Retro Anime Podcast - Next Episodes

Hi AFE,

We cover lots of different genres of retro anime, comedy, action, sci-fi, drama etc. and anime from the 50's to the 90's, if you scroll through this thread you can see all the anime we've reviewed.

Have a listen (there are links for each episode in th ethread or find us on iTunes, Spotify etc. by searching for Retro Anime Podcast) and let us know what you think.

Thanks for listening,

Ian
 
Hi Everyone,

Episode 17 is now out with the second part of our Gall Force retrospective. Lewis and I review Rhea Gall Force, Gall Force: Earth Chapter and Gall Force: New Era.

You can listen on SoundCloud directly here:

Retro Anime Podcast #17 'Galls Still Just Wanna Have Fun'

Or find the podcast on iTunes, TuneIn, Spotify, Stitcher, Podcast Addict, CastBox Player, Pocket Casts, Overcast FM and many other podcast players by searching For Retro Anime Podcast.

Thanks for listening,

Ian
 
Hi Everyone,

Lewis and I will be recording the next episode of the podcast next week where we will be reviewing the folklore epics Sangokushi and it's sequel Sangokushi: Men Who Race Across The Heavens from the mid 80's.

Reply here with any questions or comments you have for us.

Thanks for listening,

Ian.
 
Hi Everyone,

Episode 18 is now out where we review the two Sangokushi specials from the mid 80's that adapt the Chinese novel ' The Romance of the Three Kingdoms'.

You can listen on SoundCloud directly here:

Retro Anime Podcast #18 'Romancing the Kingdoms'

Or find the podcast on iTunes, TuneIn, Spotify, Stitcher, Podcast Addict, CastBox Player, Pocket Casts, Overcast FM and many other podcast players by searching For Retro Anime Podcast.

Thanks for listening,

Ian
 
Having listened to the episode, I'm kinda sold on these now. I've heard a lot of references to Romance of the Three Kingdoms across various media over the years, but I'm not familiar with the original story, and was always a bit wary of trying to get to grips with any adaptations in case it relied too much on assumed audience knowledge. I remember feeling that particularly with Fuse: Memoirs of a Huntress, as it seems to take for granted that the viewer is quite familiar with the Hakkenden legend.

I'll see if I can screen the first Sangokushi film at our next 'watch random OVAs' session.
 
Thanks for your continued support Prof đź‘Ť

As we said in the podcast, these specials are worth watching, Lewis and I were in the same boat, seen lots of references but never read the original story but I think you don't need prior knowledge to watch these as they tell the story with sufficient context. We plan to review some more adaptations so it will be interesting to see how well each tells the same story.
 
Blue Sonnet is one of those OVAs I've heard mentioned but never actually seen - I mostly just remember it for the main heroine's resemblance to Cutie Honey, with her bright red hair. I'll definitely add it to the pile for the next time I see my unsavoury pals though.
 
Hi Everyone,

Episode 19 is now out. Lewis and I delve into what was the mainstay of the 90s UK anime market, the schlocky violent action OVA with reviews of Guyver: Out of Control and Blue Sonnet.

You can listen on SoundCloud directly here:

Retro Anime Podcast #19 'A Bit of the Old Ultra Violence'

Or find the podcast on iTunes, TuneIn, Spotify, Stitcher, Podcast Addict, CastBox Player, Pocket Casts, Overcast FM and many other podcast players by searching For Retro Anime Podcast.

Thanks for listening,

Ian
 
orgun said:
I think it would be right up your street Prof!
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It's one that so urgently needs remastered and rereleased. I remember seeing Blue Sonnet a good while ago. It was one of the first to get me into collecting and I'm sorely irked it's lost to the winds. There are only VHS's of it short of downloading it illegally. That said It is a very interesting anime if cut off a little short. It's also no for the faint hearted.
 
orgun said:
Yes, I would love to have a remastered version of it on Blu-ray, never going to happen but I can dream!



That's a great scene, sums up the OVAs tone perfectly.
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Never say never. Who owns the rights to Blue Sonnet anyway? Do IP's ever reach a point of public domain where anime is concerned?
 
cudwieser said:
Never say never. Who owns the rights to Blue Sonnet anyway? Do IP's ever reach a point of public domain where anime is concerned?
Click to expand...
Looks like the copyright belongs to the author Masahiro Shibata, his publisher Hakusensha, Inc and Nippon Television Music Co., Ltd. Mushi Pro is also listed in the copyright on the back of my VHS. The Japanese wiki also lists Walkers Company, which went bankrupt at the end of episode four. Even if you secured the rights from Nippon Television Music, Shibata could still put a kibosh on the deal, which apparently has happened before. Mangaka, even retired ones like Shibata wield a lot of power. If you passed all those hurdles, you'd have to find the 35mm film, if it still exists, otherwise it's whatever composite analogue video masters you could find. Discotek has done it numerous times before though.

It's kind of annoying as so many OVAs from the 1980's and 1990's have just vanished. It's utter baffling why something like Combustible Campus Guardress never got an English language release.
 
Decided to pick up Star Cat again after seeing you'd mentioned it. The first episode gave me a bit of a Red Dwarf vibe, with Seitarou's slovenly life in space, his snarky robot companion and the computer's human avatar, so I was a little disappointed it got somewhat fluffier thereafter, but it was still fun. It's definitely a great looking OVA, I loved all the attention to small world-building details like the characters hooking their lifelines on to the ship during spacewalk or the jewel-encrusted maid robots near the end.

One thing that did strike me though was that, despite me usually having a tin-ear for VA performances, it seemed noticeable that the girls were played by non-professionals; their delivery seemed that little bit different to the other characters. Presumably much of the funding for the OVA was tied to promoting their performance as LISP, which I suppose says a lot about how much cash must have been flying around at the time - surely it'd only be at the height of the boom years that you could produce a such well animated four episode show just as promotional material for an idol group. Although I suppose AKB0048 is a thing...

Dokushin Apartment sounds a bit skeezy for me, but I'll be sure to check it out anyway, even just for curiosity's sake.
 
Yeah, there is a bit of a Red Dwarf vibe at the start of Star Cat, I enjoyed it as easy entertainment but had some mixed feelings about it, the girl band was terrible but the story chipped along it a fashion that I found interesting at the same time. Absolutely agree with the frivolity of creating as good quality OVA for an idol group, as I said in the review, at the this point Ishiguro could do pretty much what he wanted so I not surprised.

I really can't recommend watching Dokushin Apartment but it some ways it needs to be watched to understand what the bottom of the barrel looks like!
 
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