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The Fandom Portals Podcast
Where to Start Watching Anime? Discovering Anime Worlds with Brendan White from the More Than Hentai Podcast
Brendan White, the creative force behind the More Than Hentai podcast, brings his infectious passion for anime to our latest episode. With nearly a decade of podcasting experience, Brendan offers invaluable insights for those new to the anime universe.
Celebrating the art of animation, we shine a spotlight on shows like "Cyberpunk Edgerunners" and discuss their ability to captivate audiences in just a few episodes. Brendan takes us through the diverse array of anime genres and terminology, making sure newcomers understand the lingo and are prepared to explore this medium confidently. We also touch on how platforms like Crunchyroll and Netflix have made anime more accessible than ever before, opening doors for fans of all ages and interests.
As we wrap up, Brendan shares some standout anime series that he personally recommends, each offering a unique mix of compelling narratives and stunning visuals. Whether you're a seasoned anime fan or just curious about where to start, Brendan's expert guidance combined with a community-driven approach ensures a thoughtful and engaging listening experience.
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Want to step into the world of anime but don't know where to start on the vast catalogue that is Eastern Animation. We've got you covered here on this episode of Fandom Portal. Hello everybody and welcome to this week's episode of the Fandom Portals podcast. I'm very excited for this week's episode and the ones that are following in October because they're all part of our animation celebration run on the Fandom Portals podcast. We're running these through the month of October in 2024 to celebrate International Animation Day.
Speaker 1:This episode features Brendan White, a fellow Aussie podcaster with almost a decade of experience under his belt in the field. He's the founder of 8-Bit Podcasting, but his passion at the moment is anime and he runs a weekly anime appreciation podcast called More Than Hentai and More Than Headlines. Now, I had the privilege of guest starring on his podcast, so make sure you check out the show notes below to go and see his podcast, where I feature as a guest, and Brendan was so kind to come and guest star on the Phantom Portals podcast as well to help myself and community members who are fresh to the world of anime to give them a diving off point basis. So by the end of this podcast and by the end of this interview, I'm hoping that you'll be able to find some resources to help you on your journey through the thick content library that is the world of anime. You'll be able to navigate the anime terminology, and Brendan takes me through a lot of these words and helps me search for different types of animes that might appeal to my personal interests, and he also talks about some animes that might be great for the time. Poor Brendan also, at the close of this podcast, gives his anime top three for any beginner to try, and it is a great way for you to jump into this space. If you're brand new or if you are an anime enthusiast and have not checked out some of Brendan's top three, make sure you stick around to the end of the podcast to see what they are and give your verdict on some of those as well. Thank you so much for listening, and this is Brendan White, or the Salt-N-Pepa Senpai of the More Than Hentai podcast.
Speaker 1:Hello and welcome to the Fandom Portals podcast, where curiosity meets community in a celebration of all things geek. We build connections on every episode by delving into your favorite fandom questions in the time it takes you to brew that perfect cup of coffee. All right, fandom portals. Listeners, buckle up, because today's guest is nothing short of a pop culture powerhouse. Joining us is Brendan, the man, the myth, the self-proclaimed jack of all trades when it comes to all things geeky, but he has a special place in his heart for the world of anime. He's my personal senpai. He's a brilliant mind behind the More Than Hentai podcast, where he dives deep into anime appreciation with the kind of passion that only a true otaku can muster. But that's not all. Brendan is a podcasting maestro. He has many years of podcasting under his belt and he is also the proud dad of two adorable French bulldogs. Trust me, folks, this Australian treasure is about to take us on an anime-filled adventure you won't want to miss. Brendan, thank you for joining me. How are you going tonight?
Speaker 2:I'm doing good. Talk about pressure. We've recorded back to back here looking behind the curtain, and that intro that you just gave me nearly knocked me off my chair. Big words there, big pressure on these shoulders, so I hope I can deliver.
Speaker 1:No, I appreciate you being here, brendan, and thank you very much for having me on your podcast earlier. Yes, full disclosure. We're recording back to back here. I have just recorded an episode on the More Than Hentai podcast, which is Brendan's little baby. Do you want to tell us a little bit about your podcasting journey, brendan, how it began and where it sits for you now?
Speaker 2:Yeah, sure, man, more than happy to so strap in, make sure that cup of coffee that you have brewed, listeners, is a big one. Because, yeah, this journey started around nine years or so ago now and it started off the back of just peak online gaming hysteria. Back then, playing a lot of Call of Duty with friends getting into squads together, a lot of smack talk in the game chat and the party chat, and a few of the friends who were playing with me were like to myself, rhys and Sam, who I initially started the first podcast up called the Hungry Gamers, way back when they're like man, you guys are funny, you guys should record this. It was more so like shut up, dickhead, you don't know what you're talking about, you're just playing games. And that popped up a few more times in the background. I started this little podcast outlet, all this pop culture and video game outlet, called 8-Bit, and we were doing video game reviews, written primarily, but then the constant chatter in that All the Duty, modern Warfare 2 game chat about. You know, make a podcast, make a podcast. We went, you know what, to hell with it. Jimmy, we're going to make a podcast. So we got together in my friend Reese's very hot box bedroom one January Saturday afternoon, turned on some microphones and away we went.
