Patreon Unlocked: We Talk Giant Robots with Comic Book Artist Zander Canon, Getter Robo Go

[00:00:00] Hello our wonderful patrons! Thank you for all of your support. I'm David. I'm Jordan! This episode we are talking about the first two volumes of Getter Robo Go and we are joined by our guest Zander Canon. Zander, thank you so much for coming back. You are a ton of fun on Monster Tamer Girls and I am very glad that what we read with you this time was a lot better than Monster Tamer Girls. Thanks for having me you guys. It's been, I mean, obviously Monster Tamer Girls was like a highlight, but you're right, this one's even better.

[00:00:29] I mean, you know, it's hard to top Monster Tamer Girls, but I actually agree. I think this edges it out a little bit. Yeah. So, Zander, for people who may not have listened to that first episode, can you tell us a little bit about yourself? My name is Zander Canon. I've been a comic book artist for, let's see, it'll be 32 years this spring. Whoa. So, yeah, I've worked on comics for every comic book company. I worked on, most people know me from working on Top Ten, which I did with Alan Moore and Gene Ha.

[00:00:58] And also on Kaiju Max, which is my latest work. And that is a series from Oni Press about a prison for giant monsters in which they form gangs and deal drugs and kill each other sometimes. So, Zander, as one naturally wants to know if you were a kaiju, what do you think you'd be sent to Kaiju Max for? First of all, like, I could just be going about my business and they'd get me for stomping. Ha ha. Stomping while kaiju? Yeah, general stomping. Oh, jeez, man.

[00:01:24] I think I would also be like, you know, eating nuclear waste and stuff. Just that kind of stuff. I would definitely be into that stuff. So, cleaning up the environment, doing an objectively good thing. Oh, absolutely. I mean, we live in a society, bottom text, right? Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, I mean, I would probably eat the nuclear waste and then I'd poop out something that was like 10 times worse. So, I don't know. They're probably right. You just poop explosions. Yeah.

[00:01:52] I'm just writing a note that says kaiju breakdancing question mark. And I'm sure I'll find that sticky note in like three weeks and wonder what the fuck the point, what I was trying to say what that was. Yeah. I mean, I will probably write a sticky note that says kaiju breakdancing exclamation point. Oh, there we go. And you can hear in the warm body of R.A. Given Xander a potentially Eisner winning award idea already. If not Eisner winning, definitely million dollar idea. Yeah, hell yeah. All right. This is why I love having returning guests.

[00:02:21] You're just so much fun to talk about that it's hard not to get on topic, but we must. So, let's get into the manga details where Jordan's going to tell us a little bit about this series. Yeah. Okay. So, this is Get A Robo Go. It's written and drawn by Kenny Shikawa. So, interesting thing. I mentioned this when we did the first Get A Robo. This was like it was came up. Oh my God. How am I phrasing? Go Nagai came up with this idea basically. But he had Kenny Shikawa write it.

[00:02:47] And then after Kenny Shikawa wrote the original Get A Robo and the sequel Get A Robo G, he took like a 15 year break and then came back to Get A Robo. And his art style had just improved drastically in that time. Yeah. And then Jordan, my understanding is this actually isn't the immediate sequel. There's another series between Get A Robo and Get A Robo Go. Is that right? So, it's a prequel to this series. Oh, so chronological. So, we are reading covering it in release order.

[00:03:17] Yes. Okay. Yeah. So, after Get A Robo G, actually there is no you're right. There is a series between the first Get A Robo that we read and Get A Robo Go called Get A Robo G that we haven't covered. So, you're right. And then after this, there was Shin Get A Robo, which was in between those two, but he wrote it after. Oh, I thought each Get A Robo starts just spelling out a word. Yeah. And then Xander, I know that you're no stranger to having giant robots in your work. Was Get A Robo an inspiration at all for you?

[00:03:47] No, I hadn't. I mean, I had seen. Imagine if we just cut it like that. That's it. Just that no further follow up. No. Bye. Nope. Nope. That's it. It's like, you know, I look at some of the various designs and I'm like, oh yeah, like that had kind of permeated into things or like people had copied it and I'd kind of gotten that. But I mean, at a certain point, you're like, I've looked at all the Japanese robots I'm going to look at. Like it would have been nice to have put it to have like made a specific, you know, background, you know, character like that.

[00:04:15] But again, it's like you look at enough Gundams and you're kind of like, I'm done here. Like my work is done. Well, fun fact, Xander. Get A Robo is the first series to have robots that combine. Oh. Yeah. Literally a toy executive was like, wait, here's how we can sell multiple toys. Literally. And he was very right. Yeah. And the combining mechanism was inspired by a car crash the artist saw. Oh God. They were literally like, cause no robots had ever combined before.

