Key Frames

Episode 116 of Key Frames, a podcast about anime. Nine out of ten doctors agree, it's best to get one's excitement or disappointment over new anime out at the very beginning of the season. Accordingly, in the interests of good health, Ben declares war on the latest season of Rent-a-Girlfriend, shocking absolutely no one, while Jeff has nothing but hope for yet another girls-with-guns show. Andy, brave as ever, has declared that an isekai parody is the best anime of the season, despite its lack of songs by Creepy Nuts, and Duncan... well, Duncan's doing just fine with his theories on heavy metal and masculinity. Strap in, this one's a biggie!

Episode 115 of Key Frames, a podcast about anime. That's right, it's another discussion of everyone's favorite cyberpunk franchise! It's been barely a month since Ben and Duncan cautiously praised the first few episodes of the second season of Ghost in the Shell: SAC_2045, but now they're back to say that the caution was warranted and that the series represents a nadir for Kenji Kamiyama's otherwise interesting career. What did they like, what did they hate, and how does it relate to the broader conversation about producing and marketing franchises in anime? Why, you'll have to listen to find out! Also, note that this is the last of Key Frames' biweekly episodes: from this point onward, we'll be releasing episodes on the first Tuesday of every month, to permit more of our hosts to attend more regularly.

Episode 114 of Key Frames, a podcast about anime. What's the biggest surprise in this episode? Is it that Jeff managed to watch eight love comedies, in whole or in part, and found none of them to be particularly great? Is it that Ben expressed disappointment about two of the spring anime season's biggest hits after claiming repeatedly to be jaded about all of them? Is it that Duncan's favorite show happened to be something called The Executioner and Her Way of Life? All of this and more will be revealed to you when you listen to this latest episode.

Episode 29 of Key Frames: Inbetweens, a mini-podcast about anime. We just did a tween on Mobile Suit Gundam, one of the defining franchises of anime, so why not another? Jeff and Duncan drink deeply of the original Ghost in the Shell movie, which they praise for asking questions more than giving answers, and they ponder how it pointed the way forward (and, in a handful of cases, backward) for cyberpunk as a genre, anime as a medium, and cyborgs as a lens through which to view alienation from one's own body and society. It's not quite what it could be, since Ben couldn't be there, but maybe he'll be back in the next episode to give everyone what for.

Episode 113 of Key Frames, a podcast about anime. Isn't it strange sometimes how things can have opposite meanings in different contexts? If I call something "magic," depending on the tone of my voice, I could be saying either that it's a beautiful spectacle of otherworldly mystery or that it's complete bullshit that doesn't explain anything and means nothing on its own. I guess that's just how context works, though. Is "selling out" really a possibility if all anime, at least outside of crowdfunding, is corporate on some level? Is it really a sequel to Ghost in the Shell: Stand-Alone Complex if it's just recycling elements from previous installments in the franchise? Ben and Duncan discuss this and more in our latest episode!

Episode 112 of Key Frames, a podcast about anime. I know we talk a lot about sex on this podcast but, to be fair, anime is extremely horny. As fans of it, we have to apologize for (or at least tolerate) jiggling boobs, panty shots, and more or less everything about the "harem" subgenre. That's why it's kind of a relief to talk about adult relationships in the shows we like! You know, people having sex first and then catching feelings, people whose connections with their partners are more about comfort than romance, and of course the endless (and endlessly) homoerotic fan service of shounen and seinen battlers. Not to mention that, after the break, we have One Piece talk from Andy, Magic Knight Rayearth talk from Ben, and School Days talk from Jeff, while Duncan scoffs at us all!

Episode 28 of Key Frames: Inbetweens, a mini-podcast about anime. The creeping obsession with Mobile Suit Gundam shared by Ben, Duncan, and Jeff gains another toehold in the podcast with this tween on the celebrated 1989 OVA written by none other than Hiroyuki Yamaga of Studio GAINAX fame. Hear our hosts talk about being anti-war in an anime designed first and foremost to sell toys, about the beauty and demise of hand-painted cel animation, and their evolving relationship with this, the nonpareil of mecha anime! And don't worry, complaints about how annoying Al is and how dumb Lt. Col. Killing's name is are kept to a minimum.

Episode 111 of Key Frames, a podcast about anime. You'd think that Ben and Andy couldn't hold down a podcast by themselves, but you'd be wrong. These hosts are two great tastes that taste great together, and they even agree on some anime! Hear them heap praise on Ya Boy Kongming! and Spy x Family, two of the big winners at the outset of the spring 2022 anime season, and hear them heap... other kinds of things on the rest of the shows they're watching. Just kidding, it's way better pickings that last season!

Episode 110 of Key Frames, a podcast about anime. What do you do when recapping an anime season almost entirely dominated by two or three shows? Why, you have an end-of-season episode where every anime gets a full five to fifteen minutes of discussion, for once! My Dress-Up Darling and The Case Study of Vanitas are the clear winners, in terms of time devoted to them, but Ben, Duncan, and Jeff find something to love even in relative disappointments like Akebi's Sailor Uniform and Ranking of Kings. And that's not even taking into account the older stuff they talk about near the end! Surely, not one to miss.

Episode 27 of Key Frames: Inbetweens, a mini-podcast about anime. It's time for a rematch on whether Violet Evergarden is profoundly moving or manipulatively sappy! Duncan, Andy, and Jeff square up over the sequel movie that was released two years ago in Japan and last year worldwide, but don't worry, it's not Violet-loving Andy vs. the world this time. Jeff and even Duncan join him at times in praising the movie, in between analyzing it as a meditation on discomfort with modernity and the instantaneous communication that underpins it. Should you watch Violet Evergarden: The Movie, even if you haven't seen the show first? Well... maybe you should listen and find out!