A Discussion of Anime Tropes (& Anime More Generally)

Malcolm and Simone have a thought-provoking discussion analyzing some of the most common anime tropes and what they reveal about Japanese culture and desires. They explore the prevalence of high school settings, "isekai" fantasy worlds, unusual relationships, slice of life, and more. The hosts share their own theories on how these tropes represent escapism, surrogate parenting instincts, and a cultural lack of meaning in adulthood. They also recommend their favorite anime series and studios.

Simone: [00:00:00] Hello, gorgeous.

Malcolm: I know, same time. Well, hello, Simone. So we were talking about something and you spontaneously had this idea. Which just enchanted me because I think you might be right. And sometimes when we're looking at the world, there's these little nagging questions which persist beyond reality.

Where it's like, what on earth is going on here? You know? You're talking about a big one with sexuality. I'd say is, why is it that... Gay males and straight males are more likely to find the opposite gender repellent than gay versus straight females.

That's where we can say something is going on here and we can use these sorts of persistent differences or unusual patterns to suss out deeper things that are going on within a population.

Now [00:01:00] in anime, there are actually many of. And in Japan, there are many of these, so our audience may not know this, but my wife was born in Japan, and she spent a lot of her childhood going to Japan to trips and stuff like that, you know, for her, it was sort of like her home away from home, and her middle name is actually Haruko so even has a Japanese middle name and, bye. One, so we're going to go over a few different questions that we've seen sort of persistently in anime, and I'll go over the three that I know we're going to cover, and then we might come up with some others. The first one is, why are, hmm, what's the way to say this that won't get the video?

 Why do females who phenotypically present as youth appear in specific situations within anime where if they were [00:02:00] presenting that way in live action within most Western countries? Everyone would literally immediately be arrested. Yeah, it would be super illegal. Why is this such a normalized thing within anime?

Would you like to know more?

Malcolm: That is question number one. And I would point out that

As time has gone on I have seen this more and more within high production anime.

To the point now where it's just almost totally normalized. Mainstream. Where it would be almost a little weird if it didn't appear even once in an anime. It, it would be like an anime without a, an episode where they go to the, Beach or onsen. The onsen, or the hot springs, or the, a beach episode, you know?

It's just a thing, right? If I, if I saw a harem comedy and one of the characters wasn't, Ooh, you know, I'd be like, okay, what's going on here? Oh, note here. A harem comedy is anime where a number of [00:03:00] women are all interested in one man. It does not surprise me why anyone would find that interesting, but that's, that's nothing.

anime?

take place in high schools? This is a very interesting question because you do not see any other art form across any other culture I'm aware of. Almost all of it only takes place during one stage of an individual's life. Right. Yeah. And, and especially none where it's their high school age. And then the final question is What is going on?

This actually came from an a comment. I, I personally wouldn't find this to be that interesting a question, but it may have interesting answers. What is going on with all the Eizoukei anime? That's anime where people are transported to another world. Why is this a popular genre right now? Alright, so let's go to the first question.

You had an idea that sprung to you one day, and I think it may be accurate.

Simone: Yeah so we were watching an anime in which there's a dynamic like this basically where like a, [00:04:00] a salaryman wakes up in... Fantasy video game world and then, you know, ends up in one of these relationships and it, you know, you, you expect these relationships to be, can I, is it okay if I say Lolita?

No,

Malcolm: you

Simone: cannot say that. Okay. So, you, I think most people make the least charitable interpretation of these types of relationships and why people are interested in them. So, last, last night we were watching this anime called My Unique Skill Makes Me OP Even At Level 1, where this salaryman basically wakes up in a video game world and starts befriending people, and his Before we go

Malcolm: further with the anime explanation, I want to explain what makes it such a unique anime, from a, from a watching it perspective.

Yeah. And it is so clearly a just a desperate fantasy of what if life wasn't terrible? Yes. In every single angle of the anime, that it breaks down many [00:05:00] ideas to much more simplistic tropes than they would normally be broken down into. It's not a particularly good anime or anything like that, or funny anime or anything like that, but it is.

