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Urasawa BoysPluto 8: The Greatest Robot in HistoryAh, Montblanc... Ah, North No. 2... Ah, Brando... Ah, Hercules... Ah, Gesicht... Ah, Epsilon... Ah, Pluto... You lived the live given you without hesitation, self-doubt, shame, or resentment... You carried out your duty, and then you were gone... When will they sit in judgment of the humans who created temporary life, out of a limitless lust for power and control, and then destroyed it?
And just like that - only 18 full months after we began, we've reached the end of our journey with PLUTO. It's been a long weird trek through Urasawa's adaptation of one of the most...
2025-07-293h 21
Urasawa BoysPluto 7: The Greatest Bodyguard on Earth (Again)Urasawa Boys is BACK and there's no time to mourn for Gesicht! Just like that, we're in Australia! Tune in for some heated discussion of the story's pivot to Epsilon's turn in the spotlight, and all of its ups-and-downs. We tackle an opening flashback that may be one of the best to ever do it, and then dig into a volume full of loaded metaphors on queerness (Happy Pride!) along with some pretty sick robot fights. What's that? A typo in the episode description? No no no, you're mistaken, we just had to re-award the title of Best Boy...
2025-06-242h 58
Urasawa BoysPluto 6: The Most Indestructible Robo-Botanist on Earth (Tragic)And we're back! Here to welcome in the summer season after a nice 3-day weekend here in the US, Matt and Quinn re-convene for another episode of Urasawa Boys, to discuss the doomed, thrilling, and seemingly climactic reading that was volume 6 of Pluto! This one's got it all! New locales, dense discussions of orientalism and the loaded idea of saying "at least we got Democracy," classic investigatory chapters, a 3 chapter 90s action movie extravaganza, and a fittingly tragic end for our favorite robot detective. Also - we talk about dads! It turns out this adaptation of a work by...
2025-05-272h 15
Urasawa BoysPluto 5: The Most American Teddy Bear on EarthFlashbacks, revelations, symbolism, religion, history, and incredible robot battles - all of these things and more are here, in this month's groundbreaking episode of URASAWA BOYS! (Note from Matt - It's groundbreaking because we've switched to a MUCH more sustainable monthly release schedule!) Join us after 4 weeks of patient anticipation for a lively discussion of all the arcs in this next chunk of Pluto, as we tackle Hercules + Epsilon, Gesicht + Adolf's Horrible Brother, and Ochanomizu + Tenma (ft. Science + Philosophy). Additionally, there are some important notes from the Matt + Quinn arc, including apartment disaster updates and a thorough explanation of...
2025-04-293h 06
Urasawa BoysPluto 4: The Greatest Bodyguard(s) on EarthSeminars on software to replace paperwork - a massive workplace machine disassembled into Ikea-esque pieces - newspaper interviews of a local heroic pizza parlor employee - a closet somehow collapsing with a deafening BANG! These are the forces that conspired to delay the release of this month's episode of Urasawa Boys: Pluto, which finally brings us across the halfway point, and many many steps closer to solving the mystery of The Greatest Robot on Earth! Join us for a discussion of the nature of man, fatherly robot professors (good and bad), the perils of extended metaphors for racism, huge...
2025-03-252h 18
Urasawa BoysPluto 3: The Worst Detective on EarthMove over THE BRUTALIST - Urasawa Boys is back with episode 3 of our season on Pluto! Just as long (three and a half hours) but also featuring powerful robots who understand abstract art! (Take that Adrien Brody!) On a more serious note - thank you for your patience during our delay, this week's episode features incredible exposition, classic Urasawa chapters on a shocking racist mystery-conspiracy in the suburbs, and a top-tier lanky disheveled mystery man with wet clothes and greasy hair. All the stars are here! Join us as we dig into how Urasawa adapts the Uran plotline, and...
2025-02-253h 29
Urasawa BoysThe Quickest Announcement on EarthWhoops! We accidentally recorded a 4-hour podcast on this week's reading. Matt has to teach a class at work today and tomorrow, so he couldn't finish the edit on time, but it will be here before you know it! And folks - it's a good one!
Next Time: Pluto (Chapter 16-23)
Urasawa Boys is a podcast hosted by S. Quinn Morris and Matt Fennell covering the collected works of Naoki Urasawa. You can follow the show on BlueSky and support us on Patreon. The theme music for this season is the track "Clues to the...
