Urasawa Boys

After taking a quick video detour with our extremely serious and scientific RANKING OF ROBOTS - the Urasawa Boys are back to wrap up this season on Pluto! We spend some time talking about our final feelings on the comic before getting into some of the neat stuff from the afterwards of each volume, which Matt admits, he should have been reading the whole time! After that we get into a few quick que...

A quick announcement! In lieu of the traditional wrap-up episode, Matt put together a tournament style bracket to determine which of the robots that appeared in PLUTO was The Greatest Robot on Earth! The full video is available now on our NEW YouTube channel, please go check it out - like and subscribe and all that jazz - and we will be back very soon with the promised wrap-up! Have a great Tuesda...

Ah, Montblanc... Ah, North No. 2... Ah, Brando... Ah, Hercules... Ah, Gesicht... Ah, Epsilon... Ah, Pluto... You lived the live given you without hesitation, self-doubt, shame, or resentment... You carried out your duty, and then you were gone... When will they sit in judgment of the humans who created temporary life, out of a limitless lust for power and control, and then destroyed it? And just l...

Urasawa Boys is BACK and there's no time to mourn for Gesicht! Just like that, we're in Australia! Tune in for some heated discussion of the story's pivot to Epsilon's turn in the spotlight, and all of its ups-and-downs. We tackle an opening flashback that may be one of the best to ever do it, and then dig into a volume full of loaded metaphors on queerness (Happy Pride!) along with some pretty si...

And we're back! Here to welcome in the summer season after a nice 3-day weekend here in the US, Matt and Quinn re-convene for another episode of Urasawa Boys, to discuss the doomed, thrilling, and seemingly climactic reading that was volume 6 of Pluto! This one's got it all! New locales, dense discussions of orientalism and the loaded idea of saying "at least we got Democracy," classic investigato...

Flashbacks, revelations, symbolism, religion, history, and incredible robot battles - all of these things and more are here, in this month's groundbreaking episode of URASAWA BOYS! (Note from Matt - It's groundbreaking because we've switched to a MUCH more sustainable monthly release schedule!) Join us after 4 weeks of patient anticipation for a lively discussion of all the arcs in this next chunk...

Seminars on software to replace paperwork - a massive workplace machine disassembled into Ikea-esque pieces - newspaper interviews of a local heroic pizza parlor employee - a closet somehow collapsing with a deafening BANG! These are the forces that conspired to delay the release of this month's episode of Urasawa Boys: Pluto, which finally brings us across the halfway point, and many many steps c...

Move over THE BRUTALIST - Urasawa Boys is back with episode 3 of our season on Pluto! Just as long (three and a half hours) but also featuring powerful robots who understand abstract art! (Take that Adrien Brody!) On a more serious note - thank you for your patience during our delay, this week's episode features incredible exposition, classic Urasawa chapters on a shocking racist mystery-conspirac...

Whoops! We accidentally recorded a 4-hour podcast on this week's reading. Matt has to teach a class at work today and tomorrow, so he couldn't finish the edit on time, but it will be here before you know it! And folks - it's a good one! Next Time: Pluto (Chapter 16-23) Urasawa Boys is a podcast hosted by S. Quinn Morris and Matt Fennell covering the collected works of Naoki Urasawa. You can follow...

Woah! Two in a row? We're BACK! This time, Urasawa Boys delves deep into the second volume of Pluto, and we talk about how maybe this comic about giant robots fighting (with not a lot of giant robots fighting?) isn't quite working for us? But never fear - there's still a whole lot of good stuff here - Hercules, Brando, robot wrestling, the fictional war in Central Asia, the real war in Iraq, and g...

URASAWA BOYS is back!! Exactly on schedule - 2 weeks (and 1 year) after our Episode 0 on "Astro Boy: The Greatest Robot on Earth," we're finally beginning our coverage of Pluto. After a quick review of what we've been doing in our barely noticeable hiatus, join us for our thoughts on Pluto's interesting shift of main character, the obvious (and not-so-obvious) intertexts, cool robots, sad robots,...

And we're back! 2024 is off to a rip-roaring start with the first episode of Season Two of URASAWA BOYS! This time, we're covering Pluto, but before we dig into the main attraction, we take a look back at the original arc of Astro Boy that inspired Urasawa's one of a kind cyberpunk murder mystery manga. Join Matt and Quinn as they dig into "The Greatest Robot on Earth" and go long on this influent...

