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Konnichiwa! I am your host Mayu for 2AM OTTACK! In this podcast, we talk all about anime, manga,
movies, music, and history through our distinct perspectives. As a born and raised Japanese
non-otaku, that's me, and an American anime fan. That's me. Hello. Hey, sorry. Jet lag?
Something lag, yeah. Brain lag? Something. Yeah, I'm currently in Japan and spend whole summer
basically in Japan. And I don't think I'm jet lagged, but since sun rises in Japan really,
really early, so like I naturally wake up like 3AM in the morning every day. And
yeah, also like I go to sleep at 7 or 8PM. That might be part of the reasons why,
but I can't stay asleep after 3AM. Sounds like you're getting 3AM OTTACKED.
Definitely. That's the time I wake up. Exactly. Wow. I don't know. I mean, I actually do understand
what you're going through because I also lived in that town for a while and
I sort of just don't understand why Japan doesn't either have different time zones or just be like,
yeah, we're like moving a time zone over because the sun coming up at 3AM is
outrageously ridiculous. And so like the sun just can't come up before 4AM. That's a rule.
Okay. So let me say it right. Sun doesn't come up at 3AM. The light becomes dim light at 3AM.
And I noticed until that, it's pitch black. Like you can't see anything. And like after three,
you can start seeing like what's around yourself. Yeah. I mean, I guess Japan is kind of far north
in the world. Like, but I mean, unless you're in like Alaska or Iceland, I just feel like that
shouldn't be happening. Yeah. It's, I don't know how people stay asleep. Oh, I did it when I was
here. Well, didn't you just stay up really late before? I think so. I was younger. Yeah. Anyway,
so we are going to talk about IJU number eight. Yeah. Also about a guy who is old.
So I relate to him. It's also funny. He's not old. He's, he's just older than all the other people.
Right. That's what they're around. Don't say that. Why? Because he's like 28. He's like 30
something. Right. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know. Still young. Don't you like relate to him? Like being
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like an old person around younger people a lot? I guess. But I don't know. 30 is like still like
baby to me. You sound, you sound like an old person when you say. I know. I know. Well,
so we are going to talk about IJU number eight. Cisco has watched the whole like entire episodes
that's out now. I'm up to six. I want to go dive into the theme songs first.
The opening song is called Abyss. Is that right? I think that is right. Yeah. Abyss.
The guy who wrote it is a British guy. So Abyss. I don't know. Probably something like that.
Okay. It's by Youngblood. And yeah, I found out one of the there are many composers,
but one of the composers is Dan Reynolds. Do you know him? Dan Reynolds? Was he the guy in the
video who got interviewed about making the song? No, he is a vocal for Imagine Dragons.
Oh, really? Yeah. He helped write the opening theme song? Sounds like yeah.
Interesting. Mm hmm. But like, I had no idea. It kind of, kind of Imagine Dragon-ish.
Yeah. I mean, for me, like the fact that the vocal is a British guy, like, really makes it
sound not like Imagine Dragons. But I think the actual song itself probably does have a lot
in common with Imagine Dragons. Yeah. Yeah. So that's interesting to find out. And
we love the ending song. One Republic. Nobody. Yeah, I mean, I think for a lot of people,
a lot of American anime fans, it's very notable that both this anime's opening and ending theme
songs are not only in English, but performed by, I don't know, I don't know how famous Youngblood
is. But One Republic is like, very well known in America. They've had lots of like, top 20,
you know, hits, top 40. I don't know. And so to have them be the people who wrote and performed
the ending theme song for like a fairly major anime is like a really big deal.
Like, I know, I know a lot of songs of them. And then it's so catchy. And then it's just
generally like our generation music. Yeah, like, I don't know, for me personally,
like, I think of my generation's music as being like, things that were popular in the second half
of the 1990s. Like, maybe, maybe even earlier than that, maybe just the 1990s as a whole.
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And like, once you go into the 2000s, like, I a little bit stopped thinking of it as my
generation's music, like certainly after 2004. It doesn't feel like my generation anymore,
because I was out of college. Like, you know, I was, I was in Japan for a year,
and then I was in other places, but I don't feel as much like ownership of like, my generation
over things after for sure, after 2004. But maybe the stuff that really feels like my generation is
probably the 90s. So I think One Republic is like a 2000s band, and like really rose to like stardom
after maybe 2008. And so I guess they they are our generation. And certainly the people in the
band are about as old as we are. But uh, but I think of, I think of them as kind of like the
generation maybe right after mine, like the kids who are in high school in 2008. So like, you know,
or, you know, people who are who graduated from college before like 2016 are probably the people
who really think of One Republic is like, Oh my god, it's from our generation. You know what I mean?
