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PODCAST

Best Seat on the Couch

Alex, Iris, Marcus, and Michael

A podcast where 4 close friends discuss their favorite animated movies and TV shows together. Come for the intelligent discourse, stay for the lighthearted humor, and follow for the hottest takes.

leisure animation & manga

All Episodes

01:04:20

184 | Kung Fu Panda 2

Best Seat on the Couch ·

2025/04/08

It's been a very long time since the gang discussed the original Kung Fu Panda, a film that we universally praised for its completeness, excellent performances from Dustin Hoffman and Jack Black, and impressive animation. And somewhat surprisingly, not since Shrek 2 have we seen such an impressive sequel! The animation is fresh with 2D animated storytelling interspersed with the impressive 3D fight scenes and set pieces, Po's personal journey is emotionally rich for a kids' movie, and we

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00:56:29

183 | Invincible (Season 3)

Best Seat on the Couch ·

2025/04/01

With the season finale having premiered just a few weeks ago, the gang's discussion on Season 3 of Amazon Prime's Invincible is hot off the presses, and we're pleased to announce that we enjoyed it quite a bit more than Season 2. Mark's got a rapidly aging alien little brother, an increasingly strained relationship with Cecil, a hot new superhero gf, and like 18 other alternate selves who really hate his guts to deal with this season, and it feels like the emotional center of this

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01:14:15

182 | Star Trek: Lower Decks

Best Seat on the Couch ·

2025/03/25

This week's episode presents a chance for Michael, Trekkie of the Couch, to show his quality. Star Trek: Lower Decks is an animated 5-season series from Mike McMahan and heavily channels the vibe of McMahan's previous work on Rick and Morty, while also crafting a narrative about Star Trek's lesser known non-bridge crew that's funny, whimsical, and chock full of nerdy references for Trekkies far and wide. Alex and Marcus learn about the intricacies of Star Trek lore (and how crazy it

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01:39:55

181 | Attack on Titan (Season 3)

Best Seat on the Couch ·

2025/03/18

Hajime Isayama's Attack on Titan has, through the previous two seasons, provided broadly more questions than answers. But fear not, dear listeners! If you've stuck with us thus far, then you'll be proud to hear that Season 3 is the undeniably euphoric catharsis the gang has been waiting for. The pieces of the puzzle are coming together! Flashbacks galore! A return to Shiganshina! MANIFEST DESTINY! The development team, Studio Wit, and my boy Hiroyuki Sawano have come together and

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01:01:07

180 | Justice League Unlimited

Best Seat on the Couch ·

2025/03/04

Iris takes a page out of Alex's playbook and proves that sequel episodes here on the Couch aren't just reserved for award-winning animes: following our previous episode on 2001's Justice League, today the gang presents to you 2004's Justice League Unlimited, the eighth and final series of the DC Animated Universe and cherished childhood Saturday morning cartoon for everyone here not named Michael. We can confidently say that this is the best superhero cartoon out there, with immense

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01:02:35

179 | Xiaolin Showdown

Best Seat on the Couch ·

2025/02/25

After almost 3 years, special guest Andrew returns to bring his keen insight and top-class banter to the Couch as we collectively discuss a childhood darling, Xiaolin Showdown. Some parts of this show have aged...poorly...(guys, Omi is such a racist caricature) but it brings a Teen Titan-esque unity of classical Saturday morning American cartoons with anime styling and mythos with creative Shen Gong Wu, hilarious visual animation and dialogue, and memorable villains across its three seasons. For a

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01:14:49

178 | Secret Level

Best Seat on the Couch ·

2025/02/18

It's anthology szn again! Today the gang discusses Tim Miller's Secret Level, with 15 animated short stories from video games ranging from Armored Core to Warhammer, to complement our extensive history with video games of yesterday and today. While some of these "levels" feel more like glorified trailers than actual worthwhile media, we come away with the impression that what's really worth taking away is how each episode made us feel—was it cool? fun to watch? got us into the

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00:56:11

177 | The Good Dinosaur

Best Seat on the Couch ·

2025/01/28

You ever hear of this movie? Pixar's anticipated follow-up to Inside Out? Their first EVER box office failure? Marcus certainly hadn't. We all generally agree that Pixar's standard of quality for their movies prevents them from being truly hot garbage—which is a good thing, mind you—but The Good Dinosaur lacks a fair bit of expected Pixar magic, and ends up being fairly uninteresting. Elements of its construction, like the symbolism of the River and the Storm as antagonists and the

