Growing Up With Anime

Sam: I started like with you know Sailor Moon Sailor Moon is a classic and like who like who doesn’t know what who Sailor Moon is like what Sailor Moon is it’s like the most iconic thing ever and then like from there back in the day This was back in the day when you used to be able to watch like a full like a full season of anime on YouTube with no problem like you were no problem no ads no anything and I was I literally just went through like the million seasons of like Sailor Moon and then in my recommended like other like basically sailor scout enemies like sailor enemies kept popping out like wedding peach. And like, what else Tokyo Mew Mew a bunch of Girl Power like like animes and stuff and I used to be like, Yo, this is so cool. Like, girls can be like the main event like I used to always love like, you know, shows where the girls were the were the superheroes like where they were the ones that were doing shit like kicking ass like taking names.

Zeke: I’d like to Welcome, everyone to another episode of the Let’s Gather Podcast. I’m your host Zeke. In this episode I have my friend Sam to discuss anime.You can listen to the podcast on all major platforms, including YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts by clicking the link in description below or going to https://allmylinks.com/letsgatherpod. Please rate five stars. I like to give a content warning for any strong language used in this episode. I hope you have a nice day and enjoy the show. Alright, so thank you for being on the podcast.

Sam: Thank you for having me.

Zeke: No problem. So the first question, what would your origin story be?

Sam: My origin story. Um, so I grew up. I was born and raised in New York on grew up in the Bronx, but I was like bus to school a lot. So I actually ended up going to school, like, two hours away, going up and stuff. And then, yeah, I kind of just stayed down there. And then I kind of started commuting really early on kind of traveling from you know, the Bronx only going uptown just to kind of get into a better school, a better school district. Um, and then I don’t know, I went to high school. I’m in college now. And I’m kind of just trying to graduate. Yeah.

Zeke: With that you make up this like anime movie, a book?

Sam: So my introduction to anime was actually like Quizlet quizzes. So like, I would go on Quizlet before I even ever, like watch anime, I would go on Quizlet and they would be like, oh, what anime character are you and I would be like, I don’t know what anime character am I and then I would like do those stupid little quizzes. And then I would get a character and then the first character that I got was like, zero from vampire night. And then like, I started and then I was just like, oh, what zero and then I don’t know if you ever had those, like, these trips like, in my school used to have like Barnes and Noble trips. And you would like go to Barnes and Nobles, they would give you that little coupon and you would get like a book for like half the price. And in Barnes and Nobles, they had this whole like whole ass like manga section. And I saw the character that I got there and then I’ve got that was kind of my first manga. It was on Volume One a vampire night. And then Ever since then, I kind of just fell down a spiral that kind of led to my current obsession. Of all things anime and manga. Yeah. What about you? What was your first experience?

Zeke: Um, 4kids

Sam: 4kids?

Zeke: Yeah, Yeah, Yugioh Pokemon. Digimon.

Sam: Yeah, I never really considered I always felt like four. I never considered like 4kids anime. Like me personally, even though like one of the greatest shows ever made, like for female character development was on 4kids. And it was The Wings Club and I stand by that cuz the The Wings Club was like, if anyone ever truly like sat down and like watched all the seasons, up until like, whatever new shit they have. No Like, this girl, like the main character of the show, so basically the premise, you’ve probably never seen it, but you’ve heard of it. The premise of the show is that this girl she isn’t on earth and she meets up with one of with this with this friend, and she’s from like a magical Rome and she kind of introduced her into magic and all those things. But the main character bloom is like from Earth, from Earth, and on earth, they’re like having been magic for like thousands of years, but apparently this you know, Bloom has an object and one thing leads to another and she magically gets recruited by this like college university for like berries, and then it starts her magical journey begins. But like, it starts with like a really like cutesy girly TV show and like, ends up like, a super badass, like, Imma save the world. I don’t know, man. Like, she ends up being super like Opie and powerful and then like, ends up basically like, changing the world, like becoming a household name. And it’s like, a crazy come up story. like 4kids used to used to put people on, on on onto game like, it used to be really good.

Zeke: I mean, all the censorship and everything, but you know,

Sam: I mean, yeah, sure, the censorship problems, but you know, we have to, you know, they had to get Yeah, it’s real it’s real funny, because like, when you start watching the subs, and dubs of like, the shows they used to be on 4kids, you might start noticing that, like, even the boobs will be different. It’ll be like, Oh, they like in the sub version, like the original version. It’s like, they have triangle boobs or something. And then, like, no, it needs to be rounded out. That’s not natural. Remember, they were rounded out because we need to play the show.

Zeke: Yeah, Mm hmm. Yeah. Yugioh I get a manga in elementary. And then I realized Yugioh wasn’t for kids at that time.

Sam: Definitely was not.

Zeke: I was like, oh, this is not what I see on TV.

Sam: Yeah, Yugioh is funny because like, they made they packaged it as something that was for kids. But like, if you ever sat down and played you do, like, you needed to have a certain level of like, being able to process like, to do this, those are like playing a game you do is harder than playing give us like, yo, like, you yo is so complicated, and like, and convoluted, like, the way that like all the different skill traps and the way all the all the different things were to this day, I still pay you for like, they have like the video games now. For this which spend hours when you you, you kind of just go through the characters and try to beat them as best as you can. But like, at a certain level, like you need so much strategy, like in order to accomplish anything that like, if you don’t, you know, like if you don’t know how to play like you can play it on again chance like if you know the basics, you know, you can play good, but like if you don’t know the basics of like, if you just know the basics of yoga, you’re not gonna do nothing like you’re literally nothing is gonna happen.

Zeke: And some how a 10 year old can get this game.

