#103 Guardian of the Witch (Relook) (Ft. Manga Letter Brandon Bovia)

[00:00:00] Shonen Flop Intro

[00:00:13] This episode is brought to you ad-free thanks to all of our wonderful patrons.

[00:00:16] Get a ton of exclusive content and help us keep the show going by joining at patreon.com slash shonenflop.

[00:00:20] And welcome to this episode of Shonen Flop, where we talk about manga and shonen jump that didn't make it big.

[00:00:24] I'm David.

[00:00:25] I'm Jordan.

[00:00:25] Next week we'll be covering Mama YuYu if you want to read along with us.

[00:00:28] Mama YuYu.

[00:00:29] Be sure to join the discussion in our discord and submit your six word summary.

[00:00:32] You can find a link to the discord in our episode description and our website shonenflop.com.

[00:00:36] But we're not here to talk about that.

[00:00:38] It is our four year anniversary, Jordan.

[00:00:39] So that means we are revealing Guardian of the Witch and we are joined by the amazing Brandon.

[00:00:44] Brandon, thank you so much for joining us today.

[00:00:46] Hello.

[00:00:47] Glad to be here.

[00:00:48] Hey.

[00:00:48] Brandon, do you mind telling the listeners a little bit about yourself?

[00:00:51] I am a professional manga letterer.

[00:00:54] Hell yeah.

[00:00:55] If you don't know what that means, I basically copy and paste the translation into the art.

[00:00:59] I pick the fonts, make sure all the text is centered.

[00:01:01] I handle sound effects and things like, you know, art retouch.

[00:01:05] You know, if there's like a sign that needs to be kind of like translated in English or

[00:01:08] if we're like replacing sound effects, then, you know, we have to erase the Japanese and

[00:01:12] kind of redraw where the Japanese used to be and put the English sound effects in.

[00:01:15] It's a whole whole thing.

[00:01:16] Yeah.

[00:01:18] So Brandon, from one way of looking at this, you technically wrote this manga.

[00:01:23] In a way, I did.

[00:01:25] So you can direct all of your hatred towards me if it means protecting the actual manga

[00:01:31] artist.

[00:01:33] I'll own up to all of it.

[00:01:34] You were the final part of the writing chain.

[00:01:37] Yeah.

[00:01:38] Yeah.

[00:01:38] Because as we know, big sarcasm alert, as you all know, all of us in the localization

[00:01:43] business, you know, we all just love rewriting our manga and putting our grubby little fingers

[00:01:48] all over it.

[00:01:48] It's so fun, isn't it?

[00:01:50] Big, big sarcasm alert.

[00:01:52] That is a joke.

[00:01:55] Listeners, wait till you find out what has actually been going on in one piece.

[00:01:59] Yeah, it turns out our version is completely different.

[00:02:01] Yeah.

[00:02:02] I have so many questions for you.

[00:02:03] I'm trying to think of which one.

[00:02:05] What would you say is your favorite manga you're doing lettering for right now?

[00:02:08] Oh, gosh, that is a good question.

[00:02:11] Oh, I was not expecting that one.

[00:02:14] How dare he ask me a thoughtful question about my work?

[00:02:17] Kaiju number eight.

[00:02:17] That feels like the lazy answer, but it's a little true.

[00:02:20] It's a little true.

[00:02:21] OK, now what's your all time favorite?

[00:02:23] Guardian of the Witch.

[00:02:24] That's why he's on the episode, bro.

[00:02:25] Oh, yeah, exactly.

[00:02:26] I'm sorry.

[00:02:27] My co-host just doesn't understand sometimes.

[00:02:29] Still might also be Kaiju number eight.

[00:02:31] Whenever anybody asks me about like my work, I get the deer in the headlights.

[00:02:35] Look where I just suddenly I've forgotten everything I've done for the past seven years.

[00:02:39] How about I'll ask you a less stressful question.

[00:02:41] So one of the interesting innovations was the idea that someone realized, oh, we can

[00:02:44] just use a different font to represent when someone's speaking a different language without

[00:02:48] having to make it awkward.

[00:02:49] Oh, yeah.

[00:02:50] Do you have a favorite font you like to use to represent English text or something being

[00:02:54] said in English in a manga?

[00:02:56] I actually don't think it's ever come up.

[00:02:57] Oh, fuck me.

[00:02:58] I really thought that.

[00:02:59] Well, now you can think about it.

[00:03:02] I don't think that's the deer in the headlights thing, though.

[00:03:04] I genuinely don't know if that has come up in anything I've worked on.

[00:03:07] No, but I feel you.

[00:03:09] If somebody was like, hey, Jordan, what's your favorite episode of Shonen Flop?

[00:03:12] I'd be like, uh, yeah, the one where I was there.

[00:03:15] Yeah, this one.

[00:03:17] This is actually my favorite.

[00:03:18] Actually, it's your favorite episode, listener, because we care about the fans and we all

[00:03:23] care about talking about this manga.

[00:03:24] So let's get into the manga details.

[00:03:26] Jordan, tell us about this masterpiece.

[00:03:28] So this was written by Asahi Sakano, who was an assistant for Yuki Tadata of Black Clover

[00:03:36] and Hungry Joker, which was a previous episode and is bad.

[00:03:42] With friend of the show, Trey Watson.

[00:03:44] Friend of the show, Trey Watson.

[00:03:46] Sakano's other works include Kuro no Shinobi, which is a miniseries from Jump Giga about

[00:03:53] a modern day ninja who had to take jobs instead of living the normal school life he deeply

[00:03:59] desires.

[00:04:00] Fire Beast Alan 2019.

[00:04:03] That is another miniseries.

[00:04:05] Maxi B does not know what this is about, but apparently the titular flame swordsman whose

[00:04:12] name is Alan.

[00:04:13] Ha ha ha.

[00:04:14] Authentic Japanese name.

[00:04:16] Incredible, who looks exactly like the main character of Guardian of the Witch.

[00:04:20] The next one, though, is If I Can't Find Love, I'm Going to Die.

[00:04:25] How to Find True Love in 60 Days from 2020.

[00:04:30] It's one volume published by Bunkyosha.

[00:04:32] It's apparently a self-help guide to love that was written as a manga.

[00:04:37] So I think this guy's doing all right romantically.

[00:04:40] At least I would hope so.

[00:04:42] Otherwise, he's not somebody I would like to learn this from.

[00:04:45] I think 2020 is a bad year to release something called If I Can't Find Love, I'm Going to

[00:04:49] Die.

[00:04:50] I agree.

[00:04:52] If I can't get out there and date, I'm gonna die.

[00:04:56] Oh God.

[00:04:57] What's going on right now in the world?

[00:04:59] Anyway, the last one here is Beast King and Medicinal Herb.

[00:05:03] Wow.

[00:05:03] That's like Beast King and his pal Herb who's medicinal.

[00:05:08] And by that, I mean he smokes that medicinal herb.

[00:05:11] From 2023 to actually, it's still going.

[00:05:15] Two plus volumes on manga one.

[00:05:18] Sakuno is actually only the artist on this one.

[00:05:21] And it surprises me that people were like, man, you know what was great about Guardian

[00:05:26] of the Witch?

[00:05:27] The art.

[00:05:28] Yeah, the best part.

[00:05:29] Well, just looking at the cover of Beast King and Medicinal Herb, he leveled up.

[00:05:33] His art is a lot better.

[00:05:35] Oh, so it's like a dragon.

[00:05:36] Have you ever read Dragon and Phoenix?

[00:05:38] Or sorry, Dragon and Chameleon?

[00:05:39] David, you did it again.

[00:05:40] You did the exact same one again.

[00:05:42] It's not my fault.

[00:05:43] It's the name of my Chinese restaurant.

[00:05:46] Have you heard of Dragon and Chameleon?

[00:05:47] I've not.

[00:05:48] OK, so it's by the guy who made Amalgam of Distortion.

[00:05:50] And it's like probably the biggest glow up I've ever seen.

[00:05:53] Oh, it's about essentially a failed mangaka swapping bodies with Oda and like Oda being

[00:05:59] like, OK, well, I guess I got to start from scratch and make the new the next one piece.

[00:06:03] And this guy was a former Oda assistant.

[00:06:05] So it's like it's like very semi autobiographical.

[00:06:07] That's great.

[00:06:08] That's kind of awesome.

[00:06:09] It's super good.

[00:06:10] But yeah, we're we're not talking about any of that shit.

[00:06:13] We're talking about Guardian of the Witch, which ran from February 3rd, 2020 to June

[00:06:18] 22nd, 2020.

[00:06:20] It replaced Dr. Stone's reboot, Byakuya.

[00:06:24] I worked on that.

[00:06:25] Oh, yeah?

[00:06:26] Yeah.

[00:06:27] How was it?

[00:06:28] I don't read Dr. Stone, so I was confused, but it was fun.

[00:06:32] That is so weird that they wouldn't have the same letter for both series.

[00:06:35] And the series that replaced it is one of our favorite series we've ever covered on

[00:06:39] this show, Hard Boiled Cop and Dolphin.

[00:06:41] Oh, yes.

[00:06:42] I worked on that.

[00:06:43] Hell yeah.

[00:06:44] That was a great manga.

[00:06:45] You did a good job.

[00:06:47] Thank you.

[00:06:48] It was enjoyable.

[00:06:49] That was a fun that was almost like a full year it ran for, right?

[00:06:52] Yeah.

[00:06:53] I mean, as I said, it's one of the best series we ever covered on this show.

[00:06:56] It was.

[00:06:57] I'm flattered for that, even though I have nothing to do with the quality of.

[00:07:01] You wrote it, as we said.

[00:07:03] As we've established.

[00:07:06] Wow.

[00:07:06] Thank you.

[00:07:06] I did a good job.

[00:07:07] You did a very good job.

[00:07:09] And the series that started at the same time as Garni the Witch are Undead Unlock, which

[00:07:15] is a hit and Mashal, which was a hit.

