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92

Episode #92

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The Stigma against old anime

Episode 92: (Right Click and “Save Target As” to Download)

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– Opening –

Opening Song:

Shoot! from the anime Ryo Kyu Bu by the artist Ryo Kyu Bu

 

New Forum Members:

great big pumpkin, lacifur, thoughtbeforeaction, macrossdresser,skysong, bearfort, zcomix, anime4iphone.com

Trivia

Answer to Trivia: The Twelve Kingdoms

People who got it correct: thaivun, bravogangus, noshgard, asgras, bad apple, guts_matrix

Winner for the week: bad apple

Happy Birthday To:

Unicow, Hatake, Grilled Cheese, Ishkun

The A.A.A. Mailbag

Submitted by: Devil_Survivor

Question: 

How much mecha anime do you watch?

Submitted by: Negi Mudkip

Question: 

What anime have you watched that was a tear jerker?  Mine was rumbling hearts.

 

Kent Ward from Neo Orlandia of AFO

Joins the show to discuss the con and his involvement.

 

Otakon Reminder

We will be doing dinner at Otakon 11, chat us up on the forums if you will be there and want to have dinner with the addicts!

 

– News Break –

 

– Main Topic –

Why do new anime fans seem to hate old anime?  Why do haters hate?! We talk about why we think new anime fans don’t like the old stuff much.

Topics covered include: Voice acting, animation style, story, and more.

 

– News Break –

 

– Reviews –

GoSick – Chiaki – 4.5/5

Old Boy  – Mitsugi – 5/5

 

– Closing –

Closing Song:

Okunaritai! from the anime Ryo Kyu Bu by the artist Ryo Kyu Bu

 

91

Episode # 91

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The Life and Influence of Osamu Tezuka

Episode 91: (Right Click and “Save Target As” to Download)

[mp3player width=177 height=20 config=fmp_jw_widget_config.xml file=https://www.aaapodcast.com/aaapodcast_episode91.mp3]

– Opening –

Opening Song:

Spiral from the anime Blood C by the anime Dustz

New Forum Members:

bad-apple, whats his name, bonalota, shizuo, fugama, questd40, therunonfragment, iheartrankalee, sweetd, shijokuda, supremekai

Trivia

Answer to Trivia: Trigun

People who got it correct: fugama, bravogangus, shorttermcrook, thaivun, jamezilla, neijikun002, guts matrix, mokuren, faust711, sakura angel, bad-apple, robertthecrimson, soulrogue, yellowdays, berserkhallow

Winner for the week: jamezilla

Happy Birthday To:

Darth Hobbit, JRow, Plixic, Chanoun Ozakaki, Amon81

Winner of Supercon Raffle:

Name: BT

Comment: My favorite thing about supercon this year was seeing all the pretty great cosplay… [read more]

The A.A.A. Mailbag

Submitted by: Devil_Survivor

Question: 

I wanted to ask you guys about your views on how minorities are portrayed in anime, if you could talk about how certain races, gays/lesbians, and any other minorities you can think of, how they are portrayed in anime would be good. I would really enjoy hearing your thoughts on the subject.

Otakon Reminder

We will be doing dinner at Otakon 11, chat us up on the forums if you will be there and want to have dinner with the addicts!

 

– News Break –

 

– Main Topic –

Who is Osamu Tezuka? What did he contribute to the anime community?  Why was Astro Boy important?  If you can’t answer these questions this episode will help. This is one episode with one important man that you don’t want to miss as an anime fan.

Some things we cover:

His early life.

Childhood works.

Career as an adult.

Famous work.

Impact of his work and his legacy.

 

– News Break –

 

– Reviews –

[C] The money of the soul and possibility of control – Chiaki – 4/5

Denpa onna seishun no otoko  – Roukou – 3/5

 

– Closing –

Closing Song:

Tsukage no toburanko from the anime Hanasaki Iroha by the artist Nano Ripe

yumekui merry

Yumekui Merry

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Alternate Titles: Dream Eater Merry

Original Japanese Release Date: 2011

Episode Length/Run-time: 13 Episodes

Summary:

Fujiwara, a stereotypical good-hearted yet slightly oblivious high school boy, possesses the ability to see people’s “Dream-auras,” a colored haze surrounding a person which indicates the type of dream which they will have.  One day he meets Merry, a dream demon who is looking for a way to get home.  They end up teaming up as Merry enters his daydream and saves him from his own dream demon who was seeking to possess his body and enter into the human world.  The effort to return Merry home soon becomes locked in struggle against the dream demon Engi, who seeks to destroy others.

