Anime World Order Show # 67 – The Synthesizer Has Not Been Stolen Yet

Daryl gets back on the horse [heroin…?] with his review of Paprika, Clarissa’s tackling School Rumble, and Gerald double-dips on Detonator Orgun.

This episode of the Anime World Order podcast is brought to you by Sweet and Sour Inc. Of course, perhaps we should have informed them that this was the case before we went and depleted one of their accounts at the Redondo Beach Savings and Loan:

IS LARRY SWEENEY LOOKIN’ GOOD TONIGHT OR WHAT?

Introduction (0:00 – 19:22)
We decide to try recording ourselves separately then synchronizing the tracks like all real podcasts do, but the last time we tried this was in episode 4 or something and it didn’t turn out well. Do vote in that poll on the sidebar and let us know if there’s any discernable audio quality difference. With so many folks listening to the show from school or work, people might be able to pick up on that weird underwater robotic distortion that the old Audacity Noise Removal filter induces. Daryl uses the beta version of Audacity which supposedly has better noise removal capabilities. Let us know. And while you’re at it, since there’s so many other podcasts out there–anime or otherwise–let us know about your show already! If you want any of us on as guests on your podcast, we’ll be glad to do it! As long as we don’t have to edit anything.

As far as emails go, “Kira” from Koibito Anime, an anime blog written by a husband/wife duo, wants recommendations from us regarding what anime is good for couples to watch since they’re currently spending most of their posts watching filth like Clannad and ef – A Tale of Memories. Eff A Tale of Memories, indeed! For the record, guys: the most recent season of 24 was the worst season of 24 EVER. Maybe now that there’s no 24 this year they’ll take the extra year to actually write out the full story in advance like they did for the first half of Season 1 instead of just taking spin upon spin at the Xanatos Roulette table. On the subject of those, the rest of Prison Break had better get made STAT. It turns out we can’t really offer much help regarding their question, even though Gerald and Clarissa also watch anime together every week for about 7 hours. Such is otakudom.

Let’s News! (19:22 – 44:12)
We finally talk about the now-three-weeks-old news bit regarding how the website Crunchyroll got $4 million for streaming fansubs (also, DVD rips! We neglected to mention that part! Seriously, read this and then try and argue these people are on the up-and-up), which judging from their response here didn’t exactly sit well with FUNimation, Bandai Entertainment, or anyone not retarded. That last bit of course rules out the masters of “quantity over quality” themselves, Gonzo since they decided they’d partner up with Crunchyroll and Youtube to stream their newest inevitable disappointments. Perhaps this move will someday lead to an actual worthwhile studio taking similar measures with websites that are NOT infested with Trojan viruses and the like, so it’s almost a guarantee that studio WON’T be Bandai Visual, who in this press release noted that they’ve got to delay the release of a few of their titles since–surprise!–nobody’s buying any of their stuff. As the US executive branch often says, “nobody could have possibly foreseen this turn of events.” Well, except for everyone who DID that subsequently got ignored. Speaking of stuff getting ignored, two more volumes of the Barefoot Gen manga were released in English (which nobody here will buy) AND we’re getting even more Fist of the North Star anime (which nobody here will license)! Everyone will probably be going nuts over Slayers Revolution and Haruhi Suzumiya Season 2 instead. Plus, there’s a Blade of the Immortal anime coming soon, but unfortunately it’s being made by Bee Train, which if we’re not mistaken has never made a single good anime ever.

Promo: Viga the Otagal (44:12 – 45:02)
Victoria Gadson may not have been watching anime for THAT long, but she’s got enough savvy to know how to come up with a nickname derived from taking the first syllables of words and smashing them together. Not to be confused with Vigo, the villain from Ghostbusters 2, Viga releases three episodes a week through the power of working that sweet Creative Commons magic. Be sure to check her out! Then remind her that “intershiz” is the most infuriating word this side of “blogosphere” or worse yet “podcastosphere”!

