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Sure we talk about him a lot, but for our sixtieth episode we’ve decided to devote the entire show to talking about the God of Manga himself, Osamu Tezuka. Daryl’s reviewing the Astro Boy TV series (take your pick), Clarissa’s reviewing the Black Jack OAVs and movie, and Gerald’s reviewing the manga Apollo’s Song.
Show notes will be put up…later! Otaku USA doesn’t write itself, you know!
Introduction (0:00 – 43:27)
Does Stan even remember his role in the Ozone Commandos? Wait, nobody can remember it, since it wasn’t released [yet]! In the emails, we’re asked our opinion on Fushigi Yuugi (which is still really expensive!). Short answer: Yu Watase is a hack. Can we recommend good romance anime? Short answer: no. What’s our thoughts on fanfiction? Short answer: just look at all the slash-related Livejournal communities Clarissa’s a member of. Wait, that’s not a very short list after all! It took us nearly 45 minutes to say this!
Promo: Greatest Movie EVER! (43:27 – 44:05)
It’s the Big Month of Dick over at the Greatest Movie EVER! podcast, where they’re talking about film adaptations of Philip K. Dick exclusively! Featuring a bunch of guest reviewers, including Jeff “Rich Lather” Tatarek, who made this promo instead of making his own podcast. As late as we are in getting shows up, his Robot Carnival review still isn’t there! In any case, we remain satisfied that people start off by listening to AWO, hear promos for Dave and Joel, Greatest Movie EVER!, Lather’s Blather, etc. then determine that they’re more entertaining to listen to than us (and shorter, too!) and stop listening to us. If we were concerned about listenership, we wouldn’t be pulling stunts like…
Review: Astro Boy (44:05 – 1:39:07)
Daryl doesn’t care that absolutely nobody in America cares about Astro Boy. He’s going to talk about the Birth of Astro Boy storyline as portrayed in the original manga, the 1960s TV series, the 1980s TV series, and the 2003 TV series, no matter how many people don’t give a crap. The cool people are interested and not at all bored to tears. Both of them.
- The Astro Boy Essays: Osamu Tezuka, Mighty Atom, and the Manga/Anime Revolution – look forward to a review of this book in the next issue of Otaku USA! Actually, you can now read Daryl’s review here!
- Dark Horse Comics has released the original Astro Boy manga over the span of 23 volumes. You can get these for about $1-$4 each used.
- Right Stuf’s official Astro Boy site – where you can get the ultra editions of the dub-only 1960s Astro Boy series. Amazon has the sets for a lot cheaper if you want to get used ones though (Set 1, Set 2)
- Manga Video’s official New Adventures of Astro Boy site – the entire series can be had for about $20. At some point, we’ll edit and post an interview with Noboru Ishiguro, the director of this series!
- Madman Entertainment’s New Adventures of Astro Boy site – Wikipedia says that this release has the two uncut original Japanese episodes as well as more deleted scenes, and Wikipedia is never wrong
- The Astro Boy 2003 series can be had for $13 plus shipping – even Zac from ANN thinks this show is completely awesome! Too bad the series is edited, dub-only, and pan-and-scan. The Region 3 release is excellent, but it’s not easy to find. And it’s not cheap, either. Somebody buy that, make DVDRs of it, and mail the copies to me!
- For more information about the 2003 Astro Boy series, be sure to listen to AWO Show #37 where we interviewed Marc Handler, the Executive Story Editor for the series. Look forward to a follow-up interview once it’s finished being edited!
We’ll post the Black Jack and Apollo’s Song bits later. And you didn’t really think we had nothing more to say about this Geneon situation, did you?
I’m not too huge on Tezuka but I might have to check more out by him. I did like Phoenix though.
I haven’t had the chance to listen to the show yet, but I hope you also mention the Astro Boy manga, released by a certain company.
Thanks all of you, for reviewing Astro. He’s probably, honestly, my favourite anime hero that no one knows about. Which reminds me to finish the boxset of the Manga Ent. release. Arrgghh, AnimeSuki, why do you distract me so!
Hey guys thanks for sending me that soltey rei dvd… i have been wanting to see it so now i have a reason to buy the other volumes.
thanks alot.
“Short answer: Yu Watase is a hack.”
Not as much as CLAMP…
carl: I didn’t know it was in print. So is it true you guys are publishing Crime and Punishment? If so, can you get Leo? C’mon, if WB can release The Jazz Singer on dvd, Leo can’t be that bad.
eeeper: We do know about him; we just prefer Mega Man. Although I will admit that Omega Factor game rocks, and I seriously recommend people get it, before it’s discontinued like Blood Will Tell.
Speaking of Dick, I saw the Final[No, we’re serious this time, really, I mean it!] cut of Blade Runner, and it was gorgeous.
Crap, I spoke too soon about the Astro Boy game. And they just had it a few months ago… 🙁
I would never suggest that CLAMP is without flaws, but personally I think they’ve got more going for a lot of their series than Watase’s got for anything she’s done. I wish Watase could turn out anything as good as RG Veda, Card Captor Sakura, Tokyo Babylon, or xxxHolic.
But to each their own, I suppose.
clarissa: “I wish Watase could turn out anything as good as RG Veda, Card Captor Sakura, Tokyo Babylon, or xxxHolic.”
You mean turn out the same series and then milk them even more with cross-overs, instead of finishing them?
