Deep Space and Dragons
Episode 79: What is new in Shonen Jump 3
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Have you ever wondered what would happen if Dragon Ball Z met Exploding Kittens? Find out in this week's episode of Richard and Karl Present Deep Space and Dragons! We kick things off with a comical take on nerd culture, exploring the quirks of finding Magic: The Gathering packs at Dollarama and imagining a world where Exploding Kittens gets a Dragon Ball twist. From the sheer joy of scoring Exploding Minions on the cheap to our satirical musings, it's all about the fun and absurdity of geekdom!
Got a taste for epic quests and unforgettable RPG moments? We'll whisk you away to a world where Octopath Traveler 2's clever naming conventions shine and D&D sessions feature zombie T-Rex dungeons, flying mummy monkeys, and zombie beholders. Listen in as we recount the thrilling highs and nail-biting near-deaths that come with being a Dungeon Master. It's a rollercoaster of creativity and challenge, perfect for anyone who loves diving head-first into fantastical realms.
We wrap things up with a deep dive into the intricate storytelling of manga and anime, from the emotional depth of "Fullmetal Alchemist" to the high-stakes drama of "Kaiju No. 8." Along the way, we dissect the narrative power of coincidences, the ubiquity of exorcist-themed plots, and the charming chaos of "Magic Luminaire, Magical Girls Incorporated." Whether you're curious about the future of your favorite series or just need a good laugh, this episode has got you covered. Stay tuned and keep those geeky vibes alive!
Follow all things Richard and Karl, and check out "The Minuet of Sorcery"
https://linktr.ee/rajkevis
Click Here to send in your random question to have a chance to win!
Have you ever wondered what would happen if Dragon Ball Z met Exploding Kittens? Find out in this week's episode of Richard and Karl Present Deep Space and Dragons! We kick things off with a comical take on nerd culture, exploring the quirks of finding Magic: The Gathering packs at Dollarama and imagining a world where Exploding Kittens gets a Dragon Ball twist. From the sheer joy of scoring Exploding Minions on the cheap to our satirical musings, it's all about the fun and absurdity of geekdom!
Got a taste for epic quests and unforgettable RPG moments? We'll whisk you away to a world where Octopath Traveler 2's clever naming conventions shine and D&D sessions feature zombie T-Rex dungeons, flying mummy monkeys, and zombie beholders. Listen in as we recount the thrilling highs and nail-biting near-deaths that come with being a Dungeon Master. It's a rollercoaster of creativity and challenge, perfect for anyone who loves diving head-first into fantastical realms.
We wrap things up with a deep dive into the intricate storytelling of manga and anime, from the emotional depth of "Fullmetal Alchemist" to the high-stakes drama of "Kaiju No. 8." Along the way, we dissect the narrative power of coincidences, the ubiquity of exorcist-themed plots, and the charming chaos of "Magic Luminaire, Magical Girls Incorporated." Whether you're curious about the future of your favorite series or just need a good laugh, this episode has got you covered. Stay tuned and keep those geeky vibes alive!
Follow all things Richard and Karl, and check out "The Minuet of Sorcery"
https://linktr.ee/rajkevis
My name is Richard AJ Kivas. Yeah, you get my full name. For the people who have that followed on every platform, I advertise this podcast on and welcome to Richard and Carl. Present Deep Space and Dragons.
Speaker 2:I'm Carl DA Pohl, in case you wanted to try and find me on Facebook.
Speaker 1:Wow, you just straight up doxed yourself. You are an enigma. That's going to make making the Carl tattoo so much easier.
Speaker 2:Also. I mean, that's true, I am on Facebook.
Speaker 1:Although I appreciate the D being the Monkey D, luffy D, where it, like, clearly has plot significance and they're not going to learn this for another thousand episodes. They still haven't explained that in one piece. But yeah, steep Space and Dragons Sometimes we talk nerdy things, sometimes we talk vampires, sometimes we read random questions, but what we always do we always do without fail is ask what's new in the Carlverse?
Speaker 2:Well, I mean so I'm assuming you have heard of the game Exploding Kittens.
Speaker 1:Yes, I love kittens. I don't love exploding them in real life, but the Exploding Kittens card game is in my backpack of games and is a good warm-up game when you're waiting for the inevitably late people to arrive games and is a good warm-up game when you're waiting for the inevitably late people to arrive.
Speaker 2:Well, so you're right, it's a nice. It's a quick and easy game to set up and play, especially when you're waiting for other people. And there's a Minions variant. It's just a clone of the game, but with Minions instead of kids.
Speaker 1:Misplay. I just realized something vital. We'll get back to it. Would this not be one of the best games to make into a Dragon Ball variant? For no adequately explored reason.
Speaker 2:A Dragon.
Speaker 1:Ball variant, because instead of a bomb it'd be, you get kicked out of the arena, so it'd be like Tournament of Power and all the cards would be Dragon. Ball themed, so like if you have three characters from the same universe, you draw a card. It'd be great. You call it exploding Dragon Balls. It'd be pretty cool.
Speaker 2:So my girlfriend and I also like to shop at Dollarama.
Speaker 1:Not a sponsor of this episode.
Speaker 2:As a side note. As a side note, whenever I see that there's packs of magic at Dollarama, I just have an impulse. It's $1.50. So I buy a pack even though I know that there's no way I'm actually going to make my actual value back.
Speaker 1:So it's like part of me wants to actually going to make like my actual value back. So it's like part of me wants to. So, as an avid card gamer like semi-pro card gamer hangs around with card gamers my entire life this both bugs me so much but makes so much sense because cracking packs is always the stupid way. Buying just the cards you need for your deck will always be cheaper every time and the only sensible reason to ever crack packs is if you win the packs. But also Cracky Pack make brain feel good and release Happy Chemical.
Speaker 2:Anyways, Magic Packs at Don't Worry M are not the point of the story, although that's another tangent MTG Goldfish slash Card Kingdom.
Speaker 1:Not a sponsor Card.
Speaker 2:Kingdom is a frequent sponsor of MTG Goldfish, but not of us. But they could be, they could be One day maybe.
Speaker 1:I really enjoy the sponsor bit, because at some point someone will actually offer to sponsor us. That will just deeply confuse us and we'll actually have to discuss it and it's like we'll be Taco.
Speaker 1:So at some point I'm going to tell you the story of how Taco Bell has an unofficial literary magazine that wins awards and actually pays out its submissions, called the Taco Bell Review, and it's like it's not sponsored by Taco Bell in any way. It's just a literary magazine that you can submit to, as long as your piece is somewhat Taco Bell related, Like even if your character is just eating.
Speaker 1:If it just takes place at a Taco Bell, it counts, or if they're just eating a taco in one scene, it's a whole thing. It bugged my prof so much because it was like this is legit. I'm so mad. It is a well-built magazine. Sorry, I just the talk about quarterly being a thing is amazing, but please continue your story.
Speaker 2:Well, I mean, I was also in the midst of a small tangent because one of the hosts recently discovered that Magic Packs are available at Dollarama and, funny enough, they're $1.50 American and they're still $1.50 Canadian. So I actually I win in this exchange, Do you? But he cracked like 10 or 15 Dollarama packs and I think he only got like 5 bucks worth of value.
Speaker 1:See, all is right with the world. It's like so magic packs. I prefer to scratch tickets, but I acknowledge them as fundamentally the same and I prefer them because you can't play a game of scratch tickets right. However, you can play a game with random booster packs or use them to like wallpaper a house at this point. So for what's more amusing, it is absolutely the Magic, the Gathering packs, but like oof.
Speaker 2:The actual point of the story involving Dollarama is the fact that at Dollarama oh, I need to pause you for a second this is important.
Speaker 1:So picture me turning directly to the camera as I say this. Disclaimer there is no point to this show. Richard and Carl present Deep Space and Dragons. It's an entirely satirical parody show and no one should take anything we do seriously for any legal means. All characters mentioned in this are fictional, including Richard and Carl, for the purposes of this podcast. I am a person named Richard who plays a character named Richard. Don't add us, don't sue us, kthx. Please continue.
