Bonus – Interview with Helen McCarthy, Dave III, and Rob Fenelon

Here’s our interview from AWA 2007 with noted anime scholar Helen McCarthy, author of The Anime Encyclopedia, which is now in its second edition. Also appearing is anime fandom gatekeeper/Flexible Metal Hose Guy Dave III from Corn Pone Flicks fame, and Rob Fenelon, whom we interviewed back in Show # 64. Listen as we all get totally schooled!

Excised from this recording was the conversation about Jenny dolls, which for those of you who didn’t know were invented by Leiji Matsumoto’s wife. The only reason it was removed was because the recording was stopped mid-discussion.

Show 67 next time! If you can’t wait however many weeks to hear Gerald talk about Detonator Orgun on our show, you can listen to his guest appearance on Destroy All Podcasts DX and hear him talk about Detonator Orgun right now!

42 Replies to “Bonus – Interview with Helen McCarthy, Dave III, and Rob Fenelon”

  1. What a wonderful
    Conversation you guys put up for us , that Helen Mccarthy is as sharp as knife.

    Thank you so much for the awesome bonus.

    AWO I LOVE YOU.

  2. Great to hear Helen’s voice. Years ago at A-Kon I had the pleasure of having several breakfasts with her and her partner Steve. Wonderful conversation whwre I learned a great deal.

    Thanks for the bonus.

  3. I have the Erotic Guide to Anime and really enjoyed it. It was the first time I ever heard of titles like Cream Lemon and Mad Bull 34.

    I’m really glad that McCarthy and Clements look at the subject of sex in anime in the academic view and not the fan view or the outsider view.

    I should pick up the second edition of the Anime Guide.

  4. Having heard you mention the Encyclopedia on the show before many times, it was nice to put a voice to the author. Even nicer, it was a voice from my own island. I’m putting in an order on amazon now for the new edition, which appears to be selling well at the #10 position for all comics and manga.

    Also, I thought you guys held your own admirably against the overwhelming force of being schooled. πŸ™‚

  5. In a fit of rage, I deleted the Odeo link since it never really worked well in the first place, nobody’s used it in months, and we haven’t even bothered mentioning it on the show. Good riddance.

    In its place, I’ve put up a web poll, which I’ll leave up for a few weeks. Please only answer once. If multiple choices apply to you, then choose the one that’s true in the most cases. There are no real measures in place to keep people from voting multiple times and skewing the results, but with the question being what it is, there’s also no real need to.

  6. Elliot: In case you’re interested, Helen M.’s next presentation at the Barbican in London is on March 25 @ 20:30. She will be lecturing on and presenting the first four episodes of Area88 TV.

  7. heeeeyy…. you guys probably have more of that kind of stuff unreleased, riiiight? i love these bonus episodes so you can jump away from casualty time by time. Though there were not so many casual eps recently.. hmm..

    love the show!!

    peace

  8. It was interesting that spotting ANIME UK #2 was what got Jonathan Clements into the magazine. I literally bought the same issue out the hands of the great Jim McLennan when I saw him walking by carrying it at Anime Expo ’92. It looked so cool that I just had to whip out my filthy American lucre. Of course, this was back when the U.S. dollar was actually worth something.

  9. I was at a signing for Yutaka Izubuchi (the mech designer for Patlabor) many years ago. An older woman with a microphone at the front of the line started to interview him, without stepping aside, thus halting the line. After a few minutes, people started going ballistic, because the autograph session was time-limited and the line was long. “EXPLETIVE that EXPLETIVE Helen McCarthy EXPLETIVE!”, someone bellowed in my ear.

    It probably wasn’t really Helen McCarthy, but if it was, I’d kick myself for not getting her to sign my issues of AnimeUK.

  10. OT but did you hear? The head of Bandai Visual stepped down (going back to Japan) and someone else is taking over.

    I know that Sola was the biggest show in Japan last year but no one will ever buy that here (I almost never see discussions about it on 4chan).

    Also something like that all there future releases will be in Bluray ONLY I believe. Way to shoot yourself in the foot BV. Bravo.

    That company is damed if they do, damed if they don’t.

  11. Dear Daryl,

    A while back, you said that PROMETHEA concealed the dread spectre of moe, but I did want to say I’m a fan of TOP 10.* I also liked your description in OTAKU USA #5 of the Special Unit’s job as being to “terminate hippies with extreme prejudice.” Have you read Oshii’s BLOOD: NIGHT OF THE BEASTS novel, set in 1969? Oshii was 18 at the time, and the description of what it was actually like to be in those demos sounds true-to-life, including such laments as how none of the pretty student radicals seemed to go to his high school.

