LNT Anime 10

They can’t stop arguing about a woman lead in games, so we decided to say the quiet part out loud: if the story is good, the protagonist’s gender is a non-issue. We jump right into the rumored new God of War direction with Faye at the center and unpack why the backlash feels more like insecurity than critique, especially when gaming has a long history of iconic women from Tomb Raider to Horizon and beyond.

From there we get into what actually makes games hit: tough boss design, learning patterns, and that old school grit you built before autosaves made failure painless. We talk Wukong’s unforgiving fights, why Insomniac’s Wolverine has real potential, and how nostalgia keeps winning with throwbacks like He-Man and other classic properties that still deserve great modern adaptations.

Then we zoom out to the business and culture side: Big names openly loving anime, Sony turning up the heat on console exclusives, and the handheld era that shaped so many of us, from PSP dreams to the timing of COVID gaming marathons. We also look ahead to a stacked summer 2026 anime lineup, debate shonen vs isekai, and tackle the most serious question on the board: should AI ever touch dubbing, subtitles, or voice work without ironclad protection for voice actors?

If you’re into anime news, gaming culture, PlayStation debates, and the future of creative work, hit play, share this with a friend, and leave a review. Where do you draw the line on AI and ownership of a voice?

Transcript

Summer Energy And Life Updates

SPEAKER_01 0:01

Layton LA Life of Times Anime episode 10. We back again. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. What's up, Carlos? How you feeling, bro? Ben 10 again. What's up, real?

SPEAKER_00 0:13

Bro, we back at it cooking for the summertime. You know, the sun is out. I got my shades on. Y'all can't see. There we go. Life is good, man. Life is good.

SPEAKER_01 0:24

Outside is back to what it was. You know what I'm saying? Like seriously. It really is. It really is.

SPEAKER_00 0:32

Something about the summer season, man. It's just the sun is out, the vibes are up. Like cookouts, the food, it's just activities. Yeah, man. It's just where we need to be.

SPEAKER_01 0:43

This is peak season. My birthday's next week, bro. Turn it 29. This is crazy. I'm a real adult. You know, I'm a taxpayer. You know, let's get this. Bro, Uncle Sam wants a piece of the dollar every day, bro. Swear to God. Well, we learned about them right off, so we're trying to write everything off now. Fendi facts.

Faye As God Of War Lead

SPEAKER_01 1:07

Now, one thing that people are trying to write off is this new God of War. The main character is Faye, the wife of Kratos, the mother of Atreus, and I just don't get it. We literally start the first God of War with her axe, burying her, and the mission is to leave her ashes on the top of a mountain. So she was intrinsic to this entire storyline.

SPEAKER_00 1:39

This entire mythology. Like when I saw the trailer, I saw the announcement, I didn't understand what the discourse was. Cause it's like if she's Kratos' wife, she's clearly gonna be sick. It's not like Kratos isn't gonna just wife anybody. And I'm also the type of gamer that I don't care if the main character is a woman. Who cares, bro? If you play on, bro, Laura Croft, bro. Laura Croft. What happens to y'all? You know what I mean? Laura Croft is the OG Uncharted, bro. If we didn't OG creator, we would have never got Uncharted. But back to La Faye, it's like, bro, first of all, she has a sword, she has magic. We know she's a giant. So it's like, bro, it's not like she's gonna be some pushover character. And it's like for all my gamers out there that have played Horizon Zero Dawn, what are we doing?

SPEAKER_01 2:35

I don't get it, bro. I think it's the weirdest shit I ever seen, but this is how I know that, like, bro. But like, these kids are cooked like by these pipelines and shit, right? I would say kids, but I see a lot of grown men too. So I think it's just an ideology, and now it's like a facet. Like, this is like a faction of thought, a school of thought that's going around. But I wanted to address it. Like, it's so weird for the gaming community to be filled, especially if the guys are older, like the guys that are in their 40s and 30s, they know that initially gaming culture was like shunned. This wasn't cool, this wasn't alright. And now that this demon is becoming mainstream and you're ostracizing another group, like it's weird as fuck, bro.

