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It’s our ten year anniversary…or rather, our first show since passing that! We had nothing planned to mark the occasion, so we figured we’d just do a year in review summary of 2015 with regards to noteworthy shows. In so doing, we forgot to mention several, like Snow White with the Red Hair. That’s just how we operate. Still.
Introduction (0:00 – 20:42)
We mostly spend this time doing a victory lap, reading a small excerpt of the congratulations that we received…okay fine, this is close to all that were sent via email. But we got more by way of social media and stuff that we just didn’t read! Really. Honest. What’s changed since we started? What stayed the same? We try not to dwell on such things for too long, lest we realize how much everyone’s progressed while we’ve remained still.
Promo: Nozomi Entertainment (20:42 – 22:05)
Go back to our earlier episodes and you’ll find a fair amount of us lamenting how certain classic series never saw the light of day in the US. Thanks to Nozomi Entertainment, that list is a whole lot shorter now than ever before, plus several of those titles are available to be watched streaming. Zeta Gundam Blu-Ray preorders are due to be shipping out soon, so head on over to Right Stuf to get yours. That reminds us: we’ve got a fair share of Got Anime? memberships to give away. We should start doing that throughout the year, huh.
2015 in Review (22:05 – 2:04:00)
Contrary to what you may have heard on the Internet, 2015 was a pretty great year for Japanese animation. We each listed 25-30 titles and spoke briefly on them in the process. Perhaps you were overwhelmed by choice and had no idea what to even dip your toes into? This may help.
Conclusion (2:04:00 – 2:11:41)
Next time, we’re shifting into gear so to speak as we deliver upon one of our donation-requested review titles: Initial D 4th Stage. In the meantime, Daryl was a guest on GME! Anime Fun Time to talk about One-Punch Man (you might say that after a year of exile, he broke out of podcast prison to be with them) and contributed an article to the Cubed Circle Wrestling Yearbook for 2015. This in turn led to him being given a ballot for the Voices of Wrestling 2015 Match of the Year polling, where he found out he was only roughly 50% out of touch with the Internet smark consensus. Listen: Dragon Gate and Lucha Underground are the best, THEN New Japan, and Bayley vs Sasha doesn’t even merit a Top 10 spot, okay?!
Honestly, nowadays, it is probably most important for an anime to be in Netflix than tv.
Seems to be going that way these days, more or less, anime is being put into its place away from the mainstream again.
I still remember enjoying some of the lesser appreciated series from Winter 2015. Back then, the likes of Maria the Virgin Witch, Yuri Kuma Arashi and Death Parade were all very good shows that, for one reason or another, weren’t really what the bulk of the viewing audience wanted to see. Which explains why they weren’t commercially successful, at least in Japan, despite earning varying degrees of praise from some critics. I can only hope that they will be better received whenever they come out on home video over here.
I’ll admit Ninja Slayer wasn’t consistently funny. Even so, I had a fair amount of dumb fun watching it after the broadcast had already ended. And well, I can’t exactly pretend to dislike the dual purpose of the fanservice scenes. Studio Trigger definitely gets how to do that.
Lupin III Part IV is pretty great. I’ve only seen a couple of episodes so far and almost everything about them has been a breath of fresh air, while still remaining keenly aware of what people want to see from the property. Which reminds me…I should buy the re-release of Lupin III Part 2.
Gundam Thunderbolt is extremely pretty, but it remains to be seen if the shorter format will allow the series to become anything more than just a few impressive vignettes. It would probably need a little more substance to its characterization and a nicely self-contained narrative in order to hold up as the next Macross Plus.
That said, I am enjoying Gundam Iron-Blooded Orphans with its more deliberately crafted storytelling so far. For the type of story it wants to tell, that’s a very good approach. Other Gundam premises don’t necessarily need, or even want to, achieve the same results. Not surprisingly, I liked the majority of 00 back in the day, as a piece of speculative science fiction that explored some ideas Gundam hadn’t really touched on, and thus expect to strongly disagree with the vocal arguments against it.
Code Geass: Akito the Exiled is an unusual creature. The OVA series avoids several of the issues with the original show (no school setting) and tries to do a few new things in the process, but also misses some of its strengths (lacks a compelling protagonist, which is what held Code Geass together through all of its craziness until the actually good conclusion). Plus, like a lot of the usual Gundam spin-offs from Sunrise, it doesn’t attempt to explain too much to the uninitiated. I’d expect interest to pick up once Funimation can finally release a dubbed version of the whole thing, but that might not even happen this year.
