Anime World Order Show # 21 – The Anti-Moe Equation: Giant Robo, Saint Seiya, and Combattler V

It’s flexible, it’s metal, it’s our 21st podcast as Daryl reviews Giant Robo (perhaps his favorite anime ever), Gerald reviews Combattler V, and Clarissa tackles Saint Seiya!

Introduction (0:00 – 22:40)
You know, we have all these Discipline readings but we keep forgetting to play them. We forget this week too. In its place, the MMD calls in to complain about Jeff Tatarek’s Discipline reading in Show # 17. Sensing this, Jeff “Rich Lather” Tatarek calls in to put forth a 1-2-3 Rider Kick argument as to why HE should be given our spare Patlabor Limited Edition box. You know, that ANN contest only has about four entries, people! We also answer listener feedback regarding Captain Tsubasa and what anime would appeal to military otaku. We know little about either.

  • Jeff Tatarek’s AV-98 Ingram costume from like, decades ago: Pic 1 Pic 2

Let’s News! (22:40 – 30:50)
Some Japanese folks serve time for the crime of scanning manga (search for “Stiff Sentence For Uploading Manga In Japan”), and there won’t be a second season of Genshiken after all because they’re making an entire show out of Kujibiki Unbalance. We make sure to scream about how idiotic and bad that manuever is at least once per segment for the remainder of this episode.

Promo: Anime Pulse (30:50 – 31:38)
It takes true dedication to run both this podcast as well as the theotaku.com podcast! No wonder they’re about twice as popular as us. The fact that they’re habitually on time probably helps with that, too. You know, technically AWO is supposed to come out on Tuesdays, but I can count the amount of times that’s been managed on my fingers.

Often Overlooked: Giant Robo (31:38 – 50:47)
Daryl talks about his pick for the greatest OAV series ever made, Giant Robo The Animation: The Day the Earth Stood Still. In so doing, he reveals pretty much nothing about the show itself in the hopes of not spoiling everything, but ultimately he’s just failing to convince people to watch it. He also forgot to include audio bumpers. Still, anyone who doesn’t buy the brick of Giant Robo by clicking here gets THE HOSE.

Promo: R5 Central (50:47 – 51:23)
Mike Dent is probably still applying every audio filter he can find to his upcoming coverage of Anime Central 2006, so it’s still not out yet. In the meantime, consider this excerpt interview from someone cool he met. You know, next week Daryl was going to tell us all THE TRUTH about JACON, but Metrocon’s coming up this weekend.

Review: Combattler V (51:23 – 1:06:27)
The amount of people who wrote in to correct Gerald about Combattler V not being a Tomino show does our hearts proud, even though Gerald only got that idea because Daryl heard Rob Lantz mention Tomino’s involvement with the show back at Katsucon this year. Listen on and find out all about the very first show to feature five vehicles that combine to form a giant robot! Yep, it wasn’t Voltron.

Review: Saint Seiya (1:06:27 – 1:26:25)
Clarissa does the impossible and manages to coherently describe what Saint Seiya is actually about in this last segment. Complaints about ADV and DiC’s handling of the property in North America is kept to a minimum since if we did that, whatever would Steve Harrison talk about once we get him on as a guest? That’s totally happening now that we can do free long distance calls to the US and Canada!

  • ANN’s page on Saint Seiya – being a gigantic show of the 80s, the voice cast was pretty stellar, which was something that didn’t make it into the episode
  • Wikipedia entry for Saint Seiya – it’s got some pretty good breakdowns of story arcs and world details for if you want more info than you got here
  • Seiya-subtitles.net’s writeup on Masami Kurumada

Closing (1:26:25 – 1:29:19)
As if this week weren’t enough to cause everyone to stop listening, next week it’s going to be as otaku-concentrated as we can manage. Yes, we’ve only been using 20% of our full power all this time, for next time Gerald will review Otaku no Video, Clarissa will review Genshiken, and Daryl will review Welcome to the NHK! Yeah, we know. Gerald probably should have reviewed NHK since he’s clearly the most like that guy of the three of us, but he’s already “Mr A.”

20 Replies to “Anime World Order Show # 21 – The Anti-Moe Equation: Giant Robo, Saint Seiya, and Combattler V”

  1. You know, genshiken.info still shows the end of the last episode, where Ogiue is coming in. Also, the manga just ended this month. I think we still have a chance!

  2. It’s funny that you mention Media Blasters would be more likely to fund something like more Berserk rather than more Giant Robo, because they recently announced their first co-production project.

    That co-production will bring us more… Kite.

    Considering that shows entire recognition and notoriety comes from ultra violence, 15 year old girls being penetrated by penises the size of the average mans arm and the fact it kept being released on dvd multiple times missing an oh-so-taboo 20 seconds of footage from it’s sex scenes, it was clearly crying out for a sequel.

  3. Daryl, that was an excellent review of Giant Robo. I haven’t seen it, but I have enjoyed other shows Yasuhiro Imagawa directed such as G Gundam and Violinist of Hameln. Now I am considering buying that brick release of it next month.

    Anonymous-san, if that is true, MB’s co-production of more Kite anime is reprehensible. Actually, I kinda liked the non-hentai Mezzo DSA TV series which was also created by Umetsu, but it is nothing in comparison with Berserk.

    P.S.: I like “Anti-Moe”.

