It's Not My Fault The OASG Podcast Is Not Popular!

0:00: Justin and Helen FINALLY return to talking about stuff over the internet, and they both have much to catch up to! Helen unfortunately got COVID-19 so the episode was delayed from last week, and to make up for it, they will be two podcast episodes back-to-back. Starting with this one. And it’s all about the news and licenses since the start of the year!

2:00: But first, the two briefly discuss the Los Angeles wildfires that occurred earlier in the year, which did affect a number of voice actors and a number of events in the area that were Japanese pop culture related. Our thoughts are with them and everyone else in LA that were affected by the fires.

4:15: Along the way, a GoFundMe campaign was launched for longtime VA Mike McFarland, who did have successful brain tumor surgery but will need the money to hire an live-in medical assistant.

5:22: The year has started with many yikes and yeeshes all around, but in the anime world, producer Kouichirou Itou (producer involved with a number of Makoto Shinkai films) has pleaded guilty to obscene acts with 3 minors; A massive scandal has gone on at Fuji TV involving a former SMAP member and TV host reaching a settlement out of court with a woman following an incident of nonconsensual sexual activity, a now former president, and many sponsors pulling their ads from Fuji TV — which includes the legendary Sazae-san, which ran with no sponsors for the first time in 14 years; And as expected due to his affair, Toru Furuya will no longer play Toru Amano in Detective Conan as he’s now been replaced by Takeshi Kusao.

12:28: VIZ had a week in two days. They ended up getting their Twitter account hacked (after an online fight they did not beat the hacker) on Monday, then the next day a very notable title leaked on digital outlets. You’ll know exactly what that is in the licenses section (but if you’ve been following VIZ you know what that title is)

14:54: As discussed some time ago, Manga Library Z has launched a crowdfunding campaign to try and reopen the service; Stripe has now banned Manga Planet due to R18 content on the service; the two hosts then get into Diamond Comic Distributors filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and how much this could affect the manga industry.

23:17: The two hosts run through a number of hiatus that have occurred since the new year, from Kai-hen Wizards to Cat Companions, for various reasons; we also have a couple series either resuming, like Battle Angel Alita Mars Chronicle and Berserk, and one artist whose had a notable injury preparing to return to A Vampire Dies in No Time. And then there’s CLAMP returning to work on xxxHOLiC: Rei after all this time!

29:12: Remember when it was stated that Danmachi Season 5 would return in early Spring 2025? Yeah, you probably already saw episodes 12 and 13 already!; already Helen and Justin are dooming about Pass the Monster Meat, Milady now that it’s being delayed from its April air date to now premiering in October; voice actress Azuki Shibuya was on hiatus for roughly a year, but she’s now resuming VA activities.

33:16: Finally, a couple of notable deaths occurred, starting with voice actor Dale Wilson, the voice of Cell in Ocean Group’s version; animator Eisaku Inoue revealed on Facebook on January 8 that animator Yōichi Ōnishi passed away; And music composer of a number of works, from Cat’s Eye to Kimagure Orange Road, Hiroshi Shinkawa, passed away at 69.

35:37: The two hosts talk about a non-license, but soon enough Crunchyroll will apparently be licensing manga — again! Yeah, you can bet most manga enthusiasts were shocked that they’re getting back into the manga game after going out sad some years ago; the two hosts then discuss the new official manga/LN service Novelous, which normally would be a good thing, except Shogakugan is using AI to assist translation/localization for their works — both wonder if this will go over well with anyone.

43:26: VIZ ended up having a number of announcements over the past couple weeks:

53:02: Seven Seas of course has come back in the new year recharged, refreshed, and refocused enough to deluge our Wednesdays with new titles, some of varying qualities, and some with names that Justin could not help but think, “Never thought I’d tweet something like this.”:

57:00: Yen Press also had some new titles to announce before the month ended:

1:00:10: And then J-Novel Club sort of joined in the licensing hubbub, but only in regards to announcing new digital to print titles…that includes one title that for sure will be shrink-wrapped!

1:04:06: Living the Line’s made a deal with the Marina Shirakawa estate, so expect a number of manga from Shirakawa to be released from them over the next couple years; Dark Horse did indeed have a whale of a (few?) weeks, which includes bringing back Blood Blockade Battlefront and Planetes in updated editions, more Gou Tanabe’s H.P Lovecraft manga, and finally something new for a change; Inori, the creator of I’m in Love with the Villainess, has a new work will be coming soon in English but in an unusual way; Kodansha licensed Satoshi Morie’s Killing Line manga, which is now out digitally.

1:07:16: And yeah, Discotek has done it again. Justin and Helen can only respect their game as they once again announce titles that’s either so obscure, or so legendary, or somehow a combination of both that they went into tremendous detail on the work on it. Or if it’s just a legendary title you might’ve heard of that they’ve went into tremendous detail on the work on it (Example: Urotsukidoji):

1:12:25: And in final licensing news, Media Blasters will be releasing a title that both the hosts had to wonder how much ecchi is too much ecchi…?

1:14:08: GKIDS has been working pretty hard over the past few months, and they sure got a slate of titles to share with everyone — from Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX -Beginning- and that anime’s multiple screenings to bringing Hideaki Anno’s LOVE & POP live action film to North America and to acquiring the rights to Witch Watch!

1:18:41: Netflix will again be adding a few more anime to their service, but they will also again be raising their prices; Crunchyroll confirmed there was login credentials posted online, but it did not mean their service was compromised; Crunchyroll has again added more Precure to their service; and Tubi TV added After War Gundam X to its service, which prompted Helen mid-podcasting to send Justin the exact images from the show that has been memed in the anime community; and one Fall anime 2024 show is FINALLY officially streaming thanks to Pony Canyon.

1:23:22: And after so long, a bunch of Macross anime have been added to the US on Hulu. From Macross Dynamite 7’s release it did cut one character’s drug and sexual assault scene, which did generate some discussion.

