Podcast

No Tensai, No Life.

Wait–a podcast, already? That’s right. True to our vaguely insinuated word, we’ve got another podcast for you quicker than usual–and this one is a little different.

So what’s new? First of all, you may notice we have radically fewer contributors this time around. First, a little podcast background. When we first started doing these, we had a bunch of writers who wanted to join in, and we said sure, why not? Well it turns out there’s a reason most podcasts (and talk shows, & good conversations in general) involve three or fewer people. Too many people and a conversation turns into a congress, especially when we’re separated by half a world and can’t reach over and smack each other into silence.

So we decided to to shrink things a bit. From now on every podcast will only have three contributors – a host and two guests – to help give them a more conversational feel. But that’s not all! We’re also going to make them shorter – approximately an hour in length – instead of the behemoth podcasts of yester-season. And still there’s more! We’re also going to do them more frequently. Bi-weekly is our goal, though if that changes we’ll give you a heads up. We’re also going to be rotating contributors, keeping the conversation more unstructured and free-flowing, and–well, you’ll just have to press play to see the rest.

As for this first revamped podcasts, I think it went really well! I had a great time talking with Zani and takkun about some of our favorite anime airing this season, and we got in some delicious tangents about series both new and old.

Please tell us what you think about the new format, and feel free to chime in if you have an idea for a spiffy name (not podversations -_-). Thanks for tuning in, and expect another podcast around this time two weeks from now!

  Participating Writers
  Time Index

00:00 – Intro
2:25 – Takaii’s Random Picks

13:20 – Zani’s Random Picks

26:15– Stilts’ Random Picks

50:15 – Random Talk / Shoutouts

  • Fanime
  • Congrats on Passing Finals!
  • Shoutouts! Links: Zani’s friend Eunyeah, takaii’s friend Vanessa
  Listen to the Episode
RandomC Podcast #01 – New, Sleek, & Improved | Duration: 60:08 – 96 kbps [flv:rc_podcast_001.mp3 350 0]

Download 160 kbps (119 MB)

 

54 Comments

    1. For somebody who isn’t watching anything new since last two seasons except HxH, I enjoyed this, thumbs up. I was even able to understand your japanese, very nicely spoken. Really liked hearing takaii, if that’s the guy-who-gets-the-hate-for-disliking-toradora.

      I laughed so much when Stilts noted the fact that X show didn’t have much incest at all. Oh Japan, what are you doing with your kids’ TV shows…

      I thought the most interesting thing this season was One Week Friends, mainly for character designs and color palette, but after one episode and reading some of the manga I realized the series was an excercise in frustration and torture for the audience :s

      Right now what I’m lookin forward to the most is LWA2 and for UW to finish subbing Patema Inverted. Really hyped hehe.

      Anyway, very much liked this. Really relaxed vibe and no forced laughs or jokes. It actually felt short to me, so kudos to you 🙂

      Justinnnnnn
      Reply

      2. Thank you for downvoting me for expressing an honest opinion…

        Sidonia and Chaika are both good, but Sidonia’s CGI makes my eyes bleed. Chaika is almost like a kiddie ride. It’s good, but not mindblowing.

        Nanana’s pacing is all over the place, and it’s clumsily written. Mahouka is poorly adapted, and as I see it, it’s for those who actually follow the source material. It’s a pretty big given, given that a lot of commenters are writing posts explaining what everything means.

        J_the_Man
        Reply

    2. One last thought. I really think Brynhildr is the most underrated show of the season. I’m probably the most disappointed since C3-bu and Genshiken weren’t picked up last year.

      J_the_Man
      Reply

  3. I don’t see Ping Pong mentioned 🙁 You should try watching Ping Pong the Animation. I tried with a “what the heck, let’s try this weird show” intention, and after getting used to the special animation style, I discovered that the store behind it is very good, and completely character driven. Try to watch 3 episodes at least 🙂 Some people are even calling it AOTS (no joke).

    Domo-kun
    Reply

  4. So do the other group of podcasters/writers get their pick of the litter in another podcast? Do they do their own podcast, say in a fortnight? I have noticed that what I assume are a lot of Enzo’s favourites are not present (mushishi, ping pong, baby steps, hunxhun). So are you guys

    Shini012
    Reply

      1. I really like the idea. It gives opportunity to talk about shows that only part of the team is watching or interested in (if it would be about what’s to come). This format is also easier to follow, gives more time to talk to specific person and you don’t need everybody to make it. Sometimes it’s just really hard to get a whole group together for enough time to make something like that.

