#Toonami Speech

[natsujutsu]

Toonami:

Brains Vs. Brawn

[hells-mansion]

I feel like a lot of people could use a motivational slap and speech from Tanjiro Myself included

[mrawkweird]

Toonami said we only getting the One Piece half and then gave the speech about how money doesn’t grow on trees even though it technically does.

[brightlotusmoon]

Toonami - Black Lives Matter Speech (HD 1080p)

[casliveblog]

Custom Toonami Block Week 173 Rundown

The Witch from Mercury: Okay so I have a notoriously hard time of comprehending Gundam plots so if I get anything wrong… that’s just how it’ll have to be. So it’s the old chesnut Gundam franchise have been milking for forty years now… Earth vs Space, like seriously I haven’t even seen all the Gundam serieses and I am SO sick of setup and everyone philosophizing about how going into space gives people superpowers and shit like can Gundam as a series think of anything else to do? But yeah apparently in this verse they originally were making prosthetics for people that had muscle dystrophy and shit from being in space and then as someone always does they went ‘cool but what if we did WAR with it?’ and now regular mobile suits and Gundams are just quietly being built in the background even though no official war is going on and the Gundams make people fucking die from a combination of information overload similar to the Zero System in Wing and that shit in Pacific Rim that made it so you needed two people to coordinate motor functions of a huge robot. Enter Eri, tiny girl with a mysterious connection to the big Barbie Gundam being built by her parents who are definitely not surviving this episode. It’s her birthday because this backstory is REALLY gonna kick her in the metaphorical nuts and the Space People have decided ‘Gundams kill their own guys, I’M supposed to kill their guys, that’s not fair bro’ which, A+ politicianing, no notes, I’m sure that’d go over well with a CEO just shouting about how he wants to kill people on the battlefield before they can nobly sacrifice themselves and that’s why he has to shutdown the big superweapons will go over great, like anime politicians can just get away with saying the wildest shit while real politicians come under fire if you don’t say the word god enough in a speech. But yeah instead of just shutting them down and destroying their research they just fucking come out swinging and do a full Space Colony ARK and murder everyone in the station (I think these guys were Earth-Alligned despite being in a space station idk this is why I have a hard time keeping track of this shit) like I feel like that was overkill and just PR nosedive for no reason but Eri needs a tragic backstory. Like is there functionally any reason they had to go murder everyone instead of just going ‘your shit’s illegal now, hand over your research OR will kill you’ instead of going ‘hand over your shit AND we’ll kill you’? Like I guess they’re doing a scorched earth approach and wanting to make sure and are prolly gonna say the unarmed scientists resisted to a level that required lethal force but that really seemed unnecessary, like you probably could’ve tied that up in courts and had them hand over all their shit instead of murder. While all this is going on Eri’s in the Barbie Gundam and surprise surprise she can get it to work when no one else can, her dad and the random technician lesbian take out the non-Barbie gundams and murder everyone except for the angsty pretty boy in the obligatory regal-looking suit that’s fancier than normal but technically not a gundam to get around plot shit while Eri and her mom get away in the Barbie Gundam which I’m honestly kind of surprised Eri’s mom gets to live I was expecting a full familial wipe from a backstory going this hard on the trauma and eerie innocence of its main character.

Inuyasha The Final Act: After the events with Moryomaru, Koga’s joined the group and Shippo notes how it changes the dynamic now that he’s actively stoking the Inuyasha/Kikyo/Kagome love triangle and Shippo doesn’t like it but I kinda do, it’s kinda funny to have a party member that isn’t super friendly with the others. Meanwhile Naraku reabsorbs Onigumo’s heart, theorizing that if he can’t directly kill Kikyo without it, he can use the overt shittiness of humanity to corrupt the purifying light she puts into Kohaku’s shard to try and purify him. So that gives him the ability to shoot spiderwebs of bad vibes at people to corrupt them mentally since I guess Onigumo’s fine with mindbreaking Kikyo even if he can’t overtly kill her. Kikyo’s absorbed Miroku’s miasma and give her own was never fully healed she’s like 75% poison at this point and basically half dead so she has to ditch Kohaku so he doesn’t get corrupted, luckily Sesshomaru takes over the Kohaku Babysitting duties for the time being. Meanwhile Kagome is once again the only one who can save Kikyo and we have to play the song and dance of ‘does Kagome want Kikyo to literally die for a love triangle?’ again even though we’ve established time and time again the answer is fucking no, though this time we have Naraku actively pumping bad vibes into her to at least give her doubts while she goes to get the only bow that can purify Kikyo. This part’s kinda trippy since we see a bunch of illusions of Kikyo and Inuyasha and they keep going ‘no it’s real this time’ like an episode of Rick and Morty until we show that Kikyo and Inuyasha are still outside the shrine so absolutely none of it was real. Kagome has to AGAIN reject the idea of wanting her romantic rival to literally die though this time coming out on the side of her and Kikyo being equals because she’s sick of feeling like a Johnny come lately trying to vault over the First Girl and has a whole series of character development to relate to Inuyasha with so that’s a nice little moment of her in-universe being sick of the fucking endless tests of her heart, like Kagome’s fundamentally a good girl and yeah constantly getting asked this question has gotta be grating when it’s something she barely ever thought about.

Castlevania: We get Hector’s backstory now so we have all the pieces on the humans Dracula’s recruited while Carmilla’s still stirring the shit trying to get someone to go after the Belmont house and I’m still not entirely sure if she’s the one that will cause infighting that will ruin the bad guys’ plans or if she’s the more dangerous villain ready to take over for the more sympathetic Dracula The Rock style. Meanwhile Trevor’s group do come across the Belmon treasure trove and it is kinda sweet to see him reminisce over his childhood and family legacy despite how much he seemed to disown them in season 1. He gets a cool new weapon and Sypha gets to read books and shit but Alucard’s basically walking through the vampire version of the holocaust museum so he’s more than a little freaked out. Back at Castle Castlevania Godbrand’s a bit concerned that human genocide is kinda like cow genocide in that it makes everything kinda shitty on the food chain and Dracula just wants to be done with humanity. Their interaction cues us that Dracula’s actually kinda pulling a better-explained Raizen from YYH and slowly starving despite still being ridiculously powerful and may be plotting to let vampires die out with humans so everything’s just a quiet empty void (like I think vampires can still survive without humans but it’s a lot less pleasant so idk if a vampire genocide is really in the cards but it’s not something people are clamoring for). Still Carmilla’s just here to play the Starscream and take things over so I guess get ready for Carmillavania in Season 3.  

