Anime World Order Show # 27 – Beware of Clown Pistols and Cat Musketeers

It’s another 90 minutes of mirth as Gerald talks about Goshogun: The Time Etranger aka. Time Stranger in the newer DVD release, Daryl reviews Discotek’s latest classic anime DVD release Puss n’ Boots, and Clarissa gawks over little boys more than even Michael Jackson would as she discusses CLAMP Campus Detectives!

Introduction (0:00 – 22:12)
Everyone is dismayed this week. The Ninja Consultants are dismayed that we didn’t play their message sooner, the Maharaja Mack Daddy is dismayed that we don’t have control over Google, and Jeff “Rich Lather” Tatarek is dismayed that his voicemail messages are so darned lengthy. Clarissa is dismayed that 12 year-old girls keep asking her to provide them with gay porn, Gerald is dismayed that Daryl shot him with a clown pistol (twice, as if the stabbing wasn’t enough), and Daryl is dismayed over the fact that not only was this podcast done immediately after completing Show 26, but also that he just had to write “dismayed” so many times.

But there is at least a cure for Daryl, and it’s in YOUR hands! If you’re planning to attend the San Diego Comic-Con on Saturday July 22nd, you are ORDERED to attend Kazuo Koike’s panel. Don’t be like those comicbook fandom killjoys who think Lone Wolf and Cub is real! Ask him about the GOOD STUFF. Mad Bull 34, Offered, Wounded Man, and all of his other real-time sequential art documentaries that we talked about! Click your heels together and wish hard enough, and maybe they’ll feel the joy in the room and officially announce an English language edition of The Starving Man right then and there! Yoshihiro Tatsumi, author of The Push Man and Other Stories and basically the man who kicked off the gekiga movement (of which Golgo 13 is a fine example) will also have a panel that day. So show up to these, record their panels, and send them to us! Or if SDCC forbids that, then take notes with a pen and paper during these sessions and send them to us! And while you’re at it, check out Jerry Beck’s panel where he shows the worst cartoons ever! If only we could get copies. 🙁

Let’s News! (22:12 – 37:51)
This is the first show we’ve done since Anime Expo’s reached its conclusion, so we talk about what went on there. Sort of. Reading off all the licenses and news is for wussies, so Gerald opts instead to talk about the few things he found which he deemed interesting. And this time he’s got a John Sirabella post to back him up!

Promo: The Greatest Movie EVER! Podcast (37:51 – 38:36)
Paul Chapman somehow managed to beat Dave Riley to the punch by getting a promo of his podcast made per Daryl’s insistence, and so we play it here. This podcast is about reviewing the “best” movies ever, such as Red Sonja, Alien vs Predator, Underworld, and American Ninja. Of course, much of the opinions and personal preferences expressed in this program are completely wrong, particularly if it’s his girlfriend talking about how Alien vs Predator was enjoyable, but them’s the breaks. We have been promised reviews of Ghosts of Mars and The Chronicles of Riddick, with the latter being the only film that he will temporarily rename the podcast to “The Worst Movie EVER! Podcast.”

Often Overlooked: Puss ‘n Boots (38:36 – 53:58)
Daryl continues the tried and true AWO tradition of reviewing Discotek Media’s classic anime releases that nobody else outside of this podcast’s listenership gives a crap about. This time around, it’s Toei Animation’s 1969 adaptation of the classic Mother Goose fairy tale, which is still used as Toei Animation’s mascot to this very day. As a correction to what was said in the episode, Charles Perrault was not actually Mother Goose, but he did edit the very first collection of Mother Goose stories. Unless of course, Wikipedia is full of it.

