Toonami Absolution

In 2007, Hideaki Anno released the first of four films re-examining Neon Genesis Evangelion from the beginning. The first question everyone asked was: is it actually different? The answer, for this one, is: sort of.This week on Toonami Absolution, Alyx, Jon, and Sam cover Evangelion: 1.0 You Are (Not) Alone. the first entry in the Rebuild of Evangelion tetralogy, and the beginning of an ambitious project that would take nearly fifteen years to complete.The film covers roughly the first six episodes of the original TV series: Shinji Ikari is called to Tokyo-3 by his estranged father Gendo, placed in Unit-01, and told to fight the Angels, despite having no training, no preparation, and no particular desire to be there. He fights the Fourth Angel, nearly loses himself to the Eva during the process, and slowly forms something approaching a relationship with Rei Ayanami in the lead-up to Operation Yashima, the precision long-range attack against the Fifth Angel Ramiel, here dramatically redesigned from a floating octahedron into a continuously morphing geometric entity that transforms between attacks in a way the 1995 budget could never have managed. Kaworu Nagisa makes a very brief appearance at the end that should not be possible given where he appears in the TV series timeline, in a scene that the film declines to explain.Much of 1.0 plays as a faithful, shot-for-shot re-animation with a significantly upgraded budget, the city of Tokyo-3, the Angel designs, the synchronisation sequences all look extraordinary. What it does not do, yet, is substantially diverge from the story everyone already knows. That comes later. We discuss what 1.0 accomplishes on its own terms, what it means as an entry point versus a re-entry point, how the Ramiel sequence elevates the source material, and what that final scene is setting up for 2.0.🔔 Subscribe for our ongoing watch-through of Toonami and Adult Swim's most iconic anime films and series!

Nappa has been functionally unstoppable for four episodes. Then Goku arrives. Then Nappa has approximately ninety seconds of screen time remaining.This week on Toonami Absolution, Alyx, Jon, and Sam cover Ocean Dub Episodes 22 and 23: "Goku Strikes Back" and "Goku vs. Vegeta... A Saiyan Duel!""Goku Strikes Back" gives Nappa precisely as much of a fight as he deserves: Goku dodges his every attack with casual effort, lands a blow for each friend Nappa sent to the Other Dimension. Nappa crawls to Vegeta for help, but Vegeta throws him into the sky and destroys him for the crime of being weak, which is one of the series' early great character moments.Then "Goku vs. Vegeta... A Saiyan Duel!" opens the real fight, and immediately establishes that these two are not comparable to anything that came before. Vegeta is stronger, faster, and strategically smarter than Nappa in every way. The episode also contains the Ocean Dub's infamous claim that Goku's father Bardock was "a brilliant scientist," which is not a description that applies to Bardock in any version of events, and which has never been satisfactorily explained.We get into why this fight is so good, why early Vegeta just works, and the brilliant scientist situation.🔔 Subscribe for our ongoing watch-through of Dragon Ball Z in the Ocean Dub!📌 Topics covered this episode: – DBZ Ocean Dub Episode 22 "Goku Strikes Back" recap & review – DBZ Ocean Dub Episode 23 "Goku vs. Vegeta... A Saiyan Duel!" recap & review

The Joker has been dead for years. The new Batman is a teenager from the future. And Warner Bros were keen to cut it to ribbons, this Bonk gets hit with Joker gas, a satellite laser chase has seatbelts added, and a Bugs Bunny cartoon is muted because a character says "I wish I were dead."This week on Toonami Absolution, Alyx, Jon, and Sam cover Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker (2000), and we are going to talk a lot about the censored cut.The film opens in a future Gotham where Terry McGinnis has been Batman for some time, and a new gang of Joker-themed criminals, the Jokerz, are suddenly operating with equipment far beyond what a street gang should have access to. Then the Joker himself shows up, physically present, at full power, exactly as he always was, and nobody can explain how.Even worse, Bruce won’t tell Terry what happened to the original Joker. Until we learn in the worst possible way, Tim Drake, the second Robin, was kidnapped by the Joker and Harley Quinn and subjected to three weeks of physical and psychological torture until the Joker had transformed him into a miniature version of himself. However, through sheer force of will, Tim turned the Joker's own weapon on him and fired, ending both the crown prince of crime and his life as a crimefighter.It is darker and more violent than previous animation Batman offerings, and naturally, Warner Bros were not having any of it, creating a censored cut that must be seen to be believed. Bonk's clearly lethal spear-to-the-chest becomes ambiguous Joker gas; the Joker's knife is removed and replaced with a punch (but not the wound caused by the knife, leading to a really dumb plot hole); and a Bugs Bunny cartoon playing in the background was muted because a cartoon character says "I wish I were dead." We’re going to talk about all of them and question if, censorship aside, Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker still holds up.🔔 Subscribe for our ongoing watch-through of Batman: The Animated Series, Batman Beyond, and the DC Animated Universe!

