Based Camp - A Discussion of Anime Tropes (& Anime More Generally)

00:00:00.000 It's just an unreciprocal society and it's a society that doesn't care about you or value.

00:00:06.740 When you get home, you've done all this work and you have a family who is like, why are you home late?

00:00:12.080 And in video games, which is often where people go in easy case, video game worlds, they're worlds with rules.

00:00:21.680 You do X and Y happens.

00:00:24.420 You do Z and F happens every single time.

00:00:30.080 The world is fair.

00:00:31.140 No die role modifier attached.

00:00:34.040 It is a world that feels fair in some way.

00:00:38.600 And I think in the US, Japan is just further along civilizational collapse than we are.

00:00:44.440 Exactly.

00:00:45.220 We're going to be in 10 years or whatever, right?

00:00:48.620 Yeah.

00:00:49.020 If we get there, people feel their lives there are just much less meaningful.

00:00:54.680 And so this sort of return and reward for work is deeply meaningful to them.

00:01:01.540 But I think that there's other reasons why this form of anime has become popular.

00:01:06.280 Would you like to know more?

00:01:08.080 Hello, gorgeous.

00:01:08.840 I know, same time.

00:01:12.480 Well, hello, Simone. 0.84

00:01:14.040 So we were talking about something and you spontaneously had this idea, which just enchanted me because I think you might be right.

00:01:23.020 And sometimes when we're looking at the world, there's these little nagging questions which persist beyond reality where it's like, what on earth is going on here?

00:01:34.680 You know, you're talking about a big one with sexuality, I'd say is why is it that gay males and straight males are more likely to find the opposite gender repellent than gay versus straight females?

00:01:53.140 That's where we can say something is going on here and we can use these sorts of persistent differences or unusual patterns to suss out deeper things that are going on within a population.

00:02:06.340 Now, in anime, there are actually many of these.

00:02:11.640 And in Japan, there are many of these.

00:02:13.720 So our audience may not know this, but my wife was born in Japan and she spent a lot of her childhood going to Japan to trips and stuff like that.

00:02:24.520 You know, for her, it was sort of like her home away from home.

00:02:27.280 And her middle name is actually Haruko.

00:02:29.460 So we even have a Japanese middle name.

00:02:31.880 And one, so we're going to go over a few different questions that we've seen sort of persistently in anime.

00:02:38.740 And I'll go over the three that I know we're going to cover and then we might come up with some others.

00:02:42.980 The first one is, why are, what's the way to say this?

00:02:50.840 It won't get the video.

00:02:52.100 Why do females who phenotypically present as youth appear in specific situations within anime where if they were presenting that way in live action within most Western countries, 0.90

00:03:11.980 everyone would literally immediately be arrested.

00:03:15.400 Yeah, it would be super illegal.

00:03:17.820 Why is this such a normalized thing within anime?

00:03:22.880 That is question number one.

00:03:25.080 And I would point out that as time has gone on, I have seen this more and more within high production anime.

00:03:33.960 To the point now where it's just almost totally normalized.

00:03:37.380 Mainstream.

00:03:38.180 Where it would be almost a little weird if it didn't appear even once in an anime.

00:03:42.960 It would be like an anime without an episode where they go to the...

00:03:47.360 Beach or onsen.

00:03:48.680 The onsen or the hot springs or the beach episode, you know.

00:03:52.660 It's just a thing, right?

00:03:54.440 If I saw a harem comedy and one of the characters wasn't, ooh, you know, I'd be like, okay, what's going on here?

00:04:01.520 Oh, note here.

00:04:02.220 A harem comedy is anime where a number of women are all interested in one man.

00:04:07.640 It does not surprise me why anyone would find that interesting, but that's nothing.

00:04:11.360 So then the next question we have is why does so much anime take place in high schools?

00:04:19.780 This is a very interesting question because you do not see any other art form across any other culture I'm aware of.

00:04:27.120 Almost all of it only takes place during one stage of an individual's life.

00:04:30.500 Right, yeah.

00:04:31.440 And especially none where it's their high school age.

00:04:34.740 And then the final question is what is going on?

00:04:39.240 This actually came from a comment.

00:04:40.600 I personally wouldn't find this to be that interesting a question, but it may have interesting answers.

00:04:45.160 What is going on with all the Eisekei anime?

00:04:47.200 That's anime where people are transported to another world.

00:04:50.160 Why is this a popular genre right now?

00:04:53.000 All right, so let's go to the first question.

00:04:55.240 You had an idea that sprung to you one day, and I think it may be accurate.

00:05:01.060 Yeah, so we were watching an anime in which there's a dynamic like this.

00:05:04.880 It's basically where like a salaryman wakes up in fantasy video game world and then, you know, ends up in one of these relationships.

00:05:14.660 And I think most people make the least charitable interpretation of these types of relationships and why people are interested in them.

