In a first EVER on the Couch, the gang is together! in person! in the same room! coming together literally minutes after watching the finale! of Arcane's second and final season! This season is awesome, and while we don't have the benefit of extra time before recording to let the season marinate in our minds, we can still make valuable commentary while riding the high of a phenomenal Act 3. It seems that Studio Fortiche has received even more freedom to flex their artistic muscles in this season, with no shortage of indie music, slow-mo scenes, watercolors, pastels, charcoal rubbings, flip-book style animation, and mic-drop moments. And while it's clear that the team had a lot to cover in just 9 episodes (perhaps too much, in some instances) it feels like they were able to stick the landing with the finale and complete the main narrative throughlines surrounding Vi, Jinx, Cait, Viktor, and Jayce. Stick around as we close the loop on our original Theory Wall from Episode 68 | Arcane! Content warning: SPOILERS, strong language.

While Halloween has come and gone by the time this episode releases, the gang is in full Spooky Season spirit with 2009's Coraline, a Henry Selick stop-motion animated film that follows in the footsteps of The Nightmare Before Christmas. There's an awesome pairing of traditional stop-motion with CGI bells and whistles, and while this film definitely qualifies as a children's movie, the horror element makes a strong argument towards giving those same children some pretty chilling nightmares. Stick around to hear us sing praises for Coraline and the Beldam as characters, the film's excellent score, and the journey the audience gets to go on from this film's start to its end credits. Content warning: SPOILERS, strong language.

Widely considered to be one of the best anime series of all time (especially to Western audiences), Hajime Isayama's Attack on Titan has action, gore, giant organic mecha, bureaucracy, and subterfuge all packed into a TV journey bolstered with great animation from Studio Wit and a baller soundtrack from my boy Hiroyuki Sawano. Given that resident weeb Alex has already watched the entire series, the rest of the gang gets to experience Season 1 at face value: it introduces characters, provides lore and information on Titans in little bite-sized nuggets, and has some really cool fight scenes...but what more is hidden behind the scenes? Stick around for a slightly different Theory Wall segment at the end of the episode, where Iris, Marcus, and Michael call their shots on how things might shake out in Season 2. Content warning: SPOILERS, strong language.

Iris steers the gang back onto the anime track with 2018's Violet Evergarden, a story about a girl who makes the ridiculous character journey from overpowered shōnen-esque child soldier to emotionally stunted post-war ghostwriter, all while tugging on our heartstrings through each individual episode. While Marcus and Iris drop the ball on watching the complementary film, we all get to delve deeply into the anime's vignette-style structure, the importance of written language and how its meaning translates, and the interesting post-war setting of a fictional faux-Germany that has palpable influence on the story's progression. Plus, what the hell does "Iron Giant-pilled" mean?! Content warning: SPOILERS, strong language.

The list of Disney/Pixar films we haven't yet touched upon here on the Couch is getting pretty slim, but 1998's A Bug's Life simply demands discussion, mostly because child Alex's love of insects cannot be denied. Hot off the heels of Toy Story, this film actually holds up quite well; its animation is solid, its characters are honestly quite impressive (with special mention to the villain Hopper and actual convincing child Dot), and its pro-union and Marxist-leaning messages are excellent reminders that it's our right as workers to eat the rich in 2024. Hope y'all enjoy our discussion, because we all know rival film Antz will be making an appearance on the Couch very soon...

Content warning: strong language.

Ignoring that this movie is owned by furries, Disney's Zootopia is an impressively rich world teeming with the kind of social commentary that Disney just barely makes enough of to be thought-provoking without necessarily stating too much. The gang has an exciting discussion about nature vs. nurture, racism, fascism, fantasy worlds, and the role of the police both when this movie came out in 2016 and in our current day—that is, after all, what y'all are here for, right? We've also got our favorite moments, characters, and animal-related puns too. Content warning: SPOILERS, strong language.

The gang breaks the 4-week anime streak to bring one of the most incredible animated TV series of 2023, Scavenger's Reign, a show that got canceled by HBO Max after its premier season but got picked up by Netflix within the last few months. It isn't hyperbole to say that this show moved us; the worldbuilding is phenomenal, the characters and their stories are rich and emotional, and the way the showrunners are able to have the audience connect to planet Vesta, at the same time naturally rich yet so wildly alien, is something we genuinely have never seen before. Even Marcus' and Michael's minor nitpicks evolve into rich discussions about how masterfully this show is written and how complex its characters are, and we really don't have to say much more than what Iris said in the first 3 minutes: go watch this show. Content warning: SPOILERS, strong language.

It has taken the gang 165 episodes to bring an Isekai anime to the Couch, and while they may not be to resident weeb Alex's discriminating palate, Iris brings us a wild first installment all the same with 2023's I'm in Love with the Villainess. It's got drama, it's got magic, and it's exceedingly gay, but as the show goes there are a few characters and moments that really do make it a show worth sticking around for; plus the English dub slaps. Stick around as Marcus gets a little too existential on the Isekai genre and Alex pitches a mini-Trivia Corner to wrap up the episode. Content warning: SPOILERS, strong language.

Now that the gang has completed our reviews on legendary anime film director Makoto Shinkai's Your Name, Weathering with You, & Suzume, we dive into four of Shinkai's films-before-the-fame so to speak, created in the years before Your Name became an international hit—2002's Voices of a Distant Star, 2004's Places Promised in Our Early Days, 2007's 5 Centimeters Per Second, and 2013's The Garden of Words. Stick around for our 4-film tier list, reflections on Shinkai's growth as a director and filmmaker, and recognition of Shinkai's formula and his union of sci-fi/sci-fantasy and love stories. Content warning: SPOILERS, strong language.

Hayao Miyazaki deserves a shrine here on Best Seat on the Couch, and The Boy and the Heron is his final masterpiece and bookend to an illustrious career—or would be, if he actually confirmed his retirement. There's like 5 different metaphorical through lines and yet another stacked English voice cast in this Ghibli film, but perhaps the strongest message that comes through is an allegory for Miyazaki himself, and how a couple of characters in this film could be representative of how Miyazaki feels about his career, his art, and his legacy, now that it's coming to an end. It's a beautiful, emotional, thought-provoking film that is a must-watch for a Miyazaki-Ghibli film. Content warning: SPOILERS, strong language.