SPEAKER_00 3:18

Yeah, man, and it's like you're gonna close yourself off to some really games. And it's like, because I genuinely don't care what the gender of the main character is, I'm thinking of like all the games that I've played. I'm like, bro, who cares? Bro, Assassin's Creed they can be in a like Assassin's Creed Valhalla, you could have chosen to be a man or woman. Assassin's Creed Odyssey. Mind you, Sandra was a sick character to play as in Assassin's Creed Odyssey. Baby. And we already met one of the Mount Rushmore female game characters and Laura Croft. Bro, I came up playing Tomb Raider.

SPEAKER_01 3:52

Tomb Raider, Mega Man, like it was interchangeable.

SPEAKER_00 3:56

It's weird. It was just weird, bro. Zelda's golden. Like Zelda, I know Link, bro. We all rock with, I know you rock with Link, but like everyone, Zelda is golden, man. Like, come on, man.

SPEAKER_01 4:08

Come on, Doug. I don't get it. I don't get it, but I think it's more so just like the times who are in. These guys feel ostracized. They feel alone and all this other shit. Like, I see the little sob stories, but like I can't let you give me a sob story when you're antagonizing someone else. That means you're not a victim. That means you are a bully. And we deal with bullies. Like bullies get dealt with. So if you don't like it, go outside, love yourself, and touch some grass.

Why The New God Realm Works

SPEAKER_01 4:39

What I am excited about, and I'm excited about this new game. I'm excited about the first of all, they were fucking, they were talking so much shit about it, and the concept of the new game is fired. So when gods die, they have an entire realm. And you are talking to me about the female big Zeus in there with the beef.

SPEAKER_00 5:01

Bro, you know how many gods Kratos has packed up, and you mean to tell me we're gonna play as his wife, and we gotta repack all up. Yeah, like they got check in. Yeah. They got check in.

SPEAKER_01 5:13

There's so much they can do with this. This is they're already using Egyptian gods and Metropolitan gods, like all these different types of gods. Fantastic. It's almost like I feel like it's gonna be like Wukon, where each battle is giant vibes, kaiju, a whole lot of kaiju fights and all that type of stuff.

Wukong Boss Fights And Old School Grit

SPEAKER_00 5:32

When I was playing Wukon, bro, every level felt like some serious business. Like yo, I'm telling you, and it's crazy. I enjoyed that game so much because it's like every new area, it's like you kind of gotta relearn the game a little bit because you have to read how you're gonna attack the boss. And those bosses, that game is very unforgiving. But it's more forgiving than a Dark Souls, but still unforgiving in its own regard.

SPEAKER_01 5:59

Yeah, if you don't understand how to beat the boss and stick to the script, there's no room for improvised mason. Like, you can't really just try something if you don't do it exactly like because I had to look up shit. I'm like, all right, how the fuck do I beat this guy? And then I had to learn out the window to attack and all this other shit. Like, now taking it all serious and shit. Like, it's crazy. You had to really no butt matching in those type of games, bro.

SPEAKER_00 6:24

All tactical. And the thing is, and you know what's funny? I remember watching a video about old school gamers and new age gamers that us old school gamers were willing to fit because when we were playing games, there wasn't an autosave. If you didn't get to a certain checkpoint, all the data up until then was chalked up. So it's like you just you had to do it again. So we built that kind of resilience to be like, hey, you gotta do what you gotta do. But nowadays, there's not that window for failure because the game autosaves like five seconds, so you don't lose anything.

SPEAKER_01 7:01

There's definitely a big difference in that. I feel like games are easier now because even with Wukong compared to any game that we had beforehand, like even with GTA, you had to have a whole cheat book. I remember a notebook full of this shit, like it was serious business. Now you just download this shit, like it's just not the same, bro. It's very different.

Wolverine Games Done Right

SPEAKER_01 7:20

Something that is new, the new Wolverine looks fire, bro. I'm not gonna lie.

