Just far and away, Tatsuki Fujimoto's best work ever.
Welcome back to 2AM OTTACK! I'm your host Mayu, a born and raised Japanese no otaku, and...
I'm Cisco, an American otaku.
In this podcast, we share our reviews of anime and manga through a distinct
perspective with commentary on Japanese culture, history, and language.
So Cisco, we've talked about Tatsuki Fujimoto 17-26 last week, but we only focused on it from
episode 1 to 4. Today, we're going to talk about episode 5 to 8. There are quite a few of episodes
we like. Yeah, these ones were good. So that's what we're going to talk about. Gotcha. Before
we start, we'd like to hear from you. Share your thoughts, ideas, questions, or even suggestions
what we should talk about. Send us a message to the email in the description, or you can use
Spotify and the YouTube comments section as well. All right, let's go from number 5. Episode number
5 is Mermaid Rhapsody. Yeah. You really like this one. I think when I was reading the comic
version of it, the manga, this was my favorite because it's so unlike what Fujimoto Tatsuki
usually writes. And I think the thing that it says at the end is someone at Jump said,
Tatsuki Fujimoto can't write a normal story, so I wrote this. I thought that was hilarious,
but it is. It's like so much more a normal story. It still has some Tatsuki Fujimoto stuff,
like the fact that the mermaids eat people, right? And like people get bit and stuff. On the whole,
it's just so much more normal than almost anything else. I have sort of a soft spot for it.
When I read the original manga, I felt like, oh, this is like unusually normal.
That's right.
For Tatsuki Fujimoto.
Right.
I thought it was cute, but it was not my favorite.
Right.
But after watching the anime, I felt the story was delivered better than when I read by myself.
Yeah, I hear that.
Maybe partially because I'm not an English speaker.
Oh, okay. And you read it in English.
I read all the manga in English, but this time I listened in Japanese. Maybe that's the differences.
Maybe. I think the biggest difference between the manga and the anime version of this is that
in the anime version, there's actual music. In the manga version, like he's playing music
on an underwater piano, but you don't really know what it sounds like. And it's hard to imagine
what exactly it's going to sound like. And then the music that they wrote for it is actually
really good and becomes an important part of the story that he can make such beautiful music.
I don't know. Somehow I felt the manga was more poignant and a little bit more sweet,
and the anime was a little bit more comedic and sort of funny, at least at the end.
Yeah, I like this one a lot.
So the guy told Shizu, the mermaid,
Yeah, you're so pretty.
I don't care if you eat me.
Yeah. That's pretty hot.
Is it?
Yeah.
It's hot for the girl to be told, I don't care if you eat me because you're so hot.
Yeah.
I would use that line more often if I knew it was going to work.
I don't know if it's going to work, but
Would it work on you?
I don't know.
Maybe it's the, I don't know, somehow in like, in my mind, like the English version of like saying
that is like, like, I get it. And like, it sort of works. But like, I don't know, it feels like
there's another layer in English. I know he means it as like, you're gonna like bite off my arms and
head and like kill me in order to eat me. It just feels like a double entendre in English.
Okay. Maybe there's some like a little nuance differences in Japanese.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. I don't know that like Japanese people like
reference this particular thing often enough for it to
But clearly, Shizu had a blush on her face.
Right. Yeah. She thought it was she thought it was a good line, too.
I mean, I get it, right? Sort of.
Okay, nevermind.
No, no, no. I mean, like, it's, it's, it's a romantic thing to say I would die for you,
right? That part again, I just mean that, like, maybe I'm just like, you know,
a little bit of like, got my mind in the gutter. But like, to me, it sounds a little bit like
something else in a way that like, probably wouldn't be as good a line.
Okay.
You know what I'm saying?
Yes. Yes.
It's interesting that the mermaids are seem like not in total control of their
instincts, right? Like when they smell blood, they just automatically attack,
right? Just kind of interesting. And I think like, the humans don't seem to automatically
attack mermaids. But culturally, it seems like they've been doing it for a while. I sort of
didn't understand why the mermaids for the mermaids, it was instinct. But for the humans,
it was cultural. Can't it just be cultural for the mermaids to you know what I mean? I didn't get
that part. Okay. It turns into like a harem at the very end, which I thought was sort of funny,
where they're like all kissing him to give him air so he can keep playing the piano.
