anime

[BobbyBesar]

Well, there's also the question of finding enough anime that even warrant a podcast. 

 

I think your best bet would be to do something like the Twin Peaks rewatch: a series-specific re-watch for a seminal series, but aimed at a new audience. Even then, you'd probably want to do 2 episodes per week, and even then I think you'd have trouble filling more than 30 mins for most shows. Anime are built as fundamentally serialised television, often very little changes or gets resolved from week to week. It's probably possible to find one, but you'd need to be smart about the series you selected.

 

From the era of anime when I really last watched, Trigun and Cowboy Bebop would be my first 2 choices, but I don't know them well enough to recall if they could actually support discussion.

 

There isn't much of it, but I might listen to an FLCL re-watch with the right people.

 

Really, you're probably better off treating it as an anime movie podcast and targeting either films or <6 episode OAVs.

[N1njaSquirrel]

Ugh I could talk about flcl for ages. It's my favorite anime. I think the best idea for a podcast is a quarterly review of the new anime season, after a couple of episodes odd everything is out.

[BobbyBesar]

FLCL is great. Its music is pretty much the best thing ever (Yay, Pillows). We could talk about it if you want, although I haven't seen it in years.

 

I'd re-watch Kacho Oji (Legend of Black Heaven), but I'd need to buy it because I only own it on honest to god VHS TAPES THAT I PURCHASED BECAUSE I AM OLD! They came with cool little foil postcards that I presumably still have somewhere.
 

Yeah, I haven' really actively watched anime in ages, aside from a couple things my friends have forced on me and Ghibli's output.

 

Also, Paprika. Paprika is pretty cool.

[Gormongous]

Ugh I could talk about flcl for ages. It's my favorite anime.

I'd dig a GAINAX podcast in general, looking at the good and the bad, not necessarily even in chronological order.

 

Also, here's the blog link. My friends and I had conceived of it this past July and August as a series of highly personal retrospectives on anime, television, and movies, but so far I'm the only person to contribute much and it mostly puts my creative exhaustion from dissertating on display. I'm proud of the light research I did for the origin of an Evangelion fan myth and this latest one on the death of the fansub, but otherwise it's not something worth bookmarking yet. I don't mean to imply that it is in the company of the few "critical" blogs I mentioned, since I can only really dream of getting to the high level of discourse that KarmaBurn and Ogiue Maniax sustain.

 

It does have a Daily Lives of High School Boys post, though.

[Gormongous]

After joking about Upotte!! to Blambo, I went and watched it myself. Girls und Panzer it's not, by a long shot, but it's still a show filled with a surprising amount of loving detail about modern firearms. It's really more of a shame that it presents itself as a fairly explicit ecchi harem around a human teacher newly transferred to a school where all the students are anthropomorphized guns, but it actually moves past that rather quickly and becomes pure gunji-ota fanservice. I don't know, I'm not recommending it unless somewhat sexualized jokes about the L85A1's many design and production flaws are going to make you laugh, but it was good enough for me to put in my Amazon basket for this Christmas... or next, I don't know.

 

Also, researching the features on the Sentai's edition of the Blu-ray, I came across a pretty histrionic review by someone who doesn't get moe, doesn't get military otaku, doesn't know what shounen means, and throws in a paragraph about school shootings, too. Not that outsider perspectives aren't interesting, but it sounds like this one just isn't for you, dude. For instance, "Genkoku" isn't the human teacher's name, it's his title because he teaches modern Japanese literature. The show's as explicit about that as it is about responsible handling of firearms by people who aren't their personifications. At the root of it all, I'll never get tired of how particular America is about its media violence, to the point of hypocrisy. The flagrant military porn of the Transformers movies and the Call of Duty games gets by mostly without comment, but when Japan makes an anime that pays too much attention to the technical characteristics of firearms, regardless of how bluntly person-on-person violence (and the military-industrial complex that profits from it) is condemned, then suddenly it's almost too "disturbing" to watch. No learning about guns, just keep them in the back of your mind as magic wands that turn men into heroes, okay?

[ruthkeith]

The problem with anime series is that tons of new ones are released every quarter and 95% of them is usually pure and utterly crap. But there are also really great, great piece of work... Mushi-shi - a drama based on folklore tales and myhtologie- is my current favourite.

 I am following Noblesse (a manga, not an anime, sorry) for past 4 years and it is really awesome! On a different note, I do like how theyr use their own traditions in the series. Have you watched Rurouni Kenshin? Such historical depiction is simply marvelous!

[Bolegium]

Speaking about podcasts, I really like this (one-off?) about Satoshi Kon's work: http://www.slantmagazine.com/house/article/quothes-the-internetquot-a-conversation-on-satoshi-kon

 

It's from 2008 and the background noise makes it difficult to hear the conversation at points, but they do provide a transcript and I really really like the discussion. Just taking advantage of any excuse to link this.

