Akihabara Renditions

No clever titles, as Richard and Drew lay down the law and discuss the 1994 OAV, Taihoushichauzo!, AKA, You're Under Arrest. This episode was recorded back shortly after New Year's and before the world went to hell, so we open with some chit-chat about what we were up to closing 2019. We discuss the passing of anime seiyuu Inoue Makio and theatrical showings of Mobile Suit Gundam: Char's Counterattack ahead of the review. Download it you geek!

We're back and happy 2020! Apologies for the delay for our annual tradition; travelling and sickness will do that. Hope everyone had good holidays and a happy new year - because we're here to ruin it. Download it you geek!

Richard and Drew sit down to chat about one of their favorite series in the Gundam franchise, nay, a favorite TV series of all time - 1985's Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam. Zeta has been held highly in the pantheon of Gundam series but went through a long period of harsh criticism.  Unlike a typical review of the series itself, we decided to discuss the series featuring criticisms and critiques of the series and respond to them, which are off-base and which are well reasoned. Download it you geek! Links to our quotes can be found on our blog over at akibaren.net!

Part 2 of our Creator's Profile series for Kawamori Shouji! We pick up in 1994 when he decides what the real sequels to Superdimension Fortress Macross should be and head on up to his more recent works. Download it, you geek!

Drew and Richard are back with another edition of Akihabara Renditions' Creator Profile series! In this episode, we're going to discuss another titan of mecha anime fandom, the professional life of Kawamori Shouji. From his early career, through the success of Superdimension Fortress Macross, and beyond, tune in for our overview of his works! Download this episode, you geek!

In this episode, Drew and Richard talk about a panel they were planned to present at Anime Weekend Atlanta in 2018, the Yoroiden Samurai Troopers 30th Anniversary! We talk about the original TV series and the OAVs that came after. YST is a series that was near and dear to our hearts in our earlier fandom and is still a show we talk about off-air, so it was great to sit down and chat about this series. As you can tell from some background noise early on, we're not the only ones who are down with YST! Download this episode, you geek!

This episode, Drew and Richard sit down to discuss Japanese animation from the modern era that they are watching and talk about why not all new anime is crap. Download this episode, you geek!  

In this episode of Akihabara Renditions, Drew and Richard take a walk on the ~spooky~ side as we review the 1985 OAV Vampire Hunter D and its 2000 sequel, Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust. Thus concludes our inadvertent coverage of the Night of the Vampire Robots! Download it, you geek!

Happy Reiwa, folks! Continuing on with the festivities for the 40th Anniversary of Mobile Suit Gundam, we review the second Thunderbolt movie, Gundam Thunderbolt: Bandit Flower. Download it, you geek!

Japan is preparing for the abdication of its current Emperor, which means the coming of a new era! Actually, this doesn't mean anything except or history and political junkies... doesn't it? Well, not so fast! Drew will explain the significance and brief history of the Imperial Calendar system and Richard confuses monarchies for someplace that elects their figureheads and nominates professional wrestler Jushin Thunder Liger to the post and applies it to pop culture through beloved children's hero, Masked (Kamen) Rider. Then they'll go on to discuss some of the most notable series from the first year of the closing Heisei period. Download it, you geek!

Upon us soon is the 40th Anniversary of the airing of the original Mobile Suit Gundam. A TV series whose original run went from being shortened due to poor ratings to one of the most visible anime franchises. It's success having gone from Japanese Star Trek to Japanese Star Wars. Drew and Richard sit down for a chat and reflect on the franchise's various series, various adaptations and what might be coming next for Gundam.  Download it, you geek!

It's that time of the year again, our annual tradition! The grand-daddy of them all - it's time for Christmas Craptacular! On this, the sixth edition of the Craptacular, we change nothing! We watch some shitty cartoons and report back to you dear listeners! Happy Holidays and Happy New Year! Download this episode, you geek!

