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We’re officially over the hill. Can you believe we’ve been babbling for 40 episodes? Daryl–whose gain level introduced lots of static whenever he spoke–reviews the semi-obscure 1980s film The Dagger of Kamui, Gerald reviews the quite obscure 1980s TV series Future Police Urashiman, and Clarissa gets the ball rolling with Part 1 of our Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure review.
Introduction (0:00 – 33:28)
We didn’t get a whole lot of responses regarding the state of your local anime clubs, but we did get a few, which we read here. Shocking as it may seem, there are some people out there actually taking our recommendations to heart and enjoying what they’re watching, and so we read one letter from a male MIT college student (Chemical Engineering major…wonder if he was able to finish reading Orion?) and another from a female middleaged…not a college student. Our listenership is DIVERSE! Here now is a picture of what those evil Bostonians do to their fair city:
No wonder people from Boston were portrayed as evil in that totally lame Call of the Wild anime. Hey wait a second, Daryl’s originally from Boston! Also, the winners of the Full Metal Panic: The Second Raid Vol 1 giveaway are announced! Thanks go out to Funimation for donating the prizes.
- Patrick Macias interview on the Mistakes of Youth podcast
- Patrick Macias on Japanese TV discovering THE TRUTH about Gothic Lolita
- Geek Comic! Anime World Order Show 39 Doujinshi – Daryl is drawn to look like Kenshiro and Clarissa is drawn to look like Clarisse from Castle of Cagliostro
Let’s News! (33:28 – 42:04)
Koichi Murata and Ken Ishikawa are dead, people. Who’s going to protect us from moe now?! For those who bought the newly recently Lupin the Third movie/TV special compilation that Funimation released, it accidentally contains an edited version of The Secret of Twilight Gemini, and unlike those jerks at Bandai who won’t swap out Zeta Gundam DVDs, they’re letting people exchange their edited discs for the unedited one. Oh, and check out the upcoming Gunbuster DVD set. In the “huh, how about that” department, Death Note isn’t actually the most popular new anime of the season since twice as many people are watching Onna no Hataraki Man. Not like Japanese popularity translates to US fan preference, but hey. Finally, ADV’s licensed Sergeant Frog, presumably in the hopes that it’ll be another Excel Saga for them. Here’s hoping they don’t let Steven Foster dub it. Or anything else ever.
Promo: Dave and Joel’s Fast Karate For the Gentleman (42:04 – 43:11)
As heard in the beginning of this episode, Dave has graciously offered to host AWO if Daryl hosts Fast Karate. One dare not imagine what would result if Dave, Joel, and we were all gathered together in one podcast.
Review: The Dagger of Kamui (43:11 – 1:00:40)
Daryl tackles this one, as it was one of the first anime he ever saw in his formulative teenage years. This is a theatrical animated movie about ninjas. REAL ninjas, not those Ninja Scroll/Naruto weird dudes who claim to be ninjas. It also contains pirates, cowboys, Indians, quasi-zombies, Mark Twain, and multiple bears being chopped in half. Very special thanks go out to Michael Minnott for providing us with the OST to this film, which has been out of print for decades. Sasuga Books managed to track it down for him, so check them out even though their dealer’s room booths at anime cons stock the gay porno right next to the regular artbooks.
In this picture there are forty ninjas. None of them can be seen. In this film we hope to show YOU how not to be seen.
But unlike the ninja which Michael Dudikoff and Carl Weathers would face off against, these ninja know how to LOOK UPWARDS and attack in swarms. Mr Ninja, would you stand up, please?
This demonstrates the value of not being seen. Face it, they’re in black ninja outfits; they’re meant to be fodder. Didn’t you people ever watch WMAC Masters?!
Okay Devious, don’t move! The Bishop…Tenkai! He’s the one on the left, and Jiro’s on the right. Told you he was big.
Jiro’s got the touch. Jiro’s got the power…YEAH! Yes, I’m done with the worn-out Flying Circus references. What can I say? I just got the DVD set.
This is what modern anime is missing: people being cut in half lengthwise. I think more people get cut in half lengthwise throughout this one film than in the entire history of Mortal Kombat tournaments.
With this kind of cinematography, I don’t think anyone will have trouble realizing this movie’s from the 80s, which for Japan is more like the 70s for us. Then they were stuck in the 80s for a while, then skipped the 90s entirely. Pretty good strategy when you consider how comicbooks turned out thanks to the 90s.
