Inbetweens

Episode 155 of Key Frames, a podcast about anime. Here at Key Frames we're always pushing the boundaries of the possible and, even though we're making an effort to cut down on our runtime and to tighten up our topics, we're still hitting never-before-seen milestones like all the best internet creators. For instance, did you know that, not counting last episode and the solo one from December, this...

Episode 37 of Key Frames: Inbetweens, a mini-podcast about anime. The bet between Andy and Duncan over what Ben's favorite anime is (currently) has been resolved, yet somehow the lattermost feels like the winner here, because now everyone has to watch Turn A Gundam. Well, "everyone" in this case means Duncan and Jeff, but Ben will take what he can get! Why does this anime appeal so much to someone...

Episode 36 of Key Frames: Inbetweens, a mini-podcast about anime. Koyomi Araragi must just be the most insufferable person to have at your college, right? Like, you're sitting in Philosophy 101, going over different perspectives on theory of mind, and here's this dude who looks like he hasn't gotten a haircut in years wasting the professor's time with a rambling story about the time he became a va...

Episode 35 of Key Frames: Inbetweens, a mini-podcast about anime. Have you felt like something strange and terrible has been hanging over your head for four years, maybe more? Does today seem like it could be the moment when it all comes crashing down? Does it seem at the same time like it could stay up there forever, a sword of Damocles under which you'll be forced to live your life just out of t...

Episode 34 of Key Frames: Inbetweens, a mini-podcast about anime. What do you do when your podcast spotlights something that no one particularly liked? Well, maybe you should listen to this episode and find out! In honor of a second season being announced, after an interval of a decade and a half, Ben, Andy, and Duncan all watched Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt, an anime that aspires to the tran...

Episode 33 of Key Frames: Inbetweens, a mini-podcast about anime. One does not care to acknowledge the mistakes in one's podcast, but know this: each host has their own sense of fandom inside of themselves, and they fight desperately to protect their credibility from naysayers! Even when you understand most of the references, even when you realize that it's just people quoting Char Aznable from Mo...

Episode 32 of Key Frames: Inbetweens, a mini-podcast about anime. It's time to rock out with Masaaki Yuasa's latest movie, Inu-Oh! Not to spoil, but everyone loves it. What all do they like? Is it the real-life talent behind this medieval Japanese rock opera? Is it the wonderful celebration of difference? Is it the opportunity to bring up Heike Monogatari as much as humanly possible? Listen and yo...

Episode 31 of Key Frames: Inbetweens, a mini-podcast about anime. It is we who plowed the prairies, built the cities where they trade / Dug the mines and built the workshops, endless miles of railroad laid / Now we stand outcast and starving midst the wonders we have made / But the union makes us strong! Come listen to Ben, Andy, and Duncan express their solidarity with a red panda and a hyena as...

Episode 30 of Key Frames: Inbetweens, a mini-podcast about anime. Revue Starlight is a story of podcast hosts guided by the sureness of their opinions. They agree and disagree. They make good points even as they miss the overall picture. However, eventually the episode ends, never to be revisited again. It is a somber experience... but the story of those nine girls hopelessly captivates Ben and Du...

Episode 29 of Key Frames: Inbetweens, a mini-podcast about anime. We just did a tween on Mobile Suit Gundam, one of the defining franchises of anime, so why not another? Jeff and Duncan drink deeply of the original Ghost in the Shell movie, which they praise for asking questions more than giving answers, and they ponder how it pointed the way forward (and, in a handful of cases, backward) for cybe...

Episode 28 of Key Frames: Inbetweens, a mini-podcast about anime. The creeping obsession with Mobile Suit Gundam shared by Ben, Duncan, and Jeff gains another toehold in the podcast with this tween on the celebrated 1989 OVA written by none other than Hiroyuki Yamaga of Studio GAINAX fame. Hear our hosts talk about being anti-war in an anime designed first and foremost to sell toys, about the beau...

Episode 27 of Key Frames: Inbetweens, a mini-podcast about anime. It's time for a rematch on whether Violet Evergarden is profoundly moving or manipulatively sappy! Duncan, Andy, and Jeff square up over the sequel movie that was released two years ago in Japan and last year worldwide, but don't worry, it's not Violet-loving Andy vs. the world this time. Jeff and even Duncan join him at times in pr...

Episode 26 of Key Frames: Inbetweens, a mini-podcast about anime. Six years and a hundred and twenty-three episodes ago, in an earlier era of the podcast, Ben pitched an episode spotlighting the film adaptation of Clamp's apocalyptic manga. Instead, everyone picked Natsuyuki Rendezvous, an anime that Ben hated. Now he'll have his revenge! Duncan and Jeff join him to wonder in bafflement at the att...