[00:04:43] So like, how are we going to make these three robots combined together? And then they were just hanging out one day and saw a fender bender between three cars and like, what if they just crash into each other? Yeah. And then Jordan, can you finish telling us about this series? So this ran from February 11th, 1991 to January 27th, 1992. 28 chapters, seven volumes. But it's a miniseries, you know? Trust me, this series was not canceled for not being popular. I don't know if I can tell seven volumes of miniseries.

[00:05:12] Yeah, that's fair. Yeah. I keep, I keep looking at this and it's like, man, this is, this is a run that any American cartoonist would be thrilled to have, you know? Yeah. Like this would be like a, this would be like a career making move. You know what? It's funny because like I say 28 chapters, but I have to remind myself these chapters, each one is like the equivalent of 10 chapters. Yeah. Like in terms of length for a normal manga. Well, I think they just combined a bunch into the volume. But how did they combine? They crashed into each other.

[00:05:41] And we're going to crash into our plot summary. So yeah. Much like Get a Robo, it comes in three parts that form together. Yes. Beautiful. Nice work, David, right? Wonderful, David. Goichumanji is an extremely athletic kid who nevertheless intentionally underperforms the track and field tryouts, but he can't fool Hayato from the original Get a Robo series and his samurai friend Sho, who want to recruit him to pilot the new big robot. That night he's attacked by a big Frankenstein cyborg zombie and manages to defeat it before being rescued by Hayato and get her from a giant metal beast.

[00:06:10] The metal beasts are under control by the evil Dr. Rando or maybe Lando, depending on your translation. Popcorn Jordan. Go wakes up on a helicopter in the middle of a military assault on an evil cyborg zombie hospital. Whoa. I love that. Just that aside. I love that they're fighting cyborg zombies. Yeah, that's fantastic. Go and Sho managed to commandeer a metal beast before again being saved by Get Go watch his getter destroy a metal beast. It thinks it's the coolest thing ever, which he's right about.

[00:06:40] Back at the base, Go and Sho trained to pilot Getter, but the third pilot is deeply traumatized and is quickly swapped for Guy, a mechanic who loves and believes in Get a Robo. Professor Rando issues a declaration that he's got the best army in history. He's going to conquer the world when Sho notices that her dead brother is in the video. Hayato explains to Go how he used to work with Rando at a research facility, but turned on him when he found out that Rando was going to turn everybody into robot zombies because

[00:07:08] it turns out really loves doing that. In fact, it looks like he did that exact thing to Sho's brother. Popcorn David. I'm just imagining that no matter what he tries to do, it just turns into a robot zombie. It's like, God damn it. Another one. He's assembling a jigsaw puzzle and it still ends up being a robot zombie. Yeah. Ah, again. All right. Rando drops the multiple megaton bombs across Japan, threatening to blow them up if Japan doesn't surrender and give up Getter.

[00:07:34] Go, Sho, and Guy pretend to betray the country by stealing Getter and going to Alaska to help America fight Rando. When they arrive, they find that there aren't many survivors, but manage to save a few natives and soldiers. They try and call Hayato to pick them up while Getter protects them from metal beasts. Low on energy and with Sho badly injured, Go prepares to self-destruct Getter when suddenly an American Transformer appears and saves them. The robot, the Stilva, is piloted by John Rembrandt and Schwartz, who also is extremely racist towards Japanese people.

[00:08:03] Huge racist. Not just Japanese people, but you know, that's not in this volume. I'm just saying. Well, he ranks them. Yeah. I read a little ahead and then he ranks the racists, which is really cool. A really, a really cool racist guy. Yeah. They're brought to a nearby base where the survivors are waiting for them along with their old mechanic squad from Japan. And I just love the American names. And I appreciate the series being brave enough to take on racism in America. Yeah. I thought that was interesting.

[00:08:32] And it's like, man, nobody, you would think that for a story like this, that they would be like, he's racist for a while, but then they like change his mind and he's like, then he's perfectly fine. But it's like, man, they really kept going on that. He just is a real jerk about it. We'll get into more of the characters, but all the bad guys are very unapologetically evil at all times in this. No, I mean, the bad guy is literally a mad scientist who wants to take over the world. And he threatens people with bombs. I think mad scientists are having a moment like in the real world now, like you're like,

[00:09:00] oh yeah, like people really do go like, ah, the short sighted, you know, you know, scientific community would never let me do this unethical thing or whatever. And it's like, yeah, oh, wow. They really exist. That's kind of, huh. And then Xander, do you mind telling us about the main character go? Yeah. I mean, it's funny. Cause it's like, he's kind of like every shonen protagonist where it's like, you know, yeah. Like an underachiever, like he probably eats a lot. I mean, it was kind of funny that like the whole first chapter was, was kind of like a

[00:09:28] high school drama, you know, like a high school sports drama. And his coach seemed to have like a lot more personality than you would expect from somebody. And then, you know, who's just going to be thrown away or whatever. I thought that was kind of, that was kind of funny. I love series where like it starts and you feel like you're intruding on another manga. Right, right, right. Right. It was funny. Cause it's like, and then when they're like, oh yeah, all that stuff. We're yeah. Now we're just going to be like up in the clouds, piloting a flying robot and stuff like, Oh, okay. Whatever you say.

