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It’s all about the catfights this week as Clarissa talks about Air Master, Daryl reviews Shadow Skill, and Gerald discusses Project A-Ko! Outrageous! Truly outrageous!
Introduction (0:00 – 28:10)
We answer emails! Former contributor to the long-gone EX Darius Washington writes in to talk about Crusher Joe and sound off, Tim Eldred–whom we interviewed in Show #14–writes in with his viewpoints on the supposed lack of zeal among today’s anime fans (PS: buy Grease Monkey! In stores now!), Ichigo from the Anime-Pulse podcast (hey cool, we won their Podcast Pickle contest!) has a SHOCKING REVELATION for us, and a 14 year-old girl tells us all about how she’s able to buy yaoi and shota without being checked for ID! Then Clarissa helps contribute to the delinquency of all the minors that we’ve got listening despite the Explicit tags by offering additional tips on how to do the same!
Let’s News! (28:10 – 43:28)
Even kids in Japan can’t follow the panel layouts in manga, Dark Horse has to edit Cannon God Exaxxion (which we reviewed back in Show # 9), the Japanese have come up with something even MORE terrifying than that moe burger place, and the US release of Speed Grapher won’t have “Girls on Film” by Duran Duran as its theme song! If anyone from Funimation’s listening, Daryl offers the PERFECT solution. Rock over London, rock on Chicago. Finally, the details for the limited edition of Patlabor Movie 2 have been released. That comes out on July 11th, so preorder it to save $30 or so.
- Google – do an image search for “Pretty Dictator” to see what we’re afraid of (probably not work safe)
Promo: Eeeper’s Choice (43:28 – 44:20)
For you anime fans in the UK, or at least we think he’s from the UK, here’s a brand-new podcast that’s just started up for you guys! Two episodes in and he’s already got an interview with Manga Entertainment UK’s head of marketing! If it were Daryl conducting that interview, the entire thing would have been about Angel Cop, Violence Jack, and Mad Bull.
Review: Air Master (44:20 – 1:02:51)
Daryl really wanted to do this one, but Clarissa had first dibs on this most radical TV show from 2004. This is some of the best animated, best choreographed fighting anime has to offer, so naturally Toei went and screwed up the Region 1 DVD release. In fact, they did such a piss-poor job that we’re just going to say “screw it all”: here’s a link to a torrent for the entire series!
- Probably not work safe picture of someone who looks almost exactly like Daryl being manhandled by a large woman – Daryl DEMANDS that someone send him the entire series
Promo: R5 Central (1:02:51 – 1:03:31)
The more of these ACen promos we hear, the more we realize that much of R5 Central is what is presumably written in Mike’s Livejournal, only in audio format. Or so we’d imagine; his Livejournal is friends-only and only Clarissa actually has an account at that terrifying place.
Review: Shadow Skill (1:03:51 – 1:20:56)
Daryl thinks that if there’s any fault to be found in Air Master, it’s that most of the time all the bloodletting is courtesy of really severe nosebleeds and not much else. Shadow Skill however, is BY FAR AND AWAY the bloodiest and therefore most violent “girls kicking ass” anime reviewed in this episode. Recoil in terror as Daryl leaves in all of his arcane Fist of the North Star references! Actually, his likening of Yuki Minaguchi’s fighting style to that of Nanto Koshuu Ken crossed with judo was stolen by the thoughtbird during the Air Master segment and he just forgot to say it. You have to get these names RIGHT, damn it! Geometry Man? GEOMETRY MAN?!
- Shadow Skill Network – a fairly comprehensive fan site that includes twelve fanfics and forums that are still active
- ANN’s Shadow Skill entry
- The really poorly written Wikipedia entry for Shadow Skill – not only is some of it just plain wrong, most of it applies to the TV series and not the OAVs
- Anime on DVD’s Shadow Skill review – it’s perfectly understandable to give this a bad review, but to not talk about the fights AT ALL and just rag on how much the story sucks is like knocking a 70s Shaw Brothers kung fu movie
- Official Japanese website for Shadow Skill – the art all over this site is for the awful OAV that Daryl mentioned at the end of the review, not the original ones
Review: Project A-Ko (1:20:56 – 1:38:03)
Daryl promised not to edit in any of the many jokes that were presumably removed from this segment, and so he has remained true to his word as Gerald talks about this classic anime parody. Arguments ensue over whether or not non-anime fans can tell that this is a comedy since the jokes are almost all inside references: Daryl postulates the answer is no, citing as evidence the years in which he thought this was the MOST BADASS CARTOON EVER CRAFTED BY THE HANDS OF MAN. Gerald postulates that Daryl’s Ultimate Eye may in fact be Asperger’s Syndrome.
