"Anime may still be classed in the 'niche' market these days, but it has such variety, such potential, that I'm sure it will make it into the mainstream one day."
William DuFresne is That Dude in the Suede, a laidback, sardonic otaku in a leather jacket who hails from Christchurch, New Zealand and reviews anime and anime-related things for That Guy With The Glasses. He was one of the first people to join the site, as well as the site's first anime critic.He left the site for a two-year hiatus in January 2009, in order to do missionary work in Auckland for his Mormon church. His return, which was supposed to occur in January 2011, was pushed back to May, and when he failed to return to the site even then rumors sprang up that he was doubting whether he would return at all—rumors he had no qualms about confirming. In reality, his delayed return was tied to delays in editing TGWTG's third year anniversary special which was meant to provide his He's Back moment. Said moment finally occurred on June 30th, at the end of Suburban Knights part five, shocking everyone who believed the rumors, and pulling off a successful long-term prank.On July 8, Suede released a trailer announcing that yes, he will indeed return to making video reviews for TGWTG. It shows him wearing his iconic jacket, as well as sporting a Badass Beard, and flanked by the ever-popular pink drapes set to a cover of The Times They Are a-Changin' made by Tomoya Takaishi. He began officially releasing videos again on August 10th, 2011. As of now, the original costume is used only on AMV Heaven and the Video Logs (replaced by more formal attire), his pink drapes replaced by green ones (the result of him moving out of his old home), and "That Dude in the" has been all but eliminated from his name.Pre-hiatus, he hosted two series—Animenia, where he reviews anime, its tropes and anime culture, and AMV Heaven, where he showcases anime Fan Vids in the style of Masterpiece Theatre. His return added a third, Suede Played, which he describes as being somewhere between a straight-up review and a Let's Play of his favourite (yet silly) games. He also revealed that an episode of Animenia, "Anime Weirdness: Hair", was supposed to be the first in an Anime Weirdness series that was shoved to the side by his more popular shows. Post-hiatus, it's been reinvented as Fandom Stranger.You can see him on his official blog, Days Of Suede, That GuyWithThe Glasses, blip.tv, YouTube (he also worked in the videos in thesechannels, who have a site of theirs.), Twitter, Anime Music Videos, deviantART, Yu-Gi-Oh! The Abridged Series forums and blogTV.
Catch Phrase: Uses some kind of variation of "Hi, I'm That Dude in the Suede".
Double Vision: Shows up in his Top 10 Anime Openings review, his AMV episode of Animenia, his Trigun review (with 3 of him) the third episode of AMV Heaven, his recent Atop the Fourth Wall cameo (see below) and his Top 11 American Anime (twice). Unlike other uses of this trope on TGWTG, he doesn't use this to play different characters, just to show him talking to himself or illustrate gags.
Foe Yay: Spoony's cameo in GYMDK - Wiz'n'Liz: The Frantic Wabbit Wescue, were it reveals that they had drunken sex on halloween was originally meant for Suede, but he declined. In his farewell video to Suede, Benzaie confesses his love for him.
Gosh Dangit To Heck: Frequently happens, but unlike Linkara who doesn’t use them to prove that you can be funny without using colourful words, he doesn't use then because he is never angry enough (though he did say that his Mormon upbringing could have been a cause.)
Missing Episode: The video that got the attention of That Guy himself—a rant about the idiocy of YouTube's rationale for taking down The Nostalgia Critic videos—is now lost and gone forever; he saved it on a long-gone college computer and, seeing as he promised to take the video down once the issue was resolved, it's no longer on YouTube.
His wife was going to post various photos and videos of the Year 3 Shoot, but the iPod that had all the files on it was stolen and wiped clean.
Mission from God: Literally—as a Mormon, he was on hiatus due to his scheduled missionary activities.
Any depiction of his fanbase includes one comment about how awesome his curtains are.
Schedule Slip: Due to getting ill twice and having a hard to transition into a full-time job.
Self-Deprecation: Takes several shots at himself for being (In his own words) "a rip-off of That Guy With The Glasses" and a "Bottom-Level, Z-Grade, Intern Class Almost Nearly Semi-Celebrity In Training".
The Stinger: Has had one since his Top 11 American Anime video.
Twofer Token Minority: He is both the only Mormon and the only Kiwi in Channel Awesome.
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Animenia
Accentuate the Negative: His review of Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children, which stands out since he's normally one of the most positive reviewers on the site. At the end of the review, he whispers, "Between you and me, I actually didn't hate it that much."
Action-Hogging Opening: Pointed out as a common trait of animes in his Top 11 Openings video, and he provides the page quote.
Air Guitar: Does this to Trigun's theme song. He's not very good at it.
Animesque: His "official" return to the site centers around the best of these.
Awesome Music: The Batman Of The Future theme song, when he didn't have time to watch Saturday morning cartoons he would still watch the Opening.
Call Back: His "We should make another Star Wars sequel!" line is one to an episode of Ask That Guy With The Glasses were he's asked if glasses make people smarter, proceeds to take his off and utters the "We should make another Star Wars sequel!" line.
Dope Slap: "If you're watching this with someone else and they haven't guessed it, I give you full permission to give them a slap on the back of the head."
Manly Tears: Beast Warswas the first TV Show that made him shed physical tears, and tries to defend himself saying that he was only 10 years old, though it still causes him to cry to this day. Granted it was over Transmutate, so it's understandable.
