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

0:00: Justin and Helen once again spend some time over the internet talking about what they’ve been up to over the past two weeks, which may or may not involve some reading manga (A Kingdom of Quartz) and watching anime (BanG Dream! It’s MyGO!!!!!) for these two.

7:34: A number of hiatuses/breaks have been announced over the past week, starting with Dragon Ball Super going on an indefinite hiatus; Then on the heels of that, One Piece will go on a three-week break starting in April.

9:41: Frieren is going on a month hiatus, while Gushing Over Magical Girls is going on hiatus due to Akihiro Ononaka’s poor health.

10:40: ‘Tales of’ RPG series artist Mutsumi Inomata passed away suddenly at 63. The two hosts reflect on the character designer for that franchise and involvement in anime such as Acrobunch and Brain Powerd.

12:27: Justin and Helen then discuss the news that manga creator Motoyuki Asai and his wife, fellow manga creator duo Yuu Asai, were involved in a serious traffic accident. This has left Yuu dead and Motoyuki hospitalized for the foreseeable future.

13:40: TOKYOPOP finally took the time to announce they’ve licensed the following on their social media account:

16:03: Titan Manga once again had a few more exclusive announcements on ANN, one of which includes a new Hajime Segawa title!

16:34: Yen Audio will be producing an audiobook of Alya Sometimes Hides Her Feelings in Russian; Inio Asano’s Mujina Into the Deep has been added to VIZ Manga, while Yasuki Tanaka’s GHOST FIXERS & Kou Tosaya’s GOZE HOTARU has been added to MANGA Plus; and Fantagraphics is finally going to reprint Moto Hagio’s The Heart of Thomas, which is good for those who’ve wanted it for years!

18:38: Seven Seas’ Wonderful Wednesday announcements keep rolling on, showing no signs of stopping anytime soon:

20:38: Justin and Helen then discuss the news of GKIDS licensing four Mamoru Hosoda films. While discussing what this means overall since a few of these Hosoda titles (Wolf Children, The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, The Boy and the Beast) are still streaming on Crunchyroll, this somehow leads to a reveal about Summer Wars from Helen that left Justin in despair in real time.

26:08: The Boy and the Heron will stream exclusively on Max, this coming on top of Max extending its deal with Studio Ghibli.

26:55: Mission: Yozakura Family will be streaming on Hulu, which means we’ll have to see if it can gain any traction or will it suffer the same fate of works such as Heavenly Delusion and Undead Unluck!

28:44: Dandadan will stream not only on Crunchyroll, but also on Netflix — the hype campaign for one of Fall 2024’s biggest titles is now underway!

29:05: To close out the streaming news of this week’s episode, most of Macross will stream on Disney+. Helen could not be more surprised and flabbergasted.

32:48: Lots of anime were announced at AnimeJapan this past weekend, but a Baki Hanma x Kengan Ashura crossover at least caught Justin’s attention for weird news, due to the fact that there’s not too many anime crossovers out there!

35:48: The Boy and the Heron English dub was in Japanese theaters March 20. Justin and Helen had to at least talk about how unusual that is.

37:01: A couple episodes were finally found for Astro Boy, and this streamed in Japan a few weeks ago. Not so lost anymore!

39:22: There’s an 18K Gold Godzilla figure that someone really into the franchise could buy for 3.3 Million Yen. Justin recommends no!

41:07: Netflix announcing dates for their Rising Impact anime is cool and nice to know. But let’s just say seeing Netflix have Season 1 and Season 2 for an anime coming out in a two month window drove Justin momentarily insane.

43:00: And finally, Animate Ikebukuro has finally gotten the Guinness World Record seal of approval as the largest anime store. None of the hosts are surprised.

The post TheOASG Podcast Episode 192: Of All The Companies… appeared first on TheOASG.

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.

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.

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:

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.

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.

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!

The post TheOASG Podcast Episode 191: Reflecting on Akira Toriyama appeared first on TheOASG.

0:00: Justin and Helen once again discuss things that have happened in the anime and manga universe in the past few weeks over the internet. Sorta. This somehow got into video game playing and why Justin won’t play games other than Fire Emblem.

8:55: One of the longest running anime conventions won’t be happening this year it seems. A-Kon announced they’re postponing this year’s convention due to many factors, which includes the effects of COVID-19 causing unexpected challenges along A-Kon’s unique challenges in running it in Texas.

