Anime Worth Watching?

Lucia and Ameera Wilson discuss the topic of Anime.  Why is it so polarizing?  How does it compare to western animation?  Should we be cautious with Anime? And to finish things off, their top 5 Anime recommendations.

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Join Lucia and Ameera Wilson each week for discussions about story in all its various forms, but primarily books and movies.

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It's one of the things I really enjoyed about Demon's Lair. Um. Man character, Tondro. Very much a good guy. Uh, very good. Extremely empathetic. Demons are humans who turned into demons. Yeah. And a lot of them have terrible back stories. Some of them were turned against their will. So he's like crying inside for them, but then he just killed them. He's like, he's like, he's like, he's like, he's like, he's like, he's like, he's like, he's like,rect. Bro has zero hesitation. It's like the fact that I feel genuinely sorry for how this came to happen doesn't mean that I will turn from my duty to save the innocence. Ever see the violence, the herding system help help. I've been repressed. Bloody peasant. Oh, what a giveaway. You hear that? You hear that? I'm on the back. Do you see him repressing me? You saw it, didn't you? Welcome. Welcome to help help. We're being repressed. Yay. Yay. We're back. Yeah. And I am holding a little flash from the past with me right now. Those of you are not watching the video. Don't get to know. No, I'll tell you, it's one of the Soviet Moscow stickers from Sticker Gate on my to-go-kept from the good old days of the comic book. That's Moscow. Yeah. As the nice hammer and sickle on it. Yeah, and so it's because of care. Yeah, which was our town's slogan during COVID. The masking motto. We were not big fans of that. Good times. But Amira, you were just realizing that you got to sticker. Yeah, I have one of those stickers on my truck. And I'm like, oh, well, currently I'm in Michigan. So everyone else who sees it will have no idea what it's from. And it's just a hammer and sickle on my truck. So I just Moscow, most people are driving around. I'm just like, an apparent communist. Yeah. With here, but I also have a God bless Johnny Cash sticker. So I feel like it bounce. They cancel out. They cancel out. You're like, confusing. You're like, big black truck with a communist sticker and a God bless Johnny Cash sticker. That's where it's at. Yeah, but what can it be? Like you ever see one of those stickers, it's the opposite of what it looks like. I promise. But any who today. We are going to talk about anime. Yeah. Because if you have at the risk of being cold weeps or whatever, yeah, if you have yourself a pair of eyes and the basic package of observation skills that comes with being alive, you might have noticed that. I don't think that necessarily comes with it. No, I've just seen the base package. It doesn't mean to be excessive. The base package of observation skills, you might have noticed that anime is kind of everywhere right now. Yeah, it's on Netflix. Unlike my childhood. Yeah, Netflix, Disney, Amazon. You can watch it on Delta planes now. That's weird. Yeah, unlike my childhood. Where it was. It was taboo in our circle. It was very niche, very weird. You know, definitely going much, much more popular right now. And so with that. I think it was, I actually think it was following 2020. Well, yeah, it really spiked because everyone was looking for things to watch because everybody was locked up at home. And we weren't releasing anything new. And so everybody is starting to like explore what's available to watch. And there were some actual pretty good shows coming out of the time. On the anime side of things. So a lot of people started getting wrapped into it. And now you're actually going to start to see a pivot in content quality and budget as anime is turning globally focused way more than it's been in the past. Like they've been global fans, but it hasn't been so much a global demographic. Yeah. As it's spreading everywhere, we figured we'd talk about it a bit for those of you who we've been asked to talk about certain shows. Yeah, we a couple of them have been requested, but we wanted to give a bit of a broader topic first because just for those of you who are considering trying it or you have kids who watch it or you have kids who want to try to watch it. We're like, should you be concerned? Should you should you be worried? We're going to go a little bit into that. But the cortisol spike stress out freak out. That's what we're recommending actually. Yeah. That's what we always recommend. Mm-hmm. Only freak out. Always. So for one, the reputation of anime in my childhood is not unirred. Yes. There's a reason for the stereotype when you talk about it. When the gen X parents are flinching away from it with a sneer on their face, there's a reason that they have that reaction. Some shows, some fan bases, there's a bit of an earned thing. But to start us off, I don't really like when people say I like anime or people who go like all anime is bad because you have to realize that it is a country's worth of media. I'm like, it's kind of a lot. Yeah. So I don't walk around saying I like Netflix. Even though I like some things on Netflix. I don't go around saying I like Hollywood. Even though I like some things that have come out of Hollywood. It's like that is way too huge of a thing and often overwhelmingly bad. Because it's not that it's so many different creators. Yeah. And the same thing as being like, oh, I like Disney. Because even if that is still a broad category, it's