Our Favorite Things of 2023 | Trash Taste #183
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- Hello everyone, welcome back to another festive episode of the Trash Taste Podcast. I'm Joey and I'm with my festive co-host Connor and Garnt. - That's not a very festive opening. - Happy holidays everyone. By the time this comes out, it's right before Christmas, I believe. - Right before Christmas. - So I hope you guys have done your Christmas shopping. There's no last minute Christmas shopping, I'm sure. - Could be me. - Definitely. - Still gotta do that. - What do you guys want for Christmas by the way?

- Your company. - No, no. What do you want? I don't fucking need it. I can't give you that. - Your presence is a gift. - Your friendship. - We're still friends for like another year, right guys? - I just want to cherish now. That's why they call it the present.

But anyway, we're gonna- - What do you want? - They call it the present because it is a present, Joey. That's what the saying is, surely. - Whatever, it was a shit fucking thing anyway. - Is it bad to ask someone what they want or is it better to just- - No, no, the problem is I can't answer that question because I genuinely don't know. - Yeah, me neither. - This is the problem I have with every Christmas time. Everybody around me asks, "What do you want?" And I say, "I don't know. I wish I knew." - I genuinely have something.

- You did? - You did, yeah. Well, you told me you wanted that, I was like, "What?" - Wait, what? I told you something? - Oh, no, maybe Sydney told me what you wanted and I was like, "Are you sure he wants it?" - Oh, okay. - Sydney's being a rat, bro. - Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait,

- That's not what Sydney said. - Huh? - That is not what Sydney said. - That is not what Sydney said. - Do you want a fidget spinner? Like, what do you want? - No, not a fidget spinner, Joey, okay? - Is that not a fidget toy? - That's a fidget toy made for someone who doesn't fidget.

- Like swear down. I've seen, like I've been getting recommended a lot of different fidget toy videos and some of them I'm just like, oh, that looks really, really good. Actually, do you know one of the best fidget toys I've had recently? - What? - It was a present that you gave actually. - What? - It was the belt buckle.

And so you kind of like, I asked for a belt, right? And Connor gave me a belt buckle and it just has this really satisfying click, right? When you like flip it, it has such a strong, satisfying click. - Wait, which belt was this? What brand is it?

I think it was Calvin Klein. It has such a satisfying click when you rotate it. And I've not actually used it as a- Swear down, swear down. I have not yet used it. - He's just sitting there in his office just clicking away at this bone bottle. - This is like when parents buy their kids like a ton of like, or like when they buy pets, they buy like a cat or a dog a bunch of,

and then playing with the spring on the door. - Yeah, yeah. Literally. I haven't actually used it as a belt yet 'cause it's just been sitting on my desk and I just twiddle with it because I'm just like- - So do I have to buy another belt that you actually use? - I don't know. - 'Cause every last year you're like, "I need a belt to use." And now you find out that you're not using the fucking thing. - Or just buy him another Calvin Klein but only the belt buckle.

- Yeah, I should, yeah. - I've been getting curious about like different fidget toys 'cause I bought one in Korea and it was shit. I've kind of realized the difference between good fidget toys. - Metal, clanking, dunking. - There needs to be something like satisfying about this. - Well, now I'm scared to buy you any like fidget toy for Christmas because there's a chance that I'll give it to you and you'll be like, this is shit.

- I wanna know your standards for fissure choice. - Do you wanna know the funny origin of where your belt came from? - Where? - I probably should say this. I went to this Don Quixote and I remember you told me you wanted this and I got sidetracked. I wasn't actually looking for your birthday present. Sorry, Christmas present. It was Christmas? It was Christmas, right? - Christmas, yeah. - Last Christmas. And I went to...

this really cool Don Quixote that was like eight floors or something in Hokkaido. And there was a $100 Gacha machine. And I was like- - Fuck no. - Yeah, I was like, shit, okay. In my head I was like, this is before, if YouTube shorts are on my mind at the time, I would have made a short about it or something. But I was like, well, fuck, I'm gonna find out. So I just unloaded like 500 bucks into this thing to see what I got. And I realized, I was like, wait, hold on a second.

I think it was a hundred bucks, like $60 a go. And the worst thing you could get, you basically got like a level, so it's E to A to B. And I got four Es, which was the worst and one like C. And the Es you could choose from this cabinet, a bunch of stuff. And I was looking at the prices of some of these things on Amazon. And a lot of them were more than Ichiman.

And I was like, wait a second. This is like, this is great. And so I got one of the belts from that. 'Cause that belt was going for like 80 bucks. - Was that the E rank one? - That was one of the worst ranked ones, yeah.

- I got a Gacha prize, I'll take it. - It was like, it was, it was, I was looking on Amazon, it was more money to buy it on Amazon than it was to play this Gacha and lose and then get it. And I was like, huh. - See, but that's cool. But now that we've known the true nature of what happened to this bell, you basically paid 80 bucks for a fucking fidget toy.

- I've seen some of the price of these fidget toys and some of them go from like 10 bucks. That's all the shit ones. They can go for like hundreds of bucks, some of these fidget toys because they are like so intricately made. - Japanese engineering like fucking insane shit. But we're not talking about fidget toys, we're not talking about belts, we're talking about our favorite things

of 2023. We've decided to make a little three by three to kind of reflect on the year of 2023 and basically share, I guess the nine things that we were really invested in or we really wanna talk about that we discovered in 2023. - Yeah. - Oh, sorry. - Okay, who's gonna go? Me?

- It's one of you two. - I'll get out of here. - To preface, not everything has to be from 2023. Just things that we discovered or things that we enjoyed in 2020. - Yeah, because we've had two, three Christmas episodes before. So we thought we'd do something different and just reflect on, we're gonna be self-indulgent and just be like, hey, this is what we liked.

in 2023 and doesn't have to be any theme. Doesn't have to be any particular thing. Can be literally anything that we wanted to talk about that we discovered in 2023. - And if you want Trash Taste, odds are I imagine some of these might've come up on Trash Taste. - I've tried to pick stuff that I haven't talked about so much on Trash Taste before or things that- - Fair enough. I've got a mix, half I've definitely spoke about a lot. - Yeah, I'm about to mix as well I think.

- So who wants to go first? - One of you, you're the host. - Yeah, you can go first. - Okay, bring on my three by three that I definitely just scrambled together. - No, what the heck is this? Okay, okay, okay. - You know what's really funny? I was thinking back on like, all right, what are some of the newer things that I got into in 2023? And I sat there and thought about it and I was like, damn, am I getting old or do I just not remember what happened this year?

- Either that or you've gone back to your fucking childhood. - Yeah, I was gonna say like, if you remove the crown, this could be a kid's list. - Yeah, literally. Remove the crown, what age range are we talking here? - I'm 13 and this is deep. - Literally. - I think I might have gone back. - Sometimes going back to the roots is where it's at. - Yeah, man. - Okay, I gotta ask.

- "Crown" ain't no way. - Come on. - Okay, legitimately, I started watching "The Crown." I didn't really start watching it this year. It was more like late last year that I like kind of discovered it. - Me too, me too. - And you know, at first, when I looked at the concept of this show, I was just like, oh, it's about like the British monarchy.

I didn't really care about the, I mean, every Australian doesn't really care about the British monarchy, all that kind of stuff. But I thought, fuck it, whatever. I'll give it a go, I'll give it a watch. And I really fucking enjoyed it. Like, it's a really good show. - I would like to give my thoughts on the show. - Sure. - To see if you kind of feel similarly. - Okay. - First, like two to three seasons, banger television. - Banger television. - Some of the best out there because I feel like the crown,

pre like televised history was really, really interesting. - Yeah, absolutely. - And then afterwards, especially when the crown season four and light season were really fucking bad.

I thought the latest season of "The Crown", the one with Diana, all the Diana seasons have been some of the most boring TV I've ever seen in my life. - I think it's definitely gone down since, yeah, when Diana came into the picture. Definitely- - I haven't gone that far in "The Crown", yeah. - Okay, yeah, 'cause right now it's season six, I think, which is the last season. - Diana, three seasons of this show to Diana. - Yeah. - What? - I mean, look, I get it. Now that I have fully sat through the entire series and I've actually learned a lot,

- It's actually kind of an achievement. This show made me kind of interested in learning about the history of like the British monarchy, which I didn't give a shit about before. But like, yeah, as Connor said, like first three seasons of like when, you know, Elizabeth was still like very, very young and just got, you know, just became queen stuff like that. That show was super interesting. Cause I'd never learned anything about that. And again, it was just like really well-made television that actually made me give a shit about something I previously didn't give a shit about. - I had to constantly catch myself in the first few seasons being nearly caring about the-

I was like, nah, nah, Welsh ancestors. I'm not forgetting. He nearly got me. I nearly sympathized with you guys. - During season one, I was still in denial. I was like, I mean, yeah, this is cool, but I don't quite care yet. And then season two hit and I'm like, all right, I'm invested. You know when you start watching that trash TV show that your significant other is watching? And then you start off being like, what is this shit?

- But then you stick around for a while and then a couple of days later you're like fully invested in it. - It's like, wait, honey, can we watch the next episode please? - Yeah, yeah, yeah. - It's like, what do you mean you watched ahead? What the fuck? - I'd say like out of all of the Netflix shows, kind of live action shows, I'd say that one probably stuck out to me the most because

Again, it made me care about something I previously would have never thought I'd get into. - I think if they had just wrapped up the Diana stuff on like a season as opposed to three, we would have been- - How many seasons of "The Crown" is there now? - Six currently. - Six and half of it is Diana.

- Yeah, like three, four and five is like very heavily focused on Diana. - 'Cause I got through like the beginning of season three and then I stopped and then I was like, oh, I guess- - Honestly, probably the best thing to do. - Probably. - Yeah, it kind of goes downhill a little bit. I think the second half of season six has just come out, which I haven't watched yet, but apparently that's gonna be like the end of the series 'cause you know, what are they gonna do after that? - All right, so.

- Lego. - Yeah. - What's up with that Joe? What's up with that? - As a kid, I'm sure everyone had that like, you know, Lego bucket, Lego collection as did I, you know, I loved playing with Legos as a kid. And then when I got older, I realized, oh, there are Lego boxes for adults.

Like massive Legos collections for adults. - Legos, well, you know, I think there's most Legos are for every age. And then there are some that are more catered towards kids. - More catered towards kids. And then there are ones where it's just like, like there's a couple of boxes that I bought, which is like straight up just say 18 plus.

And I was just like, oh, okay. - What are you building titties? - Yeah, that's what I thought. I'm like, it's a bit of a weird way to advertise it. But like, yeah. 'Cause like, you know, growing up, I loved like building Legos and like, did you guys ever have like these things called Meccanos? - Yes. - Yeah. Like it's basically like, it's like Lego except they're metallic pieces and you use like nuts and bolts and screws to put everything together. - More gears.

- More gears and like you can add electronics to it and stuff like that. It's basically like Hasbro is my first robot. - I watched a guy on YouTube who builds Lego machines. - Oh yeah. - He's like, how many gears can I add to this system? And then he just always like, I'm gonna make an underwater car of Lego. And you're like, okay, that's sick. - Yeah, just shit like that. So it's like,

And Japan as well has like a bunch of Lego stores all over. And there's one kind of near my house and like, I would go into it every now and then just to be like, oh, I wonder what, like how Lego has evolved. And then I went in and I saw like a bunch of like really fucking sick Lego pieces that I was just like, you know what? I'm gonna go back to my childhood and just like build a bunch of Legos just to see what it's like. And it's been, I've kind of used it as my form of meditation this year of just like just playing some music or like putting on a show on TV and just like sitting down and just building a Lego.

- I just may not do anything but watch anime. - To be fair, I did watch "Health Paradise" while building Legos.

- Okay, so give me all your top three Lego sets. - Top three Lego sets? Okay, so the one I recently finished was, you know the giant wave painting by Katsushika Hokusai? - Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. - That's one, yeah. - Pete gave this one away in my charity auction. - Yeah, yeah, yeah, so it's that, like the Lego set of that. And it's kind of like this really cool, it creates this really cool 3D Lego painting. And you can actually, they built it so that you can actually hang it up on the wall. So we have it hung up on our wall.

and it actually looks kind of dope. The coolest one by far though is I built a fully functioning Pac-Man arcade machine out of Legos. - Oh, that's sick. - What? - Can we pull this up? - Yeah, and I'll send a video to Moon on as well to put in the episode, but basically you can build this. It's probably, it stands about this tall.

And it's this fully operating, I say fully operating, but like, there's a lot of moving parts to it. But like, instead of actually like playing on the arcade, like with the joystick and whatever, there's a crank on the side and it,

and the actual screen, you can actually move around the Pac-Man and all of that. Yeah, this thing. So I built this. - Oh, sick. - And the top part has like the Pac-Man logo, which you can like press a button and it flips around. - Wait, so is it like an actual screen in a game? - No, no. So all of this is like built out of Legos. - What? Can I see a video? Can we go on our own video? I wanna see how this works.

And so basically it's made to look like a screen, but what it is is that it's these individual like Pac-Man Lego pieces that are on a little chain. - I had no idea that Lego went this intricate. - Yeah, they're going ham bro. - Have they already stopped selling this? 'Cause I already saw resale prices for like 500 bucks. - I don't know actually, but yeah, this is the exact one I bought. - Holy shit. - And Aki bought this for me for my birthday.

- Can you skip ahead to see where he's playing? - So that little crank on the side there, you can crank it and all of the inside like pieces, like the Pac-Man's and the ghosts, they kind of move around on a chain. - How does that work? - What? - And you build all of that from scratch. I think this took me about two full days to make. - That's insane. - Yeah. - Can you skip ahead to when he's playing with it? - Yeah. - Yeah, so you can like press buttons, lights turn on, you can move the joysticks around, stuff like that.

- Yeah, so like those individual like pellets and stuff like that. You have to punch them all in and then by spinning the thing, it moves the pieces around to make it look like it's actually like moving and functioning. - So it doesn't actually, obviously it can't like actually play a game, but it can. - Oh yeah, so go to the most replay part there. Yeah, so it's like that. - Wait, that's actually sick. Wait, that's so sick. - Yeah, right?

- It's fucking cool. - But you can't get the pallets, right? - No, no, no. So you have to attach them to the chains. It just, and there's like- - It emulates. - But that's so sick though. The fact that it even like can like emulate. - Yeah, right? - The only thing that stresses me out about Lego and I'm sure you might've been dealing with this conundrum is where the fuck do I put all this shit when I'm done?