In this episode of Akihabara Renditions, Drew and Richard sit down and talk about a film that was seemingly everywhere in an earlier time of fandom but has conspicuously disappeared - 1987's Twilight of the Cockroaches! Take a trip down memory lane as we revisit a film  we're seeing for the first time in two decades! As we mentioned in the show, the movie was aired as a one-off movie night on Cartoon Network on Night of the Vampire Robots, and someone uploaded the whole broadcast to YouTube. Download this episode, you geek!

Hey everyone - if you're reading this then it means Drew is up late putting together a podcast because him and Richard are  putting together panels for an anime convention! Which, just so happens to be the topic of our show!  We'll be at Anime Weekend Atlanta presenting the following panels, so if you're also there, we'd love to meet the listeners! Ten Years Ten Anime: 2000s Head-to-Head - FRI 9:45 PM CGC 108 Nue Kids On The Block: A Profile of Studio Nue - SAT 2:15 PM CGC 108 Suit (of Armor) Up! 30 Years of Ronin Warriors - SAT 7:15 PM CGC 108 Don't Talk About The War: Militarism and Pacifism in Japanese Animation - SUN 11:30 AM CGC 107   Download it, you geek!

Drew and Richard are back for another exciting episode of Akihabara Renditions! We get back to our roots and have a good, old-fashioned review episode about old Japanese cartoons. We're headed back to the heyday of the Bubble Economy era by reviewing two OAVs - Robot Carnival (1987) and Record of Lodoss War (1991). Download it you geek!

In this exciting episode of Akihabara Renditions, Drew takes to stealing content from Twitter to get some discussion going for the podcast topic. First, Drew and Richard discuss the hashtag #FilmstruckFour and each select 4 anime that have shaped their overall taste in anime fandom. Then we turn the tables around and discuss something we hate about a show we love and something we love about a show we hate. Nice quick episode here, so hope you enjoy! Again, leave us feedback on iTunes, Stitcher and wherever you get your podcasts and hit us up on Twitter, Facebook and email! Download it, you geek!

On this episode, Richard and Drew sit down with Basil and Kevin from the OSMCast about SeishunCon - Atlanta's Winter Anime Convention! We chat a little bit about programming and history of the convention, in the hopes of a longer recording about the show more in general - and guess what? When you're busy as a panelist and totally free-form your show, you don't demand that people sit down with you to talk about cartoon conventions. For full disclosure, this is a convention that is near to Richard and Drew, as they are founders of the show, though they are not active in its organization or operation now. They return as panelists and hit the social circuit (and they way we like it). SeishunCon is a growing and fun show with a little something for everyone. Download this episode, you geek!

This episode has been in the can for a couple of months now. Back at the end of September at Anime Weekend Atlanta, Drew sat down with Basil of our Podcast Superfriends, the OSMcast, and discussed various anime streaming services and their state from a consumer perspective. Basil has some great analysis and theorizes that with the number of services available, we might be on the verge of a bubble not much unlike what we saw in the mid-2000s. Have a listen and see if you agree or disagree! Funny enough: Just last week, Amazon announced that they were cancelling their separate Anime Strike service and made all of their anime available with a standard Prime membership. Hosts: Drew & Basil (of the OSMcast!) Download this episode, you geek!

Returning to our roots for a true, Akihabara Renditions tradition! Join Richard and Drew as we first subject ourselves to the pain of terrible Japanese cartoons then review and discuss them all for your listening, uh, pleasure? We've alerted the authorities and have sent the Kraumpus to Japan for the production crews responsible. Be warned, we've got some real coal for your stockings this year. Hosts: Drew and Richard Download this episode, you geek!

Richard and Drew sit down and have a very brief discussion about Mobile Suit Gundam Thunderbolt: December Sky. A little bit of podcast rust and remnant tryptophan from the holidays, we'd mistaken Side 5 (Texas Colony) for Side 4 (Moore's Colony) when discussing this piece. Just the quality you'd expect from Akihabara Renditions! Hosts: Drew & Richard Download this episode, you geek! 

