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Show Notes
0:00: Justin and Helen once again skip what they’ve been up to in order to end an episode that has to talk NYCC and Summer Anime season shows they finished (or didn’t finish), which starts with Manga Planet and futekiya ending their digital service in March.
5:28: A bizarre situation is ongoing with Yuki Kaji where there’s a lot of allegedly slanderous and misleading statements going around online — so bad that his agency had to put out a statement and make legal threats. That’s how bad it is, despite no context as to what’s exactly being said about him.
8:12: Witch Hat Atelier won the Harvey Awards in 2020 — it has now won it again in 2025; VAs Kaito Ishikawa and Maaya Uchida announced they’re getting married, congrats to the two!
9:59: The newest Firefighter series from Masahito Soda and Kuro Tomiyama is going on hiatus, with no timetable for its return; meanwhile, Tomato Soup’s A Witch’s Life in Mongol will be on break, this following it originally going on a bimonthly schedule due to her maternity leave earlier in the year.
11:42: After over a year of recovery, Akihiro Ononaka’s set to resume Gushing over Magical Girls; Yo Asami’s manga adaptation of Natsu Hyūga’s You Can’t Bluff the Sharp-Eyed Sister will resume following a three-chapter side story.
Licenses
12:50: Seven Seas and their Wonderful Wednesdays had the following new titles announced:
- Nanaon’s I Like Cat Butts
- Tasuku Karasuma’s Gilded Seven
- Enhi’s Give Me a Hug, Mr. Frog!
- Norasiro, Katatewaza, & Johndee’s Reluctant Space Commander: From Death Wish to Galactic Hero! LN and Manga
- Takibi Amamori & Imigimuru’s Too Many Losing Heroines! Short Stories
- Yamayade’s Can You Kiss Me First?
- Masahiro Abe’s Cheeky Devil Cop!
- Hiru Morino’s Luna Knight
- Bunzaburo Nagano, Shinichi Yuki, & Tenmaso’s Let’s Run an Inn on Dungeon Island! (In a World Ruled by Women)
- They will also release three new audiobooks for their Siren imprint: Ennki Hakari’s Skeleton Knight in Another World (Narrated by Fred Berman), Shoji Goji’s Loner Life in Another World (Narrated by Maxwell Glick), Kumi Tamaru’s Riku Can’t Be a Goddess (Narrated by Kristyna Zaharek)
14:49: Yen Press light novels are now available to read on Tapas. Well, ok, not all of them — only a few have been added. But Yen Press announced they’ll be adding titles to the service monthly, so a good catalog of LNs will be on the service in the next couple years.
NYCC Licenses
16:36: But once again, a big convention happened, which means all of the publishers — well, not all of them but a good portion of them — had big announcements during that weekend:
- Yen Press – Monster Eater: Delicious in Dungeon the Board Game, Scarlet Beriko & NEXT LEVEL Studio’s Redeem: Only One Forever, so-ma-to’s Kuro, Machi Suehiro’s Clumsy Kiss, Hirota’s My Lover Is Just Too Innocent to Handle, An Momose’s Love from the Tip of the Tongue, Yukari Sakai & Fuyu Tsuyama’s Merit and the Egyptian God, Megame’s You Can’t Escape from Mizudako-chan!, TAKIDON’S My Super-Cute Black Mage!, Shima Shinya’s Void: No. Nine, Noboru Segawa’s Toxy Noxy Foresty Forest, Shinano Sano & Nigata Ammon’s Shanti (Yen On), Takana Nanishi &, NOCO’s The Azure Sword, Slayer of Distortions (Yen On), Ameria’s Our Party Nearly Wiped and Then Everything Went Downhill (Yen On)
- J-Novel Club – (20:45) Harunadon & Kurodeko’s Even Exiled, She’s Still the Beloved Saint! St. Evelyn’s Weird and Wonderful Friends LN for J-Novel Heart, hiki Narito & Yamimaru Enjin’s Buying You on the Day You Were to Die, Tenma Asahi & Tsutsuji Takahashi’s So Dearly Reckless, Haru Sakura & Ciel’s The Azure Dragon’s Devotion: An Offering of Three Centuries to You (these three are under J-Novel Knight), Sora Suigetsu & DeeCHA’s Scooped Up by an S-Rank Adventurer! This White Mage Is One Heck of a Healer LN, Hitsugi Kurokawa & Kuki Kushiro’s Repeated Vice: I Refuse to Be Important Enough to Die, Okamoto Takeya & Sumihei’s Sowing Vengeance: The Eldest Son’s Disgraceful Green Thumb, Rei Yayoi & Kyōzip’s The Canon Fodder’s Ascension from Pawn to World Unifier, Kei Yose & Ruria Miyuki’s The Villainess Speaks Not, Takamedou & Nemusuke’s Reforming an Icy Final Boss: Getting Back at the Self-Proclaimed Villainess with the Power of Friendship, MIZUNA & RUKI’s The Petty Villain Plays by the Rules: Rewriting This Otome Game with Honest Work!; Abyss Enoshima, Pochi Edoya, & neropaso’s What’s with the Bag, Kamiyama-san? manga, Iota Aiue, Momotips, & Tsukasa Kuga’s Fluffy-Eared Realm Restoration: Taking It Slow With My Cool Big Brother manga; they also announced the following three titles will be print, with these three being winners of J-Novel Club’s Contest:
