Anime World Order Show # 96 – Redlining a Herocaine Sandwich with Tim Maughan

For this episode we’re joined by SF author, un-milky DJ, and Twitter entity Tim Maughan for a spoiler-free discussion of Redline by Takeshi Koike.

Here’s Daryl’s article on Trava: Fist Planet. Daryl would like to remind those of you with Internet autism that this podcast is not recorded with IMDB, Wikipedia, Google, the ANN Encyclopedia, etc open and memorized so if we got a year or a name wrong then DEAL WITH IT already (preferably by leaving a non-idiotic comment).

21 Replies to “Anime World Order Show # 96 – Redlining a Herocaine Sandwich with Tim Maughan”

  1. The first thing I did when I got home after I saw Redline last year was to pre-order the soundtrack. Worth every cent I paid.

    Showing movies behind DJs in clubs reminded me of how I had the unfortunate pleasure of watching Ultraviolet the second time.

  2. Really good episode, always a treat to hear Tim’s opinions on these kinds of topics. I enjoyed everyone’s discussion on the various sci-fi blogs out there (perhaps i should say that with quotes). When I first became aware of them, it boogled my mind how obsessive they were about 1) Every scrap of information about superhero movies, and 2) crummy TV entertainment that, as mentioned on the show, is more about soap opera drama than science, fiction, or fantasy. If io9 wants to focus on Twilight or Vampire Diaries more than anything remotely hard sci-fi, by all means, but why the need to place it under the banner of “Sci-fi”, or even “fantasy”? I know nerd culture has become mainstream, but is it enough so that it can become a shield for yet guiltier pleasures?

    I need to keep my eyes peeled for future screenings of Redline. Been excited for it for quite some time now, and it was nice to get the AWO take on the film.

  3. [Please don’t give blatantly fake information in the Name/Email/Etc fields. It automatically gets marked as spam. –Daryl]

    You guys have no idea how much I agree with you all. Anime needs to globalize if it wants to sustain long-term success, which more or less means that it needs to stop catering so excessively to a small niche market of die-hard fans that just irresponsibly spent their resources as much as possible, because at the end of the day, their resources are still quite limited. And I’d wager that doing such a thing amounts to thwarting success in the coming future.

    Or maybe I’m just getting cynical every time I see another boring show about cute girls doing cute shit (or worse, generic harem crap) without any insight to give, focusing entirely on stereotypical female presentations that I refuse to call characters.

    Anyway, this was a very good and entertaining good episode. I can’t wait to see Redline once it’s released on Blu-ray. Anime definitely needs more stuff like that to pave its way into foreign markets.

  4. I hope this isn’t a trend. This is the second time I’ve listened to an anime podcast and heard someone just slag off Doctor Who out of the blue. The fuck?? What is there, some secret war between anime fans and Who?

  5. I saw Redline at the HIFF(Hawaii International Flim Festival). I honestly did not get the excitement. It may have been a case of misaligned expectations. My outlook is far from ‘anime or nothing’ , but it was more what I was expecting. I didn’t like the art. The heavy black shading, the tendency towards grotesqueness. Kind of like Charles Burns’ art.
    http://a21.idata.over-blog.com/300×301/2/45/65/19/album-3/subpop2004if.jpg Maybe if I went in knowing what it looked like I would have felt more positive. Then again I might not have gone at all. However, you made enough of a case for me to hunt down some clips and I can see better now the other things it offers and it is impressive. I don’t know if I can really get past the surface though. I just don’t like that look. Even if it’s not for me, I do think it will appeal to a lot of people. It made me think of the Star Wars pod race. I could probably be passed off as part of that universe.

  6. I actually remember having a fairly positive reaction to Tim’s ANN review and this podcast contributes to increasing my anticipation and curiosity, if nothing else, at least until the movie finally ends up becoming readily available.

    As for the comments concerning the general state of anime…let’s just say that I more or less agree with the essentials. The industry needs many more things like Redline out there, no doubt, to make anime “cool” again and appeal to the mainstream in a way that’s relatively lacking these days, instead of mostly continuing to do the opposite.

    Like I’ve also said elsewhere, great execution is always welcome and Redline may well classify as a wonderfully executed movie, whether or not it happens to be successful enough in the West for any number of other reasons (I believe Clarissa mentioned a few issues that may or may not make any difference in the long run, so who knows…only time will tell).

    At the same time, I’ll still be following something of an independent approach myself.

    I try and enjoy what I can, which includes both works of great artistic merit and others with significant execution flaws but more than a few interesting or entertaining concepts…which I guess is easy when I’m not in a hurry to reduce my huge backlog or even catch up with the ongoing season. Haven’t really seen anything “new” lately other than a couple of episodes of Tiger & Bunny, which were admittedly entertaining and, incidentally, another example of anime with lots of Western appeal and pretty good execution so far. But, needless to say, I’m already behind and might well want to watch something else before getting back to it.

