THE TRASH TASTE TOURNAMENT ARC | Trash Taste #211
02:05:57 Share

- All right, hello and welcome to another episode of Trash Taste. - A non-controversial episode. - A non-controversial episode. I'm your host for today, Garnt, joining me again

- Once again, are the boys and today we are hosting our own tournament talks. - I'm not excited about it. - You're not excited? - You gotta say it like you used to say it. - Joey, that was like five years ago. - That's my favorite card of them. - I've retired there. - Today we are hosting a tournament talk.

- Hopefully that did, how's the waveforms on that? - 2016 gig fans are frothing at the mouth. - I'm never gonna fucking escape that. - Why do we argue? We can have a nice day where we talk about things. - You're usually the one that's instigating the argument. What are you talking about? - I don't like to argue.

- I hate arguing, I want that on the record. - I hate arguing as well, but sometimes you just gotta fight your fight. - Yeah, so we're doing a tournament arc today. So what we did was we asked you guys over on the Trash Taste Patreon, by the way, if you wanna be involved in future videos, as well as check out exclusive stuff, patreon.com/trashtaste. But we asked our patrons to give us a list of some of the best in a particular genre.

And what we're gonna do is we're gonna tally them up, put them on a tournament bracket and then figure out which one of these is gonna survive at the end. - Yeah, so we're not gonna base this one so much on, oh, which one is, even though this doesn't actually exist, which one's like critically or objectively better. It's more, it's this more start off as a, you know, we wanted to start a bracket where we wants to keep one

and throw one away or choose one over the other. - It's like a would you rather. - Yeah, it's kind of like a would you rather, but since we're fucking, since we've watched anime, of course we've got to make it a fucking tournament. - Of course. - Listen to each other's arguments, 'cause what if you like ride or die?

- Well, so how it is is because there's three of us here, it's two V one. So that's majority vote goes through. - Mr. Fence Sitter over here. - No, no, no, I won't. I will preach that I will not fence sit. - I like the idea of you both anime experts. Well, Joey, not so much anymore, but.

- Previous anime expert. - Oh yes, because once I stopped watching anime, all my knowledge. - I could be the deciding factor. - It could be. It's gonna be interesting. - Yeah, so this isn't exactly every one of the most popular choices, but we did go through and pick out of the popular choices something that at least two of us have seen. Otherwise it would just be one person in the corner just talking to himself. - Exactly. - And the other two kind of just nodding off.

- Yeah, believe me bro, believe me bro. - So here's the one for anime. - Of course we're gonna start off with anime because we are an anime podcast. - No we're not, Garnt. - We are an anime podcast. So we asked you guys over on Patreon to supply us with some anime titles to put on the bracket and let's see what we have. Jesus Christ. Okay, so of course, One Piece.

was gonna go up on there. Oh my God. - Okay, so One Piece, JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, Steins;Gate, Attack on Titan, Full Metal Alchemist, Free-Ren, Mushoku Tensei, Vinland Saga, Gurren Lagann, Mob Psycho, Clannad After Story, Hunter x Hunter, Bochy the Rock, Jujutsu Kaisen, Code Geass, and Made in Abyss. - I need a smoke break just looking at this.

- This is gonna turn into a shit show very quickly, I feel. - I love how the audience, you go through this and the audience is just like, "Yeah, shonen, action, manly stuff." - Yeah, right? Then, "Clannad After Story." - "Clannad After Story." - "Bocce the Rock." - "Bocce the Rock." - Okay. - How the fuck did "Bocce the Rock" make it here? - I don't fucking know, but I'm disappointed in all of you. - I think people put that on there so we could see Joey's reaction. - Oh my God. I just feel like they're getting that out of spite.

- Okay, so Jesus Christ. From my first looks, the top half looks insane. - It's so hard. - The top half of this bracket looks insane. - Can we go from bottom to top? I can't start with One Piece versus JoJo. I can't start off. - You wanna go bottom to top? All right, we can go. - Can we really start with One Piece versus JoJo? I need to warm up. - All right, all right.

- You can't, in the UN meetings, you can't jump into the most serious problem. I'm sure they have like some kind of easy work they all agree to. - Okay, okay. - Let's start at the bottom then. So one goes, one stays. "Kokies" or "Made in Abyss"? - Which one do you keep in? - Which one do you keep in? And you know, which one you throwing away? - This is so hard 'cause I love both these shows. - Yeah. - For totally different reasons. I'm...

- What are you thinking Connor? - Listen, I like "Made in Abyss." I think the story is, dare I say better.

but it does make you a little uncomfortable when you're watching "Made in Abyss." - Yeah, it makes you uncomfortable on a lot of different levels. It's just like a really uncomfortable show to watch in general because of some of the shit that happens in the show and some of the things that are portrayed in the show.

Code Geass is a little bit more of a traditional, let's say, anime, traditional story. - One of the goats, I might say. - Yeah, I would agree with that. It is one of the classic- - You stan terrorism, guys? You stan terrorism? - I think terrorism is based. - That's an out of context.

- You know what's even better? Terrorism with your friends. - It's about the friends we made along the way. - He's only a terrorist because the government calls him a terrorist. - Exactly. - But really he's a, what some might say, a freedom fighter. - The resistance. - The freedom. - I'm sure they called...

- Let's find a real easy counterpart here. - Finish the sentence Connor. - I'm sure they called the Welsh terrorists.

- Back in the 1200s, all right, okay. It's not always so cut and dry, man. Who's a terrorist? - You know it's always a save when you use your own brain. - Okay, really hard to think of some clean cut ones. - Let me just go through history and see if there are some, no. - Which one will get me in the least amount of trouble? - Yeah, because if,

- If they were terrorists, then we wouldn't be calling them terrorists because they wouldn't be on the right side of history, right? - Yeah, exactly. - Normally the terrorists- - And normally the winners get to write history. Okay. - Okay, for me personally, I'm leaning more towards

- I think because like "Ko-Gi-As Yes" is an absolute classic, amazing story, great freaking ending. And you think that would have an advantage over "Made in Abyss" which hasn't finished yet. But I'm thinking about my viewing experience with both of these. And I feel there was more of an emotional impact for me with a lot of the scenes in "Made in Abyss" compared to "Ko-Gi-As". I think for me, it's more memorable as a show. And I think it's more,

interesting as a show as well. Just in the fact that, you know, you go into "Made in Abyss" and you're like, "Oh, this is gonna be some like cutesy show about discovering a fucking massive hole in the ground." And then you realize like, no, it is gonna go in the complete opposite direction. It's gonna be,

as Garnt said, some of the most like really uncomfortable scenes. And you know, not just in the way that, you know, we're all thinking, but in the other actual like dark themes as well. - But that's what makes "Made in Abyss" so frustrating as a show for me, 'cause it was so cool and it was so, I guess, ingenious in some of its ideas, especially,

- I like how obviously it's kind of, a lot of the times when people talk about the show, they're like, oh, you know, it's the reason why I guess it's kids experiencing this stuff is 'cause that's how you can kind of frame it in such a like horrific way. - Yeah. - By showing the naivete of children going through this like really fucked up world. - Yeah. There are some scenes that don't need to be there. - And then yeah, and then there's just like one or two scenes where you're like,

- Oh man, you're like, maybe the reason it's about kids is not because it's naivete. And that's just enough to kind of poison the well a little bit in your head where you're like,

- Why dude, why? - No, I definitely agree with that. - Like some scenes, especially in the manga, I mean, my God. - Yeah. - You're like Christ man. - Yeah, the manga, like, you know, people watching the anime will like look to some scenes and they'll like, come on man, that's too much. And then you went and read the manga and you're like, okay man, I know what you're trying to do. - It really encapsulates, especially season two, season two was so weird.

but like so fucking interesting at the same time. - Yeah, yeah. - And I just so sad how it all, how I felt like a lot of this has been polluted for myself, my own enjoyment, 'cause I guess I care about that and I care that that's in there, which I understand that some people don't and they can easily look past that and I applaud them. And I think,

I still really liked the show a lot, which I don't know what this is about me. - Yeah, I mean, to me, like I completely agree with your points. And to me it's more about, you know, sometimes you see things in fiction that on a morality level and on a comfortableness level, you don't necessarily agree with, or, you know, especially, you know,

I can think of another show on this list that's, you know, has challenged me in that way. And I'm sure people are looking right at it. - Being an anime fan fucking sucks. Why do I have to talk about this shit? Why do I have to dissect this? You know what I mean? Why can't I just, you know, Call of Duty, I never had to think about this. I never had to think about this. - Yeah, but you know, there are some moments in fiction where you're like, I don't really,

I don't really fuck with that side of the show. But this piece of fiction, this story does this part so amazingly well that it's that...

I, for me personally, I am very happy and very comfortable focusing on the parts that I really do enjoy. And I think that it does fantastically and amazingly and still acknowledging the parts that make me uncomfortable, but acknowledging that, but also being like, okay, I acknowledge this part, this aspect of the story exists, but this part,

This part is the part that I think is really special and I connect with this part. - No, 100%. - And I'm, you know- - It's always tough having an argument about this. - Yeah. - With debate about this stuff 'cause people get so fucking charged about it online. - Yeah. - You know, when you get that first A380 on Call of Duty, that's how it feels to watch Code Geass though. When you get that first big kill streak and you start gunning people down, that's how it feels to watch Code Geass. - Why, why? - It is like,

Code Geass is the male fantasy. It is literally male engineered to be like, "Ooh, ooh, yeah." You know what I mean? It just takes all the boxes in your brain for a guy that like- - The male fantasy of committing casual terrorism. - He did everything Kirito couldn't.

- Sure, that is true. - He did everything Eren couldn't as well. - Yeah, exactly. - Yeah. - He's the perfect Giga Chat. - Yeah, with the perfect jawline. - And he was a terrorist. - Do you think that Code Geass coming out today would be as, would hit the modern audience as hard as it did back then? Because you look back, I look back to the ending of Code Geass versus the ending of Attack on Titan, which both had,

have a very similar setup and both not knowing it, if you hadn't like read any of the endings, they could have ended in very, very similar fashions, right? But I feel like they both took different directions with that ending. Code Geass was much more of the, you know, fallen hero kind of like roots. And I feel like at the time this, that felt like fucking awesome, you know? Whereas to me Attack on Titan felt

felt more

and it didn't hit audiences the same way because it wasn't like as clean cut. But to me that felt like a much more, okay, if this series of events were to actually happen in the world, yeah, how would we actually feel about the main character of the story? - Well, I think that's because it's a reflection of the time. I think, when did "Kill a Guest" come out? 15 years ago? - 2007, seven, six, seven or eight. - I think it's safe to say as a civilization, we were slightly more optimistic 20 years ago.

- Yeah, exactly, exactly. We were way more optimistic. - I think attack on Titan is just a reflection of the time we're in. I'm trying to cut out ums. I'm trying to cut out ums, sorry. So slap me whenever I um, okay? You have permission to slap me from now on. - Okay, cool. Awesome. Okay, so one has to go, one has to stay. I am sticking to my gun and going with Man Abyss.

- Yeah, okay, here's the thing about Code Geass. I have to pick one of these, which is very, very difficult. But if you are going to put them in a boxing ring against each other, are we just going to ignore 80% of Code Geass R2 that we have forgotten? - What are you on about? Nanaly was the best. - You remember Rolo?

- I remember Rollo, that's why I was silent there for a moment because I was trying to think of a defense for Rollo. - I don't even remember Rollo. - The only benefit of Rollo existing was that he's had the same name as the chocolate that we had in the UK. - Yeah, pretty much. - And that was about what my connection with him was good. Yes, Code Geass season two was bad and they kind of floundered

up until the point where they were like, okay, we're finally gonna wrap it up. - Yeah. - And I do think that them killing Lelouch was probably like, which, listen, it's been 20 years, I can spoil that. Them killing Lelouch off was probably like the worst financial decision that the Code Geass franchise has ever had. Because every time they try to bring him back, everyone's like, nah. - Nah. - Not in my head. - They're making a new Code Geass now. - Again, with like what? Like Lelouch reincarnated as a fucking bitch? - No, no, it's like a new character's

and just apparently a new storyline. - I would have loved to have seen Lelouch in "Made in Abyss." Just see him really sort out. With some good old fashioned colonialism. - What the fuck? - Start really sorting out those depths. Get some infrastructure laid down, get some train tracks. Get these weird fucking blob things. - Lelouch commands you to not feel pain. - That scene where they have to exterminate the thing. - Yeah. - Just die. - Lelouch commands you to just die. - Yeah.

- So like there's a lot of things in Code Geass. - I like Code Geass more, I think. - And there's one more thing as well about Code Geass that I feel like we looked over a lot in Code Geass when we were kids just because it was like cool. But I look back at even like season one, the big turning points where the story had ended, they had achieved world peace. Then the Lucia's like,

- Hypothetically speaking, let's just say we've achieved world peace, the story is over, but hypothetically speaking, if I were to tell you to kill everyone, kill all the Japanese,

- That would be a funny, funny, ha ha joke, right? KW. - I will agree with you that that is probably- - I'm joking. - Wait, wait, I said I'm joking. - This is probably the single worst way I've ever seen a plot move forward. And in hindsight, you can slap me by the way I said it.

