Jman

More specifically, they moved onto union work. With the biggest anime dubber still being non-union, it takes union projects like this which hire pro wrestlers and established actors to get them to dub anime.

Nosferatu (2024) - 9/10. Focuses on atmosphere and tension, although it does indulge in a few jump scares, which I felt were a crutch for the much creepier atmospheric horror.

This show is the one bright spot in our horrible lineup and the real kicker is you can watch it elsewhere. Mash continues to prove that if there’s a wall, hit it. It will break.

Short rib beef adobo, mashed potatoes and salad.

Perfect is the enemy of good. In this case, instead of "mid", Toonami has -

Well, so much for Lazarus being ready. The start of the year is going to suck. At this point, the Rewind stuff is time-filler given the ass end of Saturday/Sunday morning it's on, not to mention that everything on the block, even the Flop Girl, is available elsewhere via streaming. Still, like any cook on a budget, DeMarco can't let a single part of the animal be wasted.

And the cherry on the sundae? …Mashle’s entire first season is now on Netflix.

https://www.whats-on-netflix.com/news/most-popular-anime-series-and-movies-on-netflix-in-2024/ Why that doesn’t extend to Toonami viewership is another matter.

Here's the...surprisingly packed cast. https://www.crunchyroll.com/news/latest/2025/1/9/sakamoto-days-anime-final-trailer-english-dub-cast Featuring the live-action Blue Beetle, WWE wrestler Alexa Bliss, and a lot of names like Matthew Mercer.

Finished S1 of Mashle.

With Sony investing more money in the animoos, Netflix investing more, and even Disney investing more, I can see why Warner would be hedging their bets. https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/ces-sony-group-deepens-investments-anime-1236102709/ Even as Cartoon Network is in fewer and fewer homes, I can see why they might view Toonami as a value add for the brand, but unfortunately, that means DeMarco and his shit taste are along for the ride. They're not going to put the block out of its misery until Adult Swim and Cartoon Network itself mean more as branding on Max than they do as linear programming blocks. Otherwise, they're going to be leaving Sony or Amazon MGM the inevitable Jujutsu Kaisen movie.

Shenmue was arguably the best Toonami original to date, more screwed over by licensing nonsense than its story. I stand by that, I really liked it and wanted them to fix the dumpster fire that was Shenmue III.

So what is Crunchyroll’s non-DeMarco exclusive anime going to look like? Oh.

Filet mignon, cheddar bay biscuits, and salad with red wine. The nice “not in the snow” dinner.

Mashle 5-7.

Trust me when I say, at least the comic is not light on the action. There’s plenty of food porn and waxing poetic about good food and etiquette, but a guy dies in the first ten pages, violently may I add. From there there’s a lot of violence, gang warfare, and fight scenes.

The original novel is a culinary tale mixed with a crime drama while the prequel is a far more traditional yakuza story that just happens to have food as a central motif.

Yeah but to be fair the Black Clover movie was also the second most popular movie in the world on Netflix the week it came out. That is quite the feat.

I get having Boring Kinnikuman since Kinnikuman wasn’t really an option, but why do we need Boring Mashle when we have Mashle?

Hehe…oops. They’re definitely using Blood and Sushi to pad the run time.

I wouldn't go that far, because their DC/anime collaborations have all been fairly successful, and even Ninja Kamui did pretty good ratings, but I think if DEMARCO is never allowed to co-produce an anime again, and gets his hand slapped every time he suggests it, the world will be better off.

In Kim's (MINOR) defense, Netflix, Crunchyroll, and Hulu don't have to deal with Standards and Practices. And that's ultimately what it boils down to. This isn't exactly a fair fight. I know I live in New York and New York is weird, but I can't explain a deli by me showing random things from Hulu during the lunch rush, including of all things, My Hero Academia. Linear television does not have that option. If they're going to air niche products, they need to air them at the ass crack of midnight lest they get an angry email because a parent complained about dem Japanese cartoons being watched by an impressionable child. It's one thing if they didn't have those restrictions, but they do, and they're pretty notable in what they allow and prohibit. And we rag on this block A TON, but it is held together by duct tape and dreams at this point. Putting together something coherent with the refried leftovers from Cartoon Network and old licensing contracts before streaming took over is commendable. Reality hits a lot of the desires for the block hard, and while there's no need to fanboy over the block, it is relatively impressive.

It does feel like an ego thing, on both ends. We're all well aware of DeMarco's vision of a "bespoke" action block, free of fanservice and overly stereotypical elements (this only really became a thing after Adult Swim Action I find), but beggars can't be choosers, and with Cartoon Network, last I heard, in about half the homes it was pre-pandemic, on top of pretty much every single Toonami original anime either a critical failure or caught in an endless web of legal problems, it's just becoming stubborn. DeMarco is not the type of person to want to air Ya Boi Komining, Is It Wrong to PIck Up Girls in a Dungeon? and especially not Chained Soldier. But it's his block and he makes the rules. Meanwhile, it's kind of understandable why Crunchyroll might be loathe to work with Toonami, they were sold off unceremoniously by Zaslav and gave Sony a near de-facto monopoly on anime in the US, with their only real competitors at this point Hulu and Netflix. It's difficult to want to cross that divide that they put up. And it's not like Warner is helping either. They could theoretically hand over some new programming to Toonami, but they've chosen to put all their chips on Max, since unlike cable, Max seemingly has potential for expansion, rather than the contraction that has faced their linear channels. Remember, late last year, Zaslav began restructuring the company to possibly divest from their cable channels, and this year started with all of their sports programming now officially available on Max, even All Elite Wrestling. 2025 is going to be a rough year, but I think the bigger question isn't if "Toonami dies", but rather "Does Adult Swim's primary focus remain a linear cable block, or does it become more of a brand for Max originals?"

They need to work with what they have. And if that means kicking off 2025 with 2024's Worst Anime, then so be it.