SPEAKER_00 7:25

It does, man. And did you ever play that X-Men Origins Wolverine game on 360 and PS3? No. So however you feel about the X-Men Origins Wolverine movies, I feel a little boom. This was back when they turned movies into video games, like direct movies directly into video games. And X-Men Origins Wolverine came out for Xbox 360 and PS3. That game was gory, it was bloody, it was savvy. Yo, and it's like NYG wasn't like it wasn't like a long game at all. It was probably like what calm little 30 hours of gameplay, something like that. But it's like it really captured Wolverine. It was bloody. Even when he would get shot, you could see the bullet hole in his body, but mind you, he had the healing factor. So you could literally see him regenerating, even though he was all bloody. And it was such a good game, bro. And it was so before its time, he would be crowling, you could rip people in half, look at them, throw them off of stuff, impale them with things, bro. So that's what makes me so excited. And the fact that Insomniac is making this game with all the Spider-Man and Miles Morales games, this game is gonna be quality, bro.

SPEAKER_01 8:39

I'm just glad that like X-Men are getting some real shine, some real light. I would love an X-Men game. I would love some open worlds. I bro, I'll pay any amount of money for uh revamped Ultimate Alliance. They can even roll it in with the current characters and the MCU and make a bunch of money with toys and shit like that. I don't care. Y'all could take that idea. The new Wolverine looks fire, though. It looks exactly how you described the previous one, just with more budget, just in 4K, just in HD. Like, it's pretty fire.

He Man And Cartoon Throwbacks

SPEAKER_01 9:13

The new He-Man came out. I haven't seen it yet, but like He-Man has a movie. Like, this is like Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 9:23

And Inspire Cameron's I saw when did I see that He-Man trailer? It was when I went to go see the Jackson movie, actually. And mind you, at first I didn't necessarily know what movie. I was like, yo, what movie is this? And then when I saw The Sword, I was like, oh, okay. He-Man's getting his own movie, like, yo, this is crazy. Cause I haven't heard whispers of He-Man probably since the kid. Bro, I used to watch the cartoon like on Cartoon Network early morning, 7 a.m. Hey, that show used to be heat, bro.

SPEAKER_01 9:59

Bro, cream. You did the one they did on Cartoon Network, like the little bit older one when the animation picked up and he was a little bit younger. You know, he's getting into it. That shit was real.

SPEAKER_00 10:11

Fire, bro. Fire. I remember he Man used to come on right after Thundercats, bro. Thundercats.

SPEAKER_01 10:19

Thundercats, bro. Oh man, that shit's crazy. Thundercats is a fucking throwback, bro. I wouldn't mind a revamp of that either, bro. There's a lot of Samrod Jack deserves a game.

SPEAKER_00 10:31

Oh, yeah. Oh, Sam Rock Jack got a game. What's it? Yeah, I think like 2018, I want to say they got a game.

SPEAKER_01 10:36

2018?

SPEAKER_00 10:37

Bro, it's like based off of like I have it on my vibe. It's a quality game, man. It's a dope game.

SPEAKER_01 10:45

Bro, that's wild,

Big Sean And Anime Going Mainstream

SPEAKER_01 10:46

man. It's wild to see how popular things are getting and like just to see the height of it. We got fucking Big Sean, one of the biggest rappers, arguably top 10, top five, wherever you're at. I know Detroit is one of the biggest. He's doing voiceover acting or sitting there hanging out with a guy that's a voice actor in anime in Gakucha. That's crazy.

SPEAKER_00 11:08

Yeah, and it's wild because I didn't even know he was into the fan fiction world at all. It's like I listened to his music. I rate Big Sean as a rapper, you know what I mean? So I saw the topic that we were gonna talk about on this episode. I was like, whoa, Big Sean. What?

SPEAKER_01 11:24

I was like, oh I saw this shit too. I was like, what the fuck? What's going on here? Yeah, bro.

SPEAKER_00 11:30

Yeah, dude. But that goes to show like how big anime has gotten, like, how big of an impact it is on the culture. Like, regardless of where you're from, bro. Anime is a staple of the culture, man. It is. It is.

SPEAKER_01 11:45

Speaking of staples, we gotta talk about the staples in the business.

