Anime Shmanime

In this episode we cover Golden Boy! The six episode OVA is incredibly easy to digest. It can be argued that this is the most self aware anime there ever was. It explores the genre through trope after trope while somehow still remaining exciting, smart, funny, and horny as hell. We even get a look behind the scenes in the last episode as the entire OVA wraps up into a neat little package. Much lik...

We are trudging ever slowly towards the finish of our Dragonball Z series! I (Jordy) could not have predicted how long this process would feel. As we power through this season we close off another major arc with The Cell Games. Some of our heroes take a step back to make room for a new young class of champion (much like the classic 90's teen comedy Saved By The Bell). There's a lot of sl...

This week we are covering the recent Netflix smash hit Cyberpunk: Edgerunners! It's linked to Cyberpunk 2077 the video game which we learn thanks to Jay is based on a tabletop role playing game from the 80's called Cyberpunk. This game is so influential it's name became an accepted term for the entire dystopan sci-fi genre. We talk about the animation a lot, as well as the western i...

A highly requested title for this weeks episode of Anime Shmanime: Samurai Champloo! This show highlights the different tastes in team Shmanime. It's a show where plot and character development take a backseat making space for a strong team to go on one-off adventures. We discuss the formulaic way each episode unfolds, the lack of information regarding the over-arcing plot, and whether or not...

Today we are Devilman – The Birth! It's the origin story for a franchise that has spanned decades. There are mixed opinions on whether this holds up or has become an accidental comedy, though it's influence is powerful whichever way you look at it. It's a wild ride which pushed the boundaries for it's time. Do yourself and us a favor – before you watch our episode on this class...

Happy Halloween!!! On today's special Halloween episode we get into the details of some of the most terrifying, infamous and despicable anime villains of all time as we create our personal Villain Tier List! Why is Griffith from Berserk so divisive? Why do Mikey and Jordy hate Shou Tucker so much? We find out all these answers and more all while looking cute as hell in our costumes! Hope you...

Record of Lodoss War is a high fantasy anime. It's dungeons and dragons meets Lord of the Rings with Oppais. There are a lot of characters and plot points slammed into 13 episodes and we did our best to cover it all. We discuss how things are named in the fantasy genre, and of course we get into the magic of it all. Jordy is surprised to learn that elves can in fact do magic! This episode was...

Jujutsu Kaisen 0 – The Movie is one we've been dying to cover. The moment it hit streaming services we prioritized it (some of us were unable to catch it in theaters). Spoiler alert: It's a unanimous hit though we still find ways to disagree! A lot of comparisons are made (Disney's Planes, Voldemort, Eddie Brock, and Friedrich Nietzsche to name a few) and some are divisive to say th...

 Before this podcast existed, this episode existed. Mikey and Jordy covered Street Fighter 2 – The Animated Movie just to see how it would go. You might say it set the tone for all future Anime Shmanime episodes, though Jay's presence is sorely missed. This movie is a special one for Mikey and Jordy makes it his mission to poke holes in it including a hot take on Ryu and Ken, and of course de...

It's Grappler Baki: The Ultimate Fighter for our first ever "Freestyle Episode"! Same Shmanime hi-jinks except we prepared less! We watched this short OVA immediately before hopping into the studio to get into it. All the head kicks, nerve rips, and action packed fights were as fresh in our minds as they could be. We laughed a lot and made some very obvious and not so obvious compar...

Mikey and Jay go head to head this week pitting their top husbando's against eachother in a battle of epic proportions. Jordy missed out this week not specifically because of the subject matter, but truth be told he would be completely useless in this conversation. Lets be honest... what you want to hear is two passionate dudes discuss the animated men they love. There are rules and organizat...

Tekkonkinkreet subverts so many of the expectations you might have about anime, while still delivering in all the ways you want. We actually feel the same way about our episode covering this legendary film! This time around Jay is on the outs while Mikey and Jordy gush with nostalgia at this heart-warming story about two very different but very close brothers and the town they love.  SPOILER ALERT...

The marathon continues with Season 5!!! Cell is here, transforming, and slurping people up at an alarming rate. And the Saiyans are responding by becoming bigger, stronger, and more blonde!? Jordy is hanging on by a thread but the solution for the future may actually be...MORE GOKU!? Find out why Jordy misses our main character this season and much much more as we continue to tackle this legendary...

