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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.
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.
- The original opening to Stand Alone Complex as only seen in the fansubs, comprised mostly of footage from the first two episodes
- The Wikipedia entry for GitS:SAC has plenty of info, and there’s links for info about the other versions as well
- The [adult swim] SAC site has a schedule for which episodes are upcoming, if you’re looking to watch it on TV
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.
I just crawled up from the carpet, where I had been rolling around laughing as “Max’s dad” read off that hentai ad copy. I didn’t quite soil myself laughing, but it was…well, it was close. If Rich Anderson and Ryan Gavigan haven’t heard this yet, they need to run, not walk.
I had another “Welcome to the A.W.O.!” party at MangaNEXT, and I guess I’ll just have to keep having them until everyone acknowledges this is the best podcast ever.
–Carl
I imagine a young lad being sat down on a porch by a wise old man with a banjo, and being taught the ways of the world via THE AMORZ BOX COPY WRITING DIVISION (which by the way amorz i am available so feel free to hire me)
I really like Shirow’s ORION, but the thing is, I don’t feel bad about not getting it because it’s fantasy-adventure gobbledygook, rather than science-fiction gobbledygook. With Shirow’s SF works, there’s that guilt because, in theory, it should make sense and be rational, it being, you know, science. I should stick to reading something I can understand, like GALGREASE.
–Carl
The ease with which the word “cockbusting” was delivered in that Discipline reading blows my very mind.
They’re not making any more Haruhi for a while.
I think the show they’re going to do after Kanon (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucky_?_Star) looks vaguely interesting, but it’s not AWO material.
I’ve never actually seen a Shirow manga. Is this bad?
PS. Bartender is going all weird. I don’t want to judge it by two episodes, but there’s none of the manga humor so far and it’s the most nationalistic show about drinking you could have. I think we’ll stop after this episode and let one of those normal exploding-song-lyrics groups do it, translating it kills people.
The thing about “Ghost in the Shell 2” is that you can actually see the part, right in about the middle of the third issue, where Shirow just completely stops pretending to give a shit.
Why is that dude making his moe pillow girlfriend drink her milkshake through her nose? Is that yet another weird new Japanese fetish thing? I thought nose bondage and farting girl fetishes were weird enough.
And I have completed my own fanart of the Anime World Order crew, as promised. I will send it as soon as I remember to scan it in.
Where the hell did you get that horse Daryl?
At risk of starting another fire…
I do prefer ‘Sauzer’ over ‘Souther’. I know it’s one of those ‘what is the intent/what did they take it from’ issues, and I don’t doubt that somewhere ‘Souther’ has been put on something offical…
(So has Space Cruiser for Yamato. Doesn’t mean it’s RIGHT ya know)
Sauzer seems to be a legit Spanish/Mexican name, I’ve seen Sauzer Tequila at Famous Dave’s BBQ.
Which puts to mind a label indicating it’s made by child slave labor for an emperor who has a frozen heart…
Sauzer sounds better, looks better than Souther. It also sounds like how everyone pronounces it in the series. I can’t speak on the movie.
It’s my opinion, and it’s UNBEATABLE!
Ack! Yo Gerald, next time warn somebody before you give a detailed analysis of of a manga like that. I was eating when I heard that lezbo bit. Dayum, man! :p
Meanwhile, nice show as always gang. Didn’t know that new 009-1 show was out til now. And already grabbed all the Black Jack that’s been subbed. Still find myself humming the theme to BJ21 every so often. Oh, Daryl, thanks for heads up on new Fist materials. I’d considered showing original Fist this year at AWA but ah well. Probably do it next year though.
Ack! Yo Gerald, next time warn somebody before you give a detailed analysis of a manga like that. I was eating when I heard that lezbo bit. Dayum, man! :p
Meanwhile, nice show as always gang. Didn’t know that new 009-1 show was out til now, and I already grabbed all the Black Jack that’s been subbed. Still find myself humming the theme to BJ21 every so often. Oh, Daryl, thanks for heads up on new Fist materials. Been fun to watch so far. hoping someone subbs Raoh Gaiden soon. The visuals are indeed nice.
Anyways, catch y’all soon. Peace.
