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In what will go down in history as the AWO’s darkest hour (it was Gerald’s idea!), this episode is entirely devoted to hentai. Daryl reviews the extensively surreal Kanashimi no Belladonna, Clarissa reviews the manga Pink Sniper by her favorite hentai artist Kengo Yonekura, and Gerald fulfills the dream by providing us with a highly-researched review of Urotsukidoji: Legend of the Overfiend.
Know that this special commemorative Photoshop was…shall we say, OFFERED to us (you know, Comics-One is no more and their entire release of this has been scanned…hmm, ideas are forming…):
Remember, it’s not porn if you don’t draw the dick. Ikegami = ALL CLASS.
Introduction (0:00 – 22:25)
In the emails, we’re told that there IS quite a bit of horror anime after all. It’s just that most all of it is either hentai or isn’t stuff we’d consider scary, such as Serial Experiments Lain or Paranoia Agent. Actually, it’s a total misuse of the term for American fans to call pornographic Japanese cartoons and comics “hentai” since that’s how you’d describe a person, but it’s not like it’s the first time that American anime fandom has taken a Japanese word and misconstrued its meaning, and it won’t be the last. We also learn that even American movie horror fans are mentally decimated by Waita Uziga’s manga. People have been watching Mind Game as a result of Daryl’s review, which leads to a grand dismissive of experimental cinema that is sure to cause the TRUE FILM SCHOLARS to turn their noses up at how primitive we are. So be it. Waking Life is still a crappy movie, and so is Garden State. Carl Horn calls in to reveal to us a brand new insight about the End of Evangelion that dawned on him as a result of our Moon Phase review. Somebody notify Aaron Clark!
Let’s News! (22:25 – 36:27)
Digital Meme is going to be releasing 55 of those really old anime titles from 1928-1936 which were recently discovered on DVD in a four-disc set entitled the “Japanese Anime Classic Collection” on April 30th. The all-region set is going to be $110, and it’ll include English subtitles (plus Japanese, Chinese, and Korean). Still, the influence these have on modern anime is tenuous at best, since these are from the silent era. Daryl is so totally not buying into this post on Conversations on Ghibli, but he recommends everyone read it anyway since he clearly just has an inadequate brain capacity. Perhaps aliens turned him into a Scotsman. More likely, he’s just living up to his Magic: The Gathering card representation as “The Purveyor of Violence.” There’s yet another “there’s gonna be a live-action Ghost in the Shell!” story going around, but not only did they already make The Matrix (it’s totally stretching it, but here’s a page comparing screenshots from both), none of these “live action versions of anime” rumors should be taken to heart unless shooting actually starts. Clarissa is not pleased with Hollywood’s trend of doing bad remakes and screen adaptations of stories that are excessively dumbed down or unnecessarily updated. However, she can’t wait to see how Napoleon Dynamite influences anime. We talk some more about Tokyopop’s impending release of the Twelve Kingdoms novels, which Daryl mentioned during his review of it. Hajime no Ippo actually did really well on TV in Japan, which makes its lack of popularity here in the US all the more tragic. Maybe if they didn’t release a 75 episode series one disc at a time…
Review: Kanashimi no Belladonna (36:27 – 1:01:30)
Daryl talks about the final film released by Mushi Productions, the third of the so-called Animerama trilogy. We could talk about this movie, but suffice it to say that this movie is made by one of the men who directed Odin: Photon Space Sailer Starlight, which is what we best associate The Nish with. Yamato? What’s that? Also, behold these clips from Belladonna NOW before Youtube takes them down and deletes our account for violation of its terms of use, though we say they’re more “mature content” than “pornographic”:
Assuming Youtube has not deleted those videos and removed our account, pat yourself on the back because you have now seen the best parts of this film. Gerald’s recollection was slightly off, as those are in fact RABBITS flying out of that guy’s butt, not fish. Fish are involved in a different shot.
- Jules Michelet and his book, La Sorciere; “La Sorciere” is actually the film’s sub-title
- I don’t think any of this stuff happened to the real Joan of Arc
- Clarissa made a reference to Tommy Johnson, but Daryl’s only knowledge of him would be from O Brother, Where Art Thou?, and he only saw that once.
- Art Nouveau — apparently that’s the style this moviefilm was supposedly done in
- 200, by the United States propaganda department – Daryl happens to know that the style shown here was REAL style Belladonna was done in. The name for this style is, shall we say, Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds-influenced. No, not the Shatner song! (The Beatles? Who are they?)
