Posts

Posted on

Bonus – Clarissa Explains It [F]all

Podcast: Download (Duration: 1:28:10 — 40.4MB)

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | RSS

By popular demand, here’s what we–and by we I mean Clarissa–think of the Fall 2006 anime lineup. What we watched of it, anyway. Death Note and D. Gray-Man were covered in Show # 39.

Introduction (0:00 – 29:29)
This episode proves why all audio editing should be done while wearing headphones. In trying out the new equipment, the resulting recording varied wildly in audio levels. Much of the audio had to be amplified a lot, which introduced a lot of static. We tried using the Noise Removal feature of Audacity at a very low setting, and while it sounds okay on speakers, on headphones you can hear this near-constant distortion/static in the background. Oh well, I suppose it’s steps that must be taken to learn how non-headset microphones, preamps, and all that jazz actually work.

Be that as it may, we read some more emails. Miraculously, someone went and read Phoenix per our recommendations! Perhaps it would be more than that if only people could actually FIND places selling it, since even online stores like Amazon don’t tend to have it. We then talk about the state of horror in anime, or rather the lack thereof. Dear Japan: vampires do not a horror anime make. We also give our thoughts on Hellsing as well as Lone Wolf & Cub. Plus, Michael Wishlow sent all of us a bunch of crazy untranslated things on DVD. Gerald reveals that the only thing in this world that causes him fear is the thought of nonhuman entities aboard spaceships, and in anime’s defense, it’s at least got a good bit of that. No wonder Michael gave him the copy of Roots Search.

Oh, one more thing. The Full Metal Panic: The Second Raid Vol 1 contest giveaway has concluded. We did the drawing on 11/16, so the winners will probably receive their prizes long before Show # 40 actually gets edited and uploaded.

Let’s News! (29:29 – 43:16)
The RahXephon thinpack set which ADV released actually has all the extras intact on it, Satoshi Kon’s new movie Paprika might be eligible for an Academy Award, Media Blasters isn’t licensing the second season of Ah My Goddess, Gerald’s hero Tomonobu Itagaki (whom Daryl refers to as “the Japanese Joey Snackpants” or “JapaNabbe” because of those shades he wears) is getting sued for sexual harassment, and DeepDiscountDVD had their 20% off sale this week. And to think, this time ADV didn’t remove all their titles from the sale! They only do two sales a year, so the next one’s in April.

This is the image Gerald was talking about when ADV has their sale, be sure to look carefully at the price they cross out and the price you buy it for (you’ll probably need to click on the image since it’s a bit small):

Promo: Chibi-Tokyo (43:16 – 43:52)
Ed and Dan went to PMX, which is officially the BEST CONVENTION EVER because it had an arcade Punchmania 2 cabinet. Let it be known that Daryl will pay the money to own such a machine in his home. He has tried contacting various arcade distributors, but since it’s a Japan-only game, the websites that stock it don’t tend to have sites that are in English. No point in getting the “Fighting Mania” game (English language release of the original Punchmania) because Punchmania 2 includes all the levels from that and then some.

Fall 2006 Preview
The rest of Clarissa’s initial impressions of the Fall 2006 season, as continued from last week.

Code GEASS (43:52 – 47:08)
Super Robot Wars Original Generation (47:08 – 50:29)
Bartender (50:29 – 54:51)
Red Garden (54:51 – 56:27)
Pumpkin Scissors (56:27 – 1:03:45)
Souten no Ken/Fist of the Blue Sky (1:03:45 – 1:09:38)

Promo: Greatest Movie EVER! Podcast (1:09:38 – 1:10:23)
Dear Gooberzilla: The Chronicles of Riddick and Ryuhei Kitamura are totally awesome. Accept this. The Dolph Lundgren Punisher, Tank Girl, Underworld: Evolution, and Stealth are not awesome. Something’s going to have to be done to straighten you out, STAT.

Sumomo Momomomo (1:10:23 – 1:13:45)
–> Kanon (1:13:45 – 1:20:38) <–
Black Blood Brothers…and more Kanon (1:20:38 – 1:22:05)
The Gargoyles of the Yoshinagas…and more Kanon (1:22:05 – 1:24:00)

Closing (1:24:00 – 1:28:10)
We wrap things up by mentioning a few of the shows we didn’t get around to watching. Daryl will tell you why the watermelon is there later.

Posted on

Anime World Order Show # 39 – Death Note, D. Gray Man, AWA, and That Show Nobody Else Watched

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

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | RSS

There are officially too many good videogames coming out right now, but we resist the urge to slack off just barely. Daryl talks about The Twelve Kingdoms, Clarissa gives us her thoughts on the first few episodes of both Death Note and D. Gray-Man, and we somehow manage to talk about our experiences at Anime Weekend Atlanta 2006 in 30 minutes instead of 2 hours.

We were going to write in the rest of the show notes, but these videogames aren’t going to play themselves, okay?! Well, the ones that aren’t Final Fantasy 12, anyway.