1:25:49: Both hosts wonder just it’s possible to crowdfund something so quickly following Katana Maidens’ success; Both hosts are confused about Bleach being tied into a New Zealand murder case somehow.

1:29:28: Name changes are a thing when creating something, and it’s always possible for any sequels to be renamed as well, would just have the original title as a subheading. You rarely get title changes during its run, so for Boys Gilding the Lily Shall Die!?, we will be wondering just how TOKYOPOP will now localize the future volumes of this series now that it’s called Kiss Yori mo Kimi no Neiro de Me ga Sameru in Japanese.

1:31:37: It has been light of weird news to kick off the year, but we would naturally get a story about two conventions fighting each other over supposed secrets, and a story about Genshin Impact cosplay appearing in a Coldplay music video for whatever reason (Helen explains why!)

The post TheOASG Podcast Episode 213: They Do It For The Love of The Game…Whatever That Game Is! appeared first on TheOASG.

0:00: Happy New Year! Justin and Helen have much to talk about in this episode, so the two hosts get into the conclusion of the possible Sony/KADOKAWA acquisition, which resolved in a way that might’ve been unexpected.

3:33: The two then continue the sharing theme, with TOHO acquiring a 19.7 stake in Orange before moving onto the return of One Piece in April and its new timeslot.

6:48: At the start of the season, with two shows continuing from the summer season J.C. Staff was producing 10 anime of various lengths and formats. This certainly suggested a couple of these would actually have issues airing, but the good news for them is only one had production troubles. The hosts didn’t quite count on it being Danmachi Season 5!

10:42: Frieren is now back on hiatus, while Karino Takatsu’s Marry-Go-Round will go on hiatus but return in March; the 31st Dengeki Novel Prize’s Grand Prize winner Denji Yutai passed away unexpectedly due an unspecified illness, which has KADOKAWA working with Denji’s family to figure out how to handle the release of the winning work.

14:28: The two hosts then discuss the passing of shoujo pioneer Macoto Takahashi, who has been one of the sources of inspiration for many within the demographic and the manga industry with his work.

17:11: Yen Press wanted to be one of the few to close the year announcing new titles, so here they are:

20:57: AnimeEigo also announced they’ve licensed Nobody’s Boy Remi, which gets Helen to tell a story about this one; Cross Infinite World announced three new titles that’ll be released on digital platforms soon:

23:08: The animated The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim came out in digital format December 27. Normally that’s not a big deal, until you realize the film just came out in theaters December 13!

25:45: A few more anime works got added to Crunchyroll, while Netflix added the 2018 version of Captain Tsubasa.

27:12: Justin and Helen discuss what was kind of an unusual Fall 2024 season — some shows they liked for sure, but compared to prior Fall anime seasons, feels slightly weak. The major notable new thing that (temporarily) finished was Dandadan (1:18:13) but sequels sort of highlighted this season, from the good (49:13: Love Live! Superstar!! S3) to the solid (35:02: Appraisal Skill S2) to the still actually great but somehow still annoying at times (37:13: Bleach Part 3) to the sort of bad (55:13: Seirei Gensouki S2)

1:27:03: Both hosts are still attempting to figure what the Guinness World Record’s criteria is after they accepted the largest shadow projection of Shadow the Hedgehog before then talking about the Lakers having a One Piece night, continuing the theme of the Straw Hats hanging around Los Angeles for no apparent reason. (There is likely a reason!)

1:30:46: Before moving on to 2025, take a look back at all the weird news that dominated this year in the anime/manga space! There was a great amount of weird! Starting with the fact that after 8 years of podcasting, we finally had a lost episode.

1:31:28: This isn’t actually a new thing — bigger companies buying smaller companies — but everyone was talking about the possibility of a big company acquiring another big company, and for Justin, seeing Sony in talks to acquire KADOKAWA at like almost 2AM at night hit different!

1:32:41: Lest we forget, Crunchyroll was one of the only (?) official streaming services that had the comment section available for their shows, but they closed it this year. Whether it was the review bombing of another BL title (this time it was Twilight: Out of Focus) or the AI translation accusations for My Deer Friend Nokotan, the remaining fact is you can’t comment on anything on CR anymore.

1:33:23: At some point however, they will have to provide a comment on what happened to David Wald, who claimed that the company “opened his private mail, threw away the letters, and passed out any items to their staff.” Still one of the last things anyone could’ve seen coming from Crunchyroll!

1:35:26: The anime industry has long been in a poor state, with very few anime having great production, or even those that do still having much trouble along the way. So every year we’ll most certainly get a studio that’s in dire straits until there’s a major improvement, and this year’s contender is Yokohama Animation Lab, which had the following happen to them:

1:39:00: While Yokohama had overall production troubles, the studio that’ll take the cake for having the wildest production story is Typhoon Graphics and their work on Dahlia in Bloom. After all, learning that due to so much outsourcing that there was a possibility that some scenes were animated in North Korea is a level of weirdness no one could’ve seen coming!

1:43:09: That said, as awful as anime industry production has been, for better or worse, we rarely see cancellations of an anime. This year however, with Yuri on Ice and Ten Count, we somehow got two.

1:45:50: We also rarely hear about the type of manga cancellations Endo and Kobayashi got in the manga industry, but wow did the editorial staff for this series mess up in ways that you would not expect for a professional publisher.

1:49:31: Sometimes there’s just weird news that’s also just despicable, so it was more or less a given that Toru Furuya’s actions would land him here.

1:51:50: There was way too many manga library bans that occurred in the second half of the year, but needless to say, the Sasaki & Miyano ban was indeed the most notable due to the reasons why it was banned in one particular Florida library. (The suggestions on what to replace it with was also hilarious).

1:54:11: Some quick bites of weird news that we just can’t forget — Aniplex of America unexpectedly giving a birthday to Madoka Magica’s Kyoko Sakura; a public publisher tiff that’s going to somehow continue in 2025; and yes, Isekai is now Oxford approved. Amazing.

