Anime World Order Show # 64 – Interview With Walter Amos and Rob Fenelon, Part 1

Apologies for the one month delay between episodes. Anyway, we’re back with Part 1 of an interview we conducted with Walter Amos and Rob Fenelon back at Anime Weekend Atlanta 2007.

We were busy this past month. Many things happened. This picture summarizes the situation as it stands in the present:


But THIS picture summarizes the situation as it will be in THE FUTURE:

There are videos that will be uploaded to Youtube once we figure out how to substantially brighten them since they were filmed at night without night vision mode. They involve swords and explosives, possibly used in tandem with one another.

We should probably put up actual, honest-to-goodness show notes and supplemental links for this one, given the nature of the discussion. But that would require me to find some. For now, the podcast promos played in this episode are for: Destroy All Podcasts DX, Rangercast, and Greatest Movie EVER!. Oh right, PT Chapman is a special guest host for this episode!

Next time on AWO, Daryl’s playing catch up to make up for his month of ennui by giving his boring con report on the New York Anime Festival, Gerald’s reviewing Sonic Soldier Borgman, and Clarissa’s breaking through the heavens with Tengen Toppa Gurren-Lagann! By the way, if people are interested in actually getting T-shirts or hoodies with our hilariously goofy AWO logo, let us know. If enough people want them, we can actually get them made! Here’s some links to stuff that got mentioned on the show:

  • Rob in his Desslok costume at AnimeCon ’91 – check the rest of Walter’s videos for more
  • http://www.starblazers.com/ is a decent source for learning about Space Battleship Yamato / Star Blazers…or just check our review index since we talk about it fairly often
  • The World Science Fiction Convention – and here’s its never-inaccurate Wikipedia entry; you probably also want to look at the homepage for Philcon and its Wikipedia entry
  • We talked about Astro Boy in Show 60 and Captain Harlock in Show 34, but here’s the ANN links for Kimba the White Lion and Battle of the Planets aka Science Ninja Team Gatchaman
  • Ikkyu-san is one we’ve not seen, and Rob is probably referring to the second Cyborg 009 TV series, not the first. Though he probably saw the movie Cyborg 009: Legend of the Super Galaxy, since that was released by Best Film and Video. Where’s my review, DAPDX?! Stop reviewing all those live-action movies and Robotech blah and get ON THE BALL
  • Blackhawks was an old DC Comics release and was recently featured in the Justice League cartoon…and there’s one surviving member currently in the Birds of Prey but we aren’t supposed to admit knowing that
  • It’s not clear from just the audio recording, but when Rob mentions The Six Million Dollar Man, Daryl proceeded to dramatically throw upon the table a copy of Cyborg by Martin Caidin (the book that inspired the series) since Paul was reading it on the flight up. The word “serendipity” was used multiple times for the rest of the weekend as a result. “Kismet“? Not so much.
  • Daleks are from some show only watched by geeks, but at least they’re a disciplined lot
  • Ziv International made some dangerously lame dubs long ago, which we’ve played clips from in the past. We want ALL OF THEM.
  • Marine Boy isn’t something we know much about aside from the clips of it used in assorted Corn Pone Flicks productions
  • Asimov Online is a decent portal for learning about the guy. Daryl for some reason can only remember reading all the Norby books as a kid, without actually remembering what they were about
  • Creation conventions still exist after over three decades and they’re still as lame as ever
  • Omni magazine had a 20 year run of sorts, but this sort of periodical is dying out; more on that in Show 64b
  • Miyako Graham, who informed Rob of the word “anime,” was quite involved with Protoculture Addicts and also translated stuff for Newtype and served as an interpreter for Japanese guests. I can’t remember if she’s married to Toren Smith or not since I’ve met neither of them
  • I think the terrifying nature of the EDF was elaborated upon when we interviewed Dave Merrill. The C/FO still exists as one club and still has 8 hour anime club showings once a month, as you can see from their Tripod-hosted website. Fred Patten used to still attend these meetings up until his stroke a few years ago. That logo should clue you in as to what’s up
  • We’d rather not delve too deeply into this, but suffice to say that Mark Merlino, in addition to founding the C/FO with Fred Patten, was also more or less the founder of furry fandom as the Internet scourge we know it as today by virtue of him and his male partner holding zoomorphic gatherings at their home, which they referred to as “furry parties.” The fandom was eventually split between semi-sane people and the people we commonly think of as furries today
  • Chambara movies (that site lists way more than just chambara) are a subset of jidai-geki. Information on Zatoichi is here; I would have said to listen to Popcorn Samurai since he was going to be reviewing one Zatoichi movie each episode, but that podcast faded away rather quickly. Unfortunate, since I don’t know of any podcasts devoted just to talking about samurai movies or kungfu movies. If there are such podcasts, let us know!

