Year: 2009

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

Podcast: Download (Duration: 1:04:56 — 29.7MB)

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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’:

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Anime World Order Show # 75b – Morgan Freeman Can’t Be Everywhere At Once

Podcast: Download (Duration: 2:07:20 — 58.3MB)

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Show 75 with our special guest Ryan Gavigan concludes with the news segment, Gerald’s review/summary of Riding Bean, and Clarissa’s review of Yakitate! Japan.

Let’s News! (0:00 – 33:47)
The news was like, a month out of date when we recorded it…months ago! So we recorded an addendum to it…like one month ago! So yeah, there’s this guy named Chris Handley. You know, the guy who got busted because customs inspected a package of manga he bought from Japan and declared it mad gross. We still have no idea what manga it was he bought. Some people say it is “the gay,” as stated by the ugly freckle face girl in Transporter 3, but radicals like Carl Horn and Jason Thompson wrote some cool things on that one website about what this all MEANS, maaan. You know, the one with the news…what was it? Oh yeah, Anime Vi–no wait, the site they and we steal all OUR news items from. Oh yeah, Anime News Network.

In other news, Gonzo is cutting down on the amount of bad shows they make each year to only about four or so bad shows a year. Also, anime studios in Singapore are being all like “I’M A COMPUTER! STOP ALL THE DOWNLOADING!” Again. And which will be more dire: Dragonball Evolution or Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li? You know what? It doesn’t matter. Stop talking on and on about live-action anime adaptations. We don’t care. ADV is resurrecting their porn/quasi-porn line to GET PAID, YO, and Funimation posted an episode of Sgt Frog dubbed to Youtube, the localization of which is…different from the original.

For some reason, they’re making some Maria Watches Over Us in 3-D. Also, Hajime no Ippo: New Challenger is out. In fact, why are you listening to this podcast? You could be watching more Hajime no Ippo right now. Even though the music’s different and they just might be playing up the gayness factor in a cynical grab for more viewers. You could of course read the manga, since much like Black Lagoon and Monster it’s more or less identical. But you won’t hear the jet engine during the Dempsey Roll, and the jet engine is the most important part. The final news is that our interview with Kazuko Tadano and Hiromi Matsushita (whose name we couldn’t remember!) that we did at Otakon will probably never get posted since the audio quality is so terrible. A pity too, since we learned the secrets of Crystal Triangle!

Promo: ANON Podcast (33:47 – 34:42)
It’s short for ANime ONline Podcast! It was formerly the Anime and Television in Toronto Podcast, but then they realized that now that The Shield is over and Prison Break is ending, there’s no reason to watch television anymore. Jack Bauer may be fighting the goddamned Candyman, but it’s hard to care when you know that ZOMBIE TONY is around the corner. He may have got shot…IN THE NECK…but he also crossed Robocop. And even though that was only a little less dumb than David Palmer, it’s…oh right, this podcast. They tend to cover more recent fansub-only titles if that’s your thing!

Review/Synopsis: Riding Bean (34:42 – 1:32:08)
It would be faster to just WATCH Riding Bean! This segment will probably not go down in history as our finest hour, as we were all driven insane by the pizza. Pictures forthcoming.

Promo: The Japan Xperience (1:32:08 -1:32:36)
It’s a good thing they spelled the URL for me in the email, because they didn’t actually spell it out in the promo. Who would have guessed that there was a second “i” in there? Not me! Fortunately, you did the smart thing and read the show notes, so now YOU know too! These guys actually live in Japan, and their show’s largely about Japanese music. Say, we’ve heard some of that!

Review: Yakitate! Japan (1:32:36 – 2:01:21)
This is a cartoon that applies the shonen action/adventure formula to baking bread combined with outlandish Mr. Ajikko-like food hallucinations. You now have all the information you need to decide whether or not you wish to watch this cartoon.

I could certainly add a great deal of notes with screenshots, and bread reactions and such. But perhaps all I really need to include is the second ED credits that so mesmerized Gerald.

Closing (2:01:21 – 2:07:19)
The next two episodes of AWO were actually recorded quite some time ago; Show 76 was actually recorded a few days before Christmas 2008. Next time, Gerald’s reviewing Shootfighter Tekken (the manga of which was partially released in the US under the name Tough), Clarissa’s seriously actually for real this time reviewing Part 4 of Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure, and Daryl is reviewing Hirohiko Araki’s single greatest work, Baoh the Visitor. This was originally held off for over a year in the hopes that Dave and Joel would do it, but they ignored the pleas. The gambit has paid off.