Imagine the world of animation colliding with the influences of gaming, resulting in a neon-cyberpunk style anime series. This is the fascinating universe that Jacob, the creator of NovaStars AC, vividly brings to life in this intriguing episode. Listen in as he paints a picture of how a casual conversation evolved into a full-blown journey to create the series - from handpicking the voice actors, overcoming language barriers, to the challenges faced in pitching the series to streaming services.
He also shares interesting insights into how fan receptions, trends, and popular shows shaped the creative process of this project. This goes to show the interconnectivity within the realm of entertainment and how different mediums can inspire and influence each other. In the end, the conversation with Jacob offered a fascinating glimpse into behind-the-scene aspects of NovaStars AC, with the promise of the first two episodes releasing in early 2024!
Here is where you can learn more about NovaStars AC, follow them on Instagram, and/or purchase some merch - https://www.novastarsac.com/
🔻You can find all important links for the podcast over at https://linktr.ee/waitforitpodcast (which includes our brand new Patreon site!)🔺
🔻BACKGROUND MUSIC PROVIDED BY:
Song : Daystar - SOSO / • ✨샛별 - SOSO✨(Royal...
Instagram: @starryattic
E-mail: byeallim@gmail.com
Support me for better music: (Paypal) https://paypal.me/daystarpj
🔺
Imagine the world of animation colliding with the influences of gaming, resulting in a neon-cyberpunk style anime series. This is the fascinating universe that Jacob, the creator of NovaStars AC, vividly brings to life in this intriguing episode. Listen in as he paints a picture of how a casual conversation evolved into a full-blown journey to create the series - from handpicking the voice actors, overcoming language barriers, to the challenges faced in pitching the series to streaming services.
He also shares interesting insights into how fan receptions, trends, and popular shows shaped the creative process of this project. This goes to show the interconnectivity within the realm of entertainment and how different mediums can inspire and influence each other. In the end, the conversation with Jacob offered a fascinating glimpse into behind-the-scene aspects of NovaStars AC, with the promise of the first two episodes releasing in early 2024!
Here is where you can learn more about NovaStars AC, follow them on Instagram, and/or purchase some merch - https://www.novastarsac.com/
🔻You can find all important links for the podcast over at https://linktr.ee/waitforitpodcast (which includes our brand new Patreon site!)🔺
🔻BACKGROUND MUSIC PROVIDED BY:
Song : Daystar - SOSO / • ✨샛별 - SOSO✨(Royal...
Instagram: @starryattic
E-mail: byeallim@gmail.com
Support me for better music: (Paypal) https://paypal.me/daystarpj
🔺
Welcome to your go-to source for entertainment Wait for it Gaming, wait for it Anime Plus, ultra, mr Eric Almighty and Phil the Filipino.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they've got you covered, and all you gotta do is Wait for it.
Speaker 2:Hey everyone, welcome back to the Wait for it podcast. I am your co-host, phil Smith, aka Phil the Filipino, and joining me, as always, is my other co host, mr Eric Almighty. And Eric, we are here with the November edition of Creator Spotlight. As we get closer and closer to the end of the year, I am very proud of ourselves for continuing to find awesome guests to talk to on this series. This month is going to be no exception. A guest that we have been trying to navigate and scheduled to get on for a few months now, ever since we met him back all the way back in what was a brick city in the beginning of the year. And here we are now, eric and I cannot wait to bring everybody this conversation.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's going to be really exciting. The whole reason we created this particular series, the Creator Spotlight, was to find like-minded people who are both creative whether that's content, there are crafts or anything like that and coming together and having a conversation about what we love doing. And for you and me, phil, we've obviously loved pop culture enough to be doing a podcast, and you know with me, I'm a huge fan of anime. We're both fans of animation in general, so it only made sense for us. Once we saw some of the things that our guest, jacob, is doing with his project, we knew we had to get him on board, and you may have heard of Nova Stars AC at one of your local conventions. You may have seen some clips on social media. But, jacob, you are going to be our guest, our star of the show. How are you doing? And we would love to hear more about Nova Stars, but by all means, how are you doing tonight?
Speaker 1:Oh, I'm doing fantastic guys. Thank you both for having me. It's an absolute honor to be here and I'm definitely happy, like you said, I know we've been trying to schedule it for a little while here and I'm just happy to be here the day's finally here. I'm happy to at least have some substance and content as well, to talk about it and show you guys as well. It's the right time, for sure.
Speaker 3:Yeah, absolutely, and I know that with some of your scheduling too, you have been crazy going at cons getting some events put together. So we would definitely love to hear, not only how it all started but, as we go through the episode, any recent updates or new things that are going on. When we met you at Brick, it was quite an experience because we had not heard of your project at that point, but getting to see it visually and then hearing some of the people that are involved in this project was really really cool. Jacob, kind of bring our audience through. What is Nova Stars AC? How did that conceptualize at first and really, what is the story about?
Speaker 1:Well, we're a new animated series and we originally started as a comic book and I can actually show you the first volume here. This is what we started with. Our first convention was actually Central Florida Comic Con, located in Lakeland, and that was 2022. And from there we attended Megacon and spoke with a lot of the voice actors and actresses that were there, most notably one named Christopher Savitt, and while we were there and mentioned our comic idea, we piqued his interest a little bit and talked with his agency and, sure enough, afterwards he ended up agreeing to be the lead villain of our series and something that's very, very interesting, that I'm sure not a lot of people may know outside of hearing it on this podcast. Our name and you can see on the logo behind me is Nova Stars AC. Well, chris Savitt explained to us at Megacon that his daughter's name is Nova and when we originally reached out to him because of the name, he just felt an instant connection. And here we are.
Speaker 3:That's amazing. That is so fantastic. It was meant to be.
