It's a dirty manga. Dirty manga. Dirty manga. Dirty manga.
Hello, and welcome to our week there yet in exploration and education and anime. I'm your anime idiot, patrick dugan.
I'm an anime expert, dana hollander.
And I'm brenda mccullough. Your anime, John Waters. I don't know much about this show. I've actually seen the first episode, so I don't know that much. But John Waters is a well known pervert, so I figured it'd be appropriate for this show.
Fair.
John Waters would have meant that.
I just watched his hairspray the other night. Sam and I are just watching, just like, the criterion Collection of gay movies. Yeah, no, that checks out. Yeah, that works.
I think he recently donated, like, all of his art collection to the Baltimore Museum, which was awesome. But also concerning hope you're well, John Waters. Yeah.
And they named the bathrooms after him specifically, so yeah, he loves being a pervert.
It's very on brand for him.
But I know usually why we're talking about perverts when we're watching Ryan May. But why are we talking about perverts today?
It's not much.
Well, this show isn't necessarily about perverts, but we're watching kakushi Goto, which I guess involves a guy who writes an etchy a Dirty manga.
Yeah. The show itself isn't perverted, but that is the plot.
I just wanted to make that clear because this is a show about a father and his daughter, and it is not perverted in that sense whatsoever.
No. Yeah.
I would not be in this chipper of a mood if we were talking.
About stuff like that.
Yeah.
Well, I mean, I do know a show if you're interested in anyway. Yeah. No, I watched the first episode of this. India. It's just insanely wholesome and stuff. But the plot is he writes like a dirty quote manga.
Yeah.
That's all I had to go off of.
Yeah, this is pretty recent. Like, it came out earlier this year. I watched it all with Paul in June and then it ended a couple of weeks later or something like that.
Yeah, it looks like it's only eight episodes, or at least currently dubbed.
Yeah, the show ended, I think, in either late June or early July.
Okay. So the dub's still fresh.
Yeah, it's 13 episodes total.
Got you.
But I really enjoyed it. Paul really loves it. And I wanted to keep the good.
Train going, the good vibes.
You're still doing a shit.
Yeah. So we're in a slightly better place. We'll say not much better, but at least a little bit.
We found a clearing in the woods. We're not out of them, but we found a place to rest for a little bit.
Yeah, we found our oasis. It's mostly mud, but there's a little bit of water here.
So if it's 127 Hours, we've gotten the arm off. But we're still in the desert. We're still in that desert.
So it's like but we'll make it out eventually.
We see a big ravine. We still have to climb.
But we're like, I can do this one handed. Anyway. Wholesome anime.
Yeah.
Sweet.
Shall we dive face first into those wholesome vibes?
Yeah, we're watching the first three episodes.
Quick, quick.
Hide the porn. Hide the porn.
Oh, god. Put away getting high school flashbacks. Not under the bed. That's obvious.
No, that's the first place you look.
Oh, God. Actually, that it just reminded me in college at one point by one of my roommates.
I don't like how the story started.
Don't worry, it's not going to get better. One of my roommates came back. Anytime I talked about my roommate in college, it's always this one roommate. All my other roommates were fine. It's definitely, this is one crazy guy. But he just came back from class one day with a bunny of his. Just with a bunch of magazines. We're like what? He's like, hey, guys, we found all these hustler magazines in a truck. We're like, did you break into someone's truck and steal their porn? Like their old vintage 70s porn?
Oh, yeah, something fell off the back of a truck. I heard that before.
That means that's immediately what? I'm like, what the fuck do you mean you found these in a truck? What truck were you in? And it's just like yeah, you just had a lot of old porno magazines. Why?
The door was opened, so I assumed it was free rain.
Yeah, it's free real estate. I just walked right in.
Yeah, there was a flea market like 2 miles down the road, so we assumed he was part of that.
God is so weird to me. Get rid of them. We don't want just porno sitting on a coffee table.
Their table read. What is coffee table book? That one.
I mean, there's a bdsm. It's definitely like a conversation starter.
But how do you feel about this? Hey, new friends, let's explore.
Kink, what's your feelings on skin tight, latex and stiletto heels?
Wholesome.
Pure. Anyway, back to anime.
Let's talk about this. Which at times is wholesome and pure.
Yeah, sometimes.
Yeah. Episode one, it opens with girl looks like a girl in high school sitting on a train. And we got a little voice over her talking and asking about what your darkest secret is. I was like, there's a lot to throw on me. We just met. I don't even know your name. But she's just kind of talking to herself about secrets and stuff. And we see her going up to a house that's all roped off and seal it off and kind of looks abandoned. And she's talking about how she's trying to find the secret side of someone she cares about. And when she opens up the door, it's like a storage area. We see papers fly out. And then we cut to that same girl, but younger. She's like ten now. And she's going off to school and she's saying goodbye to her dad who's going off to work, and they're outside of a very similar house, maybe the same house. I'm not super clear on that, but.
It'S the same layout or whatever, but it's not the same.
Got you.
Okay.
Yeah, that was throwing me for a bit at times, but yeah, we see her go to school and we see her dad leave for work and he's in a business suit with a briefcase and all that. And then as he's walking, we see him go into a little store and he comes out and sweatpants and like a T shirt, no briefcase, got like a donut pillow to sit on now and yeah, real different. Then we get the opening sequence.
I love it so much.
Yeah, it's nice.
I like the song a lot and I think it's really pretty. I love the opening. That's me.
I love it. And then we get a flashback of, like I wrote the names now, but we all know I'm going to butcher them. Like the third time I say each, so just prepare for that. He may flashback of her being born and the dad holding her. He's like, oh my God, it's my beautiful daughter. And the doctor is like, all right, Mr. kakushi, and he's like, oh, I recognize your name. You're a famous manga artist. I'm agaga. You draw that like I forget the exact well, Balls of Fury. He's like, I love Balls of Fury. And then all the nurses around him are like, what? What's this called? And one of the nurses like, oh, I know that. My son reads it. It's a dirty manga. And that's right when we see the dad being like, oh, no, my daughter can never know. It's when he realized his identity. Yeah, fresh into the world, daughter immediately having to hide a secret from her, like, instantly. So we cut back into the present day and we see him show up to work, and one of his coworkers, one of his new assistants, is reading one of his manga in the office, and he starts parading like, how dare you bring this here. You bring my own work into my own place of employment? And he's like, what? You made this? We're making more of this stuff. What are you freaking out about? Because he's the new assistant, he doesn't know all the particular rules yet, so the chief assistant, there's like, four assistants in the show. I didn't bother writing down anyone's name.
