Mononoke Movie: The Ashes of Rage Review

Welcome to what you say anime. I am your host, Peter. On today's episode, we are diving into the second movie of the Mononoke franchise, the ashes of rage or the fire rat, depending on where you are looking. I think it's interesting that the movie is being called two different things you watch on Netflix. It clearly says the ashes of rage, but everywhere else seems to be calling it the fire rat. We cover the first movie in the past. So if this is your first time visiting, you want to hear our thoughts coming into this movie. I will leave a link to the description to that below. Uh, join me today is our cohost and noted Mononoke fan Jolene. So we have reviewed the first movie a little less than a year ago, and we were all pretty high on what we saw. So coming into this movie, knowing that this was movie number two, and we have a third on the way. What were your initial thoughts of the second movie that we got? Well, first of all, I was just glad to kind of be back in the world and getting a chance Like I was glad to have it sort of reaffirmed that it was going to be a trilogy of movies that were building upon the same plot. Because I think that one thing we all agreed on last time was that that movie had a lot of potential, but it really depended on if they followed through with what was set up in that first movie. And I think that even from just the get go, they do that in spades. Like the animation is just as great as usual. Starts off with a ******* banger in the soundtrack. Uh, yeah, I was just glad to be back, honestly. What about you? Yeah, no, I'm in the same boat because how the original Mononoke series is structured is like five different mini series essentially in one season of show. So it's like, are we getting three separate stories or are we getting one continuous trilogy? And I was glad to find out that the second movie was continuing off of the first and actually like in terms of the timeline, like pretty soon after the first movie, like there is not much buffer room. So we're getting these events in quick succession, which I think is going to lead to a lot of chaos in the third movie because I have a feeling that we are going to continue with ramping up to the finale. But I was just really glad to see the whole cast back. Um, we had some questions, like you mentioned, and some concerns about what happened in the first movie, if that was going to continue into the second movie and lo and behold, it did. So that's awesome that we can maybe fill some gaps in that was maybe missed from the first one. So we're going to be diving into that pretty quick here, but just wanted to do a quick synopsis that will lead into our first discussion topic. So we're following the events of movie one, following Lady Kitakawa's death and leading to the well-dweller Mononoke that was battled in the first movie. And that leads us to the second movie, which is a month after the events of the first movie. And it's now at the helm surrounding Madam Yutoyama, who passed away and was the former head of the like Uku administration. Her death led to the events of picking a new administrator for the Uku, which ended up being Botan. During the meeting, there was a bunch of different suitors for the role and we landed on Botan. There's also this silent disagreement at the top of the hierarchy within the Uku that a lady in waiting, Lady Fuki, is carrying the child of the emperor and thus sparks the conflict of movie two. So we want to start with sort of diving into that whole drama and how that sets up the Mononoke. And I just want to start real quick with how this movie in the beginning felt like a tale of two tapes, because I thought where we saw with some characters in the first half of this movie, we're going to lead to different conflicts in the second. I think that the movie did a fantastic job of sort of setting up Botan as like the antagonist when really she was sort of looking out for everybody the entire time. So I really like that. And now looking back at it, how they set up the new Mononoke was there was like a quote that said something along the lines of a Mononoke isn't built or born from like hate or anger or hatred. It's born from just raw human emotion. And from movie one, we saw that that was guilt. And movie two, it was more along the lines of kindness and love. So we had a new setup for how a Mononoke can be created and the actions that it does. So in this one, the Mononoke was acting as like a guardian or a defender for Lady Yuki and was just a wonderful change of pace. So I want to get your thoughts on how they set up the Mononoke and how that led to sort of like the relationships of everybody within the Uku. Yeah, and just get your thoughts on that. Definitely enjoyed the sort of like, no pun intended here, form of the Mononoke a lot better here. I think that it was a bit easier to grasp the concept of like this like, you know, rats have a lot of children, so they're protective of them, that sort of thing. We have swarms of flames that are sort of the children of this larger entity, that sort of thing. So I think that that was a bit easier to understand than like an umbrella spirit, just for me personally. For sure. And another thing I really enjoyed about it was how it sort of linked these two women together, Lady Fuki and the person that we will later discuss who became the Mononoke, as sort of victims of the or victim and a potential victim of this sort of the expectations that are created because of this like institution that is being upheld. 