[00:09:56] There's that brief moment where he's like, like when the literal cyborg zombie Frankenstein shows up, he's like, are you from the pimp? I almost killed. Are you from the, what about the time I, I pissed off the Yakuza? Yeah. Like he did seem to have a lot of backstory about like, you know, like fights that he gets into or like, you know, uh, noble fights that he gets into. Yeah. No, you're right. He is the, um, he is the, uh, the anime character that is like the Japanese ruffian who pisses

[00:10:25] off all the gangs, but he's just way stronger than everybody else. Yeah. And he's like, ah, I just want to barely be in the Olympics. Yeah. Because remember he like comes in third place on purpose and he tells his coach, well, it still qualifies. Yeah. That was so strange. I mean, yeah, the characters in this series are strange. They don't really explain why. No. No. Like I was expecting it to be like, almost like, um, you know, like from the Incredibles where dash intentionally comes in, comes in second place because he doesn't want people to realize he has like superpowers.

[00:10:55] I thought it was more like his coach bet a ton on him coming in first and he wanted to piss his coach off. See, that would make more sense. I don't, I wish they said that. Yeah. Cause his coach seemed like a pretty shitty guy. Yeah. All right. But you know who isn't shitty is show. So Jordan, can you tell us about our lady samurai? So show's pretty cool. Yeah. She's, um, she's, uh, a character, which is interesting because so we read the first series

[00:11:21] and, uh, there is a, uh, female character in that whose character I would describe as a girl. I think that would be her character. Excuse me. Woman. Woman. I'm sorry. Show on the other hand is like really competent. She is like, um, you know, like she's stoic. Yeah. She's really doesn't tell. No. And her first appearance, she cuts goes pants. So they fall off and he pees himself. Such a chestnut of what was the seventies.

[00:11:49] Well, this is nineties or sorry. Of, of like late or early nineties comedy. Yeah. Oh my God. Yeah. And then I'll talk about Jen. So he is, uh, he's back from the OG, which is pretty cool. And I just love how he has scars that only show up when he's stressed or plot convenient. Yeah. And he's like dying. I think it is like his scars there. They're worried that his scars will reopen or like he has additional injuries from when he got the scars.

[00:12:18] It's like, you know how I got these scars. Well, they're still there, I guess. And yeah, he's very, he's very like, um, pragmatic. Did they ever explain what happened to the other guy? Cause I know what's his name died. Uh, no, he shows up again. Oh, he does. Okay. Like without spoiling it, other stuff they do. They, they go into it. Don't worry. Yeah. And then he's got no mercy. I do love that politician line. Yeah. So he's actually a great sign that the writing is stronger, even if it's not perfect, where

[00:12:45] he does actually feel more like a fully flesh character in this than his entire run through of the original series. Yeah. In the original series, Xander, he was like, so he first showed up as like this psychopath, basically. And that like literally he was leading. He had a gang of, uh, He was like trying to kidnap people and stuff. So he had taken over a high school, basically his own high school. And he turned all the students into, um, terrorists who were going to kill the prime minister. Great idea.

[00:13:15] Yeah. And when they tried to turn against him, uh, he would rip their faces off. Wow. Yeah. It's really fucked up. It's fucking brutal. And so this is the same guy. And this is like, this is not a remake. This is a, this is a sequel. Throughout the series. They polish this guy a lot and get rid of all the weird backstory for him to get him to the state. Like the end state version of Jin is not too different than the Jin of this, but the very

[00:13:43] first appearance of Jin is completely different than this character. It's I mean, this is all kind of funny because my son's name is Jin. Oh, Jin Naruto. Yeah. Yeah. Well, not that one. Oh, good. That's an inside Shonen Flop joke. Yeah. Right. I, which I assume our patrons probably are aware of if they're paying to listen to this episode. Yeah. Oh my God. It's, it's a whole thing. And then Xander, can you tell us about guy? Kind of an interesting character to be like, well, it's, it's funny.

[00:14:11] Cause when he first shows up, I'm like, Oh great. So the mechanic loves, you know, who basically like loves this robot. And, and that's, you know, what a cool sort of support character. I liked that. There's this, like this sort of like bigger cast of characters besides the pilots. And then like instantly, Oh, the, the third pilot leaves or whatever. And then the guy is like, Oh, I'll pilot it. Or he reluctantly says that he'll pilot it. Yeah. It's fun to have like, you know, somebody who's just in it for the love of the game. Instead of like, you know, I have to fight for justice or I have to do this.

