Project Geekology
Embark on an epic journey with Anthony and Dakota as they delve into the vast realms of geek culture, from cherished classics to cutting-edge creations. Join us for an exhilarating adventure of exploration and nostalgia, as we unearth hidden gems and reminisce about the moments that have shaped us. Welcome to the ultimate celebration of all things geeky!
Project Geekology
The Boy and the Heron (2023)
Have you ever questioned what really happens to your digital library when the internet goes down? We're back with Dakota, Anthony, and Rich in episode 109 of Project Geekology, and we discuss have the murky waters of digital media ownership. Following Dakota's recent house move and Rich's deep dive into The High Republic series, we confront the aftermath of a PlayStation Network outage that threw gamers' ownership rights into question. Join us as we untangle the complexities of digital versus physical media, discussing everything from the conveniences to the pitfalls and how it shapes the way we consume entertainment today.
But that's not all! Grab your cosplay gear and come along as we recount our wild adventures at New York Comic Con and Anime Con. The excitement of meeting voice actors from iconic shows like "Avatar: The Last Airbender" is a tale worth telling. As Marvel steps into the competitive gaming scene, we analyze how their superhero roster could potentially shake up giants like Overwatch, and explore Blizzard's legacy alongside the rising popularity of Final Fantasy 14. It's a whirlwind tour through the world of conventions and gaming, filled with personal stories and industry insights that will keep you on the edge of your seat.
Lastly, we cross the threshold into the imaginative realms of Hayao Miyazaki and Makoto Shinkai, deciphering the personal and historical narratives woven into their films. Miyazaki's latest, "The Boy and the Heron," opens new doors to understanding his wartime influences and storytelling mastery, as we reflect on themes of family and identity. From the surreal artistry of Miyazaki to Shinkai's digital innovations in films like "Your Name," we share our interpretations and the profound impact these stories leave on audiences of all ages. So, sit back, relax, and let us guide you through the enchanting worlds of anime and the ever-evolving cultural landscape of geekdom.
Twitter handles:
Project Geekology: https://twitter.com/pgeekology
Anthony's Twitter: https://twitter.com/odysseyswow
Dakota's Twitter: https://twitter.com/geekritique_dak
Instagram:
https://instagram.com/projectgeekology?igshid=1v0sits7ipq9y
YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/@projectgeekology
Geekritique (Dakota):
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBwciIqOoHwIx_uXtYTSEbA
Twitch (Anthony):
https://www.twitch.tv/odysseywow
Do you guys hear that Sounds like parakeets.
Speaker 2:Sorry.
Speaker 1:Guys, welcome to Project Geekology. I didn't know how to start this episode, but there are definitely parakeets in the topic of discussion today, hayao Miyazaki's latest film, the Boy and the Heron. Yeah, uh, this will be fun. This is episode 109. Thank you, guys for tuning in to project ecology. My name is dakota. I'm one of your hosts.
Speaker 3:I'm joined, as always, with anthony and joining us for a good little while now is.
Speaker 2:Rich, happy to be with you guys. It's been a little bit. I'm happy to get the band back together today.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I do apologize that we have been absent. For the past couple weeks I've been in the process of a big move. I've been talking about, you know, like building a home for probably a couple months at this point and I'm finally in the place. It's not 100% finished yet. I still I'm living out of boxes and still working on, you know, getting the finishing touches on some of the rooms in this place, but I'm really excited. The move itself is finished. So I am here and yeah no more interruptions.
Speaker 1:That as far as I can here, and yeah, no more interruptions as far as I can tell, but yeah, so what have you guys been up to these past couple weeks? Rich, I'll start with you. Let's see.
Speaker 2:I kind of took some time to dive into Star Wars, the High Republic books. I had kind of a cursory. I read the first one, the Light of the Jedi, and I kind of just stalled out for a while. So I dove back into. I can't remember the name of it, I know it's the one before.
Speaker 1:Into the Dark, the Rising Storm, yeah.
Speaker 2:The Rising Storm so just kind of catching up with that. I'm kind of in a weird holding pattern because there aren't any games I really am looking forward to. Uh, there, there aren't any games I really I really am looking forward to. I did have a mini freak out because playstation network went down for about 20 hours. Yeah, what was up with that? And you know, a lot of my games are digital. I, I hate, I, I hate saying that out loud, or and none of the games that I wanted to play in that moment, uh, I hadn't done the, the licensed, like renewal that has to allows you to play the games when you're offline. So I was kind of just stuck, uh, so I started reading and uh, wow, you know, I almost sound like one of my students, like you know everything. The lights went out, so I guess I had to read, but I, oh, man that's, that's that's rough
Speaker 3:rich can play his fortnight. Yeah, you know, I, I kind of wish that. I mean, I'm pretty sure that they do in some way. But, like you know what, with the switch you could have digital games, but as as long as that switch is like your main switch, you can play it online or offline, you know, and unless it's like one of those games that you have to like stream to the device, or if it's, you know, like a live service game that is online all the time.
Speaker 2:Well, you could do that, but it makes you, but you just have to. There's a you have to go into settings, then you have to go into other, and then under that there's a box that you have to check that then allows that to happen. So unless you were prepared for this to happen, right, there's no reason for you to think, naturally, that it would be an issue.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Well, you know what the like my issue is with the whole like PlayStation thing going down for 20 hours or so, which is essentially an entire day.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:It just kind of goes to show how much you really own the games you buy digitally. And if anything happens to the network or there is any sort of hack or the system goes down like it did, do you really still own that? You can't access it, even though you have the PlayStation, you have the controller, you have the TV, whatever. Even though you have the PlayStation, you have the controller, you have the TV, whatever. I think that's an interesting topic of discussion because I think you know like in today's day and age, where everything is streamable, where everything is streamable is it, you know it's at your fingertips until it isn't, you know like you can lose Max or Disney Plus or Netflix can lose the rights to a certain title and you could just never see it again. You know like it's not yours. So yeah, it's just something I think about regularly.
Speaker 3:I do well, I mean that, that that is an active debate though that, um, you know the the. I mean there's a lot of pros with having you know the digital digital games yeah exactly, you know, because there's, it's convenient, it's also you know you don't have to deal with the. You know having too many games can be kind of cumbersome. But also, when you own a physical game, that game is yours.
Speaker 1:They can't revoke, they can't take that game away from you unless they come into your house you know, unless you stole it from gamestop and they have proof and the police raid your apartment, yeah, that's, that's not gonna yeah exactly.
