Japanimation Station Season 5 - Grand Tour!

After spending a full year chronicling the history of Kyoto Animation in 2024, we’re back for a brief return trip to review CITY: THE ANIMATION, the latest anime series from the renowned studio. Directed by Violet Evergarden helmer Ishidate Taichi and based on the manga Nichijou author Arawi Keiichi, CITY is one of the absolute greatest series KyoAni has produced to date, a return not only to Arawi’s zany comic stylings, but to the bold, experimental spirit of KyoAni’s early work. Seamlessly blending wild, anarchical comedy with heartfelt, shockingly rich storytelling about friendship, nostalgia, and community, CITY isn’t just a triumph: it’s an outright masterpiece, and we couldn’t be happier to talk about it at length on today’s show. Enjoy! Time Chart: Theme Song: 0:00:00 – 0:01:30 Intro and History: 0:01:12 – 1:03:52 Eyecatch Break: 1:03:52 – 1:04:37 City the Animation Review: 1:04:37 – 3:29:08 End Theme: 3:29:08 – 3:30:10 Subscribe to our YouTube channels! Japanimation Station: https://www.youtube.com/c/japanimationstation Purely Academic: https://www.youtube.com/@purelyacademicpodcast Read Jonathan Lack’s movie reviews and stay up to date with all our podcast projects at https://www.jonathanlack.com Subscribe to PURELY ACADEMIC, our monthly variety podcast about movies, video games, TV, and more: https://purelyacademic.simplecast.com Read Jonathan’s book 200 Reviews in Paperback or on Kindle – https://a.co/d/bLx53vK “Welcome to Japanimation Station” – Music by Thomas Lack, Lyrics by Sean Chapman, featuring Hatsune Miku. “Happily Ever After” – Music & Lyrics by Thomas Lack, featuring Hatsune Miku. https://www.thomaslack.com

Demon Slayer is back in theaters with its second original movie after the record-breaking success of 2020’s Mugen Train, and the latest installment – Part I of the planned Infinity Castle trilogy, adapting the final arc of Gotouge Koyoharu’s manga – is proving every bit as popular, breaking box office records in Japan and now in America. That’s for good reason: Infinity Castle is an incredible film, depicting three major battles across its 155-minute runtime, and executing on all of it at the same insanely high level we’ve come to expect from ufotable over the years. This is a film with some of the most jaw-dropping animated spectacle you’ll ever see in a theater, but as always, its heart is with the characters, their backstories, and their interiority, and this film’s focus on the villain Akaza proves to be some of the most effective material in the life of the entire series. We talk about all of it and more, including the terrific vocal performances and killer soundtrack, as Kimetsu no Yaiba truly kicks off the beginning of the end. Enjoy! We will be back with more special one-off episodes soon, with our next major season – Tomino-thon – currently in the works behind the scenes! Subscribe to our YouTube channels! Japanimation Station: https://www.youtube.com/c/japanimationstation Purely Academic: https://www.youtube.com/@purelyacademicpodcast Read Jonathan Lack’s movie reviews and stay up to date with all our podcast projects at https://www.jonathanlack.com Subscribe to PURELY ACADEMIC, our monthly variety podcast about movies, video games, TV, and more: https://purelyacademic.simplecast.com Read Jonathan’s book 200 Reviews in Paperback or on Kindle – https://a.co/d/bLx53vK “Welcome to Japanimation Station” – Music by Thomas Lack, Lyrics by Sean Chapman, featuring Hatsune Miku. “Rolled Into One” – Music & Lyrics by Thomas Lack, featuring Hatsune Miku. https://www.thomaslack.com

The latest Gundam TV series, Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX, wrapped up its 12-episode run this week, which means Weekly Suit Gundam is back to break it all down! A collaboration between Sunrise and the Otaku madmen at Studio Khara – including director Tsurumaki Kazuya, writer Enokido Yoji, and Evangelion creator Anno Hideaki himself – GQuuuuuuX returns to the Universal Century for an alternate-history story in a world where Char Aznable, not Amuro Ray, got in the Gundam; but it’s also a brand new tale about three kids living in the aftermath of this revised history on Side 6. Those two impulses – Gundam fan service and telling an all-new story – don’t always sit naturally together within this short run, and while GQuuuuuuX is an undeniably gorgeous production, with outstanding character designs, animation, music, and action, we’re not sure whether or not it holds together as its own fully realized corner of the Gundam universe. Enjoy, and be sure to join us later this year for the next season of Japanimation Station, where we will be surveying all the works in the career of original Gundam creator Tomino Yoshiyuki! Read Jonathan Lack’s movie reviews and stay up to date with all our podcast projects at https://www.jonathanlack.com Subscribe to PURELY ACADEMIC, our monthly variety podcast about movies, video games, TV, and more: https://purelyacademic.simplecast.com Read Jonathan’s book 200 Reviews in Paperback or on Kindle – https://a.co/d/bLx53vK Subscribe to our YouTube channels! Japanimation Station: https://www.youtube.com/c/japanimationstation Purely Academic: https://www.youtube.com/@purelyacademicpodcast Support the show at Ko-fi ☕️ https://ko-fi.com/weeklystuff Original Music by Thomas Lack https://www.thomaslack.com/

