Giving our first thoughts on one of the longest series we’ve ever covered, we hope this Hard-Boiled egg isn’t too runny.
Listen in as they give an overview of the first chapter of Hard-Boiled Cop and Dolphin, where they think it will go from there, and ultimately their “power word” to describe the series so far. They also dive into some listener questions.
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[Transcript by T Root]
Jordan 0:00
Welcome to Shonen Flop Chibi: A first impressions mini-episode where we talk about the first chapter of the series we'll be covering in depth next week. I'm Jordan and with me today, as usual is my co-host, David. Say "Hi, David."
David 0:13
Hi, David.
Jordan 0:14
What series we covering this week David?
David 0:16
Oh man, we are coughing up something fresh because we're talking about Hard-Boiled Cop and Dolphin.
Jordan 0:22
Awww yeah! Let's do my favorite kind of cop-aganda. The kind that's also-
David 0:27
About talking dolphins.
Jordan 0:29
Dolphins! Yeah!
David 0:30
Yes. That's why Free Willy they say ACAB at the very end.
Jordan 0:34
Yeah, exactly. You know, it took me way too long because I saw when I was like a little kid um... It took me way too long to realize that Free Willy is just like the dumbest pun ever on free will. Like, oh God.
David 0:47
About your Willy, your peepee.
Jordan 0:50
Free the willy! Yeah, exactly.
David 0:52
Yep.
Jordan 0:52
It's like free the nipple, but free the willy.
David 0:54
Oh, my God. Yeah, there was some free- almost some free nipples in the series. So do you wanna-
Jordan 1:00
Yeah! There was wasn't there?
David 1:02
Yeah.
Jordan 1:03
Oh, boy!
David 1:03
Oh, man. Oh, man. Oh, what a series. Um... but yeah. And then uh Jordan: So who was the series by?
Jordan 1:10
Oh this series was by a guy named uh, Ryuhei Tamura or Tamura Ryuhei depending on, um, what country you're in, I suppose. And the run dates were June 27th 2020 to June 21 2021. So almost a full year.
David 1:27
This was a fucking long series and we usually don't do this, but you know, you just- You can't say no to such a great guy like Joey, where this was 47 chapters.
Jordan 1:36
I think only Mitama: Spirit Busters got like a longer run that we've done.
David 1:41
Wait, how long was Samurai 8 or Robot x LaserBeam?
Jordan 1:44
Ooh, I don't know. Yeah, Robot x LaserBeam might have been longer.
David 1:47
We're gonna check the records. I can check. Right-
Jordan 1:49
Alright. Cool, cool, cool
David 1:50
Now. Uh let's see Robot x LaserBeam. It was seven volumes, so it's definitely longer than this.
Jordan 1:58
Oh, wow. Okay, there you go. Nevermind then. Was that like 60 chapters?
David 2:02
62 chapters. Holy shit.
Jordan 2:04
Jesus Christ
David 2:04
How did we read that?
Jordan 2:05
Yeah, what the fuck? And only half of it was worth reading.
David 2:09
And Samurai 8 was 43 chapters. So yes, this is the second longest series I think we've ever read.
Jordan 2:16
How long was Spirit Busters?
David 2:17
It was five volumes. So it's definitely about the same length.
Jordan 2:21
It's around that length though. It is definitely one of the one- it's like in the- at- at the very least it's in like the top five longest series we've ever read on this- on this show.
David 2:29
Yeah. It's just- let me see. It was 50 chapters. So yes, actually, this is the third longest series we've read.
Jordan 2:34
There we go. All right, we got the official numbers now.
David 2:37
Yes.
Jordan 2:38
Awesome.
David 2:38
Hopefully less racist than Robot x LaserBeam.
Jordan 2:41
I was just gonna say. You know, at- at the very least, hopefully it does not become unbelievably racist out of fucking nowhere like Robot x LaserBeam.
David 2:52
Imagine a character and he's like all dolphins are equal, but some dolphins are more equal than others.
Jordan 2:57
And the dolphin that said that is just like the most racist caricature of a Black person you've ever seen in your life.
David 3:02
His name is George Orlando.
Jordan 3:04
Oh, man. I don't even want to say what I think his name was- would be because that would just- oh I'm not even gonna go there.
David 3:09
Yeah alright.
Jordan 3:10
Alright.
David 3:10
Yeah. Let's not get you canceled, bud.
Jordan 3:11
Let's not get me canceled. Anyway, you cool if I go into the plot summary for this chapter?
David 3:16
Absolutely. Lay it on me daddy-o.
