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It’s story time, dear listeners.

I did not intend to get this episode out so late, but the universe was working against me. The day after I finished recording the podcast, my dear PC that I built with my own hands and has served me well for nearly five years finally failed. After doing some frantic troubleshooting, I came to the conclusion that the motherboard shuffled off this mortal coil. Thankfully, a friend of mine provided a SATA-to-USB cable so I could recover the important files from my hard drive. That combined with the new laptop I recently got as a graduation present (perfect timing, huh?) allowed me to finally edit this stupid thing.

And that’s why this is being published on a Saturday instead of a Wednesday like I had originally planned.

Please email listener questions to bakacast[at]projectharuhi.net or leave them in the comments below.

P.S. I was recently on Scott and Michael’s Otaku in Review podcast for their Best Anime of 2011 episode. I had a lot of fun bantering with them and the other guests (Alain Mendez of Reverse Thieves and Kristina Pino from Japanator), so give it a listen if you have the time. Keep in mind, though, that they do not have the same PG-13 language restrictions that we do. There is a 100% chance you’ll hear me drop an F-bomb or two.

Time Index

• 00:08 – OP: City Escape Theme ~ Modern (Sonic Generations)

What We’ve Been Doing

• 3:21 – Scamp’s BakaBT Adventures
• 15:17 – Narcissu

Reviews et al.

• 23:56 – Children Who Chase Lost Voices from Deep Below
• 38:06 – Fate/Zero 13
• 47:05 – Ben-To 12
• 51:33 – Future Diary 12
• 58:30 – Last Exile 11
• 1:09:14 – Listener Questions
• 1:38:01 – ED: Death Egg (Sonic Generations)

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On this episode of Bakacast, Scamp is back to help is thoroughly discuss the series finale of Mawaru Penguindrum. We talk about what the final episode did right, what it did wrong and how it stacks up with Revolutionary Girl Utena, Ikuhara’s previous work. Plus, Scamp regales us with his holiday entertainment difficulties, how the original Star Wars is still pretty awesome (and Luke Skywalker is basically an anime protagonist), and some great 50+ episode series that we forgot to mention last episode. And in our listener questions, we go through the list of winter anime to decide which shows will be giving a chance.

Please email listener questions to bakacast[at]projectharuhi.net or leave them in the comments below.

Time Index

• 00:11 – OP: Rock Over Japan ~ Triple H Cover (Mawaru Penguindrum)

What We’ve Been Doing

• 2:30 – Star Wars

Reviews et al.

• 12:42 – Penguindrum 24
• 25:56 – Fate/Zero 12
• 33:28 – Chihayafuru 12
• 42:30 – Persona 4 12
• 52:08 – Ben-To 11
• 57:23 – Future Diary 11
• 1:03:44 – Last Exile 10
• 1:09:12 – Listener Questions
• 1:45:07 – ED: Unmei No Ko Tachi (Mawaru Penguindrum)

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Scamp couldn’t be with us for this episode because he was actually spending time with his family; but we don’t let that stop us from blathering on as usual. Besides our normal reviews, we also take a look at Kyousogiga–technically the first winter show of the year. We also discuss how Trigun just doesn’t hold up anymore, why the second Eden of the East movie is terribly disappointing and what terrible things the Madoka Magica dub did to our ears.

Please email listener questions to bakacast[at]projectharuhi.net or leave them in the comments below.

Time Index

• 00:06 – OP: The Legend of Zelda Theme (by the Boston Symphony Orchestra)

What We’ve Been Doing

• 2:42 – Trigun
• 5:40 – Eden of the East 2: Paradise Lost
• 9:05 – Larry marathons Last Exile: Fam

News

• 15:19 – Madoka Magica dub trailer

Reviews et al.

• 17:47 – Kyousogiga
• 24:28 – Penguindrum 23
• 32:18 – Fate/Zero 11
• 38:41 – Chihayafuru 11
• 48:38 – Persona 4 11
• 57:56 – Ben-To 10
• 1:03:42 – Future Diary 10
• 1:10:27 – Last Exile 9
• 1:20:11 – Listener Questions
• Team Four Star (creators of the DBZ Abridged Series)
• Cucumber Quest (created by hiimdaisy aka Gigi DG)
• Persona 4 comic dub (original comic created by Gigi DG; dub credits in the video description)
• 1:52:06 – ED: The Legend of Zelda: Song of Time metal remix (by ArtificalFear)

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I swear to God, if we record another podcast that’s as long as this one, I’m going to send it to the trash bin and upload an audio file that’s just an hour of Yakkity Sax on loop. I won’t even be sorry about it. If my life were an animated GIF, this would be the point where sunglasses descended from the sky and landed on my face, causing the words “Deal With It” to magically appear.