Review: Paprika (45:02 – 1:26:15)
Daryl decides it’s time to MAN UP~! by reviewing Satoshi Kon’s latest movie, available on DVD as well as Blu-Ray from Sony Pictures Entertainment. Only he probably forgot to talk about the movie with any degree of substance within the span of these 45 minutes. OR DID HE? Paul Chapman aka “White Daryl” (or as certain cosplay MEAN-kos say, “Light Daryl” implying that Daryl is “Dark Daryl” the way that there’s “Dark Gerald” in comparison to Gerald!) will not be pleased since we didn’t talk about the very end of the movie. Or the beginning or the middle.

Promo: Destroy All Podcasts DX (1:26:15 – 1:27:31)
The best part of this promo is when Jeremy (aka “White Tony”) starts talking all INTENSE AND SERIOUS-like. Their latest episode is about Black Belt Jones, and all kung fu related episodes of DAPDX (or DAPST) inevitably result in people asking “do they even LIKE kung fu movies?” The answer apparently is yes. Maybe.

Review: School Rumble (1:27:31 – 1:44:15)
Clarissa reviews the first season of yet another anime that’s been highly requested, even though there is zero fighting in the show despite the name. It’s actually a romantic comedy, only the main characters are blithering idiots. On purpose, for a change! Do check out Otaku USA magazine to see Clarissa’s print review of School Rumble as well. If you’re going to notice any audio quality difference brought on by the different versions of the Audacity Noise Removal filter, from this point on would be the place.

Promo: Eeeper’s Choice (1:44:15 – 1:45:33)
Good idea: our favorite Irish anime fan has a new promo out! Bad idea: he assumes that people know how to spell “Eeeper” just by hearing it. How do we know it’s not “Ypres Choice,” man?! This is like that time he mailed us those DVD-Rs of Osamu Tezuka’s experimental films as well as Phoenix 2772 (dub and sub!), but then he wrote on the back of the paper sleeves with ballpoint pen, thus destroying the backs of the discs. Must be all the alcohol mixed with the DEEDLY DEE, POTATOES!

Review: Detonator Orgun (1:45:33 – 2:01:19)
Gerald wraps things up by talking about this short OAV by Masami Obari that he also covered in a recent episode of Destroy All Podcasts DX. The DVD of this one is kind of hard to find, plus there’s an annoying audio problem that could’ve been caught had someone just…WATCHED the disc first, but oh well. If you like Tekkaman Blade, you’ll want to hear about this one.

Closing (2:01:19 – 2:04:09)
The next episode was originally just going to be an all-moe episode out of nowhere, but Clarissa jumped the gun with Potemayo already! So next time the rest of us are putting our moe cards on the line: Daryl’s going to cover The Girl Who Leapt Through Time and Gerald’s breaking down and reviewing Lucky Star. Lucky Star? LUCKY STAR?! Potemayo? Shuffle? …NAJICA?! Gerald and Clarissa are clearly venturing into Koibito Anime territory at this rate! Clarissa incidentally is opting to pace herself now that she’s prematurely jumped the gun so to speak, and since all the advice manuals on this subject state to “think about baseball,” next episode she’ll be reviewing the baseball anime Ookiku Furikabutte aka Swing Big.

116 Replies to “Anime World Order Show # 67 – The Synthesizer Has Not Been Stolen Yet”

  1. Let me start out first by saying that after being fooled by Rich Lather this show came as a nice surprise.

    I was surprised to find out that the same man, Susumu Hirasawa, was responsible for the music in both Detonator Orgun and Paprika, Seeing as I’ve seen both. I remember when I first watched Orgun the music never really pulled me in unlike the music in Paprika and his other works, particularly Berserk.

    Oh, and Daryl how jealous am I of you that you got to meet the man behind Sweet & Sour Inc. I wanna be throttled by an indie wrestler. Preferably Sara Del Rey but thats just cause I respect her ability in the ring.