Damn it, that’s just the links for like, the first 20 minutes of this thing. You people know how to use Google; do this yourself!

77 Replies to “Anime World Order Show # 64 – Interview With Walter Amos and Rob Fenelon, Part 1”

  1. Glad to see something released finally. Daryl’s resemblance to Nicholas Cage scares me.

    Great to finally hear an interview with Walter Amos. Sounds like an interesting guy based on his voice mail and your comments on him over the past many shows.

    l8er

  2. Looks like I just found myself a new wallpaper. Also, I’m all for hoodies and T-shirts. I’d probably get one of each.

  3. whoa.. a new episode! Hey… semi-quick question to anyone here.. what’s your favorite manga stories you’re reading.. I just started reading a couple and I’m all caught up.. I want to start a new series.. any suggestions. Thanks!

  4. oooo hoodies! I want one! Let me know when you start getting these made, because I’m going to buy one ASAP.

    Also, glad to see a new episode coming out. I missed you guys. O_O

    Happy new year and all that. 😛
    -Jaime

  5. Sign me up for a hoodie, as long as international shipping is possible.

    There may be no better way to spread the word than with a sweatshirt.

  6. I haven’t even heard the episode yet, but I just have to say, you have to start mass producing those hoodies and t-shirts! Seriously! I’d buy one for sure.

  7. note the positioning of Daryl and Gerald in the first pic and the lovely poster behind them.

    (i wallpaper’d it anyway).

    great to hear a new show!

  8. Must have those Hoodies. I’ll dip into my monthly manga fund for them. I’m listening to the show now so I’ll comment on that later.

  9. Yeah, Borgman next episode! The only thing that was released in the U.S. was the movie/OVA on one disc from ADV. I’ve watched the first two eps of the TV series on Youtube.

    Anice Farm :-)!!

    Hope AWO reviews Dangaioh eventually.

  10. AWO sign me up for hoodies! Also the interview with Walter and Rob was great. It’s always great to hear older fandom talking. Originally I used to think that older fandom was the only “true” fandom in anime but I’ve gradually seen that both camps have their good and bad sides. Let’s see in a couple of years if we turn out like like Walter and Rob. But in a good way, guys!

  11. If I had any cash, I would buy a hoodie.

    So now I must sell my soul to Golgo 13. *sigh* Defeat!

    Off to download the episode! <3 Can't wait!

  12. Yay for the fact that Daryl wasn’t the only one in a pic this time!!!! And mass-producing your logo would rock.

  13. Hey guys, what’s the proper title of that “Gumbalgar” mecha show they were talking about? The one where the villain is trying to inconvenience humanity?

    Thanks for the help. 😀

  14. greg, it’s “Genki Bakuhatsu Ganbarugar“, though I have also seen it written “Guambaru-Gar“. The goofy villain unclear on the concept that Rob referred to can be seen here, in one of the few sites I can find with pictures, which also spells the name differently, “Ganbaruger”.

    FYI, at my YouTube account you can check out Rob in his Desslok costume at AnimeCon ’91, as well as the Mushishi promotional music video shown at the Guest of Honor panel.

  15. This was an awesome show, guys. I dunno what it is about all this crazy old school fandom stuff; I think it’s fascinating. Can’t wait for part 2!

    Walter (if you’re reading this), are you the Lord Gargoyle cosplayer from the Anime Expo ’92 footage in Otaku Unite?

  16. My wallet is already in my hand.

    Start mass producing those hoodies and my money will be yours.

    On a side note, great interview.

  17. tj – You are correct sir!