Thankfully for you, dear listener, there’s a good chance that will never happen, since a) we’re  done with the Macross movies and are waiting until next season to do more retro reviews, and b) we got so fed up with Guilty Crown that we Galactic Punted it out of the podcast. Yeah, that’s right. We got through all of AnoHana, Fractale and No. 6, but Guilty Crown is what finally broke us. It was the straw the broke the Tachikoma’s back, so to speak.

Please email listener questions to bakacast[at]projectharuhi.net or leave them in the comments below.

Time Index

• 00:11 – OP: Kindan no Elixer (Macross Frontier: The Wings of Goodbye)

What We’ve Been Doing

• 2:55 – Noir
• 7:43 – Rose of Versailles

Reviews et al.

• 15:31 – Penguindrum 21
• 24:47 – Fate/Zero 9
• 33:08 – Chihayafuru 9
• 39:48 – Persona 4 9
• 50:45 – Ben-To 8
• 55:47 – Future Diary 8
• 1:03:13 – Last Exile 7
• 1:10:12 – Guilty Crown 8
• 1:17:12 – Macross Frontier: The Wings of Goodbye
• 1:39:09 – Listener Questions
• 2:16:53 – ED: Niji-iro Kumakuma (Macross Frontier: The Wings of Goodbye)

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Because some of our listeners kept bugging us, we finally got around to watching one of the Macross Frontier movies. And boy are we ever glad we did.

Besides hearing me gush about Macross, this episode also features me gushing about Skyrim. And Scamp gushing about Minecraft. And all of us gushing about Future Diary. The point is, there’s a lot of gushing going on, and as I’m typing this I’m realizing that this is starting to sound a little dirty.

Please email listener questions to bakacast[at]projectharuhi.net or leave them in the comments below.

Time Index

• 00:08 – OP: Pink Monsoon (Macross Frontier: The False Songstress)

What We’ve Been Doing

• 2:38 – Minecraft
• 8:51 – Skyrim
• 15:42 – Eden of the East

Reviews et al.

• 19:46 – Penguindrum 20
• 31:15 – Fate/Zero 8
• 35:07 – Chihayafuru 8
• 38:57 – Persona 4 8
• 47:18 – Ben-To 7
• 52:44 – Future Diary 7
• 1:01:23 – Last Exile 6
• 1:08:40 – Guilty Crown 7
• 1:17:01 – Macross Frontier: The False Songstress
• 1:36:46 – Listener Questions
• 1:50:31 – ED: Universal Bunny (Macross Frontier: The False Songstress)

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This week’s episode is a very special one: it’s the first podcast ever where I’ve been the one to choose the album art. In fact, because of Jon’s new, busy schedule, I took control of ALL of the publishing duties. It feels good to have this power.

Anyway, enough about my newfound superiority complex. You just want to know how many shows we hated this week. The answer is: basically nothing. Yeah, I know. We’re all very surprised. Besides Guilty Crown (which we’ve learned to never expect anything good from), the worst shows this week were just mostly mediocre episodes of Future Diary and Ben-To. Don’t let that deceive you, though. We still find plenty of stuff to nitpick.

Please email listener questions to bakacast[at]projectharuhi.net or leave them in the comments below.

Time Index

• 00:06 – OP: Ningen Nante (the Cromartie High School humming song)

What We’ve Been Doing

• 1:59 – Leeds Film Festival
• 9:43 – Parasite Eve (here’s the Retronauts podcast about Silent Hill I mentioned)
• 15:12 – Cromartie High School

Reviews et al.

• 18:04 – Penguindrum 19
• 25:41 – Fate/Zero 7
• 32:35 – Chihayafuru 7
• 37:30 – Persona 4 7
• 47:54 – Ben-To 6
• 51:17 – Future Diary 6
• 58:04 – Last Exile 5
• 1:06:25 – Guilty Crown 6
• 1:15:49 – Baccano 15 & 16
• 1:27:03 – Listener Questions
• 2:10:36 – ED: Live for Life ~Ookami-tachi no Yoru~ (Ben-To)

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Since both Jon and Karen are officially sitting this season out, we’ve decided to bring Scamp on as a co-host for the rest of the season. Which means that, yes, I did end up watching Guilty Crown even though I said last episode that I was done with the show for good. Because I can’t have Scamp on the podcast without talking to him about Guilty Crown.