100%. Yeah. So with the politics around the Uku was definitely, I felt more explored in this, this to me felt more of like a political horror, in a sense, when you're dealing with the spirits involved with Mononoke. A lot of times we've had these, these instances of the Mononoke being a like being on the offensive or the horror aspect of it. And in this case, it was the Mononoke of being a guardian. And the other times it felt like, while they, maybe they were in like the right, like in the movie one, like the trauma of Lady Kitagawa, essentially committing suicide off through the well, that, that her actions created the spirit that ended up being like hostile and this movie and sort of the way of also by suicide, I would, it's not necessarily the same as one, but like, yeah, it was definitely like, it was more like a active protest. Yeah. Like, like similar to that monk who immolated himself as like a show of protest against, I think it was like the Vietnam war or something like that. It's been a minute. I think that that was kind of like her final act of protest was like immolating herself out of regret that this, again, this like hierarchy that is being upheld where these men in powerful positions basically use women as shogi pieces is how it's illustrated. That was the only, the only way to win is to, for the piece to not be playable essentially. And that's what, and she wants to flip the whole ******* board after she becomes a motor. Okay. Yeah. So like that whole setup was awesome. I'm trying to think if there was anything in particular, because there was, there's just so many different elements because with the other mind, okay. And this was like, I don't know, 20 ish minutes shorter than the first movie. And you can definitely feel that the sort of how they were like ramping up like the storylines and the messaging and stuff like that was a little different compared to the first movie. So in my mind, it's like, I like it in some ways and don't like it in other ways because I thought when you have something like movie one and the messaging and theming can get confusing because it's so dragged out or maybe that's so dragged out, but it is the pacing felt better in this movie, but like it was an intentional choice in the first movie to pace it that way. Because like the medicine seller is way more of a primary character in this one compared to like the last one where he's like this sort of entity that's around. And we have like the, the newcomers to the UCO, right. Like it's meant to kind of symbolize them being worn down with the pacing. Whereas this, I mean, it also kind of goes into the elemental theme, like fire spreads quickly. Like it's going to go bright and it's going to burn out. It's going to be a little bit quicker paced for this movie. So I think that the angled into that really well, in my opinion. Yeah. And I, and we will touch on that in just a second, but I want to make sure that, was there anything else about like the UCO that you wanted to touch on before we like jump into something new? Like the specific characters in the UCO. Yeah. Like, cause like we, some of these characters, they had screen time in the first movie, but we didn't really get to know like their personalities and stuff like that. And then this movie, we got much more screen time with some of the other characters. So like the relationships between the UCO characters were stronger compared to, I would say in the first movie, I think it was focused mostly on two people. Um, I feel like in this one, we had more characters of the UCO that made a bigger role in the story. Yeah. I definitely enjoyed seeing like Botan expanded into like your whole like foe villain aspect of her and it being sort of revealed that, well, no, she's just being like, her dad is just literally like a yellow eyed ******* fiend in a chair. Like the most, I think we could talk about that a little bit later where he felt, he feels a little bit like a one dimensional villain, but he did his role, I guess. And then like, I also enjoyed seeing Sakashita, the guards character expanded a lot and seeing that he has guilt for what happened to this person and is kind of clinging onto the past with like those ornaments and such that he has. Yeah. Could not agree more. And it's great to see like the, the roles that these characters are playing throughout the first movie and getting their backstory and how it's implemented in the second movie, you brought the medicine seller. The first movie, he seemed like a, you know, a guy who's coming into town and nobody's trusting him. And then the second movie we had scenes where like, they know the things that he did in the first movie and they don't even question like what he does. Like they all, I've already sort of accepted that he is like helping the Uku and he's helping this inner palace. You see it with like the guards who are protecting the Uku, essentially just like wave them in, like, all right, it's you're up to bat my man, like, like, let's go. And he's like, he gives them like, no, I was like, thank you. I don't have to go through a spiel of why I need to save everybody. So like seeing the characters get reflected from the first movie into the second movie was also