Whoever wins gets to rip off the other fingernails and toenails.
Hello and welcome to are we there yet? In exploration and education in anime. I'm your anime idiot, Patrick dugan.
I'm an anime expert, dana hollander.
And I'm brenda mccullough, your anime watcher. That doesn't have a problem. You have a problem. I don't need to stop. I can stop whenever I want.
Nice.
Yeah.
We we gather here most of the times. This is just an excuse to give Brendan an intervention, but we really need to talk about his gambling problem, mostly in the form of loot boxes. Hey, Apex Legends, I know you like it, but you need to back off just a little bit.
I've actually only played, like, maybe 2 hours of it, and I've only bought a few overwatch loot boxes.
All those microtransactions really get you yeah.
Out of the three of us, I've probably spent the most on overwatch loot boxes.
I earn them like a real man with a a lot, lot of free time.
Yeah. I've never paid for an overwatch loot box.
Yeah. What losers would you say.
Anyway?
Gambling.
Especially when you know they're all mostly stickers, am I right?
Anyway, so addiction data.
What are we watching this week?
This week we're watching kake Guru, which.
The bane of my existence.
Yeah, it hit Netflix last year. Or the end of 2017.
No, it was last year. February 17, I believe. I counted down the day. So I already will say I will not continue this show because I'm going to keep it light because this is a comedy show. But it almost ruined my life.
Oh, boy. I was out of there by that time.
This was the point. Working on this show was when I decided I didn't want to dub anime anymore.
This is the one that broke.
What did it?
This was the nail in the coffin.
Oh, boy. I know very little.
Yeah. I actually watched, I think, maybe the first five episodes when it first came out, but when it first came out, I don't remember it very well. But I also remember it very well because it's a time, and we're going to have a time, and I'm really excited about it.
I like how this podcast started with like, hey, let's show duke's our favorite anime. Here are some good ones. And we've hit the point where it's just like, let's make dugan hate anime more than anything else.
I think my real goal is to make dugan hate me.
I hit that point with kj.
So we're still there this month. You just really want me to stop doing this podcast. You just really want me to throw in the towel.
I want my saturdays back. I need the free time to buy more loot boxes.
All that free time you don't have.
I do have. I just use it unwisely and then say I don't have it.
Well, this is getting too personal, too quick.
Let's get into it.
Yeah, we're watching the first three episodes.
All right, I'm going all in.
Let's roll those dice.
That's my joke.
It wasn't worth it.
We gave it a shot. We tried our best.
This show literally almost killed me. It wasn't worth it.
I want that time back.
Oh, my gosh. That was the most I've ever laughed in this podcast.
What if it gets better? Do you? What if he likes.
I assume it doesn't. I kind of know that it does.
You have more insight to it than any lust do.
I'm not mad. I'm not sad.
I'm disappointed.
I'm just broken.
It just wasn't worth it. Disappointed?
Yeah. I put, like, a month into this. It almost drummed me out of Hollywood. Glad this is what my legacy led to.
All that blood, sweat, and tear was worth.
Should we even talk about it?
Thanks for joining us this week. Yeah, we're going to call it right here.
Just kidding.
No, let's get into it.
Yeah, I took notes. So we're doing this.
I sat through all we're doing this.
You made me watch this. We're at least getting an hour of goddamn contest.
If you hear a weird muffled scream in the background, that's probably just dude, we hit a point and he just.
Holding a pillow to his face and screaming.
No, I just turned the mic down when that comes up.
All right.
Did you hear that? No, I just turned my mic down and screamed.
It took a break for an hour to just get all the yells out.
All right.
All right. Episode one.
So episode one, we start off in a well, we start off and we stay there at a private high school that I did not catch the name of. It's very fancy, and the name doesn't matter. Moving on, moving on. We see a blonde girl and a boy, very generic anime boy playing poker. The girl's name, we find out, is Mary, and the boy's name is riotA, and he has gambled all of his money away. So he is now in debt to Mary. And the reason they gamble is because all the kids at this school are rich and they just don't know what to do with themselves. Pretty much.
Literally too much money.
Yeah. So if you gamble all of your money away, you become a dog in the school or a cat, I guess, because they call the boys fido and the girls mittens.
We get into the hierarchy in the second episode.
Yeah, that's a fun little gendered thing. That doesn't need to be gendered.
All cats are girls.
Yeah. Even my very boy cat, jasper.
And my very boy cat, Marshall.
Yeah, but so that's what happened. That's how it starts. So now he's in debt.
Oops.
We get a lot of, like, super detailed reactions, like Faces sets it off right away.
I aggressively disliked the animation in this series. It went, like, grotesque and weird and way too detailed for no reason. And I'm coming into the show with a lot of bitterness, so I'm not going to have a lot of kind words.
Got that now.
But, yeah, this is an ugly show. I'm going to go ahead and say I like it.
I feel like it wasn't bad. It wasn't, like, poor animation. It's just they chose a particular, overly detailed, sort of grotesque, on purpose style for these reaction shots and leaned into it. And so I can respect that. I'm not a fan of it, but I feel like it was like, hey, this is a show about gambling, and not a lot actually happens action wise. So let's really milk what we have. And the most of the action is the reactions.
Yeah, so that happens. And then there's a black haired stranger standing at the school gates. And then we get the opening, which I also like a lot. It's like jazzy and weird, and I like it.
It reminded me of it is very sexual. I don't know, like a very sexual tone to it with all the characters, but it reminded me of a James Bond opening. Kind of like the new word. Like Daniel Craig, james Bonds. And I really enjoyed it. It was, like, very bizarre. I was not expecting that from a gambling anime.
Yeah.
Again, garbage.
Fair enough.
Everything about this show gives off such a weird energy.