10:53: After a lengthy hiatus, Ruri Dragon will return, which means Helen has to express her happiness at its upcoming return; Booty Royale is also coming back from hiatus, and both hosts can only guess Rui Takato’s home situation is much better now that the series can resume; and My Special One will also come off hiatus and resume serialization in the summer.

13:47: Alya Sometimes Hides Her Feelings in Russian will not be airing this Spring anime season, as its been pushed to the Summer anime season to, from the anime website, “make the work more enjoyable for everyone”. Justin however comes up with his own silly theory as to the delay.

15:11: The Ms. Koizumi loves ramen noodles manga ended publication in Takeshobo’s Storia Dash website, but the manga itself didn’t actually end. Justin and Helen discuss what could’ve led Naru Narumi to make this decision.

16:36: The fates of all the manga remaining in the now cancelled Monthly Action magazine have been revealed, which will have some of its top titles (Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid, Tsugumono to name a few) move to its sister magazine Manga Action, the Dragon Maid Spinoffs move to Web Action, and everything else also move to Web Action.

18:51: Wakayama Police arrested your name. producer Kouichirou Itou for allegedly soliciting a 15-year old high school for nude pictures of herself. Needless to say, in reading the charges and statements in the article, both hosts just wonder what is wrong with this guy.

20:54: Justin and Helen discuss NTV finally releasing a statement on the death of Sexy Tanaka-san and Sand Chronicles creator Hinako Ashihara and whether the company will be able to uncover anything new about this.

22:03: The first North American Anime Club creator has passed away — Justin and Helen discuss Mark Merlino and his contributions to the anime fandom.

23:18: Misaki Takamatsu, Monthly Afternoon Editorial, and the Skip & Loafer anime production committee is contributing to the relief fund for Noto Peninsula in Ishikawa Prefecture as they continue to deal with the after effects of the earthquake on New Year’s Day — this also included a YouTube charity stream as well.

25:11: Justin and Helen had to begin the licensing section by discussing Kodansha announcing something historic: Ashita no Joe (Ashita no Joe: Fighting for Tomorrow) will see a deluxe English release starting in December.

27:13: Justin then talks briefly about the one Kodansha digital announcement that’s up on digital platforms: Shikiso Utsuzawa, Mokuba Matsu, & Pukyunosuke’s Because I, the True Saint, was Banished, that Country is Done For!

27:55: Yen Press had a bunch of announcements this past Friday:

30:48: Square Enix didn’t have as many, but they too joined in on the announcement party week:

31:38: SuBLime made the following Boys Love announcements on Valentine’s Day:

32:11: Seven Seas also had some announcements on Valentine’s Day, so it’s totally themed and everything:

33:04: Titan Manga announced exclusively on ANN that they’ve licensed Ameko Kaeruda & Yorifuji’s The Elegant Courtly Life of the Tea Witch series.

33:38: BookWalker Global announced they’re releasing Kori Hisakawa & Iroto Tsumugi’s To Sir, Without Love: I’m Divorcing You on their service, then on other platforms in three months.

35:10: Star Fruit Books announced they’ve licensed Taro Kanafuro’s Suburban Hell and Stephan Lapin & Naoto Tsushima’s Handyman Quincy, both slated for a summer release.

35:28: Justin Sevakis’ video production company MediaOCD acquired AnimEigo, which is news that did not immediately fill Helen with dread!

37:51: Unlikely Helen and Justin will attempt to go, but for those interested, The End of Evangelion will be in US theaters March 17 & 20.

38:44: Aniplex will release the Rascal Does Not Dream of a Sister Venturing Out and Rascal Does Not Dream of a Knapsack Kid films in both sub and dub in March. Yes, there will be a dub for the films, which does make you wonder why when they didn’t dub the TV show or the first movie.

40:19: Crunchyroll added Marginal Prince & Season 2 of Gunma-chan to its service; Tubi TV added two Anpanman films, Legend of the Millennium Dragon, Paprika, The Sky Crawlers, & Tokyo Godfathers; and finally, Disney+ is back, and maybe their partnership with Kodansha too if their two Spring pickups mean anything!

43:34: Helen has her conspiracy theory on why McDonald is doing this anime promotion of WcDonalds now, and while Justin agrees, this only made him think back to that promo involving Sadao Maou and a bunch of movie/TV shows that featured their version of McDonalds and figure he really should’ve seen this coming.

