Anime World Order Show # 71a – AX 2008 News Roundup

Show 71 ran a little long, so here’s just the news segment rounding up what transpired at Anime Expo 2008. It’s not as well-edited as usual due to a broken monitor plus writing deadlines, so bear with it.

You want show notes? I got your show notes right here. Also, go to Barnes & Noble or wherever and buy the latest issue of Otaku USA because we wrote articles in it that are AWESOME:

We TRIPLE DOG DARE you to find a better manifesto on Fullmetal Alchemist and its neo-shonen trappings!

56 Replies to “Anime World Order Show # 71a – AX 2008 News Roundup”

  1. Just having a problem with downloading this episode in iTunes.
    I know I can download the mp3 but just wanted to make a note of this.

  2. Contrary to the previous comment, I had no problems downloading the show from iTunes.

    Did you guys mention that Bandai Entertainment picked up the rights to 5 cm/sec? I don’t know if that’s right; none of the AX reports I’ve read have mentioned that. I don’t think anyone’s re-licensed it.

    Speaking of things that are in Licensing Limbo, apparently, Honneamise has also stopped distributing the Patlabor movies. I knew I should’ve picked those up sooner!

    I hadn’t heard anything about Gonzo’s financial problems, so that was interesting. Not only does Gonzo need to get some better writers/directors, they need to stop making so many damn shows! They make about 6 or 7 new shows per year, whereas other studios make about 2 or 3, if that.

    Sorry that this comment is running rather long, but would it be too much trouble for you guys to list some of the manga that Viz has edited? I know you guys have mentioned Jojo’s several times on the show before, but that’s about all I know, and I’m curious since a good portion of my manga collection is stuff that Viz publishes.

    Alright, that’s all. Bye for now.

  3. That game Clarissa and Gerald were going on about sounds like Majodou, with illustrations by Sano Toshihide, and not Tony Taka.

    The more you know! :eng101:

  4. Oh, and re: Funimation channel

    Apparently 10 year old girls watch it, since these two campers at the camp I work at claim to watch Kodocha, Peach Girl and Tsukuyomi on it :v

  5. As I’ve said in a lot of other places, Gonzo is an OAV producer in a TV world. What Gonzo ought to do is try to resurrect the “direct to video” line, because the compressed nature of the storytelling (and the elimination of content restrictions!) really plays to their strengths.

    *****

    It’s kind of unfortunate that it took this long for the market to start selling boxsets right from the get-go. It’s kind of surprising that nobody had enough imagination to realize that the old VHS tape paradigm wasn’t really appropriate for DVD. Although given the way everyone whinges about extas, I can kind of see why they’d think that “less cake, more frosting” was what the market actually wanted.

  6. I remember a few years ago when manga first took off. A significant part of the local comic-book store’s clientele was young teenage boys who would come in as a group, grab a book, and then go stand in the corner and giggle for a half hour because HOLY SHIT DUDE YOU CAN SEE HER BOOBIES THEY’RE LIKE RIGHT OUT THERE AND STUFF

  7. OH, ps–sorry to spam here!

    Fans bitching about Viz “censorship” goes pretty far back. I remember way back when Viz was releasing the “Video Girl Ai” manga–this was in the day of flipped, retouched effects, comic-size issues–and they cut out one scene where a naked thirteen-year-old girl is strapped into a “dubbing machine”. For some reason this made people really, really mad. I managed to get one guy to inadvertently confess to pedophilia.

  8. HEY PAUL CHAPMAN, GO BITE A TOMATO, I’LL POST AS MANY COMMENTS AS I WANT.

    Anyway. I’m picturing this sort of vault like in “Akira”, where there’s this gigantic diagonal elevator that goes down to a chamber five miles underground, and all these pipes and tubes and machinery, and a big sealed metal coffin in the middle of a room.

    And Ishiguro and Tanaka are standing in front of it. “

    It’s time.”
    “Are you…sure?”
    “Yes. We need him.”

    And Ishiguro reaches out and touches the side of the coffin, and the frost falls away to reveal one word…

    “MIKIMOTO”.

