(upbeat music) - Hello and welcome to More Than Headline, your weekly anime news podcast made by Australians for global citizens. I'm your extremely humble host, Brendan White, AKA, the salt and pepper Empire, and joining me as is tradition, my trusted co-host and rival, the Ash to my Gary, Courtney Smith. Welcome back. It is great to have you. You are looking better than ever. You've got that new wifey glow happening. What's going on? - I got married. What the heck? Not true, an anime boy though. But that's okay, 'cause I do love my husband. - That's beautiful in itself, but you know what, now you've got a whole lifetime to convert him to an anime boy. So, yeah, the hard work is done. Now, now you can just gradually chip away and just implement anime into the day-to-day and hopefully we can convert him over time. - Yep, he will eventually become a 2D anime boy. It's fine, everything's fine. - I'm sure it is, but first and foremost, something that is a little less fine. Listeners viewers, we just wanted to let you know this episode, we do have a quick content warning because, yes, episode five of More Than Headlines does come with mentions in relation to domestic violence and abuse, so just wanted to let you know that'll be happening in headline two of this episode full minute breakdowns will be available there if you want to skip forward, should you choose. But what do you think, Miss Smith? Shall we jump into the news? - Let's read the news. - It likes the news. - The most obnoxious news drop in the internet today and headline number one, we have announced as crunchy roll confirms a schedule for summer of 2024 or for anyone here, winter of 2024. So, Crunchy Roll confirmed this past week. It's the upcoming summer season of 2024. We have 29 new titles coming to the streaming platform. Crunchy Roll summer 2024 season will start on the 26th of June, so this coming week with the sub of the strongest magician in the Demon Lord's army was a human being the first cab off the rank. - What a name. - I'm not at all surprised, like it's just very on brand for anime in general, like the longer the title, I don't know if it's the longer the title, the better it is. I don't think that's like scientifically proven, but at least picks my interests when there's more words in the title. - Sure does, and the platform specified that the current release dates are for subbed versions of anime only with dubs in a variety of languages to be released at later dates, which I'm sure they will announce. While this season doesn't seem to have as many heavy hitters as the past few ones, there are some notable series premiering, including Tara of God season two, Neo Automata version 1.1A core two, and Alia sometimes hides her feelings in Russian. - Those Neo Automata titles just roll off the tongue, don't they? Like I have no idea what they're thinking with the naming conventions of the anime and the games as well, but like it's very on brand for that universe. So I'm like, yep, you do you and we'll just sit along for the ride. But yeah, Crunchyroll continues to lead the pack. 29 titles is huge, and combining that with the continuations of titles, such as My Hero, One Piece, and More, will certainly keep us busy throughout this winter slash summer. Seriously, I've got no idea where I'm gonna find the time to watch all this stuff, but rest assured of Taku's, I will try my very, very best to make you all proud, as there's a few particular standouts for this upcoming season that have grabbed my attention completely. - I will say, I feel like this season is a bit of a breather for me. There's a lot less that I'm interested in compared to previous seasons. I feel like since we've had a chainsaw man, it's been, every season has been non-stop bangers. So I'm excited to have a bit of a break. - I think there's some sleeper bangers, if that's a turn in this season. So we'll report back as this season unfolds and becomes something a little bit more realized. But yeah, let's see what the sleeper bangers of summer slash winter 2024 are. - Yeah, I think my, I think the sleeper banger that I'm looking forward to most, I'm gonna say it's a sleeper banger already, is senpai isan otokonoko, which means senpai is a boy, a series about a guy who enjoys cross-dressing and there's also BL anime coming out this season, which we're very lucky to get for the BL girlies. - Yeah, that's twilight out of focus, isn't it? - Yes, twilight out of focus, very, very excited. - Yeah, and we'll talk about more of some of our potential standouts from this upcoming season in a couple of headlines time. - Headline number two there, this is about the voice actor Toru Furia admitting to having an affair and domestic violence. Toru Furia and his agency announced that he'll be stepping down from his voice acting roles after he admitted to having a four-year-long affair with a fan that he reached out to. He also admitted to hitting the woman during an argument and caused her to have an abortion. - And the voice actor played Sabo in one piece and Toru immortal in Detective Conan. As a result of his behavior, Furia has been removed from the cast of the new Atlas RPG and animate canceled its Detective Conan event set for late July. - This is such an extreme abuse of power to be someone in such a, you know, high status to reach out to a fan and put them in this kind of situation. 