Jared and Anne Ladyem (anneladyem.com) look ahead to the future (zura) and see what video games and anime that are coming out in 2019 they are excited about. We go through a lot of different games that have at least some form of release date or are rumored to come out in 2019 and also some anime that will come out next year as well. Like last year, we recorded this before the awards shows that happened this week so those announcements are not represented here.

Jared and Anne Ladyem (anneladyem.com) return to the bizarre adventures as we recently played through JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Eyes of Heaven. We talk about the wild story that unites all the Joestars, our favorite characters and teams to play as, and everyone getting burritos.

Jared and Anne Ladyem (anneladyem.com) take things down an octave as we discuss one of the most interesting games to come out this year, The Quiet Man. We discuss our own original story we came up with during the first playthrough, how the second playthrough isn’t great when you learn the actual story, and just what the heck is The Quiet Man. We also talk about some good things we’ve played recently to offset the bad of the shush shush man.

Jared and Anne Ladyem (anneladyem.com) return for season three of this podcast as we begin watching Kyoto Animation’s show from 2009 in K-ON!. We talk about the first episode, what AL thinks might happen over the course of the series, and the absolutely ridiculous English dub cast for the series.

Jared and Anne Ladyem (anneladyem.com) reach the series finale of Love Live Sunshine as we see if Aqours won Love Live and how they deal with the closing of the school. We also talk about the series as a whole and what we think the movie will bring.

Jared and Anne Ladyem (anneladyem.com) have reached the penultimate episode of Love Live Sunshine and it’s time for Aqours to perform for the Love Live finals and for everyone to reflect and make sure they want to win.

Jared and Anne Ladyem (anneladyem.com) see everyone get together to work on the school festival and how it comes together with what everyone’s doing during it.

Jared and Anne Ladyem see how the third years deal with the impending fact that they will be going their separate ways soon and then things get incredibly weird at the end.

Jared and Anne Ladyem (anneladyem.com) see the conclusion of the Hakodate arc as Ruby, Hanamaru, Yoshiko, and Leah work together to create a new song and we see the formation of Saint Aqours Snow.

Jared and Anne Ladyem (anneladyem.com) see what happens when Aqours heads to Hokkaido to see how Saint Snow do at the Love Live regionals, Ruby trying to deal with Dia leaving soon, and Ruby looks to help out Leah.

Jared and Anne Ladyem (anneladyem.com) finally get to the point of the season where Aqours sees if they’re able to save their school or not.

Jared and Anne Ladyem (anneladyem.com) see how Aqours handles Chika learning a very hard dance routine that the third years originally attempted to do but failed. Too bad Chika doesn’t understand the meaning of too hard.

Jared and Anne Ladyem (anneladyem.com) see how the unlikely duo of Yoshiko and Riko handle having a dog come into and out of their lives.

Ayano Hanesaki has been through the ringer during her journey in HANEBADO!, but how does her journey end? Does the match with Nagisa end up helping or hurting her in the long run? Will she finally break free of her mother’s chains or does the show fumble that encounter? Clickthrough to see exactly what I thought about how HANEBADO! wraps up.

The debate between subs and dubs will rage on until we are long gone. In reality, it is an absolutely silly fight as you should watch which version you are more comfortable with and will enjoy better. When I decided to get back into anime in 2013, one show I constantly saw gifs of on Tumblr was of the 2009-2010 series, K-ON!. For whatever reason, I decided upon the Sentai Filmworks English dub of the series (not to be confused with the other English dub that preceded Sentai) and breezed through both seasons and the movie. The performances of the cast are good on their own and accentuated the show for me in many ways. Looking at the cast of the dub today, it is clear that the K-ON! dub should be viewed as an all-star cast and perhaps one of the best dubs of the 2010s.

Boy, 2017 sure was bad. Video games were one of the few bright spots of the year. As per previous years, there will be supplemental awards first before we dive into the Top 10. There will be spoilers so please beware as you read.

It’s no secret there is a divide within the entirety of the Persona franchise. A large and vocal majority came with the releases of Persona 3 and Persona 4, with even more coming in after the recent release of Persona 5. Of course, as the names of those games suggest, they are not the beginning of the series. For that, you have to go back all the way to September and November of 1996 to the release of Revelations: Persona in different regions. Both versions of Persona 2 would come even later with Innocent Sin coming in June 1999 for Japan and Eternal Punishment in June and December 2000 for Japan and America. One of the big reasons that people have a hard time going back to the first three games is that they are different than the games that would come later. The battles, demon negotiating, dungeons, and lack of social links make the split in the series a large divide. If you were like me and somewhat disappointed with Persona 5, perhaps now is the time to take a look back and see exactly what makes up the earlier games and in particular, Persona 2 Eternal Punishment.

Back on the Seasonal Anime Checkup OVA Episode #18, I mentioned how Persona 5 was currently my least favorite game in the series. That statement might lessen when I decide to attempt a second English (third overall if we’re counting the Japanese version) playthrough, but as of now, and with other facets surrounding the game, it remains that I am disappointed with the game. The game does have good aspects, like revamping the battle mechanics and a good majority of the cooperation/confidant social link characters are great and some of the best in the series. However, Persona 5 is by no means perfect or the greatest game ever made. It may in fact be your game of the year for 2017 and I cannot dispute that as opinions are subjective, but the game is not infallible to criticism like some people might think it is.