Voxels

Hi, I'm Sadek. Firstly, I'm Christian, but also, fuck Jermaine Cole. Those bars are transphobic.

We're not talking about the album. He already fell off. Let's talk about some good shit.

First and foremost, we're not going to have this discourse because it's not a part of the

anime stuff. This is also Voxels, a podcast about not J. Cole. Susan A, though, is now on Netflix,

made by the same director as your name. You should watch it. I actually watched this like

sometime last year, I think. It's interesting because it's like a... I don't want to get too

much into it, but it's very much like a movie made by Japanese people, because a lot of the

cultural context for this... I feel like if you're not Japanese, if you don't live in Japan specifically,

you're not going to get a lot of the underlying themes of this movie, but it's a really good

movie. It's an interesting movie. And Makoto Shinkai is one of my... If I'm going to watch

an anime movie, it's going to be either a Studio Ghibli movie or a Makoto Shinkai movie, so those

are the only two. So let's talk about the biggest album of the year, I suppose. I don't know so far.

We have the much-anticipated country album from Beyoncé called Cowboy Carter.

What are your thoughts first? I want to hear your thoughts before I get into it.

So what are your overall thoughts on this album?

Beyoncé has a three-part Renaissance series going on. This is part two of it. The first part was

2021, 22's Renaissance, which was an amazing revital of house music and all these great

themes we talked about on the old podcast. I will drop a link to that episode because I think it's

still pertinent. But so now we have Cowboy Carter, which is the follow-up act, which is a country

inspired album, not necessarily a country album as Beyoncé said in her Instagram post announcing,

"This is a country album. This is not a country album. This is a Beyoncé album."

I have a lot of thoughts on this album, mostly that I just appreciate, I think, on a spiritual

level, just like Reclamation by Black folks and Native folks of "Americana," right?

Beyoncé is holding a US flag and dressed as a cowboy riding a horse. And that is important

imagery, I think, because you sometimes get a... There's, I think, a thread of people online and

in general discourse that are like, "Fuck my national identity, blah, blah, blah, blah,"

which I understand. I'm not trying in any way to say nationalism is a good thing.

But for better or worse, you are born in the place you're born and you do profit

and do benefit in some ways from what that place has done.

To different levels, obviously, marginalization is a very real thing.

But in my example, unfortunately, I was born in the US. So unfortunately, I am complicit in some

of the things that the US has done in a macro level. Obviously, I'm not responsible or Beyoncé

is not responsible for atrocities. But I think to completely deny that and to just completely

throw away that part of your identity, that's the place you're born at, is a little bit disingenuous

and a little bit like, "I just don't want to deal with it," ism in a way. Whereas,

Beyoncé's doing this album saying, "Hey, this country music stuff is problematic. Sure,

there's a lot of right-wing folks and all this stuff in country music. People do not want Beyoncé

in country music." So she's saying with this album cover, before we get to the music, is,

"Actually, here's this American flag. I'm dressed up as a cowboy. Part of my history

is also contained in that. And it's not just for you."

>> Yeah, so she's saying she's American, and she's specifically, she's American.

She's from cowboy country. She was like, "I'm from Houston, Galveston." I think she said

Galveston, Texas, right? And she said Louisiana. So she's from the deep south, right? She's like

south, south. So she's claiming that. She's like, "Okay, I'm from here. If this isn't country,"

on the first track, she's like, "If this isn't country, then what is?" If all of this is,

if me making this album is not country, then what is country music?

>> If saying, "To your roots," is not country, then what is? And I think that

it's such an important setter for the album, too. Not a setter, but a taste of, or foreshadowing

for what this whole album is. Because once again, it comes down to reclamation. And I think it's a

lot easier or less obvious maybe on the place she was doing on the original Renaissance as no one's

ever... I mean, you have Skrillex, right? But no one's ever said Skrillex is appropriating house

music from black people, right? It's just, it's slowly been appropriated away from them, and the

origins are black. But in country, it's a lot more stark in that cowboy itself, the term cowboy was

a derogatory term meant for slaves who are hurtling cows, right? I think it was cow men,

or cow herders, right? And then cowboys is what they called slaves who were doing that.

And to use that language and to reclaim it is so important. And I'm here for it. I'm here for it.

I'm sure you have a lot of thoughts on it, so I will let you start talking. But all I'm going to

say is, I like this album a lot. It has its problems, but no, what are your thoughts on it?

>> This is interesting. I have to sit with this one a little bit, because personally, I'm not

into American country music. So I had to listen to this album multiple times, listen to the

Swish.pop episode about it, and understand the album thematically. There's a lot happening on

this album. This album's a tribute not just to American country, but the history of American

pop music, right? There's different formats of music here. It's not just the kind of country

you'd hear on country radio, right? There's a lot of different genres happening,

a lot of different styles, there's features. Obviously, the two singles, we had 16 carriages,

and we had Texas Hold 'Em. And I think between 16 carriages and Texas Hold 'Em, I think they

were deceptive. I think people came into this, and I came into this, expecting the whole album to be

just those two tracks. Those two tracks would be musically, sonically representative of the

rest of the album. And they're really not. Texas Hold 'Em is a really good track,

and so is 16 Carriages, but most of the album is not country country.

>> Here's what plays into this, too. I subscribed to the Beyonce subreddit,

which is not... It could have gone one of two ways. It went in a more interesting way.

So the vinyls are not the full track list. So the whole run from the Linda Martel show,

all the way until Sweet Honey Bucking are cut from the vinyl. It's only about 23-ish tracks

on the vinyl. And the vinyl is a different album cover that is Beyonce. I'm probably butchering

the pronunciation of it, but it's her mother's middle name. So what that tells me is, because

apparently in another interview, she was saying this record was actually supposed to come out

first. It was supposed to be this one and then Renaissance. But during the pandemic,

she was like, "People probably need more of a house album right now to get back into the world."

She felt that it was more important to release that house album versus this one.

So what it's telling me is, I imagine most of the "country" songs, the more blues-inspired ones,

were all recorded in the pandemic beforehand. And it's a second pass that turned it into the

sprawling curves it is right now. That's what it tells me. Originally, it was a lot more than

those singles. Those singles are probably what the whole album was supposed to be.

