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Behold the final half, and by “half” we mean “105 minutes” of AWO Show 79 in which Clarissa goes to Detroit Metal City and Daryl largely glosses over the finer points of Queen Millennia.
Let’s News! (0:00 – 28:40)
More news on top of the previous news? Yeah, because stuff happened.
Review: Detroit Metal City (28:40 – 56:10)
[Clarissa starts stopwatch]
RAPERAPERAPERAPERAPERAPERAPERAPERAPERAPE
[stops stopwatch, checks time…still not quite 1 second or better 🙁 ]
The opening of DMC is awesome, though it only fully encapsulates the nature of the series when combined with Negishi’s terrible ending pop song. If you’re curious to compare the anime with the live action movie, there’s a PV of Satsugai here.
Behold, Negishi’s terrible songwriting. Luckily the manager is awesome enough to fix his lyrics and traumatize him in one fell swoop!
I had to add Krauser-tan. All shall love her and despair!
Review: Queen Millennia (56:10 – 1:43:51)
Daryl reviews what he declares to be the Leiji Matsumoto equivalent of a Michael Bay movie, though perhaps Roland Emmerich is a more apt fit. There’s a lot of lore and history behind all of this, but he generally ignores it for the sake of focusing on the IMPORTANT THINGS. All screencaps taken from the R2 remastered anamorphic DVD, patched to include the English fansub by BOX on the subtitle track. They oughta release a version that’s just a H264 encode from this.
This is Leiji Matsumoto and he is ON THE ATTACK. Steve Harrison sent this picture like, a year and a half ago. We are using it now.
Daryl wants to believe that this is Cartoon Leiji Matsumoto, whose presence in this cartoon thus explains why it was made.
The ghost of Jackson Beck would like to inform you that GI Matsumoto is the code name for Dai Nippon’s daring, highly untrained special mission force. Its purpose: to defend human freedom against AMERIC…er, wait
Our lead characters. With the exception of “handsome male lead” this image neatly encapsulates Leiji Matusmoto’s character design preferences. Here, Yukino is in her “scientist” outfit as opposed to her “sexy teacher in nightgown” outfit.
Yukino in her titular role as Queen Millennia. We can only assume that nobody realizes Yukino is indeed Queen Millennia because they’re too busy staring at the fully exposed cleavage and heart-shaped midriff which doubles as a vagina indicator arrow to look up at her face.
This picture can best be described as “the REAL sentais” as it deftly conveys exactly why Matsumoto started giving his women such long hair in the first place.
Yukino’s sister, Selen. Aka Girl Captain Harlock. In the Maetel Legend OAVs, they used the other Girl Captain Harlock instead: Emeraldas. Suffice to say that even though Matsumoto and some fans want continuity between these works, there isn’t any because nothing fits the way it would need to. Therefore, Emeraldas and Maetel are only sisters in Maetel Legend, because they’re filling in for the roles of Yukino and Selen.
It might just be because it’s faithful to the manga which we never read, but nothing says “Matsumoto by the guy who directed most of the 70s Go Nagai Super Robot shows” better than Space Battleship Cleopatra. HASSHIN! Despite what’s stated in the segment, Cleopatra does have lines.Closing (1:43:51 – 1:51:27)
EE “Doc” Finnegan is presumably too busy unleashing the Terror of MechaBridezilla to listen to this podcast, but we’ll still be her friend to the end, much like Chucky in the Child’s Play movies. In the next exciting installment of AWO, we’re trying something new because rather than having each person pick the title they wish to talk about, someone else will be choosing it for them! Daryl’s up first, so he’s decided to force-feed Gerald and Clarissa with Masaaki Yuasa because they won’t do it themselves. As such, Gerald shall be reviewing Kemonozume and Clarissa will be reviewing Kaiba while Daryl opts to NOT review Cat Soup and instead talk more about Yoshiaki Kawajiri. So Goku: Midnight Eye’s coming at’cha.
