Toonami Absolution

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, and Mugen questions what it means to be alive. The episode's closing sequence, set to a rare one-time-use piece from the Nujabes score, is one of the more quietly beautiful moments in the se...

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 by Moltar and Zorak, who invite the Council of Doom to help, which, given that these are Space Ghost's arch-enemies, tells you something about the planning. The episode holds the re...

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 that is exactly as strange as it sounds.

Shot on 16mm for just over $100,000 during Burton's time as a conceptual artist at Disney, Hansel and Gretel is a loose adaptation of...

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 of gold retrieved from a river turns out to belong to increasingly dangerous people, leading to Mugen and Jin getting entangled in a massive conspiracy, all because th...

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 lives with his parents. He has hijacked the broadcast to read a list of demands at Space Ghost. Space Ghost tries to conduct his interview with yodeller Wylie Gustafson and Green Jelly's Bi...

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 newborn son he dismisses as weak before shipping him off to Earth. After his squad destroys the last survivors of a planet called Kanassa, one surviving al...

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, and her associate Mukuro, a pirate who was once Mugen's closest ally and is now running a gang of sea raiders. Mukuro has a job for Mugen: help rob a government ship. Mugen agrees. The job...

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, the avant-garde jazz guitarist who composed the Coast to Coast theme, died in May 1994. The episode aired nearly two years later and takes the form of an extended...

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 most culturally consequential superhero films ever made.

Crime boss Carl Grissom sends henchman Jack Napier (Jack Nicholson, clearly having the time of his life) to a chemical plant, where...

"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 Shino who is about to begin working at a local brothel to cover her husband Hanjiro's gambling debts.

Jin quickly falls in love with Shino, and uses Jin wi...

"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, which tells you everything about the intent. Space Ghost has been dumped and refuses to engage with the show in any meaningful way. Carrot Top appears to do Carrot Top things...

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 serving as general director. (Oddly, this is the only Lupin movie to end up on Toonami or Adult Swim, no idea why).

The...

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 Samurai Champloo, a pair of episodes that are basically polar opposites.

"Beatbox Bandits" is told in flashback by an elderly checkpoint guard named Yamane the Ogre, reflecting on the one day in his career he ne...

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 would feel at home in a soap opera: Lokar, a villain from the original 1960s Space Ghost cartoon, has been recruiting Moltar to co...

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 beginning, from Space Ghost: Coast to Coast to Bojack Unbound, and handing out awards for the best and worst of what we've...

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 Stray Dogs: Dead Apple (2018), the theatrical film produced by Bones, set after the events of Season 2, and a film that has sparked a lot of...

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 Altercation."

"A Risky Racket" opens with Fuu's purse being stolen by a young thief named Shinsuke who is stealing to fund his ailing mother's me...

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 Animated Series Volume 1.

"Mad as a Hatter" introduces Jervis Tetch (voiced by Roddy McDowall) a scientist at Wayne Research who has developed microchip technology capable of co...

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, properly the main character.

Mr. X.S. Cash is funding an intergalactic martial arts tournament as a birthday pr...

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 Absolution, Alyx, Jon, and Sam cover Episodes 5 and 6: "Artistic Anarchy" and "Stranger Searching."

"Artistic Anarchy" opens with the trio broke an...

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" introduces Temple Fugate, a efficiency-obsessed man, whose entire life ran on an exact schedule, until Gotham Mayor Hamilton Hill convinced him to take his coffee break five minutes e...

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.

The film takes place in a derelict, neon-lit corner of Tokyo that has been quietly quarantined by the supernatural, a Kowloon-inspired labyrinth of crumbling tenements and...

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 first two-parter, and the episodes where the show begins demonstrating exactly how much it can do within a single contained story.

"Hellhounds for Hire (Part 1)" opens with Mugen and Ji...

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 Conway, a small-time crook about to testify against Rupert Thorne and several other mob bosses, from a boat on the Gotham River. Harvey Bullock, who arrested Conway years earlier and...

The Joker, the Penguin, the Riddler, and Catwoman have joined forces, formed an alliance called the United Underworld, acquired a device that can reduce human beings to dust and are planning to use it on the United Nations Security Council. Batman has a spray can that repels sharks. This is 90 minutes of pure joy.

