Episode 135 - Trash Gacha Friends (Goddess of Victory: NIKKE)

Episode 135 - Trash Gacha Friends (Goddess of Victory: NIKKE)

Author: Trash Manga Friends April 1, 2025 Duration: 3:17:45
Is it our fifth April Fools special already? For 2025, we’ve dived into the world of rate-ups and infinite currencies known as gacha games, and taken aim at one of the genre’s bigger recent successes, Goddess of Victory: NIKKE! Was this an SSR pull? Or just another title we’ll set to aut-burn? ~ Welcome to That Time I Started A Podcast To Play Trash Gacha With My Friends And Whoops There Goes My Life Savings But At Least I Have This Jpeg! Or The Trash Gacha Friends Podcast, for short. Each fortnight, our trio of Sean, Mike and Phil download and play a gacha game, analysing every little detail to discuss what’s good, what’s bad, and what’s trash. And believe us, half a decade in, there’s a lot of trash to discuss. So come listen to our book club slash neverending existential nightmare! ~ Follow us on social media! Links to all platforms on our site - https://trashmangafriends.carrd.co/ Sean, foreeeeveeeer host, is on Bluesky & Twitch - https://bsky.app/profile/slazo.bsky.social ~ https://www.twitch.tv/slazoking Mike, speedrunner and streamer extraordinaire, is everywhere @Bersekrer - https://bersekrer.carrd.co/ Phil, arbiter of trash, is on Twitter @PheNaxKian - https://twitter.com/PheNaxKian ~ Support the official release! Goddess of Victory: NIKKE is available to play on iOS, Android and Windows - https://nikke-en.com/

Ever find yourself in a comic shop or scrolling through a digital library, staring at a cover that’s either brilliantly absurd or just plain baffling? That’s the exact feeling we chase on Trash Manga Friends. It began as a simple, slightly ridiculous idea: get a few friends together, pick out the most questionable-looking manga we could find, and see what happened. What you’ll hear in each episode is the genuine, unfiltered result of that experiment-the laughter, the groans, and the occasional, very real surprise. While our title promises a deep dive into the wonderfully weird and often poorly executed corners of the manga world, we’ve discovered that not everything under that “trash” label is without its merits. Sometimes a bizarre premise hides a strangely compelling story, or a cliché character arc suddenly takes a turn that makes us all stop and reconsider. This podcast is really about the shared experience of discovery, of judging books by their covers and then thoroughly debating whether we were right or completely wrong. We read them so you don’t have to, but we also end up celebrating the hidden gems and the gloriously odd choices that make this medium so endlessly fascinating. Join our conversations for a mix of sincere critique and affectionate roasting, where the definition of “trash” is always up for debate.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 100

Trash Manga Friends
Podcast Episodes
Episode 94 - Monochrome Factor [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:26:20
Shounen’s are back baby, as we read Monochrome Factor, a manga about what happens when shadows from the other side invade our world and take our lead’s body! Bleach? Nah, completely different. Will Sean love this as much…
Episode 93 - Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End (Sousou no Frieren) [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:52:26
The world of anime calls to us once more with that rarest of series – a fantasy that isn’t an isekai! No, instead we’re pondering what happens to the hero’s party in the years, decades and centuries after their journey i…
Episode 92 - FLCL [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:45:51
Sean is running the show more so than usual, as he provides his take on a classic 00s series in FLCL! But how on Earth do you adapt something so unique to manga? Is it even possible? We discuss the Fooly, the Cooly and e…
Episode 91 - Elfen Lied [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:39:36
Mike’s taking charge this time and dragging us back two decades to a world of Linkin’ Park and Evanescence when we cover the iconic manga Elfen Lied! Did its mature themes stand the test of time, or was it pure edgelord…
Episode 90 - The World God Only Knows (Kami Nomi Zo Shiru Sekai) [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:30:15
As surely as night follows day, does a romcom series follow an isekai one. But it’s a classic, as we discuss The World God Only Knows, where one visual novel and dating sim god is tasked with translating those skills to…
Episode 89 - Wise Man’s Grandchild (Kenja no Mago) [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:32:53
We’re back to ol’ inevitable this time, as we tackle yet another isekai manga in Kenja no Mago, aka Wise Man’s Grandchild! Fantasy world? Check. Ridiculously overpowered protagonist? Check. But will it be checkmate once…
Episode 88 - Q.E.D.: Quod Erat Demonstrandum (Q.E.D.: Shoumei Shuuryou) [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:34:14
A long running detective manga? Yes, that’s right, we’re covering QED! ...what, did you think we meant something else? And boy does this redefine long, with the longest single chapter we’ve ever read, but was it packed f…
Episode 87 - Dark Gathering [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:27:32
Anime tie-in time has arrived once again! And the spooks are out early this year as we tackle Dark Gathering, a supernatural horror manga about one lil’ girl’s quest to catch ’em all to help save her family and friends f…
Episode 86 - ReLife [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:32:29
Imagine taking a pill that could take you back 10 years? Not in time thankfully, who wants to relive the past decade, but back to your youthful good looks and high school banter. That’s the premise of webtoon ReLife, but…
Episode 85 - Fairy Tail [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:29:57
Year 4 is here and we’re kicking off with a banger - the legendary, crticially acclaimed and super successful shonen manga Fairy Tail! Will our trio love Hiro Mashima’s magnum opus, or be rebuffed by its zany antics and…