Really enjoyed this episode, never knew that Astro Boy had a 80’s series. Was really looking forward to the Apollo’s Song review to compare and contrast my thoughts on the book with Gerald’s. Really looking forward to the next part of this show hopefully the wait won’t kill me.
Oh yeah, and why is adding a back-story to the FY characters before they’re killed worse when Watase does it than when Anno does it? And what the hell’s wrong with Absolute Boyfriend? At least it’s more honest about its fanservice than Chobits, and it’s a change of pace from seeing another show where the dumb chick becomes a slave to the male geek lead. I will agree with you on Saikano, though. That’s just a marketing gimmick, not a show.
Oh, and anyone who equates KOR with Love Hina is an idiot. It’s bad enough that Akamatsu is such a hack, that has to resort to a jail-bait version of Harry Potter, but it’s even worse when Hollywood starts copying him. If no one knows what I’m talking about, read http://www.hollywood.com/movie/ManWitch/3464337
.
As for realistic romance series, how come there’s no love for Mars?
It amazes me that there could be anime fans that haven’t seen, much less heard about, Astro Boy.
But then, I’m 41. I was raised on a diet of Astro Boy and Kimba. I’ve run into people old enough to vote who’ve never heard of Rocky & Bullwinkle. Damn kids, get off my lawn!
Oh, and great show, as usual. The wait between episodes is only painful because there’s a reward at the end. If the show was no good, nobody would complain.
You mean turn out the same series and then milk them even more with cross-overs, instead of finishing them?
What are you talking about? CCS had an ending, as did RG Veda IIRC. Tokyo Babylon was always intended to go with X, and it ended its portion of the story exactly as it should have. I admit I haven’t finished xxxHolic yet, so I can’t speak to the ending on that one. And if you’re referring to X in your talk about not ending, I find it interesting that you place the entire blame for that on CLAMP, when a large part of the reason they’re not finishing that is because of disputes with the publisher that was running the series.
Also, just looking at Tokyo Babylon/X, Card Captor Sakura, Chobits, Angelic Layer, and xxxHolic for example, those series are very different from one another in subject matter, framework, and heck, even art style to some extent due to it being a collective rather than one person. Not to mention that they’ve now done both shoujo and shonen manga. Have you even actually read much by CLAMP?
I won’t deny that Tsubasa milks a lot of their series, it is a huge alternate universe crossover. But that’s what, one series? xxxHolic crosses over with Tsubasa, so fine, you could bring it to two, but the style and majority of content in that series as far as I’ve read isn’t really the same, and the characters in it are largely original rather than the recycled ones from Tsubasa.
Besides, trying to hate on CLAMP for crossing their stuff over internally? I guess you sure must hate Leiji Matsumoto (Harlock is in everything and there’s NO continuity), Osamu Tezuka (everyone reappears constantly), and Giant Robo (huge alternate universe crossover with creations of one artist, OMG!) then.
As to the other comment that I’m assuming is yours.
1. It wouldn’t have bothered me if Watase didn’t do it *constantly* and for no reason, since she wasted so much time on other pointless junk.
2. We’re not exactly gigantic Anno superfans who think he can do no wrong anyway.
3. Absolute Boyfriend might be better in some regards than Dears, for example, but it still wasn’t particularly good. Also, the girl might not have been a slave in a male fantasy, but she was just as much of a pathetic cliche desperately in need of a man to validate her, so not much better.
4. I simply have never read Mars. Heard good things about it, just never got around to it yet. I’m not sure about Daryl or Gerald, but I’ll go out on a limb and assume they’ve never read it either.
Damn it, I hate not being able to edit comments on this thing, I always forget something.
In reference to FY, perhaps I might not be so harsh about some things if I hadn’t hated the main character and her romance so much; guess it kind of soured other things for me, especially over time.
I think I’m also mad because I liked those supporting characters. Years later and not in fandom for it, and I can still probably remember all their names and what they looked like. Well, maybe not all the Seiryu seishi, probably just Tomo. Might not still remember all the character songs though, I haven’t listened to FY music much lately even if I still have those damn bootleg CDs (ah, the days of blissfully not realizing that real anime CDs were supposed to rape your wallet).
Seeing characters I liked shafted over and over for emotional leverage and the service of such a shitty lead sucked. I get enough of that shit from American comic books, thanks.
“What are you talking about? CCS had an ending, as did RG Veda IIRC.”
RG Veda was an exception, and that’s probably because it’s an adaptation. CCS was brought back as Tsubasa.
“Tokyo Babylon was always intended to go with X, and it ended its portion of the story exactly as it should have.”
But Tokyo Babylon was an excuse to cash in on X.
“And if you’re referring to X in your talk about not ending, I find it interesting that you place the entire blame for that on CLAMP, when a large part of the reason they’re not finishing that is because of disputes with the publisher that was running the series.”
They also said the kids were scared, because the manga was becoming similar to real-life events or some other bs.
“Also, just looking at Tokyo Babylon/X, Card Captor Sakura, Chobits, Angelic Layer, and xxxHolic for example, those series are very different from one another in subject matter, framework, and heck, even art style to some extent due to it being a collective rather than one person.”
They’re all just teen fantasy action series, when it comes down to it….
“Have you even actually read much by CLAMP?”
Nah, I get bored.
