#91.5 First Thoughts on Ice-Head Gill

[00:00:00] This episode is brought to you ad-free thanks to all of our wonderful patrons. You get tons of exclusive content and help us keep the show going by joining at patreon.com slash shonenflop. And welcome to Shonen Flop Chibi, a First Impressions mini episode where

[00:00:13] 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 lovely, thick co-host David. Say hi David. Borky bork.

[00:00:25] Oh hi David. Why are uh, why'd you say that in like a Swedish chef way? Because we're covering the Nordic inspired Ice-Head Gill and I kept thinking it was Axe-Head Gill but I will probably make that mistake many a time. Yeah just chill David, chill your head.

[00:00:42] Chillax. Chillax man. Chillax. Just chill. Alright so this is Ice-Head Gill. It was written by uh, Hachiya Kuo and the run dates were between June 26th, 2023 and ended on November 13th, 2023. It's got 20 chapters, 2 volumes. We assume. It

[00:01:04] hasn't officially had its full series published but it seems like 20 chapters will be too thicky boys as they say. Thick like me. Is this another one where it's gonna end like, it's gonna have

[00:01:14] like 2 or 3 extra chapters? I don't know. We'll find out. You mean just like the second volume hasn't been published yet? Okay. Yeah. This isn't a Build King situation is what I'm guessing. No,

[00:01:24] I don't think so. Okay. So anyway, god we still haven't read the final Build King issues have we? And we never will. I don't ever want to. Anyway first chapter summary right now. Gil Sol's father Drekki was a powerful warrior who carried the king's axe and trained 7 warriors

[00:01:42] until one day David he allegedly went crazy and killed them all along with the prince. This caused Gil to sail away when his father's enemies came to kill him for revenge only for him to wash

[00:01:55] up in a rat lace called Urchin Island. 2 years later Gil is made to work as a slave slash tax collector to the leader of the town, Mela, a large dommy mommy who for some reason looks like the

[00:02:07] statue of liberty and is coincidentally his adoptive mother figure. He both loves her and is angry because she stole the king's axe from him when he like arrived and was cast away more or less.

[00:02:18] A local asshole named Zakuro taunts Gil for having a murderer as a father and Gil says that all that shit's a lie his dad would never kill anybody. Also for the record Gil's like 13. He's a little boy.

[00:02:29] Average shonen protagonist. Yeah. Just then an evil castaway washes up and Mela throws Gil an axe which is kind of lamer than the king's axe. It's kind of an axe. Generic brand axe. And he even

[00:02:41] complains about it. Yeah he's like oh this is just a lame axe. But anyway he still easily takes him out. Mela says that they need more weapons because of shit like this which is allegedly you know what

[00:02:52] the taxes are for but Zakuro disagrees because the island is mostly peaceful popcorn David. That night Mela executes the castaway by throwing him off a cliff before eating dinner with Gil.

[00:03:03] She then gives him his father's journal which she took when Gil washed up. Gil opens it up and finds information on liches. Just then a fucking lich happens to show up. Just right then just

[00:03:12] total coincidence. Whoa it's a lich we just found out about liches. Whoa. Revived from the corpse of the dude Mela executed. The lich stabs Zakuro and then jumps into him. That is literally what

[00:03:24] happens he jumps his bones. Yeah. They try and save him but Zakuro's corpse hops up and slices Mela's left arm off like she's fucking shanks or something. The lich to me is that they join him

[00:03:35] and kill Mela but Gil stops him and takes the king's axe from her unconscious body. He then cuts the lich's head off which yells at them that humans are descendants of false kings and should

[00:03:43] not exist. After giving the living head a viking funeral Gil says he wants to go back to the kingdom to find out what happened to his dad. Hmm protagonist trying to do an adventure to find his

[00:03:52] dad. Interesting. He left a bunch of cryptic messages in troll language as well as one of the three relics in his journal as well as the info that all three together will open the gates

[00:04:01] of hell. I wrote as well as both twice I'm sorry everybody that's that's on me. They all can't be winners. Gil heads back home because his aunt is part troll and might be able to read it. Because

[00:04:11] he is a racist it's like oh oh so I'm part troll so you think that I can read the troll language? Oh okay I see. This reminds me I had an interview where I was talking to this guy and he was like

[00:04:23] telling me about how he's been programming and I was like what was your first language and he was like well I mean technically speaking I guess Spanish and I was like no no I meant programming

[00:04:31] language and he's like oh okay that question makes much more sense. No see I'm approaching it from being like hey someone come out to me and they're like hey you're Jewish can you speak

[00:04:41] Hebrew? Oh all the time. It's like yeah of course I can. Oh and Jordan much like people's first impressions of us for being Jewish. Um what were your first impressions of this series?

