Advertise on podcast: Japanimation Station's Kyoto Vacation

We review the 2012 slice-of-life mystery HYOUKA, which may well be the most beautifully animated show in the history of anime.

We review NICHIJOU, which follows three high-school girls, a genius child inventor, the robot big sister she invents for herself, a talking cat, and many more increasingly strange characters in a very bizarre world of madcap, gorgeously-animated comedy.

We’re finishing our journey with Hokago Tea Time by following the girls to London for an overseas adventure in K-On! The Movie.

We’re discussing the 27-episode second season of K-ON!!, which follows Yui, Ritsu, Mio, and Mugi-chan in their third and final year of high school

We’re reviewing what may be Kyoto Animation’s most popular series to date: K-On!, the musical slice-of-life anime sensation following the girls of the Sakuragaoka High School light music club!

It’s December 25th, and Christmas has finally come to Otaku Town – and with it, the final episode of Part 2 of our Kyoto Vacation. For today’s very special episode, we are finishing our journey through the world of Haruhi Suzumiya with the 2010 film The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya, the nearly-three-hour climactic story in Kyoto Animation’s beloved adaptation of Nagaru Tanigawa’s light novels. It’s an absolute masterpiece of a film, telling its story of Kyon waking up in a world without the SOS Brigade patiently and tenderly, and building to a series of incredibly powerful emotional climaxes. It is also a truly beautiful Christmas movie in the vein of A Christmas Carol or It’s a Wonderful Life, and one of the very best of its kind, making it the perfect film to celebrate the holiday and ring out what has been a very big 2023 for Japanimation Station!  Have a Happy New Year, and we will see all of you in 2024 for Part 3 of our Kyoto Vacation, “Moe Money, Moe Problems: After School Tea Time with the Girls of K-On!”   Time Chart: Theme Song: 0:00:00 – 0:01:31 Intro and History: 0:01:31 – 0:38:17 Eyecatch Break: 0:38:17 – 0:38:54 The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya Review: 0:38:54 – 3:12:20 End Theme: 3:12:20 – 3:13:22 Support the show at Ko-fi ☕️ https://ko-fi.com/weeklystuff Read the book 200 Reviews by Jonathan R. Lack in Paperback or on Kindle – https://a.co/d/bLx53vK Follow The Weekly Stuff Wordcast newsletter for regular updates and extra content! https://weeklystuff.substack.com Subscribe to The Weekly Stuff Podcast on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/TheWeeklyStuffPodcast Visit our website and subscribe to Japanimation Station on all podcast platforms: http://japanimationstation.com/ Subscribe to The Weekly Stuff Podcast on all podcast platforms: http://www.weeklystuffpodcast.com 「コイノMIKUルデンセツ」- Music by Satoru Kosaki, Lyrics by Yutaka Yamamoto, Arranged by Thomas Lack feat. Hatsune Miku  “Happily Ever After” – Original Music & Lyrics by Thomas Lack, featuring Hatsune Miku. https://www.thomaslack.com

Part 2 of our Kyoto Vacation chronicles ‘When Christmas Came to Otaku Town,’ and that holiday is drawing ever nearer with Season 2 of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya. Aired in 2009, this season collected the 14 episodes originally produced in 2006, re-arranges them in the story’s chronological order, and then intersperses 14 new episodes amidst them, to make for a new 28-episode version of the series. We already talked about 8 of those episodes in last week’s in-depth, extra-long breakdown of the infamous ‘Endless Eight’ arc, and in this episode, we look at the one-off episode “Bamboo Leaf Rhapsody,” the 5-part “Sigh of Haruhi Suzumiya,” and discuss how this series plays viewed in chronological order in this specific 28-episode package. One thing’s for sure: When it comes to Haruhi Suzumiya, nothing happens exactly as expected, and there are surprises around every corner.  Enjoy, and come back next week as we review the final chapter of the Haruhi saga, the 2010 film The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya!  Time Chart: Theme Song: 0:00:00 – 0:01:31 Intro, History, and Bamboo Leaf Rhapsody: 0:01:31 – 0:47:37 Eyecatch Break: 0:47:37 – 0:48:12 The Sigh of Haruhi Suzumiya Review: 0:48:12 – 2:02:40 End Theme: 2:02:40 – 2:03:42  Support the show at Ko-fi ☕️ https://ko-fi.com/weeklystuff Read the book 200 Reviews by Jonathan R. Lack in Paperback or on Kindle – https://a.co/d/bLx53vK Follow The Weekly Stuff Wordcast newsletter for regular updates and extra content! https://weeklystuff.substack.com Subscribe to The Weekly Stuff Podcast on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/TheWeeklyStuffPodcast Visit our website and subscribe to Japanimation Station on all podcast platforms: http://japanimationstation.com/ Subscribe to The Weekly Stuff Podcast on all podcast platforms: http://www.weeklystuffpodcast.com