awesome. Um, but one thing that I wanted, I mean, it's like the biggest thing with Mononoke, especially the movies is messaging and theming. Um, first movie centered around water a lot. And this movie were centered around fire or a spark. Uh, and they use the spark metaphor a bunch of different times in this one. The biggest one though, is the spark of new life, the spark of change. And we see this with, um, Ultimo, the main antagonist of this, not wanting to have change in the inner palace with everybody sort of coming together and rallying around Fuki, not being, or not carrying the next heir after the previous lady in waiting gave birth to a princess. So now we're in this process of trying to find a male heir. And when you have a spark, you have a, like a spark of any messaging. You want to think of revolution, just change in general of this new life, this new life form that will be coming into this world that would change the world, depending if it's a boy or a girl has huge repercussions. So I wanted to get your thoughts on how you felt that like the spark, um, messaging that they use in this or, or any other messaging that you saw throughout the film and get your thoughts on that. Yeah. I think that this movie was a lot more overt with it. I think I could, I turned to Simone at one point while we were watching this. I was like, man, this movie is woke as hell. Like in a positive way, it does feel like it's very much about like. Gender roles and how hierarchy affects both, you know, all types of people, not just necessarily like one gender over the other, but there is very much a focus on like women and how their bodies are treated like commodities by the men in their lives and that sort of thing. Like the abortion plot line where, you know, like you have Otomo basically like keeping his hands clean by saying like, oh yeah, I never actually told anybody to abort their own child, but he literally like, he more or less got like the court physician to make the drug and then like their fathers to talk to them and convince them to do such a thing. So like, I don't know. I just, I really enjoyed that. It was so overt in this one. Um, I think that it was really powerful messaging, especially in today's like we're like political climate of the U S and just the world in general has never been like more hostile to like women's bodily autonomy. And I think that for such a bold and masterful art piece to incorporate that overtly into its messaging is huge. Agreed. And one thing that I thought was really interesting was Fuki's dynamic with the emperor. Because I thought how they were going to sort of set up what Fuki was doing was that like, she was actually in love with the emperor and the emperor was actually in love with her and sort of set up this dynamic of, you know, maybe not like a Romeo and Juliet, but like, because Fuki came from like a trader's family, she is seen as lesser, she is not from a noble or royal family. And so it's like, oh, true love always wins type of thing is where I thought it was going to go with this. Nah, like Fuki is also playing the game. Like, I think she, yeah, I think she likes the emperor, but like, they're not like soulmates or anything like that. And she realizes like, she's in the position that she's in might as well make the best of it and be the mother of the emperor or the future emperor. She's doing a Circe basically. Yeah. That's a, that's actually a perfect way to phrase it. And so like, so how they set that up with, and it's why I kind of like view this as the more of like a political horror than like the other spiritual horrors that we've gotten in the Mononoke series, a lot of the chess pieces are being moved for political gain. And, um, I guess in the, the Mononoke sense for this is the political gain is like, let women just live their life. Like let them raise their own children. If they have a princess, because we see this earlier with Yukio, Yuki, Yukiko, who is, um, given birth to the emperor's child, but it's a princess and she's not allowed to raise her own daughter. Like that, that's the political climate that we have in this Uku. And we're sending out this message of, you know, it's, it should be the mother's choice to like, let them do what they are, like they want, like Yuki, Yukiko wanted to raise her princess, like her daughter, and she wasn't given that right, that, that choice. And so like, we have like these subtle messages of actually, it's not even subtle, we just have these messages or messages clearly, like, I don't know why I said subtle that we are murdering people who are going against. Um, we literally murdered somebody who gave people involuntary abortion. Yeah. So I mean, I thought it was just awesome. Like it was fantastic. Sort of like how they're setting us up, but like the whole spark message from the beginning was so cool. Or fire fire spreads. They don't want this ideology to get out of, um, like the, the, their palace. They even mentioned it early when they thought that the people wouldn't like, um, there's so many names, uh, who's the pregnant one that we were just talking about? Kooky. They were talking about how they thought the people of their nation would hate that Fuki would be like, essentially like the queen. And they're like, we can't have a like normal person be queen. And everyone's like, actually the public thinks that's really cool. Like they think