The Ringer-Verse - Ringer-Verse Recommends: June 2026 (Featuring an Animation Recommendation Roundup)

Episode Date: June 30, 2026

It’s an animated TV spree! Ben brings on Jomi Adeniran, Steve Ahlman, and Daniel Chin to talk about several animated shows that premiered or concluded in June, including ‘My Adventures With Superman,’ ‘The Legend of Vox Machina,’ ‘Adventure Time: Side Quests,’ and ‘Among Us.’ They break down DC’s animation expansion, preview a bunch of Batman shows, and compare and contrast DC and Marvel’s animated efforts. Also, Jomi tees off on and crashes out about Season 2 of Netflix’s live-action ‘Avatar: The Last Airbender.’ Then, Charles Holmes joins for an anime segment featuring Season 1 of the fantasy series ‘Witch Hat Atelier,’ and Ben closes with a few non-nerd-culture recommendations. (00:00) Intro(02:35) Jomi, Daniel, and Steve join(17;:49) 'Joker: Laugh Riot'(21:38) 'Batman: Knightfall'(32:09) 'X-Men 97'(35:24) 'Legend of Vox Machina'(41:21) 'Among Us'(44:26) 'Adventure Time: Side Quests'(53:03) Netflix's 'Avatar: The Last Airbender'(65:48) Charles joins for 'Witch Hat Atelier'(01:35:00) Ben's final recs Host: Ben LindberghGuests: Jomi Adeniran, Steve Ahlman, Daniel Chin, and Charles HolmesSenior Producer: Steve AhlmanAdditional Production Support: Arjuna Ramgopowel Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This episode is brought to you by Accenture. When your advertising operations fall out of sync, everything else follows. Spotify and Accenture are working together to reinvent the rhythm of ad sales, using automation, analytics, and smarter workflows to simplify campaign delivery and access better data across the business. The result? Less time spent on operations, more time connecting brands with the moments and fandoms that matter most. Learn more at Accenture.com slash Spotify.

And welcome into the ringerverse, your nexus feed for all things fandom. I am Ben Lindbergh, senior editor for The Ringer, Button Mash host, and Master of Ceremonies here at Ringerverse Recommends. This is Ringiverse Recommends for June 2026. Now, as always, we convene at the end of a month to tell you about some stuff that came out recently that we liked but didn't have a chance to talk about in a full episode on the Ringiverse or House of Ar. and that's what we're doing today, though we're doing something a little bit different. Usually we have a bunch of different clips talking about a bunch of different recent nerd culture releases.

Today, we're just doing it all at once as one big conversation, so we're going to have a bunch of guests talking together about a bunch of shows. Most of the Midnight Boys are here, and we are going to do two main segments here. So this has been a big month or big period for animation. Obviously, Toy Story 5 has been covered on the Ring

Reverse X-Men 97 coverage will be coming later this week to the Midnight Boys Pew Pugh, but many other animated releases have surfaced recently. So I'm about to be joined by Steve Alman and Jomi Adoneron of the Midnight Boys as well as Daniel Chin. We're going to do a quick run-through of a bunch of recent animation releases or animation-inspired releases. We're going to talk about My Adventures with Superman. We're going to talk about the legend of Vox Machina. We're going to talk about Among Us and the new Adventure Time spin-off side quests.

And, yes, Avatar, The Last Airbender, Season 2, Jomi has some thoughts about the live adaptation, the live-action adaptation that you will want to hear. And then I will be joined for a separate anime segment, Charles Holmes, and I will break down our new anime fantasy favorite, which hat Atelier, which just completed its first season. Charles will give you another anime recommendation while we're at it. I'll end with a few non-nerd culture recommendations at the end. As always, you can contact us at Ringaverse Recommends at gmail.com. Nominate, submit your favorites.

We'd be happy to hear them and share them. But now, let me roll in a few familiar faces and friends. We're going to talk about a popery, a congrees, a roundup of recent animation, including some comic book material too. All right, we have a full house here on Ring Reverse recommends a little four-player split-screen action, taking it back to the N64 era that we talked about on Buttonmash last week. I am joined now by Jomi Adenoran, Steve Alman, Daniel Chin.

Welcome, fellas. What's going on? What's up, Ben? Hello, hello. Have you guys ever considered doing a show on animation and comic books, maybe? I feel like I'd listen. I don't know, buddy. In these times, I'm not sure.

We'll have to see. Well, we can't do it because, you know, everybody calls Daniel Chin, D.C., and that's copyright infringement. So that's the hard part. RIP Mint Edition, but the spirit of Mint Edition lives on today because we were talking about a lot of animation and maybe even a couple of comic books. So we have a lot of shows to get to.

I figured maybe we can just start with DC and our DC. This is obviously a month when everyone's talking about Supergirl and dunking on Supergirl. But also, there's some Superman action out there and not just in Supergirl. We have the return of my adventures with Superman. So I want to talk a little bit about DC animation, not just this show, but also some shows that were recently announced, the upcoming slate, and also just the significance of DC animation in general, because Daniel, you wrote about this for the ringer.com. What a great website.

But even in the depths of the DCEU, DC animation was a bright spot and has been really for decades. So whatever other knocks we have about the DCEU, the DCU, at least we can count on DC animation, right? Yeah, I mean, like you said, I feel like really for decades, DC animation's been so strong, even especially as things were going so poorly with the DC extended universe. But even just like going back further to the 90s with the Batman, the animated series and Superman,

the animated series, extending into Batman Beyond, like Teen Titans. There's just like classics on classics that I feel like I grew up with. And then like now today, like they're still creating so much good, exciting stuff with characters and still doing it in like fresh ways. Like I like this,

the anime style. like influences coming into my adventures of Superman, like still can create this and make this like a very fresh and modern take on a character that's been done millions of times. Yeah. Yeah, take us through this show. And you did some reporting for the Superman movie last year and you talked to some of the creators of this show.

It's part of the Jack Quaid nerd culture empire ever expanding. And this is on Adult Swim. It's on HBO Max. Season three is airing now. We're a few episodes in. It runs through late July. Give us the premise. Tell us about this depiction of Superman

and what you enjoy about the show. Yeah, I mean, so you mentioned my feature from last year when I was covering Superman. I think really the thing that stuck out to me was just talking to, I spoke to a bunch of creators from live action to comic books like Grant Morrison. I got to have a talk with.

But really, what it comes down to is just trying to find that pocket, that window in which it's like not really being covered that much or it hasn't been covered that much. And for Myard Adventures with Superman, obviously, you have Superman the animated series, which had Superman in full swing. And it was so iconic in its own right. And they wanted to find something that was a little bit different. So they chose a younger version of Superman and taking some of those anime influences like I mentioned like Dragon Ball Z in particular. And just like having a new spin on these characters and having them all have this coming of age kind of experience,

not just Superman, but my adventures were Superman. So the friends as well, like with Lois Lane and Jimmy Olson, and then now with season two and season three now with Kara as well with Supergirl. How would you compare this to say Smallville, tonally speaking?

Very different. Like they went with like, you know, obviously like that similar kind of time frame. And like, and it's, you know, they had kind of like the very,

very early 2000s, like 2000s, like teen angst that was so popular at the time, like, like even before it moved over to CW. But like that was very much of that era and of that time and like that like post-9-11 kind of trauma, but also just like finding like small town Americana, like leaning into that kind of influence and like the patriotism of Superman. None of that is really present in this show. And it's it's really light-hearted. and it's just a much different take, again,

like coming back to that, like, anime style. Yeah. Steve, Jomey, you guys want to talk about your relationship with this show? I was about to say, like, you talk about small living of its time. My Adventure Superman is definitely of its time with the anime influence, man. It parodies on, like, Sailor Moon

and things of that nature. Like, animas that, like, have fallen into the zeit guys. You can see references in pretty much every episode. So to say like this is an anime or see I'm even calling it anime It's not but this is a show it's an animated show that's very much like you see anime You gotta be careful Charles is gonna be here later talking about real anime Well if he said one more time we summon after you like like needle juice Yeah don't say too many times before we bar our times up you know what I mean and so yeah it's just like it's a show

That's made by anime fans for anime fans Steve yeah I've I've had a I've had a lot of just good, warm, fuzzy feelings for my adventures with Superman. It's probably because that optimism and that kind of earnestness that Superman desperately needed post-Snyderverse kind of predates James Gunn's vision. And while I won't say that it could easily directly be a call to influence for him, it's definitely something that I feel like the Gunn and co-signing and wanting to push forward. I think that the offset of that earnestness with the balance of comic book stakes and anime storytelling is kind of a perfect harmony for Superman specifically. I know that we're going to get to talk about a couple of the spin-off shows that DC is going to be announced and possibly the expansion of the My Adventures of Universe. But I think for this, this has always been a solid entry in Superman canon.

And I think now with the new season, without getting too much into the spoilers of the things that we've seen so far from this season, I'm really excited to see that not only that, but like the super family, as it were, get their shine. Yeah, Daniel, without giving too much away, can you kind of give people a sense of the evolution of the show and the arcs and what's going on in season three? Yeah, I mean, so we've only had a few episodes of it. And really, I guess, episode three just came out today, I believe. if not, I think it's yeah, it's the most recent one. That's the one where it's really, I feel like, starting to set up the main arc of this season.