Sam: Yeah, somehow like, yeah, you know us as children, they would make us buy like trading cards and, and shit. And we would have to figure out how to play this game. And I remember like in elementary school, that when people would bring their bags, and like you would have like basic ass cards, like anxiety or something like there are million Exodias out there. Like, everyone used to swear to god that they had an Exodia. Like, they would swear to God, they’d be like having Exodia and then they would come and then they would see like, right, you got 3. I’m like, okay, cool. cool. Tournament matches, though. That’s what blows my mind. Like they still have like actual competitions where people go, and they like win money for playing video and I kind of just sit there like wow, like the franchise has grown so much. And like yeah, died off so far. Because I feel like you get used to the way it used to be bigger for us. I feel like I feel like my like my brother. My brother Don’t know what you do is like he watches the show, but he’s never gotten a pack of cards.

Zeke: Because the first few [inaudible] good. Spend,

Sam: Yeah,

Zeke: To much money.

Sam: Mm hmm. Have that that that moment of opening, having the credit card and then making sure that you buy like the plastic covers so that your cars don’t get damaged. I get it. Yeah, everybody was like, Oh, these things triple in value, you can sell them online. And I used to just sit there like I literally used to do everything like I used to color on my cards like I used to like color the edges so that everybody knew that my color. Those are my cards like I didn’t believe in me that reselling shit. I will still have like a deck somewhere hitting I could probably sell for a bunch of money like old cards.

Zeke: Yeah, my mom didn’t see value in the cards. I was like you seeing with your third eye.

Sam: Yeah, my mom never understood it. She was like your girl why are you playing with this? And then she would see like all my like my boy cousins and my older brother play with and she was like your girl Why are you into this? I’m like, Why can’t I be into this? Is just cards like let me live. Let me live, oh when the duel disk came out. Yo, they came out with the duel disk. And everybody was just like, yo, are they gonna actually work? And I was like, No, they’re not gonna actually work but like, it’ll make you feel like you’re like you’re fucking Yugi. You know what I mean? Yeah.

Zeke: Good old times.

Sam: Good old times. Child childhood reliving childhood trama. So So your first first anime like the first official anime that like I would that I realized at that at this point that I was like, watching anime was Sailor Moon. And to this day, I can sing the theme song right? But I watched everything I watched like every I started out dub like in dog like I would not if something was in dogs. I would not watch it like either it’d be like if there’s not dogs for like American audiences like why would I even waste my time? Like it’s probably not even that good. Um, I started like, with you know, Sailor Moon Sailor Moon is a classic. And like, who like who doesn’t know what who silver moon is like what Sailor Moon is it’s like the most iconic thing ever. And then like from there back in the day This was back in the day when you used to be able to watch like a full like a full season of anime on YouTube with no problem like you were no problem no ads no anything and I would I literally just went through like the million seasons of like Sailor Moon and then in my recommended like other like basically sailor scout enemies, like sailor enemies kept popping out like wedding peach. And like, what else? Tokyo Mew Mew a bunch of girl power, like, like enemies and stuff. And I used to be like, Yo, this is so cool. Like, girls can be like the main event like I used to always love like, you know, shows where the girls were the were the superheroes. Like where they were the ones that were doing shit like kicking ass and taking names. And I think that like you know, I really appreciated how like at a young age how like feminists like a lot of anime was even though there’s a lot of misogyny and don’t get me wrong, especially with the way that you know, when all of a sudden like somebody’s eating a banana and they should just like pops up and like have their boobs decides like or you know, the like zooms in like they’re like their salaries are pretty fucked up. But at the end of the day, like it’s all for lives. Um, yeah, and then once I got into that, like I started like once I got over like the whole sealer like transformation phase in my life that’s when I started like watching like, you know, like Death Note, Full Metal Alchemist Bleach. One piece. Fairytale Vampire Night. Vampire. And I was like one of the biggest disappointments of like our of our generation like dug deep. Have you ever seen a Vampire Night? Oh my goodness. Zeke. Zeke. Literally, vampire vampire that is like anyone so Vampire Night Season One is like amazing beautiful. You’re literally sitting there like like wow like this story is moving me like all these characters are working so hard. Like you’re literally they’re like this struggle this love like who is she gonna fall in love with? Who does she want? Were they gonna fight? Is he gonna get revenge? Like you’re all of these questions are all up in the air. And then Season Two like all those questions get answered but in the worst possible Way, like, all of a sudden, a show that’s about like, wow, they really love you too. Like, it ends up being like, wow, you’re related. Like, wow, it really goes into a super incestuous like, thing and it’s the worst thing ever. Like, it really hurt. It really hurt everybody into it. Especially cuz Season Two took forever to come out. Yeah, because I used to actually I used to if I started I still have this rule low key, like the only anime I broken it for is for Nardo, that my rule is that if I started Yeah. Yeah, need to have the time. But don’t the rule that I have for myself is that if I start watching the anime, I have to wait until like, I have to wait until the next season comes out. I will not read the manga. Like I will. I will literally not read the manga unless like, like, you know, the show gets canceled that I read it. But I always watch the anime first. Because the thing is, like, once you start with, like, when you’re doing manga, when you start with the manga, and then you watch the show, it always gets ruined for you. And if you try to go backwards, like it can get better, but like it’s like you lose a part of like, you lose a part of the story in the part of how like, you kind of experienced everything so I tried to speak like if I’m if I’m reading it. Like I’m still waiting for Season Three of Code Geass to come out. They’ve announced it like six times and they still haven’t dropped it. They’re like dropping a new movie for our three they’re dropping for like the third season they’re dropping a movie. But you know, like sometimes animators what they do is that they like drop you know one of those movies that kind of just brings together all the first two seasons in like an hour and then they build the hype up again. And then they drop the next season to kind of reach like to to bring the enemy back into the spotlight. So I’m waiting for that because like they were they were like oh they said in April that they were going to drop something so I’ve kind of just been sitting here like oh wait a second wait. Um, yeah, I think waiting is the people that watch anime are very patient people. I feel like because you a lot of times you like get committed to things and then and then like it doesn’t get updated. Or like a season is a release for like a whole nother year two years or something and then you’re kind of just like, but I love you like can you come back?

Zeke: Okay, so that season. My first official, I knew what anime was from middle school came around, so ah this is anime.