The three-hour wait is over. Goku still isn't there. So, Piccolo makes the most important decision of the Saiyan Saga.This week on Toonami Absolution, Alyx, Jon, and Sam cover Ocean Dub Episodes 20 and 21: "Time's Up!" and "The Return of Goku.""Time's Up!" closes the three-hour window and opens on Nappa, refreshed, resuming his methodical destruction of what remains of Earth's defenders. Gohan and Krillin are running on empty. Piccolo is doing what he can. The episode builds its entire tension on a single question: can these three survive long enough to get help from Goku? Nappa targets Gohan with a point-blank blast. Piccolo steps in front of it, giving himself for the boy he’s grown to love. Alas, with Piccolo gone, Kami goes too, and with Kami goes the Dragon Balls. Every wish. Every resurrection. Every plan that involved gathering the balls is now off the table.Thus, when Goku lands on the battlefield, he attacks Nappa with a brutality we’ve never seen him employ, easily dominating Nappa and bouncing him around the place like a pinball, making it clear that Goku will not let his friends’ pain go unpunished.We talk about what Piccolo's sacrifice does for both characters, Oceans’ terrible attempt at censoring this episode, and why Goku's arrival hits as hard as it does after twenty episodes of build.🔔 Subscribe for our ongoing watch-through of Dragon Ball Z in the Ocean Dub!📌 Topics covered this episode: – DBZ Ocean Dub Episode 20 "Time's Up!" recap & review – DBZ Ocean Dub Episode 21 "The Return of Goku" recap & review

I've Got Batman in My Basement is widely considered one of the weakest in the entire series. Heart of Ice won an Emmy and redefined a villain for every medium that followed. These two episodes air back to back.This week on Toonami Absolution, Alyx, Jon, and Sam cover Episodes 13 and 14: "I've Got Batman in My Basement" and "Heart of Ice.""I've Got Batman in My Basement" introduces the Penguin, here designed to resemble Danny DeVito's portrayal in Batman Returns. His Fabergé egg heist goes wrong when Batman confronts his giant South American vulture. However, Batman soon gets it worse as he gets sprayed with nerve gas from Penguin’s umbrella, staggers into the Batmobile, and collapses. Thankfull, two children see this and quickly drive the Batmobile through the streets of Gotham before hiding Batman on their basement couch. The episode is not the series at its best. It is, however, the Trope Namer for a specific kind of story, which is something.Then "Heart of Ice" arrives and everything changes. Written by Paul Dini, directed by Bruce Timm, voiced by Michael Ansara, and designed by Hellboy creator Mike Mignola, this is the episode that took Mr. Freeze, a gimmick villain from a 1959 Batman comic, and turned him into a genuine tragic figure. Victor Fries was a cryogenics scientist who froze his terminally ill wife Nora in a stasis chamber he built himself, hoping to keep her alive until a cure could be found. However, GothCorp CEO Ferris Boyle had him thrown into the chemicals to shut the project down. Freeze survived, transformed, and has spent however long since building a weapon and a revenge list. The episode won a Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Writing in an Animated Program. Its version of Mr. Freeze's origin has been used in virtually every subsequent adaptation, including Batman & Robin.We discuss the jarring tonal whiplash of watching these two episodes back to back, what makes "Heart of Ice" a landmark in animated television, and what Paul Dini and Bruce Timm understood about Mr. Freeze that sixty years of comics hadn't.🔔 Subscribe for our ongoing episode-by-episode watch-through of Batman: The Animated Series!📌 Topics covered this episode: – Batman: TAS Episode 13 "I've Got Batman in My Basement" recap & review – Batman: TAS Episode 14 "Heart of Ice" recap & review

A boy wakes up as a Squirtle, and before he can asks questions he is immediately conscripted into a Pokémon rescue team. Just a normal day in the Pokémon world!This week on Toonami Absolution, Alyx, Jon, and Sam cover Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Team Go-Getters Out of the Gate!, the 2006 Cartoon Network special that served to promote the then-new Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Red Rescue Team and Blue Rescue Team.The special opens on a boy who has woken up as a Squirtle, in a Pokémon world now beset by natural disasters. He soon meets a Charmander and Chikorita, who immediately identify him as a potential rescue team member for Team Go-Getters. Their first mission arrives quickly: Pichu's older brother Pikachu has been kidnapped by a rogue Skarmory. Team Go-Getters set off to rescue him — only to encounter Team Meanies, a rival rescue team led by the scheming Gengar, who would very much like to be the one who saves the day. So the two teams quickly race to the mountain, hoping to be the ones to grab the glory for themselves!We talk about how this special captures the Pokémon Mystery Dungeon series' specific atmosphere in a 30-minute runtime, if its worth finding today, and if Pokémon rewired the millennial mind.🔔 Subscribe for our ongoing watch-through of Toonami and Adult Swim's most iconic anime and animated specials!