  2. Its fortunate that you live on a different continent to me, otherwise I would be finding a way to your house right now, DARYL SURAT. (And to a lesser extent, Gerald. But you look as tall as me, so I dont think killing you would as easy.)

    At 53minutes and 50seconds, you SINNED against all of creation. You know what you said. And it made me throw my wireless headphones out of the window in a sudden burst of bestial rage and thwarted love for a long dead psychotic self-perscribing loser author.

    That said, Total recall is marvellous and Paprika deserves more reviews. I have a newly bought copy from the ADV-turns-into-PACE meltdown sale after hearing about it on Fast Karate and truly enjoyed it.

    The Golgo 13 series comes out very soon, and I’m told its 50 episodes. FIFTY. Great success.

  3. For the next episode I was hoping that Gerald would have done Fight! Iczer-1 but then you said something that I equally love as much…

    LUCKY STAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAR!!

  4. Yo, I totally thought Daryl was being choked out by Carrot Top when I saw that tiny image on my iPod’s screen.

  5. For the next episode I was hoping that Gerald would have done Fight! Iczer-1 but then you said something that I equally love as much…

    I actually did Iczer 1 for Eeeper’s Choice, the episode has yet to be aired so I’ll try not to double dip on that too quickly, also Eeeper and I both like Iczer 1 while Daryl and Clarissa hate it, so it would have been a lot more fun to do it there than here. People are overly upset about the double dip but then again, I have papers to write, and I was doing the editing for the intro, news, my segment and the ending this time, so a double dip was necessary.

    I’m also wondering about this new Golgo TV series. Since it’s a TV series on TV Tokyo, I’m concerned that we won’t get the adequete amount of “breast-ages” that Golgo requires, sure we’ll get people getting shot, but Golgo without multiple random females he bangs, just seems wrong!

    And strangely enough, Cobra is an OAV series, a show which I wouldn’t think would have nearly the amount of objectionable content that Golgo might, either way I’m very happy that both are getting series, and I really hope that the lack of Dezaki (TO GO AND DIRECT MOTHERFUCKING ULTRAVIOLET THE ANIME! How the hell does that even come to be!?) doesn’t hurt the show.

  6. I’d like to correct Daryl about the bad guys in Detonator Orgun. They are called the Evoluder. Their giant space planet of death is called Zoma, which is lead by Zoa AKA Raoh as a giant robot. And I’m not just saying that because Zoa was voiced by Kenji Utsumi.

    I’m looking forward to your review of Lucky Star and I want to say that I like the show, but doing so puts me in the same group as all those pedobears out there who post on 4chan like VZ.

  7. That’s the best pic I have ever seen. Did you go to Mania Mr. Surat?

    Even though they gave away something like 5000-7000 free tickets, I did not attend Wrestlemania myself. Since it rained that day and the people in the nosebleed seats were terrified every time the stadium perimeter pyro went off (to say nothing of the errant pyro that hit about 40 people), I would say this was a good decision. I opted instead to watch the show from a sports bar, though I left for my 4-hour drive home once Flair/Michaels was over since that was pretty much the only match I wanted to see. Money in the Bank was decent, but I would have been more impressed had I not attended both Ring of Honor shows that weekend: Dragon Gate Challenge II and Supercard of Honor III.

    That Otaku USA pin was intentionally worn on my part so the Japanese guys could laugh at how much of a goof I was. BxB Hulk and especially CIMA were quite amused by this. Perhaps my picture with CIMA will be published in a future issue of Otaku USA!

    TO GO AND DIRECT MOTHERFUCKING ULTRAVIOLET THE ANIME! How the hell does that even come to be!?

    A-buh-buh-buh! You’re not allowed to display my levels of infuriation over this development until after you actually watch Ultraviolet for yourself! Preferably the unrated Director’s Cut rather than the theatrical cut which is 8 minutes shorter, though the only version available on Blu-Ray is the latter. Equilibrium was rough enough on you that you stopped watching after only 20 minutes; the 90 minutes that Ultraviolet runs for just might kill you. And even then there’s 30 more minutes present in the original unreleased cut of Ultraviolet that the world is anxiously hoping will be restored in a future rerelease. Only then will the Metal Gear Solid movie reach its full potential.