“Souther” 4tw, if for no other reason than the artwork of Souther Salazar. The other Romanization is technically closer to the original syllables, but how many times are things pronounced the way they’re spelled?
I see “Sauzer” show up more as a surname, so if that was the intent, I could get behind it more. However, given the one-word-naminess of the Hokuto no Kenniverse, I’d guess it’s not meant as a surname.
Alternately, fuck the debate and call him ‘Nick’ and call Ken ‘Lou’. Whenever they meet, Ken (I mean Lou) can make derisive comments about Nick’s ability to make a goddamned pizza.
Daryl, you should probably link this from the show notes to let people know how awesome Shigeru Chiba is:
Steve, I’m deleting your post because you just totally gave away the ending to the movie that just came out, which we’re talking about RIGHT NOW. Sure, you were referring to the TV series and the statute of limitations on spoilers for that has arguably long passed (do you count it by when it was made or when it was made available in a form us English speakers can understand?), but there’s the added matter of you having the wrong opinion about the spelling thing. 🙂
Oh sure, I know that you, Tim Eldred, and Robert Gibson are REALLY adamant about OMG IT’S SAUZA NOT SOUTHER YOU FAGS!, but everyone else has since graduated to OMG IT’S SON GOKOU NOT SON GOKU YOU FAGS! so it’s a moot point. All I can say is that “Souther” is nearly universally agreed upon as his name, possibly because it makes sense for the toughest Nanto warrior to have “South” in his name. Despite limitations of the language, I don’t know anyone who thinks “Thouther” isn’t a mistake despite being the spelling used in the new arcade game, and Tim actually pointed out that in the current Raoh Gaiden manga (which isn’t drawn by Tetsuo Hara; what, has he finally gone blind?), they spell it as “Thoutoher,” which is also totally out of nowhere. I guess it could always be worse. When Sega brought over the Master System game to the US under the name “Black Belt,” they changed Souther’s name to “Rita.”
Much as I love Shigeru Chiba’s absolutely zany narrations, the bitch about the next episode previews and episode titles of Hokuto no Ken is that they completely give away the episode. Like, the title of the episode is “The Death of So And So” and then the preview footage is showing you exactly how they die. In fact, that Youtube link is effectively a complete four minute summary of the entire series. Clearly another vital element for shonen fighting success, as DBZ did the exact same thing.
Yeah, I actually was really looking forward to watching 009-1 or at the very least, checking it out, but no one is subbing it at all. Yet how many groups are doing Kanon or Death Note right now.
Hm…it would have been perfect to mention my horrible voice mail since you mentioned the Daicon animations, but oh well.
Wait, Gerald; I thought that Saito worked on Golgo 13, not Kazuo Koike. Was that just a mess up, or did he have a small role there?
Wait, Gerald; I thought that Saito worked on Golgo 13, not Kazuo Koike. Was that just a mess up, or did he have a small role there?
Golgo 13 wasn’t Koike’s manga, he was just an assistant on it at the time.
FUUUUCK!
Must download Hokuto no Ken.
And as a rule I don’t do fansubs, got too much regular stuff to work on for my writing.
I so want an complete release of the series with all of you doing the commentary track. Perhaps with guest appearances by Patrick and Carl.
So, wait…you can just delete my glorious perfect post (instead of throwing those spoiler blackout tags over the part) and yet you can’t bother to erase the doubled post by Darius?! It’s exactly the same except the last two sentances are changed and he gives a peace out shout..can’t just fix THAT huh?
you’re just jealous I watched Hokuto no Ken 20 years ago when it was new…
And my fist is UNSTOPPABLE! 🙂
Hm…just as a question of curiosity, do you have any plans of having Steve Harrison on again? After reading a number of his comments, he quite powerful kung-fu. Also, he seems to be interesting of a person, in general. But that sort of goes with all of the guests you’ve had so far.
Yeah, I guess it’s a little much telling everybody who dies and when and how and when the show is lying about who dies this episode.
Now this sucker on the other hand: golden.
Wow those are really big eyebrows.
By the way guys the show was awesome, and I have another idea for my next doijunshi. 😛
so, I am so sorry.