Speaker 2:That is great. Oh yeah, that was awesome.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and getting getting the king of anime himself, I'm sure, on your end was such an achievement. You have so many different people that have kind of gotten involved in this. I think I saw Bryce Papenbrook's name pop up Obviously big fans of his work. Meta Meta Khan really super great guy. Megan Hollenscheid as well is someone who we just recently met at Ocala Comic Con, I believe, phil, which was really really cool. Overall, I really think that you've got a lot of great things kind of lining up with this particular project. What kind of got you to do this in the first place? Like, do you have a background in some of these projects before? Have you worked on anything? Is this a passion project? Let us know a little bit about how you got into it from the creative process.
Speaker 1:So really the creative process just started with me and my best friend Anthony and we would just get on Xbox Live, play games together throughout the weeknights and sometimes on the weekend. And originally it started as just an idea that we were kind of kicking back and forth I was thinking, actually, zombies that played football and some type of story that we can maybe twist into that and my friend Anthony actually he's the one that came up with the Five Alien Species, the star and the name and pretty much kind of pieced it together himself and throughout talking over Xbox, it just grew and grew and grew and, like I said, eventually it turned into this here, which was our first comic, and we really knew we wanted to get involved into some type of animation, but we did not know it would be like a full-fledged anime series or have production, at least trying to make it one.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's so awesome, Jacob, again to see kind of this project evolve over time. It's interesting that you mentioned that you and your friend were just discussing this over Xbox Live. Is there some Mass Effect inspiration going on in what Nova Star's AC is?
Speaker 1:Oh, they're definitely, definitely they are. So that's definitely one of my favorite games of all time, one of my favorite series. That is Anthony's number one, undisputed like favorite game of all time. That's no question.
Speaker 2:Please tell this guy here by co-host that he needs to play it. I've been telling him that you can probably skip the first one, but you can start at at least two bare minimum. Play two and three.
Speaker 1:That's exactly what Anthony told me. He's the one that introduced me to the series about probably, I'd say, eight years ago when we were in college. And the same thing, because the second one comes with that little like kind of movie, the comic book basically yeah, like a yeah exactly, which will kind of help you a little bit. So I did the same thing, but it was amazing. So we definitely did draw some inspiration from that, absolutely.
Speaker 3:That's super cool. I mean, obviously you know I got to. I got to jump on the bandwagon. I know Phil Phil gives me a lot of crap. My co-host here gives me a lot of crap for not jumping on it. I did play the first one a little bit. It was all right. You know, it was all right.
Speaker 2:I hear it really rough man, unless you're, like you know, a big fan of the series. The friend you know you're a completionist. The first one is a little rough, but that second one, man kick like, throws you right into it and, like me and Jacob said like there's a little graphic novel where you get to make all of the major decisions from the first game. So you're still playing as if you know all of your stuff continues.
Speaker 1:So you know, yeah that's actually very, very interesting that we're actually on the subject of the graphic novel that's there for that game, because that's actually originally what I thought we might do with some of our visuals and what we try to do in terms of video. I just really did not think that the full fledged animation and anime style that we've achieved was possible when we originally started. It really really didn't get to that point until we started talking with the voice actors that we have, producers and animators that we have, as, like we said, as it's just kind of grown and snowballed, as it's continued to go.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and I mean it just looks like it continues to grow and get better and better. One of your recent social media posts which I thought was really cool was just kind of like the concept art compared to what ended it ended up looking like, which I thought was a really neat comparison, like, now that it's becoming a reality, like is this like the maximum of what you thought it could possibly be? Is it beyond your scope of what your dreams were going to take you for this, or is it now, now that you're finally seeing it in action, are you like yeah, this made sense. This was the only way we could do it.
Speaker 1:Now that we're here, yeah, now that we're here, it definitely feels that way and, most importantly, I'll be honest with you guys.
Speaker 1:This past weekend we actually got to attend a convention called Miami TCG convention, and that was the first time. Not only that, we got to present it in front of fans in terms of the episode the first one being an polished enough state to present it we got to do so in front of the voice actors as well. So Bryce Papenbrook, megan Hollingsid and Mark Britton, which are all three members of our cast within that first episode, they got to see the episode in person as well and their reaction was just so important to us. It was awesome to be able to see the premiere with them and they were really, really enthusiastic. You could tell they were being absolutely genuine. They loved the characters, loved the merchandise, and to have them as part of our panel and as part of the event it really meant a lot and, I'll be honest, that was probably like the first time where it really felt real and definitely sunk in that we've got to take it up and keep going and keep building up.
Speaker 2:What would be something that would surprise people as far as a, like, a challenge, you know, getting converting this from page to animation. You know what's something that you would tell somebody that would just like blow their mind as far as this process.
Speaker 1:It definitely the language barrier. So the two main animation studios that we use are in Argentina, and then they're located in Indonesia as well. So Argentina, they're located a little bit closer to us in terms of hemisphere, so they're only about an hour behind, which is not that difficult at all. Indonesia, however, they're exactly 12 hours difference from where we are, so obviously when we're going to bed, most of the times they're on the other side, waking up getting ready for work. So I've definitely had some late nights and some some early early mornings, but the biggest thing I would say is the language barrier.
Speaker 1:Our concept definitely is not easy. It's pretty complex and there's a lot of words like Tydoon, doscano, skelscythe those are just names of some planets, but there's even races, a lot of sci-ti sorry sci-fi terms that you know aren't part of an English language that you could just translate. And I'll be honest, for both of these studios to fully understand and grasp everything that we send them in terms of like the form of a PDF script with everything itemized and kind of described what we're looking for, it's just amazing for them to you know not fully, you know, speak English or have that fluent ability to be able to translate what I send over to them and make what you guys could see and what we're able to present. It's just awesome, it's really cool.
