Explorez tous les épisodes du podcast Purely Academic with Jonathan Lack & Sean Chapman
| Titre | Date | Durée | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Purely Academic #22 - Reviewing Kyoto Animation’s CITY: THE ANIMATION | 15 Oct 2025 | 03:29:22 | |
We spent a full year chronicling the history of Kyoto Animation on our anime podcast, Japanimation Station, back in 2024, which means we are very excited to talk about CITY: THE ANIMATION, the latest anime series from the renowned studio. Directed by Violet Evergarden helmer Ishidate Taichi and based on the manga Nichijou author Arawi Keiichi, CITY is one of the absolute greatest series KyoAni has produced to date, a return not only to Arawi’s zany comic stylings, but to the bold, experimental spirit of KyoAni’s early work. Seamlessly blending wild, anarchical comedy with heartfelt, shockingly rich storytelling about friendship, nostalgia, and community, CITY isn’t just a triumph: it’s an outright masterpiece, and we couldn’t be happier to talk about it at length on today’s show. Enjoy! Read Jonathan Lack’s movie reviews and stay up to date with all our podcast projects at https://www.jonathanlack.com Subscribe to JAPANIMATION STATION, our podcast about the wide and wonderful world of anime: https://www.japanimation-station.com Read Jonathan’s book 200 Reviews in Paperback or on Kindle – https://a.co/d/bLx53vK Subscribe to our YouTube channels! Japanimation Station: https://www.youtube.com/c/japanimationstation Purely Academic: https://www.youtube.com/@purelyacademicpodcast Support the show at Ko-fi ☕️ https://ko-fi.com/weeklystuff Original Music by Thomas Lack https://www.thomaslack.com/ ©2012 - Present Jonathan R. Lack & Sean Chapman | |||
| Purely Academic #21 - Hades II, Ghost of Yōtei, Xbox Pricing Madness, and more! | 08 Oct 2025 | 03:10:00 | |
We’re back for the month of October with an exciting episode covering both the highs and lows of the video game industry in 2025. In terms of ‘low,’ we’ve got more Xbox Pricing Madness, as Microsoft once again hiked prices on Xbox hardware, before unveiling a full 50% raise to the price of Xbox Game Pass, a move that feels like the definitive end of the brand’s subscription model experiment. In terms of ‘highs,’ though, games are still great, and there’s way too many out there for us to play them all! Jonathan gives first impressions of Hades II from Supergiant, while Sean talks Ghost of Yōtei, Sucker Punch’s historical samurai sequel for the PS5. We also talk the latest Genshin Impact update, Super Robot Wars Y, and engage in a very fun, very silly Monthly Ten as we consider the lessons teenagers actually need to be taught before they get out of high school. Enjoy! Time Chart Intro: 0:00:00 – 0:03:18 Xbox Pricing Madness & Other News: 0:03:18 – 1:21:14 Ghost of Yotei: 1:21:14 – 1:37:50 Hades II: 1:37:50 – 1:57:00 Genshin Impact 6.0: 1:57:00 – 2:09:54 Super Robot Wars Y: 2:09:54 – 2:31:59 The Monthly Ten: 2:31:59 – 3:10:00 Read Jonathan Lack’s movie reviews and stay up to date with all our podcast projects at https://www.jonathanlack.com Subscribe to JAPANIMATION STATION, our podcast about the wide and wonderful world of anime: https://japanimationstation.com Read Jonathan’s book 200 Reviews in Paperback or on Kindle – https://a.co/d/bLx53vK Subscribe to our YouTube channels! Japanimation Station: https://www.youtube.com/c/japanimationstation Purely Academic: https://www.youtube.com/@purelyacademicpodcast Support the show at Ko-fi ☕️ https://ko-fi.com/weeklystuff Original Music by Thomas Lack https://www.thomaslack.com/ Read Jonathan Lack’s movie reviews and stay up to date with all our podcast projects at https://www.jonathanlack.com Subscribe to JAPANIMATION STATION, our podcast about the wide and wonderful world of anime: https://www.japanimation-station.com Read Jonathan’s book 200 Reviews in Paperback or on Kindle – https://a.co/d/bLx53vK Subscribe to our YouTube channels! Japanimation Station: https://www.youtube.com/c/japanimationstation Purely Academic: https://www.youtube.com/@purelyacademicpodcast Support the show at Ko-fi ☕️ https://ko-fi.com/weeklystuff Original Music by Thomas Lack https://www.thomaslack.com/ ©2012 - Present Jonathan R. Lack & Sean Chapman | |||
| Purely Academic #12 - Xbox Price Hikes, Assassin’s Creed Shadows, Outlandish Nintendo Switch 2 Accessories & More! | 09 May 2025 | 03:00:59 | |
Purely Academic has a new format starting this month, where we’ll be releasing two episodes a month: One focused on a specific topic, and the other featuring all the other up-to-date variety of News, ‘Show n’ Tell,’ the Monthly Ten, and more! The latter, which we’re nostalgically calling ‘The Monthly Stuff,’ is what you’re listening to today, and it’s a busy one! There was some big video game news with Nintendo Switch 2 preorders and enormous Xbox price hikes; Sean has been playing some big PS5 games in Monster Hunter Wilds and Assassin’s Creed Shadows; and Jonathan is in charge of May’s ‘Monthly Ten,’ sharing with us 10 increasingly ridiculous ideas for Nintendo Switch 2 accessories that probably won’t happen, but would be very funny if they did. Enjoy, and join us again in 2 weeks for May’s topic, which is all about the classic DOOM games from the 1990s! Time Chart: Intro & Housekeeping: 0:00:00 – 0:17:40 News: 0:17:40 – 1:15:02 Thunderbolts: 1:15:02 – 1:28:37 Monster Hunter Wilds: 1:28:37 – 1:49:25 Forza Horizon 5 on PS5: 1:49:25 – 1:58:20 Assassin’s Creed Shadows: 1:58:20 – 2:35:15 The Monthly Ten: 2:35:15 – 3:00:59 Read Jonathan Lack’s movie reviews and stay up to date with all our podcast projects at https://www.jonathanlack.com Subscribe to JAPANIMATION STATION, our podcast about the wide and wonderful world of anime: https://www.japanimation-station.com Read Jonathan’s book 200 Reviews in Paperback or on Kindle – https://a.co/d/bLx53vK Subscribe to our YouTube channels! Japanimation Station: https://www.youtube.com/c/japanimationstation Purely Academic: https://www.youtube.com/@purelyacademicpodcast Support the show at Ko-fi ☕️ https://ko-fi.com/weeklystuff Original Music by Thomas Lack https://www.thomaslack.com/ ©2012 - Present Jonathan R. Lack & Sean Chapman | |||
| The Weekly Stuff #431 – Weekly Suit Gundam 3-Year Anniversary Celebration & Rankings! (Part 1) | 10 Jun 2022 | 03:03:58 | |
It’s been three years since we started our sister series Weekly Suit Gundam, watching just two episodes of the original Mobile Suit Gundam for our first show – and three years later, we’ve watched over 800 episodes of Gundam and reviewed every series in the pantheon. So for this year’s anniversary, we’re not just ranking the shows we reviewed in the past year – though we do that as well – but ranking every Gundam show, with Sean and Jonathan sharing their individual lists before debating and coming to a consensus on an official Weekly Suit Gundam ranking of all 33 Gundam shows/OVAs/movies we’ve covered on this show. It’s the moment you’ve been waiting three whole years for. And if you’re not into Gundam, fear not! We also spend an hour at the top of the show talking Genshin Impact Version 2.7, hear Jonathan’s experiences creating a fan edit of the Star Wars spin-off Book of Boba Fett, and go over some of the gaming news from Not-E3 2022. Enjoy, and be sure not to miss our very special 10th Anniversary podcast spectacular this Monday, June 13th, at 10am! It’s the biggest and best episode we’ve ever done – 10 topics over 10 hours – and we hope to see you there. https://youtu.be/21eM2T-63Vs Time Chart: Intro: 0:00:00 – 0:04:42 Genshin Impact: 0:04:42 – 0:26:03 Star Wars: 0:26:03 – 0:34:20 Not-E3 2022 News: 0:34:20 – 0:52:48 Gundam: 0:52:48 – 3:04:11 Subscribe to our YouTube Channel! Subscribe to the WEEKLY SUIT GUNDAM Podcast! Subscribe for free to 'The Weekly Stuff' in Apple Podcasts! Follow Jonathan Lack on Twitter! Follow Sean Chapman on Twitter!
Read Jonathan Lack’s movie reviews and stay up to date with all our podcast projects at https://www.jonathanlack.com Subscribe to JAPANIMATION STATION, our podcast about the wide and wonderful world of anime: https://www.japanimation-station.com Read Jonathan’s book 200 Reviews in Paperback or on Kindle – https://a.co/d/bLx53vK Subscribe to our YouTube channels! Japanimation Station: https://www.youtube.com/c/japanimationstation Purely Academic: https://www.youtube.com/@purelyacademicpodcast Support the show at Ko-fi ☕️ https://ko-fi.com/weeklystuff Original Music by Thomas Lack https://www.thomaslack.com/ ©2012 - Present Jonathan R. Lack & Sean Chapman | |||
| The Weekly Stuff #430 – Obi-Wan Kenobi Premiere Review & Discussion | 31 May 2022 | 01:42:36 | |
Ewan McGregor made his long-awaited return as Obi-Wan Kenobi in this week’s premiere episodes of the aptly titled Obi-Wan Kenobi for Disney+, and we were so enthusiastic about the results we just had to share our thoughts in today’s episode! With a compelling characterization of an Obi-Wan stuck between the despair of his many losses in Episode III and the wise, hopeful mentor of Episode IV, the show finds a smart way into this story, with some much appreciated surprises in store, and a large number of excellent new and returning performances throughout these first two hours. We save that spoiler-filled discussion for the end of the podcast, with Sean talking about his adventures watching the Ultraman series at the beginning, followed by Jonathan’s take on Top Gun Maverick and his initial impressions of Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga. Time Chart: Intro: 0:00:00 – 0:06:09 Ultraman: 0:06:09 – 0:15:17 Top Gun Maverick: 0:15:17 – 0:24:37 Lego Star Wars: 0:24:37 – 0:39:05 Obi-Wan Kenobi: 0:39:05 – 1:42:36 Subscribe to our YouTube Channel! Subscribe to the WEEKLY SUIT GUNDAM Podcast! Subscribe for free to 'The Weekly Stuff' in Apple Podcasts! Follow Jonathan Lack on Twitter! Follow Sean Chapman on Twitter! Read Jonathan Lack’s movie reviews and stay up to date with all our podcast projects at https://www.jonathanlack.com Subscribe to JAPANIMATION STATION, our podcast about the wide and wonderful world of anime: https://www.japanimation-station.com Read Jonathan’s book 200 Reviews in Paperback or on Kindle – https://a.co/d/bLx53vK Subscribe to our YouTube channels! Japanimation Station: https://www.youtube.com/c/japanimationstation Purely Academic: https://www.youtube.com/@purelyacademicpodcast Support the show at Ko-fi ☕️ https://ko-fi.com/weeklystuff Original Music by Thomas Lack https://www.thomaslack.com/ ©2012 - Present Jonathan R. Lack & Sean Chapman | |||
| The Weekly Stuff #429 – Mobile Suit Gundam Thunderbolt & Twilight Axis Reviews & Discussions | 24 May 2022 | 02:21:38 | |
Jonathan shares his rankings of all 13 Star Trek films following an inexplicable completist run through all of them, which Sean mocks him roundly for, and then it’s time to settle all Gundam business by reviewing two ONA (original net animation) series that are the last mainline Gundam titles we’ve yet left un-reviewed. Mobile Suit Gundam Thunderbolt, based on the manga by Yasuo Ohtagaki, aired from 2015 to 2017 and was collected into 2 films, December Sky and Bandit Flower, and it’s a fascinating, frequently rousing production, if also one that’s messy and incomplete. With detailed over-the-top action scored to incredible jazz music by Naruyoshi Kikuchi and a series of faux-pop oldies representing rival protagonists Io Fleming and Daryl Lorenz, Thunderbolt is a synesthetic marvel – but it’s also barreling through 7 volumes of manga in a scant 2.5 hours, and with no new episodes in 5 years, it’s an entirely unfinished project. Twilight Axis, on the other hand, is finished – but it’s very slight, a series of short ONA episodes collected into a 26-minute movie, loosely adapting a series of light novels into an impressionistic-at-best, confusing-and-vestigial-at-worst short film. Enjoy! Time Chart: Intro & Stuff: 0:00:00 – 0:38:39 Gundam Thunderbolt: 0:38:39 – 2:00:26 Gundam Twilight Axis: 2:00:26 – 2:21:51 Subscribe to our YouTube Channel! Subscribe to the WEEKLY SUIT GUNDAM Podcast! Subscribe for free to 'The Weekly Stuff' in Apple Podcasts! Follow Jonathan Lack on Twitter! Follow Sean Chapman on Twitter! The Weekly Stuff with Jonathan Lack & Sean Chapman is a weekly audio podcast, and if you subscribe on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts, episodes will be delivered automatically and for free as soon as they are released. Visit www.weeklystuffpodcast.com for a complete archive of streaming and downloadable episodes.
