Speaker 1: Welcome back to the Jeff Jeffs Bizarre Adventure Podcast. We're
Speaker 1: on a side mission, a guide in of sorts. We
Speaker 1: just finished another series of Berserk and we figured we'd.
Speaker 2: Step up the the education of Jojo. Sorry, we just finished.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we just finished another series of Jojo and we
Speaker 1: figured we'd step up the education for Jeff Bakala, who's
Speaker 1: on a journey.
Speaker 3: To I think ready. I'm gonna say it. I think
Speaker 3: he's ready.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we're ready for a big one, you know. A
Speaker 1: We've given you a bunch of Jojo. We had one
Speaker 1: punch man.
Speaker 3: I've been how long have we been doing this podcast?
Speaker 2: Fifteen years? Yeah, a long time, like three four?
Speaker 3: Maybe it's not four. It couldn't be four, could three?
Speaker 3: Couldn't I think it's three.
Speaker 2: Three years, three seams, three seams.
Speaker 4: Right about it when Tam and I was still in
Speaker 4: the UK, which was two.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, oh my lord.
Speaker 5: Well it's a good thing anime has been around for
Speaker 5: that long.
Speaker 1: Yeah, anime is perennial. You're not You're not getting rid
Speaker 1: of anime easy.
Speaker 3: So it's it's takes it's taken three or four years
Speaker 3: to get Jeff up to the point where we feel
Speaker 3: feel like he's ready.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we did one punch Man. What else did we do?
Speaker 1: Cowboy Bebop? Those are the and that's the ones that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: those are the ones that kind of like they have
Speaker 1: an almost similar thematic or mood wise, tone wise similar vibe.
Speaker 1: So we decided to go a little bit different and
Speaker 1: head over to the one of the legendary animes.
Speaker 4: I'm just gonna blue Sky post that.
Speaker 6: Yeah, friends, we're almost at the I'm sorry to interrupt,
Speaker 6: we almost at the three year anniversary of the official
Speaker 6: start of Jeff Jeff's we don't.
Speaker 2: Have any merchandise. What's going on?
Speaker 4: Yeah, that's ridiculous.
Speaker 5: I don't know how that works. It just sort of
Speaker 5: shows up at the store. It's simply not But thank
Speaker 5: you for assuming it is, Lucy.
Speaker 2: I'll figure it out.
Speaker 4: Thank you. Mister rickyked me was the Blue Sky equivalent
Speaker 4: of a time.
Speaker 1: I'm not saying ski because it has beside me. I, Lucy, buddy,
Speaker 1: I don't know about that one.
Speaker 4: Does Does that have a meaning that? I need to
Speaker 4: look at what dictionary?
Speaker 2: You should know what that is.
Speaker 4: But mister post did to all of us. Just finished
Speaker 4: the latest episode of Jeff Jeff's and tears started flowing
Speaker 4: as soon as I heard the music. Sorry, Jeff, your
Speaker 4: friends don't love you, and you're gonna have to carry
Speaker 4: that hurt.
Speaker 5: This is a foreboding, really really upsetting a message about
Speaker 5: the future. I don't feel good about it.
Speaker 2: Jeff.
Speaker 3: Let me let me tell you. There is nothing for
Speaker 3: voting or upsetting in this show.
Speaker 5: No, yeah, I don't believe you. I've already seen stuff that.
Speaker 2: Has feel good.
Speaker 3: What do you know about this is about? Oh?
Speaker 5: Oh good question, Lucy, Thank you for asking it. I
Speaker 5: don't know jack shit about Berserk. No idea like I
Speaker 5: was assuming it's like a modern day story and the
Speaker 5: first inclinations like, no, this is like a castle thing
Speaker 5: like I had no idea.
Speaker 2: My favorite era, the era the castle.
Speaker 5: Yeah, like a medieval kind of like adjacent horses and shit.
Speaker 5: I had no idea what to expect going in. All
Speaker 5: I knew was that it's all I All I know
Speaker 5: I will say is that at some point I'm going
Speaker 5: to have to face like numerous deeply disturbing themes and
Speaker 5: depictions of violence, is what I'm sort.
Speaker 3: Of like, remember any of any of that. I don't.
Speaker 5: I feel like I mean like, if the gore and
Speaker 5: the blood is what it is in these first two episodes,
Speaker 5: I'm gonna be fine because it's very like tastefully cut.
Speaker 2: Around, you know what I mean.
Speaker 3: Yeah, well, Jeff, look, I'll say it to you right now.
Speaker 3: It never gets worse than that for real.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's that's pretty much I can. Oh, I could
Speaker 2: watch this. I could watch this on a plane. This
Speaker 2: is fine.
Speaker 3: This is I'm call the whole family in and just enjoy.
Speaker 2: We gonna, we're gonna, We're gonna push back on that
Speaker 2: a little bit.
Speaker 5: I don't think I'm gonna bring in Dibbs and everyone
Speaker 5: to watch Berserk the anime.
Speaker 7: Uh.
Speaker 3: I wouldn't.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I wouldn't.
Speaker 4: Also I wouldn't, Stacy, maybe, but you would.
Speaker 5: You know what, Sometimes you got to let things go.
Speaker 5: And I think for my wife, my wife, and as
Speaker 5: far as the anime inclusion is concerned, folks.
Speaker 2: I think that I think that ship is sailed. I
Speaker 2: don't think it took me.
Speaker 3: It took me ten years before I got my wife
Speaker 3: into an anime.
Speaker 5: Okay, so I'm about a third of the way through
Speaker 5: that expedition, so we'll see, all right.
Speaker 4: I'm just excited for you, Jeff.
Speaker 2: So you've seen this, Lucy, you've seen all of.
Speaker 4: What I've read it.
Speaker 2: I haven't.
Speaker 3: And Lucy, me and Lucy have talked about berserk tattoos.
Speaker 4: So you have a tattoo you right?
Speaker 3: I forgot, Yeah, I have one on my leg.
Speaker 5: You read the book adaptation of the anime?
Speaker 4: No no, no, no, no.
Speaker 3: The other way around, Jeff. So they wait, I see,
Speaker 3: I see a little smirk because he.
Speaker 2: Even I knew that. Come on, I love the anime
Speaker 2: expert around.
Speaker 4: The for for everyone listening to all the friends, fans
Speaker 4: and family at home. Whenever Jeff is doing like a
Speaker 4: little bit and he gets this smirk. He also grabs
Speaker 4: his microphone and pulls it. And I've brought this up, wed,
Speaker 4: he like pulls it into his mouth like this, he
Speaker 4: like braces.
Speaker 2: I'm trying to. Yeah.
Speaker 3: One of the reasons. One of the reasons I think people,
Speaker 3: and I've said this before, I think people think we're
Speaker 3: being meaner to Jeff than we are is they can't
Speaker 3: see the look of utter delight on his face whenever
Speaker 3: we take the piss out of them.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I love it. I can't get enough of it.
Speaker 3: Okay, Well, now that's not quite where I was going,
Speaker 3: but you know, speak of truth.
Speaker 1: Yeah, So we're going to be doing the nineteen ninety
Speaker 1: seven adaptation of ken Tara Mura's masterpiecek rest in Peace.
Speaker 1: Ken Tara Mura died fairly recently, oh yes, before finishing
Speaker 1: his his master work on his magnum opus unfortunately, but
Speaker 1: a lot of already brilliant material available, and it's uh,
Speaker 1: it's going to be a journey for you, Jeff, a
Speaker 1: very normal journey. I'm gonna throw it over to John,
Speaker 1: who is going to take us through this episode.
Speaker 3: So guys, first of all, I just want to say
Speaker 3: that it's been a little bit since we recorded. It's
Speaker 3: fantastic to be here.
Speaker 1: I didn't introduce anyone. We're here with John a superpach Wolf.
Speaker 3: I've never been more excited to be here.
Speaker 2: Tom, fantastic.
Speaker 1: We've also got caretaker of Peanut and jelly Bean, Lucy James.
Speaker 4: Hello. Yeah, Jellybean just fully stuck her ass in my face.
Speaker 4: Start as we've need to go on. Very excited to
Speaker 4: video of zik.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 4: Sorry that I'm sick and I sound like a nerdy.
Speaker 4: Actually I read the manga and I did watch the anime.
Speaker 2: At least not like a Tory. At the same time,
Speaker 2: we also have one Jeff Baclaw.
Speaker 5: Hey, everyone, this is great to be here. Thank you
Speaker 5: for doing another season of Jeff.
Speaker 2: Jeff's just with Me. Hmmm, good over to you, John.
Speaker 3: Hey, yes, okay to continue that, I just want to say,
Speaker 3: it's been a little bit since we recorded Life was Happening.
Speaker 3: I was at MAGFest and a bunch of other stuff. Guys,
Speaker 3: what do you think was the predominant cosplay at MAGFest?
Speaker 3: I want to say, which is always like such an
Speaker 3: interesting like temperature check for like, what is the thing
Speaker 3: right now?
Speaker 4: What is it?
Speaker 1: Was it?
Speaker 4: Dengi from Chainsaw Man?
Speaker 3: Oh no, that that that was like two years ago.
Speaker 3: Dan to Don was not as like it was popular,
Speaker 3: but not as popular as I would have taught.
