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Hosted by film and gaming critics Jonathan R. Lack and Sean Chapman, listen to our weekly musings (and rants!) about the world of Video Games, Film, TV, "Doctor Who," Persona, and much, much more! With reviews, top-ten lists, news analysis, and so much more, we pick a new topic every week to discuss in depth, and we hope to see you there! Visit www.jonathanlack.com for more!
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Japanimation Station is an anime podcast where hosts Jonathan Lack and Sean Chapman, creators of Weekly Suit Gundam, create deep dive conversations not just on individual shows, but on complete bodies of work, approaching these shows not just as fans, but with a fresh pair of critical eyes. We get deep into the stories, characters, and aesthetics, but also place the series and their creators into the proper contexts of history, backstory, and behind the scenes details that make these works s ...
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This month, The Weekly Stuff Podcast is reaching its 500th episode, and we’re celebrating with two massive episodes counting down our Top 10 Favorite Anime Opening & Ending Themes. The former is the main topic of today’s show, as Sean and Jonathan share their respective 10 favorite Anime Openings, from obvious favorites like Dragon Ball Z andNeon G…
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Welcome back for Part 6 of our Kyoto Vacation, entitled ‘Yamada Naoko Strikes Back; or, I Have no Voice and I Must Sound! Euphonium.’ And while most of this part will deal with the second half of that title, today’s subject is all about the aforementioned Yamada Naoko, the Kyoto Animation wunderkind behind K-On! and Tamako Market, and the director …
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After many months and hundreds of hours of play, Sean and Jonathan have finally both finished Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, the second installment in Square Enix’s remake trilogy, and … we didn’t really like it. So today, we’re going to tell you why, diving into a game that starts out promising but turns out to be a very flat, frequently frustrating, …
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Doctor Who returned this week for its new season (Series 14, Season 1, or Season 40, depending on who you ask), the first full run starring Ncuti Gatwa as the 15th Doctor and Millie Gibson as companion Ruby Sunday. And the first two episodes were a ton of fun, particularly the formally off-the-wall “The Devil’s Chord,” which proves returning showru…
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Part 5 of our Kyoto Vacation, “Kyoto Animation’s Splendid Isolation,” comes to a close with one last adventure with the characters of Love, Chuunibyo, and Other Delusions, in their 2018 movie, Take on Me! The film finds Rikka and Yuta off on a journey across Japan as they ‘elope’ after Rikka’s big sister Toka plans to move her to Italy for her fina…
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Jonathan had a very exciting week as The Criterion Collection published an essay he wrote on Makoto Shinkai, thus checking off a major bucket list item, while Sean had an extremely boring week administering standardized tests to high schoolers and showing them the 2011 animated not-a-classic, Gnomeo & Juliet. We talk about both of those experiences…
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We are back for a particularly ‘colorful’ episode of Part 5 of our Kyoto Vacation, “Kyoto Animation’s Splendid Isolation,” with our review of 2016’s Myriad Colors Phantom World. While this series isn’t one of KyoAni’s ‘masterpiece’ shows, it might just be their most underrated. A madcap comedy packed with wall-to-wall creativity, vivid characters, …
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We are back for Part 5 of our Kyoto Vacation, “Kyoto Animation’s Splendid Isolation,” and today we return to the wacky world of Love, Chuunibyo, and Other Delusions for its second season, Heart Throb! This second batch of episodes sees Rikka and Yuta struggling with what it means to be a couple when another chuunibyo friend from Yuta’s past enters …
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In one of the grab-baggiest grab bag episodes we’ve ever recorded, Sean reviews a bunch of anime including Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End, Solo Leveling, and The Dangers in My Heart, and talks about playing through all the DLC forDragon Ball Z: Kakarot; Jonathan gives his thoughts on Netflix’s outstanding new drama Ripley and talks about finally get…
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We are back for Part 5 of our Kyoto Vacation, entitled “Kyoto Animation’s Splendid Isolation,” and today we’re discussing what might be the worst series the fine folks at KyoAni have ever made: 2013’s Beyond the Boundary, a show that is as beautifully animated as anything the studio has ever produced, but suffers from generic (and sometimes incoher…
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We are back for Part 5 of our Kyoto Vacation, entitled “Kyoto Animation’s Splendid Isolation,” and today we’re discussing the next series made by the ladies behind K-ON!, 2013’s Tamako Market! An entirely original creation by Naoko Yamada and Reiko Yoshida, Tamako Market is a strange, singular, and sweet slice-of-life series about the daughter of a…
