Podcast: Download (Duration: 1:55:35 — 52.9MB)
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As convention prep comes down to the wire, we’re joined once again by Mike Toole to do what we do best with him. Namely, talk about some Discotek Media developments and review anime from Yoshiyuki Tomino! This time around, it’s Blue Gale Xabungle aka Combat Mecha Xabungle.
Introduction (0:00 – 19:33)
We’ve got panels at Otakon 2019! Friday 8:30 PM Daryl’s got Anime’s Craziest Deaths (18+, with room clear at 8:00 PM), then Saturday at 11 PM Gerald is doing Anime in Non-Anime (18+). Finally, Sunday at 12:45 PM Mike will be running the Discotek Media panel, then once that’s over, at 2 PM Daryl has Twenty Years Ago: Anime in 1999 which will hopefully cover roughly double what his Anime News Network feature was able to get to. Now that this episode is posted, those are the things we’ve got to get back to working on!
Promo: Right Stuf Anime (19:33 -22:03)
It’s July, and that means it’s another month-long birthday sale! In celebration of 32 years, this year’s theme is “32-bit” but once again each day brings you a new daily Mega Deal (and Adult Mega Deal) in addition to store-wide discounts on practically everything. We recommend pre-ordering the Blu-Ray set of Osamu Tezuka’s Phoenix. That show came out 15 years ago, and we reviewed it…er, well, thirteen years ago…
Review: Xabungle (22:03 – 1:55:35)
After over thirty years, fans in the US can finally legally watch this 1982 mecha series courtesy of HiDive (and also VRV). You can also purchase it on Blu-Ray (standard definition), though we hear that release may be flawed. Still, the physical release is the only way to see the Xabungle Graffiti compilation movie with the (slightly) revised ending. Xabungle’s reputation has been built up over the years thanks to its appearances in Super Robot Wars and being cited as a major influence on Gurren Lagann. It’s also the first series to feature a song from MIO! We talk about what works and what doesn’t, but if there’s one thing we can all agree on it’s that we’d definitely rather watch Xabungle than the sort of cartoons America was making in 1982 such as The Gary Coleman Show.
When Arthur Rank was onscreen in Xabungle, did anyone hit a gong at any point? Because when you said that name the first thing I thought of was the logo of the British film company The Rank Organisation, founded by J. Arthur Rank:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ZylkQs-y3Y
I grew up seeing that logo all the time at the start of British movies on TV in Australia.
You guys made the comment that any time there’s some weird old anime, everyone looks to Discotek, and while that’s mostly true, they do make some shrewd pickups of more recent stuff. I was surprised and delighted that they rescued True Tears, for example, and that really seems outside their wheelhouse.
Second, listening to the Xabungle theme song in the break… when did anime lose the tradition of having some old male tenor bellowing the title of the show as the chorus? You know, like “MA-KUUU-ROSSSS”. If Xabungle was still doing it in 1982, and it seems like it was gone by the time of “Catch You Catch Me”, then that would narrow it down, right?
It’s the difference between having a theme song composed specifically for a series and licensing songs from a music label which they want to promote. The latter started to be used in the early 1980s and has since become the standard.
Guys if you wanna do another manga ep I am down to talk about TOKYO TARAREBA MUSUME.
I see you’re on a roll! At least 1 new episode each month.