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We’re back from Otakon and fighting off coughs and congestion, which is sure to make for fun listening these next few weeks. Clarissa reviews the manga Antique Bakery, Daryl discusses the MANLY CARTOON that is New Getter Robo, and Gerald opines on the limited edition release of Patlabor the Movie 2.
Introduction (0:00 – 31:45)
It’s voicemail time! Carter says what we would have said about the Welcome to the NHK anime, Matt from Queens wants to know what the deal with Oban Star Racers is, and Angel D the Scary Yaoi Fangirl (her description, not ours) has a message that forces everyone to throw down the gauntlet. It has to do with cosplay and what we think of Knight Hunters: Weiss Kreuz.
Let’s News! (31:45 – 42:09)
The bad news is that Suzuoki Hirotaka, the seiyuu for Bright Noah from Mobile Suit Gundam among other things (such as Shachi of the Hokuto Ryuu Ken from Fist of the North Star 2), and Kouji Totani, the seiyuu for Jagi from Fist of the North Star, are both dead. The good news is that there’s going to be more Giant Robo anime next year. No, really. It probably won’t be a continuation of the OAVs, but we take what can get around here.
- ANN’s Page on Suzuoki Hirotaka
- A comparison shot between the Bible Black Japanese version and American DVD (NOT WORK SAFE) (FIXED)
Review (manga) – Antique Bakery (42:09 – 55:50)
Clarissa reviews this shojo title from DMP that is NOT GAY PORN. No, really, it’s not. Well, there’s gay porn doujinshi out there using the same characters that’s also drawn by the original author of this. Man, how do you get away with THAT? Anyway, this is a release by DMP which is stocked next to all the gay porn at bookstores, so if you avoided it because you thought it was gay porn or could be construed as such (doubtful, considering where the growth in the manga market is), prepare to be schooled. Unfortunately, there are apparently no solar hands or Dempsey Rolls in this manga.
- Antique Bakery listing on DMP’s site
- Wikipedia entry for Antique, with more detailed character writeups
- Neutral scanlated one of Yoshinaga’s Antique Bakery doujins, so if you want the great characterization and humor of the series along with the mansex that wasn’t in it, go check it out
Promo: Dave and Joel’s Fast Karate for the Gentleman (55:50 – 56:57)
We met up with Dave and Joel at Otakon this past weekend and went on grand excursions. Listen to their latest episode and hear them talk about how awesome we are. Lord knows you don’t hear enough of that on this show already! Plus if you check the archives of their older shows, you’ll see that they spend multiple episodes talking about…
Review: New Getter Robo (56:57 – 1:16:00)
Daryl informs the Internet about this 2004 remake of Go Nagai’s seminal super robot series. New Getter Robo is a magnificent 13-episode violence epic released by Geneon that nobody bought, presumably because the only way to sell super robot shows in this day and age is to make them like Gravion or Godannar in which there’s equal or greater parts cheesecake fanservice. The hell with THAT. After hearing this review, Gerald flat-out said that this is a series he does not want to see because of this review. The show may very well be good, but Daryl’s review makes him NOT want to watch it. That is the kind of review this is, and the capital of Nebraska is Lincoln.
- Wikipedia’s entry for Getter Robo – very general overview, which really is all you need
- ANN’s entry for New Getter Robo – lots of Harmony Gold alumni in the dub cast; oh hey, Abe Lasser and Tom Wyner are the same person
- Gekiganger 3 – a parody of Getter Robo created as a “show within a show” for Martian Successor Nadesico, it is vastly more entertaining than Nadesico itself
- Kentucky Fried Movie – a film everyone should see
- A thread on the Anime Jump forums that Daryl made two years ago about this OAV – essentially identical to what is stated here; due to spammers, you need to register on the boards to see the thread
Promo: Ninja Consultant (1:16:00 – 1:17:00)
We also met up with Erin and Noah at Otakon. Noah thinks Daryl is a fascist, and alleges to be able to read his mind like it is an open book on account of him being identical to someone else he knows. Daryl thinks clowns might be present in the ATL, but perhaps the worse torture would be to have Noah spend his life with a COSPLAYER. Especially one such as Erin who made a terrifying film right on convention grounds. It’s a good thing Clarissa hasn’t seen this movie…YET.
