Show #197: Mr Magoo's Christmas Carol

The year wanes, one that we'll gladly let pass into history, but such as it is the festive season is here and that means another animated spin on A Christmas Carol is summoned to scare the share into us! Classic cartoon coot Mr Magoo gives it a go this time around, and with his patented brand of poorly sighted mayhem this version of Chuck D's famous fable oughta be a barrel of laughs, right? RIGHT? We'll get to that, right after we gush about our fine friends in internet recording, look ahead to next year's SOTSM slate and stuff ourselves on a final festive feast of a Post Podcast Repaste. Magoo, you've done it again! And all in one night! Merry Christmas and a serene seasonal sojourn to all ye good folk out there!

Listen up!

OH That's A Baseball Episode! #2: The Simpsons, King Of The Hill and Bob's Burgers

The second game in our stellar series has us putting on the throwback jersey as we cast our minds back to some of the baseball episodes that lay within the earlier seasons of fan favourite animated sitcoms! Homer Simpson gets called up to the big leagues; Hank Hill finally makes manager at Strickland Propane; and Bob Belcher has yet another idyllic piece of his youth shredded before his very eyes. Mortifying mascots and the most under-handed of pitches round out another classic showcase of animation and athleticism. Give us an A!

Listen up!

Show #196: Scooby Doo On Zombie Island

Anthony Askew braves our dread waters on a moonlit Halloween night in search of his faithful old dog who's still got a few tricks left in him! For a direct-to-video movie with no great weight of expectation on it Scooby Doo On Zombie Island sure did push the boat out in terms of doing much more exciting things with the Mystery Inc gang after decades of rehashes had inured audiences to their schtick, and is credited with revitalising the franchise as a whole. Was it the witty self-awareness? The monster butts? Was Terror Time really THAT good of a song? Our investigation proceeds after the link, within which we can also share the Halloween treats of our Post-Podcaste Repaste!

Listen up!

Show #195: Samurai Jack - The Final Chapter

Almost 5 years to the day since we last had him on, Leon Everett of Ace Comicals emerges from the mists of time to lay to rest a legendary hero, whose long and continually inspiring journey finally came to a close against all odds. Samurai Jack seems a story whose timelessness was due to its lack of a definitive ending, but director Genndy Tartakovsky saw a ripe opportunity to bring the curtain down alongside much of the original creative team. With a more sombre and brooding atmosphere that throws that distance of years into stark relief can Jack really go home again? The call of the void, stupid sexy Aku and more Twin Peaks Series 3 comparisons than one would expect add up an epic saga of a recording, leaving us hungry for a heroic feast of a Post-Podcast Repaste!

Listen up!

Let’s Go! #172 – Let’s Headbutt God!

The God Of High School abandons all pretense of academic advancement and goes all in on apocalyptic encounters between dieties and magical nuclear warheads. A grand spectacle to be sure, but not enough to detract from the respective grand finales of Deca-Dence, Appare-Ranman and The Millionaire Detective, which in their own ways arrive at the shared viewpoint of collaborating with the most unlikely of comrades towards a mutual beneficial goal (also, sticking it to all the old rich bastards wrecking things for everybody!). We're crude but effective!

Listen up!

OH That's A Baseball Episode! #1 - Dorohedoro, BNA: Brand New Animal and Dragon Ball Super

Striding out onto the field with a cocky swagger is a whole new ball game for SOTSM as a one-off idea has swerved wildly into a format wherein we look over baseball episodes in otherwise non-baseball cartoons. Special correspondent Jake De Búrca is called up to serve as somebody with hands-on knowledge of the sport, depicted this time around in a trio of episodes from the world of anime! Dorohedoro #7, BNA: Brand New Animal #5 and Dragon Ball Super #70 form our starting line-up for what we hope is a championship season! Put on a helmet and get in the game!

Listen up!

Let’s Go! #171 – Let’s Not Put A Screw Pun In The Title!

Deca-Dence takes quite a turn and breaks out the power tools before the hammer comes down on human and cyborg civilisation alike! Fences are mended as BNA closes out, a contractor takes on a lucrative job in The Millionaire Detective, Great Pretender reveals the whole blueprint and we put the screws to The God Of High School! HAH! They didn't say we couldn't put puns in the main body of the text!