- 'Cause like you run out of room fast with Lego. 'Cause Lego is big. - Yeah. - Especially those kind of sets. - You just need to have like a room dedicated to just Lego. - Yeah, I've just kind of put, this is why every guy needs like a man closet. - Japan does not allow the man cave. - I know it doesn't Connor. - We don't live in rural Ohio Garnt where I have 15 spare rooms, okay? - That's why when you fucking reach your forties or whatever, you go into like the countryside and you get a,

- A basement where you just build shit. It's the place where shit just accumulates. - So all of my Lego stuff I put on the same shelf as all my Gunplas.

So it's just like, I have a dedicated- - You are the same. - I have a dedicated shelf of like, this is the shit I made. So that's pretty cool. - I love Gunpla, but I think the one thing that LEGO has just done amazingly is not requiring tools. Like you can build so many things without tools or if they, you know, if you do need tools. - Yeah, my biggest problem with Gunpla is- - You need a fucking like John Wick-esque tool kit you gotta wrap out

- You don't necessarily need to. All you really need is a pair of nippers. - You don't necessarily. - Yeah, I know, I know. - But you know, if you wanna go like full, like the hard, you gotta get like the paint out, you gotta get the fucking fiddly little stickers. - You gotta get the sandpaper as well. - The sandpaper as well. That is just way too much craftsmanship for me. - But like the cool thing is, is that like, you know, with the Hawke's Eye painting I made,

because that is like pretty, just looks nice and you can put it on the wall. We have like started dedicating a little area of our house to like kind of turn into like an old Japanese style thing. So another one I built, it's not a Lego necessarily, it's like nano blocks, which is like a smaller version of Legos, but I built a bonsai out of that. - Oh, cool.

So I just placed the bonsai next to the painting and it just looks nice. It like actually matches the theme. And there's another one where it's like a full Japanese garden, which Aki really wants me to make to like match that aesthetic. - You're gonna be the Lego guy soon. - I already am. - The Lego man. - But yeah, like it just made me realize like, yeah, I fucking miss just like,

mindlessly just like making some cool shit. And like, again, it's been like a great way to just kind of like turn off from everything and just like meditate almost. So yeah, if you're an adult, yeah, go get some Legos. It's good fun. Let's see, what else do we have? I mean, obviously Top Left, Tears of the Kingdom. I think we talked about that on an episode. - Did we? - I think I did. I don't know, but- - Did you enjoy it that much? - I played the fuck out of this game, bro. I don't know if this is a hot take. I think it's better than Breath of the Wild.

- I think it looked, again, I've played like one hour of this game. I felt like I booted it up and I was like, oh shit, it's just fucking Breath of the Wild. - Right, when you start off for sure. Because it's the exact same map. - Yeah, and then it's like, they add the Banjo Kazooie-esque thing. - Banjo Kazooie-esque thing? - Nuts and bolts. - Oh, where you build your own shit. - That's just Lego again. It's just Lego, yeah. Joey went from playing Lego in real life to Lego virtually. - I don't know, I was kind of,

- Was really excited for them to kind of hopefully go in a bit of a different direction almost. - I think they did though, because what I thought was kind of genius was the fact that yes, the main map of Hyrule is pretty much exactly the same as Breath of the Wild. But with, because they add completely new power-ups now, the way to traverse this like familiar land becomes completely new to you. And also like with the Sky Islands, which is like a whole new area and also the full underground,

- Oh yeah, do you wanna know what put me off into playing this already? It's the underground section, man. - Why? - I don't know. You know sometimes you look at a video game and there are some levels that you really vibe with and really like and then sometimes you just get through a level even though you fucking hated it. That's just me with underground level and cave levels. - I love cave levels. - You love cave levels? I fucking hate it, man. - It's so rare you can get

you can make gamers lose any sense of direction. - Yeah. - And caves are so- - I hate that so much. - That's like, you can't get that anywhere else, right? Like, I don't wanna go fucking caving in real life, but I would like to- - And Tears of the Kingdom did that to the T as well, because when you go into the underground first, it is pitch black. - Oh my God, that's everything I hate. - And so you just have to blindly traverse. - You know, and you're like,

11 years old and you're like, I can get through this Pokemon cave without flash. - Yeah. - And then you start like the biggest mistake of your life and it's terrifying. 'Cause you're like, I might not ever get out of here. Like I love trying to recreate that feeling 'cause you'll never get that feeling ever again. - This episode is sponsored by ExpressVPN. Going online without ExpressVPN is like not having a case on your phone.

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- Caving to me in a video game is just anxiety simulator. - I love that. - And I fucking hate that. Oh my God. - I prefer that because I rather experience that anxiety in a video game where there are no stakes as opposed to real life. - Let me tell you why. Let me tell you why I hate.

cave levels in every video game. - Go on. - The completionist in me is just like, okay, I'm going to systematically explore everything in this cave. You take like five steps. You're like, okay, here's a wall. I've explored this area. You turn around, you're like,

- Wait, this isn't where I started off. And then you get completely lost. So that little side of me that is, that it says like, I wanna completely explore this area. I just get completely lost and I can't systematically explore the way I like to explore levels. - Okay, then you might like the way that Tears of the Kingdom does it then because in Tears of the Kingdom, there are like several holes in the main world where you can like jump into to access different parts of the underground. And at first when you jump in,

it's like you look at the map and it's just completely pitch black. But the way that the game kind of forces you to like navigate and explore it is that like, kind of like with shrines in Breath of the Wild, you'd see something in the distance and you go, oh, that's a place that I can just head towards. And the underground kind of does the same thing. It's not quite shrines. It's like some other thing. But when you get to it,

it lights up a certain area surrounding that checkpoint. And so gradually you open up more of the map of the underground. So it's a really ingenious way of like, you know, giving you that sense of dread that Connor was saying, but also giving you like a motivation to step into that dread. And I think that's like one thing that,

Breath of the Wild didn't quite have because Breath of the Wild is like kind of you go to a tower and then immediately everything is opened up and then it's just, you know, right for the picking. - Assassin's Creed style. - Yeah, Assassin's Creed style, right? But the underground I thought was like an interesting addition to that because it's a lot harder than the main- - Did you enjoy it? Did you enjoy the underground section? - I did actually. I fully completed the map as well because it actually motivated me to like, I wanna see what this entire place looks like. - Yeah, I think the problem having this year with gaming is that

even though I'm very fortunate and I can stream games full time, I still don't have enough time to play all the games I wanna play. - Yeah. - And like you look at like some of the best games of this year, a lot of them are fucking long games. - Yeah. - Breath of the Wild is an 80 hour game.

- "Odysgate 3" as well is like hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of hours. - And it's like, I recognize that "Zelda: Teases the Kingdom" is probably another absolute banger they've knocked out of the park. But I was, you know, when I bought the game, I booted it up for an hour and I was like, you know what?

even though people will be like, oh, he plays fucking "Suga Game" or he plays fucking "Jump King." It's like, yeah, but like I only lose like 10 hours from doing that or like, you know, 10 hours here and there. And it's like, I think for me personally, I didn't want to kind of experience a very similar experience to "Breath of the Wild," but maybe with a different twist on it. I felt like I'd kind of got my fill of that and that world. And I was kind of hoping, sorry, spabular. I was kind of hoping for me, I wanted like,

kind of a different experience. And when I was looking at the building mechanics in the new world, I was like, "Ah, it doesn't really feel like enough for me to want to get reinvested, sink at least 80 hours into this world and do it all over again." - Yeah. - I was like, "I'd rather just spend my time gaming on other stuff this year." - That's fair. - And so, but then if you say that, people are like, "Oh, you didn't fucking play Zelda, you're no real gamer." And it's like, well, you know,

- No gamer. - Congrats, you wanted to fucking play. - I mean, you're arguing with a crowd that you can't win against. - No, I mean, listen, Zelda fans are Zelda fans and they, it's like telling wine snobs, you're like, "You know, maybe I don't want to spend $300 on a wine." Like, "What do you mean? It's the best, fanciest wine of all. Everyone agrees it's the best." It's like, well,

Maybe it's just not for me. Maybe I just don't want this again. Chill the fuck out, all right? - You know what was the sole game that came out this year that's short of shit, like 10 hours? Fucking the new Super Mario RPG remake.

- Dude, I wanna play that. - That game is short as hell. I beat it in a day. - Everyone is complimenting it for being a 10, 12 hour game. Everyone's like, "Thank fucking God I make an RPG game where you cut out all the bullshit." - Yeah, I feel like we need more of that, if anything. We need more. - I actually forgot how short it was when I beat it. I was like, "Oh yeah, the original is also this length." It just felt longer because I was a dumb child and I couldn't go through the game as quickly as I can now.

But yeah, it's a fucking awesome game. Like I was debating between putting that there instead of Breath of the Wild, but they're both, you should play that. You could easily- - I really, really wanna do that. 'Cause I've heard nothing but good things. And again, the main thing I've heard about it is that it cuts out all the grinding and all the dumb shit. - You literally don't have to grind. - Yeah, which is like, I think,

- There should be an option where I never have to do a side quest or grind in an RPG. I firmly believe that. - Well, you don't have to do a side quest. - No, I know, but like, I shouldn't have to like- - Also, you don't have to grind if you're a gamer or not. - Okay, first of all, some RPGs will just straight up be like, you are nowhere near leveled up for this. You're like, but I've done every mission up until this point. - Yeah, but those RPGs are usually us anyway.

- Yeah, those are normally like the older RPGs now, if anything. I feel like RPGs modern day have gotten better in not making sure you have to grind. But the annoying part is just the natural getting from point A to point B, you are just gonna naturally grind. - Yeah, I feel modern JRPGs now, they put grinding in as an option for people who can't out strategize the game.

- Whoa, whoa, whoa. - No, they can, legit. There's a lot of games, smaller JRPGs that I played this year that were quite new. And I realized that I was getting through these games a lot faster, not because they're any easier, but because they made it easier for you to figure out strategically how you can get past these difficult points. Whereas the older JRPGs, your only option was to just be at a higher level because there were less options. - I have a question, completely unrelated to RPGs.

- Persona, does Persona have grinding? - Persona, not really. - Why is it so goddamn long? It's like 200 hours long, right? - Because the story is long. - Yeah, they need to chill the fuck out. - Persona 3 remake next year, fucker, let's go! - I'm so excited. - Let's go! - Yeah, Persona is, it's almost, you're gonna hate this, it's almost like a vision of it at some points. - Yeah, that's what I noticed. - So many different mechanics, but.

The story is presented to you in like kind of a visual novel form-esque. - It's 'cause whenever I watch memes or videos about persona, it looks so fucking hype. It's so fun on the menu and it's so cool. And then whenever I watch streams that go in, they'd be fucking resident sleeper, dude. I go in there, it's fucking guy clicking A for 15 hours. And I'm like, "Something happened! "Stop fucking trying to fuck the teacher!"

- I mean, it does happen. It's just from point A to point B is just a lot longer. - Persona is almost like five different games in one. - Okay, so Breath of the Wild, Breath of the Boring as Pete calls it. - Breath of the Boring. - Pete's gotta think of a new name for Tears of the Kingdom. - Tears of the Gamers.

- What's the middle top? - So I just put music concerts just in general. 'Cause I realized thinking back to this year, I went to a fuck load of music concerts. I think I saw about 15 bands this year. - Holy shit. - Two festivals. - Can't believe you missed the Geeks Plus Christmas party because of another fucking concert. - Yeah dude, I had to go see Dean. - Excuse me. - Excuse me. - Excuse me. - Dude, I had to see TK live and he was fucking insane. You know, he's almost 50.

- Is the guy who did the- - Unravel. - Unravel. - Did he do the Unravel Live? - No, he didn't. - What? - No. - I would ask for a refund. - No, because I like his band. - I don't.

- Well, fuck you. - I'm there for the joke. - I went there for the band. - I'm there for the memes. - No, he didn't do any like solo stuff, but like it's actually, 'cause like I've been following this band like for a really, really long time because my cousin actually used to be one of their photographers when they were still like an indie band up in Saitama. So like I'd known about them for a really long time. And then when I saw that they did the Psycho Pass opening, I was just like, oh shit, that's my band right there, yo.

- I was having a real hipster moment, but then- - I think our coffees are here, right? - Might be upstairs. - Can we grab them before they go cold? - Yeah, they were like quite a while ago, right? Sorry to interrupt. - That's okay.

But yeah, so like going to see Rinto Sishigure was like big, big, you know, bucket list band that I wanted to go see. Absolutely fucking insane. I don't know how TK can scream like that live and not burst his fucking lungs out. - How long is he singing? - About an hour and a half. - Fuck. - Hour and a half set. Yeah, and he was going fucking ham. And it was really funny because the bassist is like this girl called Miyoko and she's this,

tiny, tiny fucking Japanese woman. It makes her base look like a fucking double bass. And like in the middle, they had like a little, I guess, you know, just MC moment where they would just like kind of talk to the crowd. And I guess they were selling merch and I guess they do all their merch themselves because they're still kind of a smaller band. And Miyoko, I swear like Miyoko legit might've been like the model for Bochy.

'Cause that's how she kind of was like on stage. She was this really fucking quiet, timid girl. And she's just like, "We have shirts and a hat." - Is this a thing in Japanese concerts? 'Cause I haven't even been to one, but they like stop the show halfway to do like a merch presentation. - Yeah, I think it's a Japanese thing. - It's like, wait, what? - 'Cause I've seen that quite a bit. - It's also a Japanese thing where they have to like, every song has to have like an anecdote to go with that song.

You know what I mean? - It's like that fucking Taylor Swift. Every time she introduces a new song, it has to be some kind of fucking story attached to it. - Yeah, yeah. - No, but the English issue actually didn't do that much of that. But yeah, I think I knocked off quite a bit of like bucket list bands this year. Like I saw Maximum the Hormone, which were fucking insane. I saw Babymetal, which were fucking insane. Bring Me the Horizon, Simple Plan, like ton of amazing bands. - What's been the best concert you've been to this year then?

- Oh, that's hard. - Did Bring Me The Horizon sing the Giga Chad song? - They did. - Yes, they did. - Fuck yeah. - Did they do the Giga Chad song? - They did. - Did they talk about the Giga Chad song? - They didn't talk about it. - No. - But it was very obvious, like, 'cause the moment it came on, all the foreigners were like, "Play us the Giga Chad song."

- Actually, he knows the first song they played. - Oh, really? - Yeah, they opened up with that, which is fucking awesome. But I'd have to say probably the best one was surprisingly Babymetal.