Like you get our first view of like Superboy and him in the future, which has this very like days of future past kind of vibe to it. Like him being sent back into the past to prevent this terrible future and getting a little help from Lex Luthor along the way. And I feel like that's when we're really going to see

the full shape of this start to take place. They took influences from death of Superman and reign of the Superman from the comics. So it's definitely going to take a darker and more serious tone moving forward without really spoiling much. And there is a spinoff coming, as you alluded to, in addition to lanterns coming this summer to HBO, we're getting my adventures with Green Lantern coming sometime in this animated universe. So DC's got a lot of balls in the air when it comes to animation. There's the actual DCU stuff, like Creature Commandos, which kind of kicked off the DCU. And then there's the other stuff.

There's the Warner Brothers Animation DC Studios joints. And we heard last week about a bunch of new ones that are coming, the most exciting of which is probably absolute Batman. So tell us a little bit the comics heads here. Obviously, this has been a huge thing for DC, the absolute universe relaunch. absolute Batman, this has helped catapult DC to a higher market share than Marvel for the first time in a while. Who wants to tell us about this latest reinvention of Batman in the comics that we are now going to see adapted on screen? Absolute Batman is written by Scott Snyder. It's got a whole bunch of artists and

literers and colorists. But essentially what it is, it's a different version of Bruce Wayne, who is not the version of Bruce One that we know that's rich, the socialite playboy, and all that stuff. And the big idea, the main thing is, what if broke Batman fought Eldridge Horrors? That's it. And the horrors must continue.

You know what I mean? Like, if you're not reading the comic or he haven't seen any art, go look up the Joker, he's fine. And tell me if that's a Joker that you want to be, a Batman for it. Because for me personally, I'm not,

I'm not, I'm not doing that. You know what I'm saying? I got to have a line and that's, and that's mine. I can't do it. Bain simply being bigger is one thing, but,

you know, making Scarecrow like this, like, absolute menace and like, again, as you said, Eldridge horror, uh,

I've loved the idea that there, there have been many like sort of iterations of Batman that have like, kind of tried to do what absolute, what the absolute universe is doing right now. and I think the absolute universe is probably in the world of comic books for DC the best and most recent success that has catapulted DC's market share for the comics. And again, your mileage may vary with which you kind of like about this iteration of Batman, if you've read the comics, but this is definitely probably a more modernized and edgier version of Batman

that while also kind of, I guess, taking a bit more of a, again, working class approach to what being a hero and vigilante means. I am personally really excited about this, probably only because that if this is successful, then we could probably get Absolute Wonder Woman. And that's what I actually want because I've loved this. They don't. They don't know Wonder Woman exists. They don't exist. They don't exist. They don't exist. Hey, listen, there's an arc in Absolute Batman where Wonder Woman's got to show up.

So we got to know that. They're fumbling through the files at DC right now. They're like WW. Gee, I don't know. That file's been deleted. It doesn't. They don't got it. They don't got it.

The absolute Martian Manhunter, read absolute Wonder Woman and tell me that's not better than absolute Batman. All three are great. All three are great. You're right. I believe you. However, you could go ask James Gunn. Hey, James Gunn.

A Wonder Woman coming out? He's like, wonder who? Who? We don't. Look, look, we don't have that. We don't have that. We don't have that. Brother, you could go to what you could go to,

Jamaican restaurant and find one that got a jerk chicken right now. They'll be like, yeah, we got some. You ask James Gunn right now. Is there a Wonder Woman project in the works? He'd be like, we know how that. Creature Commandos. Is that what you said? Sorry, all I heard was Creature Commandos.

You know what I thought? Hey, is there some more Wonder Woman? Oh, I heard three new seasons for the Frank Grillo TV show. There you go. Boom. That's what you get when you ask for a woman. It's also important to note that, again, headwriters, Scott Snyder, is on as an executive producer and showrunner.

Showrunner, excuse me. And Nick Dragota is on as an executive producer as well. The artist. Head artist and designer for most of these characters. Yes. It's exactly to know that. Which Snyder you're referring to? Yes, Scott. But no, it's good to know that like the creative engine

behind this comic run is going to be closely and intimately entwined with this show because really they, DC kind of owes like a third of its quarterly market cap to these guys. And I really think that most of what the success of this show is going to be is how well they can adapt their vision while they are at the helm.

And that's going to be very interesting to me. Yeah, I can't wait for this. This is going to be weird. I mean, I think even just like the turnaround and how quickly like this came from the comics to now animation is just so telling and clearly like how much their focus and like how much of a hit it was. And for the record, the first issue of Absolutely Batman. released in December of 2024.

So from then until now, that is a wild. It's absolutely exploded. Like to your point, too, Steve, like there's just a lot of really good, just the whole absolute line is like really like Martian Manhunter, absolutely Martian Manhunter. If they can like replicate that,

that art style like onto the animation with like with artists Harrier Rodriguez, like that, that's going to be stunning to be able to watch. Completely agree. And I hope that, I hope it succeeds because then we can get like, like comic book runs getting adapted, you know, quicker.

We don't have to wait for movies or they can just be like, oh, people like this comic run. Boom. Let's get it, you know, how many ever animated episodes? Because I'm like, this is a no-brainer. And I know people are laughing that this news came out right after Supergirl, the news the Supergirl came through. And the numbers were looking drab. But like, this is something you got to do because this is the hottest thing on the planet, man. Everybody loves Absolute Batman.

The fact that we're getting it. what, after like, they announced it two years after the first issue came out. That's what it's supposed to be, man. Let's lock in. I love it. Yeah, we're seeing that more often, I guess, just because the comics to TV slash movie pipeline, I mean, I guess they have plucked most of the low-hanging fruit. So a lot of the arcs, the classics, have been adapted.

And so now it's like, what else we got, you know? And also people are using the comics now as really kind of like a purposeful factory. you know, development system, farm system for the films, right? Because early in DCU, MCU, etc, like, okay, these comics were not designed with future adaptations in mind, but now they are, right? Or at least that's a possible world. And we saw that with Supergirl, right? And Woman of Tomorrow, I mean, that's five years ago or so that run started, right? So even that, pretty quick turnarounds. And now people are writing comics, drawing comics with potential movies in mind for better or worse. Let me hit you with a couple other loglines here for newly announced DC animated series.

Joker Laf Riot. Okay, here's the pitch. When Batman is murdered, the Joker launches a ruthless crusade through Gotham's underworld to find the killer who took away his greatest adversary. Who killed my boyfriend? But as his violent quest for answers pushes him closer toward vigilante than villain, Joker is forced to confront the truth that without Batman, he doesn't know

who he is. So, Joker's, the dog who caught the car, gets rid of Batman and realizes he needed him all along. Now he misses him. He wants to recreate him. What do you think? I think if Alan Tudik reprises his role

as Joker from the Harley Quinn series, I think this is a home run. Slam dunk, no notes. I think other than that, I think it's an interesting premise. I need to know the comedic versus the serious tone of this. And that's really got to be shown in, you know, the dailies here. I'm not, I'm not to.

Does say laugh riot. It does say laugh riot. But laughs and riots. I'm sure it'll be a blend of both. But yeah, that is a compelling premise. Also, we have crypto, because crypto is so hot right now, star of major motion pictures. And here's the logline for crypto. when he's not hanging out with Superman or Supergirl,

crypto tags along with a gang of misfit criminal wannabes who live down the block, and they soon discover he's a ball of destructive, lovable energy worse than any of them. As he follows them into misadventures and poorly laid plans, crypto's pure nature slowly ends up redeeming them whether they want it or not. I'm scratching your face.

I'm scratching your face-pubbing right now. Hey, man, you know what? I got to give it up to Jimmy, man. He cooked. this is this is the this is the agenda you know what i mean you get superman got to save the dog super guru you got to save the dog in crypto the dog saves you yes maybe that's what it's always been the antidote for crypto he is the antidote to villity you know i listen even even if i'm trying to i do want to be nice to my man hamis you know he'd be working hard to do his thing

but animation really is like to me the bad thing backbone of this stuff. We talk about like real, I mean, comics are actually, but let's be honest, people aren't buying comics like they used to, you know, back in the day, you know what I mean? For a lot of people, their entry point into these universes is by animated shows, whether it's like Justice League or Earth's Mighty's Heroes or whatever may be Batman the animated series, Teen Titans, Young Justice, all that stuff, right? And so the fact that we're getting like all these animated shows from DC. even if we got to get a crypto show, right?

It just leaves more avenues. You know what I'm saying? It's it gets more. There's more avenues to get people involved. And at that, I can't be mad at that. I can't. I mean, he's our favorite animal abuse animals and perils merchant. That's what can you say?

We're getting. Yeah. Come on, crypto. Come on down. He's going to hit that button every single time. Yep. Does the dog die? No, never.

Not where crypto is concerned. And I don't know if this will be more kid-oriented, presumably. I don't know if this is Scooby-Doo vibes or something here. Just based on font alone, yes. Yeah. I would hope so. Yeah. I don't need a rated TV 14 crypto going around.