I don't know why. The only name I retained was Amy. She's the one with the hair.
Bobble yeah.
But all the other ones, I was just like, blonde girl.
Brock and brock, I'm glad you're continuing to eat a trip.
Well, he is.
That one, AMI was essentially the April ludgate of the office.
Yeah.
The chief assistant, let's just call Rock, teaches the new assistant, eda, about all the boss's particular habits and how he wants to keep his work secret from his daughter and how they're not allowed to bring any of his old work to the office in case someone stops by. And all these particular things of trying to hide the work he's actually doing. And they're like, yeah, just be happy he started working with them now back in the day when he wrote Balls of Fury, he could only draw when he was completely naked. And he shows him like a little author's bio and picture at the back of the manga. And it's just him sitting at the desk just all out, just hanging it all out.
Power.
Wow, that's a lot of HR violation. That's a lot of workplace violations right there.
I just realized for a lot of this, I was like, I don't super identify with this main character, but it really just hit me. Oh, yeah, I run an anime podcast. I get it now.
You're shaping what you do for a living. Yeah, it's like if I bred and rode horses, which I definitely don't do that in a major city. What are you talking about?
I don't live near the burbank course district at all. Weird.
I cut Hema at school out in the playground with some of her classmates. And one of her classmates just asked her like, hey, hey, mate, what's your dad do for a living? And I'm going to get in front of this right now. This classmate of hers is an utter bitch.
Yeah, he knows the worst.
I don't care if she has a child. She's heinous. And when her classmate asks her that, the teacher jumps. No, one of the other classmates is like, oh, you're not supposed to ask what someone else's parents does because then it could what did she said?
Like a very particular term, occupational discrimination.
That it is. Yeah. I was like, there's no way this kid knows that term. And then the teacher comes in like, yes, that's correct. I was like, the teacher taught them this.
My daddy works in HR.
And the teacher comes in saying like, yes, we don't want to talk about like, parents workplace. Because then, yeah, you can discriminate against the other students for it. And it's just, you know, it doesn't need to be brought into school and stuff. And then after she says that, we see a little cut away of her talking with hema's dad. I guess they have like a parent teacher conference or if they met to talk about he may. And the teacher is like a big fan of his. She's like, I love Balls of Fury. It's great. Why are you ashamed of it? And he's like, all right, come along. And he takes her out to like a little cafe and they run into someone who knows kakushi. And she's like, oh, hey, some of the kids are in the neighborhood. Said you're mango artist. Can you like, draw a pretty cure for them? Yeah, sure. Here you go. And he just draws, like, a little character for her. He's like, here you go. She's like, oh, thanks. Great. This is why I don't tell anyone I'm an artist.
Not even his character. Can you draw me?
Can you draw goku for me? Yeah. Okay. And the few artist friends I know, I've seen that plenty of times, so I fully understand. Not even, like, hiding the type of manga he draws. Just any mango. I don't want to do this in my free time. I don't want to do it for you for free. People ask him all the time. So the teacher kind of agrees, like, all right, yeah, I'll make sure it doesn't come up at school around TMA and stuff. I'll do you solid like that. And then we see him back at the office. kakushi is waiting for his new editor, who's late. He's supposed to have been at the office a few hours ago, and he hasn't shown up yet. And Edo, the new assistant, like, hey, maybe your editor just went right to your home and is delivering because he's waiting for new t shirts of his character, new merch. Maybe he just dropped off the t shirts at your house instead of bring him to the office too, then bring to your house. kushi freaks out.
Like, what the fuck?
What do you do? I got to get just takes off. So he's freaking out because he doesn't want his daughter to see the merchandise of this character. Who's was it? Tights in the wind. Tights in the Wind is the current mangaes writing. The character has, like, women's tights on his head.
Is that a panty and stalking joke? Absolutely. Just kidding. I actually don't know that for a.
Fact, but it's stalking.
He is involved in this. I denounce this show. We can't talk about it anymore.
Dana, you like the show. You can't ruin it. So you see him running home, and as we see him running out, we see him drop into the clothing store real quick and changing his business suit, briefcase, runs out of it. And when he runs home, he sees the editors there. Or he opens the door, and he just sees heme. He's like, thank God. He opens it a little more, and he sees the editor. He's like, fuck. And he's wearing the shirt. Fuck. And he dives in front of him to try and block it from hemis eyesight. And when she goes to get tea, your snacks, he yells at him like, you were supposed to make it like wearable. You were supposed to make sure the company was made. It like wearable. And this is where we get a first look of a little aside of, like, I guess industry talk.
Industry talk?
Yeah. Editor like, oh, wearable is a term that mongols used to describe merchandise, where it's like, you don't want to just have a shirt with just a big picture of the character's face on it. That people might be embarrassed to wear out in public. Or you'll get a lot of questions about so you'll have just a silhouette with the title underneath of it or just something from the series that only fans would recognize or something like that. Something that wouldn't be as obvious on public that you can walk around with. And we see like, a little cut away of chart manufacturers being like, what? Why does he want us to do this? Like, no, we can even understand what this is. I just fucking put the main character's face on it. And he's like, no, he's the one thing I asked not for. So he says instead he's like, trying to rip the shirt off. But then he may start coming back. He's like, just cover it up and try to make it look natural. Like, don't be obvious about it. So the editor is, like, sitting in weird different poses to try and cover up the shirt, like with his arms and stuff. And every time he may comes back, she's like his arms are crossed. She's like, oh, you're the CEO. He's like, no, you can't let her think you're the CEO. You're younger than me. That would make me look bad. So he keeps changing the poses, and kaku. She's freaking out. And there's walter's just covering his nipples. And he comes back. He's like, ah, so you're a mommy. He's like, what? They start like they want to be like, how's her brain work? Why is this where her thought or her brain goes with these poses? So eventually he's like, I'm an artist. I know how to fix this. And he just starts drawing on the shirt to change it with a marker. And he just draws pretty cure again. She's like, you look pretty cure. He's like, why? Is this what you drew? He's like, it's easy. I know how to do it.
