Iris steers the gang back onto the anime track with 2018's Violet Evergarden, a story about a girl who makes the ridiculous character journey from overpowered shōnen-esque child soldier to emotionally stunted post-war ghostwriter, all while tugging on our heartstrings through each individual episode. While Marcus and Iris drop the ball on watching the complementary film, we all get to delve deeply into the anime's vignette-style structure, the importance of written language and how its...

The list of Disney/Pixar films we haven't yet touched upon here on the Couch is getting pretty slim, but 1998's A Bug's Life simply demands discussion, mostly because child Alex's love of insects cannot be denied. Hot off the heels of Toy Story, this film actually holds up quite well; its animation is solid, its characters are honestly quite impressive (with special mention to the villain Hopper and actual convincing child Dot), and its pro-union and Marxist-leaning messages are excellent...

Ignoring that this movie is owned by furries, Disney's Zootopia is an impressively rich world teeming with the kind of social commentary that Disney just barely makes enough of to be thought-provoking without necessarily stating too much. The gang has an exciting discussion about nature vs. nurture, racism, fascism, fantasy worlds, and the role of the police both when this movie came out in 2016 and in our current day—that is, after all, what y'all are here for, right? We've also got our...

The gang breaks the 4-week anime streak to bring one of the most incredible animated TV series of 2023, Scavenger's Reign, a show that got canceled by HBO Max after its premier season but got picked up by Netflix within the last few months. It isn't hyperbole to say that this show moved us; the worldbuilding is phenomenal, the characters and their stories are rich and emotional, and the way the showrunners are able to have the audience connect to planet Vesta, at the same time naturally rich...

It has taken the gang 165 episodes to bring an Isekai anime to the Couch, and while they may not be to resident weeb Alex's discriminating palate, Iris brings us a wild first installment all the same with 2023's I'm in Love with the Villainess. It's got drama, it's got magic, and it's exceedingly gay, but as the show goes there are a few characters and moments that really do make it a show worth sticking around for; plus the English dub slaps. Stick around as Marcus gets a little too...

Now that the gang has completed our reviews on legendary anime film director Makoto Shinkai's Your Name, Weathering with You, & Suzume, we dive into four of Shinkai's films-before-the-fame so to speak, created in the years before Your Name became an international hit—2002's Voices of a Distant Star, 2004's Places Promised in Our Early Days, 2007's 5 Centimeters Per Second, and 2013's The Garden of Words. Stick around for our 4-film tier list, reflections on Shinkai's growth as a director...

Hayao Miyazaki deserves a shrine here on Best Seat on the Couch, and The Boy and the Heron is his final masterpiece and bookend to an illustrious career—or would be, if he actually confirmed his retirement. There's like 5 different metaphorical through lines and yet another stacked English voice cast in this Ghibli film, but perhaps the strongest message that comes through is an allegory for Miyazaki himself, and how a couple of characters in this film could be representative of how Miyazaki...

Better known as Dungeon Meshi in weeb, Delicious in Dungeon is a show that brings anime, cooking, humor, Dungeons & Dragons, studio Trigger animation, and character-driven narratives together like the Avengers to put together one of our favorite anime shows of all time. Longtime listeners know from our episodes on The Legend of Vox Machina that D&D is held near and dear to our hearts, and we're blown away by this series's worldbuilding, character backstories, combat encounters, and...

Disney's put out quite a few bangers, and even some underrated sleeper hits, but then, what does that make Treasure Planet? A bonafide box office bomb and a top 3 expensive animated theatrical failure of all time, the film does join Atlantis: The Lost Empire as a "cult classic" in the Disney pantheon—can the gang find redeeming qualities and give this movie a thumbs-up? Overall, yes we can! With some exceptions. There's an excellent relationship between Jim and John Silver, truly gorgeous...

The gang finally completes the Makoto Shinkai trilogy, closing the book on our previous discussions on Your Name (Episode 7) and Weathering With You (Episode 12) after many years with 2022's Suzume. There's a lot to like about this movie (it's just as beautiful as its predecessors, if not even more gorgeous) but it's definitely not as good as Your Name and arguably may not even be better than Weathering With You, which does lend itself to a pretty great discussion about the main characters,...

In regards to Pixar's latest slump at the box office, Coco is perhaps the studio's last exceptional movie before the downturn, with its dazzling display of el Día de los Muertos, exceptional score, powerful emotional impact, and emphasis on family. Join us as we gush over the beautiful lights and usage of color in this movie, praise its rich storyline and clever writing, and joke about Marcus's interesting comparison to Encanto (check out Episode 77!) and its similar Hispanic roots. And who...

Your fight-or-flight response might have already triggered upon reading the title of this anime series, but our resident anime expert Alex assures the gang that this show is not, in fact, fan service brain rot. To be honest, it's actually quite introspective - plus it has its emotional moments - and sheds a light on the issues and social pressures impacting teenagers as they learn to navigate their way to young adulthood. It's strange to contextualize serious issues like body image or even...