Sam: Yeah.

Zeke: And then I started buying manga, started buying Naruto manga Shippuden.

Sam: I legit you say no tribes like I used to sing. I would my whole choice. Like, I used to say that was my whole chest. Like now I take a bag. I take a backup we like wholeheartedly but like, I used I was I would watch like, like a Naruto movie. And I’d be like, this is like, why am I watching this? And then and then I and then I said that I was like, Okay, this is like one of the biggest animes ever let me let me figure out let me watch it. And then I watched it and I was like, Oh my goodness.

Zeke: Me I watched it when it came out in America. Toonami they grew up with it. The time it went away I was like oh no my anime. Remember back in the day we missed the show. You just missed it. You didn’t have, the internet.

Sam: Yeah, you right. I remember struggling so hard like begging for my mom because to get us anime on demand. Because the anime network on Optimum had like an on demand channel. So like if you missed an episode, it would come up like there the next day. And it was also on free on demand like Cartoon Network used to be on it. They were cardinalities on free on demand on Optimum. And they would as soon as a new episode drop, they will put it on free on demand so you didn’t have to pay for it. But like what other anime shows yo I used to be fiending I used to I literally used to be like Mom, please, please And she who would be like, why do you want to see those cartoons? And I’m just like, oh my god, they’re not cartoons. Yeah.

Zeke: I remember my mom be like, tell me to go to bed or like, tell me to go back to sleep. But if I miss a show, I can’t find the show again. It’s over there’s no going back.

Sam: Right? If I missed it, I missed it. Like, I can’t watch it. Like, I can’t watch it. My god, I used to I would have that problem. But I also did have like, I had a computer, and like, pot locker. And all those websites like megashare they would they would come so quick with all those episodes. Like they would they will come in clutch Not gonna lie. Like that. Yeah.

Zeke: It will keep crashing, you get the bluescreen of death. You know?

Sam: Wait, wait. Oh, yeah, eventually, your computers would get so slow because you would you were just on so many shitty sites that you can’t look a million viruses. Yeah, but you know, I didn’t care. Like, it was like, especially for things like that. Like, I didn’t care about my music about my TV shows. Like if I had to download shit, I had to download and shit. Like, I can’t tell you how many times I would like, online work like grown used to download music. And you could play like a sample of this song. So that you know what you’re downloading. But you but like, you didn’t get the whole thing until you downloaded the whole thing. So I would do like the sample play. Make sure it was the song. Like make sure it wasn’t no weird ass cover or no SoundCloud version of the song. And then and then I would have to like and then I would download it. It wasn’t possible to do that for like Beyonce songs though. Like I wouldn’t you would struggle so hard for some songs to download. Like for some artists who struggle so far, and that’s fine if I came out and then I was like, I don’t need to live like this no more. I was like, yeah, those are the Dark Ages. I was on Spotify, like Spotify came out when I was in middle school. And like I was on it and using it before anybody, like, even knew what Spotify was. So back in the day, Spotify used to be connected to your Facebook. And like anytime you were listening to music, it would give like people notification it would say like on your Facebook like Samantha right now is listening to you know, like, she’s listening to whatever the fuck I was listening to age 13 but it was mad funny, because like, Spotify used to have some like anime soundtracks, and I started watching it. And my my friends and they were like, yo, yeah, we keep getting these notifications on Spotify saying that you’re listening to, to. To the Haruhi Suzumiya like remakes of like God knows and then I would literally be like, like, Oh, that was for my little cousins. Like I played that for them. It wasn’t for me. But little do they are like the lucky star theme song they used to have that on there. Do a nice fit like that. Look inside theme song in the Bob Iger scene lucky star. No. Oh my god. What do you watch?

Zeke: Anime to have fighting and explosions. Sometimes thinking.

Sam: Fighting explosions sometimes thinking what’s what? So your favorite is not Naruto right?

Zeke: I would say Yugioh cuz I was definitely what I watched from Yugioh to 5D’s. Like, completely,

Sam: Didn’t we all watch it up until

Zeke: I watched season four of GX.

Sam: You did?

Zeke: Yeah.

Sam: Ah, for me GX. I was so upset cuz GX literally stopped in the they stopped dubbing shit in the middle of an ark. Yo, like it was they were fighting. It was like the Yubel ark right. Yeah, and you were like Jaden was like about to like, right with Yubel or whatever and like, they were just like, nah, nah, you did? We’re gonna stop here. Like an emergency stop here. We’re gonna play we’re gonna play this other shit. Like no finish. Like what? Like how do you just end in the middle of a season?

Zeke: It was like season three these guys that’s it. That’s all you get.

Sam: Like, like, Oh my goodness. Like I hated it.

Zeke: You’re so confused of who’s getting Yubel.

Sam: Yeah, yeah.

Zeke: Like who?

Sam: Have you ever like caught an anime or like a manga like like when they when they forget about something so like, I’ve been reading watch a lot of stuff so like, so like, if it’s a manga like I can literally get to like the 14th volume in like a day. Or like the anime like, I’ll just binge watch it throughout the day and I can’t like I have finished entire animes in a day. But like sometimes it’s like because you’re watching it so close. You remember all the information. It’s not like this. It’s not like being released like every week, and then you see like the disconnects in the storyline. And you’re kind of just they’re like, whoa, wait. In the last episode, y’all say this was this and that was that for why he like, you know, does that. We did that. I talked on Ted. That night. Oh, yeah, but now we’re talking like 700 plus episodes right in. They were laying there like, nobody’s gonna remember nothing. Like, Full Metal Alchemist. Yo, I’m gonna tell you like when I watch one Full Metal Alchemist is a great anime foot so is Full Metal Alchemist Brotherhood. But like, I was so confused. From the jump from Full Metal Alchemist, a Full Metal Alchemist Brotherhood. Like, I didn’t know what was going on. Because like, Oh, I’m doing something I didn’t know was going on. Because I’m like, in the so in the websites that I you know, the websites that we used to illegally watch pirated of anime.