Sony Locks Down Console Exclusives

SPEAKER_01 11:49

Fucking Sony is saying they're not gonna do any more PC releases, they're only gonna do it on the console. We're starting this new bubbling war. There was a console for PC, basically, like a Steam console where you can put all your games, and I saw that floating around, but now this console versus PC war is going, going, and it's gone. So, like, why is Sony doing this? Why is it putting pressure on the PC guys? Because people who play PC are gonna buy a console just to play these Sony games.

SPEAKER_00 12:21

And it's I remember for years, man, it was like you remember having a PC was like it was like elitist gaming. You know, like it still is, it still is, it's a little bit, not even a little bit. A lot of it, bro. Yeah, a lot of it. It is a lot of it. It's like these people like, oh, you still use a controller, there's so much button delay and latency, and it's like you're not you know, me personally, my opinion on it is that I will always have a console. Like I appreciate PC gaming, but I'll always have a console just based on the nostalgia of the PS1 or Dreamcast, Super Nintendo, PlayStation 2, Xbox 360, Game Boy, Nintendo SD, Nintendo SP, Game Boy Color.

PSP Nostalgia And Handheld Timing

SPEAKER_00 13:05

Game Boy Color.

SPEAKER_01 13:06

Come on. You know, and health used to be like, bro, the PlayStation Psyche was crazy, bro.

SPEAKER_00 13:13

The PSP was crazy. The PP was before its time, bro. I'm gonna be able to do it. Way before it's time. The PSP came out at a time where we loved being outside too much to game inside, bro.

SPEAKER_01 13:26

You're right, you're right.

SPEAKER_00 13:28

Because like curly, yeah, yeah, yeah. Go ahead.

SPEAKER_01 13:30

No, no, like with the PSP, bro, you could play the game, you could go online, you could do all the shit you could do on your Xbox, but mobile. It was way ahead of its time.

SPEAKER_00 13:40

We were going out, you were riding bikes, skateboards, rollerblading, all that type of stuff. You didn't want to be inside. So handheld gaming at that time, like it was just like, yo, it's too early for this. Could you imagine if the PSP re-released during COVID, the Nintendo Switch would have got washed, bro?

SPEAKER_01 13:57

Switch is not like, bro, I only got the Switch for Pokemon. Come on.

SPEAKER_00 14:01

That's what I'm saying. I only got it for Zelda, for Legend of Zelda, Breath of the Wild, and all that type of stuff. And mind you, here's the thing: there's people I have on my Instagram, bro, on my Instagram and TikTok, I get ads all the time from modded PS Vitas that can a PS5 games, PS4 games, PS3 games, PS2 games. Bro, all the time. It's like, oh, we're selling a modded PS Vita for like $150 that has over a thousand preloaded games of your favorite titles. And I'm like, Dyam. Yeah, I'm sitting there like dying. Bro, here's the thing. Time for that is now. Time wasn't for that back in the early 2010. We was outside for real.

SPEAKER_01 14:41

Yeah, we actually had a childhood.

SPEAKER_00 14:43

You know what I'm saying? Bro, if you gave us that during COVID, we would have ran with it. Are you crazy? Bro, I was gaming for 16 to 20 hours on the daily during yo, COVID was D1 gaming times. Bro, COVID gaming was unreal, bro.

SPEAKER_01 15:00

It was actually like ranked gaming, bro. It was ranked gaming. We had nothing going on. I had a fucking boat of takeout around me, bro. I didn't have to work for a month or two, bro. It's just crazy.

SPEAKER_00 15:12

Bro, I got laid off from Verizon.

SPEAKER_01 15:15

Yeah, I got laid off.

SPEAKER_00 15:17

Yeah, I was collecting unemployment and just gaming for like 20 hours a day, bro. I'd go to bed at like five o'clock in the morning, seven o'clock in the morning, wake up at like 4 p.m. and do the whole thing over again.

SPEAKER_01 15:29

I'd be like, who's on, man? Who's on?

