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.

Bonus - Anime Weekend Atlanta 2008 Con Report

Even though the convention was back in September, here's our con report for Anime Weekend Atlanta 2008.

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Show 75 is recorded and will hopefully be posted soon, but there may be one more convention report bonus edition posted first. Three bonus recordings in a row? Man, we are lazy. Heck, one of them we didn't even edit! We'll upload some important pictures from the con here at some point. For now, feast your eyes upon this glorious slideshow (click any picture in the slideshow to get a full sized version):



And here's Gerald's version of the events including the fateful headlock with Rob Fenelon:


You will notice embedded in the show MP3 as well as within the slideshow above is a grandiose method of transport. What fiendish practitioners of kung fu treachery could be responsible for such a thing, you ask? This video has the answers:


This would have been funnier if the people in the outfits weren't so keen on wandering into large events and then leaving in a manner that illustrated they didn't actually care about what was going on in the room. They did spend most of their time in the halls, though. McCain's campaign headquarters was a few minutes away, but they were closed! HOW ARE YOU SUPPOSED TO CONVINCE INUYASHA TO VOTE MCCAIN IF YOUR "VICTORY CENTER" IS CLOSED ON WEEKENDS?! No wonder he lost.

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 # 73 - Never Suck a Dead Bird's Bootyhole

This episode probably sets some sort of AWO record for going off-topic, so if you find yourself wondering "when are they going to actually talk about anime" then you are encouraged to consult the timecodes. Gerald reviews Witchblade (which he repeatedly paid money to own), Daryl reviews Strait Jacket (probably the newest thing he's ever done), and Clarissa reviews Moyashimon.

Click Here to Download


And since we forgot to throw the links in last time, Daryl was a guest on Destroy All Podcasts DX and talked about Macross Frontier. The conversation took a while, so it was split into two parts entitled Side A and Side B. Daryl was also on the Greatest Movie EVER! podcast yet again, this time to talk about Doomsday.

Intro (0:00 - 32:45)
Since every single anime podcast out there talks a whole lot about videogames, we thought we'd give it a shot ourselves for a few minutes. But as it turns out, none of us are actually PLAYING anything despite owning decades worth of console/PC games, right up to the present. Email-wise, we talk about the scarcity of the Imaginasian DVDs, Helen McCarthy reports on how her Osamu Tezuka exhibit turned out, and a Japanese listener offers us some additional clarification regarding our earlier comments made during the review of The Girl Who Leapt Through Time by directing us to a Japanese language interview with the director, Mamoru Hosoda. We also plug our appearances at SITACon (which at the time of writing is happening RIGHT NOW) as well as EXPCon (the panel creation for which begins immediately now that this podcast is out, and then Otaku USA deadlines are immediately after THAT).

Let's News! (32:45 - 1:12:09)
Cartoon Network has bid farewell to the Toonami block after all these years, which puts us on a quite lengthy tangent regarding the television industry, advertising, and our disdain for same. Not that we didn't already know it, but Vertical's manga sales for non-Tezuka works aren't exactly setting the world on fire. Additionally, some of the old Bandai Visual titles that were scheduled to be released at absolutely outrageous prices are now slated for releases with somewhat less outrageous prices, and the Moyashimon manga has been licensed.

Promo: Rocket Punch! The Podcast (1:12:09 - 1:13:22)
Rocket Punch! is a podcast about videogames and cartoons, and some of those cartoons are anime! What is also just for the record: Inspector Gadget's no robot. Inspector Gadget is a cyborg.

Review: MILFBlade Witchblade (1:13:22 - 1:37:25)
Now for a Gonzo show that, like every single other Gonzo show ever made, completely changes its focus a few episodes in. Gerald takes a look at a show for which the best thing he can say about it is that "he didn't dislike it for the reasons he thought he would." In a revolutionary move, Gerald ends up disliking the show for completely DIFFERENT reasons then what he thought originally. But we know why you're here: screen caps!

Hey boys and girls, what does this scene from the opening of Witchblade remind you of? Think hard...
The requisite "butt blood" shot, so often seen in anime. Remember this is still the opening sequence, so this show knows how to hold an audience.