Review:

Dream Eater Merry is based off a manga which began back in 2008. It currently has 6 volumes and is still ongoing.  As a result the series suffers heavily from two main things.  One, operating from a story that has yet to reach a conclusion and likely won’t for some time (like a FMA versus Brotherhood situation).  And Two, as a byproduct of one, being far too short.

This anime is one that could have easily been great.

The animation alone is a notch above the rest, even among modern animation standards.  Everything flows smoothly and fight sequences are animated flawlessly.  But high-gloss colors and quality movement is a dime-a-dozen now a days.  What really takes Yumekui Merry above and beyond is the camera angels.  Shot like a high-quality cinematic film the angle for the images is used in both artistic and creative ways.  The style of art is a cross between dream-like and surreal.  Painting an astounding picture of each original dreamscape.

What further improves the atmosphere is the music.  Dreamlike, whimsical, and sometimes haunting the music of this show is fantastic.  A perfect example of how you don’t need a full blasting orchestra to create fitting and evoking music.

So right now, this anime is at a 5/5. Unfortunately, it was doomed to failure from the beginning.

The anime, as mentioned before, is only 13 episodes long.  This is not nearly long enough for this series.  The first arc focuses on establishing Merry and Fujiwara’s relationship and overcoming his demons.  Now about one third of the way through the series the focus shifts to returning Merry back to the dreamland.  In comes a slew of interesting characters and dream demons, a number of battles, and a thickening plot.  Each character begins to get fleshed out with decent back story and elaboration on the important parts.  Some more would’ve been nice and had it been longer we would’ve had the chance, but we didn’t.  Then around episodes 9 and 10 the creators went “oh shit, we have to finish this” and employed an arc that wasn’t even in the original manga.  As a result the story seems to jump from this careful development phase to a thrown together ending which feels forced and awkward, despite answering the necessary questions.

The premise of the story is cool, really cool, this connection between dreams and reality.  But the fact is they execute it poorly.  They don’t have nearly enough time to both set up this elaborate world, flush out the characters, and unravel the plot before the ending is upon the series.  As a result, it’s just about average.

vampirehunterdbloodlust

Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust

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Alternate Titles:  None

Original Japanese Release Date: 2000

Episode Length/Run-time: 102 Minutes

Summary:

The Half-Human Half-Vampire Vampire Hunter who goes simply by ‘D’ is continuing his quest to fight against the vampire nobility that rules over a far-future post-apocalyptic world.  Because of his reputation he is called upon by the Elbourne family to rescue their daughter, Charlotte, from the clutches of Meier Link.  But D is not the only one on the hunt, and seperating Charlotte from her new love may prove more difficult than D originally expected.

Review:

A long awaited follow-up to the classic movie Vampire Hunter D, Bloodlust is a worthwhile addition to the family.

The Vampire Hunter D series is based on a series of novels by Hideyuki Kikuchi, this particular movie is based off the third book. Acclaimed artist Yoshitaka Amano’s wisdom is drawn from yet again to bring the pages of the novel to life on the screen and his dark style creates artistic poetry on the screen.  Angular features, dark odd creatures, and towering spires adorn the movie in a distinct style that one has to see to believe.

Unlike the first movie the storytelling in Bloodlust does become slightly muddled.  Which is not helped by the somewhat confusing and uncertain dialogue.  The finale of the movie is also somewhat of a letdown, ruining the otherwise perfect pacing the film had all the way through.

Despite that the film has all the surprises, twists, action and pleasant oddities as the first film.  It remains a worthwhile watch to be enjoyed more by adults than kids.  This film, while not perfect, stands as a strong follow-up to a classic and should be on any anime fan’s must-watch list.

[starrater]

code geass

Code Geass

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Alternate Titles:  Code Geass – Hangyaku no Lelouch, Code Geass – Lelouch of the Rebellion

Original Japanese Release Date: 2006

Episode Length/Run-time: 25 Episodes

Summary:

With the aid of gigantic robotic robots known as Knightmare Frames colonialism has taken new meaning and the Empire of Britannia has invaded Japan and placed it under colonial rule.  Lelouch a Britannian living in Area 11 (Japan’s new name) vows to free Japan and overthrow the Empire.  One day after school he stumbles upon a military secret which happens to be a young girl named C.C.  She gives him the power of Geass which can be used on any person only once to make them obey any order.  With this weapon Lelouch’s rebellion begins.

Review:

Code Geass, reviewed here in full (both first and second season) is a very well done anime.  While plots of overthrowing governments, coup de etats and war is nothing new to anime Code Geass brings lively characters and it’s own interesting spins to the rehashed themes in such a way that it feels fresh and new.  One of the fantastic things about this anime is the pacing.  It moves at near breakneck speed wasting no time to get to the meat of the show.  From there on they don’t dally with stupid antics (okay, they do very rarely) and focus on progressing what they set out.