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We are back for Part 5 of our Kyoto Vacation, entitled “Kyoto Animation’s Splendid Isolation,” where we will be looking at the period in the 2010s when KyoAni took complete control of their source material and began creating anime based on light novels they themselves published! That effort began with 2012’s Love, Chuunibyo & Other Delusions!, a se…
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We’re back with a jam-packed episode covering lots of games, anime, and more! Sean and Jonathan have finally finished the massive 100-hour JRPGs both have been playing – Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth and Persona 3 Reload – and give final reports on both of those. But we also discuss the leaked specs for Sony’s upcoming PS5 Pro, discuss the new San…
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Akira Toriyama, creator of Dragon Ball and Dr. Slump, and illustrator of the Dragon Quest franchise, passed away this week at the age of 68. His influence on our lives, like those of millions around the world, has been incalculable, so we’re devoting today’s entire show to discussing his incredible body of work and the way it changed anime, manga, …
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Akira Toriyama, creator of Dragon Ball and Dr. Slump, and illustrator of the Dragon Quest franchise, passed away this week at the age of 68. His influence on our lives, like those of millions around the world, has been incalculable, so we’re devoting today’s entire show to discussing his incredible body of work and the way it changed anime, manga, …
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Part 4 of our Kyoto Vacation is called “My Ordinary Life is a Mystery to be Lived,” and today’s second part tackles the ‘Mystery’ part of that title with 2012’s singular slice-of-life mystery anime HYOUKA! Adapted from the ‘Classic Literature Club’ novels by Honobu Yonezawa, Hyouka follows ‘energy conservationist’ Hotaro Oreki as he tries to glide …
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After weeks of breathless speculation, Xbox unveiled some relatively minor details about the multiplatform future vision of the brand, which prompts us to have an in-depth conversation about where Xbox is going and why the current strategy feels at odds with their oft-stated long-term goals. We also discuss Marvel’s unveiling of their new Fantastic…
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Part 4 of our Kyoto Vacation is called “My Ordinary Life is a Mystery to be Lived,” and we begin with one of Kyoto Animation’s most beloved cult classics, and also perhaps the weirdest show ever made: Nichijou, based on the manga by Keiichi Arawi, which follows three high-school girls, a genius child inventor, the robot big sister she invents for h…
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Superhero movies are quickly becoming a dead genre in Hollywood, as evidenced by this weekend’s coldly-unanticipated release of Madame Web, so we thought we’d bid the genre the farewell it deserves by recycling a segment from our 10th Anniversary Podcast in 2022, where we counted down each of our 10 favorite superhero movies of all time! Though thi…
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Today’s episode is wall-to-wall packed with exciting stuff, as we give first impressions on Persona 3 Reload and Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, Jonathan explains why you should avoid Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown, Sean dips his toes in Palworld, and we discuss some anime we caught up on over winter break including Spy x Family and One Piece. We…
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This Friday sees the release of Persona 3 Reload, the remake of one of our very favorite video games ever made, and to celebrate, we’re resurrecting a segment from our 10th Anniversary Podcast in 2022, where Sean, Jonathan, and special guest star Occasional Thomas watched and reviewed the first part of Persona 3: The Weird Masquerade, the stage pla…
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Part 3 of our Kyoto Vacation is‘Moe Money, Moe Problems: After School Tea-Time with the Girls of K-On!’ And today, we’re finishing our journey with Hokago Tea Time by following the girls to London for an overseas adventure in K-On! The Movie. Released in 2011 to more or less unprecedented success for this type of anime, the feature film continuatio…
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Part 3 of our Kyoto Vacation is‘Moe Money, Moe Problems: After School Tea-Time with the Girls of K-On!’ And today, we’re discussing the 27-episode second season from 2010, which follows Yui, Ritsu, Mio, and Mugi-chan in their third and final year of high school, with second-year Azusa facing the prospect of being left behind after they all graduate…
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Part 3 of our Kyoto Vacation is‘Moe Money, Moe Problems: After School Tea-Time with the Girls of K-On!’ And for the next three weeks, we’re reviewing what may be Kyoto Animation’s most popular series to date: K-On!, the musical slice-of-life anime sensation following the girls of the Sakuragaoka High School light music club! The 14-episode 1st seas…