'Cause obviously the fan was, you know, really liked him and was a fan of his work. So the fact that he reached out to her, I think is really appalling. And while it is hard to address news like this, I think it's really important that we do in the hope that we can bring to light issues like domestic violence and abuse. - I completely agree with you. Like, yeah, we don't want to sugarcoat this. We want to emphasize and give our listeners and viewers the full breadth of what's happening in the world of anime, whether it be good or bad in this regard. But I just wanted to say that, you know, it's a hell with this guy and fuck anyone that is like him. Situations like this, they have no place in anime. All the world as a whole abusing your status to take advantage of people for your own gain is never, never, never acceptable. And I hope any offender who is trying to do things like this or even worse is met with the full force of the war. - And I hope the victim is okay. And if anyone is struggling with this kind of thing, we'll also leave in the show notes links to support resources that you can reach out to. - Exactly, yeah. If you are in situations like this or just uncomfortable situations in your life as a whole, yeah, there's plenty of support networks out there that can help make that situation much better and hopefully get you out of those situations and scenarios. So you don't hesitate to reach out for help because there's someone there that'll take that hand. Okay, moving on to headline number three. My dear friend, Nokotan, is to be streamed almost everywhere. Have you ever wanted to have a dear as a friend? Well, now you can because summer 2024 brings my dear friend Nokotan, which is set to be the most widely available anime of 2024. The anime follows an ex delinquent as she tries to hide her past from her new school friends, except the dear girl has come into her life and is causing chaos. - The gag comedy anime series is set to be streamed in over 140 countries and territories across a huge range of platforms, including Crunchyroll and Amazon Prime Video. So yes, even you can be dear friends with Nokotan. - I saw the trailer for this one a few months ago and was fawning over it immediately. So much so, there was an instant ad to my planned watch list. The concept makes zero sense, is utterly absurd, but I am 100% here for it. Also having which studio at the helm has me feeling pretty confident we're gonna have one of the season's biggest hits here. Sleeper banger, I think, yes. - I think so too. It looks like it's gonna be hilarious. Looks very similar to the other gag comedy series like Nichijo, Ajo Girl, and Asobi Asobase. Also, I wanna read out the name in Japanese to everyone. It's a bit of a tongue twister. Shikonoko Noko Noko Koshitanta. - I am happy that you read that out not me because I would have butchered that seven ways from Sunday. But it sounds like a good, it sounds a lot more impressive in the Japanese title compared to the English translate. So yeah, get hyped for it. 'Cause it looks so fun. There's a couple of trailers out. First announcement trailer from a few months ago runs about two minutes and is just absolutely bonkers. And yeah, I cannot wait to jump into this one. - Yes, I'm so excited. Something else that has me excited is that Tokyo Avengers is getting a new sequel. The time traveling delinquent anime, Tokyo Avengers has a new key visual for the next sequel, which features a bloodied up takimichi holding the back of Mikey's head in some kind of despair ridden pose. The series currently has three seasons which are available on Crunchyroll and Disney+. - And yeah, a mini-series for Tokyo Avengers is also announced Tyler Duart, "Revenger". In parentheses means fairytale revengers. It retails old fairy tales with characters from the series. The first one is going to tell the story of Momotaro, which features our favorite group of books. - Justice for Mikey. Please, here's my son, here's my boy. Mikey can do no wrong in my eyes. All I need is for him to be happy. - That's fair, that's fair. And over the last few years, like Tokyo