Anime World Order Show # 58 – No, The Other DA BOMB

Finally, an actual episode again! Clarissa reviews Suzuka, and Daryl not only recounts his experience at Florida Supercon, but also reviews Barefoot Gen, which is a very important work indeed. Gerald’s Otakon report has been split off into a separate file.

We would like to thank everyone who inquired to ask whether the podcast was no more following PT Chapman’s vicious attack upon Daryl’s throat. Some wondered if perhaps he would need a voicebox to talk like Junjo from Return of the Street Fighter, but fear not: Daryl retaliated using a secret unblockable technique that does triple damage:

Introduction (0:00 – 33:25)
Clarissa clearly does not believe in the concept of stating your name at the start of each episode, but we may as well abide by SOME of the podcasting do’s, right? No emails this week, since Daryl’s got his much-overdue report of the most recent Florida Supercon, a sci-fi convention in South Florida whose attendees largely consist of people who don’t go to any other conventions throughout the state and don’t seem to have any sort of presence on the Internet whatsoever. There is an entire hidden underworld of anime fandom that is mostly invisible save for events such as this.

  • Risingsun.net is one of the largest cosplay picture sites around, and due to it being centered in Florida, we know a great deal of the featured people on this site. In fact, the cosplayer with the most pictures of all is Gerald’s neighbor. The “Boner Robin” pictures of Troy that Snacks mentioned originated from here, and there’s even pictures of us looking dumbfounded for those willing to investigate.
  • On the opposite site of the eternal Blood War, here’s the homepage for AssimilationCon, which is the week after AWA. Decide for yourselves which side is the Tanar’ri and which side is the Baatezu (we get to be the Yugoloths). Just to review: the day after AWA, Daryl has jury duty. The day after that, Halo 3 comes out. Then this convention happens. I bet we have Otaku USA deadlines around then too. Good thing we didn’t get conscripted to do panels at Assimilation, oh wait

Promo: Ninja Consultants (33:25 – 35:21)
Following a courtesy bump voicemail and an explanation that this is where Gerald’s Otakon report was originally, Daryl has created a special promo for Erin and Noah that’s all sunshine and rainbows as proof that he is not entirely negative despite being the Hunter Zolomon of podcasting.

As for the Otakon report, here’s a slideshow of the pictures you should totally look at while listening to Gerald’s Otakon report:

You might want to just click this link to view the full gallery at once. Captions by Gerald; no writing in to say “that’s Dr McNinja, dude!” since we already told him.

Here’s the doujin cover Gerald was talking about:
Review: Suzuka (35:21 – 54:45)
Following her highly demoralizing review of everyone’s favorite government crime investigation agent, Zaizen Jotaro, Clarissa really needed something to pick her out of that haze. That’s when Daryl told her to review Suzuka. Funimation has sent us three discs worth of this show. Clearly they hate us. Perhaps Clarissa can elaborate upon our feelings on this show in an upcoming issue of Otaku USA!

Promo: Otaku USA Magazine (54:45 – 56:11)
Did you see that freaking segue we just did? Daryl finally saw Issue 2 last week and was quite glad to see that clown pistols not only got mentioned in print, but the picture appeared as well. Journalistic aspirations: COMPLETED.

Review: Barefoot Gen (56:11 – 1:28:28)
Daryl may claim to be a serious anime fan who discusses serious subjects, but it was his decision to put in the Gap Band song, the sound effect for which made him laugh hysterically as a toddler…and also now. It’s too bad that it was used in GTA San Andreas. Regardless, this is an important work that everyone should at least see once, and it’s kind of annoying Grave of the Fireflies gets all the mainstream Roger Ebert-level praise while this story remains relatively unrecognized.

  • Buy Barefoot Gen: The Movies 1 & 2 (or anything else on the site), and I think we get a percentage if you do so by clicking that link!
  • Last Gasp Publishing, whose press releases seem to suggest that their editions of Barefoot Gen have sold out multiple printings of several thousand copies each. If that’s the case, then where’s the next six volumes? I think the recent volumes of Phoenix sold fewer than 100 copies (really, I’m not exaggerating), but those still come out eventually.
  • Here’s a link to Barefoot Gen Volume One: A Cartoon Story of Hiroshima, which is the first volume of the manga; volumes two, three, and four are all that’s out so far in the US, and it’s been a few years since the last one came out

Closing (1:28:28 – 1:38:14)
People are actually THANKING us for tricking them into watching MD Geist. Must be some crazy variant of Stockholm Syndrome. The current contest is over, since we have entirely too many entries, but there’ll certainly be more contests to come. Next er…time, Daryl is going to talk about Robot Carnival like he was originally going to do this time around. In the weeks to come, he’ll be burning through a bunch of the stuff that Vertical Inc. has released over the last few months. Gerald managed to find one of the few things DMP publishes that isn’t gay porn, Project X: Cup Noodle, which has nothing to do with training chimps to be astronauts. Clarissa, after having been Zaizen’ed and Suzuka’ed, is feeling like murdering children, so it’s only fitting that she review When They Cry: Higurashi, which is one that’s been repeatedly requested of us. Hey, one of us has to review anime, right?

I think Suzuka’s the breaking point: from this point on we’ll try sticking to our original principles of reviewing series in their entirety whenever possible, so when we’ve got just Volume 1 of something, which is happening more and more, we’ll try and do mini-reviews that last something like 5 minutes instead. There’s no other way we’ll get through all of this stuff!

109 Replies to “Anime World Order Show # 58 – No, The Other DA BOMB”

  1. Hey, if you guys got an email from me relating to the iTunes adding Tezuka’s stuff to the catalogue, ignore it. I’m not paying attention to the comments page at AWO enough.

  2. I have a copy of “I Saw It” somewhere in bunch of boxes that I picked up at a discount bin at an A-Kon a few years back. I regard it as an awesome find. I believe it was put out by some company called Educomics with no ads, so there might be some truth to the story that it was published by an anti-war group. I can vividly recall the image of the student whose black school uniform absorbed the radiation from the explosion, causing it to melt into his skin. Another poignant image is the scene when his mother finally succumbs to radiation poisioning and the author, in his 20s, is looking over her remains after she’s cremated and remarks that “there’s no bones. There should be some bones. The radiation took even that from us.”

    The comic is much likely more autobiographical than Gen, even though the mangaka is draws himself as Gen.

