Geek Addicts - Episode 26: Let's Discuss Sand Land!

[00:00:00] .

[00:00:01] The following is a GNC podcast production.

[00:00:32] Welcome to Geek Addicts, a pop culture podcast.

[00:00:41] Hello everybody and welcome back to Geek Addicts, the pop culture podcast where we talk every

[00:00:46] week about who knows?

[00:00:49] It's always fun.

[00:00:50] We don't even know half the time.

[00:00:53] Yeah.

[00:00:54] I'm really tired this week.

[00:00:56] I'm not going to lie.

[00:00:57] Yeah, I'm with you.

[00:00:58] It was a rough one this week.

[00:00:59] I don't even know it wasn't anything particular.

[00:01:01] It just it was just one of those kinds of weeks where you just can't wait for it to be over.

[00:01:07] Yeah.

[00:01:08] Well, I was on vacation last weekend so I like didn't get back my week didn't start

[00:01:11] till Tuesday.

[00:01:14] I spent all of Monday in planes and driving.

[00:01:17] So that was a very tiring day.

[00:01:19] Yikes.

[00:01:21] Ironically, this week wasn't so bad work wise because my boss was also on vacation.

[00:01:25] So it was like we didn't have to deal with anything during work, but it was just a lot

[00:01:32] of work this week.

[00:01:33] Yeah.

[00:01:34] I kind of have like a little bit of the opposite problem where like where I mean, I can't

[00:01:40] even say where it's been drying up because it's been like this for a bit.

[00:01:44] But supposedly apparently my boss keeps saying it's going to it's going to pick back

[00:01:48] up is going to pick back up.

[00:01:49] I'm still waiting for it.

[00:01:53] Usually the summers when everything picks up.

[00:01:55] Yeah, that's that's what they've been saying.

[00:01:58] But we'll see.

[00:01:59] We'll see.

[00:02:00] Yeah.

[00:02:01] As long as I have enough work to keep me busy.

[00:02:04] That's all I need.

[00:02:05] Yeah.

[00:02:06] That's that's always the best.

[00:02:07] I mean, nothing's worse than like not being busy.

[00:02:11] It's funny.

[00:02:12] There was no bosses in today.

[00:02:13] So like it was like free range and nobody was working at all.

[00:02:16] It was it was pretty fun.

[00:02:18] Yeah.

[00:02:19] So it's been it's been a couple of weeks since we've recorded last.

[00:02:24] How have you been?

[00:02:25] Bill, what have you been up to?

[00:02:26] You want to talk about your adventures?

[00:02:29] I went to Alabama over the weekend.

[00:02:31] That was nice experience.

[00:02:34] I went to go see an Indy car race.

[00:02:36] I saw a mannequin fall on the track.

[00:02:38] That was fun.

[00:02:39] Did somebody throw it there?

[00:02:41] No, so the track we went to the owner of the track is kind of an eccentric like

[00:02:47] he likes his art installations.

[00:02:50] So there's like all this goofy art around the track.

[00:02:52] Like there's literally a lake around the perimeter and it's called the Lady of the Lake.

[00:02:56] And there's literally this giant woman just in the middle of the lake with like her head

[00:03:01] and her knees popping out.

[00:03:02] It's like OK.

[00:03:05] And little big alligators all around the perimeter.

[00:03:08] I'm imagining like the scrap guy from Iron Giant.

[00:03:14] A little kind of.

[00:03:16] This is scrap and this is art.

[00:03:19] Yeah.

[00:03:21] In the middle in the middle of the track, there was legit a giant spider just there.

[00:03:26] That's bizarre.

[00:03:28] It's an interesting track.

[00:03:29] Beautiful. My favorite is the inflatable chapel.

[00:03:33] Inflatable.

[00:03:34] Chad's a new one.

[00:03:35] It's I posted it on Facebook.

[00:03:37] You can see some of the pictures.

[00:03:39] It is straight up just a chapel that's inflatable.

[00:03:43] And they later.

[00:03:44] They've had weddings in there.

[00:03:46] Have they really?

[00:03:47] Oh, yeah.

[00:03:48] God, talk about a shock on wedding.

[00:03:51] One of the one of the most notable art things, though, was there was.

[00:03:56] A mannequin of a woman named Georgina that was hanging from a bridge.

[00:04:01] Like it just just there.

[00:04:04] She'd been there for years, like since the track opened

[00:04:08] and in the middle of the race, I guess when they because they would change

[00:04:12] her outfit all the time, I guess the last person that put her back up there

[00:04:15] didn't secure her properly.

[00:04:17] So in the middle of the race, she just straight up falls on the track.

[00:04:21] She's got and got run over.

[00:04:23] I'm sure probably quite a bit.

[00:04:26] I imagine the driver.

[00:04:28] We saw it on TV and we were like, what the fuck?

[00:04:34] Oh, geez.

[00:04:35] Yeah, that was that was an interesting experience.

[00:04:39] Hmm.

[00:04:40] I also went to the Bass Pro Shops that had that the guy jumped in the tank.

[00:04:45] Oh, yeah.

[00:04:46] Yeah. Well, I was at the Bass Pro Shops and I was looking at the fish tanker

[00:04:49] like that looks familiar.

[00:04:49] And then I like it kind of dawned on me and I looked it up and like, hey,

[00:04:53] this is the fish tank where the guy jumped in.

[00:04:56] It's been swimming with the fish.

[00:04:58] Oh, geez.

[00:04:59] I don't think he was OK in the head.

[00:05:01] No, probably not.

[00:05:04] But yeah, then that it was a it was a fun trip.

[00:05:07] Went to this big car museum, saw a bunch of old cars and stuff.

[00:05:11] That's pretty cool.

[00:05:12] Yeah, Alabama is interesting.

[00:05:15] We'll see. Yeah.

[00:05:17] But I can say now I've been to Alabama and Chicago

[00:05:20] because my layoff, my layover was in Chicago.

[00:05:23] I can say the same thing about Detroit.

[00:05:24] I've actually had two layovers in Detroit.

[00:05:27] Yeah. So I'm pretty well acquainted with their airport.

[00:05:31] Yeah, I didn't leave the airport, but I I

[00:05:35] we had to stop in Chicago and I just remember like being like, wow,

[00:05:38] this is crazy.

[00:05:39] And then we got to Alabama and it's like, wow, this is so not as crazy.

[00:05:45] Yeah. A lot of flying and a lot of driving.

[00:05:50] Fun stuff.

[00:05:53] So as you, Bill, know, I finished Chrono Trigger,

[00:05:59] which was definitely a long time coming up.

[00:06:02] And I've been working on it for I feel like

[00:06:05] because I started playing it shortly after we got the news about Toriyama.

[00:06:09] So it's been probably like a month and a half or so since I started it.

[00:06:14] Yeah, it has.

[00:06:16] So I it says I got ending number one.

[00:06:21] So I think I got the cannon ending.

[00:06:24] I think so.

[00:06:24] I'd have to relook into that because there's so many endings in that game.

[00:06:28] Also, maybe it was just the animations

[00:06:32] that were throwing me off with like hair color and such.

[00:06:34] Does Chrono marry Marl at the end?

[00:06:38] That's the implication, I want to say,

[00:06:41] because like that's what it seemed like.

[00:06:43] But she didn't really look like Marl.

[00:06:45] Maybe it was just the outfit and the hairstyle

[00:06:48] during the wedding that was different or it's it's supposed to be her.

[00:06:54] I mean, it would make the most sense.

[00:06:56] But I mean, less so for me personally, just because she was not

[00:07:01] like as soon as I got another character, she was off my party.

[00:07:04] Like, it's just fair.

[00:07:08] I mean, they had they have a lot of moments in the game, though.

[00:07:11] Yeah. Yeah.

[00:07:13] That that's supposed to be her.

[00:07:14] That's the implication at the end.

[00:07:16] And he was you played the DS version, right?

[00:07:19] I played the version of the VDS.

[00:07:21] So I think it's a PlayStation version.

[00:07:23] OK, so that one still has the cut scenes.

[00:07:26] Well, the DS version doesn't have them.

[00:07:28] No, the DS version actually has the cut scenes,

[00:07:30] but it's based off the Super Nintendo.

[00:07:32] Over it's kind of like a mix match of the two.

[00:07:34] OK.

[00:07:35] They also added a bunch of stuff to connect it to Chrono Cross.

[00:07:39] A little bit.

[00:07:40] Yeah, because Chrono Cross is supposed to be like a sequel kind of,

[00:07:42] but it's a character.

[00:07:44] It is a very far off distance sequel.

[00:07:46] Like.

[00:07:49] You can play you can play a chrono cross completely standalone

[00:07:52] and be perfectly fine, honestly.

[00:07:54] Yeah, because that's what I figured that they were part of like a series

[00:07:57] or something, but from my understanding, it's it's very different.

[00:08:01] And I don't think if I remember right, the full team isn't part of it anymore.

[00:08:06] Like I don't think Toriyama to the art for that one.

[00:08:08] No, it's a very it's a completely different game, honestly.

[00:08:12] Gotcha.

[00:08:12] Similar ideas, but like the game itself,

[00:08:15] like the battle systems vastly different.

[00:08:18] It feels different.

[00:08:20] It has it infamously has some of like one of the like

[00:08:24] it is one of those RPGs that has so many fricking party members.

[00:08:27] It's almost laughable.

[00:08:29] Like there is so many party members and it does a cool job

[00:08:33] like making you like interested in them because they have a lot of unique ones.

[00:08:36] But oh, that game is a chore to play.

[00:08:39] I do love it, but it is a lot.

[00:08:42] Yeah, I have plenty of other JRPG in my play to to deal with.

[00:08:49] I figured because, unfortunately, you weren't able to make the episode

[00:08:52] that we went over it.

[00:08:55] You saw the spy family movie recently.

[00:08:57] I did. I did.

[00:08:59] Unfortunately, the original plans was for me to be on that G and C episode.

[00:09:04] But I had some some family issues last minute at the time,

[00:09:07] so I wasn't able to make it, unfortunately.

[00:09:11] So I figured

[00:09:13] since I couldn't be there for that one, maybe

[00:09:16] we can give it some breathing room, wait for the home release to come out

[00:09:19] and then we can do our episode on it.

[00:09:21] Yeah, that would work.

[00:09:24] And hopefully by then it'll be spaced out enough from like the G and Z episode.

[00:09:28] Yeah, that's what that's my thought, like rather than having two episodes

[00:09:31] on the same subjects within like a week or two of each other.

[00:09:34] You know, OK, maybe we can bring in a guest for that one as well.

[00:09:38] So probably not named.

[00:09:41] No offense to name just because we had him on the G and C episode.

[00:09:44] But oh, you did manage to find someone.

