Fade to Lack

Not-E3 2026! All the Gaming News from Sony, Xbox & More! | Purely Academic #33

Jonathan R. Lack — Tue, 09 Jun 2026 13:02:09 GMT

It’s time for another installment of Purely Academic, a variety podcast hosted by Jonathan Lack and Sean Chapman. You can subscribe for free in Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

The most wonderful and/or tedious time of the year has come once more: It’s Not-E3 2026, when all of the video game giants share their biggest announcements for the year. As always, we’re here to recap it, with thoughts on Sony’s State of Play, the Summer Game Fest, and the Xbox Showcase, across which we saw the unveiling of God of War Laufey, the sooner-than-expected Final Fantasy VII Revelation, the long-awaited reveal of Persona 6 and more gameplay of Persona 4 Revival, and much more, including Xbox’s completely incoherent exclusivity ‘strategy.’ We also find some time to quickly review Saros, the new PS5 exclusive from Housemarque, and talk about 007 First Light from Hitmandevelopers IO Interactive. A very silly Monthly Ten rounds out the episode, in which Jonathan pitches 10 Star Wars projects for Disney to announce and then quickly abandon.

Enjoy!

TIME CHART:
Intro: 0:00:00 – 0:04:33
General Gaming News: 0:04:33 – 0:31:08
Sony State of Play: 0:31:08 – 1:13:12
Summer Game Fest: 1:13:12 – 1:59:45
Xbox Showcase: 1:59:45 – 2:47:34
Saros: 2:47:34 – 2:53:50
007 First Light: 2:53:50 – 3:14:39
The Monthly Ten: 3:14:39 – 3:46:59

Subscribe to JAPANIMATION STATION, our podcast about the wide and wonderful world of anime: https://www.japanimation-station.com

Read Jonathan’s book 200 Reviews in Paperback or on Kindle – https://a.co/d/bLx53vK

Subscribe to our YouTube channels!

Japanimation Station: https://www.youtube.com/c/japanimationstation

Purely Academic: https://www.youtube.com/@purelyacademicpodcast

Support the show at Ko-fi ☕️ https://ko-fi.com/weeklystuff

Original Music by Thomas Lack https://www.thomaslack.com/

TOMINO-THON Mid-Season Finale! L-Gaim OVAs + Ranking Series, Names, and More!

Jonathan R. Lack — Mon, 08 Jun 2026 15:01:13 GMT

Welcome to Season 6 of Japanimation Station, where we are peering into the delightfully deranged mind of Tomino Yoshiyuki with our long-awaited Tomino-thon – Part 1: The New Anime Era! You can subscribe on all platforms at www.Japanimation-Station.com.

For our last episode of Season 6 Part 1, we’re taking a look at the 3 OVA releases for Heavy Metal L-Gaim. Released between 1986 and 1987, the first two offer recap specials of the TV series alongside original comedy shorts, while the third, Full Metal Soldier, is an original story set during the first half of the show, and it’s a real treat if you enjoyed the series as much as we did. Then, we look back on Part 1 of our Tomino-thon with a bunch of fun rankings! We rank each of the 7 shows we reviewed this season, before counting down the craziest Tomino names, best theme songs, and greatest mech designs, as we used to do every year on Weekly Suit Gundam. It’s a very fun, very silly episode, as we take stock of the journey so far before continuing on to the second half of our season this fall.

Enjoy! We’ll be going on a short summer break as we finish Part 2 of our Tomino-thon season – dubbed “The Tears of Time” – which will be premiering this fall for another round of exciting episodes, beginning with Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam!

Time Chart:

Theme Song: 0:00:00 – 0:01:37

L-Gaim OVAs: 0:01:37 – 0:53:32

Eyecatch Break: 0:53:32 – 0:54:18

Tomino Rankings: 0:54:18 – 2:58:23

End Theme: 2:58:23 – 3:00:33

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Subscribe to PURELY ACADEMIC, our monthly variety podcast about movies, video games, TV, and more: https://purelyacademic.simplecast.com

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Read Jonathan’s book 200 Reviews in Paperback or on Kindle – https://a.co/d/bLx53vK

“Tominoson-G Mk. V” – Music by Thomas Lack, Lyrics by Sean Chapman, featuring Hatsune Miku & KAITO. “The World You See” – Music & Lyrics by Thomas Lack, featuring Hatsune Miku. https://www.thomaslack.com

TOMINO-THON! Heavy Metal L-GAIM Part 2 (Episodes 27-54) Review

Jonathan R. Lack — Mon, 01 Jun 2026 15:00:46 GMT

The second half of Heavy Metal L-Gaim bucks the trend from Xabungle and Dunbine of Tomino shows that become messier down the home stretch, as this final set of episodes sees Daba Myroad step fully into his role as rebel leader, and the show itself tighten into a more focused, substantive experience. As we come to learn more about the truth of Oldna Posaydal and the fractured politics of Pentagonal World, a number of characters become deeper and richer, and the series reveals itself as something of a narrative and thematic precursor to Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam. With incredible animation, excellent writing, and more of Nagano Mamoru’s outstanding mechanical designs, L-Gaim is a real triumph, and one of our favorite discoveries from this season’s episodes.

Enjoy! And come back next week for our mid-season finale, in which we wrap up Part 1 of our Tomino-Thon by discussing the L-Gaim OVAs, ranking our favorite ridiculous Tomino names, and more!

Time Chart:

Theme Song: 0:00:00 – 0:01:37

L-Gaim Part 2 Review: 0:01:37 – 1:23:37

Eyecatch Break: 1:23:37 – 1:24:22

L-Gaim Part 2 Review Continued: 1:24:22 – 3:10:30

End Theme: 3:10:30 – 3:12:40

Subscribe to our YouTube channels!

