The Other Side (Podcast)

The Other Side is a (usually) weekly podcast hosted by Cody "Lord Shmeckie" Baier. It has run since December 2011 on Anime 3000 and is currently consistently among their most watched and downloaded. Most episodes deal with certain aspects of the Japanese entertainment culture and lambasting them, while still retaining the things they enjoy about anime, manga and Japanese video games.

The Other Side is named as such as it provides an alternative perspective of the anime fandom than most other anime podcasts, or as Cody would put it "The anime podcast for people with lives".

The first season starred Alex Barry as co-host, also known as the creator of the anti-fanfiction site Project A.F.T.E.R., lending discussions a straight man to Baier's rather exaggerated style. Because of real life issues, however, Barry then left the show and was replaced with Max-Vader for the second season after occasional guest appearances in the first one. The third and current season introduced a second co-host by the name of Andrew Erickson.

Find their episodes here.

Tropes used in The Other Side (Podcast) include:

• All Germans Are Nazis: Subverted with Max-Vader, though it has been mentioned several times that his grandfather was a SS officer.
• And Now For Something Completely Different: Occasionally, the podcast will focus on subjects irrelevant to the anime fandom, such as crazy people on the internet, the brony fandom or the social justice movement.
• Ascended Extra: The Nurse from Katawa Shoujo.
• Berserk Button: Do not mention lolicon in a positive light or, to an only slighty lesser extent, incest. Also, in a meta example, some people see the podcast itself as this.
• Biting the Hand Humor: Sort of. At the beginning of the Incest episode, Cody makes fun of the pre-roll ads that were airing before Anime 3000's podcasts at the time, followed by Max saying that they would have to leave Anime 3000. This is actually a reference to the circumstances of another podcast's departure from the website.
• Brutal Honesty: The podcast pretty much lives by this trope.
• Catch Phrase: Among other things, "x show for x people", with x usually being either "loser" or "sad", for Cody and "The Other Side: (insert something related to the topic)" for Max.
• Caustic Critic: If they don't like something, they'll be sure to remind you.
• Censored Title: The episodes "Fullmetal Dead [Censored] Magician" and "S#@!fest!".
• Cloudcuckoolander: Bonglorio, one of the guest hosts.
• Cluster F-Bomb: Happens a few times, especially when the hosts get worked up while discussing something they find particularly odious. Cody even admitted to use the word "fuck" as much as other people use "uhm".
• Cycle of Revenge: Parts of Season 3 are this. After being tricked by Cody to watch ProjectAKo, Max-Vader got his revenge by forcing his co-hosts to watch Astarotte's Toy (see below). Then Andrew tried to get his revenge for Max's revenge by making him watch Haiyore! Nyakuro-San... which backfired due to Max's shortage of time.
• Defictionalization: When discussing how disappointing the plot of Yozakura Quartet is, the trio comes up with a webcomic concept called "Balls to the Wall Demon Cop". A few episodes later, they reveal some of their fans are actually working on it.
• Disproportionate Retribution: Cody notes this during Lolicon Discussion 2 since Max-Vader made him watch Astarotte's Toy for making him watch Project A Ko knowing he would hate it. Max even admits that he made everyone watch it solely for Cody tricking him.
• Eldritch Abomination: Boku no Pico.
• The Faceless: Alex Barry.
• Germanic Depressive: Inverted with Max-Vader, who'll be willing to crack jokes and have a laugh all day long.
• Heroic BSOD: Cody Baier after discussing incest. A notable example occurs when discussing Anime/KissXSis; at one point, Vader tells Cody that an explicit scene depicting one of the characters is not from a hentai spoof, but from an official manga, causing Cody to short-circuit for a good two minutes.
  • And again, for well over the half of an entire podcast, to the point that it's even titled "The Many Breakdowns of Cody Baier". Reasons for the breakdowns include Issei Sagawa, Funimation's decision to localize Dance In The Vampire Bund and the marketing behind it as well as the description of an adult woman making out with a ten year old boy, the last of which caused Cody to leave the podcast for a good five minutes while Max and Andrew were listening to him talking with a plush and playing Mega Man 8-Bit Deathmatch... with nobody else on the server.
• Insult Comic: Alex Barry turns into the embodiment of this trope whenever David Sirlin's name comes up.
  • Rule of Three: The first one while discussing the fighting fandom, the second as a reaction to the responses they've gotten for it, and the third as a farewell note/post credit scene in his last episode.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Cody Baier. (As well as most of the co-hosts, albeit to a lesser extent.)
• Patriotic Fervor: The last several minutes of the second part of "Oh, Japan!" features Cody delivering a speech about how great America is with the National Anthem blaring.
• Pun-Based Title: Numerous episodes.
• Shock Jock: Cody, again. He's even classified as such on his Anime 3000 profile.
• Shout-Out: One episode "Lolicon Discussion 2" had Cody speaking the Hate Speech from I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream nearly word for word.
• Sincerity Mode: Cody sometimes does this to exemplify just how much he despises something, like when he declared US Angel Corps to be the worst webcomic ever made or talked about how much Bad Fwuffy Pony comics disturb him.
• Straight Man: Most of Cody's co-hosts have filled this role. Comparatively, at least.
• Take That: Every episode has at least one, but the biggest one was in "Feel The Love", in which the entire first half is devoted to taking the piss out of a podcast that tried to call Cody out.
  • Then taken one level further with "Schrecklichen Nachrichten-Netzwerk".
• Thematic Theme Tune: Besides echoing the title of the podcast, the lyrics of "The Other Side" by Pendulum nicely fit both the tone and theme of the show.
• Villainous Breakdown: Andrew after finding out Max had not subjected himself to all of Haiyore! Nyaruko-San.
• Women Are Delicate: Subverted in the episode The Wimmins of Anime.
• Xanatos Gambit: For the episode about Project A Ko, Cody expected Max to hate it and used it to make the episode about it as entertaining as possible, to the point he made a list about the things he expected him to hate about it - and got most of them right.