It’s definitely been too long since the last Anime Diet Radio episode…and a lot has happened since then. But now we’re back, just in time for AX coverage, the Aniblog Tourney, and more! We talk about the usual round of strange news–politicians buying manga with political funds, a robot officiating a wedding, and of course a bill about “non-existent children.” We answer all the letters from the last episode. And, finally, we fill you in on just what the heck has been going on with the site for the past several months and what we’ll be doing in the next couple of weeks: namely, Anime Expo 2010!

Here’s something a little different about this podcast too: we’re asking you for a few things! Have you ever wanted to help out our cause in some way? Well, here’s what we’re looking for:

• –VOTES FOR THE ANIBLOG TOURNEY! Right now, we’re in the middle of Round 4 of the Aniblog Tourney. We’re up against the classy and respectable blog The Null Set–but you love us because we’re crass and disrespectable, right? Please vote for us if you haven’t already! [http://aniblogtourney.wordpress.com/2010/06/22/round-4-match-8/]
• –FUNNY ANIME/MANGA TITLES: send us your suggestions for anime/manga titles that with only a slight change might suggest…something else. For instance, Ray suggested “Shounen Hump.” We’ll read the best ones aloud!
• –INTERVIEW QUESTIONS FOR AX 2010 GUESTS: there are a lot of Guests of Honor at AX this year. Do you have any questions to ask any of them? Send us your suggestions by email [editor@animediet.net] or by leaving a comment!
• –AX VIDEO AND PHOTO: if you have any cool video or photos you’d like to share with us from this year’s Anime Expo, send links of them to us at the same email address above! We might feature the best ones on our site.

Lots of ways to contribute! Thanks so much for sticking with us in our down time and we will definitely be seeing you again soon!

(NOTE: as usual there were some audio quality issues here and there. Hopefully things will be better next time!)

Show Order

• (00:00) Introduction
• (05:12) News 1: Bill Banning Nonexistent Children Struck Down
• (20:04) News 2: Robot Officiates Wedding
• (27:38) News 3: Politician Buys Shoujo Manga With Voter Funds
• (38:38) Mailbag
• (52:35) Roundtable: Our Past, Present, and Future
• (71:55) Conclusion

Show Notes

• OP/ED: “My Soul, Your Beats!” (regular and rock version)
• Source for the story about non-existent children is from ANN [http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2010-06-16/tokyo-nonexistent-youth-bill-rejected-by-assembly]. The robot wedding is from Weird Asia News [http://www.weirdasianews.com/2010/05/23/ifairy-robot-performs-wedding/]. Finally, the story about the politician is also from ANN [http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2010-06-15/minister-arai-regrets-aide-listing-manga-as-expenses]
• Once again–you can vote for us at the Aniblog Tourney here [http://aniblogtourney.wordpress.com/2010/06/22/round-4-match-8/]. Some of the previous coverage we did is available on our Youtube channel [http://youtube.com/animediet], and our lengthy interviews with Nabeshin here [http://animediet.net/conventions/pmx-2009-exclusive-interview-with-nabeshin]!

It’s been a long time since the last episode of Anime Diet Radio…and as usual things are taking just a little longer to put together than planned. But in case you’ve been missing our unique mix of wacky news, roundtable discussions, and dick jokes, here’s not one, but TWO teasers/trailers to whet your appetites.

One is PG rated, the other…not. One sees the return of my most favoritest radio host in the world. The other…not. You’ll hear it. (Podcast subscribers, you’re getting the “clean” one. Come to the site to listen to the other one.)

Here’s a special treat for all of you: instead of doing the usual post Ray and I decided to do an impromptu, unedited Summer 2010 audio preview! We go through every single show on Chartfag’s vaunted diagram, with some information nicked from THAT Anime Blog’s preview. So what do we think are the prospects for such shows like Seikirei 2, Highschool of the Dead, Occult Academy, and others? Listen and find out!

