A podcast all about Japanese cartoons and comics as discussed by three self-proclaimed experts in the world of anime and manga! Plus anime news / reviews, coverage of classic anime, hentai / yaoi, and much, much more. Updated every week. We hope.
All of us are currently at EXPCon this weekend, and between business trips and Otaku USA deadlines there may not be a new episode posted for a bit. We've got two entire shows recorded, but we still need to edit them. In the meantime, Daryl was a guest on the ANNCast, the Anime News Network podcast hosted by Justin Sevakis and Zac Bertschy. Go here to download it.
In the rather likely event that you've found this site via the ANN link, thanks for checking us out! You'll see on the right-hand side of this page links to both the Review Index and the Podcast RSS Feed, both of which you can use to browse through the nearly four years worth of episodes we've released. Do tell us what you think via the email address or voicemail number.
Courtesy of the Ani-Gamers Podcast at www.anigamers.com, here is the Otakon 2009 press conference for Japanese guests Noboru Ishiguro, Masao Maruyama, Yukio Kikukawa, and Hidenori Matsubara. Gerald and Clarissa were in attendance, as were several others. A-G edited it so we don't have to, so go over there to download it!
Anime Weekend Atlanta panel preparations are still taking up our free time, so if you'll be there be sure and attend our panels: Doujin World (18+), History of Hentai (18+), Black Jack: Tezuka's Dark Doctor, the Panel OF DOOM!, and Anime's Craziest Deaths!
Here's a recording of the press conference for anime song super-group JAM Project that was held at Otakon 2008. Thanks to Mike Dent from R5 Central for doing the backbreaking work of editing this, because now we don't have to! In fact, this is actually just a link to the R5 Central podcast episode. Also special thanks to Tyler from Rangercast; between Mike, Tyler, and us that comprised nearly all of the questions asked during this interview. Warning: as we realized that the rest of the press in attendance was probably not going to ask anything, our questions become progressively more absurd until...well...
Here's the first of many audio interviews we conducted at Otakon 2008 with some of the members of the Philadelphia Animation Society, an anime club that's been around since 1982. All of them were present at the Old Farts Anime Appreciation panel, so listen to it for the sake of us AND FOR ROWENA, THE AL-IEN PRINCESS!
Other news: this weekend is the Providence Anime Conference over in Rhode Island, which we sadly won't be attending on account that we're still trying to recuperate after Anime Weekend Atlanta. But in a few short weeks in upstate New York is SITACon, with special guests Gerald and Clarissa! Then after that, it's EXPCon, followed by Anime Supercon! Man, remember when AWA was the last con of the year? Or when we were able to actually play the videogames we bought?
Here's an interview we conducted with veteran anime voice actor and ADR director Richard Epcar at Florida Supercon 2008. Some of his more notable roles include Batou from Ghost in the Shell, Jigen from the Geneon dubs of Lupin the Third, Guld Goa Bowman from Macross Plus, Hiko Seijuro from Rurouni Kenshin, and Coach Kamogawa from Hajime no Ippo. That's not even scratching the surface.
This interview also doesn't even begin to scratch the surface, since Richard Epcar's got tons of stories to tell. Be sure to check him out if he's at a convention near you! At about 30 minutes, this might be the very first AWO release that falls within conventional accepted guidelines for podcast length!
Show 71 will be released hopefully within the next week.
Since it's been a few weeks since the last release and we only just finished recording Show # 70, here's a live podcast we recorded at JACON 2008 for the dearly departed Snacktime Online podcast to tide people over in the meantime. For this bonus installment of AWO, the role of Gerald will be played by Paul Chapman from the Greatest Movie EVER! podcast and the role of Clarissa will be played by Joey Snackpants, whom we interviewed back in Show # 18.
Here's our interview from Anime Weekend Atlanta 2007 with renowned science fiction anime director Noboru Ishiguro, whose works include Space Battleship Yamato (aka Star Blazers) as well as Superdimensional Fortress Macross (part of which became Robotech), the movie of which we reviewed back in episode 50 along with another of his works entitled Megazone 23 Part 1. We recommend listening to those episodes first if you are not already familiar with these titles.
This weekend is JACON, which all of us will be attending. If you'll be there on Friday, show up for Paul Chapman'sOdin: Photon Space Sailer Starlight marathon if you dare. How long will Joey Snackpants be able to handle the pain? Saturday, Gerald's got his mecha panel and Daryl's got the Panel OF DOOM! from 11 PM to 1 AM on Saturday night.
In other words, the release of the next episode is delayed.
Here's our interview from AWA 2007 with noted anime scholar Helen McCarthy, author of The Anime Encyclopedia, which is now in its second edition. Also appearing is anime fandom gatekeeper/Flexible Metal Hose Guy Dave III from Corn Pone Flicks fame, and Rob Fenelon, whom we interviewed back in Show # 64. Listen as we all get totally schooled!