And he's like, hey, guys, you should have, drugs aren't cool. You know, you know what's better than cocaine. Yeah. Yeah, you know what's better than cocaine? School. I don't really, I don't really need that. And while we're all waiting for our next installment of Robert Battenson, we have a lot of other Batman animation going on because season two of Cape Crusader is coming. And also Batman Nightfall.

And I know I just finished saying that a lot of the classics, the low-hanging fruit, already adapted. I mean, I guess that's sort of true in that Nightfall, one of the biggest Batman arcs from the 90s, was sort of the basis of the Dark Night Rises. but here it's getting its own show with Hansom-Anson Mount from Strange New Worlds. Shout out to Captain Pike, season four coming back this summer. He's playing Batman.

So what do you guys think of this? I mean, we have a whole Batman-animated universe happening here. Is it a show or is it a trilogy? It's a trilogy of animated movies. Yeah. Yeah. It's like Crisis of Infiniteers kind of.

So it looks awesome. I have tried to actually avoid this until I knew that I would actually be able to watch it because everybody's saying that this is like, hey, this is the animated Batman movie that is kind of like the second coming for animated DC's heyday. And I really hope that that's the case. But I'm holding out hope because I don't know, 90s Bain really can get wacky with it.

So if they can, again, it's a fine line, but if they could write it, it's pretty good. Now, you got to trust the vision. DC animation has been like the king for the last like 20, 30 years.

And so if they're like, yeah, we're making some, we're making another Batman joint, especially Batman Nightfall, you got to be locked in on day one and at least and give it a shot. Right. By the way, Ben, I'm waiting for you to say the show that's going to set Jomey's heart on fire. And I'm going to wait until you say it.

Oh, hit it. Oh, well, are you ready to move on or you mean another DC show? I mean, we got, we got like, There's like three more that I saw on that end announcement docket. It's so many. Yeah. What's the show? Well, from what I'm looking at it, it's called superpowers.

And if you don't know the premise of that, it's superheroes in high school. With the Flash and Plastic Man. Yeah, man. Shout out the Flash and Plastic Man, man. You know what I'm saying? Plastic Man underrated goat, by the way. Plastic Man be putting on,

he'd be put, disguised themselves as clothes and putting himself on naked women. That's not my goat. That could never be my goat. That could never be my goat. That could never be my goat. That show is interesting because I'm looking at that and I'm like, is this, but is this one of them joints that's for the, I mean, they're all for the children.

Let's be honest, right? It's all for the kids. And we are the children. But this one, are we the children? Right? On the inside. Lightning, plastic, man. Like, Green Lantern.

What is it? Tara, Aqua Girl, and the principal is Martian Manhunter? Like, okay. Come on. Okay. But again, is it for the kids, like, is it for children, right? Is it Spidey and Friends? If it's Spidey and Friends, then y'all can have it.

Right? And we'll talk about this when we talk about Adventure Time later. But if it's like, all right, man, we're going to let these, you know, high school kids get it back, going back to crypto, all the kids going to smoke crack. I need them to be outside. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, Steve. What I need is they're going to be the kids walking home for school, but like, hey, yo, man, you want to buy, you want to buy some? And the kids, instead of being like, no, sir, I'm good with the drugs.

They go, hey, man, you know what, I might do some smack. Let's like, let's make it to wire. And it was version of Manhunter the whole time trying to teach him a lesson. Maybe, maybe. Look, it's got to be fun. I, maybe I'm just, maybe I'm just growing up, fellas. You know, maybe I'm just in my feelings. look, fellas, I'm not going to lie to you.

It's been a tough couple days. All right. Germany lost. Germany lost last night. And then I wake up this morning, Sean's like, LeBron, he's going to the crib. You're not coming back. I was wondering if this is going to come up.

So maybe I'm just in a rough spot right now. But if I'm going to get a DC's superpower, if I'm going to get a DC show with the young teams, they're doing teenage hero stuff, maybe, maybe they should they shouldn't be plucky. That's all I'm asking. Right? And they will be.

This is, this is going to be fine. Vans, Vans invaded your brain too much. I can hear. The only midnight boy who's not on this episode is, is appearing speaking through you, maybe I'm just so jaded after the last 18 hours of living that I'm just like,

you know what, man, either the kids are out there doing drugs. It's euphoria or I don't want it. Wow. That's not true. It's probably, it's going to be fine.

I'm probably going to enjoy it, honestly. But yeah, If it's like in the mold of a teen Titans or a young justice then yeah I could I could be bought I could be brought growing up before our eyes I think that's like honestly

like what's smart about this right now though is because they really are giving a really wide range of selections too because like we kind of went over Cape Crusader but like that first season was like a much ground much more grounded like darker like that was not necessarily for the kids they're like that that moment when like young Bruce like opens up

the door and he's just like yo outfit like there's some dark moments, you know? Like, so I don't know. Like, I'm glad that they have this, like, they have something for everybody right now. Like, I don't know if I'll be watching this one. I don't know if I'll be watching crypto, to be honest, but I'm definitely seated for most of these.

Yeah. You guys are going to watch Starfire? Oh, yeah. You've got Starfire. You got Bat Fam. That's for the kids. That's just something for the kids. I tell you what's not for the kids, though, Mr. Miracle.

I'm watching, I've got, I'm watching that like a hawk. Okay. That's going to be the third DCU Canon animated show after Creature Commandos and Blue Beetle. and now we got now I got a hate because what do you mean you go introduce Darkside in an animated

in an animated show man come on man I mean James Gunn is taking this time we're not even going to introduce Wonder Woman that soon all right give me we got it we gotta take our Ws when we can show me this and this is the thing and this was like when he first came on

and he did the whole thing and he was like hey guys movies TV shows animated shows video games, they all go be Canton Universe. I was like, hey man, let's slow down a little bit. Let's slow the role. I don't know if that's the right idea

considering, like, a lot of people don't watch the ancillary stuff, the stuff that comes on TV, stuff, especially the animated things, you know? And if you're going to introduce your big villain, like imagine if we was watching the MCU and you

had to watch Earth's Middies Heroes of Cetanos, else. You understand what I'm saying? Like, are you guys feeling me? Like, it just doesn't... Comesa, it doesn't really make any sense. And so, while I am going to watch the show, we're going to see what it's like. The new gods are very, like, there's a rich text.

There's a lot of stuff in there that can, you know, fill a universe specifically animated because of all the Jack Kirby colors, everything like that. Like, it's perfect for animation. But is it right to introduce your universe's Big Bad for the first time? I don't think so. I don't think that's right. I definitely agree with you, especially in a vacuum,

but I think that's kind of the tough position that James Gunn and the DCUs. And right now, I think they just need to hit the ground running. And I think that was really telling from just the opening of Superman, where they're just like, he's been at this for whatever it was,

like 10 years and just like, here's all of like the justice gang. Like, they just feel the pressure to immediately inject you into this because they tried to go the slope, well, I don't know, they rushed it the first time too was the problem when they did it for the DC Extended Universe. They're like, we can't do that again because we just have to hit the ground run in here.

So I don't know. I wish they could take the time, but I, the superhero era is just like, you know, I see. I was just talking about how it's over. It's over. And can we, and Joe me, can we not play fast and loose in the animated worlds anyways? Like, we have that real estate. Not if it's, not if it's canon to your live action universe.

Yeah, that's tough. If it was, if you just were like, we make an animation, I don't care what y'all doing on the other side of animation. Like whatever you want, Spider-Man. do whatever. Like, who cares? Batman can do whatever. It doesn't really matter. But if you're like, yo, guys, this need, like, you have to watch this in order to understand matter tomorrow or whatever it may be. No, we're not doing that. Exactly. But that's what I'm saying. To your point,

though, Daniel, I, it'd be one thing because you're right. You can't rush it. That's what failed the last time. And you don't want to be like an MCU, you know, just like, just you know, copy the stees, whatever. Clayface? You ain't got no Batman. I'm holding a hell. But we're making Clayface? Do you know what I'm? Do you understand where I'm coming from?

Do you know what I, you know? Okay. Hey, man, imagine. If, hey, imagine if there was like, bet, you're going to get, we're going to make, guys, guys, we're going to make an Iron Man movie, right? 2008, we've got Iron Man movie. Then, next year, we're going to make a war machine movie. right and then next up

you're not gonna believe this he doesn't exist anymore but we're gonna get a red school movie coming in coming in October yeah I'm turning it off yeah I'm turning that off what are you talking about let's be let's be serious you know and so ultimately

it comes back to the I get it you want to like slow you want to like actually you know develop these characters develop these scripts whatever brother you got big hitters on your bench big dog let's let's get serious let's lock in he's not locked in And that's okay.

Yeah. It's okay. Look, every hero has their audience, but there are limits to the size of that audience with some of the B-C-T-D-E-tier heroes. They can't carry these projects. They can't be the headliners. And maybe Spider-Man and Doomsday make a billion bucks. And suddenly everyone's like, oh, superheroes back.

