Jared and Anne Ladyem (anneladyem.com) celebrate Jared’s birthday by discussing his recent senior seminar project from college that he did where he created a course on manga. We talk about the structure of the course, how manga is treated in academia, what manga the course would use, and why a course such as this is important.

Jared and Anne Ladyem (anneladyem.com) finished watching Pop Team Epic back in September of last year, but there’s no better time than now to discuss the series. We talk about the anime’s run, our favorite gags and jokes, and how much we really want to see an actual version of Hoshiiro Girldrop.

Jared and Anne Ladyem (anneladyem.com) dove deep into a lengthy JRPG series in the Trails of Cold Steel games as we played through the first game. We talk about all the wild twists and turns and how much we ended up enjoying this game with it getting us very excited to play more of the series.

Jared and Anne Ladyem (anneladyem.com) see how the second year begins for the Light Music Club and if they’re able to persuade any of the incoming freshmen to join the club.

Jared and Anne Ladyem (anneladyem.com) see how the Light Music Club are going to celebrate Christmas and the strange surprises they find along the way.

Jared and Anne Ladyem (anneladyem.com) see how the Light Music Club handles their first school festival with Yui still being unable to sing.

Jared and Anne Ladyem (anneladyem.com) see how the Light Music Club somehow stumbled through not being a recognized club and unlocking Sawako’s backstory to become their adviser.

Jared and Anne Ladyem (anneladyem.com) discuss beach experiences and the Light Music Club’s first training camp on the beach.

Jared and Anne Ladyem (anneladyem.com) see how Yui will be able to make her way back to the club as she is temporary suspended for failing an exam.

Jared and Anne Ladyem (anneladyem.com) see how Yui is going to find a way to buy a guitar as the Light Music Club comes together to work small jobs to help Yui pay for it.

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.

A simple trip to Tokyo is at first seen as a big opportunity for Aqours, but becomes the biggest turning point of Love Live! Sunshine!!. How are Aqours able to come back from the brink of failure and how were they set up to fail from the beginning? Clickthrough to see why this arc is where the series really kicks off.

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.

2018 was a year full of personal growth and new opportunities, but still not great for society. It’s very hard to come off a banger of a year like 2017, so it’s no surprise this year was slightly weird for games and not as impactful. Even with that, there was A LOT of video games released this year and here are some of my favorites. Like most years, there might be spoilers scattered throughout, so if you haven’t played through something I write about, be forewarned.

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.