#113 Two On Ice (Ft. Official Series Translator Jan Cash)
Shonen FlopOctober 21, 202445:2339.57 MB

#113 Two On Ice (Ft. Official Series Translator Jan Cash)

Are these ice skaters fast or furious?

 

We and our guest, the official series’ translator Jan Cash, discuss Shonen Jump manga Two on Ice.

 

 Show Notes:

• You can reach us at Twitter @shonenflopcast, Tumblr shonen-flop, or email shonenflop@gmail.com

 

• You can find our guest at @jmitsu

 

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Credits:

• Manga by Itsumo, Elck

 

• Shonen Flop is hosted by David Weinberger and Jordan Forbes

 

• Additional editing assistance by Dylan Krider you can find his podcast, Anime Out of Context at animeoutofcontext.com

 

• Assistance with pronunciation, translation, and other miscellaneous research done by Tucker Whatley and MaxyBee

 

• Episode art by Merliel (IG: mer_liel)

 

• Cover art funded by our generous art benefactor Nigel Francis

 

MAL Description: 

When he was in third grade, Hayuma Minekoshi became entranced by the world of figure skating. After meeting a mysterious girl and witnessing her perform a mesmerizing triple axel at a competition, Hayuma resolved to learn the sport—even if he had to teach himself the basics. Despite the hardships, Hayuma persisted in hopes of encountering the enigmatic prodigy again. However, one year later, Hayuma discovered that the girl he admired disappeared from the limelight. Having never learned her name, he gave up hope of being able to find her again.

 

Now in his third year of middle school, Hayuma moves from his small northern hometown to Tokyo, where he has a chance to learn figure skating properly. In a twist of fate, that same mysterious girl reappears at the rink. As the two reunite, former prodigy Kisara Saotome reveals that she had quit competing in singles to try her luck in pair skating. Seeing potential in Hayuma despite his lack of experience, Kisara invites him to be her temporary partner. However, Hayuma must face difficult training to catch up to Kisara's skill level—let alone be ready to compete.

 

[00:00:13] [SPEAKER_00]: This episode is brought to you ad-free thanks to all of our wonderful patrons. You can get tons of exclusive content including bonus episodes, warm-up audio, and early access to episodes all while helping us keep the show going by joining at patreon.com slash shonenflop.

[00:00:29] [SPEAKER_01]: Welcome to this episode of Shonen Flop where we talk about manga and shonen jump that didn't make it big. I'm David.

[00:00:34] [SPEAKER_01]: I'm Jordan.

[00:00:34] [SPEAKER_01]: Next week we're getting very spooky with Cucunic Necromancy. If you'd like to read along with us be sure to join the discussion at Discord and submit your six word summary.

[00:00:43] [SPEAKER_01]: Find a link to the Discord in our episode description and on our website shonenflop.com.

[00:00:47] [SPEAKER_01]: That's right. If you want to know what word I butchered you're gonna have to check it out on the Discord.

[00:00:50] [SPEAKER_01]: You're gonna have to figure that out yourselves listener.

[00:00:53] [SPEAKER_01]: But this week we are joined by the wonderful Jan as we discussed Two On Ice.

[00:00:58] [SPEAKER_01]: Jan thank you so much for joining us today. Do you mind telling the listeners a little bit about yourself?

[00:01:02] [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, thank you for having me. So I'm Jan Cash and I work primarily as a translator from Japanese to English.

[00:01:08] [SPEAKER_02]: Whoa!

[00:01:09] [SPEAKER_03]: I also work as an editor mostly on a manhwa actually instead and original English books.

[00:01:17] [SPEAKER_01]: That's cool. We actually have covered a manhwa called Dark Mage because we didn't realize it wasn't a manga and that was like the fifth thing.

[00:01:23] [SPEAKER_01]: And Jordan and I were like, wait, why is this not going right to left?

[00:01:26] [SPEAKER_01]: So Jan though, I have two questions.

[00:01:28] [SPEAKER_01]: So I guess my first one is, so you said you typically don't translate manga like this.

[00:01:32] [SPEAKER_01]: How did you end up on Two On Ice?

[00:01:33] [SPEAKER_03]: Um, yeah. So for Viz, for Simulpubs, basically editors approach us about whether or not we want to work on a series.

[00:01:40] [SPEAKER_03]: We don't really get a lot of choice. We can say yes or no.

[00:01:44] [SPEAKER_03]: Mm-hmm.

[00:01:44] [SPEAKER_03]: But otherwise, uh, we can't say like, I claim this or anything like that.

[00:01:48] [SPEAKER_03]: It was just offered Two On Ice and it was from a new editor.

[00:01:52] [SPEAKER_03]: And generally I try to say yes whenever a new editor approaches me because then usually I can keep on working with them.

[00:01:58] [SPEAKER_03]: I don't usually work on sports manga.

[00:02:01] [SPEAKER_03]: Two On Ice was a bit of a challenge, but it was a lot of fun.

[00:02:04] [SPEAKER_01]: Oh, that's so great to hear.

[00:02:05] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

[00:02:05] [SPEAKER_01]: And then my second question for you is, what would you say is your favorite translation you have ever made?

[00:02:11] [SPEAKER_03]: Oh, uh, probably Chojin X.

[00:02:13] [SPEAKER_03]: Oh my god!

[00:02:14] [SPEAKER_01]: So what was the specific moment like where you were like, oh, the stars align.

[00:02:18] [SPEAKER_01]: It's like a really great pun that you have a perfect English equivalent to.

[00:02:21] [SPEAKER_01]: Or I guess what is the proudest single, maybe single line of translation you've ever done?

[00:02:25] [SPEAKER_03]: I don't really have one.

[00:02:27] [SPEAKER_01]: That's totally fair.

[00:02:28] [SPEAKER_02]: David always tries asking people like, what's the one best thing you've ever done?

[00:02:33] [SPEAKER_02]: And they're like...

[00:02:34] [SPEAKER_02]: I'm just trying to let Jan flex her translation muscles.

[00:02:37] [SPEAKER_03]: You know, hopefully it's the one in the future.

[00:02:40] [SPEAKER_03]: The one that I don't know about yet is going to be the best one.

[00:02:42] [SPEAKER_01]: Oh, perfect.

[00:02:43] [SPEAKER_01]: Well, you'll definitely have to let us know when the time comes.

[00:02:46] [SPEAKER_01]: You're like, this is the best translation I've ever done.

[00:02:48] [SPEAKER_01]: But you definitely did some great work though.

[00:02:49] [SPEAKER_01]: I did hear there's like part of the page that's just already in English.

[00:02:52] [SPEAKER_01]: So where you're just like, oh, great.

[00:02:53] [SPEAKER_01]: I can take it easy this week.

[00:02:55] [SPEAKER_03]: For Chojin X or 2 on Ice?

[00:02:56] [SPEAKER_01]: For 2 on Ice.

[00:02:57] [SPEAKER_01]: There's like a section where they're dancing and there's English words.

[00:03:00] [SPEAKER_01]: And Maxie B said that's already was in English in the Raws.

[00:03:03] [SPEAKER_03]: I don't remember which part that is.

[00:03:06] [SPEAKER_03]: There was a lot of text in 2 on Ice.

[00:03:07] [SPEAKER_02]: I was gonna say.

[00:03:08] [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, I noticed that.

[00:03:12] [SPEAKER_01]: I feel the 100 translators probably were not jealous of you doing this series.

[00:03:16] [SPEAKER_02]: Oh my god, the volume of text in this series.

[00:03:20] [SPEAKER_01]: Wow.

[00:03:21] [SPEAKER_01]: All right, but why don't we actually talk about that volume of text as we get into the manga details.

[00:03:26] [SPEAKER_01]: Take it away, Jordan.

[00:03:27] [SPEAKER_01]: More like 4 volumes of text.

[00:03:30] [SPEAKER_02]: Anyway, this is 2 on Ice written by Elk Itsumo.

[00:03:35] [SPEAKER_02]: Is that an elk?

[00:03:36] [SPEAKER_02]: Yes.

[00:03:36] [SPEAKER_02]: Okay, cool.

[00:03:37] [SPEAKER_02]: So elk, like the giant deer.

[00:03:39] [SPEAKER_02]: They were notably an assistant for Daisuke Inoshima of Fabricate 100.

[00:03:44] [SPEAKER_02]: Ooh, that was a Shonen Floth favorite.

[00:03:47] [SPEAKER_02]: Oh yeah.

[00:03:47] [SPEAKER_02]: Kick-ass ending.

[00:03:48] [SPEAKER_02]: Check that out.

[00:03:49] [SPEAKER_02]: That was episode 87.

[00:03:51] [SPEAKER_02]: Notable people that elk had as assistants.

[00:03:54] [SPEAKER_02]: Maxie B says, actually, they had nobody notable.

[00:03:57] [SPEAKER_02]: But maybe they'll be notable one day.

[00:04:00] [SPEAKER_02]: As for this person's other work, 2 on Ice is Itsumo's debut.

[00:04:04] [SPEAKER_02]: But they've done some one-shots beforehand, including Egon Nohai from Jump Giga.

[00:04:10] [SPEAKER_02]: Railway slash Gateway.

[00:04:13] [SPEAKER_02]: Weekly Shonen Jump.

[00:04:14] [SPEAKER_02]: She's nothing but a stone from, you know, Weekly Shonen Jump.

[00:04:18] [SPEAKER_02]: The 2 in the Garden of Mourning.

[00:04:21] [SPEAKER_02]: Wow.

[00:04:21] [SPEAKER_02]: Jump Plus 2023.

[00:04:23] [SPEAKER_02]: And we are just what we need.

[00:04:26] [SPEAKER_02]: 2023.

[00:04:27] [SPEAKER_02]: 2023, yeah.

[00:04:27] [SPEAKER_02]: But not talking about that.

[00:04:29] [SPEAKER_02]: Talking about 2 on Ice, which ran from September 24th, 2023 to April 14th, 2024.

[00:04:35] [SPEAKER_02]: It replaced Do Retry or Do Retry.

[00:04:39] [SPEAKER_02]: See, like that fucking pronunciation.

[00:04:42] [SPEAKER_02]: It's apparently both ways.

[00:04:43] [SPEAKER_02]: I don't remember.

[00:04:44] [SPEAKER_02]: By Jun Kirarazaka, which was two volumes.

[00:04:47] [SPEAKER_02]: That was a flop.

[00:04:48] [SPEAKER_02]: And that was episode 91 of our podcast, listener.

[00:04:51] [SPEAKER_02]: I believe that was also the author of Bone Collection?

[00:04:54] [SPEAKER_02]: Do Retry.

[00:04:54] [SPEAKER_02]: Yes, it was.

[00:04:55] [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, that's also an episode.

[00:04:57] [SPEAKER_02]: I don't remember what number episode it was, but that was an episode.

[00:05:00] [SPEAKER_02]: And we didn't like that series.

[00:05:02] [SPEAKER_02]: The series that replaced that is Next Episode.

[00:05:05] [SPEAKER_02]: David, you want to pronounce that title again?

[00:05:07] [SPEAKER_02]: Can't.

[00:05:08] [SPEAKER_02]: All right.

[00:05:08] [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.

[00:05:09] [SPEAKER_02]: I asked you to pronounce the name.

