Zealots of Nerd Entertainment
Zealots of Nerd Entertainment
Zatch Bell: The Emotional Depths and Hidden Gems of 2000s Anime
Ever wondered how a goofy anime about magical battles turned into an emotional rollercoaster? Join us as we explore the captivating world of "Zatch Bell," an anime and manga series that cleverly combines humor, action, and deep emotional themes. We'll break down the Mamodo battles, where 100 mystical creatures land on Earth every 1,000 years to duke it out for the throne, guided by their human partners and spell books. You'll meet Zatch and Kiyo, an unlikely duo with contrasting personalities, and we'll explore how their journey to end these cruel battles brings out the best in each other. Plus, get to know memorable characters like Brago with his gravity powers, and why the manga-exclusive King's Festival deserves its moment in the animated spotlight.
Feeling nostalgic for the early 2000s, the golden age of anime? We compare "Zatch Bell" and "Medabots," two gems that never quite got the recognition they deserved. We'll discuss how "Zatch Bell" evolved from its whimsical beginnings into a compelling narrative and ponder how it might have fared better if released today. Drawing parallels with "Medabots," we reflect on its unique charm and unfortunate decline, sharing personal stories of how these shows impacted our childhoods. The early 2000s were truly a magical time for anime, and we can't help but imagine what could have been if these series had reached their full potential.
Get ready for a broader critique and analysis of animated shows and video games that might just blow your mind. From the surprising maturity and dark themes of "The Amazing World of Gumball" to the underrated humor and intricate spell mechanics of "Zatch Bell," we'll leave no stone unturned. We'll also critique the pacing and content structure of modern series, comparing them to long-running giants like "One Piece" and "Naruto." Wrapping up, we explore the entertainment industry's highs and lows, from movie critiques to video game comparisons, and share our hopes for future adaptations of iconic series. This episode is a rollercoaster of pop culture insights, gaming opinions, and candid discussions that you won't want to miss!
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DISCLAIMER: The thoughts and opinions shared within are those of the speaker. We encourage everyone to do their own research and to experience the content mentioned at your own volition. We try not to reveal spoilers to those who are not up to speed, but in case some slips out, please be sure to check out the source material before you continue listening!
Stay nerdy and stay faithful,
- J.B.
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you know who's got the power. You know who's got the cast this bell. What's up, guys? It's the zone podcast. Back at again with another review. Uh, I'm jeff black extreme feel free to call me jd and joining me is saitama smash. As we talk about an anime manga that deserves flowers a personal favorite of mine let's go ahead and talk about satchbel.
Speaker 1:So, without further ado, let's go ahead and zone in first of all, let's talk about the plot just a little bit. So essentially you have momodo, who are these species of creatures with supernatural powers. In the momodo world, that's like a parallel domain from Earth and it's ruled by this king right, and every 1,000 years a hundred of these Momodo go to the Earth realm. So they participate in this tournament in order to decide who's going to be the next king on the throne. And we got that, now that he and his twin brother, zeno they are the sons of the current king, dawan bell and that as the main character, he wants to put it into the momodo battles because it just seems barbaric and whatnot. And then his human partner is Kyo Takamine, who's this smart 14-year-old boy who's kinda anti-social towards people, but I don't know.
Speaker 1:However you want to put that Now, while Kyo is, kyo Zatch is like this radiant, upbeat ball of sunshine that you kind of want to protect at all costs, with his sense of innocence, but at the same time, the idea is that he's supposed to protect you in these Momoto battles. To where the human partners have these spell books, to where they can read them. Well, depending on what spells they unlock, they can read the spells and the moguls will cast a spell and whatnot, and the goal is to attack the enemy's spell books. So that way the enemy momodo goes back to the Momoto world. But now hold on Now. As a kid I just thought that the whole thing was kind of hype Like, especially with the opening songs, like when the night is come, you face your darkest hour. Every time I heard the opening theme song going off.
Speaker 2:yeah, yeah, I was like I was locked in for every episode.
Speaker 1:Every time I heard the opening theme song going off. Yeah, it was a slap. Yeah, I was locked in for every episode. But here's the thing what I love about Zatch Bell as an adult is how they respect the concept of death without cheapening it with the premise. Now, keep in mind that, yes, when a Momodoodo lose, they go back to mamodo world. But the way they play it out to where it seems so emotionally impactful like they're just losing a friend that they they just met them like not too long ago, but it only felt like they had such a bond that felt like they just lost this long time friend, and you know the tears and whatnot. It's like yo, I just love how, even though it's not like the momodo actually died, they're just going back to their world, but to the humans it feels just as impactful as a death. So I just love that on its own.