“Besides, trying to hate on CLAMP for crossing their stuff over internally? I guess you sure must hate Leiji Matsumoto (Harlock is in everything and there’s NO continuity),”
It’s annoying, but at least he has The Cockpit. Plus the lack of continuity means I don’t have to buy every new property endorsed by him.
“Osamu Tezuka (everyone reappears constantly),”
Yes, but the stories are different.
“and Giant Robo (huge alternate universe crossover with creations of one artist, OMG!)”
Got bored with the dub of that one and will try to catch it one day, but if I recall, that was partly a tribute to the manga-ka’s work.
“Absolute Boyfriend might be better in some regards than Dears, for example, but it still wasn’t particularly good. “
I disagree. It’s a refreshing change of pace from a stale formula.
“Also, the girl might not have been a slave in a male fantasy, but she was just as much of a pathetic cliche desperately in need of a man to validate her, so not much better.”
She doesn’t need validation, just companionship. And in reality, she feels awkward being put on a pedestal.
ATTENTION DANIEL “GATSU” ZELTER:
You are not fooling anyone by posting by what you think to be anonymously. Please, for the love of God, stop flooding my podcast blog with your lame posts that don’t actually pertain to the main topic of the podcast. If you absolutely MUST post somewhere, I know you know where the ANN forums are, judging from your near-5500 posts.
I haven’t had the chance to listen to the show yet, but I hope you also mention the Astro Boy manga, released by a certain company.
They were most definitely appreciated, (as were the Lost World etc trilogy).
No other human being produced as much as Tezuka did.
No joke; according to Philip Brophy, on page count he’s the most published author, ever, anywhere.
The R4 release of 80s Astro is definitely dub only, so I guess we lose out there. But we did get DVD releases of Space Firebird 2772 and the Tezuka Experimental Films (including the ones with dialogue), so I guess I’ll live.
daryl: “You are not fooling anyone by posting by what you think to be anonymously. “
I’m not trying to fool anyone. I’m just lazy to sign in.
“Please, for the love of God, stop flooding my podcast blog with your lame posts that don’t actually pertain to the main topic of the podcast.”
I mentioned Astro Boy in passing.
“If you absolutely MUST post somewhere, I know you know where the ANN forums are, judging from your near-5500 posts.”
I didn’t know you didn’t like opinions other than your own. That just gives me less of a reason to buy Otaku U.S.A.
I gotta tell ya. Stop complaining about the lenght of your shows. While it is infact the edge you have that makes you better and more enjoyable compared to paople like dave and joel.
Also, i dont mind you splitting the episodes, but must you wait so long inbetween posting them? =P
I’ve read one volume of the Astroboy manga and Phonix back when I was in college (2004). I want to watch Astroboy on CN but 5:30 is too early and I don’t have TiVo. I did see like two eps of Gigantor when they showed that.
BTW-I know you guys must hate Peach Pit for making DearS but I was hoping Claressa would review Rozen Maiden. I’ve only seen the first season and I thought it was surprisingly good. Not great in any sense but much better than I thought it’d be.
DESU DESU DESU DESU DESU DESU DESU DESU
vz: Astroboy plays on the Adult Swim website, too.
For our anon. ranter poster, how lazy do you have to be to not click one radio button over another? Most browsers have a smart autofill and you don’t even have to type your name…anyway…
I think the reason the podcasts get longer and longer is because they’re not getting done on as often a basis. Yeah, everyone has that annoying thing called ‘Life’ to deal with too and that always throws a crowbar in the works….but I kinda sorta think if there was more recording and releasing going on the podcasts would shorten up some.
The solution, of course, is AWO needs to be twice weekly. Get on that. 🙂
On Astro Boy, I really don’t have much to say. My appreciation of Tezuka tends to be on the intellectual side more than on the ‘enjoyment’ side. I CAN say that the most recent incarnation sure seems to suffer from old thinking, like everything was done with ’60s mentality (in terms of edits and ‘we can’t show THAT’ things), and I can’t tell if that thinking went into it from the start, or if it was all in the ‘Americanize’ process.
I mean, you think we’ve gotten past that sort of nonsense, but we’ve not. Just because they keep some Japanese names in doesn’t mean it isn’t screwed up.
You kids should do a whole show about my hero, Fred Ladd! His work on Astro Boy, Kimba and Gigantor were the foundation of anime in America…
thanks for reading my email(finally), and now i can justify destroying my friends fushugi yuugi dvd for dave and joel’s contest. i guess i got to get a job now to pay him back….o well. but thanks a lot, and yes, gerald, you do need to get that looked at.
Speaking on the subject of Tezuka, I downloaded all of Phoenix from iTunes, but still haven’t watched it. I watched Black Jack, oh, about five years ago when Channel4 still haven’t seen sense.
But I’m getting to my point now of, while I was downloading Phoenix, I was given a link by the store for Jungle Emperor Leo: The Movie. Before I download it, can I ask should I watch the series first? I read from the iTunes description that it takes up the latter half of Tezuka’s manga.
Come on guys, y’all kick ass, and loads of people enjoy listening to your 3 hour shows. They almost kinda sorta maybe make up for the fact that you release, like, one episode per month.
THANK GOD SOMEONE OTHER THAN ME HATES ABSOLUTE BOYFRIEND! I don’t see how it’s any better than Chobits, to be honest.
Thanks for reviewing Astro Boy. I don’t know about other people, but I liked it a lot when I was a kid.