Read Jonathan Lack’s movie reviews and stay up to date with all our podcast projects at https://www.jonathanlack.com Subscribe to JAPANIMATION STATION, our podcast about the wide and wonderful world of anime: https://www.japanimation-station.com Read Jonathan’s book 200 Reviews in Paperback or on Kindle – https://a.co/d/bLx53vK Subscribe to our YouTube channels! Japanimation Station: https://www.youtube.com/c/japanimationstation Purely Academic: https://www.youtube.com/@purelyacademicpodcast Support the show at Ko-fi ☕️ https://ko-fi.com/weeklystuff Original Music by Thomas Lack https://www.thomaslack.com/ ©2012 - Present Jonathan R. Lack & Sean Chapman | |||
| The Weekly Stuff #428 – Gundam Build Divers Re:RISE Review & Discussion | 17 May 2022 | 03:05:18 | |
Before ‘diving’ into this week’s Gundam discussion – yes, it’s still a pun – Sean talks about finally upgrading to a new smartphone (after being on the iPhone 6S for over half the life of this show), asks Jonathan why he’s inexplicably watching through all the Star Trek movies including the very bad ones, and Jonathan gives impressions of the excellent indie adventure Tunic on Xbox. Then it’s time to talk about Gundam Build Divers Re:RISE, the most pleasantly surprising qualitative whiplash we’ve ever seen. Following the franchise low-point of Gundam Build Divers, Re:RISE is a stunningly smart, soulful, exciting, and all-around excellent anime that is nearly as great as the original show is bad. Following a new group of characters – the BUILD DiVERS, distinguished by one lowercase ‘i’ – Re:RISE immediately distinguishes itself with a deeply human and compelling protagonist, Hiroto Kuga, and a fantastic group of supporting characters, all on a wild adventure that combines the video game isekai tropes the first show tried but failed at, a more traditional fantasy isekai journey to another world, and even dashes of other non-Build Gundam shows with heroes, villains, and major life-and-death stakes. It’s the last full Gundam show made to date, and we couldn’t ask for much more of the series that catches this podcast up to the franchise’s present day. Time Chart: Intro & Stuff: 0:00:00 – 0:33:01 Gundam Re:RISE: 0:33:01 – 3:05:31 Subscribe to our YouTube Channel! Subscribe to the WEEKLY SUIT GUNDAM Podcast! Subscribe for free to 'The Weekly Stuff' in Apple Podcasts! Follow Jonathan Lack on Twitter! Follow Sean Chapman on Twitter!
Read Jonathan Lack’s movie reviews and stay up to date with all our podcast projects at https://www.jonathanlack.com Subscribe to JAPANIMATION STATION, our podcast about the wide and wonderful world of anime: https://www.japanimation-station.com Read Jonathan’s book 200 Reviews in Paperback or on Kindle – https://a.co/d/bLx53vK Subscribe to our YouTube channels! Japanimation Station: https://www.youtube.com/c/japanimationstation Purely Academic: https://www.youtube.com/@purelyacademicpodcast Support the show at Ko-fi ☕️ https://ko-fi.com/weeklystuff Original Music by Thomas Lack https://www.thomaslack.com/ ©2012 - Present Jonathan R. Lack & Sean Chapman | |||
| The Weekly Stuff #427 – Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness Review | 10 May 2022 | 01:50:08 | |
It’s a very ‘strange’ podcast this week – haha, get it? – as we review the latest entry in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness! Directed by the great Sam Raimi – and featuring WAY more of his characteristic humor, scares, distorted camera work, and cartoon violence than we expected – it’s one of the most unique, imaginative, and downright fun films Marvel has made so far. To put it simply, the film kicks ass. We also got news this weekend about the casting of the 14th Doctor on Doctor Who, to be played by 29-year-old Ncuti Gatwa, who will become the first black actor to play the iconic part, and discussion of this exciting announcement rounds out the episode. And finally, in recognition of the overwhelming threat to reproductive rights bearing down on the United States this week after it became clear the Supreme Court was poised to overturn Roe v Wade, we are encouraging listeners to make donations, if able, to local abortion funds in their area. Jonathan will be donating to the Iowa Abortion Access Fund in Iowa, and Sean to the Lilith Fundin Texas, but we encourage you to donate wherever will do the most good in your community. Enjoy! Time Chart: Intro & Stuff: 0:00:00 – 0:21:29 Doctor Who News: 0:21:29 – 0:32:32 Doctor Strange 2 Review: 0:32:32 – 1:50:21 Subscribe to our YouTube Channel! Subscribe to the WEEKLY SUIT GUNDAM Podcast! Subscribe for free to 'The Weekly Stuff' in Apple Podcasts! Follow Jonathan Lack on Twitter! Follow Sean Chapman on Twitter! Read Jonathan Lack’s movie reviews and stay up to date with all our podcast projects at https://www.jonathanlack.com Subscribe to JAPANIMATION STATION, our podcast about the wide and wonderful world of anime: https://www.japanimation-station.com Read Jonathan’s book 200 Reviews in Paperback or on Kindle – https://a.co/d/bLx53vK Subscribe to our YouTube channels! Japanimation Station: https://www.youtube.com/c/japanimationstation Purely Academic: https://www.youtube.com/@purelyacademicpodcast Support the show at Ko-fi ☕️ https://ko-fi.com/weeklystuff Original Music by Thomas Lack https://www.thomaslack.com/ ©2012 - Present Jonathan R. Lack & Sean Chapman | |||
| The Weekly Stuff #426 – Gundam Build Divers Review & Discussion | 03 May 2022 | 02:31:30 | |
After a bit of a break from the giant fighting robots, we’re diving back into Gundam this week, jumping all the way down to the bottom of the barrel to review 2018’s Gundam Build Divers. Capitalizing on the Sword Art Online-inspired Isekai craze of the 2010s, Gundam Build Divers takes the Gunpla action out of the real world and into a very boring virtual reality, without really understanding what makes Isekai shows or the prior Build Fighters series fun in the first place. With amazingly low stakes, wildly inconsistent world building, nary an interesting character in sight, and a final arc that goes from zero to bananas in record time (and not in a good way), Gundam Build Divers is the nadir of animated Gundam. And before eviscerating this terrible series, Sean also talks about playing Horizon: Forbidden West, and Jonathan discusses catching up on recent happenings in Genshin Impact. Time Chart: Intro & Stuff: 0:00:00 – 0:26:39 Gundam Build Divers: 0:26:39 – 2:31:44 Subscribe to our YouTube Channel! Subscribe to the WEEKLY SUIT GUNDAM Podcast! Subscribe for free to 'The Weekly Stuff' in Apple Podcasts! Follow Jonathan Lack on Twitter! Follow Sean Chapman on Twitter!
Read Jonathan Lack’s movie reviews and stay up to date with all our podcast projects at https://www.jonathanlack.com Subscribe to JAPANIMATION STATION, our podcast about the wide and wonderful world of anime: https://www.japanimation-station.com Read Jonathan’s book 200 Reviews in Paperback or on Kindle – https://a.co/d/bLx53vK Subscribe to our YouTube channels! Japanimation Station: https://www.youtube.com/c/japanimationstation Purely Academic: https://www.youtube.com/@purelyacademicpodcast Support the show at Ko-fi ☕️ https://ko-fi.com/weeklystuff Original Music by Thomas Lack https://www.thomaslack.com/ ©2012 - Present Jonathan R. Lack & Sean Chapman | |||
| The Weekly Stuff #425 – Elden Ring Final Review & Discussion | 26 Apr 2022 | 02:44:33 | |
After hundreds of hours, countless deaths, millions of runes collected and dozens of demigods slain, Sean and Jonathan are both finally finished with FromSoftware’s incredible open-world RPG masterpiece Elden Ring, and that means it is, at last, time for our in-depth spoiler-filled review and discussion. After discussing the game in bits and pieces along the way over the past two months, we dive deep with the surprisingly rich storytelling and mythology, the many fabulous boss fights, the seemingly endless assortment of dense, surprising areas and images, and so much more. Before the spoiler chat begins, Sean also talks about reading through the Fullmetal Alchemist manga for the first time, Jonathan review Robert Eggers’ outstanding new Viking epic The Northman, and we collectively take a look at the upcoming ‘second season’ of Halo Infinite, and why the game is in such a bafflingly miserable state. Time Chart: Intro: 0:00:00 – 0:02:33 Fullmetal Alchemist: 0:02:33 – 0:16:52 The Northman: 0:16:52 – 0:25:00 Halo Infinite Is a Mess: 0:25:00 – 0:52:22 Elden Ring: 0:52:22 – 2:44:33 Subscribe to our YouTube Channel! Subscribe to the WEEKLY SUIT GUNDAM Podcast! Subscribe for free to 'The Weekly Stuff' in Apple Podcasts! Follow Jonathan Lack on Twitter! Follow Sean Chapman on Twitter!
Read Jonathan Lack’s movie reviews and stay up to date with all our podcast projects at https://www.jonathanlack.com Subscribe to JAPANIMATION STATION, our podcast about the wide and wonderful world of anime: https://www.japanimation-station.com Read Jonathan’s book 200 Reviews in Paperback or on Kindle – https://a.co/d/bLx53vK Subscribe to our YouTube channels! Japanimation Station: https://www.youtube.com/c/japanimationstation Purely Academic: https://www.youtube.com/@purelyacademicpodcast Support the show at Ko-fi ☕️ https://ko-fi.com/weeklystuff Original Music by Thomas Lack https://www.thomaslack.com/ ©2012 - Present Jonathan R. Lack & Sean Chapman | |||
| The Weekly Stuff #424 – Listener Mail, Elden Ring, Genshin Impact & More! | 19 Apr 2022 | 01:59:25 | |
It’s a loose and free-wheeling episode this week as we dive into a big bag of listener mail, answering your questions on anime, video games, Gundam, our most anticipated movies of the next year, and much more! Listeners answered the call with a bunch of fun questions that hopefully led to some entertaining and/or enlightening answers. We also talk some more about Elden Ring, which Jonathan is slowly inching towards the finish line on, and discuss the recent Inazuma festival content in Genshin Impact, which has been a blast. Time Chart: Intro & Stuff: 0:00:00 – 0:16:38 Elden Ring: 0:16:38 – 0:26:34 Genshin Impact: 0:26:34 – 0:39:19 More Stuff: 0:39:19 – 0:50:50 Listener Mail: 0:50:50 – 1:59:38 Subscribe to our YouTube Channel! Subscribe to the WEEKLY SUIT GUNDAM Podcast! Subscribe for free to 'The Weekly Stuff' in Apple Podcasts! Follow Jonathan Lack on Twitter! Follow Sean Chapman on Twitter! Read Jonathan Lack’s movie reviews and stay up to date with all our podcast projects at https://www.jonathanlack.com Subscribe to JAPANIMATION STATION, our podcast about the wide and wonderful world of anime: https://www.japanimation-station.com Read Jonathan’s book 200 Reviews in Paperback or on Kindle – https://a.co/d/bLx53vK Subscribe to our YouTube channels! Japanimation Station: https://www.youtube.com/c/japanimationstation Purely Academic: https://www.youtube.com/@purelyacademicpodcast Support the show at Ko-fi ☕️ https://ko-fi.com/weeklystuff Original Music by Thomas Lack https://www.thomaslack.com/ ©2012 - Present Jonathan R. Lack & Sean Chapman | |||
| The Weekly Stuff #423 – Sonic the Hedgehog 2 Retrospective & Review | 12 Apr 2022 | 02:24:44 | |
With Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (the movie) currently atop the box office in theaters, we thought it would be a perfect time to take a look back at Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (the 1992 video game). Sonic 2 is one of the all-time great video game sequels, a landmark 2D platformer with some of the best graphics, art direction, sound, and music of the 16-bit era, all built atop wildly creative labyrinthine level design. The game was a major cultural event when it released 30 years ago – the same year we were born! Oh god! We’re so old! – and it more than holds up today as one of the greatest games ever made. We also talk a little bit about the new movie, which is a delightful treat for Sonic fans, discuss the (inevitably confusing) announcement of Kingdom Hearts IV, and Jonathan sings the praises of the Daniels’ Everything Everywhere All at Once, the outstanding new film starring Michelle Yeoh that everybody needs to see as soon as possible. Time Chart: Intro: 0:00:00 – 0:03:15 Kingdom Hearts IV News: 0:03:15 – 0:13:29 Stuff: 0:13:29 – 0:48:21 Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (The Game): 0:48:21 – 2:05:44 Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (The Movie): 2:05:44 – 2:24:49 Subscribe to our YouTube Channel! Subscribe to the WEEKLY SUIT GUNDAM Podcast! Subscribe for free to 'The Weekly Stuff' in Apple Podcasts! Follow Jonathan Lack on Twitter! Follow Sean Chapman on Twitter! Read Jonathan Lack’s movie reviews and stay up to date with all our podcast projects at https://www.jonathanlack.com Subscribe to JAPANIMATION STATION, our podcast about the wide and wonderful world of anime: https://www.japanimation-station.com Read Jonathan’s book 200 Reviews in Paperback or on Kindle – https://a.co/d/bLx53vK Subscribe to our YouTube channels! Japanimation Station: https://www.youtube.com/c/japanimationstation Purely Academic: https://www.youtube.com/@purelyacademicpodcast Support the show at Ko-fi ☕️ https://ko-fi.com/weeklystuff Original Music by Thomas Lack https://www.thomaslack.com/ ©2012 - Present Jonathan R. Lack & Sean Chapman | |||
| The Weekly Stuff #422 – PS Plus News, Anime Talk, Vampire Survivors, and Jonathan Talks About Save Mechanics in Video Games | 05 Apr 2022 | 01:47:23 | |
It’s a stuff-heavy episode this week as Sean and Jonathan talk about the latest Genshin Impact update, talk about anime they’ve been watching – including the news that Attack on Titan is continuing its ‘Final Season’ to a third and actually final part next year – and discuss the news that PlayStation Plus and PlayStation Now will soon be combining into three separate, confusingly-named tiers, the upside of which is finally getting backwards compatible games on PS5. Sean also sings the praises of indie sensation Vampire Survivors on PC, and Jonathan shares a talk he gave at this year’s Society for Cinema and Media Studies conference on how save mechanics in video games can be used to enhance player immersion. It’s academic, but hopefully of interest to podcast listeners. Time Chart: Intro: 0:00:00 – 0:07:00 Attack on Titan (no spoilers): 0:07:00 – 0:12:31 Genshin Impact: 0:12:31 – 0:24:20 Little Witch Academia: 0:24:20 – 0:47:30 Vampire Survivors: 0:47:30 – 0:58:58 PS Plus News: 0:58:58 – 1:22:08 Jonathan Talks Save Mechanics in Games: 1:22:08 – 1:47:23 Subscribe to our YouTube Channel! Subscribe to the WEEKLY SUIT GUNDAM Podcast! Subscribe for free to 'The Weekly Stuff' in Apple Podcasts! Follow Jonathan Lack on Twitter! Follow Sean Chapman on Twitter!