Speaker 1:But also I kind of do like some of the characters. Like, for instance, we got the number one boy who's like the most popular amongst the zaspel community, brago. Now brago, look here, design wise. I was digging it, like you know, he looked like a little goth kid, but like he just goes hard, though like for real, like with the vertical and everything like with gravity power, like it goes hard, and he felt like. It kind of felt like sonic and shadow, except um, our version of sonic is more like and he's just a little childish, but childish in an endearing way.
Speaker 1:Meanwhile, brago is like edgy, but at the same time he's not, he's evil or anything, just more like yeah, I'm just doing my own thing with sherry and you know, trying to win the tournament, whatnot. Like no big deal, and I guess you can say the plot line isn't all that deep, or at least in my impression it was. It's just more like if you understand the premise of the show, there's not really a whole lot to go into other than the fact that, yeah, there's going to be ally momodo, there's going to be enemy momodo, there's going to be rival momodo. You're going to meet all these different momodos, all these different spells gonna be fired off and shit, and ultimately it just comes down to the king's festival that unfortunately only was in the manga. Like I was kind of wishing that, yeah, can we at least get the king festival, um, animated, because I want to see clear note fucking shit up with annihilation powers and um yeah like um, for instance, some characters like tia she has, like the healing powers and whatnot.
Speaker 1:Uh, also with uh tia having a crush on zed and I thought uh, her relationship with him was kind of funny. Uh, we have kanji may. Who's like this looking motherfucker that? I'm sorry. I'm reading Kokugatsu's notes.
Speaker 2:Shout out to him.
Speaker 1:And we have Ponygon and Sunbeam, who's like a horse beast, momoto with armor, magic and affinity to fire, wanrei and Lian, who's like martial arts. And we have Kikito and Mr Riddles, uh Rain and Kyle, arthur and Ellie, ted and uh G, uh, okay, these guys, zofus and Coco they were like I want to say Zofus, kind of give me Frieza vibes the way, trying to control people and using explosion magic and all that. I'm getting freezing by, in fact. No, I'll even go even further and say that with zatch, the whole thing with zatch is that his father implanted bao, a dragon that's like super powerful, inside zatch to make sure that bao doesn't destroy the momodo world. And I'm sitting here thinking by, here, thinking what does that sound familiar like? Wasn't there an anime that pretty much made that the whole point of you know?
Speaker 2:You mean like most anime nowadays? Yeah, no, what I love about Zach? Like Zatch Bell, he not only is he like cute as balls, like he's the cutest little thing, but it's Pikachu Robot style.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean, yeah, like, I do, like how, the way they have to unlock the spells, like you may never know what the um prerequisites are, but whenever they do unlock a new spell it's like, oh shit, what are they going to do now? And between Zakir, jakirador, rashid and all that. And then you got their ultimate spells, like Thal's Akiraga. And here's the funny thing about Zeno. Zeno was like the typical evil twin, but it was like he was such a hater towards Zats to where it should have been me that had balance. Like I had to develop my own version like Zeo Zakiraga and all that. And the whole plot line with Zeno was that he wanted Val from Zats because he wanted to be considered the favorite and all that shit. I guess you can say it's like the first Harry Potter movie with Philosopher's Stone or Sorcerer's Stone, whatever your preference is on that is that it's usually the person who don't really want the power is most likely to get the power.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, no, I feel that For those who used to actually see Zatch Bell back in like I don't know, fucking 2003. What was it? It was early on.
Speaker 1:It was between February 2005 and March of 2006. But it was more like 2013 worldwide, because keep in mind that we didn't get all the episodes dubbed, like some of the episodes, like the later half with um zeno and this giant robot, motherfucker, um, that was like only subbed.
Speaker 2:so technically the anime ended at 2013, but in the us it ended in 2006 yeah, I heard there was like a lawsuit involved and that that did not go well at all I did not hear about that but, um, that's interesting.
Speaker 1:But the main thing was like the reason why people were saying that on, the main reason why zatch bell kind of fell off, is because most people just lost interest at some point, like I kind of don't get where they lost interest at, because I was like like, like I said, I was locked in, like I was just loving the story, I just loved the whole idea of it, like I just liked it for what it was. But you know, I'm not everybody and everybody's not me. So uh, whatever their reasons are, I guess I understand, but I'm like what was the disconnect, you know?
Speaker 2:Well, it says here behind the scenes. Issues and lawsuits between the creator, makoto Reiko and Shogakukang contributed to the franchise's fall into obscurity. The loss of rights of Satchel resulted in a halted distribution plan and incomplete locations, leaving fans unable to finish the story. There was a supposedly theory going around that Satchel would eventually come back, not continuing where it left off off last time. It would be more like zack fell is now older and so is his master, like they're now older and they have now experienced way more abilities. And that will be.