[00:05:10] [SPEAKER_02]: Anyway, by Fusai Naba.

[00:05:12] [SPEAKER_02]: Two volumes.

[00:05:13] [SPEAKER_02]: It's a flop.

[00:05:14] [SPEAKER_02]: You know, it's amazing that this series ended on April 14th.

[00:05:18] [SPEAKER_02]: And already the follow-up series has flopped.

[00:05:20] [SPEAKER_02]: But a series started at the same time as this was Mama Yu Yu.

[00:05:24] [SPEAKER_02]: That was a flop.

[00:05:26] [SPEAKER_02]: Four volumes.

[00:05:27] [SPEAKER_02]: And episode 104 of this podcast.

[00:05:29] [SPEAKER_02]: And David, the greatest manga of all time.

[00:05:31] [SPEAKER_02]: Kagura Bachi.

[00:05:32] [SPEAKER_02]: The manga of all time.

[00:05:34] [SPEAKER_02]: By Takeru Okazuno.

[00:05:36] [SPEAKER_02]: That's on three plus volumes so far, David.

[00:05:39] [SPEAKER_02]: That's not going to be a flop.

[00:05:40] [SPEAKER_02]: No fucking way.

[00:05:41] [SPEAKER_02]: That's going to go for 2,000 chapters.

[00:05:44] [SPEAKER_02]: At least.

[00:05:45] [SPEAKER_03]: I know it.

[00:05:46] [SPEAKER_03]: I haven't read it yet, though.

[00:05:47] [SPEAKER_02]: It's a meme manga.

[00:05:49] [SPEAKER_02]: It's just...

[00:05:50] [SPEAKER_01]: The first chapter, the character says he has a scar on his head because it reminds him

[00:05:54] [SPEAKER_01]: every day when he looks in a mirror to wake up with fresh hatred.

[00:05:57] [SPEAKER_01]: And it's said completely straight face.

[00:06:00] [SPEAKER_02]: Kagura Bachi, if you don't know, became a meme manga before it came out, basically.

[00:06:06] [SPEAKER_02]: I'm not really sure why.

[00:06:07] [SPEAKER_02]: Probably just because it looked very generic.

[00:06:10] [SPEAKER_01]: And fun fact, we covered the first chapter on our Patreon.

[00:06:12] [SPEAKER_02]: That's true.

[00:06:13] [SPEAKER_02]: You want to hear our thoughts on it?

[00:06:14] [SPEAKER_02]: Maybe you should send us a little bit of money.

[00:06:16] [SPEAKER_02]: Then you'll be able to hear it.

[00:06:18] [SPEAKER_02]: But 2 on Ice, on the flip side, went for 28 chapters and four volumes, which is, of course,

[00:06:24] [SPEAKER_02]: hundreds, if not thousands of chapters less than Kagura Bachi's going to go.

[00:06:27] [SPEAKER_02]: Anyway, let's get into about this fucking manga.

[00:06:31] [SPEAKER_02]: Heck yeah.

[00:06:32] [SPEAKER_03]: When Haima was a little kid, he saw a girl do figure skating really good, which made him

[00:06:37] [SPEAKER_03]: want to figure skate good too.

[00:06:39] [SPEAKER_03]: He'd practice on a nearby frozen lake and watch her skate on TV where he'd copy her moves

[00:06:43] [SPEAKER_03]: until one day she disappeared.

[00:06:45] [SPEAKER_03]: As a teenager, his family moved to the city, which had actual skating rinks, and meets one

[00:06:49] [SPEAKER_03]: of the employees named Kisada, a southman, which is not quite right because she's not

[00:06:53] [SPEAKER_03]: an employee, who happens to be the little girl.

[00:06:56] [SPEAKER_03]: Kisada said she quit skating singles because she wanted to skate doubles, but she can't

[00:07:01] [SPEAKER_03]: find a partner.

[00:07:01] [SPEAKER_03]: Even though she's creeped out by Haima's obsession with her, she asked him to be her partner.

[00:07:06] [SPEAKER_03]: Kisada tells him that dang, he's so good and could become famous doing singles, so maybe

[00:07:11] [SPEAKER_03]: he shouldn't do doubles, but he says he wants to do it to help her and keep the manga going.

[00:07:15] [SPEAKER_01]: Wait, what's the name of this manga I wonder?

[00:07:16] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah!

[00:07:17] [SPEAKER_02]: One on Ice, right?

[00:07:19] [SPEAKER_03]: The two are trained by skating duo Natsubi and Natsuya Kirishima, two twins whose family

[00:07:24] [SPEAKER_03]: owns the rink they skate at.

[00:07:26] [SPEAKER_03]: Kisada tells Haima that they should totally do a pair triple axel, which has never been

[00:07:31] [SPEAKER_03]: done in competition before.

[00:07:33] [SPEAKER_03]: So they spend the rest of the manga not shutting the fuck out of the popcorn Jordan.

[00:07:36] [SPEAKER_02]: Haima is nervous about touching Kisada, so the Kirishimas introduced them to a pair who

[00:07:43] [SPEAKER_02]: used to be a couple that broke up and it doesn't matter because they do nothing.

[00:07:47] [SPEAKER_02]: I don't even know why I wrote them here.

[00:07:49] [SPEAKER_02]: Anyway, the actual reason why Kisada left is because a superstar named Takayuki was misogynistic

[00:07:55] [SPEAKER_02]: and told her that she should have been born a boy if she wanted to be really good.

[00:07:59] [SPEAKER_02]: Dang.

[00:08:00] [SPEAKER_02]: Demoralized, she decides to switch to doubles where she believes she'd be more successful

[00:08:05] [SPEAKER_02]: and she was then kicked out by her coach who has no eyes.

[00:08:09] [SPEAKER_02]: Haima ends up competing in a singles tournament where he lands the triple axel.

[00:08:13] [SPEAKER_02]: Whoa!

[00:08:13] [SPEAKER_02]: OMG!

[00:08:14] [SPEAKER_02]: He can do it!

[00:08:15] [SPEAKER_02]: Wow!

[00:08:15] [SPEAKER_02]: Takayuki is a massive, huge superstar and also a dick and decides he's going to start skating

[00:08:21] [SPEAKER_02]: pairs seemingly just to spite Kisada.

[00:08:23] [SPEAKER_02]: First, he's gotta get gold at the Olympics, which he does pretty easily.

[00:08:27] [SPEAKER_02]: It's NBD.

[00:08:28] [SPEAKER_01]: That's the easy part.

[00:08:29] [SPEAKER_02]: That's the easy part.

[00:08:30] [SPEAKER_02]: Seriously, though, I cannot stress to you how much of this manga is just explaining the

[00:08:35] [SPEAKER_02]: rules and techniques of ice skating.

[00:08:37] [SPEAKER_01]: Popcorn David.

[00:08:38] [SPEAKER_01]: Takayuki decides to choose his Paris partner and chooses a girl named Humuro.

[00:08:42] [SPEAKER_01]: They compete against the main characters in a tournament and it turns out he didn't pick

[00:08:45] [SPEAKER_01]: Humuro because she's good, but because she was bad.

[00:08:48] [SPEAKER_01]: He intentionally humiliates her in order to draw out a super fan to take her place, but

[00:08:52] [SPEAKER_01]: they end up winning anyway because he's just that good.

[00:08:55] [SPEAKER_01]: Like literally, they're like, there's no point he did that move.

[00:08:57] [SPEAKER_01]: He literally just was flexing on them.

[00:08:59] [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, they keep being like, oh, man, he's fucking up.

[00:09:01] [SPEAKER_02]: He's just throwing this.

[00:09:02] [SPEAKER_02]: You know, this is not how a Paris match is supposed to go.

[00:09:05] [SPEAKER_02]: And then it turns out not actually was.

[00:09:07] [SPEAKER_01]: He's fine.

[00:09:08] [SPEAKER_01]: Takayuki and Humuro drop out after she leaves him.

[00:09:10] [SPEAKER_01]: So they get a medal.

[00:09:11] [SPEAKER_01]: The main characters, that is, even though they were the only ones because they're like

[00:09:14] [SPEAKER_01]: two people competed in this event.

[00:09:16] [SPEAKER_01]: Another one dropped out.

[00:09:17] [SPEAKER_01]: There were only two teams.

[00:09:18] [SPEAKER_01]: What a fucking pointless final act.

[00:09:21] [SPEAKER_01]: Takayuki is then approached by Yuko, the trash girl who is a super fan that he has that

[00:09:25] [SPEAKER_01]: has copied all of his moves.

[00:09:27] [SPEAKER_01]: It turns out that Takayuki is a dick because when he was a kid, he was one of the only boys

[00:09:31] [SPEAKER_01]: who was into figure skating.

[00:09:32] [SPEAKER_01]: And so he wished he was a girl.

[00:09:34] [SPEAKER_01]: And man, I really do wish this manga was brave enough to really go with those LGBT themes.

[00:09:38] [SPEAKER_01]: Then Kizura and Hayuma go to compete in a tournament.

[00:09:41] [SPEAKER_01]: The end.

[00:09:42] [SPEAKER_01]: Bye bye.

[00:09:42] [SPEAKER_02]: Bye.

[00:09:43] [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, that's it.

[00:09:44] [SPEAKER_02]: That's it.

[00:09:45] [SPEAKER_02]: It's the classic shonen flop ending of.

[00:09:48] [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, I don't know.

[00:09:48] [SPEAKER_02]: We'll get him next time.

[00:09:49] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

[00:09:50] [SPEAKER_01]: What an ending.

[00:09:50] [SPEAKER_01]: But what a bunch of characters.

[00:09:52] [SPEAKER_01]: So Jan, do you mind telling us about the quote unquote main character of the series?

[00:09:55] [SPEAKER_03]: So Hayuma, he loves skating so much.

[00:09:59] [SPEAKER_03]: He's really, really good at it.

[00:10:00] [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.

[00:10:01] [SPEAKER_03]: But he's also kind of dumb and doesn't know any of the rules.

[00:10:04] [SPEAKER_03]: And everyone wants him on the sports team for the Paris team.

[00:10:06] [SPEAKER_02]: There's really not much to say about him.

[00:10:09] [SPEAKER_02]: My note is hoops.

[00:10:10] [SPEAKER_02]: Because who the fuck is this guy?

[00:10:12] [SPEAKER_02]: He's nothing.

[00:10:13] [SPEAKER_02]: His main thing is that he's magically really good at ice skating.

[00:10:17] [SPEAKER_02]: Wow.

[00:10:18] [SPEAKER_02]: He's as good as Kisura.

[00:10:20] [SPEAKER_02]: And it seems like the reason is literally because he's a boy and she's a girl.

[00:10:24] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, there's not really an explanation about how he's so good.

[00:10:27] [SPEAKER_01]: He's got like taskmaster powers.

[00:10:30] [SPEAKER_01]: Taskmaster?

[00:10:30] [SPEAKER_01]: The Marvel guy who can duplicate anything he's seen once.

[00:10:34] [SPEAKER_01]: Right.

[00:10:35] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

[00:10:35] [SPEAKER_02]: And Deadpool defeats him by dancing like an idiot.

[00:10:38] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

[00:10:38] [SPEAKER_01]: I remember that.