    Maybe for the Panel OF DOOM at JACON this year I can just put on Ultraviolet and walk out in lieu of actual preparation. Because that con’s in a few weeks and I got nothin’.

    I’d like to correct Daryl about the bad guys in Detonator Orgun.

    You mean the bad guys whose names I never mentioned? No, you’re correcting GERALD. You know, the guy you did that Detonator Orgun podcast with the other day?

  8. Great podcast! I’m always glad to see another regular episode.

    About School Rumble: I think Harry McKenzie’s name is supposed to be a joke that might not have made the transition from the manga.

    In an earlier chapter of the manga, Harima Kenji announces his name, and then in tiny type it says “not Harry McKenzie!” So I thought seeing an actual character named Harry McKenzie was just a reference to that earlier joke.

    I haven’t seen much of the anime so I don’t know if this was mentioned there or not. So I could be horribly wrong!

  9. You mean the bad guys whose names I never mentioned? No, you’re correcting GERALD. You know, the guy you did that Detonator Orgun podcast with the other day?

    Why must I always make this mistake.

  10. Thanks guys, I’ll listen to this ASAP.

    Did you know, there is a new Getter Robo manga entitled Getter Robo Hien?

    And did you know that it’s being scanlated and the first chapter came out today? Check it
    out: http://nagaiscanlations.blogspot.com/

    I think Hien looks like an awesome mecha, like a cooler Shin.

  11. Does the new seperate recording system make it harder for you to interrupt each other? It sounds like it does for some reason. Maybe you’re all equally loud now?

  12. Man!! You guys are all totally unqualified to answer the couples anime question! Jesus Zombie Christ!

    The correct answer is that you can only watch shows that won’t make the less willing partner leave the room and/or throw up and/or they talk through the whole thing because they hate it and ruin it for you. I couldn’t pay attention to the last half of Escaflowne because Noah kept complaining over the top of the dialog and/or made distractingly realistic puking noises.

    The stereotype is that the guy in the relationship likes anime and girls won’t sit through Demon City or whatever, but nowadays plenty of girls watch anime and plenty of guys are not going to sit through Marmalade Boy. Noah and I can watch Claymore together, and Pheonix, but I have to watch Brother Dear Brother by myself.

  13. Perhaps I’m no longer “Otaku” enough for this ‘cast, but I will comment on the sound since you asked for…um…feedback?

    Gerald sounded like he was right next to me. (I was working on my computer as I listened and he actually seemed to BE my computer, which was spooky.)

    Daryl was shouting the entire time, maybe to make up for being far away from the mike? He sounded like he was on the other side of the room.

    Clarissa’s levels were fine, but she sounded lispy, like recovering from oral surgery. All the S’s were Cindy Brady-oid.

    But no complaints about edits or talkover or timing. That part worked brilliantly.

    OK, off to put on the neck brace and the orthopedic shoes so I can go visit the funnybook store.

    PEOPLE, MY LAWN IS MORE OTAKU THAN SOME OF YOU WILL EVER BE! SO STAY OFF IT! DAMN NOISY KIDS!

  14. You’re not allowed to display my levels of infuriation over this development until after you actually watch Ultraviolet for yourself!

    Daryl, you make the mistake of thinking that I care at all about Ultraviolet in any way at all, OTHER than it’s taking valuable time away from something potentially much better they could be doing with their time. I have zero interest in ever seeing Ultraviolet, but if it happens to be on one day when I happen to be in the same room, perhaps I won’t purposely leave that room because of it. That’s about how much interest I have in seeing it.

    I’d like to correct Daryl about the bad guys in Detonator Orgun.

    Andrew! Mr. Details! How can you get my name wrong?! Anyway, I guess that sort of proves my point in that the show tries to do so much in three episodes that it’s easy to get things confused, oh well.

