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Is THIS going to mark ten years of our podcast? But we didn’t do anything special like what you’re supposed to! Who’s been listening to us all this time, and how have your lives changed since then? What, if anything, did we have to do with it? For now, we must soldier on. Clarissa reviews THE BASKETBALL WHICH KUROKO PLAYS, or as rational people call it, Kuroko’s Basketball.
Introduction (0:00 – 34:55)
Some emails are deceptively difficult. This time around we tackle the question of “what anime out there is like Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade?” while revealing that we don’t fully comprehend the geography of the very state in which we inhabit. Listen, people from Central and South Florida try not to think about what goes on up North, since that’s when it becomes The South. Also, out West. That’s where the demons reside.
Promo: Right Stuf Anime (34:55 – 36:20)
The Holiday sale is on until December 27th with new items added every day, and several of those are titles we’ve reviewed in the past or happened to mention during the introduction. Each order you place gives you a chance to win a $250 gift card, and shipping is free after you spend $49. With so many things discounted so high, you’ll hit that mark rather quickly if you’re anything like us.
Review: Kuroko’s Basketball (36:20 – 1:20:49)
Fine, we didn’t actually call it The Basketball Which Kuroko Plays, but then again, neither does Crunchyroll or Viz because no native English speaker would bother. Of course, any native English speaker who routinely says “Kuroko no Basuke” or, even weirder, “Kuroko’s Basket” probably reads pirated scans or watches some fansub. Those days are behind us, as it’s all on Crunchyroll now, including the two extra OAVs so GET IN THE ZONE. Note: the zone might possibly be referring to a dude’s butt, if all this fanart is anything to go by.
I think “defeat the evil ex” is the best way one can possibly describe Kuroko. Since this is technically not the anniversary episode, I would like to give a suggestion. Go back to your roots and review the master: Kazuo Koike. Daryl still has to complete the Trinity of Suck with Mad Bull 34, or you could talk about the fantastic Samurai Executioner (which might be my favorite Koike work). And of course there is stuff like Offered or Hanzo (who comes in two rapey flavors: cop and ninja!) If that fails and you want to review something classy, you could always go the Tatsumi route and review A Drifting Life. For a bunch of people who made their podcast great by pretending to know everything about what they talk about, I feel this manga would fit you folks very well. But who am I to talk about class? I’m the guy who donated to get a review of Grappler Baki! Screw class and sentimentality, I say go Koike or go home!
hahaha~ that RightStuf promo coming from Daryl brought back some helluva good Discipline Ad memories from years gone by. Excellent review per usual guys; I was a varsity ref when I was in college, and anything that reminds me of the homoerotic-ambient high school students engage in with each other, to the wrath of a hundred hillbilly parents, all the more makes me wanna return to said job. Slam Dunk and even more so Dear Boys bored me to z’ees… This ‘basketball which Kuroko plays’ seems upbeat & quirky enough to warrant a watch that will surely topple the aforementioned. Mucho gracias, and of course… VAYA CON DIOS… dun dun dun!
As for a suggestion on what to watch for the 10th year anniversary of the longest running, and might I add, best Anime podcast in the world’s order (because the Ninja Consultants, Ota-Gen, and Ani-Pulse all imploded into David Tennant’s ginger AU)…
I say invite Mike Dent and do a full-blown dissection of Kamen Rider Decade, because mispronouncing decade is hilarious, and also as classy way to Rickroll Japanimation in general. This idea came about thanks to an offbeat comment Daryl made about Kamen Rider years ago, which initialed my downward spiral into the dark abyss of said franchise… more specifically Kabuto, the man walking the path of heaven with the coolest outfit in za warudo… Dio’s elf-boots notwithstanding.
Happy 10-year anniversary guys! Here’s to the revised otaku-retirement age of 90… because exponential growth and inflation times 3 could only be as awesome as Jeremy’s correct pronunciation of Quatro Vagina’s true name… Cheers!
Also, lets not forget the fact that the last time you guys did a JoJo’s review, Steel Ball Run wasn’t completed and the quite frankly miraculous resurgence of JoJo popularity had not happened yet thanks to the anime. I want my fill of homoerotic Italian men, the precursor to Orange is the New (JoJo) Black, and homoerotic cowboys please.
