Best Seat on the Couch

We return to the Miyazaki pantheon with 1992's Porco Rosso , which seemingly flies under the radar among Ghibli fans even though it was the #1 film in Japan the year it released. On the Couch however, this ranks as one of Michael's favorite movies and has also rapidly ascended to Marcus's top 3 Ghibli movies he's seen so far, so we have quite a bit of praise to put on this film, wh...

There is practically no TV show more formative in our elementary school years than Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters, and that's in no small part to the immensely popular Yu-Gi-Oh! trading card game that swept the nation back in 2002, which all of us played - religiously. The show is also a hilariously messy and wacky story about Yugi, a boy who plays a life-or-death monsters game that, frankly, doesn&#...

It must be guest starring season on the Couch as we bring back our podcast's number 1 fan, Sarah, to talk about one of her childhood favorite Disney (cult) classics, Atlantis: The Lost Empire ! And, well, I suppose it might not be as...classic...as its reputation suggests. It's a fine story, with some wonderful characters, an entertaining adventure sequence, and worldbuilding with plenty of potent...

What if...the gang dove back into the Marvel cinematic MULTIverse? A charming anthology show based off of the Marvel comic series of the same name, What If...? is a fun and entertaining look at our favorite Marvel characters in strange and unique situations, channeling the comic vibe and resulting in some real bangers...and maybe some stragglers too. There's cool cel-shaded animation, great vo...

This week on the couch, the gang takes a nice break from some of the heavier hitters of our recent episodes to talk about Bee Movie , which experienced a sort of meme renaissance a few years ago and is a very important nexus event in Alex and Iris's childhoods. But don't get us wrong - this movie is not good. It is a monument to Jerry Seinfeld's sins and disrespects children, adults, b...

First DOTA: Dragon's Blood , then Castlevania , and now Arcane , and soon Marcus will get his wish about discussing video games full time on the Couch. But unlike its predecessors, Arcane is a worldwide phenomenon that has skyrocketed in popularity and ratings and is honestly a masterclass in animation, voice acting, storytelling, and worldbuilding. To celebrate, we bring back our first ever r...

The Polar Express is a...special film. It's a landmark work in computer-generated animation and was one of the first such movies to use extensive motion capture technology, which culminates in a final product that is at the same time immensely creepy and visually wondrous. Tom Hanks plays half the cast, "Hero Girl" looks like some kind of demon, Marcus cannot even with the blatant disregard of the...

It's another holiday season and as we all go about (safely) enjoying the holidays, Alex gathers his own group of Straw Hats for a follow-up of Episode 27: "ONE PIECE." Now at 1004 episodes total, the anime is firmly in its longest individual arc called Wano Country , and infuses feudal Japanese influences into the exciting pirate adventures of Luffy and his pirate crew. In addition t...

The 2005 Ben 10 series, the O.G. of our childhoods, is a cool psuedo-superhero cartoon that works around the creativity of the Omnitrix and the myriad of cool alien powers that Ben has at his disposal. Compared to some of the newer cartoons we've discussed on the Couch, Ben 10 doesn't try to bring a lot of character development or major twists to the table, and simply relies on the unreliability a...

By the powers of Star Wars and anime combined, Star Wars: Visions is an incredibly bold new take on the Star Wars mythos while also being a genuine and heartfelt series of art pieces from Japanese artists and animators. In this episode the gang lightning-rounds through all 9 individual episodes, giving short opinions on each, and discussing the overarching concept of the deconstruction of Star War...

On a scale of Iris to Michael, how much did we enjoy this movie? Those of us in favor praise this movie's varied humor, plainly enjoyable characters and jokes, and excellent voice acting performances, whereas those of us against absolutely hammer this movie for its poor through line, cringe-fest humor, forgettable characters, and aspects that really solidify why children's movies can be so painful...

Kind of underrated, The Emperor's New Groove is a slapstick buddy comedy animated Disney film about an emperor who turns into a llama. You've got a lovable idiot who you can't help but root for, a lovable people's guy who is actually also kind of an idiot, an idiot that you love to hate, an idiot that you can't help but love, and Chicha, the most badass woman of all time. It's a hilarious movie th...