Listen up!

Let’s Go #170 – Let’s Be Superheroes (Forever)

Super Shiro dons the cape one last time before bowing out in suitably heroic fashion (for now, at least.) But who shall rescue us in our hour of need now? An idol concert promises comfort and joy to the denizens of Anima City in BNA, the Appare-Ranman gang steel their resolve before the final battle and two princes kneel before us in Fruits Basket. It's a bird! It's a plane! It's The Let's Go Gang!

Listen up!

Let’s Go! 169 – Let’s Go To The Movies!

Cinemas may be effectively closed for now but that don't mean you can't get some big screen thrills within the safe confines of your own abode! A daring raid on a secret lab in Deca-Dence; a heart-wrenching cliffhanger in Appare-Ranman; the killer is inside the house in The Millionaire Detective; and a homage to the finest E-list acting talent of years past in The Great Pretender. No booking required!

Listen up! 

Show #194: Clone High

Martin Schneider of Breaking Mayberry goes back to school with us on a very special episode of SOTSM, where we all learn a valuable lesson about this early work from animation auteurs Phil Lord and Chris Miller. Now well-renowned as curators of comedy both cartoon and corporeal, Clone High featured a decidedly unique premise that deftly married their love of historical humour and angsty teen drama. With a revival of the series imminent on Comedy Central is there anything present in the past worth carrying on into the future? Hunger strikes, deep Conquistador cuts and our best(?) John F. Kennedy impressions make the grade, earning us a well deserved Post-Podcast Repaste from the school canteen!

Listen up!

Let’s Go #168 – Let’s Tidy Up Our Shabby Hair!

Co-incidentally Niall actually got a haircut just prior to recording (not that you'd know as he broadcasts secretly from a non-extradition country, of course) but you can still see Dwayne and Brian's fabulous faces if you remember to tune into the video stream! Otherwise you can hear us all talking about some other cartoons cleaning up their act, such as Super Shiro doing the laundry, dirty cops getting rinsed in The Millionaire Detective and the gang enjoying some downtime at the public baths in Appare-Ranman. Just a trim please!

Listen up!

Let’s Go #167 – Let’s Go Rhino!

Everybody's got a fresh look going on this time, whether it be a rhino scientist whose been hitting the gym (and the experimental mutagenic substances) in his spare time in BNA or a fourth magical girl rounding out the team in Healin' Good Pretty Cure. A trio of other main characters endear themselves to the crowd before getting trounced by the actual main characters in God Of High School, and Super Shiro lays down some serious beats (and sound effects, and incidental music). The Great Pretender makes a strong debut also, spinning a yarn of con-artists and cross-cultural crime so convincingly we gotta hope it ain't pulling a fast one on us. Don't take rhi-NO for an answer!

Listen up!

Let’s Go #166 – Let’s Go To Prison!

Yo fish, what are you in for? Us? Well we're looking at a two hour stretch in the joint for any number of anime related crimes: attempted assassination in The Millionaire Detective, impersonating a known felon in Appare-Ranman, establishing a sham religious organisation for tax evasion purposes in BNA, or posing too many actual quandaries about the nature of existence in Super Shiro. You're going away for a long time pal!

Listen up!

Let’s Go #165 – Let’s Remember Our Childhood

A wave of nostalgia washes over us as we recall the good old days when you were flung from a cliff as a baby to prove your worth as a warrior. They were hard but fair, and we shall do likewise to our slate of titles, including our most traumatic backstory yet in Fruits Basket, the new DLC for Deca-Dence and two young men punching their feelings into each other in God Of High School (such is the Spartan way!). FYI, if you like white fluffy dogs named Shiro then boy is this recording jam-packed with them!

Listen up!

Show #193: Drawn Or Alive! - The Odd Couple VS The Oddball Couple

A format we trialed last year goes into full rotation as we get set serious about comparing cartoons to their live-action counterparts and declaring which is worthy of the highest merit! We're seeing double this time as we have four mismatched housemates quarrelling amongst themselves, whether it be Jack Klugman and Tony Randall playing the slob and the square respectively in the 1970 TV series or Frank Nelson and Paul Winchell as your classic cat and dog pairing in the 1975 animated version. So pay your rent, clean out the attic and brush up on your Password skills 'cuz only one title can stay under this roof, DRAWN OR ALIVE!