[00:14:40] He's like, no, I just like, you know, I just like the robot part. Like that's the best part. Pilots get her. He has a piling get her. Not because he's like, go and show it's like, Oh, they are like the, they have like the best reaction time. And they're like, they, they like fit all the, uh, they're, oh man, what am I trying to think of? They're like qualified. Yeah. They're qualified in a physical way. Whereas a guy, it's just like, nah, he just understands get her better than anybody out here.

[00:15:08] So like, shit, why, why shouldn't he pilot it? Yeah. It also helps that he's very large and strong, which is, it's exactly the same character traits of the original series. Yeah. The original series, there was a guy named Musashi. It was very, it's a similar thing, except Musashi was not very smart and guy is. That's the big difference. Yeah. And the opposite though, of not being smart is Professor Lando, the big bad. His motivation is question mark. He just seems to be evil. His motivation is he wants to take over the world. David. I don't want to cure cancer.

[00:15:38] I just, I would have turned people into dinosaurs. That dude absolutely would work for him. Yeah. By the way, Xander in the original series, the enemies that they were fighting were hyper evolved dinosaurs. Oh, heck yeah. And then demons too, for some reason. Yeah. And then demons showed up and then in the, in like the series after that, they fought Atlanteans. So like, oh yeah, they show up in the last chapter and like we're here too. And then the demons are like, this is too much. We're leaving. Yeah. Wow.

[00:16:08] Amazing. That is amazing. Get a robot rules. God. Xander, do you feel it's in vogue now that you can just write villains that are just kind of shitty people? Like you don't have to explain it. You're just like, ah, he just was kind of a fucked up person all the way through. Or do you still feel like that's like lazy writing to make someone just be evil for the sake of evil. Like it was back in the day. I think it's just a pendulum that's swinging back. Like I feel like we had this time where we had to explain everybody's motivation. But then I think that what happened is that we then ended up with all of these characters

[00:16:35] who were like, you know, we're on these redemption arcs, you know, and all these long running shows or comics. And then all of a sudden, like they're like, it's like, wait a second. This like sexy man that everybody loves, like bombed an orphanage or whatever in like the first episode. Vegeta has killed million billions of people. Vegeta. Yes, that's that's the character I always think of where he he has. He's he's killed billions of people. And he's like, ah, he's a good guy now. Yeah, I think that maybe people are like, you know what, maybe we need to make it a little

[00:17:05] bit more clear that our bad guys are bad and our good guys are good. But who knows? It probably won't last forever. That was a big thing in one piece for the bad guy of an arc where they were like, oh, you're a fish man. You hate humans. You must have a good reason. He's like, nope, I'm just really racist. That was actually his motivation. I mean, sometimes that when you're there for the fights, that's what you want. Exactly. You're like, I want this person to I want to want this person to die. Yes. And I want to talk about where I feel this could have improved on the two chat on the two volumes I read.

[00:17:34] So let's get into that. So I think we talked about it a bit. Just almost every single character is essentially a cardboard cutout. They actually tried a little bit more, but this is going from like a failure to like a D plus in terms of writing quality of these characters. Yeah, I mean, it's very clear that like these characters exist to push the plot forward and there's not really much more depth there. Mm hmm. And I think, you know, it's a fighting robot thing. I'm not I'm not asking for people to be that deep, but I thought it was kind of funny that

[00:18:01] well, like I said about the coach, like the coach has this obsession, you know, with like don't waste your youth and stuff like that. And it's like, well, that's sort of like a funny philosophical point to take for this background character. So surely all of these main characters are going to have like a thing that they're focused on. But it's like now they don't really other than guy who's just like, I really like I really like this robot. But yeah, like show they hadn't figured out how to make a character that's stoic, but still interesting yet. Yeah. Yeah. And then also this kind of like feels like it's I don't know if you guys have heard of

[00:18:30] this, but it's like eating all icing, but no cake where it's like you need the spot like the cake to appreciate the icing. This is just action fighting and there's absolutely no scaffolding in this plot to make it feel like these characters actually exist to do anything except for have fights against fucking robot zombies, which is cool. But it's also just like you can only eat so much icing before you get a tummy ache. I mean, this is this is coming from an art perspective. I mean, the art's gorgeous, but it's also like when they get the opportunity to have

[00:18:56] like a splash page and it's like a big shot of, you know, of the robot or an enemy or whatever. I feel like it's just sort of like he'll be just sort of like emerging from flames or clouds and stuff like that. But there isn't really ever a sense of like, oh, he's standing on the ground and we're seeing the scale of how this of how like it. There isn't really like the context to sort of see like how tall is this robot or how does this robot sort of interact with the world or any of that stuff? It really was.

