#Memories of an Oldtaku

[frogshunnedshadows]

One last Anime Music Video: the techno remix of The Phantom of the Opera, with video from "Magnetic Rose," part of the anthology film "Memories." Music by Andrew Lloyd Webber / remixed by Harajuku (circa 1994), video circa 2002.

[himitsusentaiblog]

Memories of an Oldtaku- Evangelion

Yes, this isn’t about Tokusatsu, this is about anime.  I really wouldn’t be a fan of the one without the other and the two are inextricably linked in my life. Today is a really important day.  Today is the day the 1995 TV series Neon Genesis Evangelion hits Netflix.  I don’t know of any other series that’s almost 25 years old that could make such a splash getting released on a streaming platform.

It is one of the most influential anime series of the past 30 years.  That’s no joke. It’s also been really hard to get your hands on in the US for about a decade without dropping serious cash for out of print DVDs or worse, imports Blu-Rays.

Now, however, this important work is available (along with a new dub) to anyone with access to Netflix.  That’s a big deal.

Why?  Well, I am not going to go into the quality of the show or its deeper meanings and impact.  That’s for other people to go on and on and on about as they have for the last 24 years.  What I want to talk to you about is what this series means to me and how it impacted my life.

The original Neon Genesis Evangelion premiered on Japanese TV October 4, 1995.  For me, it premiered in John Rong’s living room on a fansubbed VHS Tape in March of 1996.  John (real name Zhiqi) was a friend of mine from college who, along with my kind of mentor Kevin, were the enablers who got me hooked on anime and tokusatsu. 

Seriously, John provided me with so many fansubs of shows that are now classics.  Vision of Escaflowne, Mobile Suit Gundam 08th MS Team, Slayers Try, Magic User’s Club and the second set of 3X3 Eyes OVAS (his personal favorite).  Many were the weekends I would trek up from Hurst to Dallas just to hang out with him and watch/swap tapes.  It was a glorious time to be a young fanboy.

This was also a time when the name Gainax was a magic word to those in the know.  These were the fans who made good, who went pro and changed the industry.  Sure, they were mostly known for a decent movie called Wings of Honnêamise (or Week Old Mayonnaise if you were among my friends), the awesome OVA Gunbuster and the fantastic TV series Nadia: Secret of Blue Water. Any new project of theirs was something special.

I was hooked on Evangelion from the opening theme song.  Seriously, Cruel Angel’s Thesis is one of the 10 best Anime OPs of all time, right up there with Tank from Cowboy Bebop.  It gets you excited for the show to come, is upbeat and lively and just fits with the show in general.  The rest of the music was great as well and I remember buying so many bootleg soundtracks at cons.  Back in those days, the most common CD soundtracks were from SM (Son May) Records and were Hong Kong bootlegs of the Japanese originals.  I had SO many SM Records, heck I still have a few to this day!

Sadly, the fansubs ran out after 8 episodes.  We didn’t know why until it was revealed that an American company had picked up the rights to Evangelion for distribution.  That company was A.D. Vision (later ADV).  At the time, why were mostly known for releasing hentai (porn) anime but apparently, they had sold enough smut to move into the big leagues by purchasing the rights to the hottest anime on the planet.  

To say I was stoked to get a US release was an understatement.  I rushed out to my local comic shop (Lone Star Comics) and pre-ordered the first volume.  It was EXPENSIVE, like $29 and these were 1997 dollars, for only two episodes a tape but I had to have it.  Being the Subtitle snob I was (and to some extend still am) I ordered it Subbed.  Back then you had to choose, there was no dual-audio format it was one or the other unless you double-dipped to get both.

I made a good friend at that Lone Star, one of the workers named Glenn.  We ended up bonding over Godzilla, Gamera, MST3K* and especially Evangelion. We would get together each time a new volume was released to watch it, we went to Anime Convention together and played so many import PS1 and Saturn games our fingers developed callouses.  I still remember when they decided to screen two episode of Evangelion that had not yet been released on VHS at Project A-Kon one year.  The theater was packed!