Excised from this recording was the conversation about Jenny dolls, which for those of you who didn't know were invented by Leiji Matsumoto's wife. The only reason it was removed was because the recording was stopped mid-discussion.
Show 67 next time! If you can't wait however many weeks to hear Gerald talk about Detonator Orgun on our show, you can listen to his guest appearance on Destroy All Podcasts DX and hear him talk about Detonator Orgun right now!
UPDATE: the first episode of Mike Toole's video podcast, The Anime Jump Show, is now live! But be on alert, fellow Adeptus Gekigartes! The immortal enemy has shown itself in the comments section! RALLY, my brothers, and BANISH the dread spectre back to the shadows whence it came!
There's six and a half minutes of just Daryl talking at the beginning. Or skip to around that point for when the interview starts. Gerald deleted his quote from Walter Amos' lady friend about how she described Lohengramm as "eminently fuckable." Half of this recording is still about LoGH, and he was courteous enough to delete the various blasphemous comments by Clarissa (and Walter...and Rob...) levied towards J.C. PAUL VON OBERSTEIN~! and JOB TRUNIHT~!, but still. Damn him. Damn him to Hell!
Apologies for the one month delay between episodes. Anyway, we're back with Part 1 of an interview we conducted with Walter Amos and Rob Fenelon back at Anime Weekend Atlanta 2007.
We were busy this past month. Many things happened. This picture summarizes the situation as it stands in the present:
But THIS picture summarizes the situation as it will be in THE FUTURE: There are videos that will be uploaded to Youtube once we figure out how to substantially brighten them since they were filmed at night without night vision mode. They involve swords and explosives, possibly used in tandem with one another.
We should probably put up actual, honest-to-goodness show notes and supplemental links for this one, given the nature of the discussion. But that would require me to find some. For now, the podcast promos played in this episode are for: Destroy All Podcasts DX, Rangercast, and Greatest Movie EVER!. Oh right, PT Chapman is a special guest host for this episode!
Next time on AWO, Daryl's playing catch up to make up for his month of ennui by giving his boring con report on the New York Anime Festival, Gerald's reviewing Sonic Soldier Borgman, and Clarissa's breaking through the heavens with Tengen Toppa Gurren-Lagann! By the way, if people are interested in actually getting T-shirts or hoodies with our hilariously goofy AWO logo, let us know. If enough people want them, we can actually get them made! Here's some links to stuff that got mentioned on the show:
http://www.starblazers.com/ is a decent source for learning about Space Battleship Yamato / Star Blazers...or just check our review index since we talk about it fairly often
Blackhawks was an old DC Comics release and was recently featured in the Justice League cartoon...and there's one surviving member currently in the Birds of Prey but we aren't supposed to admit knowing that
It's not clear from just the audio recording, but when Rob mentions The Six Million Dollar Man, Daryl proceeded to dramatically throw upon the table a copy of Cyborg by Martin Caidin (the book that inspired the series) since Paul was reading it on the flight up. The word "serendipity" was used multiple times for the rest of the weekend as a result. "Kismet"? Not so much.
Ziv International made some dangerously lame dubs long ago, which we've played clips from in the past. We want ALL OF THEM.
Marine Boy isn't something we know much about aside from the clips of it used in assorted Corn Pone Flicks productions
Asimov Online is a decent portal for learning about the guy. Daryl for some reason can only remember reading all the Norby books as a kid, without actually remembering what they were about
Omni magazine had a 20 year run of sorts, but this sort of periodical is dying out; more on that in Show 64b
Miyako Graham, who informed Rob of the word "anime," was quite involved with Protoculture Addicts and also translated stuff for Newtype and served as an interpreter for Japanese guests. I can't remember if she's married to Toren Smith or not since I've met neither of them
I think the terrifying nature of the EDF was elaborated upon when we interviewed Dave Merrill. The C/FO still exists as one club and still has 8 hour anime club showings once a month, as you can see from their Tripod-hosted website. Fred Patten used to still attend these meetings up until his stroke a few years ago. That logo should clue you in as to what's up
We'd rather not delve too deeply into this, but suffice to say that Mark Merlino, in addition to founding the C/FO with Fred Patten, was also more or less the founder of furry fandom as the Internet scourge we know it as today by virtue of him and his male partner holding zoomorphic gatherings at their home, which they referred to as "furry parties." The fandom was eventually split between semi-sane people and the people we commonly think of as furries today
Chambara movies (that site lists way more than just chambara) are a subset of jidai-geki. Information on Zatoichi is here; I would have said to listen to Popcorn Samurai since he was going to be reviewing one Zatoichi movie each episode, but that podcast faded away rather quickly. Unfortunate, since I don't know of any podcasts devoted just to talking about samurai movies or kungfu movies. If there are such podcasts, let us know!
Damn it, that's just the links for like, the first 20 minutes of this thing. You people know how to use Google; do this yourself!
Note: The audio overlapping problem has been fixed and a new version of the episode has been uploaded. If the audio overlaps in your copy, redownload the episode.