Again: unedited and productionless (ie, it’s not Anime Diet Radio). It’s Ray and Mike in the raw!

Enjoy the special Saturday report. The report will come out on weekdays only in the future. Ray discusses tobacco, wifus of the Anime Diet Staff, comments on Godin’s blog, a slut, and other topics. The pics for the show is after the cutaway.

Anime Diet Ray Reports – Saturday June 5th from Ray Hu on Vimeo. 11 minute excerpts are available as audio-only.

The mai waifu Diagnostic Site.

The second vidcast report is out. Again, a variety of topics are discussed. If not interested, just enjoy the moe pics. The audio version is just the first 10 minutes, as before.

Anime Diet – Ray Reports 2 from Ray Hu on Vimeo.

And it’s now Anime Diet Corner – Ray Reports. But yes, it will be Vidcast from this point on.

Anime Diet Corner – Ray Reports from Ray Hu on Vimeo. (The audio podcast version is just the first 10 minutes. Come to the website for the full video!)

The K-On!! Pics that I mentioned:

またブラック・デーが来てしまった。。。２月１４日はバレンタイン、３月１４日はホワイト・デー、そして４月１４日がブラック・デーです。オタクのみなさん、一緒に韓国麺料理店でチャジャンミョンを食べようではありませんか！でも、その前に、この曲「Otaku Bossa」でこのみじめな日を祝わせてください。

Lyrics below: (以下歌詞)

Otaku Bossa
written by M. LaMoe

Never ever had any luck with girls
What a hapless life as an otaku
I want to go on a date
But impossible in 3-D
So the only girls I seek
Are in 2-D

Reality’s been really tough on me
Reality’s been really harsh on me
The world just only cares about
Our marketability
Unproductive men
Are doomed to die

Never had a single good moment
Never had a good time as a dude
I want to be a girl
So I can chat with girls
Without any difficulties
But that’s my pain

This cruel world is run by natural selection
Otaku never gets to have fornication
But anime will save us from carnal delusion
Thus Moe will lead us to salvation!

Otaku Bossa
作詞作曲：　M. Lamoe

恋のチャンスに一度も恵まれなかった
オタクとはなんと悲惨な人生だろうか
デートに行きたい
でも三次元じゃそれは無理
だからボクの追い求める娘は
二次元にしかいない

現実はとてもつらい
現実はあまりにもひどい
世界の関心事は
ただボクらがマーケタブルかどうかだけ
生産性のないオトコは
くたばる運命にある

人生でイイことはこれっぽっちもなかった
オトコとしてイイ時は一度もなかった
女の子になりたい
そうすればなんの困難もなく
女の子とおしゃべりできるのに
でもそれが苦しみなのさ

自然淘汰が支配するこの残酷な世界で
オタクはエッチにありつくことができない
でもアニメはそんなボクらを性的錯覚から救ってくれる
よって萌えはボクらを救済へと導いてくれるのだ！

All your artwork are belong to us --Tite Kubo

Full disclosure: Anime Diet Radio was inspired first by the format of the old Anime Nano Podcast…but we can’t say we did what Nick Simmons did to Bleach! Our podcast, unlike his comic, is an homage (pronounced oh-MAHJ) and a tribute of that fine podcast from 2006. That, of course, is one of the topics of the news on this 48th episode of Anime Diet Radio, along with the usual news items about a possible island full of eromanga and a Korean man who just can’t get enough of his dakimakura.

The Roundtable is a little different this time around; due to technical and scheduling conflicts, it’s instead an excerpt of a fruitful conversation between Ray and Mike about the upcoming spring season. The full conversation is also available as a bonus xtra, downloadable on the website–includes all the awkward pauses and scroll wheel sounds you never usually hear on our productions! It’s a raw look at the kind of talks that gave birth to this podcast all those years ago.

