Anime

Episode 5 – Thunder 3

Published

4 hours ago

August 6, 2026

qasimgillani

How would you rate episode 5 of
Thunder 3 ?

Community score: 3.4

thunder-3-5.2.png — © 池田祐輝・講談社／「サンダー３」製作委員会

I’ve come to the sad conclusion that Thunder 3‘s anime adaptation will never hold a candle to its source manga’s unhinged intensity and entertaining juxtaposition of opposing tones and styles. Although this episode is a marginal improvement on last week’s snoozefest, it’s still moving far too slowly, and the animation quality is distractingly awful. Most egregious is the way this week’s voluminous flashbacks are presented: with essentially still frames and the occasional jarring image jolt to approximate motion. I get that sometimes the restriction of movement in flashbacks can be a stylistic choice, but here it’s a blatant effort to spare resources.

Although it’s not as if the rest of the episode looks any better as a result. The longer we spend time around the hilariously poorly-rigged “real” human CG models, the more obvious it is to the audience how much this accursed production has cut every possible corner. The people walk stiffly as if their limbs are made of wooden Popsicle sticks, their expressions flat as cardboard.

With such hideous presentation, it’s hard to become invested in the lives of these soulless puppets, even when they’re trying desperately to escape the rigid confines of their existence in a failed attempt to emote in any way approaching realism. In another show, JSDF fighter pilot Yamashina’s tragic backstory might have drawn a sympathetic audience’s tears, but here the only excess lacrimation is his own. Spurred to enact a suicide attack on an alien ship due to the loss of his pregnant fiancee, he dogfights with some heat-seeking missiles before detonating his plane, and himself, in a collision that downs an entire alien ship.

Perhaps this will function as an inciting incident to trigger further rebellion amongst the occupied Japanese populace, but for human POV character Segami, he requires personal stakes before he starts to give even the slightest shit about what’s happening around him. The subsequent random loss of his family home and father finally pushes him to even consider fighting back.

Segami is so frustratingly slow on the uptake that it’s extremely hard to care for him as a protagonist. He bumps into the Small Three once more, but it takes him seemingly forever to realize that he really should introduce them to his new paramilitary friends. I did find the karate black belt Segami’s flat reaction to the blonde yakuza guy’s claim to have “never
lost a street fight” understatedly hilarious, though.

With the prospect of the action heating up next time with the upcoming “Shibuya Mission,” perhaps Thunder 3 might get back to the bonkers action I so need for this show to provide. However, with the Small Three being advised to stay away by the commander for the next three days, it may merely be a dull “normal” human vs alien fight. Once again, all I want is for the funny little cartoon people to smash the evil aliens to pieces. Is that too much to ask for?

Rating:

Thunder 3 is currently streaming on
Netflix.

The views and opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the views of Anime News Network, its employees, owners, or sponsors.

Anime

Nintendo Switch 2 Sells Over 23 Million Units – News

Published

16 minutes ago

August 6, 2026

qasimgillani

Switch 2 sells 3.82 million units in fiscal year’s 1st quarter for total of 23.68 million as of June 30

Nintendo revealed on Thursday the first quarter financial results for its current fiscal year ending on March 31, 2027. The Nintendo Switch 2 system has sold 23.68 million units as of June 30. The console sold 3.82 million units so far in this fiscal year, which started on April 1. The Nintendo Switch console has sold 156.59 million units.

Total Switch 2 software sales amount to 58.17 million units as of June 30, with 9.46 million from this fiscal year so far. The Mario Kart World launch game representing 15.39 million units, including bundle pack-ins. The Donkey Kong Bananza 3D platformer game sold 4.78 million units, the Switch 2 Edition of the Pokémon Legends Z-A game sold 3.99 million units, Masahiro Sakurai‘s Kirby Air Riders sequel game sold 1.90 million units, and the Switch 2 Edition of the Super Mario Party Jamboree game sold 1.15 million units. Digital game sales accounted for 61.5% of total software sales this year so far for Switch and Switch 2.

The Switch console has sold .66 million units so far this fiscal year as of June 30. This number includes sales for the Nintendo Switch, Lite, and OLED consoles. Switch software sales amount to 33.81 million units.

Tomodachi Life, one of the last games Nintendo developed for the original Switch console, has sold 7.94 million units. Pokémon Pokopia has sold 1.27 million units.

