Jman

So we’re fucked in other words. LEARN YOU FUCKING IDIOTS! I’m just sick of feeling inevitable resignation to the complete and total mutilation of any property that these morons adapt.

More casting news - Either the lady playing Alvida is getting recast or is going on one HELL of a diet routine. At least if they don’t want to Bebop this.

The alteration of events seems to continue to be working in the show's favor, most notably, giving Mark and Goro's arc more of a direct hand in the resolution of the first game's story. The 70 man battle lacks the mini-bosses, but it does make up for it with a rather fast pace and a clear sense of stakes to replace the stakes having a controller would give you. Funny thing, Ryo quits with dignity in the show. In the game, he got fired because of all the random fights he got into. Marriage? Aren't you still a minor?! This isn't Kentucky, it's Japan! Nozomi and Ryo clearly can't spit it out, and unlike the game, it's portrayed as an inherent tragedy. Man, this fight with Chai was way easier than the game's. Also - Next - Finding one person in Hong Kong is the definition of "needle in a haystack."

This was the climax of the first game, but not the last fight.

Tonight - 70 men vs Ryo and Guizhang. AKA - You think that’s enough goons?

This is presumably setup for a deal with HBO Max.

Clearly the answer for Crunchyroll is to make more adaptations of properties with cult followings. Airwolf anime. Do it.😁

Good question. This is Sony running things and they, with some exceptions, still seem to be willing to do business with Toonami. I don’t see that changing.

If it helps any, you aren’t the only one.

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/futurama-john-dimaggio-hulu-revival-1235102273/ DiMaggio is back as Bender following negotiations and the cast is ready to go.

It’s March, and that means March Madness. On top of the news, it’s going to be a rough month for ratings.

So who’s subscription am I canceling here?

OK, I'm pretty sure Mark's terse delivery is supposed to show that he's not a native language speaker rather than how it was in the game, AKA "I AM SPEAKING WITH THE HOO-MAN. CYBER-MAN MUST UPGRADE THE PORT." Forklifts. But sadly no wildly unsafe racing of the forklifts. "HI RYO! LET ME GIVE YOU SOME BRUISES WHILE I TEACH YOU THIS AXE KICK!" I don't remember Goro and Mai being this...enthusiastic? It's actually pretty funny. The fight scenes continue to be really well done. Again, more compression that works for the story. In the game, Ryo has to find someone who will loan him a motorcycle and race the clock. Here he just kicks the bastard. Also the whole kidnapping subplot occured over multiple nights, while here it's compressed. Next time -

This is the song, written for the game's meme. The one thing everyone wants HE TRIED TO KILL ME WITH A FORKLIFT! (OLE!)

Honestly, I needed a laugh today.

Shenmue continuing to beat AOT makes me happier than it should.

He is a surprisingly good actor in that show. I think years of antagonizing the IWC have made him an expert in manipulating emotions.

March 4 sees The Batman hit theaters after all those delays. And as we’ve seen, whenever there’s a film release or HBO Max release, Toonami likes to show something DC related. With no shortage of DC stuff to still air, anyone think they will show something from the archives? It probably won’t be Peacemaker although given the show’s streaming popularity, it would probably result in a big ratings bump if it did air.

That’s an interesting pickup. Do they still have a working arrangement with Crunchyroll post sale? Because that wouldn’t be the worst idea.

I think the cut-aways to the village do a fairly decent job of establishing Shenhua since she literally has zero dialogue until the end of the second game. "Mugging is out of style." It is the 80s, everyone's into stock market manipulation and white collar crime. Come on, you got a few years before the bubble economy bursts! They compressed another multi-hour subquest line into roughly...7 minutes. The thing is, the compression doesn't make the anime seem too fast paced, it just reminds me how much of a goddamn slog the original Shenmue could be. And it has a completely different ending to boot. Finally, an explanation for Lan Di's motivation. The fight scenes continue to be pretty good. Fluid, dynamic, and the choreography is on point (fitting considering Yu Suzuki's team is responsible for Virtua Fighter, probably the first fighting game to at least try to add a somewhat realistic base to the fighting styles. Akira's kung fu was specifically based on a martial art Suzuki was learning at the time as a hobby. Suzuki went so far as to have his development team learn the martial arts they were including to help get this across). The next episode preview is literally just the forklifts. Yes people, we're getting a forklift episode. This continues to be a really solid martial arts anime with...questionable dubbing for Ryo (although it seems more like it's reflecting his own internal issues vs. incompetent direction ala the game) which by default makes it the best Crunchyroll original up to this point given the sheer incompetence of the others. Looking at you Onyx Equinox, you piece of shit.

A secret code can be punched in so Nozomi helps you fight those two bullies from the first episode. Why she's doing a goddamn Rumina Sato flying armbar is another matter.

Relatively inexpensive programming that Netflix figured "Hey, let's stop treating this as if it only belongs in a very small, specific section of discussion," which exposed people who would have pooh-poohed it as "weebshit" (the course correction when every American studio tried to use surface elements in the work), and created a casual audience who saw it alongside their preferred programming. Add on that, when one company is successful with something, everyone wants to play follow the leader, and now here we are. You simply could not advertise shows like Cobra Kai as being live-action shounen without people looking at you like you had smoking turds in your mouth, now that’s how Netflix does it.

Ryo's quest for answers leads him to Master Chen and Guizhang, Chen's son with a serious chip on his shoulder. However, Master Chen may be the only one that can actually explain who Lan Di is and what he wants. This is roughly the halfway point of the first game (which in case you can't tell, was glacially paced).