#123.5 This is a children's video game spinoff? Ral Grad

[00:00:00] Welcome to Shonen Flop Chibi, first impressions mini episode where we talk, but the first chapter of the series we'll be covering in depth next week with our guest James Tullos. I'm Jordan and with me today as usual is my lovely co-host David, say hey David. Hi David. What series are we covering this week David? We're covering Ral Omega Grad. I don't know if the Omega is supposed to be said or not, there's an Omega, we're dropping it for everything because what are we supposed to do with an Omega symbol. But I want to acknowledge it has a right to exist, even if we don't respect it.

[00:00:26] Oh man, I can't believe we're finally covering a series in the Omega verse. Yeah, for fuck all. You know, you know this is the second series in a row that mentions it. Yeah, we had we've had two back to back non-flops. Will it be the third? I don't think so. I don't think so either based on this chapter. Oh God. All right. So Jordan, why don't you tell us about the series? All right. So this is Ral Omega symbol grad drawn by Takeshi Obata. Hey! Of uh, pedophile middle school fame.

[00:00:55] Pedophile middle school. Oh boy, I hope that that doesn't become relevant in this series and written by Tsunayo Takano. And it ran from December 4th, 2006 to July 9th, 2007. 29 chapters and four volumes. Oh boy. And David, apparently this is a spinoff of Blue Dragon. Yeah, that video game that was for the Xbox 360 when they tried to. It's from the era of when they actually tried to get people to play Xbox games in Japan.

[00:01:22] And, uh, does have a fantastic battle theme. Yeah, by Ian Gillian from, uh, Deep Purple. Pan into an eternity. You can't see. Yeah, that song rips. God, it's the only thing I remember about that game. Same, actually. I never played it, but I just, I listened to the song like quite a few times because it fucking bangs. It's funny because the art of the, uh, game is drawn by Akira Toriyama. Rest in peace. This one year anniversary of dying, I think, like last week.

[00:01:51] Oh, that's so sad. But yeah, the art was drawn by Takeshi Obata from, uh, I mean, you know, School Judgment, but also like Death Note, you know? Yeah. Bakuman. And Bakuman. I was wondering why the art was good. All right, let's get into the first chapter plot summary. The world is in medieval dungeons and dragons times, and a generic castle is under siege by beasts called shadows.

[00:02:17] Shadows are annoying to explain creatures that live in the shadows of people and animals, but sometimes consume their hosts and become chimeras or something. Anyway, 15 years ago, there weren't any shadows, but then a baby named Rao was born with one that was a cool dragon named Grad, and it freaked everyone out so much that the lord of the castle, a guy named Roy, had him locked in a gross Lovecraftian prison that was so dark that shadows couldn't form because David.

[00:02:47] Shadows cannot exist without the light. Isn't that ironic? No, that's so deep. That's, um, uh, Digimon frontier energy. Yeah, isn't that so symbolic? I'm also thinking when you say cool dragon, I'm just kidding. I'm thinking cool, rad, and dragon. Yeah. Maybe it's not the cover. Cool, rad, and dragon. Cool, rad, and dragon. Since then, Rao has been taught things about the outside world by his tutor, Mio, who has big boobs, which is actually relevant. Popcorn David.

[00:03:15] Shit gets so bad that Mio convinces Lord Roy to release Rao. Rao immediately attacks and maybe kills Roy, who is his father for luck. I think he just punched him really hard, but I guess we'll find out next chapter. They acted like he died, but, like, he didn't do something that seems like that would have killed him unless he was- He didn't show up again afterwards, though. He didn't see- He actually had that bone, that, uh, bird bone disease. I couldn't tell if he punched him or, like, pierced through his stomach, you know? No.

[00:03:43] So anyway, we then see Mio and rips her shirt off because he's never seen boobs before and wondered what they were. Mio isn't even mad, though, because he's just a boy that never seen no woman before. Also, he's naked, kind of, and doesn't know what clothes are anyway. She tells him that if he kills a shadow, she'll teach him about women, talk about a chainsaw man, throwback. Oh, boy. So Rao goes outside and uses Grad to kill the bad guys. Actually, this guy really could have appreciated the sex ed 120% manga. Yeah, well, because he literally doesn't know what sex ed's. If only we had known, we could have put him in the cover art.

[00:04:12] If only. Then Rao eats a banana and goes to sleep as Mio joins him in bed. It is very weird, as Jordan says. Yeah, I see why there was some hesitation on us covering the series, but you know what? Just to check, we did run it by our guests and I appreciate everyone warning us, but sometimes you just gotta see what happens, you know? Did they have sex? It's very confusing. I don't think so. Because being like, I'll teach you about women definitely sounds like that, you know? Like... Boob and vagine. Boob and vagine.

