Journalist Sean Gaffney and Educator Amy Martin join Erica Friedman to talk about the hit anime Birdie Wing – Golf Girls’ Story in the final panel discussion of Yuricon 2023.
Birdie Wing – Golf Girls’ Story is streaming on Crunchyroll: https://www.crunchyroll.com/series/GNVHKN714/birdie-wing–golf-girls-story-
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Welcome back to yuon 2023 where we’re going to talk about one of fantastic Yuri anime of the year in a year where we had a bunch of really amazing Yuri anime serious I don’t think I can remember a year where we had such a glut of incredible uon
So today I’d like to welcome Amy Martin and Shan Gaffney to talk about birdie wi golf girls story which is a really weird title but I think there’s a lot of reasons for that um and then upcoming anime that is uh heading our way called Rising impact which has absolutely
Nothing to do really with birdie wi um I think has something to do with birdie wings so I’m kind of thinking there might be some uh implications with the uh golf girl girl Story part of it okay so let’s get into it um our first question today is how do
You as a fan describe birdie wi to people what do you what do you think makes it so interesting that people would want to watch it and how do you describe it to them so they’ll want to watch it Sean I’m going to start with you on this
One I mean first of all in the shallow way that I I use it to describe to people who don’t watch anime at all I say it’s the lesbian Gulf Mafia anime excellent um but it for my friends who do watch anime obsessively I say that this show does not speak in terms
Of normal story and characters it speaks in the vocabulary of anime specifically the vocabulary of Sports Anime and it it’s just if if you go in knowing that it’s just incredible it’s like a rich pictography of of it the genres it inhabits it really is yeah I’d say it’s like it’s a serious
Anime that does not take itself seriously quite right like thatp kind of thing um so Amy how do you describe it to people I really have the unfortunately I have friends that really for them they want to get things dubbed so I haven’t really talked to them but if I was
Talking to them I’d be like this is it’s a fun like I said you know seriously not serious it’s a Sports Anime but it’s all about the people as well it’s it’s definitely their it’s how they get from point A to point B I don’t
Know it’s a Ser it’s it’s you know it’s like you can watch it even though you have no clue about golf feel free to watch something that’s true also no clue about any of the other things involved so what I say to people because the people I’ve talked to about it have been
Nonon people potentially anti- anom people and I’ve said it’s about golf but it has absolutely nothing to do with golf at all and I think the things that I I would say to an anime fan about it is that it does inhabit the very very rich genre of Sports San
Sports Anime um or I mean you could say Shonen but I really think it’s San Sports Anime and and a number of other genres at the same time in the same reality in ways that make absolutely no sense in the real world but as a narrative could not be better absolutely
You know yes it’s it’s the layering of the all the layering of all the pieces are individually insane in a really wonderful and creative way but when you put it all together it makes a narrative that is so rich and so satisfying on so many different levels and screamworthy
You know you’re going oh I can’t believe they just did that it’s done it it does like eight hilarious ridiculous impossible things but importantly it never Winks at the viewer it never says look at us we’re clever absolutely absolutely Straight Ahead like like e driver yeah I mean exactly that’s no
That’s as for the analogy um so basically it’s a story about two girls who meet because of golf and whose lives are changed because of each other and because of golf um and golf is and I’m GNA make a horrible pun here not intended the driving force of the anime
But Gul itself is never really seriously considered so in the way that you have sports anomy that is about bicycling uh competitive bicycling or football or soccer or baseball where the sport itself is so serious and so heavy and it’s it’s the cause of the Heartbreak
And the tears here it is yes the cause of the Heartbreak and the tears but also absolutely irrelevant to the Heartbreak and the tears so you have have these pieces of things that are going on that have nothing to do with golf and yet could not exist in the animy without
Golf so I can understand that if you were not an anonime fan it would be off-putting to say the least all right let’s get into the meat of this in a series full of wildly implausible moments um what is a moment that you personally found the most implausible
Amy why don’t we start with you okay so couple different things one um when it was actually one of the first things the first time around that I watched it was the uh Katherine’s Golf Course doing its all of a sudden here we go you know shuffle the pieces and voila
We have an Insta insta playable ground you know so I actually with green and rough and forests just trees oh yes and cutting the ponds and and and everything else Absolut brilliant you know and then that’s what got me on the search of like is this a possibility and I said I you
