Toonami Absolution

This episode, we discuss the 9th and 10th episodes of YuYu Hakusho. The Search Begins, YuYu Hakusho’s 9th episode starts a new arc, with Yusuke having to enter the Genkai tournament to learn the special energy wave attack known by Genkai. However, he’ll have to be on high alert, as the evil demon Rando has entered the tournament in disguise, meaning Yusuke has to work out who the demon is before i...

Yu-Gi-Oh!: The Dark Side of Dimensions is a move set after the end of the original Yu-Gi-Oh anime. Seto Kaiba, unable to accept that Atem returned to the afterlife without battling him again, embarks on a massive project to rebuild the Millennium Puzzle, hoping that doing so will bring Atem back for one final duel. Alas, this draws the attention of the mysterious Diva, who plans to use Kaiba’s act...

This week, Toonami’s Super Friends gives us a weird two-parter. First, we get The Energy Mass, an episode that features The Atom, Ray Palmer a superhero who modern fans will likely know because of his more...unsavoury comic stories. This is paired with The Monster Of Doctor Droid, a short where Wonder Woman and Superman do battle with an evil scientist. We also get another slice of Superman with T...

This episode, we discuss the 7th and 8th episodes of YuYu Hakusho. Episode 7, Gouki and Kurama sees Yusuke finish off his fight with Gouki before heading out to do battle with Kurama, hoping he can stop him using the Forlorn Hope. However, this plan takes a sudden turn when it turns out that Kurama may not be all he seems. Episode 8, The Three Eyes of Hiei, sees Yusuke clash with Hiei, the third a...

We’re continuing our jaunt through the world of Dragon Ball movies by tackling 1991’s Dragon Ball Z: Lord Slug. Will Lord Slug be able to reach the heady highs of Dragon Ball Z: Tree Of Might or will the Namekian villain fail to make an impact? This movie also introduces one of the weirdest forms in Dragon Ball history, in the form of Pseudo-Super Saiyan (or Fake Super Saiyan) meaning that this fi...

Just when you thought it was safe, more Super Friends appears! This week we have Super Friends vs Super Friends, an episode that desperately wants to convince you that you like Aquaman, despite the entire story being about how useless he is when he can’t call on a whale for help. We follow it up with The Big Birthday Caper, a Batman cartoon that was clearly drawing inspiration from the live-action...

Our Yu Yu Hakusho rewatch continues with episode 5 “Yusuke's Back” and episode 6 “Three Monsters”. Yusuke finally returns from the Spirit World, but quickly finds that his life won’t be the same as he’s now a Spirit Detective, meaning that he has to investigate evil oni, demons, and ghosts and stop them causing chaos in the human world. Even worse, Yusuke is dropped in at the deep end, as he has t...

This week’s movie is Batman And Mr. Freeze Sub-Zero. This 1998 movie was a direct-to-video spin-off from the universally beloved Batman: The Animated series and follows on from one of Batman: The Animated Series’ most beloved episodes. But can this new Mr Freeze tale live up to what came before? And how does it measure up to the other Batman: The Animated Series movie, the highly praised Batman: M...

We continue our exploration of Super Friends (that isn’t actually Super Friends due to Toonami lying) with an actual Super Friends cartoon in the form of “Will The World Collide?” We then get a double bill of Clark Kent with the Superman short “The Men From APE” and the Superboy cartoon “Krypto The Seeing-Eye Dog” The highlight of this being The Men From APE, where Superman fights a team of superv...

This week we tackle “Kuwabara: A Promise Between Men” and “Requirements for Lovers” the 3rd and 4th episodes of YuYu Hakusho. Yusuke is still stuck as a ghost, forcing him to reach out to his friends to get them to do the things he needs to do in the land of the living. Because of this, Kuwabara is forced into a strange situation, one that gives us a chance to appreciate how well-written YuYu Haku...

Sailor Moon R: The Movie (also called Sailor Moon R: The Promise of the Rose) was the movie made to tie-in to Sailor Moon’s second season. However, this movie is an odd one, as it is directed by Kunihiko Ikuhara (the man who would go onto direct Revolutionary Girl Utena) who opted to take the story in an unusual direction, using the movie to flesh out Mamoru Chiba (or Tuxedo Mask’s) backstory by i...

Toonami lied to you! After learning that Toonami showed Super Friends for a brief period in 1998, Jon decided that this show would be our next Western Cartoon block. However, Jon quickly discovered that Toonami didn’t actually show Super Friends. Instead, they showed a different show (the Superman Batman Adventures) and simply called it Super Friends. What makes this especially odd is that the Sup...