[00:09:47] So it was going to be both of you guys.

[00:09:49] But

[00:09:51] it ended up just unfortunately not being able to work out.

[00:09:53] That's why when you see the thumbnail,

[00:09:55] you're the Geek Addicts logos in the thumbnail, even though.

[00:09:59] Unfortunately, it was too late to take it out by the time I did all the editing.

[00:10:03] But we mentioned it in the episode.

[00:10:06] Hey, yeah.

[00:10:09] But yes, I think that I watched Trigun

[00:10:14] in the old one of the new one, the old one.

[00:10:18] OK, I've heard good things.

[00:10:19] I haven't been able to watch that on yet.

[00:10:21] It's a fun series.

[00:10:22] Was it Johnny Young Bosch who plays Vash?

[00:10:27] I want to say yes, but I don't know for sure.

[00:10:30] I think it is, which was why, because I would have been like an early role for him,

[00:10:33] I'd imagine, right?

[00:10:35] Hmm.

[00:10:36] Believe so.

[00:10:38] It definitely kind of sounds like it's an error,

[00:10:40] like, you know, the beginnings of the voice actors, because.

[00:10:45] You know, it definitely has a very 90s

[00:10:48] feel to it with acting and such.

[00:10:51] It is Vash.

[00:10:53] He is Johnny Young Bosch.

[00:10:57] But it was a fun series I enjoyed it had.

[00:10:59] Actually, honestly, had a lot of Kenshin vibes,

[00:11:02] only in more of a Western setting.

[00:11:05] OK, that's what I've heard.

[00:11:09] Ironically, the character Merrill is voiced by a Haru.

[00:11:14] Good, good dub, Karu.

[00:11:16] That makes sense.

[00:11:18] I knew that I knew it sounded familiar.

[00:11:21] But yeah, aside from that,

[00:11:26] Discord is spoken.

[00:11:27] So now I'm playing Persona 4.

[00:11:30] Yeah, that's partially my fault.

[00:11:33] Yeah, well, to be honest, as soon as I put Persona 4 on the poll,

[00:11:38] I was like, that's probably going to be get get big.

[00:11:41] That's probably going to be the one.

[00:11:43] Unfortunately, our server just doesn't have enough people in it

[00:11:45] to really make a huge dent in a poll.

[00:11:48] There was a good amount.

[00:11:50] A couple of people did contribute.

[00:11:51] I thought somebody else also said Persona 4.

[00:11:54] Yeah, well, I mean, I'm not like I mean, all of them were games I wanted to play.

[00:12:01] And Persona 4 is definitely one of those long overdue ones.

[00:12:05] But at the same time, it's easily the longest one on the list one

[00:12:09] that I put on there by far.

[00:12:11] And so it's probably going to be a while before I beat it.

[00:12:14] But I did start cracking into it.

[00:12:17] I only put like an hour and a half in so far.

[00:12:19] But I mean, I like I'm seeing you're playing the slowest part of the game.

[00:12:26] Well, I mean, I don't mind it just kind of like the I don't mind the slow burn.

[00:12:30] I mean, I know I know I'm getting into a long, a long haul.

[00:12:34] So I'll say the first time around the opening isn't bad.

[00:12:38] It's just once you when you play that game as many times as I have

[00:12:42] that opening is very slow.

[00:12:44] Yeah, I can imagine you just having a show on in the background

[00:12:46] just hitting A over and over.

[00:12:49] There is a fast forward button feature, but even then it's still a lot.

[00:12:56] Yeah, you can just remember.

[00:12:57] Yeah, you can skip dialogue stuff and cut scenes.

[00:13:00] So you never should, though, because this game story is amazing.

[00:13:05] Yeah, well, I mean, obviously, I'm not going to do that.

[00:13:07] My first run through either way.

[00:13:08] But yeah, I am very impressed with the animations and stuff with the cut scenes

[00:13:14] especially for a 2008 game, a game from 2008 originally.

[00:13:19] Was it originally a PS2 game?

[00:13:21] It was one of it was a very late PS2 game.

[00:13:25] You have to keep in mind atlas at the time.

[00:13:29] Was struggling budget wise for a lot of things because they weren't really

[00:13:33] they weren't owned by Sega yet at this point, so they really didn't have

[00:13:35] a huge budget to make all these games.

[00:13:39] So I believe they cut corners on a lot of places to get like better

[00:13:43] voice actors and stuff because the voice cast in four is amazing.

[00:13:49] Yeah, I have noticed a bunch already.

[00:13:52] Is that is it the kid with the headphones?

[00:13:54] Is that that Sasuke?

[00:13:58] Yeah, Yuri Lothal.

[00:13:59] Yeah, that's right.

[00:14:00] That's what I thought it was.

[00:14:01] The main character, even though he doesn't say much in the

[00:14:04] the in the main game, the main character is Johnny Young Bosch.

[00:14:09] OK, in all the spin-offs, he talks all the time.

[00:14:13] He really doesn't talk a lot in the game.

[00:14:16] I recognize the uncle a lot, his voice too, but I can't place it.

[00:14:20] I'd have to relook it up.

[00:14:21] I forget who he is, but he's a pretty well known.

[00:14:27] Yeah, there are a whole bunch of them, though.

[00:14:28] You'll notice more the farther you get in.

[00:14:30] Yeah, I started up in a defaulted into Japanese.

[00:14:33] I was like, wait, I thought there was an English version of this.

[00:14:35] Oh, another is.

[00:14:36] So I had to wait until all the cutscenes and conversations

[00:14:38] of stuff were over so I could actually pause the game and change it.

[00:14:42] Yeah, it's that's weird.

[00:14:45] It's how defaulted must have been the previous owner

[00:14:47] and it's set for that or something.

[00:14:49] It's it's a it's the it's the switch version is downloaded.

[00:14:52] So switch defaults to Japanese.

[00:14:55] I guess. Hmm.

[00:14:57] I'm not sure how I deal with that.

[00:14:59] I wouldn't have realized either because I would have changed it

[00:15:02] in the main menu, but the opening like animation was in English.

[00:15:05] So I didn't even think to check.

[00:15:09] That's interesting.

[00:15:10] But but yeah, that's one that we're going to be on

[00:15:13] or I'm going to be on for a while.

[00:15:15] I'll probably end up having a casual game going at the same time

[00:15:17] just to break it up a bit just because it's a lot.

[00:15:21] Yes, it is. Yes, it is.

[00:15:24] It's easily double plus the length of any of the other games

[00:15:28] I had in that poll. So.

[00:15:30] Odojima is played by JB Blanc.

[00:15:33] I don't know the name.

[00:15:36] I'd I'd have to look at there.

[00:15:38] He plays like 30 characters in Hogwarts Legacy.

[00:15:42] Wow, no kidding.

[00:15:44] Um, I'd see my wife would be familiar within that.

[00:15:51] It doesn't do a lot of anime anymore.

[00:15:53] Mostly does games.

[00:15:55] It's fine.

[00:15:56] I don't know whatever works for him.

[00:15:59] Oh, I'm actually curious now

[00:16:01] because I swear I knew him from somewhere else.

[00:16:04] Yeah, it sounded super familiar.

[00:16:06] But when I when I was still in the Japanese,

[00:16:08] like I was kind of expecting more of like Patrick Sates,

[00:16:12] but that's not what it was once I switched it over.

[00:16:17] It was definitely a more mild like, like, you know,

[00:16:19] it was still like a man's voice, but it wasn't like,

[00:16:21] you know, Patrick Sates deep or anything.

[00:16:24] He's very chill.

[00:16:29] I don't know. I'm enjoying what I've seen so far.

[00:16:31] I think I left off right after

[00:16:34] the falling into the TV screen thing with with at the store.

[00:16:42] OK, so you're getting you're getting pretty close

[00:16:44] to where the game really picks up.

[00:16:46] Yeah, and I met that bear guy.

[00:16:49] Oh, Teddy. Yeah.

[00:16:51] There's two there's two camps.

[00:16:53] There's Pro Teddy and Auntie Teddy.

[00:16:55] Well, there remains to be seen.

[00:16:57] I've only spoken to him once, so we'll see.

[00:17:01] He's interesting.

[00:17:02] I'm not going to spoil anything because there's a lot

[00:17:05] that he has a lot behind.

[00:17:06] I'm not all the characters are complex in that game.

[00:17:09] No, I'm definitely looking forward to getting into it.

[00:17:11] But yeah, it's definitely going to be a long haul.

[00:17:16] But I got to say, Bill,

[00:17:18] I am currently playing your favorite game of all time.

[00:17:22] So the pressure is on, bro.

[00:17:25] Which ones? Your favorite games?

[00:17:27] I was playing it.

[00:17:31] I have like so many other games and shit to do.

[00:17:35] Yes, what would be fair?

[00:17:36] Fable two is a considerably shorter game.

[00:17:38] True. I'm playing

[00:17:41] 3D games at the moment.

[00:17:43] And I also am playing a 3D dock game hero

[00:17:45] because that's a project I'm working on.

[00:17:50] I have Fable two in the background, though,

[00:17:51] because I am looking forward to Fable, the new one.

[00:17:55] Yeah, me too.

[00:17:56] I'm going to have to actually crack down and buy an Xbox.

[00:18:00] Yeah, but luckily the prices have gone down.

[00:18:03] Like when I was when I was looking around for

[00:18:06] I think it was when I was getting a controller

[00:18:08] for the PlayStation before Christmas.

[00:18:11] I was at Best Buy and I saw that they were selling Xbox

[00:18:14] for like two fifty, which is like, wow, it's like half price.

[00:18:19] Yeah, they're kind of trying to sell those damn things now.

[00:18:23] Yeah, well, I figure is that all the other prices

[00:18:26] would drop after I buy my PlayStation.

[00:18:28] But yeah, either way, PlayStation was going to be first

[00:18:31] and my Xbox is going to be my fable machine.

[00:18:35] Yeah, pretty much.

[00:18:37] Honestly,

[00:18:39] um, yeah, other than that, though, not a whole lot of other stuff to cover.

[00:18:46] So do you think we should jump into the topic?

[00:18:48] Yeah, I'm up.

[00:18:50] All right, so we've been doing a lot of Toriyama lately on this show.

[00:18:54] And yeah, I realized that too when we decided to do this one.

[00:18:58] Yeah, so we're going to continue with that.

[00:19:01] And today's topic we're going to be talking about Sandland

[00:19:05] mostly the series we might also touch on the manga a little bit.

[00:19:08] I got mine here for reference.

[00:19:11] I should have grabbed it mines upstairs somewhere.

[00:19:14] No, that's all right.

[00:19:14] I only have a few points that I could I reread it today

[00:19:17] and preparation just for for a little extra something.