Part 2 of our Kyoto Vacation chronicles ‘When Christmas Came to Otaku Town,’ and in this episode, we do an extremely deep-dive into the single craziest experiment ever attempted in commercial anime: The infamous ‘Endless Eight’ arc from The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya Season 2. We will be talking about the rest of that show’s second season from 2009 in next week’s episode, but as we worked our way through these episodes, we realized the Endless Eight were something special, and needed a different approach. Often dismissed as “the same episode repeated eight times,” the Endless Eight is actually a collection of Kyoto Animation’s best directors independently tackling the same basic story, but with completely different animation, voice acting, and music, with a constantly varying tonal and thematic approach, and it makes for a fascinating, perspective-altering work of avant-garde art. To do it justice, we recorded once a day for eight days, watching each of the eight episodes individually and then discussing each at length before moving on to the next one. The result is one of the longest episodes we’ve ever recorded, but also one of the best – and if you haven’t dived into the full ‘Endless Eight’ experience before, we hope this episode makes for the perfect viewing companion.  Enjoy, and come back next week as we review the rest of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya Season 2, in the story’s chronological order! Time Chart: Theme Song: 0:00:00 – 0:01:31 Intro: 0:01:31 – 0:07:29 Endless Eight I: 0:07:29 – 0:23:17 Endless Eight II: 0:23:17 – 0:43:29  Endless Eight III: 0:43:29 – 1:19:20  Eyecatch Break: 1:19:20 – 1:19:57 Endless Eight IV: 1:19:57 – 2:01:10 Endless Eight V: 2:01:10 – 2:41:24 Endless Eight VI: 2:41:24 – 3:10:09 Endless Eight VII: 3:10:09 – 3:40:42 Endless Eight VIII: 3:40:42 – 4:37:14 End Theme: 4:37:14 – 4:38:16  Support the show at Ko-fi ☕️ https://ko-fi.com/weeklystuff Read the book 200 Reviews by Jonathan R. Lack in Paperback or on Kindle – https://a.co/d/bLx53vK Follow The Weekly Stuff Wordcast newsletter for regular updates and extra content!  https://weeklystuff.substack.com Subscribe to The Weekly Stuff Podcast on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/TheWeeklyStuffPodcast Visit our website and subscribe to Japanimation Station on all podcast platforms: http://japanimationstation.com/ Subscribe to The Weekly Stuff Podcast on all podcast platforms: http://www.weeklystuffpodcast.com

Part 2 of our Kyoto Vacation chronicles ‘When Christmas Came to Otaku Town,’ and following the wild success of Haruhi Suzumiya, Kyoto Animation moved on to one of the defining slice-of-life anime comedies, 2007’s Lucky Star! Simultaneously a very dry, down-to-earth ‘atmospheric’ show and an absolutely absurd slice of post-modern anime surrealism, Lucky Star is a singularly entertaining show. Based on the 4-panel manga by Kagami Yoshimizu, Lucky Star in anime form quickly takes on a life of its own as the artists at Kyoto Animation find themselves reacting to the Haruhi Suzumiya phenomenon and the changing shape of anime fandom within the text of the show, and also saw some behind-the-scenes turmoil as original director Yamamoto Yutaka was fired after just 4 episodes. We dive into all of that history, discuss our favorite jokes and characters, and celebrate the delirious insanity that is Lucky Channel on this jam-packed episode!  Enjoy, and come back next week as we review the infamous ‘Endless Eight’ episodes from The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya Season 2! Time Chart: Theme Song: 0:00:00 – 0:01:30  Intro and History: 0:01:30 – 0:38:59 Get F’d Yamamoto Yutaka: 0:38:59 – 1:08:20 Eyecatch Break: 1:08:20 – 1:08:55 Lucky Star Review: 1:08:55 – 3:16:12 End Theme: 3:16:12 – 3:17:14  Support the show at Ko-fi ☕️ https://ko-fi.com/weeklystuff Read the book 200 Reviews by Jonathan R. Lack in Paperback or on Kindle – https://a.co/d/bLx53vK Follow The Weekly Stuff Wordcast newsletter for regular updates and extra content!  https://weeklystuff.substack.com Subscribe to The Weekly Stuff Podcast on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/TheWeeklyStuffPodcast Visit our website and subscribe to Japanimation Station on all podcast platforms: http://japanimationstation.com/ Subscribe to The Weekly Stuff Podcast on all podcast platforms: http://www.weeklystuffpodcast.com “re:CAPTURE” and “Happily Ever After” – Original Music & Lyrics by Thomas Lack, featuring Hatsune Miku. https://www.thomaslack.com

