I really would love to encourage more American comic, Western comic fans to try manga because there’s so many great titles out there. There’s so many, any genre you can think of. There’s several great series. And so I try to put those influences in my work. And so, yeah, Naoki Urasawa was probably, probably is my number one artistic influence now, just through his character acting, storytelling capabilities. That’s what informs my work the most.
Coming to you from Crunchyroll HQ, this is The Anime Effect, where each week we bring you interviews with amazing people from all across the world of anime, and really just like nerd culture in general. From directors to actors, artists and more, to discuss their work and their anime favorites. It’s pop culture with an anime lens. Today, we are sharing Leah and I’s conversation with Joe Eisma. He’s an Eisner-nominated artist and co-creator of New York Times Best Seller Morning Glories. You may have also seen his work on Star Trek, Archie, The Flash. That’s where I’ve seen him. And much more. We spoke with him about his surprising journey to becoming a comic artist, and what is inspiring his work today. I’m your host, LeAlec Murray. I’m Leah Presidents. And it’s me, Alex Lebl. Back like you never left. And we’re here to see just how powerful the effect of anime really is. I have been way too deep in the weeds with my Switch lately. Mario Luigi Brothership has taken over my life. That and Prince of Persia. So if you need me, I’m probably playing one of those. Gone fishing. I’m gone fishing. So what about you guys? Well, first, did you sign up for the Switch 2 event? I did, dude. I got the email today, and they were like, Yeah, I got that too. I was not a winner. But you know what? I actually put in for the other two in New York and LA too. I was like, I will travel. I will travel. But then they also said on the Dallas list that they would actually have a waitlist as well too. So if you guys got that notification, you’re like, hey, you didn’t get in. Make sure to pay attention to the waitlist page too because, you know, you may be sneaking in there. Maybe you sneak in, yeah. But yeah, like I said last time, I’m going to wait it out slightly because I’ve never been able to score something like the day of. So I’m just going to hold out hope. But the games that are coming out for it seem really cool. Yeah, I know we talked about this a little bit when we talked about the Switch 2 reveal. I’m now full bore at the point where it’s like, okay, you guys are waiting too long to make this announcement. Just I know it’s only like, what, three months, two months, something like that. Two months closer to, just rip the band-aid off, just give it to me, tell me what you’re doing. But I mean, I think I’m back at my video game bag, y’all. I mean, outside playing Marvel Rivals for hours. Yeah. Meanwhile, I’m kind of waiting for like the next, like I feel like a couple years back, we had these string of really good like RPGs. And that is my main, like, dialogue options, love it. I’ll play it. I’m waiting for like my next really lovely like RPG. The gaming wave. Yeah, I need something to give me the same feeling that like the Fallout series gave me. You know what I mean? Well, let me recommend to you the game I’ve been playing a lot of since I got my Steam Deck. And this will probably make you both cringe. But I bought a Steam Deck to play Backyard Baseball, which has been re-released on Steam. No, no, no, no. I love it. I love it. It is so addictive. I’m still setting all the same lineups I did when I was like six years old. It’s amazing. They still got it. The tunes still shred when you hit a home run with one of the Khan brothers. Pablo Sanchez, I don’t need to explain to anybody his greatness.
He’s the greatest athlete to ever live. 100%. You know what? Let’s just bring back backyard baseball. Like them backyard sports games are like incredible. Oh, yeah. Those in the street games from EA. Like, what are we doing? What are we doing? That was the era. Go back, do a retrospective game awards when those came out. I want to see which ones the people vote on. Vintage game awards. Yeah, vintage game awards. Hall of Fame nominations every year at the game awards. There you go. Up next is that interview with comic book artist Joe Eisma. Stick around.