like one company. It's one company, yeah. But anime is a country worth of animated media with so many different studios and so many different creators. So just to start off, like, whether whichever way your reaction is, I love anime. I hate anime. I hate anime. You're both wrong. You can be someone who likes a lot of anime and you can be pulled to the medium of anime and pulled to the medium of animation. I personally love 2D animation all about it. Or you could be someone that is just not your thing, not your aesthetic, not appealing to you. And both of those are fine. But you should be cautious of I like it. I hate it. Seriously. That is Japan's animation. Yes. So when I don't have a particular problem with someone being like, oh, I like anime or I don't like anime, it's more of the extreme that I've issue with. It's like, oh, I despise all of it. Because if you or I love all of it. Because there are definitely themes or style things that are consistent broadly within anime. Yeah. So if you say, oh, I don't like anime and you're thinking about the broad category, I'm like, whatever. Fine. Sure. And it's more of the really extreme reaction that people have towards it. Which is the, oh, it's all gross. I hate it all. Demo. That. And it's like, yeah, there's a lot of variety within it. So I wouldn't condemn it entirely as a whole. Yeah. It's really while it's a singular medium. But it's not a singular genre. And it's pretty expansive. So yeah, just to kick us off, it's like, avoid the extreme emotional reaction and either direction, because you'll find yourself to be incorrect. Yeah, because I'm like, okay, you could even probably place an immature jiggly movies. I'm like, well, it's Japanese animation. Yeah. And I know it is. And I know it's hockey wouldn't like to be called anime. Yeah. Because he knows, you know, the stereotypes and all that jazz. I think it's more because of the way he prioritizes the art of it. And he doesn't like the cheapness of a lot of anime and just pumping it out. Fair enough. However, I'm going to use the category as Japanese animation, which means I'm lumping in him and him in there with it. Sorry. Sorry, me is hockey, but and I love his films. So it's like, I'm not going to have, here's the thing. When we were first told, like, oh, you should try some of these shows. Like, I think we had a friend recommend them. And we were kind of curious what she was watching. You know, they were like, what's going on? Plus, I love fantasy. I love animation. And America's been disappointing me for a while in both categories. So I definitely did going into it have the reaction of like, you know, I don't want to do that like gross. But then I was like, okay, let's go in. Neutrally. Be fair. Be fair. And it's not all bad guys. Shocker. It's a big reveal of the day. Not all of it is bad. Anyway, not terrible. Oh, but see, the other thing that can be fun about consuming any other country's media. So Japanese or anything else, consuming another country's modern media can be interesting because they will be making different mistakes. Different mistakes and different good things and different good things. So to just see some of their mistakes, like on the more minor side and you'll be like, they're doing it all wrong. And like actually they're doing something's right that we aren't. Yeah. So one of the things that I, this is not a moral issue with the medium, but one of the things that I've noted in the multiple enemies that we have seen that I don't love is it has a super exaggerated emotional reactions. Yeah. That's just a, that a lot of characters have. It's a trope they have in a lot of different things with a lot of different characters. And it's also, it's often used humorously and it's just a type of humor that I don't find particularly funny. But this is nothing morally wrong with it. It's just like, yeah, that's the difference. I don't necessarily love that. And that's just a difference. And that's something that I see as kind of a weakness because I actually think it's not funny. I think it's kind of cheap, kind of cheap, you know, especially I can find it kind of obnoxious if a character is just like hyper emotional. So there's an example of something that I think they don't necessarily always do well. But then on the other hand, I think unlike a lot of American media, especially right now, they're completely fine with having the main character just be like a good person. Which is amazing. Like how many of these new movies and shows we have and just have good noble people as main characters. Yeah, we've talked before about the Ante Hero, you know. And Americans love that. We love the like. And don't get me wrong, Annery does do this too. Yeah, they definitely have people where it's like morally gray. But in some of the shows, so like, what's a good example of this? Of the good boy? Yeah, demon slayer. Demon slayer, right? This is one of the shows we've seen. The main character is like just kind of a good guy. Hulsam, you know, he's a wholesome boy. And it's like, we don't often do that. We don't often have just like a purely good solid main character. Yeah. And I think I can't appreciate a little bit that they're willing to do that to just have a nice boy. Be the lead a good guy. Yeah. Yeah. So before we get into more specific ones for ones that we could feel comfortable recommending and that sort of thing. And we'll give some like age ranges on those because another thing to remember is just because it's animated doesn't mean it's for kids. New. New. New. Don't that is just the medium. Yes, I know. I know. I know we'll get there eventually. But never