But after going on tour and playing Renaissance, you started getting tracks like... We're skipping

ahead. Riverdance, right? Riverdance absolutely could have been a cut off of Renaissance.

So it just makes sense. Personally, I would have preferred if the album was

a lot less sonically diverse. I personally found it a little bit not cohesive. It didn't feel...

It felt like a collection of tracks less than an album. It felt a little too long. 27 tracks is a

lot of tracks. And the album's more than an hour long. I felt like some of the tracks,

like you mentioned, could have been cut. And I think I would have preferred the album. I would

have liked the album more for that reason. But I'd say I would start with... I think the big track

for me is the cover here. We have a cover of Jolene by the track by Dolly Parton.

I personally... This is going to be our mutual friend Jack says this is going to be a hot take,

but I don't know if it's a hot take. I just think...

Listen, we had one white man validate this take, so I think it's okay.

Yeah, he agreed. So I think Beyonce's cover of Jolene is a better version of the original. And

I don't mean this in a way where I think the original is bad or anything. I like the original

as well. The original is a great track. But I just prefer Beyonce's take to it. It's not just

a cover. She added stuff to it. There's new lyrics in here. Lyrics that are not there in the original.

And that line in the chorus, "I'm still a Creole banjo pitch from Louisiana."

That shit, I love it. I love the throwback to Lemonade.

Yeah, it's good. I just really love what she's done with a very famous... Probably one of the most

famous American country songs of all time. So that's cool.

Conversely, too, Blackbird, the other cover on this album, it's objectively better than the

Beatles' versions because the Beatles kind of suck. Yeah. Okay, that's the other hot take we're

coming here with, I guess, is that I... Okay, so I haven't listened to the Beatles since I was a

teenager. And even then, I was like, "This is kind of mid. This is kind of overrated. What's the big

deal?" I don't know if I would appreciate them more now, but my opinion has not shifted on this.

And I would agree that I like this version. It's a short track. It's not a very long track.

And there's another one of these things... It's the same backing as the original...

It's the same backing instrumentation as the original version to actually make this a little

less spicy. So it's basically, she took the same guitar and clapping. And the reason it's

one-sided is that the original version was recorded when stereo was new back in the '60s.

So still, people were figuring out stereo stuff. And then it was her and... Let me... I want to say

the other ones. Tana Adele and who else? And Britney Spencer were all other countries' singers

that she had also sang the cover. It's a really good cover. What I wish she would have done though

is... So off of... I don't know if you listened to Motomami from Rosalia a few years back when I

came out. There's a cover of Willie Colon. It's from the '60s. It's also a track. Delirio de

Grandesia. There's a cover of that song. And what she did is she basically had her team in the DAW

make it a little more mono because it was also another track from the '50s, '60s when stereo

was new. And you would just have horns and just blaring in one ear. And I really think Beyonce

could have just made the guitar a little more mono. Panning is cool. But just I don't... The

guitar in one ear makes me feel like my headphones are broken. I just think that style of production

just doesn't work on a modern album. Modern audiences, I feel like are not going to appreciate

the very subtle, the mono aspect of those tracks from the '60s.

Wait a minute. Wait a minute. Oh my god. I switched to Android so I don't know.

What does this album sound like in spatial audio? Holy shit. Someone who has AirPods

Pro and an Apple Music subscription, I actually want to know how Blackbird sounds because the

stereo track, it's hard guitar on the right and then claps and crickets and shit on the left ear.

How is that mixed in spatial audio? Someone please, please who uses Apple products,

please hit me up and let me know how it sounds in spatial audio. I'm actually extremely curious.

I'm curious as well. I could subscribe to Apple Music for a month and check it out.

With the AirPods Pro, I could check out the spatial audio stuff. I'm curious. Yeah,

I'm curious how the sounds... Speaking of sound-wise, I think production-wise,

this album is solid. It's well-produced. That's not surprising. Beyonce's last few

albums have all been extremely well-produced. Very expensive production, I suppose.

I'm an interject from the production side of this. Let me just add a compliment.

She does so much well sonically with the backing instrumentation, but never has this overpower

the vocals. I find that's a problem with a lot of albums I try to experiment. You have a strong

focus on woodwind instruments, all these instruments, guitars in the background,

and then the vocals just get muddied below it if I cover my hand, my mouth, and try and talk.

It doesn't happen here. Yeah, but it's not here. Whoever does the mixing on our albums is super,

very good. It's just a treat to listen to sonically. One of my favorite tracks on here,

track 11, "Daughter." I just really love this track. This is like a murder ballad.

That's the one with the opera at the end, right? With the opera stuff?

Yeah, there's the Italian bridge where she sings in Italian, which I want Beyonce to sing in more

Italian. Honestly, this sounds pretty good. I love it. Holy shit. Hold on a minute. Hold on a minute.

All right. Hear me out. Hear me out. Novo Udsemu. I'm butchering that name, but the guy who did the

music for Final Fantasy. Yeah, yeah. Imagine one of those tracks with Beyonce doing opera on it.

My God. I don't think that's ever going to happen, but we can dream. Yeah, I would love to.

That's another thing I should point out when we're talking about Beyonce singing.

Beyonce's singing a lot in this album, which I love. I love her. She's showing her range,

and she's doing great. Her singing sounds super, super fucking good. I'm a big fan of that. I'm

very much enjoying all the singing. How do you feel about the features? I know there are a few

features here. Shaboosie on Spaghetti, which is a tribute to Western movies. Spaghetti Westerns.

That's a good track, but it could have cut it. Just to be honest with you, it is a good track,

but it does not fit anywhere in the cadence of this album. Yeah, it's a little... I feel like

it's in there to like, "Hey, look, I like those old Westerns with Eddie Amorecone music on it."

I think it's sampled the sound of that. It's very much like a reference to those movies.

Also, Beyonce, I say this with love and respect, but Avengers Endgame bars are whack.

Wait, what? Which track are we talking about? She starts Spaghetti. She starts the beginning

of the song saying, "I got to stab my fingers on Thanos." I'm like, "Beyonce, come on. Get

Hovha in the studio." Yeah, she does try to... Okay, we'll talk about the rapping later, I guess.

However, though, the other Shaboosie tracks, there's a lot of features. I don't know if this

track is objectively good. I'm pretty sure it's not, but Sweet Honey Bucking is such a good song.