Our Grand Tour comes full circle for its final stop, as we return to the world of Dragon Ball – and the premise of Goku becoming a kid again – for the latest installment in the franchise, and the last supervised by Toriyama Akira himself: Dragon Ball Daima! Like other recent Dragon Ball stories overseen by the original author, Daima revisits concepts from earlier anime-original works – in this case, Dragon Ball GT’s broad premise of Goku being turned into a kid and going on a big journey to reverse it – but now with Toriyama’s authorial touch. In the case of Daima, that means a ton of great character-driven humor, an extremely rich setting in the Demon Realm, and a handful of wonderful new characters. All of it is brought to life with some of the best animation, voice acting, music, and action to ever grace the franchise, from a big group of Dragon Ball veterans and artists new to the series. The result is one of Dragon Ball’s finest hours in animation, and a perfect final tribute to the singular work of Toriyama Akira. Enjoy, thanks for listening throughout this season, and we will see you all again this fall for Season 6! Time Chart: Theme Song: 0:00:00 – 0:01:15 Intro and History: 0:01:15 – 1:33:27 Eyecatch Break: 1:33:27 – 1:34:07 Dragon Ball Daima Review: 1:34:07 – 2:58:43 Season 5 Wrap-up: 2:58:43 – 3:19:28 Season 6 Preview: 3:19:28 – 3:27:16 End Theme: 3:27:16 – 3:29:07 Subscribe to our YouTube channels! Japanimation Station: https://www.youtube.com/c/japanimationstation Purely Academic: https://www.youtube.com/@purelyacademicpodcast Read Jonathan Lack’s movie reviews and stay up to date with all our podcast projects at https://www.jonathanlack.com Subscribe to PURELY ACADEMIC, our monthly variety podcast about movies, video games, TV, and more: https://purelyacademic.simplecast.com Read Jonathan’s book 200 Reviews in Paperback or on Kindle – https://a.co/d/bLx53vK “Romantikku Ageru Yo” – Composed by Ike Takeshi, Lyrics by Yoshida Takemi, Original Arrangement by Tanaka Kōhei; cover Arranged and Produced by Thomas Lack, featuring Hatsune Miku. https://www.thomaslack.com

Our Grand Tour finally arrives at one of the most-requested shows in the history of Japanimation Station: the 1997 adaptation of Miura Kentaro’s seminal manga masterpiece, Berserk! Created by OLM – best known for their decades of work on the Pokémon anime – this 25-episode series adapts the Golden Age arc of Miura’s manga, brilliantly employing a ‘limited animation’ style reminiscent of the works of Dezaki Osamu. With outstanding scripts, inspired direction, and some of the best voice acting we’ve ever had the pleasure to discuss, the series is a truly remarkable feat of adaptation, doing Miura’s work justice in so many ways. Enjoy, and come back next week for the final installment of our Grand Tour, as we come full circle back to the world of Toriyama Akira for this year’s incredible DRAGON BALL DAIMA! Time Chart: Theme Song: 0:00:00 – 0:01:15 Intro and History: 0:01:15 – 1:52:44 Eyecatch Break: 1:52:44 – 1:53:28 Berserk Review: 1:53:28 – 3:51:09 End Theme: 3:51:09 – 3:52:39 Subscribe to our YouTube channels! Japanimation Station: https://www.youtube.com/c/japanimationstation Purely Academic: https://www.youtube.com/@purelyacademicpodcast Read Jonathan Lack’s movie reviews and stay up to date with all our podcast projects at https://www.jonathanlack.com Subscribe to PURELY ACADEMIC, our monthly variety podcast about movies, video games, TV, and more: https://purelyacademic.simplecast.com Read Jonathan’s book 200 Reviews in Paperback or on Kindle – https://a.co/d/bLx53vK “Welcome to Japanimation Station” – Music by Thomas Lack, Lyrics by Sean Chapman, featuring Hatsune Miku. “ice” – Music & Lyrics by Thomas Lack, featuring Hatsune Miku & Megurine Luka. https://www.thomaslack.com

