Show #013 Direct Download: 
Noah (froglartbge) has done the show notes again:
Opening music: Theme from Atom Ant. I don’t know why Erin picked this as the show opener, but I guess she digs it. I do have fond memories of attending a sci-fi convention in Colorado and watching old eps. of the Atom Ant/Secret Squirrel Show. It might be the second hardest I’ve ever laughed in my life (the first being when Evan Dorkin visited the NYU Sci-Fi club and gave a lecture on why superhero comics are stupid. He might be the funniest man in the world. Definitely one of the bitterest).
Squeeing, as defined by Wikipedia, “. . .can be an exclamation, or interjection, of excited happiness or surprise, especially when referring to fangirls, or be a squeal of glee over something incredibly cute.” There was a lot less squeeing in my day, I’ll tell you what.
Trekkies 2 was probably not as good as the first one, but they are both requisite watching for anyone who cares even slightly about fandom. Erin expresses concern about how the documentary portrays her people (those people being geeks, of course), but at no point during either film did I feel anything was being presented besides what was actually there. Trekkies 2 is also genuinely unique in that you get to see how some of the fans profiled in the first film changed in the interim, and it’s pretty amazing. The obnoxious kid grows up to become a decent human being (who is married and doing special effects for a living – a double coup), and the crazy woman who wore her Starfleet outfit to jury duty is composed and eloquent. Made me proud to be a dork.
Bobby soxers — unquestionably the archetype for the screaming fangirl.
Kenshin Fanfic. I feel kind of abashed posting a link to fanfic on the site, but there you go.
That goes double for Inuyasha fanfic.
Everyone’s favorite fox spirit, it’s Shippo! I like Shippo.
As I’m sure most of you know, The Brak Show is a cartoon on the Cartoon Network. In the Episode 4, “The Braks of Life,” Zorak forces Brak to get rid of his beloved lobster doll Hippo. Hippo then goes on to a successful public access television career hosting a show called “Show Us Your Garbage.” The theme goes:
Show us your garbage
Show us your trash
If Hippo likes it
You’ll win some cash
So show us your garbage
Ready, set, go…
It’s time to meet the star of our show
It’s Hippo (Hippo) It’s Hippo (Hippo)
It’s Hippo, he’s a hell of a guy
Which I, ahem, incessantly filked for Erin’s, er, listening enjoyment.
Beatles/Ghibli AMV link: what is it?
“G4 powerbooks make walls fall” “…and the very mountains crack.” Now that is a pretty obscure reference, and I approve!
The Paranoia Agent episode to which Erin is referring is Episode 10: Mellow Maromi. That Maromi-chan is one freaky cartoon dog.
Erin is an Animation Production Coordinator
DNAngel. Erin didn’t rant about it the last time we mentioned it, maybe she will since we’ve mentioned it again: [Ed. Note – This is Erin, and sorry, no, I forgot my DNAngel rant. It’s hard to remember what I said back in 2002.]
The interstitial music is the theme from Miracle Girls (which I did not recognize upon hearing it!). Magical Shoujo girls unite!
(Not to be confused with Future Girls, who move round and round in circles.)
“OMFG WHY HAVEN’T YOU SEEN THIS?” — This segment is entirely Erin’s idea, and so was the ridiculous reverb effect. Man, that reverb always cracks me up every time I hear it. Hah. Awesome.
Wings of Honeamise was the first Gainax movie. It is amazing to see how less mature they have become since then. Somehow, though, it seems strangely appropriate.
While we’re on the subject, a listener commented that my interpretation of Wings of Honeamise is flawed, because the movie is far more ambivalent about technological development and space exploration than I make it sound. He’s right, and my bias clearly shows. I should have made that more evident when we discussed the movie. Despite the ethos of the film, however, what you hear on the show is how the ending makes *me* feel. Your mileage may vary, but I unequivocably recommend that you watch the movie.
Here they are, the oustanding Royal Space Force. I’ve heard that in some places, Royal Space Force is the alternate title for the movie.
As you should have learned in grade school, the Wright Brothers were average guys with funny first names and no college degrees who used their know-how of bicycle mechanics to build what is generally considered the first powered aircraft.
The Computer Revolution was started in 1975 by a bunch of computer enthusiasts who met in a Menlo Park, CA garage and called themselves the Homebrew Computer Club. While it is true that its membership was made up of hobbyists, many of them were also engineers.
Time and time again I have heard charges leveled by the, ahem, plebs that Akira is incomprehensible, essentially plotless and nothing more that a loud, disgusting display of hyperviolence. Well, that is just wrong.