Zeke: Allegedly,

Sam: Allegedly? Like it would go from like, you would it would be like episode one Full Metal Alchemist, right? You would watch the whatever 100 episodes of the Full Metal Alchemist and all of a sudden they? And then and then all of a sudden you realize I’m saying you start Brother Brotherhood and you’re back in season one and like it’s all happening again. You’re just like, wait, what’s going on? Why? Like it was the most confusing thing I had ever gone through. Um, but yeah, that was really really bad

Zeke: Same thing I watched, I was watching the first couple episodes on YouTube. And then I was like, the’re the same thing.

Sam: Yeah, and then it’s not like until like it’s not up until like, I want to say like you’re 20 like 20% done with the series that it starts like changing and you kind of just get you’re kind of just they’re like whoa um, yeah, animes dope. But like, I’m not gonna lie like I’m gonna make me cry like a baby like a baby. These instantly would cry so bad. Like, every time they would like flashback to like I like and say give me my brother back and like the metal armor like falling down on him doing you know the whole the whole alchemy thing to get him back like that’s bad news to rack me. I used to be there like I had a little brother to it over. And like the fact that their dad like disappeared and I was like wow can relate disappeared for years and then came back out of nowhere I was like, relatable. relatable, but like that show you make me cry so bad that show and Angel Beats Oh my god. Angel bees. Have you ever seen Angel Beats? Okay, what have you seen? Oh, besides Yugioh, Naruto?

Zeke: Pokemon Zatch Bell.

Sam: I want to be the very best like no one ever was den den.

Zeke: Baccano. 91 days.

Sam: You know what kinda like blew my mind though. Something blew my mind like and was how it’s not necessarily anime. But how that Avatar The Last Airbender. Like how that kind of just took off. When Netflix put it on, like the way people started feeling passionate about about like, avatar, it kind of got me later. You’re like that show. Like I remember. One day like I watched the whole show off, you know, on one of my sides. I watched The whole show like I went through Avatar Last Airbender and then I went through Korra and then I was kind of just done like whoa like this is this series crazy and then like to see it now like years later like people coming back like freaking out over like Avatar The Last Airbender and so many people are like coming out of the anime closet nowadays is kind of crazy. Like it’s cool to like anime now. Like, is that not weird? Because like back in the day I remember we used to get clowned clowns for like liking like Sonic and like you you like you used to get clowned for liking certain things and I feel like I owe you every day literally like that that like you’re like everybody’s like if you bought merch yo people that bought merch and like made it back to school. Crazy they people that bought merch on like publicly war it. Were like my heroes like I used to see them and I would be like, I’d like your I salute you. I salute you my brother like when people used to pull out like Hetalia book bags, and like Vampire Night, like t shirts. And like Naruto headbands. I used to be like, yo, you like my brother and come see me. Come and let’s talk about it. Let’s have this conversation over who’s the song is talking about in this talk about Naruto vs Goku who’s gone win

Zeke: Used to play YuGiOh cards with the other anime nerds in the classrooms during lunch.

Sam: You will get so excited when you finally found somebody else to have like the same session as you

Zeke: Oh my god a friend.

Sam: You’re like, Oh my gosh, I don’t have to. I don’t have to do this alone. partly why like me and Michelle like, you know, again, like that’s, that’s how we became friends like choosing in like the library in our high school like watching some anime and I was just like, I was like, oh, oh, and then I kept and I like kind of came closer. And I was like, I was like, wow, is this like the first and like, you know, you start asking those like little you know how like how to distinguish between fake anime people like real anime people? Would you like it’s like their level solution. Like you need to distinguish like otakus from like the wannabes, you know what I mean? And you’re and then normally starts with like asking like, oh, what are your favorite? What was your favorite? anime? Whatever ad Do you remember? on like, do you have ads? Did you know about? I remember me and her like the moment we realized that we were both on the same level was that? We both were like, Oh, yeah, we both use this amazing app, manga rock arrested piece. my garage got shut down. But you’re all like, my like, you’re like, yeah, Mongo like, yo. And we’re just like, oh my god. We both started talking about like, super obscure as Mongo that like, normal people would not know about and we were just like, yeah, yeah, that’s kinda how we, we became friends. I made my first anime friend was It was amazing. Because I was in the closet for so long. I was like, nobody like people, my like, my friends knew that I liked anime, but like it never It was never a topic of conversation. It was kind of something that I kept to myself like, privately. And then like, I finally got a friend that like, we could exchange like good recommendations and like, do things with we even talk about so because like Manggarai got cancelled. We even talks about how like, like now because Japan’s their copyright, their copyright laws are getting super strict. So like, even though what what people have been doing, they’ve been like trans people I’ve been translating, you know, like, comic books and stuff. Or comic not comic books necessarily been manga for years. And like uploading it on online for free for like years and it’s been considered like fan content. So so it’s not really like a copyright problems never been but now it is like a bunch of sites are getting shut down now because of it. It stops we’re gonna have to start paying for Crunchyroll

Zeke: If you pay for HBO, I think you get it for free.

Sam: I don’t pay for HBO. I pay for what I pay for internet and then my subscriptions feed me. And then I know exactly where if I want to watch something, I know where to go. Like, I know I have various sites upon various sites. So I’ve been on this one site for like, years now like it’s been, I want to say I’ve been using the site for a good bit like not a good seven years. And they never get caught because they keep changing the the address, the like web address and then if you have like the one of the old links save, like, so I used to bookmark all of my because this is before Netflix and like automatic like saving of your episodes I used to bug bookmark the episode that I left off on. And then like, I would go on this website. And then but like basically, I’ve got they’ve changed the name of the website and the way it looks like 60 times in the past seven years. And you know what, they’re still going strong. They even added like American cartoons there so you can even watch like things like Rick and Morty and like, I don’t know, Gravity Falls even if you want it like they’re diversified like they were like we’re gonna ask them Sophia the First but they need it I’m like y’all need to cut it out stop playing with Disney Disney no play Disney will literally fight but like Disney will fight you like y’all need to stop there’s no boo yeah

Zeke: What else did I watch jormungand. Um, Beyblade of course. Then the end of Bleach.