Listen up!

Let’s Go #164 – Let’s Pivot To Video

Yeah, let's! What's the worst that could happen? All those independent journalism websites did it and most of them are... now closed down forever?! The sorry state of the internet due to the advertising industry's death grip is not lost upon us in this audio-only instalment of Let's Go, but we won't be resorting to such drastic measures as live-streaming a hostage situation to redress our woes. Nor shall we rig a baseball game, engineer a sham marriage or invade a neighbouring village, or will we~~? Still available on analogue formats in selected counties!

Listen up!

Show #192: The Critic

Libby Cudmore of The OST Party continues her streak on SOTSM with something very near & dear to her, that being Al Jean & Mike Reiss's effort at producing primetime animation outside of their work on The Simpsons, which The Critic got lumped in with anyway! Besides mocking the vacuousoness of the entertainment industry then & now it's also a paean to a slightly more innocent (and probably partially imagined) era of cultural criticism, which inspires quite the thoughtful discussion of the same alongside a childhood spent in 1990s New York City and studying up on film references at the video rental shop. Please try some of these complimentary edible Porgs left over from the press junket for Star Wars 8, or whatever else you're craving for your Post-Podcast Repaste!

Listen up!

Let’s Go! 163 – Let’s Tune Our Engines

What's that moving up from the rear of the pack? Why it's Appare-Ranman! Back from an extended pit stop over the Summer and getting right up to speed with our other wacky racers. God Of High School jostles for supremacy in the middle of the ranks, Deca-Dence and their superior steering maintain a formidable lead and One Piece pulls out some surprising tricks in the final lap. It's all the high speed thrills you're guaranteed at the LGGP!

Listen up!

Let’s Go #162 – Let’s Enjoy Oxyone With Friends

It's the cool refreshing taste of a new week of anime episodes, and refreshing story developments as Deca-Dence pulls the rug out from under many collective feet. Gibiate's time travelling samurai join the slate, complementing Zoro's situation in One Piece as he gets into a surprisingly well animated duel with a monk over a priceless sword. Head on over to the Youtube stream if you want to see Brian and Dwayne's faces for whatever personal reason you may have! It's the choice of a new generation!

Listen up!

Let’s Go #161 – Let’s GOH!

It's the biggest roster we've had for a while now as some powerful new challengers enter the arena. In the red corner we have God Of High School, the second of Crunchyroll's collaborations with Webtoon that reunites us with Garo: Vanishing Line director Sung Hoo Park who comes out swinging. In the blue corner stands Deca-Dence, an original creation from Hiroshi Seko and Yuzuru Tachikawa who also have a history with us as the writing & directing team behind Mob Psycho 100, though by the time you hear this that'll all be swept aside by the furore over its second episode. And undermining the foundations of the ring is Japan Sinks 2020, Science Saru and Masaaki Yuasa's adaptation of the earthquake disaster novel that looks to already be on shaky ground. How will they fare against our established series, and which will come out on top? In the brutal world of Let's Go there can be only one! Or about eight to ten, whatever we could fit in this week!

Listen up!

Let's Go #156 - 160: Let's Put 'Em All Up At Once!

Yet more belated recordings have escaped from Brian's editing suite and rather than spam your RSS feed with multiple alerts you can get all the good stuff in one tastefully presented package right here!

Let's Go #156 was a no nonsense affair as the intellectual investigators of Woodpecker Detective's Office confronted their own mortality, Echo met the devil at the crossroads in Listeners and the Wacky TV Nanana crew were waylaid by pirates!

#157 had us questioning our own existences as the true identity of the Sohma family head was unmistakenly confirmed in Fruits Basket, while Mu may never have been a real person to begin with in Listeners. Much like Minare in Wave, Listen To Me we fervently wish to reincarnate as Scandinavians in our next life...

#158 was getting to the very back of the cupboard as both Wave, Listen To Me and Listeners played themselves out with aplomb but left us with a sizeable gap on our slate, with Tower Of God not far behind. Starvation seemed imminent, unless...

