#94 Smoky B.B.(Ft. YouTuber Foxcade)

[00:00:00] Let's go so far, let's go so far, let's go so far.

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[00:00:21] on flop and welcome to this episode of Shonen Flop where we talk about manga in Shonen Jump

[00:00:24] that didn't make it big.

[00:00:25] I'm David.

[00:00:26] I'm Jordan. into the game because it's too complicated for them. Oh, you mean how it went from like two lines to like three paragraphs for card? Yeah. Well, it's also I remember I was a comic con and I like asked a judge and I was like, how do like link summons and pendulums and he starts describing and he just like he's like, wait, how much time do you have? And I was like, I don't know, like two minutes. He's like, I don't have enough time to explain it.

[00:01:40] Do you have time for a seminar?

[00:01:43] He just kind of gave up.

[00:01:44] He was like, fuck me.

[00:01:45] I don't know how I explained this in less than 10 minutes.

[00:01:46] And I was like, what has happened to this game? and as a rank and then you have to have all these like various rules to factor in all these like different nuances and that makes it very frustrating for anyone who's like wait why does this card work on Stardust Dragon but it doesn't work on Utopian and it's like oh well this is because of Dada Dada and then every edition thereafter had the same problem of it's got all these weird

[00:03:00] semantical nuances that are really frustrating for someone that doesn't already know about them Banashi, not Akane Banashi, it is Kikaibanashi, Hanasaka Ikyu. In 2011, it also ran for 15 chapters in two volumes in Weekly Shonen Jump with Yuya Kawada. It's about a clever monk who engages in games of wits. The artist for this series is Yuya Kawada, just like his previous manga. Seems

[00:04:22] like these guys next chapter episode.

[00:05:44] Yeah.

[00:05:45] It's like that except nothing resets.

[00:06:44] Yeah, I think we all can say like no hesitation. I just assumed that was the actual name of a manga

[00:06:48] Yeah, that does sound like a manga that was an ongoing manga I would a hundred percent believe you like not even a second guess. Oh, yeah

[00:06:53] That should be simply says hey do you remember earlier when you read about this golden future cup winning failure

[00:06:59] This is still that for those who don't know there's like a curse like you know And yeah, this series started at the same time as Diadro Nanoe who made the last Sayuki, which is also an episode and is not one of the worst things we have ever read at all But one of the more forgettable ones with very good art So it can be be though it went for 15 chapters, two volumes just like this guy's previous work Anyway, fuck that let's get into the plot

[00:08:20] So Miyaka's a show up to a baseball field only to find a guy sleeping on the mound

[00:08:24] His name is Enjiro and while smoking a cigarette He has a tummy ache. He says it many times, so I must make sure that you know this. He does this using his special smoky style of pitching, in which he lets go of the ball in a strange way where people can't tell when the ball is leaving, because as this mentions once or twice, just like comedy, the most important part

[00:09:40] of hitting a baseball is timing.

[00:09:43] Kamado then offers to pay him 5 million yen per game

[00:09:46] until he gets enough money to pay off his debt picture who hates Endro for being paid to play and talks to an invisible snake ghost. As Kamado's dad tells her that he wants to kill himself for fucking up the school so bad. This is a great thing to tell your daughter by the way. Because that also implies to her that he might kill himself if she fucks this up. Because he's like the only reason I didn't kill myself is because it wasn't going to help the school.

[00:11:00] So what happens if she fucks up and doesn't save the school?

[00:11:03] Like, fuck it, great.

[00:11:04] That good, good, just some good DADDING right there.

[00:11:07] No pressure. Simply destroying the first team in their tournament, the next round is against Hote, a team that wrecked them last year and demoralized the shadow to them. The coach doesn't want Andrew to play because he doesn't want his spirit to be crushed, so he gets Kizato to play in the first inning, who fucks up and gives up 6 runs, but calms his nerves. Andrew gets the coach to put him in.

