SOTSM x DITB: The Anime That Didn’t Make Us #16 – Pollyanna, Violinist of Hamelin & Moby Dick

Niall checked up on Brian and Antony over on Dynamite In The Brain to see how they're coping during all this, only to find them once again in a state of imagined reminiscence for cartoons they could have been enjoying in their youth were it not for those pesky geographic barriers. This edition is more highbrow than most with not one but two literary adaptations; a fairly straight World Masterpiece Theatre joint in 1986's The Story Of Pollyanna, Girl Of Love and Herman Melville making the logical progression to outer space in 1997's Hakugei: Legend Of The Moby Dick, while 1996's Violinist Of Hamelin provides a nice classical music accompaniment that sounds better than it looks. We got your tele-learning resources right here pal!

Listen up!

Let’s Go! #150 – Let’s Go To The Olympics

One hundred and fifty recordings later and still discovering truly brilliant entries in our storied survey of weekly TV cartoons. One such competitor is Extra Olympia Kyklos, wherein an ancient Greek specimen of physical prowess is catapulted to the 1964 Tokyo Olympic Games via the amazing power of claymation! It'll do in a pinch in place of the cancelled 2020 effort, alongside a gradually winnowing regular slate of DJs, dinosaurs, dogs and detectives. It's gonna be a record-breaker!

Listen up! 

Show #190: Dr. Katz, Professional Therapist

Brian Smith of Dynamite In The Brain is on the couch to make sense of this melange of stand-up comedy and rudimentary animation, conceived of a meeting between educational software developer Tom Snyder and the comedian's comedian Jonathan Katz. Assembled in a charmingly rough & ready manner it gave an auspicious start to such comedy & cartoon greats as H. Jon Benjamin and Loren Bouchard, but are we still crazy about its unique style 25 years later? Recording studio secrets, the wonders of Squigglevision and the elegant parallels with modern comedy podcasting get the full diagnosis, for which we prescribe a hearty Post-Podcast Repaste!

Listen up!

Let’s Go! #149 – Let’s Ship Out

New series continue to debut under precarious circumstances, so we temper our enjoyment knowing it could be all washed away in an instant. That said is there anything to get us attached to a young woman's journey into the Renaissance workshop scene in Arte? Or to another batch of creatives changing jobs in Woodpecker Detective Agency? We can at least extend a warm welcome to returning champion Wacky TV Nanana along with our usual assortment of heroic dogs, dinosaur flatmates and brazen musical references. Anchors away!

Listen up!

Let’s Go #148 – Let’s Be Cops

It's a good week to listen to a podcast about new anime that have since been postponed to an indefinite later date for the remainder of their run! Nonetheless we'll enjoy whatever we can get of an obnoxious rich boy paying his way onto the police force in The Millionaire Detective and two inadvertent immigrants making their fortune in early 20th century America in Appare-Ranman, along with the usual more reliable titles on the slate. It's too good to be legal!

Listen up!

Let’s Go! #147 – Let’s Dino-solate

Good thing we have all this extra time on our hands to take in the offerings of a new season, just the distraction we needed! We've got the classic hits on the radio via Listeners, insterspersed with the amatuer DJ stylings of Wave, Listen To Me, while Gal & Dino demonstrate how to adapt to your new living arrangements. My Hero Academia and Pet venture out on their own and we wish them well in their future endeavours. Let's get along!

Listen up!

Let’s Go! #143 – #146: Let's Get A Grip On This Already

You've read the newspapers so let's not go into it okay? Not mentioned in there though was the fact we recorded a bunch of weekly anime podcasts over the last month which for one reason or another were a bit waylaid coming out of the edit suite. So here's a round-up of what we got and why it may interest you!

Let's Go #143 featured the prompt departure of Welcome To Demon School Iruma-kun, wrapping up a wonderful surprise of a series and leaving us on a dramatic cliffhanger as Iruma's latent darkness manifests in a most terrifying form: A SARCASTIC TEENAGER.

Let's Go #144 played host to many happy returns; not just of Gegege No Kitaro and Detective Conan, but also our laid-back old pal ACCA: 13 Territory Inspection Department, back for a one-off OVA instalment in the land of etiquette, espionage and delicious baked goods.

Let's Go #145 marked the climax of Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken, the anime about making anime but more importantly about the memories & friendships you make with it. Lucky it came out at the start of the year as it may have a clear run at Best Of 2020 at this rate.

Let's Go # 146 then had us sweeping out the remnants of Winter 2020, such as the pleasantly unexpected In/Spectre, while also bearing witness to the end of an era as Kitaro departs after two years on the air and leaves a yokai-sized hole in our weekly routine.

When next we meet it'll be a torrent of new arrivals that will swiftly reduce to a trickle as current events bite into animation production much as they have everything else on the planet. Til then hunker in your bunker and don't forget to listen up!