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Show Notes
0:00: Justin and Helen have to ignore what they’ve been up to, as with much to go over, it’s time to jump into the news of the past few weeks — starting with some internet/website problems that caused a number of Japanese companies to go down for emergency maintenance.
News
10:25: Let’s just say Netflix made a change…and changes to their staff with the announcement of layouts (and a lot of it); A rare case of a company allowing a character design to be used without permission, but it happened with KADOKAWA after allowing Pitch-Black Infatuation use character designs and backgrounds from Ieri Komen’s Festival of Heresies manga, so they had to apologize.
13:35: Just as Go Go! Loser Ranger! returns to the magazine, it’s now quickly back out, as Negi Haruba is still ailing so the manga is now back on hiatus; DAN DOH!! artist Daichi Banjou reported on his current struggle with cancer on social media recently, and it doesn’t sound great as you would guess.
16:43: The webtoon series ELECEED will be on TV and streaming at some point, but not this year as it’s now delayed to Spring 2027 — this gets Helen to rant about a consistent pattern with these Japanese-Korean productions while Justin reminds everyone that this is co-produced by TOKYOPOP.
19:58: Visual Arts/Key announced that writer and composer Jun Maeda has been diagnosed with pharyngeal cancer, and has chosen to focus on palliative care after considering his condition and the outlook for possible treatment. The two hosts go over this really unfortunate news and talk a bit about his impact not just in VNs but in anime; manga creator Masako Watanabe, known for her shoujo and josei manga, passed away October 3 at 97; Talent agency 81 Produce announced that screen and voice actor Hiroshi Tsuchida passed away October 11 at 54 years old due to heart failure, and a number of people took time to give their condolences on this difficult loss.
Licenses
29:52: Before the month of October ended, VIZ had to make sure they had some new things they’ll be bringing over in Summer 2027:
- Ei Yamano’s Someone Hertz
- Kyō Tanimoto’s Under Doctor
- Rose Takada’s His Sweet Solace
- Ru1mm’s Belladona’s Lover
- Sakane Toyobayashi’s Bus for Two
- Hirohiko Araki’s JoJolion (Deluxe hardcover edition)
- All-in-one edition of the Howl’s Moving Castle film comic
- Yukinobu Tatsu’s Dandadan: The Official Character Guide
- Box Set of Julietta Suzuki’s Kamisama Kiss
32:10: Kodansha announced the following titles at their Kodansha House event:
- For Kodansha Print Club: Moyashi Fujisawa & Kumakazu’s When Arika Went Missing, Moyashi Fujisawa’s Burn the House Down, Tsukasa Monma & Shikako’s Manchuria Opium Squad, Daisuke Igarashi’s Kamakura Bakeneko Club: Uncanny Cat Tales and Daisuke Igarashi’s Umwelt and Other Stories, Chihiro Kanisawa’s Futarijime Romantic, & Misaki Takamatsu’s Ark of the Canaries
- Memeco Arii’s Hitorijime Boyfriend: Re
- Kazari’s I Remember the Color of the Wind
- Tama Tamasaki’s Powerless Without You
- Michi Masaki’s Tell Me, Dear Butler
- Asumi Takabuchi’s My Rebound Has Too Much Game!
- Nori Arashiyama’s Zacha’s Undying Love
- Nagoya Shoki & Morohoshi Fuji’s Prisoners of Twilight Town
- Rie Kano’s Snow Globe Town
- Hiroyuki’s Jackpot Girls
- Idonchi’s Occult Times
34:35: Yen Press once again chooses to respect other countries by having the following announcements at MCM London Comic Con:
- Hiroro Akizakura & Dangmill’s Cross-Dressing Villainess Cecilia Sylvie: Extra Round! (Yen On)
- Eiko Mutsuhana’s And Thus, the Wizard Noi Garené Became a Bride 100 Years Later (Yen On)
- Nikita Kitagawa & Eiji Nomura’s My Yandere Girlfriend Hiding in the Dungeon Kills Me Over and Over Again manga
- Sesuji & Tsukasa Usui’s About a Place in the Kinki Region manga
- Hotori Handa & Raku Nanahashi’s My Childhood Friend Meows Under the Skirt
- Miyako Tōno’s Summer Boy Blues
- APEKO’s Is the Hot-Voiced Streamer Into Me?!
