Gundam AGE – Will it RUIN GUNDAM FOREVER?

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Nobody is asking the question that everyone should: WHERE IS HARO?!

Mobile Suit Gundam could be considered one of the most influential anime of all time. It spawned the real robot genre, introduced serious social topics such as politics and war to its audience, and inspired an endless lineup of spin-offs and model kits that one will have to wait four to six weeks to ship to one’s house from Hobby Link Japan. Out of this metaseries, Gundam fans have born witness to the critically acclaimed Zeta Gundam, and wished they never had to endure Sunrise vomiting out SEED Destiny. And now, after a plethora of hit-or-miss alternate universe spin-offs and mountains of model kits, we now see, on the heels of the thirtieth anniversary of the original anime, the debut Mobile Suit Gundam AGE.

And I have not met a damn soul who is happy about this.

Is this the end of Gundam as we know it? Find out, after the break.

SHOOM!

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Bakacast – Daddy;Issues

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Karen got hit by a nasty cold and wasn’t feeling well enough to come on the podcast (how dare she prioritize her health over talking to some jerks about anime), so we asked frequent-guest Thomas to be our fourth host so we wouldn’t feel so lonely.

As usual, I use our “Whatcha Been Doin'” segment to talk about videogames, specifically Duke Nukem Forever and how terrible it is. Spoiler: it’s pretty terrible. We also bring back the news segment to discuss Zac Bertschy’s High School of the Dead review. Turns out it’s one of those rare gems that can actually be improved by the Manga Entertainment method of dubbing.

Speaking of things that are hilariously stupid, Glen, Thomas and I give our impressions on the episodes of Soft Tennis we managed to watch, pick apart X-Men, wonder how much more dumb Ohana of Hanasaku Iroha can possibly get, and console ourselves with the fact that AnoHana is almost over.

Also, we tackle the (not-so-anymore-)controversial question of what is anime, really?

We cover:

  • 2:53 – Whatcha Been Doin’
  • 11:21 – News stories
  • 16:33 – Soft Tennis general impressions
  • 23:56 – Gosick #21
  • 30:46 – X-Men #10
  • 35:44 – Hanasaku Iroha #11
  • 44:01 – Steins;Gate #11
  • 52:48 – AnoHana #9
  • 59:14 – [C] #9
  • 1:06:05 – Listener questions

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 – Suddenly, Plot Appears!

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Sadly, Karen could not be with us for the entire podcast, because she has actual work to accomplish. To mitigate that issue, we rearranged our reviewing schedule a bit. Don’t be afraid! It’s only temporary! We’ll return to normalcy next week.

This week, we have the pleasure of reviewing the fifth Break Blade OVA, which makes a return to greatness after the lackluster fourth episode. Unfortunately, the same can’t be said for X-Men, as the final half of episode 9 brings it back to the levels of terrible we expect from the show. Oh well. At least X-Men: First Class is decent.

We cover:

  • 2:08 – What we’ve been doin’
  • 12:35 – X-Men #9
  • 20:50 – Steins;Gate #10
  • 29:40 – Hanasaku Iroha #10
  • 38:14 – Break Blade #5
  • 47:23 – Gosick #20
  • 51:29 – AnoHana #8
  • 59:12 – [C] #8
  • 1:07:17 – Listener questions

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.

Or if, like Hate-Chan, you want to write the occasional article for Project Haruhi, you can e-mail a writing sample to Jon at  ryoko[at]projectharuhi.net.

Bakacast – K-ON! with Credit Cards

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Karen of the Otakusphere joins us once again as we struggle through another frustrating week.

This time, though, she and Larry surprise us with their positive impressions of Soft Tennis. Expect Glen and I to at least try and catch up, if only to witness the bear fight. In other news, the final episode of OreImo leaves a sour taste in our mouths, Gosick goes back to its regularly scheduled incompetence, Tiger & Bunny fails us for the last time, X-Men is decent for a change, Steins;Gate has its first misstep, and Glen makes a startling realization about [C].

All this and more embarrassing stories prompted by listener questions!

