Hello, and welcome to our week. There yet an exploration and editing an anime. I'm your anime idiot, patrick dugan.
I'm an anime expert, dana hollander.
And I'm brenda mccullough. Your anime doc. Brown.
Just a doc brown.
Great Scott.
You're going to see some serious shit.
I told. The uranium from the uranium no, wait, was it libyans? libyans. That's it.
That's why it was so hard to say plutonium.
Plutonium? I don't know. The movie is like, 30 years old.
Pretty sure it's plutonium.
Could be. Anyway, I mean, I make references to old things. I don't actually know what those old things are.
Great. Well, this is one thing I can help with because I love those movies.
Who doesn't?
Yeah, there's someone out there.
Anyway, I say that because yeah. We are watching a time travel show. Yeah, we are watching stein's Gate. This is a listener recommendation from Nicholas in our Facebook group. Thank you. Hopefully we don't shit all over your show.
No, thanks for the recommendation, bud.
We have hard opinions about things.
Yeah. And I'll put this right at the top. If you have a show you would like us to watch or show you love that you wish to share, please tweet at us. Are we there yet? Or join our Facebook group. Are we there yet? Podcast and let us know.
Or do you like shitting on and want other people to shit on?
Yeah, also, if you say, hey, this is a hot garbage fire, please do an episode on that. I would love to see more garbage.
I love dumpster fires.
Oh, God. That Christmas episode really changed our tone in it.
I'm sorry. What Christmas episode? I have no memory.
Okay. I got you.
I'm Jewish.
Anyway.
Steingate. So. Yeah.
Stein'S gate. Do either of you have any history with this show?
As I said, I have not seen it, so I do have a fun guess as to what it's about. I'm really hoping it's about frankenstein and the mob of people at the gate.
Do you actually believe that I want it?
You want that?
Yeah. But I am aware, like, duke's knows I am vaguely aware that it's about time stuff.
Yeah.
I was looking into it to make sure it wasn't. Oh, we need to do science on this sexy lady.
Hey, are you Bad Math and Weird Science?
Yeah, basically. But, yeah, I know it's time travel related and that's it. Brendan, do you have any history with this show?
Yes, I've actually seen it before, so when we got this recommendation, I could atone to him and be like, yes, this is a good one. Yeah, time travel. I think it was originally a visual novel on the psp, and then there's a few visual novels. So when you look up stein's Gate, like, you get a bunch of other things. It's all of those, as well as the manga, as well as the anime, as well as, I think, a new reboot that happened recently called Steinkeep Zero or something that I haven't yeah, I.
Saw that when I looked into it.
So this is a bigger franchise.
Yeah, there's a lot going on and I've only watched this show, so I don't know if it's the same story, if it's other stories, if it's about other characters. I don't know all of those. I just know this anime version, but I enjoyed it.
Cool.
And I'll leave it up to that. Let you form your own opinions.
Okay, so, yeah, we will be watching the first three episodes of stein's Gate, and I am confused.
It's not going to clear anything up with us talking about it again.
It was a time travel and a half.
It's a real stinky show. It gets into a lot of the details and, like, nitty gritty of time travel versus Dr. Who or just like, I'm an alien into my magic box and that's it.
Yeah. They are definitely diving deep into the science of time travel and all the theoretical possibilities and all that and the varying schools of thought on it, which is interesting, but hard to follow.
You got to pay attention. It's not a background show, that's for sure.
Yeah, definitely.
All right, so in episode one, we open, there's a man talking about things that are infinite and finite. And I was like, oh, I feel a theme coming on. A theme for the rest of the show. So he has this brooding monologue going on, and I thought it was an inner monologue, but then it kind of pulls out and he's talking on a cell phone. And I was like, okay, I feel.
Like that mom, I need to tell you about all of these theories.
I feel like that kind of also.
Can you pick me up after school today?
I feel like that kind of sets the tone for his character, but in the beginning, I didn't think of that. I just thought after watching yeah. So he's interrupted by this girl and she's like, hey, come on, let's go. And he's like, yeah, all right. And he's wearing a lab coat, which is fun. Very doc brown of him.
Very Washington. I honestly think, looking back on the series, I think there might be, like, a handful of lines that are actually in her monologue. He very much just spouts whatever's in his head out immediately.
Yeah. So his name is Rintaro okabe. His friend's name is mayuri and she calls him Okareen. So that's what I call him because.
That'S what my names are.
I somehow missed their names at the beginning, so I was just like, science guy assistant girl.
Yeah. So they're going to a lecture at a building that we later find out is a radio hall, but I did not know that. And the whole time they were in the building, I was like, this is scary because it's just dark and the hallways are really narrow. I was like, where are they?
Got you. It's a horror animation.
Got you. nailing it.
It could be existential harder.
Love it.
My light.
So they go into the radio hall see, I'm already confused.
They go to a lecture about when the guy starts to find out it's about time track.
Yeah, but according to the wiki Rintaro orcharin finds the thing on the roof first. But I thought he did that like mid lecture.
There's an initial lecture where it's an older guy talking and he gets like a few lines into his lecture and ocarine, immediately jumps up and interrupts him.
Because he's just yeah, because he dumb.
Dumb asshole.
Yeah. So the guy giving the lecture, it's about time travel. And as he starts talking, Ocharine is like, oh, I've got you now, sir. And he stands up and he's like, hey, you're plagiarizing this theory from John triter, who at this point we know nothing about triter titor? No. R T or tit or yes, there it is. So he leaves the lecture, sees the thing on the roof. It's mysterious. We don't know what it is. We never know what it is.
