LNT Anime 9

Spider-Man Noir just dropped, and Episode 9 is all about the dark, gritty side of superhero storytelling 🕷️🕵🏾‍♂️

We break down the detective energy, sharp dialogue, Nicolas Cage’s performance, and whether the show hits harder in black and white or full color. Then we zoom out into the bigger superhero animation wave with X-Men 97, why the mutant story still connects with outsiders, and how Xavier vs Magneto still feels like a real debate about survival, leadership, and politics.

We also get into Spider-Man: Brand New Day, Peter being broke and alone again, villains we want to see, mutants entering the mix, and why New York needs to feel like a living Marvel universe.

Transcript

Late Night Intro And Momentum

0:00

Uh. Late in LA, Life of Times Anime, Episode Nine. Me and Carlos. If you don't grind, you don't shine. What's up, man? Man, what's up? What's up, man? Trying to try it, man. You know, we're getting into it. We're cooking. It's warming up for the summer. And yo, this these past couple episodes, we're getting into some real good content, man. I'm not gonna do that. Well, you know, I'm starting to get the rhythm, you know, the conversation, how we both rift back and forth. So the more I get us, the more the questions will be more us. Do you feel me? Yeah, for sure, for sure.

Spider-Man Noir Nails The Genre

0:36

Spider-Man New War just dropped, bro. Now, bro, I am a big Spider-Man guy. Spider-Man and Superman were probably my two biggest when I was younger. Sure. When I saw the new Superman, I thought, okay, we have hope again. There's hope in the air. Literally the symbol of hope. The symbol of hope. That new Superman, if you never knew what, like, oh, why do people give a fuck about Superman? Go ahead and watch Superman. It's just the stat as it was like the comic brought to life. And I say that with this because Spider-Man Duar is the comic brought to life. Nicholas Cage, he blew it out of the water, bro. His acting was superb. He's older, but he's not moving older. The dialogue is sharp, witty. The writing's fantastic. It's shot in black and white or full color. I recommend if you want to see how the powers are working and how those things go, go ahead and check it out in full color. But like it's a noir. It's Spider-Man Noir for a reason. If you know about the genre, you should watch it in black and white. But like season one of Spider-Man Noir is out, bro. I know you want to watch it, but man, it is worth it. Like it. It's crazy. The way they did the powers, the way they did the dialogue, just the fighting scene. I can't wait. Because I'm a fan of the noir series, like of that kind of genre of movie. I saw the trailer for Spider-Man Noir, and it reminded me, I think two characters that are very good in that kind of setting are Batman and Spider-Man. Because Spider-Man's very like fun, energetic, hopeful, a little bit of comedy. So it's like you put that gritty, dark aesthetic of like a noir genre in Spider-Man. I think that makes it really interesting. And I think that's also what made the Batman really interesting. Robert Patton and stuff like that. That rendition of Batman is totally noir. And you gotta lean into it, right? And even in the show, he's a detective. Like there's so many things going on. It's layered, it's the 1930s. His homie that's a journalist is black. Like there's a lot of things going on in the show, which is like speaking to a larger conversation, but it kind of like made things known without it being known. You know, it wasn't like they're just pushing narrative, like, yo, this is what it is. But like I highly recommend everybody to go ahead and check out the new uh season of Spider-Man Noir. I'm excited. They uh they pulled this guy from Spider Universe and Spider-Verse and everything else with Miles Morales. So to see him stand on his own two feet and it do well, you know, this is Nicolas Cage's first TV show. Is it really Oh yeah, that's that doesn't surprise me because I'm anytime I think about Nicolas Cage and Superhero are just any type of like hero-like figure, I think of Ghost Rider and how kind of I think that movie got a lot of hate, but I honestly really enjoy Nicolas Cage's Ghost Rider. All because Ghost Rider was heat, man. Where Marvel wasn't Marvel. So like Ghost Rider was he where Marvel wasn't Marvel. And it was one of those characters we got that, like, ooh, okay, and we haven't gotten it since. If you think about it, that's the that's the first character they tried to push after Blade, right? Was Blade first and then it was Fantastic Four? Or was it Blade, Fantastic Four, then Ghost Rider? I feel like Fantastic Four came out a little bit earlier, like 2004. I'm talking about the original ones. What up Yeah, we'll show call this. You know, the dude that played Captain America? Yeah. He was in that genre. So I'm just a fan of that, man. I'm a big Marvel fan. I'm a big guy. Nicholas Cage fan as well, just far as