We're back for another episode of Akihabara Renditions! In this episode, we're going to talk briefly about a subset of anime fandom that is near and dear to our hearts - Plastic Modeling (PlaMo), particularly of the Gundam variety. It's a quick episode where we talk about some of the history, some of the different "lines" of GunPla and some build discussion.  Download it, you geek!

In this episode of Akihabara Renditions, we continue the life and work of Tomino Yoshiyuki. We're picking up in 1985 and working our way up to 2017. Please let us know in the comments, via email, Facebook and Twitter how you liked this pair of episodes! Thanks for listening! Hosts: Drew & Richard Download this episode, you geek! Show Notes: Our show's opening is the same though our ending this episode is Hoshizora no Believe, the ending theme to Mobile Suit Z Gundam. Metadata tagging is still wonky at the moment.  General Research provided by Wikipedia (and ウイキペデイア) because Internet but corroborated by ANN Encycplopedia and Sunrise Ainme 2001 (Tatsumi, 2000, ISBN 4-88641-496-6 C9476).  

In this episode of Akihabara Renditions, we explore the life and work of a creator, in this case, director, whose work is near and dear to us: Tomino Yoshiyuki. We're test driving a new format that we hope to expand into other episodes. Once we sat down and did our notes for this, we figured that this would be best split into two episodes. The show notes below contain some links for further reading! Hosts: Drew & Richard Show Notes: Our opening theme remains the same as always; our ending theme this episode is Uchuu no Hoshi yo Eien ni, the ending theme to Invincible Superman Zambot 3. The quote we used regarding his time as a freelancer was found this article via Forbes. General Research provided by Wikipedia (and ウイキペデイア) because Internet but corroborated by ANN Encycplopedia, Sunrise Ainme 2001 (Tatsumi, 2000, ISBN 4-88641-496-6 C9476), and Mobile Suit Gundam Spotlight Article in Animerica Magazine (Vol. 6, No. 10).  

In this episode of Akihabara Renditions, Drew and Richard sit down to talk about some of those first series of anime they saw that really drove them over the edge -  those shows that went beyond just being cool cartoons but really encouraged us to dive really deep into the backgrounds of those shows. It provided for some great commentary and hope you enjoy listening! Feel like getting involved in the conversation? Leave us a comment on our site at akibaren.net, on Twitter or Facebook about those first shows that drove you over the deep end! Download this podcast, you geek! Hosts: Drew Sutton & Richard Hoelsher

On this episode of Akihabara Renditions,Drew and Richard discuss current anime distribution and compare pros and cons to "The Old Daze" of anime fandom and whether we are now in a golden age of fandom as far as availability and price.

Richard and Drew come back for the first episode of Series 2 of Akihabara Renditions! This episode will introduce a little bit of a new format as Richard and Drew dust off some of the podcast rust and discuss what's been going on the last few years and the show topic. Hosts: Drew Sutton, Richard Hoelsher Check us out at akibaren.net!

Episode 35 - Christmas Craptacular 4

Loading episode 31 - check out a full write up at Akihabara Renditons!

We discuss the legacy of the late Carl Macek.

Episode 30, we review Techni Muyo! Ryo-oh-ki OAV 1.

Episode 29

Episode 28.

We're back with another fantastic episode. This episode, we discuss the epic 1990s OAV Giant Robo The Animation: The Night the Earth Stood Still. Just listen to the podcast and then watch this show. Hosts: "Suharashiki" no Drew Sutton, "Shougeki" no Richard Hoelsher, "Shikou" no Marc Smaik and "Shizukanaru" Taylor Hall. Download this episode!

After Drew went to Japan (and returned), the crew went to Anime Weekend Atlanta (and returned), Marc and Drew began promoting Seishun Con while Richard went to Japan (and later returned), we've still managed to get some podcasts together. Please accept our apologies for the delays. With that said, episode 26 features a do-over for Richard and Drew as they review again the Fist of the North Star movie from 1986 and then tackle the 2008-2009 OAV film Hokuto no Ken: Kenshiro-den. This time, we've managed to escape Soviet Russia and the clutches of KGB major/Prime Minister/man-about-town, Czar Putin.