The mech battles in this show are really well executed and Lelouch’s character as the ringleader is perfect.  Possible best friend to Light Yagami Lelouch is calculating, careful, cunning, and slightly cocky in just the right ways.  While we’re on the subject of characters they are just the right mix for everyone watching.  Enough bishonen to go around, cute girls ranging from well endowed sexy to loli and your stereotypical characters thrown in there to round out the mix nicely. Sometimes the stereotyping is taken a little too far and the acting could be seen as borderline corny.  But generally speaking it’s done at the right times and I feel it’s presented in such a way that works for the series overall.

The one thing that really docks this series overall is the fights in the second season.  Throughout the whole series there is gray area moral dilemmas argued and a clever cat and mouse both on and off the battlefield between Lelouch and Suzaku.  However, in the second season Suzaku, apparently, closes the mental gap rather quickly on Lelouch.  All of a sudden he, quite annoyingly, shows up out of the blue at just the right moment to squah Lelouch’s plans and win or thwart the battle.  As a viewer it not only screams unrealistic, but it screams annoying.

Despite this, the series is very well executed and has something for everyone.  The animation is clean and crisp and the music does not disappoint either.  With the characters and engaging plot I’d easily classify this anime as a gateway drug into the world of mecha for any fan or fan-to-be.

[starrater]

moto to love ru

Motto to Love Ru -Trouble-

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Alternate Titles:  もっとTo LOVEる -とらぶる

Original Japanese Release Date: September 17, 2010

Episode Length/Run-time: 12

Summary:
Because this anime is so horrible, it’s easier for me to just give detailed description of what accounts for about 90% of this show.

Review:

First of all, the story is broken down into a series of shorts.  Much like Azumanga

The show is about a girl named LALA who comes from a planet called Devilluke(she has a devil tail) she runs away because she is a princess and doesnt’ want to take part in an arranged marriage.  This is not the first series of this(I don’t know how there is a sequel) and so some of the stuff doesnt make too much sense to me.  Lala lives at a boy named Rito’s house and he’s the male “protagonist” even though he doesnt do much to fit the role.  Weak, nervous, indecisive. This show also has some side characters in it that are from the old series.  There is a blonde girl who can use her hair as weapons and apparently, for whatever reason she is an assassin from another planet and she is supposed to kill Rita althought I’m not sure why because from what I’ve seen he doesnt do too much to be deemed killable. The rest of the show is bs antics and panty shots, blushing, and slapstick comedy that isn’t funny. And of course, every single character in the show has a crush on Rito.  And I mean they’re literally throwing their bodies on him but this show never has any kind of physical interaction of that kind.  No kissing, no sex despite all the nudity, nothing.

Some scenes that make me want to kill myself:

  • There is a guy named Zastin who comes from Devilluke to retrieve two other girls from the royal family who run away.  There is also another girl in the school that Rita goes to that has a crush on him (somehow) and so they call him to the school so that she can confess.  At the same time Lala has cooked Rita some bad bento with black smoke coming out of it.  He’s watching the confession from the side of a building a bit away and up from behind Lala finds him and crams some of the food in her mouth.  He gags and runs out from the building towards Zastin and the girl.  He slams into the girl and she falls on him, ass up, and Zastin gets a shot of her panties and vag area.  Then she gets mad and hits Rita and chases him.  Ugg….
  • It’s Valentine’s Day.  Kotegawa a girl in Rito’s class is making him chocolate because she has a crush on him.  So…she tries to give it to him but she gets nervous and ends up cussing him out.  Later in the day, she tries again, and in the middle of it, another girl that is cute with green hair comes up and pounces on Rita and offers him chocolate out of her mouth (because this is apparently a harem) and he gets “scared” and turns to run in the other direction and runs into Kotegawa.  She falls and he ends up with his head basically in her vag. Ugg…
  • They’re at the beach.  The watermelon they are trying to split turns into a monster and spits red “cum juice” on the girls and then they pose for the camera provoatively  with all the stuff dripping off of them.
  • Tentacle octopus breast enlarger…

[starrater]

hack roots

.hack//Roots

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Alternate Titles:  None

 

Original Japanese Release Date: April 5th, 2006

Episode Length/Run-time: 26

Summary:

.hack//Roots is the prequel to the .hack//G.U. videogames. It follows the story of Haseo, a Multi-Weapon and member of the Twilight Brigade guild. In the year 2015, CC Corp. Building burnt down, and with it, most of its data for The World. By splicing data from what would have potentially been another game, CC Corp. created The World R:2 and released it in 2016.