Speaker 2: It's going to be like it's going to be from like.
Speaker 3: There's only one of them.
Speaker 2: Just one on it Flame that weird series that is
Speaker 2: U the.
Speaker 3: Bat from Son What there are so many fucking rouges.
Speaker 2: The bat?
Speaker 3: Yep?
Speaker 5: Where does and I think she's got that heart?
Speaker 3: Lucy. We we live in much more different universes than
Speaker 3: I thought we did. My friend like up know that
Speaker 3: was her name? What she is going to show up
Speaker 3: on Sonic for Jeff and they're gonna have to like
Speaker 3: desexify her a little bit. Is going to do a
Speaker 3: fucking video about it.
Speaker 4: No, John, because we're in an age now where IP
Speaker 4: holders are leading into that because they made a life
Speaker 4: size Pokemon toy of the one that everyone wants to fuck.
Speaker 3: Oh guardivor yep, that's they. They fucking know what they know.
Speaker 4: Where does aware this Pokemon?
Speaker 3: Washington d C, Washington National Harbor, the country's capital.
Speaker 2: Rouge.
Speaker 3: I don't want to maybe maybe this isn't a conversation
Speaker 3: front air, but let me tell you arriving the day
Speaker 3: and what I arrived in Washington the day after the inauguration.
Speaker 3: Oh boy, I have never seen a Maga hat in
Speaker 3: the wild, and now.
Speaker 2: I was crazy, crazy.
Speaker 3: Talking wild I am. Also, I just wanted to say
Speaker 3: to you guys how much I enjoyed the game of
Speaker 3: the Year this year. It was excellent. Well done to you.
Speaker 3: Can I raise one tiny grievance that I've been holding
Speaker 3: in my ches? I'm sure go ahead, guys. PERSONA three
Speaker 3: over Mouthwashing for most depressing game? Are you for insane?
Speaker 4: I hadn't played Mouthwashing and I played it last week.
Speaker 3: Anime can be sad sometimes, I know, and it's like
Speaker 3: person it's a fucking persona. Oh isn't that sad yet?
Speaker 3: It's pretty sad. Mouth Washed anyway, Okay, thank you. I
Speaker 3: appreciate you letting me.
Speaker 2: Get I hadn't I hadn't played much. I hadn't played
Speaker 2: much mouth Washing.
Speaker 1: I have finished it since, but yeah, back then, just
Speaker 1: didn't have the information.
Speaker 2: I guess I gotta play this. Huh.
Speaker 3: Oh, mouth Washing, Jeff is so good. It's like if
Speaker 3: gore is a problem for you, dude.
Speaker 2: No, not video game gore is not a problem for me.
Speaker 2: Doesn't it upfront?
Speaker 1: Like when you turn it on up front, it's like, hey,
Speaker 1: there's a lot of stuff in this game.
Speaker 3: So, Jeff, how do you feel about a man with
Speaker 3: no skin and you have to click on his mouth
Speaker 3: to open it and when you do, it goes.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I'm okay. I think I'm okay with it.
Speaker 3: Okay, then you're probably okay.
Speaker 1: I mean.
Speaker 5: What, I will play this before our next episode.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's two and a half hours.
Speaker 3: It's great.
Speaker 4: I didn't realize there was actually a prequel that was free.
Speaker 4: I think it steam my friends.
Speaker 3: Oh, Hea, the fish is made.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and there's tie Insto mouthwashing, which I didn't really.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I got I got to check that out. But
Speaker 3: I'll tell you another thing I got to check out,
Speaker 3: which I already have, this first episode of Berserk. Yeah,
Speaker 3: ten years podcast and experience is how I'm able to
Speaker 3: It's pretty good. John segues like that, thank you, thank you.
Speaker 3: Oh boy. So it's been about, honestly about ten years
Speaker 3: since I've watched this version of Berserk, and I was
Speaker 3: really sitting there for a lot of First of all,
Speaker 3: I love it. I think it's beautiful. I think it's great.
Speaker 3: I love the music, I love that animate sure of
Speaker 3: the backgrounds. I sat there for a lot of it
Speaker 3: being like, I have no idea what Jeff is going
Speaker 3: to make of this?
Speaker 8: Yeah, yeah, yeah, I figured the fucking evil villain like
Speaker 8: kind of chuckle like that was a real like oh you, oh,
Speaker 8: Power Rangers, You've fallen directly into my trap.
Speaker 1: Yeah, he's gonna work Berserk like tattoo and be like
Speaker 1: I've had a weekend.
Speaker 5: No, yeah, I mean I don't want to. Well, let's
Speaker 5: let's start. I mean, how do you want to how
Speaker 5: do you want to approach this?
Speaker 2: Then?
Speaker 3: Okay, I want to just I want to just take
Speaker 3: some temp take.
Speaker 2: The general feelings.
Speaker 5: Sure, sure, you know, I definitely did you know again,
Speaker 5: not know what to expect going into it. I was
Speaker 5: immediately sort of reminded of of like nineties era animation,
Speaker 5: I think because it reminded me a little bit of
Speaker 5: like well also it reminded me of like animation a
Speaker 5: bit of like the the crudeness of it a little bit,
Speaker 5: not a not in a bad I don't mean that
Speaker 5: as like a negative kind of way, but the similar
Speaker 5: style of like I remember what like Ninja Turtles, those
Speaker 5: original Ninja Turtles cartoons look.
Speaker 2: Like that animation.
Speaker 3: This animation something that has been drawn on paper by
Speaker 3: actual humans. Yeah, and a lot of it's analog.
Speaker 1: Yeah, right from an arrow and animation was much more
Speaker 1: laborious as a work process and undertake like.
Speaker 3: This, This is definitely the oldest piece of animal No.
Speaker 2: Cowboy Bebop was very similarly.
Speaker 3: Yeah, but Kenboy Beabup is a is a freak miracle
Speaker 3: developed by Yeah freaks.
Speaker 5: Cowboy Bebop is like a sort of like out of
Speaker 5: its timeline in a way because of the quality there.
Speaker 3: Berserk feels like something from nineteen ninety seven.
Speaker 2: It does.
Speaker 5: It feels thirty years old, right, so you know I'm
Speaker 5: noticing that right away, Like, uh yeah, I mean I
Speaker 5: I I guess I for me, these first two episodes
Speaker 5: was really about like understanding, like, Okay, what are we
Speaker 5: going to be doing here? Like what is all this?
Speaker 5: And you know what I gathered is like, uh, these
Speaker 5: two people, this this Griffith person and uh, you know
Speaker 5: mister Berserk, I don't.
Speaker 3: Know, mister.
Speaker 2: Actually Stephen Berser.
Speaker 5: Uh you know, they have a shattered past. Apparently maybe
Speaker 5: they were allies at one point. We're going to find out,
Speaker 5: and uh one of them maybe turns into a big
Speaker 5: reptilian monster. I don't know, but I'm learning a lot
Speaker 5: of stuff's getting thrown at me right at the front,
Speaker 5: and uh, you know, there's a big kind of battle
Speaker 5: and then we go back, I guess to a flashback story,
Speaker 5: which I'm not sure is that what this whole season
Speaker 5: is gonna be is like how did we get here?
Speaker 2: Kind of thing? But yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1: I mean it's unlike other anime adaptations of manga, well
Speaker 1: a lot of them, this is like the the chronology
Speaker 1: of the way it tells a story versus how it's
Speaker 1: read is very very different.
Speaker 2: Okay, it's interesting.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so in the manga when you open it up,
Speaker 1: you get a very different kind of introduction to the world.
Speaker 3: Of the manga is guts fucking a demon woman and
Speaker 3: then shooting her with the cannon.
Speaker 1: Yeah, okay, so when you say it's a nineties era,
Speaker 1: there's things that they just did not touch with a
Speaker 1: barge pole in this some of it is like toned
Speaker 1: down a bit, but like Berzerk, the manga.
Speaker 2: Is very very very very adult oriented.
Speaker 5: I'm getting a watered down version.
Speaker 3: You're getting like and that's more things that really shocked
Speaker 3: me about this this adaptation, because you know, it has
Speaker 3: been so long since I watched it, Like we are
Speaker 3: like that first episode is fourteen chapters compressed down into
Speaker 3: one episode. Yeah, it's and like the amount of story
Speaker 3: that's not there, the amount of shit they really.
Speaker 7: Yeah, as someone like as I was watching, I was
Speaker 7: just like, it's been a few years since I read it,
Speaker 7: and I was, shit, we are moving through this.
Speaker 3: When we got to the second episode and we'd hit
Speaker 3: the Golden Age, I was like, oh my god.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 4: When gold Land started, I was like what, because I mean,
Speaker 4: the first is it the first kind of book or
Speaker 4: whatever of a collection of the first issue. I forget
Speaker 4: which one it is, but it's like mirror really didn't
Speaker 4: kind of know what he was, like the over arching story.
Speaker 4: And then it's like Golden Age when it really starts
Speaker 4: kind of coming together, Like it feels like the early
Speaker 4: issues of Berzik are very much more of his own thing,
Speaker 4: like finding his footing. It's more of a tonal piece,
Speaker 4: and this is what I remember. I could be completely wrong.