Read Jonathan Lack’s movie reviews and stay up to date with all our podcast projects at https://www.jonathanlack.com Subscribe to JAPANIMATION STATION, our podcast about the wide and wonderful world of anime: https://www.japanimation-station.com Read Jonathan’s book 200 Reviews in Paperback or on Kindle – https://a.co/d/bLx53vK Subscribe to our YouTube channels! Japanimation Station: https://www.youtube.com/c/japanimationstation Purely Academic: https://www.youtube.com/@purelyacademicpodcast Support the show at Ko-fi ☕️ https://ko-fi.com/weeklystuff Original Music by Thomas Lack https://www.thomaslack.com/ ©2012 - Present Jonathan R. Lack & Sean Chapman | |||
| Purely Academic #11 – The Great Gatsby 100th Anniversary Celebration Spectacular | 25 Apr 2025 | 02:51:56 | |
This month, we’re trying something new by releasing the individual segments once a week, to spread the mountain of content we recorded out over the whole month. And that continues with this month’s main topic, where our resident English teacher, Sean Chapman, assigned us a very important reading: F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, the Great American Novel turning the ripe old age of 100 this month! We discuss the novel itself, along with two of its cinematic adaptations – the 1974 film directed by Jack Clayton, and the 2013 film directed by Baz Luhrmann – and try to untangle why such an amazing book as never produced a halfway-decent movie. Enjoy! Read Jonathan Lack’s movie reviews and stay up to date with all our podcast projects at https://www.jonathanlack.com Subscribe to JAPANIMATION STATION, our podcast about the wide and wonderful world of anime: https://www.japanimation-station.com Read Jonathan’s book 200 Reviews in Paperback or on Kindle – https://a.co/d/bLx53vK Subscribe to our YouTube channels! Japanimation Station: https://www.youtube.com/c/japanimationstation Purely Academic: https://www.youtube.com/@purelyacademicpodcast Support the show at Ko-fi ☕️ https://ko-fi.com/weeklystuff Original Music by Thomas Lack https://www.thomaslack.com/ ©2012 - Present Jonathan R. Lack & Sean Chapman | |||
| The Weekly Stuff #421 – The Jujutsu Kaisen Episode: Reviewing Season 1 and Jujutsu Kaisen 0 | 29 Mar 2022 | 02:56:59 | |
This week’s episode is all about the Shonen anime sensation Jujutsu Kaisen, which recently saw its first film, Jujutsu Kaisen 0, released in American theaters to surprising levels of success. It’s one of our favorite anime in recent years, and we’re finally taking the time to break down the first season, all the amazing characters, the best fights, the killer music, and the unholy amounts of swagger embodied by Gojo Satoru-sensei. If Kimetsu no Yaiba – which we’ve talked about plenty here! – is the archetypal Shonen anime elevated to new dramatic heights, then Jujutsu Kaisen is Shonen anime distilled to almost dangerous amounts of weapons-grade fun. And the movie, a prequel based on the 4-chapter ‘pilot’ manga Gege Akutami wrote before the main series, is pretty damn good too. And you’ll also hear about Jonathan’s absolutely nightmarish week of travel, which, on the plus side, gave him a lot of time on planes to binge the first 3 seasons of Attack on Titan. Time Chart: Intro: 0:00:00 – 0:06:29 Jonathan’s Travel Stories: 0:06:29 – 0:31:47 Jujutsu Kaisen: 0:31:47 – 2:57:13 Subscribe to our YouTube Channel! Subscribe to the WEEKLY SUIT GUNDAM Podcast! Subscribe for free to 'The Weekly Stuff' in Apple Podcasts! Follow Jonathan Lack on Twitter! Follow Sean Chapman on Twitter!
Read Jonathan Lack’s movie reviews and stay up to date with all our podcast projects at https://www.jonathanlack.com Subscribe to JAPANIMATION STATION, our podcast about the wide and wonderful world of anime: https://www.japanimation-station.com Read Jonathan’s book 200 Reviews in Paperback or on Kindle – https://a.co/d/bLx53vK Subscribe to our YouTube channels! Japanimation Station: https://www.youtube.com/c/japanimationstation Purely Academic: https://www.youtube.com/@purelyacademicpodcast Support the show at Ko-fi ☕️ https://ko-fi.com/weeklystuff Original Music by Thomas Lack https://www.thomaslack.com/ ©2012 - Present Jonathan R. Lack & Sean Chapman | |||
| The Weekly Stuff Podcast #420 – Gundam The Origin Manga Review and Sean & Jonathan’s Continuing Adventures in Elden Ring: Vol. 3 | 15 Mar 2022 | 03:12:43 | |
We celebrate the 420th episode of The Weekly Stuff Podcast with absolutely no marijuana – but listeners are encouraged to blaze it – and instead stick to what truly gets us high: Mobile Suit Gundam and life-consuming video games. For the first hour, we continue recounting our journey through FromSoftware’s Elden Ring – which continues to be incredible – primarily discussing our time in the red wastes of Caelid and our glorious battle with Starscourge Radahn. Then, it’s time for another Gundam extravaganza, as we talk all about the Gundam: The Origin manga by the legendary Yoshikazu Yasuhiko. Serialized over a full decade, Yasuhiko’s manga is a virtuoso ‘comicalization’ of the original Gundam anime, realized in loving detail with some of the most incredible art one will ever lay eyes on. The ‘flashback arc’ from the middle of the manga was adapted for the OVA, but there’s much more material here, and for this episode, we talk about how Yasuhiko’s telling compares to the original TV series, what changes we like or dislike, and why Yasuhiko’s heavily ‘decompressed’ style is so immersive and involving. Time Chart: Intro: 0:00:00 – 0:16:20 Elden Ring: 0:16:20 – 1:02:24 Gundam The Origin Manga: 1:02:24 – 3:12:56 Subscribe to our YouTube Channel! Subscribe to the WEEKLY SUIT GUNDAM Podcast! Subscribe for free to 'The Weekly Stuff' in Apple Podcasts! Follow Jonathan Lack on Twitter! Follow Sean Chapman on Twitter!
Read Jonathan Lack’s movie reviews and stay up to date with all our podcast projects at https://www.jonathanlack.com Subscribe to JAPANIMATION STATION, our podcast about the wide and wonderful world of anime: https://www.japanimation-station.com Read Jonathan’s book 200 Reviews in Paperback or on Kindle – https://a.co/d/bLx53vK Subscribe to our YouTube channels! Japanimation Station: https://www.youtube.com/c/japanimationstation Purely Academic: https://www.youtube.com/@purelyacademicpodcast Support the show at Ko-fi ☕️ https://ko-fi.com/weeklystuff Original Music by Thomas Lack https://www.thomaslack.com/ ©2012 - Present Jonathan R. Lack & Sean Chapman | |||
| The Weekly Stuff #419 – Reviewing THE BATMAN with Robert Pattinson | 08 Mar 2022 | 03:49:55 | |
This week saw the release of Matt Reeves’ The Batman, the latest cinematic interpretation of the Caped Crusader, and by far the best one Hollywood has created to date. It’s the first Batman film to get essential parts of the character right – like the hard-boiled detective roots, commitment to not killing enemies, and even some genuinely aspirational heroism – Reeves’ film is a genuine neo-noir fueled by great performances from Robert Pattinson, Zoë Kravitz, Paul Dano, and more, with jaw-dropping cinematography and one of the best superhero musical scores ever written courtesy of Michael Giacchino. We have a very fun time gushing over this excellent film, but we might be even more enthusiastic in our continuing coverage of FromSoftware’s Elden Ring, as we recount another week of play with what’s clearly establishing itself as one of the greatest – and most consistently surprising – games ever made. Time Chart: Intro: 0:00:00 – 0:07:46 Elden Ring: 00:07:46 – 1:13:54 The Batman: 1:13:54 – 3:49:55 Subscribe to our YouTube Channel! Subscribe to the WEEKLY SUIT GUNDAM Podcast! Subscribe for free to 'The Weekly Stuff' in Apple Podcasts! Follow Jonathan Lack on Twitter! Follow Sean Chapman on Twitter! Read Jonathan Lack’s movie reviews and stay up to date with all our podcast projects at https://www.jonathanlack.com Subscribe to JAPANIMATION STATION, our podcast about the wide and wonderful world of anime: https://www.japanimation-station.com Read Jonathan’s book 200 Reviews in Paperback or on Kindle – https://a.co/d/bLx53vK Subscribe to our YouTube channels! Japanimation Station: https://www.youtube.com/c/japanimationstation Purely Academic: https://www.youtube.com/@purelyacademicpodcast Support the show at Ko-fi ☕️ https://ko-fi.com/weeklystuff Original Music by Thomas Lack https://www.thomaslack.com/ ©2012 - Present Jonathan R. Lack & Sean Chapman | |||
| The Weekly Stuff Podcast #418 – Elden Ring Impressions and Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Season 2 Review | 01 Mar 2022 | 03:36:09 | |
With the hotly anticipated Season 2 of Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba having drawn to a close in Japan two weeks ago, we finally caught up with the astonishing run of episodes comprising the series’ “Entertainment District” Arc, which may just be the most impressively produced set of TV animation episodes we’ve ever seen. We spend a good long time gushing over the animation, the direction, the music, the voice acting, the characters, and everything else we can think to discuss about one of the best Shōnen anime ever made. But before all that, we’ve also got the surprise announcement of Pokémon’s 9th generation, reports of Call of Duty skipping 2022, and Sean’s continuing adventures hacking a refurbished Nintendo 2DS to talk about – and, oh yeah, the biggest video game launch of the year with From Software’s Elden Ring, which we give our first impressions on after a few days of play. It is, suffice to say, a sublime experience, even if we’ve got way more to play before doing a real ‘review.’ Time Chart: Intro: 0:00:00 – 0:02:27 Pokemon and Call of Duty News: 0:02:27 – 0:24:22 Sean’s Homebrew 2DS Adventures: 0:24:22 – 0:34:55 Elden Ring: 0:34:55 – 1:08:44 Kimetsu no Yaiba: 1:08:44 – 3:36:22 Subscribe to our YouTube Channel! Subscribe to the WEEKLY SUIT GUNDAM Podcast! Subscribe for free to 'The Weekly Stuff' in Apple Podcasts! Follow Jonathan Lack on Twitter! Follow Sean Chapman on Twitter! Read Jonathan Lack’s movie reviews and stay up to date with all our podcast projects at https://www.jonathanlack.com Subscribe to JAPANIMATION STATION, our podcast about the wide and wonderful world of anime: https://www.japanimation-station.com Read Jonathan’s book 200 Reviews in Paperback or on Kindle – https://a.co/d/bLx53vK Subscribe to our YouTube channels! Japanimation Station: https://www.youtube.com/c/japanimationstation Purely Academic: https://www.youtube.com/@purelyacademicpodcast Support the show at Ko-fi ☕️ https://ko-fi.com/weeklystuff Original Music by Thomas Lack https://www.thomaslack.com/ ©2012 - Present Jonathan R. Lack & Sean Chapman | |||
| The Weekly Stuff #417 – Genshin Impact 2.5, Nintendo Shenanigans, and Gundam The Origin Part VI Review | 22 Feb 2022 | 03:51:56 | |
It’s a very busy week on the podcast, as we dive deep with both the Genshin Impact 2.5 update and Part VI of Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin, but before all that, Jonathan talks about his misadventures buying an OLED Nintendo Switch and trying to transfer content from his old Switch – it’s ludicrously difficult! – and we cover several pieces of news including the debut trailer for Amazon’s Lord of the Rings series, and Nintendo shuttering the 3DS and Wii U e-shops, ushering in a new golden age of video game piracy. Then we discuss the wonderful new content from this week’s excellent Genshin update, including an outstanding new story quest for Raiden Shogun and a cool set of adventures in Enkanomiya, before jumping into our latest Gundam talk. The Origin OVA comes to a spectacular end with its sixth and final installment, “Rise of the Red Comet,” in which Zeon decimates the Earth Federation at the Battle of Loum, Char Aznable becomes a legend, and General Johann Ibrahim Revil delivers a speech that will change the course of human history. Time Chart: Intro: 0:00:00 – 0:06:04 Jonathan’s Nintendo Switch Transfer Misadventures: 0:06:04 – 0:26:48 News: 0:26:48 – 1:07:45 Genshin Impact 2.5 Discussion: 1:07:45 – 1:53:11 Gundam Origin VI: 1:53:11 – 3:51:56 Subscribe to our YouTube Channel! Subscribe to the WEEKLY SUIT GUNDAM Podcast! Subscribe for free to 'The Weekly Stuff' in Apple Podcasts! Follow Jonathan Lack on Twitter! Follow Sean Chapman on Twitter! Read Jonathan Lack’s movie reviews and stay up to date with all our podcast projects at https://www.jonathanlack.com Subscribe to JAPANIMATION STATION, our podcast about the wide and wonderful world of anime: https://www.japanimation-station.com Read Jonathan’s book 200 Reviews in Paperback or on Kindle – https://a.co/d/bLx53vK Subscribe to our YouTube channels! Japanimation Station: https://www.youtube.com/c/japanimationstation Purely Academic: https://www.youtube.com/@purelyacademicpodcast Support the show at Ko-fi ☕️ https://ko-fi.com/weeklystuff Original Music by Thomas Lack https://www.thomaslack.com/ ©2012 - Present Jonathan R. Lack & Sean Chapman | |||
