It's the final episode of 2024!! For our Season 6 Wrapped episode, Nigel and Tazziii have put together their personal top five favourite stories of the year. There's also room for honourable mentions, stories that surprised, and disappointed us as well as our favourite ongoing or unfinished stories. So join us as we recap our favourite comic, anime, TV, film and video game stories that made us stop and take notice over the past 12 months.

We're going on a recording break over January, but will be back in February with Season 7 of Story x Story. In the meantime, you'll be able to enjoy some great bonus Rewind episodes until we start recording again in 2025 - Happy New Year!

Another year comes to a close, which means it is time to look back at the past 12 months of incredible story discussions! This special episode brings you the best highlights, pre and post-show chats, and (many, many) bloopers from Season 6 of the podcast, featuring Nigel, Tazziii, a line-up of amazing guests—and a now fully reformed Craig!

We've packed our favourite moments into this episode, showcasing a year of deep dives into stories from Gran Turismo to Scott Pilgrim and Deadpool, along with insightful and entertaining conversations with new and returning guests across comics, manga, TV, and video games. Season 6 marks an extra special milestone as we celebrated our 200th episode 🎉🎉

So sit back and enjoy the ups, downs, sage advice, and everything in between as we recap another season of Story x Story!

This week, Nigel and Tazziii celebrate reaching 200 episodes of the podcast as they dive deep into the anime feature film Blue Giant (starting at 36:23). Joining them is special guest Lao K—not only the other mayamada co-founder but the person responsible for the podcast starting in the first place!

As we enter the double centurion club, we explore the creative journey of the film's three protagonists and how their perspectives on artistic talent weave into a tightly built wound narrative. The story gives us deeper insights about pursuing your dreams in the face of heavy resistance and some self-doubt. Its optimistic approach to creative obsession gives us a chance to debate views on success and storytelling in Eastern versus Western media.

There are themes aplenty to examine, and we get quite philosophical doing just that! This week's storytelling tip explores using underdog narrative beats in stories beyond sports dramas.

This episode was made possible thanks to All the Anime, who provided review copies of Blue Giant.

Other stories we're enjoying include: Dragon Ball Super (Crunchyroll), One Piece (BBC iPlayer), Monster Hunter: World (PC/Console), Foundation (Apple TV+), Holiday in Handcuffs (Disney+), Nutcracker (Disney+), So I'm a Spider, So What? (Crunchyroll), Gosick (Crunchyroll), In Another World with My Smartphone (Crunchyroll), Parallel World Pharmacy (Crunchyroll), Drug Store in Another World (Crunchyroll), If It's for My Daughter, I'd Even Defeat a Demon Lord (Crunchyroll), Kakuriyo: Bed & Breakfast for Spirits (Crunchyroll), The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom (Nintendo Switch), Joker: Folie à Deux (Cinema), Arcane Season 1 & 2 (Netflix), Gladiator 2 (Cinema), The Wild Robot (Cinema)

This week, Nigel and Tazziii sit down with Lucia La Rezza, aka The Nerd Violinist. The musician, composer, and arranger joins us to talk about her journey from multiple Italian locations to the UK and her discovery of music and games. We relive recent performances at FORMAT and the Golden Joystick Awards, while also learning how Lucia found the stability needed to balance a full-time job with musical adventures that have taken her to major events in the UK and mainland Europe.

Lucia also shares her experiences managing physical and mental health and the personal evolution that allows her to make the best of each opportunity. This episode offers valuable insights into the musical side of games and how to move forward in life without letting others' opinions slow you down.

In this episode, we explore:

This week, we're revisiting a recent episode of our Studio77 show, Casual Conversations With Comic Creators, the show where Nigel chats with another creator about their work and the craft of making comics!

It's about showcasing the human being behind the art as we discover each person's story. In this segment, Nigel is in conversation with Dutch Illustrator and Comic Artist Renee Rienties, whose work crosses comics to animation, directing and even event management!

Renee is another returning guest coming for her second sit-down on the show, and we take the opportunity to recap our time at the Malta Comic Con as well as look forward to other international events like The Big Draw and Angoulême Comic Art Festival. We also learn more about the projects Renee is working on as we discuss her evolution as an artist from her first efforts and the journey of becoming a full-time creative — with all the bumps and lessons that come with it!

Catch more shows live on the mayamada Twitch each month with Nigel, Tazziii and the mayamada community: Studio77 Report, Casual Conversations With Comic Creators and Games Night.

