We’re back with a jam-packed episode covering lots of games, anime, and more! Sean and Jonathan have finally finished the massive 100-hour JRPGs both have been playing – Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth and Persona 3 Reload – and give final reports on both of those. But we also discuss the leaked specs for Sony’s upcoming PS5 Pro, discuss the new Sand Land anime based on the manga by Akira Toriyama, hear travel stories from Jonathan about a recent trip to Boston, and get details from Sean on his l...
Mar 26, 2024•2 hr 23 min•Ep. 529
Akira Toriyama, creator of Dragon Ball and Dr. Slump, and illustrator of the Dragon Quest franchise, passed away this week at the age of 68. His influence on our lives, like those of millions around the world, has been incalculable, so we’re devoting today’s entire show to discussing his incredible body of work and the way it changed anime, manga, video games, and global popular culture. We discuss how we first discovered Dragon Ball, why he was such a peerless mangaka, read some of the statemen...
Mar 12, 2024•3 hr 11 min•Ep. 528
After weeks of breathless speculation, Xbox unveiled some relatively minor details about the multiplatform future vision of the brand, which prompts us to have an in-depth conversation about where Xbox is going and why the current strategy feels at odds with their oft-stated long-term goals. We also discuss Marvel’s unveiling of their new Fantastic Four cast, Jonathan talks about watching Solo Leveling and playing Modern Warfare III, and we conclude with a check-in on the giant JRPGs we’re both ...
Feb 20, 2024•2 hr 11 min•Ep. 527
Superhero movies are quickly becoming a dead genre in Hollywood, as evidenced by this weekend’s coldly-unanticipated release of Madame Web, so we thought we’d bid the genre the farewell it deserves by recycling a segment from our 10th Anniversary Podcast in 2022, where we counted down each of our 10 favorite superhero movies of all time! Though this was recorded a year-and-a-half ago, almost nothing of note in the genre has come out since, so this still more or less reflects our general thoughts...
Feb 13, 2024•1 hr 10 min•Ep. 526
Today’s episode is wall-to-wall packed with exciting stuff, as we give first impressions on Persona 3 Reload and Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, Jonathan explains why you should avoid Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown, Sean dips his toes in Palworld, and we discuss some anime we caught up on over winter break including Spy x Family and One Piece. We also dive into recent news including the catastrophic series of video game industry layoffs throughout January and, more happily, the announcement of...
Feb 06, 2024•3 hr 6 min•Ep. 525
This Friday sees the release of Persona 3 Reload, the remake of one of our very favorite video games ever made, and to celebrate, we’re resurrecting a segment from our 10th Anniversary Podcast in 2022, where Sean, Jonathan, and special guest star Occasional Thomas watched and reviewed the first part of Persona 3: The Weird Masquerade, the stage play adaptation of the game from 2014. “Weird” is definitely the operative word here, as this is a very quirky theatrical (and musical!) adaptation of an...
Jan 30, 2024•1 hr 5 min•Ep. 524
The time has come, once again: Sean and Jonathan are here to count down the Top 10 Video Games of 2023, in what was one of the most densely packed years for great games we’ve experienced in a long time. Both hosts present their own Top 10 lists, recapping some games we’ve sung the praises of before – like Resident Evil 4, Street Fighter 6, and Final Fantasy XVI – and discussing some surprise entries we haven’t mentioned until now. It’s a really fun episode that highlights just how many great exp...
Jan 09, 2024•3 hr 14 min•Ep. 523
The New Year and the THIRTEENTH SEASON of The Weekly Stuff Podcast (whoa!) begins with a lot of catch-up on what we’ve been doing over the holidays – playing Alan Wake II and Pokémon, watching anime, and more – and our review of the Doctor Who Christmas special, “The Church on Ruby Road.” Introducing us to Ncuti Gatwa as the Fifteenth Doctor and Millie Gibson as new companion Ruby Sunday, this Christmas-day extravaganza was a blast, with amazing creature effects, outstanding performances, and a ...
