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We give our thoughts on the virtual anime convention Anime Lockdown, and then the Decade In Review continues on as we get to 2-2-2016!!!! NOTE: this episode was recorded several weeks ago, and so we did not talk about the recent passing of ANN’s Zac Bertschy, but if you wish to do so there is a call for speakers for his online memorial this Friday. For those wishing to hear his final guest appearance on our show, that was in our most recent trivia episode, Show # 182 from November. We’ve added a Trivia category on the right hand side of this site for ease of access.
Introduction (0:00 – 37:40)
By coincidence, we open Show 188 by talking about Area 88, which Daryl reviewed back in Show 4 which probably hasn’t aged well as far as usage of once-contemporary Internet humor is concerned since that episode was from about fourteen years ago, back in 2006. The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in even more anime series going on hiatus, even though Tokyo has lifted the state of emergency about a week earlier than projected. Unlike the US, they will reinstate their state of emergency if new confirmed cases go above 50. (Over here, the amount of new confirmed cases only continues to rise yet states are ordering reopenings to avoid paying out unemployment.) We ruminate for a bit about the possible sale of Crunchyroll to Sony, and then discuss our experience attending the virtual convention Anime Lockdown. Between this recording and the next we will have attended a few other virtual conventions, but Lockdown will serve as our baseline measuring stick. Daryl was a guest on the Ani-Gamers podcast where this was discussed in greater detail.
Promo: Right Stuf Anime (37:40 – 40:09)
Some fans express jubiliation at the idea of Crunchyroll being sold to Sony, because then everything would be owned by FUNimation. We express hesitance at the idea of any one company owning too much. That said, FUNimation does already have a massive chunk of the Blu-Ray and DVD rights to anime series released in the US, and since there’s currently a FUNimation sale going on that means tons of titles are on sale for up to 60% off. We recommend Red Photon Zillion even though it’s temporarily out of stock as of this posting. Don’t worry; it’s not out of print! YET.
The DECADE IN REVIEW~!: 2-2-2016~! (40:09 – 3:00:14)
We heard that Ghana meme videos are all the rage right now in 2020! No doubt it’s this one. Even when you edit out the 40 minutes of crutch words, it still took 2 hours and 20 minutes for us to get through the notable highlights of 2016, which just might have been the strongest single year of the entire 2010s. Still, there were so many titles released (nearly 400!) that we’re sure to have missed something major (and to think, we were actually present for the Cannon Busters pilot screening that year). Anyway, if you have any thoughts on any of the titles mentioned or wish to point out any titles you consider worthy of mention that we did not, by all means let’s have it in the comments. And no, we did not forget to mention Galko-chan:
But sometimes Galko-chan forgets:
I had some small hope you would at least mention Bonobono.
While the 2016 reboot is inferior to the 90s version, it at least made many people outside of Japan and S.Korea (including myself) aware of the series.
Still, a great episode.
I disagree with your assessment of Space Patrol Luluco! While it is true that the references and inclusions of other Studio Trigger properties is a great strength of the show, I think it still has plenty to offer taken on its own merits.
I interpreted the show as a sort of coming of age story showing the difficulties of being a 13ish year old girl (but of course doing so with levity). For example, Luluco just wants to fit in and be normal but continually finds herself put in the spotlight, unwillingly exposed and even made an exhibition for her peers (think about her skimpy space patrol uniform and Judgment Gun Morphing). Her dad is utterly useless in helping Luluco with her problems (as I imagine is probably the case for many 13 year old girls) at first until she works to improve her relationship with him. Her female role model (exemplified by her mom) represents impossible expectations and of course extreme sexualization akin to how a modern young girl might compare herself to celebrities and the like. Also it dips into the romantic difficulties for girls this age as Luluco falls head over heels for a total douchebag pretty boy who is completely inconsiderate to her in return.
Now a problem with this is it’s covering a lot of the same ground that Kill la Kill did, and Kill la Kill arguably did it better. But another thing these two shows have in common is that their themes of female adolescence are easily overshadowed by the incredible animation and character designs, the ridiculousness of the plot, and everything else we’ve come to love and expect of Studio Trigger’s A-Team.
I have to add the disclaimer that I haven’t seen the show since 2016, so I should probably rewatch it to check if my assessment holds any weight or if I’m mis-attributing these themes to the show in hindsight because I love it so much. But my suspicion is that just like Kill la Kill (and even Gurren Lagann) there’s actually a lot to unpack in the themes and symbolism of the show if you give it a closer look.
Would like to add Kuma Miko as a notable anime. It has an…interesting ending. It’s certainly a way to do an anime original ending.
The ending of Kuma Miko was definitely unforgettable when it makes me angry. I don’t think I ever saw that type of ending in that type of show ever.
That video reminded me of the Golden Age of the Internets. You know, 2000-2010. [The video is from November of 2011. –Daryl]
Nice to have 1 thing to (strongly) agree with you on: monopolies are evil, and people just don’t care.
I don’t think monopolies are about money though, it is more about ownership of all media, all knowledge, all information. And then lending it out to the masses, but only a little bit at a time, for a great price. It is about enslaving people, not money.
I watched Kiznaiver, and that must have been because of the opening. A great opening like that instills a lot of goodwill, even if the actual show throws it off a cliff. Four years later, the opening song is all I remember about it.
I didn’t imagine you would note “Schwarzesmarken” — an obscure spinoff of a mecha visual novel (“Muv-Luv Alternative”) that didn’t even come out here until a year later — since it was barely noticed by anyone outside the franchise’s fandom. Still, it’s a rare example of a 2010’s mech show, one that somehow continues to get overlooked even by the kind of people who do mech panels at cons, and complain that nobody’s making mech shows anymore. Well, y’know, if you don’t watch the ones they *do* make…