The Banzai Beat Anime Podcast
The episode we have have forgotten
"Record on a Destiny" and do this, and I edit this out here. "You're listening to the Bonsai Beat, your weekly window into the world of anime, featuring all the latest news, episode reviews, and discussion." "And now, broadcasting live from an abandoned love hotel, your hosts, Pat, send Jellacoon." "Hey everybody, this is Jellacoon, this is a special kind of show." "As the garage door below me reeks havoc on the microphone." "Awesome." "When you're in an abandoned love hotel, you take what you get." "Yes, there's garages that open in the abandoned love hotel." "Yes." "This is kind of a special that we're doing here, kind of off the beaten path. Even though I just released our newest podcast yesterday, I am going to be introducing a new co-host here, that he'll be joining me on a weekly basis. And we're also going to be discussing more about the Iowa Pornography case and piracy. So, it's kind of just a fun little episode to continue to sink your teeth into and get our new co-host friend, a little feel of how the show runs. So, go ahead and introduce yourself. "All right, well this is Daniel Cole, the doll-dar from AOD, the newest co-host for this here. Anime program, I've been into Anime since college. It's also on before that, but I caught at three o'clock in the morning halfway through started Vampire Hunter D when it was back when they actually used to show Anime on TV. Even though it was at three o'clock in the morning. And decided I was, had no clue what was going on and I was never going to watch anything like this again. But, got watched in some actually decent stuff in college. It was actually weirdly first attracted to Anime just because it was odd, I think. I came for the oddotiness and stayed for the great plots and the interesting philosophy and tackling of subjects matter that would never be tackled by any kind of western media company. Favorite types of Anime are what I like to call Mindfuck Anime. Anime that you watch and you sit there and go, "What in the hell just happened?" Things like Evangelion or Ghost in a Shell. I'm actually one of the two people I think on the planet that like to the second Ghost in a Shell movie as much as the first. I love it when I can come out of an Anime and feel like I just had a course on western philosophy. Which is pretty much what I felt like when I came out of Innescence. So, current favorite Anime is Hana Berenme, which I will be reviewing here shortly. Let's see, more about me, I teach chemistry, so if I'm not watching Anime, I'm preparing to teach chemistry at a community college. Any blow stuff up then? Yes, that's right, that's right. Looking forward to the new TV show on community colleges, that ought to be interesting. It might be a little too close to home for me. What show is that? I think it's ABC, they're doing a new show called Community. That is about a guy going back to a community college to take classes. Have you seen the good family? Anime did show? The good family. It's the one, the spring off from shoot. Kinda, but they're an eco-family, they're a green family, and the challenges they have to face. No, I've heard about it, I've read about it. It looks interesting, King of the Hill doesn't do it much for me. King of the Hill no longer exists, so we got cancer. Well, in reruns, nothing ever goes away on TV. Yeah, that's true, that's true. So, okay, so you want to talk about this Iowa case some more, huh? Yeah, I don't think we really did it justice per se. And I'll be honest, I kind of probably got off a little bit too much of a political rant. But like, so like if you're listening to this and didn't listen to the previous two shows, episode 35, they basically, it's about this guy who ordered some manga from directly from Japan. Do you happen to know that title, just so people can look at it? No, but they never even mentioned it. They never, yeah, not surprising. No, so we can see how bad it actually was, because I think there's some stuff out there that scares me. Yeah, they were just like, all right, this is, okay, here, one sec. Well, this case really revolves around this guy who bought some anime from Japan. The FBI got the package before he did, they ripped it open, looked through it and said, "Oh, hey, there's child pornography." Put it back together, let it get mailed to him, he opened it, they issued a search warrant on his house for the same day that he got the package, and he was arrested for obscene child pornography laws. Well, it turns out that this guy has basically pled guilty to it, and basically after a year of a couple years now of kind of being tied up in the judicial system, he's finally just said, "Okay, screw it, I did it, just do what you had to do." And this raises a lot of concerns for not just manga and anime fans, but for comic book. Fans as well. And I want to get your opinion on that, because, well, a lot of people's argument, and I agree with it, is it's just lines on a piece of paper, it's nothing more, nobody was hurt. Nobody physically got abducted, or no one got sexually abused, it was this one guy ordering some books from Japan that just happened to be really crazy depictions of kids, granted if he knew that or not, because it came out that this guy ordered a bunch of like a ton of manga, and he was a collector, and they even said that he was a collector, he wasn't, they didn't find anything else in his house other than those books. Yeah, it's not like he was a pedophile already or something, and they found a bunch of other stuff on his computer. Right, but I mean, to me, it's very much a gray area. I think he could have won in a court of law, but based on the First Amendment, but there's the exception to the First Amendment where you can't scream fire in a crowded theater if there's not really a fire. And it may have got, I'm not a lawyer, but it may have gotten caught up in that, I don't know. Morally, some of that stuff that I have seen disturbs me. Now, if you're into manga, you know that there are things that you can get in Japan and that are legal in Japan that I think what most people would scare them. I think that with description of this one was that it had dogs having sex with children, from what I remember from listening to 35 children having sex with dogs and things