(Rerun) #116 Why this Hell's Paradise Clone Failed - Dear Anemone ft Official Series Letterer Finn K.

[00:00:13] Welcome to this episode of Shonen Flop, where we talk about manga and Shonen Jump that didn't make it big. I'm David. I'm Jordan. Next week we'll be covering Yoikamiyo. If you'd like to read along with us, be sure to join the discussion in our discord and submit your six word summary. You can find a link to the discord in our episode description and on our website ShonenFlop.com. But this week we're talking about Dear Anemone and we are joined by our guest Finn. Finn, thank you so much for joining us. It's just always a great time to have someone who actually worked on the series on an episode of Shonen Flop. Oh yeah, thanks for having me. Yeah, especially since you were a fan of Shonen Flop.

[00:00:43] I've worked on Dear Anime, I believe. Yes. Dear Alimony, actually. Dear Alamo. Never forget. But I can never forget to have Finn. Do you mind telling the audience a little bit about yourself? Maybe some other series you've worked on that they actually might have read? I usually credit as Finn K., so if you've ever seen that in mostly Shonen Jump weeklies, then you've probably read something of mine. I've worked on Do Retry. I'm the letterer, by the way. I've worked on Do Retry. He wrote Don't Retry! No, I've worked on Do Retry!

[00:01:13] Yeah, I translate, I letter, I write it, I do it all. I'm sorry that we did not like that series. He wrote Do Retry! We got a lot of shit to tell you, Finn. Bro, if I could be on any episode, I'd want to be on that. That was so funny to listen to. That was, I had a great time. Oh, that's so kind of you to say. Oh, I'm so glad. Yeah, Do Retry! Mama Yu Yu, Dear Anenemy, Yo-Kai Buster Murakami, currently doing Shinobi Undercover, and non-Shonen Jump ones would be Magic Girl Dandelion,

[00:01:42] and currently the newly released Bug Ego, so super excited about all that. I haven't even heard of that. Yeah. Yeah, that's a new one by the One Punch Man and Mob Psycho author, and then the artist. What? Yeah. What is a new manga? Yeah, he's got like three going now. Oh my god! Jordan, if you've seen the art, I don't think it takes him a long time to draw a chapter. Oh, no, no, no, no, no. It's a different artist. So the artist is, I believe it's Kyoto Shitara, and that artwork is so detailed.

[00:02:12] It's just detailed and crazy cool. It's just weird and funny, and the first four chapters, you can read them on Shonen Jump right now. Okay, I'm definitely going to check that out. Well, I think I know what your rec is going to be because this series sucks. Spoiler alert. On that note, let's actually get into talking about this series. Jordan, take it away. So this is Dear Anemone. I just want to make sure I got the name right. Could you tell me what it's called again? I couldn't fucking care less. One more. David, one more time. I couldn't hear you. Dear fuck off.

[00:02:40] Okay. Yeah, this is Dear Anemone. The word anemone is apparently borrowed into English from Latin, which it's Greek, and it means windflower slash daughter. And the beginning of the Japanese pronunciation sounds like ane, meaning older sister or young woman. So there's a little bit of a pun going on here, you know? This is written by Rin Matsui. They were an assistant for Kohei Horikoshi from a little thing called Barrage.

[00:03:09] I think you mean Bulge. Uwu. Bulge of the Warring Planets. They were cowards for not using that name. Yeah, and Omega Dokey Zoo, which are both episodes, and you know, he also did My Hero Academia. Yeah, that's, yeah. Yeah, who cares? Lesser known series. Who gives a shit about that? Because this is the first manga that Rin has fully written. They have a bunch of one shots though, including just Anemone, which won the Jump New World Manga

[00:03:38] Award. I don't know anything about that, but they also wrote, If My Mouth Splits Open. Rembrandt, ah, one of my favorite artists. Kabore Zakura no Sabigatana. Black Milk. Interesting. Black Milk. Milk Noir. Yes. As they call it in French. Oh, yes. I don't know why I said, I combined France and French and said French.

[00:04:05] I want some French dressing, not ranch dressing. Ranch's grocer cousin. Mr. Anastasia Bokotra was literally in three days ago. Peak American energy. It's a combination of ranch and French dip. Oh my God, David, you're a genius. They call me royalty because I be French dressing. Oh, bro. And they also wrote something called Anima. But anyway, we're not talking about that shit.

[00:04:31] We're talking about Dear Anemone ran from February 18th, 2024 to June 16th, 2024. That's right, everybody. This is a U19er 17 chapters. Yeah, let's go. And it felt like five. Yeah, it replaced the Marshall Master Asumi. That was four volumes. That was also a flop. And that was also an episode that we did. It replaced Himaten by Genki Ono, who did Full Drive. And that's still going.

[00:05:00] Series that started at the same time as it was Super Psychic Policeman Chojo by Shun Numa. Three volumes. It's doing all right so far. But, you know, enough about that. Why don't we get into what the fuck this bucket series is about? Oh, no. Hachiyue's friend Yoshio went to the Galapagos Islands on a government research team last year, and he disappeared. And now he joined another government team to save him. Whoa. Boom. Hachiyue and some others, including a guy with a nose ring chain named Ryuichi,

[00:05:28] who immediately gets killed by a chameleon monster in the most annoying Marvel voice possible. No, see that? That's stage direction. Okay. That's how I want you to read the next part. Listen, I'm a noobie. I'm a noobie. Give me, give me some. That's okay. You're doing great. You're doing great. I don't even know what Marvel voice is, so. Oh, just say it in like the most annoying voice you can. Because, uh, yeah, that's right. There's monsters on this island. Well, that just happened. Yeah.

[00:05:58] They fly now? They fly now. That's from a Marvel. That's from Star Wars. It's all Disney. They're all the same. Listen, Jordan's right behind me, isn't he? No, I'm right behind you. Okay. Well, that just happened. That's right. There's monsters on this island. That's just what's happening right now, I guess. A girl named Asumi runs in the direction of someone screaming for help, only to discover that, OMG, it's a big chicken monster who can mimic human voices.

