Toonami Absolution

Peter Parker gets bitten by a spider on a school trip. His uncle dies because he made a selfish decision. He becomes Spider-Man. Sam Raimi makes one of the most important superhero films ever made. Alyx, Jon, and Sam cover Spider-Man (2002), Sam Raimi's landmark adaptation starring Tobey Maguire and Willem Dafoe, the film that proved superhero movies could be box office juggernauts while also...

Lullabies of the Lost wraps up. Then Mugen learns to rap. The show contains multitudes. Alyx, Jon, and Sam cover "Lullabies of the Lost (Verse 2)" and "War of the Words,” Episodes 17 and 18 of Samurai Champloo. "Lullabies of the Lost (Verse 2)" picks up the three separated threads: Fuu's involvement with the traveller reaches its climax, Jin deals with his past again,...

The Council of Doom throws Space Ghost a birthday party. Matt Groening wants to know which specific part of Space Ghost is a ghost. Alyx, Jon, and Sam cover "Surprise" and "Glen Campbell,” Episodes 9 and 10 of Space Ghost: Coast to Coast Season 3, the last two of the season and the densest in terms of guest count. "Surprise" is Space Ghost's birthday episode, organised...

Disney commissioned a 30-minute Halloween special. Tim Burton delivered a live-action fairy tale with an all Asian-American cast, kung fu fights, nunchucks, a gingerbread house with a face, and a candy-cane-nosed witch. Disney aired it twice at Halloween in 1983 and then dropped it right in the bin. Alyx, Jon, and Sam cover Tim Burton's Hansel and Gretel (1983), piece of formerly lost media th...

One episode: the trio fish a bag of gold out of a river and are immediately pursued by people who want it back. The next: the group splits up and nothing goes well for anyone. Alyx, Jon, and Sam cover "Bogus Booty" and "Lullabies of the Lost (Verse 1)" — Episodes 15 and 16 of Samurai Champloo. "Bogus Booty" is one of the show's looser, more comedic outings: a bag...

A man named Commander Andy wants to read a list of demands. Space Ghost has an evil twin with a beard. These are separate episodes but they have very similar energy. Alyx, Jon, and Sam cover "Freak Show" and "Switcheroo,” Episodes 7 and 8 of Space Ghost: Coast to Coast Season 3. "Freak Show" introduces Commander Andy, a twentysomething Cartoon Network superfan who still li...

Before Dragon Ball. Before Goku. There was Bardock, and he could see the future, and it did not help him at all. Alyx, Jon, and Sam cover Dragon Ball Z: Bardock – The Father of Goku (1990), the first DBZ TV special and the prequel that fills in the origin of the entire franchise. Bardock is a low-class Saiyan soldier, scrappy, ruthless, not particularly sentimental about anything, including the ne...

Mugen has a history. His history has found him. It brought friends. Alyx, Jon, and Sam cover "Misguided Miscreants (Part 1)" and "Misguided Miscreants (Part 2)," Episodes 13 and 14 of Samurai Champloo, and the first two-parter that digs seriously into Mugen's backstory. The group reaches the sea, and Mugen encounters Koza. a woman from his childhood on the Ryukyu Islands, a...

One episode is a tribute. The other is Bill Nye asking Space Ghost to prove he exists. This week has a lot of mood whiplash. Alyx, Jon, and Sam cover "Sharrock" and "Boo!" Episodes 5 and 6 of Space Ghost: Coast to Coast Season 3. "Sharrock" is the show breaking its own norms, dialling it back to present a genuinely touching tribute to a fallen friend. Sonny Sharrock,...

Before the Nolan trilogy. Before the Marvel Cinematic Universe changed the landscape entirely. There was Tim Burton, Michael Keaton in a rubber suit, Jack Nicholson in clown makeup, and a film that genuinely changed the entire game. Alyx, Jon, and Sam cover Batman (1989) this week, Tim Burton's gothic blockbuster, the first instalment of the initial Warner Bros. Batman film series, and one of the...

"Gamblers and Gallantry" is the episode where Jin falls in love and Mugen trains a rhinoceros beetle for competitive fighting. These two boys couldn’t be more different. Alyx, Jon, and Sam cover Episodes 11 and 12 of Samurai Champloo this week: "Gamblers and Gallantry" and "The Disorder Diaries." "Gamblers and Gallantry" starts when Jin, wandering aimlessly, encounters a woman on a bridge named Sh...

"Lovesick" and "Transcript." One episode about Space Ghost losing the love of his life. One episode that is almost entirely a Jonathan Richman concert. Alyx, Jon, and Sam cover Space Ghost: Coast to Coast Season 3, Episodes 3 and 4 this week, and it's worth noting upfront that "Lovesick" exists because the show's creator Mike Lazzo went through a breakup. "Lovesick" aired on Valentine's Day, 1996,...

