LNT Anime #12

Ghost in the Shell is back, and it instantly raises the bar for what a “reboot” should feel like. We talk about the new animation, the mature detective vibe, and why its AI driven future feels uncomfortably close to real life. If you’ve ever used AI tools to move faster at work, you’ll get why this story hits harder now than it did during the Toonami days, when a lot of us were watching before we could fully process what it was saying.

Then we swing into trailers and franchise loyalty, starting with a Resident Evil movie preview that actually looks built for the core video game fans. From there, the gloves come off for Marvel: the Doom reveal, the Jonathan Majors Kang fallout, and the bigger problem of an MCU timeline that starts to feel shaky when long running threads like the TVA and Loki’s arc seem ignored. We debate whether bringing Robert Downey Jr. back is smart business or a creative shortcut, and we ask the uncomfortable questions about who even belongs in a Doom level fight.

To bring the energy back up, we get excited about Spider-Man Brand New Day and the appeal of a Peter Parker who’s finally down bad and forced to grow without the safety net. We also hit DC’s animated dominance, Netflix surpassing Crunchyroll in anime streaming, One Piece staying legendary, the anime versus manga debate, and why classics like Gundam and Bleach still shape the culture. Listen, share this with a friend who argues about Marvel or anime, and leave a review with your hottest take: are you team manga, team anime, or both?

Transcript

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Sports Talk And Philly Hype

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Late PA Life of Thomas Anime episode 12 me and Carlos. What's up, bro? Yes, sir, yes, sir, bro. It's been a minute, man. Yes, it's been a minute. It's been a minute. You know, we're back to cooking. It's been a lot going on. World Cup. World Cup, Connor McGregor. LeBron. Bron to Philly. Oh, man. It was great. It's great, bro. I've been winning since that announcement happened. Like, as soon as that announcement happened, like everything else started happening for me. It's crazy, bro. Crazy. Time's believing is pretty wild, I'll be honest. But the fact that Bron is gonna be in Philly is wild. It's crazy as hell. And we might get one. We got Jalen Brown. We got MB. MB, you don't even gotta move. You don't gotta move until playoffs. Chill. Right. Chill. They don't eventually chill. Hey, they can snatch the East. The East is real weak, bro. MB is the best center in the league when he's healthy. That's healthy. But let's talk about something.

Ghost In The Shell Revival

SPEAKER_00 1:10

Let's talk. Let's get into the anime podcast. Life of Tom Anime episode 12. Ghost in Shell, bro, is back. One of the golden animes from the Tsunami days has got it has some of the best animation I've seen this year. It's crazy how fluid it is. It's like a peey. It's it's crazy. Futuristic, it's detective, it's like it's intellectual, it's mature. Yeah, it's very current. Like all this shit can be happening in like 20 years. And it's crazy because especially mentioned in those tsunami days. I remember it was one of those animes that I was tuning into as a kid and didn't necessarily really know what was going on or able to digest what was really going on. So like the fact that it's come back even better and in very relatable times in the economy that we're in, with like AI going on, all this advanced technology and stuff like that. Yo, it's like it's kind of like the anime equivalent of Black Mirror, kinda. I'm not gonna lie. It really is. It really is. It's so futuristic, it's so close to like I use AI all day, right? Like for my job and shit. It makes my job so much easier. But like you get deep into it. Like, yeah, like that's just like a whole different world, bro. Especially when you're being effective, productive using the AI. It's crazy. And Ghost and Shell really represents and like illustrates that as far as in the show. And I'm liking it so far with three episodes deep. If you're not watching the new Ghost and Shell anime, it is out. It is fire. Tap in. I definitely got to tap