Yeah, we don't.
As of right now.
I assumed it was a time machine.
Why would you think that?
That's insane.
What are you talking about?
So then he finds my uri and she's doing some gotcha pond machines and she needs 100 hundred more yen and he gives it to her. And then she gets a super rare metal oopa. This is all very disconnected, very disjointed already.
It does that. It kind of jumps around a lot.
It's not our notes that jump around a bunch in time.
It's not our notes that are just jumped, it's the show.
Yeah, I'm sure it all comes together, but so the bullshit lecture not great. They leave? Oh, no, they don't leave.
Oh, not yet.
He ocharine runs into a girl, her name is Kariso, karisu maquis. For some reason the the order of letters in these names just doesn't make sense in my brain. It just doesn't look right. Anyway, she meets up with him, they run into each other and he's like, hey, you're that smart lady. And she's like, yeah, you asked me a question earlier, or like a week ago or something. And he's like, no I didn't. And she's like, I don't know, I think you did. See what happened in this show?
Yeah. That's the annoying thing about a lot of time travel things, is they start to set up like, oh, this thing happened in the past that you don't remember because you haven't gone back in time and remembered that you've done it yet. And it just leads to just you keep on watching because you're confused and you need answers, rather than it setting up like you actually care about these people.
Yeah.
Shit.
Way to just unravel all of time travel.
That's my theory. It is not plagiarized by John titer.
Yeah. So he gets on his phone, and he's, like, talking about how she's an agent from some organization. Well, it's the organization. Organization is capitalized.
Thank you.
And she's like, what? And she takes his phone, and it's turned off.
But it's a whoever ruse that whenever someone touches his phone that isn't him, it automatically.
See, this is the first I was like, Is he nuts?
Kind of.
Is he nuts? I feel like he might be nuts because this is the first time he does, like, his maniacal laugh as well, which is a thing.
Him talking onto his phone when it's turned off is like a weird social anxiety coping mechanism, it seems like, because he does it whenever, he's kind of, like, stressed out.
Yeah.
Can we take a brief moment to address how extra this guy is?
Very much.
That's the best thing about him, that's his only redeeming quality for me is how extra he is.
Extra is a redeeming quality?
Yes.
He's so over the top.
In the opening, he talks about how scientists aren't one for poetics, yet he is the most theatrically trained scientist you will ever meet.
Wild. Okay.
Also, I'd like to address I watched the dubs.
I know. dana.
You watched the sub?
Yeah, I watched it on hulu, and they did not offer me a dub, so I watched it subbed.
It's a shame. I really like the main guy's voice actor. It's a very present voice. I did dub. Sub dub.
Great. Also, I feel like if I watched the dub, it probably wouldn't have been easier to follow. But I had a lot of trouble taking notes this time, especially.
So anyway, there's a lot of same.
Yeah. So what?
Talking with Curious Sue, scientist lady redhead.
Yes. So that's like, when she addresses, like, you asked me something earlier. And he's like, no. bye. And he walks away, and then he doesn't think they've met before, but she seems to think they have.
He's talking to mayori, and she's talking about how she lost the umpa already. And then it's a really rare one. It can be sold for ¥10,000 on ebay. And he's just like, oh, shit. We got to find that and sell it.
Yeah. She's like, I don't want to sell it. And he's like, what? He says, ¥10,000 will do. So much for the laboratory. We're broke. And I'm like the laboratory. Maybe he is an official man.
Maybe he is more legit than his rambling will lead on.
Yeah. So then they hear us scream, and Mayor is just kind of like, huh? Weird. And ocharine is like you leave. I'm going to go check this out.
Well, mayori doesn't actually even react to it because it's in, I think, episode three. He asked her. He's like, you didn't hear the scream? She's like, no, I don't know what scream you're talking about. So this is something only ochre and hears. And he runs off to find out what it is.
According to the Wiki, she heard it.
But, hey, fuck the wiki. I'm the expert.
Yeah, fuck the wiki. So he goes to investigate this scream and he finds scientist lady in a pool of her blood on the floor, presumably dead.
Got you. We're watching erased again.
It's as long or as the wiki.
Puts it, then we get a pool.
In a pool of her own blood. I don't like bathing in a pool of her own blood. I don't like the way they put that.
They need to make it as dramatic as he is.
Yeah, I guess so. He's like real shook up about this. But he just leaves. He yates out of there. He's like, no thank you. He's like trying to tell Maori what happened but super can't. And he takes his phone out to send a message. And as soon as he hits send, he's like revivaled.
It kind of is like right?
Yeah. And he's sent back. Not back. This is where I was like, is this like an alternate universe thing? Because he's still where they are, but there's just literally no one around. He's all by him.
The whole city street is empty.
Yeah. So he goes back to the building and Mary just kind of shows up. And she's like, hey, what's up? And he's like, what's going on? And then everyone comes back and they're at the building. But something has crashed into the building. So the lecture gets canceled. The lecture that they were going to see gets canceled. The lecture that they already saw is canceled. And then there's the opening halfway through the episode.
Was there?
Yeah. They had like a cut to commercial break. It was a weird, like half opening.
Yeah. I wasn't paying much attention. It was very anime, though. With all of the visuals and the music. It was just all very anime. What more can you expect from anime?