  4. Anonymous,

    The big controversy surrounding Kite wasn’t really so much its original content, but rather the fact that Media Blaster’s original release of it edited two OAVs into a single, 45 minute movie. If memory serves, in the process they cut seven-and-one-half minutes of footage from the show, including ending themes and sex scenes.

    The Director’s cut restored the sex, except for a rapid-montage of questionable material that lasts a total of three seconds, depicting Sawa’s abuse at the hands of the sleazy police investigator. The Uncut version includes this material.

    My only beef with how Media Blasters handled the whole Kite thing was at the time of the original, cut release, Media Blasters had an adult division, Kitty Media. They could have released Kite in its original format, as an adult title. Instead they chose to edit it down to an “R” rated equivalent in order to sell more units. They made no indication that the film had been edited. That didn’t sit well with a lot of fans, including myself.

    However, Media Blasters eventually releasing Kite in its original format, so I can’t hold a grudge.

    But I totally agree with your other point. We don’t really need more Kite. There’s more than enough Kite to go around as it is, and with a live-action American adaptation apparently in the works (I’ll believe it when it hits the theatres) some would venture to say we have TOO MUCH Kite. When you consider that Kite itself was basically just a re-hash of Yellow Star anyway, you wonder what Media Blasters hopes to accomplish with this co-production of theirs.

  5. Not to contradict Daryl Surat but… Would Giant Robo be known under a different title outside the US? As I’ve checked out the Madman AU website and doesn’t appear to be there…

  6. Katie’s right–Madman’s complete anime catalog doesn’t have Giant Robo. It jumps from Gad Guard to Gilgamesh.

  7. Madman did release Giant Robo on VHS about 4-5 ago, but that license either expired or didn’t carry over to dvd distribution rights.

  8. Amusing some people get confused and think this is a blog than a podcast, oh well, not my department to judge people based on intelligence.

    Anyway, another excellent show as usual. Love how cool Jeff Tatarek’s voice message was. Glad he discovered those cheapo DVDs like I had. Hopefully a third wave might come up with the Tron anime included!
    http://www.ifdfilms.com/VIDEO/s01_trailer_wmv8.asf

    I also can’t agree more with your review of Giant Robo. People who don’t see it or care to are what you say they are! Glad to see Media Blasters will be re-releasing it as a brick rather than the crappy deluxe eyeball thingy I almost bought.

    Now you got me interested in Combattler V! I already have a complete set of Daimos (though it’s English dub that was aired in the Philippines) someone sent VCD copies of to me once.

    Also, just as I might’ve said earlier, I can get jealous thinking of someone my age who lived somewhere in Europe, and who got to see shows like Saint Seiya in their youth. It’s hard to sell a show like that in today’s world around here. If we weren’t so uptight over issues such as the violence and other questionable material, this show could’ve been aired much earlier in the 90’s. It’s just hard to sell that stuff once it’s past it’s prime. 🙁

    Again, thanks for another great episode, and looking forward to yet another one soon!

  9. You have a complete set of Daimos? I think you could do a favor to us all by finding the longest example of the combination sequence and posting it.

  10. I was a judge years ago at AWA (the first one I ever attended) when Jeff did his Ingram costume. There were five us with beer on the panel and when he came out we all flashed devil signs and started doing the riff from “Iron Man.”

  11. Media Blasters are infuriating 🙁

    Why in Gods name can’t do they keep hiding away the bonus features disk?

    They didn’t include it with the singles and they’re not including it with the brick either.

    I refuse to buy that ridiculous eyeball and put up with terrible casing just to get that disk. I don’t even want the Gin-Rei stuff, I could have gone without that in a heartbeat.

  12. Who is this…the MMD. Here to say that voice mail even amazed me. Thank you for playing it and letting me respond to your claims. Secondly I wasn’t looking for porn i was looking for my own name. Soon I will own the internet. Ha ha ha.

  13. Re: LoGH and military otaku. I don’t think that military otaku would be into LoGH, because it doesn’t obsessively focus on the military hardware. The giant space battleships are almost more like backdrops, whereas in your typical military anime they’re characters on their own. (Particularly in Gundam SEED, which carries the idea of personalized fighting units to an extreme that even Gundam Wing wouldn’t have considered.)

    As for why the military otaku like Gundam et al, it’s partly what I mentioned above: The focus on the military machines that makes them more like characters in the series than props. And it’s also because the science-fiction setting obviates the need for accuracy. If you say that the T-34/76 Mark B 1944 version had a 98mm main gun, then that’s something that can be checked (and, of course, the military otaku would instantly know that you’re wrong.) If you say that the Gundam Stupid has a 250mm 500-megawatt beam blaster cannon, then nobody cares because you’re making it all up. And if, next season, you say that it has a 380mm super bazooka, and if someone calls you on it then you just claim that it’s the “Full Armor Gundam Stupid”.

  14. So well, I just notice that i can comment silly me 😛 . Well first of all thank you for reviewing Saint Seiya (I should have wrote this along time ago but better late than never right? )
    Anyhow, I will definately going to buy Giant Robo. and i will write back on an e-mail my thoughts
    Well keep on doing such a great job 😀

  15. I bought Giant Robo on your recommendation. It was the best thing I’ve ever seen.

    No you don’t need sacrifice to attain happiness. In fact the real question is will you be happy without what you sacrificed?

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