Know sent you guys that video which I’m sure we’ll talk about a little bit but the other thing that actually got me this next round something very small is when um Eve goes to Japan and she meets up with Ich and all of a sudden she can speak Japanese
Perfectly yeah I’m like it’s like but here’s the here’s the thing about that moment is that when they say how do you speak Japanese goes I don’t know I’m no idea I just I just do and if you’re watching along you know it’s probably got to do with her Amnesia
But it’s also a beautiful hand way yeah absolutely and it makes honestly it is it’s just that and that’s really why the implausibilities make so much sense in the narrative is that they’re all done with a handwave Sean and I were members of a uh fanfic writing circle called the
Fanfic Revolution we had a we had a policy called the one handwave policy which is to say that as you write your fanfic or your fiction your original fiction you get one handwave you know just one thing that you just it just is don’t ask it doesn’t get explained it’s
Fine but the more handwaves you add to a story the less readable the story got some of my favorite Works in 2023 I’m in love with the villainous and uh Birnie wi have both been like screw that let’s throw all the hand waves in and a lot of
It’s never explained some of it is but most of it’s like of it does I mean when we get to if we when we find out the twist at towards the end of Birdie wi in the second season about you know father then you go oh yeah that could be
Possible but then again there those of us that actually try to learn different languages whether it’s du lingo or Babble or mango or whatever it is you’re going like it’s not so easy to learn exactly exactly so Sean what’s your favorite most implausible moment the thing is I’m actually back
I’m gonna go back further than that I’m gonna go back to the very first implausible moment because when Eve ripped off her mask her Chris Christina mask revealing herself in that Loop in the third moment I immediately went oh it’s that kind of series yes and everything else became acceptable
Because when you start with that and and hitting the and hitting the ball between the railroad cars standing there you know you’ve already started at 10 there there’s no going down from that there really truly isn’t um and I think one of my favorite moments is when she um actually breaks a
Hole in the rough with her ball so that the next time she plays the same core she could use the same hole hole there is that there is that through the trees but that’s not my most favorite inflable moment and I should put a huge spoiler
Warning here so I’m going to spoil the hell out of almost chose this right wait this is this is very very hard so in one of the episodes um Eve’s first Mentor um who is clearly not good for her is um is playing golf against her it’s it’s it’s
That grand moment where you have to fight you have to be better than your master right and remember that this anime is is is a typical San uh Sports Anime so of course we must surpass our Master but in most anime that would be like the final battle this is like the
Third or fourth maybe and she is playing against Rose and Rose um turns out to have a steampunk arm of brass and glass and I have to say that moment I it’s one of those moments where you screams so loudly um and what happens after that is is quite significant but that moment
Where not only is her arm a false you know a a not real arm it’s a prosthetic arm it was the steampunk quality of it that made me scream I thought well there ought to be something there to be boow arm yes yeah to have some hydraulics in
There too just to perfect it was so outstanding such an outstanding moment of we really don’t care about the rules by the way just you know and it was H that was by in a series entirely full of implausible moments I mean I don’t think there’s an episode that does goes by
That doesn’t have a single wildly implausible moment so all the superpowers all the super golf Powers right all the all the hits all the all the yeah and that’s what I say why I say it’s classic it’s classic in the sense that they have to call out their attacks I mean we’re
Looking at a Samurai battle with golf instead of Swords you know um interestingly too I’ve thought about this a lot about why do we call out our attacks you know in Kendo they still do right when they’re fighting with Kendo you have to say I’m G to hit you in the
Head I’m going to hit you on the arm like and then you do the technique as you’re doing and if you get it right you get points so I I think that’s it’s not that’s actually not the most implausible bit you know um being plausible that’s part of the vocabulary of anime again
Because you call out your attacks because you call out your attacks in an enemy that’s what happens of course one does yes and they get more increasingly elaborate too yeah okay so what so this is a series full of implausibilities what was a moment you thought well okay that’s implausible but I’ll accept
It Sean I for me and I know this this sounds odd because you would think it would be among the most implausible but it was always wasting golf disease that was mine too especially because they actually literally found something that could plausibly work for for it yes that was that was a