Was this anime does anime things.
And then after that, they're back in their laboratory and Ocharine is talking to a television set as if there's someone in there listening, which is fun little meta moment there.
Talking to alpaca, man.
Yeah. So he's like introducing everybody. He says like, oh, I'm the mad scientist. And he has a fake name, but I forget what it is. He says it later, I think.
Yeah.
Okareen is his fake name.
No, that's his real name.
Real name. That's his real name. Or no, oka. oka.
Oh, okabe.
Okabe. It's his real name. I think Okarean is his nickname. And then HOYNE kayama. There's so many names.
So many names.
Why does every anime show every character has 18 names.
In this one he gives them to himself.
Yeah, I know. He's trying to hide from this organization and stuff. So he uses fake names. But I can't follow it already. And then you're naming yourself three different things.
That's why we just call him okran.
Perfect. Yeah. So that's happening. He introduces mayuri as, like, the she, like, makes costumes, and she's just like, hey, what's up? I'm here. And then they have their super hacker.
Daru super hacker man.
And he's like, don't call me that.
Super hack.
Yeah, but so their company, their laboratory is called the Future gadget Laboratory. And it was at that moment that I was like, okay, he's crazy.
He's out of his mind.
Yeah, this is done. He's not legit. mauri and daru are kind of just hanging out, and Okareen is kind of the only one that takes it semi seriously.
Yeah.
And daru changes the channel from the alpaca Man to the News, where they're talking about the satellite that crashed into the radio hall. And ocarina is kind of like, hawa. And then she's like, yeah, remember we went there and the lecture was canceled? And he was like, no, I saw it.
I got to make a big stink about it.
I saw dead body.
Did he?
Yeah. So he's just like, this is the agency. This is the organization doing this. And then the TV breaks, I guess. Oh, I don't remember why he says this, but this is my favorite moment in the whole show. daru is talking about his 2d wives. And essentially, Ocharine says, no one cares about your wife. Who's, daru?
Basically, yeah.
And then also, it's a recurring I.
Don'T like daru because he's kind of gross, but he has some really funny.
Quips kind of he's very gross.
He's very gross. The TV breaks, and Ocherin wants to take it to get fixed. And he's like, hey, help me with the TV, daru. You're strong. And he's like, don't assume I'm strong just because I'm fat. And I was just like, same people think I'm super strong.
I'm super not because it's also the middle of summer. He's like, I'm not going out in this heat.
I will melt. Too damn hot.
So he goes to get the TV fixed. He calls the TV guy Mr. Brown, and he's like, don't call me that. It's not my name.
Yeah, he kind of gives everyone names.
Yeah, it's his thing, which very much helps clarity.
Yeah. So he leaves the TV there, and then he goes back to the apartment laboratory sorry. And he wants to do more experiments with their futuristic gadget, which is a microwave, and they want to take myury's bananas. And she's like, no, last time you did this, it made them all gross. I paid for these bananas, and I want to eat them. But Ocharina is like, no, they're my bananas now.
Donate them to the company.
It's for the cause. Donate to the cause.
So she is forced to give the bananas. They put them in the microwave, and they turn into a gross green jelly. ew.
Oh, mutation.
And then him and daru are going to a lecture. And I think in the subtitles, they say something about course credit. And I was like, are they in college?
I think they're going to a local college. I don't think they're in college. I think they're going to for another conference or lecture.
Yeah. This says to acquire academic units. They're going to attend a seminar. What?
Maybe they're in college. But if they are in college, it's not prevalent in the show.
Yeah. So they're like in the elevator to get up to the seminar. And Ocherine figures out that he had tried to send an email to daru about Scientist lady's murder, but it got sent. So it's the 28 July and it was sent to daru the 23 July. So his email went back in time. whoa, whoa. And then when the elevator doors open, scientist lady is standing there perfectly healthy.
And not dead, not a stabbinger.
And that's the end of the first episode.
So yeah. All right, we get some time travel. fuckery. So we pick up episode two, right, where we leave off him stepping off this elevator. I just wrote down Stab Girl throughout that.
That might be the worst nickname yet.
So wait, we complain about anime giving people multiple names, but we literally have an episode where we referred to each main character as a sonic character.
Hey, don't call me out on my own shit.
We don't get held to our own standards here.
This is a therapy. I'm not trying to improve myself. Oh God. It's a good point though.
Anyway.
But yeah.
What is her actual name?
She say carusi curisu.
The letters just don't have sense.
We have it set. Karisu. Now I'll keep calling her Staff Girl.
Maybe her name is Chris Karisu.
Anyways, yeah. He's like, what? I saw you dead in a stairwell. What are you doing here? And she's like, hey, we've never met. What are you talking about? So he is freaking out, like grabbing at her to be like, you have no stab wounds. Where are all your stab wounds? And she's like, oh great, you're fully harassing me. Yeah, right now.
But the stabbing he was talking about happened 3 hours ago. So it's still the same day.
Yeah. So naturally he's confused and she has no idea what he's talking about. So they go into the lecture and she is delivering it. And one of my favorite things is she's giving this lecture because she published an article in sciencey Magazine.
Sciencey.
It was so sciencey.
Oh my God. Like so sciencey. Wow.
Oh my God. I put like mentos and Diet coke.
And it was like so sciency. Wow.
Incredible publication. Stop making fun of it.
You should be like a scientologist or something.
