The fourth and potentially final TV season of the hit anime Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba aired its fourth season this summer, adapting and expanding on the “Hashira Training Arc” of Koyoharu Gotouge’s manga. We weren’t able to review this season right when it finished due to work on our massive Kyoto Animation project, but now that we’re between seasons we thought it was time to talk once more about one of our favorite ongoing anime. These episodes adapt a very short slice of the manga, expanding on it in really wonderful ways to give us a final stretch of in-depth character development before the chaos of the Infinity Castle Arc, which will be produced as a film trilogy in the coming years. As always, ufotable’s adaptational choices are really smart and interesting to talk about, and it all builds to a season finale that’s one of the best episodes in the show’s history. 

Enjoy! We’ll be going on a bit of a hiatus for now as we work on SEASON 5 of Japanimation Station, our ‘Grand Tour’ through a variety of anime, which will be premiering later this winter. 

Time Chart:

Theme Song: 0:00:00 – 0:01:15

Hashira Training Arc Review Part 1: 0:01:15 – 1:06:24 

Eyecatch Break: 1:06:24 – 1:06:47

Hashira Training Arc Review Part 2: 1:06:47 – 2:19:08

End Theme: 2:19:08 – 2:20:09

Read Jonathan Lack’s movie reviews and stay up to date with all our podcast projects at https://www.jonathanlack.com

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

“Welcome to Japanimation Station” – Original Music by Thomas Lack, Lyrics by Thomas Lack and Sean Chapman, featuring Hatsune Miku; “Rolled Into One” – Original Music & Lyrics by Thomas Lack, featuring Hatsune Miku. https://www.thomaslack.com

Weekly Suit Gundam makes its triumphant return to review the long-awaited Mobile Suit Gundam SEED FREEDOM, the film sequel to the first Gundam anime of the 21st century: Gundam SEED and Gundam SEED Destiny. We are big fans of the original SEED on this podcast, and were driven slightly insane by Destiny, so seeing director Mitsuo Fukuda and the original cast and crew come back together for a final adventure, based on story material left behind by the late Chiaki Morosawa, is extremely cathartic, especially since the film they made is so astonishingly great. Now that it’s finally dropped in the US on Netflix (albeit in a strange dub-only release – we would encourage listeners to, uh, *search elsewhere* for the original Japanese), we’re free to talk about the film at length, diving into the incredible action, surprisingly potent storytelling, and how the movie finally does right by Kira, Lacus, Shinn, and all the other great characters left in tatters by Destiny. 

Enjoy, and join us next week for another bonus episode of Japanimation Station, where we’ll be reviewing the Hashira Training Arc season of Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba. 

Read Jonathan Lack’s movie reviews and stay up to date with all our podcast projects at https://www.jonathanlack.com

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

It’s the final episode of our Kyoto Vacation season, an incredibly, unexpectedly long journey that’s lasted almost a full year! For this Season Finale, we thought we’d take stock of all the incredible anime we’ve seen from the incredible artists at Kyoto Animation. We make a Tier List of all the TV series and movies we watched this season, create a KyoAni drinking game based on the most common visuals and tropes we noticed across the studio’s work, and declare our favorite shows, characters, episodes, and more. And at the end of the episode, we announce not one, but two new seasons of Japanimation Station: Season 5, premiering this winter, and Season 6, premiering in 2025. What will they be? You’ll have to listen to find out! 

Enjoy, and come back next week for the long-awaited, one-week-only return of Weekly Suit Gundam, as we finally review MOBILE SUIT GUNDAM SEED FREEDOM! 

Time Chart:

Theme Song: 0:00:00 – 0:01:30 

Reflections: 0:01:30 – 0:31:14

Tier List: 0:31:14 – 1:02:53

Picking Favorites & KyoAni Drinking Game: 1:02:53 – 1:52:50

Season 5 Announcement: 1:52:50 – 2:05:38

Season 6 Announcement: 2:05:38 – 2:07:55

End Theme: 2:07:55 – 2:09:09

Make your own Kyoto Animation Tier List here https://tiermaker.com/create/japanimation-stations-kyoto-vacation-17327185   

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

Read the book 200 Reviews by Jonathan R. Lack in Paperback or on Kindle – https://a.co/d/bLx53vK

Follow The Weekly Stuff Wordcast newsletter for regular updates and extra content! 

https://www.jonathanlack.com

Subscribe to The Weekly Stuff Podcast on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/TheWeeklyStuffPodcast

Visit our website and subscribe to Japanimation Station on all podcast platforms: http://japanimationstation.com/