Yeah, it's not what I was expecting.
Vaguely cursed.
Vaguely cursed? Like, substantially cursed.
Yeah.
This is creepy. Pasta. The anime.
So after the opening, we are formally introduced to the black haired stranger. She is a transfer student, of course.
Check that off the bingo card.
Yeah. And her name is Yumiko chobani.
Okay. I did the subs dub. Sub. So it wasn't until the second episode I realized her name wasn't chobani. And that all of my notes that say Greek yogurt don't apply anymore, but I'm going to keep going with it. I love that I heard chopahani and I just ran with it.
That's, like, kind of off topic, but I had a friend in high school named l'oreal, and I called her shampoo.
It's what you do.
Yeah. It really caught on the theater department.
But she never cried about it because no tears.
Johnson and Johnson.
So all of the boys are super into her because she got big titties and she's new and beautiful and mysterious.
Anime.
Exactly. So the teacher is like, someone should show her around the school. riotA. You're this class president, so you do it. And I was just kind of like, I guess he just became a dog. But also, how did he get voted the class president? Because there's no remarkable things about him.
He is the most generic character.
Yeah. His whole existence in this series is to be the voice of reason of gambling is bad. Even though we establish he's bad at gambling and does it and just lost a lot of money doing it.
Yeah. And also he just explains the action of what's going on.
I also just realized we later find out about the student council who kind of like, control everything. So what's the president do?
He's just that was gross.
Is it just to be like, hey, here's a reason for you to be paired up with this new character right away? That's literally all it is.
But also, I think he's just like the class representative. Like the student council run the school, but he's just the class representative.
Okay, that might be good.
Yeah, but so he's showing her around and she's like, what a beautiful place. Because it is very expensive and very pretty. And then she notices his dog tag because once you become a dog, you have to wear a necklace that says so.
Yeah, it's sort of a marker for your debt.
Yeah. So everyone knows it and no. He explains that gambling is very big in the school. If they're not learning, they are gambling. And he's like, you'll probably get challenged real soon because you're new here. And she's like, oh, hell yeah.
Fuck yeah. Let me head down. Okay. That's weird.
Essentially, she's just like, oh, fuck you. I can't fucking wait.
So pumped.
I'm so horny for this game.
Fucking horny to lose my money.
We can't refer to every anime as horny. Despite how horny they all are.
It is so horny for gambling.
I mean, this show is particularly horny.
We're just our vocabulary just shrinking with every episode. I just feel like we need to keep it a little expensive.
Okay, I do agree with you. In our use of horny, she is straight up horny for gambling. I cannot emphasize that enough.
Yeah, she is.
And I also forgot to mention that when ryota takes Umaco out to show her the school, mary is shown being very upset. She's my dog and he's my puppy. So they're shown like, after class and all of the girls are kind of obsessing over you make oh. They're like, where did you come from? Oh my god, do you have a boyfriend? And she's like, oh, I'm going to stay mysterious. And then Mary approaches her and says, hey, vic, you want to gamble? And of course Umaco says, yeah, of course I do. Are you kidding? So they are going to play a rousing game of rock, paper, scissors.
Oh, God.
Start the stakes out super low.
Yeah, but ballad rock, paper Scissors, where other classmates draw the cards, put them in a ballot box, and then they draw three of them and play rock, paper, scissors with those. It seems like a weirdly complicated way to play it for the plot of the show.
Yeah, I guess it adds that what's the word? Drama. The drama and the aspect of like oh, the element of surprise. So like the spontaneity of, like, not knowing what you can or can't play it adds a challenge. But so, yeah, you explain the rules. They'll each pick three. If they match all three times, it's a draw. If one of them wins, they win the money gambling. So they have chips that are worth ¥10,000. Not sure how many they have. I don't know if they said it, but so Mary is like, you're the newcomer here. You can pick the bet. So she says, how about we play for two chips? And it is then I don't know if ryota explains it or Mary explains it in her mind that the real game is just trying to read each other, pretty much, which is kind of hard to do when you're just playing Rock, Paper, scissors.
It's all those mind games of, like, oh, she plays this and that means this. If she has these cards, she can only play this. But if I have these cards, I can only do this. The super convoluted traditional anime overthinking it.
Yeah. So Umaco wins that round, and then she bets 50 chips, which ¥50,000.
Yeah. Big bucks.
Yeah. And then Mary wins that round, and then they go back to two chips, and then you make a wins again. And then they go back to 50 chips, and then Mary wins again.
Yeah. Well, back and forth. Oh, I noticed the cards they have, they all have to be drawn on by the classmates if it's Rock, Paper, scissors, but the back of them have the Rock, Paper, scissors pattern on them. So these are like, printed cards. They're not just pieces of paper. So that's how rich the school is, that they just buy actual card templates to draw on and then, I guess, throw away and remake them every time someone plays this.
But so I did forget to mention that every time Mary won, they matched in the first round, and then the second round is the round that Mary won in.
And she always won when it was a 50 chip bed.
Yeah. And it was at this point I wrote the note. Oh, I love how ugly Mary got when she started getting cocky. Like, referring to the style.
Yeah, I hated it.
I know you did, but there's just something about it. I'm just like, oh, yeah. Because it's just that thing of, like, oh, you're ugly on the inside. It's coming out. And I think it's a cool representation of it. But so Mary has 216 chips now, and Umaco has 24. So, umaco is losing. And I wrote, there's no way for umago to come back. Or is there?
Or is there?
Because there's gotta be. But so they play once more, and then Umaco loses all of her chips. And then she's like, well, let's just let's just make this a little more interesting.
Let's have fun.
I bet ¥10 million. And she pulls cash out of her little backpack, and it's just like it's.