Speaker 1:You would be coming in stronger way, stronger yeah, that should be in like the sequel manga that's um going on right now, because I think it's like one chapter per month kind of deal. But yeah, like, uh, apparently I was like so surprised last year when I found out, wait, hold on, they're going on continuing the manga. Like zach is a little older, he got a new outfit and all that looking good. By the way, he's back with Kyo and apparently there's like a whole another set of Momono battles going on.
Speaker 2:I'm like, okay, okay, let's go. Yeah, he actually has new duds, not gonna lie, he does have drip. Going on.
Speaker 1:His suit is basically yeah yeah, it's actually.
Speaker 2:It's more like a renaissance style type of clothing. It still remains with the old dark blue, but uh, he looks. You can tell he looks older. He doesn't have so much shit on um his master, obviously he's.
Speaker 1:He's just gonna wear whatever clothes he can find in the closet and just bob out you know I like how you said that because I was thinking of how, back in the day, like way back in the day to where believe it or not uh, it was actually common for princes to wear dresses. So when I see see Zach in the OG wearing that dress light thing going on I'm like why is he wearing a dress? But then again I was like wait, hold on, think about it, because he's the son of the current king and then he's going to show up again in the sequel manga as the new king. I'm like you know what I like? That little detail.
Speaker 2:Yeah, oh yeah, he basically came from royalty, so have him come out in those nice clothes. It only fits the character. But, uh, it's unfortunate as to what happened, considering that this show was going places. Zash bell was going places and it was a character that had potential for plot, but the plot wasn't really going anywhere, kind of they yeah, see, that's the thing it's like.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you got a good premise going on, like I kind of get what that's felt is about, but it kind of felt like they were kind of wafting a little bit. It's almost like the the plot didn't have enough punch. You know, like it needed more brevity, in my opinion. To where like it honestly, like I do appreciate the fact they did have 150 episodes, but I felt like it should have been more like plot condensed, you know, like make it seem like it's not so much filler per se. Like you know, if we had more characters like zophis and zeno kind of doing something in the background, or like brago having its own events and whatnot, you know something to where, like keep it, like, keep the accent.
Speaker 1:You know that's the kind of problem that, uh, katekyo hitman reborn had to where the main reason why a lot of people didn't get into that. Uh, anime manga. Even though it is fucking fire, if you get past the first 20 episodes, like it gets good. But the problem is a lot of people Are just not into the whole comedy Gag anime Section. So when they see all this Goofiness they're like, eh, turn it off. But no, no, no, give it a chance. I swear to god it gets good.
Speaker 2:Well, and see, that's what most people Like nowadays. They like goofiness, they like warm-hearted characters, and zach bell is exactly that. He's always been that. But the problem is, in my general opinion, um, it suffered what I like to call the big o effect, you remember? Oh you remember that anime. Everybody remembers that.
Speaker 1:Oh, we're gonna do a review on that next month, by the way.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I know, I know that, and I like considering Animes that fall off like that. I like calling it the big O effect, because a lot of people Know this in the back of their head. They'll be like, oh shit, I remember this anime, what the fuck happened to it? Google it and you'll find out. And Zaxxel is no different, because everybody who was tuning into Tanami at 1130 were basically sitting down watching a great anime, only to find out that you gotta hurry it up, guys, because this show is about to cancel soon. You know, and my problem with anime is like big oh is like I don't think it came out at the right time and, satchel, I feel like it came out also at the wrong time.
Speaker 2:People, wanted to watch the show and enjoy it now you know, what it would have gotten it would have gotten traction now, you know what that reminds me of, how another anime.
Speaker 1:well, before I get into that, really, uh, let me just say that, as far as that spell, not only did I found the anime and manga pretty good, but, listen, I collected the cards where they had the little books and all that where you had to, um, use your little spell book and um cast the cards and whatnot. I'd had that. I had the zats um deck and the brago deck. Uh, shout out to my friends uh, lotty, dotty and the real, enjoy, they know who they are. Uh, I was talking to them about zats bell. Like, honestly, that's pretty much how my friendship with them started, talking about Zatch Bell.
