The Banzai Beat Anime Podcast
Trouble
This podcast is a proud member of the Blueberry Network. That is Blueberry with no ease.com. Blueberry with no ease.com. Remember, you drop the ease. [MUSIC PLAYING] What does it mean to be the very bestest? Let's put it this way. When other radio shows are biting your style, when voice actors and musicians love your swagger, it pretty much speaks for itself. Doesn't it? We are the Odecast Radio Network. Anime Radio with a hell of a lot of swagger. Anime fans, what are you waiting for? Log into OdecastRadio.com for more information. [MUSIC PLAYING] Warning, this show is a day for mature audiences only, even though the hosts are not mature. You're listening to The Bonsai Beat, your weekly window into the world of anime, featuring all the latest news, episode reviews, and discussion. [MUSIC PLAYING] As long as back any reviews ghost in the shell, innocence. We've got news, duty pics, and really, that's really about it, because it's a slow news week. [MUSIC PLAYING] Hey, everybody. Welcome to episode 59 of The Real 59. How's the Bonsai Beat? I can't wait till we get to episode 69. The jokes come fast and furious. Oh, there will be plenty of entire reviewing then. [LAUGHS] I've already got some in mind. Oh, oh. Already planning, are we? I've already been planning. All right. So you were gone last week, due to being out of town with the family and all that good stuff. Yep, yep. And you're supposed to play the great and wonderful Superman music I've seen you when I came back. I was going to make my big entrance, and you just screwed it up, man. [LAUGHS] Well, I am back, bitches. And I get to review Ghost and the Shell Innocence, the anime that is not afraid to teach you more than you ever wanted to know about Western philosophy. I thought what you took from a day. More philosopher crap. Oh, yes. We shall get into how much I love that show that later. OK, OK, whatever. Jeez. Here we go. Well, we have a whopping of four-- count them four-- news stories. Because-- Whoo! Yeah, there's not much going on. So-- It's got five if you're going to include that one I sent you from anime vice. Yeah, screwing on my vice. Oh, come on. I'm going to include the Hintai game on the PlayStation network. That is not Hintai, I think, because there was no nudity. Oh, god. You're supposed to be Hintai. Yeah, I guess. Today was a good day, though. Watch the Vikings beat the shit out of the giants. And ever since I left North Carolina, your football team has done a lot better. Well, we beat the Minnesota after it mattered. Yes, and then you beat the Cardinals. Yep. And then you frickin' beat for how you played today. But still, it was important. It was still amazing to see Carolina beat them. It was. And we just decided we're going to, you know, after it. Be good at the end of the season. We're going to be good. After we have no chance at doing anything in the postseason. Oh, no, we're going to decide to be good. Yeah. Hey, guess what? We've gotten good now. Oh, yeah, it's good. And we'll suck again next year. It's, you know, it's all right. Here's what happens around here. We almost win the Super Bowl one year, and then the next year we suck ass. And you're just used to failure? Yeah, we pretty much are. Gotcha. Well, we're Charlotte. Yeah, we're Charlotte. That's all. Well, you know, let's go ahead and move on to the anime news, because really, there's not much that's going on. I'm already kicked. Nope. Stick in. Stick in ass. Anyway. OK. OK, OK. This week in Anime News brought to you by Anime News Network. All right. The anime news, but the anime news network and some Gaku complex. And anime vice. I guess. Aw, come on. I'm going to Twitter them and be like, you owe us money for it. I was talking about your stories that you gave us to talk about. Well, do you do that with the Anime News Network, too? Yes, because we're just sending traffic their way. [LAUGHS] Yeah, all of our-- Hey, two people that listen to our show, right? Yeah, it's more than two there, buddy. Crunchyroll lifts, dura-ra-ra, and chu-bron. I swear to fucking God, I'm going to murder stick. Came with rage. [CLICK] [LAUGHS] They put no sounds. And what is-- what is-- what is the kenkyu doing? It keeps dinging and blank. It excels. They just want you want to have the fun of editing, though, after-- Yes, assholes. Yeah. Either way, whatever. How long ago did we want to start this show? Like an hour? Haven't we have an hour of tangential difficulties before we get started? Yeah, OK. Well, the Media Distribution website. Crunchyroll, listed dura-ra, and chu-bron, is a series of all new anime, and then they quickly pulled that list. They still haven't come