2025-02-1801 min
Urasawa BoysPluto 2: The Luckiest Robot at the Bottom of the OceanWoah! Two in a row? We're BACK! This time, Urasawa Boys delves deep into the second volume of Pluto, and we talk about how maybe this comic about giant robots fighting (with not a lot of giant robots fighting?) isn't quite working for us? But never fear - there's still a whole lot of good stuff here - Hercules, Brando, robot wrestling, the fictional war in Central Asia, the real war in Iraq, and giant metallic dream statues from the Bible! There's a lot going on in Naoki Urasawa's adaptation of Astro Boy - and you don't want to...
2025-02-042h 26
Urasawa BoysPluto 1: The Saddest Robot in ScotlandURASAWA BOYS is back!! Exactly on schedule - 2 weeks (and 1 year) after our Episode 0 on "Astro Boy: The Greatest Robot on Earth," we're finally beginning our coverage of Pluto. After a quick review of what we've been doing in our barely noticeable hiatus, join us for our thoughts on Pluto's interesting shift of main character, the obvious (and not-so-obvious) intertexts, cool robots, sad robots, and what seems to be a prelude to a metaphor about the US war in the middle-east? Who could say. Folks - it's a good one!
Material Covered: Pluto (Chapter 1-7)
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2025-01-212h 32
Urasawa BoysPluto 0: The Greatest Robot on EarthAnd we're back! 2024 is off to a rip-roaring start with the first episode of Season Two of URASAWA BOYS! This time, we're covering Pluto, but before we dig into the main attraction, we take a look back at the original arc of Astro Boy that inspired Urasawa's one of a kind cyberpunk murder mystery manga. Join Matt and Quinn as they dig into "The Greatest Robot on Earth" and go long on this influential chunk of a classic manga, ponder on how best to make adaptive moves, talk about Dragon Ball, and generally just have an absolutely great time...
2024-01-092h 28
Urasawa BoysMonster 19: Wrap-UpWe did it! This is the end! No reading this time, just some light fun discussion of what's going on in our lives, our thoughts on MONSTER a few weeks removed from reading the finale, and then a bunch of fun segments! We do some fancasting, tier-rank our favorite readings, imagine some AUs, take a handful of very fun listener questions, and then talk about a Reddit post (very bad) and a blog post (very good!). Thanks for joining us on this inaugural season of URASAWA BOYS - we're so excited to get into Master Keaton next!
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2023-10-172h 09
Urasawa BoysMonster 18: Great Physician TenmaThis is the end. Rain drums against the roof, and in between the low rolls of thunder, you hear something that you could have sworn was a gunshot. Outside, fear alone animates the hearts of those still stuck out on the streets - the devil has come to town.
Woah, hey, who let Matt write self-indulgent prose again? Sorry about that. Arriving not late, but exactly when it intended to is the FINAL READING of Urasawa Boy's inaugural season on Monster.
Across a new "record-breaking" number of recordings (2 each), Matt and Quinn update you on...
2023-10-033h 24
Urasawa BoysMonster 17: Wasteland, Tenma!Coming to you a few hours late, edited LIVE somewhere in the swamps of New Jersey, it's the penultimate episode of Urasawa Boy's inaugural season on MONSTER! Join Matt and Quinn on the rollercoaster once again as we round the corner and begin barreling down the hill into a peaceful and unsuspecting town somewhere in the mountains of southern Germany. We dig into what it was that Johan saw, and what that means for him, and all of our other favorite characters that have gotten caught in the black hole that swirls around him.
Aside from that...
2023-09-122h 31
Urasawa BoysMonster 16: Airplane Engineer TenmaA tragic assassination attempt; a stunning piece of detective work; three heroes racing against time to stop a horrible plan - but whose plan is it really? The rollercoaster stalls for a second, before entering free-fall, as all is revealed. MONSTER is loading the last of its narrative bullets into Chekov's gun, and aiming directly at a shocking conclusion. This week's episode of Urasawa Boys (which also features a long discussion of Quinn's ambitious mech decorating project in Armored Core VI, and a fun "what's Matt wearing" segment) is not to be missed!! Folks, it's a good one!
2023-08-292h 11
Urasawa BoysMonster 15: NPC TenmaFolks, we are in the small dip that the rollercoaster does before it crests back up the hill and climbs for the final breathtaking scramble - this is Monster at its most exciting, locking into place for a nailbiting conclusion. Join us this week as Martin becomes the main character, and then watch along as Nina's tragic flashbacks sum up all of the subtext from the past couple of readings. We're heading back to the scene of the crime in more way than one, as we draw on some long forgotten (and cut) theories about what this all means...
