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://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/

©2012 - Present Jonathan R. Lack & Sean Chapman

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://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/

©2012 - Present Jonathan R. Lack & Sean Chapman

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://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/

©2012 - Present Jonathan R. Lack & Sean Chapman

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://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/

©2012 - Present Jonathan R. Lack & Sean Chapman

For March, we’ve put together a really fun grab-bag of an episode, including a topic segment where we answer a big pile of listener mail from our amazing audience members! Sean and I respond to your questions about our favorite directors, how we analyze art when preparing for podcasts, what we would program if we owned our own movie theater, and much more! In the News segment, we discuss the reveal of instant GOTY 2025 frontrunner Digimon Story Time Stranger, Microsoft’s stupid new Project Muse AI initiative, and the unfortunate closure of Monolith, the studio behind games like Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor. For our ‘Show n’ Tell,’ Sean talks about watching Ultraman Dyna, Jonathan reviews the Max original The Pitt and the new Yu-Gi-Oh! Early Days collection, and we continue discussing the insanely fun Dynasty Warriors Origins. Sean introduces a brand new segment to the podcast with Mr. Chapman’s Book Report, in which he tells us all about John Steinbeck’s East of Eden, and for The Monthly Ten, Jonathan counts down the top 10 TV shows that should take a cue from Dragon Ball Daima and transform their adult casts into children. It’s a wild one.

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/

©2012 - Present Jonathan R. Lack & Sean Chapman

It’s February, the month of love, and we’re celebrating it in style, first by talking about one of our most beloved (and oft-referenced) movies, Orson Welles’ 1941 masterpiece Citizen Kane, and then by having Sean count down the Top 10 Weirdest Anime ‘Ships he could think of, complete with original fan-fic excerpts for each and every one. We also pay tribute to David Lynch, a filmmaker both Sean and Jonathan loved dearly, after his passing at the age of 78 in January; talk about Nintendo’s first unveiling of the Switch 2 console; the rapidly approaching death of the Xbox brand with news of more key franchises going multiplatform; and give first impressions of Dynasty Warriors Origins on the PS5, which is absolutely incredible.

Enjoy!

Time Chart:

Intro: 0:00:00 – 0:04:25

News: 0:04:25 – 0:51:58

Show n’ Tell: 0:51:58 – 1:34:39

Topic (Citizen Kane): 1:34:39 – 2:52:47

The Monthly Ten: 2:52:47 – 3:25:18

Outro: 3:25:18 – 3:26:05

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/

©2012 - Present Jonathan R. Lack & Sean Chapman

For our first episode of 2025, we take a look back at the very best in video games from 2024, with Sean and Jonathan both presenting their picks for the 10 greatest video games of the year, a diverse collection of titles including several games we’ve never discussed on the show before! In our Show n’ Tell segment, Jonathan talks about his adventures graduating, moving, and preparing for a new job, Sean talks about watching old Gamera movies and Ultraman Tiga, and we review the Doctor Who Christmas Special, “Joy to the World.” And finally, for The Monthly Ten, Sean challenged Jonathan to rank the 10 best years in human history divisible by the number five, but Jonathan had a slightly different take on the assignment.

Enjoy, and come back in February when, after years of mentioning it over and over again on the podcast, we finally devote an entire episode to Orson Welles’ Citizen Kane. It’s going to be highly educational.

Time Chart:

Intro: 0:00:00 – 0:15:32

Show n’ Tell: 0:15:32 – 1:25:28

Topic (Top 10 Games of 2024): 1:25:28 – 4:29:15

The Monthly Ten: 4:29:15 – 4:41:27

Outro: 4:41:27 – 4:43:45

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/

©2012 - Present Jonathan R. Lack & Sean Chapman

In this special bonus episode, Jonathan Lack counts down the Top 10 Films of 2024!

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-2024

Time Chart:

Intro: 0:00:00 – 0:02:38

Honorable Mentions: 0:02:38 – 0:10:54

#10: 0:10:54 – 0:16:12

#9: 0:16:12 – 0:20:22

#8: 0:20:22 – 0:24:53

#7: 0:24:53 – 0:29:36

#6: 0:29:36 – 0:33:12

#5: 0:33:12 – 0:37:51

#4: 0:37:51 – 0:41:35

#3: 0:41:35 – 0:46:02

#2: 0:46:02 – 0:49:51

#1: 0:49:51 – 0:56:57

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/

©2012 - Present Jonathan R. Lack & Sean Chapman