Avengers has become one of the 10 biggest anime franchises on Planet Earth, which is great. But truth be told, I don't fully understand why or how it's become one of the 10 biggest. I don't know if that's unnecessary shade. Like it is fine, it's enjoyable, but it just doesn't hit the way I want it to for me. And the time traveling thing is a cool wrinkle, but it gets a little lost in my head at times, trying to stay on track as to what's going on in this world. But it's gorgeously animated. - I'll tell you why. - I'll tell you why. - Okay. - So the reason this franchise is so popular is because of the girlies. And I know I always say it's because of the girlies, but it is because those characters are so well written. And everyone has their one favourite character in Tokyo Avengers and mine's Mikey, and I would do anything for him. - Okay. - I'll do anything for Mikey. - Shout out to Mikey, but also shout out to the girlies that are making anime like Tokyo Avengers. So universally popular. And like it is a good ride. And I love that it is more accessible to people conveniently being available on Disney Plus. So for the non-animee tragic, that might be casually looking for something to watch in between episodes of The Accolite or something like that. They can jump on over to Tokyo Avengers and get their fix. It's enjoyable, but yeah, I think I've just been very stopped start with it. So the momentum has been very intermittent for me. So I'm in and I'm enjoying it, but then I take a break and then come back and I'm like, what's happening again? There's time travel. I'm so confused, Courtney, but I'll go back and see. And I'll see if I can land on a favourite character that I can champion as well, just like you do with Mikey. - Yes, let us know. - Yeah, I will report back. I promise listeners, I am an honest man and I will circle back and share further insights on the first trap that has grabbed me in Tokyo Avengers in future episodes. But yeah, the last headline we wanted to bring to the table this week, and this is a bit more of a roundtable discussion here. It's not news so much. We just thought with the upcoming summer season on our doorstep, we'd sort of throw our favourite or our hopeful top three for the season to come. So we'll sort of go rotating. One, I say one, Courtney says one vice versa, just to give you six or so titles to keep your eyes and ears on as they start to drop in the coming weeks. And the first one I wanted to highlight, not on Crunchyroll sadly. You do have to sort of dig a little deeper to find it, but High Dive is quickly developing quite the fantastic portfolio. I must say there's a lot of bangers on High Dive. So yeah, my first highlight for the upcoming summer slash winter season for us, Arcees here. Oshin Nokor season two. Season one really came out of nowhere for me. Like I didn't know anything about this world hadn't read a panel of the manga. And it just hit at the right time. I love that first episode was almost like a mini movie instead of that standard 20-odd minute run. So you get 60 or so minutes worth of story and exposition and introduction. And it was one of the strongest first episodes in all of 2023. And it actually landed at number three for my top 104 anime that released in 2023. Yes, I did watch 104 different anime that came out last year alone. And it was narrowly edged out by Freerin and season two of JJK. So I cannot wait to dive back into this dark and grimy world of celebrity and see what's happening with I, Acra and Ruby. Because I love this world. I love the characters. The opening from season one is one of the best bangers that have come out in many a year. And yeah, Ashinoko is Chef's Kiss greatness for me. I love it. - I think it's also really good because it's an example of Isekai that doesn't have, I guess, use magic as a major theme. Like we, the only reason this is an Isekai is because the two twins were reborn as I as kids. So I think that for me is a really interesting twist. And I wonder if we're gonna see more of like the repercussions of that event in the first episode. But I'm very excited for season two. - I'm so excited. I love this franchise. Like I've started reading the manga since and yeah, knowing what's to come in this season has me still equally as excited as going in blind because it's great storytelling. The animation is stunning. And then the soundtrack that they weave in through that first season, it's just, you know, double thumbs up from this guy. So yeah, that's my first stand out for the upcoming season. What's your goal for me, Kordi? - I'm really excited for Alia sometimes hides her feelings in Russian. I'm a big fan of series that have characters that are either half or they're foreigners or, you