Japanimation Station: https://www.youtube.com/c/japanimationstation

Purely Academic: https://www.youtube.com/@purelyacademicpodcast

Subscribe to PURELY ACADEMIC, our monthly variety podcast about movies, video games, TV, and more: https://purelyacademic.simplecast.com

Follow Japanimation Station on Instagram and Threads @JapanimationStationPodhttps://www.instagram.com/japanimationstationpod/

Read Jonathan’s book 200 Reviews in Paperback or on Kindle – https://a.co/d/bLx53vK

TOMINO-THON! Heavy Metal L-GAIM Part 1 (Episodes 1-26) History & Review

Jonathan R. Lack — Mon, 25 May 2026 15:01:21 GMT

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, a prickly anime veteran named Tomino Yoshiyuki teamed up with a plucky young animator named Nagano Mamoru, and with a healthy dose of inspiration from an obscure international sci-fi hit called Star Wars, they made one of the most rad mecha anime of the 1980s: Heavy Metal L-Gaim! In these first 26 episodes, we enter Pentagona World and meet our hero, Daba Myroad, as he begins a resistance against Pentagona’s mysterious ruler, Oldna Posaydal. Driven by outstanding and influential mech designs from Nagano and a fun, fleet-footed sense of storytelling, these episodes are perhaps Tomino at his breeziest, but also some of the most entertaining material we’ve watched all season.

Enjoy, and come back next week as we finish L-Gaim with episodes 27 through 54, where the show transforms into something even better…

Time Chart:

Theme Song: 0:00:00 – 0:01:37

Intro and History: 0:01:37 – 1:22:44

Eyecatch Break: 1:22:44 – 1:23:29

L-Gaim Part 1 Review: 1:23:29 – 3:13:37

End Theme: 3:13:37 – 3:15:46

Subscribe to our YouTube channels!

Japanimation Station: https://www.youtube.com/c/japanimationstation

Purely Academic: https://www.youtube.com/@purelyacademicpodcast

Subscribe to PURELY ACADEMIC, our monthly variety podcast about movies, video games, TV, and more: https://purelyacademic.simplecast.com

Follow Japanimation Station on Instagram and Threads @JapanimationStationPodhttps://www.instagram.com/japanimationstationpod/

Read Jonathan’s book 200 Reviews in Paperback or on Kindle – https://a.co/d/bLx53vK

Review: "The Mandalorian and Grogu" is a necessary reset for a bloated Star Wars landscape

Jonathan R. Lack — Sun, 24 May 2026 14:03:25 GMT

At this point, Star Wars is, I think it is safe to say, too big for its own good. It looms too large in popular culture, commands too high a budget and commercial expectations, has expanded too far in its number of central works and amount of accumulated lore. Once Lucasfilm, under Disney, opened the Pandora’s Box of live-action spin-offs for film and television outside the core ‘Skywalker Saga,’ they all but ensured we would reach this point, where the franchise has atomized to such a degree that no new Star Wars film can adequately shoulder the aggregate burden of what Star Wars is to all people. There will never again be a Star Wars event on the scale of The Empire Strikes Back or Revenge of the Sith, a monocultural object that mass audiences will see, debate, and love or hate on a relatively even playing field, working from a largely shared set of Star Wars experiences and expectations. Those days are gone.

Jon Favreau’s The Mandalorian and Grogu arrives carrying the unfortunate weight of being ‘the first Star Wars film in seven years,’ and the first since the unmitigated creative disaster of J.J. Abrams’ The Rise of Skywalker. Perhaps the highest praise I can lend the film is that it feels admirably unburdened from trying to live up to whatever impossible expectations those facts imbue it with. This is the first live-action Star Wars film that seems to arrive with the knowledge that Star Wars is no longer monocultural1: that there is no one singular ‘Star Wars,’ and no one singular ‘audience’ for the ongoing space opera. Rather than fighting against that reality, the film accepts it: this is not the next Star Wars movie, but a theatrical extension of The Mandalorian TV series. You will either be on board for that or you won’t be; such is the reality of the franchise’s cultural atomization. I for one found it rather refreshing.

After all, The Mandalorian itself has been fighting against its own place within the Star Wars landscape ever since Luke Skywalker’s CGI doppelganger walked on screen in the season 2 finale. For its first 15 episodes, The Mandalorian felt like a breath of fresh air precisely because it was not trying to shoulder the burden of being ‘all Star Wars for all people.’ It wasn’t a space opera, but a space Western procedural, a Lone Wolf and Cub riff about a bounty hunter and his adorable ward, neither of whom had special blood or were destined to save the galaxy. Its production values were outsized even for the streaming age of television, but its ambitions were refreshingly modest. No Sith, no Jedi, no homework required – just a cool man-with-no-name archetype, his awesome little puppet sidekick, and a new adventure with an increasingly endearing set of oddball supporting characters each week. It rocked.

When Luke Skywalker showed up in the 16^th episode, it was, inevitably, a pivot point; as the end of Mando and Grogu’s journey together – Luke had shown up to take Grogu into his care – the cameo could, perhaps, be justified. Mando went on a journey, briefly brushed against the central spine of the Star Wars universe, and then the journey ended. That could work. Instead, it was a Big Bang-style point of rapid expansion. The next Mandalorian season wasn’t called The Mandalorian at all: it was The Book of Boba Fett, and it involved not only a bunch of characters from the Original Trilogy – including Luke and the eponymous Boba – but a number of characters and degree of lore from the hundreds of episodes of animated Star Wars television – namely The Clone Wars and Rebels – overseen by Dave Filoni. The Book of Boba Fett inaugurated a new era of Star Wars where no matter the title of the show, everything was part of the larger ongoing mega-narrative: Boba Fett, Ahsoka, The Bad Batch, Skeleton Crew, and more were less discrete works under the Star Wars umbrella than consecutive seasons of an endless Star Wars soap opera. Even The Mandalorian, when it came back for season 3, wasn’t really The Mandalorian anymore; it was another spin-off season – The Book of Bo-Katan – where Mando and Grogu were supporting characters in a much grander narrative.2 Star Wars had, indeed, gotten too big – so big that every individual piece began to buckle under its collective weight.