  9. Good news bit. Mikimoto is one of the best character designers ever. Besides Sonoda, I’d say Toshihiro Hirano is the other best character designer of the 80’s.

    Speaking of Mikimorto, did any of you ever read a manga called Marionette Generation?

    Anyway I bought an issue of Otaku USA. I haven’t look at it yet though.

    I wonder if Gonzo creates shows in the same way that Family Guy’s plot points are actually chosen by Manatees picking balls. Actually I don’t think Gonzo’s bad per say. I like some of their shows but they really don’t have rewatchability and thus not likely to buy any.

    OT I watched Lily Cat today. Um, er wow, uh, what?
    Nice art though. Heh, review that one in the future. It’s just funny how many 80’s OVA’s were trying so hard to be like American action sci-fi movies at the time.

  10. Hey fellas, good podcast again. I always look forward to these.

    It’s really a shame how much Cartoon Network is distancing themselves from anime programs now. I was a part of the generation of anime fan that started on the likes of Gundam, DBZ, and Pokemon, and having those shows on everyday helped cultivate my love of anime today.

    What I see on CN now is a gap of quality programming for the mid-teens demographic. Off the top of my head, I can think of plenty of kids shows and plenty of late night “mature” comedies, but there’s a definite rift where the “beginner’s anime” used to be. You know, shows like Inuyasha, Outlaw Star, and Gundam. Maybe CN has just lost that audience to the internet generation that would rather get their Naruto, Bleach, and One Piece fix from Youtube and torrents, but we all knew the migration was inevitable as soon as Cartoon Network relegated anime to a once-a-week block.

    Concerning Gonzo, they just lack talented writers. Give them just 2-3 episodes, and they’ll make an entertaining show. But they get in trouble when they have to sustain a plot for more than 4 episodes. Again off the top of my head, the last enjoyable Gonzo show I remember was Last Exile, and how many years ago was that?

    What tj said in his comments about Gonzo needing to cut back on the number of titles they produce is also valid. Just look at some of Gonzo’s recent offerings: Druaga, Strike Witches, Dragonaut, and Blassreiter. The former two target a minorty, niche audience while the latter two are just plain terrible. All real stinkers. Where’s the quality control?

    Some of the messes Gonzo is responsible for are partly why I’m still embarrassed to show anime to casual friends. I don’t like wishing ill on others, but I’m with Daryl on this one: I want Karmic Justice served for years of mediocrity and subpar efforts.

  11. When you mentioned Gonzo doing video game openings, I immediately thought of the PS2 game SkyGunner, which has my favorite game opening ever and I remember reading they worked on it.

    All throughout that discussion I kept waiting for you guys to mention Welcome to the NHK; I’m halfway through the DVDs and still enjoying it, though I have to hide the DVD covers lest any family member or friend walk in and get the wrong idea. What’s Gonzo’s reputation for adapting manga and novels?

  12. My favorite show that Gonzo worked on was Vandread. Goofy and maybe not the modern mecha series but I enjoyed the story and the characters.

    To Clarissa and everyone else-Tomorrow on Sci-Fi channel is going to play the Black Jack OVA. I never seen it before but I’m willing to watch it.

    I like that Sci-Fi is bold enough to do an anime block. The problem why it didn’t garner much attention until the announcement of Gurren Lagann and Gundam 00 due to that the stuff shown is from the Manga Ent. While some gem were shown (Macross Plus and Ghost in the Shell film), they had the nudity censored but also really awful stuff was shown like Vampire Wars and Sword for Truth.

  13. Anonymous –

    But there’s already Washizu yaoi! I guess now there’ll just be more of it.

    tj –

    It’s kind of difficult to get a handle on all the ones that have been edited. I think Viz started putting notices in ones that were cut, but I think they’re still kind of small and out of the way, and they’re very vague and don’t actually say what was edited out.

