Category: Anime That Sucks

Posted on

Anime World Order Show # 26 – We Have No Idea What We’re Talking About

Podcast: Download (Duration: 1:45:44 — 48.4MB)

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | RSS

This week, our special guest is Steve Harrison, which is fitting because this week none of us have a clue what we’re talking about! Gerald rants about the state of the anime industry, Daryl does a braindump of MD Geist, and Clarissa reviews Shinesman! Informed viewpoints? What are those?!

Introduction (0:00 – 10:04)
Ten minutes only? Well, that’s because the one audio feedback we played was responded to over the course of about 90 minutes (edited down to 60), and it’s available as a separate download. Wait, it still takes us ten minutes just to say “hey, this is who we are and this is what we’re doing this week”?! Normally when we edit this show, we all edit our own segments, then Daryl pieces everything together and listens to the whole thing to make sure that everything sounds okay. This week, the “listens to the whole thing” part was skipped since there was so much to edit through. Whether or not this resulted in tragedy has yet to be conveyed to us by our listeners.

  • Bonus one hour long response to the voicemail sent to us by GeekNights – we were going to start this off by all saying LET’S DO THIS in unison, but we couldn’t actually…say that in unison, so we gave up; actually this entire account is a fabrication for the sake of entertainment
  • Anime News Network’s entry for John Swasey – he’s an ADV dub actor/director guy who worked on their Gamera releases; even got to put a full-on parody dub of Gamera on the actual official DVD
  • Space Webzine Yamato – we linked to this before and we’re doing it again now that Steve’s on the show!
  • Mur Lafferty – she’s a person who does podcasts and wrote a book about podcasting containing lots of advice we don’t follow yet due to lack of funds/stupidity

Promo: GeekNights (10:04 – 11:14)
Since most people who listen to podcasts are well, other podcasters, you probably know what we mean when we say that coming up with a promo that doesn’t sound totally awful and contrary to the nature of your show is really hard work, no matter how many actual podcasts you’ve got under your belt. It took us forever just to come up with our one AWO promo, and even that sounds kind of…fake. Rym and Scott agree, and even though they’ve recorded hundreds of podcasts, they never got around to doing any promos until now.

FANBOY RAGE RANT TIME: The Anime Industry’s Licensing Practices Are Stupid (11:14 – 51:50)
Gerald brings us back to our roots, since we haven’t done a full-on rant segment since Show # 2. There’s really not much structure to this, and truth be told it’s doubtful that any of what is said here is supported by the actual facts, but since when does THAT ever stop anyone on the Internet, huh?! Or the news. Or the current best-selling book in the US.

Promo: Anime Pulse (51:50 – 52:20)
This episode was so long that it was decided to just cut out all that music in the beginning since hey, everyone (except us) has heard that Bleach song a hundred times by now! Anyway, not only is Anime Pulse one of the most popular anime podcasts out there, but we won their Podcast Pickle contest and in so doing received the Tenchi Universe box set, a Death Note (like a notebook that looks like the Death Note), and signed yaoi fanart of Ichigo and Batou as drawn by Erin from the Ninja Consultant podcast. Clarissa called dibs on the Death Note, and since these things all look the same, Daryl went and wrote her name in it so that if it ever got lost, people would know it was her Death Note. Gerald said he hated Hiroshi Negishi during the Shadow Skill segment last week, so that meant he couldn’t have the Tenchi Universe boxed set since he directed that too, which means that Gerald gets the yaoi fanart and Daryl gets the DVD set. Hey, it’s what they asked for!

Not Really a Review of the Second Worst Anime Ever Made: MD Geist Director’s Cut (52:20 – 1:22:41)
We may never agree on what the worst anime ever made is, but after you hear Daryl’s summary description of MD Geist (as was requested of him!), we should all be able to reach the consensus that MD Geist is the second worst. Naturally, it has been CPM’s company spokesmecha since the inception of the company…even though MD Geist is not a mecha or a robot or anything like that. MD Geist is actually one of the best-selling anime titles OF ALL TIME, but listen to this so you never need actually watch it for yourself. Even though we know you’re all going to go see it now.