know, they come to Japan and maybe they're not fully Japanese or they don't fully understand, you know, the country that they're in. And it's often like a point of reference for the other characters, whether they're like making fun of them or they're helping them, whatever it is, I really enjoy that kind of content. So Alia sometimes hides her feelings in Russian. It is based on a really popular light novel of the same name and follows half Russian, half Japanese Elissa, who is the most popular girl in school thanks to her stunning looks and perfect grades. You know, the classic blonde hair, very cool, very quiet. But the only person she wants to pay attention to is her desk neighbor, Masachika, who is a quiet otaku, who just wants to play video games and watch anime, don't we all? So unbeknownst to her, he can also speak Russian and the premise of the series is that she gets flustered and when she does, she mutters to herself in Russian and says things, but he understands her and she doesn't know. So when she starts to say things like, oh, I have some feelings for someone in Russian, he's like, sis tea. So from there, they kind of form a connection and I'm excited to see where this goes. It looks super cute and I feel I'm gonna fall in love with this anime feelings about Russia aside. I love the concept. I love this little cute sort of silent acknowledgement that Masachika has where he's wise to what's happening is this is all playing out, but like how long into the series does it get to be when that bond over the Russian dialect is sort of, I guess, made public between the two leads. So yeah, I love a little school-based romance and there's something pure and innocent about love at that period in a person's life. And I think, yeah, this is gonna be one of the hits of the season for sure. My next one I wanted to highlight is titled "No longer allowed in another world." And I've just gone a bit lazy here and grabbed my anime list summary and sort of changed it a little bit just to give you a bit of a snapshot of it. So an adventure in another world with cute girls by your side and via game-like powers sounds like an anime fan's dream, right? Not so for the melancholic author Asamu Desai who'd quite literally prefer to drop dead. Video games haven't even been invented yet when he gets yanked into another world in 1948, really. All the fantastical adventure he keeps running into is just getting in the way of his poetic dream of finding the perfect place to die. No matter how much he risks his hide, everything seems to be keep turning out okay. Follow a miserable hero like no other in this cheerfully bleak Isekai comedy. And this is done by Magic Capital. They're a studio that has had their hands in things like Toradora and Food Wars. And it feels like there's a similar tone, definitely a similar art style. The animation quality is great. The tone in the trailers that I've seen just seems like it's just gonna be his funny the entirety of the time. We're getting a different spin on that fantasy genre which does get Rinson repeated season after season. But I like that this is a little bit of a retake on that. And yeah, it looks like a time and a summer days I looks like a character that I'm gonna be rooting for. - So this is actually very funny because I didn't realize until you read out his name but Osama Dazai is a real Japanese novelist. He wrote No Long a Human which is his most famous novel. I haven't read it yet, but it looks really good. And he was, he had a real Kafka vibe of like, oh, everything is shit. And I love that for him. He's like the precursor to the jubilee director. - I love this Miyazaki. - Yep, Miyazaki. He's like, you know how Miyazaki's always like, everything's so hard, life is hard. And then he makes like the most gorgeous artwork cinema. And Dazai was kind of similar in vibes. Like even if you look up him, like all his pictures, he's just like, oh. (laughing) - What was me? And then just proceeds to make magic after magic after magic. - Yeah, basically. So I'm also excited for this, even if just for the fact I get to see how this kind of literary genius is portrayed in an anime is okay. - It's funny. Like, and I didn't even do this by choice, but just out of pure coincidence, I'm wearing my Yaboy Kong Ming shirt here. And it's the same thing where like a real life person from history is transported into another world and seeing them try to co-exist and live and learn and adapt is exactly what no longer allowed in other worlds all about. So I'm rooting for you as some with Dazai, that's for sure. - Speaking of Isakayas, my next most anticipated anime for the series is Suicide Squad Isakay. And I normally don't really care for comics. I don't really like the art