I love it so much. I love it so much. I do not know why, but the Pharrell beat on Bucking is so

good. It literally is like horses galloping as the drums, and I'm pretty sure that's really corny.

Yeah, it is. The beat is really good. I just don't like the song itself, but the Pharrell beat is

fucking wild. It's like, "What is going on?"

All the features are good, right? Yeah, all the features are good. I think

my favorite feature, surprisingly, is the Post Malone feature.

Not the Miley Cyrus one? I like the Miley Cyrus one,

but I feel like the Miley Cyrus one didn't have enough Miley Cyrus. It was kind of like they were

doing a duet, and I feel like I wanted to hear Miley Cyrus by herself more on the track.

I know she can sing, so it's kind of like the track is just her and Beyoncé doing a duet

on "2 Most Wanted," right? I just really wanted her to sing more, like Miley had to have a verse

on her own. But yeah, I like the Post Malone feature, surprisingly. I wasn't expecting a post.

It's because Beyoncé got him to fucking sing and not... If you get Post Malone on a Metro

Boomin beat, which has happened before, Metro reverbs and tries Travis Scott, his voice.

But Beyoncé was like, "No, you're going to sing, and it's going to be mixed properly

without a fuck ton of reverb." When you get Post Malone to sing, he can actually sing really well.

Yeah, he does.

He hit the country twang and everything perfectly. It was nice. It was good.

Yeah, you did. It was really good. It's a good feature. Levi's jeans, it's a good track.

One of the other tracks, I suppose, that is too short, in my opinion, is "Desert Eagle."

"Desert Eagle," I feel like that's a track that could have been longer, and it's a very fun track

because it's just Beyoncé being horny. It's the one where she says, "Everything bigger in Texas.

Big body, bust it open." That stuff. I wanted a longer track on that. That track is way too short.

"Tyrant" is probably one of my favorite tracks. It's just a really, really fun... That beat,

that production by D.A. got that dope is just...

It's a fiddle with an 808, which is all you needed to know.

It's so good. I love it. I want more of this kind of beat. Honestly, this sort of mixing of

acoustic instruments with synths. Yeah, give me that shit. Give me, give me, give me. Good stuff.

That's all I have to say, I suppose. I don't have any other strong... I feel like the album

closes out on "Amen." It's a good closer, but it feels like there's a little bit too much bloat in

this album between the first track and the last track. Some of the tracks that could be cut out,

they could have cut out "Sweet Honey Bucking," I think, honestly. I really wish... How do you feel

about "Yaya," by the way? "Yaya" is just... I think "Yaya" is an important track to have

on this album for the reason of... Okay, so I'm of two minds on it. I don't think it's a bad track.

No, it's not bad. It's...

But I also think it's interesting in that that kind of 50s, 60s pop music has not made a revital.

You have boy bands and girl bands, right? You have K-pop bands. But no one's gone for that style of

girlish, boyish kind of bands, right? Where... For those who have not listened to it, "Yaya"

basically... Think about stereotypical 50s doo-wop kind of music. And it was kind of like that,

but flipped a little bit. And I think for what Beyonce is trying to go with on this album,

of reclaiming things, Cowboy Carter, holding the American flag, keeping that part of it is

important. So I wouldn't cut it for that reason alone. Honestly, I'd probably... "Holy Nelson's

Great," but I'd probably cut all the interludes. The interludes would be cut. I would also cut

"Spaghetti." I would cut, honestly, from the Linda Martell Show, "Keep Yaya," "Oh Louisiana,"

"Desert Eagle," "Riverdance." I would just go from "Two Hands" to "Heaven," "Tyrant," and then "Amen,"

and cut "Sweet Honey Buckin." Keep it to 20... 19, 20 tracks, maybe at most.

Yeah, I agree. I just think it's a little bit too long. But overall, I think I'm coming...

I'm positive on this album overall. I think overall, this is a strong...

Thematically, it's a strong showing from Beyonce. It's interesting to me. Now I'm thinking that

they mentioned that this album was supposed to come first. I am just curious how we would have

felt if we'd gotten this one first, and then we got "Renaissance." It's just weird. But yeah,

I'm enjoying this album. I've been listening to it. A few tracks on...

I mean, I think it's the right move, though, to get "Renaissance" first, because

imagining current climate of today to have a house music album come out, it would have just felt

weird, right? It would have been a good album, but I think 2022, COVID's not over. It's a real thing.

But with more clubs and stuff opening up, and then now in, unfortunately, a presidential year,

having Beyonce be like, "No, I'm going to reclaim my American-ness" is a very interesting...

Yeah, that's good. That's timing-wise, it's very much...

So here's a question, though. What genre is Act 3?

Oh boy. I feel like she could do an R&B album.

I don't think it's R&B. No, no, no, no. You know what it's going to be.

What is it?

Hard rock, solar funk, or a mix of those two.

Oh, she's going to do hard rock.

Or solar funk, right? All I'm saying is, if you see "Thundercat" in the studio of Beyonce,

you know what you're getting for Act 3.

Yeah, that's... Yeah. Whatever it is, whatever genre it is, I'm looking forward to it, because

so far, she's been innovating on these genres. She's taking these genres, and she's doing them

justice. She's getting producers in, she's getting features in that make sense. And

these feel like somebody who really cares about these genres in a real way, and it feels like

they're respectful of these genres. So I'm really curious. I'm really curious what's going to happen

next. I'm sure it's going to be in two more years. So we got to get the next part of this trilogy.

I think it's just... Yeah. The run Beyonce has been on since 2013... No, 2013's Beyonce's

self-titled album. It's been fucking wild. Normally, you have huge artists. I'm just

going for Taylor Swift. I don't care. You have people like Taylor Swift, right? Where

they still make good music, but I don't think every Taylor Swift album is genre-defining in

the way that Beyonce albums have been. Beyonce albums are pop music, yes, first, but they are

also artistically interesting. And that's something I really appreciate, especially now.

One day, we'll probably have the podcast on. It's not today. But everything Disney now is just

fucking sequels. And a time where everything's a sequel, you at least have... Beyonce means

"Let's make new ideas. Take old ideas, sure, and have it influence what the new is." But this is

still new music, right? It's not a country album where it's just my track, they're sexy in different

musical styles. It's actual artistic intent and creativity here. And yeah. No, shout out Beyonce

for consistently putting in the work to artistically push things forward. Jay-Z should

take some influence from that. I feel like Jay-Z's just retired from music. I don't think

he's making... After 4/4, it seems like he's not interested in making any...