Speaker 1:But not only did I have the card game, I also played the video game. It was like Momoto Battle or something like that for GameCube, and I had some friends. We played that shit and it was hype for us. We just loved it for what it is. But transitioning to another example that I had in mind, metabots, bro, metabots had so much potential because, you know, kind of like the whole Pokemon clone thing, kind of like what Zazzbell had to, where it seemed like you have this robot or monster or whatnot and you have this human partner and they're just going around having adventures and shit. And it had a fucking video game series and so much other potential and all that shit and you're thinking like what the fuck happened, y'all. But at least in Metabot's case I'm like that second season with, uh, the Kewa boss. Hey man, that wasn't it. That was just not it, especially when you got rid of all the endearing characters too.
Speaker 2:What I liked about Metabot is that it felt different. It was an anime where I could be like I don't know shit about anime, but this is cool as fuck. I mean, I'm a kid by the time that fucking Metabot came out. What year did Metabot, what year did that shit come?
Speaker 1:out Around that same realm like 2003 or so.
Speaker 2:Metabot told us.
Speaker 1:Let's just be honest like early 2000s was like a golden age for anime in general, especially for 90s kids.
Speaker 2:Let's see hold up, hold up, hold up, hold up, hold up, metabots, metabots, metabots. Uh, anime, anime, uh-oh. When did it come out? When did it air? And look at that shit, I was only 5 years old. The television series originally aired on TV Tokyo July 2nd 1999 to March 30th of 2001. Both series were originally licensed and localized into English by November to March 30th of 2001. Both series were originally licensed and localized into English by November and were broadcasted on YTV in Canada and Fox Kids and ABC Family in the United States from 2001 to 2004. I'm still a kid by this time. This is one of the first animes that I watched and I was like this is kind of cool, I'm not going to lie. Then my dad was like hey, that looks too violent, you need to watch something else. I was like what the fuck am I supposed to watch? Wrong order, thumb thong. That's exactly what he wanted me to watch.
Speaker 1:It's like that one meme to where you are not you, you are me.
Speaker 2:Exactly, and I ended up watching Fucking episodes of Law and Order, which, granted. Law and Order is Worst okay.
Speaker 1:Listen, I got no Hate scores Law and Order, but I just don't care for it.
Speaker 2:I loved it when.
Speaker 1:I was I mean SBU okay, okay, I got no hate scores, law and order, but I don't care for it. I loved it when I was. I mean FBU OK, ok, I'll give you that.
Speaker 2:But that's you, yep, that's you. That's the statement. Man, he fucked me up when I thought the show happy, you guys haven't watched it. Trip, quite the trip. But back to answer the anime. Yeah, trip, quite the trip, um, but back to end to the anime. Yeah, like I feel bad that these shows, I feel like they do come out at at the long time, because zashpo would have actually, it would have been a hit if, if a company would have picked it up now and filmed it now with the better quality of anime, uh, animation, that we have nowadays, I feel like it would have. It would have been a great hit and people would have actually liked it. I mean, shit, people like the anime. Um, what's it called? Um, delicious and dungeon. If you fucking like that anime, you're gonna end up fucking loving thatch bell. So it's, that's the same thing. I mean, it's like fucking pokemon, I mean think about like about it like this.
Speaker 1:Think about it like this, if you like Code Geass like especially the new series that just came out this year Like there's another anime where the mechs and Code Geass immediately reminds me of IGPS. You remember that shit back in the day, man listen, I fucking love that shit. You just saw mechs racing around and shit shit beating them up while on the track I'm like, oh, hell, yeah.
Speaker 2:That shit is still in the back of my head, dude. That is, wow, my back it's killing me, my back it's killing me, my neck, my back. I'm not that old, I'm only 30.
Speaker 1:It's not that old, I'm only 30. It's not that Between IGPX and Zoids and some other shit. Like bro, if y'all brought that shit back, man, we would show the fuck up For that.
Speaker 2:Well, zoids eventually did come back, recently, I mean yeah, like, okay, I'll take that back.
Speaker 1:Zoids did make a slight comeback with zoys genesis and zoys wild and, um, zoys war was like what three years ago. So, okay, no, I'll give y'all that, okay, uh. But I guess you say zoys like one of those things where it had potential, but at the same time I felt like it was getting overshadowed by gund and other shit.
Speaker 2:Oh shit, man. I mean by this time when people were watching like Gundam, most of the kids were falling into video games like Armored Core.
Speaker 2:And we all know that from software, as you know, milk the shit out of that. But I want to play number six, though I need to get to Same. I want to play number six, though I need to get to yeah, same. I need to get outside too, especially now that tomorrow is the release. Basically, oh, that's the type of gaming that I want to do. Also, great animation quality. But back to the topic. God damn, this is great.
Speaker 1:Welcome to the Zone.