In the wrapping from the bank. So it's just like, this isn't just like pocket money. Her super rich dad gamers. She came from the bank with this, ready to go. Like, I'm going to fuck some people up today.
Fresh. Got that fresh cash. Also, for you Americans out there, the dollar to yen conversion is $1. Is ¥110 excellent. This would be like $100,000 approximately. I think so, yeah, about. I think Sam, who was watching with me, did the conversion. It was like $90,000 since it's like 110 rather than just a straight $100.
So it's nothing to sneeze at.
Yeah. A lot of money for a fucking high schooler to have.
And Mary is just kind of like, what the fuck you make? Oh, just goes fucking nuts. And she starts talking about how in a capitalistic society, your life means as much as money does. So people who gamble must be crazy because they are gambling their life away. And I put she seems pretty crazy.
She gets like the crazy red eyes. And it's like hybrid detail. Normally her eyes are kind of standard. But then when she gets in the moment, they get a lot more detail in the eyes and glowing.
She's like a weird gambling vampire. She saw your money away before I.
Knew what the show was, when I just saw it, like recommended on Netflix. I thought it was about vampires. Yeah, I generally thought she was one.
And then we get a cutaway of someone bringing umacos, like, file to the school president. I think this is when she says, a serpent has appeared in my Garden of Eden.
Yeah, the student council president with her blue lipstick.
Actually, it's coral blue number. Mary agrees to playing another round and we see her thought process. She has 21 people in the class that will draw whatever she wants on the cards because they're like indebted to her or whatever. So they're just going to do whatever she says.
Yeah.
And for this round, it's paper and rock. So the chances of yumeko getting a scissors card is very slim. And Mary gets two paper cards and one rock card. And then Umaco says, I know you're cheating. I'm not an idiot.
So full shit.
I've been around the anime gambling block before.
Yeah.
You think I walk up to school on my first day with 10 million in cash not knowing my shit? How dare you?
But so she pretty much just recaps what happened by saying, like, I followed your pattern because you won when more was at stake and when the bet was low, you kind of played whatever. You didn't care as much. So obviously I know what's going on. I know you're cheating. And then Mary kind of goes over it in her mind. And she's like, there's no way she has scissors.
Even if she knows that she's cheating, the chances of getting scissors is still so slim.
Yeah. So she decides to play paper. She plays paper and you mikko has scissors.
Why the high stakes action we signed.
Up for your blood pumping with those cards.
Delicious anime action.
So now Mary is in debt to Umaco for ¥8.8 million.
Shit. Out of luck.
Dumb bitch. And Umaco says, I'll take it now, if you don't mind.
As hell, yeah.
Which Mary can't do. oops. And she says she just needs a few days to pay it back. It'll be fine. I can pay you. I promise. And you mayco leaves the room saying, I had so much fun, it really doesn't even matter if you give it to me now. Take your time. Goodbye. And riotA chases her out and says, like, oh, how did you figure out Mary's thing? And she explains that she figured out it couldn't have been Mary signaling everybody. It had to be someone in the class. And the only person that it could.
Have been was riotA, the person directly behind her.
She couldn't see normally, so he begs for her forgiveness. And she's just like, it literally doesn't matter to me because I had so much fun playing that. You're fine. And then he laments being in debt to marry ¥5 million in debt.
It's a lot of quiche.
Yeah. Oh, but I forgot. He asks how she knew she would draw scissors, and she's just like, I didn't. That was lucky. But obviously, she could pay the 10 million to Mary right then, so, like, whatever. Because she doesn't care. She doesn't care about money.
She just wants the gambling. Yeah, but also, she says, how did you see that it was scissors? She's like, oh, any girl would have a compact mirror. And I was thinking, when do we see this? We never saw her pull that out, and we never saw her look at it. Yeah, but there's no way we could have figured out how she figured it out.
I guess she was just doing it under the table, literally.
You could at least foreshadow it, have her earlier, have the mirror check her face or something. Establish she has this hidden trick.
Good storytelling. Who needs it?
Just pull the answer out of your pocket.
Yeah, it's a big puppy of mine. When it's like, oh, we had a riddle, and no one could have figured it out. It was like, well, you didn't tell us half the riddle, so, yeah, of course we couldn't have figured it out.
But so this is when he begs for her forgiveness. And she's just like, you know what? Here's ¥5 billion. I don't want you to be in debt to that bitch anymore. Here's money. Have a good evening. Goodbye.
I'm out.
And that's pretty much episode one. I don't like the ending.
The ending is much more disappointing compared to the opening.
Yeah, because I thought it was the same bullshit.
It's just the main character walking towards the camera and then takes her jacket off, and then there's water spraying, and you get a lot of zoom in on her wet T shirt and that's kind of it. Yeah, the music wasn't bad, but the visual sucked.
Yeah. They blew all the budget on the opening of The Weird Faces.
It feels like it. Yeah.
Also, I noticed in the opening credits that somehow Square enix is related to this.
Yeah, I saw that. But the other words were in Japanese.
So I didn't know how I didn't do the research.
But they're involved in a lot of anime, I think. It's just I don't know, something about releasing it or publishing it or paying for it. I don't think it's actually like, they do the production or anything. I think their names are just on it.
More of a financial backer sort of situation, I think.
The publisher so they publish the series they spend so much money on fucking Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts, they might as well just dip into anime full force.
Anyway, this is the same thing, right?
At this point, yeah.
Speaking of the same thing, I'm going to be quick with episode two because it's the same episode. Episode one, in fact, all three of these episodes are the same.
Yeah, looking at my notes, it's pretty much the same thing.