Nicolas Cage And Early Marvel Films

4:35

his acting. Did you see X-Men 97, bro?

X-Men 97 And Why It Hits

4:39

Yes, of course I did, bro. Yeah. X-Men holds a very special place in my heart. Reason being is that when we were kids, bro, when we were kids, and I think I don't think people speak on this enough, for the great shift of Marvel, X-Men, Spider-Man, Incredible Hulk, Fantastic Four, and I'll say Iron Man, animated-wise, at least, were like the big five. You're right about that. Yeah. Those were the big five. Those were the five that everyone cared about. To see X-Men 97 do what they did, like they upped the animation, they started going on like the darker stories of X-Men. Like, dude, it was genuinely a chef's kid of a series. And just I just love everything about X-Men. Like, I love how a team, but everyone kind of has their own shit going on. It's like Scott Summers Cyclops, he wants to be the leader. And then you have Wolverine who's like, listen, Boy Scout, like I know you're trying to be the leader, but like I do my own thing, so you don't gotta boss me around. And then you got Gene Gray running around that Scott's girl, and then Wolverine kind of has his little interest in her, but they don't really speak on it. And then you got Rogue, who has a similar background to Wolverine, who they're kind of just like, we don't really want to adjust our past, but we're both kind of like not great people who have done some not great things, but it still led us here. And just find everyone's story so compelling. And it's like there is not a bad X-Men series, whether it's X-Men 97, X-Men the original animated series, X-Men Evolution, which we also touched on on last episode, and then there's Wolverine and X-Men. And then you have all the collabs and chaos that they kind of pop in for like the Spider-Man animated TV show where like the Avengers are first mightiest heroes and stuff like that. So like the X-Men are always what I like, the X-Men are always around, and they're always dealing with something even worse than whatever the might be dealing with, or what Dr. Straight might be dealing with. Like, it's just there, it's always critical for them. No, the X-Men are one of the most relatable superheroes, especially for guys like us, you know, outsiders, you know, minorities far as larger parts of society. So X-Men is like, big, bro. And X-Men 97 specifically was straight out of the comics. Literally, they storyline. Just how you were saying, they brought it to life. They just brought it to life. They didn't have to do anything else. And if you're a comic fan, that is all you want. I want to see the panel in real life. Like when Captain America, bro, when Captain America fucking caught Thor's hammer, lost my shit. Because I seen the report. It was iconic, bro. To have the X-Men, first of all, like the dialogue in the show, perfect. The writing was great, the animation was great, and season two is on the way, bro. That shit is dropping, bro. I can't wait. I'm excited for it. One thing that I feel like, especially why a reason I think X-Men will connect, especially to someone like you who enjoys like literature, like literary device, and all that stuff, the dynamic between Xavier and Magneto, bro. Yo, crazy versus Malcolm X. Like, you know what I mean? It's like there's a why can't we all live together? And you like Xavier, why can't we all live together in a coexistent society and then Magneto violence first? Because we are the superior race, and we're the superior race because we have powers, and you're not about to tell me any different. Yeah. The difference in mindsets of the two leaders, it didn't the government politics in between, because you see how the government plays, they play both of them against each other, they create programs for both of them, and oftentimes they always end up working together. It was just great to see blood in a comic show. You know, like when you watch Daredevil, when you watch Luke Cage, when you're watching Jessica Jones, you saw the realism of the Marvel Universe played out on screen on TV, and it was great to see like X-Men 97 season two. I'm excited to see that, man. For

