Toonami Absolution

We're back in the Beast Wars! Unfortunately, Tarantulas and Blackarachnia are also back. We’re not happy about it either, but that is how life goes sometimes. This week on Toonami Absolution, Alyx, Jon, and Sam cover "Coming of the Fuzors (Part 2)" and "Tangled Web.” "Coming of the Fuzors (Part 2)" picks up with the Maximals badly outnumbered. Rattrap, Cheetor, and Dinobot holding off Megatron's f...

We were promised cars. We were not prepared for other worlds and ancient aliens. This week on Toonami Absolution, Alyx, Jon, and Sam cover the 2003 Cartoon Network film Hot Wheels: World Race. And I’m going to be honest with you, none of us were quite ready for what this movie actually is. On paper: a racing film where 35 drivers compete for a multi-million dollar prize on the most extreme tracks...

The Saint Beasts arc ends. Then something genuinely new begins and it introduces two of the most important figures in the entire series. This week on Toonami Absolution, Alyx, Jon, and Sam cover Yu Yu Hakusho Episodes 21 and 22: "Yusuke's Sacrifice" and "Lamenting Beauty." Episode 21 brings the Suzaku fight to its conclusion as Yusuke, running on almost nothing, blasts all seven of Suzaku's clones...

Optimus Primal is gone. Two fan-favourite Predacons are dead before the opening credits finish. And a handful of Maximals and Predacons just got entirely new bodies. Season 2 of Beast Wars does not ease you back in. This week on Toonami Absolution, Alyx, Jon, and Sam kick off Beast Wars Season 2 with "Aftermath" and "Coming of the Fuzors (Part 1)." "Aftermath" deals with the shockwave from the des...

A walking castle powered by a fire demon. An ongoing war no one can seem to stop. A young woman cursed to walk the Earth in the body of a grandmother. Hayao Miyazaki doing what only Hayao Miyazaki can do. This week on Toonami Absolution, Alyx, Jon, and Sam sit down with Howl's Moving Castle (2004), Studio Ghibli's adaptation of Diana Wynne Jones' beloved fantasy novel. While Toonami left this out...

The Saint Beasts arc explodes into its climax as Yusuke finally comes face to face with Suzaku, the last and most dangerous of the four. This week on Toonami Absolution, Alyx, Jon, and Sam cover Yu Yu Hakusho Episodes 19 and 20: "Suzaku, Leader of the Beasts" and "Seven Ways to Die." In Episode 19, Yusuke reaches Suzaku's tower while Kuwabara, Kurama, and Hiei hold off an endless wave of zombie-li...

Season 2 of Space Ghost: Coast To Coast keeps pushing the format into genuinely strange territory, and this batch of episodes might be the weirdest stretch yet. This week on Toonami Absolution, Alyx, Jon, and Sam cover Episodes 7, 8, and 9 of Season 2: "Sleeper," "Jerk," and "Urges." "Sleeper" brings in Hulk Hogan and Slash as guests and somehow both of them utterly suck. "Jerk" pairs Space Ghost...

One of the greatest animated films ever made. A battle between humanity and nature with no clean heroes and no easy answers. Hayao Miyazaki at his absolute peak. This week on Toonami Absolution, Alyx, Jon, and Sam sit down with *Princess Mononoke* (1997), Studio Ghibli's epic fantasy film that changed the conversation about what anime could be in the West. We discuss the film's jaw-dropping animat...

Kuwabara vs. a tiger. Over a lake of lava. Twice. And then Hiei shows us exactly why you do NOT mess with him. This week on Toonami Absolution, Alyx, Jon, and Sam cover YuYu Hakusho Episodes 17 and 18: "Byakko's Lair" and "Seiryu, the Blue Dragon." Kuwabara gets his most brutal showcase yet as he takes on Byakko for a second time in a lava-filled arena pouring every last drop of his spirit energy...

Yet more broadcasts from the Ghost Planet with Space Ghost: Coast To Coast Season 2 Episodes 5 and 6: Fire Drill and Le Livre d'Histoire. Fire Drill is one of the seasons most surprising episodes as Space Ghost is joined by David Byrne and Donny Osmond. This does not go how you expect as while David Byrne struggles with Space Ghost, Donny Osmond takes it like a champ, leading to one of the show’s...