This is what Gerald means when he mentions in the next segment how Kaneto Shiozawa built his career off of voicing beautiful men. The “Unicorn Power” shirt I plan on buying is less flaming than that. GET IT? FLAMING? CAUSE THERE’S FIRE ON…eh.Promo: R5 Central (1:00:40 – 1:01:40)
Actually Mike, most people I see pronounce GAIM as “gee aim,” but any excuse to make Tomino references and throw in songs by MIO is welcome around these parts. Not like anyone here ever really cared about Heavy Metal L-Gaim in the first place…
Review: Future Police Urashiman (1:01:40 – 1:21:27)
Here’s a show that was somewhat popular among American anime fandom in the very early 1980s, and since “the 1980s” is what Gerald loves most (but wait, he’s never seen any of the Rocky movies, not even Rocky IV!) (Actually Gerald HAS seen Rocky and Rocky III), he takes the plunge and reviews this 52 episode series, which ranks among one of the most obscure titles we’ve covered. It’s not licensed in the US, the DVDs are out of print in Japan, and nobody ever fansubbed this show, not even in the VHS days. So how will people ever see this show? Well, we’re going to put some episodes up on BitTorrent, albeit with crappy Hong Kong bootleg subtitles. Watch this space. Oh yeah, what we said about Koji Morimoto being a protege of Katsuhiro Otomo? That wasn’t quite right since Morimoto was working prior to collaborating with Otomo…on this show. And The Dagger of Kamui. Then again, Tugboat was Hulk Hogan’s protege and he was wrestling prior to that, but we’d rather not remember that dark time. We’d rather remember the glory days of the Shockmaster instead.
Promo: The Greatest Movie EVER! Podcast (1:21:27 – 1:22:16)
We said last week that something had to be done to straighten Paul out. That something has happened, for Daryl has guest-starred on the latest episode. Appropriate background music has been added to this promo to illustrate this fact. WE FIGHT FOR LOVE!
Review (manga): Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure, Part 1 (1:22:16 – 1:49:41)
Buckle up, folks. After months of putting it off, Clarissa’s thrown the gauntlet down and started on what will be a series of parts dedicated to reviewing the single longest shonen fighting series ever. And one of the gayest. But also one of the most awesome and violent due to its being heavily influenced by Fist of the North Star. At least the story is pre-broken up into about seven parts (to date); this review is for Part 1 of the manga, “Phantom Blood.” Like all long-running manga, the artwork and storytelling haven’t quite hit their stride at this point, but at the very least, it lives up to the name.
This is Joseph Joestar. Observe the beginning of Araki drawing people in weird poses. Also the clothes are a bit strange for Victorian England, but just FYI this is nothing compared to Araki’s fashion obsessed nonsense later.
This is Dio Brando, and by the way he would like you to note that he is fabulous. The first clue to his being evil is when he kicks Joseph’s dog upon meeting him. Worse things will happen to that dog later. This is another ongoing thing with Jojo’s: animals (also Italians) never fare very well. I think Araki might have had a traumatic experience at the zoo when he was young (I’ve got no clue what’s going on with the Italians).
You can tell that Dio’s a vampire now because 1) he makes that screeching WRYYYY sound (yes, it’s spelled about four different ways throughout the manga, so all those people arguing about how many Ys are correct should shut up) and 2) he sucks people’s blood. As you can maybe see, even though they have fangs vampires in Jojo’s drink blood through their fingers. I don’t know why, I guess biting wasn’t weird enough.
For the heck of it, here’s the trio. That weirdo Zeppeli (the one Gerald mentioned as having only one facial expression) is in the front, Joseph in the middle, and THE INTERFERING SPEEDWAGON smirking at his idol in the back.- Wikipedia entry for Jojo’s.
- Stars & Heroes is a pretty good fansite, though some areas aren’t up (like the CLAMP/Jojo page, unfortunately).
- Phantom Blood PS2 game official site. I haven’t had a chance to play this, and it’s made by Bandai instead of Capcom like the previous games, so it might suck.