Review:

Set six months before .hack//G.U., Haseo logs into The World R:2 for the first time and falls victim to the PKs that reside within The World R:2. Pking has apparently become a big problem.  He is saved by Ovan and Shino, which prompts him to join the Twilight Brigade.  The Twilight Brigade members are on a mission to find the Key of the Twilight, however, the TAN guild opposes this because they want Ovan’s character data due to the device in his left arm and will stop at nothing to keep the Twilight Brigade from their goal.  The twist is when Tri-Edge shows up. Things briefly pick up in the series when he turns up, making for a short run of episodes that were actually fun to watch.  Makes for some good drama and some action scenes.

If you plan to watch the series, without playing the game, don’t.  You need to play the games to finish the story and let me tell you, the game suck.  Badly.  You may go insane playing them.  But without playing the games:

      • Many unexplainable events
      • Characters aren’t fleshed out enough  you miss out on a LOT of character background.  things just happen without any reason for this being given
      • The ending leaves SO many questions unanswered

This anime has extremely large periods of nothing happening.  What the hell is the director thinking?  Everything happens very slowly.  Long periods of characters just starring off into space at the sky or at something in particular.  Really weird.  It’s a bit how you’ll notice in an anime how sometimes they will just be like a really long still image. Also it takes characters a long time to decide to do something and then an even longer time to execute.  It makes things ever so boring.

The anime totally abandons the “MMO inside an anime” theme.  .hack//Sign had scenes that would show the person using the computer or would have very video game like character traits for the in-game avatars. .hack//Roots totally dumps this trait.  You never see the out of game players and the characters in the series are just way too emotion filled and “real” to be ingame avatars.  As a result, it doesn’t really feel like you’re watching an MMO. Many of the characters are pretty unlikeable in the end as well.  They don’t get background and they really don’t feel that vibrant.  Even the main character Haseo is just a shitty emo character.

The visuals and music are very nice the animation and the overall art is very nice.  The character designs for .hack are always very interesting, and the artwork in general is of an excellent standard. This is a good thing, because you are forced     to stare at pretty visuals in which very little happens for a long, long time.   The music is fantastic as well.  The theme song and was played at the start of tonights podcast, “Silly Go Round” Is quite awesome and even the BGM features famous melodies such as the “Queen of the Knight” Aria from Mozart’s “Magic Flute”.

[starrater]

Review: School Rumble

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Episode Reviewed In: Episode 73

Alternate Titles:  Sukuran

Original Japanese Release Date: October 5th, 2004

Episode Length/Run-time: 26

Summary:
School rumble is an anime about love, romance and comedy.  The basis of the show are the “crushes” that the characters have on each other.  I say because its  recurring theme in the series.  Really, the show has no plotline beyond the light hearted high schoolers lives. But I gotta say that people must think that HS in Japan is random as hell because that’s what this series is.

Review:
In terms of the relationships there is a girl called Tsukamoto Tenma who is a cute girl that basically serves as the main characters.  She has a crush on a boy called Karasuma Ooji, who is this really weird character that has a beatles haircut and is strange and emotionless.  There is another character as well, Harima Kenji, who is a delinquent and he has a crush on Tenma.  LOVE TRIANGLE!  It’s announced that Ooji is getting ready to leave the school and so Tenma wants to confess to him. Of course, none of these characters are able to confess to each other and the show uses this as another basis for comedy.

In fact, since Harima is a delinquent, he has a bad rep and this makes it hard for him to confess as well because he comes off as a bit scary, but along the way you find out as do the schools students that hes not so bad.

The show is very random and there are some things in it that are used for comedy but make no sense to me at all. For example, Harima is able to talk to animals and later on he has like practically an entire zoo following him around…very random.
There are also some spoofs that really make the comedy in the show good.  There is a scene in the beginning when the 3 students, Harima, Tenma, and Ooji are all chasing each other (kinda like the cat that was running from the dog whom was running from the pig, etc..) except in this instance its Ooji biking to school insanely fast and weirdly, being chases by Tenma who is trying to confess and then Harima chasing her.  ENTER INITIAL D.

All in all, its a show without much plot but its just another light hearted comedy that is alright and does the comedy pretty well and doesnt get too series for its own good.

level e

Level E

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Alternate Titles:  レベルE

 

Original Japanese Release Date: January 10, 2011

Episode Length/Run-time: 13

Summary:

There are millions of aliens on Earth, all sorts of aliens, but the Earthlings don’t know it.  One such alien is the Prince of a planet known as Doguria.  He is a very mischievous person who likes to make people do things for his own entertainment at their expense.

