Anime World Order Show # 24 – Ronin Warriors, 80s Sci-Fi, and…Audio Problems

The sound quality on this is pretty bad. We did the best we could to amplify this sufficiently so that people could hear it, but the levels are all over the place and we apologize in advance. This week, Gerald reviews one of his all-time favorites Crusher Joe, Daryl reviews the Often Overlooked Prefectural Earth Defense Force, and Clarissa continues her “pretty boys in armor” overview by telling about Ronin Warriors aka Yoroiden Samurai Troopers.

This episode was ALMOST on time since we missed our self imposed deadline by a mere 22 hours or so!

Introduction (0:00 – 30:00)
Man, David Williams is one tough-sounding dude. He and Reggie Fils-Aime should duke it out some day. So, the war for rankings supremacy rages on over at Podcast Pickle, with Anime Pulse having unseated the Weekly Anime Review’s top spot. We’re thinking “now is the time to get nothing but anime podcasts in the Top 10.” Along with Vespaholic’s Anime101 podcast (which might actually be teaching people how to be the type of fans that Daryl hates), we’re pretty close to breaking into the Top 10. So register over at Podcast Pickle and adding us to your favorites list. We don’t have pocky or yaoi fanart to give away. We’re just trying to commit a grand Internet prank.

Oh yeah, we answer emails too! Here’s some relevant links. We’ve been forgetting to put relevant links for the intro segment where it’s most important, but it’s not like we’ve received complaints. We’re guessing that people just scratch their heads at what we’re talking about and stop listening.

From this point on, the microphones start going haywire and the audio levels fluctuate A LOT. The audio will get really low in places, then jump up again. You have been warned.

Let’s News! (30:00 – 40:58)
Geneon has licensed Zipang, which we reviewed back in Show #11. This somehow leads to us whining about the cost and manner of release of Hajime no Ippo. Gainax is planning to release a compilation movie for both Gunbuster and its sequ…er…follow-up, Daibuster, and Tohru Furuya is going to be a guest at Anime Expo. If only we could get our Mobile Suit Gundam boxes autographed. HEY, MAYBE WE COULD ASK THESE PEOPLE TO DO IT FOR US!

Promo: Brace For Impact (40:58 – 41:55)
Daryl is pretty sure that he’s discovered the secret appeal of Apocalypse Dowell and Mick Aloha, and that’s this thing which is what they publicize the most. It’s an audiobook, which means that it’s all written out in advance, THEN recorded. This does wonders for keeping things moving along. The villain is a heel wrestling promoter!

Review: Crusher Joe (41:55 – 59:59)
Gerald tells us all about this one, his all-time favorite sci-fi action space opera anime. Gerald would like to make it clear that Crusher Joe is nothing like The Chronicles of Riddick or The Transporter, regardless of what Daryl is saying or the fact that he’s trying to sabotage my segment. He also doesn’t seem to realize that no one reads the text on the feed aggregators and if they read anything they read the home page notes, and even if they did, the home page is what matters. And Daryl needs to stop messing around and leave Gerald’s section alone, and stop comparing an awesome movie like Crusher Joe to crap like Riddick or The Transporter.

Often Overlooked: Prefectural Earth Defense Force (1:00:00 – 1:15:39)
If you couldn’t tell from the theme song, this is science fiction. Daryl tells us about this 45 minute OAV that’s sure to appeal to the people who dig Mel Brooks movies…er, from back when Mel Brooks was still funny. And Zucker Brothers movies…er, before they started doing those Scary Movie sequels. It’s screwball comedy a la Excel Saga or most of Akitaro Daichi’s work. Make sure to have the Pause key ready because the gags are constant. Oh by the way, this is only available through online retailers. Oh, and also: how well this sells will determine whether ADV will license other obscure but good anime titles and sell them subtitled only and cheap. So buy it, ya pencil-necked geeks!

Review: Yoroiden Samurai Troopers aka Ronin Warriors ( 1:15:39 – 1:33:58)
At this point, the audio levels get unbearable and our heroes are pushed to the limit. QUAKE WITH FEAR! Clarissa’s microphone and PC is particularly haywire at this point, but she continues on the “armored hero” anime beat which started with her Saint Seiya review in Show #21 by talking about the show that people in America are the most likely to be familiar with since it aired relatively unedited on US television and has been available on DVD for some time.

Promo: Otaku Generation (1:33:58 – 1:34:20)
Did you see how Daryl was the first to get the OG Clap in their recent one year anniversary episode? That’s right, you’d better recognize. Wait, they gave him the clap?! Those bastards! Wait, that joke’s been used every single time “the OG Clap” has been mentioned? Those BASTARDS!