- Hunter & LLO’s The Adorable Dungeon Master (BOOK☆WALKER Prize Winner)
- Cathfach & Kurodeko’s An Unruly Summon (First Prize Winner)
- John Rohman & ttl’s ATLAS: Her, the Combatant, and Him, the Hero (Grand Prize Winner)
- AND two more audiobooks, this time produced by Dreamscape — Ren Eguchi’s Campfire Cooking in Another World with My Absurd Skill & Ryuyu’s Now I’m a Demon Lord! Happily Ever After with Monster Girls in My Dungeon (This leads to the hosts wondering which company will make Apothecary Diaries into an audiobook, JNC or Square Enix)
- Kodansha – (29:28) Masamune Shirow: Artwork in the Shell, Kumi Makimura, Akane Shimizu & Kumi Makimura’s Cells at Work! Picture Books, Akane Shimizu, Choko Aozora, & Meku Kaire’s Cells at Work! Cat, Shirimoto’s YuM Cat, Sachiko Kashiwaba, Renji Asai, & Miho Satake’s When a Dragon Calls, Nahoko Uehashi & Itoe Takemoto’s Erin the Beast Player (will be released as omnibus editions), Yuki Amemiya & Yukino Ichihara’s My Husband is a Doomsday Weapon, Megumu Sato’s You Might As Well Be the One, Mia Sorahana’s A Love Too Captivating, Anji Seina’s Comeback After Fate, and a graffiti-covered dumpster-shaped box set edition of Kei Urana & Hideyoshi Ando’s Gachiakuta
32:10: Meanwhile, Manga Mavericks Books announced they’ve licensed Sen’s Horon of the Closed Country and Atsuji Yamamoto’s Sinbad, while Kodama Tales announced they’ve licensed Boichi’s Sun-Ken Rock and Yuzuko Hoshimi’s MAGICA.
34:36: And in final NYCC news, Crunchyroll announced a couple of anime they’ll be streaming in the near future (Daemons of the Shadow Realm – which will apparently stream first on Crunchyroll — and Isekai Office Worker: The Other World’s Books Depend on the Bean Counter to name a few), but both hosts had to discuss them acquiring the streaming rights of Oshi no Ko S3…which, if you didn’t realize, saw Seasons 1 and 2 stream on HIDIVE. That makes you wonder what happened and what state HIDIVE is currently in at the same time.
Streaming News
39:44: We finally have a date for when Virgin Punk Clockwork Girl will air in US theaters (in both Japanese subs and English dub), so mark your calendars for November 11 and 13.
41:29: More Conan Cinema has been announced, but Justin recalls how it went down when TMS showed a TV special on YouTube that ties perfectly with October being Halloween month…and it was only the first 51 minutes. It might be good to note none of TMS’ promos for it shared it would only be 51 minutes on YouTube!
44:17: More Gintama dubs have arrived, which only puzzles both hosts; Helen remarks about how weird the streaming news section while talking about Tubi streaming the first 15 episodes of the 1969 Legend of Ninja Kamui anime; and concludes with Weekly Young Jump announcing that any new manga in their magazine will also be simulpubbed on MANGA Plus, starting with a sequel to a baseball manga.
Main Topic: Summer Anime 2025 Final Impressions
49:12: Justin and Helen have thoughts about the summer season, which had some solid titles, but whether they will stick out years from now will be a major question. Needless to say with sequels and continuing Spring anime, Justin’s watchlist was big (standouts include Dr. Stone: Science Future Part 2, DANDADAN, Silent Witch to name a few, the lowlight is Private Tutor to the Duke’s Daughter) while Helen’s was small (but Clevatess, Toilet-Bound Hanako-kun Season 2 Part 2, and My Dress-Up Darling S2 were some of her standouts). Both discuss what they can, though eventually, the time for recording had to be sped up (thanks Justin’s internet and Helen needing to do things!).
Weird News
1:37:02: That’s why weird news is also sped up to its conclusion! We have tariff demands being brought up by the US President once again, it’s just the timing of it — as Demon Slayer was breaking records — is very suspicious; The creator of Stop! Hibari-kun worked on a couple pieces for a couple of Japanese stores…and they’ve now been pulled following allegations of tracing; Incredible that someone found more Tezuka layouts, enough that it can be published into a book; Marlon Wayans and anime is not at all a combo Justin would’ve imagined eons ago, but again, with Demon Slayer breaking records and doing better than the movie Him, Wayans, who’s the lead, is not a fan of anime.
1:40:50: And finally, after 38 years of Ranma 1/2, it’s finally happened. Fans can now buy a shampoo of…Shampoo! (Also Ranma but naturally Shampoo is the main news here!)