Speaker 4: And then when you start into getting into Golden Age,
Speaker 4: and yeah, it's, oh, Jeff, I really want you to
Speaker 4: read it, like I don't want to kind of imprint
Speaker 4: on you how important and how good this is.
Speaker 1: But like, yeah, of all the things that of all
Speaker 1: the stuff that we've seen, this is the one where
Speaker 1: I think if you went back and started reading it,
Speaker 1: you'd have.
Speaker 2: A much deeper appreciation for what it does and what
Speaker 2: do we do with your friends? Like what did we
Speaker 2: screw up? So what we don't?
Speaker 3: What I would say is that I think people can
Speaker 3: people can enter media in a lot of different ways.
Speaker 3: And like my first introduction of Berserk wasn't even the
Speaker 3: nineteen nineties anime. It was the films there. They basically
Speaker 3: remade this part of the story into three films later on,
Speaker 3: which I really like. But they're also not like an
Speaker 3: ideal entry into berserk. And in terms of like showing
Speaker 3: you what berserk is and giving you the broad strokes
Speaker 3: of how it's cool, there's a lot of people who
Speaker 3: are unwilling to pick up a four hundred chapter Mangah,
Speaker 3: I get why, and this anime, I do think, is
Speaker 3: going to give you the broad strokes of what's cool
Speaker 3: about it chip and like there's a lot it does
Speaker 3: really well. The music in this anime fucking unbelievable, so good, but.
Speaker 1: So also a really good like tone and that kind
Speaker 1: of stuff. So yeah, it's a it's a case of
Speaker 1: if you finished, if we finished this, and you're like,
Speaker 1: I kind of enjoyed that, I want to what else
Speaker 1: is going on there? I would recommend starting it over
Speaker 1: and reading it because it's also you'll get the get
Speaker 1: the kind of story in a different timeline as well.
Speaker 1: But this is perfect. This was my first berserk thing
Speaker 1: I experienced, was this anime this specific? And then I
Speaker 1: went but.
Speaker 3: Like, it's interesting as well, because in a lot of
Speaker 3: ways I would argue that like even the manga itself
Speaker 3: isn't a great introduction into Berserk because those first fourteen
Speaker 3: chapters mirror Kintara Muro is like twenty three years old
Speaker 3: and he started writing this, and those first fourteen chapters, like,
Speaker 3: there's a lot of good shit in them, and like
Speaker 3: I love them, but they do feel like they're written
Speaker 3: by an angry twenty three year old. Yeah, and like,
Speaker 3: you know, there's a lot of there's a lot of
Speaker 3: interviews where he talks about like, you know, he was
Speaker 3: just angry at that age. He was like passionate, and
Speaker 3: so he he wanted to write these scenes of you know,
Speaker 3: Gots fucking a demon lady and then shooting her in
Speaker 3: the head. You know, he wanted to He loved the
Speaker 3: power fantasy of being this big muscly night with this
Speaker 3: massive sword that's too big to be possible and all
Speaker 3: this kind of stuff. And I think one of the
Speaker 3: things that is so incredible about Berserk is how it
Speaker 3: eventually wraps back around and contextualizes what we're watching now
Speaker 3: in this really like beautiful and honestly like pretty profound way.
Speaker 2: But we're a.
Speaker 3: Long way from that, you know, And so Jeff, if
Speaker 3: you're watching this and you're kind of like, I'm not
Speaker 3: sure about this one. Guys. I get, I get, I
Speaker 3: would get that, you know, Like, I think Berserk takes
Speaker 3: its time, but it's taking its time because, like Mura
Speaker 3: as an artist is developing, he was writing this basically
Speaker 3: his whole adult life. His entire adult life, he was
Speaker 3: writing this story, and during that time he learned how
Speaker 3: to draw, how to become one of the most incredible
Speaker 3: artists in the world. He became one of the best
Speaker 3: writers in the world, one of the best like people
Speaker 3: in terms of narrative and how to lay out a
Speaker 3: page and all this kind of stuff. And the thing
Speaker 3: that I think is so special about Berserk is it
Speaker 3: is basically a one to one with the person who
Speaker 3: wrote it. Like you are literally watching it develop as
Speaker 3: a story for the entirety of its run, which ended
Speaker 3: up being the entirety of Mirror's life. And so when
Speaker 3: we get here and it's Goods cutting a bunch of
Speaker 3: demons in half with his sword, you don't have the
Speaker 3: perspective yet to see any of that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, interesting is a very.
Speaker 4: I think you should make video essays on YEA about
Speaker 4: things that you like, because I think you're really good
Speaker 4: at talking about things that you like and why they're good.
Speaker 3: This podcasting thing, Lucy. But I'll take that into their advice.
Speaker 2: Just try it, give it a go, you know.
Speaker 1: There is Yeah, there's a there's a bunch of videos
Speaker 1: we'll be able to send you afterwards as well, which
Speaker 1: will really point to context like what mirrors where is that?
Speaker 2: And his career and that kind of stuff that'll be helpful.
Speaker 2: All right, But yeah, so.
Speaker 3: Man, Okay, we start this first episode and it begins
Speaker 3: with a quote, in this world is the destiny? It
Speaker 3: is the destiny of Is it the destiny of mankind
Speaker 3: to be controlled by some transcendental entity or law? Is
Speaker 3: it like, is that like the hand of God hovering above?
Speaker 3: At least it is that man has sorry, my dyslexi
Speaker 3: is going crazy today. At least it is true that
Speaker 3: man has no control even over his own will. And
Speaker 3: I think I'm just going to throw it off to Jeff,
Speaker 3: who's just going to do about four minutes on that
Speaker 3: go for Jeff.
Speaker 5: I just think it's like sort of inherently conflicting what
Speaker 5: this couple of sentences is proposing. There's a certain kind
Speaker 5: of like certainty about the fact that the quote is
Speaker 5: questioning free will, and then it's like, at least we
Speaker 5: know it's not true, which I think is sort of
Speaker 5: a bit of a contradictory statement there a little bit.
Speaker 5: I don't okay, I will say that like you could you?
Speaker 3: Yeah, just keep going.
Speaker 5: It says the first sentence is a question in this
Speaker 5: world is the destiny of mankind controlled by some transcendental
Speaker 5: entity or law? Okay, Jeff's could we pause question mark?
Speaker 5: Could you just deep dive on that first part. It's asking,
Speaker 5: is the destiny of man controlled by like a god
Speaker 5: or some sort of governing force?
Speaker 3: Sorry, Jeff, I didn't explain that, right. Could you go
Speaker 3: deeper on that statement?
Speaker 2: How do you I'm going to go deeper? What do
Speaker 2: you mean, Jeff?
Speaker 3: I am These are all layups, puddy, and we're trying
Speaker 3: to make a podcast here.
Speaker 5: Yeah, come on, what else am I supposed to say?
Speaker 5: It's it's it's it's not a very profound question. Okay, Jeff,
Speaker 5: I'm gonna say something harsh, and that is, if you
Speaker 5: are not engaged, you shouldn't be showing up to these podcasts.
Speaker 5: That's not This show is not about that quote. This
Speaker 5: show is like or it's not about it yet. I'm
Speaker 5: sure we'll get to it. I know they do this
Speaker 5: in the beginning of every episode, so obviously there's a
Speaker 5: theme going on where we're gonna like slowly but surely
Speaker 5: unpack it as we find mister gutz Berserk or whatever
Speaker 5: the fuck his name is. Uh, we'll figure it all
Speaker 5: out with with the with the direct, with the with
Speaker 5: the snake person. We'll figure it all out as we
Speaker 5: get there.
Speaker 3: Yeah, do you have any idea what he's talking about?
Speaker 5: The guy turns into a snake. Griffith is like a snake,
Speaker 5: a snakeman. He turns into a snake at the end
Speaker 5: of the first episode, a reptilian snake monster. No, and
Speaker 5: he cuts him in half. And then he's got like
Speaker 5: a vagina face and he just stabs his vagina face
Speaker 5: with a bunch of arrows.
Speaker 3: Okay, Jeff, that.
Speaker 2: No wait wait what?
Speaker 4: Yeah? Can I can.
Speaker 3: I ask question?
Speaker 4: I guess this isn't a trick, this isn't a shrike.
Speaker 4: I just want to I want to ask you why
Speaker 4: do you think he's called guts? And I can't wait
Speaker 4: to revisit the answer when we find out.
Speaker 5: Why do I think he's called Guts. Yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 5: My short time with anime, the nomenclature, sort of like philosophy,
Speaker 5: is all over the map. Sometimes it's like an allusion
Speaker 5: to a seventies rock band. Sometimes it's like something that's
Speaker 5: very on the nose. I have no idea. It could
Speaker 5: mean literal organs. It could also mean bravery, it could
Speaker 5: mean anything. I have no idea. I also will admit
Speaker 5: it wasn't until a couple seconds ago did I realize
Speaker 5: that the swordsman guy's name was Guts. You know, I was.
Speaker 4: The guy where he says his name was Guts. That
Speaker 4: didn't register.
Speaker 5: I just some there's something sometimes that goes on where
Speaker 5: I don't grasp this stuff.
