Anime World Order Show # 108 – I, G, Kickstart Their Art, Give It a Start

Clarissa is occupied with schoolwork, so substituting as her is Paul Chapman from Otaku USA Magazine and the Greatest Movie EVER! podcast. He wrote an eBook short fiction collection and we forgot to mention it. In this episode, we talk about our time at Anime Weekend Atlanta 2012, Daryl reviews The Drops of God manga, and we totally don’t guilt/anger-trip you over the Production IG Kick-Heart Kickstarter. That’s it. Nothing else happened.

Introduction and Con Report: Anime Weekend Atlanta (0:00 – 54:30)
Damn. Just look at that timecode. Under normal circumstances we’d release that as its own podcast. BUT NOT TODAY. The three of us went to Anime Weekend Atlanta 2012 and dangit, we got things to SAY. But first, we read an email from a young child with a dream. Or maybe we didn’t and are just saying we did. You know, like how Daryl said he was going to write a Panel OF DOOM! report for the Anime Hell blog but never did.

Promo: Fightbait (54:30 – 55:08)
Multiple segments means we can actually have a space to play promos again! That devious Jean-Paul and his French-Canadian-ness is certainly not to be trusted, but look at Mr. Work Ethic and Mr. Sound Quality Improvements over there. Thinking he’s all that just because he’s shouting about the pedobait in underwear tank cartoon. WELL. I GUESS.

Review: The Drops of God (manga) (55:08 – 1:36:49)
Daryl hasn’t actually done reviews in quite some time, but in recognition of the fact that the Most Dangerous Ed Chavez is making Vertical Inc manage to do what Viz never could he figured it’s time to review this manga. Don’t be fooled by most of what you’ve ever read from the manga blogging community about this. Dispel those thoughts now, and let us reveal what this comic is REALLY about. Oh, that’s what some of them said too? HA. I’D SURE LIKE TO SEE EVIDENCE OF THAT, YES SIR-REE.

Promo: Method to Madness (1:36:49 – 1:37:35)
Feeling like you need some more mecha reviews in your podcasts lately? Gerald has declared November a month for building mecha model kits (pick one and just do it! Dammit, he even MADE A TUMBLR), but Sean and Kevin are doing a three-part series named OctoboRoboFest in which their next string of episodes will all review what they deem to be a silly robot anime. First up on their list? Godannar. A truly awesome mecha show, perhaps despite itself. Daryl likes it, anyway.

Conclusion (1:37:45 – 1:55:53)
We close things off by talking about Kick-Heart, the crowd-funded animation project from Production IG and Masaaki Yuasa. In the past we’ve reviewed Mind Game as well as Kemonozume and Kaiba, so you can bet that we backed this sucker the instant we saw it, despite the fact that it was posted as we’d arrived back from AWA and it was like 5:00 AM. A lot of other anime fans are less enthusiastic about this since they’re not keen on the premise, the creator, and/or the notion of “you mean I should pledge money to something I don’t care about with the idea that MAYBE later, someone will do something I do like?” Those people don’t understand that being first to try something carries greater weight as far as demonstrating viability is concerned. I bet they’re the kinds of people who watch anime they hate just so they can be mad about it online.

That’s it. Nothing else happened. Whatever you do, don’t tell Clarissa if your media player says the total running time of this episode is 2:05:31. That’s uh…that’s just variable bit-rate trickery. Either that or the greatest moment in podcasting history. It’s one of those.

28 Replies to “Anime World Order Show # 108 – I, G, Kickstart Their Art, Give It a Start”

  1. Just wanted to say that this is the link to where I read There Were Eleven…
    [link to popular scanlation site demonstrating that Four Shojo Stories was scanned]

    (Also I was tired, already in bed, and half asleep when I wrote all of my emails)

  2. Thanks for another great podcast! I’m very excited about the Kick-Heart project, and became a backer on day 1. Masaaki Yuasa is my favorite currently active director, so not only am I excited for the mere concept of allowing a director’s vision to be produced through crowd funding, I’m also very excited about the staff behind it. I’m in the $100 tier, because, simply put, I want to support this. I agree the concept is strange, but I really don’t mind. S&M wrestling is a story we haven’t seen in anime, though perhaps you guys have, with your vast knowledge of hentai, and I’ve long since learned to give original anime a chance, even if the concept is a little strange. Though, no, you won’t see a “gsilver” on the backers list. I used my real name for it :p

    While it will be no AWA, I’ll be attending my first convention this weekend. I’m very excited about that.

