Anime World Order Show # 76a – A Disgrace to the Anime Punditocracy

Here’s the first half of Show 76, containing the “general chat” portions of the show; reading emails and responding to recent anime news developments. Show 76b will contain the actual reviews.

Introduction (0:00 – 26:51)
All the podcast gurus state you should save emails for the end of the show, which is why we read them at the beginning! Current emails in Inbox: 345. We lament the continued non-licensing of Ippatsu Kikimusume, and Gerald clarifies his stance on Dirty Pair Flash which was probably initially brought up when he reviewed Project E.D.E.N. way back when. Daryl takes the time to update the list of People In His Sights before trying to remember some anime titles with particularly noteworthy narrators. We can’t help but think that we forgot something terribly important. And given the attendance levels for the Providence Anime Conference, are anime fandom gatherings geared towards non-teenagers viable?

Let’s News! (26:51 – 1:03:09)
There were some regrettable deaths in the world of Gatchaman and O-DIIIIIIIIIIIIN, and we suspect Baoh as the cause of the death. Bandai Entertainment is joining FUNimation, ADV Films, and Tokyopop at the layoff party, and Diamond is upping their minimum order price by $1000. Dave Merrill’s Livejournal is where the party was for that discussion: our favorite comment exchange was “GOSH WHY CAN’T WE GET WOMEN AND KIDS INTO THE COMIC BOOK SHOPS OF AMERICA? BECAUSE MY VAGINA IS HAUNTED!” Be sure to read those comments so you too may have the covers to the next three Grant Morrison projects. PS: all comicbook writers from the British Isles are awful no matter how much TRUE BELIEVERS claim otherwise. PPS: laserdiscs are finally no longer being made. You remember laserdiscs, right? Oh, huh. Well, we don’t either.

Based on the amount of people in a previous poll who correctly identified the right answer, about 100+ people reading this will be glad to know that Discotek Media will be releasing the remastered Fist of the North Star theatrical animated movie on DVD later this year. In other “wow, someone licensed that?” news, The Roots of Japanese Anime Until the End of World War II is coming out in the US as well. It won’t be cheap, but spare no expense for DVD quality copies of Momotaro’s Divine Sea Warriors, the very first feature-length Japanese animated film which is also incredibly jingoistic Japanese WW2 propaganda. On the newer side of things, Toei now has Space Pirate Captain Harlock and Galaxy Express 999 available to view in streaming form, and iTunes has a whole bunch of anime songs up for purchase. Oh yeah, remember all that stuff about Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure, Part 3? Looks like it’s been worked out. You know what hasn’t been worked out? The fact that people don’t seem to realize that anime voice actors are perpetually out of work and/or make very little money.

But enough about THE INDUSTRY: the Reverse Thieves have begun the Otaku Diaries project, an anonymous survey about the social lives or lack thereof of self-proclaimed otaku. You’ve got two months to complete the survey, and at about 150 short answer/essay questions you’ll probably need it. Daryl’s signed up for it, and hopefully so will everyone else. Let’s see how deep the pit goes, shall we? If all that writing gets you in a mode, we recommend contributing to the proposed Anime Confessions archive, a would-be repository for all manners of fandom soapbox diatribes. So far they don’t really have very many submissions. Perhaps YOU can help! Finally, Ben and Matt over at For Tax Reasons have released yet another short, which at nearly 8000 views is proof positive that they don’t really need the rub from us. Too bad; they’re getting it anyway!

Promo: Pop Rocks and Soda (1:03:09 – 1:04:28)
All the podcast gurus state you should make your promos about 30 seconds long, so we’re playing this one that’s about 90. Bonus points for no bongo drums this time!