[00:19:22] Yes, so Sandland, Sandland, Sandland.

[00:19:26] Was was this Toriyama's final thing he wrote or like original thing?

[00:19:29] Or

[00:19:33] it's hard to say.

[00:19:34] I don't know if it definitely wasn't his final thing he wrote.

[00:19:37] A final original thing, maybe

[00:19:40] if I final thing that he wrote that wasn't based on a preexisting

[00:19:44] universe or something he's already done, possibly.

[00:19:47] OK, because this was released in 2000, I believe.

[00:19:52] A manga itself.

[00:19:53] Once, yes. Yeah.

[00:19:56] The only other thing I can think of that he's released

[00:19:59] after that was Jocko and then all of like the

[00:20:03] the script and bullet points is stuff for Dragon Ball.

[00:20:06] So I think this was his last original work.

[00:20:10] Yeah, because Jocko is technically part of Dragon Ball now at this point.

[00:20:14] Yes.

[00:20:15] It was kind of like a stealth prequel to anyone who's the first time.

[00:20:19] Yeah.

[00:20:22] Yeah, so the sand for this episode, we're only going to be covering

[00:20:25] the first six episodes of the series because that's the first arc.

[00:20:29] It's it's what it's what the the manga covers.

[00:20:35] Everything after that is anime original.

[00:20:38] So I figure especially since the English

[00:20:40] stuff hasn't finished for the second arc yet, it's

[00:20:42] you know, we'll just put the focus on that part first.

[00:20:45] That's what I thought because when I was watching the show last night,

[00:20:49] I did once I got through the first arc, I started watching

[00:20:52] what there was of the dub and it it is a very different feeling show after that.

[00:20:57] Yeah, I'm fairly sure that Toriyama did work on that second arc.

[00:21:03] So it does have Toriyama's fingerprints on it.

[00:21:06] But yeah, it's not it's not part of the original work.

[00:21:10] You could you can really tell like the first part was clearly,

[00:21:14] excuse me, was clearly based off of something that was written

[00:21:17] in 2000 or 99 technically if you want to be real about it.

[00:21:23] And then you watch the second arc and it's like this feel the writing

[00:21:26] style is very similar, but it also feels a lot different.

[00:21:31] Yeah.

[00:21:33] Yeah, because I I did watch the first episode of that second arc

[00:21:37] because when the first batch released that that first episode was part of it.

[00:21:43] So I know the whole like

[00:21:47] I there's a whole thing with another area and

[00:21:52] a couple new characters, one of which is very reminiscent to a Dragon Ball character.

[00:21:57] Yes.

[00:21:59] But yeah, so look at the beginning of the book here.

[00:22:05] Toriyama had wrote that this was supposed to be

[00:22:09] just a story about an old man in a tank, which he just started doing just for fun.

[00:22:15] But he's not wrong.

[00:22:16] Somewhere along the way, he just kind of the story kind of went out of control

[00:22:21] and it just kind of became its own thing, which is kind of cool.

[00:22:29] So I'll say right off the bat for the anime, it is another

[00:22:34] it's another CGI anime, which these are just becoming so common now that it's kind of

[00:22:40] you kind of just are getting used to them.

[00:22:42] Yeah.

[00:22:43] This one is very similar to Dragon Ball Super Super Hero.

[00:22:48] It's more refined, though, like it looks it definitely looks like they've

[00:22:51] improved on this style considerably over the

[00:22:55] over the year, like since then.

[00:22:57] And it looks pretty smooth.

[00:22:59] There's only a few moments where I'd see it and I'd kind of be like,

[00:23:02] it doesn't look great.

[00:23:04] But I think it lends itself very well to this this particular story, though,

[00:23:09] in a way that it doesn't for Dragon Ball.

[00:23:12] Yeah. The setting does this style a lot of favorites, I will say.

[00:23:18] For sure.

[00:23:20] Do you want to give like a basic summary of the plot?

[00:23:23] Sure.

[00:23:24] So the story is basically about it's kind of like a dystopian future world

[00:23:30] where through natural disasters and human on human wars,

[00:23:37] basically the entire planet, as far as anyone knows, is completely desolate

[00:23:42] and just wanted to giant desert.

[00:23:45] There's very little water to go around to the point where it's pretty much its own currency.

[00:23:52] And there are also demons living in this world.

[00:23:56] So it starts out with an old man named Rao showing up at the village of demons

[00:24:02] and recruiting a couple of demons to help him find the legendary lake.

[00:24:09] And that's basically the setup for it is a journey to go out

[00:24:14] and find water that isn't being sold at outrageous prices.

[00:24:19] Yeah, it's kind of funny when I was watching this and the little bit I read

[00:24:25] and it's so funny because it was 2000 and Dragon Ball very much never really straight

[00:24:31] into like real world issues and stuff.

[00:24:34] This one I felt like Toriama like really had some anbils he needed to drop.

[00:24:38] Yeah, for sure.

[00:24:39] I was like, oh, this was a poppicle for 2000, I guess.

[00:24:44] Yeah, because it deals a lot with like the violent nature of humans.

[00:24:50] It even touches on racism a little bit with the animosity between humans and demons.

[00:24:56] Which I appreciated that because like it reminded me a lot of Inuyashan in a lot of ways.

[00:25:02] Yeah, for sure.

[00:25:03] Because it's actually really funny because you find out as you go along

[00:25:06] that demons actually aren't that bad.

[00:25:08] They just they just like pulling pranks.

[00:25:10] Yeah, they're just they're honestly just kind of goofballs that hang out.

[00:25:14] And then they just honestly,

[00:25:18] humanity is the villains in this series.

[00:25:20] Oh, for sure. Easily.

[00:25:23] Only some of them, though.

[00:25:24] It's it gets it more interesting the farther you get in, the more you learn.

[00:25:30] There's also a big environmentalism overracking like

[00:25:34] plot thing, which was pretty big around the 2000s.

[00:25:38] So that makes a lot of sense.

[00:25:41] It just it's interesting with Toriama's style.

[00:25:43] Like it it it was an odd twist because I'm so used to

[00:25:47] like his comedy stuff with like Dr.

[00:25:50] Stump and then like Dragon Ball.

[00:25:52] Yeah, he definitely leans into that with this story as well.

[00:25:55] But it definitely has its more serious tone

[00:25:59] is then you get from most Toriama stuff.

[00:26:02] Yeah.

[00:26:04] I didn't like the characters, though.

[00:26:05] I found them all very likable, even the villains

[00:26:10] because they felt real.

[00:26:12] Oh, for sure.

[00:26:14] One thing I want to touch on before we really start diving

[00:26:16] into it is the intro song is Fire.

[00:26:21] Intro song was good.

[00:26:22] I did like the closing credit song, too.

[00:26:25] I found it to be pretty chill.

[00:26:26] Yeah.

[00:26:28] Since you've watched a little bit in the second arc,

[00:26:31] does the song change or is it the same?

[00:26:33] It's the same one.

[00:26:34] OK, that's all.

[00:26:35] I mean, I really like the intro song.

[00:26:37] It's very good.

[00:26:38] Well, if you notice like watching it,

[00:26:40] all the bunch of the characters from the second arc are in the intro

[00:26:45] which confused the hell out of me.

[00:26:46] Like when I first watched it, I'm like,

[00:26:47] who are these characters that we never see?

[00:26:49] I can imagine.

[00:26:51] And then it's like then we get to the second arc.

[00:26:52] I'm like, OK.

[00:26:54] Yeah.

[00:26:57] So yeah, let's let's jump into some of the characters

[00:27:00] to start out.

[00:27:03] So I believe.

[00:27:04] Oh, actually, the opening scene of the series

[00:27:08] because it definitely

[00:27:10] kind of built it up more than what we saw in the manga

[00:27:13] because it kind of starts out very like horror movie.

[00:27:17] Like that first scene.

[00:27:19] Yeah, kind of like

[00:27:22] it's just the two guys driving a truck down through the desert

[00:27:25] doing a water delivery and like

[00:27:29] they're talking, you know, they're talking about wanting to see some action

[00:27:31] or other stuff and they see like a ghostly figure in the fog

[00:27:34] and all of a sudden like a little gremlin guy

[00:27:38] jumps onto their windshield and you know, it just

[00:27:41] the way that they set it up at the beginning was

[00:27:44] it definitely had some horror vibes.

[00:27:48] Yeah, that was interesting to me.

[00:27:50] The payoff to that whole scene is very hilarious, though.

[00:27:55] Where we get introduced to.

[00:27:58] Beelzebub.

[00:27:59] Yes, who is one of the three main

[00:28:02] like protagonists of this series.

[00:28:06] It was the son of King Lucifer, the Prince of Demons.

[00:28:11] So I love the fact that this this series has a lot of

[00:28:16] non human characters because Toriyama has always

[00:28:20] his creature and monster designs have just always been like

[00:28:24] vastly superior to his human designs, because he gets very creative

[00:28:29] and it's very fun seeing all these different wacky designs that he came up with.

[00:28:33] For sure. Although I will say his design for Rao is very distinct.

[00:28:38] Well, so Rao like initially like he kind of looks like one of the old man

[00:28:42] characters from like early Dragon Ball, but like the way he is.

[00:28:48] He carries himself, I think, makes him stand out for sure.

[00:28:52] I at first didn't think Rao was going to be a main character

[00:28:55] just because of the way it seems like it was setting up.

[00:28:58] But then all of a sudden it's like, oh, no, he's so long for the journey.

[00:29:00] Oh, yeah, he's actually incredibly important, both for the story coming up

[00:29:04] and for the story that this story is built upon.

[00:29:08] What would the whole the whole thing with the peachy people and General Zeyu?

[00:29:14] Yeah, yep, that guy. Yeah, Eggman.

[00:29:19] Let's let's cool Eggman. Yeah.

[00:29:24] And then we had thief, the third main character,

[00:29:29] who is one of the many demons in the Demon Village.

[00:29:33] And he is.

[00:29:35] He's fun because like they go through.

[00:29:38] So when basically when Rao goes to the Demon

[00:29:41] people to propose his whole journey idea where he wants to find this

[00:29:46] mythical like water source and he needs their help and he's willing to trade

[00:29:52] basically he's willing to share it with them and like have peace.

[00:29:56] And basically they decide Bial's bub is going to go,

[00:30:00] but they only have one extra seat on the car.

[00:30:02] So they can only take one more person and they end up trying out every demon in the

[00:30:07] the village. And it turns out all of them are kind of pathetic, except for

[00:30:11] except for thief and thief's the one that doesn't want to go.

[00:30:14] Yeah, and he's not even like a good fighter or anything.

[00:30:17] He just has certain skills.

[00:30:19] Yeah, that come in handy later.