Jordan 3:18
Oh yeah, baby! We're gonna go right out- Whatever fuck it. Officer Boyle Samejima is a hard-boiled cop in a soft-boiled world. After violating procedure to punch a hostage taker in the face, Samejima is reassigned from Tokyo to the far off Ogasawara Islands. Once there, he meets Officer Umi Nanase, who has big boobies, which makes Samejima get a nosebleed when they break her shirt open, cuz they're just that fucking big. On the drive to the station, she tells Samejima about a mysterious young girl named Chaco, who was raised by dolphins and the cult who worshipped her, which mysteriously disappeared. Chaco reappeared a few days ago, carried on the back of her father police Lieutenant Orpheus, who happens to be a dolphin, and likewise is a badass, hard-boiled cop. Popcorn, David.
David 4:14
Orpheus, or Orphie if you're nasty, is then assigned as Samejima's partner and the two are sent on patrol. The two cops along with Nanase then confront an unruly driver, complaining about a broken taillight in his stolen car while his friends livestream it to prevent police brutality, which is truly an evil thing to do to a cop.
Jordan 4:30
Yeah.
David 4:30
Thankfully though, as they drive away Samejima and Orphie shoot up their tires to stop them from hitting a pedestrian because good cops are quick to reach out for their guns. Samajima then bonds with Chaco who tells him about pervy sea turtles and shoplifting sunfish.
Jordan 4:43
That's the chapter!
David 4:44
Good ol' p- uh... Cop-aganda. And uh, I just- realizing that the character's name is Boyle just makes me think of Brooklyn Nine-Nine so maybe that's the cover parody.
Jordan 4:52
So yeah uh... What were your first impressions David?
David 4:56
I really, really enjoyed the series. This is probably one of my favorite first chapters where I- I have some negatives for sure, but the positives drastically overwhelm. Like this art is very good. It's got backgrounds.
Jordan 5:06
Yeah.
David 5:06
Which is amazing, cuz a lot of the series we've read just don't. The art, I mean, isn't the best art I've ever seen. But definitely, I think it isn't something that I'm going to be too concerned about, the quality of the art.
Jordan 5:10
It is extremely serviceable. It does everything it needs to do. It's not gonna blow you away, but it's very solid. And it- it's ju- it's very good for what it is. I really just don't have any complaints about the art.
David 5:27
I assume consistency will be a strong theme of the art in the series.
Jordan 5:31
I hope so. I would love it if it maintained this style and this quality throughout the whole thing.
David 5:36
Mhhm.
Jordan 5:36
This is- This is some solid shit.
David 5:38
Exactly.
Jordan 5:39
I- I agree. I think it's- I think it's very funny. I think Samejima is a lot of fun. He's just like this uh, cop who's like, really into the "Dirty Harry" stuff. And he's really into that and he thinks it's just, like, so fucking cool.
David 5:54
Yeah.
Jordan 5:54
He's tried to- Trying to be that way. And the- the people, his higher-ups, are like, "Uh, yeah, dude, this is uh- Who the fuck are you? You're not in a movie. This is like real life, dude."
David 6:04
I really love that approach. I was just constantly making fun of those tropes. Like I also noted, just, "Dirty Harry" and he's like, "I'm so hard-boiled my uh, inner monologue boxes have blood spatter". And people are like, "Oh, why is he smoking? That's gross." And you can like- he's not that cool. And I appreciate this as a series that actually is doing a parody in a competent way, because as we've talked about, we've read some really, just, not funny parodies before.
Jordan 6:25
I do have to say, you know, we mentioned it was cop-aganda. And this falls into like this classic 80's style of cop-aganda, like the kind where I- I've said before, I think I mentioned it on the Tokyo Shinobi Squad episode, where like, if you really want to get like, an idea for how, like, conservatives view cops just watch like every Sylvester Stallone movie where he plays a police officer.
David 6:48
Oh, yeah.
Jordan 6:49
Because it's very similar. Like the first scene that happens here: It reminds me a lot of the first scene of "Cobra", which is a terrible movie that I've seen too many times.
David 6:56
Of course.
Jordan 6:57
But um... what this uhh- manga is positing, which is like the same kind of idea that you see a lot in these kinds of stories is, like, "Man, you know- We really just got to have these hero cops who are like, quick to violence in order to like- in order to save people, you know. Oh oh uhh, we- we got to deal with like the pussification of the police force. Oh, man." And to be fair: there is also, kind of, like a difference between the Japanese police force and the American police force, so I am missing some context, in some sense. Like they mentioned, like, it's extremely common for Japanese police officers to simply never fire their guns; which is not something that you can really say about American cops as much. But it's- it is an ideology that rubs me the wrong way. And I- I'm just gonna say that so that I don't spend the entirety of the episode talking about it.
David 7:50
Yeah. I think uh- I think we've talked enough about the cop-aganda part of it and we'll see if it-
Jordan 7:54
Yeah.
David 7:54
Becomes a major issue. But so far: ehhh, this guy definitely likes his cops, but we'll see if it gets into really bootlicking territory.
Jordan 8:02
Oh, yeah. I am vigilant for that shit.
