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I didn’t feel like delaying this any longer, so here we go!
New Year's and plans for 2026
New Year’s Eve falls on a Wednesday this year, and given I usually spend time with family around midnight on NYE, I’m not going to host a watch party then. If anybody else would like to take over for me on that day then feel free to, but make sure that the other regular watch party organizers know about it.
As for Wednesdays in 2026… After Once Upon a Time… The Discoverers, I’m thinking I’ll start showing The Boondocks and Squirrel and Hedgehog. I’m still pretty iffy on the idea of showing Once Upon a Time… The Explorers but Once Upon a Time… Planet Earth should be fine.
I will of course also be showing intermittent fanime and other things throughout 2026, as well as Fireman Sam when we’ve got some time to kill after the main feature.
I’ve got a pretty extensive list of things I could or would like to show. Aside from the aforementioned, there’s also, sorted by how soon I’ll be able to show them:
Things I could show with one day’s notice
| Title | Description | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Through Deaf Eyes | PBS documentary about the history of the Deaf community in Seppoland (USA). | Ready and fully subtitled. |
| Lupin III: Strange Psychokinetic Strategy | 1970s live action film based on Lupin III manga, about the grandson of LeBlanc’s gentleman thief keeping up the family legacy. | Ready and fully subtitled. |
| Who Killed Captain Alex? | Ugandan action film notable for its budget of $85. | Ready and fully subtitled. |
| Get Ready To Be Boyzvoiced | Mockumentary about a Norwegian novelty boy band. | Ready and fully subtitled. |
| Slave of Love | '70s Soviet romantic comedy drama taking place during the Russian Civil War. | Ready and fully subtitled. |
| Courier | '80s Soviet comedy drama about the problems of youth in the perestroika era. | Ready and fully subtitled. |
| An t-Eilean | Scottish Gaelic crime drama miniseries. | Ready and fully subtitled. |
| The Big Bang Theory | Frequently ridiculed Chuck Lorre sitcom about theoretical physicists. | Ready and fully subtitled. I only plan on showing the first few episodes as a bit, by the way, don’t worry. |
| Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace | Parody of '80s horror anthologies. | Ready and fully subtitled, but somebody else wanted to show it. |
| Das Kapital | Audiobook and study guide of Karl Marx’s critique of political economy. | The audiobook is already uploaded but not the study guide. |
Things I’ll probably need up to two weeks to get ready
| Title | Description | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Secret of Cerulean Sand (Nordub) | Jules Verne inspired anime series, dubbed in Norwegian. | Subs need to be retimed. |
| Let The River Flow | Movie based on the Alta conflict (late '70s Indigenous rights in Norway). | Subs need to be retimed. |
| The Kautokeino Rebellion | Movie based on a historical rebellion of the Sámi people against Norwegian authorities. | Subs need to be retimed. |
| Scooby Doo: Mystery Incorporated (Espodub) | Esperanto Scooby Doo fandub created using Retrieval-based Voice Conversion. | Subs need to be retimed. Also, somebody else wanted to show this one (in its original language). |
| Lars | Norwegian Sign Language film. | Needs to be translated. |
| Tegnsatt | Late '80s Norwegian Sign Language video magazine aimed at the Deaf community. | Needs to be translated. |
| Pokémon (Nordub) | Shorts and films from the Pokémon anime dubbed in Norwegian. | Engsubs need to be downloaded and possibly retimed. |
| Dragon Ball Z (Nordub) | Shorts from the popular shonen battle anime dubbed in Norwegian. | Engsubs need to be downloaded and possibly retimed. |
| Sonic X (Nordub) | Sonic the Hedgehog anime series dubbed in Norwegian. | Engsubs need to be downloaded and possibly retimed. |
| Bakugan (Nordub) | Anime series about kids battling with toyetic creatures called Bakugan, dubbed in Norwegian. | Engsubs need to be downloaded and possibly retimed. |
| Digimon (Nordub) | Anime series about kids protecting a “Digital World” populated by toyetic creatures, dubbed in Norwegian. | Engsubs need to be downloaded and possibly retimed. |
| LEGO Plane Go Boom | Long-running YouTube series about Megan and Doofy crashing their plane repeatedly. | I wanted to convert the episodes into longer compilations first. |
| Møkkakaffe | Norwegian Sign Language drama miniseries. | Needs to be translated. |
| Luftens Helter | Low-budget Norwegian comedy miniseries about old people starting a budget airline. | Needs to be translated. |
| Ante | Miniseries about a Sámi kid’s experiences during the period of the Norwegianization policy. | Needs to be translated. |
| NRK news coverage of 9/11 | NRK is Norway’s public broadcaster. | Needs to be translated. |
Things I’ll likely need many months to get ready
| Title | Description | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Memories of Phantasm (Nordub) | Fan-made anime series based on Touhou Project games, dubbed in Norwegian. Shows a shrine maiden and magician resolving anomalous incidents caused by mythical creatures in a fantasy land; most characters notably resemble human girls and women. | I have to make the dub first. |