Missing Episode: Suede laments in his "Top 11 American Anime" that, in spite of the entire rest of the series (except Episode 10) being available on line, The Legend Of Calamity Jane: Episode 11, "Protégé" (an episode with a plot so powerful it got burned into his brain) is one of these.
Only in It for the Money: He half-asses a speech about reviewing Trigun because he likes it and to show that anime is an underrated art form before loudly insisting that this trope is the real reason for the review.
Soundtrack Dissonance: Put the Elfen Lied theme song as #10 on his Top 11 Anime Openings because of this. He also admits that the Trigun theme song slowly became this as the series progressed, and that the Neon Genesis Evangelion theme suffers from this.
Suckiness Is Painful: A variation. Rather than causing mental anguish as per the norm for the trope, the American rap openings to Pokémon and One Piece cause Suede actual, physical pain.
Theme Tune Rap: Hates these not on principle, but because most of them are done poorly. He likes Samurai Champloo's theme, calling it "the exception that proves the rule".
Metaphorgotten: In the first episode, he goes from speculating on which billionaires the AMV-maker would have to be as rich as to afford the intellectual property in the video to speculating on which billionaires make AMVs.
And, when it was Anime Weirdness, Let’s Fighting Love by DVDA.
Stillborn Serial: In spite of liking the concept, Suede spent the last months before the hiatus focusing on Animenia and AMV Heaven, making this his shortest series at the time with only one episode. Understandably, it's listed as an episode of Animenia on TGWTG (possibly due to Channel Awesome's 5 videos rule). Time will tell if the show's resurrection will fix that.
Tempting Fate: "Sweet Justice, how can it go wrong? Oh Crap, why did I just say that?"
Working Title: The first episode is called Anime Weirdness.
Suede Played
Designated Hero: In-Universe: He calls Ryu Hayabusa in Ninja Gaiden Σ "Cold-blooded killer of innocent brown ninjas", but he takes it back when he learns that the murdered ninja had "Gaping holes in his defense".
Rule of Three: He falls into a trap door three times.
Trap Door: "Ahh...trap door! My old nemesis. This trap door is evil."
Other Works/Appearances
Aerith and Bob: When he did a fanart of an evolved Lugia, his main problem was its lack of a name. The ones he thought up were Lugiana, Fulugia and Steve.
The Advent Children Picture Show: Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children And Don't Dream It, Be It (winner of a unknown Christchurch AMV compilation) (used as an inbetweener in his Top 11 Anime Villains list) (used as padding to get his Advent Children review to a full half hour)
That Crazy Ikari Boy Needs Therapy!: Neon Genesis Evangelion, The End of Evangelion And Crazy Psychiatrist (Submitted to Anime Banzai 2008, results unknown)
FLoyd CLash: FLCL And In the Flesh? (Made For Armageddon Expo Christchurch 2008's AMV Contest [Missed Deadline]) (used as an inbetweener in his Top 11 Anime Openings list)
Are You Done Yet?: Seems to be thinking this at one point while fighting Chuck Jaffers in Suburban Knights, as he simply stands unmoving in one spot blocking multiple attacks with his sheath while looking bored.
Call Back: Benzaie making reference to his longstanding rivalry with That Dude in the Suede in Suburban Knights, which had never been brought up since Suede left two years ago.
Clip Show: The visuals for the "Suede's Goodbye" video is just every episode of Animenia sped up.
Combat Pragmatist: In Suburban Knights, after the The Good Witch Warrior Of The Woods starts shooting lightning during a climactic battle, Suede punches her saying, "I find that quite vexing".
Freeze Frame Bonus: In Ask That Dude in the Suede, when asked who killed the dinosaurs he claims that Kunimitsu Tezuka did it. To prove himself (due to the ridiculus yet true description of the video he gave) the screen flashes a link to a (now taken down) YouTube clip of Tezuka killing dinosaurs.
Here We Go Again: After Linkara convinces Missingno to kill itself and everything is back to what passes for normal in a That Guy With The Glasses show, Suede is seen playing Pokémon Red, talking to the old man who sends you to Cinnabar Island where you can catch Missingno.
Homage Shot: Dedicated an entire series called They're Having An Evangelion Moment! to show clips of anime inspired by a scene in episode 24 of Neon Genesis Evangelion.
Lying Creator: Asserted repeatedly on his Twitter that he couldn't make it to the Year 3 Shoot and wouldn't appear (though both his wife and his mother blew the cover, but nobody noticed..
Offscreen Teleportation: In Part 6 of Suburban Knights he in NC's left when NC takes Malachite's Hand from him. He then appears in the group shot, the group is in NC's front.
Reverse Mole: Unintentional yet effective example in Suburban Knights. By getting a job with the obstacles, he was in the position to betray their best-kept secret to the heroes when no one else would.
That Makes Me Feel Angry: In Part 6 of Suburban Knights. he calmly walks to The Good Witch Warrior Of The Woods while she's shooting lightning everywhere, calmly and quietly tells her "I find that very vexing", and then punches her out.
announcing that yes, he will indeed return to making video reviews for TGWTG. It shows him wearing his iconic jacket, as well as sporting a Badass Beard, and flanked by the ever-popular pink drapes set to a cover of The Times They Are a-Changin' made by Tomoya Takaishi. He began officially releasing videos again on August 10th, 2011. As of now, the original costume is used only on AMV Heaven and the Video Logs (replaced by more formal attire), his pink drapes replaced by green ones (the result of him moving out of his old home), and "That Dude in the" has been all but eliminated from his name.Pre-hiatus, he hosted two series—Animenia
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