PIERRE BERNARD'S RECLINER OF RAGE: HOLY FUCKING FUCK!
Oh, damn, I was upstairs making myself a roast beef sandwich and I missed the "Pierre Bernard's Recliner of Rage" segment on tonight's
Late Night With Conan O'Brien, but, fortunately, they replayed it during the closing credits.
Holy shit! Pierre Bernard was talking about
Robotech tonight, Harmony Gold's ingenious mixing of three entirely different anime series,
Super Dimensional Fortress Macross,
Genesis Climber Mospeada, and
Super Dimensional Cavalry Southern Cross !(Carl Macek wanted to bring just
Macross to North American television, but it was about 20 episodes too short for daily syndication, which usually needs at least 65 episodes, so he bought two more series from the same production team and inserted a few scenes from each of the series into the episodes of the other two series to tie them in together, rescripting them, of course.) He was complaining that he was collecting it on VHS, but they stopped it, and he bought the first three sets of the
Macross saga, but the company that made them went out of business, and they recently came out with new, remastered
Robotech sets, but there are like 15 small boxes from the various
Robotech-affiliated cartoons and he doesn't know which ones to get to continue from the point he has, so he thinks there should just be one big, all-inclusive,
Robotech set.
You know, since this blog is one of the
top Google hits for "Pierre Bernard's Recliner of Rage", which astonishes me to no end, and as a blog which discusses anime on an all-too-frequent basis (half the time to mock fandom, and, the other half, to plug
my long, intensive, exhaustively-researched, Pullitzer-worthy, Super GALS! reviews), I wouldn't be doing my duty if I didn't give him some useful advice.
Hey, Pierre, since I'm sure you see this blog sometimes, what you have, I think, are the first three
Robotech Legacy sets, whcih should cover the entire
Macross saga (the "Rick Hunter" stuff). Why you're having trouble finding the sets of the other part of the series is that ADV Films, the company which produced the sets, didn't go out of business (it's doing quite well, but I'm skeptical their upcoming linear Anime Network will make a profit), but they pulled the original sets from the market because they've come out with
remastered sets, and, so far, only the
Macross saga has been released in this format. According to
Anime Nation, the
older sets are still available; what you want to be getting next are
the two "Masters" sets, and then
the two "New Generation" sets, and you'll get everything that aired on television in the 1980s.
Also, while I have nothing against you if you prefer the TV dub and see the dub as the "definitive" version, and while you'll never catch me whining about the treatment several unrelated Japanese series received for North American children's television two decades ago, I would be remiss if I didn't point out that one can now order the original, unedited versions of the three series in the original Japanese with English subtitles:
SDF Macross (the stuff you know are the TV volumes (they have the black backgrounds); the stuff at the top of the page are short spin-off series set in the same universe but with different characters produced a decade later with lavish animation compared to the old TV series. I'm one of the few people that liked
Macross II more than
Macross Plus but the latter is better-animated),
GC Mospeada, and
Southern Cross. Not that you need to, I'm just pointing it out.
I know you most likely won't be able to do another "Pierre Bernard's Recliner of Rage" segment on the subject of
Robotech since you have to keep the geeky topics varied from one segment to the next, but it's too bad you can't use the segment to agitate for a proper North American release of the 1984
Macross movie,
Macross: Do You Remember Love, an alternate-reality retelling of the original
Macross series, but with gorgeous animation. I think it was the highest-budgeted anime film before
Akira, though I'm not 100% sure on that. It was only released once in North America in highly-edited form at some point in the late 1980s as
Clash of the Bionoids, and the domestic rights are apparently still in limbo for reasons too boring for me to bother trying to understand.
Macross World should have everything you've ever wanted to know about the series.
I'd e-mail all this to you, but I'm kind of shy, so I'll just leave it here and hope you'll find it.
(Just to bump me on Google from third to first,
"Pierre Bernard's Recliner of Rage".)
Labels: Pierre Bernard's Recliner of Rage
THAT McDONALD'S MUSIC OFFER...
Gourmand that I am, after seeing
Garfield this afternoon (hey, it was okay), I went over to McDonald's, and, currently, they're running this special offer wherein, if you buy a Big Mac trio, you get to download a whole song from Connect.com (though you have to tear very carefully to get the code if you don't want to bring the whole Big Mac box home).
I thought I'd write this as I try and download, and record my experiences.
First, I have to go to the
Sony Connect(TM) website and click on the McDonald's logo.
Okay, registered... and the Big Mac case says I need to "download the necessary software", but it's just Windows Media Player, so I got that covered already.
SONG ATTEMPT ONE: One to One, "(Caught an) Angel in my Pocket".
Your search for "angel in my pocket" returned no results. Please try again.
SONG ATTEMPT TWO: The Spoons, "Those Old Emotions".
Your search for "those old emotions" returned no results. Please try again.
SONG ATTEMPT THREE: Allan Parson's Project, "Don't Answer Me".
