Anime World Order Show # 212 – He’s the Himbo Fella of Salmonella

It’s been a while since Gerald “pulled a Gerald”: reviewed something that you can’t easily go see. But he’s back at it, reviewing the 1992 3-part OAV series Genesis Surviver Gaiarth.

Introduction (0:00 – 27:26)
After putting it off for ages, we now have a Discord server! Posting privileges are available to anybody who backs us on Patreon at any tier. We also talk about the shows we are currently watching, which in about a week or two is set to skyrocket. It’s only happened a few times, but the number one movie in America for a weekend was a Japanese animated one in Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero. Somehow, only Daryl saw that one. Since Gerald lives in a GKids town, he got to see Inu-Oh and Goodbye Don Glees and stuff instead. This brings up the question: what anime are appropriate to show in American middle school? It’s a tougher question than it appears, since while there’s plenty of anime made for and consumed by middle schoolers, few of them are to the content standards of the US educational system. If you have any suggestions, let’s hear ’em!

Promo: Right Stuf Anime (27:26 – 30:11)
Now that it’s been a month since the Crunchyroll buyout, we can safely say that–for now, anyway–there isn’t any seismic shift in the service Right Stuf presents. Prices still good, sales are still what we’re used to seeing. We’re told they don’t anticipate any changes to this, but in this day and age of buyouts and mergers, nobody can truly anticipate anything it seems. While there was a launch that then quickly un-launched due presumably to credit card payment processor headaches, it appears that the 18+ site BuyAnime is now up and running and looks pretty much exactly like how Right Stuf proper looks.

Review: Genesis Surviver Gaiarth (30:11 – 1:17:06)
In the wake of Daryl’s Thirty Years Ago: Anime in 1992 panel, Gerald reviews this 1992 3-part OAV series which was only ever legally released in the US on VHS. Yep, there was never a DVD release here (only in Japan), and it’s never been released in HD or streaming anywhere. Is that an egregious oversight, or is that because it’s not worth remembering? Regardless of where you stand on this matter, one thing remains clear: it’s from the bygone era where Shinji Aramaki wasn’t doing stuff on the computer! And yes, it’s spelled “Surviver” in the title and not the usual “Survivor” though you’ll often see it listed under the latter.

Look, see? That’s how they spelled it. Not “Survivor.”
The hero Ital definitely checks off all of the modern “himbo” criteria. Here he is casually running at the speed of a hoverbike. Any similarities to Gourry from Slayers are coincidental.
Here is the sign that it’s the good era Shinji Aramaki.
You see, because she’s a girl her armor has to be pink. Though this is a rare shot where the thighs aren’t exposed for maximum otaku appeal.

Anime World Order Show # 211 – Otakon 2022 Report With Dave no Kawaiikochans & Carl of Ogiue Maniax

We’re graced by a dangerous duo of mecha/mahjong enthusiasts this time around: Dave Cabrera (@Sasuraiger) and Carl (@SDShamshel) join us for a convention report of Otakon 2022 which was held in Washington D.C.

Intro (0:00 – 22:54)
Carl of the Ogiue Maniax blog and Dave of the Kawaiikochans webcomic and GamesoftRobo Substack introduce themselves. Both were panelists at Otakon 2022, and Carl was also Press like us; check out his interview with voice actor Mariya Ise.

We were initially going to jump directly into the con report, but wouldn’t you know it 24 hours prior to the recording it was revealed that Sony’s monopoly of the anime industry continues to grow, as Crunchyroll has acquired Right Stuf Anime. What does this acquisition mean for anime fandom in the US? We don’t know. Are we still going to be sponsored by Right Stuf now that they are under the Sony umbrella? That we also don’t know; note there’s no promo this time around since well, who do we even invoice now? For now, the only thing we DO know is that all merchandise previously classified as “erotica” has been de-listed, to now be sold on another site…which doesn’t yet exist. It’s possible that future episodes will be sponsored by Right Stuf once more, but now is probably a good time for us to start setting up that Discord and pushing some more Patreon incentives, huh?

Convention Report: Otakon 2022 (22:54 – 2:09:37)
The downside of going to conventions is that you don’t REALLY get to see people a lot, especially not in this COVID era (yes, contrary to what you see on TV, COVID is still very much a dangerous thing) which leaves us personally still gun shy about going to room parties and group dinners and what have you. If you see someone, it’s often in passing while they’re on the way to attending one thing and you’re on the way to attending another. On the bright side, it does enable us to expand our coverage of the convention, as Dave, Carl, and ourselves each went and saw a variety of things. There were, of course, multiple instances where all of us were present for the same event or guest, so all of us can weigh in on our thoughts.

There are also things we totally forgot to talk about at all which happened over the weekend, but that’s what the pictures are for:

The cost of the ride was as much as the meal, but where else can we get hand-pulled ramen noodles?
Gerald bought a slew of ultra-cheap tacky anime shirts. We were worried people might find them cool, but once we saw Justin Sevakis react to how garish they were, we knew we made the right call.
We got two such shirts for Mike Toole. Here he is in the Touch one. This image was selected for being the most unflattering of the set. Very important to catch him mid-blink.
Mike also got a Macross shirt, which he wore to the Bigwest panel since “we’ll all wear these shirts there!” We then did NOT wear such shirts. Confession now that it’s over: it wasn’t a prank, it was because we didn’t actually HAVE goofy Macross shirts of our own to wear. (At the time, we played it as though we had betrayed him.)
Move over, itasha dealer’s room occupants! The MODEL TRAIN OTAKU~! are on the scene. There were tons of fun little details in these dioramas as the trains made their loop around the track.
Among several other interesting historical artifacts, Carl Horn was carrying around this pristine copy of the August 1st, 1983 edition of Time Magazine. He may think his voice isn’t great for podcasting, but neither are ours! We recorded his Dark Horse panel for our own records, since it’s not just an industry panel but a historical retrospective of US manga fandom. He was there for it!
Here’s a new thing: gachapon dispensers in the dealer’s room! We were already surprised to see Bandai-Namco rolling these out in our local shopping malls, but they’re not going to have City Hunter: Shinjuku Private Eyes merch like Otakon did. Gerald got Saori and Umibozu; Daryl got Kaori and Ryo/Kaori.