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Show Notes
0:00: Justin and Helen finally are able to talk about things they’ve been up to!…Well, Justin’s been up to finally watching the new season of Medalist now that it’s on Hulu and experienced paying to go to a theater for the first time since COVID-19 (all for Uma Musume: Beginning of a New Era). Helen on the other hand has finally watched Journal with Witch (2 episodes so far) like the rest of the cool people!
The hosts then get ready to talk about the news over the past few weeks. And it begins with one of the worst anime/manga news that’s ever been covered on this podcast.
News
6:13: Shogakukan’s Manga ONE editorial department issued a statement and an apology this past Friday regarding manga creator Shōichi Yamamoto, after the editorial department had allowed Yamamoto to publish a new manga on the service under a pen name after he had been arrested and convicted of a sex crime. The details are not only many but it also can be triggering. It’s fairly staggering, so you’ll want to check out Anime News Network and Strict Algorithm for all the details, but a quick summary:
- Shoichi Yamamoto returned as a writer for Joujin Kamen, with Eri Tsuruyoshi drawing the series in 2022, despite his arrest and conviction of a sex crime in 2020 and making sure the artist was not aware of Yamamoto’s past since he is now known as Hajime Ichiro.
- An editor for MangaOne was involved in this situation, even going so far as to try and strike a deal with the victim.
- Once details emerged this past Friday of how awful the crime was and that the publication covered it up, many manga artists — from those working for Shogakukan to those not working for them — were angry and for those working for Shogakukan demanded not only a proper response but to have their works removed from MangaOne.
- Then Saturday, Shogakukan announced they will set up an investigative committee that will include lawyers to clarify the facts of the situation.
Both hosts discuss this horrifying scandal as they know it and what this ultimately says about Shogakukan (21:10) — and as Justin expected (26:48), more news would eventually emerge over time after the episode was recorded on Sunday, and yesterday, while continuing their internal investigation of MangaOne, Shogakukan revealed that Tatsuya Matsuki, the writer for act-age who was convinced of a sex crime in 2020 and dismissed from Shonen Jump with the cancellation of that manga, was hiding under the pen name of Miki Yatsunami while working on a manga on the service (Seisō no Shinri-shi).
We at TheOASG send our apologies to the victim, Eri Tsuruyoshi, and those affected by this situation.
26:57: Media Do, considered the largest e-book distributor in Japan (and sold off their shares of MyAnimeList last year) has acquired Seven Seas Entertainment for US $80 million dollars. More details emerged since the two hosts talked about it on Sunday, and it was concerning to where Seven Seas had to put out a statement yesterday. Expect both hosts to again discuss more about this partnership in the next episode.
33:29: The two hosts discuss the “Ring Ring Live in Osaka” concert event put on by the Himitsu no AiPri staff was cancelled due to threats; Helen goes over Sho-Pro Books (Shogakukan-Shueisha Productions) announcing that its contract to publish Marvel Comics titles in Japanese will end on March 31; and Manga Mavericks Books now has a distribution deal with Pathway Book Service and with Gazelle Book Services Ltd for Europe so we’ll be able to see their print books on certain retailers soon.
39:27: The Gift-o’-Animation studio’s founder and former president Satoshi Mori passed way February 20 after battling an illness for some time; Talent agency Haikyō announced in February that voice actor Masaru Ikeda died on January 31; And Kodansha shared on their Instagram that Vertical publishing company’s co-founder and Kodansha USA Editorial Director Ioannis Mentzas passed away a few weeks ago.
Licenses
41:55: Last episode the hosts talked about a bunch of companies licensing manga. This episode the two about more things getting licensed by companies, first with VIZ:
- Hyuganatsu, Minoji Kurata, & Touko Shino’s The Apothecary Diaries: Maomao’s Notes on the Inner Palace
- Kotoyama’s Call of the Night: Paradise Arc
- Inio Asano’s Heroes
- Shuzo Oshimi’s Sound of a Blink
- Paru Itagaki’s Witching Hour
- Glitch Productions and Gooseworx & Sakura’s The Amazing Digital Circus
- Akihisa Maki & Miki Yatsubo’s Albus Changes the World
- Asato Shima’s The Seaside Where Dragon Boys Dwell
- Yori Katakura’s Yakuza vs. Cat
- Esu Omori’s Shiba Inu Rooms
- Agatha Christie & Aya Nikaidō’s And Then There Were None
- Renka Misaki & Yūto Suzuki’s Sakamoto Days: Assassin’s Blues LN
- 3-in-1 edition of Mizuho Kusanagi’s Yona of the Dawn
- Soshichi Tonari’s Horror Picture Book: Looking at Me, with illustrations by Junji Ito
- My Hero Academia Box Set 2
- Jujutsu Kaisen Complete Box Set (Will also include Volume 0)
- Black Torch Complete Box Set
- One Piece Box Set 5: Wano to Egghead
- My Hero Academia: Ultra Artworks art book
- Dorohedoro Illustrations: Mud and Sludge art book
- The Studio Ghibli Chronicles book
46:10: Square Enix announced they’ve licensed the following works:
- Natsu Hyūga, Itsuki Nanao, & Touco Shino’s The Apothecary Diaries: Xiaolan’s Story
- Gyūnyūmugigohan’s Boyish Girlfriend
- Mugimo’s My Ex-Boyfriend Loves Boys’ Love!