But will that extend to Clayface? Will that extend to the next tier down, the Supergirls? of the world, whether or not the movie is good. One way or another, it seems like DC didn't get the memo from Star Wars Marvel when it comes to, we're slowing down, we're pulling back, because they just showed off a dozen shows at that showcase last week. They're not slowing down. You mentioned Starfire, also, Jomi, another family-friendly one. So before we move on to non-superhero stuff, Daniel, you're writing about X-Men 97, season two,

Jomey and Steve, you'll be covering it with the Midnight Boys later this week. just give us a brief take, Daniel, on where we are DC versus Marvel when it comes to the approaches to animation, the level of success, the integration with the canonical DCUs slash MCU. I mean, I think DC is still just miles ahead of where Marvel animation is. But Marvel is just, they've had a few shows already. Like I like the Spider-Man show, like my neighborhood, my friendly neighborhood Spider-Man, I thought it was solid. And really just the one big one. Like X-Men 97, it's just fantastic. Like that first season, especially like that fifth episode,

remember it is one of the best, like, animated episodes I've seen, like, full stop. So it's like, in a rare move from Marvel, it's really quality over quantity right now when it's coming to the animation side. And like just this show coming back and then them focusing on Apocalypse for this series, like for this season rather. That's so excited. Yeah. I wish there was more for Marvel animation.

X-Men 97, almost said spectacular Spider-Man. That's how deep in the weeds I am for real, for real TV. But friendly neighborhood Spider-Man was good. I thought, it was good. We saw a first look one time. And I was like, this is going to be a two bag of cheeks. It's going to be one of the worst shows in ever seen.

It was really one of the funniest things because of like we were in like a theater. I can't remember what we were screening, but they showed us a real of like what would be. Oh, it was what if. It was what if. It was what if. That's what it was. And they were screening like a bunch of like

Eyes of Wakanda, early, early looks, completely different looking show by the way from what we got. X-Men 97 and then Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man and then Jomey was like

that looks like shit. That looks terrible. That's garbage. It looked like we took a P&G and like 15 frames per second it was moving across your screen. Right. And lo and behold,

it was awesome. And the show is great. It's really enjoyable. But I wish, I just wish there was more. I wish there was Avengers. I wish there was, you know, Iron Man. I wish there was, like, more stuff in that world.

But, you know, they're too busy making movies. So, you know, what can you do? I am glad they're pulling back on, like, what if at least. Like, I'm glad that that shows over. You know, I enjoyed some of it, you know, very, we talked about that a lot of in addition, I feel like. And it's just, you know, I joined you guys for a few of those. And it's just, I'm glad, like, we're moving past that kind of area.

It's over. It's over. zombies, you know, there's some worthwhile stuff there, but it just hasn't really popped. Yeah, at least nowhere near where what X-Men 97 is. So I think it's smart for them to really,

like they're already working on season three. Like, I am curious how it's going to be, I know there's the Bo de Mayo of it all. Like, I don't know. We don't have to get too much into X-Men 97. I know you guys are going to talk about it on Midnight Boys. But I am curious to see what it's going to go

like past this season. But as for right now, Like, definitely, definitely excited for it. It's so good. All right. Let's take a quick spin through some other recent animated entries here. And Jomi, you can keep the floor here. Tell us about the legend of Ox Machino.

This is season four just wrapped up on Prime Video. This is, of course, the animated fantasy series based on the first season of Critical Role, the D&D show. So tell us what everyone needs to know if you're on board. or if you're not yet on board, sell us. I hope everybody's on board. And if you're not on board, get on board. This show, I'm not a D&D person.

I never, I didn't grow up playing D&D. The only time I played D&D was when we did the Ringer Quest joint, which feels like 400 years ago. Huh? Interesting that I just mentioned that right now. Joe me, you were a natural. I'll say that. What can I say?

But I fell in love with the show like almost from the jump. and it keeps getting better and better. And I feel like this season in particular was legitimately incredible. There is in episode five, the Heist episode, and maybe it's because I love a heist, was one of my favorite episodes of TV I've seen this year, you know, regardless of whatever genre or medium we're talking about. It was a ton of fun. DeRolo's, was it, DeRolo's Nine or whatever it was called?

But it's amazing stuff. And if you're into D&D, if we're not into D&D, you should be watching this and you should be watching The Mighty Nine, which is from the same critical role people, a different campaign. But it is a ton of fun. It is emotional. It is entertaining. It is just a ball of a time. I can't speak enough about how fun this show is. And, man, there's like a couple of gun punches in this season.

You should be watching this show. If you're listening to this podcast or you haven't watched the show, what are you doing? Go tap in right now. I have one of those people. It's so much. Yo, DC, no, I don't blame DC. I don't blame DC. DC been on a three-week bender since the championship.

DC, he haven't been at the crib. DC-in-d-brought-in-law me, man. I'm still on cloud nine. You're talking about it. You're talking about it. We was like, yo, we were like, yo, DC, man. We're going to be in Sweden, bro. You're coming through.

He said, nah, man. Champs, baby. Finals are on, man. I need to be home. I can't come to Sweet to watch the game with y'all at 2 a.m. at a random Swedish hotel room. You have to go to the games in person. I was locked in, man.

I was locked in. He's a cafe with Mom Donnie right now. So, so DC, when you're done, you know what I'm saying? When the confetti finally stops falling, lock in. It's going to be a while, but yeah, yeah. I'll be on these ghosts on this for months. Yeah. I feel wider right now, you know.

Yeah, Daniel is recording from the championship parade. He just has not left. He's just still hanging off the side of a street lamp, just celebrating. He does recommend, Ring of Burst recommends the Knicks winning the NBA Finals. That's definitely your highest recommendation. Just rewatching game four over and over again, you know? Ken, into heroes. That's where you are.

All right. So, Jomey, are they still now through season? for this is the same folks from Critical Role, are they extending the original campaign? Or is this still working on aspects of the original campaign? I haven't watched the original campaign. I'm not locked in on the original campaign. But I know that the next season will be the last season.

Right. So they are allegedly going into the Vecna arc from the original campaign. And so this will be the final chapter of Fox Monk. I'm sad. Not to be confused with Beckett from Stranger Things, by the way. Well, no, obviously, because I'm sure they know actually how to end a story. So, yeah, very true. I'm not, I'm not really, I'm not the confusion.

There's no confusion for me personally because the people in charge of this show actually know how to run a TV. I'm sorry. You know what? That's my fault. I don't apologize to the Duffer brothers and everybody involved, you know, hey, you know, it's been, again, but a crazy couple of hours. It's been a couple of days. Yeah. Let's have some.

Let's have some grace, you know. The Duffer Brothers. I'm going to extend the same grace to them. The Burroughs, which went one and done on Netflix, which the executive produced. I was like, maybe this is Ringiverse Recommends material. I started watching it. And then they were like, well, that's it. It is absolutely not.

No. Woody's finest hour. All right, all right. Let's see the next episode. Next day. They canceled it after that. Yeah, they did. I watched the first episode.

It was all right. It was cool. It was bad. It was mid. DC was mid. Be honest. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's all right.

It's a safe space. It's just us. No, I'm sad that Vox Mockiner's ending after season five. Again, I've enjoyed the show. It's been so much fun. Like, I wouldn't say it's got to me into D&D, but it's really like open my eyes to how, like, how much fun and entertaining that world is.

And I, I hope that, like, with that ending, we get some, we get some more mighty nine because that's also fun. That's like a, that's another show set in the universe. This one is like, like, usually like 30 minutes, that show is like an hour long. So it's like, it's a different, different, like same vibes, but different, different mediums in terms of like the story that they're telling. And it's that whole universe is just a bunch of fun.

So hopefully you guys tap in because it is real cinema. Yeah. And if you're just catching up, there are 12 episodes per season. So 48 episodes to catch up on a Vox Machiner right now. I want to also tell you, you know, we're talking about critical roles, It's almost video game adjacent, an actual video game adaptation, which I always have my eye on. There's a new show this month premiered on Paramount Plus, which is where I watched my Star Trek and my Taylor Sheridan. But I also watched Among Us this month. So this is an adaptation of the video game among us, which is...

Timely. Yeah, I mean, not exactly. It was in the works for a while. But yeah, that game's from 2018 and it really popped off during the pandemic of course. And so, you know, people have probably seen the characters if they haven't played it. It was huge for a while. And it's, you know, basically like mafia meets the thing. You've got your crewmates. You've got your impostors on a spaceship. You're trying to decide who's who and cooperate and investigate. And it's sort of the same idea with the TV show. This is 10 episodes in the first season. And they're all bite size, like adventure time length, almost. They're like 12 to 15 minutes and they binge

drop the whole thing so it's out there right now let me read you this cast because it is like invincible level star studded right I mean we have Wayne Knight Phil Lamar Randall Park

Dan Stevens I know I led with Wayne Knight you led with Wayne Knight I was like yes Gus we've got every we've got everybody number one Wayne

nice in Hollywood But wait a day here. Okay, I should have led with someone else. Pat Nosswald. Elijah Woods? Is that doing anything? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.