Speaker 2:I go to Dollarama and lo and behold, exploding Minions is at Dollarama for five bucks. Ooh yeah, i'dama for five bucks. Ooh yeah, I'd fall for that one. Yeah, so we definitely scooped it up. And so now, every time we go to Dollarama, my girlfriend has to check out the board game section.
Speaker 1:I mean, yeah, because I see the logic. You stock in your board game shop a novelty board game it doesn't sell. You ship it back to off-sales and then it finds its way to Dollarama. Like I see how they didn't sell at full price Minions board games and I can see why Walmart like stocks it for whenever a despicable meme movie comes out and then like, cool, now we can just give our off-sale to Dollarama.
Speaker 2:Like you might be onto something on this one well, another interesting find at dollarama was stranger things at figurines. The reason I found them funny is because bandai namco did the action figure and then netflix did stranger things, so they have those two logos on there. And then also, even though I was at Dollarama, the packaging claimed that these figurines were only available at Target.
Speaker 1:That's hilarious, no notes that's just great.
Speaker 2:There were three different business logos on one package.
Speaker 1:Meanwhile, like when I find myself at a dollar store, it's mostly to pick up junk food. So I have friends that have been raised in such lives of luxury. They say things like I don't know if I eat food from a dollar store, I don't know how long it's been there and realistically, as the cultured individuals they are, I can see the argument of maybe I don't know how old these cookies are or how much care they've been given at Dollarama. But the other part of me is like these maple cookies will outlast all of us. So I don't buy typically food food from Dollarama. I probably won't buy a loaf of bread from there typically. But sweets, chips, cookies food that is only food if you're trying to trick a government. But sweets, chips, cookies food that is only food If you're trying to trick a government to give you a grant for your education culinary system, but not actually food as we know it. Food is the kind of thing I most often get from dollar stores.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, they sometimes have other cool stuff.
Speaker 1:One other thing that we got.
Speaker 2:One other find that we got was also a card game. It's Kellogg's Pop-Tarts. It's a card game. So you know one thing I keep seeing like wanting to see, but haven't.
Speaker 1:I'm just waiting for the day dollar store stock Beyblades. I will just buy out their stock so I can go to an entire class and be like I got everyone a bay blade. I have set up the stadiums.
Speaker 2:Let it begin there was one time, uh, I really considered buying a bay blade stadium. Uh, because the blade bay blades were bluetooth, yep, uh. So I don't know how much control you had over the the spin and direction of the beyblade, but like having any is super cool.
Speaker 1:There's been like three phases in my life where I've actually bought beyblades. First one was the original target age. Then it was the first time I lived with panda. We saw these like wind-up beyblades at walmart, you're you know what would be really fun and stupid, so, with our construction worker money. And then there hasn't been a third wave yet because I was at Anime North with one of my partners and it was like we walked past the Beyblades and they're the Bluetooth ones and I'm like you know, I could. I'm an adult, I could just buy this. So I'm right there with you to a concerning degree. I also really enjoyed the Beyblade GameCube game and the Beyblade PlayStation 1 game. So I'm not to be trusted.
Speaker 2:But the ultimate point of my Dolarama story, and this would have tied in perfectly if we had stuck with our original plan for this episode.
Speaker 1:but Don't show the behind the screen. You know people think this is scripted.
Speaker 2:I felt inspired to continue working on my own board game slash card game ideas. I think I have a play testable set of rules, although I still have to determine what kinds of cards are actually in the game and whatnot. Have a play testable set of rules, although I still have to determine, you know, what kinds of cards are actually in the game and whatnot. But so if you're watching this in the future, then perhaps there will be another future where Richard and Carl present board games.
Speaker 1:It's true, we want to try our hand at a dev stream type situation, so if you'd be interested in that, leave a comment below or tie a message to a pigeon and send it in Saskatchewan's general direction.
Speaker 2:What's new with you, Richard?
Speaker 1:So I'm on reading week, which apparently is a thing you get in universities in the summer, and I'm mostly using it to try and set up for my internship and I'm not going to go into too many details of that, but I have, it's interesting I have more spare time than I'm used to, so I've been burning it pretty fast and I'm also kind of cursed. So there's a friend of mine. I want to help them with some yard work and every time I go to their house it just starts raining Without fail and I'm like what?
Speaker 2:is this Like? Who is releasing a?
Speaker 1:Kyogre, specifically when I go over there. But like New With Me is just spinning my 30 projects at once. It's like, yeah, I got time off class. It's time to double down on doing schoolwork. Because I am a cool person with cool interests To school for cool schoolwork. Because I am a cool person with cool interests, too, school for cool. I also binged Octopath Traveler 2 for a bit. It was fun. It took me until completing the game to realize that if you took the first letter of each character's name and spelled out Octopath- that's amazing.
Speaker 1:The fact that I'm like what? And then I'm like particio. Yeah, that makes sense. Oh, I also ran a dnd game where a zombie t-rex vomited zombies at people oh, I love the zombie t-rex.
Speaker 2:So then you can like eat the zombies, to like instantly kill them and gain hp oh, this one's a different one.
Speaker 1:So this one was the mouth of the t-rex, was the dungeon? Oh, I cannot believe I got them to walk into the cave that turned out to be the T-Rex. I am so happy that worked.
Speaker 2:Considering how difficult it is to get your players to do anything you want them to do.
Speaker 1:So like I was running like a DM's Guild Adventure League adventure and normally their Adventure League adventures are kind of meh, they'll be like five dragon carvings, five stones and they're like they're okay. Whatever team decided to run this specific one, we're on some sort of drugs, because here are some of the encounters that were in this random adventure from the kit.
Speaker 1:A dungeon that's a zombie T-Rex that was covered in vines and you go inside its stomach and take a rope of binding out of it and it unvines the T-Rex and you have to escape it before it fills with stomach acid. And then fight the T-Rex that spits zombies at you. Okay, there was flying mummy monkeys. It was a swarm of mummified undead flying monkeys. Okay, there was two zombie beholders with sticks in their mouths poking at the sand who tricked the party into walking into quicksand so zombies underneath the quicksand could pull them in. And that actually worked, because they just want to beret with the beholders. And the beholder's like yeah, of course, treasure, help us dig, please, heroes. And then they fall for it. They're like haha, you suck. And the party fighter was just so legitimately sad at the betrayal. It also had the classic bridge puzzle of like a horde of zombies are chasing you across a bridge and will the bridge give way?
Speaker 2:And there's two natural ones.
Speaker 1:So they end up shoulder-tackling the post and knocking the bridge down. So, like this adventure, I'm just like, okay, you've got zombie beholders flying, mummy monkeys, bone nagas, bird folks dropping rocks to rescue you, then encouraging you to do a quiff dive to become their friends, and a dungeon that is a T-Rex. And I'm like where is this level of creativity? Normally Wizards of the Coast, like wow.
Speaker 2:The T-Rex dungeon. That one sounds pretty epic.
Speaker 1:Right, like there's just like some winning ideas in here. I wasn't expecting so. Weekly D&D was delightful Also for the first time in a while. They like didn't just outplay me, oh Well, except at one point where I cursed one of them and they're like I cast Remove Curse. I'm like why do they even have curses? Flip table they got bit by a rabid monkey, curse bite. Also, the zombie beholder was almost perma-killed the player because the disintegration ray would just have killed them and they'd be dead permanently.
Speaker 1:And I'm like it would do 480 damage. They're like I'm dead permanently. I'm like uh, uh, and then I double-check distance. It's like, oh no, you're 10 feet outside his range. I'm like uh, uh, and I double-check distance. It's like, oh no, you're ten feet outside his range. I did double-check that to make sure I didn't just kill you from this one shot from this enemy, because that's not a fun way to die. So it's like I rules-lawyered myself to save their life. See, I'm a firm believer in killing players when it's been earned.
Speaker 2:Like when Panentecourt jumped into a well with a Hydra. Yeah, we've had a lot of well-earned player deaths, for sure.