I offer all of this as context to argue that The Mandalorian and Grogu may in fact be a necessary corrective. I liked the film, in some ways quite a bit, and I think I liked it for some of the very same reasons other critics are chafing against it. This is not The Mandalorian as a central pillar of the grand Star Wars cathedral: this is The Mandalorian as we initially met him, in a procedural ‘mission-of-the-week’ story. Mando and Grogu are front and center, there is no concern shown for any of the lore or stakes of the larger Star Wars universe beyond them, and in its place is an understated but meaningful character arc that pushes the main duo’s relationship forward.

It is, in short, a back-to-basics affair: Mando (aka Din Djarin, voiced by Pedro Pascal but physically embodied by Brendan Wayne and Lateef Crowder, who are at last properly credited alongside the movie star) picks up a job, meets some interesting characters (including Rotta the Hut, son of Jabba, voiced by Jeremy Allen White and absolutely jacked), and engages in some fun action scenes that play with the show’s various genre influences (mainly Westerns and Samurai films – anything descended from Kurosawa’s Yojimbo). By the end, Mando and Grogu’s parent/child relationship has evolved a little bit. To me, that’s enough. I am absolutely fine with this being, as many have called it, a ‘big episode of the TV series.’ That’s a good thing, especially since the TV series itself spent its last two seasons trying to be anything other than what viewers initially loved, and became a disappointing garbled bore as a result. Maybe it’s the anime viewer in me, who is plenty used to movies that are TV series extensions; it’s still unusual in Hollywood, but Japanese animation is chock full of franchise films that offer standalone stories set in the story’s world but not invested in driving that entire world forward. For my tastes, this is the right kind of ‘expanded episode on the big screen;’ it’s less about the extra scope or budget afforded the production than the extra time, and the focused space of the theater helping to coalesce ideas in a single direction.

The film’s secret sauce is how it lives up to its title: if this goes beyond our traditional Mandalorian adventure, it’s because the “and Grogu” part really matters here. Grogu essentially takes over as protagonist at the halfway point for a good long stretch, and it’s lovely: a Jim Henson creature feature, à la The Dark Crystal or Labyrinth, mostly devoid of dialogue, as the little guy gets in the metaphorical driver’s seat and does some creative problem solving. It’s adorable, yes, almost criminally so, but it’s also doing another thing this series has avoided since the end of season 2: letting the character dynamics evolve. Grogu gets to be proactive here, and Mando gets to start trusting and relying on him in a way he hasn’t before. In some ways the changes are small and glacial, but that’s also what makes them meaningful, in the same way a child taking its first steps is both a relatively minor increase in physical capability and a major, unforgettable milestone. The arc here is subtle, but it’s real. In the film’s trailer, Mando tells us “the kid will live centuries beyond me; I won’t always be around to protect him.” That line is cut from the finished film, but I think it would be redundant, as that’s clearly the subtext of the adventure, the anxiety quietly weighing on Mando early in the film, the dynamic being paralleled with Rotta the Hut and his awful family who never let him be his own man. At the end, Mando lets Grogu sit in the literal driver’s seat. Baby steps. But for our often-silent protagonist and his nonverbal ward, those baby steps feel big. The more salient line Mando has here is “The old protect the young and the young protect the old; this is the way.” It’s a small message, pat even, especially for a film carrying the creative and commercial burden of ‘Star Wars’ on its shoulders. But from another point of view, is not that smallness a virtue? Isn’t it healthy, for the series as a whole, that instead of coming down to a galaxy-wide war, or the fate of a long family lineage, or a grand meta-statement on the place of the franchise within the modern media landscape, a Star Wars movie can instead offer a simple, matter-of-fact reflection on what it is to be a parent?

A lot of this will come down to how much you as an individual are A) into the basic procedural space western stylings of The Mandalorian to begin with, and B) how much you love Grogu in all his adorable puppet glory. If you’re a soulless curmudgeon who hates fun, then no, there is nothing to see here. Move along. You will be miserable, because this puppet is front and center and wielding his cuteness with the subtlety of a double-barreled shotgun. But if you love watching this awesome little puppet dude do funny little puppet dude things, then there’s a lot to love here. Again, that Jim Henson-esque stretch in the middle is lovely. Magical, even. I don’t think we should downplay the achievement of the practical puppet and animatronic work bringing this character to life just because we’ve seen it before; it’s truly extraordinary stuff, the kind of practical effects work we don’t see in Hollywood almost at all anymore, and every time the Lucasfilm team comes back to Grogu, they get a little better at it, are able to tease out more movement and expression and characterization. Honestly, my biggest complaint with The Mandalorian and Grogu is that too much of the rest of it relies on CGI for the alien characters, when we know this team is capable of such amazing tactile wonders. I can accept Rotta the Hut as a computer-generated creation, because he is big and ridiculous and has to body slam his opponents in a way that would probably wreck an animatronic; but none of that logic applies to Mando’s co-pilot Zeb, or the alien shopkeeper voiced by Shark Tale’s own Martin Scorsese. They should be puppets, and we should take joy in their tactility, too.