- It is probably the worst way I've ever seen a story move forward. - Yeah, yeah. - I still think I would vote Code Geass. - Okay. - Yeah, that's fine. You go with your gut feeling. - Go with your gut. - I made my vote, all right? I as well, I love Kevin, but man, that one song is .

It was like burned in my head. It's burned in my head. Sorry, Kevin. One simple rhyme. One simple melody. - Me when I'm colonizing. - That's not what I'm talking about. Play it, Mudan, play it a little bit. Everyone knows that. It's burned in your head. - Yeah, that's true. - When the main character is about to pull some grade A bullshit. That's the song that plays in your head.

- I know exactly, but I'm going with "Made in Abyss." - "Made in Abyss" goes forward. - "Made in Abyss" is it for me. - All right, next one. Oh my God. - Did you do this on purpose? - "Watch the Rock" versus "Jesus Christ." - This feels on purpose. - Okay, this is like- - This is like "Peak Brain Rot" versus "Peak Brain Rot." - I wanna- - Is this easy, Joe? - Yeah, 100% "Jesus Christ." 100%. It's not even close. - Really? - Yeah, because here's the thing. Okay.

- I really need to get fucking clear this out of my name, okay? I don't hate Jujutsu Kaisen. I never said I hated Jujutsu Kaisen. I just think it's okay. Meanwhile, Botch to the Rock, I fucking hate.

- So Juicy Kaisa wins by a landslide. - Wait, wait, wait, Joey, Joey, Joey, Joey. - When did I ever say I hated Juicy Kaisa? When did I ever say that? - Joey, when did you say you hate Bocce as well? - I said it in front of a live audience last year. - No, no, you said that you don't think anyone in like, what was it? Anyone has as much social anxiety as Bocce did. - Yeah, I still stand by that. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. But I thought you like at least

halfway decently enjoyed Botchy. - It's just a K-On clone, bro. That's all it is. - Bro. - I'm gonna say that upfront. It's like all these, it's not just Botchy the Rock. There was like three other fucking shows, like girls band Cry was another one. - Yeah, you're right. Botchy the Rock is a K-On clone, but it made it better. - Trying to get some evidence to give some evidence. - The songs were mid.

- The songs, the one thing that Bocce- - The songs were not meant Joey. - The one thing Bocce could have had- - Wait, wait, Joey, Joey. - The one thing Bocce could have had at least is to have like a good soundtrack. It was- - What the fuck? It does have a good soundtrack. - It's me, it's me. - Look, that one fucking performance scene where Bocce pops off, yo, that was better than any of the K-1 fucking scenes, man. - Yeah, you expect me to believe that shit would actually happen though? No.

- Yes sir, what do you mean? - No it wouldn't. - It wouldn't, that's the whole point of the story Joey. - There is a chick who was like 10 seconds before backstage, like pissing and crying in her pants, right? And just be like, "I don't know Fabiel before." Meanwhile, the moment she gets on top of the stage, she's just like, "Actually I am fucking Carlos Santana now. I can fucking rip shit on a guitar." Like, no, I'm sorry, I don't believe that.

- I fucking believe that bro. The amount of artists that are probably like shitting themselves before going on stage and then they go on stage and it's just like a fucking demon awakens and they like tear it up. - Demon awakens. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. The demon awakens, they tear it up and then they go back on stage and then they shit themselves again. That is, you know, that is,

- Surely, surely Joey, come on. You've been on stage before, man. - Yes, I have. - You know what it's like. You either, you have two types of people. Either you freeze up in the headlights or you just perform and then you shit yourself off. - Yeah, but I also know how to talk to people.

Well, good thing about being on stage is that you don't have to talk to anyone. It's you just have to perform the skill that you have. Right, right, right. This episode is sponsored by Vessi. As the season brings both warmth and unexpected moments, Vessi equips you to fully embrace the summer, whatever it may offer.

You see, right now I'm traveling basically around the world and I will never, never travel without my Vessies. No matter which climate, which country, what temperature, snow, rain, sleet, sand, anything. Vessies can handle them. I've worn mine into oblivion.

But the point is, if you want the best pair of shoes in your life, you need to get a pair of Vessies right now. Don't let the summer get in your way. Don't let those puddles, don't let those summer showers ruin your day. Get the Stormburst Low Top right now. Integrate the Stormburst into your lifestyle. Stormburst Vessies are your go-to for everything from city streets to outdoors.

adventures, enhancing your style and activity with ease. And the Stormboast are ideal for mountain trails, fall adventures, wet streets, or morning duke walks. Stormboast Vestis deliver unparalleled comfort and protection all in your favorite spots. With the Stormboast Vestis, you can dive into even more outdoor activities, from the beach trips to wet summer sports, knowing your feet will stay dry and cool, opening up

new adventures without fear. Listen, me and the boys, we don't go anywhere without our Vessies and neither should you. So what are you waiting for? Elevate your spontaneous activities with Vessie Stormburst Low Top for versatility. Discover more at Vessie.com slash Trash Taste. So get your pair today to get an automatic 15% off your first purchase at the checkout and be ready to stay cool and dry.

Thank you the best for sponsoring this episode. Back to the episode. - Oh yeah, look, to be fair, all right. - I have a feeling you don't even hate Bocce. You just hate Bocce fans, Joey. - Well, absolutely, literally, yes. No, I not only dislike Bocce fans, but I also dislike Bocce as a character. 'Cause to be fair, Bocce the Rock did have some actual like goaded characters. Like the fucking bassist chick, the drunk one, love her. She's easily the best character in that show. I think everyone can agree. Best character in that show, right? Do I remember her name? No.

I remember that she was a great character and I'm like, oh, finally a good character. But I think just purely on the fact that look, like I watched "Juice of Kaisen" season one, right? I just, I'm not fucking crazy about it as other people are, but there were still a lot of parts that I thought were pretty good about "Juice of Kaisen". So as a whole viewing experience, huh?

- The fucking choreography is fantastic. - Okay. - Yeah, the fight scenes are goaded. - All right. - A lot of the characters are great, right? But the thing is, is that as a viewing experience, I'm not crazy about "Jujutsu Kaisen", but I would much prefer to rewatch "Jujutsu Kaisen" again over "Bocce the Rock". So I'm voting "Jujutsu Kaisen". - If it was just "Jujutsu Kaisen" season one, I think I would pick "Bocce".

- I would actually pick Bochy. I think in- - Ain't no way. Ain't no way you just said that. - Yeah, I- - Say psych right now. - In terms of like pure enjoyment, in terms of like enjoyment, I was like, you know, bypassing season two of "Jesus Christ" in which I think is like,

like a new level of just pure fight choreography and animation and all that kind of jazz. In terms of pure enjoyment, I watched Jujutsu Kaisen season one and I'm like-

- I mean, it's enjoyable, but it's not any different from anything that we haven't seen in Shonen action shows. - Yeah, for sure. - It is definitely got the rule of cool. It's got fucking Gojo. - But they looked at Juzo Kaisen and they went, "We're not gonna try and fix something that's not broken." This formula has worked for decades now in the Shonen world. We're just gonna up the ante a little bit with,

really fucking good animation and choreography, which, you know, to be granted, a lot of Shonen shows in the past have struggled with that. There are a lot of Shonen shows where it's like, the story is great, the characters are great, but sometimes some of the action scenes just don't hit to that level that I think the fight or that particular scene deserves in the context of the story, right? Whereas Jujutsu Kaisen, definitely they were, you know, expecting to be like, all right, there's some fucking ingenuity

intense scenes happening, some great fight scenes with great characters, great power-ups and stuff like that. And we are gonna make sure that that impact is delivered upon through the animation. And that was one part of "Juice of Kaisen" I very highly respected. Again though, in saying that, I'm just not as crazy about it as other people are. Again, I thought it was fine. I don't think it's like the fucking modern masterpiece people are making it out to be though. But again, as a viewing experience, I would much rather go with "Juice of Kaisen."

- Okay. - You've been silent for the past five minutes. - I've been cooking, I've been thinking, I've been thinking. I also was trying to remember that one clip I saw on Twitter where it was like, they were like, "Oh my God, the Bochy the Rock stage actress is just like her." Have you seen that one? - Yes, I have seen that. - And I was like, "Oh, it just looks like a,

I didn't see the full clip, but it looked like it was a person just being polite. - Yeah, yeah. I mean, that's just typical Japanese. - Yeah, I was like, "Oh, you guys have just never seen a-" - "You've never seen a real Japanese woman before." - You've been watching too many clips of people in America interacting, 'cause that shit is intense and wild. It's too much. I think people are just too comfortable a lot of the time.

- I mean, I haven't watched Botchy, so I feel like it's unfair of me to make claims. I just know that I hate everything that Botchy stands for. - I'm more surprised by your answer. - There's nothing I can chime in here that is gonna make,

- I just want this not just to be top-sided by ooh, action, ooh. - It's not, it's not. - No, it's not. - The reason why is 'cause Bochy can't do domain expansion.

and my boys at the Jujutsu Kai. If Bocce would do domain expansion, she'd be like too nervous and we'd find five fucking episodes to figure it out. - Yeah, exactly. - You know what I mean? Like it would be like, oh, I'm gonna piss myself. I have to go on stage. All right, cool. Who is Bocce for? - Huh? - Who is Bocce for? - Who is Bocce for? - What does a Bocce fan look like? - Introverts.

like heavy, heavy introverts. - Mega introverts. - Yeah, I mean, I really, really liked Bocce mostly because, you know, Bocce's character is obviously very exaggerated, you know, in terms of like her social anxiety. But sometimes she would do things

and I'm like, or like react in certain ways. And I'm like, fuck this hits like a little bit too close to home. It's some of like the Gremlin way that like there's this scene.

and it ends on like episode four or something. And then she had, you know, it's an episode where she had finally like made friends for the first time. She's like, yes, I'm making progress. And she's just like staring up in the ceiling. And then she just like has, she just does this like fucking gremlin laugh to herself. And then the episode just cuts off. And I'm like, oh, I get that so bad. I get, I understand.

- I understand that feeling, man. - See, here's the thing, right? Is that I am fully aware of the fact that people like Connor and I are not the audience for Bochy. And I think that's why I didn't enjoy it as much because I looked at that scene and I was like,

- All right, fucking weirdo. - I mean, you guys were born sociable. I had to like go through my university training arc. - I definitely like learned to be more sociable. - No, I learned, yeah. - Yeah, I mean, I didn't come out of my mom being like, I am the most sociable person. - No, no, no. - I was quite antisocial growing up. So I don't really...

- I think it's what I said previously. - That's the thing, it's like, you don't want, it's- - 'Cause it's not for me, it's not for me. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. - It's not, I can't relate to that anymore. I don't enjoy relating. - Yeah, I mean, I don't really relate to it much anymore, but like you see some scenes in it and I, you know, I told Suni kind of like, it was like some of the scenes reminded me, it's gonna sound like this weird tangent or analogy. It kind of reminded me of like watching some episodes of "The Inbetweeners," you know, where-

- Yeah, yeah. You watch some of it and it was just like, I cringed because I'm like, oh, this reminds me of a period of my life that- - You cringe because you relate. - Yeah, I cringe because I relate, but like, it was like, I laughed because like, I can look back on that moment in my life. I'm like, oh my God, oh, it hurts, but it's still like entertaining. And that's what I found entertaining about Verity's character. - Again, I don't.

I've never seen a bloody episodes. I can't hate the fucking thing, but yeah. - The one thing that I probably a lot of people are annoyed with or not really annoyed with but look down on is that some bocce fans, they really like worship bocce

- Yeah, that stuff's a little intense. - It's a bit weird. - You do think like, "God damn, okay, that's a bit much." - Yeah, yeah. It's kind of, well, I would argue it's like similar to what I saw with a lot of like the K-On! fan base as well. But I'm not like Joey, I did not like K-On! at all. - Okay. - I don't know why, okay. If you don't like, here's the biggest thing I don't understand. Why can't, why don't you like Bochy when you do like K-On! - Because K-On! knew exactly what it wanted to do, which was,

- So does Bocce. - No, it was the most, K-On is the most turn your brain off, just enjoy cute girls doing cute things, making music together, happy fun time. - Oh, I'm sorry, Bocce has plot progression and character development. - Plot progression? - Yes, it does, Joey. - Making friends after four episodes is not plot progression. - Yes, it is, Joey. - No, it is not. - Yes, it is. - No, it is not. That is a piss poor excuse for plot.

There was no plot in Bochy. - It's about the character development, man. It's about the development of Bochy getting over a social anxiety. - Yeah, so is K-On. K-On is the development of all the characters coming together after their differences and trying to create a band. It's exactly the same. Except K-On, the characters aren't insufferable like Bochy are. - I don't know about that.