just let your kids, especially like if your kids are older, that's very different. If they already are, you know, media trained in some ways. Like you can have discretion about what you let them just do without you knowing. But don't just let your kids scroll through and find something. Yeah. Any more than you would let them loose on Netflix to just pick something. Yeah. Don't let them loose on it. Like, no. Just cause the cover's cute. It doesn't mean it's cute. It doesn't mean it's cute. Oh yeah. So just doing some broader comparisons right now is technique wise. A lot of the like depending on the show, but the animation can be really good. So that's something that can definitely draw people in. Well, you love art. So that's a great one. Yes, I love art. So another thing though that I've noticed is that they are a lot more experienced than we are at long-form storytelling. So that's obviously that it's not to say that every single one is good, not what I'm saying. But American shows I can't think of a single one that I have started and finished liking it. I'm thinking back. There's not one. There's only one I remember in a sauce Australian. So it's not America. Yeah. I got many things to do. I keep thinking it was like a village. Because the thing is Americans, we work, this is how my brother put it. So where's the worry about it? He said that Americans are creative and the Japanese are diligent. So broadly speaking, yeah. Yes, really broad brush. But that's because that's just when you look at American shows and we have so many good pilot episodes. Our pilots are excellent. Our pilots are impeccable. We're good at the hook. We're really good at creative premises and fun hooks and gripping story ideas. And it is so incredibly obvious when you keep watching and I would say the vast majority of American shows and I'm talking serial, not episodic. The vast majority, you can tell that they didn't know where they were going with it. Yeah. So for example, Severance, amazing for season. When you start the second season, I was like, ah, they did not plan for the second season. They didn't know. Immediately obvious. They hadn't known they were going to continue it. They had known it was going to be successful or like, or they didn't care. I don't know. It was just deeply apparent that they had not planned the rest of the plot when they started it. And you can see that with so many of our shows that they are not landed. Yes, it's one of the reasons I think some of the stronger shows that we have are based on books because there's already a blueprint. Yeah. And so I think that's, you know, one of the best ways to get a good TV show is by actually just going off of something that already exists because we don't want to plan it all out. Yeah. And that's part of why anime has the advantage there is because a lot of them are based on manga and sometimes novels than manga. So most of them are functioning off of a completed storyboard or a partially completed storyboard. Yeah. But there's a storyboard. But that means that the story was mapped out to begin with. However. And in some of these shows, I'm talking some of them, it is the exact opposite experience of watching an American show where the pilots, solid men for most of them, bad for some of them, a lot of the ideas, at least messy. Yeah, at least messy, minimally messy. And some of the ideas, not hugely creative. A lot of them are copy-paste. Like you'll have one premise and you'll have like 20 different anime on that premise. And it's a question of who can execute it the best. So you'll have like, okay, weak start, met premise and then just good execution all the way through. Yeah. Is that's what they're shooting for. And that's what you get in the best of the best shows. And you will find a type of creativity by pursuing excellence. Yeah. So I'm not saying there's no creativity involved. But it's just that there's way better pacing mapped out to the finish in some of these shows than you could ever find in an American show. Even though we can have some amazing pilots and some really fun ideas. And then we just don't, we don't, you know. I've started so many shows and haven't finished so many shows. You're just like so many shows. I'm just like, oh my gosh, you had no idea what you were doing. The wheels come off so easily and are things because we do not plan ahead. We're not, we're not the diligent people. No. No, it's not our forte. One of the other things about anime that I, I'm not entirely sure whether I would call this a strength or a flaw or like, it's more of a feature. It's a fact, right? Because the format, especially, and I'm talking about anime shows is short episodes, 20 minutes. You know, like very short. Often they end on cliffhangers. It's very, very fast. Doritos. Doritos, it's like, yeah, it's, it's very like pulls you in. It just gets you hooked in the story through the format and it's very, very quick. Maybe it's one of the other reasons our generation likes it a lot is our attention spans are not, um, no bueno. Not highly developed, we might say. So the short, fast, gripping, short, fast, clippy, it, yeah, clippy. It's just like resume. You go right through it. Yeah, so that's another thing about it, but, uh, moving more towards like moral or story differences. As you already pointed out, they do feel very comfortable with having good guys. As main characters, but another thing that we were kind of cracked up to find out was seeing a similarity between our dads writing and the major thing. We were like, we were like, hey, major thing in anime. And it's the idea that every hero needs to be part nightmare. Yes. And