Are we sure his isn't actual Malarkey? Because he certainly seems to be spouting a lot of it.

This here is the case for it not mattering (as) much anymore. It's quite readable!

pivot-to-ai.com/2025/07/10/a...

Every once in a while I wonder if I shouldn’t save money by cancelling my YouTube Premium subscription, even though we probably watch that more than most streaming services - then I read stuff like this. Yikes.

Exactly. The assumption is that as it becomes more useful, it will become profitable - but how? Subscriptions and advertising can help- but AI costs too much to run for that. And we're in the 'first hit is free' zone. The costs can and must go up, so the use-cases are going to plummet.

Oddly

Still a highly imaginative set of stories and it feels like the animation budget went up. In episode 30, a new animation of a space train station appears and it's pretty impressive - rotating and moving away from the viewer at the same time. I wonder if more stuff will appear as we go? 20/20

We of course see the return of the adult woman wants Tetsuro, A TEN YEAR OLD BOY, to live with her forever. Granted, it is never implied that it is anything other than platonic love from deeply saddened people, but DUDE. This is like the SIXTH TIME. When I was 12, this was cool, but now? DUDE. 19/20

A side story is that the GE99 broke down and she makes them a custom screw. The moral they present is that being a cog in a machine is good, actually, as machines need screws or everything fails? What are we even doing here, people? 18/20

She has a cyborg body and wears a human skin. She spent so much to get it, she's in huge debt and works making screws to pay it off. Moved by his kindess, she had already decided to release him and found his pass. She tries to unalive herself, but Maetel stops her. 17/20

She threw his pass away and locks him up so he'll stay with her forever, as he's the first person to show her kindness, maybe forever. He escapes while she goes out to get him food and a storm hits again. Afraid she'll be killed, he runs to rescue her...only to find out she's safe because: 16/20

There are so many screws, the gather in sand dune mountains and the winds pick them up and it RAINS SCREWS. The mountains get knocked over and wreck a bunch of buildings -including the hotel our heroes are in. When they come to - they're separated. Tetsuro has been rescued/kidnapped. AGAIN. 15/20

They make ONE KIND OF SCREW. And they use them in everything - furniture, architecture - everything. Tetsuro saves a woman from being hit by a truck and is polite to her. This being GE999, she imprints on him like a baby bird. Later, a severe storm hits - and here's the part I remembered. 14/20

Finally we get 'Ulatres' Mountain of Screws' - an episode I distinctly remembered from seeing it when it was originally broadcast...YES IN 1979 FUCK YOU YES I'M FUCKING ANCIENT THANKS FOR ASKING. It's a factory nightmare planet that evokes China's production cities. 13/20

Our heroes show up and Maetel does better than threat violence...she threatens to destroy THEIR MONEY. The thugs relent - for fear of losing even more of it and getting killed by their own leaders for it. Everyone leaves, including Edmond, who looks for a new home after weeping. FUN! 12/20

What happened to his paradise while he was off-world as a soldier of fortune? The planet, it turns out, is EDIBLE. The local government has been selling huge chunks of the planet as luxury food to other planets and lining their pockets with gold. Edmond goes to kill those responsible. 11/20

Hoo-boy. Remember when I said GE999 still applied to today? Welcome to 'The Bitten Planet of Suspended Space' - in which we see a once beautiful planet now looks like a badly eaten apple. Fellow passenger Edmond regales our heroes with how beautiful the it is until he sees it's been ravaged. 10/20

The crux of the episode is that people on the angry planet are actually good folks, they just don't suppress their anger dishonestly, when some angry people rescue Tetsuro and save him from the last assassin. That message doesn't real hold water for me, but I get the sentiment. 9/20

In 'Angry Planet', the couple get a stay on a planet where everyone has no filter and get angry VERY easily. At the same time, Duke Mech -friend of Count Mecha from episode 1, apparently- has sent assassins to kill Tetsuro. Maetel is in full bad-ass mode this time out, thankfully. 8/20

They return Testuro and wish them well. The mom wanted to bring her son back from the dead - a typical 'nobody is really a villain' turn for GE999. Desperate people who make bad choices. The only frustrating thing is Maetel just watches it all happen. It feels wrong but that's about to change. 7/20