[00:06:26] Hachiyue goes to help, and the chicken monster starts to eat him. But his blood falls on a flower called an anemone, which he finds out by having a flashback to Yoshio. The anemone then sprouts into a giant vine monster with a pretty face, kills the chicken, and fuses with Hachiyue's body, Popcorn Jordan. Anemone wants to go to the lab, where she was created, to cause more evolution on the island. So she, Hachiyue Asumi, and a girl named Mina Zuki, who I haven't mentioned yet because

[00:06:53] she wasn't important, they all go to where it should be. There's like a side quest where Hachiyue saves them from a big starfish, thanks to, again, a flashback he had of Yoshio. But like, they immediately find the lab. It's like right there. So, I mean, I thought they were going to look for it for a bit, but no, it's right there. They get attacked by a honey badger who David, he doesn't give a fuck about anything. Yep. But the honey badger is killed by a praying mantis monster. One natural predator. And another flower monster named Lobelia.

[00:07:22] Lobelia hates Anemone because their dad, a scientist, loved Anemone more than her. The praying mantis goes after Asumi and Mina Zuki, but Mina Zuki transforms into a werewolf. You see, the creatures all evolved on the island because of an explosion that happened like 60 years ago that released a virus. Mina Zuki was not on the island. She was kind of just raised by wolves and so like learned how to transform into one. Yeah, that was the founding of Rome, right? Yeah, exactly.

[00:07:52] Anyway, she kills the praying mantis and Lobelia runs away. Ryuichi then shows up even though he died earlier. Weird. They get research notes from the lab, which was the actual reason they were sent to the island in the first place, and decide to head back to camp and wait a month for rescue. Hachiyue still wants to look for Yoshio and Ryuichi thinks, hey, that's cool. I respect that and helps him out when they find Kurage, a girl with electric jellyfish powers who watched the rest of her team die. Popcorn David.

[00:08:22] Timeskip and they're at a banquet full of inframorphic rabbits. Flashback and they find out a rabbit who invites them to a town full of those rabbits. The rabbits apparently are all just kind of feral and crazy until Yoshio showed up and told them about human culture and fancy aristocratic stuff, including every single thing about etiquette, apparently. Including how to make fine fabric and cook high quality meals. So no, it's totally fine. It's not dumb. It makes sense. Anyway, the bunny mare says he'll take Hachiyue to see Yoshio. But oh my god, it's a trap and a giant bunny chimera jumps out to kill him.

[00:08:51] Meanwhile, Ryuichi, Asumi, and Manzuki are attacked by Lobelia and Ryuichi attacks her with chameleon powers. I'm honestly not sure how Lobelia dies. Maybe and Manzuki kills her. I don't know. And I don't think the offer does either. Nope. Anyway, Hachiyue and Animonet kill the bunny monster and he reunites with Yoshio after reflecting on a long, exciting and successful journey he just had. And that was really the end. And there was nothing satisfying that happened in that last chapter. No, and listener, I'm sorry.

[00:09:17] But like if I had David retake that paragraph every time you mispronounce something, we never would have gotten through it. Yeah, just you just got it. Sometimes you just steamrolled through it. It was actually really impressive. Yeah. Yeah, you kind of just gotta gotta like use logic to like figure out what he's talking about. It's really like that scene straight out of Billy Madison where it's like everything you just said was unquestionably wrong. We're all dumber for having heard it. May God have mercy on your soul.

[00:09:46] Finn, may God have mercy on you. Can you tell us about the main character of the series of whom I've written a single bullet point about his personality traits? And I believe you misspelled his name anyway. I could make me distress how little a shit any of these characters mattered in this series. This is like this is like how so we previously covered Psych House and Jordan in the plot summary for the middle paragraph says and then like 14 chapters of nothing important was his entire section.

[00:10:14] And that's how I feel about the character section for anyone who isn't Animone. Yeah. So his name is Gaku Hachi. Now you're making me double question it. And you lettered this series. Hachiyue. His name is Gaku Hachiyue. Yeah, his name is Gaku Hachiyue. And David spelled it Gaka Hachoi. Just so listeners, you're wondering why Finn is having a hard time right now. Bless you. Yeah. Okay. So Gaku Hachiyue is our main guy.

[00:10:42] And he's just weak. He wants to change. He's kind of a crybaby. That's kind of it. He like loves his friend and has constant flashbacks to his friend. And he was like, But only as a child, because I guess he doesn't know what his friend actually looks like as an adult. Apparently his friend looks the same as an adult. The same. So he was right to apparently. But he just got lucky about that. His friend has a haircut that you definitely would change as you got older because he has a giant fucking afro.

[00:11:13] And his friend was just like, apparently just wouldn't shut the fuck up about the Galapagos Islands. Yeah, he was only interested in evolution. And that's the main thing. That's where he went there to help out, I guess. And fine dining. Yeah, apparently. Because again, he taught the bunnies everything about human culture. God, Jesus. Like the author kind of just threw that out without thinking about it at all.

[00:11:42] Jordan, are you trying to say this author didn't think things through with this series of structure? Yeah, I know. A very, very silly thing to say. But yeah, this guy, he really has no character traits. Yeah, nothing. And so Jordan, why don't you tell us about the fucking the living embodiment of the painting nails emoji of this series? Yeah. Anemone. She is like a bunch of vines that came together to form a plant, you know, to form like a person kind of.

[00:12:11] She's like a plant lady. She's like poison ivy or something. Yeah. The thing about Anemone is she shows up. She's like, I don't give a fuck about these humans. I don't care. I want to kill them. But then like after a little bit, she's like, oh, these humans are actually really beautiful. It's nice that they care. I don't give a fuck about anything. But dang, I respect these humans a lot because like they actually want to save people, even though I think it's stupid. But like, it's kind of cool, I guess.