Xavier Vs Magneto As Politics

9:10

sure. And that leaves us, all this Spider-Man content is leading us to Spider-Man brand new day. Yeah, let's get into it. I'm excited for this film, bro. My man Peter don't got no friends, he don't got no money, he don't got nothing. He just got his suit, he don't got no Avengers, he don't got no homie. He's just Spider-Man for real now. This is the first time he's ever Spider-Man the best Spider-Man. Anytime if you think about like your favorite version of Spider-Man, it's always the most down bad. Exactly, bro. I have never seen any down bad. Bro, I've never seen a good Spider-Man. It has to be horrible. Never. Or if he

Spider-Man Brand New Day Predictions

9:58

is, transitioning into something like incredibly bad, bro. Like it's transitioning into like he's gonna either lose Aunt May, or he's gonna lose his girl, or both, or his job, or all the money he had stashed up. Like, bro, it's bro. First Spider-Man, he gets fired from his job, his uncle gets slow, the girl goes for somebody else. There's a lot of shit happening, bro. It's so relatable because it's like everyone, nobody really loves Peter, no one appreciates Peter Parker that much. No one appreciates Peter Parker at all, actually. But everyone loves Spider-Man, and I think that duality is so relatable because it's you can water down two sense to where it's like everyone may love what you do for them, but not necessarily love you the same. That dynamic is what makes Spider-Man so relatable and so loved because it's just like yo, he really feels like one of us for real. He really feels like just one of the homies. Like you could be homies with a Peter Parker, like you're homies with them the whole time. You don't know his other life going through it on all fronts. Bro, he was is and always has been a working class superhero. You know, Iron Man's great, right? But Spider-Man is a regular person. He's one of the few regular people in the Marvel universe, and he's cool everywhere. And I mean it, like his powers didn't change him, his moral character and fiber. He went through all this shit early. So he learned college. Yeah, he's in college. He's taking me back to my default sense. And I think brand new day, bro. We're gonna get into such interesting one. I think his Rogues Gallery is really interesting. Like, we're gonna get into Mr. Negative, which was a really good villain in the first Spider-Man game. We've never seen Mr. Negative on the screen. Yeah, we've never seen him on the big screen. And we're gonna get into like that storyline of what it's like for him to lose his power and like give it to the inner spider, like that evolutionary process. Also, man, like are we gonna see man spider? This is why I was talking about X-Mid earlier. You remember Spider-Man animated, he goes Man Spider, and then he ran into some mutants. So Spider-Man a brand new day. Yeah, he's gonna bring out the mutants, bro. The shirty from Stranger Things is gonna be a mutant. The mutants are gonna be revealed in Spider-Man brand new day. And that's one of the biggest things. I don't know if you've seen it, we talked about it, but the new Punisher movie, he's gonna be a part of that movie as well. The hand is gonna be a part of this movie. So, like, as you were saying, his world gallery is going to start filling up and they're fighting in the prison. They're double chilling in there. You're gonna free him up. That's what I'm saying. And what I love about Spider-Man and what I felt like we've needed more of in Marvel Universe, that mind you, New York is supposed to be the central hub of like everybody's in New York. So it's like if you're Spider-Man, why maybe on a random day, yeah, you run into Punisher, you run into Devil, you run into Go Jones, or Luke Cage, or Danny Rand slash Iron Fist, or maybe uh some supernatural shit goes on and you gotta knock on Doctor Stranger's door, or maybe the X-Men are in town and Wolverine, Cyclops, Gene Gray are like pouncing around because I don't know, they're working on the Sentinel program or the Superhuman Registration Act is going on politically, and all everybody who's superpowered has to register under the we need more collabs. And I'm not saying just throw everyone in in a cameo every five minutes, but make it sense, you know what I mean? Well, in the animated series in the X-Men 97, you can feel that it's a larger universe. And also, with Luke Cage and all of them, bro, I feel like they should do a miniseries, give Luke Cage four episodes, give my man Iron Fist four episodes, give Jessica Jones like four episodes, and then Daredevil's third season, to be the third season, it f you know it puts them all in there throughout the season, season three, and then they have their own movie, Heroes for Hire. I'm telling you, man. That's this is how you turn C characters into big stars, and then you just have them matched up against the right people. You got the hand, there's people from all their rogue galleries that can work together and then be against them or some shit like that. So I'm excited. I like Spider-Man because he opens up the universe and he works well with any character. You know, he's one of those characters that he doesn't change because of who's around him. With Spider-Man Beyond,

