Since we're nearing the quarter-century mark in terms of episodes, as anime fans we've decided to do something special for this and our eight-month anniversary.This Year, Neon Genesis Evangelion will celebrate the 14th anniversary of the start of its airing in Japan. It is impossible to be an anime podcast and not dedicate at least one episode to this show that has dramatically shaped the watching habits and philosophies of the modern anime fan, and spawned subsequent mecha animes that tried to achieve the same success. Therefore, us clowns here at the Ass Backwards Anime Podcast are asking for your opinions, streams of conscious and general gushing fanboy praise or fanboy hate for Neon Genesis Evangelion. Tell us what the show means to you, whether you adore it or revile it.

On the flip side, we are also discussing a show that aired eight years after NGE and is heavily influenced by it, Raxephon. Rahxephon seems to be quite a bit underrated, and we'd also like your thoughts on that show, whether you think it's a generic cliche-ridden Eva clone, that it's a masterpiece that fixed Evangelion's missteps or whether you have yet to watch it.

Our email of course is ssaapodcast@gmail.com, and the more well thought out your response, the more likely it will be read and discussed during the taping of the episode and honestly we welcome every single bit of feedback.

Ok so we are a bit late. As an apology, here is a delicious trap.



But once you hear this episode you will understand what problems I had trying to make this episode passable. Why it that we have great topics, but everything around us goes to hell? We even managed to have Foxy with us for this one.

Click here to download episode (Right-click and Save As)




(0:00-4:03) Intro

Look I did the best I could for this one. This is normally not my style and I normally don’t have that good a list of music. Most of what you are going to hear. It is probably what was playing in my head at the time. What that means about my taste of music is for you to decide.

(4:04-1:00:09) Discussion (Piracy…kinda)

I know we could have done a better job at it. It seems that we still have some anger that makes us diverge to a rant about certain people. A lot of rant. Seriously, I don’t even know why I put this part as piracy.

It’s too late because I saw everything.



(1:0:09-1:01:11) Earcatch

Animeshon podcast

(1:01:12-1:45:41) Discussion (Not piracy is all I can say)

This really failed as a serious topic episode. Somebody help us. I think we should come up with more stuff for that last part of this train wreck.

(1:45:42-1:48:47) Closing

I think somebody is gonna get sued.

Please feel free to leave a comment or contact us via email at: SSAApodcast@gmail.com

Here is our first promo for our podcast. Please email us at: SSAApodcast@gmail.com and say that you are going to use it for your show.

Click here to download (Right-click and Save As)

Stupid Peterson had to go and christen the rant section of the site, so now I have to get up off my lazy ass and give you all what you have yet to realize you've been waiting for.


"Gather 'round children and I'll tell you a story of a little girl with the tastes in anime of someone with two times her testosterone level. You see, this girl loved shows where manly men (and boys) solved all of their problems with their fists, forever diving into the genres of mecha and shounen to satisfy her desire for hot blooded mecha pilots. But enough of my--er, her love for Yamada Jiro a.k.a. Daigouji Gai and Shiratori Tsukumo, the Jovian pilot that replaced him. Today's tale and the subsequent installments of it are about this girl's ten year love affair with shounen anime.

Long before I became a dame and a doctor there was a little show that my high school friends wouldn't stop talking about that they all claimed to watch on that lost technology known as video cassette, Dragonball Z. Only a year or so later, Cartoon Network rescued it from the purgatory of VHS and occasional showings on obscure satellitte TV channels, and yours truly finally watched it. While it was far from love at first sight (the fights were cool, but the filler, oh god the filler), DBZ served to plant the seed that would later explode into a tree of awesome.

Fast forward to the height of KaZaa's popularity and the days of incredibly compressed video files, and a friend suggested that I watch Naruto. I joined the show maybe 14 episodes in, and when I saw my first ninja battle I was sold. This was definitely the genre for me. But my love affairs are torrid and brief, and unless you can keep up the same level of awesome I will ditch you without remorse for the next show that promises to deliver. As I burned through copious amounts of shounen fare, I began to process the similarities from one property to another, the cliches that haunt the genre, yet make it into exactly what we want. As much as we cry for something different, the truth is that we require familiarity and for the most part will scorn something that attempts to do something different.

