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Finally, a normal format episode again! Gerald lets us know all about the uncut version of Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie, Clarissa kicks it old school with My Youth in Arcadia (aka Arcadia of My Youth), and Daryl offers his own unique insight on Haibane Renmei!
Next week is Anime Weekend Atlanta! We’ll all be in attendance; be sure to attend Daryl’s Panel OF DOOM Saturday night, and if you REALLY love punishment, stop by at the Anime Podcasting panel on Sunday morning at 11 AM. Don’t worry, the Waverly offers late checkout.
Introduction (0:00 – 24:02)
We don’t mind that Chris Sabat is the voice of like, every other character in Funimation’s dubs since face it, he’s one of the best actors they got there anyway. We answer more emails here than we got through in the entire last episode, and it seems that a few people are actually watching the shows we discuss! First off, relatively new anime fan Milla writes in to tell us her thoughts on They Were Eleven (reviewed in Show # 5) and Genshiken (Show # 22). As a public service announcement, Daryl reminds everyone that the Television Without Pity forums and website is 90% female, 100% stupidity. Dedicated listener Erwin writes in to tell us about how much he’s enjoying Monster after hearing our review, and the Ninja Consultants need to watch Voltes V. Alex writes in to let Daryl know that he watched Fist of the North Star per his recommendations, not knowing that it’s an anime where people’s heads explode. Clearly Daryl has failed on his mission, so it’s up to Tim Eldred to school us all by talking about how there’s a Roman Album for the first Fist of the North Star movie in what will be a trilogy (plus two).
- ABe’s anti-moe comics (here, and here) – but really all that happened was that fanboys took his advice literally
- Azumanga Kennoh, from Studio ADTRW — they’re the BEST! Around! Nothin’s gonna ever keep them down!
- Front cover to the Roman Album for the new Fist of the North Star movie
- Ice sculptures of Kenshiro and Raoh – thanks to Tim Eldred for scanning these
Let’s News! (24:02 – 35:02)
They’re making four more Evangelion movies. That’s what the modern-day Gainax does best: coast along on the glory and reputation of their previous successes. Works like a charm, seeing as we spent 11 minutes talking about just this. But who knows? Maybe they’ll surprise us and shut down the fanservice aspect of Evangelion once and for all! And then go bankrupt. Again.
Promo: Weekly Anime Review (35:02 – 35:36)
After a lengthy summer hiatus, Aaron is back and he’s hitting on all cylinders with reviews of Angel’s Egg, Castle of Cagliostro, and…uh, Speed Grapher. Fine, so someone else mailed him the Angel’s Egg review, but it’s not like WE’VE done a review of that, now have we?! Why the heck is that? What is it we’re talking about that’s so much more important than Angel’s Egg, huh?!
Review: Street Fighter II the Animated Movie (uncut) (35:36 – 56:55)
Oh. Man, if this keeps up, we won’t be able to keep pretending to have the anime intellectual high ground when the other anime podcasts are continually beating us to discussing Wings of Honneamise, Tezuka’s experimental short films, Angel’s Egg, and so on! And without that, we’re nothing, you hear me? NOTHING! Be that as it may, Street Fighter II is probably the best of the “fighting game to anime” adaptations. Not like that’s exactly hard, but hey.
Review: My Youth in Arcadia [Arcadia of My Youth] (56:55 – 1:21:36)
Clarissa struggled hard with this one, knowing full well that Captain Harlock is one of the most iconic characters in all of anime and that she’d better do him justice. Of course, despite being one of the most iconic anime characters, we guarantee you that if you showed most anime fans a picture of Harlock and said “who is this guy,” they would not know, so now you know the reason why this segment had to happen. This ran pretty long, so all the bits about Daryl talking about how Leiji Matsumoto is still really mad about World War 2 have been excised because they were irrelevant. In its place is even more audio from the Ziv International dub. A vast improvement if ever there was one.
- Corn Pone Flicks’ Harlock page
- Wikipedia entry for Arcadia
- Arcadia on Deep Discount (looks like the cheapest price)
- Torrents for Space Pirate Captain Harlock TV
Promo: Blood, Crack, and Anime (1:21:36 – 1:22:39)
Wait, did he say “in a world fermented by jaded oldschoolers”? It’s a bit hard to hear him over “Invoke.” Wow, how many anime podcasts have been started thanks to the Anime Pulse podcast’s forums anyway? Anyway, “One Sin” and “Saito-chan” (real names unknown) have released two episodes (plus one Gundam SEED karaoke) so far, so let them know what you think! We actually haven’t written them back yet ourselves, but GAAAAAAH OH CRAP ANIME WEEKEND ATLANTA IS IN SEVEN DAYS
Review: 
(1:22:39 – 1:40:52)
Daryl reviews one of the most beloved “slice of life” anime series of the last five years. A lot of people are super-duper fans of this show, and lots of them listen to this podcast. This will go well.