Along with like half of the gang on the Couch, you may be surprised to know that this isn't actually a Disney movie; as 20th Century Fox Animation's first feature film, it's technically a competitor - so how does it stack up? Well, when you come at the king, you best not miss. The music is actually quite good, and it's an affable take on the Bolshevik revolution (as Alex phrases it), but the animation comes across as a bit...rough around the edges. Some moments feel well directed while others...

The first season of Amazon Prime's Invincible was pretty groundbreaking stuff; subverting the superhero genre with deep emotional human elements and excellently written morally gray characters was delightfully refreshing in the face of pandemic-era MCU content. It's been nearly 3 years since our 52nd episode was recorded, and though it was marred by a 4-month mid-season hiatus, season 2 of Invincible continues to show us that Mark and Debbie (and a little bit of Nolan!) steal every scene...

It's another throwback today on the Couch, and we complete the trifecta of The Magic School Bus & VeggieTales with David McCall's Schoolhouse Rock!, a Saturday morning children cartoon's interstitial designed to provide educational content with the power of catchy songs. Our experiences with the show range from it being critical to Michael's childhood upbringing to Marcus nearly confusing it for Jack Black's live action School of Rock, but we can all agree that the songs are indeed...

Perhaps the single greatest animated film at the turn of the century, Chicken Run is legendary claymation studio Aardman's first feature-length film, and our previous discussions on Wallace and Gromit on this podcast should clue you in to just how awesome we think these folks across the pond are. The voice acting is superb (hi Mel Gibson!), the animation exceeds even our high standard, the classic British humor blends well with a boisterous American-coded character, and the story is charming...

Blue Eye Samurai is Netflix's latest blockbuster adult animated series, joining the likes of Arcane and Nimona (which we've already discussed on this podcast - check 'em!) as proof that extremely high quality animated television exists, and it's not just for kids. Mizu is an incredibly well-designed protagonist, with so much to unpack on her biracial background and the way she navigates her gender identity; there's a powerful supporting cast with characters like Akemi, Madame Kaji, Fowler,...

It's been a little while since we've had some Star Wars content on the Couch, but the gang is hungry for Filoni's latest Clone Wars-era project, The Bad Batch. It's four clone dads voiced by the same guy, and also Omega, as they learn to navigate the dark times in between the fall of the Republic and rise of the Empire, and while a lot of it is more of the same, we're graced with some pretty excellent television as the series finds its footing in season 2. Tune in as Marcus is so excited for...

It's a return to form for the gang, featuring Alex's unbridled dad energy, Michael's brain damage, Marcus's corporate depression, and Iris's in-depth analysis of the ramifications of this universe's makeup, and with Monsters, Inc. on the docket today, we have plenty of good things to say. Headlined by Billy Crystal and John Goodman as Mike and Sully, it's got an exceptionally lovable pre-vocal child protagonist, a humorously exaggerated corporate environment, and Steve Buscemi as the villain!...

Best Seat on the Couch celebrates another milestone as we reach Episode 150, and like our 50th episode on Space Jam almost two and a half years ago, we're choosing another live action + animated mish-mash masterpiece, but this one is perhaps the most important of all! Who Framed Roger Rabbit, released in 1988, was an engineering and filmmaking marvel of its time, joining a classical LA Noire murder mystery film with every single cartoon you could think of - this film is still, to this day,...

On this episode, the Gang gets biblical (again!) with a refresher on each member's religious (or non-religious) childhood upbringing as we discuss 1993 hit animated series VeggieTales, featuring Bob the Tomato and Larry the Cucumber - certainly a stark contrast to The Prince of Egypt's Moses and Ramses from that discussion nearly a year ago. This show occupies a weird headspace: is it terrible, or is it actually really good? is it hilarious, or is it a complete dumpster fire? It's...

The gang activates the Couch's time machine to go waaaayyy back, to a show that first aired before we were even born: the original 1994 run of The Magic School Bus. The theme song goes hard, the video game is iconic, and Ms. Frizzle belongs on the Mt. Rushmore of the Coolest Adults to Ever Grace Our Childhoods - to say we all have fond memories of the show understates just how important (and educational) it was to our preschool minds. We can also give this show its flowers for being...

Y'all remember the original Puss in Boots spinoff from 2011? The CGI in that film has...not aged well. But over a decade later, Puss in Boots: The Last Wish has arrived to soft reboot the Shrekiverse and tell a more compelling story about the titular side character - well, compelling to most of us on the Couch, at least. The animation and visuals are leaps and bounds over anything else from this series before, the characters that surround Puss in Boots are genuine, deep, and entertaining...

Nestled in between juggernauts The Incredibles and Ratatouille, Cars is often regarded as being somewhat lesser than its fellow Disney/Pixar entries, which Marcus angrily argues is absolutely unreasonable and that anyone who subscribes to that is trash. The gang does make sure that Cars 2 receives whatever the opposite of flowers is, but the original Cars is a pretty solid movie! Strong voice acting, a cool premise and interesting animation, a genuine American™ theme, and some believable...