Speaker 4: Okay, that's fine. Okay, Well, so.
Speaker 3: Have a thing that shouldn't be that shouldn't be a
Speaker 3: problem with.
Speaker 2: No, I'm not. I'm not.
Speaker 5: I'm a passenger. I'm not hosting it. I am a passenger.
Speaker 5: I'm sitting in the back along for the ride.
Speaker 3: Okay. So the opening sequence starts and we basically get
Speaker 3: this hammer hitting a giant sword.
Speaker 5: Jeff thoughts, Well, you asked me about what did the sword? Well,
Speaker 5: there was he was making a sword in some sort
Speaker 5: of like cave. And I assume this is like the
Speaker 5: Black Swordsman thing. Uh, and you know it's like a
Speaker 5: very big sword.
Speaker 3: I don't know.
Speaker 5: I don't know why swords have to be so big
Speaker 5: and impossible to hold. But that's fine if that's what
Speaker 5: we're gonna do. Here gives you a good range, I guess.
Speaker 5: And he's some special You talk about a.
Speaker 4: TikTok guy who was training with a gut sword.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, is he still going?
Speaker 2: I think he did it. I think yeah, he figured
Speaker 2: it out and did it. How can you you can't
Speaker 2: hold a sword like that?
Speaker 5: Man?
Speaker 3: He basically trained for like two years to do it.
Speaker 3: Was its diro film and I understand full sword Jesus all right?
Speaker 3: Well I actually turned it around and said, John, can
Speaker 3: you elaborate for me as someone who's hyper familiar with
Speaker 3: what this.
Speaker 2: Sort of opening.
Speaker 3: It's just the sword jeft, it's not that deep.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's just making and I nailed it. Then I
Speaker 2: nailed it.
Speaker 3: That's what it's about.
Speaker 1: I will be doing Dark Soul's Reference of the week. Yes, okay,
Speaker 1: good maybe doc, maybe not reference one reference, but multiple references.
Speaker 2: The video game series Dark Souls.
Speaker 3: Has a recurrent series from the Little Studio Soft from.
Speaker 1: Soft from Soft from San, that's what they call. It
Speaker 1: has a recurring motif character archetype of a shirtless elderly blacksmith. Okay,
Speaker 1: you may you may know Andre Blacksmith. Andre is a
Speaker 1: well known one, but that is this is one of
Speaker 1: the things that Miyazakian team drew some influence from. They
Speaker 1: love a good shirtless old man.
Speaker 2: Smith.
Speaker 5: Yeah, who who wouldn't wear a shirt working with hot
Speaker 5: melting and steel? I get it, I get it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, there you go.
Speaker 3: Jeff, did you pick up at all in these first episodes,
Speaker 3: especially that first episode? I guess how much Dark Soul
Speaker 3: Dark Souls from Soft came from Berserk? No, okay, that's okay.
Speaker 2: Thankfully you have a Dark Soul's reference from the week
Speaker 2: going for you, so get pointed out.
Speaker 3: So we open up and we are basically inside a tavern.
Speaker 3: It is a rain swept evening and a group of
Speaker 3: excuse the phrase ne'er do wells enter the bar with
Speaker 3: a young girl the podcast.
Speaker 2: Now and didn't like this and then like this where
Speaker 2: this was going?
Speaker 5: You know, Oh, Jeff, buddy, I mean, oh okay, they
Speaker 5: can't do that much with the cartoon. It already seems
Speaker 5: pretty like Pg. Thirteen, so you know, you know, we'll see.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, And all we know about these men is
Speaker 3: the first of all, they're they're they're not they're not
Speaker 3: very cool. No, I would not want to hang out
Speaker 3: with these dudes. And that they serve the snake baron right,
Speaker 3: that's the same guy I was thinking this whole They
Speaker 3: do this whole thing of like spilling drink out onto
Speaker 3: the table and making the girl like lick it up.
Speaker 3: But it's just it's very uncomfortable.
Speaker 2: I wish they wouldn't, isn't wish they wouldn't.
Speaker 3: Yeah, And that is when a mysterious black swordsman with
Speaker 3: a mechanical arm enters the bar and just fucking lights
Speaker 3: two of them up straight away. This is our first
Speaker 3: introduction to our protagonist Guts.
Speaker 5: And I thought he was I thought he was aiming
Speaker 5: with that one eye closed, But no, no, no, one
Speaker 5: eye is closed.
Speaker 4: He's just like I mean, when eyes closed permanently.
Speaker 9: Yeah, yep, just yeah, so that perception, what's that? No
Speaker 9: depth perception? Yeah, he's probably.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Hew do you think Guts lost his eye?
Speaker 8: Oh?
Speaker 5: I don't know, he works with sharp arrows a lot,
Speaker 5: I would imagine, so that's got something.
Speaker 7: To do with it.
Speaker 3: But I'm no crossbow misfire is your is your your guess?
Speaker 2: Yeah, maybe there's like a misfire.
Speaker 5: He's like all those thing's jammed and he like kind
Speaker 5: of looks towards himself and yeah, hips facto.
Speaker 3: There you go.
Speaker 5: You know what.
Speaker 3: I bet that's it. I bet the actual reason won't
Speaker 3: be any more tragic or horrifying them.
Speaker 5: No, he's also fighting snake barns and like taking down
Speaker 5: entire armies with his two dimensions.
Speaker 2: So I don't know.
Speaker 5: Perhaps that's got something to do with it. We'll just
Speaker 5: have to wait and see. But let me tell you,
Speaker 5: they better address it.
Speaker 3: Oh don't worry, Jeff. You will become intimately aware of
Speaker 3: how he lost his eye.
Speaker 2: Cool.
Speaker 5: I love the eyeball terror. Can't wait.
Speaker 3: Goods just just takes these fucking dudes out, but he
Speaker 3: leaves one of them alive because he's.
Speaker 2: Before you move on.
Speaker 1: How So there's a moment where he enters and you're like, okay,
Speaker 1: it's about to pop off. Yeah, and then there's a
Speaker 1: close up of him putting his hand on the hilt
Speaker 1: of the sword and then there's a swinging motion and
Speaker 1: the dude's cutting half. Then you get to see the
Speaker 1: sword land on the ground, right, and there's that moment
Speaker 1: where you're like, wait, the idea is You're like, what
Speaker 1: the why is that so big?
Speaker 2: And why is it so heavy? What was your what
Speaker 2: was your response to that moment?
Speaker 1: Or the sword hits the ground and like basically crushes
Speaker 1: a massive chunk of it.
Speaker 5: M kind of kind of what you said, like, uh, yeah,
Speaker 5: guys holding and wielding and swinging an impossibly heavy sword
Speaker 5: to the point where like maybe he's not that good
Speaker 5: at it. Maybe this thing is fucking just doing what
Speaker 5: it wants. Maybe this sword is not a sword. This
Speaker 5: is a smashing sword. It is It's like it's like
Speaker 5: a hammer sword. It's not really a slicy sword, even
Speaker 5: though he just did dice up a couple of fellers
Speaker 5: in that bar there. Uh, he also holds it sometimes
Speaker 5: as an extension of his penis there I said it
Speaker 5: he holds it in a way Jesus jet that it's
Speaker 5: like positioned between his legs. And you know, look, I
Speaker 5: get its swords are phallic in nature, and certainly you
Speaker 5: stand with one that way, and it's gonna look like
Speaker 5: a sharp, long penis, is what it's.
Speaker 4: Gonna saying a lot here, Jeff, if you hold.
Speaker 5: A sword between your legs in the cratchel region, you
Speaker 5: will make it look like.
Speaker 2: It's a big sharp dong.
Speaker 3: Okay, you know, I tend to just see that as
Speaker 3: a sword.
Speaker 2: But yeah, okay, that's fine.
Speaker 1: It's time for your from Software reference of the week,
Speaker 1: we had got The sword is iconic.
Speaker 3: Yea.
Speaker 1: It is iconic for its size and its heft and
Speaker 1: it's damaging ability, and it's been frequently included in From
Speaker 1: Software's games, most recently. The great Sword is a colossal
Speaker 1: sword in the video game Elden Ring scales primarily with strength.
Speaker 1: Great weapon for cleaving a bunch of one evening. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's just a It's described as a coarse iron lump
Speaker 1: of an ultra great sword mosedown's foes by utilizing its
Speaker 1: incredible weight.
Speaker 5: I'm not like swords stuff like, you know what I mean?
Speaker 3: Usually, Jeff, I prefer karate to swords. Yeah, same biga.
Speaker 1: Yeah, though handling it likely requires the wilder to have
Speaker 1: surpassed the realm of merely human is precisely for this reason,
Speaker 1: the weapon is used to slaughter even in human foes. Mmm,
Speaker 1: got it, you're from software. Reference of the week.
Speaker 2: Okay, thank you, tom So.
Speaker 3: Word gets back to our boy, the Snake Baron, who
Speaker 3: just to let people know, is the villain of this episode,
Speaker 3: and he hears word that the Black Swordsman has arrived,
Speaker 3: and his response is merely, he's finally here. So already
Speaker 3: you're kind of dropped in the middle of a story.