- Oh shit. - They were at this like metal festival we went to, the Bring Me The Horizon Festival. And there was like a ton of like, you know, obviously big metal bands like Bring Me and like Maximum The Hallmark. But there were also some like really small Japanese bands as well that were there, which was kind of cool for Bring Me to like include and like kind of show off. 'Cause like I looked up some of these bands and they had like 800 monthly listeners on Spotify or something. - God damn. - There's tiny, tiny bands. - How did they find these guys? - I don't know. Because like all the bands they invited, thank you. All the bands they invited like,

from Bring Me The Horizon were like personal fans of them and they wanted to invite them. So I'm like, that was really cool like notion of them. But Babymetal, it was like, I've never seen that wholesome of a mosh pit happen before. 'Cause when they played Gimme Chocolate, which is like, you know, their big song and a circle of death started happening. Normally in like a metal concert circle of death, you know, people are like throwing punches, like, you know, fucking pushing people around. Like it's called a circle of death for a reason. But the Gimme Chocolate circle of death, everyone was just running around high-fiving everyone.

And I was like, "Yay!" - Why would I wanna get beaten up? - Because it's a metal concert. - I don't wanna get beaten up. - That's what happens in a metal concert mosh pit, man. - What the heck? - A high five circle of death? - It was really funny. - That sounds way better. - Just all these like- - That's like a slice of life version. - Yeah, all these Japanese dudes just fucking going, "Yay!"

to everyone outside the circle of death. - Sounds like what would happen in a K-On! concert. - Yeah, legit. It was like a K-On! concert. But yeah, so that's why I just included all music concerts 'cause I fucking loved my experience. - So if I'm seeing this correctly, Joey, you've finally started "Hunter Hunter." - Is that a manga or anime? - Manga.

- Oh, okay. - So I've caught up to the manga of "Hunter x Hunter". I finally sat down, I thought, you know what? - We spoke about this in the previous episode. - Yeah, we've talked about it. - So you read the boat part? - I've read the boat part.

- You just hurry the fuck up. - I know. I get it now. And I wish I didn't because now I'm sitting there being like, great, another show I have to wait for. - The "Hunter Hunter" manga has reached a point where I'm like, this is a joke now. You're actively trying to like, just never finish this. - Yeah. - I'm like, come on. - What's your favorite arc?

- Probably "Kamara Ant." - "Kamara Ant." - I think the "Kamara Ant" arc gets way too much hate. I think it's a banger arc. - Yeah, that's what I didn't understand. Why is "Kamara Ant," now that I know the full concept, because it's so long. - And anime only fans watch it and it's like 80 episodes out of the 140 odd. So it's most of it. And I think most people who know of "Hunt Hunter" have only watched the anime. And I can understand why they'd think, "Hey, this is really fucking long." - I mean, it was.

I mean, it was long in the manga as well, but- - But it was also fucking hype for sure. - Yeah. - I think "Kamera Ant" has some of the best peaks of "Hunter x Hunter". - Oh, totally. - I feel like- - It's peaks of anime flat out. - Yeah, peaks of anime flat out. I think my favorite arc of "Hunter x Hunter" is probably, oh, this is so hard. - "Great Island"?

I really fucking like "Greed Island." - "Greed Island" is a good arc as well. - Wait, "Greed Island"? Isn't that like a really unpopular one? - That's a really unpopular one. I really- - But the people who like it really like it, I've noticed. - The thing I loved about "Greed Island", it's not my favorite arc. I think "Yorkshin" is my favorite arc. Just because like that arc is so dense where it's rare that you see an arc where every episode you're like, "Holy shit, that was a banger." You put on the next episode, you're like, "Holy shit, this was also a banger." And it just keeps delivering.

every single episode. - I think the one thing I didn't like about the auctioneering arc, it was just, it's a bit of a nitpick, but like, I just didn't like in, I don't know how it is in the anime, but in the manga, there's like three or four, maybe five chapters back to back where Gon and Kittle are learning to like,

the ins and outs of like auctioning. And I'm just like, am I reading a manga or am I reading a textbook about auctioning? Like I get like, you wanna like teach me this stuff Togashi, but like, I just want you to get to the auction. - Sometimes you turn the page in "Hunter Hunter" and you're just greeted with a novel. And you're like, why did you bother drawing it? - Well, I remember in the "Greed Island" when they're first like introducing the card system, in the manga there's like six pages where Togashi just shows

all the cards that are in Greed Island with like all the text and shit. And it's like, and then by the end of Greed Island, I realized I'm like, I think about 80% of these cards just never showed up. - Yeah, the thing I've really liked about Greed Island is that that was the arc that

that Nen is just the best power system. - Yeah, totally. - Just the fact that you can create an entire world out of this malleable system. I was like, holy shit, this is insane. Of course, yes, maybe it's a bit self-indulgent. I don't kind of give, I kind of don't give a shit just because of how interesting and how in depth this power system is that this arc kind of like displayed the depth

and the limits of what you can do with something like this. - Yeah, also not to give spoilers, but like I'd kind of like already slightly heard about like what happens to like Miru-Emu. - Yeah. - But when I got to the manga, like the bad part in the manga, I still cried.

- That death is crazy good. - He is one of the best villains in anime and manga period. - Such a good villain for that arc especially. So yeah, I finally see the hype now. I get it. I knew I was gonna like it as I've been saying, but now I actually know the full context. - Shit, now I have to watch "Four Metal Alchemist"

- I thought this was fucking amazing. And especially coming from the fact that I also played Octopath Traveler 1, I realize just how much of a fucking

like just a missed opportunity Octopath Travel 1 was. Because like in terms of the actual gameplay, it's not that much different to Octopath Travel 1. Like to explain Octopath Travel for anyone who doesn't know, basically it's a JRPG, Square Enix, but you follow eight protagonists and all of their stories all at the same time. And as you go through the world, you unlock different parts of the story of each of the characters and then it gets to a final ending. Octopath. Octopath, exactly. But,

- But Octopath Traveler 2, I think for one, like the music is fucking God tier. Like I think I'm actually gonna try and go to the concert next year that they have. And also the stories and characters were just,

infinitely more interesting than the first one. 'Cause I think that was the biggest struggle with me finishing "Oxopath Traveler 1" was that like, I wasn't invested in every single character, which made it difficult when you're trying to go through the story elements of every single character. But with "Oxopath Traveler 2," every character was like, banger, banger, banger. Every single storyline was just so engaging. And the ending as well is just like,

I got to grind the shit out of it for the end, but it was a really, really just like satisfying. I think I put in about a hundred hours into this one, but it was such a good game. And I think it's like kind of slept on just because I feel a lot of people were kind of just thrown off from playing Octopath Travel 1. So if you didn't like Octopath Travel 1 for those reasons, I would highly recommend you play Octopath Travel 2. - Was it this one that was badly reviewed or was it the first one? - First one. - Okay, yeah. - The second one actually I think is like,

all like critically acclaimed. Like everybody agrees that compared to one, two is like infinitely better. - It's always better when the first one's better than the second. - Yeah. - 'Cause then it's easier to sell people on the- - Exactly. - It's kind of sad to be like, "Hey, play an 80 hour game for the next one that's good." - Yeah. Well, luckily you don't have to play one to play two.

- Yeah, but everyone says that a lot of the time and sometimes it's like, but I feel like I should go. - No, I think though with 2, there was literally no connection at all. The only connection is that it's the same type of gameplay, but in terms of characters and story, it's all different. So yeah, freaking great. Also like,

so many like really, really high profile anime voice actors are in the Japanese version of this. Like it's crazy. Like Hirano Aya, Miyano Mamoru, like all these like huge names. I'm just like, oh, I recognize that voice. I recognize that voice. I recognize that voice. So yeah, really, really solid. I'd say it's probably my favorite JRPG I've played this year. - What do you think is better about this compared to number one? - I think it just,

it just made the stories a little more coherent because the way you play Octopath, you're obviously not going to follow the chapter of one character simultaneously. Like you'd see one part of the story of a character and then you're going to move on to another part of a different character story. So Octopath Traveler 1, the way they wrote each of the storylines

kind of made it a little bit difficult to like remind yourself like, "Oh yeah, where was I in the story with this particular character again?" 'Cause I was busy doing three other characters' stories. Whereas with 2, they made the story a lot more streamlined so that it just made sense.

especially with like the progression in the game. It just felt more cohesive in general. And the music and the visuals, they just like up that as well. So it's yeah, really, really solid JLPG. - Hell's Paradise. - Hell's Paradise. - That's your only anime. - I had to put an anime on there. - Is this the anime version? - This is the anime version. - You had to put an anime on there. - You didn't have to put an anime? Come on.

- Hell's paradise. - This is like my favorite eight out of 10 show of the year. - I really- - Great time, but like not a masterpiece. - I think that's why I put it on there because I just had a really fun time watching Hell's Paradise. - Yeah, me too. I had a really good time watching it. - I'm not gonna say it's like a 10 out of 10 masterpiece or anything, but like, it was just nice to see like a no bullshit, no frills shonen. - Yeah, I knew it was gonna be an extremely solid show after episode one. And I didn't think it was gonna be

it was gonna go to like some crazy like plot twist depth or anything like that. But I just knew it was gonna be a fun time. - I just liked the fact that there was just like almost zero filler to it, which is always nice, you know? Because it's like once one thing happens, like boom, here comes the next thing, here comes the next thing. And I'm like, oh, okay, I'm actually like engaged now. - Do you think you're gonna watch season two? - Yeah, probably.

- I mean, I've also read ahead on the manga as well. - I'm not gonna lie, I really liked the beginning of Hell's Paradise. I loved the, it was basically what gave me what the Dark Continent and Hunter x Hunter hasn't given me yet. - Yeah, like the sense of doom. - The sense of doom, exploration, anything can fuck you up. And then the power system got introduced and I'm like, ah, okay, this is kind of, it just turns, it's kind of starting to feel like it's turning into like a more,

generic Shonen and I'm like, oh, I don't know if it's interesting enough to keep my attention. - Is it anime only or manga? - This is the anime only. So you know the end of the anime where they introduce that. They started introducing that power system and then of course all the protagonists master it in like a different way

And I'm like, okay. - I just fuck with that guy who chopped his arm off. I just like that guy, he's fun. - Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. - He's just fun to watch. - Yeah, I mean, that's the thing. - That samurai guy? - Yeah, yeah, yeah. - That was really fun. - All the side characters are just so likable and just so insane. And it's like, again, like, you know, I definitely have like qualms with it for sure, but I just had a really enjoyable time watching it. - I think hottest anime character of the year was Yuzu. - Oh, Yuzuriha? - Yeah. - The samurai girl. - The samurai girl?

- Of the ninja girl, yeah. - Get on my knees. - She's really pretty now I'm hot. - When I look back at the year's hottest characters, I'm like, yeah.

- I was like, when they gave her the power to, what was it, secrete? Sweat or some shit like that. I'm like, oh God, oh, they know what they're doing. - Reminds me of that meme with the guy on a TikTok holding a cigar in a suit. I don't know why. It's just like me and the boys getting ready to appreciate. It's like, oh gosh. - Definitely, for sure.

- Yeah, so I think like out of all the ones, like I think for me, this is like- - How many anime did you watch this year out of curiosity? - Oh. - I wish I should start keeping track. I'm not going to, but I should. - Yeah, I should keep track. I'd say maybe about 10. - 10? Oh shit. - Yeah, I've watched a decent amount. Like just the ones that I think I'm gonna get into or that interests me, like I'm not gonna watch all the fucking isekais, like fuck that.

But like, yeah, I think just out of all the ones I watched, like this one, I just was like, yeah, hell yeah. You know, it kind of reminded me, it kind of took me back to like that time where like I could just turn my brain off and watch a nice show. - What about Nonsense? I mean, Nonsense is pretty self-explanatory. - Yeah, I mean, I put Nonsense there, but like just- - Congratulations on your Cyberpunk launch, by the way. - Thank you very much. Like I'm just mostly talking about just like Japanese street wear in this case because it's not just the Nonsense. - You put yourself to represent them.

If I'm gonna sell out to anyone, I'm gonna sell out to myself. - That's fine, that's fine. - But yeah, just like obviously from doing the nonsense stuff hardcore this year, I just got more into like the different sex of like Japanese fashion and like Japanese street wear stuff. So like, yeah, just in general, I've just, yeah, got into clothing a lot more, which I think just makes sense.

- By the way, the Cyberpunk stuff is still available. - I would hope we would have gotten to clothing a lot more considering you now own a clothing company, Joey. - Yeah. - Sure. - Would have been pretty worrying. - I'll take the whole collection, please. Thank you, Joey. - Thank you. - Still, Pokemon Go? - Yeah, what the fuck is doing there, bro? - In 2023? - Okay. - Pokemon Go to the polls. - This is you reaching to the bottom of the bargain

- This guy will literally do anything but watch anime. - I'll be like, what else can I do this year? Oh God, Pokemon Go, okay, okay. - Okay, with this one, right? - I saw this fucking video of you playing a 400 day game. What's going on? - Oh yeah, The Longing. - Why are you not watching anime? Come on. - Because games are more fun. - Come on, show your money. - Because nothing good came out in 2023, right?

- Just kidding. But yeah, okay, with Pokemon Go, because we did so much fucking traveling this year. Like more than, at least I did anyway. I don't know about you guys, but we, I think all three of us- - We did a lot of traveling. What are you talking about? I was there with it for most of the year. - Yeah, but I mean, I also went to a lot of places myself. - Me too, me too. - We were in the same places, Joey. - Yeah. But like, I think because, you know, I went traveling so freaking much and-

you know, my friend like recently got back into Pokemon Go like earlier this year and I saw him playing it and I was like, oh, has like anything new changed at all? 'Cause I hadn't played the game since like basically the beginning of COVID when you couldn't go outside. And he was like, oh yeah. And he showed me all the new stuff that they added. And I was like, oh wow, this is actually like a playable game again.

So I picked it up and it was great because during the travels you can get like region exclusive shit. So I was like, well, it makes sense I guess while I'm traveling I might as well have something to do. So I picked up Pokemon Go again and it's actually a really fucking fun game again. 'Cause before like they just basically were like the vanilla version of this game was just like go out into the world, walk around, catch Pokemon, complete your decks, blah, blah, blah. But now they've added like, you know, rocket grants, they've added raids, they've added fucking

"Fuck, what else?" Like a ton of new shit that actually makes it so that you don't have to go outside all the time to like still interact with the game. And it just made sense for me considering that again, I traveled so much. I was like, "Well, I'm gonna get all the exclusive shit. It'll be fun again." And now that they've added like pretty much up to the latest generation, there's like over a thousand Pokemon that you can catch. So there's just more longevity in the game as well. So yeah, that's what I got into this year, I guess.