00:05:20.520 Last night we were watching this anime called My Unique Skill Makes Me OP Even at Level 1, where this salaryman basically wakes up in a video game world and starts befriending people.

00:05:30.800 And if we go further with the anime explanation, I want to explain what makes it such a unique anime from a watching it perspective.

00:05:38.720 And it is so clearly just a desperate fantasy of what if life wasn't terrible in every single angle of the anime that it breaks down many ideas to much more simplistic tropes than they would normally be broken down into.

00:06:00.580 It's not a particularly good anime or anything like that, or funny anime or anything like that, but it is notable in its simplicity and honesty with what it's trying to do.

00:06:12.960 So continue with what you're saying.

00:06:15.340 Right. So the main character immediately makes a friend and the friend he makes is phenotypically very...

00:06:25.580 Phenotypically presents as a young human female.

00:06:28.560 Yes. And you expect to make the least charitable interpretation of why viewers would be interested in this kind of relationship, which is precisely why you expect if this were all to be live action, that it would be highly illegal.

00:06:41.900 However, the more we watched the show and we saw the dynamics of their relationship play out, the more I came to realize, one, this show is the fantasy of a beleaguered salaryman.

00:06:52.940 I mean, careers in Japan are famously brutal.

00:06:56.640 The hours you're expected to work, the unpaid overtime you're expected to work, the long nights drinking.

00:07:01.420 It is a toxic work culture.

00:07:04.080 And this is the fantasy of not being in that work culture and also being appreciated for your work and being really good at your work and getting things done all the time.

00:07:11.500 It's sort of just this fantasy of everything but the Japanese work culture that still pervades the nation. 0.95

00:07:18.700 And when you look at what's happening in his life, it's to me a picture of what people, what humans in Japan would like life to look like.

00:07:28.480 And it's not this untoward type of relationship I think people would expect it to be.

00:07:34.240 I think it's actually cosplaying as a parent, but that Japan lacks the cultural shorthand for a man wanting to be a parent.

00:07:43.520 And so instead, it manifests as this perverse type of relationship or is kind of implied to be that perverse type of relationship when like really maybe the trope that is being played out in many of these animes with these phenotypically, what is it?

00:08:01.920 Use the word.

00:08:02.800 Use the word that's safe for monetization.

00:08:06.680 Phenotypically, youthfully presenting females.

00:08:09.540 Yes, maybe all the animes with these tropes are really more playing on the audience's desire to be a parent and to take care of young people and to raise people and experience the satisfaction of taking care of someone who loves you and appreciates you and admires you.

00:08:26.580 And that reminded me a lot of an anime, I think it's called something like Lotte, L-O-T-T-E.

00:08:33.040 Okay.

00:08:33.560 Um, where, uh, one of these characters that you're talking about is a succubus, um, and...

00:08:40.980 So you, you would also totally not, um, charitably interpret that because they're a succubus.

00:08:45.920 Well, no, and it's clear that, that the relationship is, yes, while there are like, obviously it's a very questionable relationship, but it is very focused on fathering her.

00:08:57.900 And there is actually sort of a sub-genre of, I'd call it father animes, where it's about a guy who either somehow gets attached to a young girl or takes on a fatherly role.

00:09:13.100 But often these have, to me, slightly questionable things going on in them.

00:09:16.940 Oh, like the anime in which the, the guy's hand becomes a little girl.

00:09:21.360 Wait, which one is that?

00:09:22.780 You don't know about that?

00:09:23.680 No.

00:09:24.320 And becomes girl.

00:09:26.100 This is, I swear to you, this is a thing.

00:09:28.300 But this sort of pure dad is, being a dad is awesome show is not one we have in the U.S.

00:09:36.900 Yes.

00:09:37.360 So the, the series is called Midori Days, which follows Seji Samawura, who one day finds his right hand replaced with a girl named Midori Kasugano.

00:09:47.480 So what I think is going on here, and so I'm going to say, I don't think that every show that has a character like this is doing this.

00:09:54.400 Agreed.

00:09:54.700 I think that there is a broad differentiation.

00:09:57.520 When it's a harem comedy, that, or, or just a harem show, I guess you could call it, where the conflict or plot is primarily around a large group of girls dating a guy.

00:10:07.180 It appears that it is actually about, um, the bad thing.

00:10:13.320 The bad thing.

00:10:14.600 However, when the core relationship of the show is one of these types of relationships, it's often played out much more about it. 0.70

00:10:25.540 We're talking about like the instinct it's masturbating. 0.71

00:10:27.680 It is being a good father. 0.96

00:10:29.560 Yeah.

00:10:29.740 It's, it's parenting.

00:10:30.540 And this is what I actually think.

00:10:31.920 I think it may be that Japan has become such a parenting and child devoid culture, essentially such an antinatalist or anatalist culture. 0.94

00:10:39.520 That many of the people actually creating these enemies and playing out these relationships think they're doing the bad thing.

