Best Seat on the Couch

Ya like jazz? Marcus's third Mobile Suit Gundam entry continues the gang's discussion on the Universal Century and the One Year War, with a grittier, more self-contained narrative than what we discussed in our episode on Unicorn. Musically unique and visually stunning, Thunderbolt gets our praise primarily because it feels less focused on the minutia of Mobile Suit Gundam and more focused on being a war movie: it hits a lot harder this time around thanks to its adult main characters, more terrifying and dramatic combat, and more mature war-centric themes like drug abuse or child soldiers. It's not a winner for everyone—Iris might have thrown in the towel on Gundam as a whole this episode—but the gang has a lot of praise for this short, two-sided ballad where nobody wins in the end. Content warning: SPOILERS, strong language.

With our episode on Toy Story 3 fresh in our minds, the gang picks up where we left off with 2019's Toy Story 4, a film that cements itself as the—wait a minute, why'd they make another one? Toy Story is literally the best trilogy of all time! Join us as we try and figure out the most important question of all: does this movie have a reason to exist? Some of us say yes: the animation is ridiculously high quality now, Woody still has genuine character growth to experience, and Forky ends up being a fairly interesting new character to the main cast, at least at the beginning of the movie. Some of us say no: Buzz gets character assassinated, there's a noticeable drop in narrative quality compared to Toy Story 3, and the ending simply doesn't hit the emotional notes it needs to. Should this movie just be called Woody? Good shout, Josh. Content warning: SPOILERS, strong language.

If Alex can make Iris break with his episode intro, you know it's gonna be a banger.

Praised as one of 2021's best anime series, Odd Taxi is a short mystery-esque series set in Tokyo where all of the characters are anthropomorphic animals, centering our walrus-man Odokawa, the taxi driver. The show initially touches on the pleasant sentimentality of meeting all of these people with their own unique lives with trials and tribulations, but soon ups the stakes when Odokawa gets tangled up with a missing highschooler, a gangster, and someone who's trying to murder him. There's some excellent writing in this well-contained single season, with touching slow moments and some really emotionally rich dialogue as the audience uncovers the mystery of not only what's going on, but who Odokawa really is. Content warning: SPOILERS, strong language.

With our episode on Toy Story 2 fresh in our minds, the gang picks up where we left off with 2010's Toy Story 3, a film that cements itself as the conclusion to one of the best film trilogies of all time. With many years having passed between 2 and 3 both IRL and in-universe, we here on the Couch get to feel like we've grown up with Andy, and get hit with some of the best emotional payoff at the end of the film that we've ever seen: Andy goes to college, Woody finds new purpose with a new kid but understands the emotional weight of saying goodbye to Andy, and the acceptance of moving on from a journey that's offered so much to both Andy and the toys. There's so much to love about this film, whether it's Lotso as an antagonist, Woody's continued character growth, the gorgeous and continually improving animation quality, and the film's climax—so stick around and listen to us love it! Content warning: SPOILERS, strong language.

Marcus's second entry in our multi-month saga in the Mobile Suit Gundam Universe takes us into the franchise's Universal Century, but (perhaps questionably) the gang is starting at the very end, with 2010's Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn. Everyone's intros can be boiled down to some variation of "this show doesn't work without prior knowledge of the Universal Century," and by far our biggest criticism of the show is that it's a confusing, lore-heavy, politically flip-floppy series; when you combine those two shortcomings, you get a show that's almost impossible to grasp as a first-time watcher. It's a real shame that, at its core, Unicorn shows genuine promise with some excellent political and anti-war messaging, and it's flanked by an incredible Hiroyuki Sawano soundtrack and some of the best animation in the series, but it looks like Marcus should probably provide a primer for the gang next time around. Content warning: SPOILERS, strong language.

