Author Archives: Dustin

About Dustin

Dustin (aka Stilts) enjoys playing and yelling at video games, especially RPGs. He also likes super robot shows... the more outrageous the plot, the better!

Animated Ambien – Nichijou 0

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Warning: Action speedlines not indicative of actual content.

Talk about a disappointment. Kyoto Animation’s Nichijou, an adaptation of the 4-koma manga that ran in Shonen Ace, originally interested me because most sources described it as a mix between Azumanga Daioh and Cromartie High School. Both of those shows would make my top 10 anime list. Episode 0, however, contains entirely original content not found in the manga, and it doesn’t exactly speak well for the competence of the staff.

Simply put, Nichijou is one of the worst things I’ve ever watched.
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Bakacast – Sparking!!

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This week on Bakacast, we try something new for our opening segment and talk about what we’ve been playing and/or watching during the past week. Which means that I finally get to talk about video games on my anime podcast. Glorious freedom!

Anyway, Madoka didn’t air and Gosick wasn’t subbed in time, so we took the opportunity to catch up with Break Blade, fall asleep during Nichijou and discuss a K-On! doujin (yes, really). In other news, the Fractale hate train keeps rolling, the Star Driver love party returns and we give our advice for how you–YES, YOU!–can be Internet-famous podcasters (DISCLAIMER: May not actually make you Internet-famous).

We cover:

  • 2:27 – What we’ve been watching/playing
  • 15:27 – FUNimation backpedals
  • 21:22 – Deconstructing K-On!
  • 29:18 – Nichijou #0
  • 35:25 – Break Blade #4
  • 43:12 – Level E #11
  • 47:43 – Fractale #9
  • 53:07 – Wandering Son #9
  • 59:01 – Star Driver #23
  • 1:07:01 – Suite PreCure #6
  • 1:11:06 – Macross Frontier #17 & #18
  • 1:20:12 – Listener questions

Bakacast – NOT THE BEES!

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I want you all to know that I waited to play Dragon Age 2 so I could get the podcast edited immediately. You see the sacrifices I make for you people?

Anyway, we’re a little lighter on reviews and heavier on news because of the terrible one-two punch of natural disasters that recently hit Japan. If you’d like to help out, the link on the top of the sidebar will take you to a list of large and trustworthy organizations (such as the Red Cross and Salvation Army) that you can donate to. Since plenty of news organizations have covered the disaster better than we can, we instead focus on what it might mean for the short-term future of the anime industry. And on a lighter subject, we discuss FUNimation’s HorribleSubs gaffe. After our typical review segment (minus the Star Driver love party, sadly), we go off on some of our wildest tangents to date thanks to your seemingly straightforward listener questions.

  • 2:04 – Earthquake aftermath
  • 13:07 – FUNimation uses HorribleSubs
  • 20:15 – Madoka Magic #10
  • 25:03 – Gosick #10
  • 31:25 – Level E #10
  • 38:26 – Fractale #8
  • 47:13 – Wandering Son #8
  • 56:16 – Macross Frontier #15 & #16
  • 1:11:00 – Listener questions

I reference a couple things during the listener questions segment that you might like to check out. Fast Karate for the Gentlemen ripped apart both the anime and live-action versions of Blood: The Last Vampire (be warned that, unlike Bakacast, they use explicit language). As for the “Cage Rage” podcasts I mentioned, you can find every single one by clicking these handy links. Consider them your course materials for Nic Cage 101. There will be a test. It will not be open book.

If you would like to submit listener questions for a future episode, you can email them to bakacast[at]projectharuhi.net, @reply them to Project Haruhi’s Twitter account using the hashtag #bakacast, or leave them in the comments below.

Bakacast – Kirino’s Comeuppance

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Thanks to a sudden onset of responsibility that’s more surprising than any episode of Madoka Magica, I’ve managed to edit and post this episode of Bakacast a mere two days after we recorded it. Now to reward myself by totally slacking off again.

Sadly, Jon is absent from this episode on account of being kidnapped by ninjas. While we wait for him to escape their clutches, we happily accept the newest ending of OreImo as the best ending,  somehow relate Dick Cheney to Gosick, give our first unanimous perfect score to Wandering Son, and tell Star Driver to go sit in the corner until it’s thought about what it’s done. Also, we discuss Jon’s Anime Oscar picks while Glen informs me of all the awesome stuff I missed this season.

We cover:

  • 3:10 – OreImo #12 [True Route]
  • 10:48 – Madoka Magica #8
  • 23:59 – Gosick #8
  • 34:45 – Level E #8
  • 41:22 – Fractale #6
  • 46:00 – Wandering Son #6
  • 53:04 – Star Driver #21
  • 1:04:11 – Suite PreCure #4
  • 1:08:57 – Macross Frontier #11 & #12
  • 1:15:39 – Anime Oscars discussion

[That fabulous Star Driver comic is based on this comic by Kate Beaton. You should read her stuff, because she’s awesome.]

