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[Dear people coming from the SL guy’s Livejournal; the excerpt he posted is from a not-really anonymous comment left on our blog that does not reflect our opinions or anything we ourselves said.]
Show 81 concludes with Daryl’s review of Kekko Kamen and Clarissa’s review of Butt Attack Punisher Girl Gautaman. Along with the post-Anime Expo news, can you really call it the second half of a podcast when it’s over 2 hours long? WE CAN!
Let’s News! (0:00 – 53:41)
Notes forthcoming, much like last week’s episode which is still listed as “notes forthcoming.” If only one of us had some sort of online repository full of links and subject material for this segment that could be easily pasted into these spaces…
Review: Kekko Kamen (53:41 – 1:26:41)
Go Nagai? Restraining himself? H…holding back?! GODDAMMIT WHERE THE HELL IS JACK?! Reports suggest his knife is made of Super Alloy Z, but this is contradicted by the fact that it breaks all the time and he just summons forth a new one via the power of VIOLENCE~!. In any case, Kekko Kamen is a textbook example of how far we’ve come [fallen…?] over the last 30 years. Can there even truly BE screenshots of this, either of Kekko Kamen herself or the villains? Maybe we’ll just post the English translated lyrics to the theme song.
Review: Butt Attack Punisher Girl Gautaman (1:26:41 – 1:57:08)
Everything you need to know about this cartoon is succinctly encapsulated within its title. But maybe we should post some pictures of it anyway.
Buddha wants to make one lucky woman a superhero!
Sadly, this mostly involves wearing a really unfortunate outfit. And lots of butts. Buichi Terasawa and Sir Mix-a-Lot would both be proud.
Butt-related persecution, even!
It also involves stupidly ripped pretty boys.
Lesbian subtext.
And lots of blatant copyright infringement.Promo: Anime Hell (1:57:08 – 1:58:06)
The Sounds of Hell involve Isaac Hayes and Yaphet Kotto. Including a promo for the Greatest Movie EVER! podcast to promote Daryl’s guest appearance to discuss Ninja III: The Domination was considered, but ninja don’t MAKE sound.
Closing (1:58:06 – 2:12:13)
Next time, all that remains on the “one person recommends titles for everyone else” train is Clarissa. She has opted to do unto others as was done unto her. It’s a gamble. A very risky gamble. But also a manly gamble. Manly enough to the point that it’s probably really gay. But if you can get past the fact that the gamble is so gay they have their pants zipped down a lot, you’d see it was awesome. What we’re trying to say here is that Clarissa’s reviewing One Outs next time. As for Daryl and Gerald? THAT IS CLASSIFIED (for the next few hours). Be on the lookout: there’s a deadly stinger at the end of all this.
Fuck yes, One Outs! A.k.a., gay Fukumoto-ish baseball with Hiruma and Akagi's lovechild. Looking forward to this one.
Dominator by Tony Luke is probably the British strip you were trying to remember. It ran in Japan in 1993. And if you're a UK anime fan of a certain age this will be stuck in your brain as Manga Mania would remind you of it every verse end.
Even if you could forgive Tokyopop for missing that, they should at least be aware of Paul Pope's 1995 strip Supertrouble.
Why would I want to own singles over a season? Because what if I hate the show? Plus, in the case of ADV shows, you miss out on the cultural notes, which doesn't really make sense for a series like Nerima Daikon Brothers. Just the title alone is a Japanese in-joke!
As for why I can't stand "Amerimanga", it's because it's written and drawn by people who have less talent than an amateur web-comic artist; and I can read those types of works for free. I'm not prejudiced against them not being Japanese, though; what I hate is the fact that they're trying to fool me into thinking they're Japanese. Anyway, I was hoping the discussion would be an excuse to bash Minx, aka the American wannabe-shojo line written by men who don't know shit about girls.
As for the Robotech movie, I'm surprised WB is still going with it after giving up on Akira(again). BTW, speaking of adaptations, is AWO gonna review DB: E, since it's coming to dvd soon?
Moving on to Tachiguishi, if someone was willing to take a chance on Sky Crawlers, I don't see why the former title's a hard sell.