[00:30:22] Yeah. And apparently, and you know, one of the things we would know at

[00:30:25] the time, but some of the knowledge that he has ends up being very important

[00:30:29] to the story.

[00:30:31] Hmm. Yeah, no.

[00:30:33] I the main three

[00:30:36] in dear to you very quick in this yes,

[00:30:39] especially the way they interplay with each other.

[00:30:42] Yeah, that's for sure.

[00:30:44] So yeah, Rao shows up in the village and the Demon village

[00:30:48] and he's asking for help.

[00:30:50] And at first Bial's above doesn't want to help them.

[00:30:53] It really whips out a game console.

[00:30:56] Yes.

[00:30:57] And says that it's part of the payment for for their help,

[00:31:02] which in the in the anime, they just

[00:31:06] actually in the end of video game because I have cracked into that a little bit.

[00:31:09] They just say it's an old game system from the past.

[00:31:13] In the manga, it's specifically a PlayStation 6.

[00:31:18] That's funny in hindsight.

[00:31:20] Yeah, because this is the year 2000 that this originally came out.

[00:31:23] So that is pretty funny.

[00:31:24] Yeah, yes, you had just come out.

[00:31:26] And the funny thing too with that scene is in the manga,

[00:31:29] they blatantly say, oh, it's a PlayStation 6

[00:31:31] and it even has the software for Dragon Quest 13.

[00:31:35] That's a good joke, which is funny to me, because that can easily happen.

[00:31:39] That it's very possible that Dragon Quest 13 is going to be on the PlayStation 6.

[00:31:44] I mean, at the rate 12, Dragon Quest 12 being in development.

[00:31:47] Yeah, honestly.

[00:31:49] So that's actually pretty funny if that ends up being the case.

[00:31:52] You know what's really funny about that?

[00:31:54] Also, though, did you so referring to the PS2, which was the new system at the time?

[00:32:00] You remember the PS2's ad campaign, right?

[00:32:04] Oh, no, I don't.

[00:32:05] So the PS2's ad campaign was genius because they didn't advertise

[00:32:08] the PS2 at all. They advertised the PS6.

[00:32:11] Fair enough.

[00:32:12] That's one of the most genius ads ever.

[00:32:16] It was an ad for PS2 where the entire point of the ad was

[00:32:19] they were advertising the PlayStation 6 and it was like this spear thing

[00:32:23] that's PlayStation 6 on it.

[00:32:26] That's hilarious.

[00:32:28] Gaming advertisements used to be so fun.

[00:32:30] Yeah, but you don't even really like see ads for like systems anymore.

[00:32:37] Do you remember the original Xbox ad?

[00:32:41] No, I see.

[00:32:42] I didn't see a lot of those.

[00:32:44] I just start being more aware of like

[00:32:48] video games and stuff coming out until around the 360 PS3 era.

[00:32:52] That's fair. If you want to see the sheer

[00:32:55] just how sheer what the fuck video game ads used to be,

[00:32:59] look up the original Xbox ad.

[00:33:00] It is literally.

[00:33:02] It starts with just like a woman on like a birthing table

[00:33:06] and she gives birth to a child and shoots the child through the air

[00:33:10] and the child ages into an old man and then it ends with him

[00:33:14] landing in his grave site.

[00:33:15] And it's just like original Xbox.

[00:33:17] And it's like what the fuck?

[00:33:19] It is the most what the fuck thing ever.

[00:33:23] But it's memorable.

[00:33:25] You know, now that you describe it, I think I might have seen that before.

[00:33:30] Maybe I'm like maybe I'm like YouTube video

[00:33:32] because every now and then I'll just get super nostalgic

[00:33:34] and I'll look up old commercials from like the late 90s, early 2000s

[00:33:39] because you could find those compilations on YouTube all over the place.

[00:33:43] And some of those are absolutely ridiculous going back to that one.

[00:33:47] So disturbing, though, because it's like a baby shooting through the air

[00:33:50] screaming and then it just slowly ages into an old man

[00:33:54] and then just graved and it's like what the fuck?

[00:33:57] It's so weird.

[00:33:59] Yeah, now on sticks with me forever.

[00:34:03] Oh, God.

[00:34:05] Oh, but yeah, so back to Sandland.

[00:34:08] One thing we didn't touch on was the voice acting.

[00:34:13] So we watched the dub for this and

[00:34:18] it's very interesting to me that they didn't use Funimation.

[00:34:22] Yeah, for sure.

[00:34:24] I don't even know if they used Viz because it's a Hulu original.

[00:34:28] Yeah, I mean, I definitely recognize some voices.

[00:34:31] So the guy who plays Ra was very familiar.

[00:34:34] And I know I've heard him before.

[00:34:35] I just can't play some.

[00:34:36] He's in a shitload of video games.

[00:34:39] Yeah, that makes sense.

[00:34:40] I think he's an anime's too, though.

[00:34:42] So I'm looking at it through his behind the voice actors.

[00:34:45] He's really not a lot.

[00:34:47] Hmm.

[00:34:49] It's so Rau's voiced by Jonathan Lipo.

[00:34:55] Yeah, he's mostly a game guy.

[00:34:58] Well, because they lifted all the voice actors from the game for the show.

[00:35:01] So I think feel like I think they hired a lot of game actors.

[00:35:06] Because thief is voiced by Owen Thomas, who's also mostly a game actor.

[00:35:11] Um, the only one I recognized right off the bat was

[00:35:15] a recent recent may as Yalzavub.

[00:35:20] And she recently this is ironic, because we mentioned earlier.

[00:35:25] She is the current voice of Kauru in the new Veroni catching anime.

[00:35:29] OK, I see.

[00:35:31] I knew it was familiar because I just watched that one recently.

[00:35:34] She does a lot of games too, but she also does some anime.

[00:35:38] So she's probably the most.

[00:35:40] Um, probably the most anime voice actors here.

[00:35:45] OK.

[00:35:47] But yeah, they're the main three and they all do a good job.

[00:35:50] Like the voice acting solid.

[00:35:51] Yeah, it's all out of the way through.

[00:35:53] I definitely don't have any problem with it.

[00:35:55] It did feel a little weird, though, because it wasn't a

[00:35:58] Funimation production, so it didn't have that Funimation feel to it.

[00:36:01] Or crunchy roll now, I guess I should say.

[00:36:03] Yeah. And I don't believe it was animated by Toei either.

[00:36:08] So it's very odd to see a Toriyama work that isn't animated by Toei

[00:36:13] or dubbed by Funimation.

[00:36:15] Hmm, but it feels very Toriyama.

[00:36:19] Oh, I mean, everything the guy touched was very distinct.

[00:36:27] So yeah, the general setting of the series, obviously, it's a desert world.

[00:36:33] So I mean, you see in a lot of browns, a lot of grays, stuff like that.

[00:36:39] But the characters are so colorful that they actually stick out very

[00:36:43] a lot like on the actual backgrounds.

[00:36:46] I think that's one of those things that lends itself very well to the 3D CGI style.

[00:36:53] And I will say like the first fight scene we get with the weird, like

[00:37:00] like the weird bandit guys who were wearing like bondage gear for some reason.

[00:37:05] Toriyama had some interesting taste on this one, I will say.

[00:37:08] Yeah, they looked like members of KISS with like bondage gear on.

[00:37:12] Like it was weird.

[00:37:14] They were like they were like KISS posers, I guess.

[00:37:17] Yeah.

[00:37:19] But that first little fight scene with Rao and his like little nightstick things

[00:37:24] like that was really well choreographed, I thought.

[00:37:28] I will say that was very well choreographed, but I could not get past like the whole.

[00:37:31] He gets distracted by the gun and then the other one just walks up behind him

[00:37:35] and just wax him like it was like, OK, really?

[00:37:38] Yeah.

[00:37:39] And that was also the first time we heard the intro music was during that fight

[00:37:43] and that it worked really well for the scene.

[00:37:48] And then the following episode starts and Beelzebub steps up

[00:37:52] and I love how he takes them all out, but he literally just slaps the

[00:37:56] shit out of them.

[00:37:58] Yeah, because he makes a whole point out of demons don't kill.

[00:38:01] Yeah, he just open hand slaps each one of them and knocks them all out.

[00:38:04] That was actually a very interesting like because there's a lot of moments

[00:38:08] in this where it's just the three of them initially in

[00:38:11] Rao's little buggy thing, which gets destroyed actually in the scene

[00:38:15] and then later in their tank and they just kind of talk about the world

[00:38:21] and stuff and like you get a lot of character development.

[00:38:23] And it's an interesting point where like Beelzebub

[00:38:26] legit makes the point of like he's like demons don't kill.

[00:38:29] It's like humans, on the other hand, they kill all the time.

[00:38:33] Yeah, I love how Beelzebub is going on his whole rant about like,

[00:38:36] oh, don't get it twisted, though.

[00:38:37] I'm pretty bad.

[00:38:39] I would say up late last night didn't brush my teeth.

[00:38:41] Then I slept in this morning and still brush my teeth.

[00:38:46] Also, I stole water.

[00:38:48] He's like, beat that old man.

[00:38:51] Well, I like how when he gets permission from his dad to go out

[00:38:54] on this journey, his dad's like, yeah, it could be a good learning experience for you.

[00:38:59] Oh, and by the way, when you get back only one hour of video games a day.

[00:39:02] Yeah, I don't sit too close to the screen.

[00:39:04] Yeah. I thought that was pretty chill.

[00:39:07] The demons honestly just come off as pretty chill throughout this entire thing.

[00:39:11] Also, his dad is just devorah with bigger horns.

[00:39:15] Yes. Yeah.

[00:39:17] And it's in Japanese in the in the anime.

[00:39:21] But when you're when you read the manga, he's actually reading Faust.

[00:39:25] That's fun.

[00:39:28] But so, yeah, they go through the whole bit with the bandits

[00:39:33] and then they have to go and steal another vehicle,

[00:39:35] which ultimately ends up being a tank.

[00:39:37] But what did you think of of Thief's thieving outfit?

[00:39:42] The Santa suit.

[00:39:45] It's like, sure. Why not?

[00:39:46] It just like, fuck it.

[00:39:47] Why not? I'm just going to dress up like Santa.

[00:39:49] Well, he looks like.

[00:39:50] If I wear this, I could talk my way out of it.

[00:39:52] If I could cut stealing, like, what are you talking about?

[00:39:55] He looks he looks like Santa.

[00:39:56] So it made sense. Yeah.

[00:40:00] I also like how they constantly fight over driving the buggy and

[00:40:04] Rous just kind of like, yeah, I don't care.

[00:40:06] Yeah, he's just like, you guys can drive.

[00:40:07] That's fine. I drove all the way to your village.

