Anime World Order Show # 38 – Rape is Hilarious, But Only As a Theoretical Concept

In perhaps the manliest (and longest) episode to date, Gerald reviews the Kazuo Koike jigoku manga masterpiece Lady Snowblood, Daryl opines on the new Fist of the North Star movie Raoh Gaiden, and Clarissa weighs in with her thoughts on the first season of Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex.

Introduction (0:00 – 19:07)
The good news is that we’re finally starting to use the new audio equipment. The bad news is that both Daryl and Gerald have colds! To compensate, we play what is perhaps the ultimate Discipline reading. We also issue a retraction regarding the Manga Video Astro Boy box set’s episode count, and delude ourselves into thinking we’re affecting people’s lives for the better as we read an email from someone who started watching Blackjack because of us. Oh yeah, remember the AWO fanart/doujinshi that we requested? Well, here’s what we got:

The Almighty…er, Mysterious person who drew the Daryl Surat vs Dave Riley picture appears to be at it again, this time drawing what we’d previously mentioned about Masamune Shirow:

Devoted AWO listener Erwin Rosales drew us this four page masterpiece, which is actually a very accurate depiction of what goes on here at the Anime World Order:

MasterPete over at Pete Universe informs us that the following edition of his new webcomic was directly inspired by us, except for the whole moe part aka “the punchline”:

The strip which follows this makes mention of Odin. Man. That’s rough.

Let’s News! (19:07 – 37:28)
“News” is probably not the right word, given how late we are to the ball, but Gedo Senki probably won’t come out in the US until 2009 because of the Sci-Fi Channel, the website for the new Giant Robo series is in English, legitimate copies of Monster (reviewed in Show # 12) are available on R3 DVD, the Osamu Tezuka Ode to Kirihito manga is out in English and everyone should buy it because it’s 832 pages and costs $15, they’re making a new Dancougar series (we didn’t know about the new Reideen at the time), Bandai Visual’s upcoming Region 1 DVD of Gunbuster won’t be cheap, Seven Seas has launched a yuri line consisting of a bunch of lame stuff, and we offer up some speculation regarding why The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya (reviewed in Show # 29) hasn’t been licensed for release in the US yet. This segment features the AWO debut of the DeCoster Scream. The Dark Lord Cromdor/Kramdar has some competition now.

Review: Lady Snowblood (manga) (37:28 – 57:52)
Gerald reviews this 4-volume revenge epic released in English courtesy of Dark Horse Comics, for which the film adaptation was a primary inspiration for Kill Bill. Of course, since it’s by Kazuo Koike, the plot is absolutely ludicrous and there’s tons of fighting and fucking for no good reason. Here is the long awaited image that best sums up Lady Snowblood.
Also, here is a scan of the writer from the manga version:
And the very slight differences he went through in the movie version, notice the haircut is in no way anachronistic because Yasuaki Kurata is ETERNAL:


Review: Hokuto no Ken: Raoh Gaiden (57:52 – 1:29:06)
Yeah, so Fist of the North Star. Best. Anime. Ever. After nearly a year of threats, Daryl breaks down and talks about the series that started the whole shonen fighting genre. He would have talked more about the new movie, but it still has not been fansubbed. It is now time for…pictures! [Update: As of 1/27/07, Heart of Madness has fansubbed the “Director’s Cut” of this movie]

