It's Not My Fault The OASG Podcast Is Not Popular!

Show Notes 0:00: Justin and Helen once again find some time to share what they’ve been up to…ok, only Justin has a title he liked a lot, and it’s published by TOKYOPOP! News 5:53: The hosts then get into discuss Crunchyroll’s latest troubles, ranging from layoffs to a possible security breach that also gets Justin to discuss reporting in the big 2026. 21:02: A couple episodes ago the hosts discussed one live event being cancelled in Japan due to threats — now we’ve gotten another one, this time involving Love Live! and Japan Airlines. 23:02: The Culprit Hanzawa manga is going on hiatus for an unspecified time; meanwhile Kōji Kumeta suffered a finger injury, so he’ll be on hiatus until that heals up. Let’s just say his explanation on how he suffered the cut is indeed hilarious. 24:55: Saint Seiya Episode.G: Requiem is back on Akita Shoten’s Champion Cross website following a 3-month hiatus; Naoki Urasawa’s Asadora is now also back from its hiatus, returning to Shogakukan’s Weekly Big Comic Spirits; and we have another manga magazine in Japan ending publication — Kadokawa’s Comic Alunna. 26:23: The alternative rock band the pillows announced that the band’s drummer, Shinichiro Sato, died on March 23 due to esophageal cancer; The editorial staff of Kodansha’s Weekly Shōnen Magazine announced a few weeks ago that manga creator Majuro Kaname died in February; and publisher Chikuma Shobo announced that manga creator, Yoshiharu Tsuge, died of aspiration pneumonia at the age of 88. Licenses 30:16: For whatever reason, Titan Manga decided it was finally time to announce what they’re up to for this year: FLIPFLOPs’s Darwin’s Game Arata Yamaji’s Egnaro the Star-Eating Killer Shin Kazuki’s Even After Doronjo-sama Was Reincarnated She Remained a Villainess  kamatama’s Nova, Little Girl in the Monster Forest Zino’s Resident Evil: Death Island Touko Amekawa, Kuroyuki, & Nae Serizawa’s The Legendary Witch is Reborn as an Oppressed Princess manga Togawa Yonan’s Black Witch Mirror Tatsuya Tobitaka’s Ifrit of the Sea Sand Yasuo Isanami’s The Obsession of Red Riding Hood 32:29: Seven Seas’ Wonderful Wednesdays is back! Post Media-Do acquisition, which means the following series will be under scrutiny (unless mentioned otherwise) on how it’ll be handled: NEMUI ASADA’s I SAY Kazumi Takayama & tae’s Trapezium (Airship) Suzusuke, Shibanobancha, Yu Yagami, & Sumihei’s The One-Eyed, One-Armed, One-Legged Sorcerer Betty Tamamori’s Your Meteor, Hidden in Flowers Atsushi Suga’s A Quirky Girl is Inviting Me to Bed (Ghost Ship) TATAL & Masuda Mikio’s Legend of the Accidental Sword Saint: Playing the Mentor from the Sidelines (Airship, digital) A Siren audiobook release of Haka Tokura’s Magical Buffs: The Support Caster is Stronger Than He Realized!, narrated by Josh Hurley 34:32: (New manga) publisher Mahjong Pros appears to finally be establishing itself this year, as they announced they’ve licensed the following titles: Hideki Ohwara’s Reform with No Wasted Draws: The Legend of Koizumi Yoshiki Suda & Mio Junta’s Crybaby Mermaid: Illustrated Memoir of Yuumi Uotani Bingo Morihashi & Drill Jill’s Getter Robo High  Ayato Sasakura’s Vermilion Stella: Illustrated Memoir of Arisa Date 36:55: Yen Press had a good amount of announcements ahead of their yearly Sakuracon appearance: Shōichi Taguchi & Sugaru Miaki’s Three Days of Happiness manga (YP already pubbed the novel) Mitsubachi Miyuki’s I’m Just in a Faux BL  Suzuka Morino’s Servant Beast  Watomura’s I’m Home, Pardoning the Intrusion  Ayune Araragi’s Ms. Isshiki Wants to Know About Love Kazune Yamamoto’s What Six Survivors Told……  Gen Momoji’s Let’s Go Nirvana! Satori Kōnosu’s Thus Spoke the Rabbit  Kazuaki Kurihara & Akane Terai’s The Succubus Meets Her Match  Yukari Amatsu’s Mage of Reda Takemachi, SeuKaname, & tomari’s Spy Classroom 4th Period: Blazing Fire Numa Egaki’s How to Handle My Sassy Big Sis Ballad Kitaguni, Genshō Yasuda, & Nyum’s Ayakashi à la Mode (Yen On) Itsuki Yomukae, Scottie, & Barikios’s Why Run? My Summoned Beast Is Cute! (Yen On) An omnibus edition of Yoshiki Tonogai’s JUDGE 38:43: Usually Justin or manga enthusiasts looking at retailers catch TOKYOPOP licensing lots of things without them saying anything for like months — but it finally seems like TOKYOPOP’s getting around to announcing what they have on time: Lemon Fujikura’s My One-Sided Love Hinako Yugumo’s If I Could Write My Love Into You Kisa Inami’s Blue Spring in Your Eyes Jiro Ōnishi’s How to Befriend a Demon Kana’s Our Lucky Future Together Hana Ikuta’s The Shadow and the Flower Toworu Miyata’s Aoharu Once More Kouji Setsu’s Enomoto Is No Angel Toto Tsurui’s Spicy Milk Candy/Toto Tsurui’s Good Hair & Bad Habits Se