Fafner Exodus is the best Fafner to date and a pretty damn good mecha show in its own right, regardless of the predictable use of Hirai designs, yet similarly remains highly underwatched and underappreciated. In this case, it’s probably because almost nobody watched -or wants to watch- the original series as a prerequisite.
There is a Zune Store, it’s ran by a hilariously drunken ex-Taito employee that spends his evenings making even more hilariously drunken technicolour computer games.
Happy 2016 guys! Looking forward to Running in the 90’s inside the 1986 Hachi Trueno driftcar, and Daryl’s & Dad’s game podcast of course! =D
Been listening to the podcast since 2008 and it is thanks to you guys that I got back into anime after not really watching anything for several years. I can’t even count the number of shows I’ve seen thanks to AWO that are now some of my all-time favorites. Congratulations on 10 years of podcasting and thank you again for being my guide through this crazy anime wasteland.
Thanks for the ten years of podcasts, guys. And Daryl, what were those shows you mentioned that you thought of reviewing, but they’re almost impossible to find?
The popular response to Reconguista in G continues to baffle me. It’s the best anime in years, and folks seem to think it’s an unintelligible mess. Oh well, I hope that UK BD set comes out over here. I should mention that I have an immense fondness for all things Tomino. Every time his stuff hits a familiar Tomino beat, I get this cozy feeling like I’m home.
On the subject of Tokyo Ghoul, its popularity honestly reminds me of Elfen Lied. Both are incredibly gory, torture-y series that got big. VIZ missed the boat back in the day by not bringing the manga over.
Also, Gerald doing both Vampire and Milky Holmes is something I eagerly await with baited breath.
I’m honored to say that I literally did not get 45 seconds into the first episode of Lupin III Part IV before I started spluttering with choleric otaku rage over how San Marino is a republic, not a kingdom. C’mon, they even show the “REPUBBLICA SAN MARINO” sign as Zenigata drives through it.
Having said that, it actually means a lot to me that a show I was watching as a schoolkid during Reagan’s first term is alive and well in a beautiful new series that this generation can enjoy. Come to think of it, Part III *was* the Reagan-era Lupin, and although sometimes maligned (including by myself), I see elements of all three of the previous Lupin shows in Part IV.
Perhaps the comparison isn’t precisely fair, but unlike, say, the movie SPECTRE, Lupin III Part IV has the ability to simply revive a 1960s character and hit the ground running, without having to expose the dark truth behind his origins and question his relevance in the modern age, yada, yada, iya da. I say it isn’t fair because it may be easier when you’re dealing with a freelance thief instead of a man who theoretically works for H.M. the Queen. Although come to think of it, Danny Boyle’s “Happy and Glorious” was sort of Bond as Lupin–a cheeky, Union Jack-parachute moment of the kind the actual films can no longer allow themselves.
So, no love for Kyoukai no Rinne then? I don’t blame you for not mentioning that show, I made it about 3 episodes and thought really nothing of it.
The only feeling I have towards you guys talking about Initial D is the fact of “Ok… how much are they gonna find wrong about it and rant?” I might be one of the biggest apologist to that series that you will find (there might be more, but they might exist on some obscure Initial D forum that should have died out a decade ago). But you know what, maybe whatever backlash or praise you give the show is good for me to listen too, because I would have to ask myself a decade later why I still feel for that series. It meant a lot to me in my high school years, and the anime/manga made up only one part of that. The arcade scene of Initial D is what really got me sucked into the series (there was a scene for Initial D in the early to mid 2000’s, although smaller than what was the aftermath of the DDR players that still played DDR at the time from what I can recall). I met my best friend through Initial D, I got interested in cars and racing through Initial D, and if there is an arcade machine around for Initial D, I happen to find others who are dorks for this series like I still am.