Ha ha, the title of this episode rminds me of the bonus page in the first volume of the Cromartie High School manga, about Eiji Nonaka taping NHK dramas without a television and turning a beret into the police station.
eeeper: You can generally watch the Leo movie, but there are references to the first arc.
just finished the episode. Daryl I thought you were an otaku! You said that in the real world couples face a whole new world of problems after they get together. How would you know?!!
just kidding.
Congrats, AWO, on reaching 60 episodes! It’s funny, just a few episodes ago, you were reviewing The Humanoid and Angel Cop, and now you’re devoting an entire show to Osamu Tezuka. I don’t know why, but I find that hilarious.
Seeing as how these posts have basically been invaded by either comments about Clamp or Yu Watase, I’ll only say this: Clarissa, I completely agree, Clamp > Yu Watase.
I can’t comment on Kimagure Orange Road, since I haven’t seen it yet. However, I will say that School Rumble is, in my opinion, a really fun show, and I definately recommend it.
Now, to Astro Boy. You guys are the only podcast I know of that has actually reviewed Astro Boy, which I find amazing. Daryl, your review was very insightful, and has convinced me to pick up the Manga Entertainment box set. I’m not gonna get the Rightstuf set just yet, because I’m hoping that they’ll eventually release a subtitled version.
That’s all for now. Expect more once you release the next parts of the show.
I didn’t know that the upcoming Astroboy movie will be totally CG. I thought it was going to be a live action film. I guess having a boy in nothing but shorts and red boots wouldn’t work today.
Hey Daryl, I want to thank you for your recomendation of New Getter Robo. It was a such a great series. Will you be reviewing Getter Robo Armageddon and Shin VS Neo? I also just bought The Dagger of Kamui because your review made it seem interesting. I’ll probably watch it soon.
First off, going off answering other people’s comments!
Tohoscope said…
You kids should do a whole show about my hero, Fred Ladd! His work on Astro Boy, Kimba and Gigantor were the foundation of anime in America…
I would like to interview him too, he’s a Toledo Legend in my book (though none of his work might have aired here at all given the limited amount of channels we had to show anything back then, Detroit was what most Toledoans had to watch in those days).
To answer another guy’s question, Jungle Emperor Leo movie is pretty good and pretty much covers much of the final part of Tezuka’s manga of the same name. It was released on DVD from Media Blasters some years back (I guess Tezuka Pro likes to own these English version for their usage here in iTunes).
Now on to the podcast transcription….
– Being reminded I’ve only saw the first Blackjack OVA episode about 10 years ago when I bought that first tape on VHS (came with a booklet from Tezuka Pro on Tezuka and his work as if I needed to be reminded on him then). Back then, anything Tezuka-related was far scarcer than it is today in America. I’m only glad Dark Horse managed to hammer out all those Astro Boy manga volumes they way they had. Back then the only one I ever saw on the shelf was Adolf.
Hate to admit, the first time I became familiar with Tezuka was through finding a cassette at the public library book sale of international animated short films of the early 80’s that included “Jumping” and “Broken Down Film” amoung it’s rouster, though from pretty grainy, over-saturated film prints.
– Being reminded of having only watched the first episode of “Fushigi Yuugi” and never again. Just didn’t want to dive into that one. Glad to see it wasn’t worth the effort!
– I actually liked the Magic User’s Club OVA too, but never got around to seeing the TV show, but I never thought about there being any REAL romance in it at all. I was more for the action and teamwork of the guys whose club was already a hole in the wall overshadowed by the manga club next door. Sad to hear the TV series sucked.
– Thinking of fanfics made me think of that one Tiny Toon Adventures episode that was based on a fanfic itself (probably the first time it happened to an American cartoon). I once tried to do one but just gave up thinking it was going to end up back like all the others! The Fat Albert gay porn one sounds pretty killer!
– Being reminded of one YouTube post of the Astro Boy theme where one guy came out of hiding to admit he was one of those that was in the chorus that sang that tune! Some viewers today still can’t get over the opening intro’s villains which included a row of guys who wear hoods similar to KKK’s. The theme music alone made me think of Popeye for no reason. 🙂
Heh, my dad’s a little older than Astro (so was my late mother)! 🙂
Shame Tezuka lived to be 60 though, he would be nearly 80 right now.
Television in America would’ve been far older than in Japan in the early 60’s (at least by a decade or less). Many TV cartoons produced here were already being filmed in color despite being shown initially in black & white by the networks or individual stations. The reason for that was more an afterthought to repeat these programs in color once it became possible. Many Japanese TV anime of the time didn’t have the real budget that necessitated that, yet these shows like Astro Boy have lived on in the hearts of many Japanese Baby Boomers for years to come, unlike in the US where black & white programming often faded to obscurity.