#159 came to the rescue with Extra Olympia Kyklos and One Piece returning to the air and back into our welcome embrace. Kamen Rider Zero One, Kiramager and Healin' Good Precure swept in alongside them to bring jump kicks back to your Sunday afternoon viewing.

and #160 gets us right up to date with the first new arrival for the Summer season in BNA: Brand New Animal, with which we shall exercise some restraint and savour week to week rather than cram it all in over a weekend in a vain attempt to get timely but half-baked reaction posts up on the web.

That's a lot of cartoons! And if you'd like to listen to us LIVE and without a safety net then be sure to stay subcribed to the Let's Go streaming channel, with all the gaffes and malapropisms that don't get edited out of the final cut anyways! There's even the possible threat of being to not only hear us but SEE us also. A bright and terrifying future awaits!

Let’s Go #155 – Let’s Turn Garbage Into Art

A self-deprecating quip about our taste in anime? Hardly! We are seekers of quality in all things, much like Super Shiro's fine job upcycling the debris in a polluted pond into a civic cultural site. Mu rocks the house all the way down in Listeners, Minare takes in the sights with her ex in Wave, Listen To Me and the crew of Wacky TV Nanana show us the finer points of carrier pigeon communication. We belong in a museum!

Listen up!

Let’s Go #154 – Let’s Get Action!

 

Who are you? A loyal follower of the show we pray! Especially as we soldier on with a reduced but still substantial slate of anime deserving of discussion. Mu discovers her true identity, or at least the role the dubiously charming Tommy has cast her for in Listeners, Minare learns the secret origins of her own name in Wave, Listen To Me!, and the cast of Super Shiro reveal hitherto unknown talents in the Show-Off Sing-Off. Always be yourself kids!

Listen up!

Let’s Go #153 – Let’s Put On The Show Right Here!

Right here, right now, weeks after the fact! Brian's podcast proliferation PC is finally tuned up so we can liberate these recordings from a short while ago when not quite everything had been postponed. Think of it as a little reminder of what you've missed that's due to return soon, including but not limited to Gal & Dino demonstrating some parlour games, Extra Olympia Kyklos showcasing their alternative Olympics and Super Shiro illustrating which mushrooms are safe to eat. We'll be right back after these messages from our sponsors!

Listen up!

Show #191: Clerks - The Animated Series

Libby Cudmore and Joseph Wade of The OST Party drop by the shop to speak to the staff of SOTSM about some items on their receipt they feel short-changed by, such as this animated adaptation of Kevin Smith's debut feature given a new lease of life by Seinfeld scribe David Mandel and the talented folks at Disney TV Animation. That's correct! This is technically a Disney cartoon, and that's not the only surprising detail in a discussion loaded with corporate interference, jokes which aged like milk and tales of misspent youth in the company of Kevin Smith and Kevin Smith-adajacent media. Don't forget to pick up something off the hot food counter for your Post Podcast Repaste on the way out!

Listen up!

Let’s Go! #152 – Let’s Get Some Exorcise

Minare's flair for the strange and macabre on the radio comes back to haunt her as a terrifying fax initiates an investigation into the supernatural that could make for ratings gold. Can she add "ghostbuster" to her array of surprising talents? Or should she just stick to the day job? Strange stories of the high tower, dinosaur DVDs and the ancient spirits of prog rock portend our most spine-chilling instalment yet! THE POWER OF ANIME COMPELS YOU!

Listen up!

Let’s Go! #151 – Let’s Go Crazy

An episode of Listeners that made even the most indifferent of observers stop and exclaim ''hold up: was that Prince?'' Not quite! But his legally distinct doppleganger is here to indulge in enough shameless musical references to put Hirohiko Araki to blushing. Nudity, 'nanas and New Year's Eve complete a fitting tribute to His Purple Highness. We're the kind you pick up in a secondhand store!

Listen up!

