[Music].
This is a sort of redo of the original
podcast. I talked about some Japanese kids
shows that you might not be familiar
with and it is a part of Japanese culture
and therefore elements of it are weird
as shit. I should have checked how many
seconds it was before I said shit
because YouTube will. I don’t monetize
anyways whatever you’re going to worry
about it. There are two very common little
little kids shows in Japan. A couple
weeks ago on Engineers Japan I was talking
about coming writer. It’s a very common
show but it’s for like you know it’d be
six, seven, eight years old to really
get into it. There’s a lot of anime and
stuff. I actually find the kids get into
anime that’s popular even though it’s
I would say to adult I don’t mean
like adult sexy adult. I mean like cutting
off heads and stuff. Demon Slayer. My
daughter was for a really long time going
like I don’t want to watch scary movies.
The movies in TV shows you watch the
very violent, very scary. Then Demon
Slayer was popular and she watched Demon
Slayer. It had way more violence in it
than a lot of the stuff that I was I was
trying to watch with her. You can’t you
can’t argue with what’s popular. I mean
that’s actually what it comes down to.
What’s popular is what the kids want to
watch regardless of whether it’s
appropriate or not. The first show is
“emba man.” “emba
man” “empa is a kind of
bread” and “man” is
“man” so “emba man” is like
bread dude. Bread guy. Bread man. It is one
of the biggest shows in Japanese history.
Started in 1973 so it’s been going for like
50-152 years up until 2013. That was the
comic when the author of the comic died.
So an entire career based off a
single character which is pretty impressive
because it’s been that successful.
Around 1998 started a TV
show. The TV show is still
ongoing now. It is a
it’s a kids show. It’s like…
“Doraimon” I don’t
enjoy “Doraimon”
actually was one of
the first things I tried
to read when I was learning Japanese
was “Doraimon” because I found kids can be
pretty simple. Problem is it was really
boring because these stories are so
formulaic and this is a problem with
kids shows. They are formulaic if you’re
going to watch them
as not a child. Because I
guess it’s good for kids
they get the same pattern
so they kind of understand what’s going on.
Like even if they don’t 100% understand
what’s going on. “Doraimon” the kid
wants something. “Doraimon” says “I’ll give
you this thing” but
you gotta be careful with
it. The kid abuses it,
messes up his whole
life and then they fix
it together. They learn
a lesson until the
next week. So the irony
to me is in “Doraimon” the lessons never
stick. So what’s the point of learning a
lesson every single
week or every single
episode or every single
comic if none of the
lessons stick. The
lesson is almost always
don’t abuse this thing
you have. Don’t abuse
the power. Don’t abuse
whatever. The kid does
and then he goes “Wow
I won’t do that again”
and then like the next episode he does the
exact same. “Umpomons” is not so different.
My kids watched it. I
always had a bet. So this
is sincere. I always
had a bad feeling about
“Umpomons” there was
something about it that I found
insidious. We did have an
event in my house where
we got a CD. “Umpon
Min is totally different”
“Umpomons is not totally
different” he’s piece of shit.
“It’s just good versus
evil. Bring it, it yet.” Well
let me get into it then
because I think you might
just be wrong. I think
it might just be evil
versus evil but we’ll need
one get into that. Okay.
We had an incident in my
house. We had an incident
in my house where we
got an episode of Barney,
the big purple dinosaur
thing and I thought “Ah
I’ve seen clips of it on
the Internet. People are
singing the stupid love.
I love you. You love me
song.” So I thought “Okay
that’s gonna be pretty
innocent” and then mid
show they started singing
the song. It was a song
about how America is the
greatest country in the
world and I turned it off
and I said “We’re not
watching this anymore and I
threw out that tape.” The
kids didn’t understand the
poem but I was like “This
American centric idea was
not going to be
introduced to my children as
America being the greatest
country in the world.”
It was a problem for
I think international
distribution of a TV
show. It’s very hard to say
we’re going to be very
patriotic in our show and
then sell that to other
countries where you’re
basically saying “Yeah
the country you live in,
kind of shit, country
you live in?” Number two,
it best because America is the greatest
show, the greatest country in the world.