Just anything more sciencey. The sass in this episode. My God, they go to such lengths to be like, hey, this is a credible theory. Time travel. We're talking about the Large hadron collider. But they name it sciencey Magazine Science.
You know what? Fair. Okay, fair enough.
I completely glossed over one of my favorite things in episode one, he drinks Dr. Pepper all the time, and Mayor is like, you sure like Dr. Pepper? And he says, Dr. Pepper is the drink of intellectuals.
Technically, to avoid copyright, it's dk. Pepper, which I enjoy.
Donkey Kong.
I'm sorry to interrupt. I just had to bring that up.
No, thank you very much. I forgot about that.
I feel like it's important for everyone to know.
Yes.
Vital information. So she is giving this lecture because she wrote an article about time travel stuff, and naturally he showed up, so he can object and make it all about him. But unlike last time, she knows what she is talking about, and she's like, okay, this guy who was harassing me earlier is going to harass me during the lecture. Let's turn this into an open forum, shall we? And she just wipes the floor with him with all of her scientific theories, and he is lamenting his humiliation later on, walking in the summer heat, just dying, being like, I can't believe I lost. I need to buff up my defenses and get all my arguments together. Basically, not accepting it. Just being like, okay, I got to figure out a way to prove her wrong.
Poor baby.
As all scientists do.
What is this? reddit?
I mean, later on yeah. So he goes to a local shrine where he meets mayori, and she is practicing swordplay with a girl named Ruka. I don't know how she factors in neither.
It's just the introduction episode. They come in later.
Okay. Yeah. It doesn't play much into it, leading to my confusion, but apparently they donated some corn to the cause because basically all Myuri does is collect food for the experiments and for them to eat it. And they're talking about he fakes a spirit attack because she is an exorcist. And he goes into this weird rant about her being a dude. And I was very confused because he's like, she's a beautiful woman. She's so great, but she's a dude. She's so wonderful and great.
Blah, blah, blah.
I don't know if that's just bad translation.
Yeah, that is bad translation.
No, Ruka is male. ruka's?
Yeah, because in the subs, it's like, yes, Ruka does this and this and this. But he's a dude. It's never like a question.
Yeah, this is the episode I watch. subbed.
Yeah. Also, sorry, according to the Wiki, because mayeri uses the suffix coon when referring to Ruka, it's like a giveaway for people who speak Japanese, because that's something that girls refer to boys with.
Okay.
Yeah. Or like members of the opposite sex refer to each other with, as opposed to.
Got you.
So Rookie is a boy, but very feminine. And that upsets ocarine very much.
I don't know if he's actually upset because they are friends. That's why Ruka donates the corn to the group. But it does conflict with his because he talks about how pretty Ruka is, but it's still a guy yeah. He's not, like, upset with ruka or anything like their friends. But it does have confusion for him because he's a dumb man.
Yeah.
It's very much like, hey, despite the appearance, rather than like, this is an issue, or, I have a problem with it, but it is just weird.
He pays off later in a series.
He focuses on it too much that I was like, this upsets him.
Yeah, it pays off later, but in these three episodes pays off.
That's a funny way.
There's a reason they put so much attention on it early on.
Got you.
Yeah.
So, yeah, they take the corn back to their laboratory and the tech store below them that he dropped the TV off at is hiring a new assistant. And I didn't get a girl's name, but she shows up and gets the job.
Suzuha.
Suzuha. So she shows up and she's like, yeah, I like tvs. I can work here. Whatever.
She's big in the Smash Brothers community.
Yeah, they were designed for this.
It cuts down on the lag time between the input of the controller so you can actually fight faster and nail down your exact frame. That's actually true in the Smash Brothers community.
Wow.
Donkey konga. It factors into but I did crap. So she's interrogating him, like, what are you doing? Why are you a weird science guy? Apparently evil laughs are in style, she says as he goes upstairs. cackling. So he is upstairs late that night and he's researching the satellite crash because it does not line up with his memory. And also he's eating some corn. Super fucking weird. And I needed to address that.
Is that what it looks like?
He was holding it in one hand and it looks like he was just, like, eating it around because there's that great argument of, like, do you eat it typewriter style or in circles going in? But he was eating it one handed and it was just a very odd way to eat corn. Anyway, that has nothing to do with it.
Wait, presumably raw because it still had, like, the chuck the leaves on it.
No, it showed establishing shot of them boiling the corn.
Oh, thank God.
Yeah, but there was the husk on it still.
Yeah.
They know how corn works there.
Well, shizuka or whatever, doesn't she's? The first time she's ever seen corn.
But that was weird. He was like, what do you mean you've never seen corn?
She's never seen corn before.
So, yeah, he is doing some research online, straight into anime reddit, basically, because he is researching the history of John teeter, who is the theorist who he was basing his plagiarism argument on earlier in that lecture that never happened.
Oh, he's not just a theorist.
John tiber.
Time traveled.
Yes. Yeah. He is from the year 2036, apparently. And he is a time traveler who came back and is sharing all of his knowledge with anyone who will listen on the message boards.
Yeah. And he shares it all on the Internet. So it must be true.
It has to be true.
We're actually so he goes through all of his theories, and then when he.
Tries to look up John teeter, like to try and get some more information about him. He only gets twelve results. There's nothing. But he said he was super popular ten years ago.
