For this Saturday Anime Night, first up is Megazone 23 III (1989), the third and final intallment of the series, which has been a Hextube hit so far. It is one of the classic anime films from the old tape-trading days, one of the ones that made Western anime nerds into fans for life, with its pure cyberpunk anime a e s t h e t i c. It’s got guys on motorbikes, robots, explosions, big action scenes, and great animation the whole way through. After that, we will watch the first episode of Astro Boy (1963), which establishes his origin; then, we will watch episodes 23 and 24 of Astro Boy (1980), which covers the iconic “World’s Greatest Robot” arc (note that the 1963 anime, which is readily available, also covers this arc in episodes 116 and 117, but no one has ever subtitled them in English.) These episodes will provide us with the necessary context for Pluto (2023), an adaptation of the manga of the same name by Naoki Urasawa (otherwise best-known for Monster), which is itself a dark reimagining of the aforementioned Astro Boy arc. It has received rave reviews from all corners, so we will watch the first two parts (of eight) tonight.

We’ll start at 7PM EST on Hextube, right here: https://live.hexbear.net/c/movies

Be there, comrades!

Letterboxd:

• Megazone 23 III: https://letterboxd.com/film/megazone-23-iii-part-1-the-awakening-of-eve/
• Pluto: https://letterboxd.com/film/pluto-2023-1/

Doesthedogdie.com links:

• Megazone 23 III: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0160523/parentalguide?ref_=tt_stry_pg
• Pluto: Nothing on DTDD or IMDB. Sorry.

CWs for Megazone 23 III:

• Nudity.
• Sex.
• Attempted sexual assault of woman, though barely anything happens before it is foiled.
• Blood and gore.
• Explosions.
• Obscene language in subtitles.
• Smoking.
• Jump scares.

CWs for Astro Boy:

• Slavery.
• Child abuse.
• Cartoon violence.
• Deaths of sentient robots.
• Children in peril.

CWs for Pluto:

• Deaths of animals.
• Blood and gore.
• Gun violence.
• Children in peril.
• Sad ending.
• Explosions.

Links to movies:

• Forthcoming. I have the files, but the most convenient way to upload them is to replace one of the earlier videos while a later video is playing.