In a very video game-centric episode of the podcast, we talk all the news out of this month’s Nintendo Direct Partner Showcase and Sony State of Play, including the announcement of a God of War trilogy remake, a new Castlevania game from the Dead Cells team, and more! Sean fills us in on the controversies surrounding Yakuza Kiwami 3, and we commiserate over the continued desecration of the video game market due to AI gobbling up the RAM supply. Jonathan talks about playing through Dragon Quest IV and Dragon Quest V, the latter for the first time – if you haven’t heard, it’s a masterpiece – while Sean tells us about his adventures going to San Antonio for a conference. And finally, for The Monthly Ten, Jonathan pitches Capcom on 10 increasingly silly ideas for Resident Evil crossovers and spin-offs, in honor of next week’s release of Resident Evil Requiem.

Enjoy!

TIME CHART:

Intro: 0:00:00 – 0:09:45

Lucasfilm/Star Wars News: 0:09:45 – 0:32:50

Assorted Video Game News: 0:32:50 – 1:11:22

Nintendo Direct: 1:11:22 – 1:25:00

Sony State of Play: 1:25:00 – 2:09:25

Sean’s Conference Adventures: 2:09:25 – 2:42:02

Jonathan’s Dragon Quest Adventures: 2:42:02 – 3:09:17

The Monthly Ten: 3:09:17 – 3:34:44

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

Our sister podcast, the anime history and review show Japanimation Station, returns on March 15th, 2026 for its 6th season, and it’s one listeners have been demanding for a long time: our Tomino-thon! Throughout 2026, we’ll be peering into the delightfully deranged mind of Tomino Yoshiyuki, creator of Mobile Suit Gundam, which kicked off our entire anime podcasting journey with our ‘Weekly Suit Gundam’ series back in 2019. Now, we’ll be returning to the world of Tomino with deep dives into every TV series and film he’s ever directed. In this special preview episode, we outline the season’s first half, “The New Anime Era,” in which we’ll be analyzing each of Tomino’s shows from 1977’s Invincible Super Man Zambot 3 through 1984’s Heavy Metal L-Gaim. Season 6 Part 1 will run for 12 episodes uninterrupted through May. After a summer break, we’ll then return in the fall for a second half picking up with 1985’s Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam. Will you be able to survive?

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 time has come, once again: Sean and Jonathan are here to count down the Top 10 Video Games of 2025. It was an undeniably weird year for the medium, with some exciting developments – like the launch of Nintendo’s Switch 2 and a strong first year of exclusive – marred by a lot of depressing industry upheaval, and the AAA space was largely pretty thin. We go quite a bit off the beaten path this year discussing our favorites, and while you’ve heard us talk about some of these before, there are a lot of surprises along the way. And this is the only Game of the Year podcast where you won’t hear anyone talk about Clair Obscur, because we simply didn’t play it. If nothing else, our lists are very unique.

TIME CHART:

Intro: 0:00:00 – 0:15:27

#10: 0:15:27 – 0:32:00

#9: 0:32:00 – 0:48:23

#8: 0:48:23 – 1:03:48

#7: 1:03:48 – 1:20:06

#6: 1:20:06 – 1:44:22

#5: 1:44:22 – 2:07:28

#4: 2:07:28 – 2:21:02

#3: 2:21:02 – 2:39:17

#2: 2:39:17 – 3:06:48

#1 GOTY Picks: 3:06:48 – 3:39:40

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

For our first show of 2026, we look back on the best movies of 2025, as Jonathan talks us through his list of the 20 best films to come out last year, from undisputed favorites like Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another, to anime stunners like the Chainsaw Man and Kimetsu no Yaiba movies, to some weirder, smaller, and more personal picks. Then, Sean talks us through his busy winter vacation spent in the world of Digimon, reviewing the latest Digimon Story game, Time Stranger, alongside the 2021 Digimon anime Digimon Ghost Game and the first cours of the brand new Digimon Beatbreak. Finally, we round out the episode with a very depressing Monthly Ten where Sean is tasked with imagining ten ways we could sell our souls to become more popular podcasters.

