Category: Interviews

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Anime World Order Show # 64 – Interview With Walter Amos and Rob Fenelon, Part 1

Podcast: Download (Duration: 1:15:58 — 34.8MB)

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Apologies for the one month delay between episodes. Anyway, we’re back with Part 1 of an interview we conducted with Walter Amos and Rob Fenelon back at Anime Weekend Atlanta 2007.

We were busy this past month. Many things happened. This picture summarizes the situation as it stands in the present:


But THIS picture summarizes the situation as it will be in THE FUTURE:

There are videos that will be uploaded to Youtube once we figure out how to substantially brighten them since they were filmed at night without night vision mode. They involve swords and explosives, possibly used in tandem with one another.

We should probably put up actual, honest-to-goodness show notes and supplemental links for this one, given the nature of the discussion. But that would require me to find some. For now, the podcast promos played in this episode are for: Destroy All Podcasts DX, Rangercast, and Greatest Movie EVER!. Oh right, PT Chapman is a special guest host for this episode!

Next time on AWO, Daryl’s playing catch up to make up for his month of ennui by giving his boring con report on the New York Anime Festival, Gerald’s reviewing Sonic Soldier Borgman, and Clarissa’s breaking through the heavens with Tengen Toppa Gurren-Lagann! By the way, if people are interested in actually getting T-shirts or hoodies with our hilariously goofy AWO logo, let us know. If enough people want them, we can actually get them made! Here’s some links to stuff that got mentioned on the show:

  • Rob in his Desslok costume at AnimeCon ’91 – check the rest of Walter’s videos for more
  • http://www.starblazers.com/ is a decent source for learning about Space Battleship Yamato / Star Blazers…or just check our review index since we talk about it fairly often
  • The World Science Fiction Convention – and here’s its never-inaccurate Wikipedia entry; you probably also want to look at the homepage for Philcon and its Wikipedia entry
  • We talked about Astro Boy in Show 60 and Captain Harlock in Show 34, but here’s the ANN links for Kimba the White Lion and Battle of the Planets aka Science Ninja Team Gatchaman
  • Ikkyu-san is one we’ve not seen, and Rob is probably referring to the second Cyborg 009 TV series, not the first. Though he probably saw the movie Cyborg 009: Legend of the Super Galaxy, since that was released by Best Film and Video. Where’s my review, DAPDX?! Stop reviewing all those live-action movies and Robotech blah and get ON THE BALL
  • Blackhawks was an old DC Comics release and was recently featured in the Justice League cartoon…and there’s one surviving member currently in the Birds of Prey but we aren’t supposed to admit knowing that
  • It’s not clear from just the audio recording, but when Rob mentions The Six Million Dollar Man, Daryl proceeded to dramatically throw upon the table a copy of Cyborg by Martin Caidin (the book that inspired the series) since Paul was reading it on the flight up. The word “serendipity” was used multiple times for the rest of the weekend as a result. “Kismet“? Not so much.
  • Daleks are from some show only watched by geeks, but at least they’re a disciplined lot
  • Ziv International made some dangerously lame dubs long ago, which we’ve played clips from in the past. We want ALL OF THEM.
  • Marine Boy isn’t something we know much about aside from the clips of it used in assorted Corn Pone Flicks productions
  • Asimov Online is a decent portal for learning about the guy. Daryl for some reason can only remember reading all the Norby books as a kid, without actually remembering what they were about
  • Creation conventions still exist after over three decades and they’re still as lame as ever
  • Omni magazine had a 20 year run of sorts, but this sort of periodical is dying out; more on that in Show 64b
  • Miyako Graham, who informed Rob of the word “anime,” was quite involved with Protoculture Addicts and also translated stuff for Newtype and served as an interpreter for Japanese guests. I can’t remember if she’s married to Toren Smith or not since I’ve met neither of them
  • I think the terrifying nature of the EDF was elaborated upon when we interviewed Dave Merrill. The C/FO still exists as one club and still has 8 hour anime club showings once a month, as you can see from their Tripod-hosted website. Fred Patten used to still attend these meetings up until his stroke a few years ago. That logo should clue you in as to what’s up
  • We’d rather not delve too deeply into this, but suffice to say that Mark Merlino, in addition to founding the C/FO with Fred Patten, was also more or less the founder of furry fandom as the Internet scourge we know it as today by virtue of him and his male partner holding zoomorphic gatherings at their home, which they referred to as “furry parties.” The fandom was eventually split between semi-sane people and the people we commonly think of as furries today
  • Chambara movies (that site lists way more than just chambara) are a subset of jidai-geki. Information on Zatoichi is here; I would have said to listen to Popcorn Samurai since he was going to be reviewing one Zatoichi movie each episode, but that podcast faded away rather quickly. Unfortunate, since I don’t know of any podcasts devoted just to talking about samurai movies or kungfu movies. If there are such podcasts, let us know!

Damn it, that’s just the links for like, the first 20 minutes of this thing. You people know how to use Google; do this yourself!

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Bonus – Interview with Michiko Ito, Part 1

Podcast: Download (Duration: 1:01:27 — 28.1MB)

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Note: The audio overlapping problem has been fixed and a new version of the episode has been uploaded. If the audio overlaps in your copy, redownload the episode.