Yeah. And he goes to the books and papers that he had printed from John teeter stuff, and it is missing. So he calls up hack and is like, hey, where'd you move all my shit on John teeter? And he has no idea what he's talking about. All of the info on this time traveler went missing. What? Also, he had a very great quote saying, like, ten years ago, every showed with a web.com link that had info on John teeter. And I was like, oh boy, that.
Is a choice we missed out on in the sub.
Every showed with a.com.
That'S a good translation right there.
I think what leads him to this, though, is that someone else named John teeter is on the message boards being like, hello, I'm a time traveler doing all this stuff. And he's like, you're lying. He did that in 2000. And he's like, I've never been to the year 2000. And that's when he's like, yeah, you did. And he looks it all up and he's like, oh, what?
Yeah. Yes.
So the next day, he is out on the street and he sees a woman supposedly taking pictures of him. And he's like, government agent, let me go confront her in the most dramatic way possible. So he confronts her and is like, hey, please delete those pictures of me because I'm just out in public, and you can't do that. And she is a little bit on edge because she didn't mean to insult him. She's just taking pictures of evidence that she was there. So very ominous and strange and seeing.
That he is a very manic pixie dream girl.
Yeah, I don't know about manic.
She's very kind of withdrawn and kind of like timid.
Oh, that's just what the type is called.
But she sees he is a man of science because he wears a lab coat everywhere, of course. And she's looking for an expert on an old ibm computer that she needs. She's looking for it, and he says, oh, I know a computer guy. Let me see. I'll give you my contact info so you can reach out to me rather than me giving out his info. And she's very hesitant to let him touch her because he was going to reach out and put his info in her phone, and she was resistant to it. And they exchange information in part ways, and then he's immediately bombarded with text. And he's like, oh, boy, I thought she was quiet. But she's super into talking online.
Yeah, she talks through. Her phone. She's very withdrawn and obsessed with her phone. And she's kind of blackmailing him, saying, I'll delete your picture I took of you and I give it to the organization if you get me in contact with your nerdy friend. Who knows what this ibm 5100 is?
Yeah. So they meet at a maid cafe where my erie works. And he's going over the stuff with him of like, hey, do you know anything about this computer? And he's like, oh, that's super duper rare. That's super old school tech. It's only rumored to still be around because it's like a collector's item at this point.
And we also get a look at ferris, which is like mirror's coworker. Once again, not super relevant in these three episodes, but plays off later. But I do say that because Daru has, like, a fun line of ferris tan doesn't count. She may have a three, she may be 3d, but she has a 2d soul, which is like, that's a that's a hell of a sentence right there.
Yeah, because he's being flirty and cheating with cheating on his online harem, as it is referred to as 2d wife.
Who's this fucking guy? Sorry.
Yeah. Gross step. Basically, they go over that and then we go back to the apartment. We get some ominous the world is in danger on their omelets, but it doesn't really play into anything that was weird.
It's because ferris kind of playing along with Akarine and really either believes him or it has fun playing along with him. So it's presumed that she wrote that out. But when he reads that, we get this weird cranny flashback, sort of like revival moment, like in a race. It kind of has a flashback of him in a lab or something and looking up what happened to the bananas and saying, like, the molecules were torn apart and that's why they got all slimy and gross.
But, yeah, we go to them going back to the lab and they're doing more experiments on bananas. Ocharin wants to put a whole bunch of bananas in, but the hacker is like, no, let's just do one. And ochre in my favorite line says, okay, one banana. Cautious Carl.
Whoever translated this show fucking game right here.
There is some good weird shit.
I love it.
Transcendent. You've heard of Negative Valley? Now get ready for cautious, Carl.
Excuse me. One banana. Cautious car.
One banana is what his friends call them.
That is a very important part of it. So the microwave basically works. They're running it through radio waves, so they're powering it by sending text messages. So they try it out, he sends a message and they check and that banana has disappeared. So they're like, did we make a teleporter? What is this? And they look back to the bunch of bananas and it has reattached, but it is all mutated like the bananas we saw the previous day. So somehow it jumped back in time.
Incredible. No, I was just reacting.
Spooky stuff.
Those are reaction sounds.
It sounded like, whoa, wait, I realized.
That after I did it.
So they are freaking out because this mutant banana is now reattached the bunch. And science. christina stab girl shows up. Science.
Science christina is also there literally none of her names.
And that's basically where we end episode two.
Oh, man. Good stuff, girl. Yeah.
Good show.
It's a great show. I feel like I have to defend it, though, because it is a good show and it's well written. It's a real slow burn to getting a sampler pack of the first few episodes isn't great. And pictures you can defend it. Okay. Sorry. Anyway, episode three, so starts off I'm just going to call her christina because that's an easier name to say for me. ocarina calls that christina, saying she's a spy for organization. She's here to take all their secrets and give them back to the organization. And she's just there because like, hey, you harassed me saying you knew who I was before, and we talked before, and it just freaked me out. I want to make sure you're not a stalker trying to murder me in my sleep. And when she walks in, she sees the slime banana and just starts investigating it, poking it, checking the viscosity of it and tasting it and trying to figure out what the hell she just witnessed. Because even back in her lecture, her main argument was, time machines are impossible. It's just physically impossible to ever achieve time machines no matter what technology you have. So she's kind of the naysayer and what's going on. They have a big bit of back and forth, a bit of talking and really just exposition. Daru continues to be a pervert. Akarine calls her christina for the first time, which ends up being her nickname. Throw the rest of the series, and it's a lot easier to remember than Mckeecey. So christina and ocarina invites her to join the future Gadgets team because she's already seen too much and they can't kill her again. She already died once.
