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This episode probably sets some sort of AWO record for going off-topic, so if you find yourself wondering “when are they going to actually talk about anime” then you are encouraged to consult the timecodes. Gerald reviews Witchblade (which he repeatedly paid money to own), Daryl reviews Strait Jacket (probably the newest thing he’s ever done), and Clarissa reviews Moyashimon.
And since we forgot to throw the links in last time, Daryl was a guest on Destroy All Podcasts DX and talked about Macross Frontier. The conversation took a while, so it was split into two parts entitled Side A and Side B. Daryl was also on the Greatest Movie EVER! podcast yet again, this time to talk about Doomsday.
Intro (0:00 – 32:45)
Since every single anime podcast out there talks a whole lot about videogames, we thought we’d give it a shot ourselves for a few minutes. But as it turns out, none of us are actually PLAYING anything despite owning decades worth of console/PC games, right up to the present. Email-wise, we talk about the scarcity of the Imaginasian DVDs, Helen McCarthy reports on how her Osamu Tezuka exhibit turned out, and a Japanese listener offers us some additional clarification regarding our earlier comments made during the review of The Girl Who Leapt Through Time by directing us to a Japanese language interview with the director, Mamoru Hosoda. We also plug our appearances at SITACon (which at the time of writing is happening RIGHT NOW) as well as EXPCon (the panel creation for which begins immediately now that this podcast is out, and then Otaku USA deadlines are immediately after THAT).
Let’s News! (32:45 – 1:12:09)
Cartoon Network has bid farewell to the Toonami block after all these years, which puts us on a quite lengthy tangent regarding the television industry, advertising, and our disdain for same. Not that we didn’t already know it, but Vertical’s manga sales for non-Tezuka works aren’t exactly setting the world on fire. Additionally, some of the old Bandai Visual titles that were scheduled to be released at absolutely outrageous prices are now slated for releases with somewhat less outrageous prices, and the Moyashimon manga has been licensed.
Promo: Rocket Punch! The Podcast (1:12:09 – 1:13:22)
Rocket Punch! is a podcast about videogames and cartoons, and some of those cartoons are anime! What is also just for the record: Inspector Gadget’s no robot. Inspector Gadget is a cyborg.
Review: MILFBlade Witchblade (1:13:22 – 1:37:25)
Now for a Gonzo show that, like every single other Gonzo show ever made, completely changes its focus a few episodes in. Gerald takes a look at a show for which the best thing he can say about it is that “he didn’t dislike it for the reasons he thought he would.” In a revolutionary move, Gerald ends up disliking the show for completely DIFFERENT reasons then what he thought originally. But we know why you’re here: screen caps!
Hey boys and girls, what does this scene from the opening of Witchblade remind you of? Think hard…
The requisite “butt blood” shot, so often seen in anime. Remember this is still the opening sequence, so this show knows how to hold an audience.
This is roughly 10 seconds into the first episode. Usually the red cord has a very specific meaning in Japan. Here I’m pretty sure is NO exception.
That’s David Riley-level ass there!
Amaha has got junk pretty much in the hood AND the trunk. Erm, MASANE Amaha to be specific.
Here’s the pervert machine that is the predominant enemy in the first part of the show, complete with…
…pumping pistons, which are completely NOT sexual.
It’s hard to see in this screencap, but I promise you there’s a robot dick about to meet its end.
Theeeeere we go!
And here is where we finally see what we were paying for, at least for the first disc.
And that very important highlighting. Makes me wonder if any animators got in trouble for not putting ENOUGH highlighting in?
I PROMISE you that is NOT pubic hair on her crotch…I think.
And I PROMISE you that is, umm, robot blood? Eh, whatever…
Actually, at this point, you can think it’s whatever you want! Also note the very slutty tongue piercing. Don’t lie, they have only ONE use!
Promo: Anime HACK (1:37:25 – 1:37:50)
Jason Michael is a man with two first names that was a cool bro for attending at least one of our Saturday night panels at AWA, and since he emailed us his promo, we are now playing it! They are a podcast that for over a year has reviewed titles such as Rozen Maiden, Love Hina, and other detestable titles so we don’t have to! Actually, they’re not all detestable. If Jason’s reading this, two bits of advice: one, don’t have your embedded Pickle Players auto-load the MP3s, because when you have multiple podcast posts per page it ends up downloading like 5 files at once thus slowing down the connection of anyone who checks the site. Two, when you mix in music, turn the volume WAY DOWN.