Speaker 2:I never would have even thought about that, eric, because obviously we talk about the language barrier when it just comes to sub and dub, which is obviously difficult, as is, but I didn't even think about the animation side of it, like when you're working with so many different people in different places all over the world. That is crazy, oh yeah.
Speaker 3:Absolutely wild and again, we can tell that a lot of work has been put into this. And I'm sure, jacob, when you've been going to these conventions you know you talked about the reception by some of the voice actors. You know absolutely amazing to hear that. What has the reception been with the fans out there of not only this project but people that are seeing it for the first time? Again, we've been keeping an eye on you since brick and that was all the way in February. Just fans from afar, of just like wow, that's a really cool project, like I want to learn more about that, I want to see how they're doing. That, for us was our experience. What has been your perspective on the experience of people that you've been meeting at these conventions and who are seeing it, sometimes for the first time themselves?
Speaker 1:Oh, it's definitely been awesome. The hard part is, unfortunately we can't just release everything that we want to right away. I'd love to throw the episode up on our YouTube channel right now, monetize it and just make sure it's available for everyone. But we have to do things, obviously in kind of an organized process and the way that networks and streaming services would want us to do. So, just in case they take a look at the pilot episode that we have, both one and two, and they decide they want to redo them entirely or make any changes at all, we kind of have to keep the cards close to our vest and, as of right now, the only way to view them is in this kind of presentable form of a premiere at a convention, and because of that it's been a little bit of a struggle.
Speaker 1:A lot of the fans that are in attendance they want to tell people back home their friends, maybe somebody who couldn't make it there today they want to be able to show them there. We get asked that all the time where can we watch this? Where can we look this up? That was awesome, very, very, very cool. Where can I find it? I want to show my brother, my cousin. He couldn't make it today and we have to tell them, unfortunately. Just follow us right now on social media, instagram, novostarzececom and keep following us for updates. And, as of right now, we have a scheduled date to actually release both of our two episodes our pilot and the second episode, early spring 2024. Jared Ranere.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's awesome. I mean it's we can definitely relate to. You know, as far as Eric and I even do with just podcasting, where, like, there's so much we want to share with our audience, but we got to be patient, we got to make sure that it's a full-fledged idea, and then you know, lo and behold, the time will come. So I definitely get that, eric. You know what. You know what him talking about? That reminds me of Remember that Star Wars show that was produced by Seth Green that never came out.
Speaker 3:That Star Wars, Star Tours, I think it was called.
Speaker 2:I don't know. It was like a Star Wars comedy done by Seth Green and it never saw the light of day. It wasn't like the like, the claymation. What was that cartoon?
Speaker 3:network claymation Jared Ranere. Oh, you know why I said Tours, star Wars D Tours, that's what it's called. Eric Ranere.
Speaker 2:It was Star Wars D Tours that it never saw the light of day. So I remember just showing so many people that trailer and then it never came out. It's just sitting on Seth Green's shelf somewhere, jared Ranere On a hard drive, jared.
Speaker 2:Ranere yeah, exactly, that's exactly what's going on. Well, jacob, we talked earlier about, you know, obviously, mass Effect being a big source of inspiration. What else inspired you as far as this and not even in terms of this story specifically with NoviSars AC, but just kind of in general what made you? You know, as you're growing up, what are some characters, tv shows, movies, whatever it may be that inspired you to want to go into this realm? As far as you know, animation in comics.
Speaker 1:Jacob Ranere. Oh well, the biggest thing, I'll be honest, is just being a fan of anime myself. I have been since as long as I can remember and as of now I mean most people with you have some of their favorite anime is they've been watching anime for a long time. A lot of the times, you know, they'll go back to something they watched when they were younger, from the 90s like early 2000s. But to be honest, at this point anime just continued to, you know, keep climbing and climbing.
Speaker 1:In terms of my hero, academia, demon slayer, I mean, if you look at the entertainment arc of demons layer, the animations you know, through that last final fight were absolutely insane. They must have like an infinity billion dollar budget, if you ask me. I can't imagine how some of these things are possible. So really, looking at that and thinking of the concept that we did, really the biggest thing that both Anthony and myself asked ourselves before we really started making some of the animations, even the comic itself, is there really isn't an anime for football, if you think about it.
Speaker 1:I believe there was one that was made a little over a decade ago. It didn't. It wasn't too popular and it was kind of just a standard, you know, human style of football with a shown internment style. That I believe led to the NFL or something similar, but it just wasn't anything that really was unique or out of the ordinary. And that's really what kind of pushed us in that direction is. Both Anthony and myself are massive fans of football and we just kind of realized let's come up with something that might be able to combine those two, those two aspects. They've got really big fan bases, both anime and football, and it ended up just being a really cool concept. Here we are.
Speaker 2:I was going to say you brought football up twice now. So who is your? Are you a college football guy? Pro both. What's your, what's your flavor? Definitely both.
Speaker 1:But I am an Arizona Cardinals fan more than anything in the NFL for sure, as is Anthony. Both of us are unfortunately right now.
Speaker 2:Hey man, eric and I are Jaguar season ticket holders, so we know how that struggle goes up until recently. We have, we have, we are being blessed but it was a.
Speaker 2:We were like, oh no, not again, it was rough. Here we go again, yeah. So yeah, that's awesome. I mean, one of our favorite anime right now as far as Eric and I is Blue Lock, and you know we're not really soccer fans, but, like you are right, I mean it is a space that is just with the volleyball anime being popular. Anything can be popular. Exactly, that can do any kind of sport. Isn't there a really good golf anime that people like to? I think you told me about there.
Speaker 3:Yeah, the ice skating, like you name it. There's probably an anime out there, but you know, jacob, you mentioned like football, like I can't think of one, like I don't even watch the ice skating one, but I know there is one.