Closing (1:49:41 – 1:53:29)
Next time, and by next time that’s later today for us, Daryl is continuing his trend of reviewing shows with strikingly unique art styles by talking about the 2004 series by Studio Gonzo, Gankutsuou: The Count of Monte Cristo. Does the “Gonzo Syndrome” apply here, too? Gerald’s got a manga review of Voyeur and its followup, Voyeurs Inc. by Hideo Yamamoto, author of Ichi the Killer as well as Homunculus which Clarissa reviewed way back in Show # 10. Speaking of Clarissa, she’s going to review what just might be Studio Ghibli’s best movie, and it’s not even one of Miyazaki’s: Omoide Poro Poro, better known as Only Yesterday. Thanks go out to Eeeper from the Eeeper’s Choice podcast for sending the three of us the Region 2 DVD release of the film after we complained about how they played it on Turner Classic Movies but didn’t release it on DVD yet in the US.
That story about the anime club members thinking the Daicon IV animation was a ripoff of FLCL has given me a headache that may last the night.
Urashiman! Now there’s a classic. Rented and watched it ages ago dubbed in Swedish. It’s known as Rock ‘n Cop over here, btw.
I…..won?
Huh. That never happens.
Or to quote Duke Togo: “…….”
Thank you very much!
So, Urashiman. Been a LONG time since I’ve thought about that show, yeah, there wasn’t a whole lot of discussion about it ‘back in the day’. Only stuff I recall is that Ryo Urashima was a police officer back in the ’80s, he DID know who he was when he time slipped to 2050, it’s just that everything was so different he was lost and confused by events. IIRC NeCrime,the Asian branch went under the title ‘kristallnacht’ (often mis-translated as crystal knights or night-when you watch the show ‘broken/shattered glass’ makes MUCH more sense) was a worldwide org and not totally secret.
Who did the chara design? I’m pretty sure this person did StarzanS and Zillion…
Oh, you want obscure? StarzanS. One of the funniest shows I’ve ever watched.
Sorry Steve I’m taking you to town on that. HE DOESN’T know who he is at all, in fact that becomes a really big point of the entire show is him finding out who he is and what he’s all about. And are you sure you’re not confusing Necrime with the armed baddies they hired as those were called Crystal Knights in the show? Necrime was a secret organization in the same way the mafia is a secret organization, so not really that secret, but the called themselves secret.
The character designer was Takeshi Nakamura who I mentioned in the show whose designs were characterized by more realistic faces and general appearances. Makes me wonder what he was thinking going from those designs to the Fantastic Children designs.
Welp, you watched the whole thing, Gerald, I only saw a few episodes (one being about the last ride of the Bullet Train), and what I saw was ‘fish out of water’ stuff from Ryo, not ‘who am I?’ stuff. Now, trying to wrap one’s head around being timeslipped 70-some years into the future COULD be quite unsettling, I don’t doubt. I know if I grabbed 1966 me and brought him, er, me to today he, er I would be utterly confused about what happened to all the places I loved…
I don’t have much on Urashiman, just one mook and a handful of anime mag inserts. My Japanese isn’t anywhere good enough to spot ‘memory loss’ in Ryo’s chara bio.
OTOH, I’m pretty sure on the kristallnacht thing. Given the way the organization chart is put together, I’m fairly solid on this. On the gripping hand, it’s only one book, there’s no mention whatsoever in any of the insert booklets.
Bah. I need more books.
I’ve watched the first episode of Hataraki Man. Looks good, with a strong female character and a very realistic setting. The only thing that troubles me is that the main character needs to get into some kind of Man-mode so she can work faster. I hope this is explained later in the series. It’s an odd choice for Moyoco Anno, the original female creator, to make.
when will you be ready for Fist of the North Star? Ken will know when you are ready, and then he will find you.
Ken will know when you are ready, and then he will find you.
Also, just hope that when Ken does find you, you aren’t sporting pink shoulder pads or a mohawk.
I was listening to the podcast on my drive home from work, and the first thing I did when I got home was check if my Lupin III: Twilight Gemini DVD was the edited version. It didn’t take me very long to find out. How’d I know?
IT’S DUB-ONLY
I’ll be emailing FUNimation shortly.
E. Bernhard Warg
Otakon Classic Track
Anime’s Frank
Jonathan Joestar is TEH BESTEST! ^_^
Wow,this was a pretty good show. I will make sure I get the movie that Daryl review, I will also download Gerals’s obscure show. Clarissa did a good job reviewing jo Jo’s
And by the way
Happy Thanksgiving Guys 😀
Continuing my thoughts…
Dagger of Kamui is one of the most visually interesting anime films ever. It goes places no other movie have even attempted since.