[00:07:18] And the ninth episode of Shonen Vlog when we were still doing recommendation episodes.

[00:07:23] Which we still do, but only on Patreon.

[00:07:26] Wink.

[00:07:26] Yeah.

[00:07:26] Next thing you wanted us to do on Patreon was a recommendation episode about Baki.

[00:07:30] It's true.

[00:07:31] I forget things and I am currently sitting in a closet with no AC.

[00:07:37] I am cooking.

[00:07:38] All right.

[00:07:38] I am cooking.

[00:07:40] So let me cook further.

[00:07:41] This ran for 19 chapters, three volumes.

[00:07:45] So it is not the U19 club.

[00:07:47] It is the E19 club as in it equals 19.

[00:07:52] All right.

[00:07:52] And let's hear what happened in those 19 chapters.

[00:07:54] Let's get a goddamn plot summary.

[00:07:57] All right.

[00:07:57] So Brandon, please.

[00:07:58] I'm excited for you to be our inaugural guest for the first time we are changing it.

[00:08:01] So our guest goes first for the plot summary.

[00:08:03] Thank you for giving me a break.

[00:08:05] All right.

[00:08:06] Late on us.

[00:08:07] The world of Vuv is overrun by giant monsters called evils.

[00:08:10] Great.

[00:08:10] The city states within are protected by witches, teenage girls with strong magic powers given to

[00:08:16] them by seeds of evil, which will one day turn them into evils themselves.

[00:08:20] Minasva is one of those witches, specifically one with fire powers.

[00:08:24] And she is looked after by her maid Nata and protected by her guardian Fafnir.

[00:08:27] One day the leader of the rectory in their town commands Fafnir to kill

[00:08:30] Minasva because she's about to turn into an evil.

[00:08:33] Fafnir decides not to, grabs Minasva and Nata and escapes,

[00:08:36] saying they'll find a way to turn Minasva into a normal human again.

[00:08:39] When they're out of town, Nata says there's a witch in another town called Noir who rumor says

[00:08:44] was able to retire instead of dying as a teenager.

[00:08:46] So that's where they set off to.

[00:08:47] Is it popcorn, Jordan?

[00:08:49] What a series.

[00:08:50] What a plot summary.

[00:08:52] Very well written.

[00:08:53] In the first town they reach, they encounter Gen and Ruli.

[00:08:57] Hey, Brandon, do you know if it's Gen or Gen?

[00:09:00] I wanted to look it up and I did not.

[00:09:03] Gen.

[00:09:05] I'm a GIF over JIF guy, so I'm gonna go with Gen.

[00:09:10] It is GIF.

[00:09:10] Yeah, I work for GIFy.

[00:09:12] That is the GIF company.

[00:09:13] It is pronounced GIF.

[00:09:14] I don't care that the guy who created the format said it's JIF.

[00:09:18] He's wrong.

[00:09:19] Yeah, he was wrong.

[00:09:20] But yeah, Gen and Ruli, a guardian and witch combo, which is apparently a thing now.

[00:09:25] It wasn't before.

[00:09:26] It is now a thing.

[00:09:28] Also, like Ruli has metal powers and that's...

[00:09:31] They're not relevant characters.

[00:09:34] Fafnir and Manasva and Nata have been branded deserters, so they have been dispatched to kill

[00:09:40] Fafnir and Nata and bring Manasva in.

[00:09:43] Even though Fafnir and Manasva can't fight together like the other two can,

[00:09:46] they still force a retreat.

[00:09:48] The team then leaves the town to continue on their journey and they run into Mr. Drake,

[00:09:54] an ex-guardian turned scientist who fell in love with and killed his witch,

[00:09:58] and he seems to wear her skull around his neck.

[00:10:00] Yeah, and he has like a one of her hands, I assume is like part of his sword.

[00:10:04] It's like the pommel on his cane kind of, but it's a cane sword.

[00:10:08] So it's like, yeah, it's interesting designs.

[00:10:12] Yeah, he trains them to use their powers together gooder and says that if Manasva uses too much of

[00:10:18] her power, she'll turn into an evil.

[00:10:21] Oh no.

[00:10:22] They soon reach another city where the guardian, Claude, immediately recognizes them because,

[00:10:26] oh my God, this made me so angry.

[00:10:29] These fucking idiots were wearing cloaks that only guardians should have access to.

[00:10:34] Why are you still doing that?

[00:10:35] Why are you still wearing these fucking cloaks?

[00:10:38] The series has a lot where if you think about some of their actions too hard,

[00:10:41] it just doesn't make sense.

[00:10:42] You think about them a little bit.

[00:10:44] I got so mad.

[00:10:46] Claude and his witch with gravity powers, Spica, try and bring them in popcorn, David.

[00:10:53] Just then, Manasva-

[00:10:55] I know, it's a weird name.

[00:10:57] Remembers that Mr. J gave her a magic pen that acts as an HP bar for how long she has left

[00:11:02] before she turns into an evil.

[00:11:04] Spica uses too much of her power, though, and starts to transform when the evil Rector shows

[00:11:08] up and tells Claude to kill her, which he can't do because there's a huge flaw where you have

[00:11:11] very emotionally concerned people being used as their executioner.

[00:11:15] Right.

[00:11:16] Which is just such a stupid fucking system.

[00:11:18] They have one line where they say if they're not emotionally connected, then when they

[00:11:24] kill the witch, she'll like transform into an evil or even worse evil or something.

[00:11:30] And that just goes right out the window.

[00:11:31] But the guy had like his assassin squad killer because he's like, oh, well, main character's

[00:11:35] a wimp.

[00:11:36] Just have the fucking execution squad do it.

[00:11:38] So clearly it doesn't matter.

[00:11:39] There's so much shit that just completely contradicts itself like two or three chapters

[00:11:45] later.

[00:11:46] This author did so much attempts at retconning.

[00:11:49] Like you can't just start retconning things when you're under 20 chapters.

[00:11:52] What the fuck?

[00:11:53] Yeah.

[00:11:55] I'm just going to call her Mana because that's really what her name is.

[00:11:57] All right.

[00:11:57] Just then Mana remembers that Mr. Drake gave her a device to temporarily keep witches from

[00:12:02] transforming in the form of a blood transfusion or something.

[00:12:04] Oh, real convenient.

[00:12:06] You just had that.

[00:12:07] She's just like, oh shit, I just remembered and never brought this up before.

[00:12:11] Or needed to use it myself.

[00:12:13] Oh yeah.

[00:12:13] Like it probably would have been important to mention before.

[00:12:17] But nah.

[00:12:18] Like here we're just doing blood transfusions from the guardian to the witch so they can

[00:12:25] live longer.

[00:12:25] I like to think that she guards me.

[00:12:29] Anyway, they need 30 minutes of time for the transfusion to work, but Fafnir just punches

[00:12:33] him in the gut and all his grunts throw down their swords because they like Claude more

[00:12:37] than him.

[00:12:37] And a few days later he's arrested for tax fraud.

[00:12:41] Which actually happens.

[00:12:42] That is not a joke.

[00:12:43] They literally like soon later he was arrested.

[00:12:47] Right off screen for tax fraud.

[00:12:50] I love it.

[00:12:51] Fafnir, Mana and Nodded then arrive in a new village to meet Aqua, a brand new witch with

[00:12:55] water powers.

[00:12:56] She's got to go soon to a city state and her dad the mayor is big sad because he never

[00:13:00] told her that witches gotta die.

[00:13:02] The team drag him over to tell her to say goodbye.

[00:13:04] He says she's gonna die but Aqua's like, bitch, I already knew that because I read

[00:13:08] your diary.

[00:13:09] Flash forward five years and Mana stands in front of a crowd and puts a ring on that turns

[00:13:14] her normal again.

[00:13:15] The end and I still don't understand what the purpose of that Aqua chapter was when

[00:13:18] the author clearly knew he was getting cancelled in the next chapter.

[00:13:21] God, the last chapter.

[00:13:24] Even at the time I remember thinking like, huh, what a pointless use of your second to

[00:13:30] last chapter.

[00:13:31] It's so confusing because like they spend all this time talking about how being a witch

[00:13:35] is terrible, you know, like we want to stop people from being a witch and then they're

[00:13:39] like, oh, she's going to be a witch.

[00:13:40] Let's let's send her off.

[00:13:42] OK?

[00:13:42] Yeah, we can poke holes at this story, but we do need to go through the characters.

[00:13:46] We're not in the right section to do that yet.

[00:13:48] You're right.

[00:13:49] So Brandon, do you mind telling us about Captain Fafner?

[00:13:52] Yeah, yeah, Fafner is an interesting one because he's a captain or like so he's he's

[00:13:57] somebody who is like simultaneously competent and incompetent at the same time who is like

[00:14:03] built up to be like, obviously, this is to be a guardian of a witch and to sort of like

[00:14:07] be in this position where you have to form a bond with another person but but is also

[00:14:12] still very like immature and kind of bratty and kind of, you know, I feel like in a very

[00:14:15] typical shonen hero kind of way sees the world in a very kind of naive and simple

[00:14:19] light but is also again.

[00:14:20] Why is every I'm sorry, I can't keep this in until the next section.

[00:14:24] Why is every other guardian aware of the real job except for Fafner?

[00:14:28] Competently incompetent.

[00:14:29] Oh my god.

[00:14:30] Can we talk about how he's able to block explosives with a scabbard, which doesn't make any sense?

[00:14:35] Yeah, no, it's just.

[00:14:37] He has two thin objects that somehow are able to redirect explosive forwards.

[00:14:42] I think what gets me really is like Fafner is shown to be hyper competent against really

[00:14:48] random goons, like like crowds of goons.

[00:14:50] But the second it's like one guardian and one witch.

[00:14:53] He's like, man, I'm cooked.

[00:14:54] That's it.

[00:14:54] Yeah, I can't fight.