[00:12:39] Can I jump in with something really funny that happened in like chapter three? Yeah. When Anemone is first introduced and she's like, I don't give a shit about any of y'all and is talking about the explosion that happened. It seems like the only motivation that she's got in the beginning is I will create another explosion. She just wants to make another explosion. She is single handedly like I see why her back is fucked up because she carries the series.

[00:13:06] I'm pretty sure the only times I ever enjoyed reading this was just seeing her reactions like when he jumps in like chapter three to save and they're like underwater and she's really like, is this bitch fucking serious right now? It was probably maybe the single best moment of this entire series is that facial expression she has. Yeah, that weird ass facial expression. And she's like, what the fuck is he doing? I do also want to say she would absolutely be best friends with 100 from Fabricate 100. Oh, yeah. If they were capable of friendship. If they were capable. Yeah.

[00:13:35] Shout out Finn, though, who finished reading Fabricate 100 just because I made that reference in our chat before this recording. I was like, I need to know. And what an ending, right? Yeah, it was actually really sick. She's insane. I love her. Yeah. Yeah, she's she's kind of a better version of Anemone. All right. And then our last character is Haru. So she's older lady. She's not a wolf dot JPEG. She somehow can turn into a wolf. Jordan, I think that she was from this island and then she left and came back. I didn't understand it.

[00:14:05] It's almost like the author was jumping forward and backward through time and not really doing a good job of explaining what was a time skip and what wasn't. And the sequence of events got very confusing and not in a cool way. We're not talking about like a fucking David Lynch way. So it did say that like she was born on the island and like grew up with the wolves before the explosion happened, apparently, which was only like 10 years before this. Oh, but it's like I don't know.

[00:14:35] It's still stupid. I'm sorry. I didn't say anything of it other than I'm telling you what the author's trying to tell us. She was raised by wolves. Yeah, because she's hardcore and emo like that. Anytime I see raised by wolves, honestly, this is fucking stupid. Yeah, that is such a hack thing to do. Despite that, I kind of think she's like one of the cooler characters in the series. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Because David, you may say anemone doesn't give a fuck. I disagree.

[00:15:04] But Minazuki does not give a fuck. Yeah, Minazuki literally lets this lady think she has superpowers to hide her powers. And definitely would have gotten her killed. That was the high point of the series for me, honestly. Like, yeah, that was super funny. Yeah. But unfortunately, along with the high points, there are low points. So let's get into why it failed. A lot of low points. Jordan, why don't you finish that thought and tell us more about things you didn't like about this series? Um, this was really fucking hard to follow.

[00:15:31] Someone has to explain to me why he did a jump forward and then immediately. But let's actually see what I just skipped. What was the point of that being nonlinear storytelling? To make the reader interesting. God. To be like, hey, guys, keep reading because look what's happening. How did that happen? Oh, my God. You're going to have to read next chapter to find out. God, this plot is very stretchy. For clarification, listener. All of a sudden, you just see a panel. It's like six hours in the future. A lot of time passed.

[00:16:01] And then they're like, oh, shit, there's these bunnies. And then it's like, here's how they got there. And it's like, just show us how they got there. Yeah, it's just a colossal waste of our time. It would have been so much more interesting if like, like you just had a talking rabbit show up and lead them through your stupid Alice in Wonderland reference. And I love how many chapters just end on the cliffhanger and say, oh, and then there's a monster about to attack in the background, which is the only trick this author knows how to end a chapter. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:16:32] And then, sorry, the negatives that really stood out to you while you read this? When I was working on it, I never noticed how many flashbacks were really happening when they could have just like done what was in the flashback. And it was even in chapter one, it was kind of confusing to understand where and what like was happening. Yeah. That was my biggest thing that I definitely didn't notice while working on. But rereading it, I was like, wow, I don't want to be too harsh, but I guess I'm not

[00:16:59] surprised that it's only 17 chapters because it was like that from chapter one. Yeah. Also, can I just say there are at least three characters in this series that look more or less identical? Yeah. Like the jellyfish girl just the author was like, I want to introduce this character, but I don't know how. Yeah. No, that was really weird. That was extremely confusing. Cause like here, what happens is like it flashes to this girl who's underwater and the girl looks like the other girl we met.

[00:17:28] So I was like, is this a flashback now? And then it turns out, no, that's a different girl. And this is happening right now. It took me a little bit to figure out what the fuck was going on. Yeah. That should not be confusing. How is a plot this simple so complicated or not complicated, confusing. I know. Also, I love how they get to how like, as soon as Anemone takes him over, it's like, all right, now we got to find the lab. And it's like, okay, so that's like their plot. And then it's like, oh, there's the lab. Literally speed run plot.

[00:17:58] Plot, speed run it. They straight up say, oh, we found it in one day. Well, we're supposed to be here for a month. So like, I don't know. I guess you just got to kill time. Killing. Speaking of, I love how they're like, anyone can die and then no one actually permanently dies. Yeah. Cause they bring back the community. Hi. Yeah. Oh yeah. That was within like six chapters, I think, or seven chapters. It was the same chapter that it's revealed that the wolf girl is wolf girl. Yeah. God, that was so stupid. She just shapeshifts into a wolf for no reason.

[00:18:27] And I guess no one knew she could do that. Yeah. She, she didn't talk about herself at all. No. Cause I mean, all these characters are paper flat again. Like how does the main character, like, I don't know how to describe any traits besides him being obsessed with Afro guy. He says he wants to change. He sacrifices himself to save people all the time. Also. That's it. He's a shonen protagonist. There you go. Oh, I'm sorry. Wait a minute. Wait. No, David. David. He's Midoriya. God. That's literally who he is. Oh no.