Speaker 3:No, I know that I think that's absolutely right and you kind of think about it too, like you know and I don't know if this had anything to do with when you started this creative process, but you know football is becoming more international every year, oh yeah, you know, to those audiences too. So just kind of curious, like with the spin that you're putting on, both anime and then that football aspect, like do you see this as something that you want to keep domestically as a hit? Hopefully that's the goal right, or are you really looking like bigger even than that? Or is that a cherry on top, that international kind of audience?
Speaker 1:Um, that would definitely be a cherry on top. But to be honest with you, the studios that we have that anime, both of both aspects of the series, the one that's located in Argentina as well as Indonesia, both would have a pretty decent fan base to present that to once each episode is done and, to be honest, we'd be really happy with this as big of a fan base as we can get. We're, you know, more focused domestically, probably located centrally here to Florida and the United States, but globally definitely is what we're thinking of, of course.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think that's super cool. I think sky's the limit, right. You went from going graphic novel, comic strip like that idea to where you are now, so who knows what that next launching point is. I think that's just such an interesting conversation to have. And, jacob, as you're kind of transitioning again, you mentioned early 2024 as the goal to have that content ready to go and kind of going. I know you probably can't get into like what networks you're talking to, we totally get that but I am just kind of curious, like do you have any goals in mind for where you land, like, are there certain kind of checkmarks that you need to clear and you want to clear for this to be released? Again, I know you mentioned you would be even happy monetizing it, throwing it on YouTube, but is there really like a dream scenario where, when this comes out, this is ultimately what you would be looking for, you know, without naming a network specifically?
Speaker 1:Oh, yeah, yeah, absolutely so. Ideally, what we have in mind is we want to create these two episodes and have them polished enough to where we can present them, just like we have been through conventions and by videotaping and gathering content and video footage from those premieres, from that fan engagement, from that experience that can show networks what it's like to watch these two episodes. We hope to be able to use that as kind of like a pitch or, you know, presentation to sell ourselves, to get us to any type of network streaming service. But ideally we definitely are, of course, aiming for crunchy roll, funimation, hulu, netflix, the big ones, all to name as many as we can. We don't really have anything specific in mind. We're pretty much open to anything, to be honest.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean just getting it available for people to see, and it sounds like, with the word of mouth that you are creating again at conventions, it's well on its way there, especially if people are going to be telling other people about it. You know, word is going to get around and going to continue to get around, which is great. Were you a before you started presenting Nova Stars at conventions? Were you already a convention goer yourself?
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, absolutely Only I'd say by about a year, though. Just after COVID, all the COVID protocol and everything got set in a place and we all felt safe going back out and safe putting out the events. That was actually the first time that I started going to everything. I know it's probably a weird time to start, but that was my first time attending was late 2021, 2022, when everything got back up.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's great. It is an interesting time.
Speaker 1:I know how.
Speaker 2:I'm saying it Definitely. I mean obviously I mean most of the guests we've gotten here on this, this particular series we've met through conventions. What are some of your favorite things as far as the convention experience goes, not just from presenting Nova Stars but just kind of that crowd and in general, what are some of your your favorite things about that whole environment?
Speaker 1:Definitely the skill that goes into some of the cosplay fits that we see. I mean, to be honest with you guys, somebody needs to come up with with a term that combines both cosplay and engineering and put them two together, because there's some stuff that's just absolutely just borderline ridiculous. I mean, I'll be honest, probably the craziest thing that I've seen so far is a Dr Octavius that somebody made where the actual mechanical arm is like the villain from Spider-Man. They moved and I mean they clamped and everything. They had some type of control system.
Speaker 2:I don't know, is that a mega con?
Speaker 1:Yeah, that was that mega.
Speaker 2:I think we saw that cosplay Eric Crazy.
Speaker 1:I think it was that year.
Speaker 2:I think we saw them at mega con one year.
Speaker 3:Yeah, the cosplays are getting absolutely wild and you know, I think you know it'd be. I'd be curious, jacob, if, if one of your characters was to be cosplayed like that's the dream. Right Is somebody to be cosmeting? Your characters curious, what character would that be from Nova Stars?
Speaker 1:There's definitely a few I'd have to think of. The most practical, though, would probably be the one that I'm wearing now. I don't know if you can see him, but this is Admiral Atlas. He's actually on the cover of the front here, so you probably only would need the helmet and maybe his mace as well some cool cyberpunk style clothes, but that'd be definitely the one that I'd want to see. He's got a pretty cool color scheme similar to our logo behind me some neon pink and blue colors that I think would be pretty cool.
Speaker 3:I was going to say cyberpunk kind of popped out there as far as the vibe a little bit and then you know, you got the mass like reminiscent to me of like Star Star Lord.
Speaker 3:look, which I think people try to pull off and was like a huge thing. So I mean absolutely in the realm of possibility and cool name on top of it. So I think that is. That is awesome. So, jacob, as we kind of start to wrap up the conversation, we'll have a little bit of fun to kind of end the episode. We like to introduce a couple of different games that we do on the on the podcast, keep it light and keep it fun at the end, where, if someone is interested in Nova stars after this episode, what's the easiest or best ways that they can kind of not only keep up with Nova stars? So a great plug for social media here. But you know how can they also figure out more about the lore and more about these details if they want to learn more, are there any resources out there that they can leverage, or are we pretty much in that waiting period to 2024 for that release?
Speaker 1:We definitely are in that waiting period until 2024 to have really the meat and potatoes of the information that and lore that anyone would be looking for. But you can order volumes one through four of our comic series on Nova stars accom, and the best social media to follow us on is Just our Instagram, which is at Nova stars ac. We post weekly and give weekly updates on the series there and that's also where you can find our convention schedule appearances and From there, really seeing us at conventions is where you're gonna see the bulk and the full episode in its entirety. But until then we just, like I said, have to tell our fans. Unfortunately, like us, they got to be patient until 2024.
