It's Not My Fault TheOASG Podcast is Not Popular!

Show Notes

0:00: Happy New Year! Justin and Helen have much to talk about in this episode, so the two hosts get into the conclusion of the possible Sony/KADOKAWA acquisition, which resolved in a way that might’ve been unexpected.

3:33: The two then continue the sharing theme, with TOHO acquiring a 19.7 stake in Orange before moving onto the return of One Piece in April and its new timeslot.

6:48: At the start of the season, with two shows continuing from the summer season J.C. Staff was producing 10 anime of various lengths and formats. This certainly suggested a couple of these would actually have issues airing, but the good news for them is only one had production troubles. The hosts didn’t quite count on it being Danmachi Season 5!

10:42: Frieren is now back on hiatus, while Karino Takatsu’s Marry-Go-Round will go on hiatus but return in March; the 31st Dengeki Novel Prize’s Grand Prize winner Denji Yutai passed away unexpectedly due an unspecified illness, which has KADOKAWA working with Denji’s family to figure out how to handle the release of the winning work.

14:28: The two hosts then discuss the passing of shoujo pioneer Macoto Takahashi, who has been one of the sources of inspiration for many within the demographic and the manga industry with his work.

Licenses

17:11: Yen Press wanted to be one of the few to close the year announcing new titles, so here they are:

Sword Art Online Unital Ring
Secrets of the Silent Witch (spin-off) -another- Part 1 (LN)
Alya Sometimes Hides Her Feelings in Russian
Isekai Samurai
The Hitman Stans
Dara-san of Reiwa
I Made Friends with the Second Prettiest Girl in My Class
Convenient Semi-Friend
The Heroic Tale of the Villainous Prince
Who Killed the Hero? (LN)
The Girl Who Wants to Be a Hero and the Girl Who Ought to Be a Hero (LN)
This Is the Wizard’s Secret Weapon (LN)
SAILOR ZOMBIE (Digital exclusive)
Lord of Mysteries (Chinese novel)

20:57: AnimeEigo also announced they’ve licensed Nobody’s Boy Remi, which gets Helen to tell a story about this one; Cross Infinite World announced three new titles that’ll be released on digital platforms soon:

This Alluring Dark Elf Has the Heart of a Middle-aged Man!
Love & Magic Academy: Who Cares about the Heroine and Villainess? I Want to Be the Strongest in this Otome Game World
Dinners with My Darling: How the Former Monster King Ate Her Way to Happiness

Streaming News

23:08: The animated The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim came out in digital format December 27. Normally that’s not a big deal, until you realize the film just came out in theaters December 13!

25:45: A few more anime works got added to Crunchyroll, while Netflix added the 2018 version of Captain Tsubasa.

Main Topic: Fall Anime 2024 Final Impressions

27:12: Justin and Helen discuss what was kind of an unusual Fall 2024 season — some shows they liked for sure, but compared to prior Fall anime seasons, feels slightly weak. The major notable new thing that (temporarily) finished was Dandadan (1:18:13) but sequels sort of highlighted this season, from the good (49:13: Love Live! Superstar!! S3) to the solid (35:02: Appraisal Skill S2) to the still actually great but somehow still annoying at times (37:13: Bleach Part 3) to the sort of bad (55:13: Seirei Gensouki S2)

Weird News

1:27:03: Both hosts are still attempting to figure what the Guinness World Record’s criteria is after they accepted the largest shadow projection of Shadow the Hedgehog before then talking about the Lakers having a One Piece night, continuing the theme of the Straw Hats hanging around Los Angeles for no apparent reason. (There is likely a reason!)

Weird News of 2024

1:30:46: Before moving on to 2025, take a look back at all the weird news that dominated this year in the anime/manga space! There was a great amount of weird! Starting with the fact that after 8 years of podcasting, we finally had a lost episode.

1:31:28: This isn’t actually a new thing — bigger companies buying smaller companies — but everyone was talking about the possibility of a big company acquiring another big company, and for Justin, seeing Sony in talks to acquire KADOKAWA at like almost 2AM at night hit different!

1:32:41: Lest we forget, Crunchyroll was one of the only (?) official streaming services that had the comment section available for their shows, but