  15. Noah and I can watch Claymore together, and Pheonix, but I have to watch Brother Dear Brother by myself.

    Wait, 70’s shoujo, which is arguably, the manliest stuff ever made in the history of all transcribed works is too much for Noah? Even the pseudo and actual lesbians didn’t grab the man?! Erin, if I were you I’d be very worried about now. (Although he is very right about Escaflowne.)

    And it seems like the criteria for finding a “couples” anime is basically just something that the other person doesn’t hate, not necessarily something they love or like, just something to shut them up for an hour or so.

  16. AWO: Good couples anime=anything from Ghibli (except possibly Pom Poko and definitely Grave of the Fireflies), Emma, Millennium Actress, His and Her Circumstances,
    Cat’s Eye, and possibly that upcoming Maria-sama thing.

    Oh, and I imagine the writers for 24 were busy on the movie.

    Moving on, I think people are buying BV titles, just not enough of them to make a difference.

    As for Haruhi 2, didn’t that get canceled?

    john: I’ll be more excited about it when I can hear over the crowd. ^_-
    Actually, I’m kinda annoyed that they appear to be turning it into X, or more accurately, a Guy Richie flick. I was kinda hopin’ it’d be like The Sopranos.

    gerald: I imagine Dezaki took Ultraviolet, because he doesn’t want to be associated with oyaji anime from the 70s anymore, since the retro apparently killed his career when that decade ended. Sure, during those hard times, he could content himself with One Pound Gospel and Bionic Six, but who remembers those?

    daryl: I hope Wimmer doesn’t direct the MGS movie, because I had to endure enough bullshit wire-fu acting in the last game.

  17. You guys forgot to mention the most important piece of news which is that JAM Project is going to be at Otacon this year.

    p.s you guys should do an all hentai episode for show 69

  18. Dezaki sure isn’t associated with old stuff now. Speaking of things he is associated with, I think ef was the only thing I finished when it came out – SHAFT already made a lot of shows by taking bad material and covering it in artistic bullshit, and it works even better when it’s intelligent (like Sayonara Zetsubou-sensei) or at least passionately dumb like ef.

  19. as soon as i heard the music for the Eeepers choice podcast i started hearing Mike Toole Singing Kitty Ear Mode

  20. tim –

    I don’t remember that particular joke from the anime. There is a scene, however, when Harima hears some people talking about Harry McKenzie and thinks they say Harima Kenji. After which manly showdowns ensue.

    tim eldred –

    Hmmm. The weird pronunciation may be due to the fact that I got braces a while ago. Maybe it just wasn’t as noticeable when we were recording through the Skype connection?

  21. I know my brother’s girlfriend likes and even bought herself a copy of Urosukidoji/Legend of the Overfiend.

    So is (I assume Clarissa) going to review Strawberry Marshmallow? There’s nothing really creepy in that, just the doujin fanbase I guess.

    I’ve only seen two Satoshi Kon films, Perfect Blue (which I liked) and Tokyo Godfathers (which I didn’t). Maybe I’ll give Paprika a chance.

    Also I’ve updated my blog with new uploads you’ll like.

    http://vzartanime.blogspot.com/

  22. I didn’t hear you mention the dub of Paprika so, as I think it was good, I’m mentioning it. I completely managed to NOT go see this in the theater even though it was playing about 20 minutes from my house, but I rented it on DVD from blockbuster and watched it with a friend of mine.

    She, not being a fan of subtitles due to not owning a tv large enough to have them be easily read, was reason enough for me to watch this movie dubbed. I’ve not seen it subbed at all and, I don’t think I want to actually. Yes, I believe the dub to be that good. Let me temper this:

    My first anime were all the Streamline dubs and I hold a serious, pure, pseudo-platonic love for that troop of voice actors. So, I’m really hard on dubs and, strangely enough, very easy on dub accuracy. I have no idea how accurate that dub is but I found it to be quite good.