[00:18:56] I mean, the series rips off every single, like, I can probably just name like five different things that's ripped off, right? They literally say in the first chapter, like, damn, this is like some kind of hell's paradise. They do. Finmarie, when you were lettering that, you're like, well, at least they know. I didn't even, I didn't even pick up on it until I like, until one of y'all mentioned it. And I was like, damn, I kind of didn't even put that together. When they're like going through the DVD store and they're like, wow, Annihilation.

[00:19:25] I bet that's an interesting movie. And the character winked in the panel. I was like, okay, at least he knows. No. See, listeners don't know if that actually happened because of how fucking shitty this manga is. It was implied. I will also say this offer seemed to try and be like, I know so much about biology. I'm running it in. And then they fell for chameleons cannot turn invisible. It is purely a communication system that shows off kind of their state. And it's such a common fallacy that made me think, okay, this guy read a Wikipedia page

[00:19:52] for 30 seconds and didn't actually know anything about biology that he was trying to make like a big flex about the series. I don't think he read a Wikipedia page. I think he just remembered stuff that he saw in media. Yeah, probably. Yeah. He's not a rock. You can't get away with stupid shit like that. He's having a good time. Yeah. I was just not having a good time reading this. I just, this plot made no sense. Characters have no backstory. Oh, and then the main villain, the author has to be like, oh, well, I could kill you all now. I'm just not going to for no actually explained reason.

[00:20:22] That's how you know the plot is deep, actually. Did they even say why she had to leave? Are you talking about Lobelia? Yeah. The flower girl was like, well, got a blast. Oh, she was like, I'm tired and there's too many of you. See ya. Did she just so easily have killed them all? Nah, not fun. Here's the thing. The series also does something that like we've seen a lot of these manga that like annoy the shit out of me where it's like, you know, the main character meets a character who's

[00:20:47] already involved in the plot and that character knows the enemy and they're like, oh, I know you. Ah, it's you. I remember you. Dang, you're a jerk. I hate you. Ah, you know, we have this rich history behind us. And it's like, damn, you know, I don't know. I kind of would have liked to have learned who this character was kind of on my own, just kind of seeing who they are. Like instead of. But Jordan, if the author doesn't tell you how cool a character is, you're not going to think they're cool. How would you even know? Shit, that's a good point.

[00:21:16] This author had zero confidence in their writing ability. She's actually very accurate. One last thing I want to bring up is how do you guys feel about the bunny? Just that complete 180 and tone shift until it reverts back as the author realizes it's not interesting. Why was that bunny not a person? When working on it, I remember opening up the page and I was like, I didn't have any news of it yet, I don't think. And I was like, is this getting canceled? Like, what's happening? Where are we? How far in advance do you know that this is like, you've got like two chapters left to work on?

[00:21:45] Sometimes it depends. I feel like for Dury Tribe, I remember that like six chapters ahead, maybe. That's interesting because I knew it was going to get canceled after the first chapter. Oh, dog. Come on. How did you do that? No. Yeah. No. So yeah. Mama Yuyu though. I know David told y'all that I didn't know until like the second to last chapter. Like they just forgot to tell me. Yeah. Oh no. It's usually like a few, like a couple of chapters. That's how it's been lately at least.

[00:22:14] But for an enemy, because I think the rabbit stuff happened like chapter 12 or 13 or whatever. I don't think I knew yet. So I was like, what's happening? Oh God. It really just feels like the author was like, fuck, I don't know what to do now. Yeah. Like they, I already gave them the papers. I gave them the research. I don't know what to do. That was the main thing. Yeah. It felt very random. That's fair. All right. But I think though, we do have to go and talk about what it did well. So let's dive into that.

[00:22:44] So Finn, can you tell me what's something you enjoyed about the series? Like everybody else, the artwork was bomb. It was awesome. Yes. It was very different than like other jump series that I've read, which I really appreciated. This author clearly didn't have time to actually write the series with how detailed the art was. Well, I don't know, David, because there's a lot of panels that are just gray gradients. Hey, that takes a lot of work. I mean, the thing is, I can't even be mad because when the author does draw, it's fucking banging.

[00:23:12] It's like fucking sick, man. This shit is detailed. It's very like, like the shading is very interesting and well done. It almost has a scary stories to tell the dark vibe to it. Oh, yeah. It's rare to see like a berserk inspired art style in Shonen Jump. Yeah. This art almost tricked me into thinking this was good. I mean, it goes so fast. You can really just look at the art and just ignore the text. Yeah. I mean, I don't really know what's happening a lot of the times in the art, but it looks cool.

[00:23:42] It looks really cool. Like, honestly. When it's spooky, it looks really, really awesome. Like the intro with the chameleon, like in that first chapter, like that panel. Yeah. That transformation was like super awesome. As a vehicle to do nothing but draw cool monsters, it met its goal. It just didn't do anything else. No. But like the monsters just look really cool. Like, they're really creepy. And not only that, the compositions are frequently really interesting. When Minazuki turned into a werewolf. Yeah, sure.

[00:24:12] The idea is stupid, but it looked awesome. Like the really harsh, heavy, dark shadows that were falling over her were like so dramatic and so cool. Oh, it was sick. It's a shame that everything else is fucking stupid. Yeah, I have one positive that's not related, as we talked about. Anna Monet is definitely the best character in this series. There is a lot of humor, which I want to say was intentional with some of her reactions. Oh, yeah. Just the fact that she she kind of is like a meta narrative where she knows how fucking

[00:24:41] stupid this series is. And she just is like, it kind of feels like she's legally required to be in this series. I don't know. I kind of I kind of felt like after a while, it was like, OK, author, I get it. She's edgy because she's just like, I want to kill you. And it's like, on one hand, yeah, sure, that's a meta narrative because the guy was annoying. But it was also like, that was funny. So funny. Funny. It was funny. Listen, Jordan, I'm grasping at straws, big guy. We know the series is not good.