like this. And, you know, that's actually somewhat tame for some of the things you can have. The best description I heard from, oh, I should have gotten the book, that a lady that went and lived in Japan for a year with a judo instructor, which is weird and is a great book that I'll have to find and talk about at some point. But she wrote her about her experiences in Japan. And, you know, you can sit on the subway in Japan and beside you have somebody watching reading a manga that has children getting kidnapped and raped and killed. But it might be just some guy who wrote the rest of the day as a normal salaryman. There's a psychological argument that, well, there's two, really. And depending on who you ask, you get different ones. There's a psychological argument that, depending on watching this stuff, gets rid of those urges and people don't do things. The support for that would be that in Japan, there supposedly is less rape. There's less child abuse, these sorts of things. And there are in western countries. But does that come from the fact that they have all this stuff? Or does it come from the fact that they're just a very repressed and a very, you do the right thing kind of culture? Well, they're very open with it, too, though. I mean, they have a day celebrating facts and all that. They do, and they have, and it was the weirdest thing I looked at it. They have a parade with a big, huge phallic symbol. Literally, a big, huge penis that goes down the highway. But most of the time, they're very, very repressed. But that's one argument. The other argument is that no, this stuff actually feeds it, makes it worse, and allows people to fantasize about things, and maybe do things that they wouldn't have fantasized about otherwise. And I don't know which one of those is true. I don't think it's a college. Yeah, that forgets the hard part where you've got to get to bring a psychologist in. Right. And the thing is, you're always going to say is, this can happen anywhere for any reason. There's people out there just crazy enough that they'll do it just because. And it won't be, you know. Should we limit other people's freedom to look at this stuff because it might make someone somewhere do something crazy? And I don't have the answer to that. And it's hard for me to divorce the fact that I find it personally disgusting. Oh, yeah, I agree. Oh, I'm sure you do. I'm not saying you don't. From the fact, from the legal reasons and the moral reasons, and even if it doesn't make people do this, I still find it personally disgusting, and it's kind of like, why do you want to look at this? But I have the same thing about some of the Mo anime. I have issues with that as well. Some of them. But. I look at a show like Kodomo no Jiken. I watched it. I liked it other than the censorship. No. But I mean, I thought about it. I thought of Kodomo no Jiken. And you know that it has to be bad if they're going to censor it in Japan? Yeah. But no, the thing was they were going to bring the mongas over. But the publisher basically, yeah, they were going to bring the... Before the show started, they were talking about the mongas coming over to the United States. Basically, a bunch of groups got wind of that and basically shouted their way down and said, "Oh, you're not going to bring that trash into the United States." It's not appropriate for anybody to read, you know. And you can make that argument. And... But, I mean, America's somewhat screwed up culture. It's okay. I mean, drag to hell got an R rating. No, I actually got a future 13 rating. And it has more violence than I'm comfortable seeing. But just since there's no sex, it didn't get an R rating. Let's see. Which is better for people to see. Loving, carrying sex, or even maybe not loving carrying sex. Oh, yeah. Look at Bruno. Getting shot lady. Colin's brand new movie called Bruno currently has an NC-17 rating because of sex scenes. That's what they objected to. The gay sex scenes, granted they're probably, you know, I don't want to watch it, but hey, you know, it's part of the whole part of the movie that was about this obnoxious fanboying gay guy. And Sasha Colin means Sasha Colin. But the point is, the MPAA got uppity about the sexual content, not the other stuff. And I look at movies like "Saa" and "Saa" too. Or better get hostile. Hostile, yeah. And that stuff is more disgusting than any sex in the world. Yeah. I mean, sex, yes, when it's done right, is about love and affection. Now, you can make an argument that for a lot of people, sex is about power, and that would probably be true. But still, even that is better than seeing somebody get their hand sawed off or having to saw their own hand off. No, exactly. And seeing all the blood and everything. Yeah, I agree with you on that because it's like... I don't... You're a European general. You're a European general has a much healthier attitude towards sex than America does. In my opinion. Yeah, I think a lot of the European countries do. They're just more open about it and be like, "Hey, it exists. We're not going to look at something terrible and taboo." I mean, like, if you're having sex between two men or two female or... You know, whatever. That their own... You know, I always look at, like, who are you hurting? I mean, like, so what? Sex between two people. If it's, like, consensual, whatever. Well, like, America is just like, "What?" No, we can't have any of that. I think it would have boils down to, and I'm not trying to bash religion or anything. But I think it really comes down to America's very religious, very Christianity views. That we've kind of all kind of grown up with because... You know, that's just kind of what America kind of came. And I think it's just something that stuck. I mean, even now, America... I think a lot of people, if you put it to vote, people would probably take a lot more lenient away. You know, things have changed since the '50s and '60s. People are more comfortable with a lot more different things now. And I think a lot of it also has to do with the people in power. You know, they have their agendas and their wishes at once and everything else. And I think we're just going to have to write it out. The thing, though, I think it's just... I think this guy is just getting a shaft. I mean, like, I honestly think it's way