Bonus – Daryl Wastes Your Time

Due to the rigors of graduate school and the like, there hasn’t been a new episode of the podcast released in over a month. Despite repeated “let’s record on so and so day” requests, nobody ever actually showed up. Daryl lost this Internet staring contest and decided to record this by himself in lieu of a real episode. If you’re naughty this Christmas, this may happen again. And you don’t want that.

The latest issue of Otaku USA Magazine is out! As web supplemental pieces, Daryl has written reviews of the Redline side story Trava: Fist Planet, the Mamoru Hosoda-directed One Piece Movie 6: Baron Omatsuri and the Secret Island, and…er, actually the Cowboy Bebop one isn’t done yet…

Here’s some timecodes. Remember when we did these all the time?

01:35 – What’s our beef with Takehito Koyasu, anyway?
04:12 – Macross Do You Remember Love vs Macross Frontier Movie 1 (Clarification: Gwyn is actually a GUY. And not just any guy. He, along with former AWO guests Tim Eldred, Patrick Macias, Walter Amos, and some others got to go to Leiji Matsumoto’s house and interview him. Keep your eyes on www.starblazers.com and www.otakuusamagazine.com for the results of that one!)
08:25 – On the ethics of pirating anime
14:00 – One of the only hate mails we’ve ever received! YES
38:28 – Can there be a new show made today that affects anime fans like big hits from decades past did?
45:21 – On the changing face of “otaku” over the years
52:21 – What mecha anime should I watch? Which Gundam series are good and which are bad? (WARNING: 30 minute answer resulting in psychological meltdown)

Another clarification: I am almost certainly aware of [insert mecha show here]. The reason I didn’t mention it is because I tried to limit my answers to what is currently in print in America. Otherwise my first recommendation would have been to watch Patlabor.

Here is a partial list of titles mentioned in this episode:

We should actually be able to record some real episodes again in a few days. Bide your time, and hold out hope. (PS: go see Faster and The Warrior’s Way IN THE GUDDAMN THE-ATER. Links are to scholarly writeups explaining why. Given how badly the latter did, you probably have 24 hours from the time of this posting until it’s gone from theaters.)

AWA 2010 – Anime’s Craziest Deaths Title Listing

Ouch. We sort of stopped podcasting for the last month and change, huh? Well, not technically; we put in a bunch of guest appearances on OTHER podcasts. We just didn’t release new episodes of our own because we were busy preparing for Anime Weekend Atlanta (convention report forthcoming). In addition to my Panel OF DOOM!, Anime’s Craziest Deaths was back with about 45 minutes of new material. Subsequent editions of the panel at AWA will probably be about an hour long to help make room for more all-ages appropriate programming (that and it’s NOT EASY to find new clips since they barely make this sort of thing anymore!), but here’s the listing of what went down (note that whenever possible, if a same title was reused from previous installments, different clips were shown):

Rurouni Kenshin OAVs
Dark Warrior
Lily C.A.T.
Cybernetics Guardian
Berserk
Battle Royal High School
Bludgeoning Angel Dokuro-chan
Sword of the Stranger
Battle Angel
Hellsing Ultimate
Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure
Shadow Skill
Macross Plus: The Movie
Angel Cop
Wicked City
Ghost in the Shell (movie)
Princess Mononoke
Genocyber
The Professional: Golgo 13
Baoh
Blood: The Last Vampire
New Fist of the North Star – only at AWA does the mere sight of Kenshiro before he does anything result in the biggest applause of the night
Zambot 3
Ideon Movie 2
Vampire Hunter D
Dai Mahou Touge aka Magical Witch Punie-chan
Lupin the Third: Dead or Alive
Space Pirate Captain Harlock SSX – this plus the new CG movie trailer means now everyone knows DON’T F*CK WITH HARLOCK
Akira
Black Lagoon
Mobile Suit Gundam
Mad Bull 34
Crystal Triangle

The Video Art Track (VAT) was filled to capacity and then some, though about halfway through the show about 25-33% of the crowd all got up and left. I don’t think it was because “the crowd was burned out” so much that Anime HELL was beginning right at that same time. Heck, that’s where I would have been, otherwise! Here’s hoping that next time with the shortened running time I won’t find myself put opposite other “wacky clip” panels, since it’s generally the same crowd who goes to them.