Kids love it.
Kids love this shit. They eat it up.
This is my second job. I'm a boardwalk caricatureist.
Kids Love debbie Dairy Berry. Everyone knows this.
Oh, my God.
And then we see later that night. They're getting ready for bread. Bread. They're getting ready for carbs. Got a nice loaf of carbs right before bed. They're getting ready for bed. And he may mention that a girl at school asked about his job. And she asked if that man today that came to the house was a CEO. And Kikui's kind of just dodger those questions. I'm like, oh, you know, I worked at the office. And like, I wasn't a CEO. That was someone else. Don't worry about it. Trying to avoid the question at any cost. Excuse me. And then the next day, we see him walking to work, and there's a cat drowning in a river. And as he's walking by, he just throws his butt donut at the cat. It's like a doughnut like, pillow he sits on for work. Because he sits all day.
Yeah, it's a hemorrhoid pillow. We can say it.
Yeah, you can use it without hemorrhoids, but it definitely helps with hemorrhoids. So he just throws the pillow at the cat to give it to something to float on. And then they rescue the cat. And as he's, like, walking away, people are like, oh, you saved the cat. Can we get a name of this brave hero that saved us? Drowning cat. And he's like, don't worry about it, wink. And plays it off coy and cool in his head. He's freaking out, being like, if I told him my name, I'll be in the paper, and then my daughter will know what I was doing with a buck pillow. Like, I can't let this everything is about his daughter not finding out what he does. That's his only thought all times.
Head empty.
Only mass conspiracy. So then we see. He may get homework for class about writing a wish. And so she's talking with her other classmates about how she would go home and write her wish when she gets home and she can think of something better, and she ends up writing that she wants her dad to be important someday. And her dad sees it, and he's like, what the fuck? I do important work. What do you do?
What does she know?
Nothing. Because I tell her nothing.
I tell her nothing. I've gaslighted her entire life. But he starts getting kind of paranoid, worried about it being like, does she not think what I do is important? Do I have to like, what does she want for me? Do I have to get a bigger job? And all of his assistants are like, if you want to be important as a mangaka, you have to be famous. You have to have a real popular series. Like this one, it's like Attack on gremlin, which is like, wait, wink, nudge, nudge. And they're saying, like, you got to get more famous. One of them says, you can be a manga. O, manga.
Mango.
Mango. And he's like, a fruit. No, you idiot. From what I could tell, it basically seemed like a cult classic mangaka. Like someone who does, like, stuff that isn't naruto, which is insanely popular, but it has a very loyal, dedicated fan base, so you can still make a solid living on it without selling a billion copies.
The auteurs.
Yeah. So she's like, you should try that. He's like, oh, I know one of those. He does, like, dark fantasy stuff. I should go ask him about it. So he goes and has, like, a little lunch with his colleague and ask him questions. And his colleagues have, like, long hair wearing, like, a cloak and, like, a cowboy hat. And it's just, like, super over the top and, like, dramatic. And he's like, well, this isn't helpful. But he's like, maybe I'll, you know, start working on, like, some dark fantasy stuff. And the editor shows up and he's like, what are you guys working on? We're like, we're working. I think one of them, brock says, like, I can't keep drawing this dd stuff and all this, like, dark fantasy stuff, because it's really hard to draw, like, armor and monsters. And the editor is like, ah, well, it's my job to make sure you guys don't draw what you want to. And then we get another manga industry cut away, saying, like, it's a running kind of like a running joke that editors are always not supposed to let the mangaka work on what they want to because they'll work on something, get very popular and successful, and then do a passion project that will flop for their next work. So it's like, no, you can't work on what you want to. You got to work on what will sell. And after the editor says that, everyone's like, we don't want to work on this, he's like, great. My job here is done. It's like, you don't do anything.
You didn't do anything.
The tuxedo mask of the show. And then another assistant comes back to work, and she was out, like, I guess meeting with her friends or did, like, a school reunion. And they were all impressed with like, wow, you work on this popular manga series. What's that like? She's like, oh, you know, it's pretty cool. So it's funny to see how popular the work they're doing is in some regards, while the main guy, the main creators still in his head just about what his daughter wrote for homework. And then cut to hema at school, talking with their friends. And the one friend loves cats, so they want to find the guy that saved the cat and honor him and let the whole town know he did such a good job. But all they know is that he had a briefcase and a black business suit. So the last time they saw him was around, like, this hilltop area of the city. So they're going to go around that area to find them.
They form a detective agency.
Yeah, we got, like, a little intro with all their names.
And then, like, the narrators like, kids it's either the teacher or the narrators. Like, kids will form detective agencies over anything.
It's true. Brazil. The whole generation of scooby doo. This is what happens. And then yeah, they say, like, oh, we'll go around the hilltop area because that's where he was seen. And then he may be like, oh, my dad says we got to watch it. We can't go to the hilltop area because there's monsters there called Fancy Peeps. They live up there, and they go to bookstores that don't have manga in it. And they drink weird drinks that sound like magical spells, and we can't go there.
The hipsters, that's gentrified neighborhood.
He's got a point. I know his concern, but he's got a point. And yeah, the teacher overhears them, hears about them talking about the fancy pizza. And the teacher agrees like they truly are monsters. Well dressed, fancy monsters.
The yuppie Empire.
The teacher comes in. I'm like, the teacher's an idiot. I love her. She's a great character. She goes along with everything. It's great. And we see kakushi leaving for the day, and he goes to get changed. He's one of his assistants at the clothing store where he gets changed. So he just starts, like, walking and talking with her. He doesn't end up getting changed, though. But he's he's on his they were.