This one's for all the Gerald acolytes out there, as he conducts an interview with Michiko Ito, professor of Japanese Studies at the University of Kansas. Tim Eldred, whom we interviewed in Show 14, is also present. Be sure to check out www.starblazers.com for Tim's Starblazers Rebirth and Tim's excellent documentary Space Battleship Yamato: The Making of an Anime Legend. Listen on, would-be otaku, and discover exactly what inanimate objects YOU should be praying to in order to guarantee that you see that next episode of Gundam!
2:25 – Michiko talks about anime in Japan when she was growing up, and that it was called “terebi manga.”
3:15 – What it is that separated Space Battleship Yamato from the rest of the anime on at the time, which was largely sports anime.When Michiko talks about "the end of each episode," she is referring to the number of days remaining until Earth is rendered uninhabitable, which added dramatic tension to the series. Michiko also talks about being fond of Starsha:
4:40 - Tsunehiro Okasako was the character designer for the original Space Battleship Yamato.
5:55 – Michiko explains that the competing program to Yamato was the Hayao Miyazaki classic Heidi of the Alps.
7:00 – Michiko and her brother call in to local radio stations to request the opening theme of Yamato, aptly named Uchuu Senkan Yamato, sung by Isao Sasaki.
8:10 – Chibi Maruko-chan is another powerhouse show in Japan. She also mentions that Yamato was able to widen the appeal of animated shows outside of the elementary school crowd; however, almost no merchandise for that audience was available.
10:50 – The Yamato radio specials, possibly the biggest promotional tease in history.
15:00 – Michiko explains how Yoshinobu "The Nish" Nishizaki wanted to portray the ideal man with his own ideals and his own goal as a major theme of Yamato.
18:35 – Michiko explain “Golden Time” to us, which is the equivalent of "Prime Time."
21:15 - Ribon no Kishi (aka Princess Knight) was the creation of Osamu Tezuka.
21:45 – Tokusatsu, the all-encompassing term for special effects shows. She also mentions the classic Kamen Rider and Kikaider. Michiko also mentions the very well known Candy Candy, a show that was so popular that episodes of it were made just for Italy.
22:15 – At this point Gerald says "Kodai or Desslar." Kodai was the Japanese name for Derek Wildstar and Desslar was the Japanese name for Desslok. The big debate between female fans of the time was "who was the more popular character?" as each had fanclubs for their voice actors.
22:50 – VOTOMS, or Armored Trooper VOTOMS, the show Tim Eldred is nearly singlehandedly responsible for bringing to the English speaking world [Daryl: Neil Nadelman will have our heads for this outrage]. She also mentions Fang of the Sun Dougram, which was a prototype of sorts for VOTOMS as it was done by the same director and had the same atmosphere.
27:50 – Blue Noah, Nishizaki’s desperate attempt to recreate Yamato which failed miserably.And then, of course, there’s Odin. Just listen to Show #12 for more information than you ever wanted to know about that one.
29:10 – Saiyuki, also known as Journey to the West. The basis for tons of anime including Dragon Ball and--of course--Gensomaden Saiyuki. You can find out more about Journey to the West here.
30:45 – Michiko brings up the importance of “romance” in Yamato, also seen as a “otoko roman” or "men’s romance." Not to be confused with “shonen ai,” which Clarissa can tell us more about.
33:25 – Michiko is referring to the Americanized version of Uchuu Senkan Yamato known as Star Blazers, and she brings up Gojira also known as Godzilla.
34:30 – The joke that Gerald is referring to here occurred in the series where characters would appear in ships that would explode and they would instantly cut back to other characters that looked nothing like the guy in the ship that just exploded and say “just made it back in time,” to hide the fact that someone died.
49:50 – Kamui Gaiden better known as The Legend of Kamui, by the legendary Sanpei Shirato. This is not related to the theatrical film Kamui no Ken (aka The Dagger of Kamui) that Daryl will be reviewing very soon.
54:35 - The Spiriting Away of Sen and Chihiro aka. Spirited Away.
55:40 – We haven’t been able to find this image that Tim says appeared on the cover of The New Yorker magazine. If anyone has it, email it to us so we can add it to the show notes.
58:45 – Chinmoku no Kantai aka. Silent Service by Kaiji Kawaguchi.Gerald mistakenly said “Kenji Kawaguchi.”
Next week, we have an actual show! Gerald does his review of the Kazuo Koike "jigoku manga" Lady Snowblood, Clarissa reviews Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, and Daryl takes a look at the theatrical film Hokuto no Ken: Raoh Gaiden Junai-hen because he's not done watching Twelve Kingdoms yet.
Departing from our typical show format, our special guest this week is Marc Handler, who's worked in various roles on localizing titles such as Voltron, Saber Rider and the Star Sheriffs, Transformers, FLCL, Naruto, Cowboy Bebop, Ghost in the Shell, Astro Boy, Avalon, Zatoichi, and much, MUCH more.