Closing (1:38:03 – 1:44:05)
Man, this has to be the longest show we’ve ever done. Thanks to everyone who voted for us over at Podcast Pickle, getting us into the Top 10! BUT…on Saturday they’re wiping the board clean and we have to start over from zero! Rats! Oh well, just go and vote for us again! The Podcast Awards starts up on July 1st as well, but that’s something that you’d have to vote for us every day for two weeks straight (while following their specific rules about voting). If you’re up for it, perhaps you could vote for us in the Podcast of the Year and…hmm, Movies/Films? The chances of winning anything here are slim to none, but hey! That’s what we thought about getting into the Podcast Pickle Top 10!
Next week, it’s time we remembered the time when we used to have multiple different kinds of segments! Clarissa’s going to review Shinesman, Gerald’s got a rant about the licensing practices of the US and Japanese anime industries, and Daryl’s going to throw down with a frank and MOST DANGEROUS discourse on the SECOND worst anime ever made…
M.D. Geist.
We may never agree on what the worst anime ever made is, but we can all agree that MD Geist is the SECOND worst.
All of your shows should be this long. And i sent an email to you under naota0506@hotmail.com but i dont know if it got sent because i dont know how to send an email. But oh well. Oh and I loved the email where Ichigo purely owned Shiggy since i know him. Anyways, i have Air Master on torrent now, and will probly go buy Project A-Ko when i go buy Giant Robo (when does that come out?).
Anime is for guys who like porn, but not real women.
The awesomeness of my basement. I just found a ton of old vhs that i havent ever watched. Such titles as Kimera, Tekken, Fatal Furry, and Angel Cop that i got at a blockbuster for around 2 dollars. Are ANY of these titles worth watching at all? Keep in mind that these are all english dubs.
Angel Cop is absolute comedy platinum, and Tekken is hilariously lame. Fatal Fury–at least, that better be what you meant–is actually one of the few videogame anime that isn’t absolutely awful, and I own it on DVD. But Kimera, that’s just weak.
Stephen Neal’s girlfriend couldn’t get some water to boil on their stove. So Stephen walked over and simply placed a piece of hair from his beard in the water and it immediately began to bubble. After seeing this his lady thanked him. He then kicked the boiling pot of water onto his girlfriend’s face, reminding her never to speak directly to the face of Stephen Neal again.
This blog is totally freaking awesome and I salute you. I want to hope you actually listen to the show, but I’m guessing you found us through random happenstance since we’re pretty likely to say that stuff about anime ourselves. 🙂
I can’t really consider the Speed Grapher opening issue as quite the same as Zeta Gundam mainly because Funimation were *gasp* upfront and honest about the issues, as they’ve been mentioning for a couple of months that they were having problems with the rights unlike Bandai letting us suckers who bought into their “buy this now it may never be available ever again!!!” bullshit and preordered it find out about the missing songs only when our dvds arrived in the mail.
I don’t know if it’s true, but I recall seeing somewhere that the Speed Grapher problem isn’t even money, something about Funi having trouble dealing with whatever major music label that holds the right to that song and them blowing them off.
Good to hear Airmaster get some love.
And that someone else appreciates the genius that is Renge.
Rather than seeing her as a parody of Chiyo (I think it is clear later on that Renge is a “little person”, as is the cyborg making nurse), she seems like a character who should belong in strip from the Beano or Dandy.
Any plans to look at the work of Studio 4C in the future? A look at Mind Game would be interesting.
Bring back more sience fiction anime, Im so sick of Shojo!!!
You guys should do that segment on creepy anime that you talked about doing along time ago when reading the email about the guy asking for you to review stuff like DearS and Chobits. That would be awesome to hear about creepy anime.
“I’m sick of shojo, give me more sci-fi” is kind of a weird comment to make for this episode considering that nothing we reviewed this week was shojo and one of those things has quite a bit of sci-fi elements to it. And if we use that ultra-lame “SF” designation that works as an umbrella term for sci-fi and fantasy because it means something dumb like “speculative fiction,” even Shadow Skill would count because of its alleged story. We just got done reviewing Crusher Joe and Prefectural Earth Defense Force, with the unholy terror of MD Geist coming at you next week; the case could be argued that we dial back on the SF/action a little.
I am totally a fan of Studio 4C’s output as well as shorts in general (particularly when presented in anthologies), so yes Mind Game along with lots of their other stuff is absolutely something I’d want to talk about. The thing is that we always decide on what we’re going to talk about the next week the instant before we say “next week…” and I always forget about it.
The problem with doing a segment on creepy anime is that we would have to actually WATCH it. Given the choice, I would actually rather watch MD Geist and Diatron 5 than that stuff. I remember Keith was saying how hard it is to review Space Thunder Kids–man, I’m missing a lot of the “newer” $1 Wal-Mart releases since all I could find of the new set was Solar Adventure–because it’s one of those things where I think it’s funny because I can recognize the shows they ripped off from, but ordinary anime fans would think nothing of it aside from “well, that’s slightly weird, but it’s a cartoon, so whatever.”