We cover:

  • 2:20 – What we’ve been doing
  • 12:46 – Soft Tennis
  • 22:30 – OreImo #15
  • 33:07 – Gosick #19
  • 41:17 – Tiger & Bunny #9 (dropped)
  • 47:39 – X-Men #8
  • 54:33 – Hanasaku Iroha #9
  • 1:02:03 – Steins;Gate #9
  • 1:15:58 – AnoHana #7
  • 1:22:07 – [C] #7
  • 1:31:13 – Listener questions

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 – Ne, Victorique!

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Karen of The Otakusphere joins us again for this week’s episode and gives us what’s probably the only recap of Astarotte’s Toy we’ll ever hear (or pay attention to).

Since we’ve executed several shows over the last couple episodes, we bring back the “What have you been playing/reading/watching?” segment that I really should find a more clever and concise name for. Then we get right to our review segment, which includes one of the most miraculous events ever witnessed. No, it’s not the Rapture; you couldn’t download this podcast if that had actually happened. It was something even more unexpected: we give Gosick a perfect score.

Did I just blow your mind? No?

Well, then it’ll probably later get blown away when we discuss how bad Tiger & Bunny and AnoHana managed to be. I feel like you really have to work to come up with dialogue and plotlines that terrible.

We cover:

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 – The Dark Side of Yuri

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We go back to basics on this episode of Bakacast with just Glen, Larry and me on hosting duties. We even bring back the poor, neglected news segment to look deep within ourselves and wonder if we would pay upwards of $150 to find a wife. The answer is a definitive “Probably not, but I won’t rule it out.”

Of course, we review some anime, too, finally freeing ourselves from the bondage of Battle Girls (it wasn’t even the fun, “let’s experiment” kind of bondage). Plus, Gosick proves it doesn’t even know how light works, Tiger & Bunny could be more accurately titled Bunny, Deadman Wonderland shows similar problems to Highschool of the Dead (but without any of the “entertaining” parts), and Steins;Gate once again saves the week.

We cover:

  • 2:06 – OtaRen, the otaku dating service
  • 11:33 – Gosick #17
  • 21:52 – Tiger & Bunny #7 (the comic was actually from PvP, not Shortpacked; sorry, Scott Kurtz!)
  • 30:26 – Hanasaku Iroha #7
  • 37:28 – Battle Girls #7 (dropped)
  • 44:42 – Steins;Gate #7
  • 52:20 – AnoHana #5
  • 57:21 – Deadman Wonderland #5 (dropped)
  • 1:02:56 – [C] #5
  • 1:14:49 – Listener questions

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 – Three Angry Men

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This week’s episode marks the first time in a while that Bakacast has actually made it under an hour and a half. Frankly, I’m stunned and kind of hope this trend continues. It helps that we’ve trimmed down our list so it only includes three shows that we’re watching purely for masochistic purposes. The others are either genuinely good or showed early promise and are now suffering from an acute case of Occult Academy syndrome.

I’m looking at you Tiger & Bunny.

Frequent guest-host Thomas fills in Jon’s vacant fourth slot this week and, in a daring move, gives Battle Girls the highest score its gotten since the first episode. As stunned as I was (and still am), I admit it’s hard to argue with an episode that gives me 100% more Nobunaga (aka the only good thing about the show). But Glen, Larry and I being who we are, we find plenty of ways to argue about it anyway. Because we’re mean like that.

We cover:

  • 2:09 – Gosick #16
  • 11:27 – Tiger & Bunny #6
  • 19:33 – Hanasaku Iroha #6
  • 25:56 – Battle Girls #6
  • 34:43 – Steins;Gate #6 (it seems appropriate that this show gets a palindrome for its time stamp)
  • 43:46 – Dat Flower–er…AnoHana #4
  • 52:17 – Deadman Wonderland #4
  • 1:00:30 – [C] #4
  • 1:10:06 – Listener question

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.

Boku Wa Tomodachi Ga Sukunai Anime Adaptation Green-Lighted!

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I am excitebike!

I usually don’t newsblog, but when Boku Wa Tomodachi Ga Sukunai is concerned, I can’t resist the urge to tell everyone to stop whatever they are doing and go read it. Today, it was revealed that the soon to be released 6th volume of the light novel comes with an anime announcement! This was enough to make my head explode and every resulting head fragment explode once again ad infinitum until the sheer amount of explosions creates a black hole that sucks up all suffering on this planet.