We’ll post the second half of this on Tuesday or Wednesday or so. It’s actually done. We could post it now. BUT WE AREN’T. You know why? Because even though we shipped out nearly all of the T-shirts and hoodies, we didn’t yet ship out the international orders. It turns out that shipping for hoodies is more like $8.75 than $5, and we shudder to think how much more expensive the international shipping will be. Anyway, if YOU want AWO t-shirts or hoodies, email us for the details. Here’s Aaron from the WARP Anime Podcast (Go Recursive Acronym GO!) stylin’ and profilin’:

25 Replies to “Anime World Order Show # 76a – A Disgrace to the Anime Punditocracy”

  1. Crunchyroll needs to start streaming Toei shows which haven’t been fansubbed… like the original kinnikuman anime!

    The show demands your love:

  2. Just to throw in my two cents, I also prefer to have the entire episode at once.

    Of course, if it’s been like a month since your last episode, and chopping up the episode means you can get the first part out a week earlier, then I’d prefer it chopped up.

    Basically, I want as much AWO goodness as quickly as possible. But this is just one random asshole’s opnion.

  3. Nice episode, especially the discussion on Diamond.

    Just curious, you not once but TWICE make allusions to “podcast gurus” in the post – any chance you could release these identities for reference? (and to help me immeasurably)

  4. I thought it was odd that Clarissa though Potemayo would get licensed just because Crunchyroll removed it from their site. To me that’d be a hard sell in the U.S. (of course I’d buy if it were true).

    Yes, I’d prefer the whole show at once but whatever works for you I guess.

  5. Uh-oh. I have a couple of hundred laserdiscs. (Yes, really.) If my laserdisc player stops working, I’ll never be able to watch them. Not that I’m ever likely to get around to watching them, but still. 🙁

  6. Kinnikuman won’t happen because of Brockman Jr. But you never know. I mean, no one got offended by Kekko Kamen, so…

  7. VZ –

    I’ve kind of stopped looking for releases that make sense to me. Companies license tons of stuff, including things that nobody’s really heard of or aren’t always easy sells. Granted, some of those are package deals that they take to get other shows, but…

    I’m unsure if it would be perceived as a hard sell though. It could have been picked up as a grab for the audience for other cute comedy shows like Azumanga and Lucky Star.

  8. I’m an older (42) anime fan and I staff the local con (AnimeNEXT). It gets a bit depressing seeing the age of the fans decreasing and the common sense of those fans also decreasing but I still enjoy anime.

  9. “Kinnikuman won’t happen because of Brockman Jr.”

    Nice negativity there. We’re talking about streaming CR content, not the latest offering on the FoxBox (outdated reference, I know).

    Hell, they’re already streaming Hokuto no Ken, which makes Kinnikuman look like The Dandelion Funtime Hour, nazi references or no.

    If it turns out Brocken actually prevented a CR license from occurring, it’s time for me to start cracking skulls in a Warsman-like fashion. Hurting JoJo release schedules is one thing, but political correctness hurting the opportunity to watch Kinnikuman is taking it too far.

  10. Well, a certain Lupin nazi episode had to be released out of order, even though it wasn’t any different than those “banned” WB propaganda cartoons. So this kind of concern isn’t exactly new.

  11. It’s gotta be the fame that makes people want to become an American voice actor in the anime industry. No one in their right mind wants to work two jobs if they don’t have to. In Japan, well, I don’t know. They’re all crazy.

  12. Would prefer the entire episode at once, but if this isn't possible, then this news & email = episode Xa and reviews = episode Xb formula works well:)

  13. Re: PAC –

    Final count on paid attendees was around 270-280, I think. As for bodies in building counting staff, guests, and comps, probably 350ish isn’t unreasonable. Maybe more? Maybe less?

    I think if we’d properly advertised, we would have eked out a few more paid attendees. From what I heard, after the con was over, people were popping up out of the woodwork wondering why they hadn’t heard about it. In the interests of not causing dramu, I’ll stop there.

    Even if we had advertised properly, I doubt we’d have hit 1000. If we can ever do this again, it’ll be different. Oh, it’ll be different. It would at least need to be cheaper, given that unemployment is at terrifying levels.

  14. Crunchyroll needs to start streaming Toei shows which haven’t been fansubbed… like the original kinnikuman anime!

    You would think they’d listen!