I should also say that while I have only been a fan for about 4 years now, your podcast has been influential in making me the otaku I am today. Sure not a single one of my friends has managed to get to the second episode of Mad Bull with me (but I totally got a 4 pack of Golgo 13: The Professional, Mad Bull 34, Cyber City Oedo, and Ninja Scroll on one hell of a sale) but I know good/bad taste when I see it! I haven’t been the same since I started reading Gekiga manga, I think I was hypnotized just like Crying Freeman. As long as you guys enjoy putting this stuff out I will remain a loyal fan!
I suppose I’d count as a not particularly loyal fan, to be perfectly frank, despite listening to this podcast since roughly 2006 or 2007 and enjoying many hours of entertainment thanks to all three of you. I’ve certainly never had a problem with the relatively infrequent podcast release schedule, but the fact of the matter is I’ve increasingly lost interest in keeping up with every single episode.
I guess the more you learn about a given group of people, you either tend to become more friendly towards them or otherwise just end up accumulating reasons to criticize their views and tastes (and, of course, vice versa).
In any case, I will remain grateful to AWO for introducing me to a fair number of obscure anime and manga over the years (including some which were simply overlooked or largely unknown outside of the specific U.S.-based fan circles you folks belonged to).
Beyond that, I still continue check out new episodes here and there, whenever something unusual, unique or just plain interesting is going to be discussed, but I no longer feel the need to keep track of your opinions about current anime, let alone worry about sharing them in every single case. It’s rather blunt to put it that way, I suppose, but alas…
I guess its not surprising that Slam Dunk episodes are set up that way where its 24 episodes to get through one game of basketball. But out of my curiosity, I still have an interest to check it out one of these days to see for myself.It does have a sweet intro, so you gotta give Slam Dunk credit there.
Also to note, our podcast had Gerald on recently to talk about the 20th anniversary of the Ghost in the Shell movie, and you get to hear a bit about Gerald backstory on what it’s like to live in the Virgin Islands as an anime fan. Not sure why this didn’t make the cut at the end of this podcast, but no biggie, here’s the link: http://aoypodcast.com/2015/11/18/aoy-podcast-80-ghost-in-the-shell-20th-anniversary-review-w-gerald-rathkolb/
[The same reason it wasn’t listed in the Guest Spots page until I just added it: he didn’t include it. š –Daryl]
Awesome, thank Daryl. Maybe Gerald was secretly trying to hide it so his backstory never reaches the masses…
BTW, you messed up the RSS feed on VLC again. It seems fitting for the 10th anniversary. [I can see no error. –Daryl]
Actually, anime die-hards often frequent anime conventions, but often to see their old friends who are either running said conventions, or other old time friends they only see at conventions. At nearly every anime convention, somewhere there is a room of at least a handful of 30+ aged fans, who may be more preoccupied with another hobby in their daily lives, but who still drop by for socializing, reminiscing, and perhaps revisiting an old anime or other cartoon favorite or challenging each other in gaming. And griping about those damn kids and their glomping to dubstep while getting homestuck or whatever else we find weird or incomprehensible these days.
[Considering that all of the hosts of this podcast are over 30, this is not an epiphany; as you yourself note, those types of fans are a “handful” for conventions whose attendances are in the thousands. It would be incredibly misleading of us to imply that’s what an average anime convention experience is. Also, the fake email address you entered tossed this into the Spam folder. –Daryl]
I like the question about anime like Jin-Roh, because that’s what I base my anime viewing habits on too. And as much as the original Ghost in the Shell is similar but different, I think that Ghost in the Shell 2 is probably the closest to Jin-Roh, in terms of other Oshii stuff. The doom and gloom, but also some of the themes.
When Clarissa mentioned that the person who’d sent threatening letters regarding Kuroko’s Basketball had been caught, and “thankfully it’s over” I half-expected the Tall Man from Phantasm to appear and briefly explain that no, it’s not. Actually, it was more like three-quarters expected.