Oh, and anyone trying to get a hentai fix out of Kekko Kamen missed the point. Anyway, I dunno about the manga, but some fangirls I saw KK with got a kick out of it, primarily because it plays with the same magical girl cliches that you see in other series. And it does so better than Cutey Honey, I might add. Hell, I just endured the live-action Sukeban Boy from Discotek a few months ago, and the original trailer for it mentions the movie playing in Shibuya!
But moving on, Gerald was obsessed with j-porn so much, I figured he might want to view http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZSDsu98SoTg .
I gotta see Kekko Kamen and Butt Attack Punisher Girl. At least KK since it's out on DVD, packed with New Cutey Honey and/or Puni Puni poemi, both which I've been meaning to buy.
Question about the contest where we pick the choices.
Can the series be of any length (i.e. 26 eps or more) or is it still it can't be more than 12-13 episodes?
I'll summit several lists of choices.
We have never reviewed any other live-action movies on this podcast, anime adaptation or otherwise. In light of that, there will be no Dragonball: Evolution review on this podcast. But perhaps it as well as Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li are the Greatest Movies EVER!
Regarding the theoretical contest: the shows suggested have to be something we can reasonably watch through as far as series length and availability is concerned. For example: the big hurdle preventing a theoretical "Yoshiyuki Tomino's Insane" episode with either Mike or Neil from happening is that for it to truly work, we would ALL have to watch through all of Aura Battler Dunbine, AND Garzey's Wing, AND Wings of Rean.
Also, none of this multiple submissions nonsense! You got ONE SHOT, so make it count.
Daryl, how do you rate the Battletech fans in comparison to Transformers and Robotech fans? Remember, they also have a piece of the Macross/Dougram/Crusher Joe pie.
Funnily, I didn't find Chun-Li as great as Dragonball Evo. I think I was just enamoured by Chris Klein's and Liu Kang's acting abilities.
I guess you can also add the Reggie manga, though it was only written by a westerner under the name "Guy Jeans" and drawn by a Japanese person. Though I don't know if he only did the writing couts…
Very entertaining episode, I was laughing a lot. Especially about the part about Mari's Dad… that was just… wow… when I watched it.
Pretty much have to watch Butt Attack Punisher Girl Gautaman now.
There's a lesson here: Kekko Kamen would have been better if they had included the palette swapped King Kong and a miniature version of the same, but that was not to be. Damn you, Go Nagai! You included the Nazis and left that out? I wouldn't want to forgive him but Imagawa's Shin Mazinger is good enough to restore the karmic balance.
Man, looks like Kekko Kamen even ripped off the lyrics for Gekko Kamen's theme song too, or at least some of them. Doesn't sound as good though, which was predictable enough.
I haven't seen the live-action original, but the animated Gekko Kamen from the 1970s was neat. The series got limited international distribution outside of Japan and somehow ended up being aired as "Centella" in Spanish. It worked like a more violent version of Batman, sort of. Yes, it was too much for a kid's cartoon in retrospect, but very cool. Not only because of the six shooters, although those would qualify, since the guy also threw freaking ninja stars at people and even had a whip before Indiana Jones did. It also was a bit melodramatic, to be honest, in that every other bad guy of the week was actually oh-such-a-good person deep inside, if only they weren't manipulated by the Claw of Satan. The usual stuff for something based on tokusatsu.
Back to the actual podcast, I'm probably more interested in seeing Butt Attack Punisher Girl Gautaman than I should be, but then again the review was certainly a riot and creepy tasteless fun is still fun. Or so says Japan.
As for the next reviews…I can't really say anything about Starship Troopers, nope, but I've been hearing lots of good stuff about Bartender and One Outs. I could always watch those in the meanwhile, but thanks to the news segment I probably should go ahead and finish Sengoku Basara too. I could say the same thing about Ring ni Kakero, technically, but that can wait.
-NJ
Good deal. You guys are totally on consistent posts. Maybe this suggested anime reviews thing is the ticket?