2023-08-151h 43
Urasawa BoysMonster 14: Tenma (With a Gun (In a Car))Another late episode? Couldn't be URASAWA BOYS, your favorite podcast covering the collected works of Naoki Urasawa. (Thanks for your patience with this one, Matt and Quinn were both on the road for a few weeks.) Anyways - this is a killer section. We do some all time media analysis, and then do some media analysis about media analysis; there's some incredible reveals, some more very scary picture books, incredible spreads, ridiculously late title cards, and the coolest bad dude to ever exist. Monster is working it's way up the big bad rollercoaster hill that will soon have us...
2023-08-032h 01
Urasawa BoysMonster 13: Prison Break TenmaLucky Number 13!! Matt and Quinn had to record this episode twice, because the original recording was annihilated, and hoo-boy; what an episode to have to redo, because this reading was not very good! We spend some time trying to figure out what makes this chunk feel over-stuffed and rushed; simultaneously spreading the stuff we like too thick and too thin. After that, we work our way through Tenma's time in prison as he deals with with a master escapee, a wunderkind lawyer, and the return of a trusted friend! This one ends with two absolute goobers and a hell...
2023-07-181h 49
Urasawa BoysMonster 12: Smile Consultant TenmaJust in time for your drive back from any 4th of July barbecues, it's the next episode of Urasawa Boys! Matt and Quinn relish in the Friday energy of this recording, and open by doing some real fun thinking about narrative theory, serialization, and how to deal with story events in and out of context. (That's not a joke, it's really fun!) From there, we launch into the next set of happenings with Grimmer and Tenma in Prague, spend some time with Lunge on vacation, and finally start to unlock (or uncover? unbury? un-wall?) the mysteries of Johan's origins...
2023-07-042h 34
Urasawa BoysMonster 11: Afterimage of TenmaHoo boy! Matt had to update the content warnings again. This episode features a long discussion of transphobia (from 00:11:00 - 00:21:00) that references a Lindsay Ellis Video about the topic and really tries to unpack what this means for the story, and for the era as a whole. Afterwards, we spend a lot of time here in Prague, figuring out what happened last time, and setting up some landmines for next time, but overall - just really doing a whole lot of mixed analysis for this previously extremely good story (no caveats) that has become an extremely good story (many...
2023-06-202h 02
Urasawa BoysMonster 10: Ex Doktor TenmaUrasawa Boys is back, and we're off to Prague! In this chunk of chapters, we're introduced to some new plot threads and some new characters, and we've got a new friend along with us to talk about it! In honor of making it to our 10th episode, we were thrilled to welcome special guest Tyler Crumrine of Possible World Games. Listen along as we talk about the shifting financial realities of the podcasting marketplace, Gundam, 1980s horror movies, being single, the mechanics of a fictional moral universe (and its rules on accepting candy from strangers), and how much we...
2023-06-062h 44
Urasawa BoysMonster 9: Scaredy Cat TenmaWe've arrived at the halfway point of MONSTER, and what a mid-season finale this one is! Matt and Quinn got together to do a morning recording covering the explosive events of this reading - we dig into some new themes, revisit some old ones, and spend a lot of time talking about just how awesome the action sequences in this bit are! There's dark and spooky revelations from a fairy tale, and hints that another one awaits us further east. Join us for this absolute rollercoaster of a reading, it's a good one!
Material Covered: Monster (Chapter 69...
2023-05-232h 38
Urasawa BoysSchedule Announcement / Mattaining Balance 1Whoops! The schedule got messed up again. Very sorry about this, but the semester is over now and I got a good grade on my data mining paper, so the strep throat was worth it? Quinn and I will be back next time with the thrilling conclusion to the first half of Monster, but today - please enjoy the first episode of Mattaining Balance! It's a good one!
Material Covered: BONUS - House of the Dragon / Rings of Power / Wheel of Time
Next Time: Monster (Chapter 69-77)
Urasawa Boys is a podcast hosted...
2023-05-0919 min
Urasawa BoysMonster 8: I Am Tenma (Tenma I Am)And we're back! It's another episode in Munich as we zoom around the city, spending time with Rudi, Lunge, Lotte, Nina, Tenma, Reichwein, Dieter, Karl, Johan and Roberto. On reflection, I guess the whole crew's here! It's an exciting chunk of reading that seems to tighten all of the nets around each set of "a game of cat and mouse" that this comic contains! (This is definitely the most "Matt Fennell writing at the college newspaper trying to impress and amuse the copy editors" episode description I've ever written.) There's some updates on Quinn's "drinking vinegar," a bit where...
