Podcast: Download (Duration: 1:45:47 — 48.4MB)
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | RSS
For our final podcast of the year, we celebrate our third year anniversary with our special guest, Ryan Gavigan! Took us long enough; we’d been meaning to record this since before our first year anniversary. In the first part of this show, we talk to Ryan about his sordid life in anime fandom and Daryl reviews the Bubblegum Crisis OAVs, aka “the only Bubblegum Crisis that exists” or if you prefer “the REAL Bubblegum Crisis.”
Introduction (0:00 – 40:40)
For our three year anniversary, we figured we’d record an actual show proper with everyone together for the very first time instead of just a bonus. Nearly all podcasts do this, but not us! That’s why we didn’t know to position the microphones in such a way as to prevent echoing induced from multiple mics recording the same sounds. Oh well. So who is this Ryan Gavigan, anyway? Listen and find out for yourself!
Promo: Weeaboobies (40:40 – 43:33)
This is a genuine custom promo made by Erin from the Ninja Consultant podcast! Includes genuine voicemail message from Erin!
Review: Bubblegum Crisis (43:33 – 1:45:46)
Daryl…sort of talks about Bubblegum Crisis for an hour. Maybe. The way he sees it, all the cool anime podcasts already talked about it so he has nothing to lose!
Bubblegum Crisis is, as the title card suggests, the story of [the] Knight Sabers. Not the Knight Saviors.
BGC was made in the 1980s.
Daley Wong and Leon McNichol, the two longest-living members of the AD Police. Daley, if you couldn’t tell, is a flamboyant homosexual of the type and variety never to be respected by the Iron Shiek. All Leon ever does right is take his shades off, put his shades on, say stupid things, and occasionally shoot someone. So THAT’S where CSI: Miami came from. YEAHHHHHH!
This is Priss in her concert gear. You might have to squint to notice it, but she looks KINDA like Pris from Blade Runner!
But despite the haircut, she is not “the gay,” as that ugly freckleface girl from Transporter 3 would say. Otherwise, she’d be enjoying this more.
If she was, there’d be scenes of her doing this sort of thing. BGC is not exactly a subtle series. So stop contemplating whether Sylia is a boomer. (PS: Deckard = NOT A REPLICANT, NO MATTER WHAT)
In addition to her skeletal structure, Priss is constantly breaking the rules. Observe this BLATANT DISREGARD for the laws of physics.
Sylia Stingray, by contrast, complies with the laws of physics. This is the law of buoyancy. Though I guess buoyancy isn’t a law so much as a force. Fuck it.
The wardrobe for Vision’s truly, truly outrageous number comes to us courtesy of the Cyber City Oedo Mercenary Girl’s Closet.
But if you’re thinking of cosplaying it, know that there are downsides. MORE LIKE BACKSIDES, AMIRITE
Vision’s character designer was Satoshi Urushihara. The breasts on his female characters are always that shiny because he uses his many, many love dolls as reference. (EDIT: Actually, Kenichi Sonoda designed her, too. The joke still applies.) Gerald only has one inflatable anime girl love doll for the moment.
Nene is the worst character, so naturally the Japanese gave her an entire episode. Nothing “proto”-moe about it!
Largo however, is the best character other than Sylia. That Hiroaki Gouda (No. Edam? No.) probably designed him is a true oddity, as he directed the Nene episode then spent the rest of his life directing all the Ah My Goddess! anime.
Maybe Masami Obari might have designed Largo. If Masami Obari is involved and it does not involve either Largo or Terry Bogard, then I’m probably not interested.
Obari-tan wants us all to know: this person is DEFINITELY Australian.
As a rule, it is pointless to bother doing high-definition remasterings for most non-theatrical anime made prior to the onset of HD. However, certain bits of hilarious English/Engrish text become more easily noticeable here. WHAT’S THAT BETWEEN THOSE BOOKS NENE, HUH? This must be the REAL reason PT Chapman loves you so. PS: Mackie is “the character we, the viewer, would actually be.” Dwell on THAT.
Oh yeah, there’s mecha in this series, which is why it’s awesome. Sylia is the leader!
Nobody gonna beat my car / It’s gonna break the speed of sound / Ooh, it’s a killing machine / It’s got everything / Except for a girl in powered armor riding a giant fucking motorcycle / But other than that, it’s cool
This is the part Sonoda was responsible for; the mechanical designs of the hardsuits. Also, the little girl in the first episode FO’ SHO’. Note the presence of the high heels which make this awesome and EMPOWERING and why Japanese animation is mature advanced sci-fi storytelling with STRONG FEMALE CHARACTERS blah blah blah
This is clearly the Shinji Aramaki part. Because it’s AWESOME.
Motorcycles that transform into robots…AND THEY CAN FLY? If they can fly, why even HAVE motorcycles? Only Shinji Aramaki truly knows.
This is what happens to most members of the AD Police that are not in helicopters. (If they’re in helicopters, they get immolated due to the freaking chopper exploding. Holy CRAP.) Note that this guy lost his hands before losing his arms, and that head comes off about a second after this screenshot was taken.See? You should go watch this cartoon. Again, if need be.
No, you most definitively aren’t and I’ve been debating on picking that back up. I remember it being a lot of fun to read.
I understand that the best one to buy is the “Bubblegum Crisis: Remastered Edition”? Does anyone know is there something like that for region 2?
Though I would prefer region 2 I don’t mind buying region 1 either, especially now when they raised the allowed prize of toll free goods in EU…
Thanks for reviewing the original [AND ONLY] Bubblegum Crisis. It brought back many fond memories of VHS tapes swapped throught he mail.
Lee, if you're reading this, you still owe me thirteen. I don't care that it was twenty years ago.
Also I've been listening to your old podcasts again. Since you have expressed curiosity over whether people look for things you actually say nice things about, I wanted you to know that I went out today and picked up volumes 3 & 4 of Yotsuba&! on your recommendation. I enjoy a lot; the series is like injecting happiness directly into your brain.
But I can’t help but wonder if there’s some deliberate hints about what sort of place Yotsuba came from.
She’s obviously an orphan; she’s never seen things like air conditioners so she’s probably not Japanese; her father’s a translator and she might be a foreigner; and if she is the authorities were apparently okay with a single Japanese male adopting her [he’s an amazing father, yes, but I suspect any responsible adoption agency would be very reluctant to let a single male adopt a girl]. Finally, she dozes off before a fireworks show and at the first explosion sits bolt upright and yells, “Are we under attack?”
Which I say to point out that there’s nothing which can’t be terribly depressing if you think about it hard enough.