Ultra Podcast Z - A-to-J Connections

Ultra Podcast Z 160 (2022 Resolutions w/ Photaku) Travel, Cons, Video Games, Lunar New Year, More!

1/28/2022

Live Broadcast:
January 25, 2022 6:00 PM PST

Hosts:
Manuel
Photaku

Description:
Ultra Podcast Z had a really fun and random episode that started with yet another last minute Nyaru cancellation! We had talked to Photaku about being on this New Year's Resolution episode though so for the third time he became the Nyaru replacement rather than a guest third host. It was also his birthday, a fact we didn't know when he was asked to be on and something we probably should've referred to more within the show itself. Anyway, even though we had a central topic to focus on this week we kinda lost the goat about twenty minutes in (complete with the usual technical difficulties) and talked a LOT about video games, video game collecting, and the process of selling retro game collections (as well as figures and stuff) in this somewhat inflated collectibles market. It was a somewhat random topic but the chat was really into it and JD didn't rein in the content as much as he usually does. Perhaps this is a taste of an eventual return to an A-to-J gaming podcast? Anyhow, we eventually did go back to the original idea and talk a bit more about new year's resolutions and Lunar New Year stuff before wrapping up. A random show all throughout that was fun nonetheless, if only Nyaru had shown up! Anyway, wish Photaku a "Happy Birthday" in the comments below even though we'll be a few days removed at best by the time you read this! As always, take care of yourselves and each other in these trying times and stay healthy and safe! If you want to watch Ultra Podcast Z live then check out our twitch channel: twitch.tv/atojplays We are live every Tuesday at 6 PM PST!

Ultra Podcast Z 159 (Favorites of 2021) Fav Anime & Music, Spider-Man: No Way Home, Pokemon, More!

1/21/2022

Live Broadcast:
January 18, 2022 6:00 PM PST

Hosts:
Manuel
Nyaru

Description:
Ultra Podcast Z had a shaky end to 2021 as we saw our entire last week of streams get cancelled and our return to streaming has been more and more delayed as the struggle of recovering from the holidays and ALA has dragged things out a bit. Well, all that is over now and UPZ is back! We returned with a rather chill episode where we did a lowkey "Favorite Media of 2021" show and gave out our "Golden Reggie" Awards! There is no co-host this time around as we wanted to keep it as a simple show since it's been a solid month that we've been absent and wanted a return to basics. There was more than enough to fill the show though as we had a series of updates before diving into our faovite anime, movie, TV shows, music, and video games! JD even joined in a bit as a vocal co-host giving his suggestions on favorite media, and we all kind of cheated by giving our favorite pick that wasn't new in 2021 and one that was. There's a lot of randomness here, and some choices that will probably surprise you, but what is most surprising is that we somehow didn't mention "Arcane" or "Squid Game" once in the line-up of favorites! Anyhow, let us know what some of your faovites of 2021 were and what you thought about our (admittedly limited) choices. We'll be returning to a semi-normal schedule from here on out so let's hope that we all have a strong 2022! Next week we talk about our New Year Resolutions, we're a bit later than we would've liked, but Lunar New Year IS around the corner! As always, take care of yourselves and each other in these trying times and stay healthy and safe! If you want to watch Ultra Podcast Z live then check out our twitch channel: twitch.tv/atojplays We are live every Tuesday at 6 PM PST!

Ultra Podcast Z 158 (2021 In Review w/ Hinacchi) NFTs & Crypto, Squid Game, Job Market, Cons, More!

12/12/2021

Live Broadcast:
December 7, 2021 6:00 PM PST

Hosts:
Manuel
Nyaru
Hinacchi

Description:
Ultra Podcast Z saw Nyaru come back after nearly a month away, mostly due to illness, and we also saw the return of Hinacchi who hasn't been on since earlier in the year! This is the penultimate final UPZ of 2021 and we decided to do our usual "Looking Back at The Year" kinda show with a little more randomness thrown in for fun. We actually had a pretty full outline but ignored it for the most part and only touched on some of it in the rapid fire section. This doesn't mean we didn't cover a lot of cool topics though. We talked Squid Game, Conventions this year and beyond, the current job market and the whole "worker shortage" thing going on right now, and there was a lot of crypto and NFT nonsense pretty much throughout this entire show for good measure! It should be mentioned that we had a lot of technical difficulties on this one, which was unfortunate because we had a lot of new viewers this time around, but it is what it is and we hope everyone just looks past the audio/video hiccups and the entire middle part where the show literally stopped lol. That was going to be edited out with a smooth jump cut to hide it (this has happened in the past) but it was missed so yeah... YouTube gets the full experience! Anyway, there were some good topics here so check it out, keep an eye for more Hinacchi appearances now that she is more settled these days, and tune in next week for the final UPZ of 2021 where we will be giving out "Golden Reggies" to our favorite things of 2021! Whatever you celebrate, Happy Holidays! As always, take care of yourselves and each other in these trying times and stay healthy and safe! If you want to watch Ultra Podcast Z live then check out our twitch channel: twitch.tv/atojplays We are live every Tuesday at 6 PM PST!