Notable in its simplicity, and honesty was what it's trying to do. So continue with what you're saying.

Simone: Right, so the main character immediately makes a friend, and the friend he makes is phenotypically very...

Malcolm: Phenotypically presents as a young human female.

Simone: Yes. And you expect to make the least charitable interpretation of why viewers would be interested in this kind of relationship which is precisely why you expect if this were all to be live action, that it would be highly illegal.

However the more we watched the show and we saw like the dynamics of their relationship play out. The more I came to realize one, this show is the fantasy of a beleaguered salaryman. I mean, careers in Japan are, [00:06:00] are famously brutal, the hours you're expected to work, the unpaid overtime you're expected to work, the long nights drinking.

It is, it is a toxic work culture. And this is the fantasy of not being in that work culture and also being appreciated for your work and being really good at your work and getting things done all the time. It's sort of just this fantasy of everything but. The, the, the Japanese work culture that still pervades the nation.

And when you look at what's happening in his life it's to me a picture of what people, what humans in Japan would like life to look like. And it's not this untoward type of relationship. I think people would expect it to be. I think it's actually. Cosplaying as a parent, but that Japan lacks the cultural shorthand for a man wanting to be a parent.

And so it's instead, it manifests as this perverse type of relationship or, or is kind of implied to be that perverse type of relationship when like really maybe [00:07:00] the trope that is being played out in many of these animes with these phenotypically what is it? What, use the word, use the word that's safe for

Malcolm: monetization.

Phenotypically, youthfully presenting

Simone: females. Yes. Maybe all the animes with these tropes are really more playing on the audience's. Desire to be a parent and to take care of young people and to raise people and, and experience the satisfaction of taking care of someone who loves you and appreciates you and admires you.

Malcolm: And that reminded me a lot of an anime. I think it's called something like. Lotte, L O T T E, where one of these characters that you're talking about is a succubus and... So

Simone: you would also totally not charitably interpret that because they're a succubus. Well,

Malcolm: no, and it's clear that, that...

The relationship is, yes, well there are like, obviously it's a very questionable relationship but [00:08:00] it is very focused on fathering her. And there is actually sort of a sub genre of, I'd call it, father animes where it's about a guy, Who either somehow gets attached to a young girl or takes on a fatherly role.

But often these have to me, slightly questionable things going on in them.

Simone: Oh, like the anime in which the, the guy's hand becomes a little girl.

Malcolm: Wait, which one is that?

Simone: I'll look up the title for it. You don't know about this? No. Hand becomes girl. This is, I swear to you, this is a thing. But this sort of

Malcolm: pure dad is, being a dad is awesome show is not one we have in the U.

S.

Simone: Yes. So the series is called Midori Days, which follows Seji Samawura. Who one day finds his right hand replaced with a girl named Midori Kasugano. [00:09:00]

Malcolm: So, what I think is going on here, and so I'm gonna say I don't think that every show that has a character like this is doing this. Agreed. I think that there is a broad differentiation.

When it's a harem comedy, that, or, or, just a harem show, I guess you could call it. Where the conflict or plot is primarily around a large group of girls dating a guy. It appears that it is actually about. The bad thing. The bad thing. However, when the core relationship of the show is one of these types of relationships, it's often played out much more...

About we're talking about like the instinct, it's masturbating, it is being a good

Simone: father. Yeah, it's parenting. And this is what I actually think. I think it may be that Japan has become such a parenting and child devoid culture, essentially such an antinatalist or a natalist culture. That many of the people actually creating these animes and, and, and playing out these relationships.

think they're doing the bad thing. [00:10:00] Like they think they're pandering to the bad thing, but subconsciously they're pandering to a desire to raise children and be able to deeply sad. Yeah. They, yeah. But no, doesn't it kind of resonate? Doesn't that kind of make sense?

Malcolm: And here's another thing that I've noticed in the genre of shows where a dad.