Hey, just like all the jokes in Project A-Ko!
Bump for MIND GAME!
I haven’t listened to this episode yet, but I know I’m already right there with Daryl on the Speed Grapher suggestion. Wheaties – Breakfast of Champions!
PS: Fuck! That only points out the weakness in the subset of my CDs that I’ve copied to my iPod. I’ll have to get on that.
TDK HI-FI! That became a catchphrase in my college club. It was the answer to every question–what’s for dinner? TDK HI-FI! What are you reading? TDK HI-FI! When’s the test? TDK HI-FI! It was the “All Your Base” of our club.
And I remember how our club president was on a first-name basis with the staff of the local Post Office. He didn’t quite have the priveleges to go behind the counter, but the staff would allow him to cut the line, mostly because they knew that he always had exact change, always filled out the forms in advance, and didn’t ever want to buy stamps.
PS: I just want to point out at this time that I am not Shiggy. The thing about pictures of Clarissa cosplaying Tetsujin 28 was just a reference to the episode!
MMD here i can’t seem to login to my own Blogger account again. But is it me or am I the only person that really liked MD Geist…I even bought the comics from CPM it was a quality anime. How can you hate it.
I really think that Clarissa needs to pick her battles here…I understand the OMG EDITS, RAAAGE thing, but:
*This is not an edit that will have a severe effect on the narrative;
*This is not an edit that is un-necessary or debatable, because the content is clearly not all-ages in the US market (the option, other than editing, would likely be to drop the book entirely);
*This is not an inconsistent edit, where similar types of content have already passed with no comment (and will do so in the future);
*This isn’t a case where DH didn’t perform due diligence; this is a case where the content did not exist at the time DH took on the license, and from what little I’ve seen of Exxaxxion there wasn’t much reason to expect it to go where it did.
If DH were, say, editing out every scene that implied that Minnie Mae was a sex freak, that would be one thing. But this isn’t something that’s going to completely wreck the book.
“Just shrinkwrap that issue!” Well…that’s not going to work well, because A: everyone is going to buy it anyway, and B: you’re going to have to shrinkwrap the entire volume that the issue appears in.
Re: Pretty Dictator Café: I would really not be surprised to learn that there is one of these already, where all the waitstaff are early-teen Japanese girls with bleached-blonde hair, dressed as Goth Nazis, and instead of “irrashimasé!” it’s “ZEEGU AIRU!”
Re: Military Uniform Café: Actually this could work both ways. Girls in military-style uniforms are…intriguing.
Re: Sneaking cameras into Moé Burger. Actually, that’s probably part of the attraction for the upskirt-fetish people. After all, it’s that much more tittilating if it’s explicitly forbidden.
I realize that for the people releasing the manga, it’s not such a simple issue.
However, I have a very strong dislike for artwork edits in manga, whether it’s removing panels/pages or altering artwork for whatever purpose.
When I buy a manga, I want to buy the manga that the creator wrote/drew. Not a version of it that a company felt was more “appropriate” for whoever they want to buy it, not a version that they find less offensive. I want the manga.
So I personally have a policy where I try very hard to avoid giving up my rather limited supply of funds for artwork edited manga. *shrug* It’s just how I feel about it.
Text edits are a bit less clear cut, whether I will buy it or not depends on the severity of the edit. There’s stuff that bothers me, like name flipping (where they rewrite the dialogue so that everybody is suddenly calling people by their first name instead of their family name) but I won’t necessarily refuse to buy it for that. Whereas I don’t buy Eyeshield 21 because of constant and heavy language edits that I feel very strongly effect the characterization of one of the major characters.
Also, don’t worry, I didn’t figure you were Shiggy. The Tetsujin 28 thing didn’t bother me as yes, it was in reference to the episode, and also, if I were cosplaying as a giant robot you wouldn’t be able to see me anyway. 🙂
I went to my local Barnes and Noble today to look for Offered, Golgo 13, Lone Wolf and Cub, and Maison Ikkoku. Supprisingly i found Golgo 13 (in shrink wrap), Maison Ikkoku (vol. 1), and Lone Wolf and Cub vol. 10 (in shrink wrap). I was dissapointed that i could not find Offered ;_;. Oh well, i guess ill buy it off of Amazon. While i was there, i bought the Golgo 13 (vol. 1 and 2), Genshiken (vol. 2), Maison Ikkoku (vol. 1) and of course Cruising the Anime City: An Otaku Guide to Neo Tokyo by: Patrick Macias. I will be on the lookout for more Koike stuff and i might find Samurai Executioner and Lone Wolf and Cub. In the meantime i can just sit here and read my manga.
Gerald: I think that I see where you’re coming from, but there’s a difference between “voluptuous” and “man with tits”.
*This is not an edit that will have a severe effect on the narrative;
I’ve gotta disagree with you here, halojonesfan.
