That was my first episode of Iden to the Aether.

Oh, I love that.

That's what connects us.

Yep.

Yeah, there was some chatter about it in our Discord.

Not to the degree there is now, which is largely thanks to both of you.

But there were a few passionate fans there who were recommending the series and...

Oh,

[laughs]

Yeah.

And I think th- I think this is why people usually prefer Mononoke or Spirited Away.

If you need rules, if you want, like, a Tolkien, fully fleshed out world with factions with a deep history, that's Mononoke.

This has much more dream-like logic.

Uh, I'm not saying one is better than the other.

I just think it's a totally different viewing experience, and, um, I think, you know, what lends to the power of this movie is just the, like, the mystery of it.

Yeah.

Sure

... than, like, Totoro or something.

But that cost of ambition also takes the form of stories like Kiki, where it's like the cost of making your passion your day job is burnout.

Um, and here I think it's more explicitly said.

Like, there's that scene later in the film where, uh, Shizuku is talking to her dad about wanting to be a writer, and he's like, "Okay," like, "this is the cost of that path." Like, if you're gonna sort of pursue your creative passions over your schoolwork and over sort of the more, let's say, mainstream path, you may end up walking alone for a lot of it.

And I think that that's such an interesting thing to explore, and I, even though the movie is very upbeat and happy, I think it does sort of forecast that, like, this will be more difficult for her, and this will possibly be more isolating for her.

For sure.

You know, at least right now.

Yeah.

But they're all the same thing.

Basically, it's the game's way of gamifying your friendships.

So usually it's everyone in the main party, and then also, like, important NPCs, like, in your class and around town, um, who all have their own storyline.

So, like, when you...

You know, in your off days when the game's like, "How do you wanna spend today?" When you're not dungeon crawling, you can choose to spend time with these characters, and if you do, it will level up your S Link rank with them.

And for each rank, you get, like, a little vignette of story.

Yeah, if, if you're replaying it, then you are both getting, like, richer story and also getting richer gameplay mechanics at the same time.

and the polar bear is on the book cover for the i think like the first major like american release of the book

Right.

And I guess based on the marketing, at least just in passing, like a foggy 2008 memory of the marketing of this film, it was clear that like they were trying to make the polar bear look like an Aslan type character or like a sort of never ending story, like Falcor type character.

And so I just assumed that's what the movie was like.

And it's so not that.

And I think there are weird moments of the movie where they try to make it like never ending story or something like that.

And it's like, this isn't the story.

Yeah, the pacing is not quite right in this.

Mm-hmm

... kinda covered in whimsy than like sort of a matter-of-fact delivery.

Um, but I was along for the ride.

I think, I think the movie, what I like about this movie is that it, it's fast and loose with the fantasy rules, which I always love.

Like, I hate when we have to explain everything.

I love that we very quickly learn like what do these artifacts do? Like, what does the candle do? What does the flower do? I, I think that all was really, uh, effective.

Mm-hmm.

And that, like, there's nothing as beautiful as love.

Of course, yeah

... and the captain sewing his cheek back together.

Like, that was, those were the two scenes that, like, I could recreate in my mind without wanting to at any time.

Um, and so I always really liked this movie, but it had been long enough that I wasn't, like, fully confident in, like, what I thought of it.

Um, watching it again last night was really, really powerful.

Uh, it's a really tremendously heavy movie, and it's not one that is necessarily, like, enjoyable to watch.

There, there's a lot of it that is extremely painful to watch.

But within the film, yeah, he does not get a name.

perm collapsed because she got stabbed like is that

the every like new life of a vampire is a new hairstyle yeah um It does feel like this movie either cut a lot or edited.

We mentioned the Jekyll and Hyde thing.

That feels like the remnant of a story we didn't get.

Yes, I think so.

There's a lot of stuff like that where I'm like, oh, they...

There's stuff that works here, which is what makes the movie kind of frustrating.

Oh, no, but when M goes, you know, he calls himself the Phantom and Connery goes, very operatic.