Is Dragon Ball actually any good? — Intentionally Blank Ep. 272

"Brand-new co-host" Donald Mustard III joins Brandon Sanderson to talk all things nerdy. From comic book history to the rise of anime, you'll have plenty to consider on this episode of Intentionally Blank!

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:08

Oh that's that's a very good one, Dan. Yes, definitely. I wonder if we should uh come up with a name for those raspberry thieves. The Barry Brigands. Oh wait, am I hallucinating again?

SPEAKER_00 0:22

I I believe so.

SPEAKER_01 0:23

Uh oh well, where is he? You know, I he maybe it's coming. Uh you're promoted. Oh okay. You're promoted to from from part-time host to full-time host. Welcome, Donald. Thank you, Brandon. Full-time host. That's full-time host.

SPEAKER_00 0:41

That's pretty nice.

SPEAKER_01 0:41

Full-time host for one episode.

SPEAKER_00 0:46

Yeah, you know what? Take what you can get, right? Do you have a food heist? I actually do have a food heist. I found this one the other day looking through our comments. Oh. So, to the person who gave me this comment, you'll know who you are. I apologize that I don't have you written down. But as an avid little Debbie's fan, we have a ton of them in the office. They always have good snacks.

SPEAKER_01 1:07

So gross. Can I say that? Is that bad? You totally could say that. I think every one I've had is gross. Really? Do they make Twinkies? No, that's hostess. This hostess. Hostess is Twinkies and like the little. I think Twinkies are gross too. So I'm just pointing out. Twinkies are. I think all of these things are gross, but maybe I'm wrong.

SPEAKER_00 1:23

I haven't eaten them a lot. Mine comes from the nostalgia of like 16-year-old DD coffee brownie overload. So they're always my go-to. But this specific food heist, the headline is Little Debbie's delivery truck driver charged with $17,000 of fraud, scheme for selling his cargo at flea markets. Wow. Uh-huh. So the police in the Washington Police Department in Pennsylvania have charged a delivery driver with running a scheme that let him sell the oatmeal cream pies, cosmic brownies, star crunches, and nutty buddies himself while submitting false invoices saying the products had been delivered to retailers.

SPEAKER_01 1:59

How did he think he wasn't going to get caught on that? I mean, if he would have been like, oh, sorry, this one was destroyed and filed out the paperwork, okay. But the retailers are gonna know they didn't get their product.

SPEAKER_00 2:11

Yeah, I'm not thinking very highly of this person. I thought similarly, I do have to admit, the gumption of being like, of all the things to to steal and sell, Little Debbie's would not have been my uh my go-to. But he's at least going to the market.

SPEAKER_01 2:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:27

Like he's got the ability to get it out there on a on a less traditional market than the black.

SPEAKER_01 2:32

Yeah. Yeah. This guy, like he obviously has he's a delivery driver and stuff. If he had this good idea, I'm sure he could have bought them wholesale and sold them. Like this is just the dumbest. Like, if he'd done anything to pretend like to get the product, but this wasn't even really a food heist. So thank you for submitting that. This guy's an idiot, he doesn't get to go to food heist prison.

SPEAKER_00 2:58

Yeah, that's fair. You know what? He just he wanted the free product, he just couldn't stomach them themselves, right? They're that gross.

SPEAKER_01 3:08

So, Donald, it's the get to know Donald episode.

SPEAKER_00 3:12

Wow. Which is surprising, given that I'm usually somewhere over there in the ether.

SPEAKER_01 3:18

Yes, yes, behind you're the voice from off screen. That's exactly right. But Dan, do we know where Dan even is? He was at Gen Con.

SPEAKER_00 3:24

Dan was a Gen Con with me. He is currently, ooh, I want to say he's on vacation. Okay. I think he's with his family, just doing something. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 3:30

Yeah. So I need to sign Fire Hours of December US release pages. I finished the UK ones, but still got a bunch of these. So there's work to be done. That is true. Shining to be done. And people need to entertain me. That's why we have a podcast.

SPEAKER_00 3:46

That's why we have the podcast.

SPEAKER_01 3:47

So, Donald, how old were you when I first met you?

