#125 Wait, where's the rest of the manga?! Pandamic ft YouTuber bobvids

[00:00:12] Welcome to this episode of Shonen Flop where we talk about manga and shonen jump that didn't make it big. I'm David. I'm Jordan. Next week we're gonna be covering a bunch of Japanese words that Jordan is gonna say because I can't pronounce it right. Koisome Momiji. Sounds right. Yeah. Itadakimasu. Be sure to join our discussion in our discord and submit your six word summary. Find a link to the discord in our episode description and on our website ShonenFlop.com. But this week we are talking about Pandemic and we are joined by the wonderful Bob. Bob thank you so much for joining us today. Do you mind telling the audience a little bit about yourself?

[00:00:42] Hey, thanks for having me. I'm Bob aka Bobvids on everything except Twitter. That's gone. It is dead to me. Yeah. Yeah, I've got my own podcast. You can't scare me where we talk about Goosebumps books. Goosebumps is basically like manga but for kids and scary. I love how RL Stein everyone thought was like a fake name but that's actually his real name. Yeah, it's like what is RL stand for? It must be like really long Stein. Really long Stein. It turns out it's a

[00:01:12] Robert Lawrence Stein also known as Jovial Bob. Real ones will know what I'm talking about. Yeah, it's great to be here. I love anime. I love Naruto. I love ramen. There you go. Ramen half. Yeah. Ramen one third. Ramen one third. I know that reference. Bob, I gotta ask you. What's your favorite Goosebumps? Oh, no, you're not gonna do this to me. I gotta. You know what? I've got a whole ranking here for you. Bob's like it's Silent Hill.

[00:01:41] No, they're all Silent Hill. For anyone who's looking to get into it and to look like to understand like what Goosebumps is all about. Highly recommend The Haunted Mask. That one's classic. Yeah. It's just fantastic. Like really, really good stuff. It's RL firing at all cylinders. Ghost Next Door is also good. But do me a favor and do not watch the do not read or watch. I don't know how you would watch but you might. The title of our podcast is taken from a Goosebumps book. And it is the worst one.

[00:02:10] I was gonna ask what's the worst one. It's the absolute worst one. Do not read it. It is horrible. How bad? Like how big is the gap between the best and the worst? It is a gulf. Okay. I legitimately like think that Ghost Next Door is a like legitimately good book. Like not, you know, the Cormac McCarthy or anything, but like it's fucking goosebumps. You know, it's like a horror for kids. Goose next door. The Goose Next Door. The Goose Next Door. Yeah, Goose Next Door is.

[00:02:39] Untitled Goose Next Door. But Ghost Next Door is legitimately good. You Can't Scare Me is the kind of thing that you would legitimately pump into chat GPT and be like, ah, write a Goosebumps book in the style of an idiot. And then, you know. That's the true horror. It was written by AI in the 90s. Does he use Ghost Writers or does he actually write every Goosebumps? You know what? That's actually something that I'm in the middle of editing our podcast. Oh, shit.

[00:03:05] For why I'm afraid of bees. And that is officially when in a lawsuit, Scholastic accused R.L. Stine of using Ghost Writers. See, that's the secret, though. They're real ghosts. I like how you turned that into an evil laugh. It felt like a legitimate laugh and then it went really evil. I appreciate that. That's the true laugh. I love the art of, like, ranking things that weren't really meant to be ranked.

[00:03:33] Like, for instance, I was talking to my friend yesterday about how I think there's one actually unironically good Hallmark movie. But I don't know if there is. And I'm talking about, have you heard of Round and Round? Round and Round, no. So Round and Round is a Hanukkah Hallmark movie that has to do with Dungeons and Dragons. What? And it has Vic from Dropout as the main character. And here's the twist. It's a science fiction movie because it has a time loop in it. Holy shit. Right? And they're like, where the fuck did this movie come out of Hallmark?

[00:04:00] That's why I'm like, are there other Hallmark movies like that? Or is it like they're all kind of just generic, except for somehow someone just woke up and was like, let's actually bang out a good movie. You know, I don't know. That's the question I have is, are there other good Hallmark movies? Well, isn't there like that one Hallmark movie with like Will Ferrell or something? I heard it wasn't actually very good and it was just it was marketed well. It's like a tragic adoption or something where it's like supposed to. And then people are like, this is just kind of not that interesting. It just had a. I heard it was like everybody thought it was going to be a parody.

[00:04:30] And then it was like, no, it's a Hallmark. Yeah. Straight up. They made a Hallmark movie. Yeah. Maybe we'll do a patron concert where we'll watch that. But round and round, unironically is actually like a solid eight out of ten. Wild. And it's really fun to watch. Like they have like a bunch of people that feel like celebrities where you're like, OK, like it's fun to say I know what famous person would have been in this if it wasn't a Hallmark movie when you're watching it. I mean, here's the thing. They have so fucking many. There's got to be like at least one or two. It's like pretty good. That's what I want to know is are there other good Hallmark movies?

[00:04:59] But anyway, we're getting off track. We need to actually talk about this manga. So let's get into the manga details. Yeah, let's do it. All right. So this is Pandemic. Pandemic. God dang it. Pandemic. By Nozomi Tomote. I'm sorry. Nozomi. Nozomi Tomote. Editor, please keep all of this in. Yeah, sure. Please don't make Jordan look as foolish as possible. Well, you know, I guess I need help with it. Unlike David. Hey, there's nothing wrong with asking for help, Jordan.

[00:05:25] This guy's other works include Cult no Omoide, 2013 one volume, which is a fictionalized version of the author's own experiences joining a cult. It was published by Katakawa slash Enterbrain. It is the only complete work by the author. Everything else this guy has done like is either a one shot instructional exercise routine or abandoned after a couple chapters. Spoiler alert.

[00:05:55] Yeah, this guy seems to give up a lot. Honestly, same. Yeah. I'm like, who doesn't have a ton of abandoned project? Look, I get it. But Pandemic. Pandemic. Pandemic. We're saying that because otherwise we're just going to call it Pandemic. Yeah. Like it's the only way we could say it where it's clear that it isn't that word. Pandemic. Pandemic. That's what I say when I'm reading this manga. Bob, thank you for having the perfect way of saying the name of the series. Yeah. Dylan, you know what?

[00:06:24] At all times that Jordan, I try and say it just use that one sound clip. Not a chance. Oh man. Dylan's going to hate editing this episode. But yeah, this ran from January 19th, 2015 to November 11th, 2015. You know, we usually have sections here about the series it replaced, the series it replaced and the series it started at the same time as it. But it ran on a platform called Comic Earth Star, which was a monthly Shonen magazine that lasted three and a half years before becoming a webcomic platform.

[00:06:52] You can't really determine what started at the same time. You know, all that stuff when it's on the internet. Yeah. Because things kind of just get added and dropped willy nilly because you don't have to like, you don't have like a finite amount of space in a magazine like Shonen Jump would need. So just forget this section. It doesn't matter. Pandemic. Ten chapters. Kind of. You'll see. Kind of one volume officially. But you'll see. We'll get into it. And let's find out what happened in that. Yeah.

