Anthology films — feature-length presentations comprised of multiple, stand-alone stories — afford their contributors great artistic freedom and, quite often, crucial visibility. Robot Carnival, which was initially released mid-1987, gathers some names you have probably heard of before, but for many, this was their debut. Including the bookend animation (a worthwhile story/anecdote in its own right), there are eight installments centered around the loose theme of “robots,” and Jared and Ink dig into each of them. (Spoilers via plot point run rampant, but enjoying these stories does not hinge on plot.) Join us as we talk for nearly the length of the anthology about the components thereof: their themes, their strengths and weaknesses, and how they complement each other and contribute to the overarching theme as it builds piece by piece.

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Runtime: 1 hr, 29 min

Airing wayyyyyyyyy back in 2006, Ergo Proxy is the story of a bored, privileged goth girl (Re-l) and her flamboyant autoreiv companion, Iggy, in an oasis cursed to be both cradle and catacomb. Romdo is a domed city and, to its inhabitants, the last viable living space on an otherwise toxic planet. But there’s an influx of immigrants from the outside world seeking refuge, a disease sweeping the robotic residents (autoreivs) that’s making them gain consciousness, and an unknown monster threatening the daily comfort of the bourgeoisie.

Join Jared and Ink as they look at all this dystopian future sci-fi series as we look at the themes it touches upon; if it conforms to, bends, or breaks certain genre touchpoints; and just how gosh-darned pretty it still is. (Seriously, folks, if you love an emo-as-f*ck anime written by a wordy philosophy/theology major, this is your jam.)

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Runtime: 1 hr, 28 min

IGN’s Miranda Sanchez (@HavokRose) joins Evan and David to recap some of their favorite announcements and demos from E3 2018. Evan gushes about Smash Ultimate, David has a lot of Kojima thoughts about Death Stranding, Miranda is ready for more Halo and Kingdom Hearts, and much more. Plus a bit of anime news about Rose of Versailles and Kill la Kill. Topics include: Waluigi is a beautiful man, Kojima dating sims, and Netflix Light & Ryuk as playable characters.

Runtime: 1 hour, 25 minutes

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Evan and David are joined by their buddy Dave Cabrera (@sasuraiger), video game writer and author of the excellent webcomic Kawaiikochans, to talk about their impressions of the premiere of FLCL Progressive, the sequel to FLCL. Plus Hinamatsuri, Dark Souls, and lots of shmup talk from the two Daves. Topics include: Noboru Iguchi’s Virtua Tennis, We Have to Blow up the Dong Factory, and 10-hour Gradius binges.

Runtime: 1 hour, 23 minutes

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Kids on the Slope sees Cowboy Bebop‘s Shinichiro Watanabe (director) and Yoko Kanno (music) adapt Yuki Kodama’s manga about youths in 1960s Japan (Kyushu) who find each other and themselves through jazz. As MAPPA’s first production, KoTS needed to make a splash. Its musical performances, VA work, art, storyboarding, choreography, characterization, and soundtrack make it an anime of legend. Find out what went into making this insanely enjoyable anime and what hosts Jared and Ink as well as guest Alex Osborn got out of it. (We do run long on this one, but there is a lot to unpack here.)

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Runtime: 2 hr, 16 min

Evan and David finally get around to properly discussing Devilman Crybaby, now that everybody else has finally stopped talking about it and they both finished it. Plus, a little send-off to Ghibli founder Isao Takahata, who passed away a few weeks ago, some Life is Strange and Bloodborne talk, and the long-awaited answer to which host is the seme and which is the uke. Topics include: “wowsers,” The Ikuhater, and K-pop Ryo.

Runtime: 1 hour, 15 minutes

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Evan and David welcome back the AGP’s reigning bad ’80s anime champion Stephen McAuliffe to talk about the legendary apocalyptic psychic action movie Harmagedon (a.k.a. Genma Wars) at the request of friend of the podcast Vinnie Averello. The trio marvels at both the nonsensical plot of the movie itself and Central Park Media’s extremely powerful English dub. Topics include: Street Fighter diversity, “American Indian,” and psyonic racism.

Runtime: 1 hour, 24 minutes

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Not a lot is known about O-ei, Katsushika Hokusai’s third daughter, and that’s what makes Miss Hokusai less an interesting biopic than dramatic historical fiction. This movie, which adapts Hinako Sugiura’s original manga, paints a portrait of an artist in vignettes and brings to light a historical figure who lived in the shadows for a good deal of her life. Daughter, sister, artist, woman – Miss Hokusai crafts how O-ei is defined and grows by integrating nods to her work and her father’s with intimate moments that made her who the mangaka wanted her to be today. We’ve included some links to easily Google-able reference materials in the show notes, and we strongly urge you to check those out if you dig the character and historical figure as we now do.

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Runtime: 1 hr, 35 min

This episode Evan and David talk Celeste and David’s new PS4 (he’s playing Bloodborne), the parties and wacky indie games of the Game Developers Conference, game dev unionization efforts, and their most anticipated Spring 2018 anime. Topics include: The Daily Isin Dose, the Ed Chavez anime, and Godwin’s Law but for game streamers and slurs.

Runtime: 1 hour, 3 minutes

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The Eccentric Family, which adapts the novels of Tomohiko Morimi, is directed by Masayuki Yoshihara and features animation production via P.A. Works. The story focuses on the Shimogamo family, which is comprised of shape-shifting tanukis, in a fictionalized but superbly rendered Kyoto which is also inhabited by tengus and humans. The Eccentric Family is, above all things, about familial relationships: the good, the bad, the ugly, and the really, really strange. Listen to Jared and Ink and special guest Helen as we talk about what it means to own your idiot blood — what works and what doesn’t in seasons 1 and 2 of The Eccentric Family.

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Runtime: 1 hr, 20 min