Subscribe to The Weekly Stuff Podcast on all podcast platforms: http://www.weeklystuffpodcast.com

“re:CAPTURE” and “Welcome to Japanimation Station” – Original Music by Thomas Lack, Lyrics by Thomas Lack and Sean Chapman, featuring Hatsune Miku. https://www.thomaslack.com

It’s the penultimate episode of our Kyoto Vacation season, and while we wait to board the plane back to America, we’ve got one last show to review: Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid, which aired two seasons in 2017 and 2021. A delightfully silly and surprisingly sweet slice-of-life comedy an office worker and the extra-dimensional dragon who’s infatuated with her, the first season was directed by the great Yasuhiro Takemoto, before his tragic death in the 2019 arson attack that took the lives of so many Kyoto Animation artists. The second season, Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid S, was finished by the studio’s other stalwart veteran director, Tatsuya Ishihara, as the first series the studio had back on the air after the attack. It’s a great show in both incarnations, different in some notable ways based on the personalities of the two directors, but more than anything, the series attests to the artistry and humanity of Kyoto Animation, and their resilience in continuing to create in the wake of such overwhelming loss.  

Enjoy, and come back next week for the FINAL episode of the season, as we take a look back at our entire Kyoto Vacation, create a tier list of KyoAni shows, and announce Seasons 5 and 6 of Japanimation Station!  

Time Chart:

Theme Song: 0:00:00 – 0:01:30 

Intro & History: 0:01:30 – 0:44:12

Eyecatch Break: 0:44:12 – 0:44:49

Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid Review: 0:44:49 – 2:34:28

End Theme: 2:34:28 – 2:35:59

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

Read the book 200 Reviews by Jonathan R. Lack in Paperback or on Kindle – https://a.co/d/bLx53vK

Follow The Weekly Stuff Wordcast newsletter for regular updates and extra content! 

https://www.jonathanlack.com

Subscribe to The Weekly Stuff Podcast on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/TheWeeklyStuffPodcast

Visit our website and subscribe to Japanimation Station on all podcast platforms: http://japanimationstation.com/

Subscribe to The Weekly Stuff Podcast on all podcast platforms: http://www.weeklystuffpodcast.com

“re:CAPTURE” and “ice” – Original Music & Lyrics by Thomas Lack, featuring Hatsune Miku & Megurine Luka. https://www.thomaslack.com

The 7th and final part of our epic Kyoto Vacation is titled“Through Rain or Shine: The Life and Times of Violet Evergarden,” and in today’s episode we reach the end of that story with Violet Evergarden: The Movie. And what a movie it is. Here is a film that made at least one of our hosts ugly cry, and deeply affected both of us. An outstanding masterpiece of a movie on its own terms, and a tremendous conclusion to the Violet Evergarden story, director Taichi Ishidate and screenwriter Reiko Yoshida both outdo themselves here, telling a tale about guilt, death, love, and acceptance, and doing it with nearly unparalleled artistry. It is as profound a work as Kyoto Animation has ever created, and one of the best animated films we’ve had the pleasure of reviewing on this show. 

Enjoy, and come back next week for the penultimate episode of the season, where we’ll be discussing Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid, the other major KyoAni series that straddles the horrific arson attack that devastated the studio. 

Time Chart:

Theme Song: 0:00:00 – 0:01:30 

Intro & History: 0:01:30 – 0:57:45

Eyecatch Break: 0:57:45 – 0:58:23

Violet Evergarden The Movie Review: 0:58:23 – 3:29:57

End Theme: 3:29:57 – 3:31:26

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

Read the book 200 Reviews by Jonathan R. Lack in Paperback or on Kindle – https://a.co/d/bLx53vK

Follow The Weekly Stuff Wordcast newsletter for regular updates and extra content! 

https://www.jonathanlack.com

Subscribe to The Weekly Stuff Podcast on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/TheWeeklyStuffPodcast

Visit our website and subscribe to Japanimation Station on all podcast platforms: http://japanimationstation.com/

Subscribe to The Weekly Stuff Podcast on all podcast platforms: http://www.weeklystuffpodcast.com

“re:CAPTURE” and “ice” – Original Music & Lyrics by Thomas Lack, featuring Hatsune Miku & Megurine Luka. https://www.thomaslack.com

The 7th and final part of our epic Kyoto Vacation continues with the first Violet Evergarden film, Eternity and the Auto-Memory Doll! It is a ‘Gaiden’ side-story that plays like a longer, lusher episode of the TV series, where Violet comes into a client’s life and not only helps them write the perfect letter, but in so doing helps them make a major personal breakthrough. And this time, she does it twice, as the film takes the surprising step of resetting halfway through with a major time jump, and the flipside of the story we see in the first half. It’s a remarkable film, boldly and beautifully directed by Haruka Fujita in her feature directorial debut, and the first KyoAni production animated in 2.35:1 widescreen, making for one of the most overwhelmingly gorgeous things we’ve reviewed so far.