[Blambo]

Watching the high school boys nichijou. I'm experiencing an astounding amount of conflicted feelings over hating the predictability of the jokes and the quality of the animation and liking the timing and acting a bunch. It feels like it just narrowly crosses the threshold and I'm watching the rest because of insane Stockholm syndrome.

But haha holy shit the literary girl segments. I also like how the girls in this are depicted either as horrible forces of nature or sadists.

I don't like that the show is interspersed with horrible 2000s era manufactured punk rock.

[syntheticgerbil]

So after typing in "Kill la Kill" on Amazon to see if any blu-ray has been released and seeing a gratuitous body pillow as one of my first hits, I might be done with Hiroyuki Imaishi. I then remembered the incest rape stuff in the show and then looked it up again and yeah, it's pretty much more gross and gratuitous than I remember plus there's other scenes I guess? I just don't think I can sit through this show without feeling annoyed or embarrassed. If my wife were in the room, I wouldn't even be able to justify it. I like the guy based on his amazing skill as an animator and how much I like Dead Leaves and Panty and Stocking. Gurren Lagann was pretty much bland shit that I begrudgingly watched. All I remember from the show now was a bunch of stupid dialogue, music, boring robot fights, boring robot designs, and Yoko's tits flopping everywhere with ass shots galore. Kill la Kill is just even worse. Imaishi just kind of seems like a sweaty perv shut in who has questionable integrity to me now.

 

It really sucks because I have like, no joke, 40 various artbooks with stuff from Gurren Lagann (god mostly Gurren Lagann), Dead Leaves, Panty and Stocking, and a bunch of self published issues of his frame by frame pencil works. Thinking about it, since 2007, I may have blown over $1,500 on all of these art books and DVDs on this shit, because stuff from Japan is expensive, especially books and I have no fucking clue why his personal work and shows have so much shit released. Some I'm glad to own, some I'm not so glad. I don't have the disposable income for this stuff anymore unless I'm really behind it. I just have this stressful need to collect everything by someone I'm a major fan of. Maybe I can start selling this stuff and hopefully recover all of the money I spent, but on eBay you only sell to a U.S. market which means the stuff is worth way less. Japanese people generally do not browse eBay as they very much prefer Yahoo Auctions. And oh my fucking god, packing and shipping all of these books would be so much work.

 

Bleh, a part of me says I should probably wait until his next animation project to see if he can be redeemed, so maybe I will wait, but I get the feeling it'll just be shit to give teen boys boners all over again. I don't know. What a bummer.

 

Like, stuff like Kill la Kill was why I hated what "anime" embodied in the first place and why I would make troll posts on various forums I was at with the tread title "anime is shit," and argue for hours why all of it was shit. What ultimately started changing my mind was downloading Mind Game in 2004. I don't even remember how I stumbled on it. It was just amazing to me, a piece defying all genres and was just so unique. Cowboy Bebop sort of softened me up when I finally started paying attention to that, then I gave Samurai Champloo a chance and absolutely loved it. I finally watched the famous Akira and saw that it was way way way more than just gore and stylish motorcycle fights. Then I started consuming many of the 80s and 90s anthology films and seeing all of this experimental animation coming from Japan. As my mind became more open I started giving more usual lurid and typical stuff a chance. I still have not really bothered by Ghibli stuff, it's so uninteresting to me. Maybe my mind became too open, because I'm sort of full circle now and finding myself usually disgusted with Japanese cartoons unless it's from one of the directors I really like. Friends I've made that are big fans of Japanese animation try to recommend me stuff and it just usually ends up kind of gross and sort of pedo, usual boring action stuff, or just bland. It's like I rattle off what I do like and people think in turn I'd love Jojo or Highschool of the Dead because they are "actually really good." Gah, I usually just end up finding the good shit all by myself.

 

I don't even know what to say anymore, I think writing all of this rambling I might really be done with the guy. Maybe I'll start hocking all of this shit on eBay during Christmas break or the new year. Maybe he will have a new thing announced soon that is good and get me excited and I'll change my mind. Imaishi had better hurry then. Depressing.

[namman siggins]

Speaking about podcasts, I really like this (one-off?) about Satoshi Kon's work: http://www.slantmagazine.com/house/article/quothes-the-internetquot-a-conversation-on-satoshi-kon

 

It's from 2008 and the background noise makes it difficult to hear the conversation at points, but they do provide a transcript and I really really like the discussion. Just taking advantage of any excuse to link this.

You may like this:

talks about Satoshi Kon's editing style.

[syntheticgerbil]

I had never seen Ohayo. Neat!