Review: Mobile Police Patlabor the Movie 2, Limited Edition (1:17:00 – 1:35:13)
Gerald got to this one before Daryl could review it, so as revenge, Daryl has left this segment unedited from what Gerald sent him. That’s showing him! This is one of the best anime feature films ever made and we could realistically have spent an episode talking about this. Also, the anime version of Daryl Surat is in the film. Actually, Daryl saw this film and decided he’d get those kinds of glasses since he already had the hair. He no longer has those glasses. But he will get them back someday, unless he gets LASIK or something. Seriously though, see this film…after you watch through the rest of the Patlabor anime first. Daryl forgot to mention during the recording, but…
- AnimeResearch.com – a site run by Brian Ruh, who wrote a book about Mamoru Oshii’s films entitled Stray Dog of Anime…wow, there was a hardcover edition of that?
- ANN’s page on Patlabor 2
- Honneamise’s official site for Patlabor 2
Closing (1:35:13 – 1:38:49)
Next week, it’s our Anime Festival Orlando report with our special guest, con vice president Erik Reiss! This convention is where THE TRUTH just might have died once and for all. Perhaps. You’ll have to tune in to find out WHY.
No, i wouldnt really recommend Getter Robo. The first episode is very well done. Art, story, excellent, unique, and tragic as all get out. But relationships never develop. There’s really no solid story in it. And that’s pretty unforgivable. It suffers from the same Getter Robo syndrome the other oavs have. Utter fucking lunacy.
Gonzo not screwing up NHK’s animation? Wait till you get to episode 4….
As the other Anon said–watch ep 4… Its all fine until like 8 minutes into the episode and then [[BOOM]] crap……
Man, so GONZO can’t even keep it up for a drama/romantic comedy? I mean, Kaleido Star seemed to have good animation throughout and that was only a show they were contracted to do animation for.
Yeah, I sent that voicemail after episode 2 and the animation quality goes way, the fuck, downhill at ep.4. That said I don’t think that it’s a show that needs great animation.
Yeah episode 5 of Welcome to the NHK seems ok. There were some shady spots and some places where things go off model but nothing compared to the train wreck that was episode 4. Episode 4 was just horrible. It was an oddity to see the characters drawn correctly and most of the time they were pretty far off model.
Oh the joy i feel on the last day of summer break and there is a new AWO. And the great GREAT news that Giant Robo will continue! Even the crappyness of the visuals of episode 4 of NHK cannot bring my mood down. BUT the death of the seiyuu that voiced Noah and Jagi CAN bring me down. Even though Jagi sucks balls, Noah was cool. AND WHERE IS OUR REVIEW OF FIST OF THE NORTH STAR DARYL??? And speaking of Fist Of The North Star, does anyone know where I can dl the rest of the show? I have eps 1-52, but damned if I can find the rest.
Thanks for answering my Oban Star Racers question, gents and lady. I now remembering seeing that promo trailer years and years back, when it was titled “Molly Star Racer.” Looking forward to your report on Otakon. . . I was considering heading down for it, but sounds like I made the right call in staying up here from Fast Karate’s report. Besides, I’m far too casual an anime fan to enjoy it. . . I don’t watch much of it anymore, and pretty much exclusively stay in touch with it via yours and Fast Karate’s podcasts. Keep on rocking in the free world.
It is not accidental that both Gerald and myself have only watched the first three episodes of Welcome to the NHK. It is a long-running belief among us that Gonzo-produced shows practically all display tons of potential within the first three episodes, then like clockwork turn to crap at episode four. More often than not, they do not recover. I think I might have to wait until NHK is over before deciding if it’s worth watching any more past where I’m at.
Getting the first 52 episodes of Fist of the North is actually quite difficult compared to getting the rest. There’s a fansub group named Heart of Madness (it’s a project name consisting of Anime Sky Scraper folks) that have from episode 44 up through episode 96 seeded on their tracker, and they plan to finish the series. They did a fansub of the movie too. As for a review of Fist of the North Star? I get the feeling it’d end up a lot like the New Getter Robo review.
No, I wouldn’t really recommend Getter Robo.
Wait just a second, you left an earlier comment that read “NEW GETTER ROBO WOOT! Except for the ending”! I suspect some sort of powerful joke is at play here especially since I just read your blog, where you have a list of “the worst comicbook movies of all time” in which Batman Begins is number one on the list. You have also included Spider-Man and Spider-Man 2 as well as the first two X-Men movies on this list…
…and it is a Top 5 list.