Speaker 2:Well, all of that information is going to be in the show notes of this episode and, jacob, we're just gonna continue to keep our eye out for the next update. Are you gonna be at any any convention soon as well? This episode will come out what Eric mid-November? Yeah, yeah, so do you have any convention appearances either the end of this year or the beginning of next year?
Speaker 1:Yeah, for the beginning of this coming year. We're definitely hopeful to attend a brick city anime fest in February. We'll be there last year I know you guys will be there, so I'm pretty confident we'll be there as well, and that's when we're actually hoping to premiere episode two. So that's our deadline. We want to have it ready by then. That way, if we are fortunate enough to be there, we'll have that ready to go.
Speaker 2:That would be awesome. Well, yeah, well, as mentioned, everything is going to be in the show notes and can't wait to see again Jacob and, and See what the next updates are gonna be for Nova Stars, eric, before we transition into again, a little bit of fun to wrap up the episode. Any other questions you have for our guest before we get into that next part?
Speaker 3:Yeah, no, honestly, jacob, like I think, I think that has been a really great way to kind of sum up introduce Nova Stars to our audience. We're gonna be huge supporters excited for that and I mean we get to brag a little bit Like we're gonna be at that convention. If you're gonna be there premiering the episode like we're gonna, we're gonna be your biggest cheerleaders Supporting you and showing that buzz.
Speaker 3:So we're super excited for that. Another reason why you should attend brick city, especially if your fans of the way for a podcast and now Nova Stars. So definitely be prepared for that early next year. Jacob, the only thing I'll kind of ask before we get ready to play you know we talked a little bit about some of your gaming interests and you know your interests with anime. Is there anything else in kind of pop culture in general? Are there any other big influences with you, just on a personal level, Maybe not even related to this project? For example, I kind of had span all over the place like I was a huge Star Wars nut Obviously me and Phil very big into the MCU. That's actually one of the topics that got us in the podcasting. Starting off, we wanted to talk about the Marvel movies as one of those things you know. Are there any other pop culture items that like have really been prevalent for you and have impacted you individually as a person?
Speaker 1:oh, absolutely and I'm very happy that you asked so. Really, there's only one example that comes to mind and that's the last season of stranger things and if you go back and look at how that was produced, so much from that time period was reintroduced to new viewers today who are seeing that show for the first time. I mean, you look at Mastro Puppets, the album that Metallica made almost 40 years ago. It's doing better numbers today Because it was rediscovered again by a brand new audience and a bunch of people that went back to listen to that album, all because of a series that they saw on Netflix over a year ago.
Speaker 1:And A lot of stuff from that series is just kind of circling back from that time period. For example, the logo that you see behind me. The text is called metal Lord, which I believe was created by Iron Maiden, and they use that text a lot in that series, as well as blue, lightning, neon colors and a lot of that influence just absolutely Exploded out of that show. You you know you walk into like a hot topic or any store like that in the mall or a shopping store when that season is new and ongoing. All that stuff's everywhere the clothes, the posters, everyone goes crazy for it and it just kind of rang in my head like a bell. All that stuff seems to be coming back and before I knew it we were including a lot of the similar concepts in our series, such as synthwave music, but, like I said, certain types of text logo and really a lot of neon cyberpunk style influence just kind of comes from that.
Speaker 2:Man. I have a complicated relationship with stranger things, as Eric knows, so with his favorite show, listen.
Speaker 2:When the most recent season came out, everybody was like you don't watch stranger things, you don't watch stranger things. So I was like you know what? I'm just gonna shut everybody up. I watched all four seasons within the span of like a couple of weeks and Very much loved the first two. Thought they were excellent, wasn't so much the biggest fan of three and four. Love Eddie Munson as a character. Love a lot of that arc. There were a lot of things in season four that I really, really enjoyed. Season three, I think, has been my least favorite and I just so I got. I'm going to ask you like, because I think that show frustrates me, because I think it could be great all the way through, but it does have like those lulls. Am I just being a hater or just, or do you agree that there are some missteps in that show that they're like you could have made some better decisions there?
Speaker 1:I'll honestly probably be a little bit harsh than you are.
Speaker 1:There is some cringe worthy moments Right In this show, definitely almost kind of like. I think a lot of the times they might have even been trying to paint the picture that they're young teenagers, you know, going through awkward moments, but they ended up just being awkward moments for the people watching too, and I'm 100% there with you. It definitely had its kind of stagnant, flat moments there, but it was in terms of season three. One thing I will say about it is I did watch the behind the scenes pre-production for how they created the final fight with the like inside that food court where they're all the fireworks and everything flying around. That was absolutely crazy. They used like a bunch of tennis balls and like socks that were covered with like green, like green screen material to be able to, like I said, could you create anything like that Just by using imagination? And you know, because obviously when you're physically acting and looking at stuff like that happening, it's pretty funny looking when you look through the scene stuff, for it to turn out like it did. It's pretty cool.
Speaker 2:I mean visually, it's always been stunning. I've always been visually a fan of the cinematography and in all of that. But again, just as it kind of has gone on, I'm like man. And then now who knows when season five is coming out because of the strike, which is a bummer, and and you know all that going on. But I remember I mean even the first couple of episodes, our seasons, I was like damn, these kids are good actors. So you know, I understand my daughter is a huge fan of it as well, so she loves it. But yeah, eric, we had to get some. We got some stranger talk, a stranger talk, stranger things talking for this episode.
Speaker 3:So you never. You never know when it's going to pop up. I brought up one piece, like every creator, spotlight.
Speaker 1:It was about time that you brought up stranger things, but we did pretty good.