We are so excited to be here with Joe Eisma. He’s an Eisner nominated artist and the co-creator of the New York Times bestseller Morning Glories from Image Comics. And you might have seen his work pretty much all over. If you’re a Star Trek fan, he also worked on Archie and The Flash comics and more. So welcome to the show. Thank you. Yeah, welcome. So we have a question that we like to ask every single time we have a guest on. And that is what is your gateway anime? So what really kind of got you started as a fan? It was Lupin the Third. Ah, yeah. Lupin Supremacy. Yeah, it was actually kind of a little bit of a late bloomer because I saw the Lupin dub on Adult Swim. And I loved it. I love the quirkiness, the humor. And that’s my paradigm for anime. Like I still follow it to this day. I went and met the voice actors from the American dub and got their autographs. I nerded out about that stuff. Every iteration I’m checking out. I haven’t watched every OVA and read every manga, but I’m definitely a Lupin super fan. Yeah, my favorite part about the series is the music, too. I like to just throw on the soundtrack, for sure. I have so many of those soundtracks on my Apple Music. They’re great to listen to while I’m doing my drawings. And of course, you are a comic illustrator. So we also want to know, what was your Gateway comic as well? That would probably be the Fantastic Four from Marvel Comics. That was my first comic that I absolutely loved as a kid. I grew up in the 80s because I’m a little bit old, but I was really drawn to the thing, the guy made out of new rocks. And I just loved the visual and the human torch and Mr. Fantastic, all that. And that was just my gateway drug. That got me into X-Men and eventually into independent comics, like The Invisibles, and eventually to manga, like Monster, 20th Century Boys, Satoshi Kon’s work. Yeah. Yeah. Hell. I’m a huge Monster fan. Yeah.
I still haven’t watched Indoor Reddit, so I need to get on that. It’s good. It’s good. Irecommended it on the show a couple of times too, for those who like mystery. So we were chatting about this a little bit before the cameras started rolling, but you actually got your start, you started your career in the newsroom. Right. I did as well. I was a broadcast producer. But then you went back to school and you realized, the newsroom was not where you wanted to be. You wanted to kind of move into a more artistic direction, right? So what fears did you have to overcome to change careers? Oh, that’s a good one. That’s a great question. It was definitely a risk to change careers, and especially to move into a creative field from doing production work. That was probably my biggest fear. It was like, is this something I can maintain? Do I have what it takes? Do I have the talent? Do I have the momentum? So it just took tenacity and dedication and just not giving up and really pushing through that self-doubt. The self-doubt was probably the biggest hurdle to overcome. I definitely feel that. So going back to anime, was there an anime or a manga series that inspired the comic book work that you’re doing now or how you started doing? Oh yeah, like Monster and Pluto, 20th Century Boys is probably one of my favorites. And I try to tell my… Because American comic fans and manga fans, they don’t always intersect. No. But I definitely try to bring those influences into my work. I’m not that I view myself as some kind of high in society kind of person, like, I’m going to introduce manga to you. But I really would love to encourage more American comic, Western comic fans to try manga, because there’s so many great titles out there. There’s so many… Any genre you can think of, there’s several great series. And so, I try to put those influences in my work. And so, yeah, Naoki Urasawa was probably, probably is my number one artistic influence now, just through his character acting, storytelling capabilities. That’s what informs my work the most. Yeah, and that’s something we talk about a lot on the show as well, is like how these sort of two camps that never really sort of interacted before are kind of meeting at a crossroads now, and more people are open to the medium who totally weren’t before. So, it’s so cool to see, you know, in person, like someone who really is connecting the dots there. And I think, just me personally, I think a lot of that is starting to come from now, like you see the big two, you see DC and Marvel starting to embrace the manga community, whether it’s like with like Ninja Batman, or you see like Marvel is now doing a lot of crossovers with like Ultraman. Yeah, and even like random cameos like Denji. So I’m with you. Like I wish there would be a little more crossing because I think, as a fan of both Western and Manga, like I think there’s a lot more similarities than people think. So I would definitely recommend people giving Manga a shot. Yeah, I agree 100 percent. This is one thing I wanted to ask you about. So you’ve worked obviously on the Archie comics. There have been so many different iterations of Archie and his friends, so many different versions and generations. So what I wanted to know is how did you approach that sort of new look and direction in your illustrations and your work on the series? When I kind of started with Archie, they were doing a reboot, a relaunch. Was this around the time of Riverdale? Yeah, just a little bit before. I think they were kind of anticipating Riverdale. Like that was in pre-production. And what a ride that was. What a ride Riverdale is, for sure. So they were relaunching the main series with a more modern twist, and they were going to do different artists for various story arcs. And so the first artist, Fiona Staples, who was amazing, she drew the first story arc, and so she sort of set the tone stylistically for what they were going for.