    When they were putting “Otaku Unite” together and filming at cons I talked to them and mentioned I had tapes of the masquerades from those early Anime Expos and such and suggested they oughta try to interview a few of those older cosplayers whom I was still in touch with. Although they said a lot of film (or tape, as it were) was already in the can, they expressed great interest in getting copies of my old tapes, which I sent them, and they then used in the production.

  18. Sorry I just had to add – the best thing about doing that Gargoil costume was that the guests at Animecon 91 included Yoshiyuki Sadamoto and Hideaki Anno, fresh from the completion of Nadia (and long before Evangelion!) When I walked the hall in costume I ran into Sadamoto who was obviously pleased and I got a nice photo with him, and then I remember Anno walked by and said “Oh, very good!” ^_____^

    Later when they did signings I got sketches from them. I asked Sadamoto to draw Gargoil, and he asked “original costume or the end-of-series armor deal?” (through the translator, natch) I of course asked for the red suit to match my costume. Anno did a lovely sketch of the “Sky Ship”, the three armed air fortress with the giant Wile E. Coyote magnet beneath it, and a tiny Nautilus being levitated up out of the sea. Both sketches are hanging on my living room wall behind me.

    With the huge lines of people wanting sketches setting up the chain of events leading to AX issuing tickets for things like this today (and to Haruhiko Mikimoto getting awful hand tremors by the end of the con), this kind of free sketch is one more example of things you won’t see anymore at cons, and why us oldtimers have it all over the young’uns (ref. my email in the AWA 2006 Bonus discussion…)

  19. For my money, I think the reason “old school anime fandom” stories are so fascinating is that they all have a wild-west flavor to them. Everyone was making up the rules as they went, accidentally ending up in pivotal positions, and setting standards without any foreknowledge. When the import companies started setting up shop they kinda took all those opportunities out of the hands of Joe Fanboy, and they aren’t nearly as willing to talk about their adventures as we are.

    Looking at it now, I guess the tradeoff was inevitable. All the stuff we love is WAY easier to get now, but the stories about HOW you get it aren’t interesting any more. “I went over to Best Buy” has NOTHING on Rob’s story about the VHS videotape that everyone copied.

    Fortunately for all of us, 99% of the fanboys from the early years are still around and still talking. May it be so for a long time to come…

  20. Fortunately for all of us, 99% of the fanboys from the early years are still around and still talking. May it be so for a long time to come…

    I’d really like to meet some of those guys who were already there when people like Rob, Steve, Walter and Tim were there, the guys who had the episodes of Astro Boy on 16mm reels, and those who got to see Alakazam the Great in theaters. Since, I suppose, those guys are in the greatest danger of being lost to us if they aren’t already.

    And sort of on that subject, Clarissa and I are working on that archive project. My move just slowed it down a bit. We’re just trying to decide on the right content management system and appropriate extensions to go with to make this as easy to maintain as possible. If anyone has any suggestions on anything related to it, contact us, and that includes web hosts, scanning, file formats, etc…

  21. When they were talking about 1982, I said “Oh shit, I was JUST BORN.”

    Have anyone of you at AWO wanted to review Guyver? Either the whole franchise (One shot film, OVA, TV, Manga, Live Action film) or at least the 1989 OVA which is the best IMO is the best one (haven’t seen the TV series and read very little of the manga). The OVA was one of the first of what I’d identify as “real” anime as opposed to stuff broadcast and edited for TV. It was also the first time I saw animated gore and a character with a seifuku. Manga Ent. kinda did a shitty job on the DVD’s even though I have them.

  22. Walter: Thanks a lot for all the great info! Your costume is definitely awesome, and the fact that Sadamoto and Anno both complimented you for it is so cool. I ended up re-watching Otaku Unite after reading your comment, so I once again got to see you and Rob in all your cosplay glory.

    AnimeCon ’91 sounds like it was an awesome time. It’s so weird to imagine Hideaki Anno and the rest of the big-name Gainax staff just walking around the con. If they were to do that today, they would surely be mobbed by Eva fanboys!

    Gerald: Glad to hear the archival project is doing well. Unfortunately, I know nothing about recommended web hosting and file types and whatnot, but I wish you guys the best of luck! You guys are doing a great thing for anime fandom!