- That's about it. - That's a pretty varied list. - I am a child is what we figured out. - Yes. - Well, good to know that you're rediscovering your inner 13 year old. - Yep. - As we all are. - As I'm approaching 30, I'm like, God damn, I wanna go back. - Take me back. - Take me back. - Take me back, please. - All right, shall we move on to the next one then? - Who's next?

- You wanna go next Connor? - Sure, yeah, I'll go next. - I'll go right away and I'll explain. I put the Hayao Miyazaki film on here because the more I like,

- You liked it? - Yeah, the more I sit after watching this movie, the more I really fucked with it. - I still need to watch it. - Yeah, initially when I left the theater, I was kind of like, okay, whatever. But the more I've just gone on about my life, the more I've thought about that movie a lot more, which I feel like a lot of movies don't do. A lot of movies when I watch them, I consume them and I think nothing of them until someone reminds me they exist. This is one that I keep thinking about.

And I don't know what that says about the movie, but it's really stuck with me. What are you thinking about it?

- I don't know. I was really, really, really, and I know this is such a usual thing to say, but the music and the visuals were so fucking good as always. - Yeah. Well, that's something you can normally expect from a Ghibli film. - Yeah, I know. - Joe, he says you don't miss, man. - He just doesn't. It's fucked up, dude. - He really doesn't. - Can you just be bad at something? - I hate how talented he is. - And it's annoying 'cause I really, really don't enjoy

Hayao Miyazaki as a person as much. Just cause the way that he kind of, the way he talks about things. Dude, I'm still angry about how he was mean to his son. Even though some people online find that like really funny and based, like so fucking based. And it's like, what a fucking awful dad. - But God damn he makes bangers. - God damn this film is really fucking good. And I really can't wait to watch this dubbed again. Cause fucking Robert Pattinson,

- Oh yeah, oh yeah. - He just looked like he was in "Twilight" once and took it personally and now he's on a mission to be good in everything ever. So super stoked about it. But honestly, I haven't watched many Ghibli films, but it's definitely my favorite one out of all of them. I like this movie "Spirited Away." - Wow, really? - But then again, I didn't grow up with "Spirited Away." I watched it for the first time this year as well. - Yeah. - Wait, you did? - Yeah. - Oh, I didn't know that.

- If I ever said that I watched it before I lied 'cause I was self-conscious about not watching it. But I have now watched it. - Wait, so what did you, okay, now I'm curious as someone who just discovered "Spirit of the Way" in 2023, what did you think of it? - I enjoyed it. - Has it aged well? - I thought it was good. I felt that because there was so many visual metaphors and a lot of different kind of, what's the word for this? I forgot how to explain this 'cause my English explanations are bad.

a lot of different messages and themes that I couldn't pick up on, on my first viewing. That I then had to like, when I read more about the movie and I realized I missed a bunch of things. 'Cause there's so much going on. Especially like visually, there's just like, I would read about each visual representation meant and I was like, oh fuck, I had no way of figuring it out on my first watch. And I appreciated that, but at the same time I felt like I really enjoyed "The Boy and the Heron"

I also went into it knowing fucking nothing. I said it to everyone in Japan. - Yeah, we did not have any marketing for it. - All I know is that they had that one sick sketch of the bird and I was kind of like, "All right, let's find it." And also I won't lie, for me personally, it was really fun and satisfying getting to watch film in Japanese and understanding the entire plot. I was super stoked about that. And I felt like the only character I couldn't understand was

the birds sometimes because he'd be like, "Boss your nanny got a..." And he taught really fast. I was like, "Hold on, okay, let me try and like back up real quick." But everyone else I could understand pretty well and I was really hyped about it. And honestly, it was a fun time. I really wanna rewatch it again just so I can kind of articulate how I feel about it much better. But it really, really stuck with me and I feel like that deserves something.

- No. - Oh, damn. - It's the one Japanese film that's just not in cinemas anymore. - Yeah, right? - Yeah, and I think back to other films I've watched this year and I think I enjoyed Oppenheimer more, which is why it's on this list as well. And I wanted to put one movie on this list and they're putting two, but Oppenheimer was probably, and I feel so bad putting it up there 'cause it's like, it feels like such a cop out.

- No, I mean, I watched Oppenheimer as well. It was fucking fantastic. - It is a great film. - John Wick 4 came out this year, which I also loved. - Yeah, I was surprised you didn't put John Wick on here. - I feel like I've watched,

- I've watched at least every, like nearly, I want to say 80% of theatrical releases of English films in Japan. And I've been trying to watch almost every film that's coming out. - Did "Apanama" come out in Japan? - It didn't, I watched it in LA, but it's coming out in 2024. - Oh, it is? - It is. - Oh, finally. - I thought they were just never gonna release it. - So it is coming out. - Okay, okay.

And there's a lot of other movies that didn't get theatrical releases that have been really highly rated and I really want to watch. But in terms of theatrical releases, this is the one I probably enjoyed most. It does help that I also watched it in like the fucking best theater I've ever been in in my life. It was just a good film. And I just wish that,

I could somehow pause a film and go piss in the theater because I had to- - That's my issue as well. - I had to tactically think about when to piss. And that's the only bad thing about it. But other than that, it was such a fucking good film. - That's why when I'm in the cinemas, I don't drink a single drop of water. So by the end of the film, just like,

- I was drinking craft beers and I- - Oh, they had craft beers in your cinema? - It was craft beers, food. I got wings. I got bottomless popcorn. - Bro, only in America, man. - Only in America. - I'm telling you.

Oppenheimer was the one film where I wanted like an eight course meal during it. I was the only motherfucker in that whole theater eating and I'd chew into the celery. It was like a bone crunching sound. It was so fucking good. Eating a juicy ass Buffalo chicken wing when he's talking to Einstein, it was like, this is what life was meant to be. - I still love how hype people get when you just see Einstein. - Yeah. - I don't know why.

- It was kind of high. - I watched "Barbie" as well. And there was a whole, you know, "Barbie" versus "Oppenheimer" but I thought "Oppenheimer" was- - I still hadn't watched "Barbie". - It's fun, it's a really good film. - I heard "Barbie" is more political than "Oppenheimer" is. - That's what I heard. - In a weird way, yeah. - I heard that was a meme.

I don't know how true it is actually. - But it's like, dude, it's crazy how, you know, when we had to sign on, we talked about One Piece, we were like, "Whoa, One Piece is political?" And obviously we played it up a bit and people were like memeing on us 'cause we were like, "We didn't know One Piece was political." And obviously I know that One Piece is political, but I was, you know, I think all of us were like playing it up to kind of have the conversation enter that kind of thing. And there are a lot of media that are very, very political. The people are,

And I guess I'll talk about this when we talk about Final Fantasy, but like I've, 'cause I played Final Fantasy and people talk about the new one. They're like, man, I hope they don't get political about it. And I'm like, the whole game is super political. - The whole series is political. - And so many, so much media is super political inherently because of the themes they're tackling and people are like,

they just ignore it 'cause it's not what they wanna deal with. But I felt like Barbie, people were like, "Man, I just don't like political." It's like, oh, fuck off. You watch so much political shit, but suddenly when it's about a topic that makes you slightly uncomfortable, it's too political now. - Literally every Final Fantasy is big military organization takes over corrupt religious organization. - So many games, so much media you consume is way more political than people like to admit. But the moment it's about some kind of politics that they kind of really don't want to be

don't want to be faced with, that's when they start being like, and I felt Barbie, unfortunately was one of those where it was like, hey. - Yeah, well, I think this goes like two ways, right? To play devil's advocate. A lot of people would just want to watch media for like, to escape the lives. - Absolutely. - As escapism, to escape the life they're living right now. And obviously there are a lot of different political things and pretty much baked into every single piece of media that you,

but some stories might hit a little too close to home than other stories. I think the most like recent one I can think of that I watched recently was, you know, you watch Pluto, right? - Yeah. - The one where they had a whole storyline about going to this Middle Eastern country to look for a bomb.

robots of mass destruction that may or may not have been in development. - That was a little, I was like- - I was like,

- Okay. - We couldn't have thought of a slightly different story like that? - I was like, I have no doubt this is not inspired by real events at all or real politics, you know? - Yeah, and I think that's why One Piece and like Final Fantasy do really well is that the messages are real, but they're not grounded in anything that you can like be like, oh, they're talking about this. - They're also more generalized, right? So it's harder to like pinpoint like, oh, they're referencing this particular thing. - And the only thing I could probably,

in that sense that the people didn't like about Barbie. It's probably because Barbie sometimes would just straight up talk to you about what it was trying to tell you. - Yeah. - Which I think is- - Still on the nose. - And also, I felt like the message was getting across anyway sometimes without needing to tell people. I think the moment you're telling the audience, "Hey, this is the problem." Or, "Hey, this is the politics we're talking about." It's like, "Okay, well, I gotta figure that out myself." - Yeah, I think-

I think it's inherently what the message is and how you portray that message. Some pieces of media do it really well. Like, you know, sometimes the best ones are shows like South Park or Always Sunny where they kind of don't,

lean towards one message or another, they're more of just like making you think about the entire situation in itself. - Yeah, Southwark's interesting. Southwark's sometimes okay and sometimes really fucking bad depending on what they wanna do. But it is very funny seeing people be like, "Look, Eric Cartman's right guys. "He was right all along, everything is too woke." And it's like, do you understand?

who Eric Cartman is and the role he fills, you are completely missing the point. You are the joke. - The fact that you're taking things from South Park seriously is an L. - You agree with Eric Cartman means that you're wrong. - Okay, I would like to say massive achievement for 2023 of getting Connor to put a fucking Final Fantasy game in his top JRPGs. - We did it, guys. - Yeah, Final Fantasy, honestly, the series here, I'll put, but I just put seven. - Did you play seven?

- Yeah, I played seven and eight. - Which did you prefer? - Seven. - Seven? - Yeah. - The visuals have not done that well though. - Well, admittedly, I played it with some mods that upscaled the backgrounds and some other things. I'm telling you, man, I know some people are like, it's a bastardization to play it with mods, but some of these mods are so fucking good. I played the 60 FPS mod, which is amazing on PC. And I played it with- - Speed up as well.

- Yeah, and also there was a widescreen mod. - Oh, cool. - Which just expands the backgrounds. - Right. - Especially if like you're in an area where all the background is already like rendered in. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. - It would just fill out the screen. - Yeah. - Which just makes it a little easier to,

- It looks nicer. - All the mods I used, I really, really, really felt were very faithful. 'Cause what I did is when I was putting all these mods on, I was like looking between, I kept starting the game with and without mods to see if it was like too gaudy or too ugly with the mods. But all of them, I really, really thought made it look really nice. - Okay, I need to know now your opinion on this now that you've played seven. Fuck, marry, kill. Yuffie, Aerith or Tifa?

- I'm gonna let you know right now, there is no correct answer. - I will- - In your opinion. - Fuck, youthy, kill Aerith and marry Tifa. - Based. - Based. - What? Okay. - That's the canon answer, right? - Yeah, that is the correct answer actually. - Yeah, I mean, I feel like it's, I mean, I was really happy that I somehow went

26, 27 years. It might be 27 years by the time this is out. I don't know what this is. Without fucking knowing anything about this game. I knew Zafiroff bad and that's about it. That's all I knew. - Yeah. - Which almost actually- - You didn't know big spoiler? - I didn't. I actually didn't. I knew someone dies, but I didn't know who or when. - Right. - Okay. So that must've hit you when it happened. - I was kind of shocked 'cause I was like, wait,

we could have revived everyone else. - They're standing there like, "Phoenix down, Phoenix down." - I really, really enjoyed it. It was kind of fun 'cause I felt that throughout the 30 odd hours, 36 hours I was playing it, there was never a point where I felt like I had to grind, which is again, one of my big pluses for an RPG. - Did you have turbo mode on? - There was turbo mode that I used for,

like random encounters when I was trying to just kind of get through a place. But throughout most of it, I had it off. It was just when I was traversing or going around a place.

But yeah, I read every piece of dialogue. I didn't skip any cut scenes. It was very fun. I really enjoyed the story. I think one praise that I can give it that I feel that I've played other games that don't RPGs that don't do this. You have to bear in mind, by the way, I sort of peed about this. My first RPG that I ever beat, right? Was fucking Blue Dragon on the Xbox 360. - Oh yeah, I remember you telling me this, yeah. - So my exposure to RPGs was dog shit. So I thought they were all like that.

- 'Cause you know, that was from, I forgot his name, the guy who made, founded or Square Enix, sorry, Squiresoft and then left to make Mistwalker. - Something like that. - And then he made Lost Odyssey, which was very highly acclaimed. The first one he made was Blue Dragon with collaboration with-

Toriyama's tool and company. And so this is supposed to be like one of the goat games and it was just whatever. It was such a shit game. I'm just gonna say it, it was shit. And even like 15 year old me could tell. Visually it was fine, but the battle system was clunky and it was boring, it lasted too long. The one thing that was amazing about Final Fantasy VII that I really appreciated is that it always felt like the story was moving. Even when it was like bombarding me with convoluted story and dialogue, I never felt like I,

wasn't progressing. And I never felt like I'd hit a wall of like, this is dumb. Why am I doing this? - You never felt checked out of the story, right? - No, no. And the material system, which is like their system of managing magic, I guess, or whatever was really fucking good. I really enjoyed it. It was just a great game. What a fucking fun game. - It's a great game. - Do you think it's aged well? - Absolutely. I think the- - I just think the story went-

- It was a little convoluted at times, but that seems par for the course for JRPGs and Japanese media in general. - I think the story is the thing that has aged the finest in Final Fantasy VII. - The thing that I didn't like about it is that, and this is more so, I don't know how much this is maybe Squaresoft trying to cash in, because they've made so much media,

adjacent to the Final Fantasy VII universe. It was very fucking annoying having everyone be like, "Play this game, watch Advent Children, do this, do this, play this." - Play Crisis Core. - Play Crisis Core. "Do this." And it's like, "Shut up, shut up. Let me play the fucking game. Let me play the game." - Are you gonna play the remakes? - I'm gonna wait till all three are out. - Yeah, second one's coming out next year. - I know. - I'm starting my journey. I'm restarting my journey on the remakes. - Have you played the original?

- I haven't, no. - You should play the original. - You should play the original. - I kind of feel like I'd rather play the remakes now that they're coming out. I don't know, I really enjoy- - Well, they're apparently gonna change some of the story in the remakes, right? - Yeah. - If they do, I'll go back to play the original. - That's what Yoshi P said. - I'm kind of enjoying it, like going through it as it is kind of like coming out now. - The next one you go to play Connor is 10.

