Toonami Absolution

"Lovesick" and "Transcript." One episode about Space Ghost losing the love of his life. One episode that is almost entirely a Jonathan Richman concert.Alyx, Jon, and Sam cover Space Ghost: Coast to Coast Season 3, Episodes 3 and 4 this week, and it's worth noting upfront that "Lovesick" exists because the show's creator Mike Lazzo went through a breakup."Lovesick" aired on Valentine's Day, 1996, which tells you everything about the intent. Space Ghost has been dumped and refuses to engage with the show in any meaningful way. Carrot Top appears to do Carrot Top things. None of us here understand how Carrot Top was able to sustain a career in comedy, so if you understand Carrot Top, please send an email to the usual address. Then "Transcript" is its own strange thing: Jonathan Richman, founder of The Modern Lovers appears on the show and plays songs and has very weird conversations with Space Ghost. The episode is called "Transcript" because it essentially is one, a fairly faithful record of whatever happened between George Lowe and Jonathan Richman on the day of recording. It’s one of the oddest episodes of the show, especially if you’re not familiar with Jonathan Richman.We discuss what Coast to Coast is doing right in season 3, why "Transcript" is one of the show's most interesting episodes, and debate if Carrot Top is a way of punishing us.📌 This episode covers: – Space Ghost: Coast to Coast S3E3 "Lovesick" (feat. Carrot Top) – Space Ghost: Coast to Coast S3E4 "Transcript" (feat. Jonathan Richman)

One OVA to celebrate fifty years of Lupin III. With two resurrected villain who drop Lupin into his own past only to learn what makes Lupin and his friends so special. This is a very specific kind of anniversary special.Alyx, Jon, and Sam cover Lupin the Third: Is Lupin Still Burning?, the 2018 OVA made to mark fifty years of the franchise, directed by Jun Kawagoe with Monkey Punch himself serving as general director. (Oddly, this is the only Lupin movie to end up on Toonami or Adult Swim, no idea why).The setup is a direct callback to the very first episode of the original 1971 Green Jacket series: Lupin is participating in a car race at the Hida Speedway, hosted by the supposedly dead Mr. X, while Zenigata is also in the race and Fujiko is attempting to steal from a vault on the premises. Mr. X turns out to be very much alive, and is in business with the time-manipulating villain Kyosuke Mamo, who displaces Lupin from the present timeline and sends him ricocheting through pivotal moments in his own history.The OVA's conceit is that Lupin, bumbling through his own timeline, is accidentally unwriting the relationships that define his entire life, and has to find a way to correct them without Mamo noticing. Zenigata follows him through all of it, apparently completely unaware that the timeline is shifting, because Zenigata is simply built differently. The ending leans hard into the idea that the Lupin gang is essentially cosmically inevitable, that no amount of interference can actually keep them apart, which is exactly what a fiftieth anniversary special should be doing.We discuss where the OVA sits in the wider Lupin III catalogue and how it works both as a standalone entry and as a dense bundle of franchise references.🔔 Subscribe for our ongoing coverage of the Lupin III franchise and everything else in the Toonami lineage!

Episode 9: Forged travel documents. Prison sentence. Mugen fetch quest. Forest full of bandits. Warrior monks. Large quantity of weird burning plants. Hallucinations. Chase sequence. Episode 10: Jin does the housework, while Mugen recreates Samurai Showdown on the NeoGeo. It’s a week of contrasts.Alyx, Jon, and Sam cover "Beatbox Bandits" and "Lethal Lunacy" this week, Episodes 9 and 10 of Samurai Champloo, a pair of episodes that are basically polar opposites."Beatbox Bandits" is told in flashback by an elderly checkpoint guard named Yamane the Ogre, reflecting on the one day in his career he never wrote into the official logbook. Mugen, Fuu, and Jin get caught with forged travel permits at the Hakone checkpoint, are sentenced to death, and Mugen is offered a deal: deliver a package through a nearby forest of bandits by sunset, or his friends face the consequences. The forest turns out to contain warrior monks who are plotting to overthrow the government. Mugen naturally tries to fight them, but when their crops set on fire things quickly take a turn for the weird.Then "Lethal Lunacy" is another episode built around Mugen. A Shaolin-trained swordsman who has developed a technique powerful enough to split a boulder is looking for someone worthy to fight. He finds Mugen, and the two prepare for an epic duel. Jin, meanwhile, has decided to get domestic.We discuss the specific genius of "Beatbox Bandits'" framing device, how "Lethal Lunacy" uses its fight to say something about the difference between Mugen's style and any trained tradition, and why Jin might be the best househusband ever.🔔 Subscribe for our ongoing episode-by-episode watch-through of Samurai Champloo!