2023-04-251h 50
Urasawa BoysMonster 7: Tenma's ReturnWoah hey, another episode of Urasawa Boys! Matt and Quinn are really in the swing of it on this one, there's some good banter, some good thoughts about story and mechanics and theme - some brief discussion of pacing (in a fun way), and then some ancillary bits that are honestly groundbreaking! This is a Richard episode, which means we get to talk about Columbo, and also Die Hard, and all of it is fun and relevant and interesting. Tune in for the insightful discussion of recovery, stay for the bit where we cast Ms. Piggy as Eva Heinneman...
2023-04-111h 55
Urasawa BoysMonster 6: Lucky Doctor TenmaAnother thrilling episode of Urasawa Boys! In this one, we stick the landing on last time's cliffhanger, spend some time with Eva, and then head to the city of Munich for some seemingly unrelated plot developments! Quinn works on his thesis of connections, and Matt draws some parallels to older literary storytelling modes! There's discussion of crushes, gambling, and things we like to say as pat responses. Folks, it's a good one!
Material Covered: Monster (Chapter 42-50)
Next Time: Monster (Chapter 51-59)
Urasawa Boys is a podcast hosted by S. Quinn Morris and...
2023-03-281h 53
Urasawa BoysMonster 5: CSI TenmaWoah, it's here - so soon after the last episode (which was definitely not late)! Matt and Quinn convene once again to talk Monster, this time going over a relatively Tenma-free chunk of reading. We follow a criminal psychologist learning about the reality of a monster, and then follow some characters from previous readings, working through what it means to take a life and to be killed! Quinn has some ideas about the larger themes of the story, and Matt cracks himself up thinking about how one of the characters is a moron! Folks, it's a good one!
2023-03-141h 52
Urasawa BoysMonster 4: Firefighter TenmaBetter late than never - here's a weekend drop of your absolute favorite podcast covering the collected works of Naoki Urasawa! In this episode, we read through a cinematic chunk of chapters that function as a real solid movie of the week. Eva's here, being mean and doing Eva stuff, and then Tenma and the gang do their best to stop the Turkish quarter of Frankfurt from going up in flames. It's an adventure with some big picture reveals that we're not quite sure we love! Thank you for waiting, this is a good one!
Material Covered...
2023-03-121h 50
Urasawa BoysA Quick AnnouncementHey gang! We had some unexpected production delays related to the recent winter weather in the states - Episode 4 (which covers chapters 25-32) will be out a little later, but still soon! And I promise, it's a good one!
Urasawa Boys is a podcast hosted by S. Quinn Morris and Matt Fennell covering the collected works of Naoki Urasawa. You can follow the show on Twitter and support us on Patreon. Thanks for listening!
CONTENT WARNINGS
We're currently reading Monster, which contains scenes of gore, violence, bodily fluids, child abuse, gaslighting/emotional abuse...
2023-02-2801 min
Urasawa BoysMonster 3: Frontier Doctor TenmaTechnically, the third episode of a podcast is the first official episode, since the first and the second are just provisional! (Don't think it through, you know what I mean!) In this episode, we sink into chapters 17-24 of MONSTER, and cover a few episodic stories of Tenma on the run, being a good doctor! Quinn's favorite side character makes an appearance, and Matt has some thoughts about exploitative moves being used for "cheap heat." We say this every time, but it's a good one!
Material Covered: Monster (Chapter 17-24)
Next Time: Monster (Chapter 25-32)
2023-02-141h 45
Urasawa BoysMonster 2: True Crime TenmaWe're back with Episode 2 of our season on MONSTER! This time, we cover Chapters 9-16, which make up the back half of Volume 1 of the Perfect Edition. The engine kicks into gear with both the story and our show, and we spend some time going deep on film serials, sequential art, and one of the best Harrison Ford movies. Quinn does some top tier literary analysis, and Matt makes jokes about a girl he has a crush on being "bad at computers." It's a good one!
Material Covered: Monster (Chapter 9-16)
Next Time: Monster (Chapter 17...
2023-01-312h 09
Urasawa BoysMonster 1: Herr Doktor TenmaThe first episode of the first season! In this one we discuss chapters 1-8 of MONSTER, which make up the first half of the first volume of the 'Perfect Edition.' Quinn's summary was this: "A doctor in Dusseldorf saves a young boy - you won't believe what happens next!" Matt leaned into the microphone and mumbled, "How'd this boy in a coma poison all that candy?" It's a good one, folks.
Material Covered: Monster (Chapter 1-8)
Next Time: Monster (Chapter 9-16)
Urasawa Boys is a podcast hosted by S. Quinn Morris and...
2023-01-171h 54