Sam: Oh my god. Wait Bleach is come back.

Zeke: Check

Sam: Bleach is coming back

Zeke: For the last season the last arc. Of course all the DBZ’s

Sam: Um, honestly, like I used to wake up cuz like they used to only give babe Beyblade like on Cartoon Network like but at the ass crack of dawn, and it would be like, it would be literally like at 6am they would give Beyblade and then right after that they would do Bakugan. Yeah. brawlers Yo, Bakugan use too slap. I don’t know why I got into it. The video game was great. I got it on. I had it on the on the week. On the week. The video game was great. Um, the show was pretty good. Like, it’s like a no very, it’s like another YuGiOh. But like, with more action and like less drama, like less like people drama. Like I appreciate it was like poles nice and wholesome. Like, like, I’m just trying to save the world type shit. You know what I mean? Um, but like, cuz sometimes you like, you know, the first season like, not, I think they’re backed up all the seasons. Like, there’s so much drama like, that doesn’t surround them trying to save the world. Like the fight like in five days. The fact that that Jack literally stole Yusei bike to go to like, Dominoes City, like he literally robbed his whole as friend. Like, robbed him blind. In order to like to get ahead like they took his best card and took his best card, took his best card took took the runner that they made illegally, to try and like get a better life. And then he was just like, Nah, I shared this I’m better than everybody. Like, and then years later and broke with no money and living with all like the three of the people the same people he like dogs dogs, like like it’s it’s a thing and then it’s the same thing in in. In Yugi’s in the for the original year, right? I’m just like, fuckin up is almost like friendship the power of friendship and like people just becoming friends. Yo they literally sent like, he was minding his business and they sent his grandpa to the Shadow Realm like like so like you’re gonna go for my grandpa when I’m right here like really? And Grandpa Don’t be doing nothing right his grandpa literally just Comic Relief like oh my back hurts. Like my back broke like he was relevant that first episode and there was no relevant ever again. A

Zeke: For a card game.

Sam: Yeah, like I’m busy. Right now hospitalized for a card game. And then Jaden, Jaden is just all types of fucked up like, like Jaden, like, I don’t even know where to begin, like, the fact that he died in another life, like, the fact that there’s this entire school of like professional douleurs a professional as teachers, and this one child, this one child is responsible for saving everybody’s ass. Like Never mind you. Yo, I’m gonna be honest, I don’t know how Jaden won all those duels in GX at all, because his deck was absolute basura. like, yo, have you ever really sat down and looked at the elements of the world? Like they have no point like, they literally have no point. Like no point. And there’s no way for you to finesse it. Like, how we’re season one how our season one monster is more powerful than your than like your season. Like it normally goes up instead of back. You know what I mean? Yeah, Jaden Jaden told, like, have no parents like he meant they were just like, oh, he was like they had a stupid ass little like, moment in the first episode where he like ran into Yugi and Yugi gave him Kuriboh like, no, like, no Yugi you’re the king of games it’s your job, bro. Is your job. Don’t make this. I’ll make him take on your burden. Oh my goodness.

Zeke: Word where was Yugi the entirely in the season three. Never even though about that. Season. One, two and three.

Sam: Where was where was he? Was he

Zeke: His deck was in the show.

Sam: Y’all his deck was in the show. His deck was in the show. But he was not.

Zeke: He was in the last episode of season four.

Sam: Yugi?

Zeke: Yeah you didn’t see season four did you?

Sam: No I didn’t.

Zeke: Well, Jaden goes to PTSD. He said he had to fight for his life for three seasons.

Sam: Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah.

Zeke: Last episode was getting him to cheer up.

Sam: Oh my gosh. I forget that hole. What was the name of the movie The

Zeke: Bonds Beyond Time

Sam: Yes. Bonds Beyond Time. That was amazing. I’m not gonna lie. That’s a great movie. But like, it was like, Oh, I jumped into it. Like, I need a more story in the movie. You know what I mean? Because I feel like I’m like, What was it? It was like the crystal pyramids or something. The first Lego Movie like that shit. I remember going to the I want to go into movies of that and like getting to your cars. Because we went to a movie and like losing my shit. Like I was just there. I was in it. I was with it. I was I was ready. I was like, Yes, Let us save the world. Let us save the world together. Like I want to see you you’re on the big screen in the dark like let’s do it. So like nm vida bonds of destiny one time. Bonds be on time. I remember like looking when this thing I don’t know. The I kid you not I was looking so hard. For a place that was screaming in the nearest place was like two hours away in like, the in like the middle of Queens. And I’m just like, and I couldn’t find anyone to go to a movie with me like and I was just like, Damn, like, I wanna I want to do a movie. The best. The best part of that whole movie was when like, you say like, and now I’m gonna synchro summon and like they just pause and they pan to you. He’s like synchro was literally that was on the that was on Twitter like anime Twitter for weeks.

Zeke: Yugi like what happened to the game?

Sam: Yep. Right. Imagine if he knew he like in the future. You’d have to like ride a motorcycle to do this do like

Zeke: Card games on motorcycles.

Sam: Yo, hi key though Joey Joey was in 5D’s though. Joey was in 5D’s

Zeke: When?

Sam: In like the beginning beginning beginning. There’s like they basically like pan to like some scrap. They’re like having a scrappy battle somewhere. And they like pan to like Joe and he’s like, I’m doing well and he’s like fat fighting people in the satellite. And then I’m just saying like, You’re telling me, Joey Wheeler. The good. The good. The I don’t know what was he ranked three. The third best do is ended up in the satellite and nobody knew and nobody did nothing. I mean, I mean, I also understand that like Kai was an asshole and my UV obviously, obviously you you have other priorities. A 16 year old who’s like, here, here, you save the world now, this is your job.