Jujutsu Kaisen: So turns out Megumi’s technique is like Pokemon and you have to fight the big monsters before you get to capture them and send them out for you and getting help means you don’t get the capture but you do get to try again if you need to and there’s a super secret legendary pokemon that no one’s every caught before and actually killed a Gojo-level guy in the past, though it obviously kills the person summoning it first. So much for Megumi being all ‘I’m not throwing my life away’ a few episodes ago because his first response to being attacked by a C-tier asshole is summoning the Ultra Necrozma nuke. I assume this is the technique that he’s been talking about all those times we’ve gone ‘oh he’s gonna do a big attack’ except probably the time against Todo because that wouldn’t make any sense but given the mass carnage here I’m kinda glad he didn’t pull it out until now because it definitely would’ve murdered a fuckton of people in the process. Sukuna steps in because Megumi doesn’t technically die until hand-hold guy dies so as long as he’s able to keep them alive while fighting Ultra Necrozma here everything’s cool. The rest of the episode is basically just a ridiculous slugfest between Sukuna and Ultra Necrozma because this guy’s like Amazo from Justice League and adapts to any and all attacks so the only way to beat it is to obliterate it on an atomic level with something it’s never seen before. Realizing and implying there is something sneaky about his ‘cut anything forever’ attack, Sukuna uses his Domain which is basically like sticking something in a blender combined with that glitch in OoT that’s just infinite sword swings and for good measure hits it with the fire arrow thing from last time to make sure it can’t regenerate. The end result basically turns Shibuya into Made in Abyss with a giant fuckoff hole in the center. He gets Megumi to safety and kills hand-holding guy FINALLY and then he just hands consciousness off back to Yuji who now remembers EVERYTHING from the past three episodes or so all at once and gets flashes of the hundreds of thousands of deaths his body is responsible for. So… yeah, that’s rough buddy.

Delicious in Dungeon: Just getting this out of the way but this is another of those ‘have you ever played an RPG before?’ anime that is ridiculously video gameified and kind of relies on all the tropes you already know about games for its worldbuilding and like luckily it’s charming enough on its own to not have that wreck the show for me but the over-reliance on making every fantasy setting a video game is REALLY a pet peeve of mine. But yeah, this series is rather silly, Laios’s sister Falin gets eaten by a dragon and there’s a medium-level urgency to get her back before she’s digested. Like the stakes are really confusing because several characters make it very clear how important getting her back is but part of the comedy seems to be how they’re not in a huge hurry and stop for food every five minutes, plus it’s not entirely clear if this is one of those video game fantasy settings that has no consequences for dying since they seem kind of chill about finding corpses and Marcille refers to a life-threatening situation being her ‘first time’ dying despite there being graveyards and shit so this is the kind of shit that really bugs me about video game-style fantasy worlds and I assume it’ll get explained later but it gets under my skin. Still the whole thing basically turns into a Food Wars episode as Laios is very passionate about monsters like in a Garou-level sense of just being hyperfixated but also has no idea how to go through the manual skill needed to actually cook them which is strange given he seemed to be kind of looking for an excuse to do this for years. Still, luckily they find Senshi, a guy whose whole deal is having already done this for years and basically treats it like a Martha Stewart show and it’s pretty funny watching them meet halfway between Food Wars and Toriko. Like there’s not much more to it than that, they make some scorpion soup and some vegetable tart and Marcille gets an obligatory tentacle scene though it’s not protracted and doesn’t have any fanservice shots so I get the feeling it was just something to fuel fanart as opposed to actually showing anything which is an interesting way to take things, let the R34 machine run itself without having to dirty their own hands. It’s fun, the setting is one of my least favorite things about modern anime and the tone is kind of confusing but I’m sure that’ll even out with time, I am enjoying it thus far.

Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End: The first bit of the episode is a little adventure developing the new group dynamic now that Stark has joined and Fern isn’t really sure what to do with him. Frieren gets to meet some more of the people touched by her adventure and the far-reaching festivals made in honor of their deeds. The real meat of the episode is in the second part though and we get some really good stuff here. The group enters a new town when Frieren senses demons and goes into attack mode, but turns out these demons wear clothes and shit and are all fancy and the like, being ambassadors to try peace talks with the village. Since Frieren just attacked a foreign ambassador they throw her right the fuck in jail and Fern gives her the scoop that one of the Demon King’s generals took over after he died and is now leading the charge but the ambassadors have decided that peace may be an option. Frieren is ridiculously racist against demons but also kinda describes how they kinda deserve it by telling a story of a demon girl that was trusted by a community only to murder more people and only using sympathetic words to save herself from attacks. Or at least that’s how Frieren sees things, the real story is the girl was taken in by the town and still hated for the people she had previously killed so in a truly utilitarian sense she stole a replacement child for the one she’d murdered just to get their racist asses off her backs and the evil Frieren sees in her is an ignorance of emotion, someone that’s not necessarily good or bad and is an alien to human connections acting in ways that appear horrendous to those that have them. Someone just like Fern. That’s kind of the part that gets me, like earlier this same episode we see how foreign basic social skills are to Fern and Frieren herself and granted they’re not murdering people but it’s the same kind of not fully understanding people thing that throws off the ‘measure of a man’ speeches because if you say someone that lacks compassion or social understanding is a monster what happens when a human shares those qualities, someone who’s antisocial or autistic and can’t be bought in by the ‘love makes us human’ answer to the kind of sentient being whose life we should or shouldn’t value, if that’s where we’re going with this I’m really excited. Still for the time being the demons are right dicks and manipulate the guards with all the right words of ‘oh but we’ve suffered too, let’s have peace’ that would absolutely wreck any Naruto-minded Talk no Jutsu protagonist despite demons literally not having families (and this seemingly crucial fact apparently not being widely known). Turns out the ambassadors’ plan is to make peace and then have the town lower its barrier so they can burn it to the ground which… doesn’t make any fucking sense like it’s not like you’re disarming a weapon you’re asking them to take down a purely defensive shield that can’t actually hurt anybody and promising ‘we won’t attack bro’ without giving any sign of good faith on your end, might as well ask them to tear down their walls like that probably protects them from non-demon creatures and judging by last episode is a crucial part of border control, like that’s a dumb plan. It’s frustrating because their emotional manipulation is ridiculously good but their actual plan doesn’t make any sense. Still this complicated situation is about to get a lot simpler because one of the junior ambassadors just fucking barges into the dungeon, kills a guard and is ready to kill Frieren, like these guys are so fucking dumb even if Frieren wasn’t a demi-god how are you going to explain a dead guard outside the cell while the fugitive elf died in the cell like you just blew your whole dumb barrier-lowering plan because you couldn’t think of a diplomatic way to get in to see the prisoner and had to kill her right fucking now.

