Category: Robots

Posted on

Anime World Order Show # 127 – You Need Credibility Before You Can Lose It

Podcast: Download (Duration: 1:14:19 — 34.0MB)

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | RSS

Seriously? We missed the entire month of June yet still say this thing is updated weekly? What kind of miring sweaty mass of lameness is that? Do we need Soundgarden to headbang in a circle with a camera underneath to express how lame that is? No matter, what’s done is done. Or rather, what’s not done is done. For this episode, Gerald reviews the classic 1980s Sunrise mecha series Giant Gorg.

Intro (0:00 – 30:31)
We received another rather unique method of how fans pick which anime titles to show at group meetings, so we’re throwing that out there. Also, is there a recommended order for watching Urusei Yatsura, putting aside the fact that you can’t exactly procure it all that easily in 2014? Man, was it really four years ago that Daryl wrote that Urusei Yatsura article for Otaku USA? Someone graduated an entire level of their education in that time.

Review: Giant Gorg (30:31 – 1:08:52)
Yoshikazu “Yaz” Yasuhiko only directed one anime television series, and it was this one from 1984. Spoken about with reverence by the generation of American anime fans that have physical copies of the Baycon 1986 program guide, it’s only now–thirty years later–that it’s finally all been fansubbed in English. Information has been scarce until now–can you believe Dave Merrill’s Let’s Anime post on Giant Gorg was five years ago?–but Gerald and Clarissa have watched all 26 episodes of this serial robot war adventure story and have this to say about it.

At no point did anybody mention that this is the sort of cartoon with a Hanna Barbera-esque dog sidekick or go into detail about the fashion intricacies of what precisely Lady Lynx is wearing. That’s for you to see/Google on your own time.

Conclusion (1:08:52 – 1:14:19)
In the month we were off, Daryl was a guest on GME! Anime Fun Time to talk about Masaaki Yuasa’s TV series The Tatami Galaxy…and then Gerald was a guest to talk about Crusher Joe, though that episode isn’t out just yet. Seeing as that podcast comes out monthly, at least we got this episode out before two episodes of that came out. As far as anime conventions, Anime Festival Orlando is two weeks away and we’ve got panels…that we’d better get started on! Then a few weeks later it’s Otakon, whose fan panel roster can be viewed here. We’ve got four:

  • Anime’s Craziest Deaths (18+) — if you have a title I’ve never run anything from, let me know and I’ll take a look…and yes, I saw Akame ga Kill
  • Kill La Kill: Spot the References, Beginner’s Edition — please don’t attend if you already seek out this stuff since that seat can go to someone who actually needs it
  • Ninja in Anime: The Sweet and (Mostly) the Stupid — there are multiple ninja panels this year, but only THIS one knows the proper pluralization of “ninja”!
  • The Classic Anime and Japanese Pro Wrestling Connection — not just Tiger Mask, Jushin Liger, Mushiking Terry, Kinnikuman etc stuff; I’m focusing on narrative/character convention in anime that may not necessarily have anything to do with pro wrestling at all despite being influenced

The first two of those panels are ones that have been done before. The second two are ones that will debut at AFO. See? We know what we’re doing here. Trust us. Even though we recorded this podcast. See you at the safehouse; I’ll show you the plans…

Posted on

Anime World Order Show # 124 – Frozen Should Have Had Gambo Instead of Songs

Podcast: Download (Duration: 1:24:11 — 38.6MB)

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | RSS

After two months, we spend a lot of time not talking about anime, read an email about not watching it, and then FINALLY Daryl reviews the new anime anthology Short Peace. We’re out of practice here.

Introduction (0:00 – 45:12)
For roughly the first 13:30 of this introduction, there is more or less zero anime discussion until Daryl brings up that he’s reading through the excellent Anime: A History by Jonathan Clements, who it should be noted is NOT Richard Armitage. It’s an easy mistake to make, we know. We then read an email about a tale that’s played out all too often over the years: the phenomenon that is “otaku expiration” by way of a letter from one who died at the age of 17. In place of said dead velveteen otaku is A REAL BOY. Wait, we just mixed up children’s stories.

Review: Short Peace (45:12 – 1:22:00)
Daryl reviews the new anthology collection released last year. Perhaps you’ve heard of it, since one of the segments was nominated for an Oscar this year along with some other Japanese dude’s cartoon. We understand based on a webcomic we saw that other guy whose film was nominated for an Oscar loves to smile and make merchandise and robots and totally did not write this book or this book. Short Peace will be released by Sentai Filmworks soon, and we can only hope that they translate the commentary track on this thing because boy howdy, we sure would’ve loved to have known what they said BEFORE doing this review.

  • We reviewed Freedom Project back in Show 66. Despite this being Show 124, that episode was about six years ago…
  • As further proof that he sucks, the short which Daryl declared the weakest was actually the one that won the rarely-awarded Noboru Ofuji prize. We discussed how difficult it is to win that back when we reviewed Mind Game.
  • Show 96 about Redline, 30 episodes after the 2008 episode linked above, happened three years later. We probably briefly mentioned Katsuhito Ishii at some point.
  • Despite being only one standard American comicbook in length, Farewell to Weapons has been out of print for decades so comicbook sellers are charging a lot for it. Hopefully Kodansha will reprint it.
  • What’s far more affordable is the revised edition of Matt Alt’s Yokai Attack. If you read that, then you’d understand that THE RULES were indeed followed.

Closing (1:22:00 – 1:24:10)
We’re going to have to review a Shinji Aramaki CG movie next time, aren’t we. AREN’T WE?! In the meantime between now and then, do check out the new issue of Otaku USA. Daryl wrote articles on Kill La Kill, Robot Girls Z, and the manga editions of Space Brothers as well as Summer Wars. There’s also Carl Horn’s Royal Space 25th Anniversary Fanzine, featuring articles by Gerald and other people who aren’t Gerald. “Fanzine” is a misnomer for this thing, seeing as it’s got better layout, design, binding, paper quality etc than most professional publications.