Podcast: Download (Duration: 1:51:47 — 51.2MB)
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This time around, Clarissa “pulls a Gerald” by reviewing something that we thought was still readily available via streaming and home video but is in fact totally out of print: 1993’s four-part OVA, 8 Man After. This gives us a good excuse to talk about the original 8 Man from the 1960s, its American localization, and of course Streamline Pictures and “Uncle” Carl Macek.
Introduction (0:00 – 46:49)
The new anime season has just begun, and if it feels like we say that every few episodes, that’s because of the way time works. We weigh in on our initial impressions of a selection of the current season, much of which only had maybe one or two episodes out at the time of recording. Gerald was a guest on the Anime Addicts Anonymous podcast, and since the last time any of us were on that was 2013 he didn’t realize that they’d pivoted to video long, long ago! The result is a Nixon/Kennedy debate-esque review of Wicked City in which shabbily-lit Gerald is the only one who likes it contrasted with the slick YouTubers who uh, did not like it at all. Watch and wonder why only Clarissa is smart enough to have set up a VTuber rig!
Promo: Places That Were Anime To Me (46:49 – 48:52)
Listener Anders Häger Jönson has written and directed a film which he describes as “an extremely subjective depiction of the history of Japanese animation filtered through Swedish teenage years at the turn of the millennium” and it’s going to be premiering at Otakon 2024, Saturday August 3rd at 6:00 PM. That’s a particularly rough spot to place something like this, since that means it’s opposite both the AnimEigo and Discotek Media panels, but if you don’t feel the need to be in the room for the announcement since the social media posts get made in real time anyway, then head on over to Video 2 since this is something you likely won’t be able to readily see afterwards unless you plan on attending conventions in Europe. Visit Anders’ website or his YouTube channel to learn more. In Swedish with English subtitles.
Promo: Anime Brain Freeze Podcast (48:52 – 49:52)
Remember: if you’re an anime podcast and have released more than 10 episodes without burning out on the whole thing, send us your promos and we’ll play them! Anime Brain Freeze is a podcast about anime of (recent) seasons past going back to 2016. Unlike us, they do a Best of the Season where they each pick one and only one title among the 40+ that have been coming out every season. Some of their picks include Odd Taxi, Appare-Ranman!, Re:Creators–wait, Re:Creators? RE:CREATORS?! Maybe us reviewing THAT is the next Patreon subscriber goal…
Review: 8 Man After (49:52 – 1:51:46)
Clarissa reviews a superhero title that 90s kids will likely remember as being part of the Sci-Fi Channel’s Saturday Anime rotation, or possibly a thing available from Blockbuster Video. Maybe some saw it unedited on pay cable, and others still actually bought the tape through mail order or direct market comicbook shops since it was originally released in the US courtesy of Streamline Pictures, then decades later was re-released by Discotek Media (since out of print/gone from streaming). 1993’s 8 Man After was one of those gritty, bloody sequels/reimaginings of Jiro Kuwata’s (“the Bat-Manga guy”) kid-friendly superhero series, though at the time Daryl mainly only knew it as a Neo Geo game since he never saw the live-action film (apparently also dubbed by Streamline, but it appears to have only ever been released on VHS and we can’t find a digital capture). The original 8 Man may have preceded Robocop, but 8 Man After definitely takes cues from it.
- Part 1 of the fantastic Streamline Pictures historical retrospective by the late Fred Patten, over at Jerry Beck’s Cartoon Research site
- Carl Macek on ANNCast – he died very shortly after this interview was done
- Star Fruit Books will be releasing the reboot series 8 Man Infinity next year
Thanks for pulling a faded memory of Tobor from the depths of my brain, while I remember nothing of the stories , I immediately recognised the English Language opening tune . Before the show I could not have told you I had seen it. As opposed to all the other anime on TV in australia in the 70s, astro boy, or amazing three , or speed racer, or phantomas ( crimson bat in not Australia, we were black and white, crimson did not show up on our tvs ) or even prince planet. It must have been not very enthralling to a teen me.
I have quit watching the VTuber show because of the VTuber avatar being displayed instead of their actual selves in reality. I have high tolerances to many anime tropes and visual styles at this point but somehow this show override my tolerance and couldn’t take anymore.
As someone who never played a Nier game, I think the anime adaptation is fine. I probably get more out of it from playing the game but it’s alright with this. It’s like the Persona anime adaptations, I’m fine with them since I probably get the story in less time than playing multiple playthroughs clocking in 100+ hours each.
I viewed the Fable as being the most grounded in reality out of “Hitman trying to live a normal life” genre. I have read a decent amount of Sakamoto Days and that definitely is on the side unrealistic with the massive spy organization and strange abilities that the various assassins have. The other one I remember from a couple chapters being like Detective Conan so strange gadgets and abilities are in play.
There is the snub of the season which is Grendizer U. It’s currently only available on Shahid which is some Arabic streaming platform. Grendizer U is a reboot of the original UFO Robo Grendizer.
I wouldn’t say not mentioning Grendizer U was a snub…at least, not on our part. At the time of recording–and I believe this is still the case–there is no legal streaming option to watch Grendizer U in North America; it’s region-locked to the Arabic-speaking countries. There are technically official English subtitles, but they’re exceedingly poor. It’s possible a fansub group has or will spring up to offer something more coherent, but I don’t think that’s happened yet and it certainly hadn’t at the time this episode was recorded.
I feel like it’s rather odd that Grendizer U didn’t get licensed for North America but Getter Robo Arc did. Grendizer U is a reboot while the latter is a sequel. In the era of everything getting licensed, there are still shows that don’t get licensed for some reason. Also there is a decent fansub version of Grendizer U out there.
I forgot to mention about Go Go Loser Ranger. From what I seen and heard around, the exam arc isn’t the best part of the series to them. It felt to them that it was too insular and wanted to explore more of the world outside of the exam site. I didn’t mind the exam arc myself but I think it will definitely get better from there.
A couple things to say, preemptive apology for being too wordy. First, regarding material “produced in SD”: though I am sure this wasn’t always the case, NORMALLY when a show was digitally colored, it was traced and digi-painted at a relatively high resolution. Theatrical animated films, for example, have been coloured digitally since at least The Rescuers 2, when somebody at Disney had the idea of buying a 2GB hard drive to store the frames before they would be transferred back to film. I would ASSUME the resolution was 1080p, but it should be at least somewhere around that. I saw the making of Balto on YouTube, and when the artist zoomed in to fill in details, it sure seemed like 1080p.
Second, regarding certain people not liking your show (you brought that up). I struggle to see why, but there are 2 possible reasons. 1, you refuse to chase trends and just cover what’s new and hot. Understandable, but a bad reason to poo-poo a show. 2, you being WRONG ON THE INTERNET. I listened to probably over 100 episodes, and you generally aren’t wrong on anything. But you have very strong personalities, and that means when you ARE wrong (or perceived to be), it comes off more like “this is the simply the truth, and if you disagree you’re dumb” to the listener. I always let it slide because the rest of the podcast is too darn good, and not listening to the rest means I will be missing out on informative AND entertaining content. I guess some people are more sensitive than me? I guess so.
And last, about Fred Patten and his writings on Carl Macek and Streamline Pictures. Who knew that this very important man, who done so much to create the anime fandom and grow it, was biased at times and perhaps told a lie or two? Should we speak ill of the dead? I don’t know the answer. I guess… he was complicated.
P.S. Do you care enough to mention the Unico remake that recently had the books printed (meaning it’s DONE done)?