Our new anime is YuYu Hakusho! Based on the classic manga by Yoshihiro Togashi, this series was a big hit on Adult Swim in the early 2000s. This week we tackle, "Surprised to be Dead" and "Koenma Appears". These episodes are interesting as while they have all the shonen silliness you would expect, they do treat their subject matter with a surprising amount of gravitas, with Yusuke Urameshi’s car a...

We round off our coverage of Cowboy Bebop with 2001’s Cowboy Bebop: The Movie, also known as Cowboy Bebop: The Movie - Knockin' on Heaven's Door. Releasing after the anime wrapped up, this movie sees Spike, Faye, Jet and Edward embark on a new adventure when their trip to Mars leads to them accidentally getting entangled in an evil plot masterminded by the evil Vincent Volaju. Naturally, this lead...

The time has come for Other Voices, Part1 and Other Voices, Part 2, the final episodes of Transformers Beast Wars’ first season. The aliens that built the mysterious planet and seeded it with Energon are back, and they’re keen to get rid of both the Maximals and the Predacons. Can Optimus Primal and the other Maximals find a way to stop it, or will they be undermined by the Predacons, some of whom...

There is a Cowboy Bebop episode you’ve never seen. When Cowboy Bebop first aired on TV Toyko, the network opted to only show 12 random episodes. The week after “Speak Like A Child” aired, TV Toyko broadcast Cowboy Bebop’s 13th (and at the time final) episode, Session XX: Mish-Mash Blues. This episode sees Spike, Jet, Faye, and Edward present short monologues about the show’s characters, themes, an...

Stan Lee is a comics legend. However, in the early-2000s he was producing some very weird things. The Condor or El Condor, or Stan Lee Presents The Condor is a great example of this. This direct-to-DVD movie tries to capture the magic that made Spider-Man and Iron Man household names, but fails in every way imaginable. This might be one of the worst films we’ve watched on Toonami Absolution, as it...

This week on Beast Wars we tackle “Law of the Jungle” and “Before the Storm”. Law of the Jungle is a fascinating episode as it sees Tigatron leave the team after his girlfriend is crushed, causing a rift in the Maximals, one that leads to them debating the nature of conflict. It also gives Dinobot a chance to go full Shakespeare on us. Before the Storm sees Beast Wars’ plot finally return as Megat...

All good things must end. Real Folk Blues (Part 1) and Real Folk Blues (Part 2) represent the end of Cowboy Bebop, and to quote Sam “it never gets any easier”. Spike finally reunites with Julia, however this moment is bittersweet, as it puts Spike on a collision course with Viscous, one where only one man will escape with his life. This all leads to one of the most famous endings in anime history,...

We continue our romp through the early Dragon Ball Z movies with Dragon Ball Z: The Tree of Might. Not only does this film give us our first “evil Goku” (in the form of Turles) but it is also one of the most dubbed Dragon Ball movies of all time, with about five different versions being made since the film’s original release. So, not only is the film one of the best Dragon Ball movies ever, it is...

This weeks double-dose of Beast Wars is quite possibly the dictionary definition of “tonal dissonance”. We start with “Possession” a really creative that sees Starscream make a grand return, confirming that Beast Wars is in-continuity with the Transformers G1 continuity, totally inverting Beast Wars status quo. We then have The Low Road an episode full of fart jokes and an intro that dredges up un...

Cowboy Bebop is quickly reaching the end, but we’ve got to through Brain Scratch and Hard Luck Woman to get there. Brain Scratch sees Spike go head-to-head against a Heaven’s Gate-esq cult that has somehow seduced Faye into joining. But he quickly learns that this techno-cult may not be all that they seem. After that, Hard Luck Woman sees Faye recall more of her past, leading to one of Cowboy Bebo...

Dragon Ball Z: The World's Strongest is the second Dragon Ball Z film. It pits Goku against Dr. Wheelo, an evil scientist who has been trapped in an icy prison for many years, waiting for this moment to put his sinister plan into action.  A plan that involves kidnapping Master Roshi and giving Launch the night off (are we sure he’s a villain?). Featuring mad science, epic fights, and one impr...

Optimus Prime returns to monkey this week on Beast Wars. In Call Of The Wild, the Maximals are locked in Beast Mode and end up acting like the animals they’re copying, leading to some really weird visuals. We also spend a moment looking at the Japanese dub of Beast Wars, which decided that this episode needed a musical number.  After that, we tackle Dark Voyage, an episode where a blinded Din...

This week on Cowboy Bebop, we tackle Boogie Woogie Feng Shui and Cowboy Funk. In Boogie Woogie Feng Shui, Jet once again takes the spotlight, embarking on a quest to help the daughter of an old friend.  In Cowboy Funk, we’re introduced to Cowboy Andy, the funniest character in Cowboy Bebop. This white-hatted cowboy is keen to show he’s the best bounty hunter in the west, much to Spike’s disma...