The production as a whole is solid, if never particularly elevated beyond what the TV series did. The cinematography is fine, but not on par with the standard set by legends Greig Fraser and Dean Cundey on the series. Their work had considerably more color and dynamism to it than most of what we see here; it’s never as bad as your average barely color-graded Marvel movie, but it also lacks the visual panache that typically accompanies Star Wars on screen. Normally, this would bother me more than it does; the theatrical film playing in IMAX venues with $25 ticket prices should not have shakier visuals than the straight-to-streaming TV show. But the film makes up for its production deficits in one big way, and it makes up for it so fulsomely that I can accept these flaws in the aggregate: and that lies in the truly outstanding musical score by the increasingly unstoppable Ludwig Göransson, who makes an absolute meal out of expanding his themes and sonic textures from the show into a fully-realized two-hour film score. I love how he both dives deeper into the electronic, industrial sounds of this world while also pulling back and engaging in some John Williams-style orchestral whimsy. The stretch with Grogu in the lead is accompanied by a really different kind of score than we’ve heard from Goransson before, one that borrows from Williams not in the big bombastic attention-grabbing motifs, but in the quieter moment-to-moment way Williams’ symphonic scores dance above the action, acting as a sonic extension of the mise-en-scene. That’s the part of Williams that’s always missing when others try to imitate him (it’s the part Michael Giacchino is terrible at, in his abysmal scores for Rogue One or the Jurassic World movies), but arguably the element that’s most important. And it’s a joy to hear how Goransson shifts in and out of those different modes depending on which of our two leads is in the figurative (or literal) driver’s seat.

So yes – my response to The Mandalorian and Grogu is positive, though not rapturous. If anything, the fact that I can walk into a Star Wars movie and simply have a good time with it, without feeling the need to declare it a harbinger of something greater in one direction or the other, is I think a healthy sign for this franchise. I understand, to some degree, why much of the critical reaction has been hostile – this is the first Star Wars film that is not trying to be ‘an event,’ and if you’re going in expecting one, it will absolutely throw you for a loop – but at the end of the day, this film is exactly what it says on the tin: It is The Mandalorian, as a movie, this time with more Grogu. There’s nothing wrong with that; if anything, Star Wars has needed something like this, something smaller and less obsessed with legacy and lore, something that reminds us why this is a ‘universe’ in the first place, one with many potential corners, not just one grand narrative that must be followed and chronicled obsessively. This might not be the way, but it is a way; that Star Wars can relinquish its grip on the definite article in the scope of its ambitions is, I posit, a step in the right direction.

Read the book 200 Reviews by Jonathan R. Lack in Paperback or on Kindle

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Not the first Star Wars film ever, though, since it has this quality in common with the animated The Clone Wars movie from 2008 (essentially the pilot for the subsequent 7-season TV show).

Yes, Tony Gilroy’s Andor stands outside this reading of recent Star Wars history; but then, it stands outside – and, frankly, above – most of Star Wars history to begin with. It’s special.

"Mobile Suit Gundam HATHAWAY: The Sorcery of Nymph Circe" Review & Analysis

Jonathan R. Lack — Wed, 20 May 2026 15:03:15 GMT

Welcome to Weekly Suit Gundam, an anime podcast brought to you by the folks at Japanimation Station. We are here to dive into the wide and wonderful world of Gundam, and you can subscribe on all platforms at www.Japanimation-Station.com.

The second installment of the Mobile Suit Gundam: Hathaway film trilogy is finally here, and it was absolutely worth the five-year wait. The Sorcery of Nymph Circe, based on the second novel of Tomino Yoshiyuki’s Hathaway’s Flash light novel series, is a more complicated, dense, and challenging film than its predecessor, but also one that dives deeper into its characters fractured psyches. And along the way, it presents some of the boldest and most immersive 3D mecha animation we’ve ever seen, building to a climax that is absolutely staggering in both aesthetic and emotional impact. We also discuss several pieces of recent Gundam news, including new projects announced for the worlds of Gundam Wing and Gundam SEED.

Enjoy, and if you haven’t already been listening to Japanimation Station this season, be sure to check-in for our Tomino-thon, where we’re surveying all the works in the career of original Gundam creator Tomino Yoshiyuki!

Time Chart:

Theme Song: 0:00:00 – 0:00:59

Intro & Initial Reactions: 0:00:59 – 0:09:20

Gundam News: 0:09:20 – 0:35:21

Film Background Info: 0:35:21 – 1:20:22

Eyecatch Break: 1:20:22 – 1:21:10

Circe Review: 1:21:10 – 2:48:15

End Theme: 2:48:15 – 2:49:17

Subscribe to PURELY ACADEMIC, our monthly variety podcast about movies, video games, TV, and more: https://purelyacademic.simplecast.com

Read Jonathan’s book 200 Reviews in Paperback or on Kindle – https://a.co/d/bLx53vK

Subscribe to our YouTube channels!

Japanimation Station: https://www.youtube.com/c/japanimationstation

Purely Academic: https://www.youtube.com/@purelyacademicpodcast

Support the show at Ko-fi ☕️ https://ko-fi.com/weeklystuff

Original Music by Thomas Lack https://www.thomaslack.com/

TOMINO-THON! Aura Battler DUNBINE Part 2 (Episodes 20-49) Review

Jonathan R. Lack — Mon, 18 May 2026 15:01:41 GMT

The second half of Aura Battler Dunbine is one of the most fascinating and divisive stretches of Tomino Yoshiyuki’s career. After a killer set of episodes following the deepening conflict in Byston Well, the series’ action shifts to Upper Earth – our world – for the final cours, an increasingly brutal and bleak set of episodes that frustrates some viewers even as it invigorates others. That divide is seen between our two hosts on today’s show, as Jonathan found the series overly repetitive and static down the home stretch, while Sean defends it as a potent story of wartime intransigence. Wherever one comes down, though, it’s clear Dunbine is a series worth grappling with and talking about. It’s utterly unique, stirringly directed, and if nothing else, it introduced us to a certain Bostonian named Todd Guinness – and you might want to stay through the end of the episode to hear more about him.