[00:07:21] Oh, by the way, I forgot to mention this. Editor, keep this in. You guys feel like you were bullied in high school, right? A little bit. Yeah, I get that vibe. Maybe. Maybe. Does it have something to do with the fact that we run a manga podcast? I don't know. Maybe. Oh, no. I meant for that to be a joke. Now it's gotten surreal. I don't think anybody who runs a manga podcast wasn't bullied as a child. I'm just going to throw that out there. We're going to do a guest appearance next weekend on Anime Out of Context.

[00:07:50] We're going to be like, you know, guys, were you also bullied in high school? What superpowers did you get for getting bullied in high school? Anyway. Depression. Plot. As a child. Minita? Minita? I keep wanting to say Minata, and I'm pretty sure that's from My Hero Academia. Mineta? The pervert kid from... Oh, yeah. Yeah, that fucking little loser who needs to get the fuck out of here. I think there was like a mistranslation that made him bisexual. And people are like, really? This is the bisexual representation of My Hero Academia? Oh, no.

[00:08:19] That is not the guy. Apparently, the first part of his name is supposed to be Mini, like small, which is why he's made fun of. And so, yeah, it's Minita. Minita. Can we also talk about this manga? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, let's do it. Let's get into it. Yeah. As a child, Minita was horribly bullied. And as a young adult now works at a sushi restaurant in Kaurukhan Stadium. During a mascot event, Minita is tasked with training a new worker named Ishibashi, who

[00:08:49] is actually there to take secret upskirt photos of an idol named Nanaka, who is the presenter at the event. Some rich douchebag goes to give a speech about hard work and the CEO Sigma grind set or something. When a panda mascot thankfully walks up and squeezes his skeleton out of his body. I really appreciated that one. That's when I knew Jordan was going to love this series. A star mascot then uses a sweeping laser beam attack to kill large swaths of people in the audience. Think if you've seen the beginning of Ghost Ship. It's that.

[00:09:19] Where was I? I got lost. I lost my track because of fucking Ghost Ship, which honestly, that happens way more than I care to admit. Including Ishibashi. Oh no, not Ishibashi. Minita runs out of there as announcements go out all over Japan saying that... Hold on. Can you hear this echo? Yes. Yes. Humanity is over. Amazing. Wow. A police unit has surrounded Kurukan as Minita tries to escape.

[00:09:47] He runs into Nanaka and they decide to team up, but they're attacked by humans wearing panda masks. A cop in a panda mask is about to shoot them when an old wounded cop, that's his name, that's in the show notes, it's old wounded cop, who isn't in a panda mask shoots him instead. The cop gives Minita his gun before getting shot by another panda cop. Popcorn Jordan. Minita and Nanaka run to the Ferris wheel to escape.

[00:10:13] Nanaka is grabbed by a panda guy, causing Minita to flash back to when his mom was getting abused. Yeah, this series kind of goes there sometimes and he leaps in to save her. They ride the Ferris wheel to the top where they jump into a swimming pool on a nearby ceiling, a strategy that Minita had previously conceived of as a way to escape bullies. Nanaka and Minita take a moment to talk. She correctly determines that he was bullied in school, which is, you know, apparent if you see him in this manga.

[00:10:43] And she reveals that she was also bullied and attempted suicide seven times. The series goes there. But after the seventh time, she decided instead to become a successful idol. The two run as the star mascot fires a laser beam that separates Tokyo from the rest of Japan. Flash forward about five days and Minita finds a girl running from some pandas at a clothing store. He gathers her and some random Yakuza guys who were there and brings them to an underground safe house that they found.

[00:11:12] Minita goes back out to get food when he finds a dead guy with a cell phone in the middle of the call. On the other end is someone named Hiroshi who tells him to take the phone right as it dies. Dang. Aw. That night, the safe house is attacked by a giant octopus mascot that's attached to the top half of Ishibashi. Oh, good. He's still here. They run and soon Minita, Nanaka, and a girl named Rina are separated from the rest as an explosion sends them far away.

[00:11:39] Nanaka's legs are pinned under a big rock and Minita dislocates both his arms trying to save her before she just shoots herself in the head. Popcorn David. Rina and Minata find shelter in an abandoned house with a panda whose ears are cut off where she resets his bones. The panda sees them but thankfully Minara remembered being repeatedly put in sleeper holds by a bully so he manages to knock the panda unconscious. They see a bus with people and think that maybe Rina's sister is on it. And Rina says that while some people turn into pandas and some people were killed, others

[00:12:07] just straight up vanish from their clothes like it's the fucking rapture. They get a call from Hiroshi saying that the buses are headed for a stadium filled with humans about to be turned into pandas. And their only hope is to take down a radio tower that connects all the pandas. Oh no. Though it's being guarded by the guy who used to put Minata in sleeper holds in a panda mask and he also got super jacked by the panda mask. Yeah. They're like, oh man, the panda mask made him jack his butt. Minata tries to get past him but he puts him in a sleeper hold so Minata bites through the fuck artery in his arm using his jaw which had been strengthened through years of grinding

[00:12:36] his teeth and actually kills him before destroying the radio tower. My superpower TMJ. Can we, uh, editor, can we please put Naruto the Raising Fighting Spirit right here? We'll see if we have the rights to it. We flash to the stadium and see the humans start to rebel against the pandas and that's it. No, no really. That's the end. That was the final page because the author just completely gave up on this series. Yeah. Honestly, I get it. I get it. Bob, do you mind telling us about Minata?

[00:13:05] Sorry, I took my glasses off to rub my eyes because that's what we're dealing with here. It's like when you really have the plot of this series written out like that, it's a lot to take in. Yeah. Oh my God. It's like Walking Dead in all the worst ways. Yeah. It's so, ugh. Anyway. Uh, Minata Kokage, uh, number one. No one notices him. I would have opted to put number one, was bullied in high school as like the key defining feature.

[00:13:35] I like how this manga is pro-bullying. Yeah. If he wasn't bullied, he'd be dead. Yeah. He should be thanking that huge guy who put him in sleeper holes. It's like how Ben Shapiro needed to be bullied more. Yeah. It's got a lot of the Shinji getting the fucking robot energy, but with pure like malice, like no, there's nothing redeeming. He's just annoying and fucking like whatever. He does. He has a couple of good ideas every now and then, which, you know, uh, he got because he was bullied so hard all the time, constantly. Uh, had a hard life. You hear that bullies?

[00:14:04] You're actually saving those kids. Yeah. Keep on going. Keep bullying. You'll give the people that you're bullying superpowers. Huzzah. Yeah. Had a hard life with a mom that was abused in a scene out of fucking nowhere. Yeah. Right. And they just never really talk about it again. It's like the character and the writer were just like, Nanaka's a woman. Who else is a woman? My mom.

[00:14:30] It's like the, uh, the author was like, all right, time to get edgy. Really, Jordan? That's the entire fucking manga though. Dude, you just nailed it. It's like, that's this entire thing. And that's what I meant with the walking dead comment. Yeah. Because walking dead is at a certain point. It's just like, like gore porn. It's just misery porn. Yeah. It's not going anywhere. It's not trying to do or say anything. It's just what kind of fucked up situations can we put people in? And the key point of that is Nanaka.