Sub said…
Yeah, I guess it’s a little much telling everybody who dies and when and how and when the show is lying about who dies this episode.
Still, it’s the enjoyment of watching shows like this I admire for.
Now this sucker on the other hand: golden.
That made my day!
I love the two hour show. More Discipline reads!!!
The Ninja Consultants recently did a AWA podcast (Show #33 – On Clown Pistols). It will complement AWO’s AWA report. Listen to both podcasts for the Double Fist Style Kung-fu.
MOE!!!
Wow, I had no idea that Kazuo Koike worked on Golgo 13. Our local anime club is going to be showing Golgo 13: The Professional at their next meeting. I would like to think that I am responsible for that since I went on the club’s forums after watching it and said how awesome it is and how everyone should love it, and buy the manga. I would like to go to that showing but since the location of that branch of the club is an hour away I will be unable to attend.
Hey, gang…
I’d just like to comment on the Sauza/Souther thing, with the preamble that your preferred pronunciation changes absolutely nothing about my life. Now that we got that outta the way…
There was a time when we could guage an anime fan’s level of experience by his or her chosen pronunciations. If you take the time to learn your katakana (which to me is rule 1 if you expect to be taken seriously) and make an effort to study how it is used phonetically to render names and especially foreign words, you build up a lot of context that informs your choice of pronunciation.
In the case of “Sauza,” it’s not only the way the characters in the show pronounce it (and who would know better than the characters in the show), it also defies the interpretation of “Souther” because there are other katakanas that would have made that intention clear. What’s my context? There’s a character named “South Burning” in Gundam 0083 whose katakana name reads Sa-wa-su. the “su” is the key, because it is universally used to simulate a “TH” sound which doesn’t exist in the Japanese alphabet.
“Sa-wa-za” doesn’t readily transform into “Souther,” but “Sa-wa-sa” followed by a hyphen would be no problem. Sure, it’s been romanized by the Japanese themselves into “Souther” but any reader of Engrish.com knows better than to follow that lead.
There have been other such fan blunders, 99% of which can be corrected with a bit more attention to the katakanas and how they work in context.
Here’s the dumbest example I can think of to demonstrate how far it can go. Y’all know Arale from Dr. Slump, right? Her name is in the show title, it’s in most of the OP and ED songs, and you hear it about every 15 seconds during a typical episode. Half an hour should be all it takes to imprint the pronunciation “A-RA-LAY” into your mind, right?
So imagine how many times I blinked when I heard a guy (years ago) insist it was pronounced “A-RALL,” as if it were invented in Europe or something.
The willful ignorance just staggers me sometimes.
OK, as you were.
-Tim Eldred
Oh, I forgot. It gets even dumber than “ARALL.” Same guy, right? He was dead certain that “Anime” should be pronounced “Annim.”
True story. Plus he was a HUGE Rumiko Takahashi fan. Infer from this what you will.
-Tim
“Sa-wa-za” doesn’t readily transform into “Souther,” but “Sa-wa-sa” followed by a hyphen would be no problem. Sure, it’s been romanized by the Japanese themselves into “Souther” but any reader of Engrish.com knows better than to follow that lead.
We shouldn’t follow the lead of the people who made the thing?
Yes, we should. That’s precisely what I’m saying. Go to the roots. The guys who made the thing started with the manga, then based the show on the manga. The English-ization came later and is not reliable for the simple fact that it is (A) not consistent and (B) violates one of the basic katakana-to-English rules.
Besides, it’s been my suspicion for a long time that the English spellings of character names across the entire industry is a haphazard process controlled more by marketing departments and package designers (often with rudimentary language skills) than the creators of a show itself. What else could explain English-izations like “Gandam” or “Vrlitwhai” or “Herlock?”
Again, your personal choices are your own, I just think it’s worthwhile to keep the bigger picture in view at all times.
-Tim
just wanted to inform you that if you google “rape podcast,” you are on page 3, not page 1. I…guess that’s better…………
hey is this podcast originally from this site?
its a really good podcast, very professional, what states does it show over?
anyway daryl did a kickass job on reviewing fist of the north star. im one of the 2 ppl that watch that. as a martial artist and trickster i gotta say its not that bad.
he mentioned posting something on a certain forum. which forum was that. i also noticed the stupid changes they made, but it was still worth it
thanks for this.