Resident Evil Trailer Looks Legit

SPEAKER_00 2:56

in. The World Cup took a lot of my time, so I'm tapping back into my animes and shows. Bro, there's a new Resident Evil movie coming out. Oh, the trailer. That shit is fire. I thought we were gonna get some trash. I'm not even gonna lie, bro. This trailer washes a couple of the Resident Evil movies, bro. And because they did try and make a couple of movies. They did have a couple renditions of Resident Evil yeah. They had some movies. They were all trash, bro. Like they wasn't really on shit. Like it was alright. It was kind of like the underworld of zombie movies. Yeah, yeah. Like, alright, I get it. Right, right. Like you tried to do a thing, it didn't really hit like that, and you didn't really because the thing about doing like adaptations like that, you got to get to the core fans, man. You gotta connect with the core fans. Because if you don't, you're you're it's an uphill battle, bro. Bro, this one looks like it's gonna feed the core fans. This one looks straight out of the video game. This looks like a mission, like a story mode. The actor almost fucking died. They like dropped a fake zombie, like it was like two or three inches away from his dumbass. It's crazy. Putting it on the line for the entertainment, real. It's wild to see. I'm excited for the Resident Evil movie that comes out. There's another trailer that just

Marvel Doom Casting And Timeline Rant

SPEAKER_00 4:15

came out. Doom just came out for Marvel, for Robert Donna Judy coming back for Doomsday. It looks fire, bro. It looks heat. It does look fire. I'm excited. I still think they should have kept Jonathan Majors. I think they should have just had it. I'm sorry. Yeah, I know. In case the case went by, it's over. And it sucks because that Kang storyline was really gonna be the perfect way. It was gonna be because here's the thing: there was Kang Dynasty, and then we were gonna go into the Secret Wars route, and that was kind of gonna be the hard reboot for the whole universe. And then next thing you know, we could go like the young Avengers route, which they were setting up in like the ladders of all the movies of like Thor, Love, and Thunder with Love and Captain America and all that type of stuff. Like the next gen of heroes, like Black Panther son that he never got to see, that was growing up in Haiti. Bro, it sucks that that Kang storyline, like Infinite Kang storyline, was really going to get we were gonna get a lot of those niche comic book stories like Secret Wars, Kang in time, that was gonna reel in like the X-Men and all that type of stuff. It seemed like it was gonna be really dope, bro. And Jonathan Majors was a really dope Kang, especially in Quantumania for Amen. So it sucks that all that got scrapped. And then mind you, bringing back Robert Downey Jr. for Doom's time. It's like there's like Are we serious? Like, there's no actors left somebody else, you know what I mean? And it's almost Doom is supposed to be from Latvaria, which is like the the Marvel USSR kind of kind of region, right? So it's like, you mean to tell me you couldn't find like a Slovakian or Russian or some type of Eastern European actor that like that could have done this role? Like one person I thought would have been perfect for this role was I don't know how into Harry Potter you are, but he played he played Dumbledore in Secrets of Dumbledore, I'm pretty sure. Oh you're talking about. Yeah. He played Professor X. Yeah, bro. I know what you're talking about. So he would have been pretty dope as like as a young Doom, or we could have got, I think Killian Murphy would have been an idea for yeah, that would have been so Doom had to be a new face, and I think they're fucking up so bad with this. Exactly. Not even gonna lie, bro. The trailer looks like fucking rushed. It does. It does. And it's like my thing is the heroes to go up against Doom, it's like, bro, the Thunderbolts. The fuck are they gonna do? Why are they here? Like, what are the Thunderbolts gonna do, bro? You mean to tell me no? Where's the Hulk? Like Thor is here. Okay, cool, you got Thor. But no Hulk, no Captain Marvel? Where's Captain Marvel? Yeah, and it's like, bro, like if you can't get proper heroes to go up against Doom, it's like, bro, no, here's the thing. With this movie coming up, nobody expects Doom to be defeated. He is going to wash everybody, bro. Bro, first of all, Doom should have fucking He should have been the main in the first movie. The first Fantastic Four movie should have been an origin story. I'm sorry. You think it should have been an origin story, bro? Because who the fuck are the Fantastic Four? Really? To the new MCU fan. Okay, that's a good point. That's a good point. Oh, they just had a kid and shit. Oh, it's it's it's a celestial. Oh shit. That's a good point. Now now now you faded doom. Like like how do they really know him? Like, how do they how Silver Surfer like was like a vent in Fantastic Four? Like the even the OG one. Even the OG one. OG Silver. He was a vent. He was he was knocking shit down for real. He was. Yo, OG Silver Surfer was a demon for real. Bro, fucking drop Johnny out the talked about the atmosphere and shit, bro. Come on, bro. This one is like, he's making a sound, he's making a mixtape for it and shit. Like, like it, there's some critiques. I can really get into my Marvel critiques, bro. Like, Doom, I'm gonna watch it because I'm a Marvel fan. It's good to see Captain America again. I'm always gonna geek out when he gets the hammer. Okay. Facts. But we're Scarlet Witch. Like, we're strange, bro. We're strange. We got Shang Chi fighting. Who is he fighting? He fighting my man Gambit. Yeah, bro. And it's like, no way. They're not on the same scale, bro. And here's the thing: this is our first introduction of the X-Men. And it's like, don't get me wrong, some of the scenes look really cold. Like that OG Cyclops outfit with the Sentinel in the background and stuff like that. That's cold. Don't get me wrong. But it's like, mind you, we've been asking for X for the X-Men since Eternals came out, bro. And first of all, where are the Eternals? Because they're probably the only like, I guess, groups that should be a part of this type of situation. And where are the Guardians of the Galaxy, brother? Like, where is everybody at? Bro, nobody's outside for home. Casting crew is fuck. It's crazy, bro. Nobody is outside for Doom. They got retcon a lot of shit. That's what I'm saying, too. It's crazy. Fucking DC's in a better position than Marvel right now. It took them decades to get better. Because right now, Marvel's timeline is shake. It's all over the place. If you sit down and think about it, we really got fucked up because we kept it all together. It made it make sense. Because the TVA, all that time loop stuff, it made sense with Kang. I made a reference to that because Loki's in the trailer like he's in the TVA.