[00:14:59] Like we'll get there, but like, fuck. Yeah. When that happened, I just kind of, I gave up. I was like, there's some interesting stuff going on here. You know, it goes that way, but. No. So, you know, Bob, we're, we're after this, we're immediately going to go into a section about why this series failed. Okay. And it's just one segment where you're doing a hand waving motion to all of it. Yeah. Pretty much. I'm starting to feel like you didn't enjoy this series, Bob. Yeah. I'm starting to think that like, you didn't think this was like amazing. Oh. I don't know. I don't know.

[00:15:29] I know I'm the only one. Yeah. And that's probably because I was bullied in high school. Yeah. Well, you, you were the only one who wasn't bullied in high school. So you don't really relate to the series like David and I do, you know? But yeah. So as Bob said, yeah, I really thought the whole, no one noticed him was going to be some sort of like actual element. Like the pandas don't recognize him. But then it just isn't true. And I'm like, why did you keep noting this? I thought that whole point of the series is like, he is special because no one cared about him, but no, he's just a normal person. That sucks. Yeah.

[00:15:59] Like the bullies gave him invisibility powers or something. No, no, that's a, they gave him other powers. That's too interesting an idea. To the writer, it's like, there's a difference between no one noticing you and you being bullied because being bullied is you being noticed, but in like the negative way, uh, rejection. And then there's just complete like avoidance. It's kind of weird. The series is kind of weird. Pandemic. This whole series is very weird. I, every time we get frustrated, we're just like, pandemic.

[00:16:29] Like also, I gotta say like there's bullying and then there is the literal torture. Yeah. Yes. Yeah. The idea that these guys were just like, Hey, let's keep putting him in sleeper holds and knocking him out and cutting off his arteries. Like I feel like he would be dead or have some severe brain damage from that, which actually maybe he does have brain damage from it. Maybe this whole series was imagined to him as he's in a sleeper hold. Actually, that would have been a great way to just end the series arbitrarily. Oh yeah. Yeah. Like an occurrence at, uh, what was it?

[00:16:59] Owl Creek or something where it's just his dying mind. It's fucking Jacob's ladder. Yeah. And, uh, to your point, like if you look at the very first, uh, panel in the very first chapter, there's that chair, there's the Shinji chair, but it's just got a bunch of fucking thumbtacks in it. Like what the fuck? Like it's a bit much just based on the fact that his name is kind of funny, you know? It's like, come on, there's gotta be more to it. I also do want to talk a little bit about the name thing. Tucker's given us some really interesting insights where Minata is supposed to be a

[00:17:29] play on how kanji read in multiple ways. In the past decades, it's become trendy to name babies using kanji with readings that break from tradition. There's an impression this trend may be going too far with new baby names can be written with kanji that are totally disconnected from their reading. So it's kind of like that whole like tragedy thing. I was just thinking that, yeah, it's the Japanese version. Oh, even Japan doesn't say from that bullshit. I've even heard a joke that gets told in Japan about parents who seemingly give their kid a normal name and then it turns out the kanji is supposed to be read as Pikachu.

[00:17:57] In this case, name means small, would be expected to be read as show or maybe even coat, receives a very weird reading of mini as a miniature. I'm not sure if this led to the level of bullying we see in the first page of the manga, but it's definitely something kids would give you a lot of shit for. No, I don't think it should. I'm just remembering like that episode of 30 Rock where Liz Lemon like remembers being bullied all the time and then it shows her from the perspective of like the other people and she was. Oh yeah. And they're like, you were so mean to us.

[00:18:24] Like maybe to the other kids, it's like Minita was a dick. Yeah. Yeah. It conveniently leaves out all the points when Minita started it. Minita has no character flaws except for the fact he's a little bit, but it's not his fault because he has a stupid name. Yeah. Yeah. Why is it little bitch in here? Like what? Yeah. It smells like bitch in here. All I see is finding his courage. I don't know. Okay. Anyway, Jordan, can you tell us about the other main character of the series?

[00:18:52] So I very rarely read David's notes, but I'm going to do that for this because I like this. This is Nanaka Uchiyumi and David has here has actual survival instincts despite formerly being suicidal. And the second note is Jesus Christ. That's really all that has to be said about her. That actually makes sense to have survival instincts, you know, being formerly suicidal.

[00:19:17] She specifically says that she decided to go the other way with it after, you know, seven times in a scene that I had to read, like look at what read. I don't know. What do you do with manga? Do you watch it? Do you read it? What's the deal with this manga? What's the deal? This airplane has a fucking little kid on it that I want to bully all the time. What's the deal with this little Minita? Anyway. Yeah. Like I had to reread it because it was like the way that Minita grabbed Nanaka, like it

[00:19:46] kind of looked like he scratched her or like the bear scratched her or something. I thought it was like going to be like the scratch mark turns her into a bear and it's like, I think it was just self harm scars. Yeah. Because she said seven times she tried and there were seven cuts. So she wait. So her attempts were like. So she was like slight cut. Damn. She tried to kill herself the same way every time. Pandemic. Pandemic. This fucking series. I really like Nanaka. Nanaka's cool. Yeah.

[00:20:16] Like fuck. And then goddammit. Pandemic. You know, it's funny because I noticed that the series tanked in quality as soon as its best character committed suicide. I was like upset when that happened. Not just because, you know, it's shocking. It happened in front of a child and. Yeah. But also because it's like she was like the best character. What the fuck? Yeah. Kept the gun. They didn't even get the gun back from her. Yeah. Yeah. And turns out the gun does work when it's submerged in one. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:20:46] That's a callback. That was his last thought. It's just, oh, I guess it does work. Yeah. It's like, oh yeah, that's why many they got fucking bullied constantly. Because he's a fucking asshole. Oh, turns out the gun does work. I think I'll take this. Yeah. Okay. But I think we do need to get into why I felt so we can tear the series apart. Yeah. So I think as we already alluded to, there's only really two characters in the series. So one kills themselves about halfway through. And she gets replaced with a character who is significantly less interesting. We've read a lot of manga that do that. Yeah.

[00:21:15] I did think it was really funny how like Rina, who replaces her, there's a moment where it's like, hey, Rina, can you like throw this can over there like solid snake or something in order to distract a guard? And she's like, yeah, sure. I could do it. I was on the softball team. And then she goes to do it. It's like, oh no, this wall here that has been here the whole time is preventing me from underhand throwing it. Just no clip. Easy. Yeah. Just no clip, man. But it's just like. Go into the back.

[00:21:44] Did you not notice that wall? What the fuck? I didn't even bother adding a character section for her because I was like, who cares? She's nothing. She shows up right at the end. And it's funny that you mentioned the solid snake thing because she starts wearing a banana like toward the edge. She looks like she looks legitimately like that one character from Metal Gear Solid. What was her name? Olga? Meryl? I think it's Meryl. Meryl. Meryl. Bandamic. Bandamic. Bandamic.