What was wrong with Godannar? Other than the guy who wanted to screw his sister, and the creepy relationship between the moody loner and the eight-year-old girl, and the fact that Goh is something like 30 and he’s marrying a girl who’s still in high school, and the scene where a female robot pilot grows a dong and rapes her partner, and…well, I guess that’s a pretty comprehensive list. Anyway, I thought it was a fun series.
NHK Episode 4 is truly atrocious, but the actions that are not getting much attention are not very important to the overall storyline. (mostly) Its just going through the motions of what was in the manga. When the end comes with the important reveal, the animation is back to almost normal again. Maybe it just doesnt bother me as much, I dunno.
Also, the manga of NHK is truly amazing, and I play to any and all gods that Tokyopop dont screw it up.
Hmmm, I didn’t notice anything TOO horrible about NHK post episode 3, but I see that’s just me. I mean, it’s nothing like the motorcycle chase, if you could call it that, in the current volume of Speed Grapher (I love the series as a guilty pleasure, though. Reminds me of those early late ’80s, early 90s WAY over the top action movies they would never get away with making today).
Wait a minute, Cosplay is the charisma and wonder of conventions? Hell no it isnt! Its just a mass of irritating attention whoring that can end up ruining your day if some ass with a huge ego and an equally inappropriate costume they made in thier garage thinks that can ride roughshod over your con experience.
If you cant afford to cosplay, then just bloody dont! Just go in civvies and be NORMAL. Or as normal as you can be, dammit.
There is a 1-52 torrent of Hokuto around, it’s just not on HoM’s page.
Thanks to the link Daryl provided, i found the Fist of the North Star:Live Action movie!!! Thanks a hell of alot Daryl. Durring the movie i was contemplating suicide. It was the worst thing i have ever seen. Now I think i understand why alot of people dont like Hokuto no Ken. NO ONE WATCH THIS MOVIE!!! ITS HORRIBLE!!!;_;. BUT i did find the rest of Hokuto no Ken, which is a good thing. Thanks for providing pain and pleasure Daryl.
I don’t know why everyone’s so down on NHK. The animation quality took a dive, but the story picked up.
And by that, I mean it had the “the perfect character” scene.
I guess I might be missing some important bad thing, since I watched it untranslated to avoid the fansub group that replaced us and their strange idea of English.
Also, Japan has cosplay-only conventions, so there’s precedent. Not that their normal conventions have any social aspect to ruin.
http://heiseidemocracy.com/2006/08/14/tokyo-teleport-station-the-secret-world-of-japanese-cosplay/
PS. I found Otokojuku raws, but none are in order except the manga, which has no idea of pacing.
Gerald,
There is no coup in Patlabor 2, only the illusion of a coup de’tat. The senior mechanic whose name escapes me makes mention of that. That’s the purpose of Tsuge’s plot, to demostrate to the city of Tokyo what a wartorn country experiences every day, and he can do that by making the Japanese public think there’s a coup.
I’ll probably need to go into a separate e-mail or make a debut voice mail about my thoughts on P2, because of it’s my favorite film as well and was going through my head when witnessing 9/11.
Enjoying something and recommending it to someone are two different things.
A giant robot anime with zombie fights. It is some high testerone giddy fanboy dream. Not to mention, its got one of the best animation quality i’ve ever seen.
But how are you going to expect NORMAL ppl to sit through it? It gets progressively batshit loony until it practically molests you. Robot Zombies! Fucking Metal hell yeah but story, not so much.
Even if you dress it up by using ‘manly’ adjectives, its not going to detract from the fact that Getter Robo is definitely niche. I couldnt get anyone to watch it. Even the ppl that enjoyed Giant Robo couldn’t get into Getter. You’ve got to be the type of person that enjoys screaming out “Gettahhhhh beam!” along with the show.
Suggestions for your next reviews:
Elfen Lied, Juuni Kokki
And I defend my top 5 worst comic book movies. They are bad. Failed potential sucks.
I think that richard/ mario dun has a point. I love GaoGaiGar with a burning passion, but it’s not something that I would recommend that everyone would watch. At the end of the day, I don’t think that a show where heroism is always stronger than logic is for everyone.
It would be nice to live in a world where everyone loved GaoGaiGar, Getter Robo, Fist of the North Star, Offered, Toxic Avenger IV, and other things that are awesome, but that’s just impossible.
As far as that Top 5 list Daryl mentioned, I will only say this: Batman and Robin is far worse than Batman Begins, and that is a scientific fact. Chill out!