We did it! This is the end! No reading this time, just some light fun discussion of what's going on in our lives, our thoughts on MONSTER a few weeks removed from reading the finale, and then a bunch of fun segments! We do some fancasting, tier-rank our favorite readings , imagine some AUs, take a handful of very fun listener questions, and then talk about a Reddit post (very bad) and a blog post...

This is the end. Rain drums against the roof, and in between the low rolls of thunder, you hear something that you could have sworn was a gunshot. Outside, fear alone animates the hearts of those still stuck out on the streets - the devil has come to town. Woah, hey, who let Matt write self-indulgent prose again? Sorry about that. Arriving not late, but exactly when it intended to is the FINAL REA...

Coming to you a few hours late, edited LIVE somewhere in the swamps of New Jersey, it's the penultimate episode of Urasawa Boy's inaugural season on MONSTER! Join Matt and Quinn on the rollercoaster once again as we round the corner and begin barreling down the hill into a peaceful and unsuspecting town somewhere in the mountains of southern Germany. We dig into what it was that Johan saw, and wha...

A tragic assassination attempt; a stunning piece of detective work; three heroes racing against time to stop a horrible plan - but whose plan is it really? The rollercoaster stalls for a second, before entering free-fall, as all is revealed. MONSTER is loading the last of its narrative bullets into Chekov's gun, and aiming directly at a shocking conclusion. This week's episode of Urasawa Boys (whi...

Folks, we are in the small dip that the rollercoaster does before it crests back up the hill and climbs for the final breathtaking scramble - this is Monster at its most exciting, locking into place for a nailbiting conclusion. Join us this week as Martin becomes the main character, and then watch along as Nina's tragic flashbacks sum up all of the subtext from the past couple of readings. We're h...

Another late episode? Couldn't be URASAWA BOYS, your favorite podcast covering the collected works of Naoki Urasawa. (Thanks for your patience with this one, Matt and Quinn were both on the road for a few weeks.) Anyways - this is a killer section. We do some all time media analysis, and then do some media analysis about media analysis; there's some incredible reveals, some more very scary picture...

Lucky Number 13!! Matt and Quinn had to record this episode twice, because the original recording was annihilated, and hoo-boy; what an episode to have to redo, because this reading was not very good! We spend some time trying to figure out what makes this chunk feel over-stuffed and rushed; simultaneously spreading the stuff we like too thick and too thin. After that, we work our way through Tenm...

Just in time for your drive back from any 4th of July barbecues, it's the next episode of Urasawa Boys! Matt and Quinn relish in the Friday energy of this recording, and open by doing some real fun thinking about narrative theory, serialization, and how to deal with story events in and out of context. (That's not a joke, it's really fun!) From there, we launch into the next set of happenings with...

Hoo boy! Matt had to update the content warnings again. This episode features a long discussion of transphobia (from 00:11:00 - 00:21:00) that references a Lindsay Ellis Video about the topic and really tries to unpack what this means for the story, and for the era as a whole. Afterwards, we spend a lot of time here in Prague, figuring out what happened last time, and setting up some landmines for...

Urasawa Boys is back, and we're off to Prague! In this chunk of chapters, we're introduced to some new plot threads and some new characters, and we've got a new friend along with us to talk about it! In honor of making it to our 10th episode, we were thrilled to welcome special guest Tyler Crumrine of Possible World Games. Listen along as we talk about the shifting financial realities of the podca...

We've arrived at the halfway point of MONSTER, and what a mid-season finale this one is! Matt and Quinn got together to do a morning recording covering the explosive events of this reading - we dig into some new themes, revisit some old ones, and spend a lot of time talking about just how awesome the action sequences in this bit are! There's dark and spooky revelations from a fairy tale, and hints...

Whoops! The schedule got messed up again. Very sorry about this, but the semester is over now and I got a good grade on my data mining paper, so the strep throat was worth it? Quinn and I will be back next time with the thrilling conclusion to the first half of Monster, but today - please enjoy the first episode of Mattaining Balance! It's a good one! Material Covered: BONUS - House of the Dragon...

And we're back! It's another episode in Munich as we zoom around the city, spending time with Rudi, Lunge, Lotte, Nina, Tenma, Reichwein, Dieter, Karl, Johan and Roberto. On reflection, I guess the whole crew's here! It's an exciting chunk of reading that seems to tighten all of the nets around each set of "a game of cat and mouse" that this comic contains! (This is definitely the most "Matt Fenne...