Speaker 2:So, yeah, recorded just shy of 400 episodes on the main Hungry Gamers feed and off the back of that, started breaking away into. We did role play content with some tabletop stuff, we did a wrestling podcast and we did a basketball podcast, had a food podcast and it started sort of building and growing and we made a pretty great community and the Hungry Gamers and 8Bit became sort of one of the biggest here in Australia, which was very, very surprising and very touching, very, very honored to have people that decided to sort of give us a go, because we were just a couple of dumb kids in Sydney recording our thoughts and ideas, whether they were good, bad or otherwise. And, yeah, built up and the momentum sort of took us all around the world. We went to PAXs and E3s and other game and pop culture expos and recorded content here and there and then made a lot of good friends through this space and a lot of them were like man, we should collaborate, we should collaborate. So 8-Bit started evolving over the years and at the peak of its powers there was 36 different people under the banner and there was, I think, 23 different podcasts under that banner. So it was a monster of a thing which was great but also very hard to control and it got a little stressful, a little much. A couple of years back stripped that right back to its foundations again couple of us making a few podcasts with more concentrated effort.
Speaker 2:My passion and enjoyment for anime was building and building and building, and the video game passion was sort of waning and waning and waning, so it sort of came to loggerheads. I'm like you know what? I'm going to stop doing the Hungry Gamers stuff. I'm going to stop doing 8-bit. I'm just going to focus on the anime stuff At the back end of 2023, shutted 8-bit and shutted the Hungry Gamers. Have just been doing the anime thing wholly and solely like started More Than Hentai in early 2023, and then started off this news offshoot a couple of months ago with my friend Courtney. So all I'm doing, man, is watching anime and then talking about anime these days, and it's a good, simple life.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that sounds like the dream for lots of people. It sounds like you've had heaps of different experiences as well in the podcasting space, but you've settled yourself onto the anime sort of genre and, guys, you can check out the More Than Hentai podcast. The links will be in the show notes below. So make sure you go and show some love to Brendan down there on his latest passion project with your anime journey. Brendan, what's the earliest memory you have of an anime you watched and how'd you get into the?
Speaker 2:space. So I got into anime at far too young an age for the content that I was consuming. So growing up, my uncle he's only seven years older than me, so growing up as kids we were pretty close. We'd hang out and play together and play video games and whatnot, and I used to stay over at my grandma's house, obviously where my uncle lived on the weekends sometimes and on a Friday night way back when in the 90s, friday night on SBS was sort of like the Japanese animation specials and I remember one night something crossed the station called Ninja Scroll, which is I don't know if you've heard of Ninja Scroll it's one of my favorites. It's a bit of a cult classic, but it's also super heavy. It is hard R R rated.
Speaker 2:Like someone that was at that age maybe eight or nine years old probably shouldn't have seen it, because there's violence, there's gore, there's horror, there's rape, there's nudity, there's all kinds of stuff. And I'm just like what is this world Like? All I've known up until now is like Hanna-Barbera and Warner Brothers, cartoons and stuff. And now I'm like man, this is where I want to be, this is the best. So I went right into the deep end, right up nice and early, obviously, found my way through Cheese TV and all the stalwarts that most Aussie kids would have stumbled across, your Dragon Balls and Pokemon and stuff. Yeah, my first foray was Ninja Scroll, bubblegum Crisis, akira, neon Genesis Evangelion, so all the real heavy stuff that you probably shouldn't be watching when you're, you know, 10 years old or under. But uh, I, I went in hard and I went in fast and haven't looked back since no, that's awesome and you know it was.
Speaker 1:It's refreshing to hear that. Your indoctrination into anime you might say something other than usual would you say that that's kind of cemented your love for because we were chatting earlier about how you aren't really into some of the longer running animes as much as you are the shorter form, would you say that that sort of influenced you in the anime that you watch now, the fact that you were so young watching, but also watching one that was, you know, not a fully established big long series I think so.
Speaker 2:Like I was pretty fortunate, like my parents were pretty relaxed as far as what I could and couldn't consume, I got shown a lot of horror and a lot of action, a lot of violence at a young age, for better or for worse. Love your mom and dad. But maybe I shouldn't have seen Hellraiser when I was a kid or Pet Sematary, because that shook me for a long time. But I think getting in early and avoiding the quote unquote the big three your Bleach, your Naruto and your One Piece, which is most people's Mount Rushmore's or the Holy Trinity of anime I don't really go for those much at all. I've watched just about all of Bleach. I could not care less about Naruto and I watched One Piece up until episode 205, I think recently, and there's over 11100 episodes of One Piece these days.
