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Show Notes
0:00: Another episode of Justin and Helen discussing everything they’ve been up to over the past few weeks, which may include a musical and some J-Novel Club reads along the way. The two hosts also get into a bit of nostalgia for no real reason…
News
17:30: Last episode, the news of Media Do acquiring Seven Seas just happened like roughly an hour or two before the two hosts started recording. It’s been two weeks, which means more information has come forth, including Media Do and Seven Seas having to make assurances that AI will not be used in any future works moving forward…let’s just say the hosts have some concerns!
27:55: The victim in the Shoichi Yamamoto/Shogakukan scandal released a statement on the entire situation, and that means Justin and Helen have more thoughts on how the company’s handling the situation and how well they can honor the victim’s request while also ensuring their culture will change moving forward. But let’s just say the hosts have worries about how they’ll handle it, considering their history.
37:32: Helen talks about a number of plaintiffs filing a consumer digital privacy class action complaint against Crunchyroll, which alleges that Crunchyroll violated the Video Privacy Protection Act. For her, the timing could not have been any more interesting; Justin meanwhile goes over Dark Horse essentially letting their Founder and CEO Mike Richardson go and what this means for the publisher moving forward.
42:36: RuriDragon will be on hiatus until late April; The Detective is Already Dead Season 2 will not air in the summer, it has been pushed to the Fall season; And I Became a Legend After My 10 Year-Long Last Stand will also be delayed, it’s now planned to air in the summer.
43:48: Chitose in the Ramune Bottle will return following it’s production issues in the Fall season; Tomato Soup is back following maternity leave, which means A Witch Life in Mongol will return next week; and we unfortunately will say goodbye to another Japanese manga magazine, as Mag Garden has ceased publication, and with their comment on why the magazine’s ending, Justin wonders if the manga market shrinking has played a big role.
48:13: Voice actress Yukie Maeda has passed away due to her health; voice actress Masako Ikeda died on March 3 from a cerebral hemorrhage; and Kyoto Animation announced that its president and co-founder Hideaki Hatta died on February 16 — the hosts go over the loss of each of these talents and people, and wish sincere condolences to their family and friends.
Licenses
52:57: Titan Manga announced exclusively on ANN that they’ve licensed the following manga for release in 2026: Tomonori Inoue’s Huck the Air Pirate and the Princess of Steam and Shinachiku’s The Regalia of the Underdog; We will see another H.P. Lovecraft novel adapted by Gou Tanabe published by Dark Horse, this one coming in September; and Mad Cave Studios’ imprint Nakama Press, in partnership with Tatsunoko Production, announced on Friday that it will release the first volume of its Casshan manga by writer Mario B. Long and Kusanagi on September 15.
54:41: Justin and Helen brought up DMP/DMG while talking about Blupetal, who just launched a Kickstarter for Sakura Kurihara’s Let Me Fix You last week (and it has already reached its goal); Japan-based indie publisher Red String announced at CitrusCon that they’ve licensed Yoshika Komatsu’s The Elf Husband and Dwarf Wife (will exclusively be on Omoi on March 22) and Arakata’s Funny Bone; The newest Crossed Hearts title has been announced and it’ll be going for their Glam Beat (Yuri) line — Mei Fujimatsu’s Time is a Closet; And we got more Siren audiobooks incoming — 3 of them!
58:19: With Manga Planet closing March 31, we finally know where some of the titles will go — Renta! They’ve announced a special transfer program that will allow Manga Planet users access to chapters/volumes purchased on the service, so happy that some of the titles (they won’t be able to bring them all) will exist in some way, this time on Renta!.
Streaming News
59:15: Justin and Helen go into Amazon raising their ad-tier prices for reasons, but hard to say if the reasons are good; Prime has added the Lupin the IIIrd: Zenigata and the Two Lupins net anime to their service.
1:01:18: Helen is now wondering about Justin’s tastes following his enthusiastic announcement of a show he has never watched (Queen’s Blade: Vanquished Queens) that is now available on Oceanveil; If you’re not into 18+ stuff, Oceanveil will also add the Black Jack OVA with an English dub to their service.
1:03:00: More 4K Ghibli is happening in theaters, so be on the lookout for a few of their heralded films in the spring; ODK Media’s North American streaming platform Amasian TV began streaming the Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood anime with the English dub in the United States and Canada…Justin wonders if this can actually be a streaming service to look out for in the future.
1:04:33: DOROHEDORO Season 2, despite it airing in April, has taken a while for much news to come out. Not anymore! A trailer has come out for it, with also the news that in addition to Netflix it will also stream on Crunchyroll; Retrocrush has added a couple shows to their service, with Black Jack: The Complete OVA Series arriving on their service early next month.
Weird News
1:06:32: Justin ends up reflecting on the origin of TheOASG Podcast, and how when Muse came up with doing this, no one could’ve expected Pokémon, The White House, and Nintendo to even be considered in the same sentence as a topic. But we have also that (and Yu-Gi-Oh! also!) in this section. In case you needed to know how weird the news can be.
1:10:24: Let’s just say The Evangelion short that was recently released by Khara had some issues, issues that eventually led the studio to release it themselves and for both Justin and Helen to ponder the meaning of media embargoes.
1:13:11: Yes, One Piece and Elmo is somehow a thing. No, not a lie, this crossover really happened thanks to Netflix; Writer Shirow Shiratori announced that his and illustrator Kippu’s No-Rin light novel series will return from its decade-long hiatus with its 14th and final volume on June 13; Hiromu Shinozuka topped it though, as Mirmo de Pon! New is the first entry in the Mirmo Zibang! in 21 years. The return of works after so long…never say final applies for these works!
1:15:35: And finally, somehow, some way, the live-action adaptation news of manga/anime franchise does not stop…and Samurai Champloo is the next one picked. Looking forward to it coming out in 2030!