  7. I think the thing I most appreciated about this podcast (beyond the enthusiastic Redline thumbs-up) was Tim’s thoughts about how to market Redline and other anime in the wake of the downturn. I think about this a lot myself, especially when I am at cons and people talk about how “dead” and “over” anime and fandom are. I really want to be a part of whatever movement is keeping it alive in the 21st century.

  8. I was already very interested in Redline after reading that great Colony Drop review, and your reactions make me even more hyped. I hope it gets a subbed DVD or Blu-Ray soon in the States – or even better, a screening here in D.C.

  9. I was kind of skeptical of watching Redline at first, mainly because of that aforementioned “great” Colony Drop review, which was 90% frothing bile directed at the anime industry in general, and about 10% actually about Redline itself. In fact I think it was a wonder that I actually enjoyed watching the film.

    But what I think was also interesting was about the idea of introducing anime to other people. I managed to show one of my housemates in Uni Macross DYRL, and she said that she enjoyed it. Granted, she didn’t go into anime cold, but the movie wasn’t exactly what she was used to. For me, there’s a reasonably small criteria for me to show anime to another person, which is basically that it shouldn’t need to have too much prior knowledge, and it needed to not be creepy or inappropriate in too much of a fashion (so Ninja Scroll is right out, I suppose). So yeah, there’s a relatively small pool of anime to choose from, but I find it easier to see what would be good to show a neophyte to get them interested.

  10. Why does Redline work, with respect to it’s ridiculous, “extraneous” parts, but Dead Leaves doesn’t?

    I mean in one you have [REDACTED], in the other you have a guy riding a motorcycle down a sewage pipe with a line of mutant prisoners behind him.

    I mean they’re both pretty fucking funny and balls-to-the-wall insane and outrageous, I thought. Maybe it’s the fact Dead Leaves is permanently in that outrageous mode and doesn’t have of the kind of more normal, character building stuff in the middle of the film that Redline had. In reference to what Gerald said about anime that he can shows to normal people to demonstrate that anime can be awesome, I definitely count Dead Leaves among such anime.

    Anyway I’m not Diebuster and I’m really glad you guys all finally had a chance to see Redline and that you all enjoyed. I actually got to see it myself at the same event Tim did because Daryl replied to an email I sent him asking why it hadn’t come out yet, in which he informed me that it would be screening in London.

  11. I’ve heard so much about this movie, but I have to wait until it either comes out on dvd/blu-ray, because I will not have a chance to see it in my area. Unless a copy of it “falls off a digital truck” but I doubt it.

  12. God, I can’t wait for the Blu-ray release of Redline. The podcast was great. The only frustrating part was the fact that I have no way of seeing this film right now. I just got done watching Trava: Fist Planet and the opening to Party 7 which were both awesome. I was so disappointed when Manga Entertainment gave a release date in February only to learn that it has been pushed back to whatever date. All in all, great podcast as usual and the trailers to Redline are fantastic. Please let this come out soon!

    1. I’d say it’s pretty official seeing as how there’s was a half-page ad for Manga’s 20th anniversary in TRSI’s spring catalog (page 26) which came out about 6 weeks ago that touts Redline on Blu-Ray among other titles as “Coming Soon!” (First Squad and GitS;SAC on Blu-Ray being the others). Anchor Bay is listed on the ad so that pretty much seals it.

      When I first saw the ad I was a bit surprised that this was how I first heard about First Squad or Redline being licensed. I promptly forgot about it until now but, upon retrospect, I’m equally surprised that it’s remained so low-key. Maybe the ad was printed a bit before all the ink was dry?

  13. Are you guys ever going to review Sunabouzu (Desert Punk)? I mean it IS by Gonzo…the very Gonzo who brought you such “quality” products such as The Tower of Druaga, Dragonaut, and Afro Samurai. Well Gonzo did put out some actual good stuff too though. I’m just asking one of you three to give it a try.

  14. I’m envious that you all have had the chance to see Redline in the theater, and I’m hoping it will get a screening here as well (not counting Disney’s Ghibli releases, there are four different theaters in Portland that have shown anime in recent years–not bad for a city our size). We have had screenings of Paprika, Tekkonkinkreet, Cencoroll, and Eva 2.0, and Trigun is coming in July.

    If Tim Maughan starts a podcast of his own, it would be great if AWO could guest, but U.K. listeners will be disappointed that your accents are so mild. Try to put a little more Panhandle in it, if you know what I mean. Alternately, I have learned from Viz magazine that the way to sound American is to randomly sprinkle your speech with words like “goddamn” and “sassafras.”

  15. Spot on about Tim’s feelings on anime and rave culture. Got turned on to Akira and GITS at a after party after a big rave still feelin the effects of candy flippin (look it up if you don’t know the term). And not in the UK, I live in Indy. Great episode, can’t wait for Redline to get released. Stay frosty ppl. outro.

  16. OK, I found the Japanese Blu-rays (standard edition product code: TCBD-0036, collector’s edition product code: TCBD?0037) on amazon.co.jp coming out this August, they have English subtitles, and I’m going to place my order based on your (AWO and Tim’s) review. If I like it, expect something extra in my yearly donation to you guys 🙂

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