Gateway to Anime

Episode 51 - Winter 2023 Verdict

Here is our latest episode: Winter 2023 season verdict.
We're changing the way we do our seasonal round-ups moving forward.

This is our verdict on the winter 2023 season that has just finished and we'll be following this up with our hype-up for the currently airing Spring season. That will be an early preview of the hyped upcoming shows for the season and our first impressions of the few shows that have aired an episode or 2 at the time of recording.

This will be followed up by our verdict episode at the end of the season and we will continue in this manner moving forward.

Tune in for our verdicts on Vinland Saga, Bluelock, Tomo-Chan is a Girl, Stampede, Revenger, The Ice Guy and His Cool Female Colleague, Nier; Automata and The Legend of Heroes: Trials of Cold Steel. 

Episode 50 - Fandom: Do Our Opinions Matter?

Everyone is a fan of something. But can a fanbase actually influence the thing they love? We explore what it means to be an anime fan and the fascinating nature of fandom. Brett rejoins us to discuss his first impressions of the anime community while Charlie and Sam talk about how anime fandom has changed over the years. 

Episode 49 - The two best anime you’ve (probably) never seen with Gerald Lillywhite

Sam and Charlie convinced long time friend and frequent guest Gerald to watch two of their favorite shows in all of anime. 

 

(One of) Sam's "undisputed kings of anime" the epic space opera Legend of the Galactic Heroes and Charlie's genre subverting "hard sell" Fruits Basket. 

 

While these shows both have fervent and dedicated followings and are renowned in the community, they aren't necessarily widely watched.

 

Gerald brings his measured thoughts and opinions of these epic shows which leads to a deep dive of analytical discussion about what makes these shows so special. 

Episode 48 - Winter 2023 Season Hype-Up

We're back for our first podcast of the year and we're talking all things Winter 2023! This is a very busy season with some absolute gems at the top, a bunch of mid and some diamonds in the rough.

 

Graeme talks through the "feudal airtasker show" Revenger as well as the CGI Kaina of the Great Snow Sea. Charlie examines the controversy surrounding the Trigun Remake Stampede (hint, more CGI) as well as the brilliantly titled Ice Guy and his Cool Female Colleague.

 

Sam speaks about some video game adaptations of varying degrees of quality in Nier: Automata and The Legend of Heroes: Trials of Cold Steel - Northern War.

 

We also discuss some heavy hitting returning anime in Vinland saga, Tokyo Revengers and The Misfit of the Demon Academy as well as several others which have caught our attention this season. 

Episode 47 - JRPG’s (Japanese role playing games) with Lachlan McAllister

This is a special episode we recorded in Melbourne!

We were down for Crunchyroll Expo and got to catch up with Sam's old friend Lachlan McAllister who owns Australia's first ever dedicated Esports bar, GGEZ (where this podcast was recorded).

Sam and Lachlan started their anime journey together after Lachlan managed to track down a huge supply of VCD's containing the first 100+ episodes of Naruto back in high school (which Charlie also watched). However they started out playing JRPG's together in primary school. This episode is all about the deep connection between JRPG's and anime, how much crossover there is between the fandoms and how much they influenced our lives. 

 

We talk through the Suikoden series, Final Fantasy 7 (and Final Fantasy in general), the Persona series, Dragon Quest and many, many more.

Episode 46 - Besto Friendos

We happened to bump into another Sydney based anime podcast at Smash Con (Besto Friendo's Podcast) back in August and we figured we simply had to have a chat. 

We talk about our anime backstories, as well as our gateway anime (of course). However we also get amongst the lifestyle aspect of the Besto Friendo podcast and talk about why we do what we do and how we came to be doing it.

Episode 45 - Fall 2022 Season Hype-Up

The gang get together to talk through the STACKED Fall 2022 anime season. There are so many shows this season we can barely keep up.

Sam talks about some returning old favorites, one of which is part of the original big three and man does it look good. Nostalgia firing on all cylinders. He also goes through Mob Psycho 100 S3 as well as the weird and original in Golden Kamuy S4 and To You Eternity S2.

Graeme talks about two of the big original shows to be airing, Chainsaw Man and Blue Lock as well as a fresh take on the Gundam series.

Charlie talks through some more returning favorites in Spy X Family and My Hero Academia S6 and she also talks briefly with the gang about the unexpected surprise Netflix hit Cyberpunk: Edgerunners.

 

Episode 44 - Horror Anime

The gang get together to talk about all things Horror in the anime/manga world.

Sam gives a brief history of the Japanese horror genre. Graeme tackles one of the most revered horror mangakas of all time, the legendary Junji Ito. Charlie gets obscure with Ghost Hunt and Sam reveals his scaredy cat nature (not a horror fan) but talks through one of his favorites in Parasyte: The Maxim. 

Episode 43 - An Australian anime you say? Tell me more.

Sammy interviews Ty Hanson, the creator of the Australian anime project Millennium Exile.

 

Sam and Ty talk about the origin of the project, his ambitions moving forward and some of the influences which inspired the project.

 

We of course talk about Ty's initial gateway to anime along with how he came to love the medium and Sam and Ty bond over their mutual love of JRPG's.

 

We have an interesting conversation about what the term anime means in a modern context, the continual progression of cross cultural collaboration and why the future of the animation industry is so bright.

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.