SPEAKER_00 3:51

Okay, so I was thinking about this in preparation for this episode. So I was 15 when we first met, and that was when, for those who don't know, my dad was a big game developer for a long time, and he owned this company called Chair Entertainment. And back when Chair existed, we would rent out Seven Peaks. And the first time I met you was at one of these events where you could rent out Seven Peaks, and I just finished, I believe, Way of Kings, and my dad pulls me over and is like, hey, you know that guy, that book you just read? You can meet the author. And I was like, Oh, panicking inside as one does. And I was like, he's like, all right, you can ask one question, be really cool, completely get stunned. I was like, I don't know how to handle this interaction. I walk up and I remember the first thing asking you was, Who's the first person who could make it to space using the powers they have? You were very cordial and were like, oh, it'd probably be uh Kaladin, because Stormlight and stuff. That was the first time I had ever interacted with you and then walked off like, oh, as one might.

SPEAKER_01 4:50

You weren't used to that by then. Your dad just like knows everyone, so he pulls everybody over to meet you.

SPEAKER_00 4:55

This is true. At 15, it didn't happen a ton, especially in the Seven Peaks environment, where I was like, oh, it's game developers, they're with their families and stuff.

SPEAKER_01 5:02

It's for the company. Exactly. But he would invite friends he wanted, like professional associates that he wanted to maintain a good relationship with. In fact, the only time I saw your dad for years after we did the stories together was going to those seven peaks. Really? It was a good way for us to keep contact. You know how busy your dad is and how busy I am. That's true.

SPEAKER_00 5:20

You were both very busy individuals. I miss those seven peaks. It ruined Seven Peaks.

SPEAKER_01 5:25

Seven Peaks is a little water park for those who don't know. And I mean, it's a a place that you go and you wait in line for like 15 minutes and then you go down a slide. But when they rented it out, there's no line. Not a single line.

SPEAKER_00 5:38

You can go anywhere in the park. It was so much fun. Yeah. Great for for kids as well. What a it was a solid like company activity. Yep. Yeah. But no, that's how we first met. And then Isaac got in touch with me when I was probably about 17, and you were like, hey, we need a TA for BYU. And then from there got on.

SPEAKER_01 6:01

And then we just kept finding jobs for you here and there. People would be like, hey, we need this. And I'd be like, oh, Donald could do that. Uh-huh. And eventually, 10 years later. 10 years later, yep. Here you are.

SPEAKER_00 6:13

Here I am. You are infamously what got me on to Typecast RPG, which was Dan's old DD campaign. The story how I heard it was I think you gave me, or he gave me a one of you two gave me a phone call. It's like, hey, there's this cool streaming thing that Dan wants to do. You should go help him with that. I was like, yeah, of course I'll do it. I was told you said, hey, I know this person. He's going to do this for you. Trust me on this. You were right, of course, but Yeah, but we did pay you. Yes, you did pay me. That's why I was like, it's all sixes at the end of the day.

SPEAKER_01 6:44

Like, Dan wanted me to be on it. I did not have the time to be on it. And I'm like, but I want you to be successful. You're my friends. I'll give you a little boost. I know this guy. I don't have any jobs for him right now. So this is a way that like I could keep you kind of exactly not on the payroll, but kind of on the payroll until I could find something for you and I could help out Dan. So I'm like, I'll I'll just pay Donald.

SPEAKER_00 7:06

It was great. Typecast was awesome. It is completely gone. It was one of the few times where I've been like, oh yeah, lost media absolutely exists. If someone just loses the credentials, like they lost the login. They lost the logins. All of Typecast, to my understanding, has just been lost to the Aether of wherever it went. I've tried hunting down the computer that I did all the editing and stuff on, and I have no idea where it is.

SPEAKER_01 7:30

Yeah, for those who don't know what it was, it was a live play RPG thing with Dan and Howard and some of our other friends. And so it was a lot of fun. It was a good time. Yeah, he wanted me to be on it, and I can think of nothing more excruciating than playing DD in front of an audience. Right. Right? That there's a performance level there that's just gonna make me think about that instead of enjoying the RPG. Right. And I told him that, and he kept trying. And I'm like, no, I'm I'm just not gonna do it. Not my thing.