Rin Taro’s use of motion is just fantastic. I didn’t think about it the first time I saw it, but it snuck up on me. Every Single Scene, there is *something* moving. A flicker of flame, a whisp of smoke, blades of grass, even something as subtle as a lock of hair. The entire film is motion. And the *timing* of the motion is superb. The scene where Jiro is leading a ninja squad in attacking Tenkai’s estate…
It’s somewhat abstract looking, but not so much by today’s standards. In the ’80s it was like a punch in the face from Mr. T.
I need to grab the AnimEigo DVD, all I have is an old 4th gen tape copy and the uncut Best Films dub ‘Blade of Kamui’, which is GLASS ON THE BLACKBOARD my GOD the most dull acting EVER!
My only problem with Dagger of Kamui is that it just doesn’t know when to end. It just keeps going and going and going, like the Energizer Bunny, until even my interest in the story-line dies.
Ah the curse of the North American only contest strikes again. What is quaintly silly about it is that all the online DVD sellers will happily ship to outside the US. As evidenced by my R1 Serial Experiments Lain set, R1 Cowboy Bebop set and R1 Planetes set – to name but a few.
It is one of the things that people outside the US always find bemusing. The US is the leading proponent of free market economics yet it also seems to be the country with the most protected and restricted marketplace in many ways.
On another tanget it seems sad that the movie industry doesn’t seem to be learning from the DVD experience and is wishing to force the same region restricted bull on us again with the new Bluray and HD-DVD formats. I would have thought the convenience of being able to manufacture and encode content once for the world over would have been a boon given that they know the region restrictions will be broken within a year of the players becoming mainstream. Guess industries are just slow learners…
Philip
http://www.khantazi.org/
I don’t see the links to the Urashiman episodes…
Because Daryl hasn’t spent enough money on Hokuto no Ken yet…
http://www.cdjapan.co.jp/detailview.html?KEY=2007CL-210
“One dare not imagine what would result if Dave, Joel, and we were all gathered together in one podcast.”
No.
But one man… this man… dares to dream.
Sweet I won :p BTW just checked the latest batch of fansubs 11-25. Someones finally subbed 009-1. FINALLY! Now if only someone would pick up Fist of the blue sky, i’ll be a happy camper this season.
Someone’s doing 009-1? Finally! I’m off to go bittorrent it right now.
Thanks for reading my e-mail and mentioning my voice mail. I shouldm mention some of the details about that moment a bit more. One that was encouraging, the other which was simply spirit-crushing..
1. At least one person enjoyed Macross, asking me how much the series cost, and if it was worth picking up(Of course I said yes).
2. Before even showing it, another student came up to me, saying that the only good Macross, was Macross Zero.
Urashiman seems very interesting, and I’m going to definitely check out a few episodes.
“the only good Macross was Macross Zero”
……..
The only thing that keeps my head from exploding is the knowledge that the person who said that never had a chance to see Macross II, and throw that out there as best Macross ever..
WOW. Dagger of Kamui… I loved that movie. One of the very few anime my local video store happend to pick up. I didn’t have (still don’t) any knowledge of an anime club in my area, but I had 2 vcr’s. I taped everything I could find. I haven’t seen Dagger of Kamui in 5 or 6 years but I’ve seen it a dozen times.
Haven’t had a chance to listen yet, but I just wanted to chime in that I still find it ab-so-farking-lutely hillarious that Dagger of Kamui was paired with the action packed thriller (/sarcasm) “Bobby ni Kubbitake”, aka one of the most beautiful pieces of art-anime ever.
And Macross Zero…does not exist past episode one. Macross II does not exist past a few songs (including Valkyrie ni Notte). Everybody knows that the best Macross (besides DYRL) is 7, because that’s the one Mikimoto wanted, dammit!
the torrent won’t play on my computer…. what program do I use for it?
Do we have to dismiss any Macross just to make a point? I can remember being heartily sick and tired of the first TV series once, and I was prepared to throw it out, but I came around and now I like it again.
Anyway, there are things I like about the Macross movie, Macross II and Macross Zero. None of them are perfect, but neither is the original. It just seems like whenever a bonehead steps forward to crown one of the descendants, there’s a rush to slam said descendant as worthless even if it’s unwarranted.
I think we’d get along much better with the Naruto generation if we could resist our instant urge to shit all over things they like just to feel superior. (And before anyone leaps on me for this, I admit up front that I am not without sin here, as well.)
