Anime World Order Show # 60b – Osamu Tezuka, God of Manga and Morality Plays

Digg Podcasts is apparently too dumb to create new items for feed entries that don’t have unique URLs associated with them, and since there’s over 75 comments in the previous post, we may as well start a new one for what’s technically the same show only not. This is Part 2 of our 60th show and Osamu Tezuka spotlight, containing Gerald’s news segment as well as his review of Vertical Inc’s release of the manga Apollo’s Song.

Let’s News! (0:00 – 36:09)
People in Singapore aren’t exactly happy about all this Odex stuff and are willing to break the law by exercising their non-right to assemble in public to convey their sentiment. As far as being particularly old news even by our standards, DMP is now including the Japanese publisher logos on the front covers of their books, and Genshiken Season 2 has begun in Japan. Pity that Japanese otaku care more about Kujibiki Unbalance, but that’s no doubt due to the fact that Genshiken lost its edge once everyone started having sex with each other. I guess that’s what happens when you follow the path of Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure author and Purple Rain enthusiast Hirohiko Araki, who drew the cover to a American scientific journal.

None of that is related to Osamu Tezuka, which is what we should be talking about. However, Tezuka Productions is working on color adaptations of Osamu Tezuka’s manga. This is an undertaking on the level of digitally remastering and restoring the entire Shaw Brothers film library. For further proof of how far behind the times we are, Daryl reminds everyone of the true definition of moe (bottom of page), since that is what otaku opt to experience instead of love lest they run the risk of their lives ending up like Apollo’s Song. The rest of the news centers on the Geneon situation, and by that we mean “it’s us saying ‘we don’t know!’ for 20 minutes. That everybody got on Daryl’s case for mispronouncing Barefoot Gen but nobody cares about how Geneon is pronounced is no doubt indicative of the real cause behind all this mayhem.

Promo: R5 Central (36:09 – 37:10)
Mike Dent, a man so ashamed of his Xbox Live Gamertag that he doesn’t want anyone to know what it is until he can cough up the $10 or however much it costs to get it changed, has realized that the genius of nominating one’s own self for an award is that you can go around and state that you’re award-nominated! Man. Why didn’t we think of that?

Review: Apollo’s Song (manga) (37:10 – 54:38)
We put that Amazon link in here three times in a feeble attempt to stave off getting emails asking where one can purchase this. In any case, Gerald reviews this publication from Vertical Inc since we figure that with all the stuff they send us, the least we could do is actually read the entire things and discuss them at length. Though given what we discussed in the news segment, perhaps companies prefer to get buzz about releases within a week of the thing actually coming out. Too bad! Daryl should probably get a review of Andromeda Stories Volume 1 up, and now that the new Toward the Terra TV series is over, he can probably talk Volumes 2 and 3 of To Terra as well. Here’s the link to the blog post on Apollo’s Song Daryl mentioned. Curse Jog for getting his in-depth reviews out so shortly after release!

Part 3 of this will be edited and posted…eventually?

86 Replies to “Anime World Order Show # 60b – Osamu Tezuka, God of Manga and Morality Plays”

  1. Back on the Geneon issue once more. I got to thinking that maybe what anime compainies should do to be more successful is.

    1.If the show is 12-13 eps, then it shouldn’t be 3-4 volumes but the complete collection (and have it a price only slight more than what one volume would cost). If the series is longer then it should be released in chunks. Tekkaman Blade was the best release for this. Gaogaigar should have been released liked this.

    2.Try to get more shows on TV. Not just shounen anime or stuff with vampires. With the popularity of shoujo and moe type anime, you’d think there be more stuff like that on TV.

    3.Media Blasters probably has the right idea about shows with only a limited market having just the sub. Those sub only shows are stuff that wouldn’t appeal to the more mainstream anime companies.

    How long will Bandai Visual last till they crash and burn with the business model they have going?

  2. carl: “Listening to the APOLLO’S SONG review, and the chatting about animal sex, put me in mind of the fact Tezuka had certain, well, furry sympathies. Now at first that might seem shocking”

    Well, the last two Phoenix volumes had furries, and one of the earlier ones had a guy married to an ostrich-like chick, so I’m not as shocked as you think. Though his furries are more like “Thundercats”, and not the “Meet the Feebles” stuff which is popular with pervs, so I can live with it.

    vz: “1.If the show is 12-13 eps, then it shouldn’t be 3-4 volumes but the complete collection (and have it a price only slight more than what one volume would cost). If the series is longer then it should be released in chunks. Tekkaman Blade was the best release for this.”