Speaker 2:But I'm very big on anything being respectful of time, whether it's work-related, whether it's be content that I'm making or content that I'm consuming. I want to make sure that I'm not wasting people's time. I want it to have a good flow and to be nice and punchy and rewarding, where some of these big ones, when you've got a thousand episodes, there's going to be bloat, and bloat ain't always good. So I feel you can get a lot of good tighter storytelling done, like Ninja Scroll it's a 90 odd minute film and Galeon is 25 minutes. Then we've got a few other 25 episodes and then we've got a couple of films flying off on that. So I feel you can tell a full, complete story with emotional impact and stakes and all the stuff you love in content in much shorter form. I don't feel everything needs to be a thousand episodes, because it's just not a good time man.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, I agree as well. And being a teacher and a father and having all of these things that consume your time just generally in life, it's really good to be able to have your stories in that really bite-sized sort of place but also have them be really high quality and deep as well, which is tricky to do. But I haven't watched a lot of anime together Through your podcast. More Than Hentai, we watched Cyberpunk Edgerunners, which was absolutely amazing. We've gone and discussed that over on your show and yeah, that's one of those shows that really has that sort of succinct storyline across 10 episodes. The character arcs are really impactful and you can see them moving from beginning to end in that sort of way. Is that a common feature across a lot of different animes, where the characters are really sort of vibrant and likable and very relatable? What's some of the ones that stand out to you?
Speaker 2:yeah, I think so. Like the great thing with anime is, if you've got a fandom or an obsession over the most unique, obscure type of hobby, there's a high probability that there's an anime out there that's done, whether it be good or bad done a film or done a short form series about it. So yeah, there's something out there for everybody. And then you've got your main subsets, like there's sort of five primary areas that anime falls into. And then you've got your themes and your genres that fall into that. So you've got Hanamuke, which is sort of your anime aimed at your kids, you know, let's say your 10 and under kids, where it's a little bit more cute, a little bit more whimsical, let's just say Hello Kitty, for example. And then you've got your Shonen, which is typically made for boys, like teenage boys, in that 12 to 18 age gap. And then you've got Shoujo, which is the same but aimed at girls. And then there's Sinon, which is 18 plus, with a male focus a little bit more typically, no violence and stuff like that. And then you've got your Jose, which is the same, again for women, 18 and above. So you've got those five subsets and then the themes. On top of that you've got your mecha type that you're seeing, your Gundams and your Neon Genesises, where you're seeing big exodus, either human controlled or robotic.
Speaker 2:You've got your slice of life, which is probably my main favorite genre of anime, which is just daily lives, focusing on characters and the dramas whether it be good and bad surrounding them. There's so much great stuff in that world. You've got your isekai, where you see a protagonist that dies and then gets transported into some type of magical or fantasy world, which has got some good stuff, but it's also very oversaturated with a lot of crap filler. Then you've got your sort of your boy love anime, or your yaoi, as it's known. You've got your yuri, which is, you know, romance between women.
Speaker 2:You've got your harem, where your protag is surrounded by, you know, a sea of female characters all vying for his attention. You've got your idol stuff, which is focused mainly on your female pop stars or your pop starlets, your sporting anime and then your ichi stuff, which is more of your adult comedy, leaning into more of the explicit content. So there's something out there for everybody. And then, whether you're wanting something musical, sport-oriented comedy, horror, thriller, action, et cetera, et cetera, thing musical, sport oriented comedy, horror, thriller, action, et cetera, et cetera. It is out there. You're eating well if you're an anime fan, because the dishes are constantly coming.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we had a talk before about how much content there is available for you to be able to choose from and also how many platforms there are now to be able to get your anime from. So we spoke about Crunchyroll, and Netflix even has a really good catalog of anime. Now you mentioned some anime terms there during your answer. Are there any other terms that we should know about? For example, I know that manga is one and also, like some characters are often referred to as loli characters. Can you sort of break down some of the terminology that people should know if they're jumping into the anime space?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so manga is just the written, it's an Asian comic, you could say is what a manga is. So typically, when you're seeing manga, that might be the source material for most anime. A lot of anime is derived from some type of manga, whether it be a physical print, digital these days which is great because you can have thousands of manga at your fingertips on your smartphone or your tablet, which I love but also we see it derived from light novels and stuff too. So that's usually the, the base or the genesis of where a lot of this anime sort of translates from. So typically you don't see too many originals. The great thing, cyberpunk, edgerun, as you mentioned earlier, that's an original adaptation, so an ONA. Then Then you see OVAs, which is original video animation, and that ties into. Maybe it's an expansion off the manga, so maybe the main 10 episodes could be based off the source material, and then an OVA is fresh material that you don't find in the manga, or the light novel itself as well. So there's all these little acronyms and subsets and terms that they love to bandy around. Yeah, there's a lot. I'm still learning as I go.