So I first joined in to sort of match that. But like you said, I’ve drawn every kind of iteration. I have done a little bit in the classic style. One of my favorites is their horror stuff. Yeah, the horror stuff is really interesting. Yeah, the Jughead, the Hunger, that’s one that I’ve done a lot of. And I just love how experimental they’ve been with that IP over the years. Yeah, with so much story to tell, and obviously it’s such a classic, the storylines can take like all different directions because you have to kind of like expand the story somehow. So yeah. Because it’s kind of a blank slate, because I feel like you can kind of go anywhere with like Archie. Yeah. And the fans are still with it. Archie fans are a little bit more forgiving with continuity than say Marvel and DC fans. They’re very much beholding to, well, Thor did this in issue 436, he can’t do this now, you know? But like Archie fans, they’re like, okay, this is not the classic Archie, but I know the classic Archie continuity still exists. This is outside of that, so I can still enjoy it. Yeah. We’ve mentioned multiple times now, you working on like horror arts. Is that something that, you know, you favor like that sort of imagery at all, or and also can we see you maybe working on some horror series in the future? Yeah, I’ve done a lot of horror. I did a book for a comixology called Blood Oath, which was a 1920s prohibition era vampire story. So yeah, you definitely expect a lot of horror. I love working in the genre. I don’t know, it’s one of those things if I got typecast because there was, there were horror elements in Morning Glory, lots of gore. I just, for some reason, enjoy drawing that stuff. I hope that doesn’t make me some kind of creeper. No, no, no, I’m a huge horror movie fan also, so yeah. So I guess I just find it fascinating that you just kind of naturally went into that lane. So it’s like, hey, I guess I’m just doing kind of horror. I was always a horror movie fan. We were talking a little bit about the Alien franchise. That was one of my favorites. So I love horror films, and so that also informs my work as well. So, what are you watching right now? What’s your anime of choice right now? What’s on your watchlist? Whether recommendation or just personal favorite. I just started Dan Da Dan. Oh, yes, it’s so good, right? It’s peak, it’s so good. I love it, I love the manga. So I was so excited when the anime was announced. And so every, I mean, I know there’s only like two episodes or whatever we’re at right now, right? And I watch it with just a smile ear to ear, because I love it. I love just the, it’s very energetic, the gestures and the characters. Like, you know, one of the things that about two-dimensional art, like drawing two-dimensionally, you’re representing a three-dimensional space, and it’s hard for characters to come to life. And I feel like Dan Da Dan, like just leaping off the page or on the screen, like they have so much energy. But Dan Da Dan, Delicious in Dungeon. Oh, now you’re just pulling on our hearts for this here. Yeah, now you’re just like, this is coded for you guys here. Chainsaw Man. Yeah. I do love the originals with subtitles, but a lot of times I’ll be drawing while I’m putting them on, so I do listen to dubs. So it’s great to have on for background and also for artistic inspiration as I’m drawing. Believe it or not, we do dubs too when we’re working. For sure, yeah, just throw on a dub and answer emails. And I love what you said about Dan Da Dan, because I feel like, for me anyway, like being as a long time manga reader like Hila Shisar, it was so fresh to me that I was like, if this ever gets animated, it has to be…
The tone, the humor. The tone has to stay the same. And Sayansaru pulled it off almost perfectly. And talk about an opening. Like the opening animation is like… I said this on the show before, but the first time I saw the opening sequence, I’d rewind it probably 10 times. I was like, oh my gosh, I wanted to see every detail. So yeah. Yeah, same. It’s gorgeous. efinitely one of my favorites, So what draws you in to anime the nost? Is it the worlds, the story, the animation, and what is s intriguing about it to you? It’s primarily the animation. I love the style the most. I mean, story is what keeps me going, but it’s always the animation that hooks me, but the story is what keeps me there. Yeah. I’m a big fan of just animation art. I love animation cells, that very clean line art that they have before they add all the colors. I do, too. It’s so cool. That informs my art style for drawing comics. So yeah, I just gravitate to stuff, obviously, as an artist, that visually interests me, that I find visually like, oh, that’s really neat. But yeah, the stories, that’s what keeps me watching anime. I love hearing recommendations from friends or on social media, like, oh, this is the show. This is what everybody’s watching. And yeah, I’m always on the outlook for something new to inspire me. Yeah. Do you have a Japanese studio that you like, animation studio that you’re a really good planner? I really like Trigger. Yeah. Trigger love. Have you been on the show before? Yeah, you keep just like repeating our same one over and over