Season 3. New Seaon. Same Ghost Planet. Lokar is trying to steal Moltar. Space Ghost is about to replace his entire production staff with a machine, this can only go well?This week, Alyx, Jon, and Sam cover "Explode" and "$20.01,” the first two episodes of Space Ghost: Coast to Coast Season 3, a season where Coast To Coast finally works out what it wants to be."Explode" opens with a subplot that would feel at home in a soap opera: Lokar, a villain from the original 1960s Space Ghost cartoon, has been recruiting Moltar to come work for him instead, At the same time, Space Ghost is jointed by Terry Jones of Monty Python fame, and Glen Phillips of Toad the Wet Sprocket, a band name that will mean nothing to you if you were born after the year 2000.Then "$20.01" arrives with a very specific premise, an episode long parody of Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey. Space Ghost fires both Zorak and Moltar and replaces them with MOE 2000, an emotionless computer director voiced by executive producer Keith Crofford. Joel Hodgson, creator of Mystery Science Theater 3000, and Penn & Teller are the guests, and as you can likely guess, Space Ghost quickly finds that his automated show plan isn’t going to go as smoothly as he would hope.We get into what Season 3 is doing differently from what came before, why the Lokar subplot is a perfect encapsulation of how Coast to Coast uses lore without committing to it, and question why Joel Hodgson struggled in his interview, despite previously writing episodes for the show.🔔 Subscribe and follow along as we cover every episode of Space Ghost: Coast to Coast in order!📌 This episode covers: – Space Ghost: Coast to Coast S3E1 "Explode" (feat. Terry Jones & Glen Phillips) – Space Ghost: Coast to Coast S3E2 "$20.01" (feat. Joel Hodgson & Penn and Teller)

It has been one year. We have watched a lot of things. Some of them were great. Some of them were Tony Hawk In Boom Boom Sabotage. It is time to hand out some awards.This week on Toonami Absolution, Alyx, Jon, and Sam mark one full year of episodes with a special retrospective, a cross between an awards show and a group therapy session, looking back over everything we've covered from the very beginning, from Space Ghost: Coast to Coast to Bojack Unbound, and handing out awards for the best and worst of what we've seen.We're giving out awards across a range of categories, from good ones like Best Movie, the Miyazaki Handicap Award (for movie we didn’t expect to enjoy as much a we did), and Best Episode. To bad ones like Worst Movie (its Tony Hawk, it will always be Tony Hawk), the Bruce Timm Award for thing we loved but the creator hated, and Worst Space Ghost guest (the Jerky Boyz, naturally).A year ago we started with the goal of watching the entire history of Toonami and Adult Swim. Since then we’ve expanded to go on numerous tangents (remember that month we watched a load of Resident Evil, just because we got overly fixated on Leon? Good times). We have barely scratched the surface, but we are having a great time.Thank you for watching with us. Let’s hope the next 52 weeks are just as good.(Let’s also hope that nothing is worse than Boom Boom Sabotage)🔔 Subscribe for our ongoing watch-through of Toonami and Adult Swim's greatest shows, films, and the things that surprised us more than they had any right to!📌 Anniversary awards categories include: -Best Movie Of The Year-Worst Movie Of The Year-Miyazaki Handicap Award [Movie You Liked, Despite Not Expecting To Going In]-Favourite Episode-Yamcha Of The Year [Character We Talk About Way Too Much]-The Bruce Timm Creator Award [Something we liked that the creator didn’t]-Monster of the Year [Favourite monster/monster adjacent thing]-Worst Space Ghost Guest/Worst Guest Star-Weirdest Episode Of The Year

Alyx loves Bungo Stray Dogs. Jon and Sam have not seen it. Can they understand Bungo Stray Dogs: Dead Apple, a movie that comes after season 2? One that features an evil fog, Fyodor Dostoyevsky rambling about crime and punishment, and a man who lives in a massive evil tower that is randomly in the middle of a major metropolitan area.This week on Toonami Absolution, Alyx, Jon, and Sam cover Bungo Stray Dogs: Dead Apple (2018), the theatrical film produced by Bones, set after the events of Season 2, and a film that has sparked a lot of fan debate as to its meaning and position in the franchise (yet Jon and Sam are doomed).Six years after the Dragon's Head Conflict, a white-haired man named Tatsuhiko Shibusawa triggers the appearance of a strange fog in Yokohama, one that separates an ability from its user and manifests it as a physical entity with a single goal, destroy the person it came from. The more users die, the stronger Shibusawa becomes, feeding on the collected abilities. The Armed Detective Agency is commissioned by Ango Sakaguchi's Special Division to capture Shibusawa before the city is destroyed.At the same time, Fyodor Dostoyevsky is acting as Shibusawa's right hand man, pushing him to do something that he claims will make Shibusawa better, but in reality will just make Dostoyevsky stronger. All the while, Nakajima is going through a crisis of confidence, one that will turn out to be very relevant to the overall story and may hold the key to getting rid of this fog once and for all.We discuss how the film works as a standalone movie versus as a companion to the series, whether Dead Apple's plot actually makes sense, and why Bones are somehow able to get away with this mess thanks to their amazing animation.🔔 Subscribe for our ongoing watch-through of Toonami and Adult Swim's most iconic anime films and series!

