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.

Anime World Order Show # 36 – Cagliostro, Phoenix, and Embracing Love

This episode is a week late due to computer troubles, but hopefully the wait is worth it. Gerald reviews Hayao Miyazaki’s theatrical directorial debut The Castle of Cagliostro, Daryl reviews the 2004 anime remake of Osamu Tezuka’s Phoenix (aka Hi no Tori), and Clarissa reviews the yaoi manga Embracing Love by Youka Nitta.

Man, we’re totally slacking off on these show notes as of late. But hey, we’ve got a Review Index now! It’s incomplete because it doesn’t yet include all the instances where we waste time on “weeaboo” when someone asks us “what do you think about…” but it’s a start. Did you just read “weeaboo”? ‘Cause I think you just saw someone write “weeaboo.” Forget about yaoi paddles, for I have seen the future and it is the past.

Introduction (0:00 – 32:03)
Carl Gustav Horn is officially smarter than us, but he was suffering from an inflamed farceurix which required immediate care. This week, we realize that if we keep asking people to send us Odeo feedback, it would do us well to actually PLAY some of them and respond to them on air. Subjects include: cons and cosplay stuff, Planetes, Chobits, Street Fighter II, and why Fist of the North Star is popular everywhere else in the world except for North America. On a highly related note, the US DVDs released by Toei are officially no longer available. This picture sums up AWA in a nutshell:

Promo: GeekNights (32:03 – 33:11)
Rym and Scott exhibited their full recovery from their pierrotlectomies by informing us that the Monty Python Spanish Inquisition-style promo of theirs was not actually meant to be seriously played by anyone, so we’re playing the Blues Brothers-style one instead. And you thought it was going to be the Blues Brothers combined with the Inquisition…what a show. They’ll be guests at SITACon in New York this weekend, so to help you identify them, here’s a picture (Rym is on the left and Scott is on the right):

Review: Lupin the Third: The Castle of Cagliostro (33:11 – 59:12)
Man. Thirty-six episodes before we officially covered anything directed by Miyazaki, “because everyone knows about him already.” Gerald reviews the newly-released special edition available from Manga Video, compares it to the previous DVD release, and in so doing answers the question on the minds of everyone who’s ever been hit by a double-dip DVD release: is it worth picking up the new release if you already own the original one? Sure, every other anime podcast has reviewed this movie by now, but only OURS has the foresight to point out how this movie inspired Time Crisis!

Review: Phoenix [Hi no Tori] (59:12 – 1:26:08)
Daryl didn’t exactly write any notes to himself whatsoever prior to doing this segment, but he figured he’d try and schmooze his way through this one anyway. The result is that he takes nearly 30 minutes to say what could have been said in 15, and he completely forgot to fully say exactly what the Phoenix was in the story. It’s essentially the Power Cosmic incarnate, or for you Excel Saga fans, the Great Will of the Macrocosm. The will of the universe incarnate, as it were. Phoenix is Osamu Tezuka’s life work and perhaps his grandest achievement, having been remade multiple times over the years. The Phoenix being reviewed in this segment is the 2004 remake, but since Daryl can’t ever stay on topic, he ends up talking about the other stuff too. Under the guise of “putting things in context,” you see. Of course, like all of Tezuka’s work, almost nobody in America cares about this even though it’s really good. PS: Vertical’s English-language release of Ode to Kirihito comes out on October 24th.

  • Media Blasters told us at AWA that they do actually plan on releasing the anime, so instead of linking to a torrent for the series, here’s the opening so you can see how nice this show looks; Youtube/Google Video doesn’t cut it
  • Viz Media’s excellent release of the Phoenix manga – which nobody except Daryl seems to be buying as it comes out, provided he can actually FIND IT because much like Golgo 13, stores and anime con dealers don’t tend to carry it…in addition to what’s listed on the Viz page, volumes 7 and 8 of are also out, but they’re practically out of stock at both Amazon and Right Stuf
  • Tezuka in English – a fantastic resource for those who wish to learn more about Tezuka’s output and derivative works over the years
  • Osamu Tezuka World – Tezuka Production’s official English-language webpage
  • This was going to be a link to the full English-language text of the February 10, 1989 article that ran in Asahi following Tezuka’s death, but we can’t find it anywhere. It’s got to be out there, but in the meantime, here instead is the often-repeated quote from said article: “Foreign visitors to Japan often find it difficult to understand why Japanese people like comics so much. One explanation for the popularity of comics in Japan, however, is that Japan had Tezuka Osamu, whereas other nations did not. Without Dr. Tezuka, the postwar explosion in comics in Japan would have been inconceivable.”
  • Japan Media Arts Festival poll where about 80,000 people voted and declared Phoenix the #6 manga of all time – though bear in mind, the list is almost entirely shonen action and Slam Dunk was #1

Review: Embracing Love [Haru wo Daiteita] (1:26:08 – 1:47:35)
But it’s not like the Viz Signature line is the only manga imprint you can’t find sold anywhere! It’s been a while since the last yaoi review, but Clarissa was finally able to track down this Youka Nitta manga released by Be Beautiful. Why the Be Beautiful releases are so much more expensive than all other manga releases despite not really being of superior print quality or page count strikes us as being particularly blatant on the “we charge more because fans are willing to pay extra and that’s it” front, but that’s CPM for you.

Promo: Happy House of Hentai (1:47:35 – 1:47:58)
Last we checked, “Lord Kaosu” and “Hello Kitty” both live in New Mexico, but they’re both guests at SITACon in New York on October 6-8. They’re inviting a whole bunch of podcasters to be guests there, but we unfortunately cannot attend. Not only would it be tricky for the three of us to all get time off from school/work, we’d have to pay to fly ourselves there. Between Anime Weekend Atlanta and Right Stuf’s sale on Geneon DVDs, we’re about spent. So if you head to SITACon and you see these folks, be sure to say hello because they totally traveled across the country to be there:

Say, we’ve got Ninja Consultant T-shirts, too!

Closing (1:47:58 – 1:51:13)
This episode is like, an entire week late. What this means is that in order to catch back up, the next episode will have to come out in a few days. Fortunately for us, the next episode will consist mostly of the recording of our AWA panel on podcasting, which turned out mostly well, boring. Perhaps it would be best to throw in some extra bits while we’re at it for the sake of adding excitement.