The premise of these reviews is simple: watch the first episode of a series and then immediately sit down to record a review mini-podcast. The reviews are five- to ten-minutes long and entirely off the cuff. As always we only review new shows (so no sequels or continuations) and try to avoid anything that just looks outright awful. Here is first one of the new season:
Listen – Episode 1 of Battle Spirits: Sword Eyes from Sunrise with the opening “Wild Card” by Hiroshi Tada.
All things must come to an end. Even anime. Although Sazae-san and Golgo 13 might easily make you think otherwise. Despite that, this month we tackle one of the oldest ideas in the anime fandom: if there is one thing anime cannot do, it is stick a landing. The question is why does anime have such a bad reputation for horrible endings? How much of it is legitimately founded and how much of it is cynical whining? What makes a good ending, what makes a bad ending, and are those elements mutually exclusive?
But we also talk about some of the best and strangest anime endings we have seen. Chime in with your favorite and most hated anime endings of all time.
As a warning, the first part is spoiler free. It is all theory so anyone can listen. But after the break we drive the bus into Spoiler Country USA so if you have not seen the following shows you might want to be careful: Neon Genesis Evangelion, Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam, Mahoromatic, Kare Kano, Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, The King of Braves GaoGaiGar, Gunbuster, Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi, Hellsing, Last Exile, Kaleido Star, Revolutionary Girl Utena, Mawaru Penguindrum, Cowboy Bebop, Macross Frontier, Legend of the Galactic Heroes, Le Chevalier d’Eon, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, Turn A Gundam, Mobile Suit Gundam, Mobile Suit Gundam: Char’s Counterattack, The Irresponsible Captain Tylor, Redline, Maison Ikkoku, Voices of a Distant Star, Higurashi: When They Cry, Umineko: When They Cry, Battle Athletes Victory, Berserk, Mobile Suit Gundam 00: A Wakening of the Trailblazer, The Vision of Escaflowne, Macross 7.
And now your helpful bartenders at The Speakeasy present your drink:
Happy Ending
This is a bonus segment of the Speakeasy Podcast we like to call Crime Scene Investigations. These are random bonus podcasts that we record live from various events. There is no regular schedule for these. We will put them up as quickly as we can when the opportunity for one occurs. We suspect they will mostly be from conventions but we might work in some interviews and conversation from NY events as fate allows.
Otakon is far bigger a convention than a simple grouping of categories can provide. We do our best with the general impressions, guests, panels, and other assorted columns but certain experiences get caught outside the confines of such a system. So Patz from Insert-Disc joins us to talk about the flavor and details of Otakon that might have not comes across in our convention reports. Also everyone shares their strangest stories, favorite moments, and gripes as well as pieces of praise. This is a bright send off to another great year of Otakon as we look forward to the big bash that will be the 20th anniversary in 2013!
More Otakon 2012 posts:
Otakon 2012: Tweets
Otakon 2012: Pirated ANNcast
Otakon 2012: General Impressions
Otakon 2012: 15-minutes with Gen Urobuchi
Otakon 2012: Guests
Otakon 2012: Fan Panels
Otakon 2012: Artist Alley
Reverse Thieves 