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It seems Fate has other plans… it’s a Canadian cable channel AXS TV Toonami can potentially get it but probably not unless Aniplex really pushes for it I see Lazarus coming in as early as mid-February or March around Toonami’s anniversary but yeah it probably depends on what they have in January

Yikes really? Edit: I guess they felt a Rick thon was better to run on Thanksgiving but will it return the following Thursday or is it just done? I guess we’ll see

All but certain Fate UBW is coming to Toonami, there’s no other channel that would touch it.

Track record matters when there’s more seasons they can acquire and Sailor Moon is such an example.

Nah there's no question in my mind that more people are watching Kai on Saturday Toonami than on Rewind and the same would be true of Sailor Moon if it was on there. Sailor Moon could be the true long running replacement for Naruto and I'd be fine with that if it's at 2:30AM after One Piece and 4 other premieres. They'll waste any momentum they have with Sailor Moon if they don't bring it back soon and I do think that would be a shame. They've kept it double up for a reason I would think and it sure wasn't because they had lots of episodes to burn so despite not getting on the top 400 chart any week it probably met expectations if they relied so much on it lately. After all they could have kept going with double DBZ Kai because they have at least 98 episodes of that locked down but they chose to double up Sailor Moon and its probably because that was doing the best out of the 3 shows on there. Certainly the people who I know watch Rewind primarily (if not only) care about Sailor Moon airing. I'm not necessarily saying they should prioritize getting more Sailor Moon over something that's never been on the block but the people making the money decision will most likely recognize that Sailor Moon has a proven track record. Maybe just this once, I feel they should go with the known quantity rather than look for something else to spend part of the budget on. I think you're the rarer exception of someone who would prefer they abandon Sailor Moon in favor of something that's never been on TV before and they stand to piss off dedicated viewers if they drop Sailor Moon after just one season. Especially after all the years of hoping for it to return to television and with an uncensored dub no less. It's also quite a different experience from the old D.I.C. dub and a block premiere unlike Blue Exorcist, DBZ Kai and Naruto. I don't want it to take up a slot before 2AM but if there's money for shows after 2AM then I'm all for them airing Sailor Moon R uncut. Sure there's still 5+ weeks when Daima can drop on CR or another service before Toonami but why would they even need to wait another week when 3 or more episodes are in the can? Every week that goes by without an announcement puts the odds more in Toonami's favor because CR would absolutely be streaming it by now if it was their call and Toei doesn't really have a good reason to hold it back any longer unless they are trying to avoid a holiday hiatus on television. Dub production can take a few weeks off for holidays without the concern of running out of episodes before more are dubbed because there is already a running start but I will reason that production delays due to holidays is at least a reason to hold off till the start of December to launch the dub to increase the buffer enough to account for those delays. But again, I don't think that's necessary because there's at least 3 episodes already dubbed. Potentially several more because it sounds like they were working on this dub even before the Japanese broadcast. And they would be wasting the hype of the 3 day theatrical release if they don't start streaming the dub within a few weeks of that event or at least say something about it streaming soon. They're letting the iron cool off by not getting the dub up shortly after the theatrical release. Every week that there's no news the odds for Toonami getting it before streaming increase. It was 50/50 for a while but now it's looking 60/40 in favor of Toonami. And that's certainly a good thing because if they cannot land that deal then there is probably nothing they can get first hand except originals.