Hm. I’ve only seen up to the second episode of NHK so far. I wasn’t really impressed at all. It didn’t have that extreme vibe that I got when I heard the manga review. But as you said, things were toned down slightly. I don’t think I’ll bother keeping up with it.
On another note, Daryl; there are three Getter Robo titles total, right? Which one was the one that ADV released on DVD way in the early days? I remember the song to that one being really catchy…
And why, why WHY did you have to play that segment from DVD Dojo about Seint Seiya?! I was cringing in pain because of that! But this makes me wonder, wouldn’t it be more effective for american companies to play the openings as trailers, instead of making these half-assed ones? Just a thought.
Let’s see…what to do to make people think differently about animation. The way I see it, that attitude can’t be changed now. It’s something that people were brought up with. The only way that could possibly change, would be if this generation that was growing up right now, had the message “Animation can be serious” etched into their mind. Then, 20-30 years from now, maybe, just maybe, people would be more accepting of animation. In reality, it’s hopeless almost. Of course, there is one other way for people to understand that animation can be serious:
Show Overfiend on WB.
Hm…isn’t it ironic, that when anime first came into America really, it was labeled “Not for kids”? Now look at it, anime is just another kid’s cartoon show.
Not only is AWO the only podcast I listen to, it’s the only news of any kind I listen to. If you could perhaps devote a few minutes at the start of each show to the weather forecast, and perhaps today’s terror level alert, I should feel up to date.
The mention of BELLADONNA makes me think that an increasingly good use of video rooms is to show vintage material. This is precisely the sort of stuff younger fans are less likely to pursue on their own; it’s also a good acid test, perhaps, as to whether an anime truly stands the test of time.
I still remember the 14 year-old I ran into at a con who was a fan of GUNDAM SEED. I asked if he’d had the chance to see the original MOBILE SUIT GUNDAM when it was on the Cartoon Network. He grimaced and said, with all the sincerity of youth, that it was physically painful to watch.
—Carl
(Steve)
This is where the US companies always fail, in promotion. And using OP credits is a time tested way of hooking viewers, because THAT’S EXACTLY WHAT THEY’RE DESIGNED TO DO.
Back in caveman days, it was a regular part of making tapes to throw random OP credits at the end of a tape, because they were fun, exciting, and would give a person a taste for a variety of shows. In Japan, they serve the purpose of hooking a channel surfing kid with flashy animation (which may not accurately reflect the product as a whole) and a REALLY COOL song, that would grab you and make you want to sing along and rush out and buy the single….
Actually, this is one of the areas of anime production I wish I knew more about. I *assume* the song comes first, and the director and staff work up animation to fit, that expresses the core of the show in a minute thirty, but I don’t know this for sure. heck, for all I know the composer gives the producer a ‘click track’ of the key movements and timing of the song to be, the animators put stuff down to match the clicks and the editor works his ass off trying to get it all to conform..
But then a company, let’s say ADV, takes this carefully produced art, this specifically designed creation, and screws with it- adding different animation culled from the series, or funky digital effects or…just screwing with it. and suddenly it loses all its power.
What I’ve long thought would be a good trailer would be take the standard OP credit, that’s usually about 1:30, sometimes 1:45, then do a 1:30 bumper, a quick pass on what the show is about. That would give a nice 3 minute trailer.
But, nobody asked MEEEEEE
(that’s my catchphrase from my sitcom. won’t it make a great T-shirt?)
Thats sad that a 14 year old thought that the original gundam was painful to watch. I remember 2,3 or maybe even 4 or 5 years ago when it ran on adult swim. I was probly 13,14 or 15 at that time. I would stay up all night just to watch it because it was just that good. And i still have this wierd attachment to the dub for some reason.
To use the word acid and Belladonna in the same paragraph is far too accurate. Otakon seems to have an interesting audience since they had viewing room events like a Record of the Lodoss War marathon that people actually sat through in its entirity, and the aforementioned older Tezuka adult work raw as well as the Dynamic Compilation raw too. Although I have the feeling that if this were done anywhere else other than Otakon then it may be a disaster (I have no idea if it’s done in Expo).
I’m actually going to play the devil’s advocate here and say that I can understand why people would have problems watching the original Gundam series. I mean sure it did do a lot for shows at the time, but it’s sort of hard to look at the show today in the same light. I feel that the movies are a different story, but the TV series had too much goofiness and rather useless filler, coupled with very old looking animation, I can see why the 14 year old would look at it that way.