- I don't know about that one, Chief. - I'm sorry. - I don't know about that one, Chief. - I remember one time. - Also the music is a million times better in K on than Bochy. - I'm right. - I'm just gonna say that. - I got some, this one guy tweeted at me and he had a Bochy the Rock profile picture and he tweeted at me some vile stuff. And I clicked on his profile and it was just a bunch of Bochy stuff mixed in between a bunch of like gun,

shooting things. - What? - And I was like, this is such a weird overlap, dude. - I think that's just that dude, to be fair. - You think so? I've seen a lot of weird stuff. - No, no, no, there's a lot of, sometimes the biggest way to make you not take someone seriously is to go in their profile picture and just see

for the longest time it was K on profile pictures and it morphed into like Bocce the Rock. And they were like, there's like one distinctive type of the Moe fans, which is just like, I like cute anime girls. - Yeah, Moe fans scare me. - Yeah, I like cute anime girls. Also you go on a Twitch, I'm like,

"I'm gonna see the most racist shit I've ever seen in my life." - Oh dude. - Fucking 10 years ago when you went onto Twitter and you saw someone with a K on profile picture, you knew. It was like, "I should not interact with this person." - Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then on the other side, it's just like this, the harmless bocce fans, which unfortunately don't get seen as often, which is just like, "Oh, I just..."

I just like cute girls, they're adorable. - It's both sides of the scale. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. - I'm just fans are always the- - All right, well, okay. We'll bring over Jujutsu Kaisen. - I like how this was not so much an indictment of, sorry, this wasn't so much a testament to Jujutsu Kaisen's quality, more so that we didn't want to let Bocce the Rock through.

- Which to be fair, it shouldn't have been on this list. How the fuck did it get on this list? - No, that's what I'm questioning. I'm more upset at that. How the fuck did it make it onto the top 16? What the hell guys? - I'm jealous, man. I wish I could like something that bad. - All right, next one. Clouded After Story and "Hunt Hunter."

- You haven't seen this right Garnt? - I haven't seen After Story. - That's fucked that I've watched this and you haven't. - Yeah, that is weird. - Aren't you the anime man? No, that's you. - No, that was back when I was just plain old. - I thought you did like a video about after story. Why the fuck did I watch it then? I thought I only watched shows you talk about.

- Your videos too long. I watched corpse party. I played that thing. - No, I mean, I could not get through Clannad actually. That was the reason I never got. - Can you believe there was a world where I got through that? - Yeah. How the fuck did that happen? - That is impressive. - I've changed.

- You see, there's this thing that happens when you get to like, I don't know, age 16, where you realize, hold on, I don't have to watch mid. I can like watch good stuff. Did you remember having this? - Yeah. - You just watch everything that was put in front of you or whatever you like saw. - Yeah, why do you think I burned out? - And you would just watch it 'cause you were like, oh, this is what you do. - Yep. - And then for the first time I realized you could just not watch something after starting it. I was like, whoa.

- When anime fans realize the concept of, oh, I can just drop a show. It's become so powerful. You save so much time. Look, I personally have a special thing for "After Story" obviously. - I do like "After Story" a lot. - "After Story" was beautiful. Made me cry like a shitload. Left me with a very like- - But it took 50 episodes to get me there.

- Looking back on it retrospectively, I can understand why people cannot make it through "Clannad" because to be fair, it is a lot, lot slower. - And half the characters are so annoying. - Half the characters are pretty annoying and also- - I couldn't get over the starfish girl. That's when I was- - Oh, Foucault? - Yeah, Foucault. - Dude, I've blanked it from memory. I feel like I'm a sleeper agent to something.

'cause I have blanked the entire- - See, as someone who played the original visual novel, I don't understand why they decided to focus so much on Fuku's story because it is the most mid story out of all the girls. - She just annoyed the fuck out of me and everyone's probably like, "Oh my God, she has such a sad story or something." I couldn't remember her story. - But they all have sad stories. - Yeah, I mean, me saying this feels like I'm bullying a cancer patient or something. I don't know if she has cancer.

- She probably does with how Clannad went. - It's just like, not to be rude or anything, but like, I think that it's just like child writing.

where you make a bunch of these characters that are kind of just insufferable. And then you go, no, no, they're not insufferable. They had a backstory. - Yeah, they're coping. - They're dealing with something. It's like, so the fuck is everyone? I don't wanna fucking hear about you're a dick because something happened to you. You can't just be a dick or be fucking annoying around everyone all the goddamn, even though "Clannad" is not that bad in that sense. But a lot of other shows, I feel like anime does especially with like, no, this character is not a bad guy. He's just misunderstood. You see in this one flashback, he pet a dog.

Also, that means he has a heart. - Not evil. - One thing as well that I think the Clanad story, one aspect that gets overshadowed a lot, I think with Clanad, thinking back to it now is that the comedy bits are like,

some of it is like genuinely funny. Like it's really well animated 'cause Kyoto Animation was at its peak. I thought a lot of this was funny. - I don't remember laughing a single. You know that one video, thumbnail title of like watching this thing until I laugh? - Yeah. - And it's like 24 hours. I think that's me watching "Clannad". - Really? - Not that I didn't like it. - That's me watching most comedy animes to be fair. - That is true, that is true. - I like "After Story". I did not like "Clannad". - Okay, yeah, no, that's good. - I also hate that fucking song. - Which one?

- I think it's cute. - And then it brainwashed me thinking that dango was something that was good. And I tried it and I was like, dango is mid as fuck. - All right, I can't forgive you on that. - Dango is mid. - I can't forgive you on that. - Dango is mid, isn't it? - Yeah, it's pretty mid. - All right, I need both of you to turn in your visas. - Dango is fucking mid.

- All right, but I'm not even gonna entertain that. But okay, look, again for me, after story, very personal show for me, but- - Yeah, me too. I'd say it's the first show that I cried at. - Oh, 100%. But in saying that, "Hunter x Hunter" is just fucking goaded. What more can I say? I haven't even watched the anime and I know it's goaded.

- I want him to write a sex scene so bad. - Togashi? - Yeah, it would be like 15 volumes long. All about the difference in men. - No, it won't even be shown. It'll just be like, he'll just describe it. - Yeah, it would be so much writing, but I know that it would go so hard.

- It'd be like the midway in the scene. - It would go so hard. - It would be like the ejaculation scene, but the ejaculation scene is broken up by like milliseconds. - We would see the tournament arc of the sperm. We would hear in great detail how the sperm was destined to win from the very beginning.

- And then every frame it like zooms in closer and closer until it becomes microscopic. - The sperm had Nen. Started forming Nen from the ball sack. - There'd be like a breakdown on how like- - It would be a 50 year backstory from the guy who started embedding Nen in his ball sack in the hopes that one of his children would become the world's strongest Nen user from being imbued, even though the sperm lifespan is like a trillion seconds.

He'd find a way to be like, and this man figured out a technique to ejaculate a single sperm at a time. But the sperm was imbued with all of the energies of the millions of sperm in one. - It's like, oh!

- It's like all the name just comes out. - He died shortly after. - We just wrote four volumes. It would go so hard.

- The way that he writes just things is just awesome. I don't even know how to describe it. - I mean, I think we can all agree. - Excruciating detail, it goes hard. - Yeah, I can't really comment on "Clan After Story." Everyone tells me it's so much better than "Clan After." - Well, we both watched it and we both said "Hunt Hunter." - We both said "Hunt Hunter." - How the fuck did "After Story" make it up there? What is this list? - Yeah.

- I feel like it looks like there's a, I mean, "Client novel story" is still a very, very old favorite. - Oh yeah. - To a lot of fans in our generation and our age. - It is still one of the most emotional shows I think. - I just don't think the payoff is worth it. - It's just, you have to go through. - This is the hardest one so far. - All right, next one. - Gurren Lagann or Mob Psycho? - Horny peak versus normal peak.

- God damn. - Gurren Lagann isn't even horny peak man. That's kill the kill. That's kill the kill. - Yeah. - This is, Gurren Lagann is like, yeah, for the fucking manliest peak versus- - They both share a lot of similarities in some senses about a character having to kind of mature a bit. - They do, they do. - Which one does it better?

- I mean, I will say from a critical standpoint, this is the difference between my brain and my heart right now. 'Cause from a critical standpoint, both are fantastic, but Mob Psycho does have a cleaner story. The development is a lot cleaner and the characters are so, so well written. But just in terms of like the pure raw,

- Adrenaline, I feel when watching a show, nothing I think has ever topped Gurren Lagann

- I 100% agree with you. You took the words out of my mouth. In my head I was like, which do I go for? 'Cause I've had, I have such, I still remember like vividly watching Gurren Lagann for the first time and just, man, some of those like scenes, like man, the fucking ending. I just remember I was like, the songs and stuff. Like, man, I had the most fun watching Gurren Lagann, but Mob Psycho, man, like,

- Yeah, as again. - I mean Mob Psycho has probably one of the best stories in anime ever. - Yeah, to me, I put Mob Psycho as my anime of the decades of the last 10 years, which I still stand by. I still, I think as an overall package, it is got such,

about seeing a character like Mob, seeing Reagan as well. Reagan's character development was absolutely fucking insane to see his progression from being like Saul from "Better Call Saul" and then actually humanizing him and being a really interesting character. - Reagan made that show for me. Without Reagan, I think, well,

Reagan is how Mob's story moves forward. - Yeah, totally. - So good to see that development. - And seeing Mob, I think Mob just has like such a good message with this character, which is like someone who's like insanely, insanely powerful in the constraints of his own world. No one is like a better psychic than Mob, but just seeing him still, no matter what, try to go on this path of like,

and self-development. You know, joining the gym club or...

What was it called again? Self-improvement club. Self-improvement club. And just trying to be the best person he can be, even though he could easily just destroy the fucking world. I was like, he's a real one. Yeah. This episode is sponsored by Shopify. When we started podcasting, an online store was the last of our concerns. But now that we need to sell a lot of merch, it's so easy thanks to Shopify. Selling a little or a lot.

lot shopify helps you do your thing however you're to change shopify is the global commerce platform that helps you sell at every stage of your business from the launcher online shop stage to the first real life store stage all the way to the did we just hit a million orders stage shopify's there to help you grow whether you're selling scented soaps offering outdoor outfits shopify helps you sell everywhere from their all-in-one e-commerce platform to their in-person pos system wherever and whatever you're selling shopify's got you covered shopify also helps you turn browsers

into buyers because they have the internet's best converting checkout with 36% better on average compared to other leading commerce platforms and sell more with less effort thanks to Spotify magic your AI powered all-star. The only thing that we like about Shopify is no matter what kind of level you're at Shopify gives you the tools to allow you to do what you need to do with ease. Shopify also powers 10% of all e-commerce in the US and Shopify is the global force behind Allbirds, Rothy's, Brooklyn and millions of other entrepreneurs.

Thank you so much to Shopify for sponsoring this episode. Back to the episode.

- But in Gurren Lagann, he did punch someone by grabbing a galaxy. - They were throwing galaxies. - That was pretty fucking high. - I mean, Mob has Regan, Gurren Lagann has fucking Kamina, man. - Kamina the goat! That's why he's the goat! - Mob Psycho teaches you how to be a man. Gurren Lagann, you become a man after watching it, you know? - You start off episode one

no hair on your balls. By the end of the show, your balls are hairy as fuck. You become a man. - Yeah, really refreshing to, and it's kind of a shame that it isn't done more even after Gurren Lagann, that there wasn't more of like a character having to actually mature and go on and actually grow up. - Yeah, I mean, it is- - We rarely get to fucking see. - It has done, Gurren Lagann for me stands out as doing one thing that I can't think of

like many other shows doing, which is you take one of like your goaded characters and then you kill them off. - Yeah. - Like not even like halfway through or like, you know, like,

not even right at the end of the story, it's like bam, right in the middle. - 14, I think it was episode 14. - Yeah, I was thinking 14 too. - I'm not sure if it was 14, I feel like it was earlier. - Google it, what episode does he die? - I feel like it was earlier than that, but I remember it being around the halfway point. - And yeah, he didn't just sit around crying all day. - Yeah, yeah.

- Yeah, he used that to his like, you know, to the best of the situation and grew large in life. - He locked the fuck in. - Yeah, he locked the fuck in. - Which I appreciated. We should all lock the fuck in when shit hits the fan. - Yeah, and the problem with Gurren Lagann is that to me, it just ruined a certain sect of anime because I don't think anything can be as hype as my first time seeing Gurren Lagann. And I don't think anything has- - 18.