Gonna have to disagree with you, there, Daryl. The greatest movie ever is "Never Too Young to Die" with John Stamos and Gene Simmons.
Multiple movies are permitted to simultaneously be the Greatest Movie EVER!, as denoted by the fact that there are hundreds of episodes, but for my money's worth if I'm going to watch a movie starring Vanity it's gonna be either Action Jackson (the theatrical poster for which is one of my phone lock screens) or Berry Gordy's The Last Dragon.
Andrew: Battletech people are inherently prevented from becoming an Internet anime scourge by virtue of the fact that they're preoccupied by…actually playing Battletech. I am not exaggerating one bit when I say that people who play tabletop Battletech take roughly 8 hours of real time to work out what transpires in roughly 3 to 5 minutes of game time.
Even the much-beloved videogames, while exponentially faster than the tabletop, are pretty slow-paced to be in keeping with Battletech "mechs" themselves. I never got into them. Not even Mechwarrior 2/Mechwarrior 2: Mercenaries. Dialup Internet multiplayer was NO GOOD. I'll admit that I do own a copy of Mechassault for the original Xbox (which was meant to be more "arcade-like" than the previous videogames), but that's only because I needed it for the softmod. It turned out that it didn't work because I had the wrong version, and then I traded it for a second copy that was also the wrong version. Eventually, I said "screw it" and did the softmod with a copy of 007: Agent Under Fire. I inadvertently got 007 Nightfire by accident first, but I was able to exchange it. Even in theft, the Battletech universe fails me.
Daryl, you convinced Paul Chapman to inaugurate the Death Race remake! I don't have much hope for your taste in movies, man!
And your idea about the Japanese censorship problem… Japan didn't produce "Mr. Hands" or "2 Girls 1 Cup", so I don't see what you're talking about "not seeing the pink".
Battletech: Battletech fails to be a good wargame, fails to be a good mech-action game, and fails to be an interesting sci-fi property. The only good thing about Battletech were the original mecha designs, and the only reason they were good was that the "artists" did the "art" by tracing over Studio Nue artbooks.
In light of Miyazaki's US appearances, you guys should talk about Future Boy Conan.
Oh, one thing about visual novel guys. They're either a) Japanese or b) know Japanese. Sure, there's exceptions, but the market is super small.
I can't find the source of this anymore, but I recall reading that the Training with Hinako director (who also did Butt Attack) basically struck out on his own to distribute it, because he BELIEVED IN THAT PROJECT.
And he was right, it sold like crazy. #1 on Amazon.jp for a while.
Just finish Gautaman and oh boy was that hilarious. LOL'd hard when the Terminator showed up. Could have had better production values for an OVA though. Surprised by the low quality of the video since it was from a DVD release.
I think you'll like what I pick out for AWO to review and no , I didn't choose Moetan or anything remotely like that.
Didn't know Johji Manabe did H on the side. He's the only guy I know who could make a female wrestler look hot.
Did Daryl just channel some Cogswell Pepperbox action in this episode? Oh snap!
(didn't know Pepperbox was a fan of Robotech… or is it, MACROSS?!?!?!)
Man, if the only Go Nagai thing you've ever seen is Demon Prince Enma, you'd never believe that most of his characters look like they're stuck in the 70s and probably fit better in a Groo fanfic than in a contemporary anime.
Gerald:
Your guess was right- sort of. "Buddha" simply means "Awakened One," or someone who has attained enlightenment. So there is the Buddha, and then there is also a host of his followers who became buddhas called the Bodhisattva. Budai was one such Chinese Zen Buddhist who attained enlightenment some 1500 years ago. His statues depict him as a fat, happy man with a bald head, elongated ears and large prayer beads, hence the nickname "Laughing Buddha." You see that statue in pretty much every cheap Chinese buffet. He's supposed to represent prosperity, contentment, and happiness- kind of an equivalent to Bacchus.
He also had a reputation for being an eccentric, so when you think about it that way, his appearance in Butt Attack Punisher Girl kind of makes sense. Or more likely, the animators just thought he looked hilarious.