Isn’t it entirely possible that if there was a vocal anime generation that came before ours (that crowned all the 60s shows) we’d think them fossil-heads for shit-bombing our party? If we’re going to be the self-appointed ambassadors for quality, we ought to act like ambassadors and not barge in with contempt for the locals.
The kids who labeled Daicon a FLCL ripoff, though…they need to be taken out and caned.
-Tim
Where is the FPU torrent at? Has it been made?
The Future Police Urashiman torrent has been posted, you can find it on the front of this entry at the top or just click here.
Except they shit on us first, you know.
The endless “Oh, I won’t even think of watching that, it’s OOOOOLLLDDDD!” crap.
All things considered, Saint Seiya should have been a HUGE hit here. Even with the craptastic DIC dub. the Prettyboy look should have grabbed all the Gundam Wing fans, the fighting (and extended fights) should have interested some of the core DBZ fans, but no.
Because not only was the release poorly handled, it was old. I’ve heard that time and time again, as if anime has an expiration date.
Thanks Gerald, Ive been much anticipating this.
“Except they shit on us first, you know.”
I’m not quite convinced of that, and here’s why…
If person A (the elder) asks person B (the younger) if they’ve seen a certain show and person B responds that it’s too old, person B is not shitting on person A. Person B is judging the show person A is holding up for review.
If A takes this personally as a judgement call on himself and declares B to be a butt-munching moron, then person A is shitting on person B and the conversation is over.
I think this is how we tend to respond most of the time, and who can blame us since we came up through the hobby feeling like we’d never be understood.
If, on the other hand, A takes B’s statement as a judgement call on the show in question and sees it as an opportunity to educate, THEN person A can assume his/her rightful place as an ambassador of quality.
I’d like to see us do this a little more often, remembering that we too were ignorant before someone took the time to enlighten us.
That being said, I still hold to the belief that if butt-munching morons could fly, there would be no sunlight.
It’s more to do with the fannish personality than the generation of the fan: just about everybody does that whole “jeez i can’t believe you’re into THAT” business. Regardless of who started it, we’d all probably be better off without it.
Jeez, though. I can’t believe people are into (name current popular moe series). I mean you’d have to be–
Clarissa, “(Boku) Patalliro” is floating around Ebay raw and bootlegged, but lacking even a box or any kind of art – hardly making it worth the 50 or so dollars that the seller wants for it. I wish there WERE an HK, but so far I haven’t seen anything. The good old HK bootleggers didn’t even finish the job they started on “Yakitate! Japan” even though the subs were pretty decent. They stopped at Part 2 (which is around episode 40, I think.) I know everyone hates HK, well, most everyone, but some of us want to watch unliscensed anime away from the glow of our computer screens without having to torrent and subsequently burn hundreds of fansubs.
I know everyone hates HK, well, most everyone, but some of us want to watch unliscensed anime away from the glow of our computer screens without having to torrent and subsequently burn hundreds of fansubs.
I know this isn’t everyone’s cup of tea solution, but I have a video out on my video card (as do most video cards today) and I can just plug it into the “in” on my TV or receiver or VCR, whathaveyou, and I can watch the fansubs on my television. Although in my particular situation, I’ve gone with a X-Box Media Center which is the best damn reason to own an X-Box today since that can play pretty much anything you throw at it.
One of these days, I tell myself, I’m going to finally shell out for the REAL DVD of the Mazinger movies.
I’m not sure I actually believe myself.
One of these days, I tell myself, I’m going to finally shell out for the REAL DVD of the Mazinger movies.
I’m not sure I actually believe myself.
Well here in Ireland you’ll pay anything from $49 to $55 for Mazinger….
Per Volume.
beautifully made site. Very informative.
Thank you Gerald for the torrents 😀
Ah, yes. The wonder that is XBMC has allowed me to watch fansubs on my television for a couple of years now. As underpowered as the original Xbox seems now, XBMC is an amazing piece of software. It’s a shame that Microsoft refused to realize the true potential of their machine and release their own software instead of forcing folks to resort to chipping their consoles in order to tap its true potential. The problem is that Microsoft wants you to use their formats only. They’d never allow legitimate software that would be so open and play so many formats.
How I love my XBMC.
On to another topic.