This is roughly 10 seconds into the first episode. Usually the red cord has a very specific meaning in Japan. Here I'm pretty sure is NO exception.
That's David Riley-level ass there!
Amaha has got junk pretty much in the hood AND the trunk. Erm, MASANE Amaha to be specific.
Here's the pervert machine that is the predominant enemy in the first part of the show, complete with...
...pumping pistons, which are completely NOT sexual.
It's hard to see in this screencap, but I promise you there's a robot dick about to meet its end.
Theeeeere we go!
And here is where we finally see what we were paying for, at least for the first disc.
And that very important highlighting. Makes me wonder if any animators got in trouble for not putting ENOUGH highlighting in?
I PROMISE you that is NOT pubic hair on her crotch...I think.
And I PROMISE you that is, umm, robot blood? Eh, whatever...
Actually, at this point, you can think it's whatever you want! Also note the very slutty tongue piercing. Don't lie, they have only ONE use!

Promo: Anime HACK (1:37:25 - 1:37:50)
Jason Michael is a man with two first names that was a cool bro for attending at least one of our Saturday night panels at AWA, and since he emailed us his promo, we are now playing it! They are a podcast that for over a year has reviewed titles such as Rozen Maiden, Love Hina, and other detestable titles so we don't have to! Actually, they're not all detestable. If Jason's reading this, two bits of advice: one, don't have your embedded Pickle Players auto-load the MP3s, because when you have multiple podcast posts per page it ends up downloading like 5 files at once thus slowing down the connection of anyone who checks the site. Two, when you mix in music, turn the volume WAY DOWN.

Promo: Pop Rocks and Soda (1:37:50 - 1:39:30)
That is RIGHT. Two promos one after the other (due to errant pasting). This is quite obviously done in one take with little to no script, but with the US presidential election mere days away, we thought it best to do everything in our power to encourage other podcasts to create attack ads against us which we will then run ON THIS VERY PODCAST. This was actually sent to us six months ago, but instead of sending an MP3 they sent us a Garage Band project. All of us use Windows! If you're not entirely sure what this podcast is about based on the promo, here is their Myspace page.

Review: Strait Jacket (1:39:30 - 2:03:50)
For once in his life, Daryl reviews a title that just came out. Strait Jacket is the latest "short OAV edited together to form a movie" from Manga Video, which is quite the miracle considering that it's 2008 and OAVs are hardly made any more. Everything about this feels like a typical 90s OAV production, which in this day and age is like an oasis in the desert. This will be airing on the Sci-Fi Channel this month as part of their Ani-Monday programming block. Its running time is 75 minutes, and while we'd like to hope that means it'd air in a 90 minute block after commercials, based on what we just said in the news segment we wouldn't be surprised if they ran 45 minutes of commercials in there.

Promo: Spiraken Manga Review (2:03:50 - 2:04:33)
Ed Chavez better watch his back because he's not the only manga-centric podcast on the block no mo'! May-san and Xan (what about Xzar? Either his voice is ambrosia or he's the alpha and omega) get bonus points from us for immersing themselves into just manga rather than manga plus anime [plus videogames] or what have you. However, those bonus points are REVOKED due to the fact that they reviewed Chibi Vampire AND Rosario+Vampire. So the only bonus points they get to keep are the ones they got for saying we are awesome.

Review: Moyashimon: Tales of Agriculture (2:04:33 - 2:24:20)
As the voicemails for this episode demonstrate, we're all a bunch of egotists. Clarissa reviews the entirely too short TV series Moyashimon, which is about going to agricultural college and getting so constantly shitfaced that you can perpetually see bizarre giant yet cute versions of bacteria all around you. Judging from Florida A&M attendees, this is a perfectly accurate portrayal of agricultural college life. The anime has yet to be licensed, but the manga release is impending thanks to Del Rey. Watch and learn all about the joys of fermentation!

The many microbes of Moyashimon. Aspergillus Oryzae, Japan's national micro-organism, is the little yellow guy front and center.

Behold, the joys of kiviak.

Closing (2:24:20 - 2:28:55)
It was not until WARP Anime's PAC report that it dawned on us that Christian is in fact the chair of PAC. We figured Mara was in charge of everything, just like how she's in charge of everything else BA-DA-BING! Next time on AWO, we're taking Spiraken's words to heart and reviewing only manga titles. Gerald is reviewing the Vertical release of Osamu Tezuka's Dororo, Daryl is reviewing the greatest otaku tale ever told aka Ressentiment, and Clarissa's shooting you up with Part 4 of Jojo's Bizarre Adventure.