Our dirty pair of Dirty Pair episodes continues this week with a look at the theatrical feature film and cavalcade of OVAs that followed in the wake of the original TV series. Dirty Pair was so popular on the home video market that it got two feature-length OVAs – 1985’s Affair of Nolandia and 1995’s Flight 005 Conspiracy – and an entire ‘second season’ of 10 TV-length episodes, known as Dirty Pair 2. There is some fantastic stuff among these home video releases, but the real highlight today is the 1986 feature film, Project Eden, one of the most spectacularly produced anime of the 1980s that feels a lot more like a feature-length music video than it does a conventional narrative. Whether it truly works as a Dirty Pair story is something we debate, but there’s no disagreement that’s an absolutely eye-popping tour-de-force of synesthesia. Enjoy, and come back next week for something completely different, as we look at the classic 1997 adaptation of Miura Kentaro’s seminal Berserk! At least it is true that podcasters have no control, even over their own will… Time Chart: Theme Song: 0:00:00 – 0:01:15 Intro and History: 0:01:15 – 0:18:44 Affair of Nolandia OVA: 0:18:44 – 0:44:55 Eyecatch Break: 0:44:55 – 0:45:34 Project Eden Movie: 0:45:34 – 2:10:24 Dirty Pair 2 OVA: 2:10:24 – 3:11:27 Flight 005 Conspiracy OVA: 3:11:27 – 3:29:28 End Theme: 3:29:28 – 3:30:29 Subscribe to our YouTube channels! Japanimation Station: https://www.youtube.com/c/japanimationstation Purely Academic: https://www.youtube.com/@purelyacademicpodcast Read Jonathan Lack’s movie reviews and stay up to date with all our podcast projects at https://www.jonathanlack.com Subscribe to PURELY ACADEMIC, our monthly variety podcast about movies, video games, TV, and more: https://purelyacademic.simplecast.com Read Jonathan’s book 200 Reviews in Paperback or on Kindle – https://a.co/d/bLx53vK “Welcome to Japanimation Station” – Music by Thomas Lack, Lyrics by Sean Chapman, featuring Hatsune Miku. “Rolled Into One” – Music & Lyrics by Thomas Lack, featuring Hatsune Miku. https://www.thomaslack.com

Our Grand Tour takes us back to outer space for the irreverent sci-fi comedy classic Dirty Pair! Produced by the amazing talent at Sunrise and inspired by the light novels by Takachiho Haruka, Dirty Pair chronicles the adventures of Kei and Yuri, two 19-year-old ‘trouble consultants’ for the WWWA, who travel the galaxy solving problems, sometimes so aggressively they create many new ones. The original 26-episode TV series is a model of great episodic storytelling, with a series of stories that are fun, zany, clever, and sometimes even a little bit heartfelt. It’s also one of the most insanely 1980s shows ever made, from the fashion to the music to the animation, and while it bears certain similarities to other caper-driven franchises like Lupin the Third, there’s truly nothing else quite like Dirty Pair! Enjoy, and come back next week as we continue our Dirty Pair adventures with the 1986 film Project Eden, the 1987 OVA series Dirty Pair 2, and more! Time Chart: Theme Song: 0:00:00 – 0:01:15 Intro and History: 0:01:15 – 1:24:02 Eyecatch Break: 1:24:02 – 1:24:41 Dirty Pair Review: 1:24:41 – 3:56:13 End Theme: 3:56:13 – 3:57:15 Subscribe to our YouTube channels! Japanimation Station: https://www.youtube.com/c/japanimationstation Purely Academic: https://www.youtube.com/@purelyacademicpodcast Read Jonathan Lack’s movie reviews and stay up to date with all our podcast projects at https://www.jonathanlack.com Subscribe to PURELY ACADEMIC, our monthly variety podcast about movies, video games, TV, and more: https://purelyacademic.simplecast.com Read Jonathan’s book 200 Reviews in Paperback or on Kindle – https://a.co/d/bLx53vK “Welcome to Japanimation Station” – Music by Thomas Lack, Lyrics by Sean Chapman, featuring Hatsune Miku. “Happily Ever After” – Music & Lyrics by Thomas Lack, featuring Hatsune Miku. https://www.thomaslack.com

Before Anno Hideaki and the team at Studio Gainax changed the course of anime history with Neon Genesis Evangelion, they produced Gunbuster, aka Aim for the Top!, a 6-episode OVA with some of the era’s most spectacular animation, and an overwhelming amount of personality. A mash-up of sports shows, mecha anime, high-concept sci-fi, and American 80s movies like Top Gun, there’s nothing else quite like Gunbuster, and across its 6 episodes, the series showcases a huge range of ideas, themes, tones, and even styles, with the finale shifting to a truly astounding use of widescreen, black-and-white imagery. Join us as we dive into not only this great series, but the fascinating history of Anno and Gainax up to this point. Enjoy, and come back next week as we begin a two-week journey through the wild and wacky world of the 80s classic DIRTY PAIR! Time Chart: Theme Song: 0:00:00 – 0:01:15 Intro and History: 0:01:15 – 1:06:22 Eyecatch Break: 1:06:22 – 1:07:07 Gunbuster Review: 1:07:07 – 2:14:18 End Theme: 2:14:18 – 2:15:49 Subscribe to our YouTube channels! Japanimation Station: https://www.youtube.com/c/japanimationstation Purely Academic: https://www.youtube.com/@purelyacademicpodcast Read Jonathan Lack’s movie reviews and stay up to date with all our podcast projects at https://www.jonathanlack.com Subscribe to PURELY ACADEMIC, our monthly variety podcast about movies, video games, TV, and more: https://purelyacademic.simplecast.com Read Jonathan’s book 200 Reviews in Paperback or on Kindle – https://a.co/d/bLx53vK “Welcome to Japanimation Station” – Music by Thomas Lack, Lyrics by Sean Chapman, featuring Hatsune Miku. “ice” – Music & Lyrics by Thomas Lack, featuring Hatsune Miku & Megurine Luka. https://www.thomaslack.com