[00:12:20] You think that fucking up that bad would not help your trauma, it would like make it

[00:12:26] worse? I was thinking it was 20 chapters. Yeah, me too. So I got to the end of 15 and it was just like, what? It's over? What the fuck? This is just like when we read Demons Plan, where Maxie B, who is like our manga researcher, had to be like, Hey, just let's up. Yes, that is actually the ending. The author just kind of quit. And it just ended. The difference is that Demons Plan didn't end.

[00:13:40] It just stopped.

[00:13:41] Whereas here there is an ending.

[00:13:43] It's just suddenly three has a rule for this. I appreciated that because I feel like it would have been bullshit if he was also of an amazing batter. Yeah, you want to give like a downside to whatever your character is really good at. Imagine if he was just like mid at batting. Yeah, it's unnot worthy is batting.

[00:15:00] I think that honestly went the funniest thing.

[00:15:02] That is kind of what they say.

[00:15:03] I don't know.

[00:15:04] He's just kind of bad and he wouldn't get picked by Brad Pitt for Moneyball is basically

[00:15:08] what I'm doing a bit. Fuck off. Because he doesn't do anything! Yeah, he does absolutely nothing. He's fucking nothing in this series. He is like he's completely useless. I mean that's just all of these bad series always do that where they only have the time to develop the main character

[00:16:24] Yeah

[00:16:25] And then they just don't really give what else had Fox. Is there anything you think that's worth saying about her? No, we get introduced to her in the first couple chapters and you think she's gonna be around a lot more and then she just kind of disappears for a giant chunk and it's applied because she's off doing more recruiting

[00:17:41] which I think was implying that later down the line

[00:17:44] they might add more characters onto the team

[00:17:46] but that obviously goes nowhere. and then probably by the end of the series, they're gonna be good friends and, you know, they're kind of going that direction, but when he's introduced, he's an asshole. Yeah, like a comically asshole-ish guy, even though I actually sympathize with him a little bit. He's like pissed that, and Jiro is getting paid to play, and like, you know, not knowing his story.

[00:19:01] Paid and coming in to take his spot.

[00:19:04] Yeah, I actually kind of understand why he's pissed.

[00:19:08] Yeah, that's why he's like, he's an asshole, some fouls why don't we get into why it failed so fox as you are not a failure can you tell us a little bit about this what you think this series didn't do so what is our what is segment compliment but it's so mean you know as an expert in failure our guest yes no no the place and they felt backwards sometimes. One of the ones is like we posted in the chat when we were talking about it. The one to blame MI is something someone says and it's like that's very much supposed to be I'm the one to blame,

[00:21:41] but just nobody caught that in the like clean up stage or this might be's so confused with the main character. The Captain, the main character, his friend the catcher? Yeah, they have five good designs that they just repeat. Yeah, there are at least three people in this manga that you could describe as, oh, he's an anime guy with messy black hair.

[00:23:00] Yeah.

[00:23:01] And there are so many times where I'm just like, wait, which one's that?

[00:23:04] It's something that I'm curious if it would there were where it's like four or five pages of every chapter was just like people reacting to baseball things?

[00:24:20] Yeah.

[00:24:21] I was like when the fuck are they going to actually play baseball in this manga?

[00:24:24] That was an issue.

[00:24:25] There wasn't like a lot of are they on the like Mount Rushmore of sports manga type thing? Yeah. I just want to say the thing I kept coming back to is does this make me interested in the sport itself? Because all those other ones I've read it and I'm like, oh man, that'd be so cool to play the sport.

[00:25:41] Oh man, I can envision myself doing this.

