The Banzai Beat Anime Podcast
Reshuffling The Deck
This podcast is a proud member of the Blueberry Network. That is Blueberry with noease.com. Blueberry with noease.com. Remember, you drop the ease. 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, pets, and jellicoon. Hey everybody, welcome to episode 31 of the Bonsai Beat, a reshuffle of the deck. Here's the name of this episode. It's for April 20th, 2009. Yes, that level of number 420. And fortunately, I can't recommend any anime that will enhance the effects of smoking said substance, but to each their own. So, yes, happy 420 to everyone. We got the news, we got the DVD picks. As always, yes, I'm no fun. And then, I'm re-reviewing, if there's even such a thing, Shuffle. Because if anyone remembers, early on, I looked at volume 1 of Shuffle. I believe it was episode 4, 5, it's been a while, it's been about a year. And I only launched the first DVD, and when I say I watched the first DVD, I skimmed much through without all the panty shots, because I was sitting in first class on an airplane. And watching, oh, hint, hint, I, that's how Shuffle is. Watching an Ichi-filled show doesn't bolt too well on an airplane, just because people can see your screen and kind of embarrassing. But I had a chance to watch all 24 episodes. Thank you, Funimation on their Funimation videos. So you can find that at www.funimation.com/videos, very great service. One word of recommendation, though, is they could use more bandwidth. I mean, we said last week that Funimation was hosting the full metal alchemist. Well, it shows. Their buffer times suck. You literally have to start it, so Shuffle was made by Katakawa. The Katakawa logo would pop up. Nothing more. It was started. OK, stop it. Let it buffer for 10, 15 minutes. And then you got a decent part of the anime. And then you hoped and prayed that the show was done enough to be able to watch with any interruptions. Although it was better during the evening, late evening, unfortunately, 1, 2 o'clock in the morning when I had a chance to watch. So sometimes, other than that, I think it's a great service to get some decent video. I mean, if you're not objectable to watching it on your computer screen, you're going to like the video quality. In my opinion, it was decent, well, better than decent, better than YouTube. But yeah, I am also streaming live with a video this time. Ula-la, over Ustream. So you can check out ustream.com/bondzybeat. And I'm going to have this episode also looping. So yeah, welcome to everybody who's listening for the first time, watching for the first time. This is me. Yay me. Other than that, I guess we should just hop right into the news. And the news, always, brought to you by Anime News Network. So yay. OK. OK. OK. This week in Anime News, brought to you by Anime News Network. Yeah, Anime News, yes. The thing that makes this thing worth listening to, you know, not just me and how great I am. But uh, so we start off with a little dragon ball Z news. As if you're aware in the US, Dragon Ball Z finally hit the US shores. It was in Japan a couple weeks ago, and it was number one. So Dragon Ball Z Evolution opens at number eight with only $4.8 million. And it got kicked. It got its ass kicked. Observing report opened that weekend as well. The Hannah Montana movie opened that weekend as well, putting a little perspective. Hannah Montana, the movie, rigged in $34 million. Dragon Ball Z, a lowly $4.8 million. So not looking too good. That was last weekend. Dragon Ball Z, the second weekend, which was this weekend, it dropped out of the top 10. And it only did $1.57 million for the second week. That's fucking terrible. And any movie is never going to get anywhere. So I have a good feeling this is going to be a quick direct to DVD spiel, because this is terrible. And I really wonder if a lot of US fans of Dragon Ball Z went and pirated it, when watched the Japanese version, or just the horrible press that the show was getting to that affect the overall viewing. I mean, I saw commercials for it, but they look horrible and they really didn't say the plot. They really didn't say anything about the show. And, you know, when you're looking at a DVD, or looking at a mood to watch, you kind of want to know what it's about. And I just said, all right, Dragon Ball Z, oh my God, it's in live action. And there's this hot chick, and some lockers fly open. Oh, and a car gets blown up. Come watch Dragon Ball Z in the movie, because it's cool, because Dragon Ball Z is from Japan. But no, Dragon Ball Z sucked ass. It did horrible. And you'll probably find it in the DVD bargain bin next weekend, fucking Best Buy. I don't see this lasting much longer. Maybe it's already at the discount movie theater, you know, get in for a buck, you get the shitty steel popcorn. So maybe the shitty steel popcorn will make up for the crappiness of the movie. Excuse me. Next up, we have