unknown 10:13

Right.

SPEAKER_00 10:14

Now you're about to tell me the TVA and Kang don't mean shit. And Loki taking over and becoming the god of stories don't mean shit. But it's a big ass part of this story that I'm about to watch anyway. All of that stuff was supposed to lead to secret wars and Kang. Oh, right. It's so bad. It's so bad. And that's what I'm saying. Like the first taste of the Fantastic Ford. Like who are they? Yeah, yeah. Who is Ben Grimm? What did you get from Ben Grimm in this movie, bro? Like, it's crazy. But alright, that's my rant on that.

Spider-Man Brand New Day Hopes

SPEAKER_00 10:48

Spider-Man is coming out.

SPEAKER_01 10:50

Ooh. I can't wait. They never watched that shit first day.

SPEAKER_00 10:54

Yeah, they never miss. Hey, listen, Marvel, I take it all back. You know what I'm saying? If I can see brand new day while I'm on vacation in Sweden, bro, I need to find a movie theater in Stockholm or something. They have to have something. Yeah, dog, because I gotta see. I can't wait until I come back to go see that. No. I would see it same day. Like I'm seeing it as soon as it comes out. Telling you, I hope I don't get hit with like, oh, they don't have a European release date or something. You know what you mean? Like, I don't know when you're gonna. I hope so. Listen, you know, Carlos don't be in the States, though. He don't be on the States, bro. He be on tour, bro. I'm going on tour, y'all. I'm sorry. We gotta give him the life of Times chain. We're gonna fly it out to him. But brand new dato. That Hulk fight? It's Hulk. That's what we need. It's not a street tape. There's a lot of spot lines in this movie that I'm very excited for. Because one, from the Insomniac game, or just a villain we haven't really seen in cartoon or live action, Mr. Negative. Yeah. The storyline of him kind of evolving into the man spider. Yeah. Like him taking that kind of evolution. Because in the OG, like 2000 Spider-Man cartoon, when he became the man spider and was started evolving, I remember that's when the X-Men kind of like popped out. And Charles Xavier Charles Xavier was like, yo, I sensed your mutation through cerebral. You know what I mean? And brother, I can help you. And Peter Parker was kind of like, nah, I'm gonna figure it out all dully on some scientific, science, like science type beat. And he was like, alright, man, I'll let you rock. So I'm very interested to see how this kind of how these storylines play out and mesh together. And like, what's the wider story that's gonna be told? Because my issue with Marvel is that you're gonna tell us all these dope storylines, but we never really see how it kind of connects to the wider verse. You know what I mean? They could have made this Spider-Man, I still think it's gonna be a good Spider-Man for sure. But they could have did they could have done this one thing that I would have liked. What if Spider-Man in his crisis was mutants in themselves? So as Spider-Man's brand new day, it's all these mutants, and he's getting his mutant abilities. Professor X and them are just starting up, you know, that's kind of like a dual origin, and that scene from the comics come out like that. And that's how we get the Hulk in there and everything like that, as far as the science aspect. Because he went to Beast in the comics or on the show. So like it would be fire if that could happen. But I'm excited. They're about to put the hand in there. I think they're about to bust my boy Daredevil out of jail. So I think there's a couple things that's gonna come out on this thing that's gonna be really good