- Eight, oh okay. - Oh eight. - It wasn't even halfway through. - It wasn't even halfway through, holy shit. - The fact that he was, it was eight episodes out of like 26. - 26. - So a third of the way through and we're just like, nah, he was definitely 14 episodes in, man. - It felt like that. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. - What made it so impactful is that nowadays I find that a lot of media when we're consuming it, that normally when something like that will happen, we are signaled so early on, like guys, this is,

"It's a happy show." And they'll be like, "There might be something a little bit nefarious, but it's a happy show." Whereas this one actually felt like, all right, it's pretty good vibes. There was no kind of hint that there were stakes like that. - But that's the thing, right? - At least in my memory, it could be like that. - But that's the thing, that's why I think that

was so impactful for me because you're presented with this character with- - Feels invincible. - Yeah, he feels invincible. He's so like cocky and up himself, but like in a lovable way. - But it just feels like your older brother, right? - Yeah, exactly. - Your older brother, I think it happened to him. He's invincible. - Yeah, dude. Like, yeah, you know, just like, you can't look at a character like that and who says shit like, "Who do you think I am?" Like when he says shit like that and you're just like, "Oh yeah, this guy's gonna be the hero that saves everything." And then-

And then he's not. - Just the fact that Guren and Garnt can get away with some of the lines that they character say, and you fully invest yourself in them, and then you actually swear down. If someone said this in real life, people would be like, "Yo, that's cringe as fuck, bro." - If you hear someone say, "My drill will pierce the heavens." - Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. - You're just like, "What the fuck?" But when Kami just said that shit, I was just like, "Let's go!" - You're like, "Just who the hell do you think I am?" I'm just like,

You have to have a certain amount of energy to be able to get away with saying that line. And Gurren Lagann is that to a T. - But when Reagan got like, what was it? Like 1% of mob's powers and popped off, that shit was so fucking hype. - I mean, it was hype, but nothing. - I don't know, it was pretty fucking hype, Garnt. It was pretty fucking hype. - It was hype, but nothing comes close to just,

'cause Gurren Lagann was the first time you're like, how high is this gonna go? And then they go to space and then they go to galaxies and then you go to the last fight. And then it is just Gurren Lagann, the last like,

the last few episodes was just pure aura. - Yeah. - Every scene, like every scene, not just like one character, every single character, every single scene just exuded the fucking aura. - It's like, I don't know how this happened, but I'm here for it. But I'm not even. - I still think of that scene where like everyone's trapped in some alternate dimension or something. And then it's just the scene where fucking it's like,

and like the anti spiral or something like that, then everyone escapes. And then you just see everyone like this. Oh my God. Just, oh, fucking getting goosebumps. Goosebumps just thinking about it, man. Yeah, nothing, Gurren Lagann, nothing has come close in terms of like pure aura and hype for me with Gurren Lagann. And it's kind of bad 'cause I thought that when I watched it and I still haven't seen anything that touches it in terms of just that.

- I feel like I've got to go with my heart. I'm going Gurren Lagann. This is hard. This is so hard. - I'm gonna say Mob Psycho. - This is so hard. - I like Mob Psycho so much. - 'Cause critically speaking, my brain is like Mob is a better show. But my heart goes nothing you have watched since you've first watched Gurren Lagann has,

- It's hard to touch that in terms of- - Listen, it's not a sexy story at all times. Mob has to, you know, self-improvement is not a fun topic. It's not an easy topic to show in a fun way. - Yeah, I agree. - And Mob somehow managed to mix world ending insane fight scenes with the mundane of just being a fucking kid in school who also has to maybe go to the gym.

That's pretty fucking cool. That's so cool that we can have those two worlds coexist. And I almost remember more of the self-improvement stuff than the fights, except for like one or two of the fights that are really like absolutely insane.

- Someone say mob for me. - Giga drill breaker. - Because the real giga- - Giga drill breaker. - I agree Garnt, but the real giga Chad here is being able to look at oneself and improve. - This is like one of my favorite Dragon Ball Z images that gets replied to like every, oh,

Goku would never be able to touch Gojo or whatever. It's just like, yeah, nice fucking stupid hack slash ability or whatever. Now check this shit out. It's just Goku powering up.

And it's just like the ultimate, yeah, whatever mate. That's just Gurren Lagann energy to a T. So I agree with you, but also check this shit out, man. - I agree with both of you, which is why this is so hard, but I'm gonna have to go Gurren Lagann, man. I'm gonna have to go Gurren Lagann. If I'm thinking about it, I'm like 50 years from now, which one am I gonna remember more? It's gonna be Gurren Lagann.

- That was hard. - Yeah, that was so hard though. - That was so hard. - It was like almost 50-50 though. - Yeah. - All right, Mishoku Tensei versus Vinland Saga. How is Mishoku Tensei on here? - A lot of ED views. - Fellow, fellow Isekai fans rise up. - A lot of ED fans. - Yeah, fellow ED fans. - I mean, I feel like I could,

give a good defense of the show Kutenze against most shows if it wasn't fucking Vinland Saga. - You're going up against PK. It's pretty difficult. - Okay, well, I'm sure we'll be talking a lot more about Vinland Saga.

- Yeah. - I'm feeling it might go through here. - I'm gonna go with Vinland Saga. - Okay, well. - I mean, I say this as Mishoka Tensei's biggest defender, I'm going Vinland Saga. - Okay, good. - I like both a lot. And I watched Mishoka Tensei, I haven't watched second season. - Yeah. - Because I heard that it's a bit of a

- I've seen a little bit of season two. - It depends, Mishoku Tensei, Mishoku Tensei season two, I think has some similarities with Villain Saga season two as well, where they just slow things down and just really focus down on the character development. - Is it really just about him dealing with ED? - And I was gonna say, the big difference is that you see Thorfinn realize that violence is bad. - Yep.

- And he appreciates a good day's work. - Yeah, and he just appreciates a good day's work and life is good. And Rudy is like, my dick don't work. What's up with that? What's up with that? - Okay, I mean. - Not gonna lie, that sounds amazing. - To be fair, I thought it was like, I thought, genuinely, I thought it was like a genius move 'cause the ED is kind of like used as a metaphor for the depression he's going through because he,

He hits rock bottom and then he finds out he thought he hits rock bottom and then his dick doesn't work afterwards. I was like, ah, guess rock bottom has a basement as well. You know, I didn't realize it can get worse. - My dick slumps down so does my hand. - I guess my thing with Mishoko Tensei that keeps me struggling is why should I give a fuck about Rudeus?

'Cause I kind of don't. I kind of just don't like him. - I don't really like him either. - It's like, I don't really wanna watch him go through a struggle and have to kind of become a slightly better person hopefully, maybe asterisk. - Yeah, well to me, the reason Michio Kotenze really I think is a fucking,

in some ways even more powerful than Vinland Saga is because you look at someone like Thorfinn, very, very inspiring character, amazing, amazing characters in the story, so well-written and so interesting. But if I have to look at a character like Rudy and a character like Thorfinn, can I say I've met more Rudys in my life

than Thorfinn's in my life. And I would say, I feel like Rudy is more of a reflection of people. You've seen, we're not necessarily friends with them, but you have seen and you've known people like Rudy before, who are just like kind of assholes and a lot of ways selfish and very, very- - I was talking more than, isn't it that he like doesn't go to his mom's funeral and like stays in bed jacking off to lollies?

- Isn't that like the start of the plot? - I'm not sure if it's lollies, but it's definitely hentai. It might've been lollies in the line. I don't fucking know. - I felt when they were writing it, I was like, I think it's bad enough he didn't go to his mom's funeral. Oh, and he's jacking off to, okay. - Yeah, I mean, it's more of just like the thing that I really, really like about "Mishouka Tensei"

is that it is a very, very long journey of like redemption. We are not even close to like the redemption arc happening. It is like one small step at a time, but- - It's gotta get its dick hard fast. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. But without that- - I don't think I want its dick to get hard. - But I think like without that kind of like time investment, you wouldn't really be able to see like a realistic portrayal of someone actually going through

or it's character development. 'Cause it is- - Yeah, it is tough in that sense. I don't know how to deal with that. - Yeah, 'cause it doesn't really, it doesn't take any shortcuts at all in terms of showing what it is like to change yourself. 'Cause to change yourself in reality, it's not like you have one pep talk or one- - It's not a YouTube apology. - Yeah, yeah, it's not a YouTube apology. It's not a Vinland saga where you- - But that's also,

- It is also hard to compare the characters given the setting they're both in. - Yeah, yeah, exactly. - Like, "Rudy" obviously was in like modern day. - Yeah. - Whereas "Thor Finn" is in like 1200. - Like 1200. - Not even like 1200, I think like 10. - Yeah. - You know, year 1000 when war was the only option for certain people, right? - Yeah. - 'Cause you know, on paper,

Thorfinn's just a murderer, but he's also fighting wars in a time when you had to fight wars. You didn't have a choice and that was part of it, right? - I guess if you think about it that way, is it that much of a shock that you know more Rudys? I don't know many 11th century- - Of course I can't relate to a man who's been trained for war to come to terms with the fact that maybe he doesn't like killing.

Like I don't know anyone like that. - It's like my mate Steve just realized that the other day. - But you know, at the end of the day, I feel like Micheaux-Cotenza, even as I say in the fantasy world, some of the character writing is very,

to a point where, you know, obviously there are some things that Rudy does that I will never defend and I always make me uncomfortable. - And whenever he has a good idea in the fucking show, I just think of that one fucking image of that, the worst person you know just made a good take. That's all I can think about that. That entire show is just that. Like he sucks as everything and even in like,

Even though I quite liked the show, there was always that nagging thing in the back of my head that was like, God damn it, he sucks. Especially that first arc where he's literally the most insufferable asshole. And I guess what's kind of disappointing is that they frame it as that. They set the stage of like, he is kind of just the worst. And I kind of, and like you said, he wanted to change. But I feel at the same time while trying to

trying to change this character and show change, it also tries to garner sympathy for like what he's done and what he is, which I don't have. I don't have any sympathy for him as a character. And so I feel that when I heard about what the next one was going through and him dealing with depression, it's like, I have no sympathy for him. I don't really want to give him any sympathy 'cause I just think he's that bad of a person. I kind of don't care if he changes. He can just make his own new friends

go and make an impression on other people that care. I don't care. - Yeah, well, it's interesting, right? Because, you know, it goes back to like the made in the miss argument where, you know, there are some aspects of it that will always make me uncomfortable, but I can very, and I very do much appreciate it for the story that it is and the message that it's trying to say, even though there is some things that I will never sympathize

over Rudy about. But it does go back to that point where, take a character like Rudy, for example, and take a character like Aaron, for example, right? Both have done atrocities.

different ways, different scales, right? - Very different scales. - Very different scales, but in a lot of, from what it seems like in a lot of discussions and how audiences view fiction, it seems like people find it easier to,

sympathize with what Aaron has done in his fictional world than what Rudy has done. And it goes back to my feeling of Mishoka Tensei, a lot of the reason why it makes people uncomfortable is because it's unlike being a fucking war criminal or finding out like you don't like violence and killing people was bad.

Rudy is a much more realistic depiction of the darker sides of things that happen or things that people see in our real world. To me, that makes it a more interesting show, but that I can also understand where you see some of the stuff he does and you're like,

I can, this is like getting a bit too real now. I cannot, I cannot like, I can't remove myself from this fiction anymore. - Sure. - Yeah. It kind of reminds me of like how, you know, in real life, you know, there were people who obsessed with like serial killers and like fell in love with them. - Yeah. - Like Ted Bundy, they had like loads of fans. - Yeah. - Which is like insane.

- Don't exactly get the same level of adorance, even though, you know, they're both pretty fucking awful crimes. But obviously as a society we've deemed generally one to be considered worse. - You don't hear of many Jeffrey Epstein fans out there. - No, no. - It's like fan girls. - And that's why I do think in a weird sense, especially when it comes to like Attack on Titan weirdly, some people are more willing to be like,

to forgive Aaron. - He killed everyone but he's kind of hot. - Yeah, he's kind of like, nah. - That's exactly the same way. - Aaron gets it. - But like, have you seen his abs? - It is just weird, right? It's weird that we make those distinctions when I think both are objectively just fucking awful human beings. But it's weird that for some reason that is the line that just cannot be crossed and no one,

everyone else can somehow be garnered sympathy one way or another. But this one it's like, yeah, no. Not that they should get any, but I'm just saying it's very odd how we've managed to call it like, nope, that's it, that's it. - Yeah, I mean, like it already depends on, you know, to me, I have a very strong line between fiction and reality. And to me, you know, to me, I've, you know, not even like "Made in Abyss" or "Mishoku Tensei's" but like a lot of fiction,

there are some stuff that tackle very, very uncomfortable things, not just- - Yeah, as it has to. That's the whole point. - Yeah, as it has to. - We need to have these stories. - And to me, I always have a very separate view of what an author is trying to say in a fictional world, even if there are some characters or even if there are some scenes that

I definitely make me uncomfortable. Yeah, I guess just like when I'm watching Mushoku Tensei, I guess the thing that I didn't really enjoy is that I felt like...

the author was trying, or at least in some senses, trying to make me feel sympathetic towards Rudeus. Rudeus? Yeah. Rudeus. Rudeus. In a way, I don't know. Like it felt like the author felt that way. And I don't know if I'm looking too much into it, but that's just how it felt reading it. Hmm.

- Yeah, I mean- - I don't know why I felt that way. And I guess that's why I didn't really like that. - Yeah, I mean, if you think of like some of, I mean, obviously Rudy is based on like some, the most extreme end of like hikikomoris and otakus. And would you be able to say that, hey, Rudy is not like the image you have of like the most like degenerate hikikomoris and otakus you can think of? I would say no.

And to me, it's an exploration of those kinds of characters because I think the author asked the message, posed the question of, okay, can,

Did you guys know there are butterflies that drink blood? Or that there's a species of beetle that can shoot boiling liquid out of its butt?

Or that blue whales are so big you can swim through their arteries. But there's a species of bat that's so small that it weighs less than a penny. My name's Maya. And my name's Connor. And we are the co-hosts of World's Wildest Podcast. If you guys love nature and you love learning about how crazy it is, Connor and I have over 30 years of experience in wildlife conservation, and we're here to tell you all about them.

- World's Wildest will take you on a journey to meet Earth's most extreme creatures from the world's strongest to our world's smelliest. - Make sure to subscribe for new episodes every Thursday wherever you get your podcasts. - Well, apparently yes, if you just go to another fucking world. That's the problem. Like why can't he do this in his own world? Why does he have to die and be born with magical powers for this to work? - I mean, it's- - Then it wouldn't be that much- - Yeah, because it's- - Is it impossible to redeem a human being?