This wasn’t just a show.  It was a phenomenon at the time that helped propel anime from just a niche thing to something bigger.  It also propelled ADV from a smaller distributor to the biggest player on the Anime licensing market.  They had fingers in everything and expanded so fast that they were doomed to fall less than a decade later.  Part of that had to do with them wanted to produce and Evangelion live action movie in partnership with WETA Workshop.

That fell apart due to ADV’s reach exceeding its grasp and after a series of bad releases, failed partnerships and just plain stupid financial moves, they imploded.  What remains today are splintered bits of what they were but they were on the way out, supplanted by Funimation, long before their final demise.

That left the North American rights to Evangelion in limbo.  Worse, because the property was so big, none of the anime licensors in the US could really afford it or wanted to spend that much on a 20+ year old show.  So, the staggering classic became a hard to find, expensive purchase on ebay.

That’s when Netflix, who seems to possess infinite resources, decided to snap up the property.  Now, we can watch it again in HD as it has never been seen before.  That means a ton to me as it’s like being able to revisit a piece of my formative years as a fan looking as shiny and clean as it does in memory but never did in reality before.

So anyway, Evangelion was a big deal to me.  I made friends over it, got deeper into fandom because of it and even got into a fansub group to sub the movies!  Oh yeah, I was part of an old-school VHS Fansub group complete with Genlock cards, manual timing and the whole nine yards.  Now excuse me, I have to go watch the OP for the first time in 10 years and get all misty eyed.  

Oh and for the record, I don’t care what anyone else says, Asuka is best girl! Go watch it for yourself and see!  You can now!

*My Pull File at Lone Star listed my name as Rex Dart: Eskimo Spy thanks to Glenn in a reference to the MST3K episode where they riffed Godzilla Vs. Megalon.

[pipefoxesonthemoon]

what kind of weeb would you specify urself as?

//////genuine question bestie!! answer asap!!

100% identify as Oldtaku. That is, I got into anime after seeing Dragon Ball Z on TV as a kid. I remember specifically seeing it at a friends house during a sleepover and thinking it was the coolest thing in the world.

Then I would try and watch all the toonami late night anime that I could when we finally got cable.

But yes, I got into manga/anime around the early 2000’s. Good memories of One Piece, DBZ, Death Note, Paranoia Agent, etc.

Also, bestie?!

[gamerdamemedia]

And Oldtaku Remembers 4Kids’ Dub-Piece

I just finished watching a video by Red Bard on Youtube talking about why the old 4Kids’ dub of One Piece was so horrendous, & it brought back so many memories.  It’s amazing that for oldtakus such as myself that One Piece ever got a following considering how awful the dub was back then.  For those of you who never watched it (poor innocent lambs), 4Kids was the same company that dubbed Yu-Gi-Oh & Pokemon.  A lot of people make jokes about 4Kids feeling the need to protect children from alien cultural practices (that jelly donut Brock is carrying looks an awful lot like a ball of rice), but they really took a machete to One Piece.  Not only did they remove what you might expect, like cursing & blood, but did things like change Sanji’s cigarette to a lollipop, give our buxom females undershirts, & even cut out whole arcs.

All joking aside, it made me think about how I first got into the series & started writing.  I passed over this show so many times when it first started airing, thinking it looked really dumb, & only catching the ends of episodes as I waited for whatever came on after it during Toonami (probably Yu Yu Hakusho if I recall my interests correctly).  I think when I first fully watched an episode it was the start of Usopp’s intro arc.  Eventually I saw the show from the start, & began picking up the manga, & a love affair was born.  Even as other shows come & go, One Piece was a constant.

When Funimation descended from on high to take over production, it was pretty noticeable.  4Kids finished up with the Rainbow Mist arc.  The next episode, starting Jaya, was immediately different.  I remember thinking, “Is this a new intro?  A proper intro?  And new voices?  What happened?”  The rest is history.

But 4Kids’ Dub Piece made for some interesting experiences writing.  Way back when I was working on my old story, people complimented my imagination for writing about the crew getting swallowed by a whale.  Nope, wasn’t me.  4Kids is just incompetent.

To put my oldtaku status into perspective, when I first started working on my old story, back in the Quizilla days, at that time in the manga Robin had just boarded the sea train for Enies Lobby.  I can further age myself with 2 words: ADV & Suncoast.  If you don’t know what those two companies are, I’m probably older than you.  But that’s okay.  Don’t ever let anyone say you’re too old to enjoy anything.