Speaker 3:But, to be honest, a lot of these, a lot of these places, and it's like hidden in their, in their terms, they, they have every right. It's and it sucks, but they can revoke your license, the license status, like you could buy the game but if you own it digitally, they can take it away if they wanted to they really could.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, I, I I've definitely heard that happening before ea actually has done something where, basically, even if you bought it digitally right, if it's an older edition you cannot. You have no access to it. You have to have the disc. You can't get it at all. So if you're like, hey, I'd rather buy Madden, I'm looking at 21 right now, I'd rather buy Madden 21. I bought it for my son because I just wanted him to get the basics of the game down and he didn't need to get the new version. I ended up having to buy it a, you know, a physical version online, because they do not allow you to pay ten dollars for the game. That's three years out of date, which I think is like that's that's crazy.
Speaker 2:It's the most offensive, I think, of all the things, is to erase the games and make believe they don't exist anymore, because you don't want people to save a couple bucks and buy an older edition yeah, yeah, I hear that, I hear that yeah, yeah, I wonder.
Speaker 1:That's definitely a debate I wonder if you had bought madden 21 digitally and like back in the day, or I?
Speaker 2:had. No, I had them. I I actually that's that exactly happened. I had, like madden, whatever, so I had a number. I used to buy madden every year.
Speaker 1:Uh, so I, I had and you just can't play them now because they were digital I delete, like.
Speaker 2:So I deleted it from my library because I deleted it from my console, but it's supposed to stay in your library, right, of course?
Speaker 1:yeah go.
Speaker 2:I go to my library, nothing.
Speaker 1:EA.
Speaker 2:Basically that's crazy, because EA has a separate uh service on PlayStation Network where, let's say, I have the highest level, so I get like demos for two hours, right, and sometimes all I want to do is play Madden for two hours because I immediately get sick about how bad the jets are and then I don't want to play it anymore. So I, I you know, I wanted to do that, and you actually have to pay the ea subscription on top of the top tier playstation subscription, which is already one crazy 150 a year or something, and I don't even get to play the two hours I'd have to pay for ea to do it.
Speaker 2:So it's ridiculous.
Speaker 1:We could I feel like we could make a whole show out about this, but um we could.
Speaker 3:We could, I mean it was a you know movie streaming services are doing the same thing you know, I know it's, it's, it's sickening. It's sickening. At this point, I think you know everybody just needs to go back to cable.
Speaker 1:Yeah it feels like we're heading back that way because, like all these streaming services cannot like survive on their own anymore, they're losing, you know, subscribers, like people are losing interest, and so losing interest and they're getting too expensive a lot of people the, the, the top tier version of netflix, I think, is even more expensive than Max.
Speaker 3:dude, and Max is like it has, like you know, I mean, everybody knows HBO for them having the prestige TV shows. So I'm like dude, what is going on?
Speaker 1:So a lot of these streaming services are like bundling up with other streaming services so that they can all stay afloat and it feels like we're just going back to cable. You know, like that it's exactly. We're just we're're just going back to cable, it's exactly. We're literally just going back in a circle, we're going to have five booms cable network.
Speaker 2:It's going to have all the streaming services.
Speaker 1:Uh-huh, yep, that's what's next. You heard it here first, folks. Anthony, what have you been up to? I know you have something interesting going on.
Speaker 3:Well, a lot of the past couple weeks have been, you know, gaming, uh, preparing for this episode, and also I have my first convention of the year. I told dakota a little bit about it before, before recording. But yes, this weekend's coming up as of recording, which is february 12th, I have a convention I'm going to. It's called animate miami and I'm pretty excited, dude, I you know me. And conventions yeah, I put conventions next to next to uh, persona and overwatch I love it, uh actually, uh rich.
Speaker 1:you also regularly attend New York Comic Con, is that correct?
Speaker 2:That's actually I can say this now it's a Laconi family holiday. Since Charlie has been born he's a December baby, but since after that year he has essentially attended Comic Con every year, except for when it wasn't run. And we do it as a family. We dress up together and have matching costumes, and now they've actually branched out and actually you'll like this, Anthony. They go to Anime Con up here in August and they actually go without me now, Like they've got their big boy pants on and they don't even need the vet to lead them around.
Speaker 1:Very cool. That's awesome. Yeah, I haven't been. I don't know. I did not go to New York Comic Con this past year. I went the previous year and I've been to most of them in the past 10 years, but, yeah, the past couple of years. It's not been to most of them in the past 10 years, but but yeah it's, it's been the past couple years. It's not been like a like priority of mine. But I want to start like getting back into that. I know, anthony you, you came with me to new york comic-con, uh, at one point.
Speaker 3:So yes, dude, I would love to we should do, I would love to go back out there. Yeah, no, absolutely, and then and then, uh, so we could bump into uh, rich and and company yeah, see, see what costume they they cook up this year.
Speaker 1:Um wait, so you were saying that you are going to your first convention this year. What, what convention?
Speaker 3:uh, animate miami okay, and and yeah, and so you know that that one is like a medium-sized convention, like it's not huge, but it's definitely not one of the smaller ones. I've been to very tiny, like. I mean budding conventions, like Otaku Fest is one that I go to and I remember when they were super tiny. Now they've gotten a lot bigger.
Speaker 1:Super Con, that's the life cycle of like cons as soon as they become slightly popular. It was like people recognize the name. It just steamrolls and snowballs out of proportion, but that's pretty cool. So what is the theme of Animate Miami? What is the focus?
Speaker 3:I would say animation. There's a lot of voice talent that are going to be out there that are from cartoons and anime. There's going to be a few Avatar, the last airbender voice actors there's going to be, the voice actress for azula is going to be there, sick the, the current voice actor for iroh, and the voice actress for toff is going to be there. That's all trying to think if there's any more, but I know that there's like a lot of other voice talent that's going to be there also, and it's just going to be a good time. Dude, I always have a good time. I, I, I don't know.
Speaker 1:I just I love you you gotta, you gotta try to go to that panel dude, like I'm, I'm I, I am introvert.
Speaker 3:90 of the, except for when I go to conventions. That's like when I become an extrovert.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:I'll talk to everybody. You know it's good. It's just like whenever, you, whenever.
Speaker 1:I'm in my element.
Speaker 3:Yeah, dude, it's just. I mean, you know how it is, like when you're in something and when somebody like peaks your interest, they bring something up like you become a whole other person love it that, um, and then also today overwatch dropped some like really big news.
Speaker 3:I mean it's it's big for overwatch, but they're trying to. I think that, like marvel rivals really has them, like reeling dude, marvel rivals has really there's a lot of games that have tried to replicate overwatch, but like dude, I mean, come on, you got the ip of marvel yeah, and then, like marvel, actively swept them under, like they, they just pulled the rug right out of their you know, from underneath them and and that that's the thing that, like, you know they're, they're trying to, they're, they're trying to.
Speaker 3:you know they were hanging up their high with kings and Blizzard's not used to this.
Speaker 1:Blizzard's not used to this. World of Warcraft was the biggest MMO for 15 years, something like that. They never had a clear successor. It's just kind of slowly fizzled into other MMOs and I don't even think MMOs are that popular anymore. Fizzled into other mmos and I don't even think mmos are that popular anymore. So like there was no huge um like game that took the audience away from world of warcraft, this is new, so wow.