Zeke: I’m retired.

Sam: That’s literally what the kuriboh like that kuriboh was just an opening to like the spirit realm. Like I’m jacking it. Like curry bow is the key to all to all of Jaden problems. Like, if you didn’t get that kuriboh like he would have just been another eyeglass kid like he wouldn’t know how to do with that weird I Yo, is that doctor is Dr. Crawler a dude or girl.

Zeke: Dude.

Sam: Dr.Crawler is a dude?

Zeke: Yeah, well in the dub a dude.

Sam: In the dub, he’s a dude.

Zeke: I’m not sure about the sub.

Sam: I’m just like, so confused. Because, like, I appreciate like them pushing the boundary of like, what gender it is. But like, this also came out when we were like 10 and like, we didn’t know anything about this. And like this, this dude, this. This dude was a jerk. For no reason. Like

Zeke: In the first episode. You know what? My, it’s my job to get rid of this kid.

Sam: I’m gonna try to get rid of this kid. Hey, like literally, it was the dumbest thing ever. It was one of the dumbest thing ever. Yeah. Another Yeah. And that’s good. That entrance exam. Like, can we talk about it like, so y’all have students that are already in the school that have been studying dueling for a year, right? People that haven’t been studying and haven’t been in the school and like, if they when they get in, and if they lose, they don’t get in like. So like, you know, to me, it looks like a lose lose situation. Because a you don’t get to cultivate you tell it and be like, you know, like, if they end up if your students end up losing to some dude that just walked in off the street? Like, is that not lame as fuck like?

Zeke: And then um, my kid that went missing in that school?

Sam: Yeah.

Zeke: That’s concerning.

Sam: Yeah, um, Alexis is older brother. Or not? I actually his name was Alexis. It was it was wrote No. Alexis Rose was her name. And her brother went missing and a whole group bags and people went missing. And then everybody was just kind of there. Like where the fuck these people went. And then they never adjusted. Like, the principal never addressed any of it was just like, students in this in this dorm went missing. We don’t know what happened. Like, No, you can’t. You can’t do that work. You can’t just lose people. And then and like I like how everybody kind of just accepted it. They’re like, yeah, students were missing in that dorm. So we don’t go there. Like, huh? Okay, so, so the dorms is what ate them alive. They went missing in the door.

Zeke: Her brother is older than her. So she still went to school. After her brother went missing.

Sam: Yeah. Like, who are her parents that’s like, they’re like, Oh, yeah, our son went missing. We’re heartbroken. You know when missing? But we’re gonna still send our daughter though. We’re gonna send her seems safe here seems like a smart option.

All (talking over each other.)

Sam: What?

Zeke: Ever see the real life like character duels on the Youtube?

Sam: Yeah, there’s so wack. Like, the ones with like CGI, and like, people are like, it’s done, you know? And then they do it.

Zeke: No, but the characters like the voice actors.

Sam: No, I don’t know. I haven’t seen that.

Zeke: Because they have a tournament. They’re like the voice actors playing the character for them.

Sam: No, I haven’t seen that actually.

Zeke: The first one I saw was like a Yugi vs Yusei.

Sam: Uh huh. And you’re the one I’m gonna need to Google that. That sounds like fun. Of course, you’re the one. Nobody can ever beat Yugi. When has he ever lost a duel like? 

Zeke: He lost. Well he lost against Pegasus the time. He lost against Rafael. He lost against Kiba because Kiba was trying to commit suicide.

Sam: Oh, Yeah, yeah,

Zeke: He lost against Yugi the last episode.

Sam: Well, okay, okay. At this point we’re talking about Atem, okay. Yeah, yeah, I also didn’t understand that because in the end, right, they put his soul to rest but he pops up in GX don’t me, he pops up in GX like, like, like that. Like, I’m back. Like, you go, like we killed you off, bro. Like what we put you, we put you to rest with your friends. y’all think about how but like Loki like type of story is so sad. And I’m not even talking about like, the fact that he was adopted by an asshole and like his parents died like I’m talking about that part. I’m telling you about the part that like in his past life, she was so hung up on this girl, that in his next life, he literally keeps her spirit monster as his main piece like as his main form of aggression. He like is literally tied to Blue Eyes White Dragon because he fell in love with the girl and like a pathway. Like That is crazy. Like that is straight up crazy. Yo, and you know what else was funny? To me? It was like the part where? Um, what’s her name? The one that can see into the future? akiza? No, that’s not in all cases, if I do. I don’t know the one in the future that has the Millennium necklace.

Zeke: Ishizu Ishizu.

Sam: Because I just release any issue, I want to say Ishizu, but like she literally was like, I think that you get that little Yugi is actually the pharaohs reincarnation. And then we’re all just, like, literally, I remember being there. Like, you’re just realizing this. Like, you’re, you’re just seeing this right now. Like, that’s like you hear the person like you don’t think you know the hair. The fact that they’re sharing one body. Like the fact like the only difference is like a white like he’s five inches taller than the Yugi right now. Yugi a child, mind you, you get dropped out of high school to like professionally duel and like save the fucking world like, and his friends did the same exact shit. Like that’s the crazy part of me. Like, imagine like you and your group of friends being like, Yo, I’m gonna quit and I’m gonna be a pro. I’m gonna be a pro. Like game card player. Game card card game player. There we go. That’s away, say pregnant clear. And like we’re just gonna, and we’re just gonna fuck it up and save the world. Because I need y’all by me because you’re my friend. Ever. Okay, just like yeah, let’s just drop it all. Let’s go.

Zeke: In Baruch everynone would be like are you stupid?

Sam: At Baruch we all would be like, imagine we all do jobs. Like, I’m just like, Guys, I’m gonna become a professional Domino player, and I’m just gonna winch it. And I’m just gonna, and I’m just gonna end it. Like I’m doing right and you guys are gonna come with me? Like That would be nice. Like if you’re not rich. With a secure job like enough. crazy like that. Maybe I do it.

Zeke: A billion.

