Klein, you game with five girls and you still go for the 2D waifu? Faaaaail.

Never mind those artsy, underrated, critically-acclaimed shows, this podcast is all about the big hitters! (Okay, we talk about the other stuff too.) It’s mainstream week with the Random Curiosity Anime Podcast, as well as a spoiler-free discussion of some of the shows that premiered this season.

The podcasts are back after an unexpected break (blame Zanibas). This time we broke into the new season slowly, so outside of the big three topics—which most of you are probably watching anyway—the rest of the podcast is spoiler free. Mostly because I’m behind on all my shows again, but hey! A big thanks to Cherrie for joining us once again (its been a while!), takaii for contributing and editing, and Xumbra for recording and making fun of us in the background. Don’t forget to subscribe to us on iTunes, and enjoy.

Announcement: I talked with our podfather, Zanibas, and it looks like we’re going to have to put the podcasts on hiatus for the time being. We wanted to keep them going while he was on break, but the time isn’t there. Thank you for your understanding.

  Participating Writers
  Time Index

Other series we mentioned: Gugure Kokkuri-San, Sora no Method, Shingeki no Bahamut GENESIS, Denki-gai no Honya-san, Shirobako, PSYCHO-PASS 2, Danna ga Nani wo Itteiru ka Warakanai Ken, and Log Horizon 2.

Opening: Turbonugget by Jake Kaufman. Ending: I can has mochi? by Jake Kaufman.

  Listen to the Episode

Download 160 kbps (57 MB)

82 Comments

  1. No Akame ga Kill? Well yeah, I can’t blame anyone since it recently just became really too tragic as it shows how death is gruesomly prevalent. T_T Show Spoiler ▼

    Stilts edit: Just … just please don’t talk about Akame ga Kill outside of its posts. The only thing we mentioned is how people love to spoil it, so let’s not risk it. Added a tag to the probably-not-but-maybe spoiler. Thanks.

    L002
  2. Ookami shoujo to kuro ouji ugh I’m so happy this show is not being covered mainly because I’m tired of stories like that being so popular in the shoujo genre which is why I absolutely love that akatsuki no Yona is getting popular Yona is a female character we definitely need PERIOD.

    hoshi
    1. Well to each their own… I personally like the show and I look forward to it each week. It’s not because I particularly like the MC, but – well I explain myself in the podcast already so I don’t want to sound repetitive. Coverage is not dependent on what we think will be popular, but what personally interests us as writers. It just so happens that usually what’s popular is what interests us.

  3. @Stilts: “Mostly because I’m behind on all my shows again…” LOL. You and me both.

    Perhaps in the “underrated” or “special topics” sections, but I would be interested in RC commentary for Shingeki no Bahamut. For me that’s been the biggest surprise this season (well, maybe except for UBW’s national GDP level productions values). It’s turning out to be one of my top shows this season. Hopefully it will be included in the monthly reviews since it didn’t get any coverage so far.

    Thanks for the podcast. Will listen… after I watch Bahamut 😛

    1. SnB ain’t the only one IMO, Nanatsu no Taizai is up there as well (depending on one’s tolerance for the standard shounen tropes). In terms of fantasy offerings this season is pretty damn impressive. And the best part? Most of the fantasy shows are two cours.

      Suddenly being stuck inside for the winter doesn’t seem so bad now 😛

      Pancakes
    1. Did we say that? I mean, I was thinking it. I been thinking it all season. Also, I blame you for all things that aren’t Zephy’s or Zani’s fault. (Which, to be fair, is everything, so you’re clear there.) I just didn’t think we said it. <3

      Stilts
  4. This is probably the first season in a long while I’m not watching any anime. I thought at least the gundam series would pique my interest, but it just hasn’t. The animation, the story, everything seems so bland. The new gundam series is just… not there. Not saying it’s bad or anything just I can’t watch it that’s all. Same thing for everything else, Log Horizon, Sword Harem Online, Amagi Park, Fate Stay Reboot Version 20, Chikai Dungeon and Dragon Edition and so many other series makes this probably the most lack lustered season in recent memory. Even Mushishi I found boring, maybe it’s me, but this doesn’t look good, especially considering the line up for Winter.

    Echo
    1. Really.

      Contrarily, I had been watching fewer and fewer shows each season but this season I am following so many shows… Mushishi is on the top of its game IMO (the second episode had me floored), Twintails is hilarious, Parasyte is awesome. And so on.

      CarVac
      1. None of the shows this season has made me as excited as last season (Like tokyo ghoul, except it turned out disappointing), but there are alot of solid shows to watch (More than usual)

        Apa
    2. I don’t know the Gundam series, Psycho Pass 2, Garo and Bahamut are about the only newer things that are piquing my interest this season, but I’m still not watching anything atm out of just a general lack of interest. I’d say Fate is somewhere on my too watch list as well but honestly I’ve kind of already experienced that story and while it’s interesting to see it adapted with new cutting edge animation techniques it’s still just kind of like a been there done that feeling to me and I’m not nearly as in love with it as most people seem to be. It’s an interesting Fall season on paper yet somehow really dry and uninspiring in actual execution.