overboard. I remember a few weeks ago when this first came up. I was watching TV, and they had mentioned a murderer who took someone's life was only going to get eight years in prison. This person beat this other person with a baseball bat and stole $40 from him. But yeah, he only gets... He's only getting eight years. He's only getting eight years. That's ridiculous. But this guy, all he did, content aside, when it boils down to it, ordered some books from Japan with poor anal. What the government says is child pornography. Right. And he's getting 15 years or up to 15 years. They haven't actually come out and said, "Here's what you're going to be getting." But he's looking at 15 years. That's just so goofy. Yeah, that's messed up. This person hurt nobody. Nobody was harmed. Nobody's family was destroyed. None of that. But this person who murders somebody for $40. You know, is gone? Life is snuffed out because of this stupid idiot. See, he's only eight years in prison. That's goofy. I agree. I agree. But what, okay. So say somebody orders this stuff from Japan. Should the government watch them more? Should they put something on their computer so they see where they're going? Should they put something where they look at them harder to see if they're doing anything? No. I mean, I think they're very well could be a correlation between in America at least. Now, maybe not in Japan. But their culture is incredibly different. I think there could be a correlation in America between people who look for this stuff. But now you're saying though, if you're saying we're going to put a wireless, you know, we're going to do a warrantless wiretap on your phone. We're going to put a spyware on your computer. Well, no, go get a warrant for it. But use the fact that they bought this stuff as grounds for a warrant. I guess. But I would want to make sure like three months only, you know, like it doesn't need to be a year. We don't need to spend a lot of money either. I mean, the thing is, sexual assaults against children, majority of the time are by family members or friends of a family. And I totally understand, you know, yeah, the person exactly maybe isn't thinking right or clearly why they're ordering such lewd material. But it's not banned by the U.S. per se. Like we've got that list of banned books that no one can ever read, you know. Hitler's mind comp, et cetera, et cetera. But I don't know. I kind of think that you're kind of invading on the privacy though of that person. I mean, yes, granted you may be stopping a sexual assault. I don't know. That's one of those other things. You just, I don't feel comfortable having my stuff searched. You know, just because I ordered some book from another country. You know, I think it just happened to be this guy because of the FBI or whoever goes through the mail from, apparently there is a law that it would say, I just got done ordering something from Hong Kong. That could have been ripped open and searched. Yes. And there's no, there's a law in the book that says they have to have no rhyme or reason to open your mail if it's coming from a, another country. Right. I honestly think this guy just had bad luck. They happened to open this guy's mail. I think it's not right. But maybe, maybe on the front cover, there's children being shown. You know, maybe there was something that said, because they go through x-rays, but maybe there was something on the front cover that caught the attention of the post office and said, Hey, look at this. This doesn't look right. You know, let's rip it open and find out and just happen to be these books. I mean, I don't know, you know. There's certainly nothing that we know that would give a reason for them to be watching him, but a lot of times they don't say, I mean, like every, like a lot of times, juries in a court of law wouldn't hear everything, because for whatever reason, the, um, some of things get thrown out. I mean, as anybody who watches law and order knows. So there may, maybe there's something we don't know here. I don't know. Oh, I didn't see you there is. I mean, they're not going to spell everything out from A to B. Right. Right. In a, uh, maybe he had gone to a website and maybe he was just able, actually, to erase the stuff from his computer that was questionable. I don't know. Supposedly, you can't really ever erase anything from a computer. The best thing to do is take a sledgehammer. Well, even with the internet, though, you're, you're always kind of tracked because you always go through your, your ISP can always track you. Exactly. And you can, and you can try to do, I mean, I've heard about people trying to do things of, to get around that. Oh, proxy. Yeah. You can do proxy sites. Right. I mean, if there's something already on your computer, you're, you're kind of SOL. You're going to get tracked no matter what if something's already on your computer. But now if you're, if you're going to a proxy site that doesn't keep logs, um, you know, look at that, then you're more okay, but still. I would, I mean, so maybe there was some of that going on. And that was the reason they looked in his mail. I, I don't know. They certainly didn't say so. Yeah. And the, but I agree that he should not be getting 15 years in prison. I agree that it's messed up. This guy you killed somebody is getting less time. I think that it disturbs me that this stuff is legal in Japan. Well, it's not so legal anymore. Um, well, I don't know if it's not, but it's only recently that they had any kind of child. Um, I mean, they, in for a long time, they didn't have a law against having sex with a child at all. Oh, yeah. They didn't have a child abuse law. And it's basically until America told them to get one. Yeah, it was until all the, what was it? NATO, I think, or United Nations said, Hey, you're the only country that doesn't have this. Right. The rest of us do what's up and like, but here's what I say though. That's their country. They have, um, I mean, you talked about it once before. They have, they have, oh, what are they called? Shoot. Oh, they have, they basically have kids in Japan that in videos. Oh, idols. Yeah, idols. Yeah, they have junior idols in Japan and some of those seem clips of in places. Look, I mean, it, it's stuff that you would have an adult do in America to be sexual. So, you