[00:10:39] [SPEAKER_01]: But yeah, I don't really know what else to add.

[00:10:42] [SPEAKER_01]: So Jordan, why don't you tell us about that?

[00:10:43] [SPEAKER_01]: The person I think we all wish had been the main character of the series.

[00:10:46] [SPEAKER_02]: Oh, Kisura.

[00:10:47] [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.

[00:10:48] [SPEAKER_02]: Kisura Saltome.

[00:10:49] [SPEAKER_02]: Kisura.

[00:10:50] [SPEAKER_02]: She's actually somewhat interesting in comparison to Hayuma, who is not interesting at all.

[00:10:56] [SPEAKER_02]: Kisura at least has some conflict.

[00:10:59] [SPEAKER_02]: She has like a goal.

[00:11:00] [SPEAKER_02]: Like she's an ex gifted kid.

[00:11:02] [SPEAKER_02]: You know, that genius burnout is real.

[00:11:04] [SPEAKER_02]: It's true.

[00:11:05] [SPEAKER_02]: And she got kicked out of skating.

[00:11:07] [SPEAKER_02]: She was a huge prodigy and she was getting famous.

[00:11:10] [SPEAKER_02]: But then, yeah, Takayaki was a fucking dick to her and freaked her out.

[00:11:14] [SPEAKER_02]: And then the coach who, like I said, she has no eyes.

[00:11:17] [SPEAKER_02]: We literally never see her eyes.

[00:11:19] [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.

[00:11:19] [SPEAKER_02]: It's very weird.

[00:11:20] [SPEAKER_02]: She just looks unfinished.

[00:11:22] [SPEAKER_02]: I kept expecting us to see a face reveal.

[00:11:24] [SPEAKER_02]: We don't.

[00:11:24] [SPEAKER_02]: It seems like the second Hayuma shows up, she gets a crush on him.

[00:11:28] [SPEAKER_02]: It's like very strange.

[00:11:30] [SPEAKER_01]: Jan, did you have any other thoughts on her?

[00:11:31] [SPEAKER_03]: I don't know if she like has a crush on him so much as like they're just in middle school

[00:11:36] [SPEAKER_03]: and really awkward.

[00:11:37] [SPEAKER_01]: We've all been there.

[00:11:38] [SPEAKER_02]: It's more just like the second he shows up, she's like taken by him.

[00:11:43] [SPEAKER_02]: She like likes him like immediately when there's no reason to.

[00:11:46] [SPEAKER_02]: All she knows is that he sort of stalked her kind of.

[00:11:50] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, it's like he's very lucky that they're like 13 or 14.

[00:11:53] [SPEAKER_01]: So it's not as weird that he like stalked her as a kid.

[00:11:56] [SPEAKER_01]: It's not so much stalking as he was obsessed with her.

[00:11:59] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

[00:12:00] [SPEAKER_01]: All right.

[00:12:00] [SPEAKER_01]: The obsession.

[00:12:01] [SPEAKER_01]: It was like a cute obsession instead of a weird obsession because of how young he was.

[00:12:04] [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, but it does seem weird how she's just like,

[00:12:07] [SPEAKER_02]: hey, I just met you and this is crazy, but you want to be my ice skating partner?

[00:12:13] [SPEAKER_01]: So skate with me, maybe.

[00:12:14] [SPEAKER_01]: I love how this skating manga has a villain that really doesn't like it just felt like

[00:12:19] [SPEAKER_01]: editorials like you need to have a villain for this manga.

[00:12:22] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

[00:12:22] [SPEAKER_01]: Because we have Takayuki Sora, who is the pretty boy.

[00:12:26] [SPEAKER_01]: Everyone thinks he's the best.

[00:12:27] [SPEAKER_01]: He doesn't really like all the attention, but he kind of does.

[00:12:29] [SPEAKER_01]: He embodies that very stereotypical.

[00:12:31] [SPEAKER_01]: The weak should fear the strong kind of bad guy where it's like, I'm a bad guy and dominant

[00:12:35] [SPEAKER_01]: because you're weaker than me, which makes me be able to control you.

[00:12:39] [SPEAKER_01]: And he also he's obsessed with Satome and he does make that comment saying he wishes he

[00:12:43] [SPEAKER_01]: was a girl, but the series didn't go long enough to really say like in a gender dysphoria

[00:12:47] [SPEAKER_01]: way or more just like a gel.

[00:12:49] [SPEAKER_01]: Like it's very complicated.

[00:12:50] [SPEAKER_01]: And that is an area I wish the series had had more time to develop.

[00:12:53] [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, no, you know, I'm not going to completely discount the possibility that it's a trans thing,

[00:12:58] [SPEAKER_02]: but like the way that it's framed, it's more that he's just like, I want to do this,

[00:13:02] [SPEAKER_02]: but it's like a girly thing.

[00:13:04] [SPEAKER_02]: So I want to I wish I was a girl and people wouldn't let and there would be more people

[00:13:09] [SPEAKER_02]: who are my peers that were doing this.

[00:13:11] [SPEAKER_02]: That's fair.

[00:13:12] [SPEAKER_02]: I don't know.

[00:13:12] [SPEAKER_02]: It is what it is.

[00:13:14] [SPEAKER_03]: I thought that he was like molested, actually.

[00:13:17] [SPEAKER_02]: Wait, what?

[00:13:18] [SPEAKER_03]: What?

[00:13:19] [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, I'm trying to like find the spot because I have the book out with me.

[00:13:25] [SPEAKER_03]: And I think that there's like a part where there's a woman who like comes in to the locker

[00:13:30] [SPEAKER_03]: room.

[00:13:30] [SPEAKER_03]: I'm not sure if I'm making this up now because I'm just it was like really quick.

[00:13:34] [SPEAKER_02]: They do say you've been hurt by a woman, haven't you?

[00:13:37] [SPEAKER_03]: And then there's a part where he's like sobbing and then like goes on this rant about how much

[00:13:42] [SPEAKER_03]: he hates women.

[00:13:43] [SPEAKER_02]: I think that was like supposed to just be because he had the same coach that Kisura had and she

[00:13:48] [SPEAKER_02]: she basically told him, hey, you know, all these like angry, hateful feelings you have.

[00:13:55] [SPEAKER_02]: Actually, you should give in to them.

[00:13:56] [SPEAKER_02]: Give in to the hatred.

[00:13:58] [SPEAKER_02]: That is how you will be strong.

[00:14:00] [SPEAKER_02]: So his whole thing was it's I will be beautiful, but in a way that is evil.

[00:14:05] [SPEAKER_02]: Only by being evil can you be truly beautiful.

[00:14:08] [SPEAKER_02]: That's basically him.

[00:14:09] [SPEAKER_02]: What a villain.

[00:14:10] [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.

[00:14:10] [SPEAKER_02]: I'm going to dance to a Franz Liszt song about Dante's Inferno because I'm on the nose as fuck.

[00:14:19] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, he's not subtle.

[00:14:20] [SPEAKER_01]: He seems to kind of have a nice side where it was like that guy fucked up the Olympics and

[00:14:24] [SPEAKER_01]: he gave him a hug.

[00:14:25] [SPEAKER_02]: That guy was also like his like specific older brother figure, to be fair.

[00:14:30] [SPEAKER_01]: Oh, yeah.

[00:14:30] [SPEAKER_01]: Oh, man.

[00:14:31] [SPEAKER_01]: All right.

[00:14:31] [SPEAKER_01]: Do you have anything else to say about the characters?

[00:14:33] [SPEAKER_01]: Shall we get into why it failed on the note of how two dimensional the bad guy was?

[00:14:37] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, let's go.

[00:14:37] [SPEAKER_01]: So Jan, beyond the characters having some issues, what would you say something stood out to you,

[00:14:42] [SPEAKER_01]: something you didn't enjoy about the series?

[00:14:43] [SPEAKER_03]: Okay.

[00:14:44] [SPEAKER_03]: So as a translator, I have very different nitpicks from probably normal readers.

[00:14:48] [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.

[00:14:48] [SPEAKER_03]: But the amount of text that was like it was killing me every week.

[00:14:52] [SPEAKER_01]: I gotta be real if you thought I think everyone reading this series says why is there so much

[00:14:56] [SPEAKER_01]: fucking text in it?

[00:14:57] [SPEAKER_01]: But I can see why this was very painful for you.

[00:14:59] [SPEAKER_03]: I like the series, but wow, there was just so much.

[00:15:03] [SPEAKER_03]: I was looking up rule books every week, like going through the 2023 like list of rules because

[00:15:09] [SPEAKER_03]: they change every year.

[00:15:11] [SPEAKER_03]: And I think that was also listing a specific revision in the figure skating rules.

[00:15:17] [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.

[00:15:18] [SPEAKER_03]: In the background text, like those are real.

[00:15:20] [SPEAKER_01]: For the record, Jordan, they had a consultant.

[00:15:22] [SPEAKER_01]: They had a very famous professional ice skater help work on the series.

[00:15:25] [SPEAKER_01]: Tanya Harding?

[00:15:26] [SPEAKER_01]: Now Rumi Takahashi worked on the series.

[00:15:28] [SPEAKER_01]: But yeah, actually, she speaks like seven languages.

[00:15:30] [SPEAKER_01]: So I wonder, Jane, if you could have just rung her up if you had a question.

[00:15:33] [SPEAKER_01]: Oh, if only.

[00:15:35] [SPEAKER_01]: But yeah, it's just so much is said in the text.

[00:15:37] [SPEAKER_01]: And it's just like you cannot keep your concentration and care about it when there's that much text.

[00:15:42] [SPEAKER_01]: Like you can have like maybe one or two pages.

[00:15:43] [SPEAKER_01]: But this easily had probably twice the word count of the average Shonen Jump series.

[00:15:47] [SPEAKER_01]: And this is a sports manga.

[00:15:49] [SPEAKER_01]: It's not like they have a power system to explain or lore.

[00:15:51] [SPEAKER_01]: It's figure skating.

[00:15:52] [SPEAKER_01]: You get the whole point is to be showing people the actual art of ice skating.

[00:15:56] [SPEAKER_01]: I just I don't care.

[00:15:58] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, that's a big thing, too.

[00:16:00] [SPEAKER_01]: That's the problem.

[00:16:00] [SPEAKER_01]: Like, I feel like very little happens in this series.

[00:16:03] [SPEAKER_01]: I feel this series doesn't really have a plot.

[00:16:05] [SPEAKER_01]: They don't really I don't think they ever firmly put a stake in the ground.

[00:16:08] [SPEAKER_01]: Say, here's the motivation of these characters.

[00:16:10] [SPEAKER_01]: Here's the end stake goal.

[00:16:11] [SPEAKER_01]: They were never even like we're going to win the the you know, the Olympics just happened.

[00:16:14] [SPEAKER_01]: We're going to gold medal in the next Olympics.

[00:16:16] [SPEAKER_01]: And it's going to be our four year journey.

[00:16:17] [SPEAKER_01]: I do not know what the motivation of these characters were.

[00:16:19] [SPEAKER_02]: The motivation seems to just be landing the pair triple axel legit.

[00:16:24] [SPEAKER_02]: That is the main consistent motivation throughout the whole thing.

