Blatch

This could be a case of them being afraid Crunchyroll wants to take the dubbed episodes away, so they're going to one at a time for now to buy some time. I don't know if that's the case, and I'm not sure if it is given that Toei is apparently responsible for this most recent run, but it's fun to speculate. Maybe there are budget issues (because when are there not?), maybe they just don't want the block running for too long, maybe they even want to keep some episodes banked up in case something happens. I'm not too concerned about it, but then again, I don't watch this show.

Re:Stage! Dream Days 1-3 (second rewatch)

Actually, on second thought I'm going to skip watching this live. I'm feeling shitty right now, I could use the extra sleep, and there isn't really any value in watching it right away unless you're going to chat either during it or right after, and I was thinking of going to sleep immediately after it finished anyway. Not to mention, MiA is the kind of show that can seriously fuck up your dreams. I'd rather try to check in with Doremy than imagine myself being subjected to... whatever it is they do down in the sixth layer. [if widespread panic were a great band, they'd have covered her theme]

Wow, someone beat me to a talkback thread for this show for the first time ever. I mean, I had little choice in the manner because I'm currently coming home from a concert (Trey Anastasio Band and Goose), but I think that deserves a trophy. Can't wait to really dive into the sixth layer and find out what's causing all these explosions. And maybe we'll get some more backstory on the OG raiding party. Good thing I've been averaging six hours of sleep a night lately, so there shouldn't be anything stopping me from watching live this time. 🤧

It's just a piece of "office art" for now, per the article. He'll get back to it when he has the time. Interestingly, another article I saw on this subject pointed out that, while there haven't been any deadly video games IRL, there have been those that attempt to bring actual pain to the medium. In 2001, they held a Tekken 3 tournament where the participants received electric shocks corresponding with the injuries to their characters, which sounds pretty hardcore. We should probably focus on adding that to video games before we get to the out-and-out death part, though this doesn't seem like a very good idea as it is. And also, LOL at Al's react to the OP. I would've responded with a laughing react, but it wasn't directed at the post itself.

Well that was not at all what I expected, but while I was a little annoyed at first (why would this kind of show have an extended sequence at sea?), I came around on it. Neat to get some background on the apparent first people to explore the Abyss, even before Orth was founded. And the way it interlocked with Riko, Reg and Nanachi's elevator ride to the sixth layer was cool. Looks like next week's episode is continuing with the subtle approach, focusing more on what it's like down here as opposed to the people who live in it. And it may or may not be directed by Michael Bay. Knowing the stray whispers the plot that I do, one thing's for sure: at least one of these characters in the pre-Orth raiding party is doomed. Probably the indigenous girl, maybe the red-haired one. And I won't be surprised if the Senku look-a-like will be the one behind it all.

Welp, we made it. I mean, not all of us made it, both figuratively and in terms of our media consumption. But the continuation to Made in Abyss, undoubtedly the most interesting show on Toonami in 2022, is here, in spite of the whole "not being able to air the movie" thing. As opposed to S1, I'm going into this part blind, with my only guide being vague whispers of story elements from hollows inside and just outside my sphere of perception. I assume it'll be fun, but also traumatizing. So yeah, let's do this. 😃 And another thing: thanks to DST, I'll be able to get a normal amount of sleep tomorrow (relative to usual) even if I stay awake until 1:00A. So you know I'm gonna be watching this live, maybe dropping a stray comment or two here. No matter what happens, may all of our cups be filled with blessings.

The Big O S1E2/3 Made in Abyss: Dawn of the Deep Soul Hell yeeeeeaaah. Wish I hadn't taken so damn long to see this movie (which was fucked up, but I powered through it), though it at least made for a remarkable synergy with some of my favorite music. [❤️]

And so Zaslav's fiscal chainsaw stays busy. At least the controversy makes this one a worthy sacrifice. This would be more excusable if [as] were to announce any new shows. As it stands, the only things I know are coming next year are a show called Royal Crackers, second seasons for Teenage Euthanasia and Smiling Friends, and everything they have on the action side. Funnily enough, Toonami looks better prepared for next year than the main channel.

Interviews with Monster Girls 9 The Big O S1E1 Finally putting that HIDIVE subscription to good use, although I did want to check to see if my new-ish 4K Roku TV could run it without buffering. Looks like I'm good to go for the MiA movie soon. 🥵

Atsumare! Fushigi Kenkyu-bu 106-108 Otasuke Miko Miko-chan 1/2 (reread) Touhou Suzunaan ~ Forbidden Scrollery 1 Haven't been reading much lately because manga has turned into a struggle for me. I take so much time to not just read the text, but read it to how I think it should be said. Stuff like inflection, pausing when I see an ellipsis (and how long the pause should be), the order characters are speaking in, even internal voices all make it harder. I don't know what brought this on because I used to have no problem slamming down chapters, but now it makes me apprehensive toward starting one. Despite this, I have new volumes of Witch Hat Atelier and Delicious in Dungeon I need to start (the latter purchased just a couple of days ago), and I made sure to get the only officially-licensed Touhou manga, in spite of the fact that it doesn't actually say the franchise's name in the cover. Maybe it's buried in the post-volume omake somewhere, or even the copyright notice. Seems pretty weird, just like a lot of things that have been going on.