again. Yeah, we’re going to get a long friend of the show. Fantastic. And it almost kind of amazes me how they’ve been able to adjust their style based on what they’re working on. So Delicious in Dungeon and No Way, Shape, Reform looks like Scott Pilgrim, right? Like it’s totally different. And even when you go down to like their very beginning with Gurren Lagann, like that doesn’t even look the same as like when they did the premiere. So that’s very incredible. I’d say they’re really true to the source material and all of the projects that they take on. Sere de goveyou, tak tes on baded here from Nick, who is not He’s on baby watch. He asked, when is Morning Glory is coming out? Nick says hi. Thank you, Nick. I appreciate that question that I never get asked. So just to kind of recap, so I worked on this book, Morning Glory, which is my most famous project. It’s been on hiatus since 2016 because writer Nick Spencer, he was writing a lot of books. He did a very famous story, Secret Empire for Marvel, and he did Spider-Man for Marvel. He’s taken some personal time off after that. So as soon as he’s got his batteries recharged, which I hope is soon because we have so many fans that love that book and I hate to leave everyone hanging. And Nick, of course, has also shut down his social media. He can’t be bugged about it, so I only get bugged about it. I’m leaving everything. So you hear that Nick? It’s up to other Nick, and then we’ll have an answer. We’ll keep biting at the bit until then. So now we have to ask you, as we sort of round out our interview, what is next for you? What kinds of projects can fans look forward to from you? Well, I’m doing a couple of different series for 2025. I just finished, I did a Star Trek series. It was like a horror mini-series. Oh, that’s cool. Yeah, and I’ve got a graphic novel coming out in March of 2025 called Student Government. And it’s a comedy about a, it’s kind of a losers versus winners kind of thing. They’re the loser student interim student government going up against the actual student government.
So it’s very much a throwback to the comedies of like the 80s and 90s. Kind of freaks and geeks. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. And Thave another series as yet to be announced that I’m working on as well, which is also totally different. It’s a mashup of, if you can imagine, like a hallmark romance story with HP. Lovecraft. Let’s go. That sounds amazing. That’s incredible. Yeah. Well, that is all the time we have with you today. Thank you so much for joining us today on The Anime Effect. This was so much fun. We’ll have to have you back. Yeah. Yeah. And we were talking a little bit off camera before, you know, everything started rolling. And we have like the same taste in like comics and movies and everything. So, yeah, we would definitely love to have you back sometime. Thank you both so much. Is there anything you want to plug to the people at home? Sure. Please check out Student Government coming in March 2025 from Maverick Graphic Novels. And read Morning Glories. Yes.
It’s going to take forever for us to get through our vault. I was just thinking that. I was like, we have NYCC stuff that is still coming out. And that show was three months ago. Yeah. Which is cool. But Just as Lovely is still so excited to see what else he’s working on in the future. And he’s just such a talented artist and a friend of the show forever. Also, shout out to Amy Reader, because I was playing Marvel Snap and I got a Moon Girl variant card that was done by Amy Reader. So shout out to Amy Reader too. Very cool. But guys, it’s time for?
From Alex, not this Alex. Not me. Another Alex that was on the question form. Great name. Maybe you were the Alex on the question form. Who knows?
Not a very good disguise. If you’re just like going with your real name.
It’s like the Sting wrestler meme where he pulls off his mask.
That’s another, yeah. Okay.
What would be some good recommendations for someone who’s just tuning in to anime? I started around November of 2024, and I’m just looking for some good recommendations to watch slash learn about. One, thank you Alex for finding us in your anime journey.
You look straight at him when you said that.
Because I’m going to shoot to Alex to talk to Alex. The defense that it wasn’t him that wrote in is getting thinner and thinner when you’re like, thank you for writing that in Alex. Tell it to myself.
We have a lot packed for you here. Don’t feel obligated to watch all of it. It’s so much.
It is so much. But we’re going to throw some stuff at you, some stuff I think that you’re going to like, everybody else may really like if they’re kind of trying to tap in and find something new. So without further ado.
Everybody going to like.
Everybody like. Alex, not question form Alex, but podcast Alex.
What you got?
Well, first, it’s great to see that people read my messages on the Alex Discord. Someone’s finally taking my recommendation seriously. First of all, welcome to the fandom.
You’re about to learn very quickly that your watch list is going to balloon. Catastrophic size, but you don’t need to watch all of them. But some ones I would recommend starting with, because you’re Alex, I’m Alex.
