A podcast all about Japanese cartoons and comics as discussed by three self-proclaimed experts in the world of anime and manga! Plus anime news / reviews, coverage of classic anime, hentai / yaoi, and much, much more. Updated every week. We hope.
Our special guest this episode is the returning Mike Toole, last heard on this show nearly three years ago. Don’t worry, the Anime Jump front page was never updated since. In this episode, Daryl’s reviewing Baccano!, Gerald’s reviewing Five Star Stories, and Clarissa being THE GIRL AND ALL opted to speak of The Big O. Huh huh, huh huh. But you’ll have to wait a few days for the second half of the show which contains the second two reviews, because we’ve got videogames to play!
Introduction (0:00 – 32:34)
Much was spoken of Raijin Comics and how Superdimensional Southern Cross and Genesis Climber Mospeada hold up as shows in and of themselves without having any knowledge of Robotech, let alone nostalgia. Too bad we got beaten to the punch! Note that Daryl’s Southern Cross knowledge is minimal and he generally can only refer to things by their Robotech equivalents.
Let’s News! (32:34 – 1:06:49)
Mike Toole mysteriously vanished during this part of the show due to the magic of post-production. We might have actually discussed the news for these 30-40 minutes. Or we might have just talked a lot about girls not wearing any pants, be they animated, drawn, or otherwise.
Review: Baccano! (1:06:49 – 1:42:19)
Since Daryl and Mike were the only ones who’d seen the series, this review is more or less spoiler-free. It is highly recommended that you NOT read the Wikipedia entry for this show, or the ANN encyclopedia entry, or the ANN review, or pretty much anything prior to watching this series. Not even the back of the DVD. No, you should just trust in Daryl and Mike’s good judgment here and the fact that they both consider it their pick for best series of 2007 (or 2009 depending on how you want to count it). Note that Gerald and Clarissa upon hearing this review decided to watch Akikan and that one about the gay vampire butler instead of this show. This is like what happened with the New Getter Robo review all over again. Wait, they did watch that eventually. Er, Godannar then. Only this one doesn’t involve robots or fanservice. This sort of thing was going on even before Daryl was crowned the Pied Piper of Nerds along with White Daryl.
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.