out with anything saying, oh, hey, yeah, we're doing it, or hey, no, we're not doing it. But yeah, it's going to-- it sounds like it's going to crunchyroll, so yeah. Well, I don't know. Chu-bron, in case anybody does remember, is the anime about the 14-year-old who makes a middle school club about Lacey underwear. So what happened to-- I don't know anything about it. Oh, I know about it, because I remember reading it and going, oh my god, this is retarded. Yeah, now you do. God. You know you're going to be like, oh, shit, that underwear show is the best. You know what? It's going to be this year's cayon. Mark my words. So I suspect they're not going to be able to bring it, because of subject matter, though I have been surprised before. Yeah, so you say-- Oh, I don't know. So you say-- Yeah, so you know, that's good stuff. I mean, granted it's probably a show when neither of us will watch, but duh-ra-ra looks pretty good. Happy to be able to get that legally. It's actually nice to be able to go on there and watch HD streams, and you know, not have to download anything. Exactly. What is duh-ra-ra? Don't know anything about that. Don't remember, stop my head, to be honest. OK. It's a show about a show. No, it's a dark show. It's made by the creator of-- what the hell is that? What's the one horror show with the Mo-A kids? And they beat each other up with baseball bats, and the one you liked. Higurashi, that's it. Oh, it's based by that guy. So then, yeah, it's going to be freaking weird. OK, I'll have to check that one out. Because you could-- gosh, he's weird as shit. Yeah, give me one. That was a freaky, freaky show. Yes, Higurashi was crazy. All right, in a story that we'll sure to make the Mo-A fans happy as hell. Chaon season two has been announced in its official. So yeah, more awesome music from after school, tea time, delight, and more Mio, and her panties, and awesome stuff. So that was like the big news of the week. [GASPS] I think it's true. And you have nothing to say to this. I was just shaking my head. What? Anime lovers wanting to see 18 left 14-year-olds in panties. These are-- this has nothing to do with that. How dare you, fre-- how dare you? Well, as I remember correctly, in Chaon, weren't they? No. OK, never mind then. Excuse me? Yeah. For some reason, I thought that was a low-life show. It's-- no, oh, I don't know. I guess. It's Mo-A. It's very, very Mo-A. There's nothing lonely about it, I guess. I don't know. You said they were either way. Either way, it's not something I'm going to watch. You should, because it's a show that's actually good. That's actually easy to watch. Not every anime has to have-- you know, I don't know. Not every anime has to have a super-series point. The philosophical meaning? Exactly. No, very, very much. Good tears does not have deep philosophical meaning. OK. It's just fun. OK, then. Anyway. It's a little hilarious, actually. Chaon is back. Yippee-skippie to that. Huzzah. So. Yay. [GROANING] OK. It's a complex news. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's unbelievably hilarious. Yes. Well, Haro E, once again, I swear to God, they are running this franchise into the ground. I mean, they didn't do any favors this last year with the endless eight bullcrap. Yeah, I haven't heard anything good about that from anybody. And usually you can at least hear something good about something from somewhere. But I haven't heard anything good about that from anywhere. And now they've got this movie called The Disappearance of Haro E season media. I mean, I'll see how that goes. Well, they haven't run Ava into the ground yet. Oh, yes they have. This rebirth takes in the form of a limited edition of the original manga-- or the original novels-- with exciting new cover work. And if you were such a Haro E follower and fan, you will buy all four of these or-- yeah, it looks like four covers. You will buy all four of these novels because they all lead up to one long-ass brand new cover of all the characters. And it's great. So, yeah, I don't know. Yeah. So you forgot the other great, wonderful news. I haven't got the-- yeah, shut your mouth. Oh, God. I was doing one from anime fights that you want me to do. Excuse me. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's tasty today. Oh, yeah. Damn it. Ugh. So the other big news, if you call it this-- so remember that Hinako exercise video we talked about? Of the girl doing all the exercise moves. And she's wearing that strag on that spaghetti strap thing. And you know what I mean? Oh, yeah. How could we forget? Yeah. Now, guess what? A sleeping time. It's to help people wake up and sleep better. Yeah. It's going to sleep. So what exactly is going to be all this video? I mean, is she just going to be sleeping? I have no clue. You know, of course, the first comment, the news show asks, you know, well, it's unclear what exactly you are supposed to be doing with her while you sleep with her. And of course, the first comment is impregnator. So it's a core complex person. Because that's, you know, if you go to psychora complex, well, that's the way your brain usually runs. Got a lot of it. Yeah. But yeah, you know, that's just a bit weird, I have to say. I can't think of any reason that this is-- Yeah, there's no point to this, but hey, it'll probably be bought just because there's a picture of a cute girl. Yeah, yep, I agree. They seem to-- So you can talk about your crappy crap video game of crapiness. Well, yeah, I agree, but you know, hey. Evidently, they haven't made MMOs of everything else yet, but they're making evidently a Shinshan MMO. Yeah, why? And what the hell are you going to do in the MMO world of Shinshan? Moon everybody? I mean, as someone who does not understand Shinshan and why it is at all popular, feel free to send me at-- bonsaib.gmail.com. Oh, yep. Well, OK, here's the thing. I like this for characters for the Shinshan MMO. Here's what I want to know. Check this out, just for the show, just to see how ridiculous it is. There you go. Well, the show in America is nothing like the show in Japan. In Japan, it's a kid's show. In America, they cut it up and took a bunch of pieces of the episodes and made them in the brand new episodes with their own dub work and things like that. So it's nothing like it is in Japan. And this is being made in Korea. What I want to know is people murder each other over like wild stuff. Oh, hey, you got that awesome blade of the immortal. I want to murder you for it in real life, because you pissed me off. So are they going to hear about murders like, oh my god, that guy got the awesome action bastard pajamas? And he was murdered for him. I really hope not. That would be just sad as hell. Oh, you know what's going to happen? Probably. I mean, people have died in South Korea while playing "Starcraft" because they play "Starcraft." You know what, though? "Starcraft" you should be dying of playing, because it's such a cool game. Oh, I agree. It is. But I wouldn't play it for a week straight or, you know, not get up to defecate or eat it. We just have to be like what this guy did before he died while playing it. I really should eat. No, no. I need to get my gas. I need to get my gas, my mineral gas. OK, well, that was the news, because there's nothing really that important. Damn holidays. Making everything all slow. Yep, yep, yep. Ah, well. OK, let's go ahead and move on to the DVD picks. It's another week, and more DVDs are being released. What should you get? It's time for the weekly DVD picks. All right, good old DVD picks. How much being released today? Yeah, well, it's after the Christmas brush and all that jazz. Yeah, I don't know. Yep. So, looking over things, what would you recommend purchasing? Well, the only thing there that I really cared about was Buck-On-On-O, the complete series. Buck-On-O, yes. Which I may actually have to get, because I don't remember. That is a very good series. I don't know about that. It's supposed to be incredibly weird, but very cool and well done. It's a very unique storytelling-- Yeah, that's what I call it. And there's nothing like being a kid being shotgunned in the face. Nothing like that. Oh, so they have the best. Makes me want to hurl, so. Well, I'd love to be right here and just kick this. So for you, the Buck-On-O. And I guess I'd have to go the same thing, because that's the only thing that looks decent this week. Oh, all right. So Buck-On-O, it is. Well, they're actually agreeing on something. Yes. With the best Robert Duo ever, they steal watches so they can steal time. Or they go to a hat shop and then threaten the shopkeeper and then, like, pace for the hat. And I don't know what's crazy. They're the best. All right. So, yes, that was our quick-- Wow, there's like-- Quick DVD picks there. There's nothing this week. I'm sorry. This is going to be such a short, frickin' episode. Hey, it works for me, ma'am. Because, man, there's nothing. So-- Well, we could debate, you know, what's the best anime of 2009? Of 2009? Hell, I know you are. We're going to do our end of the year, or what's the best anime. Well, how many-- OK. How many anime did you watch of last year? That actually came out-- well, we're talking about that came out in America. I'm saying in general-- --in Japan last year. In general. Because I've watched-- I've only counted 10 anime's that I watched that