On break or something, were they? Okay, I think he said something about that.
Yeah. So he's leaving and, like, walking with her, talking for a bit, and he explains that because he dresses like a slob and there's no real manga in any of the bookstores, none of the fancy peeps will recognize him at the hilltop, which is where he gets changed at the clothing store. So he's like, I purposely picked this area to change in my clothes because no one recognized me, and I can just keep going. And right around that time, while he's talking about that, we see the detective agency girls walking up, investigating stores and looking at stuff, and they end up going to the clothing store, where he gets changed all the time. And they run into the store owner, which I don't think we get a name, the store owner. And they see the store owner, and they all freak out, like, oh, no, a fancy peep monster. And the store owners are chasing. And I was like, you insulted me because you called me a monster, but you also called me fancy peep, so I don't know if that's compliment.
What does that mean?
Yeah, that's nothing.
And I like, that that's the reason the store owner is chasing. Was it a compliment or an insult? I must know.
I love attention, but I need to know if it was positive or negative.
Yeah, exactly.
Validate me.
And as the sword clerk chasing them, kaku, she sees them, and it's like, oh, no. He may's there with their friends and throws the butt pillow again at the sword clerk and knocks him out. And, like, they're friends. They know. So it's not like he assaulted them. But when they see the butt pillow fly out, they're like, oh, that's the pillow that saved the cat. He must be nearby. We must find him. And kakushi runs into a bookstore to try and escape from them. And as they run in, they're like, it's the forbidden bookstores. They talked about no manga, fancy drinks. And they're like, look, there's even, like, a witch on the logo. And he means, like, hey, isn't that starbucks? And they're like, nothing else is evil. Don't worry about it. And, yeah, it's very clearly just starbucks. And it's funny how they kind of like in the other two ups, they kind of tease him, being, like, kind of empty headed or just not thinking about too much. And it's like, no, she's clearly the only one that knows what this is. And as they're walking around the bookstore, they actually bump into Kikushi. And none of the girls recognize him because he's all disheveled, it's gruffy looking, and he's drinking those weird drinks with the big names and he's reading a book and not manga while he may is outside. So she doesn't recognize she's looking at something else. So all the girls get scared and run out and drag hema with her and yeah, then it cuts to them at home getting ready for bed again. And he asks he asked what he may's wish was. She's like, oh, I wish for you important because I just want you to be happy. And he's like, oh, the thing that will make me happy is just saying, you grow up big and strong. And she's like, I guess I'll have to drink my milk. End of the episode, she says, did.
You watch that dubbed or so yeah.
I watched that dubbed in the Japanese.
She says the occult. I got a drink for the occult.
The occult?
Yeah, it's like a protein milk drink, I think.
Like whey protein?
Yeah, okay.
Yeah. In the dump, they just say milk.
Yeah, I much prefer the Japanese.
Yeah, it wasn't bad, but it wasn't fine.
It was fine.
It helped me to listen to it instead of read it. So it did its job.
Easier to take notes when it's audio.
Yeah, I didn't even know there was a dub until today.
What? This is your land of illustrates?
Yeah. So in episode two, eda arrives to the manga studio and everyone is there and they're making guoza, and he's like, what are you guys doing? There's only 6 hours until the manuscript is due. And AMI is just like, just shut up and fold the dump.
Shut your mouth. Make yosa son of a bitch. Don't question you're the newbie you do.
What I say, your ass will be on the curb so fast if you.
Don'T pick up the dumpling.
And we get like that. Manga industry aside, the narrator says that when a deadline is looming, manga artists will do anything other than what they have to finish. But they won't play video games because that makes them feel too guilty at home. Yeah, they have to be doing something productive, but they will do anything other than right.
Hey, listener, have you heard of procrastination productive?
Procrastination?
So they finished making all the gioza and then eda is like, all right, so are we going to fry it? And then I just kept calling him dad. I know his name is kakushi.
Dad works.
Yeah, but also the title is a play on words because his name is kakuchi Gohto. kakushi goto also refers to someone who writes manga. And it also means like, keeping a secret. Triple entendre, triple threat.
It's lost on me.
Well, I. Think it's helpful if, like, in the Japanese, like, in the beginning of the first episode, she says it three times, and it means three different things. Like, you see that? But anyway, so dad says, are you kidding? frying giza? We have a manuscript to finish.
That was wrong with you.
And then they do it. They finish it in time. And eda is like, we would have finished it even earlier if we didn't make the gioza. And then ami is like, we only did it because we made the gioza. And eda is like, that doesn't make any sense. And it's like, yes, it does.
Respect the process.
I very much understand this.
I can see both sides of it. Yeah.
And this portion is a beach episode.
Yes. Check that out.
And he May is at the beach for, like, a summer field trip. And then we see that dad followed her there, and it's like the night before. He's like, hey, I have some time off from work. I want to spend some time with you. What do you want to do? And she was like, oh, I'm going on a field trip with my class. I told you about it like a month ago. And he's like, oh, okay, well, what are you guys going to do there? And she's like, oh, we're going to go swimming, and there's going to be a camp fire and a bug hunt. And he's just like, that's all too dangerous.
It's all animal crossing. It's not dangerous.
Helicopter farron activate.
So that all, like, freaks him out. And then he's also like, and I'm so lonely. So he uses it as an excuse to take his manga crew to the beach. He says that he's borrowing, like, a friend's villa, and his friend doesn't use it because of kamakura fever. And ami explains the story behind that is that there was a manga artist who was, like, exhausted by deadlines and dreamed of living by the beach so they could, like, relax. So they moved to the beach, but then, oh, no, it was too far for his assistance, and the convenience stores closed too early, and the sea air messed up his pens. So manga artists by the sea is bad news, but they're all excited to get away and not think about manga. And they get to the villa, and it's a mess.
Truly haunted, abandoned cabin, spider webs.
They go in and they start cleaning it up. And they're like, where did he go? Where is dad?
He tried this here and then left.
Well, this is how he kills us.