Promo: Pop Rocks and Soda (1:37:50 – 1:39:30)
That is RIGHT. Two promos one after the other (due to errant pasting). This is quite obviously done in one take with little to no script, but with the US presidential election mere days away, we thought it best to do everything in our power to encourage other podcasts to create attack ads against us which we will then run ON THIS VERY PODCAST. This was actually sent to us six months ago, but instead of sending an MP3 they sent us a Garage Band project. All of us use Windows! If you’re not entirely sure what this podcast is about based on the promo, here is their Myspace page.
Review: Strait Jacket (1:39:30 – 2:03:50)
For once in his life, Daryl reviews a title that just came out. Strait Jacket is the latest “short OAV edited together to form a movie” from Manga Video, which is quite the miracle considering that it’s 2008 and OAVs are hardly made any more. Everything about this feels like a typical 90s OAV production, which in this day and age is like an oasis in the desert. This will be airing on the Sci-Fi Channel this month as part of their Ani-Monday programming block. Its running time is 75 minutes, and while we’d like to hope that means it’d air in a 90 minute block after commercials, based on what we just said in the news segment we wouldn’t be surprised if they ran 45 minutes of commercials in there.
Promo: Spiraken Manga Review (2:03:50 – 2:04:33)
Ed Chavez better watch his back because he’s not the only manga-centric podcast on the block no mo’! May-san and Xan (what about Xzar? Either his voice is ambrosia or he’s the alpha and omega) get bonus points from us for immersing themselves into just manga rather than manga plus anime [plus videogames] or what have you. However, those bonus points are REVOKED due to the fact that they reviewed Chibi Vampire AND Rosario+Vampire. So the only bonus points they get to keep are the ones they got for saying we are awesome.
Review: Moyashimon: Tales of Agriculture (2:04:33 – 2:24:20)
As the voicemails for this episode demonstrate, we’re all a bunch of egotists. Clarissa reviews the entirely too short TV series Moyashimon, which is about going to agricultural college and getting so constantly shitfaced that you can perpetually see bizarre giant yet cute versions of bacteria all around you. Judging from Florida A&M attendees, this is a perfectly accurate portrayal of agricultural college life. The anime has yet to be licensed, but the manga release is impending thanks to Del Rey. Watch and learn all about the joys of fermentation!
The many microbes of Moyashimon. Aspergillus Oryzae, Japan’s national micro-organism, is the little yellow guy front and center.Closing (2:24:20 – 2:28:55)
It was not until WARP Anime’s PAC report that it dawned on us that Christian is in fact the chair of PAC. We figured Mara was in charge of everything, just like how she’s in charge of everything else BA-DA-BING! Next time on AWO, we’re taking Spiraken’s words to heart and reviewing only manga titles. Gerald is reviewing the Vertical release of Osamu Tezuka’s Dororo, Daryl is reviewing the greatest otaku tale ever told aka Ressentiment, and Clarissa’s shooting you up with Part 4 of Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure.
gomen nasai…
Funny how the Witchblade character design still features those damn annoying “moe” bunny ears motif in the hair design. I guess it’s for people into milfs as well as little girls? Or perhaps milfs who are also little girls, much like that new Japanese film “Kodomo no Kodomo.”
And, of course, Kiviak: it’s what’s for dinner!
Ré
Maaaaaan, that doesn’t even come close to sounding like me. And I’m not smart enough to use bold tags.
People just too into hatin’ because they fear my knowledge. Word.
I would like to be totally open and say that what I’ve read of the original Witchblade wasn’t bad, and I’d probably watch the Witchblade anime and not hate it for being shamelessly “adult.”
I should be beaten for that.
Yeah, how dare they make Transformers a cartoon for kids. I mean, it’s not like it started that way or anything.
…Okay, I’m gonna go watch Moyashimon now. That kind of quirkiness is right up my alley. Thanks loads for the rec, Clarissa!