Promo: R5 Central (1:01:30 – 1:02:29)
Courageous mecha pilot/large black man (hint hint, ladies…though just so you know, PER HIS OWN ADMISSION, it’s a climax the moment he starts!) Mike Dent is not a number. He is a free man! Be sure to check out Episode 33 featuring special guest monologue by Daryl Surat! He’s got a special comment for tokusatsu fandom, and it starts around the 17 minute mark. CLI-MAX JUMP! ii JUMP! ii JUMP! Suge-JUMP! ii JUMP! ii JUMP! Suge-JUMP!
Review: Pink Sniper (1:02:29 – 1:25:04)
Man, you know this episode is trouble when the most normal hentai title being discussed is the one that contains cow people having sex. Clarissa throws her Magic: The Gathering card representation for a loop, since despite the fact that Pink Sniper is a porn manga from a female author, it’s not yaoi. Well, if you don’t count the sequel, anyway. Kengo Yonekura is one of Clarissa’s favorite artists, and part of that has to do with the fact that the guys have faces and aren’t just invisible aside from their peen. How are the people who buy this [guys] supposed to mentally swap out the guy for themselves if they can see his face?! Even regular porn knows not to do that! To the disbelief of all, this is commercially available in English thanks to Eros Comix, which is actually still releasing this stuff even after Dark Horse bought out Studio Proteus years ago. This is probably the only ACTUAL porn review of the show, and as such, Daryl asks THE TOUGH QUESTIONS~!
- Yonekura Kengo’s web site – the site moved recently, so unfortunately her gallery is down at the moment, but you can still access her works listing.
- You can order Pink Sniper directly from Eros Comix or from bookstores like Amazon; it’s cheaper on Amazon than most other places, but they don’t appear to have it in stock so it could take a while
Promo: Happy House of Hentai (1:25:04 – 1:25:27)
Lord Kaosu and Hello Kitty just hit Show # 50, so congrats are in order! Check them out for hentai reviews of…um, The Sims 2…and uh…Speed Grapher. And Dead or Alive Xtreme 2–wait a second, those aren’t hentai! All that Phantasy Star Universe Lord K’s been playing lately must have thrown him for a loop. Why, he’s even started up a PSU-only podcast. Curse you people and your…work ethic! You know, TECHNICALLY, we’ve released over 50 things too, if you count the stuff that wasn’t actually shows! Yeah, that’s the ticket!
Review: Urotsukidoji: Legend of the Overfiend (1:25:27 – 1:53:39)
Did Wesley Willis compose that music or something? Of all the segments Gerald has ever done, he has probably done the most research and preparation on this one, another winner brought to us by The Nish. Brought about by a request from Teleport City (Keith’s review of Overfiend is up, even though it’s not listed on the front page…WONDER WHY), this could have easily been half the episode on its own, what with Gerald’s Magic: The Gathering card representation and all, so a lot had to go for the sake of time, such as Daryl talking about how much he wishes this anime never existed, and that the existence of Overfiend is why he never really tells anyone that he’s an anime fan to this day, which doesn’t stop his cockblocking friends from chiming in with “you know, DARYL is an ANIME FAN!” which has since been upped to “you know, DARYL is an INTERNET CELEBRITY because he has a PODCAST about ANIME!” Swell, guys. Thanks for the help there. Anyway, what remains is the result of much editing and reorganizing, and that’s our official excuse for why this episode is a week late. Watch this space for what is sure to be a great deal of supplemental links.
Promo: Otaku Generation (1:53:39 – 1:53:53)
Dan “The Fan” is gone, but in his place is…A GIRL?! And…KYLE?! Wow, I wonder what he’s going to review after that extended hiatus brought about by being burned out from watching mediocre anime. Wait, E’s Otherwise? E’S OTHERWISE?! One of the more notoriously crappy shows in recent years? And he was looking FORWARD to it?! Yeah, we get the feeling that Kyle will be itching for another hiatus real soon. And while we all got copies of the first volume of Mechademia to review several weeks ago, Bryce actually beat us to the punch since a fan sent in a copy. Man. We freaking fail at the timeliness.