        Looking forward to next one!

        Urizithar
        Reply

    1. A) If you’re being rude, please don’t. There’s no call for that.
      B) I watch a lot more anime than takkun or zani, so me having more picks shouldn’t be surprising.
      C) Only the top three under my name are actually picks. All the others are tangents and later questions (I haven’t even seen an episode of Atelier yet) that we didn’t bother to time stamp into another section.

      Thank you for your comment : )

      Stilts
      Reply

      1. Sorry, I didn’t realize that sounded rude.
        I was picking on you (and the connection I make between you and lenghty posts thanks to Horizon) in a playfully affectionate manner, or something like that.

        I would like to ask you to interprete that in a less awkward way.

        Anonymosity
        Reply

  6. This seems like a better format. Looking forward to the others opinions!

    This season has been pretty good so far IMO. Been watching/liking Captain Earth, Black Bullet, Kawaisou, Gokukoku no Brynhildr, Mahouka, Mangaka-san, Sidonia no Kishi.

    shinigami
    Reply

  7. This time the podcast was not only nice to listen to but also quite useful for me. At the moment I’m watching only Mushishi. I didn’t have enough time and was watching some older animes like Ookiku Furikabutte (great baseball anime, check it if you like sport) or Dennou Coil (sci-fi about group of kids, as of now it seems worth watching too) so it’s nice to know what’s worth watching.

    Urizithar
    Reply

    1. Glad to hear it was useful! I hope we didn’t accidentally spoiler too much…we’re still used to having those dedicated blocks where we can spoiler freely, so had to catch ourselves a few times :X

      Stilts
      Reply

  8. I love the new format. It worked really well this time. An IRC option would be awesome. Use Hangouts.

    Sakamoto is a great manga.

    Atelier Escha and Logy– give it a shot. It’s a good “switch your brain off and watch the cute girl with the fluffy tail do her best!” kind of show. It’s fluffy fluffy goodness. (Or you could just call it Fantasy Slice of Life Porn.) Don’t look for a plot or anything. It’s not great anime, it’s good fluff.

    Also, it’s subbed. It just comes out a few days late.

    Top 5 of the season? Man, that’s hard. Probably Sidonia, GaWoRaRe, Nanana, Chaika, and Kawaisou. In no order.

    s_w
    Reply

  9. How about the “Modern Podcast Series” as a name? While it lacks flair, it sounds professional, is easy to remember, and draws a clear line between your previous stuff and these ones. Also, if RandomC is planning on releasing one every other week, it allows you to begin at 001 and neatly order them.

    Also, I think the smaller number of people speaking is a big plus, because I can finally figure out who is saying what. With a large number of people I was just getting confused who was talking – putting the names with the voices without seeing anyone was incredibly difficult, and I’d like to think I wasn’t the only one struggling. Thank you for this format – now I beleive I can finally begin to put the puzzle peices together.

    ~ A. Wanderer

    Atalla Wanderer
    Reply

    2. We are pretty much ready to deploy, but we still need to resolve the issue of clearing our podcasts away from copyrighted materials. Although it’s unlikely that a Japanese company will chase us down, I still would like to avoid that possibility by using music that doesn’t copyright infringe.

      If you guys happen to know any good songwriters who can write jingles without breaking our bank (we’d pay out of our own pockets) or good places with royalty-free music, we’re currently on the lookout!

      Zanibas
      Reply

  11. Poor Zanibas is so moe, he always sounds so put upon. Like the new format a lot, it feels more relaxed than the larger podcasts and everyone had plenty of opportunity to speak. I could probably come up with hundreds of awful glorious puns for the new podcast title..

    Also what was that song that played at the very end?

    whemleh
    Reply

  13. I am loving this new format and i think it’s a great idea; it makes the site more interpersonal and its always great to hear from avid anime fans what their thoughts are on current anime. And since you guys are planning to do this bi-weekly (if you can help it that is) it will allow you guys to keep up with discussions that may pop up about certain animes and make your discussions much more relevant in regards to the releases of your favorite anime episodes. A great idea indeed. This nice compact podcast allows more focus and organization which results in much smoother conversation

    sonicsenryaku
    Reply

    1. Yeeeeeah, well sort of but not really. All we really did then was divide up the audio files and try to do our old first and second halves as two different podcasts, but it didn’t tackle any of the underlying issues. That’s why we came up with this.

