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Anime World Order Show # 198 – We Can’t See That He Is a Pioneer, Unlocking the Greatest Mysteries

Podcast: Download (Duration: 1:42:36 — 47.1MB)

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Yeah, yeah, we missed releasing this in March. But hey, it means that we can talk about the anime that just ended, and what’s about to start! In this episode, Gerald reviews the 1992 3-part OAV series Green Legend Ran.

Introduction (0:00 – 34:55)
We were going to play a voicemail this episode to encourage others to send in voicemails of their own, but we had to talk about some things, such as the potentially promising new anime series of the season–hard to tell what’s good or bad based on a trailer/first episode, but we’ll try–what shows we just finished watching, that whole Tokyo Babylon anime debacle, and more. Also, if you hadn’t heard, the original film for Project A-Ko was finally found after decades. Turns out it was just misfiled! What’s next, a US release of Macross? Yeah, like that’d ever happ–actually, that didn’t occur as of the time this was recorded. NEXT TIME, BABY.

Promo: Right Stuf Anime (34:55 – 39:05)
The clock is ticking to preorder the shojo classic Dear Brother on Blu-Ray. This is a shorter license than usual; about one year’s time, after which the series won’t be available to purchase (or stream…again). There’s no Cosmo DNA to bail us out of this one, so get what you can while you can. Incidentally, if you’re looking to pull the trigger on any manga purchases, such as the Cardcaptor Sakura hardcover editions, you probably want to do so ASAP since the COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in a huge increase in print media demand–manga especially–as well as a shortage of printing labor. Reprints of anything will be taking longer than usual to occur as a result.

Review: Green Legend Ran (39:05 – 1:42:36)
Gerald reviews this largely forgotten and vaguely remembered OAV series from 1992, overshadowed as a result of being released just a few months after Tenchi Muyo!, which was one of the signature anime for otaku of the 1990s. This does however require us to spend about 15 minutes talking about these things called “laserdiscs” before we get into the series itself. Truth be told, neither Daryl nor Clarissa had any concrete recollection of anything that happened in this series whatsoever despite both of them having seen it forever ago. With the series now available on demand courtesy of the anime streaming site HiDive, does Green Legend Ran stand the test of time? One thing that definitely did is Gerald’s old collector’s edition set!

No, this is NOT a laserdisc box! This is in fact Gerald’s VHS box set containing all three tapes. Let’s open it up!
Pioneer releases are highly sought after for their extras to this day. Not pictured: the T-shirt which may or may not have been in 5XL.
THERE’S THE T-SHIRT–er, oh yes, and also the TAPES!
Maybe THIS is what the director meant when he said “pay attention to Ran’s character development.”
More really nice extras included in the set. We actually did not make even a single joke about that Tinkerbell dress in this episode. It took restraint.
Pioneer commissioned original artwork for their LD/box set releases. You can see from Ran’s pose up there why we thought of Future Boy Conan. HE EVEN SMOKES CIGARETTES.
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Anime World Order Show # 197 – You Grew All That Human Tissue in Orbit and It Doesn’t Even Work

Podcast: Download (Duration: 1:28:35 — 40.7MB)

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We flip-flop a bit on our promise to be the anime podcast that sticks to talking about anime, but after a while Clarissa gets us back on track by talking about 2016’s Flip Flappers, per request of our Patreon donors. See? We pay attention to those requests sometimes!

Introduction (0:00 – 46:09)
We catch up on what we’ve been up to. Daryl’s been in the “manic” phase of his manic/depressive output, having watched through multiple series and read through several volumes of manga in the last few weeks while also sinking an additional 100 hours into Nioh 2 now that it’s on PC after doing nothing at all for most of this year to date. Gerald has been streaming Death Stranding, which he declares the videogame equivalent of Pu-tan from Cromartie High School. He and Clarissa have also been getting through some current shows and rewatching some old comfort picks, which leads us to our email question regarding iyashikei (“healing”) anime. Seems to be in high demand lately, given current world events. UPDATE: Ed Chavez has contacted us to correct the vicious misinformation we have spread about him, as he has not personally played Death Stranding. He’s just heard good things and knows people who like it.

Promo: Right Stuf Anime (46:09 – 50:05)
It’s Helen McCarthy’s birthday, so check out her brand new book Leiji Matsumoto: Essays on the Manga and Anime Legend, featuring a variety of contributions from an assortment of highly qualified and intelligent folks, some of whom even listen to/have been guests on this very podcast! You can also get your preorders in for the hardcover Viz Signature edition of Fist of the North Star, and here’s hoping enough people do that Viz manages to accomplish what has never been done before and complete a physical English language release of the series! Also, a possible contender for worst overall show of the past decade, Hand Shakers, is $15. Daryl always mentally mixes up Hand Shakers with Flip Flappers. WHAT IF WE REVIEWED HAND SHAKERS, GUYS

Review: Flip Flappers (50.05 – 1:28:35)
As requested by a few of our Patreon donors, Clarissa provides an effectively spoiler-free review of one of her favorite series from late 2016…wait, 2016? It’s been nearly five years ago already?! And the director, Kiyotaka Oshiyama, hasn’t been allowed to direct anything full-length ever since? But Hand Shakers got a SEQUEL?! There’s just no justice in this world. Flip Flappers is a yuri-themed SFF series which is an increasingly rare instance of being something anime-original; that is, not adapted from any prior source material. Unfortunately, it was not particularly popular in Japan, and the US release is starting to get a bit harder to find (with the limited editions Gerald and Clarissa own being out of print), so anime-original titles remain an increased financial gamble. For now, it remains streaming on Hidive and VRV, but who knows how long that’ll last?