[00:14:56] It's weird because he's like supposed to be stronger than all these guys, but he's also

[00:15:01] clearly like 14.

[00:15:02] That's the thing.

[00:15:03] That's what gets me about it is it so he is very like, you know, he's got that typical

[00:15:08] like teenage, you know, hero enthusiasm, you know.

[00:15:11] But but again, it's just it's a weird mix with how he like his starting point feels

[00:15:16] like he is an experienced person who knows nothing.

[00:15:19] I love how they tried to do the like Enies Lobby or not that he's lobbied this fucking

[00:15:23] what is it?

[00:15:24] The fucking thing in one piece when everyone dies of the Buster call the Marineford thing

[00:15:28] at the end where Luffy goes, I'm weak and they literally didn't like chapter like 18

[00:15:32] of this manga or it's like chapter nine.

[00:15:35] And I was like, how are you fucking in like the first volume of the series?

[00:15:38] And he's already has hands and knees crying about how he's not strong enough to protect

[00:15:41] everyone.

[00:15:41] Oh, God, it's funny because they had basically been through one fight with one other guardian

[00:15:47] which pair which he won, which he won.

[00:15:49] And then like a bunch of monsters which they knew were out there.

[00:15:52] God, it's so they knew were out there and he'd fought before.

[00:15:58] Yeah.

[00:15:58] And she had fought before.

[00:16:00] She had literally killed a shitload of her.

[00:16:02] That is her job to kill evils.

[00:16:05] They explained it away by like being up in the castle like boosts your magic power.

[00:16:10] And so now that they're out in the boonies, just like, well, you suck now.

[00:16:13] There's a weird reset that seems to happen.

[00:16:15] Like everybody kind of everybody starts operating on one brain cell.

[00:16:18] The second they leave.

[00:16:19] This is more like Guardian of the Retcon.

[00:16:22] You know, guys, they she had the high ground.

[00:16:26] Exactly.

[00:16:26] Yeah.

[00:16:27] We do have to move on.

[00:16:28] So speaking of Mons Fah, Jordan, do you mind telling us about the little bratty witch?

[00:16:32] Menafsah.

[00:16:33] First of all, her hair annoys me.

[00:16:36] Oh, B witch would have been a good cover for this.

[00:16:38] For some reason, her hair just annoys the shit out of me.

[00:16:42] It's like I don't what do I say about this character?

[00:16:46] She's kind of an asshole.

[00:16:48] She has firepower.

[00:16:50] She's constantly like complaining, but not at the same time.

[00:16:53] It's like, oh, she's lovable.

[00:16:55] You know, she's lovable and she likes to eat a lot.

[00:16:58] And her and like Fafter have like I almost said FAFSA.

[00:17:03] God, he is a student loan.

[00:17:05] Student loan.

[00:17:06] Her and the Fafter have like this, this energy together, which is it's I would describe everything

[00:17:13] in this series as generic as fuck.

[00:17:16] Their relationship is generic as fuck.

[00:17:20] Like, oh man, they hate each other.

[00:17:23] But do they really?

[00:17:24] Nah, they don't actually hate each other.

[00:17:26] They actually care, but they still insult each other.

[00:17:30] They're just a bunch of Sundares.

[00:17:32] Oh, of course.

[00:17:33] Oh God, they're all Sundares.

[00:17:35] But like so much less interest.

[00:17:37] God, and she's just hungry all the time.

[00:17:40] Oh God, again, like I don't know how to describe her character.

[00:17:44] Arguably, she doesn't have one.

[00:17:46] Yeah, so we can move on.

[00:17:48] Speaking of even worse is Nahata where even the author is like, why the fuck do I have

[00:17:52] this character here?

[00:17:53] Why was she there?

[00:17:55] I don't know what the series would have lost if she was just removed.

[00:17:58] I agree, but she's of the three.

[00:18:00] She is like the closest to being interesting, I think.

[00:18:04] But then the author just completely forgets about her in the second half of the series.

[00:18:08] Yeah.

[00:18:09] I liked that one bit in chapter like two or three where she's just like, oh yeah, I lock

[00:18:14] picked and found out all this information.

[00:18:15] There is a nugget of like a really interesting character there who's like, again, like secretly

[00:18:19] the most competent and is kind of the most level headed one of the group.

[00:18:23] I did think it was really funny how in chapter two, like all of chapter one, she's like,

[00:18:27] you can't change a witch back into a human.

[00:18:31] You can't do that.

[00:18:32] And then as soon as they get out of the into like the wasteland or whatever, she's like,

[00:18:37] oh, by the way, I actually did kind of hear something about how you can change a witch

[00:18:41] into a human.

[00:18:42] Okay.

[00:18:43] I can at least understand that it is such a long shot that it doesn't bear mentioning.

[00:18:47] But now, now that they're in this situation, now that they're out here.

[00:18:50] Well, this is this is the one lead we've got.

[00:18:52] So we might as well.

[00:18:53] But yes.

[00:18:54] Yeah, I can.

[00:18:55] I can understand that any normal person would be like, yeah, this this good.

[00:18:58] Yeah, probably not.

[00:18:59] It's not worth a trip.

[00:19:01] Yeah.

[00:19:01] And then finally, Brandon, do you want to tell us about Drake, who I would say is the best

[00:19:04] character in the series by a very substantial margin?

[00:19:08] He's the mentor.

[00:19:09] And I'm really shocked that he didn't die at the end because he is with the hat.

[00:19:14] He's got a little bit of like the Zeppelin energy from Jojo Part One, but like he just

[00:19:19] has the tired dad energy.

[00:19:21] He reminds me of Faust from Shaman King.

[00:19:23] Oh, that's a good one.

[00:19:24] Yeah.

[00:19:25] Yeah.

[00:19:25] He's just walking around with his dead wife's skull hanging around his his neck.

[00:19:30] He throws hypodermic needles at like the evils to pacify them and then never again.

[00:19:38] He has like magic alchemy basically, you know, which is also if he can just do that.

[00:19:43] Why do they need the witches when he overpowered a witch using this technique?

[00:19:46] I don't know.

[00:19:47] I don't know why they need the witches.

[00:19:49] They apparently don't because they send witches out of the city states all the time.

[00:19:54] Like, I don't know what's happening in the town where Gen and Rilou live.

[00:19:59] What's going on right now?

[00:20:01] They're not there.

[00:20:02] Oh, yeah, they just come back in the entire city's massacred because they left.

[00:20:05] It was like, well, we left.

[00:20:07] Yeah, clearly they weren't that important.

[00:20:08] Well, they had to have had some plan because they were about to execute her.

[00:20:11] I also love how the series is just set in England.

[00:20:14] Like they show the map.

[00:20:15] Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[00:20:15] It's not like 100 Hundred where it kind of looks like the world.

[00:20:17] It has the North Ireland border on the map.

[00:20:20] I didn't notice that.

[00:20:23] What complex political events occurred where there is a North Ireland divide in this fictional

[00:20:28] universe?

[00:20:28] God.

[00:20:29] Again, it's just a sign that Offred didn't actually think about anything when he was

[00:20:32] plotting this planet, this world out.

[00:20:34] Yeah, the world building is it's real first draft.

[00:20:38] But I think I think that's a sign.

[00:20:39] Let's get into why it failed and formally talk about this.

[00:20:42] Yeah.

[00:20:43] All right.

[00:20:43] So, Jordan, I know you are very excited to talk about issues of this series, which I

[00:20:47] think we've only gotten more mad since we read this four years ago.

[00:20:51] So what stands out to you are the issues?

[00:20:53] Yeah, I mean, the two V2 system.

[00:20:55] I'm sorry.

[00:20:56] It doesn't feel like he had that idea in Chapter one.

[00:21:00] It makes no fucking sense.

[00:21:03] The series is short, so they only run into two other guardian which combos, but they're

[00:21:08] very aware that this system exists and they've been practicing to the point where they're

[00:21:13] like, yeah, the purpose of a guardian and a witch are to empower themselves.

[00:21:16] But like they never mentioned it.

[00:21:18] Like apparently Manassas and Fafnir were the exception there who were not doing that.

[00:21:25] Yeah, it's just the burden of not being told anything, I guess.

[00:21:30] They just didn't know anything.

[00:21:31] So like they have this stereotypical training arc where the main characters are supposed

[00:21:35] to like figure out how the power system works in like a clever way.

[00:21:38] And that's like how they beat them.

[00:21:39] Drake just says, fight me with mana.

[00:21:41] Like it's a two V one me.

[00:21:43] And I'm like, yeah, you suppose why didn't you let him figure that out?

[00:21:46] You just literally told him how the combat system works.

[00:21:49] That was what happened to Shaman King.

[00:21:51] Imagine if someone was like, oh, bro, you got to put your soul in the sword if you want

[00:21:54] to beat me.

[00:21:54] I do sort of like the moment where they're like, we're too stupid to fight with tactics,

[00:21:59] but it also feels like the author giving up a little bit.

[00:22:01] The author is like, I'm too stupid to come up with interesting tactics.

[00:22:05] I don't know if I would go that far necessarily, but yeah, I just want to make sure we discuss

[00:22:10] there was some weird sexualization of the female characters where they continue to show

[00:22:13] them in their underwear for no reason.

[00:22:15] Yeah, because that's the only way that you can see how the evil said that the seed of

[00:22:19] evil has progressed is to be naked as one does.

[00:22:22] I was grateful that there was underwear.

[00:22:25] Well, this is a Shonen manga short.

[00:22:26] I mean, look, there have been a lot of Shonen manga that do these like leering angles and

[00:22:33] stuff where it's like, oh man, you're just barely not seeing the bits.

[00:22:38] But here it was just like, nah, they're just in their underwear.

[00:22:41] Here you go.

[00:22:42] It felt like kind of.

[00:22:45] Kind of you do or you don't, right?

[00:22:46] Like.

