Gian cannot contain himself any longer and he chooses to start a discussion about the value of Slice of Life anime. He invites special guest Marc Cuiriz (Here Comes a Thought Podcast and The Codex Podcast) to talk about what about the genre inspires us. They all give examples of their favorite slice of life […]

Josué starts a discussion about the tendency of shōnen anime to escalate the stakes of the story to astronomical levels and beyond. What can we learn from these stories? They talk about the value of having characters that constantly face increasingly difficult challenges with unwavering optimism and confidence in one’s own capacity for skill acquisition. […]

Gian tries his best to explain his favorite genre of Horror, the cosmic type. He uses Attack on Titan (Season 3) as an illustration of what happens when we are faced with threats or ideas that feel beyond our comprehension. He talks about H.P. Lovecraft’s beliefs about race and mental illness and how communities have […]

Welcome to Season 2 of Otaku Ryoho! Josue starts the season by talking about how difficult 2020 has been for him, but also for so many of us. In these times, it is likely to many of us have felt overwhelmed not only by our own struggles but by vicariously witnessing the struggles of others […]

As they end Season 1, Gian and Josué talk about the Ryoho Experience. Josué talks about the benefit he gained from using anime as illustration to illustrate discussions on life and more complicated/fascinating matters. Gian talks about how viewing anime through the lens of another can change your world view and goes at length to […]

Josue brings the topic of Anime Remakes and how frequent series are remade into rebooted series, spinoffs, and movies. They talk about how this changes the way we consume these stories. They also talk about the way these stories are rewritten and reflect the context of newer generations and how much they love to see […]

Gian starts a discussion about the diverse representation of gender identities in anime. Special Guest Link Keller joins us to talk about the good, the bad and the ugly about the way anime has represented gender through the ages. We discuss Gender Nonconformance, Transgender, Non-binary identity and much more. Anime has featured characters of diverse […]

Josue brings up the topic of humor and how it is a mature defense mechanism that helps us cope with difficult times or ideas. Gian and Josue attempt to bring up anime that illustrates the use of humor in order to deal with difficult topics. Gian brings up Honey and Clover and how it illustrates […]

Gian chooses to talk about a difficult topic near and dear to his heart, the timeless conflict between biology and behavior. Josue and Gian both dissect Beastars in an attempt to see how the series could be used to talk about race, gender and drug addiction. Gian talks about naturalistic bias when talking about male […]

Josue starts a conversation about Fan Service. We give our personal definitions of what the term “fan service” entails and give examples of our favorite types of fan service. We also talk about the specific form of fanservice that involves sexual gratification and our discomfort and experience with this ever-present concept in the overall world […]

Gian starts the conversation talking about his academic development from childhood and how media nurtured his love for academia growing up. They begin by raving about Cells at Work and the effective ways it mixes Medical Theory with the energy and explosiveness of a shonen anime. Then we talk about how Anime contributed to our […]

Talking Points: History, Who writes history?, Speculative Historical fiction, Historians and historical accounts, The inherent fiction of history, bias. Anime Mentioned: Rurouni Kenshin, Grave of the Fireflies, The Wind Rises, Hyoge Mono, Vinland Saga, Rose of Versailles, Samurai Champloo. Non-Anime Mentions: Bill Wurtz’s “history of japan” youtube video, “5 Most Historically Accurate Anime Of All Time […]

Gian starts this round wanting to talk about how pain is represented conceptually in anime. He draws inspiration from Kiznaiver, an anime in which kids are forcibly connected by physical and emotional pain. Josue presents Bofuri an anime about a girl who makes herself impervious to pain in a virtual reality massively multiplayer online game. […]

Josué brings up the topic of Science Fiction and Gian discovers how much he loves science fiction. Each of them takes turns talking about their favorite science fiction animes and why they love the concepts that they present. Gian begins with a mention of his favorite Slice-of-Life Sci-Fi anime and Josue talks about his love […]

Gian brought the topic of Judgment using the anime “Death Parade” to illustrate how difficult it is to impose judgments on others. The conversation moves across various anime in which the concept of judgment as punishment is applied as well as anime in which the concept of judgment as an assessment is applied. Josué and […]

Gian and Josué talk about death & the afterlives using Dragon Ball Z as illustration. What happens after we die? The question yields more questions than answers. The hosts talk about their personal beliefs and how those beliefs influence how they go about their lives. As the conversations develop, they explore religious diversity and how […]

Round #3: Gian chooses to talk about Language, Accessibility of Language and Deafness using the 2016 Kyoto Animation movie, A Silent Voice. He is quickly taken aback by Josué’s unexpectedly extensive history with Sign Language and the Deaf Community. They discuss the themes discussed in the movie as well as whether the movie is truly […]

Round #2: Josué presents the topic of Japanese Culture and how anime functions (and sometimes fails to function) as a window into a culture that we would otherwise have no exposure to. He begins the discussion talking about informational boxes in the anime Excel Saga that would explain jokes that lacked context for western audiences. […]

Round #1: Welcome to the Otaku Ryōhō Podcast! A podcast where we talk about psychological themes using anime as illustration. In this episode, Josué and Gian introduce themselves and each detail their history with anime growing up. Each of them discloses their history of what brought them to anime growing up as well as what […]