This is Kenshiro, the successor to Hokuto Shinken. Do not fuck with this man.
See these guys? These are generic Hokuto no Ken thugs who always fuck with Kenshiro. Remember what I said about not doing that? They are what make this the best anime ever.
Kenshiro’s adopted brothers, Raoh and Toki. Toki is the one who looks like Jesus. Nobody fucks with the Jesus.
Daryl’s dead-on impersonation of Raoh, the King of Fists.
Reina is a character created for this movie and is Raoh’s second-in-command, but she spends most of the movie like this. THANKS, JAPAN!
Shuu, the Star of Benevolence, may be blind, but he sees…WITH HIS HEART. Listen, Fist of the North Star is MANLY melodrama. Haters better vacate, especially if they thought it was cool when Usui from Rurouni Kenshin totally ripped off Shuu’s gimmick.
The Holy Emperor Souther has the finest hybrid throne/motorcycle child slave labor can construct.
Blood of the Emperor, the immortal body! I never retreat! I never beg! I never quit!
Yet despite this being a theatrical film, the animators still forgot to draw the rest of Souther’s vest in this quick shot. [Update: This error was fixed on the Director’s Cut DVD, along with another one earlier in the film that I didn’t put up a picture for since it would have spoiled things]. They probably got confused for a second and thought he was from Part 5 of Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure. Still, when your kung fu is strong enough, you can dress HOWEVER YOU DAMN WELL PLEASE.
What, you think Dragon Ball Z invented that whole characters hair turning blonde as they power up? WRONG. MUSO TENSEI, BITCHES. Okay fine, so this isn’t Muso Tensei and the hair color doesn’t change in the anime, and the manga’s black and white so who can really tell…

Perhaps this entire podcast and blog should be rededicated to nothing but Fist of the North Star screencaps and captions.

  • Heart of Madness – a fansub label reserved solely for Fist of the North Star titles, so expect them to be the ones who sub this movie [Update: they have done so]
  • Hokuto Renkitouza – it’s a Geocities site (that place still exists?), but it’s still the best Hokuto no Ken resource out there
  • Fist of the North Star Games – a Yahoo group that was pretty busy once upon a time, the folks on here are probably the most dedicated HnK fans around

Review: Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex (1:29:06 – 1:54:02)
Wait, what? Why the heck didn’t we just end the episode there? Because there hasn’t been enough Clarissa on this show for the last few weeks, that’s why! Since everyone already knows about Ghost in the Shell, show notes aren’t really necessary. So, click here for that picture of Kusanagi’s butt.

Closing (1:54:02 – 2:00:40)
Next week’s episode will be shorter. Really. By popular demand, we’re going to give our con report on Anime Weekend Atlanta 12, only we WON’T spend the entire show doing it like the other con reports. Also, by listener request we’re going to talk about the shows from the current anime season that we’re watching. See? Your requests don’t fall on deaf ears after all! Finally, Daryl’s going to review The Twelve Kingdoms like he was supposed to do this week.

Bonus – Interview with Michiko Ito, Part 1

Note: The audio overlapping problem has been fixed and a new version of the episode has been uploaded. If the audio overlaps in your copy, redownload the episode.

This one’s for all the Gerald acolytes out there, as he conducts an interview with Michiko Ito, professor of Japanese Studies at the University of Kansas. Tim Eldred, whom we interviewed in Show 14, is also present. Be sure to check out www.starblazers.com for Tim’s Starblazers Rebirth and Tim’s excellent documentary Space Battleship Yamato: The Making of an Anime Legend. Listen on, would-be otaku, and discover exactly what inanimate objects YOU should be praying to in order to guarantee that you see that next episode of Gundam!

2:25 – Michiko talks about anime in Japan when she was growing up, and that it was called “terebi manga.”

3:15 – What it is that separated Space Battleship Yamato from the rest of the anime on at the time, which was largely sports anime. When Michiko talks about “the end of each episode,” she is referring to the number of days remaining until Earth is rendered uninhabitable, which added dramatic tension to the series. Michiko also talks about being fond of Starsha:

4:40 – Tsunehiro Okasako was the character designer for the original Space Battleship Yamato.

5:55 – Michiko explains that the competing program to Yamato was the Hayao Miyazaki classic Heidi of the Alps.

7:00 – Michiko and her brother call in to local radio stations to request the opening theme of Yamato, aptly named Uchuu Senkan Yamato, sung by Isao Sasaki.