Since I've been accused of being a feminist, (a charge I will most certainly argue against) the most logical place to start is with the cariacatures of actual women that the shounen genre as a whole shoves down our throats as the love interests, best friends, mysterious objects of lust, lame plot device and so on and so forth. As a female raised predominantly in the 90s, media influences have shaped my tastes to (unconsciously) immediately look for a strong female character to identify with during my viewing. However, shounen animes do not tend to deliver these in large supply, and they are mostly relegated to minor character status, where they are there for a brief period of awesome before they fade into obscurity, or are raped repeatedly (how dare you be confident AND strong?), or have their entire life and reason for being obliterated or die or spiral into insanity or just move away. Though, admittedly this is a problem with anime as a whole and not just this genre in particular, it's just that Shounen is an exceptionally bad repeat offender. I should probably point out that this rant is not intended to be one of anger, but just one where I share what I've observed, though I wouldn't be surprised if I was filled with RAGE (TM) by the time I was done.

*Before I forget, here's a list of some of my favorite female characters in shounen-esque roles, I'm sure you know how their stories play out: Mitarashi Anko, Inoue Orihime, Nico Robin, Hina, Kalifa (she makes me feel oh so dirty), Neon (from Flame of Recca, not Hunter x Hunter), Monika Adenaur, Dorothy, Machi, Kyouyama Anna, Kagura (Inuyasha), Kurapika (you can't tell me he isn't at least half-girl), Kuwabara Shizuru, Ayu-nee, Shimura (O)tae, and the list goes on* With few exceptions, they tend to be pure pwnage in their first few appearances and then they get owned by the story or lack of story involving them, a disheartening trend.

Years of observation have taught me this: there are only two main female character types, and without exception a female that sticks around for the majority of the story fits neatly into these two molds.

The first is that of the weak girl that knows she is holding all of her friends back, and forcing the main character to constantly protect, take care of her and rescue her and hates it, and she desires to be stronger (or most annoyingly, she's just a cheerleader throughout the entire series). Though she may eventually level up and may have a moment of protecting the others, she still never catches up to her peers and thus continues to be the princess that needs to be rescued.

The second is the strong, mysterious woman that is hiding a plethora of secrets that will inevitably fuck over the group. She is usually more than capable of taking care of herself and protecting the others until the event that reveals her backstory/her lies and deception and she is reduced to a sniveling, pathetic, shadow of herself. To her credit, this second character usually returns (mostly) to her former self once she is accepted by the group for who she is, lies and all.
Now, before you get all [citation needed] on me, I came prepared to list examples to back up myself.

Category 1:








Category 2:




And I'm sure you can do my job for me and send in examples of those I've forgotten. Now of course, I've made these two into rather wide open categories, and it is possible that there exist female characters that do not fit neatly into either mold. In that case, congratulations Manga-ka/Anime writer, you dear sir (or madam) have managed to create a character that is less of a walking, talking stereotype and more similar to an actual woman, except you know, in two dimensions. I've found that the more cerebral an anime, and the further removed it is from the main character expanding his group of friends by beating his enemies into submission the more likely it is that it would feature a fully developed female character.

This is not to say I have anything against fanservice, in fact I welcome it and watch some shows exclusively for it. It's sometimes even better when it pops up in a show that has not yet dabbled with fanservice. The problem though is that the entire genre is rife with cliches, cliches that keep us warm in our pants at night.

Foxy out.

FUCK YOU

Ah, I am a simple man, with simple pleasures. I have a nine to five job like everyone else. I do my taxes, I brush my teeth after every meal and I even go outside and do outdoor activities, but sometimes, I enjoy to stay indoors and do various hobbies. Sometimes I read books or manga, sometimes I enjoy watching TV shows or an anime or two and, of course, I do enjoy to play video games every once and a while. After clocking in over hundreds of hours in the first Patapon, I quickly jumped into Patapon 2.










































My love was intensified when I realized that Patapon 2 takes data from the original title. Those hundreds of hours were not lost but was given new meaning. I cruised through the game like the Flash on caffeine, destroying anything stupid enough to put any resistance. Now, I am somewhat a gamer. If a challenge arises I will step up and knock it down hard. I enjoy challenges, that is what makes certain games fun. I cruise through the game all the way to the last boss, a death god-dog ...thing. HA HA, finally this game is done, now let me beat every boss several times over with my extremely strong Patapon army, they look like they belong on the movie set of 300 they're that strong. BUT WAIT!

