The MILFblade review was lulzy, Gerald – keep it up.
CANNOT WAIT FOR THE NEXT EPISODE. I just read the first volume of Dororo and loved it; and yes, those covers are pretty dumb. And fuck yes JoJo’s. 😀
When I listened to the Moyashimon review, I kept thinking of the guy on the Bizarre Foods show (on the Travel Channel) who eats all sorts of disgusting things. Finally, an anime series for the Bizarre Foods guy–Moyashimon!
Another great show guys.
Gerald was dead on with his Witchblade review. I Netflixed the show a month back because someone told me it wasn’t as bad as it looked, and I pretty much had the same reaction that Gerald did.
Clarissa has peaked my interest with her Moyashimon review. I’m going to check that out as soon as I can.
Strait Jacket sounds like it’s worth the $15 bucks it’s probably going to cost.
Also your rant at the beginning of the show made me feel better about myself and my large pile of unplayed video games. Thanks guys.
Moyashimon
Finally something that shows me I have reached my limit on foods I am willing to try. Before this review I would have said I’ll try anything that is an actual food eaten by people. Tho’ professor Itsuki’s description makes it tempting.
Why would they eat something like this? Well famine makes people try many things they would otherwise not touch, and then they refine their techniques.
By the way Sawaki’;s family does not produce yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) but koji (Aspergillus oryzae) which is used to not only make sake but also: soy sauce, miso, mirin, shochu and natto. As soon as the manga starts coming out I’ll do an entry for it in the Anime Companion Supplement. ‘Til then I’ll stick to yokai, sex and religion .
http://www.koyagi.com/ACPages/ACmain.html
Good show as usual. The only thing that interests me about Witchblade is that Mamiko Noto is cast in a role that isn’t a cute girl or a lesbian. Does she sound at all different than normal?
Just to throw a random recommendation at you, have you guys watched Detroit Metal City? It’s the first show in a long time that’s made me actually laugh aloud. Each episode is less than 15 minutes so it’s not a big time investment. Plus with 10 rapes a second you get the most bang for your proverbial buck… yeah, that was bad.
lbvrevis isn’t kidding. Check out this pic:
http://img184.imageshack.us/img184/9356/dmc07towerrapeqm5.jpg
gilles –
Thanks, when I was double-checking things online it was a bit confusing as to whether it was a yeast or what.
lbrevis –
Gerald and I have been watching DMC, and I’ve read about four volumes of the manga. It’s definitely great stuff.
As to Mamiko Noto, I didn’t watch very much of MILFblade but I don’t remember her doing anything really different with her voice. Maybe a tad less whispery but that’s about it I think.
I can’t wait for the Ressentiment review. I read the four volumes onemanga.com had online, and holeeeeee shit…
Heard Ressentiment mentioned a few times now…It never got completely scanlated, did it?
I thought Witch Blade was a pretty decent series. I for the most part prefer Gonzo’s fanservice comedy shows like Rosario+Vampire (really stupid but funny), Strike Witches and Vandread over their titles designed to appeal to the western market like Samurai 7, Speed Grapher and Desert Punk (I refuse to see Afro Samurai).
I did watch Cyber City Oedo today and agree with Daryl that it’s probably the best Kawajiri anime. Kind of needed fanservice and more gore if only those are the staple of the OVA. Benten was the best character though.
I like Benten the best as well VZ. I think he gets a bad rap, because he looks like a chick. He’s the most capable member of the trio.
I have to disagree with your feelings about Vandred. I thought is was pretty cool at first, but it crapped out near the end.
I also picked up Strait Jacket and I liked it. The character designs where dull, but the animation was nice. I don’t know if I’d still like it if they made it into a series tho…..
Thanks for posting our (outdated) promo! It really means a lot to us, and we hope to hear from you guys in the future!
Oh and Daryl, just to let you know, our cast member Nybor has a bit of a crush on you =D
I just read a few chapters of Ressentiment. Wow, what a cautionary otaku tale.
If you want a cautionary tale watch Chäos;head (or however they decided to spell it). It’s pretty mindblowing, so it’s too bad it’s going to suck.
Jet-X is almost exactly what fox kids was plus some crappy new stuff. Fox kids doesn’t exist anymore, if memory serves, and Moving Code Gease might have been to promote the video section of their site.