[00:25:06] The part that I thought was like funny was when Minazuki turns into a werewolf. Asumi, I think, wakes up and she's like, whoa, did I like transform when I was asleep and like save us? And Minazuki is like, yeah, yeah, you did. And she just believes it. And like from that point on, she's like not afraid anymore. Like it's kind of great. She's got this like badass face immediately after of like, I can protect everybody now. And it's like so goofy.

[00:25:36] It's honestly great. But there really wasn't a good payoff to that. There wasn't. But like at the same time, I liked that it like maintained. Like I liked that she didn't just like go back to being afraid. It was like, no, that was she believes it. When they beat back up with Hachiyue, I think it was when they were still like first fighting Lobelia. And she comes back and she's like, don't worry, Hachiyue, I can handle this. And the wolf girl is just like, um, I guess so.

[00:26:05] Like I liked that. That was really good. Yeah. I was actually surprised she didn't violently die. Oh, yeah. Series didn't go long enough. The author didn't want to bother bringing her back, I guess. This author had a lot of death's plan for these characters. I do kind of wish that they would have if they were going to kill like Yashiki, the chameleon guy, that they would have at least made it permanent and like placed it somewhere else. Because I was like, oh, shit, like everyone's up for grabs at this point. But that didn't really happen. No.

[00:26:33] Maybe on that note, shall we get into where it could have gone? Yeah. And before we get into that, though, if you've been enjoying the show, we'd really appreciate if you subscribe to the Shonen Flop YouTube. We're trying to hit our goal of 1500 YouTube subs. And if we hit it, we'll do a special bonus episode on the Bill King epilogue. Right, Jordan? Unfortunately, yes. If you've already subscribed, thank you so much. I think we're only 150 subs away. So please sub. It means a lot. So on that topic, though, of where it could have gone. What is like the main character? Are you familiar with Stealth Symphony at all, Finn? No, I'm not.

[00:27:03] What? Do you mind if I spoil Stealth Symphony? Go for it. I don't think I've ever heard of it. So you got this. OK, so Stealth Symphony is by the creator of Gerara and Bacchano. Oh, shit. It turns out that the main character is like this normally timid guy. It's the last like four chapters. It turns out he's actually like a psychopath who murders people. And he finally just starts giving into his urges and starts killing everyone. And the entire series is all the supporting characters trying to now kill the main character. Whoa. And I'm kind of like, what if that was this? Wait, David.

[00:27:32] And then they all wake up in real Japan. No, they find a portal to real Japan. And they reverse isekai from their fantasy world. And it all lynched on the fact that there was like one person who was like, I'm actually from Japan. That was great because that person was like, I'm a ninja. And they're like, what the fuck is a ninja? Yeah. So the author established this series is technically an isekai. It's amazing. Yeah. So it's literally the only reason to read Stealth Symphony is how batshit the last like three chapters are.

[00:28:01] But yeah, what if the main character actually did go crazy with Animone? And it literally is the main character. We've seen him for five chapters. We think he's like a generic Shona protagonist surviving. Then it turns out he is actually nuts. And it's literally everyone trying to survive against this alpha predator that's now hunting them on the island. That was what we thought was the main character of the series. I feel like it's so lame that they met Yoshio and he was just like fine. Yeah. He's not even like hurt.

[00:28:27] This was like my guess because I assumed it was probably going to happen. Like they met Yoshio and he was like fucked up or like a bad guy now or something. Not even an eye patch. He's not even punished Yoshio. It would have been cool if like any of like all the times that Hachiyue was trying to be like, aren't you guys like friends? Like what happened to my guy? Like everybody cuts him off or like beats the shit out of him. Nobody like listens to him whatsoever.

[00:28:54] It would have been cool if like he could have actually tried to like befriend anybody. Yeah. That would have been cool. It's also like if he's timid, but he just talked no Jutsu. He's all the horrors. And he's just like building this empire of monsters to fight the other monsters for him. Yeah. It just turns into Digimon. Yeah. Horror Digimon sounds pretty fucking cool. Yeah. That is Shin Megami Tensei kind of. Oh, yeah. Shin Megami. That's a good one. It's also like tonally this author just thinks if everything's terrible, it's more interesting. But you need contrast.

[00:29:23] It's like how the guy who made Breaking Bad was like, it's really important to have comedy in your drama because it makes the drama more impactful after you've just been laughing. Because like there's not really any W's in this series besides him finding his friend at the very end of the series. And so it doesn't matter. Right. Oh, David, that goes back to like fucking Shakespeare. I mean, after like people. I know Vince Gilligan didn't invent the idea of having Kamakrilli. I'm glad. I'm glad you didn't. You weren't asserting that. Just making it clear. I'm aware. I just wanted everybody to know Shakespeare existed. Maybe actually.

[00:29:52] We don't know that for sure. We don't. Might have been several guys. We also didn't talk about how fucking shit the ending the last chapter is. It was so stupid. Oh, dude. Where he just finds his friend and his friend is like, hey, what's up? And it's just that's the end of the series. They don't even interact other than, oh, my God, is that you? Get out of here. I got this. Like they don't interact at all. Yeah. He's like, hey, you need help standing up. That's it. That's how it ends. Beautiful. Yeah. That's another thing. Change about the series is good ending.

[00:30:22] I also feel like this series was going to turn into some kind of like Dr. Moreau type thing where it was like because they were kind of building up to the idea that like, oh, we got to find this mad scientist that started all of this and shit like that. So it's like, I think they were going to find him somewhere. And fuck, I don't know. Dark Gundam sells. I don't know. Cut. George is just going to try and discuss G Gundam in every episode now. Yeah, now I will. We can just talk about Gundam later. Yeah, that's true. Yeah. I'm much more to talk about Gundam in this series.

[00:30:50] But Ben, did you have anything else that you feel like you would have tweeted about the series to have enjoyed working on it more? I mean, I feel like when I'm working on stuff, I always find a way to enjoy it. It was honestly kind of a fever dream because it was the shortest thing I've ever worked on. So I don't know if I don't know if I have anything I can add to it at the moment. That's fair. Do you think that you would just not have remembered this series if we didn't invite you on this podcast? Oh, no, I remember. Do you think you would have like forgotten?