    –C.

    *Although not so much of TOP 10: THE FORTY-NINERS.

  12. God guys, is every person you interview on this show a genious? Seems like it!

    But seriously, the interview was awesome. Are you guys going to post the interview you did with Noboru Ishiguro anytime soon?

  13. Ah, so this is the famous Helen McCarthy I hear so much about. Sounds like a fun lady to talk to definitely. Hope I can actually meet her sometime. She’s been to 2 AWA’s and I’ve never been able to catch her at either one.

    Oh, still waiting to see Dave III finish plodding to kill the president. πŸ™‚

    (Oh, to any FBI/Secret Service people who read that passage, that was indeed a joke.)

  14. Uh, no they don’t get it. They’re Studio Gonzo. If they truly got it, they’d make shows that weren’t garbage.

    The Youtube deal makes a whole lot of sense, but it strikes me as rather strange that Gonzo partnered up with Crunchyroll of all places. Didn’t Funimation issue a big statement about how they’ve repeatedly told Crunchyroll to take down their shows (and they must release like 85% of the Gonzo shows we get nowadays), and how Crunchyroll did nothing? Sure, Gonzo is the original content holder, but if I were Funimation or whoever I would look at this deal with Youtube, Crunchyroll, etc. as a stab in the back.

    Still, at least it’s SOMETHING. Japan needs to get with the program and realize that doing simultaneous US/Japan releases is the way to go, because for all their REVERSE IMPORTATION crap, they need to realize that waiting a year and change between the Japanese broadcast and the US release is what’s doing them in. Too bad that so far, most of the simultaneous releases we’ve been getting are stupid things like Tenamonya Voyagers and whatever inevitable weak sauce these two Gonzo series are going to end up being.

    I’m sure we’ll go into this in the next episode’s news segment. General rule of thumb: if it was a news item posted to Anime News Network or Anime on DVD, Gerald probably saw it. He might even be subscribed to their RSS feeds.

  15. I wish that were the case, but mecha doesn’t seem to do very well here, at least older ones don’t. Sola is definitely a better choice I’m afraid.

    BTW, has anyone seen the 13th volume of Golgo 13 at local bookstores? Cause I damn sure haven’t.

    Looking forward to hearing Gerald’s take on Detonator Orgun. Tired of seeing that one get bashed so badly by modern fans for no being comedic. -_-

  16. I had to special order Golgo 13 volumes 9-13 from my local border’s I just got it today after a 2 day wait. I think Daryl said that if you want anything good that your bookstore doesn’t carry then special order it, chances are your bookstore wants your business so they’ll have no problem ordering it. That is how I got all the volumes for Crying Freeman, how I got Volumes 1-6 of Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service, and Ode to Kirahito. My advice spcial order Golgo if you want it because it IS out.

  17. Great show AWO, I especially like the questions you all asked. Perhaps the best interview bonus ep so far? On the topic of academia, I totally agree with McCarthy and her case about the scarcity of academic discourse on anime in the English speaking world. I would say though that Ben Ettinger’s Anipages Daily seems to fill in that gap in the English speaking “blogoshpere” side of things quite well. Maybe he could be the subject of a future interview?

    “Uh, no they don’t get it. They’re Studio Gonzo. If they truly got it, they’d make shows that weren’t garbage.”

    I second that strongly. Especially your point about Funimation Daryl. All this news is really bizarre, but I hope that in the end it does some good.

    I haven’t commented in a while but have been listening to each new ep and have loved them all. I really like the fact that you guys can go from a hilarious review of the Crystal Triangle to an insightful and inspiring interview with McCarthy.

    Thanks so much, AWO is still going strong.

    RΓ©

  18. So I finally finished the Phoenix manga, and I can see how it influenced[and was influenced by] more Tezuka titles than Astro Boy. Though volume “12” Western story arc drags out longer than the rest; and it’s probably more interesting to Japanese readers the way the jidaigeki stuff appeals to American readers. Still, it’s an interesting way to end(begin?) the series, if you want to know more about the bird itself. Good, job, Fred. [I just wonder how he managed to maintain his composure with the “master baker” line.]

    Wish I could say the same about Andromeda Stories, but it’s basically To Terra with incest.

    vz: He stepped down from the U.S. branch, not the Japan branch. Anyway, if anime is Blu Ray only, then that will motivate me to buy a player eventually. (Assuming the price drops enough and they fix the bugs of the current version, anyway…)

    daryl: I think you answered your own question. Their shows suck so much that Gonzo is willing to give them away. Anyway, smaller distribution waiting periods don’t mean a thing, if fans don’t think they’re obligated to pay for most shows.