- Well, I wanna play nine and 10. - Nine is- - This is the thing I hate about Final Fantasy when I talk about it. Depending on who I ask, I get like completely different opinions. Someone will be like, six is the best thing of all time. - Six is the best. - And then someone will be like, okay, see what I mean? And then I'll be like, ah, 10's all right, but nine's really where it's at. - Nine has like- - I don't know anyone who's-

- Nine has like a cult fan base. Like people who have played nine, like fucking love nine. I've played nine, it's a good Final Fantasy, but I think if you want like the kind of next generation Final Fantasy game to experience, like 10 is like the solid one. - One thing that I, when I was playing this, that I was kind of sitting there realizing, 'cause this game came out in 1997, '78, which is one year after Mario 64 came out. And that was revolutionary when that came out. I was thinking like,

- This is never gonna happen again where you play a game like this that just absolutely blows your mind and redefines everything. - Oh yeah, it was this game and Ocarina of Time that were the ones that were just like, this is the future of gaming. - And it's like playing it, I was like, I could understand. I was like, if I was between like the ages of 14 and like 30 when this game came out, yeah, I'd probably make my whole personality about this game.

I would probably define my entire life on this game. - That's why six constantly gets shafted because it's the last 2D one. - This would literally blow my fucking mind at this. And it still did in some respect, I'll be honest. It was really impressive. I really enjoyed it. Yeah, I liked this. - Is it the best JRPG you've played thus far? - JRPG?

- Yeah, yeah, I'd say so. - Oh, okay. - I'd say so. - Lives up. - I think, you know, the problem is Final Fantasy VII fans are annoying as fuck, I'll say it. They suck. They are obnoxious. And this happens whenever a fan base knows their game is goaded. They just become entitled and they know their game is fucking a banger. - It's like the Zelda fans who constantly praise all the time. - It's the One Piece fans now, isn't it? - Yeah, and the One Piece fans are becoming it. And it's like, hey, we get it.

- And I understand the visuals are a huge barrier and it's okay to say that the polygons look fucking weird. - Egg beater looking ass. - They have the fucking chunky arms and no fucking biceps. But the story is a banger. - Yeah, totally. - And absolutely amazing, yeah. - Would you recommend just playing this or waiting for the remakes?

- I do recommend playing the original. - 'Cause obviously people can be like, "Oh, watch the original, read the manga, all that shit." I was like, I only get to experience this story for the first time once. You know what I mean? And I'm like- - If you've already started playing the remake, I think you should just see the remake till the end. And then if you're interested in it, play the original. - I don't think it's, maybe it'll be like an Ava situation where, "Oh, the rebuilds are like,

that builds on the original and then maybe I'll play the original, but. - I mean, as someone who started playing the remakes after playing the original countless times as a kid, like I'm still really enjoying the remix. - I think one thing that will not be repl, in my opinion, that I haven't seen the new games yet, but one thing that I just don't think that they'll be able to replicate to the same extent, there's no shot they can make the music hit as hard

- Oh no. - In the remake. The music was so, I don't give a fuck about music. The fucking music in this game was so good. - Oh dude, like every Final Fantasy game is some of the best like game music. Like Square does not miss when it comes to music. - Why did the music go so fucking hard in every section of this game? It's ridiculous. - Because the music section of Square soft are just full of goats, that's why.

- Even if they just remake the fucking tracks? - But I feel like the PlayStation, 'cause they were so limited back then with the hardware, the unique sound of the PlayStation back then was so fucking fun and nice and epic. - I just kind of agree with you. - I can't, even though you can probably get like these giant orchestras, you get this full, you know, fucking,

dot wav, fucking 48,000 kilohertz quality, perfect. You know, it's like, but there's something that was so good about hearing the PlayStation sounds. - Oh dude. - So fucking good. - To this day when you hear the original One Winged Angel, it is absolutely fucking insane. - I wanna go watch the Final Fantasy concert, the seven concert, I wanna go watch it now 'cause that was fucking fire. - Because I remember playing the latest Final Fantasy, Final Fantasy 16, right?

And there was some like epic moments. Obviously it has great music. I don't remember a single track from it. - I don't either. - Off the top of my head. And I'm like, I remember being in some of the boss battles being like, oh, this feels epic. But all I can remember about the music is just- - It matched the visuals. - Epic orchestra track. That's all I remember. And I was like, I can't really remember anything else about the music. - Although I am hyped for them to remake the Knights of the Round Table.

- Oh yeah. - It was so fucking ridiculous when I booted that up and I was like, what the fuck is this? This is summon animation that's like an hour long for one attack. It's so ridiculous. - Right. It's like a whole film. - It's so ridiculous. But yeah, that was,

- Great game, very excited for it. - "Furinanga"? - Yeah, man, I mean, this kicked off my- - We know about this one. - Listen, I talked about it, but it was so good. It came out in 2018, but obviously I discovered it this year.

And my God, what a fucking game. What a game. I still think in terms of RPG, I still enjoyed this and I was more encapsulated by the world than even Final Fantasy VII. I was fucking hooked. It was so dark, so gritting. And the gameplay, even though it was fucking RPG maker,

was so fucking compelling that it got me to be like, hold on now, let me figure out what's going on in this world. Why is it so fucked up? Because I was just so enthralled in it. And I really, really, really want you boys to play it. Please do because it's so fucking amazing. And if you haven't played it, I'd recommend playing it. Go check it out. It's so good. - And "Risk of Rain 2" which I see you play quite a lot. - I played a lot this year. - I didn't think you talked about this. - I didn't really talk about it on the podcast, no.

- Do you know anything about Risk of Rain 2? - I don't know anything about Risk of Rain. - You played Risk of Rain 2? - Yeah, yeah, yeah. - What, when? - Played it a while ago. - Alone? - No, I had a friend I played with. - It was addicting. - It's so fucking addicting. - I don't know anything about this. - These kinds of games don't really appeal to me, but I remember we played for like three hours or something just trying to grind it out. - Basically you have,

You spawn into like a level and there's a teleporter and you can go to the teleporter at any point and fight the boss. So if you click on the teleporter, you have to stay in the zone and a big boss will spawn. You kill the boss, you get to go to the next level. Now around the area are power-ups. So you need to get the power-ups and then go to the boss and kill him. However, there's one drawback and it's that the longer you are taking in general, the harder the game gets.

- So the more enemies spawn, the longer you- - The more enemies spawn, the more health they have, the more damage they do. And so it'll go from like easy, normal, hard, very hard, extreme, death, ha ha ha ha ha, la mau. And then like, it just gets to the point where the game is so fucking hard that you can't beat it. So you need to get to the final stage and beat the boss, the final boss before you

kind of get too weak. - So you have to kind of balance between like, do I just fucking go for it without the power-ups or do I risk it being more difficult with power-ups? - Yeah, and it's just a very, and there's tons of classes, tons of characters, it's very stylized. It's very arcade like feeling. And I played it a lot with Mouse and Pete and we just had such a fucking good time. And I put so many hours into this game and I had so much fun. And it really kind of,

of captured that energy of when I first played called zombies as like a teenager, that kind of like, oh shit, this is just fun doing the exact same thing over and over again. The gameplay was so tight. It was just a really fucking fun game. - It's a great game to play with friends because I played this at a gaming bar and I was like, what the fuck is this? Yeah, I played this at a gaming bar and we just had like a bunch of people together and I'm like, oh, I'm fucking addicted because with it's,

- The last time I remember feeling that kind of like couch gaming where all your mates are just together trying to like achieve something together. And it was just really, really addicting. - That land party vibe, right? - Yeah, yeah, exactly, exactly. - It's really fun. - All right, yeah, that sounds fun. - And every kind of play style, you know, there's accommodating. That's also fun 'cause only one person can get one power up.

So if you pick it up and you should have given it to your teammate, it just leads to arguments and fun banter. 'Cause you're like, "I'm gonna take it." You're like, "No, fuck you, I should have gotten that one. That would have helped me." And there's just so much like,

wild kind of combinations of stuff you can add where it gets ridiculous. Your power-ups can be scaled infinitely and get crazy. 'Cause you can get 99 of a power-up and it'll scale it 99 times. And so it can get like real fucking crazy. It's just a really fucking good game. - Yeah, it sounds fun.

- What's the middle one there? - Vinland Saga. - Oh right, Vinland Saga. - Vinland Saga season two baby. - I almost didn't recognize it at first. - Wait, is that an anime? - Yeah, this was my anime of the year, I think. Jujutsu Kaisen obviously has been a banger, but I think,

- Overall this year, Vinland Saga gave me the most complete package that just made me feel fuzzy inside. - Do you know what surprises me about Vinland Saga season two? I remember when it started airing, everyone was just like, everyone thought that people would get put off by it because of- - Everyone was like, "I sleep." - Everyone thought, and me included, fans get put off. - Anime fans can't watch that. - Yeah, they're like, "Oh my God, it's so slow." And surprisingly,

I think I've seen more, even more positive, well, not really surprisingly, but I'm more surprised that anime fans have patience. I can recognize peak fiction when they see it. Because this is a much slower arc. It's much more character driven than the previous one, much less action. And a lot of people seem to enjoy it even more. - Yeah, it was just amazing. I'm really excited to see where it goes. Although I've read ahead a little bit.

and gonna be very interesting to see how they handle. - It's still peak. - Hopefully it gets a, it continues to get a banger adaptation. And yeah, I think it was generally my anime of this year. I can't think of an anime that I felt found more compelling. That's about it. I mean, it's the go. - Yeah, it is the go. I mean, I feel like this year for anime wasn't necessarily a weak year at all. We just didn't get a lot of the strongest anime we got this year were just very much sequels

- Yeah. - And continuations. - "Villains of Zara" was a sequel and continuation. - Yeah, exactly, that's a sequel and continuation. A lot of anime, there weren't as many strong new- - Originals. - Like new originals or new IPs coming up this year compared to last year, I thought. What's the one on the bottom right? I don't recognize that. - That's a YouTuber. I got into, it's called Bobby Broccoli. - Oh, yes. - This guy's videos are so fucking good.

- I saw the video where he's talking about that guy who invented a new element. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. - He's released like five- - I thought I was just fan arts of you. - Me, I am my favorite thing of this year. No, it's a YouTuber called Bobby Broccoli. He's probably my favorite YouTuber that I discovered this year. He made some absolute banger videos. I think every single video I get super excited about, even if I have no,

no interest or don't care about it. - Yeah. - His presenting style is so unique. And I just find it really, really- - His editing is really good as well. - It's just amazing content. Please go and check him out. It's really good. If you like documentary style, informational videos,

with fantastic storytelling. Please check it out. It's so good. So that's probably my favorite YouTube that I discovered this year. Also shout out to Frederick for releasing a fucking six hour Eve online. - I still haven't finished that one. - Two fucking years.

- The one I also want to shout out is very recently, Summoning Salt released a Mike Tyson's Punch Out video. And halfway through the video, he talks about himself. - Yeah, because I remember he did a video about Punch Out Records and it ended on him being the record holder. - He's currently the record holder. - Yeah, he's really good at Punch Out. - And everyone in the comments was like, "So hype, would you hype yourself up? You go, King."

- Well, it was like when I watched that fucking speed run about the blue shell, any percent. And the guy making the video was the guy who's the world record holder. And I was like, oh, he's talking about himself in the third person. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. - That's so based. - So yeah. - Also what else is based is fucking for you, Yomus Tatasa. - That was pretty my favorite. I've listened to a lot of music this year.

- I did the YouTube premium rewind or whatever the fuck it was. - Oh, the rap? - Yeah, where it talked about all the music I listened to. And I think this would have been high, but the problem is that Tatsuo Ryoshita isn't on any streaming platforms, but I've definitely listened to him.

More than anything else this year. Just absolutely banger songs for any occasion. - I think I commented on that on your Twitter because you had Thundercat on there. - I did have Thundercat on there, yeah. It was really good too. I've listened to mainly funk, like funk with like pop.

I don't know EDM, I don't know EDM is, I don't know. Whatever electronic- - Beeps and Boops. - Yeah, Beeps and Boops. - Yeah. - And City Pop, which I got more into again this year. - I've been trying to find this record on vinyl for years and the cheapest I've seen it go for is like $300. - I thought he was selling it as his concert. - Well, I didn't go to the concert. - Wait, wait, wait. - Or the original pressing. - Yeah, sorry. Yeah, they have the remake one. Yeah, I went to a bar

I just happened to go to a bar like two months ago and I walked in and it was a wine bar where the guy played records. Right. And I shit you not,

the only two records he had, like he had a collection of records and they were only Daft Punk and Tatsuro Imashita. And I was like, there ain't no way. There ain't no way. - It's like your twin. - I was like, bro, we're the same guy. I was like, what the fuck? He literally- - You like the beeps and boops too? - He literally only had Daft Punk and Tatsuro Imashita. - Wow. - He didn't even have that many albums, but he, 'cause they don't have respectively, they only have X-Men, but he had all of them on display and there was just those.

- And he was cycling between Tatsuri Yamashita and Daft Punk. And I was like, that's it. Boss man's found the best part of the band. - I found my local place. - Do they still make City Pop? - No. - They make City Pop styled tracks now, now that it's kind of a trend in the indie scene. But you can't replicate that sound. - City Pop was like the 80s. You could remake 80s sound, but I feel like,

- It's like pop music in general, right? Like with guys like The Weeknd who are like bringing back the- - He samples City Pop, right? - But it's not exactly the same. - It's not the same thing. - I am very much down, let's sample more City Pop. Let's get the vibe. - Yeah, totally. - Let's do spins on it. - Because when you get into City Pop, you're like, oh shit, yeah, this shit slaps. And then you realize, wait, there's only a limited supply of City Pop out there. And then once you burn through them all, you're like,

- Oh shit. - They're not making it. - Where can I get my new fix, man? I can't listen to the same 10 songs all over again. - That's why I was so hyped that Tatsuri Yamashita is still touring. 'Cause I was like, wait, I got really sad when I started looking up a lot of the artists that I liked for City Pop and a lot of them are dead. And I was like, well, I guess they're not performing in that tune.

