Manga Machinations is a weekly podcast hosted by dakazu, Darfox8, Morgana Santilli and seamus2389. In 2012 dakazu started the now defunct Geekbox community podcast /alltalkpodcast. Afterwords dakazu and co-host Darfox8 wanted to create a new show where they could talk more in-depth about manga and anime. They were joined by seamus2389 and launched Manga Machinations in the fall of 2014 as a podcast to talk specifically about Billy Bat. In 2019 they asked Morgana ‘Manga Maven’ Santilli to join as an official host, bringing their show to a 4 person-cast.
Manga Machinations focuses on a range of manga we want to share our thoughts on. We’ve also come up with different episode formats and had guests like translator Jocelyne Allen and manga journalist Deb Aoki join us for discussions about the industry.
If you’re looking for a more in depth breakdown of our podcast, along with some notable episodes, check out our introduction page.
About our stance on scans and piracy
If you listen to any of our older episodes you might note that we were reading scanlations frequently (eg. Billy Bat). We rarely talked about it explicitly but when we did we usually praised the scan groups for picking up series we wanted to read. We no longer advocate scans or piracy. This isn’t an attempt to adopt airs of superiority or pretending we never read scans. Over time we’ve simply become more aware of the damage scanlations can do and we have shifted our focus away from them. We simply see it as the more pragmatic way to support the medium.
About the hosts
dakazu reads A LOT of manga. When he tried to make a MyAnimeList profile it took him 2 weeks and it was immediately outdated. Reading manga like Doraemon when he was 5 years old actually taught him how to read in Japanese. Thanks to his Japanese heritage he’s able to talk about more obscure untranslated works that are coming out. In recent years he’s also started watching a fair amount of anime as well. Some of his current favorite manga are BEASTARS, Blue Giant Supreme, and Ningen Karimenchu. Recording Manga Machinations is a weekly treat for dakazu and he’s both excited and a little weirded out that the show has grown an audience.
Darfox8 is a typical American anime/manga fan. First started to notice anime with Dragon Ball Z on Toonami and soon grew a craving to watch more and more. Dar had a leg up, however. When Toonami started showing reruns right before Goku arrived on Namek, Dar could tune over to Telemundo where they had all the episodes in Spanish, being of Cuban/Chilean decent he could watch DBZ with everyone saying “RAYOS!” Which the Ginyu force said plenty when Goku showed up and slapped them around. Soon his interest lead him to manga and it became his favorite way to spend his time. He still loves anime and shonen battle stuff but recording Manga Machinations has allowed him to expand his horizons and read much more!
seamus2389 joined Manga Machinations because he figured it would get him to go from thinking about reading of manga regularly to actual reading manga regularly. And it did, except for shonen battle manga.
Morgana Santilli starting reading manga much like every other millennial girl: with Sailor Moon in the late 90s. Since then, her tastes have expanded to include a huge variety of manga, with a particular affinity for occult detective, saccharine BL, stories about grown women living their lives, and horror with gorgeous art. Morgana is the former manager of Comicopia in Boston, MA, and currently runs a blog, Manga Maven, where she writes about manga and comics with that perspective in mind. She also runs a monthly newsletter for comics retailers and librarians with information about upcoming manga releases, and writes manga reviews for Comics Beat. Manga Machinations has provided her with yet another way to legitimize her gluttonous manga consumption. Her favorite manga include Yu Yu Hakusho, Pet Shop of Horrors, The Wallflower, and Kitaro — among plenty of others.
About the people who help us
José Salot is responsible for anything visually appealing associated with our podcast. We first worked with him to create our podcast logo that you can see all over this site. And more recently we worked with him to create various header images used in the introduction page. You can find his website here where you can contact him for commission work.
Andrew “Totoro” Greene is the bed rock of our podcast. He built the RSS feed we used for years, and pioneered the way we record and edited the podcast. He was also our podcast co-host for years before we started Manga Machinations. It’s not an understatement to say there wouldn’t be a Manga Machinations without him. Probably the only reason he isn’t a huge active part of MM is that he doesn’t really read manga but hey, nobody is perfect.