Just before Anime Weekend Atlanta, we celebrate our twenty-fifth episode (and it only took 30 months to do!) by changing things up a little bit. Here at Akihabara Renditions, we do our reviews a little differently - we all are subjected to the material to be reviewed and each give our opinions on it. I think it makes for a much more balanced review but there are still some kinks to be worked out in the execution. While much of our review material thus far has been OAVs and films which only take a few hours to watch, when it comes to some of the longer series, four busy-as-Japanese-beavers-individuals with a ton of other commitments outside of the podcast, it becomes a little infeasible to adhere to this method. So, we've modified the method a bit with one of us helming the flagship of running the review and selecting a few episodes for the rest of the members to get a feel for the series. Our first attempt at this new review style is 1987's Kimagure Orange Road. We return to our normal review pattern with a forgettable OAV from 1986, Cosmos Pink Shock. Download this episode, you geek! Hosts: Drew Sutton, Marc Smazik and Richard Hoelsher

Basil from the OSMcast, our podcast superfriends, sticks around with us for another part where crotchety old men talk about the new-fangled cartoons from Spirng 2009 this year. This episode would have been much, much better had it been released near-after it was recorded as we only look at the series as the first couple of episodes were available and is more of an 'initial thoughts' sort of discussion. If you think we hate all new cartoons, this episode may surprise you! I know it surprised me. Hosts: Drew Sutton, Richard Hoelsher, Marc Smazik and Basil Download the episode here!

Welcome back, friends. In this episode, our good friend Basil from the OSMcast! winds up in Atlanta and helps us along with our MTAC review - right on schedule as the convention was three months ago and the additional four to six weeks of S/H between review and posting. Releasing on schedule just isn't how we roll. :P Hosts: Drew Sutton, Richard Hoelsher, Marc Smazik and Basil. Download the episode here!

A magnificent podcast as Marc and Drew sit down and discuss MomoCon for what they thought would be a brief discussion. Marc sets a dangerous precedent by offering a party for listeners once a single episode's downloads surpass the number of fingers on a normal individual's fingers on two hands! So, order your drinks by downloading this podcast! Hosts: Marc Smazik and Drew Sutton Podcast Notes: MomoCon really deserves to be plugged. Also, Drew is prepared to take comments on numerous rounds of potential libel and slander.

Episode 21 is finally ready (or not) to go! In this episode, we find out how much Drew loves the 1980s as we review Megazone 23 PART 1 and Project A-ko. I don't think his co-hosts will ever forgive him. Drew picked a fine time to get concerned over quality. At least, what he has control over and that's what has taken so long for this to get posted. Episodes 22, 23 and 24 are already recorded and won't be experiencing the same delay, so please stay tuned as they will be coming out shortly and we'll be caught up to speed yet again. Download the episode now! Hosts: Drew Sutton, Marc Smazik, Jason Brown and Richard Hoelsher. Podcast Notes: As usual, we open with our normal Jibber Jabber which has nothing to do with Japanese cartoons. You might also notice a change from our previous episodes as this is the first released, normal episode featuring our "new" mixer equipment. Shortly after the Voltron/Cobra review in episode 19, we broke down and bought a mixer board and several microphones, taking the advice of ... well, everyone else who runs a podcast of some sort. We recorded episode 20 featuring the mixer, but we all know what happened to that. So, we're still growing into the usage of the mixer when this was recorded (early March) and may sound a little worse than our previously released Omake episode 1.