Review:

There are hundreds of alien species that co-exist with humans on Earth.  They exist in all kinds; peaceful, aggressive, on the brink of extinction, etc…  Everybody seems to be aware of this except for the humans.  We don’t know about the aliens.  This kid, Yakitaka, from Tokyo comes to a new school, Kisaragi high school, to play baseball (yay!).  Hes kind of a touch guy.  The kind of guy who was probably in a gang or at least somebody who wouldn’t take shit from people.  When he arrives at his new dorm room there is a blonde guy in his room wearing his clothes.  The man is named Prince.  He claims to be an alien that crash landed recently nearby and that he lost his memories due to the crash.  The presence of the space craft is confirmed by news reports since it was discovered. Some stuff happens, the alien runs off the check the space craft and gets hit by a car.  He has blue blood.  He rests after being hit and his body creates some kind of forcefield that causes all his wounds to heal and the cherry trees around him to bloom.

The next day, the alien goes and retrieves this device that displays the aliens pet.  He is a fluidic organism from the planet Jacqueline Ess.  Named Clive.   It has a really amazin ability to mimic things.  It’s really scary.  I mean this thing looks like a giant, screaming, slug thing.  In the second episode you learn that there are people from a laboratory associated with the government trying to find the alien.  At the same time, people from Prince’s home planet land in Japan, searching for him as well.  They stop by the home of another alien, a very violent race called Disclonian.  They ask him for information before continuing on.  The race of Disclonians have destroyed thousands of other races in the universe.

At the end of a very uneventful second episode, the aliens from Prince’s homeplanet find him and reveal that they were on the way to escorting him to a very important intergalactic conference when they lost him.  The largest such conference in the universe.  But there are biggest problems.  At the end of the episode you learn that Prince almost killed somebody on the planet when trying to help a girl that they were harrassing  and the victim was a Disclonian…this is likely certainly enough to start an intergalactic war.  They thought they had killed him but the Disclonians go into an instinctual coma like state as a defense mechanism when they are about to be killed.  Its called Thanatosis.  the Disclonian wakes up and then escapes from Yakitakas dorm…

The character designs are very pleasing to me.  They’re more mature looking and are reminiscent of older anime.  Mature designs, normal colored hair.

[starrater]

denpa teiki na kanojou

Denpa Teki na Kanojo

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Alternate Titles:  Electromagnetic Girlfriend

 

Original Japanese Release Date: May 1st, 2009

Episode Length/Run-time: 2 OVA

Summary:
Juuzawa Juu is a typical high school delinquent.  One day he is approahed by a girl, Ochibana Ame who claims to be a “knight” of his from a past life.  Soon afterwards, a rash of serial killings begin occuring in Tokyo and after one of their classmates is murdered the two team up to try to unravel the mystery and catch the murderer.

Review:
What an interesting anime this is.  It exists essentially as a two hour movie and because it’s so engrossing, boy does it fly by quickly. The serial killings make an excellent backdrop for the anime and creates a tense atmosphere fitting of a horror thriller.

Speaking of the murders, this anime doesn’t mess around.   Between the gruesome serial killing scenes and the violent and mature content between the sstudents and throughout society, Denpa Teki na Kanojo is definately an anime intended for more mature audiences.  Most of the killers victims are either stabbed or beaten to death and then strangled with wire.  Juu’s classmate actually gets strung up in a back alley like a puppet.

The character Juuzawa Juu is a very believable and likable high school boy.  He is realistic and the actions and reactions of him and most other characters in the anime are generally realistic and give the anime as a whole the feel of having realistic setting.

In addition, because it’s an OVA, the shows art and animation are top notch.  The background detail and the fluidity of the movement is quite impressive.  It may remind you at times of a Miyazaki or Shinkai film.  Also, the character designs are very likeable. I loved the way that the characters looked in this anime.  Even the level of detail on the movement of the facial expressions are accurate and make the characters feel more human.  I wish that more shows would follow it’s eample and use the same character design style.

If I could come up with just a couple complaints about the anime it would be that there was a lot of character interaction but not enough of the “thriller” genre in the content.  By that I mean I wish a few more people had been murdered and I wanted the anime to simply be a little more gritty.  I suppose this is a minor complaint though as I was never bored watching this anime.  Also, there wasn’t much character background given.  Certain things are mentioned but all in all the character development and background history is kept to a minimum.  I don’t care if the anime is a 2 hour OVA or 100 episodes, character background should always be given attention, at least for important characters.

[starrater]

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