The Best Films of 2025 and Sean’s Digimon Adventures | Purely Academic #26

For our first show of 2026, we look back on the best movies of 2025, as Jonathan talks us through his list of the 20 best films to come out last year, from undisputed favorites like Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another, to anime stunners like the Chainsaw Man and Kimetsu no Yaiba movies, to some weirder, smaller, and more personal picks. Then, Sean talks us through his busy winter vacation spent in the world of Digimon, reviewing the latest Digimon Story game, Time Stranger, alongside the 2021 Digimon anime Digimon Ghost Game and the first cours of the brand new Digimon Beatbreak. Finally, we round out the episode with a very depressing Monthly Ten where Sean is tasked with imagining ten ways we could sell our souls to become more popular podcasters.

Enjoy, and come back next week for our Top 10 Video Games of 2025 episode!

TIME CHART:
Intro: 0:00:00 – 0:08:33
News: 0:08:33 – 0:40:16
Jonathan’s Favorite Films of 2025: 0:40:16 – 1:58:40
Sean’s Digimon Adventures: 1:58:40 – 2:58:38
The Monthly Ten: 2:58:38 – 3:27:20

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Original Music by Thomas Lack https://www.thomaslack.com/