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There’s so much to love. |
You think summer has begun? Not until there’s been a RandomC podcast to discuss it! Tune in to hear what four of our silly writers have to say about the summer season.
For our fifth (new-style) podcast, we decided to invite four writers to the party, mainly because Zanibas and I were being indecisive when choosing participants. But I think it worked out well! We played it fast and loose, with everyone contributing a few topics and adding to the conversation. We’ll probably go back to three contributors next time, but this was nice for a change.
Small disclaimer: We get into the weeds about the role of molestation and rape in BL culture, courtesy of LOVE STAGE!!. I think the conversation is interesting and was treated respectfully, but if that’s not something you want to listen to, skip the section beginning at minute 42. We brush on it briefly earlier in the podcast, but most of the discussion takes place there.
Remember to subscribe to us on iTunes, and enjoy!
- Stilts – @StiltsOutLoud, MAL profile, stiltsoutloud.com
- Guardian Enzo – @GuardianEnzo, Anime-Planet profile, lostinanime.com
- Zephyr – @ZephyrRC, MAL profile
- Zanibas – @Zanibas, MAL profile
- 00:00 – Introductions
- 05:00 – Zanibas and Comedy
- 15:00 – Enzo’s Adaptation Talk
- 29:00 – Seasonal Correlations
- 33:00 – Two Recommendations
- 42:30 – Love Stage, Molestation, and BL Culture
- 1:04:00 – Conclusions
- 1:12:00 – End
Credit goes to Jake Kaufman for the OP, Turbonugget, and to JSBlueThree for the ED, Dreck La Shrek.
Download 160 kbps (119 MB)
I am shocked that once again you love every single show that’s airing.
Isn’t it more fun to talk about shows you love than to rip on them? Trust me, we have shows that we can personally lament about, but that isn’t as enjoyable to either talk about or listen to, in our opinion.
Do you want us to do a more critical section next time? If there’s enough demand, we’ll consider it! Just don’t er…use passive aggressiveness when you reply. We’ll listen to your feedback without the snark :P.
Yes, please. Tell us how you feel about Free or SOA II! 🙂
Ah yes, double standards are quite nasty. That’s always been my issue with same sex romance shows with that kind of material. Why is it that people hardly bat an eye to what is essentially rape when the two are of the same sex but when the two are of opposite sex it sparks an outrage? It’s what bugs me most about same sex relationships portrayed in anime. I agree very much with Guardian Enzo. It something peeves me quite a bit as well. And while I’m more resistant to it, constant “accidental” molestation gets annoying too especially if the women starts falling in love with the preceptor (sorry but that’s not how it works).
I don’t have so much of a problem with the situations happening, it’s more that i hate how anime tries to play it off as a joke or act like the situation is ok if the victim ends up getting SS and liking it. You never really see these situations treated seriously. Which is why I usually end up calling them out if they take it way to far every time. I get that this stuff appeals to certain people. But it simply just ruins the relationship for me when they can get over the incident like it never happened so easily without treating it properly.
Oopsss! Sorry the above comment has nothing to do with what is replying too. I forgot i had hit reply before I commented (I wanted it to be a stand alone comment). Sorry =(
And don’t forget Mahouka. Bitches love bashing on Mahouka
It sure didn’t sound to me like we only talked about shows we loved…
The free item of the week! Best thing from the whole podcast! I died laughing. I’m so sorry Enzo that you have never received anything free from safeway hahaha.
i think i found what i love about sword art online 2 i love trap kirito
As a gay male and an avid anime fan, I find the tropes use in Yaoi horrendous regarding the Stockholm syndrome as a result post sexual assault. I find it very distasteful and I skipped over the sexual assault scene in Love Stage.
It’s unfortunate that even though this trope permeates through the genre, it results in poor expectations of what homosexual relationships are in real life. There are some mangakas who are moving away from this trope and actually promoting a normal healthy relationship.
what about trap kirito from sao do you think how they act when they see him/her is funny?
It’s really hard to say or even judge if how they act was considered funny or weird. The reason I’m on the fence is that SAO occurs in the future where society standards and interactions with others have changed especially with VR implemented into the culture.
By today’s standards and my own opinions, I found that very intrusive and if I were in the same situation as Kirito, I would have gotten a Go Pro stick, smack the guy away and shouted repeatedly “PERSONAL BUBBLE SPACE PEOPLE”.
your 100% right on BL mangaka moving away from those horrible tropes please check out Sono Mama De its only 6 chapters and its fantastic!!!