Moment a handwave and it’s like no actually we researched this for once yeah yeah absolutely yeah so I it up I was I only dying I only having a genetic disease that kills you if you do too much golf which of course is not how this specific form of sclerosis kills you but
But the biry Wings sounds like the sort of series that you pass along at a bar where you drink and you come up with a plot and then you pass it to the next person who drinks and comes up with something Wilder yes exactly um so Amy
What was your moment where you just thought yeah whatever um mine’s low I’m like you know it’s like real you know but then I research you find out that it’s actually real too I mean it’s actually that whole changing golf court I mean going back to that
Because that just is like was so like wait really changing Golf Course VR I can understand but changing the golf course and then like I said I was nerdy I looked it up and there are actually multiple okay granted here in the states there are two stadiums that that have their football
Field that it’s all on one big tray that they can move in and out what I found and what I sent to you guys is from Spain and they literally pretty much Chunk Up the pitch as they call it the Fe I we still call I’d still call it the field and they
Actually have a bunker for it underground and they can store it there and then there’s lights underneath the other levels that light up the tray underneath it to give to keep the real grass and it’s real grass you know nice and healthy and they do that so they can
Use that stadium for other events yes and I was like okay it’s not quite as elaborate as Katherine’s place but actually the Clockwork Melody of Oblivion grinding I saw that and all I thought was oh they’re hella Rich that explains everything right there I’m gonna say that as a writer there is a
Freedom one gives oneself when one says they have more money than God just you know yeah I mean it’s like what else are you going to do with it I I made my own golf course because you know the fun part was is that you hear the when I
First saw the dam go the water going out of the dam they have the boilers I almost there was a part of me that almost wanted to hear I crazy or something know the apocalyptic we’re getting something crazy here is gonna happen yeah absolutely you know what you know what’s
A little thing that and I’m not answering my own question first I’m going to digress here something that I took me forever to notice was that the golf ball at the be at the end of every opening sequence or most opening sequences is different and it relates to
The person that Eve is like it took me forever when itic that I’m like watching I think it was Catherine I think it was the the second time when she goes back in the second season and has does golf against Catherine Katherine’s proxy and um which will actually is probably my
Favorite moment my most wonderful imp plausibility is when we learn that the town that um that Eve lives in is called nafes which is another moment where I screamed uh because nafes is the town in madlax from the girls with guns on the Run series of Noir madx and El kazador de la
Brua um mad Lux takes place in two town in two places uh part of it takes place in a war torn GTH zonica and the other part of it you know and this is Lives In My Head rentree by the way which is why I could just tell you it’s G Sonica
Without having to look it up and then the other half takes place in a nice European town called nafes which 20 years later apparently looks a lot more like New York City and Eve is living in the slums there so um that was the moment where I thought well you know
It’s ridiculous sure why not like okay let’s go with it so apparently nef is actually the syllables of the kakana for France and they just switched the first two y right right right and then also so here’s nerdy me here’s nerdiness again nef shows up in another anime right
Exactly y Valkyrie mermaid yep two of the characters in that are SP former spies from NE and I’m like oh okay there you go not really recommending Valkyrie Drive mermaid to birdie wi or madlax fans no no I wouldn’t I would I would say that there’s a clear hierarchy of
Quality there oh yes bir on top but on the other hand if you were to do that go ahead and watch uh Valkyrie Drive and then then then realize why we’re saying watch these other things watch these and then and then all do watch all of the be
Train girls with guns on the Run Ane um for a lot of reasons and day I’ll probably do a video on those and then uh then watch birdie wing and there’s a couple other videos that we should make you watch before a couple more on them may before birie wi perhaps you’ve heard
Of one of them it’s called Gundam and so there are so many Gundam references in birdie wi that it is been talked about as say that it was you know one of the two Gundam Series in that season it was it was a Gundam auu right
So Sean why don’t you talk a little bit about that talk about the the some of the the connections there I mean if you’re talking about the sheer mass of Gundam history if you’re comparing um birdie wi to gundam witch from Mercury birdie wi is the winner obviously it’s