This one’s for all the Gerald acolytes out there, as he conducts an interview with Michiko Ito, professor of Japanese Studies at the University of Kansas. Tim Eldred, whom we interviewed in Show 14, is also present. Be sure to check out www.starblazers.com for Tim’s Starblazers Rebirth and Tim’s excellent documentary Space Battleship Yamato: The Making of an Anime Legend. Listen on, would-be otaku, and discover exactly what inanimate objects YOU should be praying to in order to guarantee that you see that next episode of Gundam!

2:25 – Michiko talks about anime in Japan when she was growing up, and that it was called “terebi manga.”

3:15 – What it is that separated Space Battleship Yamato from the rest of the anime on at the time, which was largely sports anime. When Michiko talks about “the end of each episode,” she is referring to the number of days remaining until Earth is rendered uninhabitable, which added dramatic tension to the series. Michiko also talks about being fond of Starsha:

4:40 – Tsunehiro Okasako was the character designer for the original Space Battleship Yamato.

5:55 – Michiko explains that the competing program to Yamato was the Hayao Miyazaki classic Heidi of the Alps.

7:00 – Michiko and her brother call in to local radio stations to request the opening theme of Yamato, aptly named Uchuu Senkan Yamato, sung by Isao Sasaki.

8:10 – Chibi Maruko-chan is another powerhouse show in Japan. She also mentions that Yamato was able to widen the appeal of animated shows outside of the elementary school crowd; however, almost no merchandise for that audience was available.

10:50 – The Yamato radio specials, possibly the biggest promotional tease in history.

15:00 – Michiko explains how Yoshinobu “The Nish” Nishizaki wanted to portray the ideal man with his own ideals and his own goal as a major theme of Yamato.

18:35 – Michiko explain “Golden Time” to us, which is the equivalent of “Prime Time.”

19:50 – Michiko explains her disappointment with continuing the Yamato franchise with sequels such as The Comet Empire after Saraba Uchuu Senkan Yamato – Ai no Senshitachi (aka Arrivederci Yamato) ended the series.

21:15 – Ribon no Kishi (aka Princess Knight) was the creation of Osamu Tezuka.

21:45 – Tokusatsu, the all-encompassing term for special effects shows. She also mentions the classic Kamen Rider and Kikaider. Michiko also mentions the very well known Candy Candy, a show that was so popular that episodes of it were made just for Italy.

22:15 – At this point Gerald says “Kodai or Desslar.” Kodai was the Japanese name for Derek Wildstar and Desslar was the Japanese name for Desslok. The big debate between female fans of the time was “who was the more popular character?” as each had fanclubs for their voice actors.

22:50 – VOTOMS, or Armored Trooper VOTOMS, the show Tim Eldred is nearly singlehandedly responsible for bringing to the English speaking world [Daryl: Neil Nadelman will have our heads for this outrage]. She also mentions Fang of the Sun Dougram, which was a prototype of sorts for VOTOMS as it was done by the same director and had the same atmosphere.

25:25 – Mobile Suit Gundam. Like this needs an explanation.

27:50 – Blue Noah, Nishizaki’s desperate attempt to recreate Yamato which failed miserably. And then, of course, there’s Odin. Just listen to Show #12 for more information than you ever wanted to know about that one.

29:10 – Saiyuki, also known as Journey to the West. The basis for tons of anime including Dragon Ball and–of course–Gensomaden Saiyuki. You can find out more about Journey to the West here.

30:45 – Michiko brings up the importance of “romance” in Yamato, also seen as a “otoko roman” or “men’s romance.” Not to be confused with “shonen ai,” which Clarissa can tell us more about.

33:25 – Michiko is referring to the Americanized version of Uchuu Senkan Yamato known as Star Blazers, and she brings up Gojira also known as Godzilla.

34:30 – The joke that Gerald is referring to here occurred in the series where characters would appear in ships that would explode and they would instantly cut back to other characters that looked nothing like the guy in the ship that just exploded and say “just made it back in time,” to hide the fact that someone died.

40:25 – Japan’s Article 9

44:55 – Revenge of Mouflon

48:10 – Animentari Ketsudan and Zero-sen Hayato are some of the anime that depict war.

49:50 – Kamui Gaiden better known as The Legend of Kamui, by the legendary Sanpei Shirato. This is not related to the theatrical film Kamui no Ken (aka The Dagger of Kamui) that Daryl will be reviewing very soon.

54:35 – The Spiriting Away of Sen and Chihiro aka. Spirited Away.

55:40 – We haven’t been able to find this image that Tim says appeared on the cover of The New Yorker magazine. If anyone has it, email it to us so we can add it to the show notes.

58:45 – Chinmoku no Kantai aka. Silent Service by Kaiji Kawaguchi. Gerald mistakenly said “Kenji Kawaguchi.”

1:00:25 – Fax from Sarajevo

Next week, we have an actual show! Gerald does his review of the Kazuo Koike “jigoku manga” Lady Snowblood, Clarissa reviews Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, and Daryl takes a look at the theatrical film Hokuto no Ken: Raoh Gaiden Junai-hen because he’s not done watching Twelve Kingdoms yet.