Jman

We have a dub preview -

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/warner-bros-discovery-stock-analysts-earnings-1235333336/ The stocks have actually responded positively to Zaslav’s cost cutting, believing the corner has been turned and he can make the company profitable again. Also while no new cuts are made, Zaslav is promising them.

The cuts will continue until morale improves.

The Menu - 8/10. An example of a film carried by its antagonist, if you can call Chef Slowick a full on antagonist (he stems closer to villain protagonist) whose skewering of haute cuisine is pretty damn funny. Anna Taylor Joy is a good actress but she doesn’t get nearly enough to do until the end.

Not sure if it’s an increase in the activity so much as an increase in people being caught. Enforcement always brings more cases to the limelight.

If this goes through, it won’t help with the Russian brain drain.

Recommendations, not charges themselves.

I believe this is the “No True Scotsman” fallacy. “The only real Americans are the ones that think how I do and act how I do.”

That was Zoids New Century Zero. Chaotic Century is about the kid with the robot dinosaur who ends up interrupting a war.

40th anniversary of Zoids, a show (in)famous for the earliest uses of CG mecha. No one tell Grant Morrison.

RIP.

I must concur context is king. Zaslav didn’t start any wars.

They should have animated Injustice vs Masters of the Universe. This movie was too quickly paced, too disjointed with its plot, and the ending flat out completely misses the point of the Injustice story, that Clark going on a murder spree is something terrible and that force CANNOT and WILL NOT restore Lois. It’s why all the stories in this universe end with Superman and the Regime eventually falling, be it to good Superman, Batman restoring the Justice League, or yeah, He-Man. It’s a rejection of the idea that Superman has to kill to be relevant. And this film ignored that completely in favor of a “happy” ending where a new Lois emerges, but Lois is the only thing keeping this Superman from going insane.

Hey, they don’t show up in this movie. Don’t make people think it’s cool.

I remember way back when they released those 2 minute promos a month out. Those were the days, but they weren’t terrified of everyone running to Crunchyroll back then.

Fair warning.

Holy hell, it IS Toriko! And I was spelling it wrong! Ok, clearly the objective here is to mooch off of Dragon Ball’s watch-selling, Idris Elba’s career-killing popularity. Which considering everything I just said is not the worst strategy.

Crossover special? There were those crossovers with other SJ properties like Dragonball and Naruto…and I think one that included Tokiro back when someone thought that could be big. Geez, does anyone remember Tokrio? Am I even spelling it correctly?

Well, good news is the VB film is proceeding according to plan. Happy 20th anniversary to what’s considered the best comedy show Adult Swim has ever aired.

Catwoman: Hunted. Basically “what if Catwoman was Fujiko Mine?” Kind of surprised Toonami didn’t get this given their love of DC and Lupin III.

Made in Abyss is a great, great show, but this is a classic case of bringing a horse to water. You can’t make him drink. Admittedly it not doing great is why I’m “Eh” on Lum showing up. I feel like it would be a similar situation where casual audiences dismiss it.

Eh, one could argue that the future shows for the block influence ratings, but I digress. On a similar topic, I won’t bore all of you with the Redo of Healer/Velma comparisons (simply put, both are astonishingly mean-spirited with weird sexual hang ups and expect us to root for a character that is a horrible human being because they are author avatars). But it speaks to the limited options (Velma is arguably comparable to Harley Quinn as an action/comedy, and the latter did air on Toonami, even if it was just to promote The Suicide Squad). Not to mention DeMarco has apparently been actively pursuing the rights to the Lum remake, if they ever dub the thing. Made in Abyss is probably the best example of DeMarco’s vision of a bespoke, off the beaten path action block, even if it wasn’t completely an unknown quantity (Columbia is currently sitting, key word, sitting on the rights to a LA adaptation they got before Toonami picked the show). I know it’s way easier said than done, but the whole idea that DeMarco and Gill seemed to push was that Toonami was going to show you things you wouldn’t seek out on your own, even if you could. Not every anime gets a watch deal, but plenty can attract an audience unaware. https://www.swatch.com/en-us/swatch-x-dragonballz.html?gclid=Cj0KCQiAxbefBhDfARIsAL4XLRpvCr4qtNJBUNM-ACRZnHcXJ1PT8X39Dhq_PPG0lpTXr-8DVCzB5TAaApFFEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds (Yes that is real). Speaking of bespoke and Netflix since the topic was bought up, Pluto would have been perfect for that vision. Hell, Mike Lazzo would have probably forced Jason and Gill to get it if he was still around given his own affection for Astro Boy (Lazzo admitted he unilaterally put 60s Astro on at 5am as a birthday present to himself on the AS boards once upon a time). It’s not like this is just a Toonami problem. Comedy ratings have been steadily declining ever since Family Guy left, with the one saving grace for the block now a major question mark thanks to all the controversy. I’m hopeful the Venture Bros and Metalocalypse movies will be made and not written off since we got Aqua Teen Plantasm, but that’s a stopgap. It feels like we’re waiting on that next big hit, the anime that takes over the internet, the comedy that’s so popular the late night talk shows are begging to interview its creator, etc.

If this keeps up, Tesla will be the Geo of the late 2020s. To be fair, Geos caused way less deaths and accidents.

Toonami WISHES it could get Witch from Mercury given the amount of chatter that show has made. Too late now. I believe DeMarco once said that getting older anime was pointless because companies charged just as much or didn't even bother putting those older licenses up for sale. Then we have companies like Discotek that dub and release on video, but don't bother acquiring the streaming/terrestrial distribution rights. Now add in Sony not wanting to share and you have a narrow stretch of time to get material from, with most of it off limits, and suddenly you're stuck making more King Star King and thinking about airing Velma, which is what happens when HBO Max says "Hey, what if we made our own version of Redo of Healer, but worse so Mindy Kailing can vicariously live through high school as the snarky teen that outsmarted her bullies that she never got to be?" I'd say best case scenario, they can only actively acquire stuff from the past three to five years.