[00:22:47] That's what it is.

[00:22:48] It's like, well, how else am I supposed to show this?

[00:22:50] It didn't feel like he went overboard with it.

[00:22:54] But you still made the choice anyway.

[00:22:56] Exactly.

[00:22:56] You still made the choice anyway.

[00:22:58] Thank you.

[00:22:58] You wanted it, but you couldn't not make it weird.

[00:23:01] Yeah.

[00:23:02] But you're kind of in this in between.

[00:23:04] It's a lot.

[00:23:04] I feel like there is a missed opportunity maybe here about, I mean, we're in this kind of

[00:23:09] like this world and the system that has such an emphasis on, I can't not make this sound

[00:23:15] weird, but like the bodies of these girls, right?

[00:23:17] Like, and sort of like how they're seen in society and how they're treated.

[00:23:22] It felt like there wasn't really any kind of desire to unpack that further.

[00:23:26] But while I was rereading it, I was thinking like, you know, there was something here.

[00:23:29] Maybe more consideration could have been put into like how the setting views like the way

[00:23:34] that they talk about like, oh yeah, you know, basically like one in 10 girls like sacrifice

[00:23:37] their bodies basically like or like only one in 10 survive.

[00:23:40] It's like 1% of people survive the witchification process, right?

[00:23:44] Yeah.

[00:23:44] Which feels not very useful.

[00:23:47] Yeah.

[00:23:48] I mean, here's the thing.

[00:23:49] This is the most blatant, like this is the author's like first like series really.

[00:23:53] Oh, for sure.

[00:23:54] For sure.

[00:23:54] You can just tell how many things this author didn't understand.

[00:23:57] Like the author had this issue where he was trying to shortcut scenes like you know how

[00:24:01] Oda does, but he didn't understand when to use that tool.

[00:24:03] So it's just seems like a bunch of continuity mistakes.

[00:24:06] Like when they're sneaking up on the watchtower, they didn't even say how they even got to the

[00:24:09] watchtower and then they just kind of teleport behind the tower with like a really stupid

[00:24:13] jumping scene, which didn't make sense how the normal humans did that technique to get

[00:24:16] over the tower.

[00:24:17] And it's just like sit and actually think about how this fucking anything in the series

[00:24:21] works because it doesn't make sense if you actually put logic towards anything.

[00:24:24] There are scenes like I can let myself get washed over in the vibes, but I feel like

[00:24:28] there are also like there's a little bit too much of that.

[00:24:31] And you're just like, yeah, you start to feel it more and more than like the kind of the

[00:24:34] world building and the setting just needed a little more time in the oven.

[00:24:38] Can I also just say I was extremely confused over how many people, how many people knew

[00:24:45] how much about witches?

[00:24:47] It seemed to vary a lot, like because it's like first of all, like David said, it's like

[00:24:53] it seems like an extremely torturous process.

[00:24:56] And yet like Manasva shows like a flashback of her being like, I want to be a witch.

[00:25:02] And it's like, does nobody notice like all these girls dying?

[00:25:06] Right.

[00:25:07] Has nobody noticed this?

[00:25:09] That high of a failure rate you would think like this would be something that's like it

[00:25:13] would be like noble almost to want to do that to yourself.

[00:25:16] But no, it just kind of seems like we just I feel like everybody in this world just kind

[00:25:20] of like is withholding crucial information from each other.

[00:25:23] Yeah, I just because the author didn't have it sorted out.

[00:25:26] Or here's another thing.

[00:25:27] I'm just thinking about this right now.

[00:25:29] People don't realize that the witch has to die at like like young for some reason.

[00:25:34] What do they think happens when a new witch shows up?

[00:25:36] Like they went to a farm upstate like where the old one go?

[00:25:40] Yeah, you know, putting out old yellow 14 year old old yellow.

[00:25:44] You figure they notice all the previous which is gone now.

[00:25:47] Like I feel like it's not just who knows.

[00:25:50] It's like how do they not know that this is happening?

[00:25:53] I think if one thing is true is that this system sucks and I can see why our heroes

[00:25:59] are going to try and change it.

[00:26:01] But yes, the last thing I want to talk about is really just like the morality of this series

[00:26:06] is so blatantly black and white where everyone is good is extremely good.

[00:26:10] Everyone who's evil is so blatantly evil.

[00:26:13] Like they didn't even have the balls to make the bad guys kind of have a good point where

[00:26:17] these are actually very dangerous weapons and these necessary because they're like, Oh no,

[00:26:20] we can't have you sympathizing sympathizing with the bad guys.

[00:26:23] We have to have them have other traits that also make them terrible along with having an

[00:26:28] arguably justifiable position on this topic.

[00:26:31] You know, I was really disappointed while I was reading the the arc with Claude and

[00:26:36] whatnot.

[00:26:36] I was really into it from like a thematic standpoint and then they introduced the rector

[00:26:40] who is just like the most like objectively evil cartoon villain and I'm like, Oh my god,

[00:26:45] the rector all of the potential nuance that this had like he starts busting out like

[00:26:49] owl helicopters.

[00:26:50] I'm like Babby's first villain in miscellaneous thoughts.

[00:26:53] We got to talk about the shoes but not right now.

[00:26:56] We do have to talk about what it did well.

[00:26:58] So shall we move into that?

[00:26:59] Yeah, sure.

[00:27:00] Oh, also, this is a ripoff of attack on Titan just to make sure we get that out there before

[00:27:05] we go on.

[00:27:06] It's like attack on Titan if the Titans don't even fucking matter even remotely.

[00:27:12] The evils do nothing.

[00:27:14] They do absolutely nothing.

[00:27:16] Attack on Titan didn't didn't invent fantasy settings with big walls and monsters coming.

[00:27:20] I don't think attack on Titan owns that.

[00:27:22] I think Fafter biting into his thumb is where I was like, all right.

[00:27:26] I mean, it was also like at its cultural peak when this came out.

[00:27:29] Yeah, I guess so.

[00:27:30] Yeah, it's like he started at attack on Titan and was like, fuck it.

[00:27:34] I'm doing Zatch Bell.

[00:27:35] God.

[00:27:38] All right, fuck it.

[00:27:38] Well, let's talk about things that did well.

[00:27:40] So right.

[00:27:40] Yeah.

[00:27:41] Braynon, I know you take me as a positive guy.

[00:27:43] So why don't you tell me what were you so excited to talk about this series in terms

[00:27:46] of things that did well?

[00:27:47] I actually think Fafner and Minasa's dynamic is sort of like the core.

[00:27:52] I actually really like watching them interact because they do have this.

[00:27:56] They feel very brother and sister.

[00:27:58] Right.

[00:27:58] And I could totally imagine that this author probably has siblings and can understand like

[00:28:03] there's a little bit of that, like we're all working for the same goal, but we're going to

[00:28:06] rip each other.

[00:28:06] You know, we're going to kind of get at each other's heels a bit.

[00:28:09] But like when the chips are down, like we're going to learn how to work together.

[00:28:12] Yeah.

[00:28:12] And so those aspects I was actually super down for.

[00:28:15] And I think even on this reread, that's probably the like the strongest aspect is that core

[00:28:20] dynamic works, even if, you know, the maid is just kind of there to round out the trio.

[00:28:27] But I do think that the core main character dynamic, but the dynamic works.

[00:28:31] It's classic, but it works.

[00:28:32] I think that if you zoom out, there are things in this series that are potentially interesting.

[00:28:38] Like we were talking about this system, you know, you were talking about like how the

[00:28:42] world kind of treats these girls' bodies.

[00:28:44] You know, there is room for social commentary there.

[00:28:47] There is room to actually like try and say something.

[00:28:51] Yeah.

[00:28:51] You know, you could really get into something interesting there.

[00:28:54] This is the positive section, so I'm not going to talk about how the execution went,

[00:28:59] but I'm just saying.

[00:29:01] Speaking of, I mean, the series has a lot to do with poor executions.

[00:29:07] Yeah.

[00:29:07] Every manga's got at least one interesting idea.

[00:29:09] Here's the thing.

[00:29:10] I'm a sucker for two on two battles.

[00:29:12] It's like so underdeveloped.

[00:29:14] It's so cool.

[00:29:14] Like I love reading Demons of the Shadow Realm.

[00:29:16] If y'all are familiar with that, that's by the creator of Fullmetal Alchemist, which is weird

[00:29:19] that not a lot of people read the new series by the creator of Fullmetal Alchemist.

[00:29:23] But that's explicitly about two on two battles.

[00:29:26] It's like kind of like Pokemon, but everyone gets to like Pokemon with them, which is really

[00:29:29] cool.

[00:29:30] Yeah, so that's like a fun idea.

[00:29:31] And then there is that hint of the psychological drain where it's like the main character like

[00:29:36] does have a lot of self doubt, which I think is a really interesting topic.

[00:29:40] It's again very poorly executed, but it is nice to actually see main character admit

[00:29:44] he has limitations, a desire to grow strong and just knowing that he will have to evolve

[00:29:49] and grow as a person self actualize if he wants to meet the challenges that he's going

[00:29:53] to have to experience in this adventure.

[00:29:55] I will say, like as generic as Fafnir may be, I think he's pretty likable.

[00:30:00] You know, you want to root for him.

[00:30:01] You want to root for him.

[00:30:02] He's like he's a good guy and you know, he's really had to like work and train for where

[00:30:08] he is right now.

[00:30:10] He went through a traumatic event that was similar to what Eren Jaeger went through.

[00:30:15] But yeah, no, you want to root for the guy.

[00:30:18] I'm a sucker for like characters with big dreams, you know, like especially establishing that

[00:30:22] like, hey, yeah, this whole system of witches like kind of sucks for everybody.

[00:30:27] So I really understand why they want to change this system.

[00:30:30] And like it is such an overwhelming task to try to do right and sort of having the characters

[00:30:36] kind of admit like, yeah, we're way in over our heads here, but like, gosh darn it, we're

[00:30:40] going to try our best anyway.