Speaker 1:But I want to make sure they're fair. When I murder someone and a Beholder shooting you Like you'll notice, I do this. Where I'll do like a, okay, I don't actually want to kill you, so let's see if there's any loopholes. Do you have any abilities, any ranges? Did I miss math? Is there any technicality of you not being dead before I kill you?
Speaker 2:Well, yeah, I mean, even when Thedric had that arm, that if you rip it off it kills you. The cursed arm Was that the hand of?
Speaker 1:Vecna. Yeah, you just had the arm of Vecna, because I made a cool Captain Eisen parody that turned out to be wimpier than I expected. I had this cool idea for an illusion wizard swordsman with the Armavecna, and then he just lost like bad.
Speaker 2:But even when you ripped the Armavecna off that drink, you gave me a choice about whether or not he lives or died by sending him to the Allfather to receive his quest.
Speaker 1:See, that's what I like doing, is I like using? One of the best pieces of DM advice I got is spin failure into new story hooks. So almost always give someone a Faustian bargain when they die, Right. But sometimes it's like my players are just suicidal. It's like, oh yeah, I'm just going to jump in the acid. Well, Like yeah, Hydra bites off all five of your limbs and you fall in acid. I don't know what to tell you. Do any of the gods want to save me? No, you are a terrible person in life. Well, do any of the evil ones want to offer me a pact?
Speaker 2:No, you're unreliable.
Speaker 1:Both the gods and the devils have forsaken you because you've shown no value to this world.
Speaker 2:But maybe we should move on to our actual topic.
Speaker 1:I suppose as much as we could easily. What's new Don't jump this week. Oh, I forgot this was part of my what's New. I used that trick as an NPC. Oh, so they went to the marketplace to buy magic items, like they always do, even though that's not actually a thing in 5th edition.
Speaker 2:And.
Speaker 1:I'm like, okay, I have my magic shop set up so they find an anvil shaped tent and just the most helpful shopkeeper who's just straight up Thedric, and I was like oh, I can't afford this $500 proku protection. Can I have it for $300? I'm a hero, I promise. Like, okay, here you go. And like two of my players from the trauma of Thedric, which their main trauma with Thedric is, Thedric was a really useful character that kept almost dying, so the entire mission became save Thedric from himself.
Speaker 1:It's so interesting If you play a barbarian or a fighter who runs through the door first to die, people don't care. But when you're the cleric they suddenly have concerns. So like ThedBC was just super helpful, gave out some magic items, silver-tipped all their weapons. At one point gave someone a tank of sobriety that if you push the red button it turns to alcohol. If you touch the blue button it turns on alcoholic. If you touch the green button, you roll a D100 to get a random potion and he's literally like oh, I came out here because I read to one of my friends the other day and it went on an adventure without me, so I figured I'd go help him out.
Speaker 1:And now I'm in the market and then the Fire Lord was just in the back smelting metal.
Speaker 2:The Fire Lord was one of Cedric's true friends, unlike Trish the Dish.
Speaker 1:Yep, I also made a moment where Cedric's like take these health potions. It's like were you an adventurer, sir? He's like I was. I had some friends die, some come back to life, some that didn't come back to life, some that weren't friends. Poor Cedric, it was fun times, so I thought you'd appreciate that.
Speaker 2:I do appreciate that.
Speaker 1:He's like the perfect random merchant to find places, because he just would be. But with that shall we pivot to what's new in Show and Jump? Yeah, so I'm going to start with deep Kaiju number eight spoilers. Deep Kaiju number eight spoilers. Deep kaiju number eight spoilers. So kaiju number eight currently airing as an anime is fantastic.
Speaker 1:So that's true. I talk a lot about pacing in manga and I've kind of inverted my stance. So originally I'm like things like naruto and One Piece were very slow padding-along series. Then we have things like trying to always be more epic, like my Hero Academia and Jujutsu Kaisen, which are slow padding but they're pretending to be high action. It's like oh yeah, we're just going to have people fight Sukuna for 100 chapters fight Sukuna for a hundred chapters.
Speaker 1:And it's like it's every bit as slow as having people talk in a boardroom, especially when you flashback to people talking in a boardroom, but you're making it be a fight scene this entire time, which just makes it exhausting, Like.
Speaker 2:I've.
Speaker 1:So there's a I have a small theory.
Speaker 2:I have a small theory that the author of Jujutsu Kaisen made himself sick with his awful writing. Yes, maybe I shouldn't say it's awful, but he literally has taken a leave of absence because he's unwell and he claims that series is almost over. But the last chapter, assumably partly because he was unwell, was only seven pages. Chapter assumably partly because he was unwell was only seven pages and the pacing is completely glacial because it's going nowhere.
Speaker 1:So, after re-watching the JJK manga anime, the funniest part is everything. I really my favorite, all of my favorite scenes, without fail, are pre Shibuya, like, literally them being like oh, we got coffee on Gojo's shirts. It's one of the best scenes in the series. But, like, what happens is in Shibuya there's this big, epic final fight between Team Bromance and Team Zombie, murderer, soul Mutator, where they're like yeah we're punching, we're punching, we're punching.
Speaker 1:He gives this cool, I'm you wolf, kill sweet. And then they start doing the thing where like then Ghetto shows up, then blonde person shows up, then the other kids show up, then every character you've mentioned in the show shows up and talks and then shows up some more, and then Sukuna's retainer shows up. And that's the exact moment where the show lost me, because like yeah, we're now fate of the world and I'm like no, fate of the world sucks and I also wrote like two cool female characters and then killed them, because of course he did.
Speaker 1:Why is it always?
Speaker 1:like I don't mind that the squads are two men, one women in every anime ever made to do like a weird love triangle thing. I'm weirdly okay with that being the squad structure. Sure, more men probably than women join the demon killing brigade. That's just statistically how labor market works. It's unfortunate, but I could see the logic. It bugs me. But also, three-man teams are just kind of smoother than four-man teams. I don't know why. It's easier to balance your dynamics, but they always make the female character worse, every time without failure. And then JJK they just straight killed her. No worse than that. They fritched her Because she's not technically dead, she's just done nothing for the rest of the show and might be dead. That's worse. Yes, so where I was going with this was Kaiju. So unless you have thoughts, on JJK.
Speaker 1:I was talking about pacing where they like to do the Great Ninja War or Aizen arc, where they throw every character into something instead of gradually building to a finale. So they give the exact opposite of the JJK effect. So the JJK effect is literally let's throw every single character against their main boss, whether they should be there or not. The Fullmetal Alchemist ending threw every maimed character against the boss as well. It worked for Fullmetal Alchemist ending threw every maimed character against the boss as well. It worked for Fullmetal Alchemist. For three reasons. First, it was the end of the show. You don't get to pull that crap twice. Jjk has done that like three times now.
Speaker 2:My Hero Academia did it like four times.
Speaker 1:Bleach has done it thrice but like I give them a pass because they took like the Quincy role felt like the Quincy arc was so separate from the show it felt like a sequel. So it's like you did it once for the end of the Eisen fight, rebuilt up your show and then did it for the Quincy thing. Doesn't bug me as much Right. So the problem with that pacing is, once you've done your like cool epic moment, your show's kind of screwed. So we get to Kaiju, number eight, which I adore, and we have the childhood flashback and this is a beautiful chapter. Provide the show ends in the next eight chapters.
Speaker 2:Ooh, do you think it needs to end that quickly?
Speaker 1:Well, his entire goal for the show was to become badass enough to stand next to her. Her goal, the entire show was to stop being socially awkward and actually talk to him.
Speaker 1:There's so many things when re-watching the anime where she's in the room about to say something along the lines of it's been ten years. Why the fuck didn't you text me? Like the the captain has so much of this energy of kafka being. Like you know we could have still been friends and no, you're just gonna ghost me, okay, and like I also have a title at a job now, like when he's just in the stage.
Speaker 1:It's like hey friend and just calls her by the name and it's like drop and give me 200 and she's just fighting the smirk so hard so like their character dynamic is actually amazing Cause Kaiju number eight, unlike JJK, where all the upper elites are just morons for no reason, right.