SOTSM x DITB: The Anime That Didn’t Make Us #16 – Pollyanna, Violinist of Hamelin & Moby Dick

Niall checked up on Brian and Antony over on Dynamite In The Brain to see how they're coping during all this, only to find them once again in a state of imagined reminiscence for cartoons they could have been enjoying in their youth were it not for those pesky geographic barriers. This edition is more highbrow than most with not one but two literary adaptations; a fairly straight World Masterpiece Theatre joint in 1986's The Story Of Pollyanna, Girl Of Love and Herman Melville making the logical progression to outer space in 1997's Hakugei: Legend Of The Moby Dick, while 1996's Violinist Of Hamelin provides a nice classical music accompaniment that sounds better than it looks. We got your tele-learning resources right here pal!

Listen up!

Let’s Go! #150 – Let’s Go To The Olympics

One hundred and fifty recordings later and still discovering truly brilliant entries in our storied survey of weekly TV cartoons. One such competitor is Extra Olympia Kyklos, wherein an ancient Greek specimen of physical prowess is catapulted to the 1964 Tokyo Olympic Games via the amazing power of claymation! It'll do in a pinch in place of the cancelled 2020 effort, alongside a gradually winnowing regular slate of DJs, dinosaurs, dogs and detectives. It's gonna be a record-breaker!

Listen up! 

Show #190: Dr. Katz, Professional Therapist

Brian Smith of Dynamite In The Brain is on the couch to make sense of this melange of stand-up comedy and rudimentary animation, conceived of a meeting between educational software developer Tom Snyder and the comedian's comedian Jonathan Katz. Assembled in a charmingly rough & ready manner it gave an auspicious start to such comedy & cartoon greats as H. Jon Benjamin and Loren Bouchard, but are we still crazy about its unique style 25 years later? Recording studio secrets, the wonders of Squigglevision and the elegant parallels with modern comedy podcasting get the full diagnosis, for which we prescribe a hearty Post-Podcast Repaste!

Listen up!

Let’s Go! #149 – Let’s Ship Out

New series continue to debut under precarious circumstances, so we temper our enjoyment knowing it could be all washed away in an instant. That said is there anything to get us attached to a young woman's journey into the Renaissance workshop scene in Arte? Or to another batch of creatives changing jobs in Woodpecker Detective Agency? We can at least extend a warm welcome to returning champion Wacky TV Nanana along with our usual assortment of heroic dogs, dinosaur flatmates and brazen musical references. Anchors away!

Listen up!

Let’s Go #148 – Let’s Be Cops

It's a good week to listen to a podcast about new anime that have since been postponed to an indefinite later date for the remainder of their run! Nonetheless we'll enjoy whatever we can get of an obnoxious rich boy paying his way onto the police force in The Millionaire Detective and two inadvertent immigrants making their fortune in early 20th century America in Appare-Ranman, along with the usual more reliable titles on the slate. It's too good to be legal!

Listen up!

Let’s Go! #147 – Let’s Dino-solate

Good thing we have all this extra time on our hands to take in the offerings of a new season, just the distraction we needed! We've got the classic hits on the radio via Listeners, insterspersed with the amatuer DJ stylings of Wave, Listen To Me, while Gal & Dino demonstrate how to adapt to your new living arrangements. My Hero Academia and Pet venture out on their own and we wish them well in their future endeavours. Let's get along!

Listen up!

Let’s Go! #143 – #146: Let's Get A Grip On This Already

You've read the newspapers so let's not go into it okay? Not mentioned in there though was the fact we recorded a bunch of weekly anime podcasts over the last month which for one reason or another were a bit waylaid coming out of the edit suite. So here's a round-up of what we got and why it may interest you!

Let's Go #143 featured the prompt departure of Welcome To Demon School Iruma-kun, wrapping up a wonderful surprise of a series and leaving us on a dramatic cliffhanger as Iruma's latent darkness manifests in a most terrifying form: A SARCASTIC TEENAGER.

Let's Go #144 played host to many happy returns; not just of Gegege No Kitaro and Detective Conan, but also our laid-back old pal ACCA: 13 Territory Inspection Department, back for a one-off OVA instalment in the land of etiquette, espionage and delicious baked goods.

Let's Go #145 marked the climax of Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken, the anime about making anime but more importantly about the memories & friendships you make with it. Lucky it came out at the start of the year as it may have a clear run at Best Of 2020 at this rate.