I think what i’m saying is if you guys are going to focus on the anime itself and judge that entire series and its fans based on that, your not getting a complete picture of why people would like Initial D. I could be wrong on my viewpoint, but it’s just another viewpoint to consider if you haven’t seen it. Oh i’ll admit the show is not that great at times on how it looks visually, but to a high school kid like me that never grew up at the age of 30, it still means something. You can sit there and show me all its faults, but i’m just too damn stubborn to listen to dislike Initial D. Then again, maybe I do need to reflect and re-watch this show and get an older viewpoint on it, it couldn’t hurt. Well whatever the next episode is, i’ll still listen. Happy 10 years!
Initial D’s quite the landmark anime. One of those titles every modern day kid’s watched, but due to it’s memetic essence, no one admits to.
For me, as an anime geek, it was my Fast and the Furious… my guilty pleasure. It fitted somewhere between the pristine waters of shounen sports series and the gritty hot blood pumping through seinen shows.
It’s the stoner kid in school who’s friends with everybody… fans of the evil spectrum of moe think it’s cool cause of its music and exciting qualities; and older sci-fi fans that earned their stripes in the VHS era, spending 30 bucks a pop at Suncoast like Carl might recall, find it interesting for its technical screenplay and cel-shaded animatography. Erin reviewed it for Shelf Life a couple of years ago and found it ace, if I remember correctly.
For me it was my gateway into electronic music, and cars as well like it was for you. People jaded by the internet tend to despise it for it’s shoddy character designs and formulaic episode structure… but I’ll be damned if Initial D wasn’t a fun ride from start to engine-blown finish.
The arcade is how I got into technology, and I’d be doing something else with my life if it wasn’t for that little jukebox.
I actually saw Initial D way before I ever laid eyes on a Fast and Furious movie. Oh I too was obsessed (and still kinda am) on Eurobeat music. I can honestly say for 3 or 4 years of my life that Eurobeat was the only thing I listened too every single day, and that might not be an exaggeration.
Yea, those Tokyopop individual DVD releases had about 3 episodes per disk for about 30 bucks a pop. And yes, I would save up every month and get them. Which essentially I was paying 10 dollars an episode to switch back and forth between the English “DJ MILKY XTREAME EDITION DUB” track and the Japanese one. I eventually stuck to the Japanese track when I watched the series, can you blame me?
Still trying to find a good price on a Initial D arcade machine, and if I did own one now… I don’t have the room currently to house one.
Yep, it doesn’t get better than Arcade Stage 3 as far as the game goes. The subsequent installments in the series are just improved graphical attempts at milk’ing the franchise… pun maybe intended? hahaha~
Eurobeat’s an interesting beast, as the article for porn-imageboard danbooru’s wiki page I wrote states. It’s taken years of J-pop, J-rock, and J-counseling to get me to even move my Eurobeat folder off my PC into my laptop. The sheer engrish of it all keeps me coming back & snuggling with it like a sexy hooker with, no not a heart of gold, more like a hilariously goofy lazy-eye, no offense to Mike Toole. XD
As for 3 episodes a disc and the DJ Milky tricked-out version; I think we got lucky. I still remember those dub-only 2 episode a tape Evangelions ADV gouged out of sparkly-eyed grade schoolers like us, cause watching anime on a laser-disc was the even more expensive/crazy alternative. Or maybe it was 4 episode a tape? I can’t really remember the 90’s cause of all that Running, if you catch my drift!
Carl Horn wrote about the pricey ADV tapes on one of his editorial jobs he did for an Eva volume. That was mostly what I was blabbering about, lol. Ebay or a friend living the dream in Dai-Nippon might be your best bet at finding a machine; but a simple console port with those DIY-rigs works just as good.
The “Anima(tor)s Exposition” videos were available until the end of January, so if you had a chance to see it by the end of last month, lucky you. Me on the other hand bothered downloading each vid like a filthy pirate for my own personal viewing.
Speaking of pirates, it’s sad to think how small or nonexistent fansubbing as become, let alone that they’re still putting out OVA’s at all that people don’t even know about. It’s like a lost art that needs to be rediscovered, at least for these exclusive, only-in-Japan deals that never get streamed/broadcast to the world.
The OVA’s are on anime torrent sites, but the stuff I want to see are untranslated at the moment. There are a few that I have like High School Agent and Taiman Blues that I would like to see subbed at some point, but I guess the only way to get stuff done is to do it yourself.
Seems that way. Wished I had stuck to Japanese myself.
How come you guys never talk or mention Gintama?