It has to be a good dad to a girl that, you know, it's always that the girl is thrust upon him almost never in any of the ones I can think of that he has her biologically. Yeah. Usually that he got her through a marriage or through who he was dating or randomly was abandoned by her family. A great recent example of one of these shows is Spy Family.

Yeah. Although

Simone: keep in mind, again, in Japanese culture, the parenting culture is also very toxic and typically in their culture, the mother does all of the child rearing, just all of it. So also I think it's, you know, if, if a man wants to actually raise a kid, there is no existing cultural trope for that.

Like they have to be foisted upon them in some strange situation because there would be no [00:11:00] normal situation in which they would be involved in child rearing.

Malcolm: Yeah. I think you're right. You're right. And I think that, and also it can be like, there's certain things that people don't want to admit to themselves, given their cultural norms, it might be that wanting to be a dad is actually a harder thing to admit to oneself, like wanting to be a good father and failing at it, either because you were stuck at an office all day.

Yeah. Or because you were never able to find a partner. Yeah. Failing at that is harder to admit to oneself than failing to, you know, secure one of these bad relationships.

Simone: It is also so high stakes. Wanting to become a dad, if you screw up, if you don't do it right, it's, I think it's a much scarier thing even to aspire to, frankly, because of, this is a human life.

You can screw up pretty much anything else, a marriage, a career, and in the end. You're not that bad of a person, but if you screw up an entire additional human's life that you created, like an

Malcolm: entire additional [00:12:00] human life. I mean,

Simone: it's true,

Malcolm: though. So I, I like the theory. I don't think it's right everywhere, but I think it's right a number of times.

Because I definitely see it like in the enemy that we were talking about the first one that we're watching right now, their relationship isn't really sexualized at all. Like sort of background is implied that they're like dating or something like he invites her to live in his house immediately.

Remember? Yeah, well, I

Simone: don't, yeah, again, I think what's going on is creators assume that they're doing the bad thing. But what they really want is the good thing because also consider how asexual Japan is. So it's it's both like really sexual and that there's prostitution and there's you know, obviously like all this, this anime with fan service, like it is, it is obviously a very.

It's a much more sexually free nation in some ways, but then also it's a very sexless nation. So I think that many people think, they just assume that some feeling they have is a sexual perversion instead of a like wholesome instinct. Again, I think that's what's going on

Malcolm: here. [00:13:00] The anime's core thing that it is masquerading in an individual is just somebody appreciates me for the work I'm doing.

And

Simone: admires me and I can do good

Malcolm: work. Yeah, I'm doing work to support. This surrogate family and they, and, and, and the work when I put effort into it actually yields reward.

Simone: Yeah. Like it

Malcolm: actually works. It actually works. It yields rewards. I come home and the family appreciates me and gives me homemade food.

And you really don't

Simone: need that much to be happy. And we're not even getting that.

Malcolm: Well, it's so sad that that's the fantasy that this is this impossible. Otherworldly fantasy and, and this actually might bring us into why Iseke shows are popular more broadly, and I think that you can see that from this anime, is, and it's, it's sort of spelled out explicitly in this anime, that in our world, in the real world, working, he wants, he's,

Simone: Hold on.

Go back to in the real world and start again. In the real

Malcolm: world. [00:14:00] He can work as much as he wants. He can end up, you know, falling asleep at his desk, doing overpaid work at his office every single night and he may still be randomly fired. He may not get a promotion. He may, you know, there's, there's no assurances.

It's, it's like you're grinding like you would in a game, but there is no payoff and everything is systemically unfair. You know, you try to do the good thing. There's opportunities to do the good thing in an office you know, take responsibility for something for some other person not being punished, but you don't do it because realistically, you know, you're just going to end up getting punished for that.

The other person really has a no position to help you because you help them. It's just an unreciprocal society and it's a society that doesn't care about you or value. When you get home, you've done all this and you have a family who It's like, why are you home late? You know? And in video games, which is often where people go in easy case video game worlds their worlds with rules, [00:15:00] you do X and Y happens, you do Z and the F happens every single time.