– Technically, there was a comic book in the US that was around then called “Mighty Atom” which was why Tetsuwan Atom had it’s name changed to what it became. Otherwise, many Hollywood cartoons of the pre-50’s period had been airing on local TV stations through syndication in the 60’s such as the Fleischer shorts, Warner Bros. and such. This was due to the dirty dealings these studios had in having sold off the TV rights and libraries to distributors whom often removed logos or other edifications in order to show them on TV. One such company for example, Associated Artists Productions, had the pre-1948 WB library of Merrie Melodies and color Looney Tunes to offer as well as the Popeye cartoons from Paramount. Another distributor, U.M.& M. TV Corp., had the rest of the Paramount library up to 1950 excluding the Superman films. These cartoons were usually seen on stations that offered them as part of a local kiddie show that often featured a host that was either a cowboy, a captain or a clown of sorts. Often times the silent cartoons of the 1910’s and 20’s might also be found during that time as well, usually re-modded to have sound effects and music attached. If it wasn’t these particular shorts that were shown, often it was some domestic thing like Clutch Cargo, Bucky & Pepito, Crusader Rabbit, or even the foreign crop of cartoons that often removed any mention of which studio or whomever worked on them, leading to confusion and muddled memories in the minds of 50 year olds everywhere! Here’s one example!
Warner Bros. on the other hand had aired “The Bugs Bunny Show” during prime-time on ABC since 1960 and CBS had the Terrytoons library to show after it acquired that studio in the 50’s. So it’s not so much a question of America not having enough cartons to show, but more of the window of opportunity was there for experiment and occupation at a time when all you had was The Big Three and perhaps an independent station on UHF or such. Usually bigger markets (New York for starters) would be the ones to tap for these channels than in smaller ones where airtime and space would be far more limited (even to the point where one station might be affiliated with all three networks at one time, like what happened in Toledo for years).
That nazi cartoon you’re probably thinking of was probably this…
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2666191777589354406
I really don’t consider it propaganda much myself, as some animation historians have suggested that the producer himself, Hans Fischerkoesen, detest the Nazi power at the time, and often produced these films to be more anti-Nazi if you look of them a different way, though it’s not too too hard to see what might get slipped in outside the censor’s nose in these. Fischerkoesen would go on to move to West Germany where he continued producing advertising films and TV commercials years after WWII.
“limited animation” otherwise had been the case for many American cartoons of the day. The way it was handled in Japan from Tezuka’s efforts at Mushi Pro different greatly from the formulas and concepts developed by studios like Hanna-Barbera over here.
Many of the Astro Boy episodes that were produced were on 16mm. I assume the audio Right Stuf used for their releases came from private collector’s prints none the less.
Heh, I thought Astro Boy was airing at 2AM Sunday morning? Unless they gave it a weekday shot, it would be a nice improvement over the once-a-week showing as it would take Adult Swim nearly two years to run through all the episodes that way. It should be of note that only 104 of 193 episodes of the original Japanese series were purchased and offered by NBC for syndication then (Right Stuf on the other hand have the complete English dub itself for those two box sets, a feat I didn’t think was possible a decade ago when they had just the VHS releases).
Astro Boy, while having been distributed by NBC, did not meant that it aired on NBC itself. It was handled through their film division. In those days, the networks used to had a film division offering programs that were syndicated to other stations that might have been affiliated with a different network or was independent, depending on market (this would change when an FCC ruling prohibited networks from running these divisions in the early 70’s, leading to these film divisions having to be split part to become their own companies or bought by other syndicators).
For example, while NBC had owned this program, in New York, it aired on WNEW, channel 5, which was an independent station serving that city. In Detroit, I think it aired on CKLW, channel 9, though it was an affiliate of the CBC where it was located in Windsor, Ontario.
While Tezuka’s name was in the credits, I’m reminded more of seeing his name listed in Kimba the White Lion as “Osamu Tezyka”, making his surname feel more Polish than Japanese. 🙂
When the first episode aired on Adult Swim sometime ago of the 60’s series, someone had to mention how lengthly the episode felt over what typically gets seen in a half-hour’s worth of time, as it felt like you were watching far more of Astro Boy as opposed to a normal cartoon, perhaps due to the way these looping animation and other techniques were handled. 🙂
I personally enjoyed what I saw of the 1980’s series, and only wish it had aired here (Wikipedia said ABC showed it, but again, who trust Wikipedia). This show would’ve been perfect on Nickelodeon alongside Danger Mouse and Mysterious Cities of Gold. Tezuka himself did get to appear in the final episode of the show (though not seen in the English dub), opening and ending the episode in a manner that reminded me more of something Bill Cosby did in Fat Albert. Still, Astro gets to be pessimistic here than some uber-confident snob.
I remember the Astro Boy 2003 English pliot thing you mentioned Marc Handler worked on, though I only wish I had saved that when I had the chance to see it years ago.
Daryl’s comment on “Gatsu” should apply to the last poster as well. Seriously, if you have that much to talk about, use your own blog.
On the contrary, each of the points Chris brings up is a response, addition, or correction to something specific that I actually said on the show (which was largely derived from my recollection of what Fred Ladd said on the subject). It’s actual valid feedback done as a result of listening to the podcast. If Chris was habitually just writing response after response when he very obviously wasn’t listening to the show at all, instead just responding to what was in the show notes, then yes it would be the same thing.
You said that in the real world couples face a whole new world of problems after they get together. How would you know?!!
Clarissa said it during that gay porno comicbook review. I’m just taking her word on it.
As much as I love Texas Mack and worship Black Getter (I wish I could buy this), I don’t know if the other Getter Robo OAVs need reviewing here or not. They’re by Jun Kawagoe and they’re awesome. That’s pretty much it. I think I noted in the show that the biggest problem with Armageddon is that they sacked Imagawa after episode 3, then the next four or so episodes are just plain not very good until Black Getter shows up. Shin vs Neo is the one I try to show people first since it’s just four parts.
