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With Hama-con over and Otakon mere days away, we go over some of the major Anime Expo 2015 announcements (this takes 28 minutes) and Daryl reviews the now 20-year old OAV series El Hazard: The Magnificent World (invariably bringing up the original Tenchi Muyo! in the process).
Missed us? Think Clarissa didn’t say much this time around? That’s because she did four other podcasts while we were off doing convention procrastination preparation. On GME! Anime Fun Time she reviewed Mononoke, then over on the Pseudo Random podcast, she joins the crew for discussing Love, Chunibyo, and Other Delusions as well as Princess Tutu in two parts (Part 1 and Part 2), which you can compare and contrast with her AWO Princess Tutu review from…damn, eight years ago.
Our [Gerald’s] panels at Otakon 2015 are as follows:
Greatest Anime Openings Ever – Friday 7/24, 2:30 PM – 3:30 PM, AMV Theater (BCC 324-326)
Anime’s Appearances in Western Media – Saturday 7/25, 4:30 PM – 5:30 PM, Panel 5 (Hilton Holiday 4-6)
El Hazard is how I got into anime. When I was 12 my older brother brought home tapes with it and Tenchi Muyo, and we watched them back to back. Later I forced my friends to watch them as well, causing them to become some of the worst nerds I know of to this day. Being the person who brought it upon them, I am the biggest most horrible nerd of them all, as I’m the only one of us to get into visual novels. If you want to know about the plot of Violent Semen Inferno, I’m your man.
El Hazard holds up for me. It’s the sense of adventure as they’re always on the move, visiting new locations, blowing stuff up. Tenchi on the other hand I tried rewatching for the first time in a decade, and it was sleep inducing. The appeal of Tenchi’s premise and the characters has eroded with time, while El Hazard still feels somewhat unique. The supporting characters bring so much energy to the show, and they pack tons into the 7 episodes such that you don’t have time to get bored with any one thing. I guess the show taught 12 year old me the perils of wanting sequels to things you like, because even then, having the mental ability of a Youtube commenter, I thought the sequels were complete dogshit.
Wouldn’t surprise me. I wish I had paid more attention to El Hazard myself than I tried with Tenchi, but yes, those sequels were shit.
I actually saw the first episode of El Hazard a while ago because I was seeking out shows that were dubbed by Kevin Seymour. I remember thinking it was okay but I never got around to seeing the rest of it and the show sort of fell off my radar. However after listening to this episode I feel like giving the show another shot, if for no other reason than to hear more of Fujisawa (loved the English voice for that guy).
I was told from a friend in high school that El Hazard was “shit, so do not watch it.” I’m not sure what of El Hazard he saw, but that was all I knew about that series in the past decade. But since you made this OVA sound pretty convincing, I’ll give this a shot.
I’m really curious how Gerald’s panel idea will turn out. The only two references I can think of off the top of my head that anime is thrown in a film are Top Gun and Monster Squad. Top Gun had Goose’s kid with a fighter plane from Robotech, and Monster Squad had a 5 year-old in a Robotech T-shirt. If Gerald hasn’t known to use those films, then go check them out. But if he has, then he seems to be on the right path.
I believe that is a Robotech pajama top the kid had on. I actually wore something very similar to that myself as an 8 year old, without ever even watching that show (I don’t think it was picked up in Toledo at all).
Oh yeah, not to spoil it, there’s one in One Hour Photo but I’ll just leave it there for those to figure it out! [Pfft, I’ll spoil it: a child incorrectly describes what Evangelion is about, because in the world of this movie they sell Evangelion toys in this sort of establishment. –Daryl]
Just finished watching the original OAV again after listening to the review. El Hazard still holds up after seeing it for the first time 16 years ago. It leaves me wanting more….but knowing how all the sequels and spinoffs are…I’m content with the original.
Re-watching this series gave me MAJOR nostalgia for watching the trailers on old Pioneer VHS tapes. Those were special times for me back when anime had that new sense of awe and wonder.
Ahhhh, the heavens have parted and dropped a new ep. of AWO, on my birthday (7/13) no less. Funny, because I was just listening back to very old ep. 11 yesterday only to find Daryl replying to one of my emails. I’m sure I heard it the first time around but I’d long since forgotten.
I shall listen to this new offering now while going out for a long walk.
I remember this somewhat fondly, although most of my exposure was AMVs and the first quarter or third of the Wanderers. I believe I have the OVA artbook in storage right now, as it was a good example of AIC’s standard style. I was hoping that Daryl would continue to deny the existence of BGC2040 when it came to AIC reusing the character designs.
I’ve always wondered what Diva’s deal was. I liked her look, but was she like Kerrigan (since Daryl brought up the Zerg) and some sort of human-Bugrom hybrid, or the more uncomfortable implication that she somehow birthed them all? [Per the sequels, it’s the latter; she’s the literal queen and needs another humanoid to mate with, so the only available candidate had better start running (and I’m 95% sure she eventually catches him; look, I said to just forget about those sequels existing) –Daryl]
Also, I had to look, but Zeonicfreak, you’re wrong: Goose’s kid has a Transformer. Starscream, in fact. Macross was very much the egg from Top Gun’s chicken.
