Anime World Order Show # 50 – Watch Everything We Talk About This Week, Okay?

It’s our glorious 50th episode! Gerald reviews Megazone 23 Part 1, Clarissa’s got Princess Tutu, and Daryl rambles about Macross: Do You Remember Love? for nearly an hour. Judge for yourselves whether we condone bootlegging/are as bad as Coultergeist.

The loudness levels might be a little weird this episode, but hopefully the clipping is minimal. With any luck, everything is still intelligible.

Introduction/News/Contest Announcement (0:00 – 41:03)
Reintroductions are in order, even though we aren’t exactly in order ourselves. In the emails, the emails, what what, the emails: we get more speculation regarding why anime companies don’t publicize much in the way of numbers, respond to allegations of spreading hate speech, reveal the truth about THE TRUTH, and try to find out whether we have any favorite anime genres or not. We don’t have any news really, but Patrick Macias (as seen on television) aka MD Patrick has been named Editor-in-Chief of the upcoming print magazine Otaku USA. The first issue comes out in June, but we have a SHOCKING REVELATION about the content of this publication that you can find out by listening right now!

On the subject of conventions, we were asked to mention this before April 1st, and because we doubt that the next episode will be out before then, so we’ll mention it here. On Sunday April 1st from 1:00 PM – 5:00 PM, Zenkaikon is holding a nerd prom! Yep, it’s their Spring Formal and it’ll be held at the Valley Forge Scanticon in King of Prussia, PA (that’s where the Otaku Generation podcast guys are based out of). Actually, it’s semi-formal, but there is going to be a King and Queen voted on and chosen by attendees, and nothing says King Of Nerd Prom better than winning Best Buy gift cards. Like all nerd proms, it does cost money to attend, and while registration closes in five days, there’s special pricing for AWO listeners. And by “listeners” I mean “readers”: $23.00 flat for the formal (even if they’re not attending the convention itself in October). $33.00 to combine the formal and registration. Mention us by name and get $1.00 off admission! Think of it this way: you’ll be getting access to a full Asian buffet including dessert!

Oh yeah. If you’ve got a con or event or something you want us to promote on the air (like how we didn’t just do), let us know and we’ll work something out. Also, if you’re reading this and you buy things from Right Stuf, write in “Anime World Order Podcast” in the “how did you hear about this site” field since they seem to think we actively encourage bootlegging. If enough people do that, it’ll be a good joke. Still, it gives us a contest idea. Listen to the show and find out what it is!

MIKE TOOLE’S SEXY MAN-VOICE (41:03 – 42:40)
We’re probably too lazy to give timecodes for the voicemails, but since Mike Toole’s sexy voice out-sexies them all, we figured you’d want to know about it. If you couldn’t get enough after hearing his rendition of the Moon Phase theme song, he’s got more vocal stylings in store for you here.

Review: Megazone 23 Part 1 (42:40 – 1:02:22)
Yes, it’s pronounced “two three” and not “twenty three.” Just ask someone who legally changed their name to Megazone that I think listens to this show even though he’s never written in. This is a really important feature-length OAV as far as American anime fandom is concerned, as it served as a “gateway anime” for many people even though you don’t usually hear it mentioned much anymore. Gerald invokes the statute of limitations regarding spoilers on this one, but this one was always more about the SUPER DUPER 1980s-ness of everything than the plot itself so don’t let that stop you from listening.

Promo: The Greatest Movie EVER! Podcast (1:02:22 – 1:02:53)
Paul Chapman is a resentful shell of a man on the grounds that his movie ideas are completely wrong roughly 1/3 to 2/3 of the time and he does not have a sexy voice. Also, his mom gets all the fan mail. But just so everyone listening knows, that was his weak arm.

Review: Princess Tutu (1:02:53 – 1:25:35)
Aaron from WARP calls in to mention how much better Clarissa sounds now with the new microphone, but perhaps the fact that Daryl not only uses the Levelator but also the Audacity beta Leveler tool on top of that since he forgets that he used the Levelator invalidates any such improvements. This one’s a semi-recent magical girl that’s an awful lot like Revolutionary Girl Utena in many aspects, but unlike Utena this totally didn’t catch on in the US despite positive reviews, and that’s a shame. We speculate as to why that might have been the case, though perhaps the split reactions among us with regards to this show sums it all up.

Nothing Remotely Resembling a Coherent Review: Superdimensional Fortress Macross: Do You Remember Love? (1:25:35 – 2:09:22)
Megazone 23 Part 1 may best encompass the 80s look, but this movie, which incidentally featured much of the same staff, best encompasses the 80s anime spirit. Daryl knew full well that he could never put together a proper review of this, since the Egan Loos of the world that know the exact missile capacities of the fighters would have his head, so he opts not to have done any research or taken any notes before speaking. The result is a segment that by itself is the length of most typical podcasts. Normally we don’t bother with this approach, but this is Show # 50 and, more importantly, this is DYRL we’re talking about here. Since this movie will not be seeing a US release any time soon, here is a BitTorrent link.

Otaku may not necessarily remember love, but at least we can remember that once upon a time, we weren’t all dead inside. Listen and perhaps you’ll find out why.