1:57:49: Love Live! is an interesting franchise that is popular, but in terms of gaming, not so much, as their smartphone game service ended service in Japan March 31. The problem is they announced that a Global version would launch — and then shut down three months later! And did this in one tweet! If anyone understood why they did this, please share with the class!

1:59:19: Finally, after much thinking, the weird news of 2024 had to close with the prevalence of AI essentially everywhere. In the anime space, this has led to much discussion while also having studios actually use it to create their works. So there will be stories like that in the new year. There will also likely be humorous ones too since you can’t rely on AI for everything. See this, this, and especially the Latina character name story that only evolved into learning AI was involved once the author commented about it. You could argue that it’s telling no one told the author about this before it got to publishing, but on the other hand, the scenario did turn out to be really hilarious.

The podcast will return either at the end of the month or early February.

The post TheOASG Podcast Episode 212: Saying Farewell To 2024 appeared first on TheOASG.

0:00: Justin and Helen discuss a bunch of things they’ve been up to over the past few weeks, which includes one of the hosts going on a J-Novel Club spree and the other host running into the Blue Exorcist trap once again!

17:38: The two hosts get into KADOKAWA…and the cyberattack that occurred earlier in the year that severely impacted their business operations, and something new has emerged that might be playing a role in their current situation with companies interested in buying them.

20:00: The doujinshi scene continues to run afoul of VISA and Mastercard’s new standards, and now another company will have to halt using them for payment. Justin and Helen get into why this is happening.

23:52: Dark Gathering will be entering a 4-month hiatus, which does have Helen wondering what’s the story behind that since it’s not for health-related reasons; meanwhile the voice of Franky from One Piece, Kazuki Yao, is stepping down from his role.

26:29: ‘Tis Time for “Torture,” Princess will go on hiatus due to Robinson Haruhara’s health; Gakuen Idolm@ster VA Ayane Matsuda will also be on hiatus due to her poor health.

27:56: Illustrator Syroh passed away, and based on the fact that Syroh was planned to enter this year’s Winter Comiket, it was unfortunately sudden; another sudden loss was animator & director Hiroki Ikeshita, who was working on this season’s Shangri-La Frontier; It was announced on their Facebook and Twitter that Youji Kuri passed away at 96.

31:30: The two hosts then discuss the loss of Jan Scott Frazier, who passed away at 59. They go over her impact on the anime industry before going into what a tough year it was for her (considering she had to open two GoFundMe pages).

34:40: Kodansha has launched a new program: Kodansha Print Club! A couple of titles will be released in print from Kodansha’s digital catalog, which all sounds good, but Justin has concerns. And considering there have been quality control issues, that’s just the start of Justin’s possible issues on something that he hopes can be successful.

42:42: Cyberpunk Edgerunners is the latest Netflix anime to now be released on home media. The major problem is Aniplex of America will be releasing it in the US, which means it’s time to hope for a cheap standard edition of it, somehow. There’s also going to be a manga released as well, this one eventually by Dark Horse in the US.

44:01: And we had confirmation of a few Star Fruit Books titles that had seen delays, but it looks like a few Q-ta Minami works will be released starting in Spring 2025.

44:54: It had been some time since a new Precure was added to Crunchyroll, so it seems someone felt it was time to add another one before the year’s over (Yes! Precure 5); And Crunchyroll will begin to not allow people to watch all of One Piece for free with ads anymore, so Justin breaks down their stated plan and wonders if this is a good idea.

48:52: This was announced at Anime NYC, but to finally close the chapter: The Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Senpai series dub is now on Crunchyroll. Now to see if it’ll get a home media release with the dub!

50:27: And finally, a couple episodes of Pokémon got added to the Pokémon YouTube channel, which got the hosts wondering how YouTube TV actually works.

51:32: The industry has finally done it — they’ve resorted to AI to create an anime! Both hosts get into the major pitfalls of this decision, but also wonder if this will have any impact, especially if no one overseas picks this up for streaming.

55:03: BanG Dream and Chainsaw Man is not a combo you’d expect, but when it comes to games, it somehow makes sense!

55:53: Helen got nostalgic while discussing the news of Pokémon collaborating with the studio producing Wallace & Gromit; someone in Japan got arrested for selling reprogrammed versions of Pokémon; and Tetsuo Hara of Fist of the North Star fame drew a special card art for Pokémon, which confirms that anything involving the franchise has too much news!

58:50: Keiichi Arawi decided it was time to bring back CITY, which is perfect timing with the future anime upcoming; and Beyblade has been around for a good while, but having Timothée Chalamet bring a Beyblade to a special premiere for no reason (the hosts suggest he’s gonna let it rip at somebody or some thing) certainly makes this franchise pretty notable!

The post TheOASG Podcast Episode 211: No Need For Emails! appeared first on TheOASG.

0:00: Justin and Helen discusses what they’ve been up to over the past few weeks, which includes trying out a new J-Novel Club title and finishing Season 3 of Re:Zero. A rant about the K MANGA experience also happened in this section!

11:24: The two hosts then get into one of the biggest news stories of the past few weeks — which could evolve into the biggest story of the year if it happens — Sony in talks to potentially buy KADOKAWA. With the anime monopoly that Sony already has this seems real dire, so the reasons why this is happening, with rumors of a hostile takeover emerging, has Justin and Helen pondering what this ultimately means. Though it doesn’t change the fact that seeing KADOKAWA being potentially bought was the last thing anyone could’ve seen coming.

22:40: Remember the Netflix leaks over the summer? There’s still an investigation ongoing and Discord is involved; Meanwhile NIS America, who has not licensed a new anime title for a long while, will also stop reprinting home media of titles they do have, so works like Cardcaptor Sakura and Toradora! (to name a few!) are going out of print.