came out in 2009. Yeah, I watched less than that. Probably five. Hold on a sec. My piece is here. So, yeah, I don't think either of us watched enough anime to consider anything end of the year for 2009. And that-- I don't think I'd ever do a year and anything. Because, honestly, I have a job now, and I have a life, and I can't watch every single anime that comes out. And then be like, hmm, that was good. Best of what we have watched in the past year or something. Best for me? Yeah, man. That is tough, though, because I have watched a good anime. Hi, actor. OK, if you had to just choose of what you watched, then, what would you say? Of what I have watched this year. Damn, what have I watched this year? And it didn't come up this year. Everything in general. I think I watched 10 ever in May for the first time this year. What? No. So maybe not. Now, that was two years ago. What a thing. You went to Minneapolis to see that guy. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I had to see that guy. So I watched it for them. In the year of 2009, probably the best thing that I watched-- hmm. That I watched for the first time. That's going to be hard. I'd probably have to say Hiragasha, or when they cry. Oh, but Hiragasha. Yeah. That's-- It was the most unique. The fairy musketeers, which comes close as being the most entertaining, but that's going to come over from 2009 into 2010. Oh, it's a thing of a manner. I mean, fuck it. Hiragasha came all years ago. Right, but this is when I just watched it. Yeah. Either way, for me this year, either had to be Detroit Metal City, because I think I watched it like in January or something. Or Hayate, the combat butler, just because they were-- Detroit Metal City, I have to get you to watch that show, because it's fucking hilarious. But-- Well, when you watch Hannah Berenay, all of it with me, I watched Detroit Metal City. Hey. I'll tell you this much. DMC is only six episodes. That's it. There you go. Well, if you watch six episodes of Hannah Berenay, because by then, you'll be caught on to it. You'll have seen enough of it that you'll want to watch the rest of it. But-- OK. Anyway, so yeah. There's our quote-unquote "gurank" bullcrap, because, yeah, I don't have time to do all that garbage. I just watch anime to watch it and have fun watching it. So, yeah. There's tons of other websites, and lists, and blogs, and the cat in the hat that tells you all that stuff. So-- Yep. You don't come for here for that. You come here for a wonderful, incredible banter. Yeah. Exactly. Yeah. Good old banter. Yeah, that's right. There's a stick, Cam, with bam. Video. And I look blue, because my awesome monitor is so huge. So you are going to be reviewing "Ghost in the Shell" in a sense. Yeah, you did that. All right. So this is the second "Ghost in the Shell" movie. And opinions on this movie are incredibly divided. It's pretty much like Ava. If you go on to any anime website and mention this movie, there will be two camps of opinions, and you'll pretty much start warfare. It's quite entertaining. I've done it. There will be the people who utterly despise it and think that the guy who made it should be shot, drawn and quartered, and then burned alive. And then there'll be the people who absolutely love it. Now, all of these are people who liked the first movie. So what I'm going to do-- after I review it, I'm going to give this movie two ratings. I want to give it two ratings based on what from the first movie that you liked. Because if you liked parts of the first "Ghost in the Shell," then you would love this movie. If you liked other parts of "Ghost in the Shell," then you would probably hate this movie. Because the first "Ghost in the Shell," it was-- I don't want to talk about it too much for anybody who's listening like my co-host, who has not actually seen this movie, if you have not go out and get it now. The first "Ghost in the Shell" movie is incredibly awesome. But it is very philosophical, but it also has interesting characters, good action, and you can't ignore the philosophy and have an enjoyable movie experience. You can't really do that for the second movie. Yes, it still has characters and character interaction. Yes, it still has action. But the philosophy is incredibly front and center. They start off the movie with a quote, "If our gods and our hopes are nothing but scientific phenomena, then it must be said our love is scientific as well." And evidently, this is from "The Eve Future," which is some assuming French philosopher. And that pretty much sets the tone for the movie. It becomes a buddy cop show between Bota, Boto, and Togesaw, two characters that you will remember from the first