I was sitting there going
like “Okay I don’t want
to introduce that. I don’t
want my kids thinking
America is the greatest
country in the world that
has its issues.” Japan
has its issues but if I was
gonna choose, I would
choose Japan every time to
be honest, I was thinking
about these shows as
I was watching with my
kids in a different way. I’m
bum-bum so let’s get to
the concepts and the base.
It has been one of the
highest ranked hero shows for
the entirety of its run
for under 12-year-olds in
Japan. It’s a very
popular show. Pretty much
every Japanese person
you meet will know the show,
they’ll know about the
characters and whatnot.
Um-bum-bum is the main
character. There are a lot of
the heroes, our food-based
head characters. It’s
not like we have a word
for anthropomorphic animals
which is a lot of the
other characters. I guess
it’s anthropomorphic food
but then I would think of.
a bun, forming legs and the
bun is the body and the head
whereas “Empelman” has what
in this show is a human body
with a bread head on
it which is already very
disturbing if you think
about it. Still, kids show so
we’re gonna forgive
that element of the
Frankenstein element of
it. There are fruit people,
so there’s food
people, so there’s like
“Shokapamman” which
is like white bread head,
There’s “Ampelman” which
is just you know bread head.
I think it’s the red bean
paste in it. There’s a
couple more. I don’t
know. I haven’t watched the
show in a long time.
Then there’s the bad guy,
technically the bad
guy, “Bikingman” which
translates to “Bacteria
Man” is gold is to cover the
world in bacteria
which in a weird way is
actually done because
if you think about it,
everyone’s covered in
bacteria, everything’s covered
in bacteria, “Bikingman”
has actually already won the
war. His manifesto of “I Will Cover the
World in Bacteria” already successful. Mr.
Warren has put in the chat
“Yaki-Soba-Pon-Man” so “Pon
is Bread” so it’s “Yaki-Soba”
which is like a noodle
that put the noodles in
the bread. I have to make
sure that people know
what we’re talking about.
Then they take that
contraption and they
make a head out of it
and put it on him. Now,
I didn’t watch all a lot
of episodes. I watched
a bunch. “Bon-Man”
seems to have the only
head that’s replaceable.
This is a big important
thing. If “Bon-Man” meets
you and I’m hungry. I’m
just in the forest and
I’m lost and I’m hungry,
“Bon-Man” can bend
down and I can eat his head
already again, very
disturbing, but kids show and
I think it’s weird and
funny and they like it,
so I’m not going to
complain about that aspect of
it. I think their goal is
to say like you should
share with other people.
Pretty nice sentiment. I don’t
think you should share
your body with other people.
That’s not the message
I would be going for. Then
he gets weaker though,
so if you eat some of his
head, he has less
physical power. If the bread
that is his head gets
dirty, he has less physical
power. That’s very
important. So there is the old
man who bakes the bread
heads, so I don’t know
if there’s some kind of
voodoo power being inserted
into the bread, how
he does this, to create a
non-sensient head that
connects to the body. Usually
what happens is “Bon-Man’s
bread head is dirty.”.
He gets weak and then the
old dude in Mr. Wormhans
is trying to make
sure I say this, “Jammu
Ozzisa.” He throws
ahead, displacing the original
head, connecting
instantaneously, making a brand
new ompamans. The brain
is in the boat question. If
I replace every part of a
boat, at what point am I?
Do I have a new boat?
If I do it plank by plank,
what point does my boat
become new? If I replace
a head, is he the same
thing? Does he have the same
values? Where is his
heart and memories and his
animal? Where is that
stored? Because it actually
seems to be weak, we
think of it being in your head.
But if you dispose of the
head, your boat’s feelings,
experiences would go
with it, so it’s a fresh
person. I don’t know.
They don’t ever explain it.
Again, kids show they’re
not getting into this
scientific aspect. Or to me, this would
be clearly mystical aspect of the show.
“Jammu Ozzisa” is
doing some wild wild stuff
out there. One of
the main plot lines of
‘ampaman’ is that he is
bringing food to people
who need food. The
counter to that is that
biking man wants
food. Usually, biking man
creates a large overly
complicated machine, like a
Mac or something. He will
use that to fight ‘ampaman’
for the food. And then
‘ampaman’ will defeat.
He usually beats up
biking man and he’ll find
one he doesn’t ‘ampunch’
and he punches him and
biking man flies away in
the sun. It’s a consistent
joke on the show. The
distribution of these
foods has no oversight.