I am a Young Adult Programmer at the busiest library in the state of Kentucky. I started an anime club a few months ago and have had really good luck in introducing the teens to stuff that they won’t see on Cartoon Network. My secret is that I attempt to show things that can be directly connected to the programs they watch now. For example I showed METROPOLIS as a modern film, but then told them all about Tezuka and showed a couple of episodes from ASTRO BOY and KIMBA. I introduced a bunch of them to LUPIN III with CAGLIOSTRO and tied it into SPIRITED AWAY and PRINCESS MONONOKE. Most of them have been really open to new things once they realize that the programs that came before have had a direct influence on the anime of today. Not all of them, sadly, but a good many of them. I think we, as old farts, just have to legitimize their fandom whilst filling them in on how their favorite shows came to be. It’s worked for me so far.
Great show, guys. I look forward to every episode.
Because i’m WAY TOO DAMN LATE to respond to the previous two shows, I’ll have to make my points clear and conscise as possible in a very extensives and long-winded comment right now!
(besides, I just had to go vist my mom at the hospital today after succombing to an illness a few days ago, she could just barely recognize me coherently and I only hope for the best, and so should YOU)
Anyway, for the Fall Season suppliment…
Being reminded of a few good places I would buy manga from that had carry some titles like Phoenix and Buddha, but sadly some had to close up (like Media Play) and I lost interest to buy books in town unless I don’t happen to see it on the shelves. The internet kinda ruined the pleasure I had in buying stuff in town as opposed to getting it easy online.
Hearing so much about Gonzo and the reputation they have in the works they do, it sounds like they only really work as long as they have a story to work from than to make it up on their own.
Being reminded someone did a silly “Lone Wolf & Cub” spoof using a familiar American cartoon figure I don’t mind sharing here…
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v298/PeppeRaskell1/lonewolfpopeye.jpg
(make what you will)
I know a few people who could sympathize with what Gerald had to say about an anime feature being stuck in the “animated feature film” category for the Oscars. Often many would rather see an animated film competing in the “Best Film” along with the usual live-action counterparts (of course we had a few Ghibli films that were entered for consideration in the “Best Foreign Film” as well).
After hearing Daryl blaming Disney’s Robin Hood for starting the whole anthro/furry thing couldn’t be far from the truth. I was 7 when I first saw the film coincidentally from it’s initial VHS release (also to hear of that one rabbit in the film who mentioned turning 7 on his birthday). And yes, I think that film drove me to that fandom too easily as well, I contribute to “Rowrbrazzle” for instance (someone’s gotta keep that APA afloat).
Being reminded the movie just got re-released on DVD last month, in a special edition release that really doesn’t have much to offer the previous DVD release had, besides a supposive alternate ending that made me go “what ending posed a threat to the studio that required the need for the ending we have already?”
http://www.ultimatedisney.com/robinhood-mostwanted.html
The whole film wasn’t too terribly great on it’s own, borrowing heavily from westerns and sticking animals into the equation. Not to mention the recycled animation from previous Disney features that was used in several places like the one dance sequence that ripped from Snow White, Jungle Book and such. The film would be the first produced without Walt Disney there to at least OK the project (the last film for him to do so was The Aristocats I’ve read), also one of the final films the “Nine Old Men” would helm before retiring some years later. More info about what I’m talking about can be found here on Wikipedia…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robin_Hood_(1973_film)
Nice to see Daryl had Sci-Fi Channel that early in ’92 or so. Where I’m at, my cable company bothered picking up the channel around the summer of ’94. The only catch though was that we had to pay extra for it. Two other channels offered in the mix include WGN and Flix. While I can understand the extra payment for Flix, I wasn’t sure why we had to for WGN at all, and it’s only a shame I never saw WGN during it’s pre-Syndex days when it was still a local station being carried nationally via satellite. I missed out BIG on Bozo. 🙁 Now it’s just like any other cable channel on the dial with hardly much to offer past the syndicated repeats. The Syndex rules really killed the SuperStation phenonenum I so tried to enjoy in the 80’s…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syndication_exclusivity
Getting back to SciFi, I wish I was lucky to have saw something like that as well. I had to find out about anime around the same time via magazines or heard a blurb about it on the news and so forth (usually about how these were “cartoons for adults” or “This is not your typical ‘Cabbage Patch Kids’ saving the universe!” Being already in high school at the time, I was rather intimated to get into it full time, what with my college-prep route and still being underage to pick up some of those tapes in the few nook and cranny places like the local Camelot Records at the defunct Northtowne Square. Boy the stories I can tell of that point in my life when the only uttering of Japanese cartoons was the guys who called me “Speed Racer” in school for running through the hallways to my next class.