Or no die roll modifier attached. Yeah. It is a world that feels. Fair in some way and I think in the U. S. Japan is just further along Civilizational collapse than we are exactly where we're gonna be in 10 years or whatever, right? Yeah Yeah, if we get there people feel their lives there are just much less meaningful and so this sort of return and reward is for work is deeply meaningful to them.

But I think that there's other reasons why this, this form of anime has become popular. I think that the biggest is unfortunately a pretty boring one. So occasionally when there are shifts in media or how the USA receives anime the animes that are popular within that exact cycle of anime.

[00:16:00] Become quote unquote classics even if they're not particularly better than

Simone: other anime or something you're saying isekai animes Because of their genre are just more likely to be globally popular.

Malcolm: I'll explain. This takes a bit of explanation. Historically in the U S if you're talking about really famous animes that became popular because of this, you could say, what were the first animes?

that were really translated and distributed in the U. S. You are looking at Dragon Ball Z, and you are looking at Sailor Moon. Sailor Moon, yeah. And those are both seen as like these really important big animes, but it's really just because they were animes that came out when the very first animes were being translated.

So, a lot of people were engaging with it. What anime was the big anime the first year where you had crunchy roll and streaming being big in the U. S.? This was, this was in the early days of all this, where people were really getting into streaming. Well, this was an anime called Sword Art Online, which was an Izakay anime.

And because of [00:17:00] its popularity, many people engaged with anime. through the lens of this genre and it artificially inflated the popularity of the genre. I hate to say it, but that's what's going on there.

Simone: I don't necessarily agree, but good

Malcolm: theory. Good, okay, okay. But there's another thing that I think is, is, is really important with this, which is also that it is a very good genre for getting across So, so it's a very, just a good genre for a few reasons in terms of storytelling.

One, it makes it very easy to explain to people who are in our universe, you and me, the rules of a different universe, because they are getting to figure out these rules through another individual. And that makes perfect sense. Okay, you want to explain rules in a way that someone in our universe could understand.

Well, Isekai anime would be a perfect way to do that. [00:18:00] Two, they often last over an individual's lifetime, or they're much more likely to last over an individual's lifetime than other types of anime. Often, this comes with the death, birth, growth trope and yet that's actually pretty rare in a lot of other formats of storytelling, yet it can be pretty impactful when you see major life milestones of an individual and you get to know them better.

By the way, if anyone's wondering what my favorite Isekai anime is... It is The Familiar Zero. That's a great anime. But anyway, so, What was I gonna say?

Simone: I think, I think, I disagree in terms of what has made them so popular. I just think people hate the real world. You know, the same reason why in Japan you see all this izakay.

Isekai anime is for the same reason why you see all this escapist zombie apocalypse stuff in the United States.

Malcolm: But why not just do generic fantasy then? So in the U. S., when you're creating a fantasy world, you don't often have somebody from [00:19:00] our world randomly put in. Yeah, but it's, it's

Simone: super an American form of escapism is doomerism and prepism.

It's like culturally our thing. Whereas in Japan, escapism is, is like through digital means and video games. I just think it's like sort of the outlet that we go to, the de facto outlet.

Malcolm: I would argue more Americans play video games and would identify themselves as gamers than preppers. I will say that you are right that an American genre that is much more popular here than in other countries due to our culture is the fantasy of the world falls apart and you are prepared and dealing with it.

Yeah but and that is that is not as popular in other actually really interesting.

Simone: I also think Japan is more in terms of the games that you see coming out of it. Although I'm way less well versed on this s**t. They are more. Japan produces more fantasy games, whereas like. Stuff like Fallout and, and first person shooter games are more likely to come out from American game designers.

So I think you're also, again, you're missing yeah, video [00:20:00] games are big in America, but they're also survivalist, Doomerism War zombie apocalypse video

Malcolm: games. Yeah, I was also thinking to what you were saying when you were talking about zombie apocalypse, where even the fantasy of a zombie apocalypse is often quite different in Japan.