Speaker 3:So, phil, you have prepared a game, usually a lot of times for some of these things. I may be hosting some of these, but you actually are going to host this one. So what do you got planned for us, as we kind of end with some fun on the on the episode.
Speaker 2:So I changed a couple of things on the fly, Just as kind of the conversation went on. So I did find a couple of would you rather. So we're going to go back to the would you rather first here, and I have a, since we are all gamers here on this episode. I have an interesting question that I came across Would you rather only be able to play games that you have already played in your entire lifetime or play only games that are coming out from this point on, and whichever one you choose, the other option goes away forever.
Speaker 3:I mean I feel like I've got to go with the games I've played, because I mean, yeah, games are games are going to get better. But I mean, you know me, I'll go play BioShock again. Yeah, we'll just play BioShock, I'll just go play BioShock again, or I'll just go finally beat Skyrim and 100% it, since I missed my opportunity. No, I know you won't.
Speaker 2:The first.
Speaker 3:No, I'll probably make the same mistake that stopped me from getting to 100% the first time. But you know, I could always go back to some of those staple games that I think are reliable, and nostalgia is a big thing too. Like there's. There's nothing that beats that nostalgic game getting to play it. You know, Jacob, what about you? This is a tough one. That's a tough question.
Speaker 1:I don't know. I don't think it is that stuff because, to be honest with you, the heartbreak of not being able to play the games that I have before, which I'm sure would include every Pokemon game I've already played.
Speaker 2:I kind of do that so.
Speaker 1:I'm going with the games I know and love 100%.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, I think I would be pretty happy with you know, just thinking about it like red dead Pokemon, yellow, some of the older halos and stuff like that. I think I'd be solid. And we just got Spider-Man two in right under the wire, eric, that is true, you know we're, uh, I guess.
Speaker 3:I guess the real question, Phil, is are we going to get to play future seasons of Fortnite? Is that included on the future?
Speaker 2:Oh, shoot, that's right, would you play a lot of Fortnite. Where does that fall? Not?
Speaker 3:play Fortnite anymore.
Speaker 2:What's the fun Consistent with with the cringe?
Speaker 3:of playing Fortnite for like a decade. It feels like.
Speaker 2:Hey, listen, man, the game, it stays consistent and it's easy to hop into, so I am okay with that. So, yeah, I thought that one was a uh, an interesting one here. The other one, uh, this one is probably a little bit easier. Let me maybe alter it a little bit, or actually let me. Oh no, you don't want me to go with this one. This one's easier. Would you rather, for the remainder of your days, be able to only play single player games or multiplayer games Again? Whichever one you choose, the other option goes away.
Speaker 3:This one's interesting. Jacob, I'm going to let you go first. I got to stew on this one.
Speaker 2:I mean without multiplayer games, jacob, where would we even be having this conversation? No, I think I'd have to.
Speaker 1:I'd have to stick with multiplayer. I'd have to play multiplayer. Yeah, that would just be absolutely awful, I mean because either way you have to compromise, but I again I think the feeling of, like you know, getting a text like hey bro, you online and having to be like nah, I just can't play online games ever again.
Speaker 2:I am, but I'm here, by myself.
Speaker 1:There's nothing I can do about it. No way I could do that.
Speaker 3:Yeah, Now I think I got to go on board as well with the multiplayer games just because and you know, Phil knows this too Like I've got to really dedicate time and focus on a single player game. Spider-man 2 just came out. I took a day off work. 48 hours later I was done with the game. I didn't mean to do it, I thought it was going to take longer.
Speaker 3:I just kept playing it. I just was like, all right, well, today is this, this is what I'm doing today. It's one of the reasons why I haven't played Starfield yet and I really want to, and it's one of the reasons I'm scared as hell to play Baldur's Gate, because the second, that's crossplay compatible. I'm going to probably be diving a lot of time into that because I'm excited to try that experience. So with me, with games, I feel like single player. I would just be literally so terrified of not having the time to play. If I picked single player, I just wouldn't play anything. That's what's going to happen.
Speaker 2:See, it's a little different for me, because a lot of mine, eric, you know, there's a lot of my downtime, like whenever I'm I'm just up late or I'm, you know, just killing some time, like I'll play like a Madden or a 2K and throw on a podcast, and I can do that for hours. You know so. But I don't know that I could go without. Just kind of what goes with the multiplayer games, it's also the funny conversations that come along with it as well. So I would also have to go multiplayer. But it's tough man, because, again, I like my, my quiet time where I just shut my door and I play, I yell at Madden. I hate it, but I, you know, there's no other option, so I have to play the game anyway. So that is what what I will go with. But yeah, there you go. Just a couple of quick. Would you rather see these?
Speaker 2:Next one, this is going to be a little bit different. So I just obviously stole this from TikTok, because that's everything that we do. Okay, is we just steal content? We'll just do the top five. And you know, food brings everybody together. So this is a list that FSR magazine put together of the top 30 full service restaurant chains in America and I'm just looking for the top five so restaurant chains. And this came out earlier in the year August 2023. So this is pretty recent. So the top five restaurant chains what do you guys think?
Speaker 3:Can you say, did you say like full? You said full service full service.
Speaker 2:Yes, that means so. Not like a McDonald's or a King, nothing like that.
Speaker 1:Well, Cheesecake Factory has got to be one one of them.
Speaker 2:No, Cheesecake Factory is not even in the top 30.
Speaker 1:No, wow, ok, change.
Speaker 2:Just kidding, it's number 11.
Speaker 3:You got it.
Speaker 1:I was going to say I was scared to keep scrolling yeah, it's number 11.
Speaker 3:OK, the top five, we would know them.
Speaker 2:Oh, absolutely.
Speaker 3:For sure OK.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. We've all been disappointed by meals at all five of these establishments.