Speaker 3: This is this is not the origin and nothing. This
Speaker 3: is very much like Okay, this this has been going
Speaker 3: for a while, and we are cutting into the center
Speaker 3: of it right, as we will find out, is very
Speaker 3: much true. We didn't get a scene of Guts trying
Speaker 3: to get some some should I in a nearby forest
Speaker 3: and all kinds of horrible visions are stopping him from
Speaker 3: doing that.
Speaker 2: Guys, I think he's got some demons. Mhmm. Reference of
Speaker 2: the week. I don't even like Okay, go ahead, go ahead.
Speaker 2: What inspired the messengers in Bloodborne? Wow?
Speaker 5: I didn't realize Berserk and all the souls are so
Speaker 5: intimately connected, Oh Jeff, they are, Like.
Speaker 2: Why do you think I like them? Both?
Speaker 5: You go, look, I don't know that. I mean I
Speaker 5: know you Berserk. I I assigned Berserk to John Berserk
Speaker 5: is John's.
Speaker 3: Uh, I would say me and Tam are probably equal
Speaker 3: fans of BERSERMI.
Speaker 5: Okay, well I learned a lot today. That's very comfortable.
Speaker 2: Cool. That was your from Software Reference of the Week. Okay, Tam, this.
Speaker 4: Has a lot of do you remember Harry Hill's TV
Speaker 4: bop where they would go? So this has like we
Speaker 4: need a jingle, was like from Software Reference.
Speaker 3: Off If someone would like to make it, just use
Speaker 3: that sound bite Lucy to give it to us clean
Speaker 3: without any.
Speaker 4: Sounded like I want to blow my nose from Software
Speaker 4: Reference of the Week. I think the flat note really
Speaker 4: makes it.
Speaker 1: Yeahs, that'd be great, thank you, or someone else can
Speaker 1: isolate it and put like a beat behind it or something.
Speaker 3: So what we're getting here is this good sky. He
Speaker 3: is troubled. He he you know, even even a simple
Speaker 3: knight's rest is not something that comes easily to him.
Speaker 3: We see a lot of ghostly figures, including four particular
Speaker 3: figures are five that refer to themselves as the God Hand.
Speaker 5: So is this the god Hand Reference of the week?
Speaker 5: Because I played that this is.
Speaker 2: The of the week. Play that game Capcom published the
Speaker 2: game called God Hand. I guess.
Speaker 3: The snake Baron is He's going off on one. He's
Speaker 3: not happy that that that Guts is here, and he
Speaker 3: basically starts annihilating this village, to whom he has established
Speaker 3: an agreement with the mayor. I don't I don't know
Speaker 3: the lord of this village.
Speaker 4: If we are in Skyrim Verbinge and the this.
Speaker 3: This snake, he is not no reservations about slaughtering all
Speaker 3: these innocent people, which is when he comes face to
Speaker 3: face with Guts. His men do not do very well
Speaker 3: against Goots at all. They are slaughtered immediately by the
Speaker 3: heft of his giant and girthy sword, and it then
Speaker 3: becomes a showdown between the the snake Baron and Guts
Speaker 3: before the snake Baron transforms into a giant and horrifying monster.
Speaker 4: Was I thought that was Griffith.
Speaker 5: It was not okay, Pay attention, Lucy. We discovered that
Speaker 5: not eighteen minutes ago. Also, wish the snake is anyone else?
Speaker 5: Just not happy with like it's like mouthguts, the.
Speaker 3: Gum face mouth cuts.
Speaker 2: Yeah, No, I get it. I get it.
Speaker 3: When he when his face is inside the mouth, Yeah yeah,
Speaker 3: he has the vagina mouth.
Speaker 2: Time from Softwire reference of the week, The Snake Baron.
Speaker 1: You see where he's like giant and he's got loads
Speaker 1: of tentacles and you know, being a widow from remind
Speaker 1: you what are we doing?
Speaker 2: Might remind you?
Speaker 1: May have inspired one right card Lord of Blasphemy in
Speaker 1: Eldon Ring, one of the shot bearers.
Speaker 2: Thank you for your time. I don't know if I
Speaker 2: can handle join the family the very God.
Speaker 4: Yeah to available for professional.
Speaker 5: Voice work by the way, So anyway, vaginant snake Uh,
Speaker 5: wish that didn't happen. Not a fan, No, not a fan.
Speaker 3: It's something that goods wish that it didn't happen. His
Speaker 3: his sword gets knocked away and he gets crushed into
Speaker 3: the giant Tale of the Snake Baron and this thing
Speaker 3: the month the Designer Berserk. I always find is like
Speaker 3: Mirror takes a lot of like really established tropes, like
Speaker 3: a giant snake monster, but there's always just this added
Speaker 3: layer of just fucking nightmare horror to it. And I
Speaker 3: think the Snake Barron is like a really good introduction
Speaker 3: to that because like big scary snake monster and then
Speaker 3: it opens its mouth and has the human face inside
Speaker 3: and it's like it's pushing through the goods thing utterly horrible.
Speaker 5: Plus the tom plus the tongue on top, like the
Speaker 5: cherry on the Sunday the things.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I was gonna say.
Speaker 1: The two things that they kind of in that whole
Speaker 1: sequence that are worth pointing out is the snake Baron
Speaker 1: call refers to himself as an apostle and he says
Speaker 1: the other guy, I'm making trouble for us apostles. And
Speaker 1: then also like it zooms in onto a necklace he's wearing,
Speaker 1: which is like a weird fat baby based red.
Speaker 5: Yeah, there's like a weird honker in it. Weird nose,
Speaker 5: weird nose.
Speaker 2: Reference of the week. Devil might cry red orbs. It's nice.
Speaker 5: He he does say, like I got my nose necklace.
Speaker 5: That's important, is what he calls it. I will say
Speaker 5: this Berzerk is pretty heavy metal. I wasn't expecting it
Speaker 5: to be so heavy metal. It's kind of metal that
Speaker 5: is not going to stop.
Speaker 2: Yeah, very heavy, very heavy metal.
Speaker 3: It was not amazing and like iconic imagery in this show. Yeah,
Speaker 3: And unfortunately for Baron, snake guts happens to have a
Speaker 3: cannon in his arm thoughts.
Speaker 5: I didn't know where that came from at all, sort
Speaker 5: of just like, come on, we need to establish things
Speaker 5: before we use them, I guess, but maybe not well,
Speaker 5: I mean, I mean, I guess some.
Speaker 3: Might argue this is the establishment that was establishing sure.
Speaker 5: Pilot, pilot, give me your cannon gun, cannon arm thing.
Speaker 5: I like, they froze, they froze the frame. I thought
Speaker 5: that was really cool. I really enjoyed that delivery.
Speaker 3: I think so when I look at the show, it
Speaker 3: doesn't look like a show with like the most lavish
Speaker 3: animation production in terms of like time or budget, But
Speaker 3: I think they make a lot of clever decisions in
Speaker 3: working on what they have and making it feel important.
Speaker 3: Because even I think it's this episode of this one
Speaker 3: shot where there's like it's just a still background of
Speaker 3: a village burning and it's a beautiful painting, but like
Speaker 3: there's no animation, the fire is not moving, and so
Speaker 3: they like warp it and that with the fire affects
Speaker 3: like it looks like heat Hayes and it actually works,
Speaker 3: and that that is an economical use of one's resources.
Speaker 1: I also like during this fight where the snake Baron
Speaker 1: is holding gods by the head and he looks like
Speaker 1: so like pained and sad and like he's That's one
Speaker 1: of the things. I think it's the first instance of
Speaker 1: the viewer being told like, this guy is not invincible.
Speaker 2: There's more going.
Speaker 1: I mean, they reference it the earlier where the he's
Speaker 1: having that experience in the woods and they like, your
Speaker 1: fear belongs to us, the kind of references that he's
Speaker 1: not a superhero. And then you see this scene where
Speaker 1: he's like he looks like he's gonna cry, and you're like, oh, ship,
Speaker 1: this guy.
Speaker 5: Reminded me of Mooman writer in one punch Man was
Speaker 5: just getting tossed around by that monster thing.
Speaker 2: My favorite part of that entire show, that little U.
Speaker 3: So this is what it looks like when you just
Speaker 3: don't rise to bait and you be the bigger person.
Speaker 3: So I'm moving on.
Speaker 2: Cool.
Speaker 5: Yeah, that's not bait, that's just truth. There's just spitting fact,
Speaker 5: I guess. But yeah, that's tough, John. You're a right,
Speaker 5: you're you're a big, big person. It's okay, okay, okay.
Speaker 1: Never I never thought in a million years out here
Speaker 1: moomen writer reference while talking about.
Speaker 5: Look, I did it, I did it. Does the first
Speaker 5: for everything, Tam get on board, strap in. There's a
Speaker 5: lot more where this came from.
Speaker 2: Let's go.
Speaker 3: So at this point, uh, the snake Baron is in
Speaker 3: a pretty bad way. And here's where we get to
Speaker 3: see a really, like, I want to say, kind of
Speaker 3: surprising side of Goots, because he's not like, I have
Speaker 3: defeated you, Barron, and now the people are free. He's like,
Speaker 3: I'm gonna fucking hurt you now and just shoots him
Speaker 3: over and over. It's hilarious.