“because they’re too busy staring at the fully exposed cleavage”
I guess, for a Japanese girl, you could call it that…
“So Goku: Midnight Eye’s coming at’cha.”
I hope that’s next on ADV’s license-rescue block. Even though one of the UV people made fun of it, too, I still thought it was cooler than the UK dub of Cobra.
But hey, who needs good music for a space shooter when you can insert a soundtrack from the guy who did music for a David Space/Marlon Wayans bomb? Aww, Yello, you sew crazay! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GyaozprBG6A
Great show guys,the Original Galaxy express 999tv is now completed on crunchyroll.I never thought I would live to see the day when all 113 episodes of that show where translated into English.
I always thought GE 999 had a better chance of getting a release here than Harlock, simply because there were more new fans exposed to the movies, the spin-offs, and the manga, while us old-timers only had the Macek dub and that unauthorized comic book to satisfy us. And maybe Animeigo’s uncut version of Arcadia of My Youth after the proto-4Kids company Best Film and Video screwed it up. http://www.amazon.com/Youth-Arcadia-VHS-Makio-Inoue/dp/6303501168 Oh, and thanks for making it impossible for us to ever see Macross: DYRL on DVD, when you changed it to “Clash of the Bionoids” and died out in a way that no one knows who to talk to in order to renew the rights, assholes.
“So Goku: Midnight Eye’s coming at’cha.”
Can’t bloody wait. Daryl has impeccable taste in what titles to review.
“the Original Galaxy express 999tv is now completed on crunchyroll” — God DAMN Toei for only licensing it to Crunchyroll for North America! Damn them all to hell! orz
Oh well, at least Harlock got to be completely fansubbed.
Sorry about your dad Gerald. My grandmother died last march from cancer as well.
Oh CPM, you were my favorite distributor of the day. Bringing us so many crazy (i.e. awesome) OVA’s. Sign of the times I guess. I just hope Media Blasters stays around to do sort of the same type of type CPM was did. I think a good 1/4 or 1/5th of my anime DVD collection is from CPM. The only way ADV’s release of MD Geist would get me to buy it is if it includes the original 1986 version (the non director’s cut where I think it was better that the theme “Violence of the Flame” came at the end credits after we see Vaiya screaming and everything fade to black)
I like this thing you’re doing with the one person picking what to review for everyone deal. SO that means when Gerald or Clarissa start picking shows, Daryl MUST be subjugated to MOETAN!!! DUN! DUN! DUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUN!
Yet another great show. Condolences to Gerald…I just lost my Aunt to cancer myself, so I feel for you on that.
Sounds like I’ll have to check out Detroit Metal City. I’m not interested at all in black metal or death metal or metal in general, but rape? THAT I can get behind. Thanks 4chan!
My condolences to Gerald, sounds like your dad was awesome.
I know that it’s impossible to do a whole universe of all of the Leiji Matsumoto stuff out there, but sometimes it’s fun trying to put it all together, then after a little while, I’ll admit that nothing makes sense and just watch My Youth in Arcadia again and feel manlier.
I need to go back to DMC, It’s all in my computer, but for some reason I stopped watching it, stupid brain, I forgot to continue watching it, thanks for reminding me how awesome it is.
Re: Matsumoto’s diagnosis – Mothercon, not Shota.
I feel like a wuss for knowing all the none metal music references in DMC …
Lots and lots and lots of Leiji Matsumoto essays and interviews are up at http://www.starblazers.com, just go to the homepage and use the quicklink. Plenty of good reading there if I do say so myself.
Plus stuff in the new Otaku USA by Dave Merrill and myself. Say it with me: “I want to go to there.”
I’m so glad you’re reviewing Kemonozume. That’s one of my favourite anime ever. Looking forward to the next episode!
Speaking of dead CPM stock getting hard to find, I’ve got all the Patlabor (for cheap) with the sole exception of the original OVA series, which is $100+ online. So it’s starting to happen! How long before Odin is going for Radiant Silvergun money?