  3. You guys getting all political were nauseating in it self but, please, ‘Barefoot Gen’ is a fictional work by someone who happened to be in a vicinity of Hiroshima when the Bomb was dropped. It is not factual. Oh, don’t get me wrong, I like ‘Hadashi no Gen’. It has a certain awkward charm to it kind a like semi incoherent rambling of an angry old man has. But people taking it as a some kind of a true description of the Hiroshima are bit unnerving. Changing scenes like Gen witnessing his siblings and mother’s death when in fact author never did? I can accept them as an artistic license. But what about facts like troops stationed in Hiroshima were British Commonwealth forces in actual History? When Gen meets those foreign soldiers, they should have been Brits, Aussies, or even Indians, but all of them just happen to be an American. Clearly, Keiji Nakazawa has an agenda. I don’t know why a Japanese listener needs to defend America from American anime podcasters on the subject of atomic bomb but here you go.

    (For someone questioning Mr. Pak/Mr. Boku thing, that’s just a case of two different readings of a same kanji.)

  4. For someone questioning Mr. Pak/Mr. Boku thing, that’s just a case of two different readings of a same kanji.

    I wasn’t questioning the name change so much as the fact that the film made no mention of him being Korean. And are you certain that both names are written with the same kanji?

    E. Bernhard Warg
    (Damn! Now I have to import the Japanese Gen manga to check for myself!)

  5. Aw, for fuck’s sake. Sure, Keiji Nakazawa has an agenda–try to understand why this happened, in hopes it doesn’t happen again. There is nothing of the angry old man about BAREFOOT GEN; angry young man is more like it–Nakazawa was 34 years old when he began, writing about experiences that occured when he was six. He didn’t “happen to be in the vicinity” of Hiroshima when the bomb dropped; he lived there. Nakazawa didn’t do BAREFOOT GEN as a substitute for autobiography; he has also told the story of what happened to him and his family specifically in I SAW IT.

    I believe it was necessary to drop the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in order to get the Japanese government to surrender, and that the alternatives would have been worse, both for America and Japan. But I also believe, as does Keiji Nakazawa, that the war was not necessary, and was one of Japan’s choosing, driven by an imperialist and racist agenda for hegemony in Asia that cost millions of lives, most of them not Japanese.

    Nakazawa discusses all of this and more in BAREFOOT GEN. He is definitely not one of those people who thinks Japan was fighting for a noble cause until all of a sudden the evil Americans dropped an atomic bomb on his country for no reason. But he also believed that the sentiments and propaganda that surround a war are not unique to Japan; other nations can fall prey to them. AWO heard a few things in BAREFOOT GEN that sounded a bit familiar.

    It is true that there were non-American troops stationed in Hiroshima during the Occupation, but Japan was not like Germany, where policies were determined by the Four Powers; it was for all practical purposes a unitary American zone driven by American policy directives. Although Commonwealth soldiers, most particularly the Australians, played a significant role in the fight against Japan, the actual campaign against the mainland, not to mention the strategic bombing campaign against Japan, and of course the atomic bomb itself, was largely an American show. To not show encounters with Commonwealth soldiers does not distort the political realities of postwar Japan; the British, Australians, and Indians made few decisions that would have affected Keiji Nakazawa as a boy, whereas the Americans made ones that still affect his life today.

    Bad as everything else modern war can do, nuclear weapons are the worst of all. There have been many wars since 1945, but no one has dared use these bombs again, and part of the reason is the example of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The lesson, too, could have been a lot worse. If for some reason the war had ended before the atomic bombs were actually used, their first use in warfare might have come later, in the 1950s or 60s–at a time when more than one country had them, so that their use would have triggered an exchange, and many more lives lost than in the atomic bombings of 1945. Maybe the warning they gave the future was in the end more important than the sins of the past they punished.

    –C.

  6. carl: “I believe it was necessary to drop the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in order to get the Japanese government to surrender, and that the alternatives would have been worse, both for America and Japan.”

    Wow, you’re very pragmatic for a Japanophile. I would’ve imagined you’d lean closer to Oshii’s viewpoints. I don’t entirely feel the bombings were necessary, since I agree with the possibility that it was really about the U.S. trying to beat the Soviets to the finish line. However, as long as the Japanese keep backing down on the comfort women issue, I can’t entirely sympathize with the pain of the victims.

    “But I also believe, as does Keiji Nakazawa, that the war was not necessary, and was one of Japan’s choosing, driven by an imperialist and racist agenda for hegemony in Asia that cost millions of lives, most of them not Japanese.”

    Does Nakazawa acknowledge the racism in his books? From what I understand, I’ve only heard the Japanese concede the war as an imperialist venture, not one of genocide. Or at least the way the LDP keeps trying to white-out its own history books makes me believe that, anyway. [I wanted to ask Takahata’s thoughts on the subject of revisionism after he admitted that it was Japan’s fault for invading China. But I stopped, because I thought having to blame the same country in which you were attacked for the suffering you endured already shows a lot of courage. In fact, people were in the audience were applauding when he made that statement. This was at that L.A. screening of Grave of the Fireflies, which didn’t get much attention, in spite of a report at http://www.animenewsservice.com/archives/takahata.htm
    . ] But a guy I knew said he met a Japanese girl who didn’t know a thing about Nanking until he brought her to a survivor.

    “There have been many wars since 1945, but no one has dared use these bombs again,”

    You’re almost correct. We’re still waiting for Bush to fuck even more by using them on Iran.

  7. Definitely. A scene that made a big impression on me as a kid (I first read BAREFOOT GEN when I was 11) is Gen’s dad literally hitting him across the room for singing a song making fun of Koreans. Gen is genuinely bewildered as to why he did it, since “everyone says Koreans and Chinese are stupid.” His dad tells him it’s propaganda made up to support the war, and shows images of them being worked to death as conscript labor, saying “it makes me ashamed to be Japanese.” The dad then says “you should respect men of any nationality.” Obviously it’s a lecture, but the point is Nakazawa wanted the young readers of BAREFOOT GEN (it originally ran in Shonen Jump!) to understand that the war wasn’t for the liberation of Asia–unless “liberation” meant replacing European colonial masters with Japanese colonial masters.

    I love Isao Takahata, and I feel that GRAVE OF THE FIREFLIES is also a story about specific people and not merely an “anti-war” story. In both stories, we see that a lot of the suffering the main characters endure is from their neighbors and “fellow Japanese”–even in times of total war, some people still have more than others, and look out for their own interests instead of helping. Seita and Setsuko would not have been on their path to death had it not been for our firebombing of Kobe, but in the end it wasn’t the Americans who abandoned them to their fate. Takahata, I understand, has gone farther, and blamed Seita’s pride for his and his sister’s fate, although considering his age, condemning his poor judgement perhaps seems a bit too harsh.