[00:30:41] You know, again, I feel like that's also very, very cliche and very classic, but you

[00:30:45] know, it's easy to want to root for characters in that situation.

[00:30:48] Yeah, except you don't actually ever see any consequences of it.

[00:30:51] No, just comes and say levels them up to be able to play with the big boys.

[00:30:55] Many negative section here.

[00:30:57] Tiny little negative section here.

[00:30:59] All right.

[00:31:00] It seems like they're constantly like, oh man, they're almost going to transform.

[00:31:04] She's almost going to transform like the end of Chapter one.

[00:31:07] They're like, oh man, Manas is going to transform any second or something.

[00:31:11] You got to kill her before that happens.

[00:31:12] And then apparently it's like, no, you got more.

[00:31:14] You got enough time.

[00:31:15] You actually have enough time to fill out what's definitely going to be a 100 plus

[00:31:20] chapter series.

[00:31:22] They said she has six months.

[00:31:24] Do they specifically?

[00:31:25] I think they said she had six months.

[00:31:27] Oh, I might have missed that.

[00:31:28] I missed it.

[00:31:29] See the series also.

[00:31:31] I mean, a list listener.

[00:31:32] I'll see if I can find it when they mention it.

[00:31:34] But listener, if I'm wrong, you can comment on it.

[00:31:36] They needed.

[00:31:37] I believe you too.

[00:31:38] But this series, this happened with the collar around her neck to where it's like they might

[00:31:44] have introduced it, but they introduced it with like a passing mention.

[00:31:48] Oh yeah, it's kind of gone.

[00:31:49] It's sort of brought up and not talked about again.

[00:31:52] It's not talked about until suddenly it's like, whoa, she's breaking her collar.

[00:31:56] And it's like she had a collar.

[00:31:57] What?

[00:31:58] I missed that.

[00:31:58] Yeah, God, it's so stupid.

[00:32:00] Also, I want to say the art is at least respectable.

[00:32:02] I've definitely seen far worse art.

[00:32:04] I've seen worse, but I mean, I've seen a lot that is better.

[00:32:08] We've read Zahn.

[00:32:10] Yeah, we've seen the absolute worst dog shit, David.

[00:32:13] It's like the art's in this weird place where like it seems at first glance like it's good

[00:32:19] and then you kind of look at it more and you're like, this is not good.

[00:32:23] Like Jordan, I have like three bullets for the positives.

[00:32:26] Just let it have this.

[00:32:27] OK, OK, so we're still in the positives.

[00:32:30] I'll save my thought.

[00:32:30] I'll save my thought that.

[00:32:32] All right.

[00:32:32] Well, on that note, why don't we go into where it could have gone?

[00:32:35] Brandon, was your thought related to that if you want to kick things off or was it something

[00:32:39] different?

[00:32:40] I'm probably going to forget if we don't talk about it, but just like on the topic of art

[00:32:43] and I guess where it could have gone because it is sort of like an adventure manga, you

[00:32:47] know, where you're very they're trying to get from one place to the next.

[00:32:50] Right?

[00:32:50] Yeah.

[00:32:50] This might be a hot take.

[00:32:52] Actually, I mean, it's not that hot take for a shonen manga, but like I think this manga

[00:32:56] would be a lot better if it didn't have fights just straight up.

[00:32:58] Yeah, the fights are really stupid.

[00:33:00] The fights are really not good.

[00:33:02] Really, really rough.

[00:33:03] And I think if it focused more on because like it doesn't really spend that much time

[00:33:07] in each individual location.

[00:33:09] And I know, you know, by a certain point, you know that you're going to have to wrap

[00:33:11] it up.

[00:33:12] So I get that.

[00:33:12] But like they basically get to like they said, like we have seven stops on our way to Noir

[00:33:17] and we get to two of those.

[00:33:19] And it really feels like they are so much more about fighting people at those places

[00:33:24] rather than letting those places build out the setting.

[00:33:27] So I really think for how much time they take up and for how really kind of not great the

[00:33:32] action is, I think it would be much stronger if it was more more adventure and less like

[00:33:37] fighty fights because yeah.

[00:33:39] Also, I'm sorry.

[00:33:41] We need to see a witch turn into an evil.

[00:33:43] Yeah, that's one of my main bullets was like we don't actually ever see this or I

[00:33:47] guess probably one of the twists is like all the evils are which witches are like they

[00:33:50] didn't even introduce like some super powerful evils that we'll later find on are the witches

[00:33:54] when they fully corrupt or something like that.

[00:33:56] Yeah, because that could have been what kicks their dick in is like a fully corrupted witch,

[00:33:59] right?

[00:34:00] Yeah.

[00:34:00] I feel like the first place they visit would be a good time for that.

[00:34:04] Yeah, I 100% agree that regardless of whether the series has any fights or not, they should

[00:34:12] not have been this 2v2 witch guardian thing.

[00:34:16] This did not work.

[00:34:18] I really don't think it was a good idea.

[00:34:20] In like a formal way, right?

[00:34:22] Like I think you could still have like two on twos, but to have this sort of like weirdly

[00:34:26] both over and under explained system of like tuning your magic through another person like

[00:34:33] because clearly I think on that level, the author kind of ran out of steam really fast.

[00:34:38] So if it was just fights that happened to be 2v2s or even you know, like again, they

[00:34:42] fight evils like what's uh, and having like one chapter.

[00:34:47] Yeah, one chapter really briefly.

[00:34:49] That's what I feel like it should have been like this.

[00:34:51] You're right.

[00:34:51] This should have been more of an adventure manga like we should find out, you know, more

[00:34:56] about the evils that are out there, but it's like no, we have to get them to a town immediately.

[00:35:01] No, I want to see them like go through this wilderness or whatever and run into like the

[00:35:06] dangers.

[00:35:06] Survive the British wilderness.

[00:35:09] You could delete Gen from this manga entirely and replace that with like like four more

[00:35:14] chapters of them like staying in that village and learning about the world in the setting.

[00:35:19] Oh God, it's so badly needed cool down chapters.

[00:35:22] Yeah, yeah.

[00:35:23] Where you almost think they're gonna do shit where it's like, oh, they're just hanging

[00:35:26] out.

[00:35:26] We're learning about the world.

[00:35:26] No, no, no.

[00:35:27] We have to have these fucking guillotine guys show up for no reason.

[00:35:29] Have a fight scene instead of him actually being able to organically learn about the

[00:35:32] world.

[00:35:33] Like five different manga entirely completely different manga.

[00:35:37] It feels like he got dropped into a fantasy setting.

[00:35:40] You're like, here's this.

[00:35:42] Yes, you have brought up something very important that I almost forgot, which is I fucking hated

[00:35:48] Gen.

[00:35:48] Yeah, yeah.

[00:35:49] Fucking sucked.

[00:35:50] He's so bad.

[00:35:52] Maybe the biggest early red flag where I was like, OK, here's our here's our first enemy,

[00:35:56] and he feels like he feels like he would be the protagonist in another at another manga,

[00:36:00] and there's not really like he's yeah, he's just very generic.

[00:36:03] I guess he's like the shittiest version of Black Star from Soul Eater.

[00:36:09] Yeah, I mean, every shonen manga has that character who's just like, you know, they're

[00:36:12] just really stupid and they love to fight and they're a little rude.

[00:36:15] Yeah, and there wasn't really anything else about him that made him stand out.

[00:36:19] Other than he was just a douche.

[00:36:21] It's a really bizarre first enemy, and it makes you wonder if like he was being set

[00:36:26] up to become like a friendly rival at some point.

[00:36:29] But I really think like Chapter three or four is way too early for that.

[00:36:33] He literally tortures his witch.

[00:36:35] He tortured his witch.

[00:36:36] The series makes it if you are bad, you have to be unquestionably evil.

[00:36:40] Yes.

[00:36:41] His witch summons an iron maiden to torture herself with and he's like her pain makes

[00:36:47] my powers stronger.

[00:36:49] There's no no time to unpack any of that.

[00:36:51] No, but that's definitely what was going to happen.

[00:36:55] Like he was definitely going to be their friend because in the final chapter they're hanging

[00:36:59] out and they're like, oh man, they finally did it.

[00:37:01] They really did it like as if they were like they were going to be like their rivals.

[00:37:07] Yeah, and they completely like they have like proved that there is a witch cure.

[00:37:12] So why do they never bring this up to any of the other witches are trying to fight them?

[00:37:16] Yeah, yeah, I think you're right.

[00:37:18] If this hadn't been about fighting, it would have been a much more interesting series because

[00:37:22] the fights take up so much time and they're so they're so over explained that it really

[00:37:27] feels like you can't really get a sense of momentum because every like every character

[00:37:32] is talking all of the time while they're fighting.

[00:37:33] Yeah, but you know, I feel like that is also a very like classic shown in formula kind

[00:37:37] of thing.

[00:37:37] But talking is a free action.

[00:37:41] It felt like the author put so much effort into world building in the first chapter and

[00:37:47] then just abandoned all of it.

[00:37:49] Yeah, I feel like a symptom of the series having been good is if not, I had a purpose

[00:37:54] because she has no action.

[00:37:55] She cannot fight.

[00:37:56] So the fact that she becomes useless in the last like 80% of the series shows how fucking

[00:38:00] warped the series got right, which is weird that she should be the most knowledgeable

[00:38:05] of them.

[00:38:05] So I feel like, you know, there's a I thought she was going to get like Drake, be like Drake's

[00:38:09] understudy and learn like his shit.

[00:38:11] Yeah, that would have been really cool.

[00:38:13] Yeah.

[00:38:13] Why not bring Drake along?

[00:38:15] He's not doing anything.

[00:38:16] Yeah.

[00:38:16] What if Mana like couldn't fight because she's like too close?

[00:38:19] So we have, you know, not actually teaming up with Fafnir and using those seeds.