  • ANN’s entry for MD Geist – there are two people we know that actually like this and they’re both anime con staffers
  • ANN’s entry for MD Geist II: Death Force – this is even lamer than part 1, but it all counts as “MD Geist” okay?!
  • Anime on DVD’s review of MD Geist – Chris Beveridge gives MD Geist a “D” for content, and it’s not like he’s using Anime Jump’s review system where the “F” rating was hilariously bad and the “D” rating is the real worst rating; also, he says that MD Geist II has “a good narrative and streamlined a lot of things”

Review: Shinesman (1:22:41 – 1:38:38)
Fulfilling another listener request, Clarissa reviews this beauty of an OAV, a parody sentai anime with one of the most entertaining (albeit not exactly accurate) dubs ever made. So when the heck is someone going to release the manga for this one, anyway?! Come on, Media Blasters!

Closing (1:38:38 – 1:45:43)
This episode nearly ruined all of our lives. Next week, Gerald’s going to review Goshogun: The Time Etranger, which is also known as Time Stranger. It is not to be confused with the Rintaro movie of the same name, but apparently it’s confusing enough that even the back of the DVD case calls the thing by two different names. Daryl’s bouncing over to the other end of the good/bad spectrum by reviewing Discotek Media’s latest classic anime release, Puss n’ Boots! Finally, who likes short shorts on little boys? That’s right, Michael Jackson and Clarissa. She’s going to be reviewing CLAMP Campus Detectives.

Just so everyone knows, we may have to take a short bit of time off soon. With Anime Festival Orlando coming up–which we’ve all got panels to prepare for–and then Otakon the week right after that, things are going to get pretty hectic for all of us near the end of this month and the time we’d spend on the podcast is going to have to be spent putting our presentations together. Maybe we can be superhuman and accomplish both tasks, but in case we can’t, we’re letting you know now and in the weeks to come.

Posted on

Anime World Order Show # 12 – Searching for Odin, My Love!

Podcast: Download (Duration: 1:34:25 — 43.2MB)

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | RSS

Our guest this week is Mike Toole from Anime Jump, who’s been putting the “dumb” in anime fandom since 1998! Gerald and Clarissa review the excellent series Monster, and Mike and Daryl review the Often Overlooked (and notoriously terrible) Odin: Photon Space Sailer Starlight. Yes, that’s spelled correctly.

Introduction (0:00 – 19:26)
Our guest for the episode, Mike Toole, joins us from the start and we immediately dive right into talking about our ideal anime convention. Wait, didn’t someone ask us this already? Whatever, Mike’s here this time! If you want to play Mario Kart DS with him, his Friend Code is 137506166547. Wait, weren’t you not supposed to give those out over the Internet or something?

  • Greg Ayres (he’s coming to a con near you! But he’s not just a rave DJ guy or a “cool voice actor vicariously living out the dream for you,” so be sure to go to his panels about fansubber ethics)
  • IMDB entry for The Three Amigos
  • At some point Daryl tries to make a reference to this Monty Python episode but fails
  • ANN entry for Maya Okamoto
  • ANN entry for Norio Wakamoto (voice of Chiyo’s dad, Mechazawa, etc)
  • ANN entry for Kaneto Shiozawa (Rest in peace; Paul von Oberstein is Daryl’s role model)
  • Official fanclub for Akira Kamiya (voice of Kenshiro, Ryo Saeba, Roy Fokker, and much more)
  • ANN entry for Kenichi Sonoda (creator of Riding Bean and Gunsmith Cats)
  • An unofficial Go Nagai fan site (“father” of manga, not to be confused with Osamu Tezuka who is the “God” of manga)
  • Wikipedia entry on Haim Saban (man who brought us Power Rangers and too much hacked up anime to count; his spirit lives on within 4Kids Entertainment)
  • ANN entry on Haruki Kadokawa (Gerald considers him to be easily the craziest man to work in anime)
  • IMDB entry for The Final Countdown
  • AnimeHell.org (god damn it, what time does Midnight Madness start?)
  • An English language page about Loudness (they’re touring the US!)
  • Anime Weekend Atlanta (Daryl’s first convention and still his favorite)

Let’s News! (19:26 – 29:28)
Rather abrupt transition into the news this week. The 2005 profits for 4Kids Entertainment are down 60% from 2004 because the kids who grew up on Pokemon and Yu-Gi-Oh now realize that their little kid brothers or whatever are into the same thing and therefore it can’t possibly be cool. In other news, everything about Bleach is licensed worldwide by Viz Media. Expect people to continue fansubbing and scanning it anyway without even having the decency to say “yeah, we’re doing this because we’re thieves and want to watch/read this for free.” At least software and movie pirates own up to what they are.