So 12/06 looks to be 3 episodes that already aired on Rewind (32, 33 and 34) and 1 episode that has not (35). Then 12/13 is 4 episodes that are new to Rewind and I think that will stick because it would be next level ridiculous for them to repeat 2-3 of the same episodes every week in December. That said, I'm already side eyeing DBZ Kai getting two marathons back to back and that feels really bizarre if they were planning to give Naruto and/or Sailor Moon a marathon (Sailor Moon obviously being previously aired episodes) but if I look at it by priority so to speak then Kai getting the marathon on 12/13 probably makes more sense to them than giving that day to Naruto or Sailor Moon while they'll be more willing to run marathons of those two on 12/20 and 12/27 because they'll expect even less people are watching. So even though it will burn through their Kai supply much faster I could see them continue to run 4 new to Rewind episodes on 12/20 and maybe even 12/27. Unfortunately they could simply dial back to earlier episodes of Kai for two straight weeks. It would be nasty work if after airing episode 39 on 12/13 they go back to episode 1 or even Goku vs Vegeta and work their way back to episode 39 at the pace of 2 episodes a week again. And they might just do that But there's another option for 12/20 at least. Christmas programming boots Rewind entirely on 12/20. They might avoid that out of concern that people will think Rewind is cancelled, especially when the previous two weeks were Kai marathons but it could definitely happen. Stalling until January is typical Toonami behavior but with Sailor Moon possibly out of episodes and Naruto so unimportant that they don't shy away from taking it off for at least 2 weeks, what future does Rewind have if they don't get more Sailor Moon immediately? Sailor Moon going into rerun mode might not completely kill momentum but it will give people who were watching Rewind religiously much less reason to bother because they already watched those episodes. Daily reruns of episodes that already aired are one thing but people realizing they're in for between 23 and 46 weeks of reruns before Sailor Moon R shows up aren't gonna feel at all inclined to wait on that when Hulu is right there and always has been. Sailor Moon has not even once charted on the top 400 cable reruns while at least occasionally a Checkered Past show has and its by far the biggest draw Rewind has. Falling back on DBZ Kai entirely is a bad sign if ever we saw one. Perhaps the experiment dies here. If so then I hope they do grab Sailor Moon R and start showing that on Saturday Toonami around 2am. It would no doubt be easier to catch there for working adults than the 5pm hour. I definitely would rather have something entirely new to Toonami than for them to spend money on more glorified reruns but it would also be a shame to drop Sailor Moon which is well worthy of a spot and is airing uncut for the first time. It beats a second episode of DBZ Kai at least. Trying to stay positive on Rewind's outlook but even if they can get more Sailor Moon what else can they do besides plod through Naruto and DBZ Kai? Crunchyroll keeps Yu Yu Hakusho and probably Gundam series off the table as well as Outlaw Star and Tenchi (not that either could air uncut). Sentai lost their license to Big O so who even knows about that one? I'm almost surprised they haven't fallen back on Samurai Jack (they probably think it wont do well enough based on the Checkered Past performance). Throwing in a DC show would kick ass but WBD isn't about to do them that solid. While it seemed like there were lots of possibilities for the block at first glance and DeMarco got people hyped getting show requests the reality is their options are rather limited unless CR plays ball, Sunrise can deal with them for Gundam without CR getting in the way or WBD grants them permission to run a DC show or ThunderCats (the original). There IS East Blue One Piece which they could probably get from Toei and maybe they could get Bo-Bobo from them as well (they'd go through Toei, Discotek only has the home video rights). And regarding the main block that Rick and Morty: The Anime marathon blows chunks. Why not a IFG marathon instead? Why a Mashle marathon after 1 hour finale of Invincible Fight Girl? They could just run Mashle, Blue Exorcist and One Piece a half hour later it's not a big deal. Or honestly a marathon of IFG after the last two episodes would at least feel like a send-off while finishing it on a night with a Mashle marathon feels more like a burn-off. Oh but dear viewers I'm not ruling out the stupid possibility that January 4th will be an IFG marathon before the regular block resumes on January 11th. They shouldn't have to take January 4th off to stall but that's presuming they have MHA, Daima or something else lined up to start right after Fight Girl exists the ring and maybe that's presuming too much. MHA S7 not airing in December also blows chunks but I will at least rationalize they don't want to push Mashle and Blue Exorcist yet and had MHA S7 started on 12/7 then they 'd either have to take it off after just two weeks or the December 21st schedule gets even more off kilter with MHA S7, Mashle, Blue Exorcist and One Piece airing 1AM-3AM. They certainly could have done it but with how long they have already waited for MHA S7 there's no need to throw it on in December and cause a shakeup right before Fight Girl exists. It makes more sense to give it top billing after Fight Girl leaves and if Daima is also on tap then they can run Daima for the midnight hour on January 4th followed by Mashle, Blue Exorcist and One Piece 1AM-2:30AM and bring in MHA S7 the week after at 12:30AM. Its way cleaner that way and deals with Daima's long episode in a manner that doesn't have three shows shifting down one week then shifting back the week after. You might even see double Kai as a sign that they don't want to commit to something else in the rerun slots because another premiere is coming soon. All that said, MHA S7 is far from a sure thing and I honestly see Daima as the more likely addition in January because if Daima was going to streaming first it probably would have done so a week or two after the theatrical showing. The fact they haven't even announced plans for that puts the odds in Toonami's favor IMO but Crunchyroll is also notorious for dropping a dub mere days after announcing it is going to stream. In this case I feel like Toei would make some noise for at least a week or two before the launch but if CR is in charge of promotion then don't expect a big lead up even for something is notable as a new Dragon Ball dub. And ya know what? I'm enjoying Daima. The plot isn't fantastic but thus far I've been way more entertained than I was by the majority of Super or GT. Super straight up bore me and GT could be infuriating. Daima is fun, has great animation and fights that aren't just powering up and using beam blasts. It's got that OG Dragon Ball Toriyama flare that has been sorely missed. I'm on board with that airing on Toonami.