Boku Wa Tomodachi Ga Sukunai tells the story of Kodaka Hasegawa, son of a Japanese father and a dirty gaijin mother. Thanks to her genes he’s got blonde hair, which quickly gives him the reputation of a delinquent. Combined with his sharp eyes, Kodaka seems to suffer from a severe case of Ryuji syndrome and therefore doesn’t have many friends. One day when he enters a classroom, he hears a girl enthusiastically talking to someone. Upon closer observation, this someone turns out to be… no one. When Kodaka asks her what’s going on, the girl introduces herself as Yozora Mikazuki and tells him she was talking to her ‘air friend’ Tomo. Kodaka refrains from calling Yozora out on the fact that she still has an imaginary friend and after a short conversation, Yozora drags Kodaka into founding The Neighbour’s Club, where socially inept people can make friends.

If you think this sounds like Haruhi meets Toradora!, you’re quite right. No news on when the anime will air and who will be animating it. I’m placing my bets on AIC or J.C. Staff, or if we’re very lucky Kyoto Animation or SHAFT. However, there might be some news on the voice cast already, if the recently released drama CD is any indication. Kodaka will possibly be played by Kimura Ryōhei (Akira Tachibana in Eden Of The East) and Marina Inoue (Yoko in Gurren Lagann) will probably take up the role of Yozora. Other drama CD cast members include Yuka Iguchi, Kanae Itou and Kana Hanazawa.

I’ll stop bothering you with this now, but man…
I am excitebike.

Bakacast – Worst Birthday Present Ever

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On our very special 50th episode of Bakacast, we bring on The Otakusphere’s Karen–formerly of Japanator–to talk about Amazon taking some yaoi titles off their Kindle store, how terrible the recent Parasite Eve game, The 3rd Birthday, is (pretty terrible), and if she’s watched My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. Besides checking out her blog, which I highly recommend, you can also follow her on Twitter. And if you’d like a little history lesson, you can check out the last podcast Karen and I were on right here [WARNING: Unlike this podcast, Japanator AM lets F-bombs run free].

I guess we review some anime too. Gosick gives us a plot dump, Hanasaku Iroha continues to confound us, Steins;Gate continues to entertain us, Deadman Wonderland can’t figure out what tone it wants, and Blue Exorcist is just sorta there. Meanwhile, Glen starts exercising his psychic powers to properly use the new mind-reading cat ears.

We cover:

  • 04:28 – Amazon removes some yaoi titles from Kindle
  • 08:19 – The 3rd Birthday
  • 22:51 – Gosick #15
  • 29:59 – Tiger & Bunny #5
  • 33:52 – Hanasaku Iroha #5
  • 42:57 – Battle Girls #5
  • 51:16 – Steins;Gate #5
  • 59:11 – Blue Exorcist #3 (dropped)
  • 1:05:21 – AnoHana #3
  • 1:13:24 – Deadman Wonderland #3
  • 1:17:49 – [C] #3
  • 1:25:02 – Listener questions

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 – Human Gel Banana

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On this episode of Bakacast, we bring one of our good friends, Jared, on as a guest. You can follow him on Twitter at @Escap3st.

Despite dropping some shows, we’ve still got a lot to get through. And, of course, we have to talk about Madoka Magica. Thankfully, the greatness of the finale seems to have infected some of the other shows this season, as OreImo, Tiger & Bunny, Steins;Gate, [C] and AnoHana all get Bakacast seals of approval (NOTE: we do not have actual seals). The rest?

Well…not so much.

Thankfully, we have just enough time left to answer a couple e-mails about OPs and EDs we like and if we should try getting Larry on a hypothetical second season of America’s Greatest Otaku.

We cover:

  • 2:29 – Madoka Magica finale
  • 12:06 – OreImo #14
  • 18:18 – Gosick #14
  • 26:34 – X-Men #4
  • 34:28 – Tiger & Bunny #4
  • 41:05 – Hanasaku Iroha #4
  • 51:49 – Battle Girls #4
  • 57:23 – Steins;Gate #4
  • 1:04:43 – A-Channel #3 (dropped)
  • 1:07:20 – [C] #2
  • 1:14:30 – Deadman Wonderland #2
  • 1:25:14 – AnoHana #2
  • 1:32:41 – Blue Exorcist #2
  • 1:40:40 – Listener questions

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.