Speaker 3:So wow is still like I would say wow is still the top as far as mmos. But final fantasy 14 is yeah, no, that's their closest. That's true, yeah, it is is their closest, but like I feel like in a way they almost coexist. You know, like they've they're, they're like you know, you've got your thing right, you've got ours.
Speaker 3:They're very different but like with rivals and with uh rivals and overwatch they're very, very similar and the thing that marvel has going for them is that they have a super stacked ip dude. They could go as far back as they want and pull a character you know from from the well and be like, oh my gosh, I forgot that dude existed. And then you know, just like they, they have, you know they, they have, you know the, the cuts that we know, and then they have super deep cuts. They, they have so much that they could do.
Speaker 3:But the thing is, is that one of the biggest things that a lot of and I know that we're talking, you know, just whatever but one of the biggest things that a lot of Overwatch content creators have been you know, the higher end ones, and I've been saying the same thing for a while is that overwatch has been focusing too much on overbalancing the game and it's taken away a lot of the identity of these characters. Dude, you can't do that. The thing about um marvel rivals is that, like it's clearly like every character has something broken about them yeah but it's not broken to the point to where it's unplayable, it's just a ace up their sleeve.
Speaker 3:That kind of thing and the zaniness of it all makes it fun and that's what overwatch was at one point. But it's like, you know, at some point you had, you know them, you know like they're trying to balance the game so much. And then all these high tier players are whining and whispering in their ear when, at the point, like it's like, look, we hear you, you know we'll, we'll fine-tune, but like this is, this is the character. Unless the character is completely broken and unconf, you know, and you can't come, you know, fight against it at all, then, like you know, you're gonna have to just make do and come up with strats. You know that kind of thing.
Speaker 1:So hold on. What exactly did Overwatch announce?
Speaker 3:Nothing, you got me there.
Speaker 1:I thought you were just like blowing smoke. I was like what?
Speaker 3:It was blowing smoke. So there's a couple things that they're trying to do. They're adding this whole perk system now that, um, some other games have it, but, like now, throughout the through, throughout the the matches, they're gonna have it to where, like, your character kind of like levels up and like so, like the first level, you get like a mini perk that like boosts the stat and then, like on, like level three, you get like a mini perk that like boosts the stat and then, like on like level three, you get like a major stat boost where, like one is the, I'm gonna say like torbjorn, uh, torbjorn, one of his uh level three boosts is that he can throw his turret and it'll stick to a wall or like a ceiling, and then the other perk makes it to where he levels up to level three, like back in the day when, when he had missiles shooting out of his thing, oh yeah like they're bringing that back wait.
Speaker 1:So are the perks in like mid-game or they are over time throughout the course of several matches?
Speaker 3:I think it's like oh, I, I, they, they didn't explain. I don't think they explained like where the, the perks are going to situate as far as that. But I I'm assuming that it's like probably throughout the match, or like maybe you get one perk the first round and then you get the next perk, the second round, you know okay, it could be something like that interesting so, yeah, they're trying to like, I guess, kind of freshen up the gameplay.
Speaker 3:They're, I like it also introducing this game mode called stadium, which they're taking a lot of elements from that pve thing that they wanted to do and they're adding it to this to where you know there's like different tiers to the stadium and like you can add all these like zany um abilities, like mercy, giving somebody the ability for, like an, an auto revive if they die you know what's fascinating?
Speaker 1:I overwatch 2 probably has so much scrapped content and so much scrapped gameplay styles and like story that they could, you know, fall back on, and I think this is exactly what is happening, where you know, they had all this planned. It was probably originally gonna come out at some point for the game, but they just let it fall to the wayside because they weren't really making all that much money on the game and they decided to scrap the story mode and they decided to scrap all these other modes, whatever and I think you know Rivals is really it's allowed. It's given them the kick in the butt that they need to actually finish the game that they started.
Speaker 3:Right. Well, the very reason for the game being Overwatch 2 went away.
Speaker 1:Yeah, there's no story mode.
Speaker 3:There's no such thing. It would. Overwatch 2 doesn't exist because they never made it in overwatch 2, they just made an overwatch 1 expansion with an expansion. You know that. You know that that's exactly what happened and that pissed off a lot of people. They felt betrayed by that and so, yeah, a lot of this, this, this stuff isn't things that they've been working on for like the past, like you, you know, year and a half or anything. This is stuff that they had in the in, in the pocket and maybe contemplated it, but I I let me tell you, rivals is a huge motivator for a lot of this stuff.
Speaker 1:That's awesome you know it is you know that I love competition like that, though that you know I need competition so that's.
Speaker 3:But yeah, yeah, you know that that's a a lot of the, the big stuff that I've been doing and and kind of looking into. What about you, dakota? I know you've you've been moving and stuff that that's really like I know that's a huge thing that you've been going on in your life, so I don't know if you've had time for anything else, yeah, I, I can't think of that.
Speaker 1:I'm dude, I'm sure that I've done something of of note, but I, I can't think of it off the top of my head. Um, I guess, before we talk about the film rich, I didn't ask what are your thoughts on the second, uh, high republic book, the rising storm. Did you get to finish it, or?
Speaker 2:uh, I'm not done yet. Well, I don't. The one thing I don't like is 76 chapters is just yeah. I don't like a high chapter count, I'd rather I'd rather have like the lines that separate characters, you know, like pov characters, uh oh, instead of chapter yeah, because some of it's. You know, like it's like the, there's the attack. You know, on whatever there's an attack and then you have basically different scenes from that attack unfolding, but you know they split it up into chapters.
Speaker 1:Uh uh, where? Where are you in the, the book like percentage, the fair, just?
Speaker 2:started. Uh, the fair started and things have not gone well uh have the nihil yeah they've just showed up, so things are like going.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I I like to. I I really do love, uh, the rising storm. I know it's not everyone's cup of tea, but it kind of reminds me of visiting epcot at disney world and there's like a terrorist attack but like you're the guy who has to say that, yeah, um, that's that's how it kind of plays out, because you know, like you know in you know in Disney World, epcot has the World Showcase where there's like different locationsavilions from different uh worlds within the republic to showcase like the splendor of the republic. You know it's like a big propaganda thing but whatever. And and then the nile show up and it's, it's, it's just mayhem for the rest of the book, it's literally war for the rest of the book it's it's the best.
Speaker 2:I love it I I actually the only thing I think I have a problem with, and this is just personally, I thing I think I have a problem with, and this is just personally, I think I think I have a. You know, this happened to me with game of thrones. I have a character limit, you know I have okay, sure a finite amount of characters that I can imagine without.