And though I’ve not seen it, everyone I’ve asked has said that Jungle Emperor Leo movie that Media Blasters released was a pretty subpar outing.
chris: I’m not entirely sure they’re KKK members. They could be robbers or in a cult.
daryl: Getter Armageddon was sweet. Imagawa being out of the picture allowed better development of the other characters. If he was kicking ass the entire OVA, then you’d get bored quick.
And the Leo movie was wonderful. It’s like the Lion King without songs meant to sell toys, and with more realistic depictions of jungle animals. Anyone who hates it probably has a short attention span.
VZ said: I want to watch Astroboy on CN but 5:30 is too early and I don’t have TiVo.
I checked the times on TV Guide. Astro boy plays initially at 2 AM, Sunday Morning (EST). The 530 AM show is the adult swim replay.
Steve Harrison said: I mean, you think we’ve gotten past that sort of nonsense, but we’ve not. Just because they keep some Japanese names in doesn’t mean it isn’t screwed up.
Are you talking about anyone in particular? Some American companies still try to change the Japanese names in licensed properties (like Detective Conan).
I don’t get it. I don’t understand the corporate impulse to de-emphasize the Japanese origin of anime. Anime has a well established niche audience. Unless some killer show takes over the world, I don’t see much growth for anime in the mainstream media. The established fan base is more attracted to the Japanese nature of the product. They should play to the Japanese aspects of anime, instead of hiding them.
james: Anime’s about as niche as Watchmen, though there’s a slightly better chance for a DBZ movie to make money than an Alan Moore movie. But I agree with you on keeping the Japanese elements. I think execs believe kids go for the merchandise, and to a certain extent, it was true with shows like Pokemon. But if they didn’t like the characters, it’d probably have died a quick death like Gobots.
Daryl Surat said…
On the contrary, each of the points Chris brings up is a response, addition, or correction to something specific that I actually said on the show (which was largely derived from my recollection of what Fred Ladd said on the subject). It’s actual valid feedback done as a result of listening to the podcast. If Chris was habitually just writing response after response when he very obviously wasn’t listening to the show at all, instead just responding to what was in the show notes, then yes it would be the same thing.
Thanks for the statement! The way I often respond to these podcasts is somewhat based on how I had often responded to Usnet/forum postings in the past, where I often find I don’t have a whole lot to say personally on something, like creating a new topic for discussion, but I find answering other’s questions or adding onto those has been my specialty. It’s the pain I received through reading books, watching videos and leafing through newspaper microfiche at the public library, all those countless years ago.
Here’s another addition I like to mention I just thought about today. There are two English dubs for the 1980’s Astro Boy series. One of course is what is released on DVD here and in Australia, but another dub was produced specifically for the Canadian market from some outfit out of Montreal whom also worked on a French version that aired on Société Radio-Canada (where it was named “Astro, le petit robot”). This version had different name changes for characters from the previous dub (yet retaining the English theme songs used before), and added additional crap like an episode recap disguised to act as if Astro was filing a report with a computer of what he did in that episode. I’ve only ever seen one episode’s worth of this on tape I got from one Canadian trader years back.
One thing of note about the Manga Entertainment release over Madman’s I believe is in how the episodes were edited to conform to the English dub (while retaining the Japanese track). Madman’s release seemed to have been close to the English version since a Japanese audio track wasn’t provided for them. Manga’s release tries it’s best to use more of the Japanese footage while still working it around the English language audio, often the best you’ll see additional Japanese signage or captions in newspapers whereas they would be removed in the English dub (of course Tezuka Pro could’ve fixed the problem by re-animated those sequences to be more universal in the first place, but that’s my opinion).
Thinking about those deleted scenes again, I kinda wished someone would stick up that one clip of Uran doing her theme song while Jesus uses a giant halo as a hoola-hoop! 🙂
chris: I’m not entirely sure they’re KKK members. They could be robbers or in a cult.
I know. Just that I was thinking more of the uninitiated public whom might watch the Adult Swim airings and get the wrong impression. Thanks for clearing that up though, of course I had a similar thought on that when I got the first of Right Stuf’s VHS tapes many, many years ago!
Adding another pointless comment, it’s usually said that the “Jungle Emperor Leo” ’97 film was Japan’s answer to The Lion King from the start, mainly for it’s luscious animation and details. It stlll has quite an impressive story and I only wished the manga got printed here right now.
Anonymous said: But if they didn’t like the characters, it’d probably have died a quick death like Gobots.
Actually Gobots was an American cartoon. It was produced by Hanna Barbera. However, the toy line was imported from Bandai – Japan.
The Gobots cartoon’s sole purpose was to sell the Bandai toys. The cartoon was produced after the Gobots toy line was created, and it tried to mimic the success of the Transformers franchise in the US. It sucked pretty badly, and it was a completely American production.
It’s actually kinda confusing because Gobots came out around the time Rankin/Bass started out-sourcing a lot of their cel-animated programs to Japan. They frequently used a Japanese studio called Top Craft, which is an off shoot of Toei Animation. The Rankin/Bass and Top Craft deal would ultimately spawn some memorable 80s shows like Silverhawks and ThunderCats. This would cause some confusion about the origin of the Gobots cartoon.
Now, I just need someone to explain to me: How does Leader-1 fire lasers from his engine’s intake?
Not to rush you guys or anything but when will part 2 of ep 60 be up?
