Chris DeVille, Stereogum:

Here’s a good bit: Rent out the American Football house, which is now an Airbnb, and write your own album there. Here’s a fun twist on that bit: Use the unique circumstances to execute a surprising aesthetic pivot.

Anamanaguchi, one of the world’s foremost chiptune bands, have announced their new album Anyway today. It’s a rock album with traditional rock instruments — i.e. not the video game music the band made its name on — and they wrote it in the Champaign, IL rental home pictured on the cover of twinkly, jazzy Midwest emo heroes American Football’s 1999 debut album. The house can also be seen on the cover of Anyway. American Football and their label Polyvinyl — which also happens to be Anamanaguchi’s label — now own the house, so securing it for a creative retreat was easy.

The first single, the very very good Weezer-and-or-Ozma influenced “Darcie”, has a video up here. The album, Anyway. releases on August 8th. I can’t wait!

Austin Wood, GamesRadar+:

Video games exist, in large part, because people want fun and interesting ways to spend their time, as is the case with any other form of entertainment.

But there is arguably an especially pertinent connection between the timing of the Switch 2 launch, the general state of the world, and the ethos attached to Nintendo games. “It’s been so long since we’ve had a new console hardware platform,” Piscatella continues. “It’s been years. It’s been a long time, and people are looking for things to kind of get their mind off of what’s going on elsewhere. You can even see it online, just the desire people have to have something to be excited about. I don’t know, maybe it’s just my own perspective, but I just see this palpable desperation, in a sense, of wanting to find something to bring joy.

“And a lot of people are locking on to this, which, good for them.”

Comment above from Mat Piscatella, a long-time video game industry analyst. And I don’t think he’s wrong.

Between the sales announcement being directly impacted by tariffs, to the intent of just pure capital-F Fun™, there’s something transgressive about the Switch 2 right now.

A defiant act of “the world is on fire, so I’m gonna lose myself in some blue shells for a while”.

Is that an inherently positive thing? Probably not. But I’ll be damned if right now, the June 5th release date isn’t one of my more anticipated dates of the year.

I couldn’t tell you when exactly it happened, but at some point in the last few years, I got really into baseball.¹

And I mean really into baseball.

Sure, it helped that the Baltimore Orioles have — after a lengthy downturn — been a top-tier team in baseball², but it’s become an ongoing concern for me. It helps that my wife is into it as well, and I’m pretty sure of the 162+ games last season, we watched or listened to easily 120+ of them.

But what is it about the game that I find so compelling? Why this? Why now?

Besides the obvious thought of sports being my midlife crisis interest³, I think there’s something to be said about the construction around the sport itself.

Baseball isn’t about living and dying on every win or loss. It’s about the long game. It’s about the marathon. When the best are considered such because they have a .500 average, that still means they’re losing half the time. You see players ebb and flow through a lengthy spring, summer and fall of games. They get on a hot streak. They get the yips. Star making seasons can be ended in an instance with an injury, or legends can be made in a moment, with a perfectly timed swing, or an out of this world catch.

For a fan, it’s as lengthy a roller coaster as it can be for the teams themselves.

But at the same time, there’s a community. It’s not about 16 weeks of do-or-die, it’s about digging in, finding your grit, supporting your team, and hoping for the best. It’s about going to the games with family and friends. It’s about having a near-nightly tradition in a time where the world feels more erratic than ever.

2025 is, was, has been, and continues to be a rough year. But almost every day, I can sit down, dig in for two hours and change, and just enjoy the game of baseball.

It also doesn’t hurt that here in Maryland we are blessed with a great commentary duo, with Kevin Brown on play-by-play, and former pitcher Ben McDonald on color. Kevin’s a stats geek, a pop culture nerd, obsessed with ballpark food, and isn’t afraid to talk about Blink 182 during a game that isn’t going so well. Ben’s a seasoned hand, who has been up and down in the game of baseball. He knows what it’s like to win, and what it’s like to lose. And he’s there, like an uncle almost, to delight in the success, but give tough love in the times of strife. For the wrestling nerds reading this, think of them as how Excalibur and Taz play against each other for AEW’s commentary.

I’m now digging deeper, learning more. I know what RISP means. I think I understand ERAs. I have capital-t Thoughts about pitching.

But the important thing is this — for a few hours a day, life slows down, balls get hit, and all is well.

I’m sure none of what I said above is particularly original when it comes to talking about baseball, but the fact is: sharing this with my wife, building friendships with fellow fans, connecting with people in the real world about the O’s in times good and bad — it reminds me the world isn’t entirely awful. And right now, we need more of that.

Perfect? No. But a reminder of just how straightforward and fun these movies were. Barely tied to the “saga”, solid performances from flawed characters. Had a good time.

Also, the score kinda goes hard?

This review may contain spoilers.

Questlove: Here’s my SNL doc with the coolest mashup you’ve ever seen.

Ryan Coogler: Hold my beer.

(Also, Ludwig Goransson did not need to go so hard.)

2D animation, forever and ever.

Just a fun movie — the animation is so dynamic, and the writing sharp.

Can’t say I expected a homage to John Carpenter’s The Thing?

Shout out Ketchup Entertainment.

Back in 2020, superstar comic artist Dan Mora posted a random idea. Mashing up the Batman characters with the style of Japanese tokusatsu, the genre which we in the states know best for Ultraman and Power Rangers.

People were very into it, and it’s hard to blame them.

And some of those people? Pretty well known for comics of their own – Radiant Black’s writer, Kyle Higgins, and Inferno Girl Red artist Erica D’Urso.

They have some history with writing and illustrating toku inspired comics, with Radiant Black borrowing key elements from the genre, and Inferno Girl Red being a spin-off in the same universe, called the Massive-Verse.

It’s taken five years, but DC Comics listened, as revealed this past weekend at the C2E2 Convention…

AIPT:

During the “Kyle Higgins Presents: Radiant Black, The Massive-Verse and More!” panel, Kyle will announce a new DC Elseworlds limited series, Immortal Legend Batman. It features co-writer Mat Groom (Radiant Black, Inferno Girl Red) and art by Dan Mora (Superman, Justice League Unlimited, Batman/Superman: World’s Finest).

“In Immortal Legend Batman, Dan, Mat, Erica, and I are using elements of ‘superhero tokusatsu,’ so readers can expect to see cool and recognizable elements like mech/armor-style transformations, specifically named combat moves, a gradually expanding team, and more,” said writer Higgins.

That’s right, Immortal Legend Batman is the title, and the first issue hits shelves in August 2025. It’s awesome to see a company like DC not be afraid to embrace alternative versions of their characters, and put name creators on the book as well.

Sadly, Mora will be working more on the covers than the interiors, but I know D’Urso is up for the gig.

Massive kudos to whichever editor approved this…more of this, big two, more of this.

I feel like this is a DVD which my friends and I would’ve circulated amongst each other.

Fun enough of a movie, though, man, Jack Quaid is having a tough time with relationships on the big screen this year.

More Amber Midthunder, please.