- I mean, what you're asking is like a completely different story. 'Cause I think the Isekai was mostly used as a metaphor for like someone actually getting a second chance at life. If you have a second chance at life. Because it's always weird arguing about what's, 'cause what the ethical thing is, because at the end of the day,

People don't get reborn in other worlds. I don't know what the mechanics are of that. - We don't know, don't spoil it. - It's like, ain't no way. - Maybe we do, maybe we do actually. I don't know what happens after death. - But I'd much rather see a Erudius have to deal with the current world. - The current world? Yeah, I think that would be interesting as well. - I'd much rather that. I think that would be interesting as well. - I think that would be so much more compelling

And then we could see him slowly making those changes. 'Cause him just getting reborn already wiped like probably like a half of his problems off the fucking face of the earth. And now he's just got to deal with him trying not to be a dickhead. - Yeah. - Which is the easiest one to fix. Yeah, you know, I would have loved an arc where Rudy used to be like, ah shit, I gotta...

- Gotta start eating healthier in my house. That would have been a compelling arc. Have to come to terms with that. - I have to get a job, pay taxes. - Have to- - Have to become a part of society. - Have to realize that, you know, maybe I should try and reconnect with the family I have rather than get reborn into another fucking one which I don't really care about. And then he fucking 1v1s his dad, I guess, and like-

- In like mental games. - "One V one's his dad." - "One V one me dad, five me." - I just, I don't know. It's one of those things where I watched the show and I liked it a lot, but the more I've kind of let it sit, the more I look back less fondly on it, which is unusual 'cause I think it doesn't normally happen like that.

- Time passes. - So Vinland Saga? - I guess we're going to get Vinland Saga. - Yeah, we're going Vinland Saga. - I just wanted to talk about it because obviously it's on the list. - No, no, of course. I mean, it's not gonna come up again. So might as well talk about it while it's still there. - Yeah, goodbye. - Okay, next up. Oh God. We have the top two of my anime list. Fullmetal Alchemist versus Free Rain. - It's time to settle this once and for all. - Time to settle this. - What deserves to be number one?

- Well, I haven't watched FMA. So you boys are gonna have to convince me that it's not Free Wren. - Are you gonna say Free Wren? - Huh? - You've owned Free Wren? - You guys are gonna have to convince me that it's not Free Wren. 'Cause I haven't seen FMA. - All right, let's talk about Free Wren for a second. - Yeah. - All right. - Let's say what we like and what we don't like. Number one, it's in like arc one of, I don't know how many fucking arcs. - That's true. - We're like saying it's the best thing ever over a fucking prologue.

- It feels like a prologue when I watched it. I don't know if it is. I don't know how many more seasons we can expect or how long the visual novel, the visual novel? - Light novel. - No, no, no, it's a manga. - Sorry, sorry. I was gonna say light novel, but that was wrong too. So it doesn't matter. - See, this is so tough because they're two such different shows and like the things that are good about FMA just don't reflect on what's good about Freerun. So it's like,

- It's fucking apples and oranges. - That's why there's, you know, same with like you're in a gun mob. So just follow your heart, follow your heart. - Follow my heart? - Follow your heart. - I think I've heard that. - The thing is I don't really have heart for either of these. - God fucking damn it, Joey. - God fucking damn it. - I love both these shows a whole lot.

I had a lot of fun with both. - Same, same. - Obviously, "Free Wren" was amazing. Did I think the pacing kind of went a little too slow when they were doing the little battle tournament? Yeah, a little bit. I think it could have been sped up a little bit. We get it, "Free Wren" is powerful. We don't need 15 episodes discussing why she's so powerful. - But that tournament or the tuning exams, that was like- - That maze fight, just one episode too long.

and the king of the tomb relic, Arthur, whatever it was. - Bro, it gave us, it gave the internet like U-Bells armpits though. That was just like on my timeline for like a month after that episode. - Before that, it was Freeran's feet on the bed.

- I know she smells so bad and I know that's why they like her most. I just know she smells bad. - I just remember, 'cause I saw the screenshots before I watched the episode and I was like, "Oh, what the fuck is the context of this scene?" And I'd...

- I don't even know if it was like intentional or not, but I know it was like kind of weird where, you know, it was like obviously that pose and it was just like, they paused on that pose for like a few seconds. So like it was almost like the animation was like, all right, just appreciate this for a second. - The animators were like, we're gonna give people enough time to screenshot this without pausing.

- But I did like how they fleshed out all of those side characters. - Yeah, that's what I liked about it. - Which I'm hoping is their way of

kind of setting up a bunch of these characters that will go off onto the world and we'll bump into them again. Who knows how many years down from now. Which I think is exciting. - The old guy, I possibly like him more than anyone in the main cast actually. - If only he joined that party, shit would be moving so much smoother. We want infinite wealth. The man is loaded.

Two, he would sort this petty bullshit they keep on talking about. - He wouldn't have time for this shit. - He would sort this shit out right away. All right, Freeran, although she is the oldest person by far, she has the brain cells or the ability to handle an argument of a five-year-old. This shit is not cooking. Why did they get rid of the smoking guy?

The moment he left the whole show became too much conflict and whining. Bring him back. - It's because he just solves every conflict. - God damn. - That's why. - And he liked MILFs, which is so frustrating that they gave me representation. They take it away from me.

Instead I'm left with these stupid fucking children who keep bickering. - The Lord giveth the Lord. - Meanwhile this goat of a man, what was his name? Do you remember his name was? I don't remember his name. - I felt bad. - He's old man. - He's old man. - Old man. - You all know who I'm talking about. - Yeah, he's the goated man. - He was the goat. And if he stuck around, the show would be a lot more interesting. We would have been, I don't know, perhaps we would be colonizing.

the demon layer, not just getting rid of it, but making a new land there, maybe a theme park. - With his money and Free Wren's magic abilities, we could do some serious change. - But in saying that though, like FMA, as people say, it's like overhyped, overrated, whatever it is. I mean, at the time it came out, it was such a fucking- - It still holds up. - It's such a fucking solo shonen. It's such a good shonen.

One thing that Free Wren is lacking is a good villain so far. One thing that Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood never had trouble with. And I know that it's because Free Wren's not about having a villain. Yeah, I don't think it is, yeah. But I think that having some kind of antagonist there, and which Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood has many,

- This is Brotherhood, right? Not FMA, number one, right? I'm assuming. - I'm just gonna assume it's Brotherhood. - I mean, I'm gonna assume it's Brotherhood, yeah. - I mean, I- - I mean, if people voted for the original FMA, I'd be questioning things, but. - They, yeah, they had- - You don't think Ora was a good villain? - You don't think- - Who the fuck is Ora? Who the fuck is Ora? Who's Ora?

- I was just talking shit. It's the little fucking- - The lolly with the scales? - Yeah, yeah, yeah. - No, she's not a good girl. No, she's not. - But there's so much fan art of her. - I know. - It's a disturbing amount of fan art. - As cool as that was, I was like, okay, all right. Nobody could have predicted this one. I guess that's how they introduced the hiding the manna. But you know what's even cooler?

- Anime Hitler. The Fuhrer. - The Fuhrer. - Bride. I just wanted the out of context sound bite. - Anime Hitler. - No, okay, how do I- - Is that not Aaron Yeager?

- No, no he's not. They literally have pride. Pride is anime Hitler, I think. I didn't pay that much attention to it. I mean, I enjoy,

that for one second it's not about bickering. It's like peace and fucking quiet when I watch "Full Metal Alchemist." All I gotta deal with is crazy people fusing dogs, which is a nice reprise from bickering number part 50. - I would say the only thing about "Full Metal Alchemist" looking back on it retrospectively is that like, because it is quite an older show now, like when the fuck did it come out? - 2008. - Was it 2008? - Hit it, was I right? - In 2000s, I think it was mid 2000s.

There are just like some scenes, especially when it's like the kind of more quote unquote comedic scenes where it just hasn't aged all that well to be honest with like, I don't remember specific ones, but like just the way that like, you know how like mid 2000s like comedic bits would like

that would like kind of be like, ha ha hee hee back then, which not a lot of shows nowadays do. It's the type of scenes we look at and you're like, this is a very 2000s anime, if that makes sense. - I don't know, I remember really liking everything about it. - Really? - Yeah, the only thing I think,

it didn't do as well as the original as obviously everyone always says that one of the deaths of one of the characters could have been a lot better. But I think it's hard to capture why I like "Film at Lankan's Brotherhood" so much. - It's just a solid show. - Feels like the perfect package. - Yeah. It did everything it set out to do well.

And it gave you- - Some of the coolest villains. - Yeah, it gave you a very simple to understand yet still exciting story. - One of the best anime openings of all time, hands down. - All of the openings of Fullmetal is fucking amazing. - Godlike animation. - Yeah, the animation still holds up. Art style still holds up in a lot of ways. - Two main characters are great. I think it's a fun story, fun to follow them. And then obviously they team up with other characters later on that are also really fun. - Yeah, I just love Edward and Alphonse's dynamic.

as brothers. - Also the ending, the ending was a 10 out of 10 ending. Like it's so rare we get an absolute banger ending and Full Metal Alchemist Brotherhood had such a good ending. - I agree. - And tied up nicely. - I agree. - And we saw some, I know what you're gonna say Garnt and I don't care. You're gonna be like, I agree and I'm still voting free rent. Is what you're gonna say. - I'm going Full Metal.

- Is that what your heart says? - That's what my heart says. - Okay. - I think just because free run is in its infancy, we can revisit this fight 10 years from now. - I feel like the big thing about free run right now is that we just went through, I guess, the big tournament arc, right? Or the big exam arc. And it made me question what is the overall story of free run going to like- - Fucking tournament arc.

- Sorry? - The tournament. - Of course. - There's the overall story. - Yeah, where is the overall story going? Because I think the first half of Free Rent, it hits really, really fucking hard and it has some of the most emotional moments I've experienced in anime in a very, very long time. But I think at about the halfway point, I was like, okay, I'm kind of like getting the message you're trying to portray here. What else you got?

and then they throw in a tournament arc and I'm like, okay, so we're doing something different now. So we're like expanding the story, expanding the cast. Where is the overall story going? Because obviously we're trying, she's trying to, there is an overall goal, which is she's trying to like reunite it with Himmel and things like that. But that is going to be a very, very, I assume long journey. There's only so many times you can, there's only so many times you can have a side story where you go to,

- Yeah, they can't be doing this all the time. - Yeah, Freerun goes to, they go to Costco or something and Freerun's like, "I remember going to Costco with Himmel back in the day "and hot dogs were-" - Hot dogs were still $1. - "Hot dogs were still $1.50." Cut to flashback and Himmel's like, "Freerun, have this Costco hot dog please." - Yeah, 'cause we're not bored of that formula right now. - Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. - So I do worry. And I also worry that, you know, that side mission where they go and get this medal that they had to get, which,

"Okay, sure, they had to get it." Although I don't really, I'm sure Freeran could have done some magical bullshit and been like, "Yeah, nah, I don't need to do that. "I beat the demon lord, let me through." Did they really need to go through all this bureaucracy? Especially when she knew who the exam person was and she knew that she was one of the strongest mages alive, so why is this even a thing? Okay, point being, they wanted to go through it and the whole point was to introduce these characters.

Before we know these characters could never turn up again and it'd be a very unsatisfying waste of time Yeah, there's a lot that is still up in the air about is this payoff gonna be worth it? Which I just don't think it deserves to be Considered as like the best show ever not yet. It has it set up has it has it laid the foundation to get there? Absolutely Yeah, could it easily be one of the best shows if not the best all time absolutely if it continues

if it continues delivering on what it's done, but we're too early in. - The whole charm of "Free Rent" is that it is a show about side quests. But after a certain point- - You have to start fucking moving the story. - Yeah, after a certain point, that is going to get boring. - Remember, that is the story. No, it's not. - Oh yeah, I agree. That is the story. And I believe right now, I've seen the whole season of "Free Rent" and I'm like, that is a great concept.

how long can you live on that concept alone without going to a main quest storyline? - I think that's why I really, really hope, 'cause they'll probably have to have some kind of conclusion, some big conclusion. How do you conclude it in a way that's satisfying? It's some kind of big payoff, right? Do you throw in a villain that is, 'cause I don't think the demon king is- - It doesn't have to be like- - It kind of sucks. - It doesn't have to be like, I already know what the,

I already know what the payoff is going to be. - Yeah, me too. - Like all the, like I can imagine this in my head, Free Wren gets to the point, she- - But like you can't just be like side quest, side quest, side quest, fuck Himmel's ghost, that's it, right? You know what I mean? Like there needs to be-

there has to be some big thing to earn seeing the ghost or maybe not having the- - Or at least like tying all the loose ends of all the side quests together into something that makes coherent sense. - You can't just end it on a mid side quest and then be like, "And then we found him all." - Yeah. - Well, it's, you know, what I mean. - Sorry it took this long. - What you're talking about is your, there is no big,

- Which they eventually have to set up. - Yes. - All she needs to do is, you know, find Himmel's ghost or whatever, have an emotional reunion with all of the life lessons that she has now learned. - No, she's never gonna meet Himmel.