SPEAKER_00 7:57

And four hours is a long time to commit. I I don't fault anyone for it. But hey, if you happen to have any of those old typecast episodes saved or anything, you should hit up the the email for publicity. I'll I'll steal it from uh that email. That'd be great to find for me and Dan. So what else do you like do? You play magic? I do play magic. It's funny, I don't know if you could see it in the background. One of our many things we do at Dragon Steel, we have lots of hobbies, but magic is a core aspect. We have draft nights every other day. It's because of me.

SPEAKER_01 8:26

It's because of you. I'm like, I want to do something with the company. And they're like, board game night. I'm like, no, magic night. Magic nights. They do board game nights as well.

SPEAKER_00 8:34

Yes. Their next one is coming up.

SPEAKER_01 8:35

So we have This tomorrow, I think.

SPEAKER_00 8:36

Oh, you're right. Yeah, yeah, yeah. They're doing it right before Hobbit Draft. Or I guess whatever. Six is on the end of the day. But no, Magic is a big thing. Behind me is the foil fantasy cube, which is the Final Fantasy set, completely foiled out because Completely foiled out except. Except. I knew you were gonna bring this up. There are a couple cards in the what do they call it? Like for the record, or they're custom art pieces for reprinted cards. A few of them have gone up in price that are a little too expensive. And then I know you're gonna say it. I don't have a golden chocobo and I don't have a neon chocobo as much as I want one. They're 10 grand. They're ridiculous. I think the golden are up to like 50. Are they? Yes, it's that's insane. I mean, they only print in 99. I get why they're like shooting up in price. I mean, collector boxes are like two grand at this point for just 12 packs. It's ridiculous. Yeah. I'm not shocked by how much they are, but it does make you know that that little dream that much further away in the future. I don't think I could ever justify it though. That's just so much for I mean, I bought a black lotus.

SPEAKER_01 9:38

You did buy a lotus. So someday maybe you would uh be in a position where you What why not buy a lotus at that point?

SPEAKER_00 9:44

Yeah, right? Like the golden chokebook, fantastic. But a lotus.

SPEAKER_01 9:48

Like my lotus is now locked up and we play with a proxy, right? So you'd have to end up doing the same thing. So what's the point?

SPEAKER_00 9:54

That's and that's where I'm like there are the the lesser versions, the neon like pink or blue ones, are I think about a thousand that I could justify playing with because if you open that a pack, it's like, oh, this is super cool and fun to do. Speaking of, at some point I went through the cube. It would be very hard to do this naturally, right? For those who don't play magic, there are these things called collector boosters, and they are a high-tier version of packs that come with lots of rares, lots of mythics. Doing a collector booster draft would be impossible for most people. However, I went through the cube. I have the exact number needed for eight people to do a traditional collector booster Final Fantasy draft.

SPEAKER_01 10:33

That'd be fun.

SPEAKER_00 10:34

It would be interesting. I know that the rares would swing it a little bit, but we've done it before on um. I think we did one pack for Lord of the Rings.

SPEAKER_01 10:41

We did one pack for Ravatica remastered.

SPEAKER_00 10:43

That's right, we did Rav. That was an interesting one. Yep.

SPEAKER_01 10:46

But Yeah, back when they were a little more affordable, Lord of the Rings, we just gave everybody one.

SPEAKER_00 10:51

But these days it's just it's it's it's a lot. Uh and there's some version of the IP tax that exists, but I mean kudos to them. It's cool seeing The Hobbit get in, seeing Lord of the Rings get in. Fractured reality looks awesome for those of us who have been in magic for too long. The other thing I know about you is that you are an anime nerd. I am a very big in the animation, anime, uh, all that kind of stuff.

SPEAKER_01 11:17

What are you watching right now? What am I watching right now? Um most recently.