Speaker 2:Podcast where we get off topic a lot. Yeah, no, we went everywhere. Man again like it. Just, these animes are off and it's not that you know, it's not because of bad production or anything, or like how the company dealt with it. The company did deal with it in a weird way. I will admit that the company did. They were trying to take it into one direction and they were like we're doing so well? No, you're not. Look at your ratings.
Speaker 1:Yeah, like I guess some people were just not feeling it after some points where I'm like where's the payoff? Man, I can't get off on this shit. When it's like it just feels like not gonna lie to a degree with the whole Zopas thing and whatnot, with the Momoto from a thousand years which, by the way, I felt kind of weird. Where I'm like hold on, okay, I understand if they were like the last generation of momodo fighters, okay fine, but they're making it sound like, oh, these momodo are so fucking ancient that they were like sealed in a lower layer of the momo world. I'm, shouldn't y'all be like neighbors or some shit.
Speaker 2:But At one point y'all are basically brothers, even if you're old, like if these creatures are old as fuck, it doesn't matter man, they're all basically the same.
Speaker 1:That's like saying, oh well, you know, we have Gen X, gen Z, millennials and all that. Like you do know, we have gen x, gen z, millennials and all that. Like you do know, like we're all just people on the same planet. So you it just easy to say that we're all just people. Why you gotta make it sound like, oh, we're just so different because we're from different timelines. Well, I'm like bro, like you're not that much older than me though. Like I mean, yeah, you are older, but you're. You're making it sound like you're thousands of years old and somehow you just survived all this whole time. Like, bro, like you live on the same few I do and we were talking about how fucking making it sound otherworldly and shit and which they're not.
Speaker 1:Well, I mean yeah, no, they are actually I mean technically, but it's not like they, they inhabit the same world. It's like. That's like saying, uh, you go to the soul society and it's like, oh well, yeah, there's those motherfuckers way over there, but we don't really um claim them.
Speaker 2:But I'm like the old soul reaper In a sense which I had to Read on an ability I don't know. You remember the leader of the Quincy which is the original.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I'll get to whatever, but he's really not. Anyways, I read his original ability as a Quincy and he has this like really fucked up ability where he sees like everything everywhere all at once, not like the movie I wasn't thinking that he was.
Speaker 2:He can like be. He can see anything that goes on. He can see any possibility where he wins and he takes the best one and he chooses that one and he's like I'm sticking with this one. It's like what this fucker had to do in Avengers, doctor Strange. He went to like a million versions. His ability is basically that and he has it on always. I love it.
Speaker 1:Was there anything about that bill that you want to talk about? Because I'm like, yeah, for the most part, I pretty much cover everything other than the fact that, yeah, with that and Zeno, they have this thing going on with Val and also with Zach's mother. I'm reading Coach Gus's notes here now and apparently he wanted to uh, what was it? Oh, zeno wanted to throw Zach's mom in prison for the way she mistreated Zach before the tournament and oh shit, uh, I forgot about that but uh, there's a lot of undertone or child abuse, yeah yeah, that's just, the thing is like you kind of you kind of the goofiness kind of distract you from the fact that it gets kind of dark.
Speaker 1:That's like saying you think that, uh, the amazing world of gumball isn't all that great, for, like, an adult wouldn't understand gumball, but actually you sit down and watch all six seasons. I'm like it gets kind of dark to a point to where it kind of makes you want to have a drink. Like this one episode to where uh drink. Like this one episode to where, uh, gumball and darwin was filling in for larry, um, doing all his jobs and essentially gumball and darwin learned their lesson about, uh, how they need to stay in school and get good grades so they can get a great job and not end up, uh, in this dead end job or the dead end life and all that shit. And then larry's like, all right, boys, as long as you learn your lesson. And then, while they walked away, larry was like, oh, shit, uh, I need to rethink my life and it's shit.
Speaker 1:Like that's where I'm like, bro, y'all never gonna see that because y'all keep dropping it at the worst time. Because I'm like, trust me, it's going to get good. You just got to commit to it. You just got to understand that sometimes I understand instant gratification, but you need to develop a sense of delayed gratification to where okay, as long as it's going somewhere. Like I'm gonna watch from beginning to end and the way I see it is like some people gonna go off and say, oh well, it wasn't that great. But they didn't even finish it. But I'm like, hey bro, like can you really say that if you didn't see the whole thing? But I understand the trap behind that, because sometimes, like say, for instance, nowadays with movies and how they be kind of garbage and it was like, oh well, you can't criticize it because you didn't actually watch it. But then if I watch it and I still don't like it, then y'all gonna look at me like, oh well, whatever, we still got your money.