[00:22:12] Just got her bandana, bandam. Bandamic. Anyway. Characters aside, what did you guys think of the art? I think that it was effective sometimes. And then about halfway through, the artist gave up. It just started getting worse. Yeah. You know, it had like this interesting kind of style early on that was different, you know? Like, I think the first five chapters looked all right. Like, he was holding this style together.

[00:22:39] And then it got too ridiculous and just fell apart. Yeah. It's also the paneling was not very interesting. I know there are some exceptions. And we'll definitely get into that and where it did well. But overall, it was like very lazy paneling. The art is not very well drawn. Like, have you guys seen the manga cover? That's like some pretty shitty art to put on as your cover art. I didn't. Yeah. It's just like, holy shit. And then, Bob, are there some issues that you feel we haven't brought up yet that you want to discuss? Yeah, Bob, do you have any issues with this manga? How do you feel?

[00:23:08] Like, can you even think of one flaw with this manga? I don't know. I have to dig pretty deep. But in terms of the art, like, actually, that's one of the things I enjoyed early on is the art. It was actually pretty, it was fairly detailed and nice. And I like the way that Nanaka was drawn. It's weird because she's drawn kind of more, like, interest to her. Yeah. Yeah. Than, like, our main character. Our main character is just kind of a caricature the entire time who's constantly making this, like, oh, fuck, oh, God face. And even, like, the shitty fucking.

[00:23:37] Oh, by the way, am I reaching? The fucking pervert turns into a fucking octopus. Is that? Yeah, octopus. Oh, God, I just put that together. Yeah, he's like, I'm an octopus. I can breathe water. He's like, oh, no, the human part in me still needs to breathe. What? How did you never notice this? Yeah. Anyway. But I just put together that the gross pervert becomes an octopus thing with tentacles. Oh, fuck.

[00:24:03] And I think that's because of the place on Something Awful where you would talk about manga and, like, anime and stuff. Right. Yes. It has a specific name. If you don't know what it is, look it up. Anyway, but yeah, it's weird because, like, there's a lot of shading. There's a lot of really interesting, like, detail that goes into a lot of these shots. And then you cross reference that with, like, the last chapter. And it's such a. You're totally right. It downgrades so hard. Yeah.

[00:24:30] Like, at a certain point, the artist doesn't even give a shit to, like, blend the strokes of the shadow. The shadowing that's going on. Like, it looks very bad. Anyway. Also, there was a really interesting aspect in the scene that we were talking about where Nanaka, you know, kills herself. Mineta tries to lift up the. Because we didn't really go into specifics. Like, it's also difficult to get into specifics with that moment because it's just like, okay, they were escaping the hentai dude. And then, like, a hentai man. There's a random explosion.

[00:25:00] There's an explosion because the cop shot hentai man in the head or something. I don't know what happened to cause that explosion. Yeah. I reread it a couple times and I don't know what happened. I also don't know. How did they take down the radio tower? I don't remember. I think they made, like, a bomb, but it's like. Good question. Moving on. Yeah. There's just like, oh, we just as ourselves can destroy this radio tower with no additional equipment. I think he, like, used lighter fluid and set it on fire, I think.

[00:25:29] Setting a metallic object on fire. Yeah. Nailed it. God damn. The solver so blatantly didn't give a fuck. No, he was done. Like, I feel like it has some sort of message and the offer just did not care to tell it. Like, there are themes in this that the offer is like, eh, I don't really care about that theme. It just completely just moves on. Like, again, none of these characters have any exploration, especially as we talked about. Minita has this interesting depth and confidence issue and then it just disappears as an element

[00:25:57] where in the most pivotal moment of the series, he absolutely failed, but not like in a cool way, you know? I like how Minita suddenly becomes bloodthirsty. Yeah. Yeah. And literally bites through a guy's arm. Which kills him, I guess? Yes! Even though it's established that the pandas are like robots now? Or... We also have established someone trying to kill themselves by severing an artery and then not working on multiple occasions. Uh. Well, that was foreshadowing, David. I mean, seven-shadowing. Oh, there you go.

[00:26:26] Yeah, you see, this is well-written. It's like poetry. It rhymes. It's like poetry. It rhymes, yeah. Yeah. It says, like, the pandas have, like, ten times the strength and durability of a normal human, but Minita has been clenching his jaw so much that his jaw is a thousand times stronger than a normal human. Minita is ten times more stressed than the average person. Yeah. Ah, finally. My TMJ has come to use. You know, that's the thing about grinding your teeth. It makes your teeth stronger.

[00:26:56] Jaw pain is... The muscles work. Actually, ten times stronger? You need to go to the dentist, bro. You got no teeth. Yeah. But, uh, we did jump ahead. I was, uh, in the middle of, um, trying to, uh, I was talking about when Minita tries to pull up the... After the explosion, basically a big concrete thing falls on, uh, Nanaka. And it falls on Rina, too. But Rina gets out. Nanaka's... It doesn't show it, but she's pinned somehow. But Minita goes off, runs and grabs a, uh, like a, like a crowbar or not a crowbar, but

[00:27:24] like a piece of rebar or something. Yeah, like a pole somewhere. And then tries to lift it off with that by using, you know, as a fulcrum, all that good stuff. And in this serious moment where Minita is trying to save this girl who, you know, has come to mean a lot to her, has come to symbolize his mother in some ways in one scene, he's drawn as having, like, it suddenly becomes Looney Tunes. Yeah. Where his arms are like noodles. And I guess that's supposed to represent his arms fucking being broken or something?

[00:27:54] Because he tried. Dislocated his shoulder. Yeah. His arms are getting dislocated every time. You couldn't have depicted that in, like, with a little bit more, like, seriousness. It had to be like... You could have shown, like, a Mortal Kombat style x-ray. Yeah. I also love how it's like, I gotta, like, push. Oh no, I dislocated my one arm. Switch to the other. Oh no, I dislocated my second arm. No! I'm out of arms. Oh no. Oh fuck. I have a cool idea for what could have happened.

[00:28:23] Also, where the fuck were the other mascots? I sure are three other squadrons that never brought up again. Look, it's called Pandemic. Yeah. Okay. It's not called Mascot Mick. We're focusing on the pandas. That's it. Masc Amic. Yeah. And then there's the star guy. What's the deal with him? They don't explain it at all. They don't explain anything, David. They didn't get there. It just... It did. Panda Mick. Get it? Yeah.

[00:28:50] But no, I mean, ultimately, it's like, maybe this series could have turned around. But we'll never know. It didn't even, like... Usually what happens, Bob, is that we get to the final chapter of a series that was clearly meant to go longer. And the author just shotguns the rest of the plot where it's like, all right, all this shit that was supposed to happen at chapter 80, it's got to happen right now at like chapter 20. This series just stops. Yeah. This series, it's like, it doesn't even seem like it gets to the end of the chapter.

[00:29:20] No. It stops in the middle of the final chapter. Yeah. It's like in the middle of a scene where there are like people attacking the pandas and cutting their heads off. And then immediately, and that's the end. Yes, really? Like literally the translator inserts a page that says, no, really, that's the last chapter. That's the last, that's the last page. Yeah. It just sort of ends. It's like, it's, it's, what was it? Lethal Weapon 4. In the movie, just sort of ends. Yeah.