“When I became a man I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up.” C.S. Lewis

[tokupedia]

Japanese Hero Show Case: Tetsujin-28

The year is 1956, Japan was still recovering from World War II and Tokyo is getting a new landmark with the Tokyo Tower under construction and nearing completion. Akira Kurosawa and Godzilla made their marks on the world 2 years prior.

Amidst all this change, the shadow of the Second World War hung heavily over the nation after its defeat. Some became bitter, others mourned the immense loss of life of families and friends, some proclaimed their unending hatred of the US for being so cruel as to use them as a live testing target of a new weapon. Others who witnessed the horrors of the atomic bomb and the war or heard about it growing up developed an anti-war mentality, wanting to never again experience such tragedy and show the world why war was a bad thing. 

We know some of their names because of this thematic narrative: Ishiro Honda and Tomoyuki Tanaka with Godzilla, Yoshiyuki Tomino with Gundam, Shotaro Ishinomori with his Cyborg 009 manga and Go Nagai with Devilman who mused humanity will inevitably destroy itself if it succumbed to violence. Among those many names was Mitsuteru Yokoyama. 

Mr. Yokoyama is considered the template builder of many of the anime, tokusatsu and manga genres we now take for granted: Ninjas, Jidaigeki, supernatural and sci-fi, Magical girls and of course, humanoid robots that fight evil controlled by a human. 

While Go Nagai is credited as the father of the Super Robot Genre which expanded this to involve them being piloted from the inside by humans, Mitsuteru Yokoyama is the one of the origin points of our modern association of the island nation and robots with the other being the legendary Osamu Tezuka and his creation; Astro Boy.

In an interview with a Japanese magazine, the manga artist said the inspiration of his most beloved creation was one from the terror of war as a child. He said: 

"When I was a fifth-grader, the war ended and I returned home from Tottori Prefecture, where I had been evacuated. The city of Kobe had been totally flattened, reduced to ashes. People said it was because of the B-29 bombers...as a child, I was astonished by their terrifying, destructive power." 

Adding to this was his fascination of experimental vehicle superweapons the Nazis tested. Despite most of them being impractical or outlandish, their size and seemingly threatening appearance made the creative spark in his mind along with that childhood traumatic horror. A final inspiration was reading Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein, with Yokoyama feeling sympathetic to the Monster as he was not good or evil, just misunderstood and driven to evil by the cruelty of the world. This lead to the idea for a robot who was a superweapon made by the Japanese Imperial Military meant to destroy the Allies, but became a force for good for all mankind in the hands of the succeeding generation.

BIRU no machi ni GAOO  Yoru no HAIUEE ni GAOO DADADADA DAAN to tama ga kuru BABABABA BAAN to haretsu suru BYUUN to tondeku Tetsujin Nijuuhachi-gou!

Original Story: In the 1950s, Dr. Kaneda revealed to his son Shotaro that he had worked on an top-secret experiment during the last phases of the war that would have turned the tide in Japan’s favor had the atomic bombs not dropped and Japan surrendered. A series of powerful giant robots that would have crushed the Allied forces. 

Deciding that a device that was intended for war would be able to be used for peaceful purposes, Dr. Kaneda entrusted the 28th model and its remote to his son. Shotaro used it to stop crimes, disasters, kaiju and other robots that had been stolen, created for evil or fallen into the wrong hands. Shotaro is a famous genius private detective and despite this breaking all known reason, he can legally drive his 1953 Austin-Healey (or a Volante depending on the incarnation) around Tokyo despite being 10 years old. Shotaro also has to keep the remote on hand or others could use the powerful Tetsujin-28 for evil.

This story has been adapted several times. Aside from the manga, there was a 1960 tokusatsu TV show. The series is an interesting time capsule... if a bit primitive. See, while things like Godzilla could pull off the scale of giant things on the big silver screen, Japanese TV hadn’t perfected that trick just yet. It would take until Ultra Q and Ultraman to get it just right and the live action adaptation of Giant Robo (another Yokoyama creation) to give TV one of its first baby footsteps into live action giant robots. Thus this incarnation of Tetsujin-28 is giant...by only a foot or two. In other words, he was human sized, which I’m sure disappointed some fans.  Then there was the 1960s anime which was brought over to the US as Gigantor and rebroadcast years later on Cartoon Network. (Oldtaku love this show and have fond memories of it. Remember, without this series as one of the gateways, we wouldn’t have anime here!)