Jan 02, 2024•2 hr 13 min•Ep. 522
In this special bonus episode, Jonathan Lack counts down the Top 10 Films of 2023! You can read the text of this episode, and see links to full reviews of every film discussed, at https://www.jonathanlack.com/p/the-top-10-films-of-2023 Time Chart: Intro: 0:00:00 - 0:03:18 Leftovers: 0:03:18 - 0:05:01 Honorable Mentions (#20-#11): 0:05:01 - 0:17:29 #10: 0:17:29 - 0:19:57 #9: 0:19:57 - 0:22:23 #8: 0:22:23 - 0:25:11 #7: 0:25:11 - 0:27:48 #6: 0:27:48 - 0:34:40 #5: 0:34:40 - 0:36:52 #4: 0:36:52 - 0:3...
Dec 27, 2023•49 min•Ep. 521
The 60th anniversary mini-season of Doctor Who has come to a rousing and surprising close with “The Giggle,” with David Tennant and Catherine Tate facing down Neil Patrick Harris as the Toymaker, and the expected regeneration into Ncuti Gatwa going in some unexpected directions. It’s a fantastic episode of Doctor Who that makes the most of its very big swings, and gives us a lot to talk about as we break down how this episode both serves as something of a ‘series finale’ for modern Who while lau...
Dec 12, 2023•2 hr 31 min•Ep. 520
Godzilla Minus One & Doctor Who Special 2 Reviews | The Weekly Stuff Podcast #485 It’s a very enthusiastic week here on the podcast as we not only get to talk about another great new Doctor Who episode, but an even greater new Godzilla movie! The first live-action Godzilla film by Toho in seven years, Godzilla Minus One is of the finest films in the franchise’s 70-year-history, a rousing period piece with phenomenal special effects and even more impressive human drama. We talk about it at le...
Dec 05, 2023•2 hr 45 min•Ep. 519
Doctor Who is back! Both in the sense that we got our first new episode in over a year this weekend, and, more importantly, in the sense that we got our first new good episode since 2017! This week marked the 60th anniversary of our favorite TV show here at The Weekly Stuff Podcast, and brought with it the first in a series of specials reuniting David Tennant and Catherine Tate, writer/showrunner Russell T Davies, composer Murray Gold, and more, and the resulting episode, “The Star Beast,” is in...
Nov 28, 2023•3 hr 19 min•Ep. 518
Happy Thanksgiving one and all! While the main podcast is off this week, we still wanted to give you something to show our gratitude for another great year, so Jonathan busted out a microphone, broke open a copy of his new book, 200 Reviews – available now on Amazon! – and read 5 reviews as requested by listeners! The ones chosen were Quentin Tarantino’s Death Proof, the latest Fast & Furious film Fast X, Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather Part III, Hayao Miyazaki’s Nausicaä of the Valley ...
Nov 23, 2023•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 517
It’s a giant episode with many topics today, led by an in-depth discussion of Insomniac’s fantastic Spider-Man 2 for the PS5. We break down the gameplay and story in spoiler-filled detail at the end of today’s show, mostly praising it but also debating whether or not the controversial MJ missions are bad – please take to social media and use #JonathanWasRight (they suck) or #SeanWasRight (they’re great and there should be more) to sound off. Jonathan also gives final thoughts on Super Mario Bros...
Nov 14, 2023•3 hr 16 min•Ep. 516
Happy Halloween! Last year, we celebrated the spookiest day of the year by talking about John Carpenter’s original HALLOWEEN from 1978, and this year we’re jumping ahead 30 years to talk about the remake directed by Rob Zombie in 2007, and its sequel from 2009. These films have a mixed reputation, but they’re worth revisiting and taking seriously. The 2007 remake is trying to be two movies at once and never really coheres, but the 2009 sequel – especially in its Unrated Director’s Cut – may just...