- Yoshiki Tonogai’s Secret: Homicide Edition
- For Yen Audio: Tarō Hitsuji’s Cause I’m Freedom! and Mamoru Hosoda’s Scarlet
37:14: Here’s the latest slate of Wonderful Wednesday announcements from Seven Seas:
- Tamaki Yoshigae & LINO’s My House Cat Became the World’s Strongest?!
- Haruyoshi Aizawa’s Ushiyama-san
- Junichirō SASAKI’s Mouse Royale
- Hare Takizawa, Kiyo Yoshimi, & Chiharu Nara’s The Duke is Obsessed with the Vicious Omega
- Hatsumi Kodama’s This World is Worth Fighting For
- Kiko Urino’s Alice, All the Way to Outer Space
- Yutaka Kōno & Torocchi’s Sagrada Reset (Airship, digital)
- Karaku Yuuki & Urashima Tsushima’s The Mercenary Bomber Explodes All Cheaters
- YUZUHA OUGI’s Miotsukushi: Backdoor Channels
- Haru Fujimori’s Two Cats and a Dog (full-color manga)
- For Siren audiobook imprint: MIYABI’s Venus Mission: I Was an Assassin-for-Hire Who Died, Now I’m Hunting Heroes in Another World (Narrated by Nicholas Corda)
39:00: We have a few Nakama Press titles coming in 2027 — Uoto’s 100 Meters and Buichi Terasawa’s Goku – Midnight Eye; Jiro Matsumoto’s Jyoshikohei, Hitoshi Tomizawa’s Alien 9 -The Complete-, & Yasushi Nirasawa’s Phantom Core will see a release next year by Peow2; Glacier Bay Books will be publishing Serata Naminami’s Oedo-chan of Moguraya, Aoi Mukoubi’s A Vase of Life, Akino Kogomi’s Faraway Blue while also continuing to reprint a number of Star Fruit Books titles.
41:08: We have more Manga UP! titles being added to the service, which includes Naru Seto’s Lily of the High Seas and Natsume Tamayura, Hisaho Aki, & Yasuyuki Syuri’s I Became a Saint to Support My Idol!; Shinobu Ohtaka’s Geekrown is now on K MANGA; Mato Kauta’s The Wolf King’s Bride is now on Comikey; and CITY is out of Amazon streaming jail — it will be released on home media in December.
Streaming News
46:39: The Korean-animated film Your Letter is now streaming on Crunchyroll; TMS Entertainment streamed Lupin III vs. Detective Conan The Movie for free on YouTube on October 24 and will release the fourth specially curated selection of episodes for the Detective Conan anime November 1; And a couple of Media Blasters titles are now on Oceanveil, with more being added to the service in the near future.
Fall Anime 2026 First Impressions
50:05: Justin and Helen go over what they’re watching this season…and compared to prior seasons, it is a severe step down, which gets to a bit of a discussion about the anime industry at large. What does stand out this season? Well, you’ll have your sequels (Apothecary Diaries S3, Reincarnated Aristocrat S3, The Ramparts of Ice S2) but a few new shows (Hello, I am a Witch and my Crush Wants me to Make a Love Potion!, A Tale of the Secret Saint) that both hosts will discuss.
Weird News
1:41:38: What a crazy week that happened for the Umamusume franchise in America. A concert announced some time ago ended up being cancelled at the start of last week due to VISAs not getting approved in time…and Cygames did whatever they could to make it up to the fans, which includes a pop-up shop going on right now!
1:51:30: Felix Film, well, had to release a statement after one of their job listings was caught with them looking for applicants using Blender or image generative AI and they promptly removed that part from the listing after that was discovered — Justin could not help noticing the timing of that with what was seen on Twitter a few weeks ago; We have yet another crossover, but this one even got Helen to question if this is one crossover too far; meanwhile Justin got to discuss a crossover that at least makes more sense in context — Precure and DoReMi — but now wonders what will this franchise cross over with next?