Yeah.
Which was I like that twist at the end that like made it sort of silly, you know,
I thought it was on this.
Yeah, it was it was totally unnecessary. It was like such a poignant,
like nice little love story until the end. And then like, there's this like twist that
makes it kind of like less serious, right? And that felt like the most Tatsuki Fujimoto part
of the whole thing was like, up until that last moment, it really felt like it was by somebody
else. And then like the last moment where like the other mermaid kisses him, and then all the
mermaids kiss him. And then like the last shot is him being like, I'll be back later, girls,
right? And they're all like, like, I was like, Oh, this is like, definitely a Tatsuki Fujimoto
project. Yeah. So I think that's it's like an interesting ending to like what is otherwise
like sort of a sweet story. It feels like a parody at the very end, right? Like he couldn't bring
himself to end it in a normal way. It had to have like a bit of a joke at the very end.
Right. Let's move on to episode six. Episode six is woke up as a girl syndrome. And I just
realized the mermaid Rhapsody's boy's name is Toshihide. Interesting. And woke up as a girl
syndrome's boy slash girl is also Toshihide. That's weird. Yeah. I wonder if there is connection
or maybe he just really liked that name. Maybe. Yeah. All right. So let's talk about episode six.
What did you think? As with Koi wa Momoku, love is blind from the previous set of episodes.
I really liked the art direction of this episode. There is a lot of two tone colors where half the
screen is one color and the other half is a different color. And there's sort of lines going
in between things. I like that as a sort of play on the gender duality that's like throughout this
episode. And I thought the way it looked was very cool all the way through. But as a story,
it might be my least favorite story in the collection. I don't know. Maybe I like it a
little bit more than Sasaki stopped a bullet, but it's one of my least favorite stories. I think
it feels you feel the age of it. Not that I think necessarily Tatsuki Fujimoto is like,
whatever, more grown up or like more socially aware or anything now, but this one feels like
trying to watch like a comedian from like the late two thousands do like a standup act where like
half the stuff they say in the act, you're like, Oh, like that was like, not that funny then.
And it like, now it looks like really bad, you know what I mean? Because it's not a serious
story either. The punchline is like very gendered in like a way that does not subvert gender
expectations, but rather reinforces them. And there's a lot of moments like in the actual thing
where you're just kind of like, this is resting on like so many normative assumptions about like
men and women that like, it's kind of uncomfortable. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, like you said,
I liked all the colors. Yeah, it was so vivid. And I loved it. Also, the setting was 2000.
And maybe that's on purpose to to be like, we're going to excuse the old sensibilities in this by
setting it in like a period when like, probably this was the way people thought back then or
something. But yeah, yeah. And then they're like musics, like nostalgic music, right?
Bob. Also, there were like two things, which were not on original manga. Yeah. Which are,
so there's a moment there, like the sort of punchline moment of it is when the older brother,
who the main character looks up to, walks in on the main guy and his girlfriend,
they're just taking their clothes off. And there's a moment where like the main guy's
butt is sticking out. And so in the background of the anime shot, there's the word angel,
and like sort of like funny, I don't know, inflatable lettering, which is kind of funny.