Its next retellings was in 2004 with a reboot anime that followed its own story and a 2005 live action movie that transplanted the events into the 2000s. 

An animated reboot film by Imagi Studios was planned, but ultimately terminated as the studio went bankrupt. Interestingly, the trailer showed it borrowed an element from Giant Robo by having Shotaro control Tetsujin-28 with a voice control radio wristwatch. 

The 1980 Reboot:

The Reboot moved the story into the 1980s and several things changed. First was Dr. Kaneda built Tetsujin-28 to fight aliens (WWII was a sensitive subject to some TV viewers) who wanted to destroy Earth and conquer the universe. Another change was Shotaro was a junior agent of Interpol. But the most radical change was the star of the show, slimmed down to a sleeker design and stronger than ever. Theme song is pretty good too, because its pure 80s rock/pop.

The TMS made sequel series- Tetsujin 28 FX:

It is the year 2002 and robotics technology has advanced rapidly since the time of Tetsujin-28 back in the ‘50s. Shotaro Kaneda is now a middle aged man who still uses his robot every now and then and mentors young kids to succeed him in his detective agency business and his wife is part of a tech company. Sakaki Electronics wants the children of the world to live by Shotaro’s example and protect the future with new robots. Unfortunately, said robot tech attracts the attention of evil aliens called the Neo Black Group who wish to use them for war. While old Tetsujin puts up a good fight, the tech he runs on is too old to be a match for the evil space menace on his own. Fortunately, a new and improved Tetsujin called the Iron Man Future X Project or Tetsujin-28 FX has been built and is controlled by Shotaro’s son Masato via a remote gun. Together along with thier friends and family, they fight the Neo Black Group to save the Earth! 

The original Tetsujin still puts up a good scrap and helps his successor when the situation calls for it, nice of TMS to not render the classic character useless.

(Like father like son!)

The series was planned by Yokoyama himself and is sort of a sequel to the 1960s anime. There is a G Gundam vibe as some of the mechs are very stereotypical, like Iron Eagle, the official robot of the United States of America controlled by Michael Justice! (No, I swear I am not making that name up.)

Look at him, red white and blue with gunmetal gray, covered in bullet bandoliers, has a fighter pilot helmet head and wields a shotgun weapon. All that is missing is a cheeseburger and a cowboy hat! 

There was another Tetsujin series recently..Tetsujin-28 go Gao!

But it is more comedy based and has slice of life scenarios. Outside of that, the famed robot did a live action ad for NTT’s wi-fi internet service in 2009.

Powers: Tetsujin-28 is made of a super steel alloy that makes him difficult, and in some cases near impossible, to damage. It has super strength from complex hydraulics that allows it to lift buildings or smash a robot with his bare hands! Tetsujin-28 can also fly using the rocket boosters on his back to carry Shotaro to wherever he needs to go at super speed.

As to be expected from the granddaddy of Japanese Robots, he is awesome based on the fact he doesn’t need any fancy weapons. Simple brute force gets the job done!

Weaknesses: Tetsujin can be controlled by someone else if the remote is stolen or its remote frequency is jammed and manipulated.  It also didn’t work well in the old days when a thunderstorm was going on as the lightning interfered with the signal and made it liable to get zapped. Since its body is made of super steel, intense heat can melt its armor. Lastly, Shotaro is both vulnerable to attack and needs to stay close to Tetsujin-28 in order for it to keep moving.

Tetsujin-28 is a classic character that has transcended its WWII origins and endured for over 60 years. Its influence is everywhere, from Akira to Pacific Rim. Here’s hoping we see more of the lovable potbellied robot in the future!