They can't kill her again.
It didn't work the first day.
The only way you can keep her secrets is if you're part of the team. She's like, well, I'm going to go back into the States in, like, August, so it's not really he's like, don't worry. It's not permanent. Like, you're only here for this one thing. So she kind of joins the group, and that's when Maori comes up and gets super excited that there's another girl in the group and another girl that's ever been in this apartment because it's just a real gross bachelor pad.
And I say, that's a real sausage.
And then what happens? So Daru tells him that he connected his phone to the microwave back the other day because I believe it's supposed to be like a remote controlled microwave. They're supposed to be able to turn it on and off with their phones. That's what they're trying to do. So the other day when it didn't work, when ocarina and maru were out at the conference, daru was back here putting his phone in and trying to mess with it still a little further. And when he did that, lightning came out, and that's the exact moment that ocarina texted him, hey, I just saw this girl murdered. So it's at that moment that the microwave kind of freaked out and did this once before, so they're trying to do that again. Again. Another experiment I wrote down is chicken tenders taste best when you eat them with friends.
I wrote that down, too.
Mayori being just pure shit for this very cynical, weird group. Get them tendies. So they try out the phone wave is what they're calling it, and Mayor open. They put the chicken tenders in because it's got to be something in there. You can't just run it on empty, I guess. So they put the chicken tenders in, and Mayor is just like, oh, they must be done by now, and just pulls it open while it's still running, and just lightning and smoke just spray out of this thing, like, scorching the ground and snaps the table in half. And they say it puts a hole in the floor, but we don't really see it too well. And the chicken tenders are ruined, which is just the worst shame.
The tenders will never be tender again, she says.
What a dang shame.
Did you just write down all of her lines?
She had some choice quotes.
She has some real good ones.
She's the best one.
Best girl. Despite all the destruction from the explosion, though, the phone is still fine. So when they go to check it, they find out that the text they sent to Ocrain's phone that was in the microwave or attached to it actually went back five days. So that's when they realized, like, the text message went back in time using.
This phone wave thing, the text went back in time.
I was wondering how long we'd get there, despite all of our Back to the Future references. And so Christine kind of just freaks out and kind of like, fuck this. This isn't real. This isn't possible. This destroys my whole argument. Like, I'm out and just bails. She just runs off.
That's what I do, too.
When I'm wrong, I run away as a scientist.
Yeah. His face being criticized, so it just cuts to the next day. It's Dr. rena waking up on his couch, because I guess that's where he sleeps. And there's, like, 13 text messages from shining Finger, which is the name he gave to the weird girl who's blackmailing him and wanting information about the ib 5100.
What a bad phone.
She just texts so much, and I think it's some sort of reference in Japanese. I think it might be a gundam reference. Maybe so yeah, and they're saying they tried the phone wave all night and it wasn't working anymore. It worked at one time, and they can't get it again. So she's asking him all these questions, and they're trying to troubleshoot this, and then all of a sudden, people are talking about John teeter again online, which they were not talking about at all two days ago. So it's kind of weird that all of a sudden he's like a big topic of conversation now. And then this is where we get kind of a lot of exposition about Okran and Daru were talking about CERN and the Large hadron collider as the particle accelerator, and there's theories that they could be making, like, miniature black holes. And John peter's Hole argument was pretty.
Checked out during this time because I was just like, I don't understand.
That's why I got this episode.
Yeah, this was the organization that they keep talking about, is this big government agency that is basically doing what they're doing, but much better.
Well, the organization is something else. This is CERN. This is a public I think it's based in Sweden.
I thought they said that this was the organization because they hack into it later.
They say it's a part of the organization, but it's not the sole. There's more to the organization than just this.
Of course, so many organizations.
CERN is like the site.
They're all together. The government has them all.
Yeah.
NASA, CERN, jpl, NATO.
I don't know what that one was. jpl? Sure, just it's a space place.
I went there when I was a kid. They had an open house. I remember it.
Do you?
Yes, I do.
Ask my parents.
Google, jetline.
Oh, Jet propulsion Laboratory.
Oh, okay. That's a lot here local references.
I've been in this timeline for 22 years. I think I know what I'm talking about.