know, they have them in, um, phones and things and it's like, okay. Yeah. Stand this. But I also look at it like that's their culture. That's their country. I mean, it is. And I don't have a right to judge their country, but it does disturb me. No, and I, yeah, I agree. I wonder is, do they really not have less abuse than us? And is it just not reported? That could be because, I mean, you got stuff like the, you know, they, they think the best way to end their life is suicide because it brings shame. Because of being shamed. You know, that's pretty going pretty, that's pretty far. But they still hold on to those old, you know, really old. Yeah. Customs there. I don't know if you call them customs or just. Bridget from, yeah. There you go. They just hold on to the old world traditions where back then maybe suicide was the best thing to do. I, you know, I don't know. I didn't live in fetal air in Japan. No, I didn't either. And it would be massively, I would think there would probably be a whole lot of shame behind reporting something like that. So I don't know if that does that stuff get reported. I don't know. But I mean, I also look at Japan like they had it. They outlawed guns. The only people that can carry guns is police officers and. But they still have the Yakuza, which makes Armathia look like a joke. Like a joke. Yeah. Like a child's play. So. But I mean, my point though is, yeah, my point though is like they still have their moments of like the Akihaba killings last year. The guy with the knife and went around stabbing like bazillion people. Well, like 15 or 20 people died unfortunately. But the point, my point is you can put all the laws in the world. People are going to find ways to circumvent them. The legally or not. And what I want to know is like where this guy got these books. Like if the company, I mean, I kind of want to wonder, no, if I had a chance to ask him, I'd be like, did you know these had contained content that it was against the United States they have? That would raise red flags. Because maybe, because they said he was a collector and just kind of got his books hands on anything. And you know, if you're going to collect anything and everything. I don't think you're going to be able to go through and be like, oh, well, is the United States government going to really get angry at me for doing this? For having this object? You know. I want to know the company who sold it to him. Anything and everything. But then I'm a little strange. My anime collection is probably smaller than a lot of people's. If I'm going to buy something, it's going to be something I'm going to watch more than once. I'm not just going to have it to have it. But I mean, look at like the company that sold him this, like, why are they selling in the United States? Like, it's not hard to go on Google and find this stuff out. You know, the law, the way the law is written in the United States, it has to be any depiction that is used to promote titillation. And that's really retarded. You know, it's a very, very broad. So it seems like the company would be able to do a simple search and say, uh, yeah, we can't send you this. You know, the goofy thing is too. It like requires everything. You can have pieces, you can have paintings, artworks, sculptures, um, basically anything creative. They said if it holds no scientific or any kind of value whatsoever, it's illegal. And how do you decide whether something has scientific or artistic value? Who makes that call? Yeah. That's... I think that's where a lot of people get angry about this whole case is... Right. And I mean, I know there's going to be people out there yelling and screaming going, "Well, this guy is a sicko." And, you know, maybe so. But the thing is, like, this law came under the Bush era. And I'm not going to start bad-mouthing Bush. But... I'll feel free. Well, good, we agree. Um, but I mean, like, under Clinton's era, I remember back in early 2000, they had came up with that ruling. I'm saying, if it's fake, it was not illegal. If it did not harm a single person, um, you know, we'll say it's okay. But then Bush got in the office and said, "Oh, we're going to change that." Okay, now it's illegal. And, you know, this isn't the only... And did he do that? Oh, go ahead. I mean, did he do that because he wanted to control people? Or did he do that because he was really worried about the stuff? Oh, he meant when he had that religious... You know, he had that religious background and he probably... And he probably, you know, one of the things he probably said, I mean, it was only 16 or 15th time when he got his first brother in the office. You know, he probably said, "You know, hey, I'm really for family values. I don't agree with this ruling. I'll make sure it's changed, you know, to protect kids." And the thing is, the hard part is, and you see it all the time... People aren't going to say no to something that protects kids. You see it all the time, though, like... Right. Seat belts should be worn to protect kids, even though it's asinine. Or the cell phones should always have the clicking sound because a man might go into a girl's locker room and take pictures without them knowing. Just, you know, they'll think of some way to spin it to quote-unquote protect the kids. Right. And I think this is one of those things. But we're not the only people. This actually happened in another kind of really goofy thing now happened in Australia. Some guy had some images of the Simpsons having sex. Barton Lee's son Maggie having sex. Again. Why would you want to have that? I don't know. But I've seen people drum and their sights dedicated to like... cartoon, you know, Annabar Barrett characters nailing each other. Now I'm going to probably go to jail or something for saying that. My point, though, is being... You can find anything on the internet. Yeah. I've seen some pretty crazy things. Anyway, point is, this almost the same thing. And even it was so funny, too. When it came out a few months ago, I think it was early this year that it came out. I remember hearing about it on the internet, or on the news. And even they were like, "Well, that's really goofy." You know? Because obviously, they're not... It's the same thing this guy kind of got put into. These are fake fictional people who don't exist. And he's