The Ringer-Verse - Ringer-Verse Recommends: July 2024

Episode Date: July 31, 2024

Is that 'Ringer-Verse Recommends' music?! Sweet summer recommendation seekers, listen in as the 'Ringer-Verse' and 'House of R' crews close out a jam-packed July with the latest installment of their monthly mini-pod about their fandom favorites from TV, anime, movies, video games, books, comics, and beyond that were released recently but not yet covered in-depth on a full-length episode. Host: Ben Lindbergh Guests: Charles Holmes, Joanna Robinson, Van Lathan, Jomi Adeniran, Arjuna Ramgopal, Steve Ahlman, and Jonathan Kermah Senior Producer: Steve Ahlman Additional Production Support: Arjuna Ramgopal Social: Jomi Adeniran Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Wake up, babe. Bansplain is back. That's right, your favorite extremely long music podcast has returned. And this season, we're talking grunge. As usual, there's Goss, there's tea. There's an excessive amount of facts and info. And you know what? There's nine hours on a band that rhymes with Schmirlschmamm, plus much, much more. Listen to new episodes of Bansplaine with me, Yossi Solek, every Thursday. For adults with Crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis symptoms, every choice matters. Trimphia offers self-injection or intravenous infusion from the start. Tramphia is administered as injections under the skin or infusions through a vein every four weeks, followed by injections under the skin every four or eight weeks. If your doctor decides that you can self-inject trumphia, proper training is required. Tramphia is a prescription medicine used to treat adults with moderately to severely active Crohn's disease and adults with moderately to severely active ulcerative colitis.

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You don't need weather tech floor liners in the summer, unless you hit the beach or go camping. Then you'd want a cargo liner or a road trip goes sideways, ketchup goes rogue, ice cream drips. Yeah, you'd be pretty happy about those weather tech seat protectors. So just to be clear as the mud, you're inevitably going to step into the summer. You don't need weather tech unless you plan on doing summer. Visit weathertech.com today. Into the ringerverse, your nexus feed for all things fandom. Ben Lindberg, Senior Editor at the Ringer, ButtonMash host, and at the end of every month,

person who pesteres my colleagues to contribute to Ringervverse Recommends. In case you haven't heard one of our previous recommend midi pods, I'll explain what's in store. Just before we flip the calendar, Ringiverse and House of Our hosts look back at the books and comics and movies and video games and TV shows from the past month that we enjoyed when we were off the clock, not covering something for the podcast, but checking it out just for fun. And then we come together to record these short shoutouts to those recent releases because we hope you'll like them too. Now, as you know, July has been the final boss of nerd culture content. Last month, I mentioned that we'd published 23 podcasts in June.

I thought that was a lot because I was a sweet summer child. This month's total, try 29. A new high score, I assume, very close to a pod per day. Despite travel, despite COVID, despite our unfortunate need to sleep sometimes, we persevered and heroized. I heroically watch TV and talked about it. Okay, that doesn't sound so hard. But it was hard to find time to talk about anything that wasn't House of the Dragon or the Boys or the Acklead or Deadpool and Wolverine.

Now, you might wonder, well, what more would I need? Those things took up all my time, too. And it's true, recommendations can come in extra handy during the slower months. But the busier the month, the more likely it is that good stuff will slip through the cracks. And that's why we're here to seal some of those cracks. Almost every Ringerverson House of our host has teamed up this time. Sadly, we're without Mallory Rubin, but we've got a great substitute lined up. Plus, Joanna Robinson is smuggling some extra recommendations, so House of Arr is still well-represented.

But we'll lead with Van Lathen, who's actually re-recommending something he covered with me this month on Butmash. Technically, we're breaking recommends rules by spotlighting something we have highlighted before. But look, I wasn't going to be the one to tell Van he couldn't talk about a beloved game again. Let's let him cook. He's on the road right now, so he had to call in, as he'll hear. But hey, he's old man, Van. It'll sound like he's speaking to us from the 1990s. I'll be back in a bit with my nomination,

and at the end of the episode, I'll recap the picks and share a listener recommendation, which you can submit for future episodes at ringerverse recommends at gmail.com. Now it's time to take the snap. So here's the handoff, or the van off, to van. Finally, it is here. You can take all that just another game stuff and throw it out.