Ultra Podcast Z 157 (Fav Holiday Media w/ Dr. Wes) Xmas Horror, Christmas Specials, Movies, More!

12/5/2021

Live Broadcast:
November 30, 2021 6:00 PM PST

Hosts:
Manuel
Dr. Wes

Description:
Ultra Podcast Z took a lowkey week of gameplay right before Thanksgiving so we decided to retake back the number of the episode so behold a retconned Episode 157! This is the first, and sadly probably only due to time, XMas special episodes and we took a look at some of our favorite holiday media like Christmas movies or Christmas specials of TV shows. There was a lot of nostalgia here but it needs to be mentioned that the first ten or so minutes of this show are lost so bear with the sudden start and us referring to things that aren't actually in the episode anymore. For archival sake we opened with a "What Are We (Blank)ing" where Manuel discussed watching "Rock of Love" recently and then quickly went into the main topic and started a long part about TV Christmas specials like Tales From The Crypt's "All Through The House" (mistakenly called "Silent Night Deadly Night" here) and The Simpsons' many holiday episodes like its pilot "Simpsons Roasting Over An Open Fire". The rest of the content is there and the show proper picks up when we're still in the middle of the Simpsons discussion so there wasn't a lot lost in terms of time, just that we were moving pretty quickly out of nowhere for a change lol. There wasn't a lot of live interaction on this one but we kept the show moving fast and covered a lot of media and attempted to look into other holiday media as well, though this went down a talk where Manuel tried to stupidly explain some Kwanzaa nonsense but it was all in good fun and no offense is intended. It's also worth mentioning that the side stories and non-sequiturs are mostly on point here and the topic was covered pretty directly even though this episode had a lot of issues against it, namely that it was nearly cancelled before as Nyaru was not able to join due to illness. Weston filled in last minute and this was a topic that he had a lot to say about even if he had to do so somewhat cold. Anyway, it was a fun show so hopefully you look beyond some of the technical nonsense and maybe share some of your favorite holiday media and what you think about our takes. Whatever you celebrate, Happy Holidays! As always, take care of yourselves and each other in these trying times and stay healthy and safe! If you want to watch Ultra Podcast Z live then check out our twitch channel: twitch.tv/atojplays We are live every Tuesday at 6 PM PST!

Ultra Podcast Z 156 (Holiday Food Tier List w/ Photaku & Janette) Thanksgiving, Desserts, More!

11/20/2021

Live Broadcast:
November 16, 2021 6:00 PM PST

Hosts:
Manuel
Photaku
Janette

Description:
Ultra Podcast Z took an accidental week off due to Manuel's computer literally blowing up so our episode on "Anime Guilty Pleasures" will probably be delayed for a bit as we're nearing a bunch of Holiday breaks and End of Year specials. What was the deal for this week though? A Tier List of course! This time we tacked "Holiday Foods" though it mainly became "American Thaksgiving Foods" which probably makes sense as that's the most popular holiday that is surrounded by food and if we had more items to rank this show would've ran very long. Speaking of running long, this one was surprisingly concise and probably was due to the fact that we only had three hosts +JD (our mod) instead of four which has been the usual number we've used for Tier Lists recently. With three people we managed to tackle all the items we deemed worthy of including and didn't argue too much during the show about rankings. The closest we probably got was a hot take on King's Hawaiian Rolls (which aren't even Hawaiian btw) that didn't really matter at the end of the day since they weren't on this list anyway. This wouldn't last though since everyone who's seen this list has argued with a lot of our placement (who would've thought that everyone hates stuffing and loves pumpkin pie?) including many past UPZ hosts and potential hosts for this specific list episode as well. Speaking of hosts, we had Photaku and Janette again on this list, the same as the Fast Food Redux but minus Warren. There was some randomness here and there in this episode but we kept it pretty tight and didn't jump into as many side stories and distractions which is probably for the best. Anyhow, this list is making us hungry so we're going to move on from this description but be sure to let us know what you think about our choices and where you would've placed some of these foods. If you're watching this AFTER Thanksgiving, let us know how that went too. Happy Holidays! As always, take care of yourselves and each other in these trying times and stay healthy and safe! If you want to watch Ultra Podcast Z live then check out our twitch channel: twitch.tv/atojplays We are live every Tuesday at 6 PM PST!