Let's Go # 146 then had us sweeping out the remnants of Winter 2020, such as the pleasantly unexpected In/Spectre, while also bearing witness to the end of an era as Kitaro departs after two years on the air and leaves a yokai-sized hole in our weekly routine.

When next we meet it'll be a torrent of new arrivals that will swiftly reduce to a trickle as current events bite into animation production much as they have everything else on the planet. Til then hunker in your bunker and don't forget to listen up!

Show #189: Nadia: The Secret Of Blue Water

Everybody knows Hideaki Anno from Neon Genesis Evangelion and how he used that show as an outlet for some of his personal problems, but what the hell happened to his mind that produced that vivid tableau of grief and depression? Enter Nadia, an outwardly bright and cheerful anime that may have since been unfairly mired in the issues surrounding it rather than appreciated for the contents themselves. A popular property in its heyday, does The Secret Of Blue Water and its Jules Verne-inspired adventures have anything to offer a modern audience 30 years later beyond behind-the-scenes gossip? Ancient civilisations, wondrous technology and obligatory Gainax bounce await alongside the usual tangents as well as our Post-Podcast Repaste. Prepare to surface!

Listen up!

Show #188: Atlantis: The Lost Empire

An entire civilisation hidden away from sight to ensure its survival in the face of oncoming calamity? Not to worry, we haven't turned into a current affairs show just yet; rather we're poring over the artifacts from this 2001 entry in Disney's oeuvre prior to the precipitous drop-off in support for their traditional animation wing, for which, in the eyes of more than a few folks, this shoulders some of the blame. Is that accusation warranted? Is there more to this film than some pretty stellar design work? Didn't we see that same nerdy linguist dude in Stargate? All of this will be expounded upon at greater than usual length, but looking at the news at time of posting it ain't like you got someplace else to be, so look forward to your new life with us under the sea!

Listen up!

Let’s Go #142 – Let’s Sparkle

Who's that?! This new underworld idol Irumi-chan and her entourage look awful familiar... we're sure it has nothing to do with Iruma-kun and his pals being conspicuously absent at the same time. While we ponder that we'll relax with some Gold Tips Imperial tea in My Hero Academia, share some ghost stories with In/Spectre, field some meetings with prospective clients in Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken and indulge in some light psychic assassination in Pet before another encounter with the alluring CanCan in Super Shiro. This one goes out to all our fans!

Listen up!

Let’s Go! #141 – Let’s Smile

Things are tough out there, but let's turn that frown upside down with some anime analysis! You could be worse off like the denizens of Ebisu who can't help but laugh at their own misfortune in One Piece. Idol fever strikes in Iruma-kun, My Hero Academia puts on a rock concert, Super Shiro puts on the popcorn and the Eizouken premiere their latest work. It ain't half bad!

Listen up!

Let’s Go! #140 – Let’s Leap Through Time

International crises have stalled necessary podcast releases and we're all jammed up! If we had a time machine we'd go back and fix it dear listeners; maybe we can borrow Neko-musume's ticket on board the phantom train as she attempts to rewrite history and prevent a vampire apocalypse! Elsewhere the Mizusaki lays her feelings to the Eizouken, Iruma-kun receives an award for his efforts in the school festival and the slowcoaches in My Hero Academia are only just planning their own student events! Where does the time go?!

Listen up!

Let’s Go! #139 – Let’s Do Better Than Last Time!

Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken and its episode titles continue to try to hold us to better standards, and Kanamori's stern gaze leaves us little room for argument! The other shows got the memo too as My Hero Academia's remedial students pass their make-up exam with aplomb and the school festival finally gets underway in Iruma-kun (with muscial accompaniment courtesy of the Valac Family). Too bad Nezumi-otoko targets the lowest common denominator with his pitch for a hidden camera prank show with predictably horrifying results, but Healin' Good Precure saves the day with its medical magical girl manuveuring. It'll be on your desk first thing tomorrow boss!

Listen up!

Let’s Go! #138 – Let’s Visit Pirate Fest

Trips to see anime at the cinema get belatedly covered as Brian and Niall share their experiences of One Piece: Stampede that will sound like absolute nonsense to the uninitiated. Luckily the rest of the anime slate offers us a chance to stay in the listener's good graces! Much like the remedial class in My Hero Academia and their efforts to win over some delinquent primary school kids, followed by Iruma racing against time to save the student festival, Kitaro holidaying in Angkor Wat and the Eizouken learning how to create the ideal giant robot for their first official client. You won't wanna leave!