Galaxy Express 999 and Space Pirate Captain Harlock are now available on Funimation’s site and I can view them fine here in the UK without a VPN or proxy. Unlike Crunchyroll.
Another great episode, though upon checking out the first two episodes of DMC today I was disappointed that Clarissa didn’t mention the animation itself. Whilst I love experimentation in anime the use of black frames throughout DMC (at least the two episodes I’ve seen) were rather pointless. Such framing can be used to great effect but only if used in connection with mise en scene. Unfortunately DMC fails in this regard.
That said, there were two shots in the first episode that did effectively use this framing – the train travelling to Tokyo which benefits from the wider aspect ratio when framed and when Krauser is on his cell phone in a tight portrait frame which highlights the privacy of this act then opening up when he’s interrupted by his band-mate. It’s a shame that the rest of these frames are useless and only serve to jar the viewing experience, hence my disappointment that Clarissa didn’t mention this aspect of the show as I can see it being something which might deter potential viewers.
Despite this the show is indeed funny as hell and I will be watching the rest of it, though I fear the animation will still be jarring throughout. Luckily the episode and series lengths are an encouragement towards finishing the series.
Since Daryl didn’t link it like he said he would.
In other news I feel fucking old since I just realized I first saw B.A.D. at Otakon 96′.
I think I'll have to check out DMC (after I finish Orguss which to me right now is the anime equivalent of molasses and the three or so shows I'm watching from the current anime season). I wonder if it'll be something my older brother would like since he's into metal (including the kind that you mentioned that take it really seriously). He's probably one of the nicest people despite that.
With that note, I have to post this again.
Another great show.. and sorry to hear about your father Gerald. Cancer sucks.
R.I.P. Darryl’s Dad.
Anonymous: I think we’re lucky to see it at all, considering that FUNi hasn’t even licensed the newer Galaxy Railways show.
subatomic: I know how you feel. I should’ve bought Harlock Saga when I had the chance. I’m still wondering why Animeigo isn’t rescuing the second UY movie, though. But then the company’s been known to reconsider keeping that series, so we’ll be lucky if they even put what they got on BD.
My condolences to Gerald.
Nitpicky points of order:
A 1988 Animage book on anime theatrical films puts the QM release date at March 82, so anyone who says 81 is thinking of the TV show.
Also, Matsumoto was *involved* in Final Yamato, but it can hardly be called his film. Everything I’ve seen so far indicates that he was cc’d during story development, but didn’t actively take part in the production. So that essentially makes QM his last feature film.
Takako Mise was the wife of a family ancestor; he discovered a portrait of her long after he’d settled into his well-known design sensibilities and became convinced that he was subconsciously channeling her face into his characters. Pics and more details at starblazers.com
Kaiba review next episode? Awesome! I can’t wait to hear what you guys think.
Christ, sorry, I meant Gerald. I misread it.
Gundam Nerd error correction service:
Gundam Unicorn does connect to the original Gundam series. Obviously the two main men of the series can’t appear due to excessive lack of breathing. And lets just get this out of the way that fact is hardly a spoiler at this point in the game.
But there is one character (that will not be mentioned because I do feel it is a spoiler) that ties Unicorn together with 0079, Zeta, and ZZ.
It is not Sayla Mass. Just so everyone is not disappointed.
Likewise everyone else, sorry to hear about your athair, Gerald. He sounded like a cool guy and it’s hard when someone THAT cool passes away. Awesome dedication, G.
DMC sounded positively fucked up and that’s the way I like my anime.
Queen Millennia sounds cool. And IMO Matsumoto can keep rehashing stuff for as long as he likes. I wrote a review for Arcadia last year and after LJing about the review Steve Harrison came in and helped me to understand that crazy revisionist nut’s way of thinking a little better. I’ll spare you the review but here’s where Steve’s comment starts. All I want out of this year is Harlock to be released by Funimation on DVD and finally Matt Murray will be able to go back to his inbox without having to napalm it first.