- Reki’s Imco lighter – I believe the model pictured is the Imco 6700 Super: you can use Zippo lighter fluid with this and even disassemble and reassemble it while having it remain lit
Closing (1:40:52 – 1:43:45)
Next time, in an effort to imbue humor to a man who has none (due to his heritage, you see), Gerald will be reviewing Cromartie High School. Is Cromartie funnier than Gerald is dull? TIME WILL TELL! Clarissa continues on the ABe route–the two capital letters in the name is assuredly a pornstar name gimmick waiting to happen–by reviewing the much-requested Serial Experiments Lain, and Daryl realizes that he’d better justify that press badge by telling everyone THE TRUTH about Metrocon 2006 before Metrocon: Amano’s World happens later this year. Oh, who are we kidding? THE TRUTH doesn’t justify anything.
First post, w00t!
Listening to the podcast now. I can’t wait for the next podcast. Cromartie, Lain, and Metrocon; it’s gonna be pretty sweet.
I’m loving the fact that Daryl included a link to Reki’s lighter. I don’t own a single poster, plushie, wallscroll, or other ancillary anime-related “crap” (sorry to those who are into that – it just isn’t my bag). However, after watching Haibane for the first time, I bought a whole box of those lighters from eBay.
Damn you, ABe, for ruining my finely crafted “dispassionate anime fan” facade.
Keep up the great work, guys.
Great ep guys. Hey Daryl, how bout a Zeta Gundam review? I recently finished the series (THE DUB!) and really enjoyed it, except for the ending. And I know that everyone loves Char, and whoever dosent like him is a bad person and should not watch Gundam at all.
(Steve)
man, do I HAVE to defend the Ziv Harlock tape AGAIN?!
Why can’t people see that there’s a clear difference between the two of them, the first one that’s sexy and beautiful and a decent dub with a cast of good voices and some care in the production, and the second one that was a contractual rush job, a piece of crap that was crapped out to fulfil a commitment for product?
But no, but no, they get lumped together and mocked as if they were the same thing ha ha. GRRR.
The first Ziv tape, the one with Episodes 1 and 9 of Space Pirate Captain Harlock, I contend could have easily been as famous as Star Blazers for it’s love and care, if they had produced the entire show for syndication like that.
Of course, I REALLY don’t think they would have gotten the constant killing of women on air, even by constatly calling them ‘plant-bots’ or something,I doubt that would have flown with station Standards and Practices…
Good episode, and your HR review and veiled making fun of CannonFodder are actually almost error-free!
(“haibane” is “charcoal feather”, not just the color, and I think Old Home is supposed to be an abandoned dormitory or something)
I’ll look forward to the Lain review, but maybe Lawrence Eng will want to kill you then. If you want to stick on the CRAZY PHILOSOPHY topic after that, I’ll recomend Kino’s Journeys again.
Also, those guys in the second promo should stop muttering into the microphone so I can hear a single word they say.
Last time Steve went…
man, do I HAVE to defend the Ziv Harlock tape AGAIN?!
Why can’t people see that there’s a clear difference between the two of them, the first one that’s sexy and beautiful and a decent dub with a cast of good voices and some care in the production, and the second one that was a contractual rush job, a piece of crap that was crapped out to fulfil a commitment for product?
I can tell the difference personally, but I haven’t seen the FHE tape other than for one episode on the “Malibu Graphis” edition that was out of sync (who could’ve f__ked up that one), but the voices in that felt more dead-on IMO than for the other two episodes that make you go “What were they thinking?”.
But no, but no, they get lumped together and mocked as if they were the same thing ha ha. GRRR.
At least episodes 1 and 9 weren’t tainted by Mark Mercury’s Casio antics outside the theme song!
The first Ziv tape, the one with Episodes 1 and 9 of Space Pirate Captain Harlock, I contend could have easily been as famous as Star Blazers for it’s love and care, if they had produced the entire show for syndication like that.