You probably noticed that the podcasts have been coming out at about a monthly clip in the middle of the month. That’s on purpose–expect new episodes around this time every month from now on. We are striving to be, as they say, regular in these releases. Yell loudly if we’re late!

Show Order

• (00:00) – Introduction
• (03:33) – News 1: A Korean man and his Fate pillow
• (11:50) – News 2: Eromanga Island is Real
• (20:37) – News 3: Nick Simmons’ Big Rip Off
• (30:19) – Mailbag
• (44:10) – Roundtable: Next Season
• (55:10) – Conclusion

Show Notes

• –OP: “Meiya Kadenrou (冥夜花伝廊)” by Minami Kuribayashi (from Katanagatari)
• –ED: “Refulgence” by Shoujobyo (from Katanagatari)
• –The story about the Korean man and his Fate pillow was reported in multiple sources. Here’s one from Metro UK, which names the lucky groom as one Lee Jin-gyu [http://www.metro.co.uk/weird/816601-man-marries-pillow]. Sankaku Complex has more pictures (NSFW) [http://www.sankakucomplex.com/2010/03/05/korean-otaku-marries-fate-testarossa-dakimakura/].
• –This, of course, recalls previous ADR episodes about the guy who married a Love Plus character [http://animediet.net/podcasts/anime-diet-radio-episode-45-the-late-makenai-holiday-show], and our epic episode about the petition to marry 2d women [http://animediet.net/podcasts/anime-diet-radio-episode-28-love-and-marriage]. See also our article which first broke the Love Plus marriage story and predicted it would become an ADR item.
• –Eromanga Island is real! At least according to the news at Pink Tentacle [http://pinktentacle.com/2010/02/eromanga-island-has-disappeared/], which supplies a map to prove it.
• –The Nick Simmons scandal has been widely reported from many sources. See some comparison shots on a lengthy Livejournal page [http://community.livejournal.com/bleachness/446299.html]. ANN has Simmons’ statement [http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2010-03-01/incarnate-simmons-addresses-alleged-bleach-copying] and an explanatory story [http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2010-02-25/nick-simmons-incarnate-halted-over-alleged-bleach-plagiarism]. Our own moritheil also reported on it on our site [http://animediet.net/commentary/great-artists-steal], to much comment.
• –The game site that is doing a contest to propose a Western-friendly romance game is Gamasutra. Here’s their challenge [http://gamecareerguide.com/features/831/game_design_challenge_.php], whose results will be posted on Tuesday.
• –Ray and I used Borderline Hikkikomori’s [http://cjblackwing.wordpress.com/2010/03/07/spring-2010-season-preview/] and THAT Anime Blog’s [http://www.thatanimeblog.com/index.php/2010/03/t-h-a-t-spring-2010-anime-preview/] spring season previews for our discussion. Props to y’all.

Losers of the week:

Funimation putting out censored DVDs for Vampire Bund – they’re afraid of their corporate asses get hauled in jail. But in any event, a light loser rating from me because I can understand the cause of making money.

College Students protesting about cutting in funding: http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-5445-Politics-in-Education-Examiner~y2010m3d4-Students-passionately-protest-cuts-in-education-funding?cid=sharing_twitter:5445

Some women in New Jersey got caulk injection in the butt for rear enhancement

Winners of the Week:

Anime Expo – invited key people such as Nabeshin and Asakawa Yuu – they’re making inroads but with a corporate guy running everything, I’m giving it a light winner rating.

Funimation – streaming Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu (AKA Baka and Test — Summon the Beasts) – great choice.

Gorillaz – Plastic Beach – fun and great for chilling, even chilling in the green room, which I’ve never been!

Warning: crass caulk jokes and bad accents

Losers of the week:

Kirsten Dunst – see her in the Akiba film

Nick Simmons – it’s all over the net

The people that sent Christopher Handley to jail – it’s all over the net pt. 2

Winners of the Week:

The Noto Mamiko bug AKA Pandemonium Bug – Gintama 197

Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn 01 – easily found

A reader’s mother for watching Chu-Bra! 01 and laughing during the talking breasts part – according to the reader, she did not love it but thought was all right.