(It’s “Jetix” and Code Geass” BTW)
I like the new show Jetix has, ATOM. I don’t know what else they play, besides every superhero cartoon there ever was.
Speaking of being obligated to watching commercials, I personally hate being told about using rewards cards at places I don’t normally buy more than a few cheap things at (like a gas/food mart nearby). It’s a nuisance to be reminded a lot, but apparently it’s their business and all the other typical rules that apply to employees in the establishment. We just have to face the music.
Gerald
If what you say is true, and that kids want to grow up, and watch live action, then WHY HASN’T POWER RANGERS GOTTEN BETTER!!!
HOLY SHIT did it get bad, I grew up with it, and transformers, and it has just gotten worse over the past few years, let’s say four. But good sites being that the executive producer that was making it shit is gone now.
But this shows just how much the people making it effects the quality. I guess it goes with the talk of what CN did to Code Geass(how ever you spell it). If the guy at top wants to do something, he will, whether or not it effects the show itself.
But now I am glad to see just what happened to those show like Teen titans, Who’s popularity I guess would be due to the massive amount of naked raven pictures.
And Daryl, Ben10 is pretty good, better than a lot of the other stuff, and the new show is a lot better.
And when are you going to Review gems like “Space Transformers” or other hits like “Protector of Galaxy”
And for a few episodes back, I saw the Cowboy Bebop movie in theatres, Drove four hours to see it in Jacksonville, and it was very worth it, very much so, and I can’t watch the movie without thinking of Pink Floyd, and vice verse.
And I guess I am in the minority of anime fans who like sports. I can keep track of Transformers characters at the same time as keep track of the BCS standings of College Football. Go michigan, just not this year, fuck rich rodriguez.
And for video games, I got the Gundam 00 DS game back at Jacon, it is very good and I recommend it for fans of robot fans, gundam fans, and action shooting fans.
OK, got to go get more super sentai vids, How many more mechs can they put together, who know, I’ve got to know, (they’re at 12 right now btw).
The problem with power rangers is that after using dinosaurs, cars, animals and whatnot, the ideas start running dry. I tried to watch the newer Power Rangers, and it’s just a weak attempt to keep that series going.
Dude, have you tried watching the old Power Rangers? It was always bad.
But I mean, I like bad movies. It’s almost like that, but let’s not kid ourselves. The acting is wretched, the plots purile, and the special effects unconvincing at best.
Well, I’m not comparing Power Rangers to anything else, but I’ve watched way more Power Rangers than someone should, child or not, and I was more interested in the original story than some of the others that followed.
I think that the color scheme of the original matched the characters in a way I thought made sense, albeit kind of in a racist way 😉
Yellow Ranger, RIP.
I’ve come to think that if there’s a decline in quality for Power Rangers (and recall, it’s a show *designed* for 8 year olds, not most of us) it can be traced directly to Toei taking a more active part in creating product that can more easily be ‘Americanized’, the partnership between Saban and Toei and now Disney and Toei.
And that HAS to be one of those wet dreams of any Japanese company, to be a PARTNER with DISNEY. That’s the big time. That is SERIOUS BREAKING THRU IN AMERICA, man!
Never mind that Power Rangers has been in decline ever since Fox pulled the plug on their weekday FoxKids kidvid block. but that whole thing was spelled out earlier.
I mean, I dunno, I don’t get to see much ‘raw’ Sentai stuff anymore but I see pics of the toys of the current show and holy crap, it looks like the cast of Pixar’s ‘Cars’ is the star. (which should not be a surprise as Cars did HUGE in Japan, and is still a strong toy license here in the US) and I am having a really hard time trying to figure how Disney is going to…um…Morph… that show into the next Power Rangers.
Sentai shows seemed to have a cycle pre-Power Rangers. They would be a little light and silly, then get darker and more serious, more mature from year to year, then they’d start all over again. If you compare Jetman to Jyuranger it seems night and day.
(and again, recall, created for 8 year olds. Cup Ramen monster. Spotlight Armadillo monster. Traffic Light monster. pretty silly, yes.)