I think as the show continues they'll incorporate a lot of actual wrestling techniques but I suppose that remains to be seen. The fight against Immaculate was over pretty quick but felt more like wrestling than the one with Mbrandon. The fight against Mbrandon was mostly throwing Falcon Punches except when Andy failed to do the ankle crank. Then they went to straight up rapid Dragon Ball punches though revealing that Andy was actually not getting any hits in for most of that exchange felt at least a bit original. You probably have a point about the pitch using wrestling to get in the door. The network probably wouldn't commit to a martial arts show, maybe an MMA show but a wrestling show while wrestling remains one of the decent draws for cable at least makes some sense on paper. But so far none of the people involve have sighted wrestling anime as an influence which is pretty telling. That said, I know some people who regularly indulge in wrestling entertainment who are enjoying this show so that's something I guess. If we've learned anything from the droves of anime-inspired American cartoons its that there will never be another Avatar.

Kadokawa is on a ton of production committees. If this goes through it's going to give Sony a piece of the majority of the anime industry in Japan as well as a major book publisher. It would also add Book Walker, Comic Walker, J Novel and Yen Press to establish the manga / novel publishing stone in the infinity gauntlet beside the anime stone, the online market stone, the video game stone, and the film and television stone. The book angle is way more distressing than the rest of the Kadokawa anime getting distributed by a branch of Sony, they already get a whole lot of those between Crunchyroll and Aniplex. Owning the majority of FromSoftware is small potatoes compared to that. But the way Microsoft is fumbling non-stop has me concerned that PlayStation will be the only high-end console on the market while Nintendo does its own thing with underpowered hybrid consoles. I don't care if XBOX drops out but I don't want PlayStation to be the only option besides PC and Nintendo. People who are saying "keep that same energy you had about MicroSoft buying up Bethesda and ActiBliz being good thing" regarding this buyout are absolute morons. It's not even slightly comparable. Don't even get me started on the possibility of censoring content before it even leaves Japan much less once it gets over here but thankfully as censor happy as Sony has become with video games, they haven't really gone that direction with anime with a few exceptions. But manga and novels often push beyond what's acceptable for television in Japan so if they crack down on manga and novels that could certainly change things. But in general, nothing good can come from one corporation having such a massive foot print in US side of Japanese media distribution much less having an even bigger one in Japan. Unfortunately, Japan's anti-trust laws are even more of a joke than the US anti-trust laws so this very well could happen and the thought of it (especially owning Book Walker and Yen Press) makes me want to vomit repeatedly. Sony took Crunchyroll, FUNimation and RightStuf and combined them and the chimera is demonstrably worse than any of them were at their own personal worst. RightStuf was pretty golden so it has fallen the hardest. They used to have the highest quality package shipping and customer service and you bet your ass Crunchyroll Store doesn't even come close. And the Bluray releases are vastly inferior to when RightStuf's Nozomi was handling them. CR and FUNi were both crappy in their own ways and we got the worst of both worlds and there's still over 100 titles that didn't move over including Outlaw Star, all the old Tenchi series, The Slayers and Escaflowne. Even the (very great) dub of Stein's Gate isn't on there despite the sub being there. Make it make sense! I don't even want to think about how much this could ruin Book Walker and Yen Press (and all the other associated publishing arms). Book Walker has been my haven from bowing down to the Amazon overlords. And while Kadokawa is faaaaaar from sin but they're not Amazon. Sony? They're at least trying to be Amazon for Japanese media and merch and there doesn't seem to be anything that can stop them from consuming more of the market. I really like to buy media legally but with every merger, I keep having less and less companies I can stomach paying for this stuff.