so even the good boys, it's like they need to have something scary about them and they need to go through something like the victory has to be genuinely difficult. It's actually, so one of the things that I think is best about the anime is that we have seen, um, is the, just the level of hard work that the characters and the struggle that the main character just have to go to to achieve things. So much effort. There's a reason Jim bros like some of these. Yeah, because it's very inspiring. It's very like you will get it done. You must get it done. You know, and it's great like that. Very hard work. Very like lock in, you know, frequently very scary villains. Yes, scary villains. Um, one thing, another thing I like is sometimes they have the villain arc and the hero arc match up. I love this. This is something I actually really appreciate because we have such a victim culture right now. It's the opposite of what we do, which is, and it's not like American media can never do this, but I've seen it multiple times. Yes, in anime. And I have not seen it many times in American media is we have such, we love doing our villain origin stories, you know, where it's like, he had every right to be a villain. He had every, yes, he had every right to be a villain, you know, look what happened, but they kind of take that away from you because they will have the hero and the villain have the same origin. So like the same thing happens to these two kids or one of them. And one of them, one of them, yes, one of them becomes a hero. One of them becomes a villain, which takes away the excuse of like, oh, you had to. But it also has a unique blend in some of these of empathy and still prioritizing the innocent because this is the other thing that we struggle to do in an example is the no way home Spider-Man. Yes. Is the moment you have empathy for the villain in an American movie, you now can't kill them. It's like it would be wrong to kill them now that you have some empathy and other standing for them. And it's like wrong. If you have the authority and responsibility to kill them, the fact that you feel sorry for them does not make their life worth more than the innocence they're about to kill. It's actually one of the things, so like I said, we're going to specific recommendations later, but I'm going to drop it in the details as we do that. It's one of the things I really enjoyed about Demon Slayer. One character, Tondero, very much a good guy. Very good. Extremely empathetic. So he, okay, the premise is like he's going around killing demons, basically. Demon Slayer. Demon Slayer. Yes. Maybe I did not have to explain that. But demons are humans who turn to do demons. Yeah. And a lot of them have terrible back stories. Some of them were turned against their will. Some of them were turned against their will. Some of them just had the like, oh, you had every right to become a monster type back story. And he feels very bad for them. So he's always sad. He's like, oh, for babies. And he frequently like will pray over their body. Yeah, he'll pray over their body. He'll like, but then, so he's like crying and sad for them, but then he just killed them. He's like, bro, I zero hesitation. He's like tons of empathy, zero hesitation. Because it's like, oh, yeah, but you're also going around eating people. Like you don't get to do this. Yeah. You know, it's like the fact that I feel genuinely sorry for how this came to happen doesn't mean that I will turn from my duty to save the innocence kind of thing. Yes. But it's also like, yeah, I don't know. There's the way that we try to like save villains or redeem villains is like, oh, but this excused all of the things you did. And he's like, no. No. You can explain the some of the things you did. It does not excuse the things you did. Yeah. Like I said, kind of like a hero villain arc. The other thing. I appreciate that contrast. Forgiveness does not disappear punishment. Mm-hmm. So it's like consequences still come even when you have a forgiving and empathetic. There's one there's one anime that we have watched that I would not necessarily recommend because I think some of the bad things, you know, the anime things like fan service or that sort of thing is too excessive. And places, yeah. Until like, for me to really say, you should share 100% of this. 100% recommend. Yeah, no. You know, but it does have, I think we've talked about this before. They have an arc with a father who is abusive. And he tries to make it right. And the anime really shows like he's doing the correct thing. Like he's doing what he needs to do. However, there's all of these consequences that still exist. And it rings really true because you have a man who's genuinely changing. And he is a fantastic character. He cannot erase the consequences of what he's done. Yes, it just is the way it is. But it does that while still offering forgiveness to a man redemption. Yeah, he still can't actually be content. And the other thing with that one specifically is the nerve to redeem that kind of guy. I really respect it because no sin is so bad that God cannot reach you. Yes. And child, if this is one that our culture is very much like, obviously, we should be very reactive to it. We should be very unforgiving to something like that as a culture. That's a good thing. But the fact that we don't have the nerve in our stories to offer redemption and forgiveness to someone who's been genuinely bad, we can only do it if we make excuses and simply yes. It's a difference. So one last kind of note on broad and then we can kind of touch on some specifics. Oh, I have another note on broad, but