Vinland Saga: Thorfinn and Snake continue their fight and are surprisingly evenly matched despite Thorfinn just using his fists and not being as small and nimble as he was when he first developed his knife style. Thorfinn isn’t defeated but does lose the battle of the terrain when Snake is able to move over to the cart and get to Gardar. He makes a good point that he can’t justify just letting Gardar go since he really cares about his whole crew and taking anything less than revenge would be an insult. Now obviously this is still wrong but making the ‘an eye for an eye leaves everyone blind’ argument is a little difficult when you’re in Viking times and have like five seconds before this guy stabs him. Snake starts making plans of what to do now that Thorfinn and Arnheid have disobeyed him and Gardar just… pops up out of the cart like a daisy and stopped the sword with his astonishing pecs or some shit because he gets Snake in a sleeper hold and knocks him out. Arnheid talks him down from killing Snake and Gardar’s still gonna die anyway so the rest of the episode is just a big schmaltzy sendoff for Gardar and all the regrets he’s had in his life and it’s a pretty cool sequence for someone whose character development mostly came from other people. Like just saying, Askeladd was basically the main character for a while and all he got was a final speech and Gardar gets a whole dream sequence of finding his obviously dead son. Still now we’re in the weird position of Arnheid being taken by Ketil’s guards and Ketil himself coming home to find his bottom bitch and his favorite slave tried to start a revolt over a guy he’s never heard of while war with the king is looming on the horizon, so… awkward, I guess.

[day-drunk]

Tom 3.5 Speech "Life"

"Life Advice"

Toonami Speech

(TOM 3.5)

"So here's the deal, life doesn't always wanna be your friend. Sometimes it'll feel like life wants to hurt you. But you can't just hide, cuz nobody likes a quitter. You gotta take chances. I never said it was gonna be fun. Or easy. Whether you're totally ready, or when you least expect it. Doesn't matter, life'll punch you right in the face. Now you can lie there for a second, cry a little if you need to, but get back on your feet. Cuz it's the gettin' back up that counts. That's what shows you've got heart. That's what helps keep you goin'. Fall down 7 times, get up 8. And know we'll be right there with you."

[mykeyung]

Toonami Throwback by Myke Y.U.N.G.

While my love of cartoons

And the influences it had on

Me in my childhood comes from

More shows than the classes I had

Homework in, there was one block

Of programming that gave me my

First look at anime years before I

Even heard the term and sparked

My passion and fighting spirit at an

Age when it was so easy to follow

The crowd and that was Toonami.

It opened my eyes to warriors fighting

For the survival of Earth, ninjas learning

Powerful techniques through hand signs

And the energy of their surroundings, giant

Robots competing in mind blowing games,

And samurai clashing swords and ideals in

Different landscapes, but on a deeper level

It showed me how essential and effective teamwork  

Is even when the odds are so stacked against you

That you’ll be a fool to bet that there will be

Victory at the end of the tunnel, expanded my

Love of exploration past realistic locations into

Intergalactic landmarks as well as putting jet fuel

Into my already creative mind, showed me the

Versatility of talent and power in ways the young

Me couldn’t believe was possible, gave me a look at

Things I’m interested in from a different point of view

Like cooking competitions and inventions we use everyday

And of course, a majority of the shows highlighted in a variety

Of ways why you should never give up and how that persistence

Will push you to new levels of power and break down limits

You thought defined you, but Toonami also had an extra layer

Of inspiration in the host, Tom who, while he had many changes

And upgrades in appearance over the years, always gave motivating  

Speeches through the scenes of the shows I watched and went on his

Own out of world adventures deepening my love for space and sci-fi.

While it’s hard to say how long Toonami will last before going through

Another round of saying goodbye and making a comeback like an anime

Hero in a redemption arc, in this new world where streaming reigns supreme,

I’m glad I was able to follow the road it made over the decades and hope

I can spread the lessons and themes it awakened in me to others looking

For guidance in a robot and his AI living life by watching anime and playing

Games in a spaceship in between surviving the threats outside.

[alexthegamingboy]

Toonami Weekly Recap 04/15/2023

Food Wars: The Fifth Plate (The BLUE Arc) EP#78 (05) - Convenience Store Brawl: The judge for the second challenge, Rantabi, instructs all of the chefs that they are to create a dish from nothing but ingredients available from a regular convenience store. Any dish that she judges to be worth more than $100 will pass the challenge. Soma prepares a sukiyaki beef bowl, but ends up being fined $14 for wasting ingredients. Tsukasa submits his chicken and beef dish with demi-glace, which earns a price a $587. Soma's second try is an osechi set, which catches Rantabi off guard when she realizes that no matter which order she eats it in, the different side dishes never conflict. She passes Soma's dish but refuses to divulge how much it is worth. Meanwhile, Erina defeats the gauntlet of the chefs who failed the first challenges, only to be tasked with facing off another gauntlet against the chefs who lost the second challenge. Megumi and Takumi manages to pass the second challenge with $128 and $150 dishes respectively. The remaining chefs are then led to the second gate, where they are met by three of the top ranking Noir chefs. The Book Master then makes a surprise announcement, declaring that the winner of this year's BLUE will become her personal chef.