With CPM’s passing I can’t help but think of Daryl’s comment from one of his “The anime con is decadent and depraved” rants: “Where are all the good men gone? And where are all the Gods?” Why the hell couldn’t ADV pick up Odin? You guys picked up Geist, helping Ohata and didn’t help out the Nish!?! Where his ten percent coming from now? Now where am I going to buy my 5.1 David Williams directed English track DVD? We need answers Houston!
As always fantastic show, everyone.
Great episode guys. I checked out some DMC a while ago, but got sidetracked by another absurd comedy by the name of Cromartie High School, so maybe I’ll go back to DMC now.
I’m eager to listen to the next podcast, and I WAS watching Kaiba until every fansub group decided to encode everything into .mkv files that don’t work on my mac, so I’m very jealous of those who did watch the series until the end… well, at least I got to watch Kemonozume in full back when that was not the case, then again probably no one besides the fansub group and Daryl actually watched it.
Lastly, nice end of the show dedication Gerald.
Heartfelt condolences to Gerald.
Looks like hell has frozen over, as Chris Beveridge gave the Fist of the North Star movie a B+. http://www.mania.com/fist-north-star-movie_article_114799.html
Oh Jesus, the Cobra movie.
Our Neo magazine gave the UK Space Adventure Cobra DVD two stars basically because it didn’t have the “updated” soundtrack, retaining the original soundtrack instead.
…why?
Daryl Surat during the MS Unicorn talk: “I haven’t read any of those light novels because you know, I can’t read.”
I loled.
“Looks like hell has frozen over, as Chris Beveridge gave the Fist of the North Star movie a B+. “
People like Chris and his reviews made me dispise anime fandom in my early days. And now that he’s doing a complete 180, I didn’t think I could hold such resentment for one guy.
Gerald, I’m sorry for your loss.
The Kitaro who wrote the soundtrack for Queen Millenia does indeed seem to be the same Kitaro you can find in the New Age section. I have this album
http://www.amazon.com/Millennia-Kitaro/dp/B00000DT31/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1241786483&sr=1-1
and the second track (Space Queen) sounds like the segments from the review, except the album does not have vocals.
And yes, Kitaro is also credited with two of the tracks on the Ninja Scroll soundtrack which you can download from Amazon; as well as the soundtrack for Heaven and Earth.
— John Nowak
Fantastic episode, totally worth the wait. Thanks guys! My condolences to Gerald, and uh, I hope Daryl’s nose gets well soon.
Interesting discussion on the passing of CPM. Quick question: is the Grappler Baki OVA that they licensed any good? I’m only a moderate fan of the TV series, and an enormous fan of the manga. I plan on picking up those Machine Robo DVDs ASAP, but my otaku heart mourns the fact that the series will never be completely licensed, not to mention the criminal overlooking of Machine Robo: Battle Hackers, which is basically a Transformers cartoon featuring trenchcoat-wearing and cigarette-smoking mecha.
Goddamn that DMC opening theme is awesome. Despite being a comedic series, I think it succeeds in capturing what fans love about that genre of music.
I’m really excited to see Gundam Unicorn, even though I’m not at all entrenched in the UC continuity. 0080, 0083, F91, and 08th MS Team are BEAUTIFUL works of animation. I think some of the Gundam Unicorn material has been translated by gundam fans, but I must confess that I don’t understand the appeal. Reading a gundam novel seems a lot like reading a Wachowski Brothers film script: the majesty of spectacle is totally missing.
Lastly, I cannot wait for the Discotek release of HnK to come out! What a badass DVD to own. Buy one for yourself, buy three for your friends! Discotek deserves massive props for releasing this awesome movie. I’ll be reading the Anime on DVD review thoroughly, but I do hope that they give us excellent video matching the recent Japanese remaster, though I seriously doubt we’ll get the uncut content which seems impossible to find outside of obscure VHS releases.
The idea of being “assigned” anime to review sounds like it will be a lot of fun, and makes for a great dynamic in the podcast. Really looking forward to the next episode!
Yeah, the Millennia album by Kitaro *is* the movie BGM, fact noted in English in the liners for the record itself. But it lacks a lot of cues, including the vocal track from the end. They use it as the “get the fuck out now” music for closing time at several Kinokuniya bookstores in the USA. There’s a also a Symphonic Suite LP based on the score that I need to make a vinyl rip of.
Kitaro originally became “big in Japan” for his soundtrack for the massive NHK series Silk Road. He probably leaked down to the US New Age market for his near monopoly of the California sushi restaurant background music racket in the early ’80s.
Before all that, he made groovy tunes and proto space rock with the Far East Family Band; whose records are well worth seeking out for people who actually listen to music. I wrote this without looking at Wikipedia. Let’s try and make this a movement if possible.
I actually did find Voltes V in the karaoke book where everyone else (including ED CHAVEZ) failed. Armed only with the knowledge that the show came out in the 70s and what the kanji for “father” looked like. I FOUND THAT SHIT, YO. The prefix that was causing so much trouble was “Super Machine”, so it wasn’t showing up where one would expect.
Searching for Father was sung that night, and even if no one else cared, that shit was white hot.
“And yes, Kitaro is also credited with two of the tracks on the Ninja Scroll soundtrack which you can download from Amazon; as well as the soundtrack for Heaven and Earth.”
Note: When you say Ninja Scroll, it’s not the movie. He wrote for that crappy Ninja Scroll tv show no one likes to mention, at least until Dicaprio’s remake ends up being worse than it, because he got SMAP for the movie, even though that’s not much better than Justin Chatwin as Goku.
Milo: The Baki OVA’s good if you want something quick. You’d be better off looking for older English translations of the manga in old dustbins holding back-issues of Raijin, though. Plus, you get an unauthorized “cameo” of Macho Man Randy Savage in the latter version.
Were do i begin, First of all i am a big fan of death/black metal…. So Detroit Metal City sounds interesting.
Sad to hear about CPM, they released a lot of the one i liked Gall Force, MD Geist, Project A-ko.
By the way, i discovered that one of the character designers on Maple Town (One of my Favorite Animes Ever) Was the character designers
for FUCKING MD Geist. I am not fucking making this up!
I really hope some one picks up Odin! XD I remember watching little bits of it on the fucking sci-fi channel years ago.
That bad anime dubbing clip was a laugh riot, wonder if they ever did the Harmony Gold dub of Dragon ball!
Can’t wait for Daryl to do galaxy Express 1999.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/8142907@N03/1434944565/
Man i really want to pick up these cute plushies. I am not kidding either….
Actually, funny story on Captain Harlock and the Queen of the Thousand Years…
From Macek's own lips.
When he got tasked to produce CH&blah blah there was HUGE feedback from the stations in r.e. Robotech, they HATED the structure of the production.
What I call the 'Robotech Effect' became very quickly obvious when it came to viewership and ratings. On the first run Robotech did well for the entire show, but on each re-broadcast the viewership PLUMMETED once the 'Macross' arc ended. This was a bad thing. So the mandate from the stations, the conditions that they would take the Harlock show was "don't pull that Robotech B.S. on us! WE want a full 65 of Harlock!"
And so, the chop and paste job.
Originally, Macek said they sold the show based on having Endless Road SSX as well but oops, no, they didn't, so the frantic search for something that looked somewhat similar. Not sure I believe that.
And my belated condolences to Gerald for his loss.
Just wanted to say first and formost, sorry Gerald about your loss. My grandmother has been dead for a long time but I had a relationship similar to what you had with your father. My grandmother watched many anime with me and in fact was quite rapt when I played through both Xenogears and Final Fantasy 7. (I read aloud the text for her, she thought it better then a soap opera).
That being said, I’ve finished all your podcasts and am NOW current. Thank you Clarissa for adding yet another anime to my To Watch list. That being Detroit Metal City. It sounds like it is made of awesome and win.
Also, Daryl.. because of you I ordered the three volumes of To Terra by Vertical. I’m enjoying it muchly so thank you for the recommendation (even though I realize that it is really off topic for this thread).
On the negative side of having no more episodes of you to listen to concurrently, I went through withdrawals last night once I was done with episode 79b. Sad day.. sad day.
Have a wonderful day, Anime World Overlords!
-Nia
Yes, please do more reviews of CPM titles. Maybe review the other Project A-Ko OVA’s, or Iczer Reborn. Big Wars too (even though that was a boring film with pretty animation) or Dominion Tank Police since that was CPM’s FIRST release ever. Er, I can’t think of much else since the other ones I have you’ve already reviewed.
Oh, and what’s this thing with Rumiko Takahashi having massive breasts? Do mean her characters or actually herself? Cause the pics I’ve seen of hers seem pretty average (i.e. Japanese pettanko size).
Steve: Considering Macek was so eager to milk those mech anime more than anything else, I’m surprised he never got Orguss.
Your comment about the Yamato theme reminded me of when Kransom and I were in Nakano one night, and we heard the Yamato theme playing loudly in some bar.
Truly, this is the greatest country.
I know Dave managed to find the song he was looking for, but for future reference the full title of Voltes V is “Choudenji Machine Voltes V,” which is under the Ta section of the Japanese songlist.
Anon.:
a. It had nothing to do with what Macek wanted, it had everything to do with what Harmony Gold wanted. HG had a library of shows that wasn’t generating any income from the US and they really, really wanted that big American Dollars payoff.
b. Macek couldn’t touch Orguss because Harmony Gold didn’t have the rights. Books Nippan/US Renditions got the rights either from TMS directly, or a different licensor akin to Enoki Films.
Another nitpicky point of order…
In the context of ‘Maetel Legend,’ Yukino becomes the mother of Maetel and Emeraldas.
Selen, therefore, would be their aunt. Which could explain why she looks like Emeraldas, but they are not and never were the same character.
You’re welcome.
I always figure Matsumoto’s work to be something akin to Michael Moorcock’s works where every hero ends up being yet another variation on bloody Jerry Cornelius.
Firstly I wanted to extend my sympathies to Gerald. Having a parent you can share something like anime with is an amazing gift.
Secondly, on the issue of Matsumoto and continuity, it was him that helped me recover from an otherwise unhealthy fixation on making things fit. I understand that he doesn’t give a damn about it, and I’m fine with that now.
So yeah, Queen Millennia leads into Maetel Legend leads into Galaxy Express 999 even though none of it works smoothly. And then Space Symphony Maetel is kind of a parallel to Maetel Legend though I like the latter better and take that as my personal continuity. And Harlock does show up in GE999 but it totally doesn’t fit with any of Harlock’s own shows and that’s okay.
It’s like Klingons with flat foreheads: it doesn’t need to be explained! ^_^
On Matsumoto and continuity between stories:
It’s really not that hard to understand, and it’s nothing new. It’s like Tezuka, or if you’re a classic film buff, John Ford.
Matsumoto has a group of ‘actors’ he likes using, and so you’ll get the same ‘people’ playing similar ‘characters’ over and over in all the different productions.
It’s like John Wayne. Doesn’t really matter what character you call him, he’s f’ing JOHN WAYNE, dammit. And you can argue that Wayne the actor is a totally different man between ‘She Wore a Yellow Ribbon’ and ‘The Searchers’, he’s grown and developed as an actor, nobody really cares about that, they wanna see John F’in Wayne pop someone in the smoocher.
Hence, Captain Harlock.
See? not so complicated.
That YouTube video of Detroit Metal City you guys posted sold me on it, hilarious!