- Even if she doesn't, even if it's like a one piece where it's like, ooh, is the one piece real? - Is the one piece real? - Himmel is real. - You can clip this and in 15 years when the story's done, it'll be Himmel won't be there. It'll be like, oh, she had to learn to appreciate the people she was with the entire time. You can't bring back. So that's why these side quests are really worth it because you can spend the time with people you love in the moment. That is literally the entire story. - That's all it needs to do. - Because if they meet Himmel, then it's like,

it kind of is like, oh, I guess it didn't really matter that you made all these friends along the way. 'Cause you can just hang out with them when they're fucking dead. - Yeah, and now it's just like cut to 80 years later. It's like Fern as like a fucking old grandma, now not a fucking child anymore, hopefully. And Freeran comes to meet her and I'm like, I'm gonna be bawling my fucking eyes out. I'm already picturing the scene. - Oh yeah, I will bawl my eyes out. - Yeah, yeah. And I'm just like seeing that, I'm like, that is the emotional payoff.

All I need, it's what happens in between that is really going to be the big determinant. - I don't think I'll bowl as much as though when,

- Edward proposed. I bought quite a lot during that. That was a very sweet proposal. - Oh yeah, that was a scene, wasn't it? - Very sweet proposal. And tied off that bone nicely. That's why I'm voting for Full Metal Angus Brotherhood. Sorry for your run, Al Bozo. - All right, FMA takes it. - FMA. - Sorry for your run. - Hopefully. - Maybe in five years, free run. - It might change, you never know. - It might change. - Steins Gate versus Attack on Titan. - Mid versus mid, I'm joking. No, I'm kidding.

- He said that normally. - Joey the anime man too. - When we spoke about Steins;Gate last time in detail, I think a lot of the people who watched the show went to go and watch it. It was interesting seeing newer fans get into it. Some of them were like, "It wasn't slow at all." And I was like, "Come on now."

- Come on, come on. - Come on now. - Come on, come on. - Come on, come on. - Boy, I know you're lying to me. I know that ain't the case. - I know you might've lost track of time, but it's a long time you just sunk in. - A show can still be a slow pace and be objectively good. It doesn't make you, I hate this thing when people equate slow burns with like, yes, I'm intelligent. I didn't feel like it was slow at all. In fact, for my mental faculties, it really felt on par.

- I'm just like, yes. - No, I think this is tough. - This is tough. - This is two very different shows. - Is this tough for you guys? It's not tough for me. - I know what you're gonna say. - Attack on Titan. - I know, it's easily Attack on Titan for me. - See, my heart's saying Steins;Gate. - It's tough 'cause it's like arguing

Apple versus go-kart. Like who did it better? Being the thing that they are, you're like, okay, I guess the orange is more orange than the go-kart. I think that it's such a tough comparison, although they are two animators, they both don't even remotely try to deal with the same thing. - Yeah, yeah, no, it's not, but it's you follow your heart and you follow, to me, I just follow. To me, I watch entertainment for emotions and...

You know, that to me is emotions. Sorry, that to me is entertainment. What kind of emotions did I feel watching your show? And I would say that just Attack on Titan, the rollercoaster, the apps, because to me, both of these are rollercoasters with a lot of twists and turns, a lot of...

a lot of different aspects to their story. And by the end of them, you feel like you are out of breath because of just the fucking journey you went on. But to me, Attack on Titan was the more exhilarating ride. - Yeah, I agree. It's kind of hard to argue that Steins;Gate wins this one.

- My heart is saying Steins;Gate, but at the same time, like it is true. I think Attack on Titan just had the more potent watching experience. - Yeah. - When you look at it from the long run. I mean, Steins;Gate, you know, at the time I watched it, definitely I fucking blew my mind out the water, but.

- Just, yeah, when you think back on the sheer journey of "Attack on Titan," it's definitely more profound, I think, than "Steins Gate." - Yeah, and "Steins Gate" had a great season one. No one even remembers that it has more seasons. - What? - Well, yeah, no one watched "Steins Gate Zero." - I watched the movie. - I watched the movie. I watched "Steins Gate Zero." - I did not. - See? I watched the movie. I didn't watch "Steins Gate Zero." - Did you like the movie?

- I don't remember anything from the movie. I cannot recall a single detail of the movie. - Did they go to America? - Yes, they went to a diner. I remember that he was driving a red Cadillac. - Yeah. - Oh yeah. - I don't recall anything. - No, me neither. - Anything.

- I don't either. - I think ultimately it's one of those safe, I like anime, it's in my top 10, this is like generic list you'd see online. It's like a skill check to be like, oh, you've watched stuff that isn't shown. - Whereas "Attack on Titan" is a rare occurrence where I think an anime or manga that is

or did fantastic things, got the hype that it deserved. And I think if it wasn't as popular as it is now, people would still be calling it a fucking masterpiece. - No, 100%. - Even if it was an underground show. - Well, rip Steins;Gate. - All right, rip Steins;Gate. Attack on Titan goes through. - Back to pay respects. - Yeah. Still a great show though, Steins;Gate. - All of these shows are great except for Bochy. - Yeah. - 'Cause I haven't watched it. Not 'cause I think it's a bad show. - No, I agree. - Okay. Oh, Jesus Christ. One Piece versus JoJo's Bizarre Adventure.

- It took us an hour and a fucking half to get here. This is hard, man. - Oh, it's so hard.

- Oh shit. Because look like- - Okay Garnt, you're saying One Piece, right? - Yeah. - Okay, I'm saying JoJo. So Jo- - Oh fuck. - While we discuss, can you like- - Like yeah, like I said, I'm following my heart. - See this is tough for me, right? Because obviously I love both. - I love both as well. - I think length equals better and there is more JoJo than One Piece. So by that logic, JoJo is better.

- See, because JoJo and One Piece for me, right? JoJo and One Piece for me is it's not a perfect ride all the way through. Obviously there are peaks in certain arcs as well as, you know, with JoJo with its parts. Some parts not as good, same with One Piece. Some arcs not as good, but-

- See, this is tough because One Piece is just that one continuous journey. - This is like the heavyweights going up against each other. - Well, it's the heavyweights, but I think both shows have very glaring flaws. - No, 100%. - They do. - I think that both the starts of both of these shows are pretty weak compared to some of the other ones on this list, right? I think that-

obviously Phantom Blood gets a lot of smack for being a really bad part and you should skip it. But I mean, it's really not, it's eight episodes, it's over pretty quickly and it's pretty concise. - It's not that it's bad. - Star Wars Crusaders is fucking long. - Yeah, I think that's the thing is like JoJo part one is not necessarily bad. It's just when comparing it to the later parts, it's just kind of underwhelming. - Yeah, obviously you can't have like fucking

D-Dead's done cheap where he can spend space. 'Cause it's literally just the one guy who plays rugby and is strong and breathes good. - That's the thing, Araki didn't know what the fuck he was doing in part, right? And it shows. - But it's still good. - It's still good. - It's still a fun part. I hate when people say skip it. Do not fucking skip JoJo. - Well, these are both shows that require a lot of investments to get into the series and have some of the two- - I'd do one more than the other.

- Which one? One Piece more? - One Piece requires more investment. I'm sorry, but the- - I think One Piece requires more investment because it is one continuous story with a cast you follow the entire time. - Yeah. - Whereas JoJo gives you kind of like small little breaks, right? - Yeah. - As it goes from one part to the next. Even though intrinsically, when you look at it from the bigger picture, yes, it is all one giant story in a sense, but you're constantly shifting your attention with the JoJo parts. Whereas with One Piece,

you have to stay focused on this one group of characters. And if you lose that focus, then you're just like, you're lost. - Yeah, I do enjoy the fact that JoJo's, it's almost an exciting thing getting to see the end of a journey and being like, I wonder what the next crew is gonna be like. But the fact that one piece takes like 200 chapters before anything,

- See for me, like I've, so obviously I'm not caught up to the one piece yet. JoJo's broke. - I'm not caught up in JoJo's. - I am not caught up in JoJo's. - I am caught up on JoJo's. - Even the JoJo lines? - Yeah, I have volume one of part nine.

It's been okay so far. It's warming up still. - JoJo's always has that though. - See, here's the thing. My viewing and reading experience of JoJo and One Piece are so different. Like for me, definitely the more epic moments, I've had more with JoJo, but I've also cried more watching One Piece. So it's like, which do I,

- Yeah, I mean, obviously I've read all of "Water 7" and all of that arc, which is great. - So good. And you're getting through the white beard war arc as well. - Yeah, the great war, whatever else. And that's also awesome, but I think it's also a good thing that you're getting through the white beard arc. - Yeah, I think it's a good thing. - Yeah, I think it's a good thing. - Yeah, I think it's a good thing.

I don't know, man. Just something about seeing them on the horse shouting, "Use the rotation, Johnny." It's just so kind of fucking hype to the core. Just part seven is such a goaded piece of media. He really just like, it felt like his powering up arc for that one fucking arc of media where he decided he was just gonna destroy it. Absolutely decimate. - And just the random glow up of Valentine.

- It's just like, it made no sense. I'm just like, I'm here for it. - So much of it didn't make sense, but that's what makes it so fucking good. - Yeah. - I mean, I fucking love both and it's really hard to choose because what they do well is completely, completely different. And I don't, I think it's,

- You should argue One Piece. - But I will argue One Piece because this is not even me critically speaking anymore. This is just me as just a fan of like storytelling. One Piece makes me a fan of storytelling 'cause what Oda does with One Piece

He just has such, like I said, such a passion for just, it's just the most simplest storytelling that you can think of where it makes you feel like a fucking kid again, hearing like a fairy tale with some of the ideas that he like comes up with, right? Because some of the ideas he comes up with and some of the characters are fucking ridiculous. But he has the imagination power

He has the imagination of like a two-year-old with where anything is possible, anything could work. But then he like brings it all together somehow and makes this coherent world with these lovable characters that has just such a depth to the world building. I think it has some of the best world building I've seen in fiction, not just in anime, not just in manga. I think the world that he's crafted with

with everything is something it's like, it's up there. It's like one of the best worlds. - Yeah, also with one piece I think as well, one strong thing that Oda has over a lot of other Shonen characters is that he knows how to do a flashback.

- Yeah. - Like he is one of the few major Shonen artists who, if we're in a particular arc and we're focusing on a particular character's backstory, he knows not only exactly the perfect place to put a flashback, but also unlike say someone like Kishimoto, doesn't drag that shit out to infinity. - Bro. - To the point where it's like, oh. - Bro, Kishimoto's, why is he catching strays, Joey? - I'll take any excuse.

- I should remind us as well, I can't really talk about part seven. I forgot for a second now, we're talking about anime. - Yeah, we are talking about anime. - Which is bad for both of these shows. 'Cause I think their anime counterpart is generally considered to be

- Oh yeah, no, I would rather read these than watch them. - Yeah, yeah, most definitely. - It's unfortunate that, I don't know, part six was really good, but at the same time it felt so much better to read than to watch. - Oh yeah, definitely. - I don't know why. - Part six is my favorite part and I thought the anime was just kind of not- - I don't know why, why is that? 'Cause I felt like part five was so much better in anime. - Yeah. - Part five really nailed it. - Maybe it was the Netflix jail, I don't know. - No, I don't know.

Something about it fell off, definitely. - It just didn't feel as compelling as part five for sure. Part five was really fun. I really liked. - I'm an anime watcher and part five was my favorite part. - Yeah. - Yeah, which is insane 'cause I think normally manga readers, normally part five was not really considered one of the better parts. - Yeah. - It was normally. - Okay, I've made my decision. I am going for...

- One piece. - It's so tough. - I tried to, I tried to, Russ. - But yeah. - One of them will get you laid. Maybe not with the sex you intended, but you will get laid.

- You will not. - Yeah. - Is that true? I don't know if anyone's getting laid watching either of these ones. - I don't think so. - Judges, judges. - I don't think anyone's getting laid watching anything on this list. - What are you all about? Me and the other "Attack on Titan" fans who love genocide will be getting plenty. - All right, let's go round two now. We're in the top eight. - Jesus, how long have you been recording for? - 134.

- Well, I think it'll be a lot easier to go. - It'll be a lot easier. - 'Cause we won't have to- - By the way, we plan to do multiple anime brackets. Looks like we're gonna have time to only do one. Thanks to our- - We got way too heated. - Thanks to our fucking Japanese. Okay. - Where should we start? At the bottom again? - Let's go to the bottom again. - All right, Jujutsu Kaisen versus Made in Abyss. It's Made in Abyss. - What?

- What? - It's made in the abyss. - It's made in the abyss. - No! - It's made in the abyss. - It's made in the abyss, come on man. You are getting blinded by the goaded animation. It's made in abyss.

- You've got the brain rot. - You've got the brain rot. - Yeah, it's what the MAPPA employees would have wanted. Come on. - All right, let me ask you, how highly do you actually rate "Jujutsu Kaisen" compared to like the other Shonens that you've seen out there?

And take away the whole thing of like, oh, I, you know, it's because the community is go to all the memes ago to take all of that away. Just purely focus on the show. - You know this every time we've been bringing up this one such as it's case. And I just keep thinking of that fucking image of Peter Griffin drawn as gojo saying, no, I'd wait. I don't know. My brain is actually irreparably damaged. - You've got the brain rot.