My Hero Academia Season 6 Dark Hero Arc EP#137 (24) - A Young Woman's Declaration: Prior to rescuing Izuku, Nezu explained to Class 1-A the intricacies designed into the U.A. Barrier to keep it fortified from villains and to protect the civilians inside. In the present, the civilians protest Izuku's entry, believing his presence will put everyone in the school in danger. Best Jeanist tries to explain everything to get them to understand, but his words only make the crowd even more anxious over the Heroes' failures, stressing Izuku out. Ochaco then grabs the megaphone and floats on top of U.A., giving a speech pleading to the civilians to let Izuku rest because Heroes deserved to be saved too. As a result, the civilians start to see how battered and tired Izuku is and by the end of her speech, Izuku breaks down on his knees in tears. He is comforted by Kota and the mutant woman he saved earlier. One of the civilians speaks out to the rest of the crowd, admitting how much like bystanders they have been in their treatment towards the Heroes and that they should be doing their part to help in some way. After Izuku declares he will bring the world back to the way it was, the civilians accept him as he is escorted inside. Meanwhile, Nezu speaks to a recovering Aizawa in the Central Hospital, revealing that they had transferred Kurogiri to the location after the discovery of him being Shirakumo's Nomu, attempting to re-awaken him. Outside U.A., All Might leaves to find more civilians, thinking about his influence with Izuku's current state, all the while Stain continues to follow him.

Slightly Damned Page 1087: https://www.sdamned.com/comic/1087

[kob131]

Unfortunately this isn’t Monkey 60, it’s someone else. The big issue that manga made and I can see it is how ultimately nothing matter. Don’t mistake my intentions, loving who you are is a great message but when the message involves a character being ignored while showing signs of heavy depression to the point of being not alive (I’m hoping this phrase is okay) and them magically getting over it feels sorta disgusting. It’s like a bad form of coping that I feel is more toxic than positive and the writers are trying to paint it like committing not alive (again I’m hoping this phrase is okay) and being reborn makes all the problems go away.

Thanks for coming back Anon.

And considering you're talking to a guy whose had suicidal thoughts and has depression- you could have just said 'comitting suicide' and it would have been fine.

I hope you see this because I'm gonna be bearing a lot here.

I feel like Kamen doesn't understand the complexities of depression and suicidal thoughts.

The mentioning of how Ruby's friends and family don't show concern for Ruby? That's not true. They do show concern for Ruby. Everyone is visibly uncomfortable when Ruby gives the parting line at the end of V9 E2. Blake tries to comfort Ruby during E7 and remind her of staying cheerful. Yang...does this three fucking times.

Do you want to know what Ruby herself does each time? She rejects them. She pushes them away or shoots down their concerns. Then she explodes on them for things that are either not their fault or just trying to move on.

RUby wasn't ignored- She felt ignored because she was isolating herself.

And just as well- Only Ruby could pull herself out of that slump. Only Ruby could pull herself out of that hole she dug herself in. Only Ruby could overcome that.

'But isn't it really wrong to just have your character magically get over suicidal depression after a small talk?'

Maybe. But you know what would be worse than Ruby's situation?

Losing the only man who ever believed in you, showed faith in you and guided you. Your so-called comrades not only TRULY ignore your pain, one of them even says that you're at fault for his death because you had an emotional episode and he died saving you. And all he gets is a minor call out by his sister. But you getting up in your friend's face, putting blame on him for your bro's death because of his religion? That's a big no-no. And the only person to actually try talking to you is some girl you found about a day ago. But hey, it's all better now! The girl you use to have a crush on told a story about your bro that you might have not even heard and you're all better after a speech!

I mean, what awful, no good, poorly written, obscure trash could that even be-

Oh. It's not only one of the most well remembered scenes in one of the most well beloved recent anime-

It's the story of the character who inspired me to keep living.

Yeah, I wasn't just saying bullshit to defend RWBY when I said I've had suicidal thoughts. That is something i legitimately went through. Back when i was in high school, with depression destroying my motivation to work on my grades, my mom screaming her head off at me about how I was ruining my life, how I hated how angry and temperamental I was. I legitimately thought about sliting my wrists and walking out into the snow to die.

And then i caught Kill La Kill on Toonami at my grandpa's house. I thought it looked cool so I looked it up and found Gurren Lagann. And I binged watched it. I watched a kid who went through far worse than me, finding himself in as deep a hole as me. And he pulled himself out. He found the will to keep living, to keep fighting, to break through any wall in front of him. And by the end, Simon was a true hero.

And that inspired to keep living.

I'm sorry but the arguments Kamen and so many make about Ruby's arc would also apply to Simon's. That there's no self reflection? Simon proceeds to do reckless bullshit throughout the series.

That no one cares about them and no one reflects on how they affected them? Team Dai-Gurren legitimately NEVER check up on Simon or try talking to him. NIA did more for him than they did and she knew him for a fucking day.

That what they did to them was toxic? Gee, at least Team RWBY admitted they may have made a mistake. Kittan, the guy who threw Kamina's death into Simon's face, acts like he always knew he was okay and he suffers no consequences for his actions.

That they're magically okay afterwards? Trying to show me a picture of Ruby coming back and Simon coming back would be like that Office meme- they're the same damn picture.

In every regard, for me to accept that RWBY fucked up would be to accept that Gurren Lagann fucked up as bad if not WORSE. And that doesn't work considering it resonated with me enough to keep going.

So I hope you understand why I don't think these arguments work. Especially since I know quite a few of these guys are Gurren Lagann fans.

