Jared and Anne Ladyem (anneladyem.com) find themselves in a wildly designed castle having to take out some demons as we played Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night. Does the game hold up with how it is a game meant to be a nostalgia trip and does it defeat the crowd funding curse? We also preview what else is coming out with regards to games in the second half of this year.

Jared and Anne Ladyem (anneladyem.com) take a look at another Kyoto Animation film with the Sound Euphonium spinoff, Liz and the Blue Bird. We discuss the film’s story, how it relates to the original series it comes from, if the film is good enough on its own for people who haven’t seen Sound Euphonium, and how often Kyoto Animation flexes it’s ridiculous skills.

Jared and Anne Ladyem (anneladyem.com) return to the 3DS for potentially its last big release with Persona Q2. Does combining the casts of P3, P4, P5, and P3P’s heroine make for a good game or are there too many cooks in this kitchen? Who is the true protagonist of this game? What surprised us the most? These questions and more found within this here podcast.

Jared and Anne Ladyem (anneladyem.com) see how Ritsu and Mio handle being cast in the lead roles of their class production of Romeo and Juliet.

Jared and Anne Ladyem (anneladyem.com) see what happens when the Light Music Club is displaced from their club room and have to find a new place to practice.

Jared and Anne Ladyem (anneladyem.com) sees Yui get real into stickers and Azusa realize she’s becoming more like the seniors.

Jared and Anne Ladyem (anneladyem.com) see how the Light Music Club handles the trials and tribulations of running a marathon.

Jared and Anne Ladyem (anneladyem.com) see what happens when Ritsu and Mugi hang out, try to find a way to get Mugi’s forehead bonked, and see the biggest betrayal in anime history.

Jared and Anne Ladyem (anneladyem.com) see their first deviation in episode order with our machete cut of season two as we go to the very end of the season with the last bonus episode that ties into the movie. Yui tries to teach the rest of the group self defense and they get their passports.

Jared and Anne Ladyem (anneladyem.com) see what happens when Azusa has some bizarre dreams that she believes are reality.

Jared and Anne Ladyem (anneladyem.com) look to enjoy the beginning of summer as the Light Music Club goes a big musical summer festival.

Jared and Anne Ladyem (anneladyem.com) gotta deal with the hot hot summer as the Light Music Club basically melts and has to find a bigger tank for Ton-chan.

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.

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.