Spider-Verse Drama And Parasocial Fallout

14:49

the third installment of the Spider-Verse series. I am so excited, bro. I can't wait. I hope they fix up all the shit they got with the guy that voices Miles and the girl. I hope that is cool. I think he was very unprofessional, and I think he needs this apologize publicly. He should have just done that beforehand. But I also think this is the parasocial shit in being on social media too much. And I this is a perfect example as a man and as a creative, how you receive the internet. Because I don't know, I think he's not a bad actor, but that situation could get him jammed up. Now the situation it looks like it's resolved, right? And it didn't look like it was something super heinous, but it's still like in this time don't fuck up. You know what I'm saying? Like it's really that because he like it was enough for me that I was like, it's kind of unfortunate because as I was doing, I was prepping for this, right? I was going through all the stuff, and I even go to his TikTok, and every comment is talking about that situation. And if I'm in any business capacity in charge of this project, I'm gonna talk to both of these people, like, hey, put out a joint statement. Like, what are y'all doing? Because y'all gonna fuck up the product. That's what I'm saying. And it's unfortunate that it's like you have an instance like that where it's like it's such a talented individual, but it's like the actions or character what's holding them back from just providing such a great product, and it's like man, it genuinely does suck because it was like we were supposed to get beyond spider, what, two years ago now? Nah, we were still supposed to get it. 2027 was the date. Okay, okay, okay. Because I was just because I remember it was chatter because of that. That's all. Okay, because I thought it was like when we got across the spider-verse, we were supposed to get like beyond the spider-verse like a year later of that release or something like that. We had like this they did this short of Miles Morales having a panic attack. That's what people thought was the movie, but the movie's coming. Yeah, that was like a big thing. But I hope that gets cleaned up. Can't wait for this movie. I remember when the universe came out, and everyone after that was like, yo, can you really time it like the bars are so high? And they raised the bar even farther with across the Spider-Verse, and we got to see all the different Spider-Man. Spider-Man 2099, Spider-Punk, Spider-Man Noir. We got to see all these different Spider-Man. And I thought Miles, it was so dope seeing Miles Morales and especially his fractured relationship with Spider-Man 2099 being like, yo, you weren't you're the anomaly. You weren't supposed to exist, like you weren't supposed to be a Spider-Man. That was deep. That was good. Right after like there's connotations, it's connotations as well, and a larger story at hand. And that's another reason why I hope this gets through. I believe the money is paid and everybody has to just show up for work, but uh I'm excited for it. We got a second

