What A Cartoon! - The August 2019 Schedule

The dog days of summer are upon us once again, and we fully recommend you stay inside and listen to podcasts until this whole "summer" thing blows over. And lucky for you, we've got a bunch of great What A Cartoon! episodes planned for August, featuring our expected wide variety of subject matter. First we'll be talking about an early anime classic, then a surprisingly mature and well-written series based entirely on toys, followed by a newer and fairly obscure Japanese series sold to us by a very special guest, and finally, we'll be ending the month with an animated series about actual, real Ghostbusters—accept no substitutes.

And if you're not a subscriber, signing up at the $5 level will get you each episode a week ahead of time and ad-free, along with our past exclusive miniseries (like our recently wrapped TalKing of the Hill) and dozens and dozens of bonus podcasts on top of that!

Here's what's on the schedule for August:

Bubblegum Crisis - "Red Eyes" [Patreon Date: 8/5/19 - Free Feed Date 8/12/19]

To kick off the month, we'll be jumping back to the '80s for a look at Bubblegum Crisis, one of the first big anime video hits to make it to America. The flashy world of future Tokyo gave folks in the USA another taste of "cool Japan" right around the same time we all saw Akira, and we haven't looked back since. Joining us for a look at this '80s robot series will be '80s and robot expert Jeremy Parish, who you probably know from the Retronauts podcast. Join us as we travel back to a strange time when DVDs could be packaged in PC game boxes!

Bubblegum Crisis is currently available to stream on VRV, and also available to purchase physically and digitally on numerous platforms.

Mighty Max - "The Maxnificent Seven" [Patreon Date: 8/12/19 - Free Feed Date 8/19/19]

'90s kids remember Mighty Max, the masculine version of Polly Pocket that was full of equal parts adventure and choking hazards. Well, this toy line received an unexpectedly great animated adaptation in 1993, one that featured continuity, death, and the late, great Tony Jay as a main character. Who knew that such a toyetic cartoon could make us feel ways about stuff? And with our returning guest Kat Bailey, we'll dig into this fairly obscure '90s toon to show you what you probably missed!

Mighty Max isn't currently available to stream legally, though the episodes are easy enough to find on YouTube. And the art of Max above is from thweatted since it's VERY tough to find any official images of a decent quality.

Chihiyafuru - "Episodes 1-3" [Patreon Date: 8/19/19 - Free Feed Date 8/26/19]

Nothing says "excitement" like "a card game based on memorizing 100 Japanese poems." Wait, where are you going!? Despite the seemingly stuffy subject matter, Chihiyafuru falls squarely into the "sports anime" genre, and manages to be just as exciting and compelling as any series about full-contact competition. And this episode comes at the request of our very special guest SungWon Cho, voice actor and maker of hilarious and relatable sketches via his ProZD YouTube and Twitter account. He totally sold us on his favorite series, and we can't wait to show you how it hooked us!

You can currently stream all of Chihiyafuru on Crunchyroll.

The Real Ghostbusters - "Ragnarok and Roll" [Patreon Date: 8/26/19 - Free Feed Date 9/2/19]

It's a great month for surprisingly mature kids' cartoons, as The Real Ghostbusters did for the '80s what Mighty Max did for the '90s. Despite the presence of the lovable goofball Slimer, TRG still managed to tell dark stories that weren't afraid to scare the bejesus out of kids. (Like, in the case of this episode, the end of the damn world!) Plus, it's secretly an anime—and listeners to our network know how much we love that. Listen in as we wrap up the month with the animated series so popular it willed a second Ghostbusters movie into existence!

The Real Ghostbusters is currently unavailable to stream, but you can purchase it digitally or physically on Amazon and other platforms.

We've got quite a lineup of podcasts ahead of us, and that isn't even counting this month's episode of the What A Cartoon Movie for $10+ patrons. Stick with us, because there'll be more fun to come, and a new limited miniseries coming this fall!