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We may be losing our grasp on the passage of time, but it’s still almost the end of 2020 and we never finished our 2010s Decade In Review. We’d better get 2018 out of the way RIGHT NOW.
Introduction (0:00 – 37:30)
In the emails, we are asked the question every K-12 teacher has to deal with: what does any of this old convention fandom stuff we talk about even MATTER now, anyway? We’re never going to actually USE this information! OR WILL YOU? Is there value or worth in talking about these anime generational gaps, or is this podcast a grand monument to wasting your time with useless ephemera? Eventually this becomes a discussion regarding THE ALGORITHM, as all things eventually must. Note: the Youtube channel Gerald was referring to but forgot to actually name was the one for Corn Pone Flicks mastermind Matt Murray, whose YouTube name is a reference to the villain from Magnos the Robot.
Promo: Right Stuf Anime (37:30 – 41:50)
Time is running out (“ti-ti ti, time is running out” cue Blow It Up from the Red Alert 2 soundtrack) for you to preorder the Irresponsible Captain Tylor Ultra Edition Blu-Ray set. Only two stretch goals remain, and you have until the end of this week* to get your preorders in and lock in what those extras will be, in order to ensure that the set makes its April 2021 release date. (That’s right: unlike those OTHER crowdfund efforts, Right Stuf understands that you can’t just leave stretch goals open indefinitely and that the more stretch goals you have, the longer it can take to finish the project.) We were sent check discs of the set and it’s looking great, even though it defaulted to the English dub on us, and then the Spanish dub which we didn’t remember even existed.
The DECADE IN REVIEW~!: 2018 (41:50 – 2:54:16)
We’re almost done. ALMOST done. As another strong candidate for best year of the decade, a decent amount of what we mention as noteworthy from the year 2018 are still pending physical media releases in North America. In fact, quite a few are ones that we just reviewed a few episodes ago. Then again, this podcast’s release schedule is highly irregular, albeit not as irregular as Barnacle Jim who died as he lived: disrespecting his hole.
This year extracts a heavy toll, indeed.
Funnily enough re: the term “queer,” where I am in the UK the gender divide is reversed. It’s largely older people who resist the term and see it as a slur, and younger generations who use the term as a catch-all.
Also, while I agree that the resistance to moralizing media among older generations is due to its earlier context re: censorship battles, I think to some degree younger queer people are just applying a more nuanced understanding of transgression. It’s fair I think to ask whether “transgressive” is actually just reinforcing dominant hierarchies in fun new shapes. Is Crumb’s sexualised depiction of black women transgressive, or just reiterating minstrel stereotypes etc. etc.?
After the burnt that was Gundam NT, thanks gods for this chill episode! I do have some thought and questions about it though:
– I would have liked this episode more had you gave a shout out to people who have been trying to chronicle the old American anime fandom like Dave Merill with his “Let’s Anime” blog and “Anime Hell” yearly panel. Recently I discovered a guy who used to fansub back in the 90s, William Chow, with his series “History Of Fan Anime in North America” on Youtube. [Dave has been a guest on AWO, is a listener, and we link him a few times in the sidebar. Even his deleted Livejournal! William Chow of Arctic Animation was the original crappy speedsubber who gave rise to the culture as we know it today. –Daryl]
(Shameless plug: I did remember to have sent you guys a list of names and basic facts about influential figures in the early American anime fandom (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1xm_oFzldk2-zBz0A1R112ttB3TpZl157tddnopb05X8/edit?usp=sharing). I’ve been trying to find people included to ask if I got the facts right, but having no luck until now.)
– Are there just three “generations” of American anime fans? I would have categorized people like Fred Ladd and Fred Patten belonged to the first, people who grew out of C/FO the second, the VHS/fansubbing generation the third, and the simulcast people. [Gerald was using the colloquial social definition of “generation” as far as Generation X, Y, Z etc. –Daryl]
+ Have you guys ever talked about the anime/manga collapse of the mid-2000s and its effect on anime and the fandom in America? [Covered in some of the earliest episodes, such as when we had Steve Harrison on, as well as news segments where we’d mention the fallout from the Musicland collapse. –Daryl]
– I want to ask about your perspective about Tokusatsu as a non-Toku fans? Are all normal people when they come to the theater for this type of movies, all they want to watch are the giant monsters? And could you make a show just from giant monsters fighting? No, seriously, I’ve been fan of Toku for too long that I can’t answer this question.
– Do you feel like 2018 is a year for the niche fandoms? I mean, we have everything for yuri, mecha, sport, camper, and even edgelords.
The discussion about various people from anime fandom having passed away, and with it their knowledge reminded me that tabletop RPGs have been having a similar issue – many of the staff people from the old days of RPGs have passed away, not just the big names like Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson, but also Jean Wells, Len Lakofka, and Greg Stafford as well, and some of those who are left are sex pests like Frank Mentzer making them difficult as a resource.