SPEAKER_00 15:31

Yeah, bro. It was crazy. Yo, you were doing a function of four parties. You'd have like 20 people in a party, bro. It was like a function.

SPEAKER_01 15:38

20 people in a party. It was really like a function. Hey, we were getting turned. Like, it was actually, it was actually some, it was actually a fire time.

Summer 2026 Anime Feast

SPEAKER_01 15:47

The fucking anime lineup we got for summer 2026 is fire, bro. We got Bleach, we got Ghost and Shell, we got Sekiro, No Defeat, and so many more. It's just like, we're just feasting, bro. Bro, it's wild, man. There's something coming out every fucking week. If it's not like something live, like a sporting event, it's something in anime, it's something in movies, something in television. We gotta unpack it. This is what's going on. I'm excited for Ghost and Show, bro. I'm excited for Ghost and Show. I'm excited for Bleach. I can't wait for July. We got Damons, and we have a couple other animes that's popping off right now. But I'm not gonna lie, I feel like these ones, like Bleach, Bleach changes the needle. Like, this is gonna be like getting random people into this shit. Like, Bleach is that cool. It has that type of allure. If you're into anime, you're gonna like the anime that's currently popping off right now, like Doro Doro. But Bleach is gonna get the casuals out, bro. It's gonna get the casuals out for sure.

SPEAKER_00 16:47

And I love the state that anime is in. I love this atmosphere that anime is in right now. Because especially if you go even deeper. So, one out of that list, I'm very excited for, of course, Bleach and Ghost in the Show, but I'm also very excited for Sekiro because Sekiro's die twice was a quality game. That's another quality game that I played during COVID. But also, going back to anime is that I love right now, mind you, I'll always have my love for shonens. So, shout out Bleach, shout out my Dragon Ball Z, shout out my My Hero Academias and all those shonens.

Shonen Versus Isekai Debate

SPEAKER_00 17:23

But mind you, now as a grown man, bro, I've fallen in love with Isekai's, man. I love Isakai. Right now, I'm not gonna lie, the state of anime right now is like shonen versus Isekai. And if you line up all isekai, man, I'm not gonna lie. The Ease is taking the cake, bro. What's the thing?

SPEAKER_01 17:43

Yeah, bro. I got a lot of pushback. I got a lot of pushback for you. Go ahead.

SPEAKER_00 17:47

The thing about Shonen is that was our first introduction. That is what got us into the culture. So it's like Dragon Ball Z goes beyond anime, bro. How many pictures you see with Goku and Jordans, bro? That's what I'm saying. The course is doesn't have that same date. They don't have like anime. On streetwear, I see in like a palace hoodie or like a Dior hoodie or something like that. Then we could have that conversation of Isekai takeover. But the actual infant is showing beyond anime is dog.

SPEAKER_01 18:21

It's just too much, bro. If you go to Mexico and a new episode of Dragon Ball Z drops, the crime drops. That's just crazy, bro. So on that tip,

Crunchyroll AI Dubbing And Voice IP

SPEAKER_01 18:37

I got you. But bro, Crunchyroll, AI. It's a big fucking battle. Should AI ever be used for dubbings or you know, subtitles or even voice work? This is what the industry is gonna have to deal with. I feel like each and every voice actor should sign something or get their voice to be IP. Like, I think people need to jump in front of it business-wise before they do it. A lot of times, in a lot of aspects in this world, people like, oh, I feel bad. Oh, you need to talk to a fucking lawyer. Don't just sit here and wallow in what's going wrong. You need to protect yourself now. I feel like all the voice actors should start a union. All the voice actors should start something to protect themselves. The guys at the top should already be treating their voice like IP in this field of AI. You got Chat GBT, you got all this stuff, right? Your job is at risk in several aspects. You need to be understanding your opposition. And I think that's the biggest thing with AI and any other tech shit in America or in the culture. If you don't adapt, it's you're gonna get left.

