Best Seat on the Couch

With six months of podcasting under their belts, the gang pivots into previously unexplored territory - adult animated sitcoms - with Justin Roiland and Dan Harmon's Rick and Morty , and a contentious first installment it is! Screaming sauce-obsessed man-children at McDonald's aside, the show is certainly written well, with a unique and self-aware sense of humor that few other shows can ex...

A stark 180° from our previous anime discussions on Ouran High School Host Club and Madoka Magica , Demon Slayer is our first shōnen anime on the Couch and a phenomenal hit among Japanese audiences within the last 5 years. Alex once again provides guidance and insight into the weebdom as he hosts our discussion on the tropes of shōnen animes and their characters, comparisons (and differences) with...

The gang returns to Brad Bird's directorial prowess in this episode on Ratatouille , and boy do we have A LOT of discussion for you. For a children's movie, Ratatouille has surprisingly unorthodox plot progression and rich character growth in just under 2 hours of runtime, especially considering that the setting (Paris) and stakes (oh no! My restaurant!) of the movie appear more grounded and less...

I t would typically be s acrilegious to call a kid's show that released in 2015 a "class i c" but Gravity Falls co m es at you with a star-studded VA cast, engaging and mystery-centric p lotline, and no shortage of downright silliness that make a very strong argument f or best animated carto o n of the 2010's. It p r ovides adorable entertainment for kid s and subtle intrigue and mystery for older...

Teased in many Best Seat episodes prior, Marcus's fanatical love for Star Wars finally comes to a head in the gang's discussion of the Star Wars: The Clone Wars animated series released in 2008. With over 100 episodes spanning over 7 seasons, the series is far too vast to discuss in an hour, so key episodes were chosen for Michael and Alex to watch (and Marcus and Iris to re-watch) to get a feel f...

Western audiences know of Hayao Miyazaki thanks to Spirited Away , which we tackled a few months ago on the Couch, but it would be doing a disservice to the legendary Japanese director without putting a spotlight on his numerous other works, one of the very first being 1984 film Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind . Created before the inception of Studio Ghibli, Nausicaä is a quaint but charming li...

Alex ramps up the anime invasion on the Best Seat podcast starting with the 12-episode-and-follow-up-movie series Puella Magi Madoka Magica . This anime is a nice and light-hearted adventure story surrounding a group of adorable middle school girls who make a contract with an cute alien familiar to become titular magical girls, who use their magical abilities as well as the power of love and frien...

When Iris gets excited about something, she gets REALLY excited about it - Avatar is like that, Steven Universe is like that, and in this episode Iris gets to tell us just how much the Netflix original She-Ra and the Princesses of Power is like that. With Alex having binged the entire 5-season series in a week and Michael and Marcus having watched a curated selection of key episodes per Iris's rec...

Of the many legendary animated movies of the Disney Renaissance, Mulan (1998) cements itself as a particularly progressive, empowering, and inspiring entry that all five of us grew up with and have grown to love. In addition to Eddie Murphy's amazing Mushu and Disney's banger of a soundtrack, there's excellent discussion that Iris and Danielle spearhead in this episode concerning Mulan's struggle...

In this episode, the Best Seat gang tackles the Netflix exclusive The Dragon Prince , the first show on the podcast that has yet to conclude as a series! Coming from Avatar 's lead writer Aaron Ehasz, The Dragon Prince is already an excellent story three seasons in with a lot of room to grow as well, both plot-wise and in regards to its lovable characters (and thankfully, the show's animation styl...

The second anime adaptation of Hiromu Arakawa's manga Fullmetal Alchemist , 2009 TV series Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood is one of Alex's all time favorites, and after having introduced the series to Danielle and Marcus years ago, he is excited to cover it again with Michael, Iris, and all of our faithful viewers. Tune in as we give special attention to the show's villains, the importance of th...

Animated media comes in all shapes and sizes - a particularly unusual one is claymation, and Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas is perhaps the most critically acclaimed stop-motion animated movie of them all. Being another Disney mainstay, Danielle spearheads our discussion on her personal favorite movie of all time, and Michael contributes 3 scorching hot takes that sends the rest of the...