So, yeah, it's the next day or later on at some point, I think it's the next day, you walk into class. Yeah, yumiko and ryota meet up and they talk about ryota paying her back. And she's like, yeah, don't worry about it. I'm glad to help you out of debt. So he is now no longer a house pet. They get into class and they see Mary's desk is now vandalized with a little doll of her stabbed through the table and graffiti and all that stuff, calling her like an ugly idiot, dumb.
Stitch the things we call her.
Yeah.
And this is because she is now a house pet. She lost so much money and we find out that it was the day before dues are owed to determine your class ranking. And since she owed money, she is now a house pet.
Like the mafia.
So, yeah, riotA sort of explains the background of why there's all this ranking and all that stuff. So this is basically an elite prep school for all the children of politicians and business people and people who need to be good at negotiating and all that stuff. And that's why gambling became such a big thing, because it helps develop your skills and business, I guess.
Mostly manipulating and reading people. So how could this ever backfire at creating gambling addictions very young and making them all manipulative assholes that just love destroying people's lives? How could this ever backfire in our future? Politicians, sounds like.
Yeah. Why would we have a society where we have young children deeply in debt as soon as they're ready to enter the workforce? What a terrible system that would be.
Where'S that soapbox come from?
Sorry.
Where did you stand up, dude?
What?
My shirt's off. How did that happen? I'm waving flag.
Your chest says eat the rich.
What? Where did this hammer and sickle come from? We learn about the student council, which is, as we know from anime, the most important governing body in, like, the city.
I'm going to yeah, they have full control.
So the way the system works is students will donate money to the student council to establish their ranking. And the poorest, I believe 100 are considered house pets. And the lower status, that has to be subservient to everyone else.
Yeah, but it's not even necessarily the poorest. It's just the people who give the least money. So you don't want to give money. It's just like, well, fuck you then.
But also, if you give as much as you can and are still the poorest, you're still a house bet. But now you're out of that money. Who doesn't love a good caste system in your anime? It's great and super healthy.
I love the political implications of this show. And they mentioned that this system was put into place after the current student council president, kirari, who gambled for the position of student president or student council president, took office and created this rank system and basically established this caste system. Pay to be treated like a person thing.
Pay to win school. This freemium school system.
So, yeah. yumco. Hearing all this stuff gets extremely horny thinking about just the risk of gambling for this leadership position.
It's not just like even she has like, super horny, but she's sweating. And even in the first episode, like during the Rock, Paper Scissors, when she plays her hand and wins, there's just drips of some fluid that just rise up in her shot. And she wasn't sweating before, so I don't know where that is. It is a super sexual show.
In this particular scene, she's like, grabbing her crotch, moaning. So again, she is horny. I know we use that word a lot, but this case, it is extremely valid, literal.
Can't stress it enough. How horny?
I think we can stress it enough, actually.
Super saiyan horny.
No.
So very distinct from the first episode. We see a blonde student who is very good at gambling and we are introduced to her. izuki, who is the most junior person on the student council, is like a freshman, but immediately got in because she's so rich, because her parents run like the biggest toy manufacturer in Japan. So I need to get my hook up to get some fresh zoids.
Bad news. They're still super expensive.
Oh no. My plan backfired immediately.
Yeah, she would charge you so much.
Yeah. Cold salad.
She hearing about the humiliation of Mary the day before challenges Umico to a friendly game to test her skills and riotA warns her that she is undefeated in card games. So it is a terrible choice, but umico being so horny for risk, just so damn horny. So damn horny. She gladly accepts.
I love that it's like the horniest show we watch. And it wasn't my pick. I didn't choose it this time.
I'm proud of you, and I'm a little disappointed in dana.
You know what? I resent that this is as horny as you guys. I don't know, I guess I focus less on the literal fact that she's horny and more that's just weird how much she wants to risk so much money.
Like, that's definitely there, but she's, like, grabbing her crotch, being like, oh, I want the risk.
Yeah, I know what happened.
We get a lot of butt shots. I understood that in kjo because it was about the bots, but we got a lot of, like, what shots?
A show about gambling.
Anime. Though I will not say the fan service, like, butt shots are out of the ordinary for anything we watch.
Yeah, I think it just stood out to me because it was tied in with the hornet of the other scenes, so it just seemed more prevalent to me. But you're probably right. It's probably like, the average amount of fan service.
So yeah. We play a new card game, very High stake. A game of memory.
Yeah. They call it double concentration. I was like, oh, I wonder what this is. And then they explain. I was like, oh, yeah, that's it's.
Just memory.
They're literally just using children's games to gamble.
Yeah, because they, like, want to build it up. So by the end, I'm sure it's like Texas Hold Them or whatever the rule of gambling is. But they're starting us at such elementary school things like, I would play this on, like, camping trips in elementary school.
Because when you had nothing else to.
Play so, yeah, basically, they flip out two decks of cards on the table and you have to match each card from each deck. So you have to get like the four of clubs has to match the four of clubs. You can't just find another four.
Yeah, the number and the suit.
So, yeah, it's aki opens up these two fresh decks of cards from her family's company. Not suspicious at all, right off the bat. And they go toe to toe, all these matching things, talking about memorizing it. Yumiko loses the first round once.
The other girl, I just called her headband the whole time because I didn't remember her name. Once they get 54 pairs, it's pretty much like there's no way the opponent can get more than that. So it's game over.
So she wins and then they bet for ¥20 million. So Yumiko is like, oh, no, I can't pay all that. Let's go double or nothing. And itzky raises the stakes and collects nails, at which point nails I was like, Excuse me, you what a weird thing to pull out halfway through this interaction.
Yeah, I could understand if it was like, I don't know, something where it's like, I. Collect, like, a souvenir from everyone. I lose it's like, okay, this is like I collect a part of them, like part of their bodies. I rip it off their bodies and keep it. It's like, oh, hey, John Wayne gacy, when'd you get to this school, like, that's serial killer level.