style. It's just too much action, not really my vibe. But I think an Isakaya world with Western comic book heroes or villains is a hilarious idea. So this one will feature Harley Quinn, Dead Shop, Peacemaker, Clayface, and King Shark. I don't think that's all of the Suicide Squad, right? - There's a lot more, like there's Captain Boomerang and stuff like that. And there's a heap of others we've seen in the trailer, but they're certainly the stars. Star anti-heroes, anti-billens, whatever you wanna call them. - So they get sent into an otherworldly realm that's connected to their own world through a gate, like a regular Isakayo. And it's a world of swords and magic where Orcs, Rampage, and Dragons rule the skies. Classic shenanigans in anime. And I think it'll be really, really funny. And I'm very excited. - I'm so in for this. I'm also very excited on the fact that they've confirmed, I think, when the first episode drops are gonna do a triple episode drop. So you're gonna have three episodes to chew through straight away. And I think, is it the 27th of June? This is coming out. I think it's in like four or five days time, maybe. So we haven't got to wait long at all to jump into Suicide Squad Isakayo. And it looks great. You can see they're throwing a lot of money in the production budget for this one because it looks stunning. The voice work sounds great. And yeah, I am keen as a bean for this. - I think we've had like three or four trailers as well. So we've gotten like a good kind of idea of what it's gonna look like and how much money they have thrown at it, like you mentioned. - Yeah. The spoiler on how much money would be a lot. That is the technical term because yeah, they wanna do well with this. And I hope it really does do well and reviews well because it'll lead to more great content like this where we're seeing those big mainline Western IP get chucked into new scenarios like this. So the more crazy crossovers like this, the better I say. All right, the third title I wanted to highlight as far as my standouts for the summer 2024 season is anime called Days With My Step Sister. For bit of love, possibly done tastefully, question mark. Yuta Asimora gets a stunning new step sister, Saki Ayase, after his father remarries. They agree to keep a comfortable distance, having learned from their parents past mistakes. Saki used to being independent and Yuta unsure how to treat her, slowly find comfort in each other's company. From strangers to friends, their evolving relationship hints at a possible love story. I mean, let's go. - I have hope for this show. I've seen a lot of step sibling romance anime, some good, some questionable. I think by the sounds of it, it sounds wholesome and that's what I'm hedging my bets on. - It sounds a lot more than something that I watched recently for the first time in Citrus, for sure. So yeah, it certainly was left feeling like I had lemon squeeze in my eyes watching that anime because oh boy, that goes to places. But this looks like it's gonna be a little bit more wholesome and sweet and grounded and not just leaning into food-based pine intended forbidden fruit that Citrus sort of leans into very, very heavily right from the get-goes. So yeah, days with my step sister, please don't be an itchy, smudgy mess and be something wholesome and tasteful and beautiful. Please, please, please, please, please. - Oh, speaking of wholesome romance, my last recommendation is Twilight Out of Focus, which I mentioned earlier. It's I think the only BL anime adaptation this season. We really don't get many of them despite there being a huge market for BL manga and light novels. So it's super high on my list. It follows two roommates that swear to not tell anyone that they both are attracted to men. Things do get tricky though, when one of them wants to cast the other one in a boy's love play and things start to get a little bit dicey. But I really like BL as a genre. It's very written for women by women. So I really hope it does a good job of adapting the original series. - I've got to ask, does you and your book top girly circle talk about Twilight Out of Focus about potentially the next big hit or not? - No, well, I think-- - Or is this too wholesome for the book top girly circle? 