Enjoy, and come back next week as we begin our adventures with Heavy Metal L-Gaim, covering episodes 1 through 26!

Time Chart:

Theme Song: 0:00:00 – 0:01:37

Dunbine Part 2 Review: 0:01:37 – 1:31:44

Eyecatch Break: 1:31:44 – 1:32:28

Dunbine Part 2 Review Continued: 1:32:28 – 3:05:37

BEYOND THE TODD: 3:05:37 – 3:11:08

Subscribe to our YouTube channels!

Japanimation Station: https://www.youtube.com/c/japanimationstation

Purely Academic: https://www.youtube.com/@purelyacademicpodcast

Subscribe to PURELY ACADEMIC, our monthly variety podcast about movies, video games, TV, and more: https://purelyacademic.simplecast.com

Follow Japanimation Station on Instagram and Threads @JapanimationStationPodhttps://www.instagram.com/japanimationstationpod/

Read Jonathan’s book 200 Reviews in Paperback or on Kindle – https://a.co/d/bLx53vK

“Tominoson-G Mk. V” – Music by Thomas Lack, Lyrics by Sean Chapman, featuring Hatsune Miku & KAITO. “BEYOND THE TODD” – Produced by Thomas Lack, featuring KAITO & Hatsune Miku, based on “BEYOND THE TIME” by TM Network. https://www.thomaslack.com

One Piece, Resident Evil, Nintendo News & Bad Xbox Marketing Ideas

Jonathan R. Lack — Thu, 14 May 2026 15:02:17 GMT

We’re back for a fun, variety-filled Monthly Stuff episode filled with our own personal obsessions. After going over some Nintendo and Xbox news, including the announcement of Star Fox for Switch 2 and a changing direction for Game Pass, Jonathan talks about recent news surrounding the One Piece anime remake by Wit Studio, before going in-depth on the Netflix live-action series after finally watching it over the last month. Sean talks about the recently-finished Journal with Witch anime (starring podcast fave Sawashiro Miyuki), and then goes deep on his continuing Resident Evil completionist adventures, with particular attention paid to finally playing the much-maligned Resident Evil 6. And finally, for The Monthly Ten, Sean is challenged to come up with 10 marketing campaign for Xbox that are even dumber than the ‘This is an Xbox’ slogan. He doesn’t manage to do that, because that slogan truly cannot be beaten, but he comes up with some good ones all the same.

Enjoy!

TIME CHART:
Intro: 0:00:00 – 0:13:55
Nintendo News: 0:13:55 – 0:36:25
Xbox News: 0:36:25 – 1:02:13
One Piece News: 1:02:13 – 1:13:33
Netflix’s Live-Action One Piece Thoughts: 1:13:33 – 1:39:19
Journal With Witch: 1:39:19 – 1:56:50
Sean’s Resident Evil Adventures Pt. 2: 1:56:50 – 2:54:35
The Monthly Ten: 2:54:35 – 3:14:28

Subscribe to JAPANIMATION STATION, our podcast about the wide and wonderful world of anime: https://www.japanimation-station.com

Read Jonathan’s book 200 Reviews in Paperback or on Kindle – https://a.co/d/bLx53vK

Subscribe to our YouTube channels!

Japanimation Station: https://www.youtube.com/c/japanimationstation

Purely Academic: https://www.youtube.com/@purelyacademicpodcast

Support the show at Ko-fi ☕️ https://ko-fi.com/weeklystuff

Original Music by Thomas Lack https://www.thomaslack.com/

TOMINO-THON! Aura Battler DUNBINE Part 1 (Episodes 1-19) History & Review

Jonathan R. Lack — Mon, 11 May 2026 15:01:44 GMT

Grab your motorcycle, hop on the aura road, and cross between the sea and the shore to join us in Byston Well, where we’ll be spending the next 2 weeks with Aura Battler Dunbine! One of Tomino’s most audacious, ahead-of-its-time creations, Dunbine anticipates the popularity of the isekai genre decades later with the story of Show Zama, a young man from our earth who falls into the high fantasy setting of Byston Well, and becomes embroiled in warlord Drake Luft’s bloody conquest. Reminiscent of many later fantasy-driven anime, but extremely different than all of them, Dunbine is absolutely one-of-a-kind, as proven by these first 19 episodes, which climax with one of the most virtuosic stretches of Tomino’s career.

Enjoy, and come back next week as we finish Aura Battler Dunbine with episodes 20 through 49!

Time Chart:

Theme Song: 0:00:00 – 0:01:37

Intro and History: 0:01:37 – 1:10:55

Eyecatch Break: 1:10:55 – 1:11:36

Dunbine Part 1 Review: 1:11:36 – 3:16:54

End Theme: 3:16:54 – 3:19:04

Subscribe to our YouTube channels!

Japanimation Station: https://www.youtube.com/c/japanimationstation

Purely Academic: https://www.youtube.com/@purelyacademicpodcast

Subscribe to PURELY ACADEMIC, our monthly variety podcast about movies, video games, TV, and more: https://purelyacademic.simplecast.com

Follow Japanimation Station on Instagram and Threads @JapanimationStationPodhttps://www.instagram.com/japanimationstationpod/

Read Jonathan’s book 200 Reviews in Paperback or on Kindle – https://a.co/d/bLx53vK

TOMINO-THON! Combat Mecha XABUNGLE Part 2 (Episodes 27-50) & XABUNGLE GRAFFITI Review

Jonathan R. Lack — Mon, 04 May 2026 15:02:27 GMT

The second half of Combat Mecha Xabungle – episodes 27 through 50 – plays like a second season, with the action moving to Planet Zola’s snowy tundra, a new group of characters arriving on the scene in the form of the freedom-fighting Salt crew, and the kidnapping of the Iron Gear’s captain, Elchi Cargo, leading to a new set of stakes for the series’ second half. It doesn’t all work, as Xabungle falls into some unfortunately repetitive patterns down the home stretch, blunting some of the great character work and world-building done in the first. But these episodes are not without their considerable high points, and if nothing else, the compilation movie – Xabungle Grafitti – is one of the weirder such films we’ve ever looked at. If the journey matters more than the destination, then Xabungle is definitely a journey we’re happy to have taken.