as far as the Spider-Man legacy. I think he's gonna get some real smoke here, though. Like, he's gonna have a real villain that he's gonna have to put down. That's what I'm saying, man. And especially this is the lowest that we've seen Tom Holland Spider-Man. Like, mind you, he started off like all the other Spider-Man, Andrew Garfield and Tom McGuire, they started in the trenches and they never really got up like that. Tom Holland had it sweet. The Avengers were around. He had Stark Tech, like he was cool. He's really a trust fund kid, bro. He's really the trust fund Spider-Man compared to the others. I'm not gonna lie. He still has the weakest Peter Parker to me. Peter Parker weak as hell, bro. I ain't gonna lie. Like, I I said that, I've said that once that like, yo, he's the he is like, don't give me in terms of like acting as Peter Parker, the character, but in terms of like his lore, he's been blessed. This version of Peter Parker has been blessed. Like, he didn't really start going through it until no one. Until this one. Yeah, until the last two movies. The only thing he lost was his aunt. Yeah, I mean, he lost his aunt and everyone lost memories of him. So, like his girl, he lost his girl, you know what I mean? He lost his homie Ned. Like, they don't have no memory of broski. So this is really, this is the start of it, man. This is where we like to see Spider-Man, bro. He's depressed, broke, down bad, working. Yeah, yeah. Double shift, night shift, day shift. And you gotta still make it the class on time. Yeah, I'm excited for this, man. I'm gonna probably see it the first day it comes

DC Animated Batman Nightfall Praise

SPEAKER_00 15:17

out. There's another trailer that came out, Batman Nightfall. This is an animated DC. You know, DC and the animated movies are pure. It's something Marvel needs to get back to, bro. Bro, forget it. Like I remember Marvel and DC would drop movies all the time at the same time. Okay, the movies would be and now he sees this charging ahead. I mean, this is a classic, you know, Batman versus Bane, when Bane broke his back and shit. Yeah, they've been doing that. They did the The Batman Who Laughs. Batman Who Laughs is crazy. And they've done a couple of this. Oh, yeah, they're doing that Dark Metal series as well. It's getting crazy out here as far as

Netflix Passes Crunchyroll For Anime

SPEAKER_00 16:01

that. And then we move on to like Netflix has now surpassed Crunchyroll as far as becoming the biggest streamer for anime. Yeah. Yo, to all the anime heads out there, like that is huge because you gotta understand how long Crunchyroll has been holding down the community. And here's the thing, I'll be honest, like, Crunchyroll is still under some heat because you still sometimes gotta go to niche websites for certain animes. Allegedly, Crunchyroll has been a key part of the community, man. Like, they've been around since day one. Like, I remember when Crunchyroll used to be free. Like, for the new anime watchers, you may only know Crunchyroll as a paid subscription, but Crunchyroll used to be free, bro. Like, it was crazy. Like, you could just go to Crunchyroll.com on your PS4 browser and just watch whatever, bro. Like it was crazy. Like, like, imagine Netflix being free from day one. Like, it's wild. Netflix has really worked on its market. They created a lot of organic content and they draw in viewership, man. Netflix is probably always gonna be a factor in the streaming circles, man. They really mastered the game. And that's where you can even watch up-to-date One Piece and just delete it to the new One Piece, bro.