    I’m not blase about what we did to Japan–it was brutal and ruthless, even if I think it was the best of an already horrible situation. I also think that the Japanese should never have felt ashamed about losing to us, per se. It’s not like they were ever cowards or didn’t put up a good fight–in the end it took fucking *ATOMIC BOMBS* to make them surrender. Japan was no joke to the people who had to fight against it.

    The proper place for the shame is towards the reasons why the war was fought in the first place–but because it is difficult to say noble causes weren’t so noble, people tend to transfer the pity and sorrow to the military defeat. I think a similar thing happened with the South in American history, which fought with courage and skill, but in a cause that wasn’t worthy of those honorable qualities (“It wasn’t about owning slaves…it was about states’ rights!” “States’ rights to do what?” “Well, you know, like…the right to own slaves, for instance!”)

  8. carl: “Definitely. A scene that made a big impression on me as a kid (I first read BAREFOOT GEN when I was 11) is Gen’s dad literally hitting him across the room for singing a song making fun of Koreans.”

    Interesting. I remember a Korean reviewer at IMDB being offended by Grave of the Fireflies, because he(she?) felt it trivialized Japanese mistreatment of SE Asians during the war. I’d kind of like to check the manga and/or anime out when I can still hold my lunch….

    “(it originally ran in Shonen Jump!)”

    Considering this is the mag which spawned Hokuto No Ken and Riki Oh, I’m not really surprised Gen made it to Jump.

    “–even in times of total war, some people still have more than others, and look out for their own interests instead of helping.”

    Nowadays we call them chicken-hawks. ^_-

    “Takahata, I understand, has gone farther, and blamed Seita’s pride for his and his sister’s fate, although considering his age, condemning his poor judgement perhaps seems a bit too harsh.”

    I thought it was harsh, because he was in a damned-if-you-do, damned-if-you-don’t situation. If he stayed, he could have just as easily died from firebombing, if not starvation. Plus his aunt was a selfish bitch who seemed removed from the reality of the situation. Still, I do agree that he shouldn’t have been so stubborn for so long.

    “The proper place for the shame is towards the reasons why the war was fought in the first place–but because it is difficult to say noble causes weren’t so noble, people tend to transfer the pity and sorrow to the military defeat.”

    I’d imagine that, after the first WW, they learned from the West that, to get what they wanted, they’d have to resort to imperialism. The Japanese were war-like before, but back in the feudal period, it had more to do with power struggles than the size of their penises.

  9. All of Phoenix can be downloaded from iTunes for $9.99. Pretty cheap for 13 episodes of anime. They also have Blackjack and 80s Astro Boy. I’d imagine they are dubbed.

  10. I wasn’t questioning the name change so much as the fact that the film made no mention of him being Korean. And are you certain that both names are written with the same kanji?

    His name is “?”, Japanese reading of it is “Boku” while Korean reading of it is “Pak”. The name alone makes it clear for audience, at least ethnically, that Mr. Pak/Mr. Boku is a Korean as it is a common Korean family name. This change was actually criticized as historical inaccuracies since reading of Korean name in Korean way is a fairly modern thing.

    Aw, for fuck’s sake. Sure, Keiji Nakazawa has an agenda–try to understand why this happened, in hopes it doesn’t happen again. There is nothing of the angry old man about BAREFOOT GEN; angry young man is more like it–Nakazawa was 34 years old when he began, writing about experiences that occured(sic) when he was six.

    You mean there isn’t anti-American agenda in it? Maybe things were changed in English translation, but ‘Hadashi no Gen’ is dripping with pure hatred of America. Changing Allied forces made up of Commonwealth troops into an all American troop is just one instance of it. And I wasn’t referring to the author’s age when I described ‘Barefoot Gen’ as a ranting of angry old man, but to the mannerism of it. I think they’re two kinds of ranting, angry-old-man type and impressionable-college-student type. The former would be ‘Barefoot Gen’ and works like ‘Oishinbo’ and I enjoy these, while the latter would be stuff like ‘Gomanism’ and such which I avoid. Both types like to get on their soapbox but while former lacks condescending tone and are more like pure venting, the latter has that ‘unless you agree with me you are a complete retard’ air to it.

    I don’t entirely feel the bombings were necessary, since I agree with the possibility that it was really about the U.S. trying to beat the Soviets to the finish line.

    Actually, some Japanese people appreciate that decision. We don’t need to look any further than North and South Korea to see what a total tragedy it would have been if surrendering of Japan were delayed even if by a week to allow Soviets to get a hold of Hokkaido or more. Heck, if the bomb were dropped earlier we wouldn’t have the sticky territorial dispute between Japan and Russia that is still the biggest issue between the two nations.

    Does Nakazawa acknowledge the racism in his books? From what I understand, I’ve only heard the Japanese concede the war as an imperialist venture, not one of genocide. Or at least the way the LDP keeps trying to white-out its own history books makes me believe that, anyway.

    Few months ago ‘Barefoot Gen’ made news when Japanese Foreign Minister Aso (the favorite politician among the Otaku) distributed English copies of it in Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty meeting, and it got quite a reaction from right wings here in Japan. You see, right wings in Japan hate ‘Gen’ for their perceived excessive negative portrayal of Japan. They especially take umbrage to Gen’s ranting against the Emperor. They feel ‘Gen’ started off as an anti-American manga but ended up as a flaming anti-Japan manga.

  11. So in keeping with our dire work ethic for the past…year, there’s no new episode this week. The latest raw recording is three and a half hours long, so we’ll probably cut it in two. Of course, I have AWA panels I’m so not ready for, and that’s two weeks away, so they’ll be out when they’re done. I’ve been told that most people using podcatcher software set it up to just download the latest episode in the feed, so if we release both on the same day a lot of people might never get the other part, but that’s THEIR problem!

    MY problem is that I’m just don’t care for understanding the deep secrets of Evangelion (because Neil Nadelman dared to reveal them). The forum posts where people can’t understand that Gerald and I are two different people are pretty good too. Mind you, I have no problem with Aaron Clark–in fact, his site’s an excellent resource that’s worth reading provided you care enough, and there’s multiple Carl Horn forum posts!–but from looking at the profiles of the most hilarious anti-Daryl posters, it’s no surprise that someone from Ireland is at the bottom of this. It’s not MY fault that Garth Ennis totally sucks, dude.

    Does Nakazawa acknowledge the racism in his books?

    So what you’re really saying in this sentence is that you didn’t even listen to the podcast? Yet you’re posting anyway?

    I’d imagine that, after the first WW, they learned from the West that, to get what they wanted, they’d have to resort to imperialism.

    I’d imagine that’s probably not true considering the small fact that the Sino-Japanese war was about twenty years BEFORE World War I.