This week on Toonami Absolution, Alyx, Jon, and Sam cover Batman: The Movie (1966), the theatrical film based on the Adam West television series, which holds the title of the first full-length Batman film ever made.

Batman deduces through an...

A waitress spills tea on the wrong customer. A vagabond and a ronin both anger the same magistrate and are sentenced to death. The waitress rescues them. But she isn’t doing this out of the goodness of her heart, she has a condition: she needs their help to find the samurai who smells like sunflowers.

This week on Toonami Absolution, Alyx, Jon, and Sam start a brand new series: Samurai Champloo. the 2004 series from Shinichiro Watanabe, director of Cowboy Bebop, covering Episodes 1 and 2: "Tempestuous Temperaments" and "Redeye Reprisal."

"Tempestuous Temperaments" opens on Fu...

Matt Hagen finally has his revenge. A mild-mannered accountant from Ohio becomes the most dangerous man in Gotham for five minutes. And a background character who will eventually become one of the most famous characters in DC Comics makes her debut.

This week on Toonami Absolution, Alyx, Jon, and Sam cover Episodes 21 and 22: "Feat of Clay, Part 2" and "Joker's Favor."

"Feat of Clay, Part 2" opens with Matt Hagen, now fully Clayface, his entire body a shapeshifting mass that can become anyone, anything, hunting Roland Daggett through Gotham. The only one who can stop...

A new figure in a Batsuit has been operating in Gotham without Bruce Wayne's knowledge or permission. Gotham's criminal infrastructure is being systematically dismantled. Batman has three suspects and no idea which one is responsible. The film is not as interested in the answer as you might expect.

This week on Toonami Absolution, Alyx, Jon, and Sam cover Batman: Mystery of the Batwoman (2003), the third theatrical film in the DC Animated Universe, produced during The New Batman Adventures era and arriving after Batman & Mr. Freeze: SubZero and Mask of the Phantasm.

The film...

The Spirit Bomb landed. The Great Ape is gone. Vegeta is on his knees and Krillin is holding a sword. One word from Goku is going to define the entire rest of Dragon Ball Z.

This week on Toonami Absolution, Alyx, Jon, and Sam cover Ocean Dub Episode 26: "The Battle Ends,” the conclusion of the Saiyan Saga, and one of the single most consequential moments in the franchise.

Gohan's Great Ape transformation, triggered by the artificial moon Vegeta created, has him rampaging uncontrollably, and Vegeta, still recovering from the Spirit Bomb, is right un...

One episode is about a fake psychic running a financial cult on Gotham's wealthy elite. The other episode is about an actor who becomes a living pile of clay and cannot stop changing shape, and it is devastating.

This week on Toonami Absolution, Alyx, Jon, and Sam cover Episodes 19 and 20: "Prophecy of Doom" and "Feat of Clay, Part 1."

"Prophecy of Doom" introduces Nostromos, a self-styled seer who has built a loyal Brotherhood of wealthy Gotham citizens by delivering accurate predictions of disaster, disasters his assistant Lucas has been engineering in advance. When Bruce...

The TV series gave us a cheerful girl with fortune-telling cards and a slow-burn romance on a world of flying castles. The movie opens with Van covered in blood and Hitomi writing a suicide note.

This week on Toonami Absolution, Alyx, Jon, and Sam cover Escaflowne: The Movie (2000), the theatrical reimagining of The Vision of Escaflowne, which takes the same characters, setting, and mecha and tells an almost entirely different story about them.

Hitomi Kanzaki begins the film in a state of profound depression, estranged from her only friend and holding an unsent...

The Kaio-ken can't hold him. The Kamehameha can't stop him. The Spirit Bomb hits him and he survives. Vegeta has taken everything and the situation is very bad.

This week on Toonami Absolution, Alyx, Jon, and Sam cover Ocean Dub Episodes 24 and 25: "Vegeta... Saiyan Style!" and "Stop Vegeta Now!"

"Vegeta... Saiyan Style!" opens with Goku already at the limit of what his body can handle and Vegeta nowhere near done. When Goku gathers energy for the Spirit Bomb, Vegeta notices and blasts him before he can release it. Running out of options, Goku...