you do your stuff. Okay, well, my last note on broad is just similar with anything else. Don't feed your kids things willy-nilly without looking. Yeah. So like, parents is on you. Do a little googly. Do like, do a wee bit of research before you say your kids. Maybe not a little googly. Maybe watch a little bit. Yeah. That could be good too. Well, just make sure that you're checking out things that your younger kids or young teens are getting into. Obviously, it's their own life. Yeah, but the thing is, as you're getting to my kids are allowed to choose what they watch, phase of life. Our kind of rule of thumb in our house is you don't watch or read anything that you wouldn't tell your parents about. So it's not that as we got older, we had to ask for permission before we watched or read anything. Obviously, we were afraid rain. But it's still just you communicate because you're not going to be- don't do anything sneaky. If you feel the need to be sneaky, you especially need to tell your parents because you need to be holding yourself accountable. So I think that's a pretty good rule of thumb. As you're setting your kids off in their mid to late teens to pick what they want to watch or read, it's just like, well, tell me what you watch. Just it's like it's a good thing. Are you willing to have a conversation about this? Yeah. Is this something that you would be happy to tell me about? Talk about. Give your thoughts on. So I think that could be a dangerous thing with anime or media that can be really, really quickly consumed. Oh, yeah. It's because people can get really pulled into it. So just making sure that conversation is happening. I think that's good. So I actually have two other kind of general thoughts. One is one other thing that I appreciated about the anime that we've seen is kind of a respect, not for like Christianity necessarily. Sometimes it is a respect for Christianity. There's a respect for like transcendence. Discussion. Discussion about the transcendence. About the transcendence. We have a ton of shows where it's very materialist. I mean, we are a very materialist society. We have ourselves some really flippant atheists in America. Yes. You'll frequently hear the phrases like, oh, you want to talk to your big sky daddy? Like that kind of talking. There's a mocking towards even having a discussion. Yes. And it's not like I'm not going to be claiming like, oh, all of these are super Christian shows even in. No, they're not. They're not. Christian themes or Christian ideas, but mostly what I actually appreciate that is very distinct from our culture is the fact that they are open to have those discussions. Yeah. There's a seriousness in series discussions, which I can appreciate. Yeah. So even in some of the shows that I like, it's like, yeah, they're not a Christian character. However, they respect the faith or they respect the idea that there could be something more and they kind of want something more. Which is very, very different. And then the other final note, and this is more of like, oh, the bad side of anime, right? Yeah. Which I think we should talk about a little bit. Like we said earlier, it did earn its reputation. So specifically, I think, well, so anime shows they do have like fan service, right? Which you do have like- You didn't know what that meant in this context. That means unnecessary sexualizing. Yes. Unnecessary sexualization in modesty. That sort of thing. That's one of the things that some shows have a lot more than others. A couple have none, but a couple do have none. But it's definitely one of those things that requires your discernment when you're deciding like, okay, how old is my child? Can they handle like depending on the level? Like some is just don't watch. Some of it is like if we're all grownups, we're being mature and we obviously note that that's inappropriate. We don't wear skirts that length, okay? We don't wear skirts that length, you know, that's that sort of thing. So there's that and then that that's going to change based on your child's age, different factors of whether you think business- But it's a de-ordid tournament. This is a worthwhile show for someone to see like depending on the level. Like I said, there's one that like I show that I enjoyed that I thought I'd good things, but I wouldn't just recommend because of the level of fan service that it does contain. Another thing about why I think it has a really bad reputation, I think there is a lot of the fans or the older fans that are making the reputation by being creeps. Is that create the reputation by, well, they're the reason they're his fan service? Yeah. Because I would like to see fan service disappear now that it's targeting global audiences or at least go down and actually have a lot of the new ones that has gone down. It's gone down. It's not zero, but it's gone down. Because it's targeting new demographics now, which don't want it. This is it. So one of the things I would say if your kid likes anime or isn't anime, I'm less concerned about necessarily the anime itself. However, there is a culture surrounding some of it. If your kid is also online, also on social media, I think you should be aware of that. Because there are definitely dark corners of the internet where it's like freaky fans. But that is something I would be aware of. I have a real stay off of dark corners of the internet anyway. Yes, I know. However, but if you like, because there's the Jim Bro side of anime, which is all motivational edits. Motivational edits. Yeah, I'm even thinking of like Instagram or anything like that. If they like anime and then they get anime edits on