But that is always one of
the… There’s no government
oversight, there’s no
authority figure. This
world is completely devoid of
any authoritarian oversight
over ‘ampaman’. He is a
free entity and he is
unmatched in his abilities.
So he decides exclusively
on his own on what is good
and what is evil. So you
have… ‘ampaman’ decides
this group needs and
wants food. I will give them
food. Biking man, who
I do not like, he wants
and needs foods, I will
not give him food. Biking
man, who is hungry, tries
to take the food for himself
because he is not being
given any, like everyone
else in the world. And
then he is beaten for his
efforts. So that to me
does not sound like a hero.
That does not sound to
me like someone I should
aspire towards. That
does not sound to me
like the archetype of a good person. That
sounds to me like a dictator. ‘ampaman’.
and make any blanket
decision for any reason and no
one can stand in his way.
So that to me is already…
This is sort of a dictatorial
element to the world
they live in. So these
people who do get food
and do not get food.
That’s under ‘ampaman’s
rule’. It’s his decision
exclusively and no one can
fight back. And if you do
fight back, you get beaten
down for your efforts.
You get punched into the
sun on a weekly basis.
Why? Because you don’t
have food. You want
food. You need to get food.
There’s been no
conversation, no diplomacy, no
aspect of trying to
create some sort of peace
between ‘biking man’ and
‘ampaman’ because ‘ampaman’
will not listen to him.
They’ve never been able to
have that discussion.
That to me is one of the
bigger concerns. That is a
comedic version of looking
at the show. There is the
very real problem in that
I have two children. My
son and my daughter were
watching ‘ampaman’.
And as I said, at the end
of every episode basically,
‘ampaman’ looks at
‘biking man’ goes, ‘arm
punch’ and hits him and he goes
into the sun. ‘son’ then
looked at his sister when.
‘arm punch’ and then decked
her in the face as hard as he could.
That was the moment
when I realized that in
real life, ‘ampaman’ is
setting a bad example. I
will make jokes about the
violence in shows. That’s
a bad example. This
isn’t what you should do.
Ha ha ha. The reality
is, this is exactly what
it taught my son. When
he sees a sister is long
he says, ‘ampan’ she can punch her in
the face and it’s perfectly acceptable.
Which to me is the core
issue and why in my house
‘ampaman’ is not a very
popular character anymore
because I wouldn’t let
the kids watch them. My
wife growing up, Japanese,
didn’t see the issue.
You know about the
Christian allegory of ‘ampan’
man? Mr. Warmhands has
just put you know about the
Christian allegory of
‘ampaman’ and ‘no I don’t’.
Is this the resurrection?
So he’s changing his
head is his resurrection.
Is that what we’re
going to go for?
Mr. Warmhands has sent us
the connection between
Christians and ‘ampaman’.
So I’m going to go
through their statements
and we can do a quick analysis of those.
There is what is it, uh,
the lion in the witch in the wardrobe
apparently is a whole Jesus allegory.
Not knowing a whole
lot about Jesus if I’m
being really honest.
Some of my friends actually
find a laughable how
little I know about religion.
Um, a lot of this stuff
doesn’t make it like I don’t
see it. One of the
interesting aspects of being
raising my kids in Japan
as a sort of failed Christian
that in my daughter I
think she was about eight
or nine. We passed by
a church when we were
talking about the church
and she’s like, “What is
it?” And I go, “Do you
know Jesus?” And she’s like,
“No.” So I would say
as far as characters go,
Jesus might be one of the
most famous characters my
daughter didn’t know
him. Right? I was weirdly
proud about him. But
anyways, this is from Osaka
Church. So a church in
Osaka has created a link
between ‘ampaman’ and
‘Jesus’. This actually is
going to be a theme that’s
going to return probably
next month where we
talk about Jesus in Japan.
It’s in Japanese and
English, which is awesome.
Well, the first question
is, what is the connection
between ‘ampaman’ and
‘Jesus’? What they want to
do is take a popular its
character and connect
to Jesus and maybe draw
in those children. I can
see that’s actually kind
of an ugly tactic to me.
But you know, I get
it. They are both living
bread. Yes, I know.
When you go to church,
I believe it’s Catholic
church. You drink the
wine that is his blood
and then you eat the
wafer that is his bread.
The bread is his body.