Though our review segment will remain the same, we unfortunately had to skip Fate/Zero and Ben-To this week, since we’re now recording on Saturday, and those two shows get fansubbed either late into Saturday or early on Sunday. That proved to be a blessing in disguise, though, as we still managed to talk for over two hours. Clearly, if we can do anything well at Project Haruhi, it’s blowing enough hot air to fill a zeppelin.

Please email listener questions to bakacast[at]projectharuhi.net or leave them in the comments below.

Time Index

• 00:11 – OP: Starboard (Last Exile Fam)

News

• 3:11 – Madoka Magica film trilogy

Reviews et al.

• 10:32 – Penguindrum 18
• 20:24 – Working S2 6 [DROPPED]
• 22:00 – Chihayafuru 6
• 29:20 – Persona 4 6
• 43:06 – Future Diary 5
• 54:26 – Last Exile 4
• 1:06:02 – Guilty Crown 5
• 1:21:17 – Baccano 13 & 14
• 1:38:06 – Listener Questions
• 2:12:24 – ED: Primal Eyes (Parasite Eve)

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Oh dear God, this episode is over two hours again, which simply strengthens my belief that this season is trying to slowly drive me insane. Or, perhaps more accurately, drive me into rage and despair, as no less than two of my scores sharply diverge from Glen and Larry’s more positive opinions. Also I’ve stopped watching Squid Girl, but this time the rest of the Bakacast crew actually thinks its justified.

In addition to our normal reviews, we talk about our ideas for original anime, I give my thoughts on Catherine now that I’ve finally finished it, and we spend a whole hell of a lot of time giving advice about college in the listener questions segment.

Please email listener questions to bakacast[at]projectharuhi.net or leave them in the comments below.

Time Index

• 00:06 – OP: Oath Sign (Fate/Zero)

News

• 2:14 – The Japanese want to build another Tokyo

What We’ve Been Doing

• 5:41 – Catherine
• 13:43 – Gundam Unicorn

Reviews et al.

• 15:42 – Penguindrum 17
• 25:05 – Squid Girl S2 5
• 32:19 – Working S2 5
• 36:41 – Fate/Zero 6
• 46:22 – Chihayafuru 5
• 52:58 – Persona 4 5
• 58:17 – Ben-To 5
• 1:07:03 – Future Diary 4
• 1:14:53 – Last Exile 3
• 1:20:00 – Guilty Crown 4
• 1:30:58 – Baccano 11 & 12
• 1:37:47 – Listener Questions
• 2:11:37 – ED: Kuusou Mesorogiwi (Mirai Nikki)

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I apologize for the audio skipping in this episode. It occasionally cuts out a quarter of a second of speech, which rarely hinders intelligibility, but it’s embarrassing all the same. The lesson here is that we should never use iFree Skype Recorder ever again. Which reminds me, we’re currently trying to find alternatives to Skype, because ever since Microsoft bought it it’s been even more finicky and annoying than it was originally. So if you have any suggestions, let us know in the comment section or by sending us an e-mail. Remember, it needs to a) be free, b) work on Windows, c) be able to do conference calls and d) have some sort of audio recording option either built in or by using third-party software. Being able to text chat with people in the call would also be very nice, but not necessary.

Anyway, it doesn’t seem like we’ll be dropping more shows anytime soon, since Penguindrum just earned itself a second chance, Chihayafuru finally switched to the interesting versions of its characters, and we’re so desperate for Guilty Crown to make good on its potential that we’ll probably give it a couple more episodes. At least Squid Girl skipped a week and gave us a slight relief from the many shows we’re covering. Oh well, better a flood than a drought, I suppose. To paraphrase a certain penguin-owning badass, “We shall not be crushed.”

Please email listener questions to bakacast[at]projectharuhi.net or leave them in the comments below.

Time Index

• 00:17 – OP: Sky’s the Limit (Persona 4)

What We’ve Been Doing

• 3:10 – Ever 17: The Out of Infinity

Reviews et al.

• 6:06 – Penguindrum 16
• 11:11 – Working S2 4
• 15:07 – Fate/Zero 5
• 22:22 – Chihayafuru 4
• 27:40 – Persona 4 4
• 35:19 – Ben-To 4
• 41:25 – Future Diary 3
• 46:53 – Last Exile 2
• 51:21 – Guilty Crown 3
• 58:27 – Baccano 9 & 10
• 1:10:41 – Listener Questions
• 1:46:50 – ED: Innocent Blue ~version de l’apprivoiser~ (Star Driver)