[00:04:55] Oh god wow that was a lot of lore at the end. God so much dumping. Such a big info dump towards the end. I feel every manga that has a huge amount of exposition and sets up then immediately goes

[00:05:10] nowhere or just ends after 20 chapters. I mean the ones that we read on the show at least. Yeah I can't think as much of uh I don't know you think Bleach had a lot of lore when it started?

[00:05:22] I don't remember. I was rereading the first chapter of One Piece just literally has Roger's execution and then it's kind of like that's it for talking about the setting for like that first chapter.

[00:05:30] Yeah but I mean that's One Piece. That's like one of the best opening chapters of all time you know. True. This uh first chapter kind of goes hardcore in different places you know.

[00:05:41] Yeah I really want to like this series and it's really trying its best to have me not like it because this is a legitimately really interesting setting. Yeah. It kind of runs through a red hood

[00:05:51] actually where it's very like I guess Germanic or Nordic inspired in a way that we don't see that often in Shonen Jump. Yeah I was kind of getting into it you know definitely didn't blow me away.

[00:06:01] I felt like the art was kind of shaky in a lot of places. Oh yeah this art is not great. It has its moments. I like a lot of the details. I think the designs are pretty interesting. I think the

[00:06:12] monsters look kind of cool. It's just more like there are moments where like man Gil looks weird in this this shot. This wasn't the best drawn. I think Gil has a terrible character design.

[00:06:22] It's not it's not great. Yeah yeah like there's just blamed art errors like I'm not an artist but I caught things where he just straight up forgot to draw one of Gil's eyes. Yeah wish he

[00:06:31] had a panel where Gil actually reached down and picked up the axe. I had to like double take and I was like when did he get the King's axe. Yeah I was confused about that too. He showed like two

[00:06:41] shots of like Mela laying on the ground and she just had the King's axe there. She just had it there. He didn't even like comment on it. He just went and picked it up and it was like almost

[00:06:51] off screen that he did that. Yeah it was a little bit too casual. There had to be at least one panel where he was like oh King's axe you brought it. Yeah or something like yeah. MaxDB has mentioned

[00:07:03] this is like the author's first real work and you can definitely tell this is the first thing he ever really did. I mean if this is his first work kudos to him it's not bad. Yeah this is for a

[00:07:12] first work not bad. No I mostly enjoyed this. I thought that the setting was pretty cool as same with David you know. I mean you know we all love a large Dommy Mommy. I find it interesting how

[00:07:22] this again has everyone nice as these where Mela is really nice kind of except her actual actions seem pretty terrible. Like she openly executes people. She is extorting the townsfolk for tax yet this chapter is trying to make her seem like a sympathetic character and it's very strange.

[00:07:38] I kind of disagree that it has everyone nice disease because like Zocker is like a complete fucking dick to Gil and stuff like that. Like Mela knows that he's powerful but she doesn't spend the

[00:07:49] whole time being like Gil you are the chosen one you know I see something in you you know. It's just like nah he's good with an axe we can kill this guy. Yeah and basically has him as like a

[00:07:58] slave slash like adoptive son kind of. So like I kind of think she's somewhat of an interesting character because she is like an asshole. She collects taxes she's a dick to everyone and she

[00:08:11] does like execute people but like there is like a little bit of softness there around Gil's kind of like underneath this stuff exterior exterior you're really a good person. I mean she's not. Yeah she's a pretty awful person. She's a pretty terrible person. She's basically a landlord.

[00:08:30] Fucking the worst kind of people. Worst kind of people you know my cruelty squad stands know where we're at. Yeah so Jordan would you read our 10 chapters of this? Yeah. Yeah I was surprised

[00:08:42] I was like you know what fuck it I want to see where this goes I think the setting is cool cool cool enough that I would give this 110 chapters. Yeah I mean you know this is assuming

[00:08:50] I read it on the first day again I know it lasts 20 chapters. Yeah. It's like I know that this probably does not get good if it got axed like that I've read enough cancelled manga to know that

[00:09:03] but like if I'm just picking this up and this is like the first day it was released I'm like yeah I'll stick around for the next week sure. Yeah and then Jordan what do you think is gonna happen next?