If ZIV had more balls they could’ve tried harder pushing for these shows to get aired in syndication, and perhaps stations like WKBD-TV in Detroit or WPIX in New York wouldn’t be hesitant to air Captain Harlock where kids like me would watch it, and want to go trick or treat in a Harlock costume every Halloween, besides asking for another round of “Gumby” (ZIV also had a backlibrary of early cheese like “Space Angel” and “Spunky & Tadpole” that probably get shown by Jerry Beck in his “Worst Cartoons Ever” screenings).
Of course, I REALLY don’t think they would have gotten the constant killing of women on air, even by constatly calling them ‘plant-bots’ or something,I doubt that would have flown with station Standards and Practices…
True. Were would still be screwed either way by the BS&P of the day.
D, Good job on the Haibane Renmei review. One thing I found surprising about Haibane was its ability to trigger deep emotions. I think the slice-of-life approach that the early episodes took was part of what gave it that punch. It reminded me of the work of one of my favorite film directors, Werner Herzog.
I just want to caution folks who heard “it’s by the same guy who did NieA under 7.” This show is nothing like Niea. It is not a comedy. It shares a lot more (in my opinion) with Lain.
Finally, regarding unresolved questions: I think the show says (in effect) that we should just accept that some questions won’t be answered for us. Instead (and I’m referring to the episode where they go to the library) it is up to us to come up with an answer for ourselves.
Thanks for playing my promo. I should really make a new one since that one is pretty old. Looking forward to listening to this episode. Haibane Renmei is such a great show, I’m curious to see what Daryl has to say about it.
Arcadia of My Youth could have been five minutes long. To get the entire meat of the film, all they would have had to do was show that scene where Harlock boards that other dude’s ship, shoots the bad guy in the face in cold blood with his laser-sword, and flash a black screen with giant, yellow block letters that say: “DON’T F*CK WITH HARLOCK.”
Seriously, I wanted to enjoy Arcadia but between the sympathetic depiction of the Luftwaffe and the anti-American sentiment that boils up from practically every scene, the movie became a pill I just couldn’t swallow.
CORRECTION:
There WAS a rated version of the Street Fighter II anime movie. PG-13 rated, actually. I’m not sure what they cut to get it down to that point, but I seem to recall hearing they just removed some of the cussing and more violent bits. And Chun-Li’s boobs, natch.
Aw, man, I don’t want to beat up on Clarissa, but…geeze. I like her, I like her voice. I approve how/why she was named. I bet we’d have a great time hanging out.
BUT.
One more time.
THERE IS NO CONTINUITY when it comes to Harlock. None. None whatsoever.
Even the obvious connection between the movie My Youth in Arcadia and the TV series My Youth in Arcadia: Endless Road SSX, isn’t continuity. Right in the first episode they show an *alternate* naming of the Arcadia, with Harlock doing the honors.
Lordy, Matt did such a better job than me on pounding home this, and Clarissa even references the pages, and STILL we get “this takes place before Space Pirate” and RGH!
And I’d like to note that ‘Tochiro’ is actually a nickname, his name is really ‘Oyama Toshiro’
My Youth in Arcadia got made because the two Galaxy Express movies did pretty good at the box office. If anything, the *intent* would be for MYiA to be a prequel to the first GE999 movie, and we can assume that Earth is in such shit shape due to not recovering from the Illumidas war before the advent of the Machine People.
IF THERE WAS ANY CONTINUTITY, WHICH THERE ISN’T.
*pant pant pant pant*
Well, the reason I said “takes place before Space Pirate TV” was not because of specific continuity–because I mentioned in the review that Matsumoto just kind of writes whatever he feels like at the moment and nothing really agrees–but because that series is to me the major core Harlock thing and Arcadia is obviously the “origin story.” I didn’t mean to specifically imply that those two inhabit a coherent continuity with one another.
Actually I thought I had said that original Harlock TV and Arcadia didn’t match up in spots, but maybe that got edited for time.
Also, I know that Tochiro is a nickname, but he’s called that a good bit plus it’s how I generally think of him and, given that I already had to edit out a bunch of stuff and still didn’t get around to a hell of a lot of things, I didn’t think it was vitally important to say “Ooyama Tochiro, but that’s actually a nickname and his real name is Toshiro.” Maybe I was wrong, but…
Man, this is why I knew anything Harlock was going to be a terrifying disaster to attempt.
arrggh.