El Hazard, that brings me back. I remember I used to watch it on Channel 32 (I think). The channel was called The International Channel and it showed 90’s anime. Some of them were subtitled. I remember the first time I found the channel, they was playing the sub version of Dragon Ball GT and that got me hooked on other Anime like The Slayers, Fushigi Yugi, Irresponsible Captain Tylor, Legend of Black Heaven, Project A-Ko, Descendants of Darkness, and El-Hazard. I think I saw the dub version of El Hazard on the channel. It was a fun show I recall, but it kind of confused me when they showed the TV version after the OVA was done. The only thing I recall from the TV version is they made the cool character into a total ditz. That got me to stop watching it for a while.
I haven’t seen the El Hazard OVA in a long time. I tried buying it, but it was out of my price range at the time. I really want to add it to my collection and re-watch. Anyway, I’m glad you say it holds up, because I don’t want be disappointed again (“cough” Lost Universe “cough”).
The International Channel was a cable/satellite-only service that basically played an assortment of news and variety programming from across the planet. I too remember when they had on El Hazard alongside the years they spent plowing through Dragon Ball Z (since that took like 6 years to get through, they played it once a week, so we got to feel how it felt to having to wait like the Japanese did). I recall Votoms played on there as well. The channel eventually changed to “AZN Television” with an emphasis of Asian programming before it finally went to that great idiot box in the sky.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AZN_Television
I also think the first El Hazard OAV series holds up well. I think it deserves a better rep than it is sometimes given these days. It is fun, the characters are enjoyable, the fantasy plot is interesting, and the Ifurita story might even be called moving.
Tenchi I still enjoy, and have affection for the characters, like some old sitcom you grew up with. But the plot holds up less well for me. So I, too, might give El Hazard the nod.
I was at the Anime Expo at the “Shin-ADV”/Sentai panel when they announced they would release “Legend of …” . Not everyone, but there were a more that a few “beardos” (your friend Zac Bertschy’s comment) like me who were surprised and gave a loud delighted whoop.
One thing I should point out is that Pioneer didn’t invent the Laserdisc, it was MCA in the late 70’s (the then owners of Universal Studios). Pioneer only ever got into it first as a partnership with MCA before deciding to claim it all themselves over the shitty American work that came out of the first pressings int he US (where it the discs and format was originally called “DiscoVision”).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DiscoVision
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nXcI1QoDPtQ
I will say giving the current situation with who owns the AIC titles made for Pioneer, it kinda came full circle to see them under NBCUniversal’s arm today. It does seem rather a shame Funimation didn’t pick this up when they already got most of Tenchi out of the way.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NBCUniversal_Entertainment_Japan
http://db2.nbcuni.co.jp/contents/hp0003/list.php?CNo=3&AgentProCon=21902
Good episode. I’ve also been listening to old AWO episodes.
…Looking for any more Discipline readings?
Chris: Your probably right on the Robotech pj’s, but that is one of the few scenes in that film that stuck out to me. Memory told me it was a cool looking shirt.
Zero: I thought for sure it was a Veritech fighter, but the Starscream toy and Veritech fighters did share the same toy at one point, which became some big lawsuit eventually. It would make sense if it was a Trasformer toy since the show was on at the time Top Gun came out.
But if Macross came out first, wouldn’t Top Gun be the egg?
I’m an episode late I guess on the commenting (oh well), but for some reason I just feel the need to make one!
Similar to another up above, I think my 1st introduction to the show was catching an episode or two on the International Channel or something very similar back in the late 90’s or early 00’s. I remember liking it but then I never actually saw any more of it for years. It just stuck with me and eventually I unraveled which show was which in the series and acquired the original OAV a couple of years ago, watched the whole thing, and loved it.
I didn’t appreciate it at the time but listening to the podcast definitely hammered home how much the OAV/7 ep format really helped this show by making it only as long as it really needed to be to tell its story well.
Listening to this has put a bug in me to re-watch it so now I’ve probably sunk one of my nights this weekend going back to it.
I feel really oblivious though for not realizing until now that it was made by the same guy/crew who did Tenchi…
Having seen the first episode back in the VHS days, I actually couldn’t hack it. It probably does seem tame by today’s standards, but coming from Tenchi Muyo, I found the sudden escalation in sexual hijinks too much for my sheltered young mind to process. Nevertheless, listening to the episode has really sold me on it and I’m keen to give it another shot.
You speak of Hiroki Hayashi and Masaki Kajishima as if they were one and the same. Back in episode 15 you didn’t seem to have any trouble telling them apart.
[This was sent using fake credentials and was therefore marked as spam. For the sake of having meaningful content, I’ve substituted “Masaki Kajishima” in place of the 4chan slur that was originally written. The fact I was even able to do this suggests that I can,in fact, tell them apart. –Daryl]
First time i’ve heard of zoom player. I always used to use Media player classic for its features like changing audio tracks, switching subs easily and remote control support. I jumped ship tho to Kodi ( which also shows stills, not sure about slideshows). Dunno if that could suit your needs. As for dodgy laptops an SSD is recommended before calling time on the hardware. As always another great podcast.