He's sprinting down to see hime, and the teacher sees him, and she has, like, this thing that she, like, pins him with. It's like a trident, but without the middle thing.
A biden. That's actually what it's called.
Wow, I'm riding for biden.
Oh, wow.
Hades is one in creek with house.
Oh, yeah. But so she pins him with that and she's like, Stranger danger. And then she's like, oh, wait, it's you. What are you doing here? And he does not know how to talk to women, so he always puts his foot in his mouth and accidentally flirts with them. And he was just like, I just couldn't help myself. The cuteness was too much. And she's like, oh my god.
He says that like multiple times in this episode. And it is quite possibly Vimu's unhelpful answer to her question of like, what are you doing here? And it's like, literally anything would be better if you said that.
Yeah. So she misunderstands, and she's just like, oh my god, he wants me.
He's so thirsty.
And then he's like, so what are they doing right now? And she's like, oh, they're going to go hunt for rhino beetles. And then she looks down and she's like, am I really too hard to resist? And she looks back up and he's just gone. And he's afraid that he may won't be able to catch a rhino beetle and her friends will make fun of her. So he gives eda his wallet and he's like, go buy a rhino beetle. The biggest one you can find. So he goes and he buys one. But it's not the right thing. It's a hercules beetle. And he's like, if he may finds this here, it'll end up on the news. And then everyone will make fun of her because they'll find out it's fake. He catastrophizes. And you know what? Based on my therapy, I get it.
It's fair. I understand that.
So he's like running around freaking out. And the teacher catches him again, and he's like, okay, what are they going to do now? And she's like, oh, they're making curry. And he May is in charge of seasoning it. And she's so excited. And he's like, oh no. What if she doesn't season it right and all of the other kids hate it? Okay, I'm going to hire a professional chef.
Oh, shit. I assume my daughter is the worst at every possible thing. Let me throw money at the problem.
He's worried. And so he hires a chef. And while she goes, the kids ask her to come help to wash the rice. And while she's gone, the chef comes in and seasons it. And I thought it was interesting that he hired an Indian chef because Japanese curry is very different from Indian curry.
Yeah, the flavor profile.
Yeah, I think that comes up later when they talk about the curry at the end of the episode. I like how the chef came in. He's like, oh, hi. My son is a big fan of your series. Yeah, I was a huge fan of the series.
But so the teacher is just thinking about dad being like, does he really like me? I can't though. He's one of my students, dads. I can't.
Forbidden love. He can write about that in his.
Next book and then she overhears some boys telling Hema that she's washing the rice wrong. And one of them says, didn't your mom ever teach you? Which is sad because her mom died.
I remember. I'm like, oh, shit, we're getting real. In episode two, I was already.
Feeling.
Burial, which is what he May does. She just looks up for a second and takes a minute, and then she's just like, I'll try again. That's okay.
Yeah, she has a comment on it.
Yeah. And then the teacher catches dad again, and he like, looks around the corner to see he may just like, staring off into space. And he's like, oh, yeah, she does that a lot. He calls her a space cadet, which I think is cute. That's a cute little phrase. And then the teacher is like, in my professional opinion, because I may be a little air headed, but I'm also a teacher, I think it's because He May doesn't like to think about those things. Like, she doesn't like to think about negative stuff and things she can't change, like her mom.
Have you considered your daughter is traumatized from the death of her mother? That hasn't really crossed my mind. Let's never explore that again.
I haven't even unpacked that. So he goes back to the villa, and the crew has cleaned it up all night, but they're like, all super tired from cleaning all day. And he's like, well, we're going to do fun stuff tomorrow. We're going to have a barbecue. But then the next day it's raining. And then because of the rain, the school called him and he was like, oh, man. Their field trip ended early, so they're not even here anymore, and everyone is bored. And the blonde girl, she's wearing her bikini because she wanted to wear it. And brock is like, not looking at her, which is not very brock of him.
Defying all exciting.
And then the power goes out, and then someone complains that their phone is dead.
It's not very Rock of him. It's very teary of him. Of the Orange Islands. Oh, my God. terry's the Beta pokemon. Sorry.
Dad says that there are other ways to have fun. And brockman is like, how? He says, you're from the Stone Ages. Tell us how. And it's like, how much older can he be than you guys?
I was wondering that. He couldn't be more than ten years older than him, so it's not yeah.
He'S probably like in his 30s.
That's ancient.
Disgusting.
Yeah, we would never hang out with someone older.
Yeah. Gross. I'm still a young 24 year old baby time.
My back hurts.
So he says, oh, we used to, like, look at the wood grain and and see what celebrities it was shaped like, or we would find folds in the curtains that looked like hands. And then Amy is just like, I'm so bored. And then she sees that there's paper and a pencil. And she's like, I'm going to draw no. And then they all go a little nuts and they just all draw a chapter of Tights in the Wind.
They got more productive on vacation than ever at the office.
Yeah, they get back and they give it to the editor, and he's like, oh, this chapter is so funny. And dad is just like, thanks. And then they're back at home, and He May is like, oh, no one liked my curry. It was too spicy.
I wonder why.
And then she's like, you make the best curry, though, dad. And then he thinks about what the teacher said about He May not thinking about things that she can't control. He's like, hey, baby, you know that you can ask me anything, right? Like, you can talk to me about anything. And she's just like, oh, cool. What flavor is curry? And he's just like, well, it's kind of its own thing, so I guess it's curry flavored. And she's like, okay, maybe she is just kind of stupid. Not stupid. She's just a little silly. And there's like this short little part where we see them doing a drill for like, in Case He May shows up at the office. And they all pretend that they're working at a corporate office of some kind. So ami comes in with a hemi mask on, and she's just wandering around. And then they're just like, yes, figures. And blah, blah, blah, and a synergy. And then that cuts away. And they're at a festival, and he's with hema, and he's thinking about how cute she is, and he's like, oh, I have to keep her innocence by hiding the manga. But then they walk past a booth where they're selling a bunch of masks of the character from Tights in the Wind. And then he sits hema on a bench. And he's like, I'll be right back. And then he calls his editor, and his editor is like, I can't help you right now. I'm out of town. And then he walks past him. He's right behind the festival. And there's a funny moment where they just like, look at each other. It's just quiet for a second. And then he asks him about the masks, and he's like, I didn't know about them either. And it turns out they're bootlegs. So dad makes him talk to the guy, and the guy is like, yeah, they're so ugly, I can't even sell any. And then the editor is like, no, dude, it's okay. He can't sell any because your character sucks.