And I was like, I'd love to go and like appreciate this music live. - Unfortunately. - So I was really happy that at least the goat Tatsuri Mashita, the father of all of this is still touring. - I'm still so fucking jealous you saw him live. - And it's been great. - One concert I couldn't go to. - Whenever I go to small bars now in Japan, especially like when they're like themed about music, I'll be like, I like Tatsuri Mashita. I swear to God, like,

it's just like a nine out of 10 bar owners I go to, they're like, "Oh yeah, I've watched him live." And we just start fucking like going off about how much we love him. - Yeah, saying you love Yamashita Tatsuro to like a bar man in Tokyo is the same level as like talking to anyone in the anime industry and being like, "Oh yeah, Berserk's my favorite." - Yeah, right? - It's like, "You just gotta respect." - Yeah, it's like always great. I've been having a great, and a lot of times they'll just stop playing it for me and I'm like, "Oh, thanks man, I appreciate it." So yeah, I've,

what a great album, go check it out if you haven't already. - Fantastic album. - And finally- - "The Deepest Breath." - Yeah, my favorite documentary this year, I spoke about it on the podcast. - I've wanted to watch this. - Yeah, I think if you're gonna watch any documentary this year, this is the one. I think the nature of documentary, the way that documentaries are filmed, it's so hard to film a documentary about something that's unfolding. Because you don't know where it's going,

how it's gonna unfold, you know, when you're filming, right? It is, well, just- - I don't know why you saying this, but it reminded me of this. It just reminded me of the fucking boogie two nine.

- The boogie documentary that came out this year. - Oh my God. That was also a great documentary. - Yeah, that was also a great documentary. - I have a lot of feelings about that. Like this was, the hardest part about doing a documentary is that if you do a documentary about a story that's already finished, you're going back, you're asking people, "Hey, what happened?" You get a different perspective. But it's so, so, so rare to get a documentary that is so well-made that is also filming everything as it's unfolding.

because you just don't know where the story's gonna go. And filming stuff is very expensive. Having film crews follow people around is not cheap. There's only so long you can do this for. And so the thing that's really amazing about this and soul crushing at the same time is that all of this is unfolding as the people are documenting it and following it. And I won't spoil much about it,

It is probably the most like gut wrenching and heartbreaking story, a documentary I've watched in a very long time. And I really, really cannot stress enough. I don't give a fuck about diving, but it is just a fantastic, it's like an hour and a half. Just watch it. It's amazing. You will have a great time. And I'm so glad they didn't drag it out into like nine episodes like Netflix loves doing. I think it's a great movie.

I think a lot of documentaries can be told in two hours. Just keep doing that. Not every fucking court scene has to be eight fucking episodes. I don't need to find out about everything. This is just the golden example of how to make an amazing documentary with the added bonus that it was being filmed as it was all unraveling. - Right, okay. - Which is so, so rare. Really, really good. And the boogie one was also, that was amazing too. But my God. - Special shout out to the boogie one. - But my fucking God, what a fucking sad piece of media.

- He's just a terrible person. - I do not know why he agreed to do it. - I know why he agreed to do it. - 'Cause he needed money. - Yeah. - He's broke. - Yeah, that's true. - 'Cause he needed more attention and more money. - 'Cause we're talking about him. - Yeah, yeah. - We're talking about him now, 'cause of the documentary. - Yeah. - But like I watched him on the financial, this guy does a video, it's called "Financial Audit" and he was on this and the guy was going through his finances

And it was just, it was like bashing your head against the wall. He's like, no, I don't need out that much. He's like, you spend $900 a month on going out. He's like, well, I need to do that. He's like, why? He's like, well, cause I can't feed my family. Like I can't feed four people unless I go to fast food for cheap. And he's like, you can go to the grocery store. He's like, well, I like the taste. And it's like,

You are just, you are ruining your life and you have an excuse for every single time you ruin your life. - All right, finally we can get to my one. - All right, let's see Garnt's nine favorite things of this year. - What the fuck?

- First of all- - Okay, okay, Joey, what did you- - Your list is noticeably more weeb. - First of all, "100 Girlfriends" based. - Thank you. - It's such a fucking hilarious show. It's so funny. I read the manga of this. I haven't watched the anime yet, but the manga of this I discovered when it was first serializing and I'm like, this is gonna be a huge show. - Yeah, I mean, I feel last year we did a lot of traveling. We did the tour and stuff. And I remember saying at last,

Last year I was like, I want to play more games and watch even more shit last year than I did last year. And I did, which is why my list is very weeb this year. But first off, okay, so "100 Girlfriends" isn't necessarily my favorite anime/manga that aired this year. I wanna keep that one a secret because I'm literally doing like a best of list. This is the one that surprised me the most though. - I think it surprised everyone.

I came into "100 Girlfriends" thinking, "Ha ha, this is gonna be a funny meme show that maybe I can get like one joke out of." And then I started watching it and I'm like, "Why is this actually really funny?" - It's so funny. - Why is this, why does this concept

unironically work. And as I read further and further on into the manga, I found myself thinking, why am I getting invested in these characters? It does not make any sense. - That's exactly how I felt reading the manga. 'Cause I randomly found it in a bookstore and it was only when volume one had come out. And I was like, oh, okay, this looks like a kind of dumb fun thing to read. So I picked it up and I was like, holy fuck, when's the next volume?

- You guys tell me about the premise, 'cause I don't know anything about it. - So it's a guy who gets a hundred girlfriends. - Yeah, so it's a guy who during his middle school era, couldn't be like, wasn't getting any girlfriends at all. So he goes to a shrine where he prays to like,

a shrine that like specializes in love to be like, I want to get a girlfriend going into high school, blah, blah, blah. Guy comes down and he's like, I'm gonna make you the ultimate Rizzler. And basically he made it to the point where he's like, you will have 100 girlfriends by the end of your high school. - Or you will have 100 soulmates. - Yeah, you'll have a hundred soulmates. But he can't choose the soulmates. They just happen randomly. - Polygamy, nice. - So like by around like, you know,

- Girlfriend number two or three, it's already getting pretty chaotic. But then later on when he starts to have like 10, 20 different girls. - I think there's 26, 27 right now. - Yeah. - Yeah. - It just becomes so chaotic. But the way that all the jokes are written is so funny and so left field and absurdist that it just makes the whole concept ridiculous. - Basically if you've ever watched a harem anime or harem manga, it takes- - It takes that time.

all of like the most ridiculous tropes in that genre and just expands on that. And just like, I mean, the concept- - It totally makes fun of the harem concept. - Yeah, I mean, the concept is him getting a hundred girlfriends. So your suspension of disbelief is already like fucking shattered anyway. So it just takes everything that you think is ridiculous about that genre and just amps everything up to an even more like,

- Ridiculous level. - Also, God damn, like if picking best goal in a show was hard enough, this show has made it impossible. 'Cause literally every goal is likable in some way. - And you think, okay, he's gonna do like a hundred girlfriends. He's gonna do like 10 or something. And then everyone else is gonna be a background character. And we're like 150 chapters in and he's given every single girl the same amount of

care and time. - They get just as much screen time as everyone. - Yeah, and it's fucking insane that he's, or like the team are actually trying to go through with this concept and play it out completely straight. It was my biggest surprise of the year 'cause I thought it was just going to be a meme show, but I'm completely caught up and God fucking dammit, I need more. - Yeah, it's such a good show. - So this is my, it's gonna be somewhere on my list, that's a spoiler, but this is my biggest surprise

of the year in terms of anime. I said last year that I was going to get into the trail series and-

- I haven't joined you on that adventure yet. - I am about 200 hours in right now. Like I was getting a bit rough, like a hundred hours in, but now I'm like 200 hours in. - You're too far in now. - I'm like, God damn, this shit slaps. All right, I finally fucking get it. So I'm currently in the fourth game in the series now. This is my favorite game that I've played so far. - How many games are there again? Remind me.

- About 10, 11 so far. - Yeah, it's long. - Yeah, I mean, here's the thing. So it really, really does take a while to really set up its world. And it really, it took me a whole year to get through like the first two games just because some of that, some of those parts were just such a big drag because they really don't like,

they don't exactly give you a compelling plot line originally. They just let you explore the world naturally. And I'm like, God fucking damn, this is long. This is really, really long. But I feel like once you get through parts, once you get past one of the games where you get invested in the world, now that I'm invested in the world, even though you have that same formula, you know, like let's say a one piece arc, you go to a new island and that first,

it's just exploring the island and you're like, well, okay. - Hurry up. - Yeah, but now because I'm so invested in this world, that part when they go to a new arc, it's already interesting to me. It's already really, really interesting to me because I'm already really, really invested in the world. - And the stories are connected between the games. - And the stories are connected. So you get to a new chapter and you're like,

It's the main character from the last one. Oh, it's this person. And like the part that really like, the part when I really, really started to get interested is so it's kind of very, it is basically the one piece of JRPGs where you talk, you go through the storyline and you hear like a story about this epic guy who has changed the world, who was an S class fucking person in this guild. And you're like, who the fuck is this guy?

And then this guy fucking shows up and starts like wrecking shit. And then there's another guy that also shows up and is like even better than that guy. And he's just like affecting the whole world politics after like one decision. And you're like, holy fuck. This is like, they have built up these characters in such a way

in such an organic way. And then they come onto the screen and they make their presence known and they completely live up to the legend that has been built up. And it's, I am just starting the, I mean, I'm just at the start 'cause I've only finished the first arc, but now that I've seen some of the payoff that can, that has happened with just this first arc, going through, I'm going through like,

from "Zero" right now and seeing some of the characters from this arc show up in the arc that I'm going through now as side characters and seeing some other major players that were only just mentioned in the first arc that like some kind of like big legendary characters and seeing them kind of show up in this arc, it's really, really fucking exciting to a degree

- To a point that I can't really think of any other game series that has given me this. I can think of anime series like something like One Piece where you hear of Whitebeard, for example, and then Whitebeard shows up and you're like, holy fucking shit. - Yeah, because most JRPGs like Final Fantasy, for instance, like the stories aren't connected between games, right? Unless it's like, you know, 10 and 10.2, for example.

but like you don't normally have like a long, long running, like, you know, 10 plus game series where all the stories are connected. So like, yeah, you definitely get invested. Like that's built to be invested in. - Oh, it's totally. - And I really want to join you, but damn, it looks daunting. - Oh, it is. That's why I didn't replay any other JRPGs this year.

I was like, I'm gonna play everything else first. And then eventually I'll get to it. - My JRPG journey has just been trails in the sky and the trail series. And that has been enough. - He committed very hard. - He's committed. - I think you have to be for this game. - Yeah, and I will say,

- One thing that's similar to Final Fantasy, how you know you have a good game series is that everyone seems to have a different opinion on which one is the best game. So when I started this, everyone was just like, you're gonna get to Trails of the Sky third. Some people say it's skippable. I think it's not, but it's one of the slow ones. - And then you like it a lot. - And then this has been my favorite one so far. This is actually the game that got me invested in the series.

- That's crazy that you play three games not invested yet. - That's JRPG. - I mean, I was like, I was invested, but this was like this game out of all three because the first two are more traditional JRPG where it's just like big epic storyline world ending thing happening. And then Trails of the Sky 3rd is just,

hey, slice of life, hey, massive law dumps about what has led the world to this situation. I'm like, holy shit, this is actually really fucking interesting. - I had a similar experience with like Xenoblade for instance. Like I didn't fully get invested into the Xenoblade universe until the third game.

And it took me one and two to finally be like, all right, this series is kind of goaded. So I totally get it. - All right, so you also put Honkai. - Yeah, I mean, I would be lying to myself if we talked about the games that defined our years. I needed to put a Gacha game on. I mean, I played so much Honkai Star Royal this year. Like obviously I was sponsored to play it, but also I played it a lot in my free time as well. And I can't,

I kind of just feel like this was Hoya versus like everything that they've been building up to kind of coming together into a product.

that is tapping a market that I don't think has been tapped in the gaming industry so far. - I hope we have a Honkai ad in this episode. - It'll be great. - We won't, we won't. - God damn it. - I mean, you like, of course we all love to clown on Gacha gamers, rightly so, especially fucking Hoyoverse Gacha gamers, but I do feel like their success

comes down to them tapping into a market of gamers that was that I am. - Yeah, for sure. - And it's the casual gamers. - Yeah, for sure. - In terms of mobile games, I think they're definitely making like the most complete products. - Yeah, definitely. - Yeah, I mean, people just clown on Gatcha in general, right? - Yeah, because I mean, you already talked about, we already had this conversation with Tears of the Kingdom where we see this hyped up new game coming out and we want to play it,

but we do not have the time or the commitment to dive into this world right now. And part of the reason I genuinely respect Hoyoverse for what they're doing is they are making a product that you can put as much time into it as you feel like putting into it. But it also, with Honkai Star Rail, it's the first time I got...

a payoff that I would normally experience with a so-called AAA game. And it was just, it hit me out of left field so much that it was probably one of the gaming moments that stuck out to me just because I was not expecting it. - I mean, in a lot of ways,

Honkai is almost a AAA game if you think about it. - I mean, it definitely is. - It definitely is. - Yeah, for sure, right? But I think people still don't recognize it or maybe they do, but at least the- - I think there's this part of gaming, which I think is very fair, where they're like, "We don't want to reward games that require money." - Right. - Which I think is fair. I think a lot of gamers, they don't respect games that

I know you can do free to play and all that stuff. But a lot of gamers don't respect games that are like, "Hey, money please, we can help you." - Right. - Yeah.

And I think that's valid. I think as an industry, you probably shouldn't reward games that do that, right? You're like, we want more of the Trails in the Sky, which presumably has no... Yeah. You want to reward games that, hey, this is a complete game. Give it to me. I think people prefer that. And that's almost why people don't want to talk about Honkai or Genshin as these AAA games. They want to keep them in the mobile game category. It's like, we don't want you...

to mess with our pure gaming. Which has already been fucked up a bunch of microtransactions. But I understand why a lot of people feel that way. - Yeah, at the same time, I would love more products like this. If we keep this in, let's say the mobile market where people aren't a fan of like the gadget system, whatever,

My big appeal towards Honkai and Genshin and other games like that is the respect of my time, is that I can put as much time as I want to put into it. Maybe, you know, sometimes I want to just log on and just game for like- - It's the pick up and play nature, right? - Yeah, it's the pick up and play. And one thing that they really cornered that,

didn't really exist before was how easy it is to pick up and play whatever console, whatever place you want to do it in. So like you wanna play it on PC, great. You wanna play it on mobile, you can do that. It might not be the same gaming experience, but you can do it, you know? And it just makes it so much more accessible to me and accessibility is such a big reason

why they have blown up so much in my opinion, even though they get clowned on by a lot of people. - Yeah, one thing I don't respect

about the games in general is the whole having to do daily quests, grinding all the time, doing all this stuff. But I know it's how they keep you invested. It's how they keep you in the game. So when they released DLC, you care about it. - Yeah. - Yeah. - For sure. - But I'm just, me personally, I'm just not looking for a gaming experience that requires me to grind. - Yeah. - Which is, to me, that's like the biggest slap in the, like, you can take our money, but don't fucking take my time and shit all over me. - All right, all right. This might be a hot take, all right?