being treated like a child rapist, you know. The most evil thing in the world. So we're not the only country to have kind of goofy laws. I mean, granted, they're in there for a reason, obviously. But you always don't have to agree with them. Nope. And unfortunately, again, this is another one of those things. Me or you don't have the answer on. But... I really... I don't have the answer. I thought I had all the answers. I thought that's why I'm on this podcast. I have all the answers. What? No? Okay. I know the other thing you want to talk about. The other thing you want to talk about, though, is piracy? Yes. This happened to go to the other wonderful topic that's going to, you know, get... So many people up in arms. Probably, well, I won't say that it's weird. But probably more people will be up in arms over this than the other one we just finished talking about. But one piece was being... I guess it's new one piece. I don't know. I don't watch one piece. It's that kind of crazy anime that I kind of look at. And I'm like, why is this popular? A lot like... Some DBZ and things like that. Yeah, they're ungodly long, et cetera, et cetera. Yeah, I can't say it, though. And it's just weird. But they are very popular. I'm glad they are because that's what makes these money so that they can sell other things. But it was being, I think, the correct term as it was being... It was being shown on the web at the same time as it was being shown in Japan. So the... They would come out on TV. They would come out on TV and they would show it on the web. Correct. The simulcast. That's the correct term. I don't think there was simulcast in it, but there was not... Yeah, I get what you're saying, though. Anyway, continue. So, yeah. So one piece was... They're being simulcasted. And as it was being shown in Japan, it was being simulcasted on the web. Well, somebody posted it illegally somewhere. And now the simulcast is gone because they pulled it off. Okay, yeah. What he's saying is basically what happened last week. Yeah. Well, you're kind of glossing over a few things. All right, go ahead then, fine, if you think so. Well, what he's kind of getting down to is the Funimation. A couple weeks ago, maybe a month ago, it said, "Hey, we're going to be simulcasting one piece." You know, Air in Japan, and an hour after that, you'll be able to watch it subbed on Funimation.com. Well, the day before that was supposed to happen, someone got into the Funimation servers and leaked the episode. Funimation even took it one step further and said, "Well, if you're going to do that, we're not going to stream anything at all, but we're also going to pull Full Metal Alchemist." Now that I didn't hear, that's interesting. Oh, yeah, they pulled Full Metal Alchemist, now it's back again. But here's the goofy thing. They were hacked again, and this time, Phantom Episode 10, before it even got aired in Japan, was leaked onto Bitorant with the Funimation logo and all that stuff again. And now, Funimation, I haven't heard anything actually from there and on what they're doing now. They haven't dropped anything else. You can still watch Full Metal Alchemist, et cetera, et cetera. But, yeah, they were hacked again, basically what I'm trying to say. Yeah. Which is not, I mean, I don't think they ever said that it was, I didn't realize it was an hour before the simulcast that it got posted. I don't think they ever said that it was, it was like a one day before it was supposed to go originally on the internet. I mean, it will all be available for people to download. Okay, well, I was glossing over a few things then. Thank you for erecting me. No, that's cool. I didn't realize, I don't think they ever said that it was because of the simulcast that it was being leaked. I mean, as anybody who's been an anime fandom knows, they did not have to start simulcasting for pirating to become prevalent. No, this has been an issue for years and years. Yeah, this has been going on ever since anime existed. VHF days. Yeah, VHS tapes, especially. But, and I didn't know they pulled another episode either. That kind of punitive action is usually just going to come back and bite you in the butt. Yeah. But, as anybody who's followed me on AOD knows probably only about three people. But maybe there's three people that listen to your podcast. Who knows? I am pretty much anti-piracy. Now, there was a time when new things got known and were only brought over because they were shown online. And yes, you can make the argument that because it was because of piracy that anime became popular in America at all. But that's not true now. Anime is pretty much now big money in America. You know, I think there's some people say that it makes some shows make more money in America than they do in Japan. Oh, yeah. Abe recently is one of the, he was one of my favorite Japan directors, writers, whatever you want to call him. Recently said he was going to be releasing, he's working on a new anime and he mentioned it in America before he talked about it in Japan. So that's an example of how important the American market is for anime. Yeah, Japan has gotten out of the good Japanese. It's great. We're keeping it in-house. No, they've already found that, hey, other people around the world want to watch this stuff. And when I first started this podcast a year and a half ago, there we go. You know, one of the big things we did talk about was piracy. And at that time, we had people like Greg Ayers who were running out and going, "You're killing the anime industry because you're watching The Grey Man, because you're downloading Bleach." You know. We still do. No. I do it every week. Well, I know. I mean, we have still have people who say we're killing the industry. Oh, yeah, of course. But they're people who should know. I mean, these are voice actors who, this is their bread and butter. This is what they're doing. And if they tell me we are hurting the industry from doing this stuff, I'm going to listen to them. I mean, I take everything they see with a grain of salt because they have a stake in this, and I understand that. They do. But they're going to scream, bitch, moan, cry, whatever. Now, I think once it gets licensed here, yeah, okay. But I've watched so many things because I've quote unquote "pirated it" that never hit American