25:46: More libraries and manga just getting removed continues! Justin and Helen discuss a few schools in Tennessee removing a number of manga, from Assassination Classroom (which has been in the news for a couple months now) to Case Closed (w-was it the beheading???) to Alice 19th (Helen is not sure why it’s on the list) to Bloom Into You (??????). That’s just the cliff notes! Meanwhile in North Carolina the Unico re-imagining manga that came out this year has been removed from Scholastic Book Fairs in Richmond County. What in the world is going on out there?

31:54: Not that anime production woes are a new thing, but it feels especially recently that there will be a few anime that run into major issues during a season. Danmachi Season 5 seems like it’ll get off light with just a one-week delay, but Haigakura has run into quality control issues — to the point where they’ve delayed releasing further episodes.

34:20: Yoshihiro Togashi had surgery for something, but he still was able to lay out 2 more chapters of Hunter x Hunter somehow; Shadows House creator so-ma-to will be going on a three-week break, which is a change from their planned schedule announced over the summer; Frieren will be going on another break; And Spy x Family is going on a one-month hiatus, which seems unplanned.

38:06: A few deaths occurred in the anime/manga space — lyricist Shuntaro Tanigawa passed away at 92; former manga creator Rieko Takeishi passed away after a long battle with an unspecified illness; Eiji Yanagisawa passed away at 57 from a brainstem hemorrhage; and voice actress Junko Hori died at 89 due to senility.

42:08: Seven Seas wrapped their 2024 Wonderful Wednesday events with the following new announcements:

49:30: We’re gonna get more classic manga in 2025, this one courtesy of Bubbles Zine; VIZ Media is now releasing ONE & Kiyoto Shitara’s Bug Ego manga on the Shonen Jump service; and if you’ve been wanting to purchase VIZ titles on Bookwalker, now you can!

54:20: Crunchyroll will be streaming the Fate/stay night Heaven’s Feel Movie trilogy on their service December 19; the In This Corner (and Other Corners) of the World extended film is now streaming on the service.

55:30: A number of anime will now be locked in the Disney Vault, and this also includes a new anime of Cat’s Eye.

57:29: Justin has to go over the wild, wild story involving two different publishers who were supposed to publish four Chinese titles together, but this will not be happening anytime soon because, no matter how you look at it, these two are just both not very professional.

1:02:03 The Law of Ueki will be getting a brand new chapter…after 16 years!

1:02:52: Pokémon and Yu-Gi-Oh! cards continue to be real popular. Maybe too popular since people keep trying to sell fake cards of each and get caught!

1:04:21: Kyoko Otonashi’s making sure Japan does not light a cigarette in the house in this tobacco ad, because she can!…This somehow leads into Helen’s escapades involving someone trying to smoke where they shouldn’t!

1:06:33: And finally, both hosts discuss Chrome — yes, Google Chrome — becoming an anime (short).

The post TheOASG Podcast Episode 210: Yes, It’s Our Fault This Podcast Isn’t Owned By Sony appeared first on TheOASG.

0:00: Justin and Helen make some time to discuss what they’ve been up to over the past few weeks, and for some reason, K MANGA is involved for one of them!

10:43: The two get into David Wald formally announcing he is not returning to the Crunchyroll studio and his role as Gajeel from Fairy Tail following the mail being given away situation from a few weeks ago and still little word on a resolution.

14:21: The two hosts then finally discuss something that’s been brewing at points over the summer, and we now have a new doujinshi store that will halt VISA and Mastercard payments in December — Melonbooks. This leads into why Ken Akamatsu’s Manga Toshokan Z possibly had to shut down.

20:15: Netcomics will be ending service this year, which concludes a somewhat long and strange run for the manhwa publisher; For anime veteran Jan Scott Frasier, things have somehow gone from pretty bad to much worse following her being robbed.

27:21: The Arpeggio of Blue Steel manga and spinoff will be on indefinite hiatus as their illustrator suffered an injury that’ll take time to heal; Eichiro Oda will go on a two-week hiatus due to his recent poor health.

30:15: Michie Kita, known for voicing Nello in A Dog of Flanders, passed away at 89; It was announced by Comic Fire this month that manga artist and Maniac Road creator Shinsuke Kurihashi died in September; and longtime art director of a number of anime series (the Gundam series being one of the many notable ones), Shigemi Ikeda, passed away at 69.

32:36: The two hosts then discuss the death of prolific horror manga artist Kazuo Umezu, who passed away October 28 at 88.

33:49: Seven Seas announced a couple of new titles on their usual Wonderful Wednesdays:

37:09: J-Novel Club made a couple announcements themselves on their live stream:

40:06: They also soft confirmed they’ve licensed the Bookworm spinoff involving Hannelore, but because this was mentioned before the Q&A portion there was no accompanying image to use, so Justin had to put the blindfold on while scouring the internet. Helen had thoughts about that!

42:25: We have another new imprint that’ll be publishing manga! In this case, Ink Pop will do that and release manhwa and webtoons. Their first two licenses are Umi Takase’s I Wanna Be Your Girl manga and Han Ryeo Yu & A Hyeon’s My Life as an Internet Novel manhwa; Tuttle has licensed a new manga that’s not an autobio; The manga before Cat + Gamer, Cat + Crazy, has been nabbed by Dark Horse.

46:30: GKIDS licensed Liz and the Blue Bird and A Silent Voice, which did prompt both hosts to remember Eleven Arts, who we have not heard from in a good while; AnimEigo will release Time of Eve, formerly released by Pied Piper many years ago, this December.

48:23: We finally learned why Tomorrow’s Joe was streaming for a limited time on TMS’ YouTube channel — because Crunchyroll is now streaming the anime series!; Crunchyroll also added the DAKAICHI the Movie in Spain to its service.

49:35: HIDIVE has added a few upcoming anime to its service, though one of the titles had Helen think back to a manga she had that was shrink-wrapped; Ninja Scroll has also been added to HIDIVE.