Show Notes 0:00: Another episode of Justin and Helen discussing everything they’ve been up to over the past few weeks, which may include a musical and some J-Novel Club reads along the way. The two hosts also get into a bit of nostalgia for no real reason… News 17:30: Last episode, the news of Media Do acquiring Seven Seas just happened like roughly an hour or two before the two hosts started recording. It’s been two weeks, which means more information has come forth, including Media Do and Seven Seas having to make assurances that AI will not be used in any future works moving forward…let’s just say the hosts have some concerns! 27:55: The victim in the Shoichi Yamamoto/Shogakukan scandal released a statement on the entire situation, and that means Justin and Helen have more thoughts on how the company’s handling the situation and how well they can honor the victim’s request while also ensuring their culture will change moving forward. But let’s just say the hosts have worries about how they’ll handle it, considering their history. 37:32: Helen talks about a number of plaintiffs filing a consumer digital privacy class action complaint against Crunchyroll, which alleges that Crunchyroll violated the Video Privacy Protection Act. For her, the timing could not have been any more interesting; Justin meanwhile goes over Dark Horse essentially letting their Founder and CEO Mike Richardson go and what this means for the publisher moving forward. 42:36: RuriDragon will be on hiatus until late April; The Detective is Already Dead Season 2 will not air in the summer, it has been pushed to the Fall season; And I Became a Legend After My 10 Year-Long Last Stand will also be delayed, it’s now planned to air in the summer. 43:48: Chitose in the Ramune Bottle will return following it’s production issues in the Fall season; Tomato Soup is back following maternity leave, which means A Witch Life in Mongol will return next week; and we unfortunately will say goodbye to another Japanese manga magazine, as Mag Garden has ceased publication, and with their comment on why the magazine’s ending, Justin wonders if the manga market shrinking has played a big role. 48:13: Voice actress Yukie Maeda has passed away due to her health; voice actress Masako Ikeda died on March 3 from a cerebral hemorrhage; and Kyoto Animation announced that its president and co-founder Hideaki Hatta died on February 16 — the hosts go over the loss of each of these talents and people, and wish sincere condolences to their family and friends. Licenses 52:57: Titan Manga announced exclusively on ANN that they’ve licensed the following manga for release in 2026: Tomonori Inoue’s Huck the Air Pirate and the Princess of Steam and Shinachiku’s The Regalia of the Underdog; We will see another H.P. Lovecraft novel adapted by Gou Tanabe published by Dark Horse, this one coming in September; and Mad Cave Studios’ imprint Nakama Press, in partnership with Tatsunoko Production, announced on Friday that it will release the first volume of its Casshan manga by writer Mario B. Long and Kusanagi on September 15. 54:41: Justin and Helen brought up DMP/DMG while talking about Blupetal, who just launched a Kickstarter for Sakura Kurihara’s Let Me Fix You last week (and it has already reached its goal); Japan-based indie publisher Red String announced at CitrusCon that they’ve licensed Yoshika Komatsu’s The Elf Husband and Dwarf Wife (will exclusively be on Omoi on March 22) and Arakata’s Funny Bone; The newest Crossed Hearts title has been announced and it’ll be going for their Glam Beat (Yuri) line — Mei Fujimatsu’s Time is a Closet; And we got more Siren audiobooks incoming — 3 of them! 58:19: With Manga Planet closing March 31, we finally know where some of the titles will go — Renta! They’ve announced a special transfer program that will allow Manga Planet users access to chapters/volumes purchased on the service, so happy that some of the titles (they won’t be able to bring them all) will exist in some way, this time on Renta!. Streaming News 59:15: Justin and Helen go into Amazon raising their ad-tier prices for reasons, but hard to say if the reasons are good; Prime has added the Lupin the IIIrd: Zenigata and the Two Lupins net anime to their service. 1:01:18: Helen is now wondering about Justin’s tastes following his enthusiastic announcement of a show he has never watched (Queen’s Blade: Vanquished Queens) that is now available on Oceanveil; If you’re not into 18+ stuff, Oceanveil will also add the Black Jack OVA with an English dub to their service. 1:03:00: More 4K Ghibli is happening in theaters, so be on the lookout for a few of their heralded films in the spring; ODK Media’s North American streaming platform Amasian TV began streaming the Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood anime with the English