Oct 31, 2023•2 hr 46 min•Ep. 515
Two of the most anticipated video games of 2023 launched this week, with Sony and Insomniac’s Spider-Man 2 for the PS5 and Nintendo’s Super Mario Bros. Wonder for the Nintendo Switch. We’ve been extremely excited for both, and so far, they haven’t disappointed. We give initial spoiler-free impressions of both games on today’s show, discussing how Mario Wonder delivers a deliriously fun re-invention of 2D Mario platformers and Spider-Man 2 serves as both a compulsively playable superhero game and...
Oct 24, 2023•1 hr 21 min•Ep. 514
The fourth season of our sister series, Japanimation Station, begins today with the premiere of Japanimation Station’s Kyoto Vacation, our biggest podcasting adventure yet! We are taking a journey through the works of Kyoto Animation, one of the most respected and beloved anime studios in Japan, reviewing shows like Clannad, The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, K-On!, Nichijou, Sound! Euphonium, Violet Evergarden, and much more. But before we talk about any specific works, we take a step back and ...
Oct 18, 2023•1 hr 58 min•Ep. 513
Today’s episode is all about 200 Reviews, the new book by co-host Jonathan Lack, which contains, well, 200 reviews, mostly of movies, but also some TV and video games, some that have been seen before, and many that haven’t. You can buy the book now in paperback , for Amazon Kindle, and as a digital bundle with PDF and EPUB versions . We tell you all about it on today’s episode, with Sean interviewing Jonathan about the book’s contents, and Jonathan reading eight excerpts from the book, including...
Oct 10, 2023•2 hr 42 min•Ep. 512
It’s a big week with lots of news here at the Weekly Stuff, including Jonathan’s announcement of his new book, 200 Reviews, which releases this Sunday! He tells you a little bit about it on today’s show (and you can pre-order it on Amazon now for Kindle , with a paperback version coming soon!), and we’ll discuss it more next week. On today’s show, we discuss the triumphant end of the writer’s strike, lots of Xbox news courtesy of a historic document leak, and review Capcom’s Resident Evil 4 DLC,...
Oct 03, 2023•1 hr 56 min•Ep. 511
It’s an exciting grab-bag of topics this weeks as we discuss some recent video game news from Sony and Nintendo, dive into a big ol’ bag of listener mail, and talk more about two of our favorite games of the year with Baldur’s Gate 3 and Armored Core VI. A surprise Nintendo Direct and Sony State of Play give us plenty of video game announcements and trailers to talk about, including our best look yet at Final Fantasy VII Rebirth and an absolute avalanche of Mario games from Nintendo, including t...
Sep 19, 2023•2 hr 47 min•Ep. 510
It’s a double-header on today’s podcast as we review two very different things from this summer that we both love passionately: FX’s Justified: City Primeval, the sequel miniseries to the modern neo-western classic starring Timothy Olyphant, and Square Enix’s Final Fantasy XVI, the latest and among-the-greatest entry in the venerable JRPG series. Justified is one of our favorite TV series, and the return absolutely did not disappoint, putting Raylan Givens in a new setting and telling a new kind...
Sep 12, 2023•3 hr 6 min•Ep. 509
We’re back after a month away with a “How I Spent My Summer Vacation” catch-up episode, and it’s quite the grab bag! Sean gives impressions of some recent video games including Armored Core VI and the 4.0 Fontaine update of Genshin Impact, while Jonathan tells us about unexpectedly becoming a fan of Sword Art Online while researching his dissertation, and walks us through the giant stack of movies he watched over the last week of summer, from a few Michael Mann classics on 4K Blu-ray to the re-r...