SPEAKER_00 11:21

Most recently it has been Dragon Ball, just classic Dragon Ball. Classic Dragon Ball? Like not even Z? Not even Z. Okay. There's enough time that's passed where I'm like, okay, I need to actually watch Dragon Ball to understand. I feel like I have been lied to. What there is Dragon Ball's a comedy. It's a comedy. Yeah. And it's like, it has nothing to do. Anyone that's seen, you know, anything with Dragon Ball probably sees Goku, big, strong. Yeah. Fighting aliens. Fighting aliens. That is not what Dragon Ball, the first, I don't know, 100 episodes are. It is doing wacky wacky hijinks with the devil. Yes, exactly. And I'm like, I don't know where. I don't know how we got from that to current Dragon Ball. Yeah. It's it's banana. Old Dragon Ball Ball is real weird. Yeah, that's that is what I'm discovering. I don't think I could ever recommend to anyone Dragon Ball. Like at least the first hundred episodes. Because it's like you have to be in it to commit to it. And speaking of any, the only reason I'm able to really do it is I'm building Gundam models on the side. Is I'm like, oh, it's playing in the background. Yeah. I'm picking this up, but yeah. It's wacky.

SPEAKER_01 12:27

Yeah, it's like Master Roshi is really nauseating. There's certain things about those old shows. For those who don't know, he is an old man who is a lecherous old man toward a teenage girl in the show. And for the Ghost Bloods, I've mentioned this before. One of the cool things that I want to do for the new Mistborn series is to do in-world comic books. Yes. So the Era 2 was Wax and Wayne. And in those, Wax's likeness got sold to a comic book company. Oh no. And so comics are made, and so instead of superheroes, they have these Wax and Wayne comics that are very famous. And so my writing this week, actually, because I'm approaching doing the 2.0 draft. Yes. Was to sit down and write the first of those. Okay. And I want them to be from different eras of comics. I'd and so I was writing the Golden Age Wax and Wayne story. Okay. Right. So I wanted it to feel like classic golden age comics. So I'm like, all right, let me break open. I went and bought a copy of Detective Comics One. Oh, okay. Right. Right. Even before Batman. Right. Like, I'm going to read Detective Comics One. I've read a bunch of Golden Age comics, but I'm like, I remember, you know, it's a good anthology with a bunch of different artists and a bunch of different writers. They'll give me a good survey. And then I went and grabbed an omnibus of some spirit comics because Will Eisner, you know, one of the greats, right? I'm just going to immerse myself and read these, read some Will Eisner, read one of the anthology books, in this case Detective Comics One, and just remind myself about the Golden Age. Yep. Holy racism, Batman.

SPEAKER_00 14:06

Okay. I shouldn't be surprised.

SPEAKER_01 14:09

Holy racism.

SPEAKER_00 14:11

That bad.

SPEAKER_01 14:11

Oh, like there are almost no comics without just horrible racist caricatures. And I knew what to expect because Will Eisner, the spirit sidekick, is Ivory, who is a minstrel character. And I knew to expect it for there. I braced myself. But just like they really, really hated Chinese people back then. All of them are Chinese people. And just stereotypical, top-not, like it's so awful. No characterization. Everyone drawn exactly the same. Yeah. So but you know, some interesting stories. I did my best. I wrote one, hopefully without the racism, uh, for Wax and Wayne. There are some really good spirit comics. Yeah. Like a lot of them from detective comics. Okay. Like they're what you would expect. They're good. Yeah. Good. Good. A picture of their time. And they are short stories in comic form that basically equate to dude is punching uh Chinese people. Okay. And someone interrupts him and he's gets mad at them because he was having so much fun. And then they're like, We've got a case for you. And they bring him back, and the case is uh a lady who wants him to guard her poodle. Okay. And he's like, I'm not doing that. That's beneath me. I'm not gonna they're like, it's a really expensive poodle. And he's like, nah, nah, I'm off. And then the lady's like to the policeman, she's like, fire him. Like, we can't fire him. He's a contractor. We just brought him in. But then he meets his friend who's like drawn very comedically, who's like, I want to be your sidekick. And he's like, All right, go guard that lady's dog. Okay. And so the sidekick guy goes and tries to guard the lady's dog, but then the lady's like, here, hold my dog. I'm going to go into this Chinese laundromat or something. Uh-huh. And of course she gets kidnapped. Yep. And so then he has to go get the actual hero who comes in and beats up all the people. Yep. And finds where she's being held by the evil mastermind who like wants to suck her soul or something like that. Sure. Or, you know, whatever. Beats him up and then kisses the lady, and he's like, Oh, thank you. You're so wonderful. Should we go to dinner? And then he kid you not says, What? No. Why don't hang out with chicks? And then he leaves.