Part 2 of our Kyoto Vacation chronicles ‘When Christmas Came to Otaku Town,’ beginning with a look at the first season of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya. Based on the light novels by Nagaru Tanigawa, Haruhi is a seminal work of 21st century anime, with the first 14 episodes from 2006 creating an absolute sensation with major impacts on the future of the industry. It’s also an incredible set of episodes, presented in an out-of-chronology ‘shuffle order’ mixing stories from all over the Haruhi timeline in with a 6-part adaptation of the eponymous first light novel. It’s a structure that throws the viewer in the deep end, but also leads to a deeply compelling engagement with these off-beat characters and their very strange world, one that pays emotional dividends by the end. We talk about all of that, the history of the series, and the idea behind ‘moe’ on this very exciting episode!  Enjoy, and come back next week as we review the 2007 ‘slice of life’ comedy Lucky Star!   Time Chart: Theme Song: 0:00:00 – 0:01:31 Intro and History: 0:01:31 – 1:05:34 Eyecatch Break: 1:05:34 – 1:06:12 Haruhi Season 1 Review: 1:06:12 – 3:15:44 End Theme: 3:15:44 – 3:16:46 Support the show at Ko-fi ☕️ https://ko-fi.com/weeklystuff Read the book 200 Reviews by Jonathan R. Lack in Paperback or on Kindle – https://a.co/d/bLx53vK Follow The Weekly Stuff Wordcast newsletter for regular updates and extra content!  https://weeklystuff.substack.com Subscribe to The Weekly Stuff Podcast on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/TheWeeklyStuffPodcast Visit our website and subscribe to Japanimation Station on all podcast platforms: http://japanimationstation.com/ Subscribe to The Weekly Stuff Podcast on all podcast platforms: http://www.weeklystuffpodcast.com

This week marks the 10th anniversary of the first movie based on Persona 3, a game that is one of our all-time favorites here at Japanimation Station. We reviewed each of those films as they released over on The Weekly Stuff Podcast, and hold them in extremely high regard as some of the greatest video game adaptations of all time, in any medium – and an undeniably great work of anime. So this week, as a special Thanksgiving bonus, we’re bringing back our original Persona 3 movie reviews, re-edited and remastered, for Japanimation Station.  That continues today with the fourth and final film, Winter of Rebirth! This conversation was originally recorded on August 21st, 2016. We dive in great depth not only into this final film itself, but also to the series as a whole, and how vastly it has surpassed whatever expectations we initially had. Persona 3 was, is, and shall always be a great game – but this four-part film series has, miraculously, earned a place on the shelf alongside it, something that is a welcome surprise indeed. Enjoy, happy thanksgiving, and we will be back next week to resume our Kyoto Vacation with our review of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya!   Time Chart: Theme Song: 0:00:00 – 0:01:14 Intro: 0:01:14 – 0:06:04 Eyecatch Break: 0:06:04 – 0:06:40 Persona 3 Movie 4: 0:06:40 – 1:38:22 End Theme: 1:38:22 – 1:39:25 Support the show at Ko-fi ☕️ https://ko-fi.com/weeklystuff Read the book 200 Reviews by Jonathan R. Lack in Paperback or on Kindle – https://a.co/d/bLx53vK Follow The Weekly Stuff Wordcast newsletter for regular updates and extra content! https://weeklystuff.substack.com Subscribe to The Weekly Stuff Podcast on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/TheWeeklyStuffPodcast Visit our website and subscribe to Japanimation Station on all podcast platforms: http://japanimationstation.com/ Subscribe to The Weekly Stuff Podcast on all podcast platforms: http://www.weeklystuffpodcast.com “Welcome to Japanimation Station” Original Music by Thomas Lack, Lyrics by Sean Chapman, featuring Hatsune Miku. “Happily Ever After” Original Music & Lyrics by Thomas Lack, featuring Hatsune Miku. https://www.thomaslack.com

This week marks the 10th anniversary of the first movie based on Persona 3, a game that is one of our all-time favorites here at Japanimation Station. We reviewed each of those films as they released over on The Weekly Stuff Podcast, and hold them in extremely high regard as some of the greatest video game adaptations of all time, in any medium – and an undeniably great work of anime. So this week, as a special Thanksgiving bonus, we’re bringing back our original Persona 3 movie reviews, re-edited and remastered, for Japanimation Station.  That continues today with the third film, Falling Down! This conversation was originally recorded on February 16th, 2016, and it finds our investment in these films only growing deeper, as Falling Down tackles one of the trickier stretches of the game to adapt, and finds an incredibly effective lens through which to view the story via the character of Ryoji. If anything, these movies just keep getting better.  Enjoy, and come back tomorrow for our review of the fourth and final Persona 3 movie, Winter of Rebirth!  Time Chart: Theme Song: 0:00:00 – 0:01:14 Intro: 0:01:14 – 0:04:04 Eyecatch Break: 0:04:04 – 0:04:38 Persona 3 Movie 3: 0:04:38 – 0:52:56 End Theme: 0:52:56 – 0:53:58 Support the show at Ko-fi ☕️ https://ko-fi.com/weeklystuff Read the book 200 Reviews by Jonathan R. Lack in Paperback or on Kindle – https://a.co/d/bLx53vK Follow The Weekly Stuff Wordcast newsletter for regular updates and extra content! https://weeklystuff.substack.com Subscribe to The Weekly Stuff Podcast on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/TheWeeklyStuffPodcast Visit our website and subscribe to Japanimation Station on all podcast platforms: http://japanimationstation.com/ Subscribe to The Weekly Stuff Podcast on all podcast platforms: http://www.weeklystuffpodcast.com “Welcome to Japanimation Station” Original Music by Thomas Lack, Lyrics by Sean Chapman, featuring Hatsune Miku. “Happily Ever After” Original Music & Lyrics by Thomas Lack, featuring Hatsune Miku. https://www.thomaslack.com