(i cant log into my blogger right now, but for future reference ill be known as cadmus or whyldephaier)
Okay, the “Discipline” readings? OVER. Because you are not going to top that one. I was thinking about trying a “G-Man Agent From Half-Life” version, but screw it; anything after this will be feeble attempts to capture reflected glory.
I’m impressed that you made it all the way to the end of the news section before mentioning the reason that moe shows inevitably tank. To wit: Once you’ve watched a fansub there isn’t much motivation to go buy the thing. I watched Planetes, I loved it, and it was only recently that I bought any discs…and, of that, I’ve only got the first three. I LOVED Godannar, I practically shit myself when it got licensed and it looked like we wouldn’t get fansubs of the last two episodes, and I’ve still only managed to buy the first disc.
And the stateside mode fanbase, while vocal, is also entirely willing to watch fansubs as soon as they’re available–and I’d say that the entirety of the moe fanbase has access to fansubs. One of the problems that “old media” keeps running into is that they’ll assume that every internet reader/watcher/listener means that there are ten more potential, non-internet readers/watchers/listeners. So they say “wow, there are 5,000 people on this forum talking about Azumanga Daioh, that must mean that there are 50,000 people who would buy it!” Except that those 5000 people are the only ones in America who like the show. It’s the Howard Dean thing, all over again–people see a big forum with lots of activity and make the assumption that it’s the tip of an iceberg, when in fact they’re seeing the whole cube.
and WHAT THE FUCK people outside my apartment are hooting like monkeys. Jesus. I can’t wait until next spring when my lease is up and I can go look for a house.
Hee. “Clarissa, you know what he’s talking about, right?” BIG pause. “Oh…uh, yeah, right…”
You know she was sitting there all, “well, hm, I go like this, and like that, and maybe you could call that an “M”, well, I dunno, oh wait shit they’re talking to me!”
“Hokuto No Ken”: Hm. Maybe if “hokuto” refers to a cardinal direction, then this title could be translated as something like “Guided By My Fists”, or maybe “My Fists Lead The Way”. “Journey Towards Fighting”?
PS Daryl, you sound really stuffed up.
On the actual title ‘Hokuto no Ken’, I’m thinking there’s that ‘unspoken understanding’ thing going on, tying into Japanese cultural history and maybe some pop culture aspect, something just ‘known’ by a native Japanese.
Of course it’s never come up because a Japanese would just understand it and assume everyone else would too, and any Westerner who asks about it doesn’t UNDERSTAND how much of things over there are based on ‘understood’ and not ever actually spelled out or explained.
It’s like if I say ‘Blade Runner’..it’s a phrase that really doesn’t MEAN anything (there was a SF writer in the ’50s who used it as a term for an ‘off the books’ doctor, rather like Black Jack) but by stating it, it creates an entire mental image of the movie, with gloomy rainy multi-cultural L.A. and flying cars and stuff. At least in many people.
So I wouldn’t have to go into a long talk about dystopian future and urban misery, I can just say “it’s Blade Runner only with a woman cop, and her talking dog” and *bam* you understand it.
Would be nice to actually answer some of these questions.
“SAAUUUZEERRR!”
Steve: True; it could just be like calling someone “Uncle Sam”. It doesn’t mean that he is actually the brother of one of your parents, or that his name is Sam.
Alexander strange said…
I’ve never actually seen a Shirow manga. Is this bad?
No, not really. I’ve only two volumes of the large print format of Appleseed but have always wanted to finish it.
Plus now that AWO has talked about Orion so much I think I might order it. What does anyone think?
Rape isn’t even hypothetically funny! It doesn’t matter if it’s a fictional case, it’s not cool to even joke about! Hentai with consensual sex is fine, but you’d have to be a real asshole to enjoy seeing even fictional women getting raped. It’s one thing if they’re guys, even though it’s still messed up, but you don’t even joke about women getting raped by men or some weird monster.
[Putting aside the fact that you’re commenting solely on the title of the post without actually hearing the podcast, I bolded the most dangerous part of your post. You’ll take my Detroit Metal City from my cold, dead hands. –Daryl]