[00:25:44] Like I got into boxing partially because I really liked Haji Minh O'Epo. that there's this old billionaire who's just gonna give the winner of this tournament all his money. That's the final one. That's like the last one they go with. Or even just um, Enduro's like payment where it's like, oh yeah, just play with us. We'll pay you 5 million each time too. We're only gonna pay you if you win the Nationals, which is like a huge change to the

[00:27:00] contract and just total bullshit. Like, come on with this series the the reason why the main character is being involved in this sports thing

[00:28:24] It's like okay, so they need to win this big tournament, you know, that's a classic sports

[00:29:25] like, this is my life that I'm kind of stuck with. I wish I could play baseball, but I have to work for my family. Like, I don't want to be a burden. And you go, Oh, fuck, like, I understand that

[00:29:29] feeling that want to not be a burden and to help your family come out of this situation. And then

[00:29:36] when he gets the solution of, Oh, if you win this baseball tournament, you can bring your family

[00:29:40] out of this crushing debt. And it's like, Oh, okay, this, he's able to's in a few panels before that. I must have completely forgot that. That was not her first appearance, but that's how little she mattered. Same with everyone else on the baseball team. Like baseball's a very easy sport where nine people is a reasonable number to still have a lot of personality and moments. That's why baseball seems like a really good sport for a sports manga, because it's not so at large and it's overwhelming, you know?

[00:31:01] Yeah.

[00:31:01] Yeah, I do want to respond to Fox's pointing out

[00:31:05] that there's like no ethos here.

[00:31:07] There is a brief style shot to be like, oh, look at how cool my guy is. The one that really struck me was when him

[00:32:20] and the other pitcher are kind of having a face off.

[00:32:24] And then you see a shot of him covered in smoke. So it's interesting that a different sports funk can use the same plot point. But yeah, I think he totally owns this situation, which is great. He doesn't really try to sugarcoat it. I mean, he's like, he keeps it private, but he's not like, oh, I love baseball. You know, I'm ignoring this terrible heat. genuinely seems like someone has an extremely terrible life outside of when he's playing baseball, which he can't really enjoy as well because of how much pressure it is for him to perform. I also think in a shitty or manga,

[00:33:41] they would have had a scene where

[00:33:43] Enduro turns down the five million

[00:33:45] because the heart of the game,

[00:33:46] that's no it's like, oh, cool. And like that nine out game was like a really good setup

[00:35:01] to introduce the team members,

[00:35:02] which to its credit at least got the ball moving on that.

[00:35:06] Cause you know, it's not going to introduce say that I really appreciate they still lost that game when he came in. So it was, which really sold the whole just because you're an ace doesn't. It's a team sport. You can't be the only reason you can't do a no-hater every game. And that was an offering where I was like, I really hope they still lose this game regardless. So this offer was really good at reading my mind of what he should be doing. So I really appreciate him rewriting the series based on what I think would have been in defense.

[00:36:21] It gave a good like little thesis for if the things that I was thinking of is that just like, why are they in this debt? Who are they in this debt too? I think it's kind of implied they're in the Yakuza, but like I would have liked to have seen them really approach that more and kind of make the debt more important. Like we had the Yakuza presence in the first chapter, I would have liked to have seen them

[00:37:40] a little bit more, like have a little bit more conflict there.

[00:37:44] Like maybe the team has to deal with like the Yakuza showing up trying to sabotage them Yeah, I was probably gambling his parents or something, but again, I don't know. And yeah, I agree. It would have been cool if it or it would have been more interesting if it partially was Enjiro's fault or he at least viewed it as his fault, so he had some kind of guilt there. You know, it is reasonable to want to help your family, but it could be more.

[00:39:01] And the series might have gone there, but it didn't.

[00:39:03] It didn't in what we had.

[00:39:04] I also think something I would have done is leads that's like okay they go to the high school division they want to join the team and then they meet their seniors and they go okay we're gonna have like a um two versus two match between all the juniors and you guys need to like fucking get better team teammanship

[00:40:21] uh yeah get your shit worked out and it's like set out going, I want to have a 80s style save the rec center baseball tournament manga, but he just he couldn't figure out how to do that. And yeah, he kept realizing shit, that wasn't good enough. Let me change it. Shit, that wasn't good enough either.