I’ve heard the same reasoning trotted out when other sexual material has been removed from products for American consumption: the claim that a graphic depiction of sexual activity adds nothing to the narrative, and / or its removal changes nothing. I don’t buy it. Having sex can be one of the most important things that can happen to a character in a work of fiction. Heck, I’d venture to say it’s one of the two most important developments that can occur, the other being the experience of death. Yet no one complains about graphic depictions of death in manga, or clamors for their censorship…
Removing the objectionable / adult material will affect the narrative. The author / artist wrote and drew those scenes for a reason. Without them, the series is incomplete.
In a way, I feel sorry for Dark Horse. This is probably going to lose them some sales from the hard-core manga-philes out there. I know I won’t buy an edited series, period.
You can’t blame Dark Horse for not seeing the change in content coming; that’s not their fault. You can blame Dark Horse for how they choose to handle it. I think Clarissa has every reason to be upset.
“…the claim that a graphic depiction of sexual activity adds nothing to the narrative, and / or its removal changes nothing. I don’t buy it.”
I figured that this was going to come up, and I really should have addressed it beforehand.
There question that you’re really asking here is “does the sex itself matter, or is it the depiction that’s important?” If it is important that the characters have sex, then the graphic depiction is not necessary. If the graphic depiction is what’s important, then…well, my response to that is to ask what sort of manga we’re reading, and whether that manga is going to lose anything by not having said graphic depiction. It’s my contention that Exxaxxion just isn’t going to lose anything by not showing us the characters getting freaky. (And let’s keep in mind that I’m talking about a specific manga, here, not trying to generalize this to all manga of any type.)
“In a way, I feel sorry for Dark Horse. This is probably going to lose them some sales from the hard-core manga-philes out there.”
Which is a stupid overreaction, because if any American company has been manga-friendly, it’s been Dark Horse.
TOPIC SHIFT ACTIVATION
I agree with Daryl: I just thought that Project A-Ko had funny stuff, but not that it had funny references.
And, interestingly enough, Project A-Ko was the first anime I ever saw that I knew was anime; I happened to wander into the college club’s video room while it was playing, and that was the start of the Long Strange Trip…
I guess the big problem here is that no one has actually seen this sex scene that’s being cut out so we don’t know if the main character has some great revelation during said sex or if it’s just there for no real reason. I mean I don’t necessarily think that depicting useless sex is worse than depicting useless gore, and it may very well be a cultural thing. I have no idea where people are from on this board but it seems that Americans are very much OK with violence and to a lesser extent, gore, than nudity and sex, but that’s a bigger issue.
Perhaps Exaxxion is perfectly fine without said sex scene, perhaps not. I know that the sex scene that was excised from Ghost in the Shell was, ultimately useless except for one small panel after the sex in which Batou punches himself as a way of “crashing” his system since he hacked into a program that required something he didn’t have. But losing that scene doesn’t make a bit of difference to the manga as a whole.
In general I’m against censorship whether it’s against sex or violence, but I think that Dark Horse was in a bad position that didn’t lend itself to a good answer either way.
Which is a stupid overreaction, because if any American company has been manga-friendly, it’s been Dark Horse.
I’ll agree to disagree. Dark Horse has a history of editing manga. Some of these edits (the aforementioned scene in the original GITS, the skipped chapters in AMG!) have been addressed and rectified, but some of these edits have not and likely will not ever be undone. (I’m thinking of 3 X 3 Eyes here.) As such, Dark Horse’s position as being “manga-friendly” is tenuous at best, due to their track record. Sure, they’ve gotten a lot better … but this newest development only indicates that they’ve only come so far.
And how exactly is the mistreatment of one series supposed to be assuaged by the better treatment of other series? It doesn’t matter to you how well Lady Snowblood is being treated if the series that you’re interested in is being abused.
Sometimes you can depict a sexual encounter without being graphic at all: as the characters close in to kiss, the scene fades to black while the saxophone music swells. The next morning they run into each other in the hallway and a knowing look passes between. The girl’s friends comment on her healthy glow. That sort of thing. Tasteful? Perhaps. Subtle? Perhaps.
Better than showing the bump-and-grind? That’s a value judgement, one that completely ignores the intentions of the creator of the original work.
And on what basis can we say that a non-graphic implication of a sexual encounter is innately superior to a graphic depiction of one?
Even the so-called useless cyber-sex scene from GITS had greater ramifications. Sure, there was a pornographic element; that’s undeniable. But the depiction of that scene added nuances to the Major’s character that simply are not there if you take the scene away. It demonstrates her sexual omnivorousness. It demonstrates further her detachment of her personal identity from that of her physical body. Also, Gerald, I think Batou punched himself because the Major hacked into his system and siezed control of his arm.
You cannot remove / alter a sex scene without changing the story.