So you can actually
eat the body of Christ,
the body in blood of Christ. You can
actually eat the body of ‘ampaman’. Mr.
My name is Collek,
correcting me. I think
when I start making
statements about religion,
the corrections will
be so vast that they will
be almost unnecessary.
So let’s just agree to
the fact that I’m only
going to know the big
bits and the big bits
that I learned from TV and
movies because I
certainly didn’t learn it in
church. Takashi Yayasai,
the author of ‘ampaman’,
a popular Japanese
anime, is a Christian. An
‘ampaman’ is the allegory
of Jesus. When I found
out about that, I was
so excited to find the
gospel in the story of
‘ampaman’. This feels like
they’re working really
hard to make this work.
But Mary conceived Jesus
by the power of the Holy
Spirit. On the day of
his birth, it is said that
a big, right star appeared.
Oh, I do remember this
isn’t the opening. A big
star goes down into the
chimney where Gem
Ojisan is baking the bread.
Oh my god, that’s actually
pretty good. Jesus always
helped the poor weaken
sick people unless it was
someone he didn’t like.
Oh wait, that’s ‘ampaman’.
Jesus always helped the
poor weaken sick people.
So he’s ‘ampaman’ always comes to the
rescue of those who cry out for help. If
biking man were to cry
out for help or to ask
for food, he would be
refused and then beaten
terribly. Those were
those were were healed.
Those are those just
type of those were healed.
And saved by Jesus
now found new life in him.
So basically, yeah,
you eat part of his head.
You get healthier. I
mean, it’s just food.
I don’t know. It’s,
again, it’s a bit tough.
Those who are given
bread from ‘ampaman’ regain
strength and became
fully energized. So I guess
they’re kind of relating
that to like Jesus
touched the leper and
healed him and he had more
energy. These kids in the food, in the show
that he gives food to tend to just be lost.
They’re not really in
that. There’s an image
that didn’t load and the
alt title for the images
eat my face. I think
maybe they downloaded the
images from other sources
and people who are saying
like weird things. Jesus gave his
life for our sins and gave us new life.
‘ampaman rescues
others by sharing a piece of
his own sweet bread
face with those in need.
Often ‘ampaman’ gets
beaten up in battles with
biking man, the antagonist,
or is exhausted by
sharing a part. We kind of went over that.
You eat part of his head against weaker.
Jesus resurrects after his
death, he wins over death
and give hope to people
and change their lives.
In this picture, for the
people listening to the
podcast, ‘ampaman’ is
actually removing his own
head and then accepting
a new head from
Jamojisan, who in this
analogy would be God, like
soon. He regains his
health and strength when
Uncle John Bakes had
the new head placed under.
the official. He defeats
his enemy. I think they’re
making biking man out
to be Satan. The problem
being that biking man
really just wants to live
in peace. He wants to
be left alone. He wants
to eat some food. The
food that everyone else is
getting the partake of
so freely. Why is he being
excluded? He is meant to be Satan. I
don’t think that’s a fair, fair comparison.
When I was a child, as I
was watching ‘ampaman’,
I thought he was different
from other heroes and
there were several things
I couldn’t understand. Why
does ‘ampaman’ share
part of his face made out of
bread when he knows
that he will become weak by
doing that? He does it
because it’s an obligation.
It’s sort of the desire to
maintain power because
if his subjects look up
to him and see him is the
sole source of power
and health, then they
will be forever subjected
to him. That’s why.
Why does he just release
biking man even though he
knows he’ll come back?
That is actually not what
happens. That is my complaint.
He doesn’t just release
him. He beats him and
then punches him into the
sun. That isn’t just release
him. I guess maybe in
a certain Christian view,
that’s how you release
people, but I don’t think
that’s the right way to do
it. But because now I know
Jesus, I can understand
‘ampaman’. True hero is
the one who can give himself
to others. No, not always.
Oh wait, there is an image,
an image from the old cartoon of ‘ampaman’
giving part of his head to biking man.
That might be the one that
underpant, underminds my theory.
From ‘On Panman’
Wiki, Bay Kinman’s design
was heavily based on
Vialzabo of the Christian
religion. The Dix-Yo-Nearing-Fernal
describes Vialzabo
as a demonic fly who is
also known as the Lord of
the Flies, which was an
inspiration for bacon mince
fly like appearance.