This is not a normal episode by any length because we talk about a con AT A CON and are GUESTS on OUR OWN show. Plus - to get even more trippy, this is actually the SECOND piece of bonus material recorded at the convention for Akihabara Renditions. We introduce (not really) a guest and friend of ours, Jason Sohiel Asgari of gaijINside.com in an earlier bonus track and we'll post that later. Now for the episode you care about (not really)! Special thanks go out to Basil and Kevin of OSMcast, first for Basil for hosting and then Kevin for filling in mid way through and to Jason Sohiel Asgari for joining us to talk about conventions and men in rubber suits. Podcast Notes: None of us can count conventions who use "non-sequential" numbering schemes, also known as "themes". We spend the first part talking about the actual convention in a real-time fashion (unlike a real review, which we sit on for three weeks and then not post it for another month). Then, Basil has to leave and his compadre Kevin fills in to help Richard and Jason school Drew on the magical fairy land that is Japanese special effects hero programming, more shortly known as tokusatsu.

Have a Podcast of your own and need another promo to play? Play ours!

Baby, sometimes we just need some time away. So, we took a month off after the Christmas Craptacular. Then about another six weeks after this episode was recorded, we took some more time, because we're all nerds and therefore, lazy. However, to make up for the time apart, we're back with a big two part episode! In part 1 (or, according to MLS - Megazone Language Style, PART 1) we review Voltron: Defender of the Universe and crap on our childhoods and then kick it up a notch with a review of the Space Adventure Cobra film from 1982.

Baby, sometimes we just need some time away. So, we took a month off after the Christmas Craptacular. Then about another six weeks after this episode was recorded, we took some more time, because we're all nerds and therefore, lazy. However, to make up for the time apart, we're back with a big two part episode! In part 1 (or, according to MLS - Megazone Language Style, PART 1) we review Voltron: Defender of the Universe and crap on our childhoods and then kick it up a notch with a review of the Space Adventure Cobra film from 1982.

Episode 18 features three reviews of series that you'll have to download the episode to find out what! Our gift to you at the Christmas holiday season and for ringing in the new year is the second installment of our Christmas Craptacular series! Hosts: Drew Sutton, Richard Hoelsher and Marc Smazik. In this episode we review - I'm still not telling you, download the episode!. Like our first installment of Christmas Craptacular, there are dissenting opinions over exactly how crappy these shows are, which makes for some excellent podcasting. If you've got a dissenting opinion or just general comments, please post in the comments section or shoot us an e-mail: akibaren (at) gmail (dot) com!

Finally, three months after the convention, this episode is edited down and is ready for your consumption. Consume! Podcast Notes: This episode has two components, the first recorded on Friday, 19 September 2008 when we sat down with a good friend of mine, Keith Daniell. Keith has been staffing with Anime Weekend Atlanta for the past 14 years, save for one year. Jason Brown, Marc Smazik and myself discuss with Keith the origins of Anime Weekend Atlanta from his perspective of working as a groundling and up to the rank of Assistant Director. We also share some of our early memories of the convention and how we've noticed changes at the convention, everything from the growth and the change in attendees (WARNING: There are a few instances in which what we say could probably be followed up with "Get off my lawn!"). Our second part we sit down with some other friends on Saturday evening (20 Sept. '08): Chad Bonin, who writes for Toon Zone and runs the nerd-culture blog, Gaijinside and Scott Laney, another contributor/editor at Gaijinside. Chad gets his Cartoon Network fanboy hat on as we briefly discuss the announcement of the end of the waning Toonami programming block and we chat about events and activities we'd done and went to at the convention as well as some preliminary opinions about how the convention went this year. Promos: Our first episode with promos! OSMcast! - I ended up on the Podcaster's Roundtable with two of the gents from OSMcast!, a podcast all about everything geeky. Generally, these types of podcasts aren't my thing but theirs is truly exceptional. Anime World Order - The reason why after a curious Google search that I decided maybe there's something to this anime podcasting thing. It's also their fault that I said, I can probably do this, too and gathered my motley crew and created the Akihabara Renditions podcast. This promo's less of a promo, compared to the other one listed on their site, but I feel that it captures the feel of the show more. Special Thanks: To our guests Keith Daniell, Chad Bonin, and Scott Laney, all of whom we'd love to work with again! To Paul Chapman/the Alimighty Gooberzilla of Greatest Movie Ever Podcast and Daryl Surat, Clarissa Graffeo and Gerald Rathkolb all of Anime World Order for not only hosting the podcaster's roundtable at Anime Weekend Atlanta but also inviting podcasters in the audience to join in. Additional Links of Interest in this Episode: Anime Weekend Atlanta And, as always, any comments are welcome, you can use either the comments section or send us an e-mail to akibaren (at) gmail (dot) com!