8:10 – Chibi Maruko-chan is another powerhouse show in Japan. She also mentions that Yamato was able to widen the appeal of animated shows outside of the elementary school crowd; however, almost no merchandise for that audience was available.

10:50 – The Yamato radio specials, possibly the biggest promotional tease in history.

15:00 – Michiko explains how Yoshinobu “The Nish” Nishizaki wanted to portray the ideal man with his own ideals and his own goal as a major theme of Yamato.

18:35 – Michiko explain “Golden Time” to us, which is the equivalent of “Prime Time.”

19:50 – Michiko explains her disappointment with continuing the Yamato franchise with sequels such as The Comet Empire after Saraba Uchuu Senkan Yamato – Ai no Senshitachi (aka Arrivederci Yamato) ended the series.

21:15 – Ribon no Kishi (aka Princess Knight) was the creation of Osamu Tezuka.

21:45 – Tokusatsu, the all-encompassing term for special effects shows. She also mentions the classic Kamen Rider and Kikaider. Michiko also mentions the very well known Candy Candy, a show that was so popular that episodes of it were made just for Italy.

22:15 – At this point Gerald says “Kodai or Desslar.” Kodai was the Japanese name for Derek Wildstar and Desslar was the Japanese name for Desslok. The big debate between female fans of the time was “who was the more popular character?” as each had fanclubs for their voice actors.

22:50 – VOTOMS, or Armored Trooper VOTOMS, the show Tim Eldred is nearly singlehandedly responsible for bringing to the English speaking world [Daryl: Neil Nadelman will have our heads for this outrage]. She also mentions Fang of the Sun Dougram, which was a prototype of sorts for VOTOMS as it was done by the same director and had the same atmosphere.

25:25 – Mobile Suit Gundam. Like this needs an explanation.

27:50 – Blue Noah, Nishizaki’s desperate attempt to recreate Yamato which failed miserably. And then, of course, there’s Odin. Just listen to Show #12 for more information than you ever wanted to know about that one.

29:10 – Saiyuki, also known as Journey to the West. The basis for tons of anime including Dragon Ball and–of course–Gensomaden Saiyuki. You can find out more about Journey to the West here.

30:45 – Michiko brings up the importance of “romance” in Yamato, also seen as a “otoko roman” or “men’s romance.” Not to be confused with “shonen ai,” which Clarissa can tell us more about.

33:25 – Michiko is referring to the Americanized version of Uchuu Senkan Yamato known as Star Blazers, and she brings up Gojira also known as Godzilla.

34:30 – The joke that Gerald is referring to here occurred in the series where characters would appear in ships that would explode and they would instantly cut back to other characters that looked nothing like the guy in the ship that just exploded and say “just made it back in time,” to hide the fact that someone died.

40:25 – Japan’s Article 9

44:55 – Revenge of Mouflon

48:10 – Animentari Ketsudan and Zero-sen Hayato are some of the anime that depict war.

49:50 – Kamui Gaiden better known as The Legend of Kamui, by the legendary Sanpei Shirato. This is not related to the theatrical film Kamui no Ken (aka The Dagger of Kamui) that Daryl will be reviewing very soon.

54:35 – The Spiriting Away of Sen and Chihiro aka. Spirited Away.

55:40 – We haven’t been able to find this image that Tim says appeared on the cover of The New Yorker magazine. If anyone has it, email it to us so we can add it to the show notes.

58:45 – Chinmoku no Kantai aka. Silent Service by Kaiji Kawaguchi. Gerald mistakenly said “Kenji Kawaguchi.”

1:00:25 – Fax from Sarajevo

Next week, we have an actual show! Gerald does his review of the Kazuo Koike “jigoku manga” Lady Snowblood, Clarissa reviews Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, and Daryl takes a look at the theatrical film Hokuto no Ken: Raoh Gaiden Junai-hen because he’s not done watching Twelve Kingdoms yet.