Sam: Yeah, like a couple billion dollars. Like, I was like that. I’d be like, Yeah, come along. You can live with me. We’ll get a mansion. We’ll just live in different wings.

Zeke: And then come up went to high school for one day. You know what that was fun enough.

Sam: No, they went I feel like they went to high school twice. The first time was like the first episode and then the second time was when that new guy came in when you came in? Yeah, he came in with his own game. I’m like, bro, and this society ruled by Duel Monsters. Ie Yugioh you want to literally come up with another game based on the same monster, right? No, bro. Like, you’re destined to fail.

Zeke: The Gameboy game was lit.

Sam: The game the dungeon dice monsters Gameboy game? Yeah, it was fun. But still still. I’m still like, what were you thinking? Like, that just doesn’t sound like business sense to me. You know what I mean?

Zeke: Like, you’re not gonna make it fun.

Sam: There was the good rumor saying that. The makers of Yugioh they were coming out with an app to like scan for So like, if you have your actual YuGiOh card like to do a like 3d you yo battle for you know how much it’s gonna work. But I don’t think it’s gonna I don’t they’re still like in a plane stages, but it was really cool. So basically you like scan the card and then like a monster pops up and you can interact with and everything which is you know, just regular as VR but so it would have been nice like 10 years ago

Zeke: I Oh my God, I got the money to buy it but like I need it. Why? I don’t know.

Sam: Like, I was just there like yo one of these days that you give him take over the world life as a journey like how can people not like this? I think that this not become a thing.

Zeke: No cart effects. And yeah, I’m not going back to the game. I thought I could and I was like,

Sam: No, I’ll stick to my switch game. It was like 20 bucks. And if I ever get that feeling like I want to do like I just go and play there. You can play against the AI or you can play with like other people that are playing. But like, at the end of the day, there are also a bunch of really good like, offering you do games. Like why go pro used to be like a go to like even pay Why go pro is a new deal. But the difference is you literally you google search, whatever cards you want. And you add that to your deck. It’s like you literally search the card in their database and you can add that car to the duck as long as it’s like within tournament rules. So like, you know how like, why you probably don’t know, but Monster Reborn is like, dang, you can use that card no more. Yeah. Yeah, like, I don’t know, they just be banishing now. And ever since they came up with dual links they’ve been you know, they brought back the the tournament thing, like they have a tournament every year now. It’s like dueling. It’s kind of cute.

Zeke: I’ll be trying to qualify, but that’s my playing.

Sam: Yo, Yo, I’m again. I’m um, you’re like my Duel Links account. Like, every time I got a new phone, I had to restart from scratch because they wouldn’t, they would never transfer over properly.

Zeke: Never never made the account and they saved it. And then,

Sam: Yes I did it multiple times. And they would never say so that I want but I was just like, you know what I give up. I give up I’m not even gonna try because I started like the day doula drop, I downloaded those like, I’m gonna try to be a GFS and I was working at it so hard, like my dad was fired. And then I got a new phone and then it was like not, not not it didn’t let me. But yeah.

Zeke: If you’ve being honest Yugi’s deck was trash too.

Sam: All their decks, were trash. They only they don’t even follow the rules, bro. They don’t even follow the rules in the show. Other days you try. They don’t follow any of the rules. I literally be sitting there like I’m so you’re gonna tell so like literally, no polymerization happens, but they just gonna they’re just like, I now have my Chimera and this thing. We’re just gonna turn it into a new monster that has like 4000 pack points. And it’s gonna have your fucking life like no. No.

Zeke: Second season started to using some rules.

Sam: No. Well see no, I yeah, I’d say that about Season Two was way better than season one. Season One was literally. Literally it was. That’s how I used to play like as a child though. Like, I used to be like, you know what? Yes, I can do it. You can do this. I can do it. Like, I used to just summon shit out of the eyes and be like, they’re like you can’t summon that you have to sacrifice something. I’m like, Who said? Who said like Kiba Kiba but bro Kibar literally the whole all of season one. You were just some in the blue eyes dragon. He didn’t even have yo he would dry and would just summon it like there would be no no buildup. Like are you there would be no sacrifices or if there was a sacrifice. You sacrifice one month is like No bro. You need to like what are you doing? Oh, we have a visitor. Oh, no, we don’t. He ran away. It was Nobu. This is Nobu. He was also named after an anime character. He was named after Nobu from Nano. Who is my favorite character Nanos an amazing juicy anime. I recommend you watch it. What

Zeke: Yes Yugi’s deck was just a bunch of random cards put together.

Sam: Yugi’s deck yo the fact that that that little child need frickin what he made that he made he made me okay Nobu stop that, the fact that he made like all those right the right type team cards together like be anybody like it can only be done through cheating. That’s why kiba would be like yo he has to be cheating How is he winning me I’m like yeah bro he is cheating but you know what so are you like.

Zeke: It’s not it’s not even weighted properly because you have the sacrifice has Dark Magician, Dark Magician Girl, Buster Blader the god cards then he has Catapult Turtle then he has Black Luster Soldier,

Sam: Like for Yeah, he would also yo Dark Magician girl  was also another one that he would summon like those are way too many cards right there those are way too many open cards right then there’s too many mats you need for you guys like what like you’re supposed to keep like guarantee cards in your deck 30 cards and like having seven of them. Seven of them be literally cards that are just like what that require like a church it is not smart. At all. Like all his lower all his um lower like monsters that weren’t that like

Zeke: He had the magna warriors. I have the deck

Sam: What you gonna bring you have the deck?

Zeke: Yeah.

Sam: I’m literally just googling you know what part is the is like the most disrespectful card though in the entire game of video. Actually, what do you think the most disrespectful card in the entire game? In Yugioh?What do you think it is? So many cards.

Zeke: I don’t know.

