Anime World Order Show # 75a – 3rd Year Anniversary, So We Better Talk About Bubblegum Crisis

For our final podcast of the year, we celebrate our third year anniversary with our special guest, Ryan Gavigan! Took us long enough; we’d been meaning to record this since before our first year anniversary. In the first part of this show, we talk to Ryan about his sordid life in anime fandom and Daryl reviews the Bubblegum Crisis OAVs, aka “the only Bubblegum Crisis that exists” or if you prefer “the REAL Bubblegum Crisis.”

Introduction (0:00 – 40:40)
For our three year anniversary, we figured we’d record an actual show proper with everyone together for the very first time instead of just a bonus. Nearly all podcasts do this, but not us! That’s why we didn’t know to position the microphones in such a way as to prevent echoing induced from multiple mics recording the same sounds. Oh well. So who is this Ryan Gavigan, anyway? Listen and find out for yourself!

Promo: Weeaboobies (40:40 – 43:33)
This is a genuine custom promo made by Erin from the Ninja Consultant podcast! Includes genuine voicemail message from Erin!

Review: Bubblegum Crisis (43:33 – 1:45:46)
Daryl…sort of talks about Bubblegum Crisis for an hour. Maybe. The way he sees it, all the cool anime podcasts already talked about it so he has nothing to lose!

Bubblegum Crisis is, as the title card suggests, the story of [the] Knight Sabers. Not the Knight Saviors.
BGC was made in the 1980s.
Daley Wong and Leon McNichol, the two longest-living members of the AD Police. Daley, if you couldn’t tell, is a flamboyant homosexual of the type and variety never to be respected by the Iron Shiek. All Leon ever does right is take his shades off, put his shades on, say stupid things, and occasionally shoot someone. So THAT’S where CSI: Miami came from. YEAHHHHHH!
This is Priss in her concert gear. You might have to squint to notice it, but she looks KINDA like Pris from Blade Runner!
But despite the haircut, she is not “the gay,” as that ugly freckleface girl from Transporter 3 would say. Otherwise, she’d be enjoying this more.
If she was, there’d be scenes of her doing this sort of thing. BGC is not exactly a subtle series. So stop contemplating whether Sylia is a boomer. (PS: Deckard = NOT A REPLICANT, NO MATTER WHAT)
In addition to her skeletal structure, Priss is constantly breaking the rules. Observe this BLATANT DISREGARD for the laws of physics.
Sylia Stingray, by contrast, complies with the laws of physics. This is the law of buoyancy. Though I guess buoyancy isn’t a law so much as a force. Fuck it.
The wardrobe for Vision’s truly, truly outrageous number comes to us courtesy of the Cyber City Oedo Mercenary Girl’s Closet.
But if you’re thinking of cosplaying it, know that there are downsides. MORE LIKE BACKSIDES, AMIRITE
Vision’s character designer was Satoshi Urushihara. The breasts on his female characters are always that shiny because he uses his many, many love dolls as reference. (EDIT: Actually, Kenichi Sonoda designed her, too. The joke still applies.) Gerald only has one inflatable anime girl love doll for the moment.
Nene is the worst character, so naturally the Japanese gave her an entire episode. Nothing “proto”-moe about it!
Largo however, is the best character other than Sylia. That Hiroaki Gouda (No. Edam? No.) probably designed him is a true oddity, as he directed the Nene episode then spent the rest of his life directing all the Ah My Goddess! anime.
Maybe Masami Obari might have designed Largo. If Masami Obari is involved and it does not involve either Largo or Terry Bogard, then I’m probably not interested.Obari-tan wants us all to know: this person is DEFINITELY Australian.
As a rule, it is pointless to bother doing high-definition remasterings for most non-theatrical anime made prior to the onset of HD. However, certain bits of hilarious English/Engrish text become more easily noticeable here. WHAT’S THAT BETWEEN THOSE BOOKS NENE, HUH? This must be the REAL reason PT Chapman loves you so. PS: Mackie is “the character we, the viewer, would actually be.” Dwell on THAT.
Oh yeah, there’s mecha in this series, which is why it’s awesome. Sylia is the leader!
Nobody gonna beat my car / It’s gonna break the speed of sound / Ooh, it’s a killing machine / It’s got everything / Except for a girl in powered armor riding a giant fucking motorcycle / But other than that, it’s cool
This is the part Sonoda was responsible for; the mechanical designs of the hardsuits. Also, the little girl in the first episode FO’ SHO’. Note the presence of the high heels which make this awesome and EMPOWERING and why Japanese animation is mature advanced sci-fi storytelling with STRONG FEMALE CHARACTERS blah blah blahThis is clearly the Shinji Aramaki part. Because it’s AWESOME.
Motorcycles that transform into robots…AND THEY CAN FLY? If they can fly, why even HAVE motorcycles? Only Shinji Aramaki truly knows.This is what happens to most members of the AD Police that are not in helicopters. (If they’re in helicopters, they get immolated due to the freaking chopper exploding. Holy CRAP.) Note that this guy lost his hands before losing his arms, and that head comes off about a second after this screenshot was taken.