I wanted to find an essay on the “visual language of anime” and post it here, but I can’t find the one I was looking for on-line. Maybe Erin knows where it went.
Shamanic Princess, known to us as Shamanaic Princess, is a six episode OAV about some magical girl and her pet weasel who have to retrieve the Throne of Yord. This is significant because (a) it isn’t a weasel, it’s a ferret; and (b) the Throne of Yord reminds me of the Amulet of Yendor for some reason; the recovery of which is the ultimate objective in Rogue and NetHack. Sure, everyone has got the Amulet of Yendor in NetHack, but who can claim they actually got it in the original Rogue? Me, that’s who! At, like, the age of 8, too. Boo-yah!
I was in the International Baccalaureate program in high school, for anyone who knows what that is. When I hear how little other people had to work in high school to get good grades, I get a little bitter. Not as bitter as Evan Dorkin, of course, but bitter.
Anyway, the point is, in Kare Kano they take a lot of exams.
My definition of meritocracy on the show is really not very good. Assigning rank and privilege by exam scores is merely one way in which a system can be meritocratic. The definition is really much more broad: advancement based on individual ability or achievement is meritocratic.
Much of the extent to which China, Korea and Japan are meritocratic can be traced back to Confucianism, that ever-present bugaboo in Eastern culture.
Speed Tribes by Karl T. Greenfeld. I think this book did a lot to change the American perception of Japan as a monolithic culture of hypercompetitive salarymen. Of course, the Japanese banking crisis probably did more to shatter that image than anything else.
Tokyo University is widely considered to be the best school in Japan. As near as I can tell, anime does not exaggerate its status among Japanese universities or the pedigree of those who are fortunate enough to matriculate there.
Love Hina a parody of a parody of a harem anime show. I don’t like it very much. Near as I can tell, all of Keitaro’s options stink and he chooses the worst of them all. At least Ranma and Akane has chemistry. [Ed. Note – Love Hina is not a parody of a harem show, it is the prototypical harem anime.]
Golden Boy. Augh, I still don’t remember the ending narration. Ah, well. [Ed. Note – You can listen to the English dub of the Golden Boy ending narration on this episode of the AY podcast.]
The grandaddy of film theory, Sergei Mikhailovich Eisenstein. I’ve got plenty to say about him, but I’ll you. His film Alexander Nevsky plays like a 13th century version of Star Wars.
Montage, or more specifically, Intellectual Montage is what Erin is referring to here. I think most contemporary filmmakers consider the technique to be hackneyed and over-obvious, though I’m sure here and there you can find examples of it still being used. The only one that springs to mind is a ridiculous sequence from Fritz Lang‘s Fury with Spencer Tracy
The music you hear under my starry-eyed soliloquy on the subject of human ingenuity is Gats’ theme from Berserk. You’re going to be hearing a lot about Berserk in the coming weeks because we’re in the middle of the series and I’m totally enamored of it so far. It is very rare (as Erin will tell you while rolling her eyes) that I like something, but when I find something I like I tend to “grapple them unto [my] soul with hoops of steel,” if you will. I’ve heard the series doesn’t end well, but at the moment, in the thick of it, Berserk is one of those things.
Anyway, Erin is making fun of my earnestness. And I say so be it! There is nothing ironic or shameful about extolling the virtues of innovation.
Understanding Movies, by some italian guy. Now with Russell Crowe on the cover irritably exclaiming, “Whattsamatta? You don’t understand movies?” [Ed. Note – My edition has the Jurassic Park cover.]
“It was the most I ever threw up, and it changed my life up forever.” comes from The Simpsons episode Homer Goes to College, easily one of the finest episodes ever written (a Conan O’Brien script, incidentally).
It also contains the following exchange:
Bart: Well, Pop, what are you going to do?
Homer: Something I should have done a long time ago.
(long pause)
Marge: You don’t know, do you?
Homer: (quietly) No, ma’am.
Variations of which take place between me and Erin on a daily, if not hourly, basis.
Also, Son of Sniglet isn’t really a book. Katharine Hepburn’s Me is though. Arguably. [Ed. Note – Son of Sniglet isn’t a book, but is is a parody of More Sniglets.]
Our ending theme is the preview music “Forces,” again from Berserk. A listener commented that our music cues are too long. On principle I agree… but man, some of this stuff is just so great. “Go forth! O loquacious shadows, come and guide me!” — how cool is that?
Very cool.