Got It’s got Amaro it’s God Char and I mean it’s not Amo and Char in brief cameos they are important players to the whole thing players are we should we should start dinging each other for for unintentional puns players it’s got Amo and SE sa having the UC romance that
They never had in the original series only just as doomed because it’s still Gundam it’s it’s got the freaking golf clubs that are designed to look like Amaro Gundam that was stunning and and you have am Mane saying they rolled out the new type yep it was that was and
That was like everybody was poised and when she said that you could hear the world scream like that moment you know I mean even there there’s little things like at one point towards the end of the series um what what’s her name the final boss
Uham jua yeah um looks up at the moon and says something about the moon and that’s apparently from like Gundam X or something like that it’s just it it is a series built around Gundam nerds but at the same time if you’ve never seen Gundam none of it matters right right
Absolutely not required watching with the you know even when Lily is like you know gunpla you just look at what she’s doing and she you’re like oh models and you can just move on and the I want to just stop and say the best part about that is that whole Lily’s character is
Implicitly you’re always terrified for the next thing she’s gonna say because it sounds like any second it’s going to be like you know prostitution or sex trafficking or something and it’s always something so stupid and silly and and you feel so dirty for having thought that and she’s like you know they he
Took the most important thing from me you’re like ah and it’s like my gun PL like go come on there’s a moment in episode four when VP the reaper is introduced that I was briefly like uh oh because vpa’s character as she is introduced could be so
Bad if if Eve had shown any sort of fear or dismay or anything it might have lost people yep but she absolutely does not and instead we get VI as the as the speed wagon of Birdie wi yeah I mean you know in another scene
In Trope we turn all of our or almost all of our uh adversaries to allies bear is the the key piece in that you know she she ends up being literally you know the dog’s body by end of the season you know yes I beat you when you’re my friend now yes we’re
Talking about sports onime and Gundam but there is a lot of Jojo in birdie wi too there’s a lot of Jojo in birdie wi too yeah there’s there’s a lot of everything in birdie wi and that’s and I think you made a really good point that
You don’t need to have seen any of those things but as they become visible to you it just adds to the the joy of it like for instance I was saying when when that first scene where the where Katherine’s um green is literally physically modulating we have gears and grinding
And waterfalls and all this stuff and everyone was seeing UTA I was seeing Melody of Oblivion which was an anime that came after UTA that was done by a lot of the same team where they and I was seeing I was seeing Evangelion sure absolutely yes evangeli lot of that too
The geofront right exactly so you have this is a this is a theme pops up over and over this kind of modulated World um which is really fantastic um so let’s let’s talk a little bit about Eve and Al’s Journey so the story is centered
Around um Eve who is a girl from the slums who has a preternatural skill with golf uh which right away indicates that there’s something else going on and you know we spend literally like a season and a half just waiting for that boot to drop especially once we figure it out
She meets a top rank golfer um aoy and the two of them become instant um Frenemies and we go through a lot with them let’s talk a little bit about that Amy why don’t you why don’t you give us your impressions of the two of them in their their relationship and their
Journey well it’s one of those things where you definitely like you they see each other and they just it is one of those it’s uh I guess you know because is I like being privileged has beat everybody so for her it’s like where’s it’s probably getting
To the point of where’s a rival I mean I beat everybody and all of a sudden seeing this like oh there she is somebody that I want to I’m fascinated with um it really does I I deal with teenagers and and with you know in the in the real world um
And it’s amazing how quickly they can either make or break their friendships and they can be over the smallest things especially if it’s something that they can Bond over and in this case it’s golf um and it’s really kind of fascinating to see it because you know Eve just sees
It as somebody stronger that she that’s what excites her is is the strength I mean Leon says it to to Rose you know spoiler when she’s getting just before she dies um he says you know she’s looking for to become stronger she’s looking for another classic s and Trope
Right that’s you know I need to be stronger I want to get stronger Naruto I want to get stronger um and Alo of course also is wanting to get stronger but it’s like she’s on the softer side she wants the interaction as well I mean she wants to get to