I don’t think SEED has any better a storyline and I’m not sure about the filler (I only watched 13 episodes before I couldn’t take the show any more), but I suppose it at least looks better and doesn’t have some of the goofiness that the original show had. I think they should try to show the original Gundam movies instead of the TV series if they want kids to watch older Gundam.
It’s certainly true that the original Mobile Suit Gundam movies have nicer animation and a more focused narrative than the TV show, but the character designs still look “old” so I don’t think you’d get your average teenage anime fan to care either way. Why, the same can be said for any incarnation of Getter Robo…and Giant Robo, while I’m at it. I suspect that the recent Cyborg 009 and Astro Boy remakes tanked in the US for the same reason. All of those shows are quite well-animated, but they’re faithful to the original character designs, and THAT is what makes people think “this is so old that it’s painful to look at” more than anything. For anime, it’s a sliding scale: years from now, the 14 year-old fans will all be saying that Hisashi Hirai’s character designs are physically painful to look at.
On another note, Daryl; there are three Getter Robo titles total, right? Which one was the one that ADV released on DVD way in the early days?
There have been much more than three Getter Robo titles over the years (Getter Robo, Getter Robo G, Getter Robo Go which is generally agreed upon as being crap, plus the various crossover movies), but as far as the “modern” Getter Robo titles done by Jun Kawagoe (who also did the new Cyborg 009) are concerned, there are three: Shin [True] Getter Robo aka Change! Getter Robo aka Getter Robo: Armageddon, Shin Getter Robo vs Neo Getter Robo, and Shin [New] Getter Robo.
I actually mentioned this in the review because the fact that there’s two 13-episode OAVs entitled “Shin Getter Robo” will undoubtedly confuse people, but ADV released the 1998 13-episode OAV “Getter Robo: Armageddon,” which you can get all of for about $10 after shipping nowadays. “New Getter Robo” is Geneon’s release. Shin Getter Robo vs Neo Getter Robo is not available on DVD in America, but you can download fansubs of it. The sub job isn’t exceptional, but it’s only four episodes long and is not dark or graphically violent like either of the Shin Getter Robo OAV series. Between that and the inclusion of Jack and Mary King with their American super robot, Texas Mack–a cowboy robot that rides a horse named Pasture King and bears a Django-style coffin–it’s probably the best introduction to Go Nagai’s super robot world next to the first five minutes of Mazinkaiser episode 1.
Again, none of these titles tie into one another continuity-wise, so you can watch any of them without having had to see any of the others first. Getter Robo: Armageddon is, however, meant to be a sequel to the original anime series, and so it has no character exposition at all. Fortunately, you don’t really need much.
Go Nagai does not apologize for his narratives being completely bonkers. It makes sense to HIM, and damn it, that’s good enough for me!
Daryl Surat forgets to mention two things:
Shin Getter Robo the first (aka Getter Robo Armageddon) has two opening themes. I imagine the one you’re thinking of, michael en, is Storm by Hironobu Kageyama, but also equally appealing is Ima Ga Sono Toki Da by Ichiro Mizuki.
Also, failing to mention the “way too much high power” cannon is a failing that would, in a perfect world, be punishable by death.
Daryl Surat does not forget, he merely intentionally omits information! Yeah, that’s the ticket. I totally mentioned the “TOO MUCH HIGH POWER MAN” thing, only I did it all classy-like by invoking the name of Django.
But yeah, “Storm” is actually the theme song to Shin Getter Robo vs Neo Getter Robo. The Getter Robo: Armageddon song that Michael is thinking of is most likely “Heats,” the second opening they switched to around the time when they fired Imagawa after the third episode for taking too long. Too bad nobody quite knew what he was building up to with those first three episodes, so the following three episodes or so of Getter Robo: Armageddon are well, pretty weak as the new creative team tries to figure out what the heck to do with the story.
Their solution: the Black Getter. And then all was right with the world. Behold its majesty in obscenely expensive toy form:
http://recca_22.tripod.com/id45.html
Or this slightly more affordable yet still comically overpriced one coming out in October:
http://www.hlj.com/product/AOS09099
I personally would have done a new PATLABOR 2 trailer for the U.S. market, opening with those lines quoted in Show #30 about distance from the battlefield equalling distance from reality: “…this is especially true when one is losing a war.” Since P2 is perhaps the anime film most resonant with post-9/11 America (even though Oshii made it as a statement about Japan), the trailer should be cut to emphasize those elements. You gotta B-E, A-G-G, R-E-S-S-I-V-E, as Faith No More would say, in your marketing; you can always include the original trailer on the disc.