Closing (2:09:22 – 2:16:01)
Next time, Daryl’s going to try and do some more things he’s weeks/months late in doing by discussing Megacon 2007 and also reviewing To Terra Volume 1, released by Vertical Inc. In addition to that, Clarissa’s reviewing Animation Runner Kuromi and Gerald’s reviewing The Venus Wars. Our sidebar has all those podcast directories as well as our contact information in the event you’re interested in that stuff.

Anime World Order Show # 35 – Cromartie, Lain, and THE TRUTH behind Metrocon 2006

No time for a final quality check listen, we’ve got to drive to Anime Weekend Atlanta! Gerald reviews Cromartie High School, Clarissa continues the ABe kick from last week with Serial Experiments Lain, and Daryl unveils a small portion of THE TRUTH he discovered at Metrocon 2006!

Introduction (0:00 – 41:25)
The Garbage Stanley captured in this recording is actually not the current Garbage Stanley. More on that later. In the ever-growing listener mailbox, we’re told that Baltimore isn’t as bad as we think it is, but we remain skeptical since we watched not only Homicide: Life on the Street, but also The Wire aka “a step by step tutorial on how to be a criminal and not get caught by the police.” Then, Paul S. writes in with some proposals about how to combat anime piracy, which means we end up yelling for 20 minutes. Finally, Alex requests recommendations on what anime he should show to people to get them interested in anime, and we each give our thoughts.

Promo: Ninja Consultant (41:25 – 43:10)
Erin and Noah shared a room with Gerald and Clarissa over the weekend, and according to Erin’s testimony, the amount of dirty group intercourse that took place was less than 1%. However, she fell quite ill during the weekend and had to get an emergency pierrotectomy, so perhaps her words cannot be trusted.

Review: Cromartie High School (43:10 – 1:02:56)
Finally, the time has come to answer the burning question! Which is the greater force: the comedy level of Cromartie or the Aryan humor deficiency which flows through the fiber of Gerald’s being? There’s only one way to find out!

Promo: Greatest Movie EVER! Podcast (1:02:56 – 1:03:42)
Multiple episodes of Paul Chapman’s podcast are what we listened to for a good portion of the drive up to Atlanta. Gerald and Clarissa would like to suggest that instead of using only the stock sound effects, he should also have audio clips from the movies thrown in too. Daryl thinks having his mom be on the podcast is a stroke of genius, but Gerald dismisses the opinions of all people who hold PhDs and Clarissa dismisses the opinions of anyone who would state that Halle Berry was the best Catwoman.

Review: Serial Experiments Lain (1:03:42 – 1:26:29)
Clarissa keeps the Yoshitoshi ABe ball rolling by talking about the show that pretty much put him on the map. Logic dictated that Gerald would have to then review Texhnolyze, but he refused so the ABe motif has officially died after a mere two weeks.

Promo: Fast Karate For the Gentleman (1:26:29 – 1:27:34)
In a city ruled by the mob, Dave and Joel have no choice but to fend for themselves, with only their toes and fingers at their disposal. But rather than use those fingers to form a fist, they use them instead to watch anime that is either awesome or awful. But mostly awful. This is why Daryl steals jokes from them constantly, and his next bad anime panel will feature dub clips from Megazone 23 Part 3.

THE TRUTH: Metrocon 2006 (1:27:34 – 1:46:03)
“That had to be the dumbest and most annoying segment I’ve ever listened to…in fact I didn’t listen to most of it.” — the most positive praise we’ve received thus far regarding this segment

With Amano’s World coming up in a few weeks, Daryl thought it wise to actually get the Metrocon segment out. Of course, seeing that this entire segment is a fabrication and doesn’t accurately portray much of what took place at Metrocon, the likelihood of his getting a press badge for that might be low, especially since they listen to this podcast! Whatever, it’s for the sake of jokes.

Pikabellechu, renowned costumer, fanartist, and CONJURER OF FRIGHTENING GHOSTS:

The Brain, wearing my La Parka mask during the Fantasy Masquerade:

The official Fantasy Masquerade concession stand:

Henry (blue helmet) and Spooky Electric (cosplaying as Monkey Punch):

Misha, the Life Master, got to be on Fox News because of this Bridget outfit; the local Fox News affiliate had a TRUTH search going on as well, you see:

A hotel room we’ll NEVER FORGET:

Al Pipes (RIP) and the Melonnaut (RIP):

A sample page from the Metrocon Anime Human Chess Match script, their top event of the weekend:

Stevie B, being a bee and not a puppy:

Click here to see an autograph/sketch made by Stevie B (not work safe)

The Beast of Nature is given a hand in the phat larpz by Ham Samael…

…but the moods of all turn to shock upon seeing that Henry has become the new Garbage Stanley, since the way you become Garbage Stanley is that you have to eat the previous Garbage Stanley:

Garbage Stanley later participated in a vampire LARP and survived.

Closing (1:46:03 – 1:48:39)
Next time on AWO, which really should have come out by now except Daryl spent the last two days not editing anything, Daryl will review the 2004 remake of Hi no Tori, Clarissa gives us another yaoi title review with Embracing Love, and Gerald reviews Manga Video’s re-release of Lupin the Third: The Castle of Cagliostro. Or, as the packaging reads “Lupin the III.” That’s like writing “$10 dollars,” people!