50:31: Episode 590 of One Piece, which was never shown anywhere else except in Japan, is now on Netflix. Of course, it’s not a normal episode when you have three different franchises involved!; thanks to Wildbrain, Canadians can watch Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Crystal on the Family Channel streaming service.

53:14: Donbei, udon noodles, and that iconic scene from When Supernatural Battles Became Commonplace in one ad? Yes, this really happened.

54:43: Can now officially say Horry County schools can no longer find Assassination Classroom in their library.

55:15: The long, long year for anyone involved in the Whisper Me a Love Song production is over. The final two episodes will air at the end of December. We’ll have to see how finished the last two episodes are though.

56:19: Ken Akamatsu continues to stick to politics, now getting into a new role as Parliamentary Vice-Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology and Parliamentary Vice-Minister for Reconstruction.

57:06: There’s two news items that Justin had no choice but to hit with the bruh — Kyoto Animation having to warn people about a website using their name, and someone stealing 1,630 copper roof plates at a shrine in Japan. What’s notable about this shrine? Demon Slayer fans are known to visit it!

1:00:07: Justin and Helen get into Escaflowne randomly trending on Twitter; Hikaru Tanaka’s Salaryman Yamasaki Shigeru manga is being adapted into a short anime on Tiktok; You too can now own Yoshiyuki Tomino’s wallet; and the impact of Sword Art Online is noted, as the series created many years ago reached November 7, 2024 in real life — that’s when Kirito cleared the game.

The post TheOASG Podcast Episode 209: Returns, Payments, and Exits appeared first on TheOASG.

0:00: Justin and Helen once again gather over the internet to talk about Fall anime season!…Ok, Justin will be talking about the rest of the Fall anime he wanted to try out — Helen’s stuck with manga, manhwa and J-Novel Club catchups, to name a few things — which includes accidentally watching Season 3 of Re:Zero, the long first episode and more instead of taking that break. Whoops!

26:34: The two hosts get into quite possibly one of the strangest, weirdest news stories to emerge in the last 5 years in the anime industry — Crunchyroll allegedly committing mail fraud? ADR Director and VA David Wald learned this was happening to him since 2019 (so basically at the Texas office in Funimation), and now we got an investigation going and many theories being made, which is mostly the two hosts wondering if this has happened to anyone else.

35:29: Tetsuya Chiba was honored with the Order of Culture award by the Japanese government, making him the first manga artist to receive the award; following the last podcast episode where the two hosts talked about voice actors in Japan speaking out against unauthorized generative AI, a new set of voice actors had a discussion about its use and what this means for the industry in general.

41:12: Since the World Series happened with Shohei Ohtani in it, a number of shows were affected in Japan in the last few weeks. This included One Piece, which is hilarious considering they did just announce the main series would be on hiatus, so them taking a week off was a little funny.

43:58: Bibliophile Princess went on hiatus for a bit, but now it’s slated to return this month; Yamada-kun at Lv999 is back, but it’ll be on an irregular schedule while Mashiro’s health continues to improve; and the shounen version of Hana to Yume has ended, it is no more.

46:50: The two hosts talk about two recent deaths in the anime industry — singer Noboru Kimura and background artist and art director Ryou Kouno — and what this means overall.

51:11: Seven Seas announced more titles on Wonderful Wednesdays, including two audiobooks that came out the following day:

55:23: Fantagraphics is back with a new Shintaro Kago title; Living the Line will be bringing over Taro Bonten’s Face Meat manga for its horror imprint Smudge; and Harpercollins is bringing over fantasy and romance manga digitally, though both hosts will wonder what version of Pet Shop of Horrors this publisher is gonna release.

1:00:16: BASTARD!! -Heavy Metal, Dark Fantasy- will be getting a home video release from Sentai, which means we have another title leaving Netflix jail.

1:02:32: These two items aren’t licenses, but K Manga finally expanding their regions and J-Novel Club launching their new BL imprint will be placed here regardless, especially since new titles will go to these in the near future.

1:05:49: For a limited time only, Tomorrow’s Joe is streaming on TMS’s official YouTube channel.

1:06:08: Crunchyroll added Haikyu!! The Dumpster Battle film to their service, finally added Gridman Universe to its service (with SSSS.DYNAZENON Grand Episode coming later), and will finally add Girls Band Cry to its service November 6; and if you’re a YouTube Primetime user, Crunchyroll will launch on that service before this year is over.

1:08:12: VIZ is releasing Uzumaki digitally; Look Back will stream on Amazon Prime video November 7th; and My Happy Marriage will have an OVA release on Netflix November 22 — timely for Japan since it’s Good Couple Day over there!

1:09:37: The Pokémon fast channel has finally launched on Pluto TV, which means a number of people with the service can watch a lot of different Pokémon anime on there.

1:10:44: It can be understood that sometimes things might take a while to get handled, but 6 years of back pay being owed to the Million Doll creator? Justin could not help but be incredulous about it!

1:13:25: The payment issues continue! Virginia Nitouhei did not draw a cover or provide bonus features for volume 19 of the Otherwordly Izakaya “Nobu” manga, which will be released in Japan in December, because they did not get their royalties. This then leads the two hosts to discuss what’s going on in the manga industry in general.

1:16:39: Cloud Hearts is apparently no more. If this name does not ring a bell, then they were part of the studio alongside Yokohama Animation Lab that was working on Whisper Me a Love Song. This is probably one of the many reasons the BDs got delayed to next year (though who knows when those last two episodes will air).

1:20:32: Apparently for one manga series, it got a bit too serious to pass one particular commentary as a real thing, which led to the author and Kodansha to apologize about it.

1:23:29: Let’s just say Oda’s having a bit too much fun now that there’s a One Piece app that can change some photos into Oda’s art style; The Gundam live-action film finally has a writer after 6 years; and one of the Kinnikuman creators lamented the lack of popularity for the recent anime series on MyAnimeList, but Justin is here to say it’s not the only anime tracking service it ranks low at; Helen talks about the rules that had to be implemented for Precure stage events in Japan, which also includes no cosplay by adults.