Our Grand Tour now takes us to the turn of the century, and the dawn of modern comedy anime, with the classic series Azumanga Daioh: The Animation! Based on the celebrated four-panel manga by Azuma Kiyohiko, which has proven itself one of the most influential series to the last 25 years of comedy manga, the TV series is a landmark in its own right, helping to crack the code of how anime can adopt short, gag-driven, mostly plotless comedy manga, and in so doing helping to birth the ‘slice-of-life’ genre now beloved around the world. Historical import aside, the show is also just a ton of fun, with a memorable group of characters we follow throughout their high school years, and a tremendous vocal cast giving consistently hilarious performances. It makes for an episode where we ourselves can’t stop laughing as we talk about the show – and that’s always a good sign. Enjoy, and come back next week as our Grand Tour takes us back out into space for the classic Studio Gainax OVA Gunbuster: Aim for the Top! Time Chart: Theme Song: 0:00:00 – 0:01:15 Intro and History: 0:01:15 – 1:01:34 Eyecatch Break: 1:01:34 – 1:02:18 Azumanga Daioh Review: 1:02:18 – 3:01:13 End Theme: 3:01:13 – 3:02:15 Subscribe to our YouTube channels! Japanimation Station: https://www.youtube.com/c/japanimationstation Purely Academic: https://www.youtube.com/@purelyacademicpodcast Read Jonathan Lack’s movie reviews and stay up to date with all our podcast projects at https://www.jonathanlack.com Subscribe to PURELY ACADEMIC, our monthly variety podcast about movies, video games, TV, and more: https://purelyacademic.simplecast.com Read Jonathan’s book 200 Reviews in Paperback or on Kindle – https://a.co/d/bLx53vK “Welcome to Japanimation Station” – Music by Thomas Lack, Lyrics by Sean Chapman, featuring Hatsune Miku. “Rolled Into One” – Music & Lyrics by Thomas Lack, featuring Hatsune Miku. https://www.thomaslack.com

Takahashi Kazuki’s Yu-Gi-Oh! is a worldwide phenomenon that needs no introduction, since the anime has been airing in one incarnation or another every week for the past 25 years, and the card game is still going strong. But this week, our Grand Tour takes us to the most mysterious corner of the Yu-Gi-Oh! kingdom, and one many listeners probably haven’t seen before: The original 1998 anime by Toei Animation, which ran for 27 episodes and one short film, adapting the first 7 volumes of Takahashi’s manga. After airing on Japanese TV and releasing on VHS, the series has never been re-released, re-aired, dubbed, or distributed in any form, meaning it only survives through fan preservation efforts. And that preservation is very much worthwhile, because while this Yu-Gi-Oh! is an uneven, aesthetically wonky, and frequently bizarre series, it’s also a deeply endearing one with a lot worth recommending, especially for fans of Takahashi’s original manga and the material that never made it into the second, more famous anime adaptation. It also has an absolutely killer voice cast, both in the main ensemble and for the weekly guest stars, with a line-up of absolutely legendary seiyuu doing fantastic work. Like Yugi himself, this little show packs a whole lot of heart. Time Chart: Theme Song: 0:00:00 – 0:01:15 Intro and History: 0:01:15 – 1:42:06 Eyecatch Break: 1:42:06 – 1:42:51 Welcome to the N.H.K. Review: 1:42:51 – 3:32:41 End Theme: 3:32:41 – 3:33:42 Enjoy, and come back next week as we return to the dawn of the slice-of-life comedy anime with 2002’s Azumanga Daioh: The Animation! Subscribe to our YouTube channels! Japanimation Station: https://www.youtube.com/c/japanimationstation Purely Academic: https://www.youtube.com/@purelyacademicpodcast Read Jonathan Lack’s movie reviews and stay up to date with all our podcast projects at https://www.jonathanlack.com Subscribe to PURELY ACADEMIC, our monthly variety podcast about movies, video games, TV, and more: https://purelyacademic.simplecast.com Read Jonathan’s book 200 Reviews in Paperback or on Kindle – https://a.co/d/bLx53vK “Welcome to Japanimation Station” – Music by Thomas Lack, Lyrics by Sean Chapman, featuring Hatsune Miku. “Happily Ever After” – Music & Lyrics by Thomas Lack, featuring Hatsune Miku. https://www.thomaslack.com