Ultra Podcast Z 155 (Random News w/ Photaku) Facebook Goes Meta, Gundam Cafe, Food, MaiOtaku, More!

11/5/2021

Live Broadcast:
November 2, 2021 6:00 PM PDT

Players:
Manuel
Photaku

Description:
Ultra Podcast Z survived Halloween and we return to our normal schedule for the Holidays though we have some skipped weeks in the future so we decided to break tradition and not take the first week after Halloween off. Apparently Nyaru didn't get this memo though and our original plan, talking about "Guilty Pleasure Anime", was not going to happen so we went with some news stories we've missed and Photaku joined again filling in for an AWOL Nyaru in the eleventh hour! We talked all sorts of nonsense about food by accident in the middle and managed to loosely tie it back to our main topics, but speaking of those main topics, we covered Facebook's name change, Dune getting a sequel, the Ryan Kopf/MaiOtaku ongoing scandal, the closing of all the Gundam Cafes in Japan, and more! This WAS right after Halloween so we kind of were reminded of that both at the start and at the end of the show and we hope that you got food if you ordered it unlike our chat. We tried to get a few things out in this episode and one of them is to PLEASE stop casting Chris Pratt in your new animated projects... cast a dedicated voice actor instead. Also, if you're a robot trying to hide this fact from a big, live audience, Sweet Baby Ray's on the bookshelf might not be the way to do it... Anyway, this was a rather low-key episode, but it was fun and it kept our momentum strong and we hope to continue onwards until right before Christmas at the very least and we have a lot more focused topics in the near future! Hopefully Nyaru shows up in those upcoming ones though... As always, take care of yourselves and each other in these trying times and stay healthy and safe! If you want to watch Ultra Podcast Z live then check out our twitch channel: twitch.tv/atojplays We are live every Tuesday at 6 PM PST!

Ultra Podcast Z 154 (Jackbox Game Night) Trivia Murder Party, Monster Seeking Monster, Fibbage, More!

10/29/2021

Live Broadcast:
October 26, 2021 6:00 PM PDT

Players:
Manuel
Nyaru
JD
Dr. Wes
Photaku
Molly
THE AUDIENCE!

Description:
Ultra Podcast Z has its second community game night! This is the last episode of our special Halloween episodes and we actually had another themed episode with a guest lined up but it had to be scrapped at the eleventh hour when said guest dropped out. So Game Night it is! We had talked about making the final episode of every month a Community Game Night just to change things up a bit and we're accidentally on track to do just that. We ended September with one, ending October with one, and just to give everyone a bit of spoilers, we're going to end November with one. We didn't cover any nonsense at all this time around and jumped right into the games once we went live. This one featured a lot of the same people who were present in the first one we did but saw Dr. Wes taking the place of Callie. There was a lot of randomness here and we played some of the classics from last time, "Trivia Murder Party" and "Fibbage", and tried "Monster Seeking Monster" (which we called "Discord Simulator") this time around which seemed somewhat fitting even if it was a little awkward at times. Hopefully this is something everyone is having fun with and content you'll all enjoy as it was definitely fun to produce and provides the occasional break here and there. That said we're not sure if this will be a monthly thing, but only time will tell on that front. For now, enjoy the spoopiness and the silliness that fill out this one! If you like what you see be sure to follow us on twitch and join in the next gaming nonsense. As always, take care of yourselves and each other in these trying times and stay healthy and safe! If you want to watch Ultra Podcast Z live then check out our twitch channel: twitch.tv/atojplays We are live every Tuesday at 6 PM PST!

Ultra Podcast Z 153 (Internet Spoops) Fav Creepypastas, Dark Web Nonsense, 3 AM Challenges, More!