One episode features Batman catching an invisible man who is creepier than he should be. The other features Adam West and is genuinely one of the best episodes in the series.

This week on Toonami Absolution, Alyx, Jon, and Sam cover Episodes 17 and 18: "See No Evil" and "Beware the Gray Ghost."

"See No Evil" opens with a string of gem thefts committed by a man no one can see. The thief turns out to be Lloyd Ventrix, an ex-con who stole an experimental invisibility suit from Wayne Enterprises, a suit that turns out...

In 2007, Hideaki Anno released the first of four films re-examining Neon Genesis Evangelion from the beginning. The first question everyone asked was: is it actually different? The answer, for this one, is: sort of.

This week on Toonami Absolution, Alyx, Jon, and Sam cover Evangelion: 1.0 You Are (Not) Alone. the first entry in the Rebuild of Evangelion tetralogy, and the beginning of an ambitious project that would take nearly fifteen years to complete.

The film covers roughly the first six episodes of the original TV series: Shinji Ikari is called to Tokyo-3 by...

Nappa has been functionally unstoppable for four episodes. Then Goku arrives. Then Nappa has approximately ninety seconds of screen time remaining.

This week on Toonami Absolution, Alyx, Jon, and Sam cover Ocean Dub Episodes 22 and 23: "Goku Strikes Back" and "Goku vs. Vegeta... A Saiyan Duel!"

"Goku Strikes Back" gives Nappa precisely as much of a fight as he deserves: Goku dodges his every attack with casual effort, lands a blow for each friend Nappa sent to the Other Dimension. Nappa crawls to Vegeta for help, but Vegeta throws him into the sky and...

Batman meets his match. Bruce Wayne meets the woman he can't stop thinking about. They are the same person and he has no idea.

This week on Toonami Absolution, Alyx, Jon, and Sam cover Episodes 15 and 16: "The Cat and the Claw, Part 1" and "The Cat and the Claw, Part 2,” the two-part premiere episode that introduced Catwoman to Batman: The Animated Series, and which aired first despite being produced fifteenth.

"The Cat and the Claw, Part 1" opens with a rooftop chase: a cat burglar in a form-fitting suit outruns Batman across Gotham's skyline, kisses hi...

The Joker has been dead for years. The new Batman is a teenager from the future. And Warner Bros were keen to cut it to ribbons, this Bonk gets hit with Joker gas, a satellite laser chase has seatbelts added, and a Bugs Bunny cartoon is muted because a character says "I wish I were dead."

This week on Toonami Absolution, Alyx, Jon, and Sam cover Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker (2000), and we are going to talk a lot about the censored cut.

The film opens in a future Gotham where Terry...

The three-hour wait is over. Goku still isn't there. So, Piccolo makes the most important decision of the Saiyan Saga.

This week on Toonami Absolution, Alyx, Jon, and Sam cover Ocean Dub Episodes 20 and 21: "Time's Up!" and "The Return of Goku."

"Time's Up!" closes the three-hour window and opens on Nappa, refreshed, resuming his methodical destruction of what remains of Earth's defenders. Gohan and Krillin are running on empty. Piccolo is doing what he can.

The episode builds its entire tension on a single question: can these three survive long...

I've Got Batman in My Basement is widely considered one of the weakest in the entire series. Heart of Ice won an Emmy and redefined a villain for every medium that followed. These two episodes air back to back.

This week on Toonami Absolution, Alyx, Jon, and Sam cover Episodes 13 and 14: "I've Got Batman in My Basement" and "Heart of Ice."

"I've Got Batman in My Basement" introduces the Penguin, here designed to resemble Danny DeVito's portrayal in Batman Returns. His Fabergé egg heist goes wrong when Batman confronts his giant South American v...

A boy wakes up as a Squirtle, and before he can asks questions he is immediately conscripted into a Pokémon rescue team. Just a normal day in the Pokémon world!

This week on Toonami Absolution, Alyx, Jon, and Sam cover Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Team Go-Getters Out of the Gate!, the 2006 Cartoon Network special that served to promote the then-new Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Red Rescue Team and Blue Rescue Team.

The special opens on a boy who has woken up as a Squirtle, in a Pokémon world now beset by na...