Enjoy, and come back next week as we cross through the aura road and enter the world of Byston Well with the first 19 episodes of Aura Battler Dunbine!

Time Chart:
Theme Song: 0:00:00 – 0:01:37
Xabungle Part 2 Review: 0:01:37 – 1:02:42
Eyecatch Break: 1:02:42 – 1:02:23
Xabungle Part 2 Review Continued: 1:02:23 – 2:10:37
End Theme: 2:10:37 – 2:12:46

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TOMINO-THON! Combat Mecha XABUNGLE Part 1 (Episodes 1-26) History & Review

Jonathan R. Lack — Mon, 27 Apr 2026 15:01:51 GMT

Beginning an historic, uninterrupted run of 5 back-to-back 50-episode anime series airing from 1982 to 1987, Combat Mecha Xabungle marks an exciting turning point in Tomino Yoshiyuki’s career. After really giving his ‘Kill ‘em All’ ethos a workout on Space Runaway Ideon, Tomino set himself a very different challenge with Xabungle: What if this could be a ‘Nobody Dies’ show? The result is a vibrant mecha action comedy set in what is basically the wild west (albeit on the planet Zola), with a ragtag cast of vibrant characters battling their way through some of Tomino’s richest and most intriguing world-building. In this week’s conversation, we look at the history of the show and discuss the first 26 episodes, which we found to be absolutely delightful from top to bottom.

Enjoy, and come back next week as we finish Xabungle with episodes 27-50 and the compilation movie, Xabungle Grafitti!

Time Chart:
Theme Song: 0:00:00 – 0:01:37
Intro and History: 0:01:37 – 1:29:51
Eyecatch Break: 1:29:51 – 1:30:33
Xabungle Part 1 Review: 1:30:33 – 3:11:35
End Theme: 3:11:35 – 3:13:50

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TOMINO-THON! THE IDEON Movies – A CONTACT & BE INVOKED (1982) History & Review

Jonathan R. Lack — Mon, 20 Apr 2026 15:01:56 GMT

Many years before Anno Hideaki remade the ending to his audacious but unfinished sci-fi TV series with an avant-garde theatrical tour-de-force in The End of Evangelion, Tomino Yoshiyuki blazed the trail with The Ideon: Be Invoked, providing the full ending Space Runaway Ideon never got on television in spectacular (and spectacularly violent) fashion. Alongside its companion film, A Contact – which recaps the story of the TV series – Be Invoked completes the Ideon experience in the most purely Tomino ways imaginable, with incredibly intense action, an absolutely astonishing amount of bloodletting, and, in the end, a transcendental vision of collective human consciousness breaking free from these shackles we call bodies. It is one of the darkest, strangest, and most spectacularly produced anime films of all time, a crucial step not just in the career of Tomino Yoshiyuki, but in the history of Japanese animation itself.

Enjoy, and come back next week for something completely different: Tomino’s delightful Western mecha comedy Combat Mecha Xabungle!

Time Chart:
Theme Song: 0:00:00 – 0:01:37
History and A Contact Review: 0:01:37 – 1:03:44
Eyecatch Break: 1:03:44 – 1:04:28
Be Invoked Review: 1:04:28 – 3:17:29
End Theme: 3:17:29 – 3:19:43

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TOMINO-THON! Space Runaway IDEON (1980) TV Series History & Review

Jonathan R. Lack — Mon, 13 Apr 2026 15:01:08 GMT

It’s finally time to discuss what is almost certainly Tomino’s best-known and most widely renowned work outside the world of Gundam: 1980’s Space Runaway Ideon, the 39-episode TV series that begins with a relatively similar premise to Mobile Suit Gundam – a ragtag crew of space colonists flee an invading army, with a mysterious and powerful mecha in tow – before quickly spinning into much stranger, darker, and more philosophical territory. In fact, Ideon might be something closer to a horror anime than a traditional mecha show. But however one defines it, Ideon is undoubtedly one of Tomino’s finest hours, bold and brutal and artistically extraordinary at every turn. For today’s show, we look specifically at the original TV series, which ends abruptly (albiet distinctively); on next week’s episode, we’ll look at the two films Tomino and Sunrise produced in 1981 to recap and ultimately finish the story. The Ideon is simply way too big to contain in a single episode.

Enjoy, and come back next week for our review of The Ideon movies: A Contact and Be Invoked!

Time Chart:
Theme Song: 0:00:00 – 0:01:37
Intro and History: 0:01:37 – 1:24:34
Eyecatch Break: 1:24:34 – 1:25:17
Ideon TV Series Review: 1:25:17 – 3:56:28
End Theme: 3:56:28 – 3:58:38

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TOMINO-THON! The Revolutionary Creation of MOBILE SUIT GUNDAM (1979)

Jonathan R. Lack — Mon, 06 Apr 2026 15:01:33 GMT

Considering Japanimation Station started its life in 2019 as Weekly Suit Gundam – which itself started with a six-part podcast miniseries following Sean and Jonathan discussing every aspect of the original Mobile Suit Gundam series from 1979 – it’s safe to say we’ve already reviewed the legendary ‘First Gundam’ on this show. So for today’s episode, we’re doing something a bit different to celebrate the most crucial turning point in the career of Tomino Yoshiyuki: Narrating the history of the series from its conception through the release of the Gundam movie trilogy, which heralded the dawn of a ‘New Anime Era.’ It’s our most scripted episode to date, as we share original research and writing on the creation and historical impact of Gundam, while also making space to discuss how we see the show itself in the light of our ongoing ‘Tomino-thon’ project. Even if you’ve heard us talk about Gundam many times before, this is an episode you won’t want to miss.