Closing (1:53:53 – 2:02:10)
Can you believe that this week’s episode is LONGER than the latest episode of Otaku Generation?! Special belated congratulations to Tim Eldred, whose graphic novel Grease Monkey has won the 2007 award for Best Book for Young Adults from the American Library Association. Plus, if you purchase the Viz DVD release of the Densha Otoko movie, it includes a commentary track by TV’s Patrick Macias, Most Dangerous Tomohiro Machiyama, and “Jay Tack.” Does japattack.com even get updated anymore? We’re not quite sure. Next week, we have ANOTHER astonishing idea, and this time it’s Daryl’s fault! For you see, next time around we’re not only going to review just Volume 1 of the title we’re reviewing as opposed to the entire series, but we’re also going to review things that we’ve never ever seen before and have absolutely no idea as to what they’re about! Chris over at ADV sent us a bunch of stuff to review as well as give away, and so Daryl’s got an advance review of Le Chevalier d’Eon (set for release 2/20), Gerald takes a look at Utawarerumono since he saw the preview for it on The Anime Network and thought it looked interesting, and Clarissa tackles Volume 1 of Nerima Daikon Brothers! Don’t bother spoiling the secret, since this episode’s actually already recorded and we just suck when it comes to editing. Namely, that we have to edit at all. All the smart podcasters never seem to need to do that.
Just to quickly get in with a comment while this is downloading, Fuck Overfiend.
Seriously, since its release by MANGAAAAA that THING has forever been a dark shadow over the state of anime in the UK, and its a sodding miracle that its only taken this long for the effects of our exposure to it to wear off.
Oh well, at least its a good way to vet people you know. If they try and destory the VHS/DVD player then they are obviously insane, if they laugh they they must be a cool person to know. Or just nuts. Whatever.
http://huzzah.fansub-torrents.com/%5BMANLY-SUBS%5D_The_Rapeman_1-2_%5B9BF23186%5D.avi.torrent
….what?
As a brief addendum to my e-mail, the term “psychological thriller” only really appears in American film discussion after Silence of the Lambs (and gets tacked on to some of the Hitchcock films shortly afterwards). Horror is a dirty word in American pop culture, often associated with only the trashiest of trash entertainment. The concept of the psychological thriller was invented so film scholars could address Hitchcock and films in the same vein without having to deal with the larger sexual and antisocial themes that contemporary film studies have recently delved into. That’s neither here nor there for an anime podcast though.
Thanks guys. Victor at Super Anime/Video Game Podcast has lost his mind.
So Daryl, tell me – how did you manage to fire acid out of my mouse into my mouth as I clicked play on those videos?
Cos LSD’s the only explanation for what I just saw. And that’s the conclusion my therapist’s going to come to, some years down the line when I recount this terrifying experience.
They re-used a shot there at the end of the second clip, so this should definitely count as anime.
–Carl
Man, are you guys having another discussion of horror anime without mentioning Higurashi no naku koro ni?
It’s even getting another season this year.
OMG! You guys used the M:tG cards I made in the show notes? Awesome! XD
This episode was hilarious, by the way. The Youtube videos were hilarious too, though in a more “What the hell is going on?” way than in a “Now that’s great comedy!” way. It took me until halfway through the second clip before I gave up understanding what was happening and just started laughing at the ridiculousness of it all.
I hate Transformers and it will always stay that way.
Re: Horror movies in general.
I subscribe to the opinion – expressed by Carol J. Clover in “Men, Women and Chainsaws: Gender in the Modern Horror Film” – that the violence in horror movies, especially slasher flicks, is always of a sexual nature. Clover basically argues that horror movies translate something that males innately fear and misunderstand (i.e. female sexuality) into terms that males – especially young boys – can understand. She argues that the female protagonists in horror films undergo a symbolic process in which they take on male characteristics, culminating in a “phallization” when the female hero dispatches the monster with its own weapon, which is invariably evocative of a penis.
So the line between violence, sexuality, and sexual violence isn’t as obvious and clear-cut in American horror cinema as it is in some Japanese horror cinema, but it’s definitely there. Arguably, I think the less overt sexualization of violence in American cinema is more sinister, since it plays on a subconscious level.
Also, props for the “Shirow by Proxy” reference. I wonder if anyone else gets it.
I wish I had a Magic: The Gathering card. And an anonymous stalker sending me manga-ized drawings. I guess I haven’t quite hit the big-time yet.
Last Otaku, how can you hate Transformers? Optimus Prime died for your sins!
American Moe
Here is an article about a creepy new trend with the revealing title, “Would you pledge your virginity to your father?”
The majority of the girls here are, as purity ball guidelines suggest, “just old enough…[to] have begun menstruating….”