[00:19:23] There was never really sort of like a sense for how that robot exists in context. And same thing. Like, how does this action exist in the context of the world? I mean, I think that there's some kind of interesting sort of plot threads to be like, oh, they you know, they fled Japan to sort of make it seem like that they were stealing the robot so that the bad guys wouldn't get it. And, you know, like, oh, there's some dishonor that comes with that, but it's practical and all that stuff. But yeah, I felt like there was a lot of like there was a lot of lack of context, I guess. Yeah.

[00:19:52] If you think too much about and I was like intentional, I can't think too hard about the plot of the series or it's instantly going to fall apart. The plot in this series gets it's gets convoluted. It's kind of hard to follow sometimes like you did say in the original they fought dinosaur people and then literal demons show up and then the Atlanteans show up in like the last half of the last chapter. Yeah. Oh, wait till time travel shows up, David. Oh God. And then I think there's clones and shit too. Awesome.

[00:20:19] Yeah, there's some crazy shit that happens. Oh man. Yeah. We haven't even gotten to the into the cosmic horror. Yeah. And then Xander, do you feel like there's any issues you have with the series? We haven't brought up yet. It's gorgeous is the arts. I mean, I think that the storytelling, the visual storytelling in the fights is maybe a little vague. Yeah. You know, I'm just like, I'll kind of be like, what's happening here? I don't know. Like, it's pretty, probably pretty simple.

[00:20:43] It's probably what I'm guessing is happening, but it's, I don't feel like it's particularly like vivid, you know, like, oh, this monster, you know, this robot punch this monster and they, you know, in this order kind of thing. It's one of those things where sometimes I have to like, re like, look at a page a little bit to figure out exactly what's happening. Yeah. Yeah. And then I also want to say that it's like, they also take an awful long time to actually get to the robot fighting in this, like the, I think like the first like 50 or 60 pages, you don't really actually have any fighting.

[00:21:12] And it's like the entire first part of like, when is the robot showing up? And I know they did like a cold open with it. So, you know, which they've learned from the first one where, but I'm still like, this is supposed to be about robots fighting. And I haven't actually seen any robot fighting yet. You get teased a few times. You get some fights pretty early on, but it's, it's go versus the literal Frankenstein monster who shows up with machine guns. God, this is so ridiculous. Yeah, it's awesome. All right. It is awesome. And so how about that on that note? Let's get into what it does well.

[00:21:42] Yeah. So Xander, what's something that stood out to you or something you've really enjoyed while you're reading this? I really liked the texture of the art. Ooh. Ooh. You know, a lot of times Mago can be a little bit, a little bit light on the, on sort of the, the sort of ink lines and stuff like that. Like, like, uh, Monster Tamer Girls or something like that, where it's like, oh, there's a lot of, there's a lot of that sort of like specialized zip-a-tone or, uh, Letraset stuff. You know, like the, the grays for the flat gray. Whereas this is like, no man, we're going in on the cross-hatching.

[00:22:09] Those explosions are super, are super vivid and like look powerful. You know, like there's a lot of, um, even when they do do that sort of zip-a-tone, they, they, they go in with like a knife or whatever and they kind of like scrape away stuff so that it sort of glow or not glows, but like has a, you know, there's sort of like a light area here. It looks a little bit like, um, the robot is sort of weathered a little bit. I mean, I just feel like that. And Xander, Xander, real quick, could you explain what zip-a-tone is?

[00:22:34] It's basically a sticker sheet, a clear sticker sheet of, you know, equally spaced dots that basically creates a flat, a flat gray. Gotcha. You see that in manga all the time. And you see, you used to see it in American black and white comics and some, some color comics, but not that much. And then those dang computers. Yeah. I mean, the dang computers made it so much better and easier. It's too bad that you don't get to see it on originals anymore, but you used to see it on originals and it would be like, oh, and the glue made it, you know, sort of yellow and gross.

[00:23:04] So it's a, it's an improvement. Uh, but yeah, like I just, I am really sort of impressed with, you know, with Ishikawa or his, uh, or his assistants probably. I'm sure he has an explosion guy, you know, just doing the explosions every time. And it's like, whoever it is, they're doing an awesome job. Yeah. I will say in between the original Get a Robo and this, the original run of Get a Robo, uh, which includes G and this series, the job of mechanical designer became a thing.

[00:23:33] And by that, I mean like, um, if you read the original Get a Robo, they're like giant pill. They're, they're big pill robots. Yeah. You know, they're like, but in that time, like they started having a guy, guys whose entire jobs was to come up with designs of mechs that make sense. So you have like this huge improvement in like how interesting these mechs look. You can't overstate how cool these robots look, especially versus the original series. And the bad guys look cool too. Like they actually have different unique designs.

