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Welcome to Fan Service, my first attempt at writing a regular geek-centric advice column for this site… It’s a part of my mission through this site (and the podcast) to improve the lives of my fellow geeks, be it by entertainment or enlightenment. Topping the leaderboards of a geek’s daily struggles is the art of romance. Especially the fellas, whom I address the most.
Run Time: 56min 52sec
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Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu (or Baka and Test – Summon the Beasts) teaches a higher form of education; putting into practice that the spoils of victory are heavy motivators for self-improvement. Students enter into gladiator battles armed only with their test scores in order to claim or defend a social status adorned in privilege. Make the grade and you shall crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentation of their women.
This could be a great show (or an awesome video game), but it quickly buckles under the growing infection of moé. Before you know it, you’re watching another romantic comedy drama. This show has its genuinely funny moments, but you’re probably better off watching a show like Tora Dora! or Tenjho Tenge.
This is how Sean envisions moé.
Tear up that dance floor, Mahoney!
In the Method to Madness podcast, I’m joined with my good friend Kevin “The Business” Gray to discuss great anime and video games that you should be watching as well as ones you should feel ashamed you are watching.
A topic that’s a frequent fly in our podcast ointment is fan service. It is a poison to Japan’s entertainment industry; transforming those otaku who ingest large, regular doses into ghoulish misshapes of humanity. Exposure to the One Ring is less toxic and more likely get you laid.
But it didn’t used to be that way.
Fan service, literally, was a way that creators used to give appreciation to fans of their shows. These often took the forms of Easter Eggs within other shows. A brief cameo or in-joke would spark delicious glee with those watching “in the know”.
On occasion, full productions were put together as an entire entrée of fan service. A perfect example is Scramble Wars. This early 1990s OVA is regarded as the anime counterpart to Wacky Races (though a more accurate comparison would be to Laff-A-Lympics). Only instead of Yogi Bear, Jabber Jaw, Speed Buggy, and (of course) Dick Dastardly & Muttley, the celebrity contestants hail from Bubblegum Crisis, Gall Force, and Genesis Survivor Giarth.
Then something strange happened. Someone, somewhere had the bright idea, “Hey, I know a real treat to give the fans! Let’s take their favorite female characters and put them in bikinis! Maybe even…naked? Tanaka, you know what naked boobs look like, right? No? Well…can you draw them? Yeah, I knew you had that shit down, dawg.”
At first, this was a treat, but little did we know just how far it would escalate. It’s like when your mom starts out encouraging you to eat healthy snacks like fruit or granola. But as you get older, her resolve weakens as she more often offers you cheaper, pre-packaged cookies and candy for goodies. By the time you’re in college, you’re stuffing football helmets filled with Oreo brownies covered in Snickers ice cream and chocolate chip cookie dough…for lunch.
Over the past decade or so, fan service shifted into a sexually potent feature. “Fan service” became the Trojan Horse for [s]exploitation. Exploitative shows had already existed for decades (mostly thanks to Go Nagai), but what was once niche was quickly becoming the standard. Every series got its token beach episode or bathhouse scene. Costume designs for anime and video games became more provocative. And for a fandom that’s dominantly male, this proved to be a commercially successful move.
Once production companies hopped on this gravy train, they knew that if they were each going to compete in the industry, they needed to continue pushing the envelope. Enter the invasion of lolicon, moé, incest and any imaginable fetish into our cartoons. Titillation used to be the icing to the fandom; now we’re served solid slabs of fan service fondant. Seemingly sweet, but sure to turn your stomach.
Now here we are: In a dark age for anime, where what’s essentially soft-core porn is now the lifeblood of the industry. Where fan service once rewarded faithful fans, it’s now a device for drawing attention from new viewers.
As I’ve said, I’m prepared to ride this through because I have faith that it is temporary. As long as I draw breath, I will continue to endorse anime and video games that are fun without resorting to spank material. I want to be there when we as otaku ring in the new era where “fan service” returns to its roots.
Fan service… We’re taking it back.
Run Time: 55min 12sec
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Folklore and Disgaea: Infinite have recently been satisfying our pangs for gaming. “Satisfying”, I use generously.
As much as we have to say about these games in this podcast, we have so much more to say about just about everything else. Mostly turtles, rats, pizza…just about every ingredient for an unconscious Ninja Turtle discussion, if not for the inclusion of horrible, horrible internet memes.
In the Method to Madness podcast, I’m joined with my good friend Kevin “The Business” Gray to discuss great anime and video games that you should be watching as well as ones you should feel ashamed you are watching.
Run Time: 42min 18sec
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Fresh from the cutting room floor, we present the latest batch of outtakes! In an effort to keep the show’s length within the tolerable span of an hour, sacrifices must be made. Sometimes we go on wild, unrelated tangents or there’s material that we just fit into an episode.
