Gateway to Anime

Episode 42 - Historical Fiction Anime

The gang gets historical, with Sammy on his crusade to prove "history is fun" to Charlie and Graeme.  

Sammy starts by differentiating between what constitutes Historical Fiction as a genre as opposed to a period piece, which leads to the new game: "historical fiction or not!?"

Graeme breaks down the legendary samurai manga Vagabond. Sam gets edgy with the under watched war story Golden Kamuy while Charlie talks through the much revered Viking epic Vinland Saga. 

Episode 41 - Summer 2022 Season Round-up

A bit of a delay in getting this one out, but, we are back for Season 5 with our Summer 2022 anime season round up!

 

Charlie talks about anime hair in her preview of Shine on! Bakumatsu Bad Boys! Amongst others.

Graeme gets arty with Yurei Deco and Uncle from Another World, while Sam talks through two of the bigger sequels airing this season in Made in Abyss and The Devil is a Part Timer.

Bonus Episode - Interview With The Original Voice Actor of Ash Ketchum from Pokemon, Veronica Taylor

We were so lucky to catch Veronica Taylor for an interview while she was in the country for Supanova.

Veronica is a classically trained theatre actor from the United States and has had an extensive career as a voice-over actor in anime, video games and audio books.

Veronica is perhaps most famous for voicing Ash Ketchum in the original Pokemon series, movies and video games but she has had an incredibly rich and diverse career, which we speak about in depth in this episode.

We had such a great time talking to Veronica and we hope you enjoy the episode.

Bonus Episode - Spring 2022 Round-up

We're back for a bonus episode in between seasons! The gang round-up all their favorite (and least favorite) shows of the spring 2022 anime season.
Graeme talks about the cold war inspired mega hit of the season, Spy X Family and a Squid Game styled show where its all about the money.
Sam talks about the second season of one of the bigger Isekai shows going around and fans out over a soccer anime.
Charlie breaks down a ballet anime and a trashy rom-com, as is tradition.

We're going to be taking a little break before we return with season 5. Thanks for joining us on the journey so far. 

Episode 40 - Magical Girl Anime with Ross Chisari

For our final episode of season 4 we are joined again by Ross Chisari to talk through Magical Girl Anime. This is one of the most famous and iconic genres in all of animanga. Sam gives a brief history of the genre while Ross talks through Sailor Moon. Charlie and Ross both recount their love for another classic in Cardcaptor Sakura, then Sam brings it home with the genre subverting Puella Magi Madoka Magica.

Episode 39 - Gateway to the Bootleg Universe with Adi Shankar

This week we interviewed Adi Shankar!

Adi is an Indian-American producer, director, writer, YouTube personality and actor. He is best known for: Castlevania, Dredd, The Grey and his YouTube "Bootleg Universe" series of pop culture satire shorts including: Power/Rangers, The Punisher: Dirty Laundry and Pokemon: The end of Pokemon.

We chatted to Adi about a broad range of topics but primarily his new show The Guardians of Justice, which has recently come out on Netflix.

Episode 38 - Anime Movies

Brett is back to talk through some of the most influential anime movies of all time.

 

Brett speaks about his first 'gateway to anime' in the legendary Akira, while Graeme breaks down the genre defining Ghost In The Shell. Charlotte gets a bit more modern with the sci-fi/slice of life film Your Name, while Sam gets psychological with Satoshi Kon's seminal Perfect Blue.

Episode 37 - Winter 2022 Season Round Up

Sam, Graeme and Charlie get together to discuss all things to do with the 2022 anime winter season.

The undisputed king (AoT) has returned with a challenger for the throne. Some interesting new shows are present but it's mostly the season of the 2nd cours and sequels. There is, of course, a customary serving of bizarre stuff this season, which is probably best avoided. However the heavy hitters are firing on all cylinders. 

Episode 36 - Live Action Remakes/Adaptations with Alex Williams

Sam and Charlie are joined by Australian actor and Voice over artist Alex Williams for this week's show. Alex has starred in numerous Australian film and TV roles such as: Julian Assange in "Underground: The Julian Assange Story", Kirk Pengilly in "Never Tear Us Apart" and as John 'Slug' Harvey in "Brock".

Alex talks about a 2015 Japanese live-action adaptation of one of the biggest anime in the world right now. Charlotte laments a particularly poor Netflix adaptation of an old favorite, while Sam breaks down a more current Netflix anime remake, with mixed results.

Episode 35 - Western Animation

Sam, Charlie and Graeme get back together to talk about western animated shows that are similar to anime.

Graeme talks about one of his all time favorites. Charlie breaks down a Netflix Japanese video game adaptation and Sam extols the virtues of another Netflix video game adaptation, while railing against his favorite game's lack of comparable content.