Art Nouveau
The concert posters of the ’70s were somewhat inspired by several artistic trends including Art Nouveau. I would say Belladonna is inspired by that trippy ’70s rock art, not so much inspired by Art Nouveau directly.
Fellini
Daryl, I can’t let that pass. Fellini should not be lumped in with experimental filmmakers who can’t make engaging watchable film. He did take more chances than your typical Hollywood filmmaker, but his movies are mostly very conventional. In fact his early movies were considered experimental because they showed reality (instead of Hollywood fairy tales), and was, therefore termed Neo-Realism. With his middle period movies (notably starting with 8 1/2), he incorporated dream-like elements. Back in the day, that was considered revolutionary, but if you can’t handle that, why are you watching anime? His most famous movie, La Dolce Vita, (“the sweet life”) is about rich people, models, and paparazzi living a degenerate lifestyle (think Paris Hilton). It is not difficult to follow, except for people who can’t be bothered to read subtitles.
LOL I saw that picture somewhere and i didn’t realize that was Gerald sitting on the couch.
Dudes, send me some stuff. lol. That is a pretty good picture of Gerald and somehow he looks more sane than Daryl (I dont know how that is possible).
Oh God. I’m so relieved to find out that Osamu Tezuka had nothing to do with Belladonna. As for the Ghost In The Shell live action, if its made I doubt they are going to keep the philosophical aspects. Let’s just face it. Sure there is a large audience of GITS but they don’t compare to the mass amount of movie goers in the U.S. And to be honest I know hundreds of people who already think that the T.V show is boring as hell. They’re too much into the action packed stuff that they see on television. Fuck! My brother is the biggest shonen fan and he doesn’t even know what it means. I love GITS where as he hates it.
Regarding Bob Savage’s “American Moe” reference:
I think you missed the point of the article. As I understand it from listening to various podcasts (such as AWO), “moe” celebrates purity/underage girls because some Japanese find the concept of a “pure” girl to be sexually arousing.
This article, however, is talking about an event that celebrates abstinence because the advocates believe that losing your virginity before marriage has negative physical and/or emotional consequences. In other words, purity is viewed as a beneficial lifestyle choice, not as an arousing quality.
Really, the only thing that suggests an emerging “American Moe” complex is the actual title of the article (a rather misleading one, I might add).
An addendum to my previous comment:
I’m not saying that the practice the article is reporting about is just fine and dandy. Frankly, I think it’s a bit misguided. To use myself as an example, I practice abstinence, but not due to some vow I made. I practice it because I believe not only that premarital sex has negative consequences, but also that sex is a physical symbol of union between two people. Thus, I should save it for the girl I’m actually in a union with. The fact that it seems quite a few of these girls are pledging abstinence solely because daddy wants them to shows how flawed their method is.
> As I understand it from listening to various podcasts (such as AWO), “moe” celebrates purity/underage girls because some Japanese find the concept of a “pure” girl to be sexually arousing.
Well, that’s the explanation for a lot of the porn they make, and some of that does get turned into moe shows, but even otaku are allowed to have things that aren’t based on their sex drive…
Well, actually it was a combined reference to Robert Johnson and the “Bluesklok” episode of Metalocalypse, but close enough.
Alexander –
We just keep forgetting it because none of us have watched it. Though I am interested in checking it out, and I’ll probably review it once I do.
Gooberzilla –
I agree that American horror certainly isn’t lacking in sexual undercurrents. But yeah, it’s not quite so gleefully open with it.
I’m not sure which I find more disturbing, to tell the truth. Though I suppose if you’re going to be into something like that, you might as well be up front about it so members of my gender have fair warning.
I don’t read a whole lot in film studies, so I’m not familiar with Clover’s work, but it sounds interesting. I might hit up the University library for that one.
Also, props for the “Shirow by Proxy” reference. I wonder if anyone else gets it.
I figured it was a play on Munchausen’s by Proxy, but I s’ppose I could be wrong.
Dave, you nimrod. It’s a reference to your own freakin’ web-forum!
Need I elaborate further?
Holy shit, I’m getting a serious Guido Crepax vibe off the woman in Kanashimi no Belladonna… Italian ’60s smut comics 4ever!!
I’m pretty sure a couple years prior there was a movie based on Sanpei Shirato’s comics that was composed of nothing more than panning and cutting around pages of the actual manga with dialogue and sound effects added in: Band of Ninja (Ninja Bugeicho). Wish I could see that…
Sorry, Daryl, but Bruce and Danno already featured 200 at the last A-Kon as part of their Anime/Otaku Hell event. So, yeah, they’re already well aware of it.