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The time has come, once again: Sean and Jonathan are here to count down the Top 10 Video Games of 2023, in what was one of the most densely packed years for great games we’ve experienced in a long time. Both hosts present their own Top 10 lists, recapping some games we’ve sung the praises of before – like Resident Evil 4, Street Fighter 6, and Fina…
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The New Year and the THIRTEENTH SEASON of The Weekly Stuff Podcast (whoa!) begins with a lot of catch-up on what we’ve been doing over the holidays – playing Alan Wake II and Pokémon, watching anime, and more – and our review of the Doctor Who Christmas special, “The Church on Ruby Road.” Introducing us to Ncuti Gatwa as the Fifteenth Doctor and Mi…
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In this special bonus episode, Jonathan Lack counts down the Top 10 Films of 2023! You can read the text of this episode, and see links to full reviews of every film discussed, at https://www.jonathanlack.com/p/the-top-10-films-of-2023 Time Chart: Intro: 0:00:00 - 0:03:18 Leftovers: 0:03:18 - 0:05:01 Honorable Mentions (#20-#11): 0:05:01 - 0:17:29 …
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It’s December 25th, and Christmas has finally come to Otaku Town – and with it, the final episode of Part 2 of our Kyoto Vacation. For today’s very special episode, we are finishing our journey through the world of Haruhi Suzumiya with the 2010 film The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya, the nearly-three-hour climactic story in Kyoto Animation’s bel…
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Part 2 of our Kyoto Vacation chronicles ‘When Christmas Came to Otaku Town,’ and that holiday is drawing ever nearer with Season 2 of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya. Aired in 2009, this season collected the 14 episodes originally produced in 2006, re-arranges them in the story’s chronological order, and then intersperses 14 new episodes amidst t…
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Part 2 of our Kyoto Vacation chronicles ‘When Christmas Came to Otaku Town,’ and in this episode, we do an extremely deep-dive into the single craziest experiment ever attempted in commercial anime: The infamous ‘Endless Eight’ arc from The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya Season 2. We will be talking about the rest of that show’s second season from 2…
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The 60th anniversary mini-season of Doctor Who has come to a rousing and surprising close with “The Giggle,” with David Tennant and Catherine Tate facing down Neil Patrick Harris as the Toymaker, and the expected regeneration into Ncuti Gatwa going in some unexpected directions. It’s a fantastic episode of Doctor Who that makes the most of its very…
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Part 2 of our Kyoto Vacation chronicles ‘When Christmas Came to Otaku Town,’ and following the wild success of Haruhi Suzumiya, Kyoto Animation moved on to one of the defining slice-of-life anime comedies, 2007’s Lucky Star! Simultaneously a very dry, down-to-earth ‘atmospheric’ show and an absolutely absurd slice of post-modern anime surrealism, L…
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Godzilla Minus One & Doctor Who Special 2 Reviews | The Weekly Stuff Podcast #485 It’s a very enthusiastic week here on the podcast as we not only get to talk about another great new Doctor Who episode, but an even greater new Godzilla movie! The first live-action Godzilla film by Toho in seven years, Godzilla Minus One is of the finest films in th…
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Part 2 of our Kyoto Vacation chronicles ‘When Christmas Came to Otaku Town,’ beginning with a look at the first season of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya. Based on the light novels by Nagaru Tanigawa, Haruhi is a seminal work of 21st century anime, with the first 14 episodes from 2006 creating an absolute sensation with major impacts on the futur…
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Doctor Who is back! Both in the sense that we got our first new episode in over a year this weekend, and, more importantly, in the sense that we got our first new good episode since 2017! This week marked the 60th anniversary of our favorite TV show here at The Weekly Stuff Podcast, and brought with it the first in a series of specials reuniting Da…
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This week marks the 10th anniversary of the first movie based on Persona 3, a game that is one of our all-time favorites here at Japanimation Station. We reviewed each of those films as they released over on The Weekly Stuff Podcast, and hold them in extremely high regard as some of the greatest video game adaptations of all time, in any medium – a…
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Happy Thanksgiving one and all! While the main podcast is off this week, we still wanted to give you something to show our gratitude for another great year, so Jonathan busted out a microphone, broke open a copy of his new book, 200 Reviews – available now on Amazon! – and read 5 reviews as requested by listeners! The ones chosen were Quentin Taran…