Sam: For me, it’s Mirror Force. You Mirror Force. Is disrespectful. Literally, you send out like somebody gets a tag. Oh, welcome back. Nobu. There we go. Yep. No, thanks. Okay, cool. Um, literally Mirror Force is so disrespectful. Because you could be stacked ready to beat somebody’s ass bro. Ready to destroy, ready to end somebody’s life. Okay. And then they would wipe out a Mirror Force card, and it just gets Oh, hey, holographic tents and everything. Oh, you whipped out the deck. You’re like, flex on us real quick flex on us.

Zeke: Nah just just the Yugi deck. This is from battle. This is one kingdom to the kingdom.

Sam: Yeah.

Zeke: Like it’s not balanced.

Sam: At all like what? What are you gonna summon half of that with? Honestly, I’ve tried to play games with Yugi’s deck and I can’t for the life of me beat anybody like, because, you know, I like in a bunch of games as an option. Like even in duels and Duel Links. You get to play Yugi. Yo I was struggling so hard for so for so long. Until I was like, you know, we need to get these cards out of here. Like it was so hard to like, it’s so worth it. Like, if you really play like with Yugi’s deck like a whole thing you’re gonna play for so many rounds. And that’s if somebody doesn’t rock your shit before like, before you get to draw those cards.

Zeke: Right? Like this is what it is. This is what

Sam: Buster Blader is pretty good though. It’s like 18,007

Zeke: Yeah.

Sam: Like how does any like how do you how do you come up with a strat like he laid it again but we also see in the show that he has the power to like manifest the cards that he like that’s not a crazy He’s like, he just has the it what was it? I don’t know. It was like, I forgot what it was called. It was like the king spirit like he was like in control. Destiny like, literally like I can draw whatever I need when I need it and destiny got my belt like

Zeke: They gave him that power in Duel Links destiny draw. Draw what you need what?

Sam: Literally, you just be like, huh?

Zeke: Like sayless?

Sam: I’d sayless I’ll draw these Mirror Force right now and end somebody and the whole game.

Zeke: Even worse, because it goes to your point likely.

Sam: Yeah. Nah, I’m good. like mad. Like, if you have like, so like, let’s say, oh, welcome. No, no, it was bad guys. See? Let’s say um, you have like, let’s say you got three monsters right? ready and waiting that are like even if one that you have one monster radio waiting and then the other person whips out something crazy and you do like, and you do things and you do metaphors like that. That just sucks like America is literally like you’re always ready to end your shit. Oh my god wants a dungeon and you’re ready to like just end somebody’s life and then you know, they worry about American wars and it’s like, I literally just sacrifice all my monsters to summon this one powerful monster and and it gives me literally get like my whole street gets ended by by frickin by a freak. Oh my goodness. No, boo. Oh, okay. Are you going away? Oh, he wants to Oh, there we go.

Zeke: Oh, there you go. Yeah. I lost my train of thought and who else deck is trash? Oh, who else deck is trash? \

Sam: Who’s deck is trash?

Zeke: Every character.

Sam: Oh, yeah, no, but they just they all deal with Jaden Come on. Let’s be real ever look trough. Bro. Bro.

Zeke: Even when he gets his upgrade half of the deck doesn’t work with half of it.

Sam: That upgrade was literally. Yo, they just were like let’s make it even harder for us. Like I get like the creators just like let’s just make the decks so hard for us to win with them that it makes the show good like what once I started watching you guys and I was like oh never like to Jaden’s deck and you look at Jaden’s deck literally as well. Jaden’s deck is really bad

Zeke: I like Zanes.

Sam: Oh Zane’s deck is amazing Zane was amazing. Ah rest in peace

Zeke: Nah he’s in a wheelchair.

Sam: Yeah but like that should that to that whole transformation how you go from being one of the best duelers in school to like going to like being like like to just like sucking on the pro circuit. And then like getting all the like getting starting men start doing cage matches. Like most of your heart like I don’t I also like expected sight What do you want? Also expected Syrus to like because he resembled like, you know Yugi so much I expect Syrus to play like a bigger part. But he was just like supported cast.

Zeke: I think he was replace by Jesse.

Sam: Yeah. Jesse was so cool, though.

Zeke: What rank was he in was he blue?

Sam: No, yeah. Well, the thing is he was they were trained for students remember? Yeah. So like in season three, they are transferred. And they were all kind of just like we’re transfers. And we do what we want. But yeah. So Zeke, I think we need to end hey, bro.

Zeke: Before we go, you say what would you name your origin story?

Sam: What was the name of my origin story?

Zeke: What would you name it?

Sam: What would I name it? Um Oh I would name a what I made I don’t know like coming out of the closet otaku closet yeah like I guess I don’t know Coming up but like I don’t know anime for me was always like something that in a time of like a lot of like hardship and adversity was was like always there for me and always easily accessible to me so like the reason why I like started watching it was kind of as an escape so I guess and then the escape kind of got you know real deep so I guess I would call it Jesus I like I’sm high-key a communication major shouldn’t be struggling so much with this um I don’t know. My origin story was kind of basic and why I don’t know the story of Samtastic I guess like oh no we’ve been really talking about what we kind of just talked about how like Yugioh trash and like

Zeke: Everything on the way anime was like nah Yugioh.

Sam: So yeah, we’ve got this turned into a Yugioh episode cut the other shit out. Like this is the Yugioh episode. Um I don’t know they come up with something.

Zeke: It’s your story.

Sam: This isn’t my story. This is not my story. I’m just talking about I’m we’re literally talking about like, a million different stories now. Um Let’s make it. So some funny that I said that I say anything for anything. We can call it my dog’s name is Nobu.

Zeke: Okay. Sure. Yeah.

Sam: Yeah. Named my dog after an anime character. So that doesn’t show my commitment to this lifestyle. I don’t know what does.

Zeke: Yeah, make sure you watch those character duels.

Sam: Yeah. I will. Signing off. Thank you for having me.

Zeke: No problem. That brings another episode of the Let’s Gather Podcast to a close. I would like to thank Sam for being a guest on the podcast. For next week I have my friend Drew come on the podcast. I hope you continue to have a nice day and hope to see you there.