[00:31:19] I remember for one reason or another. The art's great. Wow. That went by so fast. Yeah, I remember. Specifically, I also remember seeing tweets of people being like, all right, hear me out. An enemy though, right? Like the very sus, sus tweets from y'all out there. Y'all are freaky. Yeah. Oh my God. Of course. I'm not surprised at all to hear that actually. Yeah. Oh, no. Just fucking wood. Yeah. Yes, exactly.

[00:31:48] It's spelled W-O-O-D because she's a plant. Oh God. All right. We're getting off topic. Let's get into miscellaneous thoughts, all right? So along with chapter two, having that really stupid look on her face when he jumps in the water, chapter three also made me laugh when they talk about how every animal on the planet has a weakness and one is just a guy forcing a gator. I literally made a note about this because I was like, that's so fucking funny. What the hell? It's just showing a guy holding a gator's mouth closed with his hand.

[00:32:17] No, my one weakness. Yeah. Hands. God. God. God. I just. Oh, God. Oh, Finn. Did you have any fun trivia? I know. I think you might have mentioned the world body, but do you want to tell us a little bit about how there was like a cool text thing in the first chapter and which disappears after that? There were actually like, I think at least six other times where like the text is underneath the sound effect.

[00:32:43] I think it happened a couple of times the last chapter, but like it didn't happen very often. There wasn't a lot of like technical things I actually had to do during this series. There were like three pages of sound effects total out of 17 chapters. And it's the series that I had like the least amount of work to do technically like this. So if there's, there's weirdly like not a whole lot to talk about in the series. I think, I think I wrote down chapter one, the sound effects were all with the, like all

[00:33:13] of the like screaming that she does trying to kill the big chicken thing, whatever that was. And then chapter 11 had like a bunch of thunks when the, when Yashiki shows back up. And then the final chapter had the tiniest little grip sound effect. And that was all the work I did. What made you choose the font you use for this series? By the way, there wasn't really a reason behind this one specifically. I have this like weird thing where I think, I don't remember what I worked on before this. Actually. I don't know what an enemy was with.

[00:33:43] I don't know what it released with. And so I have this like weird thing where I don't want to reuse the same font for some reason. And so I was like, I haven't used meanwhile at all, which is like a very common one. So I think I'm just going to go with that because I was mama. You, you was for me was very, very involved and I loved it. And, uh, I was just like, I think meanwhile fits this. That's also what editors sometimes like ask for when I first started at least. So I was like, it's my third series. I'll do that.

[00:34:13] Listener. You don't understand how excited David was to ask a question about fonts and get an answer. Hell yeah. I love it. Listen, I wrote a college paper on century Gothic, which is a great font. Oh, well, I guess my one, my one other thought about the font was like the art is so detailed and gritty that I didn't want to use something that maybe would like clash with it either, you know, so that it would like stand out at least. Cause usually you look at the art and you're like, does this match? Does this match or whatever? And that's what felt like it also fit best. So.

[00:34:43] Oh, that's cool though. Can we talk about the main scientist guy creating a talking plant and being like, this isn't good enough. I'm pretty sure the bad guy seems substantially more advanced as an organism than Anemone. So I don't really understand why Anemone was considered more successful. Uh, David, that gave me such Fabricant 100 vibes. The moment I actually started reading Fabricant again, I was like, man, the doctor guys, this is pretty similar to that other professor guy in Anenemy. Yeah.

[00:35:12] He's just like, no. Wrong. A failure again. I just created life. That can talk. That can, that I just created sentient life. God damn it. Not again. God. I'm the worst. Such a stupid thing. I wonder how many of the like monsters he actually created. Cause Lobelia was also doing that after like, I guess he died or disappeared or whatever. God, this is such a fucking mess. Would have been nice if there was some kind of resolution on that. I don't know.

[00:35:41] Like that was kind of a lot more interesting than the main character looking for his friend. You know, maybe if the author didn't have a billion flashbacks to the same scene of the main character talking to his friend, he could have instead put in more intriguing things about the doctor. You know, I don't know. Maybe. Yeah. Just there's, there's a lot of mysteries in the series going to fix. Yeah. I also really would be curious. So there's a chapter where someone gets thrown around and it makes them think of Lobelia.

[00:36:09] And I really wonder if that was a joke that translated in Japanese, you know, like Lob. But that was, I don't know if that, I don't know if you have any idea or if that was probably a coincidence. Which chapter? I don't fucking know. I was like, I can't do. There's a lot of people getting tossed around. Oh, wait. Do you mean when an enemy was like, they were fighting the rabbit guy, weren't they? Yeah. Yeah. And the rabbit and she gets turned. She's like, this makes me think of Lobelia. And I was like, is that on purpose? That joke? I have no idea if that's similar. I wish I did. I wish I could help you with that. But I know I wish I'd asked Jan.

[00:36:38] Probably not. But you know. I do want to say though, actually, I did reach out to Jan who provided us and they did say they were super excited to have that we were recording with you Finn. Yeah, I love her. So she said, Karagi means jellyfish and Hachui means potted plant. Yoshio's name uses the characters for good slash virtuous and life. It was a little interesting that Okinawa was mentioned at the beginning of the series, but I think that was just to give Japanese readers a point of reference. Okinawa is a prefecture in the South that's made up of an island and is well known for being home to a lot of venomous animals. And I also think that's where nunchucks were invented. Fun fact.

[00:37:09] Also, Jan got a major in biology. So I'm sure she, this series was close to her heart despite all of the biological fact fuck ups. Do you guys have any other miscellaneous thoughts before I go into what Maxi B thought of the series? Uh, no. No. I don't think so, no. Oh, there was one moment where I actually really liked the series was when the main character was like, I came here to save you. And I was really hoping that he would be like, we came here to save you. And Moni would be like, uh, I did not consent to that. What the fuck are you talking about?

