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Perhaps the podcast should be renamed to The Curmudgeon and Steve? The eternal discussions held between an aging cynic that can only find reasons to dislike things and Steve, a guy that likes things. It is normally how I feel after some of our discussions, but this episode found the two of us oddly in sync in terms of overall feeling. We both enjoy JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, for example, but only to an extent. There’s imperfection to be found there, but where so much of Steve’s experience is new, mine is tempered by a library of anime that can and have done certain things better.

I don’t have much exposure to “the anime fandom”, but what exposure I do have is one of short-term memory and constant hype. The video game industry has blissful dreams of an audience so willing to accept anything new that comes their way. As shamelessly hype-filled as Bethesda’s E3 conference may have been in 2019, there’s no end of praise for any series that premieres in a given anime season. At some point you watch yet another derivative shounen be celebrated as one of the greatest works of the medium, all while a beloved and experimental new show that fails categorization goes unnoticed, and you wonder if you really understand this fandom you were once a part of.

You may recall a a disorganized, late night rant in which I exclaimed the Final Fantasy VII Remake fails to excite. Clearly this is no longer the case, and I’ve been meaning to address it in written form for a long time. As usual, every draft I’ve put together has been met with immense displeasure from myself and thus gone unpublished. Square Enix demonstrated the gameplay a month after I had written that tirade, and though every trailer had me wincing in pain at the slight narrative changes and adjustments, the combat had me salivating.

I’m curious to see which is stronger at the end: my love of the combat or my distaste for the changes to the narrative.

Have thoughts on JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure or the Final Fantasy VII Remake demo? Leave a comment below or send us an e-mail with your thoughts.

Opening theme music by my buddy Brandon, a.k.a. Fallen Prophecy.