Yeah, I came to this conclusion myself. They would've reran Housing Complex C right away if that was the case, or even brought Primal back to the top. (referring to One Piece)

Girls' Last Tour 4 Last Period: the journey to the end of the despair 8/9 And no, I didn't forget to black the text this time. 😎

Woah nelly, got a lot to unpack here. First of all, I'm happy we're getting MiA S2 and I'm okay with the movie not airing on Toonami, which I had doubts about from the start. At least DeMarco told us it was out of their hands. So, you think we should hold a groupwatch of Dawn of the Deep Soul on this forum? It can be either on Halloween, or in early November (maybe even the night before the show returns to Toonami) if that's too quick. A few other miscellaneous thoughts: I feel like they could've reran Housing Complex C, even though it's only four episodes, but I think the crew is counting on it being written off pretty soon. The upcoming marathon will probably be your only other chance to catch it, is what I was implying in the other thread. Primal reruns are a nice move; frankly, I wouldn't have cared if they lead off the block again. This is probably not gonna happen, but I'm hoping MHA S5 reruns are a placeholder for Bleach: TYBW and they're still ironing out the contract for that one. Don't know where the former would move to or how worthy the latter would be at more than a one-day gap following the premiere, but it's fun to hope. Only one episode of One Piece is looking sus. Hope it doesn't mean bad things for this show on Toonami yet again. Hopefully it's just a budget-saving move, or maybe stalling as Toonamiguy321 mentioned. I should said this earlier, but for DST this year, I was hoping they'd do a stealth premiere of the new Aqua Teen Hunger Force movie. It would be fitting given that the first one aired on April Fools Day in the past (complete with tiny size and loud banner ads), plus it also popped up after Toonami in the past. Still, more Primal? Hard to complain about that. At this point, I'm just happy that we're not taking a mulligan on the rest of the year. But 2023 better be a big year for Toonami, Zaslav's fiscal chainsaw be damned, just like it should be for my favorite band ahead of their 40th anniversary. [24-year-old anime fan marcus esquandolas]

Okay, so... I kind of loved that finale? Yeah, I know, this show has the morality of an edgy teenager, but there's something about Kimi being a god in loli clothing (as a Touhou fan, I've seen it), and then feeling so spiteful over her friend being a worshipper of some other god and wanting to kill her that she decides to wipe out all of humanity that's so satisfying. And so was Kimi dismembering Yuri's parents with limbs coming down from the fleshy ceiling, followed by showering her with blood in the grand 90s Nickelodeon tradition, a scene I remember from the very first promo they showed for this series. And hey, I'm glad Kan survived all this too. He seems like a nice guy. There were definitely some problems with this show. I don't think it's an effective horror anime, and I'm not even sure if this finale made the rest of the show worth it, but it's definitely something I'll remember for a while. The show looks good (which, interestingly, has been a trend with all the recent Toonami originals), the voice acting is solid, and it seems like there will be some things that stand out on a rewatch, not like this show is going to get another rerun after the marathon next week. I would personally say Shenmue is the best of the recent originals, although I actually didn't connect with that one as much as other people did. (Mostly, I thought the pacing was a bit mechanical, the plot got too convoluted in the Hong Kong arc, and the ending is a gut punch now knowing that we're probably not getting a second season.) This one was far from bad; I'd give it a 7/10, mostly dependent on the finale. One last thing: in regards to the pacing, when I found out there was going to be a 10-minute infodump (more like eight minutes, after personally timing it) in this episode, I braced myself for the worst. But it at least managed to be compelling. I wonder if the production team wanted six episodes for this show and were only able to get four. That would explain why they stuffed all this lore into the finale like clowns piling into a small car. There were also certain things that could've gotten a little more fleshing out, methinks, like Kimi having reality warper powers (which feels like it came out of nowhere, although I wouldn't be surprised if this was teased at some point), the ancient society that worshipped her (and the analogues for Yuri and Kan within it, who were spotlighted in the OP), an explanation of how the time loop works... but hey, it's not a terrible thing that all of this went unexplained.

Oh wow, thanks for catching that. It's weird for me to not do it, even considering that I'm often caught up in fine-tuning certain parts of my posts and might miss some big errors.

Touhou Hifuu Club ~The Sealed Esoteric History~ Episode 2: "Wish"

I think it's funny that this is happening now given the newest series made a big point of not elaborating on Lupin's origin, not like a savvy viewer couldn't have predicted it. Could this show (which is only half a cours) be Toonami bound? Weirder things have happened, so I'm not doubting it. And HIDIVE will be streaming the series, but nothing has been said about a dub.

