YTV's Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex marathon airs tomorrow night, which will mark the Canadian debut of "Jungle Cruise" at 1:30am. This episode likely won't be repeating anytime soon, so please try and make the effort to stay up and catch it if you can. After all this, I seriously hope that it plays uncensored.

Also of note: recent TV schedule listings for GitS on YTV are referring to the series as Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex 2nd Gig. A very interesting mistake, although I still seriously hope that YTV doesn't intend to play the second season themselves, since it will need an 18+ rating minimum just to be given an acceptable and comprehensible presentation.

Even though I don't watch them anymore, I really do appreciate the way that YTV commits itself so heavily to Christmas specials every year. While they do manage to continue to pull a few surprises, like this year when the Ren and Stimpy Yaksmas episode pretty much out of nowhere (which means that Invader Zim is officially the only Nick cartoon to have never aired on YTV), I'm quite baffled to see a lot of the specials I watched as a kid still on. The problem is that they're all the ones that I hated as a kid. I mean, seriously, on what level does it make sense for them to still be airing the would-be-unfortunately-titled-if-it-actually-had-any-redeemable-aspects Little Orphan Annie's Very Animated Christmas every single year? Or for that matter, what sense does it make for that special to even have been created in the first place? And wasn't there one about these dalmatians too? Sometimes you really have to wonder exactly what kind of intoxicating vapour was seeping out of the drawing board that spawned these abominations. However, it seems that YTV is doing some of us a big favour this year by airing one particular special that has always had a special place in my heart for some reason: T'was the Night Before Bumpy.

I'm not a huge fan of the Bump in the Night TV series, this three-part yule-tide epic has always managed to capture my attention. Yet, despite the series itself getting a few licensing-wringing airings a few years back, the special itself hasn't resurfaced in a while. However, I'm happy to say that YTV will be airing it on Christmas morning at 4:30am! I am so taping that.

With that said, Merry Christmas everyone! Look forward to some big surprises over the next few weeks!
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Zannen, Canada webmaster.

Just so you guys know, the server was indeed hosed for the past couple of days. We had pretty much lost all hope of retrieving the files and were preparing to pack it in until February which would've been the earliest time Anime-Source could've gotten a new secondary server. But thankfully Denny resolved things and we seem to be back in business. And I hope you all took at least a few minutes to check out Sam and Fuzzy while I had my domain pointed there. I figured that it's better to bring attention to some notable sites rather than just have the domain lead to nothingness for days on end. Anyway, there are a few things I'd like to cover, but I'm not feeling too well, so I'll just point out the most important things. Teletoon got The Boondocks and will be premiering it on Friday, February 17th at 10:30pm, replacing Clone High. Not a surprising acquisition, since Sony is the distributor, but the fact that we got this first leaves little hope for Robot Chicken making its way over anytime soon. Also remember to catch the Canadian premiere of the lost Family Guy episode "When You Wish Upon a Weinstein", as well as the Venture Bros. Christmas episode this Friday.

Swiped from The World's Finest:

I implore anyone concerned to contact Warner about this ASAP. This may be our only opportunity to see Justice League/Unlimited in its true aspect ratio in Canada, since YTV was only provided with cropped masters.

Edit: Apparently the issue has been resolved and, thanks to the fan response, all of the DVDs will be in their original aspect ratios! Yay!

Just on a quick note before I get my weekly Saturday rush of readers, ADV will be releasing a thinpak boxset of the stupendously funny, wacky, and all around fun yet terribly underrated series SuperGALS this coming Tuesday. You can pick it up from Amazon.ca for $48.99. You won't regret this purchase, mark my words! Pick up two and give one to a special friend this Christmas season.

Anyway, quickly addressing the "important stuff": I just want to make a quick statement concerning Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex 2nd Gig. Regardless of the fact that it's airing with a TV-MA rating in the US, I'm going to go as far as to say that not even I think that the type of material present in this series is appropriate for YTV, nor could it be presented on YTV in any acceptable manner. Since SPACE has no interest in picking up a series midway, I really, seriously think that the programming department at YTV should consider getting some higher-ups at Corus to pressure Teletoon into airing 2nd Gig. Really... it seems like the only reasonable solution to this problem. Otherwise this is just going to evolve into another Farscape situation, which will only be frustrating for both fans and the networks involved. Please make an effort to do the right thing, YTV, and please everyone else encourage them to do so!

Also, since Destiny will likely be in the pipeline soon, it stands to reason that YTV might try to grab another Bandai series. While Wolf's Rain or s.CRY.ed might be common assumptions, the general pacing of the shows and their below average performance in the US (since they, well... suck) don't really make either one a good choice for YTV. If the programming department does decide to pick up another series from Bandai, I would have to strong advocate getting Scrapped Princess... probably one of the few shows in Bandai's catalogue that would really resonate with YTV's audience. Also, to replace Ghost in the Shell, The Big O would also be a good alternative, as it has been in demand by a lot of viewers for some time.

Since I'm sapped of creativity at the moment, I've made this the topic of my latest poll. I also threw Infinite Ryvius on there since it's an Ocean production, although not really one I'd recommend either. Enjoy!