1:30:10: Finally, the last two weird news involves religion. Specifically, Saint Seiya and a wedding in Mexico and the Catholic Church creating an anime-themed mascot. This episode would end like this huh?

The post TheOASG Podcast Episode 208: It’s My Fault This Episode Was This Long Isn’t It? appeared first on TheOASG.

0:00: Justin and Helen immediately get into the news of the past few weeks, which involves a number of Japanese voice actors speaking out about an AI voice service using voices without authorization.

2:53: The two hosts then discuss CODA going after a number of piracy sites, which seems more extensive than usual!

4:33: TOHO’s plan is now being executed, as they now have acquired a 6% stake in Makoto Shinkai’s CoMix Wave Films and they’ve acquired GKIDS! Justin and Helen wonder what this all means, especially for the North American anime industry.

8:32: There will be much to talk about regarding announcements from New York Comic Con, but the two hosts first get into awards and honors that happened over there! Delicious in Dungeon won a Harvey Award for Best Manga, while the late Akira Toriyama was inducted into their Hall of Fame.

10:27: Normally if you see a hiatus/break for a manga it’ll probably be legit, but for Deadpool: Samurai and those creators, we’ll have to see if it’s legit! At least we do know One Piece is on a break, for at least the next few weeks; Battle in 5 Seconds, which is heading to its conclusion, will be on hiatus for a few reasons; and Toshinori Sogabe’s Yankee JK Kuzuhana-chan will go on hiatus due to poor health.

14:06: The two hosts discuss the current arc of One Piece taking a break until April, which gets Justin to again wonder just what the state of the anime industry is if this has to take a break for likely health and quality concerns.

17:07: Voice actor Tessho Genda is now back after three months due to health; Manga creator Uru Okabe revealed a real health scare on Twitter that was definitely life threatening, but they’re safe.

18:16: Kazuhiko Mido passed away at 62 due to esophageal cancer; Ocean Studios dub narrator Doc Harris passed away at 76; and Anime background artist, art director, and the GAKIproAstudio art studio’s board director Yukihiro Shibutani passed away at 63 last month.

19:22: Justin and Helen discuss the loss of Nobuyo Ōyama, who was the original voice of Doraemon, and the people who took time to send their condolences and how she’s impacted them in their career.

21:50: The two hosts jump right into the non-NYCC licenses over the past few weeks, this from Seven Seas: Tokyo Revengers: Brilliant Full Color Edition, Tokyo Revengers Series Guide, IDOL x IDOL STORY!, 10 Things I Want to Do Before I Turn 40, Natsume Wants to be Trained!, Virgin Marriage: A Maiden Voyage into Passion’s Embrace (Steamship), My New Boss is Goofy, BLACK BLOOD, The Long Summer of August 31, SEX DRIVE (Steamship), Fairy Cat; and then we have a Manga Planet announcement! It’s been a while.

24:27: The two then get into the licenses at the convention, which there was a lot:

38:02: Planetes and the latest Blue Lock film are now on Crunchyroll; meanwhile 4 more Macross anime have been added to Disney+…but these are still only in Canada! Helen just continues to be flabbergasted about its rollout.

39:08: Meanwhile, Netflix is slated to remove Glitter Force and Glitter Force Doki Doki from its service November 9, which only gets the two hosts to speculate on when the original versions will appear on Crunchyroll; they will also add Her Blue Sky to their service.

40:18: Finally, a late entry to the Fall anime streaming game, Haigakura will be available to watch on YouTube and Amazon Prime.

41:36: The two hosts discuss the Fall anime season, which is again so massive and has some interesting shows that they both still have a few more anime to watch! But a few highlights include Ranma 1/2, Nina the Starry Bride, Magilumiere, and Dragon Ball Daima amongst their watch list, with still more they want to try (Justin however is intimidated about catching up to Re:Zero Season 3 though).

1:35:05: We’ve seen things end for normal reasons in Japan, but an Iruma-kun spinoff ending due to YouTuber reorganization issues? That’s crazy.

1:37:05: Let’s just say someone found out what happens when the Ranking of Kings creator discovers your tweet about calling him a pedo and a right-winger, and yeah it involves lawyers.

1:40:16: What happens when your voice actors from a show in 2019 become much more popular by 2024? You get Demon Lord, Retry! R, which, while the creator explains that scheduling conflicts were one of the reasons there was recasts across the board, money is more likely to have been the reason they could only get the main lead’s role back. Ranma 1/2 capital? Demon Lord, Retry! R definitely does not have that!

1:43:47: Kodansha’s Young Magazine announced as part of their 45th anniversary campaign that they will publish a US edition in the summer, which seems interesting, but Helen’s a little skeptical!

1:44:33: And finally, growing up Gonzo was a name everyone knew, but time has not been kind to them, and they’ve now resorted to working on something very cursed.

The post TheOASG Podcast Episode 207: Them’s The Anime Breaks appeared first on TheOASG.

0:00: In this combined episode of TheOASG Podcast, Justin and Helen get right into the news of the past couple weeks, which does include why this is a double episode and includes the two discussing anime leaks after Aniplex and TOHO successfully filed for an information disclosure order in US courts for the identities of alleged leak accounts.

4:12: As mentioned a few months ago once Square Enix themselves commented on it but now confirmed by the manga artist Nekokurage, The Apothecary Diaries manga will continue — both hosts discuss what should wrap this tax business up for the foreseeable future.

5:11: Ryota Suzuki will replace Toru Furuya as Yamcha in the upcoming Dragon Ball Daima anime, which should now close the book on what is an inglorious end to what was a distinguished career.

6:35: Small Press Expo awarded Nazuna Saito’s Offshore Lightning the prize for Outstanding Collection in its 2024 Ignatz Awards, so someone will be getting a brick sent to them soon; Glacier Bay Books’ Kickstarter campaign for a few Arata Imai works have been successful.