Because his biggest thing wasn't like, oh, no, this is merchandise my daughter will see. He's mostly like, but these designs are so ugly. How could you approve them? He's like, no, I didn't. The bootleg, it's out of my control.
So he buys the whole stock to hide them from hema. And then the blonde girl happens to walk by, and he's like, you and editor, man. Get rid of them all. Thank you. And then he may is like, I want some cotton candy. And then they go to a cotton candy booth and for some reason the cotton candy has the tights and the Wind character on it. So he buys all of it. And then brock walks by and he makes him take all of it. And then there are piggy banks. There's just so much stuff. And he buys all of it. And then we hear the vendors and they're like, yeah, some guy bought all of it. So I'm just going to make even more next year.
We even get like a little industry aside thing where it's like with the boot like March, where it's the people that made it didn't even know about it. Like the series, they just saw the character on the COVID of a manga and was like, oh, he must be popular. He's on the COVID of a manga and then made bootleg stuff of that, which is very common. To just be like, this seems to be popular right now. I'll make whatever the fuck this is and sell bootleg.
It's like when people make bootleg digimon merch and they're like, oh, I assume people like this, but no one does.
To be fair, any bootleg digimon merch. Could it be actually official merch?
You never know.
Bootleg pokemon's, obvious boot like digimon. You have no idea.
So we're back at the studio and it's like after 07:00 P.m. And the hema alarm goes off and they all get ready. But then it's some police dudes detectives, and they had a report of suspicious activity because people saw them bringing in like a whole bunch of food. And they were like, we think this is a cult. So they look around the office and they find a closet filled with the cotton candy. And dad is like, why didn't you eat this all? And brock is like, because I don't want to die.
How could we?
And then they want to search the computers. And Amy is like, don't look at mine. Because when she had had to make the hema mask, she looked up how to draw cute little girls, which is not great. And then dad just decides to tell them. He's like, this is my manga studio. And then one of them is still suspicious because they have like the charts up for the fake corporate office. And then the other cop finds tights and a gun and a sword. And he's like, no, those are all drawing references. Please. And then one of them is like, you're going to overthrow the government. We know it. And then the crew is convinced. They're like, oh, shit. Are we working for some criminal mastermind?
Wait, what if we are?
So three of them are like, we're turning ourselves in. And then one of them is like, turn yourself in, dude. If you like, turn yourself in, maybe you'll get like a shorter sentence.
And then your daughter won't be alone yeah. How could they know if he is a criminal mastermind? All we know about him is he runs drills to hide their business. He's known for keeping secrets and being highly protective of what he does. So it's like it all lines up to you being the worst.
It makes sense. But then if I saw him drawing manga for 8 hours a day and not doing anything else, I feel like if you are a secret cult leader, you're a shitty one. But it's still possible.
Where do you find the tie?
He's so busy, so he turns himself in. And then the blonde girl is like, you guys are all so stupid. Here. Here's a picture of him in one of his old volumes of manga. And then both of the cops are just like, have a nice day.
Fair enough.
It's also the naked picture.
Yeah, yeah.
They flash the cops the nude and.
They'Re like, all right, goodbye.
Well, this guy's hung. Let's get out of here.
Checks out. So he's back at home and they're printing pictures from the festival. And he's like, hey, did I buy you that? yukata. And she says, no, it was hand sewn. And he's like, Where did you find it? And she shows him that in a closet there are boxes with ages on them. And she got it out of the box marked ten years old. And he's like, have you looked in the others? And she's like, no, because they're like birthday presents. I'm going to open them as I get older. They go all the way up to 16, but she's convinced that he made it for her. So she's like, can you make me a dress or shoes or glasses? And he's like, I don't think that's a thing.
I know that works. You don't.
She's like, no, like fashion. But then he goes to his friend that owns the clothing store and asks them to teach him to sew. And then we're back in the future. Or present, depending on how you want to look at it. He May is 18 again. And we see Blonde Girl and Editor Boy. And they're like, He May has come of age to see all the manga pages. And she's in Kamakura in a house with all the manga in it. And she's like, yeah, he never told me about it. But I also, after all these years, never made an effort to actually find out what he did. Because I was afraid that once I did, other stuff would come out that I just didn't want to know about. And then she opens a closet and she finds more boxes with ages 17 to 20. And that's episode two.
It was after this part of the episode I started paying attention to the opening more and I was like, oh, no. Are we getting sad in the future?
Yeah. So we pick up basically where we leave off in the future. She's looking at all the new boxes she found. And she's like, something about this house is very familiar. Oh, it's the exact layout of the house I grew up in. How strange. How weird that these two houses are identical. Will we get to address this in later episodes? We'll see, but yeah, so we see. Dad is meditating at work and all of the assistants come in and they all just in different variations, injured themselves. So one has, like, a broken arm. One had, like, dental surgery. One has a style. So he's like, oh, shit, we can't finish the chapter this month, so let's call in someone to help. So they get a new fill in artist to pick up the slack, and they're like, oh, this guy is so good. So efficient. He's just the best. And he's too good. Yeah, suspiciously too good. So Phil then does all that stuff and was this like a flash forward? Because time passes and you're like, hey, that artist has his own mangano. And dad is like, oh, yes, inspiring young minds, giving them their start. And they read the credits and they're like, oh, he didn't credit that he worked on this before, so didn't think too highly of us.
I mean, for comedy purposes, I would even say that it was like a week.
Yeah, I think it's supposed to be just super quick. He's so good. He got picked up immediately.
Yeah, I don't know manga, so I'm like, are they doing it weekly, monthly? I don't know. chapters.
Depends on the series.