shores. And that's one of the big arguments I know people use. Yep. But my advice... But once it hits American shores and you've watched it pirated, well, there's no reason for you to go out and watch it again because you've already seen it. Oh crap. I don't know how many things have come out since then. Good example. Oh, I've watched Clannad. I liked it. Okay. I got licensed in America. I went and bought it. And there are a lot of people who do that, and a lot of people on AOD who have told me that's what they do. And that I respect, but I think most people don't do that. No, you know what, though, there's always going to be those people. There is. There is. Because anyway, for people to get this stuff for free, they will get it for free and not care. That's... You're never going to get 100% purchase. No, you're not. You're not ever going to get a one-to-one ratio of purchases to buy. Or you know what I mean? Right. Of watching to people buying it. But I do think that it is hurting sales. I can't prove that. I don't think anybody can one way or the other. But it's more of a philosophical thing for me. It's more of a philosophical and a moral thing that you are getting something from this. You are watching it, you are being entertained, and the people who made it are not getting anything back. Yeah. And to me, that is... that's just wrong. I'll be blunt. Now, yes, if something is not brought over to the shores, there's no way you can give them anything back. And yes, buying importing something from Japan, DVD prices in Japan are insane. Yeah, I looked at buying from R2s, but... Yeah, the price... the market is so different that the prices in Japan are much higher for DVDs. I'll give you a good example. I looked at buying school days when it first started coming out in Japan. It was like $78 for three episodes. Right. I was like, "Fuck that. That is insane." And school days, I guarantee you, will never be released in America. There are things that were released that I didn't think they were going to be released. Right stuff does that a lot. Oh, I knew. I didn't think Imo was going to ever be released in America. If any idea how well it's selling, but I can't see that that would sell very well. No, yeah, when it first got announced, even me and the other co-host of this show were just both like, "Okay, it's awesome that's being released, but this is a show that niches are going to... Either you watch the show and you're going to like it. It's not going to bring anybody new. It's a niche show." Right. And AOD went wild. Oh, yeah. They're the only people who are going to watch this and how many of you are actually going to buy it because you've already seen it. Now, I'm weird. As I say, I don't own a lot of anime. Maybe I'm not the real market for this stuff. I have to watch something. For me to want to watch something again, it has to be incredible. The anime that I own that I'm going to watch more than once is very slim. And I see these pictures of people who have like 800 DVDs. Oh, yeah, Pat. He buys anything and everything just to say he owns it. Right. And he's got a whole... Whithole room is filled with crap. I would love to be able to do that. That's not me. So maybe it's true that the people that pirate this stuff do go out and buy it. I don't know. I can't prove one way or another. But philosophically to me, if you are watching something and getting enjoyment out of it and not giving back to somebody, then you're doing something that is not good. Now, the... And honestly, I don't understand the argument that, well, I have to see it when it's being released in Japan. I don't follow Japanese news. I'm not... I don't watch anime because I want to be Japanese. That's not... Maybe some people do, but that's not me. So I don't follow what's being released new in Japan for anime. So if something is being new released in Japan, I don't want to have to watch it immediately. I can wait until it's brought over here. Yeah. Honestly, I wish more people would do that. So when I watch something as it comes out in America, people would... I could talk to people about it. But most of the time, when that happens, the people in AOD have already seen it and don't want to talk about it again. But irrelevant to this discussion. So I don't know. Maybe it's not, but the people who should know say that it is. So I'm going to take them to some extent at their word. Yes, they're going to want to get as much money out of it as they can, but that's why they bring it over in the first place. And the more money they make, the more stuff we get to bring over. Yep. And I do think that eventually the market is going to have to change. They're going to have to put new stuff online. They're going to have to put stuff online. But the more we leak it, the more we pirate it, the less they're going to want to do that. Because it is probably easier for somebody to pirate something when it is put online by the company than when it's a DVD. And I don't have no proof of that. It may not be true, but I suspect it is already in a digital form. It's going to be easier for someone to distribute it badly. So I don't know. That's my piece on piracy for the day. Okay. I thought I could really leave it at. And we can agree to disagree on that one. That's fine. Yeah. I'm not going to. I get what you're coming from. I get where they're coming from. Because I mean, I watch it because it's what people are talking about. I don't know what people are talking about. You know, if a show like Keon comes over to America, yeah, I'll probably end up buying it. You know. But I like being able to like discuss current anime with people on the internet. It makes it more interesting not, hey, this show, you know, came out six years ago and just hit American shores. Let's talk about it. No, people aren't going to want to. Like you said. Well, if they only watched it when it hit American shores, then it would be new to us. And we would all talk about it. But yes, a vast majority of the people who are on the internet who watch anime have already seen it before it comes to America and don't want to talk about it again. So yeah. And it does. I've some of the stuff that has been simulcast that I have started watching. For example, Fairy Musketeers. I've talked about it with people online. And yeah, that does