[00:40:09] I'm not trying to drive.

[00:40:11] He's like, I'll just smoke a cigarette back here.

[00:40:13] Pretty much.

[00:40:15] Also, I love the way they steal the tank.

[00:40:18] Oh, yeah. The the hairspray.

[00:40:19] He just like, he's like poison gas just

[00:40:22] throws it in, pokes the hole in a can of aerosol

[00:40:26] hairspray and fucking throws it into the tank yelling poison gas.

[00:40:29] And they all just dip.

[00:40:31] Yeah. He just like wanders in and just takes the tank.

[00:40:34] And then the tank starts driving away and all the soldiers

[00:40:36] like, what?

[00:40:38] How did this happen?

[00:40:39] Which is just classic.

[00:40:40] And then they reuse that later on

[00:40:42] and like the final part of the arc.

[00:40:44] But well, it's implied that Thief learned it from Rao.

[00:40:47] And he's like, oh, this is a good idea.

[00:40:49] Yeah, solid.

[00:40:51] With his cactus turd bombs that we'll see later on.

[00:40:54] Yeah. But yeah, that was that was just a really funny scene

[00:40:58] that I think just worked perfectly.

[00:41:01] Yeah, I will say though, the soldiers

[00:41:05] the whole time I'm watching, I'm like,

[00:41:06] oh, it's the Red Ribbon Army show.

[00:41:07] I see pretty much.

[00:41:11] Toriyama is a creative guy, but he's also very

[00:41:13] ungrateful with a lot of certain things.

[00:41:16] See, he's creative, but he has a tendency

[00:41:19] to kind of be lazy about certain things.

[00:41:22] Yeah, particularly his human designs.

[00:41:25] Because I will say there is a bunch of characters

[00:41:28] throughout this show that I'm like,

[00:41:29] these are just Dragon Ball characters that he reused.

[00:41:32] Oh yeah. Or vice versa.

[00:41:35] Because I mean, I don't know about you,

[00:41:36] but when you look at General Are,

[00:41:40] Sher looks a whole lot like Carmine from Superhero.

[00:41:44] Yeah, including the well, Carmine with like a bitch in like

[00:41:48] goatee basically.

[00:41:50] Yeah. Mustache thing, I should say.

[00:41:53] So yeah, he definitely reused that design for Carmine later on.

[00:42:00] Over 20 years later too.

[00:42:02] That's wild.

[00:42:04] Yeah. The king of Sandland who

[00:42:08] is portrayed as a villain initially,

[00:42:10] but then you find out he's kind of more

[00:42:12] he's more of a figurehead than anything.

[00:42:15] He that he also looks like he could be straight out of Dragon Ball.

[00:42:18] Oh, easily, easily.

[00:42:20] He looks like he could be like Yadrobe's rich uncle or something.

[00:42:25] Yeah, kind of.

[00:42:30] So yeah, where did it go from there?

[00:42:32] They sold the tank and then I think they were just kind of

[00:42:34] shooting the shit for a lot of it after that.

[00:42:36] Well, they were heading to their next destination

[00:42:38] and they spotted.

[00:42:41] Oh, yes, the airship.

[00:42:42] The airship and I did like the way that they kind of got around

[00:42:45] that where he just pops out of the airship

[00:42:47] and just gives it a salute and they just buy it as

[00:42:50] oh, their radio must be down.

[00:42:52] Yeah, carry on pretty much.

[00:42:54] But only to instantly have a theft called in like,

[00:42:58] oh, they stole that tank.

[00:42:59] I like, oh, that's what we just saw.

[00:43:02] Yeah. And then we get introduced to another

[00:43:05] roaming band of bandits known as the Swimmers,

[00:43:10] which is really funny because it's just this family

[00:43:12] because it's like a dad and his three sons

[00:43:15] and they're all running around in speedos and swim caps.

[00:43:17] But in the middle of the desert, there's no water.

[00:43:21] The animators had a lot of fun animating them.

[00:43:24] That's all I'll say.

[00:43:24] Yeah. And for some reason, they like have like weird powers

[00:43:28] that aren't explained because one of them either just has

[00:43:30] really good eyesight or like has some sort of psychic vision

[00:43:34] because he's able to do a perfect sketch of Rao

[00:43:36] from a very, very long distance away

[00:43:40] and also can run over 100 miles an hour.

[00:43:43] Yeah, he's just the flash for some reason.

[00:43:44] Yeah, just why not?

[00:43:47] And then the other one is really fat, but he's a great has great aim.

[00:43:50] Yes, he's got like the bazooka thing,

[00:43:52] even though it kind of looks like a squirt gun.

[00:43:56] Yeah, a lot of a lot of the weapons in this kind of are like that.

[00:43:59] Yeah.

[00:44:01] Speaking of weapons, there's a great moment where

[00:44:03] so Rao has a like a side gun because he's technically a sheriff

[00:44:06] from a small village and a plot point that comes up is they ask him

[00:44:10] why he doesn't use the gun ever.

[00:44:12] And he makes the claim it's it has no bullets.

[00:44:15] It's just for show.

[00:44:16] Bullets are too expensive these days.

[00:44:19] That'll come into play later.

[00:44:21] Yes.

[00:44:23] So yeah, they have their little

[00:44:25] altercation with General Arre

[00:44:29] in the airship, which turns out that they're transporting

[00:44:32] an outrageous amount of water.

[00:44:34] Yeah, like billions of dollars worth or billions of zany

[00:44:38] worth of water, I should say.

[00:44:41] And they they fly right above the tank

[00:44:45] because they're going to drop a bomb on it.

[00:44:46] But the tanks have these like anti-grave crystal things,

[00:44:51] which will lighten the tank, but not quite enough to lift it.

[00:44:55] So they pretty much put it at like minimal weight possible

[00:44:59] and then Beelzebub and Steve lifted so that they can

[00:45:03] and can point directly up.

[00:45:06] Yeah, I will say to we had kind of glossed over it, but.

[00:45:12] Actually, did the encounter with the swimmers

[00:45:14] did like they actually fight them yet?

[00:45:16] I think I think that's after OK, because that was when

[00:45:19] they when it was like the tank on tank stuff.

[00:45:22] Right. That's true.

[00:45:23] Um, yeah, so we get this whole scene.

[00:45:26] There's also a moment after they.

[00:45:28] So they drop the water on them.

[00:45:33] And it kind of comes a big thing where they're like,

[00:45:36] this water had to come from somewhere.

[00:45:41] Mm hmm. Yeah, because they were they were heading north, correct?

[00:45:44] Yes. Mm hmm.

[00:45:47] Because the whole time they've been going south,

[00:45:48] because the whole reason why why Ra was looking for the lake

[00:45:51] in the first place, because he happened to see a water

[00:45:54] finch, a bird that specifically feeds off of freshwater fish.

[00:45:58] So, you know, he saw that and he's like,

[00:46:00] I've seen this like around this time every year.

[00:46:03] There has to be a freshwater source around here.

[00:46:07] So that was where he got it into his head

[00:46:09] that there was a lake or a pond or something

[00:46:13] where there was fresh water.

[00:46:15] No, that's true.

[00:46:16] And so after they fire at the airship,

[00:46:22] they end up disabling it in the process.

[00:46:27] And it starts crash landing and they basically decide

[00:46:31] they got to get out of there for the time being.

[00:46:33] And there is a they make a point of mentioning that

[00:46:38] they notice Ra has this like poster,

[00:46:40] like magazine taped to the side of the.

[00:46:44] The tank and it's of this woman.

[00:46:47] And thief makes a whole joke about like, oh, that's.

[00:46:51] Sexy Terrier.

[00:46:54] Yeah, yeah. Terry's Terry.

[00:46:55] Shever Shiva, I believe.

[00:46:59] And he goes on this whole rant and then we immediately get

[00:47:02] the reveal that Rao isn't actually Rao.

[00:47:05] Well, Rao isn't his actual name.

[00:47:07] Right. Well, I think I think Rao is his first name.

[00:47:11] Yes. But it's not the name he is known by around the world.

[00:47:15] Yeah. He's actually an incredibly famous soldier.

[00:47:21] By the name of Shiva.

[00:47:23] It wasn't he like one of the top ranking generals at the time?

[00:47:27] Yes, he was actually the general who led the attack on the

[00:47:31] PG people, which was a whole thing.

[00:47:36] Yeah, that gets explained later on.

[00:47:39] And we also find out that the woman that he has taped to

[00:47:43] the side was his wife who died in the explosion caused by

[00:47:48] the attack on the PG people.

[00:47:50] Yes, which and yeah.

[00:47:52] He's Behousebub makes that insensitive comment of like,

[00:47:56] so if she was your wife, why do you only have a picture of her

[00:47:58] in a magazine?

[00:47:59] He's like my entire life got destroyed.

[00:48:02] Yeah. It's like my home was completely

[00:48:04] obliterated along with my wife.

[00:48:06] So yeah. Yeah.

[00:48:11] I think I think just in that regard, he's lucky that she

[00:48:13] was famous in the first place or he wouldn't even have those.

[00:48:17] Hmm. But, uh, yeah.

[00:48:21] So where does it go from here?

[00:48:24] I think this is the point where they actually do encounter

[00:48:27] or the swimmers see them from a distance and make their report.

[00:48:31] And that was when the when the public becomes aware that

[00:48:35] it's General Shiva and.

[00:48:38] I had like where they are.

[00:48:39] And that's when our ratio is up with his tank brigade,

[00:48:42] but also in the background, the other general,

[00:48:45] the main villain of the series, I forget his name, Zeyu

[00:48:49] Jen, Supreme Commander General, whatever Zeyu.

[00:48:53] Yeah. The real villain of this series, at least this arc.

[00:48:59] Yeah. Breathing to breathing tube Eggman, Eggman, machine man,

[00:49:03] T-Rex kind of with his little hands sticking out.

[00:49:06] Yeah. He gets like basically when he finds out that Shiva is still alive,

[00:49:10] he gets terrified. Like he's like what?

[00:49:13] Yeah. Because because Shiva was like a big even before all that

[00:49:15] he was a big deal is incredibly talented, incredibly

[00:49:20] strategic and smart about everything that he did.

[00:49:24] So he knew he was he knew that he was a force to be reckoned with.

[00:49:27] And that made him really sweat.

[00:49:29] We also find out like around this point

[00:49:32] that a thief explains the whole story of like the the disaster.

[00:49:38] And basically he explains to a Shiva what actually happened,

[00:49:42] which like gives him kind of like the realization

[00:49:44] which kind of sets him over the edge.

[00:49:47] And after the public finds out about him,

[00:49:51] he actually does something that's kind of I thought was kind of cool

[00:49:54] where he actually just straight out announces himself to the world.

