A debatably triumphant return to the world of podcasting for Ben and Mike! We date ourselves poorly by discussing the imminent release of Tears of the Kingdom and struggling to remember the name of 'Starfield'. As we hadn't chatted for a while, we try to get through our thoughts on everything of note that we had watched or played in recent times... Timestamps below as ever!

0:00 Intro and depressing preamble (aka "everything sucks")

5:15 Kimetsu no Yaiba / Demon Slayer: Swordsmith Village Arc

7:50 Mashle: Magic and Muscles

9:00 Dr Stone: New World

12:10 My Home Hero

14:54 Jigokuraku / Hell's Paradise

17:53 Vinland Saga Season 2

20:44 Skip and Loafer

25:10 Xenoblade Chronicles Series

32:09 Golden Kamuy Season 3

36:21 Spy X Family

42:40 Ace Attorney & The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles

48:00 BLUELOCK

55:08 Hikari no Ou / The Fire Hunter

59:05 Honkai Star Rail

1:05:02 Fire Emblem Engage

1:12:07 Ben's Retro Games Corner

1:17:00 Shiroi Suna no Aquatope / The Aquatope on White Sand

1:19:00 Ben's Anime Lightning Round

1:21:10 Microsoft Game Pass + Yakuza: Like a Dragon

Intro song: Pursuit - A Great Turnabout - Yasumasa Kitagawa, from The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles

Outro song: Dai Zero Kan - 10-FEET, from THE FIRST SLAM DUNK (Mike just watched this in the cinema and it's great)

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Our final archived episode! It even includes several references to the fact our archives will never be uploaded. What riveting content. But this one isn't just a rundown of a ton of shows we've watched! After a brief chat about shows we'd been watching recently - and a not so brief diversion into all things Fire Emblem: Three Houses - we deep dive into an age old question... Can the main character of an anime be 'best guy' in said anime? The discussion centres around a bunch of examples we bring to the table where this is the case, so the answer is fairly clear, but it's about the journey not the destination. Timestamps below:

0:00 Intro

2:34 Recent shenanigans

2:43 Dr Stone

7:08 Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba

12:43 Carole & Tuesday

15:07 Too many isekai shows (Not heard THAT from us before)

19:59 Fire Emblem: Three Houses

46:32 Can the main character be 'best guy'?

54:03 Ben's best guys (but actually a joint list)

1:17:34 Mike's best guys (the one's Ben doesn't know about)

1:19:29 Does it make the show better if MC=BG?

The examples we talk about:

Kamado Tanjiro - Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba

Sawamura Eijun - Diamond no Ace

Kaburagi T. Kotetsu / Wild Tiger - Tiger & Bunny

Katsuragi Keima - The World God Only Knows

Kuroba Kaito - Magic Kaito 1412

Sakamoto-kun - Sakamoto desu ga?

Honda-san - Skull-face Bookseller Honda-san

Handa Seishuu - Barakamon

Spike Spiegel - Cowboy Bebop

Nanba Mutta - Space Brothers

Kawachi Daikichi - Usagi Drop

Hitoyoshi Zenkichi - Medaka box

Intro song: HEROES - GLAY, from Diamond no Ace Season 2

Outro song: Anata ga ireba OK! - Serena, from Space Brothers

Both phenomenal shows. In case that wasn't clear yet.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Another one from the archives, cementing this as an annual podcast! This one possibly never saw the light of day in any form in the past due to us failing to tackle the timestamping of Stuff #4... The format will be very familiar as we run through the anime of the year in something resembling alphabetical order, but this time we put time pressure on ourselves - hurrah! Timestamps below. Spoilers: we still haven't figured out what our email address is.

0:00 Intro

2:21 Games we've been playing and stuff (Into the Spider-Verse shout out)

6:20 A.I.C.O.: Incarnation

6:40 Angolmois

7:10 Baki

7:52 Banana Fish

11:23 Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai (up here because we listed it as 'Bunny Girl Senpai')

14:53 Caligula

15:02 Cardcaptor Sakura: Clear Card-hen

17:22 Dorei-ku The Animation

17:28 Double Decker! Doug & Kirill

19:23 Darling in the FranXX (it's here because 'Franx')

22:30 Fumikiri Jikan (Crossing Time)

23:42 Gaikotsu Shotenin Honda-san (Skull-faced bookseller Honda-san)

25:02 Goblin Slayer (Ben blows his nose loudly here. Heads up.)

26:05 Golden Kamuy

29:33 Grancrest Senki

29:59 Grand Blue

31:35 Gurazeni: Money Pitch

33:38 Hanebado!

33:59 Hataraku Saibou (Cells At Work)

35:27 Hinamatsuri

37:05 Hinomaruzumou

38:02 Hisone to Maso-tan

39:36 Irozuku Sekai no Ashita kara (Iroduku: The World in Colors)

41:23 Isekai Izakaya

41:56 Karakuri Circus

42:28 Kyoto no Holmes

42:36 Legend of the Galactic Heroes: Die Neue These

43:31 Mahou Shoujo Ore

44:05 Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei Movie: Hoshi wo Yobu Shoujo (The Irregular at Magic High School The Movie - The Girl Who Summons The Stars)

45:50 Megalo Box

48:25 Mirai

49:01 My Hero Academia Season 3

49:34 Rokuhouhou Yotsuiro Biyori

49:52 Run With The Wind

51:15 Sword Art Online Movie: Ordinal Scale

51:48 Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online

53:30 Sword Art Online: Alicization

54:54 Shingeki no Kyojin Season 3 (Attack on Titan Season 3)

55:43 That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime ('Slime')

57:01 Space Battleship Tiramisu (Uchuu Senkan Tiramisù)

57:52 SSSS.Gridman

58:55 Steins;Gate 0

1:00:32 Tada Never Falls In Love (Tada-kun wa Koi wo Shinai)

1:01:16 Thunderbolt Fantasy movie - The Sword of Life and Death + Thunderbolt Fantasy season 2

1:01:48 Violet Evergarden

1:03:41 Wotaku ni Koi wa Muzukashii (Wotakoi: Love is Hard for Otaku)

1:05:04 Yowamushi Pedal: Glory Line

1:07:38 Zombie Land Saga

1:12:05 Top picks from the year

Intro song: Merigo - Cypress Ueno to Robert Yoshino ft. Sky-Hi, from Gurazeni: Money Pitch

Outro song: WHITE of CRIME - REVALCY, from Magic Kaito 1412 (Ben, why did you put this in?)

Definitely check out Magic Kaito 1412.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.