 This week we are covering Bubble and it's exactly what you'd expect. As Jay puts it, it's a classic "girl falls from the sky, connects with dude, saves the world but sacrifices herself, dude is sad but it kinda works out in the end" movie... or something like that. Some may say it's derivative, some may say it furthers the work of it's predecessors. We had a lot...

An obscure powerhouse for this weeks Anime Shmanime - Otomo Katsuhiro's Memories Anthology! It's three short films with undeniably different vibes though each one feels like a perfect manifestation of a singular vision. The styles of Perfect Blue and Akira are perfectly blended in Magnetic Rose, a solid comedy with a social commentary twist in Stink Bomb, and whatever the hell Cannon Fod...

 Mikey and Jay go head to head this week pitting their top waifu's against each other in a battle of epic proportions. Jordy missed out this week not specifically because of the subject matter, but truth be told he would be completely useless in this conversation. Lets be honest... what you want to hear is two passionate dudes discuss the animated women they love. There are rules and organiza...

With Fate Zero we scratch the surface of yet another goliath anime franchise. The jury is still out whether this was the right place to start, but it's where we started nonetheless. We briefly touch on the other titles and how they intertwine in a sort of multi-multiverse with crossovers. Depending on who you are it can get sort of confusing and it doesn't help that several main characte...

 Asobi Asobase is pure comedy. These three girls are a perfect trifecta of personalities for their age, and they move through punchlines at incredible speeds. The vignette format makes it feel like a series of comic strips, and the rotating cast of oddball characters keeps the delivery fresh. At times it's a lot, but even a cold hearted individual (Jordy) will find a place to laugh... And we...

 Akira is another film that transcends it's genre. It's one of the founding fathers of cyberpunk and largely responsible for bringing Anime into the western world. We knew this would be a gush fest when we picked it and couldn't have been more stoked to get into it. What a treat to dissect the artistry in all aspects of this legendary film. It's influence is immeasurable as is...

*VOLUME WARNING! APOLOGIES TO OUR LISTENERS FOR THE AUDIO ON THIS EPISODE. IT WAS A TRIAL RUN OF SOME NEW GEAR IN A NEW SETTING! WE ARE LEARNING! FOR THIS SPECIAL ONE-OFF EPISODE WE RECOMMEND WATCHING ON YOUTUBE!* The world finally got a little taste of Shmanime this past weekend as we unleashed ourselves on Anime North! Our very first in-person event and for some of us, our very first anime conve...

 We are four seasons deep on Dragonball Z and I can't believe we aren't even halfway yet. This season we get Trunks, Androids, Vegeta and Bulma as an item and a lot more of the same-same that Dragonball Z has to offer. Considering how little we get of Android 18 in this season, we spend a lot of time talking about the impact she had on horny young people (named Mikey). Some mercy was aff...

 Today we are going deep on Made in Abyss! This show is unique if nothing else. It's like a bizarro world Ghibli movie – chibi and whimsical, yet dark and deeply, deeply disturbing. Disturbing even further because all this trauma is experienced by very young children. Mikey is vibing hard (no surprises here), Jordy is able to get past the trauma for the sake of whimsy, and Jay has a downright...

 Tokyo Revengers is a powerhouse. There's a lot about this show that doesn't scream 'Anime', as if the writers of Sons of Anarchy were hired. The characters have great depth and growth, the drama is thick and mysterious, and the fight scenes are realistically choreographed (aside from some magic kicks and excessive, consecutive steel pipes to the head). Everything about this sh...

 Dragonball Z part 3. This arc is arguably a turning point for the show. It has more Frieza, more Goku, more fights, and a first look at a real Super Saiyan. Of course DBZ is never without it's goofy, slapstick humour whether intentional or not... Jay calls it "levity". We laugh our way through this season of this highly revered and influential show and we will continue to do so as...

Another Mamoru Hosoda film this week... It's Wolf Children. Not sure it counts as a classic but it's definitely on brand for him. At it's core, this is the story of a single mom and her two children trying to find their way in a world they don't belong to. BUT... at it's other core, it's about a woman who sleeps with a wolf and has to deal with the repercussions of th...