—Carl
(Steve)
Carl, I just don’t know how many of today’s anime kiddies could make that connection, except in the most basic way.
The subtle nature of Japan’s secret fear of the rise of the Military, combined with just a hint of desire for the same (because an ordered society is a safe society, and everyone knows their place just like the old days) is a tough sell. And I do agree with the AWO trio, you gotta know at least SOME Patlabor history to grok P2.
Tell ya, I don’t know how I feel about the two Patlabor movies, and haven’t even SEEN the third. I think I’m just missing something, some connection because they just don’t ‘click’ with me. Maybe part of the problem is, if there was a NYPD Blue movie and the detectives of the 13th only showed up for 5 minutes, I’d think the movie forgot the *point*, ya know? And I figured that Patlabor should be about the struggles and triumphs of SV2, not ‘7 Days in May’ with special guest appearences by…
It’s just me, I’m sure.
I have a question. I was cracking up at the part of the show where they played that old Saint Seiya trailer. I’ve never seen that before and was wondering if someone had a link or something to a place where I can watch it. Thanks for any help with this.
If you think that Saint Seiya advertisement is bad (and it is admittedly pretty bad), it’s not much compared to the old Anime Network ad for Samurai Gun. That was an embarrassment far beyond the goofy crap in the Saint Seiya promo.
Hm…yeah, I think it was True Getter Robo. I’m assuming that it’s the Hironobu Kagiyama song, but jus to make sure, it’s the song that at one point screams out, “CHANGE! GETTER!” Heh, that trailer was on every single Robotech DVD… Good times…when those DVD’s only costed what, $12-15 tops.
Okay, another question; So both of the Shin Getter Robo titles were 13 episode OVA’s, right? Since they are pretty lengthy, how was the release handled in Japan? I know they tend to release only two episodes at a time. Was it handled in a similar manner?
Alright, I suppose I’m about seven episodes late to say this, but why is it, that no one seems to realize that the girl on the Moe Burger photo, is Hisui from Shingetsutan Tsukihime, the H-Game/Fighting Game/Anime? And what’s more, she’s not even a moe character either. But yeah…come on, AWO! I thought you would be able to realize that…
Type-Moon characters definitely, definitely count as moe characters. I say this as somebody who owns more than one Arcueid figure!
That may be true for Fate/STAY Night, but not Tsukihime. Heck, all of the girls have corpses in their closets. Moe is mostly about innocence, and none of the Tsukihime girls are like that at all. If the thought that a girl can either slice you into pieces with a knife, or they’ll drug you in order to make you commit murder, order shoot you with a giant gun that shoots metal stakes, does not seem moe.
Damn…I can’t find any Arcueid stuff at all. It’s a pain to find them in the U.S…
Oh hell, why am I arguing about what moe is… it’s something I’ll never understand.
Well, it ain’t directed so much at the youths, as I doubt they have ninety bucks to spend, or are likely to do so taking a chance on a twelve year-old movie. People today think anime is made by Studio BitTorrent. In my day, when we wanted to steal stuff, we had to do convoluted shit like attaching two VCRs together.
It should be remembered that although P2 may seem out of character compared to the TV series and second OAV series which preceded it, the movie was made based on the positive fan reaction to its “first draft;” that is, episodes 5 and 6 of the original OAV series. In that sense, it was returning to PATLABOR’s 1988 roots.
One reason, by the way, that GUNBUSTER’s success came as a surprise was that so many of Bandai Visual’s resources were going into PATLABOR at the same time; it was the certified “big event” of the year. In any event, of course, both PATLABOR and GUNBUSTER turned out big.
—Carl
Daryl Surat said…
It’s certainly true that the original Mobile Suit Gundam movies have nicer animation and a more focused narrative than the TV show, but the character designs still look “old” so I don’t think you’d get your average teenage anime fan to care either way. Why, the same can be said for any incarnation of Getter Robo…and Giant Robo, while I’m at it. I suspect that the recent Cyborg 009 and Astro Boy remakes tanked in the US for the same reason. All of those shows are quite well-animated, but they’re faithful to the original character designs, and THAT is what makes people think “this is so old that it’s painful to look at” more than anything. For anime, it’s a sliding scale: years from now, the 14 year-old fans will all be saying that Hisashi Hirai’s character designs are physically painful to look at.