00:10:46.860 Like they think they're pandering to the bad thing, but subconsciously they're pandering to a desire to raise children and be a parent.

00:10:53.620 Which is like deeply sad.

00:10:54.880 Yeah, but no, doesn't it kind of resonate?

00:10:57.280 Doesn't that kind of make sense?

00:10:58.460 And here's another thing that I've noticed in the genre of shows where a dad has to be a good dad to a girl that, you know, it's always that the girl is thrust upon him.

00:11:10.840 Almost never in any of the ones I can think of that he has her biologically.

00:11:14.460 Yeah.

00:11:14.560 It's usually that he got her through a marriage or through who he was dating or randomly was abandoned by her family.

00:11:21.660 A great recent example of one of these shows is Spy Family.

00:11:25.260 Yeah.

00:11:26.200 Although keep in mind, again, in Japanese culture, the parenting culture is also very toxic. 0.99

00:11:30.820 And typically in the culture, the mother does all of the child rearing, just all of it. 0.99

00:11:35.100 So also I think it's, you know, if a man wants to actually raise a kid, there is no existing cultural trope for that.

00:11:42.680 Like they have to be foisted upon them in some strange situation because there would be no normal situation in which they would be involved in child rearing.

00:11:49.820 Yeah, I think you're right.

00:11:52.260 And I think that, and also it can be like, there's certain things that people don't want to admit to themselves given their cultural norms.

00:11:59.780 It might be that wanting to be a dad is actually a harder thing to admit to oneself.

00:12:07.060 Like wanting to be a good father and failing at it, either because you were stuck at an office all day or because you were never able to find a partner.

00:12:15.820 Or failing at that is harder to admit to oneself than failing to, you know, secure one of these bad relationships.

00:12:24.280 It is also so high stakes.

00:12:26.040 Wanting to become a dad, if you screw up, if you don't do it right, it's, I think it's a much scarier thing even to aspire to, frankly, because of this is a human life.

00:12:35.460 You can screw up pretty much anything else, a marriage, a career.

00:12:38.820 And in the end, you're not that bad of a person, but if you screw up an entire additional human's life that you created, like.

00:12:45.420 An entire additional human life.

00:12:47.540 I mean, it's true though.

00:12:50.200 So I like the theory.

00:12:51.940 I don't think it's right everywhere.

00:12:53.820 No.

00:12:53.980 But I think it's right a number of times because I definitely see it.

00:12:57.800 Like in the anime that we were talking about, the first one that we're watching right now, their relationship isn't really sexualized at all.

00:13:05.060 Like sort of background is implied that they're like dating or something.

00:13:09.360 Like he invites her to live in his house immediately.

00:13:11.960 Remember?

00:13:13.000 Yeah.

00:13:13.680 Again, I think what's going on is creators assume that they're doing the bad thing, but what they really want is the good thing.

00:13:20.120 Because also consider how asexual Japan is. 0.69

00:13:22.880 So it's both like really sexual and that there's prostitution and there's, you know, obviously like all this anime with fan service.

00:13:29.860 Like it is obviously a very, it's a much more sexually free nation in some ways, but then also it's a very sexless nation.

00:13:37.040 So I think that many people think, they just assume that some feeling they have is a sexual perversion instead of a like wholesome instinct.

00:13:45.240 Again, I think that's what's going on here.

00:13:46.700 But the anime's core thing that it is masturbating in an individual is just somebody appreciates me for the work I'm doing.

00:13:55.280 And admires me and I can do good work.

00:13:57.720 Yeah.

00:13:58.160 I'm doing work to support this surrogate family and they, and, and, and the work, when I put effort into it actually yields reward.

00:14:06.500 Like it actually works.

00:14:07.800 It actually works.

00:14:08.740 It yields rewards.

00:14:09.740 I come home and the family appreciates me and gives me homemade food.

00:14:13.660 We really don't need that much to be happy.

00:14:15.840 And we're not even getting that.

00:14:17.460 Well, it's so sad that that's the fantasy, that this is this impossible otherworldly fantasy.

00:14:25.320 And, and this actually might bring us into why Izeke shows are popular more broadly.

00:14:29.940 And I think that you can see that from this anime is, and it's, it's sort of spelled out explicitly in this anime that in our world, in the real world, he can work as much as he wants.

00:14:40.380 He can end up, you know, falling asleep at his desk, doing overpaid work at his office every single night.

00:14:45.380 And he may still be randomly fired.

00:14:47.500 He may not get a promotion.

00:14:49.420 He may, you know, there's, there's no assurances.

00:14:52.340 It's, it's like you're grinding, like you would in a game, but there is no payoff and everything is systemically unfair.

00:15:00.400 You know, you try to do the good thing.

00:15:02.240 There's opportunities to do the good thing in an office, you know, take responsibility for something, for some other person not being punished.

