Blatch

Not much embellishment, just my gut talking: 2023 is a good year for Toonami, but the block still suffers on some fronts. I don't expect that Crunchyroll giving them an inch will lead to catalog titles airing. We'll probably get more Fire Force and/or Dr. Stone and that's it. And they'll still drag their feet on Sentai's catalog, only getting Lupin Zero early in the year and then Ushio & Tora later on. Or maybe Log Horizon, because I'm trying to will this into existence by talking about it enough times. Thank Icculus we're getting more AoT. And I'd say Bleach: TYBW is a given too, given the Viz connection. As for the new shows: they'll all be nothingburgers, although one of the FLCL sequels (and only one of them) is as good as Progressive was. I didn't know (reference not intended) Ninja Kamui is only six episodes, which is too bad... or not, given Toonami's usual track record for originals. Finally, is there anything else I want Toonami to air that they could reasonably get? Nah. Except for Memories of Phantasm as an April Fools' joke.

takt op. Destiny 9 The Idolm@ster Cinderella Girls 16 Made in Abyss S2E2-4 To Your Eternity S2E1-4 Akira (yearly rewatch; subbed version) Up until now, I've never included Toonami viewings in this thread, but I think I should. And now it's time to get on with the business. The Idolm@ster Cinderella Girls Episode 16: "The light shines in my heart."

Blame Crunchyroll, basically.

Interesting choices, and one of them is supposed to be the villain of the second half of the 2015 anime, let alone not an idol. I hear ya about the games not being available in English. If you like these franchises, then at some point you learn to live with it. Though it's awkward nowadays given how much Touhou stuff has been localized; that franchise was considered similarly impenetrable in the past, though it also isn't the product of a corporation. For now, I'm okay with the anime being available through the usual channels (except for the 2011 series, whose streaming contract expired last year), leaving the fans to full in the gaps, because they tend to do a good job.

Coming this April. It'll be a better experience than the scans, which I've never liked the translations of up until recently. Also, it'll almost certainly be out before the Million Live anime, which has seemingly had a troubled production so far.

Hey, you forgot to cross out the Ms this week! And this year's installment of The Game is quite meaningful, so what gives? [don't worry, i'm only lightly trolling you]

Dude pulled a Norio Tsukudani. I guess being a VTuber really is more fun.

Touhou Suzunaan ~ Forbidden Scrollery 3 Atsumare! Fushigi Kenkyu-bu 109 The iDOLM@STER Cinderella Girls U149 72 Two of these numbers are special to me. I wonder if you can figure out why. [🤘]

This is making me think of Squid Girl's original dub, which had a few voice actors like that. Eiko was Heather Pennington's only major role, and one of her only roles in general. It was probably for this reason that they opted only to get Christine Marie Cabanos back as the MC and recast everyone else. A shrewd move, but after watching the dub I was able to gel with most of the new voices. Now, there's been talk of Fena's dub as well as union dubs in this thread, so I'd like to drop this link here, even though it doesn't have to do with Bleach. Basically, [adult swim] was open to doing a union dub for Fena, but CR stepped in and denied it. Maybe this is why they went with Sentai for Shenmue's dub?

Watched the episode tonight! So far, I'm impressed at how slow of a burn this season is so far, though I know it's only been two episodes. Nothing really gross, and I thought the MAV this episode got was overblown (as has often been the case in recent years). And the production values have been good, although I agree that Brittany Lauda sounded off as Riko this week. Feels like she was in the first episode, too, but I had no problem with Dawn of the Deep Soul despite that also having been recorded in the COVID era. I just mentioned this on Twitter but I'll go into more detail here: I'm surprised this series hasn't had any spin-offs. I feel like there's a lot of different stories you can tell with the Abyss; we've already gotten slice-of-life anime shorts staring Marulk and Prushka (yes, the latter exists; I guess they're on the S2 Blu-rays, though I don't know if those have been released yet), so why not a story focusing on Nat and Shiggy's adventures on the surface? It'd be nice to check back in with them, as Riko wants to. Also, who wouldn't love a foodie series based on this show? Delicious in Dungeon is really popular, so why not apply that formula to running around the various layers and grabbing Relics?

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.