Stilts and Enzo have rather loud voices while the others have rather soft voices…
With Stilts and Enzo, i have to reduce the volume but with the others i have to increase the volume…
At least for my microphone, I found out after the recording that it was configured to a weird setting, so I sounded much quieter this podcast.
We’ll be sure to do more thorough mic tests in the future to equalize everyone’s voices.
I could see where that would be a problem with Stilts, but I would have thought you’d want me as loud as possible to drown him out…
Well, when you have two voices that are best listened to at volume 26 at the highest and two that are best listened to at volume 57 at the lowest you might understand where i am coming from…
I think Enzo was just joking, and also being mean ;_;
You’re half right.
Hmm…
Believe me you have no idea sometimes
Speak softly and carry a big stick.
These podcasts are great! Keep it up!
A couple things I shouted out to myself while listening:
I think you guys left out Space Dandy season 2 from the comedies – I think it’s been right up there with the best of them. Maybe since it’s a sequel it’s out of mind…
As for squandered adaptations from manga to anime – Tokyo ESP is the perfect example of completely shifting a tone. The manga is a wacky comedy that pulls off serious at times – the anime has removed most of the comedy, leaving behind a dull husk of a show.
I’m certainly enjoying Dandy and I should have mentioned it. But it seems quite a bit darker to me so far this season…
These podcasts are always a great listen so thanks for the wonderful effort guys!
On a side note will there be a schedule of the blogging coverage for this season that is released soon? Its always nice to keep tabs on which shows are getting weekly coverage here at RC.
That was released over a month ago. You can always find it on the side bar, where it currently says Summer 2014 Schedule.
Oh Thanks. I was unaware that it had been updated to reflect the shows that were recently picked up.
I believe that if the anime has a direction it wants to go to, I’m usually willing to see what direction it wants to go to prior to the original source material. Shows like Barakamon are still entertaining, but I sometimes miss how they skip certain material that I wanted to see animated. I think in my own perspective, original source material and anime have their own charms so even if anime like Barakamon don’t follow the main layout of the manga, its still interesting to watch the anime and read the manga.
Anyone watched Psycho Pass:Extended Edition? The first episode may be slow, but things pick up and the additions are great. Truly a show to be watched even if you watched the original one.
New guy isn’t here yet?
Question: Who’s the girl used on the above picture, and what show is she from?
Check the filename. Her name will follow once you figure out the show.
Thanks – I didn’t think of that. I thought she looked familar – but I’m a tad bit behind on the show, haven’t watched in a couple weeks, so couldn’t remember.
Thanks!
watching anime while drinking a really good beer………….. good times…………
Currently listening and right now I’m at 42:30 – Love Stage, Molestation, and BL Culture.
Zanibas – I just wanted to say that, yes, they are giving a hint between Rei and Shougo. They actually made an LN spin-off between the 2 of them called Back Stage!!
Oh, I totally forgot about the spinoff when I was researching for this show! I’ll have to check it out after this season finishes.
I’m not done listening yet but… Zanibas is really cute
Thank you! 😀
Not bad … hmm. Thank you all for spending the time to help make the podcast!
Fwiw if I were to recommend two series aside from the “popular” or “big name” ones I would recommend Hanayamata and Majimoji Rurumo. I expected Hanayamata before it aired to be a favorite of mine this season, and I was not disappointed. But Majimoji Rurumo was barely on my radar before the season began – and it proved to be something I have been charmed by and enjoyed. 🙂
Finally, regarding whether to go into a series fresh or going into it informed of the source material … personally I find I check out the source material more often than not first, but if I go into a series fresh and it moves me to take up the source material then I generally regard it as “a successful adaptation”. (If the Barakamon adaptation moves people to pick up the manga source material, then I would be more than happy, foe example.) I like to give those making an anime adaptation as much of the benefit of the doubt as possible, though – different mediums require different modes of presentation much of the time and there will be differences.
A large amount of the time I find I enjoy the source material over the anime adaptations, but there are those rare times I feel an adaptation improves on the source material – and to see that in action is something I really, really love to see. Nazo Kanojo X is indeed an excellent example of this – it was just really, really well done.
Ohhhhwwww!! You didn’t bring Passerby to the haz…. I mean podcast show.
Enzo: I been interviewed 6 times!
I KNEW IT!