Bonus - Interview with the "Old Farts" of Anime, Otakon 2008

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!

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From left to right: Sidney, Kevin, Bill, and Jim.

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?

(please note: Rowena the AL-IEN PRINCESS is not to be confused with Ruruna, the DA-TA-BASE PRINCESS)

Anime World Order Show # 70 - The Unassailable Might of Money

Caught up by Royalton Motors-level greed brought on by the war economy and the stardom promised by Irving K. Muscleman from Hollywoodland USA, this episode is all about the pursuit--and parting--of cash. Clarissa reviews the Black Jack TV series, Gerald opines on Tekkon Kinkreet, and Daryl gambles it all away on Kaiji.

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Show notes to be posted later today. Note: even though it is exceedingly common knowledge everywhere else the show is discussed, anyone who spoils THE GAME in Kaiji is getting their comment deleted.

Introduction (0:00 - 40:16)
Remember last episode when we said how vulnerable we were to spending large sums of money when crazy sales happen? We start things off by talking about the financial peril we've placed ourselves in as a result of Right Stuf's latest Geneon clearance and Deep Discount's 20% off sale. Daryl's still short one or two Dragon Dynasty Shaw Brothers releases, but to be honest he never cared that much for King Boxer/Five Fingers of Death anyway. The next Deep Discount sale is around November, but you may want to get your preorders in for GaoGaiGar Premium Box 2 before then since even though it'd be totally sweet to get that for under $19 they probably won't print up very many. Being dedicated and serious journalists, we take this time to read an email from an associate of a known sexual tee-ranosaurus to SET THE RECORD STRAIGHT before giving our thoughts on JACON 2008, which was in a new hotel and location this year. As these pictures clearly demonstrate, the hotel wasn't exactly the greatest.

Let's News! (40:16 - 1:10:30)
Tomohiro Kato's otaku expiration date came up five years early, and rather than just commit suicide like all true otaku, he opted to murder a bunch of people in Akihabara. Whether this will help accelerate the future world as seen in Chapter one of Ressentiment remains to be seen, but in true Hudsucker Proxy fashion, Tsutomu Miyazaki has made way for him to inherit the moniker of "otaku killer." Funimation licensed Ookiku Furikabutte which will be released under the name Big Windup, which is kind of surprising given that sports anime has never really caught on in the US because fans just don't realize that the sport being played doesn't matter. In a truly shocking and completely unforeseeable development, PiQ magazine has gone under. The post we mentioned as being on their website has since been deleted, so here's a mirror of it. We cannot possibly imagine what led to this turn of events, so don't take our BIASED AND UNPROFESSIONAL word for it: read for yourself what the former writers of PiQ and Newtype USA are saying about it all (see here, here, and here for starters). Tokyopop (perhaps finally accepting that nobody is buying this stuff) is opting to release their so-called "OEL" properties as Web exclusives, and a third otaku's expiration date clearly passed because following an earthquake in Japan, a corpse was found buried under massive toppled stacks of manga. PS: if you want a free Black Jack poster, please send in your erotic fanfiction about other podcasters besides us.

Promo: Anime Genesis and Anime Diet Radio (1:10:30 - 1:12:53)
Benu x Mike is a lazy choice for a submission considering the content of this promo. This weekend at Anime Expo they've got a live podcast panel on Friday at 7:00 PM in LP 4, so be sure to show up and let Benu know that Dave and Joel were doing anime podcasts before he was. Hmm, LP 4...why, that's the theater in the LACC! It so happens that TV's Patrick Macias also has a panel in the very same room Sunday at 1:30 PM, so be sure to chant "nerd girls aren't the future" throughout the proceedings! Show up in your anime-themed club shirts and get a free issue of Otaku USA! Say, if anyone gets a spare copy of Issue 3 (the one with The Third on the cover), let us know so we can send it over to "Sweet n' Sour" Larry Sweeney.