Know Eve as a person you know there’s a little bit more of that person that she wants to get to know her and Eve is a mystery a little bit for somebody who has the whole world in her fingertips Eve is is a complete mystery so that’s I think fascinates her
Is that you don’t fit this regular you know Square you know my round hole you’re a square wait a sec there’s something weird but you play a mean golf you we we both have this interest and I think you know when she left the liar on
The the left the ball at the uh you know at the first Golf Course when you know Eve missed it um really kind of sets the whole wa connection and Eve knows or you know he like whatever you know in the relationship side of things
You know the whole you know not love you thing however in a way she does manipulate aloy at the because I’m at the point where they’re at the I was rewatching and I’m at you know is it episode 10 or 11 where they’re at the doubles tournament it’s just about to
Start and you know she actually gives Eva a kiss and Eve’s like you know Starr wait what you know like oh we’ve just added a new layer to this interaction and you know that’s sort of an interesting thing because not to spoil too much but yeah there’s a
There’s a lot of Yuri in it but there’s also it’s always fraught with what their real relationship might be right and and boy does the series screw us around on that like they’re sisters no they’re not if they are no they’re not well I I had
Said in my review of uh on my website of Birdie Wing that that Eve and aloi are destined for each other and then the series spends the next 24 episodes trying to keep them apart yeah exactly yes yeah so so what are your thoughts about their journey and and their whole
Their well I mean they’re they’re both types in terms of their relationship Beyond Rivals although you see this in sports anime with Rivals as well Eve is The Confident tease who tries not to get to attach to people whereas um aloy is thirsty for affection type who wants to be more you know
Attached and it gets only um you know each of them gets as Ali gets more and more you know kiss kiss kiss Eve just gets backs off and backs off until you get to that scene in the rain on the rooftop and I will admit there are a few
Birdie wig fans I know who really don’t like that scene because um I think they wanted the relate they don’t think that Eve really has deep feelings for AI and they point to that scene and I’m like except there’s the rest of the show yeah I mean
You could stop reading at any point the book and decide that’s the end but it it reminds me it reminds me very much I U pardon me for bringing up an anime that you would not remotely compare with birdie Wing but I was talking about um Ur yatsura with someone
And how uh Lum shows affection versus how ataru shows affection Right with Lum it’s all about the verbal you need to tell me you love me you need to tell me I’m the one right whereas with ataru he would rather die than actually say things and it’s in his act actions and
What he does that the affection is shown you’re meant to understand this through my actions right and I think there’s a bit of that with the two of them with Evan aoi that um it’s it’s a it’s a 24 episode struggle to get each other yeah absolutely by The End by The Flash
Forward and boy I wish this series had another episode that oh I know right it really needed one more it rushed the ending but by The Flash Forward you can tell they get each other and if they hadn’t been interrupted by ich and ammane they’d probably have still been flirting
With each other for the next 15 minutes while the audience was like yeah yeah yeah come on keep it up it’s so true so true absolutely for me the relationship between the two of them is again it’s classic right we have a who’s a sincere uh she would be in in most San
Uh in most Sports Anime she would be the protagonist um but instead we’re going from the point of view of the outsider which is also a classic uh you know literary Trope take the outsider and so Eve who has so much to prove and nothing and
Doesn’t care about any of it you know she’s she’s like completely uninterested and so of course yes having a um seeking affection from her and and being affectionate towards her does make her pull away but you know what it changes her in the second season she suddenly
Comes out at her new school she’s like I’m a play girl now and smacking on everybody so seeing how you could use that as a tool for your own ability to just con control what is admittedly in the story a completely uncontrollable life from beginning to end um it’s a way
For her to to impose some Control El was the one who gave that to Eve she had never thought probably of that specifically and really only use golf so in a sense we have all to blame for the fact that EV is such a smoking hot
Playgirl in the in the second season um one of the things U one of the things uh for the most part I try to ignore the fact that Eve and aoi are meant to be 15 years old over the you really kind of have to but sometimes in terms of the
Fast development of their mindset and their characters they really do have that like last year of Middle School to them yes yeah or first year of high school where everything is just everything is so intense you know it’s just it’s so so so much um Sean you had a great question