their Instagram or social media, there's the Jim Bro where it's like, lift more. Or like, find inner peace. Set your heart ablaze. Kind of thing. Yeah. Well, it's like, that's honestly, even if it's a kind of cheesy, you know, I actually love because I'm like, okay, so you're watching a show and you're actually motivated to read it. Yeah, you're channeling it into reality. You're not just having this delusional, you know, you're not just being absorbed entirely into this false world. But then there's also the side where people are shipping characters together. Being inappropriate. Being inappropriate. And that could also come up on your social media feed. Crossing on 2D characters. Yeah, heads up to parents like not necessarily that the anime is a problem. So just have a discussion with them. Make sure they're aware of the pitfalls or dangers. Okay. So we're going to go over a couple shows that we would recommend and we'll give little notes to the pro cons as we hit it. And some of these we might discuss in more detail later. And if there's one that people want like an actual analysis of, say that again, analyzing things. Yeah, I'm my word. It's hard. I just thought like I blip. Yeah. I know saying we're just going to give it, throw some ones out there that we've enjoyed that we would go give a couple of notes. But if you want any to be more in depth, discussed, let us know because we'd be down. Okay. So, yeah, I'll kick us off. Free run. Cool. So free run beyond your event. That one is entirely appropriate. You finished the show. I feel it. There's like, I feel like there is, there's a minor, immodest side characters in the late season one, but it's like pretty low key. Two girls that I'm like, your friendship is too touchy. But they're like side characters that don't matter. And I'm like, so I'm just noting, I saw that. I didn't like it. You're like, but that's just, that's really the only inappropriate thing that I spotted in the whole thing. It is very well animated, beautiful soundtrack. And it is an extremely thoughtful fantasy adventure. It's fine. See, I, yeah, I've started it. I've not finished it. My classmates are watching it together. So I'm, she's trying to be on trial. Yeah, on track with them. It is kind of an exploration of why life matters. Yep, it's an exploration of mortality and savoring the moments you have with people. But they do it in a kind of, I mean, it's not necessarily a twist, but it's kind of a twist because a lot of the times you save for the moments because of how temporary. Yeah, how short your life is. How short your life is. This one is with an elf who's basically immortal. She's a thousand years old. So it's savoring the moments despite the fact that your life lasts forever. Well, it's realizing that even if your life is long, all of these moments are still temporary. Yes. So like the people around you, they're dying. Yeah. Yeah. So it's, it's clean. It's fun, pretty fantasy. It's very chill. Very room. Like it picks up and pace a little as it goes on. The first couple episodes are definitely a little bit like you might be bored. Not you won't necessarily be bored. I was. It just, but like they're kind of fun, but they're definitely like low key and then it definitely speeds up. Yeah. So that one totally appropriate. So like any age that's interested. Yeah. So like your little kids probably wouldn't be particularly interested by something that's thoughtful and slow, but like just tween and up. Yeah. So clean, fun, fantasy. This one's been requested, requested to be discussed in depth already, but that's going to be for later. So yeah. All right. Second one. You do one. Yeah. I'm going to be a little bit demon slayer. Unlike free run, this one definitely has a couple more things that are problematic. Yeah. So there's modest E notes for side characters in the later seasons. My skin is for side characters and later serenet. Yeah. Seasons. One of them where it's them fighting in like a scantily clad. Scantily clad woman. Well, two scantily clad women fighting in later seasons. So like I said, up to your discretion whether you want your kids watching it. They are side characters, but it's like, but just we've noted it. It's present, you know, however, the stories, it's not like, I mean, the fights are kind of repetitive, but it's very fun. It's very just like it is very high action fantasy, very noble. Yeah. Very morality. So noble hardworking. It's a girl's journey to getting strong enough to face down the big bad. Yeah. And some of the animation in the later seasons and the movie. The budget goes up. It's just fantastic. The budget definitely starts smaller at the beginning, which you can tell. That's way higher. It's a, it's a fun. It's very like, yeah, it's just a quest for strength, quest for, it's a quest story, which is, it's very fun. When I was doing some PT training for an injury, my trainer was like, think of Togerow all the mountain like, it's one of the Jimrow ones that is very physical. You push yourself to the limits. We fight for what's right kind of classic thing. Push through pain. Push through pain. You know, more kids can hear the first couple episodes of very bloody. So yeah, this one, if you're trying to stick on it. Yeah, this one, the note for age range is that it is bloody. It's very dark. So that's kind of the note. So whatever, it's at your own discretion for age range with the violence. Yeah. But I don't think it's the highest quality one I've seen. It is definitely repetitive in some ways. However, it's very fun. It's very, very, very motivational. Mm-hmm. So yeah, that's a fun one. It's also a really big