Backlog Dialogues

Our story begins by introducing a family. A family of rich assholes. Meet the Ushiromiyas, a family led by a domineering dilletante, Kinzo, and his four backstabbing offspring, Krauss, Eva, Rudolf, and Rosa. It's time for their annual family conference, and the four siblings are jockeying for money and power. But our hero, Battler, doesn't care about that, he just wants to catch up with his cousin...

As Summer gives way to Autumn, so too do the melancholic cries of evening cicadas give way to the haunting cries of seagulls after a storm. The soundscapes are changing, but the discussions are not. Backlog Dialogues is back, and we're following up Higurashi by discussing Umineko When They Cry! In this episode, we reintroduce ourselves and what we're doing, and get the audience settled in for a co...

We're still on break, but we are here with a bonus episode as a listener request, just in time for Watanagashi! Join us as we discuss the surprisingly good 2016 Live Action adaptation of Higurashi When They Cry, as well as the many difficulties we had in watching it that make it a hard recommendation anyway. Discussing Regional Idol Groups, Tokusatsu Stars, Prolific Character Actors, and roughly t...

It's the season finale for Backlog Dialogues, and what better way to send off Saikoroshi than a Minilog about a game for true witches, Undertale. Join us as we discuss the many characters and endings of 2015's smash indie success and summon all our determination to see it through. Plus, bonus heresy as suitable for a minilog paired with Saikoroshi! Oh what fun. This week on Backlog Dialogues, we t...

Its the Maebara show, with our very special guest star, Hanyuu Furude! YAAAAAY! Its time to play the board games, its time for squirt gun fights, its time to meet the club mates on the Godcast show tonight! Its time to put on theories, its time to penalize, its time to raise the curses on the godcast show tonight "Why do we discuss it all here?" "i guess you need to know its like a kind of magic t...

Rika has to make a choice, and the responsibility for that choice cannot burden anyone but herself. Will she kill her mother and return to the world she fought for, or will she live in this world and attempt to improve herself here? Is she a human, or a witch? Perhaps a certain orange haired street magician has the answers... This week on Backlog Dialogues, we accept the world we are in, and bid f...

In her search for the fragment that prevents Hanyuu from finding her, Rika's depersonalization continues as she lashes out at Satoko for bullying her. Is this world real, or is the world she came from a fabrication of this world's Rika's sad mind? Rika consults Doctor Yamamoto, setting off a chain of events that leads to both the possibility of this world's Rika finding happiness but also a terrib...

Rika has arrived at the 1983 of her dreams, and is riding high off the success. But in her arrogance, she fails to remember the important lessons from train safety PSAs and plays in traffic, finding herself in a nightmare bizarro Hinamizawa where no one likes her and Hanyuu isn't around. Can Rika find her way out of the labyrinth and back to her world again? It's time for the coda of Higurashi, Sa...

For our penultimate Minilog for this season, we look in to one of the most impactful stories of adolescence anime has to offer. A coming of age tale about growing to become the best person you can be, about the people that change you as you grow and that you change in turn. A tale about the changes one experiences in their body as they grow. A tale about being the most powerful psychic in the worl...

We've made it to the end - or have we? As we explore the many facets of Matsuribayashi's post story elements, as well as the anime and manga adaptations of the work, it becomes clear that Ryukishi07 still has a bit more to say in this idealistic fantasy world of his. So join for this penultimate Godcast as we prepare for one final voyage.

It's time to get extremely indulgent in the way only Ryukishi07 (and Backlog Dialogues) can get in a finale. The longest chapter in all of When They Cry, a massive epic of big goonies energy and hype. We follow the Hinamizawa School Board Game Club as they enact Operation 48 Hours, throwing Takano Miyo and the Mountain Dogs for a loop. This week on Backlog Dialogues, the Festival is here. And you...

Alternate Episode Title: Furude's Eleven It's time to plan a heist! The club prepares for the fight of their lives, for the sake of Hinamizawa and everyone who lives in it! But before we can do that, a bit more movement of pieces along the game board is required. Ooishi's character arc hits its finale in one of the best scenes in all of Higurashi, and the hype builds as we go through this penultim...

