Trash Manga Friends

Is it already time for the first anime tie-in of Year 7? Well, it's also our first fantasy series of the year, so that tracks. We discuss The Level 999 Villager ahead of its anime release, where one villager has min-maxed harder than anyone else to bring peace to humans and demons. With such an original premise, this one must be good, right? ~ Welcome to That Time I Started A Podcast To Read Trash...

Okay, so last time may have been a false start, but for our second Year 7 episode, we've gone to Shounen Jump, and read one of their esteemed comedy series, Beelzebub! Will this story about some poor thug tasked with raising the spawn of Satan himself get a laugh out of us, or is manga comedy truly dead? ~ Welcome to That Time I Started A Podcast To Read Trash Manga With My Friends And Actually Mo...

Was it lucky year number seven for our trio, as we kick off another season of trash with Nozoki Ana, aka A Peep Hole! Well, considering its a 69 episode, it's definitely going to be a nice manga, but would good ol' T&A be enough to win us over? ~ Welcome to That Time I Started A Podcast To Read Trash Manga With My Friends And Actually Most Of Them Were Trash But Some Of Them Weren't! Or The Tr...

Doesn't it feel like only yesterday we kicked off Year 6 with Yu-Gi-Oh? And now here we are, at year's end, with the King of Games standing alongside 15 other series, ready to fight it out for the title of Not Actually Trash. Who joins the Frierens and Narutos at the top of the pile, and who gets eternal trashnation as the Trashest Manga, Friends? Trashtacular Tournament Arc 6-7 concludes now! ~ W...

We've made it! Once again, welcome to our end of year tournament spectacular! In this first half of Trashtacular Tournament Arc 6-7, we relive all 25 series covered throughout our sixth year, and slowly whittle them down to our Last 16 for next week's knockout stages. Was Yu-Gi-Oh better than My Hero? Was Flowers of Evil or Hensuki truly that bad? Does Sean still hate Secret of the Alien? All thes...

Baudelaire, give us strength. It's the FINAL series of Year 6, and we're going out with a traumatic bang, as Sean unleashes the manga version of one of his most hated anime – The Flowers of Evil! But that was 13 years ago, and it's not like you can rotoscope manga, so surely this romantic drama will have grown on him somewhat since then? If he can u-turn on Girl on the Shore, he can u-turn on anyt...

As the end of Year 6 draws nigh, who else will save us from endless trash manga, but Ottoman! This time around it's the turn of the Henshin Hero Husband, but can romance, superheroism, and a splash of Mike's beloved conspiracy theories make for a good series to relax in after a hard day at work? ~ Welcome to That Time I Started A Podcast To Read Trash Manga With My Friends And Actually Most Of The...

Revenge is a dish best served romcomtically, as after last episode we decided to subject dear Mike to his favourite genre – romcoms! This time it's My Teasing Fiancée up to the plate, a series with arranged partners (though at least both have agreed to it this time) and... er... wait, that can't be it, there must be more going on here, surely... ~ Welcome to That Time I Started A Podcast To Read T...

Happy April Fools! For you, definitely not for us, as for 2026, it's the turn of cartoons in the spotlight. And if you thought animation couldn't get worse than Sword Art Online, my friends, you have no idea. So enjoy, as the Trash Cartoon Friends discuss Stargate Infinity, the cartoon spin-off of the beloved scifi franchise that two of our trio grew up with. I'm so, so sorry. ~ Welcome to That Ti...

We've got a spring in our step for our Spring anime season tie-in, since one of the most anticipated anime adaptations has arrived! Yes, we're reading the award winning and critically acclaimed Witch Hat Atelier! Will the story of a normal girl stumbling into the world of magic resonate with our trio, or is one superfan about to have a horrible awakening... ~ Welcome to That Time I Started A Podca...

We're back in Mike's childhood once more. But this time, after the Tokyo Underground's and Boys Over Flowers's, we're guaranteed to have a banger, as we tackle the iconic Trigun. The anime might've been one of the pillars of Adult Swim, but how fares the original manga? Yeah, about that... ~ Welcome to That Time I Started A Podcast To Read Trash Manga With My Friends And Actually Most Of Them Were...

If in doubt, shounen will never let you down, right? So was it a bloodbath when we read the classic blood power series Tougen Anki: Legend of the Cursed Blood? After all, if you're drawing inspirations from every big name shounen manga past and present, you've got to be able to channel something interesting... right? ~ Welcome to That Time I Started A Podcast To Read Trash Manga With My Friends An...

