Robots – Page 5 – Anime World Order Podcast

Podcast: Download (Duration: 2:09:38 — 59.5MB)

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We’re graced by a dangerous duo of mecha/mahjong enthusiasts this time around: Dave Cabrera (@Sasuraiger) and Carl (@SDShamshel) join us for a convention report of Otakon 2022 which was held in Washington D.C.

Intro (0:00 – 22:54)
Carl of the Ogiue Maniax blog and Dave of the Kawaiikochans webcomic and GamesoftRobo Substack introduce themselves. Both were panelists at Otakon 2022, and Carl was also Press like us; check out his interview with voice actor Mariya Ise.

We were initially going to jump directly into the con report, but wouldn’t you know it 24 hours prior to the recording it was revealed that Sony’s monopoly of the anime industry continues to grow, as Crunchyroll has acquired Right Stuf Anime. What does this acquisition mean for anime fandom in the US? We don’t know. Are we still going to be sponsored by Right Stuf now that they are under the Sony umbrella? That we also don’t know; note there’s no promo this time around since well, who do we even invoice now? For now, the only thing we DO know is that all merchandise previously classified as “erotica” has been de-listed, to now be sold on another site…which doesn’t yet exist. It’s possible that future episodes will be sponsored by Right Stuf once more, but now is probably a good time for us to start setting up that Discord and pushing some more Patreon incentives, huh?

Convention Report: Otakon 2022 (22:54 – 2:09:37)
The downside of going to conventions is that you don’t REALLY get to see people a lot, especially not in this COVID era (yes, contrary to what you see on TV, COVID is still very much a dangerous thing) which leaves us personally still gun shy about going to room parties and group dinners and what have you. If you see someone, it’s often in passing while they’re on the way to attending one thing and you’re on the way to attending another. On the bright side, it does enable us to expand our coverage of the convention, as Dave, Carl, and ourselves each went and saw a variety of things. There were, of course, multiple instances where all of us were present for the same event or guest, so all of us can weigh in on our thoughts.

There are also things we totally forgot to talk about at all which happened over the weekend, but that’s what the pictures are for:

The cost of the ride was as much as the meal, but where else can we get hand-pulled ramen noodles?

Gerald bought a slew of ultra-cheap tacky anime shirts. We were worried people might find them cool, but once we saw Justin Sevakis react to how garish they were, we knew we made the right call.

We got two such shirts for Mike Toole. Here he is in the Touch one. This image was selected for being the most unflattering of the set. Very important to catch him mid-blink.

Mike also got a Macross shirt, which he wore to the Bigwest panel since “we’ll all wear these shirts there!” We then did NOT wear such shirts. Confession now that it’s over: it wasn’t a prank, it was because we didn’t actually HAVE goofy Macross shirts of our own to wear. (At the time, we played it as though we had betrayed him.)

Move over, itasha dealer’s room occupants! The MODEL TRAIN OTAKU~! are on the scene. There were tons of fun little details in these dioramas as the trains made their loop around the track.

Among several other interesting historical artifacts, Carl Horn was carrying around this pristine copy of the August 1st, 1983 edition of Time Magazine. He may think his voice isn’t great for podcasting, but neither are ours! We recorded his Dark Horse panel for our own records, since it’s not just an industry panel but a historical retrospective of US manga fandom. He was there for it!

Here’s a new thing: gachapon dispensers in the dealer’s room! We were already surprised to see Bandai-Namco rolling these out in our local shopping malls, but they’re not going to have City Hunter: Shinjuku Private Eyes merch like Otakon did. Gerald got Saori and Umibozu; Daryl got Kaori and Ryo/Kaori.

Podcast: Download (Duration: 1:14:56 — 34.5MB)

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With Otakon 2022 nearly upon us (we’ll be there and have panels), Clarissa reviews 2014’s Witch Craft Works, a 12-episode adaptation of Ryu Mizunami’s recently-completed manga, the entirety of which is now available in English both digitally as well as in print.

Introduction (0:00 – 35:22)
We actually remembered to read an email for a change! An intrepid listener weighs in with thoughts on Gundam 00, intrigued by our review of the series back in 2017. This leads to a brief aside regarding the subject of tokusatsu that is available on free streaming, and at this point we would like to make it clear that none of us is an expert in tokusatsu. Fortunately, there are now dedicated communities and channels for that, so our half-baked thoughts on the subject needn’t be the definitive word. The question of what is and isn’t streaming changes rapidly; about 90 titles just vanished without warning from HiDive about two weeks ago. The most notable of which was Legend of the Galactic Heroes, which was only down for a few hours before reappearing, but it goes to show that there’s no guarantee of streaming availability. Incidentally, Gerald has finally gotten around to watching Angel Cop, just shy of 15 years after Daryl’s old review. Unlike back then, now we have Angel Cop in full native HD with accurate subtitles!

Oh yeah, we’ll be at Otakon 2022. Daryl has “Thirty Years Ago: Anime in 1992” at 12:45 PM on Friday in the AMV Theater, and Gerald is presenting “A Sophisticatedly Unsophisticated Look at Fan Service (18+)” Sunday 12:15 AM in Panel 7. See you there, and remember to wear a new N95 and bring proof of COVID-19 vaccination!

Promo: Right Stuf Anime (35:22 – 38:30)
It’s the last week of the 35th birthday sale, so pick up some comics and cartoons while they’re on steep discount. You may also want to start saving up for some upcoming ultra fancy edition box sets, because as was announced earlier this month, we are finally getting the Macross sequels on Blu-Ray in the United States. Right Stuf will be handling releases of Macross 7, Macross Frontier, and Macross Delta, while Animeigo will be bringing over Macross II (listen to our old review here) and Anime Limited/AllTheAnime will be releasing Macross Plus on Blu-Ray in the US. Hmm, aren’t there other Macross titles which could stand for a Blu-Ray release in the US? We’ll have to wait and see if any further announcements get made, but for now we note that there is a Bigwest panel at Otakon Saturday morning…

Review: Witch Craft Works (38:30 – 1:14:56)
Clarissa takes point on reviewing this action-comedy series from 2014 about the virtues of having a tall, long-haired, big-boobed magical girlfriend carry you around everywhere and beat up everybody who tries to mess with you.

We were going to title this episode this, but decided it’d raise hopes that we were reviewing a different type of show.

Despite being an encapsulation of 2010s otaku tropes, Witch Craft Works foresaw the 2022 otaku squad goals.

There has not (thus far) been a US release of the series on a physical media format. For now, you can still watch the series on Crunchyroll (minus the bonus OVA episode and Japan Blu-Ray exclusive chibi short segments). I suppose it wouldn’t be out of place in the other WCW for there to be a storyline where all the ladies are after a guy for his “white stuff.” I mean, that explains Torrie Wilson and David Flair at least, right?

Although this anime only adapts about 6 or so volumes worth of the manga, which ran for 17 volumes, we’d say that the series covers most of the major action that happens. Still, in true Ah/Oh My Goddess! fashion, the artwork remains exceptional as the magical girlfriend hijinks hamster wheel spins in place, and the series is now fully available in both print as well as digital.