Speaker 2:I've been watching anime for a long, long time now, but yeah, there's still so many new things coming out. Or just when you think you understand everything, they throw a new wrinkle at you. Or there's a new sub-genre that pops out, or there's a new hyper-violent thing, hyper-cute thing, hyper funny thing, like um cool thing with. With anime is, no matter how crazy the idea might be, it's gonna happen one way or another. Yeah, it's, it's nuts. And seeing a lot of mainstream stuff break into anime now, like there's one doing the rounds of the moment called vtuber legend, which is just focusing on the hysteria behind vtubers in the content creation space and seeing them on and off the camera and they're, you know, portraying a role in the VTuber world and then, like you know, turning off that character once that webcam and microphone is off is very familiar, I think, with content creation. We know a lot of people in that space. That might be one way and then another way when that mic or that camera is on or off. So there's stuff like that. It's just, yeah, it's a bit of a golden age, I think, with anime at the moment, because there's so much stuff coming out every season. It's based off the primary seasons that we deal with in real life and off the back of that. We're seeing minimum 40, 50 new IP potentially dropping every season, so every three months we've got all this new content to try and wade through and then continuations on sort of the main stalwarts.
Speaker 2:And yeah, it's a good time referring back to what you mentioned regarding like loli characters. That's sort of like young looking girls maybe. Uh, typically seen as innocent that you might. You know, you'd want to see them as your, your little sister in a way, like there is some subset that plays into that and it gets a little pervy.
Speaker 2:That's one thing that can be uncomfortable in anime is there is a lot of incest, implied incest, uncomfortable sexual moments, unnecessary exploitation and unnecessary implied nudity. Sometimes it doesn't really advance the story but it's just their fan service. So they do lean into that a lot, not in every IP, but it is a constant trope that you'll see in a lot, so you might see a panty shot or a bra or a busty scene with a high school girl here or there, just for the cheap pop yeah, yeah, no, and it sounds like because of the um, the vast variety of animes that you can get in a different subject matter that you can get access to can sometimes be a little bit intimidating for new people like myself, for example, to jump into the anime space.
Speaker 1:I'm really lucky that we connected on Instagram and you were able to sort of coach me through, give me one to watch. What do you recommend for people who really want to sort of dive into the space, new people to the anime land? What would you recommend in terms of how they would go about finding an anime for them to watch that they may in fact enjoy?
Speaker 2:yeah, like, um, you've got your reddits and things like that. But some of those forums, yes, they can be a little nasty, so tread carefully. There is constantly gatekeeping in anime as well as every other major form of media, so you will get some people that'll pitchfork and torch you if you say, oh, I haven't watched one piece, like you're not an anime fan, you know you weren't there from day one. So there is a lot of nonsense like that. But you can find some really good communities on social media. Thread seems to be having a nice, thriving anime community, which is good to see.
Speaker 2:But the main resource that I use a lot of the time is MyAnimeList. So it's MyAnimeListnet. It's a free website. You can sign up and create a profile, should you choose, but otherwise you can jump in there and they've got the top anime lists of all time based off rankings, based off user scores. So people that have watched the anime, they rank it, and so you can either work through that and just say you know what? I'm just going to go from 100 down to one and go through the in air quotes best 100 anime of all time or you can jump in and search by a certain genre, like, let's say I want a sports anime based off, you know, in the shonen subset, with the orange haired protagonist or something. You can pump that in and it'll give you, based off the filters, uh, some recommendations there. So, no matter what your kink is, you can jump in there and be like, yeah, I want some science fiction with some mecha and a cute girl or whatever. Or I want time travel, or I want period piece, uh drama, or I want awkward fantasy, like whatever you're looking for.
Speaker 2:My anime list is a really good hub and, yeah, you can then track what you're watching, what you're reading, so you can put what anime you're watching this season It'll show the last completed anime. You can then score it based out of 10. And so you can then start building a catalog of your top anime, your top manga that you're reading, and it then breaks down also what you've watched, how many entries, how many episodes, what have you dropped, what are you planning to watch? Like, I'm just looking at my profile at the moment it's not fully up to date, but I have watched 135 days worth of anime that I've cataloged on here, so it's kind of good but also scary when you go shit. That's nearly half a year of my life that I've spent watching anime. Like no regrets, but it puts things in perspective. Yeah, no.
Speaker 1:I love that the resource is so specific as well, because, being such a big and vast space of anime, you're able to really drill down into what you want to watch, and then it recommends things for you as well. Is that correct, like based on what you've watched before?
Speaker 2:Yeah for sure, commends things for you as well. Is that correct? Like based on what you've watched before? Yeah for sure. So if you jumped in and let's just say you really like something like I'm just looking at my profile now like Konosuba, which is a comedy, fantasy, isekai, with some little cheeky, itchy, pervy moments here and there. But you can scroll down and then look at the recommendations and it'll show either auto recommendations based off the algorithm on the website or it'll show user-based ones where, yeah, if you watch this and enjoyed that, there's a high chance you're going to enjoy this.