10/22/2021

Live Broadcast:
October 19, 2021 6:00 PM PDT

Hosts:
Manuel
Nyaru
Kyuu

Description:
Ultra Podcast Z is hitting up Halloween! It's the third of our special Halloween episodes and this one is a redux of sort and we decided to talk "Internet Spoops" with Kyuu joining us! This was probably the first topic we had scheduled for this Halloween setup but it was a little shaky at the start as we had only the most nebulous of ideas of what we wanted to talk about and we were sadly a little low energy at the start before we started and it took about half the show to get us really into the swing of things. We say that but other times the show is quite enjoyable just that the strains of doing the show live sometimes add extra stress. Anyway, the topics were fun and all over the place and while we couldn't think up all the creepypasta stuff we wanted to on the fly (which ironically is the reason for the redux as the first time we did this that was ALL we did) we had a lot of fun talking about dark web bs and other YouTubers "creepy" content. The show took a weird twist at the end as we learned about Chris Ayres death in real time and we struggled to get back on track to wrap the show up, but that is again an element of a live show. Anyhow, let us know some of your favorite creepypasta stories, creepy readers on YouTube, or anything else we covered here. Also, give us any other topic ideas you may have as we're always open to suggestions! As always, take care of yourselves and each other in these trying times and stay healthy and safe! If you want to watch Ultra Podcast Z live then check out our twitch channel: twitch.tv/atojplays We are live every Tuesday at 6 PM PST!

Ultra Podcast Z 152: "Night of The Living Dead" Watchalong & Commentary (w/ Photaku Network & Haro)

10/15/2021

Live Broadcast:
October 12, 2021 6:00 PM PDT

Hosts:
Manuel
Nyaru
Photaku
Haro
JD (Mod)

Description:
Ultra Podcast Z is hitting up Halloween and fulfilling an episode idea we've had since our very first Halloween Episode lineup in 2018! We watched the original "Night of The Living Dead" and provided live commentary and more! There was a bit of technical difficulties when it came to this one, so let's address those first. For technical reasons we had two versions of the movie playing: the one for the stream and the one for the hosts. This would lead to the hosts being ahead of the stream version but we made the most of it and it isn't that bad we feel. ALSO, we filmed everyone's cameras separately so technically there is a version of this stream where you can see our reactions, our occasional drinking, and even Photaku's Barry cosplay, but it proved too much to include in this version due to time so maybe that'll be a later release or something for patrons. Some of this footage IS in the brief intro though so yeah. Anyway, we had Haro and Photaku on this one and both Haro and Nyaru hadn't seen this movie before so it was a fun watch all around. Honestly, this could've gone so badly (especially taking into account the last minute technical difficulties) but it proved to be a lot of fun and we had a decent audience for the watchalong. Also, the zombos got Nyaru at the end as her power went out in the final minutes! Anyway, let us know what you think about this and also feel free to toss future Halloween ideas at us! As always, take care of yourselves and each other in these trying times and stay healthy and safe! If you want to watch Ultra Podcast Z live then check out our twitch channel: twitch.tv/atojplays We are live every Tuesday at 6 PM PST!

Ultra Podcast Z 151 (Horror Movie Remakes) Asian Horror, Texas Chainsaw, Friday The 13th, More!

10/8/2021

Live Broadcast:
October 5, 2021 6:00 PM PDT

Hosts:
Manuel
Nyaru
Dr. Wes
JD (Mod)

Description:
Ultra Podcast Z is hitting up Halloween! It's the first of our special spoopy episodes and we're talking Horror Movie Remakes! These special spoopy episodes are always a lot of fun and we look forward to them and make sure to never skip a week and this is the year that we decided to tackle some topics that have been floating around in years past but we never got around to doing. This was originally thought to be a tier list but seeing as we kinda relied on doing those when we were lazy, we decided to just have it as an open discussion and this is probably for the best as it gave us time to talk about things and still give us space to be random when we felt like it. Wes joined us for this one and there are definitely movies that we accidentally skipped but we covered most of the heavy hitters here and that was largely the goal to begin with. We actually managed to get some good recommendations out of this and didn't just tear apart all the remakes as you might have expected us to do so be sure to let us know what you think about what we had to say about them and let us know your thoughts on some horror movie remakes, especially ones we didn't cover here! Elsewhere we talked about idol graduations, Sora in Smash Bros., and some nonsense about Whole Foods, so keep an eye out for that stuff too! Next week we're watching "Night of The Living Dead" which is another thing we've been talking about doing since UPZ Year One! As always, take care of yourselves and each other in these trying times and stay healthy and safe! If you want to watch Ultra Podcast Z live then check out our twitch channel: twitch.tv/atojplays We are live every Tuesday at 6 PM PST!