Topics discussed: Kino and Hermes are funny little guys; the philosophical allegorical mode of Kino's Journey; Kino's shifting and poorly-maintained position as an observer who does not intercede; Kino as a stateless, detachged party; Kino's gun rituals; the philosophy of altruism and society; Niamh's proposal for a NANA Festival; the Land of Sad Bangers; the functions of religion in society; the melodramatic humor of Kino's Journey; Gender Is Happening; Kino's ring of keys moment; Kino's gender as one aspect of their intentional taking on of the role of the Other; the constructed worldviews of societies and Kino's potential position as a corrective perspective; humans' relationships to work; fully-automated capitalism; the concept of utopia in Kino's Journey; the two-episode tournament arch; Shizu, the older sword twink Kino; Samurai Jack; Niamh just doesn't care about fight scenes in manga and anime and that's why fae thinks Berserk is kinda mid; envisioniong the fighting tournament arch of NANA; the Midwestern fine and the British quite; a sixth kind of animal; and safe-for-work Sasuke.
Write into our Question Bucket at [email protected] and follow us on Twitter!
The Show: @ghostdiverspod (twitter) or @ghostdivers (cohost)
Niamh: @FoxmomNia (twitter) or @foxmomnia (cohost)
Niamh’s mediamh pile: @mediamh_pile
Connor: @rabbleais (twitter) or @rabbleais (cohost)
Export Audio Network: exportaud.io
Ghost Divers: exportaud.io/ghostdivers
Pondering Pootan: exportaud.io/pootan
Ornate Stairwells: exportaud.io/ornatestairwells
Around the Long Fire: abnormalmapping.com/longfire
Unjust Depths: unjustdepths.com
Check out our official schedule at exportaud.io/divingschedule!
Animal death
Slavery and cannibalism
Suicide
Transphobia and childhood trauma
Violence
Find out more at https://ghost-divers.pinecast.co
Happy New Year! We've made it another full year of the show!
As with last year's special, we start with a self-indulgent look back at the past year of the podcast and rank everything we've watched. We also run tournaments for the OPs and EDs!
We then have our special discussion for the year. That's right, Niamh conned Connor into reading the entirety of NANA! We start talking about the manga at around 1:25:11 and do our best to provide a thorough synopsis before digging into the story's themes and ideas about love embodied by the cast's many different relationships. Also Niamh might con Connor into something else in the process...
As a note, this section is really spoiler heavy. I think even with all the big twists and plot points spoiled for you, the manga is still a fantastic and moving read (I in fact know this is true, because I knew many of the manga's biggest spoilers before I actually read through it in earnest myself). That said, I know many people really balk at spoilers, and so if that's you, please please please do yourself the service of reading NANA sooner rather than later and then coming back to this episode at the end.
If you have any emails to send us about NANA or any of the anime we've covered or will cover, you can write into future Question Buckets at [email protected]. And don’t forget to follow us on Twitter and Cohost!
The Show: @ghostdiverspod (twitter) or @ghostdivers (cohost)
Niamh: @FoxmomNia (twitter) or @foxmomnia (cohost)
Niamh’s mediamh pile: @mediamh_pile
Connor: @rabbleais (twitter) or @rabbleais (cohost)
Export Audio Network: exportaud.io
Ghost Divers: exportaud.io/ghostdivers
Pondering Pootan: exportaud.io/pootan
Ornate Stairwells: exportaud.io/ornatestairwells
Around the Long Fire: abnormalmapping.com/longfire
Free promo for Ina’s podcast, It’s All Stover: @stovercast (twitter)
Check out our official schedule at exportaud.io/divingschedule!