Show Notes 0:00: Justin and Helen finally are able to talk about things they’ve been up to!…Well, Justin’s been up to finally watching the new season of Medalist now that it’s on Hulu and experienced paying to go to a theater for the first time since COVID-19 (all for Uma Musume: Beginning of a New Era). Helen on the other hand has finally watched Journal with Witch (2 episodes so far) like the rest of the cool people! The hosts then get ready to talk about the news over the past few weeks. And it begins with one of the worst anime/manga news that’s ever been covered on this podcast. News 6:13: Shogakukan’s Manga ONE editorial department issued a statement and an apology this past Friday regarding manga creator Shōichi Yamamoto, after the editorial department had allowed Yamamoto to publish a new manga on the service under a pen name after he had been arrested and convicted of a sex crime. The details are not only many but it also can be triggering. It’s fairly staggering, so you’ll want to check out Anime News Network and Strict Algorithm for all the details, but a quick summary: Shoichi Yamamoto returned as a writer for Joujin Kamen, with Eri Tsuruyoshi drawing the series in 2022, despite his arrest and conviction of a sex crime in 2020 and making sure the artist was not aware of Yamamoto’s past since he is now known as Hajime Ichiro. An editor for MangaOne was involved in this situation, even going so far as to try and strike a deal with the victim. Once details emerged this past Friday of how awful the crime was and that the publication covered it up, many manga artists — from those working for Shogakukan to those not working for them — were angry and for those working for Shogakukan demanded not only a proper response but to have their works removed from MangaOne. Then Saturday, Shogakukan announced they will set up an investigative committee that will include lawyers to clarify the facts of the situation. Both hosts discuss this horrifying scandal as they know it and what this ultimately says about Shogakukan (21:10) — and as Justin expected (26:48), more news would eventually emerge over time after the episode was recorded on Sunday, and yesterday, while continuing their internal investigation of MangaOne, Shogakukan revealed that Tatsuya Matsuki, the writer for act-age who was convinced of a sex crime in 2020 and dismissed from Shonen Jump with the cancellation of that manga, was hiding under the pen name of Miki Yatsunami while working on a manga on the service (Seisō no Shinri-shi). We at TheOASG send our apologies to the victim, Eri Tsuruyoshi, and those affected by this situation. 26:57: Media Do, considered the largest e-book distributor in Japan (and sold off their shares of MyAnimeList last year) has acquired Seven Seas Entertainment for US $80 million dollars. More details emerged since the two hosts talked about it on Sunday, and it was concerning to where Seven Seas had to put out a statement yesterday. Expect both hosts to again discuss more about this partnership in the next episode. 33:29: The two hosts discuss the “Ring Ring Live in Osaka” concert event put on by the Himitsu no AiPri staff was cancelled due to threats; Helen goes over Sho-Pro Books (Shogakukan-Shueisha Productions) announcing that its contract to publish Marvel Comics titles in Japanese will end on March 31; and Manga Mavericks Books now has a distribution deal with Pathway Book Service and with Gazelle Book Services Ltd for Europe so we’ll be able to see their print books on certain retailers soon. 39:27: The Gift-o’-Animation studio’s founder and former president Satoshi Mori passed way February 20 after battling an illness for some time; Talent agency Haikyō announced in February that voice actor Masaru Ikeda died on January 31; And Kodansha shared on their Instagram that Vertical publishing company’s co-founder and Kodansha USA Editorial Director Ioannis Mentzas passed away a few weeks ago. Licenses 41:55: Last episode the hosts talked about a bunch of companies licensing manga. This episode the two about more things getting licensed by companies, first with VIZ: Hyuganatsu, Minoji Kurata, & Touko Shino’s The Apothecary Diaries: Maomao’s Notes on the Inner Palace Kotoyama’s Call of the Night: Paradise Arc Inio Asano’s Heroes Shuzo Oshimi’s Sound of a Blink Paru Itagaki’s Witching Hour Glitch Productions and Gooseworx & Sakura’s The Amazing Digital Circus Akihisa Maki & Miki Yatsubo’s Albus Changes the World Asato Shima’s The Seaside Where Dragon Boys Dwell Yori Katakura’s Yakuza vs. Cat Esu Omori’s Shiba Inu Rooms Agatha Christie & Aya Nikaidō’s And Then There Were None Renka Misaki & Yūto Suzuki’s Sakamoto Days: Assassin’s Blues LN 3-in-1 edition of Mizuho Kusanagi’s Yona of the Dawn Soshichi Tonari’s Horror Picture Book: Looking at Me, with illustrations by Junji Ito My Hero Academ

Show Notes 0:00: Justin and Helen decide to talk about the news that’s popped up instead of what they’ve been up to as they have many licenses and an anime season to talk about! Starting with Alphapolis acquiring a CG studio, which suggests they’re trying to ramp up their anime production line. News 3:50: The World’s End Harem: Fantasia manga is back after a lengthy hiatus, and it’ll also be released weekly until the manga ends; meanwhile one series that returned — Kai-Hen Wizards — will go back on hiatus after it returned not too long ago. 6:12: My Unique Skill Makes Me OP even at Level 1 will go on hiatus due to artist Mawata’s health issues; Yūgo Kobayashi’s preparing for the new series that he will launch in Shogakukan’s Weekly Big Comic Spirits magazine, so Fermat no Ryōri is going on a temporary hiatus after its 26th chapter; and Kazue Katō announced that her Blue Exorcist manga is going on hiatus as she prepares the manga’s final chapter — this will also involve some changes in her environment. 