Category Archives: 2011 Winter Season

Bakacast – Brought to You by Morning Rescue

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Yo! I know Dustin usually does these things, but I decided to try my hand at editing the podcast this week just for the experience. Naturally, given my predilection towards batsh*t insanity, I did something totally silly and nerdy with the sound design. If you can guess the anime I’m parodying, you win 100 Baka Points.

This week, we start of by discussing Jake Adelstein’s recent fight with National Geographic over their Gangland Tokyo documentary. You should really go read his blog post on the subject, which paints a disturbing picture of NatGeo’s flippant attitude towards journalistic integrity. After that we plow straight through our regular reviewing regime. Dusty even gets a chance to share his thoughts on my favorite guilty pleasure show of the season, Suite PreCure! Finally, we answer a couple of in-depth e-mail questions about our ratings scale and the upcoming live-action Akira adaptation, before finishing off with the usual onslaught of silly Twitter questions.

  • 3:10 – Jake Adelstein vs NatGeo
  • 12:19 – Madoka Magica #9
  • 20:24 – Gosick #9
  • 28:27 – Level E #9
  • 34:40 – Fractale #7
  • 40:47 – MORNING RESCUE!
  • 41:14 – Wandering Son #7
  • 48:55 – Star Driver #22
  • 53:54 – Suite PreCure #5 (with special commentary by Dustin)
  • 1:01:30 – Macross Frontier #13 & #14
  • 1:11:00 – Listener Questions (Here is the 10-point scale John Crichton submitted.)

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

I’m Sick of GOSICK

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ALL OF MY HATE

Oh, GOSICK, how far you have fallen. Not all that far, actually, since you never managed to climb very high in the first place. It’s been like scurrying up onto a small fence and then toppling over backwards off a cliff. Poorly written similes aside, this show is becoming enjoyable on a level much different than I would have ever expected. It’s like a mix of Detective Conan and Commando at this point. With the right mindset, that has amazing potential.

So let’s dive into episodes four and five of the best unintentional comedy anime of the season.

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First Impressions – Suite PreCure

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Tee-hee sparkle sparkle!

Sometimes, you just need to think like a teenage girl.

I’ve been meaning to start watching PreCure after Sailor Moon introduced me to the wonders of magical girls last year. Like its predecessor, PreCure is one of those shows that everybody has heard of but nobody has seen. In Japan, it’s a hugely popular merchandising juggernaut aimed at little girls, much like My Little Pony in the United States. Perhaps because of its target audience, it has never received much attention in the Western otaku community. Regardless, with a new PreCure show just starting up, I figured it was the perfect time to see what this franchise is all about. This review covers the first two episodes.

From the very first scene, Suite PreCure dives headfirst a Power Rangers style black-and-white moral morass. Mephisto, the evil ruler of the musically themed Minor Land, is trying to steal the notes of the Melody of Happiness in order to transform it into a Melody of Sorrow. When the queen of Major Land scatters the notes all around Earth, Mephisto sends his transforming cat/girl minion Siren to retrieve them. However, Major Land’s adorable mascot Hummy manages to thwart Siren by transforming two girls, Hibiki and Kanade, into Cure Melody and Cure Rhythm. Thus begins the musical battle against the forces of sadness!

More after the break.

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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!