  23. Daryl, thanks for the Ressentiment heads-up. I’m reading the second volume and just got up to the part where the main character vomits into his beer. Glorious!

  24. Clarissa-

    Ahhh, yep, braces will do that. I wore the damn things for five years myself. FIVE. I hope you don’t have to put up with ’em for that long. Good luck!!

    Other-

    On Daryl’s “recommendation” I watched the “What is Anime” featurette on the Appleseed DVD, and oh my god was it irritating. PROFOUNDLY irritating. I get that it had to be radically simplified because they guessed that a lot of newbies would check this disc out, and I applaud any move to enlarge the audience. But MAN was this thing overproduced. They made up for the lack of licensed images with a grab-bag of made-up ones that were simply obnoxious when they weren’t insulting.

    And I could have done with a few more professionals rather than the “maniacs” they seemingly pulled in off the street. There’s a time and place for that, but not when they get basic things wrong. Nothing critical, but it would have been SO easy to get them right just by giving Carl or Patrick a little more screen time.

    Whoever made this thing, THEY can get the hell off my lawn. They probably think Daicon was a ripoff of FLCL, too.

  25. Christ, the show’s been up for one day and already there’s 32 comments?! Wow!

    On the subject of anime couples can watch, I seem to remember that Gerald made a comment in an earlier episode that if you watch Whisper of the Heart with your significant other, you’re guarenteed to get laid.

    I have a question for Gerald/Daryl: Why do you guys hate on Slam Dunk so much? I admit, I haven’t seen all that much of it, but I liked what I saw. Do you guys feel the same way about, say, Eyeshield 21 or The Prince of Tennis?

  26. So, was the end of Paprika the same for the novel? I’m not necessarily opposed to what happens, even if it nauseates me. A little bit of foreshadowing would have been nice, and the sucker-punch delivery pisses me off. I guess that makes me a mouthbreather.

    This probably isn’t the best time to say how much I’m looking forward to Gerald’s Lucky Star review.

  27. Nice! Maybe you should have done an all moe show, then you could to the shows great for all the wrong reasons, and review Pidgion Blood, or Genocyber, or that wonderful wonderful piece of horrble crap…………. Vampire Wars!!!!!

  28. I borrowed Vampire Wars from Gerald once, and if memory serves it isn’t really the kind of bad for which you can pick out a specific scene and say “look how bad this anime is.” It’s this really dull, boring sort of bad a la The Humanoid. Clarissa’s the one who had to watch Pigeon Blood in Gerald’s place so that he could get the necessary clips to show during his hentai panels, so she can review that one. Genocyber is on my “to do” list, but I got slightly dismayed at the fact that I could only find about two worthy clips from Cybernetics Guardian, so I’ve not yet reviewed it. If the Fast Karate April Fool’s joke weren’t an April Fool’s joke, I’d bring in the expertise of Joel White for such a topic.

    Man!! You guys are all totally unqualified to answer the couples anime question! Jesus Zombie Christ!

    Thank you for informing us of this fact which we stated up front during not just the post which you happen to be replying to right now, but also the podcast which you listened to which prompted your reply! Until you lose those last three pounds, your consultation fee is REVOKED, sister!

    Other things I am fully aware of being incorrect about but continue to be wrong about due to apathy: my pronounciations of “Paprika,” “Barefoot Gen,” and the word “anime.”

    On the subject of anime couples can watch, I seem to remember that Gerald made a comment in an earlier episode that if you watch Whisper of the Heart with your significant other, you’re guarenteed to get laid.

    That wasn’t Gerald, that was ME! It ain’t that tough to tell us apart, folks! I’m the sexy one.

    Daryl was shouting the entire time, maybe to make up for being far away from the mike? He sounded like he was on the other side of the room.

    In an effort to get cleaner isolated recordings I’ve switched from earbuds to actual studio headphones, and as a result of this I can no longer accurately hear my own voice while wearing them. I tried setting things up like how we had them at AWA (which allowed me to hear myself through the headphones), but that setup won’t work if we’re not all together. I’m thinking I just need to switch out some cables, but in the meantime I’ll be deaf to how loud or soft I’m talking.