Review: Goshogun The Time Etranger (53:58 – 1:10:40)
Gerald tells us about this theatrical film that’s a followup to a giant robot series which was never quite released in the US, only this movie contains no giant robots at all. Don’t get this confused with “Toki no Tabibito – Time Stranger” which is another movie that came out a year after this and was done by Madhouse (the studio responsible for Ninja Scroll, Card Captor Sakura and other works that go so well together). FEEL THE POWER as Daryl can’t help but sing yet another of Haim Saban and Shuki Levy’s greatest hits. We’re all kicking ourselves for never having the courage to contact the porn company that doubled as the Just For Kids outfit. THIS IS WHERE YOU COME IN, DEAR LISTENERS! Also for anyone out there who has all of Macron 1 or Goshogun raw, contact us since we need these. Payment will be provided in the form of photographs of Daryl’s porno shoot (picture not exactly work safe), once someone finds and sends us the rest of those photos. Mind you, no woman actually likes Daryl enough to physically touch him in any capacity even for the sake of beating him senseless, so that’s a celebrity lookalike.

Review: CLAMP Campus Detectives (1:10:40 – 1:26:31)
Clarissa reviews a title that’s currently not available on DVD in the US despite the fact that it’s a creation of the most beloved pedophiles in manga, CLAMP. Or maybe their fanbase consists largely of pedophiles and people who will grow up to be pedophiles. 4Chan is a fair and accurate representation of fandom, right?

Promo: R5 Central (1:26:31 – 1:26:50)
The first part of Mike’s Anime Central 2006 audio coverage is up, but it’s more like a one hour personal audio log rather than a TRUTH report. Marvel at how Carl Horn totally delayed his Ultraman panel by about an hour, thus making it such that everyone was off screaming “ANIME WORLD ORDER” in unison during Anime Hell instead. Oh yeah, and Daryl did the most recent Three Minute Recommend! So um, if you like Daryl a lot, check it out!

Closing (1:26:50 – 1:30:03)
Next time, Gerald will make a feeble attempt to review something RECENT for a change by reviewing Fantastic Children, which just came out on DVD in the US. That counts, right? Or does it only count if it aired last week in Japan? Clarissa will tell everyone about the Often Overlooked smorgasborg of sex, violence, philosophy, and thoughtbirds known as A Wind Named Amnesia. Finally, Daryl’s foray into the depths of insanity resumes, because next time he continues his search for THE TRUTH behind the modern anime fandom with Part Two of The Japanese Animation Convention is Decadent and Depraved.

Time remaining until Anime Festival Orlando: about two weeks. Total number of panels at AFO that Daryl is on: 2. Total he has prepared for: 0. Gerald, like Daryl hasn’t yet started on his giant robot panel and it’s likely that Clarissa hasn’t started on hers either, so that hiatus may be after the next show. Or not.

Anime World Order Show # 25 – Anime With Girls Who Kick Butt

It’s all about the catfights this week as Clarissa talks about Air Master, Daryl reviews Shadow Skill, and Gerald discusses Project A-Ko! Outrageous! Truly outrageous!

Introduction (0:00 – 28:10)
We answer emails! Former contributor to the long-gone EX Darius Washington writes in to talk about Crusher Joe and sound off, Tim Eldred–whom we interviewed in Show #14–writes in with his viewpoints on the supposed lack of zeal among today’s anime fans (PS: buy Grease Monkey! In stores now!), Ichigo from the Anime-Pulse podcast (hey cool, we won their Podcast Pickle contest!) has a SHOCKING REVELATION for us, and a 14 year-old girl tells us all about how she’s able to buy yaoi and shota without being checked for ID! Then Clarissa helps contribute to the delinquency of all the minors that we’ve got listening despite the Explicit tags by offering additional tips on how to do the same!

Let’s News! (28:10 – 43:28)
Even kids in Japan can’t follow the panel layouts in manga, Dark Horse has to edit Cannon God Exaxxion (which we reviewed back in Show # 9), the Japanese have come up with something even MORE terrifying than that moe burger place, and the US release of Speed Grapher won’t have “Girls on Film” by Duran Duran as its theme song! If anyone from Funimation’s listening, Daryl offers the PERFECT solution. Rock over London, rock on Chicago. Finally, the details for the limited edition of Patlabor Movie 2 have been released. That comes out on July 11th, so preorder it to save $30 or so.