So, yeah, she bets four. Yumico's fingernails. So they set up a new round and we get the inner monologue of ituki.
Who's.
Like, ha ha. I use these rigged cards where they are, like, heat sensitive, so you can see on the back what cards they are, but only I know the patterns and they fade after a few minutes so no one can catch on.
Wait, but my favorite is she's like it's like a small detail that's activated with heat. And I have a bunch of hand warmers in my purse. Excuse me.
So my hands are just super hot. I just shove my hands in my.
Purse if I put my bag and.
The cards are stored in the purse, so they have before they're even put out.
Oh. See, I imagined her just shoving her hands in the purse, so every time she touches them, the pattern was revealed.
Just refreshing her hands every time?
Yeah, that bag just, like, 500 degrees. How do you have, like, eight hand warmers in there and no one really notices? Like, hey, your bag's irradiating like a fucking oven. Like oh, sorry.
I brought Hot Pockets for lunch. I just warm. It's only second period. We have we have a while to go until I can eat these bad boys.
I'm making a loaf of bread in my bag.
Sorry, you don't bring baked potatoes to school.
They're raw when I leave for school, and then they're fully cooked by lunch.
The portable crock pot.
Yeah. Give up on toys. Start going into, like, tiny confectionery ovens that you can carry around with you.
You mean an Easy Bake oven?
Yeah, that's already affordable and you can put in your bag.
Oh, I guess I could cross over with toys, too. Yeah, there you go. Why doesn't she have an Easy Bake other than that?
Anyway, so yumiko catches on because, again, she's brilliant. For whatever reason, there are a lot.
Of homes of kids are told she is.
So she catches on to the cheating and it'siki is like, okay, I just need to get to my turn, and then I can just wipe her off the planet and get her nails. But the opportunity doesn't come because yumiko memorized all these patterns in the three minutes that they were visible. And first round gets all 54 matches.
She needs to win just instant sweep before the other girl can even play.
Yeah, what I like about, umaco, a character with not a lot of her deeming qualities is that she doesn't stand for cheating. Like, I think she'll gamble with whoever, but I feel like once she notices they're cheating, she's like, oh, fuck.
No, I got to shut you down.
Yeah, this isn't fair. This needs to be fair.
I'm curious how she would react to just maybe it happens later in the series, but just a game of pure luck of gambling, because yeah, you're right. Once she finds out cheating, it's like, okay, kick gloves are off. Let me destroy this person. And if she would actually have enjoyed a game of actual chance and not be so dominating, I mean, I think.
She does, because she did risk that ¥10 million in the first one, not knowing if she would pull scissors.
Yeah, I guess. I'm just saying I would like to see that one instead of just the ha ha, now I ruin you.
And oh, that ruining moment comes because once she wins nuts, she's like, hey, motherfucker, you want to cheat me? You want to put your company name on the line knowing spreading out to everyone in the school that your business has rigged cards? You want to throw that away, motherfucker? How about we play for your fingernails and toenails, motherfucker?
You want these nails so bad? How about you catch these hands, bitch? She just, like, goes at her and.
Then eats a key pussies out when it's her nails on the light.
Yeah, she just starts she's like, no, my nails.
And it's like, you bitch, you don't.
Play the Game of Thrones if you're not willing to lose.
Yeah, that reference is lost on me.
Also me. I've never watched Game of Thrones.
Oh, wow. Okay.
I mean, I understand the implications, but.
It'S not even that old of a reference. It's topical.
I understand. I just don't watch it.
Anyway, so, yeah, she chickens out, and we see the student council for the first time being like, hey, this chick is on to all of our cheating. She knows we're cheating at all of our games.
We're on that bullshit.
Kill her. We have to get her out of here. They don't say kill. It's more dramatic that way.
More needs to be at stake.
Yeah.
Then we see some other things happen that don't really factor in. And then we see Mary Bet, one of the student council members and lost ¥40 million.
Whoops.
A lot of cash.
And that's where we end episode two.
Yeah.
So episode three. Oh, I will point out in the show, like, I know it was probably in the last episode with the nails, but the patterns in the show are very pronounced. Like the different patterns in just the clothing, the skirts and pants, the one girl's headband, the nails, even the stockings get a lot more of attention and detail than stockings and other shows where it would just be a solid color and that's it. But this has, like, the gradient lighting of stocking where it gets darker on the edges, and I think that plays into with there's not a lot of action or big budget stuff going on in the show. So we just put all the money into different things, into the attention and detail of the faces and stuff. So I can appreciate that. It's refreshing to see them put a lot of detail into somewhat innocuous things. So I enjoyed that part of it. And episode three starts off right where we left episode two with Mary losing. And it actually jumps back a bit. And we shoes Mary in the game before in the last episode of Just, where she lost. So it's in the game with Mary and she sees I'm just going to call her Greek yogurt because that's all my notes. chobani walking in right as she's losing. And I got fucking no idea what this game is. It's a girl putting a bunch of swords in a cup and throwing them down and it's like, hey, you lost. It's like, okay, all right. It's just very confusing right off the bat.
It's just another weird, like, childish game.
Yeah, we find out later.
Related to roulette.
Basically, it's roulette without the wheel with swords. There you go. It's like yachtsi and roulette combined.
Yeah.
And instead of dice, it's swords that have a particular feature we'll get into a little bit and yeah, we see Mary freaking out and kind of like lose because she just lost and kind of like, oh, no, this is like my chance to not be a house pet anymore. And I lost again. And now I'm further in debt. And as she's walking away, she's talking to herself in her head saying, I could have paid it off like the debt I had before. After losing the first time, it wasn't that much like, I'm rich. I could have afforded it, but I wanted to win back my placement and now I'm even further down than before and I'm just fucked dumb bitch. So what happens when you're the primary antagonist and bully in an anime?