Yvette Nicole Brown. You know, it's just, it's very deep. Ashley Johnson. We got a lot of big names here. And it's funny. I checked out the first few episodes. And it's got kind of, you know, it's, it's bite size and it's got good tone where it's like comedy, but also sort of some horror and investigation going on.

and kind of like offbeat a little bit. So, you know, it's not one of the higher profile video game adaptations, but you could watch it in a couple hours at most, and it'll just fly by, and you will recognize all the voices. And when Wayne Knight kicks in, you'll just, your jaw will drop. Nothing like it. So I'll give you, you know, casual recommendation for Among Us, if you know the game or even if you don't,

they just dropped that. And evidently, like, they finished it in 2024. So it's just been sitting around for a while, and people were wondering if it would ever come out. And it did. And came out kind of quietly. Guys, way to strike when the iron is ice cold and sit on it for two years and then so it gets even colder.

I know. We're turning comic book runs into TV shows faster than we're adapting hit video games. But just so you know, some of the button mash crew out there, there is a new lower profile video game meditation. But to the extent that it has been covered and reviewed, it has been reviewed pretty positively and warmly. So I will give it a qualified recommendation to pretty stacked cast. And also sticking with the short digestible episodes, let's talk about the new Adventure Time spin-off, side quests, which is 20 short episodes. And they all dropped it once too. so you could stream those on Hulu or Disney Plus.

And this is one of a bunch of Adventure Time spinoffs that are either out already or are coming. And this one's kind of a prequel, you know? It's Finn the Human and Jake the Dog in their earlier days. It's kind of a throwback to early adventure time where it was more sort of self-contained episodic. So this just came out this week. Jomey, Steve, have you had a chance to check out any of this?

I watched the first couple episodes. I have. I tapped in. Captain. Yeah. Thoughts. I am. All right.

So here's the thing about Adventure Time. I remember, I think I started watching Adventure Time when I was like late in the college or so. And I think it was one of those times when like a college bound millennial is like, yeah, but this kid's cartoon has got like fun cheeky stuff. And we're like watching Doctor Who and being ironic and all of that. And it's kind of evolved into this like. huge lore-heavy, existential, like big ideas type of show that has like such emotional complexity

and character arcs and lore that expounds through like time and like lineage you get to learn about. And after a while, I kind of like lost the side of the forest through the trees with Adventure Time because it became so big. And all of it was great.

And all of it was incredibly well done. but there was still a part of me that kind of missed that earnestness and that simplicity and this is exactly what side quest is. You have DiMaggio coming back for voicing Jake the dog

of Stephanie Knight taking over as the voice. Sorry? Not Wayne Knight. Not Wayne Knight. He's busy. Sorry, Wayne. You can't start them all. You have Stephanie Knight return, not returning, but like we're taking on

the role of Finn and this is very much a back-to-basics adventure sort of quest of like Jake kind of building their relationship with Finn. And I kind of miss it. And I think it's kind of beautiful the way that this is a brand new sort of art style that is being animated while still being true to like the early days of Adventure Time. This is definitely the thing that you want to introduce somebody to Adventure Time too because if you see like 19 seasons plus 20 spinoffs,

that's kind of overwhelming. SideQuest is a perfect jumping on point for anybody. It's sort of a soft reboot. This is also kind of D&D-inspired fantasy realm. And yeah, I mean, you know, the original is like Emmy P-Body winning classic, right? A lot of people just grew up with that show and then maybe grew apart from it as the lore got more and more complex and convoluted. So this is this is an entry point where it's like, all right, back to basics, back to the beginning. Well, because that's a good point, Ben, because when you think about adventure time and what, like, what it's done as it's gotten older, right?

Like, to Steve's point, the first couple seasons are just Jake and Finn messing around. And then eventually, like, the last episode, they're fighting their version of God, right? Yeah. And it's like, what does it mean to be both a son, the father, and the Lord's sake? of all humanity. I don't know if it's that, if it's that deep, but,

you know, it is very much about, it is very much about, like, what does it mean? And distant lands kind of touches on it. And Fiona and cake is heavy on it. And I imagine that Bobble Gammon Marcelline,

which is the show that they announced coming out to be devastating at some point. Right. It'll, it'll, like, it grew, the show grew with its audience in every, in every,

uh, aspect. And every, uh, evolution was like, all right, cool. All right, just a little older, we're going to go there.

Audiences older, we're going to go there. They're cussing in Fiona and cake, for God sakes. You know what I mean? Like, it's, it's for us. SideQuest is like,

hey, do you want your kids to be able to watch Adventure Time? But, like, actually, here you go. Boom,

here's new Adventure Time for your kids because they can't watch the new stuff. I mean, they can, but I don't think, like,

Ben, I don't know if you want your, your kids watch your, your kids watching Fiona and cake, you know, It's a little risque, you know, for a six-year-old, you know what I mean? Yeah, four.

I would, you know, so at some point, like, we're making new, like, the universe still continues. Obviously, the old series is still there. But this is new adventure time for a new, a new audience in the sense of, yeah, it's, it's just Finn and Jake being kids again. And it's wonderful. And it's not as, like, quirk chungis, if I can be, like, very internet-coded about that. Like, it's not very, like, awesome sauce and, like, fist bumping. It's very, it's kooky and funny and weird.

What was the first way you said, Steve? Quark chungis. Can you teach me this? Quirk chungis? It's basically, like, like, think of, like, millennial humor from, like, the early 2010s. Of, like, saying dogos and puffers and heck and chonkers, stuff like that. Was adventure time quirk chungis? I think it was a little bit.

Like a little bit, right? No. What? Adventure time? A little quirk chungis. Youngest. Mathematical? It was 2010.

They were three years old. I'm confused. I know, but that's what we see it as now. This is like, this is like the post like cultural analysis of what adventure time could be seen as in its early days. I think that's other people's fault. I don't think it's the show's fault.

It's not the show's fault. Of course not. It's a product of its time. You know, it's a product of it's time. But I think, you know, the people got,

it's like, it's like Rick and Morty, you know, where people go like, oh, man, Rick and Morty, people because the fans got really weird over sexual assault that one time. Exactly.

Right? I would put that a little bit there too. You could say what you will about the show and like how, you know, pretentious and whatever. But I think a lot of that is because like the wrong people got into and so you can't be associated with those people. Oh, no, no, no. It doesn't think. This is not like a diss towards any of the fans of which I am one. It sounds like it is though. No, no, no. I just remember it being like

a part of like this like aesthetic that we had in like. Like the mustache. Like the mustache stuff. Jomi, you can't talk like this, all right. You weren't outside. You were knee high to a grasshopper

when I was watching an adventure time in 2010, all right? You can't talk like this. So when I'm saying is that like, it was part of this like kind of like weird, whimsical, not like,

you know, like ever child sort of mentality that then grown up millennials had. And I think it's kind of with that. And I see it, I say that as an enduring way. Okay. It might be a miss.

This might be a miss. We're going to try it. We're going to try it out and see if the comments hate me. We learned some new words on this episode. That's exciting. I just had to ask because I never heard this in my life. DC come from the originator of all the lingo. So if you don't know what that word means,

that word, you know what I'm not over the word right now. You're going to find, you're going to find some definitions, all right? Let's not, let's look up quirk chungis right now. What are we doing? Let's look at what's this? I spell that?

Q-U-I-R-K-Chungus. You know how to say Chungus. You know Chungis. Quirk Chungus. Okay. Quirk Chungis, this is from Gemini, by the way, so you can't trust it. Quirk Chungis is a sarcastic internet archetype and slang term, walking a specific subset of millennial cringe. It is typically represented in parody comics as an energetic but overly subconscious women who calls dogs doggos and her cats heck and chonkers alongside an, an unassertive man-child partner.

Okay, you know what? Steve's dead on there. He's an expert in millennial cringe. See, the problem is we're not white, so that wasn't for us. Right. Yeah, no. Hey, listen, man, this. Hey, bro, this cracker's got a little salt on it, all right?

That's all I'm going to say. I wasn't there for that. My fault. That's not, we don't use that in my, in my vernacular where I'm from. Okay. That's on me. It's kind of a way to sneak that in one of my next pieces of them. If you got to edit that out, just, you know.

We'll see if we can get it past the desk, past the copy editors. We'll have to explain that one to them. All right. A little cultural exchange happening here on Ring ofverse Recommends. This is fun. Before we end, everyone, brace yourself because, Daniel, I have to ask you about season two of Avatar, the last airbender. It's probably turned my mic off of me because Jomi, Jomi is about here. Turn my mic off right now.

Take it off his headset. No, no. No. We're hanging. on the edge of the frame. I saved this for the end in case anyone just had to leave. I'm glad you saved it. I'm glad you saved it for the end. So this is not the DC, you got it.

Not the animated Avatar The Last Everender, but the adaptation, the live action adaptation of Avatar The Last Airbender on Netflix, which debuted in 2024 with a much maligned, widely criticized first season, but popular enough that it got renewed for two more seasons and it will be ending with season three. Season two is airing now. And Jomey, you are done with this show, I know. And even for content, I don't think I could convince you to dive back in. But Daniel, you braved the second season to see if anything has changed or improved.

So give us the skinny on season two. That's definitely three hours in my life. I'm not getting back. Oh, for real? Oh, for all gone? Hey, swear, swear, swear. I had forgotten that they're hour-long episodes, too. I was just like, why are they doing this?

