Podcast: Download (Duration: 1:49:00 — 50.0MB)
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | RSS
We totally missed December entirely because we couldn’t think of a suitable Christmas title, but with this new year Daryl elects to review the anime adventures of Locke the Superman.
Introduction (0:00 – 32:06)
Just because we missed a month of the podcast doesn’t mean we didn’t watch a bunch of things and give our thoughts on them. Daryl wrote a bunch of articles for Otaku USA, Gerald went to the movies a few times (for now we’ll stick to the Fathom Events theatrical showing of Macross Plus), and Clarissa watched several of the currently airing series. Also, all of us found ourselves interested in the recent happenings of the Italian Parliament!
Promo: Right Stuf Anime (32:06 – 34:50)
The holiday sales may be over, and we certainly bought a bunch of stuff there, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t new deals worth checking out! This week it’s 30% off titles from Denpa and Udon, so get your orders in for Kaiji, The Men Who Created Gundam, and the (currently out of stock, but not out of print) Rose of Versailles. Worry not, for if you order an out of stock item, Right Stuf will honor the sale price once it arrives and your credit card will not be charged until the order actually ships out.
Review: Locke the Superman (34:50 – 1:49:00)
Daryl weighs in on the various animated installments for one of the most enduring characters in Japanese comics and animation: Locke the Superman. The main focus is on the 1984 theatrical film, since as of this recording that is the only episode legally available in the US as you can watch it streaming on HiDive or purchase it on Blu-Ray. We also talk about the OVAs: Lord Leon, New World Command, and Mirror Ring.
- Right Stuf link for Locke the Superman on Blu-Ray – as it turns out, this new cover art is illustrated by Yuki Hijiri and was created for the Blu-Ray release, so we’ll take that as a sign that he likes the movie and his comments about the animation being bad were probably regarding Mirror Ring or something
- Tim Eldred’s interview with Yuki Hijiri
- The original 1979 pilot animation for Locke the Superman (music only, no voices or sound effects) which also depicts the plot of the film albeit in about 10 minutes rather than 2 hours
- The international trailer that Daryl just can’t get over
- Mike Toole ripped the “Space Warriors” theme song and posted it to YouTube in left audio mono only, but a fixed mono audio version is here
Love me some Locke. When it comes to big budget 80’s movies about ESPers, I can really only think of one movie I like more, and it hardly needs the AWO bump. Thanks for introducing me to that wonderful trailer. However, I can never forgive you three for making all of American anime fandom hate Yoshiyuki Tomino, the greatest anime director to ever live, the man who created Gundam ALL BY HIMSELF and went on to do such amazing shows as Brain Powerd. Hating on Ninja High School is completely unacceptable as well, and as such, I will never listen to another episode of this trash. (this is of course a joke, Yoshiuki Tomino is responsible for his own reputation among the fans from his weird ass directing style and if you all praised Ninja High School I’d know I was listening to the wrong podcast.)
In Mexico, this OVA was called “Superman del Espacio” – Space Superman. And I remember it being broadcast in airTV as a movie prequel of Superman. Right before Sesame Street.
I get where Gerald’s coming from with Attack on Titan and the timeskip. It honestly felt like AOT should’ve just ended, then a sequel set decades later about the post-timeskip stuff should’ve happened. Maybe then the weird back and forth over whether or not genocide was the solution would’ve been avoided, by giving Iseyama more time to figure what the hell he was trying to do.
As for Locke the Superman, not really surprised that its one of those “we did a thing first, then everyone copied it” things. The further back in time you go, the more those crop up. That said, it seems like the reason Locke fell out of the public mind is that its “Locke’s powers are whatever we say they are and don’t have to be consistent” thing made the fights boring unless you wanted to see the latest asspull. DBZ, JoJo, and others at least try to make their fights look cool and have some element that makes the fights interesting and cool. Not sure what they could give Locke that’d match that requirement and isn’t already done by some other, more well known story.
The English Locke song actually sounds really cool in a vacuum.