Regarding other anime like Jin-Roh, it might be worth taking a look at the original 2000 Blood: The Last Vampire film by Hiroyuki Kitakubo (at least Okiura has gotten to make *one* new anime since Jin-Roh!). Blood and Jin-Roh were both made by the same studio in the late 1990s and shared a common origin–both works being inspired by the concepts of Mamoru Oshii.
They are quite different in narrative; Blood is more straight-up monster slaying and doesn’t feature the conspiratorial intrigue or doomed love story of Jin-Roh. Where they resemble each other is in their vision of a secret or alternate history of Japan during the Cold War, made more violent due to different, imagined shapes of foreign occupation. Like Jin-Roh, Blood uses the idea of monsters in a political way, but despite (or perhaps because of) being the simpler work, I think Blood’s ideas are the more horrific ones. If Harlan Ellison had been writing scripts for anime in the 1960s (now there’s an alternate history), Blood is the sort of thing he might have come up with.
Review Outlaw Star! <.<
As far as what you should review for your anniversary show, I would like to suggest Evangelion. I know that in the past Daryl mentioned his hatred for it because it set a terrible trend for anime. However, despite this there are many interesting aspects about the show, and if nothing else I would be up to hear you guys rag on it and piss off fan boys.
Thank you from the bottom of my heart for continuing the podcast all these years, guys. In the years I’ve been listening, I’ve grown up from an antisocial geek afraid of his own shadow to a social and confident geek who’s driven and never yielding. Life changes in ways people can never predict; dreams fail and mistakes are made. Sometimes, just waiting day by day is the hardest part, but you all made this bearable. š
I second Adam’s suggestion to review Evangelion for the anniversary. Love it or hate it, the anime has left an indelible mark. A number of shows have either adapted or straight-up copied what Evangelion has done, and in the genre of mecha alone the show remains a powerhouse. The fan base is still strong after all these years, and continues to grow as the new movies (slowly) come out. Sure, we can all agree that the end of the original TV series sucked, but that is not a reason to completely shun the anime, especially after the Death & Rebirth and End of Evangelion movies attempted to (and successfully in my opinion) rectify the mistake. There is a lot to discuss with the show – I mean, a whole episode could be devoted to Shinji alone: Does he represent the last bit of humanity in the show, or is he simply a whiny byaaaaatch? In short, Evangelion is a critical juncture in many of an anime nerd’s fandom, and it’s worthy of selection by the AWO Black and White (though, I was always down with the Red and Black, Daryl. WOLFPACK!)
However, should you not choose to review Eva, I will just consider this episode the official anniversary episode, which is fine by me because I love Kuroko no Basuke (yes, I’m one of the people who say the Japanese name). It is one of the better ANIME (sports or otherwise) to come out in a while. And sure, while I can see the “gay basketball” element to the show and may the gods continue to bless the dojin for keeping the show popular and relevant, it’s not that gay. It’s not like it’s Free! Iwatobi Swim Club.
Congratulations on 10 years! I’ve been a fan since the beginning. All this time Ive been waiting for you to review the one thing that will truly test your bounds of sanity:
ROOTS SEARCH!
If I remember correctly, you said you would get to it someday. I surmise that there has never been a better time than the present! [It was never even released on DVD here! –Daryl]
I’d really like to see you guys finally take on a Revolutionary Girl Utena review, which has been teased yet avoided for so long. It will happen one day. It must, and your anniversary show is the perfect time. Barring that: I second the motion to complete the Trinity of Suck and review Mad Bull 34. I watched that show with my friends, and it was great. One of them never hung out with us again after that.
[We reviewed both Utena as well as Mad Bull 34 for Otaku USA, which is probably why we didn’t do it here. Additionally, now that stuff like Mad Bull, Garzey’s Wing, Baoh etc have become famous due to various streaming video Internet “critic” personalities–all of whom appear to exhibit the exact same personality?–the utility of covering such titles is a lot less than when we first started the podcast. –Daryl]
10 years of Podcasts, congratulations… or should I say my condolences?
Either way, I recently caught up again and have heard all of them.
Somewhat relevant, I actually bought all of Gatchman for the RightStuf sale last year [dec.]. I don’t know. I watched the whole thing and the included ova’s on bluray. Which is better the OVA or the tv show?
I liked the series a bit more but the ova has 10x the quality of the animation…