[00:24:02] They do turn into kind of generic giant monsters when they have to fight Getter and there's too many on screen. You know, you kind of lose frame rate, but it's still cool. Like the art is fantastic. Yeah. Yeah. And I think that there's a, it's cool to see how like, oh, okay. I mean, even just in the broadest sense, it's like, okay, this team has sort of like, they're based around spheres and you know, everything is sort of like bulbous. And this, this one is sort of like monster-like and has like more like claws. And this, this one is more like these sort of diamond shapes.

[00:24:29] Like there's a lot of really cool design work that's happening before the illustration even starts. I will say also like one of the things I really like about Ishikawa's art is like the expressiveness that he gets with the faces. Like, because it goes back and forth between being like cool and stoic and being really exaggerated and goofy. Yeah. Super kooky. Like it's, it's funny because it's like when they have these moments of where the people are talking to each other, you're like, is this a serious comic? Or is this like sort of goof? Just a goof. You know? Like.

[00:25:03] Then also speaking of jumping around, I do appreciate the series feels a bit more global now, like America coming into play. They talk about Europe in the evening where like the bad guy stretched himself too thin because he's on too many different battlefronts. And that was actually an interesting degree of the writing I wasn't expecting. So you can even see in the second volume, the writing actually improves quite a bit more than compared to the first in terms of it. Like that politician line is probably one of the best pieces of dialogue in this entire section or in what we read.

[00:25:28] You mean the one where like he runs in to talk to Hayato and he's like, Hayato, you got to do this. You got to do this thing. They're trying to take Getter. And he's like, go right now. I'm a politician. And he's like, then do what politicians do. Yeah. And then he shoots a gun in the air. And that says everything because it's still Getter Robo. Yeah. Also, I will say like, well, yes, the characters are kind of paper thin. It kind of works OK because this series is much more a military drama.

[00:25:56] It's got like a ton of moving parts. It's more about like this overarching battle or like this, this actual like these series of battles, this war that's happened and like the action that's going on. It's interesting when you have a story like that where you can only check in with people for a little bit because it's like, you know, because they're all they're all kind of being like shuttled from place to place to fight. And you can only get a little bit of character from them every now and then. Yeah. And I will also say, like, I do actually like while like, yeah, go.

[00:26:24] It's like he's not like that complicated or or like different. Interesting, I guess. They do show like relationships kind of build between the pilots that I think is interesting. You know, it is great that while show isn't much of a character, at least she's not like an overly sexualized character that exists just to be the token female. Right. There was only there was one line where it kind of where go makes is like, you should stay with me. I'll keep you warm or whatever. And it's like that didn't even seem completely out of character.

[00:26:53] And it also seemed like you're, you know, like usually when you when somebody sort of like a heel or, you know, a sort of a Lothario or whatever, you establish it right away. First scene, you know, and it's like I thought that was kind of funny that it's like it just kind of stuck it in later. Who cares? You know, felt like a joke because like shows show kind of smirks at him and calls him a dumbass. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But yeah, no, I mean, the action in this series is fucking awesome. Like it looks so cool.

[00:27:21] And like the stakes are legit. Yeah. Xander, we talk a lot about how like one of the things that happens a lot in the failed manga we cover is that like the main character will be recruited by this secret society or something. And they'll be like, you know what, man? Like like they'll be like weirdly nice to him. They'll be like, you know what, man? We can really use you, but it's up to you if you want to join us or not, which makes it seem like the thing they're dealing with isn't that big of a deal. Right.

[00:27:46] Whereas here it's just like, nah, man, we're going to get you to work with us and we're also going to test you. So if you die, it's like you weren't worth using it. Because they're like, this is so dangerous. And Hayato is like, if he dies in this, he wasn't ready. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That was he had a couple of lines like that where it's just like, yeah, like basically just sort of saying like if he dies, he dies. And, you know, that just proves that is that much more serious than we thought. Yeah. Exactly. Well, that's pretty, pretty metal, I guess. Yeah.

[00:28:15] The series is pretty metal. Yeah. The series also has a lot of places to go. So let's go into where we hope it goes from here, where Jordan will be quiet for about three to five minutes. Yeah. Because he's already read it. Because I know this, I've read this, this is the third time I've read this. So Xander, what do you think? What would you say if you were to guide this series for its remaining five volumes? What's like a big thing that you would hope it does?

[00:28:41] I really kind of like that it immediately sort of like gets things off, you know, off kilter where it's like, oh, okay. So that, you know, the setup that they have, they don't really have like an HQ that they can communicate with very well. And like all these things, like all of a sudden, all the things that were kind of set into place to make things easier are gone. And all of a sudden it's like, I mean, it's kind of like Voyager, you know, like Star Trek Voyager. They're like, they're off in the, you know, in the hinterlands or whatever. They don't know what's going on. And I think that that's kind of fun.