    ‘Hadashi no Gen’ is dripping with pure hatred of America. Changing Allied forces made up of Commonwealth troops into an all American troop is just one instance of it.

    Uh, what? Okay, two things. One: they DO mention the existence of your much-vaunted Commonwealth troops practically every single time the children are forced to recite anti-Allied slogans since they have to curse the Americans and the British. That part I talked about where people were being forced to step on drawings on the sidewalk? The drawings are of Roosevelt and Churchill. Two: as both Gerald and I made specific note of, for whatever amount of anti-foreigner sentiment that gets expressed in Barefoot Gen–sentiment that is explicitly pointed out as being misguided and inaccurate–FAR more time is devoted to all the wrongdoings that the Japanese inflict upon one another as well as others.

    Nakazawa’s message is not “I hate America because they bombed us and lured our women away with their huge American penises and ‘once you go Caucasian, you never go Asian’ T-shirts,” nor is it “I hate Japan because THAT’S WHAT LIBRULS DO IS HATE THEIR OWN COUNTRY, AM I RITE GUYS?” If people can’t decide whether Barefoot Gen is anti-American or anti-Japanese, then maybe, just maybe, that means that it’s actually just plain ol’ anti-war.

  12. You mean the thing I just wrote about and linked to in the comment that’s directly above yours? I guess everything I write or say is too long after all, so I may as well keep going along those lines.

    Look. We don’t really “hate” Evangelion. Hell, most of us bought the super cool Platinum Editions in the individual disc + box release just because we wanted the extras. I happen to think the show itself is “just okay,” which is a crime punishable by death among superfans for which the only fathomable response is “clearly you’re too stupid to understand and appreciate its genius; watch it again.” There’s a lot of things that are “average/just okay” with monumentally defensive fans who consider it a life-changing experience, and anyone who thinks otherwise needs the hammer brought down upon them: Firefly, Harry Potter, Watchmen, Sandman, Transmetropolitan, etc. And I’ve mentioned it as a personal character flaw, but when I watch something and think “well, it wasn’t bad or anything, but I don’t see what all the fuss is about” and am met with vitriol, that’ll make me start not liking it. I shouldn’t do that. I should evaluate works on their own merit and “hate the playas, not the game.” But I often can’t. This is why I’ll be waiting a while yet before I watch Haruhi or Ouran anything.

    Like I said, my “crime” is watching through Evangelion and not really caring, even when it was through bootleg VHS tapes that preceded ADV’s release in the US. I’ll respect the show for its influence on shows which followed it, and in that regard it has forever cemented its place in history. I just don’t LIKE that influence all that much. TV’s Patrick Macias once made the interesting observation that the Japanese Wikipedia entry for Eva contains absolutely nothing regarding analysis or symbolism or “what does it all MEAN?” whereas that accounts for a majority of the English Wikipedia entry for it.

    But here’s the thing: everyone already knows about Evangelion. If they haven’t seen it, either through its multiple releases on video and DVD or through its television broadcast on Adult Swim, they at least know that it exists. It’s not like people are going to go check out Evangelion because they never heard about it until hearing us talk about it on this show.

    Therefore, it is a better use of our time to talk about things that may not have been quite so intensely scrutinized for over a decade. After I reviewed Gundam SEED Destiny in one of our earliest episodes, I realized it was wholly unnecessary for me to talk about Gundam on this show since anime fans already what Gundam is and whether or not they like it. That’s the same reason we’ve mostly not reviewed Studio Ghibli films or the current Shonen Jump titles everyone’s watching every week. It’s not that we dislike them, but everyone already knows that stuff is worth watching. There’s OTHER stuff out there too.

    Someone out there should do a podcast entirely about Gundam. They’d never run out of things to talk about, and no, Destroy All Podcasts DX doesn’t quite count. Same thing goes for the Ghibli movies (someone was actually planning this), Pokemon, and yes, Evangelion. You could go through them episode by episode/film by film, or talk about a recurring theme. The Annotated Alchemist podcast did a similar approach for Fullmetal Alchemist. That excerpt from Show 15 is merely stating “if you really want to hear someone talk about that in detail, those guys over there will do a better job than we have the time/inclination/ability for.”

  13. Hey, fuck this shit – Fox is about to drop the atomic bomb of AWESOME just in time for my birthday later this month. Just think about the ramifications of 5 extra minutes of Commando that weren’t good enough to make it into the movie in the first place. Buy one for your grandmother and then throw a pipe through her chest OOPS SPOILERS!

  14. So, on that note Daryl (the note of talking about things no one knows about) would it be of interest to talk about Kemonozume, Mushishi or the old school classic Future Boy Conan? The latter definitely keeps with the anti-war theme of things, and while yes, it is Miyazaki, I find that it is not that known and quite different from what people expect as “Ghibli.” Now I know that Kemonozume was mentioned in passing in a previous episode, but perhaps it deserves more attention? Sorry for the random “hey guys review this” post but, I just thought of mentioning some quality shows to cleanse the palette from the horror of the Humanoid and Angel Cop… especially since it was reviewed TWICE here and on Fast Karate!

    PS: thanks for all the show notes on the Barefoot Gen manga. Much appreciated.

  15. daryl: “So what you’re really saying in this sentence is that you didn’t even listen to the podcast? Yet you’re posting anyway?”

    When are you gonna finish Suzuka before commenting on it?

    “I’d imagine that’s probably not true considering the small fact that the Sino-Japanese war was about twenty years BEFORE World War I.”

    But that wasn’t really a war of imperialism.

    “Look. We don’t really “hate” Evangelion.”

    I do.

    “I happen to think the show itself is “just okay,” which is a crime punishable by death among superfans for which the only fathomable response is “clearly you’re too stupid to understand and appreciate its genius; watch it again.”

    I like calling them Evantologists. I’m hoping it’ll catch on like Narutards.

    “There’s a lot of things that are “average/just okay” with monumentally defensive fans who consider it a life-changing experience, and anyone who thinks otherwise needs the hammer brought down upon them: Firefly, Harry Potter, Watchmen, Sandman, Transmetropolitan, etc.”

    You have some balls going after Watchmen. Not that I liked it much, either, but Alan Moore made it possible for comic companies to cash in on shitty endings, and I guess he deserves credit for that for some reason. Anyway, I still feel sorry for him that the Wachowskis raped V for Vendetta.

    “Like I said, my “crime” is watching through Evangelion and not really caring, even when it was through bootleg VHS tapes that preceded ADV’s release in the US.”