  19. So I saw Monster Squad at my local theater, and I couldn’t help but be amused by the Robotech tee the kid was wearing. If I had caught it when the director presented it, I’d probably ask him if he was an anime fan.

  20. Now you need to get Jonathan Clements on your show as well. Maybe discuss the impact of Overfiend in the UK market and such.

  21. Dan said…
    So I saw Monster Squad at my local theater, and I couldn’t help but be amused by the Robotech tee the kid was wearing.

    So someone else has bee touched! I was just thinking of that a while ago as I might have wore the same pair to bed when I was 8, and I NEVER saw the show at all, that was the only way I ever knew what Robotech was, because of those damn PJ’s! Still I turned out OK since I don’t have to watch that show or stand by it like so many had.

    If I had caught it when the director presented it, I’d probably ask him if he was an anime fan.

    Who knows (unless he was more like “whatever we got lying around” type of person). But yeah, it’s interesting when the least bit anime-related material pops up in a film or TV program 20 years back.

    Anyway, great show as usual and with talking to McCarthy. The bit at the end about fansubbers who sub stuff in a way that gets on your nerve due to unawareness of certain details (either cultrual or technical). Being reminded of the second episode of the 70’s Cutie Honey series that “Sailor Spork” subbed that mentioned a particular sculpture that was done by someone named “Pikas” in the subs, yet it’s clearly written on the base of the piece that it was from “Picasso” (though the piece itself doesn’t look too Cubist, and of ironic note, Pablo himself passed away about 6 months before that episode aired). Not sure why I get irritated easily by that but I just do (at least a classic anime was getting subbed anyway).

  22. My bizarre curiosity got to me the other day and I watched the first episode of Happy Lesson. Jeez what a terrible show. Ugly character designs and not funny jokes. I still want to hear Daryl review at least one terrible moe harem show, just for the lulz.

    So I’m now watching Getter Robo Armageddon, which while cool makes little sense. definitely the best art out of all the Getter Robo anime.

  23. Things must be working well for Tezuka Studios and Funimation, because Manga just uploaded some of their shows (including Stand Alone Complex) to iTunes.

  24. This episode ranks among my favorite that AWO has released. The group put together for this had such great chemistry and brought a wealth of knowledge that was eye opening.

    Thanks for releasing this bonus material.

    I think I’m going to buy Helen McCarthy’s books now.

  25. Things must be working well for Tezuka Studios and Funimation, because Manga just uploaded some of their shows (including Stand Alone Complex) to iTunes.

    Heh, just when I decided to pull the plug on iTunes anyway. Really, I don’t hardly use that at all besides as a podcatcher, so I ditched it in favor of a regular aggregator anyway.

  26. Nice to meet you.
    The blog that introduced Anime and Manga of Japan was started.

    ?Japan Animation mania?
    http://animated-mania.blogspot.com/

    “NARUTO””Dragonball””Gundam””Rurouni Kenshin””One Piece””DEATH NOTE”
    “NANA””EVANGELION””GHOST IN THE SHELL””STAND ALONE COMPLEX”
    “Miyazaki anime”etc…

    Please come to see at any time.
    And, please paste the link.
    Moreover, please teach interesting Anime.
    It comes ..then…

  27. So, is the case to keep people from touching him or to contain Duke Togo’s awesomeness so it doesn’t warp the rest of the show?

  28. There was a G13 manga story a few years back that touched briefly on the fact American kids are getting into anime and manga. I was oddly pleased with the extreme stiffness with which Saito-Pro attempted to draw images of shonen and shojo characters. You can’t take the gekiga out of the gekiga-ka!

    –Carl

  29. Everybody understands that Golgo would kill everybody in the building if he felt like it, and that nothing you put around him could possibly stop him.

    The case is so you don’t bump into him and, three hours later, find that you’ve been shot in the head while singing along with Hare Hare Yukai.

    You deserved it.

  30. Daryl are you okay, I heard about the fireworks incident at Wrestlemania I hope you did not get burned.

    And this was a cool episode I am not going to lie. It was cool to listen to someone who things about anime so intelligently. Again good episode.

  31. hey awo just leaving a comment to say how good a job ur doing if it wasnt for i would have seen legend of the overfiend

  32. As a 15 year old Anime fan in the UK almost 15 years ago, the $1000 I’d have needed to purchase a NTSC VCR was the main gateway to anime fandom. Old days/schmold days, I’ll take my $20 multi region DVD player thank you.

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