This week, our Grand Tour takes us to one of the most unique series we’ve ever covered: Gonzo’s 26-episode cult classic Welcome to the N.H.K.! Based on the 2002 novel by Takimoto Tatsuhiko, this 2006 series explores Japan’s hikkikomori (social withdrawal) phenomenon, modern Otaku culture, internet-era suicide pacts, and many more contemporary issues, doing it all with startling clarity, immense empathy, and a whole lot of very wacky humor. It’s a finger-on-the-pulse series for Japan in the mid-2000s, but one with many resonances for viewers all over the globe, leading to a rich and engaging conversation between our hosts. There is no other show out there quite like Welcome to the N.H.K. – it almost feels like a conspiracy… Enjoy, and come back next week as we watch the Yu-Gi-Oh! series The Man doesn’t want you to see: the original 27-episode Toei anime from 1998 (a.k.a. “Season Zero”). Time Chart: Theme Song: 0:00:00 – 0:01:15 Intro and History: 0:01:15 – 1:09:15 Eyecatch Break: 1:09:15 – 1:10:01 Welcome to the N.H.K. Review: 1:10:01 – 3:43:42 End Theme: 3:43:42 – 3:45:12 Subscribe to our YouTube channels! Japanimation Station: https://www.youtube.com/c/japanimationstation Purely Academic: https://www.youtube.com/@purelyacademicpodcast Read Jonathan Lack’s movie reviews and stay up to date with all our podcast projects at https://www.jonathanlack.com Subscribe to PURELY ACADEMIC, our monthly variety podcast about movies, video games, TV, and more: https://purelyacademic.simplecast.com Read Jonathan’s book 200 Reviews in Paperback or on Kindle – https://a.co/d/bLx53vK “Welcome to Japanimation Station” – Music by Thomas Lack, Lyrics by Sean Chapman, featuring Hatsune Miku. “ice” – Music & Lyrics by Thomas Lack, featuring Hatsune Miku & Megurine Luka. https://www.thomaslack.com

Our Grand Tour reaches one of its strangest destinations this week as we complete our trilogy of Tezuka Osamu-themed episodes with a look at the Animerama Trilogy, a collection of three experimental animated films for adults created by Mushi Productions between 1969 and 1973. Coinciding with the Japanese New Wave movement and the rise of ‘Pink Films,’ these movies are stylistically anarchic, occasionally graphic, and range from irreverent and immature to startlingly sophisticated. Consisting of 1969’s A Thousand & One Nights, 1970’s Cleopatra, and 1973’s Belladonna of Sadness, all directed by Yamamoto Eiichi, these films were part of a global wave of efforts to make elaborate feature animation aimed squarely at adults, and while none were successful enough to pull Mushi Pro out of bankruptcy, they have endured as a fascinating experiment from a time when anime was still finding itself – and the last film, Belladonna of Sadness, is absolutely a masterpiece within its own right. Enjoy, and come back next week as we put on our tin-foil hats, get paranoid, and watch the classic 2006 anime Welcome to the N.H.K.! Time Chart: Theme Song: 0:00:00 – 0:01:15 Intro and History: 0:01:15 – 0:31:21 A Thousand & One Nights Review: 0:31:21 – 1:26:29 Eyecatch Break 1: 1:26:29 – 1:27:14 Cleopatra Review: 1:27:14 – 2:09:43 Eyecatch Break 2: 2:09:43 – 2:09:59 Belladonna of Sadness Review: 2:09:59 – 3:25:21 End Theme: 3:25:21 – 3:26:22 Subscribe to our YouTube channels! Japanimation Station: https://www.youtube.com/c/japanimationstation Purely Academic: https://www.youtube.com/@purelyacademicpodcast Read Jonathan Lack’s movie reviews and stay up to date with all our podcast projects at https://www.jonathanlack.com Subscribe to PURELY ACADEMIC, our monthly variety podcast about movies, video games, TV, and more: https://purelyacademic.simplecast.com Read Jonathan’s book 200 Reviews in Paperback or on Kindle – https://a.co/d/bLx53vK “Welcome to Japanimation Station” – Music by Thomas Lack, Lyrics by Sean Chapman, featuring Hatsune Miku. “Rolled Into One” – Music & Lyrics by Thomas Lack, featuring Hatsune Miku. https://www.thomaslack.com