    Yeah, well just consider it karma for them cashing on Daicon without paying the proper copyright holders, either. Hell, I saw FLCL fansubbed and legally, and it sucked, too. That’s why I like to call them Great Hacks. There are a other anime I’m gradually paying for, just so I can get some good karma myself, [Though it’s a shame I couldn’t do that for VGAi, as that’s the only Katsura series I can stand…]but I really don’t feel like doing it for Eva. In fact, I’d sooner to it for Macross 7 than Eva, since at least Macross 7 doesn’t suffer from the same pretension as the latter series.
    I’m paying to be entertained, not to sit through Anno’s personal baggage.

    “I’ll respect the show for its influence on shows which followed it,”

    Shows with whiny and annoying teens isn’t what I’d consider to be a major influence.

  16. Daryl is right, I mean I have watch Haruhi and it is not nothing out of the extraordinary and Ouran is good but is good because there is nothing of the romance crap that every harem show shows.

    I liked the original ending of Evangelion but I do not own anything Eva, AWO helped me in the way that I re discovered old anime and old creators that I enjoyed in the past, such as Tezuka.

    Back in the day I used to watch the 80’s Astroboy and I never thought that the same mind would create Ode to Hirihito and Phoenix ( not to say that there is anything wrong with astro but in some aspects is a kids show while Kirihito and Phoenix cannot be fully appreciated with a 7 to 12 years old mentality, and now not to say that they are dumb but at that age I was thinking about different stuff))

    Also we need a Podcast about Gundam people, I would definately would like the episode in which they talk about G Gundam …. well I guess all my words went down the drain, right?
    Well I do not care G-Gundam was AWESOME!

  17. Ah, I see you’ve realised that Eva Monkey picked up on your mentioning of their forum in ep 15. Yes, ’twas I that reported your tirade against Evangelion to the EvaMonkey masses! Well, I didn’t actually “report” it, I just mentioned that I’d found the site through it’s mentioning in ep 15 of AWO and then Aaron Clark investigated and that resulted in the news item.

    Anyway, I don’t really mind that you dislike Evangelion – it’s the fact you said RahXephon was superior that really made me wonder! I mean W-T-F?! Also, you said that you don’t cover Eva because, much like Gundam and the Ghibli films, everyone has heard of them. This is true, yeah – but I would have thought that would be a reason to cover Evangelion, rather than a reason not to. I’m pretty sure people that have put up with listening to you guys for 58 episodes would like to know what you think of these popular shows – I know I would! So, get to work on it! You could talk about the Rebuild movie too and all that!

    Besides, everyone knows that Clarissa’s opinion is the most important and she didn’t say much about Evangelion in ep 15!

    @Gerald: In your (very enjoyable, btw!) OtaKon report you said you went to an Irish restaraunt called Tír na NÓg – just want to let you know that you pronounced that wrong. It’s ‘Teer neh Nouge (with the ‘ouge’ sounding as it does in rouge)” rather than “Teer nah Nogg” – LOL

    Keep up with good work Surat, Rathkolb and Graffeo!

  18. Also, Daryl – I’m not anti-Daryl! How dare you accuse me of such a thing! In fact, I praised your podcast on those forums! I’m just “anti-Daryl” when you rip on my favorite anime, just like anyone would be!

    ^_^

  19. What is it with all the hate? I thought Eva was just a TV show.

    I for one am grateful that we have easy access to so much anime that what we love can peacefully co-exist with what we don’t. And I have yet to experience a single personal conversation with anyone that ends with us spitting poison at each other over our differences. That sort of behavior seems to exist only online where everyone can shoot off their virtual mouths without looking each other in the eye. Come to think of it, this also happened in various fanzines, newsletters, and APAs, that existed pre-internet. That was another case where nobody had to look each other in the eye.

    Looks like talking is still better than typing.

  20. erwin: “not to say that there is anything wrong with astro but in some aspects is a kids show while Kirihito and Phoenix cannot be fully appreciated with a 7 to 12 years old mentality,”

    I was interested in Phoenix when I read about it in Fred’s Dreamland Japan book in my mid-teens. But then I liked adult material even back then, and I was bored with the Bays and Emmerichs of the world. I just wish Banana Fish didn’t end up sucking, because Fred made it look really cool, when all it did was rip off Akira’s art style, without its approach to story-telling. But yeah, AWO, no one talks about BF, so there’s another title you can cover.

  21. Re: Kenji Kodama and Michihiko Suwa, I feel bad for not going since City Hunter and Detective Conan are my favorite shows ever, but part of me is more interested in what they produce than the inner workings of how they do it.

    And Daryl, who’s this Barefoot Jen you keep talking about in the show, and is she hot?

  22. What is Banana fish?
    Also mid teen years I guess are between thirteen and nineteen so I guess that would be around fifteen and sixteen, and not between 7 and 12, right?
    You have to help me here cuz English is not my first language 😛

  23. Yeah, but many people are pretty immature at 15 and 16, too. And judging by the success of Transformers, some people never grow up.

    A friend once saw a picture from a transformers con with a baby in a shirt that read “Trans-fans: We start them young”. She was incredibly pissed that so many adults (at least enough to make such a shirt profitable) could forget that it’s a show for 5 year olds (and one that nobody in Japan watches).

  24. I am only hoping that the Robotech life action movie earns enough money for the Macross: Do You Remember Love? movie to be released in the states.
    But then again it can back fired in a really horrible way 🙁
    Spider-man do it RIGHT!

  25. The success or failure of the proposed live action Robotech movie has not one thing to do with Bandai Visual USA choosing to release Macross: Do You Remember Love in the U.S.

    And yet, in a way, it DOES.

    I think Harmony Gold sees their little eternal cash cow about to be taken away. We’ve got this big whoop-de-do anniversery for Macross coming up, Bandai is the master licenser for all manner of goodies, and the bizzaro eternal contract HG somehow snaked out of Tatsunoko and Big West is gonna keep them from pouring stuff out all over the world, because sure as shit Bandai has no interest in paying HG any royalties just to place Macross stuff in Korea and Singapore and maybe, maybe even in the US.

    Tatsunoko and Big West have tried several times to break HG’s contract but the courts have sided with HG, mostly because they can’t find a reason NOT to. but now, there’s precedent.

    There’s been a similar case with Tsuburaya and Ultraman, where a contract to export and license overseas could’t be broken even in the face of what surely looks like obvious forgery. Finally common sense prevailed and Tsuburaya won. Not that this has resulted in a sudden flood of Ultraman coming to the US, because Tsuburaya doesn’t know SHIT about what to do or how to do it to get here, but that’s another issue for another time.

    What’s partially held Tatsunoko and Big West back from rescuing Macross from Harmony Gold has been money. They just couldn’t pour endless money into the suit. But now that Bandai has a vested interest in rolling out huge amounts of Macross stuff across the globe, THEY might chip in and make something happen.