SPEAKER_00 16:27

That's the story. This guy was uh what's the the modern day term alpha male before he was even cool. That's crazy.

SPEAKER_01 16:36

It's so horrible. Wow. And I looked him up. I'd vaguely been aware of this. This is a modern DC character, because of course they are.

SPEAKER_00 16:42

It's not.

SPEAKER_01 16:43

I mean, he doesn't act like that.

SPEAKER_00 16:44

Okay, okay, okay.

SPEAKER_01 16:45

But you can still find him in comics and things like that. What's the name of the character? I can't remember. It was something, it was something like, you know, Butch Slate. Oh, okay. Yeah. Your generic Someone in the comics will say I'm sure. It's in Detective Comics One. So he's got it, he's gonna be famous. Like if you're gonna read one, you're gonna go pick up Action Comics One or Detective Comics One. If you're gonna go back, I mean, I would recommend that the Will Eisner stuff is stronger in general. But yeah, that was the comic.

SPEAKER_00 17:14

That's I'm like, wow. I'm a little floored. Yes. This asks a good question. Do you have a favorite comic? Do I have a favorite comic? Yeah, Watchmen, like everybody else. Yeah. I'm G.I. Joe. I'm not like everyone else. Oh. I just have a love of those early times. Tintin's a close second. The G.I.

SPEAKER_01 17:31

Joe comics were stronger than the show by like leaps and bounces. Absolutely. Incomparably better. Yeah. So I can respect you for that. I did read a bunch of them when I was a kid, but have you read Watchmen? I have.

SPEAKER_00 17:44

I mean, it's it's hard to say. Of course, Watchmen's amazing.

SPEAKER_01 17:47

It's just incredible.

SPEAKER_00 17:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 17:49

If it weren't Watchmen, it's Kingdom Come. Kingdom Come's amazing. Yep. So that's not a hot take. No. Everybody loves Watchmen. Everyone loves loves. Well, not everybody loves Watchmen. No, they do not.

SPEAKER_00 17:58

But if you're going to pick people's favorite, Watchmen is often going to make. Watchmen will be there. The boys probably has a good chance at this point of being a lot of people's favorites. But I feel like I'm too nostalgic because like Bone, I don't know if you've ever read. Bone Bone is great. I think Bones was my first introduction really to comics.

SPEAKER_01 18:15

So Bone helped me form a theory. Okay. What's this theory? The theory is any story left alone too long turns into epic fantasy.

SPEAKER_00 18:26

Okay, I see where you're going with this.

SPEAKER_01 18:27

I think and Bone is one of the err examples. So authors spending a long time writing will slowly inch toward the epic. Okay. And Bone starts as kind of a gag comic about these wacky guys. They are in a fantasy world, right? But it's it's more like a spoof almost. It's not a complete spoof, but it's jokey. And by the end, like it's straight up epic fantasy. It's like giant quests and fighting darklords and all of this stuff. So the massive battle at the end. Yeah. It's fun to read Bone. I tried to read Bone to my kids when they were younger, and I found some of the jokey flirting stuff a little too uh adult for them. Okay. So it's like not that it's really bad, but it's more like a 12-year-old thing than it is like an eight-year-old thing. They were not interested in any of the jokey romance stuff.

SPEAKER_00 19:15

So I what is fifth grade technically? Is that 10? Yeah. Yeah. That was when I think I picked it up. Yeah. And I really enjoy it.

SPEAKER_01 19:22

If you're the least bit interested in some romance, Bone will do better for you. Just it's not all romancy, but there's enough. The main protagonist being active in a romance or trying to be makes a lot of sense. Yeah, there's a bunch of romantic comedy stuff and things like that. So yeah, Bone's great. And part of the fun of Bone is watching because it's an indie comic written across like 15 years or something. Yeah, something crazy. And so you can watch him evolve as a writer through the course of the story.

