After spending a full year chronicling the history of Kyoto Animation in 2024, we’re back for a brief return trip to review CITY: THE ANIMATION, the latest anime series from the renowned studio. Directed by Violet Evergarden helmer Ishidate Taichi and based on the manga Nichijou author Arawi Keiichi, CITY is one of the absolute greatest series KyoAni has produced to date, a return not only to Arawi’s zany comic stylings, but to the bold, experimental spirit of KyoAni’s early work. Seamlessly blending wild, anarchical comedy with heartfelt, shockingly rich storytelling about friendship, nostalgia, and community, CITY isn’t just a triumph: it’s an outright masterpiece, and we couldn’t be happier to talk about it at length on today’s show.

Enjoy!

Time Chart:

Theme Song: 0:00:00 – 0:01:30

Intro and History: 0:01:12 – 1:03:52

Eyecatch Break: 1:03:52 – 1:04:37

City the Animation Review: 1:04:37 – 3:29:08

End Theme: 3:29:08 – 3:30:10

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“Welcome to Japanimation Station” – Music by Thomas Lack, Lyrics by Sean Chapman, featuring Hatsune Miku. “Happily Ever After” – Music & Lyrics by Thomas Lack, featuring Hatsune Miku. https://www.thomaslack.com

Demon Slayer is back in theaters with its second original movie after the record-breaking success of 2020’s Mugen Train, and the latest installment – Part I of the planned Infinity Castle trilogy, adapting the final arc of Gotouge Koyoharu’s manga – is proving every bit as popular, breaking box office records in Japan and now in America. That’s for good reason: Infinity Castle is an incredible film, depicting three major battles across its 155-minute runtime, and executing on all of it at the same insanely high level we’ve come to expect from ufotable over the years. This is a film with some of the most jaw-dropping animated spectacle you’ll ever see in a theater, but as always, its heart is with the characters, their backstories, and their interiority, and this film’s focus on the villain Akaza proves to be some of the most effective material in the life of the entire series. We talk about all of it and more, including the terrific vocal performances and killer soundtrack, as Kimetsu no Yaiba truly kicks off the beginning of the end.

Enjoy! We will be back with more special one-off episodes soon, with our next major season – Tomino-thon – currently in the works behind the scenes!

Subscribe to our YouTube channels!

Japanimation Station: https://www.youtube.com/c/japanimationstation

Purely Academic: https://www.youtube.com/@purelyacademicpodcast

Read Jonathan Lack’s movie reviews and stay up to date with all our podcast projects at https://www.jonathanlack.com

Subscribe to PURELY ACADEMIC, our monthly variety podcast about movies, video games, TV, and more: https://purelyacademic.simplecast.com

Read Jonathan’s book 200 Reviews in Paperback or on Kindle – https://a.co/d/bLx53vK

“Welcome to Japanimation Station” – Music by Thomas Lack, Lyrics by Sean Chapman, featuring Hatsune Miku. “Rolled Into One” – Music & Lyrics by Thomas Lack, featuring Hatsune Miku. https://www.thomaslack.com

The latest Gundam TV series, Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX, wrapped up its 12-episode run this week, which means Weekly Suit Gundam is back to break it all down! A collaboration between Sunrise and the Otaku madmen at Studio Khara – including director Tsurumaki Kazuya, writer Enokido Yoji, and Evangelion creator Anno Hideaki himself – GQuuuuuuX returns to the Universal Century for an alternate-history story in a world where Char Aznable, not Amuro Ray, got in the Gundam; but it’s also a brand new tale about three kids living in the aftermath of this revised history on Side 6. Those two impulses – Gundam fan service and telling an all-new story – don’t always sit naturally together within this short run, and while GQuuuuuuX is an undeniably gorgeous production, with outstanding character designs, animation, music, and action, we’re not sure whether or not it holds together as its own fully realized corner of the Gundam universe.

Enjoy, and be sure to join us later this year for the next season of Japanimation Station, where we will be surveying all the works in the career of original Gundam creator Tomino Yoshiyuki!

Read Jonathan Lack’s movie reviews and stay up to date with all our podcast projects at https://www.jonathanlack.com

Subscribe to PURELY ACADEMIC, our monthly variety podcast about movies, video games, TV, and more: https://purelyacademic.simplecast.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

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Original Music by Thomas Lack https://www.thomaslack.com/