  23. For all the Tezuka fans who have a Netflix subscription: They’re streaming the 80s Astro Boy series in their Watch Now section. I’m just starting the first episode now, so I’m not sure it’s every episode.

  24. I have long wanted to get together with Tim and do some form of illustrated ‘Tales of the Old Days’, putting various bits of lore and legend into cartoon form, but it’s the kind of thing that would be very hard to do long distance, because just writing stuff down, then him drawing, then discussing it would become dull and difficult. It would need us sitting down, chatting, him drawing, me being triggered by his drawing to go off with another story, and so on.

    I’d love for this to be a one page comic in Otaku USA someday. But some tales would need more room.

    Simple things like SHOWING what it was like at a ‘cloning session’ when a dozen VCRs are chained together, breaking down what it took to ‘hack’ into a hotel’s TV to hook up the machine, the fun of hauling a 42 pound VCR and a hundred pounds of tapes up 20 flights of stairs because the elevators are all broken….stuff like that.

    Well, maybe when Tim has some free time in 2012…

  25. This was a great episode guys, as it was great to hear about part of earlier anime fandom. Add me to the number of people who would buy an Anime World Order hoodie.

  26. Was talking to Rob this afternoon and mentioned my having posted about those AnimeCon91 sketches, and he suggested I should post them somewhere. I had thought about this at the time but couldn’t remember where I had put the images I had of them. Tonight I checked my iPhoto library and found them and so here they are:

    Gargoyle of NeoAtlantis by Yoshiyuki Sadamoto

    The Sky Ship by Hideaki Anno

  27. WARNING!
    DO NOT GO TO ANIME BOSTON OR THE PROVIDENCE ANIME CONFERENCE IF YOU INTEND TO THROW A ROOM PARTY WHERE ALCOHOL MAY BE SERVED.
    WHEN NEGOTIATING THEIR CONTRACT WITH THE HOTEL, ACCORDING TO CONVENTION STAFF, THEY ACQUIESCED TO THE WILL OF THE HOTEL WHICH IS HOSTING THEM.
    ALL ROOM PARTIES ARE AGRESSIVELY DISCOURAGED BY THE HOTEL.
    THE HOTEL HAS THE RIGHT TO COME INTO ANY GUEST’S ROOM AND EXPEL GUESTS FROM THE PREMISES IF FOOD AND DRINK NOT BOUGHT AT THE HOTEL ARE FOUND.
    IN PAST YEARS WHEN GUESTS HAVE CHECKED IN TO THEIR ROOMS AT ANIME BOSTON THEY WERE GIVEN A WAIVER TO SIGN THAT THEY WILL COMPLY WITH THE HOTEL POLICY OR THEY WILL NOT RECEIVE THEIR ROOM KEYS. IT IS THE POPULAR OPINON OF BOTH CONVENTIONS THAT ANIME FANS DO NOT DRINK OR ONLY DO SO IN BARS/RESTAURANTS OFF OF THE CONVENTION’S PROPERTY. WHEN THE CONVENTION STAFF OFFICERS WERE NEGOTIATING THEIR CONTRACT, THEY COULD HAVE ARRANGED FOR A PARTY FLOOR, WHERE GUESTS COULD BRING IN THEIR OWN FOOD AND DRINKS BUT IT WAS NOT DONE.
    ANIME BOSTON AND THE PROVIDENCE ANIME CONFERENCE ARE DRY CONVENTIONS.

  28. Being as I don’t drink this isn’t an issue for me. In fact, I’d rather not deal with those who can’t not be idiots while drunk. So it’s somewhat of another bonus for Providence.

  29. Looks like I just found myself a new wallpaper. Also, I’m all for hoodies and T-shirts. I’d probably get one of each.

    I found myself enjoying the pic on the MP3 tag that has Nova while stating “STARFORCE IZ SERIUS BIZNESS! I’d want that!

    Gerald said…
    I’d really like to meet some of those guys who were already there when people like Rob, Steve, Walter and Tim were there, the guys who had the episodes of Astro Boy on 16mm reels, and those who got to see Alakazam the Great in theaters. Since, I suppose, those guys are in the greatest danger of being lost to us if they aren’t already.