Well, I guess we have Kendrick then. Because at least when Kendrick drops,

he's also still trying that, right? Say whatever you want about Mr. Morale. He's at least still

trying to make something new and artistically important. Fuck J. Cole. But yeah, this album's

fantastic. Super excited for what comes next. And Taylor Swift, what if you tried something like

this?

She could do country. She did country. She used to be a...

She could. No, the thing is, she's just a singer-songwriter, loves songs, which is great.

Taylor Swift could do a narrative album, right? If she has in her to do really cool concept albums,

she could go out there and do that. And I would hope that at some point, making the same kinds

of music gets kind of boring and she would try to artistically venture out into other things.

So let's talk about anime. We promised this was going to be coming after two weeks ago when we did

our episode there. So the winter season has wrapped up, right? So we're in the way that we

probably wrapped up. So what's the report from winter 2024?

Yeah, report from anime land. Dial again from the land of anime. I'm not going to fit in. This

would be very problematic. But okay. So let me just preface by saying, ideally, we'd also have

the spring 2024 pickup, but not every episode, first episode has aired. It's usually a month

where it's over from the winter to spring for a new season. So I want every episode to air so I

at least have a chance to watch one and then give everyone thoughts on it. So we're just gonna do

the wrap up. So I have two lists here. We have dropped and kept. And as with most things, most

shows get dropped. This is just for anything in life, even our own podcast. If you don't like it,

don't feel obligated to consume it. If the YouTube video is boring, if you're 10 minutes into a

Gamers Nexus video on some GPU, and you're like, "Why do I even give a fuck about these charts?"

Exit out the video. I'm happy to be serious because I feel like sometimes, especially nowadays,

where everyone's always talking about how much money they make or how shit payouts are, I feel

like there's a personal responsibility you sometimes feel... Or maybe it's only me. You're

watching it and you're like, "Shit, I need to finish this because I know the creator is just

one guy running this." But you actually don't. How you spend your time is... The factors that

make that person need to push so hard for content is not something you take upon yourself. That's

more of a societal thing. One day if we had UBI, all that stuff, social safety nets, those are the

fixes to those problems and not just you watching YouTube videos you don't like so you can make

sure that person gets a payout from YouTube premium money. It's really not how that works.

And that's how I feel about anime. If the show's shit, I'm going to drop it because I do not live

in Japan and I do not have any influence on how anime creators are paid. They should get paid

more. I would pay more for country if they were paid more. But those are factors that are really

up to the Japanese market. It's not anything us in the West can do much about. So shows that are

dropped, there's a lot in here. Honestly, I'm just going to go over the ones that I think...

The drop for problematic reasons. Sasuke and Peeps, why was it dropped? Weird underage

relationship vibes. Of course. Nope, nope, nope, nope. Hokkaido Gals are super adorable. Why was

that dropped? Boring romance? It just wasn't well written. It was whack. The wrong way to use

healing magic. That one was dropped. I need to pick it up. That one was just like a I didn't

have time. I'm sure if I finished it, it would be like a good beer to eat, be to your anime.

But like I said, you don't need to watch beer to your shows. Classroom of the Elite. This is season

three, if you remember what we're talking about. Why did I drop this one? The writers has weird

views about alpha men and it became really apparent in this season. Oh, okay. He's doing the

red pill shit. Is that okay? Yeah, yeah. The main character got a lot red pilled. Yikes. It was less

bad in the light novel. Well, well, unfortunate. Somebody else we got dropped here. The, let's see,

Time for Torture Princess, that shows his whack. Dr. Elise got dropped because the last four

episodes were anime original and the writing took a nosedive into the ground. It was very, very not

good. Fluffy Paradise. This is a show about the girl gets reincarnated as somebody who can just

pet animals. Oh yeah, yeah. Well, why did this get dropped? What happened to this one?

They kept trying to introduce like very weird other world politics into a show about a child

that wants to pet animals and it did not work out. Oh, that's okay. That's she somehow got like

intertwined in the politics of, you know, humans trying to kill beast people. I feel like the show

didn't need to like, I don't. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It really didn't need that. And the weakest

tamer began to join to pick up trash. This one got dropped. I don't want to ever call show boring,

but it was just kind of boring. Sometimes when you do boring shows, you can do a boring show,

you know, like cute people doing things is a genre, but this one, just the pacing was weird.

I feel like this, this is probably a show that reads a lot better than it watches. You know what

I mean? Like the books probably be a lot more interesting because you get power through the

books as fast as you're able to read. Right. So yeah, a lot of drop shows, but that's normal.

You know, the also what the strongest, the strongest tanks, labyrinth raids, a tank of a

rare one, I 99 resistance. So I kicked out the heroes party. I can't even say the fucking name.

Yeah. Savior complex where he gets a slave girl for a kind of person has outlawed.

And that slave girl is like a young person, of course, because of course,

and it's really creepy, creepy, creepy, creepy, creepy, creepy. Sorry to anyone who thinks that

because it's like cartoon stuff. It's okay. It's not. It just, it is really not. But shows that

kept the positive side, a sign of affection. The romance show at the death girl is as sweet,

as sweet as he thought it was. Please watch it. It's like 12 episodes.

Okay. Yeah. Okay. So I, I, I don't know, like I've only watched like the first episode,

two episodes of like solo leveling, I think, or, or, but I haven't watched like any, any other.

So I'm just like, I don't, the thing is, I just want to go on and try it. Like,

and I feel like I'm wasting my time. So now you will not be wasting your time with the,

with the deaf girl. Okay. Okay. Good. All right. To be clear, I'm not going to,

this is a partial spoiler, but it's not really a big spoiler. If they don't, it doesn't not,

it does not take 12 episodes for them to get together. So you're not being baited the whole

season. All right. That's good. That's good. There's actual episodes of them dating and all

that. So, okay. Watch Mr. Villain's day off. Why did I say watch Mr. Villain's day off? The show

is called Mr. Villain's day off. I can read URLs. I know how to use computers, but yes,

Mr. Villain's day off is it was just a fun, silly watch about, you know, he's trying to take over

the world, but in his free time, he just wants to go watch pandas at the zoo. It is as in depth or

thoughtful as you think it is. You say it's not, but you know what? It's a great palate cleanser.