Jetman opens with some astonishing violence, leading to the death of the lead hero’s girlfriend. (yeah, I know what happens later, but one didn’t at the start of the series). Jyuranger opens with a trip to a mysterious planet that has entered the Solar System and a couple of hapless Astronauts pop open a big jar where various creatures emerge, and the ‘mentor’ of the heros hears of this with a comical ‘growing ear’ that catches the reports.
I won’t go into a blow-by-blow of the entire episodes, but the overall tone of Jetman is dark, menacing, melodramatic turned to 11, the antagonists have varied motivations and agendas, and the design work is just impressive as all get out. Jyuranger, you just get the feeling that the antagonists are ANNOYING.
And the funny thing is, Watching Jetman, there’s a feeling that Toei had hopes of selling it to the US, it’s just a feeling about the look of everything, an attempt to make it NOT look like cheap cardboard buildings and ratty rubber monsters (yet so much about the series is VERY Japanese and would be a hard, hard sell in translating for TV), while Jyuranger has a very generic, minimalist look which obviously made it more appealing to Saban for conversion. Plus dinosaurs were still ‘hot’ thanks to ‘Jurassic Park’. KIds always love dinosaurs.
And the ‘kiddy to serious’ cycle seems to continue. ‘Dekaranger’ (turned into PR:SPD) seemed to be close to the tone of Jetman, then it went ‘Harry Potter’ the next year…
Not that I really know that much anymore, I just look at the toys.. 🙂
(and wow, I used to think ‘Janperson’ was crazy stupid but holy cats there’s some REALLY bleak stuff going on in that show! No wonder Saban went with B-Fighter)
Also, Power Rangers SPD? Yellow Ranger, smoking hot. I mean damn.
I think that they could put on a costumed hero, a la Masked Rider, in primetime on something like the CW and it would be a success.
No, I don’t mean like fucking Smallville, either. Something more in the line of Supernatural
Steve:
I have to admit, looking back and recently watching what I can of Zyuranger,(why the hell can’t a group sub the whole thing), It is very silly in my opinion, and it all started with the growing ear. But I have started watching the whole sentai footage, and started with Geki Ranger, went on to Dekaranger, (I am still about half way through)loved it. Started watching Power Ranger SPD, Holy crap, this is like the power rangers I grew up on. Now their was a time when i wanted to halt the SPD for a little, just cause I have a toy in the mail and am waiting for it. So I started watching another show, Power Ranger Operation Overdrive, Holy Crap, if it wasn’t for the hot chick, I would have never watched this show to ten episodes. So I said, wow, they effed this up bad, so I watched the sentai show. JESUS CHRIST, it was still a horrible show, and it is without a hot chick, I didn’t even make it five minutes.
Geki Ranger was a little childish, just by one character, but it got a lot better by the end, power ranger version is really bad, but like I said, the Main Executive Producer, is leaving, leaving Koichi Sakamoto.
Now I know about the series this year, I said it looks like a Fisher Price robot, but after watching more of it, it got a TON better, they really hit me where I like it. I have to say I am a collector, and I love bigger megazords, and this year they are going tops. They have four, FOUR independent megazords that combine, and with the final formation (as of now), it is freakin huge, the monster comes up to it’s nuts. And NOW, the story is taking a much darker turn, possible killing off a main power ranger. They have three hot chicks, one being the main baddie, and a ranger, who’s actor is a fan favorite, from Kamen Rider, ala Kick Hopper fame.
Jesus I can write tonight for some reason.
Going On.
YotaruVegeta:
So odd of you to mention Kamen Rider, on CW.
February 2009, Kamen Rider Dragon Knight on CW saturdays, I personally would love to have it in prime time cause I hate getting up early, but we will never see it. So far from looking at pilots, promos, trailers, and interviews, this show it looking like it will kick the major ass we have been waiting for. Cast includes some bigger names that you would not think would work on a show like this, I don’t know a lot of the names, or can really spell any of them right now, but it will include fan hero Mark Musashi.
So all in all next year will be a very trying year for hero shows. With Power Ranger RPM starting possibly a new era of power rangers, and Kamen Rider Dragon Knight bringing it back old school with the original power rangers crew, and insane stunt teams.