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This week marks the 10th anniversary of the first movie based on Persona 3, a game that is one of our all-time favorites here at Japanimation Station. We reviewed each of those films as they released over on The Weekly Stuff Podcast, and hold them in extremely high regard as some of the greatest video game adaptations of all time, in any medium – a…
  continue reading
 
This week marks the 10th anniversary of the first movie based on Persona 3, a game that is one of our all-time favorites here at Japanimation Station. We reviewed each of those films as they released over on The Weekly Stuff Podcast, and hold them in extremely high regard as some of the greatest video game adaptations of all time, in any medium – a…
  continue reading
 
This week marks the 10th anniversary of the first movie based on Persona 3, a game that is one of our all-time favorites here at Japanimation Station. We reviewed each of those films as they released over on The Weekly Stuff Podcast, and hold them in extremely high regard as some of the greatest video game adaptations of all time, in any medium – a…
  continue reading
 
Part 1 of our Kyoto Vacation, ‘Crying is the Key to Happiness,’ comes to a close with Clannad After Story, the second and final season based on the legendary visual novel by Key VisualArts. And after speaking for 3.5 hours about the first season, we somehow go even longer on the second, which follows Tomoya and Nagisa progressing into adulthood and…
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It’s a giant episode with many topics today, led by an in-depth discussion of Insomniac’s fantastic Spider-Man 2 for the PS5. We break down the gameplay and story in spoiler-filled detail at the end of today’s show, mostly praising it but also debating whether or not the controversial MJ missions are bad – please take to social media and use #Jonat…
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Part 1 of our Kyoto Vacation, ‘Crying is the Key to Happiness,’ continues with 2007’s Clannad, the first entry in a two-series journey adapting the legendary visual novel by Key VisualArts. And it is, immediately, a major artistic leap for Kyoto Animation, a stunningly animated, beautifully written, alternatingly hilarious and poignant portrait of …
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Part 1 of our Kyoto Vacation, ‘Crying is the Key to Happiness,’ continues with our review of Kanon, a fascinating snapshot of two groups of storytellers finding their way: The team at Key VisualArts, for whom Kanon was their first original visual novel, and the artists at Kyoto Animation, who had already made Air the year before, and were now worki…
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Happy Halloween! Last year, we celebrated the spookiest day of the year by talking about John Carpenter’s original HALLOWEEN from 1978, and this year we’re jumping ahead 30 years to talk about the remake directed by Rob Zombie in 2007, and its sequel from 2009. These films have a mixed reputation, but they’re worth revisiting and taking seriously. …
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Part 1 of our Kyoto Vacation kicks off with ‘Crying is the Key to Happiness,’ a series of episodes on Kyoto Animation’s adaptations of the acclaimed visual novels by Key VisualArts. We begin with 2005’s Air, the strange, sad, and surprising tale of a wandering boy, a girl obsessed with dinosaurs, an empathetic crow, and a winged girl in the sky. Ai…
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Two of the most anticipated video games of 2023 launched this week, with Sony and Insomniac’s Spider-Man 2 for the PS5 and Nintendo’s Super Mario Bros. Wonder for the Nintendo Switch. We’ve been extremely excited for both, and so far, they haven’t disappointed. We give initial spoiler-free impressions of both games on today’s show, discussing how M…
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Welcome to Japanimation Station’s Kyoto Vacation, the fourth season of our podcast and our biggest adventure yet! We are taking a journey through the works of Kyoto Animation, one of the most respected and beloved anime studios in Japan, reviewing shows like Clannad, The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, K-On!, Nichijou, Sound! Euphonium, Violet Everg…
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The fourth season of our sister series, Japanimation Station, begins today with the premiere of Japanimation Station’s Kyoto Vacation, our biggest podcasting adventure yet! We are taking a journey through the works of Kyoto Animation, one of the most respected and beloved anime studios in Japan, reviewing shows like Clannad, The Melancholy of Haruh…
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Today’s episode is all about 200 Reviews, the new book by co-host Jonathan Lack, which contains, well, 200 reviews, mostly of movies, but also some TV and video games, some that have been seen before, and many that haven’t. You can buy the book now in paperback, for Amazon Kindle, and as a digital bundle with PDF and EPUB versions. We tell you all …
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