    Finally, I’m looking forward to the continuing adventures of The Darker and The Larger. That was hilarious.

    Oh, one other thing that I forgot to mention, and was hoping to hear mentioned in the podcast. By now, Genius Party, Mind Game, Kaiba, and The Tatami Galaxy all have official English-language DVDs released in Australia (Region 4). Welcome to the Space Show, which also had input from Yuasa, is available from Manga UK (Region 2). I highly recommend that people track these down. An all-region hack isn’t too high of a barrier to entry. [Based on our review from episodes past, I doubt I could “highly recommend” Welcome to the Space Show, though Yuasa’s hand is evident as far as the actual space show in the story goes. –Daryl]

  3. The RAVEN!!!

    Also, awesome podcast. I picked up the first volume of Drops of God near when it was first released. I like it all right, and I will probably pick up to at least volume 4. I know it is not super cool to put requests into the comments section, but I would really like to hear you guys review “Lupin the 3rd: The Fuma Conspiracy.” I just watched it for the first time recently and I really loved it. I think I might like it more then The Castle of Cagliostro.

  4. For decades, my primary copy of Manga! Manga! *was* a hardcover copy stolen from a library that eventually someone from ShoPro USA wound up stealing from me. So it goes. Now I make time with a usual glue-bound softcover that I probably from someplace / someone else. What can I say? It was the original STEAL THIS BOOK.

  5. Dear Daryl,

    Nope, still not getting with the program. :p [I suspect this email address is either a false one or a spamtrap! –Daryl]

    Actually, rooms went better in some respects than in previous years. Tell ya more later.

    Interesting to hear women were watching Crying Freeman.

    Meanwhile, I still need to find a copy of Manga! Manga!… hmmm.

  6. I will definitely be picking up Drops of God in the near future. I had heard others talk about it but wasn’t clear on the premise. It sounds really entertaining. I’m afraid, however, that I may be one of those people running out to the wine store after each volume.

    The reading of the fanfic was hilarious. I don’t know how you weren’t bursting with laughter during the recording. I think she got it backwards though. Daryl seems like more of a top.

  7. Another great episode, you guys. I can only hope that this opens the AWO fanfiction floodgates and leads to a recurring series.

    Since you asked for feedback, just thought I’d let you know that you convinced me to both buy the first volume of Drops of God (it’s sitting in my Amazon cart, waiting for my next paycheck) AND to donate to the Kick Heart kickstarter. Like you guys do, I really hope the Kick Heart project gets funded, if only so it opens the door for more outside the box projects finding funding this way. And “Drops of God” should allow me to vicariously indulge in wines I cannot possibly afford.

  8. Is the title for this episode based on the main line for “Kickstart the Heart” by Crue? After reading it a few times, I’m making a strong assumption that it is.

    Tell me there is some prize involved for solving that riddle.

  9. I want this Carl Horn Wings of Honneamise Fanzine. I’ve been Googling for a while and can’t find anything online. Any help would be appreciated.

    [That’s because it doesn’t exist yet. Also, this is a more different “Patrick” than the other one above. Last names help! –Daryl]

  10. Editing, I assume. I also picked up volumes 1 and 2 of Drops of God. And, uh, I liked Oshinbo Oishinbo, and I would’ve bought all 100 volumes if they’d put them out. And yes, I know, I’m the only one.

  11. Allow me to defend my good name as a Ninja Consultant. Specifically, Gerald said “The Ninja Consultants said that Artist Alley is the place to find obscure art of shows you like that no one else likes.” AWO goes on to say how Artist Alley now caters to the most mainstream nerd tastes far more effectively than the dealers room, and this is true.