one. And it's big for a reason. Yeah. OK, let's see. Three. It's got a whole list. I don't know how many we're going to get through. Vinland Saga. Oh, I was going to say that one. I win. OK, Vinland Saga is a kind of funny twist here because it's a Viking anime. It is not the classic like big eyes and sparkles animation. New. It's got a different style to it. And it's an interesting one. So this is one that I would think war is discussion between whoever is watching it. It's one of the ones that is not Christian, but is respectful to Christianity. It's contemplating Christianity. So it's very clear that the creators don't fully understand Christianity, but neither to the Vikings. So there's that. It's a way. But it's very much exploring that. And I would say that the second season is a lot more positive to Christianity than the first. Yeah. So some things are up in the air where they'll land and they're starting to lead towards the more Christian path by the end of the second season. It's a show following Thorfinn. The first Viking. Well, the first European attempt at settling America. As he is working through a revenge plot and finding the purpose of living and what it means to be a true warrior, all that kind of thing. It's like emptiness of revenge. Yep. What you really want to protect. Well, learning to be peaceful. I would say what is strength? Yeah. It's a big question of the movie because yeah, it's what is strength. And for the first season, Christianity is very framed as weak, but weirdly offensive to all the strong, which is, you know, which is offensive to the strong. Yeah. As the second season progresses, Thorfinn is kind of discovering the fact that like not fighting is sometimes the stronger thing to do. Yeah. Like the idea of peace, as you said. So that's a fun one. A lot of action. Little more serious. Honestly, I would put the violence as a little worse than Demon Slayer because it's more real. So Demon Slayer is this like fantastical action and we note the blood because a lot of people don't like excessive violence. But to me, I'm like, ah, the color red. So it's very unreal, but Vinland Saga is a lot more in reality. So even though there might be less blood spraying, there's a higher intensity to it. Yeah. So yeah, Tina has, I think it has less fan service. Oh, it has almost none. There's like, there's a couple of ways of like, there's a fight. That like pictures, hot chicks at one point. That's like, there's like two moments where you just like see something and you're like, why? But there's not like characters who are probably not really. However age range, I think actually is higher than Demon Slayer. Than Demon Slayer. Do you think? I'd be like 15 plus probably. 15 plus, okay. I really enjoyed that one. It was much more thoughtful than Demon Slayer. Much more I think actually quality. Yeah, some pretty complex characters and good growth. It's interesting and it's thoughtful and I feel like it makes for a good discussion. Yeah. And don't like everything about it. Uh-huh. Because the thing is, I almost never watch anything without having edits. So when we recommend things for the most part, it's like, yeah, no, you should have discussions about what you liked, what you didn't like because there's always going to be something you didn't like. But, uh, yeah, so that's a good one. And it very much falls in the category you were talking about it, but the fact that they actually have more respect for the serious discussions than we do right now. Yeah. So, okay, you're next. Um, I think I'm going to say Kai Jun number eight. These are all, we are saying a lot of like the new gen anime's. Mm-hmm. These are a lot more of the recent ones and part of that is because they are the ones that are popular right now. So you'll see them a lot of places. Uh, Kai Jun number eight, I think is just, I really like the background art. Yeah, it's got good animation. So I was good at animation. I think it's just fun. Yeah. It's another fantasy action. It's very fun popcorn, a little bit of that dramatic emotional for comedy thing. Yeah, which is not my favorite. I guess one thing that applies for all the action one, so all the ones except free run that we mentioned is all of them have the bit of the hero needs to be part nightmare. Yeah. At play. So this one has it the most literally that we've mentioned so far. Literally. Well, because it's spoiling it. It's in the first episode. So he's still spoiling it. Spoiler. Spoiler. The whole thing is that it's a modern ish slash futuristic Japan where monsters Kaiju attacking is a natural disaster like earthquakes. So they just have like Kaiju alarms and they have a whole force that's just the Kaiju defense force. And that's kind of the world they live in. And there's this washed up guy at like 32 who always wanted to be on the defense force but always failed the test. But he dreams of being in the defense force and protecting people. It's a classic. And he gets found by a Kaiju that a little monster that talks and none of these monsters talk and jumps down his throat and he becomes a monster. And so he's this is a pretty classic question for anime shows is the premise is if a guy has a monster aspect does he become a man or a monster. And it's always going to be a plot of jumping between those two things and fun. And I think like morally we should land on the man's side. Morally we're pretty long for hands about man. There definitely are some shows. There are some that go more monster and it like destroys them is definitively man. So it's like if you're a monster and a man what do you do and it's like he will stay human. He will it