Anime Reviews: Toriko Episode 102 - Toriko Finally Defeated?! The Delicate and Dynamic Power of Honoring the Food!

The Story
Shu shows Toriko the Bubble Fruit in the courtyard, but Toriko's hunter's instincts disturb the fruit and cause it to pop. Shu has Toriko fight him to demonstrate what honoring the food can do even with very little energy. Toriko is worn down and unable to defeat the much weaker Shu. Shu then demonstrates how honoring food can help Komatsu by defeating him in a cabbage shredding competition.

Anime Reviews: Toriko Episode 101 - People Without Gratitude Aren't Welcome! Terrifying Chowlin Temple!

The Story
Toriko and Komatsu learn about the vanishing forest disappearing when faced with threats. They reach the temple and discover that it is more violent than the forest, attacking those it feels aren't honoring the food. Criminals are brought here to be taught how to honor the food and rehabilitated. Chin Chin-Chin tells them they will learn from the assisstant instructor Shu.



Anime Reviews: Toriko Episode 100 - Put Your Hands Together and Bow! National Treasure, Chin-Chin, Appears!

The Story
Toriko and follow the fortune roll where it falls, into the vanishing forest. However, before they reach their destination, they find that the roll has been broken where a huge chunk of the forest has been scooped out. They chase who they think is the thief to the ten star Vanishing Japanese Cuisine Restaurant. When they try to enter it disappears, but a voice tells them to clap their hands together and bow. The restaurant reappears and the owner Chiru serves them a meal. But the ingredients are so delicate that they are barely able to eat any of them. After their meal the only other customer in the restaurant, and the one that helped them enter in the first place, reveals himself to be the master of Chowlin Temple, Master Chin Chin-Chin.

Anime Reviews: Toriko Episode 099 - Too Huge! The Giant Fortune Roll, Completed With a Pro Wrestling Move!

The Story
Toriko and Komatsu go to get some special seaweed, called eco nori, a kind of seaweed found only in one special place. They travel to the lands of Aimaru and his Gourmet Knights, who then take them to Eco Village, where the seaweed turns out to be the out layer of a certain kind of tortoise. After Toriko charges all the solar batteries for the tortoises, they return to Monchi with the seaweed. He then creatures the fortune roll, by wrestling the ingredients into submission.

Anime Reviews: Toriko Episode 098 - Toriko Faints in Agony! Capture the World's Stinkiest Ingredient!

The Story
Toriko and Komatsu go to the Heavy Drinker Archipelago, to get the vinegar they need to make the fortune role. While there they come across many natural occurrences of alcohol and snacks that go well with alcohol. They meet Knocking Master Jiro, who Toriko thanks for helping him out in the Gourmet World.

Anime Reviews: Toriko Episode 97 - The Four King's Assemble to Mark the 100th Episode!

The Story
The four kings gather together, and between them and Komatsu they compete to see who can catch the Madam Fish first. While the four kings use their special abilities to narrow down the Madam Fish's location, they all discover that Komatsu picked the right spot at the beginning, thanks to his food luck. Together they are able to catch the fish and defend it against an opportunistic predator.

Anime Reviews: Toriko Episode 96 - Hidden Training Ingredient! Emergency Instructions From Ichiryu!

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The Story

Toriko defeats a rampaging beast, and frees the artisan village from its clutches. There he meets with Monchi, whose help he needs to find one of the training ingredients Ichiryu has assigned to him. Later, Komatsu goes to meet Toriko at Biotope 2, where the two meet to get dinner, and discuss the task Toriko has before him. He was thinking of getting some seafood from Biotope 2, for the fortune roll that Monchi would make for him. But nothing he has seen is sufficient. Right after this an IGO employee comes with a message from Ichiryu, saying that the stew pond has frozen over, and that the four kings have been called to capture the Madame Fish.

Anime Reviews: Toriko Episode 92 - Climax! The Last, Most Terrible Ingredients!