8:15: There are two anime that Doga Kobo’s involved in that were planned to come out this year. Well, one’s getting moved to 2027 (Roshidere S2) as Inept Villainess will not air in Spring, it’ll instead air in Summer. 10:35: Terminator Zero Season 1 happened and was watched, but not watched enough, as showrunner Mattson Tomlin announced there will be no more seasons of the anime; The talent agency Intention announced that voice actor Kenichi Suzumura is going on hiatus to recover from adjustment disorder. Licenses 12:23: Yen Press decided to announce they licensed this many titles last week: Yuji Iwahara’s Clevatess: The King of Dark Beasts, the Baby, and the Undead Hero Rin Minato’s Hand in Hand with Mu-chan: Lessons from My Autistic Daughter Yūshi Ukai, BanzaiKotobukiDaienkai, & necometal’s Playing Death Games to Put Food on the Table manga Kiyomi Sugishita’s Deep-Sea Aquarium Magmell Yukiaki Kurando & Sōsō Sakakibara’s Then Shall I Kill in Your Stead? Yuki Azuma’s The Blood-Crawling Princess of a Ruined Country Mamoru Hosoda’s Scarlet (Yen On) Nikita Kitagawa’s My Yandere Girlfriend Hiding in the Dungeon Kills Me Over and Over Again (Yen On) Shina Inoguchi’s Don’t Confuse Me, Yamori-kun Haruichi & FromSoftware, Inc’s Elden Ring: Distant Tales Between Risako Natade & Toshiko Machida’s The Demon Bride: “I Love You” Are Frightening Words Petos & Kōji Megumi’s Golden Man A collector’s edition of Tsukumizu’s Girls’ Last Tour 17:31: J-Novel Club also had a lot to announce for whatever reason, which also includes titles in print: The light novel & manga of Hanmenkyoushi’s Starting on Hard Mode: God Levels, Got Problems Yuu Tanaka, Watarinica, & Llo’s The Accursed Chef and His Pair of Furry Foodies manga Yuki Kashirome & icchi’s Fired? But I Maintain All the Software! Mary=Doe & Kuga Huna’s Proud to Be the Villainess: If My Doom Can Be Her Happily Ever After, So Be It! Byakushi & Falmaro’s Reborn to Reign: Imposing My Rules with My Mastery of Magic Satou & Hitakiyuu’s The Path of an S-Rank Adventurer: From Deadweight to Weapon Master Sty & Tumeki’s Return of the Corpse King: Reining in My Cringe Secret Society Ryou Yuuki & Nakamura’s The Reincarnated Mastermind: Sundering Fate with Magic Swords Tama Masaki & Kureta’s Miss Medic’s Diary at War Hachigatsumori & Nat.’s Unsung Epics of the Hero’s Journey Kazuki Minamoto’s All Eyes on Nekoyashiki-kun! Notice Me, Not My Characters (J-Novel Knight) J-Novel Heart imprint Adachi & Kyozip’s Sister Mafioso: O God, Let This Lie Stand Yuji Yuji, Roharu Kai, & Nami Hidaka’s The 100th Time’s the Charm She Was Executed 99 Times, So How Did She Unlock “Super Love” Mode! manga (Print) Fuyu Aoki, Yuyu Kouhara, & Minori Aritani’s Safe & Sound in the Arms of an Elite Knight manga (Print) The light novel and manga of Tadashi Kubou’s The Water Magician light novel & manga (Print) Gabihime & Reine Kuwashima’s The Young Lady Is the Substitute Harvest Goddess in print Will re-release Fuminori Teshima & COMTA’s An Archdemon’s Dilemma: How to Love Your Elf Bride as an Omnibus Edition 22:39: Kodansha had some additions to their Kodansha Print Club line, but interestingly enough one of the titles is new: Shikiso Utsuzawa, Mokuba Matsu, & Pukyunosuke’s Because I, the True Saint, was Banished, that Country is Done For! Kana Nakatsuki’s Don’t Tempt Me, VP! Akamaru Enomoto’s I Have a Crush at Work Akiko Higashimura’s Tokyo Tarareba Girls Returns Kazuto Mihara’s The World Is Dancing Satoshi Morie’s Killing Line Miko Senri’s A Kiss with a Cat (will be released as 2-in-1 omnibuses) Ayumu Nagisa’s Omega of the Divine (was never released by Kodansha in the US) 24:13

Show Notes 0:00: Justin and Helen return from hibernation (and attempting to stay warm in the East coast) to resume recording episodes of It’s Not My Fault TheOASG Podcast is Not Popular, and with the break, means catching up to things from even late December to January. The hosts start with once again a scanlation site shutting down, and what this ultimately means considering who was involved (and maybe not Kakao, which gets both hosts explaining how manhwa copyrights are…crazy) News 12:36: MediaOCD will be distributing Discotek Media’s catalog (as much as they can), and based on information online this project seems to have been sped up following a number of home media titles being delisted on Crunchyroll. This gets both hosts speculating on what this means, and why it sometimes now gets harder and harder to support official publishers. 18:59: Netflix continues making some deals as they’ve worked out a partnership with MAPPA and will be working with TOHO (and their new studio) to produce a bunch of works in a couple years 21:35: We got some hiatuses and returns to cover, starting with The Café Terrace and Its Goddesses manga being continued; after just not having any new chapters since 2022, The Girl, the Shovel, and the Evil Eye manga will return and also finish in a couple chapters; Kemono Jihen is taking a one-issue break due to Sho Aimoto suffering from gastroenteritis to start 2026; Phantom Busters will be on break as something’s going on with Neoshoco, the hosts hope they’re ok; The hosts break down what the heck’s going on with The New Prince of Tennis series as it went through some major editor mismanagement, enough to wear there could not be a new chapter in Jump SQ; The Days of Diamond will go on hiatus, no announcement on its return; Bocchi the Rock! was intended to return this month, but Aki Hamaji’s health has not improved enough to return to serialization, so the hiatus will continue; and in final manga hiatuses, Hajime no Ippo’s taking a break, no announcement on when it’ll return. 