I only wish people weren’t that picky over those details. I personally hate to see designs change on something I’ve seen before if that particular title got redone in later years. Seeing something redesign turns me off too much.
There have been much more than three Getter Robo titles over the years (Getter Robo, Getter Robo G, Getter Robo Go which is generally agreed upon as being crap, plus the various crossover movies),
Of these, Getter Robo G got imported in the US was by Jim Terry under the Force Five name “Starvengers”.
but as far as the “modern” Getter Robo titles done by Jun Kawagoe (who also did the new Cyborg 009) are concerned, there are three: Shin [True] Getter Robo aka Change! Getter Robo aka Getter Robo: Armageddon, Shin Getter Robo vs Neo Getter Robo, and Shin [New] Getter Robo.
I actually mentioned this in the review because the fact that there’s two 13-episode OAVs entitled “Shin Getter Robo” will undoubtedly confuse people, but ADV released the 1998 13-episode OAV “Getter Robo: Armageddon,” which you can get all of for about $10 after shipping nowadays. “New Getter Robo” is Geneon’s release. Shin Getter Robo vs Neo Getter Robo is not available on DVD in America, but you can download fansubs of it. The sub job isn’t exceptional, but it’s only four episodes long and is not dark or graphically violent like either of the Shin Getter Robo OAV series. Between that and the inclusion of Jack and Mary King with their American super robot, Texas Mack–a cowboy robot that rides a horse named Pasture King and bears a Django-style coffin–it’s probably the best introduction to Go Nagai’s super robot world next to the first five minutes of Mazinkaiser episode 1.
Thanks for clearing this up further, I think I can grasp it better.
Again, none of these titles tie into one another continuity-wise, so you can watch any of them without having had to see any of the others first. Getter Robo: Armageddon is, however, meant to be a sequel to the original anime series, and so it has no character exposition at all. Fortunately, you don’t really need much.
Just know they kick ass!
Go Nagai does not apologize for his narratives being completely bonkers. It makes sense to HIM, and damn it, that’s good enough for me!
Definately true. An artist’s view of what he/she creates should be fine by their own terms. I guess most out there never see it that way, or expect more out of the artist’s integrity verses the final product.
Well, it ain’t directed so much at the youths, as I doubt they have ninety bucks to spend, or are likely to do so taking a chance on a twelve year-old movie. People today think anime is made by Studio BitTorrent.
That’s probably the best way to put it (also a cute name)! 🙂
In my day, when we wanted to steal stuff, we had to do convoluted shit like attaching two VCRs together.
And we enjoyed EVERY SINGLE MINUTE of it! (I miss those days dearly)
Going off on another thought. I do agree totally with AWO’s thoughts with the way today’s crowd has yet to accept animation seriously enough. I only wish we had something as serious like “Patlabor 2” in animated form if someone had the balls to do it. We just don’t have something like Oshii in the industry who could challenge it with what he might want to see in an animated film much in the same way people would go to a live-action film for.
Apparently, here’s some info on Rob Zombie’s new film I saw over at Cartoon Brew…
http://www.cartoonbrew.com/archives/2006_08.html#002201
“A Scanner Darkly” did got shown in my hometown for probably a week or two, though it was at one single theater, and I didn’t have the transportation or nerve to go see it personally. I’m not too terribly big into the type of animation Linkletter likes to dabble in (rotoscoping), but with the way most in the animation industry have talked about it, I question why wasn’t it done in live-action anyway?
I would agree with those that had responded before in the comments that it would be impossible to change the viewer’s perceptions of animation with the way they were brought up to see it as, but I do have hope that in the decades that follow, that opinion might change with the next generation that follow. I would want to believe that animation could compete equally with live-action if there would be a new band of artists who will come forward with the catalyst needed for the change to occur (Hollywood would always be the hurdle they need to cross in order to do that).
But for now, we’ll just have to wait and see… (sounds too corny a line, even for me)
Screw gay guys and pastries. Manly manliness all they way. All the girls should be drooling over manly men, not gender confused hotties.
Well, the more recent JIN-ROH (it didn’t get released here on home video until 2001) was pretty serious. Although a damn manly film, it’s a film that many women who aren’t into lots of guns, lots of shooting, lots of robots also respond to positively, for its sense of tragic romance.
—Carl
Hilarious episode guys. Is really interesting when I listening to you guys Fight. I know you guys love each othe 😛 .