Baki, Dorohedoro, Sandman, And Anime Movies

18:02

season, well, part two of Baki coming in June, like five days after my birthday. Baki is the funniest shit on earth, bro. I swear, bro. I like I have one drink and I watch fucking Baki, and it's the it's this the most ridiculous shit I ever seen. Far as like some of the action scenes are great, right? And they're action and it's good action. But like when they are talking to each other, bro, like this shit is just wild. It's like when I was watching the remember the first season of One Punch Man where it was like really funny. Yeah, like super funny and peak at the same time, bro. At the same time, a great blend of both. Like, I feel like One Punch Man like lost the plot on that. Foxy never lost it, bro. Yeah, I brought it. Yeah, my fault. Go ahead. No, no, you're good. I was just saying, like, One Punch Man lost me, bro. Deal with that. Yeah, they started straying, and it's another one of those instances where it's like, yo, why did you stray away from what made you great? Like the gagginess of One Punch Man mixed with the spoof superman thing and the great action scenes and fights, like this is what made you great, but you guys strayed too far from it, and now you're lost. Now you've ruined your own relevance at that point. But Baki the one of those great crispy, man. And Baki the Grappler, like Baki's one of those great animes that I always think if people are first getting into anime, that's one of the first anime to suggest people. Because I'm like, yo, you're gonna genuinely enjoy this. Yeah, Baki's goaded. I'm decided. Doro, he Doro got Green Lit for a third season. We're already in second season on Netflix. It's one of those Netflix animes, bro. We should catch up two seasons in. Yeah, already got green lit mid-season two. So check it out, people. This is one of the best dark animes I've ever read or watched. The power system's crazy, bro. The magic system and how things happen and how people even unlock their stuff is crazy. Very bloody, too. It's like gothic almost. Have you ever read Sandman? Yeah, it's kind of like that, where like it's very graphic. Like in different realms and dimensions and shit like that. Hey, did you watch the Sandman show on Netflix? On Netflix? Yeah, yeah. That was P. That was a great watch. I was sick they canceled that shit, bro. And that's the thing. It's like you think a show's doing so well, and then out of nowhere it gets canceled. It's like, damn, like, I heard that show costs too much. I was invested in it. Yeah, that's a lot of bread, bro. They had Neil Gaming. Well, Neil Gaming's right there with them. Of course it's costing them everything, bro. Sheesh. He's right there. We've got to pick one or the other. Like, I gave y'all two seasons, man. But um But okay, the movie, The Curse of the Serpent, is gonna be releasing. Well, it already released last night. We already know the history of Japanese animated movies. I'm always gonna be tapping in Studio Global, and obviously Ghibli is one of the foundational anime movie makers. And that's one of the reasons I always gotta particulate. Like anime movies when you get to like a certain level, like you ever seen it was the boy and the heron, Robert Patterson voices in and everything like that. It was really good. It's another animated movie. So I just like but the biggest one that always sticks in my head, even as an adult, is Spirited Away. Spirited Away is always the one that sticks. Go to it. And it's like I remember watching it as a kid and like not necessarily understanding all the constructs that were in the movie, but as I watched it as like a grown man, I was like, wow, this is heavy. This movie is heavy. And really well done and well. Well, the animation's crazy. Like, the animation style is nuts. Like, the amount of time and energy they put into that stuff is crazy, bro. And that's why anime's still gonna be on top of these other shows because it's just more time and energy put into it. I know we talked about Double May Cry season two and everything like that, but that shit's already getting split for season three, bruh. So I'm gas for that. We got One Piece, it's being very slow with the releases. If you're one piece, hold on. You just gotta stop patient. Hold on. This is your training art. I know. It's just crazy, bro. You want to get to the end because we know the end has never been more in sight than it is now when it comes to One Piece. One Piece right now is Goku on Snake Road. Seriously. It's gonna take more than one episode for him to get where he needs to go, bro. Remember how long it took him to get to King Kai's? He fell off of Snake Road. He fell off fucking around. Some Goku shit, bro.