[00:49:57] And he's like, yeah, that's me.

[00:49:59] This is what really happened.

[00:50:00] And I'm going to tell everyone because I know they're going to lie about it.

[00:50:04] And the general is immediately like, he's like, don't let him ever talk again.

[00:50:09] Yeah.

[00:50:11] He knows too much.

[00:50:12] He's like, tell them if they let him talk on the radio again, I will kill them all.

[00:50:17] Yeah, because he's telling the truth.

[00:50:20] Yeah, pretty much.

[00:50:24] So yeah, then after they figure out where he is,

[00:50:28] General Ari shows up with four tanks,

[00:50:31] which by the way, we didn't talk about that that designed for the tanks.

[00:50:35] What did you think about that?

[00:50:37] It's very Toriyama.

[00:50:39] It looks like something Boma would have created a capsule for if I'm not going to lie.

[00:50:43] Yeah, it's incredibly it's incredibly unique design for for a tank.

[00:50:47] Honestly, it kind of reminds me of Robo.

[00:50:50] Yeah, I do from a Chrono Trigger.

[00:50:53] Just not enough Rick Roll.

[00:50:55] Yeah.

[00:50:59] But yeah, it was just interesting.

[00:51:02] It's just the car designs and stuff like that.

[00:51:04] I feel they need to point out because Toriyama loved vehicles.

[00:51:07] He loved drawing cars and vehicles.

[00:51:09] And honestly, the tank was the main reason he wanted to write the story in the first

[00:51:12] place, so I felt they need to bring it up.

[00:51:14] This is just like Toriyama really wanted to make a Mad Max parody or something.

[00:51:18] Pretty much.

[00:51:19] You know, I mean, almost almost all of his like best story ideas were just

[00:51:24] a different take or a parody off of something else.

[00:51:29] Yeah, it's just funny.

[00:51:30] It's funny to me.

[00:51:31] It's just like take adventure.

[00:51:34] Pretty much.

[00:51:34] But I really liked the way it ended up.

[00:51:37] Personally.

[00:51:39] I will say the battle between the four tanks was really interesting

[00:51:43] because they dispatched them pretty quick.

[00:51:45] Yeah, well, I love it like how instantly his first instinct was to go

[00:51:51] was to drive towards the sun and then turn around like on the top of the hill

[00:51:55] so that the tanks that are chasing him can't get a good view on him.

[00:52:01] So they pretty much instantly take out half the tanks really quickly,

[00:52:05] which by the way, I noticed when I was watching it, the sound of the cannon

[00:52:10] when he shot those first two tanks.

[00:52:13] It sounded like somebody bashing on like a trash can with a wooden spoon.

[00:52:18] Could have been.

[00:52:21] They just not sound like a cannon at all.

[00:52:23] They just it's simple.

[00:52:24] They just grabbed Lars Ulrich's drum sound from St.

[00:52:28] Nager.

[00:52:29] Yeah.

[00:52:30] That's a reference that only some people would get.

[00:52:32] Any of us.

[00:52:34] But yeah, it just it was just a really silly like

[00:52:38] that's not the sound I was expecting when they're shooting a tank.

[00:52:41] Tank cannon.

[00:52:43] Yeah. Now, that was a fun fight, though.

[00:52:46] Like I like how he basically disables them all without killing anybody,

[00:52:50] which is a nice touch because they make a big point about how like

[00:52:53] he doesn't kill anymore.

[00:52:55] Yeah.

[00:52:56] Um, so ultimately they end up with just their tank and general

[00:53:02] R. A. And his tank.

[00:53:05] But R. A. wants to talk before they continue

[00:53:09] because he heard the broadcast that Rowan done and he wants to know what's going

[00:53:13] on because his father was actually there and died in the explosion.

[00:53:17] He was one of she was meant essentially.

[00:53:20] Yeah.

[00:53:20] And one that he knew personally wasn't just a grunt.

[00:53:23] He was somebody that route actually knew and actually had seen pictures of

[00:53:28] R. A. is a child.

[00:53:30] And there's that really nice flashback where you see the C. R.

[00:53:34] His father like basically telling him stories.

[00:53:39] So yeah, they kind of have their little pow wow and they have a row has

[00:53:44] thief explain the whole thing that happened with the Peechee people

[00:53:48] and how it was all a big setup.

[00:53:51] They were told that the Peechee were making a weapon when they were

[00:53:54] actually developing a machine to create water.

[00:53:57] Yeah.

[00:53:58] But it turns out that the power source for that machine was incredibly

[00:54:02] volatile.

[00:54:03] So when they attacked it with tanks, it caused a tremendous explosion

[00:54:07] that destroyed a lot of stuff.

[00:54:09] Yes.

[00:54:11] One of my favorite things too is before he tells R. A. the story,

[00:54:16] the whole like racism subplot with like humans versus demons comes off

[00:54:21] and thieves like, well, if you're going to be a jerk, I'm not going to tell you.

[00:54:25] Yeah.

[00:54:25] I love how like bitter he was.

[00:54:27] Like he's just super butt hurt about it.

[00:54:29] He's like, well, fine, I'm just not going to tell you that.

[00:54:32] I was like, all right, your loss.

[00:54:34] He doesn't care.

[00:54:35] Yep.

[00:54:37] He eventually does tell him though.

[00:54:38] And essentially he lets them continue on with their journey.

[00:54:43] And you get this is where you start seeing a lot of Ari's

[00:54:47] character development coming through here because you start

[00:54:49] realizing really fast.

[00:54:50] He's already his doubt is already starting to cast in the military.

[00:54:55] And I love the way he goes about like confirming what he was told.

[00:55:00] Yes, he bypasses commander Zeyu entirely and calls the king.

[00:55:06] And he says, hey, Zeyu told me this thing.

[00:55:10] And I wanted to confirm it with you.

[00:55:12] And he's just like, that wasn't my idea.

[00:55:14] That was Zeyu's idea, which pretty much cemented like, yeah,

[00:55:17] they were telling the truth.

[00:55:18] That is that actually happened.

[00:55:20] Because the king is incredibly gullible.

[00:55:22] And he literally, when I joked earlier that he's strict, basically

[00:55:25] just a figurehead, he literally doesn't do anything.

[00:55:29] No, he's like the textbook definition of a tool.

[00:55:32] Pretty much.

[00:55:35] So yeah, ultimately, Ari, you know, he, from that point on,

[00:55:43] it's pretty much siding with Shiva, even if he's not outwardly

[00:55:46] open about it at first.

[00:55:48] Yes.

[00:55:50] Oh, yeah.

[00:55:51] We forgot to mention that while they were having their fight,

[00:55:55] the swimmers were also shooting from a distance and Beelzebub went

[00:56:00] and whooped their asses.

[00:56:02] My favorite thing ever is how the main three run away in fear

[00:56:05] after Beelzebub takes them out super fast.

[00:56:09] And then the big one's like trying to shoot him.

[00:56:12] And he just like straight up just kicks him in the leg

[00:56:14] and knocks him over.

[00:56:16] And it's like, I'm like, yep, that's how I expected that fight to go.

[00:56:18] But right.

[00:56:21] But he has to chase after the fast one.

[00:56:23] And that's how the next big plot point occurs, where he chases him

[00:56:28] so fast that he gets completely off the chart, like from where they

[00:56:32] were supposed to be.

[00:56:34] And as he's trying to get back, he encounters a sandstorm.

[00:56:39] Cue the music now.

[00:56:41] Yeah, right.

[00:56:43] Which the sandstorm was fucking terrifying.

[00:56:45] I was like, holy shit.

[00:56:47] Yeah, no kidding.

[00:56:48] It's one of those things where like if you've never actually been in the

[00:56:53] desert or anything like that, not that I have, but just based off of media

[00:56:59] and stuff, you wouldn't think unless you've been in it, like that a

[00:57:05] sandstorm would be that bad.

[00:57:06] But like, and honestly is a terrifying thing.

[00:57:09] Then when you realize sand is just glass.

[00:57:12] Like pretty much.

[00:57:14] Um, so it's not good in any way.

[00:57:19] Although in the.

[00:57:22] In this universe, sandstorms have fucking lightning and thunder going on.

[00:57:25] And it's fucking way extra than it needs to be.

[00:57:28] Yeah, I just realized we never talked about the giant sandworm thing.

[00:57:32] Yeah.

[00:57:33] Oh yeah, that happens very early.

[00:57:34] That's how they lose all their rations in like that's why that's

[00:57:38] one of the main reasons they had to steal the tank.

[00:57:40] Yeah, that in the fact that the tires are going to pop by the bondage

[00:57:44] gang.

[00:57:45] Yeah.

[00:57:49] So yeah, uh, uh, Beelzebub is looking for a place to shelter from

[00:57:54] the sandstorm and he happens to stumble upon not only the lake,

[00:57:58] but the peachy people, the remnants that weren't killed by the explosion.

[00:58:03] Yeah, because when, um, when, uh, when Rao and thief show up and

[00:58:08] they discover it and they're like, this must be it.

[00:58:10] Like this, it makes so much sense.

[00:58:12] There's the fish.

[00:58:13] Um, Beelzebub discovers the peachy people there and basically right away.

[00:58:18] It's like Rao's like, I can't take this.

[00:58:21] It's theirs.

[00:58:22] Yeah.

[00:58:22] He's like, no, we're not going to do this to them.

[00:58:24] We're just going to go after the king's water because.

[00:58:28] I personally have done way too much to these people to do that to them.

[00:58:32] So I'm out.

[00:58:33] His entire plan goes from finding all an alternate water source to

[00:58:37] fucking taking the king's water source.

[00:58:39] Pretty much.

[00:58:41] Oh, man, what I'm all for.

[00:58:44] And by this point, the, uh, Zeo is fucking losing his mind because

[00:58:48] like everything is falling apart.

[00:58:51] And we get one of like, so there's another scene that happens to where

[00:58:56] they're like kind of camping out for the night.

[00:58:58] And, uh, actually, this probably happened earlier, but I'm just remembering it now.

[00:59:03] They were camping out for the night and Rao's having his, uh,

[00:59:06] PTSD over all the stuff that happened.

[00:59:09] And he encounters a Beelzebub outside gathering the energy from the darkness.

[00:59:15] Yes.

[00:59:15] He's like absorbing the power of night or something like that.

[00:59:19] Yeah, which is a very important plot point that comes in later.

[00:59:26] So after they leave the peachy people and they go off after the king's

[00:59:30] water, I forget what happens next.

[00:59:33] I think after that is, uh, what are a, cause our, I had made the, the call to,

[00:59:39] uh, confirm what, um, what they had said.

[00:59:42] And then he went on the general like airways.

[00:59:46] Oh, right.

[00:59:46] Right.