Hopefully, we take the same path.
He’s a dude, you’re a dude, we’re all dudes.
We are all dudes.
Yu Yu Hakusho, a great place to start. It’s a classic. I’m trying to give you some recommendations that run the gamut of all the different experiences you can get with anime, because it’s more than just shounen.
That said, also recommend Jujutsu Kaisen. It’s hip, it’s new, it’s provocative. I don’t know what it means.
Some of the coolest merch out there.
It’s what the people want.
I think some others will probably touch on this one as well. But there’s a director named Shinichiro Watanabe, who has works that span multiple different music genres. You may or may not have heard of Cowboy Bebop.
I’m sure others will talk about it. But there are others that are just as amazing as Cowboy Bebop that cover different genres of music, like Samurai Champloo, like Terror and Resonance, like Kids on the Slope. And those are all just artistic masterpieces and something that anime can give you that not many other forms of art can.
I’d also recommend Sword Art Online, specifically season one.
Yeah, don’t get confused because it does veer off into like sub-series that have not really a lot to do, like Gun Gale Online and such on, such on.
Core series, season one.
And it also introduces you to Isekai, which you’ll get to know very well.
Hey, Mimimo.
Pause for button.
Pause for Isekai.
Wolf’s Reign, not talked about as much, but if you want like sci-fi dystopia, that’s a big anime setting.
Let’s talk about Dark Horse Picks.
It’s so good.
It’s so good.
Every now and then, I think about it. They had no right to make it this good.
No, man. Didn’t get enough credit. I agree.
Kaguya-sama: Love is War, rom-com. I’m sure there is a similar show that is not as light and delightful and fun that some people will recommend, but Kaguya-sama is great. Angel Beats, you’ll get that slice of life. You’ll also get a lot of crazy plot twists that don’t quite make sense, but that you got to like suspend disbelief. That’s key to enjoying anime. And then finally, because you’re starting, start now, One Piece. You’ll thank me later when you start it now and you’re continuing on your journey. We’ll see in 10 years. Right, right, literally. All right, Leah, what you got?
Those were really good, Alex. You actually made me think about new ones that I wanted to add just because of like your reasoning of like why you recommended it, such as like, we were just talking about RPGs. Cyberpunk, if you played Cyberpunk, there’s a cyberpunk anime Cyberpunk: Edgerunners.
But when I was thinking about this question, I was thinking like, what is like a crash course of like, like that any anime fan is going to be like, have you seen this? Like it’s kind of sort of criterion collection, but it’s also short enough that you can finish it in like a day or a couple days, such as Death Note, only one season. There are 37 episodes or something like that, but it is only one season. And then you can do something like Fullmetal Alchemist. I think it has like two seasons. There’s a Fullmetal Alchemist and Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood.
Both are good. Another one that…
I had that one too. I had to think about what we could do with that one. Another one that’s like, you can get through pretty quickly and it’s kind of like a criterion is Tokyo Ghoul. Also the soundtrack slaps, we were talking about soundtracks, really good.
Great opening.
So those are like, what I would say are like, it’s just like the baseline classics that you can get through really quickly. But some other really cool series I like for new watchers that I specifically picked because I could compare them to like mainstream TV would be something like Kakegurui, which is kind of like a death game, like high stakes. If you watch Squid Game, you’ll like it.
Oh, that’s a good point.
It’s pretty much like a very good parallel, I would say, because it’s like these young people are going to the school where gambling is like really like high stakes gambling, like death game gambling is like in vogue. And it’s all these like rich kids like trying to play for money and a lot go into debt and this and that and like try to break even and do double or nothing with these high stakes.
Really, really fun, very pulse racing. I think they also have like a movie companion that came out not too long ago. I loved it.
I was on the edge of my seat.
It’s so good.
So I’d recommend that another one if you’re wanting something a little bit more touching, a little bit sad, kind of a tearjerker, Your Lie in April. If you want some more like action type stuff, I would say Fire Force because we’re only one season in and a new season is coming out this year. So if you like it, you don’t have to wait too long.
And you can be like on the zeitgeist with everybody else.
Please come to the Church of Okubo Sensei. We take new members all the time.
Yeah, I love the design. It’s by the same creator of Soul Eater and also Kill la Kill.
Kill la Kill is a go.