Review: Black Jack TV / Black Jack 21 / Black Jack: The Two Doctors of Darkness (1:12:53 - 1:36:10)
Voicemails remind us that The Serpent and the Panda (aka Panda and the Magic Serpent) can indeed be purchased from Wal-Mart for $1, but it's dub-only and not restored. Art style aside, it's commonly considered one of the first (if not the first) "modern" full-color theatrical anime films. Here, Clarissa expands upon her previous Black Jack review (which you should probably listen to first if you haven't already) to talk about the newer Black Jack animations that have been released this decade. They're much more faithful to the original manga, though how much more faithful won't be fully known until we actually get a proper release of it in English. Which, thanks to Vertical Inc, will be happening soon enough. Expect a Black Jack manga review then. Black Jack is certainly a miracle worker, but wherever there's a Black Jack there's ALL-WAYS Pinoko / Wherever there's fun there's always Coca-ColAAAAAAAAAAARGH

Review: Tekkon Kinkreet (1:36:10 - 2:01:33)
In the voicemails, Emily understands the quickest way to our hearts is through being sycophantic, and talking about how and we're so much more awesome than AnimeTV. It's true. It's true. Gerald reviews this theatrical film from Studio 4C that marks the very first time an American director has directed a Japanese animated film through the very same system that a Japanese director would. The results are...something, all right.

Review: Gambling Apocalypse Kaiji - The Suffering Pariah - The Ultimate Survivor (2:01:33 - 2:30:21)
Daryl reviews Season One of a series that doesn't seem like the sort of thing which would develop a following among American anime fans. Kaiji is a series with no pretty girls in it or pretty guys. The character designs are by most standards ugly. The budget is relatively low. The episodes are only about 20 minutes long. There are no robots, ninjas, magic spells, cute mascots, gun fights, or sword fights. So what does it have? It has gambling. High stakes gambling. And that's all you really need. Since it was not explicitly stated during the review, please note that there IS going to be a Season Two of Kaiji, but since the series just wrapped up in April it's probably still a year or two away. Worry not; the future is in our hands. You can read an awesome article by Ed Chavez excerpted from Otaku USA magazine which Daryl ripped off wholesale for this review over here.

Closing (2:30:21 - 2:32:16)
New issue of Otaku USA's out this week, and while you're at it, check out the newly redesigned website, featuring web-exclusive articles from both Clarissa (doujin events) and Daryl (Yoshiaki Kawajiri). You might want to bookmark that site now since we might have more articles show up here and there, though Safari users be warned: all that fancypants Java stuff probably isn't going to play nice with your browser. Next time on AWO: Daryl might review Part 3 of Jojo's Bizarre Adventure (but might not!), Clarissa will probably review the bad thing she was going to review this episode but didn't have the willpower to sit through again, and Gerald is probably going to start digging into the depths of his latest Deep Discount purchase if he doesn't review Nobody's Boy Remi first.

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+.

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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 # 60c - Osamu Tezuka, Whose Zone Caused Dinosaur Extinction

This is the third and final part of our 60th show and Osamu Tezuka spotlight, featuring Clarissa's review of the Black Jack OAVs and movie from the 1990s.

Click Here to Download Part 3 - Black Jack


Took a little while to up this one, but Otaku USA Issue 3 is now on sale! Please buy it so it doesn't suffer the same fate as Pulp.

Review: Black Jack (0:00 - 49:25)
Clarissa reviews the only Black Jack anime that was commercially released in the US: the 1990s OAVs as well as the 1990s movie. It's a somewhat different take on the character, since it's by the dynamic duo who brought us such fine classics as Golgo 13, Space Adventure Cobra, and possibly Mad Bull 34. In other words, this anime is awesome. If you already know the basic premise of Black Jack, feel free to skip to about the 25 minute mark.

Promo: World's Manliest Podcast (49:35 - 50:00)
Listen up. All you people who listen to Fast Karate then run off and start your own podcasts need to understand something: Dave and Joel don't love you. Have THEY ever played your promo? HUH? That's right, they have not. They only want you for your body, whereas the AWO wants you for your eternal souls. This is a podcast by two foreigners screaming about awesome things in an disorganized fashion. Daryl tried to set them straight by informing them that Nastasha Zabigov > Rain Mikamura, but they just wouldn't listen. Perhaps playing their promo will make them live up to their names. If so, we demand this as tribute. Also, if not.