[00:29:08] It would be fun to keep that aspect of it and sort of, you know, have them continue to sort of fight, like have a reason that they can't return to base and kind of fight and like have to, I don't know, scavenge their equipment or, you know, resources and stuff. I think that would be, that would be fun. I think this series is really fun because I feel like it tips its toe in like a post-apocalyptic feel sometimes. And I honestly feel that was the direction to make this just feel like a really unique take.

[00:29:35] And it makes me wonder if there is like a post-apocalyptic mecha series that can scratch that itch. Because this is a cast of characters that everyone is scrappy that pilots it, but we don't see them forced to be scrappy enough for my take. Mm-hmm. I agree. That would be really, I think that'd be really fun to see. I always like that stuff like in, you know, the Millennium Falcon is always breaking down. That was always kind of fun. It's like, oh yeah, we got to bang this and we got to, you know, find these extra pieces.

[00:29:58] It's like, I mean, anything where you sort of feel like there's a cost to a cool thing that the characters can do, you know, like, oh yeah, we can fly, but it costs all of our fuel. So we got to make sure that we have enough fuel or we have to really be, you know, choosy about when we make the thing fly or that kind of stuff. So I think that that's kind of nice because it forces every, it forces the characters and the story to be choosy about like, you know, when they're going to do something cool. Yeah, I agree. Because that's the thing is like they get bailed out in this volume and I want to see them not get bailed out. Yeah.

[00:30:28] Yeah. And see what happens. Because we saw what happens in the original when that happens. I mean, I would hope that there would be a lot of stuff at the bad guy's lair too. Because I mean, you know I like a bad guy's lair. Like that's going to be, that's always going to be good. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We're not coming back from this guy's. Yeah. Break the tea glass. So though Xander, do you feel that the bad guy should have had more depth to them? Or are you fine with it being a Saturday morning cartoon where it's like Dr. Evil? I like that the one guy is just like, I'm an evil mad scientist. And I was like, great, that's all I need to know.

[00:30:58] But then the second guy is like, he's like, you know, he's just kind of waiting there. Like he's, I don't know. And it's like his skills or his abilities are unknown at this time. And I'm like, yeah, that's stuff. Like when you, when it's like, oh, there's some intrigue, but just like, just enough. Like it doesn't have to be a lot. Like there doesn't have to be anything weird. Just like, oh yeah, this guy, you know, has his own motivations. It's like, man, that's, that's, I think that's like chef's kiss of like a villain for this kind of story for, you know, where it's like, we don't need it.

[00:31:27] We don't need a whole backstory on what everybody's motivations are when it's mainly metal against flesh smashing things. I feel like the specific kind of story this is, this guy's a master at it, you know, like the specific, like you said, like where it's just like this simple kind of, you know, good guys versus bad guys, like metal versus flesh thing. Like now he knows exactly what he's doing. He's in his, he's in his element. You can tell that he's just like playing the hits, you know? Yeah. Yeah.

[00:31:55] I mean, it sounds like he'd been working on this stuff as an assistant, you know, or an assistant to an assistant for years and years and years. Oh yeah. Yeah. I agree. All right. And then though we are running a lot of time, so I think we're really excited about where their series will go, but we do have to get into some miscellaneous thoughts. Yeah. Jordan, what's a miscellaneous thought you haven't had a chance to bring up yet? So did they name Go after Gona Guy? I assume. I assume, right? What if they played Go during this, like the board game? Oh God. And the final boss is just, it's like the end of Hunter x Hunter's Chimera Ant where

[00:32:24] they're just playing Go at the end and they fall in love and die. I do have to say like, um, there's something just so fun and cool. I mentioned it earlier where it's just like, it's legitimately a mad scientist who creates cyborg zombies. Yeah. That's fucking awesome. Awesome. Yeah. That's, that's the best. And it's not like a parody. But they designed him enough where it's like, oh yeah, yeah. He looks like a, I mean, he looks, he kind of looks like a, you know, like an old man. He's got a big beard, but then he has like a cloak.

[00:32:54] I mean, you can't beat that. And they explained it's like eye patch because he got shot in the face by one of the characters. Oh yeah, yeah. That's right. Yeah. That's right. You know what? It's funny. It's funny. It's funny. It's funny. Yeah.

[00:33:24] Yeah. It was, it was Gatchaman and G-Force, but had a guy with like sort of like weird ears as like the villain. And that was the first. And you know, like they edited that for American release, but it was pretty close. And like, I remember at one point there was this thing that was like very clearly telegraphed that somebody had like, you know, somebody who had betrayed the bad guys then died to sort of like while trying to salvage things. And, you know, and I'm like five years old going, oh, somebody died on this show. Like I couldn't believe it.