And then like the main guy or the the older brother gets a nosebleed, which is what Japanese
like shorthand for getting turned on, right? And then he's like, in the manga, he just has a
nosebleed. That's it. And then it's like they then they talk in the anime, his nose like explodes in
a fountain of blood. And there are three shirts hanging on the wall, one of which is just a white
undershirt. And the white undershirt gets the word sex written on it in blood from his nosebleed,
which is pretty funny. Yeah. Yeah, that that was definitely like a nice added touch. So the other
part is he's getting bullied in class. And the teacher tells one of the guys to shut up. And his
mouth zips shut like a zipper visually like a zipper, which is interesting. And you said this
is an expression in Japanese language. It's also one in English. Really? Yeah. Zip your lips is a
thing that is said in English also. When do you use it? Teachers say it to students. Yeah, it's
exactly the same. We say like we don't say zip. We say chakku, okuchi ni chakku. A zipper on your
lips. It's basically the same thing. So yeah, so that moment is also sort of different. But yeah,
so there's like some there's some interesting visual moments in this episode. But the underlying
story about being changed into I'm like, I don't know, Japanese culture is like really interested
in this idea of like, swapping genders by just waking up in a different body. I kind of like
can't decide whether this is just like a weird male fantasy of like being in a woman's body,
or whether there's like some deeper connection here to like either trying to understand what
it's like to be a transgender person or grappling with like what it might mean to be and not the
same body gender as you feel inside. And this one feels more like the former. Like it's just
like a fantasy of the guy or it's playing on this idea of like acting like a girl, especially by
crying or having emotions. And then like that being girly, right? Which is, I don't know,
feels like very regressive as opposed to like interesting or like, I don't know, progressive at
all. And the fact that the culmination of the story is him chasing after his girlfriend to be
like, No, I'm still a boy on the inside. Like, I like you like I chased after you because I'm a man
just feel like it's I don't know, it's so reinforcing, like the most like, I don't know,
retrograde gender assumptions that it was sort of disappointing. Interesting. And I mean, like,
I think I get it from like, a has like a straight, you know, cis dude perspective to be like, yes,
like, the desire to like, you know, chase people or I don't know, like stand up for yourself or
something is connected to maleness in some way, like, sure, like, I get that. But it just felt
like there was so much potential with the story for like exploring more interesting ideas. And
instead to have like, the end of it be like, a reinforcement of like, straightforward,
cisgender norms was like, sort of a letdown. All right, let's move on to episode seven. Episode
seven is now Utah of the prophecy. What did you think of this one? I like the animation in this
one a lot too. It looked the most like Chainsaw Man. Yeah, right looks like power. And yeah,
I mean, now Utah has horns like power. Now Utah is the name of a main character in the Chainsaw
Man manga later. What? Yeah, hasn't come out. We are not there yet in the anime. But there is a
character in the Chainsaw Man manga called now Utah, who is a girl child. Okay, so it feels
really directly connected to that story in a way. And the story itself is the most like Chainsaw Man
it has like, I guess she's kind of a demon, right? She has like powers and magic and kills
things sort of indiscriminately and isn't understood by anybody else. And it's sort of
unnecessarily violent and bloody. I just may not even but compared to the other stories in this
collection, and the main characters are impoverished, right? They don't seem to have very
much money. And like grappling with that is like an important part of their story. So it feels the
most recognizably Tatsuki Fujimoto of these stories, right? I mean, I guess the first one is
too, but like not not Mermaid Rhapsody, the very first one. But this one is like, kind of what you
would expect. Does that feel fair? I've been wondering what does story wants to tell? Yeah.
And I think it's about like brother and the sister. And then even though brother doesn't
really understand his sister, she thinks what she feels like whatever, but still like she wants to
take care of her and protect her. That's what I got. Yeah, it has some of the same themes as Shikaku
from the first set of stories of like, you know, a person who is either kind of like unaware of
or regularly in violation of society's norms, especially around violence, right? Towards like
other living beings. And I think it sort of wants to say that people who express themselves through
violence, like are not necessarily bad, they may just be sort of unaware of what's going on around
them. Look, maybe it's difficult to communicate. Maybe you don't have the same norms as everybody
else. Maybe like, there's a real gap in understanding. But that doesn't make people
like good or bad, right? And that like, you know, especially when you're afraid of someone who's
different, it becomes really hard to bridge that communication gap. Now, it is just kind of
dangerous. And I think like, to me, it feels more like a commentary on like the presence of violence
in modern media, and particularly in anime and manga. And it feels a lot sort of safer to say
this is a commentary on people being violent or watching violent media or enjoying and consuming
like that kind of media and not necessarily being violent. So in a way, it's like, you know, is is
Tatsuki Fujimoto, Nayuta, right? And like, not understood by people around him, because he draws
stuff that is really violent and graphic, but it doesn't mean he's like a violent, horrible person.
There's just a gap in understanding. There's a there's a weird story at the end of the collection
in the manga, where he had a pet fish with his girlfriend, and the fish died. I don't remember
why it died. It just died. And he was supposed to bury it. And then he like didn't bury it. And
then he was like, Okay, I'll go. I'll finally go bury it. And he tried to bury it in like a park.