the greatest thing an otaku would ever want. And that is an issue. Oh, it's called it. It's a Shawnee training exercise anime, and it's the ship April 24th. This is fucking crazy. It's an anime video that's all about exercising. You get to watch the 16 year old anime chick, who was once real, but in her second year of high school, was transferring him to an anime character, and she's going to teach you to exercise. So for all those otaku that are, you know, fat, this is a good way to get out of that rut, and show everybody, look, I can fucking exercise, because I have this hot anime, who can exercise video. The teach is how to do pushups. The great thing is, I thought, hey, this could be great. Oh, sorry, she's turned into an anime character, which was a second year middle school student. Oh, I thought, you know, this could be something worthwhile. And then Amazon was great enough to post the back of the cover. And this is where everything just goes to hell in a hand basket. She's doing pushups in her underwear and brah, her underwear barely covers her ass. The setup she's doing is, you know, every angle is like a titty shot, or an ass shot, or something. Like, you would have thought, you know, maybe, just maybe I would have purchased this just for the fucking fact, hey, it's anime, I can exercise, but then you look at the back of the box, and it's like, anti to itself, small degree. It's like the 100% peer eachy video that has to do with exercising. And yeah, so if you really care, and you really want to quote unquote exercise, anything more than your hand muscle guys, pick up this awesome anime exercise DVD, because yes, after watching it, 15 to 20 times, you will want to be scored on by chicks or something, I don't know. Moving on to a little more serious, I guess, well, series, if you work for imagination, ten former workers are suing imagination for unpaid wages. Ten employees were laid off by imagination and entertainment in late 2008, and have filed a class action lawsuit against the company. They're alleging that they were not paid up to four months worth of back pay. Imagination entertainment is the owner and operator of Imagination TV, also known as ATV. And it's a television network, former operator of two movie theaters, and that's a great, great industry to be in right now as well. Actually, they broke the Fair Labor Act of 1938. And the former employees are seeking $250,000 unpaid wages. And that bigger may grow, and additional plaintiffs join the suit. Nearly all the plaintiffs were laid off between October and December of 2008. The company shed over 75% of its workers. I really wonder how much these guys are getting paid. There's only, when I say, ten of them, I don't know, damn, they paid a lot for four months worth of work, geez. So basically names them, and then two or three other shareholders of the company. So obviously they have a case, but I don't know where to go from there. Excuse me. So yeah, they have a good case, and we'll see what happens. Imagination TV, I don't really know anyone who gets that. I know there's something called AZN TV, but I don't know if that's the same thing or it's something different. I don't know if it's something we get on Comcast here. So moving on again, I don't know if I should have said sucks to be them. Hope they get to the fucking day in court and get some money in their pocket. You work your ass off for a company and they fuck you over that way, it's garbage. You expect money in your pocket, expect money in your bank account, pay off those bills, pay off mortgages, whatever, make them up, it's not there, it kind of sucks. How convicted in the Pirate Bay file sharing trial, I know this isn't exactly anime related, but I kind of feel it is because Pirate Bay is a huge website. They were fined $3.6 million and that was total, but they each got to also spend a year in prison. They each have to spend a year in prison and they are going to appeal. I honestly wonder what made them guilty. We've done piracy talk before, I'm not going to get too much into it, but a dot torrent file is not a freaking copyrighted work. It's a file all directing you to whatever file, like the bonds I beat, I could make a torrent website, you know, if I had enough listeners, please get more listeners, you know, I could build myself a torrent and then say, okay, episode one, dot torrent, okay, here's how you get all the files. That's all a dot torrent is and, you know, I don't know, it's going to be interesting with this whole peel and where it goes from there. I honestly think it's just a spectacle, it's just a further media to prove, oh, we're big and bad and, you know, we're going to, you know, if you pirate thing, bad things are going to happen, or if you run a website that offers illegal downloads, bad things are going to happen and this could just be one of those, I guess. So let's see what happens. This indicates that