      John Hunt
    3. Uh… well it’s hard to give someone recommendations if you’re just going to list the shows you didn’t enjoy >_> What do you generally like to watch? I can try and suggest some but I have no idea where to start… o_o
      I think most people give safe recommendations like Fate/Stay Night or SAO because it has an appeal to the general audience. If you want something more specific, you’re going to have to give more details of what constitutes as a “good show” for you.

      1. Yeah it hits all the mainstream points: loli’s, harem, high school, etc. Not sure if TRIGGER is doing this on purpose and they are getting rdy to turn everything on its head

        Rick Anime
  5. …About Kirito’s “Skill Connect” – figuring it is one thing, doing it using your “body” is another, it’s not like the twitch/FPS gaming we have right now.
    And Cherrie – forever a Kirito-fangirl ¯\_(^.^)_/¯

    …Welp, censoring the illegal websites and CrunchyRoll interruptions…
    …Takaii, email Crunchyroll first before plugging it.
    …a lot of censoring going on. Almost feels like Enzo’s the only reason we never hear the Bleeping until now…
    …Animal Crossing in an anime podcast…*facedesk*
    …Ookami Shoujo to Kuro Ouji – Wut. Did. I. Just. Listened…
    …GlassSlip…Glad I forgot to watch it… (>.>)¯\

    BTW, is it wise to host the mp3 file on the RC server?

    info600
  6. Well, I just opened up 4 new tabs to take a look at some of the shows you guys mentioned, though Bahamut was already on my watchlist and I am enjoying it so far. I’m sure many of us have done a good ol’ spoilerific wiki-walk, made so much easier with all the show/game-specific wikis out there today.

    As far as SAO, Mother’s Rosario sorta continues along with the “playing a game” atmosphere from the Caliber mini-arc, and a chance to follow the adventures of someone besides Kirito.

    On a different note: Wouldn’t a VR NPC technically be a 3D waifu? Also, loved everyone’s “it’s a trap” reactions to Klein. And to be fair, Silica should definitely be outta his age range, Suguha probably is, and Asuna’s taken, so there’s at best 2 options.

    @Takaii: You wasted a perfectly good opportunity at the end to give Crunchyroll another shout-out, gotta be more shameless when you land a sponsor in the future.

    SK
    1. Takkun doesn’t understand how promotion works. You land the deal before you start plugging them … and since we’re not bothering to do that, kinda pointless. Didn’t you study business takkun? Go back and apologize to your professors!

      Stilts
    1. Just because the age of consent is 18 in California doesn’t mean it is everywhere. In some cases it would be creepy, but not illegal.

      It was a throwaway line though, so probably don’t think too much into it.

      Stilts
    2. LN-wise, around this time in the story Asuna’s 18; Kirito, Sinon, and Liz (best girl!) are 17; and imouto-cousin and Silica are 16. Silica is actually much older than she looks. So, even if the consent age is 18 Klein’s only got a couple more years at most. 🙂

      Atalla
    1. He wasn’t bad, but he was nothing like in FSN. In Zero he never really had a chance, he was just there to throw a wrench in the works. In FSN he’s one of the toughest obstacles the heroes have to confront. That’s like the difference between Iskander and FSN Rider (spoilered for safety)Show Spoiler ▼

      Stilts
      1. Just my two cents:
        Show Spoiler ▼

        I like Berserker in Fate/Stay Night more just because of what he’s capable of and he doesn’t go all crazy and nuts. Berserker in Fate/Zero was just… a loose dog -__-‘

      2. @Stilts: Regarding Berserker
        Show Spoiler ▼

        @Cherrie – Regarding your spoiler.
        Show Spoiler ▼

      3. Both good points. I still maintain that Show Spoiler ▼

        Stilts
      4. Regarding your spoiler about FSN Berserker Show Spoiler ▼

        Might as well include this here rather than a separate post. There’s a lot of Rin fans out there (I suspect she’s the most popular of the three) which is great because that leaves more Saber for me. 😛 For me Saber > Rin >> Sakura (feel very sorry for Sakura, but kind of meh otherwise). Anyway, point here is that while I like Saber the best, I have to agree that the UBW (“Rin”) route is the best one in terms of overall story. It’s just better balanced than the other two as you mentioned.

  7. aww I’m sad you didn’t cover “Shigatsu wa Kiimi no Uso” as a big hitter this season! It’s one of my favorite shows :).

    I did enjoy the podcast as always though. It’s nice hearing about people talk about the shows I’m watching this season! I agree that Amaburi is lookin great so far hehe

    Kraft
  8. Am I the only one who really enjoyed Kyoukai no Kanata (Beyond the Boundary)? Yes, one episode should have gone to OVA, and the ending was rushed/Deus ex. But I thought the characters were fun, and the story was pretty good.

    dmanatunga
    1. The thing that bugs me about Kyoukai no Kanata is that, while it was overall a decent show, it had the potential to be so much better with just few minor tweaks (particularly with the ending).