[sickkarter]

I wonder if horikoshi was inspired by Simon the digger's "My bro is dead! He's gone!" Speech from how inspiring both those speeches.

It made me realize class 1-a has come so far, but I also just realized, these students are pretty much child soldiers because the league was stronger than both the characters, and we, the audience had realized.

Thanks uraraka, for getting me back into this show and bringing us, the toonami faithful, together, for becoming friends with each other, and thank you too horikoshi.

[duhragonball]

22?

22. Do you prefer the sub or the dub?

The dub.

Now, for a lot of years, that was my answer by default, because I hadn't seen enough of the subs to really have an opinion. I respected the Japanese voice actors from watching Movies 10-14 via fansubs, but I didn't really start watching the subs regularly until Dragon Ball Super began, and that was the only way to watch it.

I suppose it was that experience that convinced me to watch Dragon Ball and DBZ in the original Japanese, which I finally did during my 2019 liveblog. And it's nice to finally have that experience under my belt. There were a number of minor inconsistencies in the show that I thought were "dub-isms" but couldn't know for certain. And there were some things that I thought were "dub-isms" that actually weren't. Like, there's an episode or two in the dub where Vegeta refers to Goku as "Goku" instead of "Kakarot". It sounds like a mistake, and maybe it was, but there's an episode or two in the Japanese version where the same thing happens. The weird thing is that they're different episodes, so go figure.

And there's a lot to enjoy in the original Japanese version of the show. Certain scenes just seem to work better because they were produced with the Japanese cast in mind. There's some scenes in the dub where it feels like they really struggled to make something fit the lip flaps and it probably wasn't worth the trouble.

All that being said, the dub was one of the things that got me into anime in general. When I was a kid, my earliest exposure to Japanese television were shows like Voltron, Superbook, and reruns of Space Giants (aka Ambassador Magma). The dubs for these shows were awful, which only made the unfamiliar visuals harder to get into. By the 90s, I found out about other shows like Speed Racer and Sailor Moon, which somehow managed to sound even worse.

And to be fair, there's some camp appeal to bad dubs. I kind of enjoyed the shittiness of Speed Racer's English localization, but I remember watching a clip of it in the original Japanese a few years ago and being much more impressed. I was like "Wow, this show was actually a lot better than I realized." The animation was never that great, but competent voice acting went a long way towards making it work.

The mistake I had made in my youth was in thinking that the dubs were crappy because the scripts were crappy, and that it was the fault of the Japanese people who produced the shows in the first place. Like, they must have wanted Sailor Moon to sound like a dipshit valley girl, or why else would that have been the version that aired on the USA network in 1995? They must have written all those dopey "uhh's!" and "ehhhh's?" into Speed Racer, and the dub was compelled to include them in another language.

Watching Dragon Ball Z and Tenchi Muyo! on Toonami helped me get past that, because those shows had dubbed versions where the characters sounded like regular people. And yes, I'm including the Ocean Dub when I say that. For the first time, I was able to listen to the characters and not wonder what the fuck was their problem. Funny thing is, when the dialogue and acting are on point, it's a lot easier to relate to the characters, and suddenly the big eyes and silly hairdos aren't so offputting anymore.

I still remember watching that promotional spot for Movie 13, where Masako Nozawa is doing a voice over as Goku explaining the plot of the movie, and when she gets to the part about the world being in danger from Hirudegarn, she shrieks "I won't let anyone destroy the Earth!" It was a raw and awesome and metal as hell, and it sold me on her portrayal of Goku. But I probably never would have heard that delivery if I hadn't first gotten invested in the character while Sean Schemmel was giving the "Ally to good! Nightmare to you!" speech. So the dub is very special to me, and it probably always will be.

[natsujutsu]

Toonami: Women Speech.

[stalkerkyoko]

"find your dream- sounds like toonami speechs

building you a better cartoon show

[piss-stained-jorts]

y'all ever have dreams that are so real and so detailed that it's as if you're living in an entirely different universe for one night? I'm talking the kind of dream where your brain makes up a false past, false relationships, and a false life that all feel real.

I had this vivid as fuck dream a few nights ago that 20 years ago, toonami/cartoon network did a special series of bumpers about a character named Poppy that we all got super attached to. Poppy was fighting some sort of sci fi war and managed to--with the help of we the audience, a few cartoon network characters, and shadow the hedgehog for some reason--build a machine that would stop the war for good, thus saving everyone.

she went into the machine herself to activate it, but because we and the other characters weren't trained in Sci Fi War Bullshit like Poppy had been, the machine was built incorrectly. Poppy would have to stay behind inside the machine to make sure it worked, thus sacrificing herself for all of us.

however, Poppy had a special ability--she could turn into a flower and go into a stasis. the details get fuzzy here. it was either to heal or pass the time, i think. point is, she retreated into her flower form after activating the Save Everyone Machine, gave a heroic speech about her friends and stuff, and asked the audience to wake her up in 20 years. i think the expectation was either that it was a dramatic end, or there'd be an event 20 years later where the kids who remembered Poppy could go on a website and do an interactive thing that gave the whole thing an epilogue. maybe it was that there'd be a special anniversary thing. idk dreams are vague

and in the dream, this was like one of those big shared childhood mini-traumas for an entire generation, ala Steve going off to college in Blue's Clues. like, kids cried and wept and lost their shits over Poppy. she was our girl! she sacrificed herself! the series of bumpers with this big storyline all culminated in the bittersweet ending of our bestest buddy sacrificing herself to save us!

it was such a big deal that a bunch of people, including me, signed our names on a big contract at school/a school reunion, promising to remember to come back and wake Poppy up. the date changed from the 14th of february 2024 to the 24th of february 2024 bc, y'know, dream shenanigans. it got so much attention that people were like, going to recreate an old cartoon network/toonami website so we could take part in the event and wake her up.

anyway, even though none of this happened because it was just a dream and Poppy was never actually real, happy We All Go Wake Up Poppy Day

[maguro13-2]

Death Vengeance ~ Origins of the Ink Demon Chapter 3 Pt.7

Death the Kid : Thank you for coming to my celebratory event at the party going on. You got some minor details of looking fancy that we are celebrating the years of making DWMA the most spiritual successor to that one oranization that was led by the Kusakabe that created our world today.