He’s also a personification
of the black bread mold,
Rizopistelonifer, which
was found on bread surfaces
and causes damage to
bread, which would make bacon men an enemy
to ‘On Panman’, who’s head is a bread.
It’s obvious that ‘On
Panman’ does not exist, but
Jesus is still living
today. I have some issues
with that statement
because why is it so obvious
that Jesus exists in
‘On Panman’ isn’t? I think
there is actually enough
proof for both. And to be
honest, I’ve seen more
stories about ‘On Panman’
than I have about
Jesus.’ He gave not the
part of his body, but
he gave his life to us
the living bread that will
last forever. ‘On the cross
Jesus says, ‘Eat my
bread of life, believe in me,
receive eternal life,
and…’ I don’t think that’s
what ‘Bike’ ‘On Panman’
says when he does it, though.
Becoming a Christian,
having a relationship
with God, he’s dropped
to ‘On Panman’ parts now,
just talking about how
you can become a Christian.
That’s not what
I’m looking for in life.
The author clearly set out heavily
inspired by the stories of the Bible.
I mean, the Bible doesn’t
have Jesus punching
Satan to death and then
throwing him into the sun.
So I actually would disagree with that.
To me, the core element is that final scene
where he does the ‘On
Punch.’ I mean, there’s the
turn the other cheek
bit, but then you keep just
dismissing the aspect
of ‘On Punch.’ ‘On Kick.’
He is a violent and
inherently violent character
who sees violence as the solution
to every problem that is brought up.
Obviously, creative liberties were
taken with the concept of Jesus,
where it’s now Jesus
on the cross and he does
that stupid kung fu
thing and he pulls it out,
and he’s got the pieces of wood still using
these sorts of nailing people with those.
That’s the creative Liberty we’re talking
about because that is what happened.
And you aren’t obnoxious, Ben.
I’m an obvious pettent.
Well, I think you’ve missed the
point of this whole episode then.
Because if I didn’t do
the pettentry, then we
wouldn’t have the
entertaining aspect of the show.
That’s when you’ll get Jesus’
eating Satan into the sun.
I want to see. I want to
see get when Jesus beats
him in and down and then
punches him into the sun,
then the comparison
between ‘Unpo Man and
Jesus’ will solidify in
my head and my heart.
So in the real world,
beyond just the stupid
joke I made, I actually
do not think ‘Unpo Man’
is a good show for children.
Anything that teaches
kids to solve issues
with violence, as a real
final option is not a
good show. And the fact
that kids actually did
emulate what they saw
that to me that’s a real world
example of why that was not acceptable.
There is another show.
And it’s a show that in
real life I do quite
enjoy. I actually quite
like the songs I like
the stories I actually
quite liked most of what
they did in a show called
Shimajito. Shimajito is
a little tiger and basically
every lesson is be
polite, be kind, be friendly.
That’s kind of a thing I
can get behind as a parent,
as someone who’s
actually watching this show,
hoping that kids pick
up some lessons. They
spend an odd and an
amount of time talking about
toilet training. Like
you need to tell your
parents when your P
bucket is full. And that’s.
a good lesson for the
kid and it’s very helpful
for the parent. If the
kid is very comfortable
telling you, as we’re
about to get in the car, my
P buckets full, then you
can take them, they can go
P, you will solve a problem
before it becomes an
issue. So I appreciated
Shimajito is a little tiger.
This is an anthropomorphic
show. All the characters
in Shimajito are animals
that act like people,
their sentient, they speak,
they walk around, they
have jobs, they do
things, they live their lives.
There’s a girl in his
class, his friends, a little
cat and a little parent
person. There is a raccoon
who’s very selfish, who
has a Butler, apparently
Butler and the goat
in in Japanese, who’s a
play on words, but I don’t
remember it right now.
And then there are two
bully kids in their pigs,
bit on the nose, but
whatever. The interesting
thing to me, when I
started doing an analysis of
this show, just mentally,
so I’m watching the show
with my kids and it’s
not particularly engaging
for the parents. I’m not
the target audience, so
that’s not a complaint.
That’s just the reality.
I think people need to start taking
sort of target audiences into account.
Like if I’m not the target
audience and I don’t
like it, that shouldn’t
be a complaint about the
thing I’m watching, the media I’m watching.