Not trying to bash you on the review, Clarissa. I was referring to the part where you were mentioning Tochiro first showing up and introducing himself and you did say ‘oyama tochiro’…
Here, just for you, Pinky Harlock!
http://page.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/90131336
Ah, no problem.
Sweet lord that Harlock figure is so adorable. *has a girly moment*
Needless to say I was touched too! That thing is SOOOO DAMN CUTE!
Hi guys, another great show. I wanted to comment on Daryl’s thing about Hong Kong films being butchered by Miramaxe and the Weinsten Brothers in general. For the most part I agree, and a couple weeks ago I would’ve agreed completely. The thing is that I saw the American cut of Tom Yum Goong and for the first time ever believed it to be an improvement. The thing about that movie was it was needlessly long with subplots that either didn’t made sense or didn’t contribute to the “story” which was also terrible. The Weinsten version cut out about half an hour and brought it down to the bare essentials of the main storyline and I think it’s better off for it. I don’t remember the original music but for the most part I thought the new music worked well too. Though the music they used for Ong-Bak sounded like it came from a cheap royalty free music company.
That being said, I still hate seeing Quentin Tarantino’s name in front of all these movies he had nothing to do with. And also the end of “The Protector” has this stupid voiceover which you realize not too long into it is the elephant talking about Tony Jaa’s character, WTF?
I don’t know how you defined “HK Action movie” but I don’t think you should put Tom Yum Goon and Ong-Bak in the same box. Hong Kong is Hong Kong and Thai is Thai. It’s like grouping Hollywood with Bollywood or Manhwa with Manga.
I could swear I went out of my way to say “Asian action movies” since I ABSOLUTELY know that Tony Jaa movies are from Thailand, but after the editing maybe that ended up coming out weird. Anyway, there is no way in Hell that I am taking even one step back on this one: the “Protector” cut can go screw itself. Forget the name change, the lame dub, and the totally redone music: they cut out the part where the elephant actually went through the window AND the part where he used a freaking Segway to make good his escape!
The thing about that movie was it was needlessly long
God damn it, can’t people realize that this is EXACTLY what goes through the minds of every single person/studio who’s ever done a total hatchet job edit to things they actually care about? Right alongside “say, we can make this movie even BETTER than the people who made it”? Where exactly do you draw the line on this mentality?
Fearless was originally two and a half hours or so. They cut about 45 minutes out by removing Michelle Yeoh’s scenes from the movie…and deleting an entire fight scene even though that fight was really short. And that was for its domestic release! One can only hope that the US release doesn’t cut it down even further than that.
It’s no wonder studios continually get away with chopping out 30+ minutes from these movies, renaming them, rescoring them, and not offering any uncut editions (and most of the time, not including the original audio). I guess the fanbase overall is just perfectly happy with what they get, because “oh, it’s only a dumb action movie, why do you even care?”
Just like “it’s only” Saint Seiya/Hokuto no Ken/One Piece/etc. Why do we even care if these things get cut to ribbons? After all, they’re just dumb shonen action cartoons for 12 year-olds, right?
It may be important to recall that Hollywood is *always* cutting and trimming and chopping movies for arcane and foolish reasons.
It’s easy to forget in light of releases such as Titanic and Lord of the Rings, 2 and a half hours or more, that directors are still under the thumb of the studios, just the same as it’s been since the ’30s.
Focus group testing, studio head whims, ‘conventional wisdom’ (such as kids WILL NOT watch a movie over 90 minutes long, when the truth is if the movie is GOOD they’ll watch it no matter how long it is, as it true for anyone), the realities of the mechanics of the theater multiplex (longer movies mean fewer showings per day),secondary market uses, etc.
Most of which is utter bullshit, a continuing example of a non-creative person/persons forcing themselves onto a creation, justifing their existence to the studio machine by enabling these things.
It’s really no different than the US anime companies picking up a title and deciding that it’s only going to sell if they rip out the original music and change all those annoying Japanese names to ‘Dirk Niceguy’ and the like.
But we know that dance, huh?
As for the elephant talking at the end of the movie, that’s not true. I’ve had this argument with people already. It was the Thai cop doing a voice-over. People keep getting confused because the Thai cop is dubbed in English in some scenes, and left in Thai in others, seemingly at random. Because the elephant is visible in the scene and the Thai cop is off screen doing narration, people assume that the elephant is speaking. That’s simply not the case.