One Piece Momentum And Manga Talk

SPEAKER_00 17:34

The new One Piece. Let's get into it. It just gets better. It just gets better. It's good to see it. It's good to read it. Now, I'm gonna say reading again. If you guys are anime only, skip out this part. We're gonna get to the manga. Right? You're up to date on the manga, right? Yeah, I keep up with spoilers, man, in my busy season. All right, all right, all right. So you know about Iwo, you know about Luffy, you know it's going down right now. You know my boy Sanji has just awakened his conquerors. Hot talk about it, bro. People have been hating on Sanji for far too long, bro. Far too long. He's now a conqueror, he's the third monster in the monster trio. I brought I wish like the entire crew like learned hockey or trained hockey together. But these individual awakenings is still so fire, bro. Like they are shit. One piece. One Piece man. You see my boy Usa in that bro, and I've been telling people, like, I've been telling people, I'm like, yo, is yes, I hear the criticism for One Piece, like it's long, it's fleshed out, but at the end of the day, bro, like the animation's crispy. The stories are layered, like lasagna. Like, at the end of the day, bro, it's gonna go down as the greatest anime of all time, bro. Like, you can have your preferences, but it's just it's like let's call it spade a spade. Bro, if you can maintain an audience for this long over 1100 episodes, yeah, bro. It's crazy. Just to give y'all context of how long One Piece has been going on. One Piece debuted on Toonami when I was in like second or third grade. I am gonna be 30 in like a week and a half. It's like second or third grade, episode one of One Piece. I'm about to be 30. Fucking hell, bro. And One Piece is not done yet, bro. They're still going. I think One Piece might go you're 35, bruh.

SPEAKER_01 19:47

Yo, it's crazy.

SPEAKER_00 19:51

Happy early birthday, by the way, man. Appreciate it, appreciate it, appreciate it. Getting old, man. Yeah, hey, man. Yeah, more life, more blessings, abundance, freedom, money. Yeah. For real, man. For real.

Anime Only Versus Manga Only Debate

SPEAKER_00 20:06

Now, anime only fans versus man, you know, manga only fans. I don't get it. It was always a good idea. I don't understand. I don't understand this war. Just read. It just don't just watch. I feel like you should do both. I'm an info junkie. So, like, when I've always been in the middle. Like, if I started an anime I didn't know about, I would clear the anime. Wherever the anime left off, it's where I would start in the manga. And then I would clear through the manga until that anime comes back. Simple as that. You know what I mean? I just cycle it, bro. If I like something, right? If I watched, like, I watched all of Air Gear and I couldn't find the next season. They told me it was canceled. So I had to get my ass up and read. I got into manga because a lot of the shows would get canceled. Like when I Nasha stopped showing, like, I'm like, what how the fuck? How what happened? I remember there was a time when Dragon Ball Z stopped showing on Konami. Naruto. I remember after they were kids and that Naruto Sasuke fight when they were kids in the Final Valley, the anime just stopped. And I was like, but I'm seeing online when YouTube first came out, those Sasuke and Nar Naruto Sasuke Sakura, Shikamaru, Neji as adults, their character design. And I'm like, whoa, whoa, whoa. So I'm like, yo, I gotta find a way to get to that point in the story. So I had to get into manga. Yeah, I I feel like you can't watch anime and not get into manga. At some point. At some point it's gonna it's gonna give, bro. Like, cause you're gonna wonder exactly. One of your favorite animes is either gonna get cancelled or they're only gonna continue the manga. And your only way to indulge in that is bro, you're gonna have to dive into that manga, big dog. For real. And I I mean, I get it for people who just read because why why would I, you know, if you got a good enough imagination, I get it. But me, I need to see that shit. Like, I can read the cell tournament, but watching the cell tournament is a little different. That was different gravy, brother. Different gravy for sure.