Fifty years after the original Dororo aired on TV, MAPPA brought Tezuka Osamu’s Dororo roaring into the 21st century with a radically different take – and it’s the next stop on our exciting Grand Tour! With a reimagined conception of Hyakkimaru, expanded roles for characters like Daigo Kagemitsu and Tahomaru, and a striking modern animation style, MAPPA’s Dororo is a worthy reinterpretation of a classic, and a fascinating point of comparison to the original. While our hosts disagree slightly on how effective they found the series’ overall approach, it comes highly recommended from both, and we enjoyed breaking it all down on today’s episode. Enjoy, and come back next week as look at one of the strangest corners of Tezuka Osamu’s empire, and of anime in general: The Animerama film trilogy, consisting of 1969’s A Thousand & One Nights, 1970’s Cleopatra, and 1973’s Belladonna of Sadness. Time Chart: Theme Song: 0:00:00 – 0:01:16 Intro and History: 0:01:16 – 1:12:03 Eyecatch Break: 1:12:03 – 1:12:50 Dororo 2019 Review: 1:12:50 – 3:06:10 End Theme: 3:06:10 – 3:07:11 Subscribe to our YouTube channels! Japanimation Station: https://www.youtube.com/c/japanimationstation Purely Academic: https://www.youtube.com/@purelyacademicpodcast Read Jonathan Lack’s movie reviews and stay up to date with all our podcast projects at https://www.jonathanlack.com Subscribe to PURELY ACADEMIC, our monthly variety podcast about movies, video games, TV, and more: https://purelyacademic.simplecast.com Read Jonathan’s book 200 Reviews in Paperback or on Kindle – https://a.co/d/bLx53vK “Welcome to Japanimation Station” – Music by Thomas Lack, Lyrics by Sean Chapman, featuring Hatsune Miku. “Happily Ever After” – Music & Lyrics by Thomas Lack, featuring Hatsune Miku. https://www.thomaslack.com

Our Grand Tour now takes us back to the first decade of anime, and to the work of the ‘God of Manga’ himself, the one and only Tezuka Osamu! The creator of series like Mighty Atom, Black Jack, and Princess Knight, Tezuka’s Mushi Productions pioneered TV anime as we know it today, and Dororo is one of the towering achievements of their 1960s output. Based on the unfinished manga by Tezuka, and directed by the great Sugii Gizaburō, Dororo is a singular samurai drama about a wandering swordsman, Hyakkimaru, who battles demons to restore the 48 missing parts of his body sacrificed by his warlord father. Along the way, he meets a young thief named Dororo, and their many adventures make for some of the earliest manga and anime to directly engage with adult themes and imagery. Like the manga, Dororo on TV had some production shake-ups, essentially changing directions halfway through when Sugii departed the series amidst disagreements with Tezuka, but make no mistake: this is one anime you do not want to miss. Enjoy, and come back next week as we leap 50 years ahead to 2019 to talk about MAPPA’s recent re-interpretation of Dororo! Time Chart: Theme Song: 0:00:00 – 0:01:15 Intro to Tezuka Osamu: 0:01:15 – 0:55:24 Eyecatch Break: 0:55:24 – 0:56:09 Dororo History & Review: 0:56:09 – 3:32:24 End Theme: 3:32:24 – 3:33:54 Subscribe to our YouTube channels! Japanimation Station: https://www.youtube.com/c/japanimationstation Purely Academic: https://www.youtube.com/@purelyacademicpodcast Read Jonathan Lack’s movie reviews and stay up to date with all our podcast projects at https://www.jonathanlack.com Subscribe to PURELY ACADEMIC, our monthly variety podcast about movies, video games, TV, and more: https://purelyacademic.simplecast.com Read Jonathan’s book 200 Reviews in Paperback or on Kindle – https://a.co/d/bLx53vK “Welcome to Japanimation Station” – Music by Thomas Lack, Lyrics by Sean Chapman, featuring Hatsune Miku. “ice” – Music & Lyrics by Thomas Lack, featuring Hatsune Miku & Megurine Luka. https://www.thomaslack.com

Our Grand Tour continues with the second half of Dragon Ball GT, which marked the end of the 18-year ‘Toriyama Block’ on Fuji TV, and the end of new Dragon Ball stories on TV until Dragon Ball Super nearly 20 years later. The first few episodes here cover the ‘Super Android 17’ Arc, which is probably the very worst bit of Dragon Ball ever created, but the ‘Shadow Dragons’ Saga has always had more mixed reception, including some vocal defenders. What do Sean and Jonathan make of it? Well, we aren’t so hot on that one either, despite some good ideas and individual strong moments throughout. Still, diagnosing what ails Dragon Ball GT continues to make for a fascinating and fun conversation. Enjoy, and come back next week as we return to the dawn of anime with one of the great works by Japan’s ‘God of Manga,’ Tezuka Osamu, and the 1969 series Dororo! Time Chart: Theme Song: 0:00:00 – 0:01:16 Intro and History: 0:01:16 – 0:51:03 Eyecatch Break: 0:51:03 – 0:51:50 Dragon Ball GT Review: 0:51:50 – 2:53:33 End Theme: 2:53:33 – 2:54:34 Subscribe to our YouTube channels! Japanimation Station: https://www.youtube.com/c/japanimationstation Purely Academic: https://www.youtube.com/@purelyacademicpodcast Read Jonathan Lack’s movie reviews and stay up to date with all our podcast projects at https://www.jonathanlack.com Subscribe to PURELY ACADEMIC, our monthly variety podcast about movies, video games, TV, and more: https://purelyacademic.simplecast.com Read Jonathan’s book 200 Reviews in Paperback or on Kindle – https://a.co/d/bLx53vK “Welcome to Japanimation Station” – Music by Thomas Lack, Lyrics by Sean Chapman, featuring Hatsune Miku. “Rolled Into One” – Music & Lyrics by Thomas Lack, featuring Hatsune Miku. https://www.thomaslack.com