[00:04:41] That is how I would describe that. Yeah, that's your power word is vagine. That's my power word. Actually, mine can be boob, yours can be vagine. Jordan, what's your first impression? Well, the art is very good. Yeah. I'll give it that. Very well done art. Yeah, not a shocker. Not a shocker! Man, two of the three series that we've covered by Obata. Naked underage people. What was the third series by Obata we covered? Ironically, Cyborg Grandpa G with naked old people.

[00:05:10] This is very different from Cyborg Grandpa G. Yeah, so interesting. This guy spans both age extremes. He loves an older woman. And I gotta say, I feel like this series makes more sense if you play Blue Dragon, maybe. I don't know. It's like, also it feels like this is totally super different than the game. Yeah, I mean, because like my perception of the game, having not played it, is that it's like kind of goofy. I mean, you know, you look at Akira Toriyama's art and it's like, it looks like cute art, you know?

[00:05:37] It's like an E10 rated game, isn't it? Yeah. This series is rated 18 plus. You can't read this on the app. You have to go on the website. Like... Blue Dragon was a T rated game, so this is a weird tonal shift. And again, the Blue Dragon goofy kind of art style, this looks very dark. Also, damn, it suddenly becomes the plot of like a hentai at some point. Such a weirdly forced sex scene.

[00:06:03] It's the Japanese equivalent of like a pizza guy suddenly knocking on the door and a woman being like, oh, I don't have money, but I'll give you a tip if you know what I mean. Like... Yeah. It's the manga equivalent of that. His stepbrother, I'm stuck. Literally, yes, it is. He is stuck. He was stuck in an order. Yeah. Step tutor, I'm stuck. Yeah. Oh my God. It is so strange. Like, if he'd ripped off her shirt and she would have... She was like, like freaked out about it.

[00:06:32] That might have been a little uncomfortable, but it is so much worse to me that she's like really happy about it. Yeah. That is so much worse. I can tell this artist is also very opinionated towards women, much like his comic collaborator on Death Note. Yeah. Yeah. And also, man, what a block, like what a fucking exposition dump. It's so weird though, because there's three stages, except we often confuse some of the stages together. And it's like, what? This is too confusing for the first chapter.

[00:07:01] By the way, I didn't need to know any of that to follow what was happening. Like at all. She's suddenly just like, well, as you know, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh. I also think the pacing was kind of weird. I would have moved the dragon attack to the start instead of all that weird fucking boring prologue stuff. This chapter is very poorly paced. Why did they say they didn't know about shadows until 15 years ago? But then the main character says, or someone's, I forget who said, but they said their dad told them about the dragon shadows. Yeah.

[00:07:27] So basically what happened is Raul was born and the second he's born, he speaks and says he's sleepy. And then a giant, a giant dragon appears and kills a bunch of people or destroys the lands and stuff. And then both are going to be trogdor. Yeah. Oh my God. Yes. There we go. You're going to draw the dragon trogdor stuff. Yeah. Yeah. He burninates the countryside and all the peasants, that's roof cottages.

[00:07:54] And then the guy that we learn is the Lord. And also his father apparently is like, wow, my, my father told me that he's not going to me about this. So it seems like there was like at least like a 30 to 40 plus year gap between shadows existing. And then they showed up again. You were trying so hard to make this plot make sense. I'm trying to figure out what he was trying to say. It's really just, it's really about the women you don't sexualize when it comes to him.

[00:08:24] No matter what, this is poorly told. Yeah. This is confusedly told. I mean, I'm just trying to figure out what he was trying to say here. Cause he didn't say it very well. Yeah. But yeah, I feel like this plot is trying to be super intense, but I don't know. I don't know. I just feel like kind of well by the art. Like it's technically impressive, but there's no heart to this art. It just feels like he just, just felt like he phoned it in. Yeah. I would agree with that. I mean, the problem is that everything's very generic.

[00:08:53] Like the designs are just not very interesting. Maybe. Cause he didn't want to write one down yet. I didn't write one down. Maybe it is, you know? Like, as I said, it's a, it's a generic medieval castle. Yeah. The most interestingly designed thing is the tattoos that he has that cover up his nudity, which is not that interesting anyway. And like the dragon itself, it's just kind of like, oh, that's a, that's a cool anime dragon. I've seen that. Not as cool as Trogdor though.

[00:09:20] Not, well, Trogdor, of course, is the coolest anime dragon. Yeah. But it's just kind of like, yeah, I've seen this guy before. Yeah. Cyborg Grandpa G at least had like some heart to what was going on. Cyborg Grandpa G was trying. Yeah. He had fun with that series, regardless of its quality. Yeah. I also have to say, I feel like the translation feels weird, even though it's an official translation. Like when he says, I submit, and then the main character responds, you'll die. It just felt very weird. Like no one talks like that.