[00:38:24] So, Brandon, there is this thing that we've noticed happens every now and then where

[00:38:30] it just feels like, you know, we saw it with Red Hood.

[00:38:34] We saw it with Service Wars where it's like, man, it feels like an editor just walked in

[00:38:39] and decided to ruin this manga.

[00:38:41] It feels like the editor walked in after chapter one and was like, nah, you got two

[00:38:46] guys there.

[00:38:47] Nah, make them make it a two on two thing.

[00:38:49] Just do that because like the entirety of the first chapter never alludes to that being

[00:38:55] a thing.

[00:38:56] And then just suddenly after that, like it felt like the entire series had to just scramble

[00:39:02] to suddenly make it about that thing.

[00:39:05] Yeah, I definitely think sudden pivots.

[00:39:07] It's a classic Shonen Jump kind of move, right?

[00:39:10] And speaking of sudden pivots, let's get into some miscellaneous thoughts.

[00:39:13] Yeah, sorry if that was too sudden, I just thought it was good.

[00:39:17] That was good.

[00:39:18] Oh, so for the record, by the way, I did check in chapter two, Nata says she has at most

[00:39:22] six months left or half a year left.

[00:39:23] So yes, they do establish she has six months left.

[00:39:25] Cool.

[00:39:25] But yeah, and then I also love how when they're jumping off of the wall, the author clearly

[00:39:30] didn't actually know a way to make the character survive what is like a hundred foot fall.

[00:39:35] So he just doesn't show how they survive that fall off of the wall in the first chapter.

[00:39:39] Doesn't he say when they're falling, I'm just going to stick my sword into the wall?

[00:39:44] Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.

[00:39:46] They don't show it.

[00:39:47] He just says he's going to do that.

[00:39:49] Clearly the editor was like, dude, how are they surviving this fall?

[00:39:51] And he's like, I'll add a speech bubble explaining it.

[00:39:54] I'm a big fan of like big emotional moments really overtaking kind of like the moment

[00:39:59] to moment logic of a situation.

[00:40:01] But I feel like there's no build up.

[00:40:02] If there was like an emotional core to them really wanting to escape, I feel like you

[00:40:07] just got to show them doing it.

[00:40:08] But like there isn't any kind of like, oh man, I've waited my whole life for this moment.

[00:40:12] So we're just going to get there.

[00:40:13] It is just one of those things that just kind of happens.

[00:40:15] And so you don't really feel like it's earned.

[00:40:18] It hasn't earned the logical hand wave.

[00:40:20] It's interesting you bring that up because I've noticed that one of the things that separates

[00:40:26] a good manga from a bad manga, maybe a good story from a bad story that I've learned and

[00:40:31] as we've been reading it is just how they handle build up.

[00:40:34] Yeah, for sure.

[00:40:35] Like bad manga have no build up.

[00:40:38] Things just suddenly happen.

[00:40:39] Good manga spends a lot, spends a long time like making you care that something might

[00:40:45] happen before it happens.

[00:40:46] And that's I feel like a very classic kind of writing thing, right?

[00:40:50] Where it's like, you know, to properly structure a story.

[00:40:53] It's like, you know, this happens and because of that, this happens.

[00:40:56] And because of that, this happens, yada, yada, yada.

[00:40:58] But I feel like when you're struggling, you just you just got to get them from point

[00:41:01] A to point B whatever way you can.

[00:41:04] You're just afraid that if there's not something exciting going on at all times, your readers

[00:41:08] are going to get bored.

[00:41:09] Well, the problem is isn't so much this happens.

[00:41:12] So this happens.

[00:41:13] The problem is it's more, well, why should I care that this is happening?

[00:41:17] Sure.

[00:41:17] Yeah.

[00:41:17] Why should I care about the things that are happening right now in this chapter that I'm

[00:41:22] reading?

[00:41:23] Which Guardian of the Witch does not do.

[00:41:25] OK, we are in miscellaneous thoughts.

[00:41:27] So now, guys, I have to do it.

[00:41:28] I have to talk about the shoes.

[00:41:31] Go for it.

[00:41:31] Oh, the fantasy trip.

[00:41:35] We were talking about how the bad guys are unquestionably bad.

[00:41:39] One of the ways the author shows this incredible, the rector approaches one of his guardians

[00:41:46] and he's like, huh?

[00:41:48] I noticed that your shoes are falling apart because you've been working so hard and you've

[00:41:53] been like out there just searching and like working really hard for us.

[00:41:57] Oh, look in my hand.

[00:41:59] I am holding brand new, perfectly good shoes, you know, right here.

[00:42:04] But you don't need them.

[00:42:06] And he just throws them behind behind him.

[00:42:08] Yeah.

[00:42:08] And he's like, you got to keep going.

[00:42:10] And it's like, what the fuck?

[00:42:12] I feel like gaslighting 101 is like you have to you have to convince the person you're

[00:42:17] gaslighting that like you're correct, right?

[00:42:21] You can't be so on the nose about it.

[00:42:23] It's such a weird and petty thing.

[00:42:28] It's really funny.

[00:42:29] Like there's a part after that where Claude is like a frightening man, indeed, which makes

[00:42:33] me think that was supposed to be like a scary moment kind of right?

[00:42:37] Like, yeah, this is my way to intimidate you is like I got the newest sneaker drop, but

[00:42:43] you can't have it.

[00:42:44] You'll fuck your shoes, bitch.

[00:42:46] You don't want them, do you?

[00:42:47] I don't know why I completely forgot about this scene until you mentioned it.

[00:42:50] They just waste all these pages on him talking about shoes.

[00:42:55] He stabs a snake to like right before that.

[00:42:57] Yeah, like, where did the snake come from?

[00:42:59] Don't they not have snakes in England?

[00:43:01] Yeah, because of because of St. Patrick's, right?

[00:43:04] Or that's Ireland, right?

[00:43:05] That's Ireland, but it's a similar by I don't think England also has snakes.

[00:43:09] I mean, I'm sure he didn't like expel them to put them right in the place that is right

[00:43:14] next to them.

[00:43:15] That wouldn't make sense.

[00:43:17] But no, I mean, I think he kills that snake and then lets its blood drip into his chalice

[00:43:23] wine or something.

[00:43:23] Yeah, I just can't like so unsubtle.

[00:43:26] So unsubtle.

[00:43:28] It's the least subtle thing.

[00:43:30] Like, I'm surprised there isn't a character that's called like Dittler, you know, you

[00:43:34] know, and he's like, oh, we got to kill the witches after for ton eradicating this group

[00:43:38] of people, right?

[00:43:39] The church is evil.

[00:43:41] The church is evil.

[00:43:43] Did you know that offered was too subtle?

[00:43:45] I didn't pick up rector damn near killed her.

[00:43:48] OK, I had to say that at some point.

[00:43:50] I'm sorry.

[00:43:51] What a new slapper.

[00:43:52] I also love how when he's fighting the steel magic guy, how is he getting?

[00:43:56] How is everyone getting blunt wounds from metal magic, which was clearly piercing and

[00:44:00] cutting metal magic?

[00:44:02] My favorite secret Pantera album.

[00:44:05] Can we talk about executor?

[00:44:07] Yeah.

[00:44:07] Oh yeah.

[00:44:08] Your favorite thing in this manga.

[00:44:10] This was so weird.

[00:44:11] So at one point, again, like uses a power that makes his fists get covered in like iron

[00:44:16] and he's like executors fist.

[00:44:19] And I'm like, my dad's a lawyer.

[00:44:21] I know that that executor only is not executioner.

[00:44:25] It refers to somebody who executes a will and the stipulations on the will, you know,

[00:44:30] and then printed you went back to the original Japanese and it turns out.

[00:44:35] Yeah, that's what it is.

[00:44:36] It's not a typo.

[00:44:37] That wasn't a typo.

[00:44:39] Yeah, it was the word for executor.

[00:44:42] I don't know what that means.

[00:44:44] How visibilities carry that female?

[00:44:46] We didn't get to see it.

[00:44:47] So his next attack was going to be power of attorney.

[00:44:51] I believe it.

[00:44:52] That'd be amazing.

[00:44:54] If we've got like the iron maiden, you know, we're in full life.

[00:44:57] God, but no, but you think that and you would think execution.

[00:45:00] Yeah, but no.

[00:45:02] That's why I thought it was a typo.

[00:45:03] Is this whole thing about like the legal system and justice and I don't know.

[00:45:08] We live in a society.

[00:45:09] Bottom text.

[00:45:10] We do live in a society, a guardian and also a lawyer like coming to you.

[00:45:15] I'm like an NPC or it's like he's a guardian and a lawyer and he's slowly turning into a dog.

[00:45:21] Incredible.

[00:45:22] All right.

[00:45:22] Just for the sake of time, let me read out some fun facts for Maxie before we move on.

[00:45:26] They said this series has a remarkable amount of text handwritten in English,

[00:45:29] notably mostly for being clearly written and mostly making sense.

[00:45:32] And as this is also true of his early one shots,

[00:45:34] it seems that the offer actually has a decent grasp of English.

[00:45:37] Do you, Brandon, when you see like a series and they already just have some text in English

[00:45:40] or you're just like, oh, hell yeah.

[00:45:42] Or do you still have to do something with that?

[00:45:45] Depends on how many typos there are.

[00:45:46] Oh, OK.

[00:45:47] I do remember fixing some stuff in Guardians of the Witch.

[00:45:50] I could not tell you what or when or where, but I remember I remember having to adjust

[00:45:56] English on a couple of occasions.

[00:45:57] But is there any series where like you actually make the manga may fluently know English?

[00:46:01] Like there's just all the English is perfect in it.

[00:46:03] Uh, I can't think of one off top my head.

[00:46:06] Is there a manga you were reading and you were just like,

[00:46:08] this guy has no clue what the fuck he's talking about with English?

[00:46:12] Well, it's usually more of like, how would I put this?