One other thing you failed to mention about the Tylor pre-order, as someone who has already made their pre-order and would like to see all the stretch goals met: If you’ve locked in your pre-order through Sezzle, that counts – so if you can’t afford $200 in one big chunk but can manage 4 payments of $50, that works too. (Says the person who did their pre-order through Sezzle and has already paid it off)
Ngl hearing the hosts of a podcast you’ve been listening to since you were 15 and always felt was a kinda comfort listen describe non passing trans women as the ‘dregs of society’ (and laughing about it) fucking blows [This is not what we believe. This is us describing the content of the show Back Street Girls. –Daryl]
Any douche kid who cringes at stories about anime fandom history wouldn’t blink an eye to acknowledge the popular “field” of knowledge called “video game history” and its self-called “historians”. Just because it’s trendy on youtube.
Good ep. I just had to get rid of that pimple popper pic before it made me hurl, though.
You got almost anything I could name . But I had a few to add, that might not be your sort of shows .
Violet Evergarden [We mentioned this one. –Daryl]
After the Rain
Hinamatsuri
Asobi Asobase
…and even if you hate SAO, Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online [We deliberately did NOT mention this one. –Daryl]
Oppps . Must have fuzzed out somewhere .
Seconding SAO Alternative: GGO as being good. Maybe airing opposite Build Divers made it look extra good, but it at least was fun and crazy.
It also had literally nothing to do with any actual SAO stuff besides as backstory and the setting.
1. Revue Starlight was definitely the show of the year for me. I saw it because a friend of mine got a HiDive subscription just to watch it, and it now kills me how few people know about it. The characters and the musical fights are obviously the highlight, but it also has probably my favorite transformation sequence of all time.
2. I love that Devilman Crybaby got so many people into Devilman, but I can’t stand how it kind of turns Miki into generic anime martyr woman and sands off her rough edges (climaxing in the abysmal social media scene).
Also, the Netflix subtitles spoiled the big reveal in both English and Japanese, because they subtitled the nonsense demon language in Ryo’s first set of flashbacks with the meaning from later in the show.
3. The director of the Sengoku Basara games has said in interviews that they were always aimed at a fujoshi audience, but characters like the blonde ninja whose name I always forget and big robot Honda Tadakatsu were added to appeal to men. If you look at the female characters they added in the later games, like Magoichi and Naotara (the latter only in games that didn’t come out in English) and gave more screen time, their presentation is generally less about sex appeal, and they tend to be better received by the female audience. Unfortunately, the games then died because they got complacent and didn’t give their fanbase enough new content. (There was also the thing where Basara and Musou both released mediocre spinoffs about Sanada Yukimura at the same time.)
I would just like to say I loved the remark about Shinkalion! I’m a fan of Shinkalion as well as Inazuma 11 and you can’t even imagine what the fandom does with some of those characters.
You teased doing an episode about SSSS.Gridman and I would really enjoy that. This was my show of the decade easily and probably my favorite TV anime since the 90’s even. You mentioned not being into toku maybe being a reason you didn’t like it but I find people too obsessed with tokusatsu end up missing the point show even more. The truth about SSSS.Gridman is it’s an amazing show people can’t emotionally understand. I don’t want to get too into it since it’s spoilers but I think to get it you’d have to have had time where as an otaku you completely isolated yourself from the rest of society as much as possible.
Anime has gotten more and more mainstream to the point where you brought up in this episode “the kids watching Naruto” are now in their 20’s and have been watching anime for over a decade. The “dangerous” shut-in otaku still exists but it used to be a core part of the entire fandom so much so that I even noticed it way back with Watamote that it was mostly older people relating to Tomoko than older fans. Younger fandom remembers talking about anime with all their friends in school not going home and hopping straight on the internet to look at an angelfire site and read about Dragon Ball AF. People who know every toku detail miss this point as well though by focusing too much on the wrong little details.
I have watched the original Gridman/Superhuman Samurai Syber Squad and I do think it adds to the world of the show as well but I find a lot of people who have seen both miss the point of the show as well. Dent who you brought up talked about how much he loved the villain in SSSS but hated the villain in the original when they’re the same character with the gender flipped. Again, this shows that they were looking at the character from a point of pity rather than relatability “Man Up” vs “Poor Thing” and not understanding the emotions of the show. To point and say “Ah yes, did you know the scene in episode 4 Akane gets mad when someone calls an obscure kaiju by a famous similar kaiju name?” No, the point is she’s surrounded by people and just nodding her head nervously wishing the “normies” would leave her alone because she’s anxious around people. They miss the emotion of the scene to show off their nerd knowledge for the moment.
I think it’s a great show that can be analyzed and discussed similar to Evangelion about character emotions, the importance of symbolism in the animation shots that linger, what these outside factors of the original series mean for it and even looking at production material to better understand it. I’m looking forward to the sequel and certain things about the trailer alone have me thinking about theories and I’m glad Japan seems to have liked it so much. It’s a show that if you just look at the surface level you won’t get it and that’s what so much anime is to me nowadays. This is the first show in years and years where I’m trying to find more information because I just want to enjoy every piece of it and I know there’s a lot more if you dig in.
That being said, immediately ignore anyone who says Rikka best girl personally as an idiot with no redeemable factors.