Speaker 2: He's just like, what was that? Oh, oh you're like
Speaker 2: a va giant.
Speaker 3: Oh what?
Speaker 2: Just over and over?
Speaker 5: Really gratuitous but funny.
Speaker 3: And it is gratuitous. But it's also like, oh, Guts
Speaker 3: like fucking hates these people, whatever the apostles are, whatever
Speaker 3: this force is, Guts despises it, and he has no
Speaker 3: mercy in himself. He he he He is Maybe not
Speaker 3: a good dude either, is what we're kind of feeling here.
Speaker 2: They also referenced something called the brand m.
Speaker 5: Hm yes, which is a tattoo that I'm sure no
Speaker 5: one in real life has.
Speaker 2: It's some from software reference of.
Speaker 3: The we.
Speaker 4: John as you said, John John raised the hand Man.
Speaker 3: Where is it It's like could show I'm not going
Speaker 3: to It's.
Speaker 2: Like, wait is the other side? Where is that where
Speaker 2: Guts has?
Speaker 1: Yes, that is a brand that also inspired a bunch
Speaker 1: of imagery symbolism in Bloodborne, specifically the Carol Ruins and
Speaker 1: the Hunter's mark. If you look at the hunter as
Speaker 1: mark from Bloodborne, it is very, very stylistically similar to
Speaker 1: the brand.
Speaker 3: Yeah, the brand has become a very popular tattoo to
Speaker 3: get and I love that. I love meeting other people
Speaker 3: with the brand and being like.
Speaker 2: You get it going on you that night.
Speaker 3: I mean, it's it's a struggle at the best of
Speaker 3: times them. So with that, God's basically leaves the snake
Speaker 3: barn burning.
Speaker 2: And takes the baylet.
Speaker 3: He takes the bailt and this closes out episode one,
Speaker 3: but as it does, we get a flashback and it's
Speaker 3: of a seemingly very young Guts facing down a night
Speaker 3: much larger than him. Azuso, my boy, that's the character
Speaker 3: that you've fucking honed in on.
Speaker 2: I don't know why. I don't know why.
Speaker 5: Something about this guy I think is real funny and goofy.
Speaker 5: He's like the Mike Manatti of Oh shit, this guy's
Speaker 5: making me laugh. A Disney adult, Yeah, like Bzo definitely
Speaker 5: Disney definitely loves going on all the rides.
Speaker 3: So, and this is the point basically where we have
Speaker 3: done fourteen chapters in this one episode, we've kind of
Speaker 3: like we've kind of cut out the second half or
Speaker 3: well not even the second half of cut out, like
Speaker 3: just loads and loads of story and like loads and
Speaker 3: loads of goods like fighting demon lords and nearly killing
Speaker 3: little girls and all this kind of stuff.
Speaker 2: Nearly what do you mean nearly?
Speaker 5: Why?
Speaker 2: I mean he kind of has.
Speaker 3: There's a moment where he's like kind of saving a
Speaker 3: little girl, but then when the choice comes to kill
Speaker 3: this demon lord or say the little girl, he accidentally
Speaker 3: nearly kills the dean the girl, but then he does
Speaker 3: kill the demon lord, and it's a whole thing. The
Speaker 3: point being he wants to kill these creatures more than
Speaker 3: he wants to save innocence, which makes him a right bastard,
Speaker 3: got it?
Speaker 2: Mm hmm? Okay, And.
Speaker 3: So then the next Okay, first of all, Jeff thoughts
Speaker 3: where were you at the end? And Tom Lucy a
Speaker 3: mainly consentrying on Jeff just because he is present the series. Yeah, no,
Speaker 3: I was, I think It captured me definitely. It was
Speaker 3: very excited. Okay, yeah, I was like cool.
Speaker 5: I was like, cool, we're just gonna be are we
Speaker 5: going to be doing like demon on the We and
Speaker 5: Guts is just gonna be like two dimensionally slaughtering these
Speaker 5: fools like all over, Like I'm here for that. I
Speaker 5: thought that was neat, you know. I guess there was
Speaker 5: enough table setting that sort of uh you know, laid
Speaker 5: the laid the foundation for like, oh, let's let's we're
Speaker 5: gonna probably dig into this guy's past. We're gonna see
Speaker 5: how he became this uh this guts person with the sword. Okay, sure,
Speaker 5: you know, so it was. It was I found the
Speaker 5: first episode more engaging than this one. We're about to
Speaker 5: recap the second one, but but yeah.
Speaker 2: M interesting.
Speaker 3: So okay, I'm interested to dive into this one a
Speaker 3: little bit because again, so much has been cut from
Speaker 3: this episode, and I guess I just want to drop
Speaker 3: a content warning here for people. Uh, it's really really
Speaker 3: difficult to talk about Brazik without touching on like aspects
Speaker 3: of like sexual assault and some kind of tough stuff
Speaker 3: that it touches on. And I think we are going
Speaker 3: to have to like go into that a little bit.
Speaker 3: You know, we're not going to dwell on it, we're
Speaker 3: not going to talk about it longer than we have to.
Speaker 3: But I think there's there's a lot of positive and
Speaker 3: a lot of negative and how Berzerk touches on this stuff,
Speaker 3: and I think in some ways like it's there's some
Speaker 3: really like profound and great stuff in there, and there's
Speaker 3: like some explosive stuff in there as well, And I
Speaker 3: really don't want to just sideline that because I think
Speaker 3: it is a really really important discussion to have. So
Speaker 3: just just want to lay this content warning right in
Speaker 3: front of people, you know, and we will do that
Speaker 3: as we continue with the story, so that you know,
Speaker 3: people don't have to miss more than they have once.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's berserk in terms of contextualizing it and trying
Speaker 1: to come at it from or talking about that specific
Speaker 1: thing from a creative analytical angle. Was this was like
Speaker 1: one of the few or maybe one of the early
Speaker 1: examples or popular examples of a anime or a manga
Speaker 1: series actually touching upon those kinds of topics. And for
Speaker 1: most people who enjoy anime, this is usually series that
Speaker 1: kind of when you're young, changed things where it's like, oh,
Speaker 1: this is does anime? Isn't just like people being super
Speaker 1: powered and you know, growing up this was like one
Speaker 1: of those experiences. So the fact that it tackles or
Speaker 1: uses those kind of issues as a narrative kind of
Speaker 1: device was unique. But in doing so and in pioneering
Speaker 1: that kind of approach, it also makes a lot of mistakes.
Speaker 3: Yeah, there's there's a lot in like specific scenes that
Speaker 3: I think is very much like exploitive, and there's definitely
Speaker 3: moments where it feels like that kind of material is
Speaker 3: being used to shock. But what I will say is,
Speaker 3: at least in the case of its main characters, I
Speaker 3: feel like that trauma is worked into who they are
Speaker 3: and their identity in really genuinely meaningful ways, and it's
Speaker 3: a part of them that is always relevant and you
Speaker 3: can always feel in them. But we'll get into it
Speaker 3: a little more here, but yeah, just wanted to get
Speaker 3: that right up front. So we begin, and it starts
Speaker 3: with basically a siege on a castle and Jeff's favorite
Speaker 3: berserk character, Berzuzzo is uh Mo, one fools down. No
Speaker 3: one can touch Berzuzo and his giant dick axe. His
Speaker 3: dick axe, his like bulbous armor. That's so stupid, and
Speaker 3: he's just sort.
Speaker 4: Of like a what'd you call him from from Soft
Speaker 4: in terms of like that it's time to from Software.
Speaker 2: I could feel it.
Speaker 1: In the Dark Saul's world, there is a place called
Speaker 1: Katarina where nights.
Speaker 2: Different when.
Speaker 1: Yeah, knights from this place often make their way into
Speaker 1: whatever mischief is happening in the Dark Soul's world, and
Speaker 1: one of them, Siegmaya of Katerina, is iconic known as
Speaker 1: the Onion Knight, and he very much has this kind
Speaker 1: of michelin Man style army set where it looks like
Speaker 1: it's fat rolls are like visible in the armor. And yeah,
Speaker 1: the the Katarina Knights appear frequently in the From Software games.
Speaker 1: Siegmay is probably the most well known one, sitting outside
Speaker 1: sends Fortress.
Speaker 3: Yeah, remember seeing that dude first and just be like,
Speaker 3: what who is this guy? But I think at that
Speaker 3: point I'd already missed his first west line. But even
Speaker 3: that was just like the mystique of who the fuck
Speaker 3: is this? So good anyway, So listen, guys, no one's
Speaker 3: gonna be able to take down old Bazuzo. He's the
Speaker 3: thirty Man Slayer he's known as the bear slaughterer. There
Speaker 3: ain't no one who can fucking touch Bazuzo. He kills bears,
Speaker 3: or is there? Step forward a young Guts and Guts.