WAIT! Are you guys saying my screenshots are misleading?! =O
Totally going to just post 6 action shots in my next exert… >_> just you wait…
BTW – Is there a way for you guys to normalize your volumes? Zani was really soft for most of the podcast =X couldn’t hear him. Also, mute your Skype. I hear you guys msging each other back and forth lol
We’ll work on the skype buttons, and I posted a response to my voice problem above already.
Zani your voice is adorable!
Thank you! :3
I’m having a terrible time streaming the podcast (and horribly low download speeds in the range of 20 KB/s or less). and for that matter, images have been loading slowly for me on RC recently. don’t think it’s my internet since everything else is fine but I can’t listen in )=
not in iTunes yet
We just switched to a new feed from a new plugin we’re using, so hopefully things work out. If iTunes doesn’t update in around two days, let me know!
Probably a strange thing to note, but besides Love Stage and Barakamon, you guys didn’t actually discuss any of the shows you’re watching in-depth. A very enjoyable and interesting listen all the same, but I do wonder if maybe you would consider trying to make more time to talk about the airing series when you do these podcasts?
Noted. There has been internal discussions about how we should organize these podcasts, and we’re still debating them. It’s not a strange thing to note at all!
If you have any thoughts about the organization of the podcasts, please send your comments to my email at [my author name]@randomc.net if they can’t fit in the comments here.
i can see this picture as a the new RC banner !!
i know louise is so old that is almost a tradition but this one is amazing
Now that you mention it… >_>
*poke Div poke*
Nice to see Zanibas squeeze a good rant in for a change. Enzo U Y so pissy? lol.
I sense much hostility towards Zephyr though Stilts…
Not sure what you mean. We all get along well, we’re just a bunch of silly dudes who enjoy poking fun at each other, lol
Great podcast, I especially enjoyed the segment about whether it’s better to watch a show without knowing the source material. Overall I’d agree with you guys in that it’s generally better to go in to a show “clean” without any preconceptions… which is why I didn’t follow the writeups and comments for the first few episodes of shows this season that I’d already decided to watch.
Coming into the talk with that particular background also made it apparent to me that RandomC’s overall tastes in anime are very different from my own. You guys seem to value SoL, romance, comedy, and art/direction the most. While there’s nothing at all wrong with that, as someone who’s pretty much an exclusive sci-fi/fantasy action or comedy type of guy it kind of feels like there’s a large disconnect between my perspective on anime and yours, especially this season.
One thing I didn’t hear about in the Love Stage discussion was the common depiction of female on female abuse in anime. While I’m by no means an expert, in general it seems that it’s not just a problem in BL situations. Also, more yaoi and less yuri?! What are ya’ll drinkin’ over there, cause I want some!
Hmmm, do you really think our tastes are that different? Maybe they are, but it doesn’t seem like it based on your examples. Sure, Enzo is pretty goofy and Zani loves him some romcoms, but Zephy is all about the sci-fi, I’m constantly blogging fantasy, and Cherrie, Divine, and takkun will blog pretty much anything. Kairi is a big sci-fi fan too, and the jury is still out on Passerby.
Comedy is a tricky one though. It’s not that we don’t like it, it’s that it’s hard to blog them. I’ve taken to blogging Dogakobo comedies because there’s usually something else going on for me to talk about, but for ones like Sabagebu!, Rokujousama, and even peerless ones like Danshi Koukousei no Nichijou, the posts would always boil down to “This was funny, this was funny, this wasn’t, this was, unless you disagree that’s okay.” Not real fun to read or write.
That’s a blogging issue, not a liking issue. As we mentioned on this podcast, we’re all over the comedy this season, and it’s a great one for it.
I’m not good with English so where is the script form? Anyway Stilts what do you think about this?
http://img1.ak.crunchyroll.com/i/spire4/4cd85dbf6ee4b417fccc95b7ed30e6f01406565168_full.jpg
Can I know where that character is from? :O
She is Terminus Est or commonly revered by Est. She is from Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance.
Sorry, there won’t be any transcript form. We discontinued those a while back.
I should go watch the next episode of Blade Dance…
It was nice seeing a shoutout to Hanayamata in the podcast. One of the few underrated gems this season.
Hi there! Just a random anon here.
Just like before, thank you for making another interesting and funny podcast.
For those who were having troubles hearing the other writers, there’s a quick fix to that. And that is to use an equalizer. If you are using Winamp or any audio player with an equalizer, you can follow the steps below to make it easier for you to hear them.