00:15:08.100 But you don't do it because realistically, you know, you're just going to end up getting punished for that.

00:15:13.020 The other person really has no position to help you because you help them.

00:15:16.620 It's just an unreciprocal society, and it's a society that doesn't care about you or value.

00:15:23.760 When you get home, you've done all this work, and you have a family who is like, why are you home late?

00:15:29.100 You know, and in video games, which is often where people go in easy case, video game worlds, they're worlds with rules.

00:15:38.720 You do X and Y happens.

00:15:41.440 You do Z and F happens every single time.

00:15:46.620 The world is fair.

00:15:48.160 Or at least there's a known die role modifier attached.

00:15:51.040 Yeah.

00:15:51.360 It is a world that feels fair in some way.

00:15:55.660 And I think in the U.S., Japan is just further along civilizational collapse than we are.

00:16:01.460 Exactly.

00:16:02.240 We're going to be in 10 years or whatever, right?

00:16:05.620 Yeah.

00:16:06.040 If we get there.

00:16:06.660 People feel their lives there are just much less meaningful.

00:16:11.720 And so this sort of return and reward for work is deeply meaningful to them.

00:16:18.560 But I think that there's other reasons why this form of anime has become popular.

00:16:23.100 I think that the biggest is unfortunately a pretty boring one.

00:16:27.060 So occasionally when there are shifts in media or how the USA receives anime, the animes that are popular within that exact cycle of anime become quote unquote classics, even if they're not particularly better than other anime or something like that.

00:16:43.300 You're saying isekai animes, because of their genre, are just more likely to be globally popular?

00:16:48.600 I'll explain.

00:16:49.720 This takes a bit of explanation historically.

00:16:51.660 Okay.

00:16:52.120 Yeah.

00:16:52.260 So in the U.S., if you're talking about really famous animes that became popular because of this, you could say, what were the first animes that were really translated and distributed in the U.S.?

00:17:03.400 You are looking at Dragon Ball Z and you are looking at Sailor Moon.

00:17:08.520 Sailor Moon.

00:17:09.100 Yeah.

00:17:09.640 And those are both seen as like these really important big animes.

00:17:13.480 But it's really just because they were animes that came out when the very first animes were being translated.

00:17:19.420 So a lot of people were engaging with them.

00:17:21.560 What anime was the big anime the first year where you had Crunchyroll and streaming being big in the U.S.?

00:17:28.200 This was in the early days of all this where people were really getting into streaming.

00:17:32.360 Well, this was an anime called Sword Art Online, which was an isekai anime.

00:17:36.680 And because of its popularity, many people engaged with anime through the lens of this genre.

00:17:47.100 And it artificially inflated the popularity of the genre.

00:17:50.540 So I hate to say it, but that's what's going on there.

00:17:54.000 I don't necessarily agree, but good theory.

00:17:57.180 Okay.

00:17:57.560 But there's another thing that I think is really important with this, which is also that it is a very good genre for getting across.

00:18:10.900 So it's a very, just a good genre for a few reasons in terms of storytelling.

00:18:16.360 One, it makes it very easy to explain to people who are in our universe, you and me, the rules of a different universe.

00:18:24.400 Because they are getting to figure out these rules through another individual.

00:18:30.620 And that makes perfect sense.

00:18:32.300 Okay, you want to explain rules in a way that someone in our universe could understand.

00:18:35.980 Well, isekai anime would be a perfect way to do that.

00:18:38.680 Two, they often last over an individual's lifetime.

00:18:43.040 Or they're much more likely to last over an individual's lifetime than other types of anime.

00:18:47.160 Often, this comes with the death, birth, gross trope.

00:18:50.220 And yet, that's actually pretty rare in a lot of other formats of storytelling.

00:18:56.720 Yet, it can be pretty impactful when you see major life milestones of an individual and you get to know them better.

00:19:04.660 By the way, if anyone's wondering what my favorite isekai anime is, it is The Familiar Zero.

00:19:09.940 That's a great anime.

00:19:11.300 But anyway, so what was I going to say?

00:19:14.580 I think I disagree in terms of what has made them so popular.

00:19:18.000 I just think people hate the real world.

00:19:20.960 You know, the same reason why in Japan you see all this isekai anime is for the same reason why you see all this escapist, zombie apocalypse stuff in the United States.

00:19:32.380 But why not just do generic fantasy then?

00:19:35.380 So in the U.S., when you're creating a fantasy world, you don't often have somebody from our world randomly put in.

00:19:40.600 Yeah, but it's super.

00:19:41.480 An American form of escapism is doomerism and prepism.

00:19:44.940 It's like culturally our thing.

00:19:46.660 Whereas in Japan, escapism is like through digital means of video games.

00:19:51.380 I just think it's like sort of the outlet that we go to, the de facto outlet.

00:19:56.300 I would argue more Americans play video games and would identify themselves as gamers than preppers.