Speaker 2:Uh, you know, and I and I I know this is my own fault, because I know all I need to do is go to my high republic, get downloaded comics, read a couple of issues, get some faces, and then it'll make everything easier.
Speaker 1:So you know what I actually think the High Republic comics will not help you as much as you think they will, because they're not covering the same characters as the ones in the books. There are some. Avar Chris is in there. You might see elzar man occasionally, but most of the characters in the comics are doing their own thing while the events of the books okay, that makes sense, yeah, no, I think so
Speaker 1:I will say this about the high republic it's massive, it's, but it's probably too epic for what they were doing. So there's middle grade books, there's the mainline books, there's junior novels, there's manga, there's two different runs of comic books and several graphic novels, and each of those things are from the first of the phases. There's three different phases of the high republic and they all follow different characters. It's, it's massive, it's huge in scope and it's I I will say that it's epic. But the biggest failing of it is it's so inaccessible for people who are trying to like get, get the full story. You know, you have to really devote a lot of your time and energy into like mapping this all out in your head, and I'm a timeline guy. I love that stuff. It's too much for me.
Speaker 2:I will say it's too much for me.
Speaker 1:I appreciate what they did, but yeah, what I will say download the audiobooks.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:They're fantastic. All Star Wars audiobooks are like not Produ. Star wars audiobooks um are like not productions they're productions yeah, it's there's like music, there's sound effects um the. The narrators are always fantastic in terms of like differentiating all the characters and stuff. I I highly recommend the high republic, especially on on audiobook. It's just, it's fantastic, but yeah all right.
Speaker 3:It's literally like how I've gone through. I mean, I haven't gone through all of them, but like the ones that I have read have been. I think every Star Wars book that I have read has been on audiobook and they're all just like they have, like the lightsaber sounds, blasters, music, dude, it's ambiance, everything. It's amazing they put in a lot into those audiobooks.
Speaker 2:I think you've swayed me, because the last time that I listened to an audiobook I'll put it this way it was on my click wheel iPod.
Speaker 1:Oh, it's been a bit. Yeah, 15 years Jeez.
Speaker 2:So maybe I'll give it a go with these new fangled devices.
Speaker 1:And what's great about the, the audio books that you'll download nowadays, is that they're not they're not abridged. Most, most audio books back in those days were like made for CDs, so they were abridged into two to four hour chunks where now you'll get you'll, you'll get the full book this time. And the star wars books are are kind of just like built to be listened to. It's. It's really cool.
Speaker 1:I know you don't have a long commute, but something to you know, play with, but uh, all right, guys, we're almost 30 minutes into this discussion. We haven't even talked. Talked about uh miyazaki or the boy catching up.
Speaker 3:Man, it's been two I know it's.
Speaker 1:It's been a while, I'm sorry.
Speaker 3:Two weeks abridged it's actually.
Speaker 1:It's actually. This is our. It's been three weeks since we spoke.
Speaker 3:We we missed two weeks yes, we missed two weeks on release, but yeah, it's been. Yeah, three weeks since we recorded.
Speaker 1:And but, yes, the boy in the heron, yeah, all right so for those of you who are listening who have not either watched the Boy and the Heron or know who Hayao Miyazaki is. Brief rundown he is probably the greatest name in anime filmmaking period, like full stop. I don't think there is really any debate as to who the greatest animator or director in terms of anime there is, you know. Like you know, there are other great uh directors out there, the. There's another studio ghibli co-founder, named isao takahata, who has made some fantastic films, but none have really struck the popular subconscious quite like hayal miyazaki's work. Yeah, so this is an interesting movie because one, one of our podcast hosts has never seen a Hayao Miyazaki film and two, it's easily like bar none, his most inaccessible entry point. So I'm really, really excited to hear, uh, what we, what we thought about it.
Speaker 3:Um, but you know other other, you know are you calling me out for not watching miyazaki man? Like, what is what is up with?
Speaker 1:that. No, I'm talking about rich here.
Speaker 3:I'm talking about the guy laughing in the corner back there um, yeah, we, I mean we've covered two of his movies already.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so, if you guys, if you, guys have not like gone back in our catalog, we've done. Uh, what did we do? We did princess mononoke, right?
Speaker 1:and castle in the sky yes, princess mononoke was my previous favorite of his movies, like it's like.
Speaker 1:At some point in my lifetime that was like the movie that just like blew my mind when I was a kid, and the Castle in the Sky was never that movie for me, but it's still a fantastic film and it's just such a joy to revisit whenever we do. So this is an interesting one because I watched it in theaters and you watched it in theaters, anthony, and we planned to do a show the following week after that had come out. But we both kind of realized like I don't know what to say about this movie, you know, and we were just like maybe we should do something more like easy to digest or whatever. But now that we have a third party on and we're able to revisit the film at our leisure it's streaming on Max currently you, you, you know faithful listeners are are now privileged to hear our discussion of the boy and the heron, the latest film of hayama yuzaki a year in the making a year in the making, before we, before we touch on rich.
Speaker 1:No, actually, you know, let's talk, let's, let's, let's head straight to rich, let's what are your thoughts in the pool? Yeah, we're gonna throw you in the deep end what are your thoughts going into this movie, like prior to having seen it, and what are your thoughts after having seen it? I don't know if you've re-watched it at all or if it's just oh yeah. No, I had to re-watch it.
Speaker 2:All right, okay. So I mean, like just over going into it, I had no background, none whatsoever. I had no idea. I I hate to say it I heard you guys just say his name and I still think that if you held a gun to my head and you gave me four choices, I would probably still get it wrong. Uh, that's fine. So I had nothing, no previous knowledge going into it, nothing like I had seen posters or images of the movies. You know, like, uh, totoro, right, I, I had seen that stuff somewhere. You know it's somewhere in my mind, but I had nothing going into it.
Speaker 1:So I mean if you've been to new york comic-con at all yeah, I've seen that imagery in past.
Speaker 2:That's what it is.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you, you have to have seen. You know at least, totoro he's probably seen totoro.
Speaker 2:There's usually a no face walking around spirited away you'll have probably seen imagery from howl's moving castle, you know yeah but but yeah, all right, go on, go on so I had no idea what I'm getting into, uh, and you know I had been planning to watch it with my family and, uh, I'm kind of a jerk, so I I knew I was gonna want to watch it more than once, so I started watching it. I mean, it was 25 minutes in and my wife comes down and she's aghast that I would be such a traitorous person, uh. But I looked at her and she's like you're watching it without us and I said I can only tell you what I've seen so far, but I'm gonna have to watch this numerous times before I sit down and talk about it, I don't even, and that's before it gets crazy, that's before it gets crazy I'm trying to think.