You make dumb decisions.
Yeah, but she's not really the primary antagonist because I feel like the show tries to make you have sympathy for her, especially in this moment where she's like, oh, fuck.
Yeah.
She had none because our establishment of her is using ryota as a footstool.
That's true.
She just heart, empathy, left beef.
There's a lot of other students that just kind of make fun of the house pet and tease them. And then she's really going hard of like, you're my servant.
That's true.
And riotta tells Giovanni that this is a formal match against a student council member. And formal matches are when a house pet can challenge anyone in the school. And if they challenge a student council member, the member doesn't have a limit to the bet, so it can be as much as they need. So it's kind of a last ditch effort for a house pet to redeem themselves a betting all or nothing. Pretty much. And if they lose, they're in more debt than they could ever pay off, theoretically, depending on who they are. And it's often yeah, that's what I just said, reading my notes. It's a custom game that this student council member made for her club. We saw a girl in the front saying, like, oh, there's a match right now. You can come in and watch it. I guess this show takes place in Japan, so even in Japan, this one area and room is very Japanese. You got the paper screen doors, you got the bamboo mat floors, you got the oni mask up on the walls, and the student council member is in a kimono. So this is a very trophy, traditional feudal Japan character who's in modern day yeah.
And that's like their club. It's like I forget what it's called, but it's pretty much like Cultural Traditions Club.
Yeah, something like that. And we find out that the game they're playing is one that they made themselves. So, you know, it's totally legit and there's no way they're cheating at this at all.
Again, not suspicious at all.
What a unique episode. We haven't seen anything like this so far.
Interesting. At this point, it isn't a show about gambling. It's a show about detectiving your way to find out who's cheating. And the answer is everyone. But you have to find out how. You have to catch them in the cheat. What's the point of gambling if you know literally everyone's cheating? But this game is called Life or Death, and it's where ten sword pieces are thrown into a cup and then thrown on a board with different slots in it and numbers. And if the sword lands on it, and then before the cups revealed, you place a bet on those numbers. Kind of like roulette. You think you bet $100 on this number and $100 on that number and $200 on that number, et cetera. But the caveat is with the swords, there's little slots underneath each number. And if the sword lands in the slot, it's 30 times as much of that value. And if it's blade down, that debt. So the person who betted on that owes 30 times that much. But if it's the blade up, it's life, so the person gets 30 times that.
See, this is like that's what's so childish to me, is, like, you owe 30 times this amount.
It seems just like an arbitrary multiplier, just like a shit load more.
Yeah. Like, oh, if you get this wrong, you owe me 30 times the cheetos you did before.
Yeah. If this was an actual casino or a real game, it'd be like double or maybe triple the amount that you bet it. And that's kind of gamble, like, the bigger gamble for it. But yeah, the fact that it's 30 times more, it's just like, we get it. Ridiculous. They're fucking rich. Like, we get it. So it just is a way to guarantee a life or death stakes match because it's just so much so the student council member I wrote it down later. I forget now. Yeah. yuriko knows of Giovanni, and it's like, hey, we got a heads up about you. Would you like to play? And because she's so horny for gambling, she's all in because she actually, after the last episode, she just is looking for another gambling. I got to get my fix. So she's just, like, frothing at the mouth to get more gambling in. And yuriko's like, oh, come and join us, and we can play a few rounds and stuff and see where it goes. And Rio does, like all paranoid, like, you can't do this because he's just a wet blanket. And the voice of reason not relevant in the show.
Yamiko calls him a buzz kill in episode two.
Yeah, that is his sole purpose is to be a buzz kill.
Yeah, he's the worry work that stands behind the main character going, you can't do that.
Like, the only other value he's contributed to the show so far is explaining exposition to her.
Yeah. As you know, Dave and the warrior. So they play one round and they bet lightly. They spread out their numbers pretty evenly, and no one wins. And this is kind of seen as like a way of their testing each other out in this game and how they would play this game and kind of gauging their opponent. And ryota is worried about the money. And shabani says out, that doesn't even matter. Like, I could not care less about the money. So there aren't stakes. Yeah. She says it's like peanuts to both of them. So that kind of defeats the stakes of the match if they don't care about the money. And I think is why they introduced the 30 times multiplier. I don't care if I lose, like 100 or $1,000, but I kind of care if I lose $30,000. So it's this weird way of, like, they shot down the stakes and then artificially increased the stakes in the story if they just realized they shot them down by saying it's not relevant. So after that first round, Giovanni immediately calls erico out and saying, you should be embarrassed by how do you play, like, you suck at this game. She's making fun of her name. She's making fun of her name, saying, like, oh, I bet on, like, two, four, six, and twelve because your name can be read like two and twelve and just kind of dissecting her name, saying, I made these bets because your name is silly, and I thought I'd make fun of you. And just really laying into her and just kind of insulting her and saying she's nothing more than a two bit loan shark for giving Mary hope that there's a chance that she will win and then knocking her down further into debt and just kind of really laying into her.
She says, your shit.
She says, you're shit. And you know it's dying that's a good moment.
Yes, you may go. Step on me next.
And it's at this point the referee who throws the swords in the cup and throws them down, kind of like it's trying to defend her master's honor. Like the club representatives honor. It's like, hey, watch it. We'll kick you out of here. eureka's. Kind of tense stuff. She's like, no, this is fine. I'll knock the shit out of this opponent of mine. And kind of taking the bait. I'm just like, oh, I want this challenge. She thinks she's hot shit, and I'm going to prove her wrong. And Giovanni just keeps insulting her and saying that cups empty, like the space between your ears and stuff like that. And just really laying into her. It's a weird thing. The main character just be such an asshole.