8:48: It’s likely only those in Japan who will be saddened by Nobuhiro Watsuki still being on hiatus for the newest Kenshin manga due to poor health; Dance Dance Danseur has resumed following George Asakura’s surgery; And Saika Fushimi, who has been battling cancer, is aiming to return resuming the manga adaptation of The Magician Who Rose From Failure as she continues to recuperate.

11:11: Production issues will force I See Your Face, Turned Away to go on hiatus; The Days of Diamond manga series will have its hiatus extended, but for an interesting reason; and due to Yuto Suzuki’s health the Sakamoto Days manga will be on break until the next issue of Shonen Jump; voice actor Toshiyuki Manabe sadly passed away at 32 due to heart failure.

13:37: Helen touches on the sudden passing of Nicholas Dupree, who wrote for ANN and someone she knew for a good while online.

16:35: Justin and Helen then discuss the death of voice actress Emi Shinohara, who was undergoing medical treatment for an unspecified illness, but the treatment did not prove effective. Many said their condolences online and in various statements, which showcases the impact she had in the anime world.

18:54: Seven Seas and Wonderful Wednesdays are back! Which means more new things are coming in 2025:

23:22: VIZ had their usual licensing announcements event on their socials:

27:55: J-Novel Club announced at their industry announcements Twitch stream the following titles:

35:16: Animate International had their Licensing Panel event and nabbed the following BL titles:

37:31: TOKYOPOP has licensed the following titles:

38:53: One Peace Books licensed the following titles:

39:25: As expected, Yen Press will be releasing the latest volume of Haruhi Suzumiya; Star Fruit books announced a few new titles; Shinichi Koga’s Mansect manga will be brought over by Living the Line; and Kodansha’s lone digital release for October is of course fitting for the month.

41:30: AnimEigo announced during their town hall stream that they have licensed Nasu: Summer in Andalusia, which means it’ll see a home media release in 2025.

42:59: Crunchyroll will be putting the two compilation Bocchi the Rock! films in theaters in select regions this October; 11 Macross anime are now available on Disney+, but in Canada; and company Spin Master confirmed to ANN that they’re streaming the PuniRunes anime on YouTube. This gets Helen however to wonder what the name for this one actually reminded her of.

45:09: Justin and Helen discuss a relatively tame Summer Anime season, which had a few standouts (Elusive Samurai, Too Many Losing Heroines, Oshi no Ko Season 2) and not much else. There were some solid shows (Alya Sometimes Hides Her Feelings in Russian, The Magical Girl and the Evil Lieutenant Used to Be Archenemies), but others had some issues…some more than others (Narenare, Quality Assurance in Another World). There is one show that surprised both hosts, and along the way the quality of Dahlia in Bloom and Reincarnated as a Slime’s 3rd Season was (somewhat) debated!

1:38:30: You know that episode of Oshi no Ko this summer season where you have a creator/company miscommunication? Something around that level happened to Suzu Enoshima’s Endo and Kobayashi Live! series, where numerous issues behind the scenes led to the eventual cancellation of the manga adaptation drawn by Rumiko Sakaki. The two hosts get into what by all accounts is a very revealing statement by the B-LOG staff.

1:42:39: Assassination Classroom is very familiar with library ban threats, so a South Carolina library planning to ban it too is nothing new for this manga. Justin and Helen discuss this latest library situation.

1:46:06: There was major issues with the subtitles for Dead Dead Demon’s Dededede Destruction for the first couple episodes, and while they have been fixed, the closed captions studio responsible for the English dub subs had to state they were not involved in the creation of the Japanese subtitles.

1:49:29: K MANGA has announced they’ve expanded their region! But to Japan. Both hosts are confused as to why though.

The post TheOASG Podcast Episode 205 + 206: Podcast Twice Upon a Time appeared first on TheOASG.

0:00: Justin and Helen once again choose to talk about what they’ve been up to and share this with the internet! Though for Helen, it just means finally finishing a spring season show (Sound Euphonium Season 3). For Justin, this means somewhat surface level explaining This Magic In This Other World’s Too Far Behind! when the light novel itself just returned after being on hiatus for years!

9:56: emaqi (the manga store) and Orange Inc.’s attempting to make a name for themselves now that they have a few Japanese publishers investing in their localization services, including Shueisha. The two hosts explain that as long as they stick to maintaining their A.I. assisted stance despite having a team of 20 in-house translators, this is likely not going to last very well!

15:24: The two hosts discuss a Kickstarter going wrong — mostly because, following the Rightstuf/Crunchyroll merger, there’s been many questions regarding some of Nozomi’s projects. One of them was Dirty Pair, and after much internet bullying a number of people commented about the situation, Crunchyroll finally released a statement about it.

16:45: There is some crowdfunding at least going well so far — AnimEigo’s Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign for its Blu-ray Disc release of the The Dagger of Kamui reached its goal on Day 1, and so has the overseas edition independent yuri magazine Galette, which ended up exceeding its initial goal. Both hosts discuss those two for a bit.

18:33: And lest you think Justin would forget to cover this, Whisper Me a Love Song’s BD releases in Japan were planned for the Fall 2024 window, but now they’ve been delayed to Winter 2025. That’s a four-month delay. As Yokohama Animation Lab still has a number of projects that are currently up in the air (Tsuyokute New Saga) or already delayed (Sword of the Demon Hunter), it’s just not good…and is this a good time to remind everyone the last two episodes of Love Song have not aired yet?

21:18: Kozue Kato will be taking a hiatus from Blue Exorcist after a health check up revealed she had a specific illness, with an expected return in the December issue of Jump Square; There’s enough going on in Jiro Sugiura’s life that he could no longer focus on his manga (My Wife Has No Emotion), so he’ll be on hiatus for some time; and World’s End Harem: Fantasia, which just returned from a break, is now going back on break for an unspecified reason.