    And that’s why I think HG is suddenly gung-ho over a live movie. You damn well KNOW that there won’t be a drop of Macross to be seen in it and everything will look maybe kinda LIKE Macross but it won’t. I’d expect some name changes too, the names that were more-or-less carried over from Macross like Roy Focker.

    Which at some point COULD result in Macross :DYRL getting a US release. Assuming Bandai Visual USA is still in business then….

  26. steve: “The success or failure of the proposed live action Robotech movie has not one thing to do with Bandai Visual USA choosing to release Macross: Do You Remember Love in the U.S.”

    I think DYRL is still tied up with that *other* kid company which liked to ruin anime before the one which picked up Pokemon. ( http://www.pelleas.net/aniBBS/viewtopic.php?t=65&start=0
    http://www.pelleas.net/aniBBS/viewtopic.php?t=23&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=45
    )
    Animeigo said that they tried looking into it, but don’t know who has it.

    It’d be nice if we got Dallos one day, too, but BV will probably charge an arm and a leg for it. I suggest y’all find leftover or used copies of the CPM Patlabor before that gets a price-jacking from them, too.

    “We’ve got this big whoop-de-do anniversery for Macross coming up, Bandai is the master licenser for all manner of goodies, and the bizzaro eternal contract HG somehow snaked out of Tatsunoko and Big West is gonna keep them from pouring stuff out all over the world, because sure as shit Bandai has no interest in paying HG any royalties just to place Macross stuff in Korea and Singapore and maybe, maybe even in the US.”

    I’m not sure why HG should be the fall-guy here. Tatsunoko and Big West should’ve settled their ownership issues 25 years ago, not
    drag it out in court like Nishizaki’s been doing with Yamato-thus keeping me from seeing the Japanese versions of the show without paying shitty import prices. (Yeah, Toei’s likely to blame for the hold-up, too, but I’m sure it’d be less of an issue if they weren’t worried about being sued by either him or Matsumoto before the case is resolved.)

    “Not that this has resulted in a sudden flood of Ultraman coming to the US, because Tsuburaya doesn’t know SHIT about what to do or how to do it to get here, but that’s another issue for another time.”

    That’s not really fair to Tsuburaya. The one good thing 4Kids
    did was for Ultraman Tiga: They kept the Japanese actors instead of going the Saban route and casting talentless gaijin in their place.
    But that show still bombed, because
    Saban killed the genre with Superhero Samurai Cyber Squad, and kids moved on to anime knock-offs like Loonatics.(
    http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/223809 )

    Although there were kids who’ve gone to the Godzilla subbed screenings I’ve attended, but Godzilla’s more iconic here than Ultraman, anyway. (That Australian remake probably didn’t help matters much, either, since it had a crappy timeslot, even though it was so much better than the Saban versions of sentai shows.)

    “What’s partially held Tatsunoko and Big West back from rescuing Macross from Harmony Gold has been money. They just couldn’t pour endless money into the suit. But now that Bandai has a vested interest in rolling out huge amounts of Macross stuff across the globe, THEY might chip in and make something happen.”

    Yeah, I really want Bandai Visual to have Macross, so I can pay four times what I currently do for what’s already out there. And I really want to be raped up the ass by a Japanese record company’s fees for the shitty music played in Macross 7.

    At least they’re not yet as bad as American record companies[*cough* WKRP *cough*], but they could easily take a loss on certain song fees and get more exposure and sales here, instead of just demanding the money upfront and cutting songs out of certain shows when they don’t get paid. It’s that kind of short-sighted thinking which killed One Piece’s chances of success in the U.S.

    Anyway, rant aside, middle-men like HG are great if they keep prices down for me. However, they suck when they keep prices up.

    “And that’s why I think HG is suddenly gung-ho over a live movie. You damn well KNOW that there won’t be a drop of Macross to be seen in it and everything will look maybe kinda LIKE Macross but it won’t.”

    If it’s anything like that Michael Baytion movie, Stealth will probably look more like Macross/Robotech than it.

  27. There’s been a similar case with Tsuburaya and Ultraman, where a contract to export and license overseas could’t be broken even in the face of what surely looks like obvious forgery. Finally common sense prevailed and Tsuburaya won.

    Are you sure? If Tsuburaya won, why, when BCI contacted them, were they told that Chaiyo had the US rights? I bought the DVDs as soon as they were released over here, but I’d be willing to re-buy them if they were equal to the Japanese ones, with digitally restored picture, original mono and remixed stereo for each episode (plus one 5.1 track per four eps) and, especially, Mighty P-Man!, but it seems rather that Chaiyo still has the rights, so all we can get is what BCI has already put out (which isn’t bad, but could have been so much better if they’d been able to get their source material from Tsuburaya).

    I would love to be proven wrong on this.

    Speaking of proving me wrong…

    His name is “?”, Japanese reading of it is “Boku” while Korean reading of it is “Pak”. The name alone makes it clear for audience, at least ethnically, that Mr. Pak/Mr. Boku is a Korean as it is a common Korean family name. This change was actually criticized as historical inaccuracies since reading of Korean name in Korean way is a fairly modern thing.

    So if I understand you correctly, a Japanese audience watching the film in 1983 would have known he was Korean from his name? And the alternate reading may just have been to make the film more historically accurate? If so, it’s nice to know that the film didn’t tone things on the “pre-bomb” (for want of a better term) side down quite as much as I thought.

    Hell, most of us bought the super cool Platinum Editions in the individual disc + box release just because we wanted the extras.

    I bought the slimcase release, which, as per ADV’s policy at the time, was sans extras. I’ve wondered if I missed anything, but the one “non-slim” Platinum volume I glanced at would seem to indicate I’m not missing much, as all it had was animatics of one ep (interesting, but not worth the extra money), and dub actor commentary on another.

    I happen to think the show itself is “just okay,” which is a crime punishable by death among superfans for which the only fathomable response is “clearly you’re too stupid to understand and appreciate its genius; watch it again”

    What gets me are the Evantologists like the ones who appeared on Otaku Generation a while back who claimed to be experts but never bothered to research who to pronounce “Seele.” I mean, did they not listen to the dialogue when reading the subs? Or did they watch the dub, where it’s pronounced at least three different ways (I need to check the exact number again…)? As a German speaker, I find that Japanese actually does a pretty accurate job of pronouncing many German words (that’s individual words–sentences, *shudder!* as perhaps appropriately proven by the very series were discussing). Don’t get me started on Berg Katze or Michael Ende…

    E. Bernhard Warg
    “Hikari no kuni kara bokura no tame ni…”

  28. I understand that in order to avoid any possible litigation, Skull Squadron leader’s name will be changed to simply “Roy Fucker.”