[00:16:28] [SPEAKER_01]: And then Jan, I have to ask, did this increase or decrease your interest in figure skating?

[00:16:32] [SPEAKER_03]: I think I'm still neutral.

[00:16:34] [SPEAKER_03]: I don't want to know any more about the rules.

[00:16:38] [SPEAKER_01]: That's fair.

[00:16:39] [SPEAKER_01]: We actually just read Green Green Greens, which was about golf.

[00:16:42] [SPEAKER_01]: And I actually was like, I actually kind of want to play golf after this.

[00:16:45] [SPEAKER_01]: I do not want to figure skate after reading this series.

[00:16:47] [SPEAKER_02]: I just care arguably less because now I'm kind of sick of it because I had to read so much text about it.

[00:16:54] [SPEAKER_02]: And I didn't remember like the vast majority of it.

[00:16:57] [SPEAKER_02]: They focus so much on the rules that they didn't really focus on the characters.

[00:17:01] [SPEAKER_02]: You don't need to explain to me the concept of figure skating.

[00:17:05] [SPEAKER_02]: It's so funny because this is such a contrast to Green Green Greens.

[00:17:09] [SPEAKER_02]: It's almost like the universe was like, no, you don't get it.

[00:17:12] [SPEAKER_02]: Green Green Greens did a really good job.

[00:17:15] [SPEAKER_01]: Look, Green Green Greens died for this.

[00:17:17] [SPEAKER_01]: Another issue that's not even related to the text is just like, this just feels like Blue Box at home.

[00:17:22] [SPEAKER_01]: I don't know if Jordan, you've read Blue Box.

[00:17:24] [SPEAKER_01]: I don't know.

[00:17:24] [SPEAKER_01]: Jan, have you read Blue Box?

[00:17:25] [SPEAKER_03]: I haven't read it, but I know about it.

[00:17:27] [SPEAKER_01]: So it's another romance sports manga in Shonen Jump.

[00:17:31] [SPEAKER_01]: So it's like, what was like this entire manga I was reading?

[00:17:34] [SPEAKER_01]: I was like, I should just go read Blue Box, which is way, way better than this.

[00:17:37] [SPEAKER_02]: So I will say that while initially and for like the first half of the manga,

[00:17:42] [SPEAKER_02]: I really thought it was a romance.

[00:17:44] [SPEAKER_02]: It kind of stops feeling like one after a certain point.

[00:17:47] [SPEAKER_02]: Like, I don't think it was explicitly romantic.

[00:17:49] [SPEAKER_02]: I do think Blue Box is significantly better.

[00:17:52] [SPEAKER_02]: I'm not going to sit here and say that's not true.

[00:17:54] [SPEAKER_02]: It definitely feels like a romance at times, though.

[00:17:57] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, it's it feels like maybe there was an editorial control into the extent of the romance between the characters.

[00:18:03] [SPEAKER_02]: According to Maxie B, the author did not intend for this to really be a romance, which surprised me at the time.

[00:18:12] [SPEAKER_01]: They have that entire chapter about like the couples that are ice skating and it's like, how do we avoid your pitfalls?

[00:18:17] [SPEAKER_02]: That chapter was the moment I went from kind of being bored by this series to like actively disliking the series.

[00:18:24] [SPEAKER_02]: That moment was so annoying.

[00:18:27] [SPEAKER_02]: So here's the thing, Jam.

[00:18:28] [SPEAKER_02]: I talk a lot about how in a lot of the flops that we read, there's like this concept of the surrogate older brother,

[00:18:35] [SPEAKER_02]: where it's just like this older established person sees the main character and for literally no reason is like, hey, you're cool.

[00:18:43] [SPEAKER_02]: I'm going to fight for you, man.

[00:18:45] [SPEAKER_02]: I'm here to help you.

[00:18:46] [SPEAKER_02]: And it's it doesn't make any sense, but they're just like super nice to them for no reason.

[00:18:51] [SPEAKER_02]: And that happens so many times in this series.

[00:18:54] [SPEAKER_02]: They even comment on when Hayuma meets Takeyuki for the first time.

[00:18:59] [SPEAKER_02]: He's like, whoa, everybody else I've met has been really nice.

[00:19:03] [SPEAKER_02]: And finally, we're meeting someone who's a dick.

[00:19:05] [SPEAKER_02]: That's strange.

[00:19:06] [SPEAKER_01]: And they make him cartoonishly evil, literally brought a girl to a competition to just show how much better he was and make her run off crying.

[00:19:14] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah. My God, do you have zero confidence in writing characters?

[00:19:17] [SPEAKER_02]: And yeah, I agree.

[00:19:18] [SPEAKER_02]: It feels like an editorial mandated villain.

[00:19:21] [SPEAKER_01]: Jan, is there anything that we haven't talked about yet that you feel were issues with the series?

[00:19:24] [SPEAKER_03]: I think that it's not really it shouldn't have been a shonen series.

[00:19:28] [SPEAKER_03]: I think it should have been a shonen series.

[00:19:30] [SPEAKER_03]: I mean, ice skating is also like I think that it's mostly women who are actually interested in manga like that.

[00:19:37] [SPEAKER_01]: Which is the villain's motivation.

[00:19:39] [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.

[00:19:44] [SPEAKER_02]: No, it's true because if it was a shoujo series, they also could have made Kisoto the main character, which would have immediately improved the series.

[00:19:52] [SPEAKER_01]: Jan, when you were translating this, do you feel like was there a point where you're like, oh, fuck, this series isn't good?

[00:19:57] [SPEAKER_03]: I don't ever feel that way with series.

[00:19:59] [SPEAKER_01]: Oh, you're a better person than me.

[00:20:00] [SPEAKER_03]: I think that Shonen Jump series are better edited, I think, than some other series and get a lot more attention.

[00:20:07] [SPEAKER_03]: So I never really feel that way with Jump.

[00:20:09] [SPEAKER_02]: Do you feel that way with other things that you edit, though?

[00:20:13] [SPEAKER_03]: Sometimes I feel a little bit.

[00:20:16] [SPEAKER_03]: I like that, I guess.

[00:20:17] [SPEAKER_03]: But mostly for stuff that is not really trying to do its own thing.

[00:20:22] [SPEAKER_02]: Where you're just like, oh, this is bad Hunter Hunter.

[00:20:24] [SPEAKER_03]: No, not so much.

[00:20:25] [SPEAKER_03]: I mostly, so on a personal basis, I read a lot of romance fantasy.

[00:20:30] [SPEAKER_03]: So like all of that is just, here's a villain, a villainous who incarnate in another world.

[00:20:34] [SPEAKER_03]: And she masters like the economy 12 times over.

[00:20:38] [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.

[00:20:38] [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.

[00:20:38] [SPEAKER_03]: Like Jump doesn't really do stuff like that, though, where like isekai and things like that.

[00:20:44] [SPEAKER_03]: So I never really feel that like things are bad.

[00:20:46] [SPEAKER_03]: I do feel like it wasn't in the right magazine, though.

[00:20:49] [SPEAKER_03]: That kind of gave it a direction that didn't really work for the type of series it was.

[00:20:54] [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, I think that's fair.

[00:20:56] [SPEAKER_02]: Because like, since it is in Shonen Jump, I feel like the Shonen Jump editors tend to push their series in certain directions.

[00:21:04] [SPEAKER_02]: And I don't think that those directions work for this series.

[00:21:07] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, it feels like they give the offer like eight chapters to do what they want.

[00:21:11] [SPEAKER_01]: And if it's not instantly a success, editor was like, okay, we're having you do this like template.

[00:21:15] [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, I felt that as soon as they started showing all the other pair skaters and introducing a billion characters all in one chapter, because that was like those chapters are also really difficult just in general series.

[00:21:27] [SPEAKER_03]: Because suddenly you have a whole bunch of different names you you have to suddenly memorize and you know that they're going to come back.

[00:21:32] [SPEAKER_01]: I agree.

[00:21:33] [SPEAKER_01]: One last thing, or I guess two things is, did you guys realize it takes till chapter 26 they actually perform ice skating in front of an audience?

[00:21:39] [SPEAKER_02]: It takes so long for them to ice skate in this ice skating manga.

[00:21:43] [SPEAKER_02]: You know, they practice a lot, but that's not the same.

[00:21:46] [SPEAKER_02]: There was very little tension a lot of the time in the series.

[00:21:50] [SPEAKER_01]: And then the last thing is also they completely sugarcoat how brutal ice skating is.

[00:21:54] [SPEAKER_01]: Like the consultant who worked on it actually openly talked about she developed a very serious eating disorder because she had to maintain weight.

[00:22:00] [SPEAKER_02]: They just mentioned that in a footnote, like a girl's eating and it's like asterisk by the way girls develop eating disorders.

[00:22:07] [SPEAKER_01]: And that's the way the series could have been more interesting is actually be realistic about how difficult ice skating is.

[00:22:12] [SPEAKER_01]: Right.

[00:22:12] [SPEAKER_01]: Anyway, we do have to talk about some positive things.

[00:22:15] [SPEAKER_01]: So let's get into what it did well.

[00:22:17] [SPEAKER_01]: And before we get into that, though, if you've been enjoying the show, we'd really appreciate if you subscribe to the Shonen Flop YouTube.

[00:22:22] [SPEAKER_01]: We're trying to hit our goal of 1500 YouTube subs.

[00:22:25] [SPEAKER_01]: And if we hit it, we'll do a special bonus episode on the Bill King epilogue.

[00:22:29] [SPEAKER_01]: If you've already subscribed, thank you so much.

[00:22:30] [SPEAKER_01]: So I think that the probably the easiest thing to say is the art is nice.

[00:22:35] [SPEAKER_01]: There's a good sense of motion.

[00:22:36] [SPEAKER_01]: There's good use of great tones.

[00:22:37] [SPEAKER_01]: It definitely can show a lot of good imagery of ice skating.

[00:22:40] [SPEAKER_02]: Yo, this paneling is banging.

[00:22:43] [SPEAKER_02]: Bustin' even.

[00:22:44] [SPEAKER_02]: Some pretty great paneling, though.

[00:22:46] [SPEAKER_02]: It's for real.

[00:22:46] [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.

[00:22:47] [SPEAKER_02]: What did you think of the art, Jan?

[00:22:48] [SPEAKER_03]: I thought it was beautiful.

[00:22:49] [SPEAKER_03]: That was one of the reasons why I wanted to work on it, too.

[00:22:53] [SPEAKER_02]: Get the art.

[00:22:54] [SPEAKER_02]: There's no text.

[00:22:56] [SPEAKER_02]: Jan, I completely agree.

[00:22:58] [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, I generally agree.

[00:22:59] [SPEAKER_03]: The motion is like really, really nice.

[00:23:01] [SPEAKER_03]: I think that Elf is really good at drawing figure skating.

[00:23:06] [SPEAKER_02]: And I agree for all of the issues that I have with it.

[00:23:09] [SPEAKER_02]: When the figure skating is actually happening, it looks really nice.

[00:23:13] [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.

[00:23:14] [SPEAKER_02]: He has a very solid sense of anatomy and like form.

[00:23:17] [SPEAKER_02]: The characters have weight to them.

[00:23:19] [SPEAKER_02]: The moments where Takayuki is skating and he's doing like the Dante's Inferno thing.