Let’s let’s talk a little bit about this what is the best birdie wi meme I’m just G to say I’m literally wearing a Birdwing meme t-shirt that I found on the internet that I think is absolutely slayed me um but what do you think uh Sean will start with your question the
Very first um or the very best meme from biry wi well as I as I I came up with five examples that I think are the most iconic of the um the memes which are in relative order of appearance the 48 in Al’s 48 inch driver and the the pose
Which is of course meant to mimic all of those poses with swords from every on AB right it’s again reminding you that this is a San sword fighting compostition right with go and and and it’s also it’s also a dick job yeah and um and Amy already brought up
The the Pac-Man golf golf ball with the tiar and the liar yes on the other side um Rose’s Crystal Bowie arm I as I said I think that’s less the meme the arm itself is not the meme as much as the reaction of the audience to it to it um
I’ll kill you in golf that actually is my that’s that’s one of the cases where the subtitlers made it meme yes they because they phrased it like I’ll kill you in Minecraft yes yeah but I’ll kill you in Gulf definitely was one of my absolute favorites it just completely
Was badshit it just it just went it just went all over and and you just kept using it you know you couldn’t could yourself you it keeps on giving and the last this was a sort of a la late Comer but it was all over everything for that
Episode that it appeared was Sarah saying um you know golf is killing them all because it’s the that may be my pick because it is the best example of how utterly serious this show is about the stupidest most ridiculous things the idea that all of these people have been
Suffering for years and are dying because of freaking Gulf right right because go Amy do you have a favorite meme I’m all the some of the ones you mention were like I’m like oh yeah I think I remember seeing that one um I don’t have one I I’m very bad at
Remembering some of the memes but it’s just uh I was just thinking but kind of one of the funny things is just how easily um you know when they when or the the meme of you know uh when Eve was uh hitting on some of the girls the first
Day and she hasn’t seen and she hits on the girls you know hey I haven’t been here and you see all the sparkle Sparkle Sparkle Sparkles I think it’s more that kind of got the shjo Sparkles we actually had a couple shjo references in the first part of the second season in
Fact when we get to the girl school a lot of the um the people that she’s fighting are such classic shjo competitive types you know right out of any number of shjo I mean ASO ey it’s just all over that you know it’s just all over that you you can see and then
They are promptly run over like so much roadkil that was actually stunning that we you know we set them up at the end of the first season like these are the rivals and then they’re gonville um honestly the thing that I I think that really I like the best was simply the
The rainbow bullet the different colored um yes shots the one that slayed me absolutely flat out I could not breathe for about half an hour was the green green bullet the first time when we see her playing it when she’s doing mini golf and it just bangs off all the
Corners into a hole in one I thought I was gonna die I absolutely you know the fact that they’re named and have the colors you know they’re just they’re outstanding but but green just completely killed me that first time but and then we get to
All of the the rainbow and then we add a couple extra colors because we had needed a couple new golf balls but did you notice that in Japanese when she’s doing her bullets they’re all in English they’re blue bullet they’re green bullet however when she first does purple it’s
A yeah you’re like I’m like I watch I’m like oh wait a second wait what yeah and that’s because I taught her that particular one which is and because frequently this show is as subtle as a 48 inch driver yes absolutely to the back of the head we’re talking about the
Sports Anime thing one thing that this show is missing is the underdog who ha is is I guess jingui comes close the one who’s the normal golfer Captain yeah the captain who ends up being the one who you know teaches Eve to actually you know golf from bad places
Because but for the most part this is just really strong people fighting other really strong people yeah but jinguji ends up being sort of yes exactly that character and she has that that extra pathos you know the the she would be the Beloved Senpai who gets injured and
Can’t continue in any other series tragic golf carpel tunnel yes exactly golf is the apparently a terribly dangerous sport yeah absolutely um so quick question before we we start wrapping up um who is the best character any I actually like ich I actually like the caddy because she’s coming from she’s like I
Know I don’t do golf however I can read what’s going on here I’m really good at this and I want to be able my skills can help your skills right really and truthfully and then when she sees Eve do her thing she’s like yeah I can yeah you know she has that amazing