  • Google – do an image search for “Pretty Dictator” to see what we’re afraid of (probably not work safe)

Promo: Eeeper’s Choice (43:28 – 44:20)
For you anime fans in the UK, or at least we think he’s from the UK, here’s a brand-new podcast that’s just started up for you guys! Two episodes in and he’s already got an interview with Manga Entertainment UK’s head of marketing! If it were Daryl conducting that interview, the entire thing would have been about Angel Cop, Violence Jack, and Mad Bull.

Review: Air Master (44:20 – 1:02:51)
Daryl really wanted to do this one, but Clarissa had first dibs on this most radical TV show from 2004. This is some of the best animated, best choreographed fighting anime has to offer, so naturally Toei went and screwed up the Region 1 DVD release. In fact, they did such a piss-poor job that we’re just going to say “screw it all”: here’s a link to a torrent for the entire series!

  • Probably not work safe picture of someone who looks almost exactly like Daryl being manhandled by a large woman – Daryl DEMANDS that someone send him the entire series

Promo: R5 Central (1:02:51 – 1:03:31)
The more of these ACen promos we hear, the more we realize that much of R5 Central is what is presumably written in Mike’s Livejournal, only in audio format. Or so we’d imagine; his Livejournal is friends-only and only Clarissa actually has an account at that terrifying place.

Review: Shadow Skill (1:03:51 – 1:20:56)
Daryl thinks that if there’s any fault to be found in Air Master, it’s that most of the time all the bloodletting is courtesy of really severe nosebleeds and not much else. Shadow Skill however, is BY FAR AND AWAY the bloodiest and therefore most violent “girls kicking ass” anime reviewed in this episode. Recoil in terror as Daryl leaves in all of his arcane Fist of the North Star references! Actually, his likening of Yuki Minaguchi’s fighting style to that of Nanto Koshuu Ken crossed with judo was stolen by the thoughtbird during the Air Master segment and he just forgot to say it. You have to get these names RIGHT, damn it! Geometry Man? GEOMETRY MAN?!

  • Shadow Skill Network – a fairly comprehensive fan site that includes twelve fanfics and forums that are still active
  • ANN’s Shadow Skill entry
  • The really poorly written Wikipedia entry for Shadow Skill – not only is some of it just plain wrong, most of it applies to the TV series and not the OAVs
  • Anime on DVD’s Shadow Skill review – it’s perfectly understandable to give this a bad review, but to not talk about the fights AT ALL and just rag on how much the story sucks is like knocking a 70s Shaw Brothers kung fu movie
  • Official Japanese website for Shadow Skill – the art all over this site is for the awful OAV that Daryl mentioned at the end of the review, not the original ones

Review: Project A-Ko (1:20:56 – 1:38:03)
Daryl promised not to edit in any of the many jokes that were presumably removed from this segment, and so he has remained true to his word as Gerald talks about this classic anime parody. Arguments ensue over whether or not non-anime fans can tell that this is a comedy since the jokes are almost all inside references: Daryl postulates the answer is no, citing as evidence the years in which he thought this was the MOST BADASS CARTOON EVER CRAFTED BY THE HANDS OF MAN. Gerald postulates that Daryl’s Ultimate Eye may in fact be Asperger’s Syndrome.

Closing (1:38:03 – 1:44:05)
Man, this has to be the longest show we’ve ever done. Thanks to everyone who voted for us over at Podcast Pickle, getting us into the Top 10! BUT…on Saturday they’re wiping the board clean and we have to start over from zero! Rats! Oh well, just go and vote for us again! The Podcast Awards starts up on July 1st as well, but that’s something that you’d have to vote for us every day for two weeks straight (while following their specific rules about voting). If you’re up for it, perhaps you could vote for us in the Podcast of the Year and…hmm, Movies/Films? The chances of winning anything here are slim to none, but hey! That’s what we thought about getting into the Podcast Pickle Top 10!

Next week, it’s time we remembered the time when we used to have multiple different kinds of segments! Clarissa’s going to review Shinesman, Gerald’s got a rant about the licensing practices of the US and Japanese anime industries, and Daryl’s going to throw down with a frank and MOST DANGEROUS discourse on the SECOND worst anime ever made…

M.D. Geist.

We may never agree on what the worst anime ever made is, but we can all agree that MD Geist is the SECOND worst.