David 8:06
But yeah. And then though, in terms of negatives, I- [Sigh] I get the giant boobs thing and yeah that was kind of funny. But still like, yeah, you clearly just gave your excuse to have a very sexualized character. It's like, what's her name from Fire Force where I get it's the theme is that, like, she's always in her underpants and stuff. But it's still like kind of annoying. Like, you can point out the trope, but that doesn't mean you're still not having this over sexualized character.
Jordan 8:25
Yeah. And- And it was- It was funny when it first happened, because, like uh, she shows up and uh, Samejima is like um, there's hard-boiled blood spatter on his uh, on his dialog boxes. He's kind of like Deadpool in that sense, where he's like, he talks about his own dialog boxes sometimes. And he's like, "Yeah, I got hard-boiled blood spatter. It's not nosebleeds, though. I don't- I'm not constantly thinking about pervy dirty thoughts or anything." And then he just meets this officer with big boobs, and then she salutes and apparently, every time she salutes her shirt just opens up.
David 8:58
Yeah.
Jordan 8:59
Okay. Yeah. And then he's just like, "Ummm, you know, I'm not gonna have the blood spatter anymore."
David 9:04
Yeah. I think it's also he just stops having inner monologues.
Jordan 9:07
I didn't notice that but I think you're right.
David 9:09
[Laughing] I think also just another thing was: the whole car report thing was kind of stupid. Like, why was he like worried about reporting it if he stole the car? I guess it was so they could record a viral video?
Jordan 9:23
Yeah, it was very weird. It was just like, "Dude, if you stole a car don't fucking talk to a cop. Avoid cops as much as you possibly can. What the fuck is wrong with you, you idiot?"
David 9:35
Yeah. A- And that just felt like the whole, like, video thing just felt very, like, added on. Like he just wanted to force a message and that was like- it just seemed very weird and maybe it was if like, this chapter had only been 30 pages it would have just been a stronger chapter.
Jordan 9:46
Yeah. And that moment is honestly what got me really worried about, um, the ideology here because it was very clearly a message saying like, "Yeah, people who livestream cops and goad them into police brutality are bad people." And it's like- Well, I think you're kind of presenting it. You're very clearly attacking like a straw man here, man. Like this is uh- this is not great, but the actual execution is pretty funny. I do also want to say I like Chaco. I think she's really cute. Yeah.
David 10:15
Oh, that was it? Oh I was just waiting. Okay, yeah. Yeah, that's completely understandable. Umm- And then lastly, though, I think just- I'm a little concerned about what the direction or point of- More like porpoise of the series is. Cuz here's the thing: It seems to sell itself as a traditional, like, shonen manga, not like a comedy series. And so-
Jordan 10:33
Yeah.
David 10:33
That's what it makes me concerned is that the series needs to have like a plot, needs to go somewhere. It can't be like High School Family where they can just have 15 pages of jokes, cuz that's just not the tone the series seems to be going for.
Jordan 10:43
Yeah, the tone is a little bit hard to grok just from the first chapter. A lot of it is just goofy, silly stuff, like the girl's boobs popping out. That was- That was funny. Yeah it was really, really funny actually. Re- really funny! But there are some more serious things going on and I'm a little cautious about how these two tones are going to clash.
David 11:07
I completely agree.
Jordan 11:08
Uh- What do you think will happen next, David?
David 11:10
Oh, my goodness. So I think we're going to meet Poseidon, like the god of the sea. I think he's gonna show up and be a character.
Jordan 11:16
For the record, I would like to say that, in the notes section, David wrote this as "We meet Posetidon."
David 11:22
Whatever! My next one is: there will be shark people that are bad guys.
Jordan 11:26
Ah.
David 11:26
And now-
Jordan 11:27
The racism metaphor,
David 11:28
Yup. And then, uh, finally: I think they're never going to explain why Orphie is just like a talking dolphin person.
Jordan 11:34
I- I would love it if they just didn't. I think that'd be funny.
David 11:37
Yep. And then how about you Jordan? What are your guesses?
Jordan 11:39
Orphie is going to disappear and leave Samejima to take care of Chaco because I really think that this series is exploring Samejima and Chako's relationship .I think that's the point of it at the- eh... Like all the promotional material just has them, like Orphie's nowhere to be seen. My second guess is that the cult disappeared because they all turned into dolphins. And my third guess is that Samejima turns into a shark because Chaco specifically mentions to Samejima, "Hey, you're kind of like a shark. Isn't like the kanji in your name kind of like shark?" Which it might be, I don't know anything about kanji.
David 12:16
They could have named him something, like, to have made that joke work better. But it's like, you know, whatever.
Jordan 12:21
Whatever. What? You mean, like Boyle?
David 12:24
Yeah.
Jordan 12:24
I love that!
David 12:25
They could have called him like- I mean, they could have called him Shark-ajima.