Warning: No holds barred with all guns blazing.

Follow me on twitter

Download MP3 below. Feedbacks are welcome.

The Anime Diet State of the Union Address

– By Ray Hu, representing all for this moment in time.

February 26, 2010

My fellow Otakus:

As Anime Diet enters its third year, I’m reminded of the tracks that we have carved in the history of anime fandom. As fellow anime lovers, or otakus, if you so dare, we have been fighting. Yes, fighting. Just as you have struggled through the last decade engaged in mortal combat with changes, finance issues, work, school, relationships, and any other seemingly trivial but strong foes. You have waged war with the enemies with all your heart, your might and your strength, and at the end of the grueling match, you have come out on top, and that’s why you’re reading and hearing this. I congratulate you for your bravery and resourcefulness in managing social upheavals as well as other concerns that have been of the utmost importance in your lives. As for us,

As for us, we had our shares of struggles, toils, and battles. We faced up to impossibilities ranging from trying to get a ticket for the SOS Brigade signing event, to getting an interview with Mr. Tanaka, the Claymore directior and Mr. Umahara, the character designer. They’re distinguished folks from Madhouse and we are mighty proud of what they have done over the years. We hold them in the utter most regard. We had other emergencies to deal with, some of which rivaled with the Invasion of the Magi by the 11^th angel in magnitude of seriousness. We had our shares of doubts and fears, especially when we pulled all nighters trying to publish a doujinshi of our own, namely the “Anime Diet on the Road Activity Book.” Egos were trampled and personalities clashed, not to mention friendships were tried by fire. In addition, scores of dragon slaves and buster beams were fired on one another. In our process of working with How a Girl Figures and Anime Genesis, two fine and outstanding members of the fan community, we held heated discussions and fought passionately for our ideals. We were scrambling for battle even at the very last minute, right before the panel started.

We faced off with doubters who shot their freeze arrows of cynicism. Some of the folks voiced their disbelief at the idea of making a second season of Claymore, citing that the first season completely ruined it all. We jousted with colleagues who regarded casual fans and those at the entry level as outsiders, as ippanjin. We competed with powerful peers without any funding. As a matter of fact, we only had three weapons; three legendary relics left from the days of Gunbuster. They are passion, guts and hard work.

Let me briefly explain.

Passion is the power that drives men and women forward in their endeavors to create a better world, or in our case, to foster fun, joy and collaboration in the community. I see passion as the most powerful weapon from the legends of old.

Guts is the power that makes us daring, and daring makes us great. I see guts drove us to reach new heights, to try new methods and to seek new places to grow. In addition, the possession of guts is what made some of us using our real name in the often dangerous and unpredictable cyberworld. Guts is the second most powerful weapon in our arsenal.

Hard work is the backbone of the entire site. It is the magic carpet that helped us delivering our contents to the fans. However, it is the most strenuous part of our undertaking. It is only with hard work, not to mention perseverance, that we survived the onslaught of cybergods, cynics, haters and the lack of action on some of the fans for support. Hard work is the least attractive but the most essential weapon we have.

As incredibly as it has been, using these three weapons, three swords if you will, we managed to defeat legions of difficulties, spites and hurtful words. We conquered inertia and gained a small but proud group of followers, frequent commenter’s and contributors. More and more are joining us and we are very proud of them. You know who you are and you really should pat yourselves on the back, sit back and have your favorite beverage, but only for the time being; because we still need your comments, your support, and your participation in this year and beyond.

Some of you may be saying to yourselves: that’s corny. Making a site work with only passion, guts and hard work sounds so cheesy. Well, let me say this: in addition to our swords we have shields and armor. These help us to deflect the arrows of despair, of boredom, and of distractions from life.