drastically improve the experience. But anime clubs have had to disappear because of piracy. And I don't want to see digital distribution have to go the same way. And it used to be that Funimation had anime clubs throughout the country that were supported by Funimation. But they can't do that anymore. Well, I think you can make the argument. There's been a huge improvement in digital distribution. Agreed. I mean, a year ago, they were bitching at us saying, "Oh, your cars are all pirates. You're all terrible. We're not going to do anything, FU." But then they came out and was like, "Hey, we're going to start doing this, this, this, this, this." I think a lot of you can kind of contribute to is Crunchyroll. Crunchyroll proved that there was a market. Easy, legal as it was at the time, there were people who wanted to get this stuff. Yep. I don't know how much, I don't see if they're going to make money though. But I watch stuff on there and it's all legal now. But I have no idea if Crunchyroll's making good money or is making any money at all. They probably are now. I mean, they're doing stuff that's airing in Japan now. You can get it, you know, a couple of hours or the next day or whatever. Right. So, I guarantee they're doing something right. They're making money. So, yeah, that's piracy though. It's one of those things. Either you're going to do it or you're not going to do it. You have your reasons, you don't have your reasons. Yep, yep. So you said you had a review? Do you want to go ahead and- Yeah, yeah, I can go ahead and do that. End on a good note. So, I'm going to be talking about, oh, you want to do your intro or- Oh, yeah, because this is an older show, isn't it? Yes, it is. It came out in 2005. Oh, that's not an older show. Go ahead. That's not old enough. It's not old enough. Okay. It's been the 90s. Well, you know, in the world of digital distribution where things care a day old, they're old, but- Yeah, exactly. This is an Abbe anime. I was set before Abbe is one of my favorite directors. I actually went to Minneapolis to a conference over a weekend just because he was going to be there. And the conference I would never have gone to otherwise. It turned out to be a great conference. I can talk about that another time. It was a wonderful kind of an intellectual conference on anime. Yes, I know that sounds like a contradiction. But the anime is called Habana Rinme. Abbe, for people who don't know, has done work on Lane, did work on N-I-E-A-7. But Habana Rinme is about the only anime that he actually had full control over when he was doing it. And it's absolutely amazing. It starts off slowly, but you know, there's kind of a reason for it. Basically, this girl wakes up in a cocoon in a world that she doesn't understand. On the way of a good way to think about it is she's kind of shell-shocked. Which is kind of funny because she kind of came out of cocoon, you know, she was born from a shell. And she tries to figure out what this world is throughout the course of the anime, why she's there, and who these people are. Now, they're called "Hannabe" because they have wings and halos. And there is a very big spiritual nature to the show. But it is certainly in no way a Christian show. It's a religious show, yes, but it's not a Christian show. And that's given away right in the beginning because the wings, rather than being white, are gray. And these angels are not seen on high and looked at as great and wonderful by the rest of the civilization. The town that they are in, they're almost like second-class citizens. So they're almost not seen as good as the normal people who live in the town. But the anime is drawn very well, the story is amazing, the story is moving. It's one of the few anime I have watched that made me cry several times. But it does eventually end on an uplifting note. It's something that has not gotten enough popularity, but it is something that if you like moving anime, you like slice of life anime, you like philosophical anime that you should watch. You're not going to find robots, you're not going to find action, you're not going to find blood and guts, this is not elf and lied. But what you're going to find is a very moving story with very well-done characters. All of the characters seem to have interesting stories. You know, you get to know only Rekke and Raka mostly. But all of them have very interesting stories, they are all very real. They're very well drawn, they're very well drawn in a sense of actual being drawn and they're very different. But they're very well drawn as in who they are and their backstories as well. It does start off slow, and as I say, it's not very action-oriented, but it is an absolutely incredible well-done show. The voice acting, I'm not much of a voice acting person, but the voice acting as far as I can tell is very good. It's not on the level of now and then here and there, which probably has the best voice acting of any show that I have seen. But it's very very well done, the subtitles are very well done. I didn't notice any problems with cross-coloration or anything on the show, but then I don't have a digital television. So it may have been there and I may not have noticed, your mileage may vary. I also do not have surround sound, so I can't talk about that, but the stereo mix that I listened to was fine. But the really, the big selling point of this show is the content, is the moving story and the moving characters. I haven't been able to find the AOD Recommend section anymore, but it was on the AOD Recommend. It is one of my favorite shows, it is one of the few shows that I own that I watch again on a consistent basis. So if you haven't seen it, go out and find the show and watch it. Support Abe, he's actually supposedly coming out with something new and I do think he's one of the best anime writers that we have currently. Okay, sweet, a good review. Oh yeah, thumbs up all the way, five stars, ten stars, however you, I don't know what to... We don't have a rating now, we don't know. I tried to give it a five, just because it's like seven and a half, no? Yeah, it is one of my best anime. I think you said you started it, but I don't know if you listened to it. I watched like the first episode where she's falling out of the sky and I was like, "Oh okay, click." One of those things I