[Bolegium]

Yeah i fucking love that channel, and anything Kon related, and match cuts, and 'jumping into a t-shirt moving towards camera cuts'.

Mind Game is the best too.

[SecretAsianMan]

Just finished watching Summer Wars with Teg.  Pretty great.  I remember liking the Digimon movie and Summer Wars is basically an expanded remake of the best part of the Digimon movie.  Also I love how the key to winning was a card game, a fighting game, and math.

[Reyturner]

Fast Karate for the Gentleman is the finest in anime podcasts BTW.

[Twig]

Mmm I'll give it a shot, but based on the fact that they talk about "cartoons and videogames", I'm not all that optimistic. I'm looking for something that really digs into Japanese culture, but in a, I dunno, respectful way, instead of a "oh man ain't anime cool guys", if that makes sense.

 

Also note the lack of a space. These guys are not legit!

[Reyturner]

If that's what you want... You know what skip it

[namman siggins]

Just finished watching Summer Wars with Teg.  Pretty great.  I remember liking the Digimon movie and Summer Wars is basically an expanded remake of the best part of the Digimon movie.  Also I love how the key to winning was a card game, a fighting game, and math.

Bold: it also helped that Mamoru Hosoda directed the first two Digimon Adventure movies.

 

My favorite part of that movie is when Natsuki Shinohara's avatar get's a rare item from one of the admins (I think) and one of the family members gets crazy happy about it, but then replies, "I have no idea what that means." I think that scene perfectly captures my complex relationship with MMOs and my parents and whenever my parents want to know how to play them. 

[Twig]

If that's what you want... You know what skip it

lol too late i've already downloaded an episode

 

It's not that I'm against goofy shit, so maybe I'll still like it. I'd just more like an... Idle Thumbs for anime.

 

...

 

Anyway, other stuff. Parasyte continues to be fantastic and it's my top recco for this season, with the caveat that I haven't been keeping up with Mushishi. WHOA two episodes were released today wow awesome gonna watch the second now!

 

I also started Amagi Brilliant Park and I'm enjoying it quite a bit so far, but I hesitate to say there's anything Special about it. It's just good.

 

I also started The Seven Deadly Sins. The pretty princess in distress is predictably both boring and annoying but I like seeing the manga all animated 'n' shit 'cause it's decently fun.

 

And I may have downloaded Rage of Bahamut... So I'll be watching that soon.

 

...

 

Yeah I totes just dropped recco and acted like it ain't even a thang. Please.

[namman siggins]

Well, would anyone be up for starting a podcast?

[Gormongous]

Well, would anyone be up for starting a podcast?

 

I would be, but I would probably ruin it. Maybe that's the depression talking. I feel like I have a lot of breadth when it comes to anime, but very little depth outside of a few "greats" like Utena and Twig's hated Evangelion, so I worry that I won't have much to contribute. I'm working on being able to recognize studios by art and actors by voice, though, so I wouldn't be adverse to crashing and burning with a few good people.

[namman siggins]

I would be, but I would probably ruin it. Maybe that's the depression talking. I feel like I have a lot of breadth when it comes to anime, but very little depth outside of a few "greats" like Utena and Twig's hated Evangelion, so I worry that I won't have much to contribute. I'm working on being able to recognize studios by art and actors by voice, though, so I wouldn't be adverse to crashing and burning with a few good people.

I'm somewhat in the same boat as you.

I think starting a podcast would hopefully move my lazy butt to having more depth that's comparable to my breadth.

[Twig]

I would really enjoy doing a podcast, but I've done the VOIP thing before and it's... less than stellar. You can never tell when you're going to interrupt someone else. Also, nobody has good microphones except for me so it always sounds like shit.

[Gormongous]

I would really enjoy doing a podcast, but I've done the VOIP thing before and it's... less than stellar. You can never tell when you're going to interrupt someone else. Also, nobody has good microphones except for me so it always sounds like shit.

 

I mean, I'd buy a Snowball or something if we were actually going to do it, but you're right about the "Skype" podcast. It takes someone willing to spend four hours editing the raw sound data into something cogent and listenable, which... can't be me right now. But I am excessively deferential in conversations, so it'll almost never be me talking over people!

 

I'm finishing up the first season of Seitokai Yakuindomo right now, which is really funny despite being only sex-pun misunderstandings. I almost typed Seitokai no Ichizon, which I watched a few years back and is also a show about a student council full of sex-pun misunderstandings. It almost constitutes a genre unto itself!

[Twig]

The thing I didn't do when doing my VIDEO GAMES PODCAST was video while talking but the problem is video is super laggy so everything sucks. ):

[Twig]

Well Codi I guess Bahamut is good so what is this world even.