Opening bumper courtesy of Vic Mignogna, who is officially living the dream. This interview is the entire episode and the topics are all over the place, so here's some approximated time markers. Sorry Clarissa zealots, but she wasn't present for this recording.
3:45 - Who Marc is and how he got his start with working on Voltron. Some subjects include: the unorthodox manner in which Voltron was recorded, how anime scripts at the time were written, and what the heck was up with the animation at the end of Voltron: The Movie, anyway?
15:00 - Working on Saber Rider and the Star Sheriffs, and how the approach to that was both similar to and different from Voltron.
17:00 - Marc's involvement with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and how Voltron and Ninja Turtles helped change TV.
19:00 - The difference between writing for original shows and writing for already-existing ones, and what Marc considers essential when writing ADR (dub) scripts.
21:25 - What it was like working for Saban on things like Superpig, Honeybee Hutch, Eagle Riders, and such.
25:00 - Working for Pioneer on Tenchi Muyo and how much different their approach was compared to everything else, in addition to Voltron: The 3rd Dimension. Plus, whether or not Marc was involved with that Sprite commercial where the rappers were piloting Voltron.
27:00 - The number one aspect that most anime dubbing studios focus on and why this is a bad idea. Plus, the companies that DON'T do that stuff and why it is that others don't follow suit even when there's such a noticeable difference in the quality.
32:00 - Marc's involvement with FLCL and Cowbop Bebop.
35:10 - Working on Transformers: Robots in Disguise along with Transformers: Cybertron and the difference between the handling of the two.
Promo: Weekly Anime Review Podcast (36:52 - 37:25) Aaron's got "FORM BLAZING SWORD" right there in his promo, so how could we not play it during this episode? He was also a guest at SITACon, but the only real photo of him we have is of him holding pornography while sticking out his tongue.
37:25 - Optimus Prime on semiotic cohesion in poetry, and how in the world that made it into the script.
40:00 - On American TV Standards and Practices, how this affected the production of the 2003 Astro Boy series, and whether we think this is actually having a productive effect or not.
43:40 - Why Astro Boy (and similarly, things like Saint Seiya and Fist of the North Star) was popular everywhere else in the world but not in the USA. How Astro Boy introduced thematic concepts we've seen in anime for years that are generally still not present in many American cartoons.
48:10 - Marc's English-language pilot for Astro Boy (that was not used in America) and how it was entered into the Tokyo Animation Fair.
50:45 - On being a story editor for the initial episodes of Naruto and WHEN IS THE FILLER ARC GOING TO END????
51:45 - Mix Master (a Korean animated program that Marc's currently working on) and the Korean animation approach in relation to the Japanese one.
54:00 - Marc's involvement with Steamboy and why it was exciting yet a disappointment for him.
56:30 - The Cowboy Bebop movie as an example of how there's no such thing as a "direct translation."
59:20 - Working on Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex.
1:00:50 - Translation considerations when working on Osamu Tezuka's Metropolis.
Promo: Dave and Joel's Fast Karate for the Gentleman (1:01:54 - 1:03:00) When this episode came out on Friday evening, Dave took me to task for not releasing the episode in time for him to listen to it at work. Now THEIR episode is the one that is late! Wait a second, if you believe hard enough, this interview was actually posted like five days EARLY.
1:03:00 - Working on live-action dubs such as Avalon and Shaolin Soccer, and why it's more difficult than working on anime.
1:07:45 - Regarding Marc's work on videogames, which is less stellar a track record than his anime and film pedigree since he worked on Seven Samurai 20XX which has a rap scene that's right up there with the animated Titanic.
1:14:00 - What Marc thinks the future has in store regarding anime's popularity.
1:16:00 - Do anime companies really listen to the fansub watching fans when they license something that's super-popular even before it's picked up for release in the US?
1:17:00 - Why being too close to the Japanese can result in bad dubs too.
1:19:30 - More on Astro Boy and Cowboy Bebop.
1:22:00 - Final comments.
The next episode of AWO is for all you Gerald lovers since it'll consist of his interview with Michiko Ito and Tim Eldred that he conducted back at Anime Weekend Atlanta. Yep, no Daryl or Clarissa to cramp his style and not let him talk for once! Plus, there might also be Gerald's review of Kazuo Koike's manga Lady Snowblood! HELLO, LADIES.
Nope, it's not a new episode and is not representative in any way of how the actual episodes of Anime World Order are (the most recent show is listed below this update and is about Haruhi Suzumiya, Gall Force, and Requiem From the Darkness), but here's the audio to our interviews with Christine Auten and Nobuteru Yuuki, conducted at Otakon 2006. We should be back on schedule next week with our reviews of the newly released Limited Edition of Patlabor the Movie 2, the manga Antique Bakery, and the anime series New Getter Robo, in which Daryl may or may not revive his "Anime Then and Now" idea last used in Show #4's Area 88 segment and compare the original Getter Robo series to this new one. Don't you love how decisive we are?