Zomb 100, right? That has much more of an Iseke

Simone: fantasy. Are we, are you talking about the one where the guy The guy is an

Malcolm: office worker and he's

Simone: Okay. Yeah. We're yeah. So yeah. So yeah. In Japan, zombie apocalypse is, Oh my God, I don't have to do my job anymore. What's my bucket list now that we're in a zombie apocalypse?

I'm going to go on a road trip. I'm going to go to an onsen. Whereas like in America, it's Oh, we got to survive. We got to like reinforce. We got to move to family. You know what I mean? Like it is, I think it's a cultural thing. I think I'm right here.

Malcolm: No, I mean, I, I think you are right as well. A, okay.

Okay. Okay. So the next question is. What is going on with all the high school shows? Why is anime so frequently told through the perspective of a high school? Yeah,

Simone: yeah, it's [00:21:00] like you would think that, that in Japan... There are no adults, it's just children in high school, always. Yeah, I, I think a lot of that's because life after high school just sucks so hard in Japan and lacks like meaning and, and cultural celebration, which I think also plays a role in, in, in antinatalism, you know, and that like adults aren't really celebrated.

All adults really do is work and then die. What's the point? Whereas high school has a lot of weight in Japan and is also very heavily culturally celebrated. I mean, one, there's a huge amount of investment that goes into children's education. So, at every stage in life, if you're a parent, you're, like, obsessed with your kid's education.

If you're a kid, you're obsessed with your education because you're forced to be. And then... You know, there's this just like the narrative arc around it is so meaningful, but that the exams you take in, you know, in, in middle school to get into high school are so, so fricking important. And then your life in high school is so [00:22:00] important because the exams you use to get into college, you're going to determine which social class you're in and your entire life for the, you know, everything after that, it's just so weighty.

And there are all the narratives around that. So then it's, it's just hard to even create a story around post high school life because there is no focus. There's no cultural obsession around that.

Malcolm: Yeah. I'll be honest when I see animes that are about post high school life, they're usually pretty depressing.

Yeah. Usually the focus of them is how. Well, yeah.

Simone: If, if, or, or they're the isekai anime where. It's just about Oh, I'm not an adult anymore. Like I'm a kid.

Malcolm: I'm an adult. That's an interesting point. Iseke animes often take people who are adults. So another thing that I would note about this that I think is really telling is, when I look at Western shows, and we talked about this in our episode of you know, you already live in the perfect world in the Western concept of a fantasy, you are typically working was like a meaningfully the first group of people [00:23:00] to in some way, save the world or prevent the world from collapsing to do something that matters.

And we have tropes where we understand what it is like to do something that matters. I wonder if in Japanese society, there isn't even a trope of an adult living a life that matters unless they were born of like a specific

Simone: caste. There is. Yeah. If you're a samurai, if you're a ninja. Oh, and

Malcolm: they do a lot of shows around that.

But if you're not like a samurai or a ninja. You can't

Simone: like, basically, if you live in the modern world. No, I mean, I guess in oh God, what was the one about the, oh, death note, but like everyone's kind of a kid still, even though they're like, well, but isn't, I mean, I mean, yeah, they are like, well, they're, but they're working for police departments, except for the

Malcolm: one really smart guy, but he's high

Simone: school aged.

Yeah yeah, I guess because the other

Malcolm: [00:24:00] characters I think like they even find it at a high school or something. Yeah Hold on. I'm gonna check right now cuz I'm pretty sure you're wrong

Simone: about that. I'm really oh Okay, I guess there are also like fantasy anime Like what about the one with like police and ghosts or something that you were watching the other

Malcolm: day?

17 years old is how old they are. He's 17

Simone: Almost an adult But what about the one about like police that you were watching the other day? I'm trying to think. So

Malcolm: it's, it's people, this was something about exercising curses and curses were like represented as demon things. I was just watching the background.

Simone: So I guess again, only fantasy worlds are only historical. This is high school. Samurai.

Malcolm: They, they, they are drawn a bit older looking, but yeah, they're still in an academy. Oh wait, so

Simone: wait, wait, even in this like adult police force world where they're putting their lives on the line, they're still in high school.