Listen up!

Show #187: Treasure Planet

Our voyage through animated adaptations of Robert Louis Stevenson's classic adventure continues in the company of Christmas Creeps' and The OST Party's own Joseph Wade, in search of the perhaps unfairly maligned Treasure Planet. A long-deferred labour of love for Disney stalwarts John Musker and Ron Clements that came about around the same time as the company's dwindling interest in traditional animation in the early 2000s, is its bad rep warranted or more a case of missing the boat in terms of contemporary film trends? Space pirates, depressed teenagers, obligatory fart noises and a maddening glimpse at alternate cartoon history await to be unearthed right under that big X!

Listen up!

Let’s Go! #137 – Let’s Serve Kitaro As Sushi

Kitaro fever sweeps Japan as an idol lookalike cashes in on his image, much to the chagrin of the yokai trouble buster. What will happen when his newfound fans want a literal piece of him though? Iruma runs through an invisible maze to foil Kiriwo's schemes, Super Shiro bowls a perfect game, a serpent god gives evidence in an ongoing murder case and the Eizouken get to grips with the crushing realities of anime production. It's what's for dinner!

Listen up!

Let’s Go! #136 – Let’s Accomplish Something!

Time to perform a feat of great daring and import by watching a bunch of pretty good cartoons and talking about it excitedly for 90-plus minutes! The same thing we do every week? Well this time it's about -these- particular cartoons! Shed repair with the Eizouken crew; a prelude to a party with Iruma-kun; gruesome political intrigue with Babylon; and gruesome political intrigue BUT WITH YOKAI in Gegege No Kitaro! With a little grit and a lotta heart we can do this!

Listen up!

Let’s Go! #135 – Let’s Smash Every Bone In Our Bodies

Dwayne's back in fighting form and ready to emulate the courageous kids of My Hero Academia by punching a villain so hard and so frequently so as to outrun being erased from existence. And returning with him are the thrills and intrigue of Babylon, with a similar vibe being evoked by the mind crimes of Pet, before getting his hands on some Eizouken and deciding which of the girls he relates to the most. Break a leg out there!

Listen up!

SOTSM x Christmas Creeps: Klaus

Christmas may have only just come and gone scarcely a month ago but cartoons are for the whole year round! Niall and Dwayne had a cosy get-together with Joseph Wade to melt all over Sergio Pablos' paean to traditional animation about the world's worst postman birthing the myth of Santa Claus and inadvertently spreading kindness, compassion and goodwill to a world sorely in need of it. The irony of altruism arising only as a result of nakedly materialistic motivations is not lost on us while discussing this Netflix-backed venture, but if it leads to more opportunities to uplift the medium of animation like this then it's a feat of mental gymnastics we're willing to perform!

Listen up!

Let’s Go! #134 – Let’s Rescue A Princess

While Dwayne's life hangs in the balance from a tenacious Winter bug the rest of the Let's Go Gang clear their plates of 2019's leftovers before broaching 2020's first batch of fresh cartoons. Brian tries out a new mixer, Niall preplexedly synopsizes Precure episodes he watched before Christmas and we get our hands all over Eizouken!

Listen up!

Show #186: Treasure Island (1978/1987)

It's the advent of a newer, leaner and less meaner incarnation of Secret Of The Sailor Madness where we watch some great cartoons of past and present for the good of our collective sanity! And what better way to mark our latest voyage into the realms of animation that elevate the soul than this vibrant adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson's classic of literature courtesy of ace director Osamu Dezaki and his crack creative crew. We talk pirate portrayals, drunken children, elusive ambition and the dangerously attractive Long John Silver. It's a strange tide of format experimentation, so come aboard and ride these waves with us why dontcha!

Listen up!

Let’s Go! #133 – Let’s Defeat Santa

The last vestiges of 2019's anime get a fond festive farewell before 2020's prospects make their way fully over the horizon. Santa sets out on a murder spree, Iruma joins a school club and lots of people get killed off at Christmas. New year, same old us!

Listen up!