Speaker 1:Well, zombies are attacking. Better make Gojo illegal. Wait. Your plan, when all the curses appeared, is to not free the guy that can fight curses. You're stupid beyond belief. Oh, and we're going to also execute our sorcerers. Your plan, while overrun by demons, is to reduce your labor force. Are you stupid?
Speaker 2:Uh, jjk had so much potential.
Speaker 1:You're going to pitch your sorcerers against your other sorcerers for internal politics while Shibuya got nuked, and that's why making things fair in the world doesn't work. It makes no rational sense to waste your manpower on Yuji when monsters are literally killing your citizens in the street. And he's killing the monsters, okay okay, okay.
Speaker 2:I mean this isn't a dunk on JJK episode, because I mean there are some merits to it.
Speaker 1:I'm going somewhere with this dunk on JJK episode because I mean there are some merits to it and also, as previously mentioned.
Speaker 2:As previously mentioned, the author is unwell, and while I do joke about him having made himself sick, you know it's creative. People like that, you know, get overworked and editors make changes that sometimes don't fit with the series, and so we have no idea how close this is to his actual vision for the series.
Speaker 1:That is fair. Well, part of why I'm giving the JJK for context before we jump into new series is largely about the scope, pace, changing chapter. When you do some sort of where you literally set off a bomb and then you go into a ninja war situation which I've seen happen a lot A lot of series are just like OK, we're going to make the stakes no longer personal and it's going to be a big battle. All our existing characters are going to show up at that big battle and then we're not going to care about their interpersonal dynamics. Or we're going to care about them when it makes no sense to. It's like when the plant's about to blow up and you're yelling at someone because they're a vegan. You're like, but you do realize that the world is going to blow up.
Speaker 2:So okay, okay, um, I think part of what you're trying to say here, or part of what I'm getting from what you're saying, is that part of the reason that um, this the epic battles in, say, full metal, alchemist and and kaiju number eight, part of the reason that they work is that fate of the world?
Speaker 1:um, is coincidental yeah, it's coincidental.
Speaker 2:All the motivations are still extremely personal exactly.
Speaker 1:This isn't about the kaiju about to wipe out mankind. It's that the exact quote is. You said you'd catch up and I thought you'd never make it, and you're handling things on your own, but you're finally here so we can stand side by side, as I'm a gunner and you're a puncher, and we're going to do awesome teamwork. Things Like, yes, this is one of the best love stories ever written. Maybe I don't know if they're going to go that way with it or not. It's either going to be the best bromance or the best romance, and I'm good either way, which is a weird place to be.
Speaker 2:I'm not sure if Kaiju number 8 is going to end right away, because A the B side is still chugging along filling in some of the blanks and then B super early on he gets turned into a kaiju and they've just the only potential hint of anything that they've done with that was when he sees the spirit while he's training to do his modified squadron techniques.
Speaker 1:It's true that the mysterious larvae who modified squadron techniques. It's true that the mysterious larvae who has what was it? I was looking it up the other day and the internet has decided to name the mysterious larvae Kevin. Okay, so we shall refer to him as Kevin because, it's true, kevin's like I found you, and turns him into Kaiju man, which we were talking about, and then I guess he does show up when they're testing him to see whether or not he can control his Kaiju form and tries to take over his body.
Speaker 1:But also the whole plot point is just completely unresolved and I don't know if they could resolve it nicely within eight chapters so like my actual concern for the series is like the last 20 chapters have been building up to them standing dramatically side by side in this exact scene, fighting the two-headed death monster. Yeah, this is either the end of act one or the end of the series that it's ramping towards, and I'm not saying it's going to be 10 chapters, 20 chapters, 50 chapters. This is the emotional climax of the story.
Speaker 2:That is true.
Speaker 1:And a lot of shows, when you set up your emotional climax. If you keep it alive from that point, you either need to pull a JoJo's and drastically shift your focus or artificially shove these characters apart, which is the worst. Like if he's just like, and now the parasites? They can be over and I'm just an evil kaiju. And then we switch to her point of view for the rest of the show, trying to rescue them. I don't even know if I'd hate that, but you've seen things, tropes like that happen before. Like Bleach had a bit of a stumbling block where him rescuing Rukia was completely emotionally core-driven and that resulted in that just being the show's best plot arc by like a lot. And then Otohime gets captured, but it didn't have the same depth to it. Like it didn't have the same depth to it. Like it didn't have the same melodrama, tragedy, self-sacrifice. It felt like they're just kind of doing it again because he didn't know what else to do.
Speaker 2:Well, yeah, and, like Orahime, spent all of the Soul Society arc benched Mm-hmm. So you didn't build up that emotional resonance to make that motivation worthwhile, which is really funny, because she was in probably a hundred more chapters than Rukia was before Rukia got captured.
Speaker 1:But because Rukia was an active, proactive character, it was really sad to be like, yeah, we're just going to chain you up. It's like but this person's a badass and we as the viewers are like they did nothing wrong. This is some bullshit. And then they're like, yeah, it's fair, because of systemic depression, I should be executed. It's like no, no, I call bullshit. But part of why I give this rant is a lot of things in show and jump have ended lately and a lot of new series have started. So now that I've monologued about how I'm concerned for kaiju number eight, because it's hitting a very natural climax for either this act or this show, you know what doesn't have that problem Kagura Banshee, which has just been awesome this whole time.
Speaker 2:I mean it's definitely working up to the end of the act two. I was kind of worried because the pacing was it felt way too quick. I thought it was going to get canceled after the end of Act 1.
Speaker 1:I did too.
Speaker 2:I was interested to pick up and keep going.
Speaker 1:Because Act 1 was like okay, I can see. It's like there's a clean, we're going to axe the show point. He got his sword, he won his duel and they're like, okay, there's six swords left. But this one is such a separate arc it almost feels more like a classic anime. So a lot of newer ones only really do one super arc. This one feels more like a conventional anime plot arc, like a dark tournament or android saga. You could easily call this the auction saga.
Speaker 2:Mm-hmm, I do have a question. Actually, this is one of the things I want to talk about in Shonen Jump, nice. So the the Sezami, I'd have to look it up. But the family that's running the auction they have one family member. That's a failure auction. Yeah, they have one uh family member that's a that's a failure, and they disown him, um, and then the main character happens to save that character's life during the previous plot arc and then, uh, because our main character is looking for information on this auction, he happens to come across, uh, this character again and saves his life again, uh, and then they, they build up a little bit of personal dynamic and they help each other realize their full potential, um, but this happenstance that he saves this character's life twice, uh, and then that character turns out to be the key to everything.
Speaker 1:So here's what I like about the happenstance and I don't like about the happenstance. So in some storytelling you have to have some happenstance, because one of the big things they teach you in intro to creative writing is why today what about today? Made the story start. So the first coincidence I give a freebie in any story, no matter how stupid the coincidence is. If your character needs to be hit by lightning, at the same time a spider bites them and then it warps them to a fantasy world. That's your premise, it's fine. So him saving the character the first time to act as a pivot to the second arc Right, that's not going to bug me too much. Like you need to adopt Dio Brando to tell the story, right. The second save didn't feel as coincidental. I feel like they're going to hint that either his teleporting buddy or the Yakuza or someone tried to make that meeting happen.
Speaker 1:Like when someone saves you the first time and then they save you the second time, that feels less coincidental, Like it'd be easy for there to be a line where it's like oh yeah, I ran to you or I sensed your energy or something, without realizing it.
Speaker 2:Maybe I'd have to reread the chapter, but it seemed like he hardly even recognized the character, and then it was like oh wait, you're a member of the family that's running the auction that I'm trying to find information on.
Speaker 1:But, however, in a series where bloodline powers are how the function works, and him being the key, that just made perfect sense to me, Like I knew that was going to happen from the moment I met that character the second time as oh yeah, he's going to get the power to open the door. That's what you do, yeah, yeah, okay, I mean sure we have backflips and grenades happening.
Speaker 2:I also enjoyed the.
