We skipped a week because of Jacon, but we’re still lazy! As compensation for this relatively segment-light episode, we present to you the long-awaited next part of Daryl’s search for THE TRUTH. This time, at Megacon.
Introduction That’s Actually The Majority of the Show
We offer the lame excuse of having to devote all our free time to preparing for finals and anime convention panels, thus leaving us without time to put together proper segments. Fortunately, responding to listener feedback requires no preparation at all! We’ll just try and mask the lack of preparation by listing each email topic:
- Keith from Teleport City writes us to defend the honor of Odin: Photon Space Sailer Starlight. He ain’t joking around, folks. (5:10 – 9:40)
- Jenna from the UK writes us to ask our opinions on CLAMP, Fruits Basket, and what she should watch next given that she likes both. We completely forget to answer that last one. Whoops! (9:40 – 22:20)
- Shane, a self-described World War 2 buff, writes approvingly about Zipang and enlightens us on the relationship between Japan and the Nazis! Somehow we end up mentioning Gunslinger Girl. (22:20 – 25:30)
- Daniel opens up a can of worms by asking us what our favorite anime songs are. SEARCHING FOR ODIN, MY LOVE! (25:30 – 38:00)
- “Spanish Discipline Guy” Alfonso asks us about the feasibility of showing Crayon Shin-Chan on US TV, and requests that everyone go to Youtube and do a Crayon Shin-Chan search to see the clips he’s talking about. (38:00 – 41:15)
- Jason wonders how much hentai dub actors get paid and what we think about “slice of life” shows, offering Piano and Koi Kaze as examples. This leads to us trying to figure out whether “slice of life” is really just a sugarcoated term for “nothing happens to advance anything.” (41:15 – 48:50)
- Kori insists that she is not a girl. Wait, I just said “she.” He wants to know what we think about A.I. Love You, so we tell him what we think about Ken Akamatsu and harem anime in general after reading the Wikipedia entry for A.I. Love You. Somehow hentai discussion gets thrown into the mix. (48:50 – 56:55)
Let’s News! (56:55 – 1:13:39)
King of Braves GaoGaiGar, which we talked about in Show # 3, has been licensed by Media Blasters. Trinity Blood is getting released in theaters by Funimation, but Trinity Blood fails at being entertaining and if you like it you’re dumb, so don’t bother watching it. 4Kids has created new brands allowing them to butcher even more shows, and Super Robot Taisen Original Generations is announced for the PS2 in Japan. If the English versions of the GBA games sell well, then there’s a good chance of this being released in America. Plus, for all you fans of dudes being rude, Animate has apparently acquired all of the Biblos catalog.
The Search for THE TRUTH: Megacon 2006 (1:13:39 – 1:27:28)
It’s late by about three months, but Daryl’s COMPLETELY NOT FILLED WITH LIES AND DECEIT journey to bridge the gap between himself and modern anime fans continues, bringing him to the science fiction convention known as Megacon, an event highly attended because it always happens at the same time as a national cheerleader conference located down the hall. But now isn’t the time to get interviews with the guy dressed as Darth Vader posing with the Spirit Squad, since conventions are SERIOUS BUSINESS. Will THE TRUTH be discovered once and for all?
- Two alcohol-loving folks from Orange Anime dressed as Shanks and Black Kakashi, whose Black Sharingan was able to instantly see through Daryl’s lies – note the suit ninja guy on the left jealous of being left out of the debauchery
- A roving pack of TRUTH heralds – they emailed me months ago asking when this report would come out; they were at Jacon this weekend doing more of the same only more aggressively this time
- DBZ fan for life – here’s another shot; this still isn’t as severe as that one guy who has the Yakuza level support for DBZ
- Mr Box from the front – and here’s what’s on the back; he also emailed a few times asking when this interview would be posted. Notice that the background of these pictures almost all contain some sort of subtle bonus joke
- Trevor Heins better watch out for his job – and here is the ultimate Chinese girl disguise
Closing (1:27:28 – 1:33:10)
Next week is our Jacon report episode. All three of us were there with press credentials and there is something like 13 hours worth of recorded material and 2 gigs of photos and video to parse through. We will probably end up using very little of it, but better to have too much than too little. Will we be joined by staffers from the con? It is a mystery! We close things off with the help of Jeff “Rich Lather” Tatarek and his time machine, which he used to travel back to the 1980s so that Look Around You’s very own Synthesizer Patel could do a Discipline reading for us. The Maharaja Mack Daddy ain’t got jack on the S to the P, son.
Thanks for reading off my note. Now, a further note about pulp, and why I’d defend Odin as pure pulp: remember that “pulp” covers a vast swath of territory, including romance, westerns, medieval stories, barbarian tales, scifi, crime and detective stories, horror, and so on.
The meaning of “pulp” has been corrupted in the past few years to the point where people only think of it as violent over-the-top action a la Quentin Tarantino, which isn’t really correct.