25:38: Makes sense that Go Nagai will be inducted into this year’s Eisner’s Hall of Fame, took them long enough; Manga creator Hisashi Eguchi apologized in December after tracing allegations were made back in October that had a number of companies suspend working with him; Chitose in the Ramune Bottle’s got some work to do following its delay due to production issues; And apparently A Tale of the Secret Saint needs more work as it’s been pushed from Spring to Fall season; What in the world is going with the Madoka movie? Well no one knows except that’s now been delayed from its release this month to an unannounced date; and the voice of Hitomi Koshigaya, Yumiri Hanamori, stepped down from the role for an undisclosed reason. So for the upcoming Magilumiere Magical Girls Inc. anime, there will need to be a new voice for her. 30:53: Talent agency Aoni Production announced that voice actor Kōzō Shioya had died on January 20 due to cerebral hemorrhage — a number of people noted his impact on them and sent their condolences on social media on this difficult loss. Licenses 31:57: Seven Seas and their Wonderful Wednesdays have returned for 2026! That means catching up to everything they’ve announced in January: Hayate Kuku’s Yoichi & Tsugumo Daken, Mugi Sawai & saino’s The Wicked Princess and Her Twelve Eyes: The Legendary Villainess and Her Elite Assassins manga Mizuhara’s Working as a Goddess! NEMUI ASADA’s Sleeping Dead Muchimaro’s Even the Student Council Has Its Holes! (Ghost Ship) Yuuri Seo & Okaya’s I’m Running for Crown Princess, but All I Want is a Steady Paycheck! (Airship, digital only) Moka Onmae’s Good Morning, Good Night, and See You Tomorrow. Ryon’s Are You a Landmine, Chihara-san? Hamubane, Mokufū, & Parum’s I Used to Think My Childhood Friend Was a Guy —Now We’re Newlyweds, and She’s the Perfect Bride! Nagata Kabi’s My Sketchy Roommate Osamu Takahashi’s I Don’t Know, Yoshida-san (Ghost Ship) Shibainubutai, Mochiron san, & Masahiro Suwa’s An Ordinary Guy’s Crazy Modern Dungeon Survival! Akairo Mash’s Love Tattoo MAMITA’s 10 Things I Want to Do Before I Turn 40 – Part 2 NENE AZUKI’s Mii-chan and Yamada-san Itaru Kinoshita’s Dinosaur Sanctuary: Let’s Go to Dinoland picture book Also re-announced Koala Omugi’s The Apology of Noumi-Senpai? (previously called What’s Up With Noumi-senpai?) Audiobooks for their Siren imprint: Daken’s The Wicked Princess and Her Twelve Eyes: The Legendary Villainess and Her Elite Assassins (Narrated by Aspen Vincent), FUNA’s Didn’t I Say to Make My Abilities Average in the Next Life?! (Narrated by Kara Oates), Yuki SUZUKI’s Reincarnated Into a Game as the Hero’s Friend: Running the Kingdom Behind the Scenes (Narrated by Eric O’Keeffe), Fuyutsuki Koki’s I Abandoned My Engagement Because My Sister is a Tragic Heroine (Narrated by Mi

Show Notes 0:00: Before Justin and Helen talk about their final Fall anime shows and all the Weird News of the year, the two hosts send their condolences to the family and friends of Shikako, who passed away at 37 due to choroidal melanoma, a rare form of cancer that develops in the eye. This news comes as, based on when Shikako died, Manchuria Opium Squad was announced to go on an irregular serialization towards the end of October. Main Topic: Fall 2025 Final Impressions 4:25: We have a situation where you’ll hear very little talk of new Fall anime watched in this section because it’s mainly dominated by sequels (Spy x Family S3, Campfire Cooking S2, Ranma 1/2 S2) a horse girl anime (Part 2 of Cinderella Gray), and a summer season continuation (Gachiakuta). The new anime comes down to both hosts lamenting the state of Pass the Monster Meat, Milady (25:38), and another new anime where a “villainess” solves all her problems by punching things. Probably! No, the two hosts do not manage to get off topic and talk about unrelated things. Maybe! Weird News of 2025 55:30: You probably feel this year was long and yet fast. This is totally true based on the amount of weird news that occurred this year. You have your distribution craziness, politics very much becoming a thing, and SAG-AFTRA finally striking a deal; anime and manga also infiltrating other forms of entertainment; anime going into the wayback machine to produce a couple series starting next year; Anime and AI being one of the most dominant topics this year (and many to hilarious effect); and no, we will never forget the saga of Tai Chi Chasers (2:03:49), because it’s just too weird! Thank you for listening to TheOASG Podcast in 2025. We will be looking forward to returning in 2026. Happy New Year to all! The post TheOASG Podcast Episode 235: Bad and Weird appeared first on TheOASG.