Great episode. I'm working on a review of Butt Attack right now, and it's nice to hear someone else say they liked it. I'll also submit my suggestions for the contest soon. Do any of ya'll keep a MAL page or ANN list we can look at to know what anime you haven't seen? I'd hate to suggest you guys have already watched.
-Bradley
THEMAnime.org
I think that the biggest problem with mangagamer's release of Higurashi isn't picky fans, or art styles, or using the PC version, or whatever.
The biggest problem is that a download for something like this is inherently DRM'ed. So what happens when the company goes out of business and your game becomes worthless? And a visual novel company is a lot more likely to go out of business than almost anything else. It's entirely possible the company might not even last a year, taking everyone's downloads with it.
Daryl: I can safely say that Japanese-Brazilians have a lot of ass.
Clarissa: Is the bishounen guy a predecessor to Mathew McCounaghey?
Am I the only one pissed off about GL stealing the art-style from Planet Busters?
I sent in some suggestions for reviews if you really are going to go through with that thing. I typo'd in the subject line, so you know it's mine :V
I wanted to throw Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei at Clarissa, but decided not to. I mean, it's episodic as hell, but since the difference in then direction between S1, S2 and the OVA is so different, I think it's better reviewing the thing as whole, as opposed to the 12/13-episode long first season. The third season is airing right now, but it seems like more of the same, with nothing all too different. Not like that's bad.
But yeah, it'd be cool if you'd guys at some point review that show. I think it fits in with the AWO world view to some degree. That is, it's very cynical :V
I almost had a theme going with the three choices but the last one would have been more appropriate for Gerald so I gave Clarissa another series (hope 26 episodes isn't too much?).
Daryl-That stuff you were saying about Riki-Oh (like the four horsemen of the apocalypse riding ED-209), is that something I can see in the OVA version or was that just a manga only thing?
P.S. Saki is the best GONZO show they've ever made. Besides the fanservice, it's legitimately entertaining even though the mahjong rules aspect makes no sense. I guess the "Even A Monkey Can Draw Manga" was right about that.
Did the ghost of Jim Crockett produce this episode? No math is scarier that professional wrestling math.
BAPG is definitely best to watch with a group. Sumo Vader had me in tears and detracted me well past the octopi/human cannibalism.
Also, I knew a girl who cosplayed Kekko Kamen like 12 years ago at AWA.
I always thought I was a little bit classier, but I'm downloading Gautaman as we speak 😮
I don't even want to SEE any of those shows. Just hearing such horrible things…oh god…I'm scared out of my mind.
Going by the description in this episode, I wonder if Kekko Kamen is actually some kind of creation of that one girl, either a robot or some kind of mental projection. If the girl's messed up in the right way, that would explain why Kekko Kamen only ever helps that one girl, why we don't learn anything about her outside of costume, why she never permanently defeats the principal, and even why she has such a strange costume and attacks….
Of course I'm way overthinking this.
The Riki-Oh OVAs are a much tamer version of the prison arc, and only the first OVA was ever subtitled. If you can't/won't read the manga (don't understand this stance at all, but to each his own), watch the live action Riki-Oh movie for a much more faithful adaptation of the prison arc.
You should know that the plot only becomes more insane after that first arc, awesome as it is.
I bet if they make the live action Robotech movie it will suck ass!
Slayers had a similar joke to the one in Gotaman. The group were attacked by a fish-man, and after he was defeated, Lina and company ate him. This was I believe in both the anime and manga.
"Moving on to Tachiguishi, if someone was willing to take a chance on Sky Crawlers, I don't see why the former title's a hard sell."
Spoken like someone who has no idea what Tachiguishi Retsuden is. Imagine if you well, South Park-ish animation. You've got sort of CG approximations of paper dolls with photographs of real people's heads. These photographs are largely of famous anime creators who are also the voice actors for these characters.
Now imagine this is used to depict a totally bizarre fake documentary set in the Tachiguishi/Kerberos universe… or at least the modern Tachiguishi/Kerberos universe, which is incomptabile with the '80s version, which is incompatible with Jin-Roh…
Yeah, this in INCREDIBLY niche.