    Sadly true. Those people need to be remembered than forgotten. The Baby Boomer anime fans of yore. Back when television was still black & white, took a minute or so for the picture and sound to come in, and you were lucky if anything came on channels 2 to 13 given that it wasn’t mandatory for UHF to be a common placement until the mid 60’s, which limit you to the Top 20 DMA where chances are you had an indie station or two that would’ve showed stuff like Astro Boy to compete with the regular network affiliates (and because I went onto Wiki as usual, I discovered channels 52-69 will be auctioned off to whomever will use those frequencies in the future, the usual cellular/wireless crap we come to rely on constantly, thanks a lot FCC for diminishing the UHF band even further, I remember the days when it went up to 83 and we were proud of it!).

    Again, I ramble, but for a good cause!

    VZ said…
    When they were talking about 1982, I said “Oh shit, I was JUST BORN.”

    Heh, I would’ve been in kindergarten by then.

    Behonkiss said…
    For all the Tezuka fans who have a Netflix subscription: They’re streaming the 80s Astro Boy series in their Watch Now section. I’m just starting the first episode now, so I’m not sure it’s every episode.

    If there’s 51 then you’ll know!

    True about what Star Blazers must’ve felt for it’s time when one had seen it on those UHF channels. I miss the days when it was like that when I didn’t watch cable TV. Only a shame I didn’t live near a city where a station might cater to an Asian crowd by showing raw Japanese anime classics mentioned.

    Remember Omni magazine but hardly read it. Shame to see it’s no longer in print (or online), but here’s a fansite for stragglers like me who might like to catch up somewhat.
    http://www.omnimagonline.com/

    There are those words the Japanese like to use that often are abbreviations of familiar words we’d know of like Production=Pro and so on.

    Shame to think of the early anime fans not having the extra wad for VCRs or tapes back then. The few guys who were rich enough to afford a VHS or Betamax often weren’t always anime fans I’ve noticed like this guy…

    I like to give this guy a plug sometimes, though I wish he had some Japanese programs in his collection despite having been married to a Japanese wife (He told me he only had some tapes of American shows that aired in Japan but not any anime however).

    The days when tape trading or buying copies of stuff like that was rather a sight to behold in the pre-broadband days. I got into watching a lot of classics that way before any of it got released.

    Shame to hear of the tape being in LP and the VCR didn’t support that speed (much like later VCR’s not supporting the LP mode for recording).

    I often think anime and furry fandoms has had their genesis through the C/FO, or have evolved from there. I guess if there was some way to bridge them together, you’d see someone do a fanfic for a Furry Star Blazers of sorts. ^_^

    Of course the Japanese can be seen as guilty for their share of anthro-related anime/manga over the decades!

    Being reminded Battle of the Planets was aired in my town, but was switched half-way through the initial year in favor of Tom & Jerry like always! If only they had on Star Blazers instead!

    Being reminded I contribute to one APA out there, Rowrbrazzle, a furry APA that’s on life support.

    And because Anime-Zine is brought up, here’s a chance for all of you to view the first two issues I bothered to scan of America’s answer to Animage!
    http://www.megaupload.com/?d=35SMDCA0
    http://www.megaupload.com/?d=3PWRNL3F

    Speaking of Time Bokan, an remake of Yatterman has started to air in Japan as we speak. A friend of mine jokingly stated he hopes someone digisubbed it 10 hours after the first episode aired! We can only hope someone doesn’t pass this up in favor of the next niche/moe title.

    The whole non-labeling thing for film reels hasn’t came to my mind much at all. Too often I get prints in the mail for things that only get labeled right on the head leader of the film. Not sure why the commercial end of the industry doesn’t get a clue that they do for the consumer market. Never noticed that problem with Voltron personally, but I was probably 7 years old when that show premiered.

    Nice to see how “Arrivederci Yamato” went OK. Funny to hear how big The Right Stuff was at that con, yet it did poorly at the box office anyway (also put an end to The Ladd Company who probably should have put “Twice Upon A Time” in nationwide release instead).