Jordan 12:28
Maybe that is what the pun is? In uh, in Japanese. But-
David 12:33
Yeah.
Jordan 12:33
Uh- It's not something that I could pick up on.
David 12:35
Yeah. Fucking Officer Boyle. God, I miss Brooklyn Nine-Nine. Now that- That had a really strong last season. I was impressed.
Jordan 12:42
I should watch it more. I've only seen clips, but it's really funny.
David 12:45
Oh, yeah. I just love how every time they have, like, a cutaway, instead of like a noise effect they use a walkie-talkie sound.
Jordan 12:50
That's cute.
David 12:51
Yep. You're cute.
Jordan 12:52
I can't believe you're just- You're coming on to me like this. In the middle of-
David 12:55
Oh, man!
Jordan 12:55
The middle of an episode.
David 12:56
You know what else?
Jordan 12:57
Oh my God.
David 12:57
Is uh- Jordan, would you read 10 more chapters of the series?
Jordan 13:00
I would. Yeah. No, I- I think this was a very enjoyable first chapter, ideology issues notwithstanding. This was- this was a lot of fun to read.
David 13:09
Yep, no issues. And then Joey: if the series is a painful remaining 46 chapters, I will-
Jordan 13:16
I'll send you my hospital bill.
David 13:19
I was like, "What's something mildly threatening that's not actually threatening?" I will be very disappointed.
Jordan 13:23
You don't want to disappoint David.
David 13:25
Yes. I'm gonna- I'm gonna tell your mother that you made me read the series.
Jordan 13:29
David's gonna send you a picture of him making like the most disappointed face he can make. And it's gonna make you feel real sad.
David 13:35
Yeah, big sad.
Jordan 13:36
Yeah. Yeah. Don't do that. Don't do that to yourself.
David 13:39
No, no, no, no.
Jordan 13:40
And then David: What is your Power Word?
David 13:45
I decided to go with a pun and I said, "Egg-cellent."
Jordan 13:47
Mmmm. It took me a second to get that pun.
David 13:50
Yes. You're like "David's fucking up his spelling again."
Jordan 13:53
Nah. I- I knew it was an egg pun. But I'm like, "Egg? Egg? Oh, yeah. Hard-boiled"
David 13:57
Cuz uh yeah. It's hard-boiled. And then uh- I actually liked the series. I thought it was pretty good. So I'm looking forward to reading the remaining 46 chapters. Then how about you, Jordan?
Jordan 14:04
Mine is "Fishy". Because there's a lot of fish. And I'm worried about what its point is.
David 14:11
Oh, God. Yeah that's true. That's true. All right. And then Jordan: Shall we turn it to the Q&A?
Jordan 14:16
Let's fucking do it, man.
David 14:17
All right, let's do it. So I want to give a shout out to everyone who submitted their questions. We've been getting a ton of questions. So we really try and go through them as best we can. Just as a reminder: Really, the way we prioritize things is first of all- if you are a patron of "King of the Forest" or higher, you, of course, get higher priority; If this is your first time asking a question; And then after that, if you- really you haven't had a question answered in the last four or five episodes. Yes, I've literally built an Excel sheet that actually analyzes the answer- like the number of questions to ask, the answer rate, and then when they were last answered; so we can flag the people that are most in need. Um, and if you are interested in submitting us a question: you can do so in the Shonen Flop discord, where we have a dedicated question/asking. I will note we also have a dedicated suggestion thing. So also if you want to ask us, "will you cover X series?", just feel free to post it there. And if you want us to explicitly cover a series, then you can do that through the power of being a "Chainsaw Man" patron, as we have done for Marty when we covered Iron Knight.
Jordan 15:09
Power of the Chainsaw-
David 15:11
Compels you!
Jordan 15:12
The saw is the law!
David 15:13
[Deep chuckle] So getting into it: We have a question from Albie who asks, "What generally well respected manga series do you hate with a passion?"
Jordan 15:22
Well, as I have learned, apparently, Phantom Seer is generally well respected and I fucking hate Phantom Seer.
David 15:29
Yeah. I'll go with Phantom Seer. That was definitely our hottest take. Also, as we talked about, I just don't really like Naruto very much.
Jordan 15:35
Yeah, yeah.
David 15:36
Meanwhile Totally Not Mark is having like the time of his life watching it. Like [Hestitant sounds] okay, Bud.
Jordan 15:40
You know I-
David 15:41
Even he's like, "Most people thought this part was bad, but I really liked it." And I was like, "Yeah, cuz it wasn't very good."
Jordan 15:46
Yeah. You know what? Totally Not Mark had some takes on the Chimera Ant arc that I-
David 15:51
Yeah.
Jordan 15:51
Disagreed with. So you know what? That- I'm okay with disagreeing with him on other things.
David 15:56
We're like, "Totally Off Mark."