But the ground was too hard. And he couldn't like dig a hole with his hands. Like, it sounds
like he didn't even really bring a shovel. I don't know why he tried to bury it up. I mean,
I guess like, in America, when you bury pets, I guess this is only true for people with enough
money to have a backyard. But like, in my mind, somehow, the place where you bury pets is in the
yard. Like I grew up in an apartment too. I must have had pets that died when I was living in the
apartment. I do not know where we buried them. But I assume it was the courtyard of the apartment.
And for sure, after my family moved to a house when I was growing up,
we definitely buried pets that died after we got the house in the yard of the house.
We're like, I don't remember the soil. I didn't dig the graves. But like,
it can't have been that hard. Anyway, just like I can totally picture someone trying to dig a grave
in a public park in Japan and failing because they lived in an apartment, right? Because well,
they didn't have enough money to like have any place with a yard. Yeah. But like, he tries to go
and dig the grave. He can't dig the grave. And so then he just leaves it on the ground. And it
starts getting like eaten by ants, I think. And he's then he's like, all of a sudden feels very
bad. So he ate it. How big was this fish? It's medical. So it's not that big. It's like a pretty
small fish. So he just ate the whole thing. Yeah, I think he swallowed, I guess. I don't know.
That is like a shocking decision to me, right? I mean, I guess like maybe he felt like he couldn't
throw it out, right? Because that would be like disrespectful. I guess. She wouldn't know,
though. The girlfriend wouldn't know if he threw it. No, no. But I feel like he had some emotions
about the fish, right? He saw the fish getting eaten by the ants and he felt really bad about
its death. And I think also about his failure to like bury it properly. Right? I wouldn't know. But
his decision to eat it is like a very strange choice, right? To be like, I mean, I guess like
he does talk about having like been hungry a lot of the time, but I can't imagine this was a decision
motivated by hunger because the fish is not big enough to fill you up and like eating it is just
a weird choice. Yeah. But he ate it and then got sick. Yeah. But then like lied to his girlfriend
and said that he had actually buried it. There's no way he can say he ate it.
I agree that if he'd been honest, I'm like, I ate it. She would have been like,
what is wrong with you? But that's what I mean. I think that moment kind of connects to the
night story, too, because she's constantly eating like dead animals, right? And like
the animals in the night of the prophecy are the best part because they're all these like
plausible but totally made up animals. He's like, don't eat the bunny cats. He's like,
don't eat the sand dogs. Don't eat like the whale cow. Yeah. Don't kill the whale cows.
Like don't eat the rat birds. Like they're all like slightly disturbing, like weird creatures.
But yeah, like it feels like maybe he's the one who feels like outside of the norm in some ways
that like he's the night Utah. But I think also a lot of this one and sisters are so much about
siblings. I do not know whether he has any siblings, but I'm very curious about his relationship to his
siblings if he has any. You know what I mean? So anyway, I think it's a it's a it's a good story.
It's like a it's sort of what you expect from Tatsuki Fujimoto. And maybe it's a metaphor for
something. And maybe it's kind of not. Maybe he just thought it would be like fun to have like
a demon child that could only say really like fun, bad words, essentially. It's not bad, but they're
very disturbing words, right? And like, the the idea of a character that can only talk in like,
in like, I don't know, very violent words feels like perfect for him as a manga author. And I
think he must have had like a lot of fun creating this character and drawing her.
Sometimes I feel like that's the main point. Let's talk about Episode eight. Sisters. I loved this
far and away the best thing in the whole series. And that's true from the manga to like you read
the manga. And this story is just nothing like the other ones. Yeah, is foundational to look back
as a story. And yeah, it's a just in every way. It's the best one. It's the most interesting.
It is the best story. It's actually moving. And I loved it. At the very first scene. One of the
first scenes was like high school gate. And they say the name of the high school, which to me
immediately thought it was Nikaho High School, right? Nikaho is a city that Tatsuki Fujimoto
grew up. And it's like, really close to my hometown. But actually, it was not Nikaho High
School. It says Nika, Nika, Nika Bijutsu Koko, but there's no such thing like I'm sure there's like
Nikaho High School, right? There's no art school. There's no high school. Yeah. So what did you
like about this episode? I mean, one, this is an episode that really tells you that Tatsuki
Fujimoto is a serious artist, and not just a mangaka. And that comes through in the manga
totally well. But the art that they drew for the anime is also really high quality. Like I think
the art of this animated feature is higher than the art of Chainsaw Man. Like, it's really,
really well animated. And the music is stunning. And like everything about the production value is
just like leagues away from every other story in the collection. It's also interesting because
I think the this is the thing he completed the last, right? He'd been a manga artist for a while
by the time he made this and the character design and the art in the manga is really high, right?