[00:23:26] [SPEAKER_02]: It looks amazing.

[00:23:27] [SPEAKER_02]: It's really cool.

[00:23:28] [SPEAKER_02]: Like this guy, even though I question his writing capabilities, he is absolutely, absolutely

[00:23:33] [SPEAKER_02]: someone who should be drawing an ice skating manga.

[00:23:36] [SPEAKER_01]: That's the thing is like when the text isn't covering the art.

[00:23:39] [SPEAKER_01]: God.

[00:23:40] [SPEAKER_01]: Although I will say in the moment there are so there is some rough art when the author,

[00:23:43] [SPEAKER_01]: I think, hasn't really figured out how to spend his time well.

[00:23:46] [SPEAKER_02]: There are definitely moments where like certain panels seem like kind of an afterthought as

[00:23:52] [SPEAKER_02]: opposed to other ones.

[00:23:53] [SPEAKER_02]: I will say, though, I really liked Kisara's design.

[00:23:57] [SPEAKER_02]: I think that those two poof ball earrings are adorable.

[00:24:00] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

[00:24:00] [SPEAKER_01]: And how her hair looks like a poof ball earring.

[00:24:03] [SPEAKER_01]: Oh, in terms of the paneling flex, I also love when he does a backflip, they turn one of

[00:24:06] [SPEAKER_01]: the panels upside down.

[00:24:08] [SPEAKER_01]: Oh, that's cool.

[00:24:08] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, there's an audience.

[00:24:09] [SPEAKER_01]: You can see the audience upside down.

[00:24:11] [SPEAKER_02]: It's interesting.

[00:24:12] [SPEAKER_02]: Like as opposed to Mama Yu Yu, which did like a lot of really creative things with panels.

[00:24:17] [SPEAKER_02]: This is a lot more subtle than Mama Yu Yu.

[00:24:20] [SPEAKER_02]: Whereas with Mama Yu Yu, it was like the panels are breaking the fourth fucking wall.

[00:24:24] [SPEAKER_02]: And like sometimes they were like distracting.

[00:24:26] [SPEAKER_02]: Whereas this one, it was a lot more.

[00:24:28] [SPEAKER_02]: They were a lot more dynamic.

[00:24:30] [SPEAKER_02]: But like, I think flowed better.

[00:24:32] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I think this is definitely a really solid foundation for their next series.

[00:24:35] [SPEAKER_01]: Outside the art, I do think the series does treat the female main character of a lot of respect.

[00:24:39] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, the women, there is one female character that is sexualized.

[00:24:42] [SPEAKER_01]: And there's like that classic boob envy joke, which I actually hadn't seen in a very long time.

[00:24:46] [SPEAKER_01]: But otherwise, it's like, this is like, as you said, this very easily could have had

[00:24:50] [SPEAKER_01]: the female main character.

[00:24:51] [SPEAKER_01]: I should probably be using her name as I talk about how they respect women in the series.

[00:24:54] [SPEAKER_01]: Kisura.

[00:24:55] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

[00:24:55] [SPEAKER_01]: Satome very easily, they could have just made her the focus of the series and not a lot

[00:24:59] [SPEAKER_01]: would have changed, which shows that she was a very well-treated character, even if

[00:25:03] [SPEAKER_01]: there wasn't a lot of good character development.

[00:25:04] [SPEAKER_02]: I like Kisura.

[00:25:06] [SPEAKER_02]: I like Kisura.

[00:25:07] [SPEAKER_02]: I think that she has the potential to be a very interesting character.

[00:25:11] [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.

[00:25:12] [SPEAKER_02]: And then how about you, Jim?

[00:25:12] [SPEAKER_02]: What do you think?

[00:25:13] [SPEAKER_03]: I'm going to say something weird, which both of you will probably disagree, but I actually

[00:25:16] [SPEAKER_03]: like Takayuki.

[00:25:18] [SPEAKER_01]: Whoa.

[00:25:19] [SPEAKER_01]: Let her cook.

[00:25:20] [SPEAKER_03]: Let her cook.

[00:25:21] [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, yeah.

[00:25:22] [SPEAKER_03]: I also, I really liked the part where he just sort of starts ranting to himself in front

[00:25:27] [SPEAKER_03]: of his manager and does the cross pose and everything.

[00:25:32] [SPEAKER_03]: Um, and then his manager is just like, wow, this, this guy is, is a weirdo.

[00:25:36] [SPEAKER_03]: Why is he doing all this?

[00:25:37] [SPEAKER_03]: Like that, that was great.

[00:25:38] [SPEAKER_03]: That was, I think my favorite part of the series.

[00:25:39] [SPEAKER_02]: I really liked the moment where, um, the manager calls him ridiculous and he's like, you think

[00:25:47] [SPEAKER_02]: I'm ridiculous?

[00:25:48] [SPEAKER_02]: And then he's basically like, yeah, you randomly cackle to yourself and like start saying like

[00:25:53] [SPEAKER_02]: insane evil things.

[00:25:55] [SPEAKER_02]: And he's like, huh, you may have a point actually.

[00:25:57] [SPEAKER_02]: Shit dude.

[00:25:58] [SPEAKER_02]: Am I the baddie?

[00:25:59] [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, that, that part was great.

[00:26:01] [SPEAKER_03]: And I think that towards the end also there was, uh, when they started focusing on him,

[00:26:06] [SPEAKER_03]: um, and actually going through his backstory, I thought that there was a lot of potential

[00:26:10] [SPEAKER_03]: there too.

[00:26:10] [SPEAKER_03]: Um, because at the beginning it's just sort of like this random, almost faceless guy who

[00:26:16] [SPEAKER_03]: appears out of nowhere and is just terrible to everyone.

[00:26:18] [SPEAKER_03]: But then there's like some room, there's room for him to also grow as a character and they

[00:26:22] [SPEAKER_03]: just never actually got to do that.

[00:26:25] [SPEAKER_03]: And that was something I was really disappointed in.

[00:26:26] [SPEAKER_01]: That actually might be a good segue into where it could have gone.

[00:26:31] [SPEAKER_01]: So Jan killing it.

[00:26:32] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I love it.

[00:26:33] [SPEAKER_01]: So let's get into that.

[00:26:34] [SPEAKER_01]: So Jan, why don't you continue that thought and tell us what are some things you would have

[00:26:37] [SPEAKER_01]: changed about the series?

[00:26:38] [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, I think that focusing on different characters, like we keep on saying over and over again,

[00:26:44] [SPEAKER_03]: helped a lot.

[00:26:45] [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, I think that that's part of that is just because it's in Shonen Jump.

[00:26:48] [SPEAKER_03]: So they had to have a character that, uh, their main readership or who they thought

[00:26:53] [SPEAKER_03]: their main readership was could, um, sort of insert themselves into and relate to, except

[00:26:58] [SPEAKER_03]: that I don't think that was their main readership.

[00:27:00] [SPEAKER_03]: I think that it's probably women who are actually reading this series because a lot of women read

[00:27:05] [SPEAKER_03]: Shonen Jump too.

[00:27:06] [SPEAKER_01]: It's true.

[00:27:07] [SPEAKER_01]: I do wonder if there was like an attempt to make Shonen Jump more woman friendly between

[00:27:11] [SPEAKER_01]: this Akane Banashi and Blue Box.

[00:27:14] [SPEAKER_01]: Because they all came out around the same time, didn't they?

[00:27:15] [SPEAKER_01]: Or like roughly in the same like two year period.

[00:27:17] [SPEAKER_01]: Maybe.

[00:27:18] [SPEAKER_02]: I mean, you know, um, as we of course know, having read the right way to make Jump, Shonen

[00:27:22] [SPEAKER_02]: Jump is proudly sexist and actively does not want to hire women.

[00:27:27] [SPEAKER_02]: So, you know, but I will say like, I agree with Jan here.

[00:27:31] [SPEAKER_02]: I think that if the series, uh, had cut out the majority of the practicing and like compressed

[00:27:38] [SPEAKER_02]: it so that like Takayuki shows up way earlier so that like, um, his backstory shows up way more

[00:27:44] [SPEAKER_02]: like you keep the character moments and focus more on these character moments that really would

[00:27:51] [SPEAKER_02]: have helped the series.

[00:27:52] [SPEAKER_02]: Because I don't care about, uh, figure skating rules, but I can care about characters who

[00:27:57] [SPEAKER_02]: care about figure skating rules.

[00:27:59] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

[00:27:59] [SPEAKER_01]: I also think, I don't know why, but I thought the series would have been fun if it was said

[00:28:03] [SPEAKER_01]: in the 80s to really get away from like current world events that they had to like

[00:28:06] [SPEAKER_01]: pretend didn't happen.

[00:28:07] [SPEAKER_01]: Because it's like, I don't know why, but I just feel like Satomi dresses from the 80s

[00:28:10] [SPEAKER_01]: for some reason.

[00:28:11] [SPEAKER_01]: I hear you.

[00:28:12] [SPEAKER_02]: I see what you mean.

[00:28:13] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

[00:28:14] [SPEAKER_01]: Cause she straight up says, okay, Google at one point.

[00:28:16] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

[00:28:17] [SPEAKER_01]: Oh yeah.

[00:28:17] [SPEAKER_01]: She's like crazy rich and they never really talk about it.

[00:28:19] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

[00:28:19] [SPEAKER_01]: So I guess what you guys say would the series have been better if the romance themes were

[00:28:23] [SPEAKER_01]: stronger?

[00:28:24] [SPEAKER_03]: I think the friendship themes should have been stronger.

[00:28:27] [SPEAKER_03]: Like it was there.

[00:28:28] [SPEAKER_03]: I feel like it wasn't really well developed.

[00:28:30] [SPEAKER_03]: Like you're just supposed to trust that they trust each other now.

[00:28:32] [SPEAKER_03]: And it didn't really feel like, um, it felt like the story was telling you that they

[00:28:37] [SPEAKER_03]: were, they were doing better, uh, relationship wise, like as, as partners.

[00:28:41] [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.

[00:28:42] [SPEAKER_03]: But I didn't really buy into it all the time.

[00:28:44] [SPEAKER_02]: It was very much telling and not showing.

[00:28:46] [SPEAKER_02]: It really needed to pick a lane though.

[00:28:48] [SPEAKER_02]: Exactly.

[00:28:49] [SPEAKER_02]: It needed to pick a lane.

[00:28:50] [SPEAKER_02]: Is it going to be more platonic?

[00:28:53] [SPEAKER_02]: And we're going to see these people just build up trust and be friends.

[00:28:56] [SPEAKER_02]: Or are they going to be in a romance?

[00:28:58] [SPEAKER_02]: Because I think either one could work, but you have to go in one of those directions.

[00:29:02] [SPEAKER_01]: I think it would have been nice if they were platonic and the story was like Satomi finding

[00:29:06] [SPEAKER_01]: a reason to love ice skiing again.

[00:29:07] [SPEAKER_01]: Cause she now has this like cinnamon roll golden retriever partner.

[00:29:10] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

[00:29:11] [SPEAKER_01]: And it's really her perspective.

[00:29:12] [SPEAKER_01]: Cause I also felt like the series didn't really explain why she partnered with him.