[00:59:46] Right.

[00:59:47] I remember this because by this point now he's like, oh yeah, because, uh,

[00:59:53] uh, Zeo is like basically telling him to get back here now because

[00:59:56] he, he knows too much.

[00:59:58] Mm hmm.

[00:59:59] And so he goes to go as you were saying.

[01:00:03] Yeah, he was, um, he basically goes over the radio and is like, uh, sure would

[01:00:10] be a shame if somebody went south along the river, the dried up river bed

[01:00:14] and, uh, you know, found what was at the end of it.

[01:00:18] Yeah.

[01:00:18] And he's like, oh, by the way, I gave everybody leave over there.

[01:00:22] So yeah.

[01:00:23] Soldiers.

[01:00:24] Oh yeah.

[01:00:24] He's like, he's like, by the way, he's like, everybody at the water,

[01:00:27] at the water source, I'm giving you all leave.

[01:00:29] Do we'll be coming in to relieve you?

[01:00:32] He's like, remember the water source is located south of the riverbed.

[01:00:36] Do not leak this.

[01:00:37] Sorry for being, do not leave this.

[01:00:40] My buddy, I love how in the manga he literally like he calls them directly

[01:00:46] instead of doing it over the radio and he's just like, I'm just talking

[01:00:49] to myself, uh, you know, I just forgot.

[01:00:53] Oh yeah.

[01:00:54] You go down the dried up riverbed and you go and find the water.

[01:00:57] And then Rourke's like, y'all, I'm just talking to myself.

[01:00:59] Thank you.

[01:01:01] See, that's funny.

[01:01:02] I do like the way they did it in the anime though, like just like the humorous

[01:01:06] the more it was more epic in the anime with the whole like going across the thing

[01:01:10] just so just to like rub it in even farther.

[01:01:14] I definitely agree with that.

[01:01:15] I like that version of it better.

[01:01:18] But, but you know, both have their own charm.

[01:01:21] The manga version is definitely more humorous.

[01:01:25] Yeah.

[01:01:27] So you have the immediately find out the location and as the gang is heading

[01:01:32] towards their Ari basically is like, all right, men, I am now a trader.

[01:01:37] I don't want to drag you into this.

[01:01:38] So I'd like you guys to escort me back to a capital so I can be arrested.

[01:01:43] And we don't really find out what happens to him after that other

[01:01:46] than like all his soldiers are still standing behind him.

[01:01:49] Yeah.

[01:01:50] Well, at least until like, you know, the end of the arc when we

[01:01:53] know, yeah, when the conclusion comes.

[01:01:56] Yes.

[01:01:58] So the next part is then, of course, that they're taking the journey towards

[01:02:02] the water supply and it's like they're seeing like all of these

[01:02:07] like watchtowers and they're like, wait a minute, this must be it.

[01:02:15] And it turns out that there is a gigantic dam at the end of the riverbed.

[01:02:21] Yeah.

[01:02:21] And there's basically the rest of the world behind its water supply.

[01:02:25] And it's which then leads you to believe, oh, yeah, this is like an actual

[01:02:28] full on planet and this is just one small portion.

[01:02:32] Yeah.

[01:02:36] So yeah, there's actually an outrageous amount of water.

[01:02:38] It's just that I mean, I assume it was they use plan originally.

[01:02:46] But yeah, because the king doesn't seem very aware.

[01:02:49] No.

[01:02:49] So they constructed a gigantic dam to pretty much do away with free water.

[01:02:56] It's another it's definitely another like anvils need to be dropped kind of moment.

[01:03:02] For sure.

[01:03:03] I'm not going to get super into that because like this isn't a political

[01:03:07] podcast, but yeah, he's trying to say something with this.

[01:03:12] For sure.

[01:03:13] Um, that is such an evil thing, though.

[01:03:16] Like just damming off the water supply to an entire nation just to make a buck.

[01:03:22] Yeah, it's it's pretty fucked up.

[01:03:24] Yeah.

[01:03:27] So yeah, they show up and they're pretty much fixing to blow up the dam

[01:03:32] right then and there.

[01:03:34] Uh, but almost immediately, Zeyu shows up and, uh, you know,

[01:03:40] you see him and all his, his spherical glory.

[01:03:44] Yeah.

[01:03:44] And he immediately like at this point, he's so desperate, um, because like

[01:03:50] all the military is starting to like turn on him as well.

[01:03:53] And he immediately turns to like this experimental project he'd been working

[01:04:00] on, which his scientists were like, they're not ready yet.

[01:04:05] They might kill everybody.

[01:04:06] And he's like, I don't care.

[01:04:07] He said, I love, he says, just stick a bomb in him and call it a day.

[01:04:12] Yeah.

[01:04:15] He's a very not like evil character.

[01:04:18] Yeah, for sure.

[01:04:19] Um, so yeah, he said that he basically his entire goal now is he

[01:04:25] just launches off a bunch of bug men and basically six them on the gang.

[01:04:32] And there's a very iconic scene where like the alzabab is like talking

[01:04:38] up to one of them and it just punches him straight in the face and

[01:04:41] takes him out in one shot.

[01:04:43] Yeah.

[01:04:43] Just to showcase how strong these things are compared to normal enemies.

[01:04:47] Yes, but luckily, uh, demons regenerate very quickly.

[01:04:51] Yes.

[01:04:52] And he immediately goes back out and starts fighting.

[01:04:55] And there's an interesting scene now where like the alzabab,

[01:04:58] he's holding his own, but he's getting his ass kicked very slowly during this thing.

[01:05:03] Yeah.

[01:05:03] He even gets us keyword at one point.

[01:05:05] He also gets knocked into the earth and he's in the fucking yamcha pose,

[01:05:09] which I thought was kind of funny.

[01:05:11] Yeah.

[01:05:12] It's like, I was like, Torama can't let that go.

[01:05:14] Oh, that's self-referential.

[01:05:17] Shit.

[01:05:18] Yeah.

[01:05:19] Um, and he's, he's getting his ass kicked and, um,

[01:05:22] Rao doesn't heaps wanting to jump in and help him, but, uh,

[01:05:26] Thief's like, no, let him do it on his own.

[01:05:27] He he's he'll be fine.

[01:05:29] And I was like, but he's getting killed.

[01:05:31] He's like, no, he'll be fine.

[01:05:32] Let's go do our thing.

[01:05:34] Yeah.

[01:05:34] He's like, no, trust me, I've been too close when he's let loose before.

[01:05:37] You don't want to get close.

[01:05:40] Um, so they, well, uh, the alzababs fighting all the bug men,

[01:05:45] um, they infiltrate the ship.

[01:05:48] And this is where we get to see not only, uh, Rao do some action stuff,

[01:05:55] but also we get Thief learns from Rao and does his own little gas tactic

[01:06:00] with these cactus shit bombs, which I thought was kind of funny,

[01:06:04] which were, um, we didn't mention it, but they were, uh,

[01:06:10] they were shown earlier, like I get the first episode, I believe.

[01:06:16] Um, foreshadowed.

[01:06:17] That's the word I was looking for.

[01:06:18] Yeah.

[01:06:19] It's late guys.

[01:06:22] Yes, it is.

[01:06:22] It was, it was foreshadowed in the first episode.

[01:06:25] They have these weird little like poop cactus thingies that

[01:06:30] that put out smoke.

[01:06:32] It's basically a really comic comedy poop, but, uh, it's a cactus

[01:06:36] and it shoots out.

[01:06:38] Art gas.

[01:06:39] Yeah.

[01:06:40] It's strange.

[01:06:42] It's very Toriyama.

[01:06:44] For sure.

[01:06:44] For sure.

[01:06:46] Um, so yeah, they're doing their thing up there.

[01:06:49] And I think ultimately.

[01:06:51] Well, this, the Alzabah eventually triggers his, uh,

[01:06:58] through demon power and annihilates all the bug men.

[01:07:02] Yeah.

[01:07:03] Except for the one that survives.

[01:07:05] And of course, um, the, uh, the general decides to be a dick

[01:07:11] and blow it up on him, which is very evil, but he survives.

[01:07:16] Thankfully.

[01:07:17] Yes.

[01:07:18] Um, what, what I will say is that, um, they, they

[01:07:22] definitely padded this, this end bit out a lot compared to how

[01:07:25] it was in the manga.

[01:07:27] Uh, yeah, I think it is very much to its, um, benefit that

[01:07:32] they did so because the, uh, the climax and ending in the

[01:07:37] manga was very kind of like quick abrupt.

[01:07:41] Yeah.

[01:07:41] It's very quick and abrupt about it all.

[01:07:43] Um, so I liked that they added some more stuff for

[01:07:46] the anime version.

[01:07:48] I did like to the, uh, the fight between, um, uh, Rao and, uh,

[01:07:54] I forgot his name again.

[01:07:56] Zeyu.

[01:07:57] Zeyu.

[01:07:58] That was an epic fight.

[01:07:59] Like, because by this point, all the, uh, the soldiers had just

[01:08:01] kind of like they're letting it happen.

[01:08:05] And, um, the fight's pretty good.

[01:08:07] Like it, Rao's holding his own, but then of course, like,

[01:08:12] there's also, oh yeah, we forgot to mention the scene where,

[01:08:14] um, uh, Rao pulls out his gun and starts shooting and

[01:08:18] he's like, I thought you said that thing was empty.

[01:08:20] And then Rao's like, well, I didn't know if I could trust

[01:08:22] you guys at the time.

[01:08:24] Yeah.

[01:08:25] I was like, I wouldn't have mattered much anyway because

[01:08:27] we see Beelzebub get shot with a gun in the, like,

[01:08:30] first scene of the show and it was just kind of annoyed.

[01:08:33] Yeah.

[01:08:33] He basically saying, yeah.

[01:08:36] Um, yeah, but I just thought that was funny.

[01:08:39] I was like, uh, that's a good, good joke.

[01:08:41] Yeah.

[01:08:41] Classic.

[01:08:42] Uh, there's a great scene though between the fight up above

[01:08:46] where, uh, they basically, he has a gun and he's pointing it at Rao

[01:08:51] and he just shoots it out of his hand like it's nothing.

[01:08:54] Yeah.

[01:08:54] Maybe like shoots the little kickstand on the, this sphere.

[01:08:58] They just kind of tips over.

[01:08:59] Yeah.

[01:08:59] But this was after, uh, Ari had showed up and shot him down,

[01:09:04] with his tank, which was pretty awesome.

[01:09:09] And then of course we get the, uh, the moment where, uh,

[01:09:11] you think Rao is going to finally end, end him.

[01:09:15] But of course it's a fake out and he shoots next to him just to scare him

[01:09:19] because you know, we won't do it.

[01:09:20] Yeah.