*flexes arms like Tetsujin-28*

[recentanimenews]

Oldtaku no Radio #046 – Memories

Memories is a 1995 anthology movie (one feature comprised of multiple vignettes) that showcases directorial efforts of Koji Morimoto (Magnetic Rose), Tensai Okamura (Stink Bomb), and Katsuhiro Otomo (Cannon Fodder). Despite short run times, each of the three stories provides plenty to talk about. Join Jared and Ink and special guest Kory as they discuss the power of deception, art, and farts.

Direct Download - RSS Feed - Stitcher - Google Play: Music - iTunes Send us Feedback! - More episodes

Runtime: 1 hour, 2 min

Show Notes

Opening Song: "Return to the Black Star" by Deep Space Destructors

0:00:00 – Generalities!

0:04:15 – Magnetic Rose

0:21:30 – Stink Bomb

0:32:30 – Cannon Fodder

0:48:40 – Questions

Ending Song: "End of the Movie" by Cake (lyrics removed)

Contribute to the Ani-Gamers Patreon to get exclusive content and help us keep doing what you love us doing.

OnR Sticker logo by AJ Martinson (@ajmartinsson) of Black Market Eagle

Twitter: Ani-Gamers, Oldtaku no Radio, Ink, Jared, Kory

Ink has also written for Otaku USA Magazine and The Fandom Post as well as talked about bad (and good) sports anime over at the Taiiku Podcast.

Jared also writes for The Electrum Edition and has written for Wave Motion Cannon.

Kory co-hosts the Taiiku and Manga in your Ears podcasts.

originally appeared on Ani-Gamers on August 20, 2020 at 12:24 PM.

By: Ink

[recentanimenews]

The Road Twice Traveled - A Look forward to Kino's Journey

Kino’s Journey -the Beautiful World- follows a traveler, Kino, who goes from country to country by way of an intelligent motorcycle named Hermes. Kino stays no longer than 3 days at each stop, interacting with locals and observing their unique customs until setting off once more.

  On the Road Again - Animated Ink

  I’ve revisited Kino’s Journey three times. The first was on a recommendation, the second was to acquire content for a convention panel (but I couldn’t stop watching), and the third time was for a feature in Otaku USA. Every (re)visit reminds me of how amazing anime can be.

Fans of the first adaptation know this property, at its simplest, as a dramatic series of tales regarding fantastic worlds outside the one from which the protagonist hails. At its most intriguing, the show is largely self-contained anthropological moral tales dripping with romantic and Buddhist influence. So how will audiences familiar with Kino’s Journey receive the reboot?

To start, it is with a heavy heart I say that the director of the beloved first adaptation, Ryutaro Nakamura, died in 2013. The reboot will see Tomohisa Taguchi (Persona 3 & 4 movies, Twin Star Exorcist) in the director’s chair. This could mean a shift in execution, and judging by the trailer, I’ve a couple reservations.

First is the absence of the TV lines, which I’d argue apropos given this generation’s unfamiliarity with tube-based TVs. But it’s a visual aesthetic that Nakamura insisted upon and one that gives a great feel to the original adaptation.

Secondly, the character designs are pretty on point, but a little too pretty concerning Kino. Kino’s design in the original adaptation is androgynous, but the reboot’s design is slightly more feminine. While I doubt this will be off-putting, I hope the cute factor is not leveraged for exploitation. Speaking of designs, the attention to detail regarding the motorad (Hermes) and Kino’s pistol surely pleases the original author Keiichi Sigsawa, a motorcycle and gun enthusiast.

Lastly, the countries themselves seem to carry the same anachronistic air of sci-fi and history. The backgrounds seem lovely, and the color palate is excellent. All these aspects should help ease the handoff from memory to experience. Even if the episodes are just the same material reimagined, I can’t wait to see what Taguchi does with it!

An Adventure of Hope - Natasha

In contrast to Ink, I've held off on watching the original Kino's Journey ever since Ryutaro Nakamura's death. His shows have always held a special place in my heart and hearing the possibility of Despera never being finished left me feeling a little hollow and wanting to avoid finishing all of his works. Luckily, with the announcement of a new Kino's Journey and some years having passed since Nakamura's death, I feel like I can finally let go of some of my fears and start anew.