The eyes of the nation are on this field today, and that's what these players live for. What's up everybody? It's Van. Spring reverse recommends for July. Got to go with college football, 25. The game has taken over my entire life. I got two or three or four different career things going. I'm on road to glory, trying to get my guy Hizman to LSU.

I'm moving a dynasty to championships, LSU, LSU. LSU. I'm playing competitive in the ringerverse 1B1 situation, winning the inaugural ringerverse college football 25 championship against Jomey, Deontay, the rest of the contenders and challengers can't be stopped. The game is fantastic if you love college football, if you love football simulation video games, the pageantry, the realism, sometimes the cheesy stuff. The game is a one of one. It's doing gang buses, and it has a big fan in me. I can see that my productivity is going to go way down the next six to eight months

because I cannot get enough of college football 25. And I'm telling you right now, even if you don't like sports, even if you're a Joe, a go sports person, you can love this game. I won't play this game with Joe. I won't make Joe play this game. Joe and I will play this game together. I like whatever she likes, whatever she tells me to do I will do.

But in this case, I need her to do something for me, which is to play college football 25, the same thing I need you to do. Yo, this Coke Baby Chuck for Ring ofverse recommends, and I want to recommend this month one of the most beautiful anime I've seen, The Illusive Samurai. It is on Crunchyroll right now.

Basically, it's the story of a young samurai. One of his retainers basically kills his father, the Shogun, he has to escape. But the trick is that he's not that great at being a samurai, but he's very, very good at escaping. And honestly, did not really jive with this when it was a manga. But seeing this in anime form, I've just fallen in love with it. It is some of the most beautiful animation that you will see all year.

The story is so captivating. I'm very, very glad I gave it a chance. If you're ever wondering, like, oh, what are the type of animation? what is the type of story, what is the type of colors and everything that Charles just loves from this medium. I think elusive samurai is a great, great example of that, and it's family friendly. So if you have some kids and you're like, oh, I want to watch something with them, the elusive samurai is a great pick. So the elusive samurai ring averse recommends this month. No matter what life throws at you.

You got to stay on your feet. Our strength is we teach both styles. equally. Don't jeopardize that balance, man. Since when do I run shit by him? Since we have no idea what we're up against. Only through pain does the champion reveal itself. Yes, Sensei! Arjuna here for Ring of Verse recommends for the month of July.

And my recommendation this month is not exactly, you know, nerd culture and fandom, but I feel like it's worthy of a submission here. Just because it is part of a beloved 80s franchise, I am, of course, talking about Cobra Chi. That's right. Cobra Kai is back for its final season, which now has been split into three parts on Netflix, as they are prone to do now with their most popular show.

So part one, the first five episodes, I believe, dropped this month and is out now as the show gets ready to wrap ahead of the new Karate Kid movie coming out next year. And, you know, I think if you're a fan of Cobra Kai and the Karate Kid series, you should definitely obviously give it a watch, give it a, give it some time just because the show started out on YouTube Red back many years ago and then eventually transitioned to Netflix. And while I'll admit, the show has certainly gone on probably a little bit too long and has

become a little bit of a soap opera. You got to love that classic, nostalgic karate kid vibe that it has, seeing all of your favorite characters kind of come together and fight off in a very MCU-like universe that Karate Kid and Kobra Kai have kind of created. So that is my July recommendation for Ringiverse recommends. Column punched the other night in the face with the pommel of his sword gripped in his gauntleted fist so hard the dark inlaid metal dimpled under his knuckles. But his opponent showed absolutely no sign of four.

over or surrendering to him. He swore under his breath and followed it up with a kick to the ankle, but missed and almost fell down, and the other night spun gracefully and clouted him smartly in the head, so his ears rang. He would have given a thousand pounds to be able to wipe the sweat out of his eyes, not that he had a thousand pounds. He had exactly three shillings and two silver pennies to his name.