'Cause you said it gets pretty nasty in those chests. - So I actually haven't read the manga for Twilight Out of Focus, but reading the synopsis and kind of hearing, not from book talk, but from the BL community that hopefully it's nice. Hopefully it's just well done and tastefully done. Last season we did have a BL, I can't remember what it was called, but it was done well, but the production value was a little bit low. And I think people were a little bit turned off by that. So I'm hoping that this one can get the attention it deserves as well. - Fingers crossed, yeah. The name escapes me with the one from the last season. I haven't finished it yet. I think I dropped off after about four or five episodes 'cause yeah, the production value was a little intermittent and weak to say the best. The storytelling was fine, but just in comparison, some of the other stuff I watched it just didn't hold my attention. I'll circle back and try and wrap it up this year, but I'm not in a big rush. But yeah, Twilight Out of Focus, it looks great. It sounds great. And knowing that you and the crew are on board for it, I'm gonna be jumping into and seeing what happens here with this secretive romance that could develop between these two boys. A couple of other honorable mentions we wanted to sort of quickly spotlight. We did mention my dear friend, knock a ton earlier. So that's one of on our sort of watch and recommended list. Sudo Hiram is one, yes, name aside, it does sound like a dime a dozen type of scenario play out, but just the synopsis, it's painted again in a wholesome sweet way instead of just muddy, lowbrow, itchy fan service vibe. So I could be completely wrong after I watched the first episode, but at least from just reading the synopsis of Sudo Hiram, it sounds like it could be potentially sweet, but just the name's gonna misdirect things. I hope in the same vein as something like, "Is it wrong to try and pick up girls in a dungeon?" Where you read that headline and go, "Oh, this sounds crap," but then you're watching it. Like, this is fantastic. And anything but smudgy, fantasy girl pickup-ery. So Sudo Hiram is on the list. Shoshimin, how to become ordinary intrigues me as well. And when we just talked about collectively before we started recording with plus-sized elf dropping this season, which also looks like a ton of fun. I think the most excited from my dear friend, Nokotan, I think I need something white. I need something funny, I need something silly. I think this will give me exactly that. And plus-sized elf, first of all, there is very little positive plus-sized characters in anime. And I think plus-sized elf will maybe not have quite a positive spin that we want. I believe it's about her losing weight. But at the same time, I think even just having the representation, 'cause I think all of the characters in it are plus-sized. I think having that representation is a good step forward because as we know, the anime industry is very, has very specific beauty standards when it comes to body types in anime and some pretty questionable ones as well. So hopefully plus-sized elf will have more positive representation. - Yeah, which excites me a lot because yes, even though it's gonna have some fantasy undertones 'cause we're talking about elves here, but the fact that they are talking and leaning into body image. And there is hopefully some of the messaging where there is ultimately no right or wrong body shape. I hope there is some real positive sort of messaging here that people of all ages and all walks of life would watch and get behind because yeah, we don't really have any of that at all in anime for the most part that I can recall off the top of my head at least. - Also, we're in like an elf renaissance. Like we've had plus-sized elf, we've had Freeran, we've had Masil from Delicious in Dungeon, Elza in-- - The Taco Elf last year. - I will, okay, I won't kill to get my hands on a Taco Elf match, but I'll do some other things to get my hands on a Taco Elf match. - Not quite murder, but potential grievous bodily harm for some a Taco Elf merch. If anyone is listening or watching does have some hookups for some good a Taco Elf merchandise, hit us up on them socials. Links are available in the show notes so you can reach out because yeah, Courtney is in dire need of some a Taco Elf merchandise ASAP. All right, let's move into the second last piece of this episode, which we titled, "Big Game Hunting," where we update you on the latest developments regarding the biggest titles airing in the current anime season. And just really quick helicopter overview, as far as the big name on goings. My hero academia, season seven, episode 146, Ed Overnight titled, "Two Flash Byers." I watched this this morning, and holy guacamole is the fight and the animation in this episode is especially impressive. Like, have you watched it yet, Courtney? - No. - Not yet. I'm gonna watch after this recording, but I am very excited. - Me too. And like, Darby is one of the best villains in anime of the last several years. I love that character. I love the character progression and understanding how he came to be and giving the viewer almost believable concepts as to why, like, okay, I