Our new season begins with a blast from the past, as we return to the 90s for an in-depth look at Dragon Ball GT, the 64-episode, anime-only extension of Toriyama Akira’s classic series. While GT has always proven divisive among Dragon Ball fans, Sean and Jonathan have never made it all the way through – and doing so turns out to be a bit of a challenge, because as much as we both love all things Dragon Ball, this particular entryis not our cup of tea. Despite the regularly fantastic vocal cast, strong animation including character designs from the great Nakatsuru Katsuyoshi, and a promising premise with a miniaturized Son Goku travelling the universe in search of Dragon Balls, the series is a creative mess, with frequently threadbare storytelling, terrible background music, and disappointing action. In this first episode, we discuss the Black Star Dragon Ball and Baby Arcs, which takes us through a few creative high points on our way to Super Saiyan 4 – but this is not, suffice it to say, our favorite stop on our Grand Tour. Enjoy, and come back next week as we review the rest of Dragon Ball GT with episodes 41-64 and the Super 17 and Shadow Dragon Sagas. Time Chart: Theme Song: 0:00:00 – 0:01:12 Intro and History: 0:01:12 – 1:33:34 Eyecatch Break: 1:33:34 – 1:34:19 Dragon Ball GT Review: 1:34:19 – 3:53:18 End Theme: 3:13:54 – 3:54:21 Subscribe to our YouTube channels! Japanimation Station: https://www.youtube.com/c/japanimationstation Purely Academic: https://www.youtube.com/@purelyacademicpodcast Read Jonathan Lack’s movie reviews and stay up to date with all our podcast projects at https://www.jonathanlack.com Subscribe to PURELY ACADEMIC, our monthly variety podcast about movies, video games, TV, and more: https://purelyacademic.simplecast.com Read Jonathan’s book 200 Reviews in Paperback or on Kindle – https://a.co/d/bLx53vK “Welcome to Japanimation Station” – Music by Thomas Lack, Lyrics by Sean Chapman, featuring Hatsune Miku. “Happily Ever After” – Music & Lyrics by Thomas Lack, featuring Hatsune Miku. https://www.thomaslack.com

Gundam is back, which means Weekly Suit Gundam returns once more, thanks to this weekend’s release of Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX -Beginning- in American theaters. The film, which collects the first few episodes of the upcoming GQuuuuuuX TV series, is the result of an exciting, long-awaited collaboration behind the Otaku madmen at Studio Khara, including Neon Genesis Evangelion creator Anno Hideaki and Gainax veterans Tsurumaki Kazuya and Enokido Yoji. The result is every bit as exciting as one would expect, a spectacular production that radically reworks Gundam history even as it forges a bold new path for the franchise. -Beginning- is a fantastic theatrical experience that bodes very well for the show to come, and after seeing these 80 minutes, we are extremely excited to see more in April. Enjoy, and be sure to join us for Season 5 of Japanimation Station, our anime ‘Grand Tour,’ when it premieres on March 16th, 2025! Read Jonathan Lack’s movie reviews and stay up to date with all our podcast projects at https://www.jonathanlack.com Subscribe to PURELY ACADEMIC, our monthly variety podcast about movies, video games, TV, and more: https://purelyacademic.simplecast.com Read Jonathan’s book 200 Reviews in Paperback or on Kindle – https://a.co/d/bLx53vK Subscribe to our YouTube channels! Japanimation Station: https://www.youtube.com/c/japanimationstation Purely Academic: https://www.youtube.com/@purelyacademicpodcast Support the show at Ko-fi ☕️ https://ko-fi.com/weeklystuff Original Music by Thomas Lack https://www.thomaslack.com/