I'm irreparably, I can't even English. - Irreparably? - I'm irreparably damaged. Yeah, I can't think. Listen, no, I know, I know that you guys think my judgment is being clouded by the amazing animation and it is.

But I would like to remind you that it is that goated and that fun to watch. We have never had such visual cocaine stimulation in human history. - Demon Slayer. - No, not even. I actually watching the two, nah. I don't think Demon Slayer is nearly as good. - I think Jujutsu Kaisen- - I think they're on par to be honest. - I think in terms of like- - When he started kicking those bunnies,

- That was it for me. I was like, this is a life changing experience. - I have not. I have not. - I couldn't believe that. I was like, they did not need to go there. - I'm gooning while listening to this free chat soundtrack. - What I say is in terms of like a visual spectacle, I think that's...

Both in my humble opinion, both Demon Slayer and Jujutsu Kaisen are about the same level. - No. - Season two of Jujutsu Kaisen may have had more episodes in a row. I will like concede to that. But the big difference is that

Demon Slayer has like one style, one kind of like visual style and it is very aesthetic. It's like a cool painting style. Jesus Christ is just cool. It's just way cooler. It's like Daniel and the cooler Daniel. Jesus Christ has the fucking energy, has the swag as you call it. And some of the fights have so much variety in them and different styles.

- "Juice of Kaisen" definitely has the swag, don't get me wrong. But the "Made in Abyss" just is an experience that is unlike many other, if not any other anime that I have seen. Like it is so incredibly dark and so potent when it comes to that kind of,

like that feeling of like hopelessness that you can feel through the characters. And it just gave me more of an emotional impact. - Yeah. - In terms of just pure story. Like the movie is fucking incredible for "Made in Abyss." - Yeah, in terms of visual spectacle, Judas Gleison's solos,

- Most of these. - Pretty much everything on the list. In terms of like visual spectacle. - Yeah. - In terms of anything else, that's about it. - Oh, I don't know. I don't know. - Why does, okay. I think this is an unfortunate problem where Jujutsu Kaisen has such good, stronger visuals that everyone just thinks that there is just absolutely nothing else about the show that's good. And I think that's not fair. Like I think the show is actually like decent.

- No, no, it's not, no. - But everyone acts like it's like, the story is much better than "Demon Slayer" and "Demon Slayer" is so fucking boring. - Tell me how. - How? I'm not fucking falling asleep every goddamn episode. - Because they're fighting every episode. - Thank God for that. - I'm asking from a story perspective, what do you think makes it better than...

- Well, I don't, okay, listen, I'm- - Fisco boom. - I'm not good at this whole talking thing. No, when there's downtime in "Judges of Carson," which in the second season was rare. - There was no downtime. There was never any downtime. - Yeah, the only downtime we had is when that girl was sleeping with her little brother, which was kind of weird to include that. I felt like that was not necessary. Did feel like that was a little strange. That was some kind of domain expansion I didn't anticipate.

- They're expanding something else. - Yeah, something got a domain expanded. But I generally didn't mind when the characters were just hanging out and doing their own thing 'cause the characters felt strong enough to be able to carry themselves and be interesting outside of the fighting. I think it's almost, I genuinely like all the characters in "Jujutsu Kaisen." - Really? - Yeah, I didn't mind when they were hanging out in school and talking and bantering, especially, you know,

And the first season I felt like it was, I genuinely liked the banter. It felt a bit like, I don't know, it felt way more realistic than I guess Demon Slayer to some extent. - Yeah, I mean, Demon Slayer, the big problem with Demon Slayer is that I generally- - They have a fucking day trip to Harajuku. - Like I generally don't really like the core cast of Demon Slayer as much as I do Jujutsu Kaisen, but that's not so much of just like the character development that they've gotten. It's more of just like,

I just think Tundra is way too much of a goody two-shoe good boy. Yeah. I don't mind Tundra. It's just how the pole man is stuck in the most boring story of all time.

- It's just like the Sonic of that universe. It's just like, yeah, gotta go, well, Sonic has more personality. - And like to me, Jujutsu Kaisen has always just been like a little bit edgier, you know? It's like when you- - It always had a little bit of edge, but it kind of like dialed it up a lot this season. - Oh, it definitely did. - That's why I made it so good, 'cause it had this kind of like happy-go-lucky vibe in the first season where like, oh, all the problems will always get fixed at the end of the day. We got Gojo Sensei who fixes everything, and if he doesn't,

- We'll try our best. - Yeah, but that's the basic Shonen formula. - Yeah, but that's why I liked that they were willing to like throw that all out. And even though they told you from the start, right? They were like, look, this guy's fucking dangerous. We probably shouldn't keep this guy around. - Yeah, but like- - We'll keep him around. - In the same way, like for example, I don't really know what makes Yuji tick. - Yuji? - Yeah.

I mean, he seems like a cool guy, but- - He's just on that grind. - Like when there was a moment in season two of "Jesus Christ" and when he went through this big, like he went through this big moment of just like, he is just suffering. He's just having a bad day. I can really get emotionally invested in it because I can obviously see, oh, there are bad things that are happening to him. He is suffering, but it was like, well,

I don't really know what kind of guy this person is to begin with. All I know is cool kid. - But I liked how we could see him changing through the fights. Like he was getting visibly more jagged and kind of.

a little more those edges are being added to the smooth ball that was once there. I really liked that aspect of his character. You don't need that to be conveyed through 15 fucking flashbacks, which I'm tired of. - No, you don't need it to be conveyed through 15 fucking flashbacks. - Thank you for quoting. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. I feel like I barely really knew the character or like any of the characters. In fact, my favorite arc

in "Jujutsu Kaisen" from a storytelling perspective was the Gojo flashback arc. The actual flashback. - It was so fucking good. - Yeah, that was the only time that- - That's not more like a prologue than a flashback. - Yeah, but that was the only time I've really felt like, oh, okay, these are interesting characters with interesting motivations that changed during the course of that arc. And that was like,

one of the shortest arcs in "Jujutsu Kaisen." And yet I went out of that arc feeling like I understood

I understood those characters more than like the entirety of season one and like post the Shibby arc in season two. You know what I mean? - Yeah, it reminded me that I saw this image on Twitter that was like a guy falling asleep on like some kind of like telephone box and he was like, "Gojo in the sky." And then they hit some meme, it made me laugh so fucking much. God, that arc was so fucking good. - Yeah, like to me, the problem with Jujutsu Kaisen

is that a lot of like more interesting characters to me at least are not the main cast members. Like you have like obviously Gojo, which, you know, even before he had the fan base, like to me, he was like after his flashback arc to me, he did become one of the most interesting characters. Same with the villains as well. Obviously Toto as well. And it was just like, you know, it's just unfortunate that

- A lot of the criticisms is that Judas Gison is a lot of style over substance. And not enough has been presented to me within the anime for me to go against the argument. It is very stylistic. It is so stylistic. But I can't really, I can't- - I tried my best. I tried my best. - All right, "Made in Abyss" goes through.

- All right. - Our audience is gonna be fucking losing their minds. - I just wanna underline, I'm not voting for "Made in Abyss" anytime. - I'm voting for "Made in Abyss." - I am. - Fuck's sake. - All right, Gurren Lagann or "Hunter x Hunter"? - Fuck. - This is easy for me. - Yeah, I know for you it's "Hunter x Hunter". - Yeah, it's "Hunter x Hunter" all the way. "Hunter x Hunter" is just such a- - Oh, they're both so good though. - Goatish piece of media. - To me it's easy, Gurren Lagann. - Why are you doing this to me, guys? - Why?

- Why is a Gurren Lagann of a "Hunter x Hunter" explain yourself. - Because I think "Mob Psycho" is a better show than "Hunter x Hunter." - God. - And a Gurren Lagann. - What? - Yes, yes. - Wait, what? Wait, what? - No, I like "Hunter x Hunter." - I don't know if I agree with you on that. - I think "Hunter x Hunter" is probably my favorite anime of all time. It's absolutely good. From start to the best show and then flat out. - How do you know it hasn't finished?

- This is like free, we're only at the portal. They only just got to the main continent. - Anyone who thinks "Hunter Hunter" is finishing is an absolute fool. It's not finishing, all right? You should lock in and understand that. So now that we can look at it objectively that "Hunter Hunter" is over.

All right. Which it is. Yeah. Which it is. It's not ending. And even if, okay, let's say he comes back. Yeah. There's no possible way you can wrap this up in the amount of time that this human has. Yeah. So.

Looking at it like even then without a goaded ending, which I've used to argue other shows here. It's like a detriment. "Hunter Hunter" is such a strong package that it doesn't even need an ending to be one of the best things of all time. - Right. - Full stop. - Like "Berserk." - It's just that good. Yeah, like "Berserk." Like I don't think "Berserk," people would argue that "Berserk" is less because it doesn't have an ending. I think a lot of people have come to terms with why it doesn't have an ending. I think people appreciate the fact that

sometimes shows don't have endings rather than half baked shitty ones. I think that-

it is almost helpful because then you can wonder, you can be like, where would it go? - Well, I think the difference between "Hunter x Hunter" and "Free Run" is that there does, there feels like there's a natural ending that you would be like emotionally satisfied with, which is before the Dark Continent arc. - Yeah, yeah. - That feels like- - And also the different lengths of time. Like the "Hunter x Hunter" at that point has gone on for a lot longer story-wise than "Free Run" has. - Yeah.

- To me, this is like Oonga Boonga monkey brain talking now, which is like Gurren Lagann, like I said. - Fucking hell, why don't we just put Akamega Kill on here then while we're at it? Just fucking put that up here. - You did not just say that. - We would drop that immediately. Did you just compare Akamega Kill to Gurren Lagann?

- How dare you? - I just can't believe that you are, you think it's shut, you cut and dry that Hunter x Hunter beats Gurren Lagann here. - Like to me, Gurren Lagann and Mob Psycho was a harder choice. Obviously I fucking love Hunter x Hunter. It is fucking,

- It's a hard choice, so tough. I made it in 0.1 seconds. - I made it in 0.1 seconds 'cause to me, I do hold Mob Psycho in personally a higher regard than Hunter x Hunter. So the hard choice was made on the previous choice for me. - I just think there is so many more highs in Hunter x Hunter. - 'Cause it's longer. - 'Cause it's longer. - 'Cause it's longer. - But I think even- - But the highs that Gurren Lagann reaches to me are...

- Untouched. - Yeah, he makes a point. - Untouched. - I disagree. Dis-a-fucking-greed. I'm sorry. Are you gonna pretend you disrespect Metro like that? - Yes, yes. - Are you disrespecting Metro? - Yes, I do. I'm sorry. - The entire arc of the Phantom Troop, which was goated. - It was goated. - Even the Hunter exam, even though it's considered one of the weaker arcs, it's so fucking good. So good.

What a great way of setting up a ton of characters at once. I would dare say one of the greatest animators of all time, Freemant, copied the Hunter exam, but worse.

- All right, listen. - Yeah, to quote Goku, "Yeah, nice hacks, Nen ability and great written characters. Now check this shit out." - Are we forgetting that, like you said, Nen is, we've all agreed, is the best power system in any anime. - I totally agree with you. - I agree. - Are we forgetting?

- You are. - Are we forgetting Gon's arc? I would argue better. - You are. - Better than that little piece of shit in Gurren Lagann who I don't even know his name. I forgot his arc. - Simon. - Simon, what are you? Lion King? Get over yourself, buddy. - No. - All right, listen. - Let's be honest here. - All right, Joey. - All right, listen. - Gon with long hair, remember. - I am and have always been a quality over quantity man.

- So I'm gonna have to go Gurren Lagann. - Oh my God. - You are doing this to spite me. You are a moron, sir. - Because there are, yes, there are just as many highs, if not more highs in Hunter x Hunter than Gurren Lagann. - Better quality. - But there are more lows in Hunter x Hunter than Gurren Lagann. - No, that is not true at all. - The entire like fucking auction house arc was boring as shit.

- What the fuck? - Is this how I win with a take that I just outrageously disagree with? - I thought, I don't understand why people like that arc. I thought it was so good. - What? That was like one of the- - There's not a single fucking arc I dislike. Also does Gurren Lagann have a character that uses the bong? I thought you would vote for the show with the bong.

- What the fuck Joey? His net ability is that he fucking rips bombs. - Yeah, that's sick as fuck. - What the fuck? - I love it. - There's a fucking octopus that is like a sniper dude who's like, "Yeah, I've seen some shit." That is fucking objectively way better than Simone being like, "Oh man, my friend died." So what? Gon fucking sacrificed everything for his friend.

- Yeah, so does Simo. - Yeah, he didn't have to sacrifice shit. He got a mech made for him on other people's hard labor and then went to space and threw it all away. - To be fair, for me, this lineup, it was just as hard as one piece in JoJo. So it was one or the other, but I just had more fun watching "Garimba Gan", man. - Yeah, you gotta go with your heart, man. - I'm going with my heart. Again, the mind says my hunter, hunter. The heart says "Garimba Gan". - All right, FMA and Vinland Saga.

- It's not gonna get easier, is it? Well, no, that's why it's a tournament arc, Joey. - It's easy for fucking him whenever FMA appears. - Yeah. - Just ignore it. - Yeah. - He'll just be like, "I see nothing." - Yeah, it'll get hard for me when we reach the next one. - All right, I'm gonna be first to make a decision this time. I'm saying Vinland Sire. - I was gonna say Vinland Sire. - Okay. - Only 'cause I'm biased of Askeladd.