    When comparing Akimi Yoshida’s art style to Otomo’s, it’s important to make the caveat that the resemblance stops at character designs. However, page for page, volume for volume, BANANA FISH has considerably *more* plot than AKIRA. It’s not necessarily a better or a worse plot–it depends on your tastes–but just, more plot. Characters and plot are really all Yoshida is interested in; to her (as they would not be to Otomo) the implements and backgrounds are unimportant.

    I’m sure Sonoda, Ito, or Hiroe would wince at her portrayal of a revolver in Ash’s hand, which is more likely to look like a zip gun than something turned out by Dan Wesson. But Yoshida is not particularly interested in guns per se; rather, the fact that Ash is good at this sort of violence and faces up to the consequences of it. How cool the gun itself looks doesn’t matter to her. That isn’t a criticism of weapons fetishism in manga; just that I accept what Yoshida is trying to do, because I believe in her case it works. And, without criticizing shojo either (you can’t be a real man without liking some shojo–science doesn’t yet understand why), Yoshida succeeded without leaning on the flowers, flourishes, and sparkles on which her genre often leans. And as Shaenon Garrity pointed out, BANANA FISH is one of the few shojo manga ever written to contain the line “He’s got a grenade launcher!”

    I’m a supporter of both EvaMonkey and AWO, so, you know, yeah.

  29. carl: “However, page for page, volume for volume, BANANA FISH has considerably *more* plot than AKIRA. It’s not necessarily a better or a worse plot–it depends on your tastes–but just, more plot. Characters and plot are really all Yoshida is interested in;”

    Yeah, but BF has none of the mystery or suspense of Akira. The author explains everything from the get-go, giving you little time to get attached to the characters or setting.

    “But Yoshida is not particularly interested in guns per se; rather, the fact that Ash is good at this sort of violence and faces up to the consequences of it.”

    I just don’t buy that side of his character, either. He comes off too much like a powder-keg to ever be
    considered remorseful. He doesn’t have a psychopathic streak in him, but I don’t buy him as a motivated or organized leader, either.

    “And, without criticizing shojo either (you can’t be a real man without liking some shojo–science doesn’t yet understand why),”

    I love Mars myself, but have very few titles I really like. Aishiteruze Baby came close, but the manga-ka kept playing it safe and prevented it from being a classic. I did get a kick out of Utena, but the second season was kind of weak. I used to trash shojo a lot more than I do nowadays, though, so I guess I am warming up to the genre. Still, I’m mostly reading shonen and seinen stuff, because the women don’t feel like carbon copies of each other, even if their men are all Goku/Kinnikuman knock-offs. Though the best female drama I’d seen was Legend of Mother Sarah, but I also wish someone would pick up Deimos again, because if I had known it’d be prematurely canceled, I would have seen it sooner.

    “Yoshida succeeded without leaning on the flowers, flourishes, and sparkles on which her genre often leans.”

    Having been bored with To Terra, I will admit that it’s appreciated, but BF’s too much like a yanki manga where they work out their feelings. That works in Kamikaze Girls, because it’s a parody, but here, they’re taking it seriously.

  30. Are you sure? If Tsuburaya won, why, when BCI contacted them, were they told that Chaiyo had the US rights? I bought the DVDs as soon as they were released over here, but I’d be willing to re-buy them if they were equal to the Japanese ones, with digitally restored picture, original mono and remixed stereo for each episode (plus one 5.1 track per four eps) and, especially, Mighty P-Man!, but it seems rather that Chaiyo still has the rights, so all we can get is what BCI has already put out (which isn’t bad, but could have been so much better if they’d been able to get their source material from Tsuburaya

    When the DVDs were released, they had to go through Chaiyo but only Tsuburaya Pro or as I liked to call them, TPC, had the masters of the United Artists dub, which is why we had the wonderful “Brilliant Color Remaster”.

    For the time being, Chaiyo has rights outside of Japan to the first six shows only (and Jumborg Ace for some reason which they can have for all I care :P) as of the most recent court ruling. For more in-depth info (as I’m too tired to get into details), just check out this article here on SciFi Japan:

    http://www.scifijapan.com/articles/2007/07/01/legal-victories-for-tsuburaya-productions/

    Good news is that once TPC manages to clear all this up, rumor has it that they do intend to release a better set and possibly attempt to sell later shows (i.e Ultra N Project and beyond). For the time being, just keep those arms crossed in the Specium Beam position and pray for the best.

  31. When the DVDs were released, they had to go through Chaiyo but only Tsuburaya Pro or as I liked to call them, TPC,…

    TPC … Terrestrial Peaceable Consortium (or as FUNimation seems to think, The Peace on Earth Coalition)… why did I just notice that now?

    …had the masters of the United Artists dub, which is why we had the wonderful “Brilliant Color Remaster”.

    At least they weren’t edited to match the dub (*cough* Astro Boy *cough*)…

    Good news is that once TPC manages to clear all this up, rumor has it that they do intend to release a better set and possibly attempt to sell later shows (i.e Ultra N Project and beyond). For the time being, just keep those arms crossed in the Specium Beam position and pray for the best.

    Okay, I’ll strap on my Specium Shot I bought in the Dealers’ Closet at the first Otakon, you strap on your Henshin Phone…

    Seriously, though, this is indeed good news. Let’s hope they don’t take business advice from Toei or Bandai Visual…

    E. Bernhard Warg
    (Damn! The batteries in my Specium Shot are dying!)

  32. EBW: As much as I like to trash Bandai Visual, too, I honestly can’t imagine there being a huge demand for WOH. In terms of pacing, it makes Oshii’s movies look like they were directed by John McTiernan. Even the Gainax fans are divided on it-and they love Mahoromatic! I have a feeling this release could actually be a win-win for them.

  33. EBW: As much as I like to trash Bandai Visual, too, I honestly can’t imagine there being a huge demand for WOH.

    Actually, I like WOH, and am planning on buying Bandai Visual’s release of it (though definitely not at full SRP!) once I pay off a few bills (overtime, don’t fail me now!), and I was mostly joking (MOSTLY). Maybe I need to joke less…okay, here goes: I only hope that if there is a new release of Ultraman, with TPC’s remastered video and audio and extras, that it will be priced the same or not too much higher than the previous BCI release, and that it will still use the original Japanese credits for each episode (maybe via the Angle function or seamless branching, if it’s decided to include the US credits when users select the English dub).

