Meeting Date: 11/30/2016
Disclaimer: The Herald Anime Club discusses shows as they’re airing. Naturally, there will be spoilers for a given episode. You have been warned!
Mike Ferreira: Good evening everyone, and welcome to the Herald Anime Club. I’m Mike Ferreira, and I’m here with Lydia Rivers, L.B. Bryant, and Anthony Simpson.
Anthony Simpson: Evening.
L.B. Bryant: Hey all
Lydia Rivers: Hiii everyone!
Mike Ferreira: This week, we’re continuing our discussion on Drifters, with episode 8: Mystery – Call Me, or “Yay, everyone’s back! Kinda!”
Lydia Rivers: And also as “Let’s make fun of Toyohisa for being a hick!”
Mike Ferreira: Also “How did a Japanese fighter pilot become King of the Kobolds?”
Lydia Rivers: Oh right! And also “That same god king screams at an old roman dude like a yakuza!”
Mike Ferreira: before happily imagining Japanese, Italian, and Nazi flags.
Anthony Simpson: So after last weeks action packed episode we get more information about the Octobrist organization and their goals. Oh we all learn who the Grand Master is.
Mike Ferreira: Definitely. I loved Nobunaga’s reaction to Abe no Seimei.
Lydia Rivers: Yeah I’m interested to see what LB thinks of the pacing now especially.
L.B. Bryant: I thought the pacing of this episode was dreadfully slow.
Anthony Simpson: It was a slower episode but I think it needed to be slow for it to work.
Mike Ferreira: Yeah… there was so much information packed in there, that they needed to take a few minutes to breathe
Lydia Rivers: Mhm. I feel like I’m being fished when I watch this show. They reel reel reel and then drift…
L.B. Bryant: I totally get the importance of everything we learned in this episode but good gods, the pace at which it was delivered had my attention wandering from time to time.
Mike Ferreira: I have to admit I was digging the plot dump, personally. I’m a sucker for world building stuff
Anthony Simpson: I tend to enjoy info dumps, myself.
Mike Ferreira: Poor Hannibal, though.
Anthony Simpson: His mind is going, but he can STILL kick your ass in no time.
Lydia Rivers: I was too astounded to see how they gave a basic character in the space of a few minutes to Abe no Seimei to notice how I felt about the pacing.
Mike Ferreira: Damn straight. That one moment where Toyohisa charged at him was great, as it said so much in such a tiny window.
Mike Ferreira: And agreed on Abe no Seimei – they really just built a character out of nothing with him.
Lydia Rivers: Was I the only one who wondered if Hannibal was truly as far gone as he was acting?
Mike Ferreira: Nope – it was a bit of a mystery as they a bit vague about it early on.
Mike Ferreira: Though they really do keep going back to that idea of life and death with the Drifters – confirming that they are indeed actually alive
Mike Ferreira: while the Ends seem to be walking dead
Lydia Rivers: Dementia is a strange thing. It can seem like it’s not there at all during times of lucidity, so I felt like they did a good job by throwing us off on that bit. Introducing us once more to legendary people thrown into even bigger than life situations, reminding us that they’re human.
Lydia Rivers: Yeah, exactly.
Mike Ferreira: Indeed. It’s tough to watch someone go through that.
Lydia Rivers: I had to love Toyohisa again after his interaction with Hannibal and the elves too. I might want to fight with him about his chauvinism but that’s fine because he’s capable of respecting people!
Mike Ferreira: Indeed. He’s a respectable warrior of his day – have to have respect for that.
Anthony Simpson: I do want to give to Toyohisa that he is sticking to his guns about killing women even if they are an enemy.
Mike Ferreira: Likewise. He has his scruples and he’s not going to break them
Lydia Rivers: Yeah, that statement of his not being a pawn made Murasaki look really pleased with himself
Mike Ferreira: Indeed.
Mike Ferreira: You know… Murasaki’s been genuinely interesting whenever he shows up.
Lydia Rivers: I’m hoping it’s not only because he’s still a mystery.
Lydia Rivers: I guess they’d have to make him pretty great to play opposite of Easy though, right?
Mike Ferreira: Indeed. If anything, he’s a hell of a straight man to Easy’s flamboyant character
Mike Ferreira: Speaking of interesting characters, we finally got some interaction between Yoichi and Yoshitsune!