Extra Bonus: This clip show includes outtakes from next week’s podcast!
Promo: Fight Bait!
In the Method to Madness podcast, I’m joined with my good friend Kevin “The Business” Gray to discuss great anime and video games that you should be watching as well as ones you should feel ashamed you are watching.
The Last Airbender is the first of three films planned to theatrically retell the story of Nickelodeon’s Avatar: The Last Airbender in live-aciton. After a decade-long sabbatical from producing good movies, director M. Night Shyamalan sought this as his own personal “Star Wars Trilogy”. Tragically, he chose the wrong Star Wars trilogy.
I should warn you, I draw many parallels between The Last Airbender and Episodes I-III in this review, but only because they’re impossible to ignore.
Run Time: 47min 05sec
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Arcade Gamer Fubuki has taught me that Kevin and I should put better effort into researching the shows we watch before podcasting about them. And by “better”, I probably mean “some”. Cuz had we learned beforehand that Arcade Gamer Fubuki is a parody of Game Center Arashi, this show might have made a crap-ton more sense.
This is a cute little show for fans of old-school games…or of panties. Yes, it’s a panty fan service show, but it’s just below the line of excess and there’s enough legitimate humor to compensate.
And hopefully strike you down like Thor's hammer.
In the Method to Madness podcast, I’m joined with my good friend Kevin “The Business” Gray to discuss great anime and video games that you should be watching as well as ones you should feel ashamed you are watching.
Run Time: 48min 43sec
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Feedback? Send an email!
Our Animazement 2010 coverage continues!
Saturday was the apex of our convention experience; a whirl of events, commerce, and good drink with good friends. Sunday wound down the weekend, but not without a grand hoorah.
Also, Kevin hates furries.
KEVIN DOESN'T WANT TO KNOW ABOUT IT.
In the Method to Madness podcast, I’m joined with my good friend Kevin “The Business” Gray to discuss great anime and video games that you should be watching as well as ones you should feel ashamed you are watching.
Run Time: 42min 16sec
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Feedback? Send an email!
Animazement reminds us why we not only love anime, but also love being part of the fandom. Strangely, the opposite is simultaneously true.
Kevin and I has so much to say in our podcast report of Animazement 2010, we had to split it into two parts! In part one, we discuss Thursday’s pre-con harbingers along with the big con kick-off on Friday. Stay tuned for part two when we follow up with Saturday and Sunday.
For those curious about the kinds of horrors inflicted upon hapless otaku during Anime Hell, the video playlist has been posted here.
In the Method to Madness podcast, I’m joined with my good friend Kevin “The Business” Gray to discuss great anime and video games that you should be watching as well as ones you should feel ashamed you are watching.
Watching The Humanoid is like pulling out a iconic curio from a time capsule from the 1980s. Its lead character, Antoinette, is based off of Hajime Sorayama‘s popular gynoid art designs. If ever you’ve seen a Trapper Keeper or Aerosmith album cover, you’ve probably seen his work.
Unfortunately, the plot of this 1986 OVA doesn’t contain much substance beyond the exploits of the robot’s familiar design. A long time from now, in a planet far far away, the royal refugees of a war-torn planet have made a new home for themselves on a lush, primitive planet.
However, some villainous douchebag within the empire seeks to exploit powerful ancient secrets left behind by a lost native civilization to–bum bum BUM–seize the throne and rule the new world.
Wouldn’t you know it: At the same time, our heroes’ cargo ship crash lands on the planet and unravel this sinister plot. Our heroes include such deep, three-dimensional characters as Eric (“the dude”), Dr. Watson (“the scientist”), Sheri (“the daughter”), Alan (“the black guy” or possibly “Lando”), and of course his newest creation: Antoinette (“the robot chick from the video cover, which is why you bought it, possibly mistaking it for SilverHawks“).
As this crew of clichés searches around for means to repair their ship, the robot Antoinette learns about what it means to be human, including our most mystical of emotions, love. The target of her growing affection is Eric, whose engagement with the scientist’s daughter, Sheri she covets; thankfully without murderous ambition. Had this anime drawn farther than a one-shot OVA, it could have easily become just another “Homeboy Gon’ Fuck The Robot”.
It’s no spoiler that Antoinette is not only the key to unraveling the villain’s dastardly scheme, but also is his undoing. The strength of both her robotic body combined with her suddenly-developed womanly heart allow her to bear the deadly energies unleashed by the ancient power, thus saving her love Eric, the Empire, and the world.
There are few redeeming qualities to this anime that would make it worth watching. If you were born after 1985, this anime will likely mean nothing to you. The animation is poor. The plot is hackneyed. And there isn’t even any fanservice for otaku in search of some fembot wank fuel.
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