Jordan 15:58
AYYYYYY!
David 15:59
Ooooo- It's pretty good. Also, we should really talk about Mother's Basement said that, uh, Thriller Bark was like top five One Piece arcs.
Jordan 16:06
Mhhm. He's right.
David 16:07
I had f- a discussion with him about that on Twitter. Anyway. He uh- he hasn't watched G-8 though. So I really- I asked him if he'll watch that and how he would rank that with the cannon material because that's like- one few pieces of filler ever created for an anime.
Jordan 16:18
G-8 was fun.
David 16:19
Yeah. Apparently it was supposed to be a movie which actually would have been really cool.
Jordan 16:22
That makes sense. Yeah.
David 16:23
Next question, though, is from MrJonesGolding. And they asked "Are there any good manga that you would be more appreciative to after having read so many mediocre/bad series?"
Jordan 16:32
You know, something? It's funny that you mentioned Naruto because, uh, like last, last, uh, episode, I said like "Oh, Naruto started like shit." But then I thought about it and after you guys dogpiled on me and like- no, actually Naruto starts out pretty fucking well actually. Like the- the first chapter, I still remember it pretty solidly. And when I compare it to the other first chapters that- that we've covered on here, like no, it blows it out of the fucking water.
David 16:58
I mean, Naruto, up to like the end of the Chunin exam, is extremely strong. Like it's probably-
Jordan 17:03
Yeah.
David 17:03
On par with like, One Piece and Hunter X Hunter and then-
Jordan 17:06
[Sighing] Yep.. At least- At least on par with Bleach.
David 17:08
I mean, what would you say? Like, what's better: Up to the end of the Chunin exam or the end of Soul Society? Which two do you prefer more?
Jordan 17:15
Well, the end of Soul Society is like significantly longer than the end of the Chunin Exam because that she goes on forever but-
David 17:22
That's fair.
Jordan 17:23
You know, it's tough, like uh... I have more stronger memories for- of Soul Society.
David 17:28
Mhhm!
Jordan 17:28
But I think the stuff that happens in the Chunin Exam is just way better paced. It's just way more well put together. Bleach, as has been discussed many times by many people, has an issue of just- where it's just not put together very well.
David 17:43
Yeah.
Jordan 17:43
Uh, so I would actually- I would say the Chunin Exam, yeah.
David 17:46
Yeah I would agree. I actually, though, would say: I think Zipman!! is definitely a series that's gained a lot of points since we've read it. Where-
Jordan 17:46
Yeah.
David 17:47
We really thought Zipman!! was below average the quality of a lot of series and I still think it is a flop. Like, I did drop it in real time. But we have truly seen what it means to be a bad Shonen Jump series.
Jordan 18:02
No Zipman!! is like a top-level flop. Like it is-
David 18:05
Yeah.
Jordan 18:05
Like on the cusp, you know? There's some really well-done shit in there that every other series just fucking fails at miserably.
David 18:14
Yeah. Like we didn't know there were series that had bad writing and bad art. While Zipman!! has extremely, strong art
Jordan 18:20
And just middling writing. Not even like trash writing, just like middling.
David 18:24
Exactly. Uh, man that was a really fun question. Thanks for asking it. Next one is a combination question because two people kind of asked us the same thing. So we're combining T Wolfwood and ZZDigital's.
Jordan 18:33
Yeah!
David 18:34
So they asked, "How far ahead do you record episodes before posting them? And how long does it- editing an episode take on average?" So really, our average workflow is we have about eight days: Where we usually record the episode the Sunday before the episode comes out the following Monday. Uh, this can be plus or minus, you know, a day; Sometimes we record on Monday; Sometimes we record the week beforehand due to scheduling or vacations, what have you. But that's typically our standard is- we record the Sunday for the following Monday. And then we usually- we record at the same time 1 PM Eastern, usually for Chibi and regular episodes. And then the Patreon bonus is really just when we have an opening in our schedule. So like a Friday afternoon or right now is a Saturday. And then uh... the process is, for the main episode, I edit it. It's about eight hours to edit a main episode where I listen to it twice. Usually my first passes, I do a track alignment where I'm just going- taking out any redundant audio, you know, bad takes, or if someone said something and it really just didn't add to the episode, and making sure all the audio's in line so no one's talking over each other. And then I do like a polishing pass: from getting rid of all the ums, any background noise, and really making judgments about like what scenes- Like getting deleted scenes that we put on the Patreon. And usually cutting out about 20 to 30 minutes because one of our policies when we record a main episode is I set- I literally set a timer for an hour and 20 minutes and that's how long we want the recording. Because it, you know, it takes about an hour for every ten minutes of raw audio. So going past that: It just becomes too difficult to edit that episode in a reasonable timeframe. And then Jordan- Jordan does perhaps the most important thing, where he does the final pass. Just, you know, after you've listened to the same audio twice, it's- it's easy to miss things and sometimes identify redundancies where someone maybe said something during the positives and then mentions it again as a miscellaneous thought and you're like, "Oh, I can cut one of these." That it's just hard to remember when you're listening to it for the first time. And then uh... We flip that process, pretty much, for the Chibi. Where, same thing, Jordan handles the editing of the Chibi.
