Jared and Anne Ladyem (anneladyem.com) go back in time to the 90s and see what was happening with the Japanese arcade scene while discussing Hi Score Girl! We discuss the first season and the three bonus episodes that have aired already, all the different games that are featured in the show, and discuss what will happen in the second season later this year.

Jared and Anne Ladyem (anneladyem.com) discuss the finale of the Love Live Sunshine story as we talk about the film as a whole, what it means to the overall series, and how the film contrasts with the series. We also talk about the new song performances with how good they are and the growth of certain characters. Also there are of course spoilers.

Jared and Anne Ladyem (anneladyem.com) finally have a discussion that’s been years in the making. We finally talk about Final Fantasy X. After having an episode about its sequel two years ago, we come back to its predecessor since it has been released on new hardware. Plus, Jared has finally finished the game for the first time. We discuss specific characters, our thoughts on Tidus, that laughing scene, and whether Jared’s opinion has changed on the game since the X-2 episode.

Jared and Anne Ladyem (anneladyem.com) see how the Light Music Club learns more about their teacher and her Light Music Club before turning into a metal band.

Jared and Anne Ladyem (anneladyem.com) reach the finale of Love Live Sunshine by talking about the movie and seeing how it compares to the rest of the series.

Jared and Anne Ladyem (anneladyem.com) sees how the Light Music Club deals with exams and the debut of YuiAzu in a local talent contest.

Jared and Anne Ladyem (anneladyem.com) see how Yui tries to figure out what she wants to do after high school and Yui and Ritsu thinking they don’t need to learn English, while speaking English.

Jared and Anne Ladyem (anneladyem.com) go to a tea party that revolves around Mio’s strange fan club that she has to deal with.

Jared and Anne Ladyem (anneladyem.com) see the comedy of errors Yui goes through during a rainy day where she tries to protect her guitar from getting wet and moldy.

Jared and Anne Ladyem (anneladyem.com) see what the second years get up to while all the seniors are in Kyoto for their trip.

Jared and Anne Ladyem (anneladyem.com) see how the Light Music Club handles their school trip to Kyoto and what happens when you get lost on a field trip.

Jared and Anne Ladyem (anneladyem.com) sees what happens when Ritsu decides to expand her horizons with other instruments as she gets fed up with the drums.

Jared and Anne Ladyem (anneladyem.com) have to clean things up along with the Light Music Club as they clean up the club room and find an old guitar.

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.