Uh... they have it, but I feel like browsing a little more for my experiment.
SONG ATTEMPT FOUR: Matthew Sweet, "I've Been Waiting"
(which I actually have on the
Girlfriend CD, but I think it was in a box which got stolen from a storage unit.)
Yup, they got it.
SONG ATTEMPT FIVE: Anything by Megumi Hayashibara.
Your search for "hayashibara" returned no results. Please try again.
Hey, if it's Sony, then it's the same company that released the
Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou anime in Japan.
SONG ATTEMPT SIX: anything from
Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou
Nothing from "Choro Club" nor "Hekiru Shiina" nor Gontiti.
Oh, I know something I want...
SONG ATTEMPT SEVEN: Peter Schilling, "Major Tom (Coming Home)".
Your search for "major tom" returned no results. Please try again.
SONG ATTEMPT EIGHT: Kon Kan, "Liberty".
Eh, they have songs called "Liberty" from Chris de Burgh, Vertical Horizon, and Phil Lesh & Friends, but those aren't the one I want.
I've kind of warmed on the Matthew Sweet track, since "I've Been Waiting" is the song with the video with all of the clips of Lum from the
Urusei Yatsura films and OVA specials.
"Add to cart"... "Checkout"... "Proceed to checkout".... click on McDonald's logo. Access code: "3233021326" (already been redeemed by me, so I might as well put it up). Download order manager...
Eh, I didn't care much for having to download the order manager, but nevermind.
It downloaded the song very quickly... well, compared to leeching off WinMX.
Ooh, it's in Windows Media Audio format.
Result: Positive experience downloading! :) Kids, order as many Big Mac combos as you can very soon, because I think this is only a limited-time offer.
THE LIFE AQUATIC UPDATE
There's no movie this year I'm looking forward to more than
Wes Anderson's
The Life Aquatic starring Bill Murray, coming to theatres on December 1st.
Ain't It Cool News has
three glowing reviews from three very lucky people who were at Disney/Touchstone's first test screening. I'm usually wary of linking to AICN these days since Harry Knowles is a spoiler-phobe and a lot of the reviews are so vague with the details for the benefit of the people who can't stand spoilers yet still read articles about movies they want to experience "unspoiled" that they are fairly useless if you want to know anything worthwhile about the plot, but, this time, I have no qualms since the three reviews, between them, contain a surprising amount of meat relating to the plot, at least by AICN standards.
(One paragraph from each review)
"i probably did a real bad job at explaining the look of the film. Its something i just can't describe. Its part 50's b movie science fiction, part SEA QUEST and part ROYAL TENENBAUMS. I wish i could describe it in more detail, but i just can't...its so strange, so different...it will hit you like a ton of bricks."
"HENRY SELICK!!! OH MAN OH MAN OH MAN!!! OK the print we saw was a "rough cut" but MAN OH MAN THE EFFECTS WERE SOOO DAMN COOL!! I'm telling you guys, this stuff is great!! It's all stop motion animation, no CGI here, well, maybe there was some CGI...but for the most part ALL of the underwater creatures were stop motion animated puppets!! Very cool looking indeed!! I'm glad he went with stop motion, and not CGI for the creatures!! Three cheers for Henry Selick! HIP HIP HOORAY!!! I think this definately makes up for Monkey Bone......well....i dunno we'll see about that...."
"The answer I finally wrote on my questionaire was that what I liked best about the film is that it lived up to it's expectations. Something I hope Wes Anderson continues to do for the rest of his career, and something that is a true rarity these days." (Ahem, that should be "its", not "it's", the contraction of "it is")
Sounds great. I just wish I could get my hands on the script.
Also, if you're a fan of Wes Anderson's Futura-captioned montages, like with Max's clubs in
Rushmore and the Tenenbaum children's childhoods in
The Royal Tenenbaums (actually, one of a couple of montages in that one), apparently, this time round, the montage bit will be showing the boat room-by-room.
I'm guessing that 85-year old
Kumar Pallana, who played "Kumar" in
Bottle Rocket, "Mr. Littlejeans" in
Rushmore, and "Pagoda" in
The Royal Tenenbaums, isn't in this one because he was too busy with his prominent supporting role in
Steven Spielberg's The Terminal starring Tom Hanks.
Apparently, the film may go back to its original full title
The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou.
I don't know if this is that new, but
I found these The Life Aquatic pics I hadn't seen before doing a Google search.
Related articles:
The first time I posted about The Life Aquatic, back in March 2003, with some outdated information about the case.
My reaction to the first pictures.
When I found out that Henry Selick would be providing animation.