Another year, another Valentine's, which can only mean yet another romcom. But this time we've looked to the bard for inspiration, to find Boarding School Juliet, inspired by Shakespeare's own Romeo and Juliet! Surely a romcom based off this all time iconic work in this season of love and romance couldn't enrage our trio? ~ Welcome to That Time I Started A Podcast To Read Trash Manga With My Frien...

Our first webtoon of 2026, and it's all about mixed martial arts fighting! Surely with an ex-martial artist, a wrestling stan and a shounen fan amongst our trio, Guard Pass must have been set to go down a treat. It's even got a female lead kicking butt and an atypical mountain of a male protagonist! There's no way we would hard pass on Guard Pass, right? ~ Welcome to That Time I Started A Podcast...

Now that 2026 has well and truly begun, we can start another of our traditions, the seasonal anime tie-in! And for the first time in a long time we're drawing inspiration from the villainess trope, as we let The Holy Grail of Eris bring out the worst in us! But was that a good thing? Or just more slop to animate two frames of and stick an AI sub or dub onto... ~ Welcome to That Time I Started A Po...

Happy New Year! For the first time ever, our fortnightly episode falls on January 1st, so we scoured high and low to find a manga related to the new year! And we failed. So here's the next best thing when you need a series on new beginnings - isekai! But not just any isekai, an onsen isekai! ...No, not that onsen isekai (yes there's multiple), but Reincarnated as a Hot Spring in an Alternate World...

It's Chriiisssstmaaaas! And this year, more than any other, we're on brand, as we discuss Sanda! No, I've not misspelt that, it's the seasonal tale of a boy called Sanda who has the power to turn into Santa Claus. Set in a world where Christmas doesn't exist anymore and the kids can do literally no wrong. All done by the Beastars mangaka. Intrigued? So were we... ~ Welcome to That Time I Started A...

We've had a time as of late, but is now when our trio finally gets on the same page? Kemono Jihen is up to the plate in this episode, a supernatural mystery shounen involving tanukis, kitsunes, vampires and more besides! Can this series that's sold millions and has an anime finally be something we all consider good, or another foul spirit to be banished to the shadow realm? ~ Welcome to That Time...

Childhood trauma's continue in some capacity, as now we delve into Phil's past for A Town Where You Live! It's just a little romantic drama manga, we've done a bunch of those and Sean's bought a couple, so surely this one can't be that bad? Oh, you sweet summer children... ~ Welcome to That Time I Started A Podcast To Read Trash Manga With My Friends And Actually Most Of Them Were Trash But Some O...

What could be scarier than Halloween? How about a Mike's choice episode! We delve once more into his childhood to unearth Zoids, a rare mecha manga for us to dissect, with its own massive toy line and legacy to boot. But did he finally come good, or am I just going back to watching Robot Wars reruns? ~ Welcome to That Time I Started A Podcast To Read Trash Manga With My Friends And Actually Most O...

Halloween is here, so it's time to send in the clowns! Those murderous, psychotic clowns...? Join us for another gorefest as we tackle The Killer Clown's Questions, a bloody horror manga about... killer clowns... Will Pumpkin Night finally be toppled from its throne? And how many times will we say the word clus- ~ Welcome to That Time I Started A Podcast To Read Trash Manga With My Friends And Act...

Episode 150! The Fall Anime Tie-In Special! Combine these two and yes, he is here, as we discuss one of the biggest series of the past decade and shounen megahit My Hero Academia, as it prepares for its final season airing now! In this special bumper length episode, we discuss the first three volumes and two seasons of the show, from Deku's origins to the sports festival! Did we find this All Migh...

Anime tie-ins aren't the only kind we do, as to celebrate the release of the third and final season on Netflix today, we're covering Alice in Borderland! Will this sort of isekai sort of death game very little Wonderland be the one to finally unite us in praise? Or will it be more developed by Randy Pitchford level? ~ Welcome to That Time I Started A Podcast To Read Trash Manga With My Friends And...

Wait, an isekai that... justified being an isekai? Surely not! This time we've covered I'm Standing On A Million Lives, and asking ourselves if we have finally, truly found the best isekai ever... or if once again, we're standing on yet another trash manga. ~ Welcome to That Time I Started A Podcast To Read Trash Manga With My Friends And Actually Most Of Them Were Trash But Some Of Them Weren't!...

After a trio of Chinese series over the years that have... let's say underwhelmed... we decided enough is enough. And so we turn to the #1 ranked Chinese series according to MAL, from acclaimed author Mo Xiang Tong Xiu, it's Heaven Official's Blessing. Did we finally discover peak, or another worst of the year contender? ~ Welcome to That Time I Started A Podcast To Read Trash Manga With My Friend...