[00:37:39] But then a few pages later, he does say that and she gives that exact reaction. Yeah, it literally happened. And I was like, this is the best scene in that entire manga. I do have another thought because it's literally in the last chapter that Yoshio is like doing the final monologue. And I, I felt like it wrapped up the whole series. It's where he says you got stronger. No, that's not right. You knew you were weak the moment we met, but that was just proof of how strong you are. Oh, this was so stupid. And I'm like, what?

[00:38:09] Those moments were so funny to me because it was like, you went on a long, impressive journey, you know? Oh, really? You learned a lot and met a lot of friends and fought a lot of people. And I'm like, no, you did not. Dude, some of the stuff they showed at the end, I was like, I wish we got to see some of that. And like these characters, that would have been cool. My theory is that that all happened in the time skip, like between the time skip and when they met the rabbit.

[00:38:37] God, I hate that rabbit. Several hours later. Several hours later. Yeah. Oh, but let's show that anyway. Yeah. All right. But let's also show some Max and B facts where they said the author is very eager assistant on My Hero Academia like that because they literally came back to that series after this failed. And so they spent a few weeks finishing up the series because it ended pretty recently as two. But the author has shown a huge amount of My Hero Academia fan art posted to the various socials over the years. I think I've seen their fan art. So I guess they were the author who did a lot of fan art.

[00:39:06] Animone Finningly is based on the design of the titular plant person power, the protagonist of Matsuri's one shot Animone. Surprising. And heavily rendered art styles like this take their toll on weekly series. Hence the fact that there's a 13 page chapter in the middle of the series. So I guess it really did go fast because these were short pages. I forgot about that. These were short chapters. I didn't even realize when I was reading it that that was a 13 page chapter. Yeah. They just go so fast, right? It was a quick read. And you also confess is this recording. So let's get into the final verdict.

[00:39:36] I can't believe we're already there. Yeah. Yeah. So let's kick things off with six word summaries from the community. We have so many. Jordan's going to take over halfway through as one does. From Tucker. Should have gone nuts earlier, to be honest. Or TBH. Maxie B. Bad art. Just add more lines. Artil. Art evolved far beyond its story. Or paladin survival of the fittest. Then perish. Boff. Darwin is rolling in his grave. Blamumu. Evolution does not work that way. Chicken Warlord. I delete every promotional reference too. CT3 LA. Plant based horror has conflicting flavors. Dackerson.

[00:40:05] More like the Borgin of species. Diego. Evolve man-made horrors beyond our comprehension. Dougie 4. Georgia O'Keeffe are his last subtle. That's pretty good. Dude Rocks. I think Pokemon understood evolution better. Oh shit. Funky Green. Isn't an animony where Nemo lives? Yeah. Lornak. Even r slash Darwin Awards doesn't want this manga. Isekai Sensei. Dear Animony. Please stop. Seriously. Stop. And JRPG. Astrologists. Serve new metal instead of mad science. Yeah. And then Jordan. Can you do the rest? Captain Clueless.

[00:40:34] Everybody wants to be my anemone. Last of the Red Rose. Mangaka did absolutely zero Galapagos research. Yeah, they didn't. Lord Anubis. Only the strong won't get axed. Luffy's 0-3-2-1. The real horrors were scientific inaccuracies. Portal Man. When in doubt, call Swamp Thing. Red Blade. Constantly expositing. Constantly fighting. Constantly boring. Resident Warhammer Nerd. Should have evolved into a better series.

[00:41:05] Damn. Riley. Little shop of horror. Bull shonen manga. Sabia. Dear Anemone gets a Dear John. Ooh. S. Bubby. With all these friends. Who needs anemones? Hey! Spike. It died as it lived. Unfit. Nice. T. Wolfwood. Couldn't adapt. Improvise. Overcome. Shonen Jump. The Laughing Fool. Darwin should have eaten this too. Thor's.

[00:41:31] His whole anemonosis in that arc. No. Fuck. Watchtower. Proof that evolution can make flops. Xylon. Wow. What a hair raising conclusion. Yellow Cup. What was that bunny cliffhanger? Ulyssian. Save some frames. Kill the animals. I get that reference. Yeah. Like AGDQ. Hell yeah. Yeah. Super Metroid. Yeah. Super Metroid. Yeah.

[00:42:01] All right. And then I had three. You guys will tell me which one of these is the best. Not even the DNA of a good manga. And then Hell's Fabricant Annihilation Paradise. A hundred. For Mars. Yeah. That one. Diagonies. Holding Pluck Paradise. Diagnose. Oh. No. Diagonies. Oh. Diogenies. Diogenies. I've never seen that before. The fucking philosopher guy. My phone autocorrected it. Diogenies. Plucked Paradise. Behold. A manga. All right. I don't know. Were any of those good? Yeah.

[00:42:29] I liked Hell's Fabricant Annihilation Paradise 100 for Mars. Yeah. That's my favorite. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. I really tried. Jordan. What was yours? Yeah. The art can't save this one. No. That's a fact. How about you Finn? I had several. But the one that stands out the most is looks as cool as is confusing. That's pretty good. And then can we all say this is a certified flop? Is that fair? Oh man. The art makes me want to say it isn't. But everything else wants me to say it is. So I'm going to have to say it is. I'd have to agree.

[00:42:58] Unfortunately. Yeah. So Finn. What should someone read instead of this? Oh man. You did say it at the start of the episode. If you want a really cool. If you want a really cool series that's got really, really detailed art and some spooky, weird, funny stuff, go read Bug Ego, which is now out on Shonen Jump. Hell yeah. Hell yeah. I also letter that one. Nice. Jordan, how about you?