| PERSONA 5 ROYAL – The Complete Weekly Stuff Spoiler-Cast Discussions | 18 Feb 2022 | 14:31:10 | |
In 2017, we discussed Atlus’ landmark JRPG Persona 5 so exhaustively that we collected all our conversations into a single 10-hour super-podcast that become our most listened-to episode ever. Since Persona 5 Royal – the updated, reworked version of the game – released in 2020, we’ve gotten countless requests to update our magnum opus, and after recording another 4 hours of discussion on The Royal, we’ve done just that! This 14.5-hour mega-podcast contains all of our original Persona 5 discussions – re-edited and remastered from the original audio files – plus 4 additional hours of discussion on Persona 5 Royal, all edited into a new epic-length spoiler-cast that delves into every possible facet of this masterpiece in excruciating detail! This podcast consists of eight parts. In Part 1, Sean and Jonathan introduce Persona 5 Royal, talk about exactly what this episode and project is, and also discuss at length something we never got to talk about the first time around, which is the brilliant Japanese vocal cast of the game. Then in Part 2, we’ll be jumping back in time to 2017 for our original series of podcast discussions on Persona 5, with each segment from Parts 2 through 5 discussing two palaces or story arcs apiece, as we dive deep in discussing every facet of the story and gameplay along the way. In Part 6, we give what were in 2017 our final wrap-up thoughts on the originally released version of Persona 5, and then in Part 7, we jump over to The Royal, and discuss all the changes to gameplay mechanics this version introduces. And finally in Part 8, we go deep with the new story material and characters of Persona 5 Royal, and fully reflect on this new, definitive version of this masterpiece of a game. We are truly proud and excited to share this behemoth of an episode – you won’t find a more exhaustive spoiler-cast discussion of Persona 5 Royal anywhere else on the internet. Enjoy. Time Chart: Opening: 00:00:00 – 00:04:26 I. Intro & Cast Discussions: 00:04:26 – 01:20:39 II. Palaces 1 & 2: 01:20:39 – 04:10:13 III. Palaces 3 & 4: 04:10:13 – 05:30:29 IV. Palaces 5 & 6: 05:30:29 – 07:40:24 V. Palaces 7 & 8: 07:40:24 – 09:54:14 VI. Original Version Wrap-up: 09:54:14 – 11:48:04 VII. The Royal Discussion – Mechanics: 11:48:04 – 12:29:12 VIII. The Royal Discussion – Story: 12:29:12 – 14:31:10 Subscribe to our YouTube Channel! Subscribe to the WEEKLY SUIT GUNDAM Podcast! Subscribe for free to 'The Weekly Stuff' in Apple Podcasts! Follow Jonathan Lack on Twitter! Follow Sean Chapman on Twitter! Read Jonathan Lack’s movie reviews and stay up to date with all our podcast projects at https://www.jonathanlack.com Subscribe to JAPANIMATION STATION, our podcast about the wide and wonderful world of anime: https://www.japanimation-station.com Read Jonathan’s book 200 Reviews in Paperback or on Kindle – https://a.co/d/bLx53vK Subscribe to our YouTube channels! Japanimation Station: https://www.youtube.com/c/japanimationstation Purely Academic: https://www.youtube.com/@purelyacademicpodcast Support the show at Ko-fi ☕️ https://ko-fi.com/weeklystuff Original Music by Thomas Lack https://www.thomaslack.com/ ©2012 - Present Jonathan R. Lack & Sean Chapman | |||
| The Weekly Stuff #416 – Nintendo Direct News & Mobile Suit Gundam The Origin Part V Review | 15 Feb 2022 | 03:15:32 | |
This week brought the first Nintendo Direct presentation of 2022, and if it wasn’t the most earth-shattering event ever, it sure brought a lot to love for fans of obscure JRPGs and/or sports games. We discuss all the news in depth, talk a little more Genshin Impact, and even spend a good 15 minutes gushing over the recent run of classic Doctor Who Blu-ray sets, before diving into Part V of Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin. “Clash at Loum” delivers not only the OVA’s finest episode, but one of the single most memorable and powerful installments in the 40-year history of Gundam. Dramatizing Zeon’s disastrous colony drop operation, Sayla Mass making a stand at Side 5, Ramba Ral and Crowley Hamon bemoaning the loss of a world that’s passed them by, and Char Aznable taking the final, ultimate step towards becoming the legendary Red Comet, this episode is absolutely overflowing with pantheon-level sequences that are among the greatest Gundam has ever given us, all combining to paint a deeply affecting portrait of a world spun entirely out of control. This is as good as it gets. Time Chart: Intro: 0:00:00 – 0:04:47 Stuff: 0:04:47 – 0:33:45 Nintendo Direct: 0:33:45 – 1:19:02 Gundam Origin V: 1:19:02 – 3:15:44 Subscribe to our YouTube Channel! Subscribe to the WEEKLY SUIT GUNDAM Podcast! Subscribe for free to 'The Weekly Stuff' in Apple Podcasts! Follow Jonathan Lack on Twitter! Follow Sean Chapman on Twitter!
Read Jonathan Lack’s movie reviews and stay up to date with all our podcast projects at https://www.jonathanlack.com Subscribe to JAPANIMATION STATION, our podcast about the wide and wonderful world of anime: https://www.japanimation-station.com Read Jonathan’s book 200 Reviews in Paperback or on Kindle – https://a.co/d/bLx53vK Subscribe to our YouTube channels! Japanimation Station: https://www.youtube.com/c/japanimationstation Purely Academic: https://www.youtube.com/@purelyacademicpodcast Support the show at Ko-fi ☕️ https://ko-fi.com/weeklystuff Original Music by Thomas Lack https://www.thomaslack.com/ ©2012 - Present Jonathan R. Lack & Sean Chapman | |||
| The Weekly Stuff Podcast #415 – The PERSONA 5 ROYAL Episode | 11 Feb 2022 | 03:59:01 | |
Nearly five years ago now, Atlus’ Persona 5 released in the United States and took our hearts, compelling us to record several weeks’ worth of spoiler-cast discussions on the game that we later compiled into a 10.5-hour mega-podcast that quickly became our most popular episode ever! Since Persona 5 Royal – the updated, reworked version of the game – released in 2020, we’ve gotten countless requests for a Royal-specific follow-up episode. And now that we’ve both finally had time to sit down and play all 120+ hours of this absolute behemoth of a game, we’re back with just that: A solid 4-hour review and discussion of Persona 5 Royal, breaking down everything new – including the tremendous new extra arc, reworked ending, and new and reworked characters like Yoshizawa, Maruki, and Akechi – and reveling in what very well might be the greatest video game ever made. It’s been too long since we devoted an entire episode to Persona, but we hope we’ve made up for the wait with this extra-long bonus episode! Enjoy! Subscribe to our YouTube Channel! Subscribe to the WEEKLY SUIT GUNDAM Podcast! Subscribe for free to 'The Weekly Stuff' in Apple Podcasts! Follow Jonathan Lack on Twitter! Follow Sean Chapman on Twitter!
Read Jonathan Lack’s movie reviews and stay up to date with all our podcast projects at https://www.jonathanlack.com Subscribe to JAPANIMATION STATION, our podcast about the wide and wonderful world of anime: https://www.japanimation-station.com Read Jonathan’s book 200 Reviews in Paperback or on Kindle – https://a.co/d/bLx53vK Subscribe to our YouTube channels! Japanimation Station: https://www.youtube.com/c/japanimationstation Purely Academic: https://www.youtube.com/@purelyacademicpodcast Support the show at Ko-fi ☕️ https://ko-fi.com/weeklystuff Original Music by Thomas Lack https://www.thomaslack.com/ ©2012 - Present Jonathan R. Lack & Sean Chapman | |||
| The Weekly Stuff #414 – Sony Buys Bungie & Mobile Suit Gundam The Origin Part IV Review | 08 Feb 2022 | 02:41:50 | |
This week saw another major acquisition in the world of gaming as Sony, makers of PlayStation, purchased Bungie – the original makers of Halo, Xbox’s most iconic franchise – for a cool $3.6 billion. We discuss the implications of this deal for the future of PlayStation and Destiny, but that’s not the only Halo-adjacent talk this week, as we also make fun of the awful new trailer for the Halo TV series and revisit the anemic, struggling Halo Infinite multiplayer a few months after release. Sean also review the Violet Evergarden movie now streaming on Netflix, and we gush some more over Genshin Impact before diving into our next Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin review. Part IV, Eve of Destiny, is a messier installment than others in this series, failing to find as clear or compelling a through-line as prior or upcoming episodes, even as it contains plenty of great moments including the first meeting between Char and Lalah, a powerful ending scene with Amuro and Fraw Bow, and an absolutely dynamite centerpiece action sequence on the moon. There’s more than enough here to discuss and enjoy, even if it’s all something of a stepping stone to some of The Origin’s best material yet to come. Enjoy, and come back this Friday, February 11th, for a very special bonus episode containing our long-awaited, extremely belated, 4-hour-long review and discussion of Persona 5 Royal! Time Chart: Intro: 0:00:00 – 0:03:54 Genshin Impact: 0:03:54 – 0:14:26 Sean Talks Violet Evergarden: 0:14:26 – 0:21:00 Halo Infinite Multiplayer: 0:21:00 – 0:38:02 News: 0:38:02 – 1:12:24 Gundam Origin IV: 1:12:24 – 2:41:50 Subscribe to our YouTube Channel! Subscribe to the WEEKLY SUIT GUNDAM Podcast! Subscribe for free to 'The Weekly Stuff' in Apple Podcasts! Follow Jonathan Lack on Twitter! Follow Sean Chapman on Twitter! Read Jonathan Lack’s movie reviews and stay up to date with all our podcast projects at https://www.jonathanlack.com Subscribe to JAPANIMATION STATION, our podcast about the wide and wonderful world of anime: https://www.japanimation-station.com Read Jonathan’s book 200 Reviews in Paperback or on Kindle – https://a.co/d/bLx53vK Subscribe to our YouTube channels! Japanimation Station: https://www.youtube.com/c/japanimationstation Purely Academic: https://www.youtube.com/@purelyacademicpodcast Support the show at Ko-fi ☕️ https://ko-fi.com/weeklystuff Original Music by Thomas Lack https://www.thomaslack.com/ ©2012 - Present Jonathan R. Lack & Sean Chapman | |||
| The Weekly Stuff #413 – Mobile Suit Gundam The Origin Part III Review | 01 Feb 2022 | 01:56:59 | |
A legend is born in Part III of Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin – Dawn of Rebellion, which sees Casval Rem Deikun adopt – er, violently steal – the identity of Char Aznable, and gradually develop the colorful, calculating persona made so iconic in Gundam ’79. It’s one of the most entertaining episodes in the history of Gundam, an archetypal military academy story built on the foundation of Char’s twisted friendship with Garma Zabi, and all leading inexorably towards the horrors of the One-Year War. We discuss that at length as today’s main topic, but before diving into Gundam, you’ll also hear Sean talk about Genshin Impact, hear Jonathan’s thoughts on (finally!) watching HBO’s venerable masterpiece Deadwood, and learn our reaction to the latest slew of Doctor Who rumors! Enjoy, and come back next week for our long-awaited, extremely belated review and discussion of Persona 5 Royal! Time Chart: Intro & Stuff: 0:00:00 – 0:26:50 Gundam Origin Part III: 0:26:50 – 1:57:11 Subscribe to our YouTube Channel! Subscribe to the WEEKLY SUIT GUNDAM Podcast! Subscribe for free to 'The Weekly Stuff' in Apple Podcasts! Follow Jonathan Lack on Twitter! Follow Sean Chapman on Twitter!