It's like clearly like he's grown as an artist from some of the earlier titles. And it's just
reflected in the anime too. So all of those things are good. The story is interesting. I thought the
voice actors might be the same people from Look Back and they're not. But the relationship between
the sisters is so similar to the relationship in Look Back that like, I think I just sort of like
assigned that to them. And yeah, I love it that it's about art. It doesn't pull any punches.
It doesn't pull any nipples. It's got all the nipples are there, which is like,
appropriate for this type of piece. And yeah, I just I think it's awesome. It's a really,
really good story. Yeah, I got to really relate to the feeling of as a like an older sister
in some point until it's fun to hang out with your older sibling, younger sibling,
until younger sibling kind of passes you through. I don't really have I mean, I guess my younger
brother was a really good at playing table tennis. He went to like a national competition and
everything which is not necessarily I envied but a little bit because like my parents had to take
him to like different faraway prefecture and then I had to stay with my grandparents just a little
bit. But like most like how can I say the feeling I could relate to this story like having a younger
brother passes you is I used to fight with my younger brother physically fight I always want
until he was, you know, he was he was getting bigger and the muscle here and I was like, Oh,
no, I can't wait anymore. It's like, and I stopped, you know, start fighting with me because there's no
way I can win. Right? Yeah. So I can relate to the feeling. You have a younger sibling too.
I have a younger sister. Yeah. I didn't ever fight her physically. Oh, that's very nice of you.
She also like was a vicious fighter when she did fight people. I remember she like bit one of my
friends like when she was she was very little. She must have been like two or three. Okay. But
like bit him I think like pretty hard. Wow. And so yeah, like we didn't we never physically fight.
But I think I like distanced myself from her not really is like I'm afraid you're gonna beat me at
things kind of a way but in like a God I'm not even sure why like I needed I need to be like
my own person like I need to like, you know, do my own things like you can't be for I also didn't
have very many friends. And she was like a much more gregarious person than I am like gets along
with people much more easily. And so I was pretty defensive about my friends being not her friends
would in like in a way that was mean and that I like really regret. I was probably at some level
afraid that she would be like better friends with my friends than I was. And like my parents are
also like really get along with people easily. And for sure, like, I also was sometimes afraid
that my dad would be better friends with my friends than I was, which is fair, because my
dad's like, really cool. Anyway, I think like I created a lot of separation and distance from my
younger sibling. But so I understood that feeling of like, like, I don't want to have to deal with
you or like, you don't know me. But they have a really beautiful rapprochement in this story that
is just kind of like great to see where the older sibling, like does some hard introspection,
right? And like, figures out, you know, why she feels the way she does, and has like a, you know,
sort of like a sweet ending, especially the moment the teacher told the truth, right? Right,
right, right. The reason why, yeah, little sister, you know, did the painting, right? Yeah. Like,
good. Yeah, yeah. And then her reaction to that is really great. So it's a great story. I think
like watching all of them is worth it for this one. And I think like a lot of the other ones,
I think are to one degree or another, like interesting. If I was gonna like decide to
only watch some of these, right, I might watch Shikaku as like a comedy, right? And like,
and I think I would watch like, the first one is like, I think, kind of like an interesting thought
piece about aliens and eating things. And in a way, I feel like the first one and Naita of the
Prophecy are in like conversation with each other about like morality and killing and like eating
stuff in a way that's like very Tatsuki Fujimoto that feels like at the core of like a lot of like
what he wants to say about morality and violence, I might skip. Sasaki stopped a bullet. And a love
is blind. I feel like those two and woke up as a girl syndrome. Like, I don't think I would watch
them again. Like they're like, it's fun. They were Yeah, they were like fine. And like light
is like sort of snacks. But like, and like some of the art direction is really interesting in all of
those. But I think like, the first one, Mermaid Rhapsody, Naita, and especially like if you if
you only have time for one, watch sisters, it's easily the best. And if you had time for two, I
would watch like sisters, and either like Mermaid Rhapsody or the first one or Naita of the Prophecy.