I’m listening to the show right now, and I just got to your guys’ comments about trailers. All I have to say is Bridge to Terabithia. Anyone who has read the book knows that the movie trailer has nothing to do with what really happens.
I’m listening to the show right now, and I just got to your guys’ comments about trailers. All I have to say is Bridge to Terabithia. Anyone who has read the book knows that the movie trailer has nothing to do with what really happens.
I’m glad someone else noticed that since that’s what I was wondering when I saw the trailer. Like 90% of the book were the kids playing around in the woods and talking to each other. If they actually follow the book (which it really doesn’t seem like they are, or they’re taking about two minutes of footage and using it as the entire trailer) then people will be pretty disappointed.
Before I went into film school I watched as many “important” films that I could so that I would feel prepared in that regard. I didn’t know of a lot of the more experimental or French New Wave films so I hadn’t seen any of it until I took some classes. But when I graduated I was watching stuff like Braindead and Evil Dead as almost a direct reaction to the sort of mentality so many students have about how brilliant something is just for being esoteric.
One of my favorite moments was when we were watching 2001 and the professor was asking us some thoughts. This one guy started talking about this theory that he heard that the beginning with the apes actually takes place on the Moon and all this other stuff. The way that he talked about it you could tell he thought he was the smartest person in the room. Then the professor said he was reading into it too much. It felt soooooo good to be there during that moment.
I just wanted movies that were fun because I had had my fill of “important” films and people who hate on Citizen Kane just because they think it makes them look smarter.
Or maybe it was just because I had to watch Un Chien Andalou more times than I could count. I think one professor must’ve hated us because he made us watch the cutting of the sheep eye three times in a row.
I don’t think (think? You would “think” that I would know) that Dark Horse bought out Studio Proteus or the Studio Proteus label per se, so much as bought the rights to its manga licenses and translations. Toren is still interested in manga and in doing the occasional adaptation, but now it’s something he might do more as a hobby than a full-time business, as he did for fifteen years. An extraordinary man–one of the Westerners who comes closest in spirit (and deed) to the founders of Gainax; not surprising, considering the fact he used to live with them in a THE YOUNG ONES-type situation (see Takeda’s THE NOTENKI MEMOIRS).
–Carl
I’m gonna have to dig through my boxes of VHS tapes that are in the basement, because I think I mmmmmight still have part of an interview with Demon Kogure. And it’s Larry King doing the interview.
You guys, uh, wanna WATCH a purity ball?
I guess there’s tastes in experimental film as well–some directors work out for some viewers, and some don’t. I liked, for example, JULIEN DONKEY-BOY, HOTEL, and LAST DAYS, for example, but CREMASTER really made me feel I would never get those minutes of my life back. Of course, I was induced to see the latter by the same person who dragged–literally, dragged–me to see WILLOW; one of my best friends from high school, who already knew the film was going to be a piece of shit but was determined not to suffer alone.
–Carl
Just though I’d let you know that Yonekura Kengo’s talent for drawing nice curvy babes comes from the fact that all she needs is a mirror. She’s actually built very much like Haruna, believe it or not.
Our next smut manga is Milk Mama, once again by a female mangaka.
And if you like “good” eromanaga, check out Slut Girl. Great art, and lots of good-natured sex with happy babes.
–Toren
P.S. Pink Sniper is expensive because we can’t get distribution into mainstream bookstores, which means much lower sales than what Viz or Drama Queen can get. Lower sales plus same production costs equals higher cover price to break even. C’est la vie.
Just though I’d let you know that Yonekura Kengo’s talent for drawing nice curvy babes comes from the fact that all she needs is a mirror. She’s actually built very much like Haruna, believe it or not.
Photographs of hentai manga-ka seem to be hard to come by, at least for us folks on the outside. I thought it was interesting to see photos of Kazuki Kotobuki’s appearance at Katsucon some years ago. Now I’d like to see some of his newer work come over here!
And if you like “good” eromanaga, check out Slut Girl. Great art, and lots of good-natured sex with happy babes.