Read Jonathan Lack’s movie reviews and stay up to date with all our podcast projects at https://www.jonathanlack.com Subscribe to JAPANIMATION STATION, our podcast about the wide and wonderful world of anime: https://www.japanimation-station.com Read Jonathan’s book 200 Reviews in Paperback or on Kindle – https://a.co/d/bLx53vK Subscribe to our YouTube channels! Japanimation Station: https://www.youtube.com/c/japanimationstation Purely Academic: https://www.youtube.com/@purelyacademicpodcast Support the show at Ko-fi ☕️ https://ko-fi.com/weeklystuff Original Music by Thomas Lack https://www.thomaslack.com/ ©2012 - Present Jonathan R. Lack & Sean Chapman | |||
| Purely Academic #10 – The Top 10 Most Unlikely Gundam Creative Collaborations | 25 Apr 2025 | 00:19:34 | |
This month, we’re trying something new by releasing the individual segments once a week, to spread the mountain of content we recorded out over the whole month. And that concludes with the month’s last segment, but certainly not its least: The Monthly Ten, the part of the show where Sean and Jonathan challenge each other to make increasingly ridiculous Top 10 lists. In this month’s installment, Jonathan tasked Sean with ranking the Top 10 most unlikely creative collaborations for the Mobile Suit Gundam franchise, in honor of the currently airing GQuuuuuuX, a partnership between Gundam creators Sunrise and the Neon Genesis Evangelion vets at Studio Khara. What Sean comes up with will surprise you, and maybe just make you wish to see some creative miracles unfold. Enjoy! Read Jonathan Lack’s movie reviews and stay up to date with all our podcast projects at https://www.jonathanlack.com Subscribe to JAPANIMATION STATION, our podcast about the wide and wonderful world of anime: https://www.japanimation-station.com Read Jonathan’s book 200 Reviews in Paperback or on Kindle – https://a.co/d/bLx53vK Subscribe to our YouTube channels! Japanimation Station: https://www.youtube.com/c/japanimationstation Purely Academic: https://www.youtube.com/@purelyacademicpodcast Support the show at Ko-fi ☕️ https://ko-fi.com/weeklystuff Original Music by Thomas Lack https://www.thomaslack.com/ ©2012 - Present Jonathan R. Lack & Sean Chapman | |||
| The Weekly Stuff #412 – Microsoft Buys Activision Blizzard & Mobile Suit Gundam The Origin Part II Review | 25 Jan 2022 | 02:18:02 | |
The big news in gaming this week – and probably all year, and maybe all decade – was news of Microsoft’s intent to purchase Activision Blizzard King, one of the last major third party publishers standing in the West, for $69 billion, an astronomical and purely theoretical sum of money that makes us extremely depressed about the capitalist hellscape we all inhabit. After attempting to wrap our heads around that news, it’s on to another adventure in the world of Gundam, as our journey through the past of the Universal Century continues with Part II of Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin. One of the most heart-wrenching installments in the series, Artesia’s Sorrow is a fantastic hour with more than enough to make it worth the full podcast treatment, and we once again find countless things to talk about breaking it down. Enjoy! Time Chart: Intro & Stuff: 0:00:00 – 0:06:01 Microsoft News: 0:06:01 – 0:38:41 Gundam Origin Part II: 0:38:41 – 2:18:02 Subscribe to our YouTube Channel! Subscribe to the WEEKLY SUIT GUNDAM Podcast! Subscribe for free to 'The Weekly Stuff' in Apple Podcasts! Follow Jonathan Lack on Twitter! Follow Sean Chapman on Twitter! Read Jonathan Lack’s movie reviews and stay up to date with all our podcast projects at https://www.jonathanlack.com Subscribe to JAPANIMATION STATION, our podcast about the wide and wonderful world of anime: https://www.japanimation-station.com Read Jonathan’s book 200 Reviews in Paperback or on Kindle – https://a.co/d/bLx53vK Subscribe to our YouTube channels! Japanimation Station: https://www.youtube.com/c/japanimationstation Purely Academic: https://www.youtube.com/@purelyacademicpodcast Support the show at Ko-fi ☕️ https://ko-fi.com/weeklystuff Original Music by Thomas Lack https://www.thomaslack.com/ ©2012 - Present Jonathan R. Lack & Sean Chapman | |||
| The Weekly Stuff #411 – Mobile Suit Gundam The Origin Part I Review & Discussion | 18 Jan 2022 | 02:18:44 | |
For our first Gundam discussion of the New Year, we’re beginning our journey through Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin, the 6-part theatrical OVA created between 2015 and 2018, based on Yoshikazu Yasuhiko’s manga of the same name. And to give this great series the royal treatment it deserves, we’re covering it one episode at a time! For this week, we’re discussing Part I: Blue-Eyed Casval, where we return to Universal Century 0068 in the Republic of Munzo, where a young Casval Rem Deikun and his sister Artesia see the world thrown into chaos after the death of their father, the revolutionary leader Zeon Zum Deikun. It’s a great debut episode for one of the best prequel stories ever told, but if you’re not into Gundam, we’ve also got a half-hour of Stuff at the top of the podcast, with Sean telling us all about the first Kimetsu no Yaiba game, The Hinokami Chronicles, and Jonathan telling us about his fancy new computer! Enjoy! Time Chart: Intro: 0:00:00 – 0:01:59 Kimetsu no Yaiba Game: 0:01:59 – 0:15:38 Jonathan’s fancy new computer: 0:15:38 – 0:30:14 Gundam The Origin: 0:30:14 – 2:18:44 Subscribe to our YouTube Channel! Subscribe to the WEEKLY SUIT GUNDAM Podcast! Subscribe for free to 'The Weekly Stuff' in Apple Podcasts! Follow Jonathan Lack on Twitter! Follow Sean Chapman on Twitter!
Read Jonathan Lack’s movie reviews and stay up to date with all our podcast projects at https://www.jonathanlack.com Subscribe to JAPANIMATION STATION, our podcast about the wide and wonderful world of anime: https://www.japanimation-station.com Read Jonathan’s book 200 Reviews in Paperback or on Kindle – https://a.co/d/bLx53vK Subscribe to our YouTube channels! Japanimation Station: https://www.youtube.com/c/japanimationstation Purely Academic: https://www.youtube.com/@purelyacademicpodcast Support the show at Ko-fi ☕️ https://ko-fi.com/weeklystuff Original Music by Thomas Lack https://www.thomaslack.com/ ©2012 - Present Jonathan R. Lack & Sean Chapman | |||
| The Weekly Stuff #410 – The Top 10 Video Games of 2021 | 11 Jan 2022 | 03:38:54 | |
For our first episode of 2022, we’re taking a look back at the best video games of 2021! It was a slower and more unpredictable year for games than we’ve had in a while, with more releases impacted by pandemic delays and the new-generation consoles continuing to be hard to find, but there were still plenty of truly memorable highlights, from the madcap horror insanity of Resident Evil Village, to the thrillingly silly assassinations of Hitman 3, to the first new Metroid 2D adventure in almost 20 years, to a landmark year of updates for the outstanding Genshin Impact. Sean and Jonathan talk about all these and much more with our individual Top 10 lists, along with a few honorable mentions, Jonathan’s list of the Top 5 Games Not-quite of 2021, and look forward to what’s sure to be another busy year for the podcast! Enjoy! Subscribe to our YouTube Channel! Subscribe to the WEEKLY SUIT GUNDAM Podcast! Subscribe for free to 'The Weekly Stuff' in Apple Podcasts! Follow Jonathan Lack on Twitter! Follow Sean Chapman on Twitter! Read Jonathan Lack’s movie reviews and stay up to date with all our podcast projects at https://www.jonathanlack.com Subscribe to JAPANIMATION STATION, our podcast about the wide and wonderful world of anime: https://www.japanimation-station.com Read Jonathan’s book 200 Reviews in Paperback or on Kindle – https://a.co/d/bLx53vK Subscribe to our YouTube channels! Japanimation Station: https://www.youtube.com/c/japanimationstation Purely Academic: https://www.youtube.com/@purelyacademicpodcast Support the show at Ko-fi ☕️ https://ko-fi.com/weeklystuff Original Music by Thomas Lack https://www.thomaslack.com/ ©2012 - Present Jonathan R. Lack & Sean Chapman | |||
| Jonathan Lack's Top 10 Films of 2021 | 31 Dec 2021 | 01:10:18 | |
In this special bonus episode, Jonathan Lack, co-host of The Weekly Stuff Podcast, shares his Top 10 Films of 2021 (and more!). You can read or follow along with the text version of this piece at http://www.jonathanlack.com/2021/12/jonathan-lacks-top-10-films-of-2021.html 2021 was yet another terrible year for the world, but it turned out to be one of the greatest years for cinema in my lifetime. The last time I felt this strongly about a year’s worth of movies was 2014 – and before that, 2007, and 2001. Every six or seven years, it seems, we get one of these remarkable years, a convergence of established masters at the height of their craft and bold new voices establishing lasting legacies, with unexpected pleasures coming at us from all directions. I loved so many films this year so passionately that in addition to the main Top 10, we’ve got an additional 10 runners-up, bringing us to a nice even Top 20, and then five extra ‘leftovers’ I would have felt bad ignoring, so I guess it’s kind of a Top 25. #20-11 have paragraph-length capsule statements, but for the Top 10, I went all out, penning either a mini-review or a short essay for each. That means this is one of the longest pieces I’ve ever published. But the movies this year deserved it, and since I didn’t get to write many public-facing pieces on film this year, I owed it to myself to spend some time writing about all these works that meant so much to me. Ok then. Deep breath. Here we go. Time Chart: Intro: 0:00:00 - 0:03:41 Part 1 - Leftovers: 0:03:41 - 0:05:21 Part 2 - Honorable Mentions: 0:05:21 - 0:17:48 Part 3 - The Top 10 Films of 2021: 0:17:48 - 1:10:17 Subscribe to our YouTube Channel! Subscribe to the WEEKLY SUIT GUNDAM Podcast! Subscribe for free to 'The Weekly Stuff' in Apple Podcasts! Follow Jonathan Lack on Twitter! Follow Sean Chapman on Twitter! Read Jonathan Lack’s movie reviews and stay up to date with all our podcast projects at https://www.jonathanlack.com Subscribe to JAPANIMATION STATION, our podcast about the wide and wonderful world of anime: https://www.japanimation-station.com Read Jonathan’s book 200 Reviews in Paperback or on Kindle – https://a.co/d/bLx53vK Subscribe to our YouTube channels! Japanimation Station: https://www.youtube.com/c/japanimationstation Purely Academic: https://www.youtube.com/@purelyacademicpodcast Support the show at Ko-fi ☕️ https://ko-fi.com/weeklystuff Original Music by Thomas Lack https://www.thomaslack.com/ ©2012 - Present Jonathan R. Lack & Sean Chapman | |||
| The Weekly Stuff #409 – Reviewing THE MATRIX RESURRECTIONS | 27 Dec 2021 | 02:26:10 | |
For the final Weekly Stuff Podcast of 2021, we are reviewing Lana Wachowski’s The Matrix Resurrections, the new entry in the Matrix franchise coming a whole 18 years after Reloaded and Revolutions landed in 2003. We did full in-depth revisitations of the original Matrix trilogy on episodes 398, 401, and 402, and this discussion is a great follow-up on those conversations, as we dive deep with this ambitious, challenging sequel that sees Wachowski updating the Matrix – the world and the characters, but also the franchise itself and its many eclectic themes – for a world that’s changed an awful lot in the last 20 years. Sean and Jonathan disagree on exactly how effective the film is on its own terms, but we’re in complete harmony on it being an interesting, passionate idea that’s more than worthy of spending a few hours discussing. Thanks so much for listening throughout 2021, and we look forward to seeing you all in the 2022 for a whole new year of The Weekly Stuff Podcast! Subscribe to our YouTube Channel! Subscribe to the WEEKLY SUIT GUNDAM Podcast! Subscribe for free to 'The Weekly Stuff' in Apple Podcasts! Follow Jonathan Lack on Twitter! Follow Sean Chapman on Twitter! Read Jonathan Lack’s movie reviews and stay up to date with all our podcast projects at https://www.jonathanlack.com Subscribe to JAPANIMATION STATION, our podcast about the wide and wonderful world of anime: https://www.japanimation-station.com Read Jonathan’s book 200 Reviews in Paperback or on Kindle – https://a.co/d/bLx53vK Subscribe to our YouTube channels! Japanimation Station: https://www.youtube.com/c/japanimationstation Purely Academic: https://www.youtube.com/@purelyacademicpodcast Support the show at Ko-fi ☕️ https://ko-fi.com/weeklystuff Original Music by Thomas Lack https://www.thomaslack.com/ ©2012 - Present Jonathan R. Lack & Sean Chapman | |||
| The Weekly Stuff #408 – A Very Weekly Suit Gundam Christmas Special | 25 Dec 2021 | 01:35:51 | |
We’re here to wish you a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays with our 4th annual Weekly Stuff Podcast Christmas Special! After reviewing the Pokemon Christmas Bash album in 2018, reading through a Western-themed Evangelical Christian rendering of A Christmas Carol in 2019, and reviewing the extremely festive/psychosexual Christmas masterpiece Batman Returns in 2020, we’re back for another season of mayhem – and this time, it’s a crossover with Weekly Suit Gundam! For this Christmas, Jonathan has found several pieces (out of a surprisingly large sea of options) of Christmas-themed Mobile Suit Gundam fanfiction, set in the worlds of Gundam Wing, Gundam SEED, and Mobile Fighter G Gundam, and he surprises Sean on air by inviting him to read them out loud. A festive, flabbergasted, and altogether confusing time is had by all. We here at The Weekly Stuff Podcast wish you and yours a very happy holiday, and look forward to seeing you next week for our final episode of 2021, with our review of The Matrix Resurrections. Subscribe to our YouTube Channel! Subscribe to the WEEKLY SUIT GUNDAM Podcast! Subscribe for free to 'The Weekly Stuff' in Apple Podcasts! Follow Jonathan Lack on Twitter! Follow Sean Chapman on Twitter! Read Jonathan Lack’s movie reviews and stay up to date with all our podcast projects at https://www.jonathanlack.com Subscribe to JAPANIMATION STATION, our podcast about the wide and wonderful world of anime: https://www.japanimation-station.com Read Jonathan’s book 200 Reviews in Paperback or on Kindle – https://a.co/d/bLx53vK Subscribe to our YouTube channels! Japanimation Station: https://www.youtube.com/c/japanimationstation Purely Academic: https://www.youtube.com/@purelyacademicpodcast Support the show at Ko-fi ☕️ https://ko-fi.com/weeklystuff Original Music by Thomas Lack https://www.thomaslack.com/ ©2012 - Present Jonathan R. Lack & Sean Chapman | |||
| The Weekly Stuff #407 – Spider-Man: No Way Home Review & Discussion | 21 Dec 2021 | 02:59:59 | |
Hollywood’s biggest release of the year is here with Spider-Man: No Way Home, the third entry in the MCU’s incarnation of Spidey, and Sean and Jonathan disagree on it pretty heavily at the outset. Sean liked it a lot, while Jonathan…didn’t. But it makes for a really engaging discussion where we find more consensus than initially anticipated, and Jonathan finds himself wanting to give the movie another chance in the future. Before the big Spidey review, though, we also talk a bit about playing Persona 5 Royal and Persona 5 Strikers, Jonathan talks about listening to some excellent recent Doctor Who releases from Big Finish, and we discuss finishing the Halo Infinite campaign. All this and more on our first episode in our new Tuesday timeslot, as The Weekly Stuff Podcast is moving from Mondays to Tuesdays going forward (with a Monday night premiere every week at 7:00 PM CT on our YouTube channel – www.youtube.com/c/TheWeeklyStuffPodcast) Time Chart: Intro: 0:00:00 – 0:07:48 Persona Stuff: 0:07:48 – 0:27:27 Doctor Who Stuff: 0:27:27 – 0:41:00 Halo Infinite Stuff: 0:41:00 – 1:06:28 Spider-Man No Way Home: 1:06:28 – 3:00:12 Subscribe to our YouTube Channel! Subscribe to the WEEKLY SUIT GUNDAM Podcast! Subscribe for free to 'The Weekly Stuff' in Apple Podcasts! Follow Jonathan Lack on Twitter! Follow Sean Chapman on Twitter!
