PokeNirvash

GRIDMAN! [baby dan dan]

The thing to remember is, Japan puts out a lot of merchandise for shows that go under the radar here due to being Japan-exclusive. Take for example this one show I was watching last season. I followed the show's official Twitter account, and to this day, I get updates on my feed concerning various merch for the show. Keychains, plushies, shirts, hats, cologne, pop-up cafes... Granted, this was the adaptation of a 20 year-old novel series that in the 2000's got a popular-for-the-time live-action series and multiple manga adaptations (one of which even got licensed stateside), but still, if an obscure modern anime like Ikebukuro West Gate Park can get this level of merch, then it's downright stupid to think that Fire Force has none of its own, even in its home country.

Nobody needs more Mr. Makes Bakugo Look Likeable. I mean, look at his face. Infinitely. Punchable.

So people who haven't heard of it yet know, at least that's my guess.

The Legend of Black Heaven 1 To think that audio mismatch on the in-three-parts version of the debut episode I saw on YouTube over a decade ago put me off from starting this in earnest.

It's a good thing I watch everything on DVR, that way I'm free of the complaints about timeslots you guys like to embroil yourselves in.

Kanon 2006 7

Mayo Chiki! 11

If Toonami posted it themselves, I can't see why he would.

The former's more likely to happen than the latter. I'm not even sure if Soma's really the crying type. COSMO SAMURAI - On the one hand, this one seemed a little "generic anime" for an animated TIE. But on the other, my boy Toshiyuki Tsuru (under his favorite pseudonym Yasuaki Kurozu) was in charge of the whole thing, so I'm honestly torn on what to feel. (Especially since it's far removed from his usual directorial style and color palette...) Really, my like of it ultimately comes more from the benefits it provides my headcanon than any actual intrinsic merit. So thanks, Demarco. Your making connections with Tsuru through this project has only motivated me further to continue pushing forward with my next hypothetical anime project, now that it makes a little more sense in the hypothetical alternate universe I've created where it exists. ATTACK ON TITAN - And now Sasha's dead. Wonderful. 😭 Well, at least she managed to get killed off this far in, compared to the undignified end back in the start of season 2 that Isayama planned on giving her. Even Eren's pissed that she's gone, that's how serious this whole thing is. FOOD WARS - When was the last time we had an OP that played the English-translated lyrics in-episode during the broadcast? I'm thinking it might've been Tokyo Ghoul Root A, but Death Note's the only one I'm absolutely sure of. All in all, I've kind of missed this stupid show as well. FIRE FORCE - Not gonna lie, I'm a little miffed that we didn't get at least one full playthrough of the new OP, even if it was a trade-off to avoid any further DVR delays caused by the Cosmo Samurai credits and the full Food Wars OP. As for the show itself? While I still hate Rekka's catchphrase as much as a 26 year-old man can hate a fictional character's beaten-into-the-ground gimmick, I did get a laugh out of him being that one kid's beyond-the-grave motivational speaker, despite being the whole reason he's even in this mess getting his ass kicked by this "Uncle Reaper" psycho. BLACK CLOVER - Typical filler stuff, where the lesson of the day is "even the lamest skills can be useful if applied the right way". As they say, there are no weak STANDs, only weak STAND users. GRIDMAN - God I fricking love this show even though I haven't seen a second of the original Gridman and only the opening theme for Superhuman Samurai Syber Squad. Trigger's really knocking it out of the park with this one, even if they are once again leaning into their "aliens did it" free space of plot development. SHIPPUDEN - Huh, wasn't expecting that little song at the start. Or for it to be subbed too. [demarcooooooo]

"Written and Directed by Yasuaki Kurozu" This is the best reveal this TIE could have ever offered someone like me.

AWOL: Absent WithOut Leave 12 Redo of Healer 7 Impressive, went a full twenty minutes without a single sex scene. A new record that I don't expect them to top at the rate they're going.