0:00: Justin talks about diving into the Kingdom experience while Helen’s just ready to talk about the news that happened over the past two weeks. A good amount of news happened! News 5:17: The two hosts discuss two pieces of AI dubbing news, one involving voice actors in Japan, and the other one intending to use AI in anime production and needless to say, it’s not looking great! 10:12: Both Helen and Justin wonder about TOHO and how big a player they’ll become in the anime industry following their acquisition of Anime Limited from PLAION PICTURES. 14:03: So yes, unless an actual acquisition happens, it’s safe to say TheOASG Podcast will not talk about Warner Bros. Discovery unless a deal actually goes through or is stopped after Paramount’s hostile bid was, in the end, rejected; If you’ve been watching certain anime for free with ads on Crunchyroll, you won’t be doing so anymore in 2026, as they’re going to end their free ad-supported service. 18:53: Ammitsu’s Gazing at the Star Next Door’s on hiatus until Spring as the creator preps the new arc; Rumi Ichinohe’s I See Your Face, Turned Away recently seemed to come back after a long hiatus, and it’s gonna end in the next chapter; and Boichi’s The Marshal King will go on hiatus for an undisclosed reason. 22:17: Also sort of weird — after a long time, Yona of the Dawn, which just saw its manga end, announced there will be a sequel to the anime. Sure took its time! 26:05: And in final news of the episode, the two hosts send their condolences to the friends and family of long-time voice actor voice actor Tomomichi Nishimura, who died on November 29 at 79. Licenses 28:08: US companies had to end the year with some licenses, and we got a decent amount, starting with Yen Press: Chika Tōjō’s Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch From Mercury—Vanadis Heart Ema Okadachi, otori, & Kou Kusaka’s A Timid Lady was Turned into an Ugly Cat, but on the Verge of Fainting Is Picked Up by the Most Fearsome Military Duke Chitose Kaido’s Thank You for Taking Care of Our Boy Banri Yūya Sakamoto’s The Daughter of the Demon Lord is Too Kind! Rocket Shokai, Natsumi Inoue, Gakuto Coda, &, MEPHISTO’s Sentenced to Be a Hero manga Toshiya Miyata’s Melody of the Boundary Honda’s Skull-face Bookseller Honda-san released as a Complete Omnibus Konosuba – God’s Blessing on This Wonderful World! TRPG Advanced Rule Book tabletop companion book New Yen Audio titles: Asato Asato’s 86–EIGHTY-SIX Alter.1: The Reaper’s Occasional Adolescence and Akumi Agitogi’s The Bubble Love of the Mermaid 31:37: And then TOKYOPOP: cojomo’s Kyo Aizawa Doesn’t Laugh Akiko Kawano’s The Villainess’ Bride Tōko Amekawa, Sora Gōto, & Meiji Anno’s Reincarnated in a Mafia Dating Sim LN Nanae Chrono’s Vassalord (2-in-1 omnibus paperback and hardcover edition) Will release Misaki & Momochi’s A Gentle Noble’s Vacation Recommendation in 3-in-1 omnibus volumes 33:36: And then Seven Seas, who concluded their Wonderful Wednesdays this year with the following announcements: Akari Tsuchihashi’s Flirting with my Bear-like Boyfriend (Steamship) Aira Yao & Umashi’s Slime Saint Sasami Nitori’s Wonder Cats Natsue Shiomi & Daichi Matsuse’s I Wish I Could Meet You Again on the Hill Where That Flower Blooms manga Ei Tozaki’s Follow that Kiss Tsukamu Yoriwake’s Nemu the Corpse Bearer 35:37: Meanwhile, a couple exclusive announcements of the following Titan Manga series were on ANN: Yokusaru Shibata’s Tojima Wants to Be a Kamen Rider Yūnagi’s School for Wizards Old Enough to Learn Magic Paneguma’s The Assassin Laughs at Twilight Sakyuu Tottori’s Have Fun! It’s the End of the World! rarutori, Ciavis, & Kō Narita’s High Elf with a Long Life manga Mizunomoto’s When I Was Reincarnated in Another World, I Was a Heroine and He Was a Hero The two then get into discussing which title they prefer that was translated into English: Modern Villainess: It’s Not Easy Building a Corporate Empire Before the Crash or It’s a Little Hard to be a Villainess of an Otome Game in Modern Society. 39:23: We have One Peace Books announcing exclusively on Behind the Manga the following new titles: Senya Mihagi, jaguchi, & Sato Pote’s Lockdown Life with the Class Beauty, Teika, Waka Sanada, & Hamu’s The Delinquent Girl Beside Me Suddenly Dyed Her Hair Black?!, and tera, Hayate Asakura, & Tetta’s The Villainess Who Came to Marry Into the Frontier Noble’s Household Is an Exceptionally Capable Wife, Isn’t She?; Hanashi Media announced a brand new license for their LN line; and Inoue’s #Gal x Gal Yuri manga is now on VIZ Manga. Streaming News 41:16: Part 2 of Rivals of the Great Detective Collection will drop on New Year’s Day, which means Justin has to be hyped about more Detective Conan. He also gets into the