    Tekkaman Blade is a decade-old show with an installed audience, so MB could afford to sell it in bulk.

    “Gaogaigar should have been released liked this.”

    Gaogaigar is an obscure show for mecha fetishists which would probably only do slightly better than BV’s Super Robot Wars-but only because of the cheaper price.

    “Try to get more shows on TV. Not just shounen anime or stuff with vampires. With the popularity of shoujo and moe type anime, you’d think there be more stuff like that on TV.”

    Shonen shows have better merchandising opportunities than shojo shows[at least in the U.S.]. Plus, anime marketing people need to do more to make them stand out from one another. Moe’s not gonna stand a chance of getting a broadcast anytime soon, because AS would have to get a cut of whatever related merchandise the Aki-Otaku jerk off to, and no producer wants to touch any of that with a ten foot pole.

    “Media Blasters probably has the right idea about shows with only a limited market having just the sub. Those sub only shows are stuff that wouldn’t appeal to the more mainstream anime companies.”

    I think Girl’s High dubbed might have found a larger audience than Supergals, but the average person who hasn’t read the manga probably couldn’t tell the anime covers from anything else out there. But the risque content is what would really prevent it from being bigger.

    “How long will Bandai Visual last till they crash and burn with the business model they have going?”

    It’ll probably be when they attempt to sell something in the $150-$200 price range.

  3. Uh, oh. The (series?) director of Genshiken 2 doesn’t have much of a resume… he was the character designer on La Blue Girl and worked on a bunch of hentai anime.

    The pacing of the first two episodes is painfully slow. It’s somewhat understandable, since the OVAs covered some of the more interesting plot points and introduced Ogiue. Genshiken 2 is starting off at a valley in the plotline. They should have compressed these two episodes into one, and gone right to tranny Kohsaka.

  4. Hey, at least in Genshiken 2 they actually stay on-model the entire episode.

    (apparently the opening video was directed by Satoshi Urushihara, not that I’m sure what this means outside of porn; it looks good, anyway, though it’s too long)

  5. Speaking of Christian, Cream Lemon Escalation is LOL since it takes place in an all girls Catholic School., with lots of bondage and SM stuff.

    Hentai now sucks since they either go too far or just have crappy production values. I’d like to check out Lady Innocent sometime though.

  6. Gerald: When you mentioned that the American voice of the professor in Robot Carnival, are you sure it wasn’t Steve Kramer? According to ANN, he’s been very active to this day.

  7. hWill you guys be reviwing obscure hentai anytime soon? Hopefully some Cream lemon.

    I hope you don’t mind me posting comments so frequently here since a response would be faster than if I e-mailed you.

    I can never get into watching karas, the msot would be a few minutes )and im a sentai fan mind you). The 3D and 2D art didn’t mix well and all. I did like Shinesman though. I know Clarissa hated that girl with the green hair but she was my favorite character on there. I guess I like air head anime girls.

  8. One of the programmers at Nintendo must really love Jojo, because one of the bosses requires fighting like Jotaro.

  9. Tonight I watched two really old hentai. Legend of Lyon: Flare and Dragon Knight.

    Lyon, with its high quality animation for a hentai show, was pretty ground breaking anime at the time it came out. But all I could remember from it is Sayla from Gundam moaning while being tentacly raped. I know most of them do lend their voice to hentai game/anime, but damn some voice actress just shouldn’t do it.

  10. I always wanted to see Dragon Knight ever since I saw a pic of the main girl in a magazine a decade ago. Was OK but nothing outstanding and the nimation was sup par for an OVA release. The girls were nice though.

    I watch the first ep of Clannad. God, so dull. I liked the 2006 Kanon in the ironic entertainment sort of way but now it seems like Kyoani wants to make all of the Key games into anime. Anime based on dating sim games tends to be dull. I watched one ep of the OVA version of Tokimeki Memorial. i couldn’t even make it to the second ep (two, hour long eps). I have the art book for the characters tough.

    I love listening to that segmet Clarissa did when reviewed Kanon. “Not only to they act retarded, they LOOK retarded.”

  11. VZ:”I always wanted to see Dragon Knight ever since I saw a pic of the main girl in a magazine a decade ago. Was OK but nothing outstanding and the nimation was sup par for an OVA release. The girls were nice though.”

    Maybe you already know this…but Dragon Knight was actually based on one in a fairly successful series of erogames. The main girl (Luna, as I recall) was older in Dragon Knight 3 (aka Knights of Xentar, released in English a long time ago), so it’s possible you saw a picture of her in that (as opposed to how she looks in the original game or hentai adaptation). There’s no animated version of that one though (AFAIK).