I stand with Daryl on this one. Weinstein and company take their machetes to these films because they assume an American audience is too stupid or too impatient to appreciate them in their original, intact forms. This sort of wrong-heading thinking results in “The Protector” being nigh-incomprehensible in terms of continuity. Some would argue that the story of a martial arts movie is merely a vehicle for getting the protagonist from one fight scene to another, and that therefore making cuts doesn’t hurt anything, but I am not one of those people, and Hollywood has no business attempting to “improve” upon someone else’s vision.
Sadly, I have to defend the Hollywood machine for a moment.
Of COURSE they have the right to chop and gut a movie. They bought the rights, it’s theirs to do with as they please to hit their target demo. And the Thai company was only too happy to sign off on it for the money.
It’s not RIGHT, but it’s legal.
According to Hollywood, Crouching Tiger was a hiccup and Chow Yun Fat didn’t have any ‘legs’ for bridging the gap from HK to ‘Wood. The only sure-fire profit center is the ‘urban’ market, and since they’re all zoned out on weed ANYWAY who gives a flip about plot or continuity or story?
Daryl et al are NOT the target demographic, they’re an annoyance. but fuck you very much for the $14.99 for the DVD anyway, SUCKA!
Believe you me, after 8 years of reading about the various markets, i’m about ready to take a flamethrower to the whole town, ya know?
It’s kind of interesting how so much of the discussion I’ve ever seen concerning Haibane Renmei is focused on the particular mysteries of the story’s universe, because I found myself merely accepting them and moving on, because I simply didn’t think they were necessary to understanding or appreciating the series. Not that I wasn’t ever curious, but I didn’t spend massive amounts of time trying to contextualize the storyline.
I guess it’s just a natural extension of most fans’ desire to know as much as they can, as well as our culture’s obsession with knowing all the times, dates, and details of an occurrence. But it’s still kind of interesting to observe.
I might suggest that the fetish of fans of Haibane Renmei to focus on place and space instead of the characters and story is due to the design of the show itself.
It LOOKS like everything is supposed to have DEEP MEANING, because that’s his style. So it’s natural for the fans to try and pick on such things.
Plus it lets people dress in vaguely 19th century clothing with stupid little wings on their back. *shudder*
It’s like Kino of Kino’s Journey. It seems that the face she’s female was supposed to be a huge secret thru most of the show, supported by the advertising and dialog that firmly avoids the topic, using only her name and never a ‘he did’ or ‘she thinks’. Go ahead,read the old promo material. Kino’s sex was disguised.
BUT NOT ON THE NEW BOX SET COVER.
That’s a sweet little bottom she’s got going on, holding two guns and all…
I don’t know where I’m going now. I’m just ranting.
Steve Harrison said…
It may be important to recall that Hollywood is *always* cutting and trimming and chopping movies for arcane and foolish reasons.
It’s easy to forget in light of releases such as Titanic and Lord of the Rings, 2 and a half hours or more, that directors are still under the thumb of the studios, just the same as it’s been since the ’30s.
Focus group testing, studio head whims, ‘conventional wisdom’ (such as kids WILL NOT watch a movie over 90 minutes long, when the truth is if the movie is GOOD they’ll watch it no matter how long it is, as it true for anyone), the realities of the mechanics of the theater multiplex (longer movies mean fewer showings per day),secondary market uses, etc.
Makes me think of how classics like Nausicaa and Galaxy Express 999 had been handled the first time around due to such concieved practices! Boy those were the days!
Most of which is utter bullshit, a continuing example of a non-creative person/persons forcing themselves onto a creation, justifing their existence to the studio machine by enabling these things.
It’s really no different than the US anime companies picking up a title and deciding that it’s only going to sell if they rip out the original music and change all those annoying Japanese names to ‘Dirk Niceguy’ and the like.
Lord knows we’ve seen this done again and again!
Sadly, I have to defend the Hollywood machine for a moment.
Really? 🙂
Of COURSE they have the right to chop and gut a movie. They bought the rights, it’s theirs to do with as they please to hit their target demo. And the Thai company was only too happy to sign off on it for the money.
It’s not RIGHT, but it’s legal.
We have to remember that, it’s their bed, and they have to lay in it!
According to Hollywood, Crouching Tiger was a hiccup and Chow Yun Fat didn’t have any ‘legs’ for bridging the gap from HK to ‘Wood. The only sure-fire profit center is the ‘urban’ market, and since they’re all zoned out on weed ANYWAY who gives a flip about plot or continuity or story?