Speaker 1:OK, good Wait.
Speaker 3:I thought they weren't these the best? Oh, sure, yeah, but this doesn't mean that they're not terrible Sometimes. Yeah, the best Olive Garden on there.
Speaker 2:Olive Garden is number one.
Speaker 3:Let's go.
Speaker 1:Let's go let's go.
Speaker 3:I was pasta.
Speaker 2:Number one. Yeah, I'm going to be really hungry after this too. Yeah, All right.
Speaker 1:I'm going to say what about Longhorn Steakhouse?
Speaker 2:Because you're hot, they are number nine. Number nine, oh, they are Top ten. Yeah, so number nine.
Speaker 3:OK, hmm, I don't think anybody eats chilies anymore, but I'm going to go. Chilies, chili's is number three Shocker.
Speaker 2:Chili's.
Speaker 3:This is the best list, ok.
Speaker 2:People love margaritas. Man, oh they do.
Speaker 3:It's also a good song, yeah.
Speaker 1:Oh man, that's a good point.
Speaker 2:Good point Number three so we got one and three. Hmm, well, chilies is on there. What about Applebee's? Applebee's is number four, all right.
Speaker 1:So I had to throw that up there Again.
Speaker 2:it's Dallarita time they were experiencing a resurgence. It's a good time for Applebee's, yeah.
Speaker 1:Put some cream on that jukebox.
Speaker 3:They used to be. They used to be Hi, hi.
Speaker 2:Jacob, do you have an Applebee's by you that does karaoke? Because we do. We have 100%.
Speaker 1:I think I started singing.
Speaker 2:Good, good, we're all the same. Applebee's karaoke Great yeah, all right, we need two and five, two and five, five. So if all of them go in, one.
Speaker 1:What about Caravas, another Italian?
Speaker 2:They're not two or five, but I want to see if they're on this. They are number 22.
Speaker 3:Ok, Okay, I wouldn't guess that. That's a good guess. Some big hitters, you guys. I'm going to go with the one I guess some big hitters.
Speaker 2:You guys are missing.
Speaker 3:He said Longhorn was and you said it was nine. What about Outback? Outback is what I was. Number eight oh, I figured that steakhouse is not getting a lot of love here.
Speaker 2:Yeah, would you like a hint? Yeah, why not? Because you are in the steakhouse realm. Oh what you're looking for.
Speaker 3:The steakhouse realm.
Speaker 2:Well, it's state outback Longhorn. They're all grouped together.
Speaker 3:What's the steakhouse I'm forgetting about?
Speaker 1:I'm trying to do the same thing. It's not Longhorn, or?
Speaker 2:Outback You're going to be, you guys are going to be so upset, ok secondary hint Does it say the word steakhouse in the?
Speaker 3:No, it is not OK. What about? What would it be.
Speaker 1:What about Red?
Speaker 2:Lobster, a Red Lobster. It is not that, it's number 13. It's a good guess, all right.
Speaker 3:Third hint for the steak Does it have the word house in it? It does. It's Texas Roadhouse. It is Texas Roadhouse.
Speaker 2:Oh, I can tell there was some house.
Speaker 3:I didn't see what I asked if it said steakhouse.
Speaker 2:Yeah yeah, I tried to. I don't think so. All right, you're missing number five.
Speaker 3:I don't know if this counts as full service. No, it doesn't. No, no, no, no. I was going to say five guys, but that's not. No, it's not, it's Waffle.
Speaker 2:House Waffle House.
Speaker 1:I know.
Speaker 2:I saw it on here. It is number 15. That's a shame. Still top 30. Not bad.
Speaker 3:Red Lobster was a really good guess it was yeah.
Speaker 1:Me too. That's what I thought.
Speaker 2:I figured I'm trying to think of something.
Speaker 1:I do man.
Speaker 3:All the golden corrals are closing. Right, that doesn't count. That's number 12. Oh, ok, wow, I swear. I feel like we're losing them every day.
Speaker 2:Beetloaf, nachos and pizza.
Speaker 3:And then the diary of the next day. All four You're going to get that.
Speaker 2:All right, let's go with the hint here. They got lots of TVs, lots of TVs.
Speaker 3:TGI Fridays. No they are on here though somewhere Again 18. So another establishment. I don't see a lot of anymore.
Speaker 2:No those are all closing too.
Speaker 3:You got a lot of TVs.
Speaker 2:Lots of TVs. Is it Buffalo Wild, wings, it is Buffalo Wild.
Speaker 1:Wings Number five.
Speaker 2:OK, there you go. It's a round of the top 10. Six is IHOP, seven Crackle Barrel, eight and nine out back in Longhorn, and the number 10 is Denny's.
Speaker 1:I was going to say Crackle Barrel. That's the only other one I had.
Speaker 2:Yeah, there's Crackle Barrel was a good one Right outside the top five there.
Speaker 3:That's top five list can easily be a worse list.
Speaker 2:They could, they could go either way.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they could go either way.
Speaker 2:Buffalo Wild Wings. I have not had a good experience in a very long time. They got those tall glasses for beer, but that's about it. Everything else is pretty suspect. All right, To round it off, the very last one. Here we have a top 10 list. This is also from July of this year. This is from Game Rant, who ranked the top five best video game consoles of all time. Again, we'll just go for the top five here to keep it simple. So the top five video game consoles of all time, as ranked by Game Rant.
Speaker 3:You got to go with the goat 360.
Speaker 2:The Xbox 360 is number eight.
Speaker 3:What Yep? All right, it's not on the list. It's not a top five.
Speaker 2:It's on the list as the top 10, but it's not top five. What about?
Speaker 1:the Nintendo.
Speaker 2:GameCube. I don't think the GameCube is on here.
