Anime World Order Show # 183 – On The Darkest Day We Summon the Dark Lord

For our last show of the year, we interview Right Stuf co-founder Shawne Kleckner and tick off another year of the 2010s Decade in Review. That’s our way of saying this show is over three hours long. What better way to celebrate the winter solstice?

Introduction (0:00 – 27:30)
We are now listed on Spotify, so you may want to download every single episode of the podcast in the event that our hosting gets canceled for some copyright violation strike since uh, none of us actually have the episodes downloaded. The Explicit tag generally means we don’t talk too much about anime titles for very young children, so when we’re put on the spot to recommend suitable titles that are both in print and have an English dub option available that isn’t terrible, we find ourselves in a minor bind. If you have any noteworthy suggestions, let’s hear them in the comments!

Promo: Right Stuf Anime (27:30 – 30:17)
The Holiday sale continues on, so be sure to check out the new Mega Deals each day. Plus, Right Stuf is now starting to sell vinyl record anime soundtracks, for those of you willing to risk being eaten by the monster in Patlabor WXIII. Pre-orders are 25% off, and so we feel obligated to mention that, just in time for our Decade in Review segment, the complete box set for Kill la Kill is being reissued. It’s still pretty expensive, though not as much as it was when the series was being released.

Interview: Shawne Kleckner (30:17 – 1:24:24)
This is TECHNICALLY not part of the Right Stuf promo above, but if you want to accuse us of doing an informercial you are welcome to do so. Still, as co-founder of Right Stuf Anime from during a time before anime was commercially sold in the US, Shawne regales us with tales of film reel trading, snail mail letter writing, long distance phone calls, and other exciting analog innovations in the quest to get anime in days before home computers even had modems at all. There’s also a fair bit of talk about how the anime industry and licensing process works now, in 2019.

The Decade in Review: 2013 (1:24:24 – 3:11:34)
Daryl was a guest on the longest episode of ANNCast to date, in which the Top 10 Anime of the 2010s was discussed. As you might surmise, we’ve been bringing up on average about 30 shows of note for each year. That means there are something like 300 really great shows of the decade, so to pick just 10 means you’re guaranteed to omit something like 90%-95% of absolutely viable candidates. Therefore, don’t consider any of those lists ironclad. Still, it took over four hours for everyone to talk about their ten picks, so in our estimates the fact that we take two hours to cover more than that many per year means we’re being TIME EFFICIENT~! as we start to see the emergence of 57th Prime Minister of Japan Shinzo Abe‘s plans to solve the declining birthright through the power of soft culture.

Anime World Order Show # 182 – Turkey and Trivia Causes More CTE Than the NFL

It’s the moment Gerald has been waiting for all year: the annual pre-Thanksgiving trivia episode! This time our guest is Zac Bertschy from Anime News Network, a site which you have probably heard of.

Round 1 (0:00 – 54:50)
Listen. There is no valid reason for us to timecode the beginning and end of each round in a trivia show where none of the contestants bothers to remember to keep score (and the host is similarly inclined). But we’re doing it anyway, just in case.

Promo: Right Stuf Anime (54:50 -58:03)
Thanksgiving means it’s Black Friday, which now lasts an entire week rather than just a Friday. This is then followed by Cyber Monday, which also now lasts an entire week rather than just a Monday. That in turn is then followed by a month-long Holiday sale. What we’re saying here is that you’d better check the site each day throughout all of that to see what the Mega Deal is. Because they’re pretty darned good deals.

Round 2 (58:03 – 1:44:40)
This was the round most prone to audio mishaps on our end, but thanks to the magic of post-production you the listener will not be subject to 95% of it. That is Daryl’s official justification for every question he failed to answer correctly, even when it was something he owns and likes. Any allegations that Daryl has never actually watched these anime he purports to enjoy are to be dismissed as enemy propaganda.

Round 3 (1:44:40 – 2:25:42)
We thought about including old fighting game announcer quotes under each of these “Round X” announcements but we realized that doing so would mean we’d have to leave out some major developer of note. I suppose Arc System Works has the reputation for the most ornate pre-round introductions, and the years have softened our souls to the goofiness level of the later Capcom fighting game announcers. GO FOR IT, MAN!