Kind of refreshing, playful banter.
Yeah, they're just teasing each other, goading each other a little bit so they get ready for the next round. And chobani just bets everything on 24. Just all the money she's got. She's going all in and that's, you know, spreading her chances. And this is when Yurichi says she can't win. She doesn't want to win the regular way. that'd be boring. She wants to destroy her. She wants to really lay into her and kind of put Giovanni in her place is kind of clothing with all the one number thinking she knows how the game is going to work. And this is when Giovanni points out, like, oh, I'm confident because I know you're cheating. It's very clear you're cheating. That's why you suck. Shit. He's like, what? And she noticed the two dots on the referee's hand. She's like, oh, those two dots. The girl off front who greeted us also had those two dots. They're not moles, they're piercings. They're little metallic balls pierced into their hand. Like, fucking Jesus. How far are you going for this dumb bedding thing?
Yeah.
And she says the balls are magnetized. And there's one sword out of the ten that are likely magnetized. So when she throws it all in, it's not a guaranteed she can't control it completely, but she can at least pull it in the direction she wants it a little more when she's like throwing the cup down.
And she also hides, like, oh, she can't be cheating because she loses sometimes, even though statistically she's winning more than she's losing.
Yeah, she's rigging the system, but it's not a guaranteed win. So that way that she's not as obvious and people won't catch on as quickly. But we got the main character, and she's got that plot armor. So she saw it instantly after two rounds. Let's see. And that's why in the first round, giovanni also waited till the last second because she was kind of trying to see how Yorici would bet and kind of wanted to wait because she knew the sword is going to be moved at the last second while it was dropping. So she wanted to try and guess where it would be. And by betting all in one spot, she finds out that with all the money they put on, if Yorici loses yuriko. Wow. When did I just derail off that name? And no one stopped me? No yuriko.
Well, I know when it happened.
This is why I call her chobani. I make up my names that are easier.
Not yuriko.
No. yumeko is the main character, and then yuriko is the student council member in this scene.
Oh, God. I didn't even pick up. Why did you give two people the same fucking name?
I think that's her name. I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure that's her name.
You miko is the main character, and yuriko is this new kimono. I'm calling her chobani and kimono.
Perfect.
Okay.
They realize that because Giovanni bet it all on one number. If eureko loses and gets death on that number, then she would lose two point ¥17 billion. She's like, I could pay that off. Like, I won't be, you know, in the poor house, but I'd have to take funds from the club, and I would be out of the student council because I couldn't afford it anymore. And the club would essentially be dissolved, and all the girls that are in the club who were formerly house pets would go back to being house pets. So she's kind of like, oh, shit. Now there's stakes to this, and she's getting kind of nervous. And this is when she tries to like, hey, maybe I can negotiate with chobani. Maybe we can talk my way out of this crazy bet. And that's right when the student council president shows up with two other members saying, like, hey, what up? You're about to lose real bad, and I want to watch this, she's like, oh, shit, I can't negotiate now. Like that, you know, be losing my place just by trying to, like, weasel my way out of this bet. And President's, like, real cocky and doesn't expect her to win. It's kind of like, oh, we look forward to seeing what you do further Greek Yogurt. We look forward to seeing where you get in the school. And it's when the cups revealed that, no, she didn't win. The numbers just didn't really fall in anything, so nothing really happened. Kind of anticoimactic. It wasn't like someone won all the money.
It's just like, you make her lost.
Yeah, she lost, but she didn't like, it wasn't life or death where one of them lost by 30 times the amount. It's just like the source just fell wherever.
Yeah, it wasn't like, a billion yen loss, but it was still significant enough.
Yeah.
Got you.
And this is when Tribune is like, oh, maybe it was a badger. And it's like, what the fuck are you talking about? And it just is, like, really out of place. And we find out the president is kind of like, oh, you lost? Well, I guess you can keep your place on the council year. We go see you guys later, and then just leave. And this is when it cuts to Giovanni, like, underneath the floors, kind of like looking up and explaining what a badger is. That it's an old Japanese gambling trick where someone would go underneath the floor mats with, like, a light and look through the floor mats to see what the dice were and then use a needle to poke up through the mats to change the position of the dice so the person would win. She was saying, like, oh, maybe someone did that. And his wife started getting confused. But she was saying, someone did that with the swords, like with the magnet ones, but yuriko wasn't aware of it, so who could have done that? And it's like, oh, maybe it was the president. Did the president do this for this one match? Did she know we were going to have this match? And she set up, like, a trick so that I would lose for this single match and then came into cloak, and that's when shabani just getting all hot and heavy. I got to gamble the president. That's what this show is.
Yeah, he's not wrong.
I know. Who is it? Why?
And she's all excited to eventually gamble against the president, and she's like, now I got a face off against her. And because she lost, now Chubani is a house pet. And when she came back to her desk, it's all graffiti like we saw with Mary's desk. And there's a doll with a sword stabbed indoor. And I was wondering, where are they getting all these dolls with their classmates so quickly? And then the one girl is like a toy family, so I guess I don't know.
They're all rich. I'm sure someone can sew, maybe.
But where do they find the free time when they're so busy gambling?
They're so rich, they don't actually go to school. This is just a gambling hall disguised to school. That's what the show seems like. And because she's a class pet, now she's got the name tag, and everyone's calling her mittens. And we see a few girls come over to her talking like, oh, we heard you lost. She's like, oh, yeah, you guys don't have to worry about me. And they're, like, worried. Why would you be worried? You're a pet now. You're a poor mittens. There's a very gaudy, rich laugh.
Yeah, got that 90s anime laugh.
You won't be joining me on my yacht anytime soon.
