Category: Otaku In Memoriam

Podcast: Download (Duration: 1:39:26 — 45.6MB)

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As we mark our 19th year of anime podcasting, it’s time for our annual holiday roundup of Christmas episodes! But first, we take a moment to pay our respects to the recently departed Jan Scott-Frazier, not by pressing F but by talking about her influence on us and this podcast.

Introduction (0:00 – 26:25)
Although Daryl’s call for submissions for his proposed Otaku in Memoriam throughout this year didn’t exactly succeed, we unfortunately have to end the year on one. Jan Scott-Frazier passed away at the start of the month, and while you can certainly read her list of career accomplishments on Wikipedia or Anime News Network (which, in a Christmas miracle, was NOT bought out by Sony after all, as they only purchased a percentage of Kadokawa), the idea of Otaku In Memoriam was to hear more personal testimonials about fans no longer with us. Although our interactions with Jan were limited, but our Bobby’s Girl episode of AWO would never have existed were it not for her actions. (And for the record…that is also the case in the event you saw Bobby’s Girl via a digital fansub.) Jonathan Clements wrote up a memoriam which is worth a read. Rest in peace to a true anime pioneer.

Clarissa was recently a guest on the now award-winning Shoujo Sundae podcast, where they recapped a few key later episodes of the newer anime adaptation of Fruits Basket. As goes with the territory for recap podcasting, spoilers will therefore abound. We then can’t help but hate on Sola Digital Arts, as their recent theatrical release of The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim made around $7 million despite being released in over 2600 theaters nationwide. THis was not for lack of awareness, as its trailer was saturation bombed, playing everywhere for what felt like ages. In the wake of this “half as popular as Madame Web” performance, Warner Discovery has admitted that it was a “Roger Corman Fantastic Four” effort, hastily shoved out in theaters just to ensure the film rights to Lord of the Rings would be retained.

Holiday Roundup, 2024 (26:25 – 1:39:26)
For the third year now, we’re covering Christmas episodes of various anime series. This year, by popular request (well, more like demand), we’re going to list in advance all of the things that we talked about, in the order in which we talked about them, so that you can go check the episodes out yourselves if you desire. With the exception of Dr. Slump, every anime episode listed here has had a legal release in the USA:

Martian Successor Nadesico episode 13

How Heavy are the Dumbbells You Lift episode 10

Dr. Slump episode 35

Buddy Daddies episode 1

Gintama episodes 200-201

Food Wars The Fifth Plate episodes 6 and 7

Bartender episode 10

Podcast: Download (Duration: 1:56:19 — 53.3MB)

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In a feeble attempt to delay the inevitable even if by just another month or so, Daryl elects to talk about what is only one of the most popular anime currently running, as he reviews SPY x FAMILY CODE: White, the standalone theatrical installment of the mega-hit Shonen Jump sitcom SPY x FAMILY, which is about as mainstream a title as anime gets in America.

Introduction (0:00 – 51:03)
We kick things off by talking about stuff we are thoroughly unqualified to discuss, since we haven’t been paying attention. Namely, what is the deal with those Macross releases we thought we’d be hearing something about in the nearly two years since the announcement was made that we’d be seeing them in the US? We also touch upon a few titles we’re watching in the current anime season…or not watching, as the case may be, and then Gerald follows up with an update regarding the digitization of the various old American anime fandom relics of decades past. Everybody should start checking out his Otaku Archive on archive.org, since if enough people do so then it can become an actual curated collection rather than just a topic. AND THAT’S WHEN WE IMPLEMENT ROBERT’S RULES OF ORDER.

Otaku In Memoriam: Jim Rosenbaum, Wayne Yin, Donald Tsang (51:03 – 59:22)
Walter Amos, previously a guest, is the one who proposed this project, and after several months finally sent in a submission. It was over 20 minutes long and listed off numerous notable individuals, so for the sake of brevity I’ve gone ahead and edited it down to 8 minutes focusing on three individuals who may not have been historically famous but nevertheless were influential on not just Walter, but American anime fandom nationwide to some extent even if their names weren’t known. Bonus points for invoking Antarctic Press’s Ben Dunn in a positive manner that is a far departure from the polemic material he’s known for doing nowadays.

Review: SPY x FAMILY CODE: White (59:22 – 1:56:19)
While there is typically no need to bother with covering what has for the past few years been among the most popular anime in the world, and one of the most cosplayed things at conventions, entropy unmakes all things and so Daryl has decided to take a snapshot of what may very well someday be a bygone forgotten relic of a time when theaters simply needed something new to put in their multiplexes while still reeling from the aftermaths of those strikes. In any case, SPY x FAMILY is meticulously crafted to be loved and adored as breezy popcorn fare, and so the people who’d say something like this sucks tend to be either edgelords attempting to be contrarian or perhaps people who receive payment from Shonen Jump’s competition. Typically, the Shonen Jump theatrical film that isn’t adapting source material and doesn’t advance anything is something derided, but since SPY x FAMILY is already a wacky sitcom we don’t particularly mind it the way we would for a action/adventure battle type series. Besides, it’s still a rarity to see anime in IMAX (that’s actually got a print formatted for it)!