I’m an adult. I’m allowed to view mature material, if I choose to do so. I want my manga to be translated without the story or the artwork being editted. Why should I have to suffer because Dark Horse is afraid to shrink-wrap / upgrade the rating for a single volume?
Clarissa, Earthian is yaoi because in the 3rd episode the two main (and male) characters were having sex. Also the whole show is about their relation ship to each other and other beautiful men.
Though you may be right if you’re just talking about the manga, which I haven’t read yet.
I’ve been listening to you guys for awhile and this is my first post. I really like your work especially Clarissa. BTW Clarissa, what do you think of Youka Nitta’s works. Especially, Haru Wo Daiteita.
amethist –
See, this is where many American fans very much have the wrong information in terms of BL and yaoi in Japan (actually, about all manga in general).
Yes, Earthian has male/male content. However, that does not make it BL (it wouldn’t really be yaoi, as that’s a designation for doujinshi and the sex scenes within BL manga). It’s the same thing as Yami no Matsuei. Both of those series are indeed shoujo, despite any boy/boy action going on.
The reason for this is because manga classification in Japan is done entirely by publisher (which is divided along target audience lines). Content will often be similar, such as very obvious themes in shonen or shojo, but that’s because naturally certain things are going to work well for that target audience.
But whether you classify something as shonen, seinen, shojo, josei, BL or whatever ultimately has nothing to do with content but is about the publisher.
So Earthian and Yami no Matsuei might have male/male content. But they’re published by shojo publishers–YnM ran in Hana to Yume, a very big shojo anthology, and Earthian was published in Wing Comics which I believe is also shojo. Plenty of shojo comics have *some* male/male content, as it’s something that can sell to that audience if not *too* explicit. But unless it’s published by one of the BL publishers like Biblos it’s not BL.
Also, I recommend picking up the Earthian manga. The OAVs are rather terrible. Ugh.
As for Nitta Youka, I’m definitely a fan. Man, I love me some HaruDaki. I’d own it in English, too, if CPM could get their books to distributers (Amazon apparently couldn’t get books from them). 🙁
“You cannot remove / alter a sex scene without changing the story.”
Okay. This is Exxaxxion we’re talking about here. Exxaxxion, for God’s sake. Seriously. One more time, for the kids in the bleachers: IT’S. FUCKING. EXXAXXION.
Are you really trying to tell me that removing the sex scene is somehow going to damage the narrative of this manga? Ruining it from this point forward? Causing a psychic taint that prevents you from even enjoying the earlier parts of the series?
“I’m an adult. I’m allowed to view mature material, if I choose to do so.”
Oh, give me a damn break. Remember what manga we’re talking about here? Let me remind you: WE’RE TALKING ABOUT EXXAXXION. It is basically wish fulfillment for a twelve-year-old boy.
“You cannot remove / alter a sex scene without changing the story.”
Hey, guess what? I never said that it wouldn’t! I did say that eliminating that scene probably would not wreck the rest of the story. Obviously I don’t have the context (i.e. the rest of the story) but I would really think that it would not be hard to write the sex into the dialogue before and after, without needing to show the ding-dong going into the hoo-haa.
Ultimately, I have to say that I agree with Gerald: There really wasn’t a way that Dark Horse could have settled this matter and left everyone happy. I guess, in the end, the best way to do it would be to do what they did: Present their suggested edits to the creator and get his buy-in. And, to be frank: the creator of the manga approves of the edits. I really think that says it all right there.
Are you really trying to tell me that removing the sex scene is somehow going to damage the narrative of this manga? Ruining it from this point forward? Causing a psychic taint that prevents you from even enjoying the earlier parts of the series?
In a nut-shell, yes. Even if that’s the only thing in the entire series that gets edited, I’d know that I wasn’t getting the real deal, as it was originally created and published. That would ruin it for me. Your mileage may vary.
And, to be frank: the creator of the manga approves of the edits. I really think that says it all right there.
Fair enough. I propose that giving the artist a choice between altering his / her own work or refusing to release it is a pretty crummy choice to foist on someone. Damned if you do, damned if you don’t. I also agree with you and with Daryl that Dark Horse was caught between a rock and a hard place, and was not likely to find a solution that would please everyone. I still think an edit of this kind is drastic, and only should be relied on as an absolute last resort.
The creator going back and tinkering with the product after it’s initial release, whether motivated through outside or internal pressures, usually will not result in a superior product. Look at what Lucas did with Star Wars, or James Cameron did with his Director’s Cuts of Aliens and The Abyss. I think the creator should have the final say … up until the creation is published, unveiled, etc. at which point, the tinkering should end.
I also must admit that I feel like something of an ass for getting all bent out of shape about the edit once I found out exactly what they cut, as apparently the sex scene is pedoriffic and lolitastic and otherwise creepy. :-/
Yeesh, you try and stick up for the artistic freedom of someone like Shirow or Sonoda, and what you end up with is anthropomorphic horse-pr0n and loli-bait. Joy. I guess it’s that whole “I may not agree with what you say…” axiom all over again.