Aug 29, 2023•1 hr 55 min•Ep. 508
Seven years after Hideaki Anno and Shinji Higuchi lit the world on fire with Shin Godzilla – which we very vocally went crazy for! – the duo’s follow-up, Shin Ultraman, is finally available for home viewing in the United States! Sean’s been gradually watching through the Ultraman TV shows over the past few years, while Jonathan has only seen a few stray episodes, but we’re both in love with this passionate re-imagining of the tokusatsu classic. It’s a striking piece of filmmaking with amazing sp...
Jul 25, 2023•2 hr 48 min•Ep. 507
Today’s podcast, should you choose to listen to it, is all about one of the finest films of the summer, Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One. Jonathan reviewed the film in non-spoilery details at the new JonathanLack.Com last week, but on today’s show, he and Sean dive deep with the story, characters, action sequences, and much more, and while there are a few disagreements, overall we’re very much fans of what Tom Cruise and Christopher McQuarrie continue to achieve with this series. Be...
Jul 18, 2023•2 hr 45 min•Ep. 506
After checking in on all the recent video games we’ve playing – including Diablo IV, Street Fighter 6, Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, and Final Fantasy XVI – and hearing a very funny Ultraman anecdote from Sean, we dive back into the Weekly Suit Gundam waters with our review of the second and final season of Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch From Mercury. This season brings the story to a close with a rousing, jam-packed set of episodes that’s darker, richer, and more action-filled than the first seas...
Jul 11, 2023•3 hr 48 min•Ep. 505
It’s a good ol’ fashioned grab-bag this week as we prepare for the launch of Japanimation Station Season 3 tomorrow night, July 4th, with the first episode of The Classic Adventures of Lupin the 3rd – shameless plug, yes, but you should totally listen to this new season! Here on The Weekly Stuff, Jonathan talks about going through all the Indiana Jones movies for The Weekly Stuff Wordcast, and we chat about the disastrous new movie, Dial of Destiny. Sean gives first impressions of Final Fantasy ...
Jul 04, 2023•1 hr 58 min•Ep. 504
The third season of the hit anime Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba recently wrapped up its hotly anticipated third season, adapting the “Swordsmith Village Arc” of Koyoharu Gotouge’s manga, and as big fans of the series who have reviewed all the prior arcs, we’re here for a deep dive with another amazing season. This set of episodes introduces us to a cast of largely new characters, and is also where the story fully starts to lay out its biggest themes and ideas, before arriving at a pivotal turni...
Jun 27, 2023•3 hr 16 min•Ep. 503
It’s a video game-focused episode today as we continue gushing about Capcom’s outstanding Street Fighter 6, Sean gives his first impressions of Diablo IV, and we recap all the most interesting announcements and reveals from June’s various “Not-E3 2023” events, including the Summer Games Fest, Xbox’s showcase, and more. Is Final Fantasy VII Rebirth shaping up to be something interesting? Is Persona 3 Reload the remake we always wanted? Do we care about Bethesda’s Starfield yet? And is Metaphor Re...
Jun 20, 2023•3 hr 8 min•Ep. 502
Hosts Sean Chapman and Jonathan Lack give you a special look at Season 3 of Japanimation Station, THE CLASSIC ADVENTURES OF LUPIN THE 3RD, premiering July 4th, 2023! In this 8-episode season, we will be surveying 30 years of anime history through the exploits of the infamous thief Lupin III and his friends Daisuke Jigen, Fujiko Mine, Goemon Ishikawa, and Inspector Zenigata! From the original anime in 1971 to the “Episode 0” origin-story special in 2002, we’re looking at many of Lupin’s biggest, ...
Jun 07, 2023•21 min•Ep. 500
The sequel to one of our favorite superhero/animated films ever made dropped this week with Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, and has been lighting the world on fire – so you know we had to talk about it. Jonathan gave his thoughts in a written review over at the Weekly Stuff Wordcast – you should subscribe! – but here, we go into full spoiler detail breaking down what makes this movie so bold, brilliant, and beautiful. We also spend a good chunk of time gushing over Street Fighter 6, the bra...
Jun 06, 2023•2 hr 42 min•Ep. 501