Hey Gerald, I watched Black Lion today (it’s on Youtube) and it was pretty far out there. While I probably didn’t dig it as much as you did, I do agree that villian was cool. Too bad the ending seemed rushed because I would have liked it if the aliens were addressed more or maybe team up with either the main good guy or bad guy (I can’t remember their names). I wonder how the manga look campared to the OVA. The main bad guy when his cyborg face was shown, was obviously Terminator inspired but that would have looked really different in the manga since that was made in the 60’s.
chris: Yeah, no one wants to touch Leo, cus they claim the natives are depicted in a negative light. But Ode to Kirihito did alright, even though its portrayal of South Africans seems like it would be attacked, if Bamboozled was released today.
james: Thanks for the info. Speaking of Thundercats, the movie just got a director… http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117973736.html?categoryid=13&cs=1
James Leung Man-Fai said…
Actually Gobots was an American cartoon. It was produced by Hanna Barbera. However, the toy line was imported from Bandai – Japan.
Plain and simple!
The Gobots cartoon’s sole purpose was to sell the Bandai toys. The cartoon was produced after the Gobots toy line was created, and it tried to mimic the success of the Transformers franchise in the US. It sucked pretty badly, and it was a completely American production.
I feel ashamed for having an episode of this crap on 16mm!
It’s actually kinda confusing because Gobots came out around the time Rankin/Bass started out-sourcing a lot of their cel-animated programs to Japan. They frequently used a Japanese studio called Top Craft, which is an off shoot of Toei Animation.
Didn’t know that.
The Rankin/Bass and Top Craft deal would ultimately spawn some memorable 80s shows like Silverhawks and ThunderCats. This would cause some confusion about the origin of the Gobots cartoon.
Not sure if Topcraft worked on those shows. Their main projects with R/B had been the two Tolkien TV movies in the late 70’s, as well as “The Last Unicorn”. Not to mention the Nausicaa film they produced for Miyazaki too. I usually had the impression the studio that worked on Thundercats and Silverhawks went on to work on Megazone 23 pt. II (hence the opening gag in that video), assuming if AIC had worked previously for those shows like they had for other studios. 🙂
If anyone’s interested, I have a passing connection with the American edition of the ’03 Astroboy. One of my friends from Sony Animation named David Hartman was put in charge of editing of that series. I don’t think he was part of the writing or recording process, but he was definitely the guy whose task it was to cut the shows down to match the usual length of American cartoons. For anyone who doesn’t know what I mean, US ‘toons are almost all broken into three acts to accomodate two commercial breaks. When I started in the biz in ’96 a typical half-hour show was 22 minutes long. These days I think it’s just barely scraping by 18. Anime, by contrast, is broken in two acts with one commercial break. To my knowledge, the only US network that ever uses that format is Nickelodeon. Anyway…
I have nothing bad to say about my friend Dave, it wasn’t his decision to do the editing. It was an assignment given to him from higher up. And it had nothing to do with concealing the origins or censoring the content. It was a mechanical function only, and his job was to decide what could be removed without compromising the story.
There were probably other changes made during the scriptwriting and recording, but nobody was afraid to call it anime. It’s not a dirty word ’round these parts. Sony later did the same thing on ‘Blood Plus,’ but Dave was not involved with that one.
My sympathies were with Dave the whole time. It must have been a very painful job. I know I wouldn’t have the stomach for it. (By the way, there are hours of entertainment in store at Dave’s website, http://www.sideshowmonkey.com and you can also see his work in chapter 17 of ‘Grease Monkey.’ FREE PLUG!)
I think the only way to obtain the uncut ’03 Astroboy is to hold your nose and buy the Hong Kong bootlegs. That’s how I solved the problem.
Ochanomizu is called O’Shea in the 2003 dub? As in Ice Cube’s real name? As in “He got in the Benz and said/’Dre, I was speakin’ to your bitch O’Shea”?
My favorite exchange of the episode:
Daryl: People take one look at those character designs, and even though the animation is so beautiful, and even though the character designs have been updated over the years and you can see the difference, thet say, “Nah, it looks a little too old.'”
Gerald: Are Americans that shallow? I mean, are Americans really *that* shallow?
Daryl: I can tell you that *anime fans* are–I don’t know about Americans overall.
Clarissa had the sharpest observation, however, when she pointed out that very few Americans who watch TV feel the need to seek out stuff from the 1950s, just for the sake of roots. Have you read the other Tezuka books Dark Horse has published–LOST WORLD, NEXTWORLD, and METROPOLIS (which bears little resemblance to the Rin Taro film)? This is like, Precambrian manga–Tezuka before he was Tezuka. You can almost perceive the spirits of the half-starved kids in late-40s Japan, senses dulled with hunger, fighting with each other over these strange picture books.
I wish you all could have been to the recent Tezuka exhibit at the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco. It was a truly grand presentation, with twenty-foot high banners of Blackjack, Astro Boy, Phoenix, and Princess Knight hanging between the pillars at the entrance. Twenty of Tezuka’s works, some of which I had never even heard of, were singled out for display, each accompanied by several pages of mind-blowing original art. Any visitor would come away with the impression that Tezuka was one of the most important artists to come out of Asia in the 20th century–which of course, he was; that was the idea behind the exhibition.