[00:09:49] Cause I think there's a little bit of it trying to sound old timey, but it also doesn't sound old timey. So it's like, thou must. Oh, he's not going to say, I give up. It's medieval time. So he's going to say, I submit, but like they're called like monstres or something like monstres. I guess it's supposed to be French or something. But the first time I saw it, I thought they just, they just misspelled it. Cause it's just, you're swapping the E and the R and it wasn't until the second time they did. I was like, oh, okay. That was intentional. Cause it came out of nowhere. Yeah.

[00:10:19] Uh, so I guess this is medieval France or something. Imagine if France was real. Uh, if only, you know. And then Jordan, would you read another 10 chapters of this? No. No, this is pretty bad. This is like, this is generic trash. The only reason I would do it is to see the, uh, technically well-drawn people, but no. Yeah. Their designs are not interesting. Yeah. I totally agree. And then Jordan, what do you think we'll have next?

[00:10:45] I think at some point he's going to have a quote unquote philosophical discussion with, uh, the dragon over whether to kill humans or not. I think the dragon is like the deposed king of the shadows or something. And I think that Raoul will get at least three more girls that he's horny for. Brave with that last point. Thank you. I think he's going to fuse with the dragon in a super form. I see. I think his mom doesn't matter at all. Cause they didn't actually really talk about her. Nope. And I think Glass's girl is going to get a shadow of her own. Okay. Yeah.

[00:11:14] That, this is, does not inspire a lot of ideas, does it? No, it's just like, sure. You know, whatever. Yeah. He's going to roll a D20 at some point. Sure. And Jordan, what's your power word? Standard. Oh, that's a, it's a great magic format. Yeah. Sure. How about yours? And mine is shadow. The series is just very two dimensional. But it's, it is not the ultimate life form. No, it's not. I was waiting for that reference. Yeah. Yeah. Anyway.

[00:11:44] It's a shame we already use shadow of the hedgehog twice. Yeah. We have. I love it though. But speaking of ultimate life forms, we do have the Q and a, I want to give a big shout out to everyone who drops their questions in the channel flop discord. As a reminder, we give priority to those who haven't asked a question before, haven't had a question answered in a long time. Starting with generic man. If you got to make a paper Mario game, like the first two, what kind of species do you want on your team? I feel like Pochita would fit well into the world of paper Mario as like one of those little guys that helps him.

[00:12:13] That's a pretty good one. What's a cute little guy. There's also the cat from, um, black torch, which by the way, as it's going to be, why is it getting an anime? God, I really hope the ass shots are as good as the mangaka hopes. They're going to have to work hard on that. Yeah. So, you know, fuck. Yeah, that's my hook. Or actually the little guy from, uh, Duran Duran. He's kind of built for it. Yeah. Yeah. Or maybe like Magu. Ooh, that's a good one too. Magu would be great. Yeah. He'd have a great special attack. All right. Next from Lord Anubis.

[00:12:41] Hey, who is a mangaka you guys wish succeeded in or got a second chance? Hey, I think. Hey, hey is for horses. Okay. Yeah. I feel very strong with a green, green, green guy. Definitely should get another shot. I agree. You know, it's just like based on his drastic improvement from Beast Children to Green, Green, Greens. If he maintains that same amount of growth, the next series could be the next Chainsaw Man. Just the sheer amount of growth he goes. Not that I'm saying it will be. I'm just saying. Yeah.

[00:13:12] Holy shit. I think that he definitely should get another series at least. Yeah, I agree. All right. Next from Funky Green Overdrive. Which flop protagonist would survive the zombie apocalypse? Harbond, which flop would survive the robot pirate ninja zombie apocalypse? That would be actually the guy from Nehilation because he is epic and understands like 2000s shitty memes or something. Can you count the ghost from a fake detective? Oh, Kako. She's already.

[00:13:41] She did not survive by definition. She is already dead. But it'd be so funny. Kenshiro saying you are already dead to a ghost and the ghost is like, I know. Yeah. Yeah. Wow. The guy from Samurai 8 because he like turns into God at the end of the scene. Yeah. Oh, God. Yeah. Actually, the lady though from fucking Candy Flurry. She's always our answer to these. I love that. Well, she can make armor and food. Yeah. Oh, man.

[00:14:10] I'm trying to think like who's like a good survivor. Oh, the guy from Service Wars. Remember he like lived in the forest for months? Yeah, actually. Oh, my God. Or, oh, wait. The guy from Iron Knight because that's essentially the world he lives in. Yeah, that's true. Yeah, he gets revived the second one. God, that series really fucked up. Yeah. All right. From Resident Warhammer Nerd. Why do they call an oven when you. Okay. Why do they call it oven when you of it?