[00:29:15] [SPEAKER_01]: Maybe it's explained in the fucking paragraphs of text, but I still never really understood

[00:29:18] [SPEAKER_01]: why someone this talented kind of picked just a random kid to be her partner.

[00:29:22] [SPEAKER_03]: They kind of covered that.

[00:29:23] [SPEAKER_03]: Basically they were just using him.

[00:29:25] [SPEAKER_01]: Okay.

[00:29:25] [SPEAKER_01]: That's why I fought, but it just seemed like such a weak reason.

[00:29:28] [SPEAKER_02]: It is a weak reason, especially when she's like, I don't know.

[00:29:32] [SPEAKER_02]: He seems too good for me.

[00:29:34] [SPEAKER_02]: You know, like she's like straight up.

[00:29:35] [SPEAKER_02]: Nah, he, I'll only drag him down basically.

[00:29:39] [SPEAKER_02]: Like it becomes a situation where he will join her out of the goodness of his own heart.

[00:29:44] [SPEAKER_02]: It's a charitable act that he is with her.

[00:29:46] [SPEAKER_02]: Basically he's helping her by teaming up with him.

[00:29:50] [SPEAKER_01]: Which I think in the right framework, if she was an in character, I could have seen that

[00:29:53] [SPEAKER_01]: working.

[00:29:53] [SPEAKER_02]: I don't know.

[00:29:54] [SPEAKER_02]: It rubs me the wrong way because he's supposed to be the newbie who's not very good.

[00:30:00] [SPEAKER_02]: And she is the experienced prodigy.

[00:30:03] [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.

[00:30:03] [SPEAKER_02]: I feel like it should be, he is working to try and get her to join him.

[00:30:08] [SPEAKER_02]: That makes a lot of sense.

[00:30:09] [SPEAKER_01]: And then Jane, did you have any other thoughts on this topic?

[00:30:11] [SPEAKER_03]: Kind of feel similarly though.

[00:30:12] [SPEAKER_03]: So I think that they tried to address that a little bit.

[00:30:16] [SPEAKER_03]: And it's mostly because the feeling that I got was Kisa knows that her career is eventually,

[00:30:22] [SPEAKER_03]: if she stayed in singles would eventually just sort of evaporate where she was afraid that

[00:30:27] [SPEAKER_03]: it would.

[00:30:27] [SPEAKER_03]: Enough so that she switched over to pairs.

[00:30:30] [SPEAKER_03]: And that kind of explains why she thinks that she's dragging Jaime down.

[00:30:35] [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.

[00:30:35] [SPEAKER_03]: They sort of do cover that he's not doing it out of charity.

[00:30:39] [SPEAKER_03]: Like the other characters keep telling him over and over again to do it because like he

[00:30:43] [SPEAKER_03]: wants to be in pairs.

[00:30:45] [SPEAKER_03]: I think that it just sort of goes so fast.

[00:30:47] [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.

[00:30:48] [SPEAKER_02]: It goes very fast.

[00:30:49] [SPEAKER_02]: And it's also like, I don't know, because his reason, like it's like only do it if this

[00:30:54] [SPEAKER_02]: is your choice.

[00:30:55] [SPEAKER_02]: But then his reason is, well, she chose me.

[00:30:58] [SPEAKER_02]: It's like, I don't know.

[00:30:59] [SPEAKER_02]: Like the author figured out, oh, there's a contradiction here and then couldn't come up

[00:31:03] [SPEAKER_02]: with a good reason.

[00:31:04] [SPEAKER_01]: But I do think I have a good reason to talk about something else.

[00:31:07] [SPEAKER_01]: So why don't we get into miscellaneous thoughts?

[00:31:09] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

[00:31:10] [SPEAKER_01]: It's interesting.

[00:31:10] [SPEAKER_01]: The series really makes me think of PPPPP for some reason.

[00:31:13] [SPEAKER_01]: Maybe it's an art style.

[00:31:14] [SPEAKER_01]: So I don't know why, but that's just the manga I most think about while reading this.

[00:31:18] [SPEAKER_01]: Really?

[00:31:19] [SPEAKER_01]: The weird writing style, the art being kind of not quite standard.

[00:31:23] [SPEAKER_01]: There's just something very PPPPP about it.

[00:31:25] [SPEAKER_02]: I don't see it because like the writing style in PPP felt like a lot more subtle to me.

[00:31:30] [SPEAKER_02]: The music choices in this series were very interesting.

[00:31:33] [SPEAKER_01]: I was kind of disappointed they didn't have like a QR code on the start of each chapter.

[00:31:37] [SPEAKER_01]: And it's like, oh, listen along while you read this chapter.

[00:31:39] [SPEAKER_02]: Oh, God.

[00:31:40] [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.

[00:31:40] [SPEAKER_02]: So what do they have?

[00:31:41] [SPEAKER_02]: They have they have a Justin Bieber song.

[00:31:44] [SPEAKER_02]: They have I write Sins, Not Tragedies by Panic at the Disco.

[00:31:47] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I was actually surprised they had real music like Jan.

[00:31:51] [SPEAKER_01]: Did you have to like check to make sure you could use the actual song names?

[00:31:53] [SPEAKER_01]: Or is it just like you just could translate it?

[00:31:55] [SPEAKER_03]: Oh, I'm just a translator.

[00:31:57] [SPEAKER_03]: So I don't need to check anything.

[00:32:00] [SPEAKER_02]: Oh, great.

[00:32:00] [SPEAKER_02]: We have lawyers to deal with the legal shit, you know?

[00:32:04] [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.

[00:32:04] [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, the editor, the editor got to probably check in on that.

[00:32:09] [SPEAKER_01]: Oh, yeah.

[00:32:10] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

[00:32:10] [SPEAKER_01]: And then Jan, while we're in miscellaneous bots, do you have any interesting tidbits of your experience translating this?

[00:32:15] [SPEAKER_03]: Basically, before I started it, because we get some advance notice sometimes.

[00:32:20] [SPEAKER_03]: If they already know that there's like that something's coming in, they try to get a translator on it early sometimes.

[00:32:25] [SPEAKER_03]: So I had a few weeks where I was just sort of watching a whole bunch of ice skating videos for a few hours a day, which is a lot of fun.

[00:32:34] [SPEAKER_03]: That part was really great.

[00:32:36] [SPEAKER_03]: And I didn't quite realize I would go into the rules some deeply.

[00:32:40] [SPEAKER_03]: So I was just watching like old performances and not really considering like the points and stuff, just what kind of moves there were and everything like that.

[00:32:49] [SPEAKER_01]: Appreciate you putting all that extra effort in while translating it.

[00:32:51] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

[00:32:51] [SPEAKER_01]: I also got to say, I feel like some of those shirts were fun, like that I can skate a little.

[00:32:56] [SPEAKER_01]: I wonder if that was actually thought of by because the consultant speaks English.

[00:33:00] [SPEAKER_01]: And I don't think, Jan, you didn't translate that, right?

[00:33:02] [SPEAKER_03]: No, I did.

[00:33:03] [SPEAKER_03]: I did for that one.

[00:33:03] [SPEAKER_01]: Oh, so that was you.

[00:33:05] [SPEAKER_01]: So you created the best shirt in that series.

[00:33:08] [SPEAKER_03]: The shirt was already there.

[00:33:10] [SPEAKER_03]: I just made it English.

[00:33:11] [SPEAKER_01]: Oh, OK.

[00:33:12] [SPEAKER_01]: You did a good job.

[00:33:14] [SPEAKER_01]: Do you remember what the literal translation in Japanese was?

[00:33:17] [SPEAKER_03]: I don't remember.

[00:33:18] [SPEAKER_03]: I translate those once and then when I see them again, I just copy and paste.

[00:33:22] [SPEAKER_03]: I don't really read it over and over.

[00:33:24] [SPEAKER_03]: I just glance at it.

[00:33:26] [SPEAKER_01]: That is fair.

[00:33:27] [SPEAKER_01]: Also, this is unrelated to anything else.

[00:33:28] [SPEAKER_01]: I feel like Quicksilver, the Marvel superhero, is dressed like an ice skater.

[00:33:32] [SPEAKER_01]: I don't know if that's on purpose, but he just has that vibe.

[00:33:34] [SPEAKER_01]: He definitely looks like an ice skater.

[00:33:37] [SPEAKER_02]: I absolutely see what you mean.

[00:33:38] [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.

[00:33:39] [SPEAKER_02]: Towards the end of the series, they jump to this TV editorial room or whatever, or

[00:33:46] [SPEAKER_02]: programming where they're trying to figure out the ice skating programming.

[00:33:50] [SPEAKER_02]: And this girl is arguing, no, we should show Kisara and Hayuma.

[00:33:55] [SPEAKER_02]: And the head guy is like, nah, that's dumb.

[00:33:57] [SPEAKER_02]: We got to focus on Takayuki.

[00:34:00] [SPEAKER_02]: And then a guy is like, nah, man, we should show Kisara and Hayuma.

[00:34:05] [SPEAKER_02]: And he's like, you know, you make a good point.

[00:34:07] [SPEAKER_02]: Sexism in action.

[00:34:08] [SPEAKER_02]: And Shonen Jump?

[00:34:09] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

[00:34:09] [SPEAKER_01]: You got to understand, Jordan, we live in a society.

[00:34:11] [SPEAKER_01]: We do.

[00:34:12] [SPEAKER_01]: And we also live in a world with Maxie B, luckily enough.

[00:34:15] [SPEAKER_01]: So let's hear some trivia from them.

[00:34:16] [SPEAKER_01]: Maxie B says, as noted before, they had a consultant, the national Japanese champion,

[00:34:22] [SPEAKER_01]: Norumi Takahashi, who has won many a gold medal and also well known for being a member of the LGBT community.

[00:34:27] [SPEAKER_01]: Whoa.

[00:34:28] [SPEAKER_01]: So I wonder what her thoughts are on some of the LGBT elements in this series.

[00:34:31] [SPEAKER_01]: It's actually quite rare for a series to really talk about their advisor, but given she's a famous Olympian,

[00:34:36] [SPEAKER_01]: it's not really a surprise that she's mentioned quite a few times in the series is helping on it.

[00:34:39] [SPEAKER_01]: Interestingly, the only other case where the consultant is mentioned so much is in Doobretry,

[00:34:43] [SPEAKER_01]: which we've already talked about before.

[00:34:45] [SPEAKER_01]: And Maxie B wants to give a PSA saying, this is very screen tone heavy,

[00:34:49] [SPEAKER_01]: and you really, really should be reading it on the original release.

[00:34:52] [SPEAKER_01]: The art hits a lot harder, just digitally does not do it justice.

[00:34:56] [SPEAKER_01]: Oh.

[00:34:56] [SPEAKER_01]: This is kind of like Pokemon, where despite the mentioning a real skater in chapter four,

[00:35:00] [SPEAKER_01]: is later stated that this is an alternative world where there are no real life professional skaters.

[00:35:05] [SPEAKER_01]: So it's much like how Pokemon mentioned China in red and blue and then had to retcon that out.

[00:35:10] [SPEAKER_01]: The mistletoe dance sequence in chapter 13, as we were talking about before, Jan,

[00:35:13] [SPEAKER_01]: all of that was already written in English.