Speaker 2:You know, that is a fact dude. That is a fucking fact. You know, since you mentioned the amazing world of Gumball, this is just a fucking episode where they go knock, knock Dad. What no Fucking starts crying Quickest, quickest funniest joke in that stupid show.
Speaker 2:God, there were so many. This is, it's god so underrated and I loved it so much. I miss it. I miss it so much. Anyways, like if I were to mention anything from Zajbel there was this is one fight. I'll send you the video later on so you can put it up. With the recording, I felt like trying to kind of understand how the spells work. It was funny, because most of his abilities either come out from his mouth or from his hands, and it's just like a puppet's mouth.
Speaker 1:It's just ah, and it's open, yeah. And the funny thing is like he doesn't even remember actually casting the spell when he does it, except for certain spells like uh say. For instance, one of my favorite spells in actuality is Rouse of Rook, to where he just lightning comes down raining downs on him. He's like he's enveloping lightning, like he'll um retain his consciousness, but he can't use any of the other spells, but he's got like super strong, like durability with lightning and whatnot. So it's almost like uh going kyle kim, but you can't use any of your other spells until rouse, the group wears off I kind of like that one I have a feeling that if they actually decide to bring it back, that's going to be something that he's just going to develop better.
Speaker 2:But we never really got to see better development for that game. I mean, it was there, the development was there. It was, you can't deny that there was. But like, at the same time, it's such a slow burn that I might as well cook in an electric stove than turn this bitch off in a regular stove. You know what I mean. Ow, that's taking too long off in a regular sub, you know what I mean, I was just taking too long.
Speaker 1:I feel that, yeah, like it's like one of those things where nowadays, like a lot of people want something to where Okay, here's the funny thing.
Speaker 1:Like, yes, depending on the show, like, if you're giving them them like 12 to 13 episodes per season and instead of us waiting like a whole year for another 13 episodes or so, it's like, okay, give us at least like a month or so. You know, back in the days where, like, say, for instance, ben 10, to where they just finished Alien Force and not even a month after that, like you get Ultimate Alien and people like shit, like that. You know essentially the whole series go year round. But it really depends on how you compact the essence of you know. It's like give us something per season to where it doesn't feel like one season, just feel like a whole bunch of filler, and then the next season is like okay, well, now we're cooking with gas, but for the most part it seems like all of the good bits is like scattered. It's too scattered into the grand scheme things, you know one piece fucking fill, it is everywhere.
Speaker 2:Look, I could use Most Of the episodes Of Naruto.
Speaker 1:I mean, aren't you glad they're trying to remake One Piece Like hopefully we get like more Streamline for plot reasons?
Speaker 2:Fuck me man. I feel like if you would just cut Fucking half of the fillers, the show still keeps on running for like fucking 10 years.
Speaker 1:And that's the craziest thing too. That's how I kind of felt about doing the Code Geass review, to where, yeah, 50 episodes and it was a solid anime, but watching Rose at the recapture, it took 12 episodes to make me remember why I liked the originalpture. It took 12 episodes to make me remember why I liked the original, and it only took 12 episodes.
Speaker 2:Like You're gonna sit down on that couch. You're gonna roll like fucking 20 joints and be like, okay, I am locked the fuck in. I'm locked in, let's go, let's do this. Keep slapping yourself on the face. Let's fucking go, let's do this. Let's fucking do this. Keep slapping yourself on the face. Let's fucking go, let's do this. Let's fucking do this. 20 joints, 10 bottles of water and bathroom breaks are only fucking two seconds. I gotta do this. Come on, smack myself in the face, let's do this. And then you're like, why did I do this? Why did I do any of this? Was this worth it? It's code BS. But kind of, yeah, this was this worth it. It's called yes. So kind of, yeah, yeah, you kind of. You kind of want to do it for zash, because, like zash bell, you can.
Speaker 1:I think you can just cut it into like four hours yeah, honestly, I feel like with that, it's more like you can put it on in the background and it's like okay, it can be like some background noise up until something good happened. Then you glued into the screen and I'm like, all right, bet, bet, bet. And then once it's like the slow scene, I'm rolled back in.
Speaker 2:I was like all right, going back to my business yeah, because like the first season is like kingdom hearts type of plot, where it doesn't matter where, where you're kicking in or where you're tuning in, you're still gonna be lost as shit yeah, yeah let's, let's do it right now. Let's see where we can get lost.
Speaker 1:I I love and hate that you brought that up, because it just made me remember why I like kingdom hearts 2 so much. Because it just felt like there's always something to do in kingdom hearts 2 versus kingdom hearts 1. It just kind of felt like where is this going, you know?