00:20:02.380 I will say that you are right that an American genre that is much more popular here than in other countries due to our culture is the fantasy of the world falls apart and you are prepared and dealing with it.

00:20:14.500 Yeah.

00:20:15.240 And that is not as popular in other...

00:20:17.680 Actually, really interesting.

00:20:18.780 I also think Japan is more in terms of the games that you see coming out of it. 0.99

00:20:23.460 Although I'm way less well-versed on this shit. 0.99

00:20:26.220 They are more... 0.98

00:20:27.040 Japan produces more fantasy games, whereas like stuff like Fallout and first-person shooter games are more likely to come out from American game designers.

00:20:35.720 So I think you're also, again, you're missing...

00:20:38.040 Yeah, video games are big in America, but they're also survivalist, doomerism war, zombie apocalypse video games.

00:20:44.200 Yeah, I was roughly thinking to what you were saying when you're talking about zombie apocalypse, where even the fantasy of a zombie apocalypse is often quite different in Japan than ZOM 100, right?

00:20:52.480 That has much more of an izake fantasy.

00:20:56.420 Are we...

00:20:56.880 Are you talking about the one where the guy hates his job?

00:20:59.500 The guy is an office worker and he's...

00:21:01.680 Okay, yeah.

00:21:02.300 So yeah, in Japan, zombie apocalypse is, oh my God, I don't have to do my job anymore.

00:21:08.040 What's my bucket list now that we're in a zombie apocalypse?

00:21:10.540 I'm going to go on a road trip.

00:21:11.940 I'm going to go to an onsen.

00:21:13.460 Whereas like in America, it's, oh, we've got to survive.

00:21:16.280 We've got to like reinforce.

00:21:17.660 We've got to move to family.

00:21:18.800 You know what I mean?

00:21:19.420 Like it is...

00:21:19.940 I think it's a cultural thing.

00:21:20.940 I think I'm right here.

00:21:21.740 No, I mean, I think you are right as well.

00:21:25.560 Okay, okay, okay.

00:21:27.200 So the next question is, what is going on with all the high school shows?

00:21:31.940 Why is anime so frequently told through the perspective of a high school?

00:21:37.820 Yeah, yeah.

00:21:38.560 It's like you would think that in Japan, there are no adults.

00:21:42.620 It's just children in high school always. 0.98

00:21:44.840 Yeah, I think a lot of that's because life after high school just sucks so hard.

00:21:51.740 In Japan and lacks like meaning and cultural celebration, which I think also plays a role

00:21:59.780 in antinatalism, you know, and that like adults aren't really celebrated.

00:22:04.500 All adults really do is work and then die.

00:22:07.400 So what's the point?

00:22:09.840 Whereas high school has a lot of weight in Japan and is also very heavily culturally celebrated.

00:22:15.560 I mean, one, there's a huge amount of investment that goes into children's education.

00:22:19.500 So at every stage in life, if you're a parent, you're like obsessed with your kid's education.

00:22:23.720 If you're a kid, you're obsessed with your education because you're forced to be.

00:22:27.080 And then, you know, there's this just like the narrative arc around it is so meaningful,

00:22:31.460 but that the exams you take in, you know, in middle school to get into high school are so,

00:22:36.520 so freaking important.

00:22:37.220 And then your life in high school is so important because the exams you use to get into college,

00:22:40.660 you're going to determine which social class you're in and your entire life or the,

00:22:43.820 you know, everything after that.

00:22:44.780 It's just so weighty.

00:22:46.300 And there are all the narratives around that.

00:22:48.260 So then it's, it's just hard to even create a story around post high school life because

00:22:53.420 there is no focus.

00:22:54.980 There's no cultural obsession around that.

00:22:57.520 Yeah.

00:22:57.660 I'll be honest.

00:22:58.160 When I see animes that are about post high school life, they're usually pretty depressing.

00:23:02.280 Yeah.

00:23:02.520 But usually the focus of them is how terrible it is.

00:23:06.140 Well, yeah.

00:23:06.680 Or they're the isekai anime where it's just about, oh, I'm not an adult anymore.

00:23:12.220 Like, I'm a kid.

00:23:13.520 I'm a fan of the...

00:23:13.820 Oh, that's an interesting point.

00:23:15.140 Iseke animes often take people who are adults. 0.99

00:23:18.200 Adults, yeah.

00:23:18.680 So another thing that I would note about this that I think is really telling is when I look

00:23:26.120 at Western shows, and we talked about this in our episode of, you know, you already live

00:23:30.100 in the perfect world, uh, in the Western concept of a fantasy, you are typically working with

00:23:36.240 like a meaningfully diverse group of people to in some way save the world or prevent the

00:23:41.380 world from collapsing to do something that matters.

00:23:44.220 Um, and we have tropes where we understand what it is like to do something that matters.