Like, there's just every narrative choice is just so baffling and just even down to the fact that they're hour-long episodes. I watched the first two. I went back and started watching more of the animated series. And I was like, for the sake of content, I probably should watch a little bit more. I watched the third one. I think I'm on season three of the animated show now. I was binging so much of the old version. Just to cleanse my soul of this.

It's just, Netflix has to stop doing these. Nobody can say that you're stealing a wage from the ringer, Daniel. I'm about saying, you're DC, man. You need a check, bro. Yeah. There isn't a monetary level that's been inventing it. We haven't conceived the amount of money that they would need to pay me to watch that garbage. Let me tell you something right now.

I want it real quick, real quick. I want to shout out everybody who worked on the show. I know y'all worked hard. I know y'all did y'all thing, you feel me? I don't want to sound like I'm hating. However, I will be hating. This is some of the most soulless, overproduced, oral...

Garbage that we've ever been put to screen. I can't do it. That's a bottom of mind. I can't do it. I literally cannot watch the show without wanting to vomit. I'm online. I'm seeing the dog. Have you to get this far, DC?

There's no shot. You got this far. I didn't get that far. I saw the clip of it, though. Yeah. But there's the clip of Toff discovering metal bending. I can't. And in the animated show, it's one of the coolest moments of all the time.

It's one of the greatest. It's like, oh my gosh, I can't even get the words out. It's so sauceless. It's so. She's like, I'm tough. Don't you two dunderheads, forget it. I'm the greatest metal better ever. You like, let's go, Toff.

That's what I'm talking about. You would have dog. to go, and then in the show, she's like, I'm tough, and I invented metal bending. Are you kidding me? What is that? That's not, you kidding.

It's not even like one-tenth of one-thousandth of one-millionth of the amount of sauce that that moment has. And it's just a fundamental misunderstanding of what the show's, like what the show is about and who these characters are.

I'm reading that, they had the painted lady and the what's it called the blue spirit embossing say finding crime and you know what ultimately what this is you know this is a zutara fanfic and i won't be here for it i won't stand for it okay this is a bastardization in the a o3 a i purge they will delete this show on this is a 100% bastardization of of a of a series of characters of of of stories of stories that we love and we care about. And frankly, if we were a better society, it wouldn't exist. Okay, this is a cheap cash grab by executives in order to try and resell us our memories

and gaslight us that these characters and this world works in a way that it doesn't. It fundamentally does not work. It is disgusting. It is embarrassing. And frankly, the world would be better off if this show never existed. everybody under the sound of my voice, I want you to write to your senator, write to your local congressman

and get this show off the air immediately because if it ends the way I think it's going to end, and if they do what I swear to God, I hope that they don't do, you are going to need to, there's going to be a congressional hearing about what I'm going to do. I cannot do this, ladies and gentlemen.

I have had enough of the garbage, enough of the nonsense. What they are doing to my beloved avatar, ladies and gentlemen, I can't stand by and watch it happen. We need to be better. All of us need to be better. I am calling on all of us to take action

because this cannot stand and it will not stand. I won't happen. I'm playing the national show. I'm fanfare. I'm standing up on my desk. I'm saluting. That was powerful.

This is disgusting. Ben, are you, Ben, are you seeing what I'm seeing? All I have seen of season two has been against my will and it's been in clips on social media where people are dunking on how terrible it looks. So it sounds like what you're saying is that the ringerverse does not recommend season two of the live action. And if I may have some latitude, Ben, it'd be one thing if it looked bad. Hey, I look bad. Do you don't understand what I'm saying?

Like it is what it is, right? Like, you know, you get past the ugly looks and you're like, oh, there's a nice little thing aside. beauty was in. It's legitimately taking the source material and wiping its cheeks with it. That's what it is. And then it's not even like, oh man, well, at least the characters,

they're stripping the characters to their most bare traits and being like, cool, run with that. There's a, fellas, there was a quote from Toff where she tells Ang to shoot his shot. There are no guns in Avatar! Why do we shoot his shot? They don't have guns.

What does that mean? What does that mean, guys? What are we doing? That's fake. That is Claude, chat GPT, Google Gemini garbage that somebody typed into a computer. There are cockroaches. If you threw a thousand of them on a typewriter, that could make better dialogue. We live in the worst timeline.

this is appalling. I just want to note that we're just stuck in like different conference rooms and Jomey's right next to me. You can hear him through the wall. You can hear him shaking. Oh my goodness. Wow. Standing ovation, my man. Yeah.

You brought the energy. I feel bad for invoking this. I feel like maybe I've ruined your day. No, no. No, you're going to go off. Germany out on P.K. Now you're going to go. Reminded about Avatar live action.

You got to read about LeBron. That's three. It's just blow after blow. The trifecta. Three, three strikes. Joe is reeling right now. Jesus. I feel for you.

And, you know, I don't think they're going to stop doing this because it was announced shortly before we hopped on here that Netflix is doing a live action adaptation of persona. Oh, yeah. That's y'all got that. That's for y'all. I won't be there. Now, Steve can take it and do his rant about that. No, no, no, I'm not going to be. I'm going to wait until the clips drop.

That's tough. That's really, really tough. I understand the impulse because, unfortunately, there are people out there who will net get on board with animated properties. Couldn't be us, obviously, but there are people out there. And so you might say, well, we can make it more palatable to them. Ideally, we would introduce them to the wonders of animation. But there are people who are just staunchly holding out and they cannot be converted. And so you say, okay, maybe we can translate this into their language and they can enjoy these stories that we're

we love and cherish. But it often does that work out? Skill issue. Skill issue. All right, that's all that it is. We don't need to grade on their curve. All right,

we have these good stories. We don't need to recycle it. It's for us. Animation is enough. If it's not for you, you can say that. We're not going to mash you up the broccoli just to get the,

just to get your medicine in. We're not going to do that. You know what, Steve? I'm really, I'm really glad you said that. Because, you know, maybe I was, maybe I was harsh.

If you like the show, And you watching it, man, live your life. You feel of me? Live your life, you know. But I already know, I already know who you voted for. So don't worry about it. I don't think you could walk back that rent. It's a little too late.

But, yeah. I think I will say, like, if they had just leaned into just doing a live action version of it, maybe it would be slightly different. But the fact is they're trying to cater to both, where it's like they are trying to make their own thing of it. But then also still have a lot of, like, the bait for the fans like like they'll just throw in

jokes that just don't make sense out of context now like for example like they just have like cactus juice in the the like banquet at Basingse and it's like this happened in the desert like this is when their let's sock is desperate you just needs water drinks the cactus

juice and he's crazy off the cactus juice this is just like they're trying to insert this without having that whole part of the saga and it's just it's littered all over I mean I don't again I only saw three episodes, and that was more than enough for me to assume that this is littered all across the season. But it's just like, they want to do like, oh, here's the thing. Like they, I even saw the Twitter account be like, oh, Saka said the thing where he's doing like the water tribe thing.

That's the whole show. That's the whole show. It's just pointing. It's exactly. It's so on the thing. It's the thing. It's the thing. It's the thing. That's what they want.

You'd be like, oh, that's it. Like, if you are going to bastardize this, if you are just going to strip it apart, then just make it its own thing. you know, like just suck the cash out. You can tell why those original creators left. Yeah. Amazing decision on their part. They saw what they're trying to do. They were like, I'm out.

I think I would rather step on glass than talk about the show again. You guys are you guys going to pay $100 for G? You guys going to pay $100 for GTA 6? Y'all pay $100? We'll pay whatever they make us pay. Unfortunately, they have us where they want us. They're setting a president, man. I know.

The UK will be $100 in two years. This is how it starts, fellas. Oh, I mean, the micro transactions, the early access, the premium editions. It's over, okay? Yeah. Yeah. The what, Sony and Xbox is like, hey, guys, guess what? Hate to be the bear of bad news.

But your consoles now cost $3 billion. Yes. And now our games are going to cost $2 billion. Fellas. Yeah. This is all we have. Who has thought that it's an appreciating asset now? I know.

It's cool. Fellas, it's never been more over. Avatar is trashed and our video games cost half our paycheck. Yeah, it doesn't matter what the software costs when the hardware is that unaffordable because you can't get in the door anyway.

So that's the good news. We have covered and we'll continue to cover that on button mash. But I think we got to let Jomey go here just to cool down because I'm worried about his blood pressure. Just get outside. Yeah, I got to go outside.

I got to see the sun. The sun is shining bright in New York if you want to pay a visit, man. Come hang out. I'll show you some good times. We're having a great time in New York this summer, bro. Go get some air. Ben some air while you're at it, and we will have you back.

And this has been fun. We learned a lot. We checked in on Wayne Knight. We heard what he's up to. We learned about Quirk Chungus. Shout out Wayne Knight. Yeah. Shout out Wayne Night guys here.

Thank you guys. I've enjoyed screen peeking with you all. Thank you, Ben. Thanks for best. And I will be back in just a moment with one more midnight. Boy for Anime Corner with Charles Holmes. You said it three times. You summoned them.

You legitimately summed it. That's crazy. Okay. Well, I am joined now by my friend, my brush buddy, my anime senpai. Charles Holmes is here. Welcome back, Chuck. Yo, what's going on, Ben? How are you doing?

