Anime World Order Show # 171 – Idiots! Watch the Damn Matrix! But Stop Before NUMBER TWO!

To kick off our 13th year of anime podcasting, we talk a bit about yuri manga before Clarissa reviews the largely overlooked and recently concluded spinoff to Kaiji: Ultimate Survivor, 2018’s Mr. Tonegawa: Middle Management Blues.

Introduction (0:00 – 33:49)
Now that we’re 13, we can say all sorts of dumb things with absolute certainty as if we know what we’re talking about…you know, like how we’ve always done! After briefly touching upon some noteworthy titles of 2018–don’t worry, come the end of this year it’ll be time for yet ANOTHER decade in review!–we dive into the emails and touch upon some issues a listener has with yuri manga. This is a really extensive topic, so if you’re interested, by all means be sure to read and listen to Erica Friedman over at Okazu, since this is her topic of expertise.

Promo: Right Stuf Anime (28:12 – 31:00)
With the new season upon us and several of the most anticipated series being sequels to previously popular shows, now’s a perfect time to collect physical editions of those shows. Right Stuf has you covered, since there’s currently a sale on anime titles like My Hero Academia, Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure, Mob Psycho 100, Boogiepop Phantom, and more. Now that Daryl has his G Gundam Ultra Edition box set, the next on the to-get preorder list for him are the Galaxy Express 999 movie Blu-Rays which come out next month.

Review: Mr Tonegawa Middle Management Blues (33:49 – 1:17:04)
We so do not want to face the fact that the episode we talked about GAMBLING APOCALYPSE KAIJI, THE SUFFERING PARIAH, THE ULTIMATE SURVIVOR was nearly eleven years ago. Since then, the works of author Nobuyuki Fukumoto have developed enough of a following that legal releases of his works in America are becoming more frequent, be they Netflix, Crunchyroll, or Denpa Books who is set to release the manga starting in late April. But this series is not a tense, nail biting saga with life or death on the line. It’s an office comedy featuring the villains of that series tasked with coming up with said life or death scenarios…as well as learning how to effectively Tweet, trying to impress one’s boss as he insists that you simply MUST watch Armageddon with him, and learning the finer details of Wentworth Miller dramas. Prior knowledge of Kaiji is not a must, but now that all of Kaiji is up on Crunchyroll, you really should watch that dang thing if you haven’t.

Anime World Order Show # 170 – Here Come De Judge! Here Come De Judge!

In what is likely but hopefully not our last episode of the year, thus silently celebrating another podcasting anniversary (12 years!), we partially fulfill the donation goal requests by reviewing the 1991 one-shot OAV that is Judge aka Judge: The Magistrate of Darkness.

Introduction (0:00 – 33:17)

After reading an email espousing the wonders of Angel Cop and the Blockbuster Video “Japanimation” section, we pay our respects to the recently departed Fred Patten, a key founder of anime (and yes, furry) fandom in America whose book Watching Anime, Reading Manga: 25 Years of Essays and Reviews is still readily available both in print as well as digitally. That link is for Kindle but you can also get it on Nook in the event people still use that. Be sure to also read the archives of his Cartoon Research column, which was about all kinds of animation rather than just anime, while you’re at it. Fred died on the same day as Stan Lee, but the world doesn’t need much help remembering Stan and what he did. One of the best write-ups on Fred’s passing was from Jonathan Clements, since he often tends to be a guy doing the best write-ups on things in general.

Promo: Right Stuf Anime (10:12 – 12:39)

The holiday sale is still going strong, and Clarissa already has spent over $500 and change on various otaku-related insanity. That G Gundam Ultra Edition Blu-Ray set starts shipping in mere days, so get your preorders in now and save $100+ from the regular price!

Review: Judge, Magistrate of Darkness (33:17 – 1:22:17)

You asked for it! Or well, one of you asked for it, and that’s good enough for us! This one-shot OAV from 1991 has been posted to Youtube in its entirety, both in the English dub and Japanese subtitled versions, because not even the Japanese care enough to issue a copyright strike on this long out-of-print curiosity, for which we can only scratch our heads over. A great silent pact among all anime fans is being broken by our doing this review, and we can only hope that by mispronouncing it “ne-GHEE-SHEE” instead of saying it properly that the psychic barrier wardings will remain intact.

Closing (1:22:17 – 1:30:19)

We talk a bit about non-anime media stuff and contemplate whether it’s possible to do another episode before the end of the year. Ideally, it’d be something holiday themed but most of the holiday-themed anime are individual episodes of a series rather than standalone titles. Also, can I just say how much I hate this new WordPress 5.0? This episode date is now one day off from the date of the post and the podcast filename because of how dumb everything is, and you can’t revert the UI / functionality.