[00:46:16] Like they spell things in ways that like, for example, in like Kaiju number eight,

[00:46:20] sometimes the manga author, he spells out Kaiju in like K-A-I-J-Y-U,

[00:46:26] which is not incorrect, but it's not how we would spell it.

[00:46:29] Like that's not how we romanize Japanese, like in a modern way.

[00:46:32] But like it's not incorrect either necessarily.

[00:46:34] That makes sense, though.

[00:46:36] Yeah.

[00:46:36] And the same way that I saw this in the Shonen Jump release, and I feel like my editor told

[00:46:42] me not to change it, but I don't know why.

[00:46:44] But like there's one panel in Garden of the Witch where Manasufa's name is spelled out

[00:46:48] Manasufa in English.

[00:46:49] So I remember that.

[00:46:51] Yeah.

[00:46:51] M-A-N-A-S-U-F-A.

[00:46:53] Yeah.

[00:46:53] I feel like I would have caught that.

[00:46:55] And I vaguely remember, like, I don't know if we hadn't figured out the spelling yet,

[00:46:59] because sometimes we ask Japan for clarification on those things.

[00:47:02] I don't remember.

[00:47:02] And I don't remember if we changed it in the volumes.

[00:47:04] What's funny is that I don't remember that from this read, but I remember it from the

[00:47:09] last time we covered this.

[00:47:10] I remember being confused.

[00:47:12] Yeah, maybe it was fixed.

[00:47:14] I don't know.

[00:47:14] I don't know.

[00:47:15] It was four years ago.

[00:47:16] That is completely memory hold.

[00:47:19] I appreciate the fun facts.

[00:47:21] And unfortunately, though, MaxVSMR fun facts that we just don't have enough time to cover,

[00:47:25] but you can always find them in the research notes that we post on the Patreon.

[00:47:29] So why don't we get into final verdict?

[00:47:31] How does that sound?

[00:47:32] So let's get into some six word summaries from our community from Tucker, a business

[00:47:35] transaction in comic form.

[00:47:37] Maxie B, we have double arts at home.

[00:47:39] Oh, that's fucking mean.

[00:47:43] Aura Paladin said bizarre, yet somehow not bizarre enough.

[00:47:46] Bubba Bass said great value is a Pele X Machina go and bad writing.

[00:47:51] Use a time skip TM.

[00:47:52] Cherem HM said become a witch's Pokemon sword boy.

[00:47:55] Chicken Warlord divinely talented school recruitment embarrassingly forceful.

[00:47:59] Diego says strawberry punch was the better one shot.

[00:48:01] Dude rocks.

[00:48:02] It's a very D witchingly mediocre manga.

[00:48:05] Generic man.

[00:48:06] Magical girls become witches.

[00:48:08] Deja vu.

[00:48:08] Aren't Gloranak aren't spawn kind of worse the second time around.

[00:48:11] I actually feel I think I'm liking this.

[00:48:13] Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[00:48:16] I can relate.

[00:48:17] Maybe it's just that I have more experience reading manga.

[00:48:20] Yeah.

[00:48:21] And like judging it now.

[00:48:22] But yeah, I don't remember it being this bad the first time.

[00:48:25] Yeah, I remember Beast Children we fought was rock bottom.

[00:48:28] And man, did we not know how we'd keep digging?

[00:48:30] Yeah.

[00:48:31] Um, Captain Clue says just go read which fuck that was good.

[00:48:34] Just go read Witch Watch instead.

[00:48:36] Correct opinion.

[00:48:37] And that was going to be my recommendation.

[00:48:38] Marissa's guard underage now damning all mankind.

[00:48:41] Portalman attack on Satch Bell's bastard child.

[00:48:44] Quack five years later, still not legal.

[00:48:46] Red Blade.

[00:48:47] This manga was a training or training arc in like Chapter seven.

[00:48:50] I can't believe it.

[00:48:51] Real says I wish not to was relevant.

[00:48:53] Don't we all?

[00:48:54] Sorry, I wish not to was relevant.

[00:48:56] Don't we all?

[00:48:57] Spike says which which was the which which T Wolf would says which is only live to suffer a

[00:49:01] and manga could continually depreciates the world building.

[00:49:03] Lord Anubis took the wrong lessons from BC and Brandon.

[00:49:07] What was your six word summary?

[00:49:08] Show him a thing or three.

[00:49:11] You're rich.

[00:49:11] I love it.

[00:49:12] Which is a quote from Xenoblade Chronicles two, which is also a fantasy setting with

[00:49:18] dual battles and a girl with fire powers with red hair.

[00:49:21] Oh my god.

[00:49:22] Dumped by British people.

[00:49:23] I forgot about that.

[00:49:24] Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[00:49:24] And also dumped by British.

[00:49:25] Jenna, Jenna, Louise Coleman's in it.

[00:49:26] It's great.

[00:49:27] Oh, Jordan, how about you?

[00:49:28] What was your six word summary?

[00:49:29] Guardian of huh?

[00:49:30] I already forgot.

[00:49:33] Because this is the most forgettable fucking series.

[00:49:35] Did you need some more time to finish your six word summary?

[00:49:37] Shut up, David.

[00:49:38] This is the most forgettable fucking series.

[00:49:41] God, yeah.

[00:49:42] After we read this series, I don't think I thought about it once.

[00:49:45] This is some Icehead Gill shit.

[00:49:47] I'll remember Icehead Gill before I'll remember this one.

[00:49:50] I might remember this one more now because I didn't realize how shit it was the first

[00:49:56] time we read it.

[00:49:57] Like, oh my god.

[00:49:59] How about you, David?

[00:50:01] I had to.

[00:50:02] Mine was fire magic burns out the plot.

[00:50:04] And then this one, I'd really like to put someone said someone similar.

[00:50:07] I said, man, imagine if England was real, which is a riff on.

[00:50:11] I don't know if you're familiar.

[00:50:12] Brandon with the series champagne.

[00:50:16] It was just like one of our favorite six word summaries for someone said,

[00:50:19] let me see if I can find who it was.

[00:50:21] Champagne is a series about champagne and drinking champagne, and it is.

[00:50:26] Oh my god.

[00:50:27] Sounds sweet.

[00:50:28] Horrible.

[00:50:29] It's just about boomers talking about how great it is to be a rich old person.

[00:50:33] Yeah.

[00:50:34] And how champagne reminds them of being young.

[00:50:36] Like there was like a professor who like they helped out and then he gave them a reservation

[00:50:41] as like a thank you, but he didn't say he wasn't also going to pay for it.

[00:50:44] Wow.

[00:50:45] So he got them the reservation, but then meant to pay for their own food.

[00:50:48] It was like, oh, that old guy, you know?

[00:50:52] Oh yeah.

[00:50:52] This is from Dude Rocks where he said from champagne makes me wish France was real.

[00:50:58] So that's why I wanted to because I was like, it's too similar to Dude Rocks,

[00:51:01] which was an old timer.

[00:51:02] So we all thought this really sucked.

[00:51:03] I guess the question is, George, is this a flop or a certified flop?

[00:51:06] I really didn't think I put this in the consideration for certified flop,

[00:51:09] but I'm kind of thinking it might be.

[00:51:10] This is definitely certified.

[00:51:13] Like, it's weird.

[00:51:14] It's coherent in a way that some of the worst certified flops are.

[00:51:19] I don't know if I'd say it's like the worst certified flop, but it is absolutely one of

[00:51:24] those.

[00:51:24] Yeah.

[00:51:25] It is absolutely certified flop.

[00:51:27] It's like, this is bad.

[00:51:29] Oh yeah, it is.

[00:51:30] We had an F tier, so I guess we thought it really was shitty last time we reviewed it.

[00:51:34] Wow.

[00:51:34] Oh God.

[00:51:35] So Brandon, do you agree?

[00:51:36] Would you consider this a certified flop?

[00:51:38] What's the difference actually?

[00:51:39] Would you use the word bad or terrible to describe it?

[00:51:42] Oh, okay.

[00:51:44] Definitely more bad.

[00:51:45] More bad than terrible.

[00:51:46] Okay.

[00:51:46] Okay.

[00:51:47] That's fair.

[00:51:47] That's fair.

[00:51:48] I mean, you wrote it, so I understand.

[00:51:50] It's true.

[00:51:51] Right.

[00:51:51] I have a little bit of attachment to it.

[00:51:53] It is your child.

[00:51:54] You guys have been dissing me this entire podcast.

[00:51:57] I've just been taking every single blow.

[00:51:59] I'm so sorry.

[00:52:00] We, please forgive us.

[00:52:02] Oh God.

[00:52:03] Jordan, since you consider this a certified flop, what should someone check out instead?

[00:52:07] So this is like totally unrelated to Guardian of the Witch.

[00:52:11] I've just been really liking Smiling Friends season two.

[00:52:14] Oh, that's the latest episode.

[00:52:16] It's been really good.

[00:52:18] God, what a stupid show.

[00:52:20] It's so good.

[00:52:21] I'm still waiting for the smiley friends take Manhattan.

[00:52:24] Oh my God.

[00:52:24] And then I kind of want it to be a recap of the episode where they're stuck in the airport.

[00:52:28] The Brazil one is such a stupid episode.

[00:52:33] What's amazing about that series is that I've never seen a show

[00:52:36] nail speech patterns as well as Smiling Friends where it's just like they have arguments.

[00:52:42] Like, no, that's a real argument.

[00:52:44] I love it.

[00:52:44] Brandon, what would you say someone should check out?

[00:52:46] Well, if you're thinking about fantasy manga that ran in Weekly Shonen Jump that I lettered,

[00:52:51] you should read Red Hood instead.

[00:52:53] Speaking of authors absolutely hating their editor, do you know anything about the drama

[00:52:58] that happened?

[00:52:59] Because that was like unapologetic blaming his editor on what happened to that series.