- This definitely is a hot take. Okay, it was after playing Honkai Star Rail. - Don't say what I think you're about to say. - That I genuinely was like, I would like more auto battlers. - Oh, fuck no. - Enabled in other JRPGs. - Oh my God. - And okay, okay. Here's what I realized because there are the two RPGs that are on here right now, Trails and Honkai Star Rail, right? And Trails,

- The Troll series, I'm sure you experienced this with Final Fantasy as well. There are certain segments where I am doing fucking nothing except going through the world and tapping A or tapping A, tapping attack. - Yeah, but like this is an RPG and JRPG problem specifically where they have,

not figured out how to keep you on your toes without like random encounters or battles that do it. But a lot of the times you can just mash through it. But I feel like that's kind of going away a little bit now. You know, like nowadays you can choose who you fight. So you can just walk through the field without having to bump into any enemies you don't want to fight, right? Like there's a lot of these new aspects where they've learned that, hey, maybe throwing a fucking mob at someone all the time is not helpful. And auto-battler is, this is like,

- This is like inventing a new disease and then giving you the cure. You know what I mean? That's what they're doing. They haven't fixed the problem. They're just making a new problem and giving you a new cure. Well, this is the pharmaceutical industry all over again. - Well, that's what I respect heavily about the "Persona" series is that like, you know, you do have this like kind of idle time between significant story portions of the game. And this is like in,

almost all the Persona games where like you have the option of you can go to the dungeons and grind for experience or you can go and do these other things. And I think just like having that choice, I think is like a nice balance of like, it doesn't force you to be like, all right, for the next five in-game days, you have to go to the dungeons and grind. Otherwise you're not gonna get to this next point. You don't have to do that. So I think just like more JRPGs are starting to kind of throw in other options that don't necessarily equate to you having to grind.

- That was a terrible take by the way, guys, for that on the record. - We need at least one whole take. - I don't agree with that. - Here's the thing, okay, 'cause I realized this during "Trails of the Sky" or the "Trails" series in general. - How old is that game? The one that "Trails in the Sky" or whatever, the one that you're playing? - I mean, I'm even playing through the new "Trails" series right now. Here's the thing, what I realized is that most of the,

the satisfaction I get from playing the JRPG systems isn't so much the battle itself, it's the preparation to that battle. It's getting the, and I realized this because now that I've complained about the whole item system in Trails before, there was a moment in Sky Third where it just clicked

And then I just had such enjoyment seeing like, you know, getting all the different combinations of orbs into this one character and building like the perfect team comp to do all these different things. - Yeah, that's part of the fun. - That's part of the fun. And then, you know, you go through most of it and then it's, I only really got the satisfaction during the big boss battles.

During the big challenging boss battles, everything else was just me kind of like going through a dungeon and me just like tapping A. - Yeah, I mean, that's probably not a game, not a problem that they've solved with auto battles. - I can't think of a JRPG that hasn't felt like that this way. Persona kind of offset that to me because it felt like Persona was kind of, the way that Persona did it was the music was so good

And it felt like a weird experience. It almost felt like a rhythm game playing it with the music. You know what I mean? - I mean, especially "Persona 5", the battle theme being one of the hardest bangers that Alice has ever made. - A lot of the times,

you can, by the skin of your teeth, you can beat a mob, right? And you can get lucky. And so I think the reason why a lot of these games had that back in the day or why they still continue to do it to an extent is that like, hey, if every single normal enemy you're coming across is kicking your ass, you gotta go back. You gotta go train up or you gotta rethink your strategy here. So I think it was just an easy way of being like, hey, get to this level for this part. But the solution is not auto-battling.

That is like, that's like the solution to heroin is swapping to cocaine. - It's not the solution, but it is a patch that I would, especially through some of the fucking old JRPGs. - Oh my God, yeah. Some of, you know, playing fantasy, I fucking wish I had an order. - Yeah, but that's the problem with the older JRPGs is that they weren't aware of those struggles at the time because there was still a newer concept. - And also back then,

Gaming has also changed now where people have so many games to choose from and now the issue is not, am I getting a game that's worth my time? Sorry, money. It's am I getting a game that is- - Respecting my time. - Respecting my time. So back then it was like, oh my God, fuck yeah, I can get 120 hours out of this game. Now it's like, oh my God, they're gonna waste 120 hours of my time for what could have been a 12 hour experience. So I think it's not so much that like,

"Hey, this is respecting my time." It's like, why are they not respecting my time and then giving me a solution where they clearly recognize they should respect my time. But they also clearly are like, "No, no, come back. "Please, please waste your time on us." 'Cause that's how we get our monies and we get engagement. - Get our monies. - Terrible take on, I'll take. - Nah, it would make me enjoy turn-based combat even more.

because I fucking hate turn-based combat for this exact reason. So yeah, I mean like to me, I separate JRPGs into dungeons, which is just brain dead decisions where I'm like, I'm not ready to go through this dungeon to make any meaningful go. - From my time playing Honkai, I felt like there was like no depth to the combat system.

- What'd you mean? - Like I play Final Fantasy VII, right? This is a 26 year old game. - Yeah. - There's the material system. - Yeah. - What a banger. I can make anyone in my party the healer. I can make anyone in my party the tank. I can make anyone do damage in any kind of way I want to. I can mix and match all of these systems. But that's because they're not limited by having to tell you, "Hey, by the way, this guy's a six star and his thing is fire and he's really good at fire. So you should get him and use him."

And I feel like that is a limitation that has been spawned of Gacha is that you have taken away my ability to customize my characters and play the game the way I wanna play it. You're like, this is this character, they heal good. This is this character, they do true damage. - Yeah, they've been preselected. - You have now made the combat so boring that auto battling is the only way I can experience this game. The only way you have made this game interesting is by making the bosses harder

thus making me have to think, oh, I need this character. Not, oh, I need to think about how to customize my character better to combat the situation. And I feel like it's almost ruined

- Well, it almost really like, here's the thing about these kinds of games, which is like, yes, I agree. Which is if you have every fucking five star in the game, all it is is gonna be you're playing for the story, which is kind of what I'm doing right now. - But isn't that sad that you can just get these characters as Donzo? - If you actually wanna be a gamer, the best way to play is

- Is to play free to play. Genuinely, genuinely because- - But then I have to go through like hours of grinding and shit. - No, no, no, no. Because with free to play, you have to learn to play with the material that you have. - You gotta strategize. - Right, you actually have to strategize. - That's fair. - And it's like a totally different, it's almost like a totally different experience

to someone who is a fucking whale who wants to grind for every artifact. When you go free to play, you actively have to play with what you are given. And that is always randomized. And no, it doesn't like, yes, it feels good to get a five star and all that stuff. But this is like, there are, you know, it makes it more similar to, let's say like a roguelike where you, you,

the material given is randomized and you have to play with what you have. So that's what, you know, I talk about a game like this where yes, easy to clown on, but you can approach the game anyway, the way you want to approach the game, you know? And that is the beauty of it where you can just be a fucking degen and just be paid to win. - But don't you feel like sometimes because of the way that they've incorporated Gacha, which is, hey, get this character, they're strong, that it has limited,

what all the characters can do subsequently because now this is the strong one. This is the weak one. You can't customize him. - Bro, you talk to real gadget gamers and they don't roll based on, they roll based on who the fucking sexiest wife is. - No, I know, I know. What I'm saying is like, hey- - I don't even like this banner character but I have to get out of this banner character. - I think it's fair to say that, hey, we've somehow made

the combat worse, but we've made it flashier. And so we're like, oh, I think it's better. - No, I totally agree where the depth compared to fucking trails or Final Fantasy. I totally fucking agree. This is the bare bones, like the bare bones depth you can ask for. There is tiny, tiny, tiny, but to me that's what makes it a great casual game. - It's just turn your brain off kind of game. - Yeah, it took me like 80 hours to really

fully like gel with the trails battle system. I didn't fucking need that for Honkai man. I don't fucking need that for Honkai. Sometimes I just don't wanna,

I don't want to think too much. - I've now secured you a year's worth of Honkai sponsorship. Allowing you to defend it. - Yeah, right. - You're welcome Garnt. - We just made Garnt a fortune. - This just proves that I have the worst- - The whole universe is like, "Yes Garnt, we've made the correct decision here." - This just proves I have the worst taste in games out of all of us. The fact that yes, I know it's a shitty take. Yes, I know I'm a shitty gamer, but that's the kind of gamer I am, okay? I'm a lazy gamer.

- I'm a fucking lazy gamer. Just give me story, give me world building. That's what I really fucking care about. - And give me the bag. - All right, so let's, 'cause we spent like 19 hours there. - All right. - What's this middle left one? - "Ishinoseki no Taizai." - Yes. - This is a fucking amazing manga. - This is such a good manga. - What is it? Tell me about it. - Okay, so.

Guy wakes up in a hospital. He has amnesia. Cliche, right? - Very cliche. - Yeah. - I sleep. - Yeah. Except for some reason he's found out that he's woken up and he has a family.

And everyone in the family has amnesia and they don't know what happened. They don't know why they just- - But they all know their family? - Yeah, they were told that they were family and they go on a car accident together and they all have amnesia. And so, you know, they kind of like, it's this really wholesome story about this entire family who just have like amnesia and they are told that their family, but

Can you be family if you just like told that you have this bond with each other? So they kind of like, it's a story about them kind of like reconnecting and rediscovering what it means to be a family. - I wouldn't necessarily use the word wholesome. - Joey, Joey, Joey, Joey. God fucking dammit, Joey. God fucking dammit. Let me stop. - I didn't realize you were building up to it. My bad, my bad. - So yeah, it's a story about them discovering their bonds and like,

They're slowly discovering, hey shit, we like being a family together. This is what being a family means. And then they finally get discharged from the hospital. They go home. The main character goes into his room and his room is just filled from ceiling to ground with the words, die.

like just scribbled like everywhere. Just like something has gone on and he rushes out and he's fucking panicking. And every single family member has had that same reaction after going into their rooms. They're just like, they're like, guys, yeah,

- Yeah, well, sir. - What the fuck is happening? - Let's have a meal, right? And they don't talk about it. And you're like, holy shit, what has happened to this family? And that's chapter one. - Oh, wow, cool. - And as the story unfolds, you realize what has gone on with each different family member, some of the fucked up shit that has happened behind the scenes that we don't know about because for some reason,

everyone has amnesia and without spoiling it, that's pretty coincidental. - They all slept in the car with the carbon monoxide. - Yeah, and that's pretty unusual that they all happen to have amnesia. And it just started this year and it's rare that I have a manga that just immediately gripped me from chapter one.

And this is what I could- - It's still good. - It's still fucking good. This is the page turner manga for me. - Okay, sure. - When you finish the chapter and you're like, there's a twist and you're like, holy shit, I need to read the next one. I need to read the next one. - Honestly, it's this artist as well because they did one before this one called Takopi no Ginzai, which is kind of in a similar vein where like there's this alien creature that this girl finds called Takopi. And he like tries to like, you know,

befriend this like alien kind of creature and something happens to her and in her vicinity that is like absolutely fucked up um and takapi this character uh realizes that like he can only once every couple of like periods of time that they can teleport back to the past at a

at a certain point. And so this girl uses this alien's power to go back in time to try and like fix her future of like the fucked up shit. And this author has this really interesting style where like they have such a cutesy, wholesome looking like- - Yeah, looks very wholesome. - But has created some of the most fucked up stories.

- All right, I'm sold. That sounds awesome. - And this one as well is really fun. - Yeah, this one- - Whoa, NFS Reddit. - This one hits the ground running and it hasn't stopped yet. - Tuckabee as well, like first chapter is just

- I'm just fucked. - Yeah, yeah, exactly. - Okay, I'm sold. You sold me boys. - And that's all I'm going to say about it. 'Cause it is a mystery manga, so I don't wanna say too much. - So read it yourselves, I guess, guys. - Yeah, just read it yourself. I just wanted to sell it. - One Piece live action. - I keep thinking about this. I keep having people come to me

and ask me about it. - You know what? Now in retrospect, after however many months it's been since I finished watching this, I think I finally realized just how much I enjoyed the shit out of this live action. - Right? I think I came into this too much as just a seasoned anime watcher who had just been jaded. - We've been burned. I mean, I think when everyone's like, "See guys, we told you it's gonna be good." It's like, no, no, no, no. You guys have fucked this up for like 30 years back to back.

You don't get to just be like, "See, we were right. It was gonna be good. Now fuck off." I think everyone was very justified in their worry about hearing this. - Oh, totally. - But obviously everyone is very relieved that it's good. - Yeah. And the more friends and more family members that have absolutely zero interest in anime, because more keep coming up as the year's going on, where they just kept asking me about "One Piece" and it just made me realize, holy shit, this,

was this is why every studio is trying to make a live action. And this is now like,

of big high profile live action adaptations because it just kind of- - Especially Western production as well. - Yeah, especially Western productions. And I've really, really hope that we haven't opened Pandora's box with this one. - We have. - I mean, you hook show live actions coming out and I'm really scared. - That's already out. - Oh, is it out already? - Yeah. - Well, I know what I'm watching. - Okay, actually.

- Have you seen it? - I've seen a few episodes and it's actually pretty decent. - Oh, okay. Wow. - There is this one fight scene because one of the big things that I didn't know how they were gonna do was 'cause I think the first arc of Yu Yu Hakusho was one of the weakest ones. - Well, yeah, it starts off as a slight surprise. - How do you make it compelling? - Yeah, they had this one fight scene with one of the demons that very much felt

like a Jackie Chan movie or like an old school Kung Fu, like the camera work in that was fucking insane. It's not just tip, yeah. - I mean, yeah, theoretically if it, you know,

these people now being brought up on anime who are directing these things and watching it. It should get better. And if One Piece is kind of set the stage now saying, "Hey look, you can do it." - Yeah. - Then we should theoretically get more good live action adaptations. - Yeah, and it's not to say there haven't been like, you know, just as good live actions or better than the One Piece live action. 'Cause like there have been, like there's been a couple of live actions I've seen that are actually, I think better than the One Piece live action. But it's just, we had,

so many misses in between that time as well. - Still worried about they'll continue with it because that's still the big question. - How are they gonna bring Chopper into the equation? - That's my biggest question. - How do they do this all before they all get old? How do you, you know, you have to commit. It's just one of those things where it's like, yeah, I think they've nailed it now, but like going forward is like a real big question mark and that's always gonna be tough with one piece. - Yeah, I think they,

they've done what they've needed to do. And they've introduced One Piece to a larger audience because God forbid One Piece fans are the most toxic now anyway. So what's the hard and making more right? - That's not how TV works Garnt. If a TV show is popular, you know we gotta get them seasons out of it. - And you know what I was going to say prior to today that I honestly think that this is the best way to get someone into One Piece.