    E. Bernhard Warg
    (gotta leave early for work so I can buy batteries…)

  34. EWB: “Actually, I like WOH, and am planning on buying Bandai Visual’s release of it (though definitely not at full SRP!) once I pay off a few bills (overtime, don’t fail me now!),”

    It’s $56 off Amazon.

  35. Citizengeek said,

    @Gerald: In your (very enjoyable, btw!) OtaKon report you said you went to an Irish restaraunt called Tír na NÓg – just want to let you know that you pronounced that wrong. It’s ‘Teer neh Nouge (with the ‘ouge’ sounding as it does in rouge)” rather than “Teer nah Nogg” – LOL

    LOL, mate. You didn’t read my post about said same subject. It’s pronounced “Nóg” as in LOGan from the X-Men. I don’t know what part of Ireland you’ve picked up that pronunciation.

    Probably Donegal.

  36. @eeper,

    I only noticed your explanation after I had posted mine! I think you done a better job of explaining it though. In fact, I was trying to say it was pronouced exactly the same way you were. My Irish is Munster Irish (I’m from Tipperary).

  37. This has absolutely nothing to do with crazy things like Banana Fishes or Tsuburaya, but it’s something cool…

    The To-Y Restoration Committee just released their latest fansub, Bobby’s In Deep, AKA Bobby’s Girl. It’s a classic ’80s OAV animated by the great Koji Morimoto, so you should all go download it!! And if anyone from the TRC is actually reading this post, thanks a lot for subbing awesome stuff like this!!

  38. Oops, accidentally deleted it.

    “But that show still bombed, because
    Saban killed the genre with Superhero Samurai Cyber Squad”

    You are the wrongest person in wrongtown. Saban had nothing to do with Superhuman Samurai Syber-Squad, that was DiC and Tsuburaya.

    Furthermore, that did not kill the genre. SSSS was one of the very early attempts to cash in on the success of Power Rangers and started airing the year after Power Rangers did, and Power Rangers was certainly popular and successful long past its SECOND YEAR.

  39. And if anyone from the TRC is actually reading this post, thanks a lot for subbing awesome stuff like this!!

    You’re welcome. It took us about two years to get this done (18 of those months before teaming up with the To-Y RC), due to issues with the translator, issues with the translation, LD problems, etc. IMHO, the final release looks pretty damn impressive.

    Now, the burning question on everyone’s mind must be: “What are they going to do next?”

    Well, I’ll tell you. The next release from the To-Y RC will be:

    Urban Square. In addition to remastering the video, the ancient VHS script has also been given a new editing scrub and a complete retiming, as the original was done back in the days of slamming the space bar on an Amiga. Look for it…uh…eventually.

  40. karaoke: “You are the wrongest person in wrongtown. Saban had nothing to do with Superhuman Samurai Syber-Squad, that was DiC and Tsuburaya.”

    And there’s a difference between Saban and DiC?

    “Furthermore, that did not kill the genre. SSSS was one of the very early attempts to cash in on the success of Power Rangers and started airing the year after Power Rangers did,”

    Actually, it came out after “VR Troopers” and “Masked Rider”.

    “and Power Rangers was certainly popular and successful long past its SECOND YEAR.”

    Yeah, that movie was huge at the box office…

  41. “And there’s a difference between Saban and DiC?”

    That’s like saying, “There’s a difference between Toho and Toei?” Yeah, they are different companies.

    “Actually, it came out after “VR Troopers” and “Masked Rider”.”

    I know you corrected yourself, but whatever, I said it was one of the early shows cashing in on Power Rangers and it was.

    Many shows followed later, like Tattooed Teenage Alien Fighters from Beverly Hills,Ninja Turtles: The Next Mutation, Big Bad Beetleborgs, Mystic Knights of Tir Na Nog, and various other Amerisatsu shows.

    “Yeah, that movie was huge at the box office…” The box office draw of a spinoff movie has very little to do with the zillion dollars they made off of TV and toys, just like how even though Transformers The Movie was a bomb, the TV show, toyline, comics, and other merchandise made roughly 10 kohillion dollars in the 80’s.

    IMDB says Power Ranger: The Movie made 37 million domestic, but come on, the show has been on the air continuously for 15 years, with new episodes every year, they’ve sold 200 million Power Rangers toys (http://www.allbusiness.com/services/business-services/4521018-3.html), and you’re saying the “genre” of American shows based on tokusatsu died because of Superhuman Samurai Syber-Squad? Please.

    When was Ultraman Tiga on the air in the US? 2002?

  42. No, this is the 100th comment, until I change my mind. Regardless, I’m not really a fan of low content posts that you see very often on blogs: stuff like “first post!” or “downloading now!” Fortunately, it’s not much of an issue here.

    It’s possible that the number of post replies are enough to warrant getting forums, but even disregarding the fact that we’d have to administer and moderate them using the spare time we don’t have as it stands, I’m still unsure whether they’d be necessary. After all, there’s already the Anime Jump forums, Dave and Joel’s forums, and the Greatest Movie EVER! forums. Not to mention the fact that many of the posters on one of those forums post on the others as well.

    Besides, right now with the comments system I can get threats of physical harm by people who sign themselves “anonymous.” Damned steroid-pumping hackers; I can only assume the author of such posts is always Cogswell Pepperbox.

  43. karaoke: “
    That’s like saying, “There’s a difference between Toho and Toei?”

    No, it’s not the same thing, because Toho and Toei don’t specialize in bastardizing and watering down entertainment for Japanese audiences.

    “Many shows followed later, like Tattooed Teenage Alien Fighters from Beverly Hills,Ninja Turtles: The Next Mutation, Big Bad Beetleborgs, Mystic Knights of Tir Na Nog, and various other Amerisatsu shows.”

    Yeah, but no one watched them. And I’m going to bet it was because of SHSCS.

    “The box office draw of a spinoff movie has very little to do with the zillion dollars they made off of TV and toys, just like how even though Transformers The Movie was a bomb, the TV show, toyline, comics, and other merchandise made roughly 10 kohillion dollars in the 80’s.”

    Yeah, but the toys started declining in sales after both movies.

    “IMDB says Power Ranger: The Movie made 37 million domestic, but come on, the show has been on the air continuously for 15 years, with new episodes every year, they’ve sold 200 million Power Rangers toys (http://www.allbusiness.com/services/business-services/4521018-3.html), and you’re saying the “genre” of American shows based on tokusatsu died because of Superhuman Samurai Syber-Squad?”

    Compared to TMNT, that movie’s opening was fairly limp. I mean, Pocahontas did better than it, and kids hate “history”. As for the toys, can you find them in most places like you could in the past?

    “When was Ultraman Tiga on the air in the US? 2002?”

    Yeah, and we haven’t seen anything new since then.

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