Japanimation Station

None of these are earth-shattering improvements, necessarily, but after running a bunch of tests, it doesn't add much to our existing post-production workflow, and the benefits, while marginal, are meaningful enough to be worth the effort.

Third, the audio compression is also a bit better at 4K then it is at lower resolutions, since it's streaming everything at a higher bit rate. Not quite the same as the full lossless audio used in editing, but closer then you'll get through other means.

When we create the images and then render them at native 4K, YouTube can then deliver a perfect pixel match on whatever display you have (4K, 1440p, 1080p, 720p, etc.). So the episodes will scale better from smart phones to tablets to monitors to TVs and be the right match for whatever you're using.

Second, for the static key art that makes up the bulk of the episodes, those also get pretty badly compressed at 1080p, and can make text blurry if you've got it up on a monitor or TV. I've tested this on my 4K LG OLED and even on the static parts, it does make a big difference.

First, it does provide a huge benefit to the video-focused parts (theme songs, eyecatches) where YouTube's compression at 1080p can be particularly brutal (macro-blocking, banding, etc). So we get to present those parts in the best possible quality for online streaming.

With 3 weeks to go until the premiere of TOMINO-THON, we've got a fun announcement: on YouTube, the new Japanimation Station episodes will, for the first time, be presented in 4K!

We're not a video-focused podcast, so it's a small difference in some ways, but still a meaningful one. Here's why:

The new logo for Season 6 of Japanimation Station! In case you missed the announcement, we're premiering on March 16th for the 12-episode 'Part 1' of our Tomino-thon!

Hello and welcome to Japanimation Station, an anime podcast hosted by Jonathan Lack & Sean Chapman! Our new season - TOMINO-THON! - is premiering March 15th, and we've created a dedicated Bluesky page for the show for updates and listener engagement.