I hate to add yet another “WHAT DO YOU GUYS THINK OF” to your growing pile, but WHAT DO YOU GUYS THINK OF Paniponi Dash? I’m kind of surprised that it hasn’t come up yet, considering the crew’s apparent like of gag/parody shows and love of old shows (well, I only really get that one strongly from Daryl “ANYTHING MADE AFTER 1985 SUCKS” Surat). Haven’t gotten around to watching it? Put off by the pedo character design? Or maybe you did mention it and I’m just really inattentive. Either way, I’d like to hear your thoughts.
As far as Dark Horse – the only localized manga I follow that was put out by them is Narutaru/Shadow Star, and while I don’t mind the edits, I do mind their current release schedule that seems to put the end of the series (they’re halfway done at this point) sometime between 2010 and 2015. so yeah, fuck that.
Last thing – hopefully I’ll be able to make it out to AFO again this year, and I assume you’ll all be in attendance. Any of you guys doing panels? Daryl has to be doing Panel of DOOM, right?
Hey Clarissa,
Thanks for informing me on the discrepencies on the genre of manga.
I heard something like that before, though I did not know that this is the norm. Do you know where you got that information from?
amethist –
The info really comes from a variety of places. Part of it is shopping for manga and seeing the lines along which things are divided. The rest is talking to other fans who live in Japan and/or otherwise know a lot about anime and manga as it is in Japan as opposed to just here.
I don’t agree with them about a lot of things, and some of their stuff is crap, but Aestheticism’s site and especially mailing list have some very knowledgeable people with some good technical information about BL history and current industry.
Hey AWO, you should do reviews on Maison Ikkoku and Urusei Yatsura. Why? Because those shows are some of the freakin best shows that not alot of people today know about. And also because Yotsuya is a freakin badass.
“I also must admit that I feel like something of an ass for getting all bent out of shape about the edit once I found out exactly what they cut, as apparently the sex scene is pedoriffic and lolitastic and otherwise creepy. :-/”
Yes, this is why I keep hammering on the whole “specific” point–because I’m not trying to imply that it’s okay to edit anything you want in any manga at any time, I’m saying that this specific edit of this specific manga is likely acceptable.
Hey Daryl and the gang, since you mentioned it in this last podcast, what about a review of Mellowlink and it’s apparent lost status? I’ve been watching a few episodes I DLed off Bittorrent and it’s cool show.
How about, along with a review of Mellowlink, doing a whole “Men of War” show, where violent manly action with big guns mowing down large numbers of soldiers? You could do a review of Dog Soldier and while Clarrisa could do a review on the Pineapple Army manga. Or what about, instead of Dog Soldier, Grey: Digital Target?!
I HEREBY DEMAND DOG SOLDIER
(And a full review of Mad Bull one of these days)
Hey AWO,
Thanks for reviewing Airmaster!I am quite positivle that I never would have found this show without your reccomendation. Keep up the awsome work, guys!
Holy Jesus, Grey. I thought that I was the only one who’d ever heard of that. I remember Newtype doing it while I was there (and, oddly enough, they were doing Mellowlink at the same time.)
I also remember timing it, in one of the group-timing sessions that they used to have. We got to the scene where Grey and Some Chick have sex. There was no dialogue in this scene. The guy controlling the tape kept saying that he “wasn’t happy” with the timing of the lines before and after the scene, and re-wound all the way though the sex scene at least three times.
Also posting to give props for the recommendation of Airmaster. I blew through it all this weekend and… mostly enjoyed it.
I wasn’t feeling the choreography as much as you guys. WAY too much slo-mo in the first half of the series, to the point where most fights are comprised almost entirely of slow motion shots. Not really what I’m looking for in a show, but Maki herself kept me going through it, stumbling through the boob jokes and the lesbian jokes and the creepy pervert jokes with the hopes and dreams that something better would come of it.
Around the wrestling arc the show really hits its stride, but it looses a little steam during the end of the Rankings arc, where it kind of seems to forget who the main character is, but the last episode was so GODDANG DAMN HELL AWESOME AMAZING that it was worth the price of admission (which, admittedly, was free).
If every fight in the show could’ve been like that last episode then Airmaster would be no-contest the BEST SHOW EVER MADE. As it was, though, it was still a pretty solid watch, much better in the second half when they stopped doing the crappy humor interludes and focused on the high flying beatdowns. Maki was really what kept me interested throughout, though. She’s got ONE fan of her character design state-side, though I’m sure I’m in the minority.
But again, props for recommending the show, guys! Without you it would’ve flown right over my head! Now if only someone would give it a decent release here in the US of A…
Is AnimeJump ever going to be updated again?
I would ask there, but I put in for a forum account…six months ago…and nobody’s replied yet.