One of us here does because I don't. Anyway anyway, so they're talking about stern, and they're saying how it's very public that they have the Large hadron collider, but they're speculating that CERN is actually up to more. And there's a ton of stuff they're not talking about publicly. And it's because one of the main arguments for John teeter about the time travel is that CERN is actually a monopoly controlling all of the time travel machines. Any machine that's capable of time travel, CERN has bought up and discontinued and make sure no one knows about it. That way they can't be undone by someone going back in time and trying to undo everything like John teeter is. So they get real skeptical about CERN and are kind of like, all right, we're hacking into them. These are the guys who know shit, and we got to figure out what's happening with our phone wave. This is the organization that would know stuff about them. What are we talking about? Oh, they're all talking about this in, like, a ramen shop while they're out for lunch. And then Octarin goes home, and on his way home, he's talking to the shopkeep downstairs. I already forget her name. suzuha assistant rather suzuha. And as he's just making small talk, she's talking about like, oh, hey, I ever heard you guys talking about CERN? He's like, what, you're spotting us? Like, no, I'm just right downstairs below you guys, and the walls are pretty thin. You are so loud, you're screaming all the time. It's kind of impossible not to hear you. So he's talking about like, oh, yeah, we were looking into CERN, and she's like, oh, about the Large hadron collider. She's like, Why, do you know? Once again, he forgets that she just said she could hear him, but she's kind of hinting at stuff that she wouldn't normally know. And she's kind of talking about the ibm 5100. She has a bit of information about that. And then when he gets a text, he gets a text and he's like, oh, man, bad news. And she's like, oh, daily death count. What? Nothing. It's from a video game. What? Don't worry about it. And so after he talked to her, she mentioned she also knows about John teeter and the ibm 5100 and how it's critical. John teeter said how it's critical to his time travel methods. And when October hears that, he runs upstairs and goes back on the forums that John Tier was on and starts talking to everyone. And this is when we kind of get a voiceover from John Tier himself talking about the verging timelines. And that time isn't just a river like everyone imagines. It's actually just splits apart into this crazy fractal spider web and that everybody baramy. I don't get that reference. Still, all the divergent timelines split off. So there'll be like, when one critical event happens, there will be a timeline where it did happen and timeline where it didn't happen, and it just spreads and spreads, and then people's memories will be rewritten to work in that timeline. So kind of saying, like, hey, if people aren't remembering stuff, it might be because it's a different timeline now and their memories were rewritten. And that's when akron kind of points out, like, hey, weren't you talking about this back in 2010? Points out again, like, hey, I never went back to the year 2000, but if you're saying you remember me there, it might be because of a diverging timeline. And if that's the case, I would really like to get in contact with you. And he gives them his own personal email address for Ocarn to talk to him. So now he's got a direct line to his pseudo hero or just information source. Some guy, some weird guy pretending to be another guy, another potentially crazy guy. Yeah, mayor shows up and she got snacks for the group. And this is just kind of I don't know, it's like a kind of calmer scene. It's not like a recap but it's kind of just like a break from all the hustle and bustle of time travel and CERN and sine waves and all that and thrown waves, and she gets everyone's snacks. So it's just her and ocarina on top of the roof just having some stew and train back and forth whichever meats they prefer and trying to negotiate which ones they want. And then while they're up there, we hear Daru scream, like, excited from downstairs. And when they run down, he's already hacked into CERN within a day of them talking about doing this easy peace. So either he's either really smart or CERN has really lack security protocols for.
An agency that's hiding time travel secrets.
Yeah, but when he gets into it, they're mostly just finding a lot of email reports, lots of stuff of the performance reports of the hadron collider and all this stuff. It's like, this isn't stuff that isn't already public knowledge or even relevant. But then they find out about the Z program, which is if there's ever a weird conspiracy theory project, that's what you would call it. And as they're looking more into it and about the reports of the Z program, they find out that all the information about it was kind of like scrubbed, like it was in reports. And then all of a sudden, lots of disappearing are like, oh, that must mean because it succeeded. Because if it failed, they would just report it and try and work on it more. But if it succeeded, then they want to claim down all the information so it doesn't get out and other people can do it. And then the last email they find is that one of the results or one of the reports say the results of a human died. So someone died during the Z program at CERN, which is supposed to be a very, like, physics based, like, public science stuff, like Office. So, like, there's no reason anyone should have died during any of their experiments. They should not be testing anything close to human experiments. So it's kind of like, what the hell is CERN doing? That's the end of episode three.
Whoa.
Thanks.
It's kind of a much smaller cliffhanger than them teleporting a banana or sending it back in time and another character being murdered.
Yeah, it's a theoretical person being murdered. But yeah, those are the first three episodes.
That's what we watched.
Sure are.
Anyway, did you guys just love it?
I think from the anime experts point of view, I think what they're setting up is kind of interesting and revisiting it. It was interesting, like, thinking about it more and considering what they're setting up more, like, I can see the potential and I can see its popularity. I am curious to know what's going on, but at the same time, this is a little longer, right? This is a 20 something episode anime.
Yeah. And then, like I said, there's like a game. And then there's like another series, another anime.
I don't know if I care enough to pursue the rest of what they're going to do, but it's interesting. I don't know. I think it's the characters. I just don't really like the characters.
Yeah, the characters are a big selling point for a lot of shows. I mean, that's why there's so many shows where it's like, god, the story is kind of shitty, but I like that character and you follow through with it. It's tough. Like, we kind of put out like miri's great. It's like she's maybe in like a collective four minutes of these three episodes.
And they are building her up to be like the ditzy assistant. And it's like, you idiot, you're ruining the experiments because you want chicken tenders.
Yeah, okay.
She is a good character, though. Can we not be like, you idiot.
She's the only source of joy in this show.
Yeah, there was a scene where after the initial conference, they go to the park and she gives I close my notes. I forgot everyone's names. Okran. She gives them the dk pepper. Yeah, we get a flash of her at like a gravestone in the rain with an umbrella. So it's like a weird just like really tiny flash of that scene. And we don't really have any context for her. No one reacts to it. So it's kind of like, what was that?
Yeah, they're laying down some groundwork for more stuff to be introduced. But currently what's in the actual text and not like subtext is not excellent.
Especially early on.