SPEAKER_00 19:50

It's great. Yep. If you haven't read Bone, you should go read Bone. Bone is great. This reminds me, I'm curious. We'll never get to talk about Tenet on the show because Dan, I don't I don't think Dan's seen Tenet or doesn't care to see it because he's heard all the stuff from Nolan. Tenant is awesome. That's gonna say is you and I have the same opinion. That's counter good. I don't know, but it is awesome. I think it has some of my favorite cinematography that's ever been shot.

SPEAKER_01 20:14

You know, bless Nolan for finding new ways to tell stories, right? Like Tenant's structure is so cool. Yes. Where it's like you tell the story halfway and then you go backward, the rest of like so cool, so interesting. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 20:27

So I 100% agree. And mainly I bring this up because I know you haven't seen the Odyssey yet.

SPEAKER_01 20:31

No, I haven't. I keep trying to talk Emily into it, and she keeps feeling like it's gonna be too emotionally draining for her. I see her point. As she is in the moment. So owning a movie theater means that I don't have to run out and see it, right? If it goes to VOD, I have a theater. Right. So I can just go watch it on the big screen myself. I would like to see it in IMAX, but we don't have any of the real IMAX in Utah.

SPEAKER_00 20:54

Which is unfortunate. Yeah. But that leads me to the question I bring up to Nolan. As a creative, yeah, Nolan has said, you know, the best way to see my movie is these 25 theaters. Yep. Is that the correct way, if you will, to see the movie then? Or does it come down to just I mean, uh it's tricky.

SPEAKER_01 21:13

It's a hard question because I fully respect Nolan saying, hey, if you want to see it in the best way possible that I intended it, go see it like this. Makes perfect sense to me. Right. But with books in particular, I think books are a participatory art. Right. Right? Like the best way for you to read the book is the way that makes you the most comfortable. Right. And so for some that might be reading digitally on your phone. For some that might be audiobooks. For some, it might be like whatever is the environment that makes you able to enjoy the story and pay attention the best is what I want you doing. Right. And I can't really say what that is for an individual.

SPEAKER_00 21:50

Of course. No, I was more curious because I feel like that way it has to be with books, right? You have said many times you're the line editor for a book. You have to read it in the way. That you will read it.

SPEAKER_01 22:00

Not the line editor, line item veto. Thank you. That's what I'm saying. Yes. But you can change the book as you're reading it, as you wish. I fully believe that's part of the reading process.

SPEAKER_00 22:09

Right. Yeah. But as for film, it's one of those tricky things where it's just like, it was shot this way. Yep. So creator versus what can be done is always an interesting one for me. And you didn't see it in the true? No, I I saw it in IMAX, just the classic 70 that's you know we have here. But that's not even true IMAX, right?

SPEAKER_01 22:27

It's not branded IMAX. Branded IMAX is. Is it? It is? It's not.

SPEAKER_00 22:31

Hold on.

SPEAKER_01 22:32

The ones I've gone to that I've looked at are not even branded IMAX. They still call it premium large format.

SPEAKER_00 22:37

Oh, that's true. No, so the one in that's close to me is True IMAX. True IMAX got the brand.

SPEAKER_01 22:44

But it's not the 70. It's not the 70. It's yeah. Yeah. But that is the best place to see it in Utah. That's the best place to see it in Utah. Is that the Jordan Commons? There's one by Vineyard. That's just like right. Oh, the Vineyard one? The Vineyard one, when I looked, didn't say IMAX. It said premium large format. They have it on the side of the building. Okay. They had it on the phone at least. And then they must just have a little thing that says that so that you know what it is.

SPEAKER_00 23:04

They were shown in like all three formats because I mean Odyssey did what? Over a billion of this book.

SPEAKER_01 23:10

Right. So they would be showing it in the other ones that are not true IMAX. So you just have to find the one that's in the actual IMAX.

SPEAKER_00 23:15

Exactly. And that's the most interesting thing to me about a lot of these new films that are coming out where it's like IMAX is the prestigious go see it. But because only so many exist, yeah. Good luck getting a ticket. So you see it twice, if you will, because you want to see the story, and then you're like, all right, this is good enough to go to IMAX.