Yeah, that's too nuanced for me. I need answers. So he may and her classmates are walking by her house and the rich bitch is like, oh, what an old, sad house. You don't even have condo.
Set up floor.
Yeah, one of the other classmates point out, like, hey, you live in a condo, so you by definition have a fancy place. And she's like, oh, but you don't have a concierge. You don't have a doorman. You don't have all these amenities. And he may be like, oh, I guess we are poor.
Fuck, I took two notes on this episode. One of those notes is, yo, this girl fucking sucks.
Yeah, but at least her other friends.
Are like, bitch, shut up.
Yeah, I'm glad it's not the whole group piling on her. It's everyone. Like putting the one girl back like, what the fucking explode your roll out of richie Rich.
You're rich. Shut up.
Yeah, no one cares.
Like, everyone fights her back, but he may still like, oh, I guess we're poor.
The damage was selling.
All right, let me really internalize this forever too close to how. So we later see an old man pass by the house and he's like, oh, in this neighborhood, I assumed all the houses would be rich and fancy and new. And just happens to pass by the contractor that built the house. He's like, oh, yeah, I can tell you in my photographic memory exactly what happened here. So seven years ago, I got plans for this lot of land to build a very specific old style house. With the money and land, he could have built something very fancy and big. But he wanted to build it exactly like this for no reason. And old man's like, okay, goodbye.
Nice to meet you.
Farewell, stranger.
And I'm just imagining they both died immediately after this conversation.
The second they walked off screen.
Just both simultaneous heart attacks.
He lived and died to build that house.
My purpose, I had to build it. Then I had to explain it.
Yeah, he only survived as long because no one directly asked him about it.
It was a curse.
No, you asked the secret question.
All of my waking days, just devoted, when will someone directly ask me about this house? I haven't slept in years. So He May decides that she's going to pick up some slack and help save some money. So she calls off the housekeeper for the day and is going to do all the cleaning herself. So dad comes home and sees her just passed out on the floor.
It's so hot.
And she's like, oh God, you're dead. What happened? And she's like, oh, we're saving money because we're poor, right? And the dad's like, fuck, I don't want to talk about this because that directly relates to my job. He's like, no, we're not poor. We're fine. So at work the next day, he's like, oh, fuck. I can't explain money to her because we're not poor. I have a successful manga, but being a manga artist, I could be canceled tomorrow and have no source of income. So I have money stockpiled, but that's not throw around and spend money. Money that's in case of a rainy day money. The life of a freelance artist.
Nothing about that.
So he's like, okay, I want to have a little bit more money. Like, everyone's still broken and beaten up. So one of the assistants is like, hey, how about we get out of the stonages old man and go digital?
Upgrade.
Rather than driving things to editors, how about we email them? We can draw on computers instead of paper.
What?
So they try to lean into it, and all the assistants are like, wait, this makes my job obsolete. No, don't do this.
We also see some of them struggling with drawing on the digital pad versus pen and paper now.
Yeah, that's extremely relatable.
Yeah, they're unable to draw. They're like, hey, we need a background artist for this rainy city scene. We can outsource it anywhere in the world, baby, because we're going digital. Let's hire an Indonesian artist. Their work is so good. And then they get the background and it's like, oh, they drew a rainy city. They drew a rainy Indonesian city. And it clearly does not match up.
With what we've done.
So He May is still on a cook and clean by herself and she accidentally cuts her finger. And dad is like, okay, no, we're done with this. We need a housekeeper every day now. So they get a new housekeeper and also coincidentally Indonesian. So He May is like, oh, can she teach me how to make I forget what the specific style of sushi was, but the new housekeeper makes it. But it has like an Indonesian spend. And he's like, weird, it looks good.
Interesting.
It did look good.
But yeah. So we switched things around where we now see dad and He May are exercising because she has a sports festival coming up at school and being insanely paranoid as always, he's like, sometimes the adults are asked to participate and help out. And if I show any weakness, if I'm not a perfect Olympic athlete, they'll know I'm a manga artist because I have a weak, shitty body.
Yeah, that's my excuse. I'm a manga artist. That's why I'm so horribly.
So all this staff is like, hey, you can exercise through manga. Exercise those ABS by laughing at comedies strengthen your back with spine chilling horror. He's like, I'm going to actually work out. Instead.
They say like, you can build muscles through mango by building your mango souls. Like, they combine the words as susie says. He's like, I hate this. I hate saying that word.
So this half of the episode is very scattershot and it gets pulled together at the end. So I'm just going to rapid fire through some of these seemingly unrelated situations. So first off, in the next chapter of the manga, he has to draw an idol. But he doesn't really know anything about idols. But he goes home and surprise, there's a random teenager in his house.
It's concerning.
So he's like, okay, you found where I live. Here's a little sketch of a thing. Get out. She's like, I don't know what this is.
I don't want this.
What the hell is this?
But it turns out she is a high school student that was singing in the park. And He May invited her back because she's such a big fan. Dad is like, so an idol in training. Let me do some research. And just starts chatting and is like actually interested because he's trying to figure out what this is so he can make art about it. But she walks home and he's like an adult taking interest in me, taking my dreams seriously. So we then see he wants to make like bento stuff for her field day. And all the workers are like, hey, go take a cooking classes. You can only make like curry and non lunch things. Go learn how to make some stuff. So he goes and takes a cooking class and the woman teaching the class is like, hey, so you're just learning? He's like, yeah, so I'm a single father. I need to have a strong home life for my child. She's like, he's so sweet. So am I in love?
I think he says, like, any any child I'd have you as a mother would be like truly blessed or something. To the teacher.
Yeah, just he all of his interactions with women is unknowingly. Hitting on them and them immediately falling in love and him being a blueprint. So that happens about 18 more times. He goes to a flower shop and the same thing, like, oh, yeah, just getting some pretty stuff for my daughter because I'm a charming single father and you're so beautiful. anyways, goodbye. So she falls in love.