understand why you want to literally watch the world burn. Like, I can sort of relate to you and not really like back you and this mindset, but when you can begin to empathize with a villain, it just shows how good the writing is. And Darby, he stands above most of the other villains in this franchise, I think, as far as people that I don't root for, but like, I can acknowledge. - I will never get over his reveal. - Never. - That episode just always comes back to my mind 'cause it was so well done. And I didn't see it coming, honestly. I feel like a lot of people were like-- - Neither did I. It was a jaw dropper for me. - Yeah, it was fantastic. So seeing his story unfold has been awesome. - And the character model is amazing, but equally as creepy. Like, he looks messed up. Like, I wanted to swear again there, but I'll reserve them for another time. But yeah, he looks so repulsive, but also so great at the same time, which is a weird thing to say because he's just got that standard badass evil villain looked down to a tee and like, I'm all for it. And I picked up a unrelated but related, picked up the villain's skin pack in Fortnite the other day. So I'm very happy to have him in my rotation. Even though I only ever used the female skins in Fortnite, which is probably a topic for another day, which is anime female skins all the time. But I've got Darby should I ever choose to get off that horse. - Mine's just back again, so. - Nothing wrong with that, nothing wrong with that. All right, one piece, season 14, episode 1,109 titled "A Tough Decision, An Unusual United Front." Also dropped overnight. So any straw hat pirates can be sailing those seven seas with episode 1,109 of "One Piece." Sadly, this week we'll see all this upcoming week, I should say, we'll see the following anime end their current seasonal runs. So demon slayer, season four, episode eight, will be wrapping up in Monday week's time. So the Hushira training arc will be done and dusted in a little over eight days time at time of recording. Khaji number eight, season one, episode 12. - Yes, I watched episode 11 last night. Fantastic. 10 still, I think my favorite episode of the season so far, but 11 was still like, oh boy, but I had this moment when episode 11 ended. And I'm like, oh no, we've only got 20 or so minutes left of this season. I've read all the manga, I know what's to come and I want it all now and knowing that I'm not gonna get even a fraction of that between now and next Sunday, really breaks my damn heart. - I am so sad that it is ending already. It feels like it hadn't even started. Like, it hasn't been 12 weeks, but it hasn't stopped. - I want production IG to come out and be like, surprise, we've got a second core coming out at the end of the year, get hyped, but it ain't happening, it's the 2025 release, I'm sure. Other sad news, but also exciting news because you can binge the entire season. Now season three of Konosuba has ended on crunchy roll. So go over and check out what Kazuma and Ko are up to. It's one of my favorite Isekai out there. It is so unhinged in all the right ways and I am all for the entire main ensemble cast. And it's just the writing and the tone is just everything I love about anime. - Best girl, darkness. - Yep, that's fair. I'm a big Megamean fan as well. Like, I'm not sad about any of them. I think they're all great, but darkness is certainly probably the MVP for me for sure too. - And windbreaker as well. Where has the time gone? - It's back there Courtney, back there somewhere. - So season one, episode 13 will be the last episode airing this week. Do you know what day it comes out? - Is it a Wednesday drop for windbreaker? - I think so. I think it's midweek, but I'm not ready. I'm not ready either, like it's funny. We were talking about Tokyo Avengers earlier. I don't know if it's recency bias, but windbreaker jumps above that sort of concept to me because it's great. Love the characters. Cool thing as well. I didn't actually put it in the show notes, but this week's episode of More Than Hentai focuses on windbreaker. So we did a 90 minute deep dive on windbreaker this past week and it was super fun to record and just got me more and more excited to see where this first season finishes up. I've got the manga downloaded on my iPad ready to start chewing through the second I watched episode 13 because this is another franchise that's just grabbed me by the scruff of the neck and it's just dragging me along. And Sakura and Ko, I love the Boffering team. I love the story. The fight scenes are some of the best you'll see this year. It is so slickly animated by Cloverworks. And sadly, yeah, that 13 episode comes out a couple of days time. I can't, I can't, this season has gone so