And then like the other ones for me come after that. You mentioned about the color of the
paintings. Yeah. So in the manga, they're all black and white. But apparently, when it ran in
jump, it began with a full color page. And somehow I feel like I've seen that. But like,
the main Yeah, the first image of her nude, both from the black and white, you can kind of picture
the colors really easily. And this one was a color page, I think. And then I think at the very end,
she paints a self portrait. And the self portrait in the manga is just black and white. And I don't
think there was a color version of it. And the color version is like is all in red tones. And
it's really powerful and interesting and not what I anticipated. Whereas the opening image was all
the colors I thought it would be somehow. So I thought that was like a really interesting takeaway
that like that the closing portrait was so different than what I'd imagined, but in a way
that felt perfect. All right, let's do today's word of the day. What is today's word of the day?
So I think for today's word of the day, we would use the terms for sisters in Japanese.
Ane means older sister, Imouto means younger sister, and shimai means sisters. Now these are
written with characters that all look pretty similar to each other. Ane is the character for
woman. And next to it is market or city. Yeah, market or city. And then Imouto is written with
the same character for woman on the left and not yet, right minor or like, you know, like before,
before, like immature, written on the right. And then when you put the two next to each other,
you read it as shimai. And it means only sisters, like no other siblings. Sibling is kyoudai,
right? Which is written with older brother, younger brother, even though it can like apply
to both. It's sort of like Spanish where, you know, say like chikos and it can mean like boys
and girls. But if you say chikas, it's just girls. Anyway, same thing in Japanese. So you can say
kyoudai, which is like the two terms for brothers, but it can mean siblings of any gender. Whereas
shimai means just daughters. We can write with older brother, Chinese character, and let's say
little sister character. And then we can read it kyoudai. And then you can arrange that. Right,
right, right. So it sort of doesn't matter which characters you put in. People sort of intuit
that it's, this means siblings. Yeah. But like what kind of siblings? Like what's the gender?
You can indicate it with the kanji, even when you're not indicating the pronunciation. Yeah.
Yeah. Very interesting. So anyway, those were, I thought, you know, the last episode is called
imouto no ane. In English, it's literally just sisters. I know. Imouto no ane, the big sister
of the younger sister. So the little sister's big sister is the direct translation of that.
But we don't have words in English that specify someone's age and relationship to you in any of
our language. And so there, you know, you have to attach these other words like big and little in
order to indicate your sibling's birth order relative to your own in English. Would you like
to add anything else before we end? I feel like I know I had like a lot of criticism for all of
these, but they're all really interesting. And I just, you know, I'm just going to say it again,
because I really feel it so strongly. When are they going to make a Sayonara Eri movie?
Like Sayonara Eri is just far and away Tatsuki Fujimoto's best work ever. And like, I like all
of his stuff, but Sayonara Eri puts the rest of it just to shame. Like Look Back is also good,
but like for me, Sayonara Eri is like miles away at the top. Then like Look Back is like
three quarters of the way up and Chainsaw Man's like halfway. And like these stories are like a
little like about at the same level of Chainsaw Man for me. It's like they're good. I define. I
like them. But like Sayonara Eri is like twice as good as anything else he's ever done. So freaking
please let us have that movie. I'm sure it is going to become like a like a what do you call
mega hit animation or live action. It would be great as both. I would watch. I would go see
both multiple times in theaters. Yeah, I'm sure it is. It's coming there like just, you know,
saving. Please. Okay, that's my last thought. All right. Thank you so much for listening to
this week's episode. If you liked this week's episode, please give us good reviews on Spotify
and Apple podcasts or like and leave a comment on YouTube. I just remembered we talked about
Goodbye Eri on 2am attack. Really? Yeah. But not. Oh, we did on this one. Yes. Okay. But not 3am.
We recorded and I didn't publish. So we can talk about it. Yeah. All right. Right. Yeah.
You know, it's becoming animation or live action. Okay. We can. Or once we find out
that Japanese anime producers are listening to our podcast and taking our advice seriously.
Make sure to subscribe and follow 2am attack and 3am attack. It'll keep us making more fun
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