Episode 124: Obscure 80s Anime


Welcome  to the 80s

from Megazone 23. Yes, this is what passed for aerobics wear in the 80s. It was indeed a magical time.

Kittyhawk is back this week, and we’re talking about obscure 80s anime. This is the stuff that made us fall in love with anime back in the early 90s, when we used to call it “Japanimation.” We say “early 90s” because most of this stuff wasn’t even available in American in the decade that they were created. We had to wait around for Streamline Pictures and Central Park Media to bring this stuff to us.

The 80s was a special time. It was a time of leotards and legwarmers. Leather jackets and torn jeans. And everyone had a boombox with high-speed dubbing.

But there is nothing so aggressively 80s as the anime of the era. Come join us for this brief journey into some of our obscure favorites, and tell us some of yours.

Project A-Ko - Possibly the most iconic anime of the era.

Project A-Ko – Possibly the most iconic anime of the era.


Riding Bean is what came before Gunsmith Cats.  Gunsmith Cats is better, but if you want more guns and cars in an 80s car chase scenario, you might want to check out Riding Bean.

Riding Bean is what came before Gunsmith Cats. Gunsmith Cats is better, but if you want more guns and cars in an 80s car chase scenario, you might want to check out Riding Bean.

Doraemon

Doraemon

This is what you would get if you took the Force out of Star Wars.  You'd have Han Solo: The Movie. ...aka Crusher Joe.

This is what you would get if you took the Force out of Star Wars. You’d have Han Solo: The Movie. …aka Crusher Joe.

Listen to the show to hear about the rare localized Harlock cartoon.  Possibly the most obscure of them all!

Listen to the show to hear about the rare localized Harlock cartoon. Possibly the most obscure of them all!

Girl in school uniform versus girl in one-piece bathing suit/battle uniform.  Need I explain why I love Project A-Ko?

Girl in school uniform versus girl in one-piece bathing suit/battle uniform. Need I explain why I love Project A-Ko?

Episode 114: The Vision Of Escaflowne


Vision Of Escaflowne

Vision Of Escaflowne

This week, it’s The Vision of Escaflowne! In this series, a girl is whisked away to a planet called Gaea, a world of robot mecha and divining powers.

Kittyhawk and the Chu take over this episode and a lot of passion for the show, both positive and negative, comes to the surface. Things become heated for a moment, but we’re all cool in the end.

This episode may have some of the longest stretches of audio in which neither Ben nor Neil say ANYTHING.

Episode 61: Cartoons based off Video Games

Bob Mackey of Retronauts is our guest

Bob Mackey of Retronauts is our guest


Tonight on Animation Aficionados, we are joined with Bob Mackey of Retronauts as we journey through cartoons based off video games. You may not believe it, listeners, but games used to be much more abstract than they are now. A storyline for square sprites, hard to believe!

Topics Covered:
Creepy Pasta
Peter Cullen IS Mario!
The Sonic cartoon that takes itself too seriously
The clairvoyance of the Zelda cartoon
The origin of Yoshi’s idiot/baby voice
The shortcomings of DiC and Ruby-Spears
Sonic is best when he’s mute
We prefer to call it “Pokey-Mans”
Super Fighting Robot! Vacuum Cleaner!
The Pac-Man/Richie Rich/Little RascalsOur Gang Show
A round red ball living with four other random roommates as they solve crimes?(That sunnabitch had an AX!)
POLE POSI-TIOOOOOOOON!!! What’s behind their stunt shooooow?!
Do the Mario! Swing your tools into your crotch!




Well, excuuuuuuuuse ME, Princess!!!

Well, excuuuuuuuuse ME, Princess!!!

Episode 44: The Transformers

The Optimus Prime puppet from the so-called "Season 5"

"Are Kup and Hot Rod gonna be alright, Uncle Prime?" "Kup and Hot Rod are gonna be just fine, Li'l Tommy."

How has it taken 44 episodes to get to this?! Ben and I sit down with TFG1 Mike and JT from Saskatoon to talk about robots that turn into cars, planes, and boomboxes. Yes, it’s The Transformers. At last, this day has come!

I know that it’s not great storytelling. Heck, the show can barely go an episode without contradicting itself. But when it comes to creating iconic characters by the seat of its pants, nothing… I mean, NOTHING tops G1 Transformers. Optimus Prime, Megatron, Hot Rod, Starscream, Jazz, Soundwave, Grimlock, Ironhide, Cyclonus, Kup, and many, many more.

Today, we make fun of G1 a lot, but it’s all out of love.

Topics Discussed
GET THAT CRAP OUT OF MY ROBOT SHOW!!!
Optimus Prime: Death and Resurrection
The immaculate conception of Spike Witwicky
Robots with souls
Gay love Autobots
Of Mice And Dinobots
“No one’s ever really disabled as long as they have COURAGE!”
“Don’t sneak up on me, Tommy!”
Daniel cries like a baby
Rodimus listens to old Cure albums and cuts himself
The birth of AKOM
Toy-accurate Ultra Magnus makes us cry
Targetmaster contortionists
Ninja consultants
A life support system that you wear into battle
Putting dead giant robots into wooden caskets
The F*@!ING CYBERNETIC SPACE CUBE!!!
The Go-Bots movie SUCKS!!!!!!!!!1111oneoneone

Grimlock! Shhh!

Proof that Rodimus is a terrible leader. Optimus would NEVER have taken Grimlock along on a spy mission.

Daniel jumps down Arcee's empty neck!!

And Mike Blanchard wants an explanation for why I think that this is a terrible episode. Isn't it obvious?!??!

The dying and rising Optimus Prime

Here's the guy I pray to every Sunday!


Episode 39: Localization (Defending Carl Macek)

Roy!!!!!

Pineapple salad cannot kill Roy!

Today, we were joined by Kittyhawk and voice actor Brett Weaver to talk about the fine art of localization. We also talk about Carl Macek a bit, but not as much as we had planned. Maybe we can return to Carl at a later date.

As for today’s episode, you have 100 minutes to look forward to of us rambling about why the anime snobs of the 90s were all wrong.

Topics discussed:
Streamline Pictures
Tomato soup
Ninja consultants
Averting archaic internet memes based on bad localizations
Random falling H’s
“No” DOES mean “Yes”!
Making fun of Sandy Fox
Singing… IN JAPANESE!!!
The white Richard Roundtree
“FUCK YOU, BEN!”

Ninja Consultant

Fortress Maximus meets with Ninja Consultant Six Shot to balance his budget... IN STEALTH!!!


Nabeshin

"He's a bad mother..." "Shut your mouth!" "I'm just talkin' about Nabeshin!"


Jenny Stigile - Singer of the "Magic Knight Rayearth" Saturn theme

Once again, we agree that Jenny Stigile is the superior MKR singer to Sandy Fox.