Speaker 2:I'm trying to think of like a movie you know I would think I'm trying to think of a trilogy movie or something, but like the least inviting entry point, right, it's like I don't know, just watching randomly attack of the clones, but that I don't even think that's that bad. Like I'm trying to think of what movie you would have to like sit down and go like you would know nothing and just be like super confused because so also it would have to be like a finale of a tv series.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I know, and it's my own, I I have to admit this openly, right like I don't watch a lot of anime. What I see is, you know, I've seen naruto. I remember watching dragon ball z, uh, you know things like that. So you know my son's watching some like kind of more, uh, I would say, less mainstream ones as well, uh, maybe they're not, I don't know black cloud or something, and a couple of other things that he really enjoys black clover, black clover, yeah, yeah, see, see, I can't remember the names, all right. So I have.
Speaker 2:I had a very specific idea of what anime meant as I went into this movie, you know, and that's what I kind of expected, and I was like, whoa, this is not that at all. You know, like it has some similarities, but that opening sequence or not the opening, but uh, yeah, when he's running through the flames, I had never seen any kind of artwork like that. I had never heard the, the way he was playing. He was muffling the sound. You know I was. It took me. It sounds so lame. It took me like a sensory overload where I was noticing things and it was playing with the medium that I was engaging with in a way that I don't think.
Speaker 2:Anything else I I've done before, you know, watched before has. So it was gripping and interesting but perplexing and at times made me feel stupid, like there were times where I was like I don't know what is happening. You know, I always like to establish the reality of the fantasy world, right. Like is it? It's like when I teach mcbeth I say, guys, bank will show the witches. So now we all have to accept that they're real, because two people saw I just won, right, and I was trying to kind of get the foothold in. Like is this an imagination for him?
Speaker 1:Oh wait, no, it's a shared imagination.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was just yeah. And then I don't know if I want to like.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's interesting. Did Alice really fall down that rabbit hole, did she?
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:There's no one to back that up, but in this case, there one to like back that up.
Speaker 2:but you know, in this case there are individuals to back that up you know, like you usually have, like even the little, you know the little kind of trope of like oh, here's the one relic you know, type of thing. Uh, that has you have going on a lot of other stories that are like this, but you didn't even really have that. I mean, he does at the end, and you do have the the little bit of a trope where at the end he's told like, oh, you're well, you'll forget that in time kind of thing.
Speaker 2:The narnia, you know like your kids will grow up yeah, uh, one thing that I'm kind of I'm not sure if I'm upset with you guys or I appreciate, so I didn't look at the movie, I didn't look at uh casting I nothing, nothing, I have no idea going in, okay, and I was actually angry with myself when I finished the movie and I go dave batista, willem defoe, yeah uh, robert pattinson.
Speaker 1:And then I saw bale dude, it was a stack cast, I like pattinson pattinson, and then I go and I'm like, wait, I'm like Pattinson, pattinson.
Speaker 2:And then I go and I'm like, oh well, willem Dafoe is obviously the heron right. And it's like, nope, that was Patterson. What, my mind exploded.
Speaker 3:It sounds like Willem Dafoe, like he did like a really good and I was like wait a second.
Speaker 2:Huh, why did Will Defoe just go? He would have been like so why am I here?
Speaker 3:And that's very much so the type of character he would play.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 3:Something creepy like that.
Speaker 2:I too, find myself to be something of a director. He just takes over doing that. It was so mind-blowing and I didn't know that this guy had this start again. I had no idea so I couldn't even. I didn't even think I've known david batista's voice since I was a wee lad. Going to wwe events making signs, you know, like flying halfway across the country to sit in the last row to see batista in the main event and not in recognizing him.
Speaker 1:See, to me his voice is the most recognizable I should have.
Speaker 2:It's really upsetting to me, like, so, like I think it's because, like, literally, I felt like I was in a different, like I was so turned around right by everything that was going on in the movie and trying to kind of pin it down. I mean, because by the time he shows up, I mean what I'm like King of the Parake, what's happening here, right?
Speaker 1:right. So I just I want to touch on one thing that you mentioned early on in the film, specifically about the art style when he's running to the hospital Whoa, it's beautiful, it's crazy and it's a sensory overload, and I think that that's exactly what you know is trying to be portrayed. So a number of things are really interesting that you can kind of trace across Miyazaki's filmography when he has a deep-seated need to express who he is and what made him who he is to his audience. He's done that visual of, you know cities on fire before. He's done that visual of like, or he's done like a number of films with like mothers in sick beds.
Speaker 1:He's done a number of films where the father is creating you know wartime, uh, like components and stuff like that. And this is all because he lived through that. His mother was sick in a hospital for most of his childhood. So when you watch stuff like my neighbor totoro and the mother is sick throughout that entire movie, that's a, you know, an extension of you know his own life. You know when, when he, when you see the, the city being bombed and uh, the, the streets burning in hayau, uh, in how's moving castle, or, or this film, uh, the boy in the heron. It's an extension of, like, the air raids that he experienced living in Japan during World War II. His father owned a factory called Miyazaki Parts or something like that, where they made key components for some of the airships that the Japanese used, key components for, uh, some of the airships that they that the japanese used.
Speaker 1:And, um, you know, he, he dedicated an entire film to that, um, which was the wind rises, you know like, and and that that whole movie is basically like him regretting, uh, you know like, the path that that japan went down during that time in history, so kind of all of that kind of coalesced right there at the beginning of this movie and I felt like that was like, like I feel bad for him because it's something that he can't shake, something that he can't like get out of his system. He needs to keep making stuff to express that emotion so that the audience can feel it. You know, and I I think the whole film is kind of like that. If you, I, I I've studied miyazaki's work like a lot, I I've made several videos about it, so I, I really this is a tough film for me to like discuss because I don't fully understand it, but I I can understand parts of it or I can under, I can interpret the art as best as I can. You know, especially near the end there's a couple like themes and stuff that like play around, that he plays around with um, like a successor to, you know, creation, um or um which was uh mark hamill yeah, yeah, so the, the, the great grand uncle was mark hamill yeah
Speaker 1:so it's stuff like that, like there's a whole bunch of like themes and little ideas that he sprinkles into the, the mix in this movie that you can kind of like piece apart and like kind of push into his life or his mindset as a creator and try to like understand what he's trying to say. But but yeah, if you don't know miyazaki or have never experienced any of his other works, I wonder if you can get any of anything out of it at all, like I, and that's that's, that's why we have a guinea pig on the podcast rich is definitely the guinea pig I didn't look this up, you know I I figured I would just wait to ask you guys, right?
Speaker 2:so his new mom is his mom's sister. Yes, is this a common practice? Because I, you know, time period wise, I'm putting us in world war ii yeah, it's, it's, oh yeah, yeah, it's 100 world war ii, right so? That's the end of the war they're talking about. So then, to me it's. I mean, I don't again, this is my lack of knowledge, right, but is that? Is that a but? Have that been a like? There was that a common practice?