Episode 25 of Key Frames: Inbetweens, a mini-podcast about anime. It's finally here, the moment where we get to talk about tanks as much as we want—as opposed to every other episode of this podcast, where Ben just talks about tanks until everyone else makes him stop! Duncan and Jeff join him now to chat about Girls und Panzer, a 2012 anime by Tsutomu Mizushima that's somehow spawned a massive fran...

Episode 22 of Key Frames: Inbetweens, a mini-podcast about anime. There... Can you hear it? If your soul has not truly given up on Ben, Duncan, and Jeff finishing their Revolutionary Girl Utena rewatch, then you can hear the sound that races through the last fifteen episodes of that series. Come! Come with us and our guest, friend and Utena expert Katie! Follow us to the podcast episode you seek!...

Episode 21 of Key Frames: Inbetweens, a mini-podcast about anime. There's a new anime on Netflix and everyone is talking about it! Join Andy, Duncan, Jeff, and Jon as they talk about the thematic and artistic value of Beastars and struggle not to mention Zootopia too much. How many times is too many? Four? Five? Listen and decide for yourself! The post Inbetween 21 - Herbivore Men (Beastars) first...

Episode 20 of Key Frames: Inbetweens, a mini-podcast about anime. You want to hear Ben, Duncan, and Jeff talk about the "Black Rose" arc of Revolutionary Girl Utena? Deeper. Go deeper. You want to hear them talk about nostalgia, toxicity, deviance, and intimacy? You want crackpot theories and genuine insights in equal measure? I understand. Your only choice is to listen to this episode. The file y...

Episode 19 of Key Frames: Inbetweens, a mini-podcast about anime. Once upon a time, there were podcast hosts who were very sad, for they had finished a rewatch of the Monogatari Series. Before Ben, Duncan, and Jeff appeared a celebrated anime called Revolutionary Girl Utena, which said, "Little podcast, bearing up alone in such deep sorrow, lose not thy obsessive nitpicking and theorizing, even if...

Episode 17 of Key Frames: Inbetweens, a mini-podcast about anime. I shouldn't have wasted my butchering of Frank Sinatra's "My Way" on the description of episode 51 because this really is the end of an era. Ben and Jeff discuss the final arc of the Monogatari Series franchise and look back on six episodes of navel-gazing speculation about one of the most intellectual and perverted shows out there....

Episode 16 of Key Frames: Inbetweens, a mini-podcast about anime. What, puppets? Don't worry, Jeff and Jon are here to guide you through the confusing world of Thunderbolt Fantasy, a Taiwanese show set in fantasy China with Japanese voice acting. What are everyone's names? Do they all die at the end? How is "wuxia" pronounced? All this and more may or may not be answered! The post Inbetween 16 - S...

Episode 15 of Key Frames: Inbetweens, a mini-podcast about anime. What rhymes with "summer"? That's right, "bummer"! After catching up with Jon's list of shows that he's watching for the summer 2019 anime season, Ben chats with him about their experiences with hype and disappointment as anime fans. What shows let them down? How did they let them down? Is the internet to blame? The internet's proba...

Episode 07 of Key Frames: Inbetweens, a mini-podcast about anime. It is fitting that Bakemonogatari, an anime that is about the self-conscious construction of identity, gets almost an hour of discussion out of Ben and Jeff. Come for the philosophy, stay for the fan service! Be prepared to stay awhile, there's a lot of fan service... The post Inbetween 07 - Good in a Bad Way (Bakemonogatari) first...

Episode 06 of Key Frames: Inbetweens, a mini-podcast about anime. People are lining up to hear Andy and Midori talk about their experience at Comiket 93! Mids is full of facts about the world's largest doujinshi market! Andy is unsure whether or not to eat a bag of poop for which he paid ¥3,000! They play a recording of a drunken conversation with Andy's friend Hiroto, a Comiket veteran! Hurry, be...

Episode 05 of Key Frames: Inbetweens, a mini-podcast about anime. Ben and Jeff are rockin' the suburbs! This one's the mecha podcast to end all mecha podcasts. Okay, that's probably not true: Jeff is going to watch Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam, and Ben may even talk himself into watching Reconguista in G. But hey, there's some good stuff here about the breakout hits of Yoshiyuki Tomino's early career....

Episode 04 of Key Frames: Inbetweens, a mini-podcast about anime. The holidays have Ben, Andy, and Jon hungry for anime and thirsty for manga! After sampling Food Wars! and then tearing into Osake wa Fuufu ni Natte Kara, they chew through all the other food and drink anime that they can find. Andy has another terrible game to play, too! The post Inbetween 04 - Have Powers, Level Up, Make Friends f...