Jordan 20:18
Mhhm.
David 20:18
Uh, he also handles, really, editing the Patreon content just because the Chibi is a lighter lift.
Jordan 20:22
Yeah.
David 20:22
For instance, the Dandadan episode that just came out, that was really his baby. And then, likewise, I just do a final polishing where I spend like an hour just cutting maybe five, five-ish minutes from, you know, the 30-ish minutes of audio.
Jordan 20:32
And then when David sends me his edited main episode: I typically go through it and just kind of move things around so that they flow a little better. I cut out like a little bit of extra space and stuff like that.
David 20:43
Mhhm.
Jordan 20:43
But like, you know, the heavy lifting was already done. But yeah, that's pretty much our process.
David 20:48
Uh, thanks for asking that. And we actually-
Jordan 20:50
Yeah!
David 20:50
Have a Shonen Flop editing guide, which I've posted a few times, but if people want I'm happy to- I'm actually always constantly keeping it updated as I try new techniques and that's been a really awesome process. I've collaborated with some other people in the podcasting world like Dylan from Anime Out of Context, Cabinet of Dr. Mystery as well. So shout out to them- who've really also been a big help of me, being able to improve just the audio quality. And hopefully the episodes have been sounding better as time goes on. I know certainly they do when listening to them.
Jordan 21:13
Compared to our first episode, at least, you know.
David 21:15
Yeah, exactly. So the next question is also from ZZDigital where they ask, "Jordan, would you eat a Devil Fruit?" You can't specifically pick one but- as he asked, but I will say is there a w- if you would say no in a vacuum? Is there any one you would be willing to eat, if you knew what the fruit was?
Jordan 21:31
I would eat a Devil Fruit because I don't swim that much.
David 21:35
Mhhm.
Jordan 21:35
I mean, cool. I can get a cool power. And it won't really affect my life that poorly, you know?
David 21:40
[Chuckling] Yeah, it's worth the gamble, having superpowers, fun stuff. And eh, swimming's not that important.
Jordan 21:45
Yeah.
David 21:45
Okay. And then our last question comes from weeaboobs ash who asks, "If a battle royale started with all the Shonen protagonists from all the flopped series, who would win and why?" This is a hard question.
Jordan 21:57
I have a couple answers. My immediate answer is, well, obviously it'd be Jim Naruto because he's just really cool.
David 22:03
Yep.
Jordan 22:03
But then I kind of realized: No. What would actually happen is the royale would start and then, the King of the Forest, Moriking would bring everybody under his rulership and show them that fighting is unnecessary.
David 22:17
Are you sure it's not the protagonist of Iron Knight and then they fou- they found Israel?
Jordan 22:21
You mean- you mean uh..? You mean Red Sprite?
David 22:22
Oh sorry! [Jordan laughing and David stumbles over his words] They found Israel.
Jordan 22:25
Yeah! I think that even the protagonist of Red Sprite would be charmed by Moriking.
David 22:32
That's fair. I was actually thinking, you know who last probably a really long time?
Jordan 22:36
Who?
David 22:37
The protagonist Teenage Renaissance! David cuz he would just pretend to be a statue.
Jordan 22:42
Yeah, haha. My other idea was that, uh, Heidi from fucking Hungry Joker would just pull some superpower out of the- out of his ass and just win somehow.
David 22:53
Oh, yeah. Didn't he became kind of omnipotent at the end? So actually, you might be the most powerful protagonists of any of these series, by the end of the series.
Jordan 23:00
Yeah, pretty much. Or like shit... What even happened in Samurai 8? Did like-
David 23:05
It's like the ending of Madoka where he's just, like, part of the universe now.
Jordan 23:08
Yeah. It's not so much that he would win as much as he has evolved past the need for any sort of conflict.
David 23:14
Yeah, that's true. The Candy Flurry would also do really well.
Jordan 23:17
She would!
David 23:18
Why don't we- we'll just go from the top. Ugh! This- I feel like this could be a special in itself but-
Jordan 23:21
Yeah.
David 23:21
We'll just go through this real quick. Like, would they make it to the final? So we'll say: Zipman!!? Yes.
Jordan 23:27
Yeah.
David 23:27
Golem Hearts, no.
Jordan 23:28
No.
David 23:28
Robot x LaserBeam, no.
Jordan 23:29
No.
David 23:29
Beast Children, no.
Jordan 23:30
No.
David 23:30
Guardian of the Witch, no.
Jordan 23:31
No.
David 23:32
Dark Mage?