Speaker 1:There was also a bit of a twist too. It's like your power's a failure. You can only send people things into the vault, you can't pull it out. What are you going to do? Oh, I'll send him into the vault, Duh, and I get an actual oh snap moment. I'm like that's so obvious. I love it.
Speaker 2:Well, and then imbuing his spirit energy into the item so they can be taken out of the vault. They do that with the grenades and just blow up a bunch of Well.
Speaker 1:I mean, they're despicable people at this auction because the auction sells slaves, yeah, so that was amazing.
Speaker 2:I enjoyed that. So the latest chapter of Kagura Bachi has definitely been at the characters names. I the bleep syndrome.
Speaker 1:Like we're gonna code name everyone. Probably it's gonna be teleport guy, single hollow mask guy, sword mashall, teleport regan, like it's inevitable because it's so. I've given this rant before, but I love when they give characters code names or simple names and it's written in a different language.
Speaker 1:So like if you use names as written in some manga, the language barrier is gonna hurt. Like Chiharuharo has like three I's in it and a lot of anime give people squad numbers and codenames and things Right. Like I don't know how much of Naruto names I would've memorized if they didn't like give each person a code name or an epelet or like a fun fact. Like it would be like I'm sasuke uchiha of the uchiha clan with the shuriken eyes. Because we're uchihas, I'm like all right, this guy's an uchiha, I get it. I'm gara of the sand. I murder people with my sand. My name is literally might guy. I'm just straight up Bruce Lee.
Speaker 2:Shikamaru deals with shadows, right. That's a coincidental translation, but I assume.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but still there's a lot of Apparently his name. I think their names translate to Dear Boren and Peg or something. I don't remember. There's a whole thing. But yeah, they made sure to declare character names, like they're a big deal in Naruto and then Bleach we still don't know everyone's names. We absolutely just number them or he'll just go, so off the wall. He'll be like my name is Grimjaw Jaggerjacks and I'm like, well, I'll remember that, grimjawgerjacks, and I'm like, well, I'll remember that Grimjaw. That's just ridiculous.
Speaker 2:It's probably good If I were going to make a complaint about Kugurabachi, because I'm not actually complaining about the coincidences. I just thought that was an interesting like for such a good series. The coincidences kind of stacked up and it's like hmm so you know what energy it gives me.
Speaker 1:So our earlier theory that let's say he also didn't know if he could cancel after that first act this act feels like he was making it up as he went along at the start and then hit his stride about five chapters in and figure like he didn't quite know what he was gonna do. Because then it makes sense like okay, he runs into this guy again there's an auction, but then it like starts to piece together nicely. So yeah, it really did. So like I'm gonna give it a lot of slack, mostly because its quality is just so much higher than all the other new things right now, for just like.
Speaker 1:Like if we look at, manga as not just the story but the manga object, which is how show and jump, like that's how Bleach hits. My top list is not the writing or the dialogue, it's the combination of it plus the imagery, that scene of him flipping upside down and cutting in half grenades with his sword to teleport them into the audience.
Speaker 1:Those two pages something can be pretty poorly written for me not to think that I'm doing a kickflip with his sword to teleport them into the audience. Those two pages. Something can be pretty poorly written for me not to think that I'm doing a kickflip to slash grenades in half to teleport them into an audience of mafiosos. Isn't sick Like that's just cool.
Speaker 2:But then we move on to like the two new series, one after the other Last week they introduced. I guess I could actually look up on my phone Yo-Kai Buster Murakami. Oh yeah, yeah. Have you given the second chapter a read or did you give up because of the weird butt stuff? Gave up instantly so like, I love to make the nickel joke right.
Speaker 1:So actually no, no well. So I'm actually torn on this one. I had to like give this a refresher, so I didn't give up instantly, because the idea is that he defeats demons not by any of the bleach logic you'd expect, but by being so deadpan of it and telling them to their face how stupid their concept is. The actual premise is person with basic logic explains to these ghosts that everything about them is dumb and they should kill themselves. And then they do Right. So like he just cancel, cultured that kappa out of existence. That might be the most shade I've seen someone throw, so I actually kind of like that one as a comedy. I do not believe it's going to last more than like 20 chapters everything that he said about Kappa, apparently.
Speaker 2:I mean, I couldn't verify oh, it was true, I couldn't verify the three butthole thing apparently.
Speaker 1:But it feels true. This feels like a person did their research it definitely feels true.
Speaker 2:It's so risque I don't know if it's like a translation thing or what, but they called it an anal bead, the soul gem that they take out, and it's like, yeah, kappas did steal people's life essence out of their butts.
Speaker 1:So you know what's really funny. So you know how I mentioned about what we do in the shadows, how chance a man's awkward scene has nothing on what we do on the shadows. But because it's in show and jump, we're conditioned. Remember the first 20 chapters of dragon ball. Remember the first 20 chapters of Dragon Ball.
Speaker 2:In the first 20 chapters of Dragon Ball. Could you see Oolong making an anal bee joke? That's true, I couldn't see that happening.
Speaker 1:So it's like, weirdly enough, it's almost went full circle where I'm like, yeah, no, that joke shouldn't be in here, and that's kind of what I'm giving the props for Okay, but the other half of the premise is that the actual exorcist is a scaredy cat. I don't care for that part that feels sexist.
Speaker 2:Well, it just blows my mind that the next week they release a story about an exorcist that is too scared to exorcise demons. How did both of these concepts get greenlit in such close succession?
Speaker 1:Right, so like that first one. So there's a lot of bleach wannabes in Show and Jump right now.
Speaker 2:The second one is definitely a bleach wannabe, but mixed with the Yo-Kai Buster.
Speaker 1:Uh, the ultimate exorcist. Kiyoshi is just Soul Eater. Down to the art the artwork, the character, expressions, the style and like even the. I have a triple seven tattoo on my back. I'm like yeah, of course you do, and like okay it's like trying to be funny but it's not like definitely a soul eater vibes, but like it has blent bled into my brain. But like what baffles me more that ultimate exorcist kiyoshi and yokai buster murakami are in the same series is they also have new ways.
Speaker 2:Exorcist and kyoko koko necromancer running oh yeah, you're right, that was the kyoko koko necromancer. I forgot about that one as you should, even though I have have actually been reading it, but it's just like.
Speaker 1:So, like the fact that there's four, if we don't count Chainsaw man which, to be fair, chainsaw Man's not only not in Show and Jump, but also is Chainsaw man.
Speaker 2:Hmm.
Speaker 1:And like it's a lot of similar energy and it's not particularly compelling. Oh, I guess Jujutsu Kaisen as well. Yeah. So five Exorcist shows going so yeah, and the Kyoko Necromancer being in the same magazine as News Exorcist that breaks me because I could not believe when. I saw something with the word Exorcist on its cover. Looking at the lineup and like there's also another one technically Dandelion, even though it's a web exclusive also is an.
Speaker 1:Exorcist and a Psychic team up, while the Exorcist helps them deal with alien stuff and the Psychic helps them deal with Exorcist stuff, but that was on. And the Psychic helps them deal with Exorcist stuff, but that one's on meth.
Speaker 2:so it's at least very interesting. Huh, you think that one's worth reading? It kind of bugs me when I see it. It says web only and I'm like mm-hmm.
Speaker 1:So there's a scene I'm not on the web. I can't do it justice. It just has one insane thing happen after another in such rapid succession that you can't guess it. Such rapid succession that you can't guess it. You just can't. It's pretty great, and then Undead Unlook. So this is going to be a weird comparison. I'm going to ask you this as a question Does Undead Unlook right now give you JoJo's Part 6 vibes when everyone's just doing weird things for the sake of weird things at this point, part 6?
Speaker 1:Okay, sorry, steel Ocean, where everyone's just doing weird things for the sake of weird things at this point, part 6 ok, sorry, steel Ocean yeah, ok where it's like the villains vaguely established plan involving various MacGuffins to become god, maybe Undead, unlocked, just feels like it's long since lost.
Speaker 2:A point to it well, because they shifted things around, because the first seat that actually gets to loop back and remember everything yeah, but like it's turned into the Jojo's effect, where every chapter is just two weird people having a stand battle in sequence. Yeah, yeah, I'd say so. I don't know. It's kind of been a long time going. I've talked about Undead Unlocked before, where they Jump to shark so hard.