Its getting to the good part!

Oh snap, a new boss. Oh, this guy, from Patapon 1. This crab bitch from Patapon 1 is labeled the strongest boss in the game. WTF! Have at it sir. Now, I know what I was doing during the period between Patapon 1 and the release of Patapon 2, but good sirs and ladies, I, my friends, DO NOT HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT THE FUCK THIS CRAB BITCH WAS DOING DURING THIS TIME.



Jesus H. Christ, this crab from Patapon 1 must have gotten his dick sucked because he's fucking my shit up, good and proper.




Its weakpoint my ass.

Let me explain all of his FOUR ATTACKS, JUST FOUR.

- Pincer Swipe = Raises both pincers while opening and closing them alternately. Dodge. On lower levels you *can* survive an attack or two with Defend, but very very soon you can't, specially because of Hatapon. (INSTANT DEATH/GAME OVER)

- Pincer Grab = Leans forward with pincers opening and closing. Jump, or Dodge. The only thing you really have to avoid is getting in medium range, so it's fine if your ranged units are away while your melees are very closely sticking to him.(INSTANT DEATH OF ONE PATAPON)

- Sleep Bubble = Raises both pincers, opening and closing them in unison. Jump. Dodge is risky here. Usually quickly follows it up with another attack.(PUT ALL PATAPONS TO SLEEP, I CALL THIS CHECK)

- Death Bubble = Stands up tall. Kills up to 5. JUMP, FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, JUMP. You don't want to risk yourself with Dodge. (INSTANT DEATH OF MULTIPLE PATAPONS/GAME OVER)(CHECKMATE)


I thought I never be afraid of bubbles, but fuck, keep those things AWAY FROM M-

This crab has now broken Patapon 2 for me, FUCK! To beat him you need to go off beat on purpose,(because this cheap motherfucker of a boss knows your beat and goes off beat on purpose to catch you with your pants down so he can rape you like its a fucking prison scene) losing your fever and all, just to save your ass. FUCK THIS CRAB AND ITS MOMMA, I'm eating crab next time I'm at a restaurant. A LOT OF THEM!


KEEP THEM COMING!

In all seriousness, I'm still playing Patapon 2 in hopes to beat this Crab Bitch. I understand it is slightly childish to be upset at a fictional decapod crustacean because it beats me up in a dark corner of a room with infrared goggles, but I have to give credit where credit is due. The creators of this game have created a monster, one i hope to kill within the next couple of minutes or so. I thank them. I also like to apologize to anyone who was offended by my very colorful language, its not the norm but after some crab I should be calm.

See you later

Even though we didn’t say it in the actual episode, this can be considered our suggestions for this month. Or is that gimmick already broken? Either way this is another episode of the Ass Backwards Anime Podcast. In this one, we bring you reviews on a record of six different things. We got three mangas, two dramas and one very interesting TV show. Can we not break structure for once? Well, we didn’t, but the audio is a bit screwy so you are going to have to deal.

Click here to download episode (Right-click and Save As)




(0:00-5:37) Intro

Even though Casper told us at the last second that he was bringing over Street Fighter 4, Peterson somehow used his Spidey Sense and brought an extra controller. Luckily, I gave my copy to my cousin so I can concentrate on Dynasty Warriors: Gundam 2.

(5:38-14:19) Review (Mysterious Girlfriend X)

This is a very interesting series. Don’t ask how I stumbled upon it. Let’s just say I went to a certain thread of a certain site and there was certain scan about a certain…ok 4chan told me…/a/…

(14:20-20:20) Review(Mx0)

I am going to end up picking this manga back up again. I can’t say much about the unlucky ability of people with some sort of talent gets screwed by the company that showed them to the public. By the way, the last episode of Dollhouse should be airing today.