    Off the top of my head, I remember these being edited:

    Naruto – edited for breasts I think?
    Bleach – edited for breasts IIRC
    Shaman King – edited to remove, like, tanuki testicles and I think some other random stuff
    Hikaru no Go – edited to remove underage characters smoking (that made me so angry)
    Nana – edited for nipples and possibly other stuff (though I think this was just edited in Shojo Beat and the tankobons are uncut)
    I”s
    Descendants of Darkness / Yami no Matsuei – edited to remove gay Catholic schoolboy blowjob that was actually not very visible anyway, but somehow I think they then left in the demon snake tentacle rape in a later volume
    Angel Sanctuary – edited for…probably everything because it’s Angel Sanctuary

  14. Oh man. I hope Niconico doesn’t start pulling some of the good stuff like all of Galvion. That’s Koichi Ohata’s greatest contribution to 80’s mecha. A show so popular it was canceled at 22 episodes and doesn’t even end.

  15. Interesting follow up to the whole Nico Nico Douga copyright wipe is that Sankaku Complex is reporting that Nico Nico Douga’s popularity has collapsed. (some parts of the site is NSFW) I’m taking this with a grain of salt, because this article is only reported on one site, and it seems to be pandering a bit to the peverted otaku side. But it’s not exactly hard to imagine that this has happened.

  16. Correction from before. It’s the 1996 Black Jack movie and not the OVA that’s going to be shown tomorrow on Sci-Fi.

    I was also wondering, do you Clarissa and Daryl get payed for those articles written in OtakuUSA? Also how come Gerald doesn’t do articles in it (or does he but were none in the latest issue)?

  17. Clarissa: Thanks so much for all your help with the Viz edits! That really helped me a lot. Luckily, I don’t buy any of those series, except for Nana. Also, your comment about the Descendents of Darkness edits made me laugh.

  18. Just so you know, I voted yes on the poll because there was only two options. I always download the .mp3 from the website when the episode first comes out, but every once in a while I want to listen to a specific episode so I go to the website (or Digg) and listen to the episode I want on the flash player.

    -Jaime/KB

  19. tj –

    No problem. I really wish there was a master list somewhere, because I often end up hesitating to buy things from them if I’m not sure whether it’s been edited. For example, I’m unsure whether anything was edited from Yakitate!! Japan or Saint Seiya, so I’ve sort of lagged on buying those.

    There used to be a Livejournal or something that was tracking edits to commercial manga, but it doesn’t seem to exist anymore. I really wish there was someone, or a group of people, who could start something like that up again (or if it exists, please point me that direction).

    As to Descendants of Darkness, I still can’t really get over how ridiculous that is. I assume people complained about the edits and Viz rectified the problem in later volumes, which is nice, but when looking back at it it’s just very strange. I mean, it makes it seem like somehow gay snake demon rape is less objectionable than gay Catholic school head. Oh, Viz.

  20. Goddamn… I don’t know why I always think Eureka Seven is a Gonzo show. Of course it isn’t! I was able to enjoy the beginning and the end!

    Anywho, Darrel is pretty extra right about Macross Frontier. I’m enjoying the hell out of it, but despite itself. This week’s episode was a perfect example of this insane mash up of complete oddball batshit comedy lumped on top of top quality mecha action and melodrama. It beats the hell out of Nadesico, but it’s still like some sort of insane Japanese test of will.

  21. Glad to hear that Black Lagoon’s first season will be released as season box set. Definitely will buy that. Is there any word will there be a region 2 release of it?

  22. vince –

    Thanks. The last time I went it seemed to be somewhat difficult to locate stuff on there due to the forum structure, and I ended up sort of forgetting about it (I don’t use their forum otherwise). But I’ll go back and check there again.

  23. behonkiss –

    Yeah, I saw somebody mention that on the Fukumoto anonib. Looks pretty interesting, I might pick it up if it’s not too expensive.

    I’ve seen the Akagi game floating around too, and was considering picking it up, but it seems like that would probably be a lot more difficult to play without being fluent and also knowing about mahjong. Whereas the Kaiji games are fairly simple generally and if you watch the anime or read the manga you already know the rules.

  24. I can only attribute this sudden announcement of Baccano! being licensed to the fact that I mentioned that it should be licensed IN THIS VERY EPISODE. I am therefore taking credit for this development, because otherwise they would have announced it at SDCC or Otakon or something.