Speaker 2:Well, no, they have weird powers that are weird for the sake of being weird, which, I guess, is where you get those JoJo's vibes from, like when they were playing the word game against the other word game. I mean I kind of enjoyed that. I did too.
Speaker 1:I'm not dunking on it. I'm more like just wondering if you also feel like originally it was trying to be like. It felt like it was trying to be not a speed grapher, but like a people with weird powers unravel a mystery post-apocalyptic anime, and then it turned very JoJo's, which is not what I thought was going to happen.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's kind of been JoJo's from the start.
Speaker 1:Yeah, maybe I just didn't catch it. That might be it, I might just not have caught that it was JoJo's from the start.
Speaker 2:Yeah, maybe I just didn't catch it. That might be it.
Speaker 1:I might just not have caught that. It was JoJo's from the start, because they put women in it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it definitely didn't feel JoJo's and like the, yeah, there's way more representation in the series.
Speaker 1:Actually, you know what it is. I think I got it now. It's Hunter x Hunter. After all the Nen stuff kicked in, it's the Hunter x Hunter boat, where it's like long since been about anything other than the powers, because Hunter x Hunter after Greed Island really just became about weird power interactions.
Speaker 1:Chimera Antar was literally just weird powers interacting with other weird powers, and then everything after that got even weirder. It was literally just weird powers interacting with other weird powers, and then everything after that got even weirder. Like this is my specialist sister, ghost alternate form, and here's the 30 rules that it follows and if you use those rules correctly, you can checkmate people and then people explode. We'll use that to fix Gon during our election. You're like is this even about anything or is this literally just I'm going to showcase my weird ideas, Hunter x Hunter is a weird one.
Speaker 1:It's like Hunter x Hunter is one of those things that's probably actually overrated, because it has some really good parts and some very mid parts.
Speaker 2:I would agree that Hunter x Hunter is overrated.
Speaker 1:Although its rating goes up a full two points if you end it at the tree.
Speaker 2:That's one of those series that I don't think the author is ever actually going to come back to finish it, because he just like.
Speaker 1:Exploded.
Speaker 2:Left him, he got too bloated and now he doesn't know what to do.
Speaker 1:I don't even think he doesn't know what to do. He's had mega health problems.
Speaker 1:And it's like there's a lot of layers on it and I do have to wonder what it'd be like if he had a consistent release schedule and kept doing it. But like, I don't know the circumstance, but it really feels like he comes in and writes a couple chapters so he keeps his health benefits. So on to some things in show and jump that I do enjoy a bit more. So first, okay, do you find it crazy that akane bashi is at 115 chapters? I haven't checked in with it forever, but I'm shocked that's alive so which one I can benachi it's like the
Speaker 2:stage comedy one yeah, yeah, I haven't checked on that in a long time. Cultural Barrier it's about some sort of traditional Japanese stage performance.
Speaker 1:So I looked at it and I'm like good for you for still being alive, Continues life uninfected.
Speaker 1:So for things that are still alive, that shock me, though, Roboco needs to die. So for things that are still alive, that shock me, though, Roboco needs to die. I would even take an Exorcist show over it. And then Super Psychic Policeman Chojo is just my favorite manga airing in Show and Jump I like a lot. So there's a few super long running series in Show and Jump that people don't realize how super long running they were because they're gag series. So like Gintama, for example, or Saiki-K or Koji Kame are just like yeah, no, this is just a doofy enough premise and I'm a funny enough writer, I can just do this forever right cause, like he just had a Yu-Gi-Oh episode and he had a three episode long Power Rangers arc and he had a plumber arc and the premise is psychic detective is just over people.
Speaker 1:It's just great, like they just worked at Kmart. Why'd they go work at Kmart? Because they can, because who cares? A character literally yells all that plot development ruined and punches somebody.
Speaker 2:Yeah, overtly, are you enjoying Psych House?
Speaker 1:Kind of, yeah, I think so. So you know how my problem with Kill Blue was. It's one sidestep away from being super cringy.
Speaker 2:Mm-hmm.
Speaker 1:So Psych House, I'm like, are you going to turn into a rom-com and is that going to make me quit reading you? That's my concern with it because so far it's just been 100% wholesome. There's no plot, it's just wholesome.
Speaker 2:I mean there's a little bit of a plot, but yeah, it is mostly just wholesome.
Speaker 1:There's no antagonist.
Speaker 2:Hmm, well, I mean, I guess there's an antagonistic force in that they have to learn how to use their psychs yeah, that's not an antagonist.
Speaker 1:So like for a series to keep going, and your antagonist doesn't have to be a person. Sometimes you can literally have the problem be society. One of my professions rolled their eyes at that sentence, from wherever they are on this earth, because, like, oh man, are they tired of college kids writing about how the real villain is society? Anywho, not to harp on that too much, there just isn't an antagonist right now, and it's like I don't know how long it can maintain wholesome antics because they start getting into cartoon territory rather than what people imagine manga to be.
Speaker 1:Because then there's SpongeBob, and even SpongeBob caved and had to add in some recurring antagonists. Like, even Pokemon had to go with Team Rocket at some point, and there's one other show I can think of that didn't really have an antagonist and it was Witch Watch.
Speaker 2:I don't know. Witchwatch that's like the only series that I started reading. Okay, there's the Cypher Academy. I gave up on that one too. But Witchwatch I read quite a bit about it and I just can't handle it. I gave up. I haven't read it in like two months.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's fair, but I think that was his problem is it didn't have an antagonistic force, so it's going to be a hot take, but there's actually two antagonists in Chozo. That's why it'll last forever. First, there's the police chief Right and, more importantly, there's Choro.
Speaker 1:He is the antagonist and she is the protagonist and they will be fighting every day of their lives, Because everything he and the thing is is they're antagonist to each other because they're diametrically opposed. He is a slacker otaku who wants to build gumplum play cards and she is a trained professional who wants to take this job seriously.
Speaker 2:that'll fuel it forever have you been reading Astro Royale?
Speaker 1:yeah, I don't. It's kind of funny because it's like it's original in plot but not original in vibes, so it's gonna. So Naruto kind of has this problem. This is a weird problem and I'm gonna dunk on Naruto for a bit. There is no reason for Naruto to be about ninjas.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:The fact there are ninjas is irrelevant, it's just flavor. There is no reason.
Speaker 2:Realistically they're wizards, but they didn't want to do that kind of fantasy.
Speaker 1:Like very few of them would even be the monk class in D&D. I'm pretty sure Naruto's a warlock oh yeah, straight up, and Sasuke's probably a wizard. But before I go and spend the three hours that conversation would take, my problem with Astro Royale is they're like we have a gangster theme and it's just that they have MacGuffin superpowers from nowhere to do Right. I don't even have a good example of people just wake up with superpowers because superpowers, but they have superpowers because superpowers. I guess it's closest to my Hero where people just got quirks.
Speaker 1:It's gangster themed but the gangster themes are superficial, they don't go into the actual story elements. So it feels like I'm reading my Hero Academia, but it's not really grounded and the characters don't really have a whole lot of personality going for them. I don't know what I would want it to be, but Kagebanshi was better at being gangsters.
Speaker 2:Yeah, because I mean like it's still leaning heavily into these mafiosa vibes with this auction art Right Like that feels super mobster Like you tell me Wizard Mafia.
Speaker 1:I'm like, yeah, I know those guys are Wizard Mafia. I'm gonna take some of those for my D&D campaign. Reflavor it a bit but like the teleporting into an auction hall where they sell people. That is, some Wizards of Thay shit. That's great, yeah. But like Sakamoto Days also ran into that problem where it's assassin themed but doesn't actually be themed about assassins, oh yeah where Spy Family is actually about an assassin are you still reading Sakamoto Days? I don't remember the last time I checked in.