Speaker 3: I not one hundred percent what age Goots is meant
Speaker 3: to be at this point. I think in the anime
Speaker 3: he does look a bit more adult than he looks
Speaker 3: in the comic. Or then he he's I think he's
Speaker 3: meant to be imployed like teenage years, like fifteen to seventeen,
Speaker 3: somewhere about there. And the Guts is already a bit
Speaker 3: of a menace with a sword. At this point, he
Speaker 3: gets into a battle with Bizzuzo where he's able to
Speaker 3: first splinter Bezuzzo's acts with a parry, and later on
Speaker 3: when their two blows meat Bezuzo's acts shatters, he takes
Speaker 3: one to the guts before Guts, I don't even try
Speaker 3: and do That's that's what ten years of podcasting experience
Speaker 3: will get you, folks. And before he takes them down,
Speaker 3: which kind of signals that which is kind of the
Speaker 3: turning point in this siege, And what that means basically
Speaker 3: is that this castle, which has been held by for
Speaker 3: three months is now going to fall. But we get
Speaker 3: a shot from the perspective of the people defending the
Speaker 3: castle and it's this mercenary outfit called the Band of Hawk,
Speaker 3: and they're kind of looking at it and they're like
Speaker 3: this fucking guy.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: They mentioned about how you know, no one thought that
Speaker 3: they could defend the castle for three days, not even
Speaker 3: mine three months, but they kind of talked themselves and like,
Speaker 3: that's probably time to pull out. I think we're done here.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 2: What did you think of seeing Griffith?
Speaker 6: Me?
Speaker 1: Yeah, remember they they came up to him and he's
Speaker 1: and then they mentioned him like on a different level,
Speaker 1: it's like a beautiful, like silver haired being.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Yeah, So my first thoughts on seeing Griffith was that's
Speaker 3: the most beautiful woman I've ever seen. And then he
Speaker 3: started talking and I was like, oh, well, life's complicated.
Speaker 1: He's also he's also holding a necklace of a weird,
Speaker 1: bulbous looking mouthy thing.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 5: That's why that's why my association was cemented where I
Speaker 5: was like, oh, right, you understand.
Speaker 3: Like all I'll say, Jeff, is that griff creature nose
Speaker 3: necklace like milk necklace. Alight, you heard what you want?
Speaker 2: To hear it. Yeah, what what do you y'all sell?
Speaker 2: Millf necklaces?
Speaker 8: Here?
Speaker 2: Mm hmm merchandise. There we go, there we go.
Speaker 3: Sorry adventure milf necklace?
Speaker 2: Yeah, but you have.
Speaker 1: I mean, yeah, you should, we should, we should. Just
Speaker 1: our merchandise is only ever bullets. Merchandise should only ever
Speaker 1: be the word milf. But in the like logo font
Speaker 1: of the anime we're watching, love that.
Speaker 3: Oh milk and berserk font is one of the most
Speaker 3: first things I've ever thought of.
Speaker 2: Come on, let's go fan art people, Let's go. Yeah, oh,
Speaker 2: dear Steve project without a doubt.
Speaker 3: So you know, they have a little chat about Guts
Speaker 3: and like, you know what, we need to get out
Speaker 3: of here. Then outside the outside the fort, it's basically
Speaker 3: everyone's kind of clearing out there. The soldiers are accepting
Speaker 3: their pay and Guts gets his massive bonus for killing Bozuzo. Jeff,
Speaker 3: I want to offer my condolences. I know Bazuza is
Speaker 3: your favorite character. He ain't coming back.
Speaker 2: It's okay.
Speaker 5: Uh, you know, I enjoyed our time with with him,
Speaker 5: and uh, you know, all good memories. Yeah, everything good
Speaker 5: must end, I get it.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Yeah, And the guy in charge, Like the Night Captain
Speaker 3: is basically like, hey, kid, you should come work for me.
Speaker 3: What if you come under my employee? And Guts is
Speaker 3: like not interested. Fuck off. He's a mercenary. He doesn't
Speaker 3: have any allegiance. He's just doing this for money. But
Speaker 3: then there's a bit, and I think like it's a
Speaker 3: really in hindsight, like very kind of profound important bit
Speaker 3: where the Night Captain reaches for Goots and he like
Speaker 3: grabs him by the shoulder and he's just it's not
Speaker 3: even like a violent crab, it's just a hey, hang
Speaker 3: on there for a second. Let's let's have a talk
Speaker 3: about this. And Guts reacts really fucking badly. He does
Speaker 3: not want this person touching him and he says, don't
Speaker 3: touch me. Don't you ever touch me?
Speaker 2: And uh.
Speaker 3: After that he set on and we'll we'll we'll come
Speaker 3: back to that. But after that he sets off down
Speaker 3: a dirt dirt road where he is spotted once again
Speaker 3: by the band of the Hawk and they're like, there's
Speaker 3: that fucking guy who ruined our siege. And there's kind
Speaker 3: of this conversation like should we go get him, and
Speaker 3: they're like, well, he's not our enemy. Anymore. But then
Speaker 3: they think that, you know what, he probably has a
Speaker 3: nice fat purse from taking out Buzuzo. And they attack first.
Speaker 3: Corcus attacks, and let me tell you, Corcus is just
Speaker 3: the fucking asshole who does not quit. Fuck Corcus every
Speaker 3: goddamn scene this motherfucker is in.
Speaker 5: He is a piece of shit, just making the wrong
Speaker 5: decision m hm without even thinking about it.
Speaker 2: What a piece of ship mm hm.
Speaker 3: And so he's basically like, I'm gonna I'm gonna go,
Speaker 3: I'm gonna go sort this guy out. And that's where
Speaker 3: we meet Kaska, my sweet girl.
Speaker 2: Oh I love this.
Speaker 3: I love her so much.
Speaker 5: She's cool, she seems cool. I'm into whatever cool you guys,
Speaker 5: I don't have anything tattoos.
Speaker 2: Wait, none, chef zero.
Speaker 3: I mean, Jeff, it's been two episodes.
Speaker 5: It's been two episodes that I watched this morning.
Speaker 2: I get it.
Speaker 3: So you've had the entire morning.
Speaker 2: Come back. You're right, What am I doing?
Speaker 4: God, he's gonna have drawn the brand on his neck brand?
Speaker 3: Hell yeah, there's something like there's something so hilarious about
Speaker 3: the ideas when drawing Jeff as goods and like, I'm
Speaker 3: specifically thinking the expression you have in your discordfile, Jeff.
Speaker 2: Okay, just the armor. Yeah, I'm pratice together for me
Speaker 2: real quick. I would if I could get if I
Speaker 2: if I went to get in a tattoo, I would
Speaker 2: think yet tattoo.
Speaker 3: Did you think you ever would?
Speaker 1: Muh, there's like cultural religious implications that are difficult to
Speaker 1: I would. I would think about getting one of those
Speaker 1: like fadeaway ones because like they lost, Yeah, they lost
Speaker 1: for like a few months and then they just fade away.
Speaker 3: When when I started getting tattoos, I know, it's like
Speaker 3: kind of a different thing. When I started getting tattoos,
Speaker 3: my mom just said, John, no, you look like an
Speaker 3: English criminal. She's got a point no, no no.
Speaker 4: So my mom was a lawyer and she when I
Speaker 4: started getting tattoos. I only have two. But like I said,
Speaker 4: I do have a tattoo. A pointment for Wednesday. Shout
Speaker 4: out to Ryan. I'm getting that Peanuts one. I'm getting
Speaker 4: the Lucy van Pelt saying I'm torn between the desire
Speaker 4: to create the desire to destroy.
Speaker 2: That's pretty cool.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 4: I when I told my mom that I had a tattoo,
Speaker 4: she sent me a very long uh what's that message?
Speaker 4: And my mum used to like work in prisons and stuff,
Speaker 4: and she was like, wow, all the people I used
Speaker 4: to defend and you know, prosecute, like they would all
Speaker 4: have tattoos. And I was like, are you trying to
Speaker 4: say that just because I got a tattoo, I'm gonna
Speaker 4: become a criminal now, And she was like, well, I'm
Speaker 4: not not saying yeah, okay.
Speaker 5: All right, Well I mean that's what happens. You get
Speaker 5: a tattoo, you start doing crimes. Everyone knows that I.
Speaker 3: Have done way more crimes since I got my first tattoo.
Speaker 2: I've done zero crimes and I have no tattoos. Not
Speaker 2: a coincidence that proves it. I've never done a crime.
Speaker 3: Like, let's go fucking let's go fucking kill this fool.
Speaker 3: And Kaska is like, Nope, you're gonna die, don't do it.
Speaker 3: And he's like I'm not. And he sets off with
Speaker 3: two people and they attack Guts. One immediately has their
Speaker 3: arm cut off. Do you know there immediately dies from
Speaker 3: Guts's massive sword, and then Corcus nearly dies before Griffith
Speaker 3: instructs Casca go save them, and he almost caucused it.
Speaker 2: Oh my god, Lucy, keep going, keep going, Cask is.
Speaker 3: Caske puts up a decent fight against Guts, but she's
Speaker 3: immediately knocked off her horse in a really beautiful shot
Speaker 3: where he like, yeahs her helmet. I just love that
Speaker 3: little piece of animation.
Speaker 5: He's like, wait a minute, you're a girl, girl, is
Speaker 5: what I said.