I see. I feel like they're my generation song.
All right. I feel like I just like, apologize. Their song apologize, like stick with me forever.
Yeah, that got heavy rotation. Yeah, it was also like, I feel like more than it being our generation.
That song was very big at the time when you spent a lot of time listening to top 40 radio in America.
Is that accurate? Yep. And I was dating an American guy. And then like, I had a horrible relationship
with him. And like, the song was in my head all the time. Like I didn't know any lyrics except
the chorus. It's too late to apologize. Only that I remembered only that part. So it wrote it in my
head. Like whenever I saw him. Got it. Oh, I really understand why you're such a One Republic fan now.
I didn't know that was by One Republic. Much later, though. I see. Yeah. Anyway, so it's a
catchy song, Nobody. And we noticed the ending song of Kaiju No. 8's lyrics. And once, like on
Spotify, or like, you know, other material, the lyrics are different. That's right. Very, very minor
changes. Yeah. But they are. Did you know any part like, in the lyrics? Yeah, so I looked these up.
Hang on, let me pull up the differences. So in the in the anime's ending, for example,
they the first chorus, or the first non chorus, the first verse says, I take the fall if you feel
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like there's no one at all. And yeah, I'd stay through the night when you got monsters trying
to take you alive. There ain't no people or lines that I wouldn't cross if you need me to I'm out
here stepping on mines. And I think it's finally time that you knew and I think for whatever reason,
oh, and the last there's in the I guess the last chorus, or the second to last chorus.
They say nobody got you without no shade. I'll take the good and the bad all day.
So those are the lines from the TV show. Whereas the lines from like the regular lyrics are,
I've, I'd take the fall, I've got you covered when there's no one at all. And yeah,
I'd stay through the night when you got demons trying to break through the walls.
So that's like a, you know, the the difference between demons and monsters trying to like,
break through the walls or take you alive. Like, it's a it's only kind of a minor difference,
really. And the second one, you know, there ain't no no kind of line that I wouldn't cross if you
needed to you're out here searching for signs. So I think it's finally time that you knew like,
that lyric goes a little bit better with the chorus. But I don't know, I don't think there's
actually a time where he steps on an actual landmine. But the the lyrics for the show make
just a tiny bit more sense than for the show than the regular lyrics of the old the whole song.
So I don't know why they changed it. I mean, I feel like they could have just used the ones
that they wrote for the show. Or maybe they wrote the rest of it first. I like I mean,
I did watch an interview with the guy who wrote the song, who apparently like traveled to Japan,
like read the whole manga and wrote it specifically for the show. But he didn't explain
why the lyrics are slightly different, other than they wrote them for the show. But if that's the
case, like, how come they're not in the regular song? Like, I don't, I don't really understand
why it's different. But unless it's like an easter egg to be like, Hey, if you listen really
closely, the lyrics are different. There's this, there you go, the you're like, golden rule to
watch opening song and ending song.
That's right. Yeah, you it's it's mandatory for true otaku to watch the opening and end of the
theme song every single time.
Yeah, I started to like understand it. Like at first when I was like, Oh my god, again, like,
let's skip it. But you're gonna have to Yeah, they make some changes sometimes.
That's right. You're gonna have to change the intro to our podcast to acknowledge that you
too are becoming a true otaku.
Yeah, Chainsaw Man is amazing about it. You know, ending every single episode has every
single different like ending.
I don't know how they got the budget for that. But that was really impressive how many different
ending theme songs they went through and Chainsaw Man that was that blew my mind. And like the art
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style was really different each time for every single episode. That was like, some OAV quality.
Like work. I was really impressed.
What's OAV?
An OAV is an original animation video. I can't remember if it's an OAV or an OVA. There were
like two different terms. One was English and one was Japan and I never got them right. But
those are like direct they were direct to VHS or direct to video episodes of anime that were that
often ran after like a really popular animated series for like the diehards to watch and they
often featured higher animation quality because there I don't think there was as much deadline
for putting them out.
Interesting.
Yeah, so I don't know. Yeah, Chainsaw Man blew my mind with that. But to bring it back to
Kaiju number eight. Yeah, it's it's just it's cool that they're using like pop American bands.