Speaker 1:were they romantic? I don't know. I I I can't say whether that is common or uncommon. I think in the film it plays on the idea that this is not normal for for him, for for the boy, basically, like I, I feel like he really can't get into the idea of this being his mother until he has to save her, basically near the end of the film, you know, that's. That's when he first mother or mom whatever.
Speaker 3:There's always like that. There's always a struggle when it comes to there being a step parent. But, like I can imagine being even more conflicted when that's your aunt, I can imagine being even more conflicted when that's your aunt. Yeah.
Speaker 1:And it also like it kind of it's a weird dynamic, because the mother and sister clearly weren't very close, because the main character had only supposedly met the aunt once, like when he was a baby.
Speaker 3:Right.
Speaker 1:Prior to him, prior to her essentially being her, you know, full on mother, you know, and by that time his father had already sired, you know, another child with this other woman, you know. So we don't really know the timeline as far as, like you know, was he having an affair while the mother was in the hospital? The, the mother was in the hospital, the real mother was in the hospital, or if this was, you know, like in that year gap after the mom died in the fire, and you know, so on, yeah, I don't know but I I I think we're led to the the assumption that this is not a normal thing.
Speaker 3:Go ahead, anthony yeah, yeah, it didn't I. I picked up on that too. Uh, I also liked that you brought up Miyazaki's like his like family past, about his father having a factory that created components for aircraft. Well, that was the instance in this film. That's what. That's what the main character's father was in this film. Yeah, totally, he owned a factory. He owned you could. He owned, you could see. You could see the, the domes for the cockpits and stuff, and so I always thought that was interesting.
Speaker 1:But yeah, which is a really cool visual too. You know, like them, them putting like these new, um, like state-of-the-art, like cockpit domes into this.
Speaker 3:You know, ancient japanese home, you know, I just think it's such a cool visual yeah, yeah, but yeah rich that this will be like a common element that you'll see throughout his films, like if you watch more of his films.
Speaker 1:Is that world war ii had a huge impact on him, huge, yeah, so he, he was a boy during world war ii and um, you know, like, speaking about, like the air raids that, uh, you know, went through basically every city throughout all of japan except for, I think, kyoto, he said that you know, he remembers the air raids, he, he can, he can still see his street burning.
Speaker 1:You know, like that's something like as a kid, that was just like I, I think it, you know, torments him inside. You know, like, I, I think that visual and what was interesting about like that particular scene in the beginning where he's running through the fire, I can imagine, you know, during wartime, where you're, you're just doing something and it just becomes a dream state. You're not actively seeing what's around you, everything's a blur, everything is muffled. You're just doing something and it just becomes a dream state. You're not actively seeing what's around you, everything's a blur, everything is muffled, you're not actively, you know, experiencing any one thing, but everything all at once. And I think that's what he was trying to visualize and I think it was so cool, I don't know it reminded me it's not.
Speaker 2:It doesn't, it's not even visually the same, but just reminded me of the when daenerys is attacking king's landing and game of thrones and just kind of the outright devastation of the fire, you know, because I don't know. Yeah, I think I'm not sure if this is, I have, uh, you know, I've always enjoyed a nice fire.
Speaker 2:You know, like I, I, I don't know, I grew up in queens I like a nice fire I I grew up in queens and like as a as a as a queen city boy, like the idea of you know, like a campfire was always like cool. I never, I never went camping. I wasn't a boy scout, so you know, during pandemic, like getting the solo stove was like super awesome. You know, like I've always kind of liked it in that way. But there's also the the absolutely horrific, scary, uh quick, moving, uh nature of of fire and destructive force that could just leave everything just torn asunder in its wake that I think that scene captured so well yeah, absolutely yeah, that's a good way to put it and that also reminds me of his movie Howl's Moving Castle.
Speaker 1:There's a literal character that's literally a hearth fire and it's such a fragile thing, but it can become extremely dangerous. If it goes out, then the fire's dead. If left unattended, it could be a huge issue. You know, like it's, it's a really it's a fascinating concept. But yeah, um, anthony, what are your, what are your thoughts on the movie overall?
Speaker 3:it it. It definitely is an interesting film and it is fair to say that it is not one of his more accessible ones. There are, the one he has, ones that are very much so easier to like watch for, like younger kids, like, uh, my neighbor, my neighbor, totoro, or ponio yeah, ponio or kiki's delivery service, but this one is. It's. It's definitely a tough one, and I don't mean that in a way that it's a bad movie, but it's tough because there is a lot going on and I feel like there's aspects of this movie that only mizaki understands. I don't think that you could fully understand everything. I feel like you could maybe get close to understanding, and I'm pretty sure that there's people who could analyze this and really like pick out a lot. But even then, at the end of the day, I feel like miyazaki has like the true idea of like what he was trying to put.
Speaker 1:Maybe you know sometime yeah, maybe he was like grasp of, like what, what the actual intent of the message is? Um, there there's, there's quite a lot of really fascinating ideas.
Speaker 3:Um, and right, because he goes to like the upside down. But instead of it being a decrepit place, it's like a whole other world, you know yeah, yeah, it's, it's, it's, there's, there's a whole lot going on.
Speaker 1:There's certain themes that, like I found really engaging, but I, I, you know, I, I also don't think I fully understand so yeah, so the the great grand uncle is something that I I spent a lot of time trying to understand and I think, in some ways, the main character, uh, the boy and the grand uncle are both miyazaki, you know, in different respects. You know, I think he sees himself in both characters and you know miyazaki is quite old, you know, like he's, I think he's early, he's at least late 70s, early 80s. You know like he's, he's at the end of his career, um, as a, as an animator but yeah, we'll see.
Speaker 1:Well, yeah, we'll see, he also said that he wants to make another movie, so we'll see how that goes, but home's like crazy. What I find interesting is that, like the grand uncle, is eager to find a successor to keep the creativity alive, and I think that is basically like the real world conundrum that Miyazaki has, you know, like he's created these worlds. He's created these fictional realities. You know, a lot of this feels very akin to some of the like the weirder spots in Totoro or Spirited Away or Princess Mononoke, you know, like it all kind of has that feel. But with this particular ending, he, you know, has a character who's been doing this for a very long time. He's been doing this as long as he can remember and he's waiting for someone to pick up the torch where he can no longer take it.
Speaker 1:Basically, and I think by the end of it, the message that I took is that Miyazaki is going to die one day, hayao Miyazaki is going to die one day. Hayao Miyazaki is going to die one day. There will be no clear successor, because everyone has their own way of doing things. You can't expect someone to create stuff like him, moving forward, like Studio Ghibli, the studio that he co-created with the other director, isao Takahata. Each director had different styles, but it kind of shifted into Miyazaki's thing when Takahata died a couple decades ago. And yeah, there's really no other studio making movies quite like this and I think that the the intent here is basically to to tell people that, you know, good things come to an end, you know, and that's kind of morbid, it's kind of messed up, but it's also like a beautiful thing because, like he created so many fantastic works throughout his career and, yeah, I'm sorry, rich, this is an extremely introspective and, you know, metatextual discussion of Miyazaki's like career and like motives in this movie.
