Anime World Order Show # 226 – The Second, and Perhaps Ultimate, Holiday Roundup

We’re finally legal, for this episode of AWO marks the start of our 18th year of anime podcasting! Let’s celebrate with another holiday roundup of anime Christmas episodes, organized from “least evocative of Wham’s Last Christmas” to…MOST EVOCATIVE~!

Even the least Whamaggedon of anime Christmas episodes we selected still involves an impending death from throat cancer right at the cusp of reaching adolescence.
The AWO sympathizes with Mineta–just this once–regarding the dangers of receiving a framed vanity photo during the Christmas party gift exchange.
Astro Boy wishes you all a “Mary X mas.”
It’s no small feat to make suspenders look cool on someone instead of making them a colossal Melvin, but Akemi Takada character designs pull it off.

Anime World Order Show # 222 – So Much For the Laws of Physics!

In this episode, Daryl reviews a title suggested by our top Patreon backers as he reviews the now beloved super robot OVA series from 1998, Shin Getter Robo, which for the sake of avoiding confusion we might just want to call Getter Robo: Armageddon.

Introduction (0:00 – 34:18)
We asked for it and you guys more than delivered: fan feedback among those seeing Aim for the Top!: Gunbuster for the first time. Why, many of you were even compelled to do so thanks to our review of it! What a refreshing change of (perceived) pace! We read through all that had been sent to us as of the time of the recording, and received even more since then. Why, we got emails from people in BOTH Cambridges (the real one and the fake one, you guys can argue over which is which).

This was the media diet of a 90s UK anime fan. Ain’t it great? Well, maybe not BGC 2040.

We also read the blog comments while we’re at it, and as Carl Horn notes in response to our Arion review, sometimes primary sources conflict with one another. Here’s the interview with YAS that Daryl was reading off from during that review, which we should probably edit into the show notes for THAT episode. We also make fun of Bandai–as is the style around here–for their recent utter squandering of all the fan goodwill that they had amassed thanks to Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch From Mercury in a misguided attempt to appease…uh, somebody perhaps. Lastly, we hear a bit about anime fandom outside of the US, as we read an email from a listener currently in Zambia. Not only are there enough fans of anime there–check out their site–but they’ve also got a cosplay event/convention coming up: the Lusaka Comic Con! We’d certainly like to hear reports from attendees as to how that went, since we mostly only get convention reports out of the United States.

Promo: Right Stuf Anime (34:18 – 38:23)
Denpa Books are on sale this week! Be sure to get your preorders in for They Were Eleven, and while you’re at it check out Under Ninja, Gambling Apocalypse Kaiji, and–for the bold and daring–the manga adaptation of Mobile Suit Gundam Char’s Counterattack: Beltorchika’s Children, which was the NOVEL WRITTEN BY YOSHIYUKI TOMINO~! that was the original (rejected) story proposal for the anime film Char’s Counterattack. Actually, there are a lot of fine Denpa Books titles, but we’re not sure how many Vampeerz fans are also listening to this episode dedicated to the further pursuit of unusually elevated levels of dinosaur hatred.

“EFF YOU, DINOSAURS!” — Ken Ishikawa, probably

Review: Shin Getter Robo aka Getter Robo: Armageddon (38:23 – 1:49:53)

The votes are in, and the $10 backers of our Patreon…came to more or less a tie at the end of the day. We’ll review the other one at a later date, but it’s time to talk about Shin Getter Robo, aka Change Getter Robo…aka True Getter Robo…aka Getter Robo: Armageddon. Yep, there’s already a lot to unpack here. This would be the 13-episode OVA series from 1998, which for many American fans was their first introduction to Getter Robo anything. Perhaps a grimdark revival of a 1970s children’s show from Ken Ishikawa that is generally recognized as having introduced the concept of combining robots in anime and manga isn’t the best starting point? Then once you add Yasuhiro Imagawa, Jun Kawagoe and the whole tumultuous backstory regarding this production into the mix, it all seems a rather daunting proposition. Indeed, Getter Robo wasn’t particularly popular and little was known about it (or Ken Ishikawa) until recent years, such that in 2023 it’s now a beloved fan favorite among the diehard terminally online mecha set. If that describes you…well, this episode will probably make you mad, same way people get mad every time we talk about the robot stuff…

Daryl’s autographed copy of Vol. 1, featuring the episodes Yasuhiro Imagawa directed. He uses a unique signature for every show he’s directed. Wonder if people can send in examples from each of them?
The old ADV release credited “Yasuhiro Geshi” as the director. Turns out that’s a real guy who worked on this as an episode director, but no.
ADV’s release also altered the title in the show to be in English, albeit very closely matching the Japanese characters. The “New!!” in place of “Shin” should have been “True!!” but now this series gets mixed up with the 2004 series actually named “New Getter Robo.”
Authors and actors pass on, but the Getter Team’s battle is eternal and all the reboots and tie-ins are canon. GET-TER BE-E-E-E-E-AM!