    Why do you guys hate on Slam Dunk so much? I admit, I haven’t seen all that much of it, but I liked what I saw. Do you guys feel the same way about, say, Eyeshield 21 or The Prince of Tennis?

    I have been pretty vocal in the past that I enjoy sports anime by and large, but Slam Dunk has zero–count ’em, ZERO–likeable characters and is paced so slowly that it’s even worse than Dragon Ball Z. With over 30 volumes of manga, 100+ episodes, and at least four movies released over the course of several years, the total amount of time elapsed in-story amounts to about three or four months. Gerald wasn’t overstating there.

    I maintain that most if not all of Slam Dunk’s massive and enduring popularity is because of yaoi fans. But really though, they didn’t actually need to CHANGE anything about Slam Dunk for the “no climax, no point, no meaning” credo to apply.

  29. I disagree about the yaoi appeal for SD. There’s about only 2-3 pairings which would work. Though I will admit the manga I read in Raijin was slow-paced -which is why I had to stop Vagabond, too (*sigh*). Still, I I appreciate that it shows a lot more dedication and authenticity to the sport than Prince of Tennis-since the latter’s basically Yu-Gi-Oh with rackets. I actually also briefly liked the underrated Whistle!, but stopped reading when the main character who was kicked out one team for not fitting in suggested the girl join her own team, since she couldn’t fit in on his team. A real underdog would’ve included her, too, rules be damned. Plus, she got treated more like a sex object than a partner; that’s fine for a salaryman manga, but not a sports manga. Anyway, in spite of my love-hate thing with Inoue, I’ll still check out Real.

  30. Great show guys! You’re making my deployment in Honduras so much easier while working the night shift. While listening to past shows, Daryl’s enthusiastic review of 009-1 prompted me to order it from Amazon. I can easily say I was NOT disapointed.

    Oh and one more thing…

    You all have to stop Paul Chapman and Joey Snackpants from making a terrible mistake! What is this I read on the Jacon website that they plan to watch Odin….IN ONE SITTING??? AND they’re inviting others to join them in the pain?! Did they not listen to your legendary review of Odin guest starring Anime Jump’s Mike Toole?

    Is this some diabolical plan to slowly assassinate two of the internet’s famed icons? Why not just hire Golgo 13 and put them out of their misery quick and painlessly?

    I insist that instead they drop Odin…from a 20-story building and watch a double feature of Commando and Streets of Fire instead.

  31. Hey, I like kung-fu movies just fine. Only we didn’t see any good ones yet, up until Black Belt Jones. Karate Bearfighter was a bust, and while I enjoyed the hell out of “Wing Chun” even I can’t claim that it was a good movie. We tried to watch “Five Deadly Venoms” but Jeremy’s video tape was unwatchable, probably because it’s older than he is.

  32. So even though he cites GITS as an influence for Naruto, after reading the manga, it’s more likely Kishimoto was influenced by Orion than anything else.

  33. Nice Rangercast namedrop, though Gerald was on RC like ages ago, back in December for the year-end special. Good times. And why aren’t we on the sidebar?

    As for Paprika, last year during the Cherry Blosson Festival I saw the film, and it was introduced by Kon himself, who did a q-and-a afterwards, which I wanted to stay for, but was outvoted by my friends. I really regret not getting the chance to pick his brain on the film. It is truly amazing and more people need to see it.

    And it was actually eligible for Oscars in 06. Sony Classics pulled off a limited theatrical run in late 06 then released it again, officially, in 07.

  34. Just to say that I just received my promo code to get the free episodes of GONZO’s shows from BostTV. But when I went to their site the sheer amount of hits seems to have broken it, as of 11.20am Florida time.