After hearing of the new shows to check out, Code GEASS, Bartender, Pumpkin Scissors and Souten no Ken would be up my alley (and I’ve read the Souten no Ken manga when we still had Raijin Comics, oh GOD I would love to tell you more of the pain and suffering I went through when that mag was still in publication, and the withdrawls thereafter, once I can figure out the mike jack on my custom-built PC, I hope to make that a possibility).
I tried watching “Kanon” and realized everything Clarissa said about it was utterly true and painful. This is the part of anime I hope to distance myself away from totally, but it’s so hard to avoid it when the majority would go for it anyway, but I just don’t see the appeal and interest when your women are all retarted as the chicks in Kanon could be (somehow I never knew this existed back in 2002 but why it gets remade bugs me). I only wish Kyoto Animation could’ve done another Haruhi Suzumiya show too. Hearing Clarissa do that voice that was pitched sounded too dead-on to what to expect in this show.
Going on to Show #40…
Noticed someone complained about not being able to watch the episodes Daryl threw up of Urashiman. These episodes are in .mkv format, and it’s best to use VLC player to watch them from. I normally don’t like mkv’s myself, but I can see where the advantages come from those that might like to have soft subs as opposed to hard subs if they know enough Japanese to have them removed. I already downloaded the episodes, but still need to watch ’em.
Also had to find eMule links to episodes in French where the show was seen in France under the title “Super Durand”. Here’s the opening via Google Video:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-166838922384852346
Hearing of the Asian population that’s helping to fuel the anime clubs, I only wish that was true where I am. The best I got is a decent enough Korean population to warrant a shop a mile south of me that carries the usual knock-off snacks from Lotte and other companies, and a church that offers sermons in Korean.
That story about the anime club members thinking the Daicon IV animation was a ripoff of FLCL has given me a headache that may last the night.
Hell I wanted to commit suicide after hearing about that. What these clubs really need is education! That’s the only way I would run a club, by telling those 16 year olds just who Gainax is/was and the significance of the Daicon IV film and why they shouldn’t get confused with seeing the same character paid homage to in FLCL. Often I noticed a few viewers who saw the Daicon film on YouTube and had to comment about now knowing who FLCL spoofed from.
Really, I need to see if my local high school has an anime club, and if not, I’ll have to see about getting up started and run by yours truely!
Being reminded of having to pick up that “Just for Kids” copy of “Revenge of the Ninja Warrior” and sitting there pondering who in the world would think kids would be watching this at all, but since Gerald already mentioned doing so himself, I guess it worked anyway, but often the titles that were on those Just For Kids tapes often feel less like something you would want to marketed as kiddie entertainment without the need for those edits and other alternations. The later “Best Film & TV Corp” fared a little better for having that stuff left in, albeit the crappy english dub tracks.
I think I liked Dagger of Kamui for the polarizing nature of those that love or hate it, since I favor enjoying this film none the less.
Haven’t seen Ninja Scroll either, but not that interesting in seeing it personally.
I think another involvement for Kouji Morimoto was the “Franken’s Gears” segment in the one film that impressed the hell out of me 12 years ago, Robot Carnival. Being reminded Super Techno Arts also owns the Robot Carnival film as well, and I only pray for the day it gets a DVD release here (then I can retire my LD copy). Hope you guys will do a review of it one day.
Well that’s what I had to say, one of these days I should just e-mail you instead.
anime-classic have fansubbed Future Police Urashiman in its entirety. http://www.anime-classic.net/AC/modules/news/
That’s how I managed to revisit this show that was my childhood favourite (which I spent in Germany), and review it. Now to see what you thought of it…
Incidentally, Kaneto Shiozawa also played the outstanding Paul von Oberstein (LOGH). I suspected just by hearing his voice and went on an ANN hunt for evidence. I was so excited to be proven right – the first time I’ve ever recognised voice actors by their performance and it happens to be of two of my favourite characters.
The assertion about the sudden outstanding animation in episode 26 is interesting. I’ll have to go back and see if this is the case. I didn’t notice this myself but then I didn’t pay as much attention to the animation as you might have.
Thanks for this entertaining review (I got very excited just hearing the opening/ending theme again!). Our reviews agreed on many points, especially the point that it’s just excellently fun, and I’m glad there’s more media to gain interest for this anime. Oh wait – I still have to introduce my five-year old cousin to it…
You guys ever going to get to part 5? It’s sort of funny because this started even before Steel Ball Run finished, and now JoJolion is (probably) halfway through.