online plans for honey and clover and nana. So last week I mentioned that this is letting Funimation show nana and honey clover and a couple other shows on the Funimation Network. Well, now they're talking about bringing it online. On each website they offer download, purchase, and streaming version. So a lot of people are speculating that Funimation or Vis is going to be offering the shows for stream over their website, which will be cool because I actually want to watch honey and clover. So yeah, that'd be great. Crunchyroll, it's called Gia Solush of the Rebellion. If you haven't got enough of the looosh from Adult Swim and Cartoon Network, they've streamed it on there for ages, you can now stroll over to Crunchyroll and get your fix. It's going to be subtitled and in English, dubbed, episodes, all 25 are going to be viewable and it's free, so you don't have to pay anything. So yeah, it's been Adult Swim, I believe it's still replays, but if you want to check out some more looosh, there you go. Okay, get my breath here. That was all the news, there really wasn't too much in the way of news this week. Not a lot going on, just no announcements and really nothing to speak of, hopefully things start picking up again, but, you know, week to week spiel. So we can move on to the DVD picks, so let's go ahead and do that, if I can click the right button and turn that down a little bit. That's another week, and more DVDs are being released. What should you get? It's time for the Wheelie DVD picks. Okay, well, for angle listeners, the way the DVD picks, I look over what's being released here this week, or, you know, what not, and choose a DVD that I would want to purchase right now. It's kind of something kind of fun, I would love to hear your choices. Anyways, comment at www.bondzib.com, always a good place to start talking with me, and I'd love to hear your feedback. So this week, not too much calling out, only three or four shows, and I wanted to say the air box set is coming out here tomorrow, April 21st, and it's a great show, very depressing, and it's highly regarded as a great, great show from Kielannie to go along with Cannon. Those two shows almost go hand in hand, so, you know, you can now see the chance to pick up air for relatively cheap, and, yeah, there you go. That is my pick for the week, not much. I watched show, I thought it was all right, a little too depressing for my taste, I mean, I enjoy anime to watch it, I don't want to get depressed and be all sad because I watch it, but to each of their own. So, move on to the shuffle review, like I said in the beginning, the original review was kind of ehh, kind of iffy, so... I re-watched entire episode, it's 24 re-watched entire show, it's 24 episodes, it was brought to you by Funimation in America, basically it's your multiple girls like multiple guys, or let me say that again, multiple girls like this one guy who is clueless and just doesn't get it, but hey, he does everything he can to make sure that all his friends are happy and, you know, just an amazing quote-unquote guy, so, basically, Revolve's around this guy named, um, Rinsch, um, sachimi, Rinsch, sachimi, god see that three times fast, uh, he's 17, and he's in his third year of high school. So the show revolves around Rinsch, sachimi, and he lives with this girl named, um, Kyday. Kyday is the same age, um, basically, when they were both younger, um, Rins' parents and Kyday's mother were killed in an auto accident, oh god, that's so typical, um, so now he lives with her, well, of course, he got the dad who's never fucking seen, he's too busy across the, across the pond, doing business, so he's gone at three, four, five, six, nine months out of the year, so they have to fend for themselves, how I don't know, they just do, they don't have jobs, but they can eat well and whatever, so, um, Kyday is this really cute redhead, she basically does everything for him, she cooks for him, she cleans for him, and she says, you know, reen, cooking and cleaning for him, she loves to do, um, she just likes being the quote un, you know, the quote unquote happy person who cleans, I don't know, the typical Japanese wife, I don't know, so, um, they're sitting in class and they're talking about the new transfer students coming, well, you've got a couple friends kind of hang around with Rinsch and, uh, Kyday, um, you got Asa, she's a, uh, senior in high school, she's in the fourth year, and she's, uh, got green hair, she's, uh, very affectionate, very physical towards Rinsch and always gives them crap and always, uh, just hass them and teases them sexually and physically, um, and you've also got, um, another friend who the name escapes me and it's really not that important, um, he's more of last just a side character, he's always there, he's a guy, the friend of, um, Rinsch and always talks smack, you know, always, oh, I love women, I love girls, I love boobs, I