But while they're doing this, they're like, laughing so hard. And we get the really ugly, distorted faces and the zoom zone zoom in on it. That like they're spitting as they're laughing and talking and the spit hitting the camera, and it's just like, what is this, like, mood? What is this, like, scenes that were gross.
That's what the mood is.
And it's just so weird.
Almost like this is an ugly show.
And this is when shabani's just like, oh, I'm a cat now. Cool. Cats are cool. I like cats. And she like, gets down on the floor on her hands and knees and be like, does anyone want to play with this kiddie? meow.
Meow.
Yeah. And just really lays into the whole house pet thing. And it's like, come on, why don't you come over here and rub my belly? And just kind of leans into it so hard that the girls that were making fun of her kind of get freaked out and leave.
I love that. That's a mood that makes people feel so uncomfortable. They just get out.
I've done that plenty of times. Especially online playing games. You just lean into the insult so hard and it's really fun and empowering in a weird way. You just embrace the shit out of it. And this is when ryota comes up and says, like, hey, knock it off. You can't be doing this. She's like, oh, no, maybe I'll role played a little more. Maybe I'll come in tomorrow with some ears in the tail and just fucking go full force. She can say because she's so naturally good at gambling. And she knows it's not going to be forever. And the episode ends with the student council showing that they have life plans for chibani. And then that's it. We don't get to see them.
So darn, I'm so sad. We're deprived.
We're going to miss out on all that good good horny gambling.
Well, it doesn't even matter if we ask because we started the episode.
It does not matter.
Yeah, I'm going to give the rare fuck this show.
That aggression, such aggression from duties is rare.
Ruined, by the way. No, it's nothing for me.
I had fun and now I want to play some board games.
I would ask. All right, since it's cool, you know. Is there anything you did enjoy out of the show? Were there some elements that you did enjoy? Like I enjoyed the opening. I thought it was very cool and creative.
Boy, legitimately. Beyond the bitterness of my history with the show, I didn't think it was good. It was the same plot of challenge to this game I've revealed, you're cheating. I win. And now you're embarrassed. Even in the last one, when she loses, she still embarrasses the other person and sort of shakes them to their core. It's like we saw the same thing three times in a row. This isn't interesting. Even though you're slightly ramping up the bets each time to give the illusion of, like, higher stakes throughout. Like, it's the same bullshit.
See, this could have been a show, potentially, that we could have, like, jumped around in. But I didn't do my research because I haven't seen the whole thing. And also, it's only 13 episodes, I think. So jumping around in it would be like, pointless.
And I've seen more from working on it. Just the little snippets when I would, like, pop into recordings. It doesn't advance beyond this. It's still I'm going to gamble. What? You're crazy. That's a huge amount. Ha ha. You cheated. Goodbye. So like no, it's going to be the same shit. And then don't make twelve episodes of.
One episode plot one mechanic. And then they even say like, this money is worthless to me. It's peanuts. It doesn't matter. It's like, then why do we care.
About this literal rock, paper, scissors game? At least make it interesting.
I've seen this in other shows, especially like the big fighting animes where they'll have a tournament or they'll do like a weird style fighting of like you have to defeat your opponent, but not in just punching them. You have to play this weird game. And usually it's rock, paper, scissors. I think, like, Hunter X Hunter has a moment like that or an episode, and they at least do it in an interesting way and usually because they have, like, powers or some shit. But it's not just like, oh, I looked at everyone's eyes around the room and I knew you were cheating, so I naturally assumed you would be cheating. So I planned ahead for that and just like this weird, like, backtracking of sherlock Holmes detective mentality. And it's just at least with the other shows, like the big fighting shows like Hunter X Hunter, that's one episode and then we move on. That seems to be this whole series.
Yeah. And like you said, we sort of get robbed of the haha. We set up this very clever riddle and then just pulled the curtain and revealed it without actually having, like, giving the audience the chance to be in on it. Because just pulling a hand mirror out of nowhere after the fact, where it didn't actually factor in in the moment is bullshit.
Yeah, how convenient. You had that deus ex machina that no one knew about.
Yeah.
I mean, I enjoyed some of the art. It was gross, but they were trying to be gross, so they did a good job.
Yeah, that's the kind of shit I'm into.
I just thought it was gross for no reason. I didn't really find anything redeeming, not even the song. I didn't like the opening or the ending lit. Well, sorry to put a fucking bummer.
On this episode, but we knew that would happen.
Yeah, you knew that this would be the outcome.
And it wasn't me this time. Yeah.
So we've been on a real fucking bummer streak lately. So next week we're going to mix it up and we're going to watch osmosis jonesy anime cells at work.
I want to say that's not what it is, but I also know nothing about it, so I can't same.
But yeah, just seeing like, blood cells and solving problems inside a human body, it's osmosis Jones, the anime, and we're.
All going in blind. So, yeah, we'll see.
If there's a show you would like us to watch that I don't have deep seated hatred for. You can send your suggestions to us at our twitter Are we There Yet? On Twitter and Instagram. Or you could email us. Are we there yet@gmail.com?
He may not have deep seated bitterness, but he might do this to your anime.
Just be warned.
I will forewarn you of my history with it if that would be the case. But I hate no anime like I hate this anime. So 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. It stands for Almost Better Than Silence, which is my other podcast about video games.
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 louie's music at Louisong bandcamp.com. And I never mentioned this, but it is all free to download and you can also listen on spotify.
It's very good.
Very good music to listen to while you're studying or drawing your lofi.
Beats to study too.
Yes, exactly.
Well, thank you for joining us. Sorry this was so so with hatred. pleasantness, hopefully will come back to us next week. We hope you join us next week as we learn to live with animals.
I love you, music. You.