Anthony Simpson: I wanna see more of those two interaction.
Anthony Simpson: interacting.
Mike Ferreira: Indeed. I’ve been waiting for this, given their history
Lydia Rivers: Poor Yoichi!!! He’s traumatized. He was fighting a literal salt zombie and almost died and didn’t start shaking until he heard Yoshistune’s voice!
Mike Ferreira: Indeed. And even then, that just got under his skin. He was clearly rattled there, having flashbacks
Anthony Simpson: Not to change the subject, but I want to bring the topic back to Abe no Seimei. One thing I wanted to bring up was that he had a Star of David on his name tag. What I found interesting and I didn’t know this but the OCTOBRISTS were actually group in real life. They were a right wing political party in Imperial Russia who were antisemitic. So I find it a bit ironic that the Octobrist would have Star of David’s on their name tags being that the real life group didn’t like Jews.
Mike Ferreira: That is interesting.
Mike Ferreira: Also fitting to use that name given they were allied with Orte, who was basically the Fourth Reich
Lydia Rivers: Was it the Star of David? Or was it just a Buddhist pentagram? I can’t read the other characters by it.
Anthony Simpson: It looked like the Star of David to me. I could be wrong.
Mike Ferreira: Going to the tape now.
Anthony Simpson: The real life group for example didn’t want the Jews in the army because they believed that they couldn’t count on their loyalty in times of war. They also didn’t want want judges to be Jewish because that went against the principles of a Christian state.
Lydia Rivers: Thanks for sharing. I’d never even heard of them.
Mike Ferreira: Totes star of David
Anthony Simpson: I didn’t either until I looked it up.
Anthony Simpson: In this show it makes since we did have the Fuhrer a few episode ago. Also we found out he was likely a Drifter.
Lydia Rivers: Then that ties in with it being Dark Jesus, because he’s totally bringing the war people originally wanted from him when he was peaceful.
Mike Ferreira: It really does.
Lydia Rivers: Jesus was a Jew, Hitler was Hitler…I’m so uncomfortable right now hahaha…but alternate histories are all about that so good job.
Mike Ferreira: I don’t think we’re supposed to be comfortable – the show keeps emphasizing that both sides are filled with fairly awful people.
Lydia Rivers: Mhm. Yeah now that I see a still, I can tell it’s indisputably the Star of David. Great catch guys and thanks for giving us some history to read up on.
Anthony Simpson: It’s like Mad TV’s parody of Jackass, “Nobody wins in a Dairy Challenge”
Lydia Rivers: XD!
Anthony Simpson: It was Kenny Roger’s Jackass. My bad.
Lydia Rivers: I didn’t understand something, help me out people. Was Scipio just speaking Latin out of stubbornness? Because all the other Drifters understood each other just fine!
Lydia Rivers: That entire exchange with Kanno was hilarious, and I wouldn’t change it for the world. But I felt like I missed something!
Mike Ferreira: I think it’s because, in his time, the educated and people worth conversing with spoke Latin.
Mike Ferreira: Anyone who couldn’t speak the ancient tongue were basically lessers. But!
Mike Ferreira: At the same time
Anthony Simpson: Well, the subtitles say he was speaking Latin. My Latin was never good so I couldn’t tell if he was speaking the real thing or jibberish and say its Latin.
Mike Ferreira: They didn’t have the fun translation charms that Octobrist has, so it’d be Italian vs. Japanese anyway
Anthony Simpson: I think they hand wave the language barrier with both sides since they people on both sides are from different times periods and different nationalities and speak different languages.
Lydia Rivers: He was using Latin words for sure, Anthony. It was a little difficult because the voice actor of course has a Japanese spin on the pronunciation so they sounded different than we’d hear in the US. Ah, the charms!
Lydia Rivers: OK, that makes sense.
Mike Ferreira: I mean.. it’s not like Nobunaga who, in his short time talking with the elves, became freakin’ fluent in their tongue
Anthony Simpson: Foreign languages were never my strong suit in my education.
Lydia Rivers: And meanwhile, Yoichi is still speaking to them robotically even though he’s got the charm. I’m so embarrassed for him haha!
Mike Ferreira: Poor Yoichi.
Lydia Rivers: It’s like the people who spanglisize things. “You just take a left-o at the gas station and…!”