Nevada Governor : We'll do, Kid. We'll do. Say, isn't your grandfather supposed and wasn't he that man who created the world of Soul Eater that he made to you?

Death the Kid : Well, ummm, I, uhhh...

[People murmuring, cameras flashing]

Liz Thompson : Hey, Kid. Do you mind giving the speech later about your grandfather problems?

Death the Kid : Not now, Liz. I got an important meeting with the state's governor, I got more things to worry than my grandfather.

News Reporter (?) : Any comment on your terms of making Soul World a better place for Nevada, Mr. Kid?

Death the Kid : Why yes, I have any further to details to tell you from. I dedicated myself that I would Attend this school to make Soul World a better place for Nevada, and even better place for earth of maintaining the global public order. And we'll do anything make sure that this school holds the legacy of Shinra Kusakabe, that ensures peace and prosperity for brighter things in the future. Because, Shinra Kusakabe is a proudful man and making his influenced helped us to serve this legacy of his. The DWMA has been the worthy successor of the World Heroes Force Organization in honoring my grandfather's legacy, and not to mention that my brother isn't here to see this.

News Reporter (?) : That's wonderful news to hear, Mr. Kid. And oh, one more thing for you to say this. Before we conclude this ongoing conversation of making Soul World a better place and a better for home for Death itself, there is one important thing to ask... are you responsible for the theft of the blue prints of a giant robot named Deathscythe?

Death the Kid : Wow! Deathscythe? That giant robot from that Gundam TV Show that everyone talks about? Oh yeah, I totally heard of him when I was little and I definitely saw him on TV when Toonami was on the air for Cartoon Network. I was such a huge fan of Giant Robots and I actually made a model of him after getting Gunpla from Japan. As a matter of fact, my father did.

News Reporter (?) : AHA! [its is revealed that the News Reporter is none of other than King Boo wearing a disugise] Gotcha, ya Ghost-stealing Jackass!

Death the Kid : Woah! [stutters to change the subject] Woah! Woah! Who the hell are you!?

King Boo : I was hoping to realize that you were the one responsible for stealing my goons and have them for granted at your own will, consuming souls from heartlesses that you and father steal from. I gotta ask Ansem a favor to tell you that your grandfather Shinra Kusakabe, is always a deluded fool to be a hero. And the Kusakabe family, will see you in hell!! [takes out a portrait]

Death the Kid : Woah, N-No! Please, don't do it! I only have this opportunity to serve his legacy! I was modeled after him as a image! You can't do that to me! [exlcaiming in horror] NNNOOOOOOOOO!!!

[SLAM!]

"Meanwhile later..."

[Tornado Defense Act 1 - Fumie Kumatani]

Bandit [via radio] Come in, Bird 1. This is Bird 1, Bird 1 to Bird 2, do you copy, over?

Moirai Albarn [via radio] : This is Bird 2, heading due east over the Atlantic Ocean. We're en route and everything's a go, over.

Maka Albarn [via radio] : We're steering and clearing, loud as ever, over!

Moirai Albarn [via radio] : All systems ago, full speed ahead!

Bandit [via radio] : 10-4! Copy that! [hears radar beeping] Hmm? Hang on, you two. We got company on the run.

Moirai Albarn : Those bastards are really up to something?

Maka Albarn : So much for sky highing. What are those red dots beeping on the radar? I believe there's something in the heat.

Moirai Albarn [via radio] : Are those aircrafts, or airplanes. Or must be them swallow robots from Robotnik.

Bandit : Swallow robots from Robotnik. Where did you find Swallow Robots from Robotnik before? Oh no, those aren't Swallow Robots...[behind the two Tornadoes are missiles] those are missiles from nowhere! Quickly, transform the Tornadoes into X-Shape ones!

Maka Albarn [via radio] : Got it! [Moirai and Bandit presses button to transform the Tornadoes into X-shape forms]

[SKY TO THE OCEAN - Akira Yamaoka]

Bandit : Let's blast these suckers right away! [fires against the missiles] Yeah! Take that you idiots! This is what you get for flying with the birds! Bird 1, come in Bird 2! We got enemy fires at full speed ahead! Going into defense mode, over!

Moirai Albarn [via radio] : Loud and Clear, over. [the two descends over to the Atlantic Ocean] Bird 1, this is Bird 2. Do you see anything that is heading north behind us, over.

Bandit : This is, Bird 1. It seems that there one or two more objects...What? there's something behind us, it looks likes a...[the Burstrick Rider from Contra Shattered Soldier appears behind them] Oh perfect!

Maka Albarn : Say that again?

Bandit [via radio] : It's the Robot on Skis! Looks like we're needed of bigger guns if we needed to take him down!

Maka Albarn : Of course, which is why that we are prepared!

Moirai Albarn : And I bet that this pile of scrap metal on skis is going to take hours to take him down. How long is it for us to take him down?

(scene flip)

Moirai Albarn : Wow! I don't believe that we managed to take that piece of scrap down like that. Too bad we had to skip the part by flipping another scene, these fans don't know of what the fans are up to when it comes to making scenes of action.

Maka Albarn : On the contrary, let's just say that we managed to use our powers to destroy the Burstrick Rider robot that really took us ...FOR HOURS!!!

Moirai Albarn : ...Right. So any ideas of wonder where we might land at?

Maka Albarn : We'll find out shortly! Hey, Bandit! Come in, Bandit! Looks like we managed to take down the Burstrick Rider, now we can en route to Egypt safely, over!

[Stage Clear - Tomoya Ohtani]

Bandit [via radio] : Roger that, kid! We're beginning to descend into Egypt! Next stop, the Pyramids!