Speaker 2:And then you can also look there's interest stacks that people can generate where it's like you can put Konosuba in with anime XYZ and combine them in. I'm like you know this is a bundle of anime worth watching because it's all great, it's all consistent thematically and you'll have a good time, and even just the reviews that users write in there. You can't just write it was good, I loved it. They will moderate this like there's no one's business and unless it's some good context that people can read and go wow, that helps frame and shape my opinion your review will get approved. So it's well moderated and well policed.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's really good. We might put the link for that in the show notes below. So if you're looking policed, yeah, that's really good, we might put the link for that in the show notes below. So if you're looking for a place to curate your anime playlist, make sure you go and check out that link as well. Now, yeah, we were talking before about some of the anime. To get you started, basically, and I challenged you, or I tasked you, with coming up with three to five sort of animes that are recommended for somebody who wants to jump into the space I was lucky enough to find find my my own personal senpai you, so I'm going to share this resource with everybody that listens to fandom portals. What would you recommend for for somebody? Three to five animes. Give us a brief rundown of what they're about and and why you think that would be good for somebody who's just beginning, just as like a you know, so you want to try anime kind of list yeah.
Speaker 2:So this was a good question. It made me think pretty long and hard, because I take a lot of pride in reckon, like when I recommend something, I feel like that's, that's my reputation, that's my status in society on the line, whether it be anime or a place to eat or a game to play or whatever. I'm like I think probably too much about these things. So when you, when you told me that that's going to be one of the questions, man, I got to get out of the butcher's paper and the yarn and, sort of mind, map this thing out. I didn't actually do that and I got a little busy, but I collected my thoughts and put my ideas down and I wanted to throw a couple of ones at your audience. But I also wanted to avoid some of the mainstream stuff. I've dabbled on a few that people that might be anime adjacent would probably have heard about. But yeah, I wanted to avoid your big three, your one piece, your bleach, your Naruto, because, yeah, I feel they're overrated, they go forever and they don't always respect the viewer's time. But I wanted to shout out one, first and foremost, called One Punch man. So it's about this hero named Saitama, who can pretty much defeat evil with a single punch. The world we live in it's a parallel like it's an earth-esque based world that they live in and there's various monsters and supervillains doing the rounds and there's a hero association that's set up to fight these. But yeah, saitama is just a very unassuming, meek looking, bald guy that you'd look at him and you're like he's no hero. But yeah, he's been training and then just becomes this absolute beast and seeing his day-to-day life where he's just trying to live a life free of attention and spotlight, he doesn't want to be seen as a hero in parentheses and then he just comes in and one-shots some of these big bads all the time. It's really fun. It's created by a mangaka that's sort of the term that they use for a manga writer, slash illustrator. So it's created by a guy named One and his manga art style is some of the best you'll ever see. The panels are so highly detailed. And he also created another one, which is fantastic, but it's got such a distinctive and unique art style called Mob Psycho 100 that people may or may not have heard of as well. So One has created two of the biggest new IP of the last couple of decades and One Punch man there's only two seasons out at the moment has a third one on the way, but it's pretty fun, really enjoyable. The fight scenes are really cool, the downtime and the quiet moments are great, and seeing him sort of have this young apprentice join him, called Genos, who's like a cyborg that's out for vengeance because his family was murdered from another cyborg and he's just seen Saitama as the peak of hero life, so he wants to learn everything he can. It's really cool to see how hyper-focused he is trying to train and be the very best where Saitama's like I just want to eat noodles and chill out, bro. Yeah, that's coupling. That's really good. So you get this odd couple from those two. So One Punch man it's great. It's on Crunchyroll and other platforms depending on where you are in the world, but really enjoyable.
Speaker 2:Another one I wanted to shout out is a really easy, easy, easy watch. It debuted in 2022. It's the 69th rated anime on my anime list, which has actually surprised me. I thought it'd be rated higher. It's a juggernaut. It's an absolute monster. It's called Spy Family. So Spy Family it's been in circulation now two seasons out at the moment, 25 episodes currently available. There's a third season on the way.
Speaker 2:A film came out in 2023 slash 2024, depending on where you are in the world called Code White. It's available on Crunchyroll as well as Netflix. It's one of the best-selling manga series of all time 35 million copies in circulation. But the story it's set in a pseudo-Germany on the back end of after World War II and we're introduced to pretty much the best spy in the land called Lloyd Forger, and he has to then build a family in parentheses to execute this next high stakes mission to keep the world safe. So he gets a fake wife who he doesn't know is actually a skilled assassin named Yor. She's best. And then he also has to adopt a daughter named Anya, and we find out that she's a telepath, so she can hear her mom and dad's thoughts. So she knows that her mom's an assassin, her dad's a spy hear her mom and dad's thoughts. So she knows that her mom's an assassin, her dad's a spy. But the two parents have no idea of all their alternate lives and their side projects going on. So it's really enjoyable.
Speaker 2:It's funny, it's got a lot of heart, easy to watch, it's perfect for solo viewing, for a couple viewing. Kids could watch it too. The second season. There is a bit of death and violence, but it's really great. It's got a thumper of a soundtrack and the animation by Witch Studios and Cloverworks is gorgeous and it is one of the biggest anime doing the rounds now but I feel as a gateway into this world you can't get much better than that, because it's just an easy watch. It's funny, it's memorable, the characters are great. Anya Forge, the daughter, is one of the cutest little things you'll ever see and you just love her right from the get-go and you just root for this sort of band of misfits as they navigate their way around this spy-like world.