[00:41:41] I am curious about, and this is not like a Miss Lane spot, so let's dive into there. So my thing, this stood out to me, is the chairman looks exactly like the chairman from prison school. So if people are unaware, that's that famous scene where it's like a bunch of kids go to prison school and the chairman is really obsessed with women's asses and he challenges

[00:43:04] the mean character to say boobs or butts and just be the worst assholes the biggest douchebags ever Like unequivocally what the fuck is this guy's problem? I don't know And then fox did you have any miscellaneous fuck? Oh one really good scene is the way it was presented is when

[00:45:26] There are so many jokes and parodies about that specific anime all throughout Kadikuman. And that's how I know it exists.

[00:45:28] I'm more of an ultimate muscle kid myself.

[00:45:31] Yeah, yeah.

[00:45:32] Aw, hell yeah.

[00:45:33] And then before we move to next session, I just read awesome wonderful notes from Axie

[00:45:37] Bee who says, I, that is the same Maxie Bee researcher and trivia monkey, once wrote

[00:45:41] a multi-part history of baseball and weekly show and jump, declaring this beacon of hope

[00:45:45] for the genre moving forward.

[00:45:46] Didn't work out, did it?

[00:45:48] Nah, sorry. But we couldn't agree with that on that. You know we can come together on good take He's got a good take on geckos reading some sex for summers from the community from Tucker Rub a mom mago will bomb maxi B a head first slide in a second cancellation and these island only you can prevent cancellations Smokey the bear Jimmy shamps so not the Bert Reynolds movie. Oh, you're gonna love our cover art

[00:47:04] God that was like Jordan. I have the dumbest idea for cover ever and he was like let's do it chicken Well, it says you boots me. I'll turn it for the modern gang Jordan, how about you? Wait, how is this going to work? Oh, so you're going to give me a summary. That's six words. No, David, that was my sixth word summary. Get the fucking what? No way. I couldn't tell. Yeah, because how the fuck is how are they going to pay off the fucking debt with this way? What the fuck is happening?

[00:48:24] Yeah. And then mine was walked plot, aina grandslam. That's pretty good. Yeah.

[00:49:41] I thought that one was good. I guess it was. Yeah, that's such an interesting story. Yeah. Yeah. And then how about you, Fox? What is your recommendation? Just because I referenced it so many times and I've very slimmed in rereading some of it, I Shell 21 is still a banger of a series. If you need something that's a little bit more easily accessible, I'm pretty sure High Q is still on Netflix.

[00:49:44] So that'd be the other option.

[00:49:45] I think that's a great, I love I-Shield.

[00:49:47] I reread it.

[00:49:47] It holds up. I'm a little fulfilled for guests, so sorry for a little rusty, but I hadn't. We had an absolute blast. Where can everyone find all the amazing things you do? For right now, I mostly just do my work on YouTube. I post like a large essay type video every few months so you can find me on YouTube at Foxgate. You can find me on Twitter at SuperFoxCade and if I ever get the inspiration to, you

[00:51:00] can find me on Twitch for the under the same name.

[00:51:04] It's everything's under FoxCade.

[00:51:05] You can easily find me there.

[00:51:06] It's a cascade of FoxCade.

[00:51:08] Exactly. context, my actual birthday is December 31st. Oh, that is easy to remember. Yes. I also need to give props and rely on for the awesome cover. Find her online at Lylemer and Nudge Up for being our generous art benefactor. Thank you Dylan for assistance with editing. You'll find this podcast AMA out of context at www.amincontex.com. Thanks to Tucker and Maxie B for assistance with pronunciation, translation, and other miscellaneous research. Find us on X at Shonen Flopcast, Tumblr's Shonen Dash Flop, our website ShonenFlop.com,

[00:52:23] or also on Spotify, iTunes, YouTube, or wherever else you get your podcast.

[00:52:26] Come join the Shonen Flop Discord, so dogs aren't normally allowed. So I brought her down and it was like the queen visiting where she did like a drive by saying hi to everybody for like 10 minutes.

[00:53:40] We have Chris, Eva, Karate Chopsticks, Matt, T, and Trevor Schechner.

[00:53:44] Moving on down to the King of the Forest, we have 090Z Bandit Stuf.

[00:53:47] My girlfriend.