Top Gun

"Well ackshually..."

Not gonna lie he is dummy thicc in one of those cover variants.

So here's the thing for me. I seem to be an extreme rarity now in that I actively prefer appointment-viewing linear TV over a big streaming smorgasbord. I discovered a long time ago that I absolutely suck at getting around to watching things unless I have some sort of externally-imposed schedule, whether it's a TV broadcast or a watching group with friends. I don't pay for any streaming services, nor do I have any plans to do so until I'm absolutely forced to (probably by sports). I have watched literally every anime series that's aired on [as] for the past 20 years, so for me sitting in front of the TV on Saturdays is something I do without having to think about it. If/when that vanishes, it'd be the end of something very significant in my life, and I want to hold that off as long as I can. When it finally goes for good, I could see myself sitting down on a Saturday night to create my own little block (with blackjack! and hookers!) out of my huge backlog of shows. All of that being said, at this point the decisions the block makes don't faze me much on an emotional level. If the schedule sucks like it does right now, I'll think "well that's lame" and just tune in for what I want to see. Even when we're in a downturn there's usually at least one thing I'm excited about watching. Like I probably never would have chosen to watch Mashle on my own, but I'm loving the hell out of it, so that alone is enough to make me show up every week. Even the reruns can be fun...like I had almost no memory of Blue Exorcist despite watching the whole thing when it first aired, and honestly I think I short-changed it a bit. And I know shitting on Demarco is the new national pastime, but besides the (mostly forgettable) co-productions, I thought he mentioned a few years ago that he's not even the one in charge of show acquisitions for the block anymore. Or maybe I'm thinking of something else he doesn't do now.

He presumably has much bigger and better-paying work between games and Critical Role stuff. A lot of older LA-based voice actors have largely moved out of anime.

I only got like 5 episodes into this on Rewind before they skipped an entire arc for no reason. Now I'm stuck back at the beginning again. Wheeeee.

I'm not blaming the viewers for not watching it on Toonami, I'm blaming them for watching it in general. Demon Slayer is...it's not good.

The masses continue to have terrible taste.

Yeah, I'd never played the games but I genuinely enjoyed the series. It felt "game-like" in the best way, more than any other game adaptation I've ever seen.

Drink up me hearties, yo ho!

It's funny, I only got a handful of episodes into that Naruto run on Rewind before they stupidly cut out one of the best parts of the show. Am I dumb enough to try yet again with this?

Hell yeah, finally.

I'm still calling shenanigans on this. I know what I heard.

This show is an absolute gift.

Yeah, almost every Tolkien fan I've seen post about it has talked positively overall. I almost never see movies in theaters, but I might give it a shot.

I don't get the writing either. They had something going with the girl going through it because her parents sucked, but then it ends with her just...vanishing, and nothing gets resolved. I don't think she's interesting enough to set up as a dangling plot thread for later.

Was it just me or was the framerate in this episode noticeably less than in previous ones? There were whole stretches where it felt like a slideshow.

The MCU absolutely deserves to be shat on.

One of the best Tolkien YouTubers I follow saw an early screening and posted pretty glowingly about it. That makes me a lot more optimistic.

Haven't been to Applebee's in ages since the closest one closed, and I'm not sure if I was ever in a Chili's. We used to do Friday's sometimes but that's all but dead.

I think I'm now up to....1200 unique items? No I don't have a problem why are you looking at me like that.

That whole toe thing was...not okay.

It's such a rare privilege to watch something and know that you're seeing an all-timer legendary anime moment. What a finale. Tell you what though, I would have been pissed at how things left off way back when if I didn't know there were 4 more seasons to follow.

The thing is, I actually enjoyed the previous episode. Sure, it was a bog-standard shounen fight I've seen countless times before, but at least they executed it well. But this was just...pointless. The creators were only given so many guaranteed episodes, and it feels like they've spent a lot of that time just spinning their wheels. And yeah, I don't know what's up with the focus on punching. Like, I've never willingly sat through a single minute of a pro wrestling match, but even I know that's not a thing there.