Enjoy, and come back next week for our review of the final piece of the Violet Evergarden saga, the aptly but confusingly named second film Violet Evergarden: The Movie! 

Time Chart:

Theme Song: 0:00:00 – 0:01:30 

Intro & History: 0:01:30 – 0:34:57

Eyecatch Break: 0:34:57 – 0:35:34

Violet Evergarden Gaiden Review: 0:35:34 – 2:35:27

End Theme: 2:35:27 – 2:36:58

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

Read the book 200 Reviews by Jonathan R. Lack in Paperback or on Kindle – https://a.co/d/bLx53vK

Follow The Weekly Stuff Wordcast newsletter for regular updates and extra content! 

https://www.jonathanlack.com

Subscribe to The Weekly Stuff Podcast on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/TheWeeklyStuffPodcast

Visit our website and subscribe to Japanimation Station on all podcast platforms: http://japanimationstation.com/

Subscribe to The Weekly Stuff Podcast on all podcast platforms: http://www.weeklystuffpodcast.com

“re:CAPTURE” and “ice” – Original Music & Lyrics by Thomas Lack, featuring Hatsune Miku & Megurine Luka. https://www.thomaslack.com

The 7th and final part of our epic Kyoto Vacation is titled“Through Rain or Shine: The Life and Times of Violet Evergarden,” which means we finally get to dive into an anime we’ve wanted to review for years: Violet Evergarden, the 2018 series based on the acclaimed novels by Akiko Takase. It is, as you’ve probably heard, a masterpiece, a departure in setting and storytelling from many KyoAni works, but tonally and emotionally something a return to their early Key adaptations like Air and Clannad. A mix of anthological storytelling about different characters in need of letter-writing and a serialized narrative about the eponymous child soldier turned auto-memory doll, Violet Evergarden is a powerful, profound, and stupendously beautiful triumph that leads to one of our longest episodes ever – but if any series deserves this much discussion, it’s this one. 

Enjoy, and come back next week for our review of the first Violet Evergarden movie, Eternity and the Auto-Memory Doll! 

Time Chart:

Theme Song: 0:00:00 – 0:01:30 

Intro & History: 0:01:30 – 1:26:03

Eyecatch Break: 1:26:03 – 1:26:41

Violet Evergarden Review: 1:26:41 – 4:17:08

End Theme: 4:17:08 – 4:18:39

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

Read the book 200 Reviews by Jonathan R. Lack in Paperback or on Kindle – https://a.co/d/bLx53vK

Follow The Weekly Stuff Wordcast newsletter for regular updates and extra content! 

https://www.jonathanlack.com

Subscribe to The Weekly Stuff Podcast on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/TheWeeklyStuffPodcast

Visit our website and subscribe to Japanimation Station on all podcast platforms: http://japanimationstation.com/

Subscribe to The Weekly Stuff Podcast on all podcast platforms: http://www.weeklystuffpodcast.com

“re:CAPTURE” and “ice” – Original Music & Lyrics by Thomas Lack, featuring Hatsune Miku & Megurine Luka. https://www.thomaslack.com

Part 6 of our Kyoto Vacation comes to an end today with the third and final season of Sound! Euphonium, which also happens to be the most recent production from Kyoto Animation, having finished airing just a few weeks ago! This season (and the accompanying Ensemble Contest OVA) tells the story of Kumiko’s final year in High School and the Kitauji Band’s last shot at taking the Gold at Nationals, and it proves to be a divisive set of episodes amongst our hosts. Sean loved it just as much if not more than the previous seasons, finding it a thoughtful and touching portrait of the cyclical realities of high school life as a teacher, while Jonathan found it mostly frustrating in its thematic gaps, narrative repetition, and lack of focus on the music or performance. Our in-house composer and musical expert Thomas Lack joins to help moderate, and it makes for a really engaging, deep discussion that goes beyond just talking about the anime itself. 

Enjoy, and come back on August 4th for the premiere of the seventh and final part of our Kyoto Vacation, “Through Rain or Shine: The Life and Times of Violet Evergarden,” the last set of episodes for this season of the podcast.