This was recorded by just Daryl on his own, so after listening to this, you'll have a much better appreciation for Gerald and Clarissa's presence. Here are rough transcripts of the interviews for those of you who'd rather not hear Daryl or Gerald speak. For the sake of being obnoxious (what, you don't want to hear ME talk?!), the files are in PDF format, so they not only require you to have Acrobat to view, but are also ten times larger than the original text file. Brilliant!
Of course, if you're reading this, you're reading it off of our website, so all these links are already on the right-hand side of the screen, but whatever.
Our special guest (via a kind of flaky telephone line) is Ken Nabbe aka Joey Snackpants, the chair of JACON, a local Florida anime convention which all of us attended and ran panels at. We talk about the history of the convention and the club which founded it, what happened at JACON 2006, and what we can expect from JACON in the future. THE TRUTH about JACON will be revealed at a later date.
I have no idea why this episode isn't showing up in some of the feed readers. This episode's nearly two hours long, and since over half of it is the interview / anime con report, here's hoping that sounds okay. If you have audio engineering know-how and think we completely failed at making this listenable, let us know how not to fail.
Introduction (0:00 - 15:25)
With JACON, finals, and Gerald's graduation over and done with, we can once again get back to this podcast. Knowing full well that the interview was going to take up most of this episode, we try to keep this to about 15 minutes, and for once we sort of succeed. We answer listener emails about End of Evangelion, anime fandom in South Africa or the lack thereof, and people on the Internet who think Clarissa sounds hot. Actually, most of this time is spent talking about what we think of Fullmetal Alchemist. Thanks go out to all the other podcasts who've run our promos in recent weeks. Since this episode was already terrifyingly long on time and short on segments, we just mentioned them by name (hope we didn't forget any) and included links on the sidebar of our homepage instead of running all the individual promos.
ANN's page on Seiji Mizushima - Daryl notes that Slayers fans generally consider Slayers Next to be the best of the TV series, for whatever that's worth
TV-Nihon, the folks doing the fansubs of Kamen Rider Kabuto and tons more tokusatsu (are there any other groups other than them who fansub tokusatsu?)
Let's News! (15:25 - 33:56)
ADV has officially announced that their release of the Area 88 OAVs (as discussed in Show # 4) is going to come out on 7/25 as one packaged deal for $30 MSRP, so everyone has to buy that, okay? International Correspondence version 2 estimates their size of the US manga market and offers speculations as to why, and in the "why are we reporting on this" department, there's supposedly going to be live-action film adaptations of Metal Gear Solid and Star Blazers. Folks, don't believe any live-action anime rumors until filming actually starts, okay? Tokyopop is gearing up to start releasing more novels, and Kitty Media is planning to release English editions of the hentai games for Bible Black and Discipline [Note from Daryl: This cannot be confirmed through any official sources, and so we plan on retracting this in Show # 20]. Hmm, I wonder if there's anyone out there who could tell us what Discipline is about by way of a voicemail message?
Biko 3 (Yeah, Google for this guys and see how terrible some of those h-games really are, and yeah, don't expect much work safe from that)
Promo: Kick Ass Mystic Ninjas (33:56 - 34:25)
If we had to pick one podcast that ours is the most similar to, this would be it. This is a podcast where two guys and a girl talk about works of classic science fiction, most of which people haven't heard of. They tend to stick only to old things though, and we try and keep a balance, though perhaps that hasn't been working out too well as of late. Daryl is quite proud of the fact that he knows all about Zardoz and these ALLEGED ninjas do not. Includes capsule anime reviews courtesy of the Weekly Anime Review podcast!
Interview: Ken Nabbe aka "Joey Snackpants," JACO member and JACON chair (34:25 - 1:46:55)
Yeah, this segment is about as long as we initially thought entire episodes would be. We explore just how cool do you have to be to be Ken Nabbe as we talk to him about JACON's past, present, and future. Oh, and we offer a convention report too, but it's not like it's THE TRUTH about JACON. Give Daryl some time on that.
Closing (1:46:55 - 1:52:24)
Next week, it's back to what is supposed to be our normal format which we seemingly never abide by, only it's our special "Resu Bean" episode. Gerald will be reviewing the hentai title Another Lady Innocent, Clarissa takes on the moe juggernaut of Maria-sama ga Miteru, and Daryl ignores the theme of the episode by discussing the Often Overlooked triumph of SCIENCE, Ippatsu Kikimusume.
This week we depart from the standard show format to conduct an interview with Tim Eldred, who's been an anime fan for about as long as we've been alive. Tim is a huge fan of Space Battleship Yamato (aka Star Blazers) as well as Armored Trooper VOTOMS and Fist of the North Star. In addition, he has written comicbooks and does work in Western animated works such as Teen Titans, MTV's Spider-Man, and much more.
Click Here to Download
Full show notes below. Sorry for the delay in getting those up, but the post was made at 3:30 AM and I got about four hours of sleep since I stayed up finishing this to make up for last week's episode coming out so late.
Part 1 (0:00 - 20:19)
The interview starts off and we talk about how Tim first became interested in Japanese animation back in the early 1980s. The only reason I call this Part 1 is because Tim's phone--this entire interview was conducted while Tim was in his car, first while he was driving and then while he was parked in his driveway--lost its connection and we had to get him back, so we used that time to take a break. This would not be the only time that we lost the signal, but it is the only time we actually left it in the show.
Space Webzine Yamato - an online version of sorts of the 1983 "Space Fanzine Yamato" fanzine by Jerry Fellows; Tim Eldred didn't actually do THIS one to my recollection, but it's a good example of the sort of stuff that was out there
The Wave Motion Webpage - another great Star Blazers resource; man, this all makes me want to start chanting DESSLOK, DESSLOK DESSLOK...DESSLOK, DESSLOK DESSLOK
Animania - the anime club which Tim founded decades ago in Michigan that still exists to this day
Hokuto Renkitouza - still the best Hokuto no Ken / Fist of the North Star website out there after all these years; Daryl's entire ILOVEKENSHIRO Internet gimmick was based around simply reading information off of this site
Yahoo group Fist of the North Star Games - some of the most dedicated HnK fans around; join the group and tell them you heard about the group through Daryl Surat
Promo: Weekly Anime Review (20:19 - 20:51)
We probably should have played more promos this episode given the fact that it's all one giant segment, but we weren't thinking. Anyway, true to the name, each week (or so) Aaron reviews a different anime title and reads user-submitted reviews as well. C'mon man, when are you going to follow our lead and review Odin like we did in Show #12?! And where's your ad copy reading of you know what?
Part 2 (20:51 - 1:28:32)
There's no additional breaks really in this interview since we edit this in teams and all the other technical mishaps were removed so as to provide the illusion of our competance. The interview resumes, discussing the difference between Gundam and VOTOMS, how Tim got into the comicbook and US animation industries, what led to his involvement with Voyager Entertainment (who owns Star Blazers) and Central Park Media (who owns VOTOMS), and what he's up to now, such as the new Scooby Doo series on Kids' WB. Does that involve the dreaded Scrappy Doo? Listen and find out!
The Captain Harlock Archives - by Matt Murray, founder of Corn Pone Flicks; the man's knowledge of Yamato and Harlock is downright terrifying, but for Pete's sake, STOP ASKING HIM WHERE TO GET EPISODES OF CAPTAIN HARLOCK
Encodes of every episode of Wing Commander Academy - courtesy of the Wing Commander CIC; still the best Wing Commander resource site around, it's run by some of the Wing Commander superfans from the glory days of Usenet and IRC like Christopher Reid and Ben Lesnick among others
PBS's Dragon Tales webpage - how the heck did we completely forget to ask about the fact that Tim got nominated for an Emmy for his work on this? Sure it was a Daytime Emmy that was shared with several folks, but that's still more Academy Awards than any of us have ever gotten remotely close to getting! Oh well, at least we got the story behind "Dragon Tales: Too Hot for TV"!
Next week we'll just be answering listener email with our special guests, the host(s) of the Anime Pulse podcast. Lots of "what do you think about this anime" stuff, so don't think we're slacking off that much even though the reason we're doing this episode is to catch up!
Slightly inaudible line that Tim said as we were referring to The Nish: "I think they [Yoshinobu Nishizaki and Barry Winston] met because they were in a yacht club together." I think we just may have pinpointed whose howitzer shells those REALLY belonged to after all.
It's a much dreaded hentai-themed episode as Gerald talks about Gonad the Barbarian in what is technically the end of the Patrick Macias interview. Actually, we have nearly two more hours worth. We also talk about cyberpunk anime as well as follow up on Prefectural Earth Defense Force.
If you downloaded this before 11:30 PM on Tuesday, please redownload it. The audio goes all weird at about the 23:00 minute mark on the old file. Introduction (0:00 - 23:20)
We answer emails and voicemails, talking about the Naruto dub cast, our thoughts on Trigun and Outlaw Star, and how Dog Soldier permanently alters lives. We then talk about cyberpunk anime, which is mostly us arguing about what cyberpunk is. 23 minutes answering emails? Well, with Daryl out at Katsucon this weekend, the editing for this show was left in the capable hands of Gerald. Even as long as this is, we still cut out entire sections about Cowboy Bebop and how steampunk fits into the cyberpunk equation.
Promo: JPop Blast (14:46 - 15:24)
Robbie Fargo is one man with a mission, and that mission for over half a year and counting is to teach people all about the finer details of Japanese pop music. And one of the ways he does this is by playing a bunch of it, so head on over.
Let's News! (23:21 - 47:49)
Media Blasters is releasing Tekkaman Blade in both cut and uncut versions, Funimation licenses Crayon Shin-Chan in what will hopefully not be another Case Closed for them, and ADV has decided that Prefectural Earth Defense Force is only going to be available via their website instead of being available in stores everywhere. Take one guess as to what we spend most of the time talking about here.
Promo: Josh in Japan (47:49 - 48:35)
Josh in Japan is a pretty popular podcast out there compared to ours, and as the name suggests, it's about a guy named Josh who lives in Japan. Check out his show if you want to know about things like the Japanese healthcare system, the Japanese public safety system, grocery shopping, and the Japanese criminal justice system. You mean to say it's not like it is in Phoenix Wright?!
Interview: Patrick Macias, Honky Tonk Man lookalike in training (48:35 - 1:23:26)
With this installment, our Patrick Macias interview comes to a end...sort of. We've still got like, two more hours of discussion we could use! Anyway, this segment of the interview is devoted to HENTAI. Gerald's decided to review a hentai title from the 80s called Gonad the Barbarian, which is absolutely terrible in all aspects. Which of course is why we're talking about it. Includes sound effects!
Closing (1:23:26 - 1:25:16)
If you were actually able to sit down and listen to this whole episode, let us know! Next week Gerald will review the manga title Cannon God Exaxxion and Daryl is going to talk about the now-Often Overlooked film The Professional: Golgo 13. After having shown this movie--which Daryl described as "the film adaptation of the Walker, Texas Ranger lever from Conan O'Brien"--to Gerald and Clarissa (who themselves had never seen it), they were so thoroughly and deeply affected by the film that they will never be the same again.
The Patrick Macias interview rolls on, as we talk about "jigoku manga," best embodied by the works of Kazuo Koike! Plus Space Battlecruiser Yamato and uh...Anna Miller's.
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Introduction (0:00 - 23:42)
We got a lot of feedback from our previous show when we said that videogame tournaments have no place at an anime convention (that's an oversimplification, but if you want the rest, check out last week's episode). Most of it was us getting our butts kicked, but amazingly enough, someone out there agreed with our Ushicon comments!
Official Transformers website (we thought there was something on Anime Jump mentioning the two DVDs of that British dub, but it doesn't seem to be there; if anyone has any suggestions please post in the comments)
We have no Let's News! segment this week since there wasn't very much news that was worth talking about. Since we have no interest in just reading off news items that have no significant bearing on anything, we thought we'd compile the few news stories from this week into next week.
Promo: Anime Pulse podcast
While we're trying (and failing) to cover as wide a range of anime as we can, these guys are all about being on the cutting edge of what's out in Japan right now! If you're big into Naruto and Bleach, these guys discuss the latest episodes of both every week, so check them out.
Interview -- Patrick Macias: The man who knows more about Japan than the Japanese, Part 3(23:43 - 1:14:47)
We delve into the realm of Kazuo Koike as we go in depth on the subject of "jigoku manga" with the amazing Patrick Macias in part three of our interview. To fit with the jumbled mess of logic that is a Kazuo Koike narrative, Daryl decided to leave this section relatively unedited. We haven't done this before, and chances are you listeners probably wouldn't like us if we did it again.
The Starving Man (aka AIUEO Boy, it's Koike and Ikegami's first collaboration and possibly their most dangerous; not yet available in English so write to Dark Horse and DEMAND IT! Only the first four entries on the page are for the volumes of this)
Promo: Anime Hell
A blog and soon to be podcast devoted to the anime convention mainstay featuring extremely strange audio-visual detritus that's not necessarily anime-related, as this trailer for Scream Blackula Scream indicates. DEMAND Anime Hell (or if you live in Florida, the Panel OF DOOM! as hosted by Daryl Surat!) to convention organizers near you!
Closing (1:14:47 - 1:16:34)
We finally decided to shell out the money for the domain, so www.animeworldorder.com will now redirect you to this page. Next time, we're going to have a hentai-centric episode as the Patrick Macias interview concludes (sort of) with Gerald reviewing the really, really, really awful hentai title known as Gonad the Barbarian. I know, you want to buy it based on the name alone, but we're going to tell you why that sort of thinking is a huge mistake.
In this episode we talk about why harem shows all suck, why you NEED to buy Prefectural Earth Defense Force when it comes out, and how to fix conventions so the only people who'll attend them is us. Plus part two of the Patrick Macias interview!
Now then, the full show notes. Do people actually READ these things?
Introduction (0:00 - 12:37)
We respond to listener voice mail regarding Fist of the North Star, DearS, Love Hina, and Chobits. Daryl steals ideas from posts made by other people at Anime Jump without actively thinking of it. That site has INFLUENCE, so you should go there and check out their reviews and user forums.
Howl's Moving Castle got nominated for an Oscar, so we discuss whether it has a chance of actually winning. Manga Video lost the licenses to a bunch of titles, so we cross our fingers and hope that means someone will pick them up and give them proper releases. Plus, Prefectural Earth Defense Force got licensed, so we tell everyone why it's absolutely imperative for the sake of future anime releases that you go out and BUY that one. It'll only cost around $13, folks!