With Anime Expo 2008 a few weeks away and our last episode several weeks before and the lack of news content in the past several shows, we decided to jump back in the game with some news-oriented discussion. Hosts: Drew Sutton, Jason Brown, Marc Smazik and Richard Hoelsher. I'm sure most of the news articles came from this fine site here but if you can't find something we talked about, then you can always check here.

After a brief hiatus and considering a switch to a second "season" (and, deservedly being made fun of for it), Akihabara Renditions is back to touch upon another massively popular and important franchise to Japanese animation fandom. Hosts: Drew Sutton, Richard Hoelsher, Jason Brown and Marc Smazik. After our review of Mobile Suit Gundam F-91 back in episode 5 and Marc being confused by it, we go head first into "non-Mecha-Fan-Alienation" and pick up the Mobile Suit Gundam movie trilogy (1981-82). Each episode was recorded after we had watched each segment of the trilogy and all we really talk about is Gundam.

After a brief hiatus and considering a switch to a second "season" (and, deservedly being made fun of for it), Akihabara Renditions is back to touch upon another massively popular and important franchise to Japanese animation fandom. Hosts: Drew Sutton, Richard Hoelsher, Jason Brown and Marc Smazik. After our review of Mobile Suit Gundam F-91 back in episode 5 and Marc being confused by it, we go head first into "non-Mecha-Fan-Alienation" and pick up the Mobile Suit Gundam movie trilogy (1981-82). Each episode was recorded after we had watched each segment of the trilogy and all we really talk about is Gundam.

After a brief hiatus and considering a switch to a second "season" (and, deservedly being made fun of for it), Akihabara Renditions is back to touch upon another massively popular and important franchise to Japanese animation fandom. Hosts: Drew Sutton, Richard Hoelsher, Jason Brown and Marc Smazik. After our review of Mobile Suit Gundam F-91 back in episode 5 and Marc being confused by it, we go head first into "non-Mecha-Fan-Alienation" and pick up the Mobile Suit Gundam movie trilogy (1981-82). Each episode was recorded after we had watched each segment of the trilogy and all we really talk about is Gundam.

This is the last episode from 2007! Episode 12 tackles yet another fan classic and we hope we can do it any sort of justice. Hosts: Drew Sutton, Richard Hoelsher, Jason Brown and Marc Smazik. We review Superdimension Fortress Macross: Do You Remmeber Love? (1984). Now, for most people, they'll stop there and listen because they know what's up. For those that may not know what it up, beware because THERE IS NO ANIME THAT IS AS GOOD AS THIS FILM. It is a film that speaks on more than a thematic level but a film that encompasses an entire generation of otaku and fanboys and what promise Japanese animation had back then. It is also a crying shame crime that this film is NOT available domestically in North America because of legal issues both in the United States and Japan. So, beg, borrow and steal to watch this movie and then when you sit down to watch the next episode of Toradora or whatever flavor of Moe Moe~ Paradise is running, you should be asking yourselves what Drew does with every new season preview article: What the fuck happened, Japan? Also, what's a Macross review without considering the most important decision in anime ever: Misa or Minmei?

All that's glitter isn't gold as the saying goes.  And classic Japanese cartoons are no exception. Our gift to you is this delightful episode. Hosts: Drew Sutton, Marc Smazik, Jason Brown and Richard Hoelsher. The Akihabara Renditions crew dig through old boxes and closets to find some of the crappiest anime that they can for this special. I guess a testament to our collections is that Jason's submission ended up being crappy in certain areas and Drew didn't even have to touch his Robotech tapes for his crap. What did they review that was such crap? Download to find out!