And I did not regret any of it. This is a dungeon. I believe it's coming back for season two. This is

one about making food in a dungeon. It's great. This is great. A popcorn watch. The undead

unwanted adventure. This one had the right balance of it's not, it's a B plus tier show.

You know what I mean? It's on a tier show, but the story is well-written enough. The main character

is likable enough and a nice enough of a person that you just want to see him succeed. And that

really drives the plot. I think the main character drives the show. You know, if it was a different

main character, you know, at the narrative, the way it was or the story it was, it would not have

worked. So, um, not noteful, not going to be like a top 10 one, but I did not regret my time with

it. The foolish angel dances devil. Now this one though, this one is a comedy show, right? It was

like, Oh, he's a devil. She's an angel. He, she, you know, forces them to work for him. Right.

It started as a gag show, but then it just turned to a really fucking sweet romance show.

It actually like they, they did the, the, the swerve very well. Um, by the end of it,

I was enjoying all the episodes. Um, seven time loop, the villainess enjoys a carefree

life married to her worst enemy. That one also was done very well. They, they mix like the,

the world's politics with the whole villainess you say guy narrative. Um, I don't want to spoil it,

but honestly, like it was a very thoughtful way of, you know, I knew what the future was. How

can I prevent that from happening again? You know, and use skills or in the past life. And it was a

very cutesy romance story. So I did not regret my time with it. So leveling, this is crunchy rolls,

big, um, shown in, I guess, push. Um, yeah, this was the one I watched a few episodes, a couple

episodes. It's a battle anime, you know, it's sometimes you need to watch a good fight, you

know, and it's going to, I think they renew it for like five seasons. Oh, this is going to be

here for a while. Cause it's one of the most popular shows on crunchy roll right now. Interesting.

Okay. And then they were, they funded the first season too. So yeah, it's going to be around for

a while. So this is based on a Korean like manhwa, right? Like it's a, yep. Yep. That's already been

finished. It's apparently a shorter one. So it's like, they're probably gonna adapt the whole thing

in anime, which shout out once again, I think seventh time loop was also a manhwa or would

have been at least, I think it was Dr. Elise, but one of those two is a manhwa as well. Um,

and the last one, bottom tier character Tomozaki season two, surprisingly good. I thought it would

have been cringy, but wait, is this the one where he's like a gamer and he doesn't understand?

Okay. Yeah. He was about like smash brothers comparing it in life. And that one cringy clip,

I sent you a few years back. Um, this season involved romance and also a lot of like

thoughtful self-reflection you don't see in a show. So his thing is the main character thing

is he's always like braiding himself, right? Like self-depreciating jokes. And it's a whole episode

where like all the guys in his friend group just call him out on a shit. And it's like, man,

you understand like that we're here for you, but like you, you need to stop that shit.

And they explain why being consistently self-depreciating it's like bad for him.

They're like, I mean, it doesn't affect us, but like, here are the ways that it's going to affect

you. And it, it's, I think it's really thoughtful for a brand way to take that perspective. Cause

you normally don't get that in these stories. You know, I think a lot of it like leans into

that. Ha ha ha. I stay inside. I play games all day kind of narrative. And this one actually

combats that by saying like, you know, you wanted to improve yourself as great, but you also have to

stop hiding behind the bullshit you put up about yourself as well. It's not just how you're talking

to other people. It's also how you see yourself. So yeah, no, I actually very much enjoyed the

second season of this and I would probably watch a third season, assuming the writing keeps up the

way it did. And I did not know. I did not. I honestly thought it'd be a meme and I would drop

that thing. It's even what I said in the, in the pickup, but I did not regret my time with it.

I, I don't know what to tell if someone wants to watch it cause it is kind of cringy sometimes,

but it's like wholesome if it's cringiness. So yeah, that's the anime wrap up. Um,

dropped over half the shows kept under half of them seems about right. A new season coming. Um,

spice and Wolf's getting a season two. That's going to start airing I think this week or next

week or the first episode or it came off. Wait, hold up. Oh, hold up. Wait, what? Spice and Wolf

like Adam from like 10 years ago. Like, yes, it's getting a seat. I told you this. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Let me see. Has it already started airing? Let me see. Spice and Wolf. Um, there's also a really

cringy show. So apparently I've been told the American title of it makes it worse than it seems,

but it's my wife got reincarnated as a 10 year old. I've been told apparently the title makes

it sound a lot worse than it actually is. I, that could go very wrong. Uh, I, I feel like

the, I'm looking at some titles right now. I'm just going to read titles to you. So here's

another one studio apartment. Good lighting angel included. Okay. Yeah. Oh, also watch free run. I

mean, it's not here, but I'm just gonna keep saying it. You should watch for your own. Um,

yeah, I don't know if spice and Wolf has started airing yet, but, um, yeah,

there's a new spice of Wolf season happening. Um, there's a lot of stuff going on right now,

so I'm, I'm here for it. You know, I always love a new season and yeah. Um, oh wait,

where's the villainous 90 level 99. No, you did not put it. No, you did not put it. Did I not

include this show? Oh, is this show I started watching afterwards. Okay. So I'm actually going

to add this here. Cause this is a show that started airing after the pick up, which is

actually why I decided to wait for this new one. Um, so here we go. We got villainous level 99.

I may not be the hidden or I may be the hidden boss. I'm not the demon Lord, which is basically

this girl gets reincarnated in the world of a dating SIM. This is also another, um, the main

characters are so lovable that it's very fun to watch, but the narrative is not that deep. Um,

but yeah, no, um, I just, I'm going to add it to there. It's a good like weekend watch if someone

wants to binge through it. Um, so we got a good, I don't, the only one I kind of want to watch is

the sign of affection. Uh, but like, uh, maybe, maybe like soul leveling we'll see. Uh, now that

they're finished, uh, uh, I can't, I just cannot, like, I can, I just can't do the thing where I

watch shows week to week. I just forget. And I didn't, I just like, don't watch it. And then

I'm like, Oh good. I should, I have to wait till the end of the season to actually catch up. Um,

so that's, that's, that's how it goes. So it's better when shows have like a full season or two

before I get into them, uh, for me at least. Uh, so let's talk about Phil Spencer, uh, because

he's talking a lot and the press has been, uh, for some reason, like it's just, this, this, this,

this side, this, um, section is titled, why does Phil Spencer keep opening his mind?