Speaker 1:Yeah, what a unique concept and that sounds really, really cool, with each of the three members of the family having like a really unique kind of ability, but then also him being really focused on his mission and thinking he's in control of the situation. But obviously there's other things going on. So how many episodes in that sort of series can we expect?
Speaker 2:So there's two seasons. So far 25 episodes done across those two seasons. There's a third season on the way and there's a film out as well, but this will keep going. The manga at the moment's ongoing, so the manga hasn't finished. So I assume this anime is going to go until the manga comes to a conclusion, because it's an absolute monster.
Speaker 1:Yep, yep, is that something that's common? I know that I've heard of filler episodes often occur when the manga hasn't produced, like, like gotten to a conclusion or anything. Yeah, yeah, and they put those filler episodes in until the more content comes out. Is that something that's common amongst some of those big three that you mentioned before?
Speaker 2:Yes and no. Luckily with the big three, a lot of the studios involved in the animation side do wait until there's enough chapters in the manga to then jump on in. You don't often get a mini Game of Thrones type of situations here where we're waiting for the George RR Martin equivalent to come to the table and actually finish the damn story. So a lot of the time these seasons are coming out several chapters back of the manga. So a lot of the time, at least for me as a viewer there's anime that I've discovered for the first time. I've watched it and then I'm like man, I can't wait for the second or third season and then I'll jump into the manga and read ahead.
Speaker 1:Oh, you spoil it for yourself, yeah, yeah, yeah. Sometimes it's good, yeah. Sometimes it's good, though, to see you know how it translates from from manga to to anime, and that would be a different sort of analyzation process as well. But we digress. Let's get onto that third recommendation from you, brendan. What do you? What do you got for us?
Speaker 2:This was tough because I was torn, like the other thing, especially for people that are new to anime, maybe that don't want to pony up some money to have a Crunchyroll subscription set up. So a lot of these ones I've mentioned are available also on Netflix. So most people out there that are consuming content has a Netflix account. And the next ones I wanted to mention my Hero Academia. It's also another monster. It's one of the biggest franchises of all time. 100 million copies of the manga is out there in the world. The manga has just wrapped up last week, so the manga has come to a conclusion. I'm not up to date on the manga so I don't know where it's happening, but we've got 150 plus episodes of the anime available, seven seasons, a couple of films video games like you name it, my Hero Academia's name is attached to it. The anime, video games like you name it my hero academia's name is attached to it. And the anime it's the seventh most popular anime on my anime list. Oh hey, hirakoshi is the writer and illustrator behind it. Fantastic talent.
Speaker 2:Yeah, this was sort of the anime or the manga that put him on the map and the basis of this one it's uh, you know, situated in a like, I guess, a modern day fantasy world, like, let's just say, earth x, where 80 of the population are born with some type of superpower which they call a quirk. So everybody's got powers. Some could be great, some could be less great, some could be more practical for day-to-day life. There's a character in here that has tape dispensers in their elbows and can just pull out tape to do things. So you see, all these differences with their quirks.
Speaker 2:But the story is based around Izuku Midoriya. He's just a normal boy but he's grown up obsessed over All Might, who was, I guess, the biggest hero in Japan. He is the Superman equivalent of this world. And Izuku Midoriya just wants to grow up and become the next hero and join the Hero Academy and do all the things and save all the people. But he is one of the 20% that is born workless.
Speaker 2:No, yeah, poor boy with a dream, yeah, man. So I don't want to spoil anything. Like you learn a lot of what happens in the first couple episodes, but like it's nice to see him stand out in contrast to 80 of the population with all their other powers. Like he's, he's the odd one out at school because everyone else has got all kinds of powers not impressive or otherwise where he's just a boy with a dream and you can root for Izuku like he's a sweetheart of a kid. The assortment of characters you meet when he ends up in UA High is really great. There's a lot of archetypes that you're familiar with in a lot of other film and TV and video games, but the animation from Studio Bones is really, really, really impressive. The pacing is great and, even though thematically and the story is completely different, the evolution in the tone reminds me of what they've done with the Harry Potter films, where the first one is a little bit more lighter and as you see these kids grow up, the tone grows with it and stakes get raised.
Speaker 2:It gets darker, you see more death and violence, and that's what happens in these seven seasons. Like it gets heavy as hell in some of this stuff and, yeah, you just want to root for this little kid that wants to just be the very best and keep the world safe. So, yeah, my hero is another one that I think is well worth looking. It's on. Well, not all. Like it's the thing with netflix. It's sort of a staggered release due to licensing, so it's usually maybe a season or two back, but it's a good way to dip a toe. And, yeah, my Hero Academia is fantastic.