that's really neat to just like commoner is now. You know, a part of the royal family, it shows that like everybody can like rise to this level. And then fricking, um, uh, Otomo was like, nah, we can't have that happen. No, we have to, we have to keep the order. So then we see it early with the fire guards of those two. Um, ladies in waiting that will, I'm assuming will be more prevalent in the third movie. But I mean, they're in the first movie as well, but like, it's all about like preventing the flame from happening to begin with controlling the spark. And just that whole message throughout the movie, I thought was awesome. And I can't wait to see how it's implied or what we're getting for the third movie, since we got water fire. And now the third one's a serpent. So I don't know if we're going to keep moving on with like the elements, maybe something you notice the hints there. There's a lot. Yeah, there's a, there's quite a few hands. Like the SERP there's like serpent patterns in the walls that move at points. Yeah. At the end of the movie, it moves. There's also one with, um, the emperor's mom, um, her headdress that she wears. It's like a, it's like a circle that, um, holds her hair, like her hair up. And there's like a really famous statue of, of a, of a headdress like that with a serpent behind it. So it's, um, it makes me sort of think that she is going to be the antagonist of the third movie, I think makes perfect sense to me since, um, Buki would now, once the child is born would take over the emperor's mom's role position. Yeah. So, which makes me lead to believe that she is going to be a major part of the third movie and maybe she's the serpent, but I also want to see if anything gets implied with like nature since we've had elements dealing with the first two movies. Yeah. I also think that the priest will be more involved in the third movie since he again, didn't really do too much. And he is just too designed to not do something by the third movie. And the twins are his daughters, right? Yeah. So yeah, cause I, I did watch a video, like kind of documenting some of the characters. And like he, along with the medicine seller don't have like official invites or passes to be at the inner palace. So why he is there, I feel like is perfectly wide open to explore in the third movie for him to be a prevalent character. Um, they mentioned that the family has like special privileges. I know that, but I'm not sure, like they have like a relationship with the water God that's in the well. That makes sense. I figured the water God in the well is going to be a serpent. No. And that's just going to be like, it's at the base of the UCO too. So it shows that it's like at the heart of everything is this like serpent curse or whatever. Yeah. I'm trying to think since we had like the well was so prominent in the first movie. And then at the end of this movie, we saw the serpent along the walls moving. So I'd be intrigued to see how they sort of implement the serpent and like where they come from, because they each sort of had a reason of why they were created. And we've only gotten hints of the serpent and it being on the wall, I feel like has to mean something. So that's, but I would love. Yeah. Like it's part of the actual like UCO itself. Yes. Yes, exactly. I wonder if it's going to be like the combined, like it's like the generational like trauma of the UCO or something like that, like a sort of like mass idea, you know, whereas these are like one person's thing, this is like all of the women that have been like subjugated into the UCO and by the hierarchy and the palace in general. Yeah. That because they each like each clip, like each movie has like a clear like symbol, like the first movie is water. The second movie is fire. The third movie it's called the serpent. It's going to be a snake. So what does the snake represent? And that's what I'm, it can, it can mean so many things. It can mean like, you know, like the greed is it's simple as a snake. Like there's so many like being, I don't know. There's just so much stuff that you can dive into with what it's like a dragon. Yeah. Is it? Yeah. Is this because it's called a serpent. Like, is it like a water dragon? Is it like a, like a dragon dragon? Is it just a snake? I think there's so many different elements and that's what Monoke is so great for is taking this idea and sort of expanding it into multiple different things. We saw that with the spark. The spark in this movie represented not only life, but like ideology, um, classism, all these different things that like one item can be presented in a show can represent multiple different things. And so, I mean, that's just the beauty of mine. Okay. Yeah. Some of the best symbolism in the game, honestly, hopefully if these movies are successful, maybe we can get like another season or something like that. Yeah. I mean, I would, uh, the fact that we even have, we're getting three movies, like 16 years after the series is incredible. So I'm going to take with what I got, but they're, they were cooking with their first movie. They cooked with this movie. I can't wait to see how everything's, um, like wraps up. One other thing I wanted to talk about, and I mentioned it earlier was sort of the political side of this movie. It was, it's very, very political. And, and, um, one of that, the main reason is Ultimo, which is a villain