So yeah, sorry, that’s a lot of recommendations. Like Alex said, pick and choose what interests you because they’re all very different from each other. But yeah, what about you, Lee?
So I want to start. I got two original ones in here. Two that I was, one, that was a Nick recommendation when we first started the show.
It’s Bocchi the Rock. The music, one, amazing, amazing, amazing, amazing. But also, it’s the slice of life, high school vibe. Like it takes you on a trip that you probably aren’t ready for because not only do you really get in tune with the main characters, but then I feel like when you watch the show, you also find out a little bit about yourself. Oh, man, that’s how I saw it. I’m watching the show, I was like, I was like that in high school. But it’s a great series. It’s a great story about perseverance, believing in yourself and just being out there and exploring your dreams. Another original here, Licorice Recoil.
Love it.
I love Loco Recoil, it’s so good. It’s just a fun series. You could probably just sit down in the afternoon and finish it.
It’s only 12 episodes.
And it’s never what you think it’s going to be. Every episode is something new. And you’re like, why is that in the show in a good way?
It’s funny too. It’s really funny.
It’s so endearing. One of my newer favorites from last year,Windbreaker, season two is coming. But I love me some delinquent anime. This one, oh boy, this one is great. The fights are great. The characters are all great. Even some of the villains in the show are really lovable and endearing and they’re bad. But I mean, they’re great, right? But I mean, that was one of my favorite shows for last year. You already said Cowboy Bebop. I’m always going to recommend a watch a holiday show to somebody. At least one.
Also, this has come up on the show quite a few times. Ranking of Kings, incredible, incredible, incredible show. Especially because in the same framework of Lickers recoil where you don’t know what you’re getting each episode, this one is the flip side where the story, even though Boji is the main character, the story is being told around him because he can’t speak, so everybody else has to fill in the gaps. It’s so refreshing as a storytelling medium. But then also to piggyback that because it’s in the same genre, Frieren, great one, Slice of Life.
Take a shot, we mentioned it.
Yeah, take a shot, we mentioned Frieren again. Also, you mentioned Soul Eater, Soul Eater’s on the list. Black Clover, do not sleep on Black Clover. There’s also a movie. The movie and the main series are fantastic. You want to talk about some action for that? Black Clover, there you go. There’s that one.
That part.
And then another favorite from last year, Delicious in Dungeon, another fantasy series.
That’s so weird that that’s last year.
I know, I don’t like thinking about that.
I don’t either.
Super dope RPG vibes. I love that the fantasy sub-genre for anime is starting to bubble up, so definitely on my list. But last but not least here, doing some Gunslinger action, Trigun, so cool, the OG, and Trigun Stampede.
Trigun Stargaze, which is the sequel to Stampede, is coming up soon.
There are three series that I will always recommend to people.
Bebop, Trigun, Shiyu Hakusho.
Outside of the whole Dragon Ball, Toonami thing, those shows, I think really… Those three in Outlaw Star, those shows really made me kind of reevaluate what anime could be because it wasn’t like, oh, just like the action. Like, now it’s the storytelling. Now you’re like getting into like the gun slinging and like it’s… And Trigun is such a cool story. It’s got a lot of heart. The Vash is so endearing as a character, he’s hilarious. Probably one of my favorite anime main characters. Yeah, I think that’s it. We covered a lot.
Yeah, that is a lot. How many titles is that? That’s a lot of titles.
So set some time aside, maybe take a couple days off to catch up on all these. But to further prove the point, like not all of us have seen all of these either. Some of these are on like Windbreaker’s been on my watch list for almost a year. So now I’m going to watch them. Alex, we can watch it together.
Let’s boil this down really quick. One title from your list, just three. So one, two, three that we can give to Alex. He can take the whole list. They can take the whole list. But if there is one that they have to watch from your list, what is that one?
I’m going to say Wolf’s Reign. I know it’s deeper cut, but that one is just so good.
He went for the deep cut immediately.
It’s so anime, and I mean that very complimentary.
LeA?
I got to say Death Note from my first list. For newer, Kakagurui, because I think it’s lit, lit.
Okay, ooh, I’m going to go Soul Eater. I have to go Soul Eater on this one.
Yeah.
We got some weird dark vibes happening at the table. Also, let’s throw in Boat to the Rock, so you have something like that.
Horrendously sad.