Show Notes 0:00: Justin and Helen for yet another week chat about all the things they’ve been up to, which involves Helen explaining that she’s gotten her mom to watch Showa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu (and wondering how Justin would know this before the podcast), while Justin’s caught up to all the Fall anime shows, which includes the Gintama spinoff, Mr. Ginpachi’s Zany Class. News 6:43: The two hosts then get into Netflix entering an agreement to purchase Warner Bros, HBO & HBO Max. The good news is the planned deal would take until Q3 2026 to actually close. That’s only good because both hosts (Justin especially) are not even sure how big the ramifications of this deal will be, who or what it’ll affect (aside from the consumer, who no matter what will lose), and what this will mean for the Entertainment industry at large. …Of course, not even a day after the two talked about this, a hostile bid from Paramount was announced, which means the hosts will try and talk about that next episode! 15:08: Justin and Helen attempt to figure out what Amazon was actually thinking when they chose to AI dub a couple of anime, to much derision, and then pull it off their service. It does get the hosts to think a bit darker, and why despite this being over, it’s not actually over when it comes to AI dubbing. 27:34: Yuki Ikeda’s Thunder 3 is slated to resume serialization February 6, which suggests Ikeda is healthy enough to resume the manga; Terraformars is also slated to resume next week, after it did see an initial delay during the summer and fall. 28:53: Shinsuke Takahashi’s family shared details of what has happened to the artist a few weeks ago, and the details are not very good. The hosts can only hope for the best for Takahashi moving forward. Licenses 34:04: Following them taking off for Thanksgiving, Seven Seas resumed their Wonderful Wednesdays event and announced they’ve licensed the following: HEKIRU HIKAWA’s Hanaori-san Still Wants to Fight in the Next Life AKI YUKURA’s Crow Hill: Don’t Be Shy!! – The Complete BL Manga Collection IKUHITO & OHANACHAN’s Record of Lustful Warriors: The Rod Master’s Unstoppable Conquest in Another World (Ghost Ship) Tsuki Aimi’s Lazy Girl Momogusa Coolkyousinnjya & Cometubu’s Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid: Ilulu Doesn’t Understand Love Mitsu Hashimoto’s The Prince’s Body Pillow 35:19: Dark Horse announced exclusively on ANN that they’ll release a three-book Deluxe Edition manga series of the following Masamune Shirow works: Appleseed Deluxe Edition (The Deluxe Edition hardcover includes books one to four of the series and has 848 pages, slated for August 2026) Appleseed Companion Deluxe Edition Shirow Masamune Anthology Deluxe Edition 36:49: Noir Caesar is partnering with TOKYOPOP to release Mitsuhiro Mizuno and artist Ryōsuke Tobimatsu’s Deep3 basketball manga in 2026; Hiroyuki’s Girlfriend, Girlfriend manga is now part of the Kodansha Print Club line, and it’s available on select retailers…today! Streaming News 40:08: 4K Kiki’s Delivery Service? 4K Kiki’s Delivery Service!!!…Well, at least Justin thinks so. With GKIDS partnering with IMAX to bring 4K restorations of Studio Ghibli films to North American theaters in 2026, then that means Kiki in 4K should happen! (maybe just not next year, but we’ll have to see the rate of releases though); GKIDS will be bringing the latest Lupin the 3rd film to North America in January; and The 100 Meters film will be on Netflix before the year’s ends, which makes one host happy and one host less interested! 44:54: We’re getting another anime (for Netflix) just announced out of nowhere for the Winter season, and it pairs Boys Over Flowers creator Yoko Kamio with the Wit Studio crew; Chainsaw Man fans who wanted to watch the Reze Arc film but was not willing or able to go a theater to see it can now purchase it digitally…today; And we have a couple anime that will be streaming on Crunchyroll, either for the Winter season (Tamon’s B-Side) or sometime in 2026 (The Drops of God) 47:15: Ever heard of Whale Smart TVs? Well now Crunchyroll is on the service; Ever heard of VIZIO’s WatchFree+? Well now you can get REMOW’s Its Anime service on that app! Weird News 49:56: Weird fish discovery and Super Saiyan in one sentence? We can only thank the The University of the Ryukyus for discovering the goby fish and making the connection to a Saiyan. 51:47: Both Justin and Helen are curious about Korean webtoon and web novel platform RIDI suspending sales of BL novel Crazy Dog Hunts the Tiger only a day after its release a few weeks ago, following accusations it closely mirrors very notable pro gamer Faker. This somehow gets Helen to cook up an absolutely insane scenario (56:22) in this section. 57:51: The combination of Silent Möbius and The Avengers would be less weird decades ago, but in 2025