That sucks, and I actually paid good money to see that in a theatre with subtitles! (the theatre sadly no longer exists, as National Amusements feels the need to force all of us to go some miles south to a “dollar theater” that also plays indie flicks in, but I find it a lame thing to do since it eliminates yet more venues I could take advantages of in the north, but NA has already ruined my town about 3X over anyway so I don’t give a shit what they do anymore since I hardly go see a film at all these days).
Daryl et al are NOT the target demographic, they’re an annoyance. but fuck you very much for the $14.99 for the DVD anyway, SUCKA!
Yep, that’s what they’d be doin’!
Believe you me, after 8 years of reading about the various markets, i’m about ready to take a flamethrower to the whole town, ya know?
I might as well just scratch ‘Wood off my list of places to do biz at personally, I just can’t understand it!
I might suggest that the fetish of fans of Haibane Renmei to focus on place and space instead of the characters and story is due to the design of the show itself.
It LOOKS like everything is supposed to have DEEP MEANING, because that’s his style. So it’s natural for the fans to try and pick on such things.
If it’s one thing I’ve always felt I enjoyed about watching a film (either animated or live-action), is the element of observation. Anime like “Megazone 23 pt. 1” often present the viewer in this concept where you start off not knowing a whole lot about the world the characters are in, but once you get to the end, it starts to make sense (or just screws you over big time).
I find watching films like that very interesting as it raises questions or answers them in a timely fashion I can take note of. Though I haven’t seen it before, Haibane might be up my alley in terms of it’s world setting and the plot contained.
Plus it lets people dress in vaguely 19th century clothing with stupid little wings on their back. *shudder*
I just hope if I do die someday, that’s now where I’m going to wind up in! 🙂
You bastards got Mr. Dandy stuck in my head.
About the jacket included in the forthcoming $200 Eva box set, and the suggestion that anyone who would spend that much for a jacket has to be insane…
Uhhhh…well…I spent that much on a Z Gundam leather jacket at Anime Expo in ’98. It’s still one of my favorite anime collectibles. I even wear it from time to time.
Therefore, I’m insane. Wheeeee!
-Tim Eldred
PS: There was also a Macross Valkyrie jacket for the same price, but I didn’t think it was nearly as cool.
sub said: “You bastards got Mr. Dandy stuck in my head.”
Me, too. I was working in the library the other day, and in between the aisles I was quietly singing “Hey, Mr. Dandy! / Hey, Mr. Joy…” to myself ALL DAY LONG. (-_-)
Today is Akira Kamiya’s 60th birthday, and on that note, I suppose I should mention that the upcoming release of Souten no Ken (Fist of the Blue Sky) that–along with the release of Raoh Gaiden on DVD–comes out in October will not feature him as the voice of Kasumi “Yan Wang” Kenshiro, despite the fact that he was Yan Wang for a Fist of the Blue Sky audio drama made in 2002.
Koichi Yamadera is Kenshiro this time around. Most people probably know him as Spike from Cowboy Bebop, Togusa from Ghost in the Shell, or Kaji from Evangelion. Apparently he was Plucky Duck in the Japanese dub of Tiny Toon Adventures.
Not really my first pick for voicing Kenshiro, but I suppose that he does have experience as far as being a replacement voice for iconic characters: he’s the new voice of Captain Harlock as well as Duke Freed. For years I thought Makio Inoue was dead, but then I realized that both he and Goro Naya are asleep/hibernating/dead except for a few moments every year or so, when they need to record voices for a Lupin the Third special. You know, like The End in Metal Gear Solid 3.
Oh, the other thing about Fist of the Blue Sky: Yasuhiro Imagawa’s working on it. The power of Giant Robo combined with that of Fist of the North Star? SIGNED.
Oh, Gerald emits anti-girl rays too…
The problem with pinning down a Banjou Ginga role that *everyone* will know is that a lot of his roles tend to be pretty small ones, especially in more modern anime. He’s had small roles in Cowboy Bebop, Escaflowne, Ranma, One Piece, and Noir, as well as many of the various and sundry Dragon Ball series’ and movies. Probably the only role of his that the kiddies would be very familiar with would be the fat scientist in Eureka Seven.