[00:35:15] [SPEAKER_01]: So you got to take off easy on that chapter.

[00:35:17] [SPEAKER_01]: That's a Bieber song.

[00:35:18] [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, it's a Justin Bieber song.

[00:35:20] [SPEAKER_02]: Okay, yeah, I remember that.

[00:35:21] [SPEAKER_01]: So actually, my question for you is, if you notice like grammar mistakes,

[00:35:24] [SPEAKER_01]: would you fix it or would you have left it as is?

[00:35:26] [SPEAKER_03]: For that, I think that was lyrics that were probably online.

[00:35:30] [SPEAKER_03]: So there wouldn't have been mistakes.

[00:35:31] [SPEAKER_03]: I think that there were none.

[00:35:33] [SPEAKER_03]: It was just like punctuation usually that's different.

[00:35:36] [SPEAKER_03]: Oh, interesting.

[00:35:37] [SPEAKER_03]: For other series though, sometimes you're not allowed to change things.

[00:35:41] [SPEAKER_03]: I think that all happens like on editorial side because I'm just a freelancer.

[00:35:44] [SPEAKER_03]: So I'm not really privy to any of those conversations.

[00:35:48] [SPEAKER_01]: No, that's fair.

[00:35:49] [SPEAKER_01]: I was just curious if you say English mistakes, if you have to fix it or not.

[00:35:52] [SPEAKER_03]: I note them at least, but they don't always get fixed.

[00:35:55] [SPEAKER_01]: Gotcha.

[00:35:56] [SPEAKER_01]: I know Stephen Paul was talking about sometimes he'll notice like a mistake

[00:35:58] [SPEAKER_01]: and like have to talk to editorial and be like, should this be fixed?

[00:36:01] [SPEAKER_01]: Like Oda had like a typo in the original and it was like a very blatant typo.

[00:36:06] [SPEAKER_01]: And they actually fixed it in the English version, which I thought was really cool

[00:36:08] [SPEAKER_01]: that you had to wait to the volume released in Japan

[00:36:10] [SPEAKER_01]: to see the original Japanese version fixed.

[00:36:13] [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, that's cool.

[00:36:14] [SPEAKER_02]: I do think it would be really funny to go up to Stephen Paul and be like,

[00:36:17] [SPEAKER_02]: yo, you have a typo here.

[00:36:19] [SPEAKER_02]: And it's like, no, Oda had a typo.

[00:36:21] [SPEAKER_01]: Well, that was that whole gear third, gear fourth thing where he was like,

[00:36:24] [SPEAKER_01]: nah, it says gear fourth, even though it's gear third in that chapter.

[00:36:27] [SPEAKER_01]: He's felt that recently.

[00:36:28] [SPEAKER_01]: Shout out to Stephen Paul.

[00:36:29] [SPEAKER_01]: He was a guest on our show.

[00:36:30] [SPEAKER_01]: Great guy.

[00:36:31] [SPEAKER_01]: And then chapter 14 was released on Christmas Eve in the US

[00:36:34] [SPEAKER_01]: and Christmas Day in Japan.

[00:36:35] [SPEAKER_01]: An incredibly lucky bit.

[00:36:37] [SPEAKER_01]: So that is the trivia.

[00:36:38] [SPEAKER_01]: Sorry, that is the Christmas theme chapter.

[00:36:40] [SPEAKER_01]: And if you want to learn about the volume extras,

[00:36:42] [SPEAKER_01]: you can check out Maxi B's full unabridged notes on our Patreon.

[00:36:46] [SPEAKER_01]: And does anyone have anything else?

[00:36:47] [SPEAKER_01]: Or shall we move into the final verdict?

[00:36:49] [SPEAKER_01]: Christmas was like relevant in this series.

[00:36:52] [SPEAKER_01]: Very big Christmas energy.

[00:36:54] [SPEAKER_02]: Because Takayuki was like born on Christmas Eve.

[00:36:58] [SPEAKER_02]: Like they call him like a gift from God.

[00:37:00] [SPEAKER_02]: There are a lot of times where people kind of allude to him being like

[00:37:04] [SPEAKER_02]: figure skating Jesus, basically.

[00:37:06] [SPEAKER_02]: But he's like, little do they know I'm the figure skating devil.

[00:37:10] [SPEAKER_01]: That can be your angle or your devil.

[00:37:12] [SPEAKER_01]: Basically, yeah.

[00:37:13] [SPEAKER_01]: Axel.

[00:37:13] [SPEAKER_01]: I can be your axle or your devil.

[00:37:15] [SPEAKER_01]: Hey.

[00:37:15] [SPEAKER_01]: All right.

[00:37:16] [SPEAKER_01]: So now let's get into the final verdict.

[00:37:18] [SPEAKER_01]: Let's kick things off from the community.

[00:37:20] [SPEAKER_01]: Tucker says skating's less dynamic than golf, apparently.

[00:37:22] [SPEAKER_01]: And exhaustively telling is barely showing us.

[00:37:25] [SPEAKER_01]: That is very true.

[00:37:26] [SPEAKER_01]: Maxi B, two people, one ice reaction video.

[00:37:29] [SPEAKER_01]: God damn it.

[00:37:29] [SPEAKER_01]: I actually had that.

[00:37:30] [SPEAKER_01]: And then I saw Maxi B, so I had to delete mine.

[00:37:32] [SPEAKER_01]: But I was like to skate one ice or something.

[00:37:34] [SPEAKER_01]: Or a paladin says sports and jump.

[00:37:35] [SPEAKER_01]: It'll never work.

[00:37:36] [SPEAKER_01]: Bof says sport romance.

[00:37:38] [SPEAKER_01]: Just read blue box.

[00:37:40] [SPEAKER_01]: Flawed protagonist gets the axe again.

[00:37:42] [SPEAKER_01]: I wish he was flawed.

[00:37:43] [SPEAKER_01]: Chicken warlord.

[00:37:44] [SPEAKER_01]: Look elsewhere for ice head thrills.

[00:37:46] [SPEAKER_01]: Which is funny because it's talking about axes and the one above it.

[00:37:49] [SPEAKER_01]: Hey.

[00:37:49] [SPEAKER_01]: That's a reference to ice head gill for all our flop heads out there.

[00:37:52] [SPEAKER_01]: Dacerson says win no medal is not a medalist.

[00:37:55] [SPEAKER_01]: Diego.

[00:37:56] [SPEAKER_01]: Just watch blades of glory instead.

[00:37:57] [SPEAKER_01]: Doogie four.

[00:37:58] [SPEAKER_01]: Bambi was more graceful than this.

[00:38:00] [SPEAKER_01]: Dude rocks.

[00:38:00] [SPEAKER_01]: Thought you'd cover this in winter.

[00:38:02] [SPEAKER_01]: Funky green overdrive.

[00:38:03] [SPEAKER_01]: Breaking news.

[00:38:03] [SPEAKER_01]: Skating manga gets iced.

[00:38:05] [SPEAKER_01]: Glornack iron spawn.

[00:38:06] [SPEAKER_01]: Failed to compete among its peers.

[00:38:07] [SPEAKER_01]: Gray Potter being male is his superpower.

[00:38:10] [SPEAKER_02]: Isekai sensei.

[00:38:12] [SPEAKER_02]: Twas offered innocence.

[00:38:14] [SPEAKER_02]: Then overindulged.

[00:38:16] [SPEAKER_02]: Captain Clueless.

[00:38:17] [SPEAKER_02]: Two teens tried to twirl together.

[00:38:20] [SPEAKER_02]: Lass of the red rose.

[00:38:21] [SPEAKER_02]: Rough year for ice skating anime manga.

[00:38:24] [SPEAKER_02]: And then it has like an angry emoji.

[00:38:26] [SPEAKER_02]: Lord Anubis.

[00:38:27] [SPEAKER_02]: Another sports manga has been iced.

[00:38:29] [SPEAKER_02]: Luffy 0-3-2-1.

[00:38:31] [SPEAKER_02]: Mediocre skater outperformed by melodramatic rival.

[00:38:34] [SPEAKER_02]: Meru.

[00:38:34] [SPEAKER_02]: Glacial undergoing.

[00:38:35] [SPEAKER_02]: Neat dances.

[00:38:37] [SPEAKER_02]: Average manga.

[00:38:38] [SPEAKER_02]: Portal Man.

[00:38:39] [SPEAKER_02]: Couldn't figure eight out of this flop.

[00:38:41] [SPEAKER_02]: Nice.

[00:38:41] [SPEAKER_02]: Resident Warhammer nerd.

[00:38:42] [SPEAKER_02]: Haha.

[00:38:43] [SPEAKER_02]: Get it?

[00:38:43] [SPEAKER_02]: It was iced.

[00:38:44] [SPEAKER_02]: I get it.

[00:38:45] [SPEAKER_02]: Real.

[00:38:46] [SPEAKER_02]: There sure were two on ice.

[00:38:48] [SPEAKER_02]: Riley.

[00:38:49] [SPEAKER_02]: Always twirling, twirling, twirling towards cancellation.

[00:38:52] [SPEAKER_02]: S. Bubby.

[00:38:53] [SPEAKER_02]: Shaky skater struggling.

[00:38:55] [SPEAKER_02]: Sparring.

[00:38:56] [SPEAKER_02]: Stylish Sephiroth.

[00:38:57] [SPEAKER_02]: I see.

[00:38:58] [SPEAKER_02]: Scott.

[00:38:58] [SPEAKER_02]: There's no Yuri on this ice.

[00:39:00] [SPEAKER_02]: The Wolf of Wood the Trafalgar.

[00:39:02] [SPEAKER_02]: This wasn't hockey so I passed.

[00:39:04] [SPEAKER_02]: Thor's.

[00:39:05] [SPEAKER_02]: I liked the broken up couple.

[00:39:07] [SPEAKER_02]: Xylon.

[00:39:08] [SPEAKER_02]: Antagonist too edgy for cute manga.

[00:39:10] [SPEAKER_02]: David.

[00:39:11] [SPEAKER_01]: I had two so you'll have to tell me.

[00:39:12] [SPEAKER_01]: Jordan, you and Jane will have to tell me which one was better.

[00:39:14] [SPEAKER_01]: It skates on plot fin ice and the ambiguously gay ice skating duo.

[00:39:19] [SPEAKER_02]: I would say the second one but I don't know who you're talking about.

[00:39:23] [SPEAKER_01]: You've never seen the ambiguously gay duo from?

[00:39:25] [SPEAKER_02]: No, I don't know who the gay ice skating duo in this manga was.

[00:39:29] [SPEAKER_01]: They're all ambiguously gay, Jordan.

[00:39:30] [SPEAKER_01]: That's the plot of this manga.

[00:39:31] [SPEAKER_02]: All right, then I'll go with the second one.

[00:39:33] [SPEAKER_02]: Okay.

[00:39:34] [SPEAKER_01]: And then Jordan, what was your six word summary?

[00:39:36] [SPEAKER_02]: Wow, GGG was real fucking good.

[00:39:38] [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.

[00:39:39] [SPEAKER_01]: It really was not fair to read this after.

[00:39:41] [SPEAKER_01]: One of the best things we've ever read.

[00:39:42] [SPEAKER_02]: Well, but it's also like the setup was very similar.

