#161 - Con-versations: Animazement 2025 feat. Coop, Maddy, Megan, Cody, and Kurt!

Another great year of Animazement has come and gone and Bill, Austin, and Tori are here to tell you all about it. Pay no mind that the convention ended almost a month and a half ago! This episode was a beast to edit, and for good reason! Not only do we talk about our panels, the cool sights and sounds we experienced, the good food we ate, and merch we bought, but we also had not one or two, but FIVE special guests join us for various segments throughout this episode to talk about some of the cool things they saw and did over the weekend. Going through them in appearance order, you may know a few of them from being on the show before or encountering their work on the internet in various places; we have returning friends Coop (@RiderStrike) and Maddy (@hyakushiki0087) back on the show but also Megan (@brainchild129), Cody (@codyanskaya), and Kurt (@GreatSG) join us for the first time! Coop, Megan, and Maddy travelled from far off lands (the Midwest and the west coast) to see if the rumors about Animazement being "good" were true. Listen to find out! Coop regularly writes for Anime News Network, contributes to releases from Discotek and AnimEigo, and does some podcasty stuff from time to time. Maddy appears as a regular contributor to Giant Robot FM. Megan is a frequent panelist and writes for Anime Feminist as well as her own blog, The Manga Test Drive! Cody is a long-time Animazement head but joins us to talk about their debut panel Rotund Mecha Gentleman, something we really got a kick out of and I'm sure you all will too. Kurt is the mastermind behind panels such as the Awesomely Bad Japanese Music Videos and Ugly Giant Robots Arbitrarily Ranked but we had him on specifically to talk about his brand new endeavor The Anime Home Video Museum, a audio visual odyssey through the history of anime on home video. It's a heck of a thing and I know you guys will love to hear Kurt talk about it. Did you attend Animazement this year? If not, did you attend one of the other 900 conventions happening over Memorial Day weekend? Let us know by sending us an email at [email protected] and we'll discuss it on the show. 00:00:00 - Live from the hotel room on Sunday afternoon, it's The Nagahomies! (Austin, Tori, Coop, Maddy, and Megan!) 00:19:23 - The actual con-versation starts! (Lots of autograph and panel talk) 00:39:48 - Cody joins us to talk about Rotund Mecha Gentlemen and their general thoughts about the con 00:59:39 - The con-versation continues! (Mostly on the Aimi concert) 01:04:38 - Kurt joins us to talk about the origins and the madness of The Anime Home Video Museum! 01:35:59 - Extra talking about the AHVM, Tori's horrors in the horror panel, most notable cosplays, Austin talks about his panels (10 Anime Movies You May Have Missed and Road of Resistance: 15 Years of BABYMETAL), Bill and Austin talk about being invited onto a Trivia Knights game show, reflecting on the Masao Maruyama panel, Bill playing Mario Golf, and talking about what we did (and didn't) buy. 02:19:00 - Wrap up, recommendations, and social media plugs! If you enjoy this or any other episode, leave us a Rating and Review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or elsewhere! Show notes are available on our website: www.thirdimpactanime.com More helpful links: https://beacons.ai/thirdimpactanime Follow us on Bluesky at thirdimpactanime.bsky.social Follow us on Instagram at instagram.com/ThirdImpactAnime Listen & Subscribe on Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube | Podbean Support us on Ko-Fi | Patreon