Speaker 1:No, that sounds really good and as a person that really loves franchises like the Boys or X-Men for example, like big, massive X-Men fan here it sounds like something right up my alley, because being born with all different powers is something that's staple in the X-Men and navigating that sort of world there, yeah, something.
Speaker 1:I'm probably going to sign up to that one too. And you know, just to tell the listeners of Fandom Portals, as part of the More Than Hentai podcast that I was on featuring Brendan, he recommended that we do watch other punk edge runners and he said before that he takes his recommendations quite personally and, yeah, he curated that one for me. Me, like it fell right into the, the lap of myself and I just gobbled it all up pretty much because those 10 episodes and that story was just absolutely perfect. So you can rest assured that brendan has has really sort of put the effort in, done the research, picked animes that you're gonna at least be able to to watch and hopefully enjoy. So, yeah, I appreciate, appreciate you putting those out there, brendan. Thank you so much.
Speaker 2:That's okay, man, the pressure is slightly off the shoulders. I won't go deep on the last two specifically, just being mindful of time, and I could probably talk about these for hours on end as well. But another one that is pretty globally renowned now is Demon Slayer. The manga has finished up. The manga debuted way back in 2016. The anime debuted in 2019. Written and illustrated by Kiyoharu Gotoje I think is how you pronounce their surname 63 episodes currently available at the moment, spread across four seasons, and we've had confirmation that the way they're going to finish up this story is going to be spread across three films. They're going to be released over the next couple of years. The going to finish up this story is going to be spread across three films. They're going to be released over the next couple of years.
Speaker 2:The concept behind Demon Slayer it's set in sort of like a feudal Japan type of area where demons are running rampant, killing people everywhere, but there's a group of people that sort of are rising up to fight the demons. There's the Demon Slayers. So we're introduced to Tanjiro, who's a young boy. We follow him because he loses his family to a demon attack, finds out that his sister, nezuko, is still alive, but she was attacked by the demon and now she's become a demon herself. So there's a part of that where he's trying to keep her safe, keep her hidden, but also wants to sort of seek vengeance for his family that have been very brutally attacked and murdered by this demon.
Speaker 2:Like the fight scenes and the animation in demon slayer are just about the best you will see in anime or in just broader animation in general. Like it is so above and beyond just about anything else out there. Like ufa table is the production house behind it and they are on one with this franchise. Like it is stunning. The character models are unique and they are on one with this franchise. Like it is stunning.
Speaker 2:The character models are unique, but they look great and the combat and seeing their like breathing techniques that the demon slayers have like there's fire, breathing wind, water, serpent, et cetera, et cetera and seeing these abilities animated onto screen as they fight these hell beasts is so, so, so good. It is stunning. The story's great, the characters are complex. You can get behind some of the methodology and reasoning behind some of the key demons, which anytime you can put your feet into an enemy's shoes and be like you know what I kind of get where you're coming from here, mr or Mrs. That's good storytelling to me and it's really great. Four seasons so far. The fourth season just wrapped, about two months or so ago now. I've read all the manga so I know where it's going and I cannot wait to see these final films translate to screen, because it is a feast for the senses and the soundtrack's an absolute humper as well, and it's the sixth most popular anime on all of my anime list. But yeah, it is so good it's in my top 10 of all time.
Speaker 1:That's really awesome and, as a dungeon master for a very, very, very long time and being the curator of villains here, there and everywhere, a good villain can make or break any kind of story and the fact that I always wanted to create a villain that characters could look at and be like you know what mate, you're actually from a certain point of view, so that's really encouraging as well. So I think my trouble now is going to be which one, which one of these I'm gonna sink my teeth into first.
Speaker 2:but yeah, a good villain is definitely bread and butter yeah, I've got one bonus one that I couldn't avoid not mentioning lovely, lovely, because it's this. This is probably like. This is number three all time for me, like my number one and number two. They they could be a little invasive or a little longer form, depending on the viewer. My favorite anime of all time is something called your Lion April, which is a slice of life romance drama, but it can be pretty heavy emotionally, but perfect storytelling. I don't think I've ever cried so much in a short amount of time than I have watching that. And then Bulma Laokma's Brotherhood is also very, very, very, very special. Yeah, I wanted to mention something called Violet Evergarden, which was based off some light novels that debuted in 2015.
Speaker 2:The anime 2018, it came out, it's on Netflix, it's the 46th highest rated anime of all time on my anime list Only 13 episodes. There's also one OVA and also two movies on Netflix as well, and it's tied up around this young girl named Violet Evergarden, who I like it sort of set in a war-torn Europe, you could say, and she's just this young girl that is introduced to just this bloodshed and this crazy, hectic world of trench warfare and violence and death and despair, and we see this great war come to an end after a four-year cycle of that said death and war and she's left. She ends up having her arms blown off in the final leg of the war and she wakes up in the hospital and she's recovering from her wounds and she gets these sort of robot arms, which is a really cool aesthetic. She's a gorgeous character. This has also got some of the best animation you'll ever see anywhere Soundtrack's great, super emotional.