...BECAUSE 4KIDS BOUGHT THE RIGHTS AND YOU DIDN'T! (ONE PIECE)
Not that I think that I'd care about
One Piece anyway, but
4Kids Entertainment, a company with a successful and profitable track record in adapting Japanese children's cartoons for the North American kiddy TV market, has
bought the rights to the pirate cartoon One Piece anime from Toei, who, no doubt, are fully aware of 4Kids track record in terms of the edits they make to make their cartoons more suitable for the lucrative North American kidvid market, and, if they didn't approve of the changes 4Kids will make, they wouldn't have sold them the rights. As usual, the self-appointed protectors of TEH ARTISTIC INTEGRITY are out in full-force on anime message boards everywhere, and the wankage threatens to grow so big that it will collapse under its own weight and become a black hole of wankage from which no logic shall escape. (I'm paraphrasing someone, but I forget who, so I can't give any credit.) Sorry, the truth is that 4Kids got the rights and you didn't, and the niche's opinions on how 4Kids should handle the dub, or about how Toei shouldn't have sold them the rights in the first place, are completely worthless, since 4Kids will be aiming this at the wider kidvid market and not the purist niche. Toei's more interested in making huge piles of money from merchandising spin-off deals, and, for that, 4Kids is their best choice. If large piles of money can be made from North American kids, it will be made, and the whinings of a small-but-vocal purist niche won't get Toei to change their minds.
I gave
my own general opinion about edits done for television over at Anime News Network the other day:
I just look at it from the cold, business perspective: As long as the licensor approves, any type of edits are fair game. Assuming the content of a children's programme is not too outrageous for easily-offended parents, who, if you're talking about syndication, are a lot more important to the kiddy TV syndicator than the anime purist niche, if a buck can be made editing a show for the kiddies, it will be made, and the best the niche who are aware of the changes made can hope for is a separate, uncut release.
Even if I was a fan of
One Piece and did want an intact version, since FUNimation has just announced that
they will be distributing uncut versions of several 4Kids properties, I wouldn't get too concerned over this. In any event, the only pragmatic fan action one should take is a letter-writing campaign like
the one I suggested for Tokyo Mew Mew fans back in February (which seems to have had some effect; I was correct in thinking that
Hollywood Mew Mew wouldn't be the final title, and, now that subtitled, intact versions of other 4Kids properties have been announced, I think a
TMM sub is likely). And only write if you are serious about buying a subtitled, intact version and aren't just complaining for the sake of complaining, though I think a lot more people would be interested in such a release for
One Piece than would be in
Tokyo Mew Mew.
I wonder how long it will be before
Fandom Wank links to
the thread on the subject at Anime On DVD? Wank wank wank wank wank...
Arxane has already waxed eloquently on this in his blog.
Since I know that, even if 4Kids and FUNi release a subtitled, intact version of
One Piece, a certain number of the whiners will find some lame excuse not to buy it and just continue downloading fansubs, the best quote of the day goes to
Professor Genius on the Anime News Network board:
"I urge anyone who is considering not supporting an uncut US release just because they sub it gum-gum pistol rather than gomu gomu no pistol to simply go whole-hog and get those shitty chinese bootleg disks on ebay and cram it where the sun don't shine."
EDIT: And the correct answer to the
Fandom Wank question was "
at 12:59 p.m. PDT in a post entitled "OMG LITTLE KIDS WILL GET INTO MY SHOW!!!!111" by Fandom Wanker
j_crew_guy". And he didn't just link to the aforementioned
Anime on DVD thread but also to the
Anime News Network thread in which I participated, but obviously not because of my posts, heh heh.
By the way, for people that don't get the point of the previous post, I'm just being tongue-in-cheek, getting at sports columnists who make out that national pride is on the line somehow if the Cup doesn't return to Canada. Please, it's just a stupid game of stick-puck.
For keeping the Stanley Cup in the United States for the 11th year in a row and for proving, by extension, that all Canadians are second rate failures.
Hang your heads in shame, Calgary Flames. :P
That'll really piss a lot of people off if I press "Publish Post"... oops.
GALS! MANGA LICENSED? THAT NEWS IS SUPER, MAN!
From
ICv2.
DC Teases Manga Line
A Non-Announcement Announcement
June 07, 2004
DC Comics, while making no announcements for its new CMX manga line (see "DC To Launch Manga Imprint"), was displaying art from three manga properties at its booth at the recently concluded Bookexpo America show at McCormick Place in Chicago. The three properties are Gals, by Mihona Fujii, from Shueisha; Musashi #9, by Miyuki Takahashi, from Akita Shoten; and Madara, by Sho-u Tajima and Eiji Otsuka, from Kadokawa Shoten.
DC Director of Publicity David Hyde would only say that DC had no announcement at this time and would make one at a future time.
Yeah, like they'd put a honking big picture of Ran Kotobuki on the display if it wasn't "official". Good for DC for taking a chance with a
shoujo title, though I would probably be more excited if I hadn't been reading
GALS! in French from
Glénat since last summer.
Related articles:
Super GALS! volume one review
Super GALS! volume four review
I discuss GALS! volume four briefly.
How I like GALS!/Super GALS! better than Kodomo no Omocha
I talk about a crappy, literally, Super GALS! doujinshi.