SPEAKER_01 23:35

Yeah. I was gonna try to get Emily to go last night. In fact, I went to buy tickets, but that vineyard one was rented out for the night. No shows being shown of any on Wednesday. And Wednesday was is our date night. So that's kind of bizarre. That also somebody rented out like someone pulled a Donald Mustard your dad and rented out the whole theater. Yeah. And you couldn't get any showings at all. It just said the whole thing is rented out for a private event for the whole day.

SPEAKER_00 24:01

That's like 14 screens. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 24:04

That's nutty.

SPEAKER_00 24:05

I wonder who did that and that's right. Yeah. Because that's, I mean, that's gotta be a big corporation to accommodate that many people.

SPEAKER_01 24:11

Do you read manga?

SPEAKER_00 24:13

I do read manga. What's the most recent manga you read? Most recent. Probably Comey Can't Communicate. Okay. I've heard of that one. Yeah. Very like a slice of life. Slice of life. Awkward lady. Yeah. Your slice of life rom com. Very well done. Recently, I mean, recently ended, probably about three or six months ago. Okay. But very cute. Assassination Classrooms up on there just because I own the series. Another great one. Yeah. Being destroys the moon and then randomly decides, I want to teach a classroom full of kids, and whoever can kill me will get like, I don't know, $50 million. Okay. And they're just like, it's it's a fascinating concept. Way better than you would expect the concept to be. But if that's not what I've learned from every anime or manga that I've ever read, how you get Gundams, how you get Neon Genesis to say Evangelion. Right. Like you just have to kind of trust they're going somewhere with it. What's your favorite all time? Anime, I assume? Anime, yeah. Oh, this is such an impossible question. My instinct is to say probably like the first three Gundam movies. Okay. Just because they got me into anime. If not that. Does Miyazaki count? That was what I was going to go is Miyazaki is probably really close because Kiki's delivery service when I was, you know, younger was one of the ones that really solidified for me.

SPEAKER_01 25:30

Because it's Miyazaki for me. Okay. Like, I mean, Miyazaki obviously counts. We wouldn't say Miyazaki doesn't get to be anime. He is. Because that would be that would be snide of us. Right. Right. But if I'm going to pick like a series or something that's like just not a creator, right? Right. If I'm going to pick an IP, it's probably Bebop.

SPEAKER_00 25:48

I mean, Bebop is just it's one of the all-time classics. It's amazing.

SPEAKER_01 25:52

Yeah, I was watching Bebop when it came out. And that's how it was. Yeah, when it came out in US, right? I'm sure it was out a few years before in Japan. But it's first US syndication. Adult swim. Adult Okay, that makes sense.

SPEAKER_00 26:05

Yep. Where they would stick it. Yep. See, this is where your and I's difference will be because I was a very appropriate teenager who was like, I don't need adult swim. I could just go find it online in the many various formats. So I got lucky to find again, Gundam. That's the first one that just comes to mind. I've watched a ton. There's a lot of them that are out there that are just very mediocre, but when you're 12 to 16, you just consume everything.

SPEAKER_01 26:30

So my brother is the anime dude. Okay. Not me. When we were kids, you only were able to go to anime, like going to specific stores. They would have them like a small selection, or you had to like mail order them and stuff. Like so occasionally he'd come in and be like, I think you'll like this one. Okay. That he'd like gone through all the weeb shenanigans that you would do to get anime. Right. Sometimes it would just be a copied cassette from your friends or things like that. Oh, okay. So he showed me Akira, Ghosts in the Shell, like you know, those classics from that era. Yep. But those were the only ones I would see were the ones that he would get me. He was really into Kenshin when Kenshin came out. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 27:08

But I hear that creator's a creep. So correct. Yeah. Unfortunately, you know, creator versus art at sometimes. But that's a good way to do those classic animes.

SPEAKER_01 27:17

Yeah, but Kenshin was college era, and so he was like able to actually get DVDs. Like it was when anime started to actually come over and you could get it, other than going to this random store that occasionally had like three cassettes. Right.

SPEAKER_00 27:30

Yeah. Do you have a favorite? I mean, clearly Miyazaki, could you pin it down to like one Miyazaki?

SPEAKER_01 27:36

Oh yeah, it's uh it's Mononoke.