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The Story
With no time left to finish preparing the ingredient, Toriko takes the Nitro Cherry from Komatsu and eats it raw. The explosion damages his organs, but thanks to his gourmet cells Toriko is able to start recovering. Coco trades for a high level ingredient, thanks to the Nitro Cherry's joker status. They overtake Livebearer, but he is able to eat the Electric Banana and take the lead again, leaving Toriko and team with no way to catch up.

News: Fairy Piece

Far too many people say Fairy Tail is a carbon copy of One Piece. Other, more sensible people, recognize the prevalence of certain trends in shonen manga and don't make a big deal out of it. For those people Funimation recently announced some brand new acquisitions at Otakon.

One Piece Season 5 - I expected that we would be getting this soon, but I didn't expect to see Funimation acquire the rights before getting sales numbers for season four back. This confidence in the franchise on Funimation's part speaks well for the series' future.

But that's not all!

One Piece Film: Strong World - I asked Funimation CEO, Ken Fukunaga, about this way back at comic-con 2010. He said they were working on acquiring the rights and that it all depended on what the Japanese parent companies decided. Two years later we finally get it! I'm hoping this means we'll get to see releases for the other movies, my collection needs completing.

And for the fans of Fairy Tail we have:

Fairy Tail Season 2 - We'll be getting another 24 episodes. I'm not sure which set of episodes these are, I need to double check how many have been released so far. But it's a good sign for the franchise. Even better is...

Fairy Tail - The Movie - This one caught me off guard. After how long it took to get Strong World I would never have imagined that Funimation would have acquired the rights to a movie that hasn't even been released yet. Good thing too, this means I can avoid having to deal with wondering when the fansubbers will get around to it. We'll be able to see the movie how it was meant to be seen, legally and of much better quality. No news on when exactly it will be released, but I imagine sometime towards the end of this year.

Check here for more news! Funimation News!

Anime Reviews: Fairy Tail Dub First Impressions Episodes 1-4

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Introduction
Four episodes of the Fairy Tail dub have been released on Funimation's simulcast. I was originally going to review each episode as it came out, but that would be too much work. Sure I could use this as a chance to review all the episodes I never reviewed, but really, who cares? Instead I'll give you a first look at the long awaited Dub, and we can see if it stands up to the original. I'll save my commentary on following episodes for when I get my hands on the DVDs.

Fantasy Casting: Fairy Tail Update

I only just recently found out on twitter that the cast for Funimation's dub of Fairy Tail has been decided.  You can find the full press release here.  Or here, if you like your information with pictures.    This is what I've been waiting for, ever since I released my cast predictions back in April.  So let's take a moment and see which casting choices I got right, and which I–heaven forbid–got wrong.  Also, if you like being surprised, I recommend reading my article first before checking out the actual announcements.  It'd be more fun for you to go into my list not knowing who has actually been cast.

Fantasy Casting: Fairy Tail

Since Funimation has announced that they have acquired the license for Fairy Tail, and have only announced Todd Haberkorn as Natsu, I think it would be fun to finish something I started a while back. Namely my fantasy casting for the then hypothetical Fairy Tail dub.  What is fantasy casting you ask?  It's kind of like fantasy football, only more conventionally nerdy.  Basically I draw from a pool of voice actors, in this case those that regularly work with Funimation, and assign them roles in an undubbed anime.

Given the news of the upcoming release of the Funimation dub of Fairy Tail, now seems as good a time as any to release my very first fantasy cast list.  That and if I don't post it now there won't be any point in posting it ever, after the rest of the cast is announced that is.

I'll be focusing on the main characters, and assign them voice actors that I think have the right voice for the role.  Obviously I won't bother casting Natsu since...he's already been cast.  But with all the rest of the cast unannounced I can still have my say on who I think would do the best job.

And so, let's see how close I get to guessing who plays who.

News Updates: Fairy Tail Licensed by Funimation

I absolutely love Twitter.  People can make fun of it all they want, but when I find out about something like THIS because of Twitter, then it has my love forever. If it were legal I would marry Twitter.  But since that is impossible, I proposed to Funimation instead.  I have yet to hear back from them.