    Perhaps now some people I know will actually watch what I consider the best anime of 2007. And no, I am not forgetting what else came out in 2007.

  25. Wow, this is probably the 3rd time in the past few months that something you reviewed/talked about on the show has been licensed shortly afterwards! I’m starting to think that this is more than a coincidence. Maybe you guys should review Ace Wo Nerae or LOGH on the show sometime soon, then maybe someone will license them, haha.

  26. As far as I know, nothing has ever been visually censored in the EVANGELION manga (I actually remember a fan writing in reference to Rei, “Thank you for showing IT in the manga when you didn’t in the anime”). I did have Misato saying “F YOU!” to Kaji in Vol. 5 when the translator suggested “Fuck you!” but that was entirely on my own initiative–no one told me to do it–and I explained the change in the back of the comic (this, of course, is when it was a monthly comic book).

    I’m not sure why I did it; I think I was just startled, since no one had ever said “fuck” in the manga before. I was relatively new to manga editing then, and today I might have done it differently. There’s certainly nothing strange about the idea Misato would swear at Kaji when the two of them are alone (she would certainly try to act more “respectable” when the two of them are around others, especially the Children).

    Interestingly, one of the original staff who worked on adapting the EVA manga left the project because they felt uncomfortable with its use of Christian imagery. I was actually intrigued by that, rather than offended; I’ve said before that how actual Christians view such imagery in anime and manga is at least as legitimate an issue as what the Japanese artists originally meant by them.

    –C.

    “Even if the record skips, I still rip.”
    —Deltron 3030, “Positive Contact”

  27. Was Baccano! really ignored in Japan? Or does the fact it was on a subscription satellite channel (WOWOW) have any bearing on it’s ability to garner a large fanbase?

  28. Baccano eh? Well, perhaps in the next episode Daryl can talk about Xam’d: Lost Memories, (or Eureka Seven for that matter) and its wacky distribution means on the PSN, and maybe that’ll get licensed too and distributed to everyone! The trailer looks amazing and I bet it will be as awesome as Eureka Seven. Come on Daryl, YOU GOTTA POWER!

  29. Hey guys, great news episode. I was equally surprised about Funimations swooping in and gathering up all those titles. I agree that generally speaking, anime fans are all about “I want it as soon as possible and I can’t wait”, which is why Funimation is probably going to flood the market with all picked up Geneon and ADV titles. The evidence, of course, is the popularity of fan subs. I think (hope really) that fans will respond especially strongly to the Geneon titles. The strong support will spur Funimation forward to rescue more titles. I’m personally waiting for Black Lagoon ( both seasons ), story of saiunkoku, and Kamichu.

    I’m personally feeling pretty down about the Gonzo issues. Despite having listened to every episode you posted and hearing how much you hate the studio, I liked Gonzo shows in general, though probably not as much as I used to ( I think Daryl is starting to rub off on me ). Especially now, I’ll save you the trouble: DO NOT WATCH STRIKE WITCHES!! I decided to support the download to own, DRM-free stuff you can get from BOST TV, and the quality of the episode themselves were very good (good resolution, DRM free, sound was good), but this was the worst series to start off with. I spend $10 on 3 episodes so far, and while the price point isn’t bad, NO! I DON’T WANT TO WATCH 8 YEAR OLDS FLYING AROUND WITHOUT PANTS AND FURRIES JUST BECAUSE THEY CAST MAGIC!

  30. Daryl, when I heard that Baccano was licensed I immediately thought of you. What a coincidence! You mention it on the show, & it's licensed right afterwards!

  31. Funimation didn't 'rescue' Geneon's titles in the sense that Geneon still holds the license for the shows while Funi is just distributing them.