that I don't see represented enough in anime where his actions are all political it's for, you know, under the guise of it's all for the emperor, but it's actually solidifying like his family's role going forward for future generations. And I sort of really enjoyed how the behind the scenes stuff that he did were so evil and so meticulous and so conniving that he was like a massive focal point of like my attention in this movie, was there anything like political that he did or just in general that you enjoyed throughout watching this movie? Yeah, I think it's interesting. Like he is somewhat of a self-serving character, obviously, but I do think that more shows that are going to lean into like a political intrigue aspect should have characters where like, they believe that they're doing the right thing by upholding the system. Like they have a genuine like hot take villains who believe they're, that they're doing the right thing. Pretty good. Right. But like, I don't know, I think that like this kind of similar to like the apothecary diaries or something like that just did a great job of like not making them into like a mustache twirling, like demon Lord, this is just like a very mundane evil that exists to this day, basically is like people who will uphold a system that puts down others for their own gain to solidify things for themselves and keeping people subjugated because it doesn't ever come back to them and they know they're going to get away with it. I mean, we see that literally, I mean, yeah. Yeah. I don't even have to say anything, you know? Yeah. I love this villain where, you know, you I'm going to play devil's advocate just in defense of Ultimo, even though I think he's a terrible person, but like you're through his eyes, it's like his family has their, their family. Um, like his daughter has a pivotal role within the UCO. He has a pivotal role within the UCO. The things that have been done in the past have gotten his family to where they are now. So why would I want to have change within this system? So he's like, okay, I don't want the UCO to change. So I'm going to start doing X, Y, and Z. He thinks, I think I, I really do think in his mind, he thinks it's because he's doing this in favor of the emperor when really it's for himself and his family. And sort of start contracting ways to have people who elicit change within the UCO to be offed in a ways I would say. So you saw it earlier where in the flashbacks, convincing somebody who owes him a favor that, Hey, I'm not going to tell your daughter this, but just hint, hint, nudge, nudge. Maybe she should not be carrying the baby inside of her stomach. And if things don't change, things are going to happen. You get my, you get my hint. Like I like these characters. It's like, um, sort of like a mob boss in a way. Yeah. I was literally just thinking that I know this doctor who might be able to fix this problem. Exactly. It's like, he, he, he talks like he has like a wire tap going on where like he can't elicitly say what he's thinking, but like, you know what, yeah, you know what you kind of need to do, don't you? And so setting up all of these things and all of these horrors that he has done throughout the UCO to essentially get where he is, I thought he was a fantastic villain, just, just pure. I love like the pure evil hiding behind the guise of doing what's great for everybody. It's like, it's not like, I think he thinks it's like a, I don't want to say like a doctor Manhattan thing, but he's like, if I do this, it's actually going to help out like a bunch of different people, but it's actually, it's like, nah, it's actually going to help out like my family and everyone else is going to deal with the issues. Uh, did you have any like thoughts about Ultimo and his, uh, politics? I thought that he played really well into the sort of like sparks metaphor. Like he mentions like, you know, I smothered the sparks for the good of the country, that sort of thing. Um, and just him plotting so hard to for a working class air and thus eventual working class emperor to not happen. Like, again, it's just, it speaks to the current time that we're in. I mean, it probably speaks to like the majority of times in like human civilization, but like, I don't know, just with how stuff is yeah. Very realistic villain. And I liked that. Yeah, no, no, for sure. And I also feel like, you know, throughout the years, women's rights and just in general, haven't really been the greatest. So, um, it started being tied back to a bunch of different spots is, I mean, you can just place it and you started to get the messaging, but like, like you said, him stomping out, I mean, he was the extinguisher, like he was, he was also like a proactive villain and savvy reactive villain, which I thought was cool. Uh, a lot of times you see this with like in heroes on the hero side, it's reacting to the actions of the villain flipping it, it's preventing the hero from being created in general, preventing the change from happening in general. You, you extinguish the spark, you extinguish the life that can provide change to the world. And then that change never comes. And so it's like, how do you kill a message? How do you kill an ideology? How do you kill a theory? And it's just stomping out anything at like the base level of whatever you're trying to accomplish. And like really for in terms of villains, it's, I