~ Thirty-Eigth Scene : Anubis in Pursuit Pt.1 ~

[casliveblog]

Custom Toonami Block Week 190 Rundown

The Witch from Mercury: Oof, this one’s goddamn rough. Miorine agrees to be Prospera’s puppet in exchange for Suletta’s freedom on the condition she do one more duel (honestly I wouldn’t trust that because the way Prospera talks she doesn’t seem to think Suletta will survive that long). Guel comes and saves Suletta from being sexual assaulted/regular assaulted by Fake Ceras #2 and presents her with the results of his Chazz Princeton rich boy humbling arc, him being a much more mature person willing to both admit his feelings for her and accept her rejection while understanding what he wants out of life. Miorine overhears them and says she wants them both to duel one more time and this kinda sucks because she’s hedging the bets and it makes you not sure who to root for going in. Miorine is willing to break off her connection to Suletta and align with Guel, putting Suletta through agony and ensuring they’ll never be together for the sake of getting Aerial forcibly taken away so she can’t be used to reincarnate Eri. Guel’s still having some PTSD about killing his dad and is working his way through it during the duel and honestly doing really well like even with all Suletta’s OP Newtype Beams and shit he has her dead to rights a couple times if not for his own hesitation. Suletta gets ready for a finisher that looks like it’d fucking atomize Guel as much as chop his antenna off, finally verbally affirming she wants to marry Miorine only for Miorine to shut off Aerial’s systems and give Guel the duel. And we see that Suletta’s Newtype Data Storm shit gets REAL close to peaking during the fight like it gives Prospera a mini-orgasm so yeah if Miorine didn’t turn it off we may have seen Human Instrumentality right there. Miorine admits to rigging the fight, saying she doesn’t want to see Suletta again and that she’s always just been using people to get what she wants, leaving Suletta without her wife, her gundam soon to be taken and in absolute AGONY. And FUCK it’s not true! Gaaaah, Miorine’s only doing this in a misguided attempt to SAVE Suletta, assuming that her being safe is more important than being with her or any trauma she inflicts by literally ripping her family out of her arms, like I get it but there’s gotta be another way, but Miorine’s gone full Lelouch mode on this one with the “my plan is too cruel to justify being even slightly kind to myself about it” so yeah her and Guel are doing some Zero Requiem shit right now.

Inuyasha The Final Act: This is it, there’s only three episodes left of Inuyasha and it’s the final confrontation with Naraku. There’s basically a stalemate because Naraku’s just pumping enough poison in and changing the terrain enough to keep everyone from hitting him but he can’t quite kill them either. Sango arrives and gets a hit in on him but ends up getting poisoned, leading Miroku to try and grab her and Shippo has to save them both with medicine he got from Jinenji, good Jinenji callback, love that a one-off character has a key role in the final battle. Naraku finally absorbs the jewel and becomes immune to Meidou Zangetsuha by… just kinda stretching around it, sure. Kagome and Inuyasha both give him the final ‘you’re a fucking dick Naraku you didn’t have to be such a dick’ speech where Inuyasha appeals to their shared half-demon nature and how Naraku chose the evil option every time and Kagome appeals to Naraku having a human heart and still being butthurt about Kikyo and it’s only because he’s known kindness and compassion that he can so viciously embody hatred and betrayal, that even now the jewel can never get him what he wanted and all he’ll do by absorbing it is become a real monster. Naraku fucking goes off on this which is kinda satisfying to see given his whole personality is “my plan failing was part of my plan” and Inuyasha finally cuts him with the evolution Meidou Zangetsuha blades which are basically ‘do not pass go, get cut no matter what’ shards of ultimate destruction. Sesshomaru sees Naraku’s wounded and remembers he has Bakusaiga and doesn’t have to worry about Rin anymore and just fucking goes to town on Naraku’s insides so he can’t keep regenerating from Inuyasha’s attacks. Byakuya sees the writing on the wall and moves to cut Kagome with the Meidou Zangetsuha he absorbed last time, though it seemingly does nothing for now, Everyone regroups and takes aim at the exposed jewel in Naraku’s chest, everyone Naraku’s ever fucked with finally ready to come collect what he owes them for being a fucking asshole for two hundred episodes.  

Castlevania: Hector’s getting used to his cursed life of roaming a giant castle and reading books and being a hot vampire’s sex slave, the horror. But still he seems to be scheming something in addition and isn’t quite taking his new imprisonment lying down even if he is way too casual with Lenore after she slapped sex cuffs that read his mind on him, like I’d think that’d make their penis banter at least a little more awkward but here we are. I also feel like they’ve softened Lenore a lot this season, like suddenly she’s a lot less sure of things and less cruel and commanding, you could chalk that up to her doubting her reduced role in things now that the time for negotiating is over and all out bloody war is coming but it’s still a little jarring. Carmilla goes on a rant about how her backstory is a Lifetime Original movie and how she’ll only be satisfied when she’s destroyed and obtained as much as she can and maybe not even then because she’s been too damaged to ever feel like it’s enough. Idk in contrast I think Carmilla’s a little better written this season, like they had to do a lot of work with her place in the world in Season 3 because of how she stumbled dick first into a good gambit in Season 2 but now they seem to be actively working on rounding out how her end goals are just as self-destructive as Dracula’s were and she doesn’t even know it yet, she’s still not my favorite character or anything but I appreciate the groundwork. Meanwhile Trevor and Sypha have an absolutely shit fight with the cockney vampires’ mooks like they’ve done way better than this against way more guys and I’m not sure if they’re actively getting nerfed or if this is just to show how tired they are during this arc. They run into Targoviste’s underground bodyguards because apparently Dracula killed 99% of the people in that city and missed the royal family somehow like that’s straight up the explanation they give, but now they have a mildly jingoistic official wanting to show them around and two cockney vampires on their tails to try and wear their skin Buffalo Bill style, so fun times were had by all.