Once again the gang turns back the clocks to follow up our episode on Toy Story with our discussion on 1999's Toy Story 2, a film that really kickstarts the Pixar meme of "so what if ____ had feelings?" and sets the foundation for the entire Toy Story franchise...that's still going on to this day! This movie introduces Jessie and Woody's Roundup, the evil Emperor Zurg, and the philosophical conundrums of identity, mortality, and immortality! It's a fantastic evolution of the foundational idea of Toy Story, shows significantly improved computer-generated animation made in 4 years of progress, raises the stakes significantly for Woody and Buzz and doesn't retread their character arcs from the first film, and does all this while still being a fantastically fun children's movie to watch even as an adult. That all being said, it's still not a better sequel than Shrek 2. Content warning: strong language.

Just in time for New Year's resolutions to begin falling apart, the gang brings a full-blown Japanese PSYOP anime designed specifically to get the single Otakus to hit the gym: How Heavy Are the Dumbbells You Lift? So the question is...does it succeed? As far as edutainment animes go, Iris said it best: the 'edu' part is good, the 'tainment' part is where we have some issues. It's got excellent advice for beginners or those who have no gym experience while also providing post-credit workouts and fun alternatives to exercising outside of a gym, like climbing a thousand flight of stairs! But on the other hand, trash anime and its gratuitous fan service comes in many forms, and few of them are as disappointingly awful as the kind shown in Dumbbells, which the gang lambasts thoroughly. Overall, though, some of us actually got some physical workouts in during and after watching this show, so...thanks, Alex! Content warning: SPOILERS, strong language.

ONE PIECE fans around the world can finally close the book on Eiichiro Oda's 1155-episode first season, with the Elbaph arc kicking off season 2 in April 2026! Okay, people who actually watch this anime know we're on season 21, but it's a funny meme. Alex once again assembles panelists Ayana, Katy, Lony, and Owen to discuss the episodes that aired in 2025 and bounce ideas around some reasonably important stuff like the Knights of God, Scopper Gaban, Imu using the Domi Reversi, and more. We love to see Luffy succeed via the power of friendship, we must deconstruct the God Valley flashback, and we can't finish a ONE PIECE episode on the couch without a couple of theories to cap off the session. Perhaps Iris, Marcus, and Michael might finally have their chance to join in on the fun with the upcoming The One Piece Remake coming to Netflix at the end of this year. Content warning: SPOILERS, strong language.

The film that heralded the end of Disney's 2D-animated era, 2009's The Princess and the Frog came as a last hurrah after Disney's foray into Chicken Little, then was followed immediately by Tangled...so where does it stand amongst the Disney greats? Its animation and soulful soundtrack certainly elevate it to that illustrious Disney standard, and Marcus can't get through this episode without gassing up Keith David, not to mention that we get a lovely picture of 1920s New Orleans life and culture...which in turn starts to get a little problematic once you remember the kind of social structure that was around in 1920s New Orleans. Indeed, in addition to some minor pacing issues and the weird look for frog Naveen and frog Tiana, it feels like Disney's hard attempt at being colorblind and refusal to address the social rift between Tiana and Lottie actually makes the film's narrative worse, especially for Tiana's character arc through the film. It's another week with another pseudo-Writer's Desk panel in the back half of the episode, so you know it's another certified banger. Content warning: SPOILERS, strong language.

Alex is thoroughly out-weebed on this week's episode of Best Seat on the Couch, as Marcus, hot on the heels of Love, Death & Robots and Transformers One, arises with a multi-month saga planned around the universe of Mobile Suit Gundam, beginning with 2022's The Witch from Mercury. Longtime Gundam fans may find this choice of a beginner's series questionable, but the show is simultaneously a good primer for some of Gundam's most important thematic tenets while also being a fresh take on the formula (a female protagonist!) wrapped up in all of the bells and whistles of high-quality animation, a great soundtrack, and some sick sound design. Join us as we talk about our favorite characters, character arcs, confusing government bodies, and depressing moments, and stick with us as Marcus takes the gang on a genuinely painful Trivia Corner not at all created in retaliation against Alex's Digimon Trivia Corner. Content warning: SPOILERS, strong language.