Anime World Order Show # 199 – Come Together, Just Become The Joker

We slacked off on getting to this one, but at least it’s thematically appropriate for Daryl reviews The Irresponsible Captain Tylor, soon to be released on Blu-Ray in the US.

Introduction (0:00 – 50:05)
We have this unfortunate tendency to record/release episodes just before something major happens, but last month it was announced that after decades of legal conflicts, Macross anime produced after 1987 may now be released globally. The specificity of the year is noteworthy since that specifically excludes Macross: Do You Remember Love?, but we remain optimistic. Oddly enough, they’re now officially streaming Macross Flash Back 2012 for a limited time, which is easily the least accessible entry point to Macross since it’s meant to be viewed after having seen the original series and DYRL, but it was probably the least effort to post since it’s basically just an extended music video.

Say, you know who ELSE is on YouTube? Us! Finally! Well, almost. See, right now youtube.com/animeworldorder still goes to Daryl’s mostly abandoned YouTube page, but we can’t set the custom URLs until after the new channel has a minimum of 100 subscribers. After having posted one video and mentioning it on social media, we’re currently at 96. Here’s the current channel; once we get enough subscribers on it we’ll see about adjusting the custom URLs so that youtube.com/animeworldorder goes there instead. Hopefully it works (UPDATE: it does NOT work; custom URLs cannot be transferred to other channels once set. Our YouTube channel link will be https://www.youtube.com/c/AnimeWorldOrderPodcast). Note that all we’re putting up on YouTube are review segments, not the entire episode. They’re also going to be edited slightly to dodge the copyright bots. Although we will be adding occasional visual aids so that the whole thing isn’t just a still image, rest assured we are NOT “pivoting to video.” This audio podcast isn’t going anywhere. We’re just trying to put some sampler stuff on the platform everybody uses to maybe direct some of that audience here.

Ever wanted to donate to us but just wanted it to to be a one-time thing? Turns out for over a year, that Paypal donation button on the right hand sidebar of our site was busted. It’s fixed now. That said, once we get to 250 unique Patrons on our Patreon, that will force us to review Hand Shakers, so if you wish to hear us suffer and become quite irate, just $1 per episode will eventually get you there.

At around the 24:00 mark, we all start talking about what anime we’re currently watching. This is presumably the actual on-topic subject matter people tune in for!

Promos: Right Stuf Anime, SkullKast, Zac Bertschy Memorial Fund (50:05 – 58:43)
The preorders for the Blu-Ray set of the original two El Hazard: The Magnificent World OAVs are now open. We reviewed that back in Show 138 …man, six years ago. A few days ago, the announcement was made public that Berserk author Kentaro Miura passed away at age 54 two weeks ago on May 6th, 2021. The SkullKast, which is the affiliated podcast of the 20+ year-old Berserk fan community Skullknight.net, will be releasing their next episode on Sunday which will cover the community reactions to this. You can read eulogies by Chris Warner and Carl Horn of Dark Horse Comics over at the Dark Horse Comics blog. All seven of the hardcover deluxe editions of Berserk are currently out of stock everywhere, such that on Amazon they ranked within the top 25 list of books sold. That’s all books overall, not just manga. Due to Covid, reprints are likely to take much longer than usual, and so while this will no doubt come off as grimly opportunistic, the reality is that if you want to own the upcoming Volume 8 of those Berserk releases, you’d better preorder them. You can do so through Right Stuf here, should you wish to support us through our affiliate link while doing so.

Yesterday marked the one year anniversary of the death of Zac Bertschy of Anime News Network. In his memory, ANN has set up a team fundraiser in his name for the Trevor Project. Contrary to speculation, Zac did not commit suicide himself, but the Trevor Project is a cause he supported in life. The original goal of $5000 was quickly met, and now the stretch goal of $11,000 is 95% there. This makes Team Zac Bertschy the third highest ranked team over there, and if the goal is met they’ll be at number two. If you want to donate in Zac’s memory, now’s the time. It’d be a good look for the anime community to take the top spot, don’t you think?