Read Jonathan Lack’s movie reviews and stay up to date with all our podcast projects at https://www.jonathanlack.com Subscribe to JAPANIMATION STATION, our podcast about the wide and wonderful world of anime: https://www.japanimation-station.com Read Jonathan’s book 200 Reviews in Paperback or on Kindle – https://a.co/d/bLx53vK Subscribe to our YouTube channels! Japanimation Station: https://www.youtube.com/c/japanimationstation Purely Academic: https://www.youtube.com/@purelyacademicpodcast Support the show at Ko-fi ☕️ https://ko-fi.com/weeklystuff Original Music by Thomas Lack https://www.thomaslack.com/ ©2012 - Present Jonathan R. Lack & Sean Chapman | |||
| The Weekly Stuff #406 – Halo Infinite Campaign & Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans Season 2 Review | 14 Dec 2021 | 05:10:46 | |
This week saw both the big video game advertising show called The Game Awards and the release of Halo: Infinite’s surprisingly good campaign, and we discuss both of those before diving into another Weekly Suit Gundam extravaganza reviewing the second season of Iron-Blooded Orphans. It’s safe to say we were big fans of the first season, and as the length of this podcast can attest, we are even more invested in the big thematic, narrative, and emotional swings the show takes in its second and final season. As it traces the fall of Tekkadan, Iron-Blooded Orphans challenges its characters and audience with a story that’s richer, more complicated, and intentionally structured very differently than the first season, with an absolutely knockout set of final episodes that cross many lines Gundam has never ventured past before, and somehow comes out on the other side seeing more hope in the world than the franchise has seen in its darkest hours. It’s an all-time great finish to a truly tremendous show, and even with an extra-long 4-hour podcast, there’s still so much that could be said about this modern masterpiece. Enjoy! Time Chart: Intro: 0:00:00 – 0:05:28 Game Awards Stuff: 0:05:28 – 0:34:02 Halo Infinite Campaign: 0:34:02 – 1:11:41 Iron-Blooded Orphans 2 – Iron-Blooded Boogaloo: 1:11:41 – 5:10:59 Subscribe to our YouTube Channel! Subscribe to the WEEKLY SUIT GUNDAM Podcast! Subscribe for free to 'The Weekly Stuff' in Apple Podcasts! Follow Jonathan Lack on Twitter! Follow Sean Chapman on Twitter! Read Jonathan Lack’s movie reviews and stay up to date with all our podcast projects at https://www.jonathanlack.com Subscribe to JAPANIMATION STATION, our podcast about the wide and wonderful world of anime: https://www.japanimation-station.com Read Jonathan’s book 200 Reviews in Paperback or on Kindle – https://a.co/d/bLx53vK Subscribe to our YouTube channels! Japanimation Station: https://www.youtube.com/c/japanimationstation Purely Academic: https://www.youtube.com/@purelyacademicpodcast Support the show at Ko-fi ☕️ https://ko-fi.com/weeklystuff Original Music by Thomas Lack https://www.thomaslack.com/ ©2012 - Present Jonathan R. Lack & Sean Chapman | |||
| The Weekly Stuff #405 – Halo Infinite, Xbox Series S, Guardians of the Galaxy, Persona 5 Royal & More! | 06 Dec 2021 | 02:45:12 | |
After taking last week off due to the Thanksgiving holiday, we’re back with a veritable menagerie of stuff for you this week. First up, we hit two pieces of news – the first teaser trailer for Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (Part One) and a Bloomberg report about Sony planning a new PlayStation subscription to compete with Xbox Game Pass – before diving into a big array of game content. Sean talks about getting the Xbox Series S (which Jonathan has too), and replaying all the Halo campaigns for the first time in years. Then we review the very bad Halo Infinite multiplayer suite, and talk about how baffling it is to see the gaming press treat this predatory free-to-play mess with such kid gloves. Jonathan reviews Square Enix’s surprisingly wonderful Guardians of the Galaxy game after picking it up on Black Friday, and Sean talks about finishing Persona 5 Royal and starting to wade into Persona 5 Strikers. Enjoy! Time Chart: Intro/Stuff: 0:00:00 – 0:15:37 News: 0:15:37 – 0:40:02 Xbox Series S Talk: 0:40:02 – 0:59:15 Sean Revisits Halo 1 – 5: 0:59:15 – 1:25:00 Halo Infinite Multiplayer Talk: 1:25:00 – 1:52:13 Jonathan Reviews Guardians of the Galaxy: 1:52:13 – 2:17:17 Sean Talks Persona 5 Strikers & Royal: 2:17:17 – 2:45:12 Subscribe to our YouTube Channel! Subscribe to the WEEKLY SUIT GUNDAM Podcast! Subscribe for free to 'The Weekly Stuff' in Apple Podcasts! Follow Jonathan Lack on Twitter! Follow Sean Chapman on Twitter! Read Jonathan Lack’s movie reviews and stay up to date with all our podcast projects at https://www.jonathanlack.com Subscribe to JAPANIMATION STATION, our podcast about the wide and wonderful world of anime: https://www.japanimation-station.com Read Jonathan’s book 200 Reviews in Paperback or on Kindle – https://a.co/d/bLx53vK Subscribe to our YouTube channels! Japanimation Station: https://www.youtube.com/c/japanimationstation Purely Academic: https://www.youtube.com/@purelyacademicpodcast Support the show at Ko-fi ☕️ https://ko-fi.com/weeklystuff Original Music by Thomas Lack https://www.thomaslack.com/ ©2012 - Present Jonathan R. Lack & Sean Chapman | |||
| The Weekly Stuff #404 – Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans Season 1 Review & Discussion | 22 Nov 2021 | 03:47:28 | |
We’ve finally arrived at the most recent mainline Gundam TV series on our Weekly Suit Gundam journey! But before diving into that, we also give thoughts on Halo Infinite’s multiplayer launch, Jonathan’s early impressions of Pokemon Brilliant Diamond, and more news about the unfathomably awful environment that is Activision Blizzard. Then it’s on to 2015’s Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans. Tackling the theme of child soldiers more directly than Gundam ever had before, Iron-Blooded Orphans is one of Gundam’s darkest and most violent hours, but also one of its richest and most rewarding, a unique blend of daily life coming-of-age storytelling with hard-edged military fiction that leaves a huge impact. Season 1, which we’re discussing today, follows the formation of the child-mercenary group Tekkadan – the eponymous Orphans with Iron in their Blood – and their journey to bring Martian independence activist Kudelia Aina Bernstein to Earth. It’s a stupendous season of television with tons to talk about, and a pleasure to finally reach and discuss. Time Chart: Intro: 0:00:00 – 0:04:02 Jonathan talks Forza and Pokemon: 0:04:02 – 0:16:39 Halo Infinite: 0:16:39 – 0:38:30 Activision Sucks: 0:38:30 – 0:49:00 Gundam Iron-Blooded Orphans: 0:49:00 – 3:47:27 Subscribe to our YouTube Channel! Subscribe to the WEEKLY SUIT GUNDAM Podcast! Subscribe for free to 'The Weekly Stuff' in Apple Podcasts! Follow Jonathan Lack on Twitter! Follow Sean Chapman on Twitter!
Read Jonathan Lack’s movie reviews and stay up to date with all our podcast projects at https://www.jonathanlack.com Subscribe to JAPANIMATION STATION, our podcast about the wide and wonderful world of anime: https://www.japanimation-station.com Read Jonathan’s book 200 Reviews in Paperback or on Kindle – https://a.co/d/bLx53vK Subscribe to our YouTube channels! Japanimation Station: https://www.youtube.com/c/japanimationstation Purely Academic: https://www.youtube.com/@purelyacademicpodcast Support the show at Ko-fi ☕️ https://ko-fi.com/weeklystuff Original Music by Thomas Lack https://www.thomaslack.com/ ©2012 - Present Jonathan R. Lack & Sean Chapman | |||
| Purely Academic #9 – Pirate Yakuza, Daredevil, and Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water | 18 Apr 2025 | 00:53:20 | |
This month, we’re trying something new by releasing the individual segments once a week, to spread the mountain of content we recorded out over the whole month. And that continues with this week’s ‘Show n’ Tell’ segment, in which Sean and Jonathan discuss what they’ve been watching and playing over the last month. Sean talks about the new Like a Dragon game, Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii, while Jonathan raves about belatedly catching up on Netflix’s Daredevil and watching the revival series, Born Again, on Disney+. Sean also reviews a classic anime, Studio Gainax’s Jules Verne-inspired Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water, and Jonathan gives final thoughts on Dynasty Warriors Origins. Enjoy!