Speaker 2:I will on occasion, just for sheer curiosity uh, because apparently now the new, the new direction the plot is going, which maybe it'll actually be a return to form. But the new direction the plot is going is that sakamoto wants to take over the uh japanese assassin association so that he can use that to uh make his convenience store into a national brand that.
Speaker 1:No, it's not funny enough. They've leaned too far away from the comedy at this point. The moment he went into skinny mode as a superpower, it lost its its soul.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's true.
Speaker 1:Because the moment he's like I'm going to be actual badass now, I'm like you lost the joke, it's over. And then my wholesome golf anime ended. Aww, he was just in a crush on her, so he learned to play golf and then he fell in love with golf. And then, as a result of him falling in love with golf, she fell in love with him and then they went off to America to play golf together. I'm fine with this that also completely lacked antagonist as well.
Speaker 1:I wonder if that's the recurring theme to things that get prematurely cancelled. Is they just forgot to have an antagonist? No, no.
Speaker 2:Doran to Dororan canceled. Is they just forgot to have an antagonist? No, no, doran de Dororan. Ugh, I don't know why that one got canceled. Poor one out for it, that was kind of a little bit of a precursor to this whole like exorcist.
Speaker 1:Yep.
Speaker 2:I'm going to call it a pandemic, because I mean, like this series is being overrun by this style of story.
Speaker 1:Right and, like I love to say, it's the Bleach effect because, like so many, because Bleach ripped off a fair number of Well was inspired by I don't like to say ripped off Was inspired by a fair number of things already, like Blue Exorcist and Well no Bleach was. I don't actually know. I think Bleach predates Blue Exorcist and Soul Eater, but I'm not actually sure. My brain doesn't go back that far. But all three of them would be influenced by Yu Yu Hakusho to some extent. But what happened was they're like look at Shoujo's dark trio of Chainsaw man and JJK and Hell's Paradise and da-da-da, and it's like it's actually Attack on Titan's fault. I'm pretty sure you think it's Attack on Titan's fault. Attack on Titan brought a whole wave of like a whole generation into anime and then everything was trying to be super edgy.
Speaker 1:But it's funny because when you write something super edgy in Show and Jump, it just doesn't work Like write something super edgy and show and jump.
Speaker 2:It just doesn't work.
Speaker 1:I cannot believe Chainsaw man must be pulling in so much money to not get cancelled.
Speaker 2:Oh, yeah, Shadow.
Speaker 1:Eliminators was another one that was part of this infestation.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that one got cancelled prematurely though.
Speaker 1:Good, because I'm literally just pulled out the free chapters list. Right, I'm going to play County Exorcist things. So I'm going to say a title and you're going to add to the counter. If you think it adds to the counter Chainsaw man, I'll start it there. We'll give it a 1. Ultimate Exorcist Kiyoshi, obviously. So we're up to two. Yo-kai Buster Murakami, obviously. Kagura Banshee Not really. It's mostly people murdering people. I don't actually think there are monsters in it. The real monster might be mankind. Yeah, okay News Exorcist, obviously. So that puts us up to Four.
Speaker 2:Kyoko Koto necromancer five which watch? No, no, that's, there are yokai in there because, like the one character is a tango and he's not about exercising them yeah, fair enough.
Speaker 1:I've never read this one that's labeled shoujo nal.
Speaker 2:I don't know what that's about uh, that one is definitely not exorcist, that one, uh is actually that one's pretty interesting, um, noted feel free to segue the the main character, um he, uh, his dad, I guess. Send me back.
Speaker 1:There's AI robots that have mind control chips in them oh yeah, yeah, I think I did read a couple chapters of this, but keep going, keep going, keep cooking the main character's dad.
Speaker 2:Uh, he was in a resistance group and he discovered that the that the robots are actually sentient and that when they have their brain control chips in them, they like. They actually like see and feel and experience everything. But they just can't resist because the brain control thing yeah, yeah, this is all coming back to me.
Speaker 2:I should catch up on that and so then there's like a psychotic police investigator that's trying to cover up that these, that the robots are actually like sentient and aware semi-related I finally got around to watching was going through westworld with one of my friends. Westworld's real good yeah, um, but then the uh. So the main character, his dad, was killed by this psychotic police officer. That's part of the cover-up.
Speaker 1:Likely played by. Keanu Reeves.
Speaker 2:Then a military-grade robot gets lost in a crash or something and she ends up at this kid's house and she's just basically like yeah, you're pretty cool, but you and me we should go kill all the humans. And I mean he hasn't done any human killing yet, but he did get like cyborg parts implanted into him because his arm got cut off by one of the psychotic police officers.
Speaker 1:So, despite all, the shade we've thrown at Show and Jump. There are some cool things going.
Speaker 2:I don't think I even explained what Psych-Cow was but Psych-Cow is just a gag series.
Speaker 1:That's like I'm going to say if my Hero Academia wasn't trying to be Show and Jump and just let itself be funny, okay so shall we continue this?
Speaker 2:so no, is is not. Uh.
Speaker 1:Exorcist series I gave astro baby its first three chapters and I'm like, wow, that's fucked. So I might get back to that later um astro baby.
Speaker 2:I think astro baby has some serious potential too. Okay, okay boruto.
Speaker 1:You know what's funny? Naruto absolutely would not fall into this. I exercise demons with magical powers as they slowly take over my body. Bullshit, boruto, boruto, boruto. So right now he's fighting. They come from another world and they're aliens that planted a tree and from this tree they grew clones of people to fight them. Is Boruto part of the infestation of these series? Because he's not fighting ninjas. Ninjas no longer matter.
Speaker 2:He's fighting interdimensional aliens. And everyone can fly. And well, everyone that matters can fly anyways.
Speaker 1:So you could argue it's part of this infestation.
Speaker 2:Boruto is just bad. It doesn't know what it wants to be. I don't know if I would call it an exorcist series, but it definitely is very unfocused.
Speaker 1:It's close. So Kaiju no 8 is not an exorcist series. It's actually just good. Go watch Kaiju no 8 or read it series. It's actually just good read cut. Go watch kaiju number eight or read it. Like the moment, like this is my 32 year old protagonist who's removing kaiju guts for the street. I'm like, oh, this is gonna be something special yeah, okay there's something called blade of the moon princess.
Speaker 2:I've never read a single chapter of it uh, that is actually vaultters, the guy who did Spy Family. That was a series he did before that, Although ironically it's being advertised as being from the creator of Spy Family, even though I'm pretty sure it's a previous work Interesting.
Speaker 1:And then we have Rory Dragon, which is just wholesome dragon fun times, not an exorcist show. I thought it got canceled because some the antagonist in this plot arc is really high school bully doesn't like that. She doesn't pay attention to people.
Speaker 2:I am enjoying the dragon Ruri dragon as am I. I need some.
Speaker 1:I like balance eye. I need some. I like balance. Rurie Dragon is the inverse opposite of Kage Banshee and I'm completely on board with that.
Speaker 2:Mm-hmm.
Speaker 1:All right, so Chojin X not as nothing. I dropped that on chapter one.
Speaker 2:It's like Tokyo Ghoul, but better, I think.
Speaker 1:Well, it's the same guy.
Speaker 2:Well, yeah, I'm just saying that all the problems I had, everything I loved about Tokyo Ghoul is still there and all the things I hated about Tokyo Ghoul when it decided to stop being Tokyo Ghoul. So far, it's just been better. Great review. He's learned from his mistakes, but that is definitely not an exorcist type of thing, because the children don't really get exorcised. Fair.
Speaker 1:Then we have Beat in Motion definitely not exorcists, Right. We have Kaiju no 8 B-Side, which I haven't read yet, but if it's anything like A-side, I'm excited. So, the next.
Speaker 2:The B-side. So Shinoyama, the prodigy child, she gets a custom weapon.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the death axe.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the B-side is them showing her getting that weapon and so, like, they try and give her another custom weapon and she doesn't like it, and then she ends up choosing the axe and it's like a whole. It's like a little mini-arc. Or they hint at the vice-captain, they hint at the vice captain the whole thing about how, in this era, swordsmen are useless, and then there's a whole little arc about him meeting the captain.