Fuu's purse being stolen by a thief who turns out to have a completely sympathetic reason for what he's doing, but that won’t mean there are not consequences. The other episode is about Jin being challenged by a singing swordsman who has hired two beatboxers as his travelling accompanists.This week on Toonami Absolution, Alyx, Jon, and Sam cover Episodes 7 and 8: "A Risky Racket" and "The Art of Altercation.""A Risky Racket" opens with Fuu's purse being stolen by a young thief named Shinsuke who is stealing to fund his ailing mother's medical treatment. This puts Fuu in an awkward situation as Mugen and Jin are keen to get their money back and likely won’t see the funny side. Plus, Shinsuke has also angered the mafia, meaning that his nobility might be his undoing.Then "The Art of Altercation" arrives with a different energy entirely: a swordsman named Inuyaka, who sings as he fights, has been challenging every bespectacled samurai he can find in search of Jin. He becomes infatuated with Fuu, who accidentally leads him right to Jin, finally giving us a little hint at the backstory that Jin has worked so hard to hide, one that paints him in a totally different light.We discuss why "A Risky Racket" might be anime’s best anti-capitalist story, what "The Art of Altercation" tells us about Jin that the series hasn't shown directly yet, and why Samurai Champloo is at its best when its messing with the audience.🔔 Subscribe for our ongoing watch-through of Samurai Champloo from the very beginning!📌 Topics covered this episode: – Samurai Champloo Episode 7 "A Risky Racket" recap & review – Samurai Champloo Episode 8 "The Art of Altercation" recap & review

A weird scientist who reads too much Lewis Carroll and has developed mind-control technology, decides its time for tea. The Batman gets locked up in Arkham Asylum, while the Scarecrow poisons the water supply. It is an odd week all round.This week on Toonami Absolution, Alyx, Jon, and Sam cover Episodes 27 and 28: "Mad as a Hatter" and "Dreams in Darkness,” the final episodes of Batman: The Animated Series Volume 1."Mad as a Hatter" introduces Jervis Tetch (voiced by Roddy McDowall) a scientist at Wayne Research who has developed microchip technology capable of controlling anyone wearing it. He is also, in his private life, completely consumed by Alice in Wonderland and desperately in love with his colleague Alice. When he learns Alice has a boyfriend, he snaps and decide to use his new tech to cause chaos around Gotham and claim her for himself. What’s especially weird about this episode is that Hatter doesn't have an external origin, no accident, no betrayal, no tragedy, he’s just broken from the start, and despite what Paul Dini and Bruce Timm say, he’s in no way sympathetic. Then "Dreams in Darkness" sees Batman get sprayed with Scarecrow’s newest fear gas, something that leads to him crashing his car and ending up in Arkham Asylum. So, now he has to find a way out of Arkham before Scarecrow can pollute all of Gotham’s water supply, which is under Arkham Asylum for reasons that make zero sense.We discuss what McDowall brings to the Mad Hatter, question why all of the production notes call the Mad Hatter sympathetic, and question if "Dreams in Darkness" is really the best way to end a volume of the show.🔔 Subscribe for our ongoing episode-by-episode watch-through of Batman: The Animated Series!📌 Topics covered this episode: – Batman: TAS Episode 27 "Mad as a Hatter" recap & review — the Mad Hatter's debut – Batman: TAS Episode 28 "Dreams in Darkness" recap & review

A rich dude decides that the best way to celebrate his kid’s birthday is to have Mr. Satan punch a load of aliens. Goku watches this whole thing from heaven. The movie never quite finds a plot its happy with.This week on Toonami Absolution, Alyx, Jon, and Sam cover Dragon Ball Z: Bojack Unbound (1993), the ninth DBZ film, the only one set after the Cell Saga, and the one where Gohan is finally, properly the main character.Mr. X.S. Cash is funding an intergalactic martial arts tournament as a birthday present for his son, one where 200 fighters compete for the chance to go one-on-one with Mr. Satan. Naturally, Krillin, Gohan, Yamcha, Future Trunks, Tien, and Piccolo all enter, surprising Mr. Satan despite the fact all these people do is enter fighting tournments.Even worse, the aliens X.S. Cashed hired are taken out by Bojack, a massive, green-skinned pirate lord sealed away by all four Kais before the series began. A pirate who was released when Goku's decision to teleport Cell to King Kai's planet broke the seal. Thus, Gohan is forced to step up and follow in his father’s footsteps by giving Bojack a fight he’ll never forget.We rank Bojack against the other DBZ films, discuss why this film makes no sense, and try to work out exactly what accent Bojack is meant to have.🔔 Subscribe for our ongoing watch-through of the DBZ film catalogue!