Although there's also I'll admit there's like a part of me that's like, it's cool that they did
this once. But if from here on out, like most anime ending and opening theme songs are done by
American bands, I'm gonna be like, really, really upset. Like, I'm okay with it happening like once,
but I'm not okay with it becoming the norm.
Really?
Yeah, because I want to like be introduced to like J-pop artists from like my anime opening
and ending theme songs. Like, it's it's cool to do it one time. But like, it if it became like
the main thing, I would be like, I feel like we would like lose access to like really good
anime theme song J-pop, which would be a tragedy.
Wow. Okay. I thought it was interesting. And it'll be cool if you know how to sing the song
and come to Japan and sing it in front of like, you know, Japanese people, people will be like,
Oh my god, it's so cool.
Yeah, it doesn't. I don't know when I was going down like the Reddit rabbit hole of like trying
to find the like, the lyrics, some commentator left a comment that was like, I hope Eminem
does an anime theme song. And like, if Eminem really does do an anime theme song someday,
and it's like a, you know, a dope song, then yes, I would agree with you that going to Japan
and performing it would be like, really cool. But this is gonna sound a little bad. But like
Japanese people are so easily impressed by like, people who speak English singing English songs,
like, it's not impressive. Like, it's our first language. We can all do it. So and like,
and I like one Republic songs. And so and they write pop music. That's like what they do. And
like, I don't, I don't mean to like, in any way, like throw shade on them as a band or as like
lyric writers or anything, but like, their genre of music is not like lyrically complicated,
or like deep, right? It's pop music. And I mean, even in nobody, like, the main word is just nobody
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got you the way I do over and over again, right? Like, it's not like, oh, you really had to like,
memorize a lot of lyrics, or, oh, you're like singing like a really complicated, like
syncopated rhythm or like, wow, the range on the song is insane. You're such a good singer.
It's like nobody, you could kind of just talk it and it would be okay, right?
Did he, you know, was he trying to consider it for Japanese people so that they can sing easily?
I doubt it. Because if you listen to other one Republic songs, they're pretty similar to this
one in terms of their lyrical complexity. Like, I don't think he was like, Oh, let me like,
go ahead and shorten my vocabulary here for the show. I think he just wrote it like a regular
show or a regular song. But you know, like, apologize or good life. Like, none of them are
like, wow, like, these songs are like really complicated and hard, right? Like, yeah, if
Eminem writes like an anime song, like, it's probably not going to be a thing most Japanese
can possibly perform, right? It'd be hard for most English speakers to even sing it. So if
you sang that, you could be like, I'm pretty cool. But this particular one, I feel like it's
not really like, like a flex of a song. I mean, he does have a very high voice. And so trying to
actually sing the song in the octave that he sings it in is an achievement. But yeah, this does
not strike me as the like, wow, I can't believe you were able to sing Nobody Got You the way I do.
Like, yeah, it's not, you know, it's kind of like Linda Linda in Japanese. Like, I feel like
you don't need really, you know, if you saw a Japanese person perform Linda Linda in America,
you wouldn't be like, wow, you would be like, I could sing this too. There's only one word. So.
All right. I want to talk a little bit about the actual story. By watching the first episode,
I liked the idea of, you know, getting rid of the dead body of a kaiju. And I was like,
yeah, I've never thought about that. But there's, there's got to be people who have to clean
everything. And it must be hard. And, and then like, you know, like, in America, a lot of people
know the word kaiju, right? Yeah, I think that's fair. Yeah. And this is like connected to this
theme song too. But like, when nobody got you the way I do this, like got you sounds like kaiju to
me. Oh, that's really interesting. Isn't it? I mean, yeah, it's a it's not really far away from
especially like, if, I don't know, I mean, I guess in Japanese, this doesn't matter a lot.
But like, I feel like especially if you are Korean, that would really make a lot of sense.
Because the K and the G sounds are close. And the CH and the J sounds have overlap. So
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I do. Yeah, I like thinking about it. Yeah, it does kind of sound like kaiju.
Yeah, I was like, is that intentional or just happened?