Closing (50:00 - 54:04)
It took an entire month for us to release what is technically one single episode. How much lower can we go at this point, really? The answer: our second all-mecha episode! Daryl's turning all the dials to 11 and setting his age past 99 to 999 when he reviews Godannar, Clarissa's doing her part to keep Masami Obari employed by reviewing Gravion and its followup Gravion Zwei, and Gerald realized that reviewing Tengen Toppa Gurren-Lagann would make people actually WANT to listen, so he's breaking our Yoshiyuki Tomino seal with Space Runaway Ideon. Be fortunate, all of you, that we no longer live in the era of violence.

DAVID VIOLENCE.

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 # 60 - Osamu Tezuka, the Beret-Wearing Cyborg God-King

Sure we talk about him a lot, but for our sixtieth episode we've decided to devote the entire show to talking about the God of Manga himself, Osamu Tezuka. Daryl's reviewing the Astro Boy TV series (take your pick), Clarissa's reviewing the Black Jack OAVs and movie, and Gerald's reviewing the manga Apollo's Song.

Click Here to Download Part 1 - Introduction and Astro Boy


Show notes will be put up...later! Otaku USA doesn't write itself, you know!

Introduction (0:00 - 43:27)
Does Stan even remember his role in the Ozone Commandos? Wait, nobody can remember it, since it wasn't released [yet]! In the emails, we're asked our opinion on Fushigi Yuugi (which is still really expensive!). Short answer: Yu Watase is a hack. Can we recommend good romance anime? Short answer: no. What's our thoughts on fanfiction? Short answer: just look at all the slash-related Livejournal communities Clarissa's a member of. Wait, that's not a very short list after all! It took us nearly 45 minutes to say this!

Promo: Greatest Movie EVER! (43:27 - 44:05)
It's the Big Month of Dick over at the Greatest Movie EVER! podcast, where they're talking about film adaptations of Philip K. Dick exclusively! Featuring a bunch of guest reviewers, including Jeff "Rich Lather" Tatarek, who made this promo instead of making his own podcast. As late as we are in getting shows up, his Robot Carnival review still isn't there! In any case, we remain satisfied that people start off by listening to AWO, hear promos for Dave and Joel, Greatest Movie EVER!, Lather's Blather, etc. then determine that they're more entertaining to listen to than us (and shorter, too!) and stop listening to us. If we were concerned about listenership, we wouldn't be pulling stunts like...

Review: Astro Boy (44:05 - 1:39:07)
Daryl doesn't care that absolutely nobody in America cares about Astro Boy. He's going to talk about the Birth of Astro Boy storyline as portrayed in the original manga, the 1960s TV series, the 1980s TV series, and the 2003 TV series, no matter how many people don't give a crap. The cool people are interested and not at all bored to tears. Both of them.

• The Astro Boy Essays: Osamu Tezuka, Mighty Atom, and the Manga/Anime Revolution - look forward to a review of this book in the next issue of Otaku USA! Actually, you can now read Daryl's review here!
  
• Dark Horse Comics has released the original Astro Boy manga over the span of 23 volumes. You can get these for about $1-$4 each used.
• Right Stuf's official Astro Boy site - where you can get the ultra editions of the dub-only 1960s Astro Boy series. Amazon has the sets for a lot cheaper if you want to get used ones though (Set 1, Set 2)
• Manga Video's official New Adventures of Astro Boy site - the entire series can be had for about $20. At some point, we'll edit and post an interview with Noboru Ishiguro, the director of this series!
• Madman Entertainment's New Adventures of Astro Boy site - Wikipedia says that this release has the two uncut original Japanese episodes as well as more deleted scenes, and Wikipedia is never wrong
• The Astro Boy 2003 series can be had for $13 plus shipping - even Zac from ANN thinks this show is completely awesome! Too bad the series is edited, dub-only, and pan-and-scan. The Region 3 release is excellent, but it's not easy to find. And it's not cheap, either. Somebody buy that, make DVDRs of it, and mail the copies to me!
• For more information about the 2003 Astro Boy series, be sure to listen to AWO Show #37 where we interviewed Marc Handler, the Executive Story Editor for the series. Look forward to a follow-up interview once it's finished being edited!

We'll post the Black Jack and Apollo's Song bits later. And you didn't really think we had nothing more to say about this Geneon situation, did you?

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...