Happy New Year everyone! After years of moving forward with a similar format, we’re switching things up for the podcast.

The headline is: We’re going to stop doing episode recap podcasts, and we’re going to focus on more high-level discussions.

The immediate change you’ll see is no episode recap podcasts which will result in less podcasts. However, we’ll still be covering the same shows, the podcast will still generally be similar, we’ll just be structuring our discussions in different ways. We think this new structure will result in more interesting discussions, and we’ll be better equipped to cover shows with a wide variety of release formats.

Here are the types of podcasts you’ll see instead of episode recaps:

• Season recaps! We’ll still be discussing seasons as a whole when a show we cover wraps up its season. So you’ll see an Infinity Train Season 2 recap podcast but not nightly podcasts this week. When the next season of She-Ra drops we’ll have a podcast on the whole season soon after it comes out like normal (but no proceeding episode recaps).
• Podcasts at regular intervals for certain shows: This is the replacement model for episode recaps for weekly shows (or others) we still want to talk about regularly while they’re airing. We won’t discuss all the shows we cover on a regular basis, but in the short term look out for Miraculous Ladybug every-other-week podcasts starting sometime in the next two months, and Owl House podcasts monthly (after we do a special podcast for the premiere this weekend). These will be high-level discussions on anything about the show. If there are episodes to talk about we’ll talk about them generally, but we can also talk about general topics surrounding the show or any news about the show.
• Show-specific topics: If something is on our mind about a show, even if we’re not podcasting on it regularly, we might do a podcast to discuss a specific topic whenever! Likely something we’re passionate about like Bumbleby with RWBY.
• Cross-show or movie topics: This is the one we’re most excited about and hope to do a lot more: A trend in the industry, a trend in a social issue (we definitely want to do queer rep topics more than once a year), or some theme we notice across a few shows. This could really be anything involving animation.

Some exceptions to no more episode recaps: First, we still could do one if there’s an episode we’re super excited to talk about! Also, Steven Universe Future may or may not continue with episode recaps until its completion (if not we’d have every-other-week podcasts when it comes back). We’ll finish out Volume 7 recaps for RWBY since it’s almost over. We may finish out the She-Ra S4 recaps we almost finished. And we can still do pods on a single movie, whether it’s recently released or not!

We’re excited to continue to talk about a lot of awesome animated shows and movies in a format we think will work better. As always reach out with any feedback you have on the podcast!

Dylan Hysen, Delaney Stovall, Michelle Anderer, & Sarah Potter look back on the good, the bad, and overall trends in the portrayals of queer characters in 2019 animation including in Steven Universe, She-Ra and the Princesses of Power, OK K.O.! Let’s Be Heroes, Young Justice: Outsiders, Craig of the Creek, Star vs. the Forces of Evil, gen:LOCK, Arthur, Rocko’s Modern Life, RWBY, BoJack Horseman, Tuca & Bertie, The Dragon Prince, Twelve Forever, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Miraculous Ladybug, Love Death + Robots, Hazbin Hotel, Big Mouth, Given, Stars Align, Sarazanmai, Carole & Tuesday, & Fruits Basket.

Here are the nominees for the 2019 OVA-ies Awards, celebrating the best in television animation from the year. Listen to the nominations announcement podcast accompanying this post and check out the nominations below!

Vote for your favorites in 7 categories. Winners are chosen 50% by an open vote, 50% from our internal community of patrons & staff weighed by shows watched. Nominees were chosen internally by our patrons & staff, and you can see the nominations below! Winners will be revealed in a podcast at the end of December.

Steven Universe leads with 6 nominations, one in every category it was eligible for. Followed by Tuca & Bertie and Infinity Train with 5 nominations, and She-Ra and the Princesses of Power with 4 nominations. gen:LOCK, The Promised Neverland, and RWBY had 3 nominations each.

Vote Here Now!

Voting closes at noon on Sunday December 29th. Google sign-in is required for voting. Voting is anonymous, the sign-in is just required to restrict voting to 1 per person.

