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Show Notes
0:00: Justin and Helen take time to discuss the life and death of Dr. Slump and Dragon Ball creator Akira Toriyama. Justin reflects on growing up with Dragon Ball as one of his gateway shows, then jumping into the manga later on in life, and his personal experience with the franchise (which might have involved mimicking Goku and Krillin training under Master Roshi, somehow). The two hosts then get into how much Toriyama has inspired millions, either knowingly or unknowingly, due to his works — this also includes designing the characters for Chrono Trigger and Dragon Quest — and his health, alongside a trend of manga artists seemingly passing away somewhat young.
News
22:00: Voice actress TARAKO, known as Maruko in Chibi Maruko-chan, passed away at age 63. The two hosts reflect on this loss of a voice of a major work in Japan.
23:41: Justin and Helen discuss a few things Crunchyroll’s President, Rahul Purini, said to The Verge, which includes the company testing generative A.I. for closed captions and subtitles and Crunchyroll’s attempt to compensate Funimation Digital copy owners with appropriate value now that Funimation will be shutting down.
31:38: HIDIVE finally updated their website and app! This was sorely needed, but it looks like there might be some issues with this redesign that won’t work for everyone.
37:48: Justin and Helen discuss J-Novel Club furthering their print partnership with Yen Press by having their front and backlist titles now being handled by Yen Press’ distributor, Hachette, though for Justin, he wonders if Bookworm will be released similar to how Yen Press is releasing JNC titles now.
40:51: Pumpkin Scissors resumes after 4 years; Not Your Idol will resume after nearly 5 years.
41:37: So if you thought that the your name. Producer would’ve gotten away with his one alleged obscene act with a minor, now a new accusation against a minor has been announced by Wakayama Police. Both hosts basically wonder what else this guy’s gonna be charged with at this rate.
43:22: The Eisner Comic Industry will finally induct Barefoot Gen creator Keiji Nakazawa to its Hall of Fame, and that is a very good thing.
Licenses
44:09: Aoi Akashiro & Sonshou Hangetsuban’s Working for God in a Godless World has been licensed by Titan Manga. Yes, the manga that got an anime and was somewhat infamous for its quality. Meanwhile, they’ve also announced they’ve licensed for print release Yako Gureishi’s Somali and the Forest Spirit. This is one of three announcements that caught Justin off guard.
48:55: The other announcement that caught Justin off guard is indeed Kagurabachi being licensed for print release…this year! Justin kind of gets into why this surprised him, if only because volume 1 of Kagurabachi got released in Japan not too long ago.
49:54: The final surprise is Tsukimichi: Moonlit Fantasy getting licensed…by Hanashi Media. The two hosts discuss this one light novel that Alphapolis has allowed to be licensed in English.
52:29: Seven Seas had a number of announcements over their past two Wonderful Wednesdays:
- Hiroko Natsuno’s At 25:00 in Akasaka
- Hijiki’s Hate Me, but Let Me Stay
- Mikkamita’s How My Daddies Became Mates
- Amekiri’s Hatsukoi Note
- Kamoburger’s Our Sweet One-Room Apartment
- Yoru Sumino’s Ripping Someone Open Only Makes Them Bleed (Airship)
- Natsuha Kasazaki’s Alpha Wolfgirl x Omega Wolfboy (Steamship)
- Singyougaku, Arinokamati, & Won’s She’s the Strongest Bride, But I’m Stronger in Night Battles: A Harem Chronicle of Advancing Through Cunning Tactics (Ghost Ship)
- Kuboken’s Killer Shark in Another World
54:42: MANGA Plus has added a few series to their service recently: ANKOKU Delta, Set It and Forget It, The Days of Diamond, and Catenaccio; There will be a Digimon manga in Japanese and English released sometime this summer.
Streaming News
55:24: Zom 100 will air on Toonami at the end of March. VIZ really out here making sure this anime is everywhere. Meanwhile, they seem to have at least some sort of anime rights for Season 1 of Tokyo Revengers since they’ve released the English dub on digital storefronts. Justin can only fathom what this means considering the rights for this anime are all over the place.
58:22: Justin and Helen discuss the Mobile Suit Gundam Seed FREEDOM film airing in theaters in Los Angeles and New York City on March 31.
59:13: SAND LAND will stream its first 7 episodes March 20, then air the remaining episodes every week. A mix of Netflix style drop and then airing normally for some reason, but the first six episodes will mostly be the anime film; Netflix added the first 50 episodes of Dragon Quest: The Adventure of Dai to their service.
Weird News
1:01:45: Finally, someone apparently wanted to flex their directorial muscles for Osamu Tezuka’s Midnight manga by turning it into a live-action film and only using an iPhone 15 Pro. That someone was Takashi Miike. Welp!