Rape
Grooming, child abuse, and pedophilia
Emotional abuse and abusive relationships
Descriptions of trauma responses and panic attacks
Internalize homophobia and compulsory heterosexuality
Sexism and misogyny
Cheating
Self-harm
Alcohol use
Drug abuse and addiction
Car accident and death
Find out more at https://ghost-divers.pinecast.co
Topics discussed: The Individual vs. Society; Kino’s increasing meddling or involvement in the countries they visit; the optimism or pessimism in the ending of episode 8; pushing against social mores vs. outright violent resistance; the bourgeois consumption of the novel and the cutting off of the revolutionary potential of literature and criticism; solipsism; the problems of the family in liberal society; work and mechanized labor; gender roles and labor; aimlessness, purpose, and purposeful aimlessness; the only appearance of the Master in the entire show; the system of state violence and the personal relationship to violence; the faltering of the handling of the violence of Tatatans; the critique of 21st century warfare and American militarism; gender norms and motherhood in the construction of state violence; the saddest fucking episode of Kino’s Journey; the pain of seeing what your childhood would’ve looked like if it was healthy and normal when you are queer person with childhood trauma; the ambiguous pang of yearning; utopia as fleeting and potentially unsustainable; modeling the process of utopian creation as a shared social goal; the depersonalization of the philosophical mode throughout the series in contrast to Kino’s willingness to give into the personal in the final episode; the positioning of the final episode chronologically early in Kino’s journey but at the end of the show Kino’s Journey; and the most nothing episode of Kino’s Journey that’s like fine, it’s kinda funny.
Also, don't forget that we will be recording the Question Bucket soon. The deadline to write into our Question Bucket for this series is Friday, January 13, 2023. (Note: We're still hoping to record Saturday like usual, but it might get moved to Friday so that's the date if you want to play it safe.) You can write into ghostdiverspod@gmail and follow us on Twitter!
The Show: @ghostdiverspod (twitter) or @ghostdivers (cohost)
Niamh: @FoxmomNia (twitter) or @foxmomnia (cohost)
Niamh’s mediamh pile: @mediamh_pile
Connor: @rabbleais (twitter) or @rabbleais (cohost)
Export Audio Network: exportaud.io
Ghost Divers: exportaud.io/ghostdivers
Pondering Pootan: exportaud.io/pootan
Ornate Stairwells: exportaud.io/ornatestairwells
Around the Long Fire: abnormalmapping.com/longfire
Unjust Depths: unjustdepths.com
Check out our official schedule at exportaud.io/divingschedule!
Unreality / questioning reality
Violence and warfare
Suicide
Massacre and genocide
Transphobia and queerphobia
Childhood trauma
Death
Pandemic and illness
Food
Find out more at https://ghost-divers.pinecast.co
Topics discussed: The two Kino’s Journey movies; the Land of Foxes, the Normal Country*, and the Boring Country of Thematically Significant Travelers and Their Nuanced Relationship with Travel as an Institution; the many advantages of a small orange; developing a script for the poker episode of Kino’s Journey; the superpower of Google Maps; Beast Wars; Riku’s unlimited superpowers; the Land of Airports; devising a country with the express purpose of trapping Kino; Kino at 40 a.k.a. Batou; the worst images of Batou we all have ever seen; Kino’s distaste for the bean and adventures in rural Virginia; Connor disagrees with Niamh and kb about the appeal of blood orgies; the Country of Blood; other travel literature like Don Quixote, Otherside Picnic, and Lone Wolf & Cub; yelling at your Gundam son to cut his bangs; spicy cream of ranch soup; and finding the perfect level to fill your creationism mug.
You can write into future Question Buckets at [email protected] and don’t forget to follow us on Twitter!
The Show: @ghostdiverspod (twitter) or @ghostdivers (cohost)
Niamh: @FoxmomNia (twitter) or @foxmomnia (cohost)
Niamh’s mediamh pile: @mediamh_pile
Connor: @rabbleais (twitter) or @rabbleais (cohost)
Export Audio Network: exportaud.io
Ghost Divers: exportaud.io/ghostdivers
Pondering Pootan: exportaud.io/pootan
Ornate Stairwells: exportaud.io/ornatestairwells
Around the Long Fire: abnormalmapping.com/longfire
Unjust Depths: unjustdepths.com
Check out our official schedule at exportaud.io/divingschedule!
Food
Violence and death
Blood, lots of blood, blood orgies
Find out more at https://ghost-divers.pinecast.co