love everything, um, he's there and uses a comic relief really, and that's really about it, he doesn't really add much to the show, uh, at all, he's there just for comedic effect, so the new transfer student turns out to be two students, um, and one from the demon realm, one from the god realm, well, ten years prior to all this crap happening, uh, the gateway opened and this gateway just, everyone doesn't seem to give a fuck that, hey, there's demons with elf ears and gods with longer pointy years, or excuse me, the other way around, demons have the really long years and the gods have the kind of shorter pointy years, but no one really seems to care, you know, it happened and, uh, they're here, so, the fathers of these two girls come walking in to say, look, where the hell is Rinschime, where is he, they say, okay, you're going to marry one of my, uh, either the god of, uh, either going to be a god of the demon world or you're going to marry the, and be a god of the god world, you know, so you're going to be king of either or world and he has chews and both fathers are very comical and just do crazy wild things and it's pretty fun to watch them, um, they don't seem to really care about their daughter's happiness, not per se, but, um, like the king of the demons or the king of the god, he'll constantly make remarks about her name is Sia and he'll talk about her boobs or like how good she looks or how great she is and Sia has a temper, Sia will get angry and throw a chair at him and, uh, she gets really upset that he says all this crazy stuff and embarrasses her all the time and then you've got Narenay, she is the daughter of the king of the demons and she's more quiet, so I've spoken, um, but she's very violent and, uh, very angry or can be very angry, so Rene gets kind of just put in this position of, okay, who do I choose? Well, early on in the show, you get a lot of them bonding, them getting to know each other, a lot of happy, old, lucky episodes, they go to the, obligatory, let's go to the beach and everyone wears a swimsuit and all that good jazz and there's panty shots, galore and yes, there's even some nudity, but very on in the show, you kind of get it just for each girl and basically what it comes down to, Rene has to pick one of five girls, you get to choose either Kite, Asha, Narenay or Sia and then finally, there's a lolly girl put in there named Primula and for whatever reason, she got added into the show, um, she came from the demon world one day and Rene found her at an arcade and she knew who Narenay was and so he said, oh, I'll just bring her back and whatever, well, she wants to stay, so she gets added to the list and somehow, she gets added to the quote unquote, cast girls that and he won his affection, yeah, so each episode devotes a little bit of time to each girl, you get to know them and you kind of get to connect with them and then you get to both the middle episode or the middle of the show and just, the show takes a more serious plot twist for about four or five episodes, they stop with the comicalness of the show and they get two more serious tone, it's a plot twist with Primula and basically what starts happening then is after that kind of goes away, I don't want to spoil it but after that goes away, each girl, you find out about their backstory, you find out about them, you find out that each girl has some kind of back story, like Narenay has a kind of like an alter ego kind of, Sia has a sister inside her that they combine powers or some BS in the womb, it's really retarded, Primula, there's a big shocker with her, I'm not going to bother saying it because it's a big spoiler and then Al says just a really good friend and Kite and Rheen have a very long back story and with Kite and Rheen basically, like I said, Kite's mother was killed, well when Rheen was younger, he confessed to Kite that it was his fault that they died because he was bored and for the longest time Kite hated Rheen, even at the point where she took a retractor knife and tried stabbing them and finally just dropped it on him and cut his eye really bad and it was crazy, so what it turns out to be is like every girl has their pros and cons, even Asa who I just said is a long time friend, but there's something back there too, so I kind of see like the show tries to be too many things, at first it tries to be a comedy with a bunch of EG thrown in, I mean they have obligatory panties shots for really no good reason, I mean hell there's even one kid who goes around pulling up skirts to show panties, it's retarded, but then you get to this plot, a point in the show where the plot gets all serious, you get to know about each girl, something big happens, but then it goes back to being light-hearted, it wasn't a bad show, but it wasn't a great show either, it was fun to watch, but other than that, even at the end of the show it was like okay, he picks who he wants