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01:26:32

176 | Attack on Titan (Season 2)

Best Seat on the Couch ·

2025/01/21

The gang returns for Season 2 of Hajime Isayama's Attack on Titan, and boy has it gotten spicier! Alex recounts that this season was released 4 years after Season 1's final release and only has 12 episodes, so hype might have died down a bit for Alex and countless other fans eagerly looking forward to the answers to S1's many questions—but that doesn't mean S2 didn't live up to the hype. With answers given and even more questions posed, S2 gives us more Titans, more Titan

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01:40:55

175 | ONE PIECE (Part 5)

Best Seat on the Couch ·

2025/01/14

It's a certified Best Seat Tradition now to have Alex's group of straw hat buddies join him over the holidays to talk about Eiichiro Oda's legendary anime series ONE PIECE, at 1123 episodes released at the time of recording with still more content on the way. We've got Katy, Lony, Owen, and newcomer Ayana joining Alex today, and even though the series is on a minor hiatus mid-Egghead arc, the gang is chomping at the bit to see Luffy and co. enter Elbaph, home of the giants, starting April 2025

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01:05:16

174 | Justice League

Best Seat on the Couch ·

2025/01/07

Long before the Avengers released in theaters and Zack Snyder produced something several notches lower than absolute cinema (twice!), the DC-flavored Earth's mightiest heroes made their animated debut in Bruce Timm's Justice League, allowing kids across the world to learn about Superman and Batman's friends like Wonder Woman, the Flash, Green Lantern, and Martian Manhunter! And also Hawkgirl is there. This show is close to many of our childhoods, and we appreciate that this show still holds a lot of

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00:54:11

173 | 9

Best Seat on the Couch ·

2024/12/24

A film that released on 09/09/2009 with an absolutely kick-ass trailer and tantalizing action sequences checked all of the boxes for the gang's tweenage selves, but 15 years later our discussion unearths a movie that's honestly just barely okay. We on the Couch take it upon ourselves to literally re-write Shane Acker's passion project/short film and expertly fix the film's confusing and somewhat dull story, stagnant characters (which are all 1/9 of a single character?), magical talisman,

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01:42:20

172 | Arcane (Season 2)

Best Seat on the Couch ·

2024/12/10

In a first EVER on the Couch, the gang is together! in person! in the same room! coming together literally minutes after watching the finale! of Arcane's second and final season! This season is awesome, and while we don't have the benefit of extra time before recording to let the season marinate in our minds, we can still make valuable commentary while riding the high of a phenomenal Act 3. It seems that Studio Fortiche has received even more freedom to flex their artistic muscles in this season,

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00:55:48

171 | Coraline

Best Seat on the Couch ·

2024/11/26

While Halloween has come and gone by the time this episode releases, the gang is in full Spooky Season spirit with 2009's Coraline, a Henry Selick stop-motion animated film that follows in the footsteps of The Nightmare Before Christmas. There's an awesome pairing of traditional stop-motion with CGI bells and whistles, and while this film definitely qualifies as a children's movie, the horror element makes a strong argument towards giving those same children some pretty chilling nightmares. Stick

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01:28:45

170 | Attack on Titan (Season 1)

Best Seat on the Couch ·

2024/11/12

Widely considered to be one of the best anime series of all time (especially to Western audiences), Hajime Isayama's Attack on Titan has action, gore, giant organic mecha, bureaucracy, and subterfuge all packed into a TV journey bolstered with great animation from Studio Wit and a baller soundtrack from my boy Hiroyuki Sawano. Given that resident weeb Alex has already watched the entire series, the rest of the gang gets to experience Season 1 at face value: it introduces characters, provides lore

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01:07:24

169 | Violet Evergarden

Best Seat on the Couch ·

2024/10/29

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 meaning

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00:55:15

168 | A Bug's Life

Best Seat on the Couch ·

2024/10/15

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 reminders

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01:19:36

167 | Zootopia

Best Seat on the Couch ·

2024/10/01

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 favorite

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01:32:09

166 | Scavenger's Reign

Best Seat on the Couch ·

2024/09/24

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

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01:00:31

165 | I'm in Love with the Villainess

Best Seat on the Couch ·

2024/09/17

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

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207 results

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