Malcolm: Yeah, they're in a school. They're in a school for killing persons or demons basically. And yeah.

Simone: You can't have adults be adults unless they're leaving their adult life. Yeah. I just, I just think, you know, life. [00:25:00] Sucks that hard. As an adult in Japan, which I don't know I think Japan is awesome. I love it.

I love the food. I love the culture.

Malcolm: Oh, well, I'll give some other anime recommendations here. I've loved. So another is a K that I, I, I thought was pretty good was shield hero. I just really identify with the main character in that, which is if you go through hardship, you sort of end up over leveled when you then meet with people again, who are supposed to be gifted or privileged.

Simone: I thought you really liked what Demon Slayer as well, right? Was that what it was called? Goblin Slayer? The really dark one. Which one? About the guy who just kills

Malcolm: goblins. Oh god, I love Goblin Slayer. Goblin Slayer, culturally, no anime speaks to me as much as that. I'm like, this is my culture represented in anime.

I, I have never felt so spoken to.

Simone: Personality wise. No anime no anime speaks to you as much as Food Wars. [00:26:00] Which is just personality wise, the most Malcolm anime. Oh,

Malcolm: personality wise, that's definitely my favorite. My favorite anime of all time, my favorite show, media piece of all time, might be Food Wars.

Though I also really like Demon King Domino. That one, I really feel a lot of kinship with the character. That's the one where the guy... He wants to be the Pope but he is foretold to be the Demon King,

Simone: Oh, that one's cute. Well, and you also really that anime where everyone's way too smart and the man's really sad.

Oh, I

Malcolm: love that one. That one is called Code Geass.

Simone: Code Geass. Yes.

Malcolm: Gurron Loggin, though, I also really like. So, these are, these are a few.

Simone: Code Geass. Shout out to who's that really sad character.

Malcolm: Oh, gosh, the one who just killed Rufo or something, it's like heart or something, or he's like a bad guy, but then he becomes obsessed with the main character and he can stop time.

Simone: You just feel really bad for him. You just feel really

Malcolm: bad for the bad guy. Yeah, you just, you feel terrible. Remy. You just feel terrible for everyone in Code Geass, but I, I, I like it generally.

Simone: Miserable smart [00:27:00] people, the movie. Oh, and by

Malcolm: the way, anyone who's watching Code Geass and thinks this is all you need, it's a ripoff of Dune, by the way.

For people who don't know that. You really think

Simone: it's a ripoff of Dune? It's more fun, because it takes place in a high school. Maybe it's better

Malcolm: in high school. But he's clearly

Simone: You know, if Dune were all in high school, I bet it would be better.

Malcolm: I mean, the answer at the end of the show, spoilers by the way, is the God Emperor of Dune answer.

Which again, is what we talk about in our world as well, that that's, the virus that's controlling society right now is acting like a God Emperor that is uniting all of these factions that never would have united before.

Simone: Yeah, well, well, we're curious to know if there are any anime that we should be checking out.

Let us know in the comments because we, we basically are too cheap to pay for any other subscription. Yeah, we

Malcolm: don't have Netflix, we don't have HBO but we do have Crunchyroll. Yeah. So, please, help us. Please. And, and this, this pains me because I know I'm funding the people who made What was that?

Simone: We love them. It's fine.[00:28:00]

Malcolm: No, Crunchyroll is really, they made this thing where they put all the money that people were giving them. Sorry, I gotta remember this.

High Guardian Spice.

Simone: I've never heard of this before.

Malcolm: Well, because they tried to hide that they had done this afterwards. Where they told people that they were sending money to anime creators, but they actually hoarded the money and then used it to create a western animated show that was like the most woke show in the world.

Everyone working on it was like a 500 pound woman with blue hair. You know, it, it was the worst and it showed how little they regarded their fans. People can say well, why aren't I pirating things? Because we like watching it on the TV at dinner. Okay. Yeah. We have

Simone: one of those evil TVs that only allows you to go in through like legitimate logins.