| Azumanga Dekimurized | Edited version of Azumanga Daioh that completely gets rid of the pedo character. Azumanga Daioh is notable for pioneering the high school slice of life genre of anime. | I’ve made note of everywhere he appears or is alluded to but I’m yet to start doing the actual editing. |
| Love, Chunibyo & Other Delusions (AD) | Popular Kyoto Animation romance series with an autistic-coded lead, dubbed in English with audio description for the visually impaired. | I have to make the AD first. |
| Blazoner Narazen | Fanime about a teenage enby being transported into the future after running away from home, and needing to save the world from an evil machine in the planetary core, by using a telepathically talking heraldic shield that grants supernatural powers based on its changeable appearance. | I have to make the fanime first. |
Delayed indefinitely
| Title | Description | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Children of a Lesser God | Popular English-ASL romantic drama film. | Located but torrents are either seedless or apparently broken. |
| Son of Stone + Son of Stone and the Giant | Soviet animated short films based on Circassian mythology. | Located but no subtitles are available. |
| Argonavtebi | 1980s Soviet Georgian movie about the Argonauts. | Located but no subtitles are available. |
| Children of Troubled Times | 1930s Chinese film whose theme tune later became China’s national anthem. | Located but only subtitled in Chinese. |
| Elling | Norwegian “black comedy” about a man with anxiety trying to live independently. | I have the DVD but no means to rip it, and I need to deal with the subtitles. |
| Bionicle 2 + 4 | Science fantasy movies based on LEGO toys. | I have the DVDs but no means to rip them, and I need to deal with the subtitles. |
| Dorei Kojo | 1960s Japanese film about a labor revolt in an ironworks. | Located but no subtitles are available. |
| Black Sand | American Sign Language horror film. | Not yet located. |
| The Monkey and the Mouth | Avant-garde musical film by Norwegian rap duo Karpe. | Not yet located. |
| Lars er LOL | Norwegian children’s movie about a first grader with Down syndrome. | Not yet located. |
| Radiopiratene | Norwegian children’s movie about kids taking over a radio tower. | Not yet located. |
| Spermageddon | Norwegian animated film about anthropomorphized spermatozoa. | Not yet located. |
| Technotise: Edit & I | Serbian animesque sci-fi film, notable for being made in a cramped apartment on a small budget. | Not yet located. |
| Næturvaktin | Icelandic comedy miniseries about workers in a gas station convenience store. | Ready and fully subtitled, but I wanted to watch it with my mom first. |
| Tesagure! Bukatsumono | Highly ad-libbed anime series created using the 3D animation program MikuMikuDance. About high school girls trying different random silly activities they come up with. From the same studio as Kemono Friends. | Subs on episode 2 need corrections, and my mom maybe wanted to watch this one with me first, anyways. |
I want to say that my priorities among these are The Secret of Cerulean Sand, Lars, Møkkakaffe, Memories of Phantasm, and Blazoner Narazen. The first three of these, as said, I should be able to get ready in two weeks each, while the last two will take much longer to prepare.
But without further ado, onto our programming for tonight…
What’s the chef cookin’ tonight?
Once Upon a Time… The Discoverers is the fifth of Albert Barillé’s Once Upon a Time… cartoons, centered on the big-bearded Maestro. I have previously shown Once Upon a Time… Man from '78 (world history, albeit Eurocentric), Space from '82 (not actually educational; it’s sci-fi set in the future), Life from '87 (human physiology), and The Americas from '91 (history of Abya Yala, surprisingly good). This time, in The Discoverers, Maestro will be telling us about famous inventors and scientists from antiquity to the present day.
As before, the episodes have a runtime of ~24 minutes each; the number of episodes is 26; and we’ll be watching five episodes a week until the end when we watch the last six episodes and start half an hour earlier.
We’ll be watching the following episodes tonight:
- Ep 1: The Chinese, Our Ancestors
- Ep 2: Archimedes and the Greek
- Ep 3: Hero of Alexandria
- Ep 4: The Measuring of Time
- Ep 5: Henry the Navigator and Cartography
Content warnings and accessibility
Audio description: Not available.
Sign language: Not available.
Language of audio: English.
Captions: Not available.
Content warnings:
These are content warnings for Albert Barillé’s Once Upon a Time… in general:
- Death incl. murder
- Sexual assault
- Nudity
- Animal gore
- Racist caricatures
- Religion presented as fact
- Eurocentrism
- Children getting serious diseases
- Vanishing Indian myth
- Problematic depictions of cops, slavery, and settler-colonialism
- Problematic depictions of race and class issues in general
♫ Uniting nations at the speeeed of liiiiight ♫
[epic sax solo]
♫ Station of the '20s — TV☆3SIS! ♫