Speaker 2:I just the other day was talking to my wife about kingdom hearts 3 and how much it fucking pissed me off to play that stupid fucking game, because if I were to fucking sit down one more time and take another two minutes of cinema and cinematography when I didn't fucking ask for it, I was gonna blow my fucking brains out. God, fucking damn, I just wanted to enjoy the goddamn fucking game. You're gonna fucking tell me that it's like no, here's another 20 fucking minutes of cinematography, but what about the game? This is the game. What are you talking about? This is the fucking game. It's just like Zaxxbel. This is the fucking anime. So like what is going on? Yes, exactly.
Speaker 1:See, that's why I couldn't get into uncharted, because it just felt more like a interactive movie than an actual game fuck me, man.
Speaker 2:I know it was like what do you remember when fucking netflix started bringing games into, into its, into its thing, and it just, it just didn't belong there? I felt the same thing. I felt the same thing Because it doesn't belong for me to fucking see a movie in a video game. Just give me a fucking video game. Before I take this disc and throw it at my neighbor, like what was that in the window? Ah, some copy of, uh, I don't know, it has something to do with keys. Why are there so many keys and why is one guy another guy, another gal another guy?
Speaker 1:it's like imagine if you threw out the window and then somebody um was walking outside and like, oh, I stepped in some shit so we're fucking like cue the reference to jurassic park.
Speaker 1:That's a load of crap, man you know, I kind of want to do a review on jurassic park because I'm like, yeah, I'm not all that interested, but then again they keep coming out with Jurassic Park movies. I'm like you know what, let me see what they appeal with this shit. Let me do it for the one time, man. If I feel like it's worth it, I'll do a review.
Speaker 2:If not, then I'm like, nah, it ain't that worth it If I see Chris Pratt on the fucking screen again. One more goddamn time doing a fucking movie like Jurassic Park. One more fucking goddamn time, dude, I'm gonna shit so hard on the floor.
Speaker 1:I swear to fucking Christ yeah, between him and some folks I'm like thinking you know what? I'm tired of watching actors essentially like they're playing the same character in every movie or tv show that they're in. But even then it's like some people make it work and some people just don't. It's like who else on was it where I might did well?
Speaker 1:you know, fucking rock johnson well, him and uh, kevin hart. You know recent borderlands movies where I'm like bro, like I'm I'm not expecting kevin hart to actually be rolling like I'm. You're not gonna convince me that this dude is using fucking jack black as the voice actor.
Speaker 2:What the fuck are you even doing there, jack? Nobody asked you to fucking make a minecraft, a fucking movie based on a shitty ass video game for kids.
Speaker 1:Come on, I'm tired of this shit I mean I'll admit like that's a weird thing too. Like Minecraft I couldn't get into. But no Man's Sky is like okay, it's like Minecraft, but at least you can like go out into space, discover planets, make exoskeleton suits and all that. It had a little more to offer but, like you know, the launch of it was shitty as hell and completely understandable. Like it just felt like they were promising things that they just couldn't bring to the table right away. But the point being is, like funny thing, I like no Man's Sky more than Minecraft because it just felt like Minecraft was like yeah, you can make all these different constructs and whatnot, but I'm like eh, eh, like yeah, you can make all these different constructs and whatnot, but I'm like eh, Eh.
Speaker 2:Minecraft is a perfect opportunity to have the only market that existed at the time to have the Okay, so they've been known to being the biggest sandbox video game in the world. They missed the perfect opportunity to stop using its whole concept of the square and start using smaller squares to make bigger stuff, to make editing a lot easier, to make it as though it's not just I place a block here, I cut a block here, I place another block over there and things happen. You have the perfect opportunity to have the biggest editing sequence in the world, and they were like we're going to keep this exactly how it is, Motherfucker. I mean, like think about this, Like y'all need to take notes from Sonic the Hedge.
Speaker 1:I mean like, think about it like this Y'all need to take notes from Sonic the Hedgehog to where like look here, this design for Sonic is shit, change it. And they actually change it Like alright, cool, y'all, listen to us, we'll watch your movie.
Speaker 2:Oh my god, I need to smoke. I need some weed in my body.
Speaker 1:I'm not touching the top, I know. I know like, in fact, I'm thinking, like you know, I need to smoke too. You know I kind of want to go ahead and wrap up this whole thing, like I know we kind of went off topic a little bit.
Speaker 2:Um, we need a I need a hard bomb.
Speaker 1:Rip the one that goes like I know we've been kind of jumping on different topics, but what can we say? Like that's built, it's not a complicated plot, it's more like just go for the ride, like just ride the lightning, I dare say just just just go with the flow.
