In our REAL season finale, your hosts review the tier list we put together during our first season and decide if any of our anime rankings need revisions - in a fair, impartial democratic process, of course. Thank you for listening this past season!

In this season finale, your hosts dive into the much beloved Space Western classic Cowboy Bebop, and butt heads more than they ever have before. Cowboy Bebop has beautiful animation, an iconic soundtrack, a memorable cast of characters, and a legacy that lasts to this day…but is it an S-tier? Listen to find out how we ranked it.…

In this filler episode, your happy loner hosts rank our favourite iconic anime squads. This ranking isn’t about who would win in a fight - some of these squads don’t even fight in the first place. This ranking is about vibes, baby. (And what squads we would like to join, or at least observe from a safe distance.)…

Our cells are hard at work on this episode as we discuss the edutainment anime that is Cells At Work. This anime has a unique concept and riffs off of anime tropes we know and love to teach us about how the human body works…but is it an S-tier? Listen and find out how we ranked it!

We are rounding up sixteen beloved best boys and throwing them into the ring for this March Madness Bracket Beatdown, where they will go head-to-head as we determine who is the GOAT among male shonen leads.

We know what you’ll say next!...No we don’t, because we’re not as crafty as the observant scoundrel Joseph Joestar, the ungentlemanly crop-top-wearing protagonist of the second installment in Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure: Battle Tendency. Part 2 of Jojo gives us the origins of the stone mask, a Joestar-Zepelli reunion, ancient beings who prophesied the…

Valentine’s Day approaches, and instead of thinking about the beloved ships we want to sail into the sunset, we’ve decided to talk about the anime ships we want to sink. These ships range from questionable to worrying to Only Together Because Plot. There are all canon ships, by the way - we’ll be drawing our swords over fanships another day.…

On this episode, we yell as coherently as we can about the mindfuck of an anime that is Shin Sekai Yori. Children go missing, they fall in love, they learn forbidden knowledge, and we, the viewers, never get to relax for a second. Shin Sekai Yori may have changed us irrevocably, but is it an S-Tier?

You know when you watch the first episode of an anime and you feel so shocked and captivated that you can’t not keep going? That’s what this Top 5 list is all about, baby! We’re ranking our Top 5 first episodes/chapters that slapped us across the face, threatened us with a knife, and took all our money.…

The best thing about sports anime is that you don’t have to like sports at all; it’s all about the bonds between the athletes, and in the case of Yuri On Ice, the ~romantic entanglements~ between an insecure figure skater on the verge of giving up his career and the dazzling world champion who decides to coach him. Yuri On Ice captivated the hearts…

The weather outside is frightful and you know what’s always delightful? Bundling up in some blankets with your hot beverage of choice and your favourite cozy comfort anime. In this episode, we talk about the wide umbrella that is comfort anime and share some of the anime that are always there for us.…

What’s better than a love story? A dorky love story about nerds who love each other despite their differing dorky interests. We love Wotakoi over here at the BIIAST Pod and we were super excited to get into all the things that make this story so good. What does it mean to be compatible with a partner? Do we ever really grow up? Should you secretly …

There’s only one thing worse than a predator...A child. (No!) There are a lot of strong anime characters who wield their powers for good - and then there are the walking misdemeanors. Maybe they are a little too interested in children, maybe they have a history of harming children, or maybe we just fear what might happen if we let them around a chi…

It’s Spooktober, baby! We knew we had to cover something creepy, and what better place to start than with the work of Junji Ito, the wholesome horror legend himself? This almost-scifi Jaws-inspired horror manga is gorey, bizarre, and rife with relationship drama. Gyo dares to ask the question: If humans pollute the oceans, do the creatures of the s…

Okay, maybe we’re not boomers but we’ve been anime fans for over half our lives, and we’ve seen some changes over the years. We get into anime accessibility, the fall of the filler, the rise of 3D animation, the globalization of anime, and tropes and trends we’ve noticed in anime storytelling. It’s just one of those fun little chats you have with y…

Trigger Warning: Child sexual abuse. Because Future Diary is full of it for some reason. In this accidental hate episode, we revisit a series that was hugely popular when we were in high school. Klaus has never liked it, Jaclyn felt very nostalgic towards it...until she watched it again. Sorry if you like Future Diary. We gave it a fair shot! And w…

In this filler episode, we discuss the manga series we believe deserve an anime, for the illiterate among us (JK we all gotta read subtitles). What makes a manga deserving of an anime? Love, baby! (And some other things, I guess.) Mostly, we try to convince you to consume the collected works of Tatsuki Fujimoto and Junji Ito.…

It’s scams on scams on scams in this episode of the BIIAST pod because we’re talking about Great Pretender, an anime all about con men who con and the con men they con and the con men conning each other. And a good number of con women, too. Join us as we plow through all the cons of Great Pretender.

In this filler episode we hash out the “debate” (is it really a debate?) of subs versus dubs! Mostly, we talk about the dubs that are worth watching, our favourite dubs from our childhoods, and the anime we choose to watch dubbed today. Jaclyn dives into the history of 4Kids (a real product of its time) and its influence on the Westernization of an…

It’s the first episode of our series on Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure, and we are talking about Phantom Blood, the origin story of the Joestar family and most importantly: me, Dio! What is a noble protagonist without his cruel villain? Or is Dio the true protagonist here? Phantom Blood may be the first installment of an iconic manga/anime series...But i…

It’s our second filler episode and our first Top 5 episode! Anime is filled with loveable weaklings and we are filled with love for them. We try to define the loveable weakling - are they a weakling if they get a power-up? What elevates a weakling into loveable territory? - and share our Top 5 picks and honorable mentions.…

In this episode of the BIIAST Pod we go toe to toe like Light and L as we decide where to rank Death Note in our official tier list. Who were we rooting for in this 4D chess match between the biggest brains in anime? Who was the ultimate winner and who was the ultimate loser? If given the chance, would we try to become god of the new world? Death N…

It’s our first filler episode and we’re talking about...toxic anime fandoms! Not any particular toxic anime fandom (though some may come to mind) but rather, what does toxicity in anime fandoms look like? How do you know if you’re being a toxic fan? And do we have any toxic anime takes?

In this first episode of the BIIAST Anime Podcast, we discuss The Promised Neverland. What makes it worth watching/reading? What makes Season 1 so horrifying and Season 2 so horrible? Why does Norman simp for Emma and why does Emma simp for the demons? Who is the best character and why is it Phil? It may have been one of the most anticipated anime …

Welcome to But Is It An S-Tier, an anime podcast hosted by Jaclyn and Klaus. In this introduction to the BIIAST podcast, we explain the format of the show, our spoiler policy, and the double-edged sword of pronunciation as non-Japanese anime fans.For our main episodes, we discuss an anime or manga series in depth and rank them on our official tier …