The flower shop I had more of a problem with because he's like, oh, yeah, we want to get flowers. So Brighton up home and the flower shop lady gives it to him. He's like, oh, thanks. Oh, he may have gone, here, take these flowers back. And he runs off. And the flower shop woman's like, he gave me red mums. Red mums me and I love you. And flower like, does he love you? No, you literally just gave it you just gave it to what?
It was just the first thing you handed to him where he's you subconsciously in love when he walked by because those were the first flowers you gave.
He'd rather give it to you than spike it on the ground and run off.
And then he goes to the clothing shop where he stores his suit. But oh, no, someone bought his suit. So the shopkeep is like, hey, sorry, I'm not going to say no to a customer, but I'll give you our fanciest suit as an exchange. And it's just a white tuxedo, very elaborate. So he's like, oh, kids are so dumb. They won't know the difference between this and a normal suit. It's fine. But he is walking home. He goes through a park and sees the teacher sitting on a bench. So he goes and talks. Or he walks by him and he's like, I need to ask you something. And she's like, he's going to propose. He's going to propose. He's all dressed up just for me. I'm in love. But yeah, so we have a bunch of women accidentally in love with him.
I love shrek too.
My other note for this episode is, is this a harem anime?
So we see it's finally, the sports festival, and he may looks over to see her dad and a bunch of women cheering for her.
Just a bunch of strangers.
So, yeah, everyone is like, oh, yeah, we'll support your daughter and have a little date. It's fine if I'm competing with a bunch of people, but it's great. They get home and he's like, hey, so, yeah, you had a whole fan cheering section just yelling for you. And he may was like, yeah, it's fine. But it's also cool if it was just you the one person I know and not just strangers cheering for me for no reason. And he's like.
Weird learn something.
But yeah. And that's episode three.
Yeah. So how's the vibe?
Are we there yet?
It's a fine vibe. I don't know. I was like, oh, yes, father daughter anime. It's going to be great. And then most of the show is, let me not interact with her, but just run around in the shadows and make sure she doesn't find out my secret. And then at the end of each episode, it's like, hey, it's great when we just spend time together. He's like, oh, yeah. anyways, next episode, I'm going to spend most of it hiding a secret from you. It's like, I I just want you two to be sweet and spend time together and not run around in the shadows.
Yeah. I mean, that's the plot of it, though, is him trying to hide a secret. Otherwise, it's just her at school and him at work. And then just the cutaway of them spending the evening together.
Yeah, but I feel like this is.
Like the bumbling father trope. It's a very American thing. And this is their answer.
Instead of just sitting down and talking about their problems, it's always him trying to fix the immediate solution with an extravagant fix the situation with the extravagant solution and overcompensating. And it's like, man, I just fucking spend time with your daughter. Talk to her every now and then. And it's like, yeah, that's where the comedy comes from with him exaggerating doing this crazy back bending exercise of hiding his career from her.
Yeah, I think I was expecting it to be a little bit more slice of life. Like, hey, it's just their thing. It was just very sitcomy. So I think just my expectations were a little off. But yeah, it was a fun, fun little romp.
Yeah, because like I said, I only watched the first episode, so I didn't expect to hit so hard. Like, between episodes two and three of like, oh, we're addressing this mother's stuff right now, are we? Because he got me, like, the one studio Ghiblie movie with the fucking guy who designs airplanes. I read the name of that one.
The wind rises.
The wind rises. I kind of got weird vibes of that where I'm just like, oh, no. I expected it to be like a slap, sticky sort of comedy of him, like, overcompensating with his career and stuff. Like, I expected that. So I was surprised when it got kind of as serious as it did. And I'm seeing more of the actual storyline and like, where the characters are going to follow rather than just a situational comedy for 13 episodes. And it's all zany, wacky jokes. Nothing really of consequence happens. But now I see the actual like, oh, this is where the character growth is going to go. I'm interested to see what happens here, especially with especially with hema being so young. No, she recognizes she doesn't have a mom. She recognizes these uncomfortable situations and she's dealing with it on her own. I was like, oh, that's a lot more character development than I expected for the child.
Yeah. As the season goes on. Well, I don't know if there will be another season. Probably not. The way it ends is pretty finite, but wrapped up as it gets closer to just her being 18 and that storyline is more prominent. It's less comedic and more serious. A little bit.
The tone shifts.
Yeah. But it's all cohesive and good. Like, I really enjoyed watching it all.
Yeah. I probably end up keep watching it, actually, because I was hooked by those three episodes. Yeah.
I think it didn't ruin the show or anything, but just like having those flash forwards of like, oh, I'm 18 and I'm just learning that my dad was a manga artist. It's like, okay, so we know that in any of these situations, she's not going to find out. We know for at least the next eight years worth of content. She's not going to find out no matter what she does. Or what he does.
Yeah.
It's always the trouble with the flash forward at the very beginning. Well, it's a good time, though. It's a good break. It's a good wholesome vibes with some silly nonsense in it.
So, yeah. What do we have going on next week?
Next week, continuing the vibes. This was our Thanksgiving episode oh, yeah.
For people in America.
Sorry we're very late. Canada.
We're very late. But I figured lumped it in with my pig next week of picking a series, an anime I'm thankful for, and that is a movie called You Are amaso. It is very good. And no, I won't say no spoilers, no info. I'll say it's very good and I'm looking forward to it. If nothing else, the style of it is just very pleasing to look at, at least in my opinion. So I'm curious to see what you guys think.
If there's a show you the listener would like us to watch, you can send your recommendations to us through our email. Are we there yet@gmail.com or on Twitter? Instagram. Are we there yet? On both. You can find me on Twitter and Instagram at Mr. Patrick dugan.
You can find me on Instagram at queen. Period weebu and on Twitter at queen underscore wihu and Queen underscore weebu art.
You can find me on Twitter at abts. Brent stands for Almost Better Than Silence, which is a podcast I have to record in 15 minutes.
We'll get going. Thank you to the meal, really, for our artwork. And thank you to Louis Song for theme song stories. You can find all of Louis music at Louisong Bancamp.com. Thank you, and we hope you'll join us next week as we learn to live with anime.
God, I just love being in my early 20s.
Gotta look at my lewd magazines. Thank you.