And we called Starship Troopers a failure on our podcast!
-Jeremy from Destroy All Podcasts
Jeremy: It's probably more marketable than most of the non-manga-based live-action stuff Viz has licensed as of late. I mean, seriously, who the hell thought people would want to see the Japanese answer to Jerry Lewis score with a geisha? Oh, wait, Maiko Haaaaan! is a brilliant decision, along with K-20 and Horumo. That's what the kids want, not Miike's D.O.A. trilogy or Shiki-Jitsu… I think the only reason they picked up those 20th Century Boys movies is because Nick Cage's Knowing ripped off the series, and they're just trying to cash in, too. Anyway, I'm still hoping they'll see the light on the LA DMC; but that Gene Simmons cameo probably costs more than the international licensing fees for the movie. Fuck the RIAA once again.
BTW, am I the only one who noticed the pic of HxH's Killua throwing down a gang sign in the August issue of Jump U.S.A.?
Found that shit online for people too cheap to pay for the mag. http://hxhfan.multiply.com/photos/album/22/killua_#15
Good news… our shirt order showed up. Once again, thanks Daryl.
After being around independent comics and OEL manga, there are many problems with the OEL market. Some of the problems are directly inherited from the comic book industry; others are unique to OEL.
One problem is readership and market concentration. Every market has a buying culture. The manga market is exclusively focused on Japanese manga. The American market is exclusively focused on the superhero comic. Both markets have been relentlessly shaping their niche at the expense of any other comic book forms.
Now, companies are trying to capitalize on OEL, but they are fundamentally going against a market straitjacket of their own making. Manga readers see OEL as disingenuous American crap. American comic book readers see it as imitation Japanese crap.
Another problem is the lack of a training ground in America. In Japan, there are opportunities for a mangaka-in-training. Clarissa mentioned the doujinshi market, but also there are many anthology magazines. There are weekly and monthly magazines which are willing to take chances on unproven material.
The economy is also a factor. The bad economy has made it prohibitively difficult for American companies to take risks. Investments in an unproven market like OEL are risky.
[Dear people coming from the SL guy’s Livejournal; this is a not-really anonymous comment left on our blog that does not reflect our own opinions.]
The problem with OEL is that IMAGE comics, that Ninja High School guy, MegaTokyo, and Scott Pilgrim, already came up with the idea of stealing anime and manga ideas and art first. [And if I want to really be a dick about it, the Sexy Losers guy, which is why he's resorted to Kevin Smith-style humour to cover up his weakness in character development. Although I will admit that Japan did rip off his magic sex doll idea with that manga and movie…I'm not gonna count Aaron McGruder, though, because the guy's a writer first, and an artist second.] So it's kind of pointless to attract a Western audience with that "inspired" style, unless you have a personal take on it, since we've long been aware of the style before it was even popular. What the OEL creators should be doing is going into territory which isn't similar to what we've already seen before. That's why indie comic writers are able to stand out among the superhero stuff.
If only Oshii could knock it off with his interests and do something silly for once, I'd like to see it.
Both shows covered in this podcast already resemble what I should've created myself out of spite to place my middle finger on the world!
Why would I want to own singles over a season? Because what if I hate the show? Plus, in the case of ADV shows, you miss out on the cultural notes, which doesn't really make sense for a series like Nerima Daikon Brothers. Just the title alone is a Japanese in-joke!
Let's just say we've advanced ourselves for the upcoming decade this way. 🙂
As for why I can't stand "Amerimanga", it's because it's written and drawn by people who have less talent than an amateur web-comic artist; and I can read those types of works for free. I'm not prejudiced against them not being Japanese, though; what I hate is the fact that they're trying to fool me into thinking they're Japanese. Anyway, I was hoping the discussion would be an excuse to bash Minx, aka the American wannabe-shojo line written by men who don't know shit about girls.
I was hoping for that too!
I haven't seen the live-action original, but the animated Gekko Kamen from the 1970s was neat. The series got limited international distribution outside of Japan and somehow ended up being aired as "Centella" in Spanish.