What you’re thinking of there, and what a movie like Golgo 13 can trace much of its roots to, is the grindhouse cinema of the late 60s and 70s. As the term “pulp” continues to evolve, it has come to include “pulpy” cinema, which is fine. Words evolve, and only a stickler insists that “pulp” can only refer to serialized stories that appeared in pulp magazines. I’m fine with it including everything from grindhouse/drive-in cinema to James Bond and Bond-inspired novels of the 60s and 70s (though plenty of people still disagree), as well as things like Golgo 13.
However, if you dig through classic old pulp sci-fi, stuff from the 30s and 40s especially, the kind of stuff that appeared in the old magazines, it’s startling similar in approach and spirit (and ridiculous technobabble) to Odin. If Odin doesn’t seem like pulp, that’s only because you’ve forgotten that “pulp” is so often misinterpreted as being purely “crazy action.” I trotted out AE van Vogt as a prime example. Plow through “Masters of Time,” and you’ll see what I mean. The book is crammed with sci-fi jargon and ideas that make no sense, page after page is devoted to describing control consoles, and massive chunks of set-up and scenario go absolutely nowhere and have nothing to do with anything else that happens. Odin would have been perfectly at home in one of these 40s sci-fi pulp magazines.
And really, this is the last thing I should say about Odin. I’m already going to hell for talking about it this much.
Hey there, fan of your show. Ninja Consultant told me about you guys. Just wanted to drop a quick line at let you know how that last segment of “the truth” you did was the best! The kid you had interviewing that guy in the box was great. You should use him more often if you can! I was laughing my ass off. Keep up the good work!!
~konoha_cop from the IchaparadiseFan blog
I have to agree: the little kid was absolutely brilliant. Not that Daryl hasn’t done a fine job with The Truth, but the kid really cuts to the heart of the matter. It’s one thing to have someone your own age dismiss you as a goofball, bt when it comes from a little kid — like the credit card says: priceless.
Next, send him out to ask grown men why they get obssessed with manga and anime aimed at ten-year-old girls.
Daryl… MIO never sang any songs for Dragonar. Mami Ayukawa did one of them. I forget who did the other one. Nobody remembers that show except you, me, and Darius. But I have the CDs so I win. 😉
MIO did a whole album where she sings cover versions of other anime themes. It’s facinating.
On the subject of Crayon Shin-chan getting on US TV. It already has been. It was on Atlanta TV 10 years ago so it’s been done. YES, broadcast UHF TV on a real TV station and unsubbed too as anime should be. I don’t think they censored it.
re: English dubs in video games
Not a lot of people know this, but it is actually REQUIRED that your game have an English language dub to be approved for a license by Sony Computer Entertainment America (if it’s dialogue-heavy, that is, stuff like Capcom and SNK fighters manage to get out of that requirement). You can have Japanese dialogue selectable, but the default MUST be English. As for the space issue – sometimes this is a reason why the JP track gets cut, but there’s other stuff too, like licensing issues. I know that the company that released Bujingai here went through hell to get a lot of the material. They somehow managed to keep Gackt’s dialogue in there, but everything else was dubbed, (I assume it was not too hard to convince Sony that fangirls would throw a fit of epic porportions if Gackt-sama got dubbed over.)
Since SOMEBODY forgot to put them in the shownotes…
Link to “Ass monster with a gift bag”: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YAJCg_l-T3A“
Link to Public Bath’s episode: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9k_Gm97i6l0
I hate AMV but this is funny: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BOHs2Gyfm9c
And I see that for any random act of violence/wanton an gratuitous sexuallity you only mention Golgo 13… what about another classic like Crying Freeman??
That ova series would be soooo good if 1. They got rid of the last 3 episodes 2.They removed all the cheesy sex scenes, but now that I think of it, that may leave about 20 minutes of footage left…
Yeah, as funny as it may be, I don’t think I see the ass monster with a gift bag flying on US TV, not even on Comedy Central late night.
My guess is that some episodes would simply never air, even if others do.
I hope this means those peeing Crayon Shin-chan novelty banks in Chinatown will get bigger distribution.
I forgot to mention though, that I took “ass monster with a gift bag” out of a Crayon Shin Chan movie, not an actual episode.
Delicious, that one of those damned kids bearing THE TRUTH was also the posessor of one of those crummy bootleg pillows. Stop letting them rip you off, kids!
The Beat Kids bit was inspired. I particularly loved the fact that the box man’s logic crumbled in such a big way. I’m sure I looked like a damned fool as I was walking to work from the train station laughing at the kid going to town.
I did love that little kid… These sorts of things are why people are saying that our future lies in our youth. It’s one of the few times that it gives one more hope than dread.
That earned the title “The Emperor’s New Box,” you just failed to state it.
Neat that you got Billy West to do your intro. How did you get him to do it?
Also: Wow, “Podcast Pickle” actually exists? I thought you were just being silly.
“Yamato” theme: The Animetal cover of this theme is unbelievably awesome. It has been known to cause severe structural damage to buildings and pets, due to its dangerous levels of rock.