I'm doing well. We're here for a little witch hat chat. And I mentioned that we would be talking about witch had a tellier to Steve. And he said, what are those words? Understandable, if you haven't heard it, maybe you would be wondering what this is. But you know I've been trying to fill the Freerun-sized hole in my heart

for the past few months since we talked about Freerin on Ring and Burrish Recommends. And I don't know that anything could quite fill it, but which hat has come close and the first season just wrapped up right now. I know you've been on this, so I wanted to get your thoughts. So do you want to describe the premise briefly of Witch Had Itelier? Yeah. So I think, and sorry if any of the weeps get mad at me, I would say Witch Had Itelier is firmly in kind of like the magical girl tradition while putting slight tweaks on it.

And if anybody's like, Magical Girls, Sailor Moon. You know, it is a very big genre into itself, make millions and billions of dollars. but which had it tillier is basically a very interesting fantasy story about a world where obviously witches and magic exists. But it takes that premise and it makes magic something that's not like Harry Potter where you have a wand, you say some words, and a spell appears. It is very much this training of learning how to draw the symbols and what the symbols mean. And I think why which had, because it's a very popular manga, especially with kids, connects with people so much, is that because the magic system is so for the characters, so difficult to grasp, it's almost like going to college.

It is a story always of how do these young characters navigate in a world where they might not be good at this, they might not be good at. at that and using their inner strengths and what they're talented as to carve their way in this world where magic isn't just as easy as just saying a word. Yeah. And it's not something inherent to you. So it's sort of the standard, you know, kids entering adolescence discovers some latent power, except it's not quite that because it's not something that is inherent to Coco, our main character here, she discovers that magic, it's kind of a conspiracy in a sense, in that the witches, I won't give too much away here. This is all from the first episode. But the witches are sort of perpetrating this idea that magic is something innate and that you have to have it.

You either have it or you don't. And it turns out that actually you have to learn it and practice makes perfect and you have to train. And there's a whole system. And when we talked about Freran, I think I brought up the fact that I love a magic system, you know, when it's kind of like governed by rules and laws, and it's not purely just woo-woo, you know, some people are more powerful than others and you say some words or you wave your hand and something happens, but that there's kind of a, almost a science to it and that there's an art to it also, but it's really about, you know, magic is about, okay, there's this magical ink, I guess, right? So you do the magical ink that comes from a certain kind of tree.

But then you have to draw patterns on objects, and those patterns form certain sorts of magic. And then, you know, only people who are privy to the secret of the fact that this is how magic is done are aware of that. And everyone else who's outside that world, who's kind of a muggle, more or less, you know, an outsider in the parlance of which had Italia doesn't understand how magic is done and thinks. that you have to be sort of special in order to do it. And so Coco comes from this outside world and is brought into the inside in somewhat tragic fashion when she stumbles across forbidden magic. And an accident happens.

And she has to try to undo that by training with Master Keefrey and learning how to do magic and become a real witch. And everyone loves, I think, a magic school, you know, kind of story where you're going away and your apprenticing basically. And that's what's happening here. And so Coco is kind of the audience proxy because she's the outsider as are we. And so we learn about this world and all the conventions of magic through her as she practices and perfects her skills.

No, it's funny that when we talk about a magic system, magic in this world is essentially like, you're like, oh, cool, Coco's going away to school to learn magic. And you're just like, oh, she's learning how to be an architect. Yeah. Yeah. Because she starts, I won't tell you. It's like, you know, you have to do your homework. Yeah.

Keep for your teacher notices when he meets her for the first time. She's working with her mother at essentially like a tailoring clothes or like cloth. And she's very good at drawing straight lines. And that's like her talent, which is like not a very sexy talent in terms of like a fantasy world. was like, that person can draw the straightest line. But why do love it? Is that which had to tell you, and I think why something like this

or Freyrian really connects with people, is that it's kind of showing kids that you don't need to be born like Michael Jordan of magic to be successful. A lot of this and even when Coco meets some of the other students, all of the other students, have their own traumas

and their own things that they're good at and family histories and things that they're running away from. So so much of the episodes are a little bit like what's the lesson that they're going to learn today. But it's not homework. The lesson a lot of times

that they have to learn today is like, I can't do this, but my friend can do this. So how can I support them in this moment without getting jealous, without it taking away from me? So even though it is very, very much a series.

Like, if I had a child, I'd be like, and they were of a certain age, 11, 12, it's a very good series for them to watch because I'm just like, oh, this is still stuff adults deal with, which is just like how much of your talent is innate and how much of your talent is figuring out the thing that makes you special and then just doing everything, your power to learn in that way and foster that type of growth. Yes. And what are your strengths and what are your weaknesses and how? How can you surround yourselves with people who have complementary skills and then learn to rely on them and them on you?

So there's teamwork to it. And even though the actual, the mechanics of the magic are kind of mundane, it's just drawing pieces of paper or objects. There's a creativity to it, right? Because it's not just like, how good are you at drawing lines? That's part of it. But it's also, how can I creatively craft these spells? So, you know, I need to achieve this. What kind of spell would do that?

in this case and then you can come up with all these clever workarounds, right? To, you know, for instance, there's a spell to keep food fresh because it keeps kind of bringing the food back to the moment when it was fresh, you know? There's like lots of ingenious little tricks and spells like that. And one thing that it has in common with Freerun, I think, is that sort of sense of wonder. You know, Freeran is very different from Coco in many respects because Freerun's thousands of years old elf, right? And Coco's just a kid, basically, who's just discovering magic for the first time. But they both have this childlike appreciation for magic. And Coco maybe has it even more than anyone else in this world because it's all new and fresh to her. And she thought this was

off limits to her. And then she realizes, wait, I can do this too. And so she's seeing it for the first time and all these other people are sort of jaded. They've all been there for a while. They've grown up around this and she's seeing it for the first time. So I really like that. It is a little more kiddie friendly, I guess, than Freerun. You know, not that Freerun is like super darker or mature in tone or something, but there's a little more comedy, playful, stylized animation, I guess, in Witch Hat, right? You know, a lot of like sweat drops and, you know, empty eyes and all that sort of almost cheapy sort of stuff. So, you know, there's more of that and like a lot of high-pitched, extremely enthusiastic voices.

You know, so it's- Hey, that is, you know, when you're into anime trenches, it is just something that, like, honestly at this point, like, washes over me, especially when which hat, I knew it was going to be a hit just because it is such a massive seller in the manga market. But I do think that if people are wondering, if they should jump on or not. The thing that I really love in my fantasy storytelling is not just because you brought up, like, the magic system.

I always think it's so fascinating when whatever your system is, whether it's magic or superpowers or whatever, informs the world. And that's the enjoyment that I got out of it. You kind of already brought it up. But the best, like in this realm, the reason why I think like sometimes the Dr. Strange area of magic could feel a little weightless. is that, well, if this guy can do almost anything, then what actually matters?

People are like, oh, well, it took this away from it, that way. But I'm like, no, no, no. How does magic actually interface with this world where it's like they have flying shoes? So you're like, oh, these wishes can fly. But not only do you need to draw the, kind of like the sigil or whatever you want to call it correctly, there are different ways that you can move the symbols

to go faster, go higher, whatever. if it gets wet, then it fucks up the shoes. And you're like, it's such, it's choices like that that are so little. But it is a creator saying, okay, if this is a world where magic has existed for hundreds and hundreds of years, okay, well, how do they carry water? To your point, how do they preserve food? How do they make a fire? There are different. And even like a big running kind of spine through the series is what makes good magic and what makes evil magic.

If you use magic against your body. in this world, that is something that this world, or a certain sect of it, has been like, that's evil magic. So to me, that's why you are a fan of, like, fantasy magical girl stuff. That to me is what gives the world weight. That is almost surprising for something that could be a little juvenile at times is like, if you're a kid, it is teaching like, oh, these fantasy worlds can be very, very deep and thought through, and there's mechanics and everything works together. and I feel immersed in the story instead of just somebody being like,

I'm using magic to explain away a bunch of shit that I don't actually want to explain. Yeah. And yeah, there's a morality to it, the idea. I like the idea that the good magic, the permissible magic is magic that makes people happy, basically. And then there's the forbidden magic and then you learn more about that.

I'm actually only about halfway through the season because my wife and I are working through it. It's 13 episodes, season one. It just wrapped up this month. Season two has already been announced, but, you know, they're kind of pulling back the curtain more and more. There are these mysterious brimmed hats who may be practice of forbidden magic and we're chasing clues. And then, you know, there's an order of knights, basically, who uphold the permissible magic. So there's more and more depth to it, but it's also just sort of a, you know, ground level, street level, personal story as well of Coco's discovery of magic and her

trying to undo the accident that happens in the first episode. Have you read the manga or do you have a sense of how much of a runway there is here? I mean, season two has been announced, is this going to be a long-running show? Oh, I definitely, if the popularity increases, it's going to be a long-running show. It's funny, this is one of those series where, similar to something like Delicious in Dungeon or Witchaditale, these are series that I find very, very hard to read, even fear and I would put, where it's like, fantasy is more difficult for me to read than it is to watch. When I watch it, because like the witch hat manga is very, very pitched at children. So when I'm reading it, I'm a little bit like, oh, this isn't my speed.