      Rob
      1. That’s the problem I have with most (all) KyoAni quasi-originals. So much potential, but their either fart out an average story or adapt some second-rate source material that could have been so great if they only had an auteur who really knew how to tell a story.

        If Gatoh Shoji started working for them full time, they would be unstoppable.

        Stilts
  9. Wow for the first time in this podcast’s history I have like zero interest in listening to any of the topics listed being discussed. It’s all either shows I don’t care at all about or shows I’m already tired of discussing already. Amazing. Somebody opined back when the season started in one of the schedule comment section that the website had seen a really hard shift in tastes and that nobody seemed to be covering anything they were interested in or at least not enough of a wealth of topics and boy is that apparent here for me at least. What a shame

    John Hunt
    1. Not everything we do is going to be for everyone. This time we had two writers with relatively mainstream tastes on (plus me, who watches a ton), so we talked about mainstream shows. Next time we’ll almost certainly have people on with more eclectic tastes, so presumably you’ll enjoy that more. We can’t be everything to everyone every time, though.

      As for a shift in tastes, of course there has been, though people are only really saying that because we’re not covering Gundam, and that’s because Zephy is on hiatus. But I hear people complain about our tastes and then I look at the shows we’re covering, and I don’t get it. We cover a lot of interesting (and different) shows, from SAO on one end to Parasyte and Mushishi on the other.

      Different isn’t always bad.

      Stilts
  10. I listen to every podcast!

    Stilts, what are those 24 shows you’re watching? I’m watching 25 from this season +Akame ga Kill, SAO2, Argevellon, and Ace of Diamond. I guess I ought to add Shirobako and Agami Brillant Park to that list – it’s not too late to spend a couple weekend hours catching up.

    Atalla
    1. Denki-gai, Shirobako, Psycho-Pass 2, Danna ga Nani etc., Shigatsu, Yuuki Yuuna, Amaburi, Log Horizon, Madan no Ou to Vanadis, SAO, FSN:UBW, Nanatsu no Taizai, Sora no Method, Akame ga Kill, Grisaia, Bahamut, Tama no Susumi, Inou-Battle, Trinity Seven, and Chaika. So twenty, though I just dumped two and I have another (World Trigger) that I’m trying to decide whether to bother with, so 24 was close.

      Stilts
      1. What’s Tama no Susumi? I don’t see it on the preview.

        We have decent overlap. It’s nice to see someone else watching Yuuki Yuuna. I’d say I’m short this season – the rest of the year it’s been in the thirties normally. 😀 My list is:

        Ace of Diamond, Akame ga Kill, Argevollen, SAO2, Akatsuki no Yona, Daitoshokan, Danna ga Nani, Denki-gai, Donten ni Warau, FSN:UBW, Girlfriend (don’t know how far I’ll make it), Grisaia, Kokkuri-san (it is funny), Gundam Build Fighters Try, Chaika, Inou Battle, Parasyte, Log 2, Madan no Ou to Vanadis, Nanatsu no Taizai, WIXOSS 2 (weekly dose of despair), Shigatsu, Shingeki no Bahamut, Terraformers, Tribe Cool Crew (don’t judge me :p) Trinity Seven (which sold me on reading the manga up to what’s been translated), Ushinawareta, Yowamushi Pedal 2, and Yuuki Yuuna.

        I think Terraformers belongs in the same pile that has Coppelion.

        Don’t know how many I’ll see through to the end – a good amount, though.

        Atalla
      2. *Yama no Susume. My fingers were off when I was typing, lol

        I might try Kokkuri-san, since takkun spoke so highly of it. and Terraformars is one of the ones I dropped. No one in that show seems to want to live, so I don’t see a reason to watch.

        Stilts
      3. Kokkuri-san can be decided by 1 episode. I had no idea what to expect – completely forgot it had been reviewed – and watched it on a whim, but found it to be surprisingly funny. It’s no Nozaki, Tonari-kun, or Love Lab, but it’s good enough to have me look forward to it each week. I’d recommend it to any anime watcher looking for an easy laugh.

        I think the last episode of Encouragement of Climb I watched was 6 or 7… my sources stopped releasing it… I guess I should look elsewhere to get caught up. I watched the first season when I saw it took best Short last year.

        Worst mistake is hitting caps lock when you go for the “a” and not noticing it for awhile. Especially when you hit roll typing out what you want to say. It kills momentum having everything inverted.

        Atalla
  11. Sword Art Online is not a MMO story only; it’s mostly a story about Virtual Reality technologies.
    Think about the VR headsets that becoming better and better and may soon become mainstream.
    The author is passionate about the topic…
    Show Spoiler ▼

    Also, please be a bit lenient on the guy, he published SAO as his first novel when he was 28, in 2002, and online only initially, on top of that. Even with its huge success today, he himself aknowledges that it is far from perfect and that his writing was not so good back then, so he’s rewriting it under the name “Sword Art Progressive” which you can find at the usual sources in light novel or manga form.
    To me, his early success, the way he builds the world in his books, and his humility are worthy of praise. As someone with a “normal” job, I wish I would have his creativity, passion and guts.

    Old guy, SAO Fan

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