have to watch again. Do you have any personal blogs you want to give a shout out to? I don't have a personal blog if you like fantasy, there's a great fantasy blog done by Dylan Fanatic. Let me see if I can find it, it's not related to anime. It's actually been only recently started in the world of comics, but it's a fantasy blog that he covers less, I can freaking find it. I don't know, not right now, I'll have to find that blog later, I wouldn't have found it to find it. You're sitting here, we've did it for ten minutes and that's not good. Not even on a podcast. Do you have a Twitter account or anything? No, no, don't have Twitter, don't have Facebook, I teach, so I try to stay away from that. Wow, yeah, that's pretty a good thing. To be safe, but good websites are besides AOD for some anime stuff. Like the other fantasy section Wheel of Time, Mania has a good stuff about anime at times, but the best site for anime, even though with the mania merger, which most people did not like, is probably still AOD or anime on DVD online. Oh man, I just fired up consumerist.com, have you been there? No, not really with that one. Okay, let's say, usually people bitch about consumer problems, but they also have some unique stories. I just brought up one that kind of, you'll probably get a kick out of two. Move to Japan so you can drink Veggie Pepsi or Green Tea Coke. Yeah. Two new colo taste sensations are about to hit the vending machines of Japan. And no, you cannot either. They're green tea, no, you can't, what the fuck does that mean? And no, you can't either, what? Anyway, they're green tea coke and shisho flavored Pepsi. There's something you can't hit the vending machine. Yeah, apparently we can't. Shisho is a minty green herb popular for flavoring stuff in Japan. And apparently it gives a nuclear green color in an extract form. Yeah, it looks like a light. Did you see the cucumber Pepsi? No, I have not, but I heard about it. Okay, it looks like it was another strange idea. They have come up with the strangest things in Japan. Yeah, there's a link I sent you. Go check it out. It's really unique. I guarantee you'll be able to easily find this stuff on eBay. I think you know what I should do. What did you see? Heck. I should switch this to an eBay and then try it on air. That would be awesome. The offerings are not unusual for Japan, where the vending machines are stuck with wacky and exotic snacks. And the vendors most constantly roll it. Where fads can literally start and explode to national fever and become completely forgotten within an hour. That sounds like Japan. Hell, they're in love with America. I cannot wait to go to Japan. I cannot wait to go to Japan to try the vending machine stuff. Do we want industry? Didn't you used to be able to buy used panties from vending machines in Japan or something weird like that? Oh, we still can in the red light section. You still can. All right. Yes. Japan. You are so strange about how we love you. Yes, I heart Japan. Yes, yes. Let's see. Pepsi cucumber. So that is a very weird looking color. I would not want to drink something that color. Twenty bucks. I would be afraid of what it would do to my body. Yeah, that would be pretty goofy. Hold on. I'm actually recording. Yeah, we're getting ready to go to the con in medicine, yippee. I don't know. Should I spend twenty bucks to get this cucumber flavored twenty ounce? No, I don't think so. It's flat by now. I wouldn't spend twenty bucks for it. But that has to be very, very much the strange, strange thing. I could come up with some crazy, crazy things in Japan, don't I? Yes. I think someone actually once came up with a vending machine disguise for women in Japan who thought they were being stalked. Because our vending machines are so prevalent in Japan that the idea was you were going to disguise yourself as a vending machine. So you could run away from somebody that way. That's hilarious. Yeah, I can't find a website for it now, but it was the strangest thing I think I ever saw. Yeah, it's the only two bottles of Pepsi White from Japan. Yogurt flavor. What's for twenty bucks or buy it now for thirty? That's fifteen dollars and two liters. Yeah. That's it. Watch. I don't know. I just don't maybe do it if I had money laying around. I just like, just to say you can try. They'll go into Japan. Buy some anime with it. Don't tell them by that. There you go. Buy it by some of the stuff they're selling on right stuff for next to nothing. There you go. Okay. Well, we will be back next Friday. I'm going to start changing it from Thursday to Friday. So you can hear my wonderful voice live. Yes. At ten p.m. again until block talk radio gets around to letting me chew seven or eight o'clock jerks. Anyway, so this is Jill Acoon saying thank you very much for listening to this kind of special. Actually, this is probably good because our episode fifteen, we never released that because it's so horrible quality. Hi, Pepper. So now this is going to replace that missing show. This is a missing episode fifteen. Yes. I wondered about that when I was looking through preparing. I'm like, there's no episode fifteen. Is that some internal joke that I don't get and don't understand? No, we had it on recorded and the quality, like he'd rather do something on his end and it was horrid. I'm not really thinking this. So, yay. Now we have a full complete list. But of course this episode fifteen was not recorded until like a year later. But yeah, exactly. Hey, we have time machines. Yes, we do. Well, we watch sci-fi anime, so obviously we have time machines, right? Indeed. Okay, yeah. The podcast hosts who stepped, who jumped through time. Hooray. We know who's coming after President Obama, but we won't kill you. And you don't when you won't be prepared. Yes. Let's try to save him, Dura. Don't give it away. Yeah. It's supposed to be a surprise. Yeah. So yeah, check out twitter.com/jellacoon. Bonsaybeat.com. Thanks, Kat. Check out Bonsaybeat for all these show notes and all that good jazz. So until next time, this is a Jellacoon. And Zoldar. Yeah, good week. Alright, peace out!
IF you love Piracy and SEX you'll love this episode that we may have forgotten about. A new co-host joins Jellokun named Zaldar he brings his views on piracy and the Iowa manga porn case. He also reviews Hanabi rename.