Chiaotzu self-destructs. Tien fires a Tri-Beam until he can’t go on any more. Alas, Nappa walks away from both without a scratch. Also, nobody in this dub is dying. They are being sent to the Other Dimension. We need you to know how many times they say this.This week on Toonami Absolution, Alyx, Jon, and Sam cover Ocean Dub Episodes 18 and 19: "Nappa... The Invincible?" and "Tien Goes All Out!!,” and officially reached our limit with the "Other Dimension" euphemism."Nappa... The Invincible?" picks up from the Saibamen massacre with Nappa himself stepping into the field. His first move is to rip off Tien's arm. The dub, unable to depict this as a permanent injury, gives us Tien telling Nappa to "just wait until that grows back!,” which Tien has never demonstrated the ability to do and never will. Chiaotzu, with no other options, latches onto Nappa's back and self-destructs, which does absolutely nothing to slow Nappa down.Tien, now one-armed and running on fumes and grief, fires his Tri-Beam, pouring every remaining joule of his life force into an attack that still doesn't put Nappa down, with terrible results (that the dub didn’t want to show)Vegeta, keen to fight Goku, calls a three-hour truce before sending Nappa off to amuse himself by destroying helicopters and an entire navy. But, when Goku fails to show, Piccolo is left trying to find a way to take down the two Saiyans with what little energy he has left. The episode ends with Nappa powering up for the next assault while Gohan and Krillin realize that the answer to "can they stop this" is probably no.We break down the Ocean Dub's increasingly strained commitment to the fiction that nobody is dying, why Chiaotzu and Tien's send-off still hits despite the editing, and how many times in two episodes someone is sent to the Other Dimension.🔔 Subscribe for our ongoing watch-through of Dragon Ball Z in the Ocean Dub!📌 Topics covered this episode: – DBZ Ocean Dub Episode 18 "Nappa... The Invincible?" recap & review – DBZ Ocean Dub Episode 19 "Tien Goes All Out!!" recap & review

Harvey Dent is gone. Two-Face is here. He has a plan, a coin, and a vendetta. And somehow, this week, Batman's biggest challenge isn't stopping a supervillain, it's convincing a mob boss to talk to a Catholic Priest.This week on Toonami Absolution, Alyx, Jon, and Sam cover Episodes 11 and 12: "Two-Face, Part 2" and "It's Never Too Late.""Two-Face, Part 2" opens with Gotham's criminal underworld realizing something has changed. Two-Face, now operating with a crew of his own and a very specific obsession with the number two, has been systematically dismantling Rupert Thorne's criminal operation. Naturally, Thorne puts out a two million dollar bounty on him (one million per face, he says with typical Gotham criminal wit) and then realises that the fastest way to get to Two-Face is through Grace, his former fiancée, who Two-Face has been secretly watching over her from a distance. Naturally, this leads to a painful confrontation, where Bruce is force to stop his former friend while also protecting him against a mob who are keen to end his story once and for all.Then "It's Never Too Late" pivots entirely. Rupert Thorne is now losing a mob war against Gotham's previous reigning crime lord, ageing boss Arnold Stromwell. Stromwell's son Joey is missing and he's convinced Thorne has him. Batman, naturally, decides to play Ghost Of Christmas Yet To Come and takes Stromwell on what amounts to a very grim tour of Gotham, showing him his ex-wife, his estranged brother Michael who lost a leg saving Arnold from a childhood train accident that Arnold let himself believe was more serious, and his son Joey, who is currently in a rehabilitation centre. So if you’ve ever wanted to see the Batman x Catholic Church crossover, this is the episode for you!We discuss how "Two-Face, Part 2" compares to Part 1, if the silver dollar scene is a god ending, and how "It's Never Too Late" is a brave but weird attempt to make Batman more than a dude who punches stuff.🔔 Subscribe for our ongoing episode-by-episode watch-through of Batman: The Animated Series!📌 Topics covered this episode: – Batman: TAS Episode 11 "Two-Face, Part 2" recap & review – Batman: TAS Episode 12 "It's Never Too Late" recap & review