[00:09:13] First of all I think that his dad did kill those people and I think he killed the prince because the prince was trying to bring liches into this world. Second guess I think that those seven

[00:09:24] warriors that were killed are going to come back as liches and I think the other two relics will show up three chapters before the manga ends. Yeah that's a good one. I also want to before

[00:09:35] anyone brings it up Steve Lichman super dope webcomic everyone should read that yeah go check it out it's fucking webcomic about his lich that just kind of hangs out in his dungeon with his buds

[00:09:44] So my guesses are I think in the city he will meet his rival that joins his king of characters much like we saw Metallica and Metallica. I think there will be a surprising

[00:09:53] increase in quality where this is the author's first work and I think he's really going to turn it around just in time for that series to get axed because you know and I think one of the big

[00:10:00] three Nordic gods will show up possibly hiding his form until a sun revelation later in the series. Now David who are the big three Nordic gods? That's Loki, Thor, and Odin. Gotcha what about

[00:10:09] Baldur though? He doesn't get in here? No he's got a bad hair day. Oh he's like the fourth one. I mean I don't know if people know anything about Baldur besides the word Baldur's Gate.

[00:10:18] No I mean he was the cause of Ragnarok. That's true. I mean he was in God of War. Yeah so are we doing God of War as the cover art for this? I don't have a better idea. We'll figure out

[00:10:29] that bitch later. Yeah whatever fucking. All right and then Jordan what's your power word Cold because like it's a cold setting and damn Mela is fucking cold she just kills that dude.

[00:10:40] She's just a bad lich. Nice. Nice mine is lukewarm because this series is not great not super very 60 degrees. Yeah you know. You know. All right um but you know what I don't have a lukewarm reception

[00:10:57] to are the people who sent us questions so let's go Q&A time as a reminder you can submit your questions in the show in the flop discord and we get priority of those who haven't had a question

[00:11:05] answered in a long time new to asking questions or our patron. Kicking things off we have from front of the show Ozzy Rat if you were a protagonist in a manga and you had to come

[00:11:12] up with a backstory which of the flops you reviewed would be your backstory? Oh there's so many fucking flops David um you go first. I mean we can always go with the Coco Banana Town that

[00:11:25] is from Stealth Symphony or we could do the I think the only true isekai we've reviewed which tricks dedicated witches that would be pretty dope to be a magician. Yeah that would be honestly it

[00:11:35] would mean like you were a really talented guy who was also like an asshole. Yeah so I'll go that's me in real life too. Hey. So then Jordan what would you pick then for your backstory? Oh

[00:11:47] my god oh man David I'm getting put on the fucking spot I guess I might go Dark Mage. So you would actually that's also an isekai but that's a double isekai. Yeah that's a double

[00:11:57] isekai. Yeah because then I would be like this awesome Dark Mage. I guess that is what he is isn't it? He's a Dark Mage. God what a stupid fucking series. That was so stupid. All right next up we

[00:12:10] have from Dude Rocks would you rather eat a non-boiled egg straight out of the fridge shell and all or eat a large bowl full of uncooked dry oatmeal? A non-cooked egg is edible so you will

[00:12:20] not die if you do that. When I first read this I was like oatmeal but now I'm thinking about it I think I might go egg because like it would be just so fucking dry and like hard to get down but

[00:12:32] like an egg you could probably chew the shell until it's in like small enough bits where it's not that big of a deal really. I mean it's not gonna taste good but it's like you can you can

[00:12:43] get it down relatively quickly. It's just over. Yeah it's just over. I feel like oatmeal would be like just prolonged suffering. The saltine challenge right? I don't know the saltine challenge. So the saltine challenge is actually very difficult to eat like seven saltines without

[00:12:56] drinking any water in between so that's kind of what it feels like eating a bunch of dry oatmeal because it just dehydrates your mouth. I feel like I could do it but yeah. Go for it. Okay. Do it for

[00:13:05] the gram. Next up we have another one Ashley from Dude Rocks who said what would Chainsaw Man's six word summary be? So off the dome Jordan what would you say is a six word summary for Chainsaw Man?

[00:13:14] Is the name Chainsaw Man one word or two words is important. Chainsaw Man is two words. Chainsaw is one word and man is a second word. Chainsaw Man Chainsaw Man Chainsaw Man. My nice my way

[00:13:23] would be dude go fucking read Chainsaw Man. No um maybe it's like um miserable boy wants to touch boobs. Yeah. Mock-a-ma is the fucking worst period. All right I fixed my six word summary game. Next

[00:13:40] from Red Blade what would be your opinion if someone in Champaign Illinois grew some grapes and processed them into alcohol? Would it be sparkling wine as it does come from Champaign technically speaking. Yeah I love this. Yes that's a great question. Thank you for asking.