Upon browsing what little there was of the new Rob Zombie animated movie over at Chris’ link. It doesn’t look like it’s exactly going to change the way America sees animation. Not that I expected Rob Zombie to do some sort of serious, introspective piece of animation, but again, it seems like America can’t watch an adult piece of animation without it being a comedy.
Also, I did happen to sit in on the Samurai Gun trailer at an industry panel at Otakon. While it’s no surprise with a name like Afro Samurai, they seem to be pushing this extremely hard to the black urban demographic (or at least the white kids that wish they were black). Although I’ll hold my thought until I see the show since the initial advertisements for Samurai Champloo made the show look pretty awful (as well as the pretty terrible first episode), while the final show was actually quite good.
Jesus flippin’ Christmas, a Django reference?! Daryl Surat is my messiah. DJANGO, motherfucker! Jesus! Classic!
sorry, a little off topic, but did anyone know about this;
” REL=”nofollow”>Neon Genesis Evangelion: Complete Platinum Collection
A box set in the UK! Halleluia! But I cant afford that crazy money, ugh.
For that terrible Saint Seiya promo (or any other awful DVD Dojo content) you can get it if you have iTunes. Go to the ‘podcasts’ section and you should be able to find ADV’s DVD Dojo in there.
The episode with the Saint Seiya trailer is the April 06 one.
I still think my favorite line is the one about “full frontal manliness.” While naked footage of Misty plays. Indeed.
Well, I might as well bring this up since AWA is coming up within about a month now… Recently, I moved to Atlanta, and I’m more than likely going to AWA this year. So this time for sure! I want to meet my idol; Daryl Surat!
So yes, how should I be able to find you this time? I’ll probably only be there on Saturday because of my parents, who still deny the fact that I’m a lost cause. Also, how is AWA? As in, what is the maturity level, and how bad is the Naruto infestation, etc. etc.
Man oh man oh man, i just got done watching Hajime no Ippo and it freakin ruled my world. Oh well, i could type a large post on how much I enjoyed it but i wont. Ill get right to the point, it seemed like the anime ended pre-maturely. Now here comes my question. DOES THE MANGA EXPAND ON THE ANIME? I want to know so that i can enjoy more people beat the crap out of others with a vengence. Oh well, hope someone will answer this post.
The Hajime no Ippo manga goes far, FAR beyond where the anime ends, but it’s not like the anime shortchanged it any. It’s just that the Ippo manga has been running for sixteen years and counting now. The 75 episodes (plus the specials) of the anime covers up to around the first half of Volume 33 or so of the manga.
They’re currently on something like Volume 77 in Japan, and the scans are caught up with that. The English translated scans of Chapter 742 was just released today. It’s long, but it TOTALLY ROCKS YOUR FACE.
Of course, almost nobody I know likes or cares about Hajime no Ippo because “nothing ever really moves forward.” These same people will then go gaga for One Piece, which I have resolved to not read any more of until they start paying off on the events they’ve built up as “things that will happen in this story someday” which to date, have not.
I like Hajime No Ippo a lot, and it’s really one of the (very few) anime I’ve really made a point of keeping up with over the past couple of years. It’s nice to have a shounen fighting show that doesn’t talk all its fights to death or weigh everything down with incessant, insincere moralizing (Rurouni Kenshin, I’m looking at you right now…).
One Piece’s manga lost me about eight volumes in. I loved the manga up until the end of the Usopp Joins arc, but after that…I dunno, it just fell into the usual “find someone and fight him oh no not this shit again” formula. It’s all fighting and very little, well, adventuring, which doesn’t strike me as a particularly great way to conduct an adventure story. Sure, the fights are clever, but “clever” can only really hold my attention for so long, especially with Viz’s “one volume every four months” release schedule.
At least Ippo is about boxing, so the “fight-interlude-fight” narrative makes perfect sense. There isn’t much a boxer can really do other than fight, train, and live life.
Gerald said…
Upon browsing what little there was of the new Rob Zombie animated movie over at Chris’ link. It doesn’t look like it’s exactly going to change the way America sees animation. Not that I expected Rob Zombie to do some sort of serious, introspective piece of animation, but again, it seems like America can’t watch an adult piece of animation without it being a comedy.
Very John Kricfalusi-esque/Ralph Bakshi-looking figures to boot! But yes, it’s yet another step back for animation to get out of the humor element in the audience’s eyes. Where’s Todd McFarlane when you need ’em? 🙂