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Run Time: 70min 30sec
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In this week’s episode of The Otaku Momentum podcast, Sean (aka The Grey Ghost) tests Neokage & Friends’ scruples in a round of One-True-Three! The favor is returned in kind with a bout of Fuck-Marry-Kill. Then we try our damnedest to find substance in Amagami SS and the dating sim from which it’s derived.
Run Time: 60min 40sec
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This week and next, Sean (aka The Grey Ghost) will appear on The Otaku Momentum podcast! First up, we discuss the latest [lack of] news in the anime world, followed by a roundtable review of Ookami San.
You’ll want to tune in next week as well when Sean subjects Neokage & Co. to a round of One-True-Three, we expose our tastes in Fuck-Marry-Kill, and pick apart the dating sim-inspired Amagami SS.
Run Time: 46min 32sec
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My Hime might be an anime version of Highlander, if there weren’t already a Highlander anime. In the end, there can be only one, but not without laying a path of anguish. This is no game for martyrs or masochists, for the defeated in this tournament themselves lose nothing–it’s those closest to them that pay with their lives.
Sounds intense, except there are pokey-mans and a panty episode.
Let’s hope Adam Carolla never enters the My Hime tournament.
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: 46min 44sec
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This podcast is like a box of chocolates. You know what you’re going to get (cuz the key is on the box, stupid), but it’s a small bounty of various delicious morsels.
Much like our 2009 recap, Kevin and I unleash a rapid fire lightning round of anime. Shows like Tokyo Magnitude 8.0, Astro Fighter Sunred, Katanagatori, and Lamune bear discussion, but there might not be fertile enough to draw for full podcasts individually.
I feel for ya, dude.
If this doesn’t warm your heart, YOU DON’T HAVE ONE.
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: 51min 40sec
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Melty Lancer is like a Japanese version of the Justice League, minus any of the familiar character history. The fact that this OVA is based off of a JRPG on the Sega Saturn doesn’t earn it any favors from us either.
The lead characters rapidly transition from pop culture icons to super-secret black ops to street cops to saviors of the galaxy…all within six episodes. To suggest that this series needed more episodes will earn you a slap in the face… Because we’re not watching any more of this crap!
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: 53min 33sec
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Cutie Honey Flash is a bizarre attempt to turn a sexually-charged Go Nagai creation into a child-friendly franchise. That is, with the intent of selling toys of said franchise to toddlers. That would be like adapting the gruesome, violence-saturated Beast King GoLion into a neutered, Americanized children’s cartoon… Oh, wait.
It’s most likely because of this series’ distillation of exploitation that makes the show more accessible to audiences of all ages. Cutie Honey Flash is about a super-heroine who is a resourceful master of disguise. I grant you, her arsenal consists of the full gamut of cosplay fantasy against a horde of incompetent she-monsters, but the girl’s got heart, dammit!
She's accustomed to stairs...
This man is a masochist and a pedophile...NOT A HERO.
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: 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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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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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.