00:23:52.520 I wonder if in Japanese society, there isn't even a trope of an adult living a life that

00:23:59.620 matters unless they were born of like a specific caste.

00:24:02.940 There is.

00:24:03.380 Yeah.

00:24:03.540 If you're a samurai, if you're a ninja.

00:24:06.320 Oh, and they do have a lot of shows around that.

00:24:08.860 But if you're not like a samurai or a ninja.

00:24:11.440 You can't like, basically, if you live in the modern world.

00:24:16.240 No.

00:24:17.660 I mean, I guess in, oh God, what was the one about that?

00:24:20.720 Oh, Death Note.

00:24:22.120 But like, everyone's kind of a kid still, even though they're like both a detective.

00:24:25.080 Well, but isn't, I mean, I mean, yeah, they are like, well, they're, but they're working

00:24:31.240 for police departments, except for the, the one really smart guy, but he's high school

00:24:35.320 aged.

00:24:36.900 Yeah.

00:24:37.640 Yeah.

00:24:38.000 I guess because the other characters, I think like they even find it at a high school or

00:24:41.760 something.

00:24:42.820 Yeah.

00:24:43.320 Hold on.

00:24:43.820 I'm going to check right now.

00:24:45.020 Cause I'm pretty sure you're wrong about that.

00:24:46.540 I'm really.

00:24:47.280 Oh, because I guess there are also like fantasy anime.

00:24:50.980 Like, what about the one with like police and ghosts or something that you were watching

00:24:55.600 the other day?

00:24:56.860 17 years old is how old they are.

00:24:58.620 He's 17.

00:24:59.840 Almost an adult.

00:25:01.340 But what about the one about like police that you were watching the other day?

00:25:05.000 So it's, it's people, this was something about exercising curses and curses were like

00:25:10.260 representative demon things.

00:25:11.540 I was just watching the background.

00:25:12.740 So I guess again, only fantasy worlds are only historical.

00:25:15.260 Like samurai.

00:25:16.000 They are drawn a bit older looking, but yeah, they're still in an academy.

00:25:21.740 It's a.

00:25:22.400 Oh, wait.

00:25:22.660 So wait, wait, even in this adult, like adult police force world where they're putting their

00:25:26.120 lives on the line, they're still in high school.

00:25:28.080 Yeah.

00:25:28.240 They're in a school.

00:25:29.080 They're in a school for killing curses or demons basically.

00:25:32.620 And yeah.

00:25:32.880 You just can't have adults be adults unless they're leaving their adult life.

00:25:36.920 Yeah.

00:25:37.240 I just, I just think, you know, life sucks that hard as an adult in Japan, which, which I

00:25:42.440 don't know.

00:25:42.800 I think Japan is awesome.

00:25:44.300 I love it.

00:25:45.000 I love the food.

00:25:45.740 I love the culture.

00:25:47.160 Oh, well, I'll give some other anime recommendations here.

00:25:50.580 I've loved.

00:25:51.540 So another Izuke that I, I, I've thought was pretty good was shield hero.

00:25:55.840 I just really identify with the main character in that, which is if you go through hardship,

00:26:00.320 you sort of end up overleveled when you didn't meet with people again, who were supposed to

00:26:04.480 be gifted or privileged.

00:26:06.540 Um, I thought you really liked what demon slayer as well.

00:26:09.520 Right.

00:26:09.860 Was that what it was called?

00:26:11.240 Goblin slayer. 0.60

00:26:13.320 The really dark one.

00:26:14.820 Which one?

00:26:15.820 About the guy who just kills goblins.

00:26:18.320 Oh God.

00:26:19.000 I love goblin slayer. 0.99

00:26:20.500 Goblin slayer. 0.60

00:26:22.040 Culturally, no anime speaks to me as much as that.

00:26:24.680 I'm like, this is my culture represented in anime.

00:26:28.000 I, I have never felt so spoken to.

00:26:32.320 Personality wise, no anime, no anime speaks to you as much as Food Wars, which is just

00:26:39.800 personality wise, the most mountain anime.

00:26:41.520 Oh, personality wise.

00:26:42.660 That's definitely my favorite.

00:26:43.520 My favorite anime of all time.

00:26:44.920 My favorite show media piece of all time might be Food Wars.

00:26:48.620 I also really like Demon King Domino.

00:26:51.000 That one, I really feel a lot of kinship with the character.

00:26:54.380 That's the one where the guy wants to be the Pope, but he is foretold to be the demon

00:26:59.660 king.

00:27:00.200 Oh, that one's cute.

00:27:01.380 Well, and you also really like that anime where everyone's way too smart and the man's

00:27:04.920 really sad.

00:27:05.540 Oh, I love that one.

00:27:06.840 That one is called Code Geass.

00:27:08.480 Code Geass.

00:27:09.440 Yes.

00:27:10.100 Vern Loggin, though.

00:27:11.040 I also really like.