Speaker 2:And she ends up getting a job as what they call an auto memory doll. And so what she does? She travels around the country or can do it from their offices where people back then not many people could write. So what an auto memory doll does is she transcribes people's thoughts and feelings into words, sends it like and then translates it into, you know letters and books and things like that, so that way the the person can then give it to a loved one or give it to a family member.
Speaker 2:She, she meets all these people in various walks of life. You know some on their deathbed or some morning, you know a lost child and she's trying to contextualize and put all their thoughts into words. And then that letter or that book gets given to said loved one, and you see all those feelings and thoughts immortalized in text and so she goes on this journey. There's some major plot points tied into the war as well. That gets folded in, but you do get across these 13 episodes little standalone breakaway stories about the characters she meets along the way and, man, some of these stories are so goddamn heavy and emotional, but also beautiful and you'll shed many a tear watching this because it is really powerful. But it is some of the best storytelling I've ever seen, anime or otherwise. It is so good and I obsess over this world. I got a Violet Evergarden tattoo the other day because I love it so much and it's just the best man.
Speaker 1:Nah, that is such a good recommendation. Violet Evergarden on Netflix. Guys, if you wanted to check out something really raw, emotional, really great storytelling, as a person who really loves character drama, that's probably going to be the one that I check out. Honestly, right, because, yeah, you've sold it to me, yeah, you've sold it to me and I'm ready to cry. I'm ready to do it.
Speaker 1:No, it's really exciting to hear your passion about the topics of anime, and the fact that you can recommend five and really sort of talk in depth about all of them really shows to your expertise. So, yeah, thank you so much for coming onto the Fandom Portal podcast and for sharing all your knowledge and just really opening up the space of anime to those people that may be intimidated by it, because, as the Fandom Portals community know, it's not a space that I'm an expert in at the moment, but it's a fandom that I am indeed dipping my toe into. But it's turning out to be more of a jumping bomb, diving into the pool and submerging myself and not coming back out. So it's been an absolute pleasure, brendan. Thank you, brendan.
Speaker 2:thank you so much for joining me on the show Dude thank you so much for having me and yeah, hopefully my aimless ranting at 11 pm at night is constructed in a way where the listeners can take away like, yeah, that actually does sound good. I need to check that out because there's so much good stuff out there and a lot of people that are just on the fence. Regarding anime, there's just this misconception where it's like, oh, it's a cartoon for kids. There's nothing for me out there but squash that idea.
Speaker 2:Whatever you're looking for is out there in that anime space and a lot of the time anime can do things that live action cannot. So you might see a great film, but you see that animated, especially in that Eastern animation style, and it will blow your damn socks off. The animation, the storytelling, the voice work, the pacing, all that kind of stuff just combines to make something so special and so unique. So get out there, find something, because I'm certain that whatever your passion or your fandom is, there is an anime out there for it. And yeah, if you need a hand or you need some guidance, I'm happy to be your senpai and reach out to me on the socials. I will talk your ears off about anime anytime, any day.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, and we'll put those socials down in the show notes so you can find Brendan really easily. He's on Instagram at more than senpai. His podcast is more than hentai and you should definitely go and follow that because he gives you all the anime news and every now and then he'll deep dive into one as well. So if you loved his brief summary and you want to hear more from him, definitely go and check out his podcast. Him and his co-host, courtney, very, very knowledgeable in the space. So go and check them out. They're my go-to for everything anime right now as a fledgling and, yeah, I appreciate everything that they're doing. So, yeah, we'll see you guys next time. Thanks for having me Much love. That was Brendan White and I want to thank him so much for coming on to the Fandom Portals podcast and sharing his insight and his recommendations on his favorite anime. If you haven't already, definitely check out the show notes below and go and follow and subscribe to his podcast, the More Than Hentai Podcast, because he is definitely knowledgeable in this field and his content is top tier.
Speaker 1:This has been the first installment of our October animation celebration here at the Fandom Portals podcast. All month, our episodes will feature animation content. So head on over to our social media, which is in the show notes below, and have a look at what we've got coming in store for you. We're going to be joined by some very special guests this month, all for the sole purpose celebrating the amazing art form that is animation. Now, if you've loved what you've listened to, definitely go and hit that subscribe or follow button so you can never miss an episode of the Fandom Portals podcast.
Speaker 1:And if you're feeling extra kind, you can definitely go and leave a review on Apple Podcasts, just like our good friend of the community, stormy234, has. They've said a great community with an entertaining podcast to match, rating us five stars. Thank you so much, stormy. They've gone on to say that this community-driven content is well-hosted. You get a mix of solo and interview episodes that inform and entertain. Audio quality is great and they cover everything I love. Thank you so much for that review, stormy. And if you are a listener, just like Stormy, please feel free to go in the link in the show notes below and rate us and review us. It does a world of difference for small podcasters like us. We read every single one of them and we are so, so appreciative. That's it from me. As always, everybody, make sure we are connecting with respect. Catch you later.