The Anime Jump forums registration process is automated. You shouldn’t need to wait for anyone. I’m guessing that your email service must have flagged the confirmation email as junk and so you never saw it.
The next episode is running kind of late. We’ve got all the pieces done, but we need to put them together. Unfortunately, the way time works out, we’ll probably have the next show recorded before we get around to doing that. 🙁 Just so you guys know, there’s going to be a separate bonus download MP3 (that’s like, an hour long) available from the show notes.
Also, Podcast Pickle did clean away all of our fans, so if you added us to your favorites before, please go back there and re-add us!
Poor Dark Horse indeed. As Ko Ransom alluded to, this is lightning striking twice for them after bringing over the Narutaru–computer God alias “Shadow Star”–manga. However, the whole issue ties two entirely separate parts of the podcast and reveals some contradictions if not hypocrisy within the well-adjusted anime fan community. (Cards on the table: the Narutaru anime, a faithful adaptation of the first half of the manga with the greatest opening in the entire history of the universe, is my most favoritest anime of all.)
Cannon God Exaxxion and Narutaru, among other titles, were part of Japanses publisher Kodansha’s Afternoon anthology that Dark Horse licensed to release together as part of its own US anthology, the ill-fated Super Manga Blast. By their nature anthologies are supposed to have an eclectic mix of different types of titles, so they included harmless stuff with potentially wide appeal like the would-be Doraemon “What’s Michael?” So right off the bat they went out on a limb to try to bring the US manga fans more authenticity in the form of distribution than they apparently wanted or deserved. (Yes, I think the panels were always flopped, but supposedly that was common years back when they started it, so I can’t attack or acquit them there.) Within the last year the whole project finally died, for reasons best left explained by someone who really knows about it, such as Carl Horn or Carl Horn.
Anyhow, while I haven’t read Exaxxion myself, I can bet that these sex scenes were merely explicit rather than depraved by their very nature, and I will hazard that they aren’t absolutely critical to the plot, tone, and theme of what seemed from the AWO review to be an honest attempt at a giant-robot manga. It’s understandable to want to edit it so the perfect doesn’t become the enemy of the good, meaning to bring it over as an overall authentic story rather than risk having an ensuing maelstrom of trouble wreck the future of the title or even the whole medium. However, it’s more complicated when you’re dealing with something that’s fundamentally dishonest to the core by design.
That’s how Dark Horse really must not have know what it was getting into with Narutaru, much more so than with this single surprise in a giant robot manga that I think isn’t actually trying to go Eva. Narutaru does for Pokemon what Blue Velvet did for Encyclopedia Brown. The ever intensifying and multiplying instances of [spoilersOHGODMYEYESspoilers] that did and would require editing aren’t some side-story blips, they’re the entire point; what went before was just a perfectly perpetrated ruse. Now you can argue the slightest edit of something like that destroys it–I would disagree, in large part because the TV adaptation is so good because of the way it was adapted by and for the TV network “KIDS STATION” while being extremely faithful to the source material–but beyond that debate there is a need for manga’s self-preservation, something edit-hating fans might want to consider.
And that brings us back full circle to the alarmism about the EVIL OF ANIME/MANGA story. La Blue Girl, bless its heart, is just honest porn (far as I know). If a senator shows Congress that as the representative of the medium, we at least know he’s wrong and just presenting a prepackaged “threat” to serve a preexisting agenda. Now we really “can fuck everything up for everybody else” if anyone out there can find something genuinely mismarketed or over-distributed to children-THE CHILDREN!–that bait-and-switches, pulls a fast one, pick your own cliche.
Every few months the mini-storm brewing over the Peach Girl manga pops back up into the anime public consciousness, and that, as I hear the story, had a portrayal of attempted rape that was the sort of earnest thing you would find in an after-school special, the one that deals with “a very important topic.” Someone somewhere has an interest in drumming these “THE SCANDAL” stories up. If we can lose one-frame gags because people think the Pikachu will give Timmy an epileptic seizure even though he can’t, then it’s hard to overestimate the potential damage one manga or even one critical non-edit could to the people involved or the industry as a whole. If the original creators in Japan can understand this about how it is in America, then that’s probably exactly why they would give permission for the edits. Dark Horse deserves credit for seeking specific permission for edits, and maybe double credit: as I heard it, they got the Narutaru mangaka not just to approve edits but to draw them himself.
I guess the long and short of it is that we really shouldn’t obsess about authenticity and shun anything with the least of edits on one hand then worry about the potential end of the manga party on the other. These two things are connected, as was pointed out in the linked Dark Horse Exaxxion thread that mentions such fun activities as being booked and going to prison.
And so, near and dear as Narutaru is to my heart, it may be for the best that it probably won’t be finishing up over here, at least not in the incarnation that was marketed to a fairly wide audience in Super Manga Blast. Not even David Lynch would get away with putting David Lynch movies in the Sesame Street boxes for long.