For those looking to relive their memories of early US Power Rangers, there’s season boxsets of the first three years (~60 eps each) available from your German importer of choice for quite reasonable prices. I actually got the first set in today and in some ways it’s quite nice – they offer you the choice of menus and show audio in German or English (though you only get extras in German) and while it’s 10 episodes a disc the runtime is only around 21 minutes per episode so it’s reasonable for a DVD9. I need to check in a better player than VLC to see if episode titles are done as alternative angles or if they did the retarded thing and encode each episode in full for German and English editions.
On the other hand, the encoding’s not great, it’s been put through a PAL transfer, and at least some of the episodes came from the US broadcast masters and have the closed caption logo in the corner. And yes, these are legit discs sold on the high street and have the Jetix (read: Disney’s action imprint) logo all over the packaging. But it’s a lot of nostalgia value for $40
I’ve read that they DID try at first to use Jetman as the basis for Power Ranger but it didn’t click with the kids in the test run so they went with Zyuranger, which I think was for the better since that had one of the best mecha design ever IMO. I always loved how ALL the dinosaurs combined to form god basically.
http://www.freewebs.com/powerrangerplanet/
They have good quality downloads of all power rangers up to bate, as well as extras and other shows from the era.
Masked Rider on the CW, for real? I’ll give it a shot.
When watching the first half of Straight Jacket (I sleep early), I noticed how the main female with the glasses looked like a Satoshi Urushihara design. When checking for the character design on ANN, I saw that he worked on Growlanser which of course was done by Urushihara. I’m VERY obsessive and observant towards character designs.
Giviak…
Alaskan and Canadian artic, apparently.
http://www.everything2.net/index.pl?node=giviak
Love the quote there “Bring the giviak to a party. Guaranteed fun”
I was wondering,is the AWO team going to be at Anime Super Con this year?
Say Clarissa, Mangaupdates.com lists quite a few series to Ishikawa Masayuki’s name.
Hitokiri Ryuume
Junketsu no Maria
Kataribe
Shuukan Ishikawa Masayuki
http://www.mangaupdates.com/authors.html?id=3434
Sorry if this was already mentioned further up the comments page.
I’ve been DVRing Gurren Lagann for a second viewing, and I absolutely loathe the way Sci-Fi handles… basically everything, now that I think about it. Running the OP in fast-forward, cutting to ads every four minutes, fading out mid-sentence to get to one of five commercial breaks, and that last slap in the face where they pop up a giant ad over the big fight scene. The more I think about it, the less I understand why the hell I’m watching the show so poorly presented. I guess this is what I get for supporting the show I like?
In summary: UGH ARGH YRRGH CHRIST FUCK
I hate the Sci-fi Channel up until the point that they actually have embraced anime at all. They have one point over CN, which now thinks of anime as its “secret shame.”
I’m sorry to ask but when’s the next ep coming guys?
Been a month now.
It’s gonna be another month because you aaaassssked!
hello
ok so my name is nick and i would like 2 just say that ur right about cartoon network but i would like 2 also add something 2 that about the shows that they r showing cause they used 2 have the best shows ever then they started ruining it by removeing anime and by puting things like chowder and flapjack on tv . there is also adult swim which is almost unwatchable beacuse of sunday WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH AMERICA!!!!
“ok so my name is nick and i would like 2 just say that ur right about cartoon network but i would like 2 also add something 2 that about the shows that they r showing”
Holy crap, Prince is listening to AWO!
And in the interim between episodes I finally listened to Daryl on DAPDX re: Macross F. It’s a lot easier to like Ranka when she’s given forced enemas and sucker-punched by the drummer from DMC. Oh the power of doujin.
poisoned will, I have to be in defense of these non-anime shows. I tutor kids, and they love stuff like chowder and flapjack, but they love anime just as much. Don’t take it out on shows for CN management decisions.
1st off, is clarissa single?
anyway, most sentai/ranger shows are pretty good, granted its true older stuff is better than the new ones.
but the new power ranger showing now is ok, its not like they should be doing any drama all the time its supposed to be fun. hell even the current sentai is not so serious, i mean look at the ending credits wtf is that?
the new kamen rider for the u.s is based on kamen rider ryuki. which is a really nice show and the story is slick.