Whoops, posted too early. That's better. 12:00 - Dragon Ball Super #104 - A Transcendent Light-Speed Battle Erupts! Goku and Hit's United Front!! - TV-14L 12:30 - Attack on Titan: The Final Season #8 - Assassin's Bullet - TV-14LV 1:00 - Food Wars! The Third Plate #1 - Challenging the Ten - TV-MAS 1:30 - Fire Force #38 - The Ashen Reaper - TV-MA 2:00 - Black Clover #139 - A Witch's Homecoming - TV-PG 2:30 - SSSS.GRIDMAN #7 - Scheme - TV-14V 3:00 - Naruto Shippuden #330 - Promise of Victory - TV-PG 3:30 - Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba #17 - You Must Master a Single Thing - TV-MAV I'd have come up with something more original, but oh well, there's always next time for that.

Corpse Princess: Kuro 6 Thus Spoke Kishibe Rohan 2

At this point most of us would gladly take High Guardian Spice over any more of EX-ARM.

Impossible as it is, I'd be up for that.

Netflix, Toonami, whatever decreases the number of hoops I have to jump through to watch it when the dub of season 2 eventually drops.

Eh, call me when Demarco freezes over Hell to justify picking it up for a Toonami run.

Kanon 2006 6

The overall ratings go down, but the retention between shows increases. And that's what really matters in this age of streaming being the true king of content consumption. [on the tv]

Indeed. The Macross franchise rundown from last week was very good, something I'm sure ANN has been wanting to do if not for Harmony Gold being stingy about the rights. Though I feel like this week's review, plus that one deviation for episode 3's, were designed that way to let the less sarcastically-inclined know that Nick does dislike EX-ARM and his reviews shouldn't be taken seriously. You'd be surprised how many people don't understand satire.

Alice in Borderland (J-Drama) 3

Outside of Zora saying "shit" like my nonconventionally educated guess predicted, nope. We're stuck in filler/"anime canon" (translation: training arc nonsense) until episode 158, so feel free to check out 'til then. COSMO SAMURAI - Even the objectively inferior IGPX microseries was a better animated TIE, but hey, at least it's better than Sand Whale. ATTACK ON TITAN - It's official, too many people are dying this season for my taste. I don't even know who to root for anymore... 😩 ASS CLASS - Part of me's disappointed that Takaoka didn't die, but Nagisa's non-lethal countermeasure was a perfectly acceptable substitute, with the reveal that even his hired guns thought he was too crazy to be trusted was a pleasant one. Really, I think I'll be able to tolerate those main campus douchebuckets more, now that Takaoka proved you could do wayyyyyy worse. (But still, fuck Kunudon and the sheeple in his live studio audience.) I eagerly wait for next season, whenever Demarco finds a place in the schedule for it. FIRE FORCE - Finally, we get backstory for how Joker and Burns got those perpetual flaming eyes of theirs. Fun stuff, if not super dark. Considering they brought back that random "pilot light" kid Rekka lit up (one of the few things I remember from that fight that wasn't "My stars!" and the Lucky Lecher Lure ruining the mood), I feel Fire Force is a show that highly benefits from marathon-style rewatching. And while I do like Lisa's haircut and her rolling with Company 8 for legit now, I'm still pissed off that she still unironically identifies as a villain, so I only sorta hate her now instead of really fucking hating her like I did last season. BLACK CLOVER - When you have a filler episode with a "strong coarse language" rating after countless PG-level eps, you know someone's gonna drop the S-bomb. How appropriate that Zora was the one that had the honor of doing so. GRIDMAN - So the town is an isolated patch of urban landscape surrounded by fog and relative nothingness, the kaiju looming over the landscape are basically repairmen, and Akane is the closest thing to Haruhi Suzumiya we're ever gonna get on [as] (outside of that swimsuit Shirley wore in Geass R2 ep 5 I tried to justify as a reference, and a text bumper recommending it to someone looking for SoL anime to watch). But my question is, where'd she get all the people to populate her Cities: Skylines project? SHIPPUDEN - Honestly the most excited I've been for a Shippuden episode plot-wise since I started watching. So nice to see Naruto and Kurama finally working together after fifteen years of unsteady coexistence.

I thought the last Blockbuster was in Oregon...