Every Hayao Miyazaki movie is special on the Couch, and not just because it's Marcus's first time watching one - Howl's Moving Castle in particular has colors that feel more vibrant, characters that feel more whimsical, and magic that pushes the boundary of reality even further than mainstays like Spirited Away and Kiki's Delivery Service . For good or for worse, Howl's comes a...

Each one of us on the Couch has a different childhood story to share about our first memories with British stop-motion comedy franchise Wallace & Gromit , but we're all in agreement that this show is charming, hilarious, and had a profound impact on each of our personal developments, especially Alex's love of cheese! There's MacGyver-esque whimsical engineering, terribly eye-rollin...

Death Note is widely considered to be a pillar of modern anime shows/manga adaptations, especially among western audiences - plus, it was Michael's first cautious step into the anime rabbit hole! The gang follows the main character Light Yagami as he acquires the titular Death Note and begins to expand his colossal ego to truly galactic proportions, and we discuss just how accessible this show is...

If I had a nickel for every anime-inspired video game adaptation TV show we've discussed on the couch, I'd have two nickels - which isn't a lot, but it's weird that it's happened twice. But unlike DOTA: Dragon's Blood , the first two seasons of Castlevania are actually pretty solid and significantly more welcoming to newcomers lore-wise than Dragon's Blood was, and the Dracula arc was overall exci...

If you had the chance to create a movie heavily focused on fantasy and Scottish mythology but then two years later you get axed and the new director comes in and decides that this movie will follow the more traditional Pixar formula and the only remnant of your original vision was the fact that BEARS are so heavily involved in the story from a fantasy standpoint that it's honestly a little weird t...

Kill la Kill is Studio Trigger's magnum opus, the spiritual successor of Gurren Lagann and the precursor to Little Witch Academia , two shows we've already touched on on the Couch. It is an anime unlike any other anime the gang ever seen before - it breaks an almost uncountable number of traditional boundaries, anime tropes, and uh...PG-limits...while barraging the audience with top-tier m...

WALL-E is decidedly top 3 in Pixar's repertoire, and is another universally loved entry in the gang's podcasting library. It's got a spectacular and unique opening sequence, lovable - and truly human - non-human characters, and strong emotional moments. Not much else to say about a movie this legendary :) Content warning: strong language.

This week Alex brings us another heavy-hitting and emotionally rich anime in Erased , which combines the murder mystery genre with a warm and nostalgic TV show about childhood, a mother's love, and the power of friendship. At only 12 episodes it's impressive that this show can be so story-rich yet also pace itself in its slow moments, and it certainly doesn't make the show any less emotionally hea...

Nestled somewhere in between our previous episodes on Batman Beyond and Teen Titans , Young Justice has a rich world, excellent storytelling and plot buildup, and a really impressive voice cast that gives it all the tools to be a really excellent entry in the animated DC universe. The gang delves into a passionate discussion about the trailblazing that Young Justice did for a show of its time, and...

For a genre as saturated with a variety of content as the superhero genre, it's pretty incredible that an animated superhero TV series brings something fresh to the table - almost as fresh as the steaming pile of guts from the biblical levels of gore shown on screen. But Invincible is more than its violence, and is bolstered by its star-studded voice acting cast, excellent fight scenes, extremely...

If the movie Shark Tale was a pathetic, lowly little fish, then the Best Seat gang would be a pack of hungry (decidedly not vegetarian) sharks circling its next meal, seconds away from ripping and tearing apart this sad excuse of a movie to shreds. Released alongside greats like The Incredibles and Shrek 2 and on the heels of Disney/Pixar's Finding Nemo , it's honestly pretty incredible that Shark...

To celebrate our 50th episode on the Best Seat on the Couch podcast (wooo! Now if only this coincided with our one year anniversary...) we're blurring the lines of what makes an animated movie with the unholy matrimony of professional basketball and Looney Toons - the original Space Jam! Its sequel is in the news these days and Marcus and Michael think this movie is an absolute classic, but does t...

There isn't much to say in a description of Your Lie in April, as its hard to put its powerful emotional impact into words, and even harder to describe how it made us feel. But its genuine portrayal of the rigorous and strenuous life of a child musician, its lovely and beautifully animated quiet moments, and its visualization of the emotion and struggle in each character's relationship with music...