Review: The Irresponsible Captain Tylor (58:43 – 2:07:33)
Back in Show 183 we interviewed Shawne Kleckner, co-founder of Right Stuf Anime, where he mentioned his favorite show of all time was 1993’s Irresponsible Captain Tylor, directed by Koichi Mashimo back when he was still awesome and produced by…oh hey, Tatsunoko Productions and Big West of Macross fame! We’ve also been fans of Tylor for some time, and even still have the T-shirts from when Tylor was released onto DVD through pre-Kickstarter era crowdfunding by Right Stuf’s anime label, Nozomi Entertainment:

With the release of the Irresponsible Captain Tylor Collector’s Ultra Edition + Artbook Blu-ray set mere weeks away (preorders currently closed, and we expect soon after for a regular edition to be announced), we decided to revisit the series. Comedy and the demographics of anime fandom have changed dramatically over the years, and this series is rapidly approaching that “Thirty Years Ago” status Daryl would frequently look back upon. Does this beloved series of our adolescence hold up to the rigors of what is considered acceptable in 2021? Full disclosure: Right Stuf is our sponsor, and they did send us preliminary “check discs” of the Blu-Rays for us to evaluate this new edition. While we don’t think this colors our evaluation of the series–in fact, we might even LOSE OUR SPONSORSHIP~! over this one–we just want to make sure everyone knows this stuff up front.

This is technically not actually taken from the Nozomi Entertainment release.

Anime World Order Show # 198 – We Can’t See That He Is a Pioneer, Unlocking the Greatest Mysteries

Yeah, yeah, we missed releasing this in March. But hey, it means that we can talk about the anime that just ended, and what’s about to start! In this episode, Gerald reviews the 1992 3-part OAV series Green Legend Ran.

Introduction (0:00 – 34:55)
We were going to play a voicemail this episode to encourage others to send in voicemails of their own, but we had to talk about some things, such as the potentially promising new anime series of the season–hard to tell what’s good or bad based on a trailer/first episode, but we’ll try–what shows we just finished watching, that whole Tokyo Babylon anime debacle, and more. Also, if you hadn’t heard, the original film for Project A-Ko was finally found after decades. Turns out it was just misfiled! What’s next, a US release of Macross? Yeah, like that’d ever happ–actually, that didn’t occur as of the time this was recorded. NEXT TIME, BABY.

Promo: Right Stuf Anime (34:55 – 39:05)
The clock is ticking to preorder the shojo classic Dear Brother on Blu-Ray. This is a shorter license than usual; about one year’s time, after which the series won’t be available to purchase (or stream…again). There’s no Cosmo DNA to bail us out of this one, so get what you can while you can. Incidentally, if you’re looking to pull the trigger on any manga purchases, such as the Cardcaptor Sakura hardcover editions, you probably want to do so ASAP since the COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in a huge increase in print media demand–manga especially–as well as a shortage of printing labor. Reprints of anything will be taking longer than usual to occur as a result.

Review: Green Legend Ran (39:05 – 1:42:36)
Gerald reviews this largely forgotten and vaguely remembered OAV series from 1992, overshadowed as a result of being released just a few months after Tenchi Muyo!, which was one of the signature anime for otaku of the 1990s. This does however require us to spend about 15 minutes talking about these things called “laserdiscs” before we get into the series itself. Truth be told, neither Daryl nor Clarissa had any concrete recollection of anything that happened in this series whatsoever despite both of them having seen it forever ago. With the series now available on demand courtesy of the anime streaming site HiDive, does Green Legend Ran stand the test of time? One thing that definitely did is Gerald’s old collector’s edition set!

No, this is NOT a laserdisc box! This is in fact Gerald’s VHS box set containing all three tapes. Let’s open it up!
Pioneer releases are highly sought after for their extras to this day. Not pictured: the T-shirt which may or may not have been in 5XL.
THERE’S THE T-SHIRT–er, oh yes, and also the TAPES!
Maybe THIS is what the director meant when he said “pay attention to Ran’s character development.”
More really nice extras included in the set. We actually did not make even a single joke about that Tinkerbell dress in this episode. It took restraint.
Pioneer commissioned original artwork for their LD/box set releases. You can see from Ran’s pose up there why we thought of Future Boy Conan. HE EVEN SMOKES CIGARETTES.