Konosuba: Fuck all this plot shit, KAZUMA INVENTED BUBBLEWRAP FUCK YEAH. Anyway, Megumin and Aqua have their own plans to stop Darkness’s wedding that range from loitering to terrorism and despite Megumin giving a semi-false love confession Kazuma isn’t budging, pretending he’s just being stubborn about wanting her to apologize but really legitimately not being able to come up with any ideas to help. He gets a visit from Vanir who finally reveals that the reason Darkness’s family is in debt is because they borrowed from her future husband to cover the costs of damages to the town and farmland done by various other adventures the group’s had in previous seasons, indirectly or otherwise since the old man won’t actually look after his vassals, Darkness’s dad had to go into debt to actually help them out, and now the collateral of that debt is Darkness herself. And sneaky asshole that he is, Vanir arranged for the amount of the debt to be just enough to be repaid with his next payment for Kazuma’s inventions, ensuring the group will be back to being poor and/or any of Kazuma’s future endeavors will have to go straight to him. Still, the time for the wedding is here and Aqua disguised herself as the priestess (pink hair Aqua’s kinda hot ngl) and Kazuma dashes off with Darkness in toe, it’s a god damn rescue arc, a real one this time after like five fakeouts, hot damn!

Delicious in Dungeon: The group FINALLY descends to the next floor and it’s kinda weird because nothing’s really changed, no new party members, still looking for Falin, like the scope of the plot changed but realistically after that whole interlude we’re back to the status quo. They muse about the Mad Mage’s motives and Laios finally talks about the history paintings he was in but they don’t get too far before ending up in a blizzard and confronting several shapeshifters that give three clones of each party member. Oddly enough the shapeshifter doesn’t seem to be able to make copies based on someone’s self-image, only the image others have of them so this ends up being a neat little exchange about how the group sees each other and little details they learn about each other, like it kinda reminds me of fanfiction writers honing in on one part of a character’s personality and playing that up for the plot they want, it’s a neat little Flanderization exercise. Luckily everyone thinks Laios is dumb as a stump and can’t actively replicate his knowledge of monsters so his doubles are quickly sorted out, leaving him the judge of the rest of the copies. It reminds me of the Duplighosts section in Paper Mario where there’s obviously something wrong but you gotta pay attention or something could trick you. Either way Laios ends up making a decision but since there’s an equal number of copies and real ones they all have perfectly symmetrical violence which as we know from Futurama never solved anything. Laios proves he literally has that dog in him and gets the wolf shapeshifter to back down on sheer intimidation factor only to try wrestling a dog for Marcille to just cut to the chase and blow its fucking head off. Just a nice light character development episode after all the shit that’s happened, oh also Marcille’s been kidnapped or something.

Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End: Ironically Frieren is ALSO dealing with magical duplicates this week, odd that both shows would line up like that huh. Denken’s group realizes they can’t beat Frieren and so they camp outside the boss door trying to think up a plan. Ubel and Land come across Ubel’s clone and end up beating her with a surprising teamwork combo that does let Ubel claim to worm her way more into Land’s emotional psyche. Frieren and Fern’s group find the central chamber honoring the king of the tomb, just getting a nice little sight for exploring before walking into Denkin’s Frieren-slaying powwow. The only hypnosis expert who appears to have this world’s version of Cursed Speech gets tied up with the clone of the teacher right when the group is wondering if she could help them hypnotize clone Frieren. It’s really funny how they just kinda run down all the ways Frieren is fucking broken and how she seems to have a thing for milfs when hugged by the one analyzing her which makes Fern jealous, just lots of good little moments for character. Either way while the side characters are dealing with their own clones, Fern resolves that she can be the one to kill Clone Frieren, presumably with a quickdraw wild west deal so get ready cause It’s High Noon Frieren.

Revolutionary Girl Utena: It’s the second part of the Miki arc from last time, now that he’s fallen in love with Anthy, he tries to process his feelings, explaining his backstory about how he got sick on the day of a big recital he was supposed to play with his sister and she got so traumatized by doing it alone she quit playing piano forever so his combined feelings of guilt and loneliness make up the mess of a person we see in this arc. He starts taking what Utena said to heart about how it’s kinda nuts that they’re all in a death apocalypse game to force her to marry one of them, showing real concern for Anthy’s sense of agency. To his credit Miki does acknowledge this and try to dissolve the Student Council but according to Touga dissolving the structure of the game wouldn’t change Anthy’s fate to be bound to whoever is the champion. He tells Miki to fight for what he wants lest others take it from him which is really fucking funny because when he says it he’s just standing in a room but when Miki remembers it Touga’s fucking shirtless laying on a bed, combined with Touga saying Miki’s cuter than his sister I think there might be some unresolved sexual tension there. He asks Anthy if she likes playing piano and if she’d stop if Utena told her too, sort of constructing in his mind the idea that Utena could enslave Anthy even though she’s the only one really championing her freedom and Miki’s notion of her being free is doing what he wants her to, which granted is a thing she likes but it’s still a flawed view of her freedom. Getting to the part of Witch from Mercury I’m at now it just kinda reminds me of a role reversal of Suletta and Miorine where Suletta’s the one who will do whatever the people she’s attached to tell her which deeply disturbs her loved ones where in this case it’s Anthy who unquestioningly obeys any command with a smile. Either way Miki and Utena end up in a duel like we saw in the beginning of the last episode and it’s kinda weird cause the audio seems kinda rushed and downed out by the soundtrack even though it was fine in the last episode’s cold open. They’re basically even until Miki hears Anthy cheering for Utena and flinches leading to his defeat. I mean this is less a case of Anthy actually loving Utena at this point than the fact she’s a literal robot that will do whatever the Holder says and Utena’s still the Holder rn, so that should embolden Miki if anything, and sure enough he hasn’t learned a thing from any of this and plans to challenge Utena again at some point. The part I really like though is the revelation that Miki’s sister was really shit at piano and Miki was just that good to make her sound good and it was just Miki’s love for her that made him think she was the missing piece to his music, that’s actually a really nice touch and his internal conflict is surprisingly complex for such a simple backstory that doesn’t make much sense on the surface, I really liked it.