Speaker 2:Well, that helps me. Honestly, it makes me feel better because, you know, I literally like one of the reasons why I said I felt like I was watching a second movie in a trilogy was I usually am able to kind of, you know, figure out the plot. You know, like I teach English, like you know it's kind of pick up something, yeah, figure out the plot. You know, like I'm like I teach english, like you know it's, it's kind of my job and there was a lot going on, you know where. I mean we, you know, as I watched it, like my family, we were all at different points like what's what's going on, and then we just kind of I think we just stopped asking what's going on and we just enjoyed the roller coaster ride yeah you know that, that, that I feel like that's the case with a lot of mood or a lot of anime, especially miyazaki movies.
Speaker 3:You know, like you just have to go for the ride.
Speaker 1:There's a certain yeah there's a certain logic that you have to throw out of the window and just experience the artistry and the story unfold as it does. As far as the story goes with this movie, it's a lot more difficult to follow than even some of the more weird films like Spirited Away.
Speaker 3:It's interesting, right right, and like this, one has like some kind of time bending mechanics to it also, where you know the main character. He meets his mother when she's younger and she's from this, from this place too, and you know when they, you know towards the end, you know they, they go back to their real worlds.
Speaker 3:You know, I'm I'm thinking that each of those doors are different points in time yeah and you know, the mother has to go into this time to become the mother of um makoto, no mahi to mahi, mahi, to yeah, good one rich, because I forgot it too uh, there's just so much uh going on.
Speaker 3:But, yeah, there's. I do like what you said about maihito and the grand uncle being the same person, because I could totally see that you know it. It's like it was almost like mizaki. Yeah, mizaki's like looking back on his life and, like you said, they're not being a clear successor. But yeah, if there was going to be a last film, I feel like this would have been the perfect one to top it off. But he can't help himself. We're on the 11th last film of his life, film of his life and yeah, I just I live. I don't think he's gonna stop making movies until he dies.
Speaker 1:I think this is either 11 or 12 of his like movies. How many films? 13. For some reason is it 13?
Speaker 3:miyazaki made uh 12 feature films oh, just missed it yeah, so this is like, because he said it a while back, I think that like it's been at least at least two to three films since he said that he's not doing it anymore yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:So that's that's like something that like.
Speaker 3:It's a running joke.
Speaker 1:I don't know if it's a running joke, but like he goes into retirement he gets all crotchety. He's just like I'm too old to make something anymore. I don't have the stamina. And then he's just like you know what, I have something to say. And then he makes a movie and it takes him years. You know, like this is all hand-drawn. You don't have hand-drawn animation anymore. Even some of the newer anime that comes out is mostly made on computers.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's digital art Like Makoto Shinkai. Before the show, you were mentioning Suzume to me, which is another film by. It's a fantastic film. We covered it actually a couple months back. You and I, anthony Suzume and that director, makoto Shinkai, kind of pioneered a new technique where it's mostly done in Photoshop. You know, like he puts digital drawings into Photoshop and just continues to make layers and layers and layers.
Speaker 1:And it's a really cool technique. But you know, miyazaki is like part of a dying breed where hand-drawn animation isn't a thing anymore. Disney doesn't do it. Um, you know, you really only have to go to like cartoons, like on tv, for that. You know, like that's really the only real hand-drawn stuff that we see in in mainstream media at this point. But yeah, it's, it's cool man, I love this guy.
Speaker 2:You bring up Suzume. As I was prepping for the episode, I asked my 10-year-old son what he thought, because I thought he would have a more discerning eye, he'd have a little bit more to say. And I mean, god bless him. He's like, well, you know, it really reminded me of Suzume and the way the ending and the doors and the different kind of realities. And I'm just sitting there like in awe, right, because my son made he, I think, made much more meaning of that movie than I did on the first go through. And I think it's because he does, he's more, I think, accustomed to just giving up and going into the and just falling down kind of that, the rabbit hole and enjoying the artistry where I, you know, it's like it's like if a movie is a sandbox game, I try to go to the edge. I'm like, okay, is that? Is that the border? Like where's the border? I try to find out the rules first before I I I kind of dive in, you know.
Speaker 3:So this movie is the edge, yeah, but, but like you know, kind of in a way that that we say that world war two and a lot of life events influences a lot of the Miyazaki films. It's the same thing with Makoto. Shinkai Suzume was definitely a piece on the 2011 earthquake and tsunami.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's actually a really good point.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so like I mean he kind of takes and to be honest, I think that you know.
Speaker 1:Going further than that, you can say the exact same thing about his other films your Name and Weathering with you. They both have natural disaster type things that affect the major part of the plot. Um, yeah, rich. If you uh want to watch a great, great, absolutely top tier anime movie that you will 100 get by the end of the movie, um, I highly recommend your name by by makoto shinkai. No, it's, I'm serious, you'll get it, no you're right.
Speaker 3:I just I love how, like you're, just like you, will 100 know what's going on by the end, because I mean it's funny how you leave this movie, uh, the boy in the heron still trying to figure out what just happened oh yeah, dude, there's.
Speaker 1:There's so much symbolism in boy in the heron, and I can go on for days, like what I think everything means. Like I think the, the king of the parakeets is, is kind of like being uh cynical about world leaders and like how they try to fix things. And you know, like you, you, you see, at the end the, the parakeet king, you know, try to like make a bunch of blocks sit upright, and he's just like why are you giving? Uh, you know, why are we doing this? Or why are we letting this random dude do it? Why can't I just do it?
Speaker 1:And then it all falls to pieces and it kind of reminds me of like how, you know, humans can't really run things in the well, I should say humans can't run things well, and everything they touch kind of just false pieces, and especially when there's corruption, and there's clear corruption with the parakeet guy. And you know, prior to that, the grand uncle said something along the lines of like you know, these stones haven't been touched by evil yet or malice, and as soon as they were touched by malice, everything falls apart so it's, it's a really there's so many layers to this that like you could get into and like actually dissect.
Speaker 1:But I think I'm gonna end my particular uh like thoughts on this with a quote from david lynch I just pulled up. He goes I don't know why people expect art to make sense. They accept the fact that life doesn't make sense.
Speaker 3:You know, and it's, it's like it's a really good point because, like a his films don't make sense and I like how you like circled back to david lynch, because you literally made that, um, that comparison to what we're talking about recording this movie yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:What's great about david lynch is that like the way that he creates movies. He's like I've read his book and the way he creates movies is he writes down um on like post-it notes or um, not post-it notes, but like uh little, like just index cards, index cards, yeah, um. He writes down like 90 different random scenes that have nothing to do with one another and just pulls it all together and that's his movie. Like he, literally he dude is like he was an actual crazy man.