Ko Ransom: the reason Narutaru was released slowly was that, at first, they were doing just one chapter or so per issue of Super Manga Blast (which had died before I got the chance to subscribe to it myself). From what I read at Dark Horse months ago, now that the anthology is gone, it isn’t looking good for getting the rest of Narutaru translated and released. If you or anyone knows anything more I’d love to hear it.
Daryl goes:
The problem with doing a segment on creepy anime is that we would have to actually WATCH it. Given the choice, I would actually rather watch MD Geist and Diatron 5 than that stuff. I remember Keith was saying how hard it is to review Space Thunder Kids–man, I’m missing a lot of the “newer” $1 Wal-Mart releases since all I could find of the new set was Solar Adventure–because it’s one of those things where I think it’s funny because I can recognize the shows they ripped off from, but ordinary anime fans would think nothing of it aside from “well, that’s slightly weird, but it’s a cartoon, so whatever.”
That’s very true of things like that. It’s one of those I can get into since I could figure out what they do rip off from, but normal people who wouldn’t touch the “old-school” classics would just say it’s crap! It kinda works both ways.
Interesting thinking of the “porn” scenario that comes into view with the way the soccer moms and other more conservative grown-ups think of the Japanese cartoons and comics that do use explicit themes. Would suck if something does come up like that, and we’d go on the “First Amendment” attack if it comes to it.
Makes me think of how much I admire Howard Stern with what he can do on satellite radio over his troubles on terrestrial. Hearing the “don’t be stupid” from Clarissa reminds me of how it had been in the days when we might discover porn through convenient or secretive ways. Like when I once found a stack of Playboys in a recycle bin, and hid them under my bed! It was the right time and place to find out! My brother was more despeate, having to look into the bra section of a JCPenny catelog. 🙂
It’s still interesting thinking of how uneasy an answer is concerning the editing of the manga you’ve brought up in the news segment. It’s one of those “bang your head against the wall 100x!” type of problems you just don’t know where to turn to.
Love the “Project A-Ko” review. That was one of those I saw early on, and like Daryl, I too didn’t think of it as a comedy much as I was impressed by the action in several places. And much like Daryl, I might’ve saw it first on Sci-Fi a decade ago (must’ve missed out on the Bakshi marathon thingy, but had saw the one with Apollo Smile), though I also had rented it on tape around the time from a nearby video store (albeit, the dubbed edition). It was one of those I really got into and didn’t noticed it was made back in ’86 as it still seemed fresh to me, and the kind of references contained I wouldn’t get until many years later once I saw where they came from.
Can’t wait for the next show!
The problem I see with this whole “Exaxxion was meant for kids so the edit is okay” argument is this:
Exaxxion was serialized in “Afternoon”. Now, I’m no expert on manga, but after looking at some of the other titles that have been serialized in the same compilation (including Parasyte, Blade of the Immortal, Ice Blade, and Blame!) I am led to believe that this particular manga was never marketted as a product intended for consumption by children. A late-teens model seems more likely. If that is the case, the edit strikes me as unneccessary.
I understand that as a whole we Americans are pretty damn backwards when it comes to teaching our kids about the birds and the bees, but if a kid is old enough to watch an R-rated movie without supervision, the he / she should be able to handle a manga with R-rated moments.
You all should just be lucky manga doesn’t have to live under the threat of the Comics Code Authority!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comics_Code_Authority
“Honest porn”? It’s about tentacle raping schoolgirls. What do you consider depraved?
Sorry about that. I didn’t mean honest in the sense of not-depraved, like “make an honest woman out of her.” I meant it in the sense of straightforward, not-deceptive, what-you-see-is-what-you-get.
Your shownotes are a tad long. It should just be a list of interesting links such as the animes you’ve referred, etc.
As for Zipang, it’s not just the localized Japan nature of the premise but the awful pacing of the show. The Seinen audience can only stand so much head talking scenes.
When are you guys going to review something good like Haruhi or Akagi.
Speaking of Girls Who Kick Ass…Muteki Kanban Musume (Invincible Poster Girl) just started airing recently, and the first episode has been subbed. It’s based on the Noodle Fighter Miki manga, and is about a girl who works for a ramen shop, and her ETERNAL BATTLE against the girl who runs the bakery accross the street. How sweet it is.
~Kamon
Nazhuret here.
I just wanted to give a hearty thank you for introducing me to Airmaster.
I have been watching it non stop since the torrent finished. I have to get some sleep for work but I don’t think I’m going to be able to!
This is one of the most all around entertaining series I have seen for quite some time. It has instantly taken a place in my top five.
Love you guys. Keep up the great show!
AWO ,thank you for introducing me to Airmaster. I ended up watching the whole thing in a
week on Crackle, which is a free streaming service. I hope all of you have a nice day and
thanks for being awesome.