Why exactly? Why does, why does he keep, uh, being in the news? Uh, so there are a few,

few items here. Uh, the first one is that Phil, Phil Spencer wants, uh, Epic game store, uh,

and other, other game stores on Xbox consoles. And this doesn't surprise me really at this point,

right? Like, I think this is not really surprising. I think Microsoft is just moving

towards being like a platform where they sell you services. Like they, they're not trying to like,

they're like, Hey, all of you come over here. We'll just take a little bit, a little bit off

the top here. And that's it. Like, we're going to provide this platform. You're going to have

this hardware, um, and we, you can just put all your services on it and we'll, you know, we'll

make money off of that. Like that's like, that's the play there. They play like a platform role,

like wider platform role, rather than like playing like the exclusives sort of market,

the sort of the old style of having exclusives. Uh, I, like, what do you like, is this going to

happen? Like, I don't, I don't know if this is going to happen because, uh, Mr. What's,

what's his name? Tim Sweeney. Um, like Epic games is like always been like, like their,

their party line basically is at this point, it's like, we don't want to pay anybody a cut.

Like we just, like, we just want to sell games. We want to sell our game. Uh, and we don't want

to pay anybody. Uh, and that's, uh, that seems to be the thing. I don't know if this is, this is

enough for Epic games to consider putting like the store on, on, on the console, but we'll, we'll see.

Uh, no, I think it, I think it, it'll, it'll happen for a few reasons. First being it's very

much apparent that subsidizing consoles and trying to make it up in service sales is not working.

Right. Sony's reporting dropped revenues, Microsoft's reporting dropped revenues,

and guess who is it? Nintendo. And why does Nintendo not have like huge profit losses?

Cause they sell shit for a profit. Yeah. And they never discount their games, which

is not to be like, like not to be something you forgot about because a lot of players,

like you could get games like cheap, but like Nintendo games, like, you know, the only way

you're getting it for cheap is if you buy like a used copy of a, of a game, but they never go

and sell the eShop. Um, so you're, you're gonna, you're gonna have to pay full price.

It like, like Super Mario brothers or whatever, like you're gonna, you pay full price for that

right now. Like you're not, it's, it's, it's not going to be cheap. Um, so that's another thing.

Right. But what I'm saying here is, so what I imagine for the next generation to be frank is

I imagine Microsoft's going to keep making consoles. I do, I do not believe in any capacity

that they're going to stop making hardware in the same way that I don't believe service will

ever stop being made. Right. The, and I think the reason behind for Xbox and for surface,

like those two never going away is right now, you know, whatever you feel about AI, right.

You know, for a fact like Microsoft senior leadership is like, fuck, we should, we should

have had a phone right now. You know, for a fact that they're regretting the fact that you do not

own a phone platform. So for that reason alone of, you know, maybe today Xbox is losing, but you

never know in the future and it's not much more expensive to run surface as a business, right.

You know, or Xbox as a business, I do not foresee those ever being like drops. Um, but, but I do

think what's going to happen is we're going to start increasing the prices on hardware and then

they're going to start opening up the stores and they just push game pass. Because I think at that

point, it's kind of win, win, win, you know, you won't sell less consoles, but if you increase the

prices, you'll start making money on them. You still have game pass people because game passes

a different model than the stores. Right. And you still have the Xbox store. If you want to take the

30% cut, but if you want to get people to buy your hardware, which you're still making a profit off

of, you can just say, Hey, valve, you want to put steam on the Xbox, go for it. Or Epic, you want to

put Epic games on the Xbox, go for it. And that'll attract people to buy the hardware, which is not

being sold out of, out of profit. I just, I don't foresee subsidized consoles happening anymore from

Sony or Microsoft. I don't think it's gonna happen for either. And right. Yeah. I think this is the

last generation of them. And I also think that I don't, I we're kind of wishcrafting, but it really

seems like it really seems like they're at least taking seriously expanding out Xbox just to be

like a, an OS or a certification, right. Versus like an actual box. And I mean, by that is because

I think some, some gamers online, when this news dropped, they're kind of like, well,

why would I have an Xbox? This was game stores on it. I would just buy a PC, which I say to that

because somebody owns a PC. Yeah. Tell me this. How much of a pain in the ass would it be to just

hook it up to your TV and play with a controller exclusively? A big pain in the ass. It's very

heavy. I needed to move it to the, to the living room. But also, also windows does not work with

the controller. No, it doesn't. Yeah. That's, it's not a good time. But like, I, I still think

this comes up a lot in conversations I've had with people on Macedon and elsewhere. And I've

on heard it on podcasts is this constant, still have that sort of living room aspect to it. Like

you could just like put the box under your TV, connect it to your TV and you're good to go.

Right. Like you don't, you don't have to worry about it. Like that shit still. And the UI is

made for, for use the controller. Right. And all that. And a PC is just not going to like, yeah,

you can connect a PC to your TV. Sure. But it's not going to just not like it's, it's, it's, it's,

it's a little janky. It's just not as smooth of an experience. It's like, you know,

yeah, you can use like steam big picture mode or something like that, but it's a little.

Also Xbox OS is built for like weird audio video setups on TVs. Whereas let's say you hook up a

soundbar to your PC. How do you get that routed in a way that works nicely? Right. Like, how do

you get ER going on a PC? I don't even think windows has really great support for that.

So what I think there's a market for, like, even if it's a PC for computers that plug in nicely to

a TV that exists, like we street people buy Chromecast and stuff for a reason. So I don't

think that's an issue of, you know, Oh, why not just get a PC? If you're the kind of person who

has consoles at your desk, buy a PC. Yes. If you, if you sit at your desk and use your Xbox or PS5

with a monitor, you'll probably be better served with a PC, but the computer to it.

But for the people who plug it into the TV, having an open market where let's say Xbox

is certification, where it's just minimum spec, you need this right matches with the Xbox series

S or series X, which was a horsepower. And then Asus, whoever HP can make their own boxes.