Speaker 1:I think that made it into the anime. No, no, uh, no, no, uh. The, the anime and the manga have extremely abridged versions of what to be side shows. Got it, but to move along from that one, since we're still playing hunt the exorcist, do you just do kaizen? Oh yeah, definitely, I forgot it was about that. But yes, bleach did that too, where it's like, yeah, we've just forgot about hollows, I'm like, but that's a cool part. Okay, my hero, academia only has five chapters left and it's done okay I want it dead.
Speaker 1:I've never read a chapter of dark gathering, so I don't know. Oh, definitely exorcists nice blue exorcist definitely exorcists ser Nice Blue Exorcist Definitely.
Speaker 2:Exorcists Seraph of the End, I think was technically Vampires, I would say.
Speaker 1:Exorcists they feel pretty.
Speaker 2:Exorcist. But yeah, I mean, the one guy is supposed to fight Vampires and then his buddy got turned into a Vampire, and then it's about the interpersonal dynamics of them being friends but vampire hunter and vampire.
Speaker 1:I'm going to say that's an exorcist.
Speaker 2:I didn't get very far into that series before. I was just like, yeah, I don't really care.
Speaker 1:I don't know what Goku Rikagi is oh, I'll have to.
Speaker 2:I don't think I see it's entirely possible.
Speaker 1:There's things that neither of us read, but between the two of us we have surprisingly good coverage.
Speaker 2:Jojen X. Oh yeah, that one's an Exorcist one.
Speaker 1:Oh nice, we have Twin Star Exorcists.
Speaker 2:I think that one's actually done.
Speaker 1:Maybe we have World Trigger.
Speaker 2:No, that's not an Exorcist show.
Speaker 1:It's funny because it's sci-fi but in practice is identical. You replace demons with neighbors and your demon-killing weapons with triggers. Wait, no, never mind what triggers about building a video game in a simulator. What am I talking about? Black Clover's just fairytale, but like.
Speaker 2:It's not about Exorcists.
Speaker 1:It's close to being about Exorcists but it's not. It's the same problem I had with that Mafia show. It's wizard, about Exorcists. It's close to being about Exorcists but it's not. It's the same problem I had with that Mafia show. It's wizard-themed. You could switch out Wizards and Black Clover for any other genre If it was Mafia-themed and every Mafioso had a Mafia gun. But he didn't get a Mafia gun. He got a Mafia Billy Club. So he had to use his anti-magic billy club to fight the different mafia guns. It'd be functionally the same show.
Speaker 2:What annoys me about Black Clover and I mean I've read it all, but what annoys me about Black Clover is that his anti-magic has become a form of magic. Yes, he uses it to fly.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, I'm on board with this hate. Weirdly enough, Mashal did it better.
Speaker 2:But the problem with Mashal is when Mashal did the Ninja Wars.
Speaker 1:But when we did that, I gave that rant about the Ninja War problem or the Shibuya problem. Mashal did that too, and we're like no one cares about these fights. With these I did not learn a single person's name. Why are you expecting me to know these people? I care about Mashel and Mashel alone. How dare you series Like I was completely fine with him swim-kicking the island away because I'm here for Mashel? We have a Demon Slayer spinoff, which is absolutely a yokai problem. I think that makes 11. We got Shadow Eliminators.
Speaker 2:I was trying to double-check to see if that one actually ended. I think it did, because it hasn't had any new chapters in a while and I think we've hit the shows.
Speaker 1:A chunk of shows have already ended because we have Mama Yu Yu, which has ended. We have I don't know if Ghost Reaper Girl is still going- I believe the author was writing.
Speaker 2:It got sick, wrote a couple more chapters, got sick. It might be the Hunter X Hunter syndrome.
Speaker 1:We have Magic Luminaire, magical Girls Incorporated, which is actually really good, even though it's still an Exorcist show. So the premise of this one is like you have magical girls that kill demons, but we're watching like a small business startup trying to make their way in this crowded marketplace of magical girls right so you have a surprising amount of like the guy in his magical girl outfit trying to make his magical girl company stand out against the competition.
Speaker 1:It's like it's weirdly corporate, which makes it work better. It's like I can't just kill the monster, I have to kill the monster to get good PR, so we get more referrals, so we can pay our paychecks, so that aspect of it is fun. And then I think I just hit the Graveyard of Dead series because we got Jang-CX which I think ended.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, that ended. That was an Exorcist show, though.
Speaker 1:Alright. So we ended up with how many Exorcist shows? I think we hit 13. Okay, 4, 8, 12, 16, 20, 24, 28, 30. So we have about 30 series going in Show and Jump before I hit that like thing, stop thing. 34? Yeah, we have about 34 series total in Show and Jump that are currently going before we hit that dead spot, or on Show and Jump Online or Accessories.
Speaker 2:So about a third of what's in Show and Jump right now we would classify as Exorcist shows.
Speaker 1:Correct. Well, if a couple that were on the fence that were very similar in structure to exorcist shows but weren't technically exorcists, being World Trigger and Witch Watch and, for all I know, Roboco is about exorcists.
Speaker 2:But now we've been ranting about Shonen Jump for a while here, so maybe we should move on to our random question.
Speaker 1:Sounds good. Give me one moment. Continue to explain something I don't know. Explain B-plot a bit more while I find our question list.
Speaker 2:Oh, I mean there's not much more to explain about the B-side. They weren't exactly plot holes in the manga, because they have a scene where it's like we're giving you a custom weapon because our third strongest officer should also be part of our frontline attacking force.
Speaker 1:So have I used the who's, your favorite Disney character, yet. I feel like we have. I don't know, I don't remember, and also I honestly, Because we likely would have said, I would have probably said Robin Williams' Genie, like it sounds vaguely familiar.
Speaker 2:I mean.
Speaker 1:Okay, here's an interesting one, and I think they make this completely seriously. Have you ever seen a ghost?
Speaker 2:Have I ever seen a ghost? Have I ever seen a ghost? Uh, no, no, I have not.
Speaker 1:So I've never seen a ghost, but the closest I think I got to like a ghost-like experience. So normally when I pass out, I'm very conscious that I'm out cold. I don't normally like zone in and out or pass in and out right, mm-hmm, mm-hmm. So there's twice in my life where I've like actually fainted, fainted. And have you ever actually fainted?
Speaker 1:I don't think so no, so I'm standing upright and I was in Vancouver for, I think, spreading my dad's ashes actually, and I hadn't eaten in like a couple days. So I'm just like standing in this hotel room and then I'm like in the middle of a conversation and then I'm just on the ground Right and I like look again and like the perspective has changed and I had no idea what had happened because I had no memory of the part where I fell Right. And I gotta say, for people who believe in ghosts, if you ever just straight up faint and you just have a chunk of missing time from just passing out so suddenly and instantly you can't keep track.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I know Right, if I didn't have people around to tell me I fainted and it's like were you attacked by a ghost? I'm like, I don't know. I was on my way to a funeral and I was just on the ground suddenly, out of nowhere. I could see how that would be a ghost-like experience if I didn't have witnesses.
Speaker 2:Well, okay, so I mean, the most common ghost-like experience that I hear about is sleep paralysis. It turned out to be.
Speaker 1:Miko one time.
Speaker 2:Because the sense of impending dread that comes along with that, and I have experienced sleep paralysis, but never such that I've actually seen any sort of sleep paralysis demons.
Speaker 1:That's kind of funny is we're like me and you are not. Despite very much enjoying fiction, are not particularly superstitious human beings at all, because these exorcists all 30 of them are doing their work. Man, I would totally give that Ultimate Exorcist show a free pass, launching the same week as the Yo-Kai Buster, if they were in the same cinematic universe. Especially if they make us wait a year for that reveal?
Speaker 1:That would be amazing but with that, thank you everybody for tuning in to Richard and Carl present Deep Space and Dragons. Keep your eyes posted on my various social medias because we might do a game development live stream, for Carl's game project might be a follow on Google Doc, if I can make the technology work and stay hydrated. Don't faint and please don't send in any Exorcist manga. Bye.
Speaker 2:Bye.