Thankfully, the tones of the writers are separated well enough (I don’t know how to explain that properly since I’m no expert and I’m not that good at explaining anyway). You can raise the frequencies 6khz and above by 12db for you to hear Zephyr. Raise 1khz by 12db to hear Zanibas. Leave the 3k frequency intact to separate Zanibas and Zephyr’s voices. Lower 320hz by 6db to soften the well rounded voice of Guardian Enzo and the baritone voice of Stilts. That will also separate their voices for further clarity. Leave 600hz intact to keep Enzo afloat the conversation. Raise 180hz by 3db to let Stilts for him to gain some of the volume he lost. And finally, raise 70hz by 9db to make the voices of Zanibas and Zephyr a bit fuller.
That setup could be useful for the one who handles the recording and processing the podcast. I’m guessing it’s Stilts, but I know they have a tech guy (Xumbra) that do that kind of stuff.
Stilts is the last person who will and who should touch the recording. It’s actually a 3-way editing lineup between me, Xumbra, and Takaii, but I’ve been doing the last two because the others have been…away :P.
Thanks for the equalizer hints though! We’ll test em out next cast.
In my defense, it’s not that I can’t do it, it’s just that I very much do not want to, lol. Though recording does make me a little insane because I’m always worrying about whether the recording is going to foul up. With good reason, given what happened on podcast #02.
NEVER GO ON VACATION AGAIN ZANI/TAKKUN/XUMXUM ;_;
600hz? How did you know my nickname in high school?
@Guardian Enzo: Really? That’s the first time I’ve ever heard anybody was nicknamed with a frequency. And that’s an interesting fact. 🙂
@Cherrie: I haven’t checked the old podcast posts/audios. Oh dear — cookies are the last things I’ll ever give to anybody. LOL.
Thanks for hearing out my suggestion. I hope it will help in the next podcast. I’m already looking forward to it. And with any luck, I hope that Divine joins your conversation (but Cherrie would be great too!). Anyway, I’ll be around. Have a nice day, guys. 🙂
I have joined a podcast… way back when =) It’s hard for me to find a good time to join the guys but maybe I will again sometime.
Divine on the other hand… >_> oh dear, he’ll need lots of persuading (and cookies~).
I finally finished listening to the podcast. Don’t know if anyone’s gonna read this, but I felt I just had to give my choice for the Two Recommendations topic. I couldn’t get 2, but 1 show I’ve really enjoyed that gets almost zero attention from most of the English fandom is Majin Bone. At first glance, it looks to be your standard kids show with a team of heroes who transform into power-suited fighters with a special card, and fight against aliens who can also transform. And they’re all fighting to possess one card, the Dragon Bone, who is in the hands of the main hero.
The setting just screams generic and uninspiring, and I have to say I totally agree with that. In fact the plot is probably the weakest point of the series, as even the heroes don’t really know why they can’t let the aliens get Dragon Bone, while the aliens, when the focus is on them, just sit around bickering among themselves on who has to go down to earth and take Dragon Bone from our hero.
Nevertheless, the cast is definitely the strong point of the series. From the main hero, Shougo, to his teammates Luke, Tyrone, Antonio and Gilbert, his female childhood friend Saho, and even his family, all are well portrayed and interesting people. For instance, when Shougo first accidentally discovered he could transform and had to fight, he was reluctant to accept his powers because he didn’t want his family and friends to get dragged into things when the aliens come for him and his card. It was only later that he realized he cannot run away from his own power, so he just has to fight with full conviction to protect his family and friends. The other characters also get their chance in the spotlight, focusing on how they got their powers, why they decided to fight, and what drives them to keep on going. It isn’t really deep or complex, yet for a mere kids show the characters are a real breath of fresh air.
The visuals are nothing special, but the CG fights are more then adequate and look quite good actually. The soundtrack is unremarkable but does its job, while the OP and 2 EDs we get for now are rather good.
I was quite impressed by the premiere and actually blogged a few episodes of Majin Bone. I agree, it’s better than you might think judging by the cover – the artwork is pleasingly 90s, the cast is stellar and the comedic timing is quite good. I admit I don’t find it as appealing as I did and I’ve fallen behind a few eps as a result, but it really isn’t half bad.
I doubt anybody is still watching, but the show that finally did turn out to be the interesting oddity I hoped is Abarenbou Rikishi Matsutarou. The premiere was pretty bad, and the show is definitely a product of the manga’s time – lots of toilet humor and nose-picking – but there’s quite an interesting social commentary taking place. And Sakaguchi is a full-on anti-hero, a real screwed-up piece of work.