Oh, hello. It is Joanna Robinson from House of R. And I am here with the classic House of Art smuggle with three book recommendations for July 3, Joanna. How could you possibly have had time to get all that done when you were covering House of the Dragon? Listen, I also said COVID, so I had a lot of time. I'm going to do this from like sort of least favorite to most favorite, provided they let me get away with this. Okay. Amazon Prime Show Lady Jane, my Lady Jane, dropped, I think at the end of the of June, so I would not put it in the July bucket. But I did read the book, which is sort of like a fun and fluffy YA book. If you guys are not aware of either the show or the book, My Lady Jane is a story of the real historical figure of Lady Jane Gray, but they put a bunch of magic and shape-shifting animals in it and stuff like that. The book was fun. I think the show is a bit better than the book. And the show itself is really mostly just like a B-B-B-plus show for me, but a really fun, find time at the high fantasy. Next in the list, this is number two, is a book called The Book of Elsewhere by China Mieuil,

and Kiana Reeves ever heard of him? Mieville, I might be mispronouncing, Mievi, might be the French way, is like an icon of sci-fi fantasy books, Perdido Street Station, you know, the city and the city, like, incredible. And then he's paired up with Keanu Reeves. That Keanu Reeves, and I would just say that this is like, it's a really fun, like, it's fun to try to pick through and see where Keanu's imprint is on all of this. And I had a good time with this book. It's not, it's not the best.

It's not up to Milville's, like, best work, but it's fun. Like, Keanu wrote a book, and it's like, it's kind of a for real sci-fi book. So I would check it out. And then the number one recommendation I have is a big doorstopper of a book. called The Bright Sword by Lev Grossman. Lev Grossman, who you may know from, he wrote The Magicians series, book series, and he has come for King Arthur and Camelot.

And I'm just going to read a recommendation for this book by someone you might have heard of, George R. Martin. And George says, if you love King Arthur, as much as I do, you'll love Love Grossman's The Bright Sword, a fresh and engrossing take on the matter of Britain, featuring a colorful cast of Roundtable Knights who don't often get as much storytime as they deserve.

The creator of the magicians has woven another spell. So this is some really fun King Arthur stuff. So if you're missing House the Dragon already, then this might be the thing for you. So that's my recommendation. My smuggle probably went, yep, definitely went way longer than I was supposed to. But my lady Jane, the book of elsewhere, and then Lev Grossman's The Bright Sword.

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This is a spinoff from and prequel 2, the first two Quiet Place films. Those two take place more than a year after the alien monsters with incredibly acute hearing arrive and destroy civilization. This one, as you might expect, takes place on day one when the apocalypse is just starting. Those two are set in upstate New York. This one is said in New York City, though it was filmed largely in London. Those two feature a family led by Emily Blunt and John Cresinski. This one stars Lupita Nongo as a terminally ill cancer patient and Joseph Quinn, aka Eddie Munson from Stranger Things, as an English law student she randomly meets along the way. The only real link to the later time frame is the presence of Jaiman Hunsu's character from part two, but you don't have to have watched

that one first. Day One was written and directed by Michael Sarnaski, who made Pig, and it's beautifully filmed. It feels and looks like children of men, except that the goal isn't to protect the last baby on earth, but to eat the last piece of Patsy's Pizza in Harlem, which is also pretty important. It's suspenseful, it's surprising, and it may make you cry. Thanks to the performances of Niyongo and Quinn, who have such expressive faces that they can convey emotion with very little dialogue. There is also what I call an EMP, not an electromagnetic pulse, an emotionally manipulative pet. In this case, a cat called Frodo, who you will want to protect with your life. But don't worry, day one won't be traumatic if you're an animal lover. It's no Guardians of the Galaxy Volume

3. One of the reasons I like Apoclip stories is that it's fun to wonder how I would handle the same situation. Well, the ability to be quiet is one of my superpowers, so I think I'd do well in this world. If I'm not podcasting, I'm probably not making much noise. I am a New Yorker. and sometimes I wish it were a quieter place. Which are worse? Monsters that can kill you if you don't stay silent or really loud neighbors. Sometimes a tough call. I like the apocalypse stories in this series so much because they're economical, 90-ish minutes

apiece, and because they tell small-scale self-contained stories with clearly defined stakes. I think I could watch an unlimited number of them, and I might get to. A Quiet Place Part 3 is in development. There will probably be a sequel to this prequel, and there's a video game coming out this year. Here's my advice for this franchise as it continues to expand. Don't tell us too much about the monsters. They should remain mostly a mystery because that makes them more alien and more threatening. I actually love how little lore there is.

The protagonists are just trying to survive, not to study the monsters' motivations or origins or inner lives. And I don't need to know any more than they do. Think predator or prey, not the predator reboot. Keep the focus on characters we care about in tense situations, and this formula will work for a while. Day one is still in theaters and you can already buy or rented on Apple TV, Prime Video, or the Microsoft store. So don't delay another day. Let me leave you with this thought experiment inspired by something from the film. Let's say you're surrounded by the aliens.