[00:33:52] Like, I'm sure my parents were like, what's wrong with him? And I'm like, you know, I was like, I can't believe this happened. You know, when it was the most clearly telegraphed thing in the entire world, it was one of those things where it's like American TV, you know, cartoons would never do that in a million. But a Japanese one is like, yeah, absolutely. Well, I will say in the original series, like the original Kenny Shikawa wanted to kill off the main character towards the end. And then they're produced their production company because it was also running at the

[00:34:21] same time as the anime walked up to him. And they were like, no, you can't do that. Yeah, they're like, you can kill the fat one. You can kill the comic relief character. You can't kill the main character. No, I just think who who kills off a main character? Like, that's just that's just an own goal. You know, don't be doing that. Yeah. Oh, my God. But yeah. And then also, do you notice everyone has very pronounced uvula? You've you've you've you've you've you've. Yeah, I don't know. I just noticed in the art you can very clearly see them when anyone is talking. I didn't see that.

[00:34:51] That's kind of cool. And the artist uses like negative space. So he shades everything except for the evil in their mouth. I did notice that. Yeah. So it's like really well lit. Yeah. So it's just maybe he just really wanted to articulate it like nah, man. They are screaming there. Their mouths are open wide. All right. And that was if did anyone have any other miscellaneous thoughts? Man, there's so much I want to say that I can't. Too bad, Jordan. God damn it. Sucks to suck, baby. But it doesn't suck to get into our final verdict.

[00:35:21] So let's do that. Mm hmm. All right. Let's do our six word summaries. Mine was get a robo. Go to the polls. Don't forget to vote. Everyone listening. Yeah. Sorry, I couldn't help myself. It was all I could think of. I could think of a real one. How about you, Jordan? Giant robots fighting against cyborg zombies. That's a fact. I mean, shit, what do you want? Yeah. And then Xander. What's your? My six word summary is Mazinger Z versus Devilman comma pretty cool. Is that also your recommendation if you didn't like this? I guess.

[00:35:51] Yeah, sure. Yeah. So Jordan can't answer this. But Xander, would you keep reading this? Yeah, I would. I mean, I feel like sometimes it slides off my brain. Like it's just kind of like when they fight for nine pages in a row, you're kind of like, I'm not really sure what's happening. And I'm just going to kind of zip through this. But I feel like I like the characters. I like that. I like the art. I like how, you know, like really cool and crunchy these like the explosions are and like the cross hatching is. And I mean, just it looks awesome.

[00:36:19] So this is such a great series. I too. I think I don't know if I'll finish reading it right now because I did read a ton of it in a row, but I enjoyed it. And I think like I would read this weekly. Yeah. And David, I think I mentioned this to you last time. The main reason I had you read the first series was so that you would appreciate this series. Oh, I definitely do appreciate it for now that I've read the whole thing. Hell yeah. All right. And I probably will keep reading this fully again. There you go.

[00:36:48] I love reading this series. Oh, man. And I appreciate all of you. And Xander, thank you so much for joining us on this bonus episode. Thank you so much, man. Where can people get more of your awesome work in their life? You can find me on all the social medias. Most actually mostly on Blue Sky. But I'm also on Facebook and I'm also on Instagram. And I maintain an account on Twitter despite my, you know. It's mandated. Yeah, yeah.

[00:37:15] But also this spring, there will be a new series for me from Image Comics called Sleep. It's a horror series. It's a bit of a switch from Kaiju Max. But if you like my weird, you know, monster comics, those are available on wherever you can buy comics. Hell yeah. And I'm very excited to read Sleep. Sleep. Oh, I will too. Yeah. Sounds awesome. Yeah. We actually have on the Discord, we have a book club. So maybe we'll do that as one of our book club series. Awesome. Yeah. A few. How long is Sleep? It's going to be six issues initially.

[00:37:43] And, you know, it'll be more if, you know, if we're lucky, if, you know, the world allows it to happen. It'll probably be 12 issues if all told. Sweet. Then definitely let me check with the book club and when it's out, maybe that'd be great if you're okay coming, joining on the Discord and talking about your work with some people who have read it. Yeah, I'd love it. I will talk to the book club society. They are very shadowy and mysterious. Yeah. It's like, are you afraid of a dark, like the midnight society? I just... This is the 6 p.m. society because that's when they talk. Yeah.

[00:38:14] The evening society. Yeah. The raised no while bedtime society. All right. And Jordan, I want to say thank you so much for all of your hard work on the show. Thank you so much for everything that you do on the show, David. And props to Illuminati for the awesome cover art. Jordan, anything else you want to talk about? Check out Mission Ignition, my podcast about vampires. Oh, man. I know Xander's a big fan of it. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Xander, that's a thing I've heard of. Sure, buddy. All right. And then, of course, I want to thank you, our wonderful patron, for listening.

[00:38:43] This was a lot of fun. I was so glad we had a chance to bring you back, Xander. Bye-bye. Bye. See ya. Bye-bye.