright, strict personality. And then the literary girl who just wasn't insufferable bitch. So her and the heir, it's like, yeah, you want to see those two die because they suck. And then everyone else is like, oh, they're not bad. Even the weird otaku guy is not, like, super annoying. So like which is a first. But yeah, I was surprised by that because we've had shows where there's a ton of characters and you hated that. We've had shows where it had very game elements to it. Like heavy game elements to it. You hated that. And then we had like I never like I agree with the trial episode, where it was the whole episode and it wasn't bad. But I did feel like there was moments of it that did feel artificial. Like saying, like, oh, he was in her room, so they thought he was her. And it's like, oh, but then she actually switched the plates. So then this and this. It's like, okay, so that just undid the last, like four minutes. Of conversation. Okay, maybe we didn't need to include that.
In particular. We sort of glossed over. One of the people did note, like, wait, the guide says that this is Egg Boys room, but the nameplate on the door says it's her room. So it sort of lays that foundation of, like, something's weird about this without it being outright like, oh, she switched the plates. So I feel like that in particular was like, okay, that was telegraphed, that was justified. I feel like that wasn't too much of like, oh, fuck you. That was a dead end.
Yeah. No, that wasn't like an ender of like, fuck, that showed, but it was just kind of like that might have been like, hey, we got, like, three more minutes. We gotta just bump the show out with a little padding here. Because it was the Detective Girl and Egg Boy that like, we talked about it, they were the only ones that did anything. So, like, Egg Boy would bring something up, detective Girl would solve it. Detective Girl would bring something up, egg Boy would solve it. And granted, it would be much harder to watch if all 14 people were talking at the same time, like, back and forth, like, all over each other. Yeah, I can understand that as well.
I feel like that's how they're going to try to keep it interesting. It's sort of like, okay, certain people are going to factor into certain trials because psychic crystal ball guy had one line where he's like, oh, yeah, that was my crystal ball. And he said nothing else. I assume trial, like number seven. He's going to be on the defense or more forefront. So I feel like they are sort of filtering. Like you'll hear from these people this week, just wait, everyone else will get their just desserts.
Yeah. I think the show will also be broken up of, like it'll be two parts because not everyone can be like, anytime there's a trial, it's because someone is murdered. So you're already going to be down a character. So there's not going to be 14 trials. There's going to be, like, seven trials because the other seven were already killed. Yeah. But yeah, I did enjoy it. I'm curious, though. I guess it's preference and I guess it's first hand experience of which one you experience first. But the percentage of people that enjoyed it as a show versus the game. Because, like you said, dugan, like, the investigation part you would have wanted to do as a game. But then maybe all the dialogue between every single individual character, maybe it's better as a show where they skip just to the important bits. Because I know I've played the game, life is strange. And as a story, it's all right. It didn't particularly grab me super hard, but as a video game, it, like, hooked me. Having that agency of the characters made me invested. But if it was just like a TV show. I probably wouldn't have cared about it.
So interesting.
Yeah. Yeah.
I feel like since you mentioned there was, like, inconsistencies with what I was liking, I feel like this sort of hit me more on, like, an assassination classroom sort of level of like, okay, there is like a fun, objective thing here and they're taking it lightheartedly. But it does involve, like, murder and death and stuff. So it is that sort of like, yeah, we're having fun with it.
We know it completely fun. Murder.
The perpetrator of this is a two tone bear, so we're not going to take it too seriously.
It's like the movie clue versus was it twelve knives or Knives out? Knives out.
Knives out.
No. Knives out was pretty fun. Yeah. No, that didn't take itself too serious either, I guess.
I still haven't seen it yet.
It's long. It's good fun. One.
I want to anyway. That's awesome.
You two just like child murders. That's all I'm learning here.
Knives out is not a child murder.
Besides, knives out the show anyways. But yeah, I had fun with it. I started episode four while I waited to record because I wanted to keep.
Watching a little bit.
Wow. Success rate.
You've given that false hope before where we are with pstars.
I had the thought earlier today. I'll put it on the background just so I can say I can finish it.
That's fine. I'll take that.
Yeah.
You'Ll get an official update next episode.
Perfect.
Well, there we have it.
I'm very pleasantly surprised.
Yeah.
Like, show adapted from Game. I was like, don't have the highest hopes, but all right. But yeah, this was fun.
Great.
So what do we have going on next week?
Next week we got another listener recommendation. The show is called A Place Further Than the Universe, and it was recommended by oh, God. They're just general disclaimer. Sorry about anyone's name. I butcher. I'm not good at names if this podcast has taught us anything, but it was recommended to us from hatte cosplay on Twitter. So thank you for the recommendation. They told us it was basically laid back camp but about space, and I was like, I'm in. Perfect.
Let's do it.
So it's going to supposedly be a feel good sort of slice of rop like that before. So we'll see.
Hello. So, yeah, if you, the listener, have a show you would like us to watch, you can send your recommendations to us at rweebaria@gmail.com or you can reach out to us on Twitter at Twitter or Instagram at rweebaria. On both. You can find me on Twitter and Instagram at Mr. Patrick dugan.
You can find me on Instagram at Queen. Period Weebu, and on Twitter at Queen underscore Weebu and Queen underscore Weebu art.
You can find me on Twitter at abts brendan it stands for Almost Better Than Silence, which is a video game podcast I'm recording. It, like, maybe an hour. It's podcast day for me.
Woo. Party time. Thank you to camille ruley for her artwork. And thank you to Louis zong for our theme song stories off the album Beats. You can find all of louie's music at Louisong bandcamp.com. Thank you, and we hope you'll join us next week as we learn to live with anime.
I'm a good person. I swear.
We'll see about that as a trial objection.