My guess is it just happened? Because I mean, I don't I don't know, like, I think
Ryan Tedder probably does know a little bit of Japanese, but it would be like, I think it would
be like a big ask for one of the people associated with like, one of the producers, one of the
Japanese producers to be like, I really want you to find an English combination of words that sounds
like kaiju to put into this song. Like, I think it just worked out that way. But that is a pretty
cool thing. And maybe it's intentional, in which case, like, I have like a newfound respect for
Mr. Tedder. Because like you also be does similar things like they release a song in Japanese,
and then they make like English version. But by singing English version is kind of sounds like,
like their Japanese version, too.
I mean, maybe it's again, maybe it's intentional. I didn't think that it was I thought that was more
a function of just like, you know, it's kind of hard to sing like another language if it's not
your first language. I mean, they're they're trying to like copy the same sounds in English,
like rather than get like a really literal translation, they just want it to sound similar.
I have no idea. That's like, but when I listened to it for the first time, I like it got you got
you got you like kaiju kaiju kaiju. Yeah, instantly. Yeah. I think that's like a cool,
a cool connection to make. But I would be surprised if it was intentional.
Yeah, I want to know. Yeah. So ask him. Please contact us.
If you're listening, and ignore all the stuff I did all this bank, I just talked about pop music.
You guys are awesome. Welcome to your concert.
Yeah, so like the word kaiju like, yeah, it's like a famous word in English, too. And in like,
it's a definitely effect from Godzilla, right? Yeah, there's no question that the Godzilla
films are why people are sort of I mean, I yeah, I think that's why I don't know how common
knowing the word kaiju became before anime was popular, like in the 90s, because I think there's
like a lot of crossover there. But the Godzilla films like made it to America a long time before
that. And for a very long time, one of the things that the Godzilla films were famous for in America
was their awful dubbing. That like, they would translate the film, they would get American voice
actors to read the lines. And they did not try at all to make the lines match the Japanese voice
act, you know, the Japanese real actors mouth movements. And so like, one of the most famous
things from the early Godzillas in America is this idea of like, you know, the line is something
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like, Oh, my God, Godzilla's here. And then like the mouth keeps moving for like another, you know,
10 seconds. And so that that awful dubbing was sort of like one of the things that made it famous
in America as sort of like a B movie. And then, you know, eventually, like the budgets went up,
and they stopped being B movies. And I think especially with the rise of like the American
produced Godzillas, like the, you know, I don't know, there was one in like the maybe the 90s,
or the 2000s with like, God, who was in it, I think there was one with like, Matthew, maybe it
wasn't Matthew Broderick, like Edward Norton or somebody, but like, once they started making them
in America with American casts, I think that's probably around the time that the notion of like
a kaiju movie or that word became more well known in America, would be my guess, outside of like the
subculture of people who loved Godzilla and like, knew more about it on purpose.
So there are many characters in this story. And then like, Shinomiya Kikoru got my attention.
So she's a Japanese girl, but lived in a foreign country.
It seems like it. She's definitely got like a pretty strong like Asuka vibe, you know,
I feel like that's like probably part of her inspiration. Don't you think like,
Asuka's big thing is right. She's like from Germany. She lived she lived abroad,
and then like transferred in and is like super overconfident and like very talented.
And like, that's a big part of her identity. But then she's constantly like kind of getting
saved anyway. I hate that.
The fact that like, she's supposed to be super strong, but then constantly needs to get saved
anyhow. No, no, no, no, no, no, like the idea of kikoku shijou, kids returning from overseas.
Yeah, they're like, always like, especially girls, always girls for some reason. And like,
they are like, so strong, self determined. And like, I don't care what other people say. I mean,
I understand like, especially, especially if you live in America, like you're super confident
about yourself and everything. But like, in anime or TV dramas, like those kikoku shijou girls
describes like this way all the time.
Yeah, like no one ever came back from abroad being like a regular Japanese person, basically.
Right, not modest, like kind of rude sometimes.
Right, right. Yeah, that's true.
Yeah, I noticed like, I was like, I mean, some of them are like,
sure, but not all of them. But like, there's like a strong image of kikoku shijou for Japanese
people, I think.
Pretty intense stereotypes there.
I mean, she's okay. I mean, yeah, she's strong. She has like a whole like, you know, backstory.
Yeah, there's a lot more of it, actually, once you get to the,
I mean, I don't think we're there in the anime yet. But in the manga, there's like,
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there's even more of like her backstory and stuff.
More, even more.