Speaker 3: That's what he said. Ye, And everyone's like watching them
Speaker 3: fight and they're like, holy shit, this dude is keeping
Speaker 3: up with Caska. According to everyone else, Casket is the
Speaker 3: second strongest fighter. My camera just went brokeepron. Cask is
Speaker 3: the second strongest fighter next to Griffith in the Band
Speaker 3: of Hawk, and she does rock. She is not quite
Speaker 3: able to keep up with Guts, which is when Griffith appears,
Speaker 3: and everything about how Griffith is framed, everything about how
Speaker 3: the other characters react to him, you can tell this
Speaker 3: is the fucking guy, right, This is the dude who
Speaker 3: everyone loves, who everyone thinks is amazing, and he beats
Speaker 3: Guts in a second. He basically one slice, Guts goes down,
Speaker 3: it's over and during this so then basically Guts has
Speaker 3: this vision that he is naked and that a naked
Speaker 3: lady ise lying next to him, and this is where
Speaker 3: we get I guess a very abstracted version of goots past. Jeff,
Speaker 3: what was What was your feeling about this section? Definitely
Speaker 3: distracting with his like weird Kendall body. Yes, could not
Speaker 3: put that out of my mind right away. He's huffing
Speaker 3: and puffing.
Speaker 1: That is just just to be clear that as a
Speaker 1: consequence of like not censorship, but like ater ing stuff
Speaker 1: in the animey, it's he does he does have a dong.
Speaker 5: Oh, yeah, I wasn't like the message I received was
Speaker 5: not that he was like that, I get it. I
Speaker 5: just found that to be a thing I couldn't put
Speaker 5: out of my mind. And yeah, huffing and puffing running
Speaker 5: away from something. I'm trying to think what else I
Speaker 5: remember from that, But yeah, obviously my man's got shattered past,
Speaker 5: and I know that like they do these, I would
Speaker 5: imagine this is a thing where we are understanding whatever
Speaker 5: the four or five characters is like, there was there's
Speaker 5: a lot of like demonic imagery whenever we go into
Speaker 5: this dark place with our boy.
Speaker 3: Guts wakes up and he goes outside and immediately Caska
Speaker 3: punches him in his wound, making me fall in love
Speaker 3: with her for the rest of time. Yeah, I love
Speaker 3: Caska so so much. And it's revealed that that Griffith
Speaker 3: asked Caska to lay with guts and keep his body
Speaker 3: warm because that is the job of a woman thoughts.
Speaker 2: Ah ah, it's like.
Speaker 4: This kind of demeaning thing that Griffith does. And you
Speaker 4: will see the way that he kind of manipulates and
Speaker 4: keeps everyone in their place because he has a grand
Speaker 4: plan and a grand scheme and it's such a like
Speaker 4: it's you know, like the point that Casko's elevated within
Speaker 4: the band of the Hawk, and then he also is
Speaker 4: like going to demean her by giving her that up, Like, yeah,
Speaker 4: there's a there's a really, there's a really. There was
Speaker 4: a TikTok series of this older gentleman reading Berserk for
Speaker 4: the first time.
Speaker 3: Do you mean web MD sorry or sorry WebMD wed.
Speaker 2: Okay?
Speaker 4: And he had something like an incredible line to say
Speaker 4: about Griffith, and I think, John, we should hold it
Speaker 4: until we get there.
Speaker 3: Definitely hold it. Definitely hold it.
Speaker 4: But like Griffith is a character, Oh my god, I.
Speaker 3: Think he has he has such like such control over
Speaker 3: everyone around him, Like he's he's the kind of dude
Speaker 3: he shows up at a party, he is immediately the
Speaker 3: most popular person. Everyone kind of wants to talk to him. Jeff,
Speaker 3: I'm gonna imagine, like I'm gonna ask you to try
Speaker 3: and conceptualize what it might like to be someone like
Speaker 3: to be to be cool. Yeah, like just someone people
Speaker 3: want to talk to him, be around and stuff.
Speaker 5: Yeah, okay, I've seen stuff I can drug.
Speaker 1: Here's time for your From software references of the way,
Speaker 1: we have two references her friends. The first is Kaska
Speaker 1: sleeping with or using her body to keep guts alive.
Speaker 1: Could be or interpretation. In Elden Ring, there is a
Speaker 1: group of people called the deathbed companions. You're most well known,
Speaker 1: you most well know fear the deathbed companion who the
Speaker 1: deathbed companions are effectively women who kind of lay by
Speaker 1: the side.
Speaker 3: Of noble people and use and get a deep buff right. Yeah. Yeah,
Speaker 3: I'm just saying she kind of games.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so she like absorbs almost like life energy from
Speaker 1: those she lays with and can transfer it to like
Speaker 1: others to try and keep them alive and vigorous and
Speaker 1: that kind of stuff. So could be a deathbed companion
Speaker 1: thing happening there. And then the second one is Griffith
Speaker 1: is very popular because he's very charismatic and has the
Speaker 1: ability to almost control people around him with his charisma
Speaker 1: and make them be who he wants them to be,
Speaker 1: much like a certain Demi god called Kindly Mikola in
Speaker 1: Elder Ring, who has the same ability of using charisma
Speaker 1: to win people over.
Speaker 3: Thank you for your time, thank you tom So Immediately,
Speaker 3: someone who has not won over by Griffith is goods
Speaker 3: for He's like, you motherfucker, and he's like, let's fight
Speaker 3: right now. And Griffith's sponse is basically like, okay, but
Speaker 3: if I win, you got to join my band of mercenary.
Speaker 3: Gouts draws his sword rushes towards Griffith, and that's where
Speaker 3: we end the episode.
Speaker 2: Bam hm boom, what do you hold up?
Speaker 4: Hold up?
Speaker 7: What do you mean?
Speaker 4: No?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think you all.
Speaker 5: You're you're consuming this media again, right, you.
Speaker 4: Have the context, We have the context.
Speaker 2: You have so much more context.
Speaker 3: Yeahyah, look we're teasing. I actually I have a favorative
Speaker 3: sympathy for Jeff in this situation because it is hard
Speaker 3: when you are viewing, when you're experiencing a piece of
Speaker 3: media and everyone already has their thirty thousand mile perspective
Speaker 3: opinion on it, right.
Speaker 5: Very difficult to put your isolated viewing of the thing
Speaker 5: in a box and sort of like, let's sit passenger,
Speaker 5: right while the three of you just dance around in
Speaker 5: this berserk party that I've not been invited to.
Speaker 3: Oh no, Jeff for inviting me in. You're welcome to
Speaker 3: the party.
Speaker 2: I'm in the party.
Speaker 3: I'll cast all about I'm in the party. I'd be
Speaker 3: so excited to see you as a private party. I
Speaker 3: didn't mean it.
Speaker 2: No, it's fine, No, it's totally fine.
Speaker 5: No, uh yeah, so understandably right, Like you guys like this, uh, this,
Speaker 5: this end of episode two rings much more prominent to
Speaker 5: the three of you than it does me. I'm just
Speaker 5: sort of like, all right, these two teenagers are gonna
Speaker 5: like slap fight whatever.
Speaker 3: Yeah, this dude in a twink. So yeah.
Speaker 1: I think a lot of this series is going to
Speaker 1: be that by the nature of it being a condensed
Speaker 1: version of Multiplocks from the manga. But yeah, I think
Speaker 1: what we're trying to do here is provide as much
Speaker 1: context around the things that are happening without spoiling stuff
Speaker 1: that is coming up, which is a tricky balance to.
Speaker 3: Strike for sure?
Speaker 2: Hell yeah, how did you feel about those two episodes? Overall?
Speaker 2: I feel good?
Speaker 5: You know. Maybe first one's a little more compelling, a
Speaker 5: little more action, a little more like intense.
Speaker 2: I get.
Speaker 5: The purpose of episode two. We're framing up some character
Speaker 5: development where we're trying to introduce you to what I
Speaker 5: would imagine be important characters here, and uh yeah, I'm
Speaker 5: here for it. I'm excited to see where it goes.
Speaker 3: Hell yeah, me too. And guys, that is going to
Speaker 3: draw to a close our first episode of Jeff Jeffs
Speaker 3: bizarre adventure Berserk Guiden. I want to thank you everything
Speaker 3: for me, Lucy James, Where can people find you?
Speaker 4: Find me? Everywhere? Lucy James Games, but on Blue Sky
Speaker 4: I'm Lucy James dot Games.
Speaker 3: Jeff Backlerwe can the people find.
Speaker 5: You, you know everywhere? I do the Blue Sky stuff
Speaker 5: a lot.
Speaker 4: Now.
Speaker 5: I think that place is fine for now, So check
Speaker 5: me out there, would you please?
Speaker 1: Thanks Tam Where people got Yeah, I'm tomor h on
Speaker 1: Everything on blis Band Tomorrow, Hatre dot Com.
Speaker 3: And I am eyepatch Wolf on Blue Sky. Guys, thank
Speaker 3: you for joining me and remember keep struggling.
Speaker 5: Jeff Jeff's Bizarre Adventure is hosted by timor Hussein, Lucy James, John,
Speaker 5: Super Eye, Patch, Wolf Walsh, and me Jeff Backlar. Our
Speaker 5: post producer an editor is Jean Luke Zepke. Our logo
Speaker 5: is designed by Justin Bashon and Jesse O'Brien. Thanks so
Speaker 5: much for listening.
Speaker 2: Anim