Mike Ferreira: Indeed.
Mike Ferreira: However, you have to respect someone who can go toe to to with Gilles de Rais.
Anthony Simpson: That was pretty bad ass.
Anthony Simpson: With Nobunaga, I found it interesting of what kind of government and state he wants to set up but doesn’t want to be the Commander in Chief.
Mike Ferreira: Likewise. He knows what he wants, but he also knows he can’t maintain it
Lydia Rivers: No one ever accused him of being stupid! Well I mean, except for the people who nicknamed him “Fool” in his youth
Lydia Rivers: While he was off playing with peasants and stuff
Anthony Simpson: That said, I wonder what role he would play if the state he wants to create comes to pass.
Mike Ferreira: Trusted Advisor
Mike Ferreira: The puppet master behind Toyohisa
Lydia Rivers: Yeah. He said he’ll assist Toyohisa. Except Toyohisa totally laid him out for presuming to do that stuff for him…
Lydia Rivers: Maybe it wasn’t so much presuming as it was the simple interruption of his righteous retribution.
Mike Ferreira: …I’m more interested in what God King Kanno is gonna do.
Lydia Rivers: …he’s gonna cuss some more, make more scary faces, and generally be a brute, making me laugh. Oh, and also PLEASE more airplanes vs. dragons!
Anthony Simpson: The airplane isn’t going anywhere sadly.
Mike Ferreira: Poor airplane.
Mike Ferreira: Speaking of quirky characters… we got more Saint-Germi – who I THINK will be teaching the Drifters how to make bullets.
Lydia Rivers: It just needs some fossilized dinosaurs and a few yards of copper..and also aluminum alloys…
Lydia Rivers: Yeesss! I was hoping they’d have him be true to his learned roots.
Mike Ferreira: I’m curious to see their reactions when HE shows up.
Lydia Rivers: Although honestly I would have been happy to watch him draw on more maps with lipstick while calmly analyzing exactly where his alliance should be.
Mike Ferreira: …that was pretty awesome
Mike Ferreira: Hrm… any other comments this week?
Lydia Rivers: I wonder if putting all those geniuses together will result in suddenly Google. Murasaki should be careful or they’re going to skip magic and head straight to the space age.
Mike Ferreira: yeah, but then Gandhi will come with nuclear weapons
Lydia Rivers: There’s nothing wrong with having a big stick, he says.
Anthony Simpson: Ghandi with nukes would be amazing.
Mike Ferreira: Yes, yes it would.
Mike Ferreira: Bring the Civ meme to the anime world, Hoods Studio! Please!
Anthony Simpson: If Ghandi brings nukes, then Butch Cassidy is bring that electromagnetic railgun that the US Navy developed.
Lydia Rivers: Hey all of those can fit on the aircraft carrier, plus Kanno’s plane which is named “dumbass bastard” or something.
Anthony Simpson: Fitting on the carrier is one thing, being able to use it is another.
Mike Ferreira: Indeed.
Anthony Simpson: I have nothing else to add for this week’s episode.
Lydia Rivers: Dwarves are going to fix everything as soon as their other enemies the elves help free them. I wonder if the elves will be rewarded for trying to break the cycle or if they’ll end up more bitter for having tried and failed! This, and wondering how a guy like Kanno ends up as a godking, even if it IS over kobolds. These are what I’ll be thinking about as I watch episode 9!
Mike Ferreira: So many questions, only 4 episodes left!
Lydia Rivers: They’re going to leave us hanging. I’m already prepared for it.
Mike Ferreira: Sadly, yeah – the manga’s ongoing… at a very slow pace
Lydia Rivers: But that’s ok, the best things are worth waiting for. There’s another season of Gintama to pacify me in January. :3
Mike Ferreira: Definitely. Plus more Nanbaka!
Anthony Simpson: Yes, more Nanbaka.
Anthony Simpson: Despite ANN not seeming to like it.
Lydia Rivers: Give me more of that gorgeous, lovely, talented, badass, adorable, completely lovable and terrifying oni warden!
Mike Ferreira: The warden makes that show amazing.
Mike Ferreira: Aniwho, that’s all the time we have this week. Have a great night, everyone!
Anthony Simpson: Night everyone.
Lydia Rivers: Stay shiny!