    (course I wish Kinnikuman was picked up way, way back when the M.U.S.c.L.E. thing was all the rage for us youngsters)

    I don’t mind splitting this up into halves, as I may like to discuss the news bits more than the reviews themselves.

    Pixy Misa said…

    Uh-oh. I have a couple of hundred laserdiscs. (Yes, really.) If my laserdisc player stops working, I’ll never be able to watch them. Not that I’m ever likely to get around to watching them, but still. 🙁

    Still got a trusty Pioneer CLD-D703. Noticed AWO mentioned how you had to switch the sides to watch a disc as well as the CAV/CLV differences. With my model, I could have the sides switch automatically inside the unit, plus freeze frame on CLV perfectly. Probably the best machine I have. The only drawback was that I could’ve got mine modded with AC-3 output, but then I’d have to have some special decoder for that than just to wire it into a home theater receiver as I’m told.

    I know a few diehards like one on YouTube who has been a Betamax lover for over 30 years! He currently shows off his collection on YouTube and Dailymotion daily. That’s a commitment, and I love people who can share a bit of television history that has since been lost to the ages.

    When I think of an infodump narrator with a cushy job, it would be the Dragon Ball one. You know, you come in, do your one or two lines during the recap, then another couple lines at the end of an episode, and go home, you don’t even get to do the Next Episode Previews.

    Shame how the comics industry is nowadays thanks to Diamond’s own decisions. It’s stuff like this that makes me want to go back to when comics was something I wanted to get back at the corner drug store. Nobody want’s to do that sort of thing anymore that Dave does Stupid Comics reviews of! Lady Tits-Crotch Blood Patrol doesn’t appeal to me at all for the $5 wasted on it. I can remember when 75 cents bought you something that I bothered to keep rather than throw out.

    Nice to hear DiscoTek got FotNS. Recently bought some eBay items I didn’t think to get that included what I believe are background music and sound effects tracks on 1/4″ reel-to-reel tapes as well as some 35mm footage that may’ve came the trailer as well as OP and ED credit sequences for Streamline’s editing of the film. I’m quite proud to have that now stashed away in my private collection of mindless anime stuff most wouldn’t care to get.

    Shame if DiscoTek may not get back to doing more Toei anime classics anytime in the near future. I recently acquired a print of Little Norse Prince in English I wouldn’t mind letting them borrow for the purpose of having an English audio track on the disc if they ever license that flick.

    Whenever I think of Johnny Otaku and his ‘dream’, I wish he was dead! If I ever wanted a job at FUNimation, I’d rather be a staff writer of sorts, if only to throw in a dub line or two in a particular anime that will make every fan cringe despite my insistence of how bad those shows were to begin with. If it provides me with the grounds to do a little background voiceover work, then I’ll take it.

    Speaking of FUNi, someone brought this to my attention, and I’m only linking this as FUNi was involved in this 10 years ago for a popular restaurant we’ve all may’ve been at once or twice in our lifetime (not me though).

    Thanks for another look at the wacky world of news guys!

  15. I won’t make excuses for commenting on this episode in a fashionably late manner. . . I am just lazy about keeping on top of podcasts.

    Thanks for dropping the name “Johnny Otaku” on me. Intrigued, (and who wouldn’t be by that very well thought moniker), I spent several hours forum lurking and gathering info on him. It is these dark corners of fandom I feed on. It’s a morally bankrupt pastime, but I try and give back how I can.

    Thanks for the plug, by the way. It’s not so much the hit bump but the validation and credibility I seek from esteemed and legendary figures on the anime community such as yourselves.

  16. Been watching Akagi and that also has a pretty omnipresent narrator. And it’s Tohru Furuya with his Gundam 00 next episode voice so it’s pretty hilarious, though it’s more info dump narration than anything. I’ve watched 7 episodes so far and I can only remember one time when there’s a cut away to a weird analogy that the narrator has alluded to.

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