    Only a shame the closest Asian grocery store near me only handles Korean vids in the same deal, and it’s mostly K-Dramas or some variety program, hardly any animation-related stuff (even the knock-offs I go nuts over). I do tend to go for the more obscure and nutty stuff people wouldn’t see or care to as well.

    I had also bare witness to seeing little extras at the end of my VHS tapes I’ve traded with over the years of a similar nature that got me all hot ‘n bothered to go ask for ’em!

    Can’t wait for part two whenever you get the chance, but this is one of those I just love to listen to get a sense of what it was like while I was still in grade school oblivious to the world while all this was going on.

    Oh yeah, Newtype USA is no more, but most of you probably know that by now, but it’s going to be pretty interesting to see what ADV will do with it’s new mag venture if that’ll sink in less than a year.

  30. Thanks Chris for uploading those two issues. It’s fascinating to read this stuff and see the origins of fandom in the English speaking world.

  31. So, taking closer examination of the photos given I must pose this question:

    In whose room were the pictures taken? It’s all cluttered, kind of like my room is. And I see a World of Warcraft action figure…

  32. chris – I downloaded the Anime Zine zips (though I have all 3 original issues), but can’t unzip #2, it always gets halfway through and then hits a problem.

  33. Wow! That was really interesting. Both Rob and Walter managed to be informative and hilarious at the same time. As a little teenage n00blet who only started watching anime with Sailor Moon, I loved getting to hear all the Tales Of Long Ago. XD

    Also hoodies FTW. I’D BUY ONE. And I wait with bated breath for your TTG-L review, Clarissa. I just started the series myself and am enjoying it immensely, so I look forward to your thoughts.

  34. Mahlon said…
    So, taking closer examination of the photos given I must pose this question:

    In whose room were the pictures taken?

    Judging by the posters, I’m gonna go ahead and guess Clarissa. ^_^

  35. I am also experiencing CRC failures on the second Anime Zine file. The failure is at the 12th page. Also, bitmaps? If it’s quality you’re concerned about, PNG is a lossless compression format that should hopefully take up less space than BMPs or Comedy TIFF Option (insert joke about Berserk scans here).

    Show 64b (I guess that’s what I’ll call it) was supposed to come out today. It’s about 100 minutes long. I have edited about 10 minutes of that so far. My excuse was going to be “I had to watch Prison Break,” but I didn’t do that. I…talked to Steve Harrison and Joseph Luster a lot. Here is a link explaining why the show was not edited over the weekend:

    http://mathaeis.livejournal.com/771991.html

    On a different note, I think Otaku USA issue 5 is out, so please buy it and send them emails stating how awesome the Golgo 13 feature article was! And it’s possible that the Otaku USA website may have additional Golgo 13-related musings on my part in the near future as well!

    The PAC alcohol policy doesn’t strike me as that bad of a thing. Hotels make money on conventions if the people who attend them eat at the hotel’s restaurants and drink at the hotel’s bars. This is something that anime fans simply do not do, and I think that is why hotels are far more accommodating of sci-fi cons than anime ones, even when the sci-fi con is much smaller. The sci-fi con attendees skew older, and they don’t object as much to the jacked-up prices. When I went to Dragon*Con every single hotel restaurant and bar was absolutely packed to capacity.

    My guess is that since PAC is going to be a small event, they need to demonstrate that hosting them would be more profitable for the hotel than running a larger style event would be. No booze in the rooms is a way to facilitate that. Of course, plenty of cons have similar rules on the books, but they’re just not enforced with any priority by con staff. Not that it matters either way to me, since I don’t drink. That’s money I could be spending on visual media!

    Have anyone of you at AWO wanted to review Guyver?

    Guyver is a weird thing that’s had lots of different iterations, but the general story is not so significant that it’d help anyone to do separate segments. As such, a Guyver review would need to touch upon the OAVs, TV series, live-action movies, manga, etc. If we did it, it’d require some lead time, which I’m horrible at.

    In whose room were the pictures taken? It’s all cluttered, kind of like my room is. And I see a World of Warcraft action figure…

    Both pictures were taken in the Brain Palace. Brain Palace is also where the now-infamous Gerald Rapeface picture was taken. The Future was unleashed at the Brain Palace this past New Year’s:

    http://zookey.livejournal.com/163193.html

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