      Hopefully this will be the last time we need to switch things around for a while! After all, the reception seems pretty good so far : )

      Stilts
      Reply

    1. Sorry that you have a problem with it. We’re still deciding whether we want to lessen the sticky time or get rid of stickying altogether. It all depends on if the works of three people constitute enough for sticky time.

      We’ll let you guys know 🙂

      Zanibas
      Reply

      1. I think making it sticky for a couple of days is ok. On the other hand, you could create a small section on the sidebar where each new podcast can be highlighted for a certain period of time (maybe 1-2 weeks)? Just like you have the 2 banners for Spring and Winter 2014 Preview right now. But you would have to make sure it stands slightly more than them so people can actually find out about the podcast; it would be a shame for your hard work to go to waste with only a few people taking a glimpse!

        Tassadar
        Reply

  16. Won’t lie, Takaii’s idea of a live version is pure genius. No ulterior motives here *whistles innocently*

    As far as length goes, this is pretty much perfect for me. It’s the first time I’ve actually managed to sit through the entire thing without skipping ahead due to time constraints.

    As far as the Atelier series goes, I haven’t actually played them myself, but I got really close. Most of the things I’ve heard is that it’s moe with very little substance but the alchemy system is pretty fun. However, I heard the series tried for a more serious story starting with Atelier Ayesha which is Escha & Logy’s (the one the anime is adapting) predecessor.

    I’m not really sure if that helped any though. ^_^;

    Sidenote: While I was listening I had the weirdest thought in my head. If I were a fujoshi, I’d probably ship Stilts x Zani.

    Don’t ask. I already feel dirty enough just for thinking it.

    Now I need to go smash my head against a wall a good 50 times.

    Kuntzy
    Reply

    1. Lol, you wouldn’t be the first one to ship me’n Zani. Some of the writers did it a while back. Zani might have even done it himself o.O

      The seasonal writer knife fights get weird sometimes, lemme tell ya.

      Stilts
      Reply

  19. Aren’t podcasts supposed to be live in the first place, lol?

    That being said, though, there should be someone who can set up a specific format for the podcast, maybe covering specific anime each week instead of derailing, maybe talking about the week in anime and news as well and your general views on reactions and expectations regarding said news, something to keep it more professional as opposed to three people just talking without some kind of direction.

    Good job for your first time live, nevertheless. I look forward to the next.

    Saber
    Reply

    1. Podcasts aren’t really “supposed” to be anything. Some are more like radio shows (and therefore live), while others are recorded ahead of time and edited like ours.

      I very much doubt we’ll ever talk about news because A) that’s a lot of extra work, and B) most news is boring. Thanks for your suggestions though!

      Stilts
      Reply

  23. I don’t like podcasts, but kudos to you guys for keeping my attention while just literally talking with one another about anime and your thoughts on them. Pretty fun and entertaining. And it’s cool to hear you guys talk instead of just reading what you write. 😀

    On a personal level, I follow several shows this season, such as Black Bullet/Mahouka/Break Blade/Cap’n Earth/NGNL and perhaps one or two more I can’t remember off the top of my head.

    Would love to hear more about thoughts on Black Bullet (since the last two episodes have really gone up a notch) and good stuff like Break Blade 2014 (something I thought was a pity that one on the blog is doing it, though not sure if that was mentioned before in previous podcasts or not). On a sidenote, I totally agree with Stilts on Nisekoi. Don’t know why I still watch it though. Probably just to get used to facepalming in case I ever get into the habit of meeting stupid people more often.

    Keep it going. I have this idea in my head saying that you might wanna invite someone knowledgeable/prominent in the anime blogosphere as a guest eventually, but that’s really up to you guys. It does feel a little random though, but generally there’s an impression that you guys got back on topic most of the time.

    Thanks for the podcast guys. Looking forward to the next one. 🙂

    Owaranai
    Reply

  24. A few suggestions on how to name these shorter podcasts….

    “Random Tidbits Podcast”
    “RC Bites”
    “Walking on Stilts Podcast”
    “RC-3 Podcast”
    “RC Lite Podcast”
    “Random C-Lite” (sounds like “random delight”)
    “Just a Little Curious Podcast”

    Junko Tamiya
    Reply

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