[00:39:46] [SPEAKER_02]: Like you have a newbie guy getting into a sport and meeting an experienced, really talented

[00:39:52] [SPEAKER_02]: girl.

[00:39:53] [SPEAKER_02]: And she should have been the protagonist.

[00:39:54] [SPEAKER_02]: Who should have been the protagonist.

[00:39:56] [SPEAKER_02]: And he like gets into the sport and she shows him like, and she like helps him get better.

[00:40:01] [SPEAKER_02]: It's like that.

[00:40:02] [SPEAKER_02]: It was very similar, but better.

[00:40:04] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

[00:40:05] [SPEAKER_01]: And then Jan, what was your six word summary?

[00:40:07] [SPEAKER_03]: Pears aren't popular.

[00:40:08] [SPEAKER_03]: Please watch more.

[00:40:09] [SPEAKER_01]: I love it.

[00:40:10] [SPEAKER_01]: And then can we all say, I will say this is a flop.

[00:40:13] [SPEAKER_01]: Jordan, are you calling this one certified?

[00:40:15] [SPEAKER_01]: I don't think I'm calling it certified, but I think it's a flop.

[00:40:18] [SPEAKER_02]: I didn't hate it.

[00:40:19] [SPEAKER_01]: I don't think it's awful.

[00:40:20] [SPEAKER_01]: How would you, Jan?

[00:40:21] [SPEAKER_03]: I don't think it was a flop, but I think it's not.

[00:40:24] [SPEAKER_03]: It's not the best series.

[00:40:25] [SPEAKER_01]: So you don't think it's a flop.

[00:40:26] [SPEAKER_01]: Interesting.

[00:40:27] [SPEAKER_03]: I think that it could have.

[00:40:28] [SPEAKER_03]: It had a lot of potential and also lasted longer than other series I've been on.

[00:40:33] [SPEAKER_01]: That's fair.

[00:40:33] [SPEAKER_01]: Jordan, I thought this was a flop.

[00:40:35] [SPEAKER_01]: And then Jordan, I assume since you wrote your six word summary twice and that wasn't a mistake.

[00:40:40] [SPEAKER_01]: You are saying read GGG.

[00:40:41] [SPEAKER_02]: Sure.

[00:40:42] [SPEAKER_02]: Also, there's a cute little hockey roguelike called Tape to Tape.

[00:40:46] [SPEAKER_02]: That's that I recommend.

[00:40:47] [SPEAKER_01]: Oh, interesting.

[00:40:48] [SPEAKER_02]: I haven't played it, but I think it looks fun.

[00:40:51] [SPEAKER_01]: And then my recommendation is Shoha Shoten if you want some doubles performing fun.

[00:40:55] [SPEAKER_01]: If people aren't aware, it's about traditional Japanese comedy and it's very good.

[00:40:58] [SPEAKER_01]: I do not know how the translator does it.

[00:41:00] [SPEAKER_01]: Shout out to Stephen Paul again.

[00:41:01] [SPEAKER_01]: But they were able to make Japanese comedy actually funny in English as well.

[00:41:05] [SPEAKER_01]: So if you guys want to check that out, it's got a lot of the same kind of DNA structure as this series, but is much, much better.

[00:41:11] [SPEAKER_01]: Oh, cool.

[00:41:11] [SPEAKER_01]: And then Jordan, I don't think this is the worst thing we've ever read.

[00:41:14] [SPEAKER_01]: This is probably one of the stronger flops, I would say.

[00:41:17] [SPEAKER_01]: I think it's in the middle.

[00:41:18] [SPEAKER_02]: I don't think it's I definitely don't think it's one of the worst.

[00:41:22] [SPEAKER_02]: Unquestionably not.

[00:41:23] [SPEAKER_02]: But I don't know if I'd say it's like one of the better ones.

[00:41:25] [SPEAKER_02]: I don't know.

[00:41:25] [SPEAKER_02]: It's I don't know.

[00:41:26] [SPEAKER_02]: Fair enough.

[00:41:27] [SPEAKER_02]: I think it is closer towards the top of the pile, I will say.

[00:41:30] [SPEAKER_01]: So let's now get into the wrap up.

[00:41:32] [SPEAKER_01]: Jan, thank you so much for joining us and bringing all of your awesome translator insights.

[00:41:36] [SPEAKER_01]: Where can people get more of your awesome work in their life?

[00:41:39] [SPEAKER_03]: I have a Twitter that I don't post on anymore.

[00:41:43] [SPEAKER_01]: That is fair.

[00:41:45] [SPEAKER_01]: That's fair.

[00:41:45] [SPEAKER_01]: Jan, is there any series you're translating right now that you wish more people were reading?

[00:41:50] [SPEAKER_03]: Shinobi Undercover.

[00:41:51] [SPEAKER_01]: Whoa, what's that about?

[00:41:52] [SPEAKER_01]: That sounds cool.

[00:41:53] [SPEAKER_03]: It's about ninjas and they infiltrate a school in order to protect a girl and they don't know why they're protecting her.

[00:42:00] [SPEAKER_03]: And also the main character is so, so awkward that he pretty much can't talk to any people, except he kind of does.

[00:42:07] [SPEAKER_01]: He's like me for real.

[00:42:09] [SPEAKER_03]: And also the girl defends him because she thinks that he's very funny because he's socially awkward.

[00:42:15] [SPEAKER_01]: Oh, that's how my wife adopted me.

[00:42:16] [SPEAKER_01]: That's how I made friends in high school.

[00:42:19] [SPEAKER_01]: You love to see it.

[00:42:20] [SPEAKER_01]: That is fantastic.

[00:42:21] [SPEAKER_01]: I also want to say props to Jordan for making the opening ending theme, being a great co-host and helping with editing.

[00:42:25] [SPEAKER_02]: Thank you, David, for all the hard work that you do on this podcast.

[00:42:28] [SPEAKER_01]: No problem.

[00:42:29] [SPEAKER_01]: Props to Mer Lyle for the awesome cover.

[00:42:31] [SPEAKER_01]: Find her online at Lyle Mer and Nigel for being our generous art benefactor.

[00:42:35] [SPEAKER_01]: Thank you, Dylan, for assistance with editing.

[00:42:36] [SPEAKER_01]: You can find his podcast, Anime Out of Context, at animeoutofcontext.com.

[00:42:40] [SPEAKER_01]: Thanks to Tucker and Maxi B for assistance with pronunciation, translation, and other miscellaneous research.

[00:42:44] [SPEAKER_01]: Find us on Twitter, ShonenFlopCast, Tumblr, Shonen-Flop, our website, ShonenFlop.com.

[00:42:48] [SPEAKER_01]: We're on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube, wherever else you get your podcasts.

[00:42:52] [SPEAKER_01]: If you want more weekly David and Jordan content, you can also find us every Friday on the Chainsaw Minute,

[00:42:56] [SPEAKER_01]: where we talk about the latest chapter of Chainsaw Man.

[00:42:58] [SPEAKER_01]: Find it at csm.libson.com or wherever else you listen to ShonenFlop.

[00:43:02] [SPEAKER_01]: And come join the ShonenFlop Discord.

[00:43:03] [SPEAKER_01]: It's open to everyone.

[00:43:05] [SPEAKER_01]: Hang out with us and talk about anime games or whatever else is on your mind.

[00:43:08] [SPEAKER_01]: We even have a manga book club where they're going through Black Cat.

[00:43:11] [SPEAKER_01]: And we also have a weekly movie night, which has been really fun.

[00:43:14] [SPEAKER_01]: You can find a link to it in the show notes or on our site, ShonenFlop.com.

[00:43:17] [SPEAKER_01]: And if you've been enjoying the podcast and want to help us keep going,

[00:43:19] [SPEAKER_01]: consider subscribing to our Patreon at patreon.com slash ShonenFlop.

[00:43:23] [SPEAKER_01]: Along with that warm and fuzzy feeling of helping us out,

[00:43:25] [SPEAKER_01]: you also get access to monthly bonus episodes, including the Shonen Drop,

[00:43:28] [SPEAKER_01]: where Jordan and I look back at the previous month's episode and open the mystery box.

[00:43:32] [SPEAKER_01]: Jordan, what was our bonus episode and what was in the mystery box for the month of October?

[00:43:36] [SPEAKER_02]: Well, David, our bonus episode was me finally making you read Get A Robo.

[00:43:42] [SPEAKER_02]: And the mystery box, well, that was us reviewing the pilot to Cool Shock BT.

[00:43:50] [SPEAKER_01]: Yes, Rocky's favorite series about the adventures of teenage Dio.

[00:43:54] [SPEAKER_01]: Oh, yes, basically.

[00:43:55] [SPEAKER_02]: No, that's a series that has to deal with copyright issues.

[00:43:58] [SPEAKER_02]: But Rocky inherently has to deal with copyright issues, even if there aren't direct copyright violations.

[00:44:05] [SPEAKER_01]: And if that's not enough, other perks include Get Picking a Manga for us to cover in a main episode,

[00:44:09] [SPEAKER_01]: episodes up to a week in advance, and behind-the-scenes content like our warm-up audio or recording notes.

[00:44:13] [SPEAKER_01]: I also want to read off some of our wonderful patrons,

[00:44:15] [SPEAKER_01]: starting with our Dolphin Dads, we have Glornak, I Smell Your Breath, and Rachel, my wonderful wife.

[00:44:19] [SPEAKER_01]: We just had a fantastic time in Chicago.

[00:44:21] [SPEAKER_01]: Moving on down to the Ravioli tier, where, as I talk about the warm-up audio,

[00:44:24] [SPEAKER_01]: Ravioli may be the most domesticated dog to ever exist.

[00:44:27] [SPEAKER_01]: We have Chris, Eva, Jeanette Davis, Lady T, Matt, Scarlet, T, Tiffany, and Trevor.

[00:44:32] [SPEAKER_01]: Moving on down to the King of the Forest, we have 090Z, Bandit Stoof,

[00:44:35] [SPEAKER_01]: my girlfriend, Brad, Chad, Ivan, Jacob, Justin, Kirbymont, Marty, Noah, Riley, Sarah, T. Wolfwood, and Tommy Boy.

[00:44:42] [SPEAKER_01]: And a big thank you to our Galactic Ball Federation officers and our Beast children.

[00:44:45] [SPEAKER_02]: Yes, thank you. I love you all very much.

[00:44:48] [SPEAKER_01]: All right. Anything you want to toss in, Jordan?

[00:44:49] [SPEAKER_02]: Listen to Mission Ignition.

[00:44:50] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah. All right. Let's get in the sign-off.

[00:44:52] [SPEAKER_01]: All right.

[00:44:53] [SPEAKER_01]: Thank you so much for joining us.

[00:44:54] [SPEAKER_01]: Tune in next Monday as we give our first thoughts on Kikokuto Necromance.

[00:45:00] [SPEAKER_01]: Let me take that again. I know Jordan's about to say that.

[00:45:05] [SPEAKER_01]: This has been David. This has been Jordan. This has been Jan.

[00:45:08] [SPEAKER_01]: And you've been listening to Shonen Flop.

[00:45:09] [SPEAKER_02]: Keep up loving lovers!

[00:45:11] [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah!