Anime World Order Show # 85a - Don't Shorten the Show, Just Split It Up

As we kick off 2010 we've decided to try experimenting with releasing episodes in both per-segment as well as contiguous versions. Last time we posted the segments just on the website and the full show on the RSS feed. This time we're doing the opposite: posting the segments to the RSS feed and the full show contained in one file just on the website. The remaining parts will be posted to the RSS feed once a week over the next month, but since you've come to the website, we'll give you the option of downloading the entire show right now. Daryl reviews the anime adaptation of Violence Jack by Go Nagai, Gerald reviews Bobby's Girl, and Clarissa reviews the book The Art of Osamu Tezuka: God of Manga by Helen McCarthy.

Click Here to Download the entire show (3+ hours!)

Click Here to Download Part 1 - Emails and News ("only" ~72 minutes!)

No Pickle Player this time. The Wordpress migration is imminent and it'll have its own built-in Flash player. For now, the ever-changing test layout is over here. Show notes later. It's 2:00 AM.

Introduction (0:00 - 31:20)
None of us really felt like leveling out the audio or editing out the various "y'knows," "um's" and the like because there are far too many good videogames we have bought but not yet played. We elaborate on the nature of seinen manga/anime and give some examples of titles we like. We also hear of yet another person tricked into watching Odin: Photon Space Sailer Starlight as a result of this review we did. Finally, someone asks about the Daicon animations (now on Youtube: watch high-quality copies here and here!)as well as female anime directors.

Let's News! (31:20 - 1:08:05)
Daisuke Gori is dead. Nobody buys sports anime in America. The Allure of Japan's Pop Culture is straight-up good ol' fashioned government propaganda that continues to push the "Cool Japan" BS narrative only espoused in the US by people with books to sell. The people who spend the most time pushing the "weird Japan" narrative (that rename their articles after the fact) should probably not decry the mentality that directly results from their very own actions first and foremost. We check out actual Japanese manga circulation numbers. And Tim Eldred informs us that Space Battleship Yamato: Rebirth is not the worst thing ever made, thus surpassing ALL expectations.

Review: Violence Jack (1:08:05 - 2:02:04)
It took several years to get to the second in the trinity of the Holy Manga Video Trinity of Suck (the first being Angel Cop and the third being Mad Bull 34 by Kazuo Koike). But that's because Violence Jack is the least clip-worthy of the three, cut or uncut. After roughly two years of putting it off, Daryl finally reviews this behemoth, the shonen work that established modern-era post-apocalyptic fiction as we know it.

Promo: Anime82 (2:02:04 - 2:02:58)
The preceding review was made possible by Regan Strongblood, who provided us with copies of uncut Violence Jack long before such a thing was available. Of course, since we put it off for two years, you can now simply download torrents of uncut Violence Jack. He asks that you all grow some mecha balls, and by that he means ones like Devastator's in Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen aka "the 4th most important movie of 2009."

Review: Bobby's Girl (2:02:58 - 2:31:50)
On the subject of things that a few years ago were impossible to find but can now be easily acquired via BitTorrent, Gerald reviews this 1980s classic. Fairly light on dialogue and somewhat experimental in its overall approach, it encapsulates a great number of different animation styles within its fairly short running time.

Review: The Art of Osamu Tezuka (2:31:50 - 3:07:00)
Clarissa wraps things up by reviewing the hardcover edition (with DVD) of this new coffee table style book by Helen McCarthy. Filled with a variety of never-before-seen pictures from the life and times of Japan's "God of Manga," this book is totally worth buying via this Amazon.com link so that we can make like forty cents commission. Remember: it'll stop a bullet! Disclaimer: the AWO makes no guarantees as to the the size or caliber of the bullet that this book can stop.

Closing (3:07:00 - 3:14:59)
Following the shocking revelation that this podcast does NOT cure insomnia (also of note: Peacock King is FREAKING INSANE), we would like to note that both Daryl and Clarissa will indeed be doing panels at Anime Boston 2010. In the next episode, we're turning the difficulty on this all the way up to Bitter as Gerald reviews the movie that put Gainax on the map aka Royal Space Force: The Wings of Honneamise, Clarissa reviews 5cm Per Second by Makoto Shinkai, and Daryl reviews Swallowing the Earth by Osamu Tezuka. In the meantime, we will probably post up a bonus episode with our 2000-2009 anime in review retrospective.

Anime World Order Show # 84 - Four Year Anniversary With Jason Thompson

It's our fourth year anniversary! (Actually, it's probably the third year anniversary. But we already HAD a third year anniversary LAST year!) Our special guest is Otaku USA's Jason Thompson, author of Manga: The Complete Guide, so we're doing an all-manga edition of AWO. Clarissa spirals into madness with Uzumaki, Gerald lets fly with Crying Freeman, and Daryl passes on to the next life courtesy of Violence Hero Riki-Oh! For this episode we offer the option of downloading the show per segment, should you prefer. Just click on the segment name and its running length.

Click Here to Download


Introduction (0:00 - 37:51)
Who is the mysterious Jason Thompson? Whatever could have inspired him to write Manga: The Complete Guide and King of RPGs ? How can one man give away so much manga for free every day for a year? How does he manage to write for not just Otaku USA but also Comixology? And how many websites can one dude have, anyway? His Twitter account just isn't enough to answer all this. Though for the record, the short answer is "because he hit his Otaku Expiration Date." Indeed, he just got engaged a few days ago! If our kung fu were as strong as Joe McCulloch's, we would have remembered this first half of his writeup on the English language comics anthology "Manga" when we asked the question about it. But we forgot. Since the time of the recording, the second half of his writeup has been posted. Read those, retain their knowledge, and you shall be a Formidable Opponent (TM).

Review: Uzumaki (37:51 - 1:01:47)
Clarissa reviews this horror manga by Junji Ito. Like you even need to specify that it's "horror" when it comes to this crazy cat. Why, if you buy from the links we provide, we get about ten cents...eventually! Here are links for Volume 1, Volume 2, and Volume 3.

Review: Crying Freeman (1:01:47 - 1:33:42)
Gerald reviews the most well-known collaboration between ultimate manga master Kazuo Koike and artist Ryoichi Ikegami among US readers. This was the first manga Paul Chapman ever saw when he was a young child. He opened it to a random page and saw a dude getting--as he phrases it--"a hummer." Speaking of which, look for Daryl to make another guest appearance on the Greatest Movie EVER! podcast once Paul figures out that, rather than waiting until the end of the month, he can delete an old episode to free up space on his Libsyn account in order to post a new episode. Like what we just ended up doing to bring you this! [12/10 update: here you go! We talked about Crank, Crank 2: High Voltage, and Gamer. I kind of sucked here since this was on short notice and I didn't actually rewatch the films prior to recording.] Here are AWO-supportive Amazon links to buy this: Volume 1, Volume 2, Volume 3, Volume 4, and Volume 5.

Review: Violence Hero Riki-Oh (1:33:42 - 2:13:25)
There's a good chance that you've seen the live-action movie (corresponding podcast currently offline), as its infamy and legend helped shape Media Blasters into the entity it is today. If you have NOT seen it, then your life is incomplete until you remedy the situation. But that is merely scratching the surface of what awaits you in this manga. Sadly, it cannot be purchased in the US, but there are full scanlations available. What is Riki-Oh about? What is going on in this comicbook? That...is the question.

• A History of Horrible, Harmless Violence - by Jason Thompson, featuring quotes by "ultraviolence fan Daryl Surat"
  

Closing (2:13:25 - 2:21:58)
Next time, which to be honest will probably not be until next year at this rate, Clarissa will be reviewing Helen McCarthy's new book, The Art of Osamu Tezuka: God of Manga. Gerald will be reviewing the somewhat experimental--and until recently, virtually impossible to find--anime Bobby's Girl (aka Bobby's In Deep!), and Daryl fulfills a promise that he's put off for too many years by finally getting around to answering the question...GOD DAMMIT WHERE THE HELL IS JACK? (FUCKIN' CHICKENSHIT. FUCKIN', FUCKIN', SHIT, FUCKIN' SHIT!). For it shall be the second pillar of the Holy Manga Video Trinity of Suck, Violence Jack. The first pillar of course was the glorious Angel Cop, reviewed back in 2007. He was spacing them out so as not to run out, but this was probably too much spacing.

Anime World Order Show # 76b - BAOH HAS A LASER CANNON!

OH NO, THE BANDANA'S COME OFF! Here now is the second half of Show 76 containing the reviews of Shootfighter Tekken, Baoh, and Part 4 of Jojo's Bizarre Adventure. Warning: this might melt your brain.

Click Here to Download


Review: Shootfighter Tekken (0:00 - 33:39)
Gerald reviews a fine masterpiece by Tetsuya Saruwatari, esteemed student of the mighty Kazuo Koike and creator of the grand masterpiece known as Violence Hero: Riki-Oh. A relatively short 3 part-OAV anime adapted from the very long-running manga series Koukou Tekken-den Tough that was partially released by Viz under the name Tough, Shootfighter Tekken was one of the last, if not THE last, new releases from Central Park Media. Nobody really seemed to care when it came out. Were they mistaken? Listen on and find out!

Promo: Ani-Gamers (33:39 - 34:33)
Evan assures us that this promo doesn't have people who ultimately didn't end up being on the podcast at all in it, which while beneficial isn't always necessary. Heck, the reason our latest promo is so good is precisely because it has nothing to do with much of anything we said at all! Anyway, Ani-Gamers just released the second half of episode 11, so check them out. Just remember: UNCLE YO SEES ALL, except for the hentai clips that Gerald shows at anime conventions. He did the right thing and bolted out of there when those came on.

Review: Baoh (34:33 - 1:11:05)
Daryl gave strong consideration to just ripping the dub audio from Baoh--PERHAPS THE GREATEST SINGLE-LENGTH OAV EVER MADE--in its entirety and posting that as the review. Perhaps a future bonus installment of AWO could simply be entitled "Baoh: The Audio Drama" because aside from a few scenes, you actually don't need to see what's going on at any point whatsoever due to all the narration. Daryl always dreamed of just getting cosplayers to read the lines from Baoh, but this dream never came to fruition because if you think it's hard to get a cosplayer you personally know to speak into a microphone, try getting them to say "there is! Such a power is contained WITHIN BAOH!" It's not happening, folks.

Promo: Anime82 (1:11:05 - 1:11:49)
We suspect that Regan might have been impersonating the Macross II dub when recording this promo, but no matter: after a few months of hiatus he's back with a new episode! Thanks to Regan and the rest of the guys at Box Fansubs for their work on Locke the Superman and Queen Millennia, the latter of which you can definitely expect Daryl to review in a future episode! Though it begs the question whether or not Queen Millennia should get priority over Violence Jack...

Review (manga): Jojo's Bizarre Adventure Part 4 (1:11:49 - 1:49:34)
Daryl and Clarissa may never read them and Gerald may have given up reading them in disgust, but Bass_kat from the Fast Karate for the Gentleman forums calls in to relate to us all the tale of how she saw Wicked City back when she was 8 years old. A bizarre tale as that can only be placed prior to Clarissa's review of a bizarre manga. This one is sort of the "Death Note + Hot Fuzz" portion of Jojo's, and marks a definitive turning point as far as content and art style is concerned.

Meet the Jojo's Part 4 gang! Clockwise from top left there's Okuyasu, Josuke, Jotaro, Koichi (whose face is being eaten by Araki's name) and Rohan. Josuke, of course, is easy to spot thanks to his kickin' pompadour. Sadly, people tend to make fun of it because rather than being a real tough guy style, now it's pretty much just worn by Yoyogi Park rockabilly dudes.

Of course, Josuke has his Stand Crazy Diamond, which valiantly continues the heart motif Araki loves so much.

And I couldn't not devote time to that amazing Araki/Tezuka/Go Nagai hybrid Rohan. I mentioned he's crazy IN THE NAME OF GREAT MANGA right?

If you were wondering, this is what Rohan's Stand does to people. It's much better in visuals than in the description.

True, there's no Dio anymore. But just take a fucking look at Kira and Killer Queen. Top tier Stand design? I think so. (Hey Medicos, when you're done with this year's Stardust Crusaders blitz, could we maybe get a poseable Killer Queen and Kira? With bonus amputated hand girlfriend of course.)

But don't get too down. Psychotic murderers and high body counts aside, remember: it's Jojo's so they're all dorks. Inviiiiisible baaaaby.

Closing (1:49:34 - 1:53:58)
Next time on AWO, it's SHOW TIME because our special guest once again is Mike Toole! Last heard from about two years ago, Mike's since capitalized on his knowledge that audio is for suckers to become a sporadic streaming video sensation, but he's still keeping it real! Daryl will be reviewing his favorite series of 2007, Baccano! (warning: don't read the Wikipedia page or the ANN encyclopedia entry or especially the ANN review of volume 1), Gerald is reviewing the former crown jewel of the anime laserdisc empire known as Five Star Stories, and Clarissa does what we should have done the first time we had Mike on: review freakin' Big O! This entire episode was recorded about a month ago, and we still haven't started editing it because...well...sowwwhy! We had done tol' Craig and 'dem that we was gon' kick it wit' 'dem. Gotta go; see you when we see you!

Anime World Order Show # 74 - Special All-Manga Edition

Kept you waiting, huh? For this episode we're all reviewing manga titles. Gerald's reviewing Dororo by Osamu Tezuka and Daryl's reviewing Ressentiment by Kengo Hanazawa. Clarissa's review of Part 4 of Jojo's Bizarre Adventure will be postponed. Fear not Jojo's fans, it's still going to happen, just not now.

Click Here to Download


Two hours may not be enough time to make up for the AWO deficit, but in the previous...weeks...Daryl was once again a guest star on the Greatest Movie EVER! Podcast where he talked about Drive in an attempt to restart the Big Month of Mark [Dacascos], and was a guest on the Mistakes of Youth "podcast" (there is no podcast-specific feed!) where he once again talked about Macross Frontier. Also, the original poll was about whether or not you used the BitTorrent link, but it was taken down since we can just look at the tracker statistics to see exactly how many people used it.

And before anyone asks: if you want one of the hats, we can hook you up. Also, mudkip hats. Inquire within!

Introduction (0:00 - 24:25)
Daryl for whatever reason has decided to boost the crap out of the low frequency end of his voice in an attempt to sound cool for this entire episode, but it's probably just [comically...?] distorted. Further proof that everyone he knows is becoming smarter than him by virtue of their continued educations, though perhaps "smarter" is the new "dumber." In the emails department, we get some feedback regarding our discussion from the last episode regarding the cancelation of Toonami. We then shill like it's going out of style for Hulu and its recent anime additions. Cross our hearts, we aren't on the take. The site just has all kinds of awesome things on it. At some point MTV Music gets brought up, and since Jojo's Bizarre Adventure is on the brain the inevitable ugliness of Dio in the Holy Diver video is mentioned. And do we have toy/figure/model kit collections? PERHAPS.

Let's News! (24:25 - 45:19)
With the exception of the fact that FUNimation seems to be doing better than expected, there is like, nothing but sleaze to talk about this episode. In an attempt to delay this fact, we go into what some of the top selling anime titles of the last few months have been, but it's only a matter of time before we start talking about people who want to marry fictional characters, whether or not loli/shota stuff qualifies as obscenity, and a 38 year old guy who really, REALLY hopes the answer to that question is "no" right about now.

Promo: Weeaboobies (45:19 - 46:00)
Aside from the fact that this is the WORST NAME FOR ANYTHING EVER and also that face piercings = automatic disqualification, this all-female hosted anime podcast is out there to be excessively immature so we don't have to be. But wait...we're also excessively immature. Actually, I can't really think of any truly "mature" podcasts dedicated to Japanese cartoons. I think people say that's us from a relative standpoint. That is terrifying.

Review (manga): Dororo (46:00 - 1:10:27)
Then again, maybe it's because we're reviewing the Osamu Tezuka stuff. Gerald gets into this 3-volume manga series that has been released in English courtesy of Vertical Inc, which for our money's worth is an early precursor to the "shonen" genre of anime that dominates much of the anime we consume in the US. Daryl reviewed this in the pages of Otaku USA magazine, PS buy the latest issue because it is radical kthxbye

Review (manga): Ressentiment (1:10:27 - 1:49:12)
Daryl's been making offhand references to how good this comic is for quite some time now, but it's only now that THE TRUTH can be told. Forget about Genshiken, Welcome to the NHK, Otaku no Video, and all that flippity floppity stuff: this is the real shit. Finally a tale of otakudom that tells it like it is...or at least, we think. Despite only being 4 volumes long, it's not available for sale in the US and the scanlation efforts stopped at Chapter 29. Perhaps this review will inspire Manga-Screener or someone else to FINISH THE FIGHT. We can only hope. Our salvation--or lack thereof--depends on it!

Closing (1:49:12 - 1:55:54)
Hey, you people who responded to the previous poll saying you were interested in buying AWO T-shirts and/or hoodies (as famously depicted here)? Send us emails with some contact information, desired sizes, and the like. Once we get enough people, we'll be able to put those orders in! How much would you pay for these things? We're thinking that since they need to be shipped, it might be $10 for a shirt and $20 for a hoodie once we factor in the "buy mailers and postage" cost, but who knows? Let us know. Next episode will probably be a bonus edition where we do a variety of convention reports: Anime Weekend Atlanta, SITACon, and EXPCon. Plus we should have that Jojo's Bizarre Adventure Part 4 review ready to go. Next episode proper, we're hoping to get Ryan Gavigan on as our special guest! Daryl will be talking about the original Bubblegum Crisis OAVs, Gerald will be talking about Riding Bean, and Clarissa will not be talking about Gunsmith Cats since she's going to cover Yakitate! Japan. See you hopefully sooner than it took for this one to come out. Fallout 3 doesn't play itself, you know! In the meantime, you can look at this picture of the Bureau of ATF:

Anime World Order Show # 72 - Have Another Lead Enema

With Anime Weekend Atlanta mere DAYS away, we managed to get this one edited in between the time spent scrambling to get our panels all put together. Clarissa's reviewing the BL manga Dog Style, Gerald reviews the terrible wannabe cyberpunk OAV Burn Up! which unfortunately got multiple sequels, and Daryl reviews the awesome non-wannabe cyberpunk OAV Cyber City Oedo 808 which unfortunately got no sequels at all.

Click Here to Download


Full show notes with pictures and stuff to be posted later. Maybe.

Introduction (0:00 - 29:58)
After lamenting our inability to play children's videogames, we answer a voicemail about "real giant robot shows," which slightly confuses us. Hopefully we answered the question. We also read an email about our experience with seeing anime in theaters, which isn't all that much. For those curious, here's the IMDB page for the 2006 Danish animated movie "Princess." Since this was recorded, we did actually get a copy of this movie, and you have our assurances that although there are some moments in it with live-action, it's not another Rock-a-Doodle. We wrap things up with a quick overview of all the panels we'll be doing at Anime Weekend Atlanta 2008. Spread the word!

Let's News! (29:58 - 54:44)
So there was this MSNBC article about anime that has the Internet in a buzz right now, and rather than just say what everyone everywhere's already said, we decided to interview TV's Patrick Macias, who was [mis]quoted in the article, to get to the bottom of how it came about, what got misrepresented, and even what it got right. The audio quality on this segment isn't very good, we know. We blame Patrick for pounding on the table constantly. Just like we blame him for everything. Here's "The Incredibly Strange Mutant Creatures who Rule the Universe of Alienated Japanese Zombie Computer Nerds (Otaku to You)," the article we mentioned from the March/April 1993 issue of Wired (the first issue) as being where the "otaku = techno-geek" notion came about. Though as Lawrence Eng astutely notes in the comments, it is preceded by this December 1990 article entitled "I'm Alone But Not Lonely: Japanese Otaku-Kids colonize the Realm of Information and Media, A Tale of Sex and Crime from a Faraway Place."

Review: Dog Style (54:44 - 1:13:10)
Mara from the Providence Anime Conference sent us a voicemail in response to the podcast from "the 25th, which was yesterday." What that actually means is that it's a voicemail in response to the podcast from July 25th, which was not yesterday. In fact, it was the podcast from July 25th, 2007. We just forgot to play the message. For a year. PAC's actually happening in about two weeks, so we figured this was the absolute latest time to actually put this thing into the show. Mara sincerely hopes the con doesn't end up being nothing but sleaze and porn, so it's only natural that we relay that sentiment right before Clarissa reviews one of Modoru Motoni's BL manga offerings. Like Poison Cherry Drive, Dog Style was released by Media Blasters through their Kitty Media label. So far Volume 1 and Volume 2 are out, with the third volume to be released in the future. This review's a little short, so if you want more Clarissa, check out the latest episode of Destroy All Podcasts DX where they reviewed Mobile Suit Gundam: Char's Counterattack. Granted, it should have been Daryl on this one as he's the one who's seen the movie the most times, but Jeremy really wanted a girl on the show. Does that make Jeremy the John McCain of anime podcasting? We're pretty sure the answer is yes.

Review: Burn Up! (1:13:10 - 1:36:05)
Gerald plunges into the depths of the "the world should've forgotten about this" pit to bring us this 1991 OAV that was somehow so popular in the US, we got three followups made to it. And two of those were TV series. In our entire lives, we have never seen anyone who genuinely LIKES Burn Up!, so it is a complete mystery as to how this came about. Pay special attention to the dub of this one, as it was one of the first dubs made by AD Vision, as they were known at the time. Don't worry: we've got sound bites! Due to some level balance mishaps, Clarissa's audio on this portion is much lower than everyone else's, but you should still be able to hear her if you BELIEVE IN THE FUTURE:


Promo: OSMcast (1:36:05 - 1:36:52)
Five months this podcast has been out and they have not one, not two, but THREE serviceable promos? And we've been around what, almost three years now and we still have the one crummy one? CURSE YOU, REED RICHARDS! [shakes fist] At least, we assume he's to blame as this is run by a fantastic four! True to the name, this show's about everything "awesome," and then some. I say "and then some" since they did episodes about Smash Brothers Brawl, Rock Band, and Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles. Also, Indy IV. Still, give them a shot since their show actually comes out each week. Whatta concept!

Review: Cyber City Oedo 808 (1:36:52 - 2:18:36)
Daryl tried to shorten this review. Really, he did. But he didn't have it in him to make this one single segment shorter than your typical entire episode of Fast Karate for the Gentleman, especially not where Yoshiaki Kawajiri is concerned. But unlike all the previous Kawajiri-related AWO segments, this one's not actually a scene-by-scene description of what happens in it. In fact, it might just be Kawajiri's best work, which is why it's odd that hardly anybody ever remembers it. Not even us, until we did the review! That is a damn crime for which we should be locked up in orbital space prison for three centuries, but fortunately we're all out on parole doing podcasts in exchange for reduced time. For every minute of edited podcast we release, we get time off our sentences. Now you know why the episodes run so long!

This is Shunsuke Sengoku. That's a jitte he's holding. I don't remember if you could pick up jitte in the Neo-Geo side-scrolling beat-em-up that was also named Sengoku, where ninja and cowboys fought side by side. I played a lot of Shogun: Total War back in the day, and so I know the word "sengoku" refers to "the country at war" when all those daimyo were fighting over control of Japan. We need a sequel to that game.

This is his gun. You mean to tell me they can make TWO TV shows out of Burn Up!, but nothing for Cyber City Oedo? This is already all the premise one needs!

This is Gabimaru Rikiya, but nobody ever calls him that in the show itself. He's just "Goggles" or "Go-gl" or what have you. In addition to being a cyber hacker, he's also a former boxer. Or at least I assume that since he decides the best way to defeat evil robots is to PUNCH THEM.

Put your peen away: THAT'S A DUDE. Merrill Yanagawa aka Benten does not ride a space motorbike and have a chain wrapped around his chest, but he wields MONOFILAMENT WIRE~! which automatically makes him the best character. On second thought, take your peen back out.
For a cop, you sure don't know much; those are Cyberjunkies! Oh wait, this isn't the Streamline dub of 8 Man After. This is a fine representation of what the cyber criminals look like. Notice the Hokuto no Ken thug motif present throughout this cartoon. Further proof of its quality, I tell you.
Wait a second, is that...Donna Troy?!

Nothing better exhibits Yoshiaki Kawajiri's unmatched talent for character and fashion design than this Brigitte Nielsen lookalike, but giving the Shoryuken to the robot won out for being the embedded image in the MP3.

There is no "witty" caption I can offer to this picture of a cyborg sabertoothed tiger chargin' his laser. Either you instantly want to see this anime or you do not.

Amazon has a few copies of the DVD left in their zShops. If you're wondering why they never wore those uniforms they're sporting on the cover ever again after the first episode, it's because Kawajiri decided they looked stupid after all.

Closing (2:18:36 - 2:22:15)
The next episode of AWO hopefully shouldn't take TOO long since after AWA we're just about done as far as anime con season goes. Gerald's going to be reviewing the Witchblade anime, and despite having bought every volume of this series as FUNimation released it, he was able to mentally block out the Gonzo logo that's on all the packaging and is displayed at the start of each disc. Perhaps he was looking at something else! Daryl's reviewing the 3-part OAV Strait Jacket, soon to be released by Manga Video, and Clarissa's reviewing the highly infectious Moyashimon: Tales of Agriculture, which for incomprehensible reasons has been licensed by absolutely nobody. It's all about bacteria, so see you next "decultured"!

Anime World Order Show # 71 - Depression, Suicide, and Vanilla Ice

The remainder of Show 71 is quite lengthy, but let it tide you over for a while since we've got conventions coming up. Gerald reviews Nobody's Boy Remi, Clarissa reviews the anime version of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and Daryl finally covers Part 3 of Jojo's Bizarre Adventure.

Click Here to Download

Full show notes may take a little while, but in the meantime here's the segment timecodes because this one runs pretty long.

Introduction (0:00 - 28:32)
In lieu of reading emails, Daryl gives his convention report on the 2008 Florida Supercon. Photos to possibly be added here soon, but in the meantime, here's over a thousand for you to look at. Witness THE TRUTH of the convention that Daryl wasn't mentally prepared to confront. One word: W-rock. [That's short for "wizard rock." You know, garage bands that sing songs about Harry Potter. There's LOTS OF THEM NOW.]

Promo: R5 Central (28:32 - 29:15)
The Otakon-bound Mike Dent managed to post an interview with Mark Musashi, tokusatsu fan soon to be seen on Kamen Rider: Dragon Knight. Mike fails to spend the entirety of this 2-part interview talking about the fact that Mark did motion capture for God Hand and Thunderbolt Volgin in Metal Gear Solid 3. He better watch out for errant bolts of lightning from God as punishment. Kuwabara, kuwabara...

Review: Nobody's Boy Remi (29:15 - 56:50)
Gerald takes on this TMS' 1977 attempt to recreate Nippon Animation's success with the World Masterpiece Theater series brought to us by Osamu Dezaki and Akio Sugino. It's an anime adaptation of Hector Malot's novel Sans Famille, and it's so depressing and features sufficient quantities of child suffering that it bears the Official Justin Sevakis Seal of Approval (Tm). Note that this series was remade in the 90s as Nobody's Girl Remi, but we won't talk about that because that one was terrible enough that it got canceled halfway through. In fact, while we're at it let's pretend that recent World Masterpiece Theater production Les Misérables doesn't exist either. Not like we watched that. But we saw a picture of the helpless little moe girl they decided to make it about instead, and figured that was enough.

Promo: Robotronic Dynamite (56:50 - 57:53)
We have yet to play Ninja Gaiden 2 beyond the demo, but word on the street is that we should wait for it to drop to about half price anyway. Anyway, this podcast features Otaku USA's own Joseph Luster and his merry band of merry men as they talk about movies, videogames, and stuff. In the latest episode, they all seem to have gone to the San Diego Comic-Con, so if you can't get enough of people talking about Watchmen this is the show for you. For the record, Watchmen is BO-RING no matter what the rest of the world claims, and don't you fucking tell me I didn't get it or link me to that goddamned annotations site. Nobody in Watchmen matters besides Rorschach anyway. Oh, you can try to claim otherwise, but you'll have to deny the 90s happened on account that everyone wanted their heroes to be like Rorschach (and DKR Batman). Good luck with THAT.

Review: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - Superman Legend (57:53 - 1:33:00)
Clarissa proves once and for all that the Japanese can screw up American properties with equal if not greater efficiency than we can screw up theirs! Whether or not this iteration of the Ninja Turtles is superior to the version that EE "Doc" Finnegan is working on will be judged by history. OR HISTORIANS. Fair warning: Hironobu Kageyama probably will not be performing the theme song to this one as part of his Otakon set. Maybe "review" up there should go in quotation marks, because we really don't want you to watch this. Under any circumstances. So don't watch it.

Review: Jojo's Bizarre Adventure, Part 3 (1:33:00 - 2:17:48)
TJ calls in to let us know that he greatly enjoyed Kaiji upon hearing our review of it, and so can you! Daryl put this one off for a year, but he finally broke down and decided to reread through, rewatch, and replay Part 3 of Jojo's Bizarre Adventure, more commonly known as "the greatest part of Jojo's Bizarre Adventure." This is the big one that all the swingin' cats know about; a tale of Stands, really big belts, and members of the United States Senate being treated with the respect they deserve. The obscene running length would suggest this review should have just been released as its own podcast, but accessibility was never our trump card. Daryl stopped his own heart about 8 times during the editing of this, and his heart is still stopping every so often even though it's done now. Maybe it's just heartburn. He's got a problem, but if you listen to this review in full, yo you'll solve it.

Closing (2:17:48 - 2:23:18)
Show 72 may be a while, so consider yourselves FORTUNATE that Show 71 is as long as it is, because you'll have plenty of time to listen to it all. Preferably not while you're grinding levels in World of Warcraft! Next time, Daryl's back in the Madhouse as he reviews Cyber City Oedo, Clarissa reviews the BL title Dog Style (shockingly, Yasuomi Umetsu is not involved), and Gerald's administering the lead enemas with Burn Up! In the interim we might post a few bonuses since this week and next week we're caught up in anime conventions and preparations for same. See you at Otakon!

Anime World Order Show # 66 - We Couldn't Delay This Evil Any Further

After over a month of no new episodes, this show--recorded a month ago--is now out. Nothing but absolute evil is contained within as Daryl reviews MW by Vertical Inc (featuring nonstop depictions of evil), Gerald reviews Dangaioh (the dub of which is truly evil), and Clarissa reviews the most evil of them all: Potemayo (a moe show). Also, we finally remembered to do another first impressions bit! This time it's Blood+.

Click Here to Download


Why was this show so delayed? Three words: No More Heroes. Three more words: Replaying God Hand. Anyone who's thinking of racing to be the first to leave a comment just so they can have the first comment should think twice because it's always really obvious that's what you're doing! [EDIT: Guess Jeremy didn't think twice after all, FAYGO]

Otaku USA Issue 5 is out, featuring Daryl's article on Golgo 13 and Clarissa's article on Tengen Toppa Gurren-Lagann! Please buy it! Also, we got mentioned in the Japanese magazine ASCII in the same manner by which we got to write articles in Otaku USA:

F. Murray Abraham's anguished face: forever immortalized.
Introduction (0:00 - 25:55)
It turns out that we were recording this episode on thValentine's Day. To true otaku, there's nothing that differentiates Valentine's Day from any other day. When ANN's Hey, Answerman! column goes on hiatus, the emails about "how do I get Japan to make my idea for an anime into a show?" come to us instead! Has the connection between pornographic doujinshi and otaku popularity been erm, exposed? No need to find out for yourself, cause WE have all the answers as always!

Let's News! (25:55 - 55:39)
Some blog written by some yabbo that's not read by anyone except when we make him a SOOPASTAH illustrates that TV Tokyo just might be getting a little too overzealous with what it's deleting off of Youtube (the act of deleting Naruto fansubs alone pretty much makes them the number one source of sending copyright notices to Youtube). Here's the article Clarissa was referencing. On an undoubtedly related note, anime sales are down ANOTHER 20% from the year prior (when they were down 20% there too). The top selling titles list is pretty much the same as it was last year. Finally, someone more beloved than us that draws crap points out that at a small Texas convention someone tried to kidnap a teenage girl. But who are we kidding with those other links? We stole this one from Dave Merrill's Livejournal. The sidebar wasn't lying when it said it was DANGEROUS, MOST DANGEROUS. We then get a voicemail that is the audio equivalent of what is still one of the finest image macros of all time. But I don't actually have the Menacer-created macro on this computer.

Promo: R5 Central (55:39 - 56:04)
Mike Dent's one-man laser sound effects saga has hit fifty episodes, and to celebrate he's got special appearances by the Ninja Consultants and--more importantly--by Daryl. Listen to this one! Now you can actually hear what he's saying! Most of the time.

Review (manga): MW (56:04 - 1:26:00)
Daryl finally reviews something again! This time it's the latest Osamu Tezuka title released by Vertical Inc since Gerald reviewed Ode to Kirihito as well as Apollo's Song. Time to start balancing the scales, dangit! This review will rape you until you love it, then murder you JUST BECAUSE. Plus, a dangerously powerful voicemail regarding not just Maple Town (despite having never watched the show, Daryl still remembers the tagline and the melody to this from when he was 3) but also Pigeon Blood (Google it your God-damned self, clown).

Review: Hyper Combat Unit Dangaioh (1:26:00 - 1:43:21)
Gerald was offended to his core when slanderous things were spoken by slanderers about this cartoon and has decided to forego karmic retribution and get his justice WITH satisfaction. But is it really slander if it's all true? If this is justice...

Review - Potemayo (1:43:21 - 1:58:58)
Corbin from Colorado needs to know better than to ask rhetorical questions. Clarissa wanted us to all become possessed by the Warp's most treacherous of spawn, but the God-Emperor Koike guides Daryl's bolter true. Still, the Emperor's protection is not absolute. Each individual brother within the Adeptus Gekigartes must be strong on his own accord. Is Chaos beginning to take hold of the AWO? Will an Exterminatus be deemed necessary? If so, the only thing that will be written on the order will be to Destroy All Podcasts:

Why does Clarissa have stubble in this picture? Oh wait, that's supposed to be Jeremy. OR IS IT?

Promo - Lather's Blather (1:57:58 - 1:59:05)
Now that it's officially too damn cold to breed Kokuohs, Jeff Tatarek has resumed his podcasting obligations to society! Be sure to also catch him on the latest episode of the Greatest Movie EVER! podcast. I hear tell the next episode of that will feature some seriously sexy voices indeed.

Closing (1:59:05 - 2:08:04)
Daryl offers up his initial impressions of Blood+. The content may not be the greatest, but the release itself is something that other anime publishers would do well to take notice of. Here's hoping this release tactic catches on. Perhaps then we'll finally get the rest of Cyborg 009! REMEMBER THAT ONE, SONY?! WHERE'S THE REST OF OUR UNCUT CYBORG 009 HUH? Edit: Dan in the comments reminds us of all the talk going on at AnimeOnDVD and the like regarding Blood+ being dubtitled. This wasn't mentioned during the capsule review, so do take note of it.

Anyway, we've been doing other podcast appearances in lieu of editing our own. In addition to Daryl's already-mentioned appearances on Snacktime Online and Greatest Movie EVER!, Clarissa was a guest host on Destroy All Podcasts DX talking about the Twilight Q OAVs. Gerald will also be a guest host soon on DAPDX to talk about Detonator Orgun, so now that all three of us have been on another podcast, we can only assume that podcast will be destroyed or otherwise cease to exist. Surely other podcasts couldn't contain all three of US, right?

Next time on AWO, Clarissa's reviewing the much-requested School Rumble, Gerald's doing Detonator Orgun just like he's doing on DAPDX, and Daryl's reviewing the also very much requested Satoshi Kon film, Paprika. He initially was taking a pass on this one because "everyone's seen this or knows about it already," but that is apparently not the case. Included at the end is a special unedited bonus that will illustrate for you why it takes us a month to edit these shows.

Anime World Order Show # 62 - Playing Catch-Up Before Videogames Ruin Us All

It's catch-up week for all of us. Daryl's going back and reviewing the remainder of To Terra and Gerald's reviewing the rest of Hakugei and Vol 1 of Xenosaga. Clarissa's belated AWA report was split into a separate bonus file that we uploaded prior to this.

Click Here to Download

Show notes in a bit. Actually putting in the pictures and links that we said we would? That will probably take longer.

Introduction (0:00 - 38:08)
The audio for this segment is probably a bit lower than usual, but oh well. In the emails, we follow up on what's going on with Singapore and the Odex situation (of course, since we're so out of date, matters have further developed still). We also receive admonishment that there's a fine line between self-deprecation and self-loathing, and hear about what anime fandom in Scotland is like. A question regarding our thoughts on Buddha and Hellsing Ultimate leads into a discussion on attention spans and how the storytelling pace of longer anime series versus shorter ones is affecting fan opinions. The catching up begins as we weigh in on the Anime Bento theatrical anime showings from several months ago, and we wrap things up with a poem courtesy of Patrick from the Podcast Ping podcast entitled "What's with the Moe?" On the subject of catching up, episode 8 of Lather's Blather is out after months of waiting. Do be sure to listen to Jeff's Robot Carnival review, since Daryl totally forgot to say a single thing about the still images in the end credits that sort of explain where the Robot Carnival came from.

The record will show that if we were all about monetizing AWO and growing it into a media juggernaut, this intro segment would have been an entire podcast episode on its own.

Promo: Just Push Play (38:08 - 38:37)
The professionally-produced promo should clue you in: Just Push Play is a podcast made by people who are professional radio folks that know more about radio and podcasting stuff than we ever will. It's about all the things Daryl wastes his life involved with: videogames, anime, movies, comicbooks, conventions, TV shows, and even pro wrestling and MMA! We marvel at their masterful usage of magical Internet technology, what with their forums and chat rooms and Myspace/Facebook/Livejournal communities. When AWO first started, these were among the first folks we asked to listen to us and give us pointers.

The record will show that we acted upon none of their advice, even though all of it was excellent.

Review: To Terra Volumes 2 and 3 (38:37 - 59:52)
When this was recorded, Daryl had been awake for about five minutes prior. Nevertheless, he soldiered on bluely to cover all the things he wasn't able to say back in Show 51. Could there really be any worthwhile content presented here that wasn't already done? IT IS AN ENIGMA.

DOO DOO DOO DOO!

Review: Hakugei Legend of Moby Dick (59:52 - 1:16:51)
Gerald finally manages to finish watching this series which he started watching nearly two years ago for his review back in Show # 4. Having watched it all and had this much time to think matters over, he gives his final thoughts on this sci-fi retelling of Herman Melville's book that, while boring, is still not as brutal as Billy Budd. And Billy Budd was only like, 75 pages long.

Cavemantom actually sent us that voice mail forever ago, and most of it was to complain about the one time we ran a fan-submitted review, so we trimmed out that stuff and just left in the sycophantic bits that we crave so much.

Closing (1:16:51 - 1:21:27)
For our penultimate bit of catching up, we offer up Gerald's initial impressions of Xenosaga: The Animation based on Volume 1. It's not a full-on review, but we've got to do something to justify all this stuff people keep sending us that we aren't reviewing! As for next week? You want to know what's coming up next week (provided it gets edited in time)? We're not Nicolas Cage in Next, but if we're anything, we're Mr T circa Rocky III. And our prediction? PAIN. After nearly two years of restraint and sporadic outbursts, the Anime That Sucks floodgates have been opened! Daryl's hitting you right between the eyes with Dog Soldier: Shadows of the Past, YOU DON'T DESERVE TO HEAR Gerald's review of Machine Robo: Revenge of Chronos, and Clarissa has something so deadly that--much like MD Geist--it can't actually BE reviewed, merely summarized. Fine, so Dog Soldier is also like that, but she's delivering God's message by means of the Crystal Triangle. Normally, any one of these titles would make for a crown jewel centerpiece to cap off an episode, but with so much power amassed in one place, we've enlisted the help of a special guest, Totally Lame Anime's keymaster and gatekeeper Neil Nadelman.

But don't get TOO excited. We didn't make a single joke about the posse. "Neil's posse is so big they walk in twos; they're gettin' dirty looks from those other sucker crews" --Carl "Rollin' with Nadelman" Horn.

Anime World Order Show # 60b - Osamu Tezuka, God of Manga and Morality Plays

Digg Podcasts is apparently too dumb to create new items for feed entries that don't have unique URLs associated with them, and since there's over 75 comments in the previous post, we may as well start a new one for what's technically the same show only not. This is Part 2 of our 60th show and Osamu Tezuka spotlight, containing Gerald's news segment as well as his review of Vertical Inc's release of the manga Apollo's Song.

Click Here to Download Part 2 - Let's News! and Apollo's Song


Let's News! (0:00 - 36:09)
People in Singapore aren't exactly happy about all this Odex stuff and are willing to break the law by exercising their non-right to assemble in public to convey their sentiment. As far as being particularly old news even by our standards, DMP is now including the Japanese publisher logos on the front covers of their books, and Genshiken Season 2 has begun in Japan. Pity that Japanese otaku care more about Kujibiki Unbalance, but that's no doubt due to the fact that Genshiken lost its edge once everyone started having sex with each other. I guess that's what happens when you follow the path of Jojo's Bizarre Adventure author and Purple Rain enthusiast Hirohiko Araki, who drew the cover to a American scientific journal.

None of that is related to Osamu Tezuka, which is what we should be talking about. However, Tezuka Productions is working on color adaptations of Osamu Tezuka's manga. This is an undertaking on the level of digitally remastering and restoring the entire Shaw Brothers film library. For further proof of how far behind the times we are, Daryl reminds everyone of the true definition of moe (bottom of page), since that is what otaku opt to experience instead of love lest they run the risk of their lives ending up like Apollo's Song. The rest of the news centers on the Geneon situation, and by that we mean "it's us saying 'we don't know!' for 20 minutes. That everybody got on Daryl's case for mispronouncing Barefoot Gen but nobody cares about how Geneon is pronounced is no doubt indicative of the real cause behind all this mayhem.

Promo: R5 Central (36:09 - 37:10)
Mike Dent, a man so ashamed of his Xbox Live Gamertag that he doesn't want anyone to know what it is until he can cough up the $10 or however much it costs to get it changed, has realized that the genius of nominating one's own self for an award is that you can go around and state that you're award-nominated! Man. Why didn't we think of that?

Review: Apollo's Song (manga) (37:10 - 54:38)
We put that Amazon link in here three times in a feeble attempt to stave off getting emails asking where one can purchase this. In any case, Gerald reviews this publication from Vertical Inc since we figure that with all the stuff they send us, the least we could do is actually read the entire things and discuss them at length. Though given what we discussed in the news segment, perhaps companies prefer to get buzz about releases within a week of the thing actually coming out. Too bad! Daryl should probably get a review of Andromeda Stories Volume 1 up, and now that the new Toward the Terra TV series is over, he can probably talk Volumes 2 and 3 of To Terra as well. Here's the link to the blog post on Apollo's Song Daryl mentioned. Curse Jog for getting his in-depth reviews out so shortly after release!

Part 3 of this will be edited and posted...eventually?

Anime World Order Show # 59 - This is Why All the Robots Cry

Is time and space broken, or have the cartoons driven us crazy? Daryl's reviewing the historic anime anthology Robot Carnival, Gerald talks about the historical business manga Project X: Cup Noodle, and Clarissa makes AWO history by talking about When They Cry: Higurashi.

Longest podcast blog post ever? Possibly. This episode ran long, so we split it in two.

Click Here to Download Part 1 - Intro and News


Click Here to Download Part 2 - Reviews


Timecodes for Part 1 are as follows:

Introduction (0:00 - 38:22)
In a bit of a departure from our typical scope, Gerald was sent a copy of the live-action independent film Big Dreams, Little Tokyo to check out. Somehow we ended up talking a lot about Lost in Translation instead, though Daryl was far more inclined to turn the discourse towards Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai, despite the fact that Ghost Dog was in fact hiding under the SINK, not the toilet as he stated. This is the price we pay for not owning our own copies of Branded to Kill. Is there a quotable sound bite that can be salvaged from this and put up in their Reviews and Links page? PERHAPS.

13:45 - Daryl relates his experience with attending Dragon*Con, its podcasting track, and the Parsec Awards. Considering that the sample nomination Daryl submitted consisted primarily of his scene for scene description of MD Geist, actually winning this award was not really the stated objective of attending this convention. What was? Contrary to what that song from Cheers said, sometimes you want to go where NOBODY knows your name. After being in the vicinity of the gods of podcasting--who are all quite normal, down-to-earth folks despite their penchant for filking--it's probably safe to say that we won't be making any waves in the "podcastosphere" anytime soon since "nobody in their right mind would listen to a podcast that's several hours long and released every week/every other week." Fortunately for us, otaku are the opposite of people in their right mind!

18:47 - Oh yeah, reading emails and playing voicemails! Remember that? We talk about the Trials and Tribulation / Heartache and Frustration involved in becoming an anime translator, then Erin from the Ninja Consultant podcast calls in to talk about the finer points of theatrical film distribution, which prompts a mention of the Anime Bento Festival's one day theatrical showings of anime. Want to see more anime released in movie theaters? Having these succeed would be a good start. In the "what do we think about..." category of emails which constitutes a good deal of the emails we get, we're asked our thoughts on Ninja Nonsense aka 2x2 Shinobuden.

We wrap things up by stating that we're going to move away from doing full reviews of titles which we haven't seen in their entirety, so from now on when we get Volume 1 of something, we'll just talk about it briefly for a few minutes either at the beginning or ending of the show. Otherwise, we'll never get through all this stuff! Also, in case you haven't heard, the iTunes Music Store has put up for sale a variety of series by Tezuka Productions, such as the 1980s Astro Boy, the 1990s Black Jack OAVs, and the 2004 Phoenix TV series that is set to be released by Media Blasters soon. Best of all, they're really cheap!

Let's News! (38:22 - 1:23:03)
Some more details and clarifications have surfaced since we recorded this, but the main news is that ADV is taking over all of Geneon's sales, marketing, and distribution. A lot of what we said in the show isn't entirely spot-on since the original ICv2 article as well as ANN were down at the time of recording, but it's still true that a substantial amount of Geneon has ceased to be. They're presumably still going to be around as far as licensing and production goes, but this feels a lot like when EA acquired Origin Systems. To this day, Daryl continues to bear a grudge towards them (and the entire MMO genre) for the cancellation of Privateer 3 and the two Wing Commander titles that should've come out after Wing Commander: Prophecy. In another cost-cutting measure, even English dubbing is being outsourced/relocated to China and there's only one anime series remaining that is still using cel animation. Can all of these acquisitions and cost-cutting measures really be good in the long run? We're skeptical. Also, Odex has been trying to extract money from people who download anime in Singapore; here is a short summary. Here is a posting about a guy who can't even import Region 2 DVDs to Singapore without them being confiscated by MDA. To see the exact letter that's being sent along with the rest of the links, click here. That thread may not be viewable to the public due to being archived or whatever soon, though.

Promo: Soccergirl, Inc (1:23:03 - 1:23:50)
Daryl found out about this show because Ichigo from Anime-Pulse is a fan of it, but he never could make sense out of it. After meeting her at DragonCon at 2:00 AM on Saturday and getting a Kim Jong-Il bumper sticker, he can only conclude that the widespread success of this program is that it is, in fact, a high-concept cult of personality. Also, filking. The possibility of shooting her with a clown pistol was considered, but the comedy of that is completely invalidated if you shoot a total stranger. That would just get you beaten up by large, imposing filking machines, the Browncoats, and an army of Beta Clones. Did we mention she won the Joe Murphy Memorial Award? As otaku we're fated to die young as Joe did, only there won't be anyone to mourn our deaths since being a self-proclaimed Expert of Anime is a lot like being an Expert of Justice.

...wait, they wanted us to put those Parsec badge images they sent us on our website? Daryl thought you were supposed to print it out and put it on his physical DragonCon badge. Oops!

Timecodes for Part 2:

Review: Robot Carnival (4:04 - 49:30)
This was the very first thing Justin Sevakis wrote about for his Buried Treasure column at ANN, so Daryl was outclassed from the start, not even bothering to state the original Japanese titles. This movie has largely been discussed to death over the last twenty years and we have little that is original or insightful to add (here's a fanzine article from 1991), but all Daryl ever does is steal other people's ideas and present them as his own anyway.

Promo: Anime Pacific (49:30 - 50:30)
See how this promo is just an excerpt from their show of them talking about something silly (although in this case, unrelated to what the show itself is about)? That's the kind of promos we need. Lots of. Except we're too lazy to ever actually listen to our own show. That's where YOU come in!

Review: Project X: Nissin Cup Noodle (50:30 - 1:04:03)
Not to be confused with Cup Nude (probably not work safe), this is a true story of personal prevalance and triumph...except when it comes to people in America actually BUYING this thing. Gerald reviews one of the few business manga to be released in English (along with the manga about the history of 7-11 and the one about the Datsun Fairlady Z), but for whatever reason, the average US manga reader is simply not interested in manga about how to shift consumer habits. This one's a historical biography of Momofuku Andou released by DMP. Daryl really, really wants the manga DMP released where ASTRO BOY IS IN THE DIARY OF ANNE FRANK, but he has never been able to physically see it. Fortunately, Amazon has it. Also, Astro Boy tells the biography of Helen Keller. And Beethoven. And Einstein, which is not on Amazon. Someday when we have money again, these are all getting bought.

Promo: Dave and Joel's Fast Karate For the Gentleman (1:04:03 - 1:05:07)
See these guys? Their listeners love these guys. Make them promos all the time. And fanart and stuff. Probably because unlike us, the people they personally know listen to their podcast. And that picture of Gerald up above? Yeah, they made that too and never sent it to us until recently. We should get more of this stuff (and remember to actually post it), unless the secret to engaging such levels of fan interaction requires having forums.

Review: When They Cry: Higurashi (1:05:07 - 1:23:50)
Clarissa submits to repeated listener requests to review this series. It's moe horror, which is generally a redundant term only this one has graphic violence. Nothing makes otaku want to protect the cute girls (and buy the full set of dakimakura) more than seeing them make crazy, deranged, contorted faces and murder each other over and over again. BAD END after BAD END results, though not all of them involve angrily severing your penis with a pair of scissors. We lost that picture but don't really feel like asking for it in /r/ since it would require monitoring 4chan for an extended period of time. That place moves too fast to keep up.

You have nothing to fear about this podcast becoming overrun by the immortal enemy that is moe just because we talked about Higurashi...OR DO YOU?
Oh snap! Time to restore the balance, Gerald style!
Closing (1:23:50 - 1:29:05)
For our next trick and the coveted Show 60 milestone, we're talking entirely about Osamu Tezuka. DEAL WITH IT. Daryl will be talking about (can't even really call it a review) Astro Boy, specifically the three anime incarnations of the "Birth of Astro Boy" storyline as taken from the 60s version of Astro Boy, the 80s version, and the 2003 one. Gerald will review Vertical Inc's latest Tezuka offering Apollo's Song, and--prompted by the iTunes Music Store releases--Clarissa faces her fears and reviews the Black Jack OAVs/movie from the 1990s that Osamu Dezaki and Akio Sugino worked on.

We've already recorded Show 60. You thought THIS episode ran long...

Anime World Order Show # 55 - Master Shake Demanded This Episode Be Three Hours Long

After over a month of no new recordings, we have returned, but our attempt to resume normal releases hit some roadblocks. This week, Daryl's finally talking about the Sanrio film Sea Prince and the Fire Child, Gerald discusses the Gainax television series Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water, and Clarissa goes nuts over MPD Psycho.

The total length of this episode ended up being a little over THREE, not four, hours. We have therefore split everything up into two files that are in fact NOT of equal length: one file containing the news and the Nadia review, and the other file containing everything else.

Click Here to Download - The main portion of the show


Click Here to Download - Let's News! and Nadia Review


Due to a power outage, the project for unknown parts of the first portion of the show got corrupted. It is very likely that there may be sections of obviously missing dialogue, or that at some point, the dialogue between Daryl and everyone else will shift out of phase.

Supplemental links will come later since this all got "finished" around 3:45 AM and I got about three hours of sleep. In the meantime, marvel at the wonders of this picture:

The following timecodes are for everything other than the news segment, which is devoted almost entirely to Anime Expo discussion, and the Nadia review.

Introduction (0:00 - 23:51)
Daryl has finished moving into his new home and has set up his computer in a large tiled room, thus giving him a constant echo for the foreseeable future from this point on until he stops being lazy and moves his computer into one of the rooms with carpet. We start things off by concluding our 009-1 Volume 1 contest (the winner has actually already responded and received their prize) and beginning a newer contest that is probably going to be semi-ongoing. Listen for the details! As far as emails go, Daryl is enlightened about the secret connection between Shojo Beat and Kazuo Koike, plus we brainstorm for titles of a very important anime genre, that of "things containing frowny-faced men with big eyebrows." We neglected to mention very many frowny faced women with big bushy eyebrows, but we'll blame Clarissa for forgetting about Dorothy Catalonia. Also, Gerald is officially on THE LIST for disliking Fullmetal Alchemist. Finally, just like how junk mail saved Kevin McDonald's life, the AWO saves lives as well!

Promo: Destroy All Podcasts DX (23:51 - 24:37)
Even though Jeremy is a dirty, dirty film school graduate (and as such harbors many wrong opinions because opinions can in fact be objectively wrong if they're contrary to our opinions) who gets mad tail yet still claims to be a nerd, we are willing to forgive his repeated transgressions. For you see, now that Daryl suggested he try using a basic diplo-sniper build, he is finally playing the original Fallout. Granted, he is doing the "cheap" evil route of just killing most everyone he encounters because he didn't know how to access the Pip-Boy or his character stats and was somehow unaware that he needed to be searching for a water chip since he's too used to the current age of videogames and their in-game tutorials that exist in lieu of reading the instruction manual, but one of these days he'll come around.

Review: Sea Prince and the Fire Child aka Sirius no Densetsu (24:37 - 53:58)

o/~ I'm so in love with you / I want to wad you up into my life / Let's roll up to be / A single star in the sky o/~

Fine, so it's not really like Katamari Damacy at all. Still, the B.O.T. level here is something indeed.

Daryl reviews this classic feature film from Sanrio, the dub of which is long out of print. Bootleg copies can be had on eBay for about $15-$20, but just download the dual audio DVD rip for free. Sanrio doesn't seem to be wanting to release this one on DVD in the US anyway, so this is the ONLY way that people in America can see this film in English without giving money to bootleggers. I guess now that this and Ringing Bell are out of the way, all that remains is Unico...

UPDATE: It turns out that there is a dual audio Region 2 DVD rip of the movie with English subtitles. The torrent link I used has been changed to reflect this new link.

Promo: Happy House of Hentai (53:58 - 54:20)
What better way to cap off a Sanrio discussion than by endorsing podcasts containing "Hello Kitty"? To be more accurate, this show should probably be renamed "Lord Kaos Gives Medical Advice Even Though He Is Not a Doctor," but that's far too long a URL to type.

Review: MPD Psycho Volume 1 (54:20 - 1:07:57)
Clarissa reviews this manga from the wonderful mind that brought us The Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service. This is a violence epic about people with multiple personalities possibly performing serialized killings upon other serial killers a la Dexter. Only this was made first. Right about now is when people are probably going to be experiencing Death Note withdrawal, so perhaps this can be your new fix.

Promo: Anime Pulse (1:07:57 - 1:08:28)
Daryl would pester Ichigo and company far more if they enabled user comments on their posts, since he's trying not to register for any more forums if he can help it. Dear anime podcasters: don't you WANT Daryl to comment on your episodes? Then please enable comments on your blog posts that don't require registration. You probably want to throw in a word verification to avoid getting spammed into oblivion, as Dave and Joel have now realized.

Closing (1:08:28 - 1:15:29)
For the next few weeks, we are going to be BRINGING THE PAIN down on you suckers. Gerald's closing out his Megazone 23 reviews by tackling Megazone 23 The Third (or as the Japanese say it, "Megazone 23 The Saddle"), Clarissa prescribes a cure for insomnia by reviewing Birth (as well as the Streamline dub of the same OAV entitled Planet Busters!), and Daryl in the face of this onslaught has opted to cut everyone a break and throw you guys a bone (or rather, a stick) by reviewing Demon City Shinjuku.

This is going to get worse before it gets better, and we might need to bring Neil Nadelman in soon to get in on this. Here's timecodes for the second half.

Let's News! (0:00 - 1:08:19)
We spend pretty much all of this time talking about the various developments that emerged from Anime Expo 2007. The Anime News Network con report is pretty much all you need as far as links go.

Promo: Otaku USA Magazine (1:08:19 - 1:10:11)
Mike Dent from R5 Central throws down this shockingly audible endorsement of a magazine headed up by TV's Patrick Macias with anime (and soon, some manga) reviews by us crazy yokels. If you think Daryl and Clarissa are lazy as far as getting this podcast released, you should see us when we're trying to come up with ideas for anime reviews!

Review: Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water (1:10:11 - 1:58:56)
Gerald takes a very long time (over 45 minutes) to talk about what is probably the most uneven show, in terms of quality, to ever come out of anime. The only anime out there to feature FRENCH PEOPLE, Miyazaki, getting high on mushroom, planting another sun in the sky, the KKK, and the most selfish bitch anime has ever created. HOWEVER, she was fighting for second place (with Belldandy of all people) as the greatest female character of all time for a good part of the 90's. Witness how we talk so long about the show and focus on the Island Episodes so much that there's no way anyone listening would want to watch this show!