Guests – Page 2 – Anime World Order Podcast

Podcast: Download (Duration: 1:50:18 — 50.6MB)

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We’re joined by longtime mecha enthusiast Rob Lantz as we offer up a mostly spoiler-free review of Gerald’s favorite OVA series of all time: 1988’s Aim for the Top! Gunbuster, the pro directorial debut of Hideaki Anno and one of the first subtitled anime ever legally released in the United States which is now available on Blu-Ray. It’s uh, kind of a big deal.

Introduction (0:00 – 46:55)
As a member of what he calls the second generation of American anime fandom, Rob tells us about how he discovered Japanese animation along with his forays into East Coast anime conventions starting in the mid-1990s. With the Spring 2023 anime season having just concluded, we go over what we finished up watching recently. As the Summer 2023 anime season just starting off is decidedly slim as far as offerings that appeal to us (56 shows, and maybe only 1 or 2 that seem to have potential), most of us are using the opportunity to go through some of the neverending backlog. You’ll probably want to do the same!

Rob’s Gunbuster cosplay from days of long ago [comes a legend…]. (He’s the one cosplaying Coach.)

Promo: Shoujo Sundae (10:27 – 10:58)
It’s been ages since we got one of these, so as a reminder: if you have an anime podcast that’s been running for more than 10 episodes, send us your 30-60 second promo and we’ll run it! I suppose in return you could run our promo, but it dawns on us that we only ever really made one promo which consists primarily of someone that isn’t any of us speaking. Anyway, Giana Luna and Chika Supreme are doing an ACTUAL weekly podcast in which they cover anime targeted to girls and have just finished up their rewatch of the classic shoujo series Ouran High School Host Club. Yes, we regret to inform you that the manga for Ouran is now over 20 years old and the anime is now from 17 years ago, so it’s now considered a classic. Even our review of it was from 2006.

Promo: Right Stuf Anime (46:56 – 49:13)
It’s Right Stuf’s 36th birthday sale! That means pretty much everything is on sale this month, and every day there are 24-hour Mega Deals with even deeper discounts. (If you missed one, usually you get a second chance at the end of the month when all the previous mega deals are active for a day.) Also included are manga/artbook/novel bundles, plus there are weekly contests to enter! As always, any purchases made after visiting Right Stuf from our affiliate links will grant us a small commission fee, which we’ll put towards paying for our hosting as well as our Discord Nitro. Be sure to check the AWO Discord (viewable to all, but Patreon backers can post) for details regarding our upcoming virtual panels and such!

Review: Aim for the Top! Gunbuster (49:13 – 1:50:18)
No pressure or anything, as it’s only Gerald’s favorite OVA of all time. 1988’s Aim for the Top! Gunbuster might not have been the first thing they made, and maybe this other thing from the 1990s became far more popular, and maybe in different decades the studio came to embody very different things for very different generations of anime fans, but when we think of the definitive “Gainax anime,” this is the one. The (professional) directorial debut of Hideaki Anno, practically every single person who worked on Gunbuster became a top-tier talent in their respective field. Entire books/podcasts/YouTube channels/social media accounts can be devoted to drilling down into the histories and resumes of everybody who brought this into existence, but all you have to know is that after years and years, you can once again–get this–WATCH GUNBUSTER. Because we are operating under the blind optimism that there is a generation of people out there who haven’t seen Gunbuster but have heard of its reputation, we (for the most part) do not delve heavily into the specifics of what happens in Gunbuster past the first episode or two.

Discotek has released a pretty great Blu-Ray which you can buy here, and for the first time you can watch it as well as the series that inspired its initial beginnings: Aim for the Ace!. If you’re daunted by the notion of watching a half century old cartoon made for TV, consider watching the far more lavishly animated (and far shorter) Aim For the Ace: The Movie instead.

Rob got to hang out with Noriko Hidaka once. She may have several high-profile roles, but if you’re going to get a line recital video, there is truly only one choice to make:

Rob also owns original cels from Gunbuster. Here’s a recognizable pose; be sure to shout the attack out loud!

Podcast: Download (Duration: 1:42:22 — 47.0MB)

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In this episode we bring Mister Kitty‘s Dave Merrill back on to talk about his favorite movie (and a Patreon request!): 1969’s The Flying Phantom Ship, adapted from a manga by Shotaro Ishinomori. DID YOU KNOW HAYAO MIYAZAKI DREW A PART OF THIS MOVIE? (Yes. Yes we do know. You can lower your hand and sit down now.)

Introduction (0:00 – 36:19)
We catch up with Dave, whom we last saw around Halloween, and reminisce for a bit about how he discovered Prince of Space before we get to the topic that’s on everybody’s minds: the death of Leiji Matsumoto, a creator for whom much of organized anime fandom in America owes itself to. Clubs, conventions, cosplay, AMVs: they started up as a result of fan affinity for his works, including but not limited to Space Battleship Yamato aka Star Blazers, Captain Harlock, Galaxy Express 999, Queen Millennia, and okay probably not so much The Cockpit but you should still check out The Cockpit. Japan Remembers Leiji Matsumoto by Tim Eldred has collected the coverage of Leiji Matsumoto’s passing, which was a globally covered event. If you didn’t pick it up back when we had Helen McCarthy on to talk about it, consider picking up Leiji Matsumoto: Essays on the Manga and Anime Legend which covers his influence in far greater detail than we can ever manage.

Promo: Right Stuf Anime (36:19 – 38:52)
The best place to buy Discotek Media titles remains Right Stuf, especially for preorders. This is because Amazon charges full MSRP for their releases, whereas even when there isn’t a Discotek-specific sale, Right Stuf offers a 25%-33% discount. Plus, the packaging is better and you’ll often find they ship you titles weeks before the listed release date. Speaking of which, you might want to preorder those Gunbuster Blu-Rays. They’re set to come out at the end of the next month, after all.

Review: The Flying Phantom Ship (38:52 – 1:42:22)
Yes, once again we manage to take more time talking about a thing than it would take to simply watch it in its entirety. At least our excuse this time is that the film is only about an hour long from start to finish. Thirteen years ago, we listed this as one of our “Ten Anime You’ve Never Heard of But Must See” and Daryl recently reviewed it in the April 2023 issue of Otaku USA Magazine, but that’s got nothing on how long Dave’s been talking and writing about it, since he has writeups dating back to over 30 years ago. Here’s his more recent 2009 piece from his Let’s Anime blog. Dave is probably the first person to have extensively written about this topic in English, like period, and so it’s only fitting that he provided the commentary track for Discotek’s Blu-Ray release along with Mike Toole. We’re spoiling the whole thing, but this is something for which seeing is the only true experience.