45:27: In 2024, it is time to experience a new way of learning about the Bible with ASMR, for some reason!

46:11: Yes, if you thought the whole Crunchyroll lawsuit where they sold your information and you got a seemingly spammy looking email that said you could put in a claim to get money was going to be the only time this would happen to you, you’d be wrong, since AMC is involved in the same thing, and this means this involves HIDIVE, so you likely got an email about this!

The post TheOASG Podcast Episode 190: Well, It Was Normal Until The Last Week! appeared first on TheOASG.

0:00: Justin and Helen talk about what they’ve been up to over the past two weeks on Super Bowl Sunday! (The Superb Owl talk comes much later though, which is very brief). You’ll note a certain someone attempting to talk about their backlog (and Baby Bear’s Bakery) while one person is talking about Katsucon preparations. You can likely figure out who’s talking about who from that!

7:36: After much time, Funimation is finally going to cease its app service April 2. Justin and Helen talk about how long it’s taken to do this, their (lack of) optimism of shows on Funimation going to Crunchyroll in time (Slayers is one of them!) and a bit more about one of the long time anime companies saying goodbye.

14:18: Last year the leaks got a bit more out of control, maybe a bit more than usual. It seems that was a breaking point, as a few foreigners were arrested for posting magazine images well before the print magazine publication of Weekly Shonen Jump. The two hosts get into its effectiveness so far and if this will affect things moving forward.

17:24: The Trigun Deluxe Edition was announced by Dark Horse last year, but after it missed its two publication dates, they had to announce that it has now being moved to a Fall 2024 release window. This gets Justin talking about Penguin Random House somehow. (And also acknowledging the other delays for Dark Horse at the same time!)

19:48: Quality Assurance in Another World is not going to air this Spring; My Hero Academia had a sudden break due to Horikoshi’s illness, so the two hosts hope he’ll be rested and be healthy in his return;

20:44: The World of Narue creator Tomohiro Marukawa passed away due to ischemic heart disease at 53 years old, which gets Justin to briefly recall his experience with the anime…and in picking up the Japanese manga ages ago.

22:10: The two hosts discuss the death of Hinako Ashihara, who was found dead in an apparent suicide. A number of stories have come out since this, and many questions will have to be asked and answered over the next few weeks to months to prevent this from happening again.

24:37: Justin and Helen basically have concluded that VIZ decided to announce everything new they’re releasing for the entire year in this latest licensing announcement event. But (aside from the digital exclusives), the titles announced have been planned for Fall 2024:

33:51: Shiro Moriya’s Astro Baby got added to Shonen Jump & MANGA Plus, while Mari Yamazaki’s Thermae Romae redux was added to MANGA Plus; this got Helen to muse about how these creators have their prior titles published by companies not named VIZ.

34:51: Seven Seas’ Wonderful Wednesdays continue on with new licenses on Wednesdays:

35:57: Not surprising news: PANDANIA’s Cthulhu Cat has been licensed. It’s that Seven Seas didn’t license it is the major shocker, despite Dark Horse also being a publisher of cats.

37:51: And in final bit of licensing news, Kodansha continues their English-first program, now publishing Yoshinori Matsuoka’s Re:Anima ahead of Japan.

39:31: See Anya go on an outing in theaters in April, as the Spy x Family movie will be in North America in April; Kimi ni Todoke, a 2009 show, now has an English dub. After that long, the first two seasons now have English voices. They’re hoping people will get refreshed and revisit the series in this way before the third season airs sometime in 2024.

41:50: AnimeNEXT has been cancelled this year, which seems fitting considering what happened last year.

44:05: While the actual Pokémon Trading Card story involving a couple of thieves who got caught on camera stealing worthless cards is weird, ANN’s caption for this really made it double the weird (in hilarity).

45:50: Sasaki and Peeps has lots of things happening in its premise, so the studio making sure to go all in to have as many Sasaki voice actors act in minor roles is commendable for sure.

47:28: Finally, Helen and Justin attempt to puzzle out the levels of hackception that took place on the Ghost in the Shell sites February 3, where there was hacking in honor of the laughing man, and an actual hack???

The post TheOASG Podcast Episode 189: They Really Had To License That Many Titles, Huh? appeared first on TheOASG.