Oh, and Violet Evergarden kicks ass. I don’t like sob stories at all, but this one managed to mantain a good balance between the sad stuff and other plot elements. And it looks awesome. Please watch it.
While y’all were talking about Yuru Camp, I just happened to pass by the super-nationalist house in my neighborhood which still has Abe posters stuck to its walls. It’s the kind of place that flies the Japanese flag on national holidays.
As an “expat in Japan” I had never even heard the name “Shinkalion” until now. Yeah, I saw posters around, but I assumed it was just a weird JR crossover with model kits. Had no idea there was a show attached to it.
You touched upon two of my favorites of the year — Gura Zeni and Tonegawa. I like them both because they shine a light on the minutiae of professional life in different ways.
While Gura Zeni certainly does lean heavily into business aspects of the sport (as per its tite), at the same time, it tells a lot very human stories. It focuses heavily on how professional athletes have a very limited window to make enough money to live on for the rest of their lives after retiring at, like, 40 (max). It’s actually pretty bleak at times, because often it shows athletes who were not successful in doing so, and how they have to get by on jobs that pay a 10th of what they were making when they were pros. I dug it a lot. Also, the part that the anime covers centers around one of my favorite teams in Japanese pro baseball, so that was a plus.
Tonegawa reminded me of my time in the trenches of corporate Japan. Aside from some flights of fancy, it hits everything completely on the nose. The chairman at one of my old companies was exactly like the one at Teiai. I really want to them to churn out at least one more season. It’s great stuff, and not something you see much in anime.
And yeah, Golden Kamuy is great. I recommend you guys make it up to Hokkaido if you ever come to Japan.
This was probably that last year I really followed anime closely. Work hell in 2019 prevented me from really keeping up with anything, and with the pandemic setting in this year, I’ve missed a bunch. Now I just watch old eps of Hokuto no Ken everyday on Netflix here.
One show that I thought was really amazing from 2018 was Karakuri Circus. I know you guys mentioned Fujita’s earlier work Ushio and Tora in the decade in review. I have been watching both of them and like both but Karakuri Circus has the edge for me because I love his dark humor in KC. I hope we get more of his work either in manga or anime form here in the USA.
You mentioned Shinkalion, so I’ll mention what I think are other noteworthy kids shows from 2018:
– Hugtto! PreCure
One of the stronger Precure seasons IMO. Directed by Junichi Sato with strong character writing from Fumi Tsubota, a magical girl show about working towards your dreams and also extends this message to adults in the audience (the villains are essentially salarymen who work for an evil organization, and are given a chance to escape the corporate grind and build better lives).
The magical baby-raising premise makes it sound like potential Shinzo Abe propaganda, but it denounces traditional gender roles and postulates that girls can dream of taking on roles beyond/besides “mother”.
– Aikatsu Friends!
New Aikatsu series with all-new cast and setting. Very cute and comfortable show to watch with good music and art design.
– Captain Tsubasa (2018)
Modern-day adaptation of the original manga by David Production with a lot of staff who also worked on JJBA. The animation during the pivotal moments of the matches can be spectacular. A good entry point for people curious about Tsubasa.
– Inazuma Eleven Ares
New entry (alternate timeline) in the Inazuma Eleven series, and another ridiculous super-powered soccer anime that aired in the same season as Tsubasa. Kids aim to win nationals and in the process they take down an evil eugenicist organization.
The sequel, Inazuma Eleven Orion, started later that year and is about an international competition. Another evil organization is running the World Cup-for-teens, and almost every match has ridiculous cheating, like knives hidden in cleats, mines, tasers. Ares got dubbed in the US and aired on Disney XD, but I would be surprised if they tried to localize Orion.
I enjoyed the episode, hope you have a good rest of 2020, all things considered.
Violet Evergarden is fine, if you want a precisely calibrated dose of tear jerking each episode. Just don’t think too closely about Violet’s backstory or how she could be emotionally stable. The stories low key rely on the power of moe as a superpower, if people are ok with not noticing that or are not bothered the not quite happy endings are satisfying.
I am not your friend and don’t run the podcast with you, but if I was, I would add this regarding the value of preserving anime convention memories:
1. There once was a time when Internet was either unavailable, or extremely basic. So, people sharing a common interest HAD to go outside, travel, and come together to have fun IN REAL LIFE. I don’t think I need to explain the value of remembering that.
2. The difficulty of getting anime. Today you can get almost any show in good quality anywhere between a week and 5 minutes. Back then, you choose between very few, all VHS amateur fansubs, all looking slightly worse than the original TV broadcast. KIDS THESE DAYS DON’T KNOW HOW EASY THEY HAVE IT.
Unrelated, but I quite liked FLCL Progressive and Alternative (second is better). I am in the minority who sees the sequels successfully capturing the feeling of trying to recapture old magic, failing, BUT KEEPING TRYING ANYWAY because the unstoppable human spirit (or something). Just because you cannot quite recapture a special moment from the past, does not automatically mean you should never even try (and if you do try, try twice, so you might end up making FLCL Alternative and please a small group of people of which I am a part of).
And is it completely out of the question that the Cardcaptor Sakura sequel was at least partially made for the grown up fans of the original?