Speaker 3:Underrated. It's definitely underrated but it's not.
Speaker 2:No, it is not on here. There are Nintendo consoles on here, but no GameCube.
Speaker 3:Is the PS3 on there?
Speaker 2:No, no, ps3. Well, the.
Speaker 1:Nintendo 64 has to be.
Speaker 2:I don't think it is.
Speaker 1:Oh my goodness.
Speaker 2:No, it's not.
Speaker 3:All right, well, fuck it. A Dreamcast is on there, then, because I don't know what else is it.
Speaker 2:Dreamcast is actually number four. No, it's not. I'm all right with that, I'm all right with that.
Speaker 3:Dreamcast is number four. Never would have guessed Dreamcast if we didn't eliminate, like half of the other consoles that was like, that was a brand new guess.
Speaker 1:Now would that include a handheld, like, so, like a Game Boy Game?
Speaker 2:Boy is number three. Okay, I was going to say a Game Boy, for sure.
Speaker 3:All right. Are there other variations of the Game Boy on this list? No, the five, the top five. Okay, just wanted to make sure we didn't have to go down like Game Boy, color or Game Boy. Yeah, all right. So we've got three and four, which is Game Boy and Dreamcast. You wouldn't have been able to put a gun in my head and guess that yeah. So I guess we're really liking that area. I feel like number one would be pretty obvious. N64 is not on there, that's interesting.
Speaker 1:The SNES is Super Nintendo. Snes is number two.
Speaker 2:Oh, okay, number two, so you got two, three and four.
Speaker 3:We're missing one and five Number one, the switch isn't on there right Number five Switch is number five, the switch. Yeah man, yeah, I can tell whoever made.
Speaker 2:this list is just like a big Nintendo. Yeah, like it's pretty much there.
Speaker 3:There's a vibe going on here.
Speaker 2:And then number one we're missing a big one the original Xbox. No, no, not the original no. And you said no to the PS2, right, oh, it is the PS2. I only heard you say PS3. Oh yeah, ps2.
Speaker 3:It is the PS2.
Speaker 2:Yeah, ps2, they ranked number one SNES, number two Game Boy three, dreamcast four, switch, five, six is the original PlayStation. Seven is the original Nintendo entertainment system. Eight, three, sixty, nine, sega Genesis and then ten, the Wii. So there you go, nintendo Wii. I mean that got a that was a little bit of a reach.
Speaker 3:There's no way the top 10 in the 60s only at eight.
Speaker 2:I don't know who made that list. They need to be imprisoned. Yeah, you can talk to Tom Bowen from from Game.
Speaker 1:Shouting him out he never played a yellow to apparently.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I know, I guess he never played the right games. But there you go, guys. So, yeah, those are the ones that I came up with. Hope you enjoyed them. That was, that was fun. That was the first time, actually, jacob, we've done top 10, top five lists, so you were the guinea pig.
Speaker 1:That was a good time. Glad to be. That was fun.
Speaker 2:Awesome, awesome. Well, jacob, one more time if you want to let our audience know, before we wrap up, where they can find all of your work as far as social media pages keeping up with the show and, again, any convention appearances you're having up having soon, let them know where they can find all of that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely Well. First off, our website is just NovaStarsACcom. You can find us on Instagram at NovaStarsAC, and pretty much guys hopefully will be at Brick City Anime Fest this coming February and look out for episode one and two early spring 2024. That's really the only for sure thing I can say. We know we'll have it ready by then.
Speaker 3:Absolutely solid. Can't wait to see that, jacob. I'm going to be amazing. Thank you so much as well for giving us the time to be able to get this all together to have a conversation about it, and we cannot wait to see what comes next. With that being said, as we wrap up the episode, phil, for anybody that's listening still and it's their first time listening let them know where they can find more of our content as we move to the closing of the episode.
Speaker 2:Yeah, again, just a big shout out to you, jacob, for joining us I mean again with this series and also being involved in the convention scene. Seeing people who are creative, putting their pen to paper, their mouse to a laptop, whatever it may be, and seeing it kind of come to life in this new journey for you has been awesome, so can't wait to see what is next for you. If you want to see what's next for not only Jacob but also the WayForward podcast, check the Linktree link in the show notes of this episode. You'll find everything you need, including all of our past episodes. You can also find our social media pages.
Speaker 2:Instagram and TikTok is where we are the most active. You can also support the show a little bit extra by sharing the episodes, tagging us, letting us know you're listening. You can also go on over to Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Leave us that five star review. Let's everybody know that we are doing a good job over here. And if you want to support the podcast a little bit extra monetarily, like our awesome patrons Briar and Stefan Dew, eric will let you know how you can do that.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so in the link in the show notes you can find the Buzzsprout website directly and you can support us there monetarily, or you can shift that over to Patreon and get some exclusive perks like unedited versions and early access to episodes like the one you're listening to or watching right now. And, of course, we truly appreciate our patrons and future patrons for their support. But, like Phil mentioned, the little things go a long way a like, a comment, a share, not just for the WayForWay Podcast, but even for NovaStarsAC. Make sure to give them a follow, make sure to like their content and be along for the ride. It's going to be a good one. With all that being said, my name is Mr Eric Almighty. That is my co-host, phil the Filipino, and our guest, jacob from NovaStarsAC. Please remember, for the podcast, we release new episodes every Wednesday and we also include bonus content on platforms like TikTok, and all you got to do is wait for it.
Speaker 2:So I heard you're looking for a go-to source for entertainment. Wait for it Gaming.
Speaker 1:Wait for it. Anime Plus Ultra, mr Eric.
Speaker 2:Almighty and Phil the Filipino. Yeah, they've got you covered.
Speaker 3:And all you got to do is wait for it.
Speaker 2:This is the Wait for it podcast.