movie. And you'll also remember why one of the characters, if you've seen the first movie, is not there. She is not there, but her absence almost makes her a character, because the effect of her absence on Bota. But so I guess it almost becomes a buddy cop movie between Boto and Togesaw. But when they come down and are dealing with this lower policeman and basically taking over his case, rather than just yelling at them for taking over their case, his quote is that, hey, oh, what is it? "Birds never peck at green persimmonance. They wait until the fruit is ripe." This is his way of basically saying that you're coming down onto my case now that I can make something out of it rather than coming down before. And this is what he does in the show. He incorporates what sound like trite ridiculous philosophical sayings, but they actually work in the tone and in the point of the show, OK? But Boto and Togesaw have been put on this case where they're basically sex dolls. They call them genoids, but they're basically sex dolls. Are going crazy and killing people, rather gruesomely. I think in one of them, the guy's been eviscerated with kitchen tools and his internal organs have been put into a refrigerator in various cans. So they're very, very gruesome mirrors. When they get there, before it kills themselves, one of the sex dolls says to Boto, help me. If this sounds familiar, it's probably because you've read the manga. This does take one snippet tiny incident from the first manga, from the Ghost and the Shell manga, that was completely left out of the first Ghost and the Shell movie, and expand on it greatly. So if you have read the manga, you know what's coming a little bit, and you know what the big reveal is for this movie. Now, the big reveal here does not work as well as the big reveal in the first movie, which I'm not going to go into because of the same my co-host hasn't seen it. Does Boto gay? Does Boto mean he's gay and comes out of the closet? He's the kind of-- No, no. I look at gay's men showers when I use my trainee. I don't-- Yeah, anyway. No, though, I'm sure if you want to go to the internet, I'm sure you can find a manga where he is gay. No. No, Doshan, where he is gay. Doshan, yeah. He, however, does have a hound in this room that is trying to take the place of-- want to basically take the place of the character that is missing. And some of the sweetest and most human scenes are between Boto and his houndal. But that actually plays into the theme here about-- because in the world of Ghost and the Shell, we are doing all these things with machines, and we're transferring our souls to computers. And this stuff-- all this stuff is happening. This entire show is only mine on a daily basis. Sorry, I'm going to cut you off. So it talks about, are we still human? And Boto is basically a cyborg. And one of the ways he tries to convince himself that he is still human is by caring for this hound dog. [LAUGHS] OK? But-- The dog is in there. --you know, so they work in quotes. At one point, they actually quote this Cartes, who I'm literally mispronounced his name, saying that he did not differentiate between man from machine, intimate from inanimate. They quote from Milton. They quote Psalm 139 from the Old Testament. And this is what a lot of people absolutely hated about it. They would say that the show goes along, has character banter, character debantter, banter, some completely out-of-left field philosophical comment, character banter, character banter, character banter. But really, the philosophical stuff, to me at least, fits in with the show. And it fits in with the point that the show is trying to make. Now, when you watch this, you are going to have to watch it three or four times to completely figure it out. I have watched it three times now. I still don't get all of it. But that's what I enjoy about anime. If what you liked from the first ghost in the show was the thought-provoking nature of the show was the philosophy, then this is going to be a five-star show for you, because that is front and center. If what you liked from the first ghost in the show was the character interaction, or the action, especially the action, then you probably are going to absolutely despise the show and think it is the worst thing on the face of the earth. OK, it probably wouldn't even be a less than a one-half star for you. Now, the action is still there. Vato goes in and shoots up a Yakuza hideout at one point in extremely gory fashion. And the ending bit on a ship in international waters is also incredibly action-oriented. But that's not the focus of the show. The focus of the show is the philosophical ideas. What does it