Self-confidence yeah that you’re just like you go girl yeah really Sean who’s your favorite character well that’s they’re two very different charact questions my favorite character is haai I I just I I just love her I love her reactions to everything I love her struggles but the best character is
Eve um without Eve there’s no series Eve drives everything Eve is why you come back to this series every week sure yeah that’s fair but I’ll say actually I I think the best car is is teaching as well because she’s she’s a normal wonderful absolutely outstanding she has so many wonderful qualities of
Being like you think she’s gonna be the puppy dog she sure is not the puppy dog um she is an amazing caddy she is she is exactly what she says she is which is the most outstanding caddy in the world and in most other anime she’d be
Somebody who was swept up in in Eve’s wake or aly’s wake and she’s not she steps into the Wake she’s like I’m going with you you’re going to be better because of me and I’m going to be the best in the world and you’re like holy
who’s this girl and she does and she just does and I just found that and then she follows Eve to nef yeah yeah yeah there’s there’s an episode that I think shows off the best of both of them because the episode where they go to fight in the modular Golf Course again
Right first of all ‘s reaction to everything thing like it’s you is going on so insane right once the golf starts it doesn’t matter anymore all of a sudden she’s the perfect caddy again and it’s eve who’s out of her element with the you know the the brand new cheating scheme and but
Eve smashing the camera and saying that she wants to do real golf that was fantastic that may be my favorite moment in the whole series because it is because everyone was so hyped to get back to the mafia to get back to nafes to get back with the you know Goofy Golf
Course and all that and here is Eve telling you no you are wrong this is not the real golf we want we want to go back to the high school tournament to you know the the golf Norm I say normal golf but it’s biry way me real golf yeah yeah
Let me play real golf not this stupid gambling Mafia crap yeah and we aside from them being a DSX MAA at the end to prevent Eve from winning we never really see them again right exactly um I will I will say yes and they are very wonderful DXM at the
End the and the resolution of that was actually really intelligent and kind of normal like we’re going to suspend you for a few years and then you can come back back and it’s like oh like okay it doesn’t have to be like you’re GNA die
Or yeah you know but I want to say I do want to say that um the the final golf course she fight she plays at is also kind of its own in bits of insanity and like that there’s that one hole that’s shown in the opening credits of the
Second season where it’s like literally on a cutpiece of rock separate from the which I had always assumed was a metaphor no it’s real it’s a real it’s actually a real thing so um so that’s wonderful um so one last question to wrap up this wonderful conversation which is the superior
Gundam Au G witch or birdie win Sean I I mean I I G Witch is probably the better series overall in terms of Gundam but in terms of giving Gundam fans what they want I think it’s birdie way Fair Amy what do you think well considering that the only time I’ve ever
Watched any Gundam was actually the first season of G you know of of which um I I I beg off mostly because I like them for different things but also because you know in the sense that birdie Wing gave us our girls and didn’t say it’s up to your
Interpretation even though Bondi that wasn’t theonomy we all have to be Ang in the right direction it’s Bondi who got got wonky but I thought that was real you know just as a total aside is that the whole pacon I’m like how could they get pacon on you know I’m like oh yeah
It’s band because with birdie wi is Bandai actually part of yeah yeah it’s all owned by the same company that’s why they could actually use P Pac-Man as a symbol and I always right my my favorite obscure refence in the whole thing do you remember when uh
They have the virtual golf in episode five yes and they give Eve this ridiculous Catgirl outfit yes the Catgirl outfit is actually lucky Chloe from Tekken nice and virtually I I had to have that explained to me on Reddit virtually nobody got it and it was like
For you few Tekken nerds who had to be watching birdie Wing just like you know for you few madlax nerds who had to be watching birdy Wing yeah yeah exactly I they really did a fantastic job of bringing in a whole lot of weird little references I would say I wanted to stop
And and go back to question one my favorite actual scene though was there’s a scene early on when when um Eve gets back to nafas and we have an entire 10minute segment where she’s apparently posing for 1980s album covers in New York City music video That’s straight out of
Bubblegum Crisis yes absolutely and so it’s but but it’s a classic late 80s album covers sorts of things and like you know you you knew exactly if you were around the ls you knew exactly what you like oh there’s the the thing where she’s under the water tower on the roof
And here’s the one where she’s sitting near the pipe structure and here’s you know looking out over the bridge and that kind of it was all such classic City po posing for album covers that was actually one of my faves um and as for which one is the better Au I’m going to