Thank you Daryl for rekindling my interest in the Astroboy manga from DH, from which I have the 1st and 2nd volumes. I will definitely give it another try. The first and last time I met Marc Handler was when he was still excited about Astroboy 2003 as it was about to air. Now I’m definitely interested in checking out the Japanese version.
(Also, this may not be the place for this, but what the hell; to Tim Eldred: I don’t know you personally, but I believe I’ve worked with someone you might have worked with in the past. Does the name Nathan Chew ring a bell?)
And regarding the new IMAGI Astroboy, all I know is that Peter Chung is doing some storyboards for it. Say what you will about the man, but I actually think this is great given his knowledge and experience with Japanese studios and working in Japan and Korea. However, I don’t know how much say Tezuka Productions has over this project, or if that would matter much given the circumstances of this American/Hong Kong production.
Again, thank you AWO for a very informative and entertaining podcast.
Ré
Another thing that AIC/ARTMIC did for the U.S. market back in the 80’s was the animated training videos for Captain Power. I have the second and third tape they made and I got to find a way to put it on a disc and then upload it to Youtube because it’s something people should see. For one the art and animation are very high quality 80’s OVA style (especially the third tape which in one part has a scene that must have been shot on the ones). The mechanical designs for this were done by Shinji Aramaki, although I think it’s just he made the designs adaptable for the animation as the original designs were for the American live action show (remember the CG in that?).
regis: And regarding the new IMAGI Astroboy, all I know is that Peter Chung is doing some storyboards for it. Say what you will about the man, but I actually think this is great given his knowledge and experience with Japanese studios and working in Japan and Korea. However, I don’t know how much say Tezuka Productions has over this project, or if that would matter much given the circumstances of this American/Hong Kong production.
This was my thought. That the Japanese studio had about as much involvement in the production as say, Tecmo did for the Dead or Alive movie, or perhaps a less crappy example, The Lord of the Rings movies and the Tolkien estate. Although I’d find that a bit hard to believe since I can’t imagine that Tezuka Productions would just have Astroboy be done without some involvement from them. I’m pretty sure Mark Handler has something to do with the movie and he did a fine job on the 2003 TV series so I guess there’s hope, even though Peter Chung might totally cancel that out.
VZ: Black Lion related post
Well, I have the feeling that Black Lion is much like the Getter Robo of Go Nagai’s ninja creations in that it’s rather primal and visceral and I guess if you think or look in to it too much, you’re sort of missing the point. Although I would be very happy to see something more out of Black Lion, such as a late night TV series. Definitely one of Go Nagai’s more underappreciated works.
Carl: Carl, you mention the Metropolis manga, right? Well, Sony actually originally postponed it for a bit, because they were worried the scenes of crumbling corporate buildings would have a negative effect on viewers. Hell, they expected to be in and out of theaters, like they ended up doing with Tekkon Kinkreet! But it did well enough that they were able to extend its run. And that’s a film which probably looks older than than the new Astroboy.
So I don’t think it’s the age of the series which hurts it, because Pixar likes using retro character designs, to. What I feel is that the new one was badly marketed as much as the new Cyborg 009. They played the action show angle, instead of the character development angle, and it became a real challenge for these titles to survive-especially in a post-wire fu world.
I think a number of quality anime series have been hurt by poor marketing. Look at Tutu. ADV went for the fairy tale angle, instead of the ballet angle, and it didn’t come off as original in the process.
gerald: “This was my thought. That the Japanese studio had about as much involvement in the production as say, Tecmo did for the Dead or Alive movie,”
The only difference between DOA the games and DOA the movie is silicone.
“or perhaps a less crappy example, The Lord of the Rings movies and the Tolkien estate.”
I heard Tolkien’s kid gave up the movie rights, but the rest of his family was pissed.
“Definitely one of Go Nagai’s more underappreciated works.”
Is it better than Kabuto? ‘Cus I’m getting a similar vibe from it.
Regis–yep, you and I are only one degree apart.
Bit of trivia: there’s a district in Tokyo called Ochanomizu. It’s bisected by a greenish river, hence the name: Green Tea Water.
I’m guessing it predated the character name in Astroboy.
I enjoyed hearing you guys talk about romance anime… just something I’d like to add, and it comes back to demographics once again.
Personally I have very little tolerance for shoujo romance – but at this point I’m thirty-something woman so blushing girls wondering if they have courage to tell this really cute boy that they like them is kinda old news for me. It’s not surprising that I get my romance fix from josei – I’d like to second Clarissa’s recommendation on anything by Ai Yazawa, NANA is fabulous, and so is Paradise Kiss, but don’t always expect a happy ending (this will distress guys sometimes). I know these guys were looking for anime, but I need to plug Yayoi Ogawa’s fantastic josei manga Kimi wa Pet (Tramps like us) if you’re into humoristic and bittersweet adult romances.
But since so little josei gets released here, most of the time I tend to go for BL (which is a genre in josei demographic) for romance. Again this applies to manga only, but I’ve been loving lot of the stuff M+ rating stuff June has been releasing lately – lot of salaryman oriented adult romance with biseinen instead of schoolboys. And lets face it, big thing about josei for me is the fact that sex is a normal part of the relationships, just like in real life for normal people – with BL of course that’s where the focus is, but het works for me very well too.
But romance for adult couples, seinen is of course another place to look too (and I’m not talking about moe). If romance as a side plot is enough, I need to push one of my all-time favorites Planetes – series where the sweet love story plays an integral part in the background.