00:27:12.240 So these are, these are a few.

00:27:13.940 Code Geass.

00:27:14.900 Shout out to who's that really sad character.

00:27:18.860 Oh gosh.

00:27:19.860 The one who just killed you. 0.68

00:27:20.920 Rufo or something.

00:27:22.040 His name is like Hart or something, or he's like a bad guy, but then he becomes obsessed

00:27:26.080 with the main character and he can stop time.

00:27:27.840 You just feel really bad for him.

00:27:29.400 You just feel really bad for the bad guy.

00:27:31.000 Yeah.

00:27:31.540 You just, you feel terrible.

00:27:33.160 Remy.

00:27:33.520 You just feel terrible for everyone in Code Geass, but I, I, I like it generally.

00:27:37.840 Miserable smart people, the movie.

00:27:39.720 Oh, and by the way, anyone who's watching Code Geass and thinks it's all you need, it's

00:27:43.520 a ripoff of Dune, by the way, for people who don't know that.

00:27:46.280 You really think it's a ripoff of Dune?

00:27:49.040 It's more fun because it takes place in a high school.

00:27:50.880 Maybe I think it's better in high school.

00:27:52.540 But he's clearly.

00:27:53.720 You know, if Dune, if Dune were all in high school, I bet it would be better.

00:27:56.780 I mean, the, the answer at the end of the show, spoilers, by the way, is the God Emperor

00:28:00.800 of Dune answer, which again is what we talk about in our world as well.

00:28:04.660 That that's the, the, the, the, the, uh, virus that's controlling society right now is acting

00:28:09.000 like a God Emperor that is uniting all of these factions that never would have united

00:28:12.900 before.

00:28:14.520 Yeah.

00:28:15.280 Yeah.

00:28:15.580 Well, well, we're curious to know if there are any anime that we should be checking out.

00:28:19.480 Let us know in the comments because we, we basically are too cheap to pay for any other

00:28:23.280 subscription.

00:28:24.560 We don't have HBO, but we do have Crunchyroll.

00:28:28.740 Yeah, please help us.

00:28:31.440 And, and this, this pains me because I know I'm funding the people who made, what was

00:28:36.520 that?

00:28:37.080 We love them.

00:28:37.900 It's fine.

00:28:39.080 No, Crunchyroll is really, they made this thing where they put all the money that people

00:28:43.660 were giving them.

00:28:44.860 Sorry.

00:28:45.400 I got to remember.

00:28:46.240 High Guardian Spice.

00:28:48.080 I've never heard of this before.

00:28:49.740 Well, because they tried to hide that they had done this afterwards where they told people

00:28:53.760 that they were sending money to anime creators, but they actually hoarded the money and then

00:28:57.300 used it to create a Western animated show that was like the most woke show in the world.

00:29:02.000 Everyone working on it was like a 500 pound woman with blue hair. 1.00

00:29:06.360 You know, it was the worst and it showed how little they regarded their fans.

00:29:12.420 People would say, well, why aren't I pirating things?

00:29:14.080 Because we like watching it on the TV at dinner.

00:29:16.280 Okay.

00:29:16.960 Yeah.

00:29:17.220 We have one of those evil TVs that only allows you to go in through like legitimate logins

00:29:22.120 because it was not that I would pirate things.

00:29:24.260 I'm not saying I would ever do that.

00:29:25.520 I need to be very clear.

00:29:26.520 You would never.

00:29:27.320 You would never.

00:29:27.840 Because I wouldn't consider it.

00:29:29.760 Of course.

00:29:30.580 Of course.

00:29:31.280 Obviously.

00:29:32.180 Yeah.

00:29:33.580 But yeah, guys, let us know.

00:29:35.300 And yeah, I enjoyed this conversation.

00:29:37.160 Who knew that watching anime would lead to so much contemplation about culture, but

00:29:42.420 I guess we all knew that.

00:29:44.820 Yeah.

00:29:45.140 Well, and I think it can help us be grateful, you know, even watching this anime where the

00:29:50.040 escapism is that he comes home and he has a grateful woman there who has made food for

00:29:56.460 him and cares that he has gone out and worked during the day.

00:29:58.980 And that is something that I already have.

00:30:01.420 So I already live in his weird fantasy heaven.

00:30:05.120 And now I'm in the post game.

00:30:07.040 And I appreciate that you have created that for me, Simone.

00:30:11.500 Genuinely, I do.

00:30:12.960 By the way, it's Rolo.

00:30:14.320 Shout out to Rolo.

00:30:15.360 I'm so sorry, Rolo.

00:30:16.900 Someone loves you, Rolo.

00:30:18.720 I'm sorry.

00:30:19.020 He was evil, though.

00:30:20.000 He kind of deserved it.

00:30:21.180 So you knew that the show was going to let him suffer.

00:30:25.320 Someone needed to put him out of his misery.