[00:29:46] What was it, the movie with the guy with like the rocket in the handgun that shoots a rocket and exploded that dude? Oh yeah. Freeze frame credits. Just watch that again. Like, I don't remember what it is, but it's like, yeah, the YouTube video is like how every movie should end. See, that's a good example of it. Yeah. One last thing is also, I thought it was really stupid how the pandas seem to be really smart. They're like working computer systems and driving buses.

[00:30:14] And it's just like, I don't know, it's just something that just rubbed me the wrong way. It also flip flops on this. This is a great example of and then storytelling where it's just like, there's no like consistent like magic system. There's no consistent like thought or idea for what the pandas are and what they represent. It just changes from chapter to chapter. Like at one point early on, one of the pandas catches like someone, I think it was Merida in like a closed environment. And then I was like, oh, that would be interesting if this was like a Last of Us situation, the show,

[00:30:43] not the games where it's like, oh, they're connected to a hive mind. And like, because this one sees him, they're all going to be outside the door or something. And then that doesn't happen. I'm like, oh, I guess they're individual. It's like, it's probably more like a Walking Dead situation. But then they literally call out like later on in the chapters, like, no, they are connected to a hive mind. They're all connected. It's just like, what? Okay. All right. Whatever. Let's get into what it did well then. Yeah. So Jordan, what did you think the series did well?

[00:31:09] For the first few chapters, I was kind of getting into it a little bit. You know, the intrigue was interesting. I thought it was like kind of building this relationship between Nanaka and Minita. At that point, like I liked Minita kind of because like we didn't see like his weirder stuff at that point, I guess. And yeah, it was like genuinely kind of a freaky mystery of what was happening, you know, until the author gave up.

[00:31:37] These stories need to not explain anything. Yeah. It either has to explain nothing or I don't know. Like, no, it's just it's you have to explain nothing with this kind of. You have to explain nothing and just focus on the survival. Like I would have been fine with that if it was just like extremely mysterious. But then they were explaining like some more stuff and it made less sense. The more they explained it. I also do want to say, I think that I actually thought the art in the shoulder scene was cool. I thought that it's like a kind of stylization that works with the limits of because the

[00:32:06] author obviously is not skilled enough to draw better than this. It's not like high school family where the art style is definitely deliberate and you see like things like are you Bob? Have you heard of high school family? No, it's a gag manga that ran in Shonen Jump where it's about a boy who starts high school except his mom, his dad, his six year old sister and his cat all enroll in his class. And it's absolutely ridiculous. But it's got a very weird art style. But you can see in the art, the artist is drawing that style on purpose because things like perspective and paneling are all extremely well done.

[00:32:33] But for this, I genuinely think that when the art is at its best, that is literally the maximum talent this artist had. He cannot draw better than this. Yeah, but I do think that sometimes the art is effective. I think it can be very expressive sometimes. I feel like, again, like the first few chapters, I think they work. I think it looks pretty good, honestly. Like the style is working for me.

[00:32:57] It gets more and more abstract or should I say shakier as the series goes on. Yeah. It really feels like he's caring less and less because that's probably what's happening. The man who abandoned his manga? Really? Yeah. A man who abandoned. I would say that it's not that I don't like the noodle arms caricature. It's just that the point I was trying to make was that it was inserted at the wrong moment.

[00:33:22] Like there is a moment where you can, like whoever wrote this, David, hi David, says it's just so insanely zany. And it's like that kind of aesthetic, you know, if it followed through with the entire like manga, that would be interesting. Yeah. But, you know, when you add that kind of whimsicality to a scene where a girl who has attempted to kill herself seven times gives succeeds and gives up finally and succeeds in doing so, maybe tone down the zaniness. Maybe that is fair. The whimsicality should maybe.

[00:33:51] See, that kind of zaniness would work perfectly if like in the moment, you know, Minita had broken his arms and then used his weight by like stomping on it to get it off of her. And she gets up and is like, wow. Oh, thank you. And then it cuts back to Minita and his noodle arms are like, yeah, I'm fucked. But good. Like cases. Like maybe. Yeah. Maybe if he succeeded, actually. Yeah. That's a good observation. I will say, you know, from my standpoint, there's a lot of interesting stuff happening here.

[00:34:18] I just think that the premise is interesting because it plays on. I don't know if this happened. This this comic, this manga. I almost called it a comic. I'm so sorry. How dare you don't use that term here. I think the premise is really interesting. Did this did this manga take place when like mascots became like this huge deal, especially like on Twitter? I kept seeing like certain Japanese mascots popping up all over the place. I think there's still kind of a thing, but I'm not on Twitter. I think in Japan they've always been a huge thing. They're obsessed with mascots. Yeah.

[00:34:48] And they're individualized, right? It's like not the same ones. So here's an idea that I'm just throwing out. How about instead of going the zombie route with this, go the route of have each individual mascot something happened with them and they turn against the entirety of the world. And they've all got their own individual like like the star man with the fucking laser beam that destroyed. By the way, the pandas did not do nearly as much damage as that single fucking mascot.

[00:35:17] This series should be called pandemic pandemic. But like it should be called star damic. And I like the idea of like playing on the mystery at the very beginning, because that's all that this this kind of stuff has. It's like you've got the survival aspect, but then you might have the interest like you can go the Walking Dead route with it. But I just think it's way more interesting if you're exploring the individual mascots for each individual city or town or I don't know how exactly how the mascot culture works.

[00:35:45] But yeah, like and then playing off of like, you know, maybe Minita, he's a fucking nerd, but maybe he really knows his shit when it comes to the mascots. Maybe he knows that information that proves useful to the people that can actually take down these mascots and that, you know, he can help the people and he eventually discovers that he's got a lot of, you know, courage. Spock, courage. I'm sensing that we have basically transitioned into the next section where it could have gone.

[00:36:12] So I just was like, let me let this man cook. No, let's actually formally get into that section. So continue your thought. I'm so sorry. I don't read ahead. I just read it in the moment. I think this series makes it very easy to blend the topics because there's not a lot to talk about. It's not a big deal. Yeah, it's pretty sparse. Because nothing really happens. We can really only talk about where it could have gone. Yeah, this is quite going easier. This is the easiest manga ever to talk about where it could have gone because it went nowhere.

[00:36:42] Yeah, it really didn't. But yeah, like there's a lot to the mascots because as far as I know, I don't know much about mascots, but I think I remember reading that mascots basically are representations of the towns or the areas of Japan that they come from. So it's like, yeah, you can play with that. You know, each mascot is like individualized. So have them have super augmented powers that represent, you know, whatever, you know, place they come from. And then, you know, that could be part of the discovery of it.

[00:37:11] It's kind of I'm kind of going a Dan to Dan kind of route with it where it's just like, I love Don to Don. Yeah. Am I saying it wrong? It's fine. It's fine. It's Don to Don. If you want to be technical, it's Don to Don. Don to Don. Yeah. The French way. Don to Don. Don to Don. I was just actually talking about Don to Don out in the anime. They take out the Barack Obama cameo. Oh, shit. Look at what they took from you. What fucking manga was I reading?