(20:21-21:32) Earcatch

Animeshon Podcast promo

(21:33-26:37) Review(Mx0 cont. and other things)

Small bump, but we are getting better.

(26:38-30:35) Review(Whistle!)

I know there is an anime as well if you want to try it out. The only other soccer related show I saw was Inazuma Eleven. Not bad, Shoalin Soccer meets Naruto.

(30:36-37:00) Review(Pandora)

Damn audio got stupid around here. That and Bond Girl is afraid of the mic. Honestly, I can’t seem to figure out why she can’t get her mouth closer to it. Oh well.

(37:01-45:09) Review(Queen’s Classroom)

Seriously, the bitch is evil. Watch the hell out of this show.



Evil I tells ya

Is it bad that I found that disturbing scene Foxy mentioned and am too afraid to put it up here? Screw it.



(45:10-53:20) Review(Gamecenter CX)

There is so many games I want to see this guy play. I just realized I miss Nick Arcade.



(53:21-59:43) Discussion (Really this is just filler before the end)

I have nothing funny to say now.

(59:44-1:01:05) Closing

I’m going to get that Platinum trophy by the way. Bank on it.

Please feel free to leave a comment or contact us via email at: SSAApodcast@gmail.com

This is a slightly dated episode, but I don’t think that is the point. We had what some might call a script for this one and in the ended up becoming Who’s Line is It Anyway? And I was Drew Carey. We cover things including current shows, the fandom’s stupidity and seriously everything else but what we were suppose to talk about.

Click here to download episode (Right-click and Save As)




(0:00-4:30) Intro

I really need to get an R4 chip for my DS. It is not for evil means I assure you. What are you looking at? Hey look, there are some nice homebrew apps that I want to try out. Seriously stop looking at me like that. Come man. This is getting weird now. I am about to call the police on you. STOP STARRING AT ME! LOUD NOISES!

(4:31-23:07)Discussion (Small Talk Express)

OK. According to the script, it said we were supposed to talk about some of the new season shows. Now it is your job to keep up with us as we go off on tangents. The shows on the list that was supposed to be mentioned is Guin Saga, Sengoku BASARA, Eden of the East and Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood. How much time we spend on each show varies. We tried our hardest on one of them, but it went somewhere else.


(23:08-47:21) Discussion (Dubs and fandom)

There was no real transition into this subject formally. That is just how we roll. Trust me, we make a point somewhere in this mess.


(47:22-48:39) Earcatch

Animeshon Podcast and an old friend.

(48:40-59:43) Discussion (Taking Fast Guy)

DERAILED

You can blame Bond Girl for completely screwing us up and throwing us off of the discussion and I am sure we were going to be there all day too. This part is not related to anything. We need some real leadership in this show.

(59:44-1:11:46) Discussion (Did this already)

We kind cover this on episode 3. Towards the end, it was mainly about what shows deserve to be on what channel.

Someone FUND IT



(1:11:47-1:49:37) Discussion (Death and spoilers)

We start naming off a bunch of people dying. Here is a list that way you don’t complain:
-Mother 3
-Trigun
-School Days
-Disgaea
-Claymore
-Nartuo
-One Piece
-Gurren Lagann
-Hellsing
-Dragonball: Evolution
-Death Note
-Final Fantasy 7
-Cowboy Bebop
-Chrono Trigger
-Soldier A in any game.
-Earthbound

Now we move to sad deaths:
-Full Metal Alchemist
-Evangelion
-One Piece again
-Elfin Lied
-Berserk
-Ashita no Joe
-Pokemon the Movie
-Grave of the Fireflies
-Barefoot Gen
-Evangalion again
-Lion King

TIGER UPPERCUT

OK. We actually have the audio of the video we saw but, I think it is best if we don’t have it on the episode. Trust me it got worse after the video. You are going to have to ask us what we saw.

-Oh yeah Batman Begins

Best Power Ever



(1:49:38-1:52:07) Closing

We are getting close to the last bit of episodes we prerecorded.

Please feel free to leave a comment or contact us via email at: SSAApodcast@gmail.com