Malcolm: Because it was not that I would pirate things. I'm not saying I would ever do that. I need to be very clear. You would never. You would never. Because I wouldn't consider it. Of course,

Simone: of course. Obviously, yeah. But yeah guys, let us know, and yeah, I enjoyed this conversation. Who knew that watching anime [00:29:00] would lead to so much contemplation about culture, but...

Yeah. I guess we all knew that. Yeah,

Malcolm: well, and I think it can help us be grateful, you know, even watching this anime where the escapism is that he comes home and he has a grateful woman there who has made food for him and cares that he has gone out and worked during the day and that is something that I already have.

So I already live in his weird fantasy heaven and now I'm in the post game and I appreciate that you have created that for me, Simone. Genuinely, I do.

Simone: By the way, it's Rolo. Shout out to Rolo. I'm so sorry, Rolo. Someone loves you,

Malcolm: Rolo. He was evil, though. He kind of deserved it. No, he didn't. You knew that the show was going to let him suffer.

Simone: Someone needed to put him out of his misery. But yeah, poor Rolo. Yeah, alright.

Malcolm: Oh wait,

Simone: you love you didn't even mention that one studio Studio Trigger that you love. [00:30:00]

Malcolm: Oh yeah, I love a lot of things. Panty, stocking, and garter belt is a great, one of my favorites that they've done.

Simone: And what about horse, pretty derby?

I don't think I'd care

Malcolm: that much. If I was going to give another anime recommendation, it'd be High School of the Dead. I think it's the best zombie thing ever created.

Simone: But I just, I think there needs to be a special shout out for anime that has just ridiculous... Premises and pretty derby, which is an anime about

Malcolm: a bunch of entertaining.

It's like fine. It's

Simone: not, but the fact that, that someone was like, you know, it would be a great idea. Let's make an anime in which girls are horses. There are horse girls and they run in races and they're like based off of real horses. And therefore we can't like, well, that's

Malcolm: why people might not know this, but it's actually pretty rare in Japan.

To see so what they they created this anime based on real famous racehorses and it's actually pretty rare to see. It like h made of it and the reason is [00:31:00] is because some of these are like dead like real horses from horse racing and many of them are owned by the yakuza who have an emotional attachment to the horses that the characters in this show are based on and so you would not risk CR creating anything.

You, you do not sell that.

Simone: Yeah, you can't, you can't rule 63 the yakuzas favorite horse. And so,

Malcolm: but I was gonna have one recommendation for what I think might be the best pizza media ever created. It is food wars. We talked about it before. I suggest people start on season two. It's, it gets into the good stuff better,

Simone: like immediately.

Yeah. Just to let people know. The premise of food wars, of course it takes place in a high school. But it is a high school that is very prestigious and is a food academy. And the primary like plot point of the academy is food challenges. So just think Iron Chef. But with students and with fan service.

It's sort

Malcolm: of like the Naruto arc where it's a school and they're fighting to show how good they are. Except the whole thing is done with creative food

Simone: battles. Yeah, like My [00:32:00] Hero Academia. Yeah. But the food battles are great because there are two things that are great about them. One is people are making really genuinely gourmet food.

And you're learning a lot about really obscure culinary practices. So, you're actually getting really good at cooking. And very informed as a gourmand as you watch the show. But then second. The reactions that characters have. To eating very good dishes involves a lot of fan service. And for those not familiar with anime, fan service is where people jigglypuff,

Malcolm: the humor, it tugs at you.

Like I, I laugh and cry and almost tear up at

Simone: the episodes. It, no, it definitely, like it, it, it gets so much better

Malcolm: than ratatouille. It's like ratatouille of ratatouille is good. Oh, actually another one that I had forgotten. Beastars is fantastic. Beastars is like Zootopia, but if there were actual systemic differences between the analogs for people of different

Simone: ethnic groups.

Yeah, and if you wanted to come away from every episode feeling like life is pointless and you want to die. You got

Malcolm: sad. It's sad. [00:33:00]

Simone: Yeah, I need food for us. We have to move on, Simone. I love you, Malcolm. I love you!

Malcolm: Have a great time! You too!

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