Bakacast – Tragic Piano Accident

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Yes, I know this Bakacast is a week late. I’d try to excuse it by saying I have a magazine internship, but if I’m being honest with myself then the real problem is playing too much Dragon Age: Origins. So, uh…my bad.

Anyway, we introduce yet another show into our review lineup this week: Suite PreCure. I haven’t watched it yet, so for now it’ll just be Jon, Glen and Thomas discussing it. But rest assured, I’ll catch up eventually.

In other news, Bakacast finally has an official e-mail address! Since Feedburner is telling me we have over 100 subscribers (wow), I figured it was about time we joined the rest of the big-boy podcasts and get an inbox where you can send comments and questions for us to read on the air. So if you’d like to chime in, send an e-mail to bakacast(at)projectharuhi(dot)net.

We cover:

I Told You So [Madoka Spoilers]

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The only good emissary of evil is a dead one.

So, remember when I made that post a while back warning everyone that Kyubey was not to be trusted?

Well, guess what? I was right.

Maybe I had a bit of an advantage over my fellow Project Haruhi staffers, since I watched all six seasons of LOST. Maybe that experience made me far more willing to believe and attempt to validate crazy fan theories. Or maybe I’m just completely nuts and have lost all sense of rational thought.

Whatever the reasons, I totally called all the so-called “twists” in episode eight, and I’m going to break down how I did it.

[Warning! Spoilers lurk after the break!]

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Bakacast Loves You YEAH!

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The Noitamina shows skipped a week, but we managed to make this episode over an hour and half anyway. That’s the dedication the Bakacast staff has to giving you as much commute-filling audio as possible.

Instead of reviewing Wandering Son and Fractale, we discuss Funimation’s downgraded lawsuit and Borders filing for bankruptcy, and we add Hokago no Pleiades and Break Blade to our review segment. Also, I’m trying something new with this week’s podcast. In addition to including timestamps in the show notes, I added chapter markings in the ID3 tags. The only problem? Not a whole lot of audio players can read ID3v2 chapter tags yet. So if yours can (and you find the chapter tags useful), please leave a comment.

We cover:

  • 01:08 – Funimation drops 1336 lawsuits
  • 09:21 – Borders claims Chapter 11 bankruptcy
  • 16:00 – Hokago no Pleiades
  • 26:49 – Break Blade #3
  • 45:27 – Madoka Magica #6
  • 56:45 – Gosick #6
  • 1:11:35 – Level E #6
  • 1:18:16 – Star Driver #19
  • 1:26:52 – Macross Frontier #7 & #8

Bakacast – Breaking a Maiden’s Seal

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Hey, guess what? It’s Bakacast’s first birthday! To celebrate this momentous occasion, Glen and I break the record for most sex euphemisms in one episode. Yes, we’re rather proud of ourselves.

Other than that, though, it’s business as usual for our reviews. We gush about Level E and Star Driver, pick Gosick apart, wonder what the hell Fractale is trying to do and come up with new conspiracy theories about Kyubey. The Twitter questions, however, are not quite as predictable. What do I mean by that? Well, let’s just say I somehow managed to turn a fairly fluffy query into a long, detailed discussion of unfortunate trends in anime and the ideas that spawned them.

I apologize in advance, but I’m an English major. I can’t help it.

We cover:

  • Madoka Magica #5
  • Gosick #5
  • Level E #5
  • Fractale #4
  • Wandering Son #4
  • Star Driver #18
  • Macross Frontier #5 & 6

Bakacast – Galactic Pretty Girls

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That’s right, I finally put a Star Driver reference in the episode title. It only took me 17 episodes.

Anyway, Jon had to sit this one out and Larry was sick, so it falls on Glen, Thomas and me to pick apart the absurdities in Gosick, gush about Level E, try and figure out what the heck Fractale is trying to do, speculate on how one becomes a female pretty boy, and declare our undying love for Sheryl Nome.

Also, Ranka’s spirit of ambition inspires Glen to “sing” at the end of the podcast. Enjoy the results.

We cover:

  • Madoka Magica #4
  • Gosick #4
  • Level E #4
  • Fractale #3
  • Wandering Son #3
  • Star Driver #17
  • Macross Frontier #3 & 4

Bakacast – The Super Dimension Podcast

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For this week’s episode of Bakacast, we bring in Scott from Otaku in Review as a guest host to help us lament how stupid Funimation is to prosecute BitTorrent users. Oh, and I guess we talk about some anime, too. Prepare for Madoka speculation, more rants about Gosick, an in-depth look at how Level E sure got sexy, and the Star Driver Love Party™. Also, we begin our semi-retro-review of Macross Frontier.

We cover:

  • Madoka Magica #3
  • Yumekui Merry #3 (dropped)
  • Gosick #3
  • Level E #3
  • Fractale #2
  • Wandering Son #2
  • Star Driver #16
  • Macross Frontier #1 & 2

See you next deculture!