As a big fan of Slut Girl and Isutoshi in general I’d certainly agree, although I think all the girl’s treatment of the main character border more on near pain and slavery than anything else :). However it seems that Slut Girl is sort of hard to come by, in fact, I’m not even sure where one can buy it since I can’t find it on Amazon.com or on Pricegrabber (heck, I believe Pink Sniper is even difficult to find). It seems Isutoshi is doing more work outside the hentai thing, which brings to mind the idea that I don’t usually see a lot of jumping back and forth between the two (although Kengo did do Fire Candy).
toren –
I’ve wondered about Yonekura, since her little illustrations of herself are similar to that in build.
It seems odd, and kind of stupid, to me that bookstores will carry stuff like Be Beautiful or Drama Queen titles but won’t stock stuff like Pink Sniper (well, theoretically, I generally don’t see much besides DMP’s softcore titles in most stores). Though it’s true that at least the covers of BL stuff tend to feature less nudity than hentai covers, so I wonder if that makes a difference.
Heck, if they’ll sell the atrocious crap to be found in some of the “best” erotica collections they certainly shouldn’t shut out stuff like Pink Sniper because it happens to be drawings instead of words.
But distribution issues like that seem far more reasonable in terms of the price point. It may still not be my price of choice, but it doesn’t tick me off like the concept that I’m being ripped off because I like the sexy.
I liked the dialogue in SLUT GIRL; I’m remembering that scene where Sayoko promises to hook up Satoru with a foreign girl. Instead of immediately springing forth what the British would refer to as his pensioner’s leg, his first cynical thought is that she’ll turn out to be “a lardass Aussie chick.” Of course, she turns out to be the tall, buxom* blonde that all foreign girls are in manga, but you have to give Satoru credit for hesitating, however briefly.
By the way, I liked your use of the word “frenulum.” The only manga I’m aware of in the U.S. to employ the term is FLOWERS & BEES.
–Carl
*GENSHIKEN now offers a second choice for depicting foreigners: the short, moe blonde.
It looks as though WordPress updated its Blogger import feature, so I’ve got a test mockup of this blog up over at animeworldorder.wordpress.com. Of the 1443 comments left on this blog, it successfully imported 1440 of them.
Layout’s not quite the same, and the posts themselves look a little different too. This is mainly because it doesn’t like when people use HTML code very much. The embeddable Flash players (Odeo, the Youtube links) won’t work in WordPress at all since they get automatically stripped out of the posts. Ditto for any HTML/Javascript type stuff that I’d want added to the sidebar aside from clickable images. Whether that’s a limitation of the WordPress blog or some sort of limit imposed by WordPress.com’s servers is not something I know just yet. Nor do I know how much would be necessary, given that WordPress has all the stats tracking stuff built into it.
So much as I’d like to join Dave and Joel (and now Paul) on their WordPress migration, we’ll stick with Blogger for the time being. A shame, since I like its tracking features and the comments are a bit easier to read.
THE TRANSFORMERS: First off, I think that people have decided that they like the movie because the special effects look decent enough (in the trailers thus far.)
Also, it isn’t the TV-series Transformers…but it clearly isn’t trying to be. And I think that people are giving it points for that; everyone was thinking that it was going to be a terrible attempt at turning a cheesy 1980s cartoon into a live-action movie, but instead it looks more like a science-fiction adventure film whose main characters happen to be transforming robots.
Thirdly…you know, this movie is aimed mostly at teenagers. And modern teenagers were two years old when The Transformers was on TV. The Transformers property doesn’t involve long legacy of remembered childhood for its target audience.
ok first things first:
i was all happy because the new episode of awo was downloading in my itunes, la di da …..waiting……waiting…….then BLAM!!!! im a deer caught in the headlights of the most evil and chilling stare ive ever experienced, i mean seriously, forget that its a “rapist picture of Gerald”, having that picture look at you should itself be classified as rape. I think next week you guys have to post a fun loving happy flowery bunny bedecked picture of Gerald, preferably one featuring him in front of a fireplace, with puppies, wearing a seasonal sweater which features various other non threatening furry animals. because i think that may be the only way to scrub that stare out of my brain. we’ve never met, and i really don’t want the only image i have to be that one. You should congratulate whoever took the photo for having an amazing ability to capture people as they are momentarily possessed by the spirit of jack the ripper. Noooo please don’t eviscerate me and cut off my genitals, photograph of gerald!!!!
i swear to god for the entire episode i moved the itunes window down far enough so i couldn’t see it….shudder
but yeah, happy bunny picture please, because Gerald rules, he hates waking life!!! which makes him awesome.
and thanks for reading my hate spewing email!!!!!