The bestselling titles for Switch as of June 30 are:

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe: 71.53 million copies
Animal Crossing: New Horizons: 50.29 million copies
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate: 38.14 million copies
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild: 34.06 million copies
Super Mario Odyssey: 30.80 million copies
Pokémon Scarlet/Pokémon Violet: 28.46 million copies
Pokémon Sword/Pokémon Shield: 27.26 million copies
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom: 22.71 million copies
Super Mario Party: 21.36 million copies
New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe: 19.10 million copies

The Switch 2 console sold over 3.5 million units worldwide in the first four days following its release in June 2025. According to the company, this is the highest global sales amount for any Nintendo hardware within its first four days. The system sold 5.82 million units in its first fiscal year’s first quarter ending in June 2025. Switch 2 sold over 17 million units as of the end of the previous fiscal year’s third quarter on December 31, surpassing the Nintendo Wii U’s lifetime sales of 13.56 million units.

Nintendo raised suggested retail prices for Switch 2 on May 25 in Japan. It will raise the prices in Europe, the United States, and Canada on September 1 “in light of changes in market conditions, and after considering the global business outlook.”

Nintendo launched the Switch console in March 2017. The Switch surpassed Sony‘s PlayStation 4 and Nintendo‘s Game Boy/Game Boy Color as of the end of 2022. The console surpassed the Nintendo DS’ lifetime sales of 154.02 million units to become Nintendo‘s best selling console of all time last February It is now the second best-selling console of all time, and stands behind only PlayStation 2.

Source: Nintendo (link 2)

Anime

Kindergarten Wars Anime Casts Sumire Morohoshi – News

Published

2 hours ago

August 6, 2026

qasimgillani

Morohoshi plays Una in spring 2027 series

The official X/Twitter account for the television anime of Yū Chiba‘s Kindergarten WARS (Yōchien Wars) manga revealed on Thursday that Sumire Morohoshi will play Una, kindergarten teacher for the Violet class who is said to be the strongest.

Kindergarten Wars Una — Image via Kindergarten Wars anime’s X/Twitter account

new-kv — Image courtesy of Bandai Namco Filmworks

The anime will debut in spring 2027.

The anime stars:

Shinsuke Gomi (episode director for Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba, Secrets of the Silent Witch) is directing the anime at Sunrise and Felix Film, and Junko Yamanaka (Kamisama Kiss, Servamp) is designing the characters.

Shueisha‘s MANGA Plus website publishes the Kindergarten WARS manga digitally. Yen Press published the manga’s fourth volume physically on April 28.

Yen Press describes the story:

Rita is Convict 999, a former legendary assassin who now works at a kindergarten for the children of world leaders. Her job is to protect the schoolchildren from the clutches of would-be assassins sent after them! But even with her overwhelming strength, Rita has a weakness—she’s head-over-heels for good-looking men!

Chiba launched the manga on Shueisha‘s Shonen Jump+ app and website in September 2022. Shueisha published the manga’s 18th compiled book volume on August 4. The manga entered its final arc in March 2025, and has over 2 million copies in circulation.

Chiba launched the Yōchien Wars -LUKE- (Kindergarten WARS -LUKE-) spinoff manga in November 2024. The spinoff manga is a 180-page story about the character Luke.

Source: Kindergarten WARS anime’s X/Twitter account

Disclosure: Kadokawa World Entertainment (KWE), a wholly owned subsidiary of Kadokawa Corporation, is the majority owner of Anime News Network, LLC. Yen Press, BookWalker Global, and J-Novel Club are subsidiaries of KWE.

Anime

‘Giant Ojousama’ Announces Main Staff, Winter 2027 Premiere

Published

3 hours ago

August 6, 2026

qasimgillani

An official website opened for the television anime adaptation of Q Nikumura‘s Giant Ojousama manga and revealed the main staff and a teaser visual (pictured) on Friday. The anime is scheduled to premiere in January 2027.

Staff

Director: Hiroshi Ikehata (Witch Watch)

Assistant Director: Katsuya Ooshima (Tongari Boushi no Atelier episode director)

Character Design, Chief Animation Director: Hajime Mitsuda (Akiba’s Trip The Animation)

Series Composition, Script: Yuu Satou (Haite Kudasai, Takamine-san)

Studio: Tatsunoko Production

Nikumura originally posted the manga on Shounen Jump+ web magazine’s Jump Rookie! section as an entry for the monthly award in December 2020. Following a readers vote, it won the Bronze Rookie Award for December. A total of four chapters were released by February 2021.

Sunday Webry began serializing the action comedy manga in July 2021. Shogakukan published the 11th volume in November 2025, with the 12th volume to be released on August 10.

Official site: https://giant-ojosama-anime.com/

Official X: @giant_ojosama

Source: Comic Natalie