don't really see like the mental side of the chess game being played. A lot of times it's more of the physical violence of being a villain. This was just, I don't know, cunning and calculated. It was, it was awesome to see that in this type of show where I expect, and we got this too, don't get me wrong, but like, I expect this big end game boss fight to defeat the villain and that type of stuff. And we did get that. But like, there's also ways to defeat the villain in this story through other means, which we also saw with stuff like spooky route deciding that no matter what is going to happen, I'm not giving up my baby. Like, I'm not going to be Yukiko. Like if it means losing my position, blah, blah, blah. I'm not going to lead the same path that, um, the other lady did. And like, you saw that in the scene where like, he was overhearing this message and he starts to cry because the first time that this happened, um, I can't remember the name of the guard, the guard of the Uku, he didn't step in. And then this time he came back to step in and luckily he didn't have to. Yeah. And it's just, there's so many different levels. I shouldn't say so many, but there are levels to this that in the, the amount of time that we got an hour and like 10 minutes, I feel like they filled these gaps in really well. I don't think it was perfect, but I thought it was well enough to build a really good foundation of this political horror that we got in Mononoke. So a huge shout out to sort of what Ultimo brought to this story versus what we got in the first movie and the other series. Um, just a very different and fun villain to dive into. So I want to give a shout to that. Um, did you have anything else that you wanted to talk about? No, I think we covered it pretty well, honestly. Yeah. I knew this is gonna be a quick episode with just us too, but I wanted to make sure that we filled in all the gaps. Uh, we can mention you brought it up earlier. You know, the animation is always stunning in the set in Mononoke. I was looking to see if they use, use like this filter where it kind of looks like they crumpled up the scene a little bit and then folded it out. If it was a piece of paper and trying to see if they use like the same filter for every single scene. And I counted like 12 different filters. Um, just, just to see if they were like, you know, no one's going to know. So if you use the same filter for everyone, so, um, they used a bunch of different ones. So that was awesome to see. And you mentioned it also earlier, the sound design and music of Mononoke is always great. Um, I did think if I recall correctly, I did like movie one sort of like OST better than this one, but this one did have like some moments, especially the final like boss battle between. Um, the medicine seller and that other form guy. Um, which is funny because that, that scene, I feel like to me probably, I don't know, it didn't really have like a bigger impact than I thought it would be, if that makes sense. Like, I feel like everything that's surrounded, like the Uku was more interesting than like the giant final boss battle. I don't know if you had the same thoughts or not. Yeah, I would actually agree with that. I mean, I think that for me, the sort of boss battle fight at the end was just like a cherry on top. Yeah. Right. Yeah. It was like, that's not what it's not really what I came here for, honestly, but it's nice that they let the animation, like the animators just have some fun at the end. Yeah. Cause I, if I recall correctly in the first movie that we were like building up to like a scene and they had like this awesome fight and I was like, that was awesome, that was a great resolution to sort of like what was going on in the movie and movie two is more of like, I just want to see like these girls just like be bad-ass and like not take ---- and not like adhere to like these social norms and these things that are restricted because of who they are. I'm like, that was way more interesting in this movie than movie one. So maybe that's just like a telling of like good writing in general, that you can sort of have both of these conflicts handled in different ways or at least have different, um, maybe like the level of resolution is higher in different ways from movie one, the movie two, and they're still great in their own way. So I want to give a shot at them on. Okay. Cause I know the original series does that as well. Um, but I think if we had no other talking points, we can just wrap up. Uh, we can do final thoughts and our ratings, uh, Jolene, would you like to start? Sure. Um, I think that this was a completely worthy follow-up to a great first movie. I liked the development of the characters in the UKU specifically the political Maki nations and the inner court intrigue were awesome and that's just always something I enjoy in a series if it's done well, um, the music and sound design top-notch once again, I love the like visual sort of style that they're going for. I think that we need stuff that takes more bold risks like Mononoke does nowadays. Um, and there is stuff doing it, but we need more of it is what I'm trying to say. It really isn't like, I feel like it's like a class of its own or like what it does. Yeah. For now, nowadays, I think in the, I've been watching a couple of series that do something similar and, uh, it's stuff from like 2004. So