This week, Nigel and Tazziii sit down with Sophie Knowles, Lead Artist at Sad Owl Studios and 2024 BAFTA Breakthrough Cohort member. She joins us to talk about her journey to the UK and discovering a passion for the craft of art. We get to hear how a passion for anime and manga led her to discovering 2D art before making the switch to 3D and becoming a self-described generalist.

Sophie also shares her experiences working on the BAFTA award-winning game Viewfinder, and what the award meant to her personally. This episode offers valuable insights into video game art and what it takes to bring ideas to life visually whether you are the person coming up with the original ideas or supporting the development of great ideas in a team!

In this episode, we explore:

This week, Nigel and Tazziii say goodbye to a master of storytelling with Hayao Miyazaki's last film…maybe? Either way, we get autobiographical with a deep dive into The Boy and the Heron (starting at 19:36), with manga artists Inko and Chie.

It's a story that combines all that makes Miyazaki stories great, but with a message that can be a challenge to decipher for those not already familiar. We examine the narrative and pull apart why this left us feeling positive and hopeful by the end. It's a story that relies on the emotional journey of its main characters (from the cute to the absurd) over a logical plot. But it absolutely has something special to say in its themes about dealing with grief and accepting suffering as a part of life. This week's storytelling tip is about implementing a non sequitur narrative in your story.

Other stories we're enjoying include: Fairy Tale (Book), How High We Go in the Dark (Book), Kaos (Netflix), What We Do in the Shadows (Hulu/Disney+), Black Clover (Crunchyroll), Bob's Burgers (Disney+), The Way of Kings (Book), Agatha All Along (Disney+), Tokyo Revengers (Crunchyroll)

This week, Nigel and Tazziii sit down with Elizabeth Cox, the founder of Should We Studio, an independent production company dedicated to raising awareness of the most important issues shaping the future. She joins us to talk about her journey from the world of science to the animation industry and what her experience means for the stories she creates.

Elizabeth shares her experiences working on the studio's upcoming animated series Ada, a five-episode series exploring the ethical and social implications of new technologies. This episode is a great insight into the animation process and what it takes to produce new stories giving voice to underrepresented perspectives across history.

Tune in to discover:

This week, Nigel and Tazziii venture out into the nuclear wasteland with a retrospective look at the Fallout video game adaptation (starting at 26:54), with a full house of guests: Content Creator Jack Mullen, Host and Presenter Aisha Ahmed, along with Cosplayer and Content Creator kayPOWXD.

We take a look at another video game adaptation that manages to sidestep a long line of below-par adaptations and deliver a narrative that faithfully brings the world of Fallout to new audiences while satisfying fans familiar with the games. It's all about the journey, and along the way are believable characters that bring emotional arcs and lore to its audience in a way that avoids endless exposition. It's a valuable lesson for future adaptations and a great listen for fans of the franchise!

Other stories we're enjoying include: Final Fantasy X (PlayStation), Final Fantasy XIII (PlayStation), Astro Bot (PlayStation), Little Goody Two Shoes (PC/Switch), Dandadan (Netflix), The Legend of Vox Machina (Amazon Prime), The Elder Scrolls Online (PC/Console), Life with an Ordinary Guy who Reincarnated into a Total Fantasy Knockout (Crunchyroll), Sleepy Princess in the Demon Castle (Netflix), Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 (Xbox), Agatha All Along (Disney+), Bob's Burgers (Hulu/Disney+), Black Clover (Crunchyroll).

This week, we're revisiting a recent episode of our Studio77 show, Casual Conversations With Comic Creators, the show where Nigel chats with another creator about their work and the craft of making comics!

It's about showcasing the human being behind the art as we discover each person's story. In this segment, Nigel is in conversation with Fantasy Artist & Colourist Eren Angiolini, whose titles include: Critical Role - The Mighty Nein Origins, Justice League, DC Pride, The Domain and Doctor Who.

Eren is returning for their second sit-down on the show, and we get to hear about the work they are currently making progress on, which includes a recent epic Kickstarter campaign! Eren also details their love for Tabletop Role-Playing Games (TTRPGs) and the manifesting journey that landed them the Critical Role comic gig, plus we get to know how they see their career as a massive plot twist!

Catch more shows live on the mayamada Twitch each month with Nigel, Tazziii and the mayamada community: Studio77 Report, Casual Conversations With Comic Creators and Games Night.