I don't see how that's a bad thing. I really don't see how that's a bad thing. And I think

gamers who are like, well, that means that my camp isn't special or that it's like,

why would I need an Xbox? Like, yeah, brand loyalty sucks. Like you don't,

if you're better served by your PC and the games are on it, go buy a PC, buy the hardware that

works best for you. You know, stop trying to play overwatch and the fucking switch.

If you haven't hooked up to a monitor, you weirdo and just play it on a computer.

All right. So I know speaking of speaking of like Xboxes, there's also by Spencer

people at handhelds would have been their segue. I just want to let you know that.

That's true. True. Speaking of handhelds, that's like a playing overwatch

Phil Spencer's out here just saying shit about like a handheld Xbox and about how,

how he can't stop thinking about it. And I'm like, like, what does that mean? Like,

what, what, what executive says something like this in the press? Like, what does that even like

actually be really? And I don't know what to make of this. And obviously, yes, I like, yeah,

Microsoft is going to be thinking about making a handheld because the handle market is like,

just over the last couple of years, it's just blown up. It's just getting bigger.

The introduction of the steam deck has sort of revitalized this sort of

the sex segment of like gaming hardware. So there's so much

also really good power efficient APUs right from AMD. I think it's also as well has been helping.

Yeah. AMD is the one like winning in this right now because AMD is selling all these fucking

CPUs. Nvidia doesn't have a part for it. You can't put a mobile G you could, but the power

draws too high, right? Like they go 60 Watts alone for it. So you need an APU for, for a

handheld device. And these, all of these have like AMD chips in them, APUs in them. And so these

and I could see this, I could see and handheld. Okay. Now my question is, do you think it's going

to be like this, the PlayStation portal or whatever it's called, or is this going to be

like an actual, like actual console with like its own CPU? Like it's not just streaming off of x

cloud or whatever. Like, is that, is that like, like what's

No, I think they're going to, I think they're going to try and get AMD. I think the reason

Phil saying he really is dreaming about it is I don't think there's a, a, a downscale APU that

can cover what the series S covers. Because if they're going to do it right, it would, it would

have to be the series S package, you know, spec for spec with a series S's, but in an APU that

can run on a battery. And I think that's the reason why they're kind of talking about it,

but they're not committing to it or announcing anything even is just because I'm unsure if that

part exists, but in a few years, it's totally possible. Right. Cause that's like what eight

gigs of Ram, it's like a eight gigabyte GPU and it's based like a 6,600 ish part.

So in a generation or two, I'm pretty sure you could probably fit that into an APU

and have a pretty good experience, especially since most series S games run at 10, 80 P seven,

20 P which, you know, it looks kind of blurry on a TV for sure. But on a, you know, seven,

20 P portable OLED or 10 EP OLED, that's not a problem. That's fine. Yeah. That's, that's,

that's the thing. I think we still a little bit far away from this actually happening,

but, but considering like the market, if it continues, like, you know, the ACES ROG ally,

the Lenovo Legion go, and then maybe we get a next generation of steam deck. We're not,

we're not sure about that, but like, I think it just makes sense. Right. Like I think be you,

anyone, you know, we all have our different thoughts and like what the gaming could be

like, but I feel like, you know, I've, I've used the RG ally, you just play it and you're like,

I could see the downsides to this, but like, I can see how I've said it before, you know,

I would buy an Xbox handheld and probably make that my primary gaming thing just because,

you know, I don't, you know, I don't have like a gaming setup right now where I have like a

dedicated gaming area, you know, it would just, I would be okay with that. Go anywhere, take it

with me. Like it just, it just makes sense. But I think there's just a little bit of a,

a part push there. That's just that, that parts aren't ready for it. But, and I also, it's why

to talk about multiple game stores and stuff, because if you're Phil Spencer, you're like,

if we're going to make an Xbox handheld and AMD and our partners or our ASUS are all making these

windows ones, these need to be the same skew, right? Like it can't, we can't have the Xbox team

and someone else on the windows team also be trying to build the same thing. Right. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Phil Spencer's I think is actually smart here because he's indirectly

saying we can't go Google messaging with this shit. Yeah. Yeah. That's, that's, that's not

going to stress you. And also this, this is the funny thing about this, this particular little

bit of a Phil Spencer talking to the press is that he was, he said that I want my Lenovo Legion

go to feel like an Xbox, which, which he said at, at, at an interview with GDC. And he's like,

he, the funny example he provided is that he is going crazy. That fallout 76 doesn't have cross

save. And I'm just sitting here like, you know, Steve mentioned this other game is next video as

well as like, you know I feel like you could make that happen. Maybe like, you know, maybe you could

just like call somebody over at Bethesda and have them like have a team like make a fallout 76

cross save. Maybe I don't see, you know, that kind of thing. But that's a good thing though.

It's funny. Yes. But there's one thing that I've learned when executives are personally inconvenienced

and it also lines of shit that we are inconvenienced about. We all win. Yeah, exactly.

Yeah. That's true. Like if, if, if, if this means that everything is cross save. Yeah. Hell yeah.

Like cross save is just a straight up, just a good thing. Like it's, it's a hundred percent

upside. There's no downside to it. Like it's, it's, it's just straight up good. So yeah. And

he's also talking about the stuff. Like I talk about like the dashboard, right. The, the Xbox

UI and all that. Like he wants the social stuff. Like he's, he's talking a lot of the social stuff.

And I don't know how much I care about that, but like he seems to think it's really important to

have like the Xbox social stuff be part of it. Which, well, I think it works for, for teens.

Right. You know, maybe you're like, are people really into Xbox because from our perspective,

we use signal, these other chat apps. But when I was younger, right. Like I didn't have, I mean,

this is before discord is a thing, but like we had IRC and stuff like Xbox parties were a thing

people use and that people probably still use it because it's built into the system. And so I

think it's going to happen here is I think this is going to be a special skew of windows for these

handhelds. That is maybe a desktop mode, but just more of an Xbox dashboard interface, honestly,

for this, for these devices specifically, I think the windows eight style thing where the

desktop is just an app makes sense because unless you're hooking up to a monitor, I do not know

anyone. And I know some of you sickos are out there, but no one's writing code on the ROG ally.

It's great that you can, right? Yeah, probably. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely.

