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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

00:59:36

125 | My Neighbor Totoro

Best Seat on the Couch ·

2023/07/11

Pretty incredible that we're nearing the end of the Miyazaki-Studio Ghibli pantheon, but My Neighbor Totoro (1988) is perhaps one of the most well-known entries in that catalogue, even if it's not as wondrous and fantastical as Princess Mononoke or Castle in the Sky. As Alex says, instead imagine that you could capture a sunny day with a picnic into a movie, and meeting an 8ft tall fluffy alien being who takes a cat to work while you're eating. But even if the stakes are lower,

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01:30:55

124 | Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse

Best Seat on the Couch ·

2023/07/04

In this Breaking News segment of Best Seat on the Couch, the gang is coming in hot off the heels of not one, but two in-theatre screenings of Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, this year's smash hit animated blockbuster. We get more Gwen, more Spider-people, more multiverse, more top-notch artistry, more soundtrack bangers, and a thrilling third act - just go see the movie! Content warning: MAJOR SPOILERS, strong language.

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00:59:23

123 | The Land Before Time

Best Seat on the Couch ·

2023/06/27

This week on Best Seat on the Couch, the gang takes the wayback machine straight to Alex's childhood with The Land Before Time, a movie that existed really before our modern understanding of dinosaurs did. A movie voice acted by literal children makes for a very convincing kids' movie, and the journey itself is fun! There's action scenes, the Bambi scene before Bambi came out, a weirdly biblical quest for the Promised Land/Great Valley, and plenty of cute children dinosaurs doing their

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00:59:12

122 | How to Train Your Dragon

Best Seat on the Couch ·

2023/06/20

On this week's episode, according to Michael, we're talking about the movie Chicken Little tried (not very hard) to be, apparently. As he draws the connections on the whiteboard and makes the connections the other 3 of us failed to see, it is clear that Michael is actually correct. But where Chicken Little failed to justify its baseball subplot to create the father-son connection, How to Train Your Dragon allows Hiccup and Stoick's father-son relationship to blossom over the course of

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00:53:56

121 | Chicken Little

Best Seat on the Couch ·

2023/06/13

It's honestly pretty incredible that Chicken Little kickstarted the reverse of Disney's post-Renaissance slump as its very first 3D animated film, because this movie is frankly pretty bad. It does not look good (no offense to the hundreds of animators that learned Maya for this), its plot is weirdly disjointed between a feel-good baseball film and an alien invasion film, and pretty much every side character ranges from disappointing to absolute garbage - as Michael states, the first 20

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00:59:02

120 | Shrek 2

Best Seat on the Couch ·

2023/05/30

I was surprised to discover that our episode on Shrek was over 2 years ago, as it feels like our discussion on that movie's themes - and its recent induction into the Library of Congress's National Film Registry - was fresh in our minds as we tackled the sequel Shrek 2. Solidly a great movie but arguably a perfect sequel, Shrek 2 builds upon the world from the original with the introduction of Far Far Away, introduces an absolute grand slam of a character in Puss in Boots in addition to

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01:44:53

119 | JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Stone Ocean

Best Seat on the Couch ·

2023/05/09

At long last, 6 months later, the Gang has finally arrived at the end of their Bizarre Adventure. Stone Ocean is the final anime adaptation available to the JoJo's manga and wrapped up just last year in December, and with it comes what is perhaps the most intriguing and captivating story yet. The story, characters, villains, and conceit are so good that it actually has convinced Michael to not be mad at this show for being good - and that's not to ignore the fact that the stand battles and

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01:11:23

118 | The Prince of Egypt

Best Seat on the Couch ·

2023/05/02

In its infancy, DreamWorks Animation studios began its quest to swing at Disney and attempt not to miss. Their best animators were tasked with a project flanked with music by Hans Zimmer and an ensemble voice cast, and anyone who couldn't make the cut was relegated to animating Shrek. That project was The Prince of Egypt, and the gang rapidly discovers that the number of members with religious upbringings outnumbers the number without (sorry Michael) as we delve deep into this discussion. We

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01:02:28

117 | Up

Best Seat on the Couch ·

2023/04/18

This week the gang talks about Pixar's Up, a movie from 2009 where the first 10 minutes are so transcendent that the section has its own Wikipedia page. We talk at length about that little short film, of course, but it's interesting to analyze how the movie draws upon that first 10 minutes and why the rest of the movie itself - characters, plot, villains, resolution - does or doesn't feel impactful enough to follow up on that banger of an opening scene. Naturally, as armchair directors

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00:49:30

116 |

Best Seat on the Couch ·

2023/04/02

In this episode, the gang talks about one of the animated movies of all time.