But Alex, thank you. That was amazing. Hopefully we helped you on your anime crash course. If anybody else has suggestions for Alex or anybody else that’s getting into anime, hit us up. Hit us up. Be a part of the conversation. But I have some recommendations from the audience.
Audience.
Leah, do you want to take that first one?
Sure. I would love to. So this one is coming from Raina Angel Mendez via Spotify.
They say, anime rec… Hey guys, I’ve been listening for almost a year now. Oh, it’s awesome. Good to hear from you. And I have an anime recommendation for y’all. It’s specifically a music anime that had me hooked all the way through. I wonder if this is stemming from the conversation about music we had last week. Probably. Probably.
It’s called Carol and Tuesday.
Carol and Tuesday is a good one.
You’ve seen this one?
Carol and Tuesday is a good one.
It’s on Netflix and it’s totally a great watch, especially if you’re interested in the music industry. There are a lot of references to popular music over the last 50-ish years, and it has an extremely compelling story from start to finish, Very Slice of Life. That sounds right up my alley.
That’s a great rec. Carol and Tuesday is fantastic. That is a fantastic anime. Is that a newer one?
New-ish? Like within the last, what, three years?
Yeah, I think it was kind of like right when Netflix really started dabbling in anime. It was one of the first ones they did. I think it’s a Watanabe show as well.
And a friend of the show, Denzel Curry has a song on there.
There you go, Alex. You want to take the next one?
Yes. So it’s music time. Because music time has written in via Spotify.
Thank you, music time. That music question was awesome to hear as I love music as well. A musician I love named Iceferno gives me the same vibes.
LeAlec, if the intro song is good, I’m hooked immediately.
There you go. That’s never steered me wrong.
Never steered me wrong. That’s how you do it.
All right. Wrecks were great. Thank you for everyone that contributed.
Now. Now. Hell yeah.
It’s time for the mailbag.
Mailbag, roll up them sleeves.
We still gotta get a mailman. Can we just, here’s a new thought.
I’ll just dress my dog in a mailman outfit.
Just have him stroll in here with his short stubby self.
Wishbone style.
With the bag, yeah. Like Wishbone style. Just have him drop the mail and he can leave.
For the people at home, talk about your dogs. What breed are they? So that they can envision this.
So I have a miniature dachshund, black and tan. He, you know, just short stubby, you know, you just hear him clicking down the hall.
I’ve heard him over Zoom calls before. Very cute.
He gets rowdy, y’all. He gets rowdy. All right, Nazeem, it will be our question form.
I’ve been wondering what areas of representation we will see next adapted into more stories. An area that’s been getting so much great love recently, our older protagonist, I know and Ilove it. Been loving what we’ve been getting so far.
So I’m wondering what more will come. That is a great question.
Thave to agree too.
I think you have some great answers for this, LeA. You want to kick off?
For sure. I do want to say, I second what you’re saying about older protagonists. Like, we’re all getting older. It is nice to have something to relate more to than a high school story. Though I love my high school stories, I love a little drama. But obviously, I want to bring up LGBIQIA plus inclusivity. Iread a lot of manga with those subjects, but I don’t see a ton of adaptations come out on a regular basis. So I would love to see that more.
You get some, but it’s not a very high clip, right?
Yeah.
I mean, I’ve talked a lot about like Cherry Magic, for example. And I’ve talked about Twilight Out of Focus, which I really loved. But some of the manga titles that are on my bookshelf, I would love to see an anime adaptation for.
Yeah. And I know there’s like Given and Sasamiya. Those are also great stories as well.
Even like there’s this sort of like Yuri manga that I loved, loved, loved, called Alter Ego. And it’s actually…
I think you talked about that. We were talking about it.
They are an author and illustrator from Spain, you know, who draws in manga style and is working with Japanese publishers. So that’s really cool to see like how the effect of like anime and manga creation has like spread throughout the world and is creating like new art forms in different regions.
So Alex, you got an answer for this one?
I think just seeing more stories like Josee, the Tiger and the Fish, I thought that was handled very respectfully and that story was just great. And I think there’s one of the main characters is in a wheelchair. And I think that the challenges that that presents in everyday life, kind of go unnoticed by a lot of people. But the movie does a good job of highlighting that and how to overcome that in a really heartwarming way. So I very much want to see more stories like that because it kind of opened my eyes a little bit.
Very much kind of in the same vein as like the A Sign of Affection. That was another really good one.