There's no escape. They're going to get you. You have your phone. It's still charged and you can access the internet. So you decide to blast something from the speaker and go out in a glorious burst of sound. What's the last thing you want to hear before the monsters tear you apart? Is it a song? A voicemail?

some message from a friend or family member, Bill Pullman's speech from Independence Day, ringerverse recommends, think it over. And if you'd like, let me know. Hey, everyone, Steve Allman here, back with another ringerverse recommendation for the month of July. And this month's recommendation from me

is a video game called Kunjitsu Gami Path of the Goddess. This is from Capcom, developed and published by them. And it is a interesting and niche take on the Tower Defense style strategy game. with a bunch of Japanese play-inspired action,

little hints of Onimusha in here. It's a very interesting and unique take on Tower Defense that is reminiscent of the PlayStation 2 games of old, something that would have come out in the same vein as Okami or Beautiful Joe, gameplay that's very unique and niche to a certain style while also being incredibly well-crafted with love and interesting gameplay mechanics.

You basically play as a elegant warrior tasked with ushering an elegant princess across a vast forest of Japan, and as you run along, you fight these demonic corruptions that are infecting villagers, buildings, and animal plant life, and you are fighting off demon-only

as you are protecting this princess. Now, it sounds like a familiar title, but it's something that is, really interesting, beautiful, easy to pick up and play. Playable on your Steam deck, PS5, and a couple of other great consoles as well. Check it out. Kungitsugami, Path of the Goddess. I see a thousand stars.

A thousand eyes. All of us nothing. And all of us infinite. What's up, guys. It's Jomey. Back with another edition of Ringiverse recommends for July. The best month of the year. and you know it's the best month of the year

because you're getting season six of the Dragon Prince that's right the Dragon Prince is back and I for one am super excited to see the adventures of Callum, Ezra

the entire gang continue look, it's one of those shows where you look at it you like bro what is this man? This is like this is weak bro it's not not hitting. When I tell you Dragon Prince was on that Smoke, my boy.

It's on there. Smoke, who. The first three seasons came out. I want to say, 2019, 2020, 2020, 2020, around there. And then they stopped making the show. We're like,

yo, what's going on? They're like, boom, four more seasons. Okay? This is season six. It's the penultimate season. And I cannot wait to dive. And I haven't watched it yet.

But I'm already recommended to you because I know it's good because the show is good. The show's been good. There's princes. There's dragons, there's wizards, there's mages, there's all the stuff we love about these universes. It's in the show. It's funny.

It's our felt. It is honestly a joy of a time. So if you got time to watch nine episodes, tap in to the Dragon Prince Season 6. What's up, Ringerverse? His producer Kerm here. As you may know, Deadpool and Wolverine just dropped. You know, that kind of scratched my X-Men itch this month. But you know I'm a fiend.

You know, you know, just one movie isn't enough for me. So I had to check out some of these new X-Men comics that dropped this month of July. We're officially in this new era entitled From the Ashes of Krikola. And two of the comics that stuck out to me were Jed McKay and Ryan Stegman's latest adjective-less X-Men comic, which kind of follows a Cyclops-led X-Men team with, you know, this bass in Scott's hometown of Alaska with Magneto in the Professor Xavier position. The art is very distinct from the previous era that felt almost like beautiful mosaics when artists like Lucas Wernick and Pepe Lorans drew them. But this art style and this era from Ryan Stegman is a little more edgy and, for lack of a better word, cool, which is very fitting with the tone and direction this comic seems to be moving. behind a Cyclops, who hasn't forgotten what humanity did to mutant kind.

And I'm pretty excited off this first issue. I won't spoil too much, but definitely worth checking out. And my other comic recommendation, the comic that caught my eye, is actually NYX by Jackson, Lansing, Collins, Kelly, and Francesco Martyrino. This comic features the newly announced mutant Miss Marvel going to school in New York City, surrounded by fellow mutants like Wolverine, Laura, Kenny, and a bunch of characters from Academy X like Prodigies. And it's very, I think the selling point is very jovial

and it's definitely capturing the essence of being young and going to college in New York City. So if that's something that interests you, you might want to check that out as well. You can find these at your local comic bookstores or you might have to wait a little bit for it to be on the Marvel app, Marvel Unlimited, where they update the latest comics three months.

once after they drop. All right, it's your boy, Ben, back again with this month's listener recommendation, sent to Ringervverse Recommends at gmail.com by Tom Shepansky, who has a fantasy novel to tell us about. I was about to die. Worse, I was about to die with bastards. Not that I was afraid to die, but maybe who you die with is important. It's important who's with you when you're born, after all.