[00:37:39] That was like it had fucking Trump in it. What was it? Baki? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Baki has had every single president since I think George Bush Sr. Anyway, anyway, back to this. So I think that it would have been really interesting if the main character had saved like Nanaka and been like, you need a reason to live. And then he dies. And it's like ironic that he was finding his motivation. But his last act of growth was saving someone who kind of really was thought it was her time. And I think that would have been a really cool message, especially because Nanaka is

[00:38:09] a much stronger character. I was going to say I would have rather the main character die than Nanaka. If you're going to kill one of them off, might as well. Yeah. It was also a shame because I was I feel like I'm going to kill one of them off. Like they were building some kind of relationship between the two. Not necessarily romantic, but like a relationship. Like there was some kind of thing happening there, like some kind of chemistry building, some kind of interesting dynamic. No, fuck that. Bye. Let's talk about him with this girl that you don't fucking know.

[00:38:39] So yeah. Like really, like right when that happened, I immediately felt the whole quality of the manga drop. Yeah. Yeah. It's tough too, because like when you introduce a child into the situation, it's like, OK, things aren't fun and whimsical anymore. Not that they were to begin with, but now it's like I feel like The Walking Dead did this as well, where it's just like, OK, there are children here. I do not want to read a fucking manga about, you know, children getting endangered all the time or potentially dying, you know, guys.

[00:39:07] Well, that cuts out a lot of manga for you. Yeah. I just, I don't know. I'm just. Have you heard of Shona Jump? Because most of those series. But like, anyway. What is reading of Shona Jump as an adult? Akane Banashi? Well, I mean, here's the thing. There's children going through violence that's like fantasy violence. And then there's a child watching somebody shoot themselves in the head with a .357 mag. Oh, yeah. He doesn't even like cover her eyes.

[00:39:33] Right after her parents are shown, oh, her mom's legs are shown broken and like bent in half. And her father has been eviscerated and his intestines are out. Yeah. And they're both decapitated. Are they? Oh, just one? I thought they both were, but they're both dead is the point. You are not reading the series, Coles. Yeah. What the fuck? Like, you know, artists aren't do what you will. But like, fuck, man. I don't know.

[00:40:00] There's a level of like fun you could be having with a story like this. Or you could go The Walking Dead serious, like fucking, you know, everybody hunker down. We gotta we gotta fucking figure this shit out and all that kind of shit. Just all of a sudden, this manga started getting written by like Shadow the Hedgehog. Yeah, it got like edgy, like dark edgy for really like no reason. I mean, you're dealing with mascots. Yeah, I get it. There is a certain level of like, oh, fuck. When the fucking panda dude squeezed that guy's skeleton out of his body. But like, I don't know.

[00:40:30] After a certain point, it's just like you can't tell a serious story after that moment. Yeah. There's fun gore. And then there's like death. Yeah, there's a difference between a dude getting the skeleton like popped out of his body like like a fucking bottle rocket. And then a woman just ending her life with a gunshot to the head. It's just like, come on. All right. Can I may I actually pitch how I think would have been like a really great way of redoing that scene while keeping a lot of the pieces? Go for it.

[00:40:59] Yeah, it is established putting the paint on head on makes you 10 times stronger, right? Oh, so he goes breaks his first arm. And he's like, okay, I'm not strong enough. There's only one way. Puts it on. His last act is getting her out of the rock. And then they now have to kill him because he's been turned into a panda. All yes and you. Or they leave him alone. Yes and with the word or. Yes and. No, it's actually and. But I didn't mean to say or. I don't know why. Yes and or. She's like, that's great. Yes, but. Yes, but.

[00:41:29] I feel not enough improvers say no, but. It's true. Yeah. And barely any say no. Stop. Literally kick you out of improv. No, but. I'm a fan of shut the fuck up method. Yeah. All right. Sure. Yeah. But yes. And they don't have to kill him because I think a lot of the mistake that a lot of zombie media and this don't get me wrong. This is very comparable to that. This is zombies. These are zombies. Yeah, they're basically zombies.

[00:41:55] One of the mistakes that zombie media makes is like just assuming that anyone who's a zombie is like a lost cause. But I don't think I've ever seen any zombie media talk about like, oh, yeah, all the zombies that we've killed up to now turns out they could have all been saved. We had a fucking like thing that made it so that the zombie virus gets cured and they turn out fine. There is actually one work of fiction I've read where that happens. Oh, really? There's deceased where they actually find a cure. But it's like we killed a bunch of people already. Oh, fuck.

[00:42:22] I like that because then it's like, oh, because it's a really good thing. But meaning, you know, really the implication, the ramifications of it are just like, oh, fuck. Yeah. And I really think that it embraces it like kind of interacts with zombie media in a really interesting way. But like because these aren't really zombies, they're just kind of robots. You know, you could go multiple different ways. And you could also in doing that, give Nanaka more of a like push to figure out what's really

[00:42:50] going on and solve the mystery of what's happening so that she can eventually save Minita. Although let's be real. Who the fuck would want to save that little pipsqueak? Fuck him. And then it seems like removing the ears reduces it. So maybe they strip like his ears off. Sure. That part was so it's like the purest example of yes. Sand. And then if you cut his ears off, it's less. And then if you get bullied, you get superpowers.

[00:43:17] And then it's just fucking ridiculous. The Kira Toriyama style of writing. And then the guy who choked him out is like super muscular. And oh, wow. He's the boss character. Whoa. We just talked about him, Minita. That's so convenient that that's what's happening. Wow. Set up. Pay off. I feel like we could talk forever. But let's get into miscellaneous thoughts and talk about things that we may not have had time to talk about yet. So, Bob, is there anything that you feel you haven't had a chance to say yet? I think I got mostly everything.

[00:43:48] Oh, wait. Fat Yakuza guy. Why did they save like Yakuza guys? They're like, I got to save these guys. They won't cause issues. I love that. I love that guy going up to the cop and be like, you're a public servant, right? Get me something to eat. And the guy's just like, all right. My favorite part, though, was where he was like, we may not look like it, but we're actually Yakuza. I was like, no, you really look like it, dude. Fucking rigors for Yakuza. Yeah.

[00:44:15] Also, didn't that lady that they had with them go like to the cop and be like, this guy's hot? Yeah. Yeah. Oh, man. I did love how there was that moment where it looked like Nanaka got scratched. Yeah. And like, oh, no, she's going to turn into a panda. No, it's literally they put the panda masks on. They just have panda masks. Like, it just felt very silly. Oh, here's a big panda mask. We're just going to put it on you right now. And it's like, that is very conspicuous. Yeah. Where did the panda mask come from?

[00:44:44] Well, see, David, that's the mystery that we didn't get to. Just materialize because they never show someone grabbing and then they just have a mask ready. Yeah. Okay, so there are these things called pandas. What would the series be like if I just had no context for what a panda is? I just don't. What is that? I don't understand. I also did notice an interesting fun detail in the first chapter. Did you notice that the star in the panda are the only ones who weren't given like vote stickers out of all of the mascots? Oh, so this was revenge for not being chosen. So if they were just loved more. Yeah.

