Connor and Niamh can’t remember the name of a song that’s stuck in their heads, so they try to distract themselves by discussing episodes 1 through 13 of the first season of Sakigake!! Cromartie High School.
We start out with the first and really only bit of theory bullshit by talking about the yakuza and yankii genre convention of the giri-ninjo conflict and how it relates to the comedy of Cro High, which we then use to launch into how much Cro High actually operates as a genre parody vs. absurdism, Kamiyama as a protagonist, the process of adaptation from manga to anime, the character of Yamaguchi as the comedian who tries to metatextually analyze the comedy of the show in which he himself is a character, the all-encompassing scope of the comedy of the show, the show within a show that is Pootan, the way Cro High continues to develop expectations in order to subvert them, and more.
Niamh also has an (at this point no longer secret) announcement that faer comedy video art series Today’s Garfield Read Aloud has returned as a Twitter account, @GarfReadAloud.
Write into our Question Bucket at ghostdiverspod[at]gmail and follow us on Twitter!
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“The Yakuza Film: An Introduction” by Keiko Iwai McDonald, published in Reframing Japanese Cinema: Authorship, Genre, History
“On Ninkyo” by Sato Tadao, published in the journal Shisō no kagaku (Science of Thought)
Mention of Alcohol (After the outro when Niamh and Connor are joking around)
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Niamh and Niamh’s Cohost discuss episodes 14 through 26 of the first season of Sakigake!! Cromartie High School.
We take a slightly more synopsis-laden approach this time to try to ground ourselves in the rapidly escalating and (d)evolving world of Cro High, bounding off of topics like Cro High’s use of manzai forms, the literalization of the punchline, the stretching and decontextualization of recurring jokes, Yamaguchi’s failure to fully understand the humor of the show in which he is a character, and our conclusion that the show is ultimately mocking us personally as a podcast that is trying to analyze it.
Niamh also thinks fae's really fuckin funny with the editing on this one.
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 March 13. You can write into ghostdiverspod[at]gmail and follow us on Twitter!
@ghostdiverspod
@foxmomnia
@rabbleais
@GarfReadAloud
Brief Discussion of Shock Violence (Regarding Adult Swim)
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In what is most certainly the rowdiest, most chaotic episode yet, the Ghost Divers are joined by special guest and person who is hosting this podcast on their network in the first place so how is Niamh ever going to say no to them, Autumn Blake!
But before Autumn hops on the call, Niamh and Connor start out with just the regular amount of rowdiness and chaos and get right into the Cro High questions. We start out talking about some of our favorite bits from the show, get waylaid by Niamh’s laundry tips, and then dive into the gender happening in Cro High, vibes you get as a trans person about whether or not a creator would hate you, Takashi Miike’s Dead or Alive trilogy, Cro High’s potential debt to Utena, our favorite cuss word, finding a shared sense of humor with others, etc.
Then Autumn joins for our discussion of Final Fantasy 8 and things immediately escalate into a rollicking discussion touching on NORG, which Gundam characters would kiss the homies goodnight, which FF8 characters would kiss the homies goodnight, which Eva characters would kiss the homies goodnight, Niamh’s FF7 OTP, the era of PS1 JRPGs and why they could be weirder back then, how you used to be able to just make bad games and movies, memories of watching friends play Final Fantasy games, the overwhelming adolescence of FF8, more of Niamh’s OTPs, the merciless systems of FF8, breaking JRPGs, the era of guidebooks, etc.
We eventually move on to talking about Gaylord Phoenix, 100 Crushes, and queer alt comics in general, especially around themes like the inadequacy of language to talk about queerness and different approaches to trying to talk about this inadequacy anyway, revisiting queer books from the year you came out, Connor’s ongoing role as Niamh’s token cis straight white dude friend, the value of libraries, how to try to get into queer comics, etc.
Anyway, go buy the unofficial official shirt of Ghost Divers:
https://shop.grapevine.is/products/milf-short-sleeve-unisex-t-shirt
You can write into future Question Buckets at [email protected] and don’t forget to follow us on Twitter!
The Show: @ghostdiverspod
Niamh: @FoxmomNia
Connor: @rabbleais
Autumn: @Autumnal_Coffee
Garfield Read Aloud: @GarfReadAloud
I don’t read theory not even Marx I have never even heard of Hegelian dialectics.
Brief mentions of self-harm
Mention of bedbugs
Discussions vaguely around transphobia
Just lots and lots of swearing in this one
Including Niamh saying the f-slur a bunch because fae reclaims it
Sexual references
Mention of bodies being destroyed
Alcohol
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