SPEAKER_00 19:43

Yeah. And thing is, mind you, of course, as someone who works in tech, I love the integration of AI. But when it comes to like topics like this of anime, something I hold dear to my heart, bro. I never want AI to take away from the lanes of creatives, bro. Because the thing is, take Devil Man's Cry Baby, for example, right? One or two season wonder. Say that creators just like I just wanted to put out one to two seasons of this project of mine that I want people to enjoy, and I just wanted to disappear off into the sunset afterwards. And then I'd feel away if they're just like, oh, let's pass into AI, milk it a little bit. Like, I don't want it to take away from the creatives. I understand I want it to be a hybrid of like and amplify the creatives to give us even more refined content, not just solely use this to give us content.

SPEAKER_01 20:41

Yeah. I mean, we're in an age where like AI bots has surpassed human traffic on the web. So, like, it's very serious. You can now buy opinions and narratives now. Like, you don't have to really talk to real people to have a hate campaign or anything like this. So I think people should really disadapt. I do think the situation is dire because people with capital like Crunchyroll, they're gonna be like, they're gonna steal your voice. You need to protect yourself. It's nothing you can really do. That's what I would advise these people to do. Besides that, just knowing about this, you need to change. I feel like actors should be doing the same thing. I feel like a musician should be doing the same thing. In that music and men podcast, we talk about this, but um G just did a deal with Spotify that anybody signed on a UMG, you can start making an AI playlist using their voice. And you want Kendrick and Taylor Swift and Drake on one track, you can do that. Just so they can milk the off in the world so parasocial that they can turn and make their own little worlds in there. It's gonna be crazy.

SPEAKER_00 21:51

The topics they'll have.

SPEAKER_01 21:58

It was Darn COVID, right?

SPEAKER_00 22:00

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 22:01

Yeah, hey, bro. That was like the Tory Lane show. Like they were trying to find how to keep a crowd entertained without people being there in person. In certain aspects, it's positive, but yeah, like that, you know, they're gonna milk it the way they can milk it.

Hunter X Hunter Returns Plus One Piece

SPEAKER_01 22:15

But a good thing that's come out of this shit, and I've recently learned, is that Hunter X Hunter is coming back, volume 39, July 3rd, 2026, bro. We finally eat again. We finally make it to the fucking black continent, bro. I don't even know, bro. Like I couldn't drink legally the last time I heard about this shit.

SPEAKER_00 22:37

Yeah. And it's crazy. I remember we heard whispers of this during COVID, this arc was gonna come during COVID, and everyone was like, oh my gosh. Because I remember this and the thousand-year blood war arc like in hand, because people are like, if Bleach is coming back, Hunter Hunter has to come back. Bro, they're like, there's no way one can come back and not the other. It's crazy that we're living in these times. And mind you, what makes it even crazier, One Piece has been going the entire time.

SPEAKER_01 23:04

One Piece never stopped. And that's why it's the GOAT. And that's why it's the GOAT. I'm excited. We don't believe in break. Bro, One Piece is Drake. Hunter X Hunter is Kendrick Lamar. We're gonna wait. We're gonna wait. Oh, you're gonna make the comment section go crazy with that. We're gonna wait. We're gonna wait for the chapter, Kendrick. The meantime, we are trying to find the One Piece, brother. One Piece, I love is consistency. The pace has to change, though. They're giving us a lot of fucking filler. I get it though. Otis trying to stay ahead of it. It's hard to stay ahead of it. They're gonna have to kill people. Like, if you're up on the Maw Guy, like shit is happening. I'm not gonna talk about it, but shit is happening right now. Big shit's happening. So, once it does get animated, I can't wait. But like, big shit's happening. Hunter X Hunter is on the way, but man, this is exciting times. Another great episode going over everything. Episode 10, the Life of Times Anime Podcast.

Summer Advice And Sign Off

SPEAKER_01 24:08

Carlos, you got any last thoughts before we get out of here, brother?

SPEAKER_00 24:11

Man, it's the summertime, man. Make sure y'all get outside. Y'all enjoy this good weather. Of course, we love our video games. We love our anime and movies, TV shows, series. But man, tell your loved ones that you love them. Get outside, get on grill, and enjoy this good weather. But keep consuming the content. Yes, sir. Tap in.