And you were right Daryl, he was in FFVII:AC as Reeve, who doesn’t actually appear in the movie (he leaves a message on Cloud’s answering machine). Pretty amazing that you knew that off the top of your head. 😉
For reference: http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/people.php?id=1669
Samurai Champloo does indeed have a roman album, and all I know is that it was scheduled for release in “September,” so it will be out soon if it isn’t already.
~Kamon
i order you three to do wolf’s rain
Yes, I agree, please mercilessly tear Wolf’s Rain apart. 🙂
~Kamon
If it’s one thing I’ve always felt I enjoyed about watching a film (either animated or live-action), is the element of observation. Anime like “Megazone 23 pt. 1” often present the viewer in this concept where you start off not knowing a whole lot about the world the characters are in, but once you get to the end, it starts to make sense (or just screws you over big time).
This has got to be one of the stickiest things to do in any creative work, and it tends to fail more often than not. Maybe it worked out in Megazone 23 (lord knows the first movie was the only one halfway watchable), but the trend for such things is an overwheming “no thanks” from me.
Take, for example, the recently released Rule of Rose for PS2, a horror/suspense game with suitably creepy atmosphere but no real story to speak of until the last twenty minutes of the game, where it all gets shotgunned in your face like some lame M. Night Shamylan montage after you find out that the village where Bruce Willis lived was populated by aliens whose key weakness just happened to be the most abundant material on our planet.
In the cases of atmosphere, a little goes a long way in most cases and if you can’t time your crucial reveals that the world is “OMG NOT WAT IT SEEMS!!” so that it all doesn’t burst through the dam in one big gout at the end… probably better to go another route.
But Megazone 23 was okay…
Dave,
I know this has been a bone of contention in previous discussions involving Megazone 23 and its sequels, but in defense of Megazone 23, Pt II, I only have three words to say:
Umetsu Doggy Style. (^_~)
I know this is of limited value across the board, but to me the number one Banjou Ginga role is easy to pick out: Rochina from Armored Trooper Votoms. If life was fair, everyone would know that.
-Tim
OMG that Azumanga Kennoh was soooooo funny! I love you guys for putting the link up because before that I only had the cover.
A couple of thoughts.
First, regarding film lengths: Where have you guys been? In the last 3 or 4 years (probably since Lord of the Rings) Hollywood movie running times have been getting unbearably fucking long. Jesus Christ, I thought Munich was never going to fucking end.
Pirates of the Carribean II was way too long (and terrible, but that’s unrelated), and a bunch of other big Hollywood movies are pushing 3 hours or even OVER that mark. Whyyyy? Make it stop.
I still don’t condone editing someone else’s movie on artistic grounds of course, but I am also completely fascinated by compilation movies, whether brilliant (the original Gundam movies) or terrible abortions (I still have no fucking idea what was going on in the Turn A Gundam movies and I don’t care enough to watch the show).
Also, Megazone 23 Part 1 is one of my favorite animated films ever, despite being a little too long. It captures the “I’m out of school, I have my first job, maybe I’ll go to college, maybe not, but right now I’m going to blow all my money on partying and girls” stage in life in a way I don’t think anyone else has really pulled off.
Everything I say after this is full of spoilers, so if you don’t want a 20 year old OAV spoiled, stop reading.
And the “omg we’re in in spaceship controlled by a computer!” thing is a really funny metaphor for adulthood and maturity rearing its ugly head.
Part 2 is a much more straightforward, less complex “blow stuff up, omg doggystyle!!!” affair, but I still like it. I appreciate that Shogo attempted to be an adult, failed, and ended up concluding that the problem is the world needs a different sort of adult is interesting.
I’ll probably talk about it on the podcast I’m eventually going to release once I get stupid Internet back at home…
ginrai wrote:
Also, Megazone 23 Part 1 is one of my favorite animated films ever, despite being a little too long. It captures the “I’m out of school, I have my first job, maybe I’ll go to college, maybe not, but right now I’m going to blow all my money on partying and girls” stage in life in a way I don’t think anyone else has really pulled off.
I’ve been through that life the longest!
Everything I say after this is full of spoilers, so if you don’t want a 20 year old OAV spoiled, stop reading.
And the “omg we’re in in spaceship controlled by a computer!” thing is a really funny metaphor for adulthood and maturity rearing its ugly head.
And to think it all started with a rad bike!
Part 2 is a much more straightforward, less complex “blow stuff up, omg doggystyle!!!” affair, but I still like it. I appreciate that Shogo attempted to be an adult, failed, and ended up concluding that the problem is the world needs a different sort of adult is interesting.