At This Point The News Gets Hijacked So We Can Alienate All Our Listeners (25:57 - 37:00)
Daryl starts talking about how Ushicon out in Texas has decided to not run conventions anymore, which eventually turns into him and Gerald talking about how everybody in the world of anime fandom sucks except for them. It's not quite the Final Solution, but outlandishly modest proposals are put forth regarding how to "fix" anime conventions. Note that despite our big talk, none of us is willing to put our money where our mouths are and actually staff a convention ourselves so we should really just shut up. Only if we did that, we'd have no show.
Interview -- Patrick Macias, Your F'in Gaijin Of Darkness, Part 2 (39:15 - 1:07:30)
The interview with Patrick that started in Show # 5 continues. Cromdor screams and thoughtbirds are afoot, as the notes for this segment illustrate. As with the rest of the interview segments, the volume on Daryl's mic is rather low. Don't worry, it doesn't matter what he says anyway.
Danguard Ace, winner of the CPF award for Bullshit Potatohead
This show wasn't supposed to be quite this long, but the Ushicon-prompted Ten Minute Hate bumped things up a bit. We could have just cut it out, but that would have ensured people would actually LIKE us before we have the nerve to beg for votes at Podcast Alley, Podcast Pickle, and all that other stuff. Tune in next week when we do one solid hour of the Patrick Macias interview, featuring a Creator Spotlight on Kazuo Koike that spirals about as madly out of control as one of his plotlines!
Promos
Otaku Generation -- Talk about professional-grade production values: just look at their setup! This podcast only spends a portion of its time talking about anime and manga since a lot of the discussion focuses on technology type stuff, but make no mistake. They are to be feared even more than a soaking wet, revolver-toting, bathrobe-clad Ray Liotta.
Ninja Consultant -- The terrifying influence of Neil Nadelman's Totally Lame Anime panels extends to the farthest reaches of the Internet! This podcast is actually a lot like our podcast, except with smarter hosts and more Naruto discussion. What can we say, they both majored in film!
For Show # 5 we talk about why “voting with your dollars” doesn’t really work, discuss the Often Overlooked classic anime They Were Eleven, and conclude with Part 1 of our interview with Patrick Macias, author of “Cruising the Anime City: An Otaku Guide to Neo Tokyo” and the Most Dangerous Man Alive.
The Patrick Macias interview was as good as we'd imagined, and since Patrick is more machine than man, he was able to stay with us as we recorded for about five hours. I haven't got the heart to pare it down, so based on listener feedback we've decided to try going with longer segments while simultaneously dropping the quality settings down to make the file smaller. This one's encoded at 64 Kbps 22.050 KHz as opposed to our typical 96 kbps 44.100 KHz, so let us know if the sound quality is too awful to bear and I'll upload a higher quality encode.
Introduction (0:00 - 9:25)
Since the segments are longer this time around, instead of having three 15 minute segments we'll have pretty much one that takes up most of the time. We respond to your emails and deny allegations of being nice to one another.
Let's News! (9:25 - 20:59)
Tokyopop lays people off, prompting Daryl to complain about so-called "OEL manga." The prices for the Patlabor 1 rerelease have been set, prompting Daryl to complain about stuff costing too damn much and how the tactic of "voting with your dollars" just doesn't work. Daryl feels like complaining about something, prompting Daryl to complain about the terrible subtitle inaccuracies on the Zeta Gundam box set, which in turn leads to Daryl complaining about how the 2-disc rereleases of Zeta Gundam have fixed subtitles and Bandai told nobody and offered no exchange program. Do you notice a pattern developing here?
Interview -- Patrick Macias, the Most Dangerous Man Alive, Part 1 (44:52 - 58:47)
Our very first guest on the show! Patrick Macias is an expert on Japanese pop culture who is smarter and cooler than all of us. He is the author of Tokyoscope: The Japanese Cult Film Companion as well as Cruising the Anime City: An Otaku Guide to Neo Tokyo, both of which should be available at bookstores near you. If not, there's always Amazon! He's often referred to as "the Hunter S. Thompson of anime fandom that natively speaks English" by those who read his almighty blog, and by the time this interview is over, you'll know why.
This interview ran for about five hours in all, and I just don't have the heart to edit it down the way I would my own segments. So what I'll do is this: I'll release the remaining parts of the interview in roughly one hour segments, each segment of which will loosely center around one particular topic. For instance, one segment would pretty much be all about Kazuo Koike, even though we'll go off on wild and crazy tangents.
Closing (58:47 - 60:14)
So the episode doesn't just abruptly end, I recorded some sort of closing here. It was 1:30 AM when I did that. It is 3:30 AM now. I have work in four hours. Something tells me my vote will be for the one hour interview segments to be posted in lieu of actual episodes instead of in addition to. But while I'm here, it seems we have another iTunes issue. The show descriptions in iTunes always appear as one giant block of text with no line breaks in them. Anyone know how to fix that? Ideally I'd want the iTunes show description to just be the Comments in our ID3v2 tag, but for now I've edited every post to start with a short summary of the episode.
Tags:
Bonus,
Interviews
