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.”

Anime World Order Show # 20 – Mechanist Doctrine and Dudettes Being Rudettes

This week, it’s all anime reviews as Clarissa talks about Ouran High School Host Club, Gerald reviews the limited edition release of Patlabor the Movie, and all will receive the anime blessing…and the cleansing. But will they lift up their arms and praise Daryl for reviewing Karas, as the vapors make them pure? NNNAYYYY, they will WAIL and SCREAM, most ungrateful…!

Introduction (0:00 – 28:35)
“Reliance upon others is weakness for the strong, but strength for the weak. Wisdom and balance lie in knowing your own nature over time.” — Chronicle of the Metal Age

For all the time we spend answering emails, we barely seem to get through that many. Curse our insistence on being thorough! We continue our Full Metal Panic discussion from last week and lament the fact that pretty much nobody has given us questions to ask Monkey Punch at Metrocon next week. Plus we talk about Galaxy Angel, The Melancholy of Harumi Suzumiya, what books and authors are worth looking into if you’re interested in anime from an academic standpoint, and of course, we complain about our archnemesis, the dark spectre of moe.

Let’s News! (28:36 – 37:10)
“The man who learns only what others know is as ignorant as if he learns nothing. The treasures of knowledge are the most rare, and guarded most harshly.” — Chronicle of the First Age

Gerald retracts his previous reporting that the PC games for Bible Black and Discipline are coming out in English, but gets his spirits back up by mentioning how exactly zero people wrote it to defend Trinity Blood. Media Blasters cancels their release of the Riki-Oh anime, prompting Daryl to express his desire for Viz to release the mindblowing manga once they’re done releasing Tough. Also, there’s a new hero in town and her name is Mimei Sakamoto. A shame she lacks the street cred of say, The Nish.

Review – Karas: The Prophecy (37:10 – 59:23)
“He poured his children’s eyes from glass and from steel wrought their hands that none could escape His judgement.” — The New Scripture of the Master Builder

When Daryl was new-forged, Karas took him away from the foundry mother and said “Thou art the child of my endeavors; follow me and thou shalt inherit the Earth.” Discover the links and similarities between Karas, tokusatsu, Final Fantasy Advent Children, and the secret Mechanist plot hatching within Soulforge Cathedral! Fine, fine, so “Karras” isn’t quite the same as “Karas,” but Daryl never asks himself “who’s going to get this?” Daryl just says to himself “the right people will get this.” Just like TV’s Frank.

Promo: R5 Central (59:23 – 1:00:09)
Mike Dent’s foray to Anime Central has resulted in a convention report that’s going to span three parts! Could he be searching for THE TRUTH as well, perhaps?

Often Overlooked: Patlabor the Movie, Limited Edition (1:00:09 – 1:15:48)
“To manipulate a man is a careful project. Too light a hand, and he follows his own whim; too heavy a hand and he will turn on you.” — Chronicle of the Metal Age

Back in our early shows we discussed this upcoming release and told people to check it out once it came out. Well, now that it’s come out, we’ll say it once more, only this time Gerald’s going to tell everyone exactly what you get for the extremely hefty price tag. Hmm, on second thought, most people should probably just check out the much more affordable “movie only” edition.

Review – Ouran High School Host Club (1:15:48 – 1:26:29)
“Bricky roads they trappers grass, stoney walls they trappers wind, iron stove it trappers fire. Trappers is we by the works of hands, and forgets us we were ever free…” –Inked grass scroll

Apparently things that only just came out on DVD are still considered “old releases” by the exacting standards of the Internet, so in an effort to not be labeled as the “we only talk about old stuff at the exclusion of everything else” podcast and be relabeled as the “we mostly talk about old stuff because we’re too lazy to watch through our backlog” podcast, Clarissa’s giving us our thoughts on this anime that’s all about a girl pretending to be a dude that’s pretending to be rude so all the ladies will swoon. Watch your step, there’s references to 80s sitcoms and teen comedies underfoot.

  • Viz Shojo Beat site entry for Ouran – our review is actually for the anime, but you can get the manga officially courtesy of Viz [Daryl: With whatever funds are left over after you buy their releases of Phoenix, Golgo 13, and Tough of course!]
  • Oh, just in case anyone’s curious. There are about three or four groups subbing this series right now; Clarissa’s watching Solar’s myself, and they seem fine.

Promo: Otaku Generation (1:26:29 – 1:26:43)
This week, the Podcast of Otaku Generation is rocking the dragon as they interview the hosts of Daizenshuu Ex, a podcast devoted to Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Z, Dragon Ball GT, and all the merchandise and such associated with Akira Toriyama’s megahit about people standing around threatening to fight each other. All this, plus Rock ‘Em, Sock ‘Em Robots!

Closing (1:26:43 – 1:30:36)
“When we looked at the relics of the precursors, we saw the height civilization can attain. When we looked at their ruins, we marked the danger of that height.” — Keeper Annals

Next week is an episode requiring years of preparation on the parts of us all, to the interest of well, probably nobody. Daryl is going to finally review the Often Overlooked OAV series Giant Robo, Gerald will review the old super robot series Combattler V which he and Clarissa have spent the last half year or so watching, and Clarissa is going to talk all about Saint Seiya. Sure, nobody’s going to listen since nobody cares about any of these shows, but let it not be said that our anime podcast is just like all the rest! Otherwise Daryl will see to it that you’re locked up within Shalebridge Cradle.