Closing (1:34:20 – 1:38:24)
Note to selves: invest in a USB mixer and three USB preamps. But man, do we really want to spend $550 on audio equipment that we don’t actually know how to USE? Next week, it’s a special CATFIGHT! CATFIGHT! episode, as we talk about anime titles centered around girls beating each other up. Gerald’s going to talk about Project A-Ko, which got a lot of play on Sci-Fi Channel back in the day and is coming up on its 20th anniversary. Clarissa will be discussing Air Master, which was the number one anime show in Japan when it came out on account that it’s a show about people being KICKED RIGHT IN THE FREAKING FACE, but it never caught on here since people didn’t like the artwork and the R1 DVD release was utter trash. Finally, Daryl’s going to tell us all about the Shadow Skill OAVs, which is an anime devoted to girls who kick things and have pretty radical fights amidst a sort of Slayers-ish fantasy setting.

Anime World Order Show # 21 – The Anti-Moe Equation: Giant Robo, Saint Seiya, and Combattler V

It’s flexible, it’s metal, it’s our 21st podcast as Daryl reviews Giant Robo (perhaps his favorite anime ever), Gerald reviews Combattler V, and Clarissa tackles Saint Seiya!

Introduction (0:00 – 22:40)
You know, we have all these Discipline readings but we keep forgetting to play them. We forget this week too. In its place, the MMD calls in to complain about Jeff Tatarek’s Discipline reading in Show # 17. Sensing this, Jeff “Rich Lather” Tatarek calls in to put forth a 1-2-3 Rider Kick argument as to why HE should be given our spare Patlabor Limited Edition box. You know, that ANN contest only has about four entries, people! We also answer listener feedback regarding Captain Tsubasa and what anime would appeal to military otaku. We know little about either.

  • Jeff Tatarek’s AV-98 Ingram costume from like, decades ago: Pic 1 Pic 2

Let’s News! (22:40 – 30:50)
Some Japanese folks serve time for the crime of scanning manga (search for “Stiff Sentence For Uploading Manga In Japan”), and there won’t be a second season of Genshiken after all because they’re making an entire show out of Kujibiki Unbalance. We make sure to scream about how idiotic and bad that manuever is at least once per segment for the remainder of this episode.

Promo: Anime Pulse (30:50 – 31:38)
It takes true dedication to run both this podcast as well as the theotaku.com podcast! No wonder they’re about twice as popular as us. The fact that they’re habitually on time probably helps with that, too. You know, technically AWO is supposed to come out on Tuesdays, but I can count the amount of times that’s been managed on my fingers.

Often Overlooked: Giant Robo (31:38 – 50:47)
Daryl talks about his pick for the greatest OAV series ever made, Giant Robo The Animation: The Day the Earth Stood Still. In so doing, he reveals pretty much nothing about the show itself in the hopes of not spoiling everything, but ultimately he’s just failing to convince people to watch it. He also forgot to include audio bumpers. Still, anyone who doesn’t buy the brick of Giant Robo by clicking here gets THE HOSE.

Promo: R5 Central (50:47 – 51:23)
Mike Dent is probably still applying every audio filter he can find to his upcoming coverage of Anime Central 2006, so it’s still not out yet. In the meantime, consider this excerpt interview from someone cool he met. You know, next week Daryl was going to tell us all THE TRUTH about JACON, but Metrocon’s coming up this weekend.

Review: Combattler V (51:23 – 1:06:27)
The amount of people who wrote in to correct Gerald about Combattler V not being a Tomino show does our hearts proud, even though Gerald only got that idea because Daryl heard Rob Lantz mention Tomino’s involvement with the show back at Katsucon this year. Listen on and find out all about the very first show to feature five vehicles that combine to form a giant robot! Yep, it wasn’t Voltron.

Review: Saint Seiya (1:06:27 – 1:26:25)
Clarissa does the impossible and manages to coherently describe what Saint Seiya is actually about in this last segment. Complaints about ADV and DiC’s handling of the property in North America is kept to a minimum since if we did that, whatever would Steve Harrison talk about once we get him on as a guest? That’s totally happening now that we can do free long distance calls to the US and Canada!

  • ANN’s page on Saint Seiya – being a gigantic show of the 80s, the voice cast was pretty stellar, which was something that didn’t make it into the episode
  • Wikipedia entry for Saint Seiya – it’s got some pretty good breakdowns of story arcs and world details for if you want more info than you got here
  • Seiya-subtitles.net’s writeup on Masami Kurumada

Closing (1:26:25 – 1:29:19)
As if this week weren’t enough to cause everyone to stop listening, next week it’s going to be as otaku-concentrated as we can manage. Yes, we’ve only been using 20% of our full power all this time, for next time Gerald will review Otaku no Video, Clarissa will review Genshiken, and Daryl will review Welcome to the NHK! Yeah, we know. Gerald probably should have reviewed NHK since he’s clearly the most like that guy of the three of us, but he’s already “Mr A.”