Oh, yes, I loved A Sign of Affection.
It was so good. Seeing the world through somebody that’s deaf or has a hearing disability and they’re trying to navigate the normal world. I love, that anime was fantastic.
So yeah, I mean, just for me, just more black and minority representation, that’s always gonna be the first and foremost for me. I mean, there’s, Watanabe comes up quite a bit, but I know he puts a lot of black and minority characters in his stories. And they’re, to me anyway, represented very well.
Okubo Sensei does the same thing, has marquee black characters that are in his story that are represented very well.
Ogun is probably one of my favorite modern anime characters.
Like he’s just super good character.
I mean, and we’ve only really had one core focus one. I mean, Afro Samurai, of course. But I mean, we’re starting to see more black characters kind of come in and be prominent in like anime stories and in manga stories.
There’s a webtoon I’m reading right now called Ordeal, which is done by a black creator and it’s absolutely fantastic. And if there’s one that I would love to see get adapted, it’s that one, because it does an amazing job of representing kind of the spectrum of black and Latino. So l would love, love, love, love, love to see more black stories, black main characters.
And I think as the storytelling medium of manga and webtoon become more prevalent, I think we are going to start seeing a lot more of those stories, right? Because newer creators or authors and magakas, I feel like they’re really exploring the freedom of their storytelling.
The addition of all these characters made all these stories just feel more well-rounded, less templated, less of something that you’ve seen before. And it just keeps everything fresh and gives more people a chance to tether into anime, because that’s how everybody gets into it, is kind of maybe seeing a reflection of themselves. Yeah, it’s a reflection of the world we actually live in, which is like a global world. Make people feel seen, feel included. And to cap off this one, you guys might have seen it floating around social media, the little girl that has the birthmark on her face, and she saw the Todoroki doll in the store, and she was like, mommy, he looks just like me. That was so cute. Insta-tears, one. Oh, yeah. Two. That’s what it’s about. That’s what it should be about. You should be able to see characters or connect with characters that maybe from the world you’re from or the world that you live in makes it more personal. You know, make some fans out there. Shout out to the little girl. She’s a My Hero fan for life. She’s going to be on the pod in 10 years. Right, she’s going to be on the pod in 10 years. We’re going to interview about the iconic moment. But I love seeing moments like that. So before we all start crying on the pod again, if you guys want to be part of the conversation, you have any recs, you have questions, you want to hear me yell mailbag as loud and as extended as possible, please definitely write in Apple Podcasts. Five stars, five stars. Were there, we re there. We’ll review more also on Spotify. If you’re watching on the YouTubes, like, comment, subscribe, all that jazz. Also, question form. Hmm, the question form. Got.cr slash Anime Effect Questions. Again, that is Got.cr slash Anime Effect Questions. Yeah, we love seeing your questions every week. It’s literally one of our favorite parts of the entire- It really is. It really is. We look at those comments, we look at those questions, and yeah, we’re just really excited that we have such a cool community around us that is, like, getting involved in sending those in. So, yeah, Lee, do you want to take us out? Of course. Thank you for joining us for another episode of The Anime Effect brought to you by Crunchyroll and the folks over at Sony Music Entertainment. Be sure to subscribe so you never miss an episode. The Anime Effect is hosted by me, Lea Presidents, LeAlec Murray, Alex Lebl and Nick Friedman, who is going to be back next week. I almost can’t even believe it. I’m in shock. So excited to have him back. We are executive produced by Jonathan Hirsch, Joanna Clay and Nick Friedman, who is in the building right now. He’s walking around the office. He’s here today. I saw him put a message in the Slack about wondering where his lunch was. Right. Of course. Of course, that’s the first thing he asks when he comes back to the office. Where’s lunch? Where’s the lunch? Our lead producer is Kyla Carnero and our associate producer is Zoe Culkin. Vince Garza filmed and Pixelworks edited the video. Our head of production is Sammy Allison. Special thanks to Carla Solozano and Tamika Balanz-Kalassi. And we will be back with more anime. Of course, can’t get rid of us. Nothing you can do about it. There’s nothing you can do about it. We’re gonna be back at full strength. Nick will be in this position. I can move back to my color commentary position. And I’ll be gone because we can’t be in the same room. You’ve never seen Nick and Alex in the same room. Thank y’all. Later days. Peace. Bye.