They killed Optimus Prime. They really did it. And if you were a kid watching in 1986, you were never the same. This week on Toonami Absolution, Alyx, Jon (who has never seen this film before), and Sam take on *The Transformers: The Movie* (1986) one of the most audacious, brutal, and beloved animated films in the history of American animation. We break down everything: the shocking deaths of clas...

The Four Saint Beasts arc kicks into high gear as Team Urameshi enters Maze Castle and Kurama proves he's one of anime's most underrated fighters (even if he gets his butt kicked often). This week on Toonami Absolution, Alyx, Jon, and Sam dive into YuYu Hakusho Episodes 15 and 16: "Genbu, the Stone Beast" and "Byakko, the White Tiger." Yusuke, Kuwabara, Kurama, and Hiei are deep inside Maze Castle...

Love advice from Fran Drescher, Carol Channing, and Alice Cooper. A pizza order gone catastrophically wrong. Space Ghost: Coast to Coast Season 2 keeps getting weirder, and we are HERE for it. This week on Toonami Absolution, Alyx, Jon, and Sam dig into Episodes 3 and 4 of SG:C2C Season 2: "Girlie Show" and "Hungry." We break down how these two wildly different episodes capture what makes Coast to...

We return to the world of Transformers with the Transformers Armanda Premier Movie. This movie aired on Toonami on August 23rd, 2002. This isn’t a movie in the traditional sense, as it is just the first three episodes of the TV show "First Encounter", "Metamorphosis" and "Base" combined into one movie. Transformers Armanda is a fascinating show as the series has a confusing production history as t...

As one YuYu Hakusho story ends, another begins. Episode 13 “Yusuke vs. Rando: 99 Attacks” sees the battle between Yusuke and Rando come to a head, as Yusuke has to push himself to the limit to claim Genkai’s powers for himself. Episode 14 “The Beasts of Maze Castle” jumps ahead six months. Yusuke may have finished his training with Genkai, but that doesn’t mean he can relax as the Four Saint Beast...

Space Ghost: Coast To Coast throws us right in at the deep end with two of the oddest episodes in the show’s history. First we have “President's Day Nightmare” (also known as “1st Annual World Premiere Toon-In”) which is actually a backdoor pilot for Cartoon Network’s What A Cartoon! With Space Ghost putting five cartoon directors (Craig McCracken, Pat Ventura, Van Partible, Eugene Mattos, and Gen...

After doing Yu-Gi-Oh! And Pokémon, it only felt fitting to do the other main collectible anime craze of the 2000s: Digimon. Digimon: The Movie is a fascinating film, as its actually three Japanese films (Digimon Adventure, Digimon Adventure: Our War Game!, and Digimon Adventure 02: Hurricane Touchdown!!) squished into one film. Join as us we watch and react to this anime classic and dig into its w...

The Genaki arc of YuYu Hakusho continues with Hard Fights For Yusuke and Rando Rises, Kuwabara Falls. In a bid to secure Genkai’s powers for themselves, Yusuke and Kuwabara are forced to fight several powerful foes, while trying to work out which fighter is actually a demon in disguise! We also talk about how Genkai’s mere existence led to numerous problems when Yu Yu Hakusho made its way to Toona...

We finish our first block of Toonami Super Friends (which is not actually Super Friends) with A Perfidious Pieman is Simon & Frozen Peril and Seeds of Disaster & Devil Of A Time. The highlight here is A Perfidious Pie Man is Simon, which introduces a brand-new Batman villain in the form of Simon The Pieman, a nursery rhyme-obsessed creep who somehow has enough cash to open up a theme park...

Duel Masters: The Good, the Bad and the Bolshack is a special movie designed to promote the show Duel Masters. It combines the first four episodes of Duel Masters: "Playing with a Full Deck", "It's Not Easy Being Green", "Toru, Toru, Toru, Part 1" and "Toru, Toru, Toru, Part 2" into a single package. While mostly forgotten today, Duel Masters has a fascinating history, as it was Wizards Of The Coa...

This week, our adventure through Toonami’s Super Friends brings us to The Force Phantom and The Cool, Cruel Mr. Freeze. The Force Phantom sees Superman do battle with an alien energy monster that threatens to destroy rocket launch bases across the world, forcing Superman to fly into space to put a stop to the evil plan. The Cool, Cruel Mr. Freeze sees Batman take on Mr Freeze. However, this is 196...

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...