SPEAKER_00 27:37

Oh, it is Mononoke. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 27:38

Yeah, Mononoke is the first Miyazaki that I saw. And I saw it again because Jordan said, Hey, you're gonna like this. And it's actually playing at the theater for another couple of weeks. There you go. During its initial US run, he's like, You love Epic Fantasy, go see this. And when Jordan, like he knew how to cut through, he'd shown me enough that I'm like, I cannot make sense of this. I'm sorry, Jordan. Right. This, like, I just can't do it. He knew which ones he could point me at. Right. Right? Like he loved Roman one half, and I would watch Roman half and be like, some of this is funny, and some of it I just have no idea, Jordo. Right. I just do not get it. So I went up by myself, one of the only times that I've gone by myself because I couldn't get anyone to go with me. And I sat and there was only like three people in the theater in Salt Lake and watched Mononoca. And I'm like, wow. This is Lord of the Rings caliber, epic fantasy. Yep. So I went back and I got my roommate, and like, no, no, no, you're watching this with me. And I towed them all up and we watched it together, and they're like, oh yeah, that was great. And because it was gone the next day. Oh, wow. It was only like it was like two weeks in the theater in the US. So so yeah, that one I was like, I get it, right? I absolutely get it. I'd heard about Totoro, but I watched Mononoke.

SPEAKER_00 28:56

Mononoke is a great one just to be like this. Is a far more adult kind of anime for it.

SPEAKER_01 29:01

True epic fantasy. We get so few true great epic fantasy films that Mononoke, you know, blew my mind. The other one that he did that for was your name. I mean your name is. Which I think I saw was like your Oh, my background. Background. Your name is one of your backgrounds. Yeah. And he's like, you're gonna like this one, Brandon. Just go to it. Don't look up anything about it. That's the best way to do it. And so I did that. Now I've seen that in Weathering with You and Suzume, all because I think the creator is just really good at storytelling.

SPEAKER_00 29:30

So I 100% agree. I mean, anime so hard. I wish you've heard this a thousand times. You gotta watch Freeman at some point.

SPEAKER_01 29:37

If we if it's not, I read the first comic. I know you did. Yep. I read the first book. I thought it was very good.

SPEAKER_00 29:43

But with all your infinite time.

SPEAKER_01 29:45

I do not know how many seasons are there.

SPEAKER_00 29:46

I think it's only up to two currently.

SPEAKER_01 29:48

But it doesn't finish. It's not finished yet. Right? Yeah. When it's done, right? Come tell me, and then tell me how many seasons there are, and I will decide. That's what I love about Cowboy Bebop is it's done. It's done. Woo! There's like, you know, ten episodes in a movie. Yep. That's it. Ten episodes in a movie.

SPEAKER_00 30:06

Yeah. That's the tricky part. Anime has, I think, the forever problem of it just has to keep going. Or the creator feels like it has to. Dragon Ball, going by.

SPEAKER_01 30:15

But at least it's by the same creator. And I like that about manga as opposed to like, I've told my story before. I got into Ninja Turtles back when the original Eastman Laird. And then when they changed to new writers and artists, I felt like super betrayed. And it turned me off to comics for a while when the comic people were like, Yeah, this is what happens at comics. I'm like, I don't want to read what these other people, I want to read the actual story that the creators, and they're like, they'll come back once in a while, maybe. Right. It really bothered me.

SPEAKER_00 30:43

Yeah, I I am grateful that we can do that. Because I mean, the reason why Dragon Ball is as good as it was. Toriyama spent, what, 30 years going on to that?

SPEAKER_01 30:52

So Yep. And I mean, I'm much more likely to read One Piece than I am to ever read all of Batman. Right. Right? Because at least it's a single creator's vision. You know, I went back and I read for this thing I was working on. I did go back and read Batman one. I read like the first few Batman. There you go. How far did I read? Up until the Joker, which isn't too far in. No. But yeah.

SPEAKER_00 31:14

I'm not gonna, you know, read all of Batman. Right. There's so much at this point for those legacy characters. That's crazy. Well, I mean, thanks for having me on. Now people get to see you. Yes, I am a person. And thanks to everyone who came and said, hey, at Gen Con and stuff, you guys are the best. It was good to see all of our fans. How's that, Dan?