    Also, I wonder how many of the title will perform since many of them were 'fan favorites' which is otaku-speak for "creepy shows that only we like but no one else does… and a lot of us won't buy since we saw it in fansub form". Things like Hellsing & Black Lagoon will do fine since they've got broader appeal

  32. DARYL SURAT ARE YOU AWARE OF THIS

    http://www.pixiv.net/member_illust.php?mode=medium&illust_id=1029553

    And if you don't have a pixiv account: http://mistakesofyouth.com/1029553_m.jpg

    The description of the picture reads thusly: "Playing card of the host of the Anime World Order podcast(http://animeworldorder.blogspot.com/), Daryl Surat. Surat is a big fan of Hokoto No Ken, so I have paid tribute to him by rendering him as Kenshiro.?????????????????Anime World Order????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????"

    I don't even get fanart drawn of me!

  33. Fanart of me could easily be mistaken as fanart of you judging from how you draw yourself!

    In any case, that picture was drawn by Sub over at Subatomic Brainfreeze, a blog which I could swear I used to have linked but must have forgotten to carry over once I switched the links over to be a blogroll proper. It’s fixed now.

    He actually did the pencil sketch some time ago, which I could swear was used as the embedded MP3 image at some point or another. The colored-in version is more recent. In any case, we do not get much of any fanart as all the people who would provide such a thing are far more interested in drawing pictures of Dave and Joel. For obvious reasons.

    As for Baccano’s popularity, while I know someone on ANN posted some sample numbers already for WOWOW shows, note that there are 3 episodes released just to DVD that weren’t aired on the network. If the show’s performance was even average, surely they would have wanted to air those final 3 episodes on the station, right? Successful shows don’t require you to buy the DVDs to see the ending. Just ask any Firefly fan before you slit their throats for being a Firefly fan. Note that Clarissa doesn’t bleed human blood and may possibly be a Skrull.

    Even if I’m completely wrong, all I know is that when Baccano! came out, the only thing being talked about was Clannad.

  34. >>In any case, that picture was drawn by Sub over at Subatomic Brainfreeze,

    You sure? Because this guy's pixiv account says this guy was born in 1975 and lives in Tokyo. And they link this LJ (http://youngfreud.livejournal.com/) in their profile.

    >>If the show's performance was even average, surely they would have wanted to air those final 3 episodes on the station, right?

    Please keep in mind that the studio that made Baccano, Brains Base, has done this once before. For their DVD release of Kamichu they added four new episodes and additional footage to each episode. I don't really think it's a case of the show not being popular. According to pictures on Danbooru it had a decent following.

    Also, the blocks of time that anime air on (at least late at night) are like infomercial blocks– they have to be paid for in advance. They probably only bought 13 episodes, and planned to have those extra ones DVD only anyway. I mean, the TV ending wraps things up pretty well. The OVA stuff is really just extra noise.

  35. Hah. I didn’t even notice that until I finished writing the comment.

    Anyways, I don’t wanna keep spamming up these comments, but I’d like to add this– the fact that they made DVD episodes only leads me to believe that the show was more popular than they expected, and there was more demand for more novels to be covered.

    Not saying the show was a crazy otaku hit though (many of the characters are male after all) but I’d be willing to bet it has a smallish but loyal sort of following over in Japan.

  36. The ending of Cowboy Bebop has aired on Adult Swim many times so no DVD purchase needed. The movie takes place in the middle of the show’s run so that’s not the ‘end’.

  37. If FMA is considered “Neo Shonen”, would stuff like Evangelion, Gundam Wing or if relevant to today, Code Geass? Since those shows tend to be popular with female fans but not for the primary reason (that being they’re all mecha shows) but for the bishonen characters (well, not sure why girls like Eva other than it being still popular).

    Speaking of which, I was able to get the Platinum tin for Eva for get this….36 bucks on Amazon. The catrach was that the tin is supposedly dented but the discs themselves are still wrapped. I’ll see how it is when I get it.

  38. Vince, there’s a reason I brought up Cowboy Bebop, and it’s got nothing at all to do with Adult Swim.

  39. Cowboy Bebop was broadcast in its entirety on Wowow in Japan as well Adult Swim in the US. Would you please explain what you mean to imply? I don’t understand the point you are trying to make.

  40. My point is that the original broadcast of Cowboy Bebop didn’t include all the episodes, so it’s not as though Baccano is the first series ever that didn’t broadcast entirely on TV.

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