24:58: After a health scare earlier this year, voice actress Yui Ninomiya is gradually resuming activities; meanwhile, anime industry veteran Jan Scott-Frazier needs assistance moving into assisted living, and launched a GoFundMe, explaining her situation; and then the two hosts discuss the passing of Saki Aida, the creator of BL novels S, Deadlock, and the recently licensed Bowing to Love: The Noble and the Gladiator.

28:45: We’ll once again be getting a new volume of Haruhi Suzumiya (after 4 years), which gets the hosts discussing just exactly how popular this series is in 2024.

30:58: Cross Infinite World has seemed a bit quiet recently, but they’re back in some force now, nabbing 4 new light novels:

32:16: Star Fruit Books acquired the rights to a one-shot, Itodome’s Good Morning on the Planet of Flowers. This will see a release in both print and digital format.

33:47: Hulu’s streaming Murai in Love now, unofficially kicking off the Fall anime season slate; Justin and Helen then discuss Magilumiere Co. Ltd apparently being streamed on Amazon Prime, which is possibly not a good thing!

38:17: Justin and Helen discuss Crunchyroll apparently becoming the official legal streaming hub for the Precure franchise, as now they’ve added Splash Star and Max Heart to their service. Helen now kind of wonders what will be next, while Justin’s pondering if Crunchyroll will start adding Precure’s every week at this rate.

40:58: Crunchyroll has also added the Spy x Family: Code White film to their service; meanwhile, WildBrain and Pokémon is now a thing!

42:21: The two hosts had no choice to but to kick off this weird news section with the nonsense happening at a Florida library, where Sasaki & Miyano’s first volume was banned for some of the strangest (also stupid) reasons. And their logic on what to replace it was not very good either.

49:23: Rumiwo Sakaki and KADOKAWA’s B-LOG COMIC digital staff have much to explain regarding the abrupt cancellation of the Endo and Kobayashi Live! manga, since they sold its recent volume knowing that it would be cancelled but did not share this with their readers for some reason. Justin and Helen have to speculate what went wrong since B-LOG COMIC admitted that their lack of editing skill is what led to this — did it diverge so much from the light novel series?

53:28: More anime stuff invading sports! Naomi Osaka competed in the US Open, and donned a couple of magical girl inspired outfits because she could, while a few baseball clubs had some One Piece and Naruto giveaways over the summer.

57:37: When you’re as popular as Umamusume is, which they are in Japan, lots of opportunities come about. Which leads into a collaboration with horse girls chowing down on KFC. And discovering that somehow, some way, the anime staff has to sneak Colonel Golshi into one of their episodes…

The post TheOASG Podcast Episode 204: Some Truly Odd Ones Out There appeared first on TheOASG.

0:00: Justin and Helen get into what they’ve been up to over the past few weeks, which involves Helen trying out KMANGA (and having MUCH fun with the app) while Justin…talks about his Anime NYC 2024 experience, but this time in August!

15:55: Justin and Helen get into the many announcements at this year’s Anime NYC (and we mean many):

48:09: Offshore Lightning was nominated for the 2024 Ignatz Award; meanwhile the 1st American Manga Awards occurred during ANYC week, and it saw winners for a few things!

Hiatuses, Injuries, and Obituaries

50:55: Yoshihiro Togashi’s Hunter x Hunter will resume in WSJ October 7; How Heavy Are the Dumbbells You Lift? has resumed after a lengthy hiatus; Shaman King: The Super Star just recently resumed; LEED Publishing’s Comic Ran Twins magazine revealed last Friday that Kamuya Ride will move from Comic Ran Twins magazine manga to Comic Border manga on September 13.

52:05: Blue Box will go on a 1-issue break (and not a break this past issue) while Blue Lock also will be going on an 1-issue break, this however was revealed it was due to Yusuke Nomura’s sudden illness that was the reason; and the creator of Hare Tokidoki Buta, Shiro Yamada, passed away at 80.

53:47: The two hosts then discuss the passing of Atsuko Tanaka, who had an unspecified illness for a year. Many expressed their condolences all over, and how she was able to impact them over the years.

55:52: Media Blasters will be releasing the live-action Hentai Kamen in September; Dark Horse will continue releasing the continuations of Berserk with Kouji Mori and Studio Gaga in Spring 2025; The author of Land, Kazumi Yamashita, announced it would be getting an English release; and Antarctic Press will be releasing a Toshio Maeda work real soon!

58:50: Case Closed: The Bride of Halloween premiered at Anime NYC, and now both the sub and dub can be watched on digital outlets; Justin and Helen attempt to figure out the rights situation since Ghibli title Grave of the Fireflies is going to be added on Netflix…and not Max…; and The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim got a trailer and its planned to come out in Winter, but Helen’s wondering why it’s coming later for the US.

1:01:38: GKIDS will be doing a few screenings in the near future, starting with Look Back — which they also have the home media rights for — then The Colors Within and Ghost Cat Anzu.

1:02:26: Helen can’t help but react at being able to possibly own Do You Remember Love in physical home media before any other Macross series. Because licensing is so bizarre.

1:06:06: After some time and lots of yelling about it, the two Rascal Does Not TV anime and film will finally have an English dub — this after not dubbing both when they came out, and after they mistakenly had the dub listed in their BD release — only for it to not have a dub!

1:08:13: Ranma 1/2 used to name a new species? Yep, that’s exactly happened, and there’s a very good reason why.

1:10:00: And finally, Kasshoku Musume no Latina-san ni Ore no Karada ga Nerawarteiru is just a new light novel that’s getting ready to come out in Japan, but wow did this escalate — from its rough translation by Manga Mogura to then tweets trying to clarify who Latina is, to the author revealing how he came up with Latina as the name for the character…this went places!

The post TheOASG Podcast Episode 203: Anime NYC Talk, But in August! appeared first on TheOASG.