Yeah. Meanwhile, though, in Europe, it's very funny. There's a report from Kotaku about the

drain GDC, a lot of developers like, why should we keep supporting Xbox? And I have a different

take on this maybe than the doomer take, which is you shouldn't Xbox and PC just be the same

fucking platform at this point. I think like you should just be able to like build a PC build.

The SDK should be similar enough that you can just build one skew. And then, you know,

Xbox can just be a performance preset. Like that's really what it should be at this point.

Yeah. I there's increasingly it's not it's building for windows, really. It's just you

just you just making a windows build and then sort of goes over to Xbox and it runs like you

have the performance. We said, yeah, it's just I think this is just like I this press sort of

like what is happening? Like what? Why is like go back to the question of this segment? Is that

why is Phil Spencer on some sort of press circuit like right now? Like what's what's going on?

Like it's I would call it a vision trip. Just to be honest. Yeah. Spencer's vision trip.

God. So we have like a little bit of actual more serious news is more and more concrete.

I suppose the Windows Central apparently had an exclusive on this, which

great for Windows Central, I guess. Xbox president Sarah Bond set up a new team dedicated to game

preservation and forward compatibility. I suppose this is sort of a continuation of like what we

what was happening with the sort of Xbox or just Xbox game. It was 360 games on like Xbox

series consoles. Right. Is that is that what is going on? Like is this thing just like.

Right. So basically make sure that backwards expand its rights to more backwards compatibility

titles could get added. I hopefully like the actors and Blizzard stuff and also make sure

that future generations can run current Xbox games are supported. And I think what's important about

us, especially in context, why Phil Spencer, the opening his mouth is, I think a lot of people are

uncomfortable with the idea of game consoles just being computers, but they've always just been

computers. And Microsoft is openly speaking about that fact. And given they're losing it,

they're kind of in a we can just try whatever right now. I think it doesn't matter because

even if they were fully committed, are people going to sell their PS5s for Xbox? No. So I mean,

I think we've memed about it before, but the DMA is going to come from game consoles eventually.

Right there. I do not see why Europe would not eventually force Nintendo and Sony to be to open

up their systems because they are just computers, especially Nintendo, who sells it for a profit.

So I think this is partially just seeing where the world's going. And also realizing that

turning this into a service, turning it into a platform for other people to sell games on

in the long term is going to net you more lasting impact. Because if you look at Windows,

like Windows is the example of this, right? Windows, Linux, and Mac OS have stood the test

of time because anyone can sell software on it, right? You do not have to go through one vendor

or one store. Whereas mobile is relatively new. We have 40 years of desktop computers showing that

openness for selling software and letting people just build business off as it always wins.

And for the 10 years we had a mobile where it's trying... Where people have been trying to close

it down, governments are saying, "No, you need to open it up like desktop computers."

So I think if I'm someone running a video game platform right now, I'm thinking, "Well,

I think we need to architect ourselves to be a services platform company and not like a whole

end-to-end business from selling games to making the hardware."

MF: Yeah, you're not doing the full... You're not trying to do the Apple vertical integration

thing, right? It's not favorable. People don't... Regulators don't like it. Regulators are

increasingly hostile to it. Just get out of it while you can. Just get out of the market,

build stuff that's more open in the sense that it allows people to sell their shit without too much

restriction. You can still make money off that. And I think it's long-term. I think you make more

money off that if more and more people just use your platforms. I think that's the setup.

O'Reilly: Especially when I don't think anyone knows where the market's heading.

Can I think me or you could say, "Is getting a PC sustainable?" Probably not. I don't know right now.

The amount of layoffs we're having right now, I think just taking an actual look at things,

like I don't know what's the next step. Does everyone just start getting VR headsets and

VR becomes the next big thing? No. Is it mobile? Is it--

MF: No. No. VR is never-- Okay, this is my hot take. VR is never going to become mainstream

unless we solve the big problem with VR, which is the human body. Unless we can figure out how to

augment our internal organs to be able to-- O'Reilly: That's a new sentence. I get what

I'm saying. You know what I mean, right? Human bodies are not compatible with virtual reality.

It's just not. It's no matter-- MF: But the reason I bring this up,

though, the reason I bring it up is that I think none of us could really say where this year is

going to end at. I think if you're running a gaming platform, the smartest idea is, "Well,

we should just be wherever it's at." Let's look at Office as the example. You can get Office on

basically fucking anything, including Chromebooks. That has resulted in people not leaving Office,

and also competitive pressure because Microsoft decided to kill Slack. That's a whole other

different podcast. But outside of that, I think it's been a net beneficial thing. You can get

Microsoft Excel or Word on a fucking toaster up to a $10,000 gaming PC. I don't disagree with that

being the wrong take to just let things be cross-platform. MF: Yeah. It's actually just

better for everyone to have that sort of-- O'Reilly: Why is having Steam on your Xbox a

bad thing? I just need to go back to that. People are actually here saying that having Steam on

Xbox is a bad thing. Why do you need to rebuy games? For your side, what if you could just buy

a cheap Xbox to put in your living room? Let's say you want to relax and not be at your desk,

and you wanted to play games you already own. Spending $200 for a Series S, even with lower

fidelity, just so you can unwind, play a little side-scrolling game or something that will run

at 60 FPS. There's nothing wrong with that. That should be something you should be able to do.

MF: Yeah, exactly. There's no technical reason that Steam can't run on a console. It's just all

of this stuff is arbitrarily weird gatekeeping happening. So it's just like, "Open that shit up.

Why not? Let's get that." So let's wrap up. It's been a good episode, I think. We got anime,

we got music, we got video games. O'Reilly: The three things on our

bingo card. Anime, Beyoncé, and Phil Spencer. MF:

All right. This has been episode six of Voxels. You can find the show notes at voxels.fm. You can

send us emails. What is the address? Feedback? O'Reilly:

Feedback@voxels.fm. MF: Yep. Feedback@voxels.fm. Send us emails.

You can find me on the Fediverse at packetcat@10forward.social and on my website,

sonicsave.com. Christian, where do people find you on the internet?

O'Reilly: Yep. You can find me posting hot takes online at belowfivecarats@mstn.plus. You can find

my website, justfindout.website. And yeah, until next time, "Transphobia Has No Place in Hip Hop,"

go home and play or watch Suzume. MF: Yeah, watch Suzume. Goodbye.

O'Reilly: Bye.