people just started doing that sort of thing anymore, I guess. Um, but other than that, I think that my absolute favorite part of the movie compared to the first one, which I did, I gave the first one a nine, um, was just like the overt messaging of like political hierarchy and as well as like woman's bodily autonomy was done really well in a, both in a metaphorical and just like general sense of like just being overt and honestly, I, I have nothing but praise for the movie for that. Cause it was, yeah, I liked it. Um, for me, this is like a nine out of 10. Right on. Yeah. I gave it like a 9.5 on though. Right on. Uh, coming into this, I had really high hopes for this movie. It was sort of done in a different way than I thought movie compared to movie one. Um, so it was both good and bad. I did prefer, I did prefer sort of, you know, breaking down as a group, all the themings and messaging of movie one with movie two, it was way easier to consume where we didn't need to spend 45 minutes breaking down theming and messaging. What did this mean? What did that mean? It was very straightforward in this movie. So it's like a, both a plus that almost anybody can like consume that compared to the first movie where we needed five people to sort of help break each other down, what we thought this was just like spark means this fire means this bad guy does this and so like that. It was really easy to consume, but I do really like the more complex stuff that they can be more detailed with. And I'm sure there's something that we miss in the movie. That we could probably pull and be like, okay, they did have this more, but I guess maybe I missed it, but I thought this movie was significantly simpler and easier to consume than the first movie and liked it. I did like it for that. Uh, Ultimo being a huge standout to me in this movie, I think with movie one with like awesome, I thought she was way more of a standout, um, from the other characters and I liked that more because that was more of a focal point of like the Uku itself. And like the girls themselves were Ultimo being the villain and being. My favorite character, I would say is both good and bad. I guess I would wish I got more Fuki time. I wish I got more of these other characters involved with it, but it was just like Ultimo to me was just such a good villain of everything that was going on with it, that it was hard not to like focus my attention on him and like what he was doing to affect everybody around him. So well-written villain. Um, but it did make me kind of miss sort of like, I don't know, like, like the sisterhood also had type of thing from movie one, uh, didn't really get that they tried that a little bit with Fuki and, um, Botan, but I feel like that connection wasn't the same compared to what we got in the first movie. And I really liked that in the first, uh, love the spark metaphor in this entire thing. I love like the idea of sparking change, sparking ideology, sparking a movement, sparking anything within this confined and controlled. Um, life that these people have. And sometimes when you look for change, it's hard to get it because of the people that are in power. So great. Um, just messaging and theming throughout. I gave this an eight, um, a high eight, but an eight, nonetheless, I do feel like we could have gotten 10, 15 minutes more to sort of add to some of the other characters that I wish we got, or what we got from the first movie compared to what we got from the second movie, but like it was still good in its own sense. I guess it's just the preferred way of, I love me consuming money. Okay. I like the first movie more than the second. So still great. Can't wait for the third. I think the third is going to be. There's so many things in my brain running right now that it can be that I can't wait for us to get to it. So, um, I have to double check when it comes out, but this was the, the break between movie one and movie two was nine months from right now. What it looks like. It just says 20, 20, so sometime in 2026, we'll be getting movie three. And if I'm still here, we will be reviewing it. So I'll look forward to that. Uh, Jolene, do you have any, uh, parting thoughts, words that you may be missed that you want to get off your chest right now before we head out? You made me, my train of thought was obliterated. Nah, all good. If, if, uh, if you don't got nothing, we can just go forward and want to thank everybody out there who is watching or listening to us, uh, if you want to support us, the best way to do so is to like, comment, subscribe, leave a review on whatever platform you're watching or listening to us on. If you watch us on YouTube, they have like this hype thing. Now you like three a week, it helps smaller content creators. Help with the algorithm. So if you want to help me out, use your height points or whatever they're called, uh, to help this video out. Uh, that would be greatly appreciated. Uh, next week for watch club, we're going to do Maybachy witches. So look forward to that. Otherwise for seasonal content, we're already looking into fall. Uh, summer is over. Uh, the AC is getting shut off and the sweat pants are getting put on. So we're going to be checking out all the new properties that are coming for fall. So on behalf of Jolene, I want to say thank you for everybody out there who takes the time to listen. And we will see you next time.