The latest film from Kyoto Animation veteran Yamada Naoko – known for K-On!, A Silent Voice, and Tamako Market – arrived in American theaters courtesy GKids this weekend, and both Sean and Jonathan made trips to the theater to check it out. Now working with Science SARU, Yamada’s voice is as singular as ever, and while The Colors Within returns to some familiar narrative territory for the director – high-school students forming a band – the way this story is told is singular. It’s an aggressively low-key, gentle narrative about quiet but profound emotions, and it builds to a musical climax that is an absolute knockout – one we couldn’t resist recording a podcast about. Enjoy! And please look forward to Season 5 of Japanimation Station, our ‘Grand Tour’ of anime, which we are excited to announce will be premiering Sunday, March 16th, 2025! Read Jonathan Lack’s movie reviews and stay up to date with all our podcast projects at https://www.jonathanlack.com Subscribe to PURELY ACADEMIC, our monthly variety podcast about movies, video games, TV, and more: https://purelyacademic.simplecast.com Read Jonathan’s book 200 Reviews in Paperback or on Kindle – https://a.co/d/bLx53vK Subscribe to our YouTube channels! Japanimation Station: https://www.youtube.com/c/japanimationstation Purely Academic: https://www.youtube.com/@purelyacademicpodcast Support the show at Ko-fi ☕️ https://ko-fi.com/weeklystuff “Welcome to Japanimation Station” – Original Music by Thomas Lack, Lyrics by Thomas Lack and Sean Chapman, featuring Hatsune Miku; “ICE” – Original Music & Lyrics by Thomas Lack, featuring Hatsune Miku. https://www.thomaslack.com

The fourth and potentially final TV season of the hit anime Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba aired its fourth season this summer, adapting and expanding on the “Hashira Training Arc” of Koyoharu Gotouge’s manga. We weren’t able to review this season right when it finished due to work on our massive Kyoto Animation project, but now that we’re between seasons we thought it was time to talk once more about one of our favorite ongoing anime. These episodes adapt a very short slice of the manga, expanding on it in really wonderful ways to give us a final stretch of in-depth character development before the chaos of the Infinity Castle Arc, which will be produced as a film trilogy in the coming years. As always, ufotable’s adaptational choices are really smart and interesting to talk about, and it all builds to a season finale that’s one of the best episodes in the show’s history. Enjoy! We’ll be going on a bit of a hiatus for now as we work on SEASON 5 of Japanimation Station, our ‘Grand Tour’ through a variety of anime, which will be premiering later this winter. Time Chart: Theme Song: 0:00:00 – 0:01:15 Hashira Training Arc Review Part 1: 0:01:15 – 1:06:24 Eyecatch Break: 1:06:24 – 1:06:47 Hashira Training Arc Review Part 2: 1:06:47 – 2:19:08 End Theme: 2:19:08 – 2:20:09 Read Jonathan Lack’s movie reviews and stay up to date with all our podcast projects at https://www.jonathanlack.com Subscribe to PURELY ACADEMIC, our monthly variety podcast about movies, video games, TV, and more: https://purelyacademic.simplecast.com Read Jonathan’s book 200 Reviews in Paperback or on Kindle – https://a.co/d/bLx53vK Subscribe to our YouTube channels! Japanimation Station: https://www.youtube.com/c/japanimationstation Purely Academic: https://www.youtube.com/@purelyacademicpodcast Support the show at Ko-fi ☕️ https://ko-fi.com/weeklystuff “Welcome to Japanimation Station” – Original Music by Thomas Lack, Lyrics by Thomas Lack and Sean Chapman, featuring Hatsune Miku; “Rolled Into One” – Original Music & Lyrics by Thomas Lack, featuring Hatsune Miku. https://www.thomaslack.com

Weekly Suit Gundam makes its triumphant return to review the long-awaited Mobile Suit Gundam SEED FREEDOM, the film sequel to the first Gundam anime of the 21st century: Gundam SEED and Gundam SEED Destiny. We are big fans of the original SEED on this podcast, and were driven slightly insane by Destiny, so seeing director Mitsuo Fukuda and the original cast and crew come back together for a final adventure, based on story material left behind by the late Chiaki Morosawa, is extremely cathartic, especially since the film they made is so astonishingly great. Now that it’s finally dropped in the US on Netflix (albeit in a strange dub-only release – we would encourage listeners to, uh, *search elsewhere* for the original Japanese), we’re free to talk about the film at length, diving into the incredible action, surprisingly potent storytelling, and how the movie finally does right by Kira, Lacus, Shinn, and all the other great characters left in tatters by Destiny. Enjoy, and join us next week for another bonus episode of Japanimation Station, where we’ll be reviewing the Hashira Training Arc season of Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba. Read Jonathan Lack’s movie reviews and stay up to date with all our podcast projects at https://www.jonathanlack.com Subscribe to PURELY ACADEMIC, our monthly variety podcast about movies, video games, TV, and more: https://purelyacademic.simplecast.com Read Jonathan’s book 200 Reviews in Paperback or on Kindle – https://a.co/d/bLx53vK Subscribe to our YouTube channels! Japanimation Station: https://www.youtube.com/c/japanimationstation Purely Academic: https://www.youtube.com/@purelyacademicpodcast Support the show at Ko-fi ☕️ https://ko-fi.com/weeklystuff