Best Animated Show of 2019

• BoJack Horseman
• gen:LOCK
• Infinity Train
• She-Ra and the Princesses of Power
• Steven Universe
• Tuca & Bertie

Best Animation Episode of 2019

• “121045” (Episode 1), The Promised Neverland
• “Change Your Mind”, Steven Universe
• “Cleaved”, Star vs. the Forces of Evil
• “The Jelly Lakes”, Tuca & Bertie
• “The Only Me I Know”, gen:LOCK
• “Remember”, She-Ra and the Princesses of Power

Best Animation Main Character of 2019

• Bertie, Tuca & Bertie
• Glimmer, She-Ra and the Princesses of Power
• Marinette, Miraculous Ladybug
• Ruby, RWBY
• Steven, Steven Universe
• Tulip, Infinity Train

Best Animation Supporting Character of 2019

• Amaya, The Dragon Prince
• One-One, Infinity Train
• Scorpia, She-Ra and the Princesses of Power
• Speckle, Tuca & Bertie
• Spinel, Steven Universe
• Venomous, OK K.O.! Let’s Be Heroes

Best New Animated Show of 2019

• Carmen Sandiego
• gen:LOCK
• Infinity Train
• The Promised Neverland
• Tuca & Bertie
• Undone

Best Visuals for an Animated Show of 2019

• Carmen Sandiego
• Hazbin Hotel
• Love, Death + Robots
• RWBY
• Steven Universe
• Undone

Best Music for an Animated Show of 2019

• Carole & Tuesday
• Hazbin Hotel
• Infinity Train
• The Promised Neverland
• RWBY
• Steven Universe

Alex Bonilla and Michelle Anderer get the chance to sit down with creator Ian Jones-Quartey and executive producer/supervising director Toby Jones about the development of O.K. K.O.! Let’s Be Heroes!, favorite side characters, representation, and their fondest memories from working on the show!

You can follow Ian Jones-Quartey on Twitter @ianjq and Toby Jones @tobytobyjones.

Alex Bonilla, Michelle Anderer, Steve Zec and Ally Martin discuss the final episodes of OK KO! Let’s Be Heroes!: “Let’s Fight to the End” and “Thank You For Watching the Show”.

Alex Bonilla, Michelle Anderer, Steve Zec and special guest Justin Cummings cover the latest episodes of OK KO! Let’s Be Heroes!: “Let’s Meet Sonic”, “Let’s Get Shadowy”, “You’re a Good Friend, KO”, “Red Action 3: Grudgement Day”, “Carl”, “Dendy’s Video Channel”.

Alex Bonilla, Michelle Anderer, Steve Zec & Ally Martin discuss the latest 5 episodes of OK KO! Let’s Be Heroes!: “Whatever Happened to… Rippy Roo?”. “Planet X”, “Deep Space Vacation”, “Big Reveal” and “Radical Rescue”.

Dylan Hysen & Alex Bonilla bring you all the animation news from this week’s 2019 San Diego Comic-Con!

Alex Bonilla, Michelle Anderer & Steve Zec recap the six episodes that kick off Season 3 of OK KO! Let’s Be Heroes!: “We Are Heroes”, “KO, Rad and Enid!”, “TKO Rules!”, “KO Vs. Fink”, “Chip’s Damage” and “The KO Trap”.

Alex Bonilla, Michelle Anderer & Steve Zec discuss the latest six episodes of OK KO! Let’s Be Heroes!: “Gar Trains Punching Judy”, “Beach Episode”, “KO AU”, “KO’s Health Week”, “Rad’s Alien Sickness” and “Dark Plaza”.

Alex Bonilla, Michelle Anderer and Steve Zec talk about the latest 6 episodes of OK KO! Let’s Be Heroes!: “All in the Villainy”, “Sidekick Scouts”, “Whacky Jaxxyz”, “Project Ray Way”, “I Am Jethro” and “GarQuest”.