Time Chart:

Theme Song: 0:00:00 – 0:01:30 

Intro, History, and Ensemble Contest OVA: 0:01:30 – 0:43:32

Eyecatch Break: 0:43:32– 0:44:09

Sound! Euphonim the Movie Review: 0:44:09 – 2:44:36

End Theme: 2:44:36 – 2:46:06

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

Read the book 200 Reviews by Jonathan R. Lack in Paperback or on Kindle – https://a.co/d/bLx53vK

Follow The Weekly Stuff Wordcast newsletter for regular updates and extra content! 

https://www.jonathanlack.com

Subscribe to The Weekly Stuff Podcast on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/TheWeeklyStuffPodcast

Visit our website and subscribe to Japanimation Station on all podcast platforms: http://japanimationstation.com/

Subscribe to The Weekly Stuff Podcast on all podcast platforms: http://www.weeklystuffpodcast.com

“re:CAPTURE” and “ice” – Original Music & Lyrics by Thomas Lack, featuring Hatsune Miku & Megurine Luka. https://www.thomaslack.com

Part 6 of our Kyoto Vacation continues with the second Sound! Euphonium movie, and the one that directly follows on the events of the TV show to continue the story of Kumiko in her 2nd year at Kitauji. And it may be the most divisive episode of the season so far, as although Sean loved the film and found it a compelling exploration of Kumiko moving into her role as senpai to a new group of first-years, Jonathan was mostly unmoved, finding the film narratively insubstantial and awkwardly structured. But it makes for a really great conversation that helps us arrive at what the core of Sound! Euphonium is, the differences between the source material and Kyoto Animation’s adaptation, and what exactly it is we do – or don’t – respond to in this series. 

Enjoy, and come back next week for the final episode of Part 6, as we review the just-completed Sound! Euphonium season 3, including the Ensemble Contest OVA. 

Time Chart:

Theme Song: 0:00:00 – 0:01:30 

Intro & History: 0:01:30 – 0:21:33

Eyecatch Break: 0:21:33– 0:22:09

Sound! Euphonim the Movie Review: 0:22:09 – 2:00:54

End Theme: 2:00:54 – 2:02:25

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

Read the book 200 Reviews by Jonathan R. Lack in Paperback or on Kindle – https://a.co/d/bLx53vK

Follow The Weekly Stuff Wordcast newsletter for regular updates and extra content! 

https://www.jonathanlack.com

Visit our website and subscribe to Japanimation Station on all podcast platforms: http://japanimationstation.com/

“re:CAPTURE” and “ice” – Original Music & Lyrics by Thomas Lack, featuring Hatsune Miku & Megurine Luka. https://www.thomaslack.com

Part 6 of our Kyoto Vacation is titled ‘Yamada Naoko Strikes Back; or, I Have no Voice and I Must Sound! Euphonium,’ and in this week’s episode, both halves of that title meet, and then some. We are discussing the 2018 film Liz and the Blue Bird, a spin-off/side story to the main Sound! Euphonium narrative, focusing on the oboe and flute players Mizore and Nozomi as they navigate their unusual, fraught friendship while rehearsing a major solo for the Kansai competition. With an entirely different visual aesthetic and Yamada Naoko’s unmistakable voice shining through in every frame, Liz and the Blue Bird stands tall all on its own as a singular masterpiece, and to fully break down just how great the film is, we’ve brought in Jonathan’s concert-band-veteran brother, Thomas – also Japanimation Station’s in-house composer – as a guest on today’s episode. 

Enjoy, and come back next week as we dive into Kumiko’s second year at Kitauji High with the awkwardly titled 2019 film Sound! Euphonium: The Movie – Our Promise: A Brand New Day. 

Time Chart:

Theme Song: 0:00:00 – 0:01:30 

Intro & History: 0:01:30 – 0:47:16

Eyecatch Break: 0:47:16– 0:47:52

Liz and the Blue Bird Review: 0:47:52 – 3:06:29

End Theme: 3:06:29 – 3:07:59

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

Read the book 200 Reviews by Jonathan R. Lack in Paperback or on Kindle – https://a.co/d/bLx53vK

Follow The Weekly Stuff Wordcast newsletter for regular updates and extra content! 

https://www.jonathanlack.com

Subscribe to The Weekly Stuff Podcast on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/TheWeeklyStuffPodcast

Visit our website and subscribe to Japanimation Station on all podcast platforms: http://japanimationstation.com/

Subscribe to The Weekly Stuff Podcast on all podcast platforms: http://www.weeklystuffpodcast.com

“re:CAPTURE” and “ice” – Original Music & Lyrics by Thomas Lack, featuring Hatsune Miku & Megurine Luka. https://www.thomaslack.com