One Piece Patience And Anthology Picks

23:11

Do you think we should do more animated anthology series? Have you seen shows like Star Wars Vision? Oh Love Robots Death. Yeah. You know. Oh, Love Death. Love Death and Robots? Love, Death, and Robots, yeah. Yeah. Well, I've seen both. First, Star Wars Visions. I think Star Wars Visions is the most unique Star Wars content we've ever gotten, and I want more of that. Because in the Star Wars universe, I think it's so suited towards anime. It's like you can do so much with a Star Wars anime. That universe is so fast that it doesn't have to have anything to do with the main storyline or main timeline or whatever you want it to be. You can just pluck a point in time in that universe and just be like, hey, I'm gonna make an anime here. I loved Star Wars Visions, bro, because oh man, it was just so well done. And the fact that I love anime so much, and Star Wars is one of my one of my favorite fanfiction series of all time. Bridging the putting those two together, I was like, dog, this is Chef's kiss. Cause we had a samurai, a kind of samurai anti-Jedi type thing going on. There was like that blind upset going on. Every episode was just something different. You had like a robot Jedi that kind of inherited feelings and started to feel and be able to use the force and things like that. I loved Visions, it was so good. Yeah, Star Wars, even Star Wars Clone Wars was goaded. Like that show was crazy. Watched that as an adult. I was like, oh, they were really getting it in. Like as a kid, it kind of brushed off. Like it starts off their mid-war. People are dying. They done sent Yoda. Like politics. And it adds That's what I'm saying. And it adds there's so much, there's so much politics inside of that war that they get into that they're like, yo, this is affecting planets that are not even necessarily in our galaxy that are in the outer rim. And then there are certain planets that is like, let's want nothing to do with this, like just leave us alone. It's crazy, bro. But I I'm really interested in like animated anthology series. I really like Death Robots. It's one of my

Pantheon, AI Anxiety, And More Recs

25:45

favorites. There's also the this is anime on Amazon called Levels, and it's based upon video games. I don't know if you've seen that. That shit was crazy. They got this one. You should check it out. There's another one I watched. Pantheon is a good one. I heard about that. My boy Antheon Way at work was telling you about that. You said it's far. It's really good. It's really good. Like the shit that's going on with AI and everything that's going on currently, if you watch Pantheon, you'll shit yourself. It is so close. It's not like far at all. It's not even. I mean, you see on Robinhood, they got you. You can have your AI agent train for you. Yo. Your AI agent can use a credit card for you. I got that notification and I was like, yo, I was like, wow, we're really AK. Hey, let's do it. It's really just if you got if you got capital, it's no problem. If you have money, you can hire the best AI agent or create the best AI agent. Everybody thinks AI is like this one band tool. It's two person. So whoever's using it in the AI. The AI is only as good as you are. Like I swear to God. Look, AI is

Universe Building Complaints And Closing

27:02

only as good as you use it. And how you use it, you gotta be uh you know attentive to that because people are deleting their entire works databases. It's exciting. Watch yourself. Watch Pantheon so you understand. There's also uh Scavenger's Rain. That's a good one. That one sounds familiar. What platform is that on? It was Adult Swim. It didn't got HBO. Yeah, okay. That makes sense because I was I was scrolling on HBO Max. I'm like, you know what? What was I was watching like Dune Prophecy and all that type of stuff when I was going, excuse me, when I was going through like my Dune phase, I watched uh part one, part two, waiting for part three, and I watched Prophecy. And then I think that Scavenger had came up on my suggested list because I was watching that and the uh Superman, the adventures of Superman in front of that kind of like Superman anime that they kind of did again. Yeah, it's pretty good. It's pretty good. I don't know why I fell off on it. Honestly, if it's not at Young Justice level, I don't want it. Because I can tell that they got this contained ass universe, and he got all these different rules. I'm like, y'all not really doing much with that Superman though. He's by himself. Nobody else is doing something. The only hero? Nah. We only in Metropolis? Come on. Come on, dog. Superman can fly around the planet. And we only in Metropolis. Come on. Yeah, what are we really doing? What are we really doing? Let's green light that fifth season of Young Justice, bro. I'll worry y'all the money. God damn. But no, man. In closing, anime, content, comics. We are in an upheaval. We are in the rise of entertainment, man. Me and Carlos are going to go over what you should watch, what we have watched, we are watching Life and Thompson anime. Episode nine in the books. Yes, sir. Happening.