I'm definitely feeling the same way. I do like that it's more hard science fiction than we get from a lot of shows because usually it's just like, yeah, I have a mystical power. I can time travel rather than getting into the nitty gritty science details, which is definitely interesting and sort of the government conspiracy of time travel. And naturally you don't hear about it because it's covered up and all that fun stuff. So I do like where it's building up. I don't think the narrative is strong enough and clear enough to keep my interest for more than this because I would like to see how things unravel. But at the same time, like you said, the characters aren't enough to grit me for the episode by episode watching of this.
Yeah, that's a better way of putting it.
Your favorite characters weren't psychopathic scientists that yells all of his thoughts or perverted nerd boy or murder victim.
We left out where he had mauri and Karisu repeat things that they said because they sounded vaguely dirty. Fucking gross.
Yeah. That second one was christina lingered way too long because she's like, oh, you just want me to eat a banana, huh? And then they spend like three more minutes being like, now say that again, but slowly. And it's like, okay, we get it. You're making a sex joke. Can we please move on from this cringey?
Not anymore cringy.
Yeah, I'd like to say his character gets better, but yeah, I think that's.
Like, Butler, black Butler is not written well. We've established it.
Yes.
But I feel like the things that happen in both of these shows are similar in that, yes. This was, like, almost ten years ago. So ten years ago, maybe this was funny to somebody, but now it's just kind of icky.
Yeah. And that in particular, they just beat the dead horse for way too long because she starts it by saying, you want me to do a double entendre? Got it. And then they spend several more minutes to like, okay, let me write out on this chalkboard why this is a sexy comment, and dissect it for way too long for it to even in the time period beyond funny. And just being like, hey, stop.
You're talking about explaining a joke. And if you have to explain a joke, it's never funny.
Yeah, exactly. He gets less perverted. Like, that's definitely like an earlier character trait. They use a lot to, I guess, establish what his character is. That probably was unnecessary. You could have probably gotten away with that just by referring to women as three D and two D. Like, I really think that establishes a lot more without really dragging it out much longer than these two, but they at least stop doing that. I think this is kind of where it stops happening. So I don't know if his character gets better, but it gets less perverted, which is nice, but, yeah, the characters driving it forward, I think they definitely had with a visual novel, it's a game, so it's like the story takes place over 20 hours, roughly. So, like, they had plenty of time to work with this. And I think they were kind of like, oh, this is already a popular, established franchise. Let's green light it immediately for 26 episodes or so. So they're kind of like, oh, we got to fill that time. And visual novel is just story. It's just dialogue. It's just people talking back and forth and, like, not always a lot of stuff happens, so not a lot of stuff happens when it's translated into an anime. So it's kind of like it's like Death Note, where the main action is, like texting on a phone, and that's the big action sequence. It's in texting someone or using a microwave. So there's not a lot of visual stuff that's happening where it's like, oh, yeah, I got to see this. Not really. You can see it's visual novel roots because it doesn't need to be in motion for most of the stuff that conveys.
Yeah, I forgot you said that this started as a visual novel, because I was thinking this would I feel like I would enjoy this more, like, in book form, where it is just, oh, let me read this story where we're not trying to fill TV arcs as well and give it that long form format.
But it's also kind of like memento, the movie, where it's like, I appreciate what you're doing. You're doing very clever things, but goddamn, is it hard to follow the initial first time watching it.
Yeah.
All right.
Well, I guess we aren't there.
We are not there yet.
Yeah. I would explore this as like a book or the visual novel, but maybe not the show.
Yeah, it is good. I honestly think I might not have gotten through it the first time if I wasn't watching it with a buddy of mine at the time. And we kind of had like a buddy system to just power through it without that, I might have dropped it earlier. So it is good. It does pay off. It is just a real slow burn at the beginning. It gets real slow and confusing.
And since there is such a big franchise based on it, maybe there is a better entry point than jumping straight to the anime. Like, maybe you should play the visual novel first.
Yeah.
It's completely popular for a reason.
Yeah. So thank you for going on this time travel journey.
Thank you for the recommendation.
Yes, thank you, Nicholas, for this recommendation.
I'm sorry we didn't love it as much as you do.
Yes. It's nothing personal. We love you. You're great.
I like it.
Yes, Brendan likes it, but he's already seen it.
Yeah.
So for next week, we are going to be watching sailor Moon.
Wow. Why?
Dugan because we have a guest joining us, voice actress Jackie lastra, who will be walking us through it because this is her favorite series and one of the foremost experts on sailor Moon that we know.
I won't even say favorite series. It's probably her favorite thing, period. Yes.
So, yeah. We'll be having a special guest next week to talk about sailor Moon. And once again, you can recommend things to us on our social media at Are We There Yet? On Twitter and Instagram. Our Facebook group is. Are we there yet? Podcast. And you can reach us by email at arwariat@gmail.com@gmail.com. Cool. I'm good at this.
Your brain is put a rough day.
Yes.
You've had the process a lot.
Yeah.
My brain is a mutated banana. You can find me on Twitter and Instagram at Mr. Patrick dugan.
You can find me on Instagram at queen. Period. Weebu and twitter at Queen underscore Weebu.
You can find me on Twitter at abts. Brendan. I'm mostly retweeting stuff to try and get free shit, so don't bother.
Wow.
Perfect.
It's honest. I ain't going to lie to you.
And thank you to camille ruley for our artwork. And thank you to Louis zong for the use of our theme song stories off the album Beats. You can find all of Louis music at Louisong bandcamp.com. Thank you, and we hope you will join us next week as we learn.
To live with Anime.