Say G witch because it actually is really more of a Gundam but th this one I think Sean you nailed it it absolutely gives fans what they wanted and again gives you those screaming moments where you’re like oh it’s golf CH and golf am and you know they didn’t even TR they
Don’t hide it it’s not like clever it’s like look here’s CH and am playing golf I mean my my theory for how this got made in the first place is that after 30 years of the writer toiling away in the anime Minds he basically won the jackpot and said as my reward you
Get to let me do whatever I want and bandai’s like go nuts and the result yeah he did ABS because of course the writer has written half of all on him yeah right he’s written a bunch of stuff exactly all right so let’s have final thoughts on berding Amy final thoughts um it’s
Very rewatchable that’s one of the that’s a key thing I think is that it’s very rewatchable and even watching it knowing the twists that happen it’s still fun to anticipate and to find all the things like well or even if it’s sometimes to find a loophole like hair color with
With a oi and I’m like neither of her parents are that color and yet she is but nobody makes makes a comment about it you know to that kind of funny thing to it’s just fun it’s just fun it’s campy it’s nobody nobody I mean people die but they
Don’t really you don’t see it it’s it’s all good I bet nobody gets hurt I mean some people die there are some people that die but it’s off screen some people are blowned up by rocket launchers yeah but that’s off screen by the time they actually land
Mafia those are the bad bad guys die except for Rose that’s kind of a sad thing yeah but I mean it she dug her own grave well I think with the it was it was a case of you know if you don’t see them get killed then they’re not dead if
You don’t see the body they’re not dead like they were like no she’s dead yeah everyone was waiting for her to come back and I’m like I’m pretty sure she’s dead yeah yeah exactly Sean what are your final thoughts on just be nice it’d be nice if there was actually a a
Post you know OVA or something that would be kind of fun but it it would they really needed one more episode they did really Rush that just one more episode they would have it would have been I think the producer in one of the interviewers said they they had an
Interesting thought for like a Next Generation thing or something but I’m not sure where they’re going with that not like not like the children of Ean I’m thinking but something different just a different no my my final thoughts are um number one uh try not to get yourself into indentured golf servitude
Or cadd servitude and uh do watch pry Wing thank you all right thank you both so much this was a lot of fun um I’m gonna just say if those of you who are watching this panel have not uh yet watch birdie Wing I think we all can say absolutely insan must
We didn’t mention the weather prediction no we didn’t really mention that at all there’s just so there’s a lot of things we really didn’t even have time there’s so many things yes the other CAD yeah I mean there’re just I mean the fact that that each is you know a a certified
Weather weather moment yes that’s a thing that will totally work um but there’s just all these little pieces of nonsense that are tied together in a way that that make you make me as a writer weep for having you to have that kind of skill you know if I could ever write
Something half as good as that I would count myself really excellent as a writer it’s it’s yeah going back to what I said at the start it’s written in the vocabulary of anime and if you speak anime you will love it yes and if you don’t speak anime you still might enjoy
It but it’s like watching I don’t know European Noir you know you’re going to miss some of the references you’re going to miss the key moments the things that it’s referring to that you just didn’t know but but you’ll know it’s there you’ll be able to have these dramatic
Pauses and you’ll think I probably missed something you know will I will note if you are a Ser serious golfer you might not like it right um and also I will also note before we wrap up that the golf club at the girls school is an
Real Golf Club it’s an actual real golf club that exists underneath the Mount Fuji that was one evening’s worth of work for me I found it oh I think I remember you saying that that you’re like this is real yeah I mean the picture was perfect they clearly just lifted that picture and
Just sort of Drew a school behind it like that was perfect well a lot of people were surprised that Jack bunny the uh the sponsors of all the outfits was in fact real and not made up for birdie wi right because it’s such a goofy name right exactly well again
Thank you both very very much um this was a fantastic revisiting of a really fantastic and um I want to thank you both for being part of yuon 2023 and thank everybody who is watching here uh for being part of uon 2023 and we’ll see you again next time on Yuri Studio
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Ahh Birdie Wing 🪽 ⛳ Yosuke Kuroda's latest hit 😊
In the words of Mother’s Basement: “Let me talk to you about golf, girls, and the golf girl mafia.”