    Btw, the eroanime version of Dragon Knight 4 (aka “The Wheel of Time” I believe, which is also available in English) is actually better in my opinion.

    The animation’s nicer and the plot is fairly developed (for an eroanime, that is) over its four OVAs. The h-scenes are pretty short but do the work, I guess.

    Heck, I even remember playing a non-H version of the DK4 game on a SNES emulator for weeks, since it was a pretty good SRPG (kept getting killed too many times though).

    As for Lyon Flare…I spent a fairly long time identifying an animated GIF from it, so I guess that counts for something. Didn’t really like it much though, once I found the whole thing.

  12. Man, y’all really should be trying to salvage “Adventures of the Mini Goddess” from Geneon for its Yamato and GE999 parodies alone. [Though I imagine you’re really hoping ADV will get it, and sell it cheaper.] I was kind of disappointed by their spoof of Berserk and Bastard, though.

  13. Nah, the picture was of Luna and it was from that OVA. Yes, I know that Dragon Knight started as an ero game.

    Toshihiro Hirano did the character designs from Legend of Lyon Flare (plus Iczer-1, the Cream Lemon Don’t Do It Mako episodes, Vampire Princess Miyu and Part -1 of Megazone 23 plus some other OVA’s from the 80’s). One of my favorite chaarcter designers of all time.

  14. >>Toshihiro Hirano did the character designs from Legend of Lyon Flare (plus Iczer-1, the Cream Lemon Don’t Do It Mako episodes, Vampire Princess Miyu and Part -1 of Megazone 23 plus some other OVA’s from the 80’s). One of my favorite chaarcter designers of all time.

    Word.

  15. Reviewing Cream Lemon is sort of like reviewing a film festival. Each episode, aside from the Ami storyline (which sort of generally exemplifies many bad things about hentai, although does take the crazy path of saying having sex with your sister is not a good idea) is its own director, writers, and character designer so that makes it, as a whole hard to review. I would like to review Pop Chaser at some point since some pretty significant talent worked on it and it’s a very entertaining show in its own right, but we’ll see since we haven’t done a hentai review in a long time.

    And yeah, Dragon Knight. Kinda takes me back to the days of the Electronic Gaming Monthy’s 1990 or 91 Video Game Buyers Guide, Babes Too Hot For The US Award. I guess anyone who talks about it knows that one of those games was released here as Knights of Xentar by the now defunct Megatech Games. The main character was dubbed as a surfer and named Desmond and the game constantly broke the forth wall and generally took the Samurai Pizza Cats approach to adaptation in throwing everything out for being rather off the wall.

    And on the subject. There was actually another Dragon Knight anime released in the US by ADV Films known only as Dragon Knight: Another Knight on the Town which didn’t follow any particular game and had very different character designs.

    I know most of them do lend their voice to hentai game/anime, but damn some voice actress just shouldn’t do it.

    Eh, whatever pays the bills. I mean so many famous names have, Yoshiko Sakakibara, Norio Wakamoto, Tomoko Kawakami, Kikuko Inoue, Yumi Takada, just to name a few, hell the English dub of Twin Dolls used virtually all the cast of Pokemon!

  16. I remember Dragon Knight being advertised in computer-gaming magazines during the 1990s. The ad picture was a stereotypical big-breasted anime girl being molested by tentacles.

  17. I remember Dragon Knight being advertised in computer-gaming magazines during the 1990s. The ad picture was a stereotypical big-breasted anime girl being molested by tentacles.

    1) Most of the girls weren’t big breasted, and certainly by today’s standards they’re quite “normally breasted”

    2) The series had no tentacles so you must be thinking of something else, perhaps the VHS cover shot which has a girl tied up, but with no tentacles present. Tied up ? tentacles.

    SEMANTICS, let’s get our molestation and our tentacle molestation clear here! 🙂

    And on a completely different subject, Kaiji, good show or not?

  18. So far, my favorite Cream Lemon of the ones I’ve watched was Dream Colored Bunny. Crazy shit appears just because the animators wanted it. For example you see a Machine Robo style robot transform (with the driver STILL inside).

    >2) The series had no tentacles so you must be thinking of something else, perhaps the VHS cover shot which has a girl tied up, but with no tentacles present. Tied up ? tentacles.< He’s talking about the cover to the Dragon Knight III game. It has Luna being held by a big blue demon guy with a tenticle wrapped around her leg plus a bunch of other flailing around. Today I watched a really obscure hentai OVA called Yun Yun Paradise (seriously I can’t find any info on this, not even on ANN). Plot, well pretty much too kids having sex (well it’s more like super deformed teens but still). It’s from 1995 but the art makes it look older.