[01:09:21] Well, he, you know, kind of sworn off killing at that point,

[01:09:23] but you know, as a part of me that really just wanted him to shoot him in the head.

[01:09:28] Yeah.

[01:09:28] No, I wanted to see him.

[01:09:29] I wanted to see him get wrecked.

[01:09:32] The dude turned himself into a cyborg to live longer anyway.

[01:09:35] You know, he should have died way earlier anyway.

[01:09:37] Yeah.

[01:09:39] But of course then he pulls a, uh, a Houdini and like launches out of his like spear form

[01:09:45] into like this inner shell part and he starts getting away.

[01:09:49] But of course, uh, Beelzebub has woken up by this point and he's not going to let that happen.

[01:09:53] So he just straight up launches into the sky.

[01:09:57] Not because he was going to detonate all the bombs that he had there

[01:10:00] and kill everybody.

[01:10:01] But, uh, Beelzebub literally gives him basically a punches him into oblivion

[01:10:07] and he straight up team rockets out of there.

[01:10:09] Yep.

[01:10:09] And then, um, basically that's it.

[01:10:12] They win.

[01:10:13] Yeah.

[01:10:13] That's, uh, that's all they, all she wrote.

[01:10:17] So they use, uh, R.A.'s tank, which is significantly more powerful, uh, to blast at the dam a bunch

[01:10:23] of times, but then, oh no, they haven't done enough damage.

[01:10:26] It's not going to break.

[01:10:27] And then the swimmers show up and they blast it with their square gun bazooka.

[01:10:32] I love you because it's a bazooka.

[01:10:34] Another shot just hits the dam and they're like, what the hell is that?

[01:10:37] And they turn around.

[01:10:37] It's just the swimmers are back.

[01:10:39] Yeah.

[01:10:40] Which it totally makes sense that they would be the ones to help out because they had

[01:10:43] the swimmers, but they'd never been able to swim before.

[01:10:46] So they're not, they're not bad guys.

[01:10:47] They just wanted to go for a swim.

[01:10:49] That's, that's all they wanted.

[01:10:51] Pretty much.

[01:10:53] And the dam basically blows there and immediately the river is restored and,

[01:10:59] um, Rao makes a point of basically telling Ari like, you know, you should be the supreme

[01:11:06] commander of the army.

[01:11:08] I think you could do a much better job.

[01:11:10] Yeah.

[01:11:11] And I love how he goes over the radio again and he says, oh, uh, the water is restored.

[01:11:16] Make sure everyone's clears out of the river bed.

[01:11:20] Oh, and by the way, uh, the king has agreed to use half of his money to supply

[01:11:25] everyone with food.

[01:11:26] Yeah.

[01:11:27] And the king's like, what is he saying?

[01:11:29] The king's like, what is he saying?

[01:11:31] Yeah.

[01:11:31] It's forcing his hand.

[01:11:32] Like I also love the point of like at the end where I was like, oh, by the way,

[01:11:37] I need to borrow the tank again because I got to get home.

[01:11:41] Yeah.

[01:11:42] But luckily, uh, the bondage gang fixed his car for him.

[01:11:45] So that's nice.

[01:11:46] Yeah.

[01:11:46] And he gets that back for just in time for the next start where

[01:11:50] we basically have to leave this up because that's where it basically ends.

[01:11:56] Yeah.

[01:11:56] Well, that's where the what was in the manga ends everything beyond that with,

[01:12:02] um, the two new characters that we meet in episode seven.

[01:12:07] That's all anime original.

[01:12:08] So once the dub for that is finished, I'm sure we'll come back and cover that separately.

[01:12:14] Yes.

[01:12:15] And by that point, I will have probably played the game a lot more.

[01:12:18] So I'll be able to add a little bit more perspective on that as well.

[01:12:22] Does the game basically follow the story?

[01:12:24] Yes.

[01:12:25] Okay.

[01:12:26] That I also have only gotten like an hour and a half into.

[01:12:30] But yeah, it basically starts out with Rao showing up and recruiting Beelzebub.

[01:12:36] But you get to use a lot of like vehicle stuff and I haven't got the tank yet, but

[01:12:40] you know, I got a little buggy at the moment.

[01:12:42] We're just kind of, I already ran away from the scene form and stuff.

[01:12:47] But it's definitely, it plays really well.

[01:12:49] The art style is very similar to the show.

[01:12:52] Um, I haven't, I haven't even leveled up yet.

[01:12:57] So I don't even know what kind of skill you get as you go.

[01:13:00] But um, I think you only play as Beelzebub.

[01:13:05] But I mean, I'm enjoying it so far.

[01:13:06] It's definitely fun.

[01:13:09] I'll have to look into it at some point.

[01:13:12] I'm curious to see if Forestland is a part of the game.

[01:13:16] Yeah, because it would be a short game otherwise.

[01:13:19] Yeah.

[01:13:19] Well, I'm sure there's like, you know, this padding and stuff and should there's like,

[01:13:23] because I already, I've already gotten a couple of side quests that I haven't completed yet,

[01:13:26] but I know that there are side quests aside from just the main story and everything.

[01:13:30] So yeah, it'll probably cover both story arcs.

[01:13:34] It's really interesting how like the manga is a single volume or it's a very short read.

[01:13:40] Like it goes by really quick.

[01:13:41] Mm-hmm.

[01:13:43] But ultimately I'd say what they did with the anime works really well.

[01:13:50] I see, originally I thought it was just the movie cut up in episodes because

[01:13:56] Japan had done a movie very recently before the series was released.

[01:14:00] But then I saw an article that might be contradicting that.

[01:14:03] So I honestly don't know what to believe at this point.

[01:14:05] But it like when it starts out feels very movie quality.

[01:14:09] Mm-hmm.

[01:14:10] So I don't know, honestly.

[01:14:13] Yeah, I might have to look into that.

[01:14:16] Overall though, I really liked it.

[01:14:18] It picks up from episode one and you kind of like,

[01:14:21] you get through the six episodes like nothing because you just have to know what happens.

[01:14:25] Yeah, it's a very easy watch.

[01:14:27] It's a very, you know, it's not one of those ones where you're sitting there

[01:14:31] scratching your head watching it.

[01:14:32] It's very simple story, fun characters, interesting setting.

[01:14:39] And it's not a hard series to get into and it's very short.

[01:14:42] Even with the second arc, it's 12 episodes total.

[01:14:46] Yeah.

[01:14:47] So it's not a bad one at all.

[01:14:51] No, I liked it.

[01:14:52] It was a fun watch.

[01:14:53] I gave it an 8 out of 10 on all my ranking apps so far because

[01:14:59] I still haven't finished the second arc yet.

[01:15:01] Yeah.

[01:15:03] I liked it.

[01:15:04] It was fun, a fun watch.

[01:15:05] For sure.

[01:15:06] It kind of makes me wish that they would animate more.

[01:15:11] I know Toriyama doesn't have a ton of stuff, but like,

[01:15:14] you know, he's definitely done enough stuff aside from Dragon Ball and Dr. Slump

[01:15:18] where they could do more.

[01:15:19] I'm still, I'd still like to see a Jocko special,

[01:15:22] you know, based off of that one shot manga.

[01:15:25] I'd still like them to dub that damn special episode with Vegeta's brother

[01:15:31] that they never got dubbed.

[01:15:32] Oh, Yosengoku and Friends of Turn?

[01:15:34] Yeah, I don't like where we're going to get that.

[01:15:36] I don't know why they wouldn't.

[01:15:38] It's right there.

[01:15:39] I think it's a licensing issue because technically Shueisha

[01:15:45] owned the rights to it, I think.

[01:15:49] It's some sort of like rights holding issue where Toei doesn't own the rights

[01:15:53] so they can't give the West permission to dub it.

[01:15:58] Yeah.

[01:15:59] So yeah, I think it's just a Shueisha thing.

[01:16:01] It's the same thing with the episode of Bardock

[01:16:04] and playing to eradicate the Super Zanes.

[01:16:07] Yeah.

[01:16:08] So it would be nice if we got dubs on those

[01:16:10] and even on Super Dragon Ball Heroes.

[01:16:16] Yeah.

[01:16:18] That would be nice.

[01:16:19] Even though those stories are wacky.

[01:16:21] Well, that's the thing is I don't know.

[01:16:23] Nobody watches Super Dragon Ball Heroes for the plot.

[01:16:26] It's just there for flashy stuff and what ifs and oh look, Super Saiyan 4 Vegeta, that's fun.

[01:16:34] Yeah.

[01:16:35] Like, you know, that's the only reason anybody gets into heroes.

[01:16:39] Yeah.

[01:16:41] I don't even like the card games that fun, but that's just me.

[01:16:46] Well, that's it.

[01:16:48] It's the same thing with like, it's like if somebody who's never played Yu-Gi-Oh tried to get into

[01:16:55] Yu-Gi-Oh the way it is now as opposed like if we had gotten Super Dragon Ball Heroes right

[01:17:01] when it came out, I think a lot more people would know how to play and be better at it.

[01:17:06] Because yeah, at this point by the time they released it on the Switch game over here,

[01:17:13] it had been so thoroughly established and so many different cards and variations and combinations

[01:17:19] had come out that it's just overwhelming to try and learn now.

[01:17:24] No, that's for sure.

[01:17:26] Yeah.

[01:17:26] Because I trust me, I wanted to learn and I wanted to get good enough to at least go through

[01:17:32] the story, which I was not able to do.

[01:17:35] Yeah.

[01:17:36] I dropped it after, I mean, I still gave it the old college drive, but it's not an easy game to learn.

[01:17:46] No, not at all.

[01:17:49] But yeah, so other than that, not much else to talk about.

[01:17:54] Not sure what we're going to cover next week.

[01:17:56] It's kind of up in the air depends on timing and scheduling.

[01:17:59] We'll leave you guys in suspense until we figure that one out.

[01:18:04] Yeah, we'll have a couple ideas, but we'll talk about it as we go.

[01:18:08] Yeah.

[01:18:09] But yeah, so anyways, guys, once again, thanks for joining us on Geek Addicts.

[01:18:14] This isn't GNC.

[01:18:17] You can find Geek Addicts on all the major podcasting platforms, particularly Apple Podcast and Spotify.

[01:18:23] We're also on YouTube with occasional video election.

[01:18:25] Oh, this one has all video going on forward now, I guess.

[01:18:29] And you can find all of our links at linktree slash the barber games.

[01:18:33] And if you'd like, you can join us at the GNC podcast network Discord server to find all

[01:18:37] things gaming and collecting, 3DO experience, GNC, talk gaming, anime, or just general nonsense.

[01:18:43] And with that, everybody, we'll see you all later.

[01:18:46] Have a good one.