See? You should go watch this cartoon. Again, if need be.

Anime World Order Show # 67 – The Synthesizer Has Not Been Stolen Yet

Daryl gets back on the horse [heroin…?] with his review of Paprika, Clarissa’s tackling School Rumble, and Gerald double-dips on Detonator Orgun.

This episode of the Anime World Order podcast is brought to you by Sweet and Sour Inc. Of course, perhaps we should have informed them that this was the case before we went and depleted one of their accounts at the Redondo Beach Savings and Loan:

IS LARRY SWEENEY LOOKIN’ GOOD TONIGHT OR WHAT?

Introduction (0:00 – 19:22)
We decide to try recording ourselves separately then synchronizing the tracks like all real podcasts do, but the last time we tried this was in episode 4 or something and it didn’t turn out well. Do vote in that poll on the sidebar and let us know if there’s any discernable audio quality difference. With so many folks listening to the show from school or work, people might be able to pick up on that weird underwater robotic distortion that the old Audacity Noise Removal filter induces. Daryl uses the beta version of Audacity which supposedly has better noise removal capabilities. Let us know. And while you’re at it, since there’s so many other podcasts out there–anime or otherwise–let us know about your show already! If you want any of us on as guests on your podcast, we’ll be glad to do it! As long as we don’t have to edit anything.

As far as emails go, “Kira” from Koibito Anime, an anime blog written by a husband/wife duo, wants recommendations from us regarding what anime is good for couples to watch since they’re currently spending most of their posts watching filth like Clannad and ef – A Tale of Memories. Eff A Tale of Memories, indeed! For the record, guys: the most recent season of 24 was the worst season of 24 EVER. Maybe now that there’s no 24 this year they’ll take the extra year to actually write out the full story in advance like they did for the first half of Season 1 instead of just taking spin upon spin at the Xanatos Roulette table. On the subject of those, the rest of Prison Break had better get made STAT. It turns out we can’t really offer much help regarding their question, even though Gerald and Clarissa also watch anime together every week for about 7 hours. Such is otakudom.

Let’s News! (19:22 – 44:12)
We finally talk about the now-three-weeks-old news bit regarding how the website Crunchyroll got $4 million for streaming fansubs (also, DVD rips! We neglected to mention that part! Seriously, read this and then try and argue these people are on the up-and-up), which judging from their response here didn’t exactly sit well with FUNimation, Bandai Entertainment, or anyone not retarded. That last bit of course rules out the masters of “quantity over quality” themselves, Gonzo since they decided they’d partner up with Crunchyroll and Youtube to stream their newest inevitable disappointments. Perhaps this move will someday lead to an actual worthwhile studio taking similar measures with websites that are NOT infested with Trojan viruses and the like, so it’s almost a guarantee that studio WON’T be Bandai Visual, who in this press release noted that they’ve got to delay the release of a few of their titles since–surprise!–nobody’s buying any of their stuff. As the US executive branch often says, “nobody could have possibly foreseen this turn of events.” Well, except for everyone who DID that subsequently got ignored. Speaking of stuff getting ignored, two more volumes of the Barefoot Gen manga were released in English (which nobody here will buy) AND we’re getting even more Fist of the North Star anime (which nobody here will license)! Everyone will probably be going nuts over Slayers Revolution and Haruhi Suzumiya Season 2 instead. Plus, there’s a Blade of the Immortal anime coming soon, but unfortunately it’s being made by Bee Train, which if we’re not mistaken has never made a single good anime ever.

