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Show Notes
0:00: Happy New Year! Justin and Helen hope you all have a great 2021.
Main Topic #1: Fall Anime 2020 Season wrap-up
1:25: Justin and Helen talk about the absolute mountain of anime they watched this Fall Anime season. In no order here’s the anime they discussed:
Digimon Adventure 2020, Wandering Witch, Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear, Katana Maidens: Tomoshibi, BURN THE WITCH, Love Live! Nijigasaki High School Idol Club, Talentless Nana, Akudama Drive, Sleepy Princess in the Demon Castle, Rail Romanesque, With a Dog and a Cat, Every Day is Fun, Golden Kamuy Season 3, Attack on Titan Final Season, Higurashi Gou, Dragon Quest: The Adventure of Dai, Jujutsu Kaisen, Moriarty the Patriot, Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear, Fire Force Season 2, Haikyu!! to the Top Part 2, By the Grace of the Gods.
Justin also discusses Yashahime…as what he’ll watch after first finishing Inuyasha: The Final Act. Let’s just say it’s taken him way too long.
Main Topic #2: The Top Weird News of 2020
1:11:04: Just when you thought everything would’ve gone smoothly with Tokyo Babylon, GoHands personally took time to prove it’s not going to be the case!
1:12:30: Let’s just say a parent learned of something their kid was assigned in class and Dr. Susan Napier’s book ended up getting looked at by Ohio lawmakers, and threats have been made to Kent State University over it!
1:15:30: Justin had to note Hiromu Arakawa bringing back a manga she started back in…2005?
1:17:43: The S.H.Figuarts Son Goku Ultra Instinct “Sign” figures are now deep, deep into the sea after Mother Nature appeared while a ship was heading to California.
1:19:50: There’s finally a manga where a rooster will defend humanity from the threat of monsters, and Justin can only hope that’s not the only gimmick for it.
1:21:32: Now a look back at 2020, which, if COVID-19 didn’t happen, Hatsune Miku and Kyary Pamyu Pamyu would’ve performed at Coachella.
1:22:14: When a work goes from April Fools to an actual serialization! Yuruyuri’s Akane is now a slime in this one.
1:22:56: Many things happened for the popular Demon Slayer franchise, but having Tanjiro turn into a grape by the Hong Kong police wasn’t something one could imagine!
1:24:05: Some weird things happened to creators, and whatever happened to Haru Futaba and Shueisha tops the cake in terms of weirdness going on behind the scenes.
1:25:07: Someone thought it’d be a good idea to dub The Island of Giant Insects. Apparently no one else did as it fell well short of its $82,397 goal on Kickstarter. And yet, it got a second chance! That ended up succeeding.
1:26:48: Also someone thought it’d be a good idea to turn Ex-Arm into an anime. Actually, the idea of doing that isn’t a problem — how it’s being executed, however, is a major problem. And Crunchyroll seemingly distancing themselves from it (They have yet to share this on their socials) is a sign that if this first episode that airs goes poorly, they might regret not dumping it with their cash for a while.
1:29:52: Vic doing something that makes absolutely no sense? Don’t think this shocks any of the hosts! Just, did he have to take Funko with him?
1:31:16: We’re surely all looking forward to Vertical eventually licensing and then releasing this latest NISIOISIN novel, right?
1:32:13: The weird news comes in many versions, and it can come in ways where box art shouldn’t actually be weird news. But the Naruto Triple Feature Collector’s Edition earned its way to this list!
1:33:54: While Uri Geller informing everyone on Twitter that he has ended his battle with The Pokemon Company over the use of Kadabra on merch is kinda weird, Justin not knowing this until this year when it’s been a battle for 20 years is the weirdest thing out of this one.
1:34:53: Bruce Willis did an ad that turned him into Doraemon, and both Justin and Helen note where all the expenses must’ve went.
1:35:57: This was a year you had to keep up with politics in 2020, though some may have taken it a bit too far. Like this musician who decided to cosplay as Lelouch while on his campaign run. (It led to Sunrise having to comment on it!)
1:37:08: Retrocrush has done some good in bringing some classic titles and making them official, but they did have some errors. Helen will continue to wonder what has happened to The Story of Saiunkoku, but she and everyone else will also wonder what they were on when they decided to put an unauthorized fansub up of Magical Idol Pastel Yumi on their service.
1:40:44: Yes it originated from YouTube but it’s still mystifying to the hosts as to why Shirou trends on October 20.
1:41:43: Right Stuf did something where they allowed people to order a really good looking life-sized figure of Rem…for over $40,000, basically.
1:43:40: If you’re going to make your bootleg Pokemon figures, at least make them look like them!
1:44:47: This has obviously been a long year, but there’s no way can’t forget we had a year where had a Florida Congressional candidate accused Dragon Ball Z as being one of the top issues of anime porn.
1:46:17: Or that time where Eric Trump believed Google was pushing an agenda when instead of a mob of people, you find Mob instead.
1:49:17: And in the final bit of weird news for 2020…if you thought this actually happened last year we’d understand, but everything that happened with Interspecies Reviewers happened in 2020. So to understand how crazy this was:
- Helen did review the manga, Justin did finally give it a look, and both agree it’s lewd.
- Yet somehow, someway, the anime was much lewdier than the manga!
- This led to Funimation dropping it after the third episode. Much discussion occurred across the internet about this. Then before you know it, multiple Japanese TV stations dropped it because they realized this is actually too lewd to show on TV!
Some JP stations did actually pick it up at some point, and Rightstuf is now going to be releasing Interspecies Reviewers on home video. But the damage was done, and that was when Justin declared there would be no other weird news that could top this one. None did.