doesn't matter that he's physically different now. He'll stay human. So there's there's some cheapness and storytelling. It's definitely a popcorn show. Oh yeah, it's not like while it's well animated. It's fun. It's got some good music. It's got some fun characters. It's got like very very minimal fanservice. Yeah. I think it's like they're official uniforms that they wear only like once have like relatively short skirts. Yeah. Yeah. So this one it's like it's clean. It's fun. Yeah, it's not a solid. It's solid. It's solid. And there are some that are complicated. These these recommends are much more of the like other than free rin and then Zaga, which I think are a little deeper. These are very much like oh the fun shows. If your kids watching it, I would not stress out. Yeah. You know, this is just like kind of action motivational hard workers, which is the hard working theme is also in Kajin number eight, where it's not giving up on your goals regardless of the problem. Yeah, regardless of how much sacrifice fail. Yes. Self-sacrifice, but like failing over and over and over and over again until you succeed. Mm-hmm. Which is a great lesson for anybody. All righty. Anywho, so we're running out of time. So obviously we have lots of other shows, I mean, lots of that exaggeration, but we've got ones we hate as we got. Lots of that exaggeration. Um, but just for now, we'll throw out one more and call it for the day. And I'm going to throw out to you to Kaisen. Yeah, this is, I think this is good to mention because it's not like we're not talking about the obscure shows. Yeah, this one you don't see around. These ones, I'm like, I feel like we've mostly mentioned big ones so far. Yeah. Which is fine since this is I think what people are going to need to know about. Plus, the thing is, some things are big for a reason. Like cream rises. Uh, scum also rises. Scum rises too. But cream rises. Like frequently when you're looking for the best of something, they'll often be popular. Will you find some no-name things that are good? Yes, you will. Have I found something? Yes, I have. But for now, we're like, we're hitting the big ones. Did you get to Kaisen and this huge right now? The season three is coming out. It was the first one we tried. And it also has a very literal Izzya Manor Izzya monster. And it's a kid who has a demon inside of him that he's trying to control. Yeah. And so it's another monster fighting one. And it has very sticky characters and fun plotline, pretty high violence, some very scary villains. They do a good job with the villains. It's one of the ones that does a good job with the villain and the hero having similar backstories. So there's actually one of the biggest heroes and one of the biggest villains have literally the same backstory. They were together. So it's another one where the budget goes up as it goes on. Yes, which is so season one of the animations a lot worse than season two. Yes. I think they got a season three is coming out. I have not cut up on it all. However, based on my first couple episodes, I think they got two into the animation. Yeah. And it's become this very, very artsy, like kind of, like a little more abstract. And you're just like, it's too bad because a couple of months ago, I would have just like wholeheartedly recommended Jiu Jitsu Kaisen. Yeah. It's fun. Good characters, very brutal on its main character, which is fun for his growth. But now that season three is coming out, I'm like, it's a show for the animation got way too self-serious. Like you said, so artistic. And so it lost a lot of the basic coherence because of that, including leaving out really necessary details. Back at, see, episode four, one of the characters goes back and just kills everybody in a clan. Whites out a ton of people. And they kind of left out all the reasons she did that. Well, actually. Yeah, actually. No, they kept a couple reasons, okay? So you still knew that they were bad guys, but they left out so much that set up like that would really justify that because she, yeah, no, like because it was for the sake of like the artistry. They're trying to be all like creative. And the thing is, we'll see how it goes because the director for the first half stepped down and there's going to be a new director. Okay. Well, like I said, I kind of, but yeah, so I'm like, I don't let it pile up. But yeah, I haven't finished it. So maybe it'll pull together. Definitely. I mean, season three is whatever. But the first two seasons, I found really fun. But part of that was that I am like severely fantasy starved over here. And I love to see bad, bad guys, especially when they get beaten by the good guys. Yeah. And so yeah, we may revisit this topic at some point. Like I said, I think it's you is another one that's very, I would about to say light hearted is not lighthearted. The opposite actually, it gets kind of dark. They're not afraid to let people die. Yeah. But it's not one of the complicated ones. It's not like wildly thoughtful. It's not like this is the best piece of media you're ever going to see. However, has a lot of fun adventure, a lot of fun characters. I think the characters are actually at strong point. Mm-hmm. Yeah. So it's like, feel free to enjoy. You know? So I have so many more thoughts about all of these. Yeah. But I want some more. But we're calling it, we're calling it for now. Like I said, if anyone has any questions, any shows that they'd like us to talk more about or just ask, talk, as to talk about for the first time, please let us know. The place where we see comments is YouTube and Spotify. And best of luck to you. Cheers. Peace out.