Promo: Viga the Otagal (44:12 – 45:02)
Victoria Gadson may not have been watching anime for THAT long, but she’s got enough savvy to know how to come up with a nickname derived from taking the first syllables of words and smashing them together. Not to be confused with Vigo, the villain from Ghostbusters 2, Viga releases three episodes a week through the power of working that sweet Creative Commons magic. Be sure to check her out! Then remind her that “intershiz” is the most infuriating word this side of “blogosphere” or worse yet “podcastosphere”!

Review: Paprika (45:02 – 1:26:15)
Daryl decides it’s time to MAN UP~! by reviewing Satoshi Kon’s latest movie, available on DVD as well as Blu-Ray from Sony Pictures Entertainment. Only he probably forgot to talk about the movie with any degree of substance within the span of these 45 minutes. OR DID HE? Paul Chapman aka “White Daryl” (or as certain cosplay MEAN-kos say, “Light Daryl” implying that Daryl is “Dark Daryl” the way that there’s “Dark Gerald” in comparison to Gerald!) will not be pleased since we didn’t talk about the very end of the movie. Or the beginning or the middle.

Promo: Destroy All Podcasts DX (1:26:15 – 1:27:31)
The best part of this promo is when Jeremy (aka “White Tony”) starts talking all INTENSE AND SERIOUS-like. Their latest episode is about Black Belt Jones, and all kung fu related episodes of DAPDX (or DAPST) inevitably result in people asking “do they even LIKE kung fu movies?” The answer apparently is yes. Maybe.

Review: School Rumble (1:27:31 – 1:44:15)
Clarissa reviews the first season of yet another anime that’s been highly requested, even though there is zero fighting in the show despite the name. It’s actually a romantic comedy, only the main characters are blithering idiots. On purpose, for a change! Do check out Otaku USA magazine to see Clarissa’s print review of School Rumble as well. If you’re going to notice any audio quality difference brought on by the different versions of the Audacity Noise Removal filter, from this point on would be the place.

Promo: Eeeper’s Choice (1:44:15 – 1:45:33)
Good idea: our favorite Irish anime fan has a new promo out! Bad idea: he assumes that people know how to spell “Eeeper” just by hearing it. How do we know it’s not “Ypres Choice,” man?! This is like that time he mailed us those DVD-Rs of Osamu Tezuka’s experimental films as well as Phoenix 2772 (dub and sub!), but then he wrote on the back of the paper sleeves with ballpoint pen, thus destroying the backs of the discs. Must be all the alcohol mixed with the DEEDLY DEE, POTATOES!

Review: Detonator Orgun (1:45:33 – 2:01:19)
Gerald wraps things up by talking about this short OAV by Masami Obari that he also covered in a recent episode of Destroy All Podcasts DX. The DVD of this one is kind of hard to find, plus there’s an annoying audio problem that could’ve been caught had someone just…WATCHED the disc first, but oh well. If you like Tekkaman Blade, you’ll want to hear about this one.

Closing (2:01:19 – 2:04:09)
The next episode was originally just going to be an all-moe episode out of nowhere, but Clarissa jumped the gun with Potemayo already! So next time the rest of us are putting our moe cards on the line: Daryl’s going to cover The Girl Who Leapt Through Time and Gerald’s breaking down and reviewing Lucky Star. Lucky Star? LUCKY STAR?! Potemayo? Shuffle? …NAJICA?! Gerald and Clarissa are clearly venturing into Koibito Anime territory at this rate! Clarissa incidentally is opting to pace herself now that she’s prematurely jumped the gun so to speak, and since all the advice manuals on this subject state to “think about baseball,” next episode she’ll be reviewing the baseball anime Ookiku Furikabutte aka Swing Big.