Alternate Episode Title: Rika Explains it All We have left the realm of the gods and return to the realm of man, and we brought a really cute god with us! The club gets to know Hanyuu, and Hanyuu learns that Rika has forgotten all the stuff she needed to remember. Guess it's time to speedrun everyone's character development in this final world so that we can turn the tables on Takano Miyo... but f...

As we cross the vast seas of possibilities, the winds shift around us. Whether it is a tailwind giving us support, or a headwind buffeting us and hindering our progress, these shifting winds help determine our course, our fate. What risks we take, what chances we see, and how we sail with the wind determine our fate, and our existence. With these thoughts, we close our discussions on Connecting Fr...

As a person lives, they take on many burdens in their life. Whether it's as simple as a watermelon too big to take home on a bike, as thoughtful as a large teddy bear as a birthday present, or as complex and hindering as the weight of ones sins, that person needs to let themselves accept the help of others, for no burden is so easy that anyone can bear them alone. Unless you're Takano Miyo, and ar...

Fifty fragments lay before you. Within each, a morsel of knowledge to build the understanding needed to reach the ideal June 1983. It will be a long process to sift through them all. Which is why we need to do this in three parts. Sorry. This week, we cover the first seventeen fragments of Connecting Fragments, Ryukishi07's bizarre TIPS minigame that stands between us and the true Matsuribayashi,...

The Mastermind has been revealed, and her god complex laid bare. With her unbreakable certain willpower, she is forcing the inevitable murder of Furude Rika, and the destruction of Hinamizawa. She wants nothing more than to tear god from his throne and be revered above all else. Truly, she is a monster for the ages... right? Would it make you happier if she had a good reason? A thousand little tra...

We're going more obscure with this minilog as we explore the 2013 cult classic anime Gatchaman Crowds and its 2015 sequel season Gatchaman Crowds Insight. We look at this history of the Gatchaman franchise and Tatsunoko Productions in general before we start discussing this strange, political, and highly prescient twist on the Superhero story, where protagonist Hajime Ichinose sets the rules and d...

We've made it to the end of the penultimate arc of Higurashi When They Cry. With this, all things have been revealed, and we are left to discuss the aftermath. As we prepare to go to the final world, we consider how Minagoroshi has been adapted, and discuss the greater context within When They Cry in the spoiler filled postcredits discussion. Where can we go from here?

Will. The power of the individual to influence people and events. This has been at the core of Rika's cruel fate all this time. As she has seen her friends muster the collective will to save Satoko, she too has found her own strength of will to defy her death once more. But even the collective willpower of a village may not be able to overcome a will forged with certain conviction. A will backed b...

Politics. The science and art of convincing others to do what you want them to. For many, it's a dirty word, a thing to be avoided. But if you want to save the life of a child, if you want to change the nature of a village, if you want to tear through fate itself, it is a skill one must master. But even more important than mastering the skill is knowing who to use the skill on. To save Satoko, Kei...

Humans are weak on their own. No single person has all the answers. People need to turn to each other for support, no matter what. As Keiichi and Friends discover, it takes many voices speaking in unison to get the gears of society turning. With a simple marching tune, they raise a chorus to defend their friend, and give Rika a fleeting hope once more. This week on Backlog Dialogues, we make our v...

The human heart is fragile, and must guard itself with the armor of hope to endure hardships. Rika has strengthened her armor, as she finds more and more cause to hope... only to have that armor stripped away. As if to mock her, the world has set up hope after hope, just so that it can lead to her deepest despair. When faced with this reality for a hundred years, who could blame anyone that wants...

Ah, you're finally aware of where we are. This infinite expanse of possibilities across time and space has brought us together here and now. As we travel it, it falls to us to understand not just what is happening around us, but who is impacted by it, as we are the only ones truly aware of it. You are almost at the truth you seek, but there is still much to learn before it can make sense. Come, le...

It's time once more for a Minilog, this time covering the first season of the anime Re:Zero Starting Life in Another World! Join us as we go over this time looping isekai that defies the usual expectations of isekai by not being a total power fantasy! We talk about Subaru and his persistent inability to die, and how that does very little to actually help him solve the issues he faces in Lugnica wh...