This week, we trade homework assignments, question the train scheduling efficiency of fictional Japan, and try to understand how a 40-year-old salaryman can't recognize a pair of glasses.

The Damage Report: We put our emotional stability on the line across three wildly different titles this week. First up is Makoto Shinkai’s 5 Centimeters per Second, where we debate whether tragic romantic longing is high art or if someone simply forgot that cell phones exist. We also discuss the opening four episodes of Code Geass and the pure tonal whiplash of high-stakes military rebellion colliding with roller-skating mechs and mandatory classroom cleaning duty. Finally, we break down episodes 1 through 5 of Smoking Behind the Supermarket with You, trying to make sense of the Clark Kent effect behind the convenience store while desperately hunting for a phantom dog that Google’s AI promised us was in the cast.

00:00:00 – Welcome to Episode 2 & The Leeds Demographic

00:00:53 – 5 Centimeters per Second (Shinkai's Train Delays)

00:03:37 – The Unsent Letter & Why Didn't He Just Call?

00:07:08 – Surfer Girl Sympathy & Romanticizing the Past

00:09:23 – Snuggling with "Honor"

00:13:20 – PedidosYa Beer Delivery & Acheson Barbera

00:16:06 – Miranda Priestly & The Devil Wears Prada Confusion

00:18:26 – 5 Centimeters per Second Official Ratings

00:22:56 – Code Geass (Assassinations & Area 11 Lore)

00:26:26 – C.C. the Green-Haired Girl & Swapping to Dub

00:29:45 – 21 Jump Street with Mechs

00:32:24 – Code Geass Ratings & Roller-Skating Mechs

00:34:01 – What Actually Makes Animation "Good"?

00:36:45 – Smoking Behind the Supermarket with You (The AI Dog Mystery)

00:41:06 – Yamada vs. Tayama & The Clark Kent Disguise

00:44:18 – The Midriff Incident & Two-Timing Theories

00:49:03 – How Sasaki Will Handle the Reveal

00:50:45 – Smoking Behind the Supermarket Official Ratings

00:53:23 – Frieren & The Existential Dread of Immortal Elves

00:57:04 – Next Week's Homework: Evangelion & Toradora!

01:00:32 – Vermeil in Gold & Demon Mana Logistics

01:02:48 – Deep Pontifications: Búhos, Cat Sounds & Rubén Darío

01:06:36 – Sign-Off: Stay Damaged

Music:

"I Got a Stick Arr Bryan Teoh" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

"Magic Escape Room" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/