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As we mark our 19th year of anime podcasting, it’s time for our annual holiday roundup of Christmas episodes! But first, we take a moment to pay our respects to the recently departed Jan Scott-Frazier, not by pressing F but by talking about her influence on us and this podcast.
Introduction (0:00 – 26:25)
Although Daryl’s call for submissions for his proposed Otaku in Memoriam throughout this year didn’t exactly succeed, we unfortunately have to end the year on one. Jan Scott-Frazier passed away at the start of the month, and while you can certainly read her list of career accomplishments on Wikipedia or Anime News Network (which, in a Christmas miracle, was NOT bought out by Sony after all, as they only purchased a percentage of Kadokawa), the idea of Otaku In Memoriam was to hear more personal testimonials about fans no longer with us. Although our interactions with Jan were limited, but our Bobby’s Girl episode of AWO would never have existed were it not for her actions. (And for the record…that is also the case in the event you saw Bobby’s Girl via a digital fansub.) Jonathan Clements wrote up a memoriam which is worth a read. Rest in peace to a true anime pioneer.
Clarissa was recently a guest on the now award-winning Shoujo Sundae podcast, where they recapped a few key later episodes of the newer anime adaptation of Fruits Basket. As goes with the territory for recap podcasting, spoilers will therefore abound. We then can’t help but hate on Sola Digital Arts, as their recent theatrical release of The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim made around $7 million despite being released in over 2600 theaters nationwide. THis was not for lack of awareness, as its trailer was saturation bombed, playing everywhere for what felt like ages. In the wake of this “half as popular as Madame Web” performance, Warner Discovery has admitted that it was a “Roger Corman Fantastic Four” effort, hastily shoved out in theaters just to ensure the film rights to Lord of the Rings would be retained.
Holiday Roundup, 2024 (26:25 – 1:39:26)
For the third year now, we’re covering Christmas episodes of various anime series. This year, by popular request (well, more like demand), we’re going to list in advance all of the things that we talked about, in the order in which we talked about them, so that you can go check the episodes out yourselves if you desire. With the exception of Dr. Slump, every anime episode listed here has had a legal release in the USA:
Martian Successor Nadesico episode 13
How Heavy are the Dumbbells You Lift episode 10
Dr. Slump episode 35
Buddy Daddies episode 1
Gintama episodes 200-201
Food Wars The Fifth Plate episodes 6 and 7
Bartender episode 10
I mostly know about Jan Scott-Frazier through this podcast via the Bobby’s Girl review — the first anime convention I went to was in 2017, by which point her guest appearances at conventions had scaled down. In other words, I’m another level removed beyond you guys from knowing her. When the news of her passing broke, it didn’t strike me as my place to write or speak at length about her.
However, it also occurred to me that she probably wasn’t really known by Japanese fandom, even among the older generation. Or perhaps her acquaintances in Japan might have lost contact with her. So on former bird social media, I wrote a very brief thread in Japanese to touch upon her experience in the anime industry as likely the first foreigner to work there, as well as her relevance to English-speaking fandom. Of course, I also mentioned that Bobby’s Girl finding a niche audience within English-speaking fandom can be traced back to her.
I barely have any kind of fandom reach, so I didn’t think much would come of it, nor did it really. But maybe a week or so after, one acquaintance of hers in Japan found the thread and did react to it, mourning the loss as one would. I’m glad at least it found its way to someone in Japan that knew her, if nothing else.
On a less morose note, I remember how disappointed I was when I finally tried American KFC for the first time, having gorged myself with KFC outside the US as a kid. As a general rule, if you want to get American fast food (as in chains with global reach and recognition) done right, don’t get it in America. Get it in East Asia. A year ago, I finally did the thing and ate KFC on Christmas in Japan, though I had to beg my friend in Tokyo to put in the reservation in advance for it. The demand is so high that you’re unlikely to casually waltz into a KFC on Christmas day and get food, or so I’m told. Japanese KFC is definitely better than in the US (low bar), but I wouldn’t say it’s particularly impressive either.
Just the other day, the news of the first Evangelion & McDonald’s promo dropped, featuring McDonald’s-themed (Un)Happy Meal toys as you’d expect. Or as one person I saw put it, “Get in the burger, Shinji.” Coincidentally, I finally got around to watching both End of Evangelion and the Rebuild movies just a week or two ago — I’d previously only seen the TV show. Maybe to celebrate no longer having to dodge spoilers and discussion like I have been for the past ~15 years, I’ll fulfill my American duty to seek out McDonald’s on my upcoming Japan trip. Sadly, the toys are sold through a lottery system and for 3900 yen, and I think I depleted my social capital with the aforementioned friend when I begged him to reserve the Christmas KFC order.
Contrary to the general rule I mentioned earlier, Japanese McDonald’s is not far off in quality from American McDonald’s. Which is to say, it’s sorta okay, I guess. I kinda only like the fries at McDonald’s these days though.
Amazon ( or at this point I do not think anybody else ) does not have the film rights to the Silmarillion. The Rings of Power were cobbled together out of the Appendices to Lord of The Rings. That is the bits that not even Tolkein thought were interesting enough to put in the actual story.