[00:53:03] No, I don't know what the editors here.

[00:53:06] I hear nothing.

[00:53:07] None of that trickles down to me.

[00:53:09] Got you.

[00:53:10] If you ever are able to find out because like you can tell the ending, the author just

[00:53:14] clearly was like this manga got ruined by my editor.

[00:53:16] It is one of the most entertaining endings to a manga.

[00:53:20] I think it's amazing.

[00:53:21] I think we said it wasn't a flop just given how crazy the ending is.

[00:53:24] Yeah, maybe one of the most like those final three or four weeks.

[00:53:28] I was just like, what is?

[00:53:29] Oh my goodness.

[00:53:31] Because here's the thing.

[00:53:32] Red Hood starts strong, falls apart, and then gets really interesting at the very end.

[00:53:39] God, I can't wait for the author's next series.

[00:53:41] Oh my God.

[00:53:42] I think he's doing some muscle girl manga now.

[00:53:44] Good.

[00:53:44] That was a one shot, right?

[00:53:45] Ah, I don't know.

[00:53:46] Well, maybe it's getting a full series.

[00:53:48] I don't know.

[00:53:48] The author should do muscle girl things.

[00:53:51] He's very good at that.

[00:53:52] He clearly likes it.

[00:53:54] I love how someone said the migration from Hades to Hades 2 was going from him to muscle

[00:53:59] mommies.

[00:54:00] And what a fantastic trade deal that was.

[00:54:02] I said the term muscle mommies to Steph, my girlfriend, and it disgusted her.

[00:54:09] That term horrifies her.

[00:54:12] Especially because your girlfriend is very tall.

[00:54:17] Anyway, my recommendation was going to be Witch Watch, which everyone should read.

[00:54:22] Hey.

[00:54:23] Yeah.

[00:54:23] Yeah, it's such a good series.

[00:54:25] I fucking the latest chapter of the two weeks ago.

[00:54:28] It's the author just doesn't give a shit about anything.

[00:54:30] I love it.

[00:54:31] But since that was it, I guess I will just recommend Demons of the Shadow Realm again.

[00:54:34] It's by the creator of Fullmetal Alchemist.

[00:54:36] I don't understand why it's not really popular.

[00:54:39] It's just weird, right?

[00:54:41] Yeah.

[00:54:41] According to you, it's good.

[00:54:43] It's very good.

[00:54:44] So everyone should just go read Demons of the Shadow Realm.

[00:54:46] It's because they gave it such a stupid fucking name.

[00:54:48] Yeah.

[00:54:49] I almost worked on it.

[00:54:50] If you're wondering why I turned down a manga by the creator of Fullmetal Alchemist, I did

[00:54:54] not have time.

[00:54:56] Totally fair.

[00:54:57] Otherwise, I would have done it.

[00:55:00] The title sounds like a Yu-Gi-Oh episode.

[00:55:03] Exactly.

[00:55:03] I don't know what a better title was, but it wasn't that.

[00:55:05] All right.

[00:55:06] But then, Jordan, this is Certified Flop.

[00:55:08] I don't think it's the worst Certified Flop we ever read.

[00:55:10] I think we are good to go to wrap up.

[00:55:12] Brandon, thank you so much for joining us.

[00:55:14] It's always a treat having someone on the inside being on our show.

[00:55:17] Where can they find all the awesome things you do?

[00:55:19] I'm at BrandonBelviya on Twitter.

[00:55:20] I'm still calling it Twitter.

[00:55:21] You can just look up my name on there.

[00:55:24] I'll talk about slash rant sometimes about the work.

[00:55:30] If you want just a little peek into the inside baseball, or you just want to learn a little

[00:55:33] bit about what it takes to letter a manga, or if you just want my hot opinions on video

[00:55:38] games.

[00:55:39] Hell yeah.

[00:55:40] I co-host a One Piece read-through podcast with my friend Derek on his YouTube channel.

[00:55:43] Look up One Piece at a time.

[00:55:45] We are currently about to start Marineford.

[00:55:47] Nice.

[00:55:48] Now that's a good arc.

[00:55:49] Oh, that was the arc I was talking about.

[00:55:51] Yeah.

[00:55:52] What that point in One Piece, it was just banger arc after banger arc after banger arc.

[00:55:57] God, Oda don't miss.

[00:55:59] Yeah.

[00:55:59] God, that run is incredible.

[00:56:01] And then you have Fishman Island where he stumbled, but that's okay.

[00:56:03] He did better after that.

[00:56:05] I also want to say Jordan, you know who doesn't miss is you.

[00:56:08] So thank you so much for making the opening ending theme and being a great co-host and

[00:56:11] helping with the editing.

[00:56:12] Oh, thank you so much, David, for all the work you do.

[00:56:15] Hit or miss.

[00:56:16] Guess they never miss.

[00:56:17] Yeah.

[00:56:19] Props to Merlisle for the awesome cover.

[00:56:20] Find her online at Lyle Merr and Nigel for being our generous art benefactor.

[00:56:24] I can't believe he's been paying for art for like four years.

[00:56:27] What a guy.

[00:56:28] What a great guy.

[00:56:29] What a Chad.

[00:56:29] Thank you so much, Nigel.

[00:56:32] Thank you Dylan for assistance with editing.

[00:56:33] Find his podcast Anime Out of Context at animeoutofcontext.com.

[00:56:37] Thanks to Tucker and Maxie B for assistance with pronunciation, translation, other miscellaneous

[00:56:40] research.

[00:56:41] Find us on X at ShonanFlopcast, Tumblr, Shonan-Flop, our website, shonanflop.com.

[00:56:45] We're also on Spotify, iTunes, YouTube or wherever else you get your podcast.

[00:56:48] Come join the ShonanFlop Discord.

[00:56:49] Open to everyone, patron or not.

[00:56:51] Hang out with us, talk about anime, games or whatever else is on your mind.

[00:56:53] We have a lot of really fun conversations about manga there.

[00:56:56] No surprise.

[00:56:56] You can find the link to it in the show notes or on our site.

[00:56:59] And if you've been joining the podcast and want to help us keep going, consider subscribing

[00:57:01] to our Patreon.

[00:57:02] We just hit our goal of $400 for four years.

[00:57:05] Super stoked.

[00:57:06] Still doing a promo for anyone who upgrades and becomes a new patron.

[00:57:08] I'll send you a set of Ravioli Magic the Gathering tokens.

[00:57:12] Little goblin tokens featuring my adorable puppy Ravioli.

[00:57:14] You get monthly episodes to Shonan Drop where Jordan and I talk about each month's episode

[00:57:19] and you could even be listening into us recording right now or the warmup audio.

[00:57:23] And Jordan, what is the exclusive content we are dropping this month for our patrons?

[00:57:27] Well, David, this month we are catching up on our chibi guesses and our art rankings.

[00:57:35] Yeah.

[00:57:35] So you can hear an inside scoop and see how well Jordan and I guess about based on the

[00:57:39] first chapter, how well we guess.

[00:57:41] Yeah.

[00:57:42] And you can find us at patreon.com slash ShonanFlop and I want to read some of our wonderful patrons.

[00:57:46] First, I want to give a big thank you to our dolphin dads, Gornak, Rachel, my wonderful

[00:57:50] wife.

[00:57:50] She just ordered me some cake I'm going to eat after this and use plenty of teeth.

[00:57:53] Blokes love teeth.

[00:57:54] Drives them crazy.

[00:57:55] Moving on down to the Ravioli tier where you get weekly photos of my adorable goblin dog.

[00:57:59] She was having she was hiccuping and so I gave her the Heimlich maneuver and then she farted

[00:58:03] because she's just a silly fucking dog.

[00:58:05] You know, we have Chris, Eva, Lady T, Matt T and one of our newest patrons, Tiffany and

[00:58:10] Trevor Shecker.

[00:58:11] Moving on down to the King of the Forest, we have 090Z, Bandit Stew, My Girlfriend,

[00:58:15] Brad, who just upgraded to help us hit our Patreon goal, Chad Mason, Gas Snake, Jacob

[00:58:20] Andrew Galloway, Justin Hefner, Kirby Munt, Marty, Max, Riley 3.14, Hydra, T Wolfwood and

[00:58:25] Tommy Boy.

[00:58:25] And a big thank you to our Galactic Ball Federation officers and our Beast Children.

[00:58:29] Yes, thank you so much.

[00:58:30] I love all of you.

[00:58:31] And then Jordan, anything you want to toss in?

[00:58:32] Yeah.

[00:58:33] By the time this episode comes out on the Mission Ignition feed, we should have our

[00:58:39] interview up where I talk to an actual motivator about vampires to figure out what happens.

[00:58:46] What happened on that show?

[00:58:48] How did that get made?

[00:58:50] Okay.

[00:58:51] Brandon, have you ever heard of Vampires and that is V-A-N as in Nancy dash P-I-R-E-S?

[00:58:57] No.

[00:58:58] It's an interesting show that only I saw in the 90s.

[00:59:05] And Casey Green.

[00:59:06] Casey Green saw it years later.

[00:59:07] I watched it during its run.

[00:59:09] You were there first.

[00:59:10] That's the thing.

[00:59:11] I was there.

[00:59:12] I'm an OG fan.

[00:59:14] All right.

[00:59:15] Well, let's get into the sign-offs.

[00:59:16] Thank you so much for joining us.

[00:59:17] Tune in next Monday as we give our first thoughts on Mama Yoo-Yoo.

[00:59:20] Mama Yoo-Yoo.

[00:59:21] This has been David.

[00:59:22] This has been Jordan.

[00:59:23] This has been Brandon.

[00:59:24] And you've been listening to Shone and Flop.

[00:59:25] Keep on flopping floppers four more years.

[00:59:29] Four more years.

[00:59:31] Yeah.

[00:59:32] Why are you booing me?

[00:59:32] I'm right.

[00:59:34] I love that show.

[00:59:35] Bye.