Introduction (0:00 – 23:28)
We’ve got three copies of Full Metal Panic: The Second Raid Volume 1 to give away, courtesy of Funimation. It’s simple: just email us your name and address (and while you’re at it, include some feedback about the podcast!) and then we’ll choose the winners at random from the entries we receive by the 16th or so. Actually, the 16th is Thanksgiving, isn’t it. Eh, whatever; we’re otaku who live in isolation. To us, Thanksgiving is just another day! If we were smart, we’d choose the winners randomly from the people who’ve added us as favorites on Podcast Pickle, but we’re not. Oh yeah, and we answer your emails: somehow, discussion on Rumiko Takahashi turns into discussion on Akira Toriyama. No wonder Keith Allison sent us this:

Let’s News! (23:28 – 31:49)
We talk about Vertical’s licensing of the manga Terra E or Toward the Terra by Keiko Takemiya the writer of some shonen ai stuff, HOWEVER Terra E is NOT shonen ai. Gerald is furious with the movie because his VHS tape of it died five minutes before the end forever depriving him of knowing the outcome. Production IG is also continuing the 70’s robot show Raideen which was remade previously in ’96. Also, Japanese companies are not being paid on their licenses, perhaps because they’re insane on their licensing costs.

Promo: R5 Central (31:49 – 33:14)
Mike’s just a little despondent over the news that the Wachowskis are going to be the ones making the upcoming live-action Speed Racer movie. The GAIM promo was originally what was in this space, but then everything got thrown into disarray when we heard that Rym and Scott pronounce it “Gee Aim.”

Review: The Twelve Kingdoms (33:14 – 53:49)
Daryl summarizes it this way: it’s like Fushigi Yuugi. Only it doesn’t suck. This was another excellent newer show that was pretty much ignored by the vast majority of anime fans, which is a crying shame because it’s awesome. If you’re into epic fantasy tales of political intrigue, this is the show for you.

See this map? MEMORIZE IT. There will be a test later.
Long straight red hair is second only in superiority to long straight black hair. Someday all the “redheads” of the world will have red hair like Jennifer Garner’s in the first episode of Alias.
This is why The Twelve Kingdoms succeeds where Fushigi Yuugi and all the rest fail. NO CRAPPY ROMANCE STORY.
  • Anime News Network’s entry for The Twelve Kingdoms – come on otaku, Aya Hisakawa is the voice of the main character! And it’s got Takehito Koyasu playing the role he always plays! In fact, there’s a lot of famous seiyuu in this, so you Hitoshi Doi types HAVE to watch it now!
  • Twelve Kingdoms Encyclopedia of Terms – both in English and Japanese; the index page is a 404 so I’m just linking to the “K” page because there’s a lot of entries there and it inspires dread
  • Incomplete fan translations of the novel which picked up where the anime ended: The Shore in Twilight, The Sky in Daybreak Vol 1, Vol 2 – too bad the translation was never completed

Early Impressions: Death Note and D. Gray-Man (53:49 – 1:04:11)
By listener request, Clarissa’s gone ahead and checked out some of the new shows currently airing in Japan so we can talk about something new for once. Here’s what she thinks so far about these two anime adaptations of popular Shonen Jump series.

This is Allen Walker. Observe, you can tell it’s the Victorian era by his stylish Black Jack ensemble.
This is Allen’s parasite-type anti-Akuma weapon, aka his left arm.
What is akuma? (Lady don’t hurt me.)
Okay, this is an akuma. I was going to pull a screencap, but none of them give a full view on one screen without being too tiny and dark to make out.
The Earl of the Millenium and his easy Akuma model kit! It only looks innocent until the soul of your loved one gets trapped in it and it kills you, then wears you like a flesh suit.
And because I like them and I felt like it, here’s Allen and a couple other Exorcists in their semi-gothy uniforms.

Promo: Eeeper’s Choice (1:04:11 – 1:05:03)
Eeeper bought each of us copies of the Region 2 DVD of Only Yesterday just because we complained on an earlier episode that Turner Classic Movies aired it but there’s still no R1 DVD. We figure the least we can do to pay him back is play his promo.

Con Report: Anime Weekend Atlanta 2006 (1:05:03 – 1:33:58)
Nobody else in the Orlando area who goes to AWA seems to enjoy it at all except for us. This is mysterious and terrifying. Anyway, AWA was Daryl’s first convention, and it’s still his favorite. Listen on and discover why!

Promo: Otaku Generation (1:33:58 – 1:34:24)
OG’s got the right idea. Take goofy excerpts from your podcast and make THOSE your promos, that way you can have TONS of them. We should rip that idea off from them just like how we rip everything else off from them! Only we’ll claim we ripped off Dave and Joel instead. BRILLIANT!

Closing (1:34:24 – 1:39:38)
This segment STINGS, and that’s a shoot! Next week, we’re actually probably just going to put up the rest of Clarissa’s take on the Fall 2006 season, but the week after THAT is when we’ll stick to what we said here. Gerald is going to live up to William Bradford’s expectations by reviewing “obscure bootleg anime from the 80s” since he’ll be talking about Future Police Urashiman. Daryl’s going to review obscure non-bootleg anime from the 80s since he’s going to talk about a movie he likes that everyone else hates (other than crazy old men who refuse to get broadband), The Dagger of Kamui. Finally, now that Daryl caved in on reviewing Fist of the North Star, Clarissa’s caving and reviewing Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure! Just Part 1 for now, otherwise it’d take up the entire show.

You know who’d make a good Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure/Fist of the North Star character? That’s right: Carl Horn!


The flattened-out pointed hand is the most vital element to mastery of both Hokuto Shinken and Stands alike.