    Gerald is missing an important aspect of Artist Alley; commissions. You can commission whatever weird shit in artist alley that you can convince someone to draw for you, particularly if you bring some reference art. A lot of lucrative artist alley deals go down this way “behind the table” (so to speak). The ready-made poster prints are always of more popular shows.

    We did several Artist Alley podcasts back in 2006, and in the interim years things may be different in artist allies. It may also be the case that Noah (or I) may have seen more obscure characters in artist alley(s) back in 2006 before quite so many people started doing artist alley as a full time “business”.

    Certainly, your odds of finding obscure fandom art are much higher in the artist alley than in the dealer’s room. It’s also the case that you might have to dig past the popular art in someone’s portfolio to see the less popular shows they like buried at the back.

    Maybe if Clarissa was on the show she could have brought up that wonderful Jojo riding a Narwhale poster from Otakon 2009. (I think it was 2009…)

  12. Okay, fine, I didn’t spell it right, I was doing it by memory. Anyways, I do have a question: was all that “the smaller one”/”the larger one” a staple of slash fanfic? It sounded strange to hear it said so often (tho, your guys’ reading of it was awesome.)

  13. Speaking of Vertical, they just picked up a new thing and I really hope you can help me spread the word.

    They just got the license for the manga “Gundam the Origin” a reboot of the original 0079 series. They’re essentially only going to print as many copies as are pre-ordered, so I’m trying to spread the word so that people don’t miss out on this opportunity. That, and Ed explained that if the first two volumes don’t make a profit then the project will die. Thank you.

  14. I usually cut the podcast off at the sound of your shitty license-free intro/outro music. I’m glad my cellphone (that I was listening to it on) was inconveniently out of reach this time. XD

    [License-free? Actually we, uh, we stole it without permission. Also, that implies you usually stop listening at the intro… –Daryl]

  15. Gerald’s rape voice made me spit the cola filling my mouth all over my now-sticky keyboard. And major props to Chapman for the straight (and hard) narration!

  16. Did i miss something where the guys hate Satoshi Kon now? I almost had to stop listening after Daryl used the term “dying of cancer, Satoshi Kon style.”

    [As a matter of fact, yes! You DID miss something: the word “pancreatic” in your quote. The character died of the EXACT SAME THING that killed Satoshi Kon, and also like him did not publicly disclose his illness for the sake of continuing to work. –Daryl]

  17. Fred Schodt made my convention. Not only was his panel terrific, but I got to have a real conversation with him at Carl’s party that just blew my mind. Just to get a little TMI, when I was in college in the early 90s, people kept showing me Ranma and Devil Hunter Yoko to sell me on anime. Since my anime roots lie in watching Starblazers and Battle of the Planets, I wasn’t drawn back into the swamp by animation. Instead, it was “Manga Manga” and Ian Buruma’s “The Mirror and the Sword” which got me interested in manga. From these books I learned that manga could a) feature Marie Antoinette and b) be just amazingly lurid. Getting to talk with Fred about all that was just terrific. AWA should continue to give Vic Mignona’s spray-tanned ass a forum as long as that funds actual guests like Fred Schodt.

    The other thing that’s cool about Schodt as a guest is that it seems like he came to manga through an artier route than most. Clearly he’s got ties to the comics world, but he seems a lot art geekier than sci-fi/comics geeky.

  18. A late post, but regardless:

    I wish we had more Drops of God published over here. The circumstances behind its publication here sadden me, because I haven’t been this enthralled and impressed with a manga series in a short while.

    (Well, there was Firefighter! Daigo of Fire Company M as well – which I discovered this year and love just as much – but that’s another topic.)

    I’m also glad that Kick-Heart managed to hit its funding mark. I’m proud to have taken part in it and I hope that further projects come as a result of this one. To those two individuals who made the $10 000 and $2 000 pledge on the last day, I thank you.

  19. Rich Anderson and Ryan Gavigan both live here in Indianapolis, Indiana. I remember when they were both in their late teens and early twenties and coming over to my house on the weekends to watch and trade anime tapes some 20 plus years ago.

  20. Well. That yaoi fanfic dramatic reading resulted in me dying laughing while walking through the campus food court. Thanks, guys.

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