One OVA to celebrate fifty years of Lupin III. With two resurrected villain who drop Lupin into his own past only to learn what makes Lupin and his friends so special. This is a very specific kind of anniversary special. Alyx, Jon, and Sam cover Lupin the Third: Is Lupin Still Burning?, the 2018 OVA made to mark fifty years of the franchise, directed by Jun Kawagoe with Monkey Punch himself servin...

Episode 9: Forged travel documents. Prison sentence. Mugen fetch quest. Forest full of bandits. Warrior monks. Large quantity of weird burning plants. Hallucinations. Chase sequence. Episode 10: Jin does the housework, while Mugen recreates Samurai Showdown on the NeoGeo. It’s a week of contrasts. Alyx, Jon, and Sam cover "Beatbox Bandits" and "Lethal Lunacy" this week, Episodes 9 and 10 of Samura...

Season 3. New Seaon. Same Ghost Planet. Lokar is trying to steal Moltar. Space Ghost is about to replace his entire production staff with a machine, this can only go well? This week, Alyx, Jon, and Sam cover "Explode" and "$20.01,” the first two episodes of Space Ghost: Coast to Coast Season 3, a season where Coast To Coast finally works out what it wants to be. "Explode" opens with a subplot that...

It has been one year. We have watched a lot of things. Some of them were great. Some of them were Tony Hawk In Boom Boom Sabotage. It is time to hand out some awards. This week on Toonami Absolution, Alyx, Jon, and Sam mark one full year of episodes with a special retrospective, a cross between an awards show and a group therapy session, looking back over everything we've covered from the very beg...

Alyx loves Bungo Stray Dogs. Jon and Sam have not seen it. Can they understand Bungo Stray Dogs: Dead Apple, a movie that comes after season 2? One that features an evil fog, Fyodor Dostoyevsky rambling about crime and punishment, and a man who lives in a massive evil tower that is randomly in the middle of a major metropolitan area. This week on Toonami Absolution, Alyx, Jon, and Sam cover Bungo...

Fuu's purse being stolen by a thief who turns out to have a completely sympathetic reason for what he's doing, but that won’t mean there are not consequences. The other episode is about Jin being challenged by a singing swordsman who has hired two beatboxers as his travelling accompanists. This week on Toonami Absolution, Alyx, Jon, and Sam cover Episodes 7 and 8: "A Risky Racket" and "The Art of...

A weird scientist who reads too much Lewis Carroll and has developed mind-control technology, decides its time for tea. The Batman gets locked up in Arkham Asylum, while the Scarecrow poisons the water supply. It is an odd week all round. This week on Toonami Absolution, Alyx, Jon, and Sam cover Episodes 27 and 28: "Mad as a Hatter" and "Dreams in Darkness,” the final episodes of Batman: The Anima...

A rich dude decides that the best way to celebrate his kid’s birthday is to have Mr. Satan punch a load of aliens. Goku watches this whole thing from heaven. The movie never quite finds a plot its happy with. This week on Toonami Absolution, Alyx, Jon, and Sam cover Dragon Ball Z: Bojack Unbound (1993), the ninth DBZ film, the only one set after the Cell Saga, and the one where Gohan is finally, p...

Fuu gets recruited to model for the most famous ukiyo-e artist in Edo Japan, only to nearly end up being sold into slavery. Then a red-haired foreigner who may or may not be allowed to exist under Edo-period law ropes her and her buddies into a sightseeing tour of Japan. For a show that says it isn’t a period piece, Samurai Champloo is featuring some historical deep cuts. This week on Toonami Abso...

A guy with no powers, no weapons, and no particular physical skill is somehow one of themost dangerous antagonists Batman has ever faced. Then, Batman heads back to the street that started the whole story to protect it from a greedy developer.  This week on Toonami Absolution, Alyx, Jon, and Sam cover Episodes 25 and 26: "The Clock King" and "Appointment in Crime Alley." "The Clock King" intr...

The rules of Otokoyo are simple: seven children go into an abandoned city after dark. They are hunted by demons, and some will go missing. This week on Toonami Absolution, Alyx, Jon, and Sam cover Kakurenbo: Hide and Seek (2004), the 25-minute cel-shaded short film written and directed by Shuhei Morita, and one of the most atmospheric pieces of anime horror ever made in a single sitting's runtime....

Mugen and Jin, bored and irritated by Fuu, split off at a fork in the road. Both immediately get recruited as bodyguards by the two yakuza clans currently fighting over a small town. Things quickly escalate and go horribly wrong for everyone involved. This week on Toonami Absolution, Alyx, Jon, and Sam cover "Hellhounds for Hire (Part 1)" and "Hellhounds for Hire (Part 2),” Samurai Champloo's firs...

Harvey Bullock is under arrest for kidnapping a witness. The evidence against him is damning. Batman doesn't believe it for a second, and not because he likes Bullock. Also, Scarecrow decides that he wants to take up sports gambling. This week on Toonami Absolution, Alyx, Jon, and Sam cover Episodes 23 and 24: "Vendetta" and "Fear of Victory." "Vendetta" opens with the disappearance of Spider Conw...