Enjoy, and come back next week as we look at the original 39 episodes of 1980’s Space Runaway Ideon!

Time Chart:
Theme Song: 0:00:00 – 0:01:37
The Making of Gundam ‘79: 0:01:37 – 1:39:41
Eyecatch Break: 1:39:41 – 1:40:27
Dawn of the New Anime Era: 1:40:27 – 2:10:38
End Theme: 2:10:38 – 2:12:47

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Subscribe to PURELY ACADEMIC, our monthly variety podcast about movies, video games, TV, and more: https://purelyacademic.simplecast.com

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DLSS 5, Pokémon Pokopia, Resident Evil, and Silly Texas Acronyms

Jonathan R. Lack — Thu, 02 Apr 2026 15:03:20 GMT

The news just won’t stop coming, so we once again have an overstuffed Monthly Stuff episode to break it all down, from the reveal of Nvidia’s horrific slop-fueled DLSS 5, to Sony raising prices dramatically on PS5 systems, to the announcement of a new Lord of the Rings movie from Stephen Colbert, and more! Once we’re doing breaking all that down, Jonathan tells us all about his adventures in Pokémon Pokopia, while Sean explains how he spent spring break playing - *checks notes* - 7 different Resident Evil games. And finally, Jonathan is on deck for The Monthly Ten, as Sean tasks him to come up with 10 increasingly ridiculous new acronyms for the State of Texas’ annual standardized tests.

Enjoy!

TIME CHART:
Intro: 0:00:00 – 0:04:37
Video Game News: 0:04:37 – 1:20:00
Movie News: 1:20:00 – 1:55:31
Anime News: 1:55:31 – 2:01:33
Jonathan’s New Computer Stories: 2:01:33 – 2:17:00
Ultraman Nexus: 2:17:00 – 2:33:50
Pokemon Pokopia: 2:33:50 – 2:50:27
Sean’s Resident Evil Adventures: 2:50:27 – 3:26:23
The Monthly Ten: 3:26:23 – 3:43:57

Subscribe to JAPANIMATION STATION, our podcast about the wide and wonderful world of anime: https://www.japanimation-station.com

Read Jonathan’s book 200 Reviews in Paperback or on Kindle – https://a.co/d/bLx53vK

Subscribe to our YouTube channels!

Japanimation Station: https://www.youtube.com/c/japanimationstation

Purely Academic: https://www.youtube.com/@purelyacademicpodcast

Support the show at Ko-fi ☕️ https://ko-fi.com/weeklystuff

Original Music by Thomas Lack https://www.thomaslack.com/

TOMINO-THON! Invincible Steel Man DAITARN 3 (1978) History & Review

Jonathan R. Lack — Mon, 30 Mar 2026 15:01:32 GMT

“Exhilaration, humor, and pathos” – these are the three pillars Tomino Yoshiyuki outlined in a pre-production memo for the series that became 1978’s Invincible Steel Man Daitarn 3. And the 40-episode show that followed very much fulfilled those goals, as this blend of super robot and Kamen Rider-style super hero action – also taking copious influence from the worlds of Star Wars and James Bond – is a fun and, in the end, surprisingly impactful series. It’s also the show where Tomino drilled down and learned how to perfect an episodic TV formula, telling a different and distinct story every week. While it gets off to a slow start, Daitarn 3 gets better and better as it goes on, building to a finale that proves to be one of Tomino’s finest directorial efforts, and which signals the full artistic flourishing of the man who would create Gundam.

Enjoy, and come back next week as we arrive at the dawn of the new anime era: 1979’s legendary Mobile Suit Gundam!

Time Chart:
Theme Song: 0:00:00 – 0:01:37
Intro and History: 0:01:37 – 1:27:25
Eyecatch Break: 1:27:25 – 1:28:10
Daitarn 3 Review: 1:28:10 – 2:41:53
End Theme: 2:41:53 – 2:44:02

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Subscribe to PURELY ACADEMIC, our monthly variety podcast about movies, video games, TV, and more: https://purelyacademic.simplecast.com

Follow Japanimation Station on Instagram and Threads @JapanimationStationPodhttps://www.instagram.com/japanimationstationpod/

Read Jonathan’s book 200 Reviews in Paperback or on Kindle – https://a.co/d/bLx53vK

TOMINO-THON! Invincible Super Man ZAMBOT 3 (1977) History & Review

Jonathan R. Lack — Mon, 23 Mar 2026 15:01:50 GMT

Our Tomino-thon reaches its first full review of the season with 1977’s Invincible Super Man Zambot 3, the debut series from a newly independent Sunrise, and the first original show directed in full by Tomino Yoshiyuki. Combining fantastical, episodic ‘super robot’ action with traces of the darker, more psychologically dense storytelling Tomino would eventually be known for, Zambot 3 also sees several members of the future Mobile Suit Gundam team working together for the first time, including character designer Yasuhiko Yoshikazu, mechanical designer Okawara Kunio (who drew the Bandok fortress, the series’ most striking design), and musical composers Watanabe Takeo and Matsuyama Yuji. And it’s the show that would, with its legendarily brutal finale, birth the legend of ‘Kill ‘em All’ Tomino.

Enjoy, and come back next week as we meet the suave Haran Banjō in Invincible Steel Man Daitarn 3!