Read Jonathan Lack’s movie reviews and stay up to date with all our podcast projects at https://www.jonathanlack.com Subscribe to JAPANIMATION STATION, our podcast about the wide and wonderful world of anime: https://www.japanimation-station.com Read Jonathan’s book 200 Reviews in Paperback or on Kindle – https://a.co/d/bLx53vK Subscribe to our YouTube channels! Japanimation Station: https://www.youtube.com/c/japanimationstation Purely Academic: https://www.youtube.com/@purelyacademicpodcast Support the show at Ko-fi ☕️ https://ko-fi.com/weeklystuff Original Music by Thomas Lack https://www.thomaslack.com/ ©2012 - Present Jonathan R. Lack & Sean Chapman | |||
| The Weekly Stuff Podcast #403 – Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone 20th Anniversary Retrospective | 16 Nov 2021 | 03:40:38 | |
Today’s episode is dedicated to Trans Awareness Week and Mermaids UK, a group supporting transgender, non-binary, and gender diverse children and their families. We are running a fundraiser to benefit the group and encourage listeners to contribute. Please click here to donate. Today – November 16th, 2021 – is 20 years to the day since Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone arrived in American theaters, the first film adaptation of (noted bigot) J.K. Rowling’s worldwide sensation. Jonathan was a die-hard Harry Potter fan growing up, while Sean was a dedicated anti-Potter grump – but neither of us could escape the specter of this franchise even if we wanted to. For the 20th anniversary, we take a look back at this first film in particular – what it gets right in making this world feel special, and what it gets wrong in sticking too slavishly to source material that isn’t particularly cinematic. We talk the actors, the sets, John Williams’ music, and so much more – and reflect on how we see the film and Harry Potter’s legacy differently 20 years later. Before the Potter talk, though, you’ll also hear Jonathan’s thoughts on the outstanding Forza Horizon 5 for Xbox Series S/X, and Jonathan challenges Sean in a game to recap this week’s bottom-of-the-IP-barrel-scraping Disney+ news. Enjoy! And please consider donating to Mermaids UK to support trans youth if your are able. Plain text link for our fundraiser: https://tiltify.com/@jonathanlack/weeklystuffpodcast Time Chart: Intro: 0:00:00 – 0:11:05 Forza Horizon 5: 0:11:05 – 0:29:08 Disney+ News: 0:29:08 – 1:02:15 Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone: 1:02:15 – 3:23:39 Harry Potter Memories: 3:23:39 – 3:40:38 Subscribe to our YouTube Channel! Subscribe to the WEEKLY SUIT GUNDAM Podcast! Subscribe for free to 'The Weekly Stuff' in Apple Podcasts! Follow Jonathan Lack on Twitter! Follow Sean Chapman on Twitter! Read Jonathan Lack’s movie reviews and stay up to date with all our podcast projects at https://www.jonathanlack.com Subscribe to JAPANIMATION STATION, our podcast about the wide and wonderful world of anime: https://www.japanimation-station.com Read Jonathan’s book 200 Reviews in Paperback or on Kindle – https://a.co/d/bLx53vK Subscribe to our YouTube channels! Japanimation Station: https://www.youtube.com/c/japanimationstation Purely Academic: https://www.youtube.com/@purelyacademicpodcast Support the show at Ko-fi ☕️ https://ko-fi.com/weeklystuff Original Music by Thomas Lack https://www.thomaslack.com/ ©2012 - Present Jonathan R. Lack & Sean Chapman | |||
| The Weekly Stuff #402 – Revisiting THE MATRIX REVOLUTIONS (2003) | 08 Nov 2021 | 03:25:29 | |
We finish our journey through the original Matrix trilogy this week with 2003’s The Matrix Revolutions, following up on our discussion of the original in episode #398 and The Matrix Reloaded in last week’s #401. We have some minor points of disagreement here, but largely share the view that The Matrix went out on a rousing high note, with a focused and propulsive final installment that puts big ideas front and center, and sees them through to an extremely powerful ending. It’s a great discussion, and before all that, you’ll also hear Jonathan review the (very very very bad) Marvel movie Eternals, Sean talk a bit more about Persona 5 Royal, and hear about a weird impulse buy Sean made from Japan. Enjoy! And come back next week (on Tuesday, instead of our usual Monday) as we mark the 20th anniversary of the film Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone on November 16th! Time Chart: Intro: 0:00:00 – 0:03:29 Sean talks Persona 5 Royal: 0:03:29 – 0:09:15 Jonathan’s Giant Robots Film Club: 0:09:20 – 0:19:59 Eternals is bad: 0:19:59 – 0:37:53 Sean’s surprise impulse purchase: 0:37:53 – 0:44:57 The Matrix Revolutions: 0:44:57 – 3:25:29 Subscribe to our YouTube Channel! Subscribe to the WEEKLY SUIT GUNDAM Podcast! Subscribe for free to 'The Weekly Stuff' in Apple Podcasts! Follow Jonathan Lack on Twitter! Follow Sean Chapman on Twitter! Read Jonathan Lack’s movie reviews and stay up to date with all our podcast projects at https://www.jonathanlack.com Subscribe to JAPANIMATION STATION, our podcast about the wide and wonderful world of anime: https://www.japanimation-station.com Read Jonathan’s book 200 Reviews in Paperback or on Kindle – https://a.co/d/bLx53vK Subscribe to our YouTube channels! Japanimation Station: https://www.youtube.com/c/japanimationstation Purely Academic: https://www.youtube.com/@purelyacademicpodcast Support the show at Ko-fi ☕️ https://ko-fi.com/weeklystuff Original Music by Thomas Lack https://www.thomaslack.com/ ©2012 - Present Jonathan R. Lack & Sean Chapman | |||
| The Weekly Stuff #401 – Revisiting THE MATRIX RELOADED (2003) | 01 Nov 2021 | 03:04:59 | |
In anticipation of this December’s Matrix Resurrections, we return to the world of The Matrix with 2003’s The Matrix Reloaded, following up on our discussion of the original film in episode #398. Jonathan is a passionate defender of the Matrix sequels, and Sean hasn’t seen them in many years, and while we don’t agree entirely on how much everything works in this ambitious second installment, we absolutely believe this is a dense, fascinating film full of big, compelling ideas that are very much worth discussing in depth – as we do here for a full three hours! From the bold statement of embodied humanity that is the Zion rave, to the outrageous French stylings of the Merovingian, to the longest freeway chase ever, to the Oracle and the Architect confronting Neo with the nature of ‘free will,’ The Matrix Reloaded gives us plenty to talk about, and with one movie still to go, makes this trip down Matrix memory lane very much worth the journey. Come back next week as we finish the original Matrix trilogy with our look back at THE MATRIX REVOLUTIONS! Subscribe to our YouTube Channel! Subscribe to the WEEKLY SUIT GUNDAM Podcast! Subscribe for free to 'The Weekly Stuff' in Apple Podcasts! Follow Jonathan Lack on Twitter! Follow Sean Chapman on Twitter! Read Jonathan Lack’s movie reviews and stay up to date with all our podcast projects at https://www.jonathanlack.com Subscribe to JAPANIMATION STATION, our podcast about the wide and wonderful world of anime: https://www.japanimation-station.com Read Jonathan’s book 200 Reviews in Paperback or on Kindle – https://a.co/d/bLx53vK Subscribe to our YouTube channels! Japanimation Station: https://www.youtube.com/c/japanimationstation Purely Academic: https://www.youtube.com/@purelyacademicpodcast Support the show at Ko-fi ☕️ https://ko-fi.com/weeklystuff Original Music by Thomas Lack https://www.thomaslack.com/ ©2012 - Present Jonathan R. Lack & Sean Chapman | |||
| The Weekly Stuff #400 – 400th Episode Celebration Spectacular! Dune Review, Batman Trailer, and Sean & Jonathan Play 20 Questions | 25 Oct 2021 | 04:29:55 | |
Our landmark 400th episode is one of our longest and most entertaining episodes to date, packed with news – including announcements out of DC Fandome and trailers for both The Batman (yay!) and Uncharted (nay!) – reviews – Sean talks Far Cry 6, Jonathan discusses the Xbox Series S and The Ascent, and we both give our thoughts on Denis Villeneuve’s Dune adaptation – and a whole lot of celebration! We read a big batch of listener mail, featuring some of your favorite memories from 400 episodes and questions for the future, and then for our big topic, Sean and Jonathan interview each other! Both hosts prepared 20 questions ahead of time without telling the other what they contained, and put each other in the hot seat to see if there’s anything we’ve been holding back for 400 episodes. Thank you all so much for being along for the ride for this insane number of podcasts! And we’re not running out of steam any time soon – be sure to come back next week for our retrospective of The Matrix Reloaded! Time Chart: Intro: 0:00:00 – 0:04:22 Sean talks Far Cry 6: 0:04:22 – 0:15:58 Jonathan talks Xbox Series S & The Ascent: 0:15:58 – 0:38:20 News: 0:38:20 – 1:28:08 Dune: 1:28:08 – 2:02:00 Listener Mail: 2:02:00 – 2:54:05 Jonathan Interviews Sean: 2:54:05 – 3:40:31 Sean Interviews Jonathan: 3:40:31 – 4:29:54 Subscribe to our YouTube Channel! Subscribe to the WEEKLY SUIT GUNDAM Podcast! Subscribe for free to 'The Weekly Stuff' in Apple Podcasts! Follow Jonathan Lack on Twitter! Follow Sean Chapman on Twitter! Read Jonathan Lack’s movie reviews and stay up to date with all our podcast projects at https://www.jonathanlack.com Subscribe to JAPANIMATION STATION, our podcast about the wide and wonderful world of anime: https://www.japanimation-station.com Read Jonathan’s book 200 Reviews in Paperback or on Kindle – https://a.co/d/bLx53vK Subscribe to our YouTube channels! Japanimation Station: https://www.youtube.com/c/japanimationstation Purely Academic: https://www.youtube.com/@purelyacademicpodcast Support the show at Ko-fi ☕️ https://ko-fi.com/weeklystuff Original Music by Thomas Lack https://www.thomaslack.com/ ©2012 - Present Jonathan R. Lack & Sean Chapman | |||
| The Weekly Stuff #399 - Gundam Reconguista in G Review & Discussion | 18 Oct 2021 | 04:20:29 | |
This week’s show is another Weekly Suit Gundam spectacular, but before reviewing Reconguista in G, Jonathan gives some final thoughts on the outstanding Metroid Dread, and we discuss some recent Nintendo news, including the addition of Sora from Kingdom Hearts to Super Smash Bros., and the unveiling of Nintendo’s laughably expensive Switch online expansion. Then it’s on to Reconguista in G, the latest Gundam entry from franchise creator Yoshiyuki Tomino, and perhaps the strangest and most formally daring of all Gundam series. Dense, complicated, wildly fast-paced, and persistently challenging, Reconguista is a divisive entry among the global Gundam fandom, but here at Weekly Suit Gundam, we are in awe of it. There is simply nothing quite like Reconguista in G, which sees Tomino turning up all his thematic and stylistic interests to 11, resulting in one of the purest auteur statements in modern mainstream media. With the best action sequences in the history of Gundam, arguably franchise-best TV animation, amazing and vibrant characters, and a structure that practically re-invents the language of anime before your eyes, Reconguista in G is an endlessly rewarding artistic gauntlet. Enjoy, and come back next week for our very special landmark 400th episode! Time Chart: Intro: 0:00:00 – 0:06:08 Metroid Dread Final Thoughts: 0:06:08 – 0:12:59 Nintendo News: 0:12:59 – 0:40:36 Reconguista in G: 0:40:36 – 4:20:29 Subscribe to our YouTube Channel! Subscribe to the WEEKLY SUIT GUNDAM Podcast! Subscribe for free to 'The Weekly Stuff' in Apple Podcasts! Follow Jonathan Lack on Twitter! Follow Sean Chapman on Twitter! Read Jonathan Lack’s movie reviews and stay up to date with all our podcast projects at https://www.jonathanlack.com Subscribe to JAPANIMATION STATION, our podcast about the wide and wonderful world of anime: https://www.japanimation-station.com Read Jonathan’s book 200 Reviews in Paperback or on Kindle – https://a.co/d/bLx53vK Subscribe to our YouTube channels! Japanimation Station: https://www.youtube.com/c/japanimationstation Purely Academic: https://www.youtube.com/@purelyacademicpodcast Support the show at Ko-fi ☕️ https://ko-fi.com/weeklystuff Original Music by Thomas Lack https://www.thomaslack.com/ ©2012 - Present Jonathan R. Lack & Sean Chapman | |||
| The Weekly Stuff #398 – Revisiting THE MATRIX (1999) | 11 Oct 2021 | 03:59:30 | |
With The Matrix Resurrections arriving in theaters this December, we are finally – almost 400 episodes into this damn podcast – taking our long-awaited look back at one of the single most seminal films of our lifetimes: The Wachowski Sisters’ The Matrix, a movie that is either at or very near the upper threshold of how good it is possible for big Hollywood studio filmmaking to be. This is such an impossibly rich movie to discuss, with its potent, multi-valent central metaphor opening up countless avenues of conversation, including reading the film through the lenses of Marxism or transgender experience, but it’s also just ridiculously entertaining and well-constructed, with terrific performances, beautiful writing, and thrilling action drawing from influences like Wuxia, martial arts, John Woo, anime, and so much more. It’s some of the most fun we’ve ever had talking about a movie on this podcast, but it’s only part of this week’s episode; in this first hour, you’ll also hear Jonathan’s thoughts on Daniel Craig’s final 007 film, No Time to Die, and the out-of-body greatness of Metroid Dread on Nintendo Switch, and Sean’s final impressions of Lost Judgment after finishing the latest masterpiece from Ryu Ga Gotoku Studios. Enjoy, and come back next week for episode 399 and our next Weekly Suit Gundam extravaganza with Reconguista in G! Time Chart: Intro: 0:00:00 – 0:07:55 No Time to Die: 0:07:55 – 0:22:56 Lost Judgment: 0:22:56 – 0:42:30 Metroid Dread: 0:42:30 – 1:01:30 Revisiting The Matrix: 1:01:30 – 3:59:29 Subscribe to our YouTube Channel! Subscribe to the WEEKLY SUIT GUNDAM Podcast! Subscribe for free to 'The Weekly Stuff' in Apple Podcasts! Follow Jonathan Lack on Twitter! Follow Sean Chapman on Twitter! Read Jonathan Lack’s movie reviews and stay up to date with all our podcast projects at https://www.jonathanlack.com Subscribe to JAPANIMATION STATION, our podcast about the wide and wonderful world of anime: https://www.japanimation-station.com Read Jonathan’s book 200 Reviews in Paperback or on Kindle – https://a.co/d/bLx53vK Subscribe to our YouTube channels! Japanimation Station: https://www.youtube.com/c/japanimationstation Purely Academic: https://www.youtube.com/@purelyacademicpodcast Support the show at Ko-fi ☕️ https://ko-fi.com/weeklystuff Original Music by Thomas Lack https://www.thomaslack.com/ ©2012 - Present Jonathan R. Lack & Sean Chapman | |||
| The Weekly Stuff #397 – Deathloop, Lost Judgment, Nintendo Direct, Mario Casting, Doctor Who News & More! | 04 Oct 2021 | 01:55:39 | |