I felt that was the message they were coming across with (still wasn’t too nutty with the change in production staff and all that).
I’ll probably talk about it on the podcast I’m eventually going to release once I get stupid Internet back at home…
Love to hear that when it comes out!
I’d like to say that even though I still prefer the american cut of Street Fighter 2 (for me,”Blind” will always be that movie’s ending theme) editing is, in most cases, traumatic to a film or TV series. Warriors Of The Wind, FOX’s Escaflowne, Sony TV’s Samurai X, the list goes on. However editing can improve a film: consider what happened when James Cameron put all the footage he wanted back into Aliens or Kevin Smith with Mallrats or Clerks.
And I 100% agree with Daryl on the the HK action movies, I mostly refuse to buy DVDs of them unless an uncut version is offered (though name changes do not bother me) and The Protector was cut was crap on a stick.
As a fan of and writer about, for night these twenty years since first I became a man, a number of film genres that all too often find themselves the receipients of generous American-studio editing and reorganization, it’s become at this point a topic I almost can’t bear to talk about and instead face with a resigned sigh as I wander off into the desert to punch someone so hard it makes their head inflate and explode.
In the particular case of Tom Yum Goong — what’s really awful is that, honestly, it’s a pretty awful and incomprehensible film in its original format, with the saving grace being the action scenes and the fact that a giant bodyslams a baby elephant through a goddamned window. The Protector cut, aside from confusing people who remember The Protector as that awful film where Jackie chan teamed up with Danny Aeillo, is that they even butcher the fight scenes — to say nothing of working a miracle by making a completely nonsensical plot even less sensical. How can you be more nonsensical than “totally nonsensical?” Well, they managed to do it.
The rise of DVD, the internet, and multi-region DVD players has done a lot to assuage this, but unfortunately, rather than looking at the domestic market for foreign DVDs as an example that maybe people WILL watch a subtitled, or at least uncut, version of a film, they instead see the import DVD market as a threat to their own severely edited, dubbed, and rescored abomination.
Thanks to a handful of DVD companies and a couple vocal and influential critics (say what you will about Roger ebert — he is one of the main reasons some of these films ever get released in their original format), it’s not nearly as grim as it used to be, but it’s still pretty awful when a major film studio takes an interest in a film (aka Tom Yum Goong or Fearless) and rather than being a blessing, it simply means fans are going to be shafted yet again. I’d rather the major studios take no interest at all, and leave the films for smaller, more respectable niche companies.
And really — I don’t like Tarantino either, but if plastering his name onto the front of the credits is what it takes to get a film released uncut and subtitled, I can deal with that.
And you know, as a long-time fan of kungfu films both old and new, I’ve met my fair share of black film fans, and you know what — they all prefer original scores and uncut films, too, over butchered versions with gratuitous hip hop shoved into every scene. That these studios ever think “we need to sell this movie to black people! Let’s put more hip hop in it even though it’s set in 19th century China” is ridiculously offensive.
At least they stop short of things like digitally putting Jet li into blackface.
Okay, I agree that people in America (and especially the movie industry) make too much of the 90 to 120 minute rule. In fact one of the great things about Anime (whether OVA or TV series) is that they have the time to properly tell an interesting story. But One Piece?
I tried watching the first 60 or so episodes of One Piece, but about half of each episode was a recap of the previous episode, and the other half was just going to be shown again in the next episode. Even skipping every other episode doesn’t help, because so much of what is left is recycled still shots of everyone’s jaw dropping.
If there was ever an argument that cutting footage can make a better product it would have to include One Piece.
I haven’t actually heard this week’s episode yet, but I’m pleased to see you apparently spend some time discussing Chun-Li’s tatas. Most people focus only upon her generous backfat. Ham hocks and collard greens, her thighs are lookin’ mean.
—Carl
I pretty much agree that Fatal Fury OVAs and Movie and the SFII Movie are the best of the fighting game anime genre. However, I thought the Darkstalkers anime (Nightwarriors: Darkstalkers Revenge which is based on the second game of the same title) is also good even if you don’t know anything about the Darkstalkers/Vampire series.
The best videogame based anime imo is Gungrave. Maybe its because the game is a mediocre arcade action game and they made the anime and fleshed it out more although there were some changes from the game in the 2nd half of the show for better or worse.