It might have been the real unholy megabomb, failing so hard it needed an exorcism. Too bad Toonami had already taken Hellsing Ultimate. Speaking of niche attempts at specialty networks airing anime on TV in the mid-2010's, while I never made it to Chiller's anime block, these comments gave me nostalgia for when Mnet America aired the original Love Live! anime. I feel like I'm the only person who remembers that happened. I have no idea what the reason for it was, being a Japanese series aired on a network that specializes in K-pop. Maybe NIS America's dub came with a requirement to air it on TV? Except I feel like that would've been the case for future installments of the franchise; at one point, I was genuinely expecting (or rather, hoping) to see Sunshine pop up on TBS. Either way, they exited the anime licensing game after that and Funi -> CR have gotten the rest of it. And I wonder what the ratings were for this weird experiment... probably a 0.0 household rating.

As far as new content is concerned, I'm ride or die with Bleach: TYBW. Not sure what else could fill midnight, though I'm also wondering if Toonami has enough left in the coffers to be able to get it. What might replace the reruns is a topic I find more interesting. I have a feeling we're going to get TPN S2, maybe restarting from the first episode of S2 because why not, and then an immediate rerun of either HCC or Lupin. Other options they could throw on include the FLCL sequels (seriously, we're overdue for a rerun of those), Ghost in the Shell: SAC, or even Attack on Titan from whatever season they want. Related to the last one, I think now is the time for [as] to consider giving the show a long-awaited weekday strip ahead of the really-definitely-final season (we mean it this time) coming next year. Now here's an idea: go to Sentai and ask them for HD tapes of both seasons. We need another excuse to use those sweet pillarbox space graphics. If that doesn't work, this is one way they could stall for time.

Yeah, he's always been a bit abrasive when it comes to sharing his opinions on social media. But he supposedly has great taste in music, so I assume that's what anyone else would want to hire him for, assuming they can get past stuff like this.

Ooh, I loved that part. They didn't give him a major role in the plot, but it wasn't necessary. I just wanted some sort of payback after the abrupt shift in plot at the halfway point of the season. Holmes and Lily coming back also would've been cool, though I didn't have it in mind mostly because, well...

Don't mind me, just slipping in to steal the last discussion thread for this show. Kind of remarkable that we've now had three complete Lupin series air on Toonami after [as]'s first attempt at showing the franchise didn't do so hot. So, how do you think this one is gonna end? If Holmes shows up one more time, I'm gonna wild out.

The only bump music I've found annoying is the first one they did for Made in Abyss, and that was more because I thought the track itself was unfitting. (BTW, I just combed over said set of bumps, and outside of that little circular display at the end they used in this packaging to show additional clips, they didn't even feature Reg! How weaksauce.)The second one they used was better, but then they started alternating them, which was weird because the music for Lupin and the like didn't change. Primal had this too, to the point where it used bumps from different seasons. I don't know why they didn't alternate between the two sets they made for the one-hour premiere, but on the plus side, they kept TOM explaining how Primal has won an Emmy right before the scene with all the screaming monkey men, which is pretty funny. It's the one bump I've seen that's like the best ones from the golden years, on [as] or otherwise. It's also funny how they brought back the classic Absolution from 2000 clearly for nostalgia bait, and yet I haven't seen anyone talk about it. Granted, I'm probably not looking hard enough, since I haven't followed Toonami Faithful on Twitter for years. I think it's pretty cool and I didn't so much as sniff the block until '03 or so, with watching in earnest not coming until a decade later, but I sure wish they were doing more stuff with it. Even game reviews are hard to come by nowadays, though the lack of those is definitely more excusable than new bumps.

Personally, even with two bump sets alternating, I still find them to get a little grating. Maybe that's just me. More than anything, I just want the bumps to be current with each show, and I don't think that's too much to ask. Made in Abyss gives you a good idea of how they manage this: it took until Episode 10, corresponding with a major spike in perilous content, for them to change the bumps from the initial arc, which wasn't very representative of the show, and they only did so because of a packaging change. It would've been really awkward for them to show clips of Reg and Riko being all lovey-dovey and fighting with each other, and then cut to a scene where Reg is nursing the critically-injured Riko along with Nanachi. Funny thing is, once the rerun started, they were perfectly okay with showing clips from the episodes in the fourth layer even though those are oblique spoilers for those who haven't seen it. Makes you wonder. This has been a problem as far back as the first season of Food Wars! (so pre-pandemic), where they were still using clips from the first episode (before the MC goes to food school and the premise is fleshed out) during the second half of the season, though at least they gave us a taste (har-de-har) of the famed foodgasms. Funnily enough, I don't think the Lupin Part 6 bumps are that big of an issue, because I certainly wasn't expecting the second half of the show to abruptly shift from the Holmes plot. I mean, they introduced a character based off of Moriarty (maybe he grows up into Holmes's nemesis?) and it feels weird for them to not follow up on that. Maybe in Part 7? These days, my biggest nemesis is the "Explore" tab on Twitter, which occasionally raises my blood pressure with news of rising tensions. Good thing you use that website differently than most people. 🤠