Also i have to agree w/bob savage about Fellini, his movies are actually pretty awesome, especially 81/2, its really funny, but it might not come accross through the subtitles, what with all the crazy italian antics.
plus Marcello Mastroianni = super dreamy
As always you guys rule
-Grumps
Hilarious and informative podcast, minna-san. I was listening to it when we had some downtime at work, and repeatedly had to answer “I can’t tell you here!” to queries as to why I was laughing so hard.
I’ll probably make some more detailed comments later, but for now…
The discussion of Japanese horror films reminded me that I forgot to respond to a question posed in a previous ep:
Q: Why aren’t there more Japanese zombie movies?
A: Cremation.
Now regarding the “Purity Ball” article: The girl in the picture looks really enthused, doesn’t she? Then again, it might not be a photo from an actual event, it might be a posed shot for the article.
E. Bernhard Warg
Otakon Classic Track (which showed Belladonna, natch)
Anime’s Frank
This was really a bad idea… I hope you will do it again sometime!
I think after watching those clips, we all need to take five now and then, but yeah, it was terribly trippy. I still haven’t watched a copy of Belladonna I found off eMule last year (with multiple sub tracks).
After hearing about Overfiend and such, I feel glad I STILL haven’t seen that at all, and find myself to be a better person for not having been scarred out of the anime scene too quickly in the mid ’90s. I don’t think I could ever stomach something like that at all, but I can remember when I was in that part of my life from the final years of high school and into college over whether or not I was really interested in anime due to the way it was being marketed under the ‘animated snuff film misogynist crap’ people have often labeled it as. I was more interested in the storytelling aspects over visual eye candy to say the least.
And again, everything Clarissa stated about the “guys in suits” who think they know how to make movies is still the same reasons for why I can’t go to any of ’em these days (I shouldn’t knew something was afoot when “The Brady Bunch Movie” came out it would lead to this). Especially with sequels, adaptations and remakes, it’s getting annoying thinking over how far they’ll go with the revisionment.
I finished listening to the show (finally) and just wanted you guys to clarify something for me:
Pretentious anime watchers who look down on the community at large proceed to bash pretentious film watchers who look down on the community at large.
I still love AWO, but I was laughing my ass off at your (well, more Daryl then anyone) indignation at art house films and the people who praise them. Having said that, I’ve owned Waking Life for several years now and have yet to watch it without falling asleep. See you around at Megacon if you’re braving that mess this year.
-The first Tom who’s had to change his name because there’s another, different Tom making comments now.
After hearing about Overfiend and such, I feel glad I STILL haven’t seen that at all, and find myself to be a better person for not having been scarred out of the anime scene too quickly in the mid ’90s.
I don’t know, I think I’d want to see the thing that has had such a big effect on anime as a whole, rather than just knowing everything secondhand. I was certainly curious when I was younger what it was all about and I think that works like Urotsukidoji show that anime can be absolutely anything. Sure the effect it had on anime was very negative and I still hate it for that, but it also showed that there was basically no limit to what anime could be, it could be kids shows like Pokemon, giant robots, mature work like Jin Roh, Patlabor 2 and Paprika, or it could be gruesome and graphic stuff like Overfiend. I guess we might not want everything that anime can be, but I think it’s better to have this available and allowing us to choose what we want to watch and not, rather than anime giving itself arbitrary limitations.
Being blunt (and Scottish) if I never have anything to do with overfiend, it would suit me.
Manga have only realy redemed themselves with the Naruto Release (I dare someone to find me a better value for money release than 13 episodes for £17)
MVM, however, just suck and It’s quite clear Funimation just had enough of them.
Come to think of it, yeah, £10.99 is pritty good cash going for FMA.
