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Malady and illness caused us to miss last month, but Gerald attended Otakon 2025 and Daryl reviews what he considers a landmark of “post-Evangelion TV anime,” the mecha comedy-drama Martian Successor Nadesico. And also…the movie. But also the Gekiganger 3 OVA.
Introduction (0:00 – 1:14:13)
Gerald was the only one among us well enough to attend Otakon 2025, so he offers this report of a convention attended by roughly 43,000 people. That’s slightly down compared to the previous year, for reasons which we speculate upon. Here are some of the photos Gerald took:
We wrap things up by talking about the Animeigo and Discotek anime licenses that were announced.
Review: Martian Successor Nadesico (1:14:13 – 2:39:31)
After showing the Christmas episode to the group last December, Daryl now revisits this mecha dramedy series from 1996, which he first saw via VHS fansubs at his local anime club. Those were fansubbed off of laserdiscs, such that each disc opened with a different Japanese voice cast member introducing themselves, then after two episodes they’d pop in to ask you to turn your laserdisc over now to continue watching. These segments don’t seem to ever be included on any new Nadesico release “because you’re not watching on laserdisc” or whatever goofy reason abounds. In any case, we watched the entire Nadesico TV series, along with the movie Prince of Darkness and the OVA Gekiganger 3. This results in a wild rollercoaster of quality and reaction, much like Nadesico itself. You can watch Nadesico TV for free on RetroCrush, though it’s only the English dub of the TV series which is listed as “Season 2” when there is no “Season 1” that would presumably be the Japanese subtitled version which we watched.
Hey guys. I’m Kurt, the person behind the Anime Home Video Museum. Thanks for all the kind words about the Museum, and I definitely would down to be a guest in the future on the show. So feel free to hit me up for that. It is mostly me running the operation with some family and friends kind enough to help out and contribute items for the event. The Tom Servo belongs to my long time panel co-host Simon, who does the long running con journal comic Conventional Wisdom and a good chunk of VHS tapes we had at the Museum were his. My friend Stefan was on the panel with me, and a big chunk of the Evangelion releases and our 4K discs were supplied by him.
Just a few clarifications, the format Gerald called CLD is actually CED (Capcitance Electronic Disc) and the disc inside is actually made of PVC instead of vinyl. But yes, RCA spent 16 years and lost over half a billion dollars trying to prove if playing movies like a record was a good marketing plan. It wasn’t. Also TVA claimed a CED could play as many as 500 times before wearing out, although that estimate is probably overly generous lol.
VHD 3D definitely is a Your Milage May Vary thing and because all the headsets are used ones, well they’re kind of hit or miss on how well they still work after 35 years. Pretty sure one of them barely works at all.
Also since it was mentioned, one of my poster frames has a David Lynch sticker on it because I reused that frame from when I setup a memorial to Lynch at Magfest earlier this year and that was a trinket someone there attached to it. Also since it was also mentioned I have Streets of Fire on nearly every format I can find as well, including a sealed DivX copy, which afaik no anime releases made it to that.
It’s kind of wild where a brainstorming session for panel ideas csn lead after two years, but hey, if I’m gonna collect this stuff. Why not share it with the fans at large in some capacity? Can’t thank Otakon enough for giving us a place at the con and I’m glad to hear so many others loved seeing it.
Addendum: I also am the host of Ugly Giant Robots Arbitrarily Ranked as well. I’m a man of multitudes.
That sounds and looks so cool, dude. If I wasn’t in another country at the time, I would have loved to see that live. Maybe next year when I’m back in the country?
I cant remember if I first saw Nadesco in anime club or after playing as Akito and Ruri in a SRW game. I do remember being really thrown by the tonal shifts, but the anime within an anime founding an entire civilization was a cool idea even if the execution didn’t fully land.
I think the first character I heard Norio Wakamoto voice was the mascot/master character in Ninja Nonsense in my college’s anime club. Now I always think of that character when I hear him in anything. Was the first seiyu I can remember recognizing and looking out for in different anime. Man’s the GOAT and definitely is the Japanese Christopher Walken at this point.
In my opinion, Solo Leveling is just a show for younger people. I don’t hide my anime fandom whatsoever and we’re starting to get a lot of Zoomers in my company. 9/10 of them when they see the anime posters in my office ask me if I’ve seen Solo Leveling; both the boys and girls! Also, for fun when I order take out I’ll ask them to write their favorite anime on the box/bag and a lot of times they’ll write Solo Leveling. I realize it’s all anecdotal but all the younger anime fans I meet just love that show.
I haven’t listened to the show yet I wanted to get this out. Are you ready for the END OF THE WORLD? Because in just a few days the Queen of a Thousand Years TV series streets. Pity Sentai didn’t put a little more forethought into this because Sept. 9 is a Tuesday (new release street day, a legacy of Suncoast ?) and if you know the premise of the show… you know.
But glad I am. I had felt that it would NEVER come to the U.S., I had hoped that Discotek would have grabbed it to complete their Matsumoto library, I wish Sentai had grabbed the Dr. Slump crossover promos and of course, where is the Queen millennia movie.
But we live in incredible times. I just discovered that Solbrain has been released. Still waiting for Shin Kamen Rider to hit American BD, and look at that, in the comments section, to quote Raven, “well well well. Looks like I’ve found someone who likes Streets of Fire as much as me” ?