[00:14:38] Why do they call it oven when you of in the cold food out of hot eat the food? Yes. Has anyone ever been so far as to do more like? How is Babby form? Yeah. And then John was a zombie. Yes. And then who was phone? Uh, John Freeman over here. Okay. From Spubby. Oh, here we go. Given how Black George anime was announced. What other flop manga would you like to see an anime of? I feel like we've answered this a few times, but let's think. Is there anything recent that you think actually could have really improved by having an anime adaption, George? Oh, man.

[00:15:08] Cyberblue. Cyberblue. Does Cyberblue actually get an anime? Cyberblue might be having an anime. I don't think it did. It just got a sequel manga. Yeah. Fuck yeah. I guess. Cyberblue would have such a kick ass 90s OVA. I can hear the synth noise right now. That would be so badass. Yes. Just have the people who did the Jojo OVA. Aw, hell yeah. All right. But big thank you to all those questions. Sap. And let's get in the shadows by saying support the show and get the best prices on manga at mangamart.com slash shown and flop.

[00:15:36] Manga Mart's a family owned store offering 20% off manga for free shipping over $100. And Jordan, thank you so much for all your hard work on the show. Thank you, David, for all the work that you do on the show. Thank you, Dylan, for assistance with editing. You can find his podcast, anime out of context at anime out of context.com. Thanks to Tucker and Maxie B for assistance with pronunciation, translation, and other miscellaneous research. Thanks to Claw for being our social media manager. Find us on bluesky slash access shown and flop tumblr shown and dash flop and our website shown and flop.com or on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube, wherever else you get your podcast.

[00:16:03] If you want more weekly David and Jordan content, you can find us every Friday on the Chainsaw Minute where we talk about the latest chapter of Chainsaw Man. Find it at csm.libson.com or wherever else you listen to shown and flop. And come join the discords we talked about to open to every own patron or not. Hang out. Let's talk about anime games, whatever else is on your mind. We even have a manga book club and movie nights. Find it like to in the show notes or on our site shown and flop.com. And if you've been enjoying the podcast and want to help us keep going, subscribe to our Patreon at patreon.com slash shown and flop. Along with that warm and fuzzy feeling of helping us out, you'll also get access to monthly bonus episodes, including the shown and drop where Jordan and I look back at the previous

[00:16:32] month's episode and open the mystery box. Jordan, what was our bonus episode this month? And what did we find inside the mystery box? Well, David, we covered the first three volumes of Undead Unlock with the series very own translator, David Evelyn. Hell yeah. And for our mystery box, we reviewed the pilot of Fabricant 100. Oh yeah. What a difference. Oh yeah. Featuring Lady Dimitrescu. And if that's not enough, other perks include picking a manga for us to cover in a main episode,

[00:17:00] episodes up to a week in advance and behind the scenes content like warm up audio or recording notes. I also want to read off some of our wonderful patrons. Starting with my wonderful wife, Rachel. She, of course, made her monthly cake drop yesterday and I had a great time eating that. Moving on down to the ravioli tier where she completely removed all the stuffing from her ducky doll and she is a little sad, but she also has 20 other toys, so I think she'll recover. We have Chris, Eva, Jeanette Davis, Justin, Matt, Scarlet, T, Tiffany, and Trevor. Moving on down to the king of the forest, we have 090Z, David Stoof, my girlfriend,

[00:17:28] Brad, follow AOOC on Blue Sky, Ivan, Kirby Munn, Marty, Riley, Sarah, and Tommy Boy. Moving on down to the Galactic Ball Federation officers, we have a deep sexy voice that is relaxed, mid-sized sedan, ages, Andrew, Andy, Angel, Aura, Biza, Blah, Moo, Moo, Brandon M, Cole, David, David, Dennis, Dingo, Don't Dox Me, Drago, Drew, Nigel, Fax, Flash Cardman, Funkigrana, Overdrive, Ian, Jacob, Jason, Keanu, King Salamander, Kino, Leigh, Liam, Maddie, Manly P. Hall, my dad, Matt, Maxie B, Mecca Scott, Mike, obscure reference, got anything for us, Jordan? Man, you know, cool stuff. Cool beans. Cool beans.

[00:17:57] Cool beans. Cool beans. Cool, cool beans. Cool beans. Okay. Cool, cool beans. I was almost going to add this out, but you went long enough, now I'm going to keep it. Thank you. Rem, I sent you in our penguin, Blushie, Risen Warhammer, Slavia, Sybil, Silly Rookie, Simping for Sent by Ash, Sleepy, Staghorn, Taperclip, Tucker, Vera, Wright, and ZZ Digital, and a big thank you to our beast children as well. Thank you, everybody. I love you all. I love you all too. Well, that's all the song we have for today. Tune in next week for our full episode on Rile Grad featuring James Toulos. This has been Jordan. This has been David. You've been listening to the show to Flop David Say It! Keep on Flop Floppers.

[00:18:27] Bye!