Show Notes 0:00: Justin and Helen once again hope their internet’s working (especially Justin) so they can discuss everything they’ve been up to over the past few weeks…though for Helen, it’s still very few things. Meanwhile Justin finished that summer anime that Netflix decided needed to air in Fall (Fragrant Flower) while continuing to catch up to the Fall anime season — hear all about his Samsung TV Plus experience with Cinderella Gray Part 2 after discovering he could not catch up to it online! 25:45: After a couple years, it has been determined that Cloudflare is liable for damages in a copyright lawsuit filed by Japan’s top manga publishers, which means the nature of scanlations and piracy is again a hot topic. Justin and Helen get into the details of the case and express their thoughts on what this means. 35:04: Young Magazine’s US contest is over, which means we have our winners from their contest that started over the summer; meanwhile the digital manga platform formerly known as Azuki has now changed its name to Omoi, which both hosts lament because of the main reason why. 38:45: MF Bunko J Natsu no Gakuensai 2025 was set to take place in person a few weeks ago, but due to credible violent threats that part was cancelled so it then became an online-only event; Kai-hen Wizards is set to return this week as Yellow Tanabe is ready to get back to creating; And manga creator Risa Motoyama revealed on Instagram that her brother Kazuki Motoyama — real name Masumi Motoyama, known for Nintendo’s Super Mario manga series — unfortunately passed away. Licenses 41:49: TOKYOPOP decided this was the time to reveal what they’ve licensed to the world, so here they are: Nayuta Nago’s A Nightingale Awaits the Blooming Love of Spring Yoriko’s I Want to See Me in Your Eyes ikugao’s Waiting for You at the End of the Runway Unohana’s Shinjuku 69 Heaven Nojiko Hayakawa’s Strobe in the Dark Enaga Shima’s A Boring Man and an Extraordinary Man Hiro Murasaki’s Hit Me Hard With Desire Rion Nomiya’s How My Cute Girlfriend and I Started a Love Story Kiriha Suzumiya’s Knight-Type Girlfriend Kaiko Fuyumushi’s There, Beneath the Water Ponkichi’s The Encyclopedia of Vegetable Fairies 44:05: Seven Seas had to close off their Wonderful Wednesdays in November with the following announcements in the last two weeks: Shibanekozamurai & Miyuki Ruria’s Liar’s Journey: Reborn as a False Hero – I’ll Save the Tragic Heroine from Every Death Route! (Airship, Digital) Bashoka Bashozoku & Tōzai’s Predator Witches (Airship, Digital) Kaisei Kikuchi, Dōma Oda, & Rein Kuwashima’s Reborn as an Aristocratic Scoundrel, I Broke the Game and Mastered Magic Beyond Limits! (Manga & LN, LN digital) Michi Ichiho & Lala Takemiya’s When It Rains, It Pours (Airship) ZURIKISHI’s Me and the Prez, Drinking Under the Stars Nakaya Onsen’s Phenomenon X: Paranormal Crime Files Ataru Sonoguchi’s Raul and His Vampire Prince Bonjin Hirameki’s Doing Secret Things with the Holy Maidens (Ghost Ship) PANDA’s Love is Money Akashiro Aoi, Kouji Moromi, Murata Shinya, & Yanai Nobuhiko’s The Death Defying Princess Creates a Yuri Harem to Survive Tanishi Kawano’s Fire in his Fingertips: A Flirty Fireman Ravishes Me with his Smoldering Gaze (Digital) ITKZ’s The Titan’s Bride (Digital) Audiobooks for their Siren imprint: Reina Soratani’s I Swear I Won’t Bother You Again! (narrated by Phoebe Strole), Touko Amekawa’s 7th Time Loop: The Villainess Enjoys a Carefree Life Married to Her Worst Enemy! audiobook (narrated by Sarah Gage) 48:33: Crunchyroll announced they’ve partnered with Titan Manga, and now their catalog is on Crunchyroll’s service — well, so far 26 titles, but Justin believes this is a good thing that Crunchyroll has this partnership now; And Justin’s stalling on Project A-Ko has paid off, as a 4K Project A-Ko Collection is coming from Discotek. Streaming News 52:30: Remember the FUUTO Pi anime a couple years ago? It did get a film that came out last year in Japan but there was no word on when Crunchyroll would actually stream it — until now. Weird News 53:50: Last episode, both hosts wondered what was up with Noumi-senpai after Seven Seas mysteriously deleted anything about it like a day or two later. They finally did say something about it after it did not get mentioned during their Wonderful Wednesdays event, and while it didn’t quite turn out to be like Persona 5, them not getting approval from neither the creator nor Japanese publisher (It’s Kobunsha, not Honbunsha, apologies for the error) regarding the English name is pretty bad! 56:19: Drops of God sure had a long, long journey in English, from getting published by Vertical, to then having to skip the rest of the series and publish the sequel to Drops of God, to ultimately the series getting cancelled…and now some years later, a live action is now o