Show #055 Direct Download: 
OP: Naruto Shippuden’s most recent OP
ED: OP and ED of the original Johnny Quest
cartoon
My mom is the guest of this not-very-christmassy christmas episode. We talk about Sailor Moon vs. She-Rah, Godzilla, Starman, and strong female characters.
- “Christmas Time is Here” – Noah sings from A Charlie Brown Christmas, and is flat.
- Mokona! bu bu bu bu! (from Magic Knight Rayearth
- Yes, we have Erin’s mom as a guest — just like they do on The Greatest Movie EVER! Podcast where
Paul convinced his mom to watch Akira. - Erin’s mom thinks Akira might be Yu-Gi-Oh! or Inuyasha, but it isn’t.
- Erin’s mom was also very unlucky and watched the last disk of Berserk.
- We slogged our way through the most recent episode of Shippuden!
- We also watched the most recent episode of Avatar!
- Erin’s mom watched Power Rangers!
- Is Avatar the best American Cartoon ever?
- What about The Simpsons
- Appa, the flying buffalo from Avatar, is not Abba, the Swedish pop group.
- However, Appa is a little like the Nekobus from Totoro.
- Erin was more obsessed with the Simpsons when she was younger. Then she started watching Sailor Moon
- Erin points out that anime and manga are not genres, but rather media, and contain many genre and subgenre (not the least of which being the cooking genre, with titles like Iron Wok Jan, Yakitate ! Japan
- Erin also watched She-ra (Noah admits to watching He-Man
- Noah thinks Magical Princess Minky-Momo is the apotheosis of frilly, girly anime. (If you don’t know the series, think Otaku no Video‘s Misty May
- Has there ever been a magical-girl spin-off from a shonen series? Arale from Dr. Slump makes an appearance in Dragonball, but that’s all we could think of
- Sexual revolution in Japan
- Erin’s mom didn’t like Speed Racer. She preferred Rocky and Bulwinkle. She also never saw Astroboy.
- However — she did watch plenty of Godzilla movies and other Tokusatsu shows.
- Her favorites were the ones with Ghidora and Mothra. Didn’t like Mechagodzilla very much, though.
- Gamera is ok too. Baby Godzilla creeps her out, though… and that little kid.
- We watched Gamera 2006 (Gamera the Brave) recently.
Erin’s mom doubts there are Avatar action figures, and yet here they are! Some even squirt water! But you know what? You *can’t* get a Toph action figure!
We later finally figured out that the one she was talking about is called Starman.
- Which American adventure cartoons were the best?
- Thundarr the Barbarian
- Pirates of Dark Water
- Erin’s mom says, Johnny Quest is better than Avatar… but then, she also thinks Zutara is the OTP.
From the Field Notes of Daryl Surat (Podcaster, Historian):
Avatar is certainly nice and all, but the title of the best American animated TV series still goes to the collective Timm/Diniverse DC animated properties. Not only is The Question not present in Avatar: The Last Airbender, the fanbase for Batman/Superman/Justice League is exponentially less slash-obsessed fanbase than that of Avatar’s. Even when you factor in the Batman crazies.
Slashfic-obsessed fans–the most powerful force on the entire Internet, bar none–are the undoing of the enjoyment factor of many a franchise. I can think of no alternate explanation for why I have yet to complete the third Phoenix Wright game or watch/read Harry Potter.
Sailor Moon is, in fact, the girlified version of Power Rangers. The storytelling formula for tokusatsu and the formula for magical girls are identical, only the latter appeals more to pedophiles [Gamera]. Indeed, one might note that Nurse Witch Komugi-chan is a magical girl spinoff of The Soultaker, or that Pretty Sammy is a magical girl spinoff of Tenchi Muyo, and it’s not like either of those were targeted towards little girls. In the event that the show your mom was thinking about but couldn’t name was Spectreman, that gives her more TRUE TOKUSATSU FAN street cred than Mike Dent and PT Chapman combined, as it along with Godzilla are among the earliest of Japanese popular science fiction. Per the highly scholarly tome that is Robot Ghosts and Wired Dreams, even.
PS: this is the most sedate, Delicious Dish-esque episode you’ve ever done.
PPS: Like with all TV shows that are not 24 or Prison Break, I wait for seasons of Avatar to end entirely before beginning to watch any of them. Thanks for revealing the secrets of what I haven’t seen yet! Now I have to make Clarissa listen.
Re: From the Field Notes of Daryl Surat (Podcaster, Historian):
It might just be Starman and not Spectreman.
I like the sound of “Delicious Dish-esque” but as per the usual, I miss the reference.
I don’t think you should let crazed slashers ruin everything for you.
Re: From the Field Notes of Daryl Surat (Podcaster, Historian):
I belive daryl is referring to a recurring SNL sketch spoofing public radio, a particularly memorable instance of which contains Alec Baldwin talking about his Schweddy Balls.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Delicious_Dish
Re: From the Field Notes of Daryl Surat (Podcaster, Historian):
Shit! You’re right!
Screw you, Daryl, NPR is awesome!
Re: From the Field Notes of Daryl Surat (Podcaster, Historian):
If you rewatch a lot of episodes of Batman the animated series they don’t hold up as well as you might remember. As a whole they are still groundbreaking and I think most adventure shows that followed owe a lot to their innovation.
Also since a lot of stories and inspiration are pulled from other sources (the comics and movies), Avatar gets bonus points for being a completely original animated series (granted pulling inspiration and influence from everything but the kitchen sink). I enjoy the Batman series a lot. But you really have to buy into a world of pure fantasy and throw logic out the door. Which I personally love to do BTW.
Godzilla movies seem to have their own genre “Monster Flick” that play into their own set of rule–but definitely splinters off from sci-fi and horror. The original Godzilla film having the most direct speculative sci-fi roots.
Angry Otaku:
lol …yo mama
your mom kicks ass, and I want her on the show more often. she’s very true when it comes to blonde vs. bald people. What’s her opinion on bald vs. shaved head people?
hair and choices
Ah Bald vs. choose-to-be bald. On one had, bald people don’t have a lot of choice and how they deal with the baldness reflects their character. Those who shave their heads — what is the intent? Easier care or bad-ass baldness/nothing to hide? Sometimes strength is associated with hair length, like with Sampson. It might be weird and maybe I’ve seen to many bad guys who are bald (notably Dr. Evil) but I don’t just trust bald characters right away…except kids like Avatar. In general, bald characters have to earn my trust. And that’s really wrong of me.
James Leung: This creeps me out…
Never really watched too much Avatar in the mid-2000s. I need to go back and watch it now. Funnily enough, I did watch all of The Legend of Korra though.
I’d like to consider Godzilla science fiction. Definitely.