- But oh my God, we just got announced today that One Piece is getting a fucking remake. What? - They're doing One Piece Brotherhood before One Piece is even finished. - Which is probably going to be now the new best way to get someone into One Piece. - I guess we'll see how it goes when they start releasing it. - I mean, One Piece fans,

- We've been eating very, very well this year. We've had Gear 5, we've had One Piece live action, we've had now a new remake coming out. - 'Cause they realized the infinite money glitch, which is just using the One Piece IP in any way. - Yeah. - Yeah. - So congrats. - It's kind of weird to think that One Piece is now peaking after like what, 25 years? - Yeah, almost 30 years. - Yeah, yeah, it's still got new peaks. Excited to see where it goes in the future. - Go to the goat, man.

- All right, everything here was way too fucking vanilla. I wanted to throw in some spice. - I wish I could have put a hentai on mine, but I didn't think there was any good hentai in the show. - This one looks like really fucking artsy.

- Like what is this? - Okay, so this is a doujinshi. - Okay. - I figured that much. - Hentai this year fucking sucked. - It did. - Oh, it was so bad. - It did. - This is probably the worst year of hentai since I've started watching hentai. So like five years. - Yeah, yeah. - So this is the fucking worst year of hentai. - Yeah, definitely. - I wouldn't recommend this.

if you want to yank it, I'll be honest. - You've lost me. - I wanted to put this on because- - Is this like a metamorphosis? - Kind of. - Okay, yeah. - I got that vibe. I got that vibe.

- I was like, this looks too dark and gritty. - I was like, man, I didn't realize the menu had a weird ass poster. Oh no, it's just a fucking big ass black box. - I thought Alex just fucked up on like the cropping. I was just like, oh, okay. - Yeah, so this kind of takes place in a cyberpunk world where basically sex androids exist and

people can buy sex androids. - So Japan in about 20 years. - We're close, we're getting there. - Yeah, we're getting there. - In about 20 years and you saw like chapter two, chapter one, chapter two and you're like, oh, the art in this is great. It's kind of got like that cyberpunk aesthetic. - It looks like a Yoshitoshi Abe manga. Like a serial experiments lane vibe. - Kind of, kind of. Yeah, it's kind of very much that vibe. The art is great. And then they start like developing the characters.

and you're like, okay, I'm still like- - You're like, put your pants away. You're like, okay, actually, hold on, I'm gonna tell them. - You're like, I'm listening. You're like, actually, this makes it even fucking better because now I'm invested in the characters as well. And then there is just this one chapter where bad things happen to the characters. And I don't think I've had that kind of emotional reaction to a fucking doujin, I think ever.

- Wow. - Like with metamorphosis, I think with metamorphosis, I was like, I know what I'm getting into. I'm like prepared for it. With this one, I was just like having a joy or like a jolly old time. And then like you turn the page and you're like, oh, oh my God. - Is it like era guru territory or?

- I wouldn't say Aragor, it's- - What the fuck does Aragor mean? - Like violent, war porn. - Oh, Jesus Christ. - It is very much violent, but the reason I think it's fucking like,

because it's like to do with androids, to do with machines. Technically there's like no gore in it. But it made me realize that it made me feel these like emotions just because I was that attached to some of like the android characters in it. And I was like, wait a minute, is this a really fucking good story as well? - And so much so you'd recommend it.

- So much so I recommend people experience it. - This definitely looks like something I'd get into. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. I was like, Joey. - Joey, here you go. - Just from the look of it, I'm like, yeah, I think I like that. - I was like, Joey, try this one out. Try this one out. - Okay, I'll give it a read. - I'm not gonna say too much about it, but it just like, most of the things I put on here are things that have surprised me over the years, over this year, because I didn't wanna put any anime on there. And most of the films and games we've talked about already. So like this one,

- This one definitely surprised me. I wasn't expecting that. And I had a very, very strong emotional reaction. And to me, that's what art is all about. - Sure. - Even if you come into this for a totally different fucking reason, that is what art's all about. - You're definitely coming into this, that's for sure. - I mean, this one was not so much "Villain Saga" season two.

It was how surprising it was for me that a wholesome meme got spread around this year. This was my favorite meme this year. I have no enemies. - I have no enemies. - Yeah, yeah. - I mean, we said plenty of times on the show. - I'm not gonna say too much about this because I mean, it very much builds on the power of "Villain Saga" season two and the message they had in general. So much so that

it actually gave the internet a wholesome meme. And I think the internet could do with more wholesome memes this year. For sure. That's true. It did kind of get the internet by storm for about...

- Yeah. - Which I appreciate. - The internet was a safe place for about two weeks. - Yeah, yeah. - So let's talk about the menu. - Okay, the menu. - Did you watch the menu for the first time this year? - Yeah, I did. - Oh, nice. - I think one of you guys mentioned it. - We did speak about this. I actually think I started to slowly get into horror movies this year. And I think the menu was- - Sydney is forcing you to. - Sydney has forced me to and she's failed.

many, many times. And I think I'm slowly discovering the... So I had a tough choice between two horror movies I wanted to put on here. One was "The Menu", the other one was "All My Friends Hate Me", which is what John recommended. I actually went out and watched it. - Okay.

And that one, I still think about that one. I finished that film and I was like, I hate it. But then I had the same kind of reaction as "The Boy and the Heron" where I can't stop thinking about it. So I'll talk about the menu first. I realized what I liked about, what I like is the feeling of uncomfortableness in horror films. Maybe not so much like,

gory or bad things or scary things happening. - Like thriller. - Like, I wouldn't call it so much thriller 'cause thriller. - I felt like horror was a consequence of the general story and not the intention. Like in a weird way. I don't know how to, if that makes sense. Like I didn't feel like a horror film. - Right.

'Cause with horror films, I don't like it when you get into the movie and immediately they're like, "It's a horror film. "We got a horror trope. "Horror trope this." This is a film that divulges into horror because of- - Like it has horror elements to it. - Yeah, yeah. - But I mean, it's definitely horror by the end, but it was still very, very, I really enjoyed this film. - Yeah, because with this one,

I think what drew me to it was that feeling of uncomfortableness of knowing that something's not what it seems to be,

but you can't quite put your finger on it. - Like that uncanny valley feeling? - Oh yeah, no, no, okay, that totally is it. It's that uncanny valley feeling of just being in a situation and not knowing what's wrong, but knowing something is wrong, something is off. - Totally. - And the way that they build this shit up and then you pay it off being like, "Ha ha, this was the thing that was going on in the background all the time."

I think this one had those like one of the best payoffs I have where it was kind of like satirizing the whole fine dining. - Yeah, I really enjoyed it. - And also the actor playing the chef just- - Ralph Fiennes? - What's his name again? - Is it Ralph Fiennes or Colin Firth? I can't remember which one it was. Which one is it? - It's not Colin Firth. - It's Ralph Fiennes, right? Am I crazy? Is it Ralph Fiennes?

- Yeah, Ralph Fiennes is fucking amazing in everything. - What else is he in? - He's in so many things. Fuck, he's in Kingsman. - Who is he in Kingsman? - He's like the MI5, like this is what you're gonna be doing.

That explained it. - This is what you're gonna be doing. - Ralph Fiennes plays as the, this is what you're gonna be playing. - He's the Nazi in Schindler's List, like the guard. - Oh! - He's in the Grand Budapest Hotel. He's the concierge, the Kingsman. - Oh, okay, yes, I do know this actor then. - This man is in so many films that you've probably watched. He's Voldemort. - Oh, he's Voldemort? - He's Voldemort. - So he's just the bad guy in...

Yeah, he's a bad guy in every film. He's in Skyfall. He's in James Bond as well. Prince of Egypt. He's in Lego Batman. Fucking Wallace and Gromit. Fucking great film. He's in Sunshine. Dude, he literally go through his filmography. It is literally like back-to-back bangers. He is such a fucking good actor. And when he was the main guy, I was like, I know it's going to be...

Whenever he's in anything on the poster, it's gonna be a fucking good time. He's such a fucking good actor. And I absolutely love watching him and he was so good in this. - Yeah, I think the scene that like really I keep thinking about is, you've seen the menu, right? It's the burger scene.

- Just seeing this childlike joy of someone cooking like this fine dining chef cooking this burger. I'm not gonna spoil why he's cooking a burger, but he's cooking a burger and it's seeing this tired old chef finding joy cooking one of the simplest meals you can find was so,

- Weirdly heartwarming in such a terrifying story. I was like, oh, this is such a mix of emotions that I'm feeling right now that I thought this is just great filmmaking with great acting. It's not got the most weird script, the most convoluted scripts. It's a simple story, but if you just want to,

good horror without seeing something horrific or gory happen, what's the menu? If you want a British horror film and this is,

- I wanna talk about "All My Friends Hate Me." I think that's the name. It's the horror film that John kind of recommended to me. And I would love for you guys to watch it as well because I still think about it to this day. It's kind of similar to this where it has this feeling of uncomfortableness, something that's going on in the background. The difference between

that film and the menu is that there is not this kind of like big reveal. The ending is left to like your own, the ending's left more ambiguous. - It ends like a Junji Ito story. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. And that really fucking bothered me when I finished the film. - I'm down to watch. - But the more that time has gone on, the less I can like, the more I fucking think about that film. Because that,

I don't like that is the film I think has given me the most anxiety this year. - Oh no, okay. - And nothing horrific bad happens in it. I call it a British horror film because it is very, very much based around British uncomfortableness. - Right.

- What's the word? - Awkwardness. - In British, I'm gonna put it as awkwardness and backhandedness. - Right, okay. That sounds fun. I'm down. - Yeah, so, okay. I'll tell you the opening scene, right? So the opening scene is there's this guy who is meeting his mates from uni. They haven't met in fucking 10 years or whatever. And it is his birthday. And all of his mates have kind of,

sorted out a big fucking birthday party for him. And he shows up, he's ready to fucking party. It's the middle of the countryside and it's gonna be a massive house party. He shows up, he gets the beers out, gets the music out. He's like, "Hey guys." Turns out the building's completely empty.

the building's just complete he's by himself and he's like oh maybe maybe everyone's just late maybe i got the wrong time so he cracks open a beer by himself starts putting on music waits one hour passes two hour passes the entire day pass and he's just by himself oh and they show up at 9 00 p.m or something and everyone's like

I can't remember the name. I'm just gonna go, "John, what the fuck are you doing here?" "Well, we gave you a message that we're gonna go to the pub." Didn't receive any message. And so this party goes on and- - Weird vibes. - It's just weird vibes. Something's going on. There's some jokes that are made towards him that I'll just like,

"Are you joking?" - Oh God. - Was that a joke or was there some bite towards that? - This sounds like a British now. - Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And then he's just like, "Oh guys, it's a weekend long party." He decides to go to bed and he just like, "Guys, I know it's my birthday, but I'm kind of feeling tired. I'm just gonna call early 'cause we're gonna have a fucking banger day tomorrow." So he goes up.

and one of his mates comes up to him and she goes, "Yeah, John, can I talk to you for a second?" Like, I know it's like your birthday and everything, but like, I'm not gonna lie, you've been a bit shit today, haven't you? - Oh God. - And you know what I mean? I mean, just like, oh. - Kill me, kill me. - Oh, kill me now. And that kind of atmosphere,

continues throughout the entirety of this weekend-long party. And you kind of get hints about...

what's going on, but you never know if his friends actually have a problem with him or if it's just like fucking tongue in cheek. And if it's just some kind of like- - That sounds good. - Yeah, I'm invested. - I've never made a film that's made me feel more fucking uncomfortable in my life. - Okay, I'm there. - I'd be interested to see what Americans think about it because it is this kind of British and I think Australian uncomfortableness that Americans just wouldn't understand 'cause with Americans, they'd be like,

I have a fucking issue with you. If they wouldn't make it like some fucking backhanded jokes. - Sure, sure. - Highly, highly recommend it. - Yeah. - But yeah. - Sounds good. - What's this last one in the middle? - Last one was the YouTuber I discovered this year, which was completely out of,

any kind of like sphere of interest I had. It's this guy called Fort9. - Okay. - Not Fortnite, Fort9. He's a motorbike YouTuber. - I've seen this guy. - Okay. - You might've seen this guy, right? - Maybe. - I discovered him when I was going through that, my fucking Vespa phase, when I brought my Vespa.

- I was just looking for, you know, videos and I- - I have seen this guy. - Yeah. - Yeah, yeah, I've seen this guy. - He is just- - I like his videos. - He is just a YouTuber where,

He does videos on a topic I have almost zero interest in, but he's such a talented content creator and talented filmmaker. - Yeah, it's really well shot. - Yeah. - And like, I love the bits. He always has like very like cinema-esque bits before he talks about something. It's really cool. - Yeah, the best way if I have like a sentence elevator pitch, he's just top gear, but for motorbikes. - And his one guy. - And his one guy. - Right. - But he,

I think he's Canadian. I think he's Canadian. Yeah. But you may have like zero, zero interest in motorbikes at all, but he presents it in such a way that it's not only entertaining, but it's informational and entertaining.

I not only got more into like motorbike culture, but I also learned a lot that I thought I had zero fucking interest in. And also if you just missed Top Gear and you miss peak, you're like Jeremy Clarkson, watch Fortnite.

He definitely carries the spirit of that. Especially not so much with like, let's say the special Top Gear episodes, but very much with the weekly Top Gear episodes where they just review cars, but just have a very, very, very unique and entertaining way of reviewing cars. - Cool, fuck yeah.

And yeah, that was pretty much my three by three of the year. - And that was our three by threes of the year. - Let us know down below what you thought about our three by threes and maybe what your three by threes are like. - Yeah, what did you get into this year? We'd love to know. Let us know in the comments. But hey, look at all these patrons though. - Look at all of them.

- Hopefully they were into Trash Taste in 2023, otherwise they wouldn't really be there, you know what I'm saying? But hey, if you'd like to support the show and see us sometime next, I mean, we're gonna have one more episode before this, but to support us in next year's endeavors, then make sure to go over to our Patreon, patreon.com/trashtaste. Also follow us on Twitter, send us memes on the subreddit, and if you're ahead of pace, listen to us on Spotify. And we will see you all next week for the final 2023 Trash Taste episode. - All right. - Bye.