This week myself and Aaron from the Weekly Anime Review take a look at Super Dimension Century Orguss, a classic series from the 1980’s. You know “the before time”. Anywho, a hiccup has meant that the two volumes I own and the one volume Aaron owns, are the only ones we can have at the moment. Imaginasian and TMS are working to start printing more DVD’s soon but it’s not looking good folks.
This show is the twin to my appearance on the WARP anime podcast hosted by Aaron. Check out it here. Aaron released his show AGES ago before he even went on holiday! Oh, well.
This week I have Gerald from Anime World Order join me to review Fight! Iczer 1 an anime from 1985. With angsty naked schoolgirls, high eyeliner, lesbians, giant robots, the best damn Earth Defense Force EVER and Kaneto Shiozawa as a naked, evil, blonde-haired alien child(!?!) this title has anything and everything. Check out this tribute YouTube video(thanks to Regan for the link):
Hello all, we have finally returned! To all who were worried, it’s all right now. To those who weren’t, you shall feel my hyper beam dammit! On this weeks show we talk Ninjas and their consultants and the fact that they are getting engaged to one another.
Reviews
For the review this week I’m taking on Kenichi Sonoda’s hyper violent manga Gunsmith Cats. Nasty, quick and dangerous to know this title has what I describe as an unhealthy disrespect for life in general. That and 17 year olds passing for 13 year olds, their pedo explosive expert boyfriends(!?!), something I call the “Phantom Dick” and of course this man. Of course I’d never suggest that you watch copyrighted material with other companies music put in with it. No way, not at all.
On this weeks show we review Negima by Ken Akumatsu of Love Hina fame. I really think that Oni’s grasp has exceeded his reach on this one but make up your own misinformed opinion. Having said that, my OWN review of Denno Coil sounds less researched then his so he probably wins out in this one. We also start what I hope is a semi-regular column with Kendra supplying said content.
The news is always old on our show. Always. But nevertheless here’s what we covered this week:
Geneon is officially out of making and selling anime. Here’s the original article from ANN concerning Geneon’s announcement. Say what you will, but maybe there’s weight to the argument that the current business model for selling anime in North America is seriously f*&ked up. Geneon was one of the biggest producers in the US, so for them to go under is bad news. For more informed discussion check out here.
Mysterious Cities Of Gold is coming to DVD. After giving up on the English right ever being sorted out Fabulous Films UK comes to the rescue. Maybe they might include the Japanese opening. Though I doubt anyone is looking forward to the sequel commissioned by a French crowd. Check out this translated version of a French fansite. From what I can tell, there are two projects ongoing. One, the “official” sequel simple titled MCOG2, headed up by French producer Jean Chalopin, the original producer of the first series, will continue the story with Estaban, Zia and Tao. It looks exactly like the original show. They are, apparently, are waiting to find a studio in Japan to do the animation. In the second instance “The Adventures Of Esteban & Zia”, from the video on this fansite for the French DVD release, I’d rather claw my own eyes out with barbecue skewers than watch this again. But if you’re a glutton for punishment, then go ahead . Me, I’ll leave you with a youtube video of better times:
Finally, Toshiba And Fixstars are offering a user translated manga service, MangaNovel, where users pay about $4-5 for a digital copy of a tankobon to keep for yourself. If you feel like translating an tankobon that hasn’t been claimed by anyone else, then you get royalties from any subsequent sales! Don’t know any more than you do, so check it out and let me know.
Reviews
Negima
Ken Akumatsu’s Harry Potter style harem manga, I’ve only got so much time for him and that only includes the copies of Love Hina that I own. But Oni says that it’s a pretty good story, decent characters(if you can keep track of 40+ characters) and great artwork. Just don’t expect Shakespeare.
Denno Coil
Mitsuo Iso’s brilliant little show that no-one in anime licensing is talking about has me thinking. I read about this show when NHK were putting out promotional material out for it back in April. This is a show that looks like one thing but that I suspect will turn out to be something else. Given Iso’s work on RaXephon and Evangelion, that’s hardly surprising. I’m just glad that he decided to do something other than an imitation of said same series.
Email
We get our third EVER listener email. Thanks to Richard for that. We cover all aspects of the email and I hope that we did our best to answer and didn’t go over time to do it.
Games and Wrap Up
Kendra from her wordpress blog, gives us some food for thought in the form of Dead Space. I hope Kendra will appear more as our first freelance contributor but we’ll have to see.
Next time Oni will be taking the God Of Manga, Ozamu Tezuka! This will be the greatest cage match ever. Oni, with his shoulder mounted merculite rockets and Nullifying field or Tezuka with his 100,000+ printing press launcher and nitro powered beret slingshot! Read your Astro Boy quick, FOR TONIGHT WE DINE IN HELL!
I will tackle Kenichi Sonoda’s out and out insane, gun porn, semi auto graphical manga, Gunsmith Cats. If you never knew anything about guns before, reading this will be information overload.
EDIT: Also I will be tackling Masami Yuuki’s sentai/robot/idol parody Assemble Insert
Finally, Oni and myself will regale you all with our first collectively enjoyed Retro Choice:
We are now back on Podcast Pickle again! Add us to your favourites on PP and other podcast catching software. Fare thee well, my friends! The spaceways beckon!
Welcome to our new site! Take a look around. Do you like what you see? Let us know.
This week I review Town of Evening Calm, Country of Cherry Blossoms, Oni pops up to help with our second ever email and also where and how to find anime. I glance over the new licenses announced at Anime Expo and Otakon.
This title was one of the most compiling mangas that I’ve read this year. With simple artwork and great characters, this story will open your eyes to the true victims of war, that people continue to suffer even after wars are won or lost and that the human spirit is remarkably resilient. Fumiyo Kouno presents this amzing story so I’d ask that you at least see if your local library can order this in.
Here we talk about Chip who sent us in an email asking us where our favourite haunts for manga in Dublin are. SubCity is one good place. Forbidden Planet is another. We also explain why Easons sucks royally
We also talk about BitTorrent, AnimeSuki.com(I sure as hell not linking to it, google it your own damn self) and online websites such as Rightstuf, Anime Corner Store, and Amazon.com and why ordinary shops and stores like Tower are only good for sales and not much else. Here I illustrate the price differences between Ireland and the States:
Finally here are the links to Tales From Earthsea at Yesasia.com: Hong Kong Version and Japanese version. Remember the Hong Kong Versions has the competition for the statue but the Japanese version has the English dub that I talked about.
Next time: Oni finally will talk about Negima?! and I’ll be looking at Secret of Cerulean Sand. We’ll talk about that the licenses announced this year mean for us.
Plus: next time we’ll be starting an experiment into what does the average 12 year old think about anime? Be here or be a Cosmic String Fragment
