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Show Notes
0:00: With a LOT of Winter anime shows to discuss, Justin and Helen delve right into the news of the past few weeks, starting with…something weird! But also something very bad, as a manga based off a light novel series has been suspended because the artist decided to plagiarize, and it was egregious enough that the editorial department had to put out a statement about it.
2:32: Aniplex and Crunchyroll’s new anime production venture, HAYATE Inc, has acquired studio Lay-duce; Kageki Shojo!! author Kumiko Saiki was injured at a music festival she went to a few weeks ago, and we’re all hoping she’s ok, as the injuries could be serious (diagnosed with a sprained neck, getting a CT scan to check if her brain is bleeding)
7:09: George Morikawa will be on break due to his hospitalization a few weeks ago, so no Hajime no Ippo for a while; Tawawa on Monday will be on a two-month break and see a return to Kodansha’s Weekly Young Magazine May 25.
7:51: The two hosts discuss the passing of manga creator Rakko due to heart failure, and the circumstances as well.
Licenses
9:51: Yen Press has launched a new imprint: Avocado House! (Both hosts wonder how they came up with it). Appears they’ll be having strictly international novels for this imprint (to give them options + have a clear delineation from Yen On), and they’ve launched with the following works:
- Keigo Higashino’s Laplace’s Witch
- Yūki Shasendō’s Sickness unto Love
- Gyatei Murasaki’s 1,000 Words Left to Live
- Aya Saitō’s The Curse Called Mother, the Prison Called Daughter
- Haeyeon Jeong’s The Place of the Flamingo
Yen Press also had some announcements at their Sakuracon panel:
- Ryoko Kui’s The Dragon School Is Atop the Mountain
- Natsuki Takaya’s In Such a Small World
- Neruko Nichinichi’s Non and Akari
- Futa Kimura’s Fate Rewinder: All Great Feats Require Time
- Hikaru Sakurai, Tsuta Suzuki, & TYPE-MOON’s Fate/Prototype: Fragments of Sky Silver
- 21g & Tegekiken’s Elden Ring: Become Lord
- Mio Tatsumoto’s Meiji-Era Master-and-Servant Tungsten
- Pieta’s How to Keep a Human
14:18: After their April Fools’ Wonderful Wednesday event, Seven Seas made official announcements this time:
- Yoichi Sayonaka & Ryuta Yanagi’s Gear × Magic: Reincarnated as an Engineer, I’ll Save the Villainous Princess (Airship)
- Ryūto & Heiro’s The Faceless Mercenary Wants to Settle Down: Homestead at the Edge of the Galaxy (Airship, digital only)
- Yū Omiya, Yōhei Kazawa, & Ale’s My Girlfriend Cheated on Me, and Now My Flirty Underclassman Won’t Leave Me Alone manga
- Indosō, Yasuumi’s Building a Monster Girl Harem with Forbidden Science (Ghost Ship)
- Yog Akase’s Nono’s Phantom Shop
15:34: Dark Horse took the time to have a manga licensing event themselves, and here’s what they’ll be releasing this year:
- Rin Suzukawa’s Asobi Asobase
- Kenji Tsuruta’s Forget-me-not
- Kouji Mori’s Suicide Island
- Hiromasa Okujima’s Babanba Banban Vampire
17:00: A few more Manga Mavericks titles will be arriving this year; Alien Books will also have a couple titles coming this Fall season; We’ll have an audiobook version of The Apothecary Diaries sometime this year, but will it involve the English voice of Maomao? We shall soon see!
21:31: And finally, while not quite licenses, the two hosts talk about the now updated Bookwalker service, which both (especially Helen) tested as this episode was recording. She found some concerns. Justin also had concerns, but he had them before the podcast episode though!
Streaming News
29:03: Not a bunch of streaming news this time, but the hosts had to note how awkward this streaming business can be see — see Ichijōma Mankitsu Gurashi!, which can be seen in a couple places…that also includes Rakuten VIKI. Rakuten VIKI? The drama service?
Main Topic: Winter 2026 Final Impressions
31:54: Justin and Helen spend a bunch of time talking about what was ultimately a very strong Winter anime season. There were still lowlights (Roll Over and Die! [43:00] being one that needed a much better fate), but overall there was lots to be impressed by (Fate/Strange Fake, You and I Are Polar Opposites S1, Sentenced to be a Hero, Tamon’s B-Side to name a few).
…Butttttt Journal with Witch (32:04) was clearly the best anime of the winter season. Did the hosts (especially Justin) do their best to make it seem like it wasn’t (1:42:12)? You can guess the answer is no!
Weird News
1:58:20: There is joy in seeing a work you like get animated and then be either a massive success or moderately successful enough to get multiple sequels. But we live in a world where joy can be fleeting. And for Ascendance of a Bookworm and generative A.I. to be in the same sentence is not a fate you’d want to wish for most things!
2:05:58: Good ole’ mistranslation strikes again, as somehow a collaboration announcement involving Fate/Grand Order and Witch of the Holy Night…involves Madoka Magica? Thanks Grok!
2:07:07: Justin and Helen discuss Netflix, after repeated memes and coordinated attacks on all of their socials by JoJo fans, finally revealed a schedule for Steel Ball Run, which should slow things down…(probably not!); it was actually discussed in the Winter Final impressions section, but Justin had to also shout it here — if you call yourself a final season, that means final! Not an extra arc announced since it basically means it’s not a final season!
2:10:16: Generally speaking, for a franchise to get their work concluded in anime form is very special, so congratulations to the Date A Live franchise as it seems like the next anime project will presumably wrap the series up. But it’s now going to go onto its fifth studio in Fugaku, which is a lot of effort to get this series completed in anime form!
2:12:15: There’s a plan the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry has involving anime, manga, and games and how the overseas market will play a role in it — both hosts say good luck; a surprising error occurred on the Japanese digital side that stated DANDADAN would go on break for a month, but the editor announced it was a misprint.
2:13:55: Cute things are happening, and they involved Sailor Moon! First with Artemis II (yes, the one that just went into space) and Sailor Moon’s Artemis being spotted at the CAPCOM desk in Mission Control, and then with Hunter x Hunter creator Yoshihiro Togashi and Naoko Takeuchi combining for a drawing, which also has Artemis and also Kurapika and Sailor Mars in one image.