Gundam Memories And Toonami Classics

SPEAKER_00 22:18

Now we're going back to the same sauce that OG sauce Gundam is coming back, bro. Can you believe that, bro? I cannot. Yo, I used to buy the action figures, G. Bro, bro. I remember my grandfather. It was me and my cousin TJ. We were up watching this shit. He was like, go to bed. We turned it down and kept watching this shit. Kept running it, bro. Bro, he had to take the TV out the fucking room, bro. To Gundam, man. Gundam was crazy because I could always track different anime eras of my life. I remember when I got into Gundam, Transformers followed suit not too long after. Because they were very similar to me. So I discovered Gundam first, and I was like, yo, these robots are sick as hell. Like they're controlled by these humans and they got swords and machine guns and they can fly, got rocket boosters on their feet. And then next thing you know, shortly after, Transformers cartoons started popping up. And I'm like, well, I'm already into robots because of Gundam. So one thing led to another. But Gundam was is one of those OGs that was a that was another Toonami Gem. Toonami classic, bro. That shit is pure memories, bro. But like, do you remember the anime Big O?

SPEAKER_01 23:35

They go, nah.

SPEAKER_00 23:37

It's an OG mecha anime that's similar to this, but it's kind of like Batman and Iron Giant muse as far as the character. I know. Yeah, yeah. It's crazy. These OG shows need to come back. I'm glad to see that come back. We got Bleach. It's out tomorrow. It should be on Crunchyroll. It should be everywhere. I'm excited. I mean, obviously, I've read it, but I gotta see it. I don't get that. I can't just read something. See it just different, bro. Oh, like, oh, Jeron in it's got the KO. No, if you see the knockout, it's a little different. Child to Bleach, Shout to Gundam, Pillars of the Childhood, now apart the later years of adulthood. It's crazy. It's wild, man. And it's like, it's it's bro, there isn't there's something, it's it's chef's kiss, man. Because it's like all these OG animes that we grew up on are still till this day like pillars of the anime community and just anime in general. And it's dope to see. Like, bro, Ichigo, Ichigo is like one of those iconic anime characters that just everyone knows. Like that transcend the anime, and it's just like a character of pop culture in general. The fits on Bleach was crazy. I've seen people duplicate that shit in the streets, like, it's while the fashion and the impact it has, even on streetwear. Bleach is one of the top five as far as like influence in anime, at least to me. I think because of Bleach, we're always gonna have an anime that is popular because the main character has a sword. Like it's that's just how it's gonna

Bleach Returns And New Summer Hits

SPEAKER_00 25:23

go. There's a new anime out, one of the newest bangers far as summer anime, Black Torch. Have you seen it yet? Bro, that yeah, bro. It's taking the internet by storm, bro. It's crazy. Okay, I'm gonna tap in. I didn't see it. It's fire, bro. It's from episode one, yo, shit just gets real. Alright. It's like that. It's everybody is. I mean, the only thing I wanted to close on is that like we got new footage from the Marbles War Marine game, the story mode. Listen, I I wouldn't mind the X-Men game. I wouldn't mind that, bro. That's what I'm saying. I wouldn't mind that. Like, you see DCU DC DC Universe online?

SPEAKER_01 26:16

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 26:17

They should do a Marvel Universe online, bro. I'm telling you. And it's like, here's the thing. Learn from the mistakes of that game. And just, yo, I'm telling you, it's possible. It's so possible. Because when I see stuff like this, I'm like, bro, they can make a whole world. They can make like, I mean, X-Men 97 is pretty like if you're not watching that, you gotta watch that. That shit's fire. That shit is like action, drama. That connects bro. And that goes to show you that like Marvel can step up their anime game. They just when they want to. When they want to, they can, and they just don't because X-Men 97 is Chef's kiss, bro. It hasn't been a bad episode since I turned it on, bro. That's what I'm saying. Crazy. You see how they slot my man Professor X? Slime Magneto right in front of me. They got Apocalypse, really, really acting like Apocalypse, bro. Telling you. I love that it's R-rated. Like he really blew him. Yo, caught bodies. Bro, it did throw his helmet at me. Yeah, he was like, catch that. I ain't gonna step on you, bro. You an ant, right? That's crazy. Apocalypse really liked that. Like, that's the one. Bro, did we see the dude's episode X Men 97? No, I got one more to catch up on. Alright, cool. I won't tell you what happened, but they have my man Professor in the Field, bro. My man Professor in the Field. Hey, but it's been another episode.

X-Men 97 Love And Wrap Up

SPEAKER_00 27:51

Life of Times. Yes. Anime 12. Carlos, have a good time in Sweden, bro. And happy birthday, bro. Always, man.