But because I'm such a fan of animation, there are so many moments in this season. I believe if you're halfway through, you've already gotten to the point where all of the, uh, Coco and all of their friends kind of get trapped. in that dimension by one of the breadcats. Just phenomenal. The animation from how they have to defeat the dragon, this world, it is like,

that's also what I love about the manga to anime adaption. There are some things that I love in manga form that the minute that they get ported over to an anime, I just can't watch them. It's just like, because I fell in love with the art, like the physical art of the manga, where it's like there leaves something to be desired in animation.

I would say witch hat is the rare example of two things where it's like the art in witch hat, pick it up some time. Incredible. Just like incredible. But the story is like in the same way that this could be a little bit of slow of a story. It is even slower in the manga.

Yeah. But they like it's very funny where an adaptation, I wouldn't say the anime is better than the manga artistically. It's just that like it gives it a little bit more of a pep to the step while also honoring what is like if you look at witch hat the series and how it is drawn. There have been times where I'm like, how is a mangaka?

putting this out, like this level high quality art out at a relatively fast clip. So if you're a listener of this or if there's people at the Ringerverse who are like, I want my kids to read more, they're really into manga. I would say like, hey, if you want them watching less TV, whether they watch which hat is a show or they read it as a book, it's going to give them the same thing. Yeah, yeah. And it has some of that soothing quality of fear and some of the pastoral scenes. look the same, the scenery, the landscape. I wouldn't say the soundtrack compares. That is the

strength of Freerins. But yeah, there's a lot to like here. And yeah, it reminds me of a lot of other fantasy stories like that city they're teleported to reminds me of the abandoned city and his dark materials, for instance. So I'm really enjoying it. I'm going to plow through the rest of it. It's a quick watch as are pretty much all anime. Speaking of Delicious and Dungeon, I know there's going to be an update on the production of season two coming on July 4th, which is why that's a national holiday, I believe. And is there

anything else that you'd care to shout out anime or manga wise that you either have been watching or reading or that you're looking forward to in the coming months? Okay. Yeah. You know, my favorite anime of the season,

and I'm going to like fucking butcher this, is called Nipan Singaku. It is on an Amazon Prime, and essentially it is this... Now, you know, this is a lot of Japanese history shit. I don't know, like, I'm not cosine some shit. But fascinating story. Essentially, what happens is that Japan has, like, basically falls into ruin in the future.

There's a nuclear holocaust. But what's interesting about the series is it picks up where Japan, is now split into three warring states. And it is basically the story of how this one farm boy who is obsessed with Japanese history. And when I say Japanese history, I'm talking about history far in the past, magazines, whatever. And he wants to you, after tragedy strikes, I won't tell you how. After tragedy strikes, he goes on a revenge mission, but instead of the revenge being a revenge mission of like violence, he joins one of these military. warring states and wants to use his powers of intellect and debate to climb the ladders of the military.

And I, this is like literally a series. Like, if you explained it to me, I'm like, I'm never watching that. But I was like, fuck it. Let me give it a try one weekend. And it was my favorite of the season. It is, if you like the backroom dealings of like a Game of Thrones, you will love this. Because so much of it is not, this is not a game. game of like, it is, they're at war, but it's less about like the war aspect of it.

And it is more so like, how is this guy who like really loves debate going to teach the army about like how to conserve a fucking food during the winter and how that will help them in a campaign once in a couple months? She's just like, oh, and then you're watching. I'm just like, oh, man, I'm fucking really. say or butcher that name one more time. It's called N-I-P-P-O-N-S-A-N-G-O-K-U. I believe that's how you say it was one of the more popular ones this year.

It's not on Crunchyroll or Netflix. But if you have Amazon Prime, giving it up, like watch an episode or two, I do think you're going to, once again, I'm not that big on military shit, even despite the fact I'm now listening to like Revolution, Revolution podcast. Like, hey, like if you like, like I said,

if you like Game of Thrones, behind the scenes, backroom dealing, you will love this. All right. So check that out on Prime Video and then Crunchyroll is where you find which had a tellier. And people can check out the prestige TV podcast

where you and Van have been breaking down the fifth and final season of the bear. Would you recommend that? Honestly, yes. If you were like, damn, damn, damn, the bear, I'm not on it anymore. They're doing this and that. You know me, I'm a big hater.

Final season of the bear gets my co-signed. It is like if you, July 4th, like, damn, bro, we were just at the beach. We're tired, whatever. And you want to come home and just put something on. You can kill the entire bear season in a weekend. The seventh episode is, probably one of the best episodes that they've ever created. It might be one of my favorite

TV episodes of the year. Tap into the bear, tap to Prestige TV, tap into Buttonmash, Ring Reverse Recommends. Thank you for having me on, man. Of course. Yeah, you can watch the final season of the bear in a day, and also it takes place in a day. So, makes sense. Thank you, as always, Chuck, it's great to have you as my guide on this anime journey. Anytime. Thank you so much. Okay. So we've given you a lot to discuss and digest. And if you're looking for something to watch over the July 4th holiday, if you're celebrating it, you know, some people might go outside. They might barbecue. I'm not saying you can't do that, but if you want to shut yourself in a dark room and stare at a screen, which I will be doing for at least some portion of the time, well, now you have a whole lot

queued up. I want to just leave you with a few non-nerd culture recommendations. Now, I mentioned Taylor Sheridan, some of you already tuning out and doubting my taste when it comes to any other shows. But I am watching Dutton Ranch, the latest Taylor-Shared and Joint. This is created, you know, executive produced by him, but not actually written and directed by him, though you couldn't tell the difference. His fingerprints are all over it. It's actually good. So if you stuck it out with Yellowstone to the bitter end, this is better than that. This is a Yellowstone spinoff starring Beth and Rip, and they have moved to Texas, and there's a new ranch, and their new adversaries.

And it actually feels like kind of classic peak Yellowstone. So, you know, as someone who watched that show to the end and stuck it out, we're into Yellowstone spin-off territory. Taylor Sheridan was on my boss Bill Simmons podcast this week talking about that. Marshalls is another Yellowstone spin-off that he didn't have much to do with. It's a CBS procedural. It's popular, but it's not really my bag. But Dunn Ranch, man, it's bringing me back to peak Taylor Sheridan on the ranch.

Also, some non-Taylor-Sharedon recommendations. Want to hip you all to a show on Apple TV, which if it's on Apple TV, you know I'm watching it, maximum pleasure guaranteed. Everyone's talking about Widows Bay, as well as they should. I will co-sign that recommendation. Love that show. It's been well covered elsewhere on our network, but maximum pleasure guaranteed is kind of going under the radar.

Stephen King recommended it, and he was like, hey, I like Widows Bay, but you got to check out Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed, which, you know, Widows Bay. It's kind of like a Stephen King adaptation, sort of. Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed Stars Tachana Maslani, who is amazing. And she plays a single mom who's going through a custody battle. She is a fact checker. She gets embroiled in blackmail and murder and deceit. It's a crime thriller, but it's also a comedy, and she is fantastic in it.

It's 10 episodes. Seven have aired thus far. It'll finish in mid-July. I've watched ahead. It's great. My wife and I were. glued to the screen, half hour-ish episodes, really digestible, kind of like a pulpy page turner, but on TV. And the final recommendation I will give you is called The Invite. And it is a new

film directed by Olivia Wilde. And she's, you know, been involved in some controversy, right? There was the whole don't worry, darling mess. This is an adaptation of a Spanish film that was based on a Spanish play. and it's a small kind of low-key comedy. You know, the kind of like adult comedy, dromity that people say no one makes and releases in theaters anymore. Well, go support this movie. It's actually co-written by Rashida Jones,

star-studded cast, Livia Wilde, Penelope Cruz, Seth Rogan, Edward Norton, everyone's fantastic in it. I just had my anniversary with my lovely wife, Jesse, this week. 15 years we've been together,

not married, but it was the anniversary of our first date. we did some bouldering, we had some dinner, and then we went to see the invite, and it was perfect. It was a sold-out little theater. Everyone was laughing, and then we were silent because it got a little deep, and it hit us with some truth bombs. You're going to love this movie if you can catch it on theaters or whenever you're able to see it at home. The invite, go check it out. That's all my non-nurred culture wrecks for this month, as well as our nerd culture stuff.

Thanks, as always, to everyone for listening. You can contact us at Ringiverse Recommendus at gmail.com. Send us your nominations and submissions for next month and beyond. We have so much coming in July and not just Ben Lindberg stuff like Walking Dead Daryl Dixon being back and Star Trek Strange New Worlds. But obviously, hot D continuing coverage on all of our feeds. We've got the Odyssey coming on Button Mash. We have Spiltoon Raiders. We have new old Halo.

We're going to do our games of the first half of the year and some of our, hype for the second half of the year. Spider-Man brand new day will close out July. Vampire Lestat continuing coverage on House of Our tons to look forward to. Thank you for listening. Thanks to our junior Rangopal, as always for green lighting all of our endeavors here. Until next time, we hope that you'll recommend the ringerverse. Signing off for Grumpkin, my loyal Doxon companion and co-host. Wave goodbye, Grum.