  35. A’m I the only one not totally fond of anime companies (well ok, just Gonzo for now), putting their stuff for free on sites like Chrunchyroll and Youtube? Namely, I don’t want the companies to start thinking we’ll have to cater to U.S. (and even other countries) tastes as opposed to anime being something designed specifically for the Japanese mindset. That’s how lame stuff like Karas and Afro Samurai got made. I’d rather see more things like Lucky Star and even Haruhi.

  36. Ultra late P.S. –

    I do not hate Iczer-One. Precisely, I can never actually decide whether I like it or hate it. On the one hand, it’s amazingly ridiculous and I like the character designs and robot fights; on the other hand, it’s completely fucking ridiculous in the most retarded cheesecake kind of way and, well, fanboy service doesn’t really work for me. Also I own it on DVD, though I haven’t actually watched it in quite some time.

    Also, originally I was supposed to do Lucky Star while Gerald would do Strawberry Marshmellow. Then Gerald chickened out for fear of looking like a lolicon and snatched both Konata and Meito from Anime Tenchou.

    Such is life in the AWO.

    Late P.P.S. –

    Thanks, Tim. I hope it’s not five years also! They’re already driving me crazy.

  37. So just what is ‘couple’s anime’ supposed to be, anyway?

    Gaahhh, so annoying!

    OK, so some out there, in the tradition of the internets, seeks ‘approved’ titles lest they risk being ridiculed for liking something that isn’t ‘cool’ to like.

    Come ON, how many YEARS have we seen those “what’s good anime?” and “what’s the best show to watch?” and “what’s YOUR top 10 anime(without any mention of the poster’s list until at least 5 people have chimed in to provide direction of correct thinking)” and so on? This is just the same damn thing.

    To ME, ‘couples anime’ is like any other show you watch with ANY NUMBER of people. You all watch something that has elements everyone enjoys.

    But I assume that ‘couples anime’ is code for ‘anime to score by’. The secret of the ‘chick flick’ applied to anime. “What anime can I profess to like that will get a girl to sit and watch with me?”

    Prove me wrong. Provide an actual defining phrase that ISN’T code for that. Otherwise shut up about ‘couples anime’. And Filler. STFU about filler. Gah.

    GET OFF MY LAWN!

    Also, Rambo’s Law should have been enacted on the first post, maybe the second, there is no content comment until the 4th post.

  38. Agh, when will they let you edit comments?

    I also meant to say that at the very least, Iczer-One did a much better job at lesbians with giant robots than the execrable Kannazuki no Miko.

    Though I suppose that’s not actually hard

  39. Iczer-One was just supposed to be a take-off on tokusatsu shows, let’s not forget. I remember watching in 1986 with Mike Ebert (co-founder of ANIMAG, and the first otaku I actually looked up to instead of inching away from) in his apaato, and him commenting on how you could see the dust on the anime cels. Anyhow, the way I look at it, it has character designs by Toshihiro Hirano, and that gives it a plenary indulgence, sort of like in the Crusades.

    By the way, I got a lot done work-wise while listening to this episode, although I admit it was all work for Oh My Goddess!, so you may feel I’m using A.W.O. for evil instead of good.

  40. I knew little about Crunchyroll before, but they can jump off a bridge, for all I care.

    Just for the heck of it, I “donated” $1.50 USD to them thinking they’d let me download the first episode of “Tower of Druaga” (hey, apparently it’s not that bad for a Gonzo show, from what I’ve read today)…but even though I have received a download link, all I get is a pathetic message in return:

    “Sorry, legal restrictions prevent us from letting you download this file. =(”

    Too bad they didn’t BOTHER to inform us before asking for “donations”.

    I believe that only Japan was being blocked from accessing these streams and downloads, but apparently they’re up to something else.

    Seems only those in the United States and in a few other countries can access the CR Gonzo premieres, in spite of this being promoted as a “worldwide” event.

    Talk about misleading advertising and, frankly, stealing the money “donated” by non-North American folks (and maybe a couple of lucky European countries, I guess).

    Oh well…Youtube and BOST are still out there, to say the least, and they don’t seem to be blocking people so arbitrarily.

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