Jordan 23:34
[Jordan contemplating]
David 23:34
That's literally what he does is fight.
Jordan 23:36
Yeah, I think Dark Mage would be alright.
David 23:39
He's li- he's literally, eh, designed for this.
Jordan 23:41
Yeah.
David 23:42
SWOT, no. Samurai 8, let's just not consider him because he's pretty much God
Jordan 23:46
Yeah.
David 23:47
Mashle... we'll skip
Jordan 23:48
Ooooooo.
David 23:48
Cuz he's-
Jordan 23:49
Yeah it's not a flop.
David 23:49
Well Mashle's not a flop so technically
Jordan 23:50
That's not a flop yeah. Yeah.
David 23:51
Bone Collection.
Jordan 23:53
No.
David 23:53
May- well she- in her-
Jordan 23:55
They like lost their powers at the end of that series.
David 23:57
Oh, yeah, you're right. Okay, um, Mitama Security? No.
Jordan 24:00
No.
David 24:00
Stealth Symphony? He's dead anyway.
Jordan 24:03
I can't remember the powers in that series. They were very complicated. Like- [Laughing]
David 24:07
Yeah. Let's see: Hungry Joker? Yes.
Jordan 24:10
Yeah.
David 24:10
Oh Time Paradox Ghostwriter. Definitely not.
Jordan 24:12
No.
David 24:13
Barrage?
Jordan 24:14
Mmmmh...
David 24:14
Hmm.. Yeah, sure.
Jordan 24:16
Sure. Yeah whatever.
David 24:17
Uh... Tokyo- Jim Naruto, yes.
Jordan 24:18
Yes.
David 24:19
ne0;lation, no.
Jordan 24:20
No.
David 24:20
Because not all of them have cell phones.
Jordan 24:22
Yeah.
David 24:22
B. Ichi, yes?
Jordan 24:26
I guess? Maybe?
David 24:28
I don't know.
Jordan 24:29
I dunno...
David 24:29
O-Zoo? No.
Jordan 24:30
No.
David 24:31
Blood Oath, no.
Jordan 24:33
Nu-uh.
David 24:33
Moriking, you said he goes for the diplomatic victory.
Jordan 24:35
Yeah. And I think he- he- I think he nails it.
David 24:37
Yep. Double Arts, no.
Jordan 24:39
No.
David 24:39
Cool Shock B.T.- Actually
Jordan 24:41
[Wild Laughter]
David 24:41
Moriking versus Cool Shock B.T. I-
Jordan 24:43
That would rule. I would love to see that.
David 24:45
Alright, yeah, okay. But I think- I think B.T. just- he's- he's not smart enough to overpower some of the actual people with legitimately powers.
Jordan 24:51
Yeah. I think B.T. would constantly be trying to trick Moriking and it just didn't work.
David 24:56
He just held cool bug facts.
Jordan 24:57
Yeah.
David 24:58
Oh, I love that meme where it's like cool bug fact. You came from the void. Why do you fear of returning to it?
Jordan 25:02
Exactly.
David 25:04
Um-
Jordan 25:04
Yeah.
David 25:04
Alright. Uh, let's see? Uh Godspeed? No.
Jordan 25:04
[Hesitating sounds]
David 25:05
Teenage-
Jordan 25:05
Really? Really? Godspeed?
David 25:07
Oh... Oh fuck yeah. Doesn't he-
Jordan 25:11
I think Godspeed would- I think he'd- he'd make it.
David 25:14
Yeah. Uh, Teenage Renaissance! David: I legitimately think his strategy would work. Don't know if he's smart enough to do that, but if he did, I think he could at least make it to the top 10.
Jordan 25:23
Well, I don't know if he knows he's a statue.
David 25:25
That's true. Hell Warden, no.
Jordan 25:27
No
David 25:27
i tell c. No.
Jordan 25:28
No.
David 25:28
Red Sprite? Yes?
Jordan 25:30
[Negative tone] Mmm....
David 25:32
He's got legitimate powers.
Jordan 25:33
He does. I think he would put up a fight against Jim Naruto some saying yeah.
David 25:38
Okay. Double Taisei no.
Jordan 25:40
No. They're goes shogi!
David 25:42
Build King, no.
Jordan 25:43
No fuck that!
David 25:45
Iron Knight, yes.
Jordan 25:45
Iron Knight might, yeah. I'd pick Iron Knight
David 25:45
Uh, Candy Flurry, yes.
Jordan 25:47
Yes.
David 25:48
Bokke-san no...?
Jordan 25:50
I can't even remember if they were strong.
David 25:52
They had the cat- catboy-
Jordan 25:54
Yeah.
David 25:54
Yeah.
Jordan 25:54
No.
David 25:54
Monster Tamer Girls, No.
Jordan 25:56
No.
David 25:56
Let's see, Red Hood?
Jordan 25:58
Yeah.