OMG I think you guys can pretty much count on never getting anything from ADV again. My cable company has an “On Demand” menu. ADV and, I think, Funnimation have areas in the “cutting edge” section. While the Funnimation chanel likes to feature such gems as MoonPhase and Boy’s be (not to mention giving Man Faye and entire menu to himself complete with cosplay judging at Anime expo). ADV likes to preview three titles everymonth that they will be selling on DVD. Last month was Moei Ken, Utawarerumono and Nerima Daikon Brothers. Each one of these titles features furries so you have that to look forward to Gerald and Clarissa. And Daikon actually has a very uncomfortable relationship between some kid and a small panda bear. Not a person with panda ears and a pand a tale AN ACTUAL PANDA BEAR!!!! And there was even a scene involving the kid the panda and a daikon that made me ill. Yay for Clarissa have fun with that one. As far as the Chavalier D’eon as soon as I heard your last show on my drive home from work I ran in the house to check the “On Demand” channel and sure enough there it was. It seems to me to be a less inspired clone of the recent Gankutsuou. I like period piece and obviusly sword fighting shows so I will probably give it a shot but it looks like more of the same vampire esqe goth junk that gets turned out over and over again. I think your best bet is going to be Utawarerumono despite the fact that it has girls with tails and it was based off of an adult dating sim. I watched the first epidsode and it was not awful. Can’t wait to hear what you guys think but I do pitty Clarissa for what she has to watch.
P.S. You mentioned an article where someone said that the jokes in most american family animated features will date them and make them unwatchable. I would have to say that I grew up watching Bugs Bunny and never understanding any of the references that were included in just about every other joke. Now I have a four year old who watches the dvd volumes of looney tunes and he loves them even more than I.
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Okay, this one will be pretty scattershot.
Trailers are great–in fact, I’d almost say that the trailer for an action or sci-fi film tends to be better than the actual movie itself! Basically, a trailer is a music video.
Guys In Suits: I agree; they decide that because the company’s successful and they’re in charge, then therefore they must be the reason that the company is successful, and therefore whatever they do is the right thing. So they go on and do completely stupid random things, stuff that makes NO SENSE at all, all the while firmly convinced that their intervention is the source of success.
No live-action versions of anime? What about The Guyver? Street Fighter? Casshern? And, tying back to the subject of this podcast, I think they made live-action La Blue Girl and Overfiend movies (where the “tentacle rape” consisted of that old trick where a velour tentacle is wrapped around a girl’s arm, and then they film it being pulled off of her arm, and then they play the film backwards so it looks like the tentacle is molesting her.)
You make an interesting point about the movement of extreme violence to the hentai market. And it’s funny, because over on Fast Karate, they talk about how ‘The Guyver’ seems to be uncomfortably close to being straight-out porn. (In fact, wasn’t there one OVA where a girl got ahold of a Guyver suit and it actually did tentacle-rape her?)
You could probably trace an interesting arc there; as the OVA market dries up the amount of porn available goes down. Suddenly, TV-anime producers realize that they can use a new paradigm that hits most of the themes of porn, only without the actual sex stuff that you can’t show on TV. Perfect! And that’s where moe came from. I honestly believe that if it weren’t illegal to show underage girls having sex, then those moe shows would be full of sex. All that rot about “preserving her virgin purity” is nudge-nudge wink-wink stuff.
Ha HA, I just watched those Belladonna clips…or at least part of the second one. The guy who punches his fist into the air and it turns into a cock…it’s Mazinger Z gone horribly wrong!
Perhaps it’s late to chime in on the “purity ball” thing posted earlier, but I find the practice patriarchal and horrifying. A father has absolutely no business attempting to regulate his daughter’s sexuality like that. If I had a daughter, I would never accept such a pledge from her.
The fact that they turned this backwards practice into a conspicuous-consumption gala social event makes me ill.
I don’t blame you, Gooberzilla. Those things seem totally creepy to me. All that stuff about “owning” their daughters’ hearts and desires, and “covering” them and their purity until marriage.
Ugh.
Since we’ve heard the title Slut Girl come from at least two people here, one of whom I would say is the “horse’s mouth”, is there any possibility of Isutoshi’s other works, like Planet Prowler, Tende Freeze or Aiki, over here in the U.S.?
The only problem I see with them is there’s not enough sex to qualify as a hentai title and too much sex for a mainstream title. This is subjective, thou, and I’m mainly basing this off of what I’ve seen of Aiki: Aiki is more on the level of Tengo Tenge, with characters fucking for a couple pages on average of every two or three chapters, making time between fight scenes. Even Planet Prowler seems to have it’s eroticism dialed a bit compared to Slut Girl: Karisa and Binl screw around in a couple pages or so in just about every chapter, but it’s not balls-to-the-wall sex like Sayoko’s adventures.
All I have to say about those Belladonna clips is: awesome music!
Cool ringmodulated guitars and whatnot. Since I’m guessing there was never a official OST released, so guess I’ll have to try to watch the whole movie to hear more of it.
Will you ever read any of my e-mails, you read 2 fucking e-mails.
This is just cause Daryl hates my fucking guts.