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01:01:26

115 | The Legend of Vox Machina (Season 2)

Best Seat on the Couch ·

2023/03/28

The Legend of Vox Machina returns to television for its second season, fresh off of the party's victory from Season 1 and thrust right into conflict with the Chroma Conclave in Season 2. The gang continues to ooh and aah at the impressive animation and well-choreographed fight scenes, and the adaptation from tabletop stream to animated series continues to wow Michael and Iris who have seen pieces of the live campaign; beyond that though, now that Percy's character arc has completed in Season

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01:25:08

114 | JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Golden Wind

Best Seat on the Couch ·

2023/03/21

Our JoJo's...er, GioGio's...Bizarre Adventure train has no brakes! The gang takes a cross-country flight to the picturesque views of Italy and joins Giornio Giovanna, illicit son of Dio Brando who we discover very early on basically has no resemblance to his father, on his quest to improve the country and eradicate its rampant gang problem. There's a couple of parallels that can be drawn to Stardust Crusaders in that there's a fun group dynamic and monster-of-the-week style for a

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01:10:39

113 | Spy × Family

Best Seat on the Couch ·

2023/02/28

Released in April of last year and taking the anime world by storm, Spy × Family is an adorable action/comedy that follows a spy, Twilight, in an East/West Germany-esque fantasy setting tasked with creating a family as part of his most important mission. While the setting is dark and tense at times, the content of the show is lighthearted and honestly hilarious at many points, culminating in an underground tennis match late in part 2 which sends Marcus's sides into orbit. Resident weeb Alex

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01:09:08

112 | Finding Nemo

Best Seat on the Couch ·

2023/02/21

At long last on the podcast, the gang discusses the legendary Pixar film Finding Nemo, perhaps the first of Pixar's films that really elevated their standard of animation and kicking off their own sort of "Golden Age" as Michael dubs it. It's a children's movie that feels much more mature than its predecessors, looks gorgeous for a film in 2003, and has one of the most heartfelt stories of the decade. Surrounded by an excellent cast and touching on familial trauma and loss, we shower the movie in

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01:23:54

111 | The Dragon Prince: Mystery of Aaravos

Best Seat on the Couch ·

2023/02/14

In our second-ever foray back to a show we've discussed prior on the Couch, we return to the realm of Xadia with the long-awaited fourth season of the The Dragon Prince, now rechristened as The Dragon Prince: Mystery of Aaravos. We've waited patiently since we last discussed the show two and a half years ago, but it's hard to say that our expectations were met for this season, as it suffers from poor structure and pacing, has way too much juvenile humor, and doesn't follow up on the

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01:19:18

110 | JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Diamond is Unbreakable

Best Seat on the Couch ·

2023/02/07

We continue on our "JoJourney" with Alex's favorite part of all of JoJo's so far, Part 4! Season 3! Diamond is Unbreakable! Now that Dio is confirmed dead and gone at the end of Stardust Crusaders, the series takes a pretty sharp turn towards a "small-town horror" vibe in the city of Morioh, and in turn the Stands get even crazier and move from less physical to more...metaphysical. Stands like a hand that cuts through spacetime, a punch that reconstitutes matter, a photograph that traps you in a 3D

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01:03:29

109 | Star Wars: Tales of the Jedi

Best Seat on the Couch ·

2023/01/31

Short and sweet, Tales of the Jedi is just six short episodes of some nice and easy Star Wars content animated in the Clone Wars aesthetic. So there's probably not too much to discuss, right? WRONG! The gang's propensity for unbelievably overbearing nerdiness is on full display in this episode, and there's a lot more behind the scenes that we have to discuss to make sure we get full understanding of Ahsoka Tano and Count Dooku's character arcs through the series. Every discussion on

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01:15:28

108 | One-Punch Man

Best Seat on the Couch ·

2023/01/24

There's a depth of tone and humor, as Iris puts it, in the critically acclaimed anime series One-Punch Man, which satirizes and twists the classic shonen hero anime style of My Hero Academia and bolsters that with excellent characters, a mix of serious and humorous scenes, and some real Saitama character development! Here to further add to our discussion and chip in some friendly sibling banter is returning guest Andrew, and we have some lively discussions about the strength of the supporting

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00:56:18

107 | Robots

Best Seat on the Couch ·

2023/01/10

Does anyone else remember this movie? From 2005? Did you know that Ewan McGregor is the VA of the main character in this movie, while almost certainly just coming off filming Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith? I won't blame you for forgetting Robots, as it's broadly pretty forgettable, neither enjoyable nor boring. Robin Williams is also in this movie, and does Robin Williams things, to varying levels of success. The concept of a soul also straight up does not exist in this

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01:25:32

106 | ONE PIECE (Part 3)

Best Seat on the Couch ·

2023/01/03

Now on their 3rd year running, Alex's Straw-Hat-gang-away-from-home returns to the Couch this holiday season to once again continue their discussion on ONE PIECE, picking up where they left off in Episode 66. Midway through the Wano Country arc in the anime in that episode, the Wano arc has actually just ended now, and there's plenty of good discussion to be had between Katy, Kyle, Lony, and newcomer Owen! Stick around for discourse on favorite characters, favorite moments in the Wano arc,

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208 results

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