Time Chart:
Theme Song: 0:00:00 – 0:01:37
Intro and History: 0:01:37 – 0:51:57
Eyecatch Break: 0:51:57 – 0:52:41
Zambot 3 Review: 0:52:41 – 2:24:13
End Theme: 2:24:13 – 2:26:22

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TOMINO-THON Begins! The Origins of Tomino Yoshiyuki, including MIGHTY ATOM and TRITON OF THE SEA

Jonathan R. Lack — Mon, 16 Mar 2026 15:02:36 GMT

Our Tomino-thon kicks off with a history-focused episode exploring the origins of Tomino Yoshiyuki leading up to the creation of his first full original series, Zambot 3 (which we’ll be reviewing next week). Where did this mad creative genius come from, and what was he up to in the years before he earned his ‘Kill ‘em all’ moniker? This episode takes us from the political climate in Japan during Tomino’s college years, to Tomino’s time at Mushi Pro becoming one of the most prolific episode directors on Tezuka Osamu’s Mighty Atom (aka Astro Boy), to his first directorial project, a (very loose) adaptation of Tezuka’s Triton of the Sea manga. We explore how he became known as the anime industry’s ‘wandering storyboard man’ in the 1970s, and end with the creation of the studio that became Sunrise, Tomino’s creative home for the bulk of his career. It’s a very fun, extremely informative episode that lays the foundation for the season to come.

Enjoy, and come back next week as we review Invincible Super Man Zambot 3, the show which first earned Tomino his ‘kill ‘em all’ moniker!

Time Chart:
Theme Song: 0:00:00 – 0:01:37
Intro and Tomino Origins Part 1: 0:01:37 – 0:16:30
Mighty Atom/Astro Boy: 0:16:30 – 0:59:04
Tomino Origins Part 2: 0:59:04 – 1:09:25
Eyecatch Break: 1:09:25 – 1:10:37
Triton of the Sea: 1:10:37 – 1:48:23
Wrap-up: 1:48:23 – 1:54:54
End Theme: 1:54:54 – 1:57:03

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Japanimation Station: https://www.youtube.com/c/japanimationstation

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Subscribe to PURELY ACADEMIC, our monthly variety podcast about movies, video games, TV, and more: https://purelyacademic.simplecast.com

Follow Japanimation Station on Instagram and Threads @JapanimationStationPodhttps://www.instagram.com/japanimationstationpod/

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RESIDENT EVIL REQUIEM Review & Discussion

Jonathan R. Lack — Thu, 12 Mar 2026 15:02:40 GMT

There’s very little we enjoy talking about more than Resident Evil here at Purely Academic, as the series has been on one of the most amazing hot streaks in the history of gaming over this past decade. The latest entry, Resident Evil Requiem, is a stirring summation of everything these games have done well as of late, combining the survival horror and bombastic action the series has perfected across Resident Evil 7 and Village and the Resident Evil 2 and 4 remakes all into one incredible package. With a great new protagonist in Grace Ashcroft and a new story for series favorite Leon S. Kennedy, Requiem is as good a time we’ve had playing – or talking about – a game in a very long time.

Enjoy!

TIME CHART:
Intro: 0:00:00 – 0:04:36
Jonathan Talks Twin Peaks & Alamo Drafthouse: 0:04:36 – 0:34:46
Sean Talks Nioh 3: 0:34:46 – 0:55:22
Resident Evil Requiem Review: 0:55:22 – 02:43:27

Subscribe to JAPANIMATION STATION, our podcast about the wide and wonderful world of anime: https://www.japanimation-station.com

Read Jonathan’s book 200 Reviews in Paperback or on Kindle – https://a.co/d/bLx53vK

Subscribe to our YouTube channels!

Japanimation Station: https://www.youtube.com/c/japanimationstation

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Support the show at Ko-fi ☕️ https://ko-fi.com/weeklystuff

Original Music by Thomas Lack https://www.thomaslack.com/

The Decimation of Video Games, the Destruction of Hollywood, and the Dawn of Ditto

Jonathan R. Lack — Thu, 05 Mar 2026 16:01:49 GMT

It’s been a big – and depressing – few weeks of news in the entertainment industry, so we’re back for the March ‘Monthly Stuff’ episode to break it all down. First up we have Sony’s sudden (and infuriating) closure of Bluepoint, the studio behind many top-of-the-line remakes and remasters including 2020’s Demon Souls, which prompts a broader discussion about the issues Sony has had during the PS5 generation. Then we have the news of Phil Spencer’s retirement at Xbox, and the installation of one of Microsoft’s AI executives into the job. And then there’s the matter of Netflix bowing out of their proposed acquisition of Warner Bros., leaving the road open for Paramount (and the Ellison family) to gobble up Hollywood’s oldest, most storied institution. With all that terrible news, we needed a pick-me-up at the end, which comes in the form of a very silly Monthly Ten, in which Sean imagines 10 games that steal the premise of Pokémon Pokopia by putting a Ditto front and center in the middle of the action.

Enjoy!

TIME CHART:
Intro: 0:00:00 – 0:05:22
Bluepoint & PlayStation News: 0:05:22 – 1:01:12
Xbox News: 1:01:12 – 1:33:31
Video Game News: 1:33:31 – 1:57:52
Anime News: 1:57:52 – 2:10:20
Hollywood News: 2:10:20 – 2:28:45
Monthly Ten: 2:28:45 – 2:51:16

Subscribe to JAPANIMATION STATION, our podcast about the wide and wonderful world of anime: https://www.japanimation-station.com

Read Jonathan’s book 200 Reviews in Paperback or on Kindle – https://a.co/d/bLx53vK

Subscribe to our YouTube channels!

Japanimation Station: https://www.youtube.com/c/japanimationstation

Purely Academic: https://www.youtube.com/@purelyacademicpodcast

Support the show at Ko-fi ☕️ https://ko-fi.com/weeklystuff

Original Music by Thomas Lack https://www.thomaslack.com/