Promo: Ninja Consultant (29:28 – 31:14)
Erin from Ninja Consultant is probably our #1 fan among other podcasters, but Noah thinks Daryl is a stupid head for saying that Hols, Prince of the Sun was merely “good” instead of “the best thing ever made.” This type of criticism is normally levied towards Daryl by American comicbook fans who just can’t fathom the concept of someone not liking Watchmen / Sandman / Transmetropolitan / Preacher / insert decent-but-not-incredible thing written by someone from the British Isles here. The absolute worst is when those comics people say “oh, well CLEARLY you didn’t understand it! Read it again!” Anyway, listen to the Ninja Consultant podcast, even though this promo is like, twice as long as most promos.

Synopsis/Review: Monster [CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR THE FIRST FOUR EPISODES OR SO] (31:14 – 48:34)
Clarissa and Gerald both wanted to do a segment about Naoki Urasawa’s long-running manga series turned anime, but hadn’t done so until now since they were still watching the show. Not that it matters, since you can’t really talk about anything that happens without giving the series away. This segment is essentially a plot synopsis of the first few episodes (so that’s basically the first volume of the manga), but it’s not like they’re ruining the series for you or even giving away much of anything. Still, we’re putting the warning there. Buy this you geeks.

  • ANN’s Entry on Monster (For a quick overview of the show)
  • Official Monster Site (Japanese)
  • Viz’ Official Monster Site (Buy the damn manga, it’s just that good)

Promo: Corn Pone Flicks (48:34 – 49:37)
Leader Desslok has a plan to stick it to the man in this 1999 short which can be viewed on the CPF website or on Google Video. A “Cocaine Howitzer” production? Why, whatever is it that Matt Murray could have been referring to with that joke? Perhaps the next segment will shed some light on the matter!
PS: read Matt’s movie reviews. He just did a really good one on V for Vendetta. Incidentally, the comicbook to that is also “just okay” and not “the greatest thing ever committed to the printed medium by the greatest author to ever live” no matter what comicbook fans say.

Often Overlooked: Odin: Photon Space Sailer Starlight (49:37 – 1:27:03)
When Daryl ran into Mike at Katsucon 12, it was only for a brief moment since Mike was on staff and had matters to attend to. But he insisted that he be on the show when we did our review of Odin, so we waited until this fateful day. Look people, when you start talking about “worst anime ever made,” you are not qualified to speak on the subject unless you’ve seen Odin, okay? This is one of the single biggest disasters in anime history, and Mike and Daryl will tell you all about exactly why that is with the help of quite a few audio clips. Listen on and be forever enlightened.

  • ANN’s Entry on Odin
  • Central Park Media’s Official Odin Site (Be careful, that release is edited, what you’re really looking for is this release. Wait, you’re not looking for this, so IGNORE THAT LINK!)
  • Picture of the elevator moment that’s forever burned into Daryl’s head for no good reason

In late 2012, many years after this review, someone has uploaded the 2 hour and 20 minute version of Odin to Youtube.

Closing (1:27:03 – 1:34:25)
Sorry this episode was even later than usual, but Daryl had gotten word that his grandmother had died right before we recorded this episode, and was attending the funeral during the days he would normally spend editing the show (fortunately Gerald and Clarissa did most of the work in his absence). We close things up by playing what is easily the greatest Discipline ad copy reading we’ve received to date, courtesy of our friend Max, aka the “Lensman…THE DUB” guy from a few episodes back. Next week–and that’s next week for you, later today for us–Gerald brings back the Creator Spotlight segment by talking about his favorite director, Katsuhito Akiyama. Clarissa will review the long-running yet Often Overlooked manga series From Eroica With Love by Yasuko Aoike, and Daryl will review a currently-running manga by Naoki Urasawa entitled Pluto.