I know almost nothing about Kino's Journey, except for the fact that it stars a child and their anthropomorphic bike as they venture across different lands and meet different people. Based on the preview, I can assume that the new series will stick to that premise and deliver in the same vein that the original did. While the character designs seem different, I’ve heard that visual artistry was never the main trademark of Kino's Journey anyways. Rather, the praise the show gets is centered on its atmosphere and execution in simplicity. The strengths of many slice-of-life shows are focused on these elements, but personally speaking, few have managed to find the balance between tone and episodic vignettes like Natsume's Book of Friends and Mushi-shi. Kino's Journey looks like it could follow in those steps – the music is relaxing, the settings are vibrant, and Kino's voice actor (Aoi Yuki) seems well chosen.

Last is the question as to whether this is a continuation or if it's a reboot. As a new viewer, it seems like this will make little difference to me; the beauty of these kinds of shows lies in how easily one can pick them up at any given moment. Maybe the show will have moments tailored for fans who've seen the older series, but I'm sure I can watch this without worrying about being the intended audience or not. Either way, I'm looking forward to seeing what adventures Tomohisa Taguchi and studio Lerche bring us this season!

---

As contributing editor over at Ani-Gamers, Ink writes and edits articles and reviews pertaining to anime, video games, conventions, and manga. He also co-hosts the Oldtaku no Radio podcast. His reviews and analyses can also be seen periodically within the pages of Otaku USA magazine and online over at Fandom Post. 

---

You can find more of Natasha's work by following her on Twitter @illegenes and at her blog Isn't it Electrifying?

By: news+feed@crunchyroll.com

[recentanimenews]

Oldtaku no Radio #008 – your name.

©2016 TOHO / CoMix Wave Films / KADOKAWA / JR Kikaku / AMUSE / voque ting / Lawson HMV Entertainment

Because we were not invited to the cool podcast (actually, we recorded this before the AGP), the Oldtaku crew and special guest Scott Spaziani recorded our own your name. podcast. Scott and Ink are seasoned Shinkai viewers (both have panels on the director that they present at cons), and this is Jared's first exposure to the cloud/foot/loneliness director extraordinaire. We kept the first half free of spoilers by discussing themes and technique, but the second half contains spoilers galore for the purpose of digging into the meat of the movie. While it's almost impossible to spoil Shinkai's movies, which are more about experiencing the journey than knowing the ticketed endpoint, certain plot points in your name. are better experienced unadulterated the first time around. (So listen to the spoilers section at your own risk!)

Direct Download - RSS Feed - Stitcher - Google Play: Music - iTunes Send us Feedback! - More episodes

Runtime: 1 hr, 49 min

Show Notes

Opening Song: "Through the Glass" by Kaz Mirblouk

00:18 – The corniest intro ever!

00:47 – Introductions and summary.

02:18 – Spoiler free discussion.

Structure

Linearity

Emotional context/audience manipulation

The supernatural

The techn(olog)ical

Character design/Art

(Ink references this Reverse Thieves review.)

Feet

Clouds

your name.'s place in Shinkai's repertoire

Time management

Sub and dub (use of sound)

40:50 – Here there be spoilers!

The (third) impact

Time itself!

Carrot yanking

Upending expectations

Building an emotional rollercoaster

Resolutions

59:20 – Five Centimeters per Second spoiler

59:50 – Carry on

Unexplored backstories and relevance/potential thereof

Dreams and fading memories

Interview with Shinkai about your name. (vice.com)

Negative message about rural Japan?

1:21:30 – Twitter questions!

Ending Song: "Money 1973" by NO FUTURE

1:45:10 – ?

1:46:07 – Goddamnit

- Header picture via ANN's interview with CoMix Wave's Koichiro Ito. - Scott's review of your name. can be found on Otaku in Review. - Ink' review of your name. can be found on Fandom Post. - Evan "VamptVo" Minto's review of your name. can be found right here on Ani-Gamers. - Twitter: Ani-Gamers, Oldtaku no Radio, Scott, Ink, Jared - Scott Spaziani writes (for) Otaku in Review. - Ink also writes for Otaku USA Magazine and The Fandom Post. - Jared also writes for The Electrum Edition and Wave Motion Cannon.

originally appeared on Ani-Gamers on May 11, 2017 at 4:00 PM.

By: Ink