First, we work as a team. Think back of the Chicago Bulls in the 90’s. Yes, they had Michael Jordan, and yes, he almost always made the critical shots. But imagine with me for a minute – if the Bulls had only Jordan and no one else on the court, they could not win so many championships. As a matter of fact, there were nights where Jordan waned in some quarters, or even in entire games. But surprisingly, they still managed to come out on top for most of them. You wanna know why?

Because others stepped up and took charge.

That’s what we have done.

Needless to say, our very own Mike Huang is like the Michael Jordan of Anime Diet. He’s been carrying the heavy load on his back since the inception and he has scored consistently with site designs, wordpress plugin configurations and other technical elements. On top of that, his reflective articles as well as his willingness to take one for the team on the Anime Diet Radio has helped the team to secure viewers and listeners – winners such as yourselves – to the community. Whenever needed, whenever the foes known as real life difficulties stood in our way, he drove toward the basket, split the defense, leaped and shot an impossible to block fade away jumper, scoring the critical point and helping us back on our feet.

As human, we all get tired. Mike gets tired too, just like Michael. Whenever he’s down and out, others would often step up and make contributions. Matt stepped up to cover Code Geass, Jeremy masterfully-planned convention related activities and Moritheil penned witty and enticing articles. Others, me included, have contributed a great deal as well, all at various crucial times.

If that was the only defense we had, our foes could still defeat us via other unconventional or conventional weapons such as dullness and boredom. But as a group of diverse and talented people – just like you – we make tracks into various territories related to the anime culture. We have strived to talk to as many people as possible, reach out and shake as many hands as we have found, and promoted as many friends as we could. We interviewed bands such as the Pillows, UchuSentai NOIZ, and Makenai. We laughed with Nabeshin and chatted with Yukana, not to mention gained the privilege of accidentally leaving a backpack in Shokotan’s dressing room. We held panels at AX in 2008 and 2009, and we became friends with many other cool folks in the Japanese anime industry as well as in the community. We have tried our very best to keep it interesting, not just for ourselves, but also for you.

All in all, we have fought and so have you. We stand on the shoulders of giants and forerunners such Danny Choo, Random Curiosity, THAT and others and we have come up with our own flavor, our very own taste of the anime scene. We danced with friends and celebrated our success with many from nations all over the world. Our fans come from the US, Japan, Germany, Britain, Canada, Australia, France, Malaysia, Brazil, Mexico, Singapore and countless other nations. We have contributors from US and from Japan. Thanks to Kona-chan AKA Tukasa Kagami, we were one of the first to post cosplay pictures from the last Comiket of the 00’s.

However, at the end of the day, you know what touches me the most? Your comments of appreciation. While we may not be perfect at times, you have stayed with us, cheered us on, assuring us that we were being read and followed. When at the moment of my uttermost despair, doubting what we do, you stepped up and thanked us, telling us how we made your shitty days better, how we have lifted you up, and that you enjoyed my impromptu gag pitting Liang against Krauser II, and so on. That, my fellow Otakus, is what counts. Let me state it in plain words – YOU, are what counts.

In this year, we shall continue to ask much of you. Your various supports, including the necessary evil, will help us grow, to be able to continue in our mutual quest and to help us to deliver better contents, goods and services to your enjoyment. Your comments and critiques will help us to stay on top of the game and to do even better, so that we may continue to reach out to you and to serve you. I have been known to have a bad temper and I don’t react well to severe criticisms, so please bear with me. But fortunate for all of us, Anime Diet isn’t merely run by one, or two, or even three persons. It’s run by many people, beginning with our staff, but extending through you to many others still out there.

We at the Diet are looking forward to another year with great hopes and dreams and we thank you for accompanying us on our quest to serve. Thank you very much from the bottom of our hearts.

Sincerely with much love,

Ray Hu

P.S. Please keep Cirno, one of our beloved members, in your thoughts or prayers. He’s going through some major battles right now. Thank you for your support!