This week’s show – kicking off our October “Road to 400” podcast episodes! – is a fun grab-bag of topics, as we review Deathloop from Arkane Studios, Sean gives first impressions of Lost Judgment from Ryu Ga Gotoku Studios, and we cover a mountain of interesting news, from details on the imminent 2nd season of Kimetsu no Yaiba, to a surprise Nintendo Direct packed with interesting announcements and an absolutely horrifying slate of celerity casting for the upcoming animated Mario Bros. movie, and the reveal of Russell T Davies’ return to Doctor Who for the show’s upcoming 60th anniversary! All this and more – including Sean’s thoughts on Star Wars Visions and more stories from Jonathan’s “Giant Robots on Screen!” class – round out an episode that kicks off a very busy October in style! Enjoy, and come back next week for episode #398, where we’ll begin our Matrixfranchise retrospective with the original Matrix from 1999! Time Chart: Intro/Stuff: 0:00:00 – 0:19:59 Lost Judgment: 0:19:59 – 0:34:22 News: 0:34:22 – 1:25:38 Deathloop: 1:25:38 – 1:55:38 Subscribe to our YouTube Channel! Subscribe to the WEEKLY SUIT GUNDAM Podcast! Subscribe for free to 'The Weekly Stuff' in Apple Podcasts! Follow Jonathan Lack on Twitter! Follow Sean Chapman on Twitter! Read Jonathan Lack’s movie reviews and stay up to date with all our podcast projects at https://www.jonathanlack.com Subscribe to JAPANIMATION STATION, our podcast about the wide and wonderful world of anime: https://www.japanimation-station.com Read Jonathan’s book 200 Reviews in Paperback or on Kindle – https://a.co/d/bLx53vK Subscribe to our YouTube channels! Japanimation Station: https://www.youtube.com/c/japanimationstation Purely Academic: https://www.youtube.com/@purelyacademicpodcast Support the show at Ko-fi ☕️ https://ko-fi.com/weeklystuff Original Music by Thomas Lack https://www.thomaslack.com/ ©2012 - Present Jonathan R. Lack & Sean Chapman | |||
| The Weekly Stuff #396 – Gundam Build Fighters OVA Round-up! | 27 Sep 2021 | 01:20:57 | |
After reviewing the original Gundam Build Fighters and its sequel series Gundam Build Fighters Try on our last two Weekly Suit Gundam topics, it’s time to round out the original Build Fighters run by rounding-up the many OVAs related to this corner of the franchise. We begin with Model Suit Gunpla Builders Beginning G, the 2010 OVA that first introduced the concept of a Gunpla Battle-based anime, and holds up surprisingly well on its own, with great animation and mecha designs and a whole lot of heart. Then there’s the 5 Battlogue episodes, providing quick bite stories set in the Build Fighters world, and apart from one memorable episode involving Bearguys getting crucified, there’s not much to talk about. Finally, Build Fighters Try gets a 30-minute sequel in Island Wars, and the original Build Fighters gets its own half-hour follow-up in GM’s Counterattack, which is an absolute delight. Discussing all of these and more makes for a very fun capper to our Build Fighters journey. (Please note this week’s episode was pre-recorded a week in advance, so breaking news from the last week on Doctor Who and the latest Nintendo Direct aren’t discussed here – we’ll catch up on all that next Monday!) Subscribe to our YouTube Channel! Subscribe to the WEEKLY SUIT GUNDAM Podcast! Subscribe for free to 'The Weekly Stuff' in Apple Podcasts! Follow Jonathan Lack on Twitter! Follow Sean Chapman on Twitter! Read Jonathan Lack’s movie reviews and stay up to date with all our podcast projects at https://www.jonathanlack.com Subscribe to JAPANIMATION STATION, our podcast about the wide and wonderful world of anime: https://www.japanimation-station.com Read Jonathan’s book 200 Reviews in Paperback or on Kindle – https://a.co/d/bLx53vK Subscribe to our YouTube channels! Japanimation Station: https://www.youtube.com/c/japanimationstation Purely Academic: https://www.youtube.com/@purelyacademicpodcast Support the show at Ko-fi ☕️ https://ko-fi.com/weeklystuff Original Music by Thomas Lack https://www.thomaslack.com/ ©2012 - Present Jonathan R. Lack & Sean Chapman | |||
| The Weekly Stuff #395 – Gundam Build Fighters Try Review & Discussion | 20 Sep 2021 | 02:26:30 | |
It’s another Weekly Suit Gundam extravaganza this week as we dive into the sequel to the wonderful Gundam Build Fighters – Gundam Build Fighters Try, set 7 years after the original with a new cast of Gunpla battlers. It’s a divisive show in the Gundam fandom, and on this podcast! Jonathan loves it, though not without some reservations, and Sean is mostly unmoved by it, despite liking certain things quite a bit. It makes for an interesting and dynamic discussion, as we break down the ways the show doesn’t live up to its predecessor and fails to follow through on its own interesting ideas, while also celebrating what’s genuinely good here. We also give our thoughts on the recent announcement of both the first new mainline Gundam series since Iron-Blooded Orphans, The Witch from Mercury, and a new film by original Gundam character designer Yoshikazu Yasuhiko, Cucuruz Doan’s Island, both of which ensure the Gundam train won’t be stopping anytime soon. Subscribe to our YouTube Channel! Subscribe to the WEEKLY SUIT GUNDAM Podcast! Subscribe for free to 'The Weekly Stuff' in Apple Podcasts! Follow Jonathan Lack on Twitter! Follow Sean Chapman on Twitter! Read Jonathan Lack’s movie reviews and stay up to date with all our podcast projects at https://www.jonathanlack.com Subscribe to JAPANIMATION STATION, our podcast about the wide and wonderful world of anime: https://www.japanimation-station.com Read Jonathan’s book 200 Reviews in Paperback or on Kindle – https://a.co/d/bLx53vK Subscribe to our YouTube channels! Japanimation Station: https://www.youtube.com/c/japanimationstation Purely Academic: https://www.youtube.com/@purelyacademicpodcast Support the show at Ko-fi ☕️ https://ko-fi.com/weeklystuff Original Music by Thomas Lack https://www.thomaslack.com/ ©2012 - Present Jonathan R. Lack & Sean Chapman | |||
| The Weekly Stuff #394 – Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings Review | 13 Sep 2021 | 02:27:11 | |
We’re diving into the Marvel’s latest movie this week, and it might also be one of their greatest: Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings is a blast, featuring the best action set-pieces in Marvel movie history, the best performance in the studio’s long run courtesy of the legendary Tony Leung, and a heartfelt, imaginative story that confidently reinvents the title character’s world and mythos into something we’re all excited to see much more of going forward. We discuss the film at length in spoiler detail, but before that, we also discuss all the news out of this week’s big PlayStation event – including the unveiling of God of War: Ragnarok, Spider-Man 2, and Wolverine – and gush about the incredible trailer for Lana Wachowski’s The Matrix Resurrections. Time Chart: Intro/Stuff: 0:00:00 – 0:17:50 News: 0:17:50 – 0:59:00 Shang-Chi: 0:59:00 – 2:27:11 Subscribe to our YouTube Channel! Subscribe to the WEEKLY SUIT GUNDAM Podcast! Subscribe for free to 'The Weekly Stuff' in Apple Podcasts! Follow Jonathan Lack on Twitter! Follow Sean Chapman on Twitter! Read Jonathan Lack’s movie reviews and stay up to date with all our podcast projects at https://www.jonathanlack.com Subscribe to JAPANIMATION STATION, our podcast about the wide and wonderful world of anime: https://www.japanimation-station.com Read Jonathan’s book 200 Reviews in Paperback or on Kindle – https://a.co/d/bLx53vK Subscribe to our YouTube channels! Japanimation Station: https://www.youtube.com/c/japanimationstation Purely Academic: https://www.youtube.com/@purelyacademicpodcast Support the show at Ko-fi ☕️ https://ko-fi.com/weeklystuff Original Music by Thomas Lack https://www.thomaslack.com/ ©2012 - Present Jonathan R. Lack & Sean Chapman | |||
| Purely Academic #8 – Nintendo Switch 2 Unveiling Analysis: Price, Performance, and Uncertainty | 11 Apr 2025 | 02:09:03 | |
This month, we’re trying something new by releasing the individual segments once a week, to spread the mountain of content we recorded out over the whole month. And that begins with a super-sized news segment, in which we break down Nintendo’s official unveiling of the Nintendo Switch 2, an announcement met with simultaneous excitement, controversy, and uncertainty. The price, and the possibility that it might skyrocket thanks to a certain dumbass’ Tariff policy, was the biggest news, but the system also turned out to be a lot more powerful and performant than either of us were expecting – and the games revealed, from expected first-party titles like Mario Kart World to surprising third-party support like a brand new exclusive by FromSoftware, look very good. It gives us a lot to break down on this very busy episode! Enjoy! Read Jonathan Lack’s movie reviews and stay up to date with all our podcast projects at https://www.jonathanlack.com Subscribe to JAPANIMATION STATION, our podcast about the wide and wonderful world of anime: https://www.japanimation-station.com Read Jonathan’s book 200 Reviews in Paperback or on Kindle – https://a.co/d/bLx53vK Subscribe to our YouTube channels! Japanimation Station: https://www.youtube.com/c/japanimationstation Purely Academic: https://www.youtube.com/@purelyacademicpodcast Support the show at Ko-fi ☕️ https://ko-fi.com/weeklystuff Original Music by Thomas Lack https://www.thomaslack.com/ ©2012 - Present Jonathan R. Lack & Sean Chapman | |||
| The Weekly Stuff #393 – Marvel Disney+ Shows Round-up & Genshin Impact 2.1 | 06 Sep 2021 | 02:42:25 | |
We were supposed to review Marvel’s latest blockbuster Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings this week, but in a strange twist of fate Sean arrived at the theater to find they’d just burst a pipe and had to shut down. So instead, we’re catching up on a few Marvel properties from 2021 we haven’t yet reviewed on the podcast: WandaVision, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, and Loki, the first three Disney+ entries in the MCU canon, two of which we have slightly-to-mostly different opinions on, one of which we love a ton, and all of which serve as an interesting way to catch up on Marvel after many months without talking about them. We also dive deep with the 2.1 update for Genshin Impact, including the excellent conclusion to the Inazuma story and the excellence of Raiden Shogun, and Sean talks about playing the new ‘Director’s Cut’ DLC for Ghost of Tsushima. Time Chart: Intro/Stuff: 0:00:00 – 0:22:03 Genshin Impact 2.1: 0:22:03 – 1:02:25 Marvel Shows Intro: 1:02:25 – 1:09:55 WandaVision: 1:09:55 – 1:35:35 Falcon & Winter Snowman: 1:35:35 – 2:07:12 Loki: 2:07:12 – 2:42:25 Subscribe to our YouTube Channel! Subscribe to the WEEKLY SUIT GUNDAM Podcast! Subscribe for free to 'The Weekly Stuff' in Apple Podcasts! Follow Jonathan Lack on Twitter! Follow Sean Chapman on Twitter!
Read Jonathan Lack’s movie reviews and stay up to date with all our podcast projects at https://www.jonathanlack.com Subscribe to JAPANIMATION STATION, our podcast about the wide and wonderful world of anime: https://www.japanimation-station.com Read Jonathan’s book 200 Reviews in Paperback or on Kindle – https://a.co/d/bLx53vK Subscribe to our YouTube channels! Japanimation Station: https://www.youtube.com/c/japanimationstation Purely Academic: https://www.youtube.com/@purelyacademicpodcast Support the show at Ko-fi ☕️ https://ko-fi.com/weeklystuff Original Music by Thomas Lack https://www.thomaslack.com/ ©2012 - Present Jonathan R. Lack & Sean Chapman | |||
| The Weekly Stuff #392 – Gundam Build Fighters Review & Discussion | 30 Aug 2021 | 03:33:42 | |
After an opening segment where we discuss Sean’s final thoughts on Returnal, Jonathan finally jumping in 4 years later to Horizon Zero Dawn, and our reactions to the Spider-Man: No Way Home trailer, it’s time for another Weekly Suit Gundam extravaganza! This time it’s 2013’s Gundam Build Fighters, where Gundam leaves the world of life-and-death warfare and science-fiction (mostly) behind, and instead settles in for a slice-of-life sports anime centered around the Gunpla plastic models that have long been one of the most beloved and popular parts of the franchise’s legacy. And in a wonderful surprise, it winds up being one of the franchise’s finest hours, a practically perfect 25-episode series chock full of great, vibrant characters, big laughs, awesome Gunpla designs, and truly rousing, get-on-your-feet-and-cheer caliber mobile suit duels. Whether you’re a Gundam novice or a grizzled veteran, Gundam Build Fighters has something for everyone. It’s as entertaining an anime as you’re likely to find, and maybe the most crowd-pleasing installment in the franchise’s stories history – and because of that, it’s a real treat to get to talk about here. Time Chart: Intro/Stuff: 0:00:00 – 0:32:22 News: 0:32:22 – 0:45:50 Gundam Build Fighters: 0:45:50 – 3:33:42 Subscribe to our YouTube Channel! Subscribe to the WEEKLY SUIT GUNDAM Podcast! Subscribe for free to 'The Weekly Stuff' in Apple Podcasts! Follow Jonathan Lack on Twitter! Follow Sean Chapman on Twitter!
Read Jonathan Lack’s movie reviews and stay up to date with all our podcast projects at https://www.jonathanlack.com Subscribe to JAPANIMATION STATION, our podcast about the wide and wonderful world of anime: https://www.japanimation-station.com Read Jonathan’s book 200 Reviews in Paperback or on Kindle – https://a.co/d/bLx53vK Subscribe to our YouTube channels! Japanimation Station: https://www.youtube.com/c/japanimationstation Purely Academic: https://www.youtube.com/@purelyacademicpodcast Support the show at Ko-fi ☕️ https://ko-fi.com/weeklystuff Original Music by Thomas Lack https://www.thomaslack.com/ ©2012 - Present Jonathan R. Lack & Sean Chapman | |||
| The Weekly Stuff #391 – Listener Mail, Sonic 2 Casting, Halo News, The Great Jeopardy Debacle & more! | 23 Aug 2021 | 02:00:07 | |
After last week’s marathon Evangelion podcast, we’re back with a shorter, more grab-bag style episode, where we answer a chunk of listener questions on everything from Gundam to comic books to Super Sentai. Before that, though, we also have a big list of news items to get through, from the Great Jeopardy Host Debacle, to Halo: Infinite announcing it will release without co-op campaign or Forge, to the unveiling of the latest Call of Duty, to Criterion finally getting in on the 4K game, to Idris Elba being cast as Knuckles in Sonic the Hedgehog 2, which leads to us playing a round of fantasy celebrity casting with the entire Sonic cast. More thoughts on Genshin Impact and Sean’s first impressions of Returnal on PS5 round out the episode. Time Chart: Intro/Stuff: 0:00:00 – 0:17:53 News: 0:17:53 – 1:19:32 Listener Mail: 1:19:32 – 2:00:07 Subscribe to our YouTube Channel! Subscribe to the WEEKLY SUIT GUNDAM Podcast! Subscribe for free to 'The Weekly Stuff' in Apple Podcasts! Follow Jonathan Lack on Twitter! Follow Sean Chapman on Twitter! Read Jonathan Lack’s movie reviews and stay up to date with all our podcast projects at https://www.jonathanlack.com Subscribe to JAPANIMATION STATION, our podcast about the wide and wonderful world of anime: https://www.japanimation-station.com Read Jonathan’s book 200 Reviews in Paperback or on Kindle – https://a.co/d/bLx53vK Subscribe to our YouTube channels! Japanimation Station: https://www.youtube.com/c/japanimationstation Purely Academic: https://www.youtube.com/@purelyacademicpodcast Support the show at Ko-fi ☕️ https://ko-fi.com/weeklystuff Original Music by Thomas Lack https://www.thomaslack.com/ ©2012 - Present Jonathan R. Lack & Sean Chapman | |||