to be with, and like the very last episode after everything kind of comes, kind of gets together and all the pieces are wrapped up together, the final episode, it goes back to all the girls dying for his affection, and the thing that gets commonly said, well I better not say it because it kind of gives away the show, so like even at the end of the show, all five girls are like oh I still care for your reign, I'm gonna do this, and I'm gonna do that, and I'm gonna do that to make you happy and make you change your mind, even though you've made up your mind, and who you want to be with, and this and that, and the thing is like the original point of the story kind of gets left behind, I'll say it now, well god damn it again, it's one of those things, I don't want to spoil the story too much, but like the whole point of the story of, you think it becomes a demon god, or a god god, you know the king of the demons, king of the gods, in the end it doesn't frickin matter, like the plot, the whole point of the beginning of the story is really neglected and really just overshadowed by the time you get to the end of the show, and that was my biggest problem, you had these five girls vying for this one guy's attention, and he's fucking clueless, and he's just one of those people who always just seems to do the greatest thing for all his friends, everything always good happens to him, but he's got this really shitty back story and a really shitty childhood, like I said the first time around, this story is fucking predictable, not in like the final parts of it, not in some of it, but the plot uses are just there, you got multiple girls vying for this one guy, oh but the guy has to choose, and out of each choose, and this and that, and it's, so it uses a plot device, and in the end, like I said, it doesn't frickin matter, and that was the biggest pain in the ass, and the show just kinda says, nope, we wrapped up all the air, we wrapped up all the loose ends, everything's unkidori, now the show's over, they lived happily ever after, although there was a shuffle memories, which was a, not necessarily a sequel, but a, um, the retelling of the story, but I guess the final show has all new, um, all new material, but there again, I don't know what to really make of that, and I guess you can make a shuffle too, like I would love to see a shuffle too I guess, because the ending is, it's all right, I mean, who would you just for a girl, um, it's surprising, um, like I said you can connect with each character pretty well, but, Reena's a hard time taking a stand on things, and he just kinda goes lucky low, you know, here and there, hey I'm happy, everything's great, kinda stance, and, um, so, you kinda never know what's going on in his head, and, um, that's shuffle, um, if I had to rate it out of five, I would give it a three, it's not great, it's not bad, um, but, you have to give it time, once you get past the first seven or eight episodes, you start to really get into the meat and potatoes of the show, you start to get into the seriousness of the show, you get to meet each girl, you get to learn their backstory, um, and all that stuff, um, the first eight episodes of Sword just gags her comedy, eachies, with a little bit of, you know, harem thrown in, um, not until the eighth episode does it really get good, so, that's shuffle for ya, and, um, I think that's it for this episode, um, okay, so you can check us out at, uh, www.bonsaybeet.com, um, also, give me feedback on Twitter, uh, it's twitter.com/jellacoon, J-E-L-L-O-K-U-N, um, also have email address, show@bonsaybeet.com, or jellacoon@bonsaybeet.com, either way, if you're email either of those, I will get them, um, also, right stuff is having a really good sale right now, unfortunately this doesn't really apply for it, but, if you click on the show and manga we've reviewed, tab on the website, uh, scroll down, and you will see a banner ad that will save you 10% on every order, and give me, or give us a little, give me a little bit of money in return, for paying for hosting costs, and junk like that, um, buying equipment, buying DVDs, whatever else, um, but it gives you a chance to save, uh, 10% on your order, and, uh, it's a good, good thing. So, um, yeah, this is really about it, uh, like I said, a couple past shows, I am looking for a co-host to join me, um, things that seem to go good, um, here and there, like I've met a couple people who've been interested, but it all kinda just falls apart, so I really don't know what's going on, um, but I'm, you know, definitely looking for someone to join me, um, it brings a lot more, uh, entertainment and fun to the episodes, um, so if you're interested, just feel free to shoot me an email, or, um, leave a comment on bonsaib.com, so until next time, until next week, this is Jelikun, saying sayonara. [silence]
Jellokun re-reviews SHUFFLE! along with all the latest news and dvd picks.