[00:13:55] That's a very strong contender for question of the year for next year because this is too late to be considered for the 2023 floppies but Red Blade we will not forget about this question. I

[00:14:03] would say that hold on this really makes you think you know sorry the FBI is on the phone they say the answer is no. I say fuck the FBI I would call it Champaign. There you go. What oh my god oh my

[00:14:14] god no I'm being taken away. We got him we got him. Oh we are we're having we're having fun yeah. From Meru who asks what artist would you choose for a Maguchan revival? So what artists that

[00:14:29] didn't draw Maguchan do you think could really harness the adorableness? Um I think the artist Nekowapa could do a pretty good job because he already kind of has that like cute like supernatural being vibe. My gut reaction was just whoever is doing the Pokemon adventure manga

[00:14:45] right now. Oh that'd be great. Just because like I feel like somebody who's good at doing the cuteness of Pokemon could nail this because you need someone who's good at cute things but also

[00:14:55] some Pokemon are kind of scary so and you want to be able to do some a little bit of scary stuff you know. Yep and then uh we have one more bonus question from David who asks if you were to be

[00:15:06] able to submit a question to Oda for an SBS what question would you submit Jordan? Fuck um how did Robin's boobs get that big even though she was already an adult before fucking time skip?

[00:15:19] No I don't know I don't know. She's a growing woman. I think Robin also gained like an inch of height which probably shouldn't happen when you're 28 years old. Yeah what the fuck happened

[00:15:28] there Oda? I don't know how that went down. I have to think because actually my question someone asked and I'm really annoyed because Oda was like wow that's a great question where I would have

[00:15:37] asked if all the other straw hats had devil fruits what devil fruits would you have given them? Oh right but he actually answered that one. Oh also this reminds me how I'm at there's a dude

[00:15:46] who has the pocket fruit and I'm just imagining that's actually an unawakened form of the Santa the mythical like human human Santa fruit and that's how it manifests and I think that's how

[00:15:55] I want to play for the next One Piece RPG character is that? That's good that's good. So actually yeah so there we go I can't think of anything better so Oda do you believe in Santa and is he real in

[00:16:06] the One Piece world? Yeah is Santa real in the One Piece world? That's pretty good. He's definitely saying he's real to Chopper. Chopper is a reindeer. I actually think that would actually be a good

[00:16:17] question is why are there no zone fruits for animals that only exist in the One Piece world that we've seen? Okay. No one has a sea king devil fruit which I think is interesting. Yeah.

[00:16:26] Oh man yeah that's a fun question thank you so much David that's a strong contender for question of the year. All right well all I want to say Jordan is thank you so much for all of your hard

[00:16:33] work on the Chibi episodes. You're welcome David and thank you so much for your hard work as well. Props to Shannon for the awesome cover art you can find her online at Illuminati. Thanks to Dylan

[00:16:42] for assistance with editing you can find his podcast anime art context at animecontext.com. Thanks to Tucker and Maxie B for assistance with pronunciation translation other miscellaneous research find us on Twitter at ShonanFlopcast Tumblr Shonan-Flop and our website ShonanFlop.com

[00:16:55] we're also on Spotify iTunes YouTube or wherever else you get your podcast and as I mentioned come join the ShonanFlop discord hang out for us we've got some cool people on that discord you can submit

[00:17:02] your question to submit your six word summaries it's just a great time and if you've been enjoying the podcast and want to help us keep going consider subscribing to our Patreon. Wouldn't be able to

[00:17:09] keep the show running without your wonderful support you get a ton of awesome perks including exclusive episodes Jordan what are we dropping in December for our Patrons? Well my friendly Patrons

[00:17:20] me and David are actually just about to record this we are going to be looking at pilots of some of the flops that we have covered on this show. Yes we are going to be looking at some of our fan

[00:17:30] favorites including Red Hood, Tokyo Demon Shinobi, we're gonna be looking including Red Hood, Demon Bride Story and Iron Knight so stay tuned. Uh there's one more well that's why I said including

[00:17:43] fine you want me to just list them all fuck you but may as well there's one more yeah that that etc is pulling a lot of weight it's rookie rookie police woman Kuroko yeah we're gonna be looking

[00:17:54] at Iron the pilots for Iron Knight, Red Hood, Tokyo Demon Bride and rookie police woman Kuroko-san and then you also can be sitting and listening to our recordings live or listening to the warmup

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[00:19:27] wonderful Beast Children. Yes I love all of you. All of you. Especially Bandit Stoof. And I love you Jordan. Anything you want to toss in there big guy? Check out Mission Ignition and um play Cruelty

[00:19:39] Squad that's kind of it. Do it. You should ask uh you should go email the guy who made Cruelty Squad and see if he'll be on the show. He's just like this uh very strange Finnish guy I don't know.

[00:19:49] We have one Finnish person on the discord so I'm sure they'd love the representation. All right well thanks so much for listening tune in next Monday for our full episode on Icehead Kill.

[00:19:58] Yeah this has been Jordan. This has been David. And you've been listening to Shut Up and Floppy David Say. Keep on flopping floppers. Bye. Bye.