[00:45:15] More loved they are, the less like homicidal they get. Love your mascots or else. Or else. That's your six word summary. Yeah. And then Maxi B actually has some thoughts where volume one, the only volume that was ever released contains six chapters in a short bonus comic. Whole series, if we can call it whole, has never been fully collected but can be read on the Jump Rookie service, a website and app where budding creators can upload their stuff in the hopes of courting Shoeisha slash Jump's attention. What's interesting is there is an 11th chapter, but it is literally a bonus comic at the end of volume one.

[00:45:44] So it's just completely blue balls. You need to think the series continued. Pandemic is not supposed to be confused with Pandemic, a vital group formerly known as Pandemic was founded in 2016. So it came after the series. Hatsune Miku. Imagine Hatsune Miku just shows up. In the time since Pandemic, Tomote has pivoted into NFTs, Jordan. Oh, wow. Wow. Oh my God. I would also like to point out that the idol group changed their name in 2019, which is

[00:46:11] a really unfortunate time to change your name to Pandemic. I just like, damn. By the way, just to note that Tomote, however, hates AI scraping his art. So at least even he has standards. Oh man. God, of course a guy with this art would be into NFTs, you know? Of course. Of course, Jordan. Yeah. If your love of AI and like creating art with just code was represented by like a bar, like

[00:46:40] you can watch at the beginning of this manga where it's like 0%. And then at chapter 10, it's just completely off the fucking charts. Tired of drawing this. If I could just tell a robot to make it for me, I fucking would. What AI model would want to use his art? Oh, who the fuck knows? They don't. AI doesn't have any taste. AI is not discerning. As a miscellaneous thought, I do want to throw in like the only colors we see are purple,

[00:47:07] which represent the, uh, I guess the radio wave. And of course blood, which is of course red, which just feels very cliche at this point. Like, oh, it's all black and white, but red blood. Whoa. That's it. That's dark. And Manita is covered in blood at the end. It's like, dude, I saw Sin City too. Like, come on. Yeah. That yellow bastard. Oh yeah. I forgot to say before, but I said this in the discord where I said this series was pandamined

[00:47:36] because it was abandoned. Oh. I thought it. Okay. It works better in writing. My brain rejected that. I'm sorry. Can you say that again? That was a no, but no, but okay. No, but. What about, what about, what about a pandan? Let's just move on. There's no working this in. I'm sorry. Pandamic. Pandamic. Pandamic. All right. Let's get into, that's good. Let's get into the final verdict. Let's start with some six word summaries from the community. From Tucker. Oh shit.

[00:48:03] Pandas got the offer and funky survival tale mysteriously cut short. Maxi B said the true mascot for failed manga. Hey. I think that's our logo. Gray Potter said loser loses heroically in Panda Apocalypse and Panda Panda Panda Mushroom Mushroom. That's good. Oh, Hey, I remember. I didn't know that reference. I made that reference a while ago. Chicken Warlord says girls dig straw. Strong draws escape routes. CT3 LA says, well, that was weird and bloody. Yep. Diego says, remember, say no to Panda.

[00:48:30] Dude Rock says, always new mascot heads were evil and a better mascot horror than Bendy. Everyone's favorite Uber Talente says, Panda, Panda, Panda. I got funky green overtime. It says, did this manga cause pandemonium? Barely. That's pretty good. I like that one. Jersey Lock said, big panda doesn't want the cure. Damn. Painstakingly oppressive year. Parasitic panda populace. Lord Anubis says, Scott douche, which isn't a six word summary. And I probably should have cut that out. Oh, well. Lucky Tarot says, my eyes couldn't bear this art. Turtle man. Panda is love. Panda is life. Much like Shrek.

[00:49:00] Rail says, world of Warcraft midst of Pandaria. Oh, man. And Spubby says, bloody blackish bears bear bad becomeings. And Bob, what was your six word summary? That's not as good as any of those, but The Walking Dead, but somehow worse. I love it. Jordan, how are you? I should clench my jaw more. And mine is pandemic just when it was getting interesting. That's not true, but I just wanted to say pandemic. Pandemic. Pandemic. Oh, how about, were you guys bullied in high school? Oh, yeah. This author was not bullied enough.

[00:49:33] I like how this manga romanticizes the idea of being bullied in high school. This author wasn't bullied enough. Oh, my God. We really should bully Manita more. Like, we should have. I feel like this entire podcast was bullying him again. Yeah. You know what? I understand where the bullies were coming from. He makes NFTs. We don't have to respect him. Justice for the bullies on this one. Yeah. If he's making NFTs. The author should have been bullied more. You don't have to respect someone who makes NFTs. Exactly. Yeah, yeah, yeah. True. All right.

[00:50:02] Anyway, back into it. Flop or not. So, Jordan certified flop or not. Oh, man. It's tough because like the first five or six chapters, I was like kind of getting into it and stuff. And then it just like falls off a cliff. Yeah. I was kind of vibing with it for a little bit. Yeah. So, I want to say on the edge of flop and certified, but just fuck it certified flop. I don't know. Fuck. I don't know. I'll call it a flop. There you go. Yeah. There we go. So, yeah. I'll say certified flop.

[00:50:30] And then, sorry, Bob, did you say if this is a certified flop or not? I don't know. It's tough. Yeah. I have to think about it a little bit. It fucking sucks. Do you have that in your... That certified flop. That certified flop. Yeah. A dog. And now I will say that it had premise. It had an interesting premise. Yeah. It could have gone an interesting way, but it just didn't try anything. The art was good and then it wasn't. Yeah. Not good. Like it was okay. And it was legit.

[00:50:58] The one thing I will say, the one actual like good thing about this is that it's, it was actually pretty breezy to read. Yeah. This went really fast. I was worried that I wouldn't be able to read it in time, but now I didn't like, I think I read it 20 minutes ish. In fact, that first chapter is way too short. Yeah. Like some of it, it's almost like you want it to be like, I don't know if you're, if the character's premise is that they are just constantly bullied, like maybe show like

[00:51:24] a little bit of that, not just like, you know, oh, here's a chair with some thumbtacks on it. Like what about it affected the character? Like, why are they, you know, what, how did it affect them so bad? What kind of things were people saying? And that would have been interesting if they had, you know, set up that one of the panda heads and what was one of the bullies like earlier on. And then you see him and it's like, oh fuck. But then again, he has a panda on his head. So it's kind of hard to tell. Well, well, you see Bob, he was given sleeper holds over and over and over again in like, and I, and got brain damage, I guess.

[00:51:55] You know what? This is a certified flop. I'm revising what I said. There you go. There we go. So what should people check out instead? Hey, you want to read a series where there's like a bunch of bad guys? The main characters got to fight this infiltrated society. Check out They Live. That's a great movie. Which fucking kicks ass. That movie owns. Yeah, but you Bob, what should someone check out instead of reading them? If you like the sort of seriousness and you're in, you want to read, I would highly recommend Cormac McCarthy's The Road. Oh, that's great. Yeah, I've read that. That's good.