Speaker 2:Like it was either humanity, the movie it was either.
Speaker 1:It was either he was, you know, a homeless man on the streets or the one of the greatest directors of all time, like there was no in between for him um. He was both he was. I don't think he was homeless but, yeah, um but that's. That's kind of the vibe that I get with this movie.
Speaker 1:Is that like it's just scenes that happen, it's it's thoughts that you know come forth and it's almost it follows dream logic, you know like yeah, there's a couple threads that like kind of weave throughout the entire thing, but for the most part you're jumping into sections of dreams and it's almost dream state like where you know like, oh man, you gotta you, you gotta run away from all of these birds. And then you know you're on a ship with floating blobs of baby, future baby. I have no idea.
Speaker 3:Future babies, yeah.
Speaker 1:And then you're back to running from birds who want to eat you now. So it's very dreamlike, you know, and I think that's what miyazaki's going for and it kind of reminds me like have you?
Speaker 3:I mean, I'm pretty sure that, like everybody has had this I know that people with add like know exactly what I'm about to say. But, like, sometimes you have random thoughts and sometimes those thoughts don't connect and you're like how did this thought get from this thought, you know?
Speaker 1:and it's almost like what this movie is the worst thing, random thoughts or adhd is like you know you, you like, you're going to look for something. You go to another room and you start doing something else. And you just, what did I? What did I come here for? What am I looking for? And there's a um rich does does your, does your son have a cell phone?
Speaker 2:uh, no, he has not yet okay, he has a uh ipad.
Speaker 1:Okay, but you can't text him right now and ask him if he's seen your name no, uh, no, I'll have to. I think he's probably oh, it's probably like yeah, he's probably a bed, but actually he does.
Speaker 2:I didn't set it up so he does. I can text him. Uh, so we, amazingly, will text each other in the house, but he actually can text me If he's home. He can text me when I'm at work.
Speaker 1:Okay, I'm using iMessage, all right. Yeah, I'm really curious if he's seen your Name and if he hasn't, it's a really good film that you guys should check out. It's awesome. Yeah he's gonna be excited. It's no, no, it did, when dakota said says that, like it's really good, like it's it's a top five. Even I was just not, not just anime, it's a top five film for me. Like it's, it's it.
Speaker 3:I even I was like blown away, like I was super excited and especially when we covered it, it was. It has you like on the edge of your seat, like you're super excited about like what's happening. You're like you know, like, oh my gosh, like you, you, there's jaw dropping moments. It's really, it's a really good movie that, yeah, like you said, like it's, it's a top tier movie. Yeah, it's, it's, you know, an anime film, but check so many boxes off to like make it, you know, a top tier.
Speaker 2:Just whether it's anime or live action, like just it's amazing. Okay, yeah, I just just rank it. Is it better or equal to little giants? Because I, I love little giants. So like, if you guys say it's a, I as Little Giants.
Speaker 1:For you, I will say equal.
Speaker 2:Oh, all right, Listen, I'm excited because, boy, do I love that Annexation of Puerto Rico. Baby, here we come.
Speaker 1:All right. Yeah, guys, what are we covering next week? I literally have no idea. We have not discussed this at all off the pod.
Speaker 3:We have not. I mean, we've been so focused on.
Speaker 1:Oh, Anthony, you started watching Dragon Prince.
Speaker 3:Yes, I need to continue.
Speaker 1:Would you be interested in covering the first season of Dragon Prince? It's short enough where we don't have to break it up into two episodes.
Speaker 3:Okay, yeah, we could do that. All right, rich you cool with that?
Speaker 1:Yeah. So, the Dragon Prince is a netflix animated series. It's uh american animation and it's more uh computer animated than hand-drawn or anything like that, but it has that 2d aspect to it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, oh, what did I forget to you? Know what really made me angry about the movie? I mean, we don't know, you can cut this out, no go ahead, yeah go ahead. Okay, I must listen, man like, why are the subtitles not the same as what they say? Oh, I'll tell you, I'll tell you why.
Speaker 3:I know exactly why.
Speaker 1:It's because the subtitles are direct translations of the japanese, whereas uh, the, the, you know, the actual um dub over in english is tailored to, you know, an american audience oh, okay so it's more colloquially friendly in amer in, you know, like english got you because I it's, I had to turn it off too. I had to turn off the subtitles okay, all right, so yeah, yeah yeah, it gets.
Speaker 3:It gets confusing like that and I know that a lot of the way that those English subtitles are situated. A lot of the Asian-speaking countries learn, like England, english Right. So it's set up in that kind of way, although I have spoken to a few and they say that they prefer to learn American English because we have a lot less rules. They said our English is super lax.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's interesting.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:I like that. That's cool. All right, guys, next week for episode 110, we're going to be covering….
Speaker 3:Rubitar, as I call it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, rubitar, it's kind of like Avatar and Ruby and ruby rwby, um, but yeah, so we will be covering the dragon prince season one it's. We're not going to be breaking this into two episodes. We can watch the entirety in probably the same amount of time as like a long movie. So I think that's what we're we're gonna do, and, if we, you know, I think there's seven seasons. We don't need to do them all at once, basically, but yeah, so that's agreed that's uh where we're at right now.
Speaker 1:We're, we're all in agreement for dragon prince next week I'm down season one all right size in one thank you guys so much for listening to us here for our 109th episode of project ecology. If you want to check out any of our socials, please be sure to check out the show notes down below. You can find us on Twitter, on YouTube, on Instagram, and I think we haven't actually been putting Rich in the show notes and I feel like it's about time that we finally start doing that. So we're probably going to have to go back and start putting Rich in the show notes so you can follow him on on wherever he's.
Speaker 1:Uh, you know popping off online, but uh, yeah, thanks, guys so that you can see who let the mets out.
Speaker 3:You know, yeah, oh man peter lonzo's back, baby yeah all right, sorry oh, oh, um. Also, you know, we need, we were, we require our listeners to, you know, give us something that, that that we, you know, we enjoy, we enjoy these, like you know. Just imagine this fat juicy five-star rating, you know, and just like put it on there you know we're recording this over zoom.
Speaker 1:we're recording this over zoom and like're recording this over zoom and like Anthony has his, has his hands in a position where it's like he can eat like a burger. He's picturing like the juiciest, fattest burger you can ever imagine. I literally was like in my mind, like I was starting to get hungry, like as I was imagining this.
Speaker 3:I'm like dude, like I want a burger right now. We need that five-star review.
Speaker 1:It has to be juicy. If you want to leave a review on top of that, please feel free if your podcast app allows it.
Speaker 3:Thanks, guys, on to the next one, the Wolverine. That's what we were waiting for.