fast, honestly. Yeah. Yeah, we're eating well and not anime related, but anime adjacent. The Apothecary diaries manga will be returning from a nearly three month hiatus, next month confirmed to be returning on July the 19th. So it is a day early birthday present for yours truly, which I'm excited about because we get more now, Mau, who I love. She's one of the best girls of the last couple of years by a fairly hefty margin. I saw they're making a Jinshi Nendoroid and I think I'm going to have to copy. I love Jinshi so much. I'm not, I'm not upset about this. I fully endorse you doing this and I'll just live through you. Yeah, it's, it's going to be a cult. Let's, let's not lie to ourselves. Yeah, yeah. So yeah, more now now coming in manga form in a little under four weeks time, but let's move into the last segment of this party corny. Random fact of the week, what do you got for us this time? I've got a good one. Every year Sanrio holds its character popularity, ranking competition where they get, I think it's globally they get everyone to vote on their favorite Sanrio character. And for the fifth year in a row, my boy, cinema role has won the competition for the most popular Sanrio character. And second place was Pachaku, which was actually shocking to me 'cause I didn't realize how popular Pachaku is. And the third is Kuromi, but cinema role, it's so cute. It's squishes little head. I do love his big giant dumbo like ears, like he is a beautiful little soul and I understand why he won, but I was looking at the, the voting. So 57 million votes were done for this Sanrio ranking, which is insane, first and foremost. But cinema role had 5 million votes. It wasn't a landslide like you think it might have been. Pacharo came in with 8% of the votes with just 4.6 million. So he is, he's on the upswing. He's on the upswing like cinema role might not be taken at home four years in a row next year. It's gonna be curious to see how the fans react in 2024/2025. - I'm shocked because I just came back from a week in Japan and I saw so much Pachaku merch. I was blown away. I was like, I had no idea that Pachaku was so popular 'cause in my mind, it's just cinema role, like dancing around to like music 24/7. So, you know. - I'm looking at graphics of the all 10 characters and because my knowledge of these universes is very, very small. But I want to show some love. I'm rooting for Pomp Pompurin next year. This little fat, I don't know, little fat mouse. I don't know what creature. - He's a dog. - Okay, little fat dog wearing a braid, mung and on the box of cookies. Like he is a dog after my own heart. So like, Pomp Pompurin, I'm rooting for you next year, fella. Let's go. - Oh, I'm dead. That's so funny. - He's the best. - He's very cute. - But listeners, viewers at Taku's, that brings us to the end of another fantastic, fantastic episode of More Than Headlines. Courtney, it's been so great to have you back in the chair with me to break down the latest and greatest of all things anime. It's good to have you back. You're feeling good. Just like riding a bike, just nice and easy, nice and organic. You're ready to roll now and into the future. - It's so good to be back. I was in Japan, I was looking at all this anime and I was like, where's my panel? Where's my anime rival? - Just hanging out here in Australia, by myself, talking into a microphone, lonely, by myself, like a big anime, we be loser. But you know what? I got my rival back at all. All is good with the world. - Hell yeah. - Hell yeah. But listeners, viewers at Taku's, be sure to follow us on them socials. You can find me at More Than Senpai. You can find Courtney at Cottony on Twitter slash X. No, not slash X on Twitter. The whole X thing is done. So find us on there. Be sure to rate, view, subscribe this podcast on the traditional audio based podcast platforms. But if you are watching us on TikTok and or YouTube, be sure to like and comment on there because those likes and comments keep us in the algorithm, keep us relevant, keep us tracking and keep us visible to old and new fans of what we're doing here with more Than Headlines. Be sure to head on over to morethanhandside.life to get your hands on the tastiest merchandise in the land. And while you're there, you can join the Saguay squad for the low low price of $1 per month to get exclusive access to perks, giveaways and content you will not find anywhere else on Planet Earth. But listeners, viewers at Taku's, whether your anime be subbed, dubbed or still yet to come, enjoy yourself and much love to all the waifus and husbandos out there. Goodbye. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (speaking in foreign language) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music)
