Sports, Hacking and Terrible Robots – AkibaRen at AWA XVI!

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It’s that time of year again! With plenty of episodes in the editing engine, Akihabara Renditions is gearing up  for panels at Anime Weekend Atlanta! Here’s our listing of events that we’ll be present for at this year’s convention.

Engrish Jamboree (Fri. 1:00 PM/13:00 Kennesaw Room) – Drew and Basil from our Podcast Super-Friends, the OSMCast!, bring forth examples of Japanese animation and some pop-culture of ridiculous portrayals of the English language!

Wide World of Sports Anime (Fri. 4:00 PM/16:00 Galleria 104) – Drew and Basil are back with Michelle to talk about the most over-looked genre of Japanese animation: that dealing with games of sport!

Podcaster’s Roundtable (Sat. 3:30 PM/15:30 Kennesaw Room) – Members of AkibaRen will be stopping by to say what’s up with other podcasters and chat with folks interested in podcasting.

Hacking in Anime (Sat. 7:00 PM/19:00 Galleria 104) – Marc and Drew are doing a last-minute replay of their successful panel from MTAC this year! They’ve got some clips from a few different anime that depict some elements of computer hacking – they’ll let you know what’s fact or fiction! Please check your neckbeard at the door.

My Life on the Super Robot D-List (Sun. 12:00 PM Galleria 104) – Mecha aficionados Drew and Richard are combining with Dave Merrill from Let’s Anime with a list of Super Robot anime that can be described as anything but good.

Why Anime Cons? (Sun. 3:30 PM/15:30 Galleria 104) – Drew and Marc will be there to talk about running anime conventions.

We’ll be posting some lists of clips we use in our panels so drop in and stay tuned!

Episode 30 – This End Up

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Our first podcast of 2010 is finally available three months into the year! As we begin 2010, we start out a new method of selecting what gets reviewed on a more permanent basis – the Rotation Schedule! Up for this review, we let Marc take us down to another favorite of his, one of the reasons he heavily got into anime and Drew takes the opportunity to take off nostalgia glasses and gets to rip into someone for something they love more for nostalgia than any real quality of the product. As expected, Richard always has and always will hate this show. This episode, we’re talking about Tenchi Muyo! Ryo-oh-ki OAV 1.

Hosts: Marc Smazik, Drew Sutton and Richard Hoelsher

Download this episode, you geek!

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Episode 29 – Christmas/New Years/Valentines Craptacular

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Perhaps our longest production episode to date! We began scrounging up titles in early December and our previous attempt to actually, you know, meet a Christmas deadlines were foiled in that we simply did not feel our selections were crappy enough. That’s the sort of quality that Akihabara Renditions has become known for – we’ll delay something until it’s way out of season in order to deliver a better product.

Hosts this episode: Drew Sutton, Richard Hoelsher and Marc Smazik

So, behold the majesty that is our Third Annual Christmas Craptacular! Download it you geek!

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Episode 28 – Armored Legend of Galactic Samurai Troopers

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We return with episode 28, an epic episode that was MONTHS in the making. Even for Akihabara Renditions standards, this took far too long to get done. On this episode, we discuss two of the most neglected Japanese animation series of the late 1980s. And by “the most neglected”, we mean the first was massively popular in the United States in its own right, ushering in what Drew chronicles as American anime fandom’s Third Wave. The second is a series that was hard to find, even in tape trading circles, and no easy undertaking to fansub. But, some folks over at Central Anime were up to the challenge to translate, subtitle and release one of the few Japanese animation products that can accurately be described as “epic”.

Two cartoons enter – and one leaves with a unanimous approval.

Hosts this episode: Drew Sutton, Richard Hoelsher and Marc Smazik

What are you waiting for, nerd? Download this podcast!

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Christmas Crapt— Crapped Out.

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So, we gathered for our annual Christmas Craptacular to watch some ridiculous Japanese Cartoons and record a podcast episode but we were defeated. What we had collected just wasn’t crappy enough. And Akihabara Renditions refuses to deliver a subpar product. So, we’re taking a few weeks to scour our libraries deeper, dive further into the Internet and really find some polished shit for us to watch, cry and then scream into a mixer about. Don’t worry, there will be a Craptacular for this year, it just won’t be released until next year.

Episode 28 is nearly complete and will be up shortly and we are working hard on hammering out our 2010 schedule. We hope everyone has a happy holiday season and new year!

Episode 27 – Podcast Robo: The Night the Internet Stood Still

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We’re back with another fantastic episode. This episode, we discuss the epic 1990s OAV Giant Robo The Animation: The Night the Earth Stood Still. Just listen to the podcast and then watch this show. Or, watch the show and listen to the podcast. Either way, you win because you’ve watched Giant Robo.

Hosts:

“Suharashiki” no Drew Sutton, “Shougeki” no Richard Hoelsher, “Shikou” no Marc Smaik and “Shizukanaru” Taylor Hall.

Download this episode!

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Episode 26 – The Pilgrimage

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After Drew went to Japan (and returned), the crew went to Anime Weekend Atlanta (and returned), Marc and Drew began promoting Seishun Con while Richard went to Japan (and later returned), we’ve still managed to get some podcasts together. Please accept our apologies for the delays. With that said, episode 26 features a do-over for Richard and Drew as they review again the Fist of the North Star movie from 1986 and then tackle the 2008-2009 OAV film Hokuto no Ken: Kenshiro-den. This time, we’ve managed to escape Soviet Russia and the clutches of KGB major/Prime Minister/man-about-town, Czar Putin.

Hosts: Drew Sutton and Richard Hoelsher

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Episode 25 – A Whimsical Orange Road

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Just before Anime Weekend Atlanta, we celebrate our twenty-fifth episode (and it only took 30 months to do!) by changing things up a little bit. Here at Akihabara Renditions, we do our reviews a little differently – we all are subjected to the material to be reviewed and each give our opinions on it. I think it makes for a much more balanced review but there are still some kinks to be worked out in the execution. While much of our review material thus far has been OAVs and films which only take a few hours to watch, when it comes to some of the longer series, four busy-as-Japanese-beavers-individuals with a ton of other commitments outside of the podcast, it becomes a little infeasible to adhere to this method.

So, we’ve modified the method a bit with one of us helming the flagship of running the review and selecting a few episodes for the rest of the members to get a feel for the series. Our first attempt at this new review style is 1987’s Kimagure Orange Road. We return to our normal review pattern with a forgettable OAV from 1986, Cosmos Pink Shock.

Download this episode, you geek!

Hosts: Drew Sutton, Marc Smazik and Richard Hoelsher

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