Anime World Order Show # 197 – You Grew All That Human Tissue in Orbit and It Doesn’t Even Work

We flip-flop a bit on our promise to be the anime podcast that sticks to talking about anime, but after a while Clarissa gets us back on track by talking about 2016’s Flip Flappers, per request of our Patreon donors. See? We pay attention to those requests sometimes!

Introduction (0:00 – 46:09)
We catch up on what we’ve been up to. Daryl’s been in the “manic” phase of his manic/depressive output, having watched through multiple series and read through several volumes of manga in the last few weeks while also sinking an additional 100 hours into Nioh 2 now that it’s on PC after doing nothing at all for most of this year to date. Gerald has been streaming Death Stranding, which he declares the videogame equivalent of Pu-tan from Cromartie High School. He and Clarissa have also been getting through some current shows and rewatching some old comfort picks, which leads us to our email question regarding iyashikei (“healing”) anime. Seems to be in high demand lately, given current world events. UPDATE: Ed Chavez has contacted us to correct the vicious misinformation we have spread about him, as he has not personally played Death Stranding. He’s just heard good things and knows people who like it.

Promo: Right Stuf Anime (46:09 – 50:05)
It’s Helen McCarthy’s birthday, so check out her brand new book Leiji Matsumoto: Essays on the Manga and Anime Legend, featuring a variety of contributions from an assortment of highly qualified and intelligent folks, some of whom even listen to/have been guests on this very podcast! You can also get your preorders in for the hardcover Viz Signature edition of Fist of the North Star, and here’s hoping enough people do that Viz manages to accomplish what has never been done before and complete a physical English language release of the series! Also, a possible contender for worst overall show of the past decade, Hand Shakers, is $15. Daryl always mentally mixes up Hand Shakers with Flip Flappers. WHAT IF WE REVIEWED HAND SHAKERS, GUYS

Review: Flip Flappers (50.05 – 1:28:35)
As requested by a few of our Patreon donors, Clarissa provides an effectively spoiler-free review of one of her favorite series from late 2016…wait, 2016? It’s been nearly five years ago already?! And the director, Kiyotaka Oshiyama, hasn’t been allowed to direct anything full-length ever since? But Hand Shakers got a SEQUEL?! There’s just no justice in this world. Flip Flappers is a yuri-themed SFF series which is an increasingly rare instance of being something anime-original; that is, not adapted from any prior source material. Unfortunately, it was not particularly popular in Japan, and the US release is starting to get a bit harder to find (with the limited editions Gerald and Clarissa own being out of print), so anime-original titles remain an increased financial gamble. For now, it remains streaming on Hidive and VRV, but who knows how long that’ll last?

Anime World Order Show # 195 – We Took Over a Year to Do What Others Did In a Week

At long last, it is finished. The words of triumph may be spoken now. The debt is paid in full, for the 2010s Decade in Review COMES TO A CONCLUSION~! as we talk about the notable titles of 2019…that we managed to see, anyway, because truth be told we still haven’t seen a lot of the shows we wanted to from last year. NEVERTHELESS.

Introduction (0:00 – 29:07)
Remember when we used to play VOICEMAILS on the show? Not even emails, but recorded messages people sent to us? Pepperidge Farm forgot about that one, actually, but now that everyone has smartphones that are capable of making voice recordings which can be sent online, there is now much less need for us to exploit state social services for a voicemail number. So after doing the thing that we said we don’t do–talking about videogames for several minutes–we play a not so old voicemail that asks a frequently asked question whose answer remains just as flustering no matter how much the topic gets revisited over the years. Listen, if Justin Sevakis isn’t doing his column anymore, we are IN THE CLEAR to just rip off what he’s imparted unto us. On more than one occasion. To swipe a pattern from our lame duck President, some might call the sentence structure of that last one a step and a step. (“Some” in this case being “nobody until we did so, just now”.)

Promo: Right Stuf Anime (29:07 – 31:00)
By popular demand from…well, okay, literally nobody…we have once again restored communications to the North Pole to get none other than the one and only SANTA CLAUS to tell you about the Right Stuf Holiday Sale! Yes, there are daily mega deals all month along with the weekly sales and more. Plus, there’s a weekly challenge to find Ritsu, the Right Stuf mascot, hidden on all manners of sections of the website most visitors rarely check or know exist. UNTIL NOW, THAT IS. Listen, our reception to the North Pole isn’t so great. But we’re A HUNDRED PERCENT SURE that’s Santa Claus on the line.

The DECADE IN REVIEW~!: 2019 (31:00 – 2:48:03)

Listen. We understand it would have been more thematically appropriate to use the shot where he’s making a reference to the final line of Raoh while striking the triumphant pose, but the camera panned on that and we don’t have time to do that stitching together business. But we’re finished! We are DONE recapping the noteworthy titles of the last ten years, just in time for one entire year of this new decade to have elapsed.

AND WE DID IT BEFORE THE FASTKARATE 2019 GAME OF THE YEAR TOP 10 GOT WRITTEN UP! WE’RE OFFICIALLY NOT THE SLOWEST! WOOOOO!