Shimajito’s favorite food is beef steak.
No, it’s not a steak.
Japanese beef steak is
ground beef into a
Patty, they put sort of a
demiglass sauce on
the top, they serve with
rice, he likes ground
beef patties. That’s fine.
But if you listen to what
I had just presented to
you, all the animals in this
show are anthropomorphic
animals and Shimajito’s
favorite food is beef.
Which leads us down a
very dark pan. Because I
either, there are cows,
as we know them, that
are food cows, but for
some reason they are not
anthropomorphic. I don’t
remember ever seeing
a cow in the show.
Or, and this is the really
sort of Sci-Fi dystopian,
soil and green version of
the story. There are
anthropomorphic cows who are
essentially a race of
people. I did always wonder
about crossbreeding.
There are anthropomorphic
cows. They are essentially
their own species. I
don’t know, I was talking
about the crossbreeding.
So because Shimajito
is a tiger and a little
girl in this class is a
cat, but they’re both
anthropomorphic. So could
they get together? Could
the cat get together
with the parent? Or is it
just like animal
species only parrots can
get together or only
tigers can get together?
It would create sort
of barriers, almost racial
species barriers between
the kids. It would create.
difficult aspects to
living sometimes. Because
maybe you fall in love
with someone you can’t
breed with. Will is that the purpose of the
relationship? I don’t know. This is, again,
love doesn’t listen to
genetics, but they’re
living in anthropomorphic
worlds. So they are
different from the animals
we know. So I did kind
of want to know the
rules, but I get it. It’s
kids cartoon show. I’m
not going to get too deep
into it, but the
anthropomorphic cows and beef
being a food stuff in
the show was problematic
to me. Because
there has to be a farm,
which I would probably call an internment
can of anthropomorphic cows that are being
red and raised, murdered
and ground up for food
so that Shimajito can
have beef. And then I was
thinking, is it just
this one, is it just beef
cows? Is it just cows? Are
the cow people somehow
different from the other
ones? Because that led
me back to maybe they
aren’t anthropomorphic,
but I don’t remember
everything in the show. So
we have the two bullies,
the two pig bully kids.
I wondered, okay, do we
ever see them eat pork?
Because that would set
up an in-world rule set.
Like if it’s an
anthropomorphic animal, that
food does not get eaten.
Therefore, they have
laws and rules. If it
is an anthropomorphic
thing and we eat pork,
maybe there are two kinds,
there are non anthropomorphic
pigs, anthropomorphic
pigs and we eat them,
but wouldn’t that be
weird? Because we have
anthropomorphic people and
we would have, I guess,
the closest thing would
be simmians, so some
kind of gorilla or monkey
or something and we eat
those. I can see people
having sort of moral issues with that
because they’re so closely related to us.
I started at that point
looking out for, do they ever
eat pork on the show? Do
they ever bake in? Do they
ever have a ham sandwich,
that kind of stuff? I never
caught them doing it,
but that was at the tail end
of when my kids were
watching Shima Giudos. I didn’t
get to see enough shows
to make a full sample size.
It is something I tried
to look up on the Internet.
Weirdly, I don’t think
anyone else has had these
thoughts. Do they
eat pigs in a show with
anthropomorphic pigs? Do
they eat beef in a show with
anthropomorphic cows?
Has no one ever looked at
that? It made me wonder
why is no one wondered
why Shima Giudos loves
beef so much and then one day,
let’s say if Shima Giudos
goes feral, he’s out in
the world, he sees an
anthropomorphic cow and
he just goes and eats
it. This is a pretty dark
underbelly to the show
which causes me great
concern because what is
the message, the message is
that maybe there are
classes of people, a class
of people that should
not be eaten, a class of
people that should be,
that is acceptable to eat.
Where is the morality in
this world is the question
I’m asking? So we end
up with a soil and green
type situation and I’m
wondering what the world’s
all about because Shima
Giudos really seems like it
lives in a world with no
morals. And at that point,
again, is this a show I
should be showing to my kids?
Because what if my children
have inherited aspects
of my personality, let’s
say, maybe they’ve inherited
some of that analytical
ability and they grow
watching Shima Giudos,
they see Shima Giudos, where
they’re like, “Hey, maybe it’s acceptable
to eat a certain class of people.”.
[Music].