- Yuo Yodogawa’s Stalker Stalks Stalker
- sooncha’s Yang Can’t Live Alone
- Shinichi Fukuda & Choboraunyopomi’s My Dress-Up Darling XOXO!
- My Dress-Up Darling Season 2 Official Anime Fanbook
- Asaki Asagiri & selen’s The Princess Groom
47:52: SuBLime had a couple announcements during their Valentine’s Day event — Puling’s Sunshine in Hades, Fumi Tsuyuhisa’s Robin in the Veil of Night, & Natsuki Kizu’s Given 10th Mix; meanwhile Seven Seas announced this during their Citrus Con panel that happened on Sunday that they’ve licensed IROHA MEGU’s WOLFHOUND and two Hayate Kuku manga (STRANGER: A WESTERN BL & MARCHEN)
48:30: Michi Masaki’s Tell Me, Dear Butler, Robico’s To Dusk and Twilight, & Jun Wakatsuki’s Promise Me the Spotlight is now on K MANGA; Takumigraphics, the new spinoff imprint from Fantagraphics, has licensed Gengoroh Tagame’s Do You Remember the South Island’s POW Camp? which shocked Helen; Tei Monaka & Komari Kuro’s All-Rounder Maid Connie Ville has been licensed by new publisher Crossed Heart; and Eke Shimamizu’s The Maid I Admire Looks Good with a Cigarette is now on Manga UP!.
49:30: Manga Mirai has a couple new additions to their service; The Lady version of Cells at Work! will be put in print by Kodansha; and the two hosts discuss Glacier Bay Books taking up what Matt Haasch wanted to do with Star Fruit Books as they announced they’ll be handling the publishing line moving forward.
54:56: MediaOCD and AnimEigo announced they’ve licensed Master of Martial Hearts & Sketchbook ~full color’S~, both expected to release this year. MediaOCD also announced the new round of titles it is adding to its store as part of the Discotek Deep Dives initiative (a good amount); meanwhile Discotek has a couple re-releases upcoming this year and a Patlabor OVA coming at some point; And finally, Sentai Filmworks has licensed Heavy Metal L-Gaim, which continues Sentai just out of nowhere licensing an older work.
Streaming News
1:00:02: The Madoka Magica movie has a new release date, and you can hear the two hosts editorial thought process in this moment as they decide no matter what happens — if it screens in Japan or if it doesn’t — it will wind up in weird news somehow; Akane-Banashi will have people be able to see it, but at this moment, not on your typical anime services…which will be shocking for a Shonen Jump property.
1:02:59: We have some screenings going on in the US — Anime Central will screen the original anime Goodbye, Lara in May; Next week people will be able to watch a 4K restoration of Kiki’s Delivery Service; and Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle Part 1 will also see another screening, which leads Justin to wonder when he’ll watch it since Crunchyroll doesn’t want to stream it yet!
1:04:51: The Me and Robico film has been added to Crunchyroll; Hulu and Disney+ will stream the Rooster Fighter anime in a few weeks (will first debut on Toonami); and Hulu now has the HD versions of the Pretty Cure English dub on their service.
1:05:58: The Criterion Collection’s streaming service Criterion Channel announced will add Gunbuster: The Movie and the first season of Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex sometime in March; Hideaki Sorachi’s debut one-shot manga Dandelion is getting an anime series adaptation that will stream exclusively on Netflix starting in April; and that 18+ site Oceanveil (who also sometimes streams non-18+ anime) will stream in advance the English-subtitled first episode of Do You Like Big Girls? and Marika’s Love Meter Malfunction.
Weird News
1:08:23: Pokémon’s 30th Anniversary is this year, and there’s lots of things going on with the franchise…starting with the original voice of Ash Ketchum (Satoshi in Japan) doing a Let’s Play in celebration and, well, the franchise sharing their 30th Anniversary logos. All 1,025 of them!
1:10:07: Let’s just say the highs and lows of Japan are covered in this section, from a very shirtless buff man as a hanger to an AI buddharoid.
1:12:34: Two of Japan’s famous properties — Crayon Shin-chan and Sazae-san — are gonna cross over; We got a story involving recent gold medalist and Olympic star Alysa Liu and how she has a Pochita!
1:15:41: And finally, apparently Amazon really wants to be a big player in the anime destination game, which we would take seriously except there’s no real sign that they’re actually serious about it at the moment!