[00:43:21] So listener, do you like really confusing stories that jump through time frequently and maybe has and maybe a story that has anthropomorphic rabbits? Well, David Lynch put out a little movie called Inland Empire, which is actually his weirdest movie, which is saying a lot. I remember when I was in art school, I took a class on video and our professor was this Polish guy named C.T. Jasper.

[00:43:50] He had he'd worked with David Lynch and I asked him about that movie and he said, yeah, I think he was on drugs when he made that one. And I was like, well, everybody says that about David. He's like, no, no, that one. I think he was on drugs. So, yeah, that's that's how strange the movie is. And it's also really good and terrifying. So I recommend that. I love it. A lot of it takes place in Philly and a lot of it is in Polish. OK. And then mine is so now that Witch Watch is getting an anime, I no longer need to try and

[00:44:19] get everyone to read it, but everyone should read it. The rest in peace letter and translator of that series. I agree. I love Witch Watch. Everyone should go read and then watch Witch Watch. But my actual recommendation is the Bugle Horn. Are you guys familiar with that series? No. So it's essentially what if it's a mashup of the X-Men and Vinland saga? Ooh. And it's super cool. It's about a war band where some of the people in the war band working for a country have like X-Men style superpowers.

[00:44:45] The main character has the ability to visualize music so he can direct military like operations using his power. Another one has the ability to transfer wounds. And then another one can actually take time from her future to give herself super strength. Hey, David. David, do you mean the Bugle Call? Yeah. It doesn't have an officially translated name or does it? I don't remember. Yes. The Bugle Call. That sounds right. OK. I just want to make sure. Yeah. Let me double check. Yes. The Bugle Call. Jordan's right. Sorry. Fuck that up. I fucked that up.

[00:45:15] It's OK. It's one of those days. I'm very jet lagged. But anyway, it's a great series. Good art. Fun writing. Cool twists. People should go read it. Hell yeah. Jordan, I assume this isn't the worst thing we ever read because at least it's pretty to look at. Yeah, no, this isn't the worst thing we've read. All right. Well, then let's get into wrap up. Finn, thank you so much for joining us today. Where can they get more of you in their lives? I am on the Cursed Hell site Twitter still until servers finally drop where I can't stand it anymore. But you can also find me on Blue Sky and Instagram.

[00:45:43] And you can find me at Macha Finn. I love it. Yeah. And I want to say props to Jordan for making the opening ending theme, being a great co-host and helping with editing. Thank you, David, for everything that you do. No problem. Props to Merlisle for the awesome cover art. Find her online at Lyle Mer and Nigel for being our generous art benefactor. Thank you, Dylan, for assistance with editing. You can find his podcast, Anime Out of Context, at animeoutofcontext.com. Thanks to Talker and Maxie B for assistance with pronunciation, translation, and other miscellaneous research. Thanks, Kalah, for being our social media manager. She just started. She's doing great.

[00:46:13] Hell yeah. Thank you. You can find us on Twitter at ShonaFlopCast. Tumblr, Shona-Flop, and our website, ShonaFlop.com. We're also on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube, wherever else you get your podcast. If you want more weekly David and Jordan content, you can also find us every Friday on the Chainsaw Minute, where we talk about the latest chapter of Chainsaw Man. Yeah. Find it at CSM.Libson.com or wherever you listen to Shona Flop. Come join the Shona Flop Discord. It's open to everyone, patron or not. Hang out with us. Talk about anime games, whatever else is on your mind. We even have a manga book club and movie nights.

[00:46:40] We're also doing a special one with Xander Cannon, where we're talking about his series Sleep. Xander was a guest on our Monster Chamber Girls episode and super awesome, probably best known for Kaiju Max and working on top 10 with Alan Moore. You can find a link to it in the show notes or on our site, ShonaFlop.com. And if you've been enjoying the podcast and it'll help us keep going, subscribe to our Patreon at Patreon.com slash ShonaFlop, along with that warm and fuzzy feeling of helping us out. You also get access to monthly bonus ads, including the Shona Drop, where Jordan and I look back at the previous month's episode and open the mystery box.

[00:47:09] Jordan, what was our bonus episode this month? And what did we talk about for the month of December? Well, David, we covered Hentai Kamen with Shen. Oh, Shen Comics. Yeah, we got him back for that. You know him, Shen Comics. I can't wait. Oh, we had to read the manga about the superhero who puts panties on his face. Yep. That has two movies. Yes, it literally has two fucking movies. Oh, my God.

[00:47:38] Mystery box content was if you had to teach an arts of expression manga class, what would you include? Oh, yeah. David, what does that mean? We're going to find out because we haven't recorded that yet. We haven't recorded yet. And if that's not enough, other perks include picking a manga for us to cover in a main episode, episodes up to a week in advance and behind the scenes content like our warm up audio where we had a very fun topic within all about fonts and, of course, our recording notes. And I want to read off some of our wonderful patrons.

[00:48:06] Starting with our dolphin dads, we have Glorinac, Rachel, my wonderful wife, had a great time going to France with her and getting stuck at the train station. And Sean, how many potatoes would having your baby cost me? Moving on down to the ravioli tier where my adorable goblin dog, and you get weekly photos of her. She missed us so much, even though she went to mom first. We have Chris, Eva, Jeanette Davis, Lady T, Matt, Scarlet Meermanen, T, Tiffany, and Trevor. Moving on down to our king of the forest, we have 090Z, Bandit Stoof, my girlfriend,

[00:48:34] Brad, Chad, Ivan, Jacob, Justin, Kirbymon, Maddie, Marty, Riley, Sarah, T. Wolfoot, and Tommy Boy. And a big thank you to our Galactic Ball Federation officers and our beast children. All right, Jordan, anything you want to toss in? Yeah, check out Mission Ignition. Or don't. Hey! All right, let's get the sign off. Thank you so much for joining us. Tune in next Monday as we give our first thoughts on Yui Camillo. This has been David. This has been Jordan. This has been Finn. And you've been listening to Shonen Flop. Keep on flopping, floppers! Woo!