- Yeah. - Yeah, I had a better experience. - Well, let me ask you guys, does FMA do anything better than "Villain Saga"? - Doesn't do Welsh people better.

- 'Cause I'd argue not a lot. - Yeah. 'Cause we're putting them head to head. Does FMA, obviously one of the most critically acclaimed anime of, this is the strongest anime of history versus the strongest anime of today. - Yeah. - That is a great question. Does it do anything better? - Yeah. 'Cause to me, "Villain Saga," especially season two is a modern classic.

So having not seen FMA, I would pose you guys the question, does FMA do anything better than Vinland Saga? Aside from of course, power systems and fantasy. - Hmm.

But I actually really liked fights in Vinland Saga a lot. - I like fights in Vinland Saga a lot as well. - Few and far between. I really like how they're done when they're done. - I also think character development was just done better in Vinland Saga than Fullmetal. Even though the Fullmetal character developments for like both enemies, like villains and like the main cost were good. Absolutely, it was great. But Vinland Saga, man, some of the fucking character development scenes are just like,

- Oh my God. - Like finally. - Yeah, season two of Vinland Saga doesn't even feel like anime. - Yeah. - Like I think that, I was trying to think about the difference here and I kind of almost see them as two different genres. - Yeah. - FMA is,

an anime is about and is the best at it. Whereas Vinland Saga, especially season two, is more of a newer direction that I think that a lot of mangas are going in where they're trying to tell a little more grounded stories, a little more real, trying to touch more into the human aspect of stories as opposed to just

power system villains that moves the plot forward. - Well, I feel like season two, that's something that just transcends anime. - Right, absolutely. - Like a lot of anime. - But I feel like that's coming a bit more commonplace in manga a little bit. - Well, there is few stories that hit as hard as "Villain Saga 2" does in terms of like, it might sound like cliche, but there are some stories that people quote as life-changing. And a lot of people have told me, you come out of "Villain Saga"

with a new mentality, with like a new way to look at life. And that's just the pure power of that story. So it's gonna take a lot to beat Vinland Saga. - All right, Vinland Saga. - I can't name one thing that I like more. - Yeah? - Yeah. I like Vinland Saga in pretty much every way. - All right, One Piece and Attack on Titan. - I'll let you boys handle this one. I don't feel too strong. - I'm going with One Piece. I've just had a better viewing experience with One Piece. - What are you going for Connor?

- I don't know. This is so tough for me 'cause I've only read half of one and I watched Attack on Titan and I like Attack on Titan a lot. - I like Attack on Titan too. - I will say from where you are now, you have experienced pretty much

- I'll choose attack on Titan then. - Okay. - Okay. - I knew it was gonna come down to that. - This is,

- Shit, my heart's in both of them. So this is gonna be- - Walk us through your thought process here. - One Piece represents everything that I love about anime and I love about storytelling as a teenager, as a pure kid. Attack on Titan represents everything I love about anime and storytelling as an adult.

- Inside of me there are two guards. - Inside of me there are two guards. I am a One Piece son and an Attack on Titan son. Which do I choose? - I am a One Piece child and an Attack on Titan adult. - Obviously something that Attack on Titan has over One Piece is an ending. - Well, yes. - I mean, I would argue, I don't even care if One Piece never ends. You know, One Piece is a story

- It's about the journey. - Like "Free Rent" it's about the journey and the journey has already done enough for me like "Berserk" has where- - Do you think it's possible for "One Piece" to have a satisfying ending or would you kind of rather it just kind of like slowly just stop?

- I don't ever think it will have as satisfying as- - I don't think it can. - Yeah, yeah. - Because it's built itself up to be so grandiose that now the expectations for it to have like the most like all encompassing ending is just gonna be so difficult for anyone to achieve. - You can't, you can't. - It'll be close, near impossible to have an ending that everyone will be satisfied with. - It was all a dream.

- And then Luffy woke up. - I think there's a difference between a satisfying ending versus like one that just completely ties everything together, blows everything out the water. Something like the Code Geass ending. - I think it's so easy to have an ending that takes away from a show as opposed to one that just kind of does nothing.

'Cause I think I'd say like in anime, it feels like 50% of endings are bad. 40% don't really do anything. They don't really add or take away from the experience up to that point. - And I think that's gonna be One Piece. - Yeah, I think, I hope One Piece will be in that camp. Obviously, I just, it's like a fucking Jenga tower of pieces that have all been stacked. You can't figure out how to make this all come down cleanly. - I mean, it doesn't have to because the One Piece, One Piece to me is like all about legacy.

Especially with what Roger did to start the new legacy of like the pirate age. And then Whitebeard had a moment like that as well, which was just fucking gay. It was epic back in the day. Now it's just a fucking meme. But all Luffy has to do is just find out what One Piece is.

- There'll be that fucking music, which is just like, ♪ Do do do do do ♪ ♪ Do do do do ♪ And then I'm gonna be fucking blowing my eyes out. He can whip his dick out of that moment. I don't care. I'm just gonna be like- - Question, what do you think the one piece is? It's gotta be the inside of him. - No, I definitely think it's not something physical.

- If it's something physical, I'll be upset. - No, it can't be physical. There's no way. - I think one, this is going into law now. I think one piece probably has something to do with the lost century.

because you haven't gotten to the second half of the story of "One Piece" and the second half. So the first half is a lot about the journey. The second half is really tying together the world, lore and history. - Cool, cool. - Because there seems to be a lot of shit that's going on between what happened in the history of the world of "One Piece." - Okay. - And it seems to be building up to something to do with that. So, you know, that might be what "One Piece" is. It might be not existent at all. We don't know. The point is,

It doesn't really matter what One Piece is. It could be either. And I would be satisfied. "Attack on Titan" is so good. - Oh God! - That's the thing, they're both good. - All right, I'm gonna go for a toilet break and I'm gonna... - My God. - All right, Gaunt. - I made my decision. - Gaunt has come back from his toilet break. He has made a decision. - It's One Piece. - Oh my. - My man, let's go. - What a cop-out answer.

I just think, had to think about it. And I think One Piece is going to stick with me for slightly longer than Attack on Titan has. - Yeah. - I fought with five Attack on Titan fans, I tried. - We're in the top four. - My childhood one. - Yeah, we're in the top four now. Made in Abyss and Gorilla Guard. - Fuck. - Do I want- - Is this easy? It is really easy for me. - Do I want adrenaline or depression? - Yeah. - What?

- What do I want here? What do I want? - Because for me, right? I'm thinking about this in the long term. - Okay, well Connor's gonna pick her in the garden. - Yeah. - I'm pissed off that it should have been "Hunter x Hunter" here. - I'm thinking about this in the long run, right? Both of these shows are gonna stick with me for a very, very long time. - Both of these shows in terms of the emotions that they conjure up are the peak of those emotions. - Yes. - So I'm gonna keep this simple. I like being happy.

- I like being happy, I like being excited. "Made in Abyss" is to me, stands alone in some of the ideas and some of just the fucking emotions, the well of emotions that he has made me feel. I could say the same about Gurren Lagann. Nothing has made me, made the adrenaline pump harder than Gurren Lagann has. So I prefer adrenaline. - All right. - I'm gonna go Gurren Lagann. - All right then, Gurren Lagann it is. - Yup. - All right, Gurren Lagann enters the finals.

- Who's gonna go up against- - What would you vote for, Joey? - It's honestly 50-50. - You just say what you'd vote for. - What I would vote for? - Yeah, even though Gurren Lagann's winning. - I guess, yeah. I guess at the end of it all, I would,

probably have voted for Gurren Lagann as well, just because again, I like being happy. And it's just so fucking epic. That epic feeling of watching Gurren Lagann, I think will stay with me for the rest of my life. Whereas as fucking incredible as Made in Abyss is, and I'm so excited for where that story is going, that the sheer impact of Gurren Lagann is just unbeatable. - Yeah. - All right, one piece of Vinland Saga. - This is back to back tough decisions for you guys.

- What are you saying? - Vinland saga for me. - Vinland saga for you. - Okay, okay, okay. - I think it's gotta be Vinland saga for me. - Here's the question, here's the question. Do you think he's gonna find Vinland? - I mean. - What is the Vinland? - It's like one piece. Vinland does exist, but it's not what he's looking for. He's not looking for Vinland. - Maybe that's the same with Luffy as well. - He's looking for a land with peace, which he is striving for. - Yeah.

- I like Vinland Saga because one, there is a Welsh person in it. None of those in... - The one Welsh character in all of anime and manga. - Everyone says that we would talk about the farm arc. People have different opinions on which of the arcs are the better of the two. - Yeah. - Even so.

the prologue arc is so fucking good at what it does. And then for it to completely 180 in tone theme, but still be so compelling, if not more compelling and hit higher heights is just something that I think so many authors would be absolutely terrified to even attempt, let alone pull off.

I don't think we've ever seen, this isn't a common thing that happens. When it has happened, it's normally out of crashes and burns, right? It's out of desperation. So the fact that we got two different styles of storytelling to advance one character and a set of characters is something so cool

and really interesting. And at the core message of it, it was how do you grow up as a human being? What is it that matters to you? What is it that you're really living for? And how can you impact the people around you as well as improving yourself and maybe realizing what it is that you really want in a world that maybe doesn't allow that? - Yeah, but they did that with Robin in "One Piece."

- Yeah, but it wasn't nearly as good. - I don't know, man. When Luffy was like, "Say that you wanna live." And then Robin shouted that shit, I cried, bro. - I didn't think that was as good. - And then they shot the flag down and I was like, "That's my boy right there." - I'm not saying that it's not a great fucking moment. It's one of the best things I've ever read ever. But I just don't think it hits the same as Vinland Saga for me in terms of the...

it felt so grounded, Vinland Saga. I think that's what made it so special. - Well, that's the thing. I think the Vinland Saga definitely has the advantage of it being a lot more of a grounded story than One Piece. But man. - One Piece has not made me change my outlook on life. I'll just say that much. - Right. - But Vinland Saga has.

- I wish for more violence now. - You know what? I do have enemies. I became a Jason fan. - Did not watch season two. I love violence. Got busy. - All right, I'm going to want peace. Fuck sake, Joey. - I knew you were gonna do it. - I knew you, 'cause I knew you were gonna bring- - I was wondering which one of you would say it first so you could put that on the other. - I knew you were gonna like put it on me. - Yep. It's on you, man.

- That was so loud. - I'm going Vinland Saga. - Okay. - I'm going Vinland Saga. - Yes, finally a W. I can agree on something. Holy shit, no way. - Honestly, not upset. - Explain yourself. - Not upset at all. - Well, I'll explain it here.

I think, like I said before, "Vindelzlager" is just a transcendent piece of media where the power of the story goes beyond just the power of it being a cool story or a cool anime. This is something that can change the way you think about your own life. And that's such a rarity of a story, which is why,

Even though Gurren Lagann is fucking fantastic, the lessons that I have, you know, that I've gotten from Vinland Saga are gonna stick with me for a longer time. So I'm gonna go Vinland Saga for the final one. Okay. How do you feel about this? That's so hard. Yeah.

- I think I'm gonna have to say Vinland Saga as well. - All right. - If it was "Hunter Hunter" it might be a bit of a hard one. But it's not there. And as much as I like "Gurren Lagann" which I do like it a lot. - Yeah. - Yeah. - I do just think Vinland Saga is just goaded. - It is transcendental, I think is the word. - Yeah. - So yeah, Vinland Saga is the winner. - Congratulations, Vinland Saga.

for being the winner of the Trash Taste Tournament Arc. We- - Wanna go. - Planned to do two or three brackets in this podcast episode.

- We got heated bro. - But we got heated and this took way longer than we thought it was going to take. - So there you go guys, check it out on screen right there. That's what we think. Let me know or let us know what you guys thought down in the comments below. Did we get somethings wrong? Did we get somethings right? Be interesting to know. And if you wanna,

join in on the next one of these like bracket episodes because we're probably gonna do more then you can do so by going over to our Patreon, patreon.com/trashtaste. By the way, every single week we do patron exclusive content as well. There's a brand new one for you guys that you can go watch

right after this episode. But hey, if you wanna check that out as well as again, joining us in future Patreon or Trash Taste videos like this, then head on over to patreon.com/trash taste. Also follow us on Twitter, send us memes on the subreddit. And if you hate our face, listen to us on Spotify. Man, I'm tired after that. - Me too. - Yeah. - That was a hard debate. - That was emotionally draining. I didn't actually think it was gonna take it all.

- Yeah, it was tough, but I think I didn't know what was gonna win, but the more we started arguing, the more I kind of realized what I really value. I kinda learned a lot about myself actually, about like, what do I value in a story if I have to pit two of my favorite shows against each other? But there's some of these were literally like pick between my children. I was like, this is hard, it's just hard.

- It speaks to the level of quality of Vinland Saga, even though it isn't finished. And it was managed to tell such a compelling story. - Yeah, it's interesting 'cause I feel if you asked me on a different day, this might've ended up being very different. - Yeah, I thought I was like one piece till I die and then I was like, nah, Vinland Saga kind of takes it. - It does. - But we will see you guys next time. Bye.