00:30:27.260 But yeah, poor Rolo. 1.00

00:30:28.640 Fuck. 1.00

00:30:29.740 Yeah. 1.00

00:30:30.480 All right.

00:30:31.400 All right.

00:30:31.920 Oh, wait.

00:30:32.560 You didn't even mention that one studio, Studio Trigger, that you love.

00:30:39.020 Oh, yeah.

00:30:39.340 I love a lot of things.

00:30:40.600 Panty, Stocking, and Garter Belt is one of my favorites that they've done.

00:30:45.260 And what about Horse Green?

00:30:46.980 Oh, Pretty Derby.

00:30:48.140 Best anime ever.

00:30:49.020 If I was going to give another anime recommendation, it'd be High School of the Dead.

00:30:52.460 I think it's the best zombie thing ever created.

00:30:55.040 But I just, I think there needs to be a special shout out for anime that has just ridiculous

00:31:00.420 premises and Pretty Derby, which is an anime about a bunch of-

00:31:04.740 But it's not that entertaining.

00:31:06.000 It's like, fine.

00:31:07.020 It's not.

00:31:07.500 But the fact that someone was like, you know, it would be a great idea.

00:31:11.020 Let's make an anime in which girls are horses. 1.00

00:31:14.480 There are horse girls. 1.00

00:31:15.400 And they run in races.

00:31:16.240 And they're like, based off of real horses.

00:31:18.280 And therefore, we can't like-

00:31:20.280 Well, that's why it's not.

00:31:22.060 So people might not know this, but it's actually pretty rare in Japan to see.

00:31:26.940 So what they, they created this anime based on real famous racehorses.

00:31:31.700 And it's actually pretty rare to see it, like H made of it. 0.74

00:31:37.720 And the reason is, is because some of these are like dead, like real horses from horse racing.

00:31:43.760 And many of them are owned by the Yakuza who have an emotional attachment to the horses 0.92

00:31:47.920 that the characters in the show are based on.

00:31:50.040 And so you would not risk creating anything.

00:31:54.140 You do not sully that.

00:31:56.100 Yeah, you can't, you can't rule 63, the Yakuza's favorite horse.

00:31:59.420 But I was going to have one recommendation for what I think might be the best piece of

00:32:03.860 media ever created.

00:32:05.000 It is Food Wars.

00:32:06.580 We talked about it before.

00:32:07.640 I suggest people start on season two.

00:32:09.860 It's, it gets into the good stuff better, like immediately.

00:32:12.940 Just to let people know the premise of Food Wars, of course, it takes place in a high school,

00:32:16.780 but it is a high school that is very prestigious and is a food academy.

00:32:20.180 And the primary like plot point of the academy is food challenges.

00:32:26.120 So just think Iron Chef.

00:32:27.900 But with students and with fan service.

00:32:31.220 It's sort of like the Naruto arc where it's a school and they're fighting to show how good

00:32:35.440 they are, except the whole thing is done with creative food battles.

00:32:38.300 They're like My Hero Academia.

00:32:39.660 Yeah.

00:32:40.000 But the food battles are great because there are two things that are great about them.

00:32:42.800 One is people are making really genuinely gourmet food and you're learning a lot about really

00:32:47.380 obscure culinary practices.

00:32:49.700 So you're actually getting really good at cooking and very informed as a gourmand as you watch

00:32:54.120 the show, but then second, the reactions that characters have to eating very good dishes

00:33:00.480 involves a lot of fan service.

00:33:01.940 And for those not familiar with anime, fan service is where people jiggly, but it's jiggly.

00:33:06.540 The humor, it tugs at you.

00:33:08.680 Like I laugh and cry.

00:33:10.580 And almost.

00:33:10.960 Yeah.

00:33:11.180 You tear up at the episodes.

00:33:13.320 No, it definitely like it gets so much better than Ratatouille.

00:33:16.880 It's like Ratatouille of Ratatouille is good.

00:33:18.460 Oh, actually, another one that I had forgotten, Beastars is fantastic.

00:33:24.400 Beastars is like Zootopia, but if there were actual systemic differences between the analogs

00:33:30.740 for people of different ethnic groups.

00:33:32.440 Yeah.

00:33:32.640 And if you wanted to come away from every episode feeling like life is pointless and you

00:33:35.960 want to die.

00:33:37.180 You got sad. 0.98

00:33:38.820 It's sad.

00:33:39.720 Yeah.

00:33:39.880 I need food wars. 1.00

00:33:40.660 I need food wars. 1.00

00:33:41.260 We have to move on, Simone.

00:33:42.980 I love you, Malcolm.

00:33:44.240 Goodbye.

00:33:44.300 I love you.

00:33:46.060 Have a great time.

00:33:47.600 You too.

Based Camp - October 17, 2023

A Discussion of Anime Tropes (& Anime More Generally)

Episode Stats

Summary

Transcript