mean, really, to be human? If you copy your consciousness on to a machine, are you still human? So again, if that kind of philosophical ideas turn you off, then this is not the show for you. The animation is still absolutely astounding. It still has, what I really liked from the first one, the incredibly awesome large scenes where it's just kind of in a contradictory way, really huge tall skyscrapers being surrounded by birds. Or old Japanese ritual, like Japanese. The one in this one is a Japanese parade going through the street. But rather than being a real elephant, it is a mechanized elephant. And they're going through this downtrodden part of Japan. So there's this incredible, incredible beauty next to this incredible squalor. And the contradiction is very, very well done. The music is incredible as well. It's some of the same atonal kind of stuff that was from the first show, but very, very well done. If you didn't really like Bato as a character, then you're probably not going to like the show because he and Togasa and their interactions are very much the center of the show. Bato's interaction, as I say, the most human parts of the show really are Bato's interactions with his hound dog. And Togasa's interactions toward the end with his family. One of the questions that the show asks is really there a difference between raising a child, a child raising a doll, and thus taking care of pets. Doesn't ask that out loud, but especially when the last scene of the show seems to ask that question. So I give this five stars. - Five stars, okay. - But then the philosophy and the reveal from the first ghost in the show was what made the show for me, and was the reason I got into anime. Though I totally enjoyed the action and the character stuff, but it was not the point of the show for me. If that was the point of the show for you, then you should stay away from this one as far away as you can get. (laughing) - Well there you go. - If you read the manga and you were like, what is this crap, then you should stay as far away from this one as you can get. Now the manga is even harder to understand than this show is. I read the manga and it was kind of like what the hell is this crap. And I still like to this movie. You're not gonna get the full experience unless you get to see this as I did first on the big screen. The version of it that I have is a widescreen version. It works best if you have a really, really large TV 'cause a lot of the things are written tiny and you're not able to see them in other wonderful detail. But, so I really liked it. The animation is great. The music is great. I enjoyed what character interaction there was, but the philosophy here is straight and center. And if, well he said he read this one of the things he wanted to do in this movie is show how banal and ridiculous everyday conversation is. - You mean ban? - Yeah. - 'Cause banal. - And he did that by rather than giving normal everyday conversation, making his character speak and what some people have called philosophical platitudes. So if that turns you off, this is not gonna be the show for you. If you enjoy reading philosophy, I actually own books by Kant, then you will probably love this show. And itchy is now evidently on Skype. - There you go. Well, so you would say recommend, personally. - Depending on what you liked from the first show. - So you're gonna either like it or not like it, depending on if you like, get the overall. - And this is Zaldar, next week we'll be reviewing the incredibly kiwi show, "Fairy Musketeers" for an entirely new change of face. - Yeah, finally. So. - Yep, yeah, yeah. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. So check out www.bonzaby.com. Follow us on Twitter, twitter.com/jillacoon. All that good stuff that we always say every week. So, thanks for listening, and. - Send me shows to review. Crunchyroll is giving me fairy tale. Yakuza, non-hata, and it's a bunch of other things that it says, "If you like this, you might like this too." But I'd really like to have a good action show, so I don't become too ridiculously kiwi. - For a little panic. - Then that is on Crunchyroll that I could review. But yes, but see, I'm trying not getting really dumb. I'm trying to get people to actually call and say something. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. - Or send us email. - I get it. - I feel so lonely. Someone talks to us. They just listen and inject us and don't listen. - Oh, well, well, well. Okay, so, thanks for listening, guys. - Thanks for listening. - Send us email, bonzaby.gmail.com. Okay, that's enough for me. - Bye. - See you later.
News, DVD Picks and Zaldar reviews Ghost in the shell innocence.