Oh, I mean, she's a very important character in this story. So yeah, I mean, I also, you know,
my memory of the whole series is kind of like, iffy. But in the last, and also like the series
of manga has kind of been taking a break, like it for in the beginning, it was published, you know,
every week. And then it or maybe every other week, I don't know, it really slowed down.
He started, the author, I think, started making a side story about,
I can never remember this guy's name, like the Kansai speaking, like dual sword wielding guy.
With the fangs.
I can't remember. But like, he got like his own spinoff.
That's been like, seems to be like what the author has like been focusing on for a little while.
Which is good. Like, actually, his story is cool. I like him. He's, he's one of the better
characters that got created as part of the manga. But because the manga has been proceeding so
slowly, like the last kind of set of battles that happened, there's a lot of characters get kind of
some individual character development time, including Kikoru. So there's, there's a lot
more to know about her. I feel like we kind of did a word of the day. But do you have any word
of the day for this episode?
Is the, I was thinking that one that might be useful is like boetai, because it's actually a
word that comes up in a lot of different anime that have to do with fighting against something.
Is it, do you want to define it?
I think it's translated as like the defense forces.
Oh, okay.
Which is accurate. That's what it means. But, and so bo means defend. But what does the a part mean?
Protect, I think.
Protect, protect group?
Yeah. Boi is like a, boi is one set of word.
Okay. So defense, defense, or self-defense. Anyway, that's the name of the group that he's in.
And there are quite a lot of boetais in many, many different manga and games. So I thought
that might be a useful one to unpack a little bit. Just before, before we wrap, the one other
thing I wanted to say, cause I thought this might come up is just, you know, the, this,
this manga opened with such an interesting premise, right? That he's like a member of like
a cleanup crew of kaiju. And then that's not what the show is about at all. And as much as like,
I understand that as a shonen manga, like it's got an obligation to have like fighting and like
a boetai and like have like action and kick ass, like fighting. Like I was just sort of
disappointed that they didn't run with like a story about a guy who cleans kaiju up. Like
that would have been a very interesting story to me. And like, whether he transforms or not
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kind of like, even he just like his regular day job of like dealing with like the crap from like,
there being kaiju battles or seeing it from a little bit more of like a civilian perspective.
That's not just cowering in a bunker is like the battle happens, but like all the in-between times
of like, how is, I don't know, as I was watching one of the ways I was thinking was like, wow,
there's so much damage being caused constantly to like the entire country and like developing all of
this new technology and equipping all of these different people with suits and all the, like,
this has got to be like ruinously expensive. They've clearly been on like a war budget for
like, as long as they've been fighting kaiju, like how was their economy working at all?
I kind of, how much are they paying in taxes in order to support? Like, you know,
I would have liked a little bit more like fleshing out of the world instead of just
like a focus on like, oh, I punched him really hard. Is he dead? No. Now he punched me really
hard. Ooh, you know, like I still like it, but I would have been very interested in it being like a
manga with more than just the fighting part.
Yeah. Like it looks like they have like high tech and like all those like cool gears,
all the functions and everything. They have technology, but they don't have technology to
prevent having kaiju at the first place.
Yeah. I kind of wonder whether the series will eventually like have a deep explanation of like
where the kaiju are coming from and like, how, why is it like this? And like, you know, so I'm
going to leave the door open and say, if they decide to explain that eventually, and it's good,
I'll really like it. But if they don't, then I'll be sort of disappointed. I was just going to also
comment that, like, one of the things I find endearing about the show is that other than his
ability to transform into a monster, Kafka's other big ability is that he's basically like
Laios, but for kaiju. Maybe it's because I'm watching Delicious in Dungeon at the same time
as I'm watching Kaiju No. 8, but like Kafka's biggest contributions to the team are often like
animal behavior studies of kaiju to be like, this is where the reproductive organs are.
This is how this type of kaiju usually behaves. Like we should use it's like psychology against it,
which is exactly the role that Laios plays in the party in Delicious in Dungeon.
I thought about the same thing, like what they're going to do with all the body parts,
like are they edible or, you know? Yeah. Well, they do actually explain some of that,
of like what they're doing with all the dead kaiju, so I'm going to leave that as a mystery
for you. But that part actually is addressed. Good. Thank you so much for listening to this
week's episode. Don't forget to subscribe and follow 2AMOTAK and 3AMOTAK on Spotify, Apple
Podcasts, Amazon Music, and on YouTube. It means so much to us, and we will keep making fun episodes.
See you next time for more 2AMOTAK.