David 25:58
No.
Jordan 25:59
No?
David 25:59
What does he? What?
Jordan 26:00
Well, uh, yeah. I guess if you're talking about Velou then yeah. Yeah.
David 26:02
I'm talking about the main character. Yeah no.
Jordan 26:04
Yeah you're right. You're right.
David 26:04
Um...
Jordan 26:05
Grimm would. And yeah.
David 26:06
And yeah. And uh, so would, uh, Debonair. Debonair would do really well.
Jordan 26:09
Debonair, Debonair would actually win.
David 26:11
She would actually kill a lot of people.
Jordan 26:12
She would actually win.
David 26:14
Yeah. Uh 1500 Fahrenheit is very hot.
Jordan 26:16
Yeah.
David 26:18
I could see her fighting the Candy Flurry girl and just melting all the candy.
Jordan 26:21
Oh God.
David 26:22
Uh, but it's not debonair who would be the rep unfortunately.
Jordan 26:24
Unfortunately yeah.
David 26:25
Uh, but yeah. Man, that was a really fun question.
Jordan 26:26
Yeah, thanks for asking.
David 26:28
We should do a special where we do like really difficult-
Jordan 26:30
Like crush kids?
David 26:30
Questions and asks. Yeah, we're we actually like think this out. Maybe that would be a good piece of Patreon content: is doing like these high concept. But that's the problem is, like, if you're asking a question like this and you're not a patron, you won't get to hear what the answer is. Which is kinda like, "Hey, you want to pay us to hear what we thought of your really cool question?"
Jordan 26:44
Hey, listener, you want to pay us to hear what we thought of your, uh, really cool question?
David 26:48
We'll leave it to you guys. If you think that would be a fun piece of content, where we'll do some of these, like, questions that we could spend literally 5, 10 minutes, like, 20 minutes on; or like, let's hear David and Jordan really, actually discuss, for every single protagonist, how a battle royale would go for these series and release as Patreon?
Jordan 27:03
No, no. Here's what- here's what we do: We do that; And then if the person who asked the question is not on- in the Patreon, we just send them a link to, like, download it because we, you know, we answered their questions specifically.
David 27:15
So yeah. So tell us though, if people want us to try that, or even just this question. You really want us to just completely go through the whole thing and really think about and say "This is a person that would win, uh, this battle royale of all the Shonen Flop protagonists".
Jordan 27:15
Yeah.
David 27:15
And then, uh, that though, speaking of winners, that takes us to the end of the episode. So thank you, everyone who submitted their questions.
Jordan 27:33
Thank you so much listeners. You're- you're the best. You give me life, you know, in this world of depression. You make it worth living. Thank you so much.
David 27:41
Yes. And thank you, Jordan, for being a great co-host.
Jordan 27:43
Aww. You're very welcome, David. I do it for you.
David 27:45
And then, uh, in terms of other shout outs: I want to give thanks to Tucker for assistance with pronunciation, translation, and other miscellaneous research; Nicole for helping us with social media; Thank you, Luke, for being our community producer; and be sure to join the Shonen Flop Discord. Come hang out with us and talk about anime, games, or whatever else is on your mind. We have a book club and do regular movie nights. Like we said, this is where you can go and submit some awesome questions. Always happy to have new faces in the discord asking us questions. And if you've enjoyed the podcast and wanna help us keep going, consider subscribing to our Patreon. We have a ton of awesome perks, ranging from exclusive mini episodes, priority in the Q&A, or even just getting to, uh, help us figure out what content we're going to be making. I also want to give a shout out to Pterodactyl Ghost for being a "Chainsaw Man" level patron. Gabe, Mark, Marty, T Wolfwood, Matt, OverratedApples, for being "King of the Forest" and Tristan Dena, Mara Bara, Hydra, Dylan, Alexander Zorak, ShingoSekimoto, Trevor Schechter, Sillyrock- rookie, Yaji_Black, Mike Carpenter, and BS for being "Galactic Ball Federation Officers". Man that list is getting long but I fucking love it. And then though if you're not ready for a regular commitment, consider buying some merch. We have a ton of awesome designs including the much requested "Gomez Moon" and "Mashel punching Harry Potter" shirts, along with cover art from each of our other episodes. And no worries though if you can't help the show out financially. If you could just like, rate, review, or share our show, it means a ton. Even telling one friend to check us out means a lot. You can find us on Twitter @ShonenFlopCast and our website, shonenflop.com. We're also on Spotify, iTunes, YouTube or wherever else you get your podcasts.
Jordan 29:04
And with that: Okay. David! Fucking say it!
David 29:08
Keep on flopin' floppers! [Awkward dolphin impression that kind of sounds like Peter Griffin laughing] That was me trying to make a dolphin noise.
Jordan 29:14
What the- What the fuck was that?
Transcribed by https://otter.ai