If everybody's wearing clean linen and silk and looking down at you squirming in your bassinet, you'll have a very different life than if the first thing you see when you open your eyes as a billy goat. I looked over at Hoggren and decided he looked uncomfortably like a billy goat. Tom writes, I would like to recommend the brand new book The Daughters War by Christopher Buellman. It's a prequel of sorts to his previous book, The Black Tongue Thief, which came out in 2021. This story follows Galva, the Raven Knight Warrior from the previous entry in the series during the Daughters War against the goblin horde. The Raven Knights are a new army unit that fights alongside giant ravens created by magic and trained for war. Galva, along with her brothers, is fighting a seemingly

hopeless battle against the goblins to save humanity. It's called the Daughter's War, because so many men died in the two previous wars with the goblins, that the vast majority of people fighting for humanity are women, many the daughters of veterans of the last war. I've read both books in this series, and although they're connected, their tones are very different. While the Black Tongue Thief was told from the perspective of a sarcastic thief and was filled with humor, with splashes of darker content. The Daughter's War is narrated by a stoic warrior in a bloody war against a relentless enemy, with some occasional humor thrown in. If you're a fan of dark fantasy stories set in a very well-thought-out world, such as the Bloodsworn Trilogy by John Gwyn,

I highly recommend picking up this book. Even if you haven't read the Black Tong Thief, you should have no problem following what's going on. But in typical house of our fashion, I'm going to try to sneak in a smuggle and recommend reading the Black Tongue Thief too. Thanks, Tom, a fantasy novel and a smuggle. Joanna would be proud. Now, I know we haven't hit everything that came out this month. Maybe you're wishing we'd discussed Supercell or Star Trek prodigy or crisis on infinite earths or dead dead demons or Final Fantasy 14 Don Trill.

Well, we want to hear from you to tell us what we missed or submit your own recommendation for next month or a future month. Just send us an email or even a recording to be played on the pod at ringerverse recommends at gmail.com. All right. It's time for the traditional recapping of pay. The official Ringiverse Recommend selections from July 2024. From Van Lathen, E.A. Sports College Football 25 for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series XS.

From Charles Holmes, the Crunchyroll Anime, The Illusive Samurai. From Arjuna Ramgapal, the sixth and final season of Cobra Kai on Netflix. From Joanna Robinson, so many smuggles. My Lady Jane, both the book by Cynthia Hand, Brody Ashton, and Jody Meadows, and the streaming series on Prime Video, The Book of Elsewhere, a novel by China Miavill and Keanu Reeves. In another novel, the Arthurian epic, The Bright Sword by Lev Grossman. From me, the movie A Quiet Place Day 1, still in theaters, and now available via video on demand. From Steve Allman, the video game Kunitsugami, Path of the Goddess,

for current and last-gen PlayStation and Xbox systems, and available via GamePass. From Jomi Adelan, another Netflix show in its sixth season, The Dragon Prince, from Jonathan Kerma, aka Kerm, the new Marvel Comics runs of X-Men and NYX. And finally, Christopher Buhlman's fantasy novels The Daughters War and The Black Tongue Thief. Got all that? Great. That's a wrap on July. Looking ahead, I foresee a slight slowdown, a return to a time when we would publish a few podcasts per week instead of several. Your friendly neighborhood ringerverse hosts will use that time to rest and recharge and prepare for the next content crisis,

and maybe you'll use it to check out some of the stuff we just recommended. More recommendations to come next month. For now, please stay tuned for House of Our's Deadpool and Wolverine Deep dive, a mint edition on Batman Cape Crusader. And of course, our House of the Dragon finale coverage from Talk to Throne, the Midnight Boys, House of Bar, and the ringer.com. What a great website. Thanks to Steve Allman for producing this episode and to our Juneer Bram compel for directing traffic and preventing podcast pileups.

Finally, thanks to the creators who give us so much to discuss and to you for listening and supporting us. We'll talk to you in August, and in the meantime, we hope you'll recommend the Ringiverse. Feels like every product claims real protein these days. But Real doesn't start on a label. It starts at the source. Like real California milk from California farm families,

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