Makoto Shikai's Your Name was a global hit worthy of a spot on our podcast, and to kick off Season 2 of Best Seat on the Couch, we head to Shinkai's next work in the 2019 anime film Weathering With You. It's another beautiful story with gorgeous animation and hard-hitting emotional moments that is best experienced without prior knowledge of its premise, and so I once again recommend yo...

In this episode, high school friend and second-ever guest on the show Sarah joins us to discuss one of her favorite movies of all time, The Iron Giant . It's one of the first animated movies that used CGI extensively in the 90s, and is a charming story about identity and destiny with a truly legendary finale. But of course, in addition to our discussion of the movie, Danielle drops some knowle...

If you're not familiar with Scooby-Doo and the hundreds of individual episodes, movies, games, and other media showcasing the Gang's adventures in the Mystery Machine, you must be from the 1700s. Thankfully we are not, and so we dedicate this episode to the classic series and its iconic characters, humorous moments, and memorable catchphrases. For children this show does an excellent job at findin...

Ouran High School Host Club is a hilariously wacky Japanese anime that semi-satirizes the shōjo manga genre popular amongst teenage girls in Japan, which may seem like a pretty harsh 180 from our usual programming. But this anime, a Michael and Alex fan favorite, is deceptively complex and poses difficult questions on topics such as gender identity and power dynamics, which the gang discusses at l...

In this episode, the gang tackles Disney/Pixar's is-it-really-a-superhero-movie The Incredibles , with a little dip into The Incredibles 2 for good measure. It's a charming movie with memorable characters, extremely memeable quotes, and a deceptively complex villain, and one of the things we praise the most is how enjoyable this movie is for both children and adults, as it highlights (in an incred...

We've got our first ever guest on Best Seat on the Couch this episode, and Jess is excited to join the gang on our emotional roller coaster adventure on Makoto Shinkai's Kimi no Na wa , otherwise known as Your Name . The film is best experienced without any prior knowledge of its premise or plot, so if you haven't watched the movie, please stop reading this blurb and give it a go. What can be said...

Hot on the heels of last week's episode, we round out our discussion on Cartoon Network's Steven Universe with discussions on both Steven Universe: The Movie (occurring two years after the events of Season 5) and Steven Universe: Future (a 1-season epilogue to the series). The Movie and Future keep nearly all of the great aspects of the original, like incredible music and excellent character devel...

What happens when Iris wants to discuss one of her favorite TV shows of all time, but only 3 out of the 5 of us have watched it? You get our episode on Cartoon Network's Steven Universe ! This relatively young cartoon is near and dear to Iris's heart and has gorgeous animation, beautifully colored backdrops, powerful musical performances from broadway-grade singers, and strong and no-nonsense LGBT...

Our first of many Disney-focused episodes highlights the 1991 animated masterpiece Beauty and the Beast , one of many classics of the Disney Renaissance era of animated films. Self-proclaimed Disnerd Danielle spearheads the gang's discussion on animation, the musical aspects of the movie (yes, some of us sing in this episode), stockholm syndrome, and the absolute unit that is Gaston. Danielle also...

In this episode, the gang pays tribute to legendary Japanese director/filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki and the talented team at Studio Ghibli with a discussion on 2001 animated film Spirited Away . In addition to our collective fangirling over the gorgeous visuals and captivating story that cements the movie's legendary status, we also discuss Miyazaki's motifs and social commentary, his emphasis on stron...

We pick up right where we left off from our previous episode to discuss Avatar: The Last Airbender 's sequel, The Legend of Korra , another phenomenal animated TV series from Nickelodeon and worthy successor to the legendary story of ATLA. We discuss things like great episodes, memorable scenes, shortcomings, comparisons to its predecessor, and where Mako ranks on Danielle's top 8 animated charact...

In our opening episode, we talk about critically acclaimed Nickelodeon TV show Avatar: The Last Airbender , recently added to Netflix and mainstay of our collective childhoods. Tune in to fanboy with us about our favorite characters, episodes, and moments, and stick around for our first ever Trivia Corner, where we attempt to answer ridiculously obscure Avatar trivia to questionable success. Conte...

Welcome to Best Seat on the Couch. In this prequel episode, we talk about animated media and our personal histories growing up with some of the greatest animated movies and TV shows of the 80's and 90's as well as those we're watching in the present day. Content warning: strong language.