  19. Megazone Two Three’s sex scene didn’t seem all that much different in concept from those in Mako Sexy Symphony, even if the two anime themselves were quite different. I saw them both at more or less the same time, and of course, they had the same character designer.

    I used an image of Yui Takanaka from that scene in MZ23 as the visual icon of the anime section in JAPAN EDGE. I wanted to have a full-page shot of her invisible embrace, but we ran out of time for approvals (the image from Key was used instead, as it was a Viz title). One of my favorite anime posters of all time is the MZ23 one with her arms crossed; I think you see the general trend here.

  20. Toshihiro Hirano did the character designs from Legend of Lyon Flare (plus Iczer-1, the Cream Lemon Don’t Do It Mako episodes, Vampire Princess Miyu and Part -1 of Megazone 23 plus some other OVA’s from the 80’s). One of my favorite chaarcter designers of all time.

    Hmm, where did this misinformation came from? I actually fixed this “Toshihiro Hirano did character design for Legend of Lyon Flare” thing in wikipedia few months ago. Yorihisa Uchida did the character design for Lyon.

    Eh, whatever pays the bills. I mean so many famous names have, Yoshiko Sakakibara, Norio Wakamoto, Tomoko Kawakami, Kikuko Inoue, Yumi Takada, just to name a few, hell the English dub of Twin Dolls used virtually all the cast of Pokemon!

    Yeah, I know voice actress who doesn’t do hentai are probably in minority. But most of them do it before they’re established and even when they do it after they have become star like Akiko Yajima, she at least doesn’t sound like Shin-chan in hentai (which would be very disturbing). Problem with Lyon is that Inoue was already well known as a voice for Sayla and she sounds exactly like her in it. So I’m OK with Omi Minami in La Blue Girl but it just ain’t right for Atsuko Tanaka to talk dirty in hentai with Motoko’s voice.

    And speaking of Cream Lemon, I have no problem with Kotono Mitsuishi being in it.

  21. Yeah, I was wrong about the character designer for Lyon.

    I once saw some awesome books in an anime convention for two Izcer-1 books but thewy wanted $25-300 each. too much IMO. If they were $15-$20 each then yeah.

    Here’s the download for that Yun Yun Paradise hentai I brought in the last post. Knock yourselfs out. It’s a raw video BTW.

    http://www.megaupload.com/?d=3MXVKJTS

  22. No promises, but we’ll try and have Part 3 of this thing up by Wednesday at the latest.

    78 comments not counting this one, 18 of which are by vz talking about hentai, Rozen Maiden, maid cafes, and other topics best discussed over here instead! Hint, hint.

  23. “…it just ain’t right for Atsuko Tanaka to talk dirty in hentai with Motoko’s voice.”

    I dunno…maybe there’s something entirely too right about that…

    Although you could have some fun with that; take Tanaka’s hentai lines and put them over “Ghost in the Shell” scenes…

  24. Kaiji looks great. Nobuyuki Fukumoto is so bad at drawing that he manages to turn it into an art form, but it looks like he can actually write. Which I’m starting to suspect that nobody else in the country can.

    Actually I’m really surprised you haven’t reviewed Akagi yet.

  25. Hey, at least in Genshiken 2 they actually stay on-model the entire episode.

    Hey, why should they stay on-model when the manga doesn’t? Compare the beginning of volume 1 to the end of volume 2, it’s like Kio Shimoku went through puberty inbetween.

    But seriously, I’ll take cheap animation and good storytelling over good animation and shit storytelling any day.

  26. Regarding worthwhile CMX titles. Kanako Inuki’s Presents is a great title for horror manga fans. The antisocial glee of stories like a cautionary tale concerning freebies and promotional items is fantastic.

    I wouldn’t call Kikaider Code 02 “good”, but it is an interesting take post-Evangelion on Ishinomori’s work.

  27. So besides me who else got the recent DVD release of Phoenix 😛

    I’ll either buy it or order it Friday (payday), depending on whether or not any of my local brick & mortar stores carry it.

    Going back to Tezuka, I just saw Vertical’s Dororo covers at Amazon, and it looks like you can use them to get high.

    Direct transcript when I looked there: What the fuck?! You have got to be kidding me!

    I’m glad the manga is coing out in the US, and assuming it’s unflopped, I’ll definitely buy them, but what the fuck?!

    E. Bernhard Warg

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