Redo of Healer actually has an interesting premise and very creative uses of "healing" powers. It's also terrible edge-lord tripe that has way more sexual assault than it has any business including but I was definitely entertained by watching the MC get his revenge on really terrible people. Lets just not try to think too much about how long he allowed himself to be treated as a sex toy once he got his memories back and started plotting his revenge. Sure getting pounded by soldiers was a way of increasing his power level but he sure let that go on longer than he probably needed to in order to be strong enough to enact his plans. Anyway... IFG plays the tropes, you can't argue otherwise but I do feel it is crafting its own identity at least as much as most shounen which borrow from the hits have done. You might not like the original elements but they're there and seemingly building toward something.

Zaslav still values linear for whatever reason but this could change his mind. Also wondering what part of Comcast their piece of Hulu falls under but I suppose it’s probably not the cable network part.

Advanced schedules show a DBZ Kai marathon (the next 4 episodes not repeats of recently aired ones) airing on December 6th which doesn't bode well for Sailor Moon continuing into season 2 before early 2025. On the other hand it could serve as promotion for Daima but that seems a little too optimistic to think. A lack of news for Daima's dub streaming anywhere remains a good sign that Toonami can get it before streaming but it's far from a sure thing.

No Thanksgiving marathon keeps IFG on track to end by 2025. Rumor has it eps 9 and 10 will air on December 21st so I’m not surprised but confirmation there will be no week off in November is nice. We might only have one week with no new content on Toonami for the rest of 2024, December 28th. If they need to stall one more week they might take January 4th off but that seems rather unnecessary.

I see tenderizing meat is taken as seriously as wrestling and accounting in this world. The way Mikey described how the unique tenderizing enhances food things were getting a bit Shokugeki. Mikey is built like a Joestar but I get the feeling he’s Andy’s Speedwagon. I was not thrilled to see Craig is back already and he’s clearly gonna be a reoccurring character. Andy is pretty dang strong for someone just starting out. She just needs to learn how to channel that strength. I knew the moment I say the spray bottle that Aunt P was going to use it on Andy. 🤣 I am quite enjoying this show so far.

I like the idea of an island where only accountants live and it’s serious business there. It’s stupid but charming how seriously they take accounting there and how seriously wrestling is taken world wide in this universe.

I quit at "good guy Satan" Which considering how much I enjoy Lucifer in Hazbin Hotel seems silly in retrospect but 10 years ago I thought that plot was so stupid and wasn't going to sit through more. I'll probably finish the anime original episodes this time if they run the whole thing.

I'm digging it so far. A very silly concept and they're having a lot of fun with it.

Given even the Kinikuman co-creator is disappointed at the performance of the new anime overseas, it’s safe to say it’s easy to miss Kinikuman and Tiger Mask anime and still have watched and enjoyed many anime.

It’s been up a few days. Give it a listen.

Just interviewed a director on the show (Matthew Bordenave) and I hope to have that up within then next day or so. After talking to him I am all the more excited to see more of the series.

There’s reasonably one way Zaslav could have caused this project to go to shit. After years of delays and only one episode complete he brought the hammer down and then the team had to scramble to finish the other 3 episodes without any additional budget and without Nagahama directing. You could argue they should have thrown more money at the job if that’s what it would take to maintain quality but the problems began with the initial budget and ambitious process for animating which Jason, Maki, Nagahama and anyone else managing the project should have realized much sooner and course corrected. Sure if they had thrown more money at it things could have turned out better but it’s pretty reasonable for someone at WBD (Zaslav or otherwise) to refuse amending the budget when things fell apart. If these projects cost too much than they’re no longer worth doing for WBD and they’re probably pretty satisfied with the performance on Max despite the critical reception. Ep 2 was pretty embarrassing at points and there’s rough stuff in 3 and 4 but the overall product isn’t nearly as bad as people make it out to be. It’s just a huge letdown from ep 1.

They just skipped 13 episodes of Naruto arbitrarily for Rewind. They absolutely can choose not to air the anime original stuff in BE after ep 16. But they probably won’t because unlike with Rewind the main block has no intention of leaving episodes unaired. A flimsy difference but one I expect they will argue if they ever have to answer for this decision. They paid for then so they will air them and probably milk the contract for every week they can.

Patrick Seitz, Anne Yatco and Kirk Thornton in prominent roles was nice. They all put in solid performances. Robbie Daymond was quite good at expressing Shuichi’s breakdown.

Yeah, same.

If you were wondering how much better something performs on Max vs Adult Swim. ANN has an interesting article that touches on that.

Potentially both but I think it's mainly that despite his grumblings (which are justified but not smart to post online) he's not gonna weaponize his gripes to write a book or something and throw the network under the bus.