Enjoy, and come back next week for our Top 10 Video Games of 2025 episode!

TIME CHART:

Intro: 0:00:00 – 0:08:33

News: 0:08:33 – 0:40:16

Jonathan’s Favorite Films of 2025: 0:40:16 – 1:58:40

Sean’s Digimon Adventures: 1:58:40 – 2:58:38

The Monthly Ten: 2:58:38 – 3:27:20

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

Fair warning: this month’s episode starts out as a major bummer, what with news of the Netflix/WB merger and the pricing madness around RAM spelling doom for both Hollywood and the gaming industry, topics we dive deep on to make ourselves extremely sad. But once you get past all that, we start having some fun, as Jonathan reviews the flawed but extremely fun Metroid Prime 4: Beyond on Nintendo Switch and Sean talks at length about falling down the Super Robot Wars rabbit hole, which is an absolutely amazing segment. Then we finish things off with a very misanthropic – but very funny – Monthly Ten segment in which Jonathan lists 10 ways to improve Christmas in 2025, most of which involve taking aim at traditions people love. Pa rum pa pum pum.

Enjoy!

TIME CHART:

Intro: 0:00:00 – 0:08:50

Netflix/WB Merger: 0:08:50 – 0:26:50

Star Wars News: 0:26:50 – 0:35:45

Steam Machines: 0:35:45 – 0:51:42

RAM Madness: 0:51:42 – 1:14:38

Call of Duty and Game Award News: 1:14:38 – 1:54:35

Metroid Prime 4: 1:54:35 – 2:38:02

Ultraman Cosmos: 2:38:02 – 2:55:00

Super Robot Wars: 2:55:00 – 3:24:04

Monthly Ten: 3:24:04 – 3:52:10

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

For our November topic – coming just in time for the start of December – we celebrate the release of Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein with a three-part retrospective on one of the most famous stories in the English language. First, we take a look at the original 1818 novel by Mary Shelley – which has been one of Sean’s favorite books, but was new to Jonathan – and celebrate its tremendous accomplishments, all of which still feel revelatory today. Then we talk about the classic 1931 Universal movie, directed by James Whale and starring Boris Karloff, which doesn’t take much from the book, but establishes much of the story’s endearing iconography. And finally, we give a full review of the brand new version, directed by the inimitable Guillermo del Toro, who leave his own original stamp on the material in ways that are very much worth discussing.

Enjoy!

TIME CHART:

Intro: 0:00:00 – 0:19:29

The Novel: 0:19:29 – 1:27:22

The 1931 Film: 1:27:22 – 1:56:35

The 2025 Film: 1:56:35 – 3:12:26

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

In one of our most absolutely jam-packed Monthly Stuff installments to date, we live up to our moniker with a long discussion of teaching stories and curriculum planning (but it’s fun, we promise) before moving on to talk about the avalanche of games we’ve playing recently, including Ghost of Yōtei, Pokémon Legends Z-A, Hades II, Super Robot Wars Y, and the Dragon Quest I & II HD-2D Remake. Before all that, we discuss some recent news, including updates on Doctor Who, Halo, and One Piece, and we end the show with perhaps our best Monthly Ten segment to date, in which Sean Chapman, who had never listened to a Taylor Swift song before this month, imagines 10 future Taylor Swift songs based on dark and upsetting plot points in William Shakespeare plays. It’s a blast.

Enjoy!

TIME CHART:

Intro: 0:00:00 – 0:04:48

News: 0:04:48 – 0:54:29

School Stories: 0:54:29 – 1:51:30

Robert Eggers’ Nosferatu: 1:51:30 – 2:07:45

Plur1bus: 2:07:45 – 2:14:40

Ghost of Yōtei: 2:14:40 – 2:27:04

Hades II: 2:27:04 – 2:35:35

Pokémon Legends ZA: 2:35:35 – 2:54:30

Super Robot Wars Y: 2:54:30 – 3:01:25

Dragon Quest I & II HD-2D Remake: 3:01:25 – 3:07:14

The Monthly Ten: 3:07:14 – 3:31:16

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

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