[00:52:25] If you, if you want a kind of a downer of a book, you know, but, but poignant and definitely worth a read. Like I would highly recommend that. If you want to play like a game, I would highly recommend if you want a more serious route, you know, The Last of Us is quite good. If you want to read a manga, I am going through, it doesn't really have anything to do with it, but hey, you know, My Hero Academia or no, no, One Punch Man. Have you read Bug Ego? It's by the same author as One Punch Man. It's really good. Bug Ego?

[00:52:54] Yeah, it's by the author of One Punch Man. Whoa. And basically it's a series of these two kids doing like speed run tricks to hack reality. In real life. Oh, sick. It's like, that's cool. One of my favorites is it's like if you go to a store in the amount, the cost in yen is equal to your height in centimeters plus one and you tape it to your shoe. You overnight, you grow in centimeter in height. It's just like really weird shit like that. Yeah, it's great. Oh, fuck. I had this, I had this premise for a game. You know what?

[00:53:24] That's my recommendation. Go read Bug Ego. Yeah, go read Bug Ego. Legitimate looking at the art. This looks fantastic. It's super. There's only eight chapters so you can catch up to today if you want. But that's absolutely one of my favorite things that just started recently. It's amazing. Anyway, Jordan, is this the worst thing we ever read? No. No, that's it. All right, then let's get into wrap up. Support the show and get the best prices on manga at Mangamart.com slash shown in flop. Mangamart's a family owned store offering 20% off manga of free shipping over $100. And Bob, I want to say thank you so much for joining us on the show.

[00:53:52] I also want to say big thank you for showing Jordan how to create those awesome videos that we've been doing for the podcast. I really appreciate that. If you want to support me, Bobvitz.com. That's the one-stop shop for anything and everything that I have ever done and ever will do. I love that. It's kind of grim when I say it like that. But yeah, Bobvitz.com. My podcast's all up there.

[00:54:23] YouTube, if you want to watch me ramble on and on about CinemaSins or... Yeah, I saw it. I really hate CinemaSins. I love it. I love those videos. Oh, you do? That's a good... I also loved the Silent Hill podcast that you were doing with Voidberger and Casey Green. Yeah, that's another channel that I worked on called The Great Debate, G-R-A-T-E. If you like Silent Hill, check out that YouTube channel. Both previous guests, by the way. Yeah, we actually are...

[00:54:52] A little hint, her Patreon content this month is more Casey Green content. Yeah. Oh, awesome. Yeah, say hi to him for me. We already recorded, but... We'll stay on. Do it. Do it now. Or I'm going to bully you into having superpower. No! All right, anyway. Props to Jordan for making the opening ending, for being a great co-host and helping with editing. Thank you, David, for everything that you do on the show. Props to Merlisle for the awesome cover art. Find her online at Lyle Mer and Nigel for being our generous art benefactor. Thank you, Dylan, for assistance with editing.

[00:55:20] You can find his podcast, Anime Out of Context, at animeoutofcontext.com. We were recently on it, where I defended a hundred girlfriends. It was a very fun experience. Thanks to Tucker and Maxie B for assistance with pronunciation, translation, and other miscellaneous research. You can find us on bluesky.com. At shonenflop.com. Tumblr, shonen-flop. And our website, shonenflop.com. We're also on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube, wherever else you get your podcasts. And join the Shonenflop Discord. It's open to everyone, Patreon or not. Hang out with us to talk about anime games, whatever else is on your mind. We even have a manga book club and movie nights. Find a link to it in the show notes or on our site, shonenflop.com.

[00:55:49] And if you've been enjoying the podcast and want to help us keep going, subscribe to our Patreon at patreon.com slash shonenflop. Along with that warm and fuzzy feeling of helping us out, you'll also get access to monthly bonus episodes, including the Shonen Drop, where Jordan and I look back at the previous most episode and open the mystery box. Jordan, what was in the mystery box? And what was our main episode we're releasing this month for patrons? Well, David, for the month of April, as we just said, we're covering Gun Dragon Sigma. With the truest Sigma male. I would say that is a manga, but I don't know. There's an argument to be made that it's not a manga. Yeah, it's a live action person.

[00:56:18] It's a live action manga with like CGI art. Horrible 3D poser models. Very interesting. And for a mystery box, we're doing the 10 shonenflop commandments. Yep. One of them will be, thou shall not be sexist. Oh. Oh, man. And if that's not enough, other perks include picking a manga for us to cover our main episode. Episodes up to a week in advance and behind the scenes content like warm up audio or recording notes. I also read off some of our wonderful patrons. Starting with my wonderful wife, Rachel. We went to a sandwich shop and it was so good.

[00:56:47] We went back the next day and I got the sandwich I was craving and it wasn't good. And so anyway, now I'm a little sad. Moving on down to the ravioli tier where we had a bunch of pigeons on our balcony and she dived out and chased them away. We have Chris, Eva, Jeanette Davis, Justin Hafner, Matt, Scarlet T, Tiffany, and Trevor Schechner. Moving on down to King of the Forest with 090Z, Bandit Stoof. My girlfriend. Brad. Follow AOS on Blue Sky. Ivan. John. Kirby Monk. Marty. Riley. And Sarah. And a big thank you to our Galactic Ball Federation officers and our Beast Children. Yes, thank you. I love you all. And thank you to whoever's chair that was.

[00:57:16] That was mine, probably, I'm assuming. Special guest, the chair. Oh, the chair. Jordan used to have a chair that was so bad. Chair face Chippendale. That's an obscure reference. Wait, wait, wait. Chair. What did you think of Pandemic? Wasn't too happy. Oh, okay. Series of fart noise. Yeah. Yeah. So, I gotta get really sad right now because about a week ago, Steph and I, well, we lost our cat, Gaara.

[00:57:44] He was just the sweetest, gentlest cat in the whole world. And we miss him, and it's really hard. But, you know, we love you, Gaara. I just want to say that. Aw. His name was Gaara because he had eyeliner. Aw. How old was he? 15 and a half, you know? Yeah. Wow. I'm sorry for your loss. That's awful. Yeah. It's hard. Good boy. But yeah. Shall we get him to sign off? Anyway, yeah. Oh, Jesus. All right, let's do that again. Three. You can't do that! What the fuck? What? Let's do in our class.

[00:58:12] I got really fucking sad because Gaara, and then you're like, okay, three, two, one. I just, I'm kind of, I've got- What the fuck? Please, let's try it again. Let's try it again. That was fucking wild. I built up a lot of resistance to depressing things coming out. That was so good. You couldn't have planned that better? Oh my god. I'm crying. I'm legitimately crying. Dylan, you tell me. You decide if you keep this in.

[00:58:41] Anyway, you know what, fuck. Thank you so much for joining us. We'll see you next time. We'll see you next time. We'll see you next time. We'll see you next time. We'll see you next time. We'll see you next time. You've been listening to Shona Flop. Bye, guys. I don't feel like doing a normal thing. We can stop recording now. Goodbye.