Speaker 2:And when it comes to anime, like when you watch it for the first time, you're're going to be like, okay, okay, this isn't that bad, that's kind of cute, I might watch this a little more. And then you start watching it a little more and you're like, okay, these characters are somewhat relatable from years ago, but I can fall into this, I can fall into this, yeah, this is fine. And then you start kind of like you know, meeting the rest of the characters. Go, but I, I can, I can fall into this, I can, I can fall into this. Yeah, this is fine. And then start, kind of like you know, meeting about the rest of the characters. You'll start meeting a white guy with you know having his little robot thing also dressed in white. Then you have this blonde bitch that comes out of nowhere. She's fucking royalty and her robot is also fucking royalty. But none of this makes any fucking sense at first and you're like, huh, why are we fighting? Why, why, why are we fighting? Oh right, the plot, yeah it's like.
Speaker 1:It's kind of like saying would a magician let you come back to his magic show if you already know his tricks? Like, why give it away too early? Magician, let you come back to his magic shows. If you already know his tricks, why give it away too early? You gotta lock in a little bit so you can get that payoff later.
Speaker 2:The plot doesn't really start thickening until almost the end of the first season. Yeah but that's the kind of thing.
Speaker 1:But that's the kind of thing, just like how I felt about Tateko hit Mary Bourne. I felt like the first season. I'll give you that grace If it means that you're just trying to Do some world building and fleshing out some of the characters Before we really get down to business, because we want to feel something for these characters Before we just, you know, get into the action for real.
Speaker 2:That that phone would get hurt and I'd be like, oh no, that's Okay. So anyways, I'd be like, oh no, my little buddy, hey mom, what's the matter? Could not, could not relate too far with the characters, could not? I think there's a lot of things in that show that it just needed, it needed more. It needed so much more. Out of all the animes that I've seen in my life and, granted, I'm a fucking weeaboo, so I'm sorry um, I've seen animes like Zajapel just just pick up and fall off super easy. Do I recommend it Absolutely.
Speaker 1:Yeah, don't get me wrong, I still love Zatch Bell but, like I said before, in many podcast episodes you can criticize the thing you love and you can also give credit to where credit is due, to things that are shit. So with that bill I would say I still love it. The only problem I have with it is pacing, like less fluff and more depth. Like it just felt like you're giving us too much milk and honey and not enough meat. You know what I'm saying. Like milk and honey is good and all, but I need meat to like kind of feel something, like something to latch on to. Like you know, it's not going to be very like. Milk and honey can be like advertising to the best, but it's not filling. It's like I need more. You know what I'm saying. Otherwise, I'm just gonna keep coming back for more and I'm never gonna be full. You know what I'm saying yeah, no, that's it's.
Speaker 2:It's one of those shows where you need a fucking map, because you don't know how fucking lost you get until you start watching the show yeah, I need something to latch on to, where I'm like, okay, I can definitely lock in.
Speaker 1:But at the same time it's like if you're just going with the flow, it's like, okay, it is what it is, like I'm just gonna watch it, um, just to finally not gonna give it too much, I'm not gonna set my expectations too high. And then it's like, okay, it's more enjoyable when you manage your expectations where don't expect it to be like the deepest thing you've ever seen, but at the same time, it has its gems. If you commit to the whole thing and, with that being said, sightsama, do you have anything you want to say before we close this out for real?
Speaker 2:um, follow me on my Instagram for that baldy art. So I'm going to start posting arts in the game. Oh yeah, add me on PlayStation if anyone wants to play video games. And it's going to be that weird bald guy.
Speaker 1:And, oh yeah, you can also follow me, jetblackextreme1 on Instagram. I'm going to come back with the 3D print. I'm going to work on getting an air compressor for my airbrush so I can go ahead and start doing the painting process and start showing y'all some shit that I can make. I am also on TikTok. I'm going well. Tiktok's probably going to be gone by 2025. So you can also find me on YouTube.
Speaker 1:I'm working on my own personal YouTube, like making videos for my personal YouTube, but we're going to also work on a Zone YouTube channel next year, so that way we can have video essays. And we're going to have a gaming channel, too, where guys like me, saitama, we'll have Mirror Jane and Barza, taco Usagi a whole bunch of people from the Inner Circle that's been on the podcast. We're going to be streaming our video games and whatnot. We're going to have a whole bunch of shit going on. Until then, you stay nerdy, my friends. Remember that great things are coming. We're going to go ahead and zone out of here. You, dear listener, have yourself a good morning, good afternoon and good night.
Speaker 2:Take it easy, thank you.
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