Univision back in it's heyday aired that program I believe (having only the opening title sequence to it in my collection which was a simple clip of the guy's routine with a card saying "Capitan Centella" that was so cheaply put together on an easel).
wah said…
Oh, one thing about visual novel guys. They're either a) Japanese or b) know Japanese. Sure, there's exceptions, but the market is super small.
Too obvious!
The Moogle Master said…
I bet if they make the live action Robotech movie it will suck ass!
Now why did I think the same way? I just know I'll be up to my ass in Robotech rants over that! 🙂
James Leung said…
After being around independent comics and OEL manga, there are many problems with the OEL market. Some of the problems are directly inherited from the comic book industry; others are unique to OEL.
Hmmm….
One problem is readership and market concentration. Every market has a buying culture. The manga market is exclusively focused on Japanese manga. The American market is exclusively focused on the superhero comic. Both markets have been relentlessly shaping their niche at the expense of any other comic book forms.
Sad really. Nobody really wants to do something outside of those camps.
Now, companies are trying to capitalize on OEL,
Or as I call it "Oh-Weee Ill"!
but they are fundamentally going against a market straitjacket of their own making. Manga readers see OEL as disingenuous American crap. American comic book readers see it as imitation Japanese crap.
And it's a natural fact!
Another problem is the lack of a training ground in America. In Japan, there are opportunities for a mangaka-in-training. Clarissa mentioned the doujinshi market, but also there are many anthology magazines. There are weekly and monthly magazines which are willing to take chances on unproven material.
Shame we don't have that here, it might've improved things a little.
The economy is also a factor. The bad economy has made it prohibitively difficult for American companies to take risks. Investments in an unproven market like OEL are risky.
Again, it was a bad idea from the start!
I don't have a simple solution to the OEL mess myself, but I can only hope these people can snap out of it!
Chris: I thought Tachiguishi was supposed to be "silly". Or at least by Oshii's standards.
Oh, and getting back to the alleged LA Robotech movie, assuming it hasn't been canceled, there's no real point to it, because it'll have the mass appeal of the Wing Commander movie.
Tachiguishi is weirder than you are imagining. It makes Red Spectacles look positively sane. Here, look: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RlynZnBAv-M
-Jeremy
Jeremy: Looks down right normal, compared to Taste of Tea, which Viz did actually release here. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2NcBL6cYGL4
Oh, and Funky Forest, which is also currently on R1 DVD. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NkbdakkgdpM
This brings a bigger smile to my face than any OEL ever could. The Tick manga! http://apps.facebook.com/comicbooks/titles/mangalicious-tick-2009
OEL manga has the same problem as a lot of the scanlated manwha you'll see: it follows the form of Japanese manga, but not the function.
I think it would be fantastic if some American comics became more like manga in the following ways: a focus on low prices and frequent installments, quality line art rather than bad coloring, weekly anthologies, a decompressed pace, more varied audience-pandering, and mainstream presence for experimental creators.
Notice I didn't say "triangle faces", "nosebleeds", or "green hair". Sure, there's a place for stories drawn by Americans that pander to english-speaking otaku by mimicry, but that's far less interesting to me than if an American comic book company took efforts to make comics part of the mass-media, rather than an influence on it.
Thank Gawd Ishiguro heeded my warning about Disney butt-fucking Yamato DB: E-style[ http://movies.ign.com/articles/386/386436p1.html ], and he decided to
make his own LA Nippon production first. http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2009-07-18/noboru-ishiguro-confirms-live-action-yamato-in-development Of course, I guess he decided to cast Takuya Kimura as Kodai, because he's hoping to make a teen sensation